Tuesday 17 January: Ditch political targets and let clinicians do the job of reforming the NHS

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

565 thoughts on “Tuesday 17 January: Ditch political targets and let clinicians do the job of reforming the NHS”

  1. Good Morrow, Gentlefolk. Here is today’s story:

    Controlling One’s Temper

    A woman goes to the Doctor, worried about her husband’s temper.

    The Doctor asks: “What’s the problem?”

    The woman says: “Doctor, I don’t know what to do. Every day my husband seems to lose his temper for no reason. It scares me.”

    The Doctor says: “I have a cure for that. When it seems that your husband is getting angry, just take a glass of water and start swishing it in your mouth. Just swish and swish but don’t swallow it until he either leaves the room or calms down.”

    Two weeks later the woman comes back to the doctor looking fresh and reborn.

    The woman says: “Doctor that was a brilliant idea! Every time my husband started losing it, I swished with water. I swished and swished, and he calmed right down! How does a glass of water do that?”

    The Doctor says: “The water itself does nothing. It’s keeping your mouth shut that does the trick.”

    I’m not a misogynist, I just think it’s funny.

  5. Don’t faint, it is I LeClerc.
    Up early so I can get going mid morning or earlier.
    Bloody cold today.

    1. -5°C and a crescent moon in Moffat.

      I hope the moon doesn’t mean that the Moffat Mosque has received planning permission.

    2. Best wishes for a successful day, Ann.

      I spoke to the ‘Big Man’ last evening and asked him to take special care of both you and your OH.

    3. Good luck, today, Ann.
      Everything crossed at Allan Towers for better news.
      Oh, and I had a word.

  7. Europe awakens to the threat of sabotage by Russian agents. 17 January 2023.

    Suspicion has fallen on Russia over a series of confirmed or apparent acts of sabotage and espionage that took place late last year in Western Europe, experts say, with European countries increasingly taking measures in response.

    The acts came after two events that hurt Russian interests. In September, explosions in the Baltic Sea put Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines to Germany out of use. The Kremlin blamed the sabotage on the United Kingdom, without evidence. Ukraine and Poland blamed Russia but also provided no evidence.

    Then, on October 7, the Kerch Strait Bridge was bombed, interrupting Moscow’s ability to supply Russian-annexed Crimea, an attack Russia blamed on Ukraine’s military intelligence.

    The Russians blew up their own Pipeline and Bridge because they were somehow antithetical to their interests? God give me strength! This is the most preposterous rubbish but the author actually exceeds it later.

    In the April attack, you had to reach several access points along rail lines or highways. The perpetrators knew what they were doing to maximise damage and they cut not just specific points but removed sections of the cable, which makes them more difficult to repair,” Laudrain said.

    They carried away the cables? It was they that sold them to the local scrap dealers no doubt?

    I suppose the next suggestion is that we remove all the road signs so as to confuse them?

    In normal times one would suppose this to be some outrageous piece of satire to highlight the nonsense that is the West’s claims but if this piece tells us anything it is of the absolute desperation of the Political Elites to convince us of Russian perfidy!

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/17/europe-awakens-to-the-threat-of-sabotage-by-russian-agents

    1. If drivers have to douse their LED headlights, then I’m all for wartime restrictions.
      The bloody things fry your eyeballs.

  9. ‘Morning, Peeps.  A bit nippy this morning – -2°C – but at least the rain has stopped and the flooding in and around Hastings, Battle and Bodiam (to name but 17) is slowly subsiding.  I really pity all those who find themselves having to go through the huge clearing up exercise, with some businesses in E Sussex having to do so for the third time in just a few months.  Poor devils.

    I hesitate to publish this item!  It appeared late in yesterday’s DT.  Those of a nervous disposition should avoid, as I don’t want to be responsible for any Nottlr reading it and croaking their last…

    Don’t use the word ‘homosexual’, Home Office civil servants told

    Advice given to officials during talk on using ‘the right language’ for LGBT issues

    ByDominic Penna, POLITICAL REPORTER 16 January 2023 • 8:05pm

    Civil servants at the Home Office were told not to use the word “homosexual” as part of a presentation on gendered language.

    Members of the department’s Homeland Security Group, which leads work on Britain’s counter-terrorism response, attended a talk last week focused on “the right language” around LGBT issues.

    On Monday, the Home Office moved to distance itself from its contents, which it said did not represent “departmental or government guidance”.

    Across 12 slides on gender issues, first reported by Guido Fawkes, Whitehall staff were told: “Be aware a person’s sex, gender identity, and gender expression may not correspond.

    “Genderqueer is a blanket term for those who don’t define their gender in binary terms … It is not a modern invention. Each identity is valid and deserves respect.”

    A slide on language to avoid using included the terms homosexual and homosexuality, which it said is “generally considered a medical term now. People tend to use gay instead. Can reduce the person to purely sexual terms”. It also warned against the use of the word transsexual.

    The presentation urged civil servants to wear rainbow lanyards, include their personal pronouns in email signatures and join the LGBT Civil Service staff network.

    They were also shown an extract from an email which read “sorry for calling you mate”, which appears to have been included to dissuade others from using such language.

    It comes as The Telegraph can reveal the Home Office’s LGBT network held five events during working hours in as many months last year.

    The lectures included a 90-minute virtual session on The Queer Dead: Reconnecting with LGBT+ People from Long Ago, as well as an hour-long Power in Pride Trans Panel and a seminar on Challenging Assumptions of Masculinity to mark International Men’s Day.

    The other two events were called Power in Pride: Finally Me; and Imposter Syndrome, Social Mobility, and the Power of Positive Thinking. The former event lasted for an hour and a half, with the latter taking up a further hour of staff time for attendees.

    In its response to the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which uncovered the events, the Home Office said the events helped civil servants “to be their best selves at work, reducing sick leave and improving performance”.

    A Home Office spokesman said: “The Home Office is committed to supporting diversity and inclusion within the department.

    “This document was used as part of an internal event in the Home Office, and is not official departmental or government guidance.”

    * * *

    No comments allowed.

    1. It’s narcism writ large, isn’t it? Me, me, me, m, look at me, me…

      There was an article in the Press Reader Terriblegraph today with no comments/no ability to read in text view. I will summarise it later. About the Mayor if New York going to Texas and saying no more immigrants please in New York, New York is full up.

    3. I absolutely abhor this use of ‘gender’ to replace ‘sex’, of which there are only two, male and female, easily provable by the ‘science’ of DNA and chromosomes.

      As for ‘Homosexuals’ and ‘Lesbians’. they too are terms that have been around a long time without causing a furore among the thinking population, and merely describe certain people’s differences in lifestyles.

      For these woke, whinging, whining juveniles to try and change our magnificent language, is an affront to our sensibilities and just highlights their lack of a real education.

      End of rant.

      3. Morning, Tom. As you know, gender is a grammatical term. There are three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Men and women are defined by their sex.

        1. Exactly, Delboy.

          With my knowledge of both French and German, I’ve never got the hang of assigning a gender to an inanimate object..I don’t bother and let them shrug, “Oh, he’s English.”

          Mind, when you see some of these LGBT types, gender might be the right term for these inanimate objects.

          1. I find that, in Norwegian, trying each gender, one sounds better – and is usually the right one.

          2. I hadn’t realised that Norwegian has gender. Swedish doesn’t, just et and en words that also make no sense.

          3. En – male, et – neuter. Female has fallen out of use, except in dialect, where there’s ei.
            En bil, et hus, ei jente – a car, a house, a girl.

          4. But in Swedish it is husset, nothing to do with gender, it’s just an et word and that’s about all I can remember.

          12. Indeed and a very special and beautiful place on its own island. The shops are wonderful, especially at Christmas.

          13. Et hus – a house. Huset – the house. Neuter.
            En bil – a car. Bilen – the car. Masculine / common
            Ei jente – a girl. Jenta – the girl. Feminine.

        1. Anna Slatz; “… At the time, both of the twins were just 6 years old.”

          What? Both twins were the same age? Who would have thought it!

        2. A really disgusting paedophile. He should be dug up and reburied in a sewage system where the effluent of millions is poured over his remains forever.

          The John Hopkins Child Clinic is still a centre for paedos and perverts: In 2013, it was discovered that a male gynaecologist had been taking voyeuristic photographs of his patients with special camera-equipped pens, key fobs and other recording devices. The number of victims was about 8,000 – 9,000. He was fired on February 8, 2013, and committed suicide 10 days later. Only one of many, I suspect.

  10. Morning all. Cold in sunny Richmond upon Thames…

    Got another Christmas card delivered yesterday, from a friend in Putney….

    1. This is getting to be as bad as putting the Brussels Sprouts on to boil in April in time for Christmas. Should we perhaps start writing and posting our Christmas 2023 cards by the end of this month?

    2. You need a Royal Barge to deliver your mail.
      I’ve watched “A Man For All Seasons” so I know they were faster.

  11. Flood prevention

    SIR – In relation to your article, “Will paved driveways sink our country?” (Features, January 14),
    I am reminded of the many times I have found in manor court rolls
    (records of local justice of the medieval and post-medieval period) the
    prosecution and fining of individuals for not “scouring their ditches”.

    In
    my walks around south Essex I see any number of waterways and ditches
    that are blocked, silted up or choked with debris, which inevitably
    cause local and sometimes extensive flooding, even in times of low
    rainfall. I marvel at the abilities of our ancestors to understand the
    consequences of not ensuring the free flow of surface waters – an
    insight clearly lacking today.

    Perhaps it’s time the Environment
    Agency and Government understood and, more importantly, brought into
    play the importance and value of these surface channels.

