Sunday 27 November: The country must accept that a ‘free at point of use’ NHS is no longer sustainable

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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573 thoughts on “Sunday 27 November: The country must accept that a ‘free at point of use’ NHS is no longer sustainable”

  2. Good Morrow, Gentlefolk, Todays story is also health service related

    Funerals

    A prestigious cardiologist died, and was given a very elaborate funeral by the hospital where he had worked for most of his life…

    A huge heart – covered in flowers stood behind the casket during the service as all the doctors from the hospital sat in awe.

    Following the eulogy, the heart opened, and the casket rolled inside. The heart then closed, sealing the doctor in the beautiful heart forever.

    At that point, one of the mourners burst into almost helpless laughter.

    When all eyes stared at him, he said,

    ‘I’m so sorry, I was just thinking of my own funeral – I’m a gynaecologist!’

    1. Just back from walking a reluctant dog in the rain. Flicked through the paper but not prepared to get upset today. Probably going to get a Christmas tree later.

    2. Too bleedin’ dark to be awake, Tom. Especially when some daylight reveals fog, cloud, and ucky snow.
      Bed is the place to be!

    3. No, Tom. (Thanks for the joke and a Good Morning to you, btw.) I was up at 6 am, sticking stamps and writing names on my Christmas cards. As the day progresses (and into Monday and maybe Tuesday) I will be completing the cards ready for posting.

  4. 368421+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    If this be the case then one of the major pillars of a decent society has been destroyed.

    Due to a succession of orchestrated treachery , these past forty years, of politico’s working ( successfully) to their own foreign agenda backed by an electorate majority that’s only aim was to see their party ( a coalition) in power regardless of consequence, so in one respect BOTH groups have found satisfaction in destruction.

    Sunday 27 November: The country must accept that a ‘free at point of use’ NHS is no longer sustainable

    Sunday 27 November: The country must accept that the peoples have done their bit towards self annihilation and
    the road to RESET found to be acceptable to many.

    1. It is sustainable to have a health service that is free at the point of use. However, people must pay realistic monthly insurance premiums for their entire lives, and treatment MUST be linked to an individual’s health insurance policy.
      The health insurance can be regulated so as to prevent greedy insurance companies from collecting payments and wriggling out of treatment – this is how other European countries manage it. They also have some schemes for people to pay more during their working life, and correspondingly less during retirement.

      Our biggest problem (apart from people’s naive belief that someone else will pay for their healthcare) is the ultra rich people like Gates and others, that are pushing euthanasia and depopulation.
      There’s no incentive to organise a functioning health service when you’ve got a cheaper solution at hand (euthanasia). It’s not a free choice to sign the form when healthcare is not available.

      1. 368421+ up ticks,

        Morning BB2,
        Been on twitter reading the sacrifice of many of “the few,” in a greater lesser way the fully paid up NI member proved
        in current timers to be in many respects
        total treacherous waste, owing to the fact we are supplying welfare to the whole world.

        One set of complete political bastards started dismantling any honour and decent lifestyles won, the other set via the polling booth agreed with the politico’s / parties, hence we are where we are, in deep shite.
        .

    2. It is sustainable to have a health service that is free at the point of use. However, people must pay realistic monthly insurance premiums for their entire lives, and treatment MUST be linked to an individual’s health insurance policy.
      The health insurance can be regulated so as to prevent greedy insurance companies from collecting payments and wriggling out of treatment – this is how other European countries manage it. They also have some schemes for people to pay more during their working life, and correspondingly less during retirement.

      Our biggest problem (apart from people’s naive belief that someone else will pay for their healthcare) is the ultra rich people like Gates and others, that are pushing euthanasia and depopulation.
      There’s no incentive to organise a functioning health service when you’ve got a cheaper solution at hand (euthanasia). It’s not a free choice to sign the form when healthcare is not available.

    1. Only the scum stapleford could be so mendacious that he downvotes a post about homelessness. That man is nuts.

      The state does not care. Veterans are an annoyance. They cannot be weaponised as revenge for Brexit.

    2. I bet just ten years ago half of them were laying the IEDs that killed and maimed so many of our service personnel.

  7. 368421+ up ticks,

    Semi re-entry was triggered on the 25/6/2016,

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    8h
    It was NEVER the Tory govnt’s intention, nor the political establishment’s, to deliver Brexit.

    Mrs May asked the EU for a ‘deal’. Why would the EU do a deal for something they don’t want?

    The only way to deliver Brexit was for:

    * Repeal rhe European Communties Act immediately & declare unilateral unconditional withdrawal.
    * Don’t ask the EU how it’s going to work – tell them.
    * Reassure the EU that all EU law transposed into UK law would be repealed or amended gradually in line with British national interests.
    * Reclaim our fishing waters, & immigration policy.
    * Trade on WTO terms – using our trade imbalance with the EU to sm…more
    ‘Voters turn against Brexit as Boris Johnson’s lies leave Britain undone’ — The Mirror
    ‘Voters turn against Brexit as Boris Johnson’s lies leave Britain undone’ — The Mirror

    Paul Routledge on the everyday nightmare that Brexit is fast becoming, and now with EU business decreasing sharply, what’s next for the Tories – aka the Brexit Party?

    apple.news

    https://gettr.com/post/p1zs5oxeb1a

  8. ‘Morning, Peeps. It’s lashing down here and we are off to Southampton today, with pup, for a family visit. Not exactly looking forward to the journey.

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – I am retired. My wife is a GP who is nearing retiring. We are taking out private medical insurance because we can no longer trust the NHS to provide a timely response to possible future medical issues.

    The NHS wastes vast sums in inefficiencies, poor communications, last-century IT and multiple other ways. There could be perhaps 10 per cent cost savings made in the long term. However, this will not totally resolve the problem of funding for the rapidly ageing population.

    Surely it must be time to drop the “free NHS for all” mantra, as it is now totally unsustainable. It is also totally untrue – the NHS is paid for by taxation. It is time to introduce some form of additional insurance policy for additional service. This will also be an incentive for us all to work hard and reap more.

    Martyn Bennett
    Bodenham, Herefordshire

    To change we need capable, dedicated people to take the NHS apart and start again…

    We are doomed, aren’t we??

    1. Now, the first one is interesting. Almost everyone in Britain has been vaccinated against diptheria – so let’s see how many cases are recorded….
      Which scenario is likeliest?

      A. no cases at all; transmission was low and the vaccines worked
      B. lots of cases; we are told that we all need boosters due to our age, and the BBC tells us over and over again that children under five aren’t contracting the disease because their vaccinations still work. Another mass medication campaign is rolled out.
      C. They make a huge thing about diptheria, then it suddenly disappears from the news like monkey pox did.

      1. estimates of cases are rising and naturally it’s the fault of the British for trying to control the gimmegrants in centres.
        50+ now allegedly.

        1. Ah yes, scenario D in which only migrants get diptheria, due the systemic racism in Britain. I’d forgotten that one.

  11. Jesus could have been transgender, claims Cambridge dean. 27 November 2022.

    Dr Michael Banner, the dean of Trinity College, said such a view was “legitimate” after a row over a sermon by a Cambridge research student that claimed Christ had a “trans body”, The Telegraph can disclose.

    The “truly shocking” address at last Sunday’s evensong at Trinity College chapel, saw Joshua Heath, a junior research fellow, display Renaissance and Medieval paintings of the crucifixion that depicted a side wound that the guest preacher likened to a vagina.

    There is no limit to the idiocy of intellectuals unless it is exceeded by that of religious intellectuals. The first claim made by Heath, from paintings created 14 centuries after the Death of Christ, is itself erroneous since these were not drawn from life. In other words no one has the faintest idea what these wounds actually looked like. No doubt a modern day Criminal Pathologist could give us a Professional Opinion of their possible appearance and the mediaeval artists probably drew their inspiration from direct (public executions and violent death were the norm) observation. That they were themselves sexual deviants and intended to make them appear vaginal in in a society of devout religious belief and the Age of the Papacy, seems vanishingly unlikely. That their contemporaries failed to notice this even more so. Even were the wounds to resemble the female sexual organ this would in no way indicate, any more than the Saviours broken legs, that the victim was Trans, or indeed impinge on his sexuality in any way. That Banner endorsed this ludicrous twaddle in a sermon shows how unfit he is to hold such a position as Dean.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/26/jesus-could-have-transgender-claims-cambridge-dean/

    1. Trans Substantiation anyone?

      Clearly ‘Indulgences’ now take on a special meaning (as in special needs…..)’

      Morning Minty and everyone.

      Every day I wake up and think the World cannot get any crazier – but every day it does….I guess if the Dean had opposed the current awfuldoxy he would have been accused of being a Deanier!

