Sunday 16 October: The Government has squandered its chance to create a more dynamic economy

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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632 thoughts on “Sunday 16 October: The Government has squandered its chance to create a more dynamic economy”

  4. Socialised Healthcare: UK’s NHS Spending £40m Per Year on Diversity Officers

    Britain’s socialised healthcare system, which constantly complains it is in need of more cash, is reportedly splashing out more than £40 million per year on diversity and inclusion staff.

    According to the findings of Freedom of Information requests sent to all 223 NHS trusts and 42 integrated care boards of NHS England, The Sun newspaper reported that there are currently at least 812 “diversity officers”, which cost the taxpayer some £40.7 million annually.
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    https://twitter.com/BreitbartLondon/status/1535924620267704320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1535924620267704320%7Ctwgr%5Ef40a0385183d881d6b60c209cf35737abdad09c0%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Feurope%2F2022%2F10%2F15%2Fsocialised-healthcare-uks-nhs-spending-40m-per-year-on-diversity-and-inclusion-officers%2F
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    https://twitter.com/BreitbartLondon/status/1351514495156277251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1351514495156277251%7Ctwgr%5Ef40a0385183d881d6b60c209cf35737abdad09c0%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Feurope%2F2022%2F10%2F15%2Fsocialised-healthcare-uks-nhs-spending-40m-per-year-on-diversity-and-inclusion-officers%2F
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    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/10/15/socialised-healthcare-uks-nhs-spending-40m-per-year-on-diversity-and-inclusion-officers/

    2. I haven’t read the comments yet but I would have thought the very last thing that the NHS needs is people monitoring diversity. People who are ill and admitted to hospital don’t have a choice or care.

      2. For £40m a year one could run a 120 bed hospital, excluding capital costs of the building.

        1. An item in the Currant Bun mentions that the sum would pay for 1500 nurses.

          If anyone cared to look beyond bl**dy nurses for once, they would find that what is needed is more support staff. Clinicians can’t do their jobs properly because
          Estates are crumbling – not enough plumbers, builders, gardeners
          Computers don’t work – not enough IT technicians
          Clinics can’t open – not enough receptionists
          Clinical time spent writing letters – not enough secretaries

          etc, etc

          Incidentally, the nurses in our dept are earning between £40,000 and £54,000. Not exactly food bank territory.

      1. Morning J, there’s more than diversity managers who are doing sod all, I’m nearing the end of my volunteering application to continue playing the keyboard in NHS care homes. I wonder how many box ticking volunteer managers there are who are enforcing this paperwork on the NHS while private care homes don’t have to. Madness! I’ve also told the Disclosure people that I will ignore any more emails which come signed and (his/her/he/him/she) after. Have people nothing better to do?

        1. Careful…..
          An extract from Pete and Dud (Cook and Moore) The piano teacher.
          “I think you’ll find the black notes play louder than the white notes”.

        2. It appears not. More pointless box- tickers. You must be losing the will to live with these forms.

          1. Indeed, I’ve only stuck with it because the people who will suffer are those in the care homes but since when did the NHS care about them

      2. I don’t believe people patients in particular notice the difference between the staff. Theses people who are behind this are the very racists they are straining to invent and expose.
        A few years back I had a hip resurfacing op. When I came round in the recovery room I hear a familiar sound and accent. The nurse’s accent reminded me of the lovely lady Mary, one of the staff where my self and my mate John were living in JHB.
        The nurse came over to see if I was okay and I spoke to her in her native Xhosa language. She was very surprised and excited. She came to see me in the ward for several days after.

          3. Xyes Bill.
            I hope you and Mrs T are feeling better. Nearly everyone I know has had a sore throat including us.

        2. Most of the staff who dealt with OH when we had the midnight dash to A&E appeared to be Phillipino – they were helpful and efficient. Our hospitals have always been full of workers from elsewhere – why do they suddenly need all these diversity managers,?

          2. Personally I think in many ways it’s irresponsible to encourage medical staff to leave their own countries. But needs must.
            Unfortunately it appears not enough of our own people like to commit to a life of medical ‘service’. Perhaps education is the part of the problem.
            I have a great niece who is a senior nurse involved in the care of babies. Her mother and grandmother were both nursing sisters.

          5. For a long time now the Philippines have been training many more nurses than they need in the expectation that they will seek jobs in the more affluent West and then send money back home to help support their families, saving the Philippino Government the expense of doing so and coincidentally feeding foreign currency into the country.

    4. That’s an awful lot of money (we don’t have) just for stirring up racism….

      ‘Morning, C1.

      1. Funny that. When I watched the races yesterday, there was scarcely an advert that didn’t feature a blek.

        I found myself saying , “blek, eff orf, blek, eff orf” continally. I never used to be so intolerant.

    6. Awarding public contacts in that manner is contrary to generally approved guidelines. The key term is “best value”, not political leaning.

    7. I know we all know that we are royally (almost literally) screwed, but it still stings when it’s pointed out so obviously to us.

    8. I know we all know that we are royally (almost literally) screwed, but it still stings when it’s pointed out so obviously to us.

    3. Still? Poor lady. Hope you’re keeping her hydrated and fed, Bill. Lots of feline cuddles should help, too.

      1. She is the world’s worst patient – and I am the world’s worst carer… Gus took one look at her and went into the spare room…{:¬((

        1. Sleep is the best solution. You don’t feel the aches and pains, the headaches, the sweatyness, and the body gets on with fixing itself.
          Is it worth asking a doctor to visit tomorrow? (Yes, yes, I know…)

  8. 366138+ up ticks,#,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 16 October: The Government has squandered its chance to create a more dynamic economy

    Sod the economy much of that is manipulated, where’s the humanity is the question of more importance, anyone of lower or higher rankings given any thought to the seemingly missing from hotels children.

    The main herd could once again be following the political overseers, masters of deflection when giving credence to the economy above any childrens welfare.

    Missing children be they foreign or not are still children, a protected species

    Tis not hard to currently form a link such as, morally illegal invaders children, hotels, PIE supply & demand.

    Never happen in the United Kingdom you say, in the current society especially odious “never happens” happen on a daily basis.

    Keep supporting the lab/lib/con /current ukip coalition and rest assured things WILL get worse.

  9. The Sullivan Tech Doctrine – TTG. 16 October 2022.

    “Lots of people don’t know what happened yesterday. To put it simply, Biden has forced all Americans working in China to pick between quitting their jobs and losing American citizenship. Every American executive and engineer working in China’s semiconductor manufacturing industry resigned yesterday, paralyzing Chinese manufacturing overnight. One round of sanctions from Biden did more damage than all four years of performative sanctioning under Trump. Although American semiconductor exporters had to apply for licenses during the Trump years, licenses were approved within a month.

    With the new Biden sanctions, all American suppliers of IP blocks, components, and services departed overnight – thus cutting off all service [to China]. Long story short, every advanced node semiconductor company is currently facing comprehensive supply cut-off, resignations from all American staff, and immediate operations paralysis. This is what annihilation looks like: China’s semiconductor manufacturing industry was reduced to zero overnight. Complete collapse. No chance of survival.

    You will all have read about this in the MSM of course. No? Strange!

    This will make the Chinese laugh! (Irony). The repatriation of American technicians from potentially hostile territory along with the damage to Chinese interests both Military and Civilian make it hard to avoid the impression that this is a precursor to war. One would have thought that by now the Chinese must have some domestic capability, so I doubt that it will be quite as bad as depicted here, though it must still affect their export markets and the rest of the world with a chip shortage. The obvious solution in the short term is for them to invade Taiwan and seize their chip industry!

    https://turcopolier.com/the-sullivan-tech-doctrine-ttg/

    1. What a perfect dupe Biden makes for the hawks in the USA. The latter put in place a man clearly suffering with cognitive problems who by virtue of his mental state has plausible deniability written all over him. These behind the scenes manipulators must be working very hard to stop the mid-terms from happening.

    2. As the Chinese have been making the things (everything that you can think of) the supply of everything should continue as long as the Chinese want it to. If you are thinking of buying a new washing machine, buy it now.

        1. Call the Americans bluff and invade Taiwan.

          Fully take back Hong Kong.

          Then eye up South Korea.

          The Americans are idiots to provoke war on two fronts, with both Russia and China having such large military assets.

          I wonder how well conscription will go down in America this time round. I doubt young Republican men and women will want to fight and the Democrat young men and women would be too scared.

        2. They may stop selling us washing machines, and die laughing? On the other hand as the economy of the West seems to be based on retail turnover, that will grind to a halt.
          It will be “make do and mend” time again, with the added absence of electricity , coal and gas.

    3. Biden is only the ‘front man’. He has dementia written all over him in every way. I doubt if he has the slightest clue what he is talking about or what sort of tasks he is carrying out.
      He probably doesn’t even know what day it is. Not that I’m trying to cover or support his inadequacies. But those slime bags in the US government have hit absolute rock-bottom.

