Tuesday 17 September: David Lammy’s risible claim that the PM deserves help to buy clothes

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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605 thoughts on “Tuesday 17 September: David Lammy’s risible claim that the PM deserves help to buy clothes”

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    Today's Short Reading From The Bible

    From Genesis: "And God promised men that good and obedient wives would be found in all corners of the earth."

    Then He made the earth round and He laughed and laughed and laughed!

  3. Climate change a ‘more fundamental’ threat than terrorism, Lammy to warn. 17 September 2024.

    In his first speech on the environment since taking the role, David Lammy will launch what the Government has described as the Global Clean Power Alliance.

    Other countries will be invited to sign up to the body, which is being likened to the Opec grouping of oil-producing nations but focused on tackling global warming.

    The great thing about this scam is that the results are in a far distant future long after Lammy and his pals have retired to their mansions in Florida.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/16/climate-change-more-fundamental-threat-than-terrorism-lammy/

  4. Morning. I’m glad you are open for business. Three things. This is the first. I don’t disagree with the writer’s conclusions but I thought HS2 was a Liebour initiative, not a Tory one?

    “Sir – The profligacy of the HS2 project (Features, September 14) brings into focus just how this disastrous railway scheme epitomises Tory failure. A series of inept transport secretaries, as well as Boris Johnson, have bequeathed a poisoned legacy that should be summarily cancelled in its entirety.
    HS2 represents an extreme example of the sunk-cost fallacy. Should the Government write off the £27billion spent to date, inviting billions more in cancellation costs? The answer has to be yes, because proceeding would be far, far worse.
    Given the contemplated strictures on winter fuel allowances, defence, child benefits and so on, to continue to waste £7billion a year on HS2 would be obscene.
    There are many transport projects crying out to be funded. For example, Leeds could be given its own tram network and the Midland Main Line could finally be fully electrified.
    Cancelling HS2 now is the right thing to do. It would send a clear signal that the Government meant what it promised – that it would invest only in schemes with credible positive returns and be prudent with the public purse. Paul Braithwaite
    London NW5”

    1. But the government lied. Government isn't capable of being frugal with other people's money.

  6. The headline above Alan Cochrane’s piece reads:

    “A decade on, Scottish independence appears more improbable than ever”

    Except it has never been about “independence”. It has only ever been about secession. Why, oh why, are we so stupid as to always cede to our enemies’ use of language?

  8. And this letter. I wonder who these “foreigners” are? French? Russian? Chinese? I think we should be told.

    “Sir – I was surprised to see the village of Botwnnog, where I went to secondary school, in the news (“Welsh village blocks estate over ‘outsiders’”, report, September 12).
    The influx of non-welsh speakers and the rise of holiday homes are long-term, contentious matters affecting areas across Wales. Some places have been “badly” affected; others have coped, if not benefited, depending on your point of view.
    Abersoch, for example, had to close its primary school for lack of pupils, as the majority of houses were foreign-owned or holiday homes.
    However, another village that I am familiar with has got the balance right. Locals have benefited from rubbing shoulders with people who have come from elsewhere. Many of these residents take the time to learn Welsh, which makes a massive difference to everyone.
    Nelson Mandela learnt Afrikaans and said: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”.
    Giving cheap housing to locals seems admirable, but normal human greed often results in the property being sold for a good profit to those who can afford to pay.
    The education I received at Botwnnog school, established in 1616, was excellent, and I wish I now had the wisdom to suggest a solution to the village’s quandary. Tolerance and time will certainly be involved. Residents should proceed slowly. I wish them well.
    David Williams
    Lytham, Lancashire”

  9. Sorry, me again then I really must get off to work. From the business pages. Oi laffed, as someone on these pages might say. (The bit about her talent being rare)

    “DAME ALISON ROSE has accepted a job at the City law firm that reportedly helped her navigate last year’s debanking scandal.
    The former banking chief was confirmed as a new adviser to Mishcon de Reya today, where she will steer its equality, diversity and inclusion efforts and mentor a small number of partners.
    It is the second job Dame Alison has taken since stepping down as Natwest’s chief executive in July 2023, having also joined private equity firm Charterhouse Capital earlier this summer.
    Mishcon partner and chief people officer Vanessa Dewhurst said: “Advisors of Alison’s calibre and leadership are rare and we couldn’t be happier that we will enjoy the benefit of her expertise.”
    In her new role, Dame Alison will be tasked with boosting Mishcon’s diversity efforts, as the firm aims to increase its number of women in senior roles.
    It has also set targets to increase the percentage of black and socially disadvantaged people that it takes on as trainees.
    This marks a career shift for Dame Alison, who spent 31 years at Natwest and emerged as one of the most senior female chief executives in the UK.
    During her tenure, Dame Alison was asked by the government in 2018 to lead the Rose Review, aimed at boosting women in business. However, her banking career ended abruptly following the debanking storm, which was triggered after Nigel Farage claimed that Coutts, a Natwest subsidiary, closed his account owing to his political views.
    Dame Alison was later found to have discussed the Reform leader’s case with a BBC journalist. This led to her forfeiting millions of pounds in pay, while her name was also axed from the government’s Rose Review.
    It was reportedly in the wake of the scandal that Dame Alison hired Mishcon to defend her. An internal review later found no findings of misconduct against Dame Alison.”

    2. Won't be hiring her for a spot of conveyancing, she'd tell everyone about the dodgy lock on the patio doors.

    4. BTL Comment:-

      ANYONE, company or individual, who is prepared to employ this woman in a senior position deserves very close investigations.
      After the de-banking scandal the highest post she should be appointed to is toilet cleaner.

      1. I agree. Clearly the Powers that Be are all on the same hymn sheet and we plebs can get stuffed – they are going to carry on regardless

    5. It looks as though this law firm is going to destroy its capabilities and eventually its reputation by employing tokenism in its appointments.

      Tokenism is the enemy of competence.

    6. It looks as though this law firm is going to destroy its capabilities and eventually its reputation by employing tokenism in its appointments.

      Tokenism is the enemy of competence.

  10. Good morning all.

    For those with access to the DT's website a somewhat disconcerting read: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/09/15/canary-islands-el-hierro-graveyard-small-boat-migrants/
    A small extract:
    'El Hierro is home to 11,500 people. It has already received 12,947 migrants this year.
    Its hospital is Spain’s second smallest and has only 31 beds.
    “If you double the number of people on the island, the situation becomes horrible,” says Luis Gonzalez, medical director at Hospital Insular Nuestra Señora de los Reyes.'

    The government in the Canaries has warned that as many as 150,000 migrants could arrive on the islands before the end of the year amid calmer sea conditions.

    European Governments don't have a solution to economic migration.

    1. European Governments don't have a solution to economic migration.

      Morning Stephen. This is the literal truth but they cannot say so. They must keep lying and faking to cover it.

  11. Good morning all.

    For those with access to the DT's website a somewhat disconcerting read: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/09/15/canary-islands-el-hierro-graveyard-small-boat-migrants/
    A small extract:
    'El Hierro is home to 11,500 people. It has already received 12,947 migrants this year.
    Its hospital is Spain’s second smallest and has only 31 beds.
    “If you double the number of people on the island, the situation becomes horrible,” says Luis Gonzalez, medical director at Hospital Insular Nuestra Señora de los Reyes.'

    The government in the Canaries has warned that as many as 150,000 migrants could arrive on the islands before the end of the year amid calmer sea conditions.

    European Governments don't have a solution to economic migration.

    2. Wouldn’t it be fun if everybody parcelled up a few items of unwanted clothing and sent it to Downing Street!

    1. Stopped or shot it's all the same to these Libtards.
      We are way past reasoned debate.. civil war is a cert.

      1. To be unfeeling about it, it's another example of survival of the fittest. Those that didn't accept the BS, didn't get jabbed and are still with us, too many that did, are not.
        I'm pleased to say that both my lads never believed a word about the vaccine, so never took a shot. Me neither.

        1. I think too many were coerced by the threat of losing their jobs or not being able to travel.
          I only had my two because I had a trip booked.
          I was too trusting then that the jabs wouldn’t be harmful.
          I had no adverse effects but I had mine before all the younger people started dropping dead.They jabbed the oldies first.

          1. I made up my mind that if I couldn't travel without being jabbed, then I wouldn't travel. I'd been almost everywhere I wanted to, anyway.

  20. Good morning, chums. Thanks, Geoff, for today's NoTTLe page.

    Wordle 1,186 5/6

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  22. Russia retakes two villages in Kursk as counteroffensive continues, Moscow says. 17 September 2024.

    Russia said on Monday that its forces had retaken control of two villages in its western Kursk region from Ukraine, continuing what Moscow says is a significant counter-offensive there. Russian forces have been battling Ukrainian troops in Kursk region since 6 August, when Kyiv surprised Moscow with the biggest foreign attack on Russian soil since the second world war and subsequently seized 100 villages over an area of more than 1,300 sq km. The Russian claim could not be independently verified on Monday.

    The Russians are probably switching their attacks here. They rest one front while keeping up a gentle pressure on the other. This way the Ukies cannot reinforce the Donbass with the troops they have in Kursk. What was intended to distract the main Russian assault has now become a weight around their own necks.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/17/ukraine-war-briefing-russia-retakes-two-villages-in-kursk-as-counteroffensive-continues-moscow-says

  24. I don't know if this was posted on Sunday
    https://telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/newsletters/gabby-mockups/image0%20(1).jpeg
    It was more than two weeks ago that we lost internet service in the local area. It was restored yesterday afternoon. There are several NoTTL postings that I have not replied to and on many days I couldn't access my BT email account. I apologise for failing to respond and, even when I have got a connection, for being so grumpy. It's difficult to unravel all the missing messages but I will try to reply where I can.

  25. Good morning, all. Blue sky directly above with cloud out to the west. Calm.

    A mixed bag, political, satire and the odd homily from WD's X account.

    https://x.com/wdunlap/status/1835768892364574974
    We know how you Yanks feel!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/50b72b52882672d48453b129d1ff4a86808c83c817cbe3de08c0f8288998488a.png

    Questions, questions.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cfc0e73971c19c6beaf21deba4a28720fedb66e248821a3e258f9a89ea9b551b.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/336d783f81b98d35da8763c1ae1989a17badb4364a660b804c1579e37dc9ab94.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3379d5efead17c6ab6608417be31de0c557f771e38c96a4452f92ca7a7765e42.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a0f36c0e3db4eee05417042d6656d6b7ffb3fc1a0bbc4f3e16256c6828ff56ef.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47cc3af3a14140b73dd9652f1dfd7c8dfb72412fdb12e111eb673862fbdf266f.png

    Socialism is not so bad when it puts you up in 4*/3* accommodation with free food, medical care etc. Eventually you'll find out that when your usefulness no longer exists the discovery of the wolf in sheep's clothing will be disturbing.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/34d7ec7efa41e2341a5b6c9966811ea1c47f654b9e43c0b0f5a55d0ad32fb0b3.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2ef797f2e4ef0e4fdb792c7403f5371de82808fc27a4cd17221fc4af0b3695e5.png

    1. The Trump/Harris meme is interesting.
      It looks like Trump has luck on his side, according to the evidence.
      Just the kind of person who you'd want to be POTUS – a lucky man.
      It won't be me, as I used my whole life's allocation of luck in meeting and marrying SWMBO.

        1. Actually Obers, it's Anthisan that I'm having to rub in having been bitten about a hundred times on my arms and legs the first night I was here. The mosquitos here have a mean bite.

          1. But why do they eat some of us alive and leave others alone? I know they ignore anyone with sickle cell anaemia, hence that condition originates in malaria zones. Evolution and all that.

