Saturday 23 April: The real problem is not with Boris Johnson but with Conservative MPs

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),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

720 thoughts on “Saturday 23 April: The real problem is not with Boris Johnson but with Conservative MPs”

      1. Morning minty and all.

        “Now cry….” simply don’t have the tears anymore….

      2. Excellent!

        ‘Morning, A. At least we Nottlrs are prepared to mention it, unlike the BBC so far.

          1. Was it a Chinese or a Welsh dragon that he slew?

            (I remember at school one of the masters used an anthology called The Dragon Book of Verse. The school’s sanatorium’s director was a lady with a formidable personality and so he referred to the book as The San Sister’s Book of Verse.)

  3. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – Having been a loyal supporter of the Conservative Party for decades, even representing it as a local councillor, I am about to hang up my rosette and vow never to support it again.

    I know that another party in government would mean the end of our freedom and democracy but I am so incensed by the behaviour of some of our MPs that I have no choice.

    Boris Johnson has been under attack ever since there was even a rumour that he might stand for leadership of the party. The Blob and Remainers couldn’t wait to remove him.

    Thank goodness that they failed, that Mr Johnson achieved a massive majority for the party, got Brexit done, gave us the best vaccine rollout in the world to counter the pandemic and is now leading the West in its fight against Vladimir Putin. In the process he nearly lost his life. How many politicians could survive that and then have to fight their own party?

    I am sickened when the headlines are about parties and not the atrocious behaviour of Mr Putin’s army in Ukraine.

    Do your worst, Conservative MPs. You have lost my support.

    Jackie Perkins
    Whitstable, Kent

    Methinks Ms Perkins is not alone, as the party is about to find out…

  4. SIR – The undignified spectacle of what passes for parliamentary debate and political comment in the Westminster circus these days is an insult to the electorate’s intelligence.

    Partygate has now become “Borisgate” for too many self-indulgent MPs. The rest of us would like to see our elected representatives get on with the job of tackling what really matters to Britain.

    We can then decide whose policies deserve our vote at the ballot box rather than listen to the media reporting on who might get voted off Strictly Come Politics.

    John May
    Arkesden, Essex

    Hear, hear! In particular, the pathetic and demeaning PMQs is a severe embarrassment. Something that serves no purpose should be scrapped.

    1. They are all clearly unhappy with Boris and his failure to be as authoritarian as the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand leaders, not to mention most of Europe.

    2. SIR – While I have no doubt that many are interested in sinking Boris Johnson, I’d far prefer our elected representatives to put their expensive time and efforts into sorting out why it takes six months to get a tax refund, why it takes four months to renew a driving licence, why it takes four months to get a passport and why it takes four weeks to get a doctor’s appointment.

      Mike Metcalfe
      Butleigh, Somerset

      Dream on, Mike Metcalf!

      1. None of that is anything to do with MPs or the Cabinet. It is the responsibility of our independent Civil Service.

        1. All of these areas are the ultimate responsibility of various Ministers of State:

          6 months for a tax refund – HMRC – Chancellor of the Exchequer.
          4 Months to renew a driving licence – Minister of Transport.
          4 months to get a passport – Home Scretary.
          4 weeks for a doctor’s appointment – Minister of Health.

          As such, they should be questioning the effectiveness of their ‘Independent’ Civil Service and indulge in some sackings with a commensurate loss of pensions.

          2. Well, three weeks to get a packet sent from Holland. Six months later have not received a reply from Foreign Secretary (Truss or Trevelyan) to my letters of complaint.
            PS: I was sort of joking about the Civil Service, although…

    3. PMQs used to be two separate 15 min events until Miranda Blair, aka The War Criminal, decided he didn’t want to turn up at his day job more than once a week.

      Perhaps it should return to two separate events. It might give Sir Keef Hindsight or Crayons Rayner the opportunity, having witnessed the results of their first banalities, to try out some different lines of questioning.

  6. Mark Steyn on the shocking truth about the booster jab. Mark Steyn. 23 April 2022.

    To emphasise, these are all government statistics and you ought to be able to cite them even on British television. So let us start with the basics. There are approximately equal numbers of triple vaccinated as of the combined total of single, double and unvaccinated. This is from the UK Health Security Agency’s report last week of April 14. Let’s take a look at this. As you can see, from a pool of 63million down at the bottom there, there are 32million who are triple-vaccinated. That leaves just under 31million who are either double, single or unvaccinated. So, we have two groups of similar size, 31/32million. So it’s relatively easy to weigh the merits of the third shot upon Group A versus Group B.

    Here are the Covid case numbers from the government report I cited on air earlier this month. All the numbers here basically come from March. They basically come from up to a couple of weeks ago. And if you look at this, this shows Covid-19 cases by vaccination status. So, the triple-vaccinated in March were responsible for just over a million Covid cases and everybody else 475,000 Covid cases. So, the triple-vaccinated are contracting Covid at approximately twice the rate of the double, single and unvaccinated. Got that? If you get the booster shot, you’ve got twice as high a chance of getting the Covid. In the United Kingdom, there’s twice as many people with the third booster shot who got the Covid as the people who never had the booster shot.
    **********************************
    Okay, let’s have deaths within 60 days of a positive Covid test. Again, in all age groups and, again, on the far right, that’s the triple-vaccinated. So there’s 2,100 and whatever 80-year-olds and over. And then in their 70s, 611 there. So again, to add up all the numbers, the triple-vaccinated who are dead within 60 days last month: 3,054; everybody else: 1,003. So, yet again, the triple-vaccinated are dying at three times the rate of the double, single and unvaccinated. And indeed, for the 60+ cohort, the most vulnerable in our society, at a rate getting close to four times.

    Moral: don’t get boosted!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/mark-steyn-on-the-shocking-truth-about-the-booster-jab/

    1. No suprise at all. but the slaves will just carry on and do as they are told. so few think for themselves anymore after 60 years of left wing brainwashing.

  7. Good morning all.
    A dry but rather dull and overcast start this morning with 5½°C outside.

    1. But fortunately much warmer in bed under the duvet, which is where I am now headed, BoB.

    3. It’s clear and crisp up here in Ayrshire. We’ve had cool, dry easterlies for the past few days with much the same forecast until at least the midweek. Layers for golf and gardening.

  8. Good morning, everyone. I am currently suffering from extreme exhaustion, so have cancelled everything in today’s diary and am off to bed for an extended lie-in. Enjoy St. George’s Day and have a fun time. See you all later.

    1. I could sit in a chair for most of the day but never go back to bed. I never read in bed.Hope you recover.

  9. SIR – I think there is a way out of the mess we have got ourselves into. The Government’s coronavirus rules were silly, confusing and ultimately unenforceable.

    There was never any evidence that lockdowns, social distancing or masks worked. Most people didn’t understand the rules, and that goes for politicians and policemen. I believe the police should never have been used to try and implement them. The rather zealous behaviour of some police forces and some officers has seriously damaged the relationship between police and public, which may never be repaired.

    I propose that all fixed penalties are cancelled and all convictions pardoned. Maybe then we can get back to some common sense and hope that no government ever tries to go down this path again.

    Mike Speakman
    Retired Deputy Chief Constable 
of Humberside
    Worlaby, Lincolnshire

    “The rather zealous behaviour of some police forces and some officers has seriously damaged the relationship between police and public, which may never be repaired.” In my view more damage was done, and is still being done, by police officers painting their nails, faces and police cars, and cavorting at events they were supposed to be supervising impartially. And still they stand by, arms folded, offering cups of tea to a few selfish and derranged people who cause major disruption to those of us going about our lawful business. Climbing on tankers and barricading oil terminals simply isn’t peaceful protest, and until they get stuck in and stand up for the silent majority there really is no hope.

  10. SIR – Since Germany refuses to stop funding Vladimir Putin’s war, the time has come to impose sanctions.

    Furthermore, Nato must appropriate 100 functioning German tanks and send them to Ukraine. These can be replaced by the 100 that are currently sitting idle (report, April 22).

    When is Nato going to start pushing planes over the Polish border? Every day wasted is prolonging the agony of the Ukrainian people.

    Sir Gavin Gilbey Bt
    Dornoch, Inverness-shire

    SIR – Germany says that to supply Ukraine with the heavy weapons it needs would “leave Germany underequipped and unable to fulfil its Nato obligations” (report, April 21). What does it think Ukraine is doing (as well as defending its own territory) but fighting to defend Nato’s eastern flank, despite not being a Nato member?

    Instead, Germany offers Ukraine the money to buy the weaponry itself. Can it not see that Ukraine needs the weapons now, not in several months’ time after suppliers fulfil new orders?

    Sadly, despite all its fine words, Germany continues its 30-year policy of myopically and naively indulging Russia – and funding the aggressors.

    John Birkett
    St Andrews, Fife

    It’s even worse than that…headline in today’s DT:

    Exclusive: France and Germany evaded arms embargo to sell weapons to Russia

    Paris and Berlin sent Moscow £230m of military hardware, including bombs, rockets and missiles that is (sic) likely being used in Ukraine

      1. He needs to put more tonic in it.

        Sutherland-based gin heir Sir Walter Gavin Gilbey has had his
        conviction for allegedly assaulting his 95-year-old mother quashed.

        The 69-year-old, from Dornoch, expressed “enormous relief” after a
        judge and two magistrates cleared his name at Hove Crown Court on
        Friday.

        He was only allowed to contact his mother Lady Gilbey with the
        supervision of a housekeeper or carer after he was convicted of assault
        in February.

        It had been claimed that he had thrown her to the floor and snapped her walking stick on August 26 last year.

        In a statement issued through his lawyers on Monday, the heir to
        Gilbey’s gin, who uses his middle name Gavin, said: “I would like to
        express my enormous relief that the Gilbey name has now been cleared.

