Wednesday 11 January: Britain must learn from health systems abroad if the NHS is to survive

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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555 thoughts on “Wednesday 11 January: Britain must learn from health systems abroad if the NHS is to survive”

  3. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, a story for today.

    The Spanish Maid.

    The Spanish maid asked her boss for a pay increase. The wife decided to question her about the raise. She asked: “Now Maria, why do you want a pay increase?”

    Maria: “Well, Señora, there are tree reasons why I wanna increaze. The first ees that I iron better than ju.”

    Wife: “Who said you iron better than me?”

    Maria: “Jor hozban he say so.”

    Wife: “Oh yeah?”

    Maria: “The second reason eez that I am a better cook than ju.”

    Wife: “Nonsense, who said you were a better cook than me?”

    Maria: “Jor hozban did”

    Wife increasingly agitated: “Oh he did, did he?”

    Maria: “The third reason is that I am better at sex than ju in the bed.”

    Wife, really boiling now and through gritted teeth asked “And did my husband say that as well?”

    Maria: “No Señora… the gardener did.”

    Wife: “So how much more do you want?”

  7. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – I began work in the NHS as a medical student in 1959 and retired as a consultant in 2005. The Beveridge Report of 1942, which resulted in the NHS in 1948, was appropriate for its time. But times have changed and we have a situation that neither Aneurin Bevan nor Beveridge could have imagined.

    The quotation, often attributed to John Maynard Keynes, “When the facts change, I change my mind – what do you do, sir?” could not be more appropriate. Look at the evidence. The health services in Ireland and Europe, Australia and New Zealand, take up about the same proportion of GDP as here yet death rates are lower, cancer survival rates are better, patients are seen instantly by GPs or consultants and waiting lists are non-existent.

    It’s not down to the quality or dedication of our doctors and nurses, who work to the best of their abilities. It’s the fault of the system. If other countries’ systems are better, why don’t we change and copy them?

    Richard G Faber FRCS
    Shefford Woodlands, Berkshire

    A perfectly good question for our politicians. Perhaps they are simply not up to the job of analysing the problem and then finding the right solution. Short-termism seems to rule their tiny minds, when what we need is foresight, skill, planning and determination to see worthwhile reform.

    Yes folks, we are doomed!

    1. Short-termism, yes, Hugh, because they never look further than the next election, constantly worrying if they’ll be left off the next fat pay-roll.

    2. We don’t change our systems because our political classes and civil service are so effing useless. End of.
      And in other countries everyone is contributing towards the health services. But only in this now godforsaken dump of country do we allow anyone who arrives here to use it as often as they wish, for free.
      It’s like having a help yourself corner shop, broke and empty shelves inside a week.

    3. Maybe the problem has something to do with the political party which set it up in the first place?

  8. Good morning, all. 58 years ago today, I became a solicitor. Never in my wildest dreams that day could I have foreseen how my life would turn out!!

      1. 30 October 1959 – Carey Street WC2 (just behind the Law Courts). Lived in Goldhurst Terrace, NW6 (behind John Barnes at Finchley Road station).

    2. Good morning Bill.

      Well I guess you have explored many pathways and have had an enjoyable life experience ,

      Were any other members of your family solicitors when you were growing up ?

      The musical Carousel has a lovely song ” My boy Bill”… My dear late aunt named my cousin William becase she loved the song so much . The words fit him to a t.

  9. More than 600 Russian agents and spies ‘exposed’ by Ukrainian security services. 11 January 2021.

    In an update on its Telegram channel, the Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, said more than 340 perpetrators had been sent to court.

    It added that the culprits had been conducting “intelligence and subversive activities” against Ukraine.

    Some “enemy agents” had been preparing for the “physical liquidation of the minister of defence and head of the main directorate of intelligence” as well as a well-known Ukrainian activist, it said.

    The vast majority of these people will be ethnic Russians who, where they are guilty and this is by no means guaranteed, will be aware that a Ukrainian victory will see them reduced to second class citizens at best and purged and sent to Russia at worst. The numbers given here are an indication of the size of the split in Ukrainian society.

    https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-latest-russias-pro-war-military-bloggers-dispute-kremlin-claim-that-strike-killed-600-ukrainian-troops-12541713

    1. 369784+up ticks,

      Morning AS,
      I was working in Poland when the Russians were in town, they reckon the forest was full of Russians, so many it was hard to see a tree.

