Saturday 20 August: Save the NHS by demonstrating to voters the benefits of health insurance

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

350 thoughts on “Saturday 20 August: Save the NHS by demonstrating to voters the benefits of health insurance”

  1. Good morning everybody!
    Letter from Richie Drax MP, declaring himself to be sceptical of technological development, particularly self driving cars. So take the train, First Class of course.

    1. When I read that letter, the push for a blanket 20 mph speed limit for the rest of us suddenly made sense….

  5. 355292+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Surely the actions of these little treasures brought ashore are to be shared the indigenous cannot expect to hog ALL the delights mass uncontrolled immigration throws at them,

    Tell the border force members to man up, how will any of them expect to

    get through a GANG BANG.

  6. Ukraine and our road to ruin. Tcw. 20 August 2022.

    The key question is whether the UK gas price spike is a short-term problem. Peace in Ukraine and a rehabilitated Russia opening the gas taps would fix it almost overnight. Given that it takes at least a couple of years to build an LNG terminal and longer to build an LNG carrier there’s no obvious quick fix.

    The magic money tree (the existence of which remains unproven at best) can do only so much, and at increasing cost in interest rates and inflation – which itself will trigger higher interest rates, themselves likely to deliver a catastrophic impact on household incomes and business profits. It remains unclear, or at least unpublished, how much the energy spike has contributed to the outbreak of inflation. If, as I suspect, it’s the major cause, raising interest rates (the conventional response to inflation caused by louche monetary policy – or ‘quantitative easing’) will not cure inflation and will deepen the recession. Of course, it’s the financial markets that drive the cost of new UK borrowing and with some £2.3trillion of UK government debt already in the market, there must be a limit to who wants to buy more unless the interest rate is much higher.

    All of which leads me to wonder what vital UK national interest lies in Ukraine. Yes, we seek to constrain Putin’s authoritarian regime, although we did not care so much as to commit armed force to supporting Zelensky’s regime – largely due to fears of Armageddon. We’ve avoided that (so far) but the price looks like being economic ruin.

    Neither Truss, Sunak nor Starmer seems to have a plan, let alone a credible one, to avoid the wholesale destruction of the economy. Whether they can develop and implement one, rectifying years – if not decades – of delusion before it all starts to crumble, is an open question. I’m not confident.

    I’m not sure that the TCW is not more Nottl than Nottl.. Judging by the efforts to shut it down it might well be!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/ukraine-and-our-road-to-ruin/

    1. We need to remember how Ukraine treated its ethnic Rusian population. Its amazing how long Putin left it. They should be both left alone to deal with it. Another johnson error.

    2. I sometimes mention in the DT comments that the solution to the energy crisis is to stop the war, I dont know how, but this avenue is not discussed or considered. What people are not admitting is that the economy is about to tank and people will be thrown out of their homes. A price worth paying, not in my book. For these thoughts I am usually berated as the village idiot or an appeaser by the DT regulars.

      1. A crash in house values will allow the state and the elites the opportunity to hoover up properties to house the illegal gimmegrants and then whitey and hard working Bame Brits who have lost their homes and what little equity they may have had, can go hang

  7. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny promised, and it’s cider-making day. There’s some of last year’s left, so we can close out with a swally or two to (hopefully) celebrate.

  9. I got a £350 cost of living payment. What happens after that? It’s hardly going to get me through the winter. 20 august 2022.

    At the weekend, I went to the seaside with my two kids. It was a spur of the moment thing. I’ve been working a few extra hours and I thought well, let’s splash out! Literally. We took advantage of the heatwave and sunbathed and all paddled in the sea together. My budget wouldn’t stretch beyond one night at a hotel, but we had a lovely time. That’s probably us done in terms of holidays, to be honest. If I can do some extra hours over the rest of the summer and put away a bit of money, hopefully we’ll be able to go away again for another day in October.

    I took the kids to a Brewers Fayre for breakfast. We don’t eat out a lot – not surprising really, as a single mum of two kids who works part-time and gets no financial support from either of their dads. I’m all for dads wanting an equal say in the parenting of their kids when they’ve split up from the mums. But that’s got to mean digging into their pockets and paying to bring them up, too. Fat chance of my kids’ dads doing that.

    A world of unwitting explanation in two paragraphs!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/19/350-cost-of-living-payment-what-happens-winter-heat-or-eat

    1. If only there was a mechanism to make the deadbeat dads pay for the raising of their spawn…….

      Oh Wait,there is,its the Child Maintenance Service

      “You must have a child maintenance arrangement if your child is under 16 (or under 20 if they are still in full-time education).

      Both parents are responsible for the costs of raising their children, even if they do not see them.”

      https://www.gov.uk/child-maintenance-service
      With the power to garnishee wages/deduct lump sums from their bank accounts
      I could be a cynic and suggest she’s worried a parental DNA test could be awkward……..

      1. I was one of those demonstrating against the Child Support Act in the 1990s. I had my photograph on the news bearing a large home-made poster “DAD TAX”.

        Peter Lilley slandered me by suggesting I was such a “deadbeat dad” (“absent parent” was the official term used here; “deadbeat dad” was used by Clinton in America) and was on his little list. A few years earlier, Sue Slipman, a delegate at the SDP Conference and the Head of the National Council for One Parent Families who advised the Major Government on the setting up of the CSA, suggested that all men abuse women by impregnating them and then walking away.

        I said to Slipman at that fringe meeting that my wife, whom I married fully intent to respect my vows two years earlier, was expecting our first child. This child was wanted, and I was preparing our home and awaited the birth with great joy, and intended to be there in full partnership with my wife. How dare she suggest that, simply because I was a man and for no other reason, I intended to abandon my family.

