Saturday 25 March: How can more junior doctors’ strikes be justified when waiting lists are so long?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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555 thoughts on “Saturday 25 March: How can more junior doctors’ strikes be justified when waiting lists are so long?”

  1. Good morning all.
    A bright and dry start with not quite 3½°C outside.

    Up early for my trip to Nottingham via t’Lad’s.

  7. The BBC are still talking about Trump going to trial, when its all over. So biased.

  8. Squirrel watch
    SIR – In our previous garden we had beautiful trees on the boundary. Then grey squirrels (Letters, March 24) started stripping the bark, causing the death of large branches and saplings.

    Local woods have also seen much damage from these furry interlopers. Worse still, I saw one recently with a small bird in its mouth. Are they becoming carnivorous? I thought we were trying to conserve our countryside, not let this non-native species destroy it.

    Jo Jeffery
    Saffron Walden, Essex

    SIR – My method of dealing with squirrels and other unwanted visitors is a water pistol – £3.99 well spent.

    Ann Roberts
    Market Harborough, Leicestershire

    “I thought we were trying to conserve our countryside, not let this non-native species destroy it.”

    Many a true word spoken in jest … Squirrels are the least of our problems .

    1. Grey squirrels are building HS2; that would explain the destruction of our countryside and the slow progress.

    2. The little grey thieves steal all my grapes from the vine and Hazel nuts. And bury walnuts in our garden. Sometimes they grow.

  9. “TOP LAWYER” REFUSING TO PROSECUTE ECO-LOONS ALREADY DISBARRED

    As the Guardian triumphantly reports on the so-called “top barristers” signing a declaration refusing to prosecute the likes of Extinction Rebellion, Guido couldn’t help noticing a few big names attaching their signatures to the list. First is Jolyon, obviously, who’s the brains behind the whole idea.Quite how a tax lawyer who’s not even on the Crown Prosecution Service panel – and therefore not a prosecutor – was ever going to be useful in a prosecution case is anyone’s guess…

    Then there’s his partner in crime Tim Crosland, who according to the Guardian, co-organised the declaration with the foxbeater. Crosland says “it’s time to take a stand” because “behind every new oil and gas deal sits a lawyer getting rich”. Obviously a learned man of deep principles.

    Even so, it’s not exactly an act of courage from Crosland. He was disbarred in January for disclosing a draft Supreme Court judgment which had been circulated under embargo. According to The Law Society Gazette, the tribunal found that Crosland “behaved in a way which was likely to diminish the trust and confidence which the public places in him or in the profession and behaved in a way which could reasonably be seen by the public to undermine his integrity.” This, apparently, still meets the definition of “top lawyer” these days…

    1. “behaved in a way which was likely to diminish the trust and confidence which the public places in him or in the profession and behaved in a way which could reasonably be seen by the public to undermine his integrity.”
      Any comment is superfluous.

  11. How can more junior doctors’ strikes be justified when waiting lists are so long?

    Elections coming soon, I suppose

    1. Doctors’ pay & conditions are peripheral to the disputes. The real purpose is to undermine the Government.

    1. Strangely, quite a relief. I have absolutely no excuse for getting to grips with a different oven; I do know it’s hotter than the one we left at Allan Towers.
      Today will either produce nice cakies or burnt offerings.
      Watch this space. (Or, in the case of Elsie and Korky, watch out for a large black cloud and some very blue language.)

      1. I have a gas hob and electric fan oven. If the recipe says 180 fan i drop it to 170 to avoid burnt offerings.

          1. I decided against an air fryer. Bit pricey even though they save on energy costs.
            I do have one of those new fangled pressure cookers though. You can roast a chicken in it in 15 to 20 minutes. And you still get crispy skin.

          2. What product is that? could you post a link?
            I have banned the electric oven as it takes too much electricity.

          7. I have small fire in the middle of my kitchen – it is enclosed in a wonderful cast iron stove, and serves all my winter hob needs!

        2. I really miss my gas hob.
          The Dower House had an induction hob already installed. I am not enamoured of it, but there are other priorities at the moment.
          Thank you for the hint about oven temps. The old cooker was 20+ year old and had put in some serious mileage, so, like driving a car in need of a service, I may have been adjusting to its failings.

          1. We have an induction hob – I love it now but it does take a while to get accustomed to it.

          2. There is one in the flat we rent in Cap d’Ail. It frightens me to death! But the MR knows how it works – though it took her a bit of time.

          3. Ours is as responsive as a gas hob but not having to twiddle a knob to get the hob into gear took some getting used to, but it does happen. The hob itself is so easy to clean, and keep clean. It gets irritated if aluminium foil is anywhere near the controls and it certainly lets me know about, beeping crossly at me.

          4. I used to have one which came with the house when we bought it. In the summer it didn’t work when the sun shone through the window directly on to it. I now have a gas hob.

  13. 372537+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    I do believe that, unreported is that scientist & historians are teaming up seeking comparison in the past to study a strange sac type germination containing what seems to be a distressed pawn brokers sign found betwixt the foundation legs of the nation.

    UK’s ‘reset with EU’ in disarray as King’s France visit is cancelled
    Monarch’s state trip had been part of Government’s strategy to renew historic ties with Europe following Brexit

    The peoples RESET must surely now commence with a renewal of the Great Charter,

    June 1215
    Magna Carta was issued in June 1215 and was the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law. It sought to prevent the king from exploiting his power, and placed limits of royal authority by establishing law as a power in itself.

    Our choice NOW is in demanding our free born person status within a democratic nation, OR QUIT & SUBMIT.

    1. After our government put itself in hock to bankers, we had another predatory class that was above the law, unfortunately.

  15. Morning, all Y’all! Looking springlike, still plenty snow ‘n ice on the ground.

      1. It didn’t save the comment, so posted again. It is supposed to reject identical posts…

  16. Hindus are the healthiest, Sikhs are the most likely to own their own homes and Muslims to live in social rented housing – and Christians are least likely to get a degree, census data shows.

    There are ‘stark inequalities’ in levels of home ownership, education and good health across religious groups in England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

    People who identify as Muslim are nearly four times more likely to live in overcrowded homes than the overall population and are also more likely to live in social rented accommodation.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11899853/Hindus-best-health-Britain-census-figures-show.html

    1. Where I live we still have grammar and selective schools, you rarely see a white child on their way in or out of them when passing by, but on the other hand at the bog standard comps most of the children appear to be white.

      We appear to be operating a system of segregation for some reason

      1. Snap. Very noticeable round our way. Ethnic parents will actually move to Colchester to make sure their sprogs get into a grammar school.
        Many white Brits dumbly accept what is on offer. The aspirational working class seems to have died out.
        In our youth, many chaps from that class would have apprenticeships, attend night school and marry middle class girls.

        2. The school I went to is still a grammar. A friend who still lives locally debated putting her child In for the 11+ (about 7 years ago) but decided against it as she “didn’t want her child to be in a cultural minority”.

          The school is the preserve of Indian and Chinese children now.

          1. The only ones who will beat their children into making the effort to pass and gain entry.

    2. Morning, Maggie.
      On the minus side, those from the Indian sub-continent are more likely to develop diabetes.

    4. These inequalities are not inherent to their religion, but to the culture. Why bother working when the state gives you everything you want? They are welfare dependent by choice, not circumstance.

      1. It seems their main aim is to turn our country into the very shiteholes they were ‘forced’ to escape from.

        1. They seem to be succeeding. The difference is that in their own countries they didn’t have us to pay for them.

      2. They see benefits as jizya – the tax dhimmis (non-muslims) pay to live in a muslim country.

  17. Good Moaning.
    News from the Intergenerational War Front.
    According to youngest granddaughter, old people are right on trend. Young people just adore oldies. Old farts are where it’s at.
    When her father perked up, she crushingly informed him that he is too young: poor chap – old enough to be a dad dancer, but too young to be adorable.
    I just sat there feeling smug. (And as trendy as I was c. 1963.)

  18. ‘Morning All

    Saturday Medley

    Earworms

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5deac5d48c8ee6ba479f28a025e46a3009df83da8d0c5e12237e7438a13c8243.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c16c712632ed6798add11ed3120e8795a88423cba65fa147b1d7823b7717d0e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7b3880b53f335213e80b44b9ad7fc3bac286d1f221a671c84afae3fe079b7ada.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c7bb0928bf7040c9e582e4352227e6102aaffe8d4c89de9122c0c33ad3b3a1f9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/323381ae64a398a62486db7dec3099eca4c8af6966d08847bbaf2fa99dd3bebd.jpg

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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cd0dcfddb8ae21d867ed26f27ebe69cf016d6c69f6efb59eb82335498217f3ca.gif

  19. Right I’m off down town now everyone. Oddly enough in the present world I couldn’t find anything to write about!

    2. Goodness me Bob , you have alot of energy,

      Just cleaning the windows , doing the beds , shopping and trying to remember things exhausts me .

    1. 372537+ up ticks,

      Morning TB,

      All brought about via one anthony charlie lynton

      check out Bow Street Court records.

  23. 372537+ up ticks,

    Pro Brexit action showing through the anti brexit shite.

    Dt,
    British fishermen to net £100m more this year thanks to Brexit
    Haul has gone up by 11pc to 667,000 in tonnage after break from EU reduced rights of European competitors

  24. Good morning all,

    Showery start to the day at Castle McPhee, 9℃ with a stiff West breeze. Off to see offspring and grand-offspring again today. They’re on the South coast so a bit of sea air in prospect too.

    Before I do, my bile is raised by Kneeler and his bunch of bandits talking about reversing the abolition of pension LTA brought in by Hunt and, furthermore, getting rid of the measures by which couples can pass on property worth up to £1m free of IHT. The assault on the middle classes continues. And they have the gall to claim ‘fiscal responsibility’.

    Let’s examine that word ‘fiscal’. It doesn’t mean financial as many people think. Fiscus is a basket, and came to stand for the state’s ‘basket’ or treasury in the Roman empire. It’s the same latin root as ‘confiscate’.

    Thieves.

  25. Morning all 🙂😉
    Eternally grey and only 9c feeling like 6c.
    Must take our top coats to sit and watch the rugger at Spurs this arvo.
    I read an article about the deliberate running down of the NHS yesterday. And then I discovered it was written around 2006.
    But the daft buggers are spending 40 million on diversity. On top of the millions being paid to the 7 regional directors who seem to be overseeing this dreadful situation.
    It went on to explain the reasons behind long waiting times for even longer awaited operations. While the problem patients are suffering from become worse. And nobody seems to care about it. Or take any responsibility for the damage caused to people’s welfare and well-being.
    Of course it’s the same people causing problems, our useless stupid politicians
    Who of course can afford private health care and put it on their expenses.