    2. Vlad has plenty of weapons. Zelensky should ask him for some. No more insane than all the other Arms deals going on.

    4. What is wrong with these people? Do they not understand that sending arms and munitions to Ukraine is prolonging this war? Do they really want WW3? It’s just beyond my comprehension that our politicians and the west generally wish to push the Russians to the next really destructive level. It’s bad enough that BoJo went to Ukraine to “show solidarity “ for Zelensky. Whatever happened to diplomacy! (That’s so last millennium!).

  11. And here is the article:

    Exclusive: France and Germany evaded arms embargo to sell weapons to Russia

    Paris and Berlin sent Moscow £230m of military hardware, including bombs, rockets and missiles, that is likely being used in Ukraine

    ByJoe Barnes, BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT ; Justin Huggler  and Dominic Penna 22 April 2022 • 9:30pm

    France and Germany armed Russia with €273 million (£230 million) of military hardware now likely being used in Ukraine, an EU analysis shared with The Telegraph has revealed.

    They sent equipment, which included bombs, rockets, missiles and guns, to Moscow despite an EU-wide embargo on arms shipments to Russia, introduced in the wake of its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

    The European Commission was this month forced to close a loophole in its blockade after it was found that at least 10 member states exported almost €350 million (£294 million) in hardware to Vladimir Putin’s regime. Some 78 per cent of that total was supplied by German and French firms.

    Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, has faced fierce criticism this week for his reluctance to provide heavy weapons to Ukraine. Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to negotiate with Putin have seen the French president accused of appeasement.

    Both Paris and Berlin have resisted an EU ban on buying gas from Russia, with the bloc currently paying Moscow €1 billion (£840 million) per day for energy supplies.

    The EU report emerged as a top Russian commander said Moscow had expanded its goals to take “full control” of southern Ukraine, as well as the eastern Donbas region.

    Russian forces would create a land bridge to Crimea and could push as far as the border of Moldova, said Major General Rustam Minnekayev, the deputy commander of the Russian central military district.

    In New Delhi, Boris Johnson on Friday warned that Russia could still win the war, announcing plans to send British tanks to Poland so that Ukraine could receive Warsaw’s Soviet-era T-72 models.

    Asked if Russia could win the war in Ukraine, the Prime Minister conceded it was a “realistic possibility” and that Moscow was very close to seizing Mariupol.

    On Friday, Putin told Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, that the marines holed up in the city’s Azovstal steel plant would be allowed to live if they surrendered.

    Meanwhile, Mr Scholz pointed to the threat of nuclear war as he sought to answer critics over Berlin’s reluctance to provide Ukraine with high-powered arms.

    Criticism increased when it emerged that German firms had used a loophole in an EU embargo on arms exports to Russia, making sales worth €121 million (£107 million) of “dual-use” equipment, including rifles and special protection vehicles, to Moscow.

    Berlin defended its use of an ambiguity within the EU’s 2014 arms blockade, insisting that the goods were sold only after the Kremlin guaranteed they were for civilian use, rather than military application.

    “If there were indications of any kind of military use, the export licenses were not granted,” a spokesman for the country’s economy ministry added.

    France was also found to have been responsible for sending shipments worth €152 million (£128 million) to Russia, as part of 76 export licences. Paris allowed exporters to fulfil contracts agreed before 2014, using a backdoor technicality in the EU embargo.

    Alongside bombs, rockets and torpedoes, French firms sent thermal imaging cameras for more than 1,000 Russian tanks as well as navigation systems for fighter jets and attack helicopters.

    Since the start of the invasion on Feb 24, the EU has introduced further restrictions on the export of dual-use items to Moscow, closing the loophole.

    However, it took the bloc until its fifth package of sanctions, described as the most draconian ever introduced by Brussels, until the exemption on previously agreed arms sales to Russia was scrapped.

    The French government did not comment on its use of the exemption, but has previously defended the “grandfather” clause.

    The loophole, eventually closed on April 8, was only shut after mounting protests from Baltic and eastern member states.

    Envoys from Poland and Lithuania ensured the text of the original 2014 arms embargo was amended when it emerged weapons were still pouring into Russia.

    According to European Commission data, EU countries last year sold Russia weapons and ammunition worth €39 million (£33 million) as the Kremlin prepared for its invasion of Ukraine.

    Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the Commons defence committee, said that all Nato member states should have to declare they are not sending arms to Russia at the Madrid summit in June.

    “If we agree Russia now presents an existential threat to European security, then there is no excuse for any European country to continue supplying Russia arms,” he said.

    Admiral Lord West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord, said: “Using loopholes to avoid the EU arms embargo of Russia post the Crimean invasion is effectively a crime and breathtakingly stupid.”

    A senior EU source added: “It’s time for France and Germany to wake up and get real.”

    Cristian Terhes, the Romanian MEP who shared the EU analysis, said: “While Ukraine is desperately crying out for weapons to defend itself from Putin’s invasion, Germany and France are silent, but were happy enough to quietly and disgracefully sell their wares to Moscow.”

    The EU report followed probes last month into Europe’s worst offenders for weapons exports to Russia by Disclose and Investigate Europe, two investigative news websites.

    As well as Germany and France, Italy was responsible for sending arms worth €22.5 million (£19 million) to Moscow after the EU embargo was imposed, while Britain made sales of €2.4 million (£2 million).

    Austria, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic exported €49.3 million (£41 million) between them in arms to Russia between 2015 and 2022.

    * * *

    Just one of over 1,300 BTL comments:

    Samuel Gee8 HRS AGO

    So we’re helping Ukraine and the French and Germans have been helping Russia. The EU is in disarray. NATO is being undermined. The biggest war in Europe for over 80 years is raging. Grain from Ukraine has ceased and many African countries will face huge food shortages. There’s an energy crisis. And Keir Starmer is obsessed with a Birthday cake.

    Have I got that about right?

    1. I repeat a comment I made yesterday evening:

      For the love of God, stop supplying the Ukrainians with arms, which only prolong the misery.
      Admit it’s over. Zelensky has arranged the murder of more than sufficient numbers of his own population, aided and abetted by the West.
      Stop the destruction and stop the killing.

      1. Russian morality blames the victim for weakness, not the aggressor, who is merely asserting strength, which is a virtue.

        Therefore, by their reckoning, it is not the destruction and killing that is at fault, but the failure to build structures that can withstand heavy artillery, and of course the dying. Those who indulge in that sort of thing should stop now.

  12. ‘Shock absorbers of poverty’: women’s lives cut short by their unequal position in society. 23 April 2022

    In 2017-19 female life expectancy in the most deprived local areas of England was 78.7 years. In the richest areas, it was 86.4 years. What does that say about the situation for England’s poorest women in 2022?

    It tells us that women are the “shock absorbers of poverty”, according to the Women’s Budget Group. Women are more likely to be poor and have more debt than men.

    Because of unpaid caring responsibilities often they can work fewer hours, and as a result have fewer savings and smaller pensions. For minoritised and disabled women, the picture is even bleaker. When the social safety net is slashed – as it has been, repeatedly, for more than a decade – it is women who fall first through the cracks.

    Yes and they still live much longer than men! What does that tell us? Oh wait! That doesn’t matter!

    https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2022/apr/17/shock-absorbers-of-poverty-womens-lives-cut-short-by-their-unequal-position-in-society

    1. I’ve said it before on this blog: women live longer than men because of the old statement: ‘When God created Man first, She was just practising’, and She got the appearance and the plumbing better second time.

    2. I wonder what the overall ethic component of “England’s poorest women in 2022” is, I suspect it may be from a group that does not encourage it’s chattels women to leave home let alone work.

      1. Would the lower life spans be more prevalent in certain areas (as in ‘No Go’ for the English)?

    3. Maybe it tells us that the feminists got what they demanded so stridently? Maybe it is a reflection of the changes in society from when men went out to work and women managed the home and children, to what we have today?

    4. Maybe male genes are primed to wear out quicker. Perhaps that’s why so many think they are women.

    1. Inclusion, Diversity and Belonging Manager
      I’m just tempted to smoke my cornflakes.

        1. I think I would need to be completely stoned to think up something so daft.
          Belonging Manager.
          God help us.
          This is not profanity. I really mean it.

          1. It seems to be par for the course, nowadays. Uneducated morons in charge of inept organisations. What the hell have we come to?

    2. Interestingly, some of these tasks, are of the status and complexity I’d have done in my lunch hour. I can only imagine an incumbent telling their kid what he (she, or it) does at work. “I change the labels on toilet doors.”

  15. Good ,morning all. Today’s lead letter sings the praises of Boris Johnson, but in my view rather misses the point. He achieved his 80-seat majority because even hardened Labour supporters were aghast at the idea of Prime Minister Corbyn and Chancellor Abbott. Most ordinary Remain voters had accepted the results of the referendum and simply wanted to ‘Get Brexit Done’ and move on with our lives. Mr Johnson arguably helped to achieve a narrow win for the Leave campaign (Farage being marmite to many people) but what has been done since then? Ask the people of Northern Ireland if they feel that Brexit is ‘done’ Ask the fishermen.

    Boris Johnson is good for an amusing photo and witty turn of phrase. He is no conservative, he lacks courage, morals, even the basic ability to tell the truth. Is he really the best that the Conservative Party can produce? Does this country not deserve better?

    1. Boris Johnson never believed in Brexit but the promise of getting Brexit done got him into power.

      Failure to get a proper Brexit done will get him out of it.

    2. JK, your penultimate sentence accurately lists some of the important qualifications for the “leader” of the modern “conservative” party, or to be honest, any of the mainline political parties in this era of deceit etc.

    1. Quite sunny in Medjugorie. Had an earthquake last night, though. Quite novel for a Peckhamite.

        1. No… I am here because my mother has mid-stage alzheimers and she wanted to go on a parish pilgrimage and my father asked me to go with her. It is quite a remarkable place with a remarkable story. I am thoroughly blessed to be here.

    1. Good for her.
      At last someone with that rare commodity, common sense.
      What a disgrace those councillors are. We live in Surrey and will, never again, vote for the 3 main cowardly parties.
      They have turned us from very tolerant people into intolerant ones on many subjects.