  12. Reading Hannan’s column. It’s very good.

    The comments though suggest either a morass of paid trolls, some seriously twisted characters or just the deranged Left.

    In either case, I think anyone promoting the EU as a ‘rich powerful economic giant’ should be sectioned – at the least, have their address published with their post.

    I’m sick and tired of the Left fifth column. AS for someone having lived in Singapore and never wanting it here – they’re insane. EFTA was a good option but the EU refused it. Why, pray tell, did we allow them to refuse it?

    2. He is right, but the tiny elite who control us have powerful allies in the civil servant/NGO class, who relish their power as little dictators, enforcing the slavery on the rest of us.

      1. Morning BB. The Elites have taken the precaution of suborning the managerial and technical classes. The BBC with its gross pay rewards paid out of extortion a typical example.

        1. I always think it’s a very interesting exercise to look into the Bible and try to spot the people and characters described therein today!
          These people were always with us, they were just kept in their places by a decent system.

          1. There were of course periods where they ruled supreme. I always try to look for historical parallels since it gives some sort of idea what to expect.

    3. I’ll keep that warm until later. I don’t want it to spoil my bacon and egg sarnie and coffee.

    4. I understand and comprehend all that, Neil, in the same manner that you do. The problem is that the masses cannot comprehend that because they are now too stupid to even think for themselves. The ruling classes are all too aware of that and simply snigger to themselves as they carry on regardless. There ARE no Mary Barbers any more, nor are there any Guy Fawkeses, Robert Kettses, Robin Hoods, Wat Tylers, or George Lovelesses. Our rulers are aware of that and carry on in the same mode, with impunity, since they know that the British public have neither the brains nor the balls for an uprising. They’ve been spoon-fed for far too long by the same nanny state that is now trashing their lives.

  14. Good morning all.
    A bit bleary after last night’s excesses but it’s a dull grey start, dry with 4½°C.

  15. Heavy snowfall to blanket Kyiv with millions cut off from electricity. 27 November 2022.

    Heavy snowfall is set to cover Kyiv starting today and lasting until at least midweek, with the mercury dropping below freezing as millions living in Ukraine’s capital struggle without access to heat and electricity.

    Restrictions on the use of the country’s scarce electricity resource remain in place across 14 regions and Kyiv, as president Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly used his nightly video addresses to urge citizens to use power sparingly.

    Where’s that pesky Global Warming when you need it? Lol!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/vladimir-putin-ukraine-nuclear-war-russia-b2233737.html

    1. This is war. I’m not surprised Putin (whom I have no time for) is targeting Ukraine’s power supplies and infrastructure – it’s what all combatant countries do e.g. The Dam Busters during WWII. The sooner a negotiated peace is brought about the better for everyone, in Ukraine, Russia and the entire world.

      1. Morning A. This is standard procedure in all wars involving technically advanced states, as Iraq and Libya demonstrate.

      2. Morning A. This is standard procedure in all wars involving technically advanced states, as Iraq and Libya demonstrate.

        1. If I may

          We have the same in Blighty, but inflicted by our own ‘Net Zero’ obsessed government dictatorship.

        2. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of people have been flying to the middle east and staying in luxury hotels and watching live football. How can the brits amongst them countermand our government’s instructions ?
          NB. it’s bad enough watching it on TV. Let alone being there.

    2. Don’t envy them that – cold, dark, shortages, Zelensky.
      Going to be a miserable Christmas in Ukraine.
      Maybe somebody had better negotiate a peace, especially before Russia starts to implode and turns to nuclear weapons.

    3. So the historically illiterate twats in the White House didn’t factor in the Russian winter. Well there’s a surprise. Morning all!

        1. Biden et al don’t care; they are not stuck in a power cut in a Ukrainian winter. Loads of people will be heating with wood though.

    1. Chris Skidmore ninth Tory MP to set exit plan as party hit with dire opinion polls. 27 November 2022

      Conservative party braces for growing exodus, with Rishi Sunak’s net zero tsar latest to announce he will not run again.

      There can only be so many jobs out there even for this scum so I suspect it will shortly become a stampede!

      https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/26/chris-skidmore-ninth-tory-mp-to-set-exit-plan-as-party-hit-with-dire-opinion-polls

      2. To be fair, by announcing their resignations well in advance, they are allowing Central Office plenty of time to impose the correct prospective candidate on each voting area.

    3. There’s an old song in that…..”It’s all over now baby blue”. Suitable lyrics by Bob Dylan.

    4. Every single Red Wall Conservative MP should resign from Parliament taking as many others as they can with them.

      But they must get themselves organised because, when this inevitably forces a general election, they will have to have become part of the new right of right of centre party!

  20. The NHS is only free at the point of entry to immigrants who have never paid anything in, I suppose

        1. I worked with some of those awful Indian Infosys consultants in Paris, and had to rewrite most of their procedures as their English was unreadable

          1. I’ve often found their speech is often impossible for an Englishman to understand. Even people who are in middle age and have been here since their undergrad times.

    3. As a balancing item, his father-in-law Narayana Murthy is a co-founder of Infosys which employs some 335,000 people. His mother-in-law worked as an engineer then became a successful author. Mr Murthy comes from a middle class Brahmin family, ditto his wife.

  22. The Guardian view on the Conservatives: countdown to oblivion. 27 November 2022.

    So begins the countdown to oblivion,” the Labour MP and diarist Chris Mullin wrote on New Year’s Day 2010, as he contemplated the coming general election, which Labour duly lost. Today, by contrast, Britain is still two years away from its next election. Such is the fatalism among the current crop of Conservative MPs, however, that there is already an end of era mood and feel in the ruling party.

    The Guardian’s view is if course a foregone conclusion though I’m inclined to agree with it. The Conservative Party has outlived its usefulness. More, I am beginning to think; bearing in mind what is coming with the Energy and Cost of Living Crisis, which despite all the lies, bribes and disinformation is going to be much worse than anyone imagined, they are not going to make it to the official General Election date. It may be as soon as the first fine weather next year!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/25/the-guardian-view-on-the-conservatives-countdown-to-oblivion

    1. Which is why the Reform Party – or something like it – cannot afford to delay and must become a realistic voting option.

      The main thing that has destroyed the current Conservative Party has been its constant shift to the Left since the adulterous Major first became prime minister in 1990. We don’t just need a right of centre party – we need a right of right of centre party.

  23. I read that there was another World Cup winning performance by the England XV yesterday.

    They are consistent, I’ll give them that.

    2. Eddie Jones has a cunning plan:

      Coach them to lose through all possible permutations so they know which are most effective in any given set of circumstances.

      Edit, I have an automatic negative typing response with Jones, I use George.

    3. My suggestion for yellow cards: Any player banished for ten minutes should have to spend them away from the pitch running on a treadmill. At the moment, they are just a ten minute rest with a great view of the game to assess and plan for their return.

      1. I’ve often thought a better one would be 15 laps of the pitch, they can return when they’ve finished them. If it coincides with half time they stop and then restart after the break.

    1. That’s the way to do it – get tough and no nonsense.

      Same with the Road Gluers, just rip them off, skin and all.

      Self-inflicted injury, don’t bother suing..

      1. Funny hoe the French and Germans manage it- for some reason it is only us that seems to fear/indulge the Climatetards.

  27. From a closing of the NHS perspective, if I was a Government minister I would be a lot more worried about the diphtheria outbreak than new variant Covid or most of the other seasonal threats we are being prepared for.

    The carriers are from cultures where spitting in the street is commonplace, where open mouthed coughing and sneezing are accepted and where vaccination programmes are weak. They are moving/being moved all around the country and many of them are escaping/vanishing into similar communities in the UK where they will be mixing with others of their background, many of whom will also not have been vaccinated.

    That lack of vaccination may not have been a problem when diphtheria was exceptionally rare, but it could spread like wildfire in these communities. It is equally virulent and far more deadly than Covid across all age groups and I suspect will require much more intensive care and barrier nursing.

    If by any ghastly chance these people are bringing in a variant that existing vaccinations do not give protection against then the population as a whole could be in serious trouble.

    I hope I am totally incorrect.

    1. I think it is a great opportunity to wipe out the alien enclaves with diseases deadly to them.

        1. Thank you, Philip. My biggest problem with joining any of the groups, is my inability to walk any distance or stand for long either

      2. Good morning,
        That was my thought too – if it culls the parasites, what’s not to like. Just as long as it doesn’t spread to British people. Though maybe an outbreak of diphtheria might even make some parents rethink their refusal of childhood vaccinations for their children.