          2. Well, that's today's useful fact. The things I learn on NOTTL.
            Judging by the bites I got a few days ago, we seem to have evolved a mosquito that is undeterred by Vitamin B. Stand down the Marmite sandwiches.

          4. It was just the first night that like a fool, I slept with the window open – got bitten to bits.
            I’m taking Piriton and covering myself in Anthisañ but still can’t sit still for mote than 2 mins :((

  29. Good morning all.
    A bright sunny start to the day with a rather chilly 2°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    The DT has arranged for the Chimney Sweep to call this afternoon so I've got the fireplace to get cleared out.

      1. I have three chimneys in use and it's a two storey house. I'm not sure I could cope. Even the sweep has difficulty with the brush getting stuck sometimes.

        1. I connect the rods to an electric drill and the brush rotates as you push it up the flue – it’s very easy and there’s no mess. Mind you I live in a bungalow so I don’t have the height to contend with

  30. Got a weeks ban on FB yesterday for responding to an opening post about Corbyns new left wing party,
    all I said was
    Who want's to vote for Hamas supporters?

    They are very touchy on there.

    2. Thanks for the heads-up.

      Starmer's Blarite backstabbers do not like to be reminded that Labour actually got fewer votes in the 2024 landslide that it got in 2019 when Corbyn led the party to defeat, and well below Corbyn's popular appeal in 2017 when he denied Theresa May her majority despite her matching Thatcher's popular appeal in 1983.

      I'm not so sure about the name though. 'Collective' reminds me too much of Stalin's agriculture policy that starved a huge number of people, and is not an improvement on Starmer's policy of wilful negligence. It's only a speech impediment away from that party founded by the splendid and public-spirited Lady Whiplash.

    4. Who wants to vote for Hamas supporters? Well, all the marchers on the Saturday pro-Hamas demonstrations in London for a start. Then there are all their wives, relatives, etc etc.

      1. Their sisters and their cousins and their aunts.
        Their sisters and their cousins whom he reckon up by dozens …. and their aunts. …….

    1. Good morning OLT,

      Yes it is quiet , probably watching GB news and the rant against Starmer etc.

      I have my laptop on my knee , GB news yattering away.. waiting for the water to heat up , before I have a shower .

      1. Biden, Johnson and Zelensky could have avoided the war in the Ukraine and there were talks already being prepared to sort the problems out.

        But the hubris of these three monsters demanded War. Do any of these three give a toss about the suffering and death that has been caused by their vainglorious arrogance?

        1. Isn't it the case that the US is contracted to rebuild Ukraine in return for taking possession of most of its farmland and natural resources? The people behind all of this are the archetypal Bond villains. They want world domination. Russia being self-sufficient is a stumbling block

          1. You are right Sue. It is Black Rock and its subsidiaries. BlackRock has assets of $10 trillion and seems top be insatiable in its demands.
            They are also the people responsible for the reconstruction of Iraq. It seems to be a favorite occupation of BlackRock to hoover up assets in war torn countries and then monopolize the situation for its own profit. It's like some evil empire always on the advance and always wanting more.
            https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/28/zelenskyy-blackrock-ceo-fink-agree-to-coordinate-ukraine-investment.html

          4. You are right Sue. It is Black Rock and its subsidiaries. BlackRock has assets of $10 trillion and seems top be insatiable in its demands.
            They are also the people responsible for the reconstruction of Iraq. It seems to be a favorite occupation of BlackRock to hoover up assets in war torn countries and then monopolize the situation for its own profit. It's like some evil empire always on the advance and always wanting more.
            https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/28/zelenskyy-blackrock-ceo-fink-agree-to-coordinate-ukraine-investment.html

    2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      When will EU flag wavers get the message?
      Comments Share 17 September 2024, 5:55am
      Arguing about the last night of the Proms is as much of an annual tradition as the music itself. Usually this hubbub has something to do with it being the very last place, or occasion, where people sing along with a straight face to ‘Rule, Britannia’. This year though the storm revolves around EU flags being confiscated by Proms’ security staff.

      There is nobody more committed to the EU than a certain type of British Remainer
      What seems to have sparked the flag crackdown at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday was a gathering outside by a pro-EU campaign group called ‘Thank EU For The Music’. Ten thousand EU flags were dished out to lucky ticket holders. Charlie Rome, 40, from south London, who helped organise the demonstration, said the show of flags wasn’t intended to ‘spoil’ the last night of the Proms:

      ‘We are not trying to make a mess of things. I sing here, I don’t want to get banned. But you have to make as loud a noise as you can.’

      But staff at the Albert Hall appeared to take a different view; when some Proms’ fans tried to take their EU merchandise into the venue, they were told the flags weren’t allowed. There appeared to be little agreement amongst security staff about which flags were, and weren’t, permitted. Some EU flag holders were waved through; others were told their EU flags had to go in the bin. Patriotic Union flag wavers were also fearful their flags would be confiscated, though this doesn’t seem to have been the case.

      If the pictures of boggle-eyed EU fans outside the Albert Hall smothered in all their regalia are anything to go on, staff were right to take a hard line. Steve Bray, 55, the anti-Brexit activist, was, unsurprisingly, among those who turned up.

      Does anyone else find it inconceivable that this lot are still at it? Will they live forever frozen in 2017, chuntering about David Davis or the ‘three baskets’ and muttering through their spittle about ‘advisory’ referendums and ‘low-information’ voters and slogans on buses? David Cameron is gone, Theresa May is gone, Boris Johnson is gone. Anna Soubry and Gina Miller – and now even Jolyon Maugham – have left the field. But, still, these hardcore Remainers remain. Can’t they at least leave the Proms alone?

      Most popular
      Brendan O’Neill
      Coconut placards and the truth about free speech in Britain

      The new government may be making friendly movements towards the EU, but even Keir Starmer realises the EU jig is up. Yet the pro-EU mob haven’t noticed this, or any number of other big, inconvenient truths. Adopting Schengen and the euro – as the EU might well ask Britain to do – would be insurmountable obstacles to rejoining the bloc.

      The EU itself is also in a very different, much stickier, position than it was at the time of the referendum. Its economic ills are plain to see, and make Starmer’s plan for closer links to Germany seem like a policy more suitable for 1974 than 2024. The drift of European voters towards a hard line on the progressive shibboleths of immigration and multiculturalism, far more pronounced than in the UK, also doesn’t seem to have registered with the EU flag wavers. Even Michel Barnier, the former Brexit negotiator and newly-appointed French PM, has caught up. But EU diehards can’t seem to acknowledge reality.

      There is nobody more committed to the EU than a certain type of British Remainer. These are people lost in time, old fans of a lost thing. Which brings me to a curious piece of timeline synchronicity that struck my social media feeds over the last night of the Proms weekend.

      There was, on the very same day, a convention in London dedicated to seventies sci-fi TV show Space:1999, and some photos of this happy occasion convention wandered, courtesy of the X algorithm, on to my feed. For the uninitiated, Space:1999 was about a thankfully fictional futuristic disaster. The attendees looked to be people of my age, the few surviving actors 30 years older. They were gathered around costumes and props and model spaceships, in a tribute to a forgotten future. That fantasy future was antiseptically tidy and well ordered, very different to the future we actually got. It featured a harmonious multi-ethnic international moonbase where every problem was dealt with calmly and efficiently by technocrats and wise, qualified scientists. You can see where I’m going.

      As its lead character says on one occasion, in the future ‘prejudice was wiped out. People realised if they were going to survive they would have to work together, accept each other for what they were. So we began to create a brand new, wonderful civilisation.’

      Oh, what a dream! A totemic illusory future that its fans feel robbed of. The difference between Thank EU For The Music and the 1999 fans is that the latter gather to be convivial, fully aware that their hobby is quaint, and determined to escape from reality, to have a bit of fun. But the last Remainers standing take it all very seriously. Their brains seem to reject the passage of time and the souring of their vision of the EU, which, let’s face it, was always pretty shaky.

      When Lib Dem leader Ed Davey asked, panto-style, for a show of hands at the party’s conference this week who wanted to rejoin the EU, a sea of arms shot up. I’m sure the convention attendees would love a third series of Space:1999. I would too. But I’ve accepted it isn’t going to happen. it’s time for the EU flag wavers – and the last remaining band of die-hard Remainers – to make that leap and face reality.

      1. Did Ed Davey mention anything about the Sub Post Office scandal at the LiimpDums party conference??? Just asking for a friend.

      2. Most remainers of my acquaintance think that the EU is about going on holiday without a passport and sending their kids to universities on the continent. They're oblivious to the rising crime, rising unemployment, financial corruption, economic woes and looming collapse. One of my cousins declared via Facebook at the time of the referendum that she wanted future generations to have access to the same experiences that she had enjoyed studying in continental Europe and travelling there as a student. I pointed out that she had done all of that well before the EU even existed and she asked me to remove my reply as it was "misleading".

        1. I don’t think British people have ever been able to visit the continent without a passport. In the early 70s I remember my first passport was a ‘visitors’ passport valid for only one year and a limited number of countries.
          I remember that some Europeans, Germans French could enter Spain(in the 70s long before Spain was in the EU) with only their identity cards.
          In the late 70s I remember there was an international student community in Spain. When Spain joined the EU in 1986 everything became much stricter until the 90s when free movement was introduced ( for Europeans but it created great problems for non EU members).
          And these rules introduced leaving the EU as a block with a limit of 3 months. Before visitors could pass from country to country.
          Remainers don’t remember anything.

          1. Women used to be able to travel on their husband's passport if they were accompanied by him, otherwise needed their own.

        2. One of my sisters is a keen Francophile who taught English in Paris in the 60s. She showed me her work visa in a passport which had been easy to obtain. She taught French at a few schools in the UK. She loves all things French.
          She voted for Brexit.

        3. One of my sisters is a keen Francophile who taught English in Paris in the 60s. She showed me her work visa in a passport which had been easy to obtain. She taught French at a few schools in the UK. She loves all things French.
          She voted for Brexit.

      3. Plenty of Union flags at LNOTP. I couldn't see any yellow ringpieces.

        "… prejudice was wiped out. People realised if they were going to survive they would have to work together, accept each other for what they were."

        Human tribalism being the nature of the beast dooms this fantasy to failure.

      5. Has Ed Davey asked the EU whether they would allow us to rejoin?

        Recent comments by some of the top Brusselites make us thin k that the answer is NO.

    3. i've been trying to help my OH get back into the computer to order his meds – finally, he was in. Then found the tick boxes on the meds list greyed out. He then tried getting through on the phone and finally spoke to someone. Apparently his meds are up for review. He runs out this weekend. So they gave him an email address – I told him to email first, then go in to the surgery, which was his original plan as he couldn't get into the computer.

      Old age doesn't come alone, does it?

      1. How long are you going to be in Brazil ?

        Will your flight be direct or will there be stop overs .

        I have always wanted to go to places like that .

        Hope you manage to take loads of photos .

        1. It’s quite a short trip – 10 days. Very long overnight flight next Monday and then a short one. We are having an extra night at the beginning to recover from the flight. Actually we’re getting that free! Nick (female – but she prefers Nick to Nicky) had a much postponed trip to Greece last summer and in her feedback to Naturetrek said the guiding could have been better. So she was given 5% off her next trip – and it was a surprise to find it covered both of us, not just her.

          It covered that extra night nicely. Then we go by road to the Pantonal. Have a look at https://southwild.com/south-american-lodges-2/south-american-lodges/southwild-flotel-jaguar-suites/ to see a couple of the places we’ll be staying at.

