Tuesday 19 September: Plans to bolster the NHS’s woke bureaucracy are an insult to patients

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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405 thoughts on “Tuesday 19 September: Plans to bolster the NHS’s woke bureaucracy are an insult to patients”

  2. ‘Morning chaps! I’m now back in Athens having had no wi-if for a few days! What have I missed? 😊

          4. When I did my MA one of the young women was Greek. After a seminar on transformations, she said, “it’s all Greek to me!” The lecturer said, “presumably if it had been you would have understood it.”

        1. Bint is Arabic for woman, daughter.
          Ali bin Salman – Ali, son of Salman
          Delilah bint Salman – Delilah, daughter of Salman.
          Not sure if the children are always related back to the father, or like Icelanders, the daughters are related to the mother, the boys related to the father.
          Sorry if I’m teaching egg-sucking… 🙁

          1. The original meaning isn’t the problem, it’s the connotation.
            The word c**t has a perfectly respectable original meaning but we don’t bandy it about on Nottl.

    4. ‘Morning Sue. Welcome back. Country bankrupt, NHS collapsing, nothing works any more…situation normal in fact!

      1. Too hot to take photies! Even up on the mountain, and it’s a bit windy! It’s 29c and sunny!

    1. There’s one word that covers all of that. And it’s not diversity, the single word is stupid. IMHO.

    2. Good morning all.
      This video clip is several years old and the participants are likely to have been Eastern Europeans, so if they ever registered to vote it was probably in Romania.

      1. What has the age of the video got to do with what’s going on in the clip? It’s a literal example of how unthinking some people can be. As for the vote? I don’t for one minute doubt that there exists a cohort of people as unthinking as those depicted who do have the vote.
        Anyway, I found it amusing and I thought others might too.

        1. All they needed to do was to remove a couple of cushions, then no one else would have bothered to take the sofa. And later they could have returned with a larger car. But hey, if we have IQ tests for voters, there should be similar tests for selecting whether MPs are up to the mark. I propose ducking stools.

  5. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Another, “That’s The Way To Do It”
    A little old couple in their eighties was sitting on the couch watching the Playboy Channel.

    He looked at her and asked, “Do you think we can still do that?”

    “Well, we can sure try!” she answered.

    So they shuffled off to the bedroom. He went into the bathroom to get ready and she took off all her clothes in the bedroom.

    When he came out of the bathroom, he saw her standing on her head in the middle of the bedroom floor.

    “What are you doing, sweetheart?” he asked.

    “Well,” she replied, “I thought if you couldn’t get it up, maybe you could just drop it in!

      1. Had that all day yesterday. Rained so hard that there’s none left and the sun is now shining, although the clouds are massing for another assault.

  8. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, is said to be “frustrated” that the NHS is planning to create three “woke” departments, with an estimated staff cost of £14 million (report, September 18).

    If he’s frustrated, how does he imagine it feels for taxpayers, seeing yet more of their money being diverted away from front-line NHS workers and treatments?

    Peter Rosie
    Ringwood, Hampshire

    And I’m pretty certain that the 7.7m on the waiting lists won’t be thrilled either. Did anyone else see Farage interview the Chief Woke of some ‘diversity’ NHS creation yesterday evening? I didn’t understand most of what Mrs Effnik said – did anyone else? I was none the wiser…oh, yes I was – nothing she said seemed anything to do with treating those poor sods who are still waiting, some of whom will not survive the wait. It is truly scandalous.

    PS. A dear friend of ours went into hospital two days’ ago, with a suspected twisted bowel. It was arranged that a consultant would visit first thing today to sort it out…yes, he/she is now on strike and so far there is no replacement.

    1. And yes Peter Rosie agreed, the difference between a desperate elderly or long standing NHS patient and some Wokies dripping with diversity, who may have broken an arm in an illegal channel crossing is. The NHS have no record of the new arrivals and will treat them immediately. Thus costing the long established and taxpayers with the upmost contempt.
      Why are our politicians all completely stupid ?

  9. 376903+ up ticks,

    Tuesday 19 September: Plans to bolster the NHS’s woke bureaucracy are an insult to patients

    Did you know that kissing X the lab/lib/con candidate in the
    polling booth you are giving them consent to operate, also
    compounding the fact that the party before country, tribal,
    family tree voter has followed the same voting pattern time after time after time.

    You really must be of the oxen stance as a lab/lib/con coalition current member / voter, as thick as oxen shite with your balls ( rhetorically speaking) chopped off, a knackerles
    voter is of a more docile nature thereby more susceptible to
    the party odious fodder they are being TOLD to swallow.

  10. Morning all 🙂😊
    Is it winter ? What a change in the weather, its chilly damp and grey. Oh well back to normal eh.
    How will the NHS be bolstered by the Dopey Wokies and their menu’s of diversity ?
    It’s been failing the people who have paid the large majority of the funding for decades.
    Is diversity and the Wokies included in the current NHS trend of FOAD ? Does it release more funding for their stupid party acts ?
    Get the people fit and well. That’s why the NHS was brought into existence originally.

  13. SIR – Visiting a National Trust property in Shropshire, we were disappointed to find that the house was closed because of a shortage of volunteer guides.

    Having travelled 100 miles, we were left viewing a few sparsely furnished rooms and a garden. Why does the National Trust imagine it has lost so many volunteers, and does it expect the public to continue subscribing each year?

    Miranda Hawkyard
    Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

    Good to see Restore Trust interviewed on GBN. I hope that the NT is increasingly irritated by its progress and will not only amend its rigged voting method but will also abandon its wasteful and counter-productive wokery. We live in hope.

  15. SIR – It is a sure sign of a bad policy that supporting material is easily shown to be misleading, as in the case of the claim that the new 20mph speed limit in Wales will only add one minute to journey times (Letters, September 18).

    Anyone with basic arithmetic skills will immediately recognise that this can only apply to one journey length, and a couple of simple sums later that this distance is about a mile – well short of the average school run.

    The truth is that, for a trip of five miles under this new limit, the journey time is increased by some five minutes, meaning a total of an extra 20 minutes per day for the school run – quite difficult for a busy parent to find.

    Brian Whittingham
    Dorchester

    …not to mention the waste of fuel and all the extra pollution. Drakeford is an idiot, but I expect Welsh Labour will still get back in at the next GE.

