Tuesday 18 April: Strikes affecting cancer care will test support for nurses to the limit

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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461 thoughts on “Tuesday 18 April: Strikes affecting cancer care will test support for nurses to the limit”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Amaretto Liqueur

    Three ladies all have separate boyfriends named Leroy. One evening, while sharing a few drinks at the bar, one of the ladies suggests, “Let’s name our Leroys after a soda pop, because I’m tired of getting my Leroy mixed up with your Leroy, and her Leroy mixed up with your Leroy.”

    The other two ladies agree.

    The first lady speaks out, “Okay then, I’m gonna name my Leroy 7-Up because he has 7 inches and it’s always up!”

    The three ladies yuk it up at the first lady’s clever nickname.

    Then, the second lady says, “I’m gonna name my Leroy Mountain Dew because he can mount and do me any day of the week!”

    Again, the three ladies laugh out loud.

    The third lady then says, “I’m gonna name my Leroy Amaretto.”

    The other two ladies shout in unison, “Amaretto?! Ain’t that some kinda fancy liquor?”

    The third lady bursts out, “You got THAT right!”

  4. Strikes affecting cancer care will test support for nurses to the limit

    Not sure that all this supposed support exists in the real world, only in the mainstream media

    1. Sadly it seems that Derbyshire is the most pot-holed county in Britain – it certainly feels like it when we go out in the car!!

      3. It used to be the case that when one drove over the border (to Cheshire or to Wales) the roads improved. Now they are just as bad as here!

  10. Good morning, chums. Back to a steady bit of decluttering today, and maybe a bit of time in the garden. Enjoy the day.

  11. Rishionomics – exam question

    If you multiply an economy worth 900 Billion by Nett zero

    then what will the economy be worth by 2030?

  12. ‘Morning All

    Early Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07332922b9633babb2c131b1d90aedac4f3e4ffb5089898fbf1abd7264964e59.jpg

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  13. Good morning all.
    A dry but dull & overcast start to the day with 4°C outside.
    In the process of making my mug of tea and I’ve put a load of washing on!

  15. Nicola Sturgeon’s ‘arch-loyalists’ turn against her for ‘unforgivable secrecy’

    Former SNP leader has become a ‘radioactive political cloud’ over Humza Yousaf after footage of her trying to shut down scrutiny of finances

    By Simon Johnson, SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR and Daniel Sanderson,
    SCOTTISH CORRESPONDENT
    17 April 2023 • 10:07pm

    *
    *
    *
    *****************************

    Al Craig
    7 HRS AGO
    Less than two years ago, Nicola Sturgeon said of the Tory government “It is genuinely a real stench of sleaze and it is in the public interest that these things are properly addressed and properly answered.”
    What are you thinking now, Wee Stenchie?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/04/17/nicola-sturgeon-snp-arch-loyalists-turn-against-her/

  16. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny. Major strikes here in Norway, including the flower shops! This means where the trains are running, there’s plenty of seating available.

  17. I’m rather partial to a Coronation Chicken and was looking forward to something new for the Charles Coronation.

    And now even that sounds like being another disappointment, he never fails to dispirit and dishearten

  18. Woke Armstrong..

    P G Wodehouse ‘last person’ who would wish to offend, says Alexander Armstrong over edits

    **************************

    Kathleen Richmond
    9 HRS AGO
    Please can we stop using the term ‘sensitivity readers’. They are censors.

    Paul Camp
    9 HRS AGO
    I imagine more Wodehouse fans are offended by the changes, than people who would be offended by the original text

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/17/pg-wodehouse-is-last-person-who-would-wish-to-offend/

  19. just heard on the news that climate change is bad for people with hay fever as it causes the trees to produce more pollen.

    So climate change is good for trees and plants then, well I never.

  20. As I’ve been saying for some time now.

    SIR – Nurses and doctors are discussing coordinating strikes (report, April 17). Should this occur, we will effectively have no health service at these times.

    Hardly “our” NHS, then. We should all be prepared.

    Jennie Naylor
    East Preston, West Sussex

    Anastasias Revenge
    7 HRS AGO
    Jennie Naylor – Hardly “our” NHS, then.
    Jennie, it NEVER was “our” NHS – that was just us all being soft soaped and misled deliberately. The NHS has for some time existed to secure and support the employment of its staff, all 1,400,000 of them and make sure THEIR working conditions and pensions are as good as can be had. Especially as, if their actual pay was performance-related, the NHS would not be costing the taxpayer £200 billion a year.

    1. Correct me if I am wrong, BoB, but I thought the doctors accepted the Government’s final pay offer but the nurses rejected it. How come that now doctors and nurses are discussing co-ordinating strikes. I thought that when you accepted an offer you automatically stopped your strike action. ?!?!?

  21. Boys have been left devastated by the woke attitude to masculinity

    Perhaps the fact that some young men are looking up to Andrew Tate will force us to sit up and take action

    NICK FLETCHER
    17 April 2023 • 9:43pm

    ********************

    Matthew Hopkins
    8 HRS AGO
    You need look no further than an education system that is dominated by women, many of whom are woke ideologues who despise men and boys. Young women are raised to hate and fear men, young men are instilled with guilt and self loathing; a belief in their innate ‘toxic masculinity’.
    The problem is exacerbated by media which feeds negative stereotypes at every turn; mocked as incompetent by television adverts; always the villain, the rapist, the killer in Hollywood films instead of the father, the protector or the hero.
    When a man of intellect and wisdom like Jordan Peterson shows genuine concern for the plight of young men the media label him a misogynist and do all in their power to undermine and discredit him.
    Men are bad, women are good – that’s the message that’s pumped out 24/7. It is hardly surprising that increasing numbers are opting out of society or developing mental health problems which result in some choosing to take their own lives.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/17/boys-have-been-left-devastated-woke-attitude-to-mascu

    1. Morning all from sunny Cyprus. A quick look in at NoTTLe to see if you’re all behaving!

      I agree about men being belittled over the years. And now women are feeling the heat as men, dressed up as women, seem to think they should take precedence over proper women.

      What a muddle we’re in.

  22. Flying Officer Arthur Joplin, pilot in Dambuster squadron whose bombs helped to sink Tirpitz – obituary

    Joplin’s Tallboy bomb was a near-miss between the shore and Tirpitz – sometimes the shock wave causes more damage than a direct hit

    By Telegraph Obituaries
    17 April 2023 • 1:38pm

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bbf3cad99423b4b7131750a834f17c75c78150fae2942d6be77ccae556a8a541.jpg

    Flying Officer Arthur Joplin, who has died in New Zealand aged 99, was the pilot of a Lancaster on the raid that finally sank the German battleship, the Tirpitz.

    By November 1944 there had been numerous attempts by the Navy and by RAF bombers to sink the battleship described by Winston Churchill as “The Beast”. On October 28 1944, Lancasters of 9 and 617 Squadrons were positioned at airfields on the Moray Firth.

    The following morning, 39 aircraft, armed with the huge 12,000 lb Tallboy “earthquake” bomb, headed for northern Norway, where the battleship was moored near Tromsø. Cloud obscured the target, but most of the crews released their bombs.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2023/04/17/TELEMMGLPICT000332404167_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=1280

    On November 11, the Lancasters again flew north to their advance bases in Scotland before heading for Norway the following morning. This time, the weather was clear, and the anticipated interception by German fighters based in the north of Norway did not materialise. As the force approached Tirpitz they met a barrage of anti-aircraft fire, but thanks to the clear conditions they were able to drop all their bombs.

    Joplin’s bomb was a near-miss between the shore and the battleship – which could sometimes be more effective than a direct hit owing to the shock wave created by the massive explosion. Joplin’s navigator reported: “Our bomb fell in the smoke which covered the ship. One direct hit and two near-misses were seen.” Shortly after, Tirpitz capsized with heavy loss of life.

    Arthur William Joplin was born in Auckland on October 23 1923 and was educated at Auckland Grammar School. He joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force in May 1942 and began his training as a pilot six months later. After gaining his “wings” he sailed for England.

    617 Squadron, one of the first crews to join directly from training. He was chastened by “all the medal ribbons, high rankers and famous names”, but the ground crew made him a mock DFC, saying: “Everyone else has a gong, and you now have one too.”

    Joplin’s first operation with his crew was to attack the U-boat pens at Brest. They next attacked the Kembs Barrage on the Rhine near the Swiss border, a daring raid led by the squadron commander Wing Commander “Willie” Tait.

    This was the first occasion the Joplin crew had to release a Tallboy. The attack was made in two parts – an initial high-level force to cause confusion and distract the defences, followed by six aircraft coming in along the river at 600 ft. Bombing from 7,500 ft in the first wave, Joplin’s crew reported a very near miss.

    After the attacks on the Tirpitz, he dropped Tallboys on the Urft Dam near the German-Belgian border and the E-boat pens at Ijmuiden in Holland. On the night of December 21 they took off to bomb the oil refineries at Pölitz (now Police), near Stettin (now Szczecin) in Poland. Remarkably, this was the first night raid by the Joplin crew.

