Thursday 12 May: Patients need to wean themselves off the illusion that the NHS is free

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

487 thoughts on “Thursday 12 May: Patients need to wean themselves off the illusion that the NHS is free”

    3. Yo Lottie

      Any local Salvation Army shop will accept your bedding, if you have no further use for it

    4. Drat and double drat, Ann. I hope you slept well last night and that today goes well for you. And to all NoTTLers: A very good morning to you all.

    5. Best wishes to you and your Best Beloved. I hope you’ve packed a suitably embarrassing pair of pyjamas for him.

  3. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – Dame Esther Rantzen (Letters, May 10) is not alone in admiring the NHS for its wonderful work – but a “free” service it most certainly is not.

    We would do well to remember that the NHS costs taxpayers a very great deal of money. Patients should be treated like customers who have paid dearly for their treatment, rather than the recipients of generous charity from the Government.

    Denis Kearney
    Lostwithiel, Cornwall

    Quite right. Now, would someone like to remind the NHS of this fact…

    1. It is free for some. Come across the Channel in a dinghy and it is just one element of the jackpot won.

    2. I’ve realised that I was born before the NHS existed, and hopefully will outlive it.

    3. “Dame” Esther is an over promoted typist who would do well to lie low and say nuthin’ in future, lest she confirms once again what an out of touch idiot she is.

    4. “Dame” Esther is an over promoted typist who would do well to lie low and say nuthin’ in future, lest she confirms once again what an out of touch idiot she is.

  4. Good morning all.
    A total change to yesterday morning with a lovely bright start but much cooler at 3°C, though I think things will be warmer later.

        1. Tens (hundreds?) of thousands of passport-less “refugees” land on Dover beaches.

  5. SIR – Like Lynne R Wells (Letters, May 4), I had to wait a long time for a telephone consultation with an NHS physiotherapist about a longstanding back problem.

    We spoke for 40 minutes, and he decided that I suffered from a “boom and bust” cycle, which could be broken by reducing my daily workload. Instead of washing my car in one go, I was to clean the wheels one day, the bonnet the next, and so on.

    After washing two wheels, however, my back gave in. So now my back still hurts and my car – except for those wheels – is still dirty. Where to now?

    Brian Williams
    Malvern, Worcestershire

    The car wash??

    2. They are very fond of “pacing” as a panacea for pain. As I pointed out to the woman on the telephone, some days I was in pain before I even got out of bed – was I to stay in bed all day and if so, who, since I live alone, would do the work necessary to keep the house warm and me fed?

    1. Each to his own, Bob3. My take is that it is a good day for the weekly wash! Lol. (A widder woman’s job is never done – Lol.)

  8. SIR – Recently the Government has been relaxing the need for planning permission and following a strategic approach to new housing sites.

    The proposal emanating from the Queen’s Speech to have “street votes” on home extensions (report, May 11) does not fit well with this.

    Having sat on a local planning committee for eight years, I can say that it is hard enough to get elected members to vote for proper planning reasons, let alone the local public. Nevertheless, the balance of public input that has evolved is about right. Street voting would see all sorts of personal prejudices come out.

    Michael King
    Melbourne, Derbyshire

    I agree. This sounds rather like the completely ineffective ‘localism’ trumpeted by Dodgy Dave. Besides, if a few neighbours raise objections, will these really overrule the local authority and others who support the application? It sounds like a bit of a dog’s breakfast to me.

    1. New housing developments

      The first tranche of new builds should always be as close as is geographically possible to the ‘mansion’ in which the person
      authorising the new builds lives.

      The next tranches should then be built close to the rest of the committee’s homes

      Solved

    2. Far more sensible:

      SIR – Michael Gove, the Housing Secretary, is promising that local people will have more say in housing developments – but parish and town councils already have this role.

      However, grassroots rules and advice are often overruled and their recommendations are not binding. I was a parish councillor for more than 10 years, and time and again, we made recommendations that were ignored by the district council and sometimes overturned at a higher level.

      Let’s work with the systems we have and give them some teeth.

      Kate Graeme-Cook
      Brixham, Devon

      In my experience any recommendation from a Parish Council currently seems to carry no weight at all.

      This BTL poster has experienced the same problem:

      Sue Burt
      57 MIN AGO
      Completely agree with Kate Graeme-Cook’s comment. My experience as a Parish Councillor in the East Riding of Yorkshire was exactly the same. We were regularly ‘consulted’ by East Riding of Yorkshire Council on local issues and our responses routinely ignored.

      1. The central government’s framework development plans for the area override any local protests. Including the imposition of targets for additional housing, as we head into the socialist utopia .

      2. The central government’s framework development plans for the area override any local protests. Including the imposition of targets for additional housing, as we head into the socialist utopia .

      3. Yup, that’s the way it works. We Parish Councillors object to a development on the grounds of access, foul water dispersal inadequacy, over development, etc. It goes to county and gets passed. Lo! When it’s built there are problems with access, the sewers and overcrowding.

    3. It sounds like a bit of a dog’s breakfast to me.

      More of a regurgitated dog’s breakfast if the two developments close to my home are anything to go by.

      Both developments have access problems with the potential for accidents. The development closer to completion has its main access onto a roundabout with five points of entry/exit including the Lidl store. The road is very busy with large lorries servicing the builder’s merchants, the furniture factory, Booker’s cash and carry and onwards to industrial estates further east. All the local facilities e.g. shops, pharmacy, junior and secondary schools, bus stops and doctor’s surgery require crossing the road. I wrote to a local councillor re the provision of safe crossing points i.e. Panda crossing etc, the response back then was nothing much had been decided. The end result is dropped kerbs provided with knobbly slabs close to the roundabout without any control. My experience of the driving on that roundabout is not good with the speed of approach in many cases above the 30mph limit and the acceleration on departure excessive.
      The recently started development, another loss of valuable farm land, to the east of my home has raised some real problems re access. Local councillors, Conservative and Lib Dem, canvassed opinion and I responded to both but I have not received a response from either. This is a 30mph zone that is disregarded by the majority of drivers, including large lorries. The road was a country lane when I was a child and although improved it is in no way a satisfactory route for the traffic it has had forced on to it by over-development. The prospect of a housing estate of >1,000 homes on the military firing ranges a couple of miles away does not bode well as the road will be the main access to two of the area’s large out-of-town shopping areas and access to the A12 trunk road.

      As usual the politico’s ideas are pure rubbish – look we’re doing something. NOT! – and not at all well intentioned.

  10. SIR – Not only are the sandwiches usually cheaper in Boots than they are on the plane, but there is a far wider selection on offer.

    On long-haul flights, where food is essential rather than a luxury, I often think that a plate of mixed sandwiches would be much nicer than the ghastly mystery meat stew and stale bread roll served in economy.

    I have taken to carrying my own sandwiches on these flights, and it is much better to have decent food as and when I want to eat. Admittedly, the cheese-and-onion sandwiches were not very fair on the person in the seat next to me, and I promise not to eat them again.

    Nina Edwardes-Ker
    San José, Almería, Spain

    The previous night’s dodgy curry is far more damaging!

  11. Rebekah Vardy denies being willing to lie under oath. 12 May 2022.

    Rebekah Vardy has denied being willing to lie under oath in the “Wagatha Christie” libel trial, as she admitted allowing her agent to access Coleen Rooney’s private Instagram posts.

    Giving evidence on Wednesday, the second day of the trial, Vardy also accepted she had attempted to leak a story about the arrest of Premier League footballer Danny Drinkwater to the Sun – accompanied by the note: “I want paying for this x.”

    I thought the Johnny Depp- Amber Whatshername business was pretty dire but this is even worse. Two women who have far too much money, allied to no common sense whatsoever and inflicting their personal neuroses on the rest of us!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/11/wagatha-christie-trial-rebekah-vardy-denies-being-willing-to-lie-under-oath

    1. Precisely the same thought crossed my mind. The Clintons on their own must be responsible for keeping down the average US life span.

  13. SIR – We are now seeing the effects of low interest rates. These have caused property prices to soar, and mortgage borrowing to increase, with little thought for what will happen when interest rates rise.

    Mortgages are unaffordable to potential new buyers, and are hitting the finances of those who have bought property at inflated prices. Soon we will see the price of houses come down, leaving many mortgages higher than the value of the property. Meanwhile, those who have saved over many years will find the value of their savings much reduced because of inflation, so will spend less (Business, May 10).

    Until recently the Bank of England was forecasting that inflation would be 4 per cent, when most of us knew otherwise. Has it learnt anything?

    Chris Lewis
    Widnes, Cheshire

    Experience tells us that the B of E is usually wrong, so should never be relied upon…

      1. Try being a Chieftain driver. Hatch closed, you lie reclined looking upwards through a periscope, and each side of your head are ammunition bins for the bagged charges – so close that you can bang your (helmetted) head on them!
        Admittedly, the bins are double-skinned, with water & fire extinguishing chemical between the skins, but even so…

    2. ‘Moaning, Annie. The T-72 should be in a museum. First went into production in the late 60s, so well past retirement.

    3. The auto loader in the T- 72 allows them to have a three man crew thus allowing for more space and greater ammunition stocks! It’s a trade off between increased vulnerability and combat power!

