Tuesday 31 January: Yet another health secretary looks to technology to save the NHS

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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616 thoughts on “Tuesday 31 January: Yet another health secretary looks to technology to save the NHS”

      1. But you did come forth (fourth) as it says in the Bible, Johnny. (Good morning, btw.)

  3. Morning, all Y’all.
    Dark – still.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-64454205
    New Welsh rugby chief Nigel Walker has vowed to improve the diversity of the game’s governing body.
    Diverse – how? Loaded with people who know nowt about Rugby, loaded with people who have irrelevant attributes (such as dark skin or a certain genital configuration), thus destroying the Board and ruining Welsh rugby?

    1. That would be a stupid thing to do. You just want the best people who ever they are.

      2. I think that point of view is outdated now, Johnny. Putting people into positions seems now to be based entirely on irrelevancies, rather than the ability and desire to do the job.
        Perhaps it explains why nothing seems to work any more, except thieving by politicians?

    2. This all arises from a programme on the BBC about the WRU. There was a lot of vague accusations about all the ..isms embedded in the WRU but no specifics. There was one main complainant, a lady who was employed to improve the women’s game and its standing. From my pov, she seemed disappointed that rugby was a game played by red blooded males with all their attendant banter and views whilst she would have liked it to be a fluffy game for ladies followed by a half of lager and cucumber sandwiches. She was a square peg in a round hole, as it were. Another case of changing an institution to fit modern fashions.

  5. BBC radio headlines:
    1. IMF predicts recession for UK
    2. Three years on from leaving the EU – how has it affected the UK?

    No editorial agenda here, eh?

    1. Terriblegraph’s headline is “Economy to shrink after tax rises”.

      Who’d a thunk it?

  6. Morning all. Headset on bike seems to have gone so am on public transport. Always a joy.

    This is my mini-rant of the day (big one to follow). Another “Thanks, Bliar” moment.

    “A ttempts to block Just Stop Oil’s slow march tactics were dealt a blow last night as the Government suffered its first defeat in the Lords against the proposed protest law.
    The Government is proposing that police should get new powers to deal with slow walking protests by broadening the legal definition of “serious disruption” during protests. However, the upper chamber backed, by 243 votes to 221, a stricter definition of “serious disruption”.
    Ministers have proposed that police should be able to intervene where there is “more than a minor hindrance” and require such protests take place on the pavement.

    1. ‘Morning, Mir. Surely the Parliament Act enables the Commons to prevail if the Lords block the proposed change? Unfortunately I don’t think that the Salisbury Convention applies in this instance as the measure wasn’t – as far as I know – in the manifesto. Mind you, extending a police power is no guarantee that they would bother to enforce it!

      1. The Lords amendments and rejections are often sensible.
        The rejected Act could so easily be used against other peaceful protests (lockdown, for example) that I think it better that it isn’t passed. Remember the old guy being arrested for terrorism offence of the 85-y.o. at the Labour conference? That’s the kind of thing I’m referring to.

        1. I wasn’t aware that it was for terrorism offences. No, far better than that – he heckled Jackass Straw at the Labour conference over the Iraq war.

  7. Putin vs the West, BBC, review: an unnerving insight into the mind of the Russian leader. 31 January 2023.

    News reports of the events covered here – a G20 summit, bilateral meetings, telephone conversations – gave us only brief, official lines. The documentary provided behind-the-scenes colour from those present, and it was fascinating. We got a real sense of the personalities involved. A British foreign policy adviser read out his note of what Putin had told Cameron in Downing Street: “I know you’re a great country with a great history. You all think I’m not democratic like you. I won’t argue with you – I’m an ex-KGB man, I’m wicked and scary with claws and teeth, and you’re all so well-bred and so well-educated. But you remember Abu Ghraib, David? Did you see those pictures? It was medieval, what happened there.”

    It was a speech that provided more insight into Putin’s view of the West than any amount of commentary from political correspondents on the nightly news bulletins.

    The problem here is that when you sit down to watch it you know what you are going to get. Worse still the people contributing know what they are expected to say and if they don’t say it they won’t be appearing. Thus this is not an impartial inquiry into the origins of the war but propaganda. This can be seen very early on with the coverage of the Maidan protests which are glossed over as if they were a minor hiccough on the way to EU membership. In reality Yanukovych , the democratically elected president of Ukraine was overthrown with the help of the CIA. What was Vlad to make of this defenestration? Membership of the EU was written into its DNA and NATO shortly thereafter. The very foundations of the Post Soviet European settlement had been destroyed. From that moment on the present war became inevitable.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2023/01/30/putin-vs-west-bbc-review-unnerving-insight-mind-russian-leader/

  8. Our old friend “diversity” again.

    It seems hiring female prison guards as part of a “diversity drive” hasn’t been a resounding success, with these “vulnerable” women being exploited by male prisoners into relationships etc etc. i won’t comment on the Scottish situation, where no males are deemed capable of doing anything of the sort.

    “ MINISTERS have launched a crackdown on illicit affairs between prison staff and offenders amid a surge in the number of criminals caught exploiting the relationships.
    The number of prison staff exposed for inappropriate relationships has increased by 30 per cent since 2017 to more than 40 a year, data released under Freedom of Information show.
    Sexual affairs between prison staff and inmates are illegal and the guard could be charged with misconduct in public office.
    The problem has grown as female prison staff numbers have risen 27 per cent to 15,000 in the same period. Women now account for 42 per cent of all staff, as part of a diversity drive…”

    1. Male prisoners terning* female prison guards? Whoever thought that would happen?

      *Other seabirds are available

    2. Surely the first step is to replace the head of the prison service for failing to get a grip on the situation?

  9. Our old friend “diversity” again.

    It seems hiring female prison guards as part of a “diversity drive” hasn’t been a resounding success, with these “vulnerable” women being exploited by male prisoners into relationships etc etc. i won’t comment on the Scottish situation, where no males are deemed capable of doing anything of the sort.

    “ MINISTERS have launched a crackdown on illicit affairs between prison staff and offenders amid a surge in the number of criminals caught exploiting the relationships.
    The number of prison staff exposed for inappropriate relationships has increased by 30 per cent since 2017 to more than 40 a year, data released under Freedom of Information show.
    Sexual affairs between prison staff and inmates are illegal and the guard could be charged with misconduct in public office.
    The problem has grown as female prison staff numbers have risen 27 per cent to 15,000 in the same period. Women now account for 42 per cent of all staff, as part of a diversity drive…”

  11. Morning all,

    Yes, the pulse oximeter is a powerful analytical device but has the same shortcomings that taking blood pressure has. That is wearing it properly and interpreting spot readings out of context particulary in a non hospital setting.

    In a hospital setting pulse oximeters and central line BP monitors continuously measure blood oxygenation and blood pressure 24/7 with additional input from continuous ecg monitors. It is up to knowledgable health professionals to set up the alarm limits on these machines to warn nursing staff of the need for prompt clinical interventon within a hospital doctor”s treatment plan.

    My GP dismissed my abilities to use and interpret my pulse oximeter readings because he didn’t realise.how much I had found out on the internet and he refrained from treating me as a patient when I showed him a 24 hour pulse oximeter recording with interpreted analysis from the the very instrument that is my avatar here.

    It did save my life – but that’s another story!

  12. Ok i promise to stop after this. There is just so much nonsense in the paper it’s become farcical. But i have just had a “wtf” moment reading Sherelle Jacobs’ column. I like her. But wtf is a “colourism” workshop? I’d love it to be where stupid grown ups who believe in Woke nonsense all get together and play with crayons. But i suspect it is far, far more sinister. Anyway, look away now if you are liable to explode because of just how quickly this race to the bottom is taking place.

    “… When I attended a colourism workshop at my old university not long ago, mixed race women, including me, were prohibited from speaking on account of our “proximity to whiteness”. ..”

    5. BTL Comment:-

      Rob Phillips-Legge
      11 HRS AGO
      For over 2000 years African slave traders raided this country taking white people into slavery. Julius Caesar was ordered to conquer this country because of them. St. Augustin was sent here to convert the English to Christianity because of them. Oliver Cromwell was asked questions in Parliament about the near total collapse of the Cornish fishing fleet because of these slavers. The writer of Amazing Grace was himself a slave, before becoming a slave trader (after he escaped the clutches of his black oppressor, Princess Peyore). The last known raid on Britain by African slavers took place in 1879 – we outlawed slavery in 1833. In 1879 the Royal Navy finally became strong enough to stop all slaver activity in the Atlantic. Almost all the African slave British slave traders shipped across the Atlantic had been taken into slavery by other Africans, but you don’t hear much condemnation of that. The King of Mali became the richest man on the planet because of the slave trade. Mohammed kept slaves and benefitted from the trade in them. Timbuktu was built with money from the slave trade. Why is this not taught? We have been more sorely oppressed than we have been the oppressor, and remember, we are, and always have been, the minority.

    6. Looks like the “Blick=victim” grievance industry is beginning to fragment, on the “four legs good, two legs better” principle.
      Excellent!

    7. Looks like the “Blick=victim” grievance industry is beginning to fragment, on the “four legs good, two legs better” principle.
      Excellent!

  13. 370542+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    May one ask is there any truth that circulating SIEG HEIL is to replace good morning as a national greeting along with some sort of hand gesture when meeting a fellow traveller on the road to RESET.

    There may be some truth in that good morning first went out the window 40 + years ago gaining momentum along the way accompanied by self respect & common sense but SIEG H£IL
    I ask you.

    As for the hand gesture OGs can only hope it is in the form of a loosely clenched fist in up / down motion at a 45 degree angle.

    tic.

  14. Good morning all. Getting light outside, looks a bit grey but it is dry and an almost spring-like 3½°C outside!

  15. Good morning everybody.
    My version of the Telegraph online has a PR piece about Ms Braverman, slightly to the left of a report about a refugee who slaughtered his 87 year old landlady.