    At the briefing they were warned that the weather on return was expected to be poor. They attacked the target successfully, but on the return flight they were warned that the Lincolnshire airfields were covered by fog. A further message instructed aircraft to land at the first available airfield.

    It seemed that the crew were in luck, for very soon they saw a glow through the murk which was identified as the airfield at Ludford Magna. That this was visible was solely due to the airfield being one of the few equipped with FIDO – the Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation, which used burning petrol to disperse fog on the runway approach, enabling aircraft to land in poor visibility.

    Joplin homed in on the glow, but received no reply to his radio call. Desperately short of fuel, he approached to land, but a wing-tip hit the ground just short of the runway. Two of his crew were killed and others seriously injured, including Joplin, who broke both his legs and was trapped. His navigator, Basil Fish, managed to extricate the injured before going for help.

    After a long period in hospital, Joplin returned to New Zealand and was demobilised in February 1946. The loss of his comrades affected him deeply and, thinking he was to blame, he suffered considerable anguish, but was reassured in later life when his former squadron colleagues insisted that the crash was not his fault.

    He worked in his father’s knitwear business until his retirement in 1978.

    In 1954 he married Bette, who was the secretary to Sir Edmund Hillary. Joplin supported the work of Sir Edmund’s Himalayan Trust and accompanied him to the 40th anniversary of the ascent of Everest held in Wales in 1993. This also coincided with a 617 Squadron reunion at its former base, Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire.

    A humble man who did not speak of his wartime experiences, Joplin lived a quiet life playing golf and travelling with his wife. He was appointed to the Légion d’honneur by the French government for his wartime service.

    Arthur Joplin’s wife predeceased him; they had no children.

    Arthur Joplin, born October 23 1923, died March 20 2023

    1. Metheringham had FIDO; the tubes can still be seen beside the runway (now a road again).

  23. 373612+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Dt,

    Hotel accommodation for migrants to continue despite £6m-a-day cost
    Rooms for 51,000 asylum seekers is a longer-term deal, admits minister despite Rishi Sunak’s pledge to stop their use

    This odious issue is with us as long as there is an incoming tide and the peoples are accepting the tory (ino) party pledges as genuine.

    Time will be decisive in a seamless take over, births & deaths will dictate via a four wife allowance just who does have the loudest shout in the United Kingdom.

    Just think that the number already here in hotel accommodation
    alone demand their quadruple marriage status be honoured we will witness an armada on the Dover approaches.

    The continuing love affair ( Stockholm syndrome) betwixt the majority lab/lib/con coalition member / voter, judging by what has been done to these Isles these past three plus decades, bodes ill for the future.

    1. Just think what you could do with £6m a day to help indigenous homeless folks…

      1. 373612+ up ticks,

        Morning Mir,

        Won’t happen all the time RESET is on the political WEF overseers menu, and a supporting cast of fools.

  25. As well as the WHO, the UN it’s self is trying to force through reforms that should worry the average citizen:-

    UN Agencies’ Report Subverts Age of Consent, Proclaims Sex with Minors ‘May Be Consensual in Fact’

    A Switzerland-based group has issued a report urging nations to end the criminalization of various acts – the most notable being sex with a minor who supposedly consents to the activity.

    Read more at:-
    https://www.westernjournal.com/un-agencies-report-subverts-age-consent-proclaims-sex-minors-may-consensual-fact/

    1. In their book Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, first published in 2012, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson provide over 100 case studies of why societies fail.

      Their conclusion is that nations end when trust in institutions dissolves.

  28. Good morningall,

    Bright start at McPhee Towers, wind in NE, 8℃, but cloudy later with a forecast high of 12℃.

    Driverless doddle

    SIR – Some years ago I flew the Tornado GR1 in the RAF. It was cleared to 500 knots and 200ft in all weathers and at night, all on autopilot, with no control inputs from the pilot at all.

    After that, driverless cars (Letters, April 17) will be a doddle.

    Wg Cdr John Grogan (retd)
    Congleton, Cheshire

    What John, whom I knew as a Harrier pilot and later as OC27 Tornado Sqn, omits to say is that we did so with eyes like saucers, locked onto the Terrain-Following-Radar (TFR) scope and its ‘ski-toe’ and our hands loosely encircling the stick and the throttles ready to intervene the split second the aircraft did not react to the observed terrain returns.

    I recall vividly flying in Labrador out of Goose Bay, through fog and low cloud, climbing gently over a ridge then the aircraft bunting Earthwards at 0 G into a valley beyond. We came out of the cloudbase in the valley with a rock face a few hundred metres to the right and another a few hundred matres to the left with my navigator howling in the back seat. It was terrifying.

    1. We also depended upon the ‘big sky’ theory. That is, there were very few doing the same nutty thing in a very big space. Not quite the same as bowling down Cheam high street full of other vehicles and kids running into the road!

      1. And, says she, having wasted over an hour of yesterday sitting in traffic, no ‘elf’n’safety numpties blocking off a bus lane and half the road to change a light bulb.
        In short, the whole north of Colchester ground to a standstill for an entire afternoon.

  29. Morning all 🙂😉
    High cloud breezey and intermittent sun. Not warm.
    For those unlucky enough to be suffering from any form of cancer, lack of treatment is appalling. Remember how people stood and clapped the nurses. I’m not sure individual nurses really want all this stress caused by a strike. During my past visits to hospital the nurses have always been first-class.
    I feel there’s something else involved in all this. I wouldn’t trust the chief executives of the NHS as far as I could throw them. They seem to have constructed some sort of brickwall between patients and treatment. Causing even encouraging strikes, will be a line of defence from where the blame really lies.

    1. From my experience, the keen union supporting nurses did the square root of buggerall for the patients.
      They were too busy sitting in the ward office and lecturing us on ‘non-nursing’ duties.

  30. If I choose to read Wodehouse then I want to read Wodehouse’s prose; not some bowdlerised version ‘corrected’ by some anonymous minor intellect.

    2. Will they set to work on Evelyn Waugh too or is he now too niche a taste for them to bother? Personally I like my Waugh complete with his penchant for the dreaded N word.

      2. Brigadier Ben Ritchie-Hook enjoyed ‘biffing’ and collecting coconuts? I wonder how many Nottlers are familiar with Evelyn Waugh’s works? Again, we have a complete collection of his novels and a couple of biographies.

        Most people who have taught in seedy minor public schools will be inspired by Decline and Fall and will compare their billets with Llanabba Castle, the school in Wales in which Paul Pennyfeather went to teach after he had been sent down from Oxford for indecent behaviour.

    3. Nothing, and no one can come close to Wodehouse. He is a level above almost every other writer. I’ve bought all his books just to keep them away from the fascists.

    4. There are over 100 books written by or about P.G. Wodehouse on our bookshelves. I am rereading the whole collection. I am currently on Bill, The Conqueror published by Methuen in 1924.

      1. BTL DT on Michael Deacon’s piece

        Patrick Taylor
        1 HR AGO
        Wodehouse is, in my humble opinion, simply the finest writer to have ever dipped a nib.

        No one, not even Shakespeare in mid-season form, has ever written in the English language (or any other, I’d happily wager) with such brio.

        I can’t improve on Evelyn Waugh’s description, “For Wodehouse there has been no fall of Man; the gardens of Blandings Castle are the original gardens of Eden from which we are all exiled.”

        That idea that some scrofulous activist-editor thinks they have the right, let alone the talent, to “improve” such masterpieces by wielding their little blue pencil, just shows what half-educated philistines we have created by allowing our HR-driven universities to fill peoples’ heads with “sensitivity” nonsense.

  32. Good morning, all. Just passing through. Off to Lincoln shortly. Glorious morning.

    Have a good day.

    A demain

    1. ‘Morning Bill! Happy Birthday to the MR, and have a great time in Lincoln!

    1. One with their democratic values. What rot. Technology has no values. It’s a tool. What they mean is control. The ability to dictate who and how it is used. That’s not technology, it’s oppression. The Left really are morons.

      1. Would you prefer to be oppressed by the Chinese Communist Party or by Google? Wonderful choice for us peasants!

  34. Dull & overcast start now clearing and the forecast is good, so I’ve just hung the washing out up the “garden”, including the load of towels the DT did last night.
    Still bloody cold on the fingers though!

    Another mug of tea, then decide what to do for the day. A mix of mortar and some wall building perhaps?

  35. I posted this yesterday evening. I’m popping it up here again for those who might not have seen it and also because I expect to have some more dialogue to add today.

    ____________

    I’ve been having a delightfully amusing exchange with some people in YouTube comments. It all started when I made this comment below a Richard Vobes video on conspiracy theories, the first one of which was ‘The Earth Is Not Round, It Is Flat:

    Me: 1. The Earth is unquestionably round. We pilots who have been to over 40,000 ft have seen the curvature.

    Flat Earth 1: You cannot see the curvature from 40 thousand feet.

    Me to Flat Earth 1: Oh, is that right? So I just saw an optical illusion the hundreds of times I flew fighter aircraft above 40,000ft? Is that what you’re saying? Not to mention the thousands of times I flew airliners between 35,000 and 41,000 feet. Not to mention the opinions of former pilot colleagues who have flown at altitudes above 60,000ft.