  16. 376903+ up ticks,

    Andrew Bridgen

    @ABridgen
    Please watch this video it’s a bombshell. Pfizer knew after a few months of the extreme harms and so did the Governments.

    The internet Pfizer report shows that their ‘vaccine’ was far more dangerous than the virus.

    I will call for an Urgent Question in Parliament on this today.

    https://x.com/ABridgen/status/1704020685255791008?s=20

    1. 376903+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      The proof of the truth pudding is in the dead & injured ongoing count.

      Robbie Burton
      @RobbieBurton747
      Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, Canadian

      70,000 deaths
      11 million Adverse Events
      Under-Reporting Factor 3-4%
      US, UK, EU data from official sources

      Confidential Pfizer report into deaths and adverse reactions in the first 2 and a half months following jab launch shows 1,200 deaths and tens of thousands of AES.

      👉🏾 This was serious enough to cause the cancellation of the vaccination program.

      The vaccine is far more Dangerous than the virus

  17. Good morning, chums. I had to change my plans for yesterday, so will watch Kenneth Branagh’s latest Poirot today instead.

      2. On balance I would agree with you, Rastus, but Branagh’s take is not too bad in my opinion.

    1. It is clear that the PTB need a distraction from Sunak’s betrayals on the jabs and the WHO.

      Jo’s boy Russell fits the bill because he is thought to have changed sides against them.

    2. But when will Alphabet return the revenue to the advertising agencies that they took under false pretenses, as the company’s employees would surely have been aware of Mr Brand’s escapades?

    3. It is quite astonishing that an individual can be cancelled as a result of murky accusations. The media all mentioning that he was a source of conspiracy theories, I assume this is as a result of his stance on covid. Seems like Google has taken a lead from Trudeau. It seems like the ministry of truth is firmly established. At least in Russia, they get a judge in court to declare, those who the state do not like, guilty.

    2. Good morning, Annie. I hope you and your family enjoyed your celebrations this weekend. Give me a phone call when you are able this morning – before 11 am preferably!

    3. Dull and uninterrupted non-suns.
      Oh dear we’re off to north Cornwall for a week very soon.
      Where I was hoping to sit down with a glass of and watch the sun set.
      Oh booger.

    1. You are certainly not alone. Mrs D and I would not go on one of those if it was free or even if they paid us.

    2. Coming to Portland soon! Incidentally, the article is awash with errors:

      “MSC Preziosa, which measures the length of seven jumbo jets, visited the town of 6,000 people in the Outer Hebrides on Monday.”

      The old Boeing 747 was about 70 metres in length, so the floating tower block is less than 5 ‘jumbo jets’ in length. Wiki tells us that the current version (747-8) measures 76.25 metres on the ground.

      1. Why do figures always have to come with a comparison to something else? If something is e.g. 500yds long, it is 500yds long. I know how long a yard is and find it irrelevant to know how many jumbo jets or football pitches that is.

  23. Good moaning all.

    “ Commemorate Covid with annual day of reflection, says commission
    UK Commission on Covid Commemoration outlines 10 recommendations for ways in which pandemic should be remembered”.

    Can you credit it? An (forgive the language) effin’ commission to commemorate the experimental gene therapy injections. They want it taught about in schools and colleges. I could scream.

      1. The EU wants an excuse to praise how great it was to demand more money – ignoring that the crisis encouraged individual national independence and the EU utterly failed to provide the vaccine as it was waiting for the brown envelope the buyers usually receive.

      2. The EU wants an excuse to praise how great it was to demand more money – ignoring that the crisis encouraged individual national independence and the EU utterly failed to provide the vaccine as it was waiting for the brown envelope the buyers usually receive.

    4. The ‘reflection’ will best be carried out at home, with no more than 5 members of the same family, with masks on. Anyone found outside their place of residence will be fined.

  24. SIR – Your report (September 16) that “Waitrose is to start using plant-based skins on its pork sausages” suggests that we’ve changed our casing to reduce costs.

    In reality, the change saves a fraction of a penny per sausage – and is negligible compared to the cost price of the outdoor-reared, high-welfare pork we have put into our sausages, sourced from farms we know and trust.

    We’ve simply responded to customer feedback that found our pork casing a little tough. The move certainly hasn’t been driven by cost; in fact, we’ve invested in additional machinery to produce sausages with the new casing.

    What’s important to our customers is that our sausages taste delicious, and are made from quality pork, from fairly paid British farmers. And that’s not something we’re prepared to compromise on.

    Kate Smith-Bingham
    Trading manager, Waitrose London SW1

    When I started making my own British bangers, here in Sweden (proper sausages are not available), I first used pig’s casings and they are, indeed, very tough. Ox casings are much too big, so I settled for collagen casings. On a trip to the UK I enquired in several good butcher’s shops and they all told me that the best skins to use were sheep’s casings, which presented a problem since lamb, hogget and mutton are quite rare in Sweden.

    Luckily I have now managed to source some sheep’s casings for my sausages from a Swedish website. I was a bit confused when they arrived to discover they had been imported from Australia!

      1. I thought they all pointed towards their Ocker sheep-herders (to protect their chastity).

        Obviously the sheep in New Zealand (and Wales ) are much more ‘friendly’!

      1. I am a huge fan of skin, it’s my favourite food. Pork skin, lamb skin, chicken skin, cod skin, sausage skin. I hate it when people remove this delicious and nutritious part.

    4. Do you have the web address, Grizz? SWMBO & Firstborn make sausages, and indeed the casings tend to be a tad armoured.

  25. Why don’t people do anything properly? We signed up with SGN to install gas t our place. They gave us a quote.

    Surveyor comes out and says ‘the mains is in the road.’ It won’t be £1300.

    Given that these people have access to Ordnance survey maps showing where their pipes are, where the mains are why – WHY – don’t they bother doing anything properly?

  27. US debt hit 33 Trillion dollars a couple of days ago. The last trillion being added in jut 3 months! I wonder if the Fed has tried printing its way out of hyperinflation?

    1. In 1923, the governor of the Reichsbank boasted that his presses could keep up with the inflation.

      1. Normal, I believe! It’s glorious!
        We’ve been up to BiLs family village which is on the coast near Thermopylae, and following the flooding in Volos about 10 days ago, the sea between the mainland and Evia suddenly became full of plastic debris and masses of wood and other flotsam. We didn’t swim yesterday!