    Yesterday was the 90th anniversary of a significant political event.

    2. It is as well for us to remember that he had a bit of help along the way from unexpected sources. Read ‘Wall Street and The Rise of Hitler’ by Professor Anthony C Sutton. It’s available on Amazon.

    3. It is as well for us to remember that he had a bit of help along the way from unexpected sources. Read ‘Wall Street and The Rise of Hitler’ by Professor Anthony C Sutton. It’s available on Amazon.

  16. Failed asylum seeker killed 87-year-old who gave him a home. 31 January 2023.

    A frail elderly woman who let a failed asylum seeker live “like a grandson” in her home in a North Yorkshire village was brutally murdered by him, a judge has heard.

    Brenda Blainey, 87, met Shahin Darvish-Narenjbon in a Leeds restaurant in 2013 when he was a student, Leeds Crown Court heard.
    She invited him to live with her in her home in the tourist village of Thornton-le-Dale, where she treated him like a grandson, the court heard.

    But on Jan 5 last year, the Iranian national, who has a paranoid schizophrenia, strangled Mrs Blainey before smashing her head on the kitchen floor, stabbing her in the chest and cutting her throat.

    No comments allowed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/30/failed-asylum-seeker-killed-87-year-old-who-gave-home/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    2. The human cost is obvious but the cost to our social and medical services is huge, many of these incomers are nuts and sap resources.

    3. There are a couple “btl” on PressReader but not worth reporting on here. There are a lot of trolls on PressReader.

      1. Morning MIR. To see Trolls in action you have to go on the Spectator threads when a Russia or Putin article is posted. I count my successes by the number of Downvotes I get. Lol!

  17. Good Morrow, Gentlefolk. Late on parade, Here is today’s story:

    Moral Test

    Moral Test….Read to the end before making a judgement…Cheers
    This test only has one question, but it’s a very important one.

    By giving an honest answer, you will discover where you stand morally.

    The test features an unlikely, completely fictional, situation in which you will have to make a decision. Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous.
    Please scroll down slowly and give due consideration to each line.

    The Situation:

    You are in London.
    There is chaos all around you caused by a hurricane with severe flooding.
    This is a flood of biblical proportions.

    You are a photo-journalist working for a major newspaper, and you’re caught in
    the middle of this epic disaster. The situation is nearly hopeless.

    You’re trying to shoot career-making photos. There are houses crumbling and people swirling around you, some disappearing into the water.

    Nature is unleashing all of its destructive fury.

    The Test:

    Suddenly, you see a man in the water.

    He is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken down with the debris.
    You move closer… Somehow, the man looks familiar…

    You suddenly realize who it is…. It’s the Muslim Cleric, Abu Hamza, the one-eyed, hook
    handed bastard who hates non-Muslims and wants the UK to become an Islamic state!!

    You notice that the raging waters are about to take him under forever.

    You have two options:

    You can save the life of Abu or you can shoot a dramatic Pulitzer Prize winning photo, documenting the death of one of the country’s most despised, evil and horrible men!

    Now The Question And Please Give An Honest Answer

    Would you select high contrast colour film or, would you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?

    3. Three strip IB technicolor so the results can be savoured for ever in their full glory.

  18. Good moaning all,

    Cloudy start with a light zephyr, 7℃ and forecast to be in double figures.

    Another boring bunch of letters in the Gatesograph with the usual bleatings about the unreformable burden we all carry. The only solution for it is euthanasia with a commensurate reduction in taxes. I’m not advocating a return to the status quo ante 1948; there should be a basic service available for those who genuinely can’ t make payments for their health care. The rest of us should be in an insurance-based system.

        1. I once owned a MK I Cortina with that configuration. Only one I ever came across. The Lotus version was my dream but I didn’t have the money to purchase and run one.

          2. I did get it, Bill. I was about to go on and say he’s another Satnav Sanghera but decided against it for the sake of my blood pressure.

  19. Microsoft ban?

    https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/1728074/Microsoft-Windows-10-end-of-life-Windows-11-upgrade

    MOH was reluctantly concluding that she needed to buy a new computer despite lots of our other increasing domestic costs.
    I found out however that her existing aging desktop running Windows 8.1 was capable of running Windows 10 providing you the prerequiements for downloading from Microsoft.

    After my upgading it for her she now has ongoing support from Microsoft for Windows 10 until 2025 but it seems as though the ability to download the sofware free will imminently cease

    1. I use Windows XP whenever I can.

      Last decent system they made. Windows 7 was ok, but laggy. Anything later and it was like going back to 3.1, but with analytical and targeting algorithms and auto-malware-install fouling up the hardware.

        1. I installed Mint 19 a few years back on my elderly Macbook Pro via emulator Parallels 8. It takes an age to load up, and I have issues when they upgrade the core program Gnome, since Parallels also have to issue an upgrade to their file prl-tools-lin,iso. I managed to crack a version of this from Parallels 15 (which doesn’t support my mac OS), but have got behind with it recently. My host OS is Snow Leopard, which is the last Mac OS that was any good. After that, they messed around with the Mail app, so it was more like iOS and nearly all Mail apps today that require constant scrolling and is horrible to manage. Also the Disk Utility on Snow Leopard is much better than anything after. There is the Sword of Damocles threatening all systems that no longer get security updates, but I have to live with that by backing up often.

          When I get a bit of time, and most crucially grow a few more brain cells to cope with it all, I might try again.

          1. “I installed Mint 19 a few years back on my elderly Macbook Pro via emulator Parallels 8. It takes an age to load up, and I have issues when they upgrade the core program Gnome, since Parallels also have to issue an upgrade to their file prl-tools-lin,iso. I managed to crack a version of this from Parallels 15 (which doesn’t support my mac OS), but have got behind with it recently. My host OS is Snow Leopard, which is the last Mac OS that was any good. After that, they messed around with the Mail app, so it was more like iOS and nearly all Mail apps today that require constant scrolling and is horrible to manage. Also the Disk Utility on Snow Leopard is much better than anything after. “

            Could we have this in English?

          3. Could just as well be like this:

            “Εγκατέστησα το Mint 19 πριν από μερικά χρόνια στο ηλικιωμένο Macbook Pro μέσω του εξομοιωτή Parallels 8. Χρειάζεται αρκετός χρόνος για να φορτωθεί και έχω προβλήματα κατά την αναβάθμιση του βασικού προγράμματος Gnome, καθώς οι Parallels πρέπει επίσης να κάνουν αναβάθμιση στο αρχείο τους prl-tools-lin,iso. Κατάφερα να σπάσω μια έκδοση αυτού από το Parallels 15 (η οποία δεν υποστηρίζει το mac OS μου), αλλά το έχω ξεπεράσει πρόσφατα. Το λειτουργικό σύστημα υποδοχής μου είναι το Snow Leopard, το οποίο είναι το τελευταίο Mac Το λειτουργικό σύστημα ήταν καλό. Μετά από αυτό, μπέρδεψαν με την εφαρμογή Mail, έτσι έμοιαζε περισσότερο με το iOS και σχεδόν όλες τις εφαρμογές αλληλογραφίας σήμερα που απαιτούν συνεχή κύλιση και είναι φρικτό στη διαχείριση. Επίσης το Disk Utility στο Snow Leopard είναι πολύ καλύτερο από οτιδήποτε μετά.”

          7. I’m a luddite trying to learn High Tech with the expertise of someone adept with schoolboy French taking on Mandarin.

            One either accepts the offerings from the big corporations, complete with American-sized ethical standards, or one tries to apply a 1970s A Level in computer science to open source coding in Linux, hoping that my 60-something brain is up to what I could manage as a teenager.

            Don’t you ever marvel that in ‘Star Trek’, most interstellar aliens are deformed humanoids whose utterings can be translated into perfect English with a thorough grounding in the American Constitution? Sometimes, English is not up to the job though – ever tried talking English to that daffodil, hoping for an intelligent and intelligible response? I even struggle with humanoid Alphabet Pride marchers.

          8. “I’m a luddite trying to learn High Tech with the expertise of someone adept with schoolboy French taking on Mandarin.”

            If you are a Luddite, then I must be Cro-Magnon man!

          9. What Jeremy is describing is the idiosyncrasies of asynchronous technologies.

            You’re welcome.

          10. I can’t be arsed with all that. For me, all too difficult.
            I want it to work when I switch on, not have to jigger with the software, cope with mismatched “up”grades (usually a schlimmbesserung) and otherwise try to persuade the bugger to actually do what I want.

          11. I had a Mac cast off from my son that uddd Sow Leopard, but eventually it died. My current laptop is now 10 years old and getting slow but my files etc are set up as I want them so I’m sticking with it for as long as I can.

        2. I am very sorry.

          I’m a fan of Mint, myself. However, Linux holds itself back by putting ideology above common sense. Try mapping a network drive to be persistent. Not only is it byzantine, fighting with permissions but it also vanishes the next time you start up. Why? Oh, mounting is a privilege. No, it’s a file system. I want to write to it. Give me a tick box.

          Use autofs someone says. Nope, not interested in installing yet more complicated and unnecessary software only to have to plunk commands into an editor to get them to work. Do it properly, have a checkbox.

          But they can’t, because the linux community doesn’t think that way.

          2. Like plumbing, electricity etc….. I USE pooters and the interwebby.
            My equivalent of doing whizzy pooter stuff is changing a fuse.

    2. ‘Morning Angie. I’m still on W7, the most stable version of Windows I have ever used. Although it is no longer supported I intend to remain with it for the forseeable!

      2. Hi Hugh,

        I have various PCs around going back to the ZX81.
        The problem with all these reliable hardware platforms is chip development is starting to incorporate functionality that a lot of us have come rely on – so the old hardware becomes obsolecent.

