Sunday 18 February: Britain’s struggling GP service has failed to recover from the effects of Covid

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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412 thoughts on “Sunday 18 February: Britain’s struggling GP service has failed to recover from the effects of Covid”

  1. Morning everyone. Just a personal anecdote here. I went down town early yesterday (8AM) to do some shopping. There were already two scruffy looking guys at the bus stop (it’s a small local service that links several estates) who I had never seen before. Without wishing to make any claim to ESP I knew immediately from thirty yards away. I don’t know where they were from. One was drinking a can of 1664 and could hardly speak English. The other was quite fluent and working in a carwash. The disappointment my friends! I was expecting a couple of Brain Surgeons at the very least on my first personal meeting with our new compatriots! I’m sure that they will be a credit to the local community!

    2. The rocket scientists and brain surgeons, according a friend who was in the “city” centre on Friday last, are here in N Essex along with their families.

  2. No harm in repeating.:

    Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    PRAYER MATS

    A British Engineer just started his own business in Birmingham.

    He’s making land mines that look like prayer mats.

    It’s doing well…

    …He says prophets are going through the roof.

  3. Compare and contrast with what modern society calls a “hero”:

    “The funeral of the man believed to be the last surviving veteran of the infamous Burma Railway, has taken place.

    Jack Jennings, 104, died at his care home in Torquay, Devon, in January.

    Following his capture on Feb 15 1942, he was one of thousands of prisoners tasked by the Japanese to build the railway between Thailand and Myanmar.

    His granddaughter Carolyn Heath described him as her “hero” and said: “He did just amazing things in a very simple way.

    “He was a carpenter and of course, that helped him out in the war when he was building the railway, but he was also really helpful to us at home and just was a jack of all trades, really.”

    The deaths of thousands during the forced construction of the development led the project to be named the “death railway” but he was one of those who survived.

    He was one of the survivors and his passing was marked with a guard of honour by the Royal British Legion at the service at The Little Theatre in Torquay.

    Mr Jennings was captured on February 15, 1942, in Singapore when he was serving with the

    Cambridgeshire Regiment and was held as a prisoner of the Japanese until the end of August 1945.

    He battled through ill health and went on to marry his childhood sweetheart Lilian Mary in December 1945.

    His daughter Hazel Heath said although he did not talk about his experiences for many years, he was “proud in the end”. He later took the decision to write a memoir about being a prisoner of war. Mr Jennings moved to Torquay and had a passion for playing the harmonica, according to his daughters.”

    3. Problem is, language has become inflated, so people now use the word “hero” to describe someone who does something vaguely useful, like stop coffee sfom spilling, and there’s no useful word left to describe the gentleman above, or yesterday’s cleric awarded VC. A problem.

  4. Good Morning Folks

    Raining here.

    Another good day on wordle though

    Wordle 974 3/6

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    2. Well done! I was uninspired this morning…
      Wordle 974 5/6

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  5. Britain’s struggling GP service has failed to recover from the effects of Covid

    It’s all but shut down as the service we once knew, maybe this was always the plan.

  6. Good morning, chums. Whilst waiting for the new page I attempted Wordle whilst listening to poems on Angel Radio. As a result I didn’t even get the answer in six – had I thought more carefully I could have just scraped with six. Anyhow, hello everyone and I hope you all enjoy your day.

  7. Good morning, all. Pouring down here.

    Let’s start with something of beauty created by a genius. Could this be a photograph?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/74d8970a1daced9e66c50b60bafa84f1b2074125c8e2c52d8df5ffe32f7f41b0.png

    It is a portion of the sky in The Hay Wain landscape painted in 1821 by John Constable. One of, if not the, most well known of English paintings.

    Sadly, not to everyone:

    https://twitter.com/MurrayFurry1/status/1758864428848894244

    2. Good morning, Korky. Two things to say to you today:
      (1) Thank goodness the first photo of the clouds in your first post is not the jigsaw puzzle I am attempting – that is difficult enough.
      (2) Where has the horse and cart gone? I’d better look in the fridge! Lol.

      1. Morning, Elsie.

        The detail in the painting as a whole is wonderful but that sky is amazing. Something created 200 years ago that captured the essence of that very different time needs to be remembered. Good to see that the owners of Willy Lott’s cottage have had the decorators in.

    3. Painting the sky is notoriously difficult – nobody has ever managed English skies as well as Constable

      1. Constable practised painting skies. I have a collection of his sky studies as postcards purchased from the V&A many years ago. The originals are in their collection.

  9. ‘We are witnessing a growing trend where public servants face intimidation and threats’. Tobias Ellwood. 18 February 2024.

    Though this was the first pro-Palestinian targeting of an MP’s house, it is far from an isolated incident. Fellow MPs agree – we are witnessing a growing trend where public servants increasingly face intimidation and threats.

    Look at a Parliamentarian’s email inbox and there is now a constant barrage of hate messages, not least against female MPs. Without concerted action, the horrible prospect of another grave attack on a parliamentarian only increases.

    This is beyond parody! The people responsible for this situation are worried! Perhaps he should talk to Batley Man I’m sure that he would have some tips! On a personal note Ellwood is a colonel in 77 Brigade whose Trolls spend their time on the threads countering the views and opinions of people like myself.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/17/we-must-better-protect-those-who-serve-the-public/

    3. People don’t like being lied to. On top of that the abysmally poor service and you end up with angry customers/voters. It is no surprise to me MP’s are getting it in the neck.

      Good morning.

    4. The biter bit.

      No sympathy for these people. These public servants are fortunate that the mass of the population haven’t yet woken up to what they have inflicted on the people. If there is an awakening…

      Standing down as an MP, 87 at the latest count, the bulk Tory, should not save them from the wrath of the people they have betrayed. Not just mass immigration but for inflicting lockdowns, coercing people to take an unsafe and ineffective drug (many of them cheered Sunak when he claimed during PMQs that it is safe) and crashing the economy etc. etc.

    5. But as always the collective damage they have all knowingly carried out and inflicted on this country, is as always is, everyone else’s fault.
      What a shame we don’t have a strong alternative political party the public can vote for and clear all these people out of the system. It’s rotten to the core.

  11. Anti-Semitic attacks

    SIR – It is disturbing to read that anti-Semitism is persistent and growing (Letters, February 15).
    The former Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks equated antisemitism to a virus that
    mutates. Whereas it was religion-based and came from the Church in the
    Middle Ages, it evolved into a race-based doctrine under the Nazis. The
    third mutation of anti-Semitism, in contemporary times, is fixated on
    the Jewish nation-state Israel and Zionism.

    Since the outbreak of
    the war in Gaza and Israel last October, we have seen and heard calls
    for the eradication of Israel, alongside physical, verbal and online
    attacks on Jews in Britain. We have also witnessed the virus infect a
    number of public-facing institutions.