          2. I have some of the ashes of both my parents mixed together in a little porcelain pot with lid superglued on. The ashes of two previous cats flank them for company.

          3. My daughters get mad with me because the ashes are in spice jars, with screw lids! I don’t think Mum would have minded!

          6. My daughters get mad with me because the ashes are in spice jars, with screw lids! I don’t think Mum would have minded!

    5. We spent Christmas in Aegina in 2005. Mianda is the sailing boat on the rhs of the left of the photo and the second photo is of the main cabin down below with the Christmas decorations!

      Aegina is renowned for pistachio nuts and has one of the best sweet shops in the world for those with a sweet tooth. The home-made lokum is to die for.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f8cd5b9ca15498c8d815b4527bfb1df6042e8d81869d669b00eed9f419494e01.png
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/55169f7a39306942bedba85ac70234688c594045f715f29cf9fcecbbe9aafc3b.png

      1. It was the Pistachio festival in Aegina last weekend! As we were at the village, we missed it but we’re popping over to see old friend Costas, who grows fistiki, on Friday. We then catch an early flight back to Edinburgh on Saturday.

        1. A bit off topic, but I’ll be in your neck of the woods, sort of, on Saturday with a school reunion in Stirling 50 years after leaving.

          1. Was it Stirling High? The observatory and telescope are still there, and you can visit if you know the right people!

          2. No, Lenzie, but it was decided Stirling is more central (and nowhere in the Lenzie area for a meetup).

  30. Elon Musk threatens to put Twitter behind a paywall. 19 September 2023.

    In May, Israel’s foreign ministry accused Elon Musk of stoking antisemitism by attacking the Hungarian-American investor, George Soros.

    A government account tweeted at the time: “The phrase ‘The Jews’ spiked today on the list of topics trending on Twitter following a Tweet with antisemitic overtones by none other than the owner and CEO of the social network, Elon Musk.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/66b71e053208654ea1a60b2cf720b477a20c6a4b0007cd1d42ab5a3de8ed6f49.png

    Yes that would be my opinion of Soros only I would substitute the European People for humanity.

          1. Morning Oberst. He’s taking on the same role as Brand. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the US tax system after him shortly!

    3. I suppose it depends which side you’re on. Elon Musk wants to drive humanity forward. He doesn’t faff about buying government, instead he creates things. He does the work to build and then says ‘here you go, use it or not, your choice.

      Soros buys people to get what he wants and those people then force that through government.

    4. I’ll be mildly disappointed if Twitter – or the hated X, as Musk has restyled it – goes behind a paywall, but I can easily do without it.

  31. SIR – Christopher Howse’s article (Features, September 14) on the decline of “Dear” and “Yours sincerely” in letters and emails reminded me of the time when I received a letter from the Passport Office which began: “The Chief Passport Officer presents his compliments to Mr P Rowe and begs to inform him…”

    I also had an uncle who signed off letters to the tax office with: “You remain sir my most obedient servant”.

    Philip Rowe
    Broseley, Shropshire

    Any official report, whether operational or personal, during my police career, had to be submitted on a Form 33, standard report form. Woe betide the officer who didn’t address it correctly to the Divisional Commander and commence it with the precise words: “Sir, I have to report …”.

    Old timers thought we had it soft since, in their day, such reports were obliged to commence with an archaic and demeaning, Sir, I respectfully beg to report …”.

    1. I start tickets to customers dear sir and end them yours sincerely/faithfully depending on name.

      Most folk reply with their name, and thereafter I’ll use that.

  32. Cancel the 2026 football world cup! North America will be burning!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/av/66818689

    It’s been hot in the USA this summer: “Scientists believe this unprecedented heatwave was made five times more likely due to human-induced climate change.” Pick a number, any number!

  33. Keir Starmer posed in front of the Arc de Triomphe today ahead of a controversial meeting with Emmanuel Macron – as a battle raged in Britain over his plan to recast its relationship with the EU.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12534613/Keir-Starmer-humiliated-Brussels-betrayal-plan-renegotiate-Brexit-deal-EU-warns-Labour-leader-ahead-meeting-Frances-Macron-wont-budge-unless-Britain-rejoins-customs-union.html

    To be fair the Brexit deal that Johnson lumbered us with needs a certain amount of ‘recasting’.

    For a start Starmer should insist that all traces of the NI Protocol are extinguished and that the EU and all its regulations and laws in the British sovereign territory of Northern Ireland are removed. He should then insist that UK regains control of British fishing waters.

    1. Have you seen the pictures from Khartoum, Rastus? Destruction and burning everywhere.
      I made several friends when I worked in Sudan some 14-odd years ago – one fears for their safety. Heart-breaking, when Sudan was improving everything year-on-year, to be reduced to this shit.
      Next, Italy, judging from the reports of the invasion of Lampedusa.
      I’m laying in ammunition.

      2. Poor Khartoum .

        When I was a teenager out there , I had a part time job in the Sudan club library .

        Another expat girl used to work with me , we read stories to small expat children , thumbed our way through romantic fiction , read the paper thin airmail versions of late Uk newspapers etc , go for a swim , play tennis .

        .I also had another part time job which I shared with another expat girl in a busy office .. The Sudan Cotton Exporters Association , we both had menial tasks .. filing papers and operating the Roneo machine , copying gadget , and loads of messy ink..

        Most interesting were the Sudanese Cotton merchants , resplendent in their white garments and white wrapped around turbans, who would appear in the large office and haggle , as they drank lemon tea , the sound of the large ceiling fans whirred overhead .

        They would chatter and the Sudanese office girls who were educated , laughed , and the merchants would say to us , “Ah Englise” and nod and smile .

        We could speak a little Arabic , as I can now , and this pleased the Sudanese because we had made an effort to be good-mannered.

        On the whole , I always thought the Sudanese were clever , educated and decent , and very pleasant . When I was young out there , my sister and I had a Sudanese nanny. Both Northern and Southern Sudanese ( Dinka ) were decent .

        Unlike the grasping Egyptians , and that is another story .

        1. Did you ever try Sudanese coffee? Espresso with sugar and fierce, fresh ginger. Truly wonderful!

          1. Not tried the coffee OB , I was only 16 years old , so would have preferred their lovely freshly squeezed lemon/ lime drink . My father would have enjoyed the coffee, and my mother only drank tea .