    1. Good morning Eddy,
      It really is quite frightening how we, the funders, are being ignored by saint NHS.
      GPs negligently refusing to see patients, excessive waiting times in A&E (partly down to so many GPs refusing to do their job), patients with serious and potentially life-threatening symptoms or injuries having to wait hours for an ambulances, ever longer waiting lists for appointments then surgery, the list goes on.
      Plenty of money for diversity departments and other unnecessary bureaucracy but inadequate funding for more medical school places for British students.

      1. I absolutely agree.
        The most annoying part of it is, if I’d arrived in a rubber boat I am quite sure that the right type of HR lawyer would make sure any health problems I had were treated.
        Alongside those who have settled here and never worked or paid a penny towards the system.
        But there are thousands of people out there (I see them at my ongoing hospital appointments) who like myself have worked hard for decades and paid into the system expecting to be cared for in old age.
        Ongoing hospital appointments and phone calls that lead to an unscalable brick wall.
        I can’t afford the possible 25 thousand for a replacement knee and the catheter ablation.

          1. Except to the extent that we spend money, and/or pay taxes. Who else is there to pay for the grifters?

          5. They’ll steal as much as possible when we shuffle off. I noticed that Liebour will reverse the current situation of husbands and wives being able to pass on (when the gradual increases are done) up to 1 million quid.

    2. Contrast with Norway.
      I collapsed on Friday evening 2 weeks ago. Blue lights to horsepiddle. Friday night & the rest of my stay, lots of wires, pipes, needles and a machine whose job was to go “beep” just as I fell asleep… Assessments Saturday, moved to local horsepiddle Sunday, visit by surgeon Monday, pacemaker Tuesday, ejected Thursday (a week ago). Back at work Monday this week.
      No effing around waiting until I was properly poorly before deciding I was too far gone to bother, and I’m a productive member of society again within the week.

      2. All right don’t rub it in Obs 😉🤭
        The problem i have with my left knee has never been an emergency but I’ve had it for over thirty years. And I’m still not on the ‘king waiting list they know what’s wrong, it’s bone on bone worn out. But still play me along with pointless brick wall appointments.
        I’ve discovered that people who have suffered from problems after AZ covid jabs are seeking compensation.
        Although I and many others who have suffered heart problems have had agreement of the causes from medics. I believe if I tried I would not have a whisper of a prayer of success. And I don’t think I could handle all the hassle involved.
        Even PALS has now become ineffective. Too many heads being slammed against NHS brick walls.
        PALS patient advice and liason service.

        1. What an idiot approach they have. If they just fixed it, then you wouldb’t be messing up statistics and endlessly consuming time with appointments that lead to nothing except more appointments.
          Can you afford to pay? What you describe sounds appallingly painful.

          1. I’m too principled to pay Obs. it would probably cost a bout 20 thousand for my Ablation and the knee replacement. Some one else has been benefitting from my contributions i just don’t see why should I be expected to pay. Our parents paid before the NHS all started. it’s almost gone full circle.

  27. ‘Morning, Peeps. A sweltering 12°C is forecast for today, and I am looking forward to it. Never mind that the back garden has reverted to a marsh…

    The DT, in its infinite wisdom (cowardice, more like) has not permitted any comments on the excellent Portas article about the slow death of John Lewis. So naturally one turns to the Letters comments:

    Peter Dawson
    25 MIN AGO
    No comments on the article “John Lewis has ‘let go of its soul’, claims Mary Portas in LinkedIn row”. I wonder why…. I thought Mary’s letter was brilliant, and lots of readers will have lots to say about it. A pity.

    * * *

    I may be able to assist here, although I may have to get used to living without a front door by the end of the day. Anyway, a couple of years’ ago we ‘did an Annie’ and moved house. Mrs HJ was unable to keep up with the need for new curtains, there being many other tasks on a very long list. We therefore turned to JL for the more urgent windows. The results were good, although trying to communicate with them was, at times, a frustrating experience. Having now decorated just about everywhere we had just one room left and the Management suggested we let them loose again, despite her prowess with the Frister Rossman. However, I had to remind her that JL no longer welcomes any business from hideously white customers, judging by their TV adverts. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they go out of their way to discourage indigenous whitey when their TV adverts feature 100% blik actors, or something very close to it. I wonder when the penny will drop? I can’t be alone in shunning companies and organisations that hate their established customer base. Our list of ‘the shunned’ grows almost daily, and we are sticking to it. I had thought of penning something suitable to the DT Letters, but realised within a nano-second that I would be wasting my time. And they certainly would not have liked the heading: “JL and my (small) part in their downfall.”

    1. John Lewis’s plight is what you get when you make a diversity pick for chairman. No experience of business either, just a civil serpent. And they’ve made her a Dame. The depths to which we have sunk.

      1. Indeed, what were they thinking? No retail experience, only worked in the civil service, that was bound to go well.

        1. Yes but she had the essential – the only – qualification that counts: female bame. Guaranteed to get you to the top.

          1. The ladies at the top end of engineering management I work with are too old to have got there by being quotaed in, and it’s clear why they are there – they are damned good at the job. As it should be.

        2. We frequently shop in Waitrose.

          Really very good. Always clean. All staff helpful and courteous.

          However since a civil servant has been put in charge there have been numerous occasions that

          they have sold out of stock.

          Obviously the supply chain is not working correctly.

          As a civil servant you can always make the peasants wait for a week, but running a supermarket is

          completely different. If it isn’t on the shelves we walk round the corner to one of the two

          competing supermarkets within 200yds.

          …and as for their disastrous APP, only a civil servant could have approved something

          that complex for a customer base which is mainly the wealthy elderly.

    2. I saw an advert for John Lewis some years ago which depicted a mixed race family sitting round a left wing table. There was one token white person. The crockery, napkins and food screamed “trendy Islington.”

      The advert completely alienated me – I felt no connection with the image or with John Lewis.

    3. Hie thee to Dunelm. They have a wide range of ready made but also do bespoke curtains.

      1. Already visited, Annie. The Management of HJ Towers decided that the fabric was a bit carp. She is, of course, totally biased, having worked in a proper fabric shop for about 15 years where she learnt the difference between carp and non-carp. Besides, Done-in couldn’t tell her what their stock level of a vaguely acceptable fabric was and whether there might be more at another branch. Oh, and the assistant was heavily involved in writing out price tickets and obviously resented any interruption by anyone asking anything about their stock. Apart from all of that time-consuming nonsense the visit was a huge success – she will save a lot of time by avoiding them in the future!

  28. ‘Morning, Peeps. A aweltering 12°C is forecast for today, and I am looking forward to it. Never mind that the back garden has reverted to a marsh…

    The DT, in its infinite wisdom (cowardice, more like) has not permitted any comments on the excellent Portas article about the slow death of John Lewis. So naturally one turns to the Letters comments:

    Peter Dawson
    25 MIN AGO
    No comments on the article “John Lewis has ‘let go of its soul’, claims Mary Portas in LinkedIn row”. I wonder why…. I thought Mary’s letter was brilliant, and lots of readers will have lots to say about it. A pity.

    * * *

    I may be able to assist here, although I may have to get used to living without a front door by the end of the day. Anyway, a couple of years’ ago we ‘did an Annie’ and moved house. Mrs HJ was unable to keep up with the need for new curtains, there being many other tasks on a very long list. We therefore turned to JL for the more urgent windows. The results were good, although trying to communicate with them was, at times, a frustrating experience. Having now decorated just about everywhere we had just one room left and the Management suggested we let them loose again, despite her prowess with the Frister Rossman. However, I had to remind her that JL no longer welcomes any business from hideously white customers, judging by their TV adverts. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they go out of their way to discourage indigenous whitey when their TV adverts feature 100% blik actors, or something very close to it. I wonder when the penny will drop? I can’t be alone in shunning companies and organisations that hate their established customer base. Our list of ‘the shunned’ grows almost daily, and we are sticking to it. I had thought of penning something suitable to the DT Letters, but realised within a nano-scond that I would be wasting my time. And they certainly would not have liked the heading: “JL and my (small) part in their downfall.”

      1. Indeed – a protest march of bames armed with machetes is planned for tomorrow.

      2. I have it on very good authority, that Bames are all going to withdraw their labour from the TV advert industry

        TV companies are in a panic, there will no longer be any Advert Breaks

        One hour shows will have to last an hour
        Loss of income
        Panic

        1. Never mind, they’ll just increase the completely unnecessary and distracting “music”….

      1. There is so little good drama on any channel, and we could once count on the BBC to produce true-to-text versions.

        In my opinion, this is a wholly specious discussion.

        BBC foreground music is so loud that speech is jusy an incidental noise in the background.

          1. Maddeningly, there are often NONE on very good PBSAmerica programmes. And coupled with the infuriating “music” that appears to be compulsory, I often have to abandon otherwise very interesting progs.

          2. Any prog with David Attenborough is ruined by the presence of David Attenborough.

    1. I suppose the only way to avoid it will be to shop ultra-ultra organic, and grow what one can oneself, from old seed varieties.
      Then there will also be the challenge of negotiating the meat that’s been jabbed with mRNA in handy little cell nucleus-penetrating nanoparticles. Of course we will be assured it’s quite safe until they discover that it isn’t.

      Latest research shows no safe level of fluoride in drinking water for children, by the way – IQ fell in every US state where any level of fluoride was added.

      2. In the USA there are moves afoot to control seeds at the state and federal level.
        Bill Gates has his finger, or is it his whole hand, in the seed debate. He is projecting ‘engineered magic’ seeds that will not be affected by climate change. Of course he is!

    2. Morning all.

      The EU is to allow “powdered bug food” to be included in all sorts of foods. We all need to read labels very carefully. I’m not sure how “bug food” will be described or even if it will be acknowledged at all.

      All the great reset plans are coming together brilliantly. Bug food, factories being set on fire, avian flu, destruction of agriculture …

      1. 372537+ up ticks,

        Morning VW,

        The toxic RESET designer activating
        odious political coalition, lab/lib/con are still nowhere near being short of peoples
        support & that really does show the depth that mental ailments have eaten into our society.

  31. I thought we were trying to conserve our country, not let non-native species destroy it.

    With a fiddle, is this an anology for UK 2023

    This post may not refer to Grey Squirrels

  32. I thought we were trying to conserve our country, not let non-native species destroy it.

    With a fiddle, is this an anology for UK 2023

    This post may not refer to Grey Squirrels

    1. The problem seems to be one of absolutes. The left think ‘there’s a problem, we must fix it’ – regardless of the cost (the motto of the communist).

      Normaly people think ‘If I do this, what are the consequences of that action?’

      It is a strange way to think. Absolutism is an inflexibility of thought that just doesn’t make rational sense.

    2. How can people fall for this nonsense?
      Even people who can see that polluting the ocean solves nothing still say things like “we must emit less carbon, but this isn’t the way to do it”
      Why can’t people understand that the whole thing was always a con right from the start!

      1. 372537+ up ticks,

        Morning BB2,

        As with voting, tis more comfortable not to acknowledge the truth in many issues.

      2. To admit you were properly fooled is a difficult thing. Would force a complete re-examination of the self, and almost nobody does that.