    2. For our grandchildren and their parents sake, I hope you’re wrong Sos. I seriously believe that it’s about time the people who are directly responsible for what is happening to our country are stood up in public and named and shamed and then led away and severely punished.
      And the demise of the NHS has been planned for many a year. That is why the government brought in 7 regional directors over 4 years ago. So far these appointments alone, has cost the UK taxpayers around 10million. The ongoing cost of wrecking.

      1. Named and shamed? The list will be long and undistiguished. For a start I would read out the name of every member of the left voting socialist wokerati that opposes any attempt to tackle the problem.

        1. Because it doesn’t really effect them directly, they simply don’t care. Until there’s an election on the cards of course.

    3. “companion animals” can spread the infection.[ Medical information on UK medical site.] I presume companion animals are dogs and cats.

    4. Just part of the plan, do keep up.
      If any potential incomers are healthy and useful, they are selected to work in secret industrial sites all over the EU.

  28. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/485a762df89d670ba9b1334d18ca6d7d2dad217718b32c7955f2424e481ba26b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c8b45a2f8a609b9547d08e34200567b7683aeaf8de25858ecc6e12c073bf32ef.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fd1b1429982833817685ef417aa7c588090fa07baf41bcb27c3f8782023849a7.jpg It was very quiet in the bird-feeding cage this morning; nary a great tit nor a blue tit in sight. Then I spotted the reason why. Sitting atop the cage, in expectation of an early breakfast, was this splendid young male sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus, evidently miffed at being made to search elsewhere for his next avian morsel.

    2. Glorious .. Lovely photos Grizzly.

      We have a daily visitor to our garden , she was very fond of collared doves , not many of those around at the moment .

      That small beak is capable of pulling the heart of a bird out first .. we saw a kill in front of one of our windows .. she went straight to the heart whilst the dove was alive .. gruesome but well amazing .

      1. When I first caught one to ring, Maggie, I was told by my trainer not to worry about it bill, since it could do little damage and, in fact would not use it.

        I was told to beware of its talons, which are the tool it uses to kill and which, if I misplaced my finger, it would penetrate it right through to the bone. I took heed of that advice and kept very wary of the talons and paid no heed to the bill.

    3. When a mousetrap has done its work, I put the tiny corpse atop a post. No idea which creature takes the little offering, but something does. Probably not a squirrel.

  29. Thought I’d give it an early go as the weather isn’t up to much

    Wordle 526 3/6

    🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
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  30. Luke Shaw: We would never celebrate another team’s demise like Wales did in 2016.
    Footage of Welsh celebrations after England’s exit at Euro 2016 went viral, and six years later will be added motivation for Tuesday’s clash
    DT : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/2022/11/26/luke-shaw-would-never-celebrate-another-teams-demise-like-wales/

    The Welsh hate the English; the Scottish hate the English – the only people who like us are the Northern Ireland loyalists whom we betray over and over again.

    Maybe the answer is to be far nastier to the Welsh and the Scots then they will respect us more and maybe even grow to like us!

    2. Bonjour Mr T, et tout le monde.

      It’s tricky, because the Welsh could well be the remnants of an indigenous population, whereas the rest of England has been gradually occupied by Romans, Celts, Saxons, Norsemen, Normans (de Tracy family), and all sorts of other assorted come-latelies.

      1. You are right – the Tasteys came over on the ferry from Caen in the eleventh century but having lost their return ticket they decided to stay.

      2. According to some studies, the post-Roman arrivals account for barely 20% of the white British population. The idea that the evil, warring Anglo-Saxon (alone) drove the Ancient Britons to the far west and north of the island is a 19th century Welsh and Scottish nationalist romantic invention.

  31. Good morning all

    No 1 son , aged 53 , who lives with us , started running in 5k Park Runs in April, and has been keeping to a strict diet and exercise regime ..

    Yesterday he raced in the Weymouth park run 5k event , and reached another personal best of 23.06 mts . over 230 runners competed .

    Every Saturday there is a 5K Park Run event , all over the country and overseas .

    Up untill April he had only jogged around the village , nothing timed .. Moh runs , but hasn’t raced for a few months . Both of them are sports enthusiasts.

    The lethargy and hopelessness of those grim tyrannical Covid lockdowns were so depressing ..but now there is light at the end of the tunnel .

    Sadly , I am the tortoise and they are the hares. I am hobbling around with an aching rt hip and a painful left knee when I am out with the dogs .

    1. The irony is, as many of us have been very active at younger ages in our past lives. As you have been TB and many thousands are we are now paying dearly for our fitness and work based routines.
      But trying to get repair work carried out is virtually impossible.

        1. I served for nigh on 10 years but my pain in my lower spine is caused by crushing discs, when I slid off the wing of a Javelin Mk 8 with the navigator’s console in my arms. I then went back and fitted a new one.

          2 years later I found out the problem when squatting in front of my small locker and sneezed. I couldn’t move and was stretchered to sick quarters.

          Many years later, even chiropractors and osteopaths can no longer fix it, even temporarily. So I’m on Tramadol and Diclofenac to reduce it but only when it gets really bad. The weakness stays, despite the pain.

    2. Sorry to hear that Maggie – (your aches, I mean not your boy’s running) two good friends of mine are waiing for hip and knee ops – they make people wait until they are in such pain they they can do nothing in normal life and lose their good health. Are you one of the waiting list statistics?

      1. Hi J,

        My doctor has given me exercises to do , keep moving , watch my diet .. he fails to engage with the fact because alot of exercise and walking is slower than a couple of years ago .

        Myaches started during first lock down when Moh and I used to speed walk around the village , he is faster than me , but uneven pavements played hell on my joints and walking rapidly really messed me up.

        Doctor thinks it is my sacroiliac joint and has given me exercises.. all very well if I could get off the floor afterwards 😣 because of the arthritis in my left knee !!

        Lifting my lovely 14 year old Jack spaniel doesn’t help , neither does lugging the shopping either or growbags .

        We have 2 hedgehogs who haven’t hibernated yet , one large hog and a smaller one . The dogs sniff them out at night , when the hogs are feeding and when the dogs are having their final pee. The weather has been so wet , I hope the hogs are okay .

        Hope your day went well re your stall , and you are coping at home ?

        1. Thanks Maggie – yes – they don’t seem to realise exercise is part of the problem with pain, do they?
          I’m ok – just having a quick bite to eat before going over for the hospital visit.

          Our event yesterday went very well – the Wotton people always turn out for the charity fair and we were busy most of the time, though we had chairs to sit on when we could. We took about £300 on the stall – I would have been happy with anything over £200 – so that was very good. I had time for a look round the other stalls and buy him some more reading matter to ease the boredom.

          Thinking of pain – I used to have aching hips – particularly the right one – but I’ve found that since I’ve been taking regular vitamin D (and C) that it’s nowhere near as troublesome. It used to ache a lot in bed especially. Whether it’s the D I really don’t know but I don’t take any other form of medication at all and I know I’m lucky.

          The hogs should be alright if they have enough food – do you put any out? They need fresh water too. If they are adults they will hibernate when it gets colder, but if they are quite small they could need care if you have a local rescue. If you could grab the smaller one and weigh it – 400gms+ should be ok.

    1. They can use the £5k to pay for the funerals that result from the diptheria they brought with them.

      1. Give them food coupons if necessary but preferably get Border Farce and RNLI to return them whence they came.

        1. I expect their legal aid lawyers will tell them to refuse and hold out for £20,000. I’m sure the government would comply.

    4. F******************************************************k!!!

      That’s hardly going to discourage more from coming, is it?

    8. If this is true Sunak should resign. The illegal invaders were responsible for the congestion at Manston. Sunak is throwing taxpayers money away. He could use his own easy made money to give to them but not ours.

  35. Sunday Quiz
    So what moves the slowest?
    A Snail,
    A Tortoise,
    A Sloth,
    Brexit,
    Or the England football team.?

    2. I’m going back to bed.
      Wake me up in a couple of years. I know it will be worse then, but the survival drive will mean I don’t have to fret about the nonsensical drivel being forced down my throat.

  38. ‘…Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran all out!

    The way things are going England will be the ONLY Muslim country left in the World Cup.’

    2. Egypt is not in the World Cup Finals 2022. Qatar is, however, as are other Muslim countries – Tunisia and Morocco.

      1. It was a joke…unlike this one…

        Lusail stadium Qatar fixture list.
        18 Dec world cup final.
        18 May 23 ..beheading.
        18 June.23..beheading.
        18 August…stoning..
        18 Sept… International friendly.

        2. 18 December closing ceremony concludes with decapitation of the members of the Qatari world cup squad and stoning of the WAGS.

    2. Did you see my post of an hour ago saying that every single Red Wall Conservative MP should resign from Parliament taking as many others as they can with them?

      So it looks as if Nigel Farage is getting them organised because we desperately need this horrible government to collapse and a new right of right of centre party to emerge!