  34. Just off to an appointment with the doc – rang at 9.30, given appointment at 11.15. Always this good a service up here

      1. Yes Sue thanks, thought I might have tonsilitis but haven’t. I made an appointment to see the practice nurse for an HbA1c blood test, She was in the surgery and had a spare 5 mins so got it done there and then, results will be back Thursday – brilliant service!
        How’s the holiday going?😘

        1. We’re loving it! Very relaxed and having just been the 4 of us for a few days at the village, swimming and eating and laughing, was a real joy! Checked out their 2 olive fields, did a bit of gardening, and generally had a lot of fun! 😘

  35. Woman charged with murder of parents as long as five years ago
    Virginia McCullough remanded in custody after police discover human remains at a home in Chelmsford

    No chance missed of showing white inferiority

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/18/woman-charged-murder-parents-essex-police/

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/09/18/TELEMMGLPICT000349829250_16950654770110_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqLOXY2mL-tx94kS5xFG229r8y9T7UgXG33rf81YS4H4A.jpeg?imwidth=960

    A court artist’s sketch of Virginia McCullough appearing at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court charged with the murder of her parents

  36. Wordle 822 4/6

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

    Par.
    It’s going to be that kind of day

    1. It already is.
      Emptying the dehumidifier from the cellar (involving carrying the water tank up an almost-ladder), spilled most of the contents onto the cellar floor. Now, dehumidifier needs to pick it all up again… Sigh…

      2. I’m afraid you’ll just have to suck it up…But the condensate should be pure, except for the floory bits.

      3. Yo Ol
        Tie rope to solid point at top of ladder
        Tie rope to handle empty bucket
        Lower bucket into cellar
        Descend Ladder.
        Empty Dehumidifier reservoir into bucket, until it is full or reservoir empty
        Ascend Ladder
        Pull bucket up….. carefully
        Empty bucket

        Repeat as required
        Consultants Fee 100 Kroner

      4. Yo Ol
        Tie rope to solid point at top of ladder
        Tie rope to handle empty bucket
        Lower bucket into cellar
        Descend Ladder.
        Empty Dehumidifier reservoir into bucket, until it is full or reservoir empty
        Ascend Ladder
        Pull bucket up….. carefully
        Empty bucket

        Repeat as required
        Consultants Fee 100 Kroner

    2. Surprise birdie. On leave yesterday so swamped today.

      Wordle 822 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  37. ‘Morning All

    Medley

    Every cook has an off day………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/786da126a9c43c0852c45c0a4da93780cbe8beb496a6a2692e92676f8d108e55.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c0725bb77b2cd6583d7542fa88024a6a6daf14edf0339a2072506f15b1308bf.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40a2ec43e6b05848caf18f15ae133e7c89ff0e2010a261e56a1687f133f5b6ba.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e1204b623a8b18e35fe02d1adbae5ee5d49e83eb017ed5ebafac2c0fdb00044.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fc29558edf21e97a524489b3ee9bfbac0f1cff58f11f142e68a4997020e73961.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d6d6af919f3562450bea8841e6f03973c81c83a0ba69b4e3db11d9bb5c835452.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89fc9fa9b99d35ba13085b351ec58124f74da25e608da172d1582adc6672b842.png

  38. Warning:

    Do not buy M&S Cornish Cruncher biscuits. They are seriously addictive and will damage your bank balance. And the packs are cunningly placed adjacent to the checkouts so your willing hands will take matters into their own hands, quite literally.

  39. Russell Brand (not my favourite person) has been tried in the court of social media and found guilty. They have removed his right to earn a living based on allegations of what happened 20 years ago.
    What happened to ‘innocent until proven guilty’?
    All this because he criticised lockdowns and big pharma and he has 6.5M followers.

      1. The desire to breed is as strong as the need to breathe, although humans tend to settle down as and when babies appear.
        The late JS was a r*pist, whereas RB was a sh*gaholic. Both used their fame as a key, and even not-particularly-glamorous Rod Liddle admitted that his pulling power increased substantially when the BBC promoted him to managerial level. Pilots & aircrew, doctors & nurses, managers & secretaries, producers & actresses, male pop stars & fans, attraction & transaction.
        Edit: c’est la vie.

    4. Innocent until proven guilty went out when corpus juris (EU law) took precedence over Common Law. On yer continong, the practice is to arrest first, build a case and then the accused has to try to prove innocence. Yet more reasons why I voted to leave.

  40. Well that’s a way to distract attention from his abysmal performance. Trudeau has accused the indian government of being behind the murder of a Sikh leader in Canada, an allegation that India rejects.

    At the same time, supermarket owners were called into Otrawa and told that they must come up with a plan to reduce grocery prices by the end of the month – or they will face fines and taxes.

    Oh look, my glorious leader standing up and pretending to be a man.

  41. I am off. A lecture on the Elgin Marbles this afternoon. I played marbles as a child, so I am very interested t learn how Lord Elgin managed.

    Back much late – if at all.

  42. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a916613266552b70b6b53535960feadf91142e9ea415564a668bcbfdb2e8c210.png Nurses Charlotte Wilmot, left, and Catherine Hudson are accused of drugging patients for their ‘own amusement’ and an ‘easy life’ on shifts

    Sedate patient to ‘high heaven’ was banter, nurses tell court

    A NURSE who messaged a colleague to sedate a stroke unit patient “to high heaven” said the comment was just “banter”, a court heard.

    Whatsapp messages between Catherine Hudson, 54, and Charlotte Wilmot, 48, were uncovered after an inquiry was started in response to a whistle-blower highlighting events she allegedly witnessed at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

    Prosecutors say the pair were involved in drugging patients for their “own amusement” and an “easy life” during work shifts.

    Peter Wright KC told jurors at Preston Crown Court the message chats between Hudson, an experienced Band 5 registered nurse, and Wilmot, a Band 4 assistant practitioner, had revealed a “culture of abuse”.

    When interviewed by detectives, Wilmot admitted the messages “sound awful” but were merely “black humour”.

    In an exchange about an elderly male patient, Hudson wrote: “I’m going to kill bed 5 xxx.”

    Wilmot replied: “Pmsl [p—–g myself laughing] well tonight sedate him to high heaven lol xxx.”

    Hudson said: “Already in my head to give him double !!”

    Wilmot told detectives: “It’s all just literally black humour, banter. Never did I think she would do anything like that. That was just the kind of way we would stress-relief.

    Later she told police: “It’s never like I thought she would do that, especially if they were not prescribed. It was banter.”