    We need the Government and
    the police to continue to be supportive, and the vast majority of the
    British public to extend a hand of solidarity to the Jewish community.
    The message to the zealots and bigots should be clear: anti-Semitism is
    not just an attack on the Jewish community, but an attack on Britain and
    the values we stand for.

    Zaki Cooper
    London NW4

    We all know the reason for this rise in attacks against Jews. We also know what the government and police response is. Sweep it under the carpet.

    How the authorities can ignore this herd of noisy elephants in the room is beyond parody.

    1. The proverbial carpet has so many lumps under it now, the doors of hate are jammed open.
      It’s pretty obvious what is going on but our authorities are too reticent and stupid to be able to recognise it.

    3. Using a piece of kitchen towel as a base to absorb the steam, you can make a crispy bread substitute in the microwave. Or just buy a toaster.

  15. Good morning all.
    The overnight rain has paused leaving behind another dull start with little breeze and still an almost springlike 7°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    1. Top one is Gus. Yesterday – he came in for breakfast – clamoured to go out – and five minutes later an enormous dead rat was placed by the back door.

  18. Like many on here, I am not a particular fan of the Axminster Masticating lifestyle, but given the current insanity of men becoming women simply because they say they have, I wish this lass good luck with her venture:-

    Lesbian members bar will only admit biological women
    Feminist campaigner Jenny Watson will launch L Community in London later this year and will shut the door on trans women

    A feminist campaigner is to open Britain’s first lesbian members bar that will only allow biological women to join.

    The bar, named the L Community, is due to open in London later this year and will operate as a private members club so that it can bar trans women from signing up.

    The bar has been set up by Jenny Watson, who in September last year was at the centre of a transphobia row after she insisted only “adult human females” could attend the lesbian speed-dating events she had organised, and urged men to stay away.

    Ms Watson, 32, had posted on her website for the College Arms dating night in the capital at the time: “If you are male, please refrain from coming to the events, you are not a lesbian.”

    She previously claimed one person had turned up to an event she ran “sporting a purple latex outfit and an erection”. She also claimed a trans woman had entered the female toilets and “pushed their body at a woman” who became “upset”.

    Ms Watson, a town planner, said the backlash to her “female-only” stance for her speed-dating nights led to them being widely refused by venue owners over fears of being labelled transphobic.

    “No one will take bookings for my events any more,” Ms Watson said.

    “The trans activists are constantly targeting the events, so venues don’t want anything to do with them.

    “But I thought I’m not going to put up with this. I’m going to fix it.

    “We should have a right to our own space – hence the idea to set up the bar. It will be for biological females only and this is why we’re making it a members-only club so we can legally restrict it to women.”

    Women-only spaces
    The bar will continue to provide speed-dating sessions, as well as open mic shows, live music performances and a book club.

    Ms Watson rejected the suggestion that her bar policy was transphobic and said she was instead trying to create a women-only space.

    Ms Watson added that there were currently just two lesbian-only bars in the UK, which are in London and Manchester, and that both welcomed trans women.

    “So in effect, we have zero lesbian bars in a country of almost 70 million,” she claimed. “I’m going to give it my all to change that.”

    While trans campaigners have criticised the move from Ms Watson, she has gained support from Professor Kathleen Stock, a lesbian academic who recently co-founded The Lesbian Project, an organisation focused on same-sex attracted females.

    Prof Stock said: “Lesbians have a right to freedom of association like everyone else.

    “Running a female-only bar, available for those that want to use it, doesn’t stop people who prefer mixed-sex spaces from going elsewhere.

    “This about choice, not transphobia, and lesbians should have that choice. At the moment, they really don’t.”

    A spokeswoman for the feminist campaign group Woman’s Place UK, said: “Lesbians and gays have fought for years for the right to be open about their sexuality and to date and marry people of the same sex.

    “Sadly, this right is now under attack from a homophobic movement that insists lesbians must not only welcome men into their spaces but treat them as potential sexual partners.

    “We deplore this attack on lesbians’ rights and hope we see many more lesbian social spaces that are open only to women.”

  19. Navalny’s death will strike fear into all Russians who hate Putin’s criminal regime. 18 February 2024.

    It is probably not a coincidence that he died a few weeks before the March presidential “election” where Putin will rubber-stamp another six years in office. His death will strike fear and hopelessness into the minority who hate the Kremlin and its mad war.

    Of course! It was the perfect time! Sunak is probably going to knock off Assange shortly! And the vote is up in the US Senate for the Ukie Aid Bill. What could be better?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/17/analysis-alexei-navalny-kremlin-putin-political-opposition/

  20. 383590+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    David Cameron to visit Falkland Islands next week
    British sovereignty ‘will not be up for discussion’ gesture to Argentina from Foreign Secretary

    Meaning on their past record of truth telling, pledge, promises and vow breaking there will be a straight overnight seamless hand over.

    1. It wasn’t and isn’t about sovereignty. Having control of the Falkland Islands guarantees our mineral rights in Antarctica.

      1. Our both ignorant and stupid – there is a difference – politicians are shutting down/have shut down so much of our mineral extraction here in the UK that I have no faith in them protecting our rights elsewhere.

        1. Nearly 400 of our military lost their lives in that conflict. To give up the islands now would affect recruitment. As if they aren’t having enough trouble as it is.

    2. Is it the old tactic of the football club manager expressing his confidence in the manager days before sacking him? Any trust in Cameron & Co, and it’s a very large & Co, is a waste of goodwill.

  21. Good Mornig all. 10C stopped raining but still grey and overcast, but remember,

    “There is always one fine week in February.”

  22. Good morning all and the 77th,

    It’s a bit dull over McPhee Towers, wind in the West, 11-12℃, heavy showers expected.

    I can’t find anything to get worked up about probably because there is so much that I may be suffering from some sort of ennui. Am I a victim of Yuri Bezmenov’s process of subversion, demoralisation and chaos? Dr. Richard Soper of Great Saxhamn, Suffolk must be to write this. But, does he even exist? Or is this letter a fiction planted by the propagandists? It’s certainly ‘off the wall’.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/73b2479168e52f7269cbc6bef648c499e571d444a6570e032e6b6c08f0087a3b.png

      1. Difficult to do on rarely used roads and especially when it is raining/has rained recently. The problems in N Essex are innumerable and some are very severe. I’ve lost one tyre and a front road spring on my Volvo in the last year.

        On the routes that I have to take I’m aware of the current potholes and I’ve recently worked out other routes that avoid ‘moonscapes’ with the potential to damage my car: one of these is to a pub that a group of us use and the new route, not without problems but at the moment less severe problems, doubles the distance.

      2. A bit unfair, Paul. Some of the roads round here – and, everywhere in reality – are appalling. Bloody great holes a foot deep lurk under benign looking puddles. On our road, two cars cannot pass – so one has to pull into a convenient bit of mud to enable t’other car to go by. The mud also contains bloody great holes. I noticed on a trip to Devon that potholes are universal even on motorways.