      I saw plenty of trees but no Russ……

  10. SIR – I was shocked by Dame Esther Rantzen’s letter (January 10) praising the Sussexes’ work while attacking Britain’s media, establishment and wider population.

    Everything that Prince Harry accomplished, as a member of the Royal family and on behalf of the UK, should, of course, be celebrated. However, he now seeks to damage the very institution that placed him in such a privileged position, and was the foundation of his achievements.

    John S Bridger
    Leigh, Kent

    Quite right, Mr Bridger. I still think that Dame Rancid must have been smoking something pretty noxious when she wrote her awful letter.

    2. She’s always seemed to be rather self possessed and over flowing with self indulgence. It seems to be infectious.

  11. Good Moaning.
    One for Lottie (the appalling grammar is nowt to do with me).

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/01/10/family-discovers-absolutely-massive-black-bear-hibernating-underneath/

    ” Family discovers ‘absolutely massive’ black bear hibernating underneath the floorboards

    Animal now called Marty Bearnard gains social media following as he is allowed to remain in a stupor at the residential home

    10 January 2023 • 7:10pm

    It wasn’t like Callie, a three-year-old pet pitbull from Connecticut, to bark and growl. But then, she had never been faced with an enormous black bear laying underneath the decking of her family’s home.

    “I’m just looking around trying to find it, then I turn my head to the right and there is a bear just staring right at me. And he was absolutely massive,” said Vincent Dashukewich, who lives at the property.

    In a remarkable scene now viewed by more than 11 million people online, Mr Dashukewich’s 28-year-old sister Tyler uses her phone to pan over the wooden slats and peek down at the crawl space below.

    Sat there, stretched out on a bed of leaves, is the animal they now call Marty Bearnard.

    “He was totally unfazed by everything,” said Mr Dashukewich. “As soon as we saw each other he didn’t move, he didn’t react. He’s definitely super comfortable.”

    ‘We’ll just leave him be’

    The family contacted Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environment Protection, which offered two options – let the hibernating bear remain in its stupor on their property, or try and shoo it away using air horns and loud noises.

    “My parents were advocating to try and get him removed, but I said: ‘Hey, he’s a hibernating bear. Why even mess with him right now? Just let him be as long as he’s not bothering anybody. We don’t even go in the backyard a lot because obviously the weather, it being winter and all so, we’ll just leave him be,’” Mr Dashukewich told the Milford Mirror.

    Connecticut has around 1,000 black bears, and each year around 10-20 create their winter dens under people’s porches.

    Over the last two decades, there has been a “rapid increase” in Connecticut’s black bear population, according to the department, which estimates that there are more than 1,000 of them in the state.

    Jason Hawley, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Energy and Environment Protection told The New York Times: “We have never had a negative incident that occurred as a result of this.”

    The agency, he added, encourages homeowners to let the bears stay there before they move on, usually around April.

    Social media following

    And so the bear has remained. It now has a popular Instagram account, with videos and photos posted to nearly 4,000 followers.

    “Hey I’m Marty the bear, I live in Plainville under my family’s deck. Currently I am hibernating until I’m ready for hot bear summer,” says the profile.

    “It’s very divided. Some people say it’s the coolest thing ever and other people say: ‘Oh my God that’s so scary,'” said Mr Dashukewich.

    “But I’m fascinated with bears. I think they are very cool animals and very misunderstood for the most part. Just to prove it, Marty hasn’t bothered us even in the slightest bit.” “

    1. Morning Anne. My understanding is that Black Bears are not dangerous though this is not something that I would be enthusiastic about exploring personally!

        2. There are very few occasions when I disagree with you, JN, but on this occasion I do.
          Animals in hibernation descend into a sleep that is nearly a state of death; they are a couple of hearts away from dying.
          The shock of waking a hibernating animal in that level of sleep could kill it.

          1. Its when they wake they are at there most dangerous. I would never put my family before a bear.

      2. Don’t allow small children near bears, particularly after they’ve just emerged from hibernation.

        1. My kids never hibernated. Still, sleepy enough in the mornings to make it look that way.

        2. My kids never hibernated. Still, sleepy enough in the mornings to make it look that way.

      1. Let sleeping bears lay, these are specialist bears that give birth by layng a cluster of eggs.

    4. Just leave the fellow alone and he’ll not cause any problems.

      However, it is a clear example of mankind continuing to encroach on nature’s territory. There are simply too many of us using up too much. We urgently need to get into space and off planet, not only for material needs but the population explosion coming.

