Saturday 18 November: The free world owes Ukraine its continued and unwavering support

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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566 thoughts on “Saturday 18 November: The free world owes Ukraine its continued and unwavering support”

  4. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    Grandma’s Jigsaw Puzzle
    A little white-haired grandmother calls her neighbour and asks,
    “Please come over here and help me. I have a killer jigsaw puzzle and I can’t figure out how to get started.”
    Her neighbour asks, “What’s it supposed to be when it’s finished?”
    Grandma replies, “According to the picture on the box it’s a cockerel.”
    The neighbour decides to go over and help her with the puzzle. She lets him in and shews him where she has the puzzle spread all over the table.
    He studies the pieces for a moment, looks at the box and, turning to her he says, “First of all, no matter what we do, we’re not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything resembling a cockerel.”
    He takes her hand and continues, “Secondly, I want you to relax. Let’s have a nice cup of tea, and then…” he says with a deep sigh…
    “…let’s put all the corn-flakes back in the box.”

    2. A good one, Sir Jasper. I always struggle with jigsaw puzzles, especially the circular ones – I can never find the four corners. Lol.

  5. Good Morning Folks,

    Wet and windy here

    Had an early start on wordle

    Wordle 882 3/6

    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Had a slow start
      Wordle 882 4/6

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

  6. The free world owes Ukraine its continued and unwavering support

    The free world? now that’s taking us all back a bit

    1. The “free world” didn’t seem too worried when the Ukies were killing their own people for the crime of speaking Russian? Is the “support” because they are worried now about the safety of their nasty little money laundering schemes??

  7. Migration, Not Asylum. 17 November 20123.

    If an article in The Daily Telegraph written anonymously by a civil servant working in the department of state concerned with immigration is to be believed, the vast majority working in that department rejoiced at the judges’ ruling, not because they thought it just, but because they are opposed ideologically to the very idea of controlling immigration. They do not consider themselves citizens of any particular country, least of all their own, but of the world, and their moral duty is to the whole of humanity, not to any particular group of people. There is obviously a certain grandiosity in this. Their view is that of someone I know in France who says in defense of mass immigration that no one is an immigrant to Earth.

    I used to feel contempt for Freud’s concept of the death instinct, but now I see it at work, disguised as a certain moral pride, in whole countries and societies.

    Being by Theodore Dalrymple the logic in this article could not be anything less than impeccable. I’m sure that the majority of Nottlers will agree with his summing up!

    https://www.takimag.com/article/migration-not-asylum/

    1. They do not consider themselves citizens of any particular country, least of all their own, but of the world, and their moral duty is to the whole of humanity, not to any particular group of people.

      Reading this statement I can only conclude that these civil servants feel morally superior to those of us who wish to retain our culture, our history and a generally peaceful existence.

      Due to their ‘holier than thou’ attitude to mass immigration of unknown, unvetted, culturally and religiously poles-apart people (young men mostly), trouble, big trouble, is brewing within the UK, fostered by politicians who have no allegiance to the Country or its people (Blackbox’s horizontal and vertical concept works here). These last few weeks are an indicator of what is in store.

      When trouble is visited on these civil servants and their families to whom will they turn to for protection? The rugged, hard patriotic men whom they despise with a passion?

      1. It puzzles me that “…their moral duty is…not to any particular group of people…”, i.e. the taxpayers who fund their lifestyles. Sadly, those of this self-harming cabal will drag the rest of us down with them.

      2. People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

    3. Shortly after the vote to leave, I got into conversation with a chap while we were both waiting for the Eurostar at St Pancras. It was obvious he didn’t have roots anywhere and consequently no loyalty to any particular place. “What about you?” he asked. “I’m hefted to the land,” I replied. He hadn’t got a clue what I meant.

  8. Sorry, this is a Twitter video (officially released yesterday). It shows Trump supporters calmly walking in the White house on January 6th, while police stand at the side, apparently quite happy to watch them.
    A far cry from the violent insurrection punished in the courts with long prison sentences. There’s also a puzzling clip of the police freeing someone from handcuffs and fist-bumping before they walk off in opposite directions doing the rounds.
    https://twitter.com/BehizyTweets/status/1725619557937631544

      1. Yet as taxpayers and it being a public building they surely own it, so perhaps better described as an unannounced landlord inspection?

      2. If there wasn’t an insurrection then they would have invented one!

        Tucker Carlson was on to this big lie from the very beginning which is why he was so loathed by the Democrats.

    2. Compare and contrast the pro-Palestinian marches all over the UK.
      Now, which is the violent insurrection?

      1. The problem lays with our stupid useless government, they have been too soft on terrorist groups. They seem to have forgotten all the bomb attacks and other deadly incidents that have occurred over the last 20 years. It’s a common factor, the ‘people’ who have and are turning our country into a tip, aka global dumping ground, are the government. Those who call this an invasion are correct.
        By letting these horrible and dangerous people into our country on mass. The government Whitehall including the police
        are our problem.
        When will they ever learn ?

        1. As a NoTTLer recently remarked: “Some people live and learn; most people only live”.

      2. BLM wreaked havoc in the US and got money to Buy Large Mansions while the January 6th protesters were rotting in jail.

  10. Swimming rivers and faking illness to escape Ukraine’s draft. 18 november 2023.

    Nearly 20,000 men have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the war to avoid being drafted, the BBC has discovered.

    Some have swum dangerous rivers to leave the country. Others have simply walked out under cover of darkness.

    Another 21,113 men attempted to flee but were caught by the Ukrainian authorities, Kyiv confirmed.

    Many more than this must have done a bunk in the first year and there is internal desertion as well, with corrupt exemptions. All this of course, was until relatively recently, absolutely Verboten.. It’s all leaking out now. It’s deliberate. They are pressuring Zelensky to negotiate and if he doesn’t they will dump him..

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67120904

    1. They should have kept Cameron when he bounded off there recently. He seems keen to keep the slaughter going.

      1. A comment in the slightly left of centre Sunday Times:

        “Nowadays, the relationship between corrupt politicians, intelligence services and organised crime has sunk its teeth

        deep into even the most sophisticated society.”

    2. Should the warmongering #ScumMedia and their business-supported chums in Whitehall/Westminster get their way, I wonder what the figures for desertion/absconding will be should the UK begin a draft to follow their mad pursuit of global war?

  12. Good morning all,

    Dreich again at the McPhee’s but the sun could be peeping out around mid-day, wind in the South-West, 12℃≫14℃ so a tad warmer than the last couple of days.

    Things seem to be back to normal after yesterday’s Disqus kerfuffle which seems to have been global. Skulduggery? Data collection? Do I have a nasty suspicious mind?

    Well, well, another crack appears in the narrative:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c926fb81880a5185783ddaf45d9d0a4b79bedf36dcc4844ee5a446e72786e6a1.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/17/plants-absorb-carbon-dioxide-photosynthesis-trinity-college/

    “During photosynthesis, green plants use light energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide, water and minerals into the sugars they need for growth.

    Scientists thought climate change could weaken the process, but the new research suggests plants can adjust to the temperatures, efficiently absorbing carbon dioxide, producing extra nutrients, and continuing to thrive.”

    Now I’m not a university-level ‘scientist’ but it is beyond me how these people could have thought that a supposedly warming planet due, in their opinion, to increased CO2 could ever result in weakened photosynthesis.

    What is not mentioned in this report is that another effect of increased CO2 levels is that the stomata in leaves which plants use to take in the CO2 will be smaller and less numerous which has the knock-on effect of reducing the amount of water they lose through transpiration so plants will need less water. The implication of this for plant growth, crop yields and our gardens is obvious.

    1. Dog in the New Zealand comic strip ‘Footrot Flats’ had the solution to climate change back in the 1970s. When Wallace’s farm was flooded out, and he and Dog were clinging on to a tree, the solution offered up by Dog was “Plant more trees”.

      An excellent suggestion. Why are we continuing to strip the forests of trees, turning rainforests into deserts?

          1. I have some of the books somewhere.
            Wasn’t the series published in the short lived TODAY newspaper?

          2. Yes, I’d forgotten about that. The first national newspaper in colour. On the day of the first edition all the other rags printed a colour front/back page to restrict the impact on the newsagents shelves.
            As I recall the colour printing process wasn’t flawless but at least the contents included ‘Footrot Flats’.

      2. Here they are felling mature trees and ripping up hedgerows to facilitate building huge estates on farmland.

    2. Tomato growers blowing CO2 into their greenhouses (warmer) to improve growth and yields weren’t included, then?

    3. Anyone would think that by trying to reduce the amount of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere, they were trying to restrict crop growth leading to mass starvation? Anyhow with significantly reduced crop yields the price of produce with go through the roof. Remind me again who is the largest agricultural land owner in the US?

          1. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar knew one of the conspirators by the way he walked:

            ‘Tis Cinna, I know him by his gait

            There is an inverted meaning to take from this: Gates is a sinner!

      2. Allied to Bill Gates idea of felling trees and burying them to reduce CO2 levels, it certainly seems that way. For a quick check of how successful such farming lunacy works, it’s worth looking at how Sri Lanka coped last year when the government banned nitrate fertiliser…much as Mark Rutte was attempting in the Netherlands.

    4. Those scientists who opted not to chase the climate scam dollar have continuously pointed out that it is rising temperatures that raises CO2 levels and not the other way around. CO2 levels are only 420 parts per million (ppm) at present. Industrial farming greenhouses currently increase CO2 levels to nearer 1200ppm to encourage crop growth. CO2 has never been the problem, indeed water vapour in the atmosphere creates greater problems as a ‘greenhouse gas’.

      1. Water vapour is the greenhouse gas. Water vapour is how heat is transported throughout the atmosphere. Completely dry air as in Antarctica has little heat transference capacity. Anyone who takes hot baths, showers and saunas in a confined space will know that.

      2. Water vapour is the greenhouse gas. Water vapour is how heat is transported throughout the atmosphere. Completely dry air as in Antarctica has little heat transference capacity. Anyone who takes hot baths, showers and saunas in a confined space will know that.

  13. Good morning all,

    Dreich again at the McPhee’s but the sun could be peeping out around mid-day, wind in the South-West, 12℃≫14℃ so a tad warmer than the last couple of days.

    Things seem to be back to normal after yesterday’s Disqus kerfuffle which seems to have been global. Skulduggery? Data collection? Do I have a nasty suspicious mind?

    Well, well, another crack appears in the narrative:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c926fb81880a5185783ddaf45d9d0a4b79bedf36dcc4844ee5a446e72786e6a1.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/17/plants-absorb-carbon-dioxide-photosynthesis-trinity-college/

    “During photosynthesis, green plants use light energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide, water and minerals into the sugars they need for growth.

    Scientists thought climate change could weaken the process, but the new research suggests plants can adjust to the temperatures, efficiently absorbing carbon dioxide, producing extra nutrients, and continuing to thrive.”

    Now I’m not a university-level ‘scientist’ but it is beyond me how these people could have thought that a supposedly warming planet due, in their opinion, to increased CO2 could ever result in weakened photosynthesis.

    What is not mentioned in this report is that another effect of increased CO2 levels is that the stomata in leaves which plants use to take in the CO2 will be smaller and less numerous which has the knock-on effect of reducing the amount of water they lose through transpiration so plants will need less water. The implication of this for plant growth, crop yields and our gardens is obvious.

  14. Good morning all,

    Dreich again at the McPhee’s but the sun could be peeping out around mid-day, wind in the South-West, 12℃≫14℃ so a tad warmer than the last couple of days.