      1. My postal voting letter came this week with only Lib/Lab/Con candidates on the candidate list. After considerable thought I binned it.
        Our PM has blighted the Conservative Party to its roots.

        1. Ours is the same.
          We will go to the polling station and write NOTA on the ballot paper.
          I will not be done out if my democratic right to register my vote.

      2. Sadly, it has also dried up any sympathy I might have for ‘refugees’.
        I no longer care what happens to them.

        1. Anne, I’m in total agreement with you.
          We ate witnessing the downfall of our civilisation and nobody, except NoTTLers, seems to care.
          Sleepwalking into oblivion.

    2. Sums up everything that is wrong with the nation. I don’t care about sanctifying Stephen Lawrence, but I do care about the scum who murdered Lee Rigby and basically got away with it. He is never mentioned.

      2. It would have been interesting if the Johnson comment had mentioned the racist killing if Lee Rigby and the “religiously” motivated racism of the murder of Sir David Amess.

        Surely it is nothing short of racism to ignore white people who are murdered by people of other ethnicities? It was even considered racist to say white lives matter when a vicious black criminal was killed.

        1. As you know, one of our sons-in-law is black, and at the height of the BLM nonsense we had a discussion about ALL lives mattering. Complete shutdown! There was no discussion at all. For the minority that is the way it is.

          2. Pretty much. He’s a bright, smart, loving man but doesn’t get that Britain is not a racist country. I imagine it comes from living in Croydon for a long time! Self-perpetuated myths and all that!

          3. Sorry to hear that Sue. The fact that he’s a loved member of your family should tell him something.

          4. He is! The stroke and it’s aftermath rather summed up the situation! Not one of his children, parents or siblings came near him in 10 weeks! Plenty of ‘thoughts and prayers’, but the only person to actually ‘do’ anything was his white ex-wife! Our daughter and the twins lived here for 4 months. Do I sound a little bitter? We did it all because that’s what we do!

          5. Sue , I want to congtatulate you and give you a genuine virtual hug for being so kind and caring to your SIL

            Situations like that are very draining on ones mental resources and energy levels .. well done for being so strong .

          6. Thank you Belle! I know he appreciates everything we’ve done – he tells me frequently – and I love him for that, and I just say that is what we’re here for and what we do! He’s a lovely kind man, and adores our daughter – what more could we want?

          8. Problem is, unless you experience it yourself, you don’t notice what’s going on… the absence of free tables at a restaurant when you want to book dinner, and similar small stuff. It’s also very easy to blame a characteristic you can’t change for your lack of success, rather than yourself. That can be quite difficult. Maybe one is just an asshole, after all?

          9. Fortunately Simon isn’t like that. His family, on the other hand….
            The wedding was excruciating!

          10. Good morning Sue .

            A few years ago son no 1 had a black girlfriend . She was very sweet , but had her own cultural mindset ..

            She was keen on my son, who is blue eyed and blonde , and she really scared him off by wanting babies , like her mother did and her 2 sisters… she had an absent father .

            Son saw a different type of life style for a while .. left a bad feeling in his mind and heart … and ours..

            Then he had a relationship with an Anglo Indian girl who was a 3rd violinist with a well known orchestra .. and she was the sweetest cleverest but neediest girl in the world . Her talent was outstanding .. We really loved her, but she had depression and other melancholic issues which neither son nor we could help her with . Nearly 3 years was a long painful ride ..

            All happened a long time ago , and son is now in his fifties , unmarried , but loads of hobbies and works hard .

          11. Good lord – a decent, unmarried man in his fifties? Rare as blooming hens’ teeth, as I know from experience!

          15. One of mine (both unmarried) now 51. The last girlfriend was very needy and the lockdowns and losing her mother finished the relationship off after 10 years – she won’t speak to him now.

          18. On the other hand there are people like Thomas Sowell, Candace Owens, Calvin Robinson and even Martin Luther King who think that stressing the colour of a person’s skin for political reasons does far more harm than good.

          19. Absolutely! I don’t see him as different and neither does he – his family have an alternative view sometimes. His father was a typical? Afro Caribbean and even in the past 10 years has discovered a new daughter!

          20. I guess being told for all your life that you are discriminated aggainst and all whites are against you will have an effect.
            just look at all the arseholes still wearing face-nappies (munnbleier, på Norsk)

          21. I know Obers, but they seem to heap misery upon themselves then blame old whitey! One of SiL’s brothers is a preacher. He has a very well paid day job, but sees no irony in telling his flock how badly treated they are.

    6. Society is fair. It’s you lot who make it unfair. It is not stephen lawrence day, it’s St George’s Day. Where is your blithering for the hundreds of black kids killed by other black kids? Don’t those count?

      Shove your racism up your arse. You caused this problem. You seem to like it, otherwise you’d take steps to stop it.

      1. I’m with you, Stephenroi. The man’s a disgrace and not worthy of anything other than those two words.

    4. Which taxes would you cut?

      How many power stations would you build?

      Which laws will you repeal?

      Of course, he won’t answer, it’l just be bluster and waffle, but he needs a damned good kicking for being exactly the same as the oaf Johnson.

    1. But they hate England for he other 364 days, too. What’s so special about this one?

  22. 352131+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Saturday 23 April: The real problem is not with Boris Johnson but with Conservative MPs
    The real, real problem is that regardless of the leaders as in major, .anthony charlie, lynton, brown, the wretch cameron, mayday,
    johnson and the politico’s forming the odious close shop coalition tis the party name that counts.

    The electoral herd are satisfied with “doing their bit” by supporting voting Tory knowing it is a counterfeit tory (ino) made in china that follows it’s own treacherous agenda regardless of the peoples needs..

    The fact is that the ballot booth has much to do with our present plight & an electorate hell bent on self annihilation.

    1. 352131+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      A prime example of gross stupidity was early post referendum victory, when
      while celebrating a massive victory the electorate returned to supporting / voting lab/lib/con AKA the very pro eu coalition..

      A country can survive the likes of 1939/45 but cannot survive internal treachery.

    2. 50 Conservative back benchers need to resign their seats and then present themselves for re-election committed to getting a proper Brexit done under new colours in the resulting by-elections.

      How else will this be achieved?

      1. What! Are you spreading misinformation? Shirley, advertising has to represent its target demographic to be of any use otherwise it’s a waste of money. 🙄

        1. Funny thing – there are some adverts where they don’t bring in bames. Funeral plans; holidays for example.

      2. We know a couple of mixed race couples (Black man/white woman) in the village. One over the other is about to begin.

    4. And just because the bbc are 40+% blek, they think the rest of the UK is so, too.

  24. I see the arch-wanqueuer Baker is pontificating for a whole page in the print edition of today’s DT.

    A man who has turned his coat so many times it is now just a rag.

  26. Going Postal Saturday Crossword printed off, the DT’s car loaded with only a few bits to finish off, including packing this laptop, and we’re off to the Land of the Viet Taff for the week. As I mentioned earlier, t’Lad’s got the whole lot of us booked into a place just North of Harlech. Should be fun.

  28. Supermarkets start rationing cooking oil. 23 April 2022.

    Supermarkets are imposing limits on how much cooking oil customers can buy due to supplies being hit by the war in Ukraine.

    Most of the UK’s sunflower oil comes from Ukraine, where Russia’s invasion has caused huge disruption to exports.

    Thank God that it’s the Russians being sanctioned!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10745675/Supermarkets-start-rationing-cooking-oil-supplies-decimated-war-Ukraine.html#comments

      3. For 16 years my father ran a fish and chip shop and mother did her best to persuade him to use vegetable oil but he insisted on animal fat. He said it tasted better and his customers wouldn’t accept change. The business was certainly healthy when they retired.

        1. Beef tallow is used exclusively in chip shops in both Yorkshire and Belgium: both claim to make the world’s tastiest chips.

          Not only do chip cooked in it taste better but ,because it has a higher smoke point, the food comes out of the fryer much drier than when cooked in vile greasy oils. You only taste the chips and not the fat.

      4. It makes v. good pastry.
        I’ve tried making a veggie version; it ain’t impressive.

    4. Amazed to find that Ukraine appears to produce most of the world’s food, and over winter.

    5. I haven’t used sunflower oil for at least 25 years……. I did buy some olive oil the other day.

      2. I have a bottle of sunflower oil because one of the bread recipes calls for it. We weren’t too keen on that loaf so it hasn’t been remade so I still have an almost full bottle. I use olive oil mostly.

      3. ALL seed oils are poisonous to the system and are the root cause of most modern diseases. They only exist to make the global corporations richer. Right up until the middle of last century normal humans used butter, lard, tallow, and suet for cooking and everyone was healthier than they are today.

        Then came Frankenstein ‘foods’ such as margarine and nut-based oils and people started getting vile diseases and dying. I’ve seen photographs taken of a busy street in Philadelphia in 1950: everyone was stick-thin. The same busy street was photographed again in 2010 and everyone was a colossal mountain of wobbly fat!

    1. First meme reminded me of this:
      (And No, I didn’t remember the whole speech. Put your hands together for cut’n’paste.)
      I was surprised that Shakespeare got away with his sympathetic portrayal of Richard II given that it was a Tudor progenitor who replaced him. Albeit somewhat dubiously, as it was Henry V’s widow getting the hots for a Welsh groom that boosted the Tudor’s chances.

      “No matter where; of comfort no man speak:

      Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;

      Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes

      Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,

      Let’s choose executors and talk of wills:

      And yet not so, for what can we bequeath

      Save our deposed bodies to the ground?

      Our lands, our lives and all are Bolingbroke’s,

      And nothing can we call our own but death

      And that small model of the barren earth

      Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.

      For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground

      And tell sad stories of the death of kings;

      How some have been deposed; some slain in war,

      Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;

      Some poison’d by their wives: some sleeping kill’d;

      All murder’d: for within the hollow crown

      That rounds the mortal temples of a king

      Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,

      Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,

      Allowing him a breath, a little scene,

      To monarchize, be fear’d and kill with looks,

      Infusing him with self and vain conceit,

      As if this flesh which walls about our life,

      Were brass impregnable, and humor’d thus

      Comes at the last and with a little pin

      Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!

      Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood

      With solemn reverence: throw away respect,

      Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,

      For you have but mistook me all this while:

      I live with bread like you, feel want,

      Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,

      How can you say to me, I am a king?”

      1. Of course Henry V is the play which presents the stereotypical Irishman (MacMorris), Welshman (Fluellin), Scots man (Jamie) and English man (Williams).

        Poor old Pistol is beaten over the pate and forced to eat a raw leak by a belligerent Fluellin who goes on rather tediously about the way, look you, in which war should be conducted.

  32. I was in the garden yesterday and in the sunshine I got a bit of browning on my pate.

    As it is St George’s Day and I am not in England here is another sort of Browning:

    O, TO be in England
    Now that April ‘s there,
    And whoever wakes in England
    Sees, some morning, unaware,
    That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
    Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
    While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
    In England—now!

    And after April, when May follows,
    And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
    Hark, where my blossom’d pear-tree in the hedge
    Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
    Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray’s edge—
    That ‘s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
    Lest you should think he never could recapture
    The first fine careless rapture!
    And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
    All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
    The buttercups, the little children’s dower
    —Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

    1. That ‘One Party’ started by burning millions of books and ended up by burning millions of people. Beware book-burners.

    2. That first one sums up Scotland! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Marxism on steroids!

    3. I fear we’re going to have to. This is how it always ends. The next time we cannot permit the Left to ever get back up again and government must be controlled.

      It’s interesting, perhaps that the state is so eager to control everything we do, yet there are no checks that we can apply to it. We cannot remove our servants, cannot stop their demented laws, cannot prevent them fiddling, cannot sack their officials. It’s almost as if everything were the wrong way around.

  34. Research shows that there are 7 kinds of sex.
    The 1st kind of sex is called: Smurf Sex. * This kind Of sex happens when you first meet someone, and you have sex until you are blue in the face.
    The 2nd kind of sex is called: Kitchen Sex*
    This is when you have been with your partner for a short time, and you are so needy you will have sex anywhere, even In the kitchen.
    The 3rd kind of sex is called: Bedroom Sex.*
    This is when you have been with your partner for a long time. You still have sex – occasionally – and if you do, You only have it in your bedroom.
    The 4th kind of sex is called: Hallway Sex * This is when you have been with your partner for too long. When you pass each other in the hallway you both say,
    ‘F*** you.’
    The 5th kind of sex is called: Religious Sex.* Which means
    You get Nun in the morning, Nun in the afternoon and Nun
    At night. (Very Popular)
    The 6th kind is called Courtroom Sex.*
    This is when you cannot stand your wife/ husband any more.
    He/she takes you to court and screws you in front of Everyone.
    And; last, but not least,
    The 7th kind of sex is called: Pension Sex.*
    You get a little each month. But not enough to enjoy yourself.
    WHAT STAGE YOU ARE IN.

    3. The one where we’re both too knackered to want it, and where just holding the person is tremendous intimacy before there’s a ‘Daddy! Mongo’s broken a plate!’

    4. I’m celibate.

      My Doctor gave me a compliment the other day. He said i was a very impotent person.

      1. In fact the people in Calais are extremely pissed off with the British for making Britain so attractive to illegal immigrants that the illegal immigrants mess up Calais on their way to their rubber dinghies.

    2. This is a point that needs to be stressed time and time again. If the French are prepared to fence them in and provide them with the sort of facilities they have in Calais without worrying about the ECHR then why on earth can’t the British do so too? Or is it just the same with all European laws – a disaster for countries which apply them and great for countries which simply ignore the ones they don’t like.

      I have argued for years that the trouble with the EU is that the British are far too law abiding. Indeed we have a particularly grubbily meticulous set of civil servants who used to ‘gold plate’ all EU rules in order to make them even more onerous for Britain.

    4. The French should have processed them and returned them to theur country of origin. That they didn’t is a travesty. Now they’re dumping their problem on us.

      1. For Rwanda?
        No doubt the recent agreement will still mean Rwanda can get rid of the “more difficult” ones that they have at the moment to the UK, even if we don’t send them any at all.

        1. If the government had its head screwed on, it wouldn’t have signed an agreement with Rwanda yet. So the deterrent factor should be working now.

          Wishful thinking, though.

    4. Excellent, they can stay in France. Compared with us France have plenty of room. Hopefully too, Le Pen is the next President and will deal with it as she seems to promise.

        1. Yes thank you Pip. Still in pain but it is a relief not to be tortured every time I go to the bathroom. It still hurts to begin with and it will, apparently, for a week or two. But other than that it is quite nice. One wouldn’t think that an ordinary pee was such an exquisite thing!!! I now no longer have to take two medication for that simple act and that is nice as well. I am not convinced that these things are good for you, even thought they help with prostate problems. Never liked pills and have a bad reputation for not finishing them off as one is supposed to. I still have a urinary infection which doesn’t help at all. In fact I would guess it is the major source of pain, not the operation itself, but taking Ciprofloxacin for that and should be done with that in a week.

          The thing that really annoyed me was that I got up at 5 in the morning to get to the hospital, it isn’t close to here. Took my COPD pills and inhaler and dutifully took all my medications with me, as requested. They took them but then refused to give me my COPD medication until doctor approved. it was two the next morning by the time I was given that, at which point I was clearly having difficulties breathing. That really made me angry because there was no need for that at all. The other reason I had a hard time sleeping is that I was given an epidural because putting me to sleep was deemed not safe due to COPD. epidural was fun! But the result was severe constipation which kept me up all night. But they would give me nothing that would work ASAP. Now I have tried hot water with lemon. An Indian friend recommended that and it works. Instead they wanted to give me drugs that would take effect, according to them, by the next morning. Really annoying. Hot water works, it’s highly effective, better than any drug but they wouldn’t get any for me. It was absurd. I do understand that I was in hospital but their addiction to pushing drugs rather than natural remedies is disturbing.

          1. Sounds more like a prison than a horse’s piddle, Johnathan.

            I hope you’re out of there now.

          2. What a nightmare. Glad you are home and on the mend.
            I realised that GP’s are only interested in pushing drugs for the big Pharma that paid them to There are other remedies other than drugs which they never mention. That is where the internet comes in handy.
            I would now be an opiate addict if i had taken their professional advice.

    1. So that is what feeling a bit of an ass means…!!

      Very nice to see these days.

      1. It doesn’t matter what the once indigenous British wanted it was what what the globalists wanted and what we have got.

        Enoch Powell was vilified for warning us and Blair was clearly under instructions from WEF and the likes of Klaus Schwab to accelerate the process.

    3. Dear God! Don’t the council know about all the H&S hazards on the pavements? Wouldn’t be allowed in whitey areas!

    5. Dreadful isn’t it most of them would be on benefits and never earned an honest penny or paid any tax. And the traffic as in parking violations are absolutely appalling.

  44. Hi Everyone. I’m back after 2 horrible days in hospital. Operation went swimmingly and the staff were really kind, except for a couple on the night shift. Due to difficulties I basically didn’t sleep for 48 hours and so became quite whacko! Ended up quite confused as to whether this or that really happened or didn’t. That sort of thing. But slept very well last night and so feel a great deal better today but still very tired and in some pain, but not to bad, haven’t taken anything for it. Food was ghastly, I basically starved because it was inedible. Ended up eating bananas and yoghurt then, when I got home ate what would be for me, two dinners, then slept.

    I now have a question. Someone wrote about Cranberry and urine infections. But made it clear it wasn’t ordinary cranberry juice but something else. Could the person or anyone that kept that information, let me know what it was you were supposed to get? This is for someone who suspects they have a urinary infection but is taking Benepali for arthritis. Apparently you can’t take antibiotics with that medication, it nullifies its effectiveness. So I remembered the remarks on here about cranberry. Information will be gratefully received.

    1. Hi Johnathon, we were thinking about you and hoping Catticus was being cared for.
      I have drunk cranberry juice when I had a UTI once- it’s very bitter, face puckeringly so. I stopped drinking it and the infection cleared up anyway.
      Stay well.

      1. Hi Ann. Caticus is fine. He apparently got more visitors while I was gone than he would normally. The thing about cranberries was something people were talking about a week ago. I should have kept it. It wasn’t juice from the shelf but something else.

          1. No, that stuff is appalling – like gasoline, raw, hard, acidic. Ugh. Polish Wyborowka or Russian (spit!) Stolichnaya or Russian Standard is much better, smoother, more civilised. Judjong by Absolut & the beer they brew, Swedes know nowt about alcohol apart from chugging it.

        2. I don’t like or drink any kind of vodka so your friend will have to check for himself;-)

    3. Good morning Johnathan, glad you are safely home.
      Can’t remember the name of the cranberry extract or related supplement. BUT it’s worth reading about it all on Gurgle, because cranberries are believed to help prevent UTIs but NOT to cure them. Also, large quantities of cranberry can affect anticoagulant medication, and there is a suspicion that a substance within the fruit could help in the formation of kidney stones.

    5. Good to see from you, man.
      Horsepickle doesn’t seem to have improved since SWMBO was in Crawley hospital, having a) pre-eclampsia, and b)Firstborn – thirty years ago. Despite the staff canteen having won many prizrs for the food, the patient food was shit. Example: A cheese sandwich with a scoop of Smash for tea (who has sandwich & (s)mash??), mostly but not entirely reconstituted, and with a crust on it… I told her to call for a pizza, but she never did. I wouldn’t have fed that muck to a dog.

      1. On one occasion at the Royal Surrey, I had an egg sandwich. I should have taken heed and regarded that as a warning. I think it was that reconstituted egg stuff, no salt on damp bread. It was awful and another thing from there I couldn’t finish. Next time I will take a hamper!

  45. I came across this last night and thought of molamola and others in the discussion that evolved concerning alien races, from the stars, that is. Not the Muslims coming across the Channel. I post it in the hope that they take heart from it. Or at least it cheers them up a little bit 😊❤️

    The World Is Doing Much Better Than We’re Being Told…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O7PpMh9ZmY

    2. Me too. Have I offended someone (I know who you are, because the content is available if I am not logged in). Please accept my apologies, if I have offended it was not intentional on my part.