    Tony Newbould
    Brentwood, Essex

    The real reason why these watercourses and drains are blocked is to increase flooding. Then the authorities can blame it on the so called climate emergency.

    EU diktats should be binned and we should go back to how we once looked after our Country.

    1. Thought exact that when i read the letter. Also, now it is no longer a collective communal responsibility but “someone else’s”…i.e. the Government’s.

      We have brought this on ourselves by letting the Socialists take over. Truly the people of this country are mostly sheep (present company of course excepted).

  12. 370104+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    The botanist over on twitter are seemingly having a rage in, much more of it and the defibrillators will be running HOT.

  13. SIR ­– As part of an improvement programme in an NHS hospital trust, my team was asked to follow paper trails. In order to do this we simply accompanied a form on its journey from department to department.

    On many occasions, after we had been dutifully filled in by staff along the way, the trail led to a dead end, and the papers were simply thrown away by the final recipient, as he or she had no idea what they were for, why they were receiving them or what to do with them.

    It seemed that everyone along the pathway had the power to create a new form or add a new request for further information, but no one had the authority to stop an old one or question its validity.

    Michael Baker
    Nawton, North Yorkshire

    Multiply this appalling situation many times and you get an idea of the shocking waste of time and effort in the NHS.  Widespread and thorough reform is both essential and long overdue.

    1. I know a chap who managed to condense four separate A4 double sided forms each requiring Patient’s name, DoB details etc for day surgery to one A4 form which included the Anaesthetic chart…. I expect these days the form is no longer required as everything in computerised /s

      1. Today they printed off my details and stuck them to each of the sheets as well as my wrist band. Saved having to write it out all those times, I suppose but most of the pages were stapled together.

    2. Morning all. Whenever we have had to go to hospital there are always several people walking (slowly!) along clutching a piece of paper. Five minutes later they re back again. Still with a piece of paper.

    3. The Sister asked me if I wanted a copy of my consent form – I said, “no thanks, I’ve got enough paperwork.” She smiled and replied, “I’ll file it then.”

  16. SIR – When I finally passed my driving test – having had a provisional licence for 18 years – my instructor said the only reason the examiner had passed me was because the woman taking her test before me had been so dreadful that when the examiner had told her that at the next roundabout she should go straight over, she did. Over the kerb and grass.

    “After her,” he said, “even you seemed quite good.”

    Maggie Hughes
    Gnosall, Staffordshire

    When I was learning with a retired bus driving instructor (costing 10/- for an hour and a half) his response to tailgating was similar: “Just another driver rushing to his own funeral”.

  19. Ditch political targets and let clinicians do the job of reforming the NHS

    If it wasn’t for the NHS what would the three mainstream parties have to argue about at elections?

  20. SIR – The challenges of meeting the Government’s environmental goals are becoming clearer by the day.

    From next year car manufacturers will be fined if they don’t hit their targets for electric vehicle production (Business, January 16), despite ongoing problems with range anxiety and the shortage of charging infrastructure.

    Unrealistic targets for the installation of heat pumps are threatened by a shortage of qualified engineers, as well as the technical difficulties of retrofitting the pumps.

    But the biggest problem is the cost of the products. If I replace my Kia car with an electric model, it will cost me twice as much. If I replace my gas boiler with a heat pump and suitable radiators, it will set me back at least £20,000. These costs are not feasible for most people, and the state of Britain’s finances means that subsidies are unrealistic. It’s time for a debate based on facts, not wishful thinking.

    Roger Gentry
    Weavering, Kent

    Fat chance, Mr Gentry, but as the wretched net zero approaches the government that denies such a debate will never be forgiven.  Something has to give (apart from our prosperity, of course) and when the gas boiler is outlawed perhaps the population will finally wake up to the idiocy that is being imposed upon them.  It won’t be pretty when it happens, but perhaps by then a new political party will have been formed that will see off the others and repeal one of the most damaging pieces of legislation ever to reach the statute book.

    3. MPs don’t give a stuff. Their intention is to continue to trough on the green scam while using it as a method of soaking the earner of tax.

  21. Britain is going to rejoin the EU far sooner than anyone now imagines.17 January 2023.

    It is time for the Leave camp to start saying the unsayable: the Tories have made such a hash of Brexit that the project is probably now unsalvageable. Given Labour’s Europhile disposition, the window to lay the foundations for Brexit Britain was always limited to the Conservatives’ current reign. Now the end is nigh, and almost nothing has been achieved.

    Did we ever actually leave?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/16/britain-going-rejoin-eu-farsooner-anyone-now-imagines/

    2. If we did we managed to leave NI still within its clutches. A part of this country is now a vassal state in all but name. Whoda thunkit?

      1. I have never understood why NI should be the bit that has to comply with the EU.
        If the EU want compliance, everything of that should be done on the Eire side of the border, customs checks, regulatory compliance, border posts etc..
        I have little doubt Eire would ignore the EU Diktats when they were losing so much trade with one of their largest and most convenient markets.

        1. It’s what Boris ‘the slob’ Johnson called “getting Brexit done”. Getting this country done in, more like.

        2. It is vulnerable due to it’s history. The EU wanted leverage, it chose Northern Ireland.

          Teresa may, that useless woman refused to allow no deal through parliament – well, in fact the entire of Westminster fought Brexit from the outset.

          1. I agree re the history, but more pressure can be brought on Eire than they can bring on NI. It might even encourage Eire to leave the EU.

            I doubt even the EU would wish the “troubles” to restart.

          1. So what?
            If the EU wants a hard border, make them enforce it.
            If they insist on EU regulations then ban Irish vessels from UK waters, they’ll love having to go around the UK to export their goods. Also create and enforce arcane rules for anything crossing into NI from Eire. Fight fire with fire, it will hurt Eire a lot more than it will hurt the UK.

            They will soon tell the EU where they can put their regulations.

          2. Ah, but that would require a genuine desire to leave and be free. Nobody in Westminster appears to be so endowed.

        4. That’s because the EU knew our remaniac government would let it grab hold of NI. They even changed our car nationality logo from GB (which includes NI) to UK (which doesn’t).

    1. I like that idea a lot, B3! We could extend the same arrangement to politicians, although only the fattest amongst them would have room for all their sponsors’ badges!

  23. Spotted this in the BTL comments.  I think it is high time Olivia Wilde had her own column!

    Olivia Wilde1 HR AGO

    Re; Jeremy Clarkson and H&M.

    Prince Harry and Meghan accuse JC., of “long standing hate rhetoric and misogyny” after he sent them an email apologising for his recent outburst.

    These two are the King and queen of Woke, sitting on their make believe thrones, forever passing judgement on everyone else with their sanctimonious proclamations.

    Just who do they think they are?!

    Their own Archewell website states; “Leading the way with compassion”…you really couldn’t make it up could you?!

    I strongly suggest, that they both re-avail themselves of their own Woke doctrine which they so often love to preach to others and appear to have conveniently forgotten in this Instance…maybe because It Involves them! -compassion, kindness and forgiveness; In other words, starting to practice what they preach, hypocrites!

    Hear, hear!

      1. You’re not so bad on BTL yourself Anne. You get good marks on BTL and some are wondering what your first name is. I kept your secret.

    2. Hypocrisy is inherent in the Left wing mind. They’re bitter, twisted, spiteful people who think the world revolves around them, that they can do no wrong and think themselves permanently aggrieved.

  24. This case really gets to me: partly because – despite ever more ways to communicate – we have experienced lack of communication in a different context and partly because my father was in the Met during the 1930s and early 1940s.

    “David Carrick

    The fact he was known as “B—–d Dave” among his colleagues ought to have served as a red flag to his Scotland Yard bosses.

    David Carrick, who served with the Metropolitan Police’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection command, seemed to revel in his reputation of being a tough guy who was cold hearted and cruel.

    A former soldier, who was obsessed with motorbikes and had a pet snake, the 48-year-old would brag to anyone who would listen about being an armed cop and a man of action.

    He would boast about how his job meant he protected prime ministers and other VIPs, when in reality he spent his time guarding buildings.

    Able to come across as charming, Carrick would deliberately target women with vulnerabilities, meeting them socially or online on dating websites such as Tinder.

    He then exploited his position as a police officer to gain the trust of his victims, sometimes flashing his warrant card and telling them they would be “safe” with him.

    But after attacking them, Carrick would gloat that they would never be believed, because he was a policeman and it would be his word against theirs.

    For almost two decades, he was able to wear the uniform of the Metropolitan Police while at the same time carrying out scores of rapes and sex assaults.

    Born in Salisbury into a military family, Carrick never married but had dozens of short-term girlfriends, according to neighbours in the smart street in Stevenage where he lived.

    One said: “He’s always got a different girl around there. He’s not married and has no kids, you just see different women all the time, no men.

    “It’s been years they’ve been coming around – one a month – they move out as quickly as they move in. He just seems to find one after the other – it was a standing joke among neighbours.”

    Another local resident said Carrick was into bodybuilding and had a home gym in his spare bedroom.

    He said: “He’s just a womaniser but I don’t know much else about him. He used to say hello every now and again. The women were all different, short, tall – there was no one type – and around his age.

    “He did used to big up the fact he worked for the Met and worked on big jobs. He used to come past with his rucksack on and talk about his day: ‘I’ve been at the London Bridge attack,’ etc.”

    Neighbours also described how women would regularly move in, bringing boxes of possessions, only to move out a few weeks later.

    “You’d see him walking arm in arm down the road with a woman and then a week later you’d see another woman.”

    Carrick was finally unmasked in Oct 2021, when a woman came forward to allege that he had raped her following an internet date in September the previous year.