      Sadly, the wrong people are breeding.

    5. That is a lovely story, and it proves that bears are cleverer than we thought .

      “You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
      —Winnie the Pooh

      “A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference.”
      —Eeyore

    6. My ex worked in Plainville- it’s not far from where we lived. I lived in a state forest and bears were everywhere, our yard was fenced because of the dog so we never had a bear visit us.
      The manager of a bar/restaurant in town told me he’d been taking the rubbish out the back to the big bin and surprised a bear going through the bin, looking for something to eat. Bears will raid bird feeders and knock your bins over if you leave them out. But raccoons do bins as well.
      Unnerving was hearing the coyotes howl in the night- gives you the shivers.

      1. Like foxes screaming; sounds just like someone being murdered.
        You know what it is, but when you are woken from a dead sleep, your brain doesn’t act rationally.

  12. 369784+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    To bring such grand old Yorkshire names into such disrepute
    is despicable, what say starmer the charmer QC or any political member of the lab/lib/con coalition still behind the mass ongoing importation of foreign paedophiles.

    Is there any truth in, when casting a lab/lib/con/current ukip vote you get a free PIE menu ?

    Three men from Rotherham and Sheffield charged with sexually abusing children
    Romulad Stefan Houphoet, Absolom Sigiyo, and Jacek Brozozwski were charged as part of Operation Stovewood, an investigation into historic child sex abuse in Rotherham. They appeared before Sheffield magistrates and were released on bail. All three are due to appear at Sheffield Crown Court on 6 February.2 days ago

      1. The latter, definitely.

        Cases of this sort should be put into the vilest, communal holding cells possible, complete with all the white gangsters, until their case comes up and the mangled shreds of bodies can then be produced in court.

  13. Afghan asylum seeker stabbed aspiring marine to death in a row over e-scooter, court told. 10 January 2023.

    An Afghan asylum seeker who lied about his age stabbed an aspiring Royal Marine to death in a row over an electric scooter, a court has heard.

    Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, 21, twice plunged a knife into Thomas Roberts’ chest when the 21-year-old tried to stop the altercation between him and his friend.

    Abdulrahimzai, 21, got into an argument with James Medway over an e-scooter he’d been using when Mr Medway was on a “very chilled” night out with Mr Roberts.

    Moments after intervening, Mr Roberts sustained two stab wounds to his chest from “aggressive” Abdulrahimzai – with one slicing through his heart, a jury heard on Tuesday.

    No comments allowed!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/10/afghan-asylum-seeker-stabbed-aspiring-marine-death-row-e-scooter/

    2. Good morning Araminta and everyone.

      No comments are allowed anywhere, at least in writing.
      The accused is on trial and there is a presumption of innocence.

      1. And massive legal aid providing for his defence and to ensure this violent criminal – one of millions – is kept here to do it again.

        He’s a thug. He should be treated as such. Flog him, then beat him, then hang the broken mess as a reminder to the rest of them.

    4. Diversity strength.

      Of course, now imagine if the Afghan were not (and they’ve no right to be) here in the first place.

    5. I was going to make that my Rant of the Day but I am a bit behind schedule so thank you for picking it out.

  14. SIR – I began work in the NHS as a medical student in 1959 and
    retired as a consultant in 2005. The Beveridge Report of 1942, which
    resulted in the NHS in 1948, was appropriate for its time. But times
    have changed and we have a situation that neither Aneurin Bevan nor
    Beveridge could have imagined.

    The quotation, often attributed to John Maynard Keynes, “When the
    facts change, I change my mind – what do you do, sir?” could not be more
    appropriate. Look at the evidence. The health services in Ireland and
    Europe, Australia and New Zealand, take up about the same proportion of
    GDP as here yet death rates are lower, cancer survival rates are better,
    patients are seen instantly by GPs or consultants and waiting lists are
    non-existent.

    It’s not down to the quality or dedication of our doctors and nurses,
    who work to the best of their abilities. It’s the fault of the system.
    If other countries’ systems are better, why don’t we change and copy
    them?

    Richard G Faber FRCS
    Shefford Woodlands, Berkshire

    Perhaps population density has something to do with it.

    UK 70 million
    NZ 5 million
    Eire 5 million

    1. I don’t imagine Bevan considered the state would forcibly import 30 million useless foreigners solely to create a voting block. The population was falling to reflect our economic need. The Left wing state set about damaging that and forcing millions of dross on us. Our welfare systems, infrastructure, security services simply cannot cope with this slaughter of our society.

