Thursday 30 November: GPs ought to have known that virtual appointments put patients at risk

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516 thoughts on “Thursday 30 November: GPs ought to have known that virtual appointments put patients at risk

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    Pay What’s Due
    A guy goes into a diner and orders a bowl of soup. After a bit, the waitress looks over and the guy’s waving to her, looking real upset, so she goes over and asks him what’s wrong.
    “What’s wrong? There’s a hair in my soup!”
    The waitress looks and sure enough, there’s a hair laying on the edge of the bowl; the soup’s almost gone. “Well sir,” she says. “I’m sorry about that, but…”
    The guy interrupts, shouting….”Hey, don’t give me any shit. There’s a hair in my soup… and I ain’t paying for it.”
    With that, he gets up, storms out of the diner and goes into a whorehouse across the street.
    Well, the more the waitress thinks about it, the madder she gets, realising the guy stiffed her for the soup. Pretty soon, she can’t stand it anymore and she rushes over to the whorehouse to find the guy and get her money. She finally finds him with one of the girls and he’s licking away at some hooker’s twat, buried up to his shoulders in her pussy! The waitress grabs him by the ankles and hauls him out of that pussy.
    “You son of a bitch”, she says. “You wouldn’t pay for my soup ‘cos there was one hair in it, and I come in here and find you face down in a hooker’s pussy?”
    The guy says, “That’s right… and if I find a noodle in there, I ain’t paying her either!”

  2. Fair warning – I’m running out of funnies.

    Anybody willing to take over from January 2nd?

    1. I do hope that someone steps up to the challenge, Sir Jasper. Your own morning jokes will be missed from January the 2nd.

  3. GPs ought to have known that virtual appointments put patients at risk

    For some reason the virtual appointment that came in during the pandemic is still the norm and I don’t think the old normal will ever return.
    It’s a bit like when doctors stopped doing house visits.

    1. I made the mistake (once) of hiring a field engineer without seeing him face-to-face, with telephone interview. His CV was excellent, covering the scope we wanted in a supervisory position, and working in Africa.
      When we met him, I saw instantly that I’d made a mistake: and I was right about that, he nearly got us run off the contract. Instead, he was put on a plane and his sorry ass fired back to the UK.
      Now, I never agree anything unless I either know the individual, or have a face-to-face meeting.
      So, to diagnose somebody, how you can do it properly by video or phone, I don’t know.

    2. One simple answer would be for shopkeepers, tradespeople, mechanics to reply in kind, when GPs need help.

      ie GP to motor mechanic

      Doctor: “The engine of my car is making strange noises”
      Mechanic: “Turn the car radio up until you cannot here the noise”
      Doctor “will that fix it?”
      Mechanic “No, but it is what you do by increasing the dose of tablets, when I come to see you about a backpain!”

      I did this, sent for an X-ray, had right hip replaced Two Weeks later. Luckily SWMBO had private health insurance with a job

  4. 379144+ up ticks,

    If ever a treacherous serpent had a kill fatwa out running against Great Britain, it is fattwat cameron.

    David Cameron’s return has put the pro-EU, anti-Israel blob back in charge
    The Foreign Office has been emboldened to defy Rishi Sunak, and restart……

    🎵
    There will be troubles ahead,

  5. Good Moaning.
    Thar goes my blood pressure …..
    By God, we need a Good King Hal or his feisty younger daughter.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/11/29/home-office-do-not-know-where-17000-asylum-seekers-are/

    “We don’t know where 17,000 rejected asylum seekers are, says Home Office deputy

    Simon Ridley tells MPs he does not know whereabouts of most of asylum applicants whose cases have been withdrawn in past year

    29 November 2023 • 10:29pm

    Simon Ridley said: ‘In most cases, I don’t know where those people are’

    Home Office mandarins have admitted that as many as 17,000 rejected asylum seekers are missing.

    Simon Ridley, a senior civil servant, told MPs he did not know the whereabouts of most of the 17,316 asylum applicants whose cases have been withdrawn in the past year.

    Mr Ridley, the second in command at the Home Office, was being questioned with his boss Sir Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary, over a quadrupling in the number of withdrawn asylum applications from 4,260 in the previous year.

    The surge has led to claims they are being wiped off the list without being fully assessed to help meet Rishi Sunak’s target of clearing the “legacy” backlog of asylum cases older than June 2022 by the end of this year.

    Reasons include failing to attend interviews or appointments and not filling in new fast-track questionnaires.

    Once removed from the system, people are ineligible for the housing and financial support offered to destitute asylum seekers, with MPs including Tories warning that they can then “disappear without a trace”.

    Questioning the officials, Tim Loughton, a Commons home affairs committee member, asked: “Isn’t it strange that conveniently, when faced with a very stiff target, there has been a three-fold increase [in withdrawals] for undetermined reasons, people magically not going forward with their claims, and where are those people?”

    Mr Ridley replied: “In most cases, I don’t know where those people are.” Asked whether they had returned to their home countries, he said: “I don’t know.”

    Mr Loughton again asked: “So you have no idea where those 17,316 people are?” Mr Ridley replied: “I don’t think we know where all those people are, no.”

    He told the committee that a claim was withdrawn when asylum seekers did not turn up for interviews or complete questionnaires and were “not engaging with the system that leads to a decision”.

    Other reasons included when someone had already left the UK before their claim was considered or if they chose to pursue another application for permission to stay in the country, according to the department.

    Mr Ridley later said there were records enabling Home Office immigration officers to take enforcement action against withdrawn asylum seekers to bring people in and remove them from the UK.

    Data last week showed the backlog of asylum applications, rather than individuals, stood at 122,585 as of Oct 29, down 12 per cent from a record 138,782 at the end of February.

    The “legacy” backlog of asylum applications stood at 33,253 as of Oct 29, down 47 per cent from 62,157 on July 30. To meet the target, around 16,630 applications would need to be cleared per month before Dec 31.

    Sir Matthew has admitted that the Home Office does not have a “Plan B” if the Government fails to get its Rwanda policy off the ground.

    He said civil servants were doing “all sorts of contingency planning” but he said he would not call in a Plan B as ministers had not agreed such a scheme.

    Meanwhile, research by the Refugee Council, based on 40 asylum organisations, found that Channel migrants were likely to make more dangerous journeys to more remote beaches if the Rwanda scheme went ahead in order to avoid detection.

    Asylum seekers supported by the organisations were also said to be already more afraid to engage with official services and would be driven “underground”, raising fears that they could suffer harm and exploitation.

    Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “We know refugees are avoiding contact with vital services and face being exploited and abused by those seeking to coerce and traffic them.

    “We are very worried about the prospect of Channel crossings becoming even riskier, when we know all too well how deadly they already are.” “

    1. 379144+ up ticks,

      Morning Anne,.
      then surely if 17000 are missing that contaminates ALL residing within currently,

      So ALL must go, temporarily, and reapply.

      1. What a spiffing idea – deport ’em, fingerprint and photograph ’em and don’t allow them or new ones, back in

    2. Not very joined up are they?
      In any other country other than the EU is if your asylum had been denied you would be deported immediately.

      Is it not obvious to civil servants that the very first thing an asylum seeker will do is appeal and then drop below the radar.

    3. Seems Norway rescued a load of Gazans and flew them to Norway, although they have no connection with Norway at all. Way to go, government! Fill the last remaining space with the world’s terrorist dross, why don’t you.
      Same day there’s a news item about how the demand for food banks is increasing, pretty well in line with 3rd world immigration. The same is NOT seen in Denmark or Finland, as they don’t have the immigration…

    4. Harsh, maybe, but I see the risk from the Channel crossings from a different perspective to Enver Solomon. The real risk is to the native people of this island and to the long-time settled and assimilated immigrants of all races and colours and not to those unchecked and unknown fighting age young men who have a choice of whether or not to risk their lives in the illegal act of invading a sovereign country.
      Sadly, I’ve been driven to a point where I no longer care what fate awaits these invaders: my sympathies for humanity are focused inwards towards my family, my friends and to my Country and its settled population.

      1. Join the club.
        I resent what British governments have done to my compassion over the past 20 years.

    5. Now time for the RN’s specially trained underwater harpoon squad to be put on permanent duty in the English Channel to puncture all the approaching rubber dinghies.

          1. Recently it was announced on the BBC news that a boat containing “migrants” got into trouble

            a mile off the French coast, and the British rescue services collected them and landed them at Dungeness.

            Strange that the French rescue services were not invited to get involved. Really strange.

      1. Heaven and Hell tossed a coin.

        Oh, best of three, oh best of five then and so it continued until yesterday.

    1. Warmonger, depopulation advocate, Rockefeller stooge, Club of Rome -Trilateral Commission – WEF creator, begetter of Schwab.. As evil a bastard as evil bastards come.

