Tuesday 8 September: Operations delayed until 2021 while hospital staff are left standing idle

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/09/07/letters-operations-delayed-2021-hospital-staff-left-standing/

705 thoughts on “Tuesday 8 September: Operations delayed until 2021 while hospital staff are left standing idle”

  1. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny start to the day – hope y’all got a good zed last night.
    Boris seems to have upset everybody with talk of removing the WA, and insisting on a good deal from the EU. He must be doing something right, then!

  3. I see in one of the papers that the government is saying don’t kill Granny to the young people that are not obeying ze social distancing rules.
    Bit ironic really when they already did for Granny in the care homes.

    1. Morning B3.
      We drove through a local town yesterday afternoon just when the kids from the local comprehensive was leaving.
      Social distancing, don’t make me laugh, they looked like they were part of the biggest rugby scrum I have ever seen.
      What is ironic is the fact they have probably been confined in bubbles during the day whilst in school.

        2. So, what you are saying (©Cathy Newman) is that there are children in positions of authority.

    3. Deflection and distraction. They are hoping people won’t notice what has gone before. Your hepful, caring government really does care. Not.

  4. Morning, Campers.
    Mattie jumps the shark.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/07/covid-pass-lasting-24-hours-could-allow-people-back-theatres/

    ‘Covid pass’ lasting 24 hours could allow people back into theatres and sporting events

    “Matt Hancock has suggested introduction of ‘pregnancy-style test’ to reassure those afraid of coming into contact with virus carriers

    Anita Singh 7 September 2020 • 5:56pm

    Twenty-four-hour “Covid passes”, which would allow people back to theatres and sporting events, have been suggested by the health secretary.

    Matt Hancock said the government is backing a new generation of rapid tests which would enable people to go into confined environments with others knowing they were free of the virus that day.

    It comes as MPs warned that the theatre industry is facing mass redundancies due to its prolonged closure, and The Telegraph launched a petition to reopen the West End.

    More than half of workers in the arts and leisure sectors remain furloughed, compared to 13 per cent across the wider economy, according to a new report by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS).

    Speaking on Monday, Mr Hancock described a pregnancy-style test which gives instantaneous results as the “holy grail”, which could entitle someone to a “pass” for 24 hours.

    “That is the hope that we hold out for the nation, that we can get things going even if there isn’t a vaccine, that we can use mass testing so people can check whether they have the virus today, if they don’t then (they can) go and do things, even if it means being in close confinement,” he told LBC.

    “We need to use the next design of tests which don’t require you to send the swab off to the lab and get the result back.

    He added: “There’s a new technology that we’re backing to get a test where you can have the turn around essentially on the spot and so you can imagine being able to go to something like the theatre, or a sports event, or to work, and you have the test, you get the result back and then they can go into the theatre.”

    Meanwhile the DCMS committee chairman, Julian Knight, said the entertainment and leisure sectors have become “hostages to fortune” following the Government’s decision to shut down theatres, concert halls and leisure centres, and to prevent the return of full audiences.

    The Telegraph petition, launched by our theatre critic, Dominic Cavendish, has been backed by Lord Lloyd-Webber and other industry figures.

    It calls on the Government to review the social distancing rules for indoor theatres as a matter of urgency as “the rationale for keeping theatres closed for months longer must be properly debated and speedier consideration needs to be given to the possibility of lifting social distancing in theatres”.

    Other supporters include Jack Thorne, the award-winning playwright whose credits include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

    The DCMS committee called for the Chancellor to throw the industry a “lifeline” by extending the furlough scheme for arts and leisure workers.

    In a letter to Rishi Sunak, Mr Knight said: “While restrictions on activity and audiences remain, employees of empty theatres and closed leisure centres face no immediate prospect of returning to work.

    “The decision to introduce those restrictions on the arts and leisure sectors was a Government one. The Government therefore has a responsibility to support these sectors’ workforces until the industries have fully re-opened.

    “Otherwise we risk many cultural organisations going out of business, never to return.”

    He said that nearly a quarter of the UK’s arts, entertainment and recreation companies say they risk insolvency, compared with 11 per cent across all industries.

    “The furlough scheme has been a lifeline for these companies – but without it, we can expect large-scale redundancies in the creative industries over late 2020 and into 2021,” Mr Knight said.”

    1. Twenty-four-hour “Covid passes”, which would allow people back to theatres and sporting events, have been suggested by the health secretary.

      Crisis desperation looms!

      2. Theatre’s, sporting events, shopping, why not everything involved with living?
        Where is this magical test?
        When was it developed?
        Why have we not heard of it’s potential magical powers previously?
        Perhaps it is a thermometer and an aspirin.
        Desperation indeed.

  5. Morning, Campers.
    Mattie jumps the shark.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/07/covid-pass-lasting-24-hours-could-allow-people-back-theatres/

    ‘Covid pass’ lasting 24 hours could allow people back into theatres and sporting events

    “Matt Hancock has suggested introduction of ‘pregnancy-style test’ to reassure those afraid of coming into contact with virus carriers

    Anita Singh 7 September 2020 • 5:56pm

    Twenty-four-hour “Covid passes”, which would allow people back to theatres and sporting events, have been suggested by the health secretary.

    Matt Hancock said the government is backing a new generation of rapid tests which would enable people to go into confined environments with others knowing they were free of the virus that day.

    It comes as MPs warned that the theatre industry is facing mass redundancies due to its prolonged closure, and The Telegraph launched a petition to reopen the West End.

    More than half of workers in the arts and leisure sectors remain furloughed, compared to 13 per cent across the wider economy, according to a new report by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS).

    Speaking on Monday, Mr Hancock described a pregnancy-style test which gives instantaneous results as the “holy grail”, which could entitle someone to a “pass” for 24 hours.

    “That is the hope that we hold out for the nation, that we can get things going even if there isn’t a vaccine, that we can use mass testing so people can check whether they have the virus today, if they don’t then (they can) go and do things, even if it means being in close confinement,” he told LBC.

    “We need to use the next design of tests which don’t require you to send the swab off to the lab and get the result back.

    He added: “There’s a new technology that we’re backing to get a test where you can have the turn around essentially on the spot and so you can imagine being able to go to something like the theatre, or a sports event, or to work, and you have the test, you get the result back and then they can go into the theatre.”

    Meanwhile the DCMS committee chairman, Julian Knight, said the entertainment and leisure sectors have become “hostages to fortune” following the Government’s decision to shut down theatres, concert halls and leisure centres, and to prevent the return of full audiences.

    The Telegraph petition, launched by our theatre critic, Dominic Cavendish, has been backed by Lord Lloyd-Webber and other industry figures.

    It calls on the Government to review the social distancing rules for indoor theatres as a matter of urgency as “the rationale for keeping theatres closed for months longer must be properly debated and speedier consideration needs to be given to the possibility of lifting social distancing in theatres”.

    Other supporters include Jack Thorne, the award-winning playwright whose credits include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

    The DCMS committee called for the Chancellor to throw the industry a “lifeline” by extending the furlough scheme for arts and leisure workers.

    In a letter to Rishi Sunak, Mr Knight said: “While restrictions on activity and audiences remain, employees of empty theatres and closed leisure centres face no immediate prospect of returning to work.

    “The decision to introduce those restrictions on the arts and leisure sectors was a Government one. The Government therefore has a responsibility to support these sectors’ workforces until the industries have fully re-opened.

    “Otherwise we risk many cultural organisations going out of business, never to return.”

    He said that nearly a quarter of the UK’s arts, entertainment and recreation companies say they risk insolvency, compared with 11 per cent across all industries.

    “The furlough scheme has been a lifeline for these companies – but without it, we can expect large-scale redundancies in the creative industries over late 2020 and into 2021,” Mr Knight said.”

  6. A little snippet from the Daily Fail.

    No-deal could exacerbate health crisis, medical leaders warn.
    The health service could be overwhelmed by a no-deal Brexit, senior medical leaders have warned Boris Johnson.
    In a letter to The Times, doctors’ leaders, hospital managers and members of the UK pharmaceutical industry said that a failure to strike a deal with the EU could jeopardise the health of patients in both Britain and Europe.
    A combination of a no-deal, winter health issues and the coronavirus crisis could cause huge problems, the letter explained, with potential shortages of medicines as well as coronavirus testing capacity.
    The letter was written by the Brexit Health Alliance, made up of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and the group representing senior NHS leaders.

    Yeah right, just like it was overwhelmed with the coronavirus, the Nightingale hospitals standing empty or at most very underused.

    2. Or, empty hospitals refusing to treat anything bu Corona will do for people instead.
      “Potential”, “could” – bollox.

    3. 323488+ up ticks,
      Morning VVOF,
      It really could exacerbate the health of politico’s in a bad way, who are hanging about currently from lampposts in a rhetorical manner as we type.
      As they tried to say yesterday the birmingham knifer
      could have been fall out from covid stress so by the same token how would they handle a stressed out nation rightly blaming them & their in-actions regarding a great many issues.
      The fall out regarding politico’s could result in the HOc standing empty.

  9. Morning all

    Never dreamed that doctors would allow this…..

    SIR – Last Tuesday, I spent four hours driving for a face-to-face consultation with an oral surgeon, only to be told that the unit would not be operational for surgery until 2021.

    The hospital was empty, with staff in scrubs standing about doing nothing.

    The consultation lasted all of 10 minutes, of which 20 seconds involved a physical examination. The rest of the time, the surgeon was apologising for the unit effectively being shut down.

    What is happening with the NHS?

    David Burrows

    Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire

    SIR – Four weeks ago I had an MRI scan but I have had no results.

    I have made repeated phone calls to the hospital to no avail. I have met with answerphones, secretaries who have told me that I’ll be rung back, and the information that my specialist is on holiday.

    I have lost all faith in the NHS.

    Rodney Barnes

    St Ives, Huntingdonshire

    SIR – Professor Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England, is deluding himself that the NHS is back in action (Letters, September 5).

    Advertisement

    Are cancer patients, or those waiting for hip replacements, who write letters about delays, and the many patients across the country complaining about half-closed GP surgeries, all making it up?

    Councillor Alan Law

    Streatley, Berkshire

    SIR – Like Don Cowie (Letters, September 2), a relation of mine is in great pain with carpal tunnel syndrome. He was told no injections were available, but that he could have an operation – some time.

    Doris Grimsley

    London SE2

    SIR – I was born just before the NHS came into existence, so for most of my life it has been a comfort to know it has been there should I become ill.

    That comfort has now turned to fear – fear that illnesses that tend to come with age will not be treated. Where is the moral duty, which surely should guide the NHS in all it does, to provide the services that are now desperately needed? Who is in charge to justify those services being withdrawn?

    The silence from politicians, and in particular from the Prime Minister, is deafening.

    Carole Taylor

    Lymington, Hampshire

    Advertisement

    SIR – Liz Butler (Letters, September 4) is mistaken in blaming Covid for the “doctor on the phone” policy. I found it being adopted at least two years ago.

    In anticipation of its success, most of the chairs were removed from the waiting room in my surgery.

    Francis R Carpenter

    Cambridge

    SIR – It would appear that the current motto of the NHS is: “If it is not the virus, we are not interested.” How lamentable.

    Michael Brotherton

    Chippenham, Wiltshire

    1. The filling that my NHS put in a back tooth just before lockdown fell to bits, leaving a hole. I had the choice of either getting this incompetent to put it back, charging another £60-odd and having it fall out again in a few months if I am lucky, finding a new dentist taking new NHS patients (the nearest being about ten miles away in the city), or doing it myself.