      1. If the population dropped to and stabilised at 35 million we would have zero need for so many troughers. They import more and more people to protect their little empires. Without the extra stress on infrastructure and institutions we could perfect them. They don’t give a ratsarse for the indigenous population.

    2. France and Germany have similar populations and markedly better overall healthcare than the UK.
      The other’s proportion of GDP is what he’s commenting on, it might have been more helpful had he compared per capita spend..

  15. Morning all 😉 😊
    It’s not easy to be even fairly happy with this weather and what is predicted for the rest of this and next week.
    I’ve got an old friend who is on a cruise with his wife. He keeps posting comments and photos on Facebook. Agggghhh.

    1. Good morning RE

      Who on earth in their right mind would want to float along the oggin with thousands of other on a giant petri dish .. no way.

      2. It’s just the way they are TB. They love dancing as well.
        We took a trip to the fjords in Norway a few years ago. It was good and we thoroughly enjoyed it. But I never really feel comfortable with so many people so close.
        Also sailed to Cape Town in the mid 60s. And 6 weeks to Australia mid 70s.
        Great memories from those trips.

        1. We sailed from Port Sudan on a Union Castle ship in the 1950s to the UK, twice, on board the Braemar Castle and the Warwick Castle . Parents and sister and I , for a long leave period , I believe Tilbury and not Southampton .. They were small ships and I think it took over 3 weeks to sail home .

          1. We were on the Pendenis Castle. Again not large, but friendly.
            As twenty three year old migrants to SA it only cost around 40 pounds.
            A week in Cape Town and the blue train to JHB. We stopped off in the Canaries.
            The other sea journey was from Southampton via Suez, Ciaro the pyramids and then Djibouti. Perth Melbourne. Total 6 weeks.
            The aging ship the Australis now lies between two of the Canary islands. It was scuppered on an attempted insurance claim. Chandris Line.
            It cost us 50 quid each.

        2. I love dancing, too, but a cruise would be hell on earth; cooped up with a large number of people who are probably moronic (one has to question their mental acuity if they signed up to a cruise in the first place) is not my idea of fun.

          1. The other thing I didn’t mention is there were lots of larger than normal human species on board who seemed to be eating everything they could come into contact with.

          2. That’s another thing; with nothing else to do but eat and drink, bored out of my mind and without any opportunity for exercise, I’d end up looking like a barrage balloon. I am a “good doer” at the best of times.

    1. Of course, it needn’t be. We could be facing a truly bright future of free enterprise, capitalism, markets and wealth. Instead, morons like you want to force us back to the stone age.

      The future is bleak because of fools like him.

  18. Russia borrows record $56bn in a month as sanctions batter Putin. 11 January 2023.

    The fiscal gap reached a record 3.9 trillion roubles ($56bn) last month, according to Bloomberg calculations based on preliminary government data released on Tuesday.

    That brought the full-year shortfall to about 3.3 trillion roubles, reversing a surplus in the 11 months of the year.

    Finance minister Anton Siluanov later confirmed the full-year figure, which he said amounted to 2.3pc of gross domestic product, in televised comments at a government meeting.

    BELOW THE LINE.

    Harry Hopper.

    Russia GDP deficit is 2.3% and Debt
    The United States is 130% of GDP and debt
    The UK is 120% of GDP and debt
    Whose is the lower here?

    A good point Mr Hopper but the present requires an endless diet of anti-Russian propaganda in which truth plays no part!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/01/10/russia-borrows-record-56bn-month-sanctions-batter-putin/

      1. Morning Joseph. Well China springs to mind but it is also wise to remember that not all the world supports the West. In fact the vast majority are actively hostile to the Sanctions and would offer credit were they not afraid of the US response!

  19. SIR – I served as a national museum director from 1988 to 2010. I witnessed the changes that have resulted in the dilution of the ability of trustees to manage the strategic direction of our great museums. George Osborne’s current obsession with returning the Parthenon sculptures (Letters, January 7) is only one example.

    In the past, trustees were appointed because they brought influence, expertise and support to the governance of their institutions. Today, anyone can apply to become one. The dilution of experience and the individual’s wish to polish his or her credentials results in the wrong people occupying important public posts.