        1. I got my first internet connection in 1999 and was able to get different perspectives on the real world by accessing news from numerous sources. By 2005, I had become so disillusioned by the BBC and MSM that I finally dodn’t bother to renew my TV licence. This “renowned” inststution I had once trusted had suddenly gone sour.
          As you say, it needed ” a complete re-examination of the self,” which was quite a wrench from my previous attitudes.
          Once I had overcome this substantial hurdle, the rest came easily. Now my first instinct is to question everything. It has served me well.

          1. Agreed.
            And I go back as best I can to source data, to avoid the Chinese whispers that subtly adjust the message.
            So, I pissed a lot of people I know of off by not becoming hysterical about covid, as I plotted the official data in a spreadsheet, with comparisons with “ordinary” stuff, such as suicide, influenza – and showed that the “ordinary” was worse by way of fatality rate – before you got to age distributions…

      3. It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.
        Mark Twain (I think)

    1. Our TV talks to us ..

      Moh says Hey Google , how do I stop topping the ball wth my club ..

      Unbelievable .. then instructions and graphics and real time instruction .

    2. We refuse to have one. A couple of friends have the evil device, and we keep our conversations very tepid if we meet in their house.

      2. Nagsman has one. She is forever bellowing slanderous rudenesses about Nigel Farage et alia at it and formulating plans for armed insurrection against the judges at Crufts and elsewhere. I have tried to persuade her to dump the infernal device but she just gives me one of her pitying sneering looks.

        1. My Samsung smartphone has something similar called Bixby. I have never used it and never will.

      3. At a party in my neighbours house i jokingly told their Alexa to play the theme music to Jaws loudly at 3 o’clock in the morning. The host heard me say it and cancelled the instruction.

        I went into the kitchen and laughingly told a friend what i had done not realising they had another Alexa there.

        They had a rude awakening but saw the funny side of it.

    3. The question is why a violent secks offender was allowed out of prison on licence to go and live with a potential victim.

    4. The question is why a violent secks offender was allowed out of prison on licence to go and live with a potential victim.

      2. Bloody Hull, don’t give MB ideas.
        I’ve kept him in a bubble of ignorance for …. many, many, many years…..

      4. A man must have nerves of steel if he is willing to sit in the car while his wife is driving.

  36. ‘Lockdown was never on the agenda in Sweden’

    While the world’s governments pushed crippling Covid restrictions on their people, the Scandinavian nation’s state epidemiologist stood apart. Allison Pearson meets him. [Daily Telegraph, March 25, 2023]

    ‘In all discussions we had, the mental health of children featured very highly’

    If you can keep your head when all about you, are losing theirs and blaming it on you… Rudyard Kipling

    In March 2020, as, one by one, every country in the Western world succumbed to panic and imposed a lockdown on its population, Sweden’s state epidemiologist held his nerve and stuck to the plan. The Swedish people would be given sensible advice and told to work from home wherever possible, but apart from a ban on gatherings over 50 and a few rules for restaurants, any Covid measures were entirely voluntary.

    Anders Tegnell simply didn’t think the evidence supported a lockdown. A veteran of the swine flu pandemic who had worked with Ebola, the 63-year-old doctor wasn’t going to do something unproven because a lot of over-heated people were yelling at him to do it.

    This was Sweden’s first piece of good luck. Years earlier, Tegnell had been talent-spotted by Johan Giesecke, who had held the title of state epidemiologist himself. Giesecke singled out the young medic for his character which he praised as “apolitical – one of those people who did what they were supposed to without reflecting too much on what was expedient or politically viable at the time”.

    Tegnell possessed the same cool detachment that made his fellow Swede, Bjorn Borg, a great champion. He even shared the tennis star’s mantra: “Ice in the stomach.”

    Such qualities were to prove invaluable on the lonely and hugely controversial course that Tegnell charted through the pandemic.

    It was to become known as the “Swedish Experiment”. Reviled internationally, Tegnell was accused of playing Russian roulette with his population. He was a eugenicist, they said, who “doesn’t care if people die”.

    But, as a quietly modest but firmly unrepentant Tegnell told me when we met recently at the university in his home town of Linköping, it wasn’t Sweden that had opted for a vast experiment called lockdown.

    “If you go back to the Spanish flu (1918-19), you can find instances when they tried to lock things down,” he says. “But in all the pandemic plans we have been discussing during the last decades, closing down a society has never even been on the agenda.”

    Shutting down could be of benefit for a short while, he concedes. “I mean, if you know that your healthcare system needs a few weeks to ramp up the ICU and so on, there are instances when such things can be a solution.”

    Normally, though, you wouldn’t go down that route because an airborne respiratory virus was going to sweep through the population anyway. The best you could hope for was to slow it down while protecting the vulnerable.

    Weighing things up with his team at the Public Health Agency in Stockholm, Tegnell reckoned that the cost of lockdown – to the economy, children, education, general health and wellbeing – would be horrifyingly high. So why does he think the other countries went for it?

    Tegnell reckons it was the brutal Chinese crackdown in Wuhan that inspired Western governments. “China is, of course, a state where [draconian] things like that can be done,” he says.

    “And it did work to a certain extent. So, for a while, there was an idea that we should have very strict measures. Bring the hammer down hard and then take the hammer away and then let it slowly build up again and then, Bam! But that never worked.”

    Tegnell’s craggy visage cracks a rueful smile. “We learn quite soon that it’s easy to start having different kind of restrictions, but it’s very difficult to stop having them.”

    It sure is when you know the virus will come roaring back. That was one problem lockdown advocates failed to foresee. To a remarkable extent, scared people (the British were deliberately and professionally frightened by government psychologists, remember) fell in love with their Corona captivity. And that, in a nutshell, is how every country in Europe ended up suffering from Stockholm Syndrome while, in Stockholm, life went on.

    Tegnell points proudly to mobile phone records which indicate that Swedes chose to restrict travel and social activities which were criminalised elsewhere. If Tegnell was right, and it was fine for family members to see each other, for children to run around in playgrounds, were the British people victims of wrongful imprisonment?

    It is three years since the then prime minister made a solemn TV announcement telling the British people: “You must stay at home,” but what exactly was “the science” behind only being allowed outside once a day? (Swedes were being told it was safest to be outdoors. Swedish national parks had never had so many visitors, Tegnell says.) Few dared ask. The scientists who broadly agreed with the Swedish approach, like Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Carl Heneghan, were either slandered or silenced.

    “Three weeks to flatten the curve,” turned into months of restrictions.

    Sweden became hugely important to those of us who thought lockdown was bound to do more harm than good. The name Tegnell acquired an almost talismanic power.

    By the end of the first week of March 2020, as restrictions deepened across the world, Tegnell’s stoical, light-touch approach came under fire at home from other scientists and senior figures in the media. The political editor-in-chief of Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s newspaper of record, tweeted that children being told to go back to the classroom after the February break was incomprehensible.

    The pressure mounted when neighbouring Denmark and Norway closed all schools on the 11th and 12th respectively. Still, Tegnell resisted. Over-16s and university students would move to remote learning, he agreed, but in the early morning of March 13, Johan Giesecke emailed his protege a single line of Latin: “An necsis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?” (Don’t you know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?)

    The two veteran epidemiologists were privately aghast. “The world has gone mad,” Tegnell told colleagues. “The fact that the politicians then went as far as they did with so little evidence about what kind of effects they would get… In Sweden, it’s even written into the law that the health care should be driven by evidence-based medicine and that was so quickly left behind in other places.”

    This was Sweden’s second stroke of luck, I think. The country’s constitution forbids politicians from making public health decisions and gives all the power to the Public Health Agency. Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s prime minister, was kept in the loop along with other ministers, but they played no part in the 2pm daily press briefings. Those were led by Tegnell, who rapidly acquired the status of national hero. That craggy face was printed on T-shirts; the young even sported Tegnell tattoos.

    Tegnell is not a demonstrative man, but he cannot hide his delight when I mention that I heard his wife got a large bouquet to thank her “for lending him to us”. “Yes, and there were lots delivered to my building. Public health agencies don’t so often get flowers,” he smiles. (There were darker times too… Until recently, Tegnell had two bodyguards following threats to his life on social media from conspiracy theorists of all stripes).

    Basically, it was quite simple. Tegnell trusted the people and they rewarded him for treating them like grown-ups by trusting him right back. Huge public confidence in the state epidemiologist only took a dent when the second Covid wave proved to be bigger than he’d hoped. (Even then, when he finally suggested that masks should be worn on public transport, only 15 per cent of travellers bothered. If Tegnell didn’t think masks were much cop then neither did Swedes).

    Tegnell is not an easy man to read – he has the unrushed impassivity of a taciturn sheriff in a Western – but he is visibly taken aback when I tell him that we had a group in the UK called SPI-B (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour) which said that, in order to increase adherence to social distancing measures, the “perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased”. “I’m a great believer that most people are reasonably sane and if you give them good information about what they can do and the possible threat that they might experience, they usually make good choices,” he responds. “In Sweden, we try to inform people about what we know and what we don’t know and what kind of things that can be done and that can have some kind of reasonable effect on the risk for you as an individual or a risk for your family.”

    It could all have been so different. Until March 23, 2020, the UK was following the same mitigation (“squash the sombrero”) strategy as Sweden. “Wonderful, isn’t it?” Tegnell had replied just a few days earlier when a colleague emailed him a Youtube clip of Boris Johnson and Sir Patrick Vallance explaining that they didn’t want to prevent everyone getting the virus because immunity must be allowed to build up in the population.

    All that changed after a report on March 16 by Professor Neil Ferguson and Imperial College predicted that letting the virus spread freely in the UK without any measure being taken would result in 510,000 deaths.

    Almost overnight, the previously uncontroversial concept of herd immunity – flokk immunitet in Swedish – and educating the public so they could assess their own risk became a callous idea and anyone who believed in it was a Granny Killer. Was Tegnell disappointed by the British U-turn? “I think everybody did the best they could in the circumstances” he says.

    “Of course, it’s always nice to have somebody else who thinks and does about the same as you do because then you can share experience and become much better.”

    Tegnell is far more critical of the Neil Ferguson report which, he points out was not even peer-reviewed.

    “We had worked with modelling quite a lot in our agency and I think we knew very much about both the strengths and the weaknesses. It can be a very nice tool if you use it the right way. But if you model with data that is not of very high reliability, the results can be very, very tricky and you need to be very cautious. If you put numbers into models and you don’t know those numbers are fairly much correct, you can arrive at very, very strange results. You need to weigh together different sources of science and then you can maybe arrive at something that’s reasonably, hopefully true,” Tegnell continues, “But to rely very much on just one study, one model, that’s quite dangerous.”

    Dangerous? Was Boris hustled into lockdown on the basis of a worse-case scenario that wasn’t double-checked against real-world evidence before the country was shut down for months?