  10. Very dissapointed that Hunt has been selected. Its not what the party wanted, its not what the country wanted and its not what I wanted. I left the Tory party about 10 years ago at the same time stopped paying the BBC. They are one and the same all on the far left.

      1. 366138+ up ticks,

        Morning B3,

        I do find it credible in so far as cometh the time cometh the man.

    3. Yadah yaddah climate crisis and we feel we need to do this yaddah yaddah

      Get back to your Trust fund, Milo (or Tristan or whoever you are)

  12. The cowardly Conservative Party has created the worst of all worlds. 16 October 2022.

    The truth is that Truss inherited one holy mess. The timing of the Budget was extremely ill-advised, certainly, but the economic mess facing her was created entirely by our political class and over many years. It is absolutely not true to claim all was well before Truss. It plainly was not.

    We should be living in a land of milk and honey. At every level our civilisation has created wonders which previous generations would simply not believe, from every labour-saving convenience to global travel, as well as huge advances in the fields of science, technology and medicine. These advances were largely created by private innovation, not public direction. The gift of the Western mind to the entire world is immense.

    But our Albion does not feel like a land of milk and honey today. The nation is riven with discontent, division and rancour like never before; a rupture which, in my view, is predominately down to disastrously poor policy choices over many, many years across almost the entire West, but particularly here in the UK. Politicians have meddled, often out of short-term news-flow management and expediency, deluding themselves that they can create a liberal, egalitarian utopia. Instead they have created an unhappy and increasingly impoverished divided land.

    Amen to that!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-cowardly-conservative-party-has-created-the-worst-of-all-worlds/

    1. I think it’s time I re-read the Paston Letters.
      Might give me a clue as to how to survive government by the mad and bad.

  14. The Government has squandered its chance to create a more dynamic economy

    Pretty much since Cameron won his first election.

  15. Truss struggles for authority as Tories plot her demise. 16 October 2022.

    The decision to stick with Rishi Sunak’s plan to put up corporation tax from 19% to 25% will raise £18bn a year, but leaves 55% of the tax cuts going ahead and a big fiscal black hole still to be filled, presumably by hefty – and unpopular – cuts to public spending.

    Her authority has already been critically undermined by two major U-turns, on the 45p top rate of income tax and corporation tax, as well as the departure of her chancellor, while despite everything she continues to stick by the rest of her plan for growth.

    She doesn’t have any authority. She is not so much a “Lame Duck” as Peking Duck! The Policies on which she was elected have been erased! There is absolutely no purpose in her remaining in office. The Power now lies with Hunt and his allies!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/15/it-feels-like-game-over-truss-struggles-for-authority-as-tories-plot-her-demise

    1. It seems that once again, the ‘powers that be’ have stepped in to ‘correct’ a decision made by ordinary people. Truss was ultimately selected by Conservative Party members, who presumably wanted the tax-cutting, de-regulating agenda that she stood on. The EU, IMF, WEF, UN etc don’t want that, so she has been stopped in her tracks.

      The same thing happened with the Brexit vote and the election of Trump. Whenever someone accidentally gets into power with a wish to enact policies which benefit ordinary people, the shadow people step in and say ‘no.’

      1. If a new and successful political party does not emerge now it never will and the UK, as far as any pretence of democracy is concerned, is finished.

        I am not sure that the parties of either Richard Tice nor Laurence Fox will cut the mustard.

        1. ‘Afternoon, Richard. The only hope is that they amalgamate and have enough money to put a candidate in every seat, giving us all an alternative to vote for.

        3. This is an email I’ve just sent to GBviews@GBNews:

          May I suggest that Nigel Farage invites Laurence Fox onto his show and suggests to him that Reform and Reclaim might amalgamate to form a Centre-Right Party and become a viable alternative to the Lib/Lab/Con coalition.

          Mind you, to be effective, you would need a huge pot of money, in order to put a member in every seat and give the electorate a party worth voting for.

          Go on, you’re both big enough to overcome any ego problems.

    3. No, it won’t raise more money. Why not? Because it goes on goods and services. That means prices go up (inflation), which means less is bought, which creates unemployment.

      The same formula applies to every single tax. Higher tax -> higher prices -> fewer sales -> unemployment.

      1. -> lower tax revenues and higher costs at Treasury -> further raises in tax level -> even worse economic situation…

    1. Indian? Indian mathematicians have frequently been geniuses. While we have struggled with Euclid, Indians have drawn pictures.

      Edit. This is not an endorsement of Rishi.

      1. 366138+ up ticks,

        Morning Siadc,

        I believe it could be found, maybe, at the bottom of a trunk in Shangri-la,

        Bestaluck.

      2. It only works if the numbers are low enough that the tens and units (if it’s a 3-digit number) when multiplied by the multiplier do not exceed 9. For example, try 312 * 6 instead.

  18. Morning all 🙂
    My word it’s sunny Sunday again, as time goes by it appears to accelerate.

    The government has squandered chances ?
    And it seems billions of pounds of our hard-earned money. They don’t have a clue. And will and never have had a clue.

  19. Good morning all.
    A tad under 3°C outside, but at least it’s a bright, dry & sunny morning.

  20. ‘Morning, Peeps. A dry, sunny start to the day here.

    SIR – The Rev Roger Crow (Letters, October 2), who says that urban badgers can cause thousands of pounds’ worth damage to gardens and buildings with their tunnelling, should consider that they are the ones being encroached upon, as more and more land is swallowed up by development.

    Our housing estate dates back to the late 1950s. Thankfully, we are still able to appreciate the local badgers, who were here before it was built. Gardens have been adapted so we can enjoy their company and our children learn from having nature on their doorstep.

    Dominic Lynskey
    Northampton

    How very lovely for you. Mr Lynskey. However, badger numbers are already out of control. Next, you’ll be telling us that you are feeding these destructive, hedgehog-destroying little buggers. Give me strength.

    1. Every town in Scotland seems to be surrounded by new building sites. Why? We do not need more people. We just don’t. As the native white folk are breeding at just below replacement level, these houses are the result of immigration. By preference they are built on farmland as that is easy and cheap.

      1. Most of the new houses up here are built for incomers from England, a lot of them are holiday homes. The price of ordinary houses has shot up thus denying the opportunity for youngsters to get on the housing ladder. Yes, I moved here from England but at least I originated up here

        1. The same happened to us when we got married in 1968. I was born and brought up in Clerkenwell and vw in Canonbury, both in north London. We couldn’t afford to purchase near our homes as both areas were invaded by Champagne socialists and prices were unreachable for us.
          What you’re experiencing in Scotland and elsewhere throughout the U.K. is nothing new.

          2. It’s still going on here. We’re only 24 minutes, by rail, from Waterloo. A lot of people escaping Londonistan are moving this way.

          3. The only solution is to sell when you are ready to downsize, and move somewhere really far away – Greece, southern Hungary, for example, and buy a complete town.

        2. Norway has a regulation called “Boplikt” that councils can apply. This means, if you buy it, it has to be registered as your primary residence (and where you pay your local taxes). It cannot, therefore, be a holiday home, or bought by a company. If you buy an agricultural property, such as a smallholding, you also have to apply for “Konsesjon” – that is, you have to submit your plans for working the land, against which you my be checked up.
          Locally to Firstborn, a moribund smallholding was tried to be bought by a company, to “grow” holiday homes. They were refused konsesjon, and have had to sell at a huge loss (excellent – somebody got a bargain there!). All very socialist and controlling, but it reduces the loss of productive land (we have very little here in Norway) and has some effect on excluding the holiday homes folk to the benefit of locals.

          1. Holiday homes up here now attract the same council tax (or at least a high percentage) I believe. Your Konsensjon sounds similar to our crofting laws where, even if you own the croft like I do you still have to complete a census every year to show how the croft is being used and you have to live within 20 Km of the croft. If your croft isn’t being used then the Crofting Commission have the right to place a tenant on it, the tenant is then able to buy the croft at a price related to his rent.

        1. It has long been obvious to both Labour and ostensibly sensible Governments that there are far too many British people in Britain.

      3. Nobody needs farmers, anyway. They rich barstewards just mess up the countryside and pollute everything. Just ask the Dutch government.

      4. There isn’t enough daylight in Scotland in winter for darker skinned folk. There’s going to be a lot of Vit D deficiency and consequent illness.

    2. Badgers are not as cuddly as people think!

      Kenneth Graham was way off the mark but Beatrix Potter saw her badger, Tommy Brock, as a dark and nasty creature just as Mr Tod the fox was.

      1. She was right. Badgers kill every hedgehog they come across ast hey are a food competitor

      2. Why would anyone think a badger to be cuddly? Vicious buggers, huge claws, remarkably strong, and kill every damn thing. Then undermine the land.
        Not allowed to shoot them much here, but nobody said owt about blocking them in their sett with a suitable boulder rolled down the access tunnel. They clawed the roof in, and left. Good.

    3. Wait until they’re undermining his foundations and he realises they have more rights than he does. The 1972 Wildlife Act has a lot to answer for.