    2. Article from 2014
      https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/07/air-force-research-how-to-use-social-media-to-control-people-like-drones/?comments=1&comments-page=1

      Apparently nowadays there is research into giving each of us our own personalised internet experience where we believe we will be interacting with other people, but in fact, we will only be reading bot-generated text that panders to our preferences.
      That’s the logical next step to automate the gatekeeper network, I suppose.

      I think this is likely on platforms like Twitt and Instagram, which are very controlled walled gardens. Finding real content on the internet may get harder.

      1. Thus leading to the state where we cannot identify the truth even when confronted with it? Aren’t we there now? The only sensible response is disengagment, going back to pen, ink and paper and meetings with real people at a local level.

        1. Yes, I agree. A personal, local network is of the utmost importance – that’s what Stand in the Park tries to achieve, to get like-minded locals together, also Dick Delingpole’s Third Wednesday /Thursday groups.
          I think the internet will continue to exist, but walled gardens like the big tech platforms will perhaps be increasingly useless – and people will be offered ever more incentives to stay inside them.

    5. There are lots of places they could cut spending and nobody would notice (except things might improve). Net zero, climate change emergency/armageddon/disaster (take your pick), dieversity, transgenderism, rainbow flags and virtue signalling for a start.

    1. If only we had a strong and meaningful alternative to those two and their very expensive and generally useless colleagues.

      1. I am no great enthusiast for the Reform Party but it is better than wasting a vote on the Dodo Party. The Reform Party needs a more convincing leader and better policies on Brexit, immigration, Covid jab damage and the disastrous drive towards Net Zero so that it can become the right of centre party of the future which the country so desperately needs.

          1. That’s the snag for me. At GE19 there was only the usual suspects to ‘choose’ from. I suspect it will be ‘none of the above’ for GE24.

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    At least it’s stopped raining.
    Not sure if it was the effects of covid that has caused our GP services to struggle, more likely to be the effects free access and of immigration, legal and illegal. And a few more Doctors than there has been in the past, taking on private work. A few are even TV stars now !
    It’s A&E that needs looking into. 15 hours or even overnight sitting and waiting to be seen. Ambulances queued in carparks? This can no longer be caused by the effects of covid now, let’s be honest.

      1. That’s probably why the private sector has become so vibrant Phizz.
        And of course who in Westminster and Whitehall knew, that opening our borders to hundreds of thousands people from who knows where, given free access to the health service, would clog the system.

      1. Most Britons don’t understand how a functioning social healthcare system is financed so they don’t realise how bad the NHS is.

    4. A&E is chock-a-block because people can’t see a GP. Dial 111 and they’ll tell you if you can’t see a GP either dial 999 or drive to A&E.

      1. Yes I’ve been there a few times recently Conners. I’ve decided as my pain has gone this morning, not to worry now.
        I think it might have been caused by the upper respiratory infection.
        There are quite a few known doctors acting about on TV at the moment.
        One of them from the bbc morning programme narrated and ‘acted’ a two hour show about the vikings.
        It must have taken months to make the prog. The queue to see him must be miles long. Dr Van Tulleken.

    2. BT, I cycled to my office for >20 years and then did two country post rounds for 2 more and one more year cycling to work nearby. I started cycling for pleasure/fitness after I was retired by Cameron’s cash cuts but concluded that where I live it’s too damn dangerous a past-time. Sent bike to Africa via a charity.

  29. I was chatting with Bruce yesterday, south east of Melbourne. Sometimes we have a tenancy to envy their climate conditions. Last week they had an earthquake 4.8. But they more recently had another massive storm that rained golf ball sized ice particles on them. It resulted in 5 days of power cuts due to the damage of overhead cables and junction boxes. No lights no cooking no nothing. Freezer content ruined. The candles and bbq became essential to survival.
    In passed and similar experiences the ice has been larger and many cars including their daughter’s were smashed.

    2. True! ‘Walled garden’ is an old term from the early days of phone ringtones meaning you had to source everything from the network provider iirc. The (their) idea was that customers would never WANT to step outside the experience that they offered!
      Camps 2.0 perhaps…

  31. Vladimir Putin is a gangster-murderer. Only strength and punishment can defeat him. 17 January 2024.

    Perhaps Navalny’s death has caught people’s imagination because of the contrast it represents. On the one hand, the (literally) suicidal courage of a dissident who would not abandon the cause of a democratic Russia, who chose to return to his country even after its regime had tried to assassinate him; on the other, the wretched cowardice of a dictator who has again resorted to murder at a distance.

    We knew Putin was a dictator. We knew he was a kleptocrat. We knew he was a bully. But to have someone bumped off in prison is the act of a mafia capo. Once again, we see that the Russian Federation is a crime syndicate with a country attached.

    This is utter fantasy. There is no evidence whatsoever that Putin was involved or even that Navalny was murdered. We don’t even know the actual cause of death. The supposed Sudden Death Syndrome is just a rumour from Navalny’s Mother. She is not a pathologist! . No official source has suggested, let alone confirmed it. These morons are talking themselves into a blind alley from which there is no escape.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/17/vladimir-putin-gangster-murderer-only-strength-can-defeat/

    2. Only a couple of weeks ago Sunak declared in Parliament that the Covid jabs are safe and effective This is certainly a terminological inexactitude as they used to call sheer lies!

      If the PTB and the MSM say anything then it is fake news and disinformation to question it and at best you will be censored but often you will be punished.

      It seems that the mass of people in the UK are still prepared to swallow complete absurdities.

    1. Assuming it’s not a parody account I think that confirms what most people think that he is 99.9% tosser.

  33. Anyone we know?

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9e373d766bec2a202f114cf77df02f5d13eb18bf/0_0_5616_3744/master/5616.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=8d98027efe1f2b0a0e47efaf4b528b78
    Madre de Deus, Brazil
    A reveller wears a costume made from beer and soda cans at the Bloco da Latinha street party carnival parade in Madre de Deus

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/95db2a2912c7fb5bd2f1fc47f43478509bf27bbb/0_0_8095_5470/master/8095.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=6d65c50d530cd79f703d0aee5de9f3f8
    Beijing, China
    Members of a folk dancing troupe that perform on stilts, or gaoqiao, wait to perform at a local temple fair for the Chinese lunar new year and spring festival in Beijing

  35. 383590+ up ticks,

    Sunday 18 February: Britain’s struggling GP service has failed to recover from the effects of Covid

    Bollocks of the highest order, it was first triggered when the
    serving PM 1997 ( Miranda) lifted the entry latch, in the biggest act of treason,ever.

    NONE of the countries infrastructure medication, education, incarceration, accommodation will ever work to any agreeable level of satisfaction again, the likes of the Dover invasion campaign dictates that.

    The political mobsters are laying out their stalls, the majority of voting fools are saying “well teach em, busying themselves with constructing a bigger stick for their own backs.