    Of course, Tegnell wasn’t perfect. A failure to act faster to protect care homes is among his biggest regrets. There were systemic problems with nursing care in Sweden even before the pandemic, he explains, but the health experts should have done more to stem the high number of deaths.

    What Tegnell got right was never directing hospitals to discontinue non-Covid care (as happened in the NHS) and digging his heels in to protect children who were at remarkably little risk from Covid (”I have never known a virus with a clearer age profile”). With every other European country closing its schools, why was keeping them open so important to him?

    “In all the discussions we had, mental health of children was very high because we know that, if they are not able to go to school, mental health will deteriorate. There’s lots of studies and evidence around that. And we also knew that one of the major problems with public health in Sweden [before the pandemic] was the mental health among the young. So, we didn’t want to hurt that any more than we already did.”

    The Lancet estimated that the bill for closing British schools for 12 weeks was one per cent of GDP because so many parents would need to stay home. But that wasn’t the true bill. Not even close. Among the hidden costs were almost 100,000 “ghost” children who never returned to the classroom and over a million youngsters now on a waiting list for mental health services.

    Karl Lauterbach, Germany’s fervent lockdown chief, recently said that closing schools was “a bad mistake” and some Covid restrictions were “idiotic”. Does Tegnell think we are seeing an admission that lockdown did indeed cause the horrifying collateral damage that he foresaw? He nods slowly. “Yes, I think we are in a period of review and reevaluation and schools are such a good example because it’s so clear that the benefits were basically none and the damage you could do was so extensive.”

    “F ****** Sweden argument,” ranted Matt Hancock on WhatsApp, asking aides to “supply three or four bullets [points] of why Sweden is wrong”.

    Our then health secretary wasn’t interested in whether Tegnell might be on to something with his determination to keep the public calm and well informed instead of “frighten the pants off them”, which was the preferred Hancock strategy. If Sweden started to do well it would simply be unwanted evidence that Hancock and lockdown had been wrong.

    The PM and Rishi Sunak had held a secret Zoom meeting with Tegnell and professors Gupta and Heneghan in September 2020 to hear their take on a potential “circuit-breaker lockdown”. Tegnell says he was “a bit surprised” to be asked. His impression was that Boris and Rishi were “quite open” to hearing it was a bad idea. Hancock was furious when he found out the lockdown sceptics had the ear of the PM.

    After a shaky start (in May 2020, the country had the highest Covid-19 death rate in the world), Sweden did start to do well. Very well. Embarrassingly well. Critics who had crowed about its early high Covid mortality fell silent. As I write, Sweden has the lowest rate of excess deaths of any European country (that’s how many more people die every month compared to normal). It may not be the very lowest once you standardise for age and pre-pandemic trends, but it’s still an astonishing achievement.

    Is Tegnell happy that it looks increasingly like the verdict of history will be that Sweden defied the Western lockdown consensus and was vindicated? “I don’t really like to be called vindicated,” he says, “because this is not a competition. This is about public health. It’s about trying to do your best to keep your population as healthy as they possibly can be during a health crisis.” Besides, the data can be tricky and needs more scrutiny, he thinks.

    Sweden has already concluded its Covid-19 Inquiry (the one the UK has hardly begun). In the final report, which was published in February 2022, the National Commission found that the voluntary measures adopted under the direction of Tegnell were appropriate and maintained Swedes’ personal freedom during the pandemic. However, earlier, more extensive measures should have been taken, especially during the first wave. What the Commission didn’t comment on is the invaluable role that Tegnell and his country played in countering the global madness.

    “The world hid its uncertainty by scolding Sweden,” Preben Aavistland, Norway’s director of public health, observed recently. What characterises many of the Nobel winners in science is that they challenged the orthodoxies of their era and stood up for what they believed the evidence proved. Might Tegnell be awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine? A fanciful thought, but this son of Sweden undeniably became a remarkable one-man rebuke to the folly of other nations.

    As a doctor, he tells me you must always think of the impact of any action on all of your patients, not just a few. As we are saying goodbye, I tell him “Tegnell, you are a legend. If there’s another pandemic, I’m moving to Sweden.” What Tegnell did in the spring of 2020 will be valued and discussed long after he is gone. He didn’t need to do things to make him look like a strong man. He was a strong man.

    1. Why did more people here not object they just did as they were told. Very sad.

      1. Many British people aged 50 and upwards receive repeat prescriptions, thus are chronically ill, and their younger relations would have felt responsible if they themselves had knowingly infected Nan & Grandad.

        1. I look at it in a different way. We take that risk with flu and similar all our lives and covid was no different and they knew it. Thats Johnson and the rest of them.

    3. It seemed at first as though Boris Johnson wanted to avoid a lockdown, but he lost his nerve, especially since most other countries were locking down. Did Hancock have a disproportionate effect on the decision? If so, he has a lot to answer for.

    4. Focused Logic and humanity is something that has been slipped under the British carpet. And that’s one of the reasons the door is been jammed open for close to 26 years.

    6. Thing is, the modelling was deliberately inaccurate. Remember the chairman of the SAGE modelling committee admitted to Fraser Nelson on Twitter that they delivered what the government requested. Also, the upper classes didn’t succumb to fear. They carried on as normal. Hence partying in Downing Street etc.

    1. One of the annointed’s favourite groups cannot be challenged. It leaves them in absolute doublethink when two favoured groups turn on one another.

      Can you imagine if a Muslim were to blow themselves up in a gay club? The Lefty media silence would be absolute!

      1. Didn’t that happen somewhere in the US. A gunman rather than a bomb I think but essentially the same. The msm just trotted out the usual lone wolf nothing to do with Islam rubbish.

    2. Daily Mail says that
      Mohammed Abbkr is from Birmingham but originally from the Sudan. Time for for Stig to investigate and clarify.

      1. Another “Brit” with a cornflake packet passport. Yeah, Brummies are traditionally known for setting people on fire…

    3. I bet the media were rubbing their hands with glee when they first heard the story.
      They must have been so disappointed.

  38. That was exciting. Weekend chores mostly done – all washing/washing up gathered and in the machines / drying by the sink, plastic collected for recycling, paper in a heap waiting for me to get the bin, bottles & cans collected together waiting to go out… now I’m knackered, and having a coffee to recover.
    SWMBO & SEcond Son out buying furniture for his new flat, then food shopping (including urgent trip to Wine Monopoly( = offie) yet to go.

        1. Ah, but at least you have the thrill of trombetti, Bill. They might come alive and strangle you as you sleep… :-O

        1. Haven’t touched the vacuum yet, that’s the Polish Weronika’s job – the racing snake who can run between raindrops…

        2. Problem with all the recycling is where do you put it all before it can be cycled? Paper, plastic, deposit bottles & cans, non-deposit bottles & cans… each separated and with the normal throw-away rubbish and food/organic, needs half a house for storage until collection/shopping trip for recycling. Sigh…

          2. When we moved in here we requested our own recycling bin from the council. It’s just outside the back door so I can stand on the step and hurl the empties etc into it. Both bins are emptied every two weeks and we can always tell when our recycling bin is being done;-))

          3. Our council admits to only recycling 19% of what we put in the recycle bins. The rest goes to landfill. I can’t be bothered with washing out tins or peering at the small print to see if an item is recyclable.

            If they can’t be bothered then neither can I.

    4. Oh get you…..😇want to pop across and do ours while we are sitting at Tottenham stadium watching the rugger buggers ?

    1. The hypocrite who didn’t take part in or vote about tyrannies demands because he was under instructions/pressure from his ‘community.’

        1. To make her pretend she was carrying “the” suitcase with the H-Bomb button in it?

    2. Oh dear – what would his “community” have to say…. ? Off with his head??

      1. Slammers are all “brothers” unless, of course, they are the wrong kind of slammer. Then they kill each other.

  40. Thought for the day.
    I wonder how altered the Quran would look if the woke police did to it what they are doing to other works of fiction and various old films and TV series.

    The difference is that the Muslims would literally kill the perpetrators, everyone else is just required to accept it.

    1. The Koran (or Quran or Qur’an – can’t they make up their minds?) was, according to Muslims, orally revealed by God to the final prophet, Muhammad, through the archangel Gabriel and is the literal word of God. It therefore cannot be changed, altered or re-interpreted. This is why there will be no Reformation of Islam.

      2. One little difficulty – Mo was illiterate. He must have had a wonderful memory or have been wired – like the race-baiter who set up Lady Susan Hussey.

        1. Muhammad (Or Mohammed or Mahomet – they can’t make up their minds about his name, either) was supposed to have companions who acted as scribes, who had written down or memorized parts of it. What if they misheard, or forgot something?

          Islam is a plagiarised concoction of Judaism and Christianity, but without the redemptive and loving message.

          1. “..Christianity, but without the redemptive and loving message….” Like: “Burn them at the stake”?

            Just asking…{:¬))

          2. Jesus told his followers to love their enemies. Mohammed told his followers to kill them. Christians who burned heretics were disobeying Christ’s orders, but Muslims who blow up innocent people are following Mohammed’s instructions.

          4. But that is a common criticism of Christianity e.g. the Inquisition, the Religious Wars of the 16th and 17th Centuries – “Religion is responsible for millions of deaths”. If his followers had obeyed Christ’s instructions, none of that would have happened, but mankind is flawed.

          5. We did have a Reformation, and subsequent gradual toning down of the rhetoric (except for some people who used religion for their own political ends, like certain Irish politicos).

          7. Yes it is counted as one of the Abrahamic religions. Strangely enough, since it vilifies both Judaism and Christianity. But then Mo wasn’t that much of a thinker, was he?

            Strange that his companions were invariably there when he was receiving the message. direct from Allah. Maybe Big A. takes note of toilet/sex/sleep breaks when declaring his message.

      3. One little difficulty – Mo was illiterate. He must have had a wonderful memory or have been wired – like the race-baiter who set up Lady Susan Hussey.

      6. It doesn’t seem to have advanced a single Millimeter from its origins. It has no real concept of the modern world. And the aim is to drag every one else back to its beginnings in the year 610 . They need to be encouraged to leave.

      7. The Reformation of the Church took it back towards Jesus’s teachings….if you took the koran back towards Muhammed’s teaching there’d be a bloodbath.

  41. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Howzat

    This is something to think about when negative people are doing their best to rain on your parade…

    So remember this story the next time

    A woman was at her hairdresser’s getting her hair styled for a trip to Rome with her husband.
    She mentioned the trip to the hairdresser, who responded:
    “Rome? Why would anyone want to go there? It’s crowded and dirty. You’re crazy to go to Rome. So, how are you getting there?”

    “We’re taking Continental,” was the reply. “We got a great rate!”

    “Continental?” exclaimed the hairdresser. “That’s a terrible airline. Their planes are old, their flight attendants are ugly, and they’re always late. So, where are you staying in Rome?”

    “We’ll be at this exclusive little place over on Rome’s Tiber River. It’s called Teste.”

    “Don’t go any further. I know that place. Everybody thinks it’s gonna be something special and exclusive, but it’s really a dump.”