        Four years after the birth of my daughter, and two after the birth of my son (whose paternity in hindsight is in doubt), my wife was carrying the child of a man she met at an Open University summer school who wanted me out, so he could move in and take over the household. My solicitor advised me that I was on a hiding to nothing unless I conceded everything they demanded. I held back a few months, taking advise from Relate in order to rescue the marriage, but found out that Relate was giving her women’s assertiveness training and could not therefore support me. Every day, I used to get such nuggets as “I know what I want and I know how to get it” or “Why don’t you get your act together and move on?” or “I know my women’s rights, and the law is on my side” or “if you push for contact with kids, I will slam in the divorce and screw you for everything” or “the nice thing about you, Jeremy, is that you are never violent” (although she did try the “male violence” ploy in court, which got nowhere, so she changed tack to suggestions of my interest in children, which of course cannot be defended without a psychiatric report into my sexual preferences, which takes time). I did not sleep for six weeks and lost two stone in weight. In the end, I had the choice of either taking this temporary job and a bedsit a friend found me in Birmingham, or being carried off to the funny farm by two burly nurses in white coats.

        Peter Lilley then passed judgement on me and demanded I pay.

        I’m sorry, but I attibute a lot of the reason my children could not live with their father to the Matrimonial Causes Act, whereby Government made divorce unilateral and subjective, and the Respondent responsible to pay regardless who was at fault “for the sake of the children”. I made those vows in 1984 in good faith; but they were undermined by Government legislation.

        Government made these laws, and Government can damned well pay for their consequences and support my family.

  10. I got a £350 cost of living payment. What happens after that? It’s hardly going to get me through the winter. 20 august 2022.

    At the weekend, I went to the seaside with my two kids. It was a spur of the moment thing. I’ve been working a few extra hours and I thought well, let’s splash out! Literally. We took advantage of the heatwave and sunbathed and all paddled in the sea together. My budget wouldn’t stretch beyond one night at a hotel, but we had a lovely time. That’s probably us done in terms of holidays, to be honest. If I can do some extra hours over the rest of the summer and put away a bit of money, hopefully we’ll be able to go away again for another day in October.

    I took the kids to a Brewers Fayre for breakfast. We don’t eat out a lot – not surprising really, as a single mum of two kids who works part-time and gets no financial support from either of their dads. I’m all for dads wanting an equal say in the parenting of their kids when they’ve split up from the mums. But that’s got to mean digging into their pockets and paying to bring them up, too. Fat chance of my kids’ dads doing that.

    A world of unwitting explanation in two paragraphs!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/19/350-cost-of-living-payment-what-happens-winter-heat-or-eat

    1. I thought that it had. Recent pictures of Oxford Street and back to the Brixton Riots?

      1. We will be seeing more of that. That’s what you get with liberal laws. Even now the police won’t arrest shoplifters.

        1. More to the point Phizzee- in the event of war a considerable proportion of our military will be tied up keeping

          peace on the streets rather than fighting invaders.

          PS: Do remember, don’t tweak the tail of the Russian bear.

  12. SIR – My husband was admitted to Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, checked over and discharged next day. The wait at the hospital pharmacy was so long they said they would send his medication – by taxi. It duly arrived the next day. Previously, my daughter, returning to Broomfield for a check-up, needed medication from the hospital pharmacy. Waiting a long time while feeling ill, she asked whether she could take her prescription to her local pharmacist, but was told she could not.

    Why can the prescriptions not be dealt with at local pharmacies?

    Lilian Hunter
    Ingatestone, Essex

    Why not indeed? Here in Sweden, I have the unquestioned facility to use my doctor’s (or hospital’s) prescription at any pharmacy of my choice, anywhere in the country, to collect my prescribed drugs.

    1. Morning, Grizz.
      Here, the prescriptions are electronic, on a database that can be accessed by any pharmacy. So, you can rock up at any pharmacy and get your pills, etc. The database also checks for incompatibilities, also checks for whether you have passed the limit on prescription costs and makes the rest of the year free.

        1. We have that facility here with the NHI number! Not used as the NHS database is appalling!

          1. Morning Sue, NHS bad word at the moment, I’ve been playing the keyboard in care homes for over 10 years free of charge, suddenly they want me to complete a confidentiality form (no problem), a 5 page health questionnaire and a 3 page application form including 2 references. These are to be sent to the Volunteer Manager at HQ who will assess my suitability. I have complained to the NHS and to be fair a lady rang me yesterday to discus it. She wasn’t able to deal with it but was going to get the VM to ring me Monday when he comes back off holiday. I’ve told them I will not play again if this is enforced – it’s not a requirement in privately run homes and nor does it apply to visitors. Obviously this non-job holder wants to make his mark. Well he ain’t doing it through me. I know a lady who takes her dog into care homes so the residents can interact with it, I wonder if she or the dog has to complete the forms and whether the medical form is for the lady or the dog.

          2. The wonders of the state managed NHS Scotland! Devolved? Don’t make me laugh! Sorry Spikey! Have your family arrived yet? How is the weather up there? We are still having 4 seasons a day here! The heating came on this morning! 🙄💕

          3. Yes I picked them up in Inverness on Wed and took them to their hotel in Ullapool. Yesterday I took them up to Scourie, Achmelvich beach and Lochinver, The only place we could get something to eat was a craft fair in Lochinver village hall, everywhere was either shut or we were too late. They’ve taken the ferry to Stornaway today and I’ll be taking them back to Inverness tomorrow for their flight back on Monday. Weather was great yesterday and looks like being good today too – but you never know. Keep warm

    2. It happened to me at Hammersmith 5 years ago I had to sit and wait 4 hours for my medication.

    3. We have tried to set thus up but have even thwarted by the pharmacists and bean counters. Hospitals pay less for drugs than do pharmacies due to their greater buying volume – if we started reducing our supply our prices would go up.

      1. Good morning. Walked the dog at 0700. Sun was barely above the horizon so it was a bit chilly. Another hot day in prospect.