          I will certainly aim to take lots of photos! Will share a few from my phone and then some on Fb when I’m home.

          Each trip could be my last at my age – so I have to enjoy them while I can.

          1. My goodness, that floating hotel looks AMAZING!! I can't wait to see your photos.

            May you enjoy your trip to the full.

    4. I have just returned from taking Mrs VVOF to an appointment to see her consultant following a shoulder tendon repair operation at RUH Bath.
      The A36 south of Bath is closed for major repairs and will continue to be until at least March 2025. As you can imagine journeys are taking a tad longer, 35 min trip into Bath from home took 80 mins this morning and the return trip home was not much better.
      At least the consultant was pleased with progress and will not wish to see her again unless she has problems so trips into Bath will be few and far between for a good while I hope.
      I could stay and post some words of wisdom but a pub lunch with ex work colleagues beckons so you may perhaps hear from me again later, much later.

      1. My OH had his shoulder (subscapularis tendon) repaired at the Spire hospital in Bristol. The consultant warned him that it could be torn again if he wasn't careful. He went back to playing tennis after it had healed and damaged it again. Tell your Mrs to be careful.

        1. I will although she has physio group sessions at the local hospital for the next 6 weeks to help her in her recovery. I have told her to avoid anything strenuous apart from of course the ironing. 🤣🤣

      2. My OH had his shoulder (subscapularis tendon) repaired at the Spire hospital in Bristol. The consultant warned him that it could be torn again if he wasn't careful. He went back to playing tennis after it had healed and damaged it again. Tell your Mrs to be careful.

  34. A proper good morning from me .

    Blue sky , contrails , no breeze 10c.

    Had our monthly PC meeting last night , why on earth do meetings in the evening create sleepless nights ? Too much brain stimulation/ boredom/ frustration with local government?

    This DT letter rang a bell or two.

    SIR – On a train last weekend I met a London GP who told me she was emigrating to Australia. When I asked her why, she said that her practice, like many others, had been bought out by a large American organisation that was systematically “stripping its assets”. The practice’s nurse had been removed, as had the ECG service (to name but two interventions), making it less and less patient-orientated.

    Not long ago we learnt that veterinary practices had been bought out in a similar way, with pet owners being fleeced and pets subjected to unnecessary diagnostic tests and treatments at huge expense. I thought that was appalling – but selling off general practices to organisations that act against the wellbeing of patients is in a different league.

    Mark S Davies
    Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

    Medivet is a prime example .. high prices and the rest.

  35. How the UK government helped the US crush free speech
    Sally Beck – September 17, 2024 : https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/how-the-uk-government-helped-the-us-to-crush-free-speech/

    BTL

    Authoritarian regimes have always tried to criminalise free speech.

    This is deplorable and undemocratic and has been deemed necessary by the PTB by the rise of the internet and social media – which is another thing they want to wipe out.

    Most political leaders are not interested in governing or the welfare of their voters; they are only interested in power, money and self aggrandisement.

  36. How the UK government helped the US crush free speech
    Sally Beck – September 17, 2024 : https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/how-the-uk-government-helped-the-us-to-crush-free-speech/

    BTL

    Authoritarian regimes have always tried to criminalise free speech.

    This is deplorable and undemocratic and has been deemed necessary by the PTB by the rise of the internet and social media – which is another thing they want to wipe out.

    Most political leaders are not interested in governing or the welfare of their voters; they are only interested in power, money and self aggrandisement.

  37. A pondering point.

    If Cur Starmer cannot afford the upkeep of his wife, he should

    Tell her to rein in her spending

    Tell her to get a job.

    Divorce her

    2. I wonder what his wine cellar contains , champagne ?

      Socialism , well here we have a new Labour MP, a youngster .. We lost safe old quiet Richard Drax. Tory back bencher and too much of a gentleman .

      Guess what , the government have given permission for an rubbish incinerator to be built on Portland .. Can you imagine the chaos on the narrow causeway , rubbish lorries tooing and froing by the dozen ..

      The fury of the locals is strong.. serves them all right for voting Labour if they did. https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/24588813.planning-permission-granted-portland-incinerator/

      blimey what just happened
      wrote: Hatton is a wet wipe with no power in Westminster . He did raise his hand in the commons last week , his question was , can i go for a wee please Sir , i think he is still there now waiting for an answer . Just like him replying to e mails , still waiting Hatton .
      Lloyd HUTTON is a complete waste of space. This is a continuation on from Jim KNIGHT who wrecked UK Universities by bending over Tony BLAIRS desk. Stand by for the dioxins and other obnoxious gasses which will kill the people of Weymouth and Portland together with the tourists. This will be a decision by Angela RAYNOR and Kier STALIN who want to kill off all pensioners and the British people. She hasn’t even got any qualifications. The worst government that this country has seen – vile people.

      He should be banned from all pubs, restraints in our town.
      Last Updated: 37 mins ago

      ↪ in reply to rjimmer
      chesil beach
      16th September 6:30 pm
      User ID: 753753
      no where left to to a bypass with the new builds at ferrybridge ,
      Last Updated: 53 mins ago

      People are furious.

          1. It may be ugly, with its ridiculously affected asymmetry, but there's nothing wrong with incinerating rubbish that can't be reprocessed. It's far better than burying waste.

          2. That was their argument for building it. There was also a parallel plan for a waste digester but I'm not sure if that got built.

          3. There could be a compromise, I’m sure. What would be the harm in making the building at least look attractive?

  39. Receiving undeclared gifts from a Muslim party donor for clothing for a minister of state and his wife is against the rules and Starmer should have been scrupulously open about this given the fact that he frequently criticised the Conservatives for sleaze.

    But who will prosecute the ex-prosecutor?

    We must come clean – the parents of a very pleasant Muslim boy who came on one of our courses sent Caroline a solid gold bracelet. It is part of the Muslim culture for wealthy people to give elaborate gifts to those to whom they are grateful.

    The Muslim mother of a girl who came to us travelled on the plane with her daughter and refused to shake hands with me at the airport and kept her veil on when she was in our house and I was in the room but lowered it when I left the room and there was just Caroline and our children with her. When I re-entered the room up popped the veil again!

    Her daughter was a lovely hard-working girl who was at a top girl's private school in England – she was elegantly dressed in fashionable European clothes; her sister also came to us two years later. By this time Mama was less observant of Muslim social norms when she came to see us and gave Caroline a most magnificent cashmere and silk jacket, an elaborate stone necklace and a hamper from Fortnum and Mason.

    It would have been grossly impolite if Caroline had not accepted these gifts but we did not feel obliged to tell any authorities about it.

    1. That reminds me of an incident when my family lived in Libya. We had just finished Sunday lunch and the chief of police of Al Khums turned up unannounced with a full Arabic feast of a dozen or more dishes. My father hissed: "Don't you dare say anything, eat and enjoy it." and that was the end of the matter although I remember being painfully full and miserable for the rest of the day. By habit I eat very little.

    2. My cousin's daughter married the doctor son of a Muslim pharmacist more than 20 years ago now….. his mother was an English woman who'd converted to Islam. She wore a hijab and a trouser suit to the wedding, which was a very traditional English church wedding. The parents came to the service and were friendly enough, but she would not shake hands with any of the male guests. They didn't come to the reception because there was drink to be served. Two of the sisters were bridesmaids in low cut dresses – they danced at the reception and had a good time. The other sister was a strict Muslim and married to one – they left after the service.

      I think Hussein was brought up a Muslim but as an adult, no longer practiced. They had three daughters but we've rather lost touch since my cousin died in 2006. His parents did come to her funeral.

      1. When we were in Turkey on Mianda many of our Muslim friends were very happy to drink beer, vodka and raki.

    3. It's a bit of a grey area, isn't it? It would have been very rude not to have accepted their gifts, but they had accepted you and Caroline as friends, clearly, as the other daughter came to you as well, and then the mother as well.

      In the case of the Starmers – obviously the value was one issue – the other being that any gifts should have been notified due to their position as in public office. And there seemed to have been some benefit conferred on the donor as entry to no 10.

    4. They could have been classsed as benifits in kind and you pay tax on the value. If you have a company car that is how its treated

    5. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I would be doubtful about accepting any 'gift' from someone who regarded me as being unclean.

  40. First posted September 2019:

    Sarah Thomas: Woman first to swim Channel four times non-stop".
    She left the EU twice in two days. Our useless politicians haven't managed it once in three years.

    . . . five years later and the barstewards still haven't done it!

  41. Reeves is being encouraged to target a backbone of the British economy

    Calls to reform inheritance tax relief could only have been dreamed up by those with little understanding of how the real world works

    Ben Wright • 16 September 2024 • 8:00pm

    I think I know what's going on here. Clearly the eggheads at some of the UK's more, err, progressive think tanks have been watching too much Succession, the epic TV series in which a highly dysfunctional and incredibly well-dressed dynasty squabbles for control of a global media empire.

    How else to explain calls from both the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Resolution Foundation for changes to business and agricultural relief from inheritance tax. This has been pitched as a way for the Government to raise much-needed funds and close a tax loophole on "unearned" wealth.

    It is exactly the kind of wrong-headed suggestion that could have only been dreamed up by academics and wonks who have never worked in an actual business, have a very abstract understanding of how wealth is created and relax at the end of their not very long days in a university department or think tank by watching too many box sets.

    Talking to The Telegraph, an economist at the IFS said: "There's empirical evidence that kids tend to run businesses worse than their parents did. So it is actually better off being passed on [ie sold] from a growth perspective."

    I'll just let that sink in for a moment.

    I have to admit that I genuinely couldn't believe what I was reading when I came across that quote. My first thought was that I was having a stroke. My second was that the IFS really shouldn't be letting those with no clue about businesses dream up policies that could have such massive knock-on implications for the private sector.

    I enjoyed watching Succession too – but as a work of fiction not as a source of research. I've yet to see real world evidence that all second-generation family business owners are Kendalls, Romans and Shivs. The Government's own prisons minister, James Timpson, who took over as chief executive of his family business from his father John, is a pretty good counter example.

    Here's some genuine empirical evidence: roughly 90pc of all start-ups fail. By the IFS's logic, presumably this means we shouldn't bother with entrepreneurship either. Of course, in the real world, that would be a tad self-defeating because the minority of start-ups that do prosper more than make up for the majority that fall by the wayside.

    Similarly, even if most family-run businesses don't navigate the difficulties of intergenerational succession (and I'm far from persuaded this is indeed the case), those that do will provide far greater economic benefit than an extra billion or two in tax.

    How can I be so sure? Because the UK is home to 4.8m family-owned businesses, which employ half the private sector workforce, contribute £225bn in tax (more than a quarter of government receipts) and genuinely form the backbone of the economy.

    Is our collective understanding of entrepreneurship, risk capital and wealth generation really so far gone that policymakers no longer get this? Does Rachel Reeves really believe she can boost growth while simultaneously penalising and disincentivizing so many SMEs?

    As for agricultural property getting caught up in IHT, well. There are broadly two groups of people going into this country's benighted farming industry at the moment: the children of farmers and former Top Gear presenters. And we surely can't expect Jeremy Clarkson to grow all our potatoes.

    For almost 50 years, successive governments have retained business relief as part of the inheritance tax regime. Was this simply because they were happy with a certain segment of society not paying their way? No, they didn't touch it because it works. (Treasury officials should take their own Hippocratic Oath: first, do no harm.)

    Has anyone at the IFS or Resolution Foundation actually bothered to talk to any family-owned businesses? Business relief isn't a loophole; on the contrary, it levels the playing field. No other type of business faces an utterly punitive tax bill simply because the ownership changes hands.