    Hudson, of Blackpool, denies ill-treating four patients and stealing mebeverine, a medicine.

    Wilmot, also of Blackpool, denies encouraging Hudson to sedate a patient.

    Both defendants have also pleaded not guilty to conspiring to ill-treat another patient. The alleged offences are said to have taken place between February 2017 and November 2018.

    It is not just useless modern-day police officers who would either never be recruited — or end up locked-up — in days of yore; it seems that other vital professions are in the same boat. Teachers routinely having affairs with pupils (women teachers currently leading the field). Prison officers doing likewise. Doctors on picket lines. Politicians routinely making decisions that deteriorate the lives and living conditions of those who voted for them. Illiterate and educationally subnormal newspaper reporters and editors. The list goes on.

    These days we also have nurses who would rather kill or maim their patients rather than … er … nurse them back to health. Will there ever be any halt to this ever-deepening crisis of stupidity?

    2. Grizz, in Spain some people refer to being placed in a nursing home or ‘old folks’ home as ‘la muerte en vida’, i.e. a living death. When the patient or resident is suffering, sedation stops most of the screaming. It defeats me that we in the UK treat dying domestic animals more humanely than our fellow human beings. I would never presume to comment on an active Court case, but one possible consequence of a guilty verdict would be 1) much more agony and 2) noise-cancelling headphones.

      1. That is why you will never find me in a nursing home. The moment that I become incapable of managing for myself is the time that I shall shuffle off this mortal coil to my own tune!

  43. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a916613266552b70b6b53535960feadf91142e9ea415564a668bcbfdb2e8c210.png Nurses Charlotte Wilmot, left, and Catherine Hudson are accused of drugging patients for their ‘own amusement’ and an ‘easy life’ on shifts

    Sedate patient to ‘high heaven’ was banter, nurses tell court

    A NURSE who messaged a colleague to sedate a stroke unit patient “to high heaven” said the comment was just “banter”, a court heard.

    Whatsapp messages between Catherine Hudson, 54, and Charlotte Wilmot, 48, were uncovered after an inquiry was started in response to a whistle-blower highlighting events she allegedly witnessed at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

    Prosecutors say the pair were involved in drugging patients for their “own amusement” and an “easy life” during work shifts.

    Peter Wright KC told jurors at Preston Crown Court the message chats between Hudson, an experienced Band 5 registered nurse, and Wilmot, a Band 4 assistant practitioner, had revealed a “culture of abuse”.

    When interviewed by detectives, Wilmot admitted the messages “sound awful” but were merely “black humour”.

    In an exchange about an elderly male patient, Hudson wrote: “I’m going to kill bed 5 xxx.”

    Wilmot replied: “Pmsl [p—–g myself laughing] well tonight sedate him to high heaven lol xxx.”

    Hudson said: “Already in my head to give him double !!”

    Wilmot told detectives: “It’s all just literally black humour, banter. Never did I think she would do anything like that. That was just the kind of way we would stress-relief.

    Later she told police: “It’s never like I thought she would do that, especially if they were not prescribed. It was banter.”

    Hudson, of Blackpool, denies ill-treating four patients and stealing mebeverine, a medicine.

    Wilmot, also of Blackpool, denies encouraging Hudson to sedate a patient.

    Both defendants have also pleaded not guilty to conspiring to ill-treat another patient. The alleged offences are said to have taken place between February 2017 and November 2018.

    It is not just useless modern-day police officers who would either never be recruited — or end up locked-up — in days of yore; it seems that other vital professions are in the same boat. Teachers routinely having affairs with pupils (women teachers currently leading the field). Prison officers doing likewise. Doctors on picket lines. Politicians routinely making decisions that deteriorate the lives and living conditions of those who voted for them. Illiterate and educationally subnormal newspaper reporters and editors. The list goes on.

    These days we also have nurses who would rather kill or maim their patients rather than … er … nurse them back to health. Will there ever be any halt to this ever-deepening crisis of stupidity?

    2. It’s part of the campaign to promote the idea that black people have always been in Britain but have been written out of history. Even Countryfile got in on the act last year.

      1. I saw Prof Alice Roberts trying convince people that they had been in the UK for thousands of years. But there was no evidence to actually prove it. They found a scull in a cave in the a west country and manufactured an image from it and then tried to convince people he was black.
        My guess was he must have popped across on easy jet and landed at Bristol.(sarc)
        No body in that period could have lived long enough to have walked all the way from even north Africa let alone Nigeria,. to northern Europe in such ancient times, even if they had tools a tent fire lighting equipment, provisions and a map.

        1. It also ignores the reason that we have pale skin. We evolved to cope with the lack of sunshine in Northern Europe. Pale skin more effectively absorbs sunlight to make vitamin D. It isn’t a coincidence that dark skinned people living here suffer from conditions in which vitamin D deficiency is a factor.

  46. Suspend Russia from the UN – or accept the agency is now totally impotent. Hamish de Crettin–Gordon 19 September 2023.

    President Zelensky is in New York City this week to speak to President Biden and address the UN at its General Assembly. The global organisation was set up after World War II to act as a force for good to police disputes, keep warring factions apart and to help those who cannot help themselves.

    The illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, indicates what an impotent agency it has become. Rather than preventing conflict, it gives a platform to authoritarians and rogue states.

    The UN has no Military Forces or Financial Resources of its own. It is totally dependent on its members for both. A UN without Russia would be a nonsense. The next thing would be China and then anyone else who doesn’t agree with the US or its allies. Such an organisation would face exactly the same fate as the pre- war League of Nations and dissolve into nothing. We know where that finished. The truth is that the UN, despite its shortcomings, allows the major powers to state their policies and confront one another with them. Without it the Battlefield would loom ever larger.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/19/suspend-russia-from-the-un-or-accept-the-agency-is-impotent/

    1. Interesting.

      “ Rather than preventing conflict, it gives a platform to authoritarians and rogue states.”. The U.K. has been leading the charge in this American war, why is HMG not urging peace. Oh yes, Boris Johnson put the Kibosh on peace talks way back when.

  47. Suspend Russia from the UN – or accept the agency is now totally impotent. Hamish de Crettin–Gordon 19 September 2023.

    President Zelensky is in New York City this week to speak to President Biden and address the UN at its General Assembly. The global organisation was set up after World War II to act as a force for good to police disputes, keep warring factions apart and to help those who cannot help themselves.