    “We’re going to go to see the Vatican and maybe get to see the Pope.”

    “That’s rich,” laughed the hairdresser. “You and a million other people trying to see him. He’ll look the size of an ant. Boy, good luck on this lousy trip of yours. You’re going to need it.”

    A month later, the woman again came in for a hairdo.

    The hairdresser asked her about her trip to Rome.
    “It was wonderful,” explained the woman, “not only were we on time in one of Continental’s brand-new planes, but it was overbooked, and they bumped us up to first class. The food and wine were wonderful, and I had a handsome 28-year-old steward who waited on me hand and foot. And the hotel was great! They’d just finished a $5 million remodelling job, and now it’s a jewel, the finest hotel in the city. They, too, were overbooked, so they apologised and gave us their owner’s suite at no extra charge!”

    “Well,” muttered the hairdresser, “that’s all well and good, but I know you didn’t get to see the Pope.”

    “Actually, we were quite lucky, because as we toured the Vatican, a Swiss Guard tapped me on the shoulder, and explained that the Pope likes to meet some of the visitors, and if I’d be so kind as to step into his private room and wait, the Pope would personally greet me. Sure enough, five minutes later, the Pope walked through the door and shook my hand! I knelt down and he spoke a few words to me.”

    “Oh, really! What’d he say?”

    He said: “Who fucked up your hair?”

  42. The government is set to announce new plans to move migrants out of hotels and into disused ferries and military bases.

    The announcement is expected to be coming within weeks, after ministers expressed a wish to end the hotel accommodation scheme for migrants arriving in the UK.

    It comes as the Conservative Party prepares to launch a huge rebellion against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s illegal migration bill next week, with a number of senior party members signing an amendment that would omit any role for the European Court of Human Rights in the matter.

    Sunak’s legislation will be scrutinised by the Commons on Monday and Tuesday – with reports that the prime minister will be meeting potential rebels in the coming days

    2. Omit any role for the ECHR. For goodness sake. These people are either fools, or liars. They have NO CHOICE. The state has forced the ECHR on us, in fact, it has pushed us ever further under it’s control with the windosr agreement. What MPs want is irrelevant. They’ve ensured that. This is the consequence of their arrogance.

  43. Went to a posh do at the Guildhall last night. Barts 900 Banquet. Fortunately I didn’t know till I got home that the button loop on the back neck of my new frock had broken and it was hanging open. Had a lace shawl round my shoulders so hopefully that covered the damage.

    I’d hoped to be sitting with people I know from the church but found myself placed on a hospital table. The upshot is that my companions for the evening were a retired couple, a nurse and doctor who told me that he “comes from the era of real doctors”. They’re nottler generation and not at all impressed with the present state of the NHS. We agreed that those born during and in the period immediately following WWII have experienced the best of times and what’s happening now is regressive.

    1. Hope you had a decent meal – and lots to drink. Did you stay overnight in the City or travel home?

      Hope also you signed your table companions up to NoTTL. We need new blood – especially medical blood.

      1. The food was good. Main course beef – Barts is in Smithfield after all. The invitation said Carriages 10.30 but I was lucky. Hopped on a Central Line train before it turned into a pumpkin.

          1. Lots of photos were taken. Hopefully they’ll be published and shared.

            Not heard anything further about the fire but will ask. It took out two flats and some burning debris hit the church but no damage done. Nothing said thus far about the cause.

    3. Regressive and repressive.

      Bet you were relieved they were not brainwashed unthinking people. What did you eat?

          2. Oh No!!! Whatever did you do wrong to deserve Nurse Mullally? (delighted to see that they misspelled her name)

          4. Did Marcus Walker give a good speech?
            Hope you had a glass of water handy for the first toast…

          6. I bet Marcus was good and funny; Chartres – his usual up-himself self; and the Lord Mayor tedious!

        3. That would keep me occupied for an evening.

          They do write so much silliness on menus these days.

          ‘Rare Breed Pedigree Hereford’…..there are farsands of pedigree Herefords all over the place.

          2. I enjoy fundraisers at my local Spanish restaurant. Antonio gives £5 for every diner and there is an auction and a raffle. I always seem to do well with the raffle so i’m generous with the auction.
            I donated a painting last time which i bid on. The other bidders dropped out when it got to £40 so rather comically as he asked if there were any more bids, i bid against myself upto £50 and took the painting home.

    4. The association dinner i belonged to was a hoot. I asked the three people seated opposite me what they did for a living. Nurse, Doctor, Undertaker. I’m afraid i was unable to suppress my guffaws.

          2. It was when i was selling personal security equipment and alarms. The NHS were good customers. No one died !

      2. When I was teaching in Manchester, we did a few performances of Oliver! As you know, Oliver is sent to work for Mr Sowerbury, the undertaker. One of my stage hands dad was an undertaker and he loaned us a coffin. The art dept had already knocked up a couple but this was the real thing. Gawd, it weighed a ton. The girls asked me if he’d left a body in it.
        Trying to move the damned thing on and off stage quietly was well nigh impossible and I hope the audience were amused by all the grunts and huffing and puffing from behind the curtains. And the giggles because girls that age, 16, will giggle at anything. As, in this case, did the teacher.

    5. Gosh, my son and Dr wife were there. Hope you didnt bump into any lager filled young man in DJ!

    6. You’re right – we have lived through the best of times. Young people now will never know the freedom we had as children, and the “Swinging sixties”. The world’s a very different place now.

  44. I’ve just been asked by my GP’s surgery to complete an on line survey, supposedly to find out my needs for “out of hours” appointments. The first question was whether i had ever been offered a GP appointment between the jours of 18:30 and 20:00. The remaining questions were about my age, gender (sic), marital status, religion and skin colour.

    I know there is a box to tick for “prefer not to say”. But what I want is a box to tick that says “none of your damned business”.

    Grrr

    1. Ah – but if you refuse or “spoil the paper” – that will enable them to say that there is “no demand”….and provide even less in future.

    2. Is there a section for additional comments? You could put it in that, if there is such a thing.

    3. I received a text from our surgery to say they didn’t have a BP reading from me for the last five years. I ignored it.

        1. It doesn’t surprise me. Having said that they have looked after OH well and I’ve no complaints about that. But I’m sure they’d find all sorts wrong with me and I’d rather stay out of their clutches. I’m on no medication and I want to stay that way as long as possible.

  45. 372537+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    After creating the problem costing millions & mounting at 6 million a day the overseers are now planning to house the illegals on disused airfields housing.

    That must mean surely that the indigenous social housing waiting list is no longer with us, is so, well done,if that is not the case then the peoples have been well done, AGAIN.

    If it tis the latter that then begs the question WHY does this anti GB coalition still find support ?

      1. 372537+ up ticks,

        Afternoon AS,
        They can hate us more from afar, say brussels, their choice being from the very very angry department of the peoples RESET party, must be, relocate to brussels or the villa ( Pentonville) long term lock-down.

    2. All that was needed from the outset was a 10ft chainlink fence, two layers, electrified, open to the elements with armed guards. Put them in there, one meal a day, some sort of bacon broth.

      Which is what the French did. Why were we forced to waste billions – taxes not for criminal invaders who should never have been allowed to land here in the first place.

  46. New bill could see wolf-whistling be punishable with a two-year prison sentence
    The changes, proposed by Home Secretary Suella Braverman is expected to create new street harassment laws and will mean that offenders can not avoid prosecution by saying they didn’t know their behaviour was harassment
    If the proposal were to go through it would mean that anyone who catcalls, wolf-whistles, or makes a sexual comment in passing that could be considered harassment will not be able to claim their actions were of joking or complementary behaviour.

    A key person behind the bill, Labour MP Stella Creasy (An unmarried mother of two shacking up with a fellow socialist-activist).

    Two years! That’s more than you get for armed robbery or trafficking drugs. Must be really hurtful being whistled at!!!

    2. My mum was a sassy lady. She enjoyed being whistled at. She would then sashay her way down the street. Much to the amusement of the builders/scaffolders.

      1. and Fizz, have you followed in her footsteps…..

        There are lady builders now , but some will have hidden ‘rools’

    3. Didn’t you know, that feminists are so irresistible that they can’t set foot outside the door without hordes of men appearing and whistling at them?

    5. “Must be really hurtful being whistled at” – dunno, it’s never happened.

  47. Ode to the sheep asleep
    By
    John Ellwood
    -March 25, 2023

    What will it take
    For you sheep to awake?

    They re-branded flu
    Sold it to you

    Medical clowns
    Imposed lockdowns

    Must wear a mask
    Do what they ask

    Give them your arm
    ‘There’ll be no harm’

    What will it take
    For you sheep to awake?

    They gave you war
    Who knows what for?

    They derailed trains
    To heighten pains

    They control news
    No chance to choose

    No need to vote
    Change is remote

    What will it take
    For you sheep to awake?

    The climate scam
    Part of their plan

    Stay where you’re put
    Or travel on foot

    Attempt to flee
    Lose CBDC

    Take another jab
    You’re in the rat lab

    Slave labour is cheap
    They want you asleep
    For all our kids’ sake
    Awake! Awake!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/ode-to-the-sheep-asleep/

      1. I don’t know, but she is spot on. It is so refreshing to hear someone saying exactly how it is.

    3. Jenny Jones is an odd one. Fully signed up to the worst of Green Party nonsense but an EU Leaver.

      I bet she’ll be all in favour of banning protests if they’re anti-Net Zero

  49. I read this story in absolute jaw-dropping disbelief

    A left-run city council in Britain has vowed that

    it will never again put a child in the care of a paedophile again after

    authorities were exposed for doing just that, leading to a young girl

    being sexually abused for years and ultimately impregnated.

    Labour Party-controlled Leeds City Council has been

    forced to pledge that it will increase safeguards to prevent a repeat of

    the case of “Ruby”, a vulnerable local girl who was put into the care of a known paedophile by a family court on the advice of the local authority

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/03/25/council-vows-to-not-place-children-in-the-care-of-paedophiles-again-after-girl-was-impregnated-by-legal-guardian/
    Loads of sackings and resignations??
    Oh how we laughed

    2. Some 20 years ago, my jaw would have dropped in disbelief.
      Nowadays? It remains in place.

  50. Nelson Piquet fined £780k for racist and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton. 25 March 2023

    The Brazilian three-times Formula One champion Nelson Piquet must pay 5m reals (£780k) in moral damages for racist and homophobic comments about Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, a Brazilian court ruled on Friday.

    In an interview in November 2021, Piquet used a Portuguese racial slur in reference to the seven-times world champion when commenting on Hamilton’s crash with Max Verstappen at the British Grand Prix.

    Fortunately they cannot yet fine us for what we think!

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/mar/25/nelson-piquet-fined-lewis-hamilton-comments-f1

    2. The Race Relations Act of the mid sixties, has denied us the
      Right to Freedom of Speech and Opinion for sixty years now….