    4. Err, aren’t they using the T90? A tank already 6 years old?

      Given that the MoD is so fanatically concerned with emissions over combat power and writes contracts with a degree of incompetence last seen demonstrated by Wily E Coyote we have nothing to speak about either.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0O144KhIGk

  15. Good morning .
    Sunny morning here ..
    What about this then?

    Wool I never! Now Baa, Baa, Black Sheep goes woke as nursery rhymes are altered to reflect kinder attitude to animals
    Nursery rhymes have been changed to reflect kinder attitudes towards animals
    Little Miss Muffet is vegan, and parts of Three Blind Mice has been edited down
    In This Little Piggy the mention of ‘roast beef’ also becomes ‘roast beets’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10807585/Now-Baa-Baa-Black-Sheep-goes-woke-nursery-rhymes-altered-reflect-kinder-attitude-animals.html

    1. The rewritten rhymes, which are featured on the Peta website, are part of a trend of woke children’s literature, which includes gender-swap fairytales.

      Well they certainly get that right.

    2. The world has gone insane. The point of black sheep is to point out the difference in the herd and a danger – as is true in real life!

    3. Yes, it is all going wrong. I’ve mentioned before that folk tales, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales are educational and intended to warn children and young people of the dangers that they may encounter in life. They also show how danger and difficulty may be addressed, with good manners, courage, patience, determination, and action where required. All that has been lost in rewrites, bowdlerising, amending, softening, and turning things into sweet cartoons.

    1. Gove seems now to be seriously mentally ill due presumably to Chilean Marching Powder.

  17. A botched coup: the desperate Cato Street conspiracy. 12 May 2022.

    However deluded, disorganised, hungry, impetuous, mentally ill or murderously violent the various Cato Street conspirators might have been, Gatrell’s final assessment is that they were ultimately undone by a political system which promoted aristocratic men who had little feeling for the poverty of the most vulnerable members of the society they governed. If the radicals were cynically manipulated by the Regency regime, that regime was profoundly insecure and frightened of a class of people it didn’t much care to understand.

    Sounds familiar somehow!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-botched-coup-the-desperate-cato-street-conspiracy

  18. A superb officer and a fine record of service to his country…

    Colonel Richard Sidwell, Royal Marine who warned of a Falkland invasion five years before it happened – obituary

    Visiting an Argentine marine battalion at La Plata he asked which unit was going to invade the Falklands. ‘This battalion’, came the reply

    ByTelegraph Obituaries
    11 May 2022 • 2:40pm

    Colonel Richard “Dick” Sidwell, who has died aged 93, was the last surviving Royal Marines Gunnery Officer and was Mentioned in Despatches during the Konfrontasi in Borneo, but his warning of a Falkland Islands invasion went unheeded.

    In mid-July 1977 Sidwell was Assistant Adjutant General on the staff of the Commandant General Royal Marines when he was tasked to inspect the parlous conditions endured by the resident Marines detachment in the Falklands.

    Flights at the time were only possible fortnightly by courtesy of the Argentine air force, and while Sidwell waited in Buenos Aires, he called on the commanding general of the Argentine marines, whom he had met in London a few months earlier, and asked if he could visit one of his units.

    The Argentine general agreed immediately and Sidwell spent the next day with the 3rd Marine Infantry Battalion, whose commanding officer had been naval attaché in London, at their base at La Plata.

    He was made welcome and shown the marines, mainly conscripts, under training, and he inspected the Argentines’ tracked amphibious vehicles.

    Then, over an asado, or barbecue lunch, Sidwell asked which unit was going to invade the Falklands. “This battalion!” was the reply. Then, with maps and charts vying for table space with beer bottles, detailed plans were discussed, including using the amphibious vehicles to cross the kelp [seaweed] thought to lie offshore.

    On return to the UK, Sidwell’s comments on improving the Royal Marines’ Falklands accommodation – re-arming them and changing their role from a neglected stay-behind force to a “tripwire” capable of delaying an invasion for up to three weeks – were accompanied by a comprehensive intelligence report about what he had learnt directly from the Argentines.

    Five years later, with the Argentine invasion underway, Sidwell, now retired, received an urgent phone call from the Ministry of Defence, where someone remembered his secret report, but could not find it: did Sidwell have a copy?

    Sidwell replied that he was not in the habit of keeping top secret documents under his mattress. Among many intelligence failures, his warning had gone unheeded.

    Richard Charles Sidwell was born on September 8 1928 at Clifton, Bristol, where his father was a bank clerk, and educated at Clifton College at its wartime home in Bude.

    Sidwell rose to be head of house and won a place to read languages at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, but enjoyed his National Service in the Royal Marines so much that he decided to become a regular marine.

    As acting corporal and as an upper yardman, Sidwell joined HMS Hawke at Exbury in 1949. Four years later as a second lieutenant he came top of his batch and won the sword of honour. He specialised in gunnery, attending the long naval gunnery course at HMS Excellent, Portsmouth, followed by courses on the 25-pounder and 75mm guns at the school of artillery, Larkhill.

    In 1955 Sidwell was appointed to the cruiser Gambia, flagship of the East Indies fleet. Appointments at sea in ships with Royal Marines detachments and in training followed. He saw infantry service in Aden as a troop commander with 45 Commando in 1960.

    He returned to Aden after a refresher course at Larkhill, as trials officer for the Italian 105mm pack howitzer: the four-month-long trials were successful, and the gun was adopted by 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery.

    In 1961 he attended the RAF Staff College at Andover, which was followed by two years at the Depot, Royal Marines Deal.

    During the Konfrontasi in 1964 Sidwell joined 40 Commando, first as adjutant and then as a rifle company commander, and the following year he was Mentioned in Despatches for his distinguished service during operations in East and West Malaysia, particularly for patrols behind enemy lines.

    Promoted major in 1966, Sidwell held a number of important staff positions, and further promotion to lieutenant-colonel in 1971 saw him become commanding officer of the Amphibious Training Unit, Poole, and in 1974 commander of the Commando Logistic Regiment at Plymouth.

    After attending the Senior Officers’ War Course in 1976 he joined the staff of the Commandant General Royal Marines and he was appointed OBE the same year.

    He retired from uniformed service in 1980 to become bursar for nine years of Pipers Corner School for girls, in Buckinghamshire. Moving to east Devon, he was persuaded to delay retirement for two years to be bursar of Sidmouth International School.

    Finally in retirement, he took up wood-turning and was on the register of the Worshipful Company of Turners, his love of wood kindled by his years in the Borneo jungle.

    Sidwell was among the best of officers, possessed of a powerful sense of duty and care for others. In later life he devoted much time and energy to helping his local community, and to Royal Marines charities.

    He married, in 1956, Rosemary Shallow, who survives him with their daughter; a son died of illness in 1977 while senior sub-lieutenant at Britannia Royal Naval College.

    Colonel Richard Sidwell, born September 8 1928, died 15 April 2022

    A BTL post:

    Peter Benson13 HRS AGO

    “A life well lived from beginning to end. How much we need such men, and women, today.”

    Hear, hear!

  19. The UK’s worst Japanese knotweed hotspots revealed
    Is the invasive species in your back garden? We map the areas most at risk from plant that costs the UK economy over £40million a year

    Nic Seal, managing director of Environet, an invasive plant removal company, said rapid urbanisation and a defeatist attitude to the species were to blame for its increased prevalence in the north-west and Wales.

    He said the plant had become such a scourge in the area that many believed it was too prevalent to begin to combat.

    Urbanisation helps spread species
    Increases in urbanisation have also seen more soil being moved from one site to another, taking the plant — which can regrow from a lone, finger-sized piece of root — to new areas which it then takes over.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/11/uks-worst-japanese-knotweed-hotspots-revealed/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr
    Anthony Bargain
    8 HRS AGO
    I think we know how this ends up. Although nobody wanted it, the foreign invasion was tolerated. But then the invading force reproduced so rapidly that it squeezed out the indigenous population. What remained was forced to flourish only in a few remote enclaves. The foreign invaders were now everywhere; totally in control. EDITED

    🙄🙄😏🤐

    1. “Nic Seal, managing director of Environet, an invasive plant removal company…”

      No self-interest there then!

  20. The UK’s worst Japanese knotweed hotspots revealed
    Is the invasive species in your back garden? We map the areas most at risk from plant that costs the UK economy over £40million a year

    Nic Seal, managing director of Environet, an invasive plant removal company, said rapid urbanisation and a defeatist attitude to the species were to blame for its increased prevalence in the north-west and Wales.

    He said the plant had become such a scourge in the area that many believed it was too prevalent to begin to combat.

    Urbanisation helps spread species
    Increases in urbanisation have also seen more soil being moved from one site to another, taking the plant — which can regrow from a lone, finger-sized piece of root — to new areas which it then takes over.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/11/uks-worst-japanese-knotweed-hotspots-revealed/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr
    Anthony Bargain
    8 HRS AGO
    I think we know how this ends up. Although nobody wanted it, the foreign invasion was tolerated. But then the invading force reproduced so rapidly that it squeezed out the indigenous population. What remained was forced to flourish only in a few remote enclaves. The foreign invaders were now everywhere; totally in control. EDITED

    🙄🙄😏🤐

  21. Time to stir up that flagging blood pressure! From today’s DT…further evidence that the BBC is hopelessly out of touch, and that we should put it out of our misery asap:

    BBC faces backlash as staff handed largest salary rise in a decade while over-75s pay for licences

    Broadcaster criticised for finding more cash for staff but not passing on savings to licence fee payers

    By Craig Simpson11 May 2022 • 9:20pm

    The BBC has been accused of not passing on savings to licence fee payers, as it awards staff the largest pay rise in a decade.