    The illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, indicates what an impotent agency it has become. Rather than preventing conflict, it gives a platform to authoritarians and rogue states.

    The UN has no Military Forces or Financial Resources of its own. It is totally dependent on its members for both. A UN without Russia would be a nonsense. The next thing would be China and then anyone else who doesn’t agree with the US or its allies. Such an organisation would face exactly the same fate as the pre- war League of Nations and dissolve into nothing. We know where that finished. The truth is that the UN, despite its shortcomings, allows the major powers to state their policies and confront one another with them. Without it the Battlefield would loom ever larger.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/19/suspend-russia-from-the-un-or-accept-the-agency-is-impotent/

        1. He’s Canadian. I only know who he is from ‘Where Eagles Dare’. I’m far too young to remember any TV series !

          2. Not only do i have some Brylcream i still sometimes use it. My uncles were known in the family as the Brylcream Boys.

            I’m 60 next birthday.

          11. Please be aware we are receiving higher than normal levels of calls. If you or your house are not on fire then FOAD as you are interrupting my golf game.

  49. There is a letter today from Ian Huddart who claims to have visited 114 countries.

    I worked in Libya in the 1970s for an international accounting firm. We used to look after clients in West Africa and the Middle East from the small Tripoli office. This meant that we travelled a lot.

    The managing partner and I used to have a silly competition to see who had been to the most countries – he was well ahead of me and never ceased to remind me of this.

    He had to attend a meeting in Hong Kong and on his flight back he and the person he was sitting next to started to talk about travel. My colleague related our little competition but was thoroughly deflated when the man said that he was in the Guinness Book of Records for having travelled to every country in the world (except N. Korea and St. Helena at that time).

    15 years later I was dining in a restaurant in Jeddah with five Americans. We also talked about travel and I related the story of my colleague sitting next to the man in the Guinness Book of Records. One of the people at the table said “It was me”!

    2. Radio Amateurs have their own version of this, the DXFC award:
      http://www.dxfc.org
      Based on the amateur radio country list which is somewhat larger than Mr Huddart’s world with 340 possible countries. Two categories, the ‘foot’ section where you just need to have entered the country, and the operator award where you have transmitted from it. The leader, a yank, is currently at 234. One of our well travelled UK Friends Nigel G3TXF is on 180. Muggins is on a meagre 14 with 9 operated from.

      Puts the DT letter in perspective!

      1. I am more likely to go for the worked most counties award – DX on 2ms from my previous QTH. Now I live in the radio ham equivalent of the bottom of a coal mine. Even repeaters drop out when you go past my house. No wonder I only operate special event stations from RAFARS HQ.

    3. Radio Amateurs have their own version of this, the DXFC award:
      http://www.dxfc.org
      Based on the amateur radio country list which is somewhat larger than Mr Huddart’s world with 340 possible countries. Two categories, the ‘foot’ section where you just need to have entered the country, and the operator award where you have transmitted from it. The leader, a yank, is currently at 234. One of our well travelled UK Friends Nigel G3TXF is on 180. Muggins is on a meagre 14 with 9 operated from.

      Puts the DT letter in perspective!

  50. Thank God Russell Brand’s brave anonymous accusers acted swiftly in order to prevent it from happening to other women…erm.

  54. 376903+ up ticks,

    Would one be right in saying the actions of a coalition segment,

    UNN
    @UnityNewsNet
    ·
    2h
    Just in🔥

    Michael Gove set to to announce the Tory Government will launch a massive bail-out of Labour led Birmingham City
    Council with a massive financial injection.
    Yet more proof that we live in a one-party state.

  55. – Latest Breaking News – Bookstores in Wales are reporting a huge rise in audio book sales of War and Peace, they report customers are buying them up for those long car journeys when visiting family in the next village

    2. Fond a Lying should just walk around on her own and chat with the newcomers. Then she will see what type of people they really are. If she survives.

  59. Scottish politician judge says UK block on Scottish gender reforms is unlawful.

    The UK government’s block on Scottish gender recognition reforms is unlawful, Scotland’s top law officer has said. The Scottish government is seeking to overturn the veto at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain said the court had a “constitutional duty” to review the unprecedented use of a Section 35 Order by Downing Street.

    The civil case at the Court of Session, which is being heard by Lady Haldane, began on Tuesday and will last several days. If the result is appealed, it could ultimately be heard in the Supreme Court in London.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66852911

    Blair’s legacy again…

    1. I don’t really understand why the state presented this nonsense. A man remains a man no matter what dress he puts on. Pretending otherwise is delusional.

      1. It’s the messing with the constitution that’s the problem here. The Supreme Court is a dangerous creation.

  61. Latest Breaking News – Sir Kier Starmer faces EU ban after non-consensualy kissing Ursula von der Leyen’s arse on his recent visit

  62. SIR – We are deeply concerned to learn of the Government’s plans to rip up the planning protections that keep our national parks beautiful by allowing permitted development rights for conversions of barns and other rural buildings.

    National parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty are our finest landscapes, and even small changes can have a disproportionate impact in these places. If these proposals go ahead, they will lead to a free-for-all on the development of isolated residential units in unsustainable locations without the supporting infrastructure, and could add significant pressures in terms of water pollution and traffic.

    Where once there was a field barn standing isolated in a hay meadow, there will be a pocket of suburbia, and this will be repeated throughout the landscape, creating sprawl and spoiling everyone’s enjoyment of nature, open space and tranquility.
    We recognise the need to provide more affordable housing across the country, but residential barn conversions in remote places like the Yorkshire Dales National Park would do nothing to help and would instead cause irreparable damage to our fragile countryside.

    National parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty are living landscapes that must adapt over time, and the current approach to planning does a difficult job well in balancing progress with protection. The Government should shut the barn door on these disastrous proposals before the horse bolts.

    They don’t mind that we don’t matter .

    All the old barns that host swallows , swifts and martins , and then joyfully barn owls and bats , and the creatures that take up residence , will be deprived for ever of shelter when farmers cave in and develop the old property for financial gain .

    Those of us who live in rural areas who suffer from tourist traffic , but lack facilities that towns and cities have access to, we will soon be overcrowded with white flight and the growth of pie and mash pop ups in lay byes . Gawd help us all.