    2. I’m a bit late to the party on this one, Rik, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat this deliberately manufactured crisis.

    4. Who are these Entrean? Do we mean Eritran? Or have they invented a new country to export hooligans from?

  37. At 9:00 am this morning I received confirmation that Radio 3 is determined to fulfil its Woke destiny. A new presenter was thrust onto the airwaves who came across as a refugee from Radio 1…Bah Humbug!

  39. Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a94c472fb685d283d1bb706a989b18131ec9f028a250c3946cf85c357d536aa8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a282fa2d37de03e9e847261bc0775bfc4b1b889a9676824183784f27643d857b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1f9816c3a5f12cf36b9cbc92ef7239a1f4d30a8a26d027c94992fae33849f25e.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/922627a4e817ae32176c2182ffef41fc26f571cf5d05d6ac4afbe2008bea5360.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee3162410d7842ced0578966c1086f846161327a3ccfe2ce00511403b634ea6b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/698eb9b71a3d9ae0099b5d9042b71244d8d70e78ec5461b1bf9d3cc469aac8ca.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ef9b2ae69fc3607196b3d87859c5d85f55230fba58a3331b26331d59907abd7.jpg

      2. A study has shown that bio-degradable plastics release more toxins into the enviroment than ordinary plastic.

        1. One of our local workers who collects our kitchen waste in bio-degradable bags, told me those bags are more trouble than they are worth. The workers have to split them and remove them from the sludge. Because they bags take far too long to breakdown. But I guess it’s better than all the leftovers having to be tipped from bin to bin and into the collection truck.

          1. I don’t like them because they go brittle in the cupboard before I have had a chance to use the whole roll.

          2. We’ve never had that problem, I was always under the impression they only started to degrade when wet.

    2. In South Carolina, they haven’t heard that plastic bags are bad. At the supermarket there is a new bag for every two or three items and recycling is quite simple to master – everything goes into a single bin.

    1. Will the German Brigade sent to Lithuania have actual weapons, or broomsticks? Ursula Fonda-Lyin may have the answer?

    1. I noticed in the supermarket on the moving walkway 5 men in a line all staring at their phones.

      1. My retirement funds are no longer denominated in GBP, nor parked in the UK. Hatches are being battened down even now.

    3. The Reeve’s Tale in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is one of the most vulgar and coarse ones in the compilation. It graphically recounts the antics of a couple of students who stay in a miller’s house and cuckold him by both having an energetic night of fornication with his wife.

      It seems ironic that we shall all shortly be stuffed by Ms Reeves!

  44. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0158f9263c25c7b57b3fab4996c4bc131298e1d3/0_0_4440_4440/master/4440.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=44db31ff19cd0b7d7cbfe76dbb463f3c
    Blackpool Railings, 1951 (Picture post 5358 – Bert Hardy’s Box Camera)
    Former Tiller Girls Pat Wilson (right) of Bridgend, mid Glamorgan, and Wendy Clarke of Southall in London

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8c12f865abb273dd3ae840b45dc52706a7e0c802/0_0_2698_3151/master/2698.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=1453174fc68b37c71c0615433f60bdb4
    Robinson and Fans, 1951
    Passers-by speak to US boxer Sugar Ray Robinson (1921-1989) in his car in Paris.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/16cac4d920208325ef267d88a294cd8eccee9a4a/0_0_2616_3260/master/2616.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=9d444d4d23b2c7f1dc767e3b863330e6
    Street Talk, 1951 (Picture Post 5201 – Fish) Hull, Yorkshire

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/92d986c9999ee212f2470b25140ece8ef7764572/0_0_2553_3744/master/2553.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=aa53cd654da803ae77504eaf72081bf6
    Royal wedding 1947
    Bridesmaids adjust Princess Elizabeth’s veil on her arrival at Westminster Abbey

    2. I’m obviously mentally scarred.
      The “Street talk” picture, at first glance, looked like a lineup of the doomed about to be hanged – and it took a huge spike of horror before I looked properly and fortunately found I was wrong. Thank God.

    3. Just called Mother’s care home – she is snoozing after Sunday lunch. Bugger – too late again, due to wrestling with snowed-in cars.
      But the carer who took the telephone, what a comfortable, cozy South Welsh voice she has. The sort of voice that makes you just want to curl up for a cuddle…

    4. 1951. What a wonderful year.😉

      “Got a feeling ’51 is going to be a good year…” [from Tommy (the film), Pete Townshend.]

  45. 383590+ up ticks,.

    As with the “invaders” if the daily quota is not filled we will go out and get some more, so it is if we run short of lockdown fear material, to be dug up for future use.

    The couple trying to keep killer ‘zombie viruses’ at bay – and protect us from another pandemic
    Thanks to rising temperatures and melting permafrosts, certain ancient viruses are resurfacing… but just how dangerous to humans are they?

    Not a hundredth of what politico / pharmaceutical humans are in regards to other humans., i’ll wager.

  46. Some BTL from Daniel Hannan’s mad “Let’s nuke Russia!” article.

    A random User
    Excellent article, and even no attempt to blame the EU.

    Telegraph commentators often quibble with the definition of “far right”. E.g. Is Meloni “far right”? Here’s a new definition: Do you support or apologise for Putin or other Nazi [sic] regimes? Then you’re far right.

    Something for Trump’s “Make Russia Great Again” movement to consider.

    Martin Whapshott
    I cannot believe how complacent our politicians are with respect to understanding what Russia has started in Ukraine. This expansionism will not stop now that the Russian economy is on a war footing. Our answer is to spend just 40% of what we were doing during the Cold War with respect to GDP. Our complacency will encourage Putin until eventually the penny drops that the whole of Europe will be under threat from over 1,000,000 battle hardened Russian soldiers driven by an insatiable thirst to attack NATO.

    Military capability is not built over night. The Poles have recognised the threat. It’s about time we got politicians to wake up to the threat.

    Keith Calder
    How did Putin come to power? Everything was going so well with Gorbachev, but the West though his reforms were too slow. We were delighted when Yeltsin implement shock therapy. Lunatic free market fundamentalists had come to the conclusion that if the old order was dismantled almost overnight, a new free market led order would spring from the ashes.

    It never worked, and it was a complete disaster, which paved the way for Putin.

    Edmund O’Connell
    Don’t worry about mass migration you never asked for.
    Don’t worry about the millions of unassimilated bogus asylum seekers you were promised would be prevented.
    Don’t worry about the most dramatic drop in living standards in this country since the 1970s.
    Don’t worry about the woke totalitarianism taking control of this country through undemocratic means.
    You must worry about one thing only. Putin. The Antichrist.