      2. I can’t think there’d be anyone here who wouldn’t say, rather than merely report and demand blocked.

        It’s also highly unlikely that mods would remove your content without telling you, Poppiesmum. It rather implies there’s been a problem somewhere.

      4. I’m wondering if I’ve offended Lewis Duckworth since his posts have not been available to me for weeks now.

        1. A lot of his have links to social media sites. Does Sweden automatically block such things?
          Certainly here in France I often get content unavailable in your location notices.

          1. Not that I’m aware of. His are the only posts that are unavailable to me on Disqus. Occasionally I get the odd one not available on FaceBook, but those are rare.

        2. Good afternoon, my friend.

          As I often do I call on Shakespeare

          Who is here so base that would be a bondman?
          If any, speak; for him have I offended.
          Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman?
          If any, speak; for him have I offended.
          Who is here so vile that will not love his country?
          If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.

          [Brutus in Julius Caesar]

    3. Check who you might have blocked, William.

      I get that all the time on Ogga’s posts, as I blocked him sometime ago; I was bored with his repetitious posts and the space they often took up.

      1. I have never blocked anyone but this bot/troll, disqus_yoA4N1YLlh, and not currently.

  47. It’s St George’s Day!!

    I wonder how long it will be before Kevin Maguire tells the whole World (yet again) St George was Turkish?

    I give it until lunchtime.

    1. But St George was a Christian Knight and the black fire breathing dragon was islam and the the damsel in distress was s Christianity.
      That’s the way it was explained to me when i was younger. And as far as i can make out not much has changed.
      And Kevin Maguire is a DH, it’s that simple.

    3. One of our service clubs is celebrating with a meal for seniors – Irish stew!

      Not impressed.

      1. What about Lancashire Hotpot served with Devon Dumplings, Somerset Cider, Cornish Cream, Dorset knobs, Lincolnshire sausages, Bedfordshire Clangers, Northumberland singing hinny, Double Gloucester, Leicestershire cheese, Suffolk ham, Hampshire crittens and Yorkshire Pudding.

        Can any of my fellow Nottlers suggest some other English counties which are named in English fare.

          1. I spent three years in Norwich as a student in the days when Bernard Matthews farmed what he called his bootiful Norfolk turkeys.

      3. Would a Gay Pride dinner be best with cottage pie?
        I’ll get me rainbow shirt…

  48. Just sneaked in morning all.
    I’ve spent an hour talking to our friends in Victoria. It is now three people i know who have been diagnosed with Leukemia.
    What on earth is happening out there ?

      1. Not a clue Obs,……….. ages vary from 2 years (our own Grand son) mid 50s to early 70s.

      1. They are and vary in age from our two year old Grand son, to the guy in Oz in his 50s and an old friend who is early 70s.

        1. Oh , that is terrible, I feel for you. We have a possible vaccine injury in our family; our younger son spent Thursday evening and night in A&E at Stevenage, pain lower right abdomen. No appetite at all. Appendicitis was ruled out. Tests were normal. I went to see him this morning and he certainly doesn’t look well. I find it difficult to broach the subject of the vaccine with him, and he didn’t look well enough to chew the matter over with me. I am in a permanent state of worry.

          So sorry about your grandson, and your friends. Let us know how they get on.

    3. Better diagnostics could be part of the explanation.
      Three years ago, our older son was diagnosed with Hairy Cell Leukaemia (thank the Lord it was a year before Covid took over). If he’d developed it before 1958, it would not have been diagnosed and he would have just faded away.

      1. Our friends in Oz tell me that there daughters Partner (around 50) has an 85% chance of recovery, anything less then 65% and it’s too expensive to try to save the person. He has just had a bone marrow transplant that was flown in from a donor in Germany. When he recovers he will have to accept all the inoculations he had as a younger man because his immunity will be impaired.

  49. In relation to something else we were talking about the other day. Best way to cook boiled eggs so that they peal without destroying the egg. one of the suggestions was steaming. So I tried it. Started with warm water from the tap in the steamer. It’s an electric steamer, one of the below thinggys. Switched it on for the suggested 15 minutes. Did three eggs. Spun one on the kitchen counter to make sure it wasn’t going to be a disaster, dropped them in cold water so not to burn my fingers and peeled them, they were perfect, peeled easily and totally intact. First time in years I have had boiled eggs that didn’t look like they had gone through the culinary wars. Definitely going to use this method from now on. One important thing. I do keep eggs in the fridge, American habit. But if you keep your eggs at room temperature, 15 minutes might be over doing it.
    https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/f2f85038-ba45-4f13-97f9-446f8021d057_1.d520edd003b46034541aac66a841dc6a.jpeg

        1. The clue is in the name…boiled egg…not vaguely warmed up with steam egg! Sorry Johnathan! I hope you’re feeling much better! Best wishes for your recovery!😍

          1. I know what boiled eggs are. What I’m talking about is when they are peeled I always end up with chunks coming out of them because the shell sticks to the egg and takes chunks out of them. Steaming for 15 minutes is not “warming up”. The temperature is the same as boiling water 100c. But for some reason I don’t understand, steaming seems to make them peel cleaner.

          2. Someone did explain the technical reason, but steam is a gas which can reach much higher temperatures than 100 celsius, and so presumably is able to penetrate the shell and create a space between the membrane and the inside of the shell.

          3. Not noticeably over 100C until you pressurise it – as in a pressure cooker. Then you can get hotter than 100C

    2. It’s the dropping in cold water that does it. Boil as required, for hard-or soft-boiled, then rinse under cold tap (so you can hold them in your fingers). Then gently bash on a hard surface, really just tapping hard enough to crack the shell all over. Then you can pick a cracked edge and just peel off the broken shell using the membrane. Perfect boiled egg.
      Or put the egg in the steamer, drink your coffee and go to work…oops, forgot something?

      1. Tap the end where the air-sac is, then put in cold water for a couple of minutes to allow the membrane to lift away from the white. I never have a problem!

    3. I mentioned, t’other day, that fresh eggs are difficult to peel but week-old eggs peel easily.

      I’ve never pealed an egg like a bell! 😉

      1. Try steaming fresh eggs Grizzly and let us know if it works on those too. I get eggs from supermarket so I doubt that they are as fresh as you can get them if you have a direct source for fresh eggs.

        1. I might try it, JR; however, I’m very particular about my boiled eggs. I like soft-boiled done for not a second over 3 minutes, while hard-boiled need a minimum of 12. Anything in between is unpalatable to me. “Coddled” are a no no!

    4. We boil as normal in a saucepan, then a) wait until cool, or b) immediately roll them by hand on the worktop, cracking th shell into small shards, then peel.

    5. I will give it a try. I know that picture is for presentation purposes but the broc and cauli would be overcooked above the sweetcorn.

      I just had supersweet corn on the cob from M+S. 6 mins in the micro. Delicious.

  50. Is it just a coincidence that the EU Commission is working on a Directive (DSA, digital services act ) to control content on the web, whilst Parliament is pushing through a so-called online safety Bill? I am not a fan of Elon Musk, but he is right on the money about free speech.

    1. Isn’t part of the problem that they get paid regardless, so the Sovereing people are going to cash in as much as possible.

      Are they not representative of the NHS entire?

      1. Once the managers merged the 3 practices they squeezed as much money out of them as possible with staff cut to the bone. They used covid to hide behind. Giving a very poor service. With Suella’s involvement and all the negative publicity in the local press they were shamed in to do something about it.

        1. It’s all back to front. The obvious solution is to allow patients to go elsewhere, and to take their money with them – get treated/seen at a surgery, that surgery gets paid.

          I appreciate the MP has done something in this instance, but the problem is endemic. Without a market to force improvement, htey have no incentive to.

          2. Good. I feel the same when MH is in the hospital for a day; this place feels odd without him. Give her a hug from the other Ann;-))

  54. Good morning,

    Two years ago it seems mass murder was done by Matt Hancock using the NHS to euthanase thousands of elderly people who were improperly channelled into care homes and give lethal qualitities of the drug Midazolam, for which effort vast quanitties of the drug had been sourced. It is still being bought in industrial quantities. This piece dissects the horror using official figures and published data. The Rule of Law must be upheld on this terrible crime.

    https://www.tarableu.com/the-midazolam-murders/

    1. We’re also told that people who suffer deteriorating respiratory failure and who do not receive intensive care, develop acute respiratory distress syndrome with severe breathlessness.

      I was not in intensive care but admitted to an NHS cardiac ward. I had been triaged in A&E after experiencing breathlessness and then diagnosed in ED as having heart failure.

      Whilst on the ward, my cardiac consultant told the nurse to reduce my oxygen catheter delivery by a litre a minute (increased CO2 stimulates the breathing reflex). However, that night I experienced distressing respiratory insufficiency so I just got out of bed and turned it back up again and felt much better.

      I think if I had been on an anxiety reducing drug like Midazolam then the consequential additiinal CNS suppression would have have resulted in deteriorating respiratory failure and my breathing reflex would have been suppressed enough to make life unsustainable.

  55. This is somewhat OT but it’s something that has occurred to me before and now her photo is in the papers again. The little McCann girl.
    Does anyone else think she looks doped? There is something distinctly odd about her eyes- not focused. So now there is a suspect in her disappearance and possible murder. Hmmm. I still have my suspicions.

    2. How do we know this suspect actually exists? It would be so easy to pin it on a figment of imagination, everyone would think well, I don’t know him but I expect someone else does. Just a useful way to wrap it all up.
      There is also a lot in the ‘evidence’ to make me wonder if the child also existed. Was it a hoax? The Portuguese in charge of the investigation said it was perfectly obvious right from the start that the McCann’s were being protected at a very high level.