    1. Not just isolated barns – but the urban sprawl around rural towns like Cirenester and Tetbury – ribbon development that goes on for miles out of town. Some of the houses are quite nice – stone cladding etc – but close together and definitely for white flight.

      Stroud is not such a desirable area – so the development is more urban and less stone – there is a truly horrible development on the A46 where there was a furniture retail business in an old mill building – that has gone, replaced by hideous blocks of red – brick flats, some sideways on to the road. It makes me gasp everytime we pass by, as it seems to be getting bigger and bigger. I can’t think who’d want to live there.

    2. But just think. The farmers are being encouraged to retire early, so leaving their farms unfarmed. Killing two birds with one stone – take farmland out of production and hundreds more building plots. Genius.

      2. RAAC ?
        Ask the Dutch explosives expert.
        Oh hang on he was murdered for explaining how it was all actually carried out. And of course there was the other much lower building that didn’t get involved with any of it and also collapsed.

          3. My father in law was in the Durham light infantry. There was an exhibition focusing on the regiment on display.

          5. My poor old FiL was captured in Belgium and with his colleagues were made to walk most of the way to Poland were he was kept POW for nearly 5byears. It could have actually saved his life.

          1. I always look at the columns in churches because quite often the sections going up are varied sizes, Heights. I wonder how those clever builders kept the levels on each column level during the often very high builds. Obviously they didn’t have water levels because there were no pipes nor of course layers or mirrors.
            Wadda yer reckon Bob ? 🤔

      2. Where, I was informed, it’s illegal to walk two abreast on the pavements because they are so narrow.

  65. I’ve just had to deal with a really pushy agressive sales person from our energy supplier. With a Strong un – British accent.
    He was almost insisting we had a smart meter installed. I told him to write to me explaining the list of benefits from having one. They only use emails he said. I replied, Send me an email explaining all the benefits. He rang off.
    How smart was that ?

        1. You will just get weasely words pretending they are concerned. These salesmen are being told to be more aggressive.

    3. Luckily my son was in today when Thames Water called to fit the long-threatened water meter. He called hubby who hot-footed home and the water guy cleared off. We have a stay of execution till next year when we won’t be able to kick the cam down the road any further.

      For the avoidance of doubt. I dare say I will “save money” by having a water meter. And we certainly don’t waste water – we waste nothing at MIR Towers. But it is a matter of principle. I don’t like being forced. It affronts my sense of justice.

      1. I was thinking that today as I turned the tap off while I brushed my teeth. I don’t waste water, but I object to being forced to have a meter, even if it would save me money.

  66. 376903+ up ticks,

    Well I guess that shatters that super bollocks, I do believe I did mention that they ( the political mafia ) could possibly be a coalition.

    ” you gotta vote tory (ino) to keep out lab (ino)

    A proven fact the electoral majority really is as double thick as pig shite,

    Britain touted as future ‘associate member’ of EU
    France and Germany propose four-tiered system under which UK would be governed by European Court of Justice if it joined

    What a double disgusting legacy to leave.

  67. Well, just imagine my dismay when I discovered that the famous Elgin Marbles DON’T ROLL.

    Interesting talk – some good slides – chap spoke a bit to fast and dropped his words at the end of a sent….

    Did I miss anything in NoTTLand?

    Scrolling back I was SOOOOOOOO pleased that Fond of Lying should say that, “The EU will decide who comes to EUland and no one else!!!”

  69. Did you listen to the views on the invasion of Lampedusa.

    A new tactic by smugglers is to encourage young PREGNANT African girls to cross the Med , so that ( they were told) that their babies would receive Italian status .

    Next stop will be lily livered Liberal Tories and Labour who wouldn’t dare stop the trafficking .

  70. That’s me for this chilly day. More to follow, apparently. So much for global boiling.

    Have a jolly evening

    A demain.

      1. Perhaps the EU is leaning on him not to make life prematurely difficult for its motor manufacturers which export to the UK.

    3. Parliament needs to be scrapped until the rule of law for all equall;y is returned. We can’t put up with murderers as our government, and ech MP who obfuscates the reality is as guilty as the grubby ones who pushed us to this pass. They know, and they must go.

    4. Oh God, that means that my village idiot will be pushing for an earlier ban on real cars to make up for the delay by the UK.

      I read that New Zealand is introducing a usage charge on EVs, something like seven cents per kilometer driven on public roads. That will help their drive to net nothing.

  76. Evening, all. Oscar went to the groomer’s today and I was SO proud of him! Admittedly he was drugged up to the eyeballs, but he made barely a protest as his fleece was removed and when he did, I told him, “No! That’s not nice, Oscar. Stop it!” and he did! He even had his nose shaved without his muzzle on. He has come SUCH a long way! Now he looks like a little white rat, but he’s my little white rat and I love him.

    It is just like the NHS to waste money on more diversity officers and admin staff than employing front line medics. They don’t need more money, just a shake up.

          1. I’ll have to charge up my camera. My phones don’t seem to take very good pictures for some reason. Maybe it’s me.

    2. I am so pleased to hear this, Conway! You must be so proud of him and yourself. So rewarding for us to read of your of your love for your little rascal after your trials and tribulations with him. Our own little rascal has a shoe, sandal and furry type slipper-boot type fetish, he runs around darting and barking at them (on my feet) growling……. then he tries to hump my furry slippers with me shouting “gerroff! stop it!” “Stop it!” seems to enrage him more. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before but I will take a squirty bottle of water outside next time. I don’t want him growing up into a hooligan/thug.

      The nhs needs reminding that this is taxpayers’ money they are dealing with and that is paying their salaries and should be treated with respect. It is not an endless pot. One day it will stop being the nhs entirely and become the pru (politics ‘R’ us) into which it is presently morphing. All this diversity inclusion stuff is not a good look for a health service.

      1. I was delighted. Oscar still occasionally looks at my toes as if he’s thinking, “dare I?” I tell him, “don’t even think it!” I should say that when we got back home I risked putting the drops in his eyes without muzzling him and he was as good as gold. I’m not sure I’m going to repeat the act once the G&T (gabapentin and trazadone) have worn off, though.

        I had a dog that used to try to start WW3 every time he saw another dog. Nothing I could try, including squirting water in his face, would deter him. He was a very troubled soul and in the end I had to give up and have him put to sleep because he was a menace. He is my one and only failure, but I am convinced he was a psychopath. It was as though a red mist descended on him and nothing got through. Oscar never gave me that feeling; I always felt he’d been mistreated and distrusted people because he feared being hurt. I was sure that winning his trust would turn him round.