    1. Huh!
      Try stopping them, and we’ll see. So far, it’s been all blether from that waste of space.

  21. Good morning, all. Bright and calm this morning in N Essex.

    Who was it who lit Ellwood’s fuse?
    Face Russia directly with an Army that’s in a “dire state”. Makes sense.
    Clearly, Ellwood hasn’t read any history and certainly nothing about the BEF in France in 1939 – 1940. How did that turnout, Mr Ellwood?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/72367400220e7978663399975626808fbef140971a4b4ebc0c31ea5b0a8a3a66.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/810d1473b9ec66996a8cb112ba6f5859665fd0eaf86bbb07b81eb193faebb2b3.png

    1. Even sleepy Joe has stated the US will not be giving / selling? F16 fighter jets to Ukraine (for now at least).

      I’m sure the Army could kit Mr Ellwood with suitable combat clothing. I’m sure the British public would pay his air fare…..

    3. He was in the army for just five years, rising to captain ( you need to be an imbecile no to do so within 5 years). Of more concern is his reserve commitment with the 77th Brigade. How does it feel having a sitting MP involved in an outfit that spies on you? Do we think that is constitutional?

    4. Troop numbers aren’t the issue. It’s the organisation. The first thing to do is shut down the ministry of defence. Just close it. It’s useless. A wasteful hinderance of expensive, inefficient bureaucrats. Do the same for climate change, welfare, the home office….

    6. So, we need to get directly involved, but at the same time our army is in a “dire state” and presumably not fit for such a purpose? Ellwood is a complete buffoon and a dangerous one at that!

    7. Fcuking knuckle-head!
      Why do the UK have to do that, with no preparation, no readiness, and no money to pay the huge costs of materiel, let alone the huge costs in personal terms of being at proper war rather than proxy war? Is he ready for bombs dropped on population centres in the UK? Is he ready for the decimation of the RAF’s five operational aeroplanes, leaving the skies open to bombers? And what about escalation to nuclear, that will inevitably happen? What about the manpower, machines disparity between the UK and Russia?
      Is he not aware how long it took for the UK to get together enough to actually fight a war back in the 30s?
      He can grab a pike and go on his own.

      1. “Why do the UK have to do that?” Because, Paul as I’ve attempted to explain many times on here: it is all due to the irrebuttable fact that each generation is becoming more and more stupid than the previous one.

        Wen you beget a generation of imbeciles, then you are only left with fellow imbeciles to vote into positions of power. It is when those parliamentary imbeciles realise that they wield power, but are too stupid to realise that they are imbeciles and, as a direct consequence, have no idea how to safely and effectively exercise that power. They are, therefore, unrestrained when it comes to making public utterances, which are, universally, banal, idiotic and downright dangerous.

        The nightmare factor is that if these imbeciles do not destroy all life on the planet, then the next generation, which will be of an off-the-scale level of imbecility, surely will destroy all life forms.

  23. SIR – The endless revelations about Conservative sleaze, lies,
    criminal behaviour, attempted cover-ups, porn scandals, serious breaches
    of the ministerial code and contempt for the law and the electorate
    make this current Government the most unfit to lead the nation in living
    memory.

    The Tories have sadly condemned themselves to the
    political wilderness. They lack top-level managerial ability,
    leadership, good judgment and a moral compass. They have nobody to blame
    but themselves for the horrible mess in which they find themselves and
    deserve to lose the next election.

    Kim Potter
    Lambourn, Berkshire

    All true. But Labour would be no better. Time they all went.

    1. The media were full of ‘Tory sleaze’ articles in the 1990s, then Blair, Brown and co came in and take it to new depths. Politicians and the snivel serpents were on the slide from 1997, then from 2016 they’ve gone into free fall.

    1. I have never been on strike and, apart from being obliged to belong to the NUS when I was at university, I have never belonged to a trade union. I expect that many Nottlers are the same.

      1. #metoo, Rastus.
        If the teachers don’t like the pay, they can put themselves on the job market and do another job at the pay level they think appropriate for their usefulness.

    2. It is irresponsible and unprofessional to potentially put young children at risk. They think it acceptable that a parent of a young child should take their child/children to school before going to their own job, only to shortly after receive a text informing them of the need to collect their child/children because there aren’t enough teachers on site. Not all parents have somebody they can call on to help them out. What about secondary pupils who travel to school by school bus? Will secondary schools simply tell these youngsters to depart, many of them then hanging around the streets until school bus is ready at the end of school? For many in rural areas, there aren’t any public service buses either. I suspect many children will simply not be taken to school in the first place tomorrow.

  28. SIR – The actress and presenter Emily Atack’s awful experiences of being pursued on social media highlight what a menace it is.

    Young people, in particular, seem obsessed with it and the sad little world they access via their phones. The billionaires who launched the various platforms are only interested in profit, and anyone who imagines they will put a stop to online harassment are living in dreamland.

    There is one simple way to avoid all this, and that is to do what a number of celebrities have done: revert to using personal emails and text messages.

    Bob Kingsland
    Stroud, Gloucestershire

    Good letter, Mr Kingsland. I have lost count of the number of times I have muttered “Well, come off it then!” every time I hear of a sleb being in receipt of abuse. Until soshal meeja devises the means to prevent the scum of society hiding behind false identities the longer this will go on.

  29. Waves of Russian troops ‘crushed’ in fresh assault on strategic eastern town. 30 January 2023.

    Waves of Russian troops are being “crushed” during a fresh assault on a strategically important town in eastern Ukraine.

    Mykola Salamakha, a Ukrainian colonel and military analyst, said that Moscow’s assault on the Donetsk coal-mining town of Vuhledar, which is south of Bakhmut, was coming at a huge cost.

    “This is a repetition of the situation in Bakhmut – one wave of Russian troops after another crushed by the Ukrainian armed forces,” he told Ukrainian Radio NV, adding that an “extremely strong defensive hub” had been created there.

    The problem here is; is this true? The Ukies having a somewhat tenuous relationship with the truth we cannot be sure. I don’t pretend to know the answer but during the initial stages of the Vietnam War we were treated to heroic recitals of South Vietnamese victories. In fact it took several years for the reality to finally emerge and the then US administration still denied it. Despite being equipped with the most powerful weapons then available and American air support the South Vietnamese army was as corrupt as its leaders. The call for ever yet more weapons is reminiscent of those days as though these will make up for the lack of the will to win. This isn’t all that uncommon. During the Six Day War where the Egyptian Air Force was annihilated by Israeli air strikes. No one could be found to tell Nasser. In fact they told him the opposite and he proceeded as if victory was assured. until the Army was finally crushed out of existence in the Negev Desert. Truth is absolutely essential to the successful prosecution of War as the recent faiures of the West well illustrate!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/01/30/ukraine-russia-war-putin-news-latest-wagner-bakhmut/

    1. Stick to the facts. anything else is misleading at best, and can lead to taking the wrong action.

  30. 370542+ up ticks,

    The political overseers have stated they are going to stop the foreign invaders crossing the English Channel BUT did NOT add
    “temporarily ” right up until the present glut is farmed out to deserving hosts such as current lab/lib/con/current ukip coalition
    supporters.

    Stop migrant boats or face defeat, Suella Braverman tells Tories
    Home Secretary tells The Telegraph the party’s reputation for competence is ‘on the line’ and crossings must be tackled to win election

    The true fact is ANY of the toxic trio are proven political poison
    To the United Kingdom.

  32. Morning all 😉 😊
    Snow drops started to make a move already. Not sure that’s a good sign.
    Health Secretary needs to plug deeper in to the grey matter, it’s the patients that need the most attention Steve. And what ever schemes you try and invent, they’re never going to go away. So ignoring them, as is happening right now, will never be a successful platform.

  33. This alarming BTL under the Letters has the ring of truth about it – in which case Richly Suntanned has some explaining to do:

    Charles Hamilton
    4 HRS AGO
    The fraud linked to the Covid handout scheme is expected to cost the taxpayer as much as £57 billion..
    Apparently days before the scheme’s launch, Keith Morgan, chief executive of the British Business Bank, which administered the scheme, warned there were “very significant fraud and credit risks” and that it was “vulnerable to abuse by individuals and organised crime”. This because Ministers had insisted normal checks and verifications be waived.
    Rishi Sunak’s ‘assurance’ was : “There will be no forward-looking tests of business viability; no complex eligibility criteria; just a simple, quick, standard form for businesses to fill in.”
    Sunak’s wife and father-in-law took advantage of the scheme.
    Sunak is responsible for the appalling financial state of the UK Economy, together with Boris.
    The National Crime Agency [NCA} should be allowed to investigate the fraudulent use of the taxpayer funded Covid handouts. Why has the treasury blocked and prevented the NCA from investigating? The fraud that has taken place.
    The decision may well have been taken by one R Sunak. Why do you think? It makes him look stupid – and corrupt.
    A contributor earlier stated as follows: “At the time a project manager friend, working on the Furlough roll out. told us of how it was expected to lose 30% to fraud.
    We were staggered, and also slightly worried – it just didnt make sense.
    They’d escalated repeatedly and were told not to become involved further.
    This went against all Anti-Terrorism, Anti-Bribery, Money Laundering, Organised Crime legislation in the Financial sector.
    In short, arguably, Sunak oversaw millions, if not billions of pounds going to Organised Crime & Terrorists.”

    1. “Organised Crime & Terrorists”….a harsh way of referring to the Slimy One…{:¬))

    3. …and how much went into Sunak’s pocket, or members of his family?

      Remember, corruption is a way of life in Asia.

    4. …and how much went into Sunak’s pocket, or members of his family?

      Remember, corruption is a way of life in Asia.

    5. It’s been perfectly obvious for quite a number of years the many changes need to be made in the way our country is governed.
      Westminster needs closing down and spaying with a moral disinfectant. If these people still can’t get anything right and they never do. They should not be allowed to cross the threshold.