      1. For decades, the ‘progressive’ Left have tried to control language to control thought. If you remove the ability to speak your mind, all that’s left is their accepted dogma.

        Some examples – progressive (backward), liberal (authoritarian), refugees (criminal immigrants), antifa (fascists), Nazi (normal person), racist (I don’t like what you’re saying). the Great leap forward (mass slaughter), a European union (protectionist communist soviet era bloc).

        It is classic doublethink. The inside of the Left wing mind is a bonkers web of cognitive dissonance.

  52. Here is a rare picture of the man who did more than anyone to guide Britain through the Second World War and to finally win . . . No, not Churchill, the General next to him, Churchill’s closest adviser, Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke.

    “Despite their many disagreements Brooke and Churchill held an affection for each other. After one fierce clash Churchill told his chief of staff and military adviser, General Ismay, that he did not think he could continue to work any longer with Brooke because “he hates me. I can see hatred looking from his eyes.” Brooke responded to Ismay: “Hate him? I don’t hate him. I love him. But the first time I tell him that I agree with him when I don’t will be the time to get rid of me, for then I can be no more use to him.” When Churchill was told this he murmured, “Dear Brookie.”
    The partnership between Brooke and Churchill was a very successful one and led Britain to victory in 1945. According to historian Max Hastings, their partnership “created the most efficient machine for the higher direction of the war possessed by any combatant nation.”

    I was proud to be one of those lining the route at his funeral. A truly unknown hero – we could do with the likes of Alanbrooke now.

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsAD2wSXwCcb8TU?format=jpg&name=small

  54. America is being consumed by a terrifying new madness. Douglas Murray 25 March 2023.

    New York has been in a strange fever this past week, awaiting the imminent arrest of former president Trump. Or at least we were told that it was imminent. Trump himself told his followers that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday. But Tuesday came and went and no arrest happened. The media was camped outside the state courthouse downtown, and on a street parallel to Trump Tower row upon row of police cars and security service vehicles loitered, waiting.

    What were they all doing? Well, one explanation is that Trump called for his supporters to turn out and protest his arrest. Because nobody can think of a time when Trump called for his supporters to turn out to protest and anything bad happened, right?

    But if the police were loitering for Trump supporters, they were in the wrong place. New York is not a Republican city and New Yorkers themselves do not have any special love for Trump. You could say that New Yorkers looked down on Trump long before the rest of the world got into the habit. They are pioneers in the field.

    What seemed to be occurring was some kind of negotiation. A negotiation between prosecutors, the secret service who protect the former president, and the local New York police. What seems to have been under discussion is the manner of the arrest.

    In a nation more than used to surprises, the details of this might still startle some. For instance, you might expect that Trump and his team would want to avoid any scene that humiliates the former president. But sources this week claimed that Trump actually wants to be handcuffed and for this to be caught on film. He believes that these images will rile up his base and help trampoline his run for the presidency in 2024. It is a high-risk strategy, but then Trump is a master of high risk.

    What this looks like in the wider country is a wholly different matter. For some Americans, the idea that the former president could face a courtroom and perhaps even a jail cell over the Stormy Daniels scandal is preposterous. It is alleged that Trump paid hush money to the adult film star from campaign funds, whereas it should have been paid from his personal funds. “So what?”, many people think. Of all the things that might disbar Trump from running for office again, the idea that this should do for him seems bizarre.

    Rumour has it that the local district attorney may be starting to worry about this himself. There is word that he is concerned about the strength of the case. And so he should be. For the only thing more disastrous for America than Trump being hauled to court in handcuffs would be for this to happen only for Trump to get off. His Left-wing opponents think – hope – that this is impossible. But it is eminently possible. And in that situation Trump can present himself not only as a victim of deep state enmity but as a martyr. Someone who has had to put up with efforts to unseat him from the moment he won the 2016 election.

    He isn’t wrong on the political persecution. Whatever you think of Donald Trump, it is undeniable that political opponents within the system tried to destroy him from the moment that he broke the Republican Party machine and gained office. For the duration of his presidency, there were endless efforts to indict him and impeach him. These included the fabricated claims about Russian collusion and much more. Investigations showed that these added up to what Americans call a “nothing-burger”. But elements within the intelligence community, among others, looked like they were trying to do something deeply undemocratic.

    That perception remains among Trump’s base. He is still ahead in the polls among Republican voters, and in part this is because they see him as a fighter – their fighter – against the “deep state”. These people recognise that Trump is no saint, but they believe that he is a bruiser and that the country needs a bruiser to take on the vested interests, the deep state and much more.

    But if this seems mad, it certainly isn’t much madder than anything else going on in America at present. At the very moment that the Chinese Communist Party is ostentatiously trying to replace America as the global superpower, America itself is in a mess. At the local level, the quality of state governments and city governance is at an all-time low. San Francisco has fallen through the floor with drug problems, rife homelessness and more. But at this juncture the local authorities are seriously discussing the prospect of distributing reparations for slavery, which ended two centuries ago.

    Entire states – notably California – are taxing themselves into poverty, chasing out the super-rich and slowly strangling the goose that laid the golden egg. The country’s intellectual class has largely been replaced by a type of noisy huckster pundit who throws out incendiary claims about the iniquities of the country and are well remunerated for doing so. Supreme Court judges cannot say what a woman is. Law students are walking out of the most prestigious law schools if they think they might hear an opinion they disagree with. And all of this is presided over by a president who is clearly, visibly, ailing but who is pretending that he is going to stay in office for another six years.

    It is strange. Because on many measures – notably economic – America is doing considerably better than Britain or Europe. The authorities have brought down inflation, and fuel prices and other commodities with it. You might look at the nation’s spreadsheets and come to the conclusion that things are on track and maybe even normal. The problem is that in city after city you only have to look out of the window – or study the crime rates – to know this is not the case.

    Through a bewildering number of techniques the world’s leading democracy is driving itself mad. The sub-text of the Trump indictment is whether it is also prepared to drive itself off the cliff.

    One of Douglas Murray’s better articles and they are pretty good anyway. There’s no doubt that the West, never mind America, has lost its marbles. Its Elites are literally killing it off in paroxysm’s of self-hatred and loathing. Even if Ukraine doesn’t end in Armageddon that civilisation that has created almost everything worthwhile will be gone in another twenty years. The UK of course even sooner.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/25/america-consumed-terrifying-new-madness/

      3. Be fair. China runs Canada now and many news stories are about Chinese influence. It really is easy to mix the two up.

        Latest episode in Chinese interference:
        Security services were apparently monitoring phone calls being made by a Chinese origin MP. Just before the last election the traitor in conversation with a chinese attaché, was heard to suggest that China should not release two Canadian businessmen being illegally held in prison.
        The information was suppressed and that person was reelected.

    2. When my brother lived in San Francisco, and one of the reasons why he left to go to Nevada, was because, “Californians just hate each other.“

    3. Part of the reason why the US is doing well relative to Europe is that they stole all the German heavy industry when “the Ukrainians” bombed NordStream !

      All is not lost because they are losing their status as top economic power – the world has managed perfectly well before when there were several superpowers. Oh, but they’d have to behave themselves instead of bombing and shooting up any country with oil.

      1. I thought the Russians did it? Or was it the Americans? Maybe some French protestors.

        The comedy is how little fuss was made of critical infrastructure. It’s almost – almost – comical the lengths the state goes to to lie about the politicking and blame game rather than admit the malice and spite of supposed ‘friends’.

  55. America is being consumed by a terrifying new madness. Douglas Murray 25 March 2023.

    New York has been in a strange fever this past week, awaiting the imminent arrest of former president Trump. Or at least we were told that it was imminent. Trump himself told his followers that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday. But Tuesday came and went and no arrest happened. The media was camped outside the state courthouse downtown, and on a street parallel to Trump Tower row upon row of police cars and security service vehicles loitered, waiting.

    What were they all doing? Well, one explanation is that Trump called for his supporters to turn out and protest his arrest. Because nobody can think of a time when Trump called for his supporters to turn out to protest and anything bad happened, right?

    But if the police were loitering for Trump supporters, they were in the wrong place. New York is not a Republican city and New Yorkers themselves do not have any special love for Trump. You could say that New Yorkers looked down on Trump long before the rest of the world got into the habit. They are pioneers in the field.

    What seemed to be occurring was some kind of negotiation. A negotiation between prosecutors, the secret service who protect the former president, and the local New York police. What seems to have been under discussion is the manner of the arrest.

    In a nation more than used to surprises, the details of this might still startle some. For instance, you might expect that Trump and his team would want to avoid any scene that humiliates the former president. But sources this week claimed that Trump actually wants to be handcuffed and for this to be caught on film. He believes that these images will rile up his base and help trampoline his run for the presidency in 2024. It is a high-risk strategy, but then Trump is a master of high risk.

    What this looks like in the wider country is a wholly different matter. For some Americans, the idea that the former president could face a courtroom and perhaps even a jail cell over the Stormy Daniels scandal is preposterous. It is alleged that Trump paid hush money to the adult film star from campaign funds, whereas it should have been paid from his personal funds. “So what?”, many people think. Of all the things that might disbar Trump from running for office again, the idea that this should do for him seems bizarre.

    Rumour has it that the local district attorney may be starting to worry about this himself. There is word that he is concerned about the strength of the case. And so he should be. For the only thing more disastrous for America than Trump being hauled to court in handcuffs would be for this to happen only for Trump to get off. His Left-wing opponents think – hope – that this is impossible. But it is eminently possible. And in that situation Trump can present himself not only as a victim of deep state enmity but as a martyr. Someone who has had to put up with efforts to unseat him from the moment he won the 2016 election.

    He isn’t wrong on the political persecution. Whatever you think of Donald Trump, it is undeniable that political opponents within the system tried to destroy him from the moment that he broke the Republican Party machine and gained office. For the duration of his presidency, there were endless efforts to indict him and impeach him. These included the fabricated claims about Russian collusion and much more. Investigations showed that these added up to what Americans call a “nothing-burger”. But elements within the intelligence community, among others, looked like they were trying to do something deeply undemocratic.

    That perception remains among Trump’s base. He is still ahead in the polls among Republican voters, and in part this is because they see him as a fighter – their fighter – against the “deep state”. These people recognise that Trump is no saint, but they believe that he is a bruiser and that the country needs a bruiser to take on the vested interests, the deep state and much more.

    But if this seems mad, it certainly isn’t much madder than anything else going on in America at present. At the very moment that the Chinese Communist Party is ostentatiously trying to replace America as the global superpower, America itself is in a mess. At the local level, the quality of state governments and city governance is at an all-time low. San Francisco has fallen through the floor with drug problems, rife homelessness and more. But at this juncture the local authorities are seriously discussing the prospect of distributing reparations for slavery, which ended two centuries ago.