    I’ve found only one reference to 2013/14. What a pompous little arse Mr Vine is – and as for his remark about Ukrainian independence…

    Richard Vine
    Speaking to ordinary Russians, most of whom have fled the draft, Putin is admired mostly for the fact that he has restored order to the country. The subway is spotless, efficient and cheap, fuel and electricity is cheap, food is abundant and cheap. The war hardly touches the ordinary Russian and so he has no cause to complain. It is only the potential draftees who are unhappy at having to leave home. An internal coup would appear highly unlikely to remove Putin, and even if he were to lose the war, provided he keeps Crimea, he will remain popular. The only thing he fears is strength and for that reason NATO must rearm urgently, and Europe cannot rely on Trump. He won’t attempt something he doesn’t think he can win easily. Ukraine was a huge misjudgement, but allowing him to win will only embolden him. I’m not convinced that European governments fully understand this.

    Guy Farrish
    Who misjudged Ukraine? The Maidan plotters or Putin?

    Richard Vine
    10 HRS AGO
    It’s abundantly clear that the Maidan uprising of 2013 correctly recognised Ukrainian desire for independence from Russia. Putin’s invasion massively misjudged Ukrainian willingness to fight for it. Does that help you?

    1. There really are some very badly informed people out there, or else even more idiots than we feared!

  47. Enrichment?

    People should be aware that people such as these have neither culture nor history of achievement and therefore integration into a society with those things is nigh on impossible. Literally, they cannot comprehend what wonderful things other cultures have achieved in the same timeframe that they have achieved nothing of note. It would be the same wherever they landed and a settled culture with a long history existed, not just Europe.

    That picture I put up earlier, Constable’s Hay Wain, would be destroyed in a moment if these people gained access to it. In these situations ignorance is far from bliss.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fb3724a4d4c9af03391cf3d07eda94194a1982fa142fc752946465172b991a62.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/88e02e384159606aaae552048b6ac87799d842ed6863a3d3df455e2631955b05.png

  48. BLT comment from DT letters page:

    Katy Liz

    When I was growing up we didn’t have:-
    Machetes
    Rape gangs
    Acid attacks
    Honour killings
    Arranged marriages
    Declining IQ
    Growing anti semitism
    Growing homophobia
    Cousin marriages
    Polygamy
    Halal
    FGM
    County lines
    Jihadis
    Calls to Prayer
    Why do we have them now..?

    1. All of that is a direct consequence of the Evil Tories closing all the youth clubs.
      As I understand it.

    3. Why do we have them now..?

      What a tricky question – how can one give an answer that is both true and unxenophobic or not untrue but Islamophobic?

      1. It’s not a tricky question at all.

        The answer is that we have become a nation of thick, spoon-fed milksops who have had all our brains, backbone and common sense bred out of us by increasingly weaker successive generations.

        I care not for what people choose to label me or names they wish to call me (sticks and stones and all that). Any generation going back in history, prior to 1950, would not have stood for any of it. Those responsible for the abominations would have been hunted down and lynched.

        All that people do, these days, is tut-tut on social media before returning to their Daily Mail and their heavily processed ‘food’.

      2. Not tricky question at all – the answer is in 4 words – “complete absence of leadership”.

    4. Weren’t there the notorious “razor gangs” in Scotland and surely homophobia was so ingrained that it didn’t even have the name? Katy Liz is right about the rest though. However, the other side of the coin when she (and I) was growing up was:
      Outdoor swimming pools closed during Summer because of “infantile paralysis”.
      Goodness knows how many children sexually abused and no-one cared enough to call it out.
      Bullying rife at schools.
      Large numbers of youngish men and women dying from TB.
      Few people able to afford a car.
      B/W TV with 3 channels only.
      Fatal road traffic accidents because no seat belts were fitted.

      Whilst things today have some very bad aspects (almost all of which could have been avoided with a modicum of leadership) and some aspects of yesteryear were idyllic, I still think that we are better off today.

    1. You still see far too many.

      As I said a couple of days ago:

      Many people are disappointed by the fact that the Conservative Party did so badly in the recent by-elections; I am very disappointed that it did so well.

      The Conservative Party is dying and the sooner it has stopped twitching and is properly dead the better.

  50. And I bet as soon as the gavel falls the vote will be shredded (a la Banksie) so the voter can’t be identified and die of shame….

    2. Ignoring the fact that it’s the men who are rapists. The tone deaf agenda trumps young men and women committing suicide in the armed forces because of sexual harassment from senior male officers.

      Edited for spoiling.

    3. “………not a penny in aid, not a single visa.”

      Of course that is the answer – but can you imagine any of our politicians doing it?

    4. “………not a penny in aid, not a single visa.”

      Of course that is the answer – but can you imagine any of our politicians doing it?

          1. Yes they do. They actually have some pretty good aircraft but just nowhere near enough of them.

  53. Taken this afternoon while the Sun was out:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a03eb496ad7e386b4eff6e20ac15ff32dddab6b820597b657085261df5228891.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7bb3d9354e2cd02dc11811a9936ddf01e5f8a7b199f2bfe1f1b24e8c8e12fbf2.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/08b4dffa9d3c78a5835acac14367f8e9f1dff846caef730d8c2b2644886e3ec6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/02a7a549459c87adfde90bc140721a5c6e335763aec0421ed806986f11f00c94.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da24188093a0c9281e1b5379e1feb26787ea10d6c05e1cfea53e4307e26a29a3.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40a76aa6ab62bb9e637cfd205f6fd6b0ae0522527fc13e427007998a3a70d950.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ebe4b6b1de4358f3637ec20d85b3f55664499c8e08d0e60a8c335d5e5b2b321.jpg

        1. Certainly when it comes to flowers with a macro lens.
          I tend mainly towards bird photography with a telescopic lens

          2. In Desmond Morris’s excellent tome on the human condition, Manwatching, he explains why no one eats blue food.

        1. Those Lumix cameras get a good write-up. You can’t go wrong with a Leica lens.

          I have two pairs of Leica binoculars so I know just how excellent their optics are.

          1. It’s the best camera by a large margin, I have ever had. I will get a more ‘expert’ camera when I retire, and hopefully it will keep me out from under Mrs. Quitters feet.

          3. That’s nice, and I suspect Mrs. Quitter would consider it worth every penny if it gives her a bit of peace and quiet.

  54. Lunch today. Wiener Schnitzel, Caesar salad and a large glass of Grüner Veltliner. All home made. Except for the obvious.

    Because i’m worth it !

          1. I’m thinking of going back to the recreational pills. At least while awake all night i would be happy.

    5. Slice of cherry cake and a Oatie biscuit for me. Pork chop, mushy peas and roast spuds tonight

      3. I expect they have tidied it up by now…The 1985 Austrian
        diethylene glycol wine scandal (German: Glykolwein-Skandal) was an
        incident in which several Austrian wineries illegally adulterated their
        wines using the toxic substance diethylene glycol (a minor ingredient in
        some brands of antifreeze) to make the wines appear sweeter and more
        full-bodied.