  14. Good Morning. Cold, damp and dull. Yesterday started off sunny. We went up to Edinburgh. We parked at the Park’n’ Ride car park just outside Edinburgh, near Dalkeith. Advertised as having fast, frequent bus service to the centre of the city. Edinburgh was full of uncultured people for the Festival. The pavements were covered in litter, trash from takeaways, bottles, cans, leaflets for shows. It was like walking through a rubbish tip. At five o’clock it rained very heavily. Great black clouds interspersed with bright sunshine. At six o’clock we headed back to the Park’n’Ride. It was a forty minute wait for the bus*. Lots of ethnic foreigners, from babies to old men, all obviously residents, and many languages shouted into mobile phones. Edinburgh is a multi-culti mess.
    On the drive south we saw some wonderful, bright, double rainbows, set against clouds the colour of tarmac.

    *Not frequent, not fast. Overall our travel time to Central Edinburgh was just over 2 hours, for the 40 miles.

    1. It’s about time people like Neil and Mark started to encourage the military to move into Westminster and clear it up for the good of everyone.
      And of course cleared the backlog of illegal immigrants. By dumping them all on the French coast. There’s plenty of room for them all.

    2. My reply:

      “What an ill-disciplined class. Hard to hear any narrative for all the diverse chattering, and thank you but I’ll pass on the crickets and keep with meat and 2 veg.“

  16. Morning all 😃
    Encouraging working people to take out health insurance will mean that they will be paying twice (as many already do) over for the same service. But that then covers the enormous costs absorbed by the millions of scroungers who have never nor are ever likely to contribute to the treatment they receive on demand. And of course the better qualified medical staff will become thinner on the ground.

    1. My father’s motto, especially at school fee time, but equally applicable to private health care, ‘it’s always worth paying the extra few bob. I suppose…’.

      1. Thank you for asking, Philip.
        Getting there – all boxes and bags emptied, furniture and white goods delivered and installed.
        Wi-fi and computer set up, learned how to use free washers and tumble-driers (necessary as it frequently pishes doon).
        Just things to hang on the walls – kitchen pot-holder and sitting room pictures

        1. Some good news. Have a look around for community or Church groups to get involved in. Easy way to make friends in a new area.

          1. Thanks for the idea but, being agnostic, in the midst of Calvinistic Scots piety, I just wouldn’t fit in.

            This is a RAFA – Royal Air Forces Association – institution (a form of sheltered accommodation) and I’m already making friends with like-minded ex-service personnel.

        2. You sound organised. We’ve been here for over a year and still have things to sort. Mind you, we have had other matters to deal with.
          Gorgeous sunshine today- good.

          1. I think, Ann, I was born a planner and I do subscribe to the 6 P Rule – Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

          2. I am normally organised- as a teacher etc one had to be. We’ll get sorted and it’s not that bad. Mainly things that are easy to let slide.

  18. IS ‘Beatle’ jailed for life over hostage deaths

    Former British citizen receives eight life sentences and is told he will never be released

    A member of the Islamic State execution squad known as the “Beatles” has been jailed for life in the US. El Shafee Elsheikh, 34, a former British citizen from London, was given eight life sentences and told by a judge he will never be released. Elsheikh was found guilty of hostage taking and conspiracy to murder over the deaths of four Americans: the journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. A MEMBER of the Islamic State execution squad known as the “Beatles” has been jailed for life in the US and will die behind bars.

    El Shafee Elsheikh, 34, a former British citizen from Shepherd’s Bush, west London, was given eight life sentences and told by a judge he will never be released. Elsheikh had been found guilty in April of eight charges, including hostage taking resulting in death and conspiracy to commit murder.

    At his sentencing in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, the terrorist showed no emotion as Judge TS Ellis III told him his actions had been “horrific, barbaric, brutal and callous”.

    The judge said: “There is no parole in the federal system. I don’t expect he will be released on supervision. This is a significant episode in the history of our country and our justice system.”

    He added: “There is nothing in his background to suggest he was brutalised, emotionally or physically, by the British system or by Britain. He wasn’t. He had a pretty decent childhood.”

    Elsheikh was stripped of his British citizenship in 2018. He is expected to serve at least the first part of his sentence in a “supermax” prison in Colorado. He will be confined to a 75 sq ft cell for 23 hours a day and will be shackled when he goes to the shower area.

    The charges against him related to the murders of four Americans: the journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.

    The first three were executed in filmed beheadings that were circulated online. During a two-week trial, jurors were played recordings of hostages pleading for their lives and shown videos of executions. The Islamic State cell also beheaded British volunteers David Haines and Alan Henning.

    Surviving hostages told the court that the group, nicknamed the “Beatles” as they had British accents, enjoyed torturing them, including waterboarding and making them fight each other.

    Prosecutors said Elsheikh was a “cold and calculating terrorist” who had preyed on “kind and altruistic souls”.

    They called his crimes “diabolical” and “sadistic” and said he had shown no remorse. He was the “most notorious IS member to face a jury trial in the United States”, they said.

    Defence lawyers asked the judge to recommend Elsheikh be sent to a jail with less harsh conditions, as he had been a “model prisoner” while awaiting trial, but the judge declined to do so.

    Outside court, Diane Foley, the mother of Mr Foley, called for the US to change its hostage negotiation policy. She said: “We were repeatedly told to stay quiet, don’t talk to anyone. I pray we are learning.”

    What a pathetic excuse for a species we have become: no longer fit for purpose. A religious scumbag tortures and murders hostages, yet we consign him to a long life of sheltered, well fed comfort in a prison cell. In more enlightened times, he would have been forced to endure the same treatment that he dished out, and over a protracted period.

    2. The Americans would have executed him except the British Government insisted the death penalty had to be off the table before extradition
      I completely disagree that he should be tortured too,we are better than that, a swift hanging or bullet to the back of the head then a pigskin wrapped grave will suffice

      1. Perhaps we should call him a friend of the Clintons. He wouldn’t see the night out.

    3. Hmmm. El Shafee Elsheikh. British? With a name like that I don’t think so. Even if he was born in the U.K. He may have British citizenship but he ain’t British.

      1. I would suggest that you are only British if one of your Grandfather’s Birth Certificate identifies that he (your Grandfather) was born within the borders of the UK.

        1. Just think. All those gimmegrants, arriving daily and over the past few years without a passport, will soon be granted British citizenship. Enrichment, eh!