      1. I think it’s all rather odd. Mind you, I don’t believe anything these days.

    3. She had one eye coloured differently from the other. That may be why you think she looks odd.

      1. Besides that- she looks doped. To me her eyes just aren’t focused and she looks out of it.

    4. Very odd, Ann! And both absent parents were/are doctors! And they are very delighted that the ‘suspect’ has been declared! Are they mopping their brows? 😥🤔

  56. A MAN who crashed his car in Carleton (a village near Skipton), ran off leaving cannabis resin in the vehicle footwell heard Skipton Magistrates Court.

    Mohammed Naqeeb Hussain, 30, later told police he had left because someone at the scene had become aggressive, the court heard today. They were told a man, who appeared to be under the influence of something, had run off from the car which had crashed into a field, and towards the railway line. A strong smell of cannabis was coming from the car and in one of its footwells was a bag containing 13.6 grams of cannabis resin. There was also an amount of cash in the car.
    Police originally looked into charging Hussain with dealing in the drug, because of the amount and the presence of cash, but that had changed to possession – he claimed he was a heavy user and it would only last him 4 or 5 weeks. Mr Khan (his defence) added that Hussain had changed jobs and was now working from home for a financial institution. Hussain was fined £224 and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a surcharge of £34. Worse still, they destroyed the drugs worth £500 or so.

    That’ll teach the lying, thieving, drug dealing barsteward.

    1. ‘Agternoon, Ped, “That’ll teach the lying, thieving, drug dealing barsteward.”

      Nah, he’ll put it down to paying his taxes or a sales hazard.

    2. Just once I’d like to hear ‘Paul Martin ran away from a car full of drugs’ or ‘James Thompson stabbed Colin Michaels’ instead of Mohammed or Hussein or Abdul.

      Just once. But of course. Import dross, turn the country to dross.

  58. Woman rescued by firefighters after falling into toilet trying to retrieve phone. 23 April 2022.

    Brinnon Fire Department Chief Tim Manly said the woman, who was at the top of Mount Walker in the Olympic National Forest northwest of Seattle, had been using her phone when it fell into the vault toilet on Tuesday, The Kitsap Sun reported.

    Mr Manly said she disassembled the toilet seat and used dog leashes to try and get the phone and eventually used the leashes to tie herself off as she reached for it. That effort failed and she fell into the toilet headfirst.

    This is the sort of thing that stays with you forever. There will be flashbacks whenever she sniffs the same.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/woman-phone-toilet-rescued-seattle-washington-b995872.html

  59. Well – six hours later, the MR has finally completed all the paperwork for KLM. It has been approved. Phew! All we need now is to check in on Sunday.

    What a PALAVER

      1. Indeed- but the alternative was LHR (three hours wait); BA (flights subject to cancellation); taxi £320 each way…..

        1. I lost count of the times a KLM jet from Norwich to Amsterdam was delayed because of “technical reasons”. We were forbidden from telling the delayed passengers that it was because the pilot had overslept!

          1. OK. But KLM now allow an overnight stop – so we are taking the plane to Schiphol, staying the night airside and then the Rome plane at a civilised hour on Tuesday. It is KLM’s problem to get us to our destination.

          4. Used to take longer at Schiphol after landing to taxi to our bay than the flight time from London.

          6. When I worked at Edinburgh airport, the 6.15am flight to Amsterdam was frequently delayed due to the engineers having to de-ice the windscreen with Holts finest!

          7. When did you work there? I worked at Norwich airport between 1999 and 2007. There is (was) a regular daily service between the two aerodromes.

          11. When I was traveling to Germany every week fron London City airport by BA. KLM was often the first airline to refuse to fly in heavy fog. Lufthansa was the last. I remember being transfered to Southend by coach because of fog and they used a farm tractor as a tug for the planes. happy days (not)

    3. Hope you and the MR have a wonderful time, Uncle Bill! You’ve certainly waited a while for this holiday!

    4. See if you can squeeze the odd Raphael in your suitcase. I have a space on my wall.

        1. I think I only had to get three – and also upload stuff to “Global Health surveillance” or whatever it’s called.

  61. Just met my neighbour at the park. She told me her husband has settled into his care home and is happy. He took with him a picture i painted for him.

    I didn’t tell them it was painting by numbers. He worked for Southern Rail for 45 years.

  62. Here we go again…….. Today i receive a letter after my appointment this week for the cardiologist, instead of informing me there is going to be a procedure to correct this life changing very depressing problem i have had for over 12 months and due to the covid jabs, they have made me a an effing phone appointment with the same person for November this year. WTF is that about ? I sent an email to PALS (they were very helpful previously) there is no other way to contact anyone. Below is the reply, hardly surprising they are flat out and behind with work with this sort of obstructive administration crawling around inside the NHS.
    Not quite FOAD but almost.

    Thank you for emailing the PALS team. Our opening hours are Monday – Friday 10:00–12:00 & 13:00-15:00 hours.

    I quite understand that, I think some are volunteers.

    The service is currently experiencing an increase in the number of patients and families requiring our assistance. This has resulted in PALS responding at a slower rate than we would like to and we currently aim to get back to you within 7 working days. Your call or email will be returned by a member of the PALS team as soon as possible so please do leave a message on………the following number

    Should you have any concerns regarding your care, or the care of a relative, please in the first instance speak with the Nurse in Charge on the ward or department concerned.
    Thank you for your continued patience,
    The PALS team

    1. November? That’s criminal! Can you see another practice Eddy?
      Re covid jabs….the red spots on my right arm are still coming up and also left arm- not as many. Now, however, they are beginning to appear on my shoulders and above my boobs.
      Next time I see a doctor- any doctor- I am going to raise merry hell.

        1. I will be asking. They aren’t sore, occasionally itchy but they aren’t going away. Nor is my swollen foot/ankle. Poisoned.

          2. It is but I am more concerned about getting this sh*t off my mush right now. The spots don’t hurt- my face does constantly.

          3. I hope they can deal with it now that you’ve had a diagnosis of that one.

            Hopefully without scarring.

          4. There will be a scar but my hair will cover it or I can pretend to be a pirate instead of a penguin 😉 Then I can terrify Phizzee with me cutlass- arrr.

      2. Talking to my GP is like talking to brick wall.
        He’s hardly ever in the surgery and i’m sure he’s off doing PJs.
        He’s so busy it took him six weeks to organise a steroid jab for my left knee. And i’m still waiting.

    1. No criticism of any mods but are there enough? Hopon is rarely here, Garlands has internet issues, Richard is 5 hours behind in Canada and Paul is around a lot but also has a life and dear Issy has left us for good.
      I’ve done it briefly in the past but could not commit now with all the hospital stuff going on.
      Maybe Geoff, our fearless leader, should ask for some new recruits.

        1. I can’t right now…too much going on in our lives. It wouldn’t be right or fair.

          1. In that case…when it suits. You could give the incorrigibles (sosraboc). the degenerate (Phizzee) and the diabolical (Bill Thomas) a good telling off !

      2. There’s not a lot of modding to be done unless we get an outbreak of spam-bots. Most of us here are polite to each other. The spam attacks are wearying.

        1. Maybe it’s because (I’m a Londoner) we are grown ups unlike most of social media, we know how to speak to each other in a civilised way,……………….. Big Ears.

      3. What is required?
        I’d do it in a heartbeart if I thought I wasn’t expected to be censorious.

    2. It ain’t moderation William,it’s a new Disqus (spit) feature,check your blocked list
      Go to “Settings” in your profile to check

      2. I didn’t say it was moderation. I thought the mods might know what is happening.

        And I haven’t blocked anyone.

      1. My friends and I sailed into Funchal on Raua in September 1984. We made several friends there and made the most vertigo inducing trip up the mountain in a bus which, on the hairpin bends, felt and looked as if it was suspended over a precipice. As well as visiting the main Madeira island we also visited Islas Desertas and Porto Santo before heading south ten days later for Tenerife.

        I never miss the excuse to post a picture of Raua even if this picture of her is at Fowey Regatta rather than in a group of islands in the North Atlantic.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ca45333661c28e00af2c266f8053c7f9bf8f695422cb55d4a7c6e6cfc4e126c8.jpg

    1. Only if they find the whole skeleton. Ancient bones that are not complete, unless there are pelvic bones, it’s hard to tell.
      I have been watching Neil Oliver’s Podcasts on You Tube about ancient history and he does know his stuff. I love that stuff too. Really interesting and I learn more with each show.

    2. Reminds me of the time when the nursing school skeleton was enhanced by a strategically placed banana.

      1. There was a Zimbabwean politician called Canaan Banana who was the president of the country from 1980- 87.

        I looked him up on Wikipedia and was shocked to discover that even though he was a Methodist minister eleven charges of sodomy were brought against him and he was found guilty on all of them in 1997 and imprisoned.

      2. Obvious; he is impressed by the enrichment of the C21 British Civil Service.
        Based in …. wait for it …. Whitehall.

    2. And every one of them on a Snivel Serpent’s hyper-inflated pension paid for by you and me.

    6. Hardly representatives of the English are they? And I doubt they are representative of English values either.

    4. Must be a Mormon from the church of latter-day saints, It surely must be their turn.

    5. Perhaps the attacker was trying to ease the housing shortage to make room for new arrivals?

  68. Went on my bike to the off licence for a bottle of whisky.
    Put it in the basket on the front of the bike, then thought that if I fell off on the way home, it would break and I’d lose it all. So I decided to drink it all there and then.
    Good job I did, because I fell off the bike seven times.

    2. This did make me laugh, even though I’ve heard it in one form or another over the years.

        1. Buy a better joke book or stop keeping the joke slips from Xmas crackers.
          How’s that for a tip?😉

          2. When my sons were about 8 and 10 we had some friends around for Christmas lunch. After pulling the crackers I picked up the first one that came to hand and read out:

            What is the greatest drawback in the jungle?

            After no one had come up with the answer I solemnly looked at the slip of paper again and read out:

            An elephant’s foreskin!