    The current rules give business owners the confidence to make long-term investments in their companies and the communities which they serve. Indeed, there's anecdotal evidence that mere speculation about proposed changes has already resulted in a tightening of purse strings.

    And no wonder. The lobby group Family Business UK has run the numbers on a hypothetical medium-sized, second-generation family-owned business with 100 employees making profits of £4.5m on turnover of £25m a year. It calculated on the death of the founder, Widget & Sons/Daughters could face a tax bill of between £18m and £20.6m.

    "At that point it is likely the business would have to either be sold or bring in outside investment, which would remove the benefits of being family-run," says FBUK. "They are unlikely to regard the cost of the tax bill as being one the business could simply absorb and carry on as usual."

    You can say that again.

    There's also the fairness of the thing. IHT is supposed to be a tax on unearned wealth. But most members of a family that revolves around a business will tell you it's not just the nominal owner who makes sacrifices. Often relatives will work for the business at below market rates (or for nothing) in order to plough as much profit back into the business and help it grow.

    Since that growth will translate into the value of the company, which the Government would be grabbing if the business relief was scrapped, can underpaid (or unpaid) labour now be claimed back from the Treasury? Of course not. So why would anyone do it?

    This pretty basic thought-experiment illustrates how those proposing the tax changes clearly wouldn't recognise a business even if it slapped them around the face with its P&L, have no real clue how their lab-grown policies might behave in the wild and are wholly unprepared for a plethora of unintended consequences.

    To the IFS and Resolution Foundation: you do lots of great work. I love you. But on this one, you are not serious people.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/09/16/reeves-encouraged-target-backbone-of-british-economy

    1. At a time when very few people are making any money and increasing their wealth, then taking away the spare cash and savings from those that have made provision in the past in order to shore up the country for a few more years while we carry on hoping something will turn up is just going to impoverish everyone while making the eventual slump worse than ever.

      1. Keyenes didn't understand the concept of deferment. The Treasury certainly doesn't. They think that if people save, then that destroys jobs.

        This, of course, is stupid as it depends upon continual inflation and monetary expansion to make money worth-less. If Joe Saves £1, Bob can borrow it. If the pound is still worth the same, or more then Bob has created say, £1.50. Joe is happy, Bob is happy.

        When the state ensures that the borrowed pound is worth 90p then the investment can only be 90p, returning ever less value.

        https://eu.dispatch.com/story/opinion/cartoons/2013/10/18/thomas-sowell-commentary-history-shows/24171521007/

        And

        Even if the government spends itself into bankruptcy and the economy still does not recover, Keynesians can always say that it would have worked if only the government had spent more.

        Thomas Sowell

      2. Keyenes didn't understand the concept of deferment. The Treasury certainly doesn't. They think that if people save, then that destroys jobs.

        This, of course, is stupid as it depends upon continual inflation and monetary expansion to make money worth-less. If Joe Saves £1, Bob can borrow it. If the pound is still worth the same, or more then Bob has created say, £1.50. Joe is happy, Bob is happy.

        When the state ensures that the borrowed pound is worth 90p then the investment can only be 90p, returning ever less value.

        https://eu.dispatch.com/story/opinion/cartoons/2013/10/18/thomas-sowell-commentary-history-shows/24171521007/

        And

        Even if the government spends itself into bankruptcy and the economy still does not recover, Keynesians can always say that it would have worked if only the government had spent more.

        Thomas Sowell

    2. They live in a Left wing group think bubble separate from the real world, where they produce no value and live off other people's money – ours.

      Thus they have no understanding of how destructive their daft ideologically driven, inexperienced, silly ideas are.

    3. The plan is to run down the west. Germany's gas pipeline was blown up, companies were offered financial incentives to move to the US. Why does Britain think that our fate will be any different?

  42. Finally, we have a proud, unapologetic British Museum to end all the woke handwringing

    The new director of this incredible institution is right to take stand – let’s hope others stop apologising to Gen Z and follow his lead

    Celia Walden • 16 September 2024 • 7:00pm

    How brave would you have to be to take on the directorship of the British Museum? Just thinking about the job gives me a migraine. All the pain is right there in the name. You've got "British", which once inspired pride but is now fraught with "problematic" connotations – colonisation and enslavement, murder, pillaging, famine, partition and exploitation. All darkness, obviously; no light. Then there's "museum", which conjures up something still more problematic, something we have yet to work out how to deal with. No, not dead people: history.

    Thankfully, Dr Nicholas Cullinan – who resigned as director of the National Portrait Gallery in March last year to take the helm at the British Museum – seems to be up to the challenge, and in a new interview has given his first major statement of intent. No, he will not be adding politically correct labels to exhibits at the institution, he told The Sunday Times – although he will be "making sure our scholarship is up to date". And no, he certainly will not be "conforming to a particular sort of political agenda". Finally, a sensible voice. Someone who even seems to – whisper it – take pride in Britain's achievements. How on earth did he get the job?

    You may feel that the British Museum has bigger issues than woke-washing to consider. After all, it has been under intense pressure to sever ties with fossil fuel companies since last December, when it announced a 10 year, £50 million partnership with BP to help fund one of the biggest redevelopments in its history. And, of course, it is still smarting with embarrassment at the loss and theft – revealed last year – of around 2,000 items from its storerooms (If you have a hunt around eBay, there may still be a few ancient gemstones kicking about).

    In my mind, however, Dr Cullinan's views and agenda are more important than anything else. Because the 46 year-old art historian and curator is clearly refusing to turn one of our most awe-inspiring institutions – founded on the Enlightenment ideals of open debate, scientific research, progress and tolerance – into another apologist museum. And because maybe, if Cullinan stays strong on this, other museum heads will follow suit?

    I'd love to know whether, as a tactic, the warning labels and the historical mea culpas have done what they were designed to do and enticed Millennials and Gen Zers into museums. I genuinely hope they have – because they're killing them for the rest of us.

    Who wants to go to a Turner and Reynolds exhibition at the Royal Academy only to have all the joy and excitement stamped out with pre-emptive handwringing and performative displays of remorse? There will, I'm afraid, be "themes of slavery and racism, and historical racial language and imagery". So, please enjoy the beauty of these artworks, but don't forget to feel guilty throughout. Oh, and if you could pick up one of those "Forgive me, for I have sinned" branded T-shirts from the gift shop on your way out.

    Who wants to be alerted to the "colonial links" in everything they're about to see, informed that a puppet show recreation of the Crusades at Tate Modern contains "violence and dead bodies" or indeed find themselves scouring the galleries of Tate Britain for prized national artworks – only to find that they have been replaced with paintings "linked to slavery and colonialism" as part of a rehang that's a "more inclusive narration of British art and history"?

    Sorry, but who are you to narrate this country's history?

    And you can forget about losing yourself in a bucolic Constable. Earlier this year visitors at the Fitzwilliam Museum were warned that those rolling English hills may awaken "dark nationalist feelings", possibly even make us believe that "only those with a historical tie to the land have a right to belong". Sorry? I didn't come here to be called a racist xenophobe. Also, isn't that quite a leap? Why not squeeze in a "caution: these Hampstead Heath depictions may make you a Farage fan" while they're at it?

    What I find most confusing about apologist museums is that they seem to be treating visitors like aliens who, having touched down on earth just minutes before, have minds like clean whiteboards.

    In reality, a certain understanding of history and context should surely be a given. And maybe, when looking at the date or subject matter of an artefact or artwork, the knowledge of what was happening back then will make us feel uncomfortable. But above all, it should make us feel the way we all do when we look at the sea. A combination of "Isn't it incredible that this exists?" and "Wow. It's all so much bigger than me".

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/16/british-museum-nicholas-cullinan-end-woke-apology

    Give it time. Dr Cullinan will be pulled under, like all the others.

    1. Hear hear.. there there.. Just like the British Library where chief librarian Liz Jolly initially announced it is 'absolutely committed to party political neutrality'..

      then:
      British Library's chief librarian says 'racism is the creation of white people'..
      British Library launched Anti-Racism Project to address race issues at institution..
      Liz Jolly has said library has not done enough to ensure organisation is anti-racist.. 'urged to support work of Labour MP Diane Abbott'.
      'The killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement are the biggest challenge to the complacency of organisations, institutions and ways of doing things that we're likely to see in our lifetimes.

      'There have been incremental changes over the years, but this is a wake-up call for the Library's leadership that it's not enough.

      'Our duty at this moment is to show humility, to listen, to learn and then to enact change.'

      Issues raised in the meeting included the long-standing lack of BAME representation within the institution's executive management as well as senior curatorial staff.

      The meeting also addressed what the library described as an 'urgent and overdue need to reckon fully and openly with the colonial origins and legacy of some of the library's historic collections and practices'.

    2. Apparently the Benin Bronzes returned to His Majesty Abubanadhutabububazookasaka of Nigeria are no longer on display to the public. disappeared for permanent private enjoyment only. So that was a great success for the Woke.

    3. Apparently the Benin Bronzes returned to His Majesty Abubanadhutabububazookasaka of Nigeria are no longer on display to the public. disappeared for permanent private enjoyment only. So that was a great success for the Woke.

  43. This has been pitched as a way for the Government to raise much-needed funds and close a tax loophole on "unearned" wealth.

    Rachel Reeves beats Angela Rayner in battle for Dorneywood country pile

    Chancellor to to have use of the grace-and-favour Georgian mansion, rather than Deputy Prime Minister, in break with recent Labour tradition.

    She MUST pay tax, to use it

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/17/rachel-reeves-angela-rayner-battle-dorneywood-country-house/

    1. I think Ange might find herself frozen out before too long. She's clearly not up to the job, socially or intellectually.

      1. Are any of them up to the job? I look at Starmer, Rayner, Reeves, Cooper and Lammy and despair!

          1. Apologies, but Lammy isn't. Starmer's a complete chaos engine. Reeves is utterly moronic and Cooper… not heard her doing anything, so perhaps inactivity is the best use for her.

          2. I should have added “Except Lammy”. Reeves is robotic. Cooper is………the less said the better.

    2. I’m sure 2Tier can rustle up an old previous owned house for her, she will feel right at home.

    3. No wealth is unearned. If I give Junior 20,000 worth of shares I have earned them and I am gifting them to him. If we make £1 in interest that's earned tomorrow by not spending the money we could have today.

      This moronic, spiteful, desperately Left wing concept needs killing. The only unearned income is collected by the troughers in the public sector – like an MP who gets his clothes paid for.

      1. Unearned wealth is when a bunch of Socialists steal it for their enrichment, otherwise someone has earned it for them to take.

  44. This has been pitched as a way for the Government to raise much-needed funds and close a tax loophole on "unearned" wealth.

    Rachel Reeves beats Angela Rayner in battle for Dorneywood country pile

    Chancellor to to have use of the grace-and-favour Georgian mansion, rather than Deputy Prime Minister, in break with recent Labour tradition.

    She MUST pay tax, to use it

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/17/rachel-reeves-angela-rayner-battle-dorneywood-country-house/

  45. https://dailysceptic.org/2024/09/16/will-labour-adopt-the-10-limit-on-private-school-university-places/

    Ummm, ok. This stops the old boy network and what not, but we still have the career politician problem. Fundamentally putting in arbitrary restrictions and quotas doesn't solve the underlying problem. The public have no control over the state. We do not live in a democracy. Big government does what it wants for 5 years, usually continuing the same malicious stupidity of the last lot. having two groups change sides while doing the same thing is the problem, not which side is doing it.

    1. The old boy network is either mostly mythical or operates at a level that won't be touched by this proposed rule. Most tutors are so left wing they are far more likely to give places unfairly to people with dark skins than people from top public schools anyway.
      The people who will be hit, as usual, will be the middle classes.