    Employees across the corporation will enjoy the largest salary boost in 10 years, with bosses unveiling plans for the majority of staff to receive a 4.24 per cent pay rise in August, which will then be supplemented by a further one per cent increase.

    The BBC is facing criticism for managing to find funds for a pay rise despite recently scrapping concessions for over-75s over budgetary concerns, with critics questioning how the broadcaster is spending cash raised by the £159 licence fee.

    The BBC said the pay deal for its rank and file employees is a “fair deal to licence fee payers and to staff”, and was made possible by cutting its staff numbers by 1,200 last year. However, concerns have been raised that recent savings made by the slimmed-down corporation are not being passed on to the public.

    ‘No cost of living crisis at the BBC’

    MPs suggested on Wednesday that funding should be focussed on local news services and licence fee concessions for those in need, with Andrew Bridgen, the Tory MP, saying the pay rise “shows there is clearly no cost of living crisis at the BBC”.

    Dennis Reed, the director of the Silver Voices group which campaigned to retain the free TV licence for over-75s, said that “the BBC seems to have no problem finding money for themselves”, but not for pensioners.

    He added: “They say they have made savings but it doesn’t look like these are being passed on to us.

    “The spare millions that seem to be blowing around the BBC aren’t going to help the over 75s. If there was money to spend at the BBC, surely it could have been better spent helping pensioners pay for their TV licence?”

    Sir John Hayes, the Tory MP, has suggested that the funds going on the BBC’s staffing costs – calculated in 2021 to be £1.4 billion – could be better spent broadening out “licence fee concessions for those in need”, beyond those on pension credit.

    His Conservative colleague Ben Bradley has also raised concerns that funding is not being directed to local BBC services. “It’s frustrating that they are cutting regional news axing staff in one of the most popular and helpful places to get access to news, and at the same time manage to find money where they want to,” he said.

    The pay rise comes amid debates over the future of the licence fee, which Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary, has previously suggested is not guaranteed. However, the BBC has made clear that its wage bill is paid for by both the licence fee and its lucrative commercial wing, BBC Studios.

    The new pay rise is the first since wages were frozen in 2020 and falls below inflation and the private sector average.

    Pay for public sector workers increased by 1.9 per cent in the year to February, according to the ONS. The broadcaster’s wage increase is closer to the private sector where pay rose by 6.2 per cent in the same period.

    The increase will not apply to senior leaders, or figures like Gary Lineker who have lucrative deals with the BBC but are not staff.

    It is understood the increase for “rank and file” employees has only been made possible by savings made by the corporation under Tim Davie, the director general, who has aimed to create a more streamlined BBC.

    Savings have been made by trimming down staff numbers, but insiders have suggested that the BBC needs competitive wages in order to compete with rivals.

    ‘The BBC is smaller but we need to attract world-class talent’

    Mr Davie has also argued that some savings should be used on wages which can attract and retain employees.

    He said: “The BBC is the home of creative excellence and world-beating impartial journalism. We want our staff to thrive, produce their best work and feel valued for their output.

    “The BBC is smaller but we also need to attract and retain world-class talent, within a reformed, modern and efficient organisation that provides great value to audiences.”

    News of the wage increase – which was negotiated by the broadcasting union Bectu and still needs to be voted for by BBC staff – comes after the National Audit Office (NAO) raised concerns about the BBC continuing to waste money, and suggested there was room for further savings.

    Gareth Davies, the NAO’s comptroller and auditor general, this week told a House of Lords committee: “It is very unlikely that an organisation the size of the BBC has run out of opportunities to make productivity gains.”

    * * *

    The BTL posters are not impressed!

    Stephen Lambert9 HRS AGO

    For some reason, the BBC collectively seems think that it has a divine right to be funded by the British public. Those days of slavish loyalty to the Beeb have passed – largely due to its arrogant disregard for those who pay for it.

    Roger Walker9 HRS AGO

    It’s British delusion time again folks. Tim Davie says “the BBC is the home of world-beating impartial journalism.” Like the NHS is the ‘ envy of the world ‘ ?

    Martin Noon10 HRS AGO

    The BBC… continually shoving two fat fingers up at those who forcibly fund it.

    Solution: make it subscription only. See who queues up to be indoctrinated by their woke output and left leaning news.

    Me? No thanks.

    Ian McGregor3 HRS AGO

    The DBC (Diversity Broadcasting Cabal) represents itself, producing indigestible left wing content (Doctor Who anyone) that over represents minorities, and denigrates the indigenous population. The only thing world class about the DBC is it’s self entitlement. It believes its “Diversity” gives it the moral high ground and obviates all criticism

    I mean what do you do when the smug face and sneering tones of Gary Lineker appear in front of you, or the grating nasal whine of Naga Munchetty, like nails scraping down a blackboard, other than reach for the remote?

    1. Private sector pay rose 6% this year, did it? My arse it did. The management team of my company met with their employees and said ‘this is what we made. This is what we can offer.’ It was barely 2%. A bad year, yes, but financial services stayed high but with covid installations dropped off as offices closed. We did more home installs, though and VPN services spiked so things evened out.

      Even by closing the office and ending the lease to work remotely permanently, we had other costs in additional lines solely for business (and the utterly disgusting lies over ‘full fibre’/’fibre plus’ and other tripe when it’s blatantly copper is insulting. Home energy costs have increased as equipment was moved locally – a full rack of kit had to be shifted.

      Our biggest cost is tax. Always has been, always will be. Cut taxes.

    2. Worth reminding ourselves that when the BBC were given the right to raise the licence fee, plus a package of other advantages, they agree to fund free TV licences for the over 75s as their part of the package in what the then DG described as :”a good deal for the BBC”. Since they unilaterally reneged on that agreement why has the government not taken back their side? [Rhetorical, I know why!]

      1. Whittingdale should not have allowed them to get away with that. Spineless whimp.

    3. “It’s frustrating that they are cutting regional news axing staff in one of the most popular and helpful places to get access to news….”
      Two words to scupper that one: Look East.

  22. Pierre Matheron, mining engineer who led a vast workforce in boring the Channel Tunnel from the French side – obituary
    Until breakthrough, the British and French operations were entirely separate, and this was reflected in very different working environments

    Pierre Matheron, who has died aged 94, headed the team of 4,100 workers who between 1986 and 1994 excavated and fitted out the French end of the Channel Tunnel.

    A mining engineer who came to Europe’s largest construction site having delivered the first terminal at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport and managed major projects in Egypt and Iran, Matheron saw the tunnel through to completion with paternal concern for his workers and a certain panache.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2022/05/10/pierre-matheron-mining-engineer-led-vast-workforce-boring-channel/

    Can I ask a silly question ..

    What did they do with the soil from the tunnel … did they dump it in the Channel?

    1. Good morning.

      They dug another tunnel and put it in that……………

      Not really. :@)

      After much discussion, the British decided to
      dump their portion of the spoil into the sea. However, so as not to
      pollute the English Channel with chalk sediment, a gigantic seawall made
      of sheet metal and concrete had to be built to keep the chalk debris
      contained. Since the chunks of chalk was piled higher than sea level,
      the resulting land that was created totaled about 73 acres and was
      eventually called Samphire Hoe. Samphire Hoe was seeded with wildflowers
      and is now a recreation site.

      http://history1900s.about.com/od/1990s/a/Channel-Tunnel-Facts.htm

  23. Why have aliens never visited Earth? Scientists have a disturbing answer

    The new hypothesis suggests that, as space-faring civilizations grow in scale and technological development, they eventually reach a crisis point where innovation no longer keeps up with the demand for energy. What comes next is collapse. The only alternative path is to reject a model of “unyielding growth” in favor of maintaining equilibrium, but at the cost of a civilization’s ability to expand across the stars, the researchers said.

    That’ll be next week then?

    https://www.livescience.com/alien-civilizations-doomed-to-collapse

    1. A civilisation that regresses to go backward from a high functioning society to, well, ours is one politicised and incompetent, bound to collapse into barbarism and replace the political and economic system with one better suited to what the people need.

      However, to reach a point of improvement we will first face one of incredible conflict and division.

      A high functioning, expanding functioning economy driven by the capable and motivated – that a space faring one must be – would look on us and see their own miserable history and turn up only once the global conflict inevitable by socialists has resolved itself.

    2. Haven’t the researchers heard of Element 115, Moscovium (originally ununpentium), that powers UFOs via its anti-gravity effect?😎

    3. After my visit to the Roman Baths, (The baths being 15 feet below current ground level – where did all that extra ground come from??) I couldn’t help wondering about the departure of the Romans taking with them their accumulated knowledge of building, engineering and plumbing skills. Did those folk who remained decide to ‘Go Green’ and follow a ‘Woke’ agenda for the next 4-500 years until the chaps in the timber dinghies arrived and caused a bit of a stir and a rethink?

      1. The Teutons were into worshipping trees and some pretty gruesome deities.
        Apparently anyone who damaged a tree was tied to it and their intestines drawn out and wrapped round them and the trunk.
        (Ponders on HS2 and the destruction of ancient woodland.)

  24. The couples who want to have a baby without having sex
    The nation is becoming increasingly starved of physical intimacy but, for many trying to start a family, that’s not something to worry about.