    Things seem to be back to normal after yesterday’s Disqus kerfuffle which seems to have been global. Skulduggery? Data collection? Do I have a nasty suspicious mind?

    Well, well, another crack appears in the narrative:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c926fb81880a5185783ddaf45d9d0a4b79bedf36dcc4844ee5a446e72786e6a1.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/17/plants-absorb-carbon-dioxide-photosynthesis-trinity-college/

    “During photosynthesis, green plants use light energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide, water and minerals into the sugars they need for growth.

    Scientists thought climate change could weaken the process, but the new research suggests plants can adjust to the temperatures, efficiently absorbing carbon dioxide, producing extra nutrients, and continuing to thrive.”

    Now I’m not a university-level ‘scientist’ but it is beyond me how these people could have thought that a supposedly warming planet due, in their opinion, to increased CO2 could ever result in weakened photosynthesis.

    What is not mentioned in this report is that another effect of increased CO2 levels is that the stomata in leaves which plants use to take in the CO2 will be smaller and less numerous which has the knock-on effect of reducing the amount of water they lose through transpiration so plants will need less water. The implication of this for plant growth, crop yields and our gardens is obvious.

  15. Good morning all,

    Dreich again at the McPhee’s but the sun could be peeping out around mid-day, wind in the South-West, 12℃≫14℃ so a tad warmer than the last couple of days.

    Things seem to be back to normal after yesterday’s Disqus kerfuffle which seems to have been global. Skulduggery? Data collection? Do I have a nasty suspicious mind?

    Well, well, another crack appears in the narrative:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c926fb81880a5185783ddaf45d9d0a4b79bedf36dcc4844ee5a446e72786e6a1.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/17/plants-absorb-carbon-dioxide-photosynthesis-trinity-college/

    “During photosynthesis, green plants use light energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide, water and minerals into the sugars they need for growth.

    Scientists thought climate change could weaken the process, but the new research suggests plants can adjust to the temperatures, efficiently absorbing carbon dioxide, producing extra nutrients, and continuing to thrive.”

    Now I’m not a university-level ‘scientist’ but it is beyond me how these people could have thought that a supposedly warming planet due, in their opinion, to increased CO2 could ever result in weakened photosynthesis.

    What is not mentioned in this report is that another effect of increased CO2 levels is that the stomata in leaves which plants use to take in the CO2 will be smaller and less numerous which has the knock-on effect of reducing the amount of water they lose through transpiration so plants will need less water. The implication of this for plant growth, crop yields and our gardens is obvious.

  16. Good morning all.
    A damp grey start, drizzly and 5°C after overnight rain but a better night’s sleep than Thursday.

    So the Liar and Coward Cameron is living up to his WEF credentials in his visit to the corrupt Ukraine regime?

  17. Morning, all. Nothing good about the weather, it’s lashing down here at the moment but radar indicates an improvement is approaching. Shopping on hold at the moment.

    Same old, same old from the new FS and HS. How anyone could believe these two charlatans with their worn out rhetoric, amazes me. Placemen put in place by a placeman. Not a good look but politicians of their stripe just don’t care what the people think.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f22824e3d8a362ca8642114ce45c7af1b06d142185eff852ecc8de04c152ed3.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/710641b01754b265eb9c31b22eb542c2064540de6ac8c6ca05114e644f4cda11.png

    David Kurten nearer the mark.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/92e182d428656e94e749c83e9e7e9c0388bffd492afa4337d099e9ff9a9ad676.png

    1. “We’ve reduced small boat crossings by a third”

      Judging by the numbers of ‘illegals’ (are will still allowed to refer to them as illegals or as hotel guests?) they seem to have migrated to larger boats….

      Good Morning folks in ‘Never Land….’

    2. 378893+ up ticks,

      Morning KtK,

      The sad thing is the majority voter seemingly don’t care that the politico’s don’t care,
      tis the party name that is of ALL importance.

    3. What ? The habitual and pathological full time liars, lying again ! ?
      Rwanda if it ever happens which I doubt, is set to take only 500 illegal invaders. Send them all, and I mean all of them, every single one of them. Back to their country of origin. Those who ‘can’t remember’ where they came from, Rwanda. Or even France. They started all this.

    4. I read yesterday that the number of illegals Rwanda would take in is only 200, which wouldn’t make a dent in the backlog of 200,000 cases. An enquiring mind asked, as the UK have agreed a quid pro quo of one-for-one swap of legal migrants from Rwanda, how many have already arrived on our shores in lieu of the deportees?

  18. 378893+up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Saturday 18 November: The free world owes Ukraine its continued and unwavering support

    Finally , one day soon,even the party before country regardless of consequence voter, will acknowledge the fact that the whole free globe is under attack with the Ukraine / Russian conflict being used as a deflection tool.

    The WEF are taking great strides in the replacement area as in Anchorage House in Chatham to house 81 London …

    Kent Online
    https://www.kentonline.co.uk › medway › news › 81-l…
    16 Oct 2023 — A private housing company has confirmed it will be moving 81 families into a block of flats which had been earmarked for asylum seekers which begs the question ” was the peoples of Kent asked”

    Most of the peoples populating this planet are currently at war with their
    WEF criminal political overseers, worse in the United Kingdoms case as that it seemingly carries a royal seal.
    If you disagree with the current political actions,say so, download letter and post,

    https://www.donotconsent.co.uk/?nocache2

    ,

      1. 378893+ up ticks,

        Morning SJ,
        The voting pattern at this moment in time favours replacement, so, in time
        the numbers of “illegal invaders in positions of power” WILL out number the indigenous.

        Some feeble attempts at fighting back will be made but in the main, we will ALL become “bike parks”

        1. Until we revolt against the invaders .

          That is BOUND to happen – Gov’t take heed and fair warning.

  19. Morning all 🙂😊
    Chucking it down, back to normal eh.
    The ‘experts’ are blaming climate change again. It seems they have run out of ideas….again.
    More like corporate greed after felling millions of trees on three continents. This sort of rain used to fall over huge jungle areas in other parts of the world. I suppose its more a change in weather patterns. But the average ‘expert’ wouldn’t have realised this yet.
    And the free world owes Ukraine its support.
    If I remember correctly, Ukraine started the war on Russia. Its very similar to the terrorist group hamas when they attacked Israel. You start a war and demand support when you get a good kicking. Not in reality.
    Now we know how that poor little soul hitler felt.

          1. “Back in the day’ they might have stopped the Thames from freezing with all their hot air.

  20. I have just received this by e-mail in response to the petition I signed about the WHO

    The UK Government will not end our WHO membership. We are committed to working with the WHO to tackle the world’s health issues. We do not and will never cede sovereign powers through our partnership.

    The UK continues to have a strong relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO), which, as the United Nation’s specialised agency for health, and the world’s main technical and co-ordinating body in global health, has a vital role to play in supporting public health globally. The Government will not end the UK’s WHO membership.

    It is now clear that the WHO is planning the next pandemic and wishes to kill off as many people as it can.

    1. Governments and their agencies have no shame in lying any more. They have already shown their willingness to cede powers to a supra national body, the EU. When they are eventually exposed, all the rats will have scuttled elsewhere and shoulders are roundly shrugged.

      1. Caroline came across this quotation from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:

        “We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying.

        Of course Solzhenitsyn: was referring to the USSR when he added:

        In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country.”

        but it is just as true in the UK and France today.

        1. A great man, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He told a great many truths. He was a Russian too, you know, and he was highly regarded by one Vladimir Putin.

          I wonder why his book “Two Hundred Years Together” was supprerssed?

          Could there be a clue in this quotation attributed to him when he visited the USA?

          “You must understand. The leading Bolsheviks who took over Russia were not Russians. They hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of human remorse. The October Revolution was not what you call in America the ‘Russian Revolution.’ It was an invasion and conquest over the Russian people. More of my countrymen suffered horrific crimes at their bloodstained hands than any people or nation ever suffered in the entirety of human history. It cannot be understated. Bolshevism was the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant of this reality is proof that the global media itself is in the hands of the perpetrators”.

          And all financed by Wall Street (Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie et al).

          You can get a free.pdf download of “Two Hundred Years together” if you search for one. Make sure it’s not one of the heavily redacted ones. You just can’t buy the book.

        2. A great man, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He told a great many truths. He was a Russian too, you know, and he was highly regarded by one Vladimir Putin.

          I wonder why his book “Two Hundred Years Together” was supprerssed?

          Could there be a clue in this quotation attributed to him when he visited the USA?

          “You must understand. The leading Bolsheviks who took over Russia were not Russians. They hated Russians. They hated Christians. Driven by ethnic hatred they tortured and slaughtered millions of Russians without a shred of human remorse. The October Revolution was not what you call in America the ‘Russian Revolution.’ It was an invasion and conquest over the Russian people. More of my countrymen suffered horrific crimes at their bloodstained hands than any people or nation ever suffered in the entirety of human history. It cannot be understated. Bolshevism was the greatest human slaughter of all time. The fact that most of the world is ignorant of this reality is proof that the global media itself is in the hands of the perpetrators”.

          And all financed by Wall Street (Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie et al).

          You can get a free.pdf download of “Two Hundred Years together” if you search for one. Make sure it’s not one of the heavily redacted ones. You just can’t buy the book.

    4. Meanwhile, FOIA requests for information on which civil servants/politicians are currently ‘negotiating’ the WHO Scamdemic Treaty on behalf of the UK are being rebuffed. We are being sold down the river to an unelected cabal at the UN. If the electorate thought their vote was worthless before, they’ve sadly been proved right.

    5. Ask them why they wish to be engaged with an organisation controlled by the CCP and the Bill and Melinda gates Foundation.

    1. “Let’s kill all the lawyers” is a line from a chap called Dick in William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 2,

      In France the word for lawyer is AVOCAT.

      Let’s not wipe out all the cats – only the avo cats.

      1. Dick the Butcher had a point. The legal profession is not about dispensing justice. It is always and only about making money for those engaged in it.

        1. Now look here, Grizzly, my old mucker. I am well known on here for using the foulest of languages to express my anger and disgust with NoTTLers; I simply call them out as Very Silly Sausages and send them off to the Naughty Step until they calm down and apologise. But I have not sworn at you in this manner for some considerable time. So why is it that you have just sent me a photo of a plate-load of sausages direct to my home email address? Are you attempting to insult me?!?!? Lol.

          2. Knowing that you made them personally, and knowing that you are a superb chef, I can only agree with you. Perhaps you could invite me over to your place to sample them?

  22. 378893+ up ticks,

    Nice one Doc,

    Stef Anthony Coburn 🗣 reposted
    Celia W-H
    @CeliaWH2
    This is for all those who missed this the first time around…

    Dr David E Martin’s recent address to the European Parliament – calling for the total destruction of the WHO for #CrimesAgainstHumanity and Bio-Terrorism.

    This is unmissable!

    https://x.com/CeliaWH2/status/172
    4185820301594741?s=20

  23. Thoughts on Lord Cameron of Chipping-Norton aka Lord Greensill:

    This is the man with links to Common Purpose, who gave us the Behavioural Insights Team (” Nudge Unit”) which is now owned by an organisation called Nesta which is committed to clandestinely changing the way people think and behave all over the world.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc7e3f40ff45d6cb222eb421f5a6e718ac51d7b11439dce338ffd4a10c77434d.png

    https://www.nesta.org.uk

    Peter Hitchens was spot on when he christenend him “Mr Slippery”. He is not to be trusted. Not one inch.

    1. I think Bond fans have already encountered a similarity to call me Dave in the film Spectre.
      Call me C, appeared unexpectedly and try to take over and run the ‘show’. But ended up where he really belonged.