      No brainer, really. Professionals are good at sending out the bill, since that is the only bit that pays. I’m not sure that any professional in this country is up to doing much else.

      I got some Milliput epoxy putty, white flavour (how long before they discontinue that colour?), mixed up a small amount and stuffed it in the hole. Because it’s water soluble until it is set, I had to keep scrubbing away at the tongue and rinsing out my mouth, but then decided a better solution was to stuff a bit of scrunched-up loo paper over the filling until it set. This contained the putty. Yes, the paper stuck to the filling for a while, but after it set, it didn’t take long to come off, leaving something as good as anything the dentist could charge me for. It’s probably toxic, but no worse than anything Russians use on their lesser people, and who cares if they have to order the skip to take away the body.

      It’s been there a few days now, and I am hoping it will last until this coronamadness subsides.

    2. The filling that my NHS put in a back tooth just before lockdown fell to bits, leaving a hole. I had the choice of either getting this incompetent to put it back, charging another £60-odd and having it fall out again in a few months if I am lucky, finding a new dentist taking new NHS patients (the nearest being about ten miles away in the city), or doing it myself.

      No brainer, really. Professionals are good at sending out the bill, since that is the only bit that pays. I’m not sure that any professional in this country is up to doing much else.

      I got some Milliput epoxy putty, white flavour (how long before they discontinue that colour?), mixed up a small amount and stuffed it in the hole. Because it’s water soluble until it is set, I had to keep scrubbing away at the tongue and rinsing out my mouth, but then decided a better solution was to stuff a bit of scrunched-up loo paper over the filling until it set. This contained the putty. Yes, the paper stuck to the filling for a while, but after it set, it didn’t take long to come off, leaving something as good as anything the dentist could charge me for. It’s probably toxic, but no worse than anything Russians use on their lesser people, and who cares if they have to order the skip to take away the body.

      It’s been there a few days now, and I am hoping it will last until this coronamadness subsides.

  10. Lords in lockdown

    SIR – I am conscious of the concerning recent rise in Covid-19 infections. However, to get to the House of Lords I take a bus with a maximum capacity of 30; in the same floor area in the House, we can have only eight people.

    Since the easing of lockdown began, the number of people allowed at weddings and funerals has changed from six to 30.

    The guidelines on open-air meetings and dining have changed markedly, but not on the Terrace or eating and refreshment areas of the Palace of Westminster.

    Museums and galleries were closed. They are now (generally) open, on some form of bookings basis.

    It seems the House of Lords is still in the first stage of lockdown 1.0, while the Government is encouraging a return to work.

    Lord Hayward (Con)

    London SW1

    SIR – Healthy computer working requires the correct positioning of the screen and keyboard to protect eyesight and prevent repetitive strain. Seating must also be correct, to ensure good body posture and avoid back and shoulder strain.

    How does working on the end of a bed in a small flat comply, and is it an employer’s duty to make sure that work is undertaken in a safe and healthy environment?

    Michael J Meadowcroft

    Durham

    1. Well Mr M eadowcroft, I don’t think that Health and Safety visits by employers to young ladies working in small flats is necessarily a good idea.

  11. SIR – There has been another surrender to woke activists, this time by the governors of the Dragon School, my former prep school in Oxford.

    Eighty years ago, one of the boarding houses was named Gunga Din to honour the dignity of the selfless Indian in Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem. The governors have now cravenly decided the word Gunga is derogatory and racist, so have renamed it Dragon House.

    Hew Stevenson

    London N1

        1. Ah, yes. Featuring Peter Butterworth. He auditioned for a part in the film “The Wooden Horse” about an escape plan in a German POW camp. He was turned down because he did not look sufficiently heroic. The anomaly was that he was one of the blokes interned in that camp in real life.

          From wikipedia:
          “Butterworth was one of the vaulters covering for the escapers during the escape portrayed by the book and film The Wooden Horse. Butterworth later auditioned for the film in 1949 but “didn’t look convincingly heroic or athletic enough” according to the makers of the film.”
          https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0125350/?ref_=tt_cl_t7

          1. I believe David Niven was turned down for the part of an officer before the war because he didn’t look like officer material. The army didn’t think so, apparently.

    5. Yes, I read this in an article by Nicholas Shakespeare the DM a couple of days ago and noted it with scorn.

      One of my best friends, a retired prep school headmaster, has a daughter who works at the Dragon and a couple of grandchildren who are there and so I wrote to him in disgust. He said that teaching was now far too earnest and not the fun it used to be when we started in the profession.

      We also get several students on our courses who went to the Dragon and my mother wanted to put me down for the place as she knew the then headmaster. But as I was born in 1946 the waiting list was already oversubscribed when she and my father came to visit England only a month or two after my birth. Instead I went to St Christopher’s in Bath which closed down the term I left it in 1959.

  12. Morning again

    SIR – Chief constables – and in particular Dame Cressida Dick, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police – need to take a firm grip on policing demonstrations (report, September 7). Appeasement, or “facilitating protest”, has not worked with Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion protesters.

    It is clear that the organisers of these unruly groups have no intention of cooperating with police. Allowing officers to “take the knee” at previous demonstrations showed weakness.

    The late Alex Marnoch, the police commander in Brixton when I was a young constable, supported community liaison but did not compromise in encouraging officers to control the streets. This ethos now appears anathema to many current senior police leaders, who seem to struggle with policing priorities.

    The sooner police leadership focuses on returning to the primary object of preventing crime and being consistent in its approach, the safer we will be, and the less disruption there will be to our lives.

    Clifford Baxter

    Wareham, Dorset

    1. SIR – I would hope, albeit without any real expectation of its fulfilment, that the organisers of demonstrations that disrupt other people’s lives will be treated by the police in the same way as organisers of rave parties.

      Don Philp

      Knightwick, Worcestershire

      SIR – How long will it be before Extinction Rebellion attacks electricity, gas and petrol distribution?

      Norman Gerald

      Radlett, Hertfordshire

      SIR – Extinction Rebellion has now done us a favour. Since its inception, it has been hard for moderate politicians to point out the catastrophic consequences of its policies, as they would be accused of climate-change denial. They felt obliged to pander to it.

      However, by trying to deny debate and free speech (Letters, September 7), Extinction Rebellion has overstepped the mark. It is now acceptable to attack it for what it has shown itself to be: an extreme Left-wing organisation.

      Peter Lowe

      Stockport, Cheshire

  13. SIR – How long will it be before Extinction Rebellion attacks electricity, gas and petrol distribution? 
    Norman Gerald

    Sooner now, Mr Gerald, after your planting the idea.
    Kn*b

      1. Good morning, Peddy

        They have been doing this from time to time in France ever since we came to live here over thirty years ago.

      2. Tanker drivers blockaded the refineries here and gave Blair a nasty shock. Pity they didn’t electrocute him.

  15. Going back to a topic from last week about snowflakes’ fear of the full stop, is this why so many of them end their sentences with ‘or’?

    As in…”Do you want milk and sugar or…?”

    I either wait for them to finish their sentence, or ask what the alternative options are. Both confuse them 😄

    1. Morning, BSK.
      I find the upward inflection at the end of sentences intensely irritating.
      Are you making a statement or asking a question?
      And DO NOT get me onto the word ‘like’!

      6. The Antipodean Interrogative has a deferential usage. The user is passing a collateral message: “Am I correct/accurate in saying this?”, at the same time issuing an invitation for correction/comment.

        1. I can’t agree, Peddy. They use it even with a statement such as “Hitler lost the war”. I reckon it denotes a lack of confidence in their own knowledge and opinions.

          4. Yes, Peddy, but you wrote “deferential” whereas I reckon it denotes “ignorance”. Your interpretation suggests the speaker is saying “I am not sure if I am right – please correct me if I am wrong”, whereas in reality it is simply a bad habit copied from their peers. Just like the female habit of having a conversation at normal pitch, and then moving up an octave or two when ending the conversation with “Byee!”

      7. I don’t like the Australian interrogative either, Annie. (Good morning, btw.) And whilst we are on the subject, have you heard the extraordinary version of an Australian interrogative gone batty used by Classic fm’s night time presenter (Monday to Thursday from 1am to 6am) Sam Pittis? Excruciatingly painful to listen to.

        1. Morning, Olaf’s Relict.
          No, I don’t listen to Classic FM. Nothing against it, it just doesn’t cross my mind.

          1. It does have two excellent presenters: Tim Lioreau (6am to 9am on weekdays) and Katie Breathwick (night presenter at the weekends, hours vary).

    2. I have to admit that I’m occasionally guilty of that one. In my case it’s a hangover from German, where bunging an “oder” (or) on the end of a question is perfectly kosher.

      Should those using it be young and without the excuse of a brain haunted by several languages, I think the original impulse was polite – to acknowledge that, for example, you kight want something in your tea they’d failed to think of (lemon?). Now, irritatingly, it has become just a vocal tic.

      Morning, all!

      1. I have never been a particularly good linguist even though I speak French fluently but with an incorrigible English accent. In fact Caroline uses me as a teaching aid! By this I mean that during our courses we speak exclusively in French and she can correct my pronunciation and, if I ever make a grammatical mistake, she can ‘do a Peddy‘ and draw our students’ attention to it. I have broad enough shoulders not to mind being corrected but it often enables Caroline not to criticise more sensitive young people.

        On the other hand Caroline is an exceptional linguist who speaks four languages so well tat it is impossible to tell what her mother tongue is. In Holland they think she is Dutch but she has only spent six years of her life living in Holland; in England everybody thinks she is English, in Spain everybody thinks she is Spanish and in France – where she has lived most of her life – everybody thinks she is French. She also has a spattering of German, Italian and Portuguese and is studying Turkish.

        1. Lucky her, having such a useful and amiable teaching aide to hand!

          You have a very impressive wife.

    3. ‘Or’ is a common ending for sentences in German (oder?) & Swedish (eller hur?) , especially when an argument is taking place. The implication is ‘or what?’

    5. Whilst agreeing with your view, Bugsie, that they have no idea what they are saying, it could be construed as meaning “… or just milk, or just sugar”

      1. Not in the US, Grizz. They likely have strips that look like elastoplast strips rather than rashers with a wide piece of meat at one end and a streaky length at the other.

        1. I know, Paul. Yanks only have bacon from the belly end of the flitch. Back bacon doesn’t exist over there. They then ruin it by drowning it in maple syrup!

          9. Hello Peter. You’ll probably never see this. I was graciously permitted (after being kept “pending” for a couple of hours) to make 2 comments yesterday. Today I’ve been “pending” for nearly 7 hours.

            Clearly I should have stayed away.

          10. The trouble is, Jennifer, that your Disqus account was (like most of ours) attacked by a downvoting ‘bot’. While your profile shows zero upvotes, the true figure is probably a large negative number. Disqus treats this as ‘low rep’, and shoves you into the pending tray. I’ve added you to the ‘trusted user’ list, so future posts shouldn’t be held up.

          13. Hi Jennifer,

            Either your messages are automatically sent to pending or someone is flagging them all.

            I have just approved every message in the pending pile. I will watch and if any more messages are held, I will set you to a trusted user.

          14. Thanks, Richard. I’ve added Jennifer to the ‘Trusted User’ list, so it shouldn’t happen again. It’s related to the ‘downvote bot’ issue we had months ago…

          15. He may do, I have. I don’t know enough of the mechanics to say how that works, but do stay around – we’ve missed you.