  34. This exchange in the BTL posts made me smile, albeit in a rather manic way:

    Olivia Wilde3 HRS AGO

    To anyone who wants a Labour government, I give you; Emily Thornberry, Diane Abbott, David Lammy, Angela Rayner, Stephen Kinnock and the Labour leader himself, Keir Starmer, being just six, as i could go on.

    Now I ask you, have you changed your mind yet…?

    M Oro2 HRS AGO

    I give you, Johnson, Gove, Sunak Zahawi, Raab, Clevery, Williamson, Truss, JRM

    Have you changed your mind yet.

    Olivia Wilde2 HRS AGO

    I don’t disagree, but they are all cast from the same mould, so what choice has anyone got which was my whole point, as there’s no-one of merit between them all. There’s absolutely no-one party wise i mean , bar very few exceptions of Individuals!

    1. The last three years have shown us that the whole Western world is an oligarchy and the elected polticians are mere puppets and playthings of the UN, the Trilateral Commision, the WEF and other supra-national NGOs and individual “philanthropists”.

      Close examination of this oligarchy reveals to us that it is, in fact, a kakistocracy.

      So few of us are awake.

  35. World leaders seem rightly shamefaced about how they got taken for a ride by Russian president. 31 Januray 2023.

    David Cameron and François Hollande are among the talking heads in this forensic analysis of European diplomacy in response to Putin’s aggression

    Putin vs the West is the latest series from the legendary Norma Percy, and the three-parter contains everything you’d expect from the veteran documentarian – the right blend of revelation, anecdote, history, drama, forensic analysis and storytelling. It’s Putin, the Ukraine war and how the West fouled up, all made comprehensible. It’s brilliant, and you have to watch it to understand how we got to where we are now.

    It is in fact so brilliant that you find yourself in the unexpected position of being almost on the edge of your seat listening to the testimony from the half-forgotten dullards – such as former French president Francois Hollande; ex President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso; Cathy Ashton, once a sort of surrogate EU foreign minister; and various other former apparatchiks, advisors, politicians and ambassadors – who have had the usually bruising experience of dealing first hand with Vladimir Putin over the years.

    In this list of players there is only one patriot!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/putin-vs-west-bbc-review-uk-ukraine-david-cameron-b2272455.html

  37. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c2e7a3e1fb79b6c58eeb4083be29d7038ddaef3be38bfdec76df7d8eeff8e31c.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/69871ee85596694d55e801323f0334dc4b4294ee23464d2bb27f08454cff6680.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b7b374310ae71b0d4995ec9eab20b4c769ac7281f4e81431318d290ba3960cfa.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/242077c2114d4a9f77a6a4a151e371a1c4dd1aec18236ce1230fec63d6c04617.png Four random photos taken from separate articles, three from today’s DT. Why have standards of sartorial elegance plummeted so much?

    Neither of the two women have trousers of a sensible length. The first would be tripping over hers (especially when she walked through a puddle, drenching them) and the second looks quite retarded in her baggy half masts.

    As for the staff sergeant, did he put on someone else’s tunic since the sleeve cuffs cover most of his hands? If he wasn’t attending a court martial for a serious assault I would have charged him with being improperly dressed.

    With regards to the clown masquerading as a police constable on duty, I cannot publish, on here, the words that I would have shouted, directly into his smug and idiotic face, as to how an officer of the law should properly wear his helmet. As for the rest of his scruffy appearance, I am left speechless.

    1. What is scruffy about his appearance, and in an age where we let muslims ignore the uniform (defeating the point of the thing) why is his hat a problem?

          11. He was a Hindu and even though he took a lot of jovial ‘flak’ from his Nottinghamshire colleagues, he was as friendly a chap as I’ve ever met.

          16. Front row first was my good friend, Anne, who passed away in 2011 aged 59. She had been married to the chap who is second in the middle row.

            I only discovered this a few weeks back when their daughter published this photograph on a private FaceBook page.

    2. Judging by the relative size of his head and torso the ‘policeman’ is about 5’5″ tall. What happened to the requirement that they had to be over average height? I seem to recall that in my youth (1960s) that was set at 5’10” which was comfortably over the then average height of men and most constables were in fact strapping six-footers. They certainly were in Glasgow.

      It looks as if he has a black parrot sitting on his left shoulder.

      Sartorial inelegance: Check out Sunak’s trousers – half-mast and drain-pipe. For all his £££ he can’t afford a decent tailor.

      1. Maybe still wearing his school uniform. They were far too big for him at 11, but the outfitter assured his mother he would grow into them.

      2. Morning Fiscal. The copper is not at all unusual. There were a bunch downtown the other week who looked like midgets in the UK version of the Keystone Kops!

    3. The last one – tactical plod, innit, mite.
      He also looks younger that Second Son… 🙁

    4. To be fair, the staff sgt’s trousers have slipped down, if they were at his waist they’d be the right length

    5. I was expecting you to say that it was all the same person at different stages in its life.

    1. 370542+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Really Og do you not think that peoples should ask “their” MPs if they think this throat slitting business is justified in any way appertaining to diversity say ?

  39. It’s not often that BTL comments make me laugh, but these I did appreciate. Talk about trench humour.
    From the Tellygraff.

    David Arrowsmith

    Hospital at home? Is that when you sit outside your own front door for three hours?

    Arfur Mo
    Reply to David Arrowsmith

    I assume you will have the option of lying on your hallway floor, or maybe the drinks trolley for the truly authentic experience, instead.

    Edwin Pugh
    Reply to Arfur Mo

    Will sure give the childhood game of ‘doctors and nurses’ a new twist.

  40. It’s not often that BTL comments make me laugh, but these I did appreciate. Talk about trench humour.
    From the Tellygraff.

    David Arrowsmith

    Hospital at home? Is that when you sit outside your own front door for three hours?

    Arfur Mo
    Reply to David Arrowsmith

    I assume you will have the option of lying on your hallway floor, or maybe the drinks trolley for the truly authentic experience, instead.

    Edwin Pugh
    Reply to Arfur Mo

    Will sure give the childhood game of ‘doctors and nurses’ a new twist.

    1. Who the bloody hell is still going to get tested or is this another ‘projection’ from dodgy data in an even more dodgy computer model?

  42. Ghost Drain in EVs

    Nissan are well known for the introduction of the Leaf EV and yet it’s rollout is diminishing due to its short range and high reliability. This guy is changing his enormous 12 volt auxiliary battery after seven years of use and the Ghost Drain has been avoided by using a high capacity 12 volt battery.

    It could have been better for me to buy a second hand Leaf rather than fork out for a mulitipurpose high performance BEV.
    The Hyundai Kona is a briilantly designed car which is difficult for reviewers to fault. However after a few months of irregular use the flaws of including a low capacity lead acid battery are coming to light.

    The answer basically is that polititians are forcing the ability of technology to keep pace with environmental demands to save the planet.

    This video (coming soon) explains why.

    1. Friend drives a Leaf, but its autumn is coming soon.
      Obtained via an advantageous leasing deal, and he would now prefer something better.

    2. Friend drives a Leaf, but its autumn is coming soon.
      Obtained via an advantageous leasing deal, and he would now prefer something better.

      2. This could be difficult decision to make.
        The Leaf has turned out to be a very reliable car because it has large heavy 12v auxiliary battery in it.

        This owner has had a Leaf EV for over seven years and has just installed a new 12 volt auxiliary battery in it himself and expects to get quite a few more years out of it yet.

        It’s worth him looking at this video to understand why he wants to keep it:

        https://youtu.be/oymqG1xqpUI

        You may have seen my comments about thr 2022 Hyundai Kona Electric 64kW after watching dealer reviews. I cannot fault its design and performsnce apart from a warning on the drivers instrument cluster warning of an electrical issue after only four month.

        Further investigation revealed there was battery drain issue affecting all EVs scalled a Ghost Drain for which nobody seemd to have an answer for and this even affects Teslas.

        This is what I am invetigating at the moment.

        1. There was another report today of a Tesla being driven on a highway in the states that decided to spontaneously combust. Local fire brigade following the car manufacturers instructions used 6,000 US gallons of water to put out the battery fire. It seems we are moving away from the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to ECE (External Combustion Engine!)

          1. The relentlless drive in the developed world to go green has led to opportunist investors making a profit out of government incentives without the green ideals being able make a viable shareholder investment.

            This is the reason why pushing technology to fast results in a few catastrophies which are very unfortunate for some but seen acceptable to save the planet.

  44. As with Hitler, we should have seen Putin coming. 31 January 2023.

    Telegraph columnists are rightly discouraged from writing articles solely based on an article in our own paper. I am doing so today, however, with the excuse that the article in question appeared a century ago. Indeed, I know about it only because it was reprinted in our “One Hundred Years Ago” column last Friday.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    David Robson.

    Never mind Putin. I’m more concerned about what our government will do next and whether it will do any thing pro-UK ever again.

    They seem to be doing their best to destroy our economy and way of life.

    Yes David. Our enemies are in Westminster not Moscow. Though by the headline they are getting desperate. .

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/31/hitler-should-have-seen-putin-coming/

    2. These people are deranged; perhaps the eco loons can set a good example; forgoing anaesthetics during root canal surgery, for example?

    4. Absolutely not. It is the planet’s job to look after me. I didn’t ask to be born, I wasn’t consulted.

  46. A study published Monday by Allianz Trade which cited contract expiries and delayed wholesale pricing effects, and which according to Reuters found that German industry is set to pay about 40% more for energy in 2023 than in 2021, before the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    No doubt when the price increases are passed on to their consumers there (and in the UK), the howls will be used to persuade those in power to prosecute the war in Ukraine with more vigour….

