Saturday 8 April: Doctors have good reason to feel exasperated with this Government

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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439 thoughts on “Saturday 8 April: Doctors have good reason to feel exasperated with this Government”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story – actually, a little list

    British Military Annual Staff Appraisals

    1. His men would follow him anywhere but only out of curiosity.
    2. I would not breed from this Officer.
    3. This man is depriving a village somewhere of its idiot.
    4. This Officer can be likened to a small puppy – he runs around excitedly, leaving little messes for other people to clean up.
    5. This Officer is really not so much of a has-been, more of a definitely won’t-be.
    6. When he opens his mouth, it seems only to change whichever foot was previously in there.
    7. Couldn’t organise 50% leave in a 2-man submarine.
    8. He has carried out each and every one of his duties to his entire satisfaction.
    9. He would be out of his depth in a car park puddle.
    10. Technically sound but socially impossible.
    11. The occasional flashes of adequacy are marred by an attitude of apathy and indifference.
    12 When he joined my ship this Officer was something of a granny; since then he has aged considerably.
    13. This Medical Officer has used my ship to carry his genitals from port to port, and my officers to carry him from bar to bar.
    14. This Officer reminds me very much of a gyroscope, always spinning around at a frantic pace but not really going anywhere.
    15. Since my last report he has reached rock bottom and has started to dig.
    16. He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them.
    17. He has the wisdom of youth and the energy of old age.
    18. This Officer should go far and the sooner he starts, the better.
    19. In my opinion this pilot should not be authorised to fly below 250 feet.
    20. The only ship I would recommend for this man is citizenship.
    21. Couldn’t organise a woodpecker’s picnic in Sherwood Forest.
    22. Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap
    23. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
    24. Gates are down, the lights are flashing but the train isn’t coming.
    25. Has two brains; one is lost and the other is out looking for it.
    26. If he were any more stupid, he’d have to be watered twice a week.
    27. Got into the gene pool while the lifeguard wasn’t watching.
    28. If you stand close enough to him you can hear the ocean.
    29. It’s hard to believe that he beat 1,000,000 other sperm.
    30. A room temperature IQ.
    31. Got a full 6-pack but lacks the plastic thingy to hold it all together.
    32. A gross ignoramus,143 times worse than an ordinary ignoramus
    33. He has a photographic memory but has the lens cover glued on.
    34. He has been working with glue too long.
    35. When his IQ reaches 50, he should sell.
    36. This man hasn’t got enough grey matter to sole the flip-flop of a one-legged budgie.
    37. If two people are talking and one looks bored, he’s the other one.
    38. One-celled organisms would out score him in an IQ test.
    39. He donated his body to science before he was done using it.
    40. Fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down.
    41. He’s so dense light bends around him.
    42. If brains were taxed, he’d get a rebate.
    43. Some drink from the fountain of knowledge; he only gargled.
    44. Takes him 1½ hours to watch 60 minutes.
    45. Wheel is turning but the hamster is long dead.
    A lot of these, although intended to apply to the British Military, could well be applied to our current Police Farce or MPs.

    2. Beautiful here -6C or so, sun rising over the hills, trees free of snow but more than enough on the ground.

  4. Doctors have good reason to feel exasperated with this Government

    Why just doctors?

  6. After that sleep I’m hungry so scrambled egg with smoked salmon, then I’ve a haircut at 09:00.

  10. Early woolly mammoths were fluffy with big ears, study finds. 8 April 2023.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0562101243e6e6eccdce2db562c1bf41f9a2fe5a40f2dbd8e268034f7f82b3fd.png

    The woolly mammoth was not always so woolly, scientists have found, after discovering that early creatures were fluffy with big ears.

    A new study of the genomes of early mammoths, living about 700,000 years ago, compared with more recent animals of the last 100,000 years, showed their thick, shaggy coat did not evolve until later.

    It suggests they developed the new traits to deal with harsher climates.

    No doubt the latter was caused by an overuse of Fossil Fuels!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/07/woolly-mammoths-were-fluffy/

  12. 373160+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Bloody ell mister we are trying our bloody best, from ALL governing party coalition bringing your ilk in for starters, top grade appeasement as in 5* hotels, non custodial sentence for rape is in evidence and front of the queue where welfare is concerned inclusive of legal aid.

    Seemingly the United Kingdom political top rankers after a meeting concluded that nowhere else on this planet would you find such an abundance of appeasement, take for instance
    the 16 plus year cover up via council & guardians of the law in rotherham,plus ……..

    https://twitter.com/Wayne57072607/status/1644277474325348354?s=20

    1. My BTL comment on Twatter:

      “Time for you and your law-breaking brothers to leave and return to whatever hell-hole you came from.“

  13. SIR – This year I will have worked for the NHS for 40 years.

    Conservative governments have treated both senior and junior doctors with little regard over this period and the goodwill has finally gone – leading to the current situation with junior doctors, who plan to strike next week.

    One of the few good things that Tony Blair’s government did was introduce a new contract for hospital consultants in 2003. The benefits of this contract were then eroded during the Conservative years of austerity. This Government has only itself to blame for the present circumstances.

    Dr Mike Copp
    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    I wonder what are the political affiliations of Dr Copp? The NHS exists primarily for the benefit of its employees?

      1. Morning 😉
        Problem being Obs, many of them have, even hundreds,of nurses have jumped ship to the private sector.
        Hence the bloody disgusting mess of it all.

        1. And, naturally as neither NHS or government can manage to fart in their own pants, they do nothing about it that resolves the problem. Private industry either increases pay or changes conditions to attract the talent they need. NHS relies on goodwill, which doesn’t pay the mortgage, and runs out after a while.

          1. A lot of people believe that this particular government have an almost secret (but rather obvious) desire to bring the NHS to its knees. If only those habitual and very lazy self appreciating moron politicians had previously had the guts to have made sure if people had not contributed to the upkeep of the service they had to pay for their treatment or suffer.

          2. I think the ‘management’ of the NHS need no help from any government to bring it to its knees.

          3. About 4 years ago the wonderful government put in place around 7 regional NHS directors. All apparently are paid around 250 k per year.
            Many people within the NHS have indicated that the administration is a nightmare.
            More than 7 million pounds that might have been used in a more practical way.

    3. Morning all. Doctors were treated in a special way by HMRC, I.E. not as employees but self employed, T Bliar paid them extra for doing certain routine exams when they were already doing them, there was the LTA (but later buggered about and now reinstated again). They are paid extra for certain prescriptions and were paid extra again during the world wide scamdemic for the clot shots they delivered.

      I think the problem is really that GPs now prescribe according to government diktat and not specifically for their patient. As usual government interference is no help at all.

  14. Morning all 🙂😉
    Fog today, no mention of this in our weather forecast.
    And doctors are exasperated ?
    How about the patients who have suffered from the lack of treatment over months or in some cases years for the obvious. An impenetrable stone wall of silence, and almost dereliction of duty.
    This present and passed governments and Whitehall have been working flat out to wreck every single thing they come into contact with.
    Including our lives and we’ll being.

    1. Nobody gives a flying one for the patients.
      My suggestion: Be very unpleasant to striking doctors, let them know they are scum, and lose all respect. Poor dears don’t get enough pay? Then go work somewhere else with conditions closer to their liking. No shortage of “doctors” crossing the channel in little boats.

      1. Agreed, the really annoying part of this is, the junior doctors are working in the NHS where they also recieve their training. Apprenticeships work like that. You don’t get full pay until you have served your time and passed your exams.

        1. “Junior” apparently means “Not Consultant” in this context. Many are in their 40s.
          From https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/20981675/how-much-junior-doctors-earn-uk/
          “The pay received by junior doctors is dependent on experience. During foundation training, doctors will earn a basic salary of between £29,384 to £34,012 per year. A doctor beginning their specialist training will earn between £40,257 to £53,398 a year.
          A junior doctor is a qualified doctor in clinical training. They work under the supervision of a senior doctor. The first step for any person wanting to become a doctor is to study medicine at undergraduate level. After completing their studies in medicine, they then move on to two years of integrated training.