  46. 393040+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Truly what has the tactical majority voter turned up now in the way of peoples sufferance, at least I believe that the kneeling tool has one up on biden in so far as he has mastered joined up writing and with minimal help can nearly string a full sentence together.

    Diagnosis,
    After the dust has settled from the mushroom era, WE Will Stil Be A Laughing Stock As A Nation.

    Tuesday 17 September: David Lammy’s risible claim that the PM deserves help to buy clothes

    May one ask was a straight jacket mentioned ?

    1. I am being facetious here , but Lammy is similar to his tribal type .. I reckon he would have tribes on their knees lauding him , bit similar to the Megain bint.

        2. He certainly doesn't look 'officer class'. I would have thought cleaning the latrines and washing the pots would have been his metier.

      2. 393040+upticks,

        Morning TB,
        Shades of BIG DADA, best dresser
        ( inclusive of trainers) best swimmer,best footballer, etc,etc,
        OR ELSE…….

  47. On observing the grey dreary day – I spotted that there was a light breeze from the north. So – bonfire. Two hours work has disposed of four months accumulated garden rubbish. Very satisfying.

    1. Customers identified with better accuracy & efficiency, then collected and resettled in a timely manner.. bringing everyone one step closer to The multicultural Marxist utopia.

    2. We dont need cameras or monitoring technology, just use your eyes. We need a naval force to be ordered to repel invaders. I would suggest by the second day the penny will have dropped and it will be back to the camps for the boat people.

    3. Camera's! Thank goodness, that will help the force see the migrants in time for the poor souls not to drown as our lifeboats rush to save them.

    1. Wordle 1,186 5/6

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

  51. Worth a read…….. https://lowstatus.substack.com/p/medicine-balls
    Recently Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, whose face is what AI generates if you put in the prompt ‘sanctimonious’, announced plans to finish off Britain’s, already on its knees, pub industry.

    Of course he didn’t put it quite like that.

    Doubling down on Rishi Sunak’s already ridiculous and infantilising age specific smoking ban, Starmer announced that he’s considering going one better, and banning smoking for all adults.

    Outside. In beer gardens.

    What a joyless puritanical scold, this empty eyed drone really is.

    I genuinely don’t understand how the pub trade can sustain itself, especially in central London where walking into most ale houses any time but a Friday night is like stepping into a sticky floored morgue.

    If the prices alone weren’t enough to put you off, you also have to factor in the dangers of simply getting there.

    Because venturing into the West End means you run the risk of being stabbed with a zombie knife, accosted by a drug addict, mugged for your phone, or worst of all, finding yourself half drunk on a tube station platform, staring into the eyes of Sadiq Khan, as his smug face scolds back at you from a poster informing you that only a rapist could possibly dislike women’s football.

    I hope it’s not so bad where you live.

    The ban is being considered because according to the joyless public health lobby, just one sniff of second hand smoke will render even the healthiest lung a tar filled quagmire, an emphysema riddled wasteland, a black bronchial abyss.

    This is clearly nonsense.

    You are as likely to get cancer from sitting vaguely near a smoker in a pub beer garden as you were of catching Covid on a windswept beach.

    Which for those of you who I see, still wearing your N95 masks, as you sneakily feel up the avocados in the Kings Cross branch of Waitrose, is not very likely.

    But hey, you do you.

    1. Britain's pub industry, certainly in the area around Wells-Next-The-Sea in North Norfolk, is certainly not "on it's knees".

      Last week I serially failed to book a table for a meal at: The Bowling Green, The Crown, The Globe and The Golden Fleece in Wells; The Red Lion in Stiffkey; The Three Horseshoes in Warham; and The Chequers Inn in Binham. All were fully-booked every night they were open.

      It was the best I could do to get a foaming pint of the exceptional Wherry best cask-conditioned bitter English ale from Woodforde's, available in prime condition in all of them.

      1. Actually Grizzly, the 'Lotus Eaters' did a programme recently about that. Behind the apparent health, most pubs are hanging on financially by the skin of their teeth and this project of Herr Starmer will probably do many of them in.
        The Death of the British Pub
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_UB82lILrc

        1. A cultural cornerstone and meeting place that must be obliterated, to be, as so many are, taken over by dubious ‘exotic food’ restaurants.

      4. I use a social club in the suburbs where membership costs £60 per year and I get a pint of Butty Bach bitter for £3.50. I last went into a mainstream pub at St Pancras two years ago. £6.50 a pint!

    1. And, at least, the wallpaper is there for the new incoming PM to enjoy. Although, I thought, it displayed rather ghastly taste reminiscent of a high class whores boudoir in a cowboy movie.

  53. Like Jack Straw before him..
    The Foreign Secretary David Lammy pledges a "deal on Gibraltar" with the EU.

    “Good grief. What next, the Falklands?”

    1. Gibraltar have always pledged they would unilaterally declare independence..
      and so Lammy releases the world's 3rd most important shipping choke point to the highest bidder (sorry investor).

      1. An idiot, in prime position to destroy our country. Given his anti-white sentiments over the years – this is his conscious or unconscious intention. And there is nothing we can do about it. Only 20% of the actual electorate voted for these horrors.

      1. In this order..
        Chagos Archipelago.
        Gibraltar.
        Falklands.
        then Milipede demands oil rich British Antarctic Territory be decolonised.

        1. What about the Isle of Wight, the Isle of Man, Lundy Island, Anglesey, Looe Island and the Isle of Dogs?

    4. Why deal?
      Here's one for them: GB will make absolutely no changes whatever, and they can fcuk off, get in a train and fcuk off some more.

    1. Multicultural means all cultures are equal. Each culture has its own values and morals and who are we to think that our culture is any better and that our laws are fairer?

      I know what people who think their Christian ethics are better than barbarian ethics are: they are Extreme Right Wing Bigots.

      (I fear that I am in danger of becoming a ERWB)

      2. Ah, you see, you're wrong there, Rastus. Multi just means many. It doesn't mean equal.

        Our laws are better and our society is superior. Look at what we have created. Look at how our society has grown and changed. Then look at the stagnation – intellectually, economically, socially of third world ones (or London, as it's now called).

        1. You had me going there for a moment, Wibbling, but my “sarcasm detector” kicked in (eventually)

        2. Actually Wibbling, the governments two tier philosophy makes it clear that we are not superior, in fact we are to be denigrated into oblivion. Stagnation is good, stagnation is compliance to the state. I think the fools in charge think Islam is the way to their fantasy of socialism. The problem is that Islam has been playing this game for centuries and will, in the end, demolish the foolish woke who think themselves cleverer and superior. Deluded and ignorant of history, as they truly are.

    2. I can't bear to uptick that. Pure evil. A little child's life ruined. In North Africa the bride, victims of genital mutilation, are taken away on the back of a camel, in a sort of tent structure and thus hidden from the world. The women follow behind ululating in faux rejoicing, to cover the screams of the girl. And we are supposed to pretend that this evil, due to Islam, is fit to share our island and our civilization with! We are supposed to pretend that this foul teaching is the equal or even superior, to Christianity and that we must acquiesce to the spread of this degenerate teaching.

      1. It all went quiet last year about the little girl who was dressed up as a tart and then found dead, and her parents and uncle decamped to Pakistan. This happens in the UK as well as Muslim majority countries.

        1. I know. It's to late now but I believe that Islam should be proscribed in the UK as a form of terrorism. At the very least it should be severely restricted. But I doubt that even Reform has the courage to take measures against it. Farage certainly hasn't the guts to do it.

          1. FGM is not practiced in Berber culture, and the Berber tradition is for agreement to a marriage to be between the man, the young woman, his parents and her parents. But there are a lot of arabised people.

  56. Just published on Free Speech is the second of a series of articles on Israel leading up to the anniversary of the 7 October 2023 attack.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  57. Oh what a way a pleasant start to the day.
    Another by election in Canada and the liberals lose another seat that they had held forever. Not just any seat but one that had been held by PM Martin and most recently by a government minister.

    It takes someone as thick as Trudeau to try and brush off these results and vow to carry on as before. A vote of no confidence is looming, God knows what that will cost us as Trudeau bribes other parties to support him!

      2. He is Klaus Schwab of the WEF poster boy. You can't be more dammed than that! The epitome of Woke.

    1. Others pay the price – look who were instrumental in making the War in Ukraine. No sane person wanted it and Putin certainly would have been happier not to have had it.

        1. Old joke…Satan showing a chap around Hell, they come across a few others – in chains but sipping coffee, standing in what looks like sh1 up to their waists. Bloke says ‘this doesn’t look too bad I’ll stay here’ Satan says ‘ok, back on yer ‘eads lads…’

      1. Cultural events to include formation stoning, lashes of lashes and ceremonial throat slashing. Free falafel with every pointy rock purchased.

  62. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely sunny start again after a bright moonlight night.
    Head line, Mastermind strikes again eh.

    I'm going to be busy most of the day on the roof of my shed picking huge ripe apple's with a scooper.
    Cider processing later.

    Slayders.

    whoops I forgot to post it 😂🤣😅

    1. We have 30+ litres of cider just finishing fermentation. Maybe another 30-50l at the weekend.

    1. They are trying to demonstrate that, use of Western supplied missiles on Russian soil, will have consequences. Problem is, the western politicians aren't listening.

  66. Returning briefly to Wardrobegate – how on earth can a pair of spectacles cost £2,485?

    I thought my two pairs (reading and distance) and two spares were costly at £750….

    Perhaps Cur Ikea's are made from pure gold.

    3. Mine are Chanel and were around £800 when new some 6+ years ago and have had a further two sets of lenses fitted at around £600 per set. The frames are strong, hence that being possible. So the cost can mount up over time but £2,485 when new does seem over the top.

      1. My prescription dark glasses were around £800 in 2019. But they are very stylish and I get regular compliments about them. I doubt that 2 tier Kier will find that people are eager to discover the name of his optician.

    6. I bought varifocals at Asda for £45.00. (About 5 years ago). Once I was happy with one pair, I bought a spare pair. The same at Specsavers had cost nearly £200 previously.

  67. Been to the dentist (NHS) this morning.

    One inspection.£26.80

    One extraction. £46.70

    Time 10 Minutes.

  68. From the Tellygraff
    "Healthy 27-year-old died after NHS wrongly gave him AstraZeneca Covid jab"

    …… "When Last was invited for the vaccination, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) “were struggling to use their remaining AZ vaccine stock” and there had been a national requirement to limit wastage, the review said."

    The basis of The Third Man is a black market crook selling hookey penicillin.

    1. Isn't that where the RN hospital used to be?
      I'm sure my father spent a year in Netley with pulmonary TB.

          1. Military building – unfit for human occupation , , , . . . unless you are a British serviceman. of course.

          2. They did

            After the war, the hospital continued to care for some casualties returning from overseas service. It also accommodated some Hungarian refugees in 1956, but due to its high cost of maintenance, it gradually fell into disuse, and the main site closed in 1958.[25] The pier was never repaired and had been demolished by 1955.[26]

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

      2. Started in 1856, when the main building was finished it was the longest building in the world – a quarter of a mile long.
        On 25 June 1963, a fire swept through the 70ft high front wing of the unoccupied main building
        Ten fire appliances from Hampshire Fire Service attended the scene and a fire boat pumped extra water
        from Southampton Water. Seventy-five firemen brought the blaze under control in just over three hours.
        About a quarter of a mile away inside the grounds, at the nearby Psychiatric Centre for the Army + Navy,
        the 150 patients slept on undisturbed. The main building was demolished in 1966.