    Flat Earth 2: We’ve also got amateur weather balloons at 120000 ft showing it level! Plane windows are curved and during the 2nd world war it became apparent that windows/canopies in aircraft gave distorted views.

    “Pilots never see the outside world through a canopy. They see an image of it.”

    “Every manufactured canopy optically distorts the view of the outside world in a unique way,” added Jones, who has been influential through the years in devising instruments to quantify these distortion differences for the F-16 and F-22. He is the inventor of the advanced canopy mapping system used for the F-35 canopy.

    The words of Mike Jones, a Lockheed Martin Technical Fellow in optics, electro-optics, and directed energy.

    Me to Flat Earth 2: Then it’s funny isn’t it how they all distort the horizon in exactly the same way – showing a curvature. Sorry, I’ll stick with the evidence of my own eyes gleaned over 18,000 flying hours. You might like to consider too the principle of Great Circle tracks and how they could possibly be the shortest route between two points if the world was anything other than round.

    Flat Earth 3: Fiscal, you lied. Weather balloon footage taken by straight lens cameras (not fisheye lenses) shows nothing but Flat line Horizon…at ALL altitudes (Weather balloon footage taken from 130,000 ft+ on YouTube alone. Furthermore, every attempt trying to prove apparent curvature or rotation has failed.

    Me to Flat Earth 3: If that footage is not with a horizon to horizon lens it is unreliable.

    Flat Earth 2: and how often do you have to keep dipping the nose to maintain a level 30000ft altitude? Or are you going to miraculously claim the plane automatically adjusts to the Earths curvature, so basically flies in an arc.

    Neil de grasse Tyson also claimed, Felix Baumgartner wasn’t high enough to see the Earths curvature at 127000ft. So I’ve got an expert telling me you see a distorted view and a scientist telling me you don’t fly high enough to see curvature either. No offence, but your words mean absolutely nothing.

    Me to Flat Earth 2: aircraft fly level at constant pressure altitude so they do follow the curvature. Since attitude is with reference to the horizon no ‘dipping’ as you put it is perceptible. Finally, They are both wrong. I’ll stick with my 44 years professional flying experiences.

    Flat Earth 2: you’re more than welcome to stick to your point of view and I’ll stick with mine.

    Having googled your “aircraft fly level at constant pressure altitude”, I was unable to find a single mention anywhere to corroborate your claim.

    I did download the principles of flight from the federal aviation administration which explains that all aircraft instruments are calibrated to the standard model, which just by coincidence happens to be a flat, non rotating Earth, the same model used by NASA. It explains that ‘pressure altitude’ is a instrument calibrated to a standard atmosphere and that the Earth has a non standard atmosphere. It informs that pressure altitude is merely a computation with the temperature and humidity to actually derive density altitude. It also explains that density altitude informs the pilot of the planes performance at that altitude.

    Me to Flat earth 2: Thank you, you are very generous but you are confused. I’ll explain.

    Standard atmosphere is at a sea level pressure of 1013.2 hectopascals or 29.92 inches of mercury and 15℃. At lower pressures and higher temperature the air would be less dense so aircraft performance will be adversely affected. Higher pressure and lower temperature will have the opposite effect, improving performance. None of this matters with respect to altimetry.

    Above certain altitudes all aircraft fly on standard pressure setting 1013/29.92. They are then flying at ‘flight levels’, not altitude above mean sea level. This is done to separate aircraft vertically. An aircraft at 35,000ft on its altimeter set to ‘standard’ is at Flight Level 350. If the ACTUAL atmospheric pressure at its position is below 1013/29.92 it will be lower than 35,000ft. If the pressure is above 1013/29.92 it will be higher than 35,000.

    Look up Great Circle navigation and ask yourself why is the shortest route between two points on the surface of the Earth an arc and not a straight line. Then consider why an airliner leaving say, London, UK and flying to Tokyo, Japan will route over the polar regions.

    Flat Earth 2: for the record, i’m not confused, it really isn’t rocket science and quite self explanatory even for non pilots. More importantly, I was relaying the information within an official aviation manual, maybe they got confused.

    I noticed you claimed that flight routes go over the North pole but not the South Pole between Africa, Australia and Southern America, I wonder why it’s fine in the North but not the South.

    Concerning the Great Circle, this is indeed the shortest route possible upon a globe, no disputing the fact. However, there are ample examples of planes being forced to make emergency landings which make a complete mockery of the Great Circle route. There’s been flights between two Southern Hemisphere locations where the Great Circle route doesn’t even cross the Equator. Yet amazingly when the flight was forced to land, it landed within the Nothern Hemisphere, being 1000’s of miles from the supposed flight path. Adding the flight path to a globe proves how proposterous the very idea is and yet when plotting the flight on a flat Earth map, it makes absolute sense.

    There’s video’s on YouTube of Commercial and Air Force pilots all admitting the Earth is flat. There’s even a SR71 co pilot clearly detailing seeing the pacific West of America from 81000 feet, the only problem being, it was impossible to see from that vantage point.

    So respectfully, I hear your argument but draw upon the ample evidences contrary to your claim.

    (To be continued for your amusement and delectation)

    1. The problem with flat earthers, as with other religionists, is that they think they’re right in the face of the irrational. You cannot argue logic and reason with a fanatic.

      It’s equivalent to asking the joilers to explain climate change. They can’t, so they resort to hysterical shrieking. Same for a politician. To keep the scam going they have to lie.

    2. I read that centuries ago a very smart man determined that the Earth is round after watching ships sailing away from their port. The point being that, not only does the ship begin to get smaller as it moves away but the hull begins to disappear from the bottom up, then the masts begin to disappear until the whole ship disappears over the horizon. This phenomenon can only happen on a curved surface: on a flat surface the whole ship would become smaller and smaller until it was too far away to be seen.
      Ships coming up over the horizon is well known, is it not?

      1. More than 2500 years ago, the Greek mathematician Pythagoras determined the earth was a sphere from the shape of the shadow on the moon. Flat earthers and greenies have a lot of catching up to do.

  36. I posted this yesterday evening. I’m popping it up here again for those who might not have seen it and also because I expect to have some more dialogue to add today.

    ____________

    I’ve been having a delightfully amusing exchange with some people in YouTube comments. It all started when I made this comment below a Richard Vobes video on conspiracy theories, the first one of which was ‘The Earth Is Not Round, It Is Flat:

    Me: 1. The Earth is unquestionably round. We pilots who have been to over 40,000 ft have seen the curvature.

    Flat Earth 1: You cannot see the curvature from 40 thousand feet.

    Me to Flat Earth 1: Oh, is that right? So I just saw an optical illusion the hundreds of times I flew fighter aircraft above 40,000ft? Is that what you’re saying? Not to mention the thousands of times I flew airliners between 35,000 and 41,000 feet. Not to mention the opinions of former pilot colleagues who have flown at altitudes above 60,000ft.

    Flat Earth 2: We’ve also got amateur weather balloons at 120000 ft showing it level! Plane windows are curved and during the 2nd world war it became apparent that windows/canopies in aircraft gave distorted views.

    “Pilots never see the outside world through a canopy. They see an image of it.”

    “Every manufactured canopy optically distorts the view of the outside world in a unique way,” added Jones, who has been influential through the years in devising instruments to quantify these distortion differences for the F-16 and F-22. He is the inventor of the advanced canopy mapping system used for the F-35 canopy.

    The words of Mike Jones, a Lockheed Martin Technical Fellow in optics, electro-optics, and directed energy.

    Me to Flat Earth 2: Then it’s funny isn’t it how they all distort the horizon in exactly the same way – showing a curvature. Sorry, I’ll stick with the evidence of my own eyes gleaned over 18,000 flying hours. You might like to consider too the principle of Great Circle tracks and how they could possibly be the shortest route between two points if the world was anything other than round.

    Flat Earth 3: Fiscal, you lied. Weather balloon footage taken by straight lens cameras (not fisheye lenses) shows nothing but Flat line Horizon…at ALL altitudes (Weather balloon footage taken from 130,000 ft+ on YouTube alone. Furthermore, every attempt trying to prove apparent curvature or rotation has failed.

    Me to Flat Earth 3: If that footage is not with a horizon to horizon lens it is unreliable.

    Flat Earth 2: and how often do you have to keep dipping the nose to maintain a level 30000ft altitude? Or are you going to miraculously claim the plane automatically adjusts to the Earths curvature, so basically flies in an arc.

    Neil de grasse Tyson also claimed, Felix Baumgartner wasn’t high enough to see the Earths curvature at 127000ft. So I’ve got an expert telling me you see a distorted view and a scientist telling me you don’t fly high enough to see curvature either. No offence, but your words mean absolutely nothing.

    Me to Flat Earth 2: aircraft fly level at constant pressure altitude so they do follow the curvature. Since attitude is with reference to the horizon no ‘dipping’ as you put it is perceptible. Finally, They are both wrong. I’ll stick with my 44 years professional flying experiences.

    Flat Earth 2: you’re more than welcome to stick to your point of view and I’ll stick with mine.