  21. Once more the government is to introduce new legislation to control this, that and the next thing. What piffle. We are sinking under the enormous restrictive weight of existing legislation. What lacks is the will and the action to arrest those who do things that are unacceptable sand already covered by legislation, e.g. obstruction, criminal damage. New legislation is another term for kicking the can down the road. Maybe Suella Braverman might call Chief Constables to her office, one by one, and make it clear that their job is to make sure that their officers immediately arrest those who cause damage or block streets. Maybe she should instruct judges and magistrates to impose the stiffest possible penalties on those who come before them.

    Edit: “And another thing, do not imagine you will receive a knighthood, unless there is vast improvement. Police chiefs who leave behind a trail of unsolved murders, child rapes, assaults, unsolved burglaries beyond counting, are not going to appear on an Honours List!”

      1. 366138+ up ticks

        Morning M,
        Old industrial tramps never say die.

        My choice, Reclaim / Lawrence Fox.

      1. He did his congregation a favour by stopping them turning into a ravening mob at Finsbury Park Mosque.

        He was suspended from the 5 times a day prayers at the East London Mosque for attending an event where the new national anthem was sung.

        They clearly have no intention of integrating.

      1. Interesting looking at employments stats for Tower Hamlets. Quite high but those stats also include Canary Wharf. A good way to hide reality.

          1. East London has always been a hot bed of criminality. What did you say your granddaughter does? :@)

      1. It is clearly the wish of successive governments to create a fractured ghettoised society. Easier to control.

  24. Teen gang member named for first time after gun attack left boy, 13, paralysed. 16 October 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b35036720938bdffe2197076a5748e67839d6c5ba0311a7494c797dbc24adff.jpg

    Tafique Thomas, 17, gunned the schoolboy down in an underpass at Hockley Circus, Birmingham, alongside fellow gang members Zidann Edwards and Diago Anderson, both 20.

    The attack left the victim paraplegic after one of the pellets passed through his spinal cord.

    Thomas, who can be identified after the usual anonymity afforded to minors was lifted, was jailed for 16 years and eight months for attempted murder and possession of a firearm.

    Who would ever have guessed?

    https://metro.co.uk/2022/10/15/birmingham-teen-gang-member-named-for-first-time-after-boy-13-shot-17570226/

      1. If a hirsute ballerina in a sparkly pink tutu rocks up to your front door – then your prediction will be correct.

    3. Lets hope his ring gets split regularly by some great hairy con with HIV. What a bastard.

      1. Sorry, but the level of indifference of one to another is making me come over increasingly biblical.
        I’d better get me to confession, my soul gets darker by the day.

  27. 366138 + up ticks,

    The actions of a racist / fruitcake ? more like a proven very credible leader

    awaiting the chance to be fully recognised as such….

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    16h
    I interviewed Tommy Robinson back in Nov 2020.

    The MSM had relentlessly attacked me when I was UKIP Leader because I defended him. I did so because he is a brave man who defends the defenceless.

    I defended him because he was a political prisoner, sent to Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison on trumped up contempt of court charges. If they can do it to him they can do it to anyone else.

    https://gettr.com/post/p1uddqo37b2

    1. I thought, no, they wouldn’t use that.
      Wordle 484 5/6

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

      1. Bl**dy words where there are so many the same except for one letter.

        Wordle 484 5/6

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

        1. Cracked it. The trick to good stats.
          Do yer Qourdle on yer PC then use yer ‘phone to upload the answers 😉
          Daily Quordle 265
          2️⃣3️⃣
          4️⃣1️⃣
          quordle.com
          ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
          🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
          ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

          ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
          🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
          ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
          🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

  29. Joe Biden: I wasn’t the only one who thought Liz Truss’s tax cuts were a mistake
    The US President has labelled Ms Truss’s tax cuts a ‘mistake’ and her U-turn ‘predictable’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/10/16/joe-biden-calls-liz-trusss-tax-cuts-mistake/

    BTL

    The top rate of income tax in US is 37%; the top rate of tax in the UK is 45%.
    Is it any surprise that the senile old idiot has been told to endorse higher tax rates in UK?

  30. OT, but there’s a news article that a young family have moved in to the region and away from family, and are looking for “reserve grandparents” for their seven year old daughter. Blood family are too decrepit to visit much.

      1. Yup. They’ll subtly work on the in locus Grandparents over the years until they really believe they are the children’s grandparents. Their victims will be carefully selected. The real grandparents will be kept out of sight. Seen it, endured it, but I am delighted to say that the perp did not get away with it.

    2. Junior has two elderly godparents. They’re a very good example for him on how to behave and act.

      That both fellows are incorrigible rogues (think Del Boy and Arthur Daily) does him no harm either.

  31. We watched a decent film on Netflix last night.
    Lots of swearing and violence, but fighting against corporate and government corruption. But in the end it all worked out favourably for the rest of mankind. Until of course the next lunatics take over the asylum……oh, I think they already have.
    Edge of Darkness. 2010.

    1. Bob Hoskins? A remake of the TV serial. Both wonderful. And both very, very, frightening. Now the bad guys not only run big bad business, they also evidently control most governments.

      Q. How many UK MPs have not taken a bribe in cash or kind, either directly or via favours to company or family in the last 40 years?

      1. I had heard of the TV series but I don’t remember it. We may have been out of the country at the time.
        Just looked it up HP, Bob Peck 1985.
        We must have been busy raising our three sons.
        I doubt if the current version of the bbc will be airing it again. It’s far too close to modern reality.

    3. When Mandelson clearly took bribes for the copyright laws, very clearly having been bought and paid for by the media companies it was obvious government was corrupt.

      The problem isn’t big government or big industry. It’s that the public cannot control the state. Imagine a situation where May presented net zero. The public say no. May can’t do a thing about it, ever. Any bill pushing it through, any attempt to force it and it’s prevented, outright and she eventually jailed for malfeasance.

    4. It amuses me that Foyle’s War often ends with the defenestration of those who are corrupt and profiting from other’s war efforts.

      1. I loved Foyle’s War, it was so old fashioned and most of the people were so polite.
        I remember Honey Suckle Weeks saying with her exaggerated posh accent “Have the Americans Landed in Hasting”?

  32. Inside Britain’s £5.5 billion military disaster. 16 october 2022.

    The Ajax tank was meant to revolutionise modern warfare – but after a succession of setbacks, is it now destined for the scrap heap?

    Ajax, a type of light tank, has been repeatedly delayed. It was supposed to provide unparalleled protection to its crew, while delivering devastating fire through a 40mm cannon and hitting top speeds of 45mph. When one was finally delivered for trial in 2019 it shook so violently and was so noisy that it injured not the enemy but the personnel using it, with the vibrations also affecting the automatic loading of the cannon. Meanwhile billions of pounds of public money have so far been spent in return for not a single tank that the Army deems acceptable. According to a National Audit Office report, the project was ‘flawed from the start’.

    When societies are in decline nothing that they undertake works! Ships, Planes, Tanks. The only things that really do their job are bought abroad. Usually the US. The civilian world is no better. The NHS, Police, whatever. They are all in a state of semi-collapse. The MSM laugh at Russia but the UK has nothing to crow about.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/16/inside-britains-55-billion-military-disaster/

    1. I think this is because they chose the lowest bidder who lies. Then when it’s over due, doesn’t work and useless, they say ‘we need more money.’ Now, government, because it’ll write no failure clauses into the contracts (for the supplier or themselves) keeps giving the supplier more money, rinse, repeat.

    2. There is an old tale about that old shyster Arnie Weinstock when he ran GEC-Marconi, the company had won the bidding process to design, build and install an updated widget for a military aircraft weapon system (Nimrod?) by ‘skinning’ all of the usual suspects involved in the defence procurement world, submitting such a low bid that none of the others could get anywhere near matching it.

      The entirely predictable result was that, as a result of such a poorly written “Request for Proposals” and “Invitations for Tender” documents the outcome was an abject failure!

      At the post mortem meeting between Arnie and the Ministry of Defence panjandrums, Arnie was reputed to respond with; “Nowhere in the statements of requirements does it mention that the bloody thing had to work!” Fact or fable, I leave you to judge?

      As someone who worked both sides of the fence in this sphere, first as ‘Gamekeeper’ with the MoD (Procurement Executive) and latterly as ‘Poacher’ in industry for a couple of the major players the level of incompetence displayed by the Civil Servants was dispiriting! From the ‘Poacher’ side it was like taking candy from babies!

    3. By Harry de Quetteville. Believe he was on the ground in the Falklands ( mounted regiment? Memory fails me) when it was recovered from the Argentinians. He likely knows a bit about armour.

    4. Any job losses coming up? No? (my bold)
      “This year the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, which evaluates the Government’s major spending plans, analysed 52 projects underway at the MoD, worth a total of £194.7 billion – about one and a half times the entire NHS budget. Of those 52, just three were given the green rating suggesting that ‘successful delivery appears highly likely’. Most, in the amber zone, are freighted with difficulties. And nine are flagged red, where ‘the project appears to be unachievable’.