        The mental wing was still in operation in the 1970s because I had occasion to take a couple of nutters for 're-education'.

    3. It used to be easy to get mad about Netley Hospital

      At the rear of the site, D Block (Victoria House) and E Block (Albert House) formed the psychiatric hospital. D Block was opened in 1870 as the army's first purpose-built military asylum. These buildings were also used from the 1950s to 1978 to treat Army (and from 1960, Navy) personnel who suffered from sexually transmitted diseases, drug and alcohol problems, and later the Joint Armed Services Psychiatric Unit. The unit moved to the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital, Woolwich in mid-1978.[25]

  70. Cup of tea time for me , Moh has gone to the dentist and then on to the gym .

    I must refill the bird feeders and take Pip out for a run.

    Lots of fluffy clouds and a chilly breeze even though the sunshine is beaming warmth , a few bees are buzzing around on the Verbena bonariensis , and carnations .. Garden is winding down now , I don't have any autumn flowering plants apart from a cluster of Japanese anemones.

    1. The sky has been cloudless here, Maggie. Beautiful Shropshire Blue. Just one airliner heading south west and leaving a couple of contrails, which soon dissipated. I have roses, clematis, Jap anemones, cyclamen, fuchsia, weigela and alstroemeria still in flower.

  73. That was nice!
    Steak pie, picked up from Scunthorpe last week, oven chips, mushy peas and gravy!

    I've had the chainsaw out and taken down the ash stumps the woodmen left last week.
    Now off to sharpen and refuel it.

    1. Oh, Lord, another Royal mess. Poor kids, bad enough with parents like those, without all this in the press.

    2. You got it too! I apologise, I was so excited to bring this to NoTTL attention, I didn't read down.
      Fantastic!

    1. No . But if it can be done with pagers I suspect Mobile phones are just as easy to interfere with!!!!

    2. Given how many paedo's either worked for or appeared on the BBC i wouldn't be surprised if they gave him Blue Peter to present.

    3. He committed the most serious crime in the eyes of the BBC – he got caught – he will never be forgiven by the hierarchy, but his pension is secure.

    2. They MSM state that the pagers (so retro, but receivers with not much emission, unlike cellphones) exploded, but overheating causing battery fire seems more likely. I was told a long time ago that e x plos ives are easy, it is the detonators that are difficult.

      1. From the DM

        How could the explosions have been triggered?
        The likely source of the explosions is the lithium-ion battery which powers the pagers used by Hezbollah.

        While lithium-ion batteries are commonly used in consumer electronics, they can explode violently in some cases.

        Lithium-ion batteries detonate due to a phenomenon called thermal runaway, a chemical chain reaction which occurs when the battery experiences a rapid temperature change.

        As this chemical reaction progresses it can lead to a sudden release of energy which can cause devices to explode with intense force and heat.

        Thermal runaway is triggered when the battery is overheated, punctured or overcharged.

        Pagers often use unencrypted communications channels and outdated software, making them extremely easy targets for an attack.

        It is conceivable that an adversary of Hezbollah could have hijacked the pagers' broadcast signal and implanted a virus that when activated caused the battery to overheat.

        1. A virus to cause the battery to overheat…..

          Given limited processing power and the size of the batteries that's really unlikely.

  80. Received the NHS RSV email this afternoon! So now that's two texts from the surgery and an email from the NHS.
    For a cold! But the the age range is very narrow – I would have thought they'd include the vulnerable over 80s.
    Not having this or the other jabs on offer.

    1. " vulnerable over 80s."

      Funny that. When we came back from holiday, there was a letter from the electricity board about a planned power cut next week. They offer free wifi connection – so the MR phoned them yesterday and ordered one. After arranging to send it by first class post (it arrived today), the very helpful woman then added, "I see you have a vulnerable person living at your address – is there any way in which we can help?" Apparently, some years ago I ticked a box indicating that I was over 65!….

      The MR tactfully refrained from asking them to come and take me away!

  81. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    Consider it a bonus!

    Postman Pat

    It is Postman Pat’s last day at work and everyone is marking the occasion with gifts, home baked cakes and cash. He takes the post to one particular house and the door is opened by a stunning blonde in a very short negligée.

    She takes him by the hand, leads him upstairs and treats him to an hour of the best sex he ever had. Down in the kitchen she makes him the full English, with tea and toast. As he is sipping his tea, he notices a ten-pound note in the saucer.

    He says, “look, I’ve had a lovely morning, everyone has been so kind and you, well the sex was incredible and the breakfast, but why the money?

    She said “well, the breakfast was all my own idea but when I asked my husband what we should do for your retirement he said “F— him, give him a tenner”!

  82. Amusing article of the new British class system.
    https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/british-class-system-not-dead-reimagined-cancel-culture-b1182501.html
    A snippet:

    And so it is that rape in Britain has pretty much been decriminalised, knife crime rampages throughout London without anyone in power seeming to flinch and every Saturday people with placards calling for death to the whole of Israel peacefully protest. But if a “gammon” writes something dreadful on Facebook they will find themselves summoned to the magistrates’ court by 9am the next morning, facing a hefty sentence. Nothing keeps Sir Keir awake more than the unsavoury opinions of the working classes.

          1. My school used to do a good mince and tatties, Spikey. Sometimes they put the mince inside a plate pie, also yummy.

      2. Unusually, I've also been chainsawing this afternoon …. taking out a 30-year old Berberis to make garden more open. I hope to get a bed for perennials and crocosmia + extend the lawn + perhaps a bird bath.

      3. I had to check that your post was not in response to True Belle's above.

        I do hope you are not a hospital surgeon!

      4. I have mince, onions and carrots in the fridge. I was thinking of rustling up a chili con wotnot, but I've gone all nostalgic. I will bravely venture beyond my 15-minute city village in search of the humble potato, tomorrow. Back in the day, we had M'n'T twice a week. I should do it more often.

      5. I've cut back the half dozen large ash stumps left by the tree fellers t'other week but after touching up the saw chain and refilling the petrol & oil tanks, the bloody thing refused to restart so the large double stump still needs cutting to more convenient pieces.

  85. Inside an NHS ‘barn theatre’ with four operations done at once
    The open-plan space at Chase Farm Hospital operates like a ‘conveyor belt’ and allows knee and hip replacements to be carried out at up to twice the usual pace.

    Are you sitting comfortably , then I will begin .

    Music from the Spice Girls is blaring out from speakers as the surgeon Paddy Subramanian grabs a bone saw and gets to work on Jacqueline Carby’s left knee. The 78-year-old is one of four patients being operated on side by side in the same room at an NHS hospital in north London.

    Each of the four operating zones in the vast “barn theatre” is a hive of activity; with half a dozen staff in scrubs buzzing around the foot of each bed, hovering over trays holding an array of surgical tools required to perform routine knee and hip replacements. The surgeons’ soundtrack of choice — jaunty Nineties pop tunes — is punctuated only by the noise of drills, saws and of metal hammering away at bone.

    The pioneering barn theatre complex at Chase Farm Hospital, part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, has been designed to ensure doctors get through as many operations as possible, as quickly and safely as possible. In a week when a report by Lord Darzi criticised the lack of productivity in crumbling hospitals, it provides an example of the NHS at its most ruthlessly slick and efficient.

    Paddy Subramanian, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, can oversee several operations at once

    The large open-plan theatre equipped with cutting-edge air canopies that ensure infection cannot spread between the four beds. Compared with traditional single operating theatres it offers the crucial advantage of allowing consultant surgeons to supervise numerous operations at once.

    Five years ago, the surgeons could perform only three knee replacements a day. Now they get through five or six, as the hospital has been constructed to operate like a “conveyor belt”, with minimum turnaround time between each patient.

    Advertisement

    Subramanian, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital, said: “It is super efficient. There is no bed wasted, and no time wasted. We can do four hip replacements in the same room. One consultant can supervise two parallel operating tables. Communication and the sharing of expertise is key in surgery. Registrars [trainee surgeons] can stick their hand up and ask for help or a second opinion. It is much safer and better for patients and staff.”

    Matt Sykes, the hospital’s clinical matron who is referred to by colleagues as the “guru” of the barn theatre, said: “Surgery is traditionally known as being a very stressful, demanding and hierarchical environment, but having everyone in one room creates a team ethic and teamwork.”

    Patients can be prepared in an adjoining room and wheeled into theatre in a “conveyer belt” fashion

    The staff are part of a well-oiled machine. As surgeons stitch up one patient, the next is being prepared in an adjoining anaesthetic room, ready to be wheeled in.

    Sagar Tiwatane, a clinical lead and consultant anaesthetist said: “We can do 20 operations each day in this one room.”

    Patients are awake during surgery, but sedated and have no feeling from the waist down. Tiwatane said: “It’s like having a couple of cocktails, they’ll be drowsy but can chat. Some talk about the cricket or their grandchildren, others prefer to close their eyes and have a snooze.”

    Advertisement

    Most of the patients needing knee or hip replacements have osteoarthritis, and the surgery unit at Chase Farm is focused on getting them home as quickly as possible to help them recover, in some cases on the same day.

    Sagar Tiwatane, a consultant anaesthetist at Chase Farm, can chat with his patients as they undergo local anaesthetic

    Thirty minutes after she saw her left knee replaced in an hour-long operation, we visited Carby in the hospital’s recovery room, where she is sitting up bright and alert. “I’ll be dancing by Christmas,” she said.

    Subramanian said: “When I first started as a doctor 20 years ago, patients would be stuck in a hospital bed for two weeks after a knee replacement. These days we’re getting 70, 80, 90-year-olds moving straight away. It reduces the risk of blood clots, infections and keeps them active. Lots of patients are so happy with the results they come back and ask for the knee or hip on the other side to be done.”

    The NHS performs about 160,000 hip and knee replacements each year, but at present some patients have to wait more than a year for their operation owing to long waiting lists. The Darzi report highlighted how spiralling waiting times were linked to a dramatic fall in NHS productivity since 2019, with surgeons performing 12 per cent less operations on average, largely due to a failure to invest in new buildings and equipment.

    Chase Farm’s pioneering barn theatre, constructed in 2018, means it has bucked this national trend. It is part of a new network of “surgical hubs” being expanded across England. Each hub provides ring-fenced surgical capacity, separate from A&E and emergency pressures, meaning operations are rarely cancelled.

    Each zone in the barn theatre has specialised ventilation to prevent the spread of infection

    The team also frequently work over weekends, and each year they perform more than 10,000 operations. Rory Deighton, director of the NHS Confederation’s acute network, said: “Studies suggest that these hubs are generating improvements in productivity of around 20 per cent, and that they continue to improve year after year.

    “Examples like Chase Farm also show the importance of capital investment in creating the right estates to boost productivity. This is great for patients, with many people on waiting lists living in pain and discomfort.”

    UK
    Healthcare https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/inside-an-nhs-barn-theatre-with-four-operations-done-at-once-9z0j5lk5c

    1. Ho hum. With such a factory atmosphere, how can they give the same care and attention to the patients? Patients aren't cattle…calling the theatre a 'barn' is a bit concerning.

    2. Sounds a great move forward if all of the patients are unconscious during the operation. My dear wife had both of her knees replaced and on the second occasion the anaesthetist couldn't follow the normal procedure and decided on an epidural. My wife was conscious for the duration of the operation and heard everything that went on, including the sawing. She was OK until the epidural wore off and the pain came along.

      Hearing your operation going on would be bad enough, but another three?

      1. The surgeon that did my wife's hip replacement always walks the patient to the operating table, it gives him a final opportunity to check that they are fixing the correct side.