          16. Keeping my comments in “pending” for over 12 hours is not much of a sign that I’ve been missed; and I see no reason why I should be missed since I never exactly fitted in …

            I’ve looked in from time to time but the echo chamber still echoes and “pending” proves that the claim to welcome other viewpoints is a false one.

            I may continue to look in, I don’t know

          17. Of course you don’t fit in, that is why some of us appreciate your comments.

            Let me check the trusted status of your account again, this should not have been held.

          18. I read the responses on my profile from top to bottom so came to the explanations after I’d made my earlier comments. Clearly I should have started at the bottom of the page.

            Thank you Richard.

          20. Did you miss my reply yesterday, Jennifer? The ‘pending’ thing was because your account is now viewed by Disqus as ‘low rep’. The fact that your posts were held in ‘pending’ is not the fault of any Mod. It’s not obvious that you’re held in abeyance. I’ve taken steps to remedy the situation, yet you still feel slighted. All the mods are volunteers (myself included). We have lives beyond NTTL. Frankly, you’ll get a faster response from NTTL mods than any GP surgery at present. Do look in again, but forgive me if I don’t hold my breath.

          21. I didn’t see your reply until after I had made my comments.

            I get a response from my GP’s surgery in about 30 seconds, and an appointment the next day my part-time GP is working. Ironically much faster than I did before Covid struck.

            I don’t feel “slighted” at all. Neither do I feel remotely surprised.

  18. 323488+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    What we must keep in mind is the fact that for decades we, via the governance party’s have played second fiddle to the eu.
    If the governance still holds sympathetic feelings towards brussels as Dover is signaling in no uncertain manner what better way to bring a nation to it’s knees ( half way there already courtesy of treacherous fools) than a financially well padded lock-down ?

    To my mind this “deal” they are seeking is in reality a partial re-entry
    attachment, the eu is a lucrative payer for many of a political bent
    especially those bent politically.

    Personally the only “deal” I want to see yesterday is in the shape of a
    deal door slamming shut ( total severance) betwixt us & brussels.

    To “sleep with the fishes” should be kept in mind regarding our nearing
    future dealings with the eu, could very well be brexit in many ways.

  19. The vast majority, it appears, of the ‘spike’ in Covid-19 ‘cases’ are in the 17-21 years old age group. “Don’t give it to your Gran.” they’e being told.
    For the last few years we’ve heard lots about the older generation being a burden on the NHS, pensions and housing problems. I’m not sure that most youngsters of that age wouldn’t be quite happy to get rid of the Baby Boomer generation in double quick time.

  20. Birmingham stabbings: Community ‘has each other’s backs’ 8 September 2020.

    The attacker first struck more than a mile away in Constitution Hill, before moving through the city centre on to Livery Street, Irving Street – where Jacob Billington, 23, was killed – and finally to Hurst Street, the location of The Village Inn. The first call to police was at just after 00:30 BST and officers were called to Hurst Street at about 02:00.

    A Great Silence seems to have descended on this affair. A sort of Reading on steroids!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-54055400

      1. But what does the Mayor of London think of homosexuals? How does he square the desire to be inclusive with the dictats of his religion

    2. I’m quite surprised our horrid leftie media aren’t blaming the poor young guy who was stabbed to death, after all he did travel from Liverpool on a train to Birmingham.

      1. I suspect the lefty media are somewhat conflicted; given the location, young Jacob may have been part of a protected minority.

        1. I am not so sure that “heads up” is of US origin. I first heard it in the RAF when head-up cockpit displays were introduced, and the term “heads up” referred to either getting early information or a warning to check ahead. That’s my theory anyway – any alternative theories?

      1. This guy is probably some sort of Neoliberal Nightmare. An Islamic, misogynist, gay hating, Antisemitic, cross channel, former jihadist! Can’t let that out!

        2. If your going to over use the ‘N word’ Minty how about Neolithic 😏
          I have never been able to understand why so many Somalia’s are now in the UK.
          They seem to be arch trouble makers. What else do they do.

          1. Morning Eddy. They do I believe top both the Unemployement and Social Security lists as well as being exceptionally prominent in the drugs trade!

          2. I know Minty, i saw a report on BBC breakfast saying about 4 million children are living in poverty and some starving, my reaction was, what utter BS. Of course a lone person of colour and mother was highlighted, studying for a law degree ??? Really.
            I remember when my parents were still alive and a Nigerian male was supposedly looking after my stroke ridden father in their Hendon Home. He told us he was studying for a law degree, but he was also helping himself to snifters from their drinks cupboard and probably stole some of her cash and missing jewellery. They were also robbed twice, by forced front door entry. Too trusting.
            Going back as far as the early 80s i worked for a couple in North London and the very pleasant lady was a senior in Social services and she explained some of the outrageous and of course, met demands of new arrivals. Brand new White Goods were a priority.
            They often arrived at the social service departments with a whole list of priorities.
            I’ve said it before many times, a lot, if not most do nothing migrants, are better off than a lot of UK pensioners who have paid their dues because they worked all their lives.
            I wonder how much of the taxes when their homes are sold, just before they are ripped off by care home owners, goes into funding the recently arrived bone idle.

          3. What would they do with a Law Degree – -make sure that every immigrant stayed here.
            They want – and will get and destroy – this country.

          4. This anything to do with it? I remember reading that one had been there 40 years, on benefits since arriving, never worked and couldn’t speak a word of the language. The govt told them they HAD to learn the language and look for jobs, or else they would be deported. They apparently chose to deport themselves to the UK with hands out – and carried on just the same.

            Frustrated Somalis flee Holland for the freedom of Britain
            https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/1479533/…
            21/12/2004 · An estimated 20,000 Dutch Somalis have left Holland for Britain over the past five years, escaping a multicultural model once touted as the most enlightened in the world.

          6. There was a Dutch drop-in centre in Small Heath, Birmingham, near me. I have also heard Somali women in shops speaking in Dutch.

            Despite this, one reason that so many left the Netherlands is because they would be obliged to take the citizenship exam (Inburgering) in the Dutch language. otherwise, they would not have full access to the benefits system.

      1. In fairness (I don’t say that too often about plod) the first and last incidents were about 1.3 miles apart with several others in between.

      1. Pub customer “This beer is cloudy”
        Landlord ” What do you want for £2 a pint – thunder and lightning?”
        Morning Elsie

      2. Pub customer “This beer is cloudy”
        Landlord ” What do you want for £2 a pint – thunder and lightning?”
        Morning Elsie

        1. Gosh, Peddy, you seem to be in a grumpy mood today. If my posts have offended you I assure you that was not my intention. It’s just my silly sense of humour.

  22. Concerning things like BLM, XR etc, to plagiarise a famous speech:
    “Never in the history of Great Britain has so much unwarranted change been imposed on so many by so few.”

  24. Ghost hedgehogs’ on Dorset roads highlight animals’ plight. 8 September 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e03e2957277ae1424bd72951ab3d3660ce7170206225b3a19d0a9a3657a72b1.jpg

    “Ghost hedgehogs” are starting to appear on roadsides in Dorset to highlight the plight of hedgehogs killed by fast-moving vehicles.

    The hedgehogs, made of white-painted wood, are being put up by the Dorset Mammal Group after one small village, Pimperne, reported more than 20 squashed hedgehogs on its roads in just one year.

    It is hoped that the spectral hedgehogs, like the ghost bike memorials where cyclists have lost their lives, will encourage motorists to slow down and drive with more care.

    “The hedgehog, the nation’s favourite animal, has just been added to the UK Red List of species as ‘vulnerable to extinction’. This is tragic,” said Hugh Warwick, an ecologist and the author of The Hedgehog Book, who is supporting the new campaign. “Hedgehogs provide a point of connection to the natural world more effectively than any other animal. They share our gardens and green spaces – but for that to happen, we need to help them.”

    Too depressing to write about really. Human beings are to a large extent the authors of their own misfortunes and not infrequently deserve what they get!

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/08/ghost-hedgehogs-on-dorset-roads-highlight-animals-plight

    1. Good morning all

      Ghost hedgehogs are a great idea , I haven’t see the images , but I am always tearful when I see squashed hedgehogs on the roads.

      I have stopped my car several times to aid a hedgehog , to halt the traffic, silly yes , but they are becoming so rare, they almost like an endangered species.

      I think all Parish Councils need to put this on their agenda .

      1. Hedgehogs have been in freefall decline for many years. There are far fewer killed on the roads these days than years ago, simply because there are fewer hedgehogs around. If the ghost hedgehogs remind people to slow down, that is a good thing.

        It’s not silly to stop and move a hedgehog out of the road – they do need help.

    2. 323488+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      I encapsulate that human beings bit, as reminiscent of current lab/lib/con supporter / member / voters.

    3. Birthday greetings for yesterday, Minty. I hope that you had a peaceful and grand day.

      I am sorry to have missed out on a wish to you yesterday.

    3. They forget that it was other black people and Arabs who sold the slaves to the caucasians. I don’t feel any shame for historical happenings that Britain put an end to 200 years ago.

    4. Bob. Tell them about the muslims when building and living in the Alhambra Palace Grenada, where they sent out their ‘Barbary pirates’ and captured thousands of blue eyed blonde children from the northern Europe coastal towns “for the use of”, the mullahs selected those they didn’t like and fed them to the palace pride of lions. Rotherham etc, not much has changed in the past thousand years.

    1. Don’t think they’ve decided yet between routine for Somalian stabber or murder of Cannon Hinnant.

  28. Dominic Raab summons Russian ambassador to protest over ‘completely unacceptable’ poisoning of Putin opponent Alexei Navalny 7 September 2020.

    Dominic Raab today ramped up the diplomatic pressure on Russia by summoning its ambassador to protest about the ‘unacceptable’ poisoning of Alexei Navalny.

    Mr Navalny, the most popular and prominent opponent of President Putin, is being treated in Germany, where the authorities have confirmed he was targeted with the banned nerve agent.

    Mr Raab, who did not speak to the ambassador personally, tweeted: ‘Today the UK summoned Russia’s Ambassador to the UK to register deep concern about the poisoning of Alexey @navalny.

    Morning everyone. What was Raab’s reason for missing this meeting? Was it cowardice? A deliberate insult? A gesture of contempt? It must have been one or perhaps more of these since he called it at his convenience. One can of course see the difficulties. Navalny is a Russian citizen and the supposed crime took place in Russia while the accusation is unproved and the “victim” is in Germany, so the UK has neither authority nor jurisdiction either legal or moral. Such is usually called meddling. I’m certain that the Ambassador would have pointed this out so Raab left it to some unnamed Foreign Office apparatchik and saved himself the embarrassing need to justify the meeting. Whatever the UK government might think of Russia, it is a sovereign and powerful country and deserving of respect for that alone. To wilfully insult it is an act of diplomatic folly.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8706647/Dominic-Raab-summons-Russian-ambassador-Navalny-attack.html

    1. Similarly the wunkers who, full of their own cleverness and smugness, queued up to insult the US President, a friend one may have need for some day – contract Obarmy saying the UK would go to the back of the queue for trade deals vs Trump saying the UK would be in pole position.

    2. Meanwhile, back in Blighty, thousands die from untreated cancer, heart complaints, blood disorders etc…… The luckier ones are hobbling around in pain from untreated hips and other disintegrating joints.
      I’m not sure the British government is in a position to lecture others about killing and maiming its citizens.
      Morning, Minty.