      My main worry about Farage is his arrogance and egotism and failure to admit that he is ever wrong. This makes him a difficult leader.

      1. Morning Richard. Nigel is probably the greatest Political Orator of the age but his interpersonal skills leave a great deal to be desired!

      2. I expect Oliver Cromwell was arrogant and full of ego.
        But it worked. If only for a few years.
        It’s worth a try.

      3. 368421+ up ticks,

        Morning R,
        “Getting them organised”
        Read, manipulating a reshuffle.

        “Difficult leader”? Neatest thing we will get to a “political jab,” potentially Poisonous and
        untrustworthy.

      6. @nigel_farage talks well, but look at his history.
        Stood down from UKIP Leadership FAR too early, admittedly for understandable reasons
        Stabs his former party in the back over Gerard Batten’s leadership
        Gives Boris a free pass in the 2019 election and get SFA in return

        1. And the most serious is that he extracted not one single quid pro quo from Johnson. Nigel had Boris by the goolies but failed to squeeze, or, if you prefer, he had him by the short and curlies and failed to tweak!

          The consequence is we still have the EU in Northern Ireland, we still have EU fishing boats plundering our fishing waters and it looks very much as if Brexit will soon be over and we shall be back in the EU.

          1. Only because of state malice. It can never, ever be forgotten how intentionally and spitefully big government has squandered Brexit, allowed remoaners to blame it and refused to properly diverge from the hated EU by repealing endless law that useless edifice churns out.

    4. 36842+ up ticks,

      Morning JN,

      There is no time limit on treachery, he is on par with the “jab”, when he stood down 317 misguided fools to aid & abet a tory in name only party, and a fat political turk you surely must have sensed something was wrong.

      2019 odious mass stabbing,

      https://youtu.be/Fc7iuUHk3Yk

      1. Goood morning, ogga

        To be honest I am not that keen on tattoos myself!

        Have you got any – if so why not take a photo of them and post it here for us to see?

        1. 368421+ up ticks

          R,
          That is pretty juvenile in reply to what amounts to a public health warning.

          “To be honest I am not that keen on tattoos myself!”

          There we differ, To be honest I am not that keen on treachery.

          1. Oh dear! Isn’t if rather a leftish trait to have a sense of humour failure?

            Incidentally are you keeping a log of how many times you have posted this particular anti-Farage video on the Nottlers’ forum?

            I have grave misgivings about Farage, as you do, but I think it is a mistake to overlook the fact that he has certain strong points.

          2. 368421+ up ticks,
            R,
            Please refrain from judging me on humour levels in regards to the farage
            and the 2019 General Election issues
            there was nothing remotely funny about his actions.
            The more pertinent fact is are YOU keeping a log on the number of anti UK issues the tory in name only party have portrayed these last three plus decades.

            Hitler had strong points, he liked dogs.

      2. Farage definitely doesn’t call Brexiteers “tattooed, nasty, racist thugs”. He’s referring to the EDL members that follow Tommy Robinson.

        1. 368421+ up ticks,

          Afternoon M,
          The farage chap made them remarks on LBC on his view of the mass meet in London under the Batten leadership.

          The post verdict was no trouble broke out and it was likened to a family day out

          He feared the link between
          Batten / Robinson as personal asst.
          becoming stronger that would have made UKIP under Batten a formidable
          force and that could NOT be tolerated
          by the tory in name only party, and assets.

      3. Yet aren’t you constantly telling us to vote UKIP?

        Although, from that still – what’s the device in the top left?

        1. 368421+ up ticks,

          Evening W,

          “Yet aren’t you constantly telling us to vote UKIP?”

          I am ?

          I link current ukip to the treacherous lab/lib/con/ ukip coalition party.

  40. Even amid murderous Russian raids, western apathy is Kyiv’s deadliest foe. 27 November 2022.

    Putin’s missiles are raining down on Ukrainians, but the biggest danger they face is weakening support from the US and Europe

    Russia’s red-handed army of homicidal generals, incompetent field commanders, out-of-control soldiers and hapless conscripts is attempting genocide – annihilation of a nation and a people – in plain sight.

    The European parliament voted last week to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. Good. Now order Putin’s arrest! Issue warrants for the president and all his gang. Expel his lying diplomats. Penalise his pals. Close the borders. Or is this feelgood Euro-posturing?

    Where are the warrants for Blair and Cameron and their accomplices?

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/27/russian-raids-western-apathy-kyiv-putin-ukrainians-us-europe

    1. Imagine if Russia’s or the Chinese parliament did similarly over the EU/USA state sponsorship of terrorism across the globe!

    2. Glorious sunshine and a very cold wind here, Spikey! A year ago tomorrow it was snowing for our daughters wedding!

    1. If they comment – we can delete and ban. If they uptick there’s nowt we can do to stop that. If you find they are following – kick them out.

  43. Princess Charlotte ‘to be Duchess of Edinburgh’: King Charles isn’t giving Duke title to brother Edward ‘as he wants to keep it for his granddaughter in tribute to The Queen’ – who also held it – and to ‘honour the line of succession’
    DM

    But Prince Philip and the Queen both wanted the Edinburgh title to go to Edward because of his work and support for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.

    King Charles is an arrogant, muddle-headed, opinionated, selfish and spiteful man. He is clearly a very nasty sibling to have – look at his treatment of both Andrew and Edward! And I wouldn’t be surprised to find that he has something unpleasant up his sleeve for his sister, Anne?

  44. Slava Ukraini! This is no time to negotiate with Putin. 27 November 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5eb40c70ca3b9909b657f179acb42d55859d80898a75a741bdeee44a3b2461cc.png

    We must decide for ourselves whether to side with Boris Johnson or Olaf Scholz over the former’s claim that Germany wanted Russia to crush Ukraine quickly to avoid a long conflict that would – as has happened – imperil Germany’s energy supplies. One can see why Mr Johnson made this undiplomatic assertion. He has ground to make up in the reputational stakes, not least if he hopes to convince another constituency party to parachute him into the safe seat he covets for the next election, on which his comeback plans depend: Uxbridge-les-deux-églises looks shaky. And two things are indisputable: he was unequivocal in putting Britain behind Ukraine (which, the Germans might observe, proved a distraction from his own troubles), and Germany under Herr Scholz’s predecessor, Angela Merkel, built an unhealthily dependent relationship with Russia over energy supplies. That made the country a reluctant ally in the international fight against Putin’s tyranny.

    I’m not siding with either. Like the author neither are paying any personal price for the continuation of this war! The photograph itself tells you everything you need to know about the article. The slogans are written in English! It is propaganda to affect UK public opinion which one suspects is not as much in favour as the PTB would hope.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/27/slava-ukraini-no-time-negotiate-putin/

  45. Slava Ukraini! This is no time to negotiate with Putin. 27 November 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5eb40c70ca3b9909b657f179acb42d55859d80898a75a741bdeee44a3b2461cc.png

    We must decide for ourselves whether to side with Boris Johnson or Olaf Scholz over the former’s claim that Germany wanted Russia to crush Ukraine quickly to avoid a long conflict that would – as has happened – imperil Germany’s energy supplies. One can see why Mr Johnson made this undiplomatic assertion. He has ground to make up in the reputational stakes, not least if he hopes to convince another constituency party to parachute him into the safe seat he covets for the next election, on which his comeback plans depend: Uxbridge-les-deux-églises looks shaky. And two things are indisputable: he was unequivocal in putting Britain behind Ukraine (which, the Germans might observe, proved a distraction from his own troubles), and Germany under Herr Scholz’s predecessor, Angela Merkel, built an unhealthily dependent relationship with Russia over energy supplies. That made the country a reluctant ally in the international fight against Putin’s tyranny.

    I’m not siding with either. Like the author neither are paying any personal price for the continuation of this war! The photograph itself tells you everything you need to know about the article. The slogans are written in English! It is propaganda to affect UK public opinion which one suspects is not as much in favour as the PTB would hope.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/27/slava-ukraini-no-time-negotiate-putin/

    1. Strange goings on in an even stranger world. There are times when I’m glad to be old and not have put up with this much longer.

      No, I’m NOT going off on another one – seriously.

      1. “Get used to it”….© Caliph of Londonistan.

        Is it planned or one of those damned things?