      1. I’m still on the fence, but leaning your way.

        Kissinger played a prominent role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977, pioneering the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrating an opening of relations with the People’s Republic of China, engaging in what became known as shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East to end the Yom Kippur War, and negotiating the Paris Peace Accords, which ended American involvement in the Vietnam War. Kissinger has also been associated with such controversial policies as the U.S. bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War, U.S. involvement in the 1973 Chilean military coup, a “green light” to Argentina’s military junta for their Dirty War, and U.S. support for Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War despite a genocide being perpetrated by Pakistan.[5] After leaving government, he formed Kissinger Associates, an international geopolitical consulting firm. Kissinger wrote over a dozen books on diplomatic history and international relations.

        Kissinger’s legacy is a polarizing subject in American politics. He has been widely considered by scholars to be an effective Secretary of State[6] and condemned for turning a blind eye to war crimes committed by American allies due to his support of a pragmatic approach to politics called Realpolitik.[7][8][9][10] For his actions negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam, Kissinger received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize under controversial circumstances.[11] In contrast, Kissinger is an immensely beloved figure within China, with China News Service describing him in his obituary as someone “who had a sharp vision and a thorough understanding of world affairs”.[12][13]

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger

    2. I remember that Tom Lehrer said he had given up writing satire when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as he could no longer compete with reality!

      Tom Lehrer is now 95 years old.

      I first came across his brilliant songs at the age of 11 when I came across this record at my first niece’s Christening.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d353c80360a7534abae4489ee636d757ff9568404e345e008f0784560d88885.png

      He would have been 29 at the time. I now have a complete collection of all his songs on CDs.

  6. Morning, all Y’all.
    Dark (you don’t say…) and chilly, minus a few. Still very little snow, so no reflective ground to help it light up a bit.

  7. 379144+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    Live Latest Ceasefire extended to release more hostages

    Short term gain,long term pain,

    1. The Chinese people were once faily healthy overall.
      That was when most of them had their own plots of land, kept animals and grew their own food.
      But the Chinese government have bulldozed and leveled the plots built ugly crowded tower blocks and forced them into the prisons that are now their homes.
      And of course as we know China is the most polluting nation on the planet.

  8. I imagine all these skint Labour run councils who have got to suspend all none legally required services will still retain their Diversity Departments on full pay.

    1. We had a very large colourful election reminder from the Limps. Who run the St Albans Council. On this they have photographs of the tories who they believe are behind the recent announcements regarding the building of 1500 new homes on our surrounding green belt and agricultural land. Strange I thought, as they are in the chair in the city why are they trying to suggest it’s the Conservatives who are settling down these proposals ?
      There are none that appeal to my X on the 7th. They are all liars and crooks. Any independent will do for me.

    1. Cry, because we already know what ever happens because of thier own and their colleagues ineptitude, nothing will change.
      They’ve followed the familiar pattern of our so misnamed ‘leadership’ effed up everything they come into contact with.
      Next…..🤔

      1. They’re using Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister as a template. We didn’t realise, all those years ago, that they were the first reality TV shows.

  9. Good morning all.
    Bright but with broken cloud this morning and a light splattering of snow. -3°C outside.

  10. It’s a good job the Polar ice caps melted in 2014 and we ran out of oil in the eighties or just think how bad it would be.

          1. I very much like Grace Dent the food critic. (left because of health problems) But i would prefer to meet her in a nice restaurant.

            She has a walk like Jessica Rabbit. Which is mesmerising.
            Ashesthandust walks like that too. Very distracting !

  11. Morning all 🙂😊
    🥶 my word it’s cold today 2 below at least, apparently 5 plus by 13:00 then down hill again. Get those soon to be banned gas boilers on.
    Of course GPs know or knew patients would be put at risk. That’s one of the reasons why the Hipppocratic oath was abandoned.
    I suspect many GPs have also been in profit from private practice.
    I’m still waiting for the cardiology department to get in touch after my ablation in July. Perhaps it’s all my fault, again.
    And very Fond of Lying has suggested to our own very fond of lying department and Richie that we should rejoice in her suggestion we re join the EU. Ah…..bless.
    Some of the plans for their subjects have now come to light. NO THANKS.

        1. As the EU is so prosperous I’m sure that she could find another £40 billion if she was even vaguely

          keen on the idea.

          As the British handed over the £40billion so easily without a “satisfactory trading arrangement”

          then we can assume that the EU will be trying to extract more money in return for

          more vague promises.

      1. Even as Ndovu suggests, it’s gone already, if it did exist. The britsh public would not get a sniff of it.
        The money would be squander by the liars at the top of the ladder.

    1. This morning we made a decision. We are going to move. We will give this place 3-5 years then hoof again. Less if we really cannot do anything about the insulation, more once the costs stabilise.

      The Warqueen is unhappy. Not grumpy, not angry, but tired of everything going wrong (we now don’t have an oven), tired of the lack of hot water, the worries over costs. She joked about seeing another man who had central heating. Thing is, I wouldn’t blame her!

      1. Why have all these problems just come to light? Did you have a survey done? Did you question the householder? Did they tell you the truth?

        1. We had a full building survey done. It showed the problems we knew about – namely the fusebox. We were aware of the radiators but were told by SGN that gas would cost £1400 to install.

          I judged the fusebox replacement on our last one – £250. It’s been £1000. The gas of course is vastly higher. £100,000.

          Add in the bathroom costs (I’m fat. I’m tall. Standing in the bath isn’t practical for me as the shower head is at level with my chest and can’t go any higher and even the Warqueen has to stand nigh foot together to get in the bath.) So we factored in a new bathroom – but with the installer (who I trust) specced it up, it turned out more renovation was needed.

          I’m taking nytol to sleep. She isn’t really and is spending a lot of time away (I don’t blame her for that, and we have a friend who’s struggling with her life so she’s helping them out) but at the moment it’s snowing, and the downstairs rad is on 17 and the smart meter is showing £13.

          It’s 2pm.

          1. That doesn’t sound good. One step at a time i suppose. Have you considered portable heating and just heating the rooms you are in?

  12. Good morning all,

    Frosty at McPhee Towers and we have a ‘severe weather emergency’ with a chance of the odd light snow shower until midday. Wind Nor’-East, -2℃ to +2℃ today.

    Awwww, diddums.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/79cfdb418c9bce82b6a1732eafa9380c9f76d2cb406106a700a0342d8123b1f1.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/29/bbc-nihal-arthanayake-struggles-too-many-white-colleagues/

    Well, Nihal, old chap, you know where the airports are.

    1. He was on BBC 4 Winter Walks last night. I wonder how much he was paid and obviously looked after all of his needs by all the white people who run the series.
      The door is open you racist Dick.

    2. I wish such racists would leave. This is not a black or brown country. If he doesn’t like being a guest here, he should bugger off.

      As many many folk would say, stop being such a racist and defining yourself by the colour of your skin, you wet, Left wing, spiteful, gormless, socialist.

      1. MB had some programme on last night where Nihilist was walking through the countryside and whinging.
        Apparently he was brought up in Essex. Presumably mummy and daddy were quite happy to settle in this racist hellhole.

    3. My father was the governor of the Northern Province of the Sudan. He never complained that over 99% of the people were black. In fact he had a great affection for the African indigenous population as all the better British colonial administrators had.

    4. I thought there was a muslim head of religion. Anyway, if he doesn’t like it, he can head to Saudi or any other benighted muslim place.

    1. How to deal with snivel serpents.
      Shame he’s not here to write to them about Net Zero brains.

      1. I quite like this missive, attributed to the Duke of Wellington …

        Gentlemen
        Whilst marching from Portugal to a position which commands the approach to Madrid and the French forces, my officers have been diligently complying with your requests, which have been sent by HM Ship from London to Lisbon and thence by dispatch rider to our Headquarters.
        We have enumerated our saddles, bridles, tents and tent poles and all manner of sundry items for which His Majesty’s Government holds me accountable. I have dispatched reports on the character, wit and spleen of every Officer. Each item and every farthing has been accounted for, with two regrettable exceptions for which I beg your indulgence.
        Unfortunately the sum of one shilling and nine-pence remains unaccounted for in one infantry battalion’s petty cash and there has been hideous confusion as to the number of jars of raspberry jam issued to one cavalry regiment during a sandstorm in Western Spain. This reprehensible carelessness may be related to the pressure of circumstances since we are at war with France, a fact which may come as a bit of a surprise to you gentlemen in Whitehall.
        This brings me to my present purpose, which is to request elucidation of my instructions from His Majesty’s Government so that I may better understand why I am dragging an army over these barren plains. I construe that perforce it must be one of two alternative duties, as given below. I shall pursue either one with my best ability, but cannot do both.
        1. To train an army of uniformed British Clerks in Spain for the benefit of the accountants and copy-boys in London or perchance
        2. To see to it that the forces of Napoleon are driven out of Spain,

        Your most obedient servant, Wellington.

  13. It’d be terribly sad if there were to be a horrible muslim terrorist action when 70000 wasters are gathering to spout drivel about how to get themselves very rich at the expense of tax payers, wouldn’t it?

  14. Have just found this year’s Christmas card. Am sure y’all wouldn’t want to miss out.

    Season’s Greetings to all.