    This week, experts warned that modern couples are often too distracted or time-poor to have the amount of sex necessary to conceive naturally. Many, they added, end up having IVF not because they are infertile, but because they are time-poor.

    “People don’t make the time because they are too busy and too tired – they have a poor work-life balance and sex starts to seem like another chore,” says Charles Kingsland, of clinic group Care Fertility. “There is no doubt that some people are opting for IVF simply because sex isn’t something they have time to do.”

    “Modern life has taken the joy out of it and there are too many other things like emails and work competing for our attention,” notes Prof Allan Pacey at the University of Sheffield. “Couples that I see now have very different expectations of what a healthy sex life is.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/parenting/couples-want-have-baby-without-having-sex/

    Comment

    Banana Bus
    9 MIN AGO
    If you don’t have enough time and energy for sex, how could you possibly think having a baby is a good idea?

    2. Doesn’t IVF involve time consuming stuff like multiple appointments and feeling like shiite?

      1. During a night of passionate love making from a couple of German newlyweds, a group of sperm travel, all with the hope to be the one to fertilize the egg. A pair of sperm find themselves in a heated argument:

        “I vill be the one who gets there first, after all, I am from the left testicle, we are known for our speed!” gloated the one sperm.

        “Nein! It vill be I! I hail from the right testicle – known for its efficiency!” yelled the other.

        “Well we lefties are known for our cunning, I will definitely out maneuver you!”

        “The right vill be VICTORIOUS!” “Nein! the left vill be TRIUMPHANT!!!” “LEFT!” “RIGHT!” “LEFT!!!!!” “RIIIIGGGHHHTT!!!”

        Finally fed up from the constant bickering, a sperm from the front of the load yells

        “OH VAS DEFERENS DOES IT MAKE?!”

        1. Two spermatozoa were swimming like mad inside a woman’s body. On turned to the other and said, “Bugger me, I’m knackered. How much further do we have to swim?”

          The other sperm replied, “Oh, a bloody long way yet: we’ve only just passed the tonsils!”

        1. Good sex should never be a chore. It should be the height of ecstasy for both parties.

    3. I suppose all those shirking from home snivel serpents are now breeding like rabbits.

      ‘Morning, Belle.

      1. Irish Birth Control
        Mrs. Donovan was walking down O’Connell Street in Dublin when she met up with Father Flaherty.

        The Father said, ‘Top o’ the mornin’ To ye! Aren’t ye Mrs. Donovan? And didn’t I marry ye and yer Hoosband two years ago?’

        She replied, ‘Aye, that ye did, Father.’

        The Father asked, ‘And be there any wee little ones yet?’

        She replied, ‘No, not yet, Father.’

        The Father said, ‘Well now, I’m going to Rome next week And I’ll light a fertility candle for ye and yer hoosband.’

        She replied, ‘Oh, thank ye, Father…’ they then parted ways..

        Some years later they met again. The Father asked, ‘Well now, Mrs. Donovan, how are ye these days?’ She replied, ‘Oh, very well, Father!’ The Father asked, ‘And tell me ,have ye any wee ones yet?’

        She replied, ‘Oh yes, Father! Two sets of twins and six singles,ten in all!’

        The Father said, ‘That’s wonderful! And how is yer loving hoosband doing?’

        She replied, ‘E’s gone to Rome to blow out yer f####in’ candle.’

        1. The lack of sufficient thinking power to time-manage efficiently. I find that those with “no time” to do things are squandering that time doing vacuous things.

  26. 352632+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Thursday 12 May: Patients need to wean themselves off the illusion that the NHS is free
    I for one don’t believe the indigenous ever thought that, but to the potential
    patient / soldier illegal it most certainly is.

    How many millions have signed on at
    surgeries ?

    1. I remember going into A&E when I’d torn my knee. A woman was opposite who didn’t speak a word of English. She’d lived here for over 2 years. Utterly welfare dependent, no job, no language, had never bothered to learn. Another bloke was shouting in Polish with a cut on his head. Security sat with him.

      Another Brazillian – judging by how he had died his hair and the tattoos on his arm – pootled in a wheel chair – again, not a word of English.

      The nurses spent a lot of time moving paper about and entering information on to computers. I was there for over 6 hours and seen for about 6 minutes.

      It was infuriating to see how our country is used as a doss house.

      1. The only time I’ve been to A&E in recent years was when I whisked OH there at New Year 2021. There were a dozen or so people waiting in the waiting room, but as soon as I checked him in we were taken to a cubicle and he was seen and dealt with straightaway. We were there all night and the staff were very attentive.

      2. 352632+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,

        It surely is because the electorate majority want it that way ?

        1. Unfortunately, ogga, they don’t make that connection between voting and consequences. Their thought processes do not stretch that far.

    1. And of course the bid will be accepted, anything to poke and provoke the Russian bear.

    2. When I read that, my heart sank. It’s just what we need – not – to calm a situation brought about by NATO besieging Russia.

    1. I jumped ship last night. Just left £100 across 5 crypto. Still made a couple of K though. Suckers !

      1. Phizzee, all you have to do is pull your crypto off Coinbase into a private wallet. As long as it’s in a Coinbase wallet, it doesn’t really belong to you.

        This week’s events were just stress testing on the (young, immature) crypto system, which weeded out TerraLuna due to its weak algorithm.
        This came to pass:
        https://twitter.com/ggg_crypto/status/1524336527781814278
        Someone actually did this attack, and probably made a fortune out of it. They pulled the price of Bitcoin down as part of it, in order to crash TerraLuna, which was backed by Bitcoin.
        Other factor is that cryptos are closely tied to the stock market, which is also falling. The Americans are pushing the dollar as high as possible at the moment, which is naturally sucking money out of cryptos.
        Terra Luna and TerraUSD are history, and the sharks are circling around any others with weak algorithms, or dishonest management at the moment, but for Bitcoin and a few others, it’s a buying opportunity I think.

        1. I’m with Kraken Bitcoin. As it was rising i was creaming off a couple hundred £ at a time. As it started to sink i grabbed half of what was left. Still came out in front. If it bounces up again i will apply the same tactic.

          1. Looks like Tether is going to bite the dust next…it is said that they lied about having enough dollars to back their stablecoin.

  30. Work is not a place, say senior civil servants. [Daily Telegraph, May 12].

    WORK should no longer be considered a “place”, senior civil servants have declared, in open revolt against the Government’s “condescending” drive to get employees back to the office.

    Hundreds of senior and middle-ranking mandarins in seven government departments have backed moving to permanent flexible working arrangements in multiple motions tabled at the FDA civil service union’s annual delegate conference in London today.

    In the conference’s published agenda, leaked to The Daily Telegraph, union chiefs will be urged to “resist indiscriminate demands” from ministers for civil servants to return to “office-based working” and allow workers to base themselves at home or in cafes in a drive for “location-neutral working”.

    Documents state officials feel “pressured” to return to Whitehall without a “clear understanding” of how such a move will benefit them, and angry at the “trashing” of the “civil service brand”.

    A government source said ministers were seeing “significant increases” in Whitehall office attendance.

    A government spokesman said: “There is total agreement across government on there being clear benefits from face-to-face working. We know this is particularly important for the … development of new staff.”

    SIR — If work is no longer considered to be a “place”, according to not-fit-for-purpose senior civil servants (report, May 12), then this brave new concept could be extended nationwide.

    Hospitals could be “no longer a place” for doctors, nurses and surgeons. Schools could be deemed the same for teachers, as could the roads and motorways for food-and-necessities delivery drivers.

    Factories could be “no longer a place” for the manufacture of essential goods.

    The streets could be “no longer a place” for police officers, builders and street cleaners. Burning buildings could be “no longer a place” for fire brigades. Courts could be “no longer a place” for judges and barristers.

    Shops could be “no longer a place” for shop assistants. And parliament could be “no longer a place” for politicians. Aircraft will be “no longer a place” for pilots, and ships will be “no longer a place” for sailors.

    Finally, when ambulance staff declare that anywhere outside the ambulance station is “no longer a place” then things will really start to get interesting.

    A Grizzly B.

    1. “Condescending” to require them to come to work?
      Who do they think they are?

      1. They are Snivel Serpents. They could do with the short, sharp, shock of reality.

        I favour the use of the whip.

        1. They are the 1970s trades unions of our time, and we need a Margaret Thatcher to take them on.

      1. Ah yes. The union activists on the wards.
        Actual nursing activity seemed beyond them.

    3. Clearly, a surgeon cannot work from home. A car cannot be manufactured outside of a factory. Some work, however, can be done from home. Documentation, planning, [insert everything I do all day, every day].

      This nonsensical argument holds no water against reality. A designer can design whether they are in the office or at home. My accountant works from home. Lots of solicitors are as well.

      The luddites need to move on. Work is now mobile and not even geographic. Heck, my brother in law is working with Taiwanese CPU manufacturers on their microcode.

      1. As I’ve said many times, sitting on your arse, at a “desk”, in a centrally-heated and air-conditioned “office” (or at home), does not constitute work.

        It is merely whiling away time.

      2. As I’ve said many times, sitting on your arse, at a “desk”, in a centrally-heated and air-conditioned “office” (or at home), does not constitute work.

        It is merely whiling away time.

    4. Morning, Grizz.
      Some of that has already happened.
      Many teachers seem reluctant to actually attend school. Ditto university staff. Police?

      1. Thanks, Maggie. I sent it before I posted it on here.

        It will not get published, though.