          2. That’s probably why my appointment on Tuesday has been cancelled. Because the people I usually see haven’t quite made the grade. But also have never been able to add a regular patient to the ever increasing waiting list for the long known obvious necessity.

  15. While America burns, Xi Jinping’s plot to dominate the world is quietly succeeding. 8 April 2023.

    This is just to focus on the international diplomacy side of things. But the same applies in area after area. While we in Britain argue about things like whether or not a woman can have a penis or how “racist” we are this week, China’s top politicians and envoys are busily travelling the world making trade deals. Ever since Beijing was allowed into the World Trade Organisation in 2001 – a decision which already looks both world-historic and unwise – it has used its financial clout to simultaneously exploit the rules and break them.

    Today, they are not even hiding their desire to ensure Chinese economic dominance in the 21st century. Nor are they any longer hiding their desire to leave the US dollar-dominated financial system behind them.

    Just this week, China was once again in America’s own backyard. After a set of negotiations, a new agreement between China and Brazil was announced. And here is the salient factor: the deal completely bypasses the American dollar, which would once have been the standard for such negotiations. Brazil and China said that the arrangement would see yuan directly exchanged for reais, with no need to convert to US dollars.

    This is by Douglas Murray and the whole as usual is well worth the read. If I have a quibble it would be that he fails to point out the utter moral corruption and decadence of the West and the UK in particular that has led to the present situation.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/07/america-burns-xi-jinpings-plot-dominate-world-succeeding/

    1. China has long been making deals with African countries. Such as Zimbabwe. They have help themselves to any thing they want. Especially minerals.
      Same with Australia, millions of tonnes of coal, gas and anything else they fancy along the way.
      The rest of the world will eventually sit on its piles of cash, in the deserts of their own making. Whilst China lives the lifestyle of luxury.

    1. 373160+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      In the treacherous shite stakes they are equals
      with maybe the tory (ino) party inching a nose ahead.

  17. Bank of America cuts short conference after outrage at comments on Ukraine war. 8 April 2023.

    One of those present said they felt one speaker, Nicolai Petro, a professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island, “said stuff that was absolutely shocking . . . it was straight out of the foreign ministry of Russia”.

    However, Petro has countered that people who complained “had their own agenda” and had “really not listened” to what he said.

    In his prepared speech, which he shared with the FT, Petro’s remarks included: “Under any scenario, Ukraine would be the overwhelming loser” in the war. Its industrial capacity would be “devastated”, partly by its economic policy of becoming an agricultural superpower “as recommended by the EU and the United States” and its population would continue to shrink as people left to look for employment abroad.

    “If this is what Russia meant by removing Ukraine’s capacity to wage war against Russia, then it will arguably have won,” he said.

    Whoops! That nasty truth thing keeps rearing its head in awkward places.

    https://www.ft.com/content/119a620c-bf47-4b2f-90a7-5473828c8b16

  18. Good morning, all. Bright, sunny and at 6am a beautiful full moon was hanging between the trees to the SSW.

    The “trans” lobby is in full offensive (word carefully chosen) mode down in Devon & Cornwall. UK Column exposing what is going on/being planned for children in those counties. Remarkably, Devon & Cornwall Constabulary have thrown their hat into the ring with an ACC as a signatory to the ‘Guidance Document’. What are the police doing getting involved with what is taught in schools?
    These people must have been hiding in plain sight and plotting for years for them to suddenly emerge in the numbers and the influence they have.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ef19bfed759fbdbd5433d2c7c1a20622c64c0e7300832abfb496b559f8de920c.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e1206356578d823ea60ce26602b53d2fd5d952983ea254e97d858ead38e0c329.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/466101e758896900fb174b5c3de4747f52d7223ca00f2d9f7ca633814d83e2b5.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3363e1073ef30dcdafa9a616c9fce8bdc2b45eaaebf97a0d6a68a00e6962a9b3.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e2617b1c300b1c59b2dc946c861d65c806b7e5c60a0bb19bb21c47ea76405886.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7aba6af856d11a582df88fe88727717afd9128e4f20e931aea63b77303956d60.png

    UK Column – 5th April 2023

    1. The Decline and Fall of an entire civilisation in a single post! Morning Korky.

      1. Morning, Araminta.

        I follow what is happening in the USA and this very same perversion is being imposed there; including Summer Camps. This is not coincidental, it is co-ordinated and the villains inhabit the same sewer as those pushing the dangerous “vaccines”, provoking hyper-inflation and the economic crash etc.

          1. LBGTQWERTY is definitely a religious cult – I’m glad it’s finally being called out as such.

    2. Probably the reason why most of us have reached a ripe old age, is due to our parents being protected by a system the Victorians put in place before they were born.
      The Looney Bins. Where people like those mentioned in the clips would have been locked away from the public.

    3. I realise that, in the present state of the world, this is a dangerous thing to say, but … we need a bloody good war to sort out people’s priorities.
      At the very least, we could use these useless non-jobbers as cannon fodder.

    4. It’s child abuse imposed by these people – mass poisoning of young minds. Disgusting propaganda.

  19. Good morning, all. Grey but dry. Weather much the same.

    The MR and I are still,knackered and stiff as boards after yesterday’s churchyard work….

    No news, I see.

    1. No corpses discovered under the Murrells’ rockery; or are the results subject to a super injunction?

  20. Gold-plated public sector pensions to rise twice as much as UK wages this year
    Taxpayer funds 10.1 per cent increase next week, while wages fall in real terms
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/pensions-retirement/news/public-sector-pension-pocket-increase-twice-pay-rise/

    My father was a senior civil servant, he received a good salary but he made considerably less money than his siblings who were in the private sector. However he received a gold-plated pension and was comfortable in his old age as was my mother as half of his pension continued after he had died.

    The old deal if you were in the top stream of the civil service – as my father was – you would not make as much money during your working life as those in the private sector but you would receive an excellent, inflation proofed pension.

    Now that deal has been broken and those in the public sector still expect to get the gold-plated pension – but they also expect to be paid more during their working lives. A lot of them are lazy and incompetent – no wonder they held in contempt.

    1. Who need competence and value-for-money when you can tick the right boxes?

      1. And shuffle the paper work. Not so easy to get away with these days. Clicking about on the desk keyboard is the job now.
        I expect most of us have hit the brick wall these days when trying to achieve satisfaction from council or government departments.
        They seem to be shunning their past responsibilities.

    2. I doubt if there will be any significant increase in the state pensions. For those who actually worked for their living 🤔🙂

    3. Bonjour Mr T and everyone.
      Life expectancy was generally lower when your father retired; also, people who served in the Colonies were exposed to exotic diseases so they had a relatively higher actuarial (posh word I cannot be sure if it’s appropriate) risk compared to those who stayed in Britain.

    4. I suspect that those at the top in the private sector get even more shameless rewards these days. It’s all part of the new elite-think, that they are better than the common herd.

  21. 373160+ up ticks,

    One must be honest with oneself prior to casting a vote.

    We, as a nation have .via the polling booth given consent to be the arena for other peoples wars & grievances,

    We as a once decent nation, are going through the Country destroying mincer with an indigenous hand turning the handle in a self destruct mode & via the lab/lib/con mass controlled / uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella coalition.

    https://twitter.com/ChevyGuy666/status/1644433949446361088?s=20

    1. I buy Medjool dates on eBay because I often eat them for breakfast with flatbread. A Libyan breakfast. Always go out of my way to buy them from Israel. Will not buy any dates at all if they Palestinian. They are, as far as I’m concerned, an illegitimate community with lies for history, on land that is Jewish. Can you imagine any other religion that would tolerate a mosque, built on their most sacred spot, the Temple Mount and help keep it safe, only the Jews., The Palestinians can go stuff themselves.