  50. ” My `Willie!”
    ” My willie disappears in Winter,
    It doesn`t like the cold,
    My willie disappears in Winter,
    But it`s really very old.
    I`ve tried a willie warmer,
    But that`s no good at all,
    I`ve tried a willie warmer,
    But my willie is to small.
    I tied some string to it one day,
    To keep my willie at my side,
    But the knot dropped off, and he went away,
    And disappeared inside.
    I remember in the summer,
    When my willie was so big,
    I nearly trod upon my willie,
    And snapped it like a twig.
    But now these days are over,
    And frosty days are here,
    And just the hint of a flake of snow,
    Makes my willie disappear.
    I hope the day will come when I,
    Will hold my willie in my hand,
    And wave him proudly to the sky,
    As the pride of all the land.
    I hope you aren`t offended,
    It should come as no surprise,
    That my willie is a tortoise,
    And not what you surmise!”.
    ( Sorry – not sorry lol)

  52. “Dolly Parton and her bra designer haven’t spoken in weeks. It’s been that way since they fell out.

  54. EXCLUSIVE: Ministers face calls to come clean over details of £1.6billion deal for new Royal Navy ships amid confusion about how much work will be done in Britain and how much will be done in SPAIN
    Team Resolute consortium is preferred bidder for Fleet Solid Support (FSS) deal
    Includes Navantia, the Spanish state-owned shipbuilder, and Harland and Wolff
    H&W CEO insisted a ‘minimum’ of 60 per cent of the work will be done in the UK
    But Ministry of Defence only committing to ‘majority’ being done in this country

    Ministers have been urged to clarify how much work from a £1.6billion deal to build support ships for the Royal Navy will take place amid fears that almost half could be done in Spain.

    Defence Secretary Ben Wallace last week announced the Team Resolute consortium including Navantia, the Spanish state-owned shipbuilding company, as preferred bidder to construct three Fleet Solid Support (FSS) vessels.

    The trio of 708ft Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships will be assembled at Harland and Wolff’s Belfast site, with other parts built in Devon and Scotland.

    Work on the vessels will also take place at Navantia’s shipyard in Cadiz in southern Spain, under a move that Mr Wallace said would ‘bolster technology transfer and key skills from a world-renowned shipbuilder, crucial in the modernisation of British shipyards’.

    The chief executive of H&W, John Wood, has said a ‘minimum’ of 60 per cent of the work will be done in the UK.

    However, ministers have been more coy, with the Ministry of Defence only committing to a ‘majority’ being done in the UK.

    Last week Armed Forces Minister Alex Chalk said that ‘the precise balance of work between each individual yard is a matter for Harland & Wolff’, adding: ‘The number of jobs sustained in Spain to deliver the Fleet Solid Support ships is a matter for the contractor concerned but it will be fewer than the number of jobs sustained and created in the UK.’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11474205/Ministers-face-calls-come-clean-details-1-6billion-deal-new-Royal-Navy-ships.html

    Read more and DO NOT have a fit.

    1. Shipbuilders in Britain in the C16 and C17 took ideas from captured Spanish vessels. The Spanish were always innovative in construction methods. The Italians and Indians are similarly expert in shipbuilding today.

    2. Shipbuilders in Britain in the C16 and C17 took ideas from captured Spanish vessels. The Spanish were always innovative in construction methods. The Italians and Indians are similarly expert in shipbuilding today.

  55. Prestigious exhibition charting the history of world medicine is axed after 15 YEARS because it ‘perpetuates racist, sexist and ableist theories and language’:

    Wellcome Collection is accused of wokeism and ‘cultural vandalism’ for axing show
    The Wellcome Collection has closed its Medicine Man medical history gallery
    It claims the exhibit perpetuates history based on ‘racist, sexist and ableist’ ideas
    The collection included objects from around the world dating back to the 1600s
    It has sparked fury among patrons, who have accused it of ‘cultural vandalism’

    A British museum says it is closing a free exhibit about medical history after 15 years over fears it is perpetuating ‘racist, sexist and albeist theories and language’.

    The Wellcome Collection, which is based in London, has been accused of ‘cultural vandalism’ after it said it is scrapping its ‘Medicine Man’ exhibit, which has been on display since 2007, from today.

    The charity which runs the museum, the Wellcome Trust, said the items ‘neglected to tell’ the stories of those ‘we have historically marginalised or excluded’.

    It said it had instead been telling story of Henry Wellcome, a 19th century American pharmaceutical entrepreneur and medical artefact enthusiast who founded the collection.

    It said that Wellcome, who was born in a log cabin in Wisconsin, was a man with ‘enormous wealth, power and privilege’ who had acquired hundreds of thousands of objects with the aim of ‘better understanding of the art and science of healing throughout the ages’.

    These items include wood, ivory and wax models from around the world and a variety of cultures, some of which date back to the 17th century, as well as curiosities such as Charles Darwin’s walking sticks.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11474111/Fury-bosses-axe-museums-racist-sexist-ableist-medical-history-display.html

    Really excellent informative article with some wonderful photos and examples .

    What a terrible anticultural attittude .. what else will be cancelled out .. the history of our industrial past/ medical / scientific/ musical/historical / and that includes us .. we will be reduced back to cave dwelling if they get their way .

    1. This is all part of the destruction of our national historical and cultural icons as prescribed by the globalist elites.

      We are to be trans humans, jabbed to the eyeballs, with no specific national or cultural identity.

      1. We are developing our own version of the ‘Four Olds’ (Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Customs, and Old Habits) the start of the student lead Red Guard destruction of Chinese culture prior to 1966, as part of the great cultural revolution.
        It can only end in tears unless people wake up and see what has gone before: I doubt it, history is written by those who think they have won and in our case the leftwing elements that have infiltrated all areas of our society.

        1. The Left are, and always have been, evil. However, once you erase history you can hide the abominations you’ve previously caused – Mao’s great leap forward, Lenin’s purges, Hitler’s genocide.

          The problem is – and the thing the Left forget – is that they never win. Maybe this time through the EU and UN they’re taking the long view.

      3. She (are we sure it is a female?) is probably a vegan member of the lgbtqxyz brigade. Ticked all the boxes.

    3. It makes you wonder what bonkers madness these fools smoke.

      They forget that destroying history and re-writing it to suit your own ego was the warning from 1984!

    1. I think the Chinese are sick and tired of being locked up and constantly tested for a virus everyone everywhere else has disregarded.

      But, the Chinese started it all, so perhaps they know something we don’t?

      1. The CCP will kill some people and gaol a large number of others and the “protests” will fade away.

      2. As the commentator said: we should not equate the Chinese people with the Chinese Communist Party.

        The point was taken that folk coerced into incessant Covid testing, wearing masks and kept in lockdown will have seen the tens of thousands watching the World Cup in massive stadia, all unmasked, embracing each other and celebrating their teams.

        The parallels between China user Xi and Russia under Stalin are striking. Both were peasant stock, basically ignorant and both prone to inflicting great inhumanity on their fellow citizens.

  57. Black Friday has turned out to be a flop – no mass looting and only the usual dozen or so stabbings in London. Are they hiding something from us?

      2. You can have a lot of fun watching paint dry. I’m told it’s even more exciting that watching the England Team attempting to play Football….

        2. I can attest to the first part; wouldn’t know about the second. Tried watching football once, and despaired at their amateurism in pretending to fall. I could teach ’em a thing or two!

          1. Very occasionally, at the end of a competition, I watch the video of all the “own goals”. I find them by far the most entertaining part!!

    3. People have been bloody nuts round here. Traffic crazy and our cab co. not going to our usual shops. Went to Tesco instead and that was like the inmates had taken over.
      Black Friday and I guess, Black Weekend, is an import from the US. I paid no attention when I lived there and won’t here either. As has been proven by all the pandemic BS, people are now sheep and swallow everything the media tells them.

    1. I have seen Neil’s assessment yet. But I support to the letter what guy was talking about.
      Shame he looked a lot like Shwab.
      It’s the only way we can all fight back.

  59. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/22/pressure-rejoin-eu-will-grow-brexit-not-seen-deliver/

    The problem is, the state is ensuring Brexit cannot succeed. With so much effort, energy and waste being poured into thwarting the public will the more the state can say that we should be chained again. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, created and enforced by big government control.

    It is easy to make a success of Brexit. The state refuses every single opportunity.

    1. I suspect that the Government has been told in no uncertain terms that if it attempts to make a clean break from the EU, the EU & its allies will sell the £Sterling so that it becomes virtually worthless and the UK will be faced with hyperinflation as the prices of imports go stratospheric….

      1. Why could we not then retaliate? Bringing down the Euro wouldn’t just bork Germany, but every other economy as they’re all cripplingly indebted.

    2. Lovely!
      Made pickled red onions today – the colour comes straight out. Goes nicely on pate and other cold meats.