      2. Before my hip replacement, I was asked whether I wanted a local or a general anaesthetic.
        I replied very firmly that I wished to go to sleep and wake up when it was all over.
        "A very wise choice," replied the aneasthetist.

    3. They are trying something similar in Toronto but less dramatic.
      They use two ORs, when the surgery is completed, the surgical team move from one room the the other and the cleanup crew goes in to clean the used OR while the op is going on in the next room. They are also seeing the number of hip / knee replacements doubled using this method.

      Who knows how focused the surgeon can be after that many operations with no break.

  86. Inside an NHS ‘barn theatre’ with four operations done at once
    The open-plan space at Chase Farm Hospital operates like a ‘conveyor belt’ and allows knee and hip replacements to be carried out at up to twice the usual pace.

    Are you sitting comfortably , then I will begin .

    Music from the Spice Girls is blaring out from speakers as the surgeon Paddy Subramanian grabs a bone saw and gets to work on Jacqueline Carby’s left knee. The 78-year-old is one of four patients being operated on side by side in the same room at an NHS hospital in north London.

    Each of the four operating zones in the vast “barn theatre” is a hive of activity; with half a dozen staff in scrubs buzzing around the foot of each bed, hovering over trays holding an array of surgical tools required to perform routine knee and hip replacements. The surgeons’ soundtrack of choice — jaunty Nineties pop tunes — is punctuated only by the noise of drills, saws and of metal hammering away at bone.

    The pioneering barn theatre complex at Chase Farm Hospital, part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, has been designed to ensure doctors get through as many operations as possible, as quickly and safely as possible. In a week when a report by Lord Darzi criticised the lack of productivity in crumbling hospitals, it provides an example of the NHS at its most ruthlessly slick and efficient.

    Paddy Subramanian, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, can oversee several operations at once

    The large open-plan theatre equipped with cutting-edge air canopies that ensure infection cannot spread between the four beds. Compared with traditional single operating theatres it offers the crucial advantage of allowing consultant surgeons to supervise numerous operations at once.

    Five years ago, the surgeons could perform only three knee replacements a day. Now they get through five or six, as the hospital has been constructed to operate like a “conveyor belt”, with minimum turnaround time between each patient.

    Advertisement

    Subramanian, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the hospital, said: “It is super efficient. There is no bed wasted, and no time wasted. We can do four hip replacements in the same room. One consultant can supervise two parallel operating tables. Communication and the sharing of expertise is key in surgery. Registrars [trainee surgeons] can stick their hand up and ask for help or a second opinion. It is much safer and better for patients and staff.”

    Matt Sykes, the hospital’s clinical matron who is referred to by colleagues as the “guru” of the barn theatre, said: “Surgery is traditionally known as being a very stressful, demanding and hierarchical environment, but having everyone in one room creates a team ethic and teamwork.”

    Patients can be prepared in an adjoining room and wheeled into theatre in a “conveyer belt” fashion

    The staff are part of a well-oiled machine. As surgeons stitch up one patient, the next is being prepared in an adjoining anaesthetic room, ready to be wheeled in.

    Sagar Tiwatane, a clinical lead and consultant anaesthetist said: “We can do 20 operations each day in this one room.”

    Patients are awake during surgery, but sedated and have no feeling from the waist down. Tiwatane said: “It’s like having a couple of cocktails, they’ll be drowsy but can chat. Some talk about the cricket or their grandchildren, others prefer to close their eyes and have a snooze.”

    Advertisement

    Most of the patients needing knee or hip replacements have osteoarthritis, and the surgery unit at Chase Farm is focused on getting them home as quickly as possible to help them recover, in some cases on the same day.

    Sagar Tiwatane, a consultant anaesthetist at Chase Farm, can chat with his patients as they undergo local anaesthetic

    Thirty minutes after she saw her left knee replaced in an hour-long operation, we visited Carby in the hospital’s recovery room, where she is sitting up bright and alert. “I’ll be dancing by Christmas,” she said.

    Subramanian said: “When I first started as a doctor 20 years ago, patients would be stuck in a hospital bed for two weeks after a knee replacement. These days we’re getting 70, 80, 90-year-olds moving straight away. It reduces the risk of blood clots, infections and keeps them active. Lots of patients are so happy with the results they come back and ask for the knee or hip on the other side to be done.”

    The NHS performs about 160,000 hip and knee replacements each year, but at present some patients have to wait more than a year for their operation owing to long waiting lists. The Darzi report highlighted how spiralling waiting times were linked to a dramatic fall in NHS productivity since 2019, with surgeons performing 12 per cent less operations on average, largely due to a failure to invest in new buildings and equipment.

    Chase Farm’s pioneering barn theatre, constructed in 2018, means it has bucked this national trend. It is part of a new network of “surgical hubs” being expanded across England. Each hub provides ring-fenced surgical capacity, separate from A&E and emergency pressures, meaning operations are rarely cancelled.

    Each zone in the barn theatre has specialised ventilation to prevent the spread of infection

    The team also frequently work over weekends, and each year they perform more than 10,000 operations. Rory Deighton, director of the NHS Confederation’s acute network, said: “Studies suggest that these hubs are generating improvements in productivity of around 20 per cent, and that they continue to improve year after year.

    “Examples like Chase Farm also show the importance of capital investment in creating the right estates to boost productivity. This is great for patients, with many people on waiting lists living in pain and discomfort.”

    UK
    Healthcare https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/inside-an-nhs-barn-theatre-with-four-operations-done-at-once-9z0j5lk5c

  87. You need a heart of stone not to larf..

    as Israel hacks all of Hezbollah's pagers. Over 1,000 fighters drop dead/injured at once.

    2. I did laugh. See the little movie thing below posted by sosraboc from the Daily Mail. It's wonderful.

    7. I can refrain from laughing very easily – I have just been reading about the USS Liberty and the murder of 34 Americans by the Israelis in the hope that the US would believe that Egypt had done it.
      It would be naive to believe that Israel wouldn't (or hasn't) done the same to any of us!

  88. or if you prefer waving Pally flag whilst reading The Guardian.

    Demons on earth to cause bloodshed thats what Zionists causing
    Bloodshed but it's all to expose their evil to prepare world for ultimate Justice to the holy land ⚠️
    Yeppp
    يا ذوالجلال والاکرام

    1. I only got it by eliminating everything else.

      Wordle 1,186 4/6

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

    2. Me too. I like my second guess best though.

      Wordle 1,186 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. NAh, that's not areal word
      Wordle 1,186 4/6

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

    4. Have you got the numbers for the Lottery this weekend?

      Wordle 1,186 4/6

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

  92. Just dumped my subscription to the Telegraph.
    Does that mean I'm persona non grata on here now, anybody know?

        1. Then I fear you may be….! I almost mentioned the fragrant Bidochon….but I was sick over the keyboard. Does he comment on the Torygraph?

          5. I really should have scrolled down. My Disqus seems to be out of order sometimes. Probably something I did 🙁

        2. I should probably set up a filter to detect the phrase "you people", so it instantly bans the poster. I'm fairly certain that Nick Harman is aware of our existence, but equally sure that he wouldn't "soil himself" by venturing here. And it would be short-lived were he to do so…

          For a laugh, you might venture over to n…h….dotcom. There were some comments there that were hilarious. He's prolly worked out how to delete them by now, though…

          Oh, and welcome to our humble corner of the interweb thingy…

          4. Glad to see you, it's all pretty light hearted here. Just dont say anything complementary about politicians…

      1. They don't like the truth, get itchy fingers, remove comments of myself and others.
        Wouldn't mind only takes me ages to write the clever ones.
        normally take the piss no problemo.

    4. You're very welcome here – we were all at one time refugees from the Telegraph.
      I'm on a £25 subscription till next May.
      I see the majority of commenters on the story of the young man, 27 – who died following the AZ jab are fully aware they are not 'safe and effective'.

    5. You're very welcome here – we were all at one time refugees from the Telegraph.
      I'm on a £25 subscription till next May.
      I see the majority of commenters on the story of the young man, 27 – who died following the AZ jab are fully aware they are not 'safe and effective'.

    6. Frankly, I canned my subscription in early August. Can't do it online; had to phone. "Where will you get your news from?" I was asked. "After four weeks of Labour government, I don't want to see any news," was my reply. "I might re-subscribe in the run-up to the next election in 2029, if they ever allow us to vote again."

      I could have said "I administer what is essentially a news aggregator website, and countless hundreds of unpaid (and free subscribers read all the MSM and report back with the important stuff, so I don't have to read it" – But I think that would have been a stretch too far for a call centre operative, and they prolly don't have an algorithm for that.

      Later that evening, I had an email, offering monthly subscriptions at £0.75 / month. I weakened, but I still think I'm being robbed… 😉

      1. Yes I've been the 75p a month for a year or more. Had fun on the comments sections, when comments were allowed, which I have to say irritated me.
        Now the DT are I think getting very frightened of political muscle, who own the law, either on their journalists behalf,(imprisonment ect) or on the subscribers behalf by removing comments before they're seen by officialdom, can't decide which.
        in any event my opinion is the 'quality ' papers should be entreching themselves in support of free speech instead of backing off, this one certainly isn't.

    8. I'm not going to renew Spectator when date comes up, currently on special offer. Owner is changing, Editor needs to. Less and less interested somehow, all just a sounding board.

      1. We have our idiosyncrasies. A bit cliquey, according to some, but we don't bite. After more than eight years, and several more on the original DT Letters page, it feels like a sort of family. Enjoy.

  94. Ref the Markel "revelation". First, I don't believe a word that anyone called Markel utters. Secondly, I never believed that Trash was ever pregnant. They either used a surrogate or bought some babies. Thirdly, when Trash "left hospital" with the first one – she was fresh and sprightly even though she had only given birth an hour or so before. (I recall the palaver when the mother of my children eventually gave birth. She was knackered.) And normally "royal" new mothers pose on the hospital steps surrounded by nurses, consultants etc. Brash and Trash just posed – then got into a Uber and went home.

    Just saying…

    1. But think of what praise and kudos they would have got if they'd been open about adoption. No subterfuge, no lies, open & above board. Now there's another media feeding-fest with focus on the negative.

  95. Pagers explode across Lebanon, injuring dozens of people including Hezbollah members

    This is disgraceful, those batteries were intended to be installed in British electric cars. Some incompetent perthing has failed in there(sic)/them/its duty. Heads will roll.

  96. Dear Geoffrey,
    It is my privilege to present to you the proposed new Constitution for Reform UK.
    As our leader Nigel Farage has promised, this constitution democratises our party. It empowers you, our members, to have your say on both a local and national level.
    You will note that Nigel proposes to sign away his majority shareholding in the party, as the party structure changes to become one limited by guarantee, not by shares.
    This means the party will have no shareholders – it will be owned by members. It will be a not-for-profit model, governed by the constitution.
    This constitution is one we can be proud of, one fit to be the constitution of the party of the next Government of the United Kingdom.
    It will be put to members to approve by vote at our party conference this coming Saturday, 21st September 2024. You can view the Resolution here.
    This is a vital step in our path to save the country we love. Reform UK has all of the momentum in British politics, we are opening hundreds of branches across the country and are polling at 18% nationally. We are the fastest growing party in Britain.
    Thank you for your support as, together, we embark on the next chapter of our extraordinary voyage.
    Yours sincerely,

    Zia Yusuf
    Chairman, Reform UK

          3. It were lovely, Pet. Met up with two old and very good police friends and former colleagues; both female by chance. One a former constable the other a former superintendent.

        2. Hush – you'll wake them….

          Cat Stevens went to primary school with my late sister-in-law. Not many people know that.