    Having googled your “aircraft fly level at constant pressure altitude”, I was unable to find a single mention anywhere to corroborate your claim.

    I did download the principles of flight from the federal aviation administration which explains that all aircraft instruments are calibrated to the standard model, which just by coincidence happens to be a flat, non rotating Earth, the same model used by NASA. It explains that ‘pressure altitude’ is a instrument calibrated to a standard atmosphere and that the Earth has a non standard atmosphere. It informs that pressure altitude is merely a computation with the temperature and humidity to actually derive density altitude. It also explains that density altitude informs the pilot of the planes performance at that altitude.

    Me to Flat earth 2: Thank you, you are very generous but you are confused. I’ll explain.

    Standard atmosphere is at a sea level pressure of 1013.2 hectopascals or 29.92 inches of mercury and 15℃. At lower pressures and higher temperature the air would be less dense so aircraft performance will be adversely affected. Higher pressure and lower temperature will have the opposite effect, improving performance. None of this matters with respect to altimetry.

    Above certain altitudes all aircraft fly on standard pressure setting 1013/29.92. They are then flying at ‘flight levels’, not altitude above mean sea level. This is done to separate aircraft vertically. An aircraft at 35,000ft on its altimeter set to ‘standard’ is at Flight Level 350. If the ACTUAL atmospheric pressure at its position is below 1013/29.92 it will be lower than 35,000ft. If the pressure is above 1013/29.92 it will be higher than 35,000.

    Look up Great Circle navigation and ask yourself why is the shortest route between two points on the surface of the Earth an arc and not a straight line. Then consider why an airliner leaving say, London, UK and flying to Tokyo, Japan will route over the polar regions.

    Flat Earth 2: for the record, i’m not confused, it really isn’t rocket science and quite self explanatory even for non pilots. More importantly, I was relaying the information within an official aviation manual, maybe they got confused.

    I noticed you claimed that flight routes go over the North pole but not the South Pole between Africa, Australia and Southern America, I wonder why it’s fine in the North but not the South.

    Concerning the Great Circle, this is indeed the shortest route possible upon a globe, no disputing the fact. However, there are ample examples of planes being forced to make emergency landings which make a complete mockery of the Great Circle route. There’s been flights between two Southern Hemisphere locations where the Great Circle route doesn’t even cross the Equator. Yet amazingly when the flight was forced to land, it landed within the Nothern Hemisphere, being 1000’s of miles from the supposed flight path. Adding the flight path to a globe proves how proposterous the very idea is and yet when plotting the flight on a flat Earth map, it makes absolute sense.

    There’s video’s on YouTube of Commercial and Air Force pilots all admitting the Earth is flat. There’s even a SR71 co pilot clearly detailing seeing the pacific West of America from 81000 feet, the only problem being, it was impossible to see from that vantage point.

    So respectfully, I hear your argument but draw upon the ample evidences contrary to your claim.

    (To be continued for your amusement and delectation)

  37. As regards the orange snooker vandal – have him live without the proceeds of oil for a year. For a start, that paint and glue he’s using would go. Then so would his backpack, clothes, shoes. Oh, and the transport he’s using to get around. And that ear piece. Pretty soon, he’d realise that without oil, he has nothing.

    Then we should go in with nice plastic batons and beat the crap out of him and see how he likes medical operations without oil.

    1. Until I saw that, I was about to observe that there hadn’t been much news in the last few days about the Fall O’ The Hoose O’ Crankie – All Quiet On The National Front, as it were.

      1. Good morning, if I may ‘All Quiet on the Nationalist Front’. It has been quiet as someone has ‘opened an inquiry’, the first refuge for corrupt politicians. “I’m sorry, I can’t comment on the matter whilst an inquiry is ongoing”. However, such is the depth of the financial travails that the Nationalists find themselves in, it’s going to take more than an internal inquiry to stop the fraud squad et al.

    2. Until I saw that, I was about to observe that there hadn’t been much news in the last few days about the Fall O’ The Hoose O’ Crankie – All Quiet On The National Front, as it were.

    1. Hardly a ringing endorsement to inspire confidence..

      “Who is Colin Beattie?
      Colin Beattie is the SNP MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh and was first elected to Holyrood at the 2011 election.

      He was party treasurer for most of Peter Murrell’s tenure as chief executive, serving in the post from 2004 until December 2020, until members elected Douglas Chapman, an MP, who had pledged to improve transparency.

      Mr Beattie regained the role a few months later in June 2021, after Mr Chapman resigned claiming he had not been given the information he needed to carry out his duties.

      Mr Beattie has previously attempted to explain where £600,000 in donations, solicited for independence referendums which never happened, had gone. Questions over the “missing” cash sparked the police probe.

      In 2021 he infamously claimed the cash remained ringfenced and had been “woven through” the accounts.

  40. A guy brings his pet monkey into a bar. While the guy is drinking his pint the monkey starts eating the peanuts on the bar, the monkey then grabs some olives and eats them, finally he pinches a ball off the pool table and swallows it. The barman tells the guy to get out and not to bring the monkey back.
    Next night the guy is back with the monkey and assures the barman there’ll be no trouble, however the monkey goes to the peanuts, takes one and shoves it up its arse then eats it. The barman asks why it’s doing that. The guy says it tests the size of everything it eats now .

    1. I think I posted that story a while back but instead of a peanut up his bum it was a glacé cherry.

      1. Could be, there again most of the jokes you put on here have been on years ago as my joke of the day so I might well have posted it before😁 .

  42. So Sunak wants everybody to continue to do maths until the age of 18.

    What about those who were numerate by the age of 10 and could easily cope with addition, subtraction, division, ratios, percentages and fractions – what will these people have to do? Will they be studying advanced statistics and calculus while the pupils in the desks next to them are struggling to work out what 62% of 373 is? Maths is one of the school subjects that cannot be taught in mixed ability groups.

    A good mathematical and statistical problem that Mr Sunak should address himself is to work out when the Muslim population of the UK will be over 50% and the universities’ philosophical, sociological and political faculties will give accurate predictions of what effects this will have on British institutions, British government, British Law, British policing, British democracy and the British way of life when the current indigenous population is in the minority.

    1. If you haven’t grasped the basics of maths by the age of 16, 2 extra years won’t make any difference. Most people just need arithmetic – things like Calculus, Trigonometry, Algebra etc. are simply not needed in day-to-day life. I struggled with maths and scraped my ‘O’-Level in the fourth form and heaved a sigh of relief that I wouldn’t have to study it any more. Unfortunately, my school made me do Additional Maths ‘O’-Level in the fifth form. You can guess what the result of that was.

      1. Precisely.
        Once I could add up my pocket money and recite my times tables, I really didn’t need anything more.
        An opinion confirmed a month ago when the chap who fitted our kitchen cupboards understood all the gobbledegook issued by the salesman.

        1. Mind you, a bit of geometry can be useful around the house, vide the time my BiL was redecorating the bathroom and managed to buy enough tiles to line the Afan Lido.

      2. Three reds and the colours left on the table? How many points can be won?

        117 to score on the darts board. What three darts to finish?

        Proficient players will do both sums without having to think.

      3. I enjoyed teaching my two sons GCSE maths as we sailed around the Med following home school courses. It was only by having to teach it myself that I got to grips with calculus and quadratic simultaneous equations.

      4. Because I took my O Levels in four years, rather than five, I was excused calculus. Trig, algebra and geometry were all necessary to pass my O Level Maths. Thank heavens for Trig! It was the only way I managed to pass the arithmetic paper; they gave marks for working out. I couldn’t get the right numerical answer to save my life.

    2. Not sure this has been thought through – it’s just another silly sound bite that they think will be popular.
      Do they mean to copy the French and German systems, and have pupils studying the native language, a foreign language and maths until 18?

      If they really intend to push that through, it will restrict university education to all-rounders.
      No more sneaking in to “read” Feminist Basket-Weaving with A levels in English and Social Studies.
      Also techie kids won’t be able to sneak into university with Maths, Further Maths and Physics, as they do at present.

      On the other side, that means that kids who can’t fulfil all the conditions end up doing manual jobs, as they do in France and Germany – which will probably lead to a great improvement in standards, as they get a good, practical education instead of a degree.

      1. I’m not sure “end up” is the right expression – they are skilled jobs that often pay much more than desk jobs – and demonstrate the link between work and income most clearly.

        1. Not meant to be dismissive. My tax advisor told me years ago to put my children into apprenticeships as plumbers and electricians! She does their accounts too – clearly they earn more than I do :-((

    1. Is he putting Marianna Spring out of a job? How many more of these ‘specialists’ have they got? I thought Justin Rowlatt was their ‘climate disinformation (or misinformation) specialist. He was going bananas last night on about 15 minute cites and how wonderful they are.

      1. They are multiplying like rabbits! Clearly a growing industry, fighting climate disinformation!
        Why can’t they see that they’re the baddies?!

        1. Because their righteousness is so deeply embedded, so completely, totally entrenched that they have no concept of right or wrong – only their own way.