  61. American reality TV star Catherine Ommanney claims she enjoyed a ‘fling’ with toyboy Prince Harry – when she was 34 and he was 21
    Brit Catherine Ommanney appeared on US show The Real Housewives of DC
    The now 51-year-old says she met Prince Harry in a bar in Chelsea in 2006
    She says she shared a kiss with royal who was 13 years her junior
    Ms Ommanney says she wishes the best for Harry, who she describes as ‘lovely’
    By MARIA CHIORANDO FOR MAILONLINE

    Reality star Catherine Ommanney has opened up about the two-month fling she says she had with Prince Harry in 2006 – when she was 31 and the royal was 21.

    Ms Ommanney, who spoke to the Sun about the romance, said she was speaking out because she doesn’t think the short relationship will be featured in the Duke of Sussex’s upcoming memoir Spare.

    “According to the 51-year-old, while the autobiography will reportedly include anecdotes about the 38-year-old royal’s ex-girlfriends, she does not think she will be included as ‘a prince can’t run off with a 34-year-old mother-of-two, it’s just not the done thing’.

    The British reality star, who hit the small screen when she appeared in American reality TV show The Real Housewives of DC, met the prince in a bar in Chelsea in 2006, during which time he was in a long-term on-off relationship with socialite Chelsy Davy.”

    Only last week Migraine was complaining that women who slept around were considered to be sluts whereas men were applauded for their sexual exploits. Maybe she has raised this subject because she doesn’t want us to think she is a slut (not of course that we would dream of doing so) but because she wants to compete with Harry and tell the world that she has bedded more men than he has bedded women.

  62. Re the balls up at the Wellcome Collection – this is the bint in charge:

    “Melanie Keen is an arts professional and the director of the Wellcome Collection. She has worked extensively in promoting the Black Arts Movement in the UK. “

    1. How can we protest about that ..

      We cannot have other races wrecking our important history ..

      Those blacks should go back to their cooking pots, massacres limb chopping and Ju ju medicine.

    2. Melanie Keen grew up in the East End of London, her parents of Afro-Caribbean background. She studied at East Ham College of Technology in the 1980s, where she took inspiration from Sonia Boyce to pursue study of fine art. Later she achieved an MA in curating at the Royal College of Art (RCA).

      Sonia Dawn Boyce, OBE RA (born 1962) is a British Afro-Caribbean artist and educator, living and working in London. She is a Professor of Black Art and Design at University of the Arts London.

      4. Last post. Pouring a badly needed second glass of medicine, I reflected that the “Black Art” this bint practices entails the wholesale destruction of white, western civilisation.

        A demain.

          2. I know, maybe surprisingly, I have one to keep me warm at night. But when I am gone she will return to her homeland and enjoy the freedom that still exists in other places. Not the Mid East, I hasten to add..

  64. A hour ago I assumed the sitting room clock had stopped and it was now 7 pm.

    Wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    It is black as your hat, raining and horrible. They SAY it will be sunny tomorrow. We’ll see.

    Anyway,I am pushing off. Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

      1. Their routine is this. Out at 10 pm all night. In for breakfast; out again. In at 10 am and sleep all day until about 5 pm. Out for a wazz and back in for supper. Sleep til 10 pm… Repeat…! They have access to the porch where a range of bedding is on offer… Gus often prefers to stay there – despite the lack of heat – rather than come into the house.

        We realise now that they are 2 plus – that they are essential outdoor feral cats who quite like a handy hotel and restaurant.

        In fact, for the first time in nine months, Gus stayed in last night. He was 5% under the weather. We left a tray as a precaution. Not touched. He and Pickles are the most fastidious – and cleanest – cats we have ever had.

    3. I hate this time of year in UK.
      Dark at 4pm, cold and rain, does it ever stop.
      Sun!!? blink in summer and its gone, as for the rest of the year 😔
      Ho well, such is life.

  65. A quiet afternoon with Organ music on the hifi, although probably not with these two that I found recordings of as FLAC files.

    https://youtu.be/J8vz1D_L_OE

    https://youtu.be/ho9rZjlsyYY

    This is the right tempo!! why do some musicians need to increase it? : Vivaldi’s music has this problem, look at copies of his original score for The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) then listen to some orchestra’s interpretations: it’s as if they want to get it over with as soon as possible.

    1. As you know I love Vivaldi… on in earphones right now. I have never owned the Four Seasons, not because it isn’t brilliant, but because it’s the only work that many people seem to know about.
      Dear old Tony V- I think he would be chuffed to know how he is still so appreciated.

      Edit for missing letter.

      1. As I think I’ve said before, I have a large collection of Vivaldi recordings, LP, CD and FLAC files, plus a few scores that I have acquired over the years.
        Marvellous music.

        1. Only celebrated one Mass in his ordained life….he needed the sponsorship of the church, or so I understand.

          1. A biography that I have, says he only performed his duties as a priest for about 2 years.
            He did spend a lot of time as a music teacher for both girls and boys and was considered a virtuoso on the violin.
            His works forgotten for many years, with many of his compositions that were once thought lost, rediscovered, one as recently as 2006.

        2. Spring, Summer, Autumn, love ’em. But Winter – the cruellest season.

          Can’t get it over with soon enough. Come 21st March ASAP.

          1. I do wish they’d put the clocks forward at the end of February, rather than the end of March. That way winter ends with my birthday then, and I can think of March as the beginning of Spring.

          2. It would certainly be more logical, as the October clocks backward is only approximately seven weeks to the winter solstice, whereas post-solstice it is approximately thirteen weeks (or so) to the clocks going forward.

    2. Oh yes; lovely recording!

      I think the thing is that when you learn fiddly bits with lots of dots, you have to slow them right down for precision, then gradually speed them up again. It’s exhilarating being able to execute them correctly at speed – some people just get caught up in the excitement and forget to stop accelerating. 🤣

      PS interesting concept, having a quiet afternoon of organ music !🤣🤣

      1. Quiet afternoon being: no interruptions from the outside world.
        My wife does suggest that I turn the music down once a while, but it sometimes needs playing at realistic levels. 🙄🙂

        2. Made me think of Basil Fawlty….Sybil shouts, “Turn that racket off!” “It’s Brahms’ 5th Racket,” says Basil.

  66. I had the following comment reported as spam. It was in a Spectator thread about grammar schools. `here it is for us nottlers (who are more tolerant of old people)`:

    “The most attractive attribute I can think of in a person is imagination, and the lack of it the most offputting.

    I went to a grammar school, where we were referred to by the popular Maths master Walter J O’Connor, who died of cancer as soon as he set eyes on my year, once said we were the cream of society – the clotted cream. This school had an illustrious history dating back many centuries to when it was set up by a medieval mercer. The headmaster before mine was enthusiastic about corporal punishment and went about caning the boys with the olympic pleasure the Princess Royal has for horses. In the end, he and four of his more able-bicepped masters were sacked by the governors and he was replaced with a liberal veteran of `Bletchley (but sworn to secrecy during my schooldays which I later deeply regretted), who looked like Mussolini and didn’t appreciate being told this by the boys.

    This school had a powerful Conservative ethos, and once invited Margaret Thatcher to address the school on Founders Day. They kept me well away from her, lest I contaminate her with radical thought. It had an active Combined Cadet Force, where the boys were often in military uniform, but which `i never joined myself, and of course no girls. They kept these a safe distance away and homosexuality was rife. The nearby public school, Christ’s Hospital, wore very strange uniforms and we referred to them as “junkies”. The pretty market town itself was comprehensively redeveloped around 1970 and is unrecognisable and extremely ugly today.

    This was one of the grammar schools that was discontinued with the 1970s reforms, and became a comprehensive sixth form college, which claims Harry Enfield as one of its alumni.

    I never felt comfortable with comprehensive education, despite joining the SDP whose co-founder, Shirley Williams, was one of the leading promoters of this policy. I do feel though that the blame must be placed with the wording of the 11-plus, One passes or fails this examination, leaving failures to be dumped in secondary moderns as a sort of gutter sink for guttersnipes. I am not surprised they felt undervalued by society.

    I would have preferred the selection to be made between grammar schools and technical schools. One would be predominately academic, with a basic grounding in technical skills. Rather than passing or failing an exam at 11, this would be an aptitude test, and could be reversed a year later on appeal, a year’s study and a retest.

    The other would be technical, bringing pupils to a high level of competence sufficient to be of value to an industry by the age of 14, sent out for a year’s work experience, and then deciding which trade to specialise in, ready to enter the workplace at 16 or to become an apprentice with full mastery at 21. These would have a basic grounding in academic skills, but nothing fancy.”

    1. Same. Jeremy, with my (very old) grammar school.

      So sad at its demise – they didn’t even keep the old photographs of old pupils so keen were they to be upcoming and thrusting. Sad aspirations, who cares for history?

      1. It’s quite evident now that the closing of the grammar schools was one of the first acts in the agenda to bring this country down to where it is now.
        The great reset has been going a lot longer than we think.