    5. I see your 40mm gun, and raise you 120mm smoothbore with APFSDS, or even missile launch. Bah, 40mm is for sparrows.

    6. https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2F2022%2F10%2F16%2Finside-britains-55-billion-military-disaster%2F
      Dear God, what clowns. Except it isn’t funny. Glad I left the UK, it’s uselessness at this level will make me return my blue passport in favour of a Weegie bright red one. Who wants to be associated with such a level of incompetence and stupidity? Now I see why Boris Johnson got on so far – he’s one of them. It’s the result of having the country run by Greats graduates.

    7. Bah kids stuff.

      The Canadian army has just issued an order for pistols. The evaluation took well over ten years to come to the decision to buy the same pistols as the Americans have.

      Fighter aircraft? When the F35 first came out there was great fanfare about buying some. They are still evaluating the bids.

    9. It’s not a tank. I guess newspapers don’t have dedicated defence corresponds any more.

  34. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, Late today but I didn’t go to bed until 05:00. Today’s funny:

    The Escapee

    A man escapes from prison where he has been for 15 years. He breaks into a house to look for money and guns and finds a young couple in bed.
    He orders the guy out of bed and ties him to a chair, while tying the girl to the bed he gets on top of her, kisses her neck, then gets up and goes into the bathroom.

    While he’s in there, the husband tells his wife:
    “Listen, this guy’s an escaped convict, look at his clothes! He probably spent lots of time in jail and hasn’t seen a woman in years. I saw how he kissed your neck. If he wants sex, don’t resist, don’t complain, do whatever he tells you. Satisfy him no matter how much he hurts you. This guy is probably very dangerous. If he gets angry, he’ll kill us. Be strong, honey. I love you.”

    To which his wife responds:

    “He wasn’t kissing my neck. He was whispering in my ear. He told me he was gay, thought you were cute, and asked me if we had any Vaseline. I told him it was in the bathroom. Be strong honey. I love you too!!

  35. Just spent the last 3 hours putting the garden away for winter and tidying up for a vist by the Olds on Thursday. Making beds in the spare room, putting stuff away, you know the kind of thing.
    Now at last the list of 2-do is done (I’m just an amateur when compared to Bob!), and I can sit with a beer and listen to
    https://youtu.be/u6mNgN1LKbc

  36. 26 arrested as angry motorists drag Just Stop Oil protesters from road

    Dozens of protesters caused a 13th day of disruption in London on Saturday by gluing themselves to the road at Shoreditch High Street

    An MP questioned what the reaction would be if a “couple of black boys” had thrown soup on a Van Gogh, as environmental activists continued with a 15th day of protests on Saturday. James Cleverly said “let’s stop giving these attention seeking adult-toddlers the coverage they clearly crave” after members of Just Stop Oil were dragged off a busy road by angry members of the public on Saturday.

    The Foreign Secretary tweeted: “I’m just wondering what the reaction would be if a couple of black boys from Lewisham had thrown soup on a Van Gogh or poured milk all over the floor in Harrods.”

    Shortly after midday, 29 supporters of the group sat down on the tarmac at the junction of Shoreditch High Street and Great Eastern Street causing gridlock on the surrounding roads. Some protesters glued themselves to the road surface, while others held up banners demanding an end to the use of fossil fuels.

    But frustrated motorists who were caught up in the road chaos reacted by physically dragging some of the activists out of the way.

    The Met Police said 26 arrests were made on Saturday for wilful obstruction of the highway.

    A spokesman for the group said: “[On Friday] Just Stop Oil supporters threw soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers on display in the National Gallery and paint over the Metropolitan Police’s iconic New Scotland Yard sign. We accept that both these actions have upset and provoked many people, as will the disruption caused by today’s road block.

    “But our art, culture and the rule of law is threatened. Our heritage, rights and freedoms are being destroyed by our government’s lies and the failure of politics, and right now millions of people are facing this brutal impact of climate change yet our government is seeking to expand fossil fuel production.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/15/just-stop-oil-activists-dragged-road-latest-protest/

    James Stupidly might like to consider the possibility that if the demonstrators had been black, those members of the public would almost certainly have been much more reluctant to drag them from the road for fear of facing the obvious accusations.

    As for Just Stop Oil, it can’t be long before they parade a banner declaring “FOSSIL FUELS ARE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!”
    _________________________________

    BTL:
    I Berry
    If a group protesting about illegal immigration were to block a street how long would it be before truncheon-wielding coppers were dragging them to the nick?

    Sea Gull
    The violence the police used against anti vax protesters was staggering; and they were only protesting, not ruining peoples lives by preventing them from getting to hospital appointments or work.

    2. Strip them, in the street, of all their items of clothing involved that fossil fuels to produce them. Then arrest them all for indecent exposure.

    3. What Mr Stupidly fails to grasp is this.

      The perlice (and the PTB) SUPPORT what these wanqueurs are doing. In the same way as they support the arrival of thousands of illegals every week.

      So if his two lovely black boys had glued themselves the road, they’d get the same kid glove treatment ans sympathy as the white idiots do.

    4. Put a buckets of water on the pavement then spray them with acid and point to the buckets. They can choose to stay there or remove themselves of their own volition. (Vinegar will do but tell them it is acid).

    5. Put a buckets of water on the pavement then spray them with acid and point to the buckets. They can choose to stay there or remove themselves of their own volition. (Vinegar will do but tell them it is acid).

    6. BTL Comment:-

      Christina Hirst
      29 MIN AGO
      So the judge releases them and says go back to protesting,just don’t take paint. For the love of goodness,is there no part of our judiciary that has not been infected by this hysteria based on total falsehoods. They should go ask a few real scientists about the long history of climate change, not an autistic child and an elderly broadcaster.

      I used to wonder what happened to the leaders and participants of the student protest movements of the ’60s to the ’90s, then I started taking notice of ridiculous legal decisions being made by our Judiciary and realised that it’s all part of the Left’s “Long March Through The Institutions.”

  38. One for Storm…

    The wife and I have just been to the cinema to see that film ‘Suffragette’.

    Two hours of a woman’s struggle… full of tears, aggression, sadness, anger and frustration….

    Anyway, after she finally managed to park the car, we rushed in and caught the end credits.

  39. 366138+ up ticks,

    So, openly make the sign of the cross near the 007 office ( licence to kill )
    and be awarded [porridge for six months should really be a vote winner for the electoral majority.

    Christians who are caught “praying”, “reciting scripture”, or “crossing themselves” near an abortion centre could be sentenced to up to six months in jail in the United Kingdom.

    British officials are pushing to have Christians who practice their faith too close to abortion centres jailed under revamped crackdown rules aimed at curbing protests against the practice.

    One of the untold wonders of casting a
    lab/lib/con/current ukip vote, many more to be sampled.

    1. We’d only be left with about 40 people.

      Which is great!

      Although…. the better approach is to stop any moron voting by assessing their intelligence and understanding of basic economics, state funding and the uselessness of government.

    3. I don’t know who is worse – your lot of backstabbing charlatans or the useless Canadian creatures that sit on their hands and do nothing to stop that harm that the black face groper is doing to the country.

    1. The chaos from the ecomentalists would end tomorrow if when they started their antics the public were allowed to deal with them.

    2. Wherever they hold these idiots should have absolutely no heat of any kind.

      Windows on cells? No it takes heat to make glass, make do with some nice iron bars.

      1. They should be held by the goolies. Plenty heat there, until a brick or two are applied with extreme violence.

    2. Death is too good for that POS,.

      I like the Tee Shirt. Immigrants are like sperm millions get in, but only one works.

      1. Death is too good for the people who allow them to come here, and those who assist their passage.

        1. I totally agree. Our lying government are stealing money from the British people to subsidise the continuing invasion.

    4. Please give a warning for posts like this. It’s rather broken me up, and i really wish I hadn’t read that. I’m not strong enough.

      1. People are scared. They’re frightened and need the belief that the vaccine will save them.

        What this proves is that people are monstrously ignorant but hey ho.

    2. Don’t start there, the Canadian elite are pushing vaccinations for the under fives.

      Had your booster to the boosters? Don’t worry another variant booster is on the way.

      All of these BA1/4 /5 variants they keep inventing will soon have the news looking like a British Airways flight schedule.

    4. I have yet to meet or discuss The Misplaced Consonant with any one who approves of him.

      Be honest Nottlers – come clean and admit it if you genuinely think he’s a capital fellow who can resurrect the Conservative Party and save it from total oblivion!

      1. I’m of the opinion that the final nail has been driven home in to the coffin that contains the corpse of the Tory party. Hunt as PM would be superfluous ballast in the Tory party’s demise. Giving him the top job would be akin to announcing a scorched earth policy.

        1. Nobody can claim that a Remainer who voted for unvaccinated people to be punished represents the country in ANY way at all.

  49. Crispin Blunt becomes first Tory to publicly urge PM to go Daily Fail

    Hunt, Blunt and another that rhymes with Blair – Three tossers of the first water.