          1. My remedy, for those arriving Without Papers (WOPs as the Americans call them) is to tell them they are to be deported and, if they won’t say which country they’re from, they will be transported by a RN Cutter or Frigate, to a beach in Somalia and be forcibly put ashore wearing only their underwear.

          2. In the USA, “WOP” is a pejorative slur for Italians or people of Italian descent.

            WOP’s first known use was in the United States in 1908, and that it originates from the Southern Italian dialectal term guappo, roughly meaning “dandy”, or “swaggerer”; derived from the Spanish term guapo, meaning “good-looking”, “dandy”; and from Latin vappa for “sour wine”, also “worthless fellow”.

          3. With Out Papers was the term I had explained to me many years ago, as many Italians, like our own home-grown Gimmegrunts do, destroyed their ID.

            Similarly those of Spanish Origin were called Dagos as a bastardised form San Diego (St James) Spains National Saint.

            That’;s how an American explained to me their perjoritive terms for the first influx of gimmegrunts in the 1920s and 30s.

        2. Fair enough. Those who serve in our military should be offered citizenship after, say, seven years. We must stop giving citizenship and “right to abode” to all and sundry.

      2. He was stripped of citizenship in 2018. Being born in Britain doesn’t make him British.

    4. The way the Democrats are moving, he’ll be out within 10 years under a general amnesty for all BAME prisoners.

      1. Mankind: the only species to have ever evolved that routinely trashes and destroys its own living space — its own environment.
        The olny species to pollute its own water supplies.
        The only species to be incapable of regulating its own numbers to fit the food and water supplies available for it.
        The only species to mass produce plastics and other noxious chemicals that are polluting the planet.
        The only species to destroy the balance of nature: a vital necessity to the wellbeing of all living organisms.
        The only species to invent weapons of mass destruction that have the capability of destroying all life forms on the only planet known to support life.
        The only species that is no longer fit for purpose.
        Is that enough evidence for you?

    7. I note the use of “executions” and “murders” in this piece. “Execute” suggests that some legitimate judicial process was undertaken. In all these cases, it was quite clearly murder.

  19. William Wratten was the Senior Reviewing Officer on the Chinook crash on the Mull of Kintyre, and found the pilots guilty of gross negligence despite there being no evidence of such.

    Following a subsequent Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry and House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report, a House of Lords Select Committee was appointed to consider all the circumstances surrounding the crash and unanimously concluded “that the reviewing officers were not justified in finding that negligence on the part of the pilots caused the aircraft to crash”. Following a subsequent Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry and House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report, a House of Lords Select Committee was appointed to consider all the circumstances surrounding the crash and unanimously concluded “that the reviewing officers were not justified in finding that negligence on the part of the pilots caused the aircraft to crash”.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Wratten

  20. Teenage Prime Ministeress of Finland filmed “partying” and has taken voluntary drugs test.

    Does this mean she is Finnished?

      2. Logical thinkers
        A Finnish wife asks her software engineer husband “Hey, could you go to the shop for me and get a litre of milk? And if they have eggs, get six.”
        The husband returns with six litres of milk. “Why on earth did you buy six litres of milk??” asks the bewildered wife.
        “They had eggs.”

  21. Edinburgh Festival Ode to Joy performance cancelled after Covid face masks row

    Beethoven symphony including EU theme will not be performed after choir rejects American orchestra’s call for coverings

    A much-anticipated Edinburgh Festival concert set to have featured Ode to Joy, the EU anthem, has been axed after a Scottish choir refused an American orchestra’s demands to wear face masks while singing.

    The Covid row has led to the cancellation of the performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which includes the theme, because the Edinburgh Festival Chorus rejected the Philadelphia Orchestra’s call for wear face coverings.

    Disappointed music fans said the demand for singers to wear masks was “potty”. Organisers said the orchestra, which has a residency at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, will now perform Beethoven’s Fifth – which does not require a choir – on Aug 25. David Kemp, who has been attending concerts at the festival since the first one in 1947, when he was 10, said: “I was looking forward to going with my family, who are all diehard Remainers, to hear the Ode to Joy. This last-minute change to Beethoven’s Fifth is very disappointing.”

    Jackie Bruce said she had bought 10 tickets, and pro-EU friends and family were “looking forward tremendously” to hearing the European anthem. “This is absolutely potty – how can a choir sing while masked?” she said. “I am sure the orchestra are all multiple vaccinated and so are the choir, so it is complete overkill.”

    Behind the scenes tensions over Covid protocols are understood to have been simmering for several weeks. The performance of Beethoven’s Ninth at the 2,200-capacity Usher Hall had been billed as one of the highlights of the International Festival programme.

    The Philadelphia Orchestra said its performers, other than those playing wind instruments, would wear face masks for the concert. The Edinburgh Festival Chorus, a group of 130 singers, has been described as the “backbone” of the International Festival, regularly performing alongside world-class orchestras.

    A spokesman for the International Festival said the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Covid protocols “differ from current UK guidance”, meaning a change to the programme had been needed. An orchestra spokesman said the decision to change the concert “was not taken lightly” but that a masked choir was “in the best interest of health and safety”.

    “While we understand that Scotland’s Covid protocols differ from ours, we felt this precaution was especially important at the very start of a long and complex tour,” the spokesman added.

    “Our advisers at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that singing creates significantly wider and more distant spread of aerosols than speaking does, and that masks reduce this spread of aerosols, and therefore the risks, dramatically.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/18/edinburgh-festival-ode-joy-performance-cancelled-covid-face/

    2. Difficult to decide who is more stupid – the Orchestra for insisting that singers wear masks, or the would-be audience members who wanted to hear the ‘EU anthem’ rather than enjoying Beethoven’s music.

      Well done to the Choir for refusing to wear masks.

    3. Ah, so the vax doesn’t prevent covid but playing a wind instrument does. Suggestions on a postcard, please.

      2. “Although it is perhaps ironic that a German piece of music became a source of solace, in particular to British troops during the bombings of England, many people relished the irony of German music providing a galvanizing force for the war effort. Beethoven was himself a champion of personal liberty and a symbol of resistance to dictatorship, turning away from Napoleon in 1804 when the latter named himself Emperor of the French.”