    She explained that they had met online and had arranged to go for a drink in St Albans.

    True to form, Carrick had bragged about being an armed policeman and said he regularly protected Boris Johnson – something that was not actually true.

    After plying her with wine, Carrick’s behaviour became increasingly sinister and after revealing his nickname, he took her back to his pre-booked hotel room where he allegedly raped her.

    When he was arrested at home, Carrick’s first words to the officers at his front door was “oh no, not again”, referring to the fact he had been accused of rape just three months earlier.

    In the end, he pleaded guilty to 49 charges covering more than 80 offences against 12 women.

    But police fear more victims are yet to come forward and the final toll could yet be even higher.”

      2. I don’t know what to make of it but the Warqueen said ‘The girls wanted a bad boy and were surprised when he was.’

  25. SIR – The challenges of meeting the Government’s environmental goals are becoming clearer by the day.

    From next year car manufacturers will be fined if they don’t hit their targets for electric vehicle production (Business, January 16), despite ongoing problems with range anxiety and the shortage of charging infrastructure.

    Unrealistic
    targets for the installation of heat pumps are threatened by a shortage
    of qualified engineers, as well as the technical difficulties of
    retrofitting the pumps.

    But the biggest problem is the cost of the
    products. If I replace my Kia car with an electric model, it will cost
    me twice as much. If I replace my gas boiler with a heat pump and
    suitable radiators, it will set me back at least £20,000. These costs
    are not feasible for most people, and the state of Britain’s finances
    means that subsidies are unrealistic. It’s time for a debate based on
    facts, not wishful thinking.

    Roger Gentry
    Weavering, Kent

    Guess what Mr Gentry. They are still going to go ahead with this nonsense.

  26. Yet another bent policeman. Did I miss the mass resignations of the “Commissioners” with their SS uniforms, and medals and white braid?

  28. 370104+ up ticks,

    Well I never, there’s a thing to behold,

    Richard Braine Retweeted
    Stephen for England
    @hewentatthat
    ·
    Jan 15
    In 1833, Britain used 40% of its national budget to buy freedom for all slaves in the Empire. Britain borrowed such a large sum of money for the Slavery Abolition Act that it wasn’t paid off until 2014. This means that living British citizens helped pay for the ending. Job done?

          1. Yes. Owning slaves was perfectly legal until 1833, so buying their freedom was the quickest method of achieving this. Otherwise there would have been a protracted battle in Parliament and in the Courts, which would have dragged on for years.

          2. What they did with that freedom can be seen, and is entirely visible, among their descendants and the black community at large – and too much at large

    3. Tell that to the turbulent priest.

      Rastus, your ancestor is calling for a repeat performance.

  29. 370104+ up ticks,

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    19h
    A short statement by Andrew Bridgen MP on his suspension by the Tory Party for speaking up about vaccine harms.

    I cannot share his optimism that the Scum MSM will now take up the issue, but I will be glad to be proved wrong.

    Anyone who makes a stand against the Globalist narrative is branded by the MSM as one of the ‘ists’ or guilty of the ‘isms’ – the most potent being ‘anti-Semitism’. It takes courage for a politician to speak out.

    https://gettr.com/post/p25912201ce

    1. It was not Andrew Bridgen but the foul Matthew Hancock who weaponised the Holocaust.

      In saying that Covid vaccine damage could be the worst thing since the Holocaust Bridgen was not making any pejorative comment about the Jews – indeed his point was that their treatment by Hitler was a great landmark in the history of human atrocity.

      Most people will admit that Big Pharma has made a metaphorical killing with the so-called vaccines and their coffers are overflowing with cash. But most people are not prepared to admit that this killing could be literal and sinister and that the damage and death caused by the vaccine is at worst deliberate or at best merely ignored by the politicians who could have blood on their hands.

      We should all be worried that the PTB are so determined to stop any serious debate taking place in Parliament or in the MSM.

    1. I find that odd, too. It is often colder when the sun gets up than when it is dark.

      I see some rich bastard can afford electric light!!

        2. TVM, I had a notion that the Sun was pushing the cold air before it (heat rises letting the cooler air in) but this makes far more sense.

      3. The chap concerned pays nothing. We do. He’s under care in the community. He’s no trouble, but I wonder how he’ll manage when his parents (both in their mid 80s) can no longer run around after him. They visit every day and take him shopping as necessary.

        I’m of a similar vintage to him, but I do the running around for my parents, who are also both in their mid 80s.

    1. Comment made:-

      Bob of Bonsall
      a minute ago
      The NT has long had a reputation of being one of the worst agricultural landlords in the country.
      A prime example was when hill farmers became eligible for a particular EU payment, so the NT sent advisors to every one of the tenants who qualified to assist them with the paper-work.

      Then, when the payments were made, increased their rents by EXACTLY the same amount they’d been granted by the EU.

    1. The problem with band wagoner jumpers like Starmer is, they never learn to check the shape of the wagons wheels.
      Quite often the wheels are square.

  33. Good morning all. Slept in a bit, but a bright & sunny start to the day with a tad over -3°C on the yard thermometer.

    2. -0.9C here, and settled snow on top of heavy hale last night. It would be terribly boring and cold to clear the car. I shall stay in and wait for a thaw. Round about March…

        1. Hare-brained led me to these paragraphs I penned in my journal a while back”

          Travelling towards Fenny Compton I spotted a hare in a field of stubble about 50 feet from the towpath. Hare and me travelled together for about 100 yards before it hared off into the distance following a track made by a tractor. I could just see the black tips of its ears as it sped away like a diminutive Mo Farrah approaching the finishing line.

          I hailed the couple on the stern of the approaching narrow boat: “Just the one or both?” “All three” they replied – the boat’s name: “Basket case”…

    3. -0.9C here, and settled snow on top of heavy hale last night. It would be terribly boring and cold to clear the car. I shall stay in and wait for a thaw. Round about March…

  34. Good morning from an Anglo Saxon Queen with longbow and axe in the handbag.

    A freezing cold morning in East Anglia – 7 here just a little earlier- might need to swap longbow for ice pick – at least its a clear blue sky . Just about to have porridge for breakfast .

  35. Morning all 😉 😊
    My word it’s cold out side today. Minus 5 feeling like Minus 8. Not that I’m going out. I had to put the CH on when I arose to make the tea. What else can we do ?
    And yes take the destructive effects of ‘do as your told’ politics out of health care. And let the people who know, (the professionals) what they are doing take charge.

  37. Good morning, all. The climate weather has changed chez Korky. Yesterday was overcast, wet and chilly and now today it is clear, sunny, frosty and very cold.

    Note the politician pushing the jab hard and then becoming concerned about an epidemic of lawsuits.

    There is No Question Anymore

  38. 370104+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Don’t use the word ‘homosexual’, Home Office civil servants told
    Advice given to officials during talk on using ‘the right language’ for LGBT issues

    Wooly woofter or poofter has much softer connotations.

      1. An Oz naval buddy of mine regularly used the term ‘Jabber’, and me not wishing to appear uninformed I just let it pass, until curiosity got the better of me; so I sought inter navy clarification.

        (Needs Okker accent)

        “Oh, that’s short for Pooh-Jabber mate!” He replied without missing a beat.

        Still makes me chuckle 40+ years later.

        1. Lewis Carroll was clearly predicting the future:

          Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
          Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
          All mimsy were the borogoves,
          And the mome raths outgrabe.

          “Beware the Jabber-woke, my son
          The Tweets that bite, the claws that scratch!

          (With apols)

    2. This gets so confusing. ‘Queer’ used to be an insulting term decades ago, but not now – see the ‘Q’ in ‘LGBTQ+’. Likewise the terms for black people keep changing – ‘Black’ used to be derogatory, so the term ‘coloured people’ was used instead. Now that is taboo – it is ‘people of colour’. And don’t get me started on the term ‘cis’.

    3. If Homosexual is no longer de-rigger, then Homo-sapiens as a description has completely lost its meaning…

      1. Aren’t these two different roots to the root route?

        Homo same in one case and homo man in the other?

          4. At my granddaughters’ primary school they were taught the difference between homophones and a homonyms when they were 6 years old….

          5. …and not before time, either.

            Education today – in the hands of the feminine woke – is sadly lacking in substance.

      2. When I needed a new halyard for my boat, Raua, when I was in the Caribbean I was advised to see de-riggers!

        I wonder if it was a sort of rhyming slang in the Windward Islands for black chaps.

    4. The only man in a dress I know was a loud mouthed egotist who demanded everyone obey him. Frankly, such people need defenestrating.

      1. When I was a contracts manager I called into the office late one Friday.
        There was a bit of a commotion happening in one of the partners office. I open the door to find a crossing director had been pinned against the wall behind ‘his’ desk. Not I discovered a result of sexual attraction. But by a burly bricklayer who apparently hadn’t been paid properly for his work. I had to laugh as I closed the door.

          1. He didn’t mention it later. 😉😊
            I expect the brickie got his due payment though.
            This was about 25 years ago and he use to keep his nail polish on.

      2. What about kilts? King Charles likes to flash his knees whenever he gets the chance.

      2. There is a place in Cambridgeshire named as Godmanchester.

        My Father always referred to it as ‘Christliverpool’.

    6. I believe it is acceptable for homosexuals to say they are queer and for black people to say they are niggers.

      What is not acceptable is for white heterosexual people to use such terms.

      I have no objection to being called honky and straight – what are the unacceptable terms for straight and non-black people?

        1. I’m just happy to be identified as heterosexual, but it’s too big a word for their pore branes.

      2. 370104+ up ticks.