      1. It was remarkably cheeky when islam was invented for them to claim a sacred site in Jerusalem, home to a far older religion. Why people can’t see that it’s nothing but a con, is beyond me.

        1. It is indeed a con. Mohammad never knew the place existed let alone ascend to heaven on a horse with a human head

    2. First, sack him. Second, deport him. His sort have no business being inn the UK.

  24. ‘Morning, Campers.
    The patient in the corner bed in the kitchen had a good night and is recovering nicely.
    I wonder if he’s up to doing the ironing for me today?

  25. Giday all,

    Bright and sunny at McPhee Towers, 5℃ to start with wind stuck in the North. Off to the market for bakery stuff. Before I do, here’s a photo to make one’s piles itch.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7a635d1076f735ca79fb74951f358dfcf23d71547bcef6643eea576cb6acaf1c.jpg

    Micron we know is not much taller than Wishy-Washy so that makes Winnie the Pooh about 5’8″. What about Fonda Lyin’? Is she even 5′?
    Why are psychopathic megalomaniacs always little people? ( Stalin was 5’5″ or thereabouts. Maybe shorter)

    1. I imagine some minion (in a mask) had to explain to Chou En Xi who these curiously unimportant western people were.

    2. Funny how Toy Boy is always touching people. Chou En Xi clearly does NOT like being fondled.

    3. Macron is almost certainly wearing raised heels or lifts as Xi is listed 5’9″ or 5 ’11” depending where you get the information.

      1. I’m always suspicious of ‘listed’ heights. People tend to overclaim if they’re short. You see the opposite among professional rugby players who always seem to be much larger than their claimed 6’5′ or whatever!

          1. Should you not be out chopping logs?

            I hope you had an Epsom Salts bath last night. We did – helped….a bit!

          2. Other more pressing tasks.
            Chopping is the final bit before stacking.
            Voltarol performed its wonders.

    4. I have never actually been able to understand exactly who they think they are posing for.
      Perhaps One day a marksman will come along. 🎶Oh Wouldn’t that be luverlee🎶

    5. The two Europeans are the sort that would have smiled if they were in the company of Pol Pot or Stalin. Revolting unprincipled people and most likely psychopaths themselves.

        1. Unfortunately neither of them are thick. That would be a mitigating circumstance but, in this case, there are no mitigating circumstances. The photo is one of three total sh7ts.

    8. Little Bear fonda Lying has seven children. In the old world order she’d have been a well dressed aristocratic breeding machine. The misogyny of the old world order wasn’t all bad.

    1. It reminds me of the tears shed by the public for our dear departed Queen at the funeral of her beloved husband. How could she have been cast by her family to sit alone and in grief on that sad day.

      1. Because they were “following the science”. Bastards, the lot of them. I bet the JWK was a full covidian.

      1. 373163+ up ticks,

        Morning FM,

        In a growing number of peoples eyes the question is “do we have to have Easter, period.”

      3. Until the state stops it, it’ll continue.

        Heck, look at London: after Malmo, the rape , drug and murder capital. Why? Massive, uncontrolled immigration. Mostly muslims and blacks – over 40% complete welfare dependence, the rest partially. A pakistani muslim mayor.

        Do you think they’re going to respect our country?

      4. They do it to show their superiority and contempt for other religions. Like a dog cocking its leg to mark its territory.

  28. Good morning all.
    Another beautiful but chilly start to the day with bright sunshine and -1°C on the yard thermometer.
    I’ve a small amount of split logs to get stacked which, hopefully, will fill the last bit of the holly tree stack.

    Then I can get on with wall building.

    1. The Great Wall of Bonsall.

      Don’t forget we like to see the progress you have made.

      2. If you go on google earth you can see it. -but only if you zoom really far out.

    2. But, it’s important that no-one dies 2 minutes earlier than their allotted time due to air pollution

      1. 373163+ up ticks,

        Afternoon Mir,
        I believe it is much,much more important that NO
        politico / pharmaceutical wallah is in a position to choose the time but alas, our electorate on proven past actions could very well give them that power.

  30. Morning all,

    Just catching up and reading Tom’s joke of the day, this one describes how most of the populace responded to covid.

    “39. He donated his body to science before he was done using it.”

        1. OH has to be careful while he has A-fib – I don’t want him dropping dead “suddenly”. I’m doing the heavy stuff now.

          1. Depending on the out come (hopefully next week) of my three page letter to my GP including the letter from cardiology and the information from PALS There is no way i’m waiting around until next January for an appointment that could be cancelled last minute.
            My plan next time is to do some more gardening, get the old ticker working over time, be out of breath and dial 999. But of course it all depends on who will be on strike then and how long the ambulance might take to arrive. 🤗 risky but it might be the only option.

          2. Yes – or get your good lady to take you straight there. Both times with Oh ( Jan 21 – urinary retention) and November 22 (heart) that’s what we were advised to do. It’s half an hour with no traffic to our nearest A&E. Just get there as quick as you can.

          3. We’ve done that twice already, just over two years ago was the first time. Then again in August 2021.
            That’s why it’s made me so annoyed and upset. Twice it happened and they did absolutely nothing. That’s when they should have set me up with the new Ablation appointment. Their experience should have told them it was the only way.
            I just wonder if they have ever looked at, or have read my previous health records. It certainly doesn’t seem like it.

          4. In November our GP sent us with a full med history print-out. He was admitted within an hour.

            But I thought you had an ablation procedure already? But the improvement didn’t last ?

  31. Another exposé from UK Column, the idea of liquid trees. Tanks full of a green algae that will cleanse the air of pollutants. No blossom for bees etc, no leaves, nowhere for birds to roost and nest. Ain’t progress great!
    Oh, as an aside, is this why the arboreal vandals in Plymouth de-forested Armada Way a few weeks ago? A wide open and tree free panorama is so much more easy to monitor via cameras, isn’t it?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/116717a660ab0e8e756b923e3f8f28ee15d520bb15d848353d3a0d5817524ab2.png

    1. That fish tank needs cleaning!

      They seem determined to kill all joy and hope in the world. I suppose that is how we recognise them as agents of Satan.

      1. 373163 + up ticks,

        Morning BB2,

        Currently the major trouble is there are no where near enough spoons to accommodate those that wish to dine with nick, but as lab/lib/con/ current ukip coalition members they go ahead regardless of consequence.

      2. The political class are building windmills, at great public expense and saying these bird slaughtering, inefficient, hideously expensive eyesores are good and cheap. Why? Because they’re getting rich off the taxes vomited on these farms.

        They are liars, thieves and cowards.

    2. 373163+ up ticks,

      Morning KtK,

      Regarding politicos the “tight collar”feeling at long last is seemingly taking effect,

      Trees have since the beginning of time been used to terminate treachery etc when gallows are not at hand.

    3. Perhaps there should be one in each constituency of the UK, some where to store our useless politicos.

  32. BTL Comment:-

    M Hope
    2 HRS AGO
    Dr Mike Copp in the article above is spot on it seems to me, the conservative government has lost the goodwill of all doctors but made a mess of running the NHS as well as other sectors that they have responsibility for. They took their eye off the ball with infighting in their ranks and not to mention Sleeze as well.

    No. It is NOT the Government that has made a mess of running the NHS, it is the NHS that has made a mess of running its self.

    1. That sort of thing is not good for the balance of my mind. On Easter weekend too.

      1. If you read BBC press releases over the Hamas bombing of Israel you would think Israel were at fault and the ones doing the bombing.

        I don’t know if they’re aware and doing it deliberately, or if they’re just plain evil and desperate to do Israel and jews down. Heck, we know the Left are ferociously anti semitic and racist, but surely htat cannot be prevalent in the BBC?