    Homophobic remarks made at council meeting, alleges three-times sex change lawyer

    Half a dozen locals are trying to smear my name, says Samantha Kane who is renovating castle in Scottish Highlands

    By Mark Macaskill, SCOTTISH CORRESPONDENT
    29 November 2023 • 9:57pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/11/29/TELEMMGLPICT000358339568_17012947394940_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqOJQxtphcDX4cgHEp7KsI6TXaG_3FkRG2WH2SGzlVXbs.jpeg?imwidth=680

    Police were called over a community council meeting at which homophobic remarks were allegedly made about a transgender laird.

    Samantha Kane – a barrister who is believed to be the only person in Britain who has changed gender three times – bought Carbisdale Castle in Scotland in 2022 for more than £1 million.

    Ms Kane, who goes by Lady Carbisdale, has pledged to sink millions of pounds into restoring the category B-listed 19-bedroom manor, which is close to Ardgay, around 30 miles north of Inverness.

    Her plans to acquire seven acres of land surrounding the castle from Forestry and Land Scotland were discussed at a meeting of Ardgay and District community council on Nov 21.

    Ms Kane, who is an elected member of the community council, attended the meeting to state her case but had to leave while a vote took place.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/11/29/TELEMMGLPICT000358339290_17012948308440_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=960
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/29/ardgay-castle-homophobic-scotland-trans-lady-carbisdale/

    It tells us so much about lawyers…and Scotland
    ******************************************************************
    Paul Trickett
    10 HRS AGO
    I’m a bit confused by this article .Was Sam Kane the inspiration for the Commodores hit ‘Three Times A Lady’ or not?

    1. “Homophobic remarks made at council meeting, alleges three-times sex change lawyer”

      Why should homophobic remarks upset her if she’s supposedly a woman?

      1. So she was a man, became a woman, became a man and then became a woman?

        Sounds like she’s mentally ill. Certainly shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a council.

  15. HG worked on the baby unit in Bradford roughly 40 years ago.
    Genetic deformities were rife then, I suspect it’s worse now and that the UK taxpayer is picking up the tab for the long-term care necessary.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12807437/It-school-science-class-Aisha-realise-siblings-distressing-disabilities-not-Gods-shes-helping-drive-generation-away-high-risk-practice-marrying-cousin.html

    It was a school science class that made Aisha realise that her siblings’ distressing disabilities were not ‘God’s will’. Now she’s helping drive a generation away from the high-risk practice of marrying a cousin

    1. In Pakistan, however, about 60 per cent marry their first cousins, the highest rate in the world.

      Are they mad or what?

      1. The Great White Mother Country will bail them out of the results of their own primitive ignorance.

    2. It’s driven by property rights, isn’t it? Which is what led European aristocracy to adopt similer practices. I read somewhere that even the American Indians, back when they were still Stone Age oiks, had rules about not mating within your own clan. Seems enlightened until you realise they also ate one another but hey ho!

  16. Thought for the day:

    The natural condition of mankind is to be racist; it’s how ancient tribes protected their kith and kin against attack. It’s still permitted for all except the white races.

  17. Thought for the day:

    The natural condition of mankind is to be racist; it’s how ancient tribes protected their kith and kin against attack. It’s still permitted for all except the white races.

    1. …and it’s going to get colder with increased demand.

      Stand-by for power cuts – particularly the daft ones with ‘smart’ meters.

    1. Might be trans, judging by the genital pouch.

      Good luck, George. Don’t get caught in the conversation trap and end up paying for credits, as they lead you on.

      Take it from one who knows.

    2. Oi! You’ve just joined a dating site? Surely you haven’t fallen out of love with your gorgeous wife? Lol.

  18. Our grandson will be 10 in March. He became totally deaf at 4 and has had cochlear implants. This enabled him to hear enough for him to learn to speak and was doing really well at school in the circumstances. However in the last 6 months he has lost control of muscle power in his jaw and also the ability to control his hand movements. He is unable to get his words out or even use sign language and cannot write. Eating solid food is very hard for him. The school teachers and his friends can’t understand what he is trying to say and this state of affairs has meant that he takes his frustrations out on his mother violently. There are no speech therapists in the county and long waiting lists in neighbouring ones. He is being taken for an assessment today but I fear a very bleak future is in store.

    1. Poor little chap – and so difficult for his mother and the rest of the family. Does he have a progressive illness?

    2. Poor lad and parents. I can’t imagine the agony, both mental and physical, for him, his parents and you. I know they’re pretty useless but have you thought of writing to your MP and requesting that some of your tax money be diverted from providing a luxurious lifestyle to illegal immigrants to the welfare and wellbeing of your grandson and his family. I would also suggest you write to the CEO of the local NHS Trust explaining the situation and asking what they are going to do. Here’s the link to all NHS trusts and the CEO’s email addresses.
      Hope this dreadfully sad problem can be sorted soon.
      https://ceoemail.com/uk-nhs-chiefs.php

      Edited to add link.

        1. Have you tried bringing him into England? I understand plenty of women come here to have abortions etc. therefore why not your grandson.

        2. Write to him every week and go and stand outside his committee rooms and challenge him. Make his life a misery until he does something. Don’t let the bastard get away scot free, make his life hell.

    3. Poor lad and parents. I can’t imagine the agony, both mental and physical, for him, his parents and you. I know they’re pretty useless but have you thought of writing to your MP and requesting that some of your tax money be diverted from providing a luxurious lifestyle to illegal immigrants to the welfare and wellbeing of your grandson and his family. I would also suggest you write to the CEO of the local NHS Trust explaining the situation and asking what they are going to do. Here’s the link to all NHS trusts and the CEO’s email addresses.
      Hope this dreadfully sad problem can be sorted soon.
      https://ceoemail.com/uk-nhs-chiefs.php

      Edited to add link.

    4. Oh Rusty, how awful for the poor lad, especially after he was doing so well. I do hope today’s assessment is helpful.

    5. Oh heck. How frustrating and upsetting for everyone.
      What a worry; you must be feeling so helpless.

    6. Oh little chap! I’m so sorry to hear that! Fingers crossed for a more hopeful outcome!

  19. OT. I look at the front pages of the DT, DE and DM each morning and am really fed up with seeing snippets about ginge and cringe. Particularly about the “2 royals who mentioned the child’s skin colour”.

    I find it quite reasonable that family would “wonder what colour it would be”. What do other Nottlers think?

    1. “Reasonable” to sensible people like us, and most people a few years ago – but nowadays “reasonable” has gone out the window, in favour of “woke” and “be kind”.

    2. Of course it’s reasonable, vw, but, like you, I just gloss over any mention of these despicable people.

        1. Without naming names, one is the major piece on a chess board (not the most powerful), and the other modelled a transparent dress at University.

          1. Yes, but to wonder whether the child will take after his mother physically or his father is hardly a racist speculation!

            Our first son looks like me; our second son looks like Caroline!

            But do either of them look more Dutch than English?

      1. I went to buy a new road atlas this afternoon. Endgame was prominently displayed on the counter by the till! I didn’t succumb.

    3. Both sides of MB’s family have members with the red “Brillo pad” hair. Of course we wondered if either of our children would inherit Grandad’s, Uncle Wullie’s or Uncle Ted’s topping.
      Obviously we were guilty of Lowland Scottism or Essex Countryfolkism.

    4. The mix can produce surprising results. Many years ago I worked with a blond German woman who was married to a black Jamaican. They had two daughters. One looked like an albino African. She was blond but with negroid features and hair type. The other girl had European features with coffee coloured skin and soft dark hair. The blond was jealous of her sister and a difficult child.

    5. One of our daughters is married to a black man, and when she was pregnant with twin boys, our other son in law, who had a 2 year old daughter and another child on the way, suggested at a family ‘do’ that if they had a another daughter could they swap her with one of the twins! Much hilarity all round – no racism, sexism or any other sort of ‘ism’! Just people musing on the future at a family party!
      Edit: They now have a blonde 5 year old girl, a blond 3 year old boy and another boy due in February! The twins – well you’ve seen their hair!

    6. I think we all speculate on a new family baby, as to what characteristics baby will have. I am old enough to remember the 50’s hit of “where will the baby’s dimple be, baby’s bottom or baby’s knee”. I do agree with you that this whole issue is very tiresome and I don’t really care to know who said what!! Incidentally, not much has been made of all this over here.

  20. Fine BTL Comment: A sort of Order of Merritt!

    GM

    graham merritt
    16 HRS AGO
    We now have a PM who was rejected for the job by his own party.
    We have a Chancellor who was rejected for the PM job by his Parliamentary Party.
    We have a Foreign Secretary who’s most important policy (remaining) when PM was rejected in the biggest exercise of democracy in recent UK history, and is unelected and not held to account by Parliament.
    Not very democratic, is it.