        Morning R,
        My old mum was the best at it with
        I’m gasping for a fag, ( poof)
        That couple are homely ( plain & ugly)
        Knock me up in the morning ( )

          1. Not sure Tom, I was trying to think of the commercial name – Passing Cloud springs to mind

          2. You might be right – those exotics where rarely my brand. I do remember Sobranie Black Russian.

        2. I’ve got my gas CH on too. But I’m on a two-year fixed-price tariff which expires in August 2023, so I don’t have to worry about fuel prices until later this year.

  43. 370104+ up ticks,

    It has come to pass that the turkish delight ( johnson) has signed a book deal, I do believe that a charge of plagiarism can be made prior to him putting pen to parchment in regards to similarities with Mein Kampf

  44. January 17 1809. The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna

    Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
    As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
    Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
    O’er the grave where our hero we buried.
    …

    Slowly and sadly we laid him down,
    From the field of his fame fresh and gory;
    We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,
    But we left him alone with his glory

    1. Apparently the actual burial was not quite as described in the poem.
      Nevertheless, the Duke of Wellington said that he couldn’t have won without the help of Sir John Moore.

      1. I think you may find, Tom, that the ‘stupid Tyke woman’ (Yorkshire Rose) you are railing against, actually agrees with you and me. She is posting that meme of a shouty pinko bitch (no doubt from elsewhere in the UK) to show how immigation is NOT a good thing for the country.

        1. ‘Yorkshire Rose’ is an active supporter of UK Veterans, Tom, of which I believe you are one.

          1. I certainly am, George, but I’ve never heard of ‘Yorkshire Rose’

            My daughter, born in 1965, is a Yorkshire Tyke, born in Fulford Hospital whilst I was serving at RAF Linton-on-Ouse.

            RAF Linton-on-Ouse, as was, is the place where the PTB wish to inflict 1,500 gimmegrunts next to a small village.

            Bar stewards.

        2. She’s busy posting under ‘Yorkshire Rose’ and your explanations don’t form part of the narrative.

          To me she’s just a shouty gimmegrunt hugger.

          Doesn’t look like she’s agreeing with us.

          Calm, clear debate does it, every time.

          2. Never seen it, and don’t need to see it.

            Whatever happened to reasoned explanation?

            Don’t want to ‘follow’ her, I’m no sheep.

        3. Sheffield Momentum who travelled to Kingston upon Hull to counter-protest against the local people protesting against their village being flooded with dingy invaders.

          My query;
          https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1614613352965103617

          Received this response:
          https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1614653010155606019

          I believe this was part of the same protest & counter-protest:-
          https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1614672047191330817

  46. Morning all, yet more snow, roads awful, some snowgates closed. Run out of birdfood so resident blackbirds and sparrows have had to have oats and crushed Weetabix which they seem to like.
    OT, before Xmas I got a Lindt Excellence 90% cocoa supreme dark chocolate. It was the most vile chocolate I’ve ever tasted so I emailed them. I had to fill in a form on line with all the details, batch No. sell by date, inside leg measurement etc and a photo. The reply I got requested a photo of the chocolate (what use was that?). I’d heard nothing for 3 weeks so emailed them, I got a copy and pasted email saying they will send me a £3 gift voucher to be spent at any of the major supermarkets except Tesco and Co-op. The nearest supermarket to me is therefore 80 miles away. Lindt chocolate will never pass my lips again

    1. 90% chocolate is not very pleasant but 99% is even worse. We were given a bar of the latter and Caroline added a square to her spaghetti bolognaise sauce and her beef stew and it had excellent results. This tip was given to us by a French chef who ran an excellent restaurant.

          2. Live with two Newfies. You get hair in everything. They can be outside – out of the house, in Nova Scotia and you’ll still get hair in something. Heck, if it’s not the Warqueen’s blonde it’s Newfie black.

      2. Unsweetened cocoa powder dusted over beef and steaks will bring fruity, floral, and wonderfully bitter flavor. Don’t over do it though.

    3. Good morning Alec and everyone.
      Chocolate is vile; a 19th century Swiss inventor discovered that it tasted much better if he added sugar and milk.
      If you like dark chocolate, Lidl sells a range which goes up to 85%.

      1. I don’t like chocolate (of any shade) much, but when I buy it for the missus there’s a 70% maximum threshold. Some might say she’s bitter enough already.

        (Only kidding, girls.)

    6. I buy mine from Aldi and Lidl. Dark choc is 44%. Good for high blood pressure, If it is too high in cocoa it can be very bitter.

    2. Mr Pugh is confused. He thinks that the council would come to him to ask what he needs. Councils don’t work like that. They assume you are a supplicant, a serf and that you should go to them. After all, they hold the power.

      The council offered a consultation and you were too busy running your business to get involved. That’s your problem – not that your views would have been considered.

      The simple fact is, mate, you’re screwed. They don’t care, they won’t change. You’re going to go out of business.

      This is why, in the Wibbling world councils would be funded by a low tax on business – the only tax companies would pay. This tax would go to the council. It would receive no other funding. Councils are then forced into a market. They have to support and encourage business or they have no money. It’s really simple. It cuts off the statist wasters at the knees, kicks the green fanatics in the face and gets business moving.

      1. Kick .out the council tax.

        Make their only revenue that from a local sales tax (payable by everybody) and, when they want to sponsor one-legged, black, homosexual dancers, they find that jacking up the sales tax causes every sensible person to shop in the lower-tax borough next door and their revenue declines.

        Works for me.

    3. I’ve been saying this for years, you don’t need to be clever to become a Councillor. They excel at playing blind chess in every situation.

  48. Another dig at the elderly.
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/elderly-drivers-being-penalised-by-stupid-rule-and-call-for-major-licence-law-change/ar-AA16qhnh?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=a83e5a59b7f94f7ba9548f4cf48cd843
    At the very least they have all passed a driving test in the UK. Held a British licence for most of their lives and have read and understood the Highway Code. And are more than likely to have valid insurance. Unlike many people who have recently arrived in the UK and don’t seem to have a clue what they are supposed to be doing.

  49. HOODAGESTIT!

    Prostitutes gather in Davos for annual meeting of global elite – where demand for sexual services rockets during economic summit
    Prostitutes report a surge in business during the annual gathering of leaders
    Escorts are booked into delegates’ hotels alongside business executives
    Sex workers dress in business attire and rub shoulders with the global elite
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11643585/Prostitutes-gather-Davos-annual-meeting-global-elite-demand-skyrockets.html

    And I wonder how many of the people at Davos are on Epstein’s client list?

    2. I just hope they pass some of their ailments on……but hang on a mo, maybe this is the problem, syphilitic infections can alter logic.

      1. A pox on all politicians!

        A beautiful melody which has been rather ruined by the alternative lyrics which we used to sing on the bus home from away rugby matches.:

        The memory of a torn French letter,
        The syphilitic pain that won’t get better
        And when I pee it stings
        These foolish things
        Remind me of you.

        1. My mate who sings, used to start that each time i played the tune, I found it so annoying.

    3. Down the road from the EU buildings there’s hookers and drug dens. When they all sod off to their other location the business dries up. The entire lot of them are perverted vermin.

    5. The sins of the flesh go hand in hand with their corrupt financial dealings. They’re degenerates. Welcome to the fall of Rome.

  50. 370104+ up ticks,

    If this is the only option left to rejoin the crime syndicate then democracy really is deceased.

    initially our troubles started when we first joined, courtesy of a lying politico it has festered for fifty plus years and has blossomed into a puss filled odious conglomerate seen fit to govern according to 48 % of the British voting public, so much for
    patriotism.

    Dt,

    Britain is going to rejoin the EU far sooner than anyone now imagines
    It is the Tories’ greatest betrayal: they have made such a hash of the project it is probably unsalvageable

    1. I said in 2016 when we won that they would never let us leave. The entire state machine is fighting Brexit and it’s every opportunity tooth and nail. Criminal invasion, crippling taxation – all deliberate, intentionally running down our energy supplies, debt, unemployment, reward for failure, high taxes, it’s obvious what the problem is, but the state insists on pursuing this destructive, obliterative course.

      They *want* this decline. It’s punishment. We keep pushing to get ahead, the state adds a thousands rules to hold us back. If that doesn’t work, 100,000. When that fails and we keep trying, 100,000,000. It cannot permit Brexit at any cost. The obsession has become religious.

      1. 370104+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        Hence the one year very successful run by Gerard Batten as the genuine UKIP leader it had to be terminated …. and was.

          1. 370104+ up ticks,

            W,
            Batten was in 2018 successfully rebuilding UKIP he ask the membership for £100000 & received £300000
            13000 new members more joining daily.

            What had to be terminated was the threat they posed to the lab/lib/con coalition party and the pro tory (ino) brexit party under farage leadership.

      3. I said as much to the electrician yesterday when he came to fit new light switches. He agreed.

    2. You are right – the British people have been betrayed on Brexit just as they have been betrayed on so many things by the current repulsive government.

      Even your bête noire, Nigel Farage, is beginning to admit that he made a fatal mistake when he trusted Boris Johnson – or any members of the Conservative Party – to deliver Brexit.

      All Johnson wanted was to win the election and to find a few trollops – such as Carrie Symonds – in the office on whom to vent his inextinguishable lust but he didn’t give a toss about anything else.

      1. 370104+ up ticks,

        R,
        The farage chap made a fatal mistake
        my bum, he made a calculated move to close Gerard Battens successful UKIP leadership run, triggered the brexit party
        in a pro johnson /tory (ino) party then stood the candidate fools down.

        The “good old nige” has been a tory since the outset.