    2. That sort of thing is not good for the balance of my mind. On Easter weekend too.

      2. It’s all so immensely tiresome. The grooming gangs were pakistani. They were muslims. They were paedophiles who raped children.

        Why? Because the state told them – by covering for them, not investigating, sheltering them – that they could do so.

  34. 31 children return to Ukraine after being ‘abducted’ by Russia, says organisation. 8 April 2023.

    In a post on Twitter, the organisation said:

    Сhildren abducted by Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions have been reunited with their families after several months of separation.

    The children are now safe “but in need of psychological and physical recovery”, it continued.

    They all; needless to say, look as if they’ve been on holiday!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/apr/08/russia-ukraine-war-live-moscows-forces-bombard-annexed-regions-us-investigates-ukraine-war-documents-leak?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-6431303c8f08156fb81eb54e#block-6431303c8f08156fb81eb54e

  35. 31 children return to Ukraine after being ‘abducted’ by Russia, says organisation. 8 April 2023.

    In a post on Twitter, the organisation said:

    Сhildren abducted by Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions have been reunited with their families after several months of separation.

    The children are now safe “but in need of psychological and physical recovery”, it continued.

    They all; needless to say, look as if they’ve been on holiday!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/apr/08/russia-ukraine-war-live-moscows-forces-bombard-annexed-regions-us-investigates-ukraine-war-documents-leak?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-6431303c8f08156fb81eb54e#block-6431303c8f08156fb81eb54e

  37. Douglas Murray
    Is the English countryside racist?
    08 April 2023

    Idon’t know what your plans are for Easter. Mine generally include a nice walk in the English countryside. There is something incalculably consoling about our landscape. I might even find myself leaning on a stile and looking at some Easter lambs while they do that sudden vertical jump thing, as though they have suddenly found they are standing over a geyser.

    But perhaps I should instead scour the rolling hills for signs of racism which I could then report to the relevant authorities.

    What am I going on about, some saner readers might be wondering. Well, I have been reading reports in the British press that the English countryside is about to be ‘studied’ by ‘hate crime experts’ to find out whether ‘rural racism’ is lurking. This deeply rigorous academic exercise is going to be led by academics ‘specialising in British colonialism and hate studies’, seeking to record the ‘lived realities’ of ethnic minorities who live or hike there.

    There are times when you can feel all of your fingers and toes being trodden upon. This is such a time. Consider the least of the irritations here. What exactly is a ‘hate crime expert’? And what’s with that bumf about ‘lived realities’? What other type of reality is there? Might these deluded experts look for entirely imaginary realities?

    Maybe they will, as it happens, because it is clear from the wording and the aspirations of this study that it is not a study, but the usual firing squad. I doubt that even one of the ‘experts’ commissioned by the idiot Leverhulme Trust has any knowledge of the English countryside or its history. In fact I would bet that none of them knows anything about colonialism either. All will simply be propelled by the usual list of grievances against our country and everything in it, right down to the last hedgerow. Why can I say this with such certainty? Because the same verdict keeps being read out.

    Just last month the BBC website ran a lead story about ‘Muslim hikers’ allegedly suffering ‘abuse over Peak District prayer signs’. But the abuse was online. That’s a surprise – for most of us the online world is a buttercup field of delight and harmony.

    Yet it is an important detail – that while no farmer came running over to the hikers and abused them, still they were made into the victims. And what was the potential casus belli? This walking group had teamed up with various sporting brands in an effort to get more Muslims hiking in the Peak District. Identifying ‘barriers’ to doing so, they came up with the idea that there are problems with praying outdoors. So they created bespoke prayer mats and put up signs along one of the most popular hiking routes in Derby-shire pointing in the direction of Mecca.

    I have little doubt that as with so much that occurs in relation to the Muslim faith, this whole thing will be very much a two-way street – like Manchester Cathedral’s recent decision to host an Islamic prayer service and Ramadan feast. I am quite certain that in the wake of that we can look forward to mosques hosting Anglican Eucharists and prayers to the risen Christ. Similarly, I am sure that as we speak the authorities in Mecca are putting up signs pointing devoted hikers in the direction of the Peak District. Since no infidel is even allowed into the city of Mecca, such signs might be redundant. But then I’d have thought that putting up signs for Mecca in the Peak District is just as pointless. If you head out for a hike and are that desperate to carry out your religious devotions, a compass ought to suffice.

    Then again, if you don’t do such stunts as putting up Mecca signs, the claims of rural racism will only multiply. In the past couple of years it seems as though the countryside has been under constant scrutiny.

    ‘They say that on a clear day you can see racism in six different counties…’
    We have had Heritage England spending thousands of pounds on a ‘slavery audit’. A presenter from the BBC’s once-charming Countryfile denounced rural Britain for suffering from ‘lingering, ambient racism’. No less an authority than Defra has commissioned a report into why black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups see the countryside as a ‘white’ environment. If this persists, Defra has warned, ‘our countryside will end up being irrelevant to the country that actually exists’. And of course there is the dear old BBC, which in the wake of the killing of George Floyd investigated rural ‘racism’ by asking why Dorset is 98 per cent white.

    Had these groups approached me, I could have saved them a pretty penny. It seems almost obvious to me that if you, your parents or grandparents move to another country, you will find that this country is different from the one that you or they left.

    I imagine that if my grandparents had moved from the UK to Jamaica, I might still find that place rather dominated by Jamaicans. Had my grandparents moved to Pakistan, I might discover that the vast majority of people there are not white. What might I do after such a discovery? Well, I suppose I might decide to condemn the people and places of these countries, insisting that no one is truly free until I can wander gaily across Waziristan and cry ‘hate crime’ if I find a negative comment on Facebook. Yet such acts would strike me as not just rude, but actively hostile. My neighbours and fellow countrymen might not take kindly to this behaviour.

    But there’s the problem with being a tolerant and decent society. Everyone comes to you because of your virtues. Then a certain cohort abuses those virtues. Next a group of idiots already in your midst insult you and complain because your country does not sufficiently resemble the country that they left.

    How to politely correct this? I would say ‘Take a hike’, but that might simply set off a whole new round of racism audits.

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

    Moscowflyer
    I live in the Peak District and I can’t imagine that the mecca signs and weatherproof prayer mats will remain unmolested for long.

    BunnyPolice Moscowflyer
    I shall take great pride in adding “Bingo” to any Mecca sign I see.

    1. My BTL comment on that:

      Don’t know about the countryside but having just come back from the Pembrokeshire coast it wasn’t just the sea I was looking at but the sea of white faces enjoying the swimming, surfing and watching the seals. Not a muzzy in sight. Bliss. Don’t tell Drakeford.

    2. My BTL comment on that:

      Don’t know about the countryside but having just come back from the Pembrokeshire coast it wasn’t just the sea I was looking at but the sea of white faces enjoying the swimming, surfing and watching the seals. Not a muzzy in sight. Bliss. Don’t tell Drakeford.

    3. The reference to ‘Countryfile’ is this:

      BBC Countryfile star Ellie Harrison says British countryside IS racist.
      White people need to do ‘individual work to wrap our heads around history’

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8843061/BBC-Countryfile-star-Ellie-Harrison-says-British-countryside-racist.html

      I’ll add my own observation from last year:

      Sunday 7th August 2022

      Sometimes the BBC is beyond parody. I’ve just broken off from watching ‘Countryfile’ (alright, alright, I know) to report. It’s featuring Hadrian’s Wall and the region through which it runs. Matt-nice-but-dim-Baker strolled up a hillock and declared:

      “To the Romans, anyone who wasn’t a citizen of Rome was classed as a barbarian so anything over there was barbarian land. Ironically, a wall that was designed to keep the Romans and the foreigners apart ended up doing exactly the opposite. It created a multi-cultural community of people from all across the empire right here on what today are the northern borders of England.