    2. A climate change disinformation specialist, which is itself a propaganda job, about a tax scam about which the media is not – enacted by Blair – required to be impartial.

      Yeah. Right. May as well call himself Goebbels.

    3. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-65114966

      ‘Climate change denial is not forbidden on Twitter, but some other types of content are – like threats, harassment, or hate speech. Until November last year, posting misleading claims about Covid-19 could also lead to tweets being removed or accounts being suspended.

      “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether they get suspended because of Covid-19 misinformation or Nazi symbols,” Maria tells me. “When they’re gone, they’re gone.”‘

      They are a very scary type of people, zealots.

  45. Good Moaning.
    From the Tellygraff: “Kitchen knives could be seized from homes under crackdown on dangerous weapons”
    Yes, Yes: I know it’s a headline, but how many times have we seen our most dystopian predictions used against the law abiding?

    “Hide up the fish knives, Norman,
    For Plod is about to drop in.
    No, not in the cutlery drawer;
    I think we could try the cake tin.”

    1. We got about 8 large kitchen knives we no longer use. I have them all wrapped in newspaper bound with masking tape. But I’m afraid to take them to the police station incase I am stopped on the way. Or have to park a few hundred yards away and am jailed for possession. Or anything else. They really have made life difficult. I’m not even sure where the nearest police station is anymore.
      I could drive around and take a stab at it.

    2. Milk and then ‘Just as it comes, Dear?
      I’m afraid the preserve’s full of stones
      Beg pardon, I’m soiling the doilies
      With afternoon tea cakes and scones.

      Our much respected resident plod and I disagree about how the last word should be pronounced!

      1. Retired plod, please, old chap, retired!😉

        I asked the girl with dulcet tone,
        To order me a buttered scone.
        The silly girl has been and gone,
        And ordered me a buttered scone.

        Not only does this pithy little verse show up the pretentiousness of the situation, it also clearly illustrates that there is no such thing a ‘wrong’, just different. We are all the products of our upbringing and just because someone pronounces, calls (or does) anything in a different manner to someone else, it doesn’t make one version right and the other wrong.

        Where I come from, bread rolls are known as cobs and they enjoy 20-or-more different local names around the country, none of which are ‘wrong’ or ‘incorrect’. Every one of them is the correct name for the locality in which they are enjoyed.

        When people appear online telling all and sundry that such-and-such sportsman, musician, candlestick-maker, is the ‘best’ or ‘ the greatest of all time‘, they never realise just how subjective they are being and they mistake their personal favourites for ‘the best’.

        We all have personal preferences but it is infra dig (not to mention bad manners) to instruct others that one’s preferences are the correct, right, or best ones.

        1. My darling wife’s maiden name was Schoon which the British find difficult to pronounce. Most of us say Skoon but Caroline says Schkon! (Her Dutch family call her Caro Leen but I call her Caro Line and our French friends call me Ree Shard.)

          Bread rolls in Cornwall are called splits .

          1. I’ve been attempting, for the past 12 years, to pronounce to Swedish word for seven (‘sju’) in a way that would be remotely recognisable to the average Swede, but still without success. [Addendum: it is not pronounced remotely how it appears in English].

          5. Hardly, Mola, the Kwew is started at the back of the throat (not a glottal stop) but then it all moves forward.

          7. Reminds me of the chap who knocked with a cane as he stumbled along to the Admiral Benbow to deliver a black spot in Treasure Island.

          12. Swedish: “Who” – on an out-breath.
            In Weejie, “Shoe” or “sea-ve”

          13. I know. But that’s not the sound that comes out of my gob!☹️

            I’m OK with most other pronunciations, but that bugger defeats me.

          15. Cholmondely-Featherstonehaugh, pronounced:

            ……………………Smith…………………..

          20. A Devonian chappie who played football and won the FA Cup in 1966 was called Mike Trebilcock. His surname’s correct pronunciation is as it is written; however, it so panicked the BBC that the commentator was warned to pronounce it ‘Trebil-coe’ during the commentary so as not to upset the sensitivities of the viewers.

          22. You have pointed that out a couple of times before on this blog, accusing the family of being ‘pretentious’.

            They originated from Derbyshire and built up large landholdings elsewhere. They always spelled their surname Coke and pronounced it ‘Cook’. Look at any old maps from C14 or C15. As I understand it, the standardisation of English spelling and pronunciation of placenames and surnames didn’t get going until 1630 or later. Other NoTTLers will know a lot more on this topic.

            Wiki: ‘Coke of Norfolk’
            ‘Coke was again returned to Parliament in 1790, sitting continuously until 1832, and he primarily spoke on matters of local interest, such as the Corn Laws. His second focus was on civil liberties, and he spoke out against the government’s response to the Peterloo Massacre and similar events. Described as the “greatest commoner in England”,[4] he chose the passage of the Great Reform Act 1832 as the moment to retire, later being made Earl of Leicester in July 1837.’

            Obviously the spelling of Leicester wouldn’t change to ‘Lester’; equally they weren’t going to change ‘Coke’ to Cook. I know this from my 1st cousin once removed, Elizabeth Coke, 5th Countess of Leicester. I can assure you that she was anything but pretentious, rode a Harley-Davidson, started the Holkham pottery, and had a fund of irreverent stories.

            Please stop posting derogatory pieces about a family you don’t know.

            https://www.holkham.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Lady-Elizabeth-scaled.jpg

          23. I wasn’t posting anything derogatory. I was just contributing to a thread in which unusual pronunciations exist. Nothing more.

            Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck, daughter of the Duke of Portland, who lived on the family estate (next door to an old address of mine) at Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire, was a similar character to Elizabeth Coke. She was apparently a feisty lady who everyone on the estate was very wary of. She loved to chase people away who she thought were invading her privacy, or parking their vehicles too close to her land. She would patrol the estate daily on horseback, even into late age, to ensure that her privacy was maintained. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/36e8d63729a6a08d05173352d47e2fba45a4a76b574a46638110db49872b190f.jpg

          25. I have yards of Featherstonhaughs in my family tree, around the early 17th century.

          27. How many Nottlers can remember what P.G Wodehouse’s Ukridge’s second Christian name was?

          29. Oh, Sir Jasper, please don’t tease me, I’m sure you know his full name was Stanley Featherstanhaugh Ukridge.

        2. Two examples:
          Schedule: Shed-ule or sked-ule?
          Brochure: Bro-sure or brock-ure?
          My Father used the second pronunciation of these.

          6. Chambers English dictionary gives:

            controversy n, kon’ trə-vûr-si (also kən-trov’ ər-si).

          8. They are not wrong in the least. The first version is the standard English phonetic pronunciation, and the second version is the standard American phonetic pronunciation.

          12. When I criticised an American friend in Antigua for the way he said schedule he replied: “Sorry Richard but I never went to shool.”

    1. Perhaps that was “highlights of the day” comma “free of the world snooker championships”

    1. Here, in Sweden, knives are ubiquitous. Every workman you see in the street has an unconcealed sheath knife on his belt. Every tool and hardware store has a huge collection of knives, of all types, on open display. No one bats an eyelid and no one feels the necessity to go around stabbing each other.

      1. When I was a boy we all had knives with stag antler handles and sheathed in leather and worn on our belts. These were not for stabbing people but for whittling and carving and gutting fish.

          1. On my recent trip to Kenya I managed get a vicious thorn in the sole of my shoe (which went right through it). All the guides and drivers and other staff have a large knife in their belts, so one was put to good use to get it out of my shoe quickly. They are also used for hacking a way through vegetation, and plenty of other things. They aren’t the right shape for stabbing people.

        2. Me too. My father bought my sister and me a knife each when we were about 11 yo.

      2. Same in Norway as Grizz describes.
        Sharp knives are used in kindergarten in teaching kids to use a knife safely – whittling a stick to barbecue your frankfurter on, for example.

        1. When I was at art school back in the dark ages we were taught to use a knife in preference to a pencil sharpener. Somewhere I may still have the scalpel bought for sharpening pencils.

    2. Anything to avoid the fundamental problem. It’s truly disgusting. Same reason they want to control communications. All because of muslim terrorism.

    3. Don’t worry, they won’t seize them from anyone who’s likely to go round stabbing anyone.

      1. More to the point, how am I going to carve Sunday’s chicken? Must’ve been a vegementalist that thought up the idea.

  49. The weather here yesterday was so pleasant I removed three layers of clothing. Luckily for the neighbours I had been wearing four at the time.

    1. That’s what you’re supposed to think.
      Reality is that those kids are probably getting drilled in being responsible and handling a gun safely, which is no bad thing. Certainly far better than training them to be big entitled whiners who need a safe space.

      2. A long time back a chum offered me a gun and … it just felt wrong. Something horribly evil, dark and sinister.

        Now, a sword. Somehow, when I’m fencing or re-enacting – those feel right. I can’t explain it. I’m probably a bit weird but holding my sabre at guard rest before a fencing match is just normal.

        1. You have to get up close and personal if you’re to do any serious damage with a sword, thus making yourself vulnerable to the same. Guns, not so much so the firer doesn’t see or risk the same kind of consequences.

          That said, gun shooting at inanimate targets is a very satisfying activity.