    5. Since their windy instruments will be unmasked, they’ve already set a precedent.

      Bluddy Project Fear Scammers.

    7. Did the Philadelphia Orchestra insist that their own brass and woodwind player blow through their masks?

  23. Off to Tesco in Lockerbie to get the other half of my dinner service – I didn’t realise that it came in two boxes!

    2. Not sure but my son and his gf took a hike up to the radio transmitter station where they had a picnic. He remarked that he threw his apple core at the mast. I said I knew because I heard the pips at one o’clock.

    4. Producing the pips is a huge effort for an apple tree. Leaves and flesh easy. Pips are rich in protein and oil, but also contain amygdalin.

  26. Good morning (just), everyone. Must dash to the shops, an elderly neighbour has run out of milk!

  27. Comedy is being ‘nuked’ while reality TV gets away with sex and swearing, says ‘Allo ‘Allo! star

    Vicki Michelle claims modern TV is more offensive than classic shows which are being ‘neutralised’ amid concerns that content causes offence
    *
    *
    *
    “Nobody would dare to touch a Gestapo sausage.” Herr Flick on why a painting of a sausage is safe.

    Officer Crabtree on hearing gunshots: “I was pissing by the door when I heard two shats.”

    Officer Crabtree’s typical greeting: “Good moaning.”

    “We were both aroused by the banging”, Maria Recamier on being woken by loud noises.

    “We should be grateful that the RAF bummers are still farting for freedom”. Officer Crabtree on the work of the RAF bombers “fighting for freedom”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2022/08/19/TELEMMGLPICT000304996379_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqJKshGvN1om7Aqkp8aAKZGXhalWWr0ApWpQ4rnNcEk8c.jpeg?imwidth=680

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

    Neil Lloyd
    15 HRS AGO
    Listerrn very carefully I shall say zis only wernce. Les miserables rosbief leftees, zey ave no sence of ze huumer.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/19/comedy-nuked-reality-tv-gets-away-sex-swearing-says-allo-allo/

  28. Just thought the Nottlers would enjoy being outraged by this one…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da0f1d84b5540046c5cb21a0e58ae2ccb3f9e3aa48df76e6e8166adea8773987.jpg

    For those of you who don’t speak French, the caption says: “At Family Planning” we know that men can be pregnant, too.”

    Playing the organ at a normal wedding this afternoon will help restore my equanimity!

    Richard thinks this must be a spoof, but this is for real. Really.
    https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/des-hommes-aussi-peuvent-etre-enceints-une-campagne-du-planning-familial-fait-polemique-20220820

    1. The people who believe most sincerely in man-made global warming and the efficacy of the Covid vaccines gene therapies are the same people who believe that men can get pregnant.

      1. Chesterton was right. When they stop believing in God, they don’t believe nothing, they believe anything. Granted it may apply chiefly to that mindset that can’t cope with faith but needs dogma and has religious fervour in abundance, all misdirected.

    4. …and, of course, he’s black, or dark brown. Hasn’t got the intelligence to use Birth Control.

      1. If he were an EU citizen would he be advised to use a French letter or a Dutch cap? (Or would he go for the Irish lottery?)

    5. A history student of Starkey,
      Had a torrid affair with a darky
      But feeling quite kinky
      She then bedded a Chinky
      And produced a kid, black, white and khaki

    7. And all along I thought it was because he fell in the vat of magic potion when he was little.

          1. I know, Phizzee! Greek mythology is ‘my’ speciality! They are, in fact, all dead!
            Mother of Orestes and Electra. (Glide in Blue?)

          4. “Hey, I’m just wondering if I could get some information.”
            “Yeah. I got information. You’re standing in pigshit!”

            [Motorcycle cop, Robert Blake as wannabe detective, John Wintergreen in Electra-Glide in Blue.]

          14. 2.3 litre straight 3 water-cooled engine. Smooth as cream, quiet, long-distance bike – with poke as needed.
            And Firstborn can lift it up when it lies down (only the once -he was backpedalling it into the garage, and it toppled over. Excellent lesson on treating a bike of this size with respect).

          15. I had a Triumph Speed Triple about 10 years ago. Beautiful bike and then some toe rag nicked it. It was recovered but the insurance co wouldn’t let me have it back because the toe rags had tried to break it into parts.

          17. At the first jury trial on the Areopagus, presided over by Athena, Clytemnestra being responsible for the killing of Agamemnon was held to be a greater crime than that of Orestes killing Clytemnestra. Wives lives don’t matter.

  31. Why South Africa is on the precipice of ‘explosive violence’ and mass unrest
    Soaring poverty and corruption are threatening to unravel the ‘Rainbow Nation’ described by Nelson Mandela
    By Peta Thornycroft: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/08/20/why-south-africa-precipice-explosive-violence-mass-unrest/

    Maybe the answer has something to do with getting rid of the apartheid system?

    And why are so many people from the Sudan (where my father was a much loved colonial administrator) so eager to risk their lives in rubber dinghies to come to England? Has it, by any remote chance, anything to do with the fact that since the British left the Sudan the country has been ravaged by endless civil war, famine, plague, genocide, collapse of all infrastructure, formal education and health care and finally partition?

    1. The lyrics of a song I wrote over 50 years ago when I was a student :

      How I hate Apartheid: Richard Tracey

      You’ve seen me in the papers, you’ve seen me on the box
      I complain of Vietnam – or the hunting of the fax
      Of hunger in Biafra – or the nuclear atom bomb
      And where the filthy capitalists get all their money from

      How I hate Apartheid,
      But how I love to demonstrate

      I say that what we need is tolerance and peace
      In proof of this I smash up cars and throw things at the police
      I refuse to hear a point of view that’s different from my own
      A really reasonable debate’s a thing I’ve never known

      How I hate Apartheid,
      But how I love to demonstrate

      We really had a field day with Springbok sporting tours
      We cut up cricket pitches for the multi-racial cause
      When we stopped the Lions’ rugby game it was our finest hour
      But we don’t see any racism in those clamours for black power

      How I hate Apartheid,
      But how I love to demonstrate

      But now, alas, my student days I’ll have to leave behind,
      I’ll put away my banners and I’ll regiment my mind
      I’ll shave off all my whiskers and I’ll wear a pin-stripe suit
      And catch the 7.50 – cos it’s such fun to commute

      It was great to demonstrate,
      But now it’s time to vegetate.