    2. Innovation agency? Social good? No. They’re fifth columnists.

      Right minded folk don’t bother with this sort of tripe as they believe the individual should make their own choices and live with the consequences. Lefties think they are virtuous in their arrogance but are really just trying to control people.

        1. I suppose my nephew-in-law, Joe, who was an excellent GP might be grateful to Osborne because Osborne gave him a lot more free time to follow his own interests outside medicine

          Joe worked out that under Osborne’s pension raid he would have a worse pension if he continued working and so he, as did thousands of other GPs, took early retirement at the age of 58.

          Joe was an excellent doctor and a great loss to the health service.

          Osborne is not just a repulsive human being – he is also one of the very worst chancellors Britain has ever had. He even managed to outgordon Brown!

          1. Blair, Cameron, Osborne the paper-hanger. All well under the age of 50 when they achieved a great Office of State. There are many others like them with similar ambitions. The one thing they have in common is they are all far too young and have been involved in political matters from an early age so they are almost certainly zeolots of one form or another. They do not represent, and never have represented, the people whose votes they seek.

          2. My excellent previous GP took early retirement at the end of 2020. I’m not sure he was even 50. My equally good consultant is also retiring soon, and he is no older than mid-50s.
            I have no doubt the pension pot limits have resulted in the loss of vast numbers of very good doctors. (As well as many mediocre & useless ones.)

    3. I do wonder why he wanted to come back into the international WEF taxpayer -funded smooch-fest. Wife’s business not doing so well? Didn’t amass enough money from Greensill etc? Missed the ego trips?
      He is a deeply inadequate man, and they are always the most dangerous.

      1. The burning question is:

        What about his children’s schooling?

        He put his children into state schools when he was PM because he wanted people to believe he was Dave not David and a pleb rather than a puffed up Old Etonian poofter!

        I suppose now that he is in the HoL and needn’t answer to the voters any more his children will stay in their private schools!

        1. There’s been a huge culture shift even between 2008 and now. Then, he still needed to pretend to care about public opinion. Now, we can see him shamelessly unelected, swanning into a top job, flying off to Ukraine…his children’s schooling is irrelevant. He is in the predator class, and he doesn’t care that we know it.

          1. He might as well say “I have been exposed as a slimeball hypocrite but so what?”

            Of course the heir to Blair, Cameron, was following his idol who shamelessly used his own children for political ends.

            He sent his son Ewan to a good RC school – the Oratory – but got tutors from the elite private school, Westminster School, to give him additional tuition.

            I am no fan of Diane Abbott. But she said : “Bugger, politics and bugger the Labour Party’s contempt for private schools, I want the best for my son.”

            That did not work out well but Abbott was prepared to be vilified. She was prepared to suffer ignominy for her son. Blair and Cameron were happy to put their political careers ahead of their own children.

    5. Nestōr was a legendary king of Pylos. But can anyone tell me to whom Nestor was the butler and in which grand house in a French bande dessinée series?

  25. 378893+ up ticks,

    After taking care of hamas, I wonder if the IDF could be persuaded and invited to pursue their terrorist elimination in the United Kingdom.

    Starting point being houses of parliament SW1A 1 AA

    1. Some years ago two terrorists were arrested trying to load a self driving car with explosives to send to the HoC.

      I wonder whether there have been any more attempts?

  27. Good morning folks, back to wet and windy today, as it has been most of the week with the exception of Sunday morning for the Remembrance Service at Irvine Cross and yesterday on the golf course. Considering the rainfall this week, the course was in good nick. A calm, clear day and I only lost one golf ball, that on the infamous 2nd where the gorse resembles Fangorn forest. Anyone would think it was Autumn.

  28. Good morning all,

    Wow , what a mild start to the day, raining, windy but very mild 12c+

    Soaking wet garden .

    Have any of you noticed the amount of huge tall toadstools in the fields , some of them are about 9 inches in height and with wide umbrella tops .. but they are everywhere . They are not horse mushrooms ..

    Lots of fields around here seem to have plenty , and if you squint your eyes , one would assume a strange little village had arisen overnight .

      1. Morning Phizzee

        One of the fields has had grazing sheep, and the others are random and on steep verges on lanes , and strangely on heathland areas where cattle have been grazing .

        1. Plenty of poo then. The spores will become active when the weather is right. Do you know what sort they are? Some mushrooms are prized and very expensive.

          1. Earlier we had days of stinking pig manure on our nearby fields.
            There must be a local election on the way.

          2. The ones I noticed are along old Celtic ramparts. Who knew Iceni and Roman poo was so long lasting?

          4. The current crop of world politicians is so full of shit that the whole planet could come under a mushroom cloud.

    2. I’ve seen lots in the riverside woods. When you do see one amongst the leaf litter and get your ‘eye in’, you can suddenly see hundreds of them all over. A variety of species and each one has a series of shapes as it grows. The caps turn upwards and become cups and look totally different from younger ones. Some huge puffballs around too.

    3. When I walked Spartie, I noticed lots toadstools; they were much higher and wider than in previous years.

  30. Morning all. I see that Jeremy rhyming slang has said: “The time has come for tax cuts”. What a slimy little pus bag he is. (Not that I’m against tax cuts, she quickly adds). All this time it’s been there is no room for tax cuts blah blah blah. So what’s changed, too many dire looking polls? Anyway as far as I’m concerned the Tories are out come the GE. I shall be voting either for an Independent, Reform or Reclaim if one is standing or NOTA.

    When I read a couple of days ago about the increased subsidies in the pipeline for wind solar and any other energy supply that doesn’t work properly, and at the same time HMG keeps spouting on about helping us with our bills, it makes me furious.

    And what the hell is Cameron doing jetting off to Kiev! What for? Is he just ‘being important’ as FS? I wish he would stay there.

    1. Hunt’s IHT plan is paltry but when you compare it with Cameron’s promise before the 2010 general election it is completely insignificant.

      “David Cameron said he would like to ensure that only the “very wealthy” pay inheritance tax as he voiced support for raising the threshold at which the tax is paid.

      The prime minister said he would like to ease pressure on people who do not regard themselves as “in any way the mega-rich” but whose estates are subject to the tax.

      George Osborne transformed Tory fortunes at the party’s conference in 2007 – and spooked Gordon Brown into abandoning plans to call an early general election – with a proposal to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1m. This would have been doubled to £2m for couples.

      But the pledge was quietly dropped after the 2010 general election in the coalition negotiations as the policy appeared out of place in times of austerity. This means that inheritance tax of 40% has to be paid on estates worth more than £325,000.”

      1. “But the pledge was quietly dropped after the 2010 general election in the coalition negotiations ……”

        Cameron could not even beat Brown in the 2010 election without having the coalition from Hell with Clegg.

        Clegg agreed to betray the students and abandoned his promise to scrap university tuition fees. Indeed he agreed to the fees being trebled!

        The quid pro quo was that Cameron agreed to betray the electorate and abandon his promise about inheritance tax.

        1. Christo started university in 2011 before the tuition fees were raised – they were £3,000 pa.

          Henry started university in 2013; the fees were £9,000.

          1. I did my final degree (Fine Art) in 2004, graduating in 2008. Fees were £4k a year (English student at a Welsh university).

          5. Nah. The fillets are dried and you crumble the savoury flesh onto your food as a seasoning. It is delicious.

        2. His mother was in a care home near St Albans. When he visited his mother in the dame care home, our lovely old neighbour Michael use to sit and hold her hand. Cliff’s sisters were quite often around as well. But he never saw CR. Probably too busy.

  32. 378893+ up ticks,

    The Kings coronation oath,
    The Coronation Oath Act of 1688 requires the King to declare during his crowning ceremony that he will maintain the established Anglican Protestant Church, rule according to laws agreed in Parliament, and cause law, justice and mercy to be executed in his judgment.

    His judgement is surely orientated via the WEF mindset, agree to laws made in parliament ( by politico’s who have ” made their bones”regarding society,)

    Law ,justice & mercy in regards to illegals is already being executed,big time, the WEF way, in regards to the indigenous dweller it stops in many a case at executed.

    Your vote is still sorely needed to give credence to all these evil issues in play today.

    1. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
      Filths savour but themselves.

      [King Lear]

      I have very little esteem for the current Idiot King. He is neither wise nor good.

  33. Bad news…Iran’s internet infrastructure has been attacked
    It has been suspected that Klaus Schwab’s “cyber pandemic” would be blamed on Iran. Retaliation attack, perhaps?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c8f60aee420f8a1170cd0fdfc682297fe21d2a1f6f0b0ad504d65be006e614af.jpg

    There has been a wave of financial ransomware attacks recently – hard to tell if it’s more than usual.
    This one was quite funny though:
    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-gang-files-sec-complaint-over-victims-undisclosed-breach/
    The company did not pay the ransom, or admit publicly that they had been compromised (which is illegal). So the thieves reported them to the SEC for not reporting a data breach!

      1. That is Walmart customers

        https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=583668897&sxsrf=AM9HkKljo65f0nWl7H8j5qa83IpGa4zf_A:1700343774437&q=walmart+customer+photos&tbm=isch&source=univ&fir=jYP4nNPEZxrAwM%252CeGy4DHQNaXLcHM%252C_%253B5lRZ9bksptOhXM%252CA6ctovewjsxWeM%252C_%253Br43yIsm3vQEoGM%252CC6U-R9zAd-WfxM%252C_%253BLgqWu_55qVrukM%252Cm7LjXqLv930sfM%252C_%253BMEpl8dLIWP7ejM%252CkE-AWXyhUds8bM%252C_%253BTvE5fDdKp-DmJM%252CCerd09bNynvJjM%252C_%253B-CyI9s8KJQKb0M%252CeGy4DHQNaXLcHM%252C_%253BoCsikOl-xPyuOM%252CVtcuc6Qo0a4MIM%252C_%253B0zCXjBf3mHzKNM%252CCo0bIgdNoIm3aM%252C_%253BoURgvRzoFzfLJM%252C_uvkr2w7CNB_rM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kTFXQNDOBXsrcnUDlpGZU_uc4ZOhQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjdjq-Vws6CAxVsQ0EAHexJBogQjJkEegQIGRAC&biw=1366&bih=768&dpr=1

  34. Good morning – just – chums. Late on parade today (11.30 a.m.). Now to read all of your posts, starting with Sir Jasper’s joke.

  35. HMS Chanticleer (U 05).
    Sloop (Modified Black Swan)

    Complement:
    192 men + 1 Cat (29 dead and 163 survivors).

    At 15.24 hours on 18th November 1943, HMS Chanticleer (U 05) (LtCdr R.H. Bristowe, DSO, RN) was struck by a Gnat from U-515 (Werner Henke) near the combined convoy MKS-30/SL-139 about 250 miles east-northeast of San Miguel, Azores. The sloop was towed to Ponta Delgado, where she was declared a total loss. In December 1943 the hulk was towed to Horta by HMS Salveda and used as base ship Lusitania II for RN personnel. 1946 sold for scrap and broken up at Lisbon.

    Type IXC U-Boat U-515 was sunk at 15.10hrs on 9th April 1944 in the North Atlantic north-west of Madeira, Portugal by rockets from two Avenger and two Wildcat aircraft (VC-58 USN) of the US escort carrier USS Guadalcanal and depth charges from the US destroyer escorts USS Pope, USS Pillsbury, USS Chatelain and USS Flaherty. 16 dead and 44 survivors.
    .