        4. I am comfortable with guns (hand-, shot- or rifle), but swords are okay, too (foil mainly),

      3. The theory is sound. Unfortunately, as we see every day, the reality is that more and more morons with guns shoot before asking questions. More and more schools are invaded by ‘loners’ who use their ‘rights’, under the second amendment, to obliterate dozens of innocent school children.

        My description of that country was à point.

        1. Loners on drugs, you mean? The US has many social problems, responsible gun ownership which is what is illustrated in the photo, isn’t one of them.

    2. I think we could do with some Second Amendment here but I’d draw the line at letting kiddies anywhere near them.

      1. Use their toy guns to teach them the basics like, “Never point a gun at anyone – even in fun.”

  51. Little story from the USA:
    “EXCLUSIVE: Judge denies activist’s attempt to hide radical curriculum from public

    The material created for a Math curriculum obtained by The Post Millennial contains no numbers or formulas, but instead focuses on “identity,” “power” and oppression.””
    Funnily enough, the curriculum “architect” wanted to hide this from those annoying parents, who are probably all far right wing white supremacists anyway!

    Story: https://thepostmillennial.com/exclusive-judge-denies-activists-attempt-to-hide-radical-curriculum-from-public

    I wonder if this is the kind of maths that Rishi Sunak envisages kids studying until 18?

  52. SNP latest news: Treasurer Colin Beattie arrested . 18 April 2023.

    The SNP’s treasurer has been arrested as part of the police investigation into the party’s finances.

    Colin Beattie, who is also an MSP, is being held in custody and is being questioned by detectives, Police Scotland said this morning.

    It follows the arrest of Peter Murrell, who was party chief executive and is Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, earlier this month. Mr Murrell was released without charge pending further inquiries.

    A statement said: “A 71-year-old man has today, Tuesday, 18 April 2023, been arrested as a suspect in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National Party. The man is in custody and is being questioned by Police Scotland detectives.”

    Lol!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/04/18/snp-latest-colin-beattie-arrested-sturgeon-news-live/

    2. Thanks. Minty. A gentle reminder to posters that the Scots Polis are very keen on their Contempt of Court Act, and I have no wish to be incarcerated. The Speccie has much deeper comments than mine, and comments on this subject are verboten. I would advise buying popcorn, and settling down to enjoy the show. I don’t think the Scots have a word for ‘schadenfreude’. So don’t be offended should any posts on this subject disappear.

  53. SNP latest news: Treasurer Colin Beattie arrested . 18 April 2023.

    The SNP’s treasurer has been arrested as part of the police investigation into the party’s finances.

    Colin Beattie, who is also an MSP, is being held in custody and is being questioned by detectives, Police Scotland said this morning.

    It follows the arrest of Peter Murrell, who was party chief executive and is Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, earlier this month. Mr Murrell was released without charge pending further inquiries.

    A statement said: “A 71-year-old man has today, Tuesday, 18 April 2023, been arrested as a suspect in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National Party. The man is in custody and is being questioned by Police Scotland detectives.”

    Lol!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/04/18/snp-latest-colin-beattie-arrested-sturgeon-news-live/

  54. Calling Tecchie Nottlers!
    I’m thinking of buying a new/poss refurbished desktop PC. Any advice on the minimum spec I should aim for?

        1. Desktops take up too much room, either on the desk or on the floor.

          They’re not portable either.

          1. IKT!
            I have a tablet I can travel around with and a work laptop I can bring home for
            now . I want to get a pc to start organising and archiving important doc’s.

          2. My laptop has a 320 Gigabit hard disk and I also have 3 external hard drives for back-up as necessary. The externals amount to 4 Terrabytes.

          6. Tablets have little or no hard drive memory. Since you have a work laptop, I’m sure you can see the advantages of that – depending on the hard drive size.

            I’ve remained with WIN 7 because 10 and 11 have horrible initial opening screens.

          7. Hi Debbie, Just to complicate things further, have you considered an all-in-one PC? I’ve teetered on the brink of buying one – primarily for their inherent Shiraz-proof quality – bus have stuck to laptops for their portability.

            Such as this entry-level one:

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f522090f7196e78830054c12cdb5fcfc72fb9664505d9f45e2cebfa0b0990d2d.png

            https://www.currys.co.uk/products/hp-22dd0001na-21.5-allinone-pc-amd-ryzen-3-128-gb-ssd-white-10234381.html

          10. Don’t forget you can get a docking station to extend the desktop to have a couple of much bigger monitors attached.

            That gives you the best of both worlds – a couple of big screen and a portable device.

            It depends what your budget is and the space you have.

          12. Sorry, George, I know it’s your preference but I cannot abide or get on with Apple machines.

          13. I know, Tom. It’s horses for courses since I cannot get on with Microsoft machines.

          15. Oh I don’t know. I’ve shifted us all over to Linux Mint apart from for some minor things. There are some annoying things that have to be done and shouldn’t be, but those are ideological in the Linux community and won’t change.

          16. Really? I love my iMac. It’s running something I forget the name of and just works. As I barely use any Apple software I don’t need to upgrade it.

          17. You don’t have to program the little shyte!
            Apple products are OK to use as long as you are the bog standard Apple customer, and do exactly what they want you to do. If not, then you face the consequences.

          18. At work my laptop is connected to a monitor and keyboard so it servies both functions – either portable or not, as required. Personally I prefer using it as if it were a pc. I like a proper keyboard and a b-i-g screen. At home my iPhone is all purpose and it does cause eye strain.

          19. I have Microsoft Surface Pro.
            What a laptop should be. All solid-state, touch screen and a pretty good keyboard.
            Detachabe keyboard hat also acts as a lid, can be used as a tablet, and has a stylus that works well.
            Boots up in a half-second.
            Freakin’ expensive, though.

        2. I could recommend something from the Fujitsu Esprimo range. Refurbished PCs are always available, just check that there is a warranty. Imacs are more expensive, but Apple is nice and intuitive.

    2. Hard to say without knowing what you will use it for. Just browsing the internet, document creation, heavy spreadsheet development, video game playing? All would point you to a different configuration.

      I would go for memory, of at least 6 GBytes, also get a solid state disk instead of a regular hard drive, the combination of those two features will give good performance.

      I don’t really care about which operating system, our machines came with windows 11 and I seen reason to move them back to some older version or even installed Ubuntu or some such alternate.

      Unless you want to blow the big bucks and buy something apple that is.

      1. No to Apple and no to gaming/much streaming.
        Mainly t’internet and documents/ spreadsheets.

        What’s the min processor I should go for? i5, i7

        I’d like to buy new but happy to try refurb if budget precludes. My limit is about £600 -700 (I don’t need monitor, mouse, keyboard)

        1. My toy has an i5 processor, it is certainly fast enough for me.

          Trouble is it is more complex than that – which generation processor and how fast come into it.

          I had a quick look through Currys web site to see what you can get in the UK. Lots of choice around 500 to 600 ponds and all would do everything you want and more. I looked at the HP M01-F2005na , that’s nice but not much nicer than the rest.

          I had an issue with my new laptop it only has an hdmi video port. and my old monitor is vga but there are adaptors that you can buy for that.

          Hope that helps. Unless you are into really compute intensive stuff or need instant gratification from the latest video game, almost any of what I saw would be fine.

          I used to run some major bank HR databases on my old laptop, it was fine You certainly don’t need to buy the biggest bestest.

      2. No to Apple and no to gaming/much streaming.
        Mainly t’internet and documents/ spreadsheets.

        What’s the min processor I should go for? i5, i7

        I’d like to buy new but happy to try refurb if budget precludes. My limit is about £600 -700 (I don’t need monitor, mouse, keyboard)

  55. A quick reminder – UK Column livestream with Andrew Bridgen at 1pm today if you’re able to watch. I’ll catch it later

  56. A 3h stint up the “garden” mixing a batch of mortar and getting some stone laid to face off the concrete blocks.
    Flight of 3 x wokka-wokka birds went over, followed 5min later by a second flight. They’re a bloody impressive aircraft!

          1. Best way to imitate a Brummie.
            Stand up straight, chin down, but pushed forward.
            Yower can’t help talking Brummagem, then.

          4. 🫢Oops!

            When I went to work in Norwich, and lived in rural Norfolk, I was told in no uncertain terms that there was ‘Norfolk Man’ … and there was ‘Norwich Man’ … and that under no circumstances should I confuse the two!

  57. What is that enticing bulge in men’s pants that women can’t resist and love to get their hands on? His wallet.

    1. ‘Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?’ – Mae West.

        1. Pants are the undergarments. Trousers are the outer garments. Underpants is an Americanism.

          1. Well, a discussion about men’s underfugs is a change from talking about loo rolls.

  58. What is that enticing bulge in men’s pants that women can’t resist and love to get their hands on? His wallet.

  59. Ex-Tory leader William Hague in trans blast at the Women’s Institute: Peer wades into WI revolt over decision to admit transgender members saying they need to ‘get over it and welcome new people’
    The Women’s Institute saw backlash for policy that would let trans members join
    The WI declared in 2015 that it welcomed transgender women to its organisation
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11985453/Ex-Tory-leader-William-Hague-blast-Womens-Institute-trans-rebels.html

    Since wearing that ridiculous baseball cap and boasting of how many pints of beer he drank a day as a drayman everything that Hague has done has been wrong and absurd. He now has joined the wrong side of the trans issue.