  32. Only now are the crippling costs of lockdown becoming fully apparent. 20 August 2022.

    Ministers, it can reasonably be argued, had little choice but to respond in the way they did. Not only was it impossible to know the degree of threat posed by the virus, at least initially, but for Britain to have stood alone while every other major economy in Europe and Asia was locking down would have looked perverse and undoubtedly have been politically suicidal.

    But we did know! It’s a minor virus of danger only to old Nottlers and their ilk. It has now become the archetype of all health incidents where the cure is far worse than the disease. It could have been left to pursue its way through the population and hardly anyone would have noticed! This disaster was created by politicians unable to leave well alone!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/08/20/now-crippling-costs-lockdown-becoming-fully-apparent/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. I get a job alert daily- not that any of them apply to me. Today’s two jobs included the local health area advertising for a Covid-19 vaccinator. Oh really?
      Brand new job posting. Summat is afoot.

    2. Did you ever come across H.F. Ellis’s books in which he assumes the persona of A.J. Wentworth, B.A. a mathematics schoolmaster in a small boarding prep school. He may have been a bumbling but lovable idiot but, unlike our absurd politicians, he usually knew when to leave well alone.

      (His protagonist was a boy called Mason who confused him by asking questions such as:

      “Is it likely Sir, in real life Sir, that a real life triangle would ever have a square on its hypotenuse at the same time as having a square on its other two sides – it would be a pretty good fluke if it did, wouldn’t it, Sir?”

      “Mason, you and I will soon be at Loggerheads!”

      “You might, Sir, but I’m going to Cheltenham.”

      1. One of my favourite, if not the favourite, is H F Ellis’s stories of A J Wentworth. They started making a TV series of it starring Arthur Lowe (ideal casting) but sadly Arthur died after only a few episodes were filmed.

  33. Our life is a heist movie – except the cops never arrive. TCW. 20 August 2022.

    THERE are no healthy choices on the menu of political options, because we no longer have a nation. Instead, there are ‘communities’. This is a euphemism for politically mobilised social factions which all compete for a share of the tax take. Their common enemy is people who are normal, native, white, sane and unbroken.

    It is always about money and power – political and propaganda power. This means demanding funding from the majority against whom you make your complaint. If you are a ‘community leader’ your complaint is your raison d’etre, and after all the whingeing simply reduces to a guilt tax. It is a shakedown. The majority are being robbed by people whose income depends on despising them, and the law conspires with these resentful mobs, not with you.

    There is no equality before the law. Opinion is not treated equally. This is not a double standard but a function of power. The reason you get banned for talking about an injection whilst they are free to call for your execution is because digital media is another parallel culture dominated by people with a grievance against you.

    The law does not equally apply across these factions. Cultural and ‘economic’ reasons are invoked to explain away crimes such as child rape, drug dealing, fraud, theft, mutilation. This is not a result of effective public relations on the part of some community group. It is a managerial response to the fact that we now have a range of parallel cultures. These cultures are so inimical to one another that new laws are always being passed to pacify them at the expense of the liberty of the majority.

    This last feature is partly a function of liberalism, which sought to liberate mankind from the shackles of tradition, culture, custom and Christianity. Of course, removing the foundations of your civilisation does not advance stability. It leads to normlessness, a total absence of any moral framework, and no higher purpose than gratification.

    The moral system we have is called hedonistic utilitarianism, which means the highest good equals the most pleasure for the greatest number of people. This pleasure is the seeking of satisfaction of every desire, the avoidance of suffering and the maximisation of advantage. It is a moral system which combines with the extreme individualism of liberalism to divide society into groups seeking to magnify their leverage. In short, the project of liberty has resulted in the tyranny of many angry minorities.

    The Rainbow Community have their own standards, which are quite distinct from those of the majority. Consider the advice given here to the attendees of a popular gay sex festival, which makes taking any sensible countermeasures optional and actually recommends disguising your infection and going out to spread it anyway. As this medical doctor allegedly chose to do.

    This is shocking enough on its own. Set it against the devastating measures taken to fail utterly to prevent the spread of an infection which looks far less dangerous than the injections given to ‘prevent’ it (which don’t do so). The fines, the seizure of protesters’ assets and the freezing of bank accounts in Canada, the crazy policies of Jacinda ‘abortion until birth’ Ardern, the police patrolling parks and beaches, and your neighbours being encouraged to snitch if they see you going outside for more than an hour. Some diseases are more equal than others.

    Who, precisely, campaigned for demonic perverts to arrive, unannounced, in our children’s schools and libraries? Is it still legal to ask, politely, why these people wish to be alone and in secret with my children? If you do have small children, you can now add this permanent anxiety to a growing list of disturbing concerns about their welfare. Where is the majority view on this matter?

    This is an issue not of flags nor of pronouns, but of the preference of political power for these parallel cultures. Those arriving from abroad enjoy greater legal privilege, higher per-head educational funding and better lifetime outcomes than do white working-class boys.

    I was a white working-class boy. It is hateful in the extreme to refer to ‘white privilege’ in the light of the white working-class experience. That this calumny can be uttered on television, and applauded in the academies, demonstrates the liberties taken with the facts to pursue this agenda of pillage.

    Speaking of pillage, most of the heroic boat people this summer turned out to be Albanian men. According to the Guardian, the reason only a fifth of Muslims are in full-time work is . . . racism. This is also the reason for high levels of criminality. To the liberal media elite, crime is a form of social justice, helping to redistribute your wealth to those people to whom you would otherwise refuse to donate it.