    Widespread ignorance of the difference between strategic governance and tactical management leads to radical change within our museums and galleries to pander to minority causes at the expense of our national and cultural heritage. We hear a lot from the likes of Mr Osborne – but why are museum directors not giving their side of the story? They are, after all, the professionals who have dedicated their lives to preserving and conserving the public property under their stewardship.

    Dr Michael A Fopp
    Soulbury, Buckinghamshire

    Today’s crop of politicians are so inept I wouldn’t expect them to run a bath without flooding the place. So running up to seven baths at a time should be well beyond them…

  20. Britain must learn from health systems abroad if the NHS is to survive

    Um, nationalised industries never learn, they just eat more money while the service goes down, lazyitus rules

      1. It worked fairly well until Blair removed the golden share preventing foreigners from buying them up.
        Maybe this was the globalist plan all along.
        Although the still work far better than the NHS even though over the years they have had increasing red take and the green agenda to contend with.

          2. And now we hear that Evila May is making over £2m pa.

            Remember that asinine woman Shirley Williams who said that you would only get better politicians if the job was more lucrative?

      2. We’re getting fibre optic plumbed in. If BT were a monopoly, we’d still be using 28K baud. Our rivers are polluted because the environment agency is still enforcing EU law. We could change this, but while the fines are less than the cost of treatment, the dumping will continue.

        The energy market is rigged. It’s been rigged to allow unreliables to compete. If it were not rigged and taxed and subsidised, energy would be abundant and cheaper.

    2. You’d think that given the number of examples around the world on better ways of doing things….the tax office, for example. Instead of doing the right thing and simplifying the tax code down from it’s 25,000 pages to, say, the Singaporean or Swiss one of some 250, our fools are hiring more ‘compliance’ officers, to enforce and take more tax.

      As the Warqueen said – ‘The more complicated they make it, the more ways to avoid it are found.’ She also said comically disparaging things about the quality of civil service law writers. Apparently the post Thatcher era tax laws (when the tax code really ballooned) are the easiest to identify because they’re sloppily written, appallingly researched, contradictory and aimed solely at favouring one specific industry – often one single business – type over another. People whine about big companies avoiding tax. As Google said to MPs – you make the laws, change them. Of course, government just assumes business will pay it’s onerous and disgusting taxes. It’s stupid like that.

      1. I see that when I cark it, the taxman will be rummaging through my jewellery box in case I’ve kept my engagement ring.

    3. I worked for British Steel when I was a student. There was so little work to do, I used to bring a book to read to while away the hours. Yet I was employed on a Saturday (time and a half) to file invoices. Nobody supervised me, though. I could have sat there and read and been paid for it. Needless to say, I did what I was in the office to do, but no one would have known if I hadn’t.

  21. Several wounded in knife attack at Paris Gare du Nord train station according to police sources. 11 January 2023.

    “An individual injured several people this morning at the Gare du Nord,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on Twitter.

    “He was quickly neutralised. Thank you to the police for their effective and courageous response”.

    The incident has caused major delays to trains at the station in the early morning rush, according to the live departure board of operator SNCF.

    The attacker’s motive was not immediately clear.

    He was bored? Wanted to check if it was sharp enough?

    https://www.anews.com.tr/world/2023/01/11/several-wounded-in-knife-attack-at-paris-gare-du-nord-train-station

    1. Paris Gare du Nord is not a place to be at any time. Possibly okay if just changing trains but whatever you do don’t wander around.

      2. Wasn’t always. There was a point the worst thing you saw there was an odious French mime artiste.

        Now it’s overrun with hordes of foreigners.

        1. Overrun is the correct way to describe it. Nightmare. Trouble is most of the suburbs around Paris are the same now.

    3. Perhaps he was a grammar pedant, upset at the Gard du Nord railway station being referred to as a train station?

          2. Then perhaps it is where trains change state? From arriving, to leaving? Or somewhere where they rest during their journey making it quite literally a train station?

          3. Historically, in common with London, most if not all railway stations in such capital cities had no through-lines and all services terminated when they reached them. Hence the name: terminus. I know that some such places now have through lines to other stations but that is generally a modern progression.

  22. SIR – Prince Harry is entitled to see life through whatever strange prism he chooses (Leading Article, January 10), although the one he has selected seems depressingly myopic and self-pitying. What is unforgivable is that he knows his family will maintain a dignified silence, so his every shot is a privileged free shot.

    One-sided attacks of this kind, immune to retaliation, are simple acts of bullying – and bullying is high in the “woke” hierarchy of sin.