    His IQ has gone down by about 2 points a year since the turn of the century so if he had an IQ of 140 in 2000 his IQ now is only 94 or 95 which makes his IQ very much lower than the average IQ of the Nottlers!

    I must confess that this absurd chap does make me resort to rather infantile and puerile humour.

    [Wee Willie’s willy is so weeny he might just as well be a Woomie (Womby)]

    1. For goodness sake. A man in a dress is NOT A WOMAN. HE IS A MAN. These people are mentally ill. They are not to be lauded and certainly not into the blasted women’s institute. Treat them with therapy. Most are just trying to find an identity.

      They’re sick, not normal.

      1. Exactly! He shows none of the native intelligence that you’d expect from a married man. Jumping in and telling 50% of the population to “get over it”.
        He has been nothing but a poor creature of the WEF for a long time now.

    3. I always thought he batted for the other team anyway and Ffion was just a cover.

  60. That guy that protested at the snooker yesterday is saying that he is not guilty.
    He says that he was framed.

      1. Don’t think a snooker table has seen that much powder since Jimmy White stopped playing.

    1. The sad thing is, the police wouldn’t care. And neither do our politicians. I’m surprised the store detectives haven’t been sacked for some misdemeanour along the lines of catching a criminal.

    2. Ironic that Roma are claimed to be one of the most discriminated against ethnic groups from Europe, yet appear to go out of their way to justify that discrimination.

    1. I’d pay for private healthcare if I wouldn’t have to pay for the NHS.

      You know, the NHS is, like much of the civil service, infuriating. On the one hand you’ve a bunch of people dedicated, decent, hard working. On the other, a monollith of inefficiency, waste and expense.

      1. I recently had an estimate of how much a catheter ablation might cost at a well thought of hospital but in the private sector.
        The estimate not including pre assessment or possible hospital after care. Was between 10 and 20 thousand pounds. It’s unaffordable for the average person. Especially British pensioners.
        But those who can, are setting back the waiting times for those who can’t.
        And the surgeons are currently making their fortunes.

        2. My old dad (84) is having to pay two and a half grand to have a cataract op. Unfortunately the NHS botched his first one and wanted to give his second one to another trainee to do. I don’t think so.

          1. Terrible.
            I hope he will be okay. Like I have he has probably paid in all his working life. When help is needed it’s not available.

    2. Same argument here and the same blinkered viewpoints.

      The blessed CBC was interviewing people about allowing private healthcare and several idiots pronounced that they would rather see a parent wait eighteen months for a pain relieving operation than see it being done quickly in a publicly funded private clinic.

      For the few not aware, the canada health act prohibits all health care unless it is funded through the provincial government, we cannot take out insurance and use a private clinic.

    4. Private is not more expensive, just you don’t see the full costs with NHS, much of it is hidden.

  63. Just been pondering about ‘selective racism.

    It is almost impossible now to see an Advert, or even a TV programme (crime, Comedy, Quiz Show etc) without an ove-rrepresentaton, by race population statistics of coloured people. Complain and you will be prosected.

    Try using the same rationale for “Stop and Search” plans by the perlice and we will be Racist, athough the the knife users seem to be pedominantly ‘non-white’ in total although they are a minority of the population.

    1. Whatever happened to the truth is it’s own defence? If the majority are 80% white British, and TV adverts are showing over 80% blacks and ethnics and women then that is discrimination.

      1. Discrimination is when you see government backed job ads specifying that positions are only open to visible minorities.

        I would hate to be a white boy from a poor background, they have absolutely no chance of being treated fairly

    2. Being in every advertisement and as many other programmes on TV possible, it gets them off the dreaded streets.
      But doesn’t seem to stop them from moaning about everything.

    3. My lovely daughter has managed to get herself accepted for an internship this summer with a prestigious accountancy company. Like her old mum. We are very proud.

      She went on an “orientation day” recently. She said of the c. 30 girls there, she was the only “non-ethnic” one.

      Still, some good news – there were a number of “non-ethnic” white lads, which I certainly hadn’t expected.

    4. Walking around Chester I considered that the adverts were having an effect – every other pedestrian seemed to be blek and foreign. Presumably they are “students” at the University which I attended when it was still a college.

  64. Like the BBC, our CBC broadcaster is a nest of wokeness pedaling a way left of centre viewpoint. After the BBC was flagged as government funded,, our Conservative leader requested the same appellation for the CBC. It was very quickly applied.

    The subsequent uproar is a delight to behold.
    Numb nuts Trudeau accused the Conservatives of running to an American billionaire for help – conveniently overlooking the point that Elon Musk is Canadian.
    The CBC have been tying themselves in knots trying to say that they are independent and not tied to the government purse strings – they get a $1.6 billion annual grant.
    CBC chiefs claimed that their grant is not 70% of funding as has been claimed – so now the Twitter tag has been updated –

    @CBC

    69% Government-funded Media

  65. Ken Mackay, policeman awarded George Medal for bravery in the 1971 Blackpool jewellery heist – obituary

    Ken Mackay, who has died aged 87, was a policeman who won the George Medal for his bravery during a botched raid on a jewellery store in Blackpool that resulted in one colleague being killed and two others badly injured.

    At 9.45 am on August 23 1971, four men – Frederick “Fat Fred” Sewell, Thomas Flannigan, George Bond and John Spry, all armed and wearing stocking masks, forced their way into Preston’s Jewellers just off the Promenade.

    Brandishing two service revolvers, a sawn-off shotgun and a handgun, they made the staff lie on the floor, then crammed jewels and watches worth more than £100,000 (worth £1.8 million today) into holdalls. However, a sales manager working in a back room had activated an alarm connected to the resort’s police HQ. As the gang returned to their nearby getaway car (driven by Charles Haynes), the police were already closing in.

    This of course was back in the day when policemen were white and thought rainbows were in children’s colouring books. God knows what this man thought when he read the paper or saw the television. It’s better not to dwell on it. A whole world. A whole people destroyed!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/04/17/ken-mackay-obituary-policeman-george-medal-blackpool-1971/

    1. Labour love these sort. They usually become Labour voters. Look at the average gimmigrant: utterly state dependent, no useful skills, barely speaks English, smokes, drinks, uses drugs. They will never amount to anything, will cause huge public damage, cost the state a fortune and ensure it’s continual expansion.

      Now compare that to a UK pensioner.

    2. “The plan also says all migrants who are unaccompanied children to have access to the universal basic income scheme as soon as they turn 18.”

      Jumping the gun a bit there…

        1. Your question is so accusatory that I think you have misinterpreted me. There is no universal basic income scheme.

          1. There is no universal basic income scheme….Yet.

            Sorry. Didn’t mean to be rude to you.

    3. That is absolutely insulting to any pensioners who have contributed all their working lives for the pittance they are supposed to survive on.
      How much per vote would that amount to ?

    4. It’s about as stupid as the SNP wanting to give everyone £25k a year, indexed linked, to all unemployed and unemployable and anyone earning over £25k a year a reduction to £25k.

  67. So now Mayor Khan is now trying to justify the ULEZ charge because his paid experts say that air pollution lowers sperm count.

    They must have seen him coming.

    4. Who cares? But since London is now majority non-white maybe Khan wants as many new Londoners to breed copiously as they can.

    5. 🤣
      I think that advice more than emphasis what a effing knob head he really is.

  68. Bottomless Bunker for 6+!

    Wordle 668 X/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. So near, yet so far…

      Wordle 668 X/6

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

    4. Just made it here.
      Wordle 668 6/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    5. I cried foul when I realised they’d picked a word where there are way more than six options with the same last four letters so I resisted looking up the answer but did look up a clue.

      Wordle 668 4/6

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

  69. Now that is a surprise. Typo is not a good look, and she is “Anne Marie” not “Anne” as he would know if he had followed her work. But still.

    From: UK Independence Party – National Party Chairman
    To: You

    I am really pleased to announce that Anne Marie Waters has returned to politics and as “Justice” spokes for the UK Independence Party.

    This ground breaking move by Anne demonstrates her commitment to helping unite our fragmented side of the political argument, whilst also recognising that she is a political activist with so much more to give.

    Please click the link below to watch her video.

    https://youtu.be/X5eeT36K_04

    Our party’s work continues to re-build a tangible, “common-sense” alternative to the nonsense we are now forced to endure and live by on a daily basis at the hands of our globally controlled, self-serving politicians and woke-drunk establishments with their nutty agendas.

    Join us, join Anne and be part of the fight back!

    Ben Walker
    National Party Chairman
    http://www.ukip.org

  71. Vladimir Putin deploys nuclear submarines in surprise Pacific drills. 18 April 2023.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ea1d9ec0e30ffb2c99155ddf836daf6354aa379781648d8529598aa9bdc48b3.jpg

    Footage from the Russian Ministry of Defence purports to show at least one of the submarines leaving a port in Kamchatka before at least half a dozen of the submersibles are shown at sea with the coast in the background.