    Crispin is a self-confessed gay boy with a penchant for poppers (is that a code for little boys?) supports LGBT and transgender rights. Ex member of the Queen’s Own regiment – how apt. Must have been a comfort to the young officers on the long nights spent out on Salisbury Plain and Hohne Camp training area.

    1. They need to look outside the Westminster bubble and remember how much people despise backstabbers.

  50. We were in Fakenham market the other day. As we rounded a stall I asked poppiesdad what they were selling there, he was in front of me. Fork handles, he said. I thought he was having a laugh….. As I rounded the corner I saw for myself. They were selling (garden) fork handles. In a bucket just on the corner.

      2. We were there much later than he gets there, he was probably back home by the time we were getting up! We are owls, not larks.

  51. 366138+ up ticks,

    If they have the same success with the economy as they had with supplying paedophilia to the nation they will retain power for decades.

    The tories (jno) party although trying their best in the paedophilic supply department, via Dover / Dungerness have no chance of ketchup, saucy but true.

    Labour is only party with plausible growth plan, says Tesco boss
    John Allan’s comments signal fraying relations between Tories and big business

  52. Another tale of rip-roaring success by Priti Patel

    Suella Braverman orders inquiry into government work by lawyer who blocked Rwanda flight

    Home Secretary has instructed civil servants to undertake an ‘urgent review’ of a contract to train and authorise immigration advisers

    By Will Hazell, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    15 October 2022 • 9:19pm

    A company owned by a lawyer who helped block the Government’s Rwanda deportation flight was given taxpayers’ money to train immigration advisers, The Telegraph can disclose.

    More than £100,000 was awarded to HJT Training – a firm run by two barristers at the chambers which grounded a flight to the African country in June.

    A Home Office source said Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, had instructed civil servants to undertake an “urgent review” of the contract, amid claims from Tory MPs the quango responsible for overseeing immigration advice could have been hijacked by activism.

    HJT Training and the quango – the Office for the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) – both denied there was any conflict of interest and they are not accused of any wrongdoing.

    The OISC is an arm’s length body of the Home Office with responsibility for regulating those giving immigration advice and services across the UK. In December 2020 the Home Office awarded a contract worth £116,000 to HJT Training to provide the “competence assessment and moderation process” for immigration advisers on behalf of the body.

    Two of HJT Training’s four directors – Mark Symes and David Jones – are barristers at Garden Court Chambers.

    On June 14, the chambers secured injunctions at an emergency hearing before the Court of Appeal which prevented a plane from removing asylum seekers to Rwanda.

    Mr Symes, who is listed on Companies House as having a “significant control” in HJT Training, was a member of the team.

    Mr Jones did not act in the case. Garden Court Chambers said the asylum seekers they were representing all “had strong cases for asylum in the UK” and their stories demonstrated the “inhumanity in the Rwanda policy”.

    The OISC said it was “satisfied” that the firm’s services “meet the required standards”.

    A spokesman for HJT Training said: “OISC found no conflict of interest with our work.”

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

    James Tannock
    16 HRS AGO
    Nothing to see here. Both parties maintain they have done nothing wrong and have acted in the best interests of the asylum-seekers concerned, who are very deserving Albanian gangsters.

    Cruciate Ligament
    14 HRS AGO
    Reply to James Tannock
    And Jamaican yardies.

    Sandra Stewart
    13 HRS AGO
    Reply to James Tannock
    Such an obvious conflict of interests, verging on corruption.

    F MD
    16 HRS AGO
    Highly political lawyers, undermining the will of the people

    Mister Tulip
    15 HRS AGO
    Reply to F MD – view message
    Human Rights are only universal to terrorists and illegal migrants. If you’re a doctor or nurse in NHS England – both political parties wanted to trample over your bodily autonomy to force you to get a vaccine which you might not even need (regardless of any personal consent.)

  53. Re the Glue/paint terrorists.

    I very much hope that the shops affected – Fortnum’s, Waitrose, Harrods etc ALL take civil action against the individuals involved.

    Much more effective that the perlice doing bugger all – and the courts sending them home without penalty.

    1. My fellow acolyte in church this morning told me that her son is going on an XR march this afternoon. Had a futile discussion with her and one of the other servers. They’re both convinced that the earth is burning up at an unprecedented rate and that green alternatives can be found for all 6000 oil derivatives, though they were unaware of 5999 of the aforementioned.

      3. I’ve found that uneducated hysteria is very prevalent these days.
        Asking why they believe what they do, gets either a diatribe of gobbledegook or a blank/brain in overdrive look.

      4. The BBC is torturing them with so much brainwashing that convinces them that the world is about to end, and the only remedy is to enslave the population of Europe.
        BBC leaders should be held accountable for the crime that they are perpetrating on the gullible.

      5. The rectorette at church now knows (although I expect she has suspected for some time) that I am beyond the pale. Not only, when we were discussing funerals – as you do – did I say that I wanted the BCP for my funeral service (we had the modern Lord’s Prayer this morning and only the rectorette said it, the rest of us carried on using the traditional one), but one of the church wardens said her sons had organised her funeral; they were going to shoot her, in her shroud, off the White Cliffs of Dover. I said that, knowing her luck, she’d land in a boatload of illegal immigrants. She and the others laughed, but the rectorette looked as though she’d just chewed on a lemon. I’m going to Hell, obviously!

        1. Oh good for you, Conway! I’d love to have been there to see her face. These people are so out of touch with their congregations and why are these dimbo women in these kind of positions?

        2. I did read a long while ago that, during the campaign to force Women Clergy onto the CofE, the church had a MASSIVE spike in membership when a large number of feminists joined to support the move.

          Most of them, once the measure was accepted, fell by the wayside very quickly.

        3. Huh, vicars in knickers who needs them?

          On a similar theme, cocks in frocks are also surplus to requirements.

      6. What I find annoying is our media, government, commentators and Wokies have convinced many of the people in this country to become martyrs to ‘climate change’. As far I can make out, not one other country on earth appears to making even a small percentage of the effort and pesonal sacrifices expected of ourselves.

  54. Have I said Hello to you all today, I can’t remember.

    We had a strange old morning ..woke up to a very fine day.. at 7am.. no rest for any of us here ..

    I watched Laura K on BBC TV.. I thought she interviewed everyone very well.

    We are none the wiser though about who is running the country.. It was a huge mistake putting choices in the hands of the Conservative membership ..

    Liz Truss is the weakest link , so goodbye Liz.

    Spent an hour searching for no 1 son’s spare running shirt .. Moh and he ran in the Weymouth 5K park run yesterday they both ran very well, their used running kit was washed and dried by the afternoon .

    We planned to go down to Weymouth and fill the car up with fuel at Sainsbury’s , but first visit B+Q for a few bits and pieces ..

    The whole world appeared to be on the move .. the town / beach/ esplanade were full of people , the sea was sparkling and there were lots of small yachts taking part in a race , the conditions looked perfect .. so different to yesterday..

    Moh didn’t want to dither around in Weymouth because Southampton were kicking off at 2pm .. which was a shame .. becase I would have enjoyed some sea air .

    Oh dear .. we got trapped in a traffic jam in the B+Q carpark .. the traffic lights on the main road were changing too quickly and the traffic was building up .. cars
    who had been visiting Curry’s, Pet world or what ever it is called , Matalan , you name it , traffic was building up, fumes were horrible , and a diesel train on station on the other side of the carpark was spluttering fumes . We were stuck for over half an hour .

    Moh was furious .. we had to hurry back for the match .. with minutes to spare , all’s well that ends well.

      1. Hi Phizzee..

        You are having a laugh..

        Started to rain here , it is very dark, I expect the rain will be on its way to you soon .

        Feels rather cold as well.

          1. Lovely and sunny here during the day. I managed to trim my front hedge (before the council got around to threatening me about it).

        2. Heyup Maggie!
          A bright & sunny day up here, but the rain is forecast for 21:00 this evening.

          1. Hi Bob

            It was a lovely morning here , but now fine drizzle , dark and overcast .

            I expect you are still busy making chutney .. Moh glued to his football streaming channel .. it keeps breaking up.

          2. Heyup Lass.
            I did plan doing thing up the garden, but never got beyond pottering with minor tasks that needed doing like clearing up the leaves from the front house and filling a couple of wood crates.

        3. Rain due at 16:22 here. No doubt this is a promise by an organisation which is as trustworthy as the Conservative Party.

    2. I incurred SWMBOs wrath may years ago, trapped in IKEA Croydon carpark, when I said “Fcuk it, drive Sicilian” and exited the carpark by driving on the pavement, and bumping down at the roundaout. SWMBO hid under the dashboard as we passed a lady in tight white trousers saying “Ooh, he’s driving on the pavement!”!
      SWMBO told me off. I offered to go back and join the queue to make it better, but she declined.

        1. I’d just sent nearly 3 years in Sicily, where road signs were advisory not compulsory. Traffic lights included. So… practical solution! Nobody was hurt, either.