    Gregory Shenkman
    London SW7

    A good BTL post:

    Olivia Wilde2 HRS AGO

    Gregory Shenkman;

    I completely agree regarding H’s cowardly one sided attacks.

    He hurls his countless vitriolic tirades out there against all and sundry, safe in the knowledge of any likelihood of retaliation and all without the need of any accountability whatsoever, having said as much in one of my posts yesterday.

    This couple are the self appointed king and queen of Woke.

    When they are not plagiarising sections of speeches from famous people In the past, then passing them off as their own flowery proclamations, they spend the rest of their time espousing compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, kindness and mindfulness as can be seen on their Archewell website.

    It’s a real shame that this pair of hypocrites constantly feel the highly dubious compulsion to do the exact opposite of what they perpetually preach.

    This pair are the living embodiment of all that Is wrong with today’s society along with all the many Injustices.

    To use their words, It could all have been SO different.

    What a waste.

    * * *

    Well said, Olivia Wilde!

    1. One of the most amazing aspects of his diatribes is that at the same time he asks for a reconciliation! I have some considerable experience of family splits and permanent hatred is not unusual!

      1. Betrayal hurts. A lot. And the closer the betrayer to the betrayed, the more it hurts.

    3. All Lefties are bullies by default. They cannot tolerate dissent, so they ensure absolute freedom.

      The boy Harry and his wretched wife have a position of complete immunity. They can say and do what they like knowing there will be no retaliation.

        1. Not sure about that. I think there’s a particular brand of person who just hates this country and refuses to see the reality, preferring the grievance state this stupid child man finds himself in. I think such people are so petty, so vindictive that they look for any icon to point at and say “See! I was right! this is an evil country!”

          1. Given that Meghan’s M.O is to use people then throw them away i think people will begin to notice. The invites will dry up.

      1. 369784+ up ticks,

        Morning W,
        Until common sense justice makes a much needed return, the day after tomorrow in the bog mans case.

  24. Rishi Sunak’s RAF jet flight to Leeds ‘mocks climate pledges’, MPs say. 11 January 2023.

    Rishi Sunak has been accused of undermining the government’s green credentials and wasting taxpayers’ money after it emerged he travelled from London to Leeds on a 14-seat RAF jet.

    Sunak used the jet to travel 200 miles to the Rutland Lodge medical practice on Monday, which he visited alongside the social care minister, Helen Whately. The trip was organised to publicise the government’s announcement of £200m to buy thousands of extra care home beds.

    Climate Change is for the serfs both literally and figuratively!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/10/rishi-sunak-raf-jet-flight-london-to-leeds-mocks-climate-pledges

    1. This was always intended. They’ll carry on as normal, we’ll be the ones who suffer. It is restoring feudalism, and all the misery that goes with it.

  25. Good morning all. A fairly bright start, at least the rain has paused, but it looks rather overcast to the North West. A tad under 2°C outside.

    1. I have just been filling in my diary for the year and am thrilled to learn, as I think you all will be, that February is LGBTQACRTBEPZNMY++-?! History MONTH. You then have half a year to get ready for Black History MONTH. Yeah!

  27. Good morning Nottlers, it’s currently wild, wet and windy on the Costa Clyde. Time to head out for the weekly shop…I wouldn’t be playing golf in this anyway.

  28. It seems there i much we could learn from our neighbours on a functioning NHS, an infinitely simpler tax system and democratic government, but the state isn’t interested. Instead, it continues to churn out useless, wasteful and damaging drivel enforced by ever more legions of pointless non-jobs that add yet more regulatory burden to the public.

    1. Got to create jobs for the immigrants who can’t work anywhere else e.g. passport office

  29. I see the Telegaffe today has 2 articles on why we should send tanks to Ukraine, one by the idiot Hamish de Feckwit! I wonder what the exact legal definition of “act of war” is?

    I note the armour on these tanks is still classified – I wonder how long it will be before some corrupt Ukrainian [and there seems to be no shortage of those] sells one?

    1. The more the destruction the greater the need for reconstruction (eventually). I expect companies such as Bechtel can’t wait…..

  30. 369784+ up ticks,

    Could some one tell me WHY such ruling political reptiles still, after the last three plus decades, find support ?

    The current supporting vote for the odious trio is neither beneficial to either health or wealth,far from it and that .has been so for the last 30+ years.

    A prophecy,

    One day the electoral majority will catch its tail between its teeth, and devour itself…. with luck.