  31. Safe and effective?

    Pfizer documentation not holding up at all well under scrutiny by the experts co-ordinated by Naomi Wolf (understatement), statistics from a large pharmacy chain in the USA and from Portugal.

    As of a few days ago Javid continues to repeat his mantra but on the plus side I haven’t heard the jab adverts on radio for some time.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2a99fc01eddac58bfd0600d990e3349f48abd79d612981cf18ba22fa43512339.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ca4baa3e9948ba93e8f5f4e7e362b8746dbc920da4c62f981c2c56f7a3ed7a38.png

    1. The jab ads seem to have been replaced by ads about heart attacks…fancy that.

        1. Apparently heart attacks await around every corner if you don’t look after your heart.

          1. I look very carefully after the ⅔ of a heart I have left but, at times when I feel suicidal, I know, by experience, that to stop taking Warfarin for 4 or 5 days will bring on a Myocardial Infarcation (MCI) and cause blood-clots to transverse the heart’s systems leading to early death.

          2. I hope you don’t feel that way too often. Too many conservatives have a melancholy side; I suppose it is linked to being realistic and seeing the world as it really is.

      1. They will all move out to Republican areas now I expect, so that they can ruin those too.

  33. Morning all. Patients need to wean themselves off the illusion that the NHS is free. I take it this is a headline from a part of the DT today. I don’t suppose they have covered the fact that any one and I mean everyone who walks into a GP Practice is legally entitled to register as a patient and receive treatment. There is no mention of cost and there is no limit to the treatment. But on the other hand if a Long term UK resident has worked all their lives and been paying into the system and needs help health wise, it seems the newcomers are being given priority treatment. Well they must be as the GP’s are always so busy and it’s impossible to get an appointment.
    I think we all know where the NHS medical treatment is heading, the same way as all the NHS dental practices have gone and arrived at.

    1. Sounds like a great model for funding the BBC….. pay per minutes watched. It would certainly provide concrete evidence of the degree of love for the beeb and its news you can trust…..

      1. …and for the mileage clocked up by EVs in lieu of Petrol/Diesel tax.

        EV drivers, don’t think you’re driving free!

      1. I would pay for anyone – including a kame-kazi pilot to take the vicious little twat out.

    3. He’s an aggressive anti British horrible little git who needs wiping out.

  37. Daughter got her new passport today. I’m pleased to note that it really is the right colour: so dark a blue that you think it’s black. It includes three photos of her, one on what looks to me like a proto-ID card.

  38. Whilst researching cancer trends I found this.

    “The rate of new cases in 2015
    showed that men develop lung cancer more often than women (57.8 and 45.9
    per 100,000, respectively). The rate of new lung cancer cases
    (incidence) over the past 42 years has dropped 36 percent for men while
    it has risen 84 percent for women.”
    I could not find the reason why. ????

    1. I can only assume a lot of men stoped smoking whilst a lot more women started to smoke?

        1. Still do – especially young French girls. I was shocked to see how many did.

    1. Thanks Rik xxx
      I used to look back and remember all those happy days…..now I think HTF did we get here?
      Plum.
      Aging Hippie……..Peace and Love Brother.

      1. Careful manipulation of those (like us) who thought the world was going in a better directon.

  44. What the CLUCK is going on, NoTTlers…?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2810cd82b2d8cf721c66711d27162a39876e458e82b9a361fd88086a4483c96d.jpg

    Industrial unit at the heart of UK’s great chicken shortage: Salmonella outbreak at one of Britain’s biggest suppliers as Leon, Pret, Aldi and Sainsbury’s are STRIPPED of products containing the meat amid food poisoning fears…

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10808613/Industrial-unit-heart-UKs-great-chicken-sandwich-shortage.html#comments

    3. Perhaps this is just the beginning of the planned end it’s been happening in the US for some time.
      I can only copy and paste this email i had a a week ago i thought it was BS but you never know.
      Perhaps we should start to worry.

      ONE DAY, people will wake up to the fact that the “ They ” are wilfully destroying or taking :-

      our food
      our food supplies
      our ability to afford things we take for granted
      our fuel supplies
      our electricity supplies (in time)
      our gas supplies (in time)
      our water supplies (in time)
      our savings
      our health
      our health resources (NHS, doctor surgeries, ambulances)
      our medicines (Codex Alimentarius)
      our KNOWN cancer cures (since the 1930’s)
      our ability to choose for ourselves
      our freedom to travel
      our freedom to communicate
      our free speech
      taking our property
      infecting us with viral illness
      our lives

      (at one time all these were never in doubt)

      ONE DAY it will dawn on people

      THAT WE ARE BEING SYSTEMATICALLY KILLED OFF
      WHEN will people get ANGRY ? ?

      From:
      Sent: 06 May 2022 16:13
      Subject: Destruction of FOOD FARMS !!!!!!!!!

      The Destruction of Food Processing Plants across America …
      https://www.thelibertybeacon.com/the-destruction-of-food-processing…
      26/04/2022 · The ongoing Destruction of Food Processing Plants across America Open letter to FBI, NYT, WaPo. … which supplies a large portion of the western United States with potato chips, burned down.” … a massive fire at the Taylor Farms Processing Facility in Salina, California was ignited, burning down nearly 85 percent of the 225,000 square foot …

      Strange Trend of Food Processing Plant Fires Appears …
      https://timcast.com/news/strange-trend-of-food-processing-plants-fires…
      21/04/2022 · The trend has continued repeatedly through the end of 2021 and into 2022. In February, Shearer’s Food Processing Plant in Hermiston, Oregon, burned down, leaving two

    4. Mr Global is taking control of protein production.
      Nothing to see here, move along please.

      Coincidentally, similar things are happening in other countries that are reducing egg and chicken production. In parts of the US, it’s forbidden to sell chicks to private poultry owners, so no backyard eggs for you either.

    5. Minimum wage foreigners with filthy habits. After seeing what was going on in the sandwich factory i never bought a pre packed sandwich again.

          1. Thanks, this kick-started my search. I never buy via tech giants on the principle of not funding your enemies, but I followed one brand from amazon to another source.

          1. It keeps for a very long time if stored properly. You cake bake with it and make scrambled eggs.

          4. Egg production is threatened in the US as well as in parts of Europe. In parts of the US, private owners are banned from buying chicks for backyard eggs due to bird flu (make of that what you will). Egg producers in the UK had a crisis meeting this week with buyers (supermarkets, I assume) because their costs have risen (feed, oil), and we still have the bird flu crisis planned for here, of course.
            Egg powder can currently be bought much more cheaply than the price of a box of the equivalent number of eggs in the supermarket – I found a free range brand. So I’m buying a couple of packs.
            Cynics believe that Mr Global is taking over the means of producing protein, before offering us the solution – tada! bugburgers for all. Whether that is true or not, steep rises in egg prices seem inevitable.

          5. Make sure it is an airtight container preferably somewhere dark and out of the light. I take some out and tub it and then reseal the larger quantity. I still use fresh eggs for poached, boiled and fried.

          6. The packs are 800g. I was thinking of freezing the ones I’m not using. Will keep the current one in an airtight box as you suggest. I’m not sure how often we will dip into it – probably sporadically.

      2. Oh, but foreign filthy habits are just their way – that’s why a hand is cut off in muslim countries for theft. so that they have to wipe their poo and eat with the same hand…Kulchral diversity, dontcha know? We should embrace it…

    7. BSE outbreak next Wednesday: Phizzee (ooops typo) sells us vaccine
      Great Reset denies all

  45. ‘Work is no longer a place’: Civil servants revolt against back-to-office directive

    Hundreds of senior and middle-ranking mandarins across government departments back motions to continue flexible working”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/11/work-no-longer-place-civil-servants-openly-revolt-against-office/?li_source=LI&li_medium=li-recommendation-widget

    BTL shows utter fury at these self serving planks,it appears they feel “Civil Masters” would be a better term………

    “These people really are the new pound shop Putins. They

    are unelected, have careers for life, have golden index linked pensions

    and are unsackable by normal employment laws. No wonder they just stick

    two fingers up at the politicians. They are just like the unelected EU

    Mandarins (whom they worship)”

    “It says officials feel “pressurised” to return to
    Whitehall “without a clear understanding of what benefit this will bring
    to them, their colleagues or to their employer”.

    Obviously not bothered about the benefits returning to
    the office might bring their actual customers and paymasters, the great
    tax paying British public.”

    1. Bring back Reagan, he knew how to treat flight controllers and it sounds like civil servants need a similar ultimatum.

    2. How about sacking those that behave in a way that would be sackable in any private enterprise?

  46. Dear NoTTLers,
    I have just received an email fro Make Votes Matter, under the Heading “Democracy loves Diversity”

    In our Democracy Loves Diversity webinar, we will highlight how parliaments elected by PR look more like the people they represent. Legislatures elected under proportional systems have a better gender balance, are more ethnically diverse, and are younger, than their equivalents under First Past the Post. Yes, look at Tower Hamlets or any predominantly muslim area…

    Of course it features diverse people (including Femi Oluwole, Shaista Assiz and others). My immediate reply to them was:

    “I’m sorry but I don’t agree that Democracy necessarily loves diversity any more (although it did its best) – and certainly not that diversity loves democracy (unless it’s weighted in their favour), if some of your speakers and others are anything to go by.