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/warships/br/sloop_hms_chanticleer.jpg

    1. Er, if the 192 men and 1 cat resulted in 29 dead and 163 survivors, then I must ask: “What happened to the cat?”.

  36. Eldest granddaughter just completed half marathon in Battersea Park for charity.
    Very proud of her.

  37. Ancient Sumerians invented water flumes thousands of years earlier than previously thought. 18 November 2023.

    There is evidence that the structure was built on a previous construction that followed the same design, suggesting that water-accelerating technology was known to the Sumerians millennia before it was thought to have been created.

    The shifting climate and changing river courses in Mesopotamia in the second millennium BC were too powerful to be held back by Sumerian ingenuity, however.

    In the temple complex, a band of white can be seen in the soil layers made up of deconsecrating ash that Sumerians scattered in the holy places that they believed had been abandoned by the gods, marking the point in 1750 BC when the inhabitants of Girsu abandoned the city.

    It was all those coal fired power stations.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/17/ancient-sumerians-invented-water-flumes-british-museum-dig/

    1. I wonder how long he sat in his hotel room in Florida rehearsing and timing his lines to co-ordinate them with the countdown. Well done though. Auntie as she was before she was corrupted.

    2. I wonder how long he sat in his hotel room in Florida rehearsing and timing his lines to co-ordinate them with the countdown. Well done though. Auntie as she was before she was corrupted.

    5. I assume he had an earpiece (with connecting cable hidden in his long hair) giving him access to the countdown (“3, 2, 1, lift off”) so that he could turn and point when he heard “lift off”. Yes?

  39. Ukraine membership would spell end of EU farming system. 18 November 2023.

    Accession would “lead to the demise of family farming in Europe”, he told a press conference on the future of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on Wednesday (15 November).

    This must “remain in the background of all political discussions”, he added.

    Rukwied pointed to Ukraine’s large agricultural sector and the fact that the average farm in the country is many times larger than in the EU.

    Ukraine has never been a viable member of the EU. The whole war was engineered with the US to provide a springboard to attack Russia.

    https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/german-farmers-union-warns-against-eu-accession-for-ukraine/

  40. I had been wondering what the Musk antisemitism accusation was all about.

    Mr Musk was responding to the tweet, which read: “Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectic hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest s— now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realisation that those hordes of minorities that [they] support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.”

    Mr Musk, who has 163 million followers, responded: “You have said the actual truth.”

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/twitter-x-elon-musk-media-matters-lawsuit-disney-apple-b1121218.html

    When I look at America, many of those bleeding heart liberals, politicians and academics who have been encouraging open borders and immigration, BLM, weak free the criminals District Attorneys etc are themselves Jewish. Essentially this is an attack on/dialectic hatred of whites, so Musk is agreeing with fact.

    1. Why do people not understand that uninterested and disinterested have different meanings. Uninterested = not interested; disinterested = impartial?

      [Somebody has to do Peddy’s job when he isn’t here!]

          3. With my Third Form Classes (13 year olds) I used to use the example of a judge who must know what is going on and be interested rather than uninterested in the proceedings; but he must also be impartial and have nothing to gain or lose and so be disinterested.

            Ergo a good judge must be both interested and disinterested!

          2. My friend thinks he is smart. He told me an onion is the only food that makes you cry, so I threw a coconut at his face.

      4. That one was drummed into us at school by our English teacher but it seems these days that they are interchangeable because nobody appreciates that difference.

    2. Why do people not understand that uninterested and disinterested have different meanings. Uninterested = not interested; disinterested = impartial?

      [Somebody has to do Peddy’s job when he isn’t here!]

    3. Why do people not understand that uninterested and disinterested have different meanings. Uninterested = not interested; disinterested = impartial?

      [Somebody has to do Peddy’s job when he isn’t here!]

    4. Why do people not understand that uninterested and disinterested have different meanings. Uninterested = not interested; disinterested = impartial?

      [Somebody has to do Peddy’s job when he isn’t here!]

      1. By “he” I’m assuming you mean Musk rather than the tweet’s originator. I don’t know, but I suspect so.

      1. Agreed.
        If it goes to a lawsuit it will be interesting to read the arguments.
        After all, companies have the right to spend their advertising money where it suits them.

        1. The companies are running scared of the woke loud mouths. They want their advertising where they get the most exposure, which is X.

          1. Love him or hate him Piers Morgan is suggesting the pendulum against woke may be starting to swing.
            https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/piers-morgan-interview-freedom-of-speech-meghan-markle-woke-cancel-culture-b1121026.html

            It’s where the corporate world gets sucked into thinking that the woke world on Twitter is where they should be positioning themselves. And they get a harsh reminder from the real world that most people aren’t on Twitter. I mean, 80 per cent of the public are not on Twitter. So if you let Twitter dictate your corporate policy, you’re going to catch, as these companies have done, a massive cold. And sometimes an incredibly damaging cold.

            So I do sense a tidal wave of people just going, “You know what? I’ve had enough of this.” I also think that people recognise that the woke mentality, which bears nothing, no relation at all, to what it originally was supposed to be — which was just raising awareness of social and racial injustice, that was the point of it — and by that definition, I would happily say I’m woke. But when woke effectively becomes a form of fascism, designed to banish people from the public lexicon, then it becomes untenable.

          2. I couldn’t join you Morgan on that. To people concerned about those pet complaints of the left, ‘social and racial injustice’, I’d say the solution is in your own hands; look to yourself. Those who do succeed.

      2. His ‘outing’ of George Soros as a hater of humanity on the Joe Rogan podcast was a service to us all.

        He said that Soros was a smart man who had worked out that in order to change society no new laws need be passed. All that was necessary was to fail to enforce the ones that already sit on the statute books. He also worked out that to get “more bangs for his buck” it was better to finance people at the lowest levels of government. Although he is the single largest donor to the Democrats in the US he spent more on getting “his people” into District Attorney and Mayoral posts, school boards and so on than he spent on Presidential and Congressional elections. We see the wreckage from that all around us – no prosecutions for theft, no prosecutions for criminal damage, no enforcement of no enforcement of borders &c &c,

        Soros is the grand-daddy of destructive subversives.

        1. Not to mention the fact that he also broke the Bank of England (aided and abetted by our own pols)…..

    8. In violent opposition to all this sphere of Jewish effort rise the schemes of the International Jews. The adherents of this sinister confederacy are mostly men reared up among the unhappy populations of countries where Jews are persecuted on account of their race. Most, if not all, of them have forsaken the faith of their forefathers, and divorced from their minds all spiritual hopes of the next world. This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa Luxembourg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States), this world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing. It played, as a modern writer, Mrs. Webster, has so ably shown, a definitely recognizable part in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century; and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.

      Winston Churchill. Illustrated Sunday Herald, February 8, 1920.

  41. In Gurgl, Austria, some “climate activists” have disrupted the Men’s World Cup Slalom race – nice to see Henrik Kristofferson keen to help get rid of them – pity they didn’t let him! One can only hope the fans sort them out later!! I wonder who paid for the tickets and how the morons got there?

  42. Corrupted by extremist Islamists, the Left is now openly anti-British. 18 November 2023.

    It might look as if we are in the midst of a major political realignment. What we would once have thought were wildly disparate groups – some of whom should be vehemently opposed to one another – are falling in behind a single unifying cause. The Left as we knew it has reconstructed itself and now virtually every form of protest and anti-capitalist dissident is finding a home with the pro-Palestinian front. There is the grotesquely bizarre sight of banners inscribed “Queers for Palestine” paraded through the streets of the most sexually liberal cities in the world when the government of the putative Palestinian homeland they are calling for would probably condemn homosexuals to death.

    Janet has got a hold if the wrong end of the stick here. The left i.e. the Political Elites of whichever brand are united in their hatred of the White Working Classes and have simply joined up with the Muzzies as fellow travellers. The union illustrates the profundity of this loathing.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/18/corrupted-by-extremist-islamists-left-openly-anti-british/

    1. The Left hate everything that might stop their great reset, where they believe that their Utopia of absolute equality for all people will come about.

      Quite how they can square those beliefs with a real world where the strongest, smartest and fittest will always rise to the top eventually and their equality will vanish as yet another New World Order based on genuine merit rather than skin colour, sex and belief systems, is created, to be followed again by jealousies and a desire for something for nothing and another cycle of Left leaning destruction.

      1. These people fail to undestand human nature. They will never change. They faill to understand the truth of history.

    3. Janet’s almost always wrong. She’s symptomatic of a problem that’s existed on the ‘right’ for a long time: metropolitan, economic right-wingers who are hand-wringing cowards when it comes to social issues. They’ve cost us many years of leftism with their refusal to acknowledge what those of us with more guts and brains have been saying about society all along.

    4. Janet’s almost always wrong. She’s symptomatic of a problem that’s existed on the ‘right’ for a long time: metropolitan, economic right-wingers who are hand-wringing cowards when it comes to social issues. They’ve cost us many years of leftism with their refusal to acknowledge what those of us with more guts and brains have been saying about society all along.

  43. Corrupted by extremist Islamists, the Left is now openly anti-British. 18 November 2023.

    It might look as if we are in the midst of a major political realignment. What we would once have thought were wildly disparate groups – some of whom should be vehemently opposed to one another – are falling in behind a single unifying cause. The Left as we knew it has reconstructed itself and now virtually every form of protest and anti-capitalist dissident is finding a home with the pro-Palestinian front. There is the grotesquely bizarre sight of banners inscribed “Queers for Palestine” paraded through the streets of the most sexually liberal cities in the world when the government of the putative Palestinian homeland they are calling for would probably condemn homosexuals to death.

    Janet has got a hold if the wrong end of the stick here. The left i.e. the Political Elites of whichever brand are united in their hatred of the White Working Classes and have simply joined up with the Muzzies as fellow travellers. The union illustrates the profundity of this loathing.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/18/corrupted-by-extremist-islamists-left-openly-anti-british/

  44. Just been into town for a few bits of shopping. Terribly mild out. 15ºC So much so that the car steamed up outside!

    Rain stopped about 10.30 – to be replaced by “wet air”. The story is that there will be some sunshine shortly. I am not convinced.

    Anything much happen?

  45. I was supposed to have surgery this morning to fix an abdominal hernia, but it was postponed at the 11th hour. I was admitted at 7am, shown to a ward, dressed in a gown, compression socks and surgery underwear (don’t ask), seen by the anaesthetist and surgeon, both explaining what to expect, with the hernia outlined in pen. All seemed well.

    A prolonged pause then followed before the apologetic surgeon returned to explain that he’d have to cancel today’s procedure as the anaesthetist had convinced him the hospital (Pinehill, Hitchin) was not properly equipped to handle the planned extent of the surgery. It wasnt sufficiently safe to proceed. The same surgeon will now seek to book me into Lister, Stevenage in four months time.

    While I appreciate their concern for my wellbeing, I do not understand why this complication didn’t come to light months ago when the surgeon first explained during a consultation what procedure he had in mind. Ensuring that the facility had the means to handle it should have been one of the first considerations.

    The saving grace is that the hernia gives me no pain or discomfort. The surgery is to pre-empt any complications which might arise if it’s left untreated, such as a blocked or twisted bowel.

    I’m now at home pondering the prospect of going through all this again next spring. (sigh!)

    1. We hope all goes well.

      Caroline has a very sore thumb and after several attempts at a cure including injections nothing has worked because the cartilage is worn out.

      I am taking her on Wednesday into the clinic where I had my titanium hip fitted 8 years ago so that she can have the operation which will make things better. She will be in and out in a day.

      1. My Brother’s knees are shot. Too much stair climbing when he was a brewer. Continuous pain. Medics now wondering if titanium solutions might not be a good idea.