        1. It’s in ibuprofen and the Covid meds too. In theory your body excretes it via the normal channels.

    1. I’m entertaining on Thursday with some perfectly roasted medium-rare (53–55ºC internal) beef. Served with roasted chunks of potato, onion, garlic and thyme; and a few veg (for those that insist) and a fabulous gravy.

          1. If you believe that, Paul, you know nowt about gravy. I tried that muck once, decades ago, and it was beyond rank!

        2. I don’t use Hendo’s in gravy.

          I use ALL the meat juices and pan scrapings. This is augmented by adding a demi glace that I make by roasting beef bones, pressure cooking them, then reducing the stock to a syrup.

          1. Classic !
            I do that too but i also use the trivet veg as a thickener. Passed through a fine mesh. As my friends like lots of gravy and a reduced stock that far is a bit rich. Flour bloats which is why i don’t add it.

    1. Beats my attempt
      Wordle 974 5/6

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

  57. It seems that all the armchair pathologists over at the DT have saved Vlad’s chaps a job. Its just awful that dictators sometimes murder their enemies… as we saw with Dr Kelly.

  59. Just spent the last 90 minutes trying to free Second Son’s car from the icy grip of snow – and failed. Can’t rock it, as it can’t go backwards, and can’t get behind it to push as there’s no space against the fence. Difficult to clear the sides due to fence & garage wall… bollox to it, so we tried SWMBOs car, where the battery is flat…
    Now I’m cross, tired & sweaty, wih no positive result.

        1. That’s because when I was a child whenever I went near a doctor my parents were told I was wirey…..

          1. Ramadam is a moveable feast.

            But ewe know it’s not just the rams they’re after! They savour a dam or two too.

  65. Back in the 1960s a lot of people liked to eat a pseudo-food called Instant Whip. In the 1970s they progressed to an even more Frankenstein version called Angel Delight. Nether item had any recognised food product in its long list of chemicals that were marketed as “ingredients’. I couldn’t stand the vile muck.

    I am quite persuaded that this is what heralded the commencement of the exponentially-rapid rise in human stupidity. We are what we eat: eat chemicals and your brain erodes. These days supermarket shelves are over-laden with sugar and highly-processed comestibles sold (not cheaply) as ‘food’. Countless hordes of people eat nothing else.

    I rest my case.

  66. It’s a bit like that ‘Sunny Delight’ which I believe didn’t contain orange juice but was kept in a fridge in stores so that the company could pretend that it did!

  67. A cynic writes:

    I wonder how much the Bazballistas were paid to throw the match away in 40 overs?

    Have they no concept of getting ones head down and batting out the innings?

      1. The Engerland so-called 1st XI. Recently someone coined the word “Bazball” (I know not why or how) for the players. Citroen will explain.

      2. Bazball is an informal term coined by ESPN Cricinfo UK editor Andrew Miller during the 2022 English cricket season, referring to the style of play of the England cricket team in Test matches. It was developed after the appointments of Brendon McCullum (whose nickname is Baz) as Test head coach and Ben Stokes as Test captain by English cricket managing director Rob Key in May 2022. In October 2023, it spawned a book – Bazball: The Inside Story of a Test Cricket Revolution – by Lawrence Booth and Nick Hoult.

        The Bazball style and mindset is said to have an emphasis on taking positive decisions in attack and defence, whether batting or in the field. Many of these skills and strategies were developed in playing One Day International and Twenty20 matches.

        Look up Bazball in Wikipedia.

    4. Indeed, BT, but the damage was done yesterday. After Duckett’s efforts on the second day, they should have been able to bat through the third and at least match India’s total. Instead, Root threw away his wicket in a manner which, in the not so distant past, would have seen him sent home on the next flight, and England lost 8 for 95 inside 32 overs.

      1. That is one of the reasons that there lurks within my suspicious mind the concept of match-fixing.

        1. England also need to find a way to deal with Yashasvi Jaiswal, who retired hurt yesterday evening with 104 and returned today to add another 110 for his second double hundred of the series.

      2. I don’t know why people worship Root – he’s crap and unreliable. Ok he does have the odd decent innings, he was a crap captain too.

  68. Mo attempted has attempted to mow the lawn .. grass is growing so quickly , but parts of the lawn are very water logged .. the slope of the back garden doesn’t help .

    We ate out at lunchtime , nice country pub lunch , first time since last summer .. we chose the pub just over the causeway in Wareham .

    I had to book to get 3 places , a few hours before we wanted to eat .

    Took spaniel out for a good run , lots of walkers, and loads of cars on the road . Temp got to 15c .. unbelievable ..

    Moh fancied a roast as did no 1 son , and indeed the same with me , not a carvery , but my goodness the meat was plentiful and delicious as were the vegetables and lovely roast spuds .

    They decided to have a mixture of lamb, beef and pork … a pile of meat . I had roast beef and a decent Yorkshire pud , and proper gravy , an assortment of veg , parsnips were sweet and perfectly roasted . We didn’t have room for puds , so when we arrived home , son made his best coffee brew and we polished off the delicious birthday chocolate cake ..

    Moh is having a snooze , the temp is now 13c, blue sky , no breeze , but the water meadows are topped up with flood water , and so was the station carpark.. We heard no heavy rain last night .. .

    A lovely spring like Sunday .

    1. That sounds like a good day. Heavy rain most of yesterday and last night. The Tamar was over the path along the river below us and some diversions were needed to walk Oscar.

      1. Aha , that is probably why we have flooded meadows .. the River Frome rises in N Dorset and I suspect they had heavy rain last night .. what a difference 6o miles in distance makes .

        I expect the temp has been kind to you all, it is so unseasonal .

        Yesterday was No 1 son’s b/day .. 55 years ago it was snowing in Southampton where he was born , flurries , as Moh had to leave his RN ship for a short while , it was anchored in Portsmouth .. and drive in his battered old Ford Anglia to reach me , he was too late , son arrived/ was born before he could get there on time and I was fast asleep!

    2. I looked at the lawn to see if I could mow it – getting long, but far too wet. I wouldn’t normally be looking at a first mowing until nearer Easter.

    3. I had a lamb steak for lunch today. Shared the remains with the dogs. Even Oscar struggled to get up and come and sit at my side for the bits 🙂

        1. Not good, I’m afraid. He’s gone off his legs and we’ll be saying goodbye tomorrow morning.

          2. Not really. If you saw him struggling, you’d know it’s the right thing. If the collapse had happened before the vets closed on Saturday he would have been sent over the rainbow bridge then. As it was, he’s got lots of pain relief and he’s not suffering, but it’s time.

          4. Oh, man.
            That’s awful.
            I’m so sorry.
            But he got lucky when he found to care for him.

          5. That’s so sad Conners.
            There’s nothing much worse than saying good bye to a doggie friend.

    2. Have we been weakened or strengthened by what was missing then and which we now have in abundance,

    8. Not very colourful is it?

      In case the diversity commissioner is checking, I naturally meant that everyone is dressed in black or grey!