      “One man who’s made it his mission to celebrate this rich multicultural history is (drum roll) Mohammed Dalic. Not only is he a die-hard rambler who’s hiked the full 73 miles of the wall, he’s also an award-winning equality, diversity and inclusion manager with the fire and rescue service in Cumbria.”

      Run for the hills!
      _______________

      It got worse. The next bit featured Mohammed’s friend Jacqueline Scott, a black woman from Toronto who is doing a PhD. He said: “She’s looking at the diverse histories in the countryside and the fact that there was a whole range of people in the Roman empire from different countries including North Africa. We had a look in the museum. Some of that history is written up, some isn’t.”

      She said: “I came here to honour the ancestors, to honour the black history that’s right here in the English countryside. Black people have been here. People of colour have been here. We belong here.”

      Just take that in…
      _______________

      Joking apart, there’s a serious point to be made here. Reference was also made to the village of Burgh-by-Sands where there is a plaque which reads “The first recorded African community in Britain guarded a Roman fort on this site 3rd century AD”. Mohammed then went on about the Roman’s Syrian archers and, absurdly, linked that to today’s Syrian refugees. In other words, Britain has always been multicultural and multiracial but the evidence, he implied more than once, has been buried.

      Mohammed old chap, when the Romans left, almost all of their ‘staff’ (slaves) went with them. And were the Africans black sub-Saharan or paler, more Mediterranean-looking North Africans?

      This was an insulting misrepresentation of British history.

      1. That must have been after I had stopped watching Country File because of that left wing protagonist moaner Tom Heap of.

      2. Or perhaps white people need to sack malicious fools like “Ellie” Harrison.

      3. Thanks for your posting, Wm. We are doomed with these numpties all over the place and shouting their nonsense.

      4. Any “Africans” in Roman Britain would have been members of an occupying army which eventually left.

      5. And what sort of people would have been from North Africa, given that the region was long under Greek and Roman influence.

    4. I suppose a person with their good natured well trained dog, walking lose along side them, will soon be expected to keep their Dog tightly along side them on a lead. Just in case now, the same as people have been doing for many many decades in the English country side, might upset those who are always and habitually moaning and are so easily upset.

        1. There has already been several leftie indicators of that happening.
          I remember the divot leftie reporter on country file Tom Heap of.
          Moaning that a pack of domestic dogs had attacked sheep somewhere north of Shropshire. It turned out to have been newly introduced wild boar.
          Same thing happened in Oz. Near Narran lake NSW. I use to go with some mates to help the farmer shoot the none indigenous wild pigs almost boar. To help save the new born lambs.

    5. So in other words, muslims started bullying locals by putting up intrusive, provocative advertisements for their faith and then cried racism at the inevitable reaction.

  39. I have mentioned this before , but in a local butcher shop with new owner , I asked whether the meat was Halal,(new suppliers ) the response was loud and rasping when the butcher behind the counter said , Why, you are not a racist are you”..

    I was gabberflasted.

    1. I wonder what he would have said if a Muslim person had asked the same question.

        1. Belle could have been a white Muslim, and have been asking a genuine question as to whether or not the meat was halal. She could have then, in response to the butcher’s question “Why, you are not a racist, are you?”, replied “No, I’m a Muslim. Who’s racist now?”

    2. I would have said unless it’s not I am not buying it. If it is I will never darken your door again. Nor will anyone else I can influence.

      Edit: I would also have asked: ‘What’s a racist?’

    3. Ask what racism has to do with it. It’s a religious fad that is a throwback to lack of hygiene.

      1. It’s not just the lack of hygiene, they don’t stun the animals, they cut their throats and let them bleed to death kicking.

    5. Hmm. I would not be a customer with a reply like that. We are entitled to know where our food comes from and how it was prepared.

    2. No, and no.
      The Embassy used to invite Brits to celebrations, like the Jubilee, but that seems to have stopped.

      2. I bet they still have the celebrations, they just don’t invite the people they are supposed to be serving!

        1. SWMBO was invited to the Jubilee, but not including partner.
          Same year, I was invited to the US Embassy 4th July, with partner.

          1. I stole a pack of napkins and coasters with the U.S seal on them. Seeing as American guests always stole the teaspoons at functions at Buck House i thought i would get my own back.

    7. I’m going to gatecrash it. Wear a false ginger beard and a rusty brillo pad on my head. And go as Harry.

    8. Probably I could recognise a few of them.

      I am hoping that friends will organise a wild barbecue that day, well away from mass indoctrination.
      Wild as in forest or mountain top.

  41. Fun though it is making comments here, it’s a sunny day, the garden is calling and SWMBO is tapping her feet.

    1. ‘Morning All

      Disqus is borked can’t post directly

      Drop these off here

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/46b47685e6a346ded12a8a0a9b3d1ac17371fe61c731ae4eeca507b3108e0279.png

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e8bd4ac017cc73eb7f9015071610064900024036d7cbb78e565c277c4fb3e9a5.png

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d4405a4d9f528c24fd57f3cb4817c5455a3d41c598d70ae8dc1608e34e27502b.jpg

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/762d72059b9df31b17f772e50b360e4b891006d036a5cb20324801c8a5eb3a61.png

      1. I do like the Stanley one!! And, of course, the least weasel is brilliant!!

      2. And the rest……….

        https://therocketsscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/45-17-487x1024_img_63dac81f3d297.jpg

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d0e28f3e20576011cc60cc48853620d2594ee460cdbbc0135d4a7c73067e1723.jpg

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/558a1e2188d41566fb73b9fc1c900eb0036de4b949b8abf4fed415ef8f55da7d.png

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bc02e7fa3955850c573ca28920273ee178ed3bb2ec9556fd0ce0abaeee6acca6.png

        http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1c58ee31ce402991b129dab361ff63c561368e44db07b52a0b7e4eeeeac40fec.jpg

      1. Wotcha Pip

        How you getting on with the air fryer?/

        Drop these off as well

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e43c17338e27a6a4e882502ca140d56bbe4c69dff636dbe4835ff0af100bc67b.jpg

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be9c9d52848e06d5fdf846910d8366aedcceb02e54a564c5bacdaa7c7bd8865c.jpg

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0a702b1d4e0ff2b01197e80ea998f0fa4725cdd046819cb61bbbe49d236b6ccf.jpg

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a756dd6fc217d0da8229c8b0eab308518ed8060b8fc48b10afa468c414c49892.jpg

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a1551d46c45a74cc2c520b1182452e5d99137bb619bb4f09677a6b66d2928f1e.png

        1. It’s an Airfryer and oven. Thought that would be better than a little drawer to cook chips in. It also has a rotisserie function though not used that yet. It also dehydrates foods for preserving quickly.

          It’s brilliant. Cooks in half the time and doesn’t take 15 minutes to heat up like my fan oven.
          Great for anything in crumb like chicken KIEV. Anything from Iceland too.

          1. If I want a chicken dish I make my own. Won’t buy any of the packaged frozen stuff. The only prepared chicken I buy are bbq chicken wings because it saves time.

  42. Fun though it is making comments here, it’s a sunny day, the garden is calling and SWMBO is tapping her feet.

  43. That’s the garden room sorted out. All the detritus of Winter cleared away. Ready for cocktails !

      1. 2 measures of Ketel One Vodka. Double that of Belvoir Passionfruit Martini. And double that of Passionfruit puree. Enough to make two cocktails.

        The garden room used to be a garage. Can’t imagine why it was there because the only thing that would get up the alleyway was a model T Ford. I demolished it. Built a gazebo, laid fake grass and put garden furniture in.
        It gets a lot of use in the Spring and Summer. Plus it is useful for entertaining Nottlers.

        Would you like to visit? I have lots and lots of wine ! :@)

          1. Wibbles is around the Southampton area. I don’t think i could cope with his woolly mammoths pretending to be dogs though.