    You are now using too broad a brush, so I am now out. Stick to the principle of PR, not to who can or should be enfranchised, and on what basis.”

    Do you think I went too far? Perhaps I am just not in a very diverse mood today.

    1. Not in the least, my dear Dukke.

      We are all hard-wired to look after ourselves, our family, our tribe, our race and our nation. This came about through a combination of nature, nurture and heredity. We are what we are. For the same reason, those of other tribes, races and nations look after their own first and foremost. We cannot deny nature for malign and spurious political ends.

      1. I had this conversation yesterday evening with a friend who’s mixed race – Indian father, French mother. He shrugged and said, “Poeple are tribal, that’s just how it is”.

        1. And all over here, no doubt? Not in France or India. So he would shrug, though, wouldn’t he?

      1. Thank you – I sent it off in rush, as I was so angry with those smug – obviously not English, Scottish etc. faces looking out at me in MY bl**dy country telling ME why PR was a decent proposition for our voting system..

        1. Well done you. Unfortunately these ethnics have been allowed to expect special treatment every which way with no check. We all need to make our opinions known and heard (although I’m not sure it will make much difference). But if we don’t even bother to challenge these things then we can’t expect any change.

          It’s like yesterday. Alf and I each had an appointment at the hospital (miracle of miracles, within 15 minutes of each other!) and when we entered there was the “guard” telling us what to do and asking us where is your mask. Notices telling everyone to wear a face nappy. Alf went in first and said I’m exempt. Guard said nothing. Me next. Same question. I said I’m exempt too. He said “You should wear a lanyard”. ( Notice not said to Alf but then he is 6ft 6in and a bloke). I just said I believe I am not required to wear one and was waved through. The scamdemic has spawned many little Hitlers.

          The audiologist did not mention me not wearing a face nappy although she had one on. I am cross with myself for not telling her to remove hers if she wished.

          Alf saw his consultant, who was masked, but removed it halfway through the consultation.

          1. Thank you – I know how you feel. I had a mammogram in one of those trailer things that you go to once every couple of years or so. I was told to put a nappy on – I said they make no difference – the radiographer or whatever she was says “oh but they do – I know, I’ve had covid”. What kind of logic is that? No doubt her firm belief that she would have had it even worse if she had not worn a mask. The stupidity of people makes me weep.

    3. Only who have paid, or still pay tax and NI to vote
      No postal voting, exceptional cases only

      Proof of identity required at polling booth
      Immigrants must be able to speak English, translators not allowed.
      Five year immigrant residency qualification

      1. That’s just for starters – anyone who is so brainwashd or mentally deficient that they could be included here as “spritually influenced” should NEVER be allowed the vote.

        Rahman and his party were found, James Bloodworth summarises, “to have engaged in postal vote fraud, given false statements, committed bribery and used ‘undue spiritual influence’ — illegally warning voters that it was a ‘sin’ to vote for rival candidates”.

    4. Good for you, HL. I am in that sort of mood today, also feeling very sad about everything.

      1. Thanks, my dear – it’s lovely to be somewhere where we can share frustrations etc.

  47. Hello again. We cancelled. My husband was in a right state, totally unable to cope with today. We were up at 5 as he was supposed to be there at 7.30. He simply couldn’t face it and , as it’s not life or death, we decided to reschedule. Cancelled the cab and tried to call the hospital but nobody mans the switchboards until after 8.30.
    Why oh why do they arrange appointments for early times and have no-one available to answer the phone if you can’t make it? Insane.
    We have heard from the consultant and she is OK with this and wants us to keep our appointment next week. In fact, yesterday she told him that if he wasn’t happy about this to postpone. We need some time to really think as some of the info pertaining to this is disconcerting.
    Anyway, you lucky (?) people, I shall be around to annoy y’all;-)

    1. Someone I know had a treatment postponed because their blood pressure was through the roof with the stress of it all. Hope it will all work out well for you.

      1. I was under the care of a cardiologist for ten years after being hospitalzed for a week following heart failure.
        I knew that my heart rate always shot up whilst having my blood pressure taken because on one occasion I actually monitored the change myself during one of the many procedures.
        It was only after ten years of annual followup that the cardiologist, knowing that blood pressure linearly correlated with heart rate (he told me himself), did he conclude, afer an ecg, that my bp had been erroneosly measured by not having been taken at the resting heart rate (RHR).

        In the report to my GP, of which I received a copy, he said that I had WCH – a coded message that I had White Coat Hypertension.

        I do wonder if medical professionals have known this all along and use this blood pressure phenomemon not only to persaude people with WCH into taking drugs but also scare themselves into believing the patient needs emergency care just on the basis of WCH.

        1. The person I referred to above was prescribed drugs to reduce the blood pressure, based on the assumption that any other stress could also cause dangerously raised BP.

        2. A few months ago I went to hospital and had BP tAken with my arm in my lap and the nurse continually talking. My BP was very high.
          I asked her to let me sit at rest for 5 minutes with my feet flat on the floor and said when she came back could she make sure I had something level with my biceps to rest on and that she not speak to me until she had taken the reading.
          Lo and behold my blood pressure was nearly normal. She asked how I knew that and she was shocked when I told her it’s on the NHS website.

          1. I was about to have surgery and had my blood pressure checked – it was sky-high. A few minutes later the anaesthetist came round and sat on the bed for a chat. I told him my BP was very high. He said “My dear, if I was going to have what you’re about to have, mine would be too”. So I’ve never worried about it since then. In fact, I don’t think I’ve had it checked since then. OH, on the other hand has low BP – even when he was being drained in A&E.

          2. Last time I had my BP taken at the diabetic clinic it was high for a couple of times but after I was told to stop talking (the nurse was asking me questions) it came normal

          3. My GP (back in the day when I could see one) said she was concerned my BP was low. “It’s the sort of BP I would expect of a 17 yr old,” she said. “And that is bad because …?” I asked. “I suppose you’re just very fit,” she replied!

        3. My doctor mentioned to me that a rise in blood pressure was normal on a visit to a doctor’s surgery. In Scotland every patient who visits the doctor should have their blood pressure measured. Even if the visit is for athlete’s foot. This was imposed some time ago and I think it has now been dropped.

          1. The doctor I went to in CT always took my BP at the beginning of an appointment- high- and then at the end- normal. In the US they call it white coat syndrome.

          2. Blood pressure readings are supposed to be taken twice for that very reason.
            Surgeries don’t seem to do it. I do wonder how many people are on BP tablets because of the one rushed test. Plus the fiddling of the readings; a good reading for a 25 year old is not the same as a good reading for a 75 year old. But I doubt pharmacy companies are complaining.

    2. I think that I was lucky with my heart surgery.

      I had no time to think about it, I just went straight from routine out patient procedure to “sit, stay, we are scheduling you for surgery”.

    3. Sorry to hear that Lottie. We all have to psyche ourselves up for hospital visits.

      In my view hospitals should be staffed 24/7 by receptionists, in fact, all personnel. It should not be a 9-5 institution. Others have to work shifts and it would be a way of attempting to catch up with the backlog of patients who have been ignored over the last 2 years as well as all those other who were already waiting. Some hopes!

    3. “Eurovision”? Wasn’t that an archaic television-sharing enterprise that went out with the advent of Telstar?

  49. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/12/peloton-slump-proves-love-old-normal/

    ” ‘Lockdown winners’ are the ‘reopening losers’

    The troubles of Peloton and Netflix show we crave the ‘old normal’ life

    12 May 2022 • 6:00am

    For a company that makes over-priced exercise bikes, it is unfortunate that Peloton finds itself in desperate need of resuscitation.

    Its latest heart attack includes missed revenue targets; turnover forecasts slashed; a bigger quarterly loss than anticipated; and a new chief executive who sounds like he needs a lie down, not a spin a class, after complaining that the whole charade is proving to be “intellectually challenging, emotionally draining, physically exhausting, and all-consuming”.

    The optimistic view is that Barry McCarthy’s turnaround plan – steep job cuts, scaled back manufacturing and price rises – will save the day.

    A more simple explanation is that Peloton, like so many of the supposed “lockdown winners”, will prove to be another “reopening loser”, and will never regain the dizzy heights it briefly attained when Covid was sweeping the world.

    Remember all those rash claims about how society had changed forever because people had ordered a few more takeaways, shopped online, and were watching more Netflix?

    Increasingly it looks like they were wrong. There is little evidence of a permanent change in behaviour, or at least not nearly as dramatically as many experts and commentators predicted.

    On the contrary, we have been quick to return to our previous ways, leaving a growing list of over-hyped names by the wayside.

    Peloton is simply symptomatic of a certain type of company that thrived during lockdown and has suddenly found that it is no longer in vogue.

    Take Netflix. The streaming behemoth has gone from expectations of pending world dominance to fears that it may have already peaked, in blisteringly short time.

    A share price that soared to nearly $700 at the height of lockdown now stands at four-and-a-half year lows of just $176 after the first fall in subscriber numbers in a decade, the moment that Wall Street had long dreaded. Netflix must once again compete with old-fashioned entertainment such as live events, the cinema, and dining out.”

    1. It is reading the developments in market. Pelton did well by hitting a sweetspot during lockdown but it seems no one on their board was scanning the future. I have little sympathy.

    4. Netflix was stupid. It resurrected He Man – calling it Masters of the Universe Revelation. A huge generation of adult kids wanting some escapism.