          3. She was forced to.
            Not too long ago it seemed she had gone to live in Australia. She had moved in with a ‘partner’. And recorded a TV programme were she deliberately set out to
            stirred it up between the indigenous and the white taxpayers and entrepreneurs.

        3. It’s that daft girl from the Hairy Potter fillums. The one who slagged off Miss Rowling (without whom she would be nothing).

      2. 366138+ up ticks,

        Afternoon SM,
        It’s in it’s prime and carried the vote hands down via the polling booth as resets
        lab/lab/con/current ukip coalitions new leader.

      1. Yep, kick his crotch so hard and continuously, that you turn his genitals into a Jeremy Hunt.

      1. 366138+ up ticks,

        Evening C,

        An end product of the current voting
        pattern, a reset overseeing clone / kapo.

    2. 366138+ up ticks,

      Afternoon TB,

      Moonlighting in parks estate agents, specialists in
      house flipping and cottaging, using political umbrella as cover.

  57. Afternoon, all. Sorry I was AWOL yesterday. I was out all day and by the time I got round to logging in, everyone had gone to bed.

      2. No, I’ll read it in a minute. Thanks. Oddly enough, it was Songs of Praise today to celebrate 150 years since Ralph Vaughan Williams’ birth with hymns to his tunes. One of them (which I didn’t know) was called Kings Lynn – a horse bred by Her Majesty as well as the town.

    3. Missing for 24 hours, we could have had 4 new PM’s in that time. Fortunately the Cons have decided to cool things down and wait for further instructions from Brussels before completing their coup.

          8. VVof .

            I feel the same as you..

            All that canvassing and doorstep stuff I did over the decades , damaged hands leafletting , and the political nonsense .. what has all that been worth , sweet damn all.

  58. 366138+ up ticks,

    London / Europe
    Christians Who ‘Audibly Pray’, ‘Recite Scripture’, or ‘Cross Themselves’ in Abortion ‘Safe Zone’ Face Prison

    I say old chap will this be inclusive of those islamical bods ?

    Ye…..

    I say chappie wheres your head gone & gone ?

    1. Not a very safe zone for the babies, is it. The whole argument is always presented as though the abortion industry is somehow neutral and isn’t touting for business..

      1. There was an article in the DT last week about a woman who had had several miscarriages. She also did have a couple of children without problems but she stressed how very psychologically and emotionally devastating her miscarriages were to her.

        I am surprised so few column inches are given in the press to women who have had abortions and never get over their feelings of remorse, devastation and guilt.

        2. We had a spontaneous abortion.
          SWMBO was in bits.
          It wasn’t fun for anyone. Explaining what happened to his sister/brother to Firstborn wasn’t much fun, either.
          Never found out what sex the baby would have been. Don’t want to know.

  59. What do you think of this .

    She appears to be abusing the drug system .. antibiotics treat different infections .. there are strict rules ..

    Health Secretary Therese Coffey admits to illegally sharing antibiotics with friends and family as she faces backlash over plan for pharmacies to offer the medicines without prescriptions
    Ms Coffey made the admission during discussions with civil servants last month
    It is against the law to provide prescription drugs to anyone it is not intended for
    Comes amid plans for pharmacists to provide drugs without approval of a doctor
    Leading Cambridge biologist Prof Stephen Baker has branded the plan ‘moronic’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11320893/Health-Secretary-Therese-Coffey-admits-illegally-sharing-antibiotics-friends-family.html?ito=push-notification&ci=PFxz62Lj5z&cri=bBTqj02qIN&si=xYJ0MlrMyMmf&ai=11320893

    1. How did she come to have enough to share? You are supposed to finish the course. Even if you are feeling better.

        1. I do know that from personal experience when you pay to see a private Doctor they will mostly comply with what you ask for. Let’s face it…it’s their job to push drugs.

    2. Hi TB, I saw this earlier and I don’t understand….for years now the medical professionals have been trying to tell patients that too many antibiotics are being prescribed, creating yet more resistance to infections and now we have a Health Secretary wanting them available over the counter??

        1. Plus a lot of other drugs which are POM in the UK! Some of the drugs on prescription here really shouldn’t be. And pharmacists are already preparing to prescribe.

      3. She’s not exactly a medical expert, is she. Coffey is one of those politicians who has always been given an easy ride by the media because she toes the line. Result, she rises to the level of her incompetence.

      4. She is another one trying to kill us all Jill.

        My dentist gave me Metronidazole for a tooth abcess.. I had an allergic reaction , and ended up in A+E.. I am also allergic to Penicillin .

        That woman should NOT be the Health Sec. Her ideas are dangerous .

      5. And not completing the prescribed amount for an infection AND handing them on to someone else leads to antibiotic resistance in both instances.

    3. Hearing this and hopin got speak to a doctor tomorrow about a kidney infection rather ticks me off.

    4. Our grandson, doing a Masters in Pharmacy, will be able to prescribe when he finishes his degree and registration year, a 5 year course. At the end of his training he will be far more competent than doctors as he will know far more about the drugs and their interactions with other drugs. He will be a specialist and doctors will go to him for advice.
      It could be that the reports are incorrect and I doubt if it will mean they’re available OTC.

  60. Just bought me a new TV. Problem is I’ve got to now unpack it and set it up and work out how it works.

    Got a spare twelve year old anybody?

    I’m hoping it will have better programmes on in the evenings than my old one.

      2. Yes. Dumb owner though unfortunately. I’m going to have a go later – I’ll let you all know how I get on.

    3. In theory – in THEORY – the thing should set itself up. The last two tellies we bough did exactly that. A few questions appear on screen – you answer them – and bingo.

      Of course all that was done by the MR – one just needs a competent woman who actually READS the instructions…..

      Try to lay hands on a competent woman, Stormie….

      (Seeks shelter).

    4. OH bought a new smart telly last winter from a local firm and they sent a young chap round to set it up and show us how to use it. We had a problem some weeks ago with the internet access and the same young chap came back and got that sorted.

  61. Political instability is leading to higher EV charging rates.
    Shell is claiming that because electricity is a finite resource, uncertainty about the Government keeping a policy of capping business electricity rates means it is being forced to up its charging station prices.

    Unfortunately, political events are strongly impacting energy prices. This has led to a global energy crisis, the effects of which are trickling down and now impacting EV charging rates.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/shell-ups-prices-at-its-10000-electric-car-charging-points-by-up-to-34percent-as-the-premium-for-not-having-a-driveway-and-dedicated-ev-tariff-grows/ar-AA12X33l?li=BBoPWjQ

      1. Electricity mines are the subject of current research. Findings to date reveal a shocking level of investment required to get it out of the ground. There is potential however for this finite resource to be used as a global trading currency to replace existing volatile national ones.

        😉

          1. 💥 ..Oh dear I’ve just tripped over the trailng EV cable.
            At least it was a good trip!

    3. It was to be expected, Tesla Superchargers have increased their prices this year substantially. Home charging for me however is less than half that cost and 90% of my trips can be charged at home before setting off.

      It seems everything is costing more, only yesterday I was talking to a tradesman who told me for him to work on a building site he charges £375 daily. He said anything less would not get him “out of bed” and I now understand why new build houses cost so much.

      1. Fortunately I’m in the same position as you vvof – with home charging I don’t expect to do any long enough trips in my new EV to warrant going to an EV charging station.

        1. We had a few days in Cornwall in June and a visit to see friends in Merseyside in the Spring and that covered the bulk of Supercharging required this year. 300 miles range allows everything else to be considered local trips and home charging. I promised Mrs VVOF a visit to York, quite when that will be is unknown at present but that will be another trip to take into account.
          As an aside I have received an e-mail telling me that cheaper night rates are coming to some (how many I do not know) Superchargers so perhaps that will prove financially beneficial in the future.

    4. I filled up with petrol this afternoon. The woman in front of me was filling her hybrid with petrol, too. Clearly the lecky is not reliable.

      1. Many hybrids aren’t plug-in, so all battery charge comes from petrol… how green is that?

  62. The weekend rush-hour: Roads are so congested between 7am and 7pm on Saturdays and Sundays after pandemic that it takes LONGER to reach destination than during weekday mornings and evenings

    Travel for motorists travelling weekends taking longer than weekday rush hours
    Average London speeds dropped from 14.6mph to 12.56mph on weekends
    Could be as many electing for motor travel over public transport since pandemic

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11320607/Roads-congested-Saturdays-Sundays-weekday-pandemic.html

      1. Were they all out blocking roads in protest elsewhere. I am led to believe that Stroud is a hotbed of such protesters, XR etc.
        Is there something you want to tells us, we are very understanding. :¬))

        2. XR started here. I avoid going into Stroud if possible – it’s full of some very weird people. We were just driving past on Saturday, on the way to our table tennis practice – lots of traffic, going who knows where.

    2. Erin decided to go to Snorbens this arvo. I was invited to join her, but wasn’t quite ready. And had to take doggo for a walk.
      She said that it was packed in the city centre. A huge market on the main street. Antiques and bric-a-brac. From the descriptions I’m glad she didn’t bring anything home.