            This got a few tut-tuts from a German lady guest who complained that it was disgraceful that cracker manufacturers should put such things in a festive decoration which might offend children. Of course my boys howled with laughter and were not at all offended. Indeed they suspected that it was one of their father’s yuletide hoaxes.

            Now at Christmas if crackers are pulled and there are jokes inside I am always expected to tell an off colour story or riddle pretending that it came out of the cracker.

        1. Booze. Affects the memory. However, what i read today was more people die from Non-alcohol liver failure than people who drink. Turns out drinkers show signs of liver failure and have better outcomes than those oh so pious abstemious boring gits.

      1. The world now operates on more and more greed, perpetuated by a greedy, megalomaniac and corrupt elite.

        1. Indeed. I have read that during Covid the riches people in the world got richer by more than 10 trillion dollars US. And that, of course, means that the rest of us are all the poorer.

    2. I have an enlarged prostate which we have to keep an eye on – but I certainly don’t want to have the test I had before which I found intrusive and demeaning to my dignity. At the moment it seems to be benign but it is a damned nuisance waking up at 3.00 am and having to have a pee.

      1. OH ignored the frequent nighttime trips for a pee – then one day he couldn’t pee at all. I had to take him to A&E to have his bladder drained. He then had to wear a catheter for several months. He had a TURP, which fixed all that but he also has prostate cancer, undiagnosed until then. Hormone injections are keeping it at bay.

        Don’t ignore your prostate symptoms.

      1. Yo Caroline
        I do not take anything, just on 6 Monthly Blood tests
        I have seen tablets that you can take (on Amazon) and checked them out.
        So many tablets seem to be scams

        1. I’m prescriped Tamsulosin 40 mg (on the NHS) and it seems to work.

          Ask your GP, if you can get to see him.

  71. As Fortress Russia crumbles, the global economy faces a new world order. 23 april 2022.

    Fears of a split have also rekindled the long-running debate over whether the US dollar is at risk of losing its status as the world’s reserve currency.

    “After this war is over, ‘money’ will never be the same again,” said Zoltan Pozsar at Credit Suisse as he declared a “new world (monetary) order” following the freezing of the Russian central bank’s reserves.

    The US dollar has been dominant across the globe since the second world war, becoming the world’s reserve currency. This is the currency held most by central banks as part of foreign reserves and financial institutions to help facilitate global trade.

    The Ukraine business will probably end in stalemate as neither side has the wherewithall to achieve complete ascendancy. The strategic position looks as though it is going to finish in a Russian victory. It has always been Vlad’s dream to see the end of the Dollar Hegemony and this looks more and more likely as events progress. The decision to steal Russia’s Foreign Reserves will probably go down in history as Biden’s greatest blunder! It has split the world in two. The UK will not evade the consequences. As soon as things settle its position as the Worlds Money Laundry will evaporate. Who wants to bank with someone who at the first sign of difficulty steals all your cash and property? One imagines the Arabs and Africans are already looking for an alternative!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/23/fortress-russia-crumbles-global-economy-faces-new-world-order/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. As a matter of curiosity Araminta. Do you think that “Fortress Russia” is crumbling? I do not have that impression at all. And I also think that Putin is realizing the objective that he wants. Which is to slice off Southern Ukraine.

      2. “Which is to slice off Southern Ukraine.”

        Hmm, I think Johnathan, that Eastern Ukraine is part of the plot – and I endorse it.

        1. Quite so. I should have been more specific. But I was thinking of Donbass which must be mightily relieved to see the back of Ukraine.

  72. As Fortress Russia crumbles, the global economy faces a new world order. 23 april 2022.

    Fears of a split have also rekindled the long-running debate over whether the US dollar is at risk of losing its status as the world’s reserve currency.

    “After this war is over, ‘money’ will never be the same again,” said Zoltan Pozsar at Credit Suisse as he declared a “new world (monetary) order” following the freezing of the Russian central bank’s reserves.

    The US dollar has been dominant across the globe since the second world war, becoming the world’s reserve currency. This is the currency held most by central banks as part of foreign reserves and financial institutions to help facilitate global trade.

    The Ukraine business will probably end in stalemate as neither side has the wherewithall to achieve complete ascendancy. The strategic position looks as though it is going to finish in a Russian victory. It has always been Vlad’s dream to see the end of the Dollar Hegemony and this looks more and more likely as events progress. The decision to steal Russia’s Foreign Reserves will probably go down in history as Biden’s greatest blunder! It has split the world in two. The UK will not evade the consequences. As soon as things settle its position as the Worlds Money Laundry will evaporate. Who wants to bank with someone who at the first sign of difficulty steals all your cash and property? One imagines the Arabs and Africans are already looking for an alternative!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/23/fortress-russia-crumbles-global-economy-faces-new-world-order/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

      2. That could get you 50 lashes across the left breast with a perfumed bootlace. It breaks just about every modern day sin that the great unwashed could think of.

          1. Yes I agree, sadly from a time when the English were proud of their culture. Unfortunately there will soon not be enough of us left.

      1. It’s just an old scraperboard project (following a discussion on the topic yesterday).

    3. As I’ve already said to Plum, “Sorry, Plum, Collapsed on my site as it takes up too much room – a bit like Ogga, who I’ve blocked for the same reason.”

  75. BBC viewers were left infuriated this week and switched off after presenter Ros Atkins “only briefly” covered the top stories of the day before switching to a dramatically different story (Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial). At least one viewer wrote in saying he had expected Outside Source to cover the latest in the Ukraine conflict or Boris Johnson’s partygate scandal and was stunned by the amount of time given to a live court case on prime time.

    “This is not what we expect from this flagship quality news programme.” D Express (Whoever wrote the last bit is probably a budding comedian – he/she/it would be a shoo-in at the Beeb).

    1. Serves them right for watching the BBC. Heard and Depp come across as a thoroughly unpleasant pair, so it is entirely to be expected that the BBC will be all over them.

    1. When is St Plechelm’s Day? How shall we celebrate it?

      Plechelm, O.S.B. (Plechelm of Guelderland, Plechelm, also Pleghelm or Plechelmus; died 730), is honoured as a saint in both the Catholic Church and the Old Catholic Church as a patron saint of the Netherlands.

      Plechelm was an Irish Benedictine monk who travelled to Rome with two fellow monks, Saints Wiro and Otger. He became a missionary first in Northumbria, England, and then in the Kingdom of Frisia, now the Netherlands. He died in Sint Odiliënberg.

      Plechem was canonized by Pope Agapetus II about 950. As a result, the Basilica of St. Plechelm in Oldenzaal was built to enshrine his remains in 954.

      2. And how on earth do you pronounce it without sounding as if you have a heavy cold?

        1. It’s Dutch, Anne, and requires a plentitude of phlegm in the back of the throat.

          Did you never listen to Hilversum on the old steam radio?

    2. Does yer other Irish friend – Moi – qualify for a slice of yer gorgeous St. George’s strawberry tart, Caroline?

    1. Snap, sweetie ! … x
      Wordle 308 3/6

      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. A poor par four for me.
      Wordle 308 4/6

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

    5. Sorry, Plum, Collapsed on my site as it takes up too much room – a bit like Ogga, who I’ve blocked for the same reason.

  78. Update on the Bedworth assailant:

    “Detective Sergeant Rich Simpkins described it as a “nasty incident” and appealed for anyone else injured to come forward.

    He said: “This was a nasty incident which has left a number of people with injuries and I know this will cause the community great concern.

    “The public can expect to see a heightened police presence in and around Bedworth town centre to provide reassurance while our officers continue to conduct their enquiries.”

    In other words, making sure the stable door is firmly shut long after the black horse has bolted.

    1. PS I’d have said “murderous attack” rather than “nasty incident” – but what do I know?

    2. No mention of the knifer, so .. muslim!

      Dear life, it’s almost code now. Mentally ill lone wolf. Nothing to do with islam. Utter BS. It’s ALWAYS bcause of islam.

      When the next ‘mentally ill lone wolf’ screams A loo and a snack bar! could we please talk about islam. It’s a problem. It needs to be dealt with and eradicated.

  79. Update on the Bedworth assailant:

    “Detective Sergeant Rich Simpkins described it as a “nasty incident” and appealed for anyone else injured to come forward.

    He said: “This was a nasty incident which has left a number of people with injuries and I know this will cause the community great concern.

    “The public can expect to see a heightened police presence in and around Bedworth town centre to provide reassurance while our officers continue to conduct their enquiries.”

    In other words, making sure the stable door is firmly shut long after the black horse has bolted.

  80. “Migrants from Iran, Iraq and Pakistan have vowed to commit suicide if faced with being sent to Rwanda.”
    Every cloud and all that………..

    1. That depends on what they have strapped around themselves and where they do it.
      The mere fact that they threaten it would make me extremely wary of letting them into Europe, let alone the UK.

  81. HAPPY HOUR NoTTlers !

    PARTYGATE continues to hit the headlines.

    Meanwhile Boris sends in the tanks to help Ukraine repel the Russian offensive…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/37512fa7694fbf62a96285bcf01fb8032bca1f2e4818fb7ed3a563a62e42f7e0.jpg

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10742215/Ukrainian-troops-trained-Britain.html

    Prime Minister says British armoured vehicles could be shipped to Poland to replace those sent to Ukraine – despite Germany warning the move could spark ‘NUCLEAR war’…

    2. Nuclear war should do the trick – It’ll certainly take folks minds off……. partygate, except perhaps Sir Kurr’s….

      1. Boris’s trip to Kyiv certainly got up Macron’s nose..
        The President reportedly threw a strop after the PM arrived in
        Ukraine to show solidarity with Zelensky.

    3. They need an excuse for the self-detonation. Or even a pretendy detonation in Ukraine. How would we know otherwise? (The Simpsons 05/05/22).

  82. What Britain’s agreement with Rwanda really says; that we are to accept many refugees from the Congo
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6UhNGwBEtw

    This is why we need to stop voting Conservative or Labour. I’m convinced that they hate us. And would be delighted to dance on the corpse of England.