    I consider much of crime itself to be a parallel culture. Most offences are committed by people for whom crime is a career as well as a lifestyle. The networks of crime provide a parallel community – a proxy family – with patriarchs and customs and codes of behaviour. To these people you are simply prey, your goodwill is naivety and your kindness simply weakness.

    These are the kind of people who whip your phones as they whizz by on electric scooters, who knife each other in the street, who sell drugs and love the so-called music that valorises a life of crime and complete contempt for common decency. These people live alongside, but never with, you.

    If we take a drone’s eye view, our societies resemble a scene from a heist movie where the robbers drop a sack of money and the crowd swarm over it, scrambling to grab what they can. The difference is that in the films the police arrive. Why is the West like this?

    I think it is a symptom of late-stage collapse. Governments do not speak of the health of the nation, and have no meaningful long-term plan for anything other than grift. Government itself is a kind of parallel culture, as with all large-scale bureaucracies. It has its own tribe and its own lexicon, and it seeks – like all the other grievance groups – to preserve only itself against the interests of the majority. It is a managerial model with a shrinking grasp on the future.

    I’ve never quite thought of it like that but it has the ring of truth!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/our-life-is-a-heist-movie-except-the-cops-never-arrive/

    1. The police don’t arrive because they – in the form of the state – are the ones who threw the money around. The difference is it wasn’t chucked over the shoulder, but to endless welfare groups.

    2. Maybe it saves money on law suits, time off? Don’t really care who pays as long as it’s not me.

      Live how you want as long as you don’t interfere in my life. That it does is the biggest issue about these days.

  35. Finished cider making for today – utterly wrecked! Had to climb into trees to shake out apples, collect, wash, cut, grind & squish… now washed up the gear and enjoying a local IPA.
    Was amazed to see two Golden Eagles over the farm – a huge one and a big one. Looked like the huge one wasa parent, giving the big one (“Chick” doesn’t cover it) flying instruction! Unusually, rhey were quite low over the farm, so you got to appreciate the size of these beautiful birds.
    Last year, Firstborn was coming home from work, on his bike, and there was a Golden Eagle in the road. It spread its wings to take off, and apparently filled the road! Now that’s a bird!

      1. Indeed.
        He’s too new to be allowed outside yet, but a concern for the future. What if the huge one’s lesson for today is hunting ground-based prey?

    2. In NC I used to see Bald Eagles, Blue Herons and all sorts of raptors overhead. Once a heron came and sat overlooking the pond but there was no fish in it- snapping turtles and bull frogs. It never came back.

        1. I’ve been to about 6 or 7 performances in the Concertgebouw. It has great acoustics.

  37. A nice bit of yesteryear this morning. We went to the local drapers: the MR wanted to buy some curtain fabric. The very young woman who served us (and at whose arrival my heart – quite unfairly – sank) – knew exactly what we wanted. Advised on different types and sizes. Cut the material accurately, folded it expertly and then WRAPPED it in brown paper and made an old-fashioned parcel – with “folded V” ends! Took me back to the distant past…{:¬))

    How refreshing to know that there ARE skilled youngsters who absorb their training….and enjoy giving good service.

      1. I thought a teenager would have no knowledge or interest in the special material that the MR was after.

          1. Sort of – long established. It can sometimes be the very opposite of today’s experience! Think “Grace Brothers”…

        2. A sad reflection of how we of a certain age now prejudge the younger generation.
          In a lot of cases, well deserved, which makes coming across an exception to preconceived ideas such a pleasure.
          Like a young man (15 maybe 16) who offered my wife, who was standing, his seat on a train recently.

          2. Quite – she also had a sulky face. I know we shouldn’t prejudge but that’s what humans do.

            Anyway – her keenness and attention to detail were exemplary.

  38. Good evening all.
    A very soggy Falstone Show this year. Sat in the Black Cock Inn with my 2nd pint.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b350427390f8d08806265d3c8f60d915237aa28c7da7ee9daa3bb519c644d8ce.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb81f478e24632476562e079ab03512ff7407eb784de490fbb5b6d18775ad3ec.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2ac45014ec1ad863bb021fa8341410865b499ae11abb253f512c79da529e69aa.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e9cd8ce4f520e6271e034067841da688caad759262cf188d6d9d8ce1a99fd6c9.jpg

    2. An idea for a modern pub name and sign
      “The Black Cock and Bull”

      With a caricature of Lammy as the picture

  39. Anyone having problems up-ticking? Occasionally I cannot up-tick because the names of previous ‘tickers’ appear and I end up being redirected to the nearest name. I get round it by scrolling the up arrow ∧ to the top of the page.

          1. I’m in God’s Country at the moment. I have to get an Irish passport if I want to go back to Frogland in the near future – Brexit – in’ it? I got fined 198 Euros for overstaying by 7 days recently. The EU thinks it is the Fourth Reich.

          5. .Sorry to disagree, Ped. But the rules are perfectly clear.

            Get a carte de séjour; then a long stay “visa” to beat the “90 day” bollox – and you can relax.

  40. A ‘Magnificent’ Eagle …

    Wordle 427 2/6
    🟩🟨🟨🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    Obviously, I was very lucky:
    My first shot provided four letters – and a defined first letter.

    1. Well done. I did better than usual today.
      Wordle 427 3/6

      ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
      ⬜🟩🟨🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      3. Birdie for me too.
        Wordle 427 3/6

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

      4. Wordle 427 4/6

        Perhaps I start off with the wrong word…

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

  41. Just got myself a pint of two-years old home-made cider… dry, appley, lovely! Apples and yeast are the only ingredients… Sigh…

          1. My Devonian husband and his friends used to call a certain kind of scrumpy (don’t ask me – I think it might even have been mixed with blackcurrant juice) screech. Well, he was from Paignton/Brixham, so maybe they talked differently there.