    3. So good to hear of the hard work put in by both you and Oscar, is finally paying off!! Well done!

  77. A few days ago before the deluge I shared half a dozen locks with two couples on a hire boat. I was pleased to moor up for a couple of days the hirers having gone on their merry way, they returned earlier with news. One of the chaps had slipped on the wet concrete landing stage at lock 69 and in his fall had sustained a spiral fracture of his right arm. Paramedics were summoned morphine administered and a free night in A&E ensued. I couldn’t help thinking that lock 69 will leave a very bad taste in his mouth for a long time to come….

  78. The Government is paving the way for Labour’s great Brexit betrayal

    Our rulers seem hell-bent on watering down what every country outside the EU has – the right to set its own laws

    DAVID FROST • 18 September 2023 • 7:27pm

    The Leader of the Opposition has finally come clean. To the Financial Times (of course), Keir Starmer says that he will renegotiate the Brexit arrangements we put in place in 2020. We always knew he would, but it’s good to have it said.

    For some reason, Starmer thinks the 2020 deal is “thin”. In fact, it’s the biggest and broadest such deal ever – the first deal with no tariffs on any of either side’s goods, and including not just trade but also aviation, transport, social security, health (your UK health insurance card is valid in the EU thanks to this deal), fisheries, security and law enforcement, and more. So for Starmer and Labour, this is all about ideology not fact.

    He also thinks Brexit is “not working”. Economically, that’s obviously not true – as the ONS’s recent sudden correction told us. What he really means is that “self-government is not working”: that Britain cannot govern itself without an injection of EU laws from Brussels. That’s clearly what metro “progressive” Labour really thinks, and it’s what makes these renegotiation ideas so dangerous.

    Possibly Starmer is operating in the fantasy world in which the EU will make concessions purely because they are so pleased to see Labour back in charge in Westminster. In reality, no one on the EU side is pressing to change this deal. Yes, in 2020 the EU wanted the review mechanisms in case we rapidly and aggressively exploited our Brexit freedoms while still having zero tariffs. They can see there is not much risk of that now, more’s the pity, so why would they do anything other than tinker at the edges?

    The only people who want to go back to the argument are the unreconciled fanatics on both sides of the Channel: on one side Guy Verhofstadt sneering at British democracy on Twitter; on the other, David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, who in 2019 compared Brexiteers to Nazis and proponents of South African apartheid.

    If Starmer is indulging in such wishful thinking, he’ll get nothing. But it’s hard to see his Islington base being happy with this. Labour will have to offer fundamental change, a return to EU law and supervision. Perhaps Starmer will begin with a food and veterinary deal, accepting the only one that will be on offer, one that comes with the imposition of EU laws and control by the Commission and the ECJ. Perhaps he’ll look for a migrants’ returns agreement, accepting that he will have to commit himself to taking a share of EU migrants too. But it won’t stop there, and before long we will have the worst of both worlds: the EU setting many of our laws again, this time with no UK say at all.

    The worrying thing is that, despite these obvious problems, Labour feel the wind is in their sails. That’s not surprising when the Government itself is responsible for the wretched Windsor Framework and does very little to speak up for the 2020 Brexit deal.

    One could be forgiven for asking why our rulers are so keen to keep watering down what every other country outside the EU has: the right to set its own laws and run its own affairs, well or badly. Yet so it is.

    Brexiteers must provide a counterbalance: come together again to get out the arguments, protect what we thought we had definitively achieved in 2020, and explain what we can yet achieve with it. Hold on to it – or lose it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/18/the-government-is-paving-the-way-for-labours-brexit-betraya/

  79. You’ve probably all had that moment when an answer has popped into your head long after you first asked yourself the question. It might be a face that you can’t place in a TV drama, a snatch of music, a scent that reminds you of something. Sometimes it’s not even a tangible thought, a mere sense that you should be aware of something significant but you can’t visualise it.

    So what was it about the recent fires in Hawaii that was oh-so-faintly pricking something at the back of my mind? Hawaii, Lahaina, Hawaii, Lahaina…

    And then it happened last night – and I don’t why. Out of nowhere. It was about a bloody juke box in a pub. Shortly after my A-levels I did some bar work. A group of students (I didn’t know them, BTW) came in frequently and played a record so often that the bar staff and regulars were driven to distraction. Eventually, we opened up the machine and took the record out. It was The Eagles single ‘Life In The Fast Lane’ but it was the B-side of that was being played endlessly. ‘The Last Resort’ was the last track on the album ‘Hotel California’ and became an anthem of the growing environmental movement in the 1970s, in which band member Don Henley played a notable part.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4zR9r9olOg

    Well, Don, you’re right in so many ways but if it wasn’t for progress, those natives of North America, many descended from the tribes of what is now Mongolia, would still be living in tents, drinking rancid buffalo fat and slaughtering their tribal rivals in ways that would have made Genghis Khan look soft. Nevertheless, it’s a shame about Lahaina.

    That Irish, English and Scottish ancestry must weigh heavy on your conscience…
    _______________________________________________

    This column is sponsored by Theakston’s Old Peculier.

  80. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/19/rishi-sunak-net-zero-pledges-petrol-car-ban/

    Petrol car ban expected to be delayed as Sunak waters down net zero pledges

    Tory MPs welcome proposals, which would mark clear dividing line between the party and Labour

    On Tuesday night, the Prime Minister insisted he was still committed to the 2050 net zero target
    but said he would meet it in a “better, more proportionate way”,
    admitting that the Government has “not been honest about costs and
    trade-offs” of green policies.

    In a major speech this week, he is expected to announce that he is pushing back the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035.

    A planned ban on oil boilers may be delayed from 2026 to 2035, with a requirement that only 80 per cent are replaced by that date.

    Similarly, instead of banning the installation of gas boilers after 2035, Mr Sunak is expected to say that the same proportion can be phased out by then.

    Plans to fine landlords for failing to upgrade their properties to a certain level of energy efficiency could be scrapped.

        1. I was talking to someone the other day and we both agreed that we don’t vote for someone we think will do a good job any more – we just vote for whoever will cause the uniparty the biggest headache.

    3. May be delayed? Could be scrapped? I’ll believe it when I see it. About the only truth is that “the government has not been honest”!

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