        1. I was sharing a ward during my short stay with a chap, aged 59, who had his left knee replaced just two days ago. He expects surgery on his equally incapacitated right knee early next year. He had his first physiotherapy while I was there and was in obvious discomfort, but he knows it’s worth enduring for the improved mobility and reduced pain he expects will follow as he recovers.

        2. My hip replacement has been a great success. I went in for the check up and an x-ray a couple of weeks ago so that the surgeon could see how it was. He was very proud of his handiwork – 8 years in place and not any sign of deterioration.

          1. My brother-in-law’s left knee replacement is in excellent condition after 10 years. He was advised at the time to expect 12 good years of use from it but it’s looking better than that at present.

    2. Good thing they found out before the cutting started.
      Better luck next time – will the pen markings still be visible then, do you think?

    3. Bloody hell !
      At least you are not in pain.
      I would have asked the surgeon why this complication only turned up at the last minute. (I know I know) I just like to see them shrug !

    4. What a bummer. Mentally preparing oneself for these things only to have to start all over again is a pain in itself but hopefully postponement is for the best.

    5. Puts me in mind of the irritating (but much less important) events of last Wednesday. My BP was taken within 5 minutes of arrival. 1½ later – after all the tests – the eye bloke told me that my BP was too high for them to do the cataract procedure. I would rather they had told me that when the BP was taken…..

    6. Sorry to read that, but it’s good to know you are not in pain or discomfort, hope all goes well next time!!

    7. What a nuisance! Why couldn’t they have told you this before? You get yourself ready and all psyched up for an operation and then they decide not to do it. Such a time waster as well. No wonder the NHS is crumbling.

      If the hospital is not safe to perform a routine op like a hernia – is it fit for any surgery? Will the hospital be out of action for everyone?

      1. This was meant to be a procedure funded by the NHS but performed at what is a private hospital in the Ramsay group.

        https://www.ramsayhealth.co.uk/hospitals/pinehill-hospital

        I suspect confusion partly arose because the surgeon had been contemplating two procedures, one less invasive than the other. He considered the more invasive one to be superior because the other, simpler to perform and less demanding of the facilities, might very well not have produced the more enduring outcome, maybe requiring further treatment at some point in the future.

        All the same, when weighing up which is best, it should have come to light much sooner that Pinehill wouldn’t be suitable for his preferred option. It will now be performed at Lister, a large regional NHS hospital. Had it been chosen in the first instance, perhaps an earlier date would have been available, even though NHS waiting lists can be long.

    8. That’s awful treatment Stig, glad to hear you are not in pain though. I hope you get sorted at the next attempt but what sort of hospital takes cases which it can’t cope with?

        2. That thought occurred to me. The funding is coming from the NHS, including the consultations and pre-op checks and tests. The Ramsey private hospital group will be paid for all that even though it cannot follow through with the final procedure. Had it said at the earliest stage it would be unable to take the case, some of those appointments would not have come its way.

        3. That thought occurred to me. The funding is coming from the NHS, including the consultations and pre-op checks and tests. The Ramsey private hospital group will be paid for all that even though it cannot follow through with the final procedure. Had it said at the earliest stage it would be unable to take the case, some of those appointments would not have come its way.

    9. Take a picture of the hernia spot and next time, check that they intend to cut in the same place.

  46. I was supposed to have surgery this morning to fix an abdominal hernia, but it was postponed at the 11th hour. I was admitted at 7am, shown to a ward, dressed in a gown, compression socks and surgery underwear (don’t ask), seen by the anaesthetist and surgeon, both explaining what to expect, with the hernia outlined in pen. All seemed well.

    A prolonged pause then followed before the apologetic surgeon returned to explain that he’d have to cancel today’s procedure as the anaesthetist had convinced him the hospital (Pinehill, Hitchin) was not properly equipped to handle the planned extent of the surgery. It wasnt sufficiently safe to proceed. The same surgeon will now seek to book me into Lister, Stevenage in four months time.

    While I appreciate their concern for my wellbeing, I do not understand why this complication didn’t come to light months ago when the surgeon first explained during a consultation what procedure he had in mind. Ensuring that the facility had the means to handle it should have been one of the first considerations.

    The saving grace is that the hernia gives me no pain or discomfort. The surgery is to pre-empt any complications which might arise if it’s left untreated, such as a blocked or twisted bowel.

    I’m now at home pondering the prospect of going through all this again next spring. (sigh!)

          2. Joseph Epstein was a sculptor who was thought well of in the mid 20th century. Never really liked his work.

  48. War veteran paints portraits of all 457 British soldiers killed in Afghanistan. 18 November 2023.

    A Bosnian War veteran has painted the portraits of all 457 service personnel killed fighting in Afghanistan as a lasting tribute to their sacrifice.

    Ex-Soldier Kev Wills, 46, who also served in Northern Ireland, has told The Telegraph that he launched the project two years ago after painting the portrait of Royal Marine Corporal David O’Connor, who was killed in action in 2012.

    It is a sobering reflection that these young men all died to no purpose whatsoever!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/18/afghanistan-bosnia-servicemen-portrait-soldiers-painted/

  49. EU sanctions loophole sees £5bn a year paid to Russia for gas. 18 November 2023.

    European Union countries have quietly funded Vladimir Putin’s war machine to the tune of €6.1 billion (£5.4 billion) this year through the purchase of liquified natural gas (LNG), The Telegraph can reveal.

    Despite a promise to wean themselves off Russian fossil fuels, the number of cargo ships carrying LNG from Russia to Europe has increased.

    The bloc has bought up more than half of Moscow’s LNG exports, with Spain and France being the second and third largest buyers behind China.

    Good on/yer Vlad!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/18/eu-sanctions-loophole-russia-gas-putin-moscow/

    2. Appalling to see some pro-Blair comments – seems you can fool some of the people, all of the time!

      1. Some people did well during his premiership. Whether they did good for the country is another matter entirely.

      2. Some people did well during his premiership. Whether they did good for the country is another matter entirely.

      3. “Prime Minister, we heard that big feet mean a big knob, so we chose these ties as a mark of respect”

    5. Sunak perhaps should be on the list as there’s a chance that he might be in charge when our country receives its coup de grâce.

      1. Impromptu rectal examination? Just goes to prove its true what they say about the vast number of doctors and scientist keen to give their services to the UK…

        1. I assume the lady(??) had a splinter in an awkward place and the young native was helping her remove it…

          3. ….or just confirming what he and his fellows believe that white women are women of easy virtue?

        2. I assume the lady(??) had a splinter in an awkward place and the young native was helping her remove it…

      6. What did she promise him? Fast track to a posh hotel? With her promising to marry for him to get citizenship? I think we know who the enemy is…

    6. I was just talking to someone at the gym who was in England last week for the first time in a year.

      Her comment – England is different, it has become very ethnic.

    7. I was just talking to someone at the gym who was in England last week for the first time in a year.

      Her comment – England is different, it has become very ethnic.

        1. The “Shoot!” actor referred to is – I think – Robert Brown, who was Roger Moore’s supporting side-kick Garth in IVANHOE, the late 1950s children’s TV series. Many years later when Roger Moore took over as 007, one of his bosses (either a replacement as M for the late Bernard Lee, or maybe as a Government Minister) was the same Robert Brown.

    1. We are all gob-smacked. He paid for a £16 million Science Block about five years ago.

      He is repaying the generosity of an esteemed former headmaster. Dyson’s father taught at Gresham’s. So his two sons received free places – something long gone. Dyson senior died young and suddenly. Head said that the two boys would continue at the school without paying fees.

      Dyson’s mother taught English at Fakenham Grammar – and was the MR’s first head of department. She had a life-long effect on the way the MR approached and developed her own very successful career in teaching – ten years of which were as head of English at Gresham’s!.

      Small world!

      1. He also gave a substantial sum of money to redevelop the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit at the RUH Bath. Both my granddaughters born almost 3 months premature received excellent expert care there.

          1. Indeed he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at the University of Bath during the award ceremony when my eldest daughter was awarded her MMath degree.

      2. I have sent a link to this article to Christo who is now a design engineer.

        We were very sad when your MR moved to Monte Carlo and Christo lost his English teacher. Thanks to her Christo got A* grades in both Eng. Lang and Eng. Lit.

        With the genes of his great grandfather, the renowned railway engineer, Charles Bowen Cooke, and having been to the same school as James Dyson who knows what he might achieve?

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a83d8324a9110f160c6cea2e9b68c92877dfd1765e45ac04a34d3ad321e6e5a3.jpg

    1. Rishi could not give a flying whatsit what other usless EstLishment leftover he inflicts on the nation.
      He’ll be gone soon with his matress stuffed full of £££s from Moderna investments.

          1. He may have sold while the going was good. Of course he is supposed to have relinquished his investments because of his office of state. Is he allowed to give instructions to the trustees?

          2. I had not thought through the detail.
            If his payments and holdings are offshore there is no way of knowing how much he has made or not.

            He seems fairly shrewd to me and his decisions have certainly done nothing to harm the pharma sector – let’s look only at his treatment of Bridgen.

            What are the odds he will somehow be less wealthy after office, as was Trump?

    2. Rishi could not give a flying whatsit what other usless EstLishment leftover he inflicts on the nation.
      He’ll be gone soon with his matress stuffed full of £££s from Moderna investments.

    3. Rishi could not give a flying whatsit what other usless EstLishment leftover he inflicts on the nation.
      He’ll be gone soon with his matress stuffed full of £££s from Moderna investments.

  60. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/18/maternity-hospital-downgraded-use-term-mother-diversity/

    Well done staff of this hospital who refused to be browbeaten by this “Rainbow Badge” scheme.

    A maternity hospital received a low grade on a diversity
    assessment because staff only use the term “mother” when discussing
    maternity leave, The Telegraph can disclose.

    The Cambridge
    University Hospital Trust, which manages a maternity hospital called the
    Rosie, lost points because staff use the term “mother” when referring
    to the policies it had in place regarding paid leave, instead of
    broadening it to include gender-neutral alternatives.

    The report was carried out by the NHS’ “Rainbow Badge” scheme, which assesses hospitals based on how they treat LGBT patients.

    The
    trust also lost points for not providing staff with guidance on what
    trans and non-binary employees should wear, pointing out how the trust’s
    “trans inclusion policy” did not provide “guidance on the dress code
    for trans employees, including non-binary employees.”

    The report
    also flagged a “cause for concern” about a deluge of comments from staff
    criticising the trust’s inclusivity efforts for “virtue signaling”
    instead of providing care, including one comment which said: “We cannot
    waste taxpayers’ money on tokenism.”

    The report said: “0 points
    were awarded for the Maternity Leave Policy. The policy does not have an
    inclusion statement to make clear that it applies to all irrespective
    of gender/gender of partner etc. The policy also refers to “mother”
    without expanding to include gender-neutral/inclusive terms and only
    uses he/she pronouns throughout.”

    ‘I just want to live my life’

    One member of staff who said he was gay is cited calling the Rainbow Badge “insulting.”

    They
    wrote: “I feel it is excessive – I just want to live my life; I don’t
    want to be asked; I don’t want my identity reduced to a label. I am
    tired of it – I just want to live my life like everyone else.”

    Another
    said: “Rainbow badges are just performative; I would prefer all staff
    be properly trained and supportive to all needs, not singling out one or
    two.”

    Another wrote: “I am gravely concerned about the influence
    on the NHS of organisations like Mermaids and Stonewall. I am concerned
    about the protection of single-sex spaces like hospital wards.