    3. Birthday greetings for yesterday, Minty. I hope that you had a peaceful and grand day.

      I am sorry to have missed out on a wish to you yesterday.

    1. I ‘rescued’ a pair of bass from the EU’s clutches yesterday evening. I returned a garfish so they could make bouillabaisse.

      2. I used to buy garfish on the market in Emden in Winter. Quite tasty & the bones, being bright blue/green, were easy to pick out.
        The Germans call it Seehenne – sea hen.

  30. Minister warns of restrictions on horizon as Sage scientist says cases rising ‘exponentially’. 8 September 2020.

    More restrictions are on horizon if cases continue to rise, a minister has warned as local lockdowns start.

    Housing minister Robert Jenrick said on Tuesday that a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country was concerning and he called on people to follow health guidance or risk tougher restrictions in the coming months.

    What a surprise! And just underneath in the same column.

    Registered deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales have fallen to their lowest level since mid-March, new figures show.
    Some 101 deaths were registered in the week to August 28, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-uk-latest-vaccine-airport-tests-cases-deaths/

    1. So the mass hysteria gets ramped up again just in time for the winter flu season. Nobody will want to sit out of doors for lunch so more failures in the hospitality sector. What was the point of Rishi’s “eat out to help out” if people are once again to be prevented from meeting their friends?

      1. To get people out and about to er…. spread the virus further? To ensure the country is well and truly bankrupted In the manner of one Gordon Brown so that the knock-on effects of both these (and probably others) achieve Stephenroi’s suggestion immediately above? If one starts from a position always of ‘they are up to no good’, one is usually on the right lines to the correct conclusion.

    2. It seems to me the ‘Government’ is doing all it can to engineer the dissolution of Parliament to enable a General Election to take place in November. A new Front Bench will more than likely advocate remaining in the EU because to do otherwise is far too difficult……

    3. They are all at it, this could be a report on CV in Canada. Many infections but death counts are not reported any more.

      An outbreak has just been reported in a care home, now we will see if this is just a minor irritant or if it still has the power to kill off oldies.

        2. Lidl’s loyalty card is a virtual one via an app – if you don’t have a smart phone you don’t get the discounts or money off.

          1. If they don’t do it by card only, then I’m presuming they get more out of it than customers who download their app. I’m just not interested in small gains for lack of privacy.

        3. Paypal for a start.

          Also i had to return some shoes to Asos and had to scan a QR code with an Iphone. Which i don’t have. No need to print they said.

          I did print the QR and the local OneStop store scanned it.

          They will probably start charging for that soon if they are anything like Michael O’Leary.

      1. ….quiet?

        The conversation [?] when there is one,
        is usually so loud I wonder why a ‘phone
        is needed.

        Good afternoon, J.

        1. Afternoon G – they all seem to be silently scrolling, rather than using their phone to talk to anyone.
          I have to say, since I replaced my phone a few months ago, I have made no calls nor do I answer any. I’ve used it to take photos of my cat, and Facebook works better on it than on my laptop. It seems to be necessary to be able to receive texts from the gp or from Paypal for some reason. If I want to make a call I use the landline.

          3. My landline is for incoming calls and the interwebbythingy, mobile for outgoing calls as I have unlimited for £5 a month and it connects via Bluetooth to the truck radio for hands free calls

          4. My landline is for incoming calls and the interwebbythingy, mobile for outgoing calls as I have unlimited for £5 a month and it connects via Bluetooth to the truck radio for hands free calls

          5. I had a SAGEM 3 flip phone. The hinges broke around 9 years ago. I was able to buy another one second-hand. One of the hinges broke around two years go, with the screen connected to the main body by only a wire. Last week the phone came apart completely. The main body still works, lights up and one can dial out. However, the screen part contains the earphone loudspeaker and display for numbers etc , or rather it doesn’t any more. The phone became useless.
            However, I’ve now bought a nearly new one, a Sharp flip phone, and the change over was smooth and easy as the same SIM card is used. No messing with miniSIM etc. The phone is tuned to the same provider. The phone cost me £18 including postage. I do not need a smartphone.
            Our main phone is a landline. (but you cannot use it if your car breaks down on the B6431).

          6. “I do not need a smartphone.”

            Yeah. Who needs a phone with a sharp, coiffered haircut, a collar and tie, neatly pressed trousers and highly-polished shoes?

          7. I use my smartphone to connect to the car using android auto (or something like that) and that lets me display google maps on the cars screen. It was a lot less expensive to buy the phone than to buy the satnav option with the car.

            Other uses for the phone are as a range finder on the golf course – very useful when playing a strange course.

          8. Mine gets used to book flights, check in and get a boarding pass, pay bus & train fares, show me street maps, and lets me read the paper, NTTL and emails.
            Almost never used for voice communication.

  33. Congratulations Mr Smith. There are still four months left but so confident am I that you won’t be beaten, I award you the MRLOTY* prize.

    SIR – Had the Beatles worked from home and collaborated solely via Zoom, may I suggest that we would never have heard of the Beatles?
    Tony Smith

    Kn*b

    *Most Ridiculous Letter Of The Year

      1. I recall a time when the Shadows were the more famous; one of their EPs was labelled “THE SHADOWS – vocalist C Richard).

  34. Sky news are having a go at Tony Abbott again calling him a misogynist, so what is wrong with liking a good massage?

    1. The random stabbings here and there over the past few years, the suicidal bombings from time to time, they are just the very tip of the spear, the start of the onslaught which is yet to come. And it will.

  36. SIR – The problem with allowing communities to bring back historic county names (report, September 7) is that a good deal of explanation is required to clarify the current mess and show why a reversion is necessary.
    Are citizens of Goole, which is in the West Riding of Yorkshire but run by East Riding council and policed by Humberside, aware of where they are?
    Similar questions could be asked of people in Bournemouth (Hampshire or Dorset), Didcot (Berkshire or Oxfordshire), Peterborough (Northamptonshire or Cambridgeshire), and all of “Greater” London (which includes parts of five counties).
    The Government must bring back the real counties, and explain why, since 1974, it has made statements saying that the counties still exist, while doing all it can to destroy them, against the wishes of their communities.
    Gerard Dugdill

    Well said. And while we’re at it, please rename postcodes to counties so that we don’t have, for example, SN postcodes (Swindon) given to villages in Oxfordshire where most postcodes start with OX.

    Oh and please do something about telephone codes. Some are four digits, some are five digits.
    Old LL dialling codes used to be four digits until BT decided there weren’t enough numbers to go round and added a 1 to them all after the 0 to make them 5 digits
    But then they made London numbers 0207 and 0208, which didnt help. I don’t know what’s going on with Reading, whose inhabitants insist their code is 0118, although all their numbers start with a 9 (I annoy an old colleague by saying his number starts 01189 – he gets so worked up it’s quite fun).
    Then we have business numbers that start with e.g. 0800, or 0300 etc.

    It’s a bl**day mess. I posted a little while ago that people who don’t use the cadence 5-3-3 when giving their number are a pain in the ar*e – it’s all BT’s fault.
    (I dont mean you Bilty 🙂 )

    Rant over

    1. The area code for London is 020 tout court. The 7, 8 and (now) 3 are part of the basic number.

      I agree with you about postcodes. RH makes obvious sense for Redhill, a little less for adjacent Reigate, but none at all for Crawley. The Post Off ice would have done better with all-number codes.

      But at least we don’t have the Canadian system!

        1. Except that all of North Wales (from Aberdyfi and Wrecsam northwards) comes under LL (Llangollen). The SY postcode is reserved for mid-Wales – from the border here as far as the coast at Aberystwyth.

          Caermyrddin and Tyddewi come under SA (Abertawe but known to the Saes as Swansea).

      2. Our postcode is TD, here in the Scottish Borders in Scotland. The postcode in Berwick is also TD and that’s in England.

    2. It really annoyed me when I registered my son’s birth back in 1989 when they asked me where I was born, and they wrote Greater London. Greater London did not exist until I was nine years old, and I was born in Middlesex. Crossing the Thames into Kingston in Surrey was like going to a different country, and the bridge had the three swords and crown going one way, and the oak leaf going the other.

      The 1974 ripping up of traditional boundaries not only deprived us of the distinction between urban and rural, with their very different needs and identities, but went for the jugular of what it is to be English – the English, perhaps more than anywhere else in the world including Scotland and Wales, identify more with their counties or shires than with their country.

    3. Surely you mean cadence (3) 3-4? Or back when we lived in the country 3-2. These things depended on where you lived. In our case, we just birled the wee handle and asked Jessie at the Post Office exchange to get us whoever we wished.

  37. All pretence is gone, Harry and Meghan have no Royal future – and the couple’s £2.4million cheque for Frogmore Cottage means their divorce from Britain is final. 8 September 2020.

    In his eyes, the money was not a loan from a generous nation pleased to be helping this young royal couple find its feet after their joyful wedding, but rather a stick with which to beat them.

    So paying back every penny to the public purse, having previously offered to do so at the rate of £18,000 a month (a deal of such indulgence it would have taken them 11 years to repay the debt), is highly significant.

    What it does do, however, is signal that their divorce from Britain is permanent, while removing any pretence that they might still have a future role in the Royal Family.

    Byeeee! Good Riddance!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8707289/RICHARD-KAY-pretence-gone-Harry-Meghan-no-Royal-future.html

    1. ‘A stick to beat them’. They chose to spend all that money.

      As you say…good riddance.

      Morning Minty.

    2. Funny how their “pleas” for privacy and to be left alone result in their issuing daily press notices…{:¬))

      2. The role of Greta Garbo is not one that the former actress in Suits would automatically be chosen to play.

        1. Remember there is a child as insurance. And I wouldn’t put it past madam to pop out another as extra collateral.

    4. I do hope that Harry’s mental health issues – and it looks as if he has many of these – do not lead him to taking the way out that many enfeebled people do who have lost the will to live.

      1. And he’s a proper chef……unlike the Cockney spiv! Morning all! Just had a blood test! First face to face medic for 5 months! I guess it’s too difficult to extract blood from Zoom!

    1. All these conspiracy theories which have been developing for over a century, seem to rely on some very long-lived brain behind it all.

      The virus seems to have originated in China – whether from a lab or naturally, we don’t yet know, but the global hysteria and lockdowns seem to be a coordinated response to a threat which is no more letthal than flu.

      The question has to be why? and also Who?

    2. All these conspiracy theories which have been developing for over a century, seem to rely on some very long-lived brain behind it all.

      The virus seems to have originated in China – whether from a lab or naturally, we don’t yet know, but the global hysteria and lockdowns seem to be a coordinated response to a threat which is no more letthal than flu.

      The question has to be why? and also Who?

    4. “One of the very few heads of state who dared to reject the coronavirus panic, Belarusian President Lukashenko, testified that he was offered 950 million dollars from the IMF and the World Bank if he would introduce quarantine, isolation and curfew “like in Italy”.”. A Head of State who has not accepted the bribes from foundations is now being reviled. There are popular demonstrations against him, and all sorts of accusations including kidnapping.
      Lukashenko has worked hard to keep Belarus fairly independent, something quite new in the history of that country. He has gone up against Russia and is disliked by the EU.
      It is not beyond the imagination that these demonstrations are being organised by outside forces. The vast, all embracing BLM nonsense was whipped up here in the UK in a matter of weeks. Despite our being one of the most open and accepting countries for non-whites in the world, or perhaps because of it.
      The opposition appears to consist of children, so it is unlikely that they have any political experience or organisational competence.