          1. 370104+ up ticks

            R,
            Knowing full well what he is, NO I shouldn’t.

            Old “no balls” was also quite convincing.

  51. Met Police officer revealed as one of Britain’s worst rapists

    Is there a Grading list of how Rapists perform then, ie Good, Average, Poor etc

    Buck Up DT

    1. 3 articles and one opinion piece in the Telegraph, 2 in the Mail.

      Yet when the muslim pakistani paedophiles were raping children the silence was deafening.

      1. I know . It seems a lot of Americans have yet to master the English language before moving on to grammar:

        ‘Rubber and latex is…..

      2. Good afternoon, Grizzly

        As a schoolmaster I did once come across a paedophile who taught in a school where I taught. He was certainly a strange man but nobody thought he would actually abuse children – one tends to give people the benefit of the doubt and one is wary about saying anything for fear of wrongly damning a chap.

        With this recent case of the policeman who has committed a multitude of offences over a number of years I wonder if you have ever worked with a colleague who was seriously dangerous to women or children? And if so did you have doubts, and if you had doubts did you suppress them?

        Incidentally my colleague who was a paedophile was caught in flagrante delicto by the woman he had recently married with her 14 year old son and he went to prison. But he was not put away for long enough because when he was released he committed the same offence again and was put in prison once more. I have no idea where he is now or even if he is still alive as I have not seen him for over 30 years.

        1. Good afternoon Rastus.

          I can only recall one occasion when I came across a fellow officer of whom I had doubts as to his propriety. This officer worked on a neighbouring sub-division so I was not in frequent contact with him. On one occasion I was on night shift and patrolling my beat in a panda car. As I drove along a quiet lane I noticed a car’s headlamps in an adjacent field. Since it was around 0200 hrs I thought this was suspicious. I blocked the gateway to that field, switched off my car’s lights and waited. Very slowly another police panda car emerged, but one of which I was unfamiliar. This was being driven by an on-duty police officer (who I did not know) and sitting in the front passenger seat was a very attractive woman who was clearly blushing (as was the officer). I wound down the car’s window to speak to the evidently embarrassed officer and I told him, “I don’t know who you are and I can only guess what you have been up to … on duty. Now piss off and don’t let me catch you on my patch again; because next time. I will not keep quiet about tonight!” He sheepishly thanked me and drove off back to his sub-division. I did hear, much later, on the grapevine that he had been a serial lothario who often visited a number of women whilst on duty. I was later told he left the job rather than be exposed for his many indiscretions.

          When I was at school we had, for a short period of time, a teacher of history who only remained with us for a few months. Nothing untoward happened to me, or to any of the other boys, while he was at our school but we did feel a little uncomfortable in his presence. A few months later, a report appeared in the local press about how he had been arrested for touching up young boys under his charge at another school. We all breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

    2. Errrm… aren’t they made from oil? Oh! Thy are made from trees. Blinkin’ heck! I’ll have to tell the Warqueen we’re encouraging deforestation.

  53. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11641997/The-self-taught-Suffolk-farmer-just-won-award-best-British-cheese-writes-JANE-FRYER.html

    A cheese i can recommend to you all.

    The French have rested on their laurels for too long, Half their cheeses are now made in a factory. We now have over 1000 hand made artisanal cheeses in the UK. We are also outperforming them on sparkling wines to the extent that French Champagne houses are buying up tracts of land in Southern England.

    Baron Bigod. By God it’s good.

    1. I lived and went to school on Bungay.

      Hugh Bigod’s seat and the site of his ruined castle.

    2. Good luck to him I’ve always been fascinated by cheese.
      Last time we were staying in Yorkshire after a nice walk with our Dog. We went to Wensleydale and parked outside the cheese emporium.
      Doggo stayed in the car. We started to look around the gift shop and as usual my wife was spending a long time examining every single item. I was quickly bored and went through to the huge layout of cheese samples. I thought it was wonderful, in fact after i’d finished trying every one available. I came out to find Erin had finished, so we went round the samples together. Who says there is no such thing a a free lunch.

  54. A wealthy New York family has achieved a humiliating hat trick, having invested with Bernie Madoff, Enron and now, FTX, according to the Financial Times.

    Thanks to the family’s philanthropy — which has benefitted the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yeshiva University and Harvard among others — “Belfer” is a name familiar to many in New York’s high society. Unfortunately, it’s now associated with three legendary financial catastrophes.

    The Belfer family’s wealth primarily came from the Belco Petroleum Corporation founded by the late Arthur Belfer, a Polish-born immigrant.
    The Belfer family was among the largest shareholders of Enron. Honored by Fortune magazine for six straight years as “America’s Most Innovative Company,” the energy and commodities company exploded in spectacular fashion in 2001.

    The Belfers weren’t just investors in the doomed company: Robert Belfer served on Enron’s board of directors for decades.
    The Belfer family lost some $2 billion on Enron. If there can be a silver lining in such a cloud, the Enron loss seems to have prompted the family to withdraw $28 million they had entrusted to Bernie Madoff, whose phony investment business was revealed in 2008 to be a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

    Now, a Financial Times review of court documents reveals the Belfers appeared in a list of shareholders of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that was valued at $32 billion a year ago but is now a smoking ruin, with its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, in prison pending prosecution on eight criminal counts.
    “Belfer Investment Partners held shares from FTX’s equity fundraisings in 2021 and early 2022, as well as investing in the crypto exchange’s US business, the documents show. Another firm linked to the family, Lime Partners LLC, also held shares in FTX and FTX US.” — Financial Times

    Combined, the Belfer FTX stakes were valued at $34.5 million. We’re left wondering what ticking time bombs remain on the family’s list of assets.
    Arthur Belfer started off as a dealer in feathers and down in Krakow, Poland. If he could see what has happened to the wealth he left behind, he might urge his heirs to stuff the rest of it in a mattress.

          2. Poppie’s doing all right on her heart medication, Conway – we went on her favourite walk today – along the green, up the meadow, through the wood, down the other side of the meadow and back on to the green and home. She lollops alongside. It was nice because the ground was mostly hard, because of the frost; it can be a very muddy walk when it has rained, not a good idea with a small white dog. She is very perky and is delighted to say ‘good morning’ as she always has done, when I crawl out of bed these wintry mornings. Unfortunately the lymphoma in her neck is getting larger – the vet said these can become quite chunky. At the moment she has a good quality of life but we don’t know for how long. Neither does the vet. We got an email to bring her in for a ‘diagnostic procedure’ (whatever that means – sounds expensive) so I don’t think we will be doing that. We know what’s wrong with her anyway, we have the medication to prove it and had the scans, and she has a check-up appt for end of January. It sounds like a fishing exercise to me. Dentist on Thursday!

            My Christmas virus has come back for another bite today, so I’m off to bed now. Hopefully it will have gone in the morning, which seems to be the pattern now. Night-night.

    1. I’ve commented on that BTL, to the effect that perhaps the Education Secretary needs some further education.

    2. So you’re old enough at 16 to change your gender but not old enough to buy cigarettes or alcohol.

  56. These “sex workers” plying their enterprising trade at Davos..

    Are they on the house or do users have to pay – and then reclaim the expense from their government slush fund?

    Just asking – for a friend…

    1. Knowing government ministers and civil servants it’d go down (literally) as ‘entertaining’

    2. Surely, for the Woke WEF, it should be
      Boys for the ‘Men/Males’

      and

      Girls for the ‘Women/Females’
      Heterosexuality is banned for us Normal Ones, why should Del- Gates get the choice

  57. Ukraine has exposed the moral rot of pacifism. Spiked 17 January 2023.

    The idea that there is nothing worth fighting for has, for some time, been the default mood in the West. Worries about escalation are more reflective of a desire for all this awfulness to be over with, rather than a serious reflection of Western interests and geopolitical thinking. Such pacifism is only ever a surrender to the interests of the powerful – to Thucydides’ dictum that ‘the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must’.

    In the face of this cynicism, we must remain steadfast in our defence of national sovereignty – and in our support for Ukraine. The Ukrainians know the value of freedom. Do we?

    I haven’t read a single article, or indeed comment, that in any way invokes Pacifism in the writer’s response to the war. Opposition to escalation is not a moral position but a geopolitical judgement. Is Ukraine really worth a full scale engagement between NATO and Russia with all that is implied in such a struggle? The Deaths of millions and the Destruction of Europe just being one probable outcome! The Ukrainians are not fighting for Freedom or Democracy. Zelensky has essentially abolished the one and banished the other. His is a one party fascist State!

    There are no moral imperatives in this war which is essentially a proxy conflict between a Globalist West and a Russia which does not wish to become a part of it!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/01/17/ukraine-has-exposed-the-moral-rot-of-pacifism/

  58. Will be going out shortly – to a lecture on auctions in Roman times. Back about 4.30

    Play nicely.

    1. Is this part of a Great Reveal, or are they trying to save their necks? A Great Reveal would cause civil unrest….. bring on the dinghy people, stage right.

  60. I’ve been trying to help Junior sort and store his models for the move. We’ve been watching videos about magnetising them. I bought a slew of different ferrous sheets and what not and tried with one ‘spare’ and the small magnets I’ve lying around. Will the damned thing stick? Will it bugger. And now I’ve superglue all over me.

    So I’m going to buy some bigger magnets 6mm instead of my test 4mm and 1.5mm deep and try again, announce a great success and then we’ll spend the weekend putting the blighters together. I’d rather pretend for a short time than have the fellow disappointed at hoping to try something new and it not work.

    Here ends the whinging of frustrated parenting.