    “I
    am concerned that men are being allowed to self-ID into women’s
    protected single-sex spaces, and the serious safeguarding risk this
    poses. I am concerned that this is all being ignored in favor of
    mindless virtue signaling like this latest ‘NHS Rainbow’ scheme.”

    The
    report recommended that hospital staff “signal” to patients that they
    are LGBT inclusive by introducing themselves to patients with their
    pronouns and putting sanitary products in all toilets.

    The report, however, did praise aspects of the trust’s approach to inclusion that were already in place.

    It
    endorsed the fact that the group tasked with hiring senior staff has to
    include a “Diversity Inclusion Panellist” with “lived experience of a
    protected characteristic” whose role is to ensure that the staff carry
    out hiring processes “fairly.”

    It also commended how the hospitals set “inclusion-based objectives” to senior managers as part of their annual appraisal.

    The
    “Rainbow Badge” initiative began as a physical badge launched by
    Evelina London’s Children’s Hospital in February 2019 that staff could
    wear to show they are aware of the issues LGBT people face in the NHS.

    Matt Hancock supported the scheme as health secretary.

    1. Good for them!
      Hancock’s support underlines just what a load of
      bollocks, arseholishness, can’t tell a cunt from an elbow, they/it needs a penisectomy as a brain transplant
      idiocy it is.

      That’s really bizarre timing, I was just looking at the Rosie after the Dyson bequest earlier.

      Robinson was a similar philanthropist donating money for this maternity hospital and a Cambridge College..

    3. As usual, apart from this hospital, the patients requirements and needs do not appear on their radar.
      What a right old buggers muddle our country is in.

  63. If Britain wants to “stop the boats” of illegal migrants landing on its shores then it must tackle starvation in Africa first, a senior minister warned.

    What complete bollox these ignorant morons splatter around in the media. WTF has starvation in Africa to do with the UK they should put their backs into it and put their own houses in order.
    And take another look stuffed up with your own self importance idiot Mitchell, more of the illegals invaders are not African many are young crooks from European countries.. Any one who comes ashore in the UK with out permission is breaking the law and after immediate arrest and then should be deported.
    Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell, responsible for international aid and the voice of Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron in the Commons, spoke to the Daily Express about his plan to tackle an international crisis.

    His intervention has come in the wake of the fallout of the Supreme Court overruling the Government’s Rwanda deportation scheme which has meant that its deterrent for illegal migrants has been blocked.

    With the war in Ukraine hitting grain supplies, starvation on the continent is set to get much worse and with it the mass movement of migrants to Europe and the UK. What a load of BS.
    Now he is set to launch a government White Paper on Monday: “International Development in a Contested World: ending extreme poverty and tackling climate change.” What an effing Moron

    Mr Mitchell said: “The great scourges we face at the moment – which are climate change, mass migration, pandemics, terrorism and protectionism – all require greater international cooperation, the result is so much better.” So what point are you trying to make here Mitchell ?

    He warned that cooperation has “gone roaring backwards” after progress between 1990 and 2020 partly because of war in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza and the pandemic.

    Click here to join our Whatsapp community to be the first to receive the latest politics news

    David Maddox, Andrew Mitchell
    © Phil Harris – Daily Express
    He said: “If you’re going to tackle those things you need, you need more international cooperation, and you need to change the system, as well, internationally.

    “And that’s the White Paper, I think there’s a contribution to that, that thinking.”

    The Government is also hosting a food security summit of experts and governments on Monday.

    The White Paper is an important part of an international road map to 2030 to tackle destabilising catastrophes such as famine and climate change related disasters.

    Mr Mitchell said: “The role toay is vastly different from when I was first in government. The world has changed. The needs of countries, societies and people have evolved.”

    The paper has supporting comments from major figures from the UK and around the world and has a forward by the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

    UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Hosts The First Meeting Of His Reshuffled Cabinet
    © Getty
    Mr Mitchell was instrumental in persuading the Tories to commit to 0.7 percent of GDP for international aid when they came to power in 2010 after taking responsibility for international aid in 2005.

    But he said the issue has moved on from money amid opposition on the Conservative backbenches to a return to the full 0.7 percent.

    He said: “It’s not all about money. It’s about technical expertise, skill, research, artificial intelligence, all the many things that are really important.

    “Although we are putting some taxpayers’ money on the table for the Food Summit it is not about money.

    “It’s about British expertise. And how do you stop children starving to death in a world where there’s plenty of food?”

    He described seeing children with malnutrition in hospitals in different African countries and said that no British voter wants that to happen.

    Mr Mitchell also defended the appointment of Lord David Cameron to lead the Foreign Office, saying he has “huge experience and is respected all around the world”. He said the move was “a shaft of sunlight in a bleak period.” Birds of a feather Eh !

    He also urged colleagues on the right plotting after Suella Braverman’s sacking as Home Secretary and the reshuffle to back Rishi Sunak.

    He said: “Speaking as a former chief whip, I think it’s incredibly important that we all get behind the Prime Minister who is tackling the things that the public wants us to tackle.

    “The Conservative Party is a broad church but we all understand the importance of winning the next election and keeping the socialists out.

    “That is what I believe is in Britain’s interest and we won’t do that unless we are clearly a united team bent on delivering the Prime Minister’s priorities.”

      1. A very unpleasant man. He’s also the one who cleared the benches when Andrew Bridgen rose to speak.

    2. Billions of dollars have been gifted to Africa, both by governments and ordinary folk. Has it made a difference? No, it fucking hasn’t, they are still starving, disease-ridden and flyblown.
      Well, fcuk it. We did our best, they effed up over 60+ years. Why should we do more? Who subsidised England/Wales/Scotland 800+ years ago, when the English/Welsh/Scots/Picts etc were starving, and had no clean water, or TV? Nobody.

      1. Absolutely correct. As I keep saying Obs they’re lazy and only take the easy way out. They need to but their own houses in order. But can’t be bothered. When Mandela took over S South Africa towns like JHB were thriving metropolises. Now just another corrupt crime ridden African shit hole.

          1. Our next door neighbour will be home within the hour, from a week with her family in Simonstown.
            It’s 6 am.

    3. The SS Africans could solve food shortage and over population in one go by resuming their time honoured tradition of eating each other.

      1. They can even afford to buy new crockery and cutlery with the foreign aid we give them. After the Mercs etc.

      2. The man is a complete to$$er! I thought we’d got rid of him – like Bliar he’s morphed into an unflushable turd

      6. Perhaps Bill Gates will open an insect food making factory as the are more creepy crawlys in Africa. In fact considerably more than in the HoC and HoL combined.

      1. Their leaders have stolen it.
        Mugabe was a classic example of how to completely wreck a well run successful country.
        Another example of how useless or idiots in Parliament are.
        But long term brits who have worked hard and contributed all their working lives now have to Try to survive and living off the basic state pension.
        Stolen from us to be stolen overseas.

  64. If Britain wants to “stop the boats” of illegal migrants landing on its shores then it must tackle starvation in Africa first, a senior minister warned.

    What complete bollox these ignorant morons splatter around in the media. WTF has starvation in Africa to do with the UK they should put their backs into it and put their own houses in order.
    And take another look stuffed up with your own self importance idiot Mitchell, more of the illegals invaders are not African many are young crooks from European countries.. Any one who comes ashore in the UK with out permission is breaking the law and after immediate arrest and then should be deported.
    Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell, responsible for international aid and the voice of Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron in the Commons, spoke to the Daily Express about his plan to tackle an international crisis.

    His intervention has come in the wake of the fallout of the Supreme Court overruling the Government’s Rwanda deportation scheme which has meant that its deterrent for illegal migrants has been blocked.

    With the war in Ukraine hitting grain supplies, starvation on the continent is set to get much worse and with it the mass movement of migrants to Europe and the UK. What a load of BS.
    Now he is set to launch a government White Paper on Monday: “International Development in a Contested World: ending extreme poverty and tackling climate change.” What an effing Moron

    Mr Mitchell said: “The great scourges we face at the moment – which are climate change, mass migration, pandemics, terrorism and protectionism – all require greater international cooperation, the result is so much better.” So what point are you trying to make here Mitchell ?

    He warned that cooperation has “gone roaring backwards” after progress between 1990 and 2020 partly because of war in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza and the pandemic.

    Click here to join our Whatsapp community to be the first to receive the latest politics news

    David Maddox, Andrew Mitchell
    © Phil Harris – Daily Express
    He said: “If you’re going to tackle those things you need, you need more international cooperation, and you need to change the system, as well, internationally.

    “And that’s the White Paper, I think there’s a contribution to that, that thinking.”

    The Government is also hosting a food security summit of experts and governments on Monday.

    The White Paper is an important part of an international road map to 2030 to tackle destabilising catastrophes such as famine and climate change related disasters.

    Mr Mitchell said: “The role toay is vastly different from when I was first in government. The world has changed. The needs of countries, societies and people have evolved.”

    The paper has supporting comments from major figures from the UK and around the world and has a forward by the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

    UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Hosts The First Meeting Of His Reshuffled Cabinet
    © Getty
    Mr Mitchell was instrumental in persuading the Tories to commit to 0.7 percent of GDP for international aid when they came to power in 2010 after taking responsibility for international aid in 2005.

    But he said the issue has moved on from money amid opposition on the Conservative backbenches to a return to the full 0.7 percent.

    He said: “It’s not all about money. It’s about technical expertise, skill, research, artificial intelligence, all the many things that are really important.

    “Although we are putting some taxpayers’ money on the table for the Food Summit it is not about money.

    “It’s about British expertise. And how do you stop children starving to death in a world where there’s plenty of food?”

    He described seeing children with malnutrition in hospitals in different African countries and said that no British voter wants that to happen.

    Mr Mitchell also defended the appointment of Lord David Cameron to lead the Foreign Office, saying he has “huge experience and is respected all around the world”. He said the move was “a shaft of sunlight in a bleak period.” Birds of a feather Eh !

    He also urged colleagues on the right plotting after Suella Braverman’s sacking as Home Secretary and the reshuffle to back Rishi Sunak.

    He said: “Speaking as a former chief whip, I think it’s incredibly important that we all get behind the Prime Minister who is tackling the things that the public wants us to tackle.

    “The Conservative Party is a broad church but we all understand the importance of winning the next election and keeping the socialists out.

    “That is what I believe is in Britain’s interest and we won’t do that unless we are clearly a united team bent on delivering the Prime Minister’s priorities.”

  65. That’s me for this damp but mild day. And, no, the Sun promised by the Wet Office never materialised.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

    1. Good one. Four for me.

      Wordle 882 4/6

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

  69. Euphrosene Labon aka Wise El liked
    Imtiaz Mahmood
    @ImtiazMadmood
    10 reasons why Islam is the fastest-breeding religion

    1. Muslim women remain at home and their only job is to make babies.

    2. Women marry younger than the world average, hence more years for production.

    3. If you leave Islam, you are an apostate and can get killed.

    4. Anyone marrying a Muslim must convert to Islam. Muslim men can marry from ‘people of the book’ Christians and Jews. Muslim women are not allowed to do so.

    5. In the West, the more children you have, the more state benefits you get.

    6. A Muslim man is allowed up to 4 wives.

    7. Muslims are poorer than the world average. Poorer people tend to have more children.

    8. Go forth and multiply. Islam forbids family planning measures as Allah is responsible for providing.

    9. All religions subjugate but Islam takes the cake. A wife cannot refuse sex on demand. Marital rape does not exist in Islam.