    9. Not very colourful is it?

      In case the diversity commissioner is checking, I naturally meant that everyone is dressed in black or grey!

  70. Yes Minister on That’s TV followed at 17.55 GB then and now – A journey through the Heart of Yorkshire including rare footage from the start of the century (20th?) to modern times.

  76. Britain’s historic gas-powered lamps – and the campaign to save them from faux-environmentalism
    Heartless councils plotted to rip out vintage lamps under the loose cover of eco-friendliness, but the Gasketeers cut through the green tape

    Boudicca Fox-Leonard
    18 February 2024 • 9:00am

    In the summer of 2021, Tim Bryars was alarmed to find council contractors digging up the doorstep of his bookshop in Cecil Court, Covent Garden. Worried they were about to drill down into the 17th century basement, he popped his head around the front door and asked what they were doing.

    The reply came that he wasn’t to worry, they were just investigating how easy it would be to convert the gas lamp outside to LED.

    “I was obviously incandescent, and started bothering people,” recalls Bryars. Especially when it turned out that Westminster Council had not consulted with any of the statutory bodies that they should have been, such as the Victorian Society.

    “I think they thought nobody would notice and when the lamps were gone that would be that,” says Bryars.

    While 70 had already been replaced – wrought iron brackets and all – despite some being attached to Grade II listed buildings, Bryars set about saving the rest.

    “I’m a bookseller, I know loads of really awkward people,” he laughs. It wasn’t long before he had recruited a list of Theatreland luminaries such as Simon Callow and Griff Rhys Jones to his cause, along with the likes of the historian Dan Cruickshank, who had fought to save the same lamps in the 1970s.

    The first recorded demonstration in the world of gas-powered street lamps was on Pall Mall in 1807. They quickly spread to towns and cities across the UK. Originally lit by lamplighters, today they are controlled by a clockwork timer that needs winding every two weeks. The British Gas team of London Lamplighters maintain the remaining 1,300 gas lamps in London, of which 270 are in Westminster. Of these 270, about half are currently listed.

    Last week, four historic gas lamps in Covent Garden – installed to mark the beginning of King George V’s reign in 1910 – were granted listed status. More listings, it is hoped, will follow.

    As a result of a three year campaign by the London Gasketeers, a pilot project has been launched by Historic England to help inform ongoing discussions about the management of gas lamps in Westminster and beyond.

    On a drizzly Tuesday, Bryars and Luke Honey, the co-founders of the campaign group London Gasketeers, are still elated as they lead me around Covent Garden at dusk, just as the lamps flicker into action.

    When Westminster first started to replace the gas lamps with replica lanterns with ‘gas-effect’ LEDs they said it was to cut carbon emissions, setting aside a budget of £3 million for the work.

    Looking at the numbers, the London Gasketeers quickly realised that the emissions Westminster were talking about were tiny.

    “The council said that running the 270 lamps a year was like 40 flights to Australia. And we thought bloody hell, that’s a lot!”

    But scrutinising the figures revealed they meant 40 individual passengers. “And when he looked further it was really that all the Westminster lamps are the equivalent of 18 Australians flying home for Christmas. It’s not even a fraction of a plane. That’s how small an impact these lamps have.”

    He has concluded that the motivation behind their replacement was box-ticking.

    “It was a tick towards net zero but if you’re really worried about climate action there are much better things they could be doing with those resources.”

    Bryars finds such greenwashing troubling: “Because it means when someone comes along with something that really is important we’re all far too cynical and say, ‘Oh well, you’re at it again’.”

    The London Gasketeers were surprised and pleased to find environmentalists supporting their cause. It highlights how sometimes the cheapest and greenest option is to do the bare minimum.

    From Cecil Court we duck into Goodwin’s Court, a 17th-century alleyway, the one-time haunt of actress Nell Gwynne, passing regency shop fronts. Punctuated along the way are the gas lamps and their warming glow.

    There is undeniably a different quality to the light. Unlike the harsh light of LEDs, there is none of the spotting of one’s vision when you look away.

    The campaign has highlighted another green issue which is the way that light pollution can affect mental health, and that of biodiversity. Darker skies are not only good for our circadian rhythm but that of the natural world, too.

    However another argument put forward by the council was one of safety, positing that the gas lamps didn’t provide enough light and were thus a danger to women.

    “That excuse made a lot of women very angry,” says Honey. “I think we’ve had more female supporters than male.”

    We move on down Henrietta Street, where the lamps are currently not listed. When the campaign started there was no guarantee that even the listed lamps would be saved. It was after reaching an agreement with the council that they wouldn’t be converted, the London Gasketeers set about cataloguing and submitting listing applications for the rest. “This is why it’s so important that they have announced that the first four lamps would be saved.” They are hopeful that it sets a precedent for more listings to follow in the next few months.

    That some of the lamps aren’t in the tip-top condition they could be they do not deny. “They’ve all been out in the open air for about 100 years. I think we all agree these lamps need a little TLC and that would make them a bit more efficient,” says Bryars. If they were all taken back to the depot and given a full MOT I think that would help them.” Issues around the state of the gas pipes he similarly says are to do with how Westminster has managed its contractors.

    Here and there are modern LED versions that give a harsher light. Although there are a couple that aren’t working. “Whatever lighting you have you will always have issues. They all need maintenance whether they are LED or gas,” points out Honey.

    Bryars points out his favourite gas lamp, above the stairs down to the public loos by St Paul’s church in Covent Garden.

    Criticism of the campaign has seen the London Gasketeers fend off accusations of dilettantism. To this Honey counters the original campaign to save Covent Garden from having a motorway put around it and the likes of Laurence Olivier fought to defeat the plans. “When they did the original campaign it was in 1974, during the Vietnam War and the oil crisis. There are always terrible things going on in the world and they pass. But these lamps are still here for everyone to enjoy.”

    The area is alive with tourists and shoppers. “One thing we love about Covent Garden is that it is modern and vibrant,” says Honey. “We’re not just a bunch of people trying to preserve it in aspic. Modernity is part of the ongoing story of London, but if you take away the gas lamps you’re removing a massive part of London’s story.”

    Other cities and towns have shown a markedly different respect for their heritage compared to Westminster Council. The gas lamps in Malvern are lovingly preserved, and the lamplighters of Phoenix Park in Dublin “take their role incredibly seriously,” says Bryars.

    It is by the Theatre Royal Drury Lane that the newly protected gas lamps are clustered.

    That anyone can admire them is why preserving them is so important. “This isn’t high art you have to pay to see in a museum. It’s on the street and part of everyone’s heritage,” says Bryars.

    Fears about the erasure of London’s historic street furniture goes beyond just gas lamps, explains Bryars, extending to bollards, benches and coal holes, anything that doesn’t neatly fit into the modern world. “You can’t just reduce London to brick and glass cubes. Although there are people who would like to,” he says.