    5. I don’t personally think that the virus was deliberately manufactured but the pandemic is certainly orchestrated; witness the crisis of “cases” against actual deaths anomaly. The Forces of Darkness have seized hold of what is a natural phenomenon and used it to advance the cause of the New World Order.

      1. There was some movement of people between labs in the USA and Wuhan around the time the virus came to light. The opinion , now vanished, has been expressed that the virus was clearly spliced from different elements, that is, it was deliberately made.

      2. One has to ask why Merkel went to China for a few days early in November 2019, though. Did she bring a little something back with her that couldn’t be risked in the post?

      3. I’ve mentioned this previously as well i heard of a book By Dean Koontz I think it is called Dark Windows, it came out in the early 80s. One of the story lines was of Virus developed in Wuhan and allowed to spread. I haven’t been able to get hold of it yet. I have to pay 70 p to get it stocked from another branch. The book is still on lockdown at our local library, they probably send me a charge for something.

      5. The Wuhan viral laboratory would appear to receive funding from the Gates’s and the Clinton’s Foundations. Just saying.

      1. J. I cannot access my F/B account , I believe I was hacked , have been attempting to access for over 3 hours , on and off. If poss , would you see if my account is still available , quick message or similar please.

        Ta ever so.

          1. Sadly not, what a rigmarole , and had to submit an ID , driving licence, they wrote back .. and this is what they said

            We have fewer people available to review IDs because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We’re trying hard to prioritize reviews for the most urgent cases. This means we may be unable to review your ID or it may take longer than usual.

          2. I posted a comment on your dog story and also sent you a message – were you able to see them?

            What a stupid reply from Fb. At least they replied. All I ever get from Twitter is an auto-reply when I rattle their cage and I’m still suspended.

          3. Remind me which dog story that was , I can’t remember posting much today apart from the Hedgehog link , but that was on our Parish Council site.

          5. Sadly not, what a rigmarole , and had to submit an ID , driving licence, they wrote back .. and this is what they said

            We have fewer people available to review IDs because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We’re trying hard to prioritize reviews for the most urgent cases. This means we may be unable to review your ID or it may take longer than usual.

    2. Apart from Tony Abbott who succeeded in dealing with the problem in Australia has anyone got a practical solution that the government would be prepared to implement?

      What, for example, would Nigel Farage, Owen Paterson, John Redwood, Richard Drax suggest? Come to that, what would Tony Robinson, Ed Davey, Piers and Jeremy Corbyn or Naz Shah suggest?

      1. Afternoon Richard. The Government has no intention of allowing anything to interfere with Cross Channel Traffic.

      2. US border security have just arrested a few gangs that were coordinating unauthorised border crossings into Canada. Maybe if the french did the same with their gangs you might see improvements.

    3. Do they bring their own knives – or are they stolen in the towns where they are accommodated?

    2. It’ll blow over Bill. 😎
      KEEP BACK YOU LOT………….I’ve caught a stinking head cold sneezing every 5 minutes, already used a whole of man-size tissues in two days.
      Thank goodness for paracetamol.

        2. No chance, there’s nowhere near here that’s open. They was one in WGC, but it looks like it’s shut now. Our eldest checked it out and Reading in Berkshire was the only available slot.
          Surely something not right about all this.

          1. Where are they doing all these millions of tests, then? They keep finding more and more “cases” every day.

        1. No Bill it’s much more complicated than i really want to mention 🙄. But It’s a family affair, 6 of us have the head cold to date, two were tested for the virus yesterday, i’m waiting for the results. I feel okay it’s just the horrendous running nose and sneezing. It’s driving me nuts i have three large buckets of apples to process. And bread to bake.

          2. I know how you feel. When that happens to me i rub a load of vicks around my nostrils and shove tissues up them. I also take anti-histamnies to dry it out.

          3. I know how you feel. When that happens to me i rub a load of vicks around my nostrils and shove tissues up them. I also take anti-histamnies to dry it out.

    1. There’s no doubt in my mind though I cannot prove it directly that the erasure of Christianity has led us to where we are now!

    2. We did this this at the licensing of the last Rector. Sadly, the current one has bought into the Corona Panic. No singing here for the foreseeable future.

          3. I sent my apologies to the rector informing him I would be absent until such time as face masks were no longer compulsory.

  48. Goats on strike. Nice 3 mile bike ride. Glorious sunshine – will have to go and sit in the garden.

  49. Good news amongst the bad news:

    9 in 10 Voters Now Say Civil Unrest is a Key Issue in Presidential Race, Bodes Well for President Trump
    September 4, 2020 No Comments
    New polling numbers out on Friday now show that 9 out of 10 voters now view civil unrest in America as a major issue in the 2020 elections. This of course bodes well for the President who is pushing for law and order as Democrat politicians scream out for more protests.

    The following is from The Hill:

    The vast majority of voters in a new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released exclusively to The Hill say they believe civil unrest will be an important issue in the November election.

    More than 9 in 10 voters surveyed in the poll, 92 percent, said they thought the issue would be important in the presidential campaign and election, including 52 percent who called it “very important” and 40 percent who viewed it as “somewhat important.” The survey was released Friday.

    The findings come as protests over racial injustice and police brutality have continued for months across the country following the deaths of unarmed Black individuals such as Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. The most recent wave of protests has taken place in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot by police seven times at close range in Kenosha, Wis.

    About a quarter of voters in the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, 26 percent, said they believed Trump was “most responsible” for the violence in cities, while 20 percent laid blame on police brutality. Just 5 percent of voters said that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was “most responsible” for the unrest.

    The news bodes well for President Trump as 74% of those polled to not believe he is responsible for the violence and idiocies occurring in America as he pushes for Law and Order.

    You can read more from our friends at The Hill.

    https://thedcpatriot.com/9-in-10-voters-now-say-civil-unrest-is-a-key-issue-in-presidential-race-bodes-well-for-president-trump/

    1. Message for blacks – don’t break the law, don’t do drugs, be nice people, don’t loot and the cops will leave you alone

    1. Why can’t they blasted write normally instead of this illiterate nonsense. They’re not six, for goodness sake.

  51. 323488+ up ticks,

    Boris Draws Red Line: UK Will Go for Clean Break if No EU Deal by Oct 15th, …………16th,17th, 18th, 19th, rec.

    The best deal is in the shape of an emergency exit door of deal to be slammed yesterday.

  52. 323488+ up ticks,
    Sad to say there is going to be many more tears owing to the course these governance party’s are taking, now openly putting in place reset
    units,as in being placed in councils countrywide, & troops landing via the Dover bridgehead.
    No way is Jacob going to be the last, this post is NOT fear mongering it is bloody FACT,

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenUK/status/1303341649486118912

    1. He didn’t F word -ing lose his life, he was stabbed to death by a gimmigrant.

      Murdereed. Slaughtered simply because some other piece of flotsam decided to kill him, no doubt while looking for a loo and a sodding snack bar.

      Some f word ing religious fanatic killed your son, your brother, your boyfriend. He didn’t damned well lose his life. He wasn’t ill. It wasn’t an accident. Another Linekar gimmigrant intentionally used a knife to gut him because he could.

      Because thte damned government won’t put them in a cage until they behave.

        1. If they’re going to behave like animals, they must be treated as such.

          The best solution for everyone is that they don’t get here at all.

      1. I am reluctant to express this, but I have thought for the last decade the best we can hope to expect as we enter our ‘brave new world’ would be a form of apartheid, as the worst simply does not bear thinking about. Unfortunately I think we will be on the losing side.

        1. Annoyingly for every racist black looting mob idiot, there’s a thousand folk just going ‘oh for goodness sake’ and getting on with their lives being a decent sort who don’t care about colour any more than we do.

      2. 323488+ up ticks,
        Afternoon R,
        I believe that a few with the shout want the whole nine yards
        whereas the many are content with their lot as with a majority of the palefaces.
        Their main aim is agitating trouble which suits whatever governing party is in power because it takes the eye from their treachery in progress.

      3. They want to get rid of whitey, but they haven’t thought it through. Who will provide for all their needs when they have to do it themselves?

      4. Could we just fast forward to the bit where we’ve all left and leave them the corruption and starvation?

      5. Could we just fast forward to the bit where we’ve all left and leave them the corruption and starvation?

      1. Thought about a Berliner, but the Spandauer were more appealing… ;-)) Nice with hot tea.

          3. Indeed, but it’s the Merkin translation of Wienerbrød, so thats what most understand.

          6. If it’s not, it ought to be. I wind up the Skånese by telling them they are Danes and that Skåne still belongs to Denmark.

          2. Sung to the tune Landlord Fill The Flowing Bowl, the first line sung twice and the second line thrice.

            Come into the garden Maud and don’t be so particular,
            For, should the grass be too wet,
            we’ll do it perpendicular!

          3. “In days of old when knights were bold
            And Ladies weren’t particular,
            He’d prop her up against a wall
            And do it perpendicular.”

    4. I love my dog and like most dogs we meet whilst walking. This morning though, letting Oscar off the lead to hare off, a lady and young daughter were just finishing their walk with a little ‘yappy’ long haired black thing. I said “Morning.” cheerfully, and the little bugger whipped behind me and bit me calf. Swollen up something rotten, and I had arthritis in the foot and a twisted swollen knee to start with.

        1. They said it’s a ‘rescue’ and only had it 2 days. It was on a lead, but it turned out to be a 30′ bloody lead.

          1. If it’s a “rescue” they should have been particularly wary of it until they’d trained it (assuming, of course, they intend to train it). My current hound was “rescued” before he went to the local dogs’ home (his owners couldn’t cope with him). He never got a chance to start WW3, even though he would have liked to until he learned better.

          2. Aye, jerry was a rescue dog. I don’t believe he was mistreated, but from what the dogs home knew the woman didn’t like him and the man couldn’t cope with him. I got him as a 9 month old puppy. He’s been very well trained and socialised and Mongo keeps him in check – seeing this black paw appear on his head when he’s barking is quite funny but until he’s 3 he’ll stay on a short lead for his body harness.

            You can love them, but at the end of the day those jaws are meant to break through bones.

          3. I got mine at four months – alpha male terrier, he’d never had ANY discipline whatsoever. He ruled the roost, did what he wanted when he was let out of his cage (which wasn’t very often, I gather) until he had a change of ownership. It was a complete culture shock for him when he came to us!

      2. I’d have killed the dog and the woman, and the daughter if she was holding the lead. I’m old enough not to take any more from anyone.

        1. I’m a softy and assume the dog had been mistreated by its previous owner, who was tall and handsome, but obviously a bit wicked.

        2. I’m impressed: you’re a killer!

          …said Rico “Ratso” Rizzo to Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy.

      3. Good grief. That’s unpleasant.

        Mongo when off the lead tends to stay beside me, occasionally stopping to smell something or pottering ahead but never more than a metre or two.

        Jerry on the other hand is more of a handful.

      4. What breed was it? In general I prefer large dogs like our boxer Rumpole was but I also adored the border terrier I had as a child.

          1. Ooh, sounds like corim’s Sinbad – if it were, at least he’d be feeling better (even if you weren’t!).

          2. Smaller the dog the less likely it’ll be trained.

            That sodding pomeranian hasn’t been near obedience training and the wretched woman carries him about like a cat. Damned thing has bitten Mongo twice. He could eat the runt whole without pausing, but instead yelps and runs away.