        1. Very true, Bob, I’m so thankful for both my Father’s and the Grammar School education, even if I left at 15½ to join the RAF as a Boy.

          That Education has served me well all my life and at 78, I’m still learning.

          Never stop learning.

          1. A wartime baby that left school around 1960, when things were still done the old way, and the world’s population was 3 billion.

          2. Yep, sounds like me, Jeremy but I don’t regret leaving school so young and joining the services, where I learnt a trade, discipline and above all, self-discipline. The spirit to do what’s right, no matter the personal hardship.

          3. I was referring to you.

            I’m 12 years younger than you, so I left my grammar school in 1972 when times were quite different. I am just old enough though to remember the old ways. All through my schooldays I worked with £sd and imperial units, then was the first to take GCEs using metric units.

            There was an uneasy relationship with discipline among my peers. I think the feeling that the nation was a solid rock upon which sound foundations for life were built had been lost by 1972, and we were floundering. The spirit to do what’s right was no less strong than it was in 1960, perhaps more so, since we were required to make our own values rather than trust our elders to impose theirs on us.

            You are right in that personal hardship was not really tolerated by my generation as it was with those born into the deprivations of wartime. This was a constant bone of contention between us, and is also with those born in this century who think that my peers had it good all their lives.

            I think though that the certainties that gave school leavers confidence in 1960 were replaced by a sense of trepidation that all was about to come crashing down. This first emerged with the oil crisis of 1973 and the subsequent inflation and economic crises of the 1970s, and then with serious degradation of the environment and looming decline of once-abundant species that has brought us to the present day, which is feeling more and more like the 1930s when fascism took hold.

            If there is one thing we could offer the young, and that is to restore the old certainties and confidence in the nation and the future of the world that might have existed in 1960.

        2. I had this argument with the local Tory faithful in the 1980s over Norman Tebbit’s disdain for the 1960s. They did not like the permissiveness, but I don’t think that was the problem. It was that everything from much-loved landmarks to personal relationships were disposable and transient, leaving a rootless nation that lost its will to live.

          Permissiveness, however was a much-needed breath of radical libertarianism that could have brought great benefits had it been thought through, the best bits enjoyed and the worst discarded.

    1. I think it is a mistake to say that this is all being done through weakness or going soft, it is all being done as part of a roadmap.

      these people aren’t weak or soft, they are ruthless.

    3. 368421+ up ticks,

      Evening TB,

      For the last near 40 years given consent via the polling booth under the banner PARTY BEFORE COUNTRY.

      1. For God’s sake, Ogga, shut up – we’ve heard it all before and too many times from you.

        Do I have to block you again?

        1. 368421+ up ticks,

          Evening NtN,

          That does come across as a threat challenging freedom of speech.

          Plus may I add from an old tory, in name only supporter up until recent times.

          2. 368421+ up ticks,

            NtN,
            A reply was not expected I, do assume you to be another supporting / voting victim of the 2019 General Election.

    4. The original poster contradicts themselves with the state giving out too much welfare and not enough.

      Which do they want? Well, in an effective and working welfare system, those who needed it would get it, and those who didn’t deserve it would receive nothing.

      We, of course, punish people for working by forcing them to live on their own savings while they’ve funded wasters for decades and forces those in genuine need to fill in endless forms that – usually, they cannot – while the wasters don’t bother.

  68. A nice morning, for a change, walking Oscar up on Kit Hill today. The car park was chokka and lots of people, with and without dogs, all over.
    I have never seen so many white people in one place…

    1. Miserable weather here- again. Sunrise is about 7.30 and it was so dark I thought it was the middle of the night. Looked at phone and it was 8.45!

    2. It’s shocking isn’t it, one could easily think of England prior to the 1960’s, which would never do.
      Still according to the rules in play at the moment, we should soon be able to claim the benefits of minority status.

  69. I’m very tempted by the thought of snuggling under the duvet, with just my book, until it falls out of my hand and I sleep.

  70. Evening all! I had a glorious day – gave what I suspect will have been the first public performance of Elgar’s “Where Corals Lie” accompanied by jazz musicians on bass guitar and banjo… 🤣🤣🤣 Went down surprisingly well, considering.

  71. Rotherham to become first Children’s Capital of Culture

    Rotherham to become first Children’s Capital of Culture
    Close
    Rotherham is to become the world’s first Children’s Capital of Culture in 2025.

    The idea came from a group of young people living in the South Yorkshire town who wanted to improve their home’s reputation.

    Ciara, a BBC Young Reporter, was part of the project and says she is excited to see “something being done to inspire young people to stay at home”.

    The project means in 2025 there will be a 365-day festival celebrating the “arts, creativity and community”.

    You can find stories by other young people on the BBC Young Reporter website. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-south-yorkshire-63758697

    2. It would be sick joke except that black is white these days and Izzard is a woman apparently. Society is very screwed up.

      1. I expect that is Labour’s plan to improve the number of women in board rooms and in other senior positions – get the males to wera dresses and lipstick, I mean Izzard hasn’t said yet whether, if he stands for parliament, whether he’ll run in a seat with an all female shortlist. .

    3. There is a familiar but a crude old saying.
      It’s like pushing shite up hill.
      Which in this situation. It’s nevertheless something that the bbc have chosen to feature. But it’s never going to work. That’s precisely why our country is in the deep doo, doo, at this very moment in time.

    4. How wonderful. A bit of a shame that most of the housing there doesn’t have Fritzel style basements which they could just fill with cement. Their business model would probably not do as well as Peter Sutcliffe gardening style but would probably win the award of under the patio of Rosie and Freddie.

    1. Sop a mazipan ball in tamazepan and give the bag to the parents for the little girl.

      I do this for the warqueen anyway.

        1. She does not fly well.

          In fact, she hates flying. When we go on hols (which isn’t often) we either take the train (and the Paddington to Geneva train is as quick as the plane counting all the hassle, faff and taking off of trousers and shoes nonsense to stop the Muslims killing us (why are not muslims the only ones stopped rather than everyone?)

    2. Something similar happened to me on a flight to LA. A well-to-do Indian family were sitting behind me and one of their bored children started kicking the back of my seat. I turned around to the father, looked him in the eye and said, “If you don’t stop your child kicking my seat then I shall have to do something about it. Are we clear?” He immediately apologised and the child behaved itself thereafter.

      1. Just in the nick of time. The worse thing is, on a long a haul when the person In front slams the seat back..

        1. Yep, been there. I couldn’t really understand why they did it. On the upside, it’s easier to throttle them.

          3. That happened to me on a Jumbo to Gatwick, in the middle of dinner. I just managed to grab the bottle of water on my tray before it went flying.I pounded the back of the seat hard and made my protests know, but I couldn’t get up as we all had our dinners on our trays. Eventually, the message got through with steward assistance.

      2. It is often the case to let people know about what is happening because parents tend to oh erm …they are used to the behaviour and don’t realise how it affects others.
        On a four hour flight i had someone in the seat behind me that had very long legs in the cheap seats. I did give the evil eye but then again i got a free massage.

        1. I love the dark, Maggie. I used to take my dog for a walk in the dark to a site that used to be a German POW camp in Sherwood Forest. The legend was that the ghost of one of them haunted the place. I would walk around calling for “Herman the German” to show himself but, alas, he never did!

          1. Doing my four pubs circular at night is something I enjoy, especially the section over Middleton Moor.

      4. On a flight from Qatar to Amsterdam, I was in the right hand aisle seat of a central block of 4 seats. An English expat family took up the 3 seats to my left with a young son, about 11 and very tall and gangly on my left. He used the back of the entertainment remote as a video game and whike engrossed in his play, kept elbowing and kicking me. After scowling at him a few times, he calmed down for a while, then resumed his fidgeting.
        I don’t sleep well on planes and when I eventually dozed of, the little s*d did it again. “If you kick me again, I shall kick you back”. It did the trick – he was almost motionless for the rest of the flight.

        1. It’s the only language they understand. Their useless parents are too thick to control the spoilt little twats.

    3. There really is only one response. We all know how parents consider their little demons in restaurants and public places feel that they can do what they want so……………start bouncing on those trays !!!

    4. Speak to the brat’s keeper or cabin crew, a smack in the gob would be a bit OTT unless its dark.

    5. We had two kids playing football with the backs of our seat flying out to Spain.
      I got them both to join in drawing pictures on some paper I luckly found in the magazine rack. The parents did lift a finger or say a word. But the flight attendant brought us both drinks as she thought we needed them.

    3. Yes, flu symptoms after returning from hols. The worst I have had, 3 days in bed or slouching in front of tv.

    8. Yes, for five days. ‘Flu-like’ symptoms: headache, sniffles, sneezing, sore eyes, muscle ache, lethargy.

      However, appetite OK – and my taste for wine … I guess I shall live a little longer …

      How are you, tim?