    This deployment is on top of another Pacific alert last week. Vlad has just made a personal visit to his commanders in Ukraine and, despite the presents, I doubt that it was to wish them all a Happy Easter and it now looks like they are winding down operations. This plus the Chinese Defence Secretary is making a personal visit. Now I don’t actually know anything of course but my paranoia is flashing ALARM. Are the Chinese going to make an effort on Taiwan? Did Zhi and Vlad come to an agreement during the formers visit a couple of months ago? Be prepared Nottlers!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/18/watch-vladimir-putin-nuclear-submarines-pacific/

      1. Hope the Birthday Girl and you enjoyed your outing to Lincoln Cathedral, one of my faves. I grew up down the road. As an erstwhile construction engineer I just shake my head and admit that, as a nation, we couldn’t do it today

        1. That is true of so many edifices built by the ancients. I was marvelling at the Roman walls in Chester this afternoon. Some of the modern buildings there already looked as though they needed replacing.

    3. Taiwan is a recognised province of China. There is no need for China to invade its own territory. This hyped up invasion nonsense is yet more US propaganda.

      The US foreign policy has for decades been to cause strife around the world. The policy is not run by politicians but by the military arms industry. It is Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon and the like driving everything.

  72. 373612+ up ticks,

    Has anyone the start date of the civil war,

    Asylum seekers in Wales will get a £1,600 monthly payout in Wales under plans put together by Labour. Young migrants would receive universal basic income, without being deprived of legal aid under the plans.

    1. I’ll bet there are plenty of our own who would love that. Free accommodation too.

      1. 373612+ up ticks,

        Evening FM,
        I would hazard a guess that ALL of our own would accept it, especially those ex forces fallen on hard times and many who are holding a full complement of insurance stamps.

  73. ‘Night All

    Absolutely trolling us now – assume emergency powers, not to prevent the ongoing invasion but to facilitate it

    The Home Secretraitor is going to declare the Illegals being brought into the country by the govt “A National Emergency” from tomorrow.
    This is very important
    not because they will now stop them don’t be daft – it’s important
    because without Declaring A National Emergency then the Govt would not be able to use Emergency Powers
    [actually granted for matters of National Security and usually to do
    with Military bases but presumably setting them up not putting up
    invaders!] to over-ride public objections to dumping illegals all
    round the country in Traditional English Areas – see HuW Traitorman’s
    announcement on his website under “Planning process and public
    consultation”:

    “a Class Q planning notice will be
    issued. This is a government emergency power to self-grant planning
    permissions for 12 months. During this period, all works to make the
    site fit for purpose will be undertaken. There will be no public
    consultation during this period.”
    They are our enemies……..

    1. As far as I am aware, Class Q Planning Notices encompass the conversion of ‘Agricultural Buildings’ (e.g. barns) to ‘Domestic Use’, not the sort of hysteria of Traitorman’s website.

      As regards ‘Emergency Powers’, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rishi made an announcement compelling everybody to stop using loo paper to wipe their bottoms.

    3. Suella Braverman to claim small boats crisis is ‘national emergency’. 18 April 2023.

      Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, is to claim the small boats crisis is a “national emergency” in a legal attempt on Wednesday to override planning laws and turn a former RAF base in Essex into a camp for asylum-seekers.

      On Wednesday, Home Office lawyers will be in the High Court to face a legal challenge by Braintree District Council, which is seeking an injunction to prevent RAF Wethersfield being turned into a camp to house up to 1,700 asylum seekers.

      Acting on behalf of the Home Secretary, they will argue that the asylum crisis is so serious – with 51,000 migrants being housed in 400 hotels at a cost of £6 million a day – that they can exercise Class Q powers to ignore local planning rules and set up the camp near Braintree.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/18/braverman-to-claim-small-boats-crisis-is-national-emergency/

      1. An ’emergency’ of their own deliberate making. The Country has no need of these people but the government clearly does. For what purpose is not clear but IMO the mass of young men of fighting age resembles an infiltrated militia. There will not be a benefit for the people, only grief.

      2. Sanday, one of the largest Orkney Islands, has an area of 50.43 Km² and a total population of under 500.

        An ideal place to build and set up a camp, concentrating all the so-called ‘asylum seekers’, all 52,700 of them, while they await the long drawn-out asylum checks. We will undertake to feed them and provide warm clothing in the winter but that’s it. Other than that, they will fend for themselves behind layers of electrified barbed wire.

        Once this gets known elsewhere in the world, be prepared to see the daily boat crews dwindle down to zero within a week.

        This is my remedy for dealing with the illegal immigrants. It’s called deterrence.

      3. Braintree is James Cleverley’s constituency the last time I looked but changes in boundaries are afoot.

        Before Cleverley we had Brooks Newmark, an American who disgraced himself.

      4. BTL:
        Richard Lindsay
        It’s not surprising that Braverman is the least popular politician in the country right now.
        All of this could have been avoided if the government had simply got asylum processing to the point where cases could be dealt with within weeks (as they are in most EU nations) rather than months or even years.
        Instead, they decided to play dog-whistle politics with what is essentially a side issue (certainly compared to overall migration).
        Headlines matter to these people more than results.

        Amazing. The EU method of processing is to shove them our way ASAP.

      5. BTL:
        Richard Lindsay
        It’s not surprising that Braverman is the least popular politician in the country right now.
        All of this could have been avoided if the government had simply got asylum processing to the point where cases could be dealt with within weeks (as they are in most EU nations) rather than months or even years.
        Instead, they decided to play dog-whistle politics with what is essentially a side issue (certainly compared to overall migration).
        Headlines matter to these people more than results.

        Amazing. The EU method of processing is to shove them our way ASAP.

      6. You got my hopes up for a moment there. I thought they were saying it was a national emergency so that they could send the Navy to stop the boats coming.

    4. More people are now looking for work in the UK, because of so many cut backs in expenditure and employment.
      We really do not need any of these people in our country.
      The real people who should be looking for a job are in Whitehall and Westminster.

      1. We’re trying to man up the project, but we’ve run out of Norwegians! So, interviewing Arabs who can barely speak.
        That’ll go well.

    5. 373612+ up ticks,

      Evening Rik,

      Many of us outside of the lab/lib’con coalition supporting / voting members knew this but there was NO stopping the true to treachery party before country brigade

      The political enemas are decent peoples enemies and have been for decades.

  75. Jacob Rees-Mogg (when he can get a word in) currently slaughtering eco nutcase on GB News.

  76. Such fun…..made a large and delicious Shepherds Pie with steamed spring greens and gravy. Put the leftover gravy into a tub and headed to the fridge and observed drip, drip onto the floor. Tub was cracked. Fresh gravy will have to be made for the next round. Bummer.
    Hope you are all having a fun filled evening;-)

    1. Just read a few cantos of Dante’s Inferno. The tale of Paolo and Francesca. Apparently Dante included them because he was writing while staying at the home of Francesca’s family.

      I was beginning to think everyone was having an early night. Tried that last night and was wide awake at 3 am. Doesn’t work for me.

      1. I have to stay up a bit longer as I sleep so fitfully these nights. Doesn’t make any difference how tired I am.
        Rereading an historical fiction novel on and off.
        Have so many jobs to do but have to pace myself….was hoping to sit in the sun today but by the time I wanted to go out there, clouds had moved in. Maybe tomorrow.

        1. It was quite sunny here today but with a howling gale, it was quite unpleasant. I washed a white sweater of OH that he wears a lot and the water after I’d soaked it for a while was dark brown! That dried ok outside.

          1. It was gorgeous here this morning but then went cloudy and then the stiff breeze picked up- it wasn’t cold but it felt like it.
            All I think most of us would like is a little sun and warmth.

          2. There’s lots of work to do in the garden but it’s been too cold, wet and windy for weeks now.

          3. I managed to do some weeding and primula planting in the front garden and I mowed the lawn in the back garden. The bulbs I planted at the end of last year have produced a riot of colourful tulips.

  77. Just started watching the fillum Judgement at Nuremburg, not sure if I’ve seen it before yet.

  78. Evening, all. I think nurses didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory by posting videos on Tiktok of themselves twerking during the pandemic. After the horrors of lockdown when so many people couldn’t get the care they needed, to go on strike is rubbing salt into the wound.

  79. The wedge & feather sets I ordered yesterday have arrived, so once I’ve recovered my SDS drill from t’Lad’s I can start rock splitting.
    Did a reasonable amount of work on the wall this morning, including getting a large lump set in place on the top.
    Will have to take photographs as it has a lovely fossil on the outward face and the corner on the top face has the drill mark from where it was split off the main rock, probably with a wedge & feathers. I’ve a big lump of basalt to place on top too that has some silicate inclusions on one face that will make a nice feature.

    A bit of sad news, the singer James Bowman has died, aged 82.
    https://youtu.be/aUos0Iwr4ro

  81. Well, going to bed perchance to sleep.
    Hope Y’all sleep well and have a good rest of evening.

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