            Thankfully the ‘rat’ hasn’t been back to the walkers, whereas Mongo and Jerry have because in the words of the dog walker people ‘they’re good boys who don’t make a fuss’.


  58. Ministers admit overriding divorce deal may ‘break international law’ as senior civil servant resigns

    A poster under this DT story put it very succinctly:

    “The very notion that a senior civil servant would resign because he disagrees with government policy only serves to underline the bias of the civil service.”

    The enemy within, the adder in the bosom, the fire in the bedstraw and the cancer in the rose all need cutting out.

    2. A civil servant, resign on principle?

      Nonsense. He might resign at protest over our leaving the EU as he is going for a nice cushy 7 figure eurojob, but no, I do not believe one would resign on prinicple. I find that cycnism quite sad, to be honest.

    4. The Sick Rose (1794)
      William Blake

      Oh Rose thou art sick;
      The invisible worm
      That flies in the night
      In the howling storm

      Has found out thy bed
      Of crimson joy,
      And his dark secret love
      Does thy life destroy.

      1. Good evening P-T

        Do you remember that Michael Caine line in Educating Rita: “Blake is a dead poet. The phrase was taken as the title of the American film The Dead Poet’s Society. In France the film was entitled Le Cercle des poètes disparus and it had a cult following.

        1. “Are you drunk Dr. Bryant?”

          “Of course I’m drunk. …. You don’t really expect meto teach this when I’m sober?
          One of my fave films…

          Good evening Rastus…

        2. “Are you drunk Dr. Bryant?”

          “Of course I’m drunk. …. You don’t really expect meto teach this when I’m sober?
          One of my fave films…

          Good evening Rastus…

          1. And when Caine, as Dr Bryant, was carried out of the lecture theatre in a drunken state, he said, “… not a lot o’ people know that.”

            That line was not in the script but, out of sheer devilment, Caine recited the line: one he knew he had never made in reality but which had always been attributed to him by others.

            The director was livid but, after reconsidering, left it in the film.

  59. It’s all in the timing…………..
    Continuing my campaign to make sure I’m Affinity Water’s single most unprofitable customer a few days go I paid the six month bill due in January,obviously I overpaid this bill by £1 just so some human will have to calculate what I owe for the second half of the year……..
    So far I have generated 17 letters and three phone calls from them as they try to collect the £108 due and today came the icing on the cake,a phone call from a debt collection agency,a delicious rant about harrassing pensioners when no such debt was outstanding and perhaps their clients should keep their records up to date and threats of legal action from me if my credit rating had been affected followed……………
    Delicious,never ever try and rip off a stroppy pensioner with time on his hands…………..

    2. Scottish power won’t replace my meter until November – it’s been broken since April.

      Increasingly I just send them back their appalling grammar and utterly nonsensical gibberish. Here’s a classic:

      “… I have reviewed the email and would like to inform you that due to current situation for covid-19. …” That’s all the say. Nothing after that.

      Then:

      “… As soon as we start arranging the engineer for, we will keep you informed regarding the same. …”

      So I posted back with : “What?” and said that blaming COVID was unacceptable.

  60. “A Cautionary Tale from from Grandfather’s Youth – Not All Bad Things Are Sudden.

    Once upon a time in a country quite far away, the people of the country all lived together quite peacefully. One group of people were a little bit different.
    They were fine musicians, and tailors. They were shrewd bankers and moneylenders. They were very intelligent professors and teachers.
    One morning the leaders of the country got up very early.
    They had a nice breakfast and talked. They made a plan. They did not like the special group of people very much and that was what the plan was about.
    After breakfast they all rushed to their different offices and put the plan into action.
    By lunchtime they had arrested every single one of the special group and collected them in trucks to drive them to special camps for special people.
    Late in the afternoon all the people in the camps were killed. All the special people were killed, bankers, professors, tailors, shopkeepers, all of them. Their families, even the little children were killed.

    Now, of course, children, that is a horrible story and it did not happen like that. It did happen, but not all on the one day.
    It took several years. At first there were a few regulations about what the special group could and could not do. That was all right. Then there were laws that were more restricting. Then there were laws that prevented people in the special group from doing things, and also forced them to tell people that they were in the special group.
    After a little more time passed people in this special group had to wear a badge on their arm so that everyone else would know who the special people were as soon as they saw the badge.
    Some of the special group of people were forced to work in factories.
    Then came the day that they were all taken away to special camps where they were all killed.
    So, you see children, bad things don’t always happen suddenly, all at once. They can start slowly and just get worse. They may get worse so slowly we don’t notice at first and that is why we have to be watchful and stop bad things happening as soon as we see them.    ”

    When the time comes that you have to have a Covid-19 vaccination certificate on you at all times, and also stamped in your passport to allow you to travel, you will know that you were not watchful and you did not stop bad things from happening.

    2. Always worth remembering…
      When the Nazis came for the communists,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a communist.

      When they locked up the social democrats,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a social democrat.

      When they came for the trade unionists,
      I did not speak out;
      I was not a trade unionist.

      When they came for the Jews,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a Jew.

      When they came for me,
      there was no one left to speak out.

  61. The EU has been negotiating in bad faith all along. Spiked 8 September 2020.

    If there is one thing I cannot abide in British politics – and it does appear to be a trait especially peculiar to our country – it is the prevalence of people who would rather see our economy trashed, our society become more divided, even split permanently and broken up, so that they might be able to gloat they have been proven right. No matter the damage done to people who might lose their jobs and see their families fall into penury; no matter the growth of group prejudices and grievances – there are too many who wish our country to decline and court disaster.

    Worse still is how, in seeking to be proven right, they are prepared to take the side of foreign powers, whose national interest is not that of protecting and advancing the lifetime opportunities of our people. In the case of Brexit, they go as far as to support EU leaders who would dish out a punishment beating to our country for us having the temerity to take a democratic choice that took away their control over our laws.

    Not exactly news, in fact a little understated if anything. In an earlier (and better) age we would have had some hanging, drawing and quartering among the Elites for simple treason!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/09/08/the-eu-has-been-negotiating-in-bad-faith-all-along/

    2. Throughout the entire period of the Brexit Farrago, around five years, there have been many thousands of people in the UK prepared to “take the side of foreign powers”. This was regardless of the interests of anyone, or any enterprise, in our country and regardless of the validity or sense of their arguments. People from the Prime Minister, Cabinet and “Loyal Opposition”, the Commons and the Lords, and on down, as well as every newspaper and TV channel. The one-sided pro-EU bias of the BBC was an unpleasant wonder to behold.

    3. The crass stupidity of Treason May and her treacherous gang was to think – even for a second – that the EUSSR would do other than “negotiate” in bad faith.

      2. Ah, but May & Co KNEW that the EUSSR would “negotiate” in bad faith – that was the whole point. They could then say, “we told you voting to leave was a bad idea, we need to turn it all around and stay in”.

        1. Yep.

          The EU had no intention of decent behaviour. It’s agenda was always to take our money and make us obey them. May simply went along with that agenda.

  62. As I noted yesterday, the beeboids have appointed a white, married woman as presenter (or -as they bizarrely call it, “host”) of Women’s Hour.

    Her name is Emma Barnett.

    I wonder what her formula will be…..

      3. Just don’t you worry your purty lil head over it, Doll. Just git to the kitchen and fix me a drink. Don’t forget to wear your negligee. 🙂

      4. Just don’t you worry your purty lil head over it, Doll. Just git to the kitchen and fix me a drink. Don’t forget to wear your negligee. 🙂

    5. Emma Barnett is a British broadcaster and journalist. A former Digital Media and Women Editor for The Daily Telegraph, she is a presenter for BBC Radio 5 Live and an occasional presenter of Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4. Wikipedia

    7. Bona Riah.

      Emma Barnett (born 5 February
      1985) is a British broadcaster and journalist.A former Digital Media
      and Women Editor for the right-wing The Daily Telegraph.

      Right-wing ! How about just…not Loony Left.

    8. For some months, Emma Barnett has been presenting Newsnight once a week; she is quite impressive; I assumed that’s where her future ambition lay.

      For some years, she has been an outspoken ‘agony-aunt’ in the Sunday Times magazine.

      Her switch to Woman’s Hour is surprising and disappointing …

  63. “Zephaniah McLeod, 27, had been jailed for three years in 2017 but was released at the halfway point of his sentence.

    After his recall, McLeod served the entirety of his jail term before being released back into the community in April.

    He
    is believed to have first lived in a halfway house in Dudley, West
    Mids, before moving into a three-bed house in Selly Oak, Birmingham.”
    How incredibly fortunate.tell me again,how many homeless veterans on the streets who HAVEN’T just served a prison sentence get a 3 bed house in Selly Oak……………….
    The system is badly broken……………………..

    3. He was just another Somalian waster enjoying drugs in prison .

      These people are not safe to be freed into society .

      Think of that London bridge fiasco !

    4. Broken? It’s perverse.

      It’s so utterly twisted it really is amazing no one has gone totally postal.

      However, the reason it hasn’t has become obvious. We all assume people are like us. Intelligent, thinking, rational creatures. Then you find yourself explaining basic economics on the Dailywail comments and you realise that people are STUPID. Not merely uninformed, but dumb. They don’t understand anything, let alone the basics. Those people share this country and they’re allowed to vote. People who don’t understand simple things like supply and demand, government funding or the detrimental effects of tax on the economy.

      I make no claim to being especially a genius, but compared to the truly gormless morons who waffle on their blithering gibberish I’m a fricken intellectual juggernaut.

  64. I don’t listen to R4’s PM programme very often these days so it was fortunate that today I dipped in at the moment it was discussing the ‘big’ news of the last two days, namely the proposals to amend by domestic law some of the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement in respect of Northern Ireland. Nobody seems to know precisely what these changes are but a lot of people from both sides of the house have got themselves into quite a lather over the sanctity of international law and how will the UK will become a rogue state if it doesn’t abide by its legal obligations. Yes, that’s the sound of jaws hitting the floor. The EU, the great upholder of both its own and international laws on immigration and state aid, will be the victim if the UK (as appears to be the case) plugs a hole in the Stick Insect’s wretched ‘agreement’.

    The one bright spot is Ed Davey. He rarely disappoints. He said: “It’s sad and shocking state of affairs for our country. Breaking international law will do untold damage to our reputation abroad, it will make us poorer and make it harder to solve global crises like the climate emergency.”

    NURSE!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54073836

    1. Given that no other country seems to follow every aspect of “International Law” unless it suits them, why should we?

      I am sick and tired of our half-witted politicians and woke do-gooders trying to tell me that if we lead others will follow.

      NO THEY WON’T

    2. It isn’t what he says, it’s that he says it without any challenge whatsoever.

      For example, Julia Hartley Brewer had a green on and asked ‘what climate emergency’? What does that mean?

      Again, as sos says, why then is the BBC not raising thatFrance is in breach of international law – as is every other country the illegal gimmigrants have moved through?

      1. “…it’s that he says it without any challenge whatsoever.”

        Quite. I don’t whether it’s still the case but for while the BBC had a rule that if a climate change ‘sceptic’ was invited onto a programme, there had to be a supporter for balance. The reverse didn’t apply…

    2. It’s really distressing to see that.

      I used to go to the restaurant on the 107th floor of the North Tower (Windows on the World) on my frequent visits to New York in those days, However, my firm had a client with offices on the 106th floor of the South Tower. I went to see them in March 2001. They said that next time I visit them I will have to go to Houston because they were just about to move their offices to Texas.