    REPLY
    5 REPLIES
    235 Likes
    1

    1. Trump did say his election was stolen. I believe him. These people are put into power and not by ordinary voters.

  21. 379144+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Letters: GPs ought to have known that virtual appointments put patients at risk

    Whether they do know / don’t know is immaterial when the
    “end game”is depopulation via WEF & the ballot stations.

    Excess deaths could very well become the norm,

    No surprise there, look at what has been achieved these past four decades via the voter kissing X a lab/lib/con candidate in the polling station.

    A 180 degree turn from being a decent ,caring, nation to the worlds largest criminal asylum ALL via a kiss, X.

  22. Leo Varadkar’s Ireland is flirting with a new form of totalitarianism

    Now the whole world can see that Ireland is poised to pass one of the most draconian pieces of legislation in modern times

    EILIS O’HANLON • 28 November 2023 • 5:53pm

    Irish author Paul Lynch won the Booker Prize on Sunday. His novel, Prophet Song, imagines an Ireland that has fallen under Right-wing totalitarian control, and begins with members of the new secret police rapping on the door of a union leader to interrogate him for “sowing discord and unrest” against the government.

    Novelists are free to dream up all manner of fictional scenarios, however far-fetched. The irony is that this is the exact opposite of what is happening in Ireland right now. The government in Dublin is indeed introducing extraordinary new legislation to restrict freedom of speech. But it’s not horrid Right-wingers conspiring to suppress nice, decent liberals. It’s nice, decent liberals scrambling to stamp out the opinions of what they call the “far-Right”. And far from being alarmed by this assault on basic freedoms, the broad swathe of progressive opinion in Ireland is fully behind it, including most voices in the broadcast and print media, and every major party.

    Since riots broke out in Dublin last Thursday, following the stabbing of three children, the cries for action have become ever louder. The government led by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has now pledged to have the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill on the statute book “within a matter of weeks”.

    The new law would surely have escaped international attention had those riots not happened, but Dublin’s eagerness to regulate hate speech has, as internet parlance puts it, “gone viral”. Now the whole world knows that Ireland is poised to pass one of the most draconian pieces of legislation in modern times, which will see Irish people facing potential jail sentences of up to two years for the possession of literature “likely to incite violence or hatred” against others on the grounds of certain protected characteristics, including race, gender and sexual orientation.

    The police and courts will not even need to demonstrate that the material in question was intended to be distributed to anyone other than the owner. It will be “presumed, until the contrary is proven” that it was. It’s reminiscent of the Soviet Union, where having copies of literature banned by the state, known as “samizdat”, was enough to fall foul of the KGB. [We already have the same here, where the possession of a chemistry book makes you a terrorist.]

    To make matters worse, the Irish government has not actually defined in the bill what “hatred” is, saying that to do so could “risk prosecutions collapsing”. Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, continues to insist citizens will be able to speak freely, but a senator for the Green Party, one of three parties in the governing coalition, let the cat out of the bag: “We are restricting freedom,” Pauline O’Reilly said, “but we are doing it for the common good.”

    Ireland, sadly, has a long tradition of censorship. There was once a body with a wonderfully evocative name, the Committee on Evil Literature, which recommended banning publications deemed harmful to the newly independent nation’s Catholic values.

    The country prides itself on having come through that dark time, but all that’s actually happened is that the term “evil literature” has been redefined to suit contemporary values. They haven’t stopped enforcing orthodoxy. They’ve simply found a new woke dogma to enforce. No one is writing novels about that. After all, owning such a book could land you behind bars soon.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/28/leo-varadkars-ireland-is-flirting-with-a-new-form-of-totali/

      1. They were never anything but a bunch of nasty little gangsters. Irish freedom? Don’t make me laugh!

    1. The knocks on the door come from the Establishment Left rather than from the Right.

      Remember the arrest of the girl who said a policewoman looked like her lesbian grandmother!

    2. “Literature “likely to incite violence or hatred against others on the grounds of…race, gender and sexual orientation”. They won’t be banning the Quran though, will they?

    3. Passing authoritarian laws, but haven’t yet admitted that the little girl is dead. Varadkar is in the Blair-Ardern-Trudeau league of evil.

    1. CALPURNIA
      When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
      The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

      [Julius Caesar]

      Shakespeare seemed to be rather ambivalent with regard to sectaries astronomical and the influence of the planets in the lives and deaths of human beings.

      Edmond [King Lear] hoodwinks his father and his brother into saying that the stars are having a malign influence and are predicting catastropehs. But when it comes to himself he says:

      This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we make
      guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical pre-dominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforc’d obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on.

      An admirable evasion of whore-master man, to lay
      his goatish disposition to the charge of a star!

      My father compounded with my mother under the Dragon’s Tail, and my
      nativity was under Ursa Major, so that it follows I am rough and
      lecherous. Fut! I should have been that I am, had the
      maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing.

  23. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12806389/Could-neighbour-report-illegal-Amazon-firestick-Warning-law-breakers-streaming-content-dodgy-devices-experts-say-officers-turn-door.html

    No shortage of police officers to protect corporate profits. Don’t bother calling them if you get burgled though. Suddenly no one is available.
    They try to use fear and guilt to stop you by being by suggesting you could be data hacked or by telling you you are supporting organised crime.

    1. “People using Amazon Firesticks and other illegal streaming devices could soon face a knock at the door from police officers warning them they could be prosecuted, experts have warned.“

      What a waste of police time, turning up to warn people. Would the perlice have right of entry to check? I’m not certain but I believe a householder can still ask the perlice to leave the premises? Without inviting them in, of course.

      1. They would need a thing called ‘evidence’ to get a warrant to enter. The style of policing they have chosen is psychological rather than evidence based.

    1. I expect it didn’t come to light for a while, or people didn’t put two and two together to make the five. And as you say most of the perps will be dead by now.

    2. The hospital has 70 beds at present. (It may have had many more in the past). The average number of inappropriate opioid deaths over the 14 years in question averages 2.7 per month. There are at least 3 possibilities.
      1) Incompetent prescribing /administration of opioids by a Doctor or Nurse. (Or more than one of each)
      2) Another Dr Shipman
      3) A member of staff easing the passing of those patients desperate to find their off switch (without any other ulterior motives)….

      1. The majority were put on morphine jacks where it supplies it automatically. That ‘s what you use for end of life treatment. Quite a few of those patients were nowhere near that stage.

    3. Come on Phizz they’ve been flat out and busy nicking littering, bad parking, escorting terrorist around London. Dancing in the street, waving flags keeping up appearances at carnivals.
      Give ’em a chance.

      1. Just like with Madeline McCaan. Retired detectives and summer holidays for life. Without doing very much.

        1. Still no results on the 10 year old girl found murdered in August near Woking.
          But as they know her family probably killed her. There’s no need to worry too much about how and why.
          It’s all in the book.

      1. He was flying thousands of migrants into RAF base’s from the middle east just before he left government.

    1. First Northern Ireland, then Gibraltar, then the Falklands, then Scotland, then Wales, then Channel Isles and then why not hand over Greater London to Saudi Arabia or Iran?

      Cameron is a traitor who should be hanged by the neck until dead! His body should then be drawn and quartered.

      1. You cannot ‘draw’ a dead body unless you return it to the original hurdle upon which it was ‘drawn’ to the place of execution. The correct sequence was Drawn, Hanged, Disembowelled and then quartered

        I’m surprised, Richard, that you get into this wrong sequence..

        1. The expression can cover two alternatives.

          1 The condemned was dragged to the site of execution, usually on a stretcher dragged by a horse, roads were cobbled so they would have been badly bounced around, probably breaking bones, then hanged until dead, cut down and then quartered.

          2 The condemned was hanged until nearly dead, drawn ie disemboweled whilst still alive and then beheaded and quartered.

          In both cases the bits were taken to different places (scattered) heads were generally placed on London bridge

    2. You can guarantee whatever he intent is, it won’t be good for us, it won’t be good for Gibraltar, and it will give our enemies more power.

      1. 379144+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,

        I worked on Gib for a year, the locals
        ( good peoples )won’t like it one little bit.

        1. They’re going to have a rebellion on their hands.

          I lived in Estepona for 5 years and often visited Gibraltar. They are a feisty bunch.

  24. Phew! a busy morning.
    Down to Cromford with the DT to get the bus to Matlock.
    45 minutes to pick up meds and do a bit of shopping, generally trawling for the “flog it off cheap” labels in Marks and Expensives, Iceland and the Co-op, then catch the bus home.
    Then, after sorting out the shopping and having a bit of breakfast, get a meal put on for the DT & S@H Son getting back from work, I’ve done an “All in” Cottage Pie with minced beef and several items looking perilously close to the bin-it stage, all topped by tatties and veg all mashed together with a final layer of cheese.

    Because Graduate and S@H Sons do not like mushrooms, they are being done separately in butter with chopped garlic and a ¼ teaspoon of Chinese Salt with chili.

    As the sun dipped below the valley side an hour ago, temperature is dropping and we’ve just had a ground “thrutch” from, I think, blasting at the reopened Ball Eye Quarry.