    1. And now he’s living for free, protected, fed, clothed and it’s costing us about 250 thousand a year.

      1. 366138+ up ticks,

        Evening RE,
        It will continue all the while the majority voter gives it the kiss X of approval,
        I see it as, him inside is blocking a cell bed for an MP/PM.

          3. Give him the money in coins in a bowl, and tell him he can keep whatever he can pick up.

          4. Give him the money in coins in a bowl, and tell him he can keep whatever he can pick up.

          5. 366138+ up ticks,

            TB,
            I would not believe they have an award system as current
            United Kingdoms courts have.

      1. 366138+ up ticks,

        Evening Lotl
        Funding from help the children, he only looks 7 going on 40, & these Isles owing to the voting pattern are awash with cheap labour.

      3. Trafficked in to order.
        He’s just the caretaker who carries the can on behalf of the gang who set the whole thing up.

      1. 366138+ up ticks,

        Evening M,
        Benjamin Franklin Quotes​​ Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbours, and let every new year find you a better man.

        When I get me lawn mower back.

  64. That’s me gone. Another that started OK (for me) then petered out to feeling rough. The MR insists on getting up and working…grrrrr Why do women NOT do as they are asked?

    Still, we did have lunch in the garden – sunny and still. Which was nice.

    I hope to be around to see you tomorrow – but who knows?

    A demain.

      1. The bigger the dog, the more he thinks he’s a lap dog. Have had three of those- Fred being the biggest.

        1. Yep, Mongo still climbs into my lap. That’s quite rare these days though. He mostly flops about with Junior where he tends to sit across his legs.

  65. Par Four today – Must Do Better!

    Wordle 484 4/6
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟨🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Looking forward to her full recovery. Hope that means she’d like to continue with Nottl, as she’s an important part of the community.

      2. I spoke to Plum on Tuesday, Maggie.

        Her health is – maybe? – improving.
        Sadly, she has no intention of an early return to our forum.

    2. 5 for me. I didn’t think they’d call a ***** a *****.
      Wordle 484 5/6

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

  66. Don’t think I have been more fed up than this afternoon. Total sense of humour failure – cut favourite crazed teacher friend off in telephone call coz she was saying things that royally pissed me off. Never done that before, to anyone.
    Think I need some downtime to reset the mental processes.
    May be absent for a while – who knows?
    Take care, all Y’all.

    2. Sorry to hear that, slow down for a while, read a new book, listen to some music, and come back as soon as you can. Take care.

        1. Agree, but equally a new book concentrates the mind more when you need distractions, don’t you think?

    3. It worked for me Obs, you may have noted my absence earlier this year. Sometimes an overload of news which is all bo**cks is too much and a break is best.

    4. We’re listening to Mozart, dinner is cooking and we’re about to eat it – smoked salmon starter followed by roast beef, roastie spuds, veggies and a bottle of Merlot.

      Take care and feel better tomorrow.

      2. I had lasagne earlier. Now Oscar is trying to climb on my lap because he wants cuddles. It’s difficult to type when one hand is fondling his ears 🙂

    5. We’ve all been grumpy, touchy and fighting with each other recently – I put it down to us all having just had covid. It seems to make one very emotional. Perhaps there’s something in the air though. It’ll pass.

      Are you sure you aren’t going through the menopause?

    6. Sorry to hear that Herr Oberst. Please look after yourself and SWMBO and come back refreshed and happy! 😘

    8. Im overwhelmed with the news and none of it is good or positive. Unfortunately, there seems little that we can do as an election will make no difference. I feel more trips to Wetherspoon’s to be the only solution! At least I have a sunny hol to look forward to next month..

      1. Success. I wanted to get a slightly bigger tv than my old one (31″) but the next size up was 40″. I’ve been havering for ages because I thought it would be too big but now it’s out of the box and set up, it doesn’t seem that much bigger than the old one. Shoulda gone for 43″

          2. You should be so lucky. I’m trying to raise the cables so the new puppy doesn’t become a kebab !

        3. My 43″ LG telly is now mounted on the wall. Being a stud partition, all the cabling is in the boiler cupboard on the other side. Truth be told, I rarely watch it, and never ‘live” broadcasts, having ditched the licence.

      2. Success. I wanted to get a slightly bigger tv than my old one (31″) but the next size up was 40″. I’ve been havering for ages because I thought it would be too big but now it’s out of the box and set up, it doesn’t seem that much bigger than the old one. Shoulda gone for 43″

  68. This is undiluted bollox. The Remainer/Wets in the HoC don’t want to represent the wishes of Tory voters. Tumbrils please and trundle the whole lot of them to Tyburn Hill

    MPs want Tory members barred from leadership election while party is in power

    Public will not put up with another long campaign if Liz Truss is ousted, rebels say

    By Camilla Turner, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    16 October 2022 • 7:03pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/16/mps-want-tory-members-barred-leadership-election-party-power/

      1. I’d join in, but I resigned from the party many months ago, Didn’t stop them taking another year’s subscription. I know PayPal aren’t flavour of the month at the moment, but a refund was swiftly organised…

  69. Bugger me, but this bit of the decorating is hard work! Anyone who’s ever painted fiddly, deep floral mouldings stretching across miles of high ceiling, with temperamental paint, will know what I mean. For those who haven’t, I would suggest that this activity be added to the “incest and morris dancing” list.

      1. The bloke who invented decorating wants f**king and the bloke who invented f**king wants decorating

        1. Yeh; now – along with John McCormack – I’m a Papal Count …

          Not many people know that …

      3. Heartened to hear it can be survived. Other half to be started when the light appears tomorrow morning.

    2. Bugger me… sounds like an invitation. When are you next in my back ward and i could give you a positive response!
      I suggest you use a small brush. Tickle the little unused areas. Lay on your back. And go for it.
      Scaffolding available.

      1. 🤣🤣 Naughty boy!!

        No scaffolding available; I suspect they think it would encourage my Michelangelo tendencies…

        As to tickling the unused areas with a small brush – ooh Matron!! 🤣🤣

      1. What’s the difference between a Morris Dancer and a Jew?

        (Before people get snooty about this riddle I must tell you that I was told it by one of my Jewish friends!)

        A Morris Dancer is a complete prick!

        1. When I managed a cinema I went with several colleagues to a London preview of a Mel Brooks film and he joined us for lunch afterwards. My boss told him a variation of that joke, i.e. “Why can’t a Jew become a Morris Dancer? Because you need to be… etc.” Jewish Mel Brooks found it hilarious.

      1. Johnstone’s, actually. Excellent paint! Not called anything ridiculous, eifher 🤣

    6. Try working your way through 150 litres of the stuff and I guarantee you’ll be an expert at watching paint dry……

  70. Well, I think that’s me for this evening. Oscar has successfully claimed Charlie’s mat from Kadi and is busy
    rucking it up to his satisfaction. Kadi is sulking and giving me a
    reproachful look. Dogs, eh? It’s gone cold, the oil heating is just keeping the chill off and I’ve a book I want to finish, so I’ll bid you all goodnight. Sleep well and pleasant dreams. I think the time to light the Rayburn is fast approaching.

    5. Goodnight. The new puppy has been with us for two weeks. They play fight and Dolly tends to use the little bugger as a squeaky toy.

          1. It probably won’t be long before he is bigger than her and plaguing the life out of her – as I once said to our elder son when he was about eight. I was right – younger brother grew to be 6′ 2″ whilst elder brother just managed 5′ 10″.

      2. No, Charlie was my previous dog. Oscar has inherited his bed, his mat, his coats and his bowls.

  71. Have any of you watched the film A Clockwork Orange …

    Alex is a 15-year-old gang leader living in a near-future dystopian city. His friends (“droogs” in the novel’s Anglo-Russian slang, “Nadsat”) and fellow gang members are Dim, a slow-witted bruiser, who is the gang’s muscle; Georgie, an ambitious second-in-command; and Pete, who mostly plays along as the droogs indulge their taste for “ultra-violence” (random, violent mayhem). Characterised as a sociopath and hardened juvenile delinquent, Alex is also intelligent, quick-witted, and enjoys classical music; he is particularly fond of Beethoven, whom he calls “Lovely Ludwig Van”

    A Clockwork Orange was written in Hove, then a senescent English seaside town.[12] Burgess had arrived back in Britain after his stint abroad to see that much had changed. A youth culture had developed, based around coffee bars, pop music and teenage gangs.[13] England was gripped by fears over juvenile delinquency.[12] Burgess stated that the novel’s inspiration was his first wife Lynne’s beating by a gang of drunk American servicemen stationed in England during World War II. She subsequently miscarried.[12][14] In its investigation of free will, the book’s target is ostensibly the concept of behaviourism, pioneered by such figures as B. F. Skinner.[15]

    Burgess later stated that he wrote the book in three weeks.[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(novel)

    Written in 1962 !!!!!!!