            Lottie has mentioned she is on the South Coast before.

          5. Let’s have a vote. All Nottler’s in favour of Lottie’s continued incarceration say Aye….

      1. Let me entertain you. Afternoon Tea, Gin, cakes, Gin, sandwiches and Gin. Welcome any time my dear.

        Enjoyed the Champers thank you very much.

    1. This is a seriously good vidcast. I have listened twice so far and will do so many times more to get all the references for further study, especially on the legislation side. People have to accept that it is a long-term plan to reclaim our rights and our true constitution and it may take a whole generation before enough people are up to speed with ‘living in the law’ and not in the ‘legal fiction’. The young MUST embrace it for it could well be the way out of the spider’s web for us all.

      Go to Ruth Skolmli too: https://www.sovereignnaturalempowerment.com

    2. This is a seriously good vidcast. I have listened twice so far and will do so many times more to get all the references for further study, especially on the legislation side. People have to accept that it is a long-term plan to reclaim our rights and our true constituion and may take a whole generation before enough people are up to speed with ‘living in the law’ and not in the ‘legal fiction’. The young MUST embrace it for it could well be the way out of the spider’s web for us all.

      Go to Ruth Skolmli too: https://www.sovereignnaturalempowerment.com

  46. Germany is locked in a toxic love affair with Putin and Xi. 8 April 2023.

    Despite the genocidal nature of this war, Russophilia is still a fact of life in Germany. Public support for Ukraine’s fight for survival is falling: half the country no longer supports sending arms and four out of five think it is more important to end the war quickly than for Ukraine to win.

    German trade with Russia almost halved by volume in 2022, but the value of imports actually rose by 6.5 per cent. This means that last year Germany alone contributed more than £30 billion to Putin’s war chest.

    Despite all his bold talk of a Zeitenwende – an epochal shift – Chancellor Olaf Scholz has failed to deliver a robust response to Russian aggression. This year, like last year and probably next year too, German spending on defence will fall short of the Nato minimum, 2 per cent of GDP.

    Not mentioned here (needless to say) is the destruction of the Baltic Pipeline by the Americans. Scholz certainly knows they were responsible and I think we can safely infer that so do large numbers of ordinary Germans. Though the strike reduced Russia’s income, by far its greater effect is on the German Economy. It has cut them off from cheap energy and the source of German prosperity. Worse it has made them dependent on the United States. With friends like these you don’t need enemies! This explains German reluctance to fully engage in hostilities with Russia. Their interests would be better served by the end of the war and a rapprochement with Russia. Even so far as to repairing the Pipeline.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/04/08/berlin-scholz-shamefully-addicted-putin-xi-russia-china/

  47. Grr!!
    Just had to separate next-door’s cat, an intact tom, from ripping our cat a new one. Much shrieking of cats. Next time that bastard comes around, it’ll get more than it bargained for. Bastard!

          2. Sorry! I’ve just realised I replied to the wrong post! It was a reference to traitor May’s atrocious dress sense!

  48. Apropos the discussion (yesterday? Thursday?) about Mrs Murrell’s apparent lack of female interest in the clothes she wears, I guess the same could be said about Frau Doktor Merkel = Hitler jackets and generous trousers, and Fond of Lying = girly cardigans/bolero jackets and narrow trousers.

    Odd, really, considering their take home pay…..

          1. That’s one of her better outfits!
            Looks as though she’s taking the rubbish out – her bag is far too big.

    2. I do think that Merkel appears comfortable with her clothes, even though she desperately needs Trinny and Susannah.
      VdL’s clothes scream “wealthy German taste” to me – I don’t like them, but she obviously does.

      I just can’t believe that Sturgeon regards her flirty high heels and ghastly knee length tailored skirts as anything other than hideous! And if you’re female, it is weird to wear clothes that you don’t like!!

  51. Putin’s Second Front. 8 April 2023.

    For more than two decades, ordinary people in Vladimir Putin’s Russia could count on at least one fundamental right: the right to remain passive. As long as they were willing to turn a blind eye to corruption at the top and the never-ending rule of the Putin regime, they were not required to demonstrate active support for the government. Whatever Russia was doing in the world need not concern them. Provided that they did not interfere in the affairs of the elite, they were free to live their lives.

    This is utter tosh. I live in the UK and profoundly disagree (to put it mildly) with the policies of the Political Elites but can do nothing about them. This does not make me passive, merely helpless against the Government Machine.

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russian-federation/putins-second-front

    1. But more and more people in the UK have been required for years to pledge allegiance to the state religions. Anyone who works in the wedding industry, teaching, healthcare, police, civil service etc

      1. When I taught I wasn’t required to obey any religion. As a rational adult you’re sensitive and aware of cultural differences, but mainly this is an annoyance and idiotic, as one bunch wants special treatment for simply turning up here.

        A Jewish family whose son I tutored took him out of lessons and made the effort to ask what he should be learning and would I kindly draw up a plan for the week he would be away. At least they cared about their kid.

        1. Get real. If you had pointed out the poorer physical and psychological health outcomes of the openly gay lifestyle to kids or mentioned that white kids could be at a disadvantage if they are the minority in a school, you would have discovered what the state religion is pretty quickly.

      2. I suppose I work in the ‘wedding industry’, as a church organist. They’re ever more few, and far between. But wokeness doesn’t figure at all. Increasingly, we have candidates who wouldn’t recognise a hymn if you slapped them around the head with it. Many want recorded music. That’s fine by me – I’m not paid per note played.

        1. I just watched Easter from King’s Cambridge, yes, an old pagan like me. I enjoyed it and the music was superb. Organist excellent maybe as good as you and my nephew!

    2. Exactly true. No choice is not acceptance.

      The state argues that we have elections and that’s democracy – really? When each side believes the same thing, wants the same outcomes? When we had a resounding referendum and the state has fought the decision every step of the way?

      When big government hikes taxes without consideration or option?

      No. A vote every 4 years is NOT democracy.

  52. Move along…nothing to see here…

    Ex-cop who shared cell with Jeffrey Epstein convicted of quadruple murder

    Nicholas Tartaglione faces life imprisonment after killing of four men over perceived money debt

    Ramon Antonio Vargas
    Fri 7 Apr 2023 17.26 BST

    A former New York police officer who shared a jail cell with Jeffrey Epstein at the time of the sex trafficker’s suicide executed four men and then buried them in a mass grave over what he perceived to be a debt of money, federal jurors determined on Thursday.

    Nicholas Tartaglione faces life imprisonment after being found guilty of the killings of Martin Luna, Urbano Santiago, Miguel Luna and Hector Gutierrez, according to a statement from US justice department prosecutors.

    Tartaglione, 55, first drew national media attention when he was named as the cellmate of Epstein at the time the disgraced financier died by suicide in 2019 while he was detained on federal charges of sex trafficking girls as young as 14. In that case, Tartaglione was cleared of wrongdoing.
    *
    *
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/07/jeffrey-epstein-cellmate-quadruple-murder-conviction

  53. Dear fellow Nottlers,

    It’s been a while since I posted an update – just to let you know that I’m still alive and kicking (although the latter in an ever more controlled manner🙂).

    I’m still enjoying my tango journey immensely, and Buenos Aires is feeling even better as autumn starts to creep in.

    Still a bit at sea logistically; awaiting a rescue package from my sister which has been inexplicably held by customs, but I can’t ransom it until next week at least due to Easter; so what the hell, I’ll just dance the weekend away!

    Katy x

        1. You should hear her voice ! Can strip the enamel off your teeth ! Don’t tell her i said so. :@(

          5. Yo, Tom. I broadly agree, but they have their place.

            While I was organist & choirmaster at St. Alban’s, Hindhead, one of the sopranos in the choir was one Dr Sheila Cooper. Better known as Sheila Armstrong. Google her.