  25. The headline is fearmongering.
    Reading down, the Danes seem much more philosophical and recognise that the over-reaction to Covid may well be a driving factor.

    The laws of unintended consequences strike again.
    Now DENMARK battles surge in same type of ‘white lung syndrome’ pneumonia sparking fears in China – after Netherlands warned of alarming spike in cases

    Danish health experts said they had were expecting this ‘epidemic’ for some time

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12808991/Denmark-battles-surge-pneumonia-sparking-fears-China.html

      1. It was a specific question, but they’re civil servants. They’re no there to provide answers.

        What I found funny was how young the aides were. They looked about 20-30 at most. They have data bases holding this info, why not structure a query while another question is being asked?

  26. I don’t know if any of you are getting frustrated with GB News, that seems to have joined the MSM.

    I asked them why I had such difficulty in accessing the site. Have others had similar problems?

    My correspondence with them:

    29th Nov 2023
    Subject: Ease of access

    Do you really want to reduce your readership?

    Do something about our entry to the site.

    Their response
    30th Nov 2023
    Hi Tom,
    Apologies for the slight delay in getting back to you, our inbox gets extremely busy at times.
    I’m sorry you are experiencing difficulties reading our articles.
    Could you perhaps give me a bit more information about what the problem is and I will do my best to help you.
    All the best,
    Anna

    My response
    30th Nov 2023
    Anna, you ask about difficulties in signing in – try this.

    I used to be able to click on the GB News Icon, suspend adblock and see a bar that said ‘Live’.

    By clicking on that, I got what it said on the tin.

    Not so now. that bar that used to say ‘Live’, now reads ‘Support Us’ No I damn well won’t.

    GB News is just another part of the lying MainStream Media and, as such, I cannot/will not support you.

          1. Aah, I remember it well. I too was brought up with Tom Lehrer.

            Unfortunately I have no recordings.

          2. I have a couple of vinyl discs as well as a complete collection of his songs on CD.

            His fans certainly span the generations – my sons love his songs and I expect that when they have their own children they will love them too!

          3. I have seen Jake perform live on several occasions and many of his songs are in my repertoire: e.g.s Personal Column, Sister Josephine, Lah-di- Dah, On Again On Again and Bantam Cock. all of wich which I used to perform for my Sixth Formers.

    1. Err… their reply was honest, sensible and offered help. Your reply was a bit on the nose! How can they help you there?

      I did this:

      navigate to gbnews.com
      I see live tv playing in the top right 9Ish), under the menu bar.
      I see a support us link.
      I don’t see anything else?

      1. Their final response, Wibbles:

        Hi Tom,
        You are correct and that way to access our live feed is currently being used to help people find the new membership service.
        It is something our viewers have been asking for so we are delighted to have been able to roll this out last week.
        It does involve some changes to the site to accommodate it which may or may not be permanent. I’m not sure this will be it’s final place on the navigation bar.
        Regardless, there are two other ways to reach the live feed just as easily.
        You will see that there is a small red live feed window just below the blue navigation bar on the right of the page. Hitting the little box on that will expand this to full screen mode.
        Additionally, if you look on the main white navigation bar itself, just below where it now says Support, you will see Watch. Hovering over that allows you to click on LIVE, and you will get what it says on the tin.
        I do hope that helps you find what you are looking for.
        Kind regards,
        Anna

        In other words, they want your money. No way, José

  27. I can’t wait until next weeks question time for the look on Starmer’s face when he realises that he cannot give away Gibraltar.
    And that Cameron has already beaten him to it.

  28. Lovely sunset this evening. All packed – ready to go! I’ll sign off now and rejoin on Tuesday. All being well. Play nicely while I am away.

    1. Thanks. Knew someone would post it. I’ve heard middle-class twee Surrey rock choirs do it. Doesn’t work. Prolly won’t include it in any of our Carol Services next month, more’s the pity…

      1. BTW: hit ‘play’, and – lo and behold – it came in precisely on the note I was expecting. I may be cursed with ‘pefect pitch’ – just don’t ask me how I do it…

  29. https://www.standard.co.uk//comment/hamas-atrocities-rape-murder-film-rachel-johnson-b1123922.html?lid=tp1yxyv4hb1z

    Yet another example of why I have a visceral hatred of the bully, Owen Jones.

    The small private screening of the Hamas House of Horror film took place at RUSI, in Whitehall, in the institute’s dignified circular library, on a screen in front of mahogany shelves lined with military history and bronze busts of famous generals. I sat between my colleagues Nick and Tom Swarbrick, with Stephen Fry right behind, occasionally emitting a musical moan during a botched beheading, and Owen Jones in front.

    After a few days, Owen Jones blessed us with his 25-minute analysis of the film. Though he asserted that what Hamas did were “war crimes” in the course of his hyper-articulate “thoughts” he says we, ie the audience, had been told by the various speakers who introduced it to justify Israel’s destruction of Gaza on the basis of what we saw; that the women with no underwear, with splayed legs and livid bruises to their necks and faces set in rictuses, didn’t provide conclusive evidence of rape; that no children were murdered in the course of making the film, and many other things.

  30. That’ll teach em…

    “Passengers have been stuck on board a Eurostar train at Folkestone for more than seven hours with no electricity, food or working toilets.
    Responding to customer complaints on X, external, Eurostar said a train was “being detached from the overhead power lines” but this was “taking longer than expected”.
    The BBC has contacted Eurostar for comment.
    “It truly feels like an emergency situation but there’s no communication from staff,” said Jessica Chambers, from Essex, who was supposed to be travelling to Amsterdam for her friend’s birthday.
    Eurostar said on X that it was not possible to make customer announcements “due to a lack of power on board”.
    Ms Chambers said the train was now getting dark as the lights were out due to the lack of power.
    Customers said they could not flush the toilets and sent photos showing that they are completely blocked.
    Rebecca Morris, from Horsham, West Sussex, said her group of six had been given water but no food.
    She said the situation on board was “just dreadful” and passengers were “freezing cold”.
    Ms Morris and her colleagues were planning to travel to Brussels to see the Christmas markets.

  31. If you haven’t already lobbied your MP about the WHO power grab (a grab for sovereignty over our own, personal rights) it can be done at this website here https://saveourrights.uk/take-action/who-power-grab/ It is very quick, just your name, email address, postal code, and up pops your MPs name in the appropriate space just below. Don’t forget to confirm (like I did!) your MP by tapping the little circle alongside. If you do omit this it will let you know when you submit, just go back and put in your postcode again, then confirm your MP. Submit and hey presto off it goes.

    When the website comes up the lower half is shaded black (this puzzled me for a small while, I am not very well today!) just tap on it and it will release. As well as your MP, this site will send a letter to the Health Secretary at the same time. Copies of the templates are available to view on the site. This must be done this evening, 1 December is the cut off date!

          1. Thank you, Sue. I hoped this would quick method would gather in a few of us stragglers – I put last Friday’s info to one side with full intentions then got struck down with a virus doing the rounds… thank goodness I’m not jabbed, it could have been so much worse!

          2. He keeps trying to hump my leg – I am stretched out on the sofa – I am hoping his little op in January will sort him out!

          3. I hate to put a damper on it, but it didn’t sort Charlie. He was still humping his bed well into his teens 🙁

          4. Only his bed. He never humped me. I just used to get woken up occasionally by the sound of him humping his bed in th early hours. What really made the difference to him was being an only dog and constant training.

    1. The lower half is shaded black because the upper half is about Christmas shopping! I wasn’t sure which I would be signing up to so I gave up.

      1. There’s a big X on the advert in the top right hand corner, Conway. That gets rid of it!

      2. If you tap the shaded black area it then covers the whole screen and obliterates, thankfully, the Christmas shopping. One cannot sign for Christmas shopping…!

    2. Done, poppiesmum. But I don’t see how contacting my MP and the Health Secretary with less than four and half hours before the deadline expires can possibly do any good.

      1. Me neither, perhaps it is the count that is important, although 14 December rings a bell in my cold-fevered brain in connection with a debate/discussion/signing of the document. Perhaps someone can put me right on this…?

        Thank you for signing.

    3. Done. So I’ve sent something to Andy Slaughter (Labour, Hammersmith). Being trusting about what he’ll receive. Whether he’ll read it anyway…?

  32. Referenced earlier but not reproduced.

    David Cameron’s return has put the pro-EU, anti-Israel blob back in charge

    The Foreign Office has been emboldened to defy Rishi Sunak, and restart all of its old campaigns

    ALLISTER HEATH • 29 November 2023 • 7:21pm

    David Cameron’s appointment as Foreign Secretary was meant to strengthen Rishi Sunak. Two weeks on, it is clear that it has had the opposite effect.

    The Foreign Office, which had been kept on a tight leash by pro-Brexit ministers, is acting as if it has won the political lottery. Its officials have clearly taken the appointment of a former PM – one whose views are aligned with its own biases, to boot – to head their department as a cue to act like a state within the state, severely undermining the actual Prime Minister.