    2. I wonder how the various paramilitary groups view the replacement policy? This could get ugly?

    3. The Irish were just cutting out the middle-man. The migrants would eventually have set fire to it, anyway.

      1. No…..
        Erin and myself were discussing our three boys growing up, now 30s and early 40s. We can’t recall any of them going down with any of the illnesses we hear about so many children who seem to be suffering from at the moment. Another sudden previously unheard of, has forced a local nursery school to close. It’s Hand Foot and Mouth disease. One can only guess and or, make assumptions as to where all these strange new variations of illness have sprung from. All our vaccines back then, worked. I’ve heard of so many people including our youngest grandson (3) catching leukemia. We have an elderly friend (ex superintendent) and a middle age acquaintance in Oz with it as well.
        But it seems that world wide, Big Pharma have now set their jab targets on the youngest members of our population.
        As well as trying to achieve the same goals with the elderly.
        Not for me either. I am sure that I wouldn’t have been suffering as I have for two years, if I’d not had two covid jabs.
        Apologies for the ‘joke’ about the photo. It’s always sad when news like that catches up with you further down the line.

        1. No apology required, Eddy. I thought you meant she resembled someone else, so no offence was taken.

          In the past all vaccines were tested ad nauseam before being passed as safe for use on the public. These new serums are untested; in fact they are being tested on those ingenues who believe the hype.

  49. Brexit to blame for Putin’s war, top MEP claims. 31 January 2023.

    Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine could have been avoided if Brexit had not happened, senior MEP Guy Verhofstadt has claimed.

    The bloc’s former Brexit coordinator suggested the Russian president calculated that the continent was not united on defence after the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

    It didn’t have anything to do with the EU helping to overthrow the Yanukovych Government then Guy?

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russian-putin-ukraine-war-map-fighter-jets-b2272428.html

    1. senior MEP Guy Verhofstadt
      Oh really, it seems that useless moron has nothing better to do all day than to stir the dung bucket. With his bare hands.

      1. Remembering the fuss about Clarkson, perhaps you shouldn’t have mentioned “dung”, but I think you might have got away with it!

    2. “Senior” MEP?
      The only senior things about that prick are his moments, which are all joined together.

    3. Meanwhile, over on RT this is the top story.

      Moscow provides more evidence of US biolabs in Ukraine

      Kiev’s troops were among the test subjects for Pentagon-funded research, the Russian MOD says
      Russia’s Defense Ministry on Monday laid out more evidence that US-funded laboratories were working in Ukraine. Documents and materials recovered by Russian troops showed that Western pharmaceutical companies operating in territory under Kiev’s control conducted HIV/AIDS research on Ukrainian military personnel.

      The commander of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, presented Ukrainian-language documents referring to HIV infection studies that began in 2019. The list of targeted groups shows service members alongside prisoners, drug addicts and other “patients at high risk of infection.”

      According to Kirillov, the Russian military has recovered more than 20,000 documents and other materials related to the biological programs in Ukraine, while interviewing eyewitnesses and participants. The evidence “confirms the focus of the Pentagon on creating biological weapons components and testing them on the population of Ukraine and other states along [Russia’s] borders,” the general told reporters.

      Based on documents originating with the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the Russian military identified eight more individuals involved in the US-funded research in Ukraine. Among the names Kirillov singled out was Karen Saylors of Labyrinth Global Health, previously of Metabiota, a company linked to US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

      US ‘military biological activities’ a threat to the world – Russia
      The latest trove of documents, belonging to the company Pharmbiotest, was unearthed in Lisichansk in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) early in January, Kirillov noted.

      “Clinical samples and patient records with their personal data were buried, and not cremated or destroyed in a proper fashion. This suggests that the destruction of this evidence was carried out in extreme haste,” the lieutenant general said.

      In October 2022, Russia filed an official complaint over alleged US-backed biological activities in Ukraine and requested a UN probe into the matter. The UN Security Council rejected Moscow’s proposal after the US, UK, and France voted against it. The US opposition “once again confirms that Washington has something to hide, and that ensuring the transparency of biological research is contrary to US interests,” Kirillov said.

      As evidence of the widespread threat posed by the Pentagon’s biological research conducted beyond America’s borders, Kirillov referred to the previously mentioned US involvement in coronavirus studies, including by funding the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance that contracted with the laboratory in Wuhan, China.

      Kirillov also brought up the 1977 outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in Egypt, near a biological laboratory run by the US Navy. The disease previously known only south of the Sahara made a surprise appearance in Cairo a few months after the lab employees were vaccinated against it, the general said. Moreover, the Cairo strain was “highly pathogenic” compared to the disease’s normal flu-like symptoms, suggesting the involvement of gain-of-function experiments.

  50. 370542+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    Will the Coronation of King Charles herald another Runnymede
    or will a brace of big ears have to be pinned into indigenous peoples listening mode especially in regards to
    ANY GREEN / WEF tripe.

    2. WE did not wear them as we knew they were no good. They were for splash only. You are not allowed to wear them for asbestos removal so if an asbestos particle can pass through them then so can a virus. There are many people still wearing them.

  53. Bird charity locked out of Twitter after woodcock tweets…..

    Either AI or a moderator decided the term was Plumegraphic!

          1. But he wasn’t in it for the money, how dare you insinuate! Poor man also had to decide what to do with his MP’s salary, all at the same time. Gosh, I feel for him.

  54. Phew!
    That’s all the larger diameter logs sawn for the woodburner and 2 large builders bucket fulls chopped and stacked.
    Also, whilst waiting for the Rington’s man to arrive, I’ve checked the van’s tyre pressures and fitted a couple of coathooks inside it.

    Now having a mug of tea before going up to do a couple more buckets of logs and then will get a start on the thinner logs which will not need so much chopping!

    Also got the potatoes and some kale ready to put on the stove to go with tonight’s steak pies & gravy.

    An absolutely gorgeous day here, clear sky but a rather strong wind gusting all over the place.

  55. Afternoon All

    Quick Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f0571d9a7da096f279851b6177ccaa8a603b3508f66e5f9d8681f84e772a0b34.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/151d1402f11cb8000896b66b1512aecc04aeac319c020db7a73e7f52509392ae.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aacca3c946d88855a31872d8cdf78fa7d522f4ccae162c406d5a3392f0fd9ae1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2f0efee5ffa5671cf0a0686765c472afeb0e67ae9cf52b05ee3fa782a98ded7b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f8535ce99da5fa6073b6dc990fae60630a724c20f3ce3900332ea19597a2b870.jpg

    “Ain’t that the truth”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a3bd9a143e7184f69d06ab09ba7e11b8c34dcfeaf0829ebda95677a09f422fc9.jpg

      1. I kid you not, one of my profs at college rejoiced in the surname of Wookey! He was bonkers.

  62. Charles III become the first monarch in British history to be publicly anointed with holy oil at his Coronation.
    In previous ceremonies, the most sacred part of the event – when the Archbishop of Canterbury uses holy oil to anoint the hands, breast and head of the sovereign – is not seen by the public. How nice, how intimate.

    I think Charlie may have had a say in that.

    3. It’s going to be screened for Charlie, too, but instead of nobles holding the canopy/screen, it’s going to be yoofs.

    1. Remoaners are myopic. They can’t accept that anything else is responsible but Brexit because as soon as they do their entire world view collapses.

      1. The Lisbon Treaty Debacle
        If you want to tease out the steps toward Brexit and the lies that were told before, during and after it, you should read: the Bruges Group Leave Alliance’s ‘Flexcit: the Market Solution to leaving the EU’, (written in February 2016 before the 23rd June Referendum) available here: https://www.brugesgroup.com/images/papers/flexcit.pdf

        Though it runs to 421 pages, you have only to examine pp17-21 ‘ 2.1: ‘The Lisbon Debacle’‘ and 2.2: ‘A Forced Referendum’ to see the sleight of hand practised by Gordon Brown in signing the Lisbon Treaty.

        The whole document’s final paragraph is here:

        If we are objecting to the EU on the grounds that it is an anti-democratic organisation which does not permit democratic self-government, then simply replacing the autocrats in Brussels with their Westminster and Whitehall equivalents is not enough. Withdrawal must be accompanied by serious and far-reaching domestic reforms which strengthen democracy in the UK – and by the introduction of mechanisms to prevent our representatives ever again handing power to a supranational body

        1. Yep, that’s a good point and something I’ve ranted about.

          While the state can continue to fight the public for it’s own ends nothing will change. Heck, just look at their reaction after covid. The nation urgently needs tax cuts to create short term employment, a loosening of tax laws. What does it do? ‘We want our money back.’ It’s not your money! It’s ours, every single penny.

  66. BBC headline news:
    Britain is the only G7 economy forecast to shrink in 2023, the IMF says, as higher energy prices, rising mortgage costs and increased taxes hit growth. Britain will have a shrinkage of 0.6 per cent which will cause misery and threaten financial ruin – all because of Brexit. That’s the equivalent of 60pence in 100 pounds. We are doomed!

    No mention of the 5 billion pounds per day spent on housing illegal immigrants or the billions of pounds worth of ammunition, armoured vehicles and tanks given to Ukraine or the billions spent on treating a million persons from other countries who do not work and fill our hospitals and jails to overflowing.

    The governments response is to order more boats and border personnel to patrol the Channel and ports. Yes! That’s the answer, more immigrants, more green taxes. I wonder who thought of that.

    1. This the same IMF that is so desperate to force us back in to the EU to the point of practically removing the elected PM who offered a true plan for growth?

    2. Worse than Canada? You are in deep doggy doo if that is the case. I don’t believe that for a moment that this situation can last, the liberals will find away of dragging us deeper into the mire.

      The first thing on yesterday’s agenda in parliament was a bill to fund promised $10 a day childcare. Hardly a government responding to a financial crisis.

          3. Russia might not have invaded Ukraine without Brexit, says Guy Verhofstadt
            European Parliament’s former Brexit boss claims Vladimir Putin may never have launched offensive if UK had remained in bloc
            https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/01/31/russia-might-not-have-invaded-ukraine-without-brexit-says-guy/

            Verhorf’s twat says that Putin only decided to invade the Ukraine because of Brexit.