    1. The only problem, Ogga, is that there is sod all else to vote for, leaving just the NOTA gambit as the last card to play.

      Unless and until all the minor vote-splitting parties, get over their leaders massive egos and resolve to amalgamate, and further still, produce a manifesto that the electorate want and can vote for, it’s just going to be the same old same old again to our detriment.

      Do you see that happening before January 2025? I don’t.

      1. The Conservative MPs who are disaffected with Sunak and Hunt should not try to get Boris Johnson back.

        True, Boris Johnson won the election for them in 2019 with a substantial majority but as prime minister he was catastrophic in his absurd green agenda and his total failure to get a decent Brexit deal on fishing and Northern Ireland and then to implement virtually any of the advantages Brexit could have brought.

        At least 100 Conservative MPs should resign from their parliamentary seats and either join Reform or start a new political party altogether. Of course this will not happen and we shall have a Labour government under Starmer in two years time.

        1. Farage the Fraud withdrew his candidates at
          the last election and handed Doris the election
          with a massive majority….

          1. I can understand why. Although many Conservatives harboured doubts about Johnson, we never thought he would so monumentally useless; so completely under the thumb of a spoilt princess and a selection of dodgy ‘health experts’.
            The alternative was Jezza with foaming Momentum at his heels. At the time, Farage’s decision was very understandable.

          2. I have made this point here many times.

            Farage is extremely arrogant and seems to think he is always right. However for the first time ever I heard him almost admit that he made a grave mistake in withdrawing Brexit Party candidates from standing against sitting Conservative remainer MPs in the 2019 general election.

            The consequence of this is that we got lumbered with an extremely bad deal with the EU which gave the EU fishermen rights in UK fishing waters and the EU still in effective control of trade in Northern Ireland.

            With the House of Commons still stuffed with Conservative remainers, and the House of Lords and the Civil Service all keen to rejoin the EU is it surprising that so little has been done to make Brexit actually work?

            I cannot deny that Nigel Farage is a brilliant orator – but when testicular strength is really needed he seems to become limply impotent. If Brexit is undone and we find ourselves back in the EU the root cause of its failure will be traced to Farage’s capitulation to Boris Johnson.

            Remember Sir Francis Drake’s prayer: “There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.”

    2. The ruling political reptiles are only too aware that the general public is as thick as pigshit.

        1. Not easy to judge from that angle but my guess is that the pass was flat (i.e. neither forwards nor backwards) so, therefore, legal within the laws of the sport.

  32. Morning all.
    Off to t’ garage to take my car in – dodgy headlight switch connection.
    Weather is mucky so I can’t decide whether to walk home and wait or to wait in t’ garage. I’ve no idea how long it will take

      1. I walked back. The rain had cleared a bit so I fancied the fresh air. Its about a mile – I was only back 20min and they called to say it was ready so back I went.

      3. Now, I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s a similarity between all these paedophiles….

      4. Pædo children’s doctor, eh?
        Should have let the hunter catch him. And castrate him.
        Unless pædiatrician is the long form of pædo here, of course.

    1. Whoever made this joke cannot spell twat or use the apostrophe but even so it is quite funny!

      2. Posh people pronounce twat as ‘twot’.

        I’m not posh (you may have noticed) so I pronounce it as twat.😉

        1. My wife used to use that word until I explained to her what it meant and that it wasn’t twit

          1. Snap. Even though Caroline is a good linguist she was unaware of the word’s meaning and I had to explain it to her.

        2. But surely you do not defend the unnecessary apostrophe?

          The person who composed this limerick agrees with your pronunciation.

          There was a young girl called Louise
          Whose pubes hung right down to her knees
          The fleas in her twat
          Tied an intricate knot
          And constructed a flying trapeze

          1. I will never confes’s to u’sing unneces’sary apostrophe’s, Rastu’s.

            I once worked with a gormless chap who placed an apostrophe before the final letter S in every word that had one. Even Jame’s.

          5. I think that I have mentioned, on more than one previous occasion, that I actually contributed to Lynne Truss’s excellent book.

            Prior to its publication, Lynne asked readers of the DT to send in examples of apostrophe misuse for her consideration when compiling her tome. One of my suggestions was accepted. I have owned that book from the day it came out.

        3. But surely you do not defend the unnecessary apostrophe?

          The person who composed this limerick agrees with your pronunciation.