      We watched the first episode on a trial and cancelled. In fact, I stopped watching it after a few minutes.

    1. Birdie 3 again.
      Wordle 327 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
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      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. #MeeToo!
      Wordle 327 5/6

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  51. Rishi Sunak’s COP speech is coming back to haunt him. 12 May 2022.

    As inflation keeps on rising and the cost of living crisis intensifies, the perversity of investor-imposed net zero policies will become increasingly untenable. These will continue until a politician has the courage to say ‘Stop.’ What we’ve learnt this week is that politician will not be Rishi Sunak.

    By the end of this year people will be stealing food from the Supermarkets and the public finances will be in meltdown! Inflation will be 20+%; the pound will be near parity with the dollar and diesel will be rationed.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-s-cop-speech-is-coming-back-to-haunt-him

    1. Cheer us up, why don’t you, Minty!
      The US seems to be pushing the dollar very high in order to stimulate recession in the rest of the world, and reduce both demand outside the US and the price of imports (of which the US has a great deal). This apparently will reduce inflation in the USA, which is now too big to be reduced with timid little interest rate rises.
      They are tipped to start printing money again in the summer.
      They’re experts – they know best……

      1. Given the humungous volume of $$$$$ printed I can’t understand why anyone would value them. (It also says a great deal about the confidence in other currencies, £ included!)

        1. I have read another opinion that all the western countries’ currencies are just falling faster than the dollar and therefore making it look strong.
          I think the crypto and stock falls are partly due to this dollar currency war.
          I have very little faith in fiat currency any more.

      2. They’re experts – they know best……

        Afternoon BB. Sub Prime. Black Wednesday. the Wall Street Crash etc. etc.

        1. If at first you don’t succeed (in wrecking the world’s economies…) try, try, try again!

        2. I forget where I saw it, but someone said over the covid vaccine ‘We’ve had enough of listening to experts’ was derided as ‘How silly is it to not listen to experts?’

          But of course, the Treasury has no experts. It has ideologues.

      3. They’re experts – they know best……

        Afternoon BB. Sub Prime. Black Wednesday. the Wall Street Crash etc. etc.

      4. Just a thought: could the Dollars trouble be because oil and gas in the sensible parts of the world, is no longer being traded in Dollar currency?

          1. I seem to remember in about 1983/84 that the pound interbank exchange rate was about 98 cents $/£ exchange rate.

      5. One thing we all know, without shadow of doubt, is that politicians are ignorant, useless fools who know nothing.

        We also know that the Treasury, the group responsible for the chaos have the faintest clue either. heck, we’re talking about a group fiercely wedded to Keyenisan economics. The sort that died out with the Ark.

    2. Bit fo a newsflash – the warqueen filled up the tank today. Even she noticed the cost of fuel.

  52. Such excitement in the Macfarlane household! Our wonderful sweep came today for the annual clean. He’s Hungarian and has been here for 20 years, married with 2 children and is the best, cleanest and most charming sweep we’ve had in 38 years. He remembered our son-in-law who was just out of the stroke unit last year, and as I was paying him he mentioned a friends son who had died last week aged 32. I asked if he’d been vaxxed – as you do, and after a quizzical look he said he had! Cue 10 minutes ranting about Convid! He also cleans Neil Oliver’s chimneys! It was quite a joy to be able to talk normally without being looked at as a conspiracy theorist! We were giggling like kids when he left!

    1. There are sane people in this world, it’s just a case of finding them.
      Unfortunately a lot of people don’t want to put their head above the trench line.

      1. As indeed there are many kind and decent people. We often forget this in our complaints about the government and other institutions that treat us poorly. Sadly, the kind and decent get overlooked by the others.

        1. You’re absolutely right!!! it’s been a very strange and debilitating time. Especially for those who still have functional brain cells.

          1. The most pro-active and driving force of our swift group said she thought she’d aged more over the last couple of years than in the last ten. I do too. The lockdowns and cancellation of all our normal activities made me feel I couldn’t be bothered to do much. It’s still hard to get going.

          2. Me too! With all this hospital stuff, I keep reminding myself that the last time around we were both 5 years younger. The last couple of years have aged us and our health has suffered as a result. Maybe that’s the intent…

          3. I said much the same to my old man yesterday! Can’t get going, everything a bit of an effort and just seem to be waiting for something?

          4. Those still-functionally having brain cells, Anne and Andrew, keep urging me to take up arms (pitchforks, bombs) against this miserable, tyrannical government.

            If they have their way, we are ALL doomed.

    2. Sue

      We are due to have our chimney swept soon.

      Last time it was done , 2 years ago after first lock down , we had a huge blockage,, Jackdaws nest .. a 3 ft deep nest which had dislodged half way don the chimney . We spent out on a cowl for the chimney to stop the birds invading the chimney .. We first knew about the nest when a jackdaw fell down into the living room , and flew around me , pecking fluttering and screeching loudly ..

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b90f01abc92ffa3ae787dd150f356e3ccbe0b84b2d0c5fd08e6696473ce80ebf.jpg

      1. I did have a wood pigeon fall down the chimney one day! Fortunately the fire wasn’t on but the cats got a real shock as it whooshed out of the fireplace and flapped over every curtain (7) in the room, up the cream walls and shat on two windows before I managed to catch it in a dog blanket! Oh! How we laughed!

      2. Until we had a grid put on top of our chimney, regular spring occurrence was rattle … rattle … squawk …. thump …. followed by cloud of soot and shocked jackdaw.

        1. They are such determined characters aren’t they… and here there and everywhere ..

          I actually miss them squawking on the roof .. the are such busy birds … and the stuff and the sheer genius they use to make their nests is incredible… like alll birds I suppose … if we had to make a home with our nose or beaks .. where would one start?

          1. We have loads of jackdaws round here. I like them; they are cheeky and bolshie – feathered versions of Spartie.

  53. Read this:

    From: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/12/sacked-working-from-home-civil-servants-would-anyone-notice/

    “…

    In the private sector, people can work from home if they wish to, but they have to negotiate the deal with their employer. They may take a modest pay cut to reflect the savings on transport, agree to hot desking so their company can reduce its office space, submit to targets and monitoring so managers can check they are pulling their weight, and lose some perks along with some obligations.
    …”

    Yes, you negotiate, that’s fairly simple. No, if the person is doing the same work, there is no reason to cut their pay. If a business were to suggest it the answer should be ‘goodbye’. Targets and monitoring? Is this the 18th century? If you don’t know what your employees are doing, then your structures are so appalling that you’ve no idea what is going on. No, you lose nothing. You’re an employee with the same company.

    This sort of twaddle article reads as if written by a petty, small minded, poor manager. One who thinks if he can’t see the screen, the person isn’t working. Try that on and you’ll find I’ll do nothing – and you won’t have a clue.

    Now, I’m going to do some more work – from home.

    1. “No, if the person is doing the same work, there is no reason to cut their pay.” twaddle, unless they’re receiving ‘London weighting’ which will depend purely upon the time they spend within the London of their employ. Then. if they don’t turn up – no allowance is necessary.

      As an ex-conract employee, I felt very much my duty to that current employer and made damn sure that I fulfilled the requirements of that contact.

  55. That’s it for today, going to put my feet up, headphones on and play this.
    I have about 30 Vivaldi cds and once in a while, I close my eyes and pick one. This came up today, so its Shiraz and sod the world.

    https://youtu.be/CXRtnZydQrI

    1. Ah, another Vivaldi fan! Excellent- I have a lot of CDs also. In fact, maybe I’ll put one in….

      1. I have a couple of books about him and several musical scores, so yes most definitely.

        1. You should maybe hear the full series. They are not often played in completion.
          Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’ inventione or (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention) twelve concertos
          published in 1725 as Op. 8.
          Four seasons became very popular in the 1970’s and very few look for the others in this series of concertos.

    2. Listening to this now – don’t know this one but it’s beautiful. Thankyou for posting.

  56. We have just come home from taking our lovely elderly pal out for a light lunch .. he is 87 today , looks like a film star , amd as fit as a fiddle .

    We took him to Weymouth to a lovely little cafe perched on the top of Bowlease Cove a really charming cafe that serves delicious home made food , seafood treats and delicious sandwiches … the bread is freshly made .. so are the cakes and other tasty treats.. Doesn’t serve alcohol, but a choice of different teas and coffee. It is callled the ” Lookout “… beautiful views and a gentle ambiance . Views of Weymouth bay, Portland and the Dorset Coastline

    We took Ray there because he is a Dorset boy through and through … and can remember the build up to D DAY, the ships , the troops and the busyness of the place , and as he described what he saw , I wish to goodness we had recorded his observations .. He had relatives in the area , and he used to cycle with his cousins to view the activity .

    His village , miles away , also played host to American troops and the pilots who eventually flew the Horsa gliders from Tarrant Rushton to transport troops in for D Day.

    We had a happy few hours chatting , then drove him home , where he will be taken out for another meal by other much younger friends .

    https://www.love-weymouth.co.uk/things_to_do/weymouth/eat-drink/lookout-cafe/

    1. They will never ever give up until the world is a caliphate and rest assured, they make the WEF look like amateurs.

    2. It’s only a matter of time before these bastards wipe us all out. I am past the days when I will moderate my language.
      Plus I am exhausted- have been up since 5 with only a short kip meantimes. I fear for our grandchildren, I really do. Especially the girls.