            In spite of his terrible teeth and hairstyle at least he has a sense of humour and greatly enjoys getting Brexiteers to rise to the bait and be thoroughly pissed off.

          5. If Putin has a spare missile why waste it on BoJo when that twat would be much more entertaining being incinerated.

  70. That’s me finished for the day.
    Another 7 large buckets of logs cut & stacked bringing the stack up to about ¼ full.
    Just sat down to steak pie, mushrooms, potatoes, kale, mixed veg and onion gravy.

    Day off tomorrow. I’ts Stepson’s birthday so I’m taking him out for a meal.

  71. Par Four today.

    Wordle 591 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟨⬜🟩🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Ditto.

      Wordle 591 4/6

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

    2. Ditto.

      Wordle 591 4/6

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

  72. Gosh – that was dire. An uninspiring vicarette – who (despite having a microphone) murmured very quietly to the 40 people there assembled. Most of us could not hear her (including people with good hearing).

    Appalling “hymns” only two but seemed more because they had “choruses”. One was the Old Rugged Cross – which, when I take over the country will be banned at all funerals – except for slammers.

    And how is it that people no longer what to wear for a funeral? Pullovers, trainers, open necked shirts…anoraks.

    Still – we went to show support or our friend and helpmate.

      1. I have just told you about it, dear……Oh, I see what you mean…{:¬))

        At the Essex wedding last Sat’die, only three of the wimmen covered their heads – and then only just. They “wore” those stupid confections that look like a dead bird or large beetle.

        1. Sorry but I don’t wear hats to weddings- can’t stand the bloody things. I didn’t wear one to my son’s wedding or to ours.
          One can look smart and well dressed without a floppy bit of fabric on one’s head.

          1. Dear Heart – you are entitled to dress as you wish. I wouldn’t criticise you, whatever you wore.

            It is just that within living memory (my lifetime!!) women wore hats (and enjoyed doing so for weddings – and, frequently, funerals.

            Just as men wore suits. And hats – I must admit that I do not ow a hat, so would prolly let the side down. Except that no man I see wears a hat. Caps, yes – I have two. But not to wear t church or funerals or weddings.

            I’ll get me Tatler….

          4. Getting better…… we went for a walk today – not very far but further than the last one. He didn’t get breathless today either. He’s just lit the woodburner so we have a nice fire.

          6. Mine has a type of wide brimmed hat with a string that goes under his chin. First time he wore it up the pub, I asked people, “Have you met my husband, Crocodile Dundee?”

          7. I never wear hats either. I did wear a stupid “fascinator” bit of feather to the last wedding I went to in 2008. It soon came off and was never worn again.

          10. Everyone wears hats over here and when it is minus twenty outside, I am not talking about those decorations that provide no warmth.

          13. I take it that that is the pseudo Banff in Canada, as opposed to the original in Banffshire, Scotland.

          22. A fine-looking couple! Very stylish and smart.
            I have a very similar tie, bought in Rome many years ago.

          29. It’s a giant frisbee!!….or something very rare and almost hunted to extinction in Scotland.

          31. I love it! (It looks a wee bit chilly there!) And I love your outfit. I was brought up to wear a hat, although I detested my school beret, woe betide if one was caught without it. It was a very unflattering piece of millinery.

          32. Thanks pm! It was our elder daughters wedding, in December near Gatehouse-of-Fleet on the Solway Firth! And yes, it was freezing and windy! The sun came out later!
            I also had a school hat, well 2 actually! A velour thing with a hatband in winter, and a boater in summer!

          33. Oh the horror! I also had a velour for winter and a panama for summer. Only until end of 5th form then we wore our own clothes. Thank god.

          36. Gosh they were progressive! We didn’t get berets until 1973, by which time my velour thing had cigarette burn holes right round the brim! Ooh what a rebel I was!

          39. That was the same at my school; caps for the boys all year round and all ages, but pudding basins for the lower school girls in winter and boaters in summer (with summer uniform). Fourth years and above wore berets (girls that is).

          40. The prefects actually used to watch out for any of us not wearing berets (girls) or caps (boys).

          41. Us too. All the way home it was like crossing a field with a bull in it, every day. It is not surprising we are full of anxiety as adults….. besides having to cope with stuff like the Cuban crisis, wondering if we’d get to see our parents at the end of the day.

          42. My mother kept the hat she wore to my sister’s wedding. I don’t understand why, as she’s never worn it since.

        2. Our bowls club has said goodbye to several elderly members over the 13 years we’ve been members and nobody attending any of their funerals ever wore a hat. We have to accept customs changing as time passes, there is no disrespect intended, far from it. Also some people actually ask mourners to wear bright colours as a celebration of life.

          1. WHY do we have to accept change? WHY??

            I’ll just go and put my armour on…and challenge you (if I can remember where I put my gauntlets)….{:¬))

          4. If you don’t wear a hat, you can’t doff and don it to show the appropriate respect.

          1. That a nice hat dear, let’s go out for a walk in the fields and see how the shoot is getting on.

    2. Dark suit, a clean white shirt, a black tie and well polished black shoes is acceptable rig.

      But this is my favourite funeral song.

          2. Working so well, Richard that before I refreshed, it didn’t and now, having refreshed, its disappeared.

          4. I’ve always liked Stanley Holloway’s offerings. Thank you for your persistence, Richard.

        1. Works for me. I’ve seen the Warqueen in a tight white shirt and black tie. The shoes were boots and came up to her knees but they were very polished.

  73. Tonight’s larf:

    “Officers at all 43 police forces in England and Wales will be trained in “candour” to prevent a repeat of lies and cover-ups following the (Hillsborough) tragedy in April 1989.”

    4. Candour – honesty? You want officers to be trained to be honest? Dear life.

      Let’s be blunt: the Hilsborough chaos came about because the fans couldn’t behave themselves. As a result, giant fencing was installed. When the fans kicked off, the people at the front died.

      The reason people died is because the fans couldn’t behave themselves.

  74. Tonight’s larf:

    “Officers at all 43 police forces in England and Wales will be trained in “candour” to prevent a repeat of lies and cover-ups following the (Hillsborough) tragedy in April 1989.”

  75. 370542+ up ticks,

    Seems that a survey of some 10000 peoples said they should NOT have voted OUT at the referendum only the Lincolnshire
    Boston , Louth, Horncastle ( Yellowbellies ) are the remaining
    patriots.

    I see it as the enemas propaganda machine is going into overdrive and with every lie told another bit falls off.

        3. Be sensible Sue……..

          There’s not any use in holding another referendum unless it is rigged.

      3. No, they’ve learned their lesson this time. There will be no more referenda, ever again. Certainly on anything important.

        They’ll do it by stealth, aligning with rules, then adopting them, keeping every pettifogging nonsense until eventually they say ‘we may as well rejoin the single market’ and that’ll be it – chained and pinned but because it’ll be presented as a technical exercise the public will be kept blind to the crippling taxes, debt, waste, chaos and misery the EU brings. Ignorant mainly because they’ll think they come from our own government.

  76. During our 17 hour marathon wait in the emergency admission dept. my son and I watched a total of 12 police shifts wasted on ‘escorting’ mental patients who should have been in hospital. Thank you, bean counters and compliant doctors for inflicting such a waste of human lives and taxpayers’ money on a medical theory taken into the realms of madness.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/31/bedfordshire-police-bill-nhs-time-officers-spend-mental-health/

    “Police force to bill NHS for time officers spend on mental health calls

    Bedfordshire’s police chief says officers spending seven hours with patients in A&E is ‘unsustainable’ when they should be tackling crime

    31 January 2023 • 4:43pm

    A police force is to become the first in Britain to charge the NHS for the time that officers spend on “unnecessary” mental health call-outs rather than solving crimes.

    Bedfordshire’s policing chief has calculated officers are spending at least 53,000 hours a year dealing with people with mental ill health – equivalent to losing 23 full-time police constables from fighting crime.

    Festus Akinbusoye, police and crime commissioner, has told his force to draw up a detailed breakdown of the costs and officers’ time in order to bill the NHS quarterly for the “unsustainable” costs.

    “We can’t have police officers spending seven hours in A&E. It’s not just about money. It’s about the resources taken from the frontline doing proper policing jobs,” said Mr Akinbusoye, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners’ (APCC) prevention lead.

    His move comes as forces are withdrawing from acting as “de-facto” ambulances for people suffering mental ill health so they can re-focus on tackling crime.

    Police chiefs plan to slash the number of mental health call-outs they attend by as many as half as they come under pressure from the Government to get “back to the basics” of solving crime.

    In London, only 22 per cent of calls that the Metropolitan Police receive are about crime with some frontline units losing half of their officers to health call outs where they have to sit out their shift in A&E tending a mental health patient.

    Chris Noble, chief constable for Staffordshire Police, said his officers could no longer spend “more time in A&E” than they do dealing with domestic abuse victims.

    “In terms of us becoming de-facto ambulances and transporting people and spending more time in A&Es than we do in the home of a domestic abuse victim – I’m just not going to do that anymore,” he said.

    “We’ll give people proper notice, we’ll think about how we can build in those checks and balances and train our staff appropriately.

    “But if, quite rightly, I’m going to be held to account around crime, disorder and supporting vulnerable people who are victims of crime and harm we cannot be doing what we are currently doing. It’s not going to be a cliff edge but something different needs to happen.”

    Humberside Police negotiates agreement

    Humberside Police, Britain’s highest-rated police force, has negotiated an agreement with healthcare agencies so that police officers are quickly replaced by health specialists if they are the first on the scene.

    “What this has meant is that more than 1,000 officer hours per month have been reallocated to enable us to focus on what communities want us to be doing, that being proactive policing,” said Chief Constable Lee Freeman.