  42. One for Rastus

    The good thing about sailing on hard seas is the discomfort of it, the one that separates the men from the girls, and the fact that when one’s sailing one automatically acts like a man. One is polite, gracious, and always ready to risk when a fellow sailor is in trouble. These traits are unnatural in today’s me-me-me world. Mind you, it’s thrilling when you’re getting smashed by the waves and can see the squall to windward and the bow is rising and rising and then it stands still for a millisecond and then plunges and while it’s plunging you think you’ll never come up again but then you do and it starts all over again.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/choppy-waters/

      1. Reminded me of standing on the deck of a crane barge in the Beryl field, North Sea, watching a supply boat doing that whilst unloading containers off the back deck to Beryl A. The hook would come down, the guys ran in from the side, hooked the container on, and as the deck fell, would run behind the bumper bars as the container flew up into the air and half the North Sea swooshed along the deck. Beautifully choreographed, expertly done, it should be an Olympic sport – but the penalty for getting it wrong could be a serious injury.
        The crane barge (Heerema Hermod) was as big as Australia, so we weren’t moving much, but the supply boat was up & down like an express lift.

      2. I remember getting a lift from Lossiemouth to Northolt, late one evening and the pilot said “it’s going to be a rough flight due the weather, do you get sick on boats?” No said I, good he said, otherwise you will spend the rest of the evening cleaning away any mess you make.
        It was! a rough flight with rain, lightning and lots of buffeting: only a small twin engine prop job with me in the jump seat.
        One of the best flights I’ve ever had, fun wise that is.

        1. Years ago, I took the ferry from Ostend to Dover. One hell of a storm blew up. The boat hove to (or whatever the nautical word is) half a mile off Dover Harbour – could get through the narrow entrance. Could see the lights and traffic – but just stood on the deck being, er, “unwell”…. For two hours…….

          3. I’ve always been lucky with not being sick on boats or aircraft: put me as a passenger in a car and ask me to read a map and I’m lost in more ways than one.

        1. I was on a DFDS ferry on the North Sea (Harwich to Esbjerg) in Storm 10 once (apparently it is Gale Force 8, 9 etc. but Storm 10). Not only was there the gale, apparently there had been an SOS from some other ship so our ship had had to turn round to look for it. The SOS caller had however given the wrong grid reference and a journey that should have been 18 hours ended up being 30 hours. I’ll never forget it!

    3. Parents took me to Jersey by boat, many years ago, may have been in 1962/3, and it wa ps great, really exciting, me loving the turbulence, my Dad hating it. And being ill. Fabulous it was.

      Alf and I had a week’s cruise (thank goodness it was only a week!) across the Bay of Biscay, to Vigo, Lisbon, Honfleur, missed out Guernsey as it was too rough to dock, then home. The crossing did not agree with Alf he just felt very queasy but I thought it was calm as a millpond.

  44. That’s me for today. Enjoyable. Tomorrow sorting out stuff for our short hols. The Skoda Yeti is almost as good as the dear old Kangoo. An excellent feature is the easy-to-remove rear seats – which gives enormous (relatively) space for all the stuff we are taking.

    Have a jolly evening

    A demain.

    3. The Yeti was a great car, and it’s a shame Skoda discontinued it. At the risk of offending Alf and vw, the Karoq – while a nice car itself – doesn’t come close. Same goes for Seat Atecas* and VW Tiguans.

      *Friend Dianne has an Ateca. It’s awesome, but it doesn’t have the character of a Yeti.

      1. Confession. We are trading in the Karok for a Skoda Kodiaq. A 5 seater so a bit bigger than the Karoq and will pick it up at the end of next week. A bit more luxurious, electric seats, leather interior, interior boot opening and other nice bits we didn’t have with the Karok. Has a huge boot, like the Passat we had before the Karok (Passat was a gorgeous drive and would never have sold it if Alf hadn’t begun struggling to get in it).

        1. Fair play – the Kodiaq is essentially the same car as the Karoq, but longer. Some have seven seats. Dianne’s Ateca is the Xcellence Lux, so has all the bells and whistles you listed, and more.. You’ll enjoy it, I’m sure…

  46. Well, la-di-da. After a few days without any red spots on my arm….guess what? A group of three on my upper right arm. My feet are more comfortable thanks to my foot stool but they’re still not right.
    Neil Oliver is talking about depression- I am treating myself with a large glass or two of Pinot.
    Of course people are depressed; we have been sodding lied to for years. Anyway, back to the Pinot…

    3. Shiraz with the odd whisky works for me, or the other way round. 🙄
      A good book and tunes on the hifi with the avoidance of TV (of any sort) does seem to stop the gloom.
      Mind you, the weather could be better, lovely sun for days and now back to, what for me is, cold and sunless misery.

      1. I have a book on the go and listen to music. Also, I like the occasional Scotch but can’t do it often…ditto red wine.

    4. Noir, or Grigio?

      Just draining the last bottle of YT Shiraz. Ocado foolishly offered me £20 off an £80 shop. I’d never have reached £80, without adding six bottles of Kanga, so I reckon my six bottles cost me £2.67 each…

  47. Breaking News – Mayor Khan’s London safety tips

    Red sky at night, wear body armour
    Red sky in the morning, wear body armour and take a brolly

  48. Been listening to Elgar’s Coronation Odes….so bloody wonderful. Felt like breaking into song- where’s Ashes?
    And going to bed- very down right now.
    Sleep well Y’all.

  50. That’s me for the night – to bed with a book on the Kindle. Goodnight Gentlefolk and God bless.

  52. Evening, all. Hopefully, I have now caught up after my holiday – I feel I need a rest to recover from it!

    1. It always feels that way. Doesn’t take long to forget the benefits of a break but I am always glad to get home.

      1. Since I got back I’ve been running around paying bills, having a hospital appointment, sorting out my dentist (yet again), having a repair done and trying to contact a firm that has invoiced me for the personal alarm MOH had, but which was returned last August when it was no longer needed. Then, of course, there’s the washing, washing up and gardening …

        1. A bit like pre holiday, sorting everything that needs to be done whilst you’re away. Hols have to be done .. just to appreciate home life. Night!

  53. Anyone do quordle today? A weird result for me:

    Daily Quordle 208

    5️⃣6️⃣
    4️⃣7️⃣

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