    In the space of just a few days, Lord Cameron’s Foreign Office has torn up Sunak’s pro-Israel stance, threatened to sabotage his efforts to tackle the small boats crisis, and adopted the most pro-European tone since 2016. Sunak has been left to confect a row with Greece over the Elgin Marbles, a classic displacement activity which merely highlights his reduced grip over Britain’s real foreign policy.

    There are three centres of power in the British Government, guaranteeing dysfunctionality in the absence of strong political leadership. The first emanates from the Prime Minister, No 10, the Cabinet Office and the Cabinet Secretary; then comes the Treasury, master of spending and policy; and last but not least there is the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

    Sunak is aligned with the Treasury, and was able to keep the FCDO broadly under control under James Cleverly. Cameron’s appointment has shattered this fragile balance of power, with dire consequences for British interests if the PM doesn’t urgently reassert himself.

    Treasury orthodoxy has generally been wrong over the decades, and has been a drag on Britain’s economy. But at least its mandarins are financially literate: their Foreign Office counterparts have few redeeming features, and FCDO orthodoxy has been an even greater disaster.

    Officials inevitably make the wrong calls, often work against Britain’s genuine national interests, and appear to view democracy as an irritant. Their arrogance is matched only by their mediocrity. They are obsessed with “influence”, “relevance” and “reputation”, ooze declinism, and love to suck up to cash-rich autocracies [ see below]. They are desperate to sign up to global agreements to make themselves look good among other bureaucratic elites.

    The FCDO is vehemently opposed to pulling out of – or derogating from any clauses from – the European Convention on Human Rights and any of the other international treaties that make it impossible for nation states to control immigration or to introduce Rwanda-style plans.

    One reason for this is that the department’s erstwhile support for empire has mutated into backing for technocracy and juristocracy. It didn’t believe in nation states in the past, and it doesn’t believe in them today. It opposed Brexit and it dislikes Zionism, the ultimate anti-colonial project of national self-determination. Its prejudice against Israel is especially severe: the FCDO appears never to have recovered from Lord Balfour’s declaration promising support for an independent state of Israel in 1917. Officials never allowed the late Queen to travel to Israel, and remain Arabist in outlook. [ Hmm. We do need the oil though, don’t we?] They retain a weakness for the extremist regime in Tehran.

    For a brief while, the FCDO was in retreat, its flagship policies destroyed by post-Brexit reforms. Simon McDonald, its ludicrous former permanent secretary, recounts how officials were in tears when the referendum results came in. The shift away from China was another blow: the FCDO still cannot accept that it makes little sense to allow authoritarian foreign governments to control vital British assets such as nuclear power: such “state capitalism” makes a mockery of genuine free markets.

    The cuts to foreign aid under Sunak, and the reallocation of 29 per cent of the remaining cash to help refugees in Britain, were another bitter blow to the mandarins: they love nothing better than spending taxpayers’ money abroad. The Aukus partnership between Australia, the UK and the US was a disaster for European defence integration. Ditto the decision to sign up to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, shifting the UK further away from the single market.

    Boris Johnson, Ben Wallace and Liz Truss were to thank for Britain’s generous support for Ukraine, not the FCDO machinery. Rishi Sunak’s unequivocal backing of Israel after the Hamas terrorist pogroms was great, but horrified the denizens of King Charles Street. They still managed to wreak some havoc, vetoing any serious crackdown on Iran and quietly refusing to support Israel at the UN, but the defenestration and downgrading of the FCDO was one of the great unsung triumphs of the post-Brexit years.

    All of that is now over: Foreign Office orthodoxy is back with a vengeance. Lord Cameron’s first interview – with the BBC, appropriately – was hugely disappointing. He claimed the number of casualties in Gaza was “too high”, implicitly blaming Israel rather than Hamas, and accepting the terrorists’ propaganda at face value, by failing to realise that many fatalities are Hamas fighters and somehow forgetting that they use civilians as human shields.

    The war would end were Hamas to unconditionally surrender and release all the hostages – why didn’t Cameron ask for that, rather than stating, insultingly, that he “stressed over and over again that Israel must abide by international humanitarian law”? Can’t he see that Israel is doing more than any other country to follow the rules of war, and that it is succeeding to an almost superhuman degree? Is the FCDO trying to harmonise British policy with that of Emmanuel Macron and other anti-Israel European powers?

    Cameron also appeared to blame the lack of peace on Israel not delivering “safety, security and stability for the Palestinian people”. This gets the causality wrong. Israel has endlessly attempted to trade land for peace, only to be rebuffed by a Palestinian establishment that doesn’t believe in Israel’s right to exist.

    Sunak needs to impose his authority. He must slap down the FCDO. He needs to stop wasting time on the Elgin Marbles, and reassert his control of foreign policy. He must make another pro-Israel intervention and be clear that he still supports the destruction of Hamas. He needs to push through a “full-fat” immigration reform. The past fortnight has been a step backwards for Sunak, but all isn’t yet lost.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/29/david-camerons-return-has-put-the-pro-eu-anti-israel-blob/

    Heath is being too generous to The Fakir, a man who doesn’t really understand Britishness.

    1. For Britain, Cameron was a disaster, is a disaster, and always will be a disaster.
      His appointment merely underlines what an utter waste of oxygen Sunak is.

      1. Sunak ain’t in charge, though. It was never his decision. Remember, he was placed in the position of PM. Even the king gave Cameron a fast-track into the Lords. Shows the corruption runs top to bottom.

    2. I think we all knew we were pretty much screwed before, now it seems we’re being gang raped, to put it crudely.

  33. What was in Matt Hancock’s missing messages?

    Britain came tantalisingly close to avoiding lockdown in March 2020. Would it have been better if we had?

    ISABEL OAKESHOTT • 28 November 2023 • 7:00pm

    On the afternoon of March 13, 2020, Dominic Cummings invited five of the most powerful figures of the pandemic to join a new WhatsApp group. Called “CSA-CMO-Matt-PM-Dom,” it comprised the then chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance; the chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty, the then health secretary Matt Hancock; Boris Johnson, and Cummings himself.

    When the messages they exchanged about lockdown decisions were shared with me 18 months later as part of a book writing project, there was a curious quirk. Save for the initial record of the group being created, there was nothing to see for the whole first month. In April 2020, with the nation in lockdown, the group sprung back to life. As I waded through some 100,000 WhatsApp communications, it became apparent that exchanges in March 2020 had been removed from the cache.

    As Hancock prepares to give evidence to the public inquiry on the pandemic this week, barristers must do what I could not, and ask him what it was about that critical period that he considered too sensitive to share.

    I had been planning to confront Hancock about the missing messages myself this time last year when he suddenly went AWOL. One minute we were racing to complete his Pandemic Diaries; the next he had vanished to the I’m a Celebrity jungle. Throughout our collaboration, he had been pleasingly open with me, which made the absence of the March messages all the more troubling. Loathe to sour what was a positive working relationship, I had waited until the end of our project to raise the subject. Then he disappeared to Australia and it was too late.

    As entertaining as it was to watch the former health secretary being covered in critters, I was frustrated. He had plunged our project into turmoil. We had yet to finalise designs for the book jacket. Worse, we were embroiled in stressful negotiations with the Cabinet Office over elements of the manuscript they did not like. While Hancock sought to show the nation his “true self” by chowing down on a camel penis, I had been left with a pile of problems.

    A year on, many questions remain about March 2020, though we are somewhat the wiser. Thanks to evidence given to the inquiry by other members of that WhatsApp group, we know that the nation came tantalisingly close to avoiding lockdowns altogether. Plan A was to achieve so-called “herd immunity” to the virus, by allowing younger, healthy people to catch it, while protecting the elderly and vulnerable. The hope was that, if at least 60 per cent of the population was infected, there would be a “single peak” of sickness, and no deadly second wave.

    Cummings has testified that the Cabinet Office, Sage and Hancock’s department were initially united in their support for this approach. At a press conference on March 12, Vallance stated that it was neither possible nor desirable to stop everybody getting the virus. Asked the following day as to why the UK was continuing life as normal, he suggested that there was no point in locking everything down for months because the virus would spring back when restrictions were lifted. (That is exactly what it did.)

    All that changed in mid-March, when Cummings was struck by what he has called an “appalling feeling” of impending doom. Rattled by outlandish modelling of worst-case scenario death rates and suggestions that the NHS could “collapse,” on March 13 (the date the CSA-CMO-Matt-PM-Dom WhatsApp group was created), Cummings and others stood in front of a whiteboard and began sketching out a “Plan B”. This was a national lockdown.

    Despite all the time and money spent, the inquiry has yet to address arguably the most important question of all: with the benefit of hindsight, would it have been better to have stuck to Plan A? Hancock’s missing messages might shed a little more light on the matter. If the inquiry has not obtained the data, the judge must renew efforts to do so.