    What would help preserve more of our history, he says, is if VAT was removed for refurbishing old buildings. “If you throw something new up you don’t pay VAT on it. If you refurbish something old then you do.”

    They maintain that their success has been aided by their amateur approach. “If we had been experienced campaigners or lobbyists, the council might have been able to second guess what we would do next,” says Honey.

    That and being enormously patient and bloody-minded, adds Bryars. “Luckily the angrier I get, the more polite I am, which is really useful.”

    They have received the thanks of the lamplighters, who without the success of the campaign faced losing their jobs. And there has even been a Gasketeers romance.

    “Two of our supporters and fellow Gasketeers met on the campaign during the second consultation with Westminster Council, when we were really all quite angry. And now they’re getting married,” says Bryars.

    The campaign is a success story for ordinary people everywhere. “It shows that people really do care about their surroundings,” says Bryars. “And they will stick up for their environment.”

    Related Topics
    London, British Gas, Pollution, History, Heritage https://www.telegraph.co.uk/environment/2024/02/18/london-gas-powered-street-lamps-campaign/

    3. The Wigmore Hall still has some of its original gas lamps in the auditorium. It would be sheer vandalism to remove them.

    4. Where I lived before my recent move the council decided to replace sodium street lighting with LED. They could have chosen warm white LED bulbs which give a warm light. However the chose the bright white LEDs. The effect was to make street look like it had been lit up like the perimeter wire fence of a concentration camp. Effing idiots!

      1. I think this was an Ed Davey initiative. In our street, the number of lamps was also reduced. My neighbours and I lost one by our shared parking bay. It was a useful theft deterrent. The result was a dark spot so the neighbours erected a security lamp by their door to deter the local scrotes.

      2. Our then chairman (of the parish council) was full on for LED lights. I have to say they are more reliable than the old ones and more economical to run.

    5. Part of everyone’s heritage? Not for the majority of “Londoners” these days, I warrant. It isn’t the lack of light from gas lamps that’s a danger to women, it’s the muslim men of fighting age that have been allowed to flood the country.

    6. The town gas lampposts in our street were replaced in the late 60s. I recall something rather warming about the lamps, especially when the gas pressure fluctuated and the lamps flickered slowly.

  77. That’s me done for this wet and dreary day. It finally stopped mid-afternoon and a watery sun hung around for an hour or so. Ground soaked. Hoping for better tomorrow.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain

  80. 383590+up ticks,

    Old kneel has gone, or going, into Cunute mode
    stop this war NOW you Israelis go on home and await the hamas missiles to come over and take you OUT, what sort of peoples are you
    that cannot accept a bit of a misunderstanding.

    End Gaza fighting now, says Sir Keir Starmer
    Party leader edges towards backing motion for immediate ceasefire, at Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow

    1. And what happens if there is an immediate ceasefire? Will Hamas release the hostages? Will they never attack Israel again?

  81. ‘Night All

    Sometimes I despair………

    ” Britain’s second most senior general has said she wants to see less hierarchical behaviour and more “empowerment” in the Army.

    Lt Gen Dame Sharon Nesmith, the deputy chief of the general staff, said in

    an interview that “just because we have lots of rank structure, doesn’t

    mean to say that we have to behave in a hierarchical way”

    She wants to make the armed forces more diverse by lowering standards .

    The Russians must be terrified

    finally just in case Grizz needs a BP boost

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyFYVFh-JY0
    illiterate coppers what could possibly go wrong………..

      1. My local rag has just released a picture of the man wanted for stealing a car and killing someone by dangerous driving. I’m amazed, because the wanted man is blek.

    4. It’s as though they have a blueprint for effing everything up and they are following it to the letter!

  82. Well, chums, I’ll now wish you an early night. I had a good day(almost finishing my jigsaw puzzle), but I can’t do any more now in artificial light until around daylight at 7.30 am tomorrow, so I will watch a little more of the remastered version of Ken Burns’ THE (USA) CIVIL WAR which I ordered from Amazon and which arrived yesterday. It’s a great way to learn the basics of this major USA Civil War.

    1. Are you going to make a picture and frame your jigsaw puzzle to hang on the wall? My cousin did this, and it looked magnificent.

    1. The Whispering Death – as someone I know, who became deaf from service in Beaus, pointed out, if they think that’s a whisper they must be stone deaf.

  84. Evening, all.Britain’s GP service is struggling because a) we haven’t trained enough people, b) they have massively increased the population entitled to service (whether they’ve paid in or not) and c) GPs are being paid for the numbers on their books rather than the numbers of patients they treat. Covid-con didn’t help because it gave them an excuse not to bother with troublesome sick people.

  85. Yo, ma homies!

    I have been reading about the Ben Shapiro “rap” song and have been a bit curious, mainly because I don’t really know who Ben Shapiro is (something to do with the Daily Wire) and because the Babylon Bee put out a video with “missing verses” (and it’s hard to see the humour if you don’t know the original).

    So tonight I sought it out and it’s got quite a catchy chorus:

    “ This ain’t rap, this ain’t money, cars, and clothes

    We ain’t selling drugs, we ain’t gonna overdose

    We ain’t pushing guns, ain’t promoting stripper poles

    We won’t turn your sons into thugs or your daughters into hoes

    I don’t care if I offend you

    I was put here to upset you

    You can cry and you can scream, you can riot in the streets

    You defunded the police, now there’s no one to protect you

    I hope I offend you

    I ask myself, “What would Ben do?”

    Let’s just keep it real, facts don’t care how you feel, man

    If you want my pronouns, I’m the man, I’m the man who don’t respect you”.

    To be fair, the “rapping” is mainly done by a hWhite rapper name of Tom MacDonald and speaking as a parent I have to say I’m sure he’s a lovely person but I wouldn’t be overjoyed if my daughter brought him home. But, as they say in the circles (I think?) – Respect. I am going to test a few more of his “songs” out, to keep myself Dahn. Wi’ da Youf.

  87. And that’s me off to bed.
    At least I got the Hollybush stack finished today!

    G’night all!

  89. Sorry but I’m not, poppiesmum. I already have enough more than enough framed pictures and not enough wall space for that. I shall take a photo of the completed jigsaw (I will try to see if I can post it on this site if anyone can give me some advice) and then break up the jigsaw before returning the pieces to the original original plastic bag which will sit in its box.

  91. Goodnight, all. I’m going to be sleeping downstairs with Oscar tonight. I don’t want him to be alone.

        1. And from me too. Assuming that you have carefully made your decision, please don’t let your tears betray you, for Oscar’s sake. Keep smiling and cheerful as if this is just another visit to the vet to relieve his pain. Save your tears for after the deed is done. My thoughts are with you, Conners.

    4. Dear Lord, please welcome our canine friend, Oscar, into your communion. He has been headstrong in the past but with devout and careful training, he has learned who’s who and now, at the end of his life he is a model dog and pet.

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