    Entire states – notably California – are taxing themselves into poverty, chasing out the super-rich and slowly strangling the goose that laid the golden egg. The country’s intellectual class has largely been replaced by a type of noisy huckster pundit who throws out incendiary claims about the iniquities of the country and are well remunerated for doing so. Supreme Court judges cannot say what a woman is. Law students are walking out of the most prestigious law schools if they think they might hear an opinion they disagree with. And all of this is presided over by a president who is clearly, visibly, ailing but who is pretending that he is going to stay in office for another six years.

    It is strange. Because on many measures – notably economic – America is doing considerably better than Britain or Europe. The authorities have brought down inflation, and fuel prices and other commodities with it. You might look at the nation’s spreadsheets and come to the conclusion that things are on track and maybe even normal. The problem is that in city after city you only have to look out of the window – or study the crime rates – to know this is not the case.

    Through a bewildering number of techniques the world’s leading democracy is driving itself mad. The sub-text of the Trump indictment is whether it is also prepared to drive itself off the cliff.

    One of Douglas Murray’s better articles and they are pretty good anyway. There’s no doubt that the West, never mind America, has lost its marbles. Its Elites are literally killing it off in in a paroxysm of self-hatred and loathing. Even if Ukraine doesn’t end in Armageddon that civilisation that has created almost everything worthwhile will be gone in another twenty years. The UK of course even sooner.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/25/america-consumed-terrifying-new-madness/

    1. Is that why Biden made a little slip in his speech to parliament and referred to China instead of Canada.

      Give the old guy his due though. Trudeau and co read their speeches from scripts, Biden apparently spoke without notes.

      1. “…Biden apparently spoke without notes.”

        Which just highlights the dangers of demented old fools making ‘Off the cuff’ remarks

        1. It was better than the word salad that Trudeau came out with.

          At least sleepy Joe isn’t saying what an idiot Trudeau is which is a miss diplomatic outcome than when Trump came calling.

  57. Gardening calls, Despite the gale…. Back son.

    Incidentally – suffering, as I do, from weeping eyes, wind in ones face causes havoc. BUT, I have discovered that a pair of wrap-around safety glasses works wonders at protecting the eyes from a gale.

    1. May I recommend Uvex Ultrasonic safety goggles, and of course more economical versions are available.

        1. As a gift, or as a test of your honesty?

          (says me, who admits to occasionally gathering an abandoned branch on a rural verge, winter fuel)

    2. How about a face-mask and snorkel? You’d have to wear flippers too, otherwise you’d just look silly.

  59. A local council with some nous and verve. Not as pretty as many Stately Homes but every bit as important.

    Dambusters officers’ mess could be listed to thwart plans for migrant camp on RAF base

    West Lindsey District Council, in Lincolnshire, files for protected status from Historic England to safeguard historic building

    By Charles Hymas, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
    25 March 2023 • 3:00pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/03/25/TELEMMGLPICT000329106788_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwauLYewjGO21NF-o1gxbkUI.jpeg?imwidth=680

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/25/dambusters-officers-mess-could-listed-thwart-plans-migrant-camp/

    2. Poor old place looks sad, all boarded up and abandoned. That’s no good for a building – the air needs to move, there needs to be some warmth, people need to be there. The ghosts (of whom there will be many) won’t like it.

      1. Gibson’s office is haunted by the ghost of his dog, according to the guides (who may not name said dog due to complaints from permanently offended wokists).

  60. Just received a letter from the NHS telling me they’d made an appointment for me to have a Covid booster in May, they also gave me a web address for altering or cancelling it. Needless to say I cancelled it – fortunately for them there was no facility to comment

    1. Sadly no. In 2016 when we won I knew – with absolute conviction – that the state would never, ever let us leave. That the desperation of the state, it’s plan, it’s arrogance would never permit democracy to interfere.

      We won, but I don’t think people really understand the malice and bitterness, the pettiness of the state – or the eventual subversion of democracy it would entail. Everything they’ve done since has been solely to ruin this country to force their agenda.

      1. 372537+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,

        We won the democratic referendum the remainers have seemingly won, via treachery, the ongoing incarceration of freedom of body, but as yet NOT of mind

        They have a very hollow victory with in the back ground the mantra of all the war dead, treacherous traitors, treacherous traitors …

        ALL is NOT yet lost.

    2. Sadly no. In 2016 when we won I knew – with absolute conviction – that the state would never, ever let us leave. That the desperation of the state, it’s plan, it’s arrogance would never permit democracy to interfere.

      We won, but I don’t think people really understand the malice and bitterness, the pettiness of the state – or the eventual subversion of democracy it would entail. Everything they’ve done since has been solely to ruin this country to force their agenda.

  62. Migrants showing their appreciation of our help:

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1750851/asylum-seekers-bored-taxpayer-funded-hotels

    A snippet:

    ‘Iraqi mother Neshteman Tahir, 37, said: “It’s awful here and there are too many problems. We don’t want to be living all together in a hotel, we want a house so we can be independent.

    “No one likes living here. We all hate it and we are shut in our rooms all day with nothing to do. The hotel is very, very bad. We want a proper home.”

    Mrs Tahir’s eight-year-old son said he wanted a “big house” and a “trampoline” and that it was “really boring” in the hotel. Another mother at the hotel with her young daughter said: “We’re bored here. The rooms are too small and the food is bad. It is like being in a jail.”

    3. Well, it must be better than where they’ve come from, otherwise they would be going back there, wouldn’t they? (France or Iraq).

    4. In how many of the places that these people come from does the State provide the free housing that they seem to expect us to supply?

    5. “It is like being in a jail.”

      Maybe because so many already know what it’s like to be in jail.

    6. Mrs Tahir’s eight-year-old son said he wanted a “big house” and a “trampoline” And why should he expect the UK taxpayer to cough up for it? Yet another gimmigrant who expects to be given it all for no positive input.

      1. I wonder if the little bastard had a “big house” in the desert wasteland from which he was brought? And a trampoline, come to that.

        1. Yes, his grandfather had a substantial property, and a business, but it was destroyed by US&UK coalition forces. (hypothetical)

  63. Couple of hours in the garden. Just come in – it started HAILING!! Now is sunny again.

    That climate change – you never know where you are with it….

  64. Europe is in denial about the banking crisis engulfing it. 25 march 2023.

    All the same, it’s easy to see why depositors should be spooked. Just to add to this tale of woe, Germany’s economic model seems to be breaking down before our very eyes. Its two great strengths – cheap energy from Russia to feed an industrial powerhouse substantially centred on internal combustion engine technology – are both spent forces.

    The cheap energy has already gone, and the internal combustion engine is about to be made obsolete. Trapped in the past, and despite belated attempts to catch up, Germany badly trails the US and China on re-engineering its auto industry to electric vehicles.

    The American destruction of the Nordstream pipeline has been a masterstroke though I’m sure Biden had no idea that it would turn out to be so all encompassing. It has cut Russia off from western financing and destroyed Germany as an industrial power and made them utterly dependent on the US for their energy supplies.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/03/25/europe-denial-banking-crisis-engulfing/

    1. There’s a giant assumption there that the internal combustion engine is obselete!
      Also that cheap energy from Russia won’t be resurrected.
      I suppose that issue will be agreed between the banksters.

    2. Internal combustion engines will only become obsolete because they are outlawed by our politicians.

      Not because they have been replaced by better technology.

      Edit. Again, i really must read the whole thread before i post a comment….

    3. Internal combustion engines will only become obsolete because they are outlawed by our politicians.

      Not because they have been replaced by better technology.

      Edit. Again, i really must read the whole thread before i post a comment….

    4. Internal combustion engines will only become obsolete because they are outlawed by our politicians.

      Not because they have been replaced by better technology.

      Edit. Again, i really must read the whole thread before i post a comment….

  65. Europe is in denial about the banking crisis engulfing it. 25 march 2023.

    All the same, it’s easy to see why depositors should be spooked. Just to add to this tale of woe, Germany’s economic model seems to be breaking down before our very eyes. Its two great strengths – cheap energy from Russia to feed an industrial powerhouse substantially centred on internal combustion engine technology – are both spent forces.

    The cheap energy has already gone, and the internal combustion engine is about to be made obsolete. Trapped in the past, and despite belated attempts to catch up, Germany badly trails the US and China on re-engineering its auto industry to electric vehicles.

    The American destruction of the Nordstream pipeline has been a masterstroke though I’m sure Biden had no idea that it would turn out to be so all encompassing. It has cut Russia off from western financing and destroyed Germany as an industrial power and made them utterly dependent on the US for their energy supplies.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/03/25/europe-denial-banking-crisis-engulfing/

  67. Story from Telegraph today:

    “Graffiti vandals and fly-tippers will be forced to clear up their mess within 48 hours under a crackdown on anti-social behaviour to be announced next week by Rishi Sunak.

    The Prime Minister will set out a package of measures that will also include a ban on the sale and possession of nitrous oxide or laughing gas, targeting police at anti-social behaviour “hotspots” and drug testing of suspects across a wider range of offences.

    Mr Sunak intends the new powers to “quickly and visibly punish” thugs whose behaviour blights communities. In January he warned that anti-social behaviour could be a “gateway to more extreme crimes”.

    He cited war memorials sprayed with graffiti, discarded nitrous oxide canisters and needles in playgrounds as examples of behaviours that made “life miserable for so many”.

    People caught defacing buildings with graffiti or fly-tipping will have to spend up to 20 hours tidying it up within 48 hours of committing the offence. Local communities could be consulted on the punishments and work that offenders would be required to do.”

    Now call me an old cynic (and many do) but have YOU ever spotted a graffiti “artist” hanging about after his time at the wall, train, tombstone etc waiting for a perliceman to feel his collar?

    Thought not. More pointless virtue-signalling nonsense from the wealthy Hindoo.

    2. Banks are collapsing and our country is being invaded and Rishi Sunak gives us a war on graffiti worthy of a primary school caretaker!

  68. Story from Telegraph today:

    “Graffiti vandals and fly-tippers will be forced to clear up their mess within 48 hours under a crackdown on anti-social behaviour to be announced next week by Rishi Sunak.

    The Prime Minister will set out a package of measures that will also include a ban on the sale and possession of nitrous oxide or laughing gas, targeting police at anti-social behaviour “hotspots” and drug testing of suspects across a wider range of offences.

    Mr Sunak intends the new powers to “quickly and visibly punish” thugs whose behaviour blights communities. In January he warned that anti-social behaviour could be a “gateway to more extreme crimes”.

    He cited war memorials sprayed with graffiti, discarded nitrous oxide canisters and needles in playgrounds as examples of behaviours that made “life miserable for so many”.

    People caught defacing buildings with graffiti or fly-tipping will have to spend up to 20 hours tidying it up within 48 hours of committing the offence. Local communities could be consulted on the punishments and work that offenders would be required to do.”

    Now call me an old cynic (and many do) but have YOU ever spotted a graffiti “artist” hanging about after his time at the wall, train, tombstone etc waiting for a perliceman to feel his collar?

    Thought not. More pointless virtue-signalling nonsense from the wealthy Hindoo.