      1. It is now just shoirt of 02:00 on Friday 13th May – not too auspicious but time enough to say that I’m get fed enough to stop taking any further warfarin.

    3. How utterly disgusting. These people deserve to be in prison then deported, along with every single member of their families.

    6. Scary!

      TPTB and the Meedja are ignoring a determined attack by the agents of an alien culture … it will end in blood, sweat and tears ….

    1. Another Frigin’ Five for me …
      Wordle 327 5/6

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      1. Hi sweetie .x..several NoTTlers often achieve a 3…..

        I did once! Four is average, achieved 5 twice and a 6 once….GRRR

        1. Hi Sweetie
          I’ve done it in Four 17 times
          I’ve done it in Three 9 times
          I’ve done it in Two 4 times
          ‘Not a Lot of people know that’! … x

          2. I have tried and failed to reproduce my ‘Guess Distribution’; whenever I try, it reverts to ‘Today’s Score’ ….

          3. I just take a screenshot (Google will tell you how to do this on your computer). The ‘photo’ then taken appears on your desktop. All you then need to do is drag it into a comment.

    3. And me.

      Wordle 327 4/6

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  59. That’s me gone. Feeling really odd. May join you tomorrow – depends.

    Are “notifications” working?

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain – prolly.

    3. I think that all of we NoTTLers are odd, Bill. But have a restful evening and sleep well.

    6. How odd do you feel , Bill

      What in particular is troubling you .

      https://111.nhs.uk/ Get medical help
      111 online can tell you:
      where to get help for your symptoms, if you’re not sure what to do
      how to find general health information and advice
      where to get an emergency supply of your prescribed medicine
      how to get a repeat prescription

    7. Feeling like shit, myself, Bill, I may take the day off as well to-morrow.

      Let;’s hope that sleep is the great, suppler of wellness.

    1. I think an awful lot of folk will tell them to FOAD….

      Which the Beeb will interpret as a lot of awful folk….

    2. There was some sort of questionnaire last winter – some of us told them what we thought then – nobody took any notice.

      2. Their contempt for us is so deep, that I don’t think they are capable of realising that it’s returned in spades.

    3. How about the determinedly aggressive BBC woman interviewing Rishi Sunak.

      The barracking was so constant that I couldn’t understand the points he was trying to make.

      1. You didn’t miss anything, then. Sunak has nothing worth listening to.

        I’ve heard him talk about hte cost of living issue and his every response is ‘nothing we can do, covid costs, get that back, grow the economy (where he means grow the state), doesn’t want to borrow and that he’s helping the poorest in society – which is tosh. It’s all a complete pack of lies. He can’t, and the BBC will never say ‘Why don’t you just cut taxes, especially green taxes and fuel duty?’

    4. No, the BBC is spending 50m to get the answers it wants to prove that what it’s doing is what people want.

    6. If they REALLY want to know, what we want, is a FREE, obviously IMPARTIAL reporting system with no mention of DIVERSITY.

      We are WHITE, INDIGENOUS, mainly English, people and want to keep it that may if only for our own sanity.

      Wake up BBC or die.

  61. Our house has just entered a Time Warp
    Put (next doors) TV on and Bulleye with Jim Bowen is on

  62. Are NoTTlers ready for another GATE sequence….?

    Yesterday a car crashed into Boris’s garden is this GATE-Crash?

    1. Why are they panicking? They’re the ones flying the plane into the ground!

  64. 352632+ up ticks,

    Boat Migrants Who Claim to be ‘Transgender’ Could Avoid Being Sent to Rwanda, Says Govt Docs

    Can they have this info. printed in 27 plus languages to avoid any confusion

  65. Going off grid for a few days near Kenilworth. Hope I don’t miss anything crucial!

    Here’s the view from my caravan door 😎 – or it would have been, had there been mobile reception enough to upload it. Sorry. Lovely river bend fringed with wildflowers.

          1. I wish. Though i am on a promise when Ashes comes South. Drinks and Nibbles.

    1. I will have you know I have just done the washing up, from this morning, and am slurping a glass of my Pinot.

      1. Without opening links it’s easy to skim past.
        Your more recent one is to the point.

  69. A thought…the BBC and other concerns keep bleating on about 50% female MPs needed, more women in broadcasting and etc etc.
    The other day there were 30, 000 Muslim men in a park in Birmingham, I think. All with their bums in the air. Any women? Not one in sight. Was this mentioned in any media sources? Was it hell. These people get a free ride and are a protected species.

    1. Rather the blob is utterly hypocritical. They’ll argue it is a religious issue and not important, but it really isn’t the point. There’s also the issue of their gathering in a public park. That’s illegal – why were police not telling them to clear off?

      1. Agreed, Wibbles, and Ann, 110%. Time to clear this shit off the landscape and time they recognised that they’re not wanted here.

        Do we need a ‘final solution’ or will they leave of their own volition?

        I would have no problems with an Islamic ‘Final Solution’ !

  70. Indian couple sue their son for £530,000 for failing to produce a grandchild after splashing all their savings on his lavish wedding and US pilot training
    Sajneev and Sadhana Prasad are taking their only son to court for ‘mental agony’

    Pilot Shrey Sagar lives separately from wife Shubhangi after marrying in 2016
    Despite being sent on their honeymoon in Thailand, they have no children
    Sajneev and Sadhana say they want the amount they spent raising Shrey back
    Retired mother and father spent their savings on the couple’s flashy wedding
    They are demanding the cost of raising their son – and the same sum in damages
    Sajneev said: ‘We are heartbroken that we will die without seeing [a] grandchild

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10809827/Indian-couple-sue-son-500k-failing-produce-grandchild-alleging-mental-agony.html

    2. We are heartbroken that we will die without seeing [a] grandchild….or the money.

    3. One of my volunteers in the library in GA was a lovely Indian woman but US by nationality. She was married to a British Indian man. They had two of the most beautiful little girls. Their parents kept asking when a son would arrive. What neither of the couple told the parents was that they only wanted two children and he’d had a vasectomy.
      She was super and so much fun and she gave up a lot of her time to volunteer.

      1. Our 2 sons are early fifties and late forties.. we have no daughter in laws , no grandchildren .. a huge void in our lives exists .

        I don’t want my sons to be lonely when we peg it .

        2. Thank goodness, Maggie I have traced my family tree and, being generation 50, I can identify my daughter as generation 51 and her offspring, generation 52 and 53, as producing a Great Grandson (somewhere in the Southwest) and a Great -Granddaughter in Melbourne, Victoria.

          Life just goes on.

    4. I’ve never wondered how much Junior has cost to raise. I consider him an investment in spare parts. I’ve made no secret of this to him.

    5. Typal Indian/Pakistani. response

      If the offspring don’t produce, let’s make loadas wonga out of them.

  73. I’m watching Rick Stein.
    It appears that it’s illegal in France to call a pig Napoleon.

    That can’t be true.

    Macron is called Napoleon.

    1. Napolean … not much of a talker and a reputation for getting his own way.
      He is a common farm pig!
      Orwell

    2. The twats in France should read “Animal Farm.” then make your inferior judgement.

    1. Firstly, ‘I’ should be capitalised. Secondly, you don’t put a mask on an animal.

    1. Reading about what appears to be a complicated family set-up, I think your suspicions are correct.
      I doubt the lass has ever had a chance.

    1. If you’re American, meanwhile Britains are say, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

    2. Said Mr Schickelgruber, as he spoke of the (Hollow) Cast at an SS reunion

    3. Rough sleepers should watch out – they might get dragged off the streets for euthanasia.

    4. God knows where they dug that interpretation from.

      Mind you, it may not be wise to speak against Trudeau, that might be considered insanity worthy of the chop,

    5. Sounds like Tudeau is the dementiaed one with this policy.

      Please. someone, get out there and kill the Nazi fool.

  79. Einsteins definition of Insanity

    Watching Eurovision year after years and expecting to hear a great song

    1. There is now an American version of the show with states entering contestants in a similar way to Eurovision is run.

      We wil not be watching.

    2. It was bad enough before it expanded. Previously it was sometimes fun to watch in a ‘so bad it’s good’ kind of way, although I always preferred watching the scoring section to listening to the songs.
      These days, there’s no irony – it’s so bad it’s bad.

  82. Evening, all. Better day here; sunny and dry. Managed to get some serious pruning done on the eucalyptus gunnii, which I’d neglected for the last couple of years when preoccupied with looking after MOH. It was starting to turn into a tree, so now it’s back to looking more like a bush. As for the headline, the NHS has never been “free”, taxpayers like me have paid for it over and over again. The thing is, now we need to get what we’ve paid for, we’re being told we can’t get anything.

  83. Ah feeull the need, the need furr speed.

    Yee hah – Top Gun sequel out next week I might just go to the cinema for the first time in ten years.

  86. Goodnight, happy people and God bless,

    I hope to see you again in the mornings’ light.

    1. Good morning and welcome!
      No need for an invite, just join in!
      I presume you are a Transatlantic observer?

    1. Good morning, Angie. Are we going to be in a race to be first when Geoff posts the Friday link?

      1. Good morning, Elsie.
        No, I’m not in the race – I got eliminated for a false start.

        I was listening to a spokesperson on the Monetary Policy Committee who said that because Russia is such a large exporter of both energy and food the rest of us are in good company but in a. bad place.

    1. But, but, but… this is Thursday’s page, Delboy. (Good morning, btw.)

Comments are closed.