            She used to try and tone it down in our village choir of humble amateurs. But I have recordings of Carol Services where one could hear the roof trying to extricate itself from its wall plates, against the well known David Willcocks descants. Topically, Katherine Ferrier was mentioned in the DT letters a day or three ago. Sheila – another Northener – is a past president of the Kathleen Ferrier Society.

    4. Lovely update, Katy! Keep on dancing – you know when you’ve been Tangoed!

    5. Good to hear from you.
      We were reminiscing over our posh afternoon tea with a couple of chums this afternoon.
      We’d been discussing good places for breakfast and then segued into good places for afternoon tea.

      1. Better class of guest, hopefully, who won’t flirt with the waiters…😉🤣🤣

  54. I was recently watching something on TV about football and rugby players,who have been mentioning that they are now suffering from dementia, possibly due to either being hit on the head with a ball, other parts of the human body, or from heading a ball.
    It seemed as if they were considering suing someone for compensation. I wonder how much compensation the average NHS patient might also be entitled to, for spending years banging their heads against the proverbial government brickwall ?

  55. Just listened to the Delingpod with Ben Rubin, and don’t know whether to recommend it or not. It’s very powerful, and I found it pretty depressing. All about what the devil’s cabal has planned for us in the way of genomics (altering our DNA). Rubin doesn’t think we should give up though, and he has started a couple of groups to spread the word.
    If you listen to it, listen right to the end, because the slightly more optimistic part is at the end!

  57. A friggin’ Bogey Five.

    Wordle 658 5/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Ditto.

      Wordle 658 5/6

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

      1. Par four here

        Wordle 658 4/6

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

    2. Par for me.
      Wordle 658 4/6

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

  58. We’re planning a new floor in the sitting room. L-shaped, where the “upright” is the dining room, the “horizontal” has sofas & TV.
    We’re wondering about laying a wide-plank herring-bone style parquette, in medium-yellowinsh oak finish. It’s quite expensive, I haven’t seen anything like that anywhere else (one of it’s attractions), but I’d hate to spend a load of cash & find it’s a big mistake! Floor area about 50m2.
    Have you any opinons?
    Flooring picture from DIY shop.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13f1130d43da6bc5a40322c7a45428cb66106c732565ee6aa1d9cdacd12607c7.jpg

    1. Have you any opinions?

      Yes. Don’t do it! Don’t fix your own car! Don’t do your own decorating. If anything goes wrong there’s no one to blame!

    2. We have that stuff all over our house, installed by the previous owner. I am gradually removing it. But maybe we have the cheap sort. It’s pretty easy to damage.

    5. “We’re planning a new floor in the sitting room. L-shaped …

      What happens to the walls and ceiling?

    6. Yo, Paul. Dianne-the-ex had an ex-council house in Woking. The ground floor was done in parquet. Long-forgotten and buried under fitted carpet, she got a specialist (who had done similar at the school where she taught) to sand and seal her floors. The result was stunning. Several of her upstairs floors had cheapo laminate, done by yours truly. Laminate is easier to lay.

      However, I’m not entirely convinced that the flooring in the picture is genuine parquet flooring. It looks like a form of laminate to me….

      1. It’s real-wood laminated on pine backing. Solid oak is eye-wateringly expensive, although lovely.
        We’ve had this, as is common in Norway, in the house since we bought it in 2002, except in long, narrow strip pattern. I like the herringbone, just don’t want it to be too weird.

    9. Source some proper oak floor boards from France or Moldova or somewhere.
      Before fitting, leave them in the house for at least 6 months so that they adapt to the existing humidity of the room.

    10. Hmm. Some friends of ours have something similar. Great cost and great disappointment. Just saying.

      1. We have had polished wooden floors since 1994. Best thing for a floor, IMO. We have no carpet at all in current house – don’t like the stuff, dirty as hell. I was more interested in opinions about the pattern…

          1. At our last house in the UK, we took up the carpet in Firstborn’s bedroom, and found a huge stock of birdseed, feathers and sand that had fallen through the weave, out of the reach of a vacuum. Previous occupant had a budgie… Firstborn got wheezy from it.
            Dirty stuff, carpet.

          2. We have old fashioned tiles throughout the ground floor.
            Very cold underfoot in winter but cool in summer.
            We have a large Persian carpet in the sitting room and an Axminister in the dining room.

        2. You lose more in wastage with a herring bone vs a strip pattern. Do they do it in longer lengths.

          1. Be a lot of triangle trimmings around the edges, for sure.
            It’s just rather unusual, I like it.

          2. Herring bone is rather more attractive than in line. My previous 1930 s property in Salisbury had oak block floors. Had to clean off a dark varnish but beautiful when treated with just a wood preservative. All left to the co habitant as a cost of escape!

        3. They are only dirty if you do not clean them. We like a quiet house and have carpets and clean them when required.

    11. We have a T&G all round floor similar to that but a different design. Parallel to the walls.
      5 mm polished English oak veneer topping on about 10mm birch faced plywood.
      It’s been very satisfactory. Hard wearing. It’s pretty stiff and has no flex. So you will need to check your existing floor for level. Ours was parquet on a sand and cement screed. It has annoying areas were its out of level. But there was not much I could do about it without a massive amount of latex I didn’t think it was worth the effort. As the floor area is approx 12 by 6 metres.
      I used a strong silver foam underlay recommended by the supplier.
      It’s been excellent for at least 8 years. No problem at all. I fitted it all myself and used narrowly cut strips of spare flooring about 15 mm wide for the edging. Black stained the outside edge. It’s less obtrusive than quadrant or other stained softwood in fill.
      I’ll see if I can find the details of the makers.

    12. At the last place, I put laminate in the Kitchen, Dining Room, Hall, and two Bedrooms. Not the most expensive variety, but it did the trickr. Upon moving to my retirement bungalow, I bought some cheapo carpet from eBay, since the flooring was horrendous – i.e. carpet glued dreckly on breaking-up tiles. In due course, I’ll switch to laminate, but in the meantime, I at least have carpet on wool underlay. And the perceived warmth is somewhat irrelevant in the absence of biological feet…

    13. I cheated and put vinyl look-alike in one of the bedrooms (the floorboards were so terrible I had to have it laid on chipboard!). Works okay and feels quite warm underfoot.

  59. That’s me gone. The second lime tree has been attended to. Can’t get to the ivy 20 feet up – but have cut and removed all the vines growing up the trunk – and, as the MR says, the ivy won’t show when the lime is in leaf! It is one of those jobs one OUGHT to do every couple of years, before it gets out of hand……

    Just had a haircut – one of the multitude of services provided by Cook. Looking forward to a glass of beetroot juice. LAST ONE…. Booze tomorrow….

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

    1. There is a dilemma; I dislike what ivy does to trees, but bees need the nectar from its flowers, at least according to a near neighbour who understands a lot about nature.

  61. I have just retired to my bed with a slab of Ardennes Pate and some fruity thins. Reading my book i noticed two pairs of eyes boring in to me A bit like the blond haired children from the ‘Village of the Damned’. Half afraid to put a foot on the floor. I’m scared !

      1. As my husband said last week when I made chicken thighs….” I like thighs.” Which is from What’s New Pussycat? with Peter Sellers and Woody Allen.

        1. Making English difficult for yer foreigns – I sighed at the sight of those thighs.

          2. There are three to too two’s in the English language.
            Which one to use first ?

  64. It is dangerous in a free country for the courts to become a political battleground

    Jesus endured a political process dressed up in legal forms. It is worrying that some see parallels in the treatment of politicians today

    CHARLES MOORE

    I must admit to momentary pleasure when the police infested Nicola Sturgeon’s modest house in a Glasgow suburb and arrested her husband, Peter Murrell.