    As for his testimony? He won’t give an inch. The cost of lockdowns has been so devastating that it is too hard for those responsible to admit it may all have been a mistake. To this day, Hancock remains adamant that it would have been murderous to “let the virus rip”. He is still utterly scathing of the many eminent proponents of so-called targeted protection, and dismissive of the terrible social, economic and health impact of lockdowns.

    As he faces the grilling for which he has been preparing since the earliest days of the crisis, expect no contrition. He will do what everyone else in this costly charade has done –and double down.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/28/what-was-in-matt-hancocks-missing-messages/

    Hancock has done exactly as predicted and has told the inquiry that lockdown should have started earlier but can’t explain the missing entry in his diary.

  34. All doom and gloom today.

    Wordlers.

    3 today.

    Wordle 894 3/6

    ⬜🟨🟨🟨🟨
    🟩🟨🟩🟨🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Four here
        Wordle 894 4/6

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

    1. Nothing special here

      Wordle 894 4/6

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

  35. No coments allowed on the article reporting the twat saying earlier lockdown would have saved more lives.

    1. They all seem to be such bare faced liars. Nobody believes them. The only way to stop all this incessant lying is to put them in jail. It might just help to take life more seriously.

      1. Isn’t he just! Morally bankrupt, if he ever had any in the first place of which to be bankrupted. I suspect he cannot comprehend the meaning of ‘moral’ – a concept to keep the population in its place. I hope I live long enough to see justice done.

          1. Something strange about the whole ‘affair’ thing. My feeling is that it was a set-up, to get him out of the public eye because ‘Midazolam Matt’ and all that was associated with that was gaining ground on social media.

  36. I don’t know who is most deserving of being pushed headfirst into a dungheap: the bullshitter who wrote this piece or The Fakir for putting his name to it.

    The anger over the Sycamore Gap tree shows us why we must halt decline in nature

    British people want us to turn this into a moment of action, so that it becomes a symbol of renewal, not loss

    RISHI SUNAK • 29 November 2023 • 12:01am

    What happened at Sycamore Gap earlier this year angered the nation. Not only because of what the tree meant to the people of Northumberland, and the many thousands who visited it every year. But because it reminded us that once we damage nature, it can take generations to recover.

    Yet the remarkable reaction to this act of vandalism told us something else, too – something hopeful. The British people have a deep love for our natural world. They want us to turn this moment of anger into a moment of action, so that Sycamore Gap becomes a symbol not of loss, but renewal.

    That’s why we’re setting out the next steps to deliver our ambitious plans today, not just to halt the decline in nature, but to restore it and improve access to it right across the country – especially for children and young people.

    First, we will create a further 34 landscape recovery projects. Stretching across 200,000 hectares – an area one and a half times the size of Greater Manchester – we will restore woods, peat bogs, wetlands and Britain’s unique temperate rainforests.

    The projects will be delivered hand-in-hand with land managers, farmers and local communities. One of the projects will be on Hadrian’s Wall – a fitting way to respond to Sycamore Gap. Alongside this, I’m delighted that next year we will launch the process to designate a new National Park to coincide with their 75th anniversary.

    Second, we want to encourage a new green generation of children to get out into nature. Some of my most cherished memories are taking my two daughters out to walk and play near our home in the breathtaking Yorkshire Dales National Park.

    Yet research shows that children today spend less than half the time in nature that my generation did. I find it deeply troubling that so many of the next generation could lack any connection to our natural world, with all the benefits to physical and mental health it provides. That’s why today we’re announcing millions of pounds of new funding to support children to get out into nature.

    But third, it’s wrong to think that you can only enjoy nature in the countryside. Being close to nature might also mean playing in your local park – something I’ve long promoted through the pocket parks initiative or enjoying the trees in your local area.

    That is why this week, the Environment Secretary has announced a competition to find a second National Forest, building on the success of the first National Forest in the Midlands, which spans 200 square miles across parts of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire.

    And fourth, we know that you can’t tackle climate change without nature. That’s why at the Glasgow climate summit in 2021, we put nature into the centre of the climate debate for the first time, including a historic agreement to halt and reverse global forest loss and land degradation this decade. Later this week, I will travel to this year’s climate conference in the United Arab Emirates determined to once again champion nature.

    All this builds on the Government’s proud environmental record. Amongst many other things, we’ve already created or restored wildlife habitats the size of Dorset, established 100 Marine Protected Areas across 35,000 square miles of English waters, announced a moratorium on deep sea mining and passed the Environment Act, which set legally binding targets to protect nature.

    For Conservatives, protecting nature is in our DNA. Every generation has a responsibility to steward the landscapes we inherit, passing them on in a better state than we found them, through what Burke called a partnership of ‘the living and the unborn’.

    Our connection to nature is often the subject of Britain’s greatest art, literature, and music, and binds us together as a people and a country. The instinct to conserve our natural world could equally be said to be the instinct to conserve that which makes us who we are.

    That’s why today we have set out the next steps to deliver our commitment to restore nature at home and around the world.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/11/29/rishi-sunak-unveils-new-powers-to-protect-local-trees-in-wa/

    1. In my mind I can see an old oak tree, in winter with no leaves, and Rishi Sunak beneath it. With his feet swinging 2′ from the ground.

    2. And, given that the quickest way to restore the balance might be to wipe 5 or 6 billion people from the planet, would that be acceptable?

        1. Seriously, if there was such a reduction, taking out the aged, the infirm, the stupid, those with no skills, everyone with a criminal conviction, Muslims, and by lottery 90% of “those in charge”, just to ensure they didn’t feather their own nests, would the planet be better off?

          1. Well, they do cover a lot of the bases:

            Aged, infirm though in-breeding, stupid, no skills and criminal records …

          2. A better option is to absolutely, permanently restrict movement. You stay where you are unless there is abject proof you add value in another country.

            Overpopulated countries have their own problems and under populated theirs. We don’t face a 1 million a year influx and our high tech, high skill population continues to fall, as it should. The third world simply has to solve it’s own problems. End this moronic Left wing obsession with controlling nations at a global level. Policies to suit the nation, not the communists.

    3. All that stunted rodent does is lie. He couldn’t care less about the environment. He knows ‘climate change’ is a hoax. He doesn’t care. All he does is lie continually about everything. He is simply obeying his masters every whim – and, as cliche it is, that’s any globalist going.

      The scum is not serving this country. He is dedicated to feathering his nest and preparing for the next hop and instead of stabbing his boss in the back, he’s doing it to the entire country.

    4. Effing sycamore is weeds. Probably introduced by the Romans, another bunch of foreign invaders. English Nuisance or some such collection of numpties should never have allowed that tree alongside ancient ruins. 300 years old? Someone is having a laugh.

    5. The pm had time to write that did he? Gosh. Lucky the Conservatives don’t anything more important to consider. Like potholes.

  37. Reading about, listening to, and recalling the covid enquiry.
    Nobody appears to have the guts to say:
    “People will inevitably die under these conditions, we need to take hard, rational decisions on how many, which age groups, which cohorts and how we should try to protect them but NOT at the expense of the general population.

    Those in charge bent over backwards to try to save everyone. It was never going to happen and as a result huge numbers were harmed in many different ways and the most vulnerable died anyway.
    Had they had the moral fibre to discuss such things and acted upon their conclusions I have little doubt it would not have turned into the disaster it did.
    They claim to be leaders, they aren’t, and they weren’t.

    1. The media also bear a degree of responsibility. You can easily imagine the Screaming hEadlines – “The Callous Government are going to let us all die!” But that doesn’t excuse them for ignoring the Swedish pragmatism….

  38. I hope that Rusty Twig’s grandson’s assessment took place today and that there is something that can be done for the stricken lad.

    1. He is being passed from pillar to post unfortunately. This bunch he saw today have provided a list of foods he can safely eat without choking. The muscles affected are those appertaining to swallowing and control of his tongue. He has to have someone present while trying to eat.

      Next is a scan of his throat date to be advised.

      1. Progress of a sort.
        For his, and his family’s, sake I hope that things improve quickly.
        May God protect them all and give them the stoicism and skills to cope with what they must.
        Good luck to you all.

      2. .Find out as much as is possible from other sources. Don’t just rely on what one is told.
        I hope and pray for you all.

  39. Evening, all. Sometimes I think GPs have lost the plot. They have forgotten what their purpose is.

    I’ve had a frustrating day; Kadi stole one of my goatskin gloves from the pocket of the jacket I wore last night and which I’d left on the back of a chair. He ate a third of it! I was not best pleased. Consequently he had three bikkies and two cuddles docked from pay and every time he looked puzzled I held up the gloves. He looked ashamed and ran off. I hope the message has got through.

          1. Kadi was ignored. When I fussed Oscar, Kadi came up for his usual share – I just showed him the mangled glove and he slunk off. He knew what he’d done. I didn’t keep it up for long, but long enough. No need to shout at him; guilt was written all over his face.

  40. Utterly off topic.
    HG enjoys the fish pie that I make with prawns, shrimps, cod and smoked haddock.
    It’s similar to a cottage pie or a shepherd’s pie.