    3. I try not to watch or read anything violent or upsetting these days, Belle. There is too much going on in real life that is distressing and no longer hidden. I belong to the genteel days of television when a warning would precede the viewing, it went along the lines of “For those of a nervous disposition we would advise that this film contains scenes of violence/bad language/sexual nature….” or words to that effect.

      1. PM

        I have also developed a very sensitive nature , and TV and even the radio have lower standards these days.

        I don’t watch upsetting things these days either , but the deteriorating behaviour and lack of manners in the UK reminds me of that film .

        1. Indeed – I never saw the Clockwork Orange but I recall it had a certain reputation. The lack of normal courtesies and manners these days is appalling. Poppiesdad received a circular letter, before our departure, from the agent of the self catering cottage we used last week – it was along the lines of dos and donts regarding the manner that the accommodation should be left, which we found very irritating, mostly simple stuff, such as if one has moved the furniture then to replace it as it was on your arrival, things like that, that it wouldn’t cross our minds to do otherwise. I thought it was a sad reflection on society that the agency found it necessary to do this. We always leave the places we stay in as we found them and in some cases better. I do not want to put people in the position of having to clear or clean up after us.

          2. A veg peeler would have been appropriate in this case, the incumbent was as if it it hatched from a Christmas cracker. The carpet needed attention, something like a labrador had tiddled in the hallway. I think only people who own dogs would stop there. Apart from that, it was clean, it was just an old stain. The owner had seven or eight dogs of her own at the back. Norfolk terriers. Constantly squabbling!

            Leaving a practical gift is a good idea.

    4. I watched A Clockwork Orange in the Tuschinski Theatre in Amsterdam circa 1970. At the time it was banned in the UK.

      As an architect I thought the fact it was filmed at Thamesmead particularly prescient. Thamesmead was the latest concrete jungle at the time but lauded by the architectural press, as was Cumbernauld New Town and other monstrosities.

    5. I watched A Clockwork Orange in the Tuschinski Theatre in Amsterdam circa 1970. At the time it was banned in the UK.

      As an architect I thought the fact it was filmed at Thamesmead particularly prescient. Thamesmead was the latest concrete jungle at the time but lauded by the architectural press, as was Cumbernauld New Town and other monstrosities.

    7. When AB lived in Kota Bahru ( British Malaya ) he was not a member of the expat club there and did his drinking at the heavily Islamic stare’s only respectable watering hole , the KB Airport bar . Wife Lynn , an unfaithful Welsh harridan who drank even more than AB , took a fancy to a young officer of the Cheshire Regiment , one Colin Dewsnap , and invited him back to the bungalow for more drinks.

      Dewsnap politely declined and when later congratulated on his moral standards , said , ” Nothing to do with morals , I had heard that Wilson ( AB ) liked to play the role of voyeur.

      2. Works in Singapore ( cane actually ) . Safe streets and undamaged British Colonial statues and street names.

  73. Sod it. That’s me off to bed.
    I might try for a more productive day tomorrow.

    On the other hand, I might not.

    1. Perhaps you should make a provisional application for a forthcoming vacancy at No. 10 Downing Street, Bob?

      You could ‘Keep us on the Rails?

  77. Leo Hickman and Lucy Ashton follow
    80s Kidz
    @80s_Kidz
    On the night of the 15th/16th of October the #GreatStorm of 87 happened. What’s your memories of it. I had a rabbit hutch blown over & a day off school.

    https://twitter.com/80s_Kidz/status/1581585669755113472

    Michael Fish …. hmmmm

    Dorset was badly hit ..

    I lived near Wimborne then , and we lost ridge tiles , slates , chimney etc , 2 green houses .. and a tree.. no power for 5 days .. Moh was off shore then ..

    It was a miserable experience for many people .. shortage of paraffin, candles , matches, torch batteries and … food like bread , car fuel etc.

    1. I was safely ensconced in Cumbria. Cousin in Southampton bore the brunt. I had a job interview in Suffolk in December, and the absence of upright trees was quite noticeable. Got the job…

      1. I was celebrating my 40th at a hotel in Dockray. Returning to Savernake Forest was quite a shock at the damage.

    2. I spent days ensuring generators kept small local telephone exchanges running until the mains was restored. As you can imagine it took a while.

      1. Refuelling, presumably? At least, conventional telephone exchanges have backup power. Would that the same could be said of mobile cell towers…

        I worked on a reactive maintenance contract for BT, measuring up what was mostly decoration. So I had a key that would get me into any telephone exchange for quite a few years…

        1. The larger exchanges had backup power generators situated in the battery room, I had a couple of smaller SAX’s in my patch which required generators to be brought in and refuelled.
          The funny thing was I remember being woken in the middle of the night by the phone ringing when they called me out and being told to be careful. When I asked why do you say that, they told me we have had one hell of a storm. I had slept through it, but soon found out how bad it was, drove miles trying to get round blocked roads with fallen trees to get to where I had to be.

    3. My memories were – since I was living in Ayr in Scotland at the time – that the hurricanes had blown themselves out by the time they reached Ayrshire.

    4. I was woken at 4:00am re loss of power.

      Opened the curtains at 7:00 am to find the windows plastered with tree leaves. Unable to drive out of our road as fallen trees blocking both ends.

      A few days later drove out to Ide Hill in Kent and witnessed thousand of trees flattened by the storm. The mature trees still standing in the grounds of Knowle House in Sevenoaks looked as if they had been shelled by artillery as the tops were just shattered limbs. 15 years later at Ide Hill nature had staged a recovery. I’ve often wondered if deciduous trees shed their leaves in part in order to withstand Winter gales. Evergreen trees mainly have fine needle leaves so they don’t act like sails.

    5. I was woken at 4:00am re loss of power.

      Opened the curtains at 7:00 am to find the windows plastered with tree leaves. Unable to drive out of our road as fallen trees blocking both ends.

      A few days later drove out to Ide Hill in Kent and witnessed thousand of trees flattened by the storm. The mature trees still standing in the grounds of Knowle House in Sevenoaks looked as if they had been shelled by artillery as the tops were just shattered limbs. 15 years later at Ide Hill nature had staged a recovery. I’ve often wondered if deciduous trees shed their leaves in part in order to withstand Winter gales. Evergreen trees mainly have fine needle leaves so they don’t act like sails.

    6. I was on a business trip – on the night sleeper from Glasgow to Bristol.

      At c.6.00am we pulled into a siding some 10 (?) miles north of Bristol. The train rocked violently – and felt that it could be blown over.

      I eventually got home that evening by driving to Birmingham airport!

    7. It was a storm but we had no damage where we were. I remember being quite surprised at the devastation elsewhere.

      1. The most severe gales were over the south-east of England and East Anglia: East Sussex, west Kent, Surrey, through London and then into Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk along a narrowing line to the west of the A10. For many people outside these areas it was just a very windy night, hence the bafflement from Scotchland in particular about southern softies getting upset about a bit of blowy weather.

      2. The most severe gales were over the south-east of England and East Anglia: East Sussex, west Kent, Surrey, through London and then into Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk along a narrowing line to the west of the A10. For many people outside these areas it was just a very windy night, hence the bafflement from Scotchland in particular about southern softies getting upset about a bit of blowy weather.

    8. Caroline and I were also in Dorset*, at Allhallows Rousdon Nr Lyme Regis and had just announced our engagement.

      *Actually our postal address was Dorset but we were actually just to the West of the county line in East Devon.

    9. Woke up by a yowling down the chimney I’d never heard before or since.
      Managed to get in to work, surprised that the trains were running, but didn’t do a lot.

    10. I was in Cambridge. Excitingly windy night but no damage to the college. Got told off by one of the porters for being amused that Sevenoaks had been reduced to one oak. He pointed out, quite rightly, that people’s lives had been devastated. I learned a lesson that day.

    1. I suspect each one of them will go back to their local associations at the next GE with feigned innocence saying that they were one of the few to oppose such a move. Then ask that they all move on and start pounding the streets campaigning to get him/her re-elected.

      1. 366235+ up ticks,

        Morning VVOF,
        The same orchestration is in play time & time again.

        Mindset ” My MP” instead of the “area MP” is a major nation killer.

  80. Good night all. 😴
    OH has just changed the washer in the basin cold tap. He thought of turning off the water but that would have stopped the dishwasher going. So he got out his spanner and did the job. They never last long in that tap so he’s had plenty of practice.

  81. Archbishop of Canterbury takes aim at Liz Truss’s trickle-down economics
    Justin Welby says he is ‘deeply sceptical’ about the Prime Minister’s economic policy amid the cost of living crisis    .
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/16/archbishop-canterbury-takes-aim-liz-trusss-trickle-down-economics/

    BTL Deleted by the DT’s censors:

    Just as Blair’s mouthpiece, Alastair Campbell, said: “We don’t do God,” shouldn’t the Arsehole of Canterbury not do politics?

  82. Oh bugger.
    Another early night gone for a ball of chalk.
    The DT woke me up when she went to bed 2h ago and I’ve been awake since.

    Oh well.

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