      That must have been the most fortuitous move in the history of corporate America!

      3. While not the Twin Towers, on July 7th I remember calling the wife and – as she’s the calm, rational one she was very flippant and it was the only time I’ve been angry with her enough to shout.

        I told her if she didn’t come home now I’d walk to her building and drag her by her heels. While she didn’t, she did call or ping me every ten mins afterward and left off early.

        I don’t hate Muslims because of those murders, but I do hate the state for excusing it and not doing anything to prevent the slaughter by that religion since.

        On that note, I’m taking bets on the outcome of the Manchester bombing inquiry. I like a sure thing.

  66. Evening, all. Had a wasted trip to the bank this morning, because they gave me misleading information. Then, about 4pm I had a voicemail on my mobile (it didn’t ring) to say ring the branch, which I did straight away. It rang then immediately went to a recorded message telling me that if I was in the area, to call in! No way of leaving a message for them about why I had rung. About ten minutes later I had a call from the bank asking what they could do for me! How do I know? YOU asked ME to ring! I despair. The only redeeming feature (although it’s not much consolation) is that the other banks available are even worse!

      1. Have you tried ringing them without your card number?

        I ring my bank and they answer in about 4 rings. I speak to a person, not a ten layer IVR.

        1. In my experience, the trick is to ignore the request for any information and certainly do not press numbers and hang on. After a short while a human picks it up.

          1. How long is a short while though? 10 seconds? 2 minutes? 5? The last time I tried that with my Barclaycard (kept because they take the money when I tell them to) it was nearly 7 minutes before someone answered.

            * # and other keys used to break the IVR and cause a crash, forcing users to be put through to a human quickly. Those bugs were soon fixed – much to the annoyance of those of us using them.

          2. I don’t often need to ring such lines, but on the times that I have it’s usually been less than a minute.
            I’ve probably been lucky

          3. I don’t often need to ring such lines, but on the times that I have it’s usually been less than a minute.
            I’ve probably been lucky

      2. My first bank was Martin’s – remember them? Had a cricket or locust or some such insect on their cheques.

        1. #Me too. I think it was meant to be a grasshopper. I used to discuss stocks & shares with the manager when I was a student.
          I think they got taken over by Barclays.

          2. I stayed with Barclays & had a wonderful manager for years. Unfortunately he retired & a bastard with a wet lettuce-leaf handshake took over & I moved quickly to Natwest (or whatever it was called in those days – early 80s).

        2. My mother bought some shares in Martins – whcih became Barclays ones. I still have them. Should have got rid while they were still worth something, before 2008.
          I’ve not had any problem with their service though – in fact a year or two ago, somebody hacked my debit card and they were onto it before I was.

        3. My mother bought some shares in Martins – whcih became Barclays ones. I still have them. Should have got rid while they were still worth something, before 2008.
          I’ve not had any problem with their service though – in fact a year or two ago, somebody hacked my debit card and they were onto it before I was.

    2. I have managed OK with Santander – though they closed the local branch, of course. Online work well if one has a problem. A phone all gets through in fve mins max. To a capable human.

      1. No Santander within sixteen miles. Internet banking? Biggest hassle I’ve had the misfortune to deal with and a nightmare when I was offline for eight days.

      2. I’m with firstdirect. No complaints at all. I had a current account with Santander several years ago. Unfortunately, my one experience in the housing market resulted in negative equity, and eventual repossession. Halifax were utterly unwilling to reach any agreement. They had sold my £56.5k house for rather less than £20k, and expected me to make up the shortfall. I kept them at bay, until I retired early, at which stage I petitioned for my own bankruptcy. I was discharged after a year, and I now have an above-average credit rating. But twice a year I receive a statement from Santander, saying I owe them a substantial sum from before bankruptcy. They’re totally wrong, but they persist.

        1. Did you have a “mortgage protection policy” because your deposit wasn’t sufficient?
          It was sold as protecting you from such loss if you could not pay the mortgage.
          It was a condition of being granted the loan.

          Actually it was there to protect the lender.
          They got their money, you were still on the hook.

          If ever there was a PPI scandal, that was the real one. Nothing was done about it.

          2. Building societies made an absolute fortune off the back of them.
            In my day (early 70’s) every mortgage over 80% required one.

            The customer paid but it was the society that was protected.

        2. Yep, I’m with First too.

          My sweeep moveed my overpayment out of my account (because banks don’t take money immediately, for some silly reason) and in a panic I called them up, they waived the overdraft fees – seeing the issue – and the money moved back.

          All within 4 minutes. No ten layer IVR, no press 1 if you’re wearing socks, press 2 if they’re white, press 6, enter your account number, speak to some foreign bloke you don’t understand just speak to a Briton, solve the problem. Massive stress (I’ve never been over drawn since my university days) and to find myself nearly 10K in the red was a terrific shock that had the fitbit beeping at stroke levels.

          1. Many years ago, my first current account was with Midland Bank. The Branch Manager’s secretary was among my friends, as was the Manager of a sub-branch not far away. I avoided one or two threatening letters, purely on the basis that “he’s alright”.

            Fast forward to 2020, and I’m completely satisfied with firstdirect. I’ve a change of address coming up at the end of the month, and my banking app remains on my old, deceased, smartphone. So a long phone call is in the offing. But at least their call centre slaves are generally au fait with the English language…

          2. Yes, you at least know the person on the other end will be understandable.

            It shouldn’t be this way.

            ‘we’re experiencing high call volumes’ – it’s 4am BT. You’re not. You just can’t be bothered to pay enough people to meet demand. Stop lying.

            In the bloke who did answer’s defence, he was great and a second line went in – at the competitor price, not the absurd BT one.

          3. Many years ago, my first current account was with Midland Bank. The Branch Manager’s secretary was among my friends, as was the Manager of a sub-branch not far away. I avoided one or two threatening letters, purely on the basis that “he’s alright”.

            Fast forward to 2020, and I’m completely satisfied with firstdirect. I’ve a change of address coming up at the end of the month, and my banking app remains on my old, deceased, smartphone. So a long phone call is in the offing. But at least their call centre slaves are generally au fait with the English language…

      3. I had an account with Santander. One Christmas I tried to buy something off amazon and got a call from a robot telling me to enter my account details. Obviously I hung up.

        Then in June I get a phone call from their security team. They want to ask me about dodgy transactions. I ask them when these were. Apparently in December.

        6 months to get around to a transaction not blocked by their robot – a blasted robot. They keep promoting all this bank security lark but in reality, they don’t give a stuff. If they did, a human would call me, not an automated message. If they don’t care about security, I don’t want anything to do with them.

    1. Of course, they aren’t defrauding the ministry of justice. They’re robbing the tax payer – us.

      I wonder if the theft gave them pause at all, or if they thought nothing wrong with stealing?

      As it is, to avoid any scandal – such as the govt department’s utter incompetence at properly scrutinizing the spending – nothing will come of it. The bloke might get a telling off but there will be no jury trial. The judge will be carefully selected and the state will walk away scot free while we pick up the bill.

  68. BBC hold ‘avoiding racial bias’ training session with on-air talent ahead of the new football season with phrases such as ‘nitty gritty’, ‘sold down the river’ and ‘blackballed’ put on a banned list
    The BBC held an ‘avoiding racial bias’ training session with their on-air talent
    The purpose of the session was to avoid using certain words or phrases
    A total of 450 people from broadcasting took part, Sportsmail understands

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-8710535/BBC-hold-avoiding-racial-bias-training-session-air-talent-ahead-new-football-season.html

          1. Appointment according to ability. Should be the only criterion, best person for the job.

      4. Nitty-gritty was first recorded in use in the 1950s, with the meaning “heart of the matter” or “core”. … Recently it has been suggested that, in the phrase “get down to the nitty-gritty” the word once referred to the detritus left after a slave ship was emptied.

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1394246/Racist-It-has-nothing-to-do-with-slave-ships.html

        Yer pays yer money, yer takes yer choice.

        If racist offence can be found, it will be.

          2. I can remember when I was at a tender age my very unmusical aunt put our 2 kitchen stools together so that she & her brat, who were visiting on holiday, could caterwaul that song while rocking backwards & forwards on said stools.

    4. Sold down the river?

      Is that the one where the powerful black tribe captured and sold its prisoners to other black tribes who eventually sold the prisoners into the USA?

      1. Yes, that’s the one. You missed out that the prisoners were sold to your great-x7-grandfather.

    6. Sold down the river has been given its meaning from the days of the slave trade but blackballed?

      1. Blackballed comes from balloting – if you object to someone joining, you put a black (as opposed to a white) ball in the ballot box. I suppose white being acceptable and black not is enough to send the woke into fits.

        2. There was me looking for a logical reason.

          Perhaps the woke object to a system that is terribly elitist and does not approve of everyone.

      2. Probably because the phrase encapsulates the blacks’ involvement and the part they played in their enslavement. We must not be reminded of that fact, perish the thought; there must be no undermining of our ‘guilt’.

      1. That link landed straight into my Amazon account. Now I’ll be reminded for the next couple of weeks or longer that that was a ‘recently viewed item’.

          2. We were intimately acquainted with Nitty Gritty when my children were younger. They were the first combs that really, actually worked!

          3. I was tempted, aus Jux und Dollerei, to ask if they were any good, but then I thought that would be too bold.

          4. Nowadays I don’t know any parent that doesn’t have a Nitty Gritty (soon to be re-named, no doubt!) lurking in a drawer somewhere. The little pests are everywhere.

    8. The BBC are in a hole digging. Instead of stopping digging they have asked for a bigger shovel. It is time we filled in the hole with the BBC in it, dead and buried once and for all.

  69. We are being drained dry by the dregs that are African Muslims .

    Sorry to be outspoken , but we have inherited demons thrown at us by Tony Blair and others.

    1. 323488+ up ticks,
      Evening TB,
      Could “and others” include the wretch cameron who on promising to cut the numbers incoming, promptly raised them.
      They are ALL of the treacherous persuasion as in a mass uncontrolled immigration coalition.

    2. Outspoken or otherwise, it remains the truth.

      Blair wanted a voting bloc. He got one, at our expense. He didn’t give a damn as long as they voted for more welfare and free houses.

    2. I think there’s a word missing between ‘was’ and ‘by’. Possibly ‘approved’?

      2. I always enjoy these remuneration spats.

        Mostly it’s 80% approve, which is about 10 major funds and 20 % disapprove which is a great number of small shareholders.

        A perfect example of might is right!

        You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

        An in-depth academic review of who sits on which remuneration committees would produce a report on conflicts of interest that would make a NIgerian fraudster weep with jealousy.

  71. Well done, Matt ‘we’re doomed!’ Hancock – Covid fear is now a bigger threat than the virus itself. 8 September 2020.

    I despair I really do. The powers of the wretched Coronabeast are waning fast. “It has burnt through the dry grass, mainly those who would have died anyway in the next few months, and now it is infecting younger age groups but not harming them,” says a scientist friend. Admissions are only a fraction of the level compared to peak of the pandemic despite warnings of a second wave rolling across Europe. “Covid has gone from our wards, has been for weeks” reports the head nurse at one of the UK’s largest hospitals, “I can’t understand what the Government are going on about.”