    Is there a similar name for such a dish, such as fisherman’s pie or trawlerman’s pie?

    1. Definitely fisherman’s pie! Findus do a frozen thing with gratin called an Admirals pie!

      1. Mine worked out at roughly £3 a portion.
        Three nights this week and three nights’ worth into the freezer.

      2. Findus…Success on a plate for you…………..argghhhh !

        My secret fish pie recipe…just for you. see below.

    2. I have always called it fisherman’s pie, but unable to get smoked haddock easily, so I use a cold smoked piece of salmon cut up with whatever fish that I have in the freezer, along with cod, shrimp etc. I also add clam juice with white wine for the sauce.

      1. I use white wine and a little cream and some tarragon. I get extra juice/liquid from shallots cooked gently in a little butter as I start the dish.

    3. We make a similar dish and sometimes substitute mashed swede and carrots instead of mashed spuds…

  41. I’ve just got round to watching the video on mind control that damask_rose (?) posted last week. It is fascinating, and there were several surprises. I genuinely had not realised how easy it is to manipulate people. The covid stuff was all pretty obvious – at least I thought so at the time. Now wondering how often I have been influenced by small things that I was completely unaware of.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhJlEIoZP_4

    1. Yes, I thought it was an eye-opener, too. I am glad I don’t watch much TV or read MSM outlets.

    2. Watched 14 minutes, without seeing any more, are they all of people who are pretty young, watch and listen to the news as well as recent films, and care about what others think of them?

      1. That was only the first experiment (but it did shock me with what precision the kids were manipulated!). Later it showed an experiment on a cinema audience, and a still from a film that came out just before the failed attempts at a swine flu pandemic. Also some stuff about coffee – apparently caffeine makes you more likely to want to follow the herd.

    3. Back in March 2020 I asked someone on Facebook who identified himself as a hospital consultant if he thought that the Stanley Milgram Obedience Experiment was relevant to Covid. He said yes of course and explained why. I wish I’d cut and pasted his answer but I didn’t and couldn’t find it later. The other comments on that thread showed very little understanding.
      https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html

  42. Lee Anderson tells Ursula von der Leyen to ‘shut up’ about Brexit
    European Commission president has suggested younger generation can ‘fix’ mistake of Britain’s EU exit
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/11/30/lee-anderson-tells-eu-chief-to-shut-up-after-she-suggested/

    BTL

    So we know that the Great Windsor Sell Out was an attempt to cosy up to the EU over Northern Ireland – Mr Anderson must know that too.

    It really is time that Lee Anderson joined Reform.

    What does he make of Sunak’s betrayals and what does he make of the Great Gibraltar Betrayal that Sunak has brought Cameron back into government to do?

  43. Right, chums, after a busy and productive day, I shall now leave the NoTTLers’ site and wish you all a good night. I’m not off to bed, but instead I shall now watch a DVD of TRUMBO, the blacklisted Hollywood scriptwriter in the 1950s.

  44. Sick, sick, sick.

    Hamas ghouls parade distressed captive father of dead ten-month-old hostage Kfir Bibas in new video – as they say Israel is refusing to take the bodies of the tragic baby, his four year old brother and their mother

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12811257/Hamas-claims-Israel-refusing-accept-offer-repatriating-dead-bodies-Bibas-family-including-10-month-old-Kfir-sharing-sick-video-distressed-father-Yarden-Bibas-captivity.html

    Would this be the same Hamas that claimed that the child had been passed/sold by them to another terrorist group?

    When the ceasefire ends, I hope that Israel deep cleanses Gaza and kills every Hamas “soldier” without compunction and while they are about it every other Jihadist supporter.

      1. Where, doubtless, they will breed like rabbits producing another generation of haters and terrorists.

        1. The Germans have been trying very hard to bury that. Most modern Germans would be aghast at being accused of such a thing. Right up to A. Merkle. Then they had no choice. Just like here.

    1. Times of Israel has nothing on this but that do have a story about hamas releasing a recent video of the family. Hopefully the DM jumped the gun.

      Somehow I don’t see Israel taking this quietly.

    1. The longer the PTB and the MSM fail to address this problem the more incidents like this one will occur.

    2. This link says the murdered taxi driver was of Middle Eastern origin.

      https://rmx.news/crime/14-year-old-swedish-girl-hung-her-middle-eastern-rapist-report/

      The murder victim had only been reported as a rapist by the girl. The accusation was never tested in court.

      As for not naming him, as the rape claimant and three of the four brothers were legal minors at the time of the murder, would that explain why none involved, including both the murder victim and eldest brother, have been named? Would naming the taxi driver and eldest brother aid those wanting to uncover the identities of the 4 minors?

  45. Am I alone in having had enough of the “lived experience” guff? The lived experience of any individual is necessarily limited. Why should anyone be entitled to demand that everyone else be defined by those limitations.

      1. If you are not joking, I think Sue means the kind of person who gets up and says that their lived experience trumps everyone else’s opinion about something, because they can’t possibly have a valid opinion about something they haven’t experienced first hand.
        A highly convenient mechanism for ensuring that only trans people are allowed to make decisions about laws and rules around trans people, for example.

    1. I incorporated my ‘Lived Experience’ into my Autobiography (1944 – 2014) and have continued with a journal that charts daily (weekly/monthly) life from 2014 onwards.

  46. Well you learn something every day – just watched the Horse Guards on CH5 and it appears the busby/bearskin was introduced donkeys (sorry!) years ago because it frightened the enemies horses. Our enemies don’t have horses so why don’t they change their headgear to ‘pork pie’ hats to see off the Mussies?

    1. Excellent idea. With a string of pork sausages around the neck, like a Lord Mayor’s chain. I thought that for when the going gets rough, I would ensure that there was always bacon in the fridge…!

    2. Bearskins are old hat (eyeroll) Same as underdrawed Scots. All is needed now is herds of pretty goats to distract them

  47. What a lovely night for a walk with a bright waning gibbous moon and lots of stars. Orion being fairly clear.
    Up the hill towards the village, veer off to Slaley, then cut across to the Head of the Dale, up to Uppertown and down for a pint in the King’s Head.
    Then up Stepping Lane and cut across the fields to the Barley Mow for a 2nd pint, and back home.
    A pleasant 2½h walk and -4°C when I got home.

    And that’s me off to bed, so g’night all.

    1. After 6 or 7 pints of Guinness I like looking up on the way home from the pub. But I’m always careful about the ditches after previous mishaps.

        1. Things do look black. To tell the truth I only do (generally) one full night on the Guinness a week. That’s open mic on a Monday, 8pm to 1130pm. Wednesdays and Fridays are early doors (5pm to 630pm) 3-4 swift pints. Apart from that I’m teetotal, except for wine at home of course.

          1. Sounds perfectly healthy to me. My Doctor told me i have to drink 3 litres of fluids every day. I am struggling with that. Perhaps i should go the Guinness route.

          2. It’s very good for the tummy. Your pints of bitter and lager ain’t in it for a kinder effect on the stomach.

          3. TBH i have never been a pint drinker. I liked the small glasses of the strong ales but they made me quite merry too quickly. Friends have recommended guinness zero which as people that go off to Dublin occasionally was a good suggestion.

          4. Arrrrghhrrrr!
            Guinness Zero!
            Haven’t tried it and never will. A pint of (proper) Guinness in Ireland does taste smoother than a pint of it in England, but I’ve no idea why. Alcohol is a proven cheererupper, despite the so called depressant it is claimed to be by puritan arseholes.

          5. The reason it tastes better in Ireland is those casks haven’t been pissed in.

            Perhaps you are right. I wouldn’t know. Someone i trust who drinks Guinness said the new zero version was very good. That person being RN.

          6. Good point about them pissing in the exported Guinness, it might be true. In an Oirish accent, “Who da fock would be drinking a point of Guinness wid no alkyhol innit?”

            Off to bed now, sleep tight, Phizz, meboy!

          7. Afore ye go. Alcohol does not suit everyone. My late sister couldn’t handle it. Some folk get stroppy with it. Some people get maudlin with it. Some people get screwed up with it. Me, I become the nicest, funniest and best looking person in the world. Well, the happiest at any rate. G’night, Phizz.

          8. It’s kind of you to mention it honey. I get all lovey dovey. You’re lookin’ mighty fine to me sweet cheeks. :@)

          9. It’s the invisible force field on the border of every country that ensures that all of that country’s food leaving its borders will NEVER taste as good when you eat it at home!

    1. How about this one…

      Just read that Eskimos have over 50 different words for snow.

      That’s nowhere near as many as I have for black people when the ad breaks come on.

    2. Save this one for me because i will be busy on that day…

      Vet : it’s a simple procedure really so if could get little tabby cat here to relax we will have you both home soon, okay Sir.

      Oh my god, did you just assume my gender, you bigot, you far right extremist?

      Vet : Look mate do you want me to get your cock out of your cat or not?

      Yes please.


        1. Irish police are keeping tight lipped on confirmation of Shane McGowens death until they examine Dental records
          .

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