  69. The Boys in Blue always have a trick up their sleeves…

    Police forces inviting back failed candidates to hit recruitment targets

    ‘Gaming the system’ in order to fulfil the Government’s policy of hiring 20,000 extra police officers could lead to ‘rogue’ recruits

    By Jack Hardy, CRIME CORRESPONDENT
    25 March 2023 • 4:06pm

    Police forces are inviting back failed job candidates in a “desperate” effort to meet Government recruitment targets, fuelling fears of rogue officers infiltrating the ranks, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

    Ministers have insisted they remain on track to fulfil the Government’s flagship policy of hiring an extra 20,000 officers by the end of this month in its uplift programme.

    However, forces cannot use the extra funding to hire officers beyond next week, meaning many have resorted to “gaming the system” to get bodies through the door before the deadline.

    They include the crisis-stricken Metropolitan Police, which has been contacting failed applicants from as far back as 2019 to offer them another interview this year, it can be disclosed.
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/25/police-forces-inviting-back-failed-candidates-hit-recruitment/

    L James
    2 MIN AGO
    “and failed candidates were invited back if they were women or from “BAME backgrounds”.
    Why??

  71. A dreadful Double Bogey today.

    Wordle 644 6/6
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
    🟨🟩⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟨
    🟨🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. You were not alone.

      Wordle 644 6/6

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

  72. A recommend.
    On iplayer Anton Du Beke and Giovanni Pernice road trip in Sicily. Lots of sunshine and laughs. A fine bromance with no kisses.

      1. Yes. They wear the same pair on alternate days. :@)

        I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Anton is like an old style carry on character.

        Sicily is now on my to do list.

        1. Nice ruins. Agrogento; Segesta etc etc Slightly odd people – islanders, you know and mafiosa, of course.

          1. The M people don’t bother tourists though. I don’t do ruins unless they have a Bar.

            It looks beautiful. Like Malta except they finished building the buildings and cleared away the rubble.

          2. Do these two just witter on boyishly about food and drink? Or do they look at the ruins etc?

          3. It’s not just about food and drink. They do visit sites of interest and you also get a bit of history. If i didn’t know better i would think they are gay but they are not. Best friends. It is heartwarming and a joy to see so much sunshine and aquamarine seas.

          4. Food and drink progs bore me rigid. Except for J Oliver, of course – now there’s a champion…

          5. J Off is a fraud.
            You will enjoy this. Giovanni feeds him street food consisting of barbecued entrails, spleen and lungs.

          8. Oliver is a wnaker. Just gobs olive oil everywhere, even where it shouldn’t be, and adds too many ingredients in a vain attempt at “my take on…”.
            Got told off in Sicily – “I don’t know what it is supposed to taste of – too many ingredients!” said a bloke he fed “his take on” to.

          9. A cheeky chappy fit for telly. Neither he or his best mate Gianni Contaldo can cook. I saw Gianni on Saturday kitchen filleting a fish. He murdered it and the host even raised his eyebrows as he had made such a hash of it. Both are frauds.

        2. Great place. Could easily move there.
          Siracusa is dull, but Ortigia lovely; ruins all over the place including Dionysius Ear…

          1. Funny you should say that they have just arrived at Syracuse. I’m loving this prog.

    1. I am not sure that destroying a few hundred thousand euros worth of police vehicles actually advances your cause….

      1. It advertises that the population is peeved about something. That’s valuable.

      2. It reflects how upset people are. To have his pension bill be defeated in Parliament then to use his power to overide it and pass it, smacks of total dictatorship.

        1. The French people have sussed that Little Napoleon Macron is a mere WEF puppet and that his policies are those of the WEF.

          In the UK we know that Bunter and now Sunak are of the same stable as Macron in France, Rutte in Holland. Ardern in New Zealand, Trudeau in Canada, Biden in the USA and some globalist git in Australia (too many non-entities to choose from).

          It is reaching the time when the entire lot of this scum are given their marching orders by we, the people whom they have singularly failed to represent.

    3. I wish we could show a bit more spunk against our dreadful politicians and other so-called leaders (that’s you, Khunt)

  74. That’s me gone for today. Hope the wind drops a bit tomorrow….might have a bonfire.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  75. Birdie here today

    Wordle 644 3/6

    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
    🟨⬜🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. The first two bloody letters here.
        Wordle 644 6/6

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

        1. I hesitate to call you a ‘divot’, but at stage three, I had a choice of two fifth letters. I picked the wrong one.

          Wordle 644 4/6

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

    1. By the modern standards of the BBC, Harold Wilson and Roy Jenkins would be regarded as to the right of centre.

      1. In 1964, I went to a public meeting at which Wilson was to speak. I took part in the standing ovation he got. My views haven’t changed much, but I am now ‘far right’.

        Talking of public meetings, I, and two of my fellow students, decided we would like to go. We arrived at the venue (a church hall in Richmond-on-Thames) and just walked in. There must have been policemen on the door but we didn’t notice them. No advance booking, no ID, no body-searches. When Wilson was speaking, there was some heckling but it was serious argument, not rowdy insults. He answered each point made by the audience.

        Compare and contrast, as they say.

    2. Note the article never describes them as what they are – criminal welfare shoppers, no, the BBC only calls them asylum seekers.

      The law on asylum is simple, and not one of these criminal gimmigrants have followed it. They are not asylum seekers.

  77. Well,…..what a wonderful afternoon.
    First try by Harlequins before 2 minutes.
    But steady play from Saracens saw them through. What a wonderful stadium the Tottenham Hotspur home is.
    55 thousand people arrived to watch the game.
    Journey home took us through some previously forgotten north London areas. From very old Victorian terraced housing. To driving past footballer’s huge mansions near Potter’s bar, Cockfosters.
    7 hours in total.

    1. Six nations rugby – England lasses trounced the Scottish lasses. This England ladies team could beat the England mens team. A much better game to watch than the mens

      1. Our middle son and our D i l were in London to see the Musical show Tina.
        He said they saw a lot of fans from the game on the way out of London.
        All bit Brahms and Listz.
        They have their own on site brewery at the stadium. And the beer glasses are designed to fill through the bottom. Of the glass.
        They’re made of strong plastic.
        Don’t ask, I didn’t see it.

    2. As it didn’t kick-off until 22.00 local, I fell asleep Eddy, I shall have to do with the written reports.

      The time difference from today forward is reduced to -6 hours so I stand a better chance with the Ospreys match.

  78. All charges against Donald Trump dropped and the new york DA resigns. Trump won yet again.

    1. It is obvious – even the most putrid Lefty that the charges are entirely fabricated to try to do Trump in so he cannot stand.

      The terror of the Left is hilarious. He stood against their every ideology and proved he was right. So did Truss. Sadly, both populations are too thick to understand the deeper considerations and big government keeps forcing the abomination of socialism on us.

    3. I just watched Trump rallying in Waco Texas. Amazing scenes and vast crowds stretching into the horizon.

      Thank God for President Trump.

  79. Feeling my age, a bit worn out so off to bed.
    Good night all, I hope you’re all prepared to be robbed of an hour.

    1. I hate it. It’s pointless – there are still the same number of hours of daylight; it just effs up people’s lives for seven months.

      1. It makes me feel awful for the week after the clocks change, until adjust. I feel tired and lightheaded and not ‘with it’.

          1. Can you not simply change the clock time of your bed-time in order not to have to adjust? Or is that simply too annoying to keep going for the whole summer?

          2. Whatever time I go to bed, I don’t go to sleep until my normal time (usually between 1 and 2 GMT). Until then I just toss and turn.

      2. I don’t find it hard to get used to – and the light evenings are good.
        In Kenya the time was three hours ahead of here – I’m no early riser but I had no trouble getting out of bed at 5.30am while I was there.

        2. It mucks up my body clock. I can’t get to sleep until my normal time, so I’m always sleep deprived.

  80. Evening, all. How can any health professional justify going on strike? Their job is to treat and heal people, not get involved in politics.

    1. I remember that the Labour government in creating the National Health Service was obliged to pour liquid gold down the throats of the medical professionals in order to buy their compliance.

      Nothing much has changed down the years. The medical establishment, the doctors and top consultants still believe themselves to be exceptional people and deserving of vast wealth.

      This is despite the fact that they were mostly trained at enormous expense by the public taxpayer. As it happens it takes a similar 7 years to train a barely competent Architect at much less cost and eight years to train a barely competent Veterinary Surgeon, again at much less cost.

      When these medical doctors are given licence to practice their practices are necessarily experimental for the reason that you learn little in a practical sense from formal education and must learn in practice. It is the same with Architects (I know believe me) and doubtless the same with Veterinary Surgeons.

      There will be exceptionally gifted surgeons, anaesthetists and other specialists but they will always be a minority of those who passed the initiation into their profession.

      Work it out.

    2. I remember that the Labour government in creating the National Health Service was obliged to pour liquid gold down the throats of the medical professionals in order to buy their compliance.

      Nothing much has changed down the years. The medical establishment, the doctors and top consultants still believe themselves to be exceptional people and deserving of vast wealth.

      This is despite the fact that they were mostly trained at enormous expense by the public taxpayer. As it happens it takes a similar 7 years to train a barely competent Architect at much less cost and eight years to train a barely competent Veterinary Surgeon, again at much less cost.

      When these medical doctors are given licence to practice their practices are necessarily experimental for the reason that you learn little in a practical sense from formal education and must learn in practice. It is the same with Architects (I know believe me) and doubtless the same with Veterinary Surgeons.

      There will be exceptionally gifted surgeons, anaesthetists and other specialists but they will always be a minority of those who passed the initiation into their profession.

      Work it out.

  81. Those poor people in Mississippi with those awful tornadoes. I have narrowly missed three of the bloody things and I am so grateful that I and my family never had to go through that. The destruction and loss of life is truly awful. The photos of the aftermath are heartbreaking.

  84. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolks.

    Those stalwarts still here, don’t forget to put you clocks (those that don’t do it automatically) forward an hour before you nod off.

    1. May I reciprocate your congratulations, and agree that she is a very special NoTTLer.

    2. Happy, happy Birthday, Caroline and, hopefully a further 365 happy unbirthdays.

      Have the best of days – and I’m sure Richard will do his best to make all that happen.

    3. Singing a rousing version of Happy Birthday from Buenos Aires. 🙂🙂 Probably a little disjointed, timewise, but at least the distance means I’ll be less noisy than usual…

      Have a great day, Caroline!

      Katy

    4. Happy Birthday Caroline! Hope you have a wonderful day – with cake! 🎂💐🍾

    8. Have a wonderful day Caroline and let Rastus do the cooking (and washing up) for the day!

  86. Goodnight Y’all. Sod the clocks- I will get up when I want and it won’t be early!

  89. Goodnight, all. I’ve put the clocks forward ready for tomorrow and stoked the Rayburn, so I’m off to try to get to sleep, but I don’t hold out much hope until my usual (GMT) time.

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