    10. Palestine specific. If one of your children dies in terrorist activity or as a human shield, you get $1500 cash, plus a $350 per month pension for life. So women have ‘extra’ ‘disposable’ children. The breeding rate per Gazan woman is 3.34. Palestinian Authority pays this amount. PA spends 8% of $4.4 billion on these martyr payments. $10,000 plus an apartment for kidnapping a hostage from Israel.

    https://twitter.com/ImtiazMadmood/status/1725784482957906075

    1. Ah but…
      If there are sufficient flavours of Islam they start killing each other, so the numbers won’t rise quite that quickly.

    1. Silly man – he prolly supported Israel. Fatal error in Liebourland.

      (I really HAVE gone now – endives wrapped in bacon and cheese sauce + our own potatoes….NOT ALL BAD!!!)

        1. Well I’ve just enjoyed a baked potato with a whole smoked and peppered mackerel and salad. Delicious.

          1. I do like smoked mackerel. And kippers. While we were on holiday in Northumberland about 6 years we went to Craster and bought smoked fish. It took about three days to get the aroma out of the apartment we were staying in. 🤭

          2. Just after I retired (the very week after) we visited a school friend in Bamburgh, she and her husband owned The Copper Kettle gift shop in Bamburgh at that time. We had lunch at a local hotel just up from the CK gift shop – the fattest and most succulent kippers ever, brown bread and butter and a glass (or two) of sauvignon blanc. It was wonderful.

          3. Our opposite neighbours have recently spent a week in Northumberland in a camper van.
            I mentioned Craster they loved the kippers. Apparently from Scandinavia and not local catches these days.
            We are HPB members and stayed at Lucker Hall.

          6. Not keen on eels Obs ate some in France. I just kept thinking of the shape size and wriggling.
            I have a smoker and made some delicious mackerel pate a few years ago. Caught the fish myself near Padstow.

          7. I made a smoked peppered mackerel pâté this afternoon. added crème fraîche, black pepper, some finely chopped spring onion and a dessert spoon of Dijon mustard. Crushed with a fork and not blended. Very tasty on crackers or sourdough toast.

          10. #metoo.
            Even down to mashed spuds – I hate it when it’s smooth, like toothpaste without the spearmint flavour. Much prefer it with lumps that remind me of potato.

          13. It must have been bad if you remember it from age six. You sure you didn’t have chewing gum stuck to your teeth?

      3. Yes it is ! Try white asparagus wrapped in prosciutto with a sherry hollandaise.

        I’ll get me big white hat.

  71. David Cameron nearly gave the game away when he joined Rishi Sunak and other former prime ministers at the Cenotaph to commemorate Britain’s war dead last Sunday. When the ceremony was over, Cameron turned to Sunak and said: “See you tomorrow.” He was overheard by at least one cabinet member.

    Within 24 hours, the new foreign secretary, now Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, was conducting an all-staff meeting with stunned officials and diplomats around the world, winning over the sceptics with a self-deprecating talk.

    Cameron said: “A lot of things have changed since I was in government before. I remember when I was with President Obama and we were patting ourselves on the back about the fact that our countries were doing well.

    “Obama replied: ‘Yes, we’re the best-looking horses in the glue factory.’ ”

    Saved from the glue factory, Cameron is back in harness and Sunak appears to have changed horses. In the most consequential week for Conservative politics all year, Sunak sacked his home secretary, Suella Braverman. That was followed, on Wednesday, by the news that he had hit the target of halving inflation. Then, within an hour, the Supreme Court delivered a crushing verdict declaring the Rwanda repatriation scheme unlawful, throwing the government’s policy on illegal immigration into disarray.

    These events unleashed a firestorm of speculation about Sunak’s general election strategy, which voters he is targeting, how he responds to the Supreme Court and what he and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, can do to get things back on track in this week’s autumn statement.

    Tory strategists say commentators have read too much into Cameron’s appointment. They say the prime minister asked him to return for two reasons: to benefit from his political competence and to subcontract most foreign affairs matters to him, so Sunak can focus on the home front.

    Addressing a question from a special adviser on Thursday evening, Liam Booth-Smith, Sunak’s chief of staff, said: “David Cameron, by any measure, has exceptional experience and competence and the public rightly expect that quality in the biggest jobs.”

    The genesis of the appointment dates back to the aftermath of the party conference at the start of October, where Sunak announced the scrapping of the second leg of HS2, a project Cameron had set up. The former prime minister was furious and tweeted aggressively about the decision. About ten days later Isaac Levido, the Tory campaign director, went to see Cameron, accompanied by Adam Atashzai, a former Cameron aide who has returned to Downing Street. It was a “courtesy call”, not a job offer, but one that eased tensions.

    In the week after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, Sunak telephoned Cameron and found his advice useful. Following discussion with his closest aides — Booth-Smith, James Forsyth and Nissy Chesterfield — Sunak invited Cameron to the Downing Street flat on November 7 to offer him the job.

    Cameron asked for time to consider then accepted that Thursday. The announcement was delayed so he had time to divest himself of his business interests and clear the House of Lords appointments commission, a process that was completed by the Friday night.

    From his perspective the attractions were obvious. One confidante said: “You do get to the stage when you’re thinking: ‘So, is that going to be it for the rest of my life?’ There has been a dawning realisation that it’s not straightforward for ex-PMs to start a business and David has always wanted to be in public service.”

    Cameron consulted friends, including Lord Hague of Richmond and former aides. He also told his children, who began telling their friends, but it did not leak. Barely a dozen people were in the know when he got out of his car in Downing Street on Monday morning.

    Cameron’s role elevates Andrew Mitchell, who will take foreign affairs questions in the Commons. When he heard the news that his old boss was returning, Mitchell told colleagues: “I nearly had an orgasm.” The secret was such that when Cameron and Mitchell had dinner on the day he accepted the job, at a mutual friend’s birthday in Mayfair, he made no mention of it.

    Mitchell will unveil a new government aid strategy on Monday. Cameron read all 140 pages of the paper on Friday. “This is a guy with a huge brain and huge reach,” a Foreign Office source said. “Everyone realises they have a big beast at the helm. Everyone has grown a few inches taller.”

    Cameron joins a list of former prime ministers who became foreign secretary. It includes Lord Home, Lord Balfour, Lord John Russell and the Duke of Wellington. Neville Chamberlain, Stanley Baldwin and Ramsay Macdonald returned as cabinet ministers.

    Sunak opened cabinet last week by welcoming “those for whom it’s their first cabinet and also a welcome to those for whom it may not be their first time”. Cameron’s reception was warmer than in parliament. “The Speaker banned him from going into the tea room until he got his pass,” one friend said.

    Sunak sacked Braverman by phone at 8.30am on Monday after a week dominated by her claims that homeless people make a “lifestyle choice” to live in tents and her attacks on the handling of pro-Palestinian protests by the Metropolitan Police. Insiders say the homeless comments were the final straw for the prime minister. Cabinet ministers had grown tired of being asked whether they agreed with her latest outburst.

    Sunak’s allies paint a picture of a minister who was not up to the job and was nakedly pursuing her own agenda in order to succeed him. “She failed to present a united front and it all became about performance, not policy delivery,” one said.

    There was also frustration in Downing Street that Braverman refused to publicly make the argument that the government was driving down the number of asylum seekers crossing the Channel. She was also dismissive of efforts by Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, to sign further returns deal with Turkey.

    At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Sunak laid out the argument: “The number of illegal Albanian arrivals is down by 90 per cent. Some 20,000 people have been returned this year. The number of crossings is down by a third.”

    To those loyal to Braverman, this is proof that Sunak’s team does not understand the politics of immigration. “The public doesn’t care about a 30 per cent cut in arrivals,” one said. “They care that 30,000 people have come here this year on small boats.” An MP ally added: “They talk about long-term thinking but the reason they hired Cameron was to drown out Suella. All they cared about was winning the day.”

    The letter Braverman planned to send on Monday was held back when Cameron stole her thunder and disclosed a day later to ensure maximum impact. Its centrepiece was the claim that Sunak made a deal with her last autumn to secure her backing, then reneged on pledges to change the law to prevent deportations to Rwanda being derailed by the courts.

    Sunak’s aides say the prime minister never signed a deal. “On immigration, she asked for four things. We’ve done two of them, are about to do a third and the PM doesn’t want to do the fourth.” The fourth demanded cuts to the graduate entry route, which Sunak thought would deter highly skilled people who can help increase economic growth.

    The most bullish of Sunak’s ministerial allies believe Braverman will struggle without the platform of office. Estimates vary of the number of supporters she might have on the backbenches but most think only between 20 and 30 would campaign for her to be leader.

    The green-top, semi-skimmed option would seek to stop the courts intervening by disapplying the Human Rights Act in asylum claims, forcing a claimant to take their case to Strasbourg, a process that would take time, during which its advocates hope the policy could be shown to have worked without hitches.

    The full-fat, blue-top option would mean the government removing the right of judicial review and include “notwithstanding clauses”, which would allow ministers to ignore the European Convention on Human Rights, in the area of asylum, without leaving the treaty.

    Jenrick and Levido are understood to lean towards full-fat, while Sunak is still said to be wedded to a lower-fat option. Jenrick signed a letter to the prime minister with Braverman in recent weeks calling for a more robust plan B to ensure the flights can begin before the summer and that caution about international law does not override vital national interests.

    Braverman wants to withdraw from the convention but ministers accept that is unlikely because the attorney-general, Victoria Prentis, has raised serious legal objections. Sunak’s selection of Prentis has given him little room for manoeuvre. “Victoria is an ideological supporter of international law, Suella has an ideological aversion to it,” a source said. “What we need is a pragmatic recognition that other countries are prepared to suspend international agreements in a crisis.”

    Tory election strategy seems more muddled than its immigration policy, with the sacking of Braverman and appointment of Cameron pointing towards a pivot away from holding the red wall seats that Boris Johnson won in 2019 towards shoring up support in the blue wall in the south, where Tory strongholds are threatened by the Lib Dems.

    Tory strategists deny that anything has changed and claim there has been a misunderstanding of the approach. However, they acknowledge that there is a “dissonance” between a change message and bringing a former prime minister out of retirement. A Sunak ally said: “Labour wants to change the party of government; we want to change the country and the way Britain is run by making long-term decisions.” Levido is adamant that Sunak has to try this line of argument because the polling and focus groups show the public wants change.

    Most MPs believe a more propitious approach would be to warn that Labour would stamp out the green shoots of recovery that are beginning to appear.

    Sunak concluded his final answer at PMQs with exactly that: “Today was the day we delivered on the most important pledge I made: to halve inflation. We are delivering on that commitment and easing the burden for families up and down the country. Everything we would see from the Labour Party would jeopardise that progress.”

    Part of the problem with Sunak’s positioning is that Brexit has distorted the public and his MPs’ views of what constitutes robust politics. Cameron was the head of the Remain campaign but also made two manifesto pledges to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights. Sunak is, by conventional standards, hardline on immigration and was a conviction Brexiteer — but not enough for the right of the party, who see a rich internationalist, who is culturally Remain.

    “Cameron is much more right-wing than Boris and Rishi is much more right-wing than Cameron and yet they are perceived as wishy-washy by the right, who love Boris,” a veteran Conservative said.

    Where does this dramatic week leave the Tories? The average of the four polls since the reshuffle puts them on 20 per cent, six points lower than the average of the eight polls the week before. Tory supporters are heading for Reform UK, the right-wing successor to the Brexit Party. Their average score has risen from 7 per cent to 10 per cent in a week.

    New polling by James Johnson, from JL Partners, shows that neither Sunak nor Cameron is popular. The prime minister’s approval rating (the difference between those who think he is doing a good job and those who do not) is minus 38, a nine-point decline since July. Cameron is at minus 35.