    Humberside arrests more suspects per police officer than any other force and has the highest detection rate for overall crime in England and Wales. The force has been rated outstanding by the HM police inspectorate.

    Similar schemes to reduce the time spent tending to mental health incidents are being adopted by the Metropolitan Police, Lincolnshire, Hampshire and North Yorkshire.

    Mr Akinbusoye said the current situation – where mental health call-outs can take up a fifth to a third of police time – was unsustainable. He said that once he had the audit of costs “I will send it to the necessary health trusts”.

    “I will say: ‘this is how much you have cost me. Do you want us to find a way of resolving this or do you want to pay this bill to the force? It is not sustainable.” “

    1. They actually have Police & Crime Commissioner called, Festus Akinbusoye, a good English name of yeoman stock.

      I thought he starred in The Addams Family.

    3. Which government closed down the community centres where such people could be helped?

      The police are stuffed coming and going. The government is deliberately importing millions of criminals who start dealing drugs, raping and killing people. It expands welfare dramatically to encourage single parenthood which exacerbates practically every problem in society.

      It’s almost as if the state creates a problem requiring more state.

  77. This short GETTR post sums up the folly of Sunak, Johnson, Ellwood etc. One military maxim is, ‘Do not reinforce failure’, but these wannabee military geniuses are being driven by outside influences, not the science/art of warfare.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d900e8d418e245404fb46bca0042db48e6b3deb3d603fdc4bc539fc2248cdcb.png

    Further, will Sunak come to the House and explain the situation when the Challengers he is proposing to donate to Ukraine are written down by the Russians? Sadly, it’s almost certain that he will reinforce the failed reinforcement of failure he will have already backed. I doubt that he is master of all he surveys.

        2. Expensive, and unavailable due to high demand! Temporarily I hope.
          Good luck to them, they’ve spotted a market.

    3. Humor – from you, George, who despises the Merkin language that’s continually creeping into the unsullied English language.

          3. Pilsley actually.
            I never met her but know more than a few who did and no one has said a bad word against her.

            And yes, it is a farm shop where you can spend an absolute FORTUNE without realising it!

          4. It is indeed at Pilsley (not to be confused with the other Pilsley, near Clay Cross), which is just outside the Chatsworth estate, not far from Edensor [pron: “En-zer”].

      2. Most people, Tom, have realised that I didn’t write it. I simply copied it from another site in an attempt to make (most) people smile.

        1. Just copying, doesn’t make it kosher, George. With a little effort you could have covered ‘Humor’ with ‘Humour’

          2. Copy illustration into PowerPoint, insert Text box, write the correct version, check the size of the font and paste over the miscreant.

          3. I don’t use powerpoint, or anything else marketed by Billy Goats (and have no inclination to learn how to). I am an Apple Mac user. Always have been. Always will be.

          4. In that case , your intransigence means you’ll never learn anything new.

            Forever stuck in the expensive time-warp that is forever Apple,

          5. Apple’s owners are not purveyors of euthanasia serum like the owner of Microsoft-as-shite is. I choose life.
            And talking about not learning anything new, I will put myself up against you on any general knowledge test you care to name, and I shall thrash you soundly every time.

          6. Copy illustration into PowerPoint, insert Text box, write the correct version, check the size of the font and paste over the miscreant.

    2. Yup. And the same applied to all those harassed and fined by an assortment of jobsworths.

    3. I’ve no problem with him breaking his own rules, but then he should be punished by his own rules.

      The problem is he wasn’t. He got away with it. That’s the fundamental problem: they cause us problems, then let themselves off the hook. When law is appllied irregularly, it is not law and must be disobeyed.

      2. Even Her Late Majesty, at the funeral of her late husband, showed grit and leadership by following the rules. I’ll not forget that picture of the little old lady, all alone in her pew at the service in Windsor.
        And shits like this bastard just reckon it’s a laugh? Where’s me big boots?

        1. A picture firmly in both my ‘pooter and in my mind.
          God, do I hate Westminster and its apparatchiks.

  80. Right, that’s me done for today. Time to refill my glass. I find that I can do about 1½ hours of slogging in the garden in a day. Any more and I am kaput.

    Have a spiffing evening – imagining a perliceman being “candid”….!!

    A demain

  82. Barbados rum is quite different from Jamaican. Smoother, less sweet. Excellent Christmas present.

  83. The three pieces of filth featured in these two stories could be brothers with their remarkably similar looks. That suggests they come from a population not much changed by immigration…

    London pair jailed for robbing Leicester women in their homes
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-64460589

    Speeding driver jailed over man’s crash death
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-64458353

    Leicester, eh? What a vibrant city!

  84. Yay!!!!!! Saved £30. Upright freezer fitted into Sonny Boy’s car, so he and granddaughter took it down to the tip.
    One more to go; that stiffs CBC for 60 quid.

      1. I burnt out the shredder getting rid of paperwork!
        Auctioned furniture that was worth it; I used two auction houses. One posh and one less picky.
        To be realistic, as you have to pay auction fees, you need to choose your items and be guided by the auctioneers themselves.
        Freecycle (there are local FC groups)is brilliant for stuff you know isn’t worth the hassle of selling (and that includes upholstered furniture without a fire certificate). If you post a photo, the goods are usually snapped up within a couple of days.
        https://www.freecycle.org/
        We have plenty of charity shops and warehouses round here; I gave most of that sort of stuff to local charities: St. Helena Hospice and East Anglia Children’s Hospice. Emmaus were more picky and only took one dressing table. British Heart Foundation are taking 6 items next week.
        I believe Ebay etc… are also worthwhile, but we seem to have done pretty well without having to bother that much.
        Photos greatly speed up matters.

        1. Ta ever so.

          I burnt out a shredder , then son bought a stronger one , photos are the problem , we have trunks of them .

          Sadly there is just us , and 2 single older sons , no additions !

          1. Metal garden incinerators are fairly inexpensive and are great for burning personal / confidential paperwork. Added bonus the smoke gets right up Greta’s nose!

          2. Or get hold of a 45 gallon drum, knock the top off and poke holes in the bottom and sides.

          4. We know neither sons, wives nor offspring want our stuff.
            Heck, one son has just down sized – before his parents bit the bullet.
            So painful decisions had to be made. For me, my childhood books were the most difficult. For MB, his aunts’ furniture.
            At least we know we’ve helped good causes and people who collected the Freecycle stuff were often in need of a a freebie.
            Those who actually paid for anything presumably actually wanted it. The cycle of life: the items we bought second hand – rather than the inherited family stuff – may have had similar stories behind them.

          5. I feel for you, Anne. It was bad enough dealing with Mother’s stuff, let alone if it had been ours.
            Don’t be around if you have house clearers in. That was brutal, like watching someone flay your favourite pet. Don’t be there.

          6. My childhood books and poetry books, Observers books on this and that that the boys liked but need no longer . My late father’s books on Africa , and Arabic phrase books . Stuff about the various countries who eventually achieved independance . Moh’s grandparents exchanges from WW1.. bundles of their postcards , coronation stuff , Edwardian NPS table ware .. a fork for each pickle and a spoon for each jam .. I dunno, and we don’t use teasets any more .

            Your chaps have done well, one of ours nearly mid fifties , here at home with us .. I am so sad that the way things don’t work out as I had dreamt , yonks ago.

  85. We all know where Grizzly is tonight

    Pictured: Vikings descend on Shetland for annual fire festival

    For the first time in 2023, women have been allowed to be guizers in the holiday

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/01/31/TELEMMGLPICT000323818503_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680

    Shetland’s biggest annual fire festival takes place on the last Tuesday in January.

    Lerwick Up Helly Aa is a Viking-themed holiday that includes a series of marches led by the Guizer Jarl, or Chief Guizer.

    Gathering torches the Guizers and the the Jarl Squad, a large squad of Vikings, will end the evening with a spectacular procession that cumulates in the burning of the Galley.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/01/31/TELEMMGLPICT000323820976_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqRo0U4xU-30oDveS4pXV-Vv4Xpit_DMGvdp2n7FDd82k.jpeg?imwidth=1280

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/31/pictured-vikings-descend-shetland-annual-fire-festival/

      1. Why do you call him “Firstborn”? I bet you call him by his proper (Viking) name — Ragnar Hairy-Breeks — to his face!😉

        1. I do, but I don’t have his permission to disclose his name on’t web. Same with Second Son, and SWMBO.
          So I don’t.
          I guess I could use Haral Hårfagre…

    3. In 2015 I was staying on an old cruise liner in Scalloway harbour in Shetland, when the local Up Helly Aa took place.Great night.

  86. Pre-school said my child had to be potty trained before joining school.
    They didn’t say he had to be persuaded not to call the toilet seat “the butt hole”!
    😀

    1. I remember going to scout camp.
      We dug a trench, put two posts into the ground either end had one wooden rail tied in over the trench and one above in front, to hold onto, or bite. Of course all covered over by canvas.

  87. End of a good day having lunch with an old friend, who I haven’t seen for some years. We had a late lunch locally which was very enjoyable. So now my friend has departed and despite attempting to watch a Visconti film – ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS – in an Italian version with Portuguese subtitles I have given up after an hour. It’s a three hour film and I’m just too tired to continue. So I will wish you all a very good night and see you all tomorrow. Let’s hope that February is not as bitterly cold as January has been.

  88. What is it about this particular “community” apart from their religion, that makes them such vile people?

    West Midlands police officer, 22, admits grooming a vulnerable 13-year-old girl online before abducting and sexually assaulting her
    Former PC Haider Siddique, 22, from West Midlands Police, met a victim online
    He groomed her for sexual purposes while claiming to be offering her support

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11697965/West-Midlands-Police-officer-22-admits-sexually-assaulting-vulnerable-13-year-old-girl.html

  89. Evening, all. Oscar saw the eye specialist today and now is wearing a contact lens in one eye! He has more pills and two tubes of ointment (different for each eye), plus another appointment next week. My bank account has taken a hammering with three vets visits in the space of a few days and another one (actually, judging by the pills, another three!) in prospect. He’s been asleep most of the day, but seems to be waking up now.