          6. Born of the one light, Eden saw play…

            As a former student pupil of Eden School, Rickerby, Carlisle, that was effectively our school hymn.

            As secondary schools go, it was quite small. I started out at Bishop Goodwin Memorial Infant's School, moved on to Junior, and took the Eleven Plus. Before the results came out, they cancelled the whole bloody thing. I never received an officiasl result for the 11+, but reliable sources claimed that someone called Geoffrey Graham had come out top in his entire year group across the city. All for nought.

            Before comprehensives, I'd have gone to Carlisle Grammar School. Now, it wasn't an option. So (living without the City boundary), the choice was between the comprehensive Caldew School, Dalston, or Eden. I went for the latter, and have no regrets. The Head was one Joe Rawlngs, much involved in the Scouts. Many years later, I discovered that he had taken part in the Atlantic Convoys. As had my neighnbour, who commaned a Corvette. These people were bloody heroes. I used to date his daughter till I played the organ for her wedding. We remain friends. Joe lived to 104. Her Mum made it to 103. There must be something in the water…

          7. I heard that too! And I was in a neighbouring county! Despite being the same age as you I never took the 11 plus, as I’d already been enrolled at a posh school in Newcastle! So I went from infants school in Low Fell to junior school in Gosforth! 2 buses each way from the age of 8!

      2. Frankly, Bill, I don't care. He seems to have integrated with our culture. Had his speeches been peppered by phrases such as "The Prophet" or "pbuh", I'd be more concerned. Whatever…

  97. Phew! I tried to dig out a stump and ended flat on my back on the 'lawn' – decided that was enough and time to come in and have a cup of tea.

    2. I did similar lifting a sack of s/seed hearts, some years ago. Still do yoga exercises to keep flexible. Take it easy until your back recovers:-)

    4. If I lived closer I could give you a hand with my Tirfor.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/05e8d3c877ca5a331ce9f40d500f5d0d198d214932eaed5a4a00f08fd266fff0.jpg
      I've even got an OPH set to go with it. The green steel thing at the back.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cbd77dd51b4eaf2abecce98c24958410be1f3c85cc84060b46e8157aac4f7150.jpg
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/db7b464b2d39577d5b43146e6903761ec9d5e47bc3ccf5b731d91e91977b95c2.jpg

      1. What's a Tir for, Bob?

        Joking apart, I have something similar from Machine Mart. It has uprooted serious shrubs, with a Disco 2 at the other end. And righted a car which ended up on it's roof, for no obvious reason, just outside the last place. It dragged said Disco into Dianne's car port, in preparation for an engine swap. I prolly have no further use for it. Ebay, here i come…

      3. I used to use something like that in my first job in engineering, 50 years ago. We called it a "pull-lift".

  98. Now – if only Robert or Spikey were close by – with their chainsaws…. Or LD, for that matter….

    2. I think it's on the Reform website too, Geoff, their 'Contract' – complete with costings (last page). It sounds good, how achievable it would be with the Civil Service might be a different matter.

  102. That's me for today. Excellent bonfire now drawing peacefully to its close. Such a relief because we had cut back a pot of trees and bushes and the pile of stuff waiting to be burned was getting out of hand.

    Also carried 12 watering cans to give some relief to hydrangeas at the south end of the garden. We haven't had any "proper" rain for over two weeks and much is looking sorry for itself.

    Have a spiffing evening

    A demain

        1. Those hydrangeas are chuckling into their roots, as the droop was a prank. "Look, he 's bringing us another can, and it's so good for his back, ha ha!'
          Edit: I also use a water butt or two, but on a more serious note, the ground is still dry after a lot of rain; water companies abstract too much, along with effects of the EU's anti reservoir diktats, so outlook not good.

    1. Max: "Today I have written an Order In Council outlawing the Far Right."
      Snivel Servant: "By the authority of which Act of Parliament, Sir?"
      Max: "Do I need one?"

        1. Thanks. I live in a news black hole (apart from what I glean from Nottl) and I feel all the better for it!

  106. Leicester garment worker: 'Working for £3 an hour made me feel dirty'

    Paramjit Kaur, 61, worked as a sewing machine operator at several Leicester companies after moving from India to join her husband Harvinder Singh.

    By the time she arrived in 2015, there was already growing concern about garment factories paying well below the living wage.

    Paramjit says she could not speak English and struggled to find work, so she spent years working in factories that paid her between £3 and £5 an hour.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4ng1y78wppo

    A racket run by Sikhs, exposed by a Muslim, unsustainable in the UK and now departing to Turkey and North Africa. What is Paramjit doing here anyway and why didn't her husband help her?

    BBC East Midlands is running reports on this. Britain. For anyone but the British.

    1. Why did she expect to fit in if she didn't speak English? Answer no doubt is that there's no need because there's a large sikh community in Leicester and any benefits documentation will have been translated.

  107. Leicester garment worker: 'Working for £3 an hour made me feel dirty'

    Paramjit Kaur, 61, worked as a sewing machine operator at several Leicester companies after moving from India to join her husband Harvinder Singh.

    By the time she arrived in 2015, there was already growing concern about garment factories paying well below the living wage.

    Paramjit says she could not speak English and struggled to find work, so she spent years working in factories that paid her between £3 and £5 an hour.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4ng1y78wppo

    A racket run by Sikhs, exposed by a Muslim, unsustainable in the UK and now departing to Turkey and North Africa. What is Paramjit doing here anyway and why didn't her husband help her?

    BBC East Midlands is running reports on this. Britain. For anyone but the British.

  108. Latest Breaking News – Astronomers at NASA have discovered a 100 mile wide meteor hurtling towards Earth at 100,000 miles an hour.

    Lammy advises that it is not worse than climate change

  109. Evening, all. The saga of the bed rolls on; the top part is now complete and can be used, but the drawers are still a kit of parts. After I'd done various other things and then screwed the slats in place I couldn't face the rest of it. Tomorrow is another day! You may, from this, deduce that I am not a great fan of DIY 🙂

    David Lammy epitomises all that makes positive discrimination so disastrous. Entitled, arrogant and a few sandwiches short of a picnic in the intellectual department.

      1. My thought exactly 🙂 If it copes with me and my tossing and turning (I'm a very restless sleeper) it will stand up to anything.

    3. Rod Liddle is on Talk radio, and is absolutely skewering Lammy! He’s bringing up all his ‘greatest -hits’! It’s hilarious!

      1. That's what I keep telling myself. It will still be there tomorrow (and the next day and the next …). I had better crack on and get it sorted, though, as I'm busy Thursday and Friday. I want it out of the way and the room tidied.

  111. Ah the emporer has spoken. According to Trudeau, the absolute hammering that the liberals received in two by elections yesterday is our fault.
    To quote the village idiot "We need people to be more engaged. We need people to understand what’s at stake in this upcoming election. there is more work to do and we’re going to stay focused on doing it”.

    Time to get the popcorn out, settle back and watch the worst government that we have ever had implode – like a hezbollah pager.

    1. Very nice. I have two bushes (of the same variety from cuttings) that are still in full flower, but unfortunately I can't upload the photos.

      1. I haven't managed to figure out how to do it from the new(ish) laptop – only from the phone.
        It's a very old rose and didn't flower too well this year.

          2. If you click the picture icon below the comment box it will open a file. That is where you need to copy your photo’s too if you want to post them.

          3. Never had to do that with the old laptop or my phone. If I try posting a photo on here it tells me I must be logged in to post photos and of course I am logged in or I wouldn’t be able to post anything.

            I think it’s a blip which I will have to get my son to iron out next time he’s here.

  114. Apparently shots were fired while Trump was playing golf.
    A lady golfer reported being caught by a stray bullet between the first and second hole

        3. Not in the UK, any more. I was part of a site team, fitting out the store in the Lanes Development, in Carlisle. They liked us, and wanted to do another with the same team. Not possible, apparently…

  115. Re the earlier nasty surprise!

    BTL Comment:
    8 MIN AGO
    There could be seven hundred disappointed virgins in paradise if the terrorist martyrs were wearing their pagers on the front of their trousers.

    1. "Quite frankly, the letter is feudal and completely misplaced when people are abstaining to protect very vulnerable people.”
      Abstaining to protect very vulnerable people! What a load of nonsense! Abstaining is toothless – had enough of them had the guts to vote against, they might conceivably have got somewhere!

  121. Evening all. I’m having a problem with Disqus and wonder if anyone has any helpful suggestions. When I click on someone’s reply to my post on email a message comes up: Whitelabel Error page, error 500. Any ideas?

    2. A lot of us are having problems with discus, vw. In my case, when I click on the link, nothing happens. KJ has a sinister message. You, too, but something different. Gawd knows!

  123. Healthy 27-year-old died after NHS wrongly gave him AstraZeneca Covid jab
    Jack Last suffered rare side-effect that caused bleeding on the brain
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/17/jack-last-death-reaction-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-nhs/

    Poor chap.

    I have always taken the vaccination jabs my doctors have advised me to take. I am very glad that my doctor advised me NOT to have the AstraZeneac jab and indeed I remain unCovid jabbed.

    According to the test I was given I did have Covid 18 months ago. I went to bed for a day, had a good sleep and woke up completely well. Friends and family members who were fully jabbed and had Covid at the same time as I did were all quite ill. The exception being Caroline who was not ill at all and only had the test because I was having it. She was un-jabbed just as I was!

    1. Whereas nobody of my acquaintance has been ill since receiving jabs while, of those who fell ill before the jabs, one died and the other was hospitalised for a week. The only explanation I can offer is I'm either in the pay of Big Pharma or of the World Economic Foundation. Either way, I'm now rich beyond the dreams of avarice for being a propagandist for the world's most evil people.

      1. There is no need for sneering. The jab injuries and deaths appear pretty much random. That is not an accident – it stems from a proven incident back in the 1980s in the US when there was a cluster of vaccine injuries, so the finger got pointed at vaccines and after that they deliberately mix the batches up to avoid clusters. This is public knowledge.
        Given a random distribution, of course there are going to be people who don't know anyone who has been ill, and people who know several. I know two with life-changing lifelong conditions directly linked to the jabs as well as a spike in sudden deaths/cancer/heart attack in 2022 among my direct acquaintance circle.

    2. Rastus, I had a couple of jabs against my better judgment because otherwise i would not have been allowed near my son, who lives in a care home. I bitterly regret it, as the second one has left me with serious physical problems, but you can;t "untake" these things, can you? I have since fought ( with ongoing lawfare consequences) for my son himself not to be jabbed any further. As he is an adult, the risk is that the state will assert it's dead hand control over his destiny. Which is happening – eg I was reprimanded for telling a spectacularly thick nurse that her attitude (he must be jabbed to protect those around him) was unethical.

      You can guess the rest.

      1. This is what is so ridiculous. If you are ‘vaccinated’ why do I need to be! Your jab should keep you free from the disease.

        ETA: My last sentence: If it works!

  125. Woke up to find a redirect loop in the youtube cookie blocking pages. It was either disable ublock or faff to close and re-open it on viewing each time.

    Truly, the web has become an abomination: cookie banners should not be in place at all as the idea of tracking a users every click is insulting and intrusive. If they must be used they should be rendered irrelevant by being destroyed on each page nav.

    Adblockers and banner 'ignorers' are essential. Heck, the Mail seems to think it can charge you if you refuse it's cookies.

    Anyway, rant over. If anyone else is having this problem, left click on the adblock extension icon, then settings (the cogs) , filter lists and uncheck Adguard/UBO – Cookie notices.

    You can expand it to include the AdGuard option if you want to.

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