    10. Yes, both of us.
      Common cold, coughs and sneezes, blocked up nose and lasted 4 weeks. Just like we used to get before the invention of Covid and the scamdemic.
      Not life threatening but a bit of a bugger.

          9. Nah! He disnae die! He runs away wi’ his brother Donalbain and comes back at the end to claim the throne!

          12. Likewise, along with Hamlet & Othello! Although In my case the searing appears just to be just a superficial burn…….

          13. I was thinking more of the Sinex advert…but never mind! No man of woman born..and all that!

    12. MOH and I have been under the weather, to say the least, for some weeks. It almost feels normal now.

    13. Son has , but he carries on regardless , cough and sore throat .

      I felt strange a few days ago , and Moh says he might be going down with a cold ..

    14. Usual cough and cold.
      MB overdid it, and ended up in horsepiddle; but then he never does things by halves.

        1. *The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a play in five acts by Francis Beaumont, first performed at Blackfriars Theatre in 1607[1][2][3] and published in a quarto in 1613.[4] It is the earliest whole parody (or pastiche) play in English. The play is a satire on chivalric romances in general

          1. I wonder if that’s similar to The Dance of the Flaming Arsehole……… Tom will know what I mean

          2. I’ve no idea. I saw the play staged by the RSC in the 1980’s with Timothy Spall as the Lead

          6. Billy Connelly I believe. You know, the map of the Ponderosa with the little hole and a flame which gradually spreads…

          9. In days of old when knights were bold
            And ladies weren’t particular,
            They stood ’em up against the wall
            And did it perpendicular.

            With apologies to no-one really;-)

          10. In days of old when Knights were bold
            and lavatories weren’t invented
            They did their load in the middle of the road
            and went off quite contented

            Funny how a prompt brings back memories

          11. In days of old when knights were bold and pants were made of tin, not a mortal cry was heard at all when squatting on a pin.

          12. There was a knight was drunk with wine
            A riding along the way, sir;
            And there he met with a lady fine
            Among the cocks of hay, sir.

            Shall you and I, oh lady fair
            Among the grass lye down-a?
            And I will have a special care
            Of rumpling of your gown-a.

            Anon.

      1. My son is in hospital for an op tomorrow. No blood supply to one of his feet – I reckon Covid injections caused it

        2. Oh no……. hope all goes well for him. Peripheral neuopathy seems to be one of the side effects of the jabs.

  75. Sitting at home in my little flat and I can hear a bell ringing in the background. I know what it is. Someone is stuck in one of our lifts. They’re the old fashioned kind with an inner scissor/collapsible gate. People don’t understand that you have to wait until the lift stops and settles with a clunk before pulling back the gate then pushing the outer door. It’s annoying because the repair costs are shared via the service charge.

      2. If the duty porter can’t help them now, probably! One of the lifts is usually switched off at night. Energy saving and all that.

    3. Isn’t there a sign on the gate/in the lift? If not, perhaps putting one there would save some service charge.

    4. It is called a Bostwick Gate after the manufacturer. They were employed on many Otis lift installations in London mansions and on early London Underground lifts and station entrances.

      The gates were also to be found on the old Glasgow underground carriages when these were timber framed with hide seats, the collapsible gates covered in grease as I found when rubbing against one in my best bib and tucker.

    5. Why don’t you write out this information on a board and fix it to the lift wall, Sue Ed? Might save you your share of the repair costs. (Just saying.)

  76. Ex-BBC reporter who ‘lost herself’ during menopause now travels the country in a motorhome and is ‘happier than ever’ in her 60s
    An ex-BBC reporter has decided to live in a caravan for the last four years
    The Guardian reported that she felt ‘burnt out, overwhelmed and anxious’
    Siobhan, from Kent, worked for BBC South East, bought the £40K motorhome
    Read more: Couple saves hundreds of dollars with sustainable off-grid home

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11474189/Ex-BBC-reporter-happier-living-caravan-not-paying-bills.html?ito=social-facebook&fbclid=IwAR06cYBcYfIPxCelu1Ldk9bpj_IAOADDDSDSPA9deOGxvzDJCERNoQBFKy0

    Is this you know who with the lovely singing voice?

  77. With the World heading for Hell in a handcart, I just wanted to say thank you all for this evenings’s therapy session teeing up the opening lines to enable me to release some of my pent up COPD….I haven’t laughed so much in ages!

    2. There can be a lot of doom and gloom here but there is also a lot of humour. It is why I avoid the mornings because it’s all gloom.
      Mind you, after the trip to Tesco today, I did consider throwing myself off the end of the pier;-)

        1. You have no idea! A total nut farm. Mind you, we managed to get enough nerve tonic to sustain us for a while.

      2. If you feel like that again I’d be incline to choose Southend Pier it is /was rather long and you might just change your mind before you get to the end….

        1. And then fall into all that mud! I had a great uncle lived down there and there is no sea; it’s muddy estuary.

          1. And smelly! But they did have some marvelous fish ‘n’ chips!! We lived not far from Southend when we were first married, before moving to the States.

      3. You’ve been reading about that pier in Wigan, it’s so depressingly of our time, I’m not surprised you felt that way.

        1. Wigan Pier which does exist. I live in a seaside town which does have quite a long pier.
          I am just trying to put a somewhat positive spin on some of the BS going on.

  78. Mother of Harry and Meghan’s matchmaker among Queen Consort’s new ‘companions’
    Lady von Westenholz’s daughter Violet von Westenholz, a childhood friend of Prince Harry, introduced him to his future wife

    The mother of the socialite who first introduced Prince Harry to his future wife Meghan Markle has been appointed as one of the six Queen’s Companions to accompany Her Majesty on key occasions.

    Lady von Westenholz, who with the other Companions will perform a similar role to the late Queen Elizabeth’s Ladies in Waiting, is the mother of the Prince’s childhood friend Violet von Westenholz.

    It was Violet who reportedly decided that the Prince would be a perfect fit for the American actress. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/11/27/mother-harry-meghans-matchmaker-among-queen-consorts-new-companions/

    DV

    Day Visitor
    55 MIN AGO
    Von Westenholz obviously has no ability to judge someone’s character, as there’s nothing positive that can be said about the M&H pairing. Intelligent, ruthless woman nabs unintelligent male, alliance lasting for now as it’s useful to M, who’s counting the alimony year by year.
    For the ‘mismatchmaking’ alone, the present queen should ditch von Westenholz, and charge her for compensation for the misery she and M&H have inflicted upon the country.

  80. Interesing comments it seems Lot’s has been happening since I have been watching the football this evening. Including riots in Belgium. Apparently because they lost the football match against Morocco earlier. I’m not sure what rioting might do. But it’s a funny old world. Morocco also won the pitch diving outright.
    I’m off to bed, so it’s good night from me peeps 😴

  81. Think I’ll trundle off to bed too – it’s hard typing with one left hand finger because Lily’s sitting on my right wrist.

  82. is this what today is called climate change

    Over thousands of years, the Earth’s axial tilt and orbital eccentricity vary (see Milankovitch cycles).
    The equinoxes and solstices move westward relative to the stars while
    the perihelion and aphelion move eastward. Thus, ten thousand years from
    now Earth’s northern winter will occur at aphelion and northern summer
    at perihelion. The severity of seasonal change — the average temperature
    difference between summer and winter in location — will also change
    over time because the Earth’s axial tilt fluctuates between 22.1 and
    24.5 degrees.

    Smaller irregularities in the times are caused by perturbations of the Moon and the other planets.

    2. Sorry Johnny,
      There is no money in naturally occurring climate change but there is big money in chasing carbon dioxide emissions.

    3. These are facts that don’t interest the ‘climate apocalypse’ folk, Johnny, unfortunately.

      1. Jill, today was a very enjoyable day out for me with my neighbours at a local pub for our annual pre-Christmas lunch. The wine was particularly good, so when I was chauffeured home I just had to go to bed and fell fast asleep. When I awoke it was 9.30 pm so I watched a ZOOM meeting to discuss Book 3 (of 4) of Dickens’ OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, organised in the West Coast of the USA. (3 pm in their time and 9 pm in ours.) Then I read a few emails and did “bits and bobs” before checking in here. Having slept from around 6 pm to 9 pm I shall not go to bed yet, but instead watch ROMAN HOLIDAY with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn (in her breakthrough role). What are you doing up at this time of the morning, jillthelass?

        1. I’m on the east coast of USA, and it is 8.31 pm. so I am a bit behind y’all!!
          Nice to hear about your day…Roman Holiday excellent movie.

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