      1. He had to have trazodone two hours before his appointment along with a double dose of gabapentin at the same time. He slept most of the day. The vet also managed to put some anaesthetic drops in his eye.

        1. Anaesthetic drops are good. I have loads of those when I need a Lucentis injection. Admittedly they tend to dribble into my ears, so I can’t feel what I’m hearing…

          2. The vet mopped up most of the dribbles with cotton wool, but some got onto his muzzle. He looks as though he’s got nicotine stains now 🙂

        2. So those are the huge pills! Hector has 3 a day and a fairly enormous Previcox, plus tiny coedine! I was going to suggest tinned hot dog sausages to put them in. Our vet daughter recommends them as they’re not fatty, and they smell nice!

          1. As he wasn’t allowed breakfast, I put the three pills in a small ball of grated cheese. I put it on a plate and it was gone in no time – then he spent ages trying to lick the pattern off!

          3. My problem was mainly that I didn’t have much food suitable for hiding pills in. I had almost run out of grated cheese, but there was just enough. Once he could eat his normal food, the dog food was sufficient.

        3. I should say that when I got him out of the car, he did rather fall out – he was one groggy doggy!

    2. And you’ve still got hands and a face?
      Respect!

      I hope he’s on a road to recovery, he certainly fell on his feet when you appeared in his life, lucky dog.

      1. I didn’t do any of it without him wearing a muzzle (except for the pills; he’s such a gannet that I stick them in a bit of dogmeat and he wolfs them down, thankfully).

    5. Fantastic, never heard of dog contact lenses. It will be interesting how he reacts. All the best!

        2. I have heard, that Specsavers are going to introduce hairdressing and dentistry in the shops

          One Stop Shop for everything above the neck

          They are also pondering over doing burgers too

          2. I’m looking out for a monocle, but for me, not Oscar. I have monovision – one eye is corrected for distance and the other for reading. I could do with a monocle to improve the sight in the undercorrected eye for long distance work.

      3. Apparently, this one is a human contact lens, although they do do canine versions. It’s supposed to stay in until it falls out (or he knocks it out). If it’s still in next week when he goes back for a check up it may be taken out. I’ve got so many things to remember (number of pills per day/number of applications of ointment) that I’ve had to make a chart to tick them off as I complete them!

        2. Do just that! I have a daily notebook with what I hope to accomplish written down and then crossed off (or not) when it’s done.
          Leftover habit from teaching days.

      1. She shone a light in his eyes and examined them while wearing magnifying lenses herself. In fact, apart from reading a chart, it wasn’t unlike my eye tests! She tested his tears and found he had dry eye in the left eye (as, indeed, do I in both my eyes). I could sympathise with him a lot!

    1. I went out with a Hungarian lad many years ago…..rhapsody is the last thing I would call it.

        1. That’s Jessica Rabbit and by a strange coincidence the pianist’s surname can be shortened to Buni !

        1. Jessica Rabbit – very appropriate for “pinch and a Punch – White Rabbits” day.

    4. Interesting surname. One you’ll never forget if pronounced in an Eastern European accent:

      Buni -at – ish- vili

      1. Once you reach toyr limit, better hold your breath for the rest of the day.
        What bollocks.

    1. There’s lots of badge-cam videos on YouTube of this kind of thing. Saw one recently where police were in a panic and dmptied a 20 round magazine into the bad guy after they had shot him and he fell down. As fast at the officer could pull the trigger… that was nasty.

  95. Ghost Drain in EVs – before editing problems encountered.

    A phenomenon in EVs is a mysterious finding in EVs where oowners discovered that something is discharging the auxiliary battery to about 12.2 volts following which the EV fails to start.

    After four months since taking delivery of my Hyundai Kona Ultimate I got this message when attemptimg to go for a third time to go to my local pharmacy. I looked up on intrrnet and found I might not be only one with this potential breakdown problem.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/de9366842dfc6d982a06ec8c517c18dc1469cae76ae939823af48e81dfde4960.jpg

    So I checked the vehicle’s electrical system and found a battery current of about three amps soon followed by a rapidly falling voltage to about 11 volts.

    Clearly the battery was heading for a complete discharge and the battery was disconnected.

    I followed the manual instructions for a fully discharged battery and got a series of sensible readings after successful start.

    I monitored the battery volts for three hours after switch off during which the battery voltage was pretty stablr:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/985952c749ab838b65ab15475489dca408d3c0d269795be8aa6344e1faaebe88.jpg

    Fearing an imminent stran

    16:59 98% 12.54
    18:09 98$ 12.6
    18:15.71% 12.43
    20:30.98% 12.63

      1. I had a proper car.
        It was a 2009 diesel.
        By2022 it was becoming nearly illegal because was only. a Euro4 emission car.
        It started throwing Diesel Particulate Filter warnimg lights on the dash because I wasn’t driving it hard enough to heat the exhaust to 500 degC to clean it – it wouldd’t hhave passed the MOT – due now (Feb 2023) .
        It had to go.
        I tried all I could to fix it but it was more troible than it was worth.
        I traded it in for a car that met tha latest emissiom standards and had a warranty with no MOT required for three years.
        It lasted four months beforr throwing an electrical warning light on the dash.

        It turns out that I had not read the manual properly so I did that and it appears to be working now – today I will check if it’s driveable.

  96. Going to sign off now- totally exhausted and nurse tomorrow and maybe a trip to the supermarket.
    Worn out doesn’t begin to describe it….
    Goodnight Y’all.

    2. Agreed, Ann, that jab seems to have knocked me out as well.

      I doubt I shall be buzzing round like my normal lunatic self, so here’s a chance for Elsie to pip me to the post two days in a row.

      Who cares?

  97. An interesting read:-
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/woke-mean-real-definition-left-doesnt-want-see/

    A sample:-

    Woke is:
    An ideology—meaning a secular religion. It’s revealed Truth; opponents are sinners, questioning is heresy, and unbelievers must be converted or destroyed.

    It’s collectivist. Collective thinking rejects human individualism, herding people into broad classes based on defined characteristics–like race, sex, and religion. In classic Marxism, those groups are defined by economic status. Woke defines them by race and sorts them out by ‘privilege.’ The color of your skin does indeed define your character—forever. A wealthy black college professor outranks a poor white son of a coal miner. Collective thinking denies humans basic dignity and treats them as mere numbers. Key: it also assigns collective guilt. Another current name for collectivists is “Progressive.”

    Woke is authoritarian. Collectivism is tyrannous. With no individual rights to base human dignity and freedoms on, people are simply ants to be directed by any would-be Leader.

    Also, Marxist: Woke defines the world as nothing more than an arena of power. All are at war with all for dominance. The defined dominant class is at war with everybody else. Every institution, norm, faith, history, and tradition—every human endeavor—is a deliberate instrument of oppression by the dominant class. Woke defines the dominant class as “white supremacy.” Everyone else is a victim. Everything existing is fair game to be destroyed.

    Woke is totalitarian. There are no innocents; there are no neutrals; nothing is non-political; everything is either an instrument of oppression or an instrument of struggle. For the defined victim class, all are permitted. For the oppressor class, any attack is fair game.

    1. Interesting surname. One you’ll never forget if pronounced in an Eastern European accent:

      Buni -at – ish- vili !!

  99. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk. Very tired so I’m hoping for a good, long, night’s sleep.

    1. That was exactly the same as me yesterday (Tuesday), Tom. Fortunately I went to bed early at 8.30 pm and awoke at 6.30 am today (Wednesday) – a full 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I hope you too have had a good, long, night’s sleep.

    1. With Sunak as a principal beneficiary of Moderna, whose only pharmaceutical product has ever been a Covid-19 ‘vaccine’ we should expect this farrago to continue for a short while.

      Regrettably for Sunak and his co-conspirators the mounting evidence of the harms caused by these clotshots is likely to lead to the prohibition of yet more use of these products. It follows that those investing in and profiting from their crooked investments in these products will be implicated in the coming investigations into Crimes Against Humanity.

      Sunak, you small insignificant person and your cohorts had better exit stage left at the soonest. We the people are coming for you.

      The same circumstance is happening in the States. People are realising that they have been lied to about Covid and the vaccinations.

      Those pushing this Covid stuff are in deep shit, in far deeper than they imagined when standing at those silly lecterns, posturing and telling the rest of us to stay at home, let granny die in some home alone, keep children from attending school for a year and more, wear masks made in China and India (costing minuscule amounts to the makers) but sold for a small fortune by Tories and their families and friends, to the politically paralysed British people.

      I believe in vengeance, a vengeance necessary to clear out our shitty political class, to put the likes of Bunter, Hancock, Farrar, Whitty, Van Tam, Vallance, Harries, and the rest of these bastards in gaol in perpetuity.

      1. 370589+ up ticks,

        Morning C,
        The great awakening heralds
        “The beginning” your post has put zest in my step.

    1. A bit late here today. Have read your comments about Oscar further down, all I can say is I hope all goes well with his treatment. Is this an age thing for him or the result of an injury?.

      1. Thank you. I am not sure, jill. I thought that the blueness of his eyes was down to age, but it appears it’s water getting behind the cornea (which is why I have a salt solution ointment for his left eye. That acts on an osmotic principle. The other eye just started weeping so I went to the vet. It may just have been age, or he may have scratched it, or he could have got hair in it (he is extremely hairy and doesn’t like having it cut away – the vet had considerable trouble doing it with two of us holding him!). Fingers crossed that the antibiotics will sort it out. At his age surgery isn’t an attractive proposition.

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