  61. Far-right activists go on trial accused of plot to assassinate Macron. 17 January 2023.

    Members of a far-right group are to go on trial in Paris on Tuesday accused of plotting to assassinate Emmanuel Macron as part of an attempted coup.

    Prosecutors say members of a group called Les Barjols planned to attack the president with a knife during an official visit to north-east France in November 2018.

    Detectives, who bugged telephone conversations during the four-year investigation, claim there were also plans to kill migrants and attack mosques as well as evidence of antisemitism, but none of the alleged plots was carried out.

    This sounds like the French version of National Action. The UK’s non-violent far-right terrorist group. No doubt these people will have been found to have read the French issue of the Anarchists Cookbook and have numerous copies of Mein Kampff on the premises.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/17/far-right-activists-go-on-trial-accused-of-plot-to-assassinate-macron

    1. Being called “far-Right” is simply an absurdity.

      Being labelled ‘far-Right’ is preposterously idiotic. If you are on the Right of the political spectrum it means you shower, work, know the words to the national anthem, belong to a family, voted Brexit, eat meat, and prefer single-sex lavatories. Have I missed anything?

      Oh yes, you’ve missed a lot. It also means you are a self-sufficient individualist who is innovative, entrepreneurial, enterprising, hard-working, and enjoys low taxation and small government. Moreover, your preference is a free-market economy (and you do not go in for mob-handedness, rioting and civil disorder). You expect these positive attributes to be encouraged and rewarded. Your self-esteem, your family, your locality and your country come first, and you are prepared to kill (and die) to defend them.

      In a nutshell, you are NORMAL.

      Therefore it logically follows that to be ridiculously labelled as being ‘far-Right’ means that you must be an extremely self-sufficient individualist who is extremely innovative, extremely entrepreneurial, extremely enterprising, extremely hard-working, and enjoys extremely low taxation and extremely small government, etc.

      If that is the case, then you may call me extremely ‘far-Right’ until the cows come home.

      1. When the term is used as a derogation the intent is to force people to feel ashamed and thus to adopt the current mindset. It accuses you of thoughtcrime. The state has no interest in balance, it is simply asserting a narrative. Left good! Right bad!

      2. It seems that the Biased Broadcasting Corp is desperately trying to retain and boost its output for the younger listener.

        All that seems to be happening is that:

        A). They’ve alienated the older listener and,
        B). The youngsters are glued to their phones and Netflix.

        Not much future, Auntie

        Time to pack up, go home and await the Parliamentary death-knell.

        1. I find that Radio 3 has become the Light Programme. I really don’t want to know what’s happened to Radio 2.

      2. Surely Ken Bruce is still there? Although I found Steve Wright annoying at times, at least I could listen to his afternoon show – that’s now “hosted” by the awful, Scott Mills – complete drivel so that’s another Radio 2 show I am avoiding completely. Rob Beckett is awful too!

        1. Ken is leaving however the upside is he is taking ‘Popmasters’ with him. I think Steve is now with Boom Radio.

          1. Ken going is bad news – I wonder which BBC apparatchik is taking over – Romesh whatsit, as he’s on everything else; Rylan [ditto]; Anita Rani??

    1. And crime rates? Has the number of people paying income tax and national insurance risen or decreased?

      1. If asked to guess?
        Crime & NI: Up, but only because I believe NI is covered by the taxpayers if someone is on the dole, otherwise down
        Income tax: Down

      2. Everywhere immigrants are poverty, unemployment, crime and welfare soar, economic usefulness plummets.

        But hey. The state doesn’t care. More for it to do!

    2. Rainbow cities? As a rainbow is caused by light refracting through the lens of water, so too is the pretence that race replacement is a good thing.

      Of those 8 million very few work, almost none are productive. That’s 1 million tax paying, law abiding workers replaced with 9 million dross.

    3. Wait until Muslim numbers reach a critical point. Then the rainbow towns will have to deal with ‘Morality Police’.

        1. We already have a two tier legal system. Even though politicians said it would never happen. Liars.

  64. I like Tirfor jacks!
    Got set up to pull the ash trunk out of the old building fairly quickly, intending to pull it forward before rigging the sheerlegs and began pulling it forward a bit to put more weight onto the top and and DISASTER! The bottom end of the bloody thing rolled off the supports I’d levered it up on to.

    Did a reassessment of the situation and decided to place the pulling strop lower down the log and see what happened. Began pulling and was pleasantly surprised to find it was pulling the log in the required direction and, as it got closer to the wall, was also being pulled vertical.

    After a couple of bites, I shifted the strop to the top end and quite easily pulled it first horizontal then past the centre of gravity and finally fully out of the building! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9830ba9b4b90fcaad70fd71aed97da37e370998dfe68ac64ab89c017b2759352.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d4ead568b18e30b1eaaa0cdf7df74eadf5f1247572c84d530ba015a13ce94f1e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/05a3c4db098ad08620ea7a3f37f559291529e061a62f22dbab7de8777be089d5.jpg

    The tool for the job:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b4c7d7c40268ba485e546c502bfb88a5cb12b1fa6fa693e981f28373ab82eb3b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14a034460018964df7f981dd15e47f6853e2867b07fa78a691353a49d093f2a9.jpg

    And the next 2 for felling are the one in the middle of the picture and the one to the right of it with a triple fork just before the top of the picture, both with serious die-back and already shedding dead bits:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5c593dc93f71fe6a76e69d24c7d11a2e85df84ee55592892a6f04651ddb6b50c.jpg

      1. With a bit of luck, in 4 or 5y time, bits of that trunk will be running round Crich Tramway Museum as part of a restored tram.

    2. Bob, you are more industrious than is human.

      I’ll also add that if you had Mongo about, he’d think that tree trunk something to bring home.

    1. I had mild dysentery in Tchad in the 80s, wouldn’t wish amoebic dysentery on anyone, well, almost anyone.

    2. What an embarrassing and complete waste of time and space Bore-us and his government colleagues were.
      No wonder as a result this country is up to its eyeballs in excrement.

    1. Yes, 25% of the people in our jails are muslims. A quarter. Mostly for rape and paedophilia. A tiny fraction of the population, yet a quarter of the prison.

      Someone tell me there isn’t a problem?

      1. There isn’t a problem as the new AMALGAMATED party will bring back the death penalty and include rape amongst the Capital crimes.

          1. I wonder how many victims would report rapes if they thought the perpetrator would be hanged?

            Particularly if they knew it was her word against his (and all permutations thereof) and that juries might be even less likely to convict, leaving the complainant with the stain on their reputation for a “false” accusation.

  72. Late one night a drunk guy is showing some friends around his brand new apartment…

    The last stop is the bedroom, where a big brass gong sits next to the bed.

    “What’s that gong for?” the friend asks him.

    “It’s not a gong,” the drunk replies. “It’s a talking clock.”

    “How does it work?”

    The guy picks up a hammer, gives the gong an ear-shattering pound, and steps back.

    Suddenly, someone on the other side of the wall screams, “Hey *******! It’s 3:30 in the fuvking morning!”

      1. Me too Daily Quordle 358
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      1. Par 4 for me. As the teachers used to say on my reports, ‘Could do better.”
        Wordle 577 4/6

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  74. I thought this was an interesting article, with a good idea about letting public sector workers choose to take more pay now in exchange for reduced pension benefits.

    Striking teachers need a harsh lesson on the true value of their pay packets
    Union figures ignore the value of generous defined benefit pensions

    The National Education Union – the largest teachers’ union – has just voted for strikes in February and March, bringing disruption to schools in England and Wales, still recovering from Covid.
    Meanwhile, other public sector staff are taking industrial action – ambulance drivers, nurses and rail workers – with others also threatening to walk out.
    The NEU argues strikes are about maintaining teachers’ real pay against the background of double-digit inflation. It calculates teachers have suffered a 23pc pay cut in real terms since 2010. The union says: “This is not about a pay rise but correcting historic real-terms pay cuts”.
    But the NEU’s headline figures do not tell the whole story, because they ignore the value of the “deferred salary” teachers earn through their generous defined benefit pensions, a guaranteed inflation-linked pension for life, based on salary and years worked – a major part of total public sector pay.
    The annual cost to taxpayers of new public sector pensions – calculated just like private sector pensions – are published in individual pension scheme accounts.
    The Teachers Pension Scheme accounts show that from 2010 to 2022 the annual cost to taxpayers of pensions, after teachers’ own contributions, shot up from 15.5pc to 67pc of salary – two thirds of salary – largely because of lower real interest rates.
    Adding pensions to salary to get total pay paints a very different picture – rather than a 23pc fall in real terms, teachers’ total pay and pensions has gone up by 10pc.
    The same goes for all six million public sector workers, not just teachers – the NHS, civil service, armed forces, police, firefighters and local government. Including pensions, total real public sector pay has increased.
    Other analysis seems to show that at the same time real public sector pay has fallen, real pay in the private sector has risen.
    But the value of private sector pensions has fallen dramatically in the last 10 years, with defined benefit pensions virtually all closed. Private sector staff now have defined contribution pensions, with no guarantees and a legal minimum employer contribution of just 3pc.
    Of course, a valuable pension doesn’t help public sector workers pay today’s bills, and the Government should allow them to choose higher pay and a lower pension.
    In exchange for an annual future pension of 1/80th of salary, public sector workers could get a 10pc pay rise – over and above the current recommended 5pc – and would also save 5pc on their own pension contributions – a total pay boost of 20pc. Pensions already earned would be untouched.
    This would be voluntary – public sector staff could choose to keep the current higher pension with no pay rise, if they want, and pensions already earned would be untouched.
    This lower pension – about half the current pension – is still much higher than the private sector, at half a member’s average salary over a 40-year career – but would also help close the unsustainable gulf between public and private sector pensions.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/pensions-retirement/news/striking-teachers-need-harsh-lesson-true-value-pay-packets/

  75. The lecture was BRILLIANT. Not much about yer Romans (apart from slave markets – and a nice quote from Herodotus (Greek, I know) but then into the development of auction houses from the 17th century. The chap really knew his stuff and hinted (bearing defamation in mind!!) at the dreadful skullduggery that goes on….