    1. Apropos the ‘stateless ones’, I’d give ’em an ultimatum, “Either identify you country of origin, NOW, or you will be put aboard a Royal Navy frigate with orders to drop you off on a Somali beach at midnight on ‘n’ day, dressed only in your underclothes.”

      What are you going to do?

  83. Our lovely cabbie Tracey picked us up from Asda and highly approved of the bottles…. Gawd, she said, good for you. You need something to make you laugh these days. She is great- carried all the bags MH didn’t and gave us both hugs and a kiss before she left. She is super.
    No matter what is going on…. there are still some terrific people around.

    1. Good for you, LotL. Most people are kind and thoughtful – it is just that we tend only to notice those few who aren’t.

        1. Very true. In the last year (apart from a trip or two to London) I have seen about a dozen bames (ignoring the hospital).

          3. I saw quite a few in Kenya – all very nice people – can’t recall any recently at home.

          4. Not a one, Bill, in and around Flowton, Mid-Suffolk, but the countryside seems to give them the heeby-jeebies.

            No scope for drug-dealing.

      2. Exactly Bill. That is why I think humankind is basically good. As an Orthodox Christian I do not believe in original sin. However, although the West is in the process of rejecting Christianity, I do believe much of its problems are because of a deeply ingrained belief in original sin that has permeated our view of the world and people, even though it is not articulated consciously. The West’s reaction is a default to negative views and it corrupts everything that we do. It is one of the major reasons that caused the split between East and Western Christianity. The East rejected the notion of original sin and regard it as a heresy a corruption of Christian teaching.

  85. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61202152
    Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has been criticised for leaving a note for civil servants, saying “sorry you were out when I visited”.
    The note, printed on government paper with Mr Rees-Mogg’s title, was left at empty desks and read “I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon.”
    Mr Rees-Mogg has said all civil servants must stop working from home.
    FDA union boss Dave Penman said the note was crass and insulting, and undermined civil service leadership.
    A source close to Mr Rees-Mogg confirmed the note, which has been widely shared on social media, was genuine.
    The note, which was signed off by the Cabinet Office minister “with every good wish”, was left in a “completely empty” office, the source said.
    The source added that it was “very important for the taxpayer and British public that government is working properly and the estate is well used”.

    1. He clearly does NOT understand the incredible, mind-blowing dangers of, er, a sort of ‘flu….

    4. Government, cabinet, civil service working properly? How about just bloody working?
      Sorry if I am grumpy but pain does things to you. SOD them all.

    5. If I’m not in the office chances are I’ve done two hours more work than if I were to travel in. I do not believe that bums on seats is relevant. I appreciate the intent, but the problem is endemic waste – too many people doing too little work. Too much time spent on things the public do not want. Too much time spent on redistribution rather than only service provision. Too much – ANY – effort spent favouring one group or another.

  86. That’s me for this curate’s egg of a day. Grey – then sunny – but all day a blustery, bitter wind.

    I had to water parts of the garden – again. Never had to do that in April before. The wind is the main problem – drying out the soil that is already dried by the sun.
    I expect it will all change come the start of May. And early June, of course – Jubilee time – well, just remember D-Day weather….

    I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the effort that the MR has put in to doing all the POINTLESS on-line paperwork for a very simple trip. I would have give up and stayed home with G & P.

    Funny thing, though. Soldier neighbour went yesterday on a girls’ weekend to Porto. She shared her thoughts about the form-filling. From TODAY (but not yesterday) Portugal has scrapped it all for British people!!!

    Anyway – have a jolly evening.

    A demain – DV.

    1. Tomorrow, re flight to Rome, Bill:

      Please check if yer Dutch pilot is working from home …

    1. Where is the whole great reset going if the elites know that the population is going to fall very rapidly, and that the planet will probably get a bit colder in the next twenty years or so due to sun-related activity? Do they believe their own propaganda about an over-populated, frying planet? Or do they just hate other people so much that they want to kill nine out of ten of them anyway?

      1. BB, the message you have replied to is another ‘Content unavailable’. I can’t see it.

        Give us a clue!

        1. Here you are, William:

          johnathanrackham • an hour ago
          Here is another one from Jordan Peterson about too many people on earth.
          Jordan Peterson – Population Collapse Is Coming
          Jordan Peterson – Population Collapse Is Coming — disq.us

          6. I can’t see jdgarfunkle’s posts when I am logged in. Perhaps he has blocked me because I post annoying twitter tweets/drivel. I am sorry if it was because I offended him

          10. It’s all so random.

            And there is another one in response to BB2’s post that starts “Where is the whole great reset going…”. What’s that?

          11. It’s Johnathan saying that my second question is probably the right answer.

            This disappearing posts business is very annoying, isn’t it – it’s so random.

          14. It is Jonathan Rackham’s tweet again, it says “I think you answered the question yourself in the last sentence” in response to bb2.

      3. They believe what they say. Alternative opinions are not valid, as the opinion comes from someone who a) isn’t their close circle of friends and b) the opinion giver didn’t make a billion dollars in their garden shed. Thus, they are invalid.

      3. So do I – some kind of limitation has to be made somehow – I don’t know how. Certainly, Western countries importing over-breeders is not a solution either to their overbreeding or our underbreeding (if that’s what we really are doing).

        If a smaller population is a desired goal for the optimum desirable living conditions in our little country, then surely ways can be found to deal with the fact that there will be fewer “wage earners”/”taxpayers”, that DON’T involve importing people (who may or may not pay tax or, more likely are actually even more of a drain upon our resources). This would involve a complete root and branch re-think about resources and how society functions economically, so too much for my poor brain just now. But I’m convinced that it can be done.

      4. So do I – some kind of limitation has to be made somehow – I don’t know how. Certainly, Western countries importing over-breeders is not a solution either to their overbreeding or our underbreeding (if that’s what we really are doing).

        If a smaller population is a desired goal for the optimum desirable living conditions in our little country, then surely ways can be found to deal with the fact that there will be fewer “wage earners”/”taxpayers”, that DON’T involve importing people (who may or may not pay tax or, more likely are actually even more of a drain upon our resources). This would involve a complete root and branch re-think about resources and how society functions economically, so too much for my poor brain just now. But I’m convinced that it can be done.

      5. #MeToo but there must be a more humane way to solve it.

        Kill Islam and the Chinese?

      6. The point he is making is that it has reached its peak and from now will go down. But you should couple what he says here with his other remarks in the other video that I posted where ho talks about the greening of the earth and the huge successes of man in the last few decades. Coupled together they say we have a bright feature as a species. We may not be here to see it, but no matter, each generation builds on the last.

    1. The hair (facial and cranial)… the clothes… argh!
      Not one of their better songs.

    2. The hair (facial and cranial)… the clothes… argh!
      Not one of their better songs.

    1. I like Ben Garrison cartoons. They have proven to be deadly accurate and on the right side of history.

      Neither am I in favour of blocking people. I have in the past temporarily blocked two people, one made personal threats and attacks on me and the other was a rude and despicable human being. Both are thankfully now banned.

      1. I agree. I’ve occasionally blocked spud on TCW in his various personalities, but not real posters.

    2. Hello Polly. I was wondering what had happened to you. I hope you are well. Welcome back.

      1. Thanks! I’m fine, hope you are too and that everything is going well. See you again soon.

  91. Last post – the effing un-potty trained Parrot has joined us. Please kill her off.

  92. Well, we got here mid-day and the place is beautiful.
    5 of us here so far with Dr. Daughter due on the train a bit after 11.
    Will try & get some photo posted.
    Knackered, so logging off for now.
    TTFN

    1. Then I’m very much Pro-Putin. See you in courst Zelensky and your corrupt backers.

  94. SWMBO now watching a programme in Polish about brain tumours and awfully sick people. I hate this kind of TV – and I don’t have a word of Polish, either.
    Open-skull surgery, with conscious patient… argh!! Pass the sick bucket… :-((

    1. I don’t like it either nor all the “murder” etc progammes. Why isn’t there anything fun anymore?
      Actually there is- just blocked the sodding parrot.

        1. Last night I watched Judi Dench in Mrs Henderson Presents. That film was full of busts, Tom. Lol.

      2. Tonight I watched Judi Dench and several other excellent actors in both The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and then The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Two really good “feel good” movies.

    2. OH is watching the snooker…….

      We’ve just finished our dinner – steak, tiny new potatoes, first asparagus of the season, mushrooms, peppers, salad leaves, followed by baked apple – he hasn’t tried doing those before. I had to show him how to use the corer……

      1. We had steaks tonight also. Snow peas and mushrooms. Was nice although very filling; I am not a big eater.

      2. Sorry, J, I have to say that baked apple is my worst nightmare.

        Shades of my childhood and being faced with one of these. No way, José.

    1. Apart from Trump, the rest ar nothing but a bunch of self-serving crooks.

      America, how to you face up to that – you’re just as guilty for voting them into office.

  96. OK chums, it’s only 9.30 but I can’t keep going. Need to try to sleep perchance not to dream.
    I wish you all a very pleasant evening and will see you in the morning.
    Bon voyage to those travelling and happy holidays to those already on their hols.
    Good night.

  98. Apparently we in the UK, we overburdened taxpayers, are going to be sending more weapons to the Ukraine, for the Ukrainians. (Latest technology, and all free.). Come on! This is just all round taking the Mickey, Zelensky, Johnson…

    1. Its depressing to see that our dear leaders are desperate to keep the war going rather than push for peace. I am firmly convinced the plucky Ukes have been used as a disposable resource to support the ego of Zelensky.

  99. Good night, everyone. Today I had an extra six hours of sleep and a very gentle & relaxing day. I feel so much better than I did when the alarm went off this morning. I hope to pace myself more carefully from now on and not cram so much into my diary.

    2. #Metoo, Elsie – off to mty bed shortly. I just wish I could have a piss-free night!

  100. I can only wish my fellow NoTTLers a good Good night and God bless one and all.

    Love you all.

    1. I’ve no idea where the original request came from but the answer is, soon to be published:

      Passing Three Score Years and Ten (Rev 05) – A5

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