    But then second thoughts intervened. Why did a two-year investigation into allegations about the funding of the SNP, of which Mr Murrell was, until very recently, the chief executive, suddenly require the paraphernalia of a murder scene? Was it strictly necessary to erect a tent in the garden, block off areas with major-incident tape, rummage in the dustbins and be seen handling spades? Did the police raid have to coincide with another one on the SNP’s HQ in Edinburgh?

    Like most people outside the SNP, I feel little fondness for Scotland’s now departed power couple, but was this treatment fair to them? Something about the melodrama implied guilt, yet no guilt has been proved. Mr Murrell was released without charge later the same day.

    One of the disastrous errors of Scottish devolution was to create a single police force in Scotland. This inevitably led to excessive SNP political control. Police Scotland stands accused of postponing the evil day to allow Ms Sturgeon to resign as First Minister and a new SNP leader to be elected before the scandal broke. Were these dramatic raids, staged so soon after she and her husband went, a desperate last-minute effort to show that Police Scotland is independent after all?

    It is hard to know at this stage. But Scotland is not alone in such problems. In 21st-century democracies, politics and the law have become dangerously entangled. It is a strange public culture in which being Director of Public Prosecutions, as Sir Keir Starmer was, is now seen as a great qualification for a political career.

    The law, abetted by the media, has become part of political theatre, in which both sides like to act up. This became apparent in the “lawfare” conducted against Brexit, most notably the overreach of Lady Hale in her Supreme Court judgment over prorogation. Today, it is visible in Israel, where people’s views on the best system of justice get muddled up with their opinion of Benjamin Netanyahu and specific accusations against him.

    The same applies, with knobs on, to the case of Donald Trump. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican Trump-adoring Congresswoman from Georgia, turned up to support her hero after he had pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts in a New York court. Perhaps inspired by Holy Week, she declared that Trump was now “joining some of the most incredible people in history”, notably Jesus.

    One naturally scoffs: it is hard to think of two more different men than the former US President and the Son of God. I like to imagine how Donald Trump would have reacted if confronted with the fate of Jesus of Nazareth (“The guy faced death row but his lawyers couldn’t manage a plea bargain. Loser!”).

    But Ms Taylor Greene’s claim illustrates the effect the perception of injustice can have upon the human mind. A wrong motive for bringing someone to court is readily identified by that person’s supporters and they never forget it.
    Justice is supposed to be the means by which we give each person what is his or her due. Its opposite is “injury”, which literally means hurt without justice.

    If the process of justice is merely a fight for who wins, then injury is all it can produce. Justice in the United States seems close to that low point. Neither Mr Trump nor his prosecuting accusers want justice to be done, though their sense of angry righteousness persuades both that they do. All they want is to win.

    The fight for victory is much less damaging in politics than in law. Politics is always a struggle for mastery, and no one expects its results to be fair.

    It needs some legal rules, of course. Electoral law is an obvious example. It also needs some decencies and restraint. But, in essence, the political struggle is settled by opinion, via roughly agreed processes for how that opinion is expressed (e.g. Parliament, the ballot box), not by the search, expressed in the court oath, for “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”.

    What Jesus endured approximately two thousand years ago was a political process dressed up in legal forms. The chief priests, says Matthew’s Gospel, wanted to kill Jesus, without causing “an uproar among the people”. They paid Judas to betray him to them. Their armed men then arrested Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and took him to their religious masters. The chief priests convicted him of blasphemy on the evidence of false witnesses.

    The supreme power was Rome. So, the next morning, the priests took Jesus to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, for him to decide. Pilate questioned him but could not find he had done any evil.

    It was the custom at the Passover to release one prisoner who had been sentenced to death. Pilate offered the people Jesus or a criminal, the “notorious” Barabbas. The crowd wanted Barabbas freed and Jesus crucified.

    “A tumult was made.” Pilate gave in to the will of the people – the stripping, the scourging, the crown of thorns, Jesus’s carrying of the Cross and his death upon it. Pilate’s only remaining role in the administration of justice was to hand over the body of Jesus to his followers for burial – a decision which accidentally gave them the chance to witness his resurrection.

    It is of some interest, to put it mildly, that the death of the founder of the world’s largest religion happened in this way. The story shows how important it was for those who killed him that his death should take an outward form of law, and yet how, in their hearts, the law was not important at all. Not justice; just power.

    A similar way of behaving has been followed ever since in absolutist regimes. It is relatively rare that dictators and tyrants have explicitly and publicly murdered prominent opponents without form of law. They have usually wanted to clothe the nakedness of their power by claiming that courts and judges and evidence have been on their side. In religious dictatorships, blasphemy has been a good excuse for such pseudo-judicial killing. Treachery is the common one in secular tyrannies.

    Reaction to such behaviour inspired, and still inspires, the followers of Jesus. For them, it matters not only that he was right, but that he was unjustly killed for being so.

    Many have been ready to endure martyrdom for this. The word “martyr” literally means “witness”. Christian martyrs have seen themselves as witnesses of injustice and witnesses to the truth, and therefore punished for being so.

    I hope Congresswoman Taylor Greene never suffers the same fate – she certainly does not serve a comparable master – but it is this drama of injustice versus truth that she is trying to tap into. So, on the other side, are organisations like Black Lives Matter who love saying, “No justice; no peace”.

    My point is simply that such large claims on either side are dangerous in a free country. Political disputes should try to avoid such life-or-death assertions. Jesus’s short public career (only three years) was about life, the universe and everything. Democratic politics, by contrast, is thoroughly un-cosmic.

    The differences between the two sides are usually more modest than they claim. By hitting their opponents in the righteous name of the law, they are making a tumult. This is bad for civil peace.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/07/dangerous-free-country-courts-become-political-battleground/

  66. I am going to have an early night. Husband has gone upstairs already. We sat outside in the sun for a couple of hours which was nice and even better, my husband cooked the dinner. I will do the Easter grub tomorrow.
    A little thing to warm your cockles…..
    My husband received a cheque this week. He said he wanted to spend it on a wedding dress for me. I asked why, as we are married and I still have the dress, not white, that I wore. No, he said, I want to do it again as an affirmation. No need but it’s nice that is how he thinks.
    Heading off now- it’s early but we are tired.
    Sleep well Y’all and make sure you are up for the sun rise Easter services;-))

    1. Xristos anesti!
      What a lovely thought from your husband! He must really love and appreciate you!

      1. Our longcase clock came from the governors office at Strangeways Prison in Manchester. It chimed the execution hour for condemned prisoners!

        2. After a decent breakfast, hopefully. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.

      2. Yes. Until it was restored it was impossible to see anything but a very faint impression that something had been there.

      1. Thank you, Paul. It’s a revelation since it’s been restored – literally in the case of the dial; you couldn’t see anything other than a ghost outline of the numbers and decoration before.

  68. A bit early for a Saturday but I’m off to bed, I’ve had a busy day mainly sitting in the garden having lunch and listening to the birds and waiting for the sun to come out from behind the clouds. Quite an occupation.
    So it’s good night from me.

  69. Got the woodstack filled this morning and then did a couple of hours of pulling brambles & briars from one of the wilder parts of the “garden”.

    Had a relaxing bath and am now off to bed.
    Might get a mix of mortar done tomorrow and put a course or two of blocks down.

    Then again, I might not!
    G,night all.

  70. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolks

    No port to see me off, so I’m trying whisky and milk.

      1. No chocolate, Alf and Brandy is counter-productive for heart disease, but thank you for caring enough, Alf.

    1. Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan
      @MayorofLondon
      I was thrilled to break my fast with
      @AMP_MPS
      at New Scotland Yard earlier this week.

      There are over 1,000 Muslim officers in the Met. A better understanding of people of all faiths and none is crucial to reforming the service for all Londoners.

  74. Good night, chums. Off to bed now, and hope to be back with you all at 7 am.

    1. Tried that, Elsie, in bed at 22:45, Woke at 00:02 been up since.

      It’s now 05:10 – Reading and waiting.

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