    An excellent hour well spent.

        1. Somewhere I have (or once possessed) an odd volume of an obscure periodical from the 1830s with a description of a sale by auction, where the dealers were competing against the local gentry. It might be digitised somewhere.
          Certain people contrived not to bid, although of course this took place long before the Auctions (Bidding Agreements) Act.

    1. How can ‘the government’ – the tax payer, by force – pour money into such an industry? That’s not job creation, it’s subsidy.

      The damned thing failed because it isn’t commercially viable. Markets stepped in and did their thing. The state must sop fiddling with markets.

    2. You can’t altogether blame the Big Pharma if the NHS procurement can’t control their pricing! The NHS market is huge, and the supplier shouldn’t be able to hold the client to ransom!

      1. I think some GPs and NHS pharmacists might have a certain amount of conflicting interests in drug purchasing.

        1. I agree! That’s part of the solution – just centralise the procurement, then GPs can’t be ‘charmed’ by reps and certain pharmacist co-ops couldn’t exist. The company I worked for specialised in buying up chemists in druggy areas of Glasgow then supplying the methadone to the addicts! He was and still is, making millions!

    3. You can’t altogether blame the Big Pharma if the NHS procurement can’t control their pricing! The NHS market is huge, and the supplier shouldn’t be able to hold the client to ransom!

    4. ““But this is happening for everything, for antidepressants which there is no reason for there to be a particular shortage.”

      Hmmm, not so sure about that one.

  79. The departure of Ken Bruce – apparently his own decision – is very wise for him. He was clearly in the firing line (pun intended) managed by the woke wanqueurs who run beeboid radio. I recall in the late 1990s advising JY to quit while they still wanted him, because they’d sack him in a trice if they so wished. He believed right up to the day the letter arrived that they would never get rid of him because he was so popular.

    Ah me….

    1. Steve Wright’s gone or going as well.
      As you say Bill. Something else that the Dopey Wokies have effed up.

    3. I briefly met Ken at the centenary of Mid Herts golf club. Terry Wogan was invited to the celebration dinner but wasn’t available.
      Ken seemed like a decent chap although heavily distracted by all the palaver that was going on. Quite an evening.
      Radio 2 has been ruined.

        1. More that the opposition parties don’t put their differences aside and combine to zap the enemy.

    2. I expect Olga Krankie has a fine weekend shack in the Scilly Isles.
      Probably needs a lot of repair work.

      1. Olga Krankie:

        Perhaps, the Scilly Islanders could brick her up/ brick her in?

        I shall subscribe to any concrete plan!

    4. It is hard to understand those who accept trans ideology being applied to children. Most parents do not allow their children to walk to school alone at 8 years old, and kids will not have anything near mature thoughts regarding sex and gender. I can only assume that the acceptance of ‘anything goes’ in life and no sense of morality leads to these warped opinions.

      1. The Victoria’s built special facilities for idiots.
        How on earth has all this stupid nonsense been allowed to happen ?

        1. They closed all of those and turned them out to fend for themselves in the “community”. It seems many of them migrated to Westminster.

          1. There were several in Hertfordshire.
            All either demolished and or turned into luxury expensive housing.

          1. Really, really ITCHY, like one was being burned and eaten by crocodiles?
            Is that better??
            ;-))

    6. I heard Nikeliar screeching today about it being an overwhelming majority vote in the wee pretendy ‘parliament’ but ,oddly enough she failed to mention that the SNP, Labour and the Green loonies were all whipped! I couldn’t understand why this hasn’t been shouted from the rooftops!

  81. That’s me gone for this gorgeously sunny – and chilly – day. Still reflecting on the super lecture..

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain – DV.

  82. Thought for the day.
    If all the “Greens” were rounded up and shipped to Greenland and forced to live according to their principles, how long do you think they would survive?
    A. 3 years
    B. 3 months
    C. They would be begging to come home in 3 weeks.

    3. Shipped in a ship powered by wind in its sails. Wearing and carrying nothing made from oil.

      1. Or produced using energy generated by anything except solar and wind.

        oops, even the solar stations and wind farm materials will have needed fossil fuels to create them.

        Looks like dem greeniacs could be in serious trouble!

    5. As long as the vessel they were to be shipped on was a raft made of Black Ironwood: A rare wood with a density as high as 1.42 g/cm3 (88 lbs. per cubic foot).

      1. Give them their due, they are a determined bunch.
        Their Achilles heel would be the hangers-on.

    1. Just logged in to post. I went down on the bus and back home too. Return trip took an hour and a half.
      My husband is totally worn out and not doing too well. He finally went for a scan today even though it was supposed to happen yesterday. He’s very down and in pain. I made a scene and demanded the doctor talk to us and give us some info, which he eventually did. They all think they are bloody gods.
      I took his mobile which ended up at home and I charged them both. Will call him in a while.
      He’s not eating and his kidneys have been bashed in the fall. He’s been on oxygen again and I am very worried. No word on when he might be able to come home.
      I shall have a day off tomorrow as I need to get some groceries and go back down on Thursday.
      I felt sick and awful leaving him but I wanted to get home before dark. I too am worn out.
      All because of a stupid fall. People who design and build shopping centres should remember that not everyone is a teenager and uneven kerbing etc can be a real hazard to elderly folk.
      Thanks for asking Mola!

      1. What a long day for you, Lotl, you must be exhausted. So sorry to hear this. Good for you for making a scene. I hope he turns the corner shortly, these things can take longer than we think and his body has more to concentrate on than a broken bone. Look after yourself because you need to be strong for both of you. I hope tomorrow is a better day for him and for you. Keep an eye on his notes. xx

      2. We all can only hope, Ann, that things get better for him and therefore for you too.

        We are all rooting for the both of you and hope it lifts you a little.

      3. Look after yourself for the time being, and trust the hospital to look after him, hard I know, but he will almost certainly sense your stress which won’t help his recovery.

        Good luck.

      4. Man, that’s hard work for the both of you, Ann. Good that you kicked up a fuss – it’s the only way these days.
        Having seen the filth served as food in the maternity ward in Crawley some 30 years ago, I’m not surprised the poor man isn’t eating. It wouldn’t even tempt a cockroach. When he comes home, he’ll need a fair bit of building up, I expect.
        Take care of yourself, too. Sending love (not by Amazon – see above) andd hugs, and prayers too.

      5. Yes, replenish the batteries tomorrow and see him Thursday. Try to think positive. I know these are just platitudes, but all the best to you both.

      6. Just a thought:
        When a relative of mine was very ill in hospital the one thing she really enjoyed was being read to.
        I read short stories and they made her smile.
        Does he have a favourite author, or perhaps you could read some Spike Milligan?

        1. I took 2 books to him yesterday but he’s not done any reading. That’s a good thought Sos, I will do some thinking. Actually, Butterfly Brain by Barry Cryer might be the thing.

          1. My relative wasn’t up to reading herself, even though she was an Oxford professor.
            She just liked to lie in the bed and listen, and every time I finished a story and offered another the answer was always yes. She particularly enjoyed Victoria Hislop’s tales.

          2. Hi Ann. When I spent a period in hospital some time ago I couldn’t face hospital food. My wife brought me chicken sandwiches and Lucozade. I lived on that for several weeks. Worth a try?
            Best wishes.

          3. Yes, I did take him some homemade sarnies, pork pies and bourbon biscuits. He just doesn’t feel like eating. And your’e right, the food looks and smells disgusting!

          4. Sounds like one particular army cookhouse I had the misfortune of messing in!

            I hope he starts picking up soon though.

          5. Have you got any talking books and something to play them on – for when you can’t visit?

          6. No, and he’s in a 4 bed ward and they play cheesy hospital radio music all the time. Right now, see my new post, I am glad he’s sleeping.

          7. He could use headphones. Might make a change from the cheesy music 🙂 Sleeping will help him recharge his batteries.

      7. I’ve hit the pavement a couple of times because of dropped kerbs. Having a knackered right knee which does not like being straightened, if I don’t see the drop, and it only needs to be 2″ or so, and go right foot leading onto it, my knee collapses. Luckily I tend to roll rather than drop like a sack of tatties, but it’s something I have to watch out for.

          1. Not really, more a case of observing around myself rather that keeping my eyes to the ground.

        2. He’s almost 6’4 so likely went down like a felled tree- you would know about that;-)
          I had a fall last year when I went up to bed. My arthritic right knee just gave out and I went down hard. Luckily, I was in the bedroom and not at the top of the stairs.
          Age is not for the faint of heart.

          2. A mantra of mine has always been the first line of an Emily Bronte poem; “No coward soul is mine…”
            It has always helped in the past but it’s floundering a bit now.
            My friend, the cab driver, told me yesterday that I am not a coward and, what’s more, she phoned today to see how my husband was doing. I have made a real friend.

          3. Ouch!
            Tell me about it!
            I’ll be 71 in less than 5 months!
            One age related essential for working outside at this time of year are pairs of insulated work gloves, prewarmed on the Rayburn, to stop my arthritic ring & middle finger knuckles on my right hand seizing up!