    More worryingly for Downing Street, an Opinion poll today puts Labour seven points ahead of the Tories on the economy (31 per cent to 24 per cent) and 11 points clear on the issue of which party would be “best for your personal finances” (30 per cent to 19 per cent). Labour has not gone into a general election leading on the economy since the financial crash, and even lagged behind in 1997.

    These figures pile pressure on Sunak and Hunt to do something dramatic in the autumn statement. An interview Hunt gave yesterday has raised hopes among MPs that this could mean a shift in income tax thresholds. Failure to change the narrative will mean that the next two politicians destined for the glue factory will be Sunak and Hunt.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-david-cameron-tory-party-general-election-2024-strategy-g6scvl9k2

    The bigger problem for Sunak is what to do about the Supreme Court ruling, which was far clearer and tougher than government legal advisers had expected. Everyone agrees there will be a new treaty in which Rwanda agrees that everyone sent from Britain is given residence, regardless of their asylum claims, ending the risk of them being sent home.

    The disagreements concern how tough the emergency legislation, which Sunak announced on Wednesday, should be, and there are several options. The red-top, low-fat version would see parliament vote to say Rwanda is a safe country, answering the criticism of the court. However, some believe leaving things there would be “a triumph of hope over experience” following the judgment.

    2. “David has always wanted to be in public service” – oh yeah? Is he the public he wants to serve?

  72. Around a couple of weeks ago I was summoned to my Doctor’s surgery to give a second donation of blood for analysis, since the first lot I gave seemed to show a possible lack of vitamin B-12. I have just Googled this vitamin and I read that one aspect of the deficiency is a marked increase in apathy and fatigue. Can this explain my current tiredness? Either way, it is only 7.30 pm but I am already feeling shattered and I didn’t get up this morning until around 10.15 am. So I shall wish you all a Good Night, chums, as I am back off to bed. Yours, Elsie (soon at this rate to change my name to Rip van Winkle.)

    1. “Pernicious anaemia is a decrease in red blood cells that occurs when the intestines cannot properly absorb vitamin B12.” So yes, you would feel fatigued, Elsie. A friend’s daughter developed this post-jab. I hope you get it sorted soon and that you are bouncing off the walls once again.

    2. The ambulance one is, unfortunately, not true. My daughter’s partner is an ambulance driver and several time has spent his whole 12 hour shift sitting with a patient in the back of the vehicle waiting for a bed space at Derriford.

    1. I have sailed those waters many times in Leander and Type 23 frigates and to think they went out in small oared long ships beggars belief.

          2. No worries. If the sunstone theory seems implausible I understood that the Vikings used suspended lodestones to determine magnetic north….

      3. My 1st year of marine seismic exploration was the northern North Sea, and bugger that for a game of soldiers.

        1. Oh Lord, hang on.
          Plymouth (Type 12)
          Cleopatra
          Naiad
          Minerva
          Westminster
          Richmond
          Kent
          St. Albans

          2. We were considered a trifle effete on the Plymouth because we had a dining hall rather than take our scran down the messdeck.
            The decadent sods that we were.

          4. What’s in the pie chef?
            Meat.
            What sort of meat?
            Pie meat.
            What sort of pie meat?
            Mince.
            Oooo, ducky!

          12. I was on Naiad………..

            I also was on HMS Vanguard and HMS Starling as a Sea Cadet… back in the 50s

            The mooring that Vanguard had in Portsmouth Harbour was marked as VD

    4. One was used to navigate west across the North Sea in one of the episodes of ‘Vikings’ (historical drama), a tv series started in 2012. That was the first time I’d heard of these ‘sunstones’.

    1. My good lady has been making quilts, the lady who ran the class unfortunately died fairly recently. She had some of her wonderful products on show all over the western world.

  78. Turning in for the day. We have been watching the war film 1917. On iPlayer but it’s stopped working. Just after the lance corporal jumped into a river to escape. Very good acting and superbly produced.
    Well worth watching. Another day will do.
    Goodnight all.

  80. Doctor’s surgery phoned yesterday saying that my hospital consultant recently found that my blood pressure was a ‘little high’. I know that there were no issues with my ecg and consultant had previously said that I was on the optimum profile of drugs for whatever I am being treated for. It would appear that the consultant was handing over responsibility for blood pressure control to my GP.

    Reviewing the latest downward trend in blood pressure targets it appears that the ideal blood pressure for both males and females of 120/80 occurs at age 28.
    Considering my earlier adverse reactions following treatment for ‘blood pressure control’ by the GP practice I declined to record and report a series of home readings particularly as I could be providing evidence for ensuing harmful treatment.

    It”s like when you are pulled over by a police traffic officer who asks:
    “Do you know why I stopped you?”
    The last thing you should do is to try and answer the question because that would be an admission of guilt.

      1. I realise now that the pain resulting from an inflating cuff causes an unavoidable adrenaline rush which activates the sympathetic system, raises the heartbeat and hence the blood pressure.

        I try not to worry but there comes a stage where it gets worse than being pestered by energy companies who ask you to fix a date for the smart meter they’ve got waiting for you.

      1. My BP is so low it causes me to fall over – I have to be very careful, especially when getting out of bed or standing up from a chair.

          1. Seems it’s been low for a long time, at least since August 2022 when the District Nurse first tested it, lying down and then standing up – woosh, it hit the floor pretty well.

      2. I was able to retrieve a landmark paper on a comprehensive study of blood pressure measurements across sex, age and race originally on microfiche at a time when there were only mercury sphygmomanometers, no computers and no pharmaceutical intervention.

        BP was reaonably predictable in those days until the population became elderly and then BP could go unpedictably either way

      3. I was treated on Ramipril for bp control alone for several months until I developed a known adverse reaction. I unlaterally withdrew from medication and the symptoms ceased.

        After investigating medical journal papers I was confident enough to send the evidence in an adverse reaction report to the MHRA. The MHRA told me that the prescribing GP refrained from communicating with them.

        I eventually had an adverse drug reaction notification for Ramipril put on my medical notes which resulted in me getting a red (medical warning) wristband when I subsequently referred myself to A&E.

      4. I was treated on Ramipril for bp control alone for several months until I developed a known adverse reaction. I unlaterally withdrew from medication and the symptoms ceased.

        After investigating medical journal papers I was confident enough to send the evidence in an adverse reaction report to the MHRA. The MHRA told me that the prescribing GP refrained from communicating with them.

        I eventually had an adverse drug reaction notification for Ramipril put on my medical notes which resulted in me getting a red (medical warning) wristband when I subsequently referred myself to A&E.

    1. Yo T_b

      I did not realise your Moh was called “plane”.

      With his background he should have been rolling on the floor laughing when the *Scottish pilot took off in his very big airliner, from a jungle clearing

      *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Butler

  82. I posted this earlier today.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a59a390f8212ae59f92af126d58bd91e70652a9e820264b66890f7ae5b608c3.png

    Nestōr was a legendary king of Pylos. But can anyone tell me to whom Nestor was the butler and in which grand house in a French bande dessinée series?

    Nobody gave an answer so here it is:

    Nestor was butler to Captain Haddock who bought Marlinspike with the proceeds he got from Red Rackham’s Treasure in Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin.

    1. Note Milou (Snowy) in front with his bone – possibly from the curse of the mummy’s tomb 🙂

    3. Captain Haddock was a rough, tough matelot. Depicting him with a butler spoils his image.

  83. I posted this earlier today

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a59a390f8212ae59f92af126d58bd91e70652a9e820264b66890f7ae5b608c3.png er this afternoon.

    Nestōr was a legendary king of Pylos. But can anyone tell me to whom Nestor was the butler and in which grand house in a French bande dessinée series?

    Nobody gave an answer so here it is:

    Nestor was butler to Captain Haddock who bought Marlinspike with the proceeds he got from Red Rackham’s Treasure in Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin.

  84. Evening, all. Just back from meeting a lot of friends from (my former) church at a fund-raiser for the (now freelance) choir. A good time was had by all – and quite a bit of money raised. As for the headline letter-writer; it’s one thing being ignorant of the facts but quite another advertising it in the press!

          1. I always thought Yootha Joyce was sassy. I was only 14 ! Probably explains why i find older women so fascinating. Mentioning no Nottler ladies…ahem.

      1. Hello Alf,

        Yes , memories are strange , my father loved all the greats , and especially Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, etc

        When we lived overseas ( me as a child in Africa ), the thump of the ceiling fan, the din from cicadas, or veranda seating arrangement and geckos darting around , the music creates for me a comforting memory of a much loved father .

    1. I arrived ‘fashionably late’, Phil. Unfortunately, public transport / Surrey traffic / roadworks let me down. It was no better this morning. Was collected by one of our volunteer musicians this morning for a rehearsal in church. “I must pick up bananas and fizzy water”, he said. So we diverted to Tesco on the way home. Ufortunately, the A31 and A3 were gridlocked. Thankfully, his electric BMW roller skate retained its charge. And I had an unexpected bonus of six Yellow Tail Shiraz with 25% off, Clubcard price…

      1. Fashionably late he says ..harrumph ! I did say to John when he was trying to contact you why he hadn’t offered to bring you…Still…we mustn’t judge… :@)
        You hanging out with the electric crowd now? Fizzy water and bananas?
        There’s no hope !

      1. Shame you live the other side of the world. We could show GEOFF better manners ! :@)
        We did all have a lovely lunch though. I had already told everyone the drinks were on me and John and Maggie picked up the food bill. Lunches like that just whizz along.

        There was one hiccup though. I went to speak to some others at the end of the long table and when i came back someone had half inched my bacon. When i asked a most upstanding member of the group what had happened he said Max had taken it. When i asked max if this was true he said it had fallen on the floor. Last time i ever go out with lawyers and bankers !
        Still. I got the better of all of them as i reached the Deli down the road and snaffled all the pastries.

        1. Half inched your bacon? Of all the audacious things to do, have you ever experienced anything rasher?

          1. Lol.
            They were quite unashamed about it. Just to be clear that was Alf the Great and Harry kobeans,,,the bastards !

          2. I quite clearly did not get the memo, this was a Nottler lunch?? Where are the photos, we need to see the evidence….
            Hope y’all had a good time!!

          3. It was not an official Nottler lunch. Just Nottlers gathered via email and desperation !
            I will look in my files for some pics for you.

    1. Very similar to 2005 in Sydneys Cronulla riots. (Google it)
      Slammers were harassing local girls on the beaches and life guards stepped in to stop it. You couldn’t makeit up syndrome……The life guards were blamed for starting it. Then it all kicked off. Male Lebanese migrants were found to have been the vile and repulsive offenders.
      I guess It’s all in their book of life.
      At least the ozzies didn’t put up with it.

    2. I have just read through the article..Hedda Hopper and Dorothy Parker were amateurs.

      Harry..You need a lot more spray on ginger hair. You will never be like your ancestors.

    4. It’s appallingly bad taste for the Crown to cover Diana’s death. I’m very glad I have never watched any of it and never will.
      It’s an irrelevant little side-show though, especially viewed from the US. From the article, Meghan seems to be launching a solo career, which is probably a sensible decision as Harry is a one-whinge pony.

  94. These are the taxpayer headlines…

    After five years, 24 court appearances, 20 judges and

    £85,000 in legal aid, Britain finally sends plane-mutiny rapist back to

    Somalia… with plush hotel, armed guards and therapy you paid for.

    NHS forced to spend almost £65m to make hundreds of ambulances compliant with London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ scheme

    1. What the F**k is wrong with this country, commonsense is near extinct.
      That slimely little turd should be in jail.

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