    Neither can I, though being me, I have some rather esoteric suspicions. I don’t see what difference it makes if the entire population has CV if no one gets sick or goes to hospital!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/britains-grip-coronafear-and-dangerous-virus/

    1. You can’t. Such is against the law.

      Ha ha! Little old racist England. Preventing you racists from being racist through exclusion!

      The only places that are segregated are shelters for domestic violence. Although, comically no doubt one day a man in a dress will get in to one on discrimination grounds, assault a woman and we’ll be back at square one.

      I said the r word, but even in my state I can’t countenance that. It would be horrific, but that is the inevitable consequence of pandering to the mentally ill. It’s time to stop pretending and stop treating these characters as anything apart from needing intensive therapy, not indulging their mindless fantasies, let alone forcing society to go along with their psychoses.

  73. Last post – apropos banks. As far as I can tell all of us have either very good or very bad or average dealings with banks.

    I just have a current account with Santander – and in ten years have never had any problems. And any difficulty solved in minutes.

    I quite understand that others may have had a terrible experience. I have been lucky.

    TTFN

    1. I have enjoyed a similar excellent relationship with Handelsbanken UK since I moved to Sweden. I have separate accounts with different branches of the same bank in the UK and SE.

      I cannot praise the staff of the UK branch enough for the instantaneous help and advice they invariably give me. I also have the private works mobile phone numbers of all the staff. Also I only get charged £1·50 each time I transfer money between the banks.

  74. Tom Gordon

    Archie Dempster
    @sublimate888
    ·
    ” …If necessary !
    I regularly berate hapless non mask wears on the train
    The last one was s 75 year old lady
    I’m no respecter of age, position or gender as regards compliance …”

    From https://twitter.com/sublimate888/status/1303343981556887553 – as twitter is stupid and won’t let me link like normal software!

    Compliance? Feck off. If I don’t want to wear a mask, it’s none – NONE – of your business. Try it matey. Just try it. Easy to pick on a little old lady. Get me on a bad day and I’ll shove your compliance up your backside. It’s nothing to do with you how I live my life. Go away, mind your own business you gormless fascist.

    2. I asked a driver sitting in his car, which he’d parked taking up most of the room in the disabled bay, why he had taken up two spaces and he told me “I don’t have to answer to you” (in a Scots accent). Actually, you do, because not only is it a civil and pertinent question, I’ve had to squeeze my car behind yours (and I’ve only got one wheel in the disabled space thanks to your parking). My spouse is disabled and can barely walk. Not only that, if you are the blue badge holder, you are abusing it by sitting in your car and letting somebody else do your shopping for you. Read the regulations!

      1. Selfish parkers taking 2 spaces in ‘blue bays’ are a bloody nuisance. I often leave a note under their windscreen-wiper to that effect.

        1. I didn’t need to leave a note – I told him to his face! I’m not backward in coming forward, me, especially if I’ve been inconvenienced by selfish idiots. When he said he didn’t think it was a civil question, I had to bite my tongue to prevent myself telling him, “I could have asked why you were such a selfish, inconsiderate prat as to hog all the space with no thought for anybody else – that would have been uncivil; instead I just asked you why you’d taken up two spaces!”

      2. No excuse for taking up 2 spaces, but in this case the blue badge holder might have been the passenger who was doing the shopping, which is legitimate. If I’m offered a lift from a friend I often bring my blue badge with me, depending on where we’re going. The BB pertains to a disabled person, not a vehicle.

        1. I am aware of that, but he was sitting in the driver’s seat and there was a knob on the steering wheel (as well as one behind it), implying it had been adapted for a disabled driver. Logically, it was his car and he was waiting for somebody to come back from an errand. I didn’t have time to hang around and check. MOH can’t get out of the car without my assistance.

      3. No excuse for taking up 2 spaces, but in this case the blue badge holder might have been the passenger who was doing the shopping, which is legitimate. If I’m offered a lift from a friend I often bring my blue badge with me, depending on where we’re going. The BB pertains to a disabled person, not a vehicle.

      4. If people park like that I call a chum and we block them in then get a lift home.

        Some chap tried it at the gym. He got in a right strop at me. I suggested he park better. Apparently he didn’t want his car damaged.

        The next week we took tyre rolling to the next step.

        1. This is a disabled bay where you are supposed to drive in to allow room for two cars; he’d parked across it, parallel to the pavement. It was clear he knew he was in the wrong, but there was no way he was either going to acknowledge it or do anything about it. He’d gone by the time we got back, leaving me badly parked with no apparent reason for it.

    1. When I saw where it was, I could only conclude that he probably had been doing it all his life.

    2. And in these days of equality it does not matter if you are / were male or female, all employees will be tested

  84. I am more worried about being knifed by some Somalian, Albanian or any other illegal immigrant from thousands of assorted wogs than I am worried by the Corona virus.

    This useless government needs to get a grip and fast. Hancock is an idiot and should be sacked immediately. Priti Patel is an equally useless failure as a minister.

    It is time to allow decent traditional Tories of experience to replace the non-entities with which Johnson has surrounded himself. There are lots of wiser old heads presumably seething from the back benches. Redwood, Drax and Paterson are obvious candidates but there are several others.

    1. It’s like mask wearing – it wasn’t necessary when the panic was at its height, but suddenly, when everything began to die down, it was? Then there were the quarantine rules – they didn’t kick in for a while. Either they were necessary or they weren’t. If they were, then the threat was instant, not put off for three weeks or whatever. Never mind about closing the borders – let everybody in, don’t test anybody, but shut down the economy and don’t let anybody go to work or open a shop. I don’t think they even qualify for fuckwits; that does imply they have some wits. They are mindless cretins.

  87. Government admits changes to Brexit deal break international law

    Who would have guessed it? We were stitched up but will the government give the middle finger – I doubt it.

    Many people were completely hoodwinked by Boris’s assurance that he had a ‘brilliant’ WA.

    Remember the joke about the hypochondriac’s gravestone:

    “I told you I was ill but you didn’t believe me.”

    At least the Nottlers – or at least some of us – knew that Boris’s WA was a stinking ordure from the outset and we were dismayed that he was never called out on it.

    How I wish we had been wrong.

    1. Cut him a little slack, Rastus. He was boxed in by Benn’s ‘Surrender’ Act and Commons-inspired judicial activism. Only by agreeing to an extension from October to January could he call a general election and he had to hurry the WA through. It was a chaotic time.

      Maybe he and the rest of the Cabinet knew that there were traps in the WA but hoped to sort them out later, even it meant a bit of a fudge – their intention was to get things moving. Perhaps those traps have, on subsequent examination, turned out to be of greater consequence than first realised, a real EU stitch-up only just unpicked by government lawyers or perhaps uncovered during the current negotiations, in which Barnier has been acting as though he owns the UK.

      We know Johnson isn’t good on detail but it wasn’t him alone in the negotiations at the end of last year. I think something has suddenly alarmed the negotiating team and now there’s some covert repair work underway.

      We’ll know more later.

  88. Well done, Matt ‘we’re doomed!’ Hancock – Covid fear is now a bigger threat than the virus itself. 8 September 2020.

    I despair I really do. The powers of the wretched Coronabeast are waning fast. “It has burnt through the dry grass, mainly those who would have died anyway in the next few months, and now it is infecting younger age groups but not harming them,” says a scientist friend. Admissions are only a fraction of the level compared to peak of the pandemic despite warnings of a second wave rolling across Europe. “Covid has gone from our wards, has been for weeks” reports the head nurse at one of the UK’s largest hospitals, “I can’t understand what the Government are going on about.”

    Neither can I, though being me, I have some rather esoteric suspicions. I don’t see what difference it makes if the entire population has CV if no one gets sick or goes to hospital!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/britains-grip-coronafear-and-dangerous-virus/

    1. Ah, but if you convince everybody (except us Nottlers, of course) that the disease is inevitably fatal, transmitted by thought waves and you can have it even if you don’t have any symptoms (so cower at home and don’t meet anybody – after all, they might have a sensible contrary opinion), the government has the population cowed and malleable. The cartoon that depicted people crawling because the govt had decreed that the virus hung around at waist height wasn’t far wrong.

    1. Saw a tabby walking along the pavement in town today. It was carrying a fat mouse in its jaws and looking as proud as punch. It went off to one of the houses either to eat the head or to show off its booty to its owners – “see what I, the Mighty Hunter, have brought you”.

    2. Saw a tabby walking along the pavement in town today. It was carrying a fat mouse in its jaws and looking as proud as punch. It went off to one of the houses either to eat the head or to show off its booty to its owners – “see what I, the Mighty Hunter, have brought you”.

      1. As my terrierist is bearded, I often have to wipe the remains of his meal off his face – before he wipes his face on me! 🙂

      2. As my terrierist is bearded, I often have to wipe the remains of his meal off his face – before he wipes his face on me! 🙂

  90. No sleep again,never mind cop THIS

    “The Oxford vaccine trial has been put on hold due to a suspected serious adverse reaction in one of the participants.

    Researchers have paused the trial while they investigate the unexplained illness of a volunteer in the UK.

    “As part of the ongoing randomised, controlled global trials of the

    Oxford coronavirus vaccine, our standard review process was triggered

    and we voluntarily paused vaccination to allow review of safety data by

    an independent committee,” a spokesperson for AstraZeneca – the

    drugmaker working with Oxford University – said.”

    https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-oxford-vaccine-trial-put-on-hold-as-volunteer-suffers-suspected-serious-adverse-reaction-12066991

    Well colour me surprised,remind me again how many million doses of this unproven crap have alreadybpaid for??

    1. ‘Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more!
      MacGates does murder sleep…’

      With apols to W Shakespeare

    2. Scientists question ‘highly improbable’ results of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine tests: Data ‘is like throwing dice and getting same numbers several times’ and ‘looks photoshopped’ 8 September 2020.

      A group of leading scientists have questioned the ‘highly improbable’ results of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine tests.

      The 19 scientists, who work at prominent universities across Europe and the US, have cosigned an open letter highlighting their concerns over a series of duplications in antibody response results from early-stage Sputnik V vaccine trials.

      Coincidence? I don’t think!

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8710561/Scientists-question-highly-improbable-results-Russias-Covid-19-vaccine-tests.html

        1. Thanks Alf

          Controlling and coercive bahaviour exercised by government and spouse is no joke .

          I don’t even have the parrot to talk to now .

          The tantrum creator has shot off to play golf . I really cannot cope with diva behaviour .

          I will be walking the dogs somewhere nice again later.

          1. I find walking in deciduous woodland helps these situations, Belle – the trees are good company, timeless, and in harmony with the dogs they calm swirling thoughts.

  91. Yesterday I posted:

    “It seems to me the ‘Government’ is doing all it can to engineer the dissolution of Parliament to enable a General Election to take place in November. A new Front Bench will more than likely advocate remaining in the EU because to do otherwise is far too difficult……”

    Today under the DT article on ‘our Government’ outlawing social gatherings of more than 6 people there are around 1000 comments virtually all calling for a change in policy and/or Ministers and /or government …..

    I wonder who our next Prime Minister will be this year?

    1. …to enable a General Election to take place in November.

      Not an election. A Committee of Public Safety!

  92. With a name like that what could possibly go wong?

    China National Nuclear Power company, a unit of China National Nuclear, the country’s state-controlled nuclear authority, said Monday that fuel loading started at the Fuqing No. 5 reactor, the first to use the new technology, on Sept. 4.

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