      8. Uneven pavement? Sue the council for damages. They are liable if it’s proud by a certain distance (can’t remember what that is – you know me and numbers) on the pavement – otherwise if the shopping centre is privately owned sue them. I know people who’ve done it and got compensation. I know that’s little consolation, but it might make you feel a bit better.

  85. How’s this for a first world problem? Amazon.co.uk refuses to understand the address I shipped to at Christmas and the credit card I used at Christmas, to send Mother’s birthday presents. The error mesage refers to things that are correct, and worked before.
    It’s driving me nuts!

  86. Well, folks, it’s been a long tiring day for me today. So I am off to bed for an early night. Good night all, and sleep well.

      2. Well, I posted last night’s “Good night” at 8.15 pm because I was trying to watch a film and kept nodding off, but I only managed 4 hours’ sleep so I got up at around 12.30 am and have spent the past 2 hours trying to get my new printer to work after I thought I had managed this after a day-long struggle on Tuesday. I now can’t connect my laptop to the internet, let alone the new printer, so I am writing this on my iMac which seems to have fewer problems. Aaaarghhh! And yet, and yet, when I think of Lotl’s problems with her husband, I realise that my own “problems” are miniscule.

  89. There is a warning – ‘Go Woke – Go Broke’
    However, there are those in the US apparently trying to disprove it….

    “In a spectacular display of what happens when woke politics intersects utter financial illiteracy, a San Francisco government advisory committee on reparations has recommended the city pay eligible black residents age 18 years and older $5 million apiece.
    That’s just the headline recommendation of the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee (AARAC), which was created by the city’s board of supervisors amid 2020’s nationwide racial tumult.
    Next on the wish list: “a comprehensive debt forgiveness program that clears all educational, personal, credit card, payday loans, etc.” The group said this measure will get blacks out of “an inescapable cycle of debt” so they can “build wealth.”
    Rivaling the $5 million payment as an eyebrow-raiser, the committee also wants a welfare program that targets a $97,000 annual income for low-income blacks for the next 250 years.”

    It seems to me that with every month that passes, humans demonstrate that their idea of Utopia is in fact an idiocracy……

      1. Unfortunately, its the state is likely to rob people with more taxes to give to the feckless.

    2. If I were black and not a criminal, vagrant, waster, who had a family, a job and who worked damned hard I’d be deeply insulted by the idea that I have to have handouts to survive.

      People are in debt because they don’t manage their money. That’s not a black or white thing, it’s simply poor money management. If blacks aren’t getting good jobs perhaps that’s because they don’t value education because the state has told them they’re getting a freebie off whitey.

    4. This particular piece of ‘woke’ thinking is a façade masking the real objective of creating/increasing strife principally, but not exclusively, between blacks and whites. Not only is the idea ludicrous the sums of money involved are beyond ludicrous.

  90. Let there be Light!

    A state Supreme Court judge in Syracuse, New York, struck down a statewide mandate for medical staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19, ruling that Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state’s health department overstepped their authority.
    In a landmark ruling issued on Jan. 13, state Supreme Court Judge Gerard Neri declared the statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate for medical staff “null, void, and of no effect.”

    Hochul and the state Department of Health exceeded their authority by sidestepping the state legislature in imposing a permanent COVID-19 vaccine mandate for medical professionals, the judge wrote in the order. Neri also found that the mandate was “arbitrary and capricious,” citing evidence that COVID-19 vaccines don’t prevent the spread of the virus, undercutting the basis for the mandate.

    “In true Orwellian fashion, the Respondents acknowledge then-current COVID-19 shots do not prevent transmission,” Neri wrote, citing a Summary of Assessment of Public Comment that was entered as evidence in the case.
    In support of the view that the mandate was capricious, Neri also pointed to the fact that the order, titled Prevention of COVID-19 Transmission by Covered Entities (pdf), used a loose definition for “fully vaccinated,” namely one that was “determined by the Department.”

    Neri wrote, “A term which is defined at the whim of an entity, subject to change without a moment’s notice contains all the hallmarks of ‘absurdity’ and is no definition at all.”

  91. Evening, all. White over, here, and fairly cool with it. Political targets for all walks of life should be ditched. Think quotas and the disastrous effect that’s had.

    1. Every thing the state touches it ruins. It doesn’t care what it’s doing, it just meddles, miserably.Big government has ruined the housing market, healthcare, energy, farming, fuel, water – you name it the dead hand of the state has caused endless carnage.

      1. I’m a firm believer in that, when I have been saying for years.
        Everything this (every) government comes into contact with they eff it up and big time. Everything.

        1. Yep, government has a simple job and that does not extend to trying to control water and power, let alone banking. The fundaental problem – and we keep coming back to the same problem – is that this country is not a democracy. The power lies with the state, not the people.

          1. Over past 3 decades I think our own useless government’s along with the civil service have inflicted more damage to Britain than Hitler did.

          1. Blatantly obvious with hindsight spectacles, ogga. Difficult to believe that self-sabotage was the name of the game at the time, especially as Cameron emphasised ‘we are all in this together.’ It is always difficult to spot the con when it is being worked around one.

          2. 370155+ up ticks,

            Morning PM,

            UKIP had the treachery spotted long ago moreso under the Batten leadership then
            there was those that,and still do, put party before Country they were / are the creator / supporters of our present odious state of affairs.

  92. Just spoke to my husband and he was drowsy but making sense and he’s been sleeping which is good. Filled him in with my plans for the next 3 days; shops tomorrow and visiting him Thurs and Fri.
    No more pain inflicted on him tonight- thank god.
    I don’t half miss him. Thank goodness for Teddy and Berlioz otherwise people might think I am talking to myself;-)

    2. That’s really good news Milady. I hope he has a strong recovery and no doubt he’ll be loafing about the house in no time.

      1. I hope so Wibbs. He is in poor shape though so I suspect he won’t be home until early next week. Ask Mongo to send me a doggy hug- I could use one.

    3. Good news, Ann! Hope he goes from strength to strength, and he’ll be home beside you very soon. Sleep well, pet and keep strong! Channel that inner dragon!

    4. Sorry to hear about your husband. Hopefully, the sleeping will help him, especially if he gets a decent night tonight. Hope you can sleep well yourself.

  94. I’m heading up the wooden hill to bed-fordshire.
    Good night all.
    Sleep well.
    Doggo to the vet in the morning. Trying to get something done about her smelly breath. She’s had a bit of bleeding in her mouth.

          1. Not good news, PM. Apart from the teeth, she has a tumour inside the front top of her mouth. The outlook is not promising.

          2. Oh, I’m so sorry to hear this. I know how you must be feeling. When we took Poppie to the vet when she collapsed and we were told not only did she have a heart problem but a lymphoma (in the lymph gland) we were devastated (and her teeth needed attention as well). Unfortunately nothing can be done about the lymphoma because of the heart problem and neither the teeth because of her heart as well – the general anaesthetic precludes this. The mitral valve leakage is being treated successfully but on a day-to-day basis. At the moment her quality of life is good and she lollops happily alongside on our walks and her appetite is good. She is thirteen and a half.

            Sad decisions ultimately have to be made in life for their benefit. It is hard, so hard.

          3. We will look after her as long as possible and I suppose then we will have to say goodbye. She’s one of the nicest animals anyone could imagine.
            I don’t think we will have another dog. Our mobility is a not as good these days.
            Very sad but that’s life I guess.

  95. And I’m off to bed too.
    Had intended going up earlier!

    Tomorrow? A run up to Clay Cross to pick up a new motorbike helmet for t’Lad to replace the one that saved his life a couple of months back and I might get round to dropping that dead elm that’s been roped up for felling for the past couple of days.

    Speaking of t’Lad, he’s told me that the Tram Museum can not make use of the ash log so I might call in to the furniture maker in Cromford and see if he wants it.

    G’night all.

  96. And I’m off to bed too.
    Had intended going up earlier!

    Tomorrow? A run up to Clay Cross to pick up a new motorbike helmet for t’Lad to replace the one that saved his life a couple of months back and I might get round to dropping that dead elm that’s been roped up for felling for the past couple of days.

    Speaking of t’Lad, he’s told me that the Tram Museum can not make use of the ash log so I might call in to the furniture maker in Cromford and see if he wants it.

    G’night all.

  97. BTL comment on the letters page.

    The cost of Net Zero –

    Quote – “The legally-binding target to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050 has the most far-reaching consequences of any piece of legislation in recent times. It is far more significant than Brexit, for example, as it requires Britain to adopt multiple new, extremely expensive and unproven technologies. And yet it was passed through the Commons without even a vote. The commitment to net zero didn’t even feature in either the Conservative or Labour manifestos in 2017, the last election before the measure was passed.”

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/do-we-truly-know-the-cost-of-net-zero/?mc_cid=0506884dc5&mc_eid=4961da7cb1

  98. Going to bed now…later than planned but I needed to unwind and relax a bit.
    Thanks yet again for you kind remarks and support. X

  101. Wednesday 18th January, 2023

    Stormy

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e281877e66f9640965428cfaf7612b736a56b10f037dc7830d6ff3f7e0f8aba9.png

    and very many happy returns

    Let’s hope your cup overfloweth!

    With best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus

    We certainly are having some stormy weather at the moment with yellow warnings out..

    Here’s a song for you

    https://www.google.com/search?q=stormy+weather&oq=Stormy+weather&aqs=chrome.0.0i512j46i512j0i512j46i512j0i512j46i512l2j0i512j46i512j0i512.6125j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:d78eed59,vid:TPgnj5upihQ

    2. Thank you both. I have had a very pleasant day, at work, but the best working birthday I’ve ever had.😊

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