          There was a young girl called Louise
          Whose pubes hung right down to her knees
          The fleas in her twat
          Tied an intricate knot
          And constructed a flying trapeze

        4. Twat is vulgar. Which is why Northerners use it.
          Twot is an acronym of ‘Total waste of time’.

          :@)

          5. GWENDOLEN : Quite a well-kept garden this is, Miss Cardew.

            CECILY : So glad you like it, Miss Fairfax.

            GWENDOLEN : I had no idea there were any flowers in the country.

            CECILY : Oh, flowers are as common here, Miss Fairfax, as people are in London.

      3. The literacy of the internet is appalling. It must be intentional. No one can be that thick.

  36. Jeremy Clarkson has right to ‘say what he wants’ about Meghan, says Culture Secretary
    Michelle Donelan defends former Top Gear host’s freedom of speech after controversial ‘shame parade’ column for The Sun
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/01/11/jeremy-clarkson-meghan-free-speech-says-culture-secretary/

    BTL

    What Harry and his wife have said and written is very much more offensive than a piece of vulgarity from Jeremy Clarkson.

    Of course some people will find what Clarkson said – which after all was a joke – nasty but it was completely harmless when compared with the evil and vindictive bile that has come from the Sussexes.

    1. I’ve been vociferous on both ar5ebook and twotter, that Clarkson has every right to say what he did, just as everyone else the same right.

    2. Game of Thrones is not something I’ve ever watched or read. (I got to page 2 of my granddaughter’s book – something about wintry grandmothers not singing anymore songs – and decided that cod-medievalism is only entertaining in Blackadder.)
      But, I digress: JC was making reference to an incident in the series.

      1. Sword and Swagger is not my favourite genre either however i give most HBO series a go. Breaking Bad was good. The Wire was good.

        There were some excellent scenes with Peter Dinklage in G.O.T. Especially when he shot his father the King in the guts whilst the King was on the throne. (Lavatory, not the other Throne).

        What i found watchable about Cersi having to parade naked through the city and having shit thrown at her was how she would respond once she could….Brutal !

    1. Hi Belle 🙂
      Why do you copy the content of the tweet – we can read the tweet itself…

      1. I don’t always copy the tweet , bt when I do , it is to grab attention so that people just dont ignore it but read other comments related to it .. fast tracking .

  38. Tweet
    See new Tweets
    Conversation
    LittleBoats 🇬🇧NI🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿En
    @LittleBoats2020
    Uranium sent from Pakistan to Iranians in the UK is a sure sign Muslim terrorists are planning to make a “Dirty Bomb” which would kill k’s!

    Successive govt’s have seen to it a staggering 4M Muslims now live in Britain🙄 – Madness!

    For God sake, Wake Up! https://twitter.com/LittleBoats2020/status/1613118282613112832

    1. “It was found in a shipment of scrap metal, a source said.”

      So airlines are now shipping scrap metal, or perhaps it was being used as ballast. I smell a rat or perhaps a fish.

    2. Doesn’t need to be a bomb. Not an easy thing to make, BTW.
      Uranium is pretty powerfully radioactive, but even more interestingly, is rather poisonous.
      Get that in your tea and you’ll be unwell. Put it in a reservoir, and…

      1. It’s also a really controlled substance that’s nigh impossible to get into the country unless you’re a government. You can’t exactly carry it through customs in a suitcase.

  39. 369784+up ticks,

    More facts to be faced by gullible fools

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    10m
    Archbishop Vigano’s recent document sets out exactly what needs saying about “conspiracy theory now becoming conspiracy fact”.
    He names Schwab, Soros & Gates as the front men behind the move for a World Government, The Great Reset, & global tyranny.

    Irrespective of anyone’s religious beliefs, or absense of them, we must be grateful for a man of Vigano’s status saying what needs to be said by those in positions of authority on behalf of the people.

    img
    Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò Intervention to Medical Doctors for Covid Ethics International

    remnantnewspaper.com

    https://gettr.com/post/p24nls34291

  40. We were fortunate enough to watch Andrew Bridgen MP make a very considered and balanced speech in the House

    of Commons questioning some of the statistics about the side effects of Covid vaccinations on some people.

    Today he received his answer-

    The Conservative Party Whip has been removed from him. He has been silenced.

    2. And in other matters (family litigation):

      “In April 2022 High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he “lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner”, was “an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct”, and “gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions””

      Just saying…

          1. Does this mean that he is wrong about the dangers of and the damage caused by the Covid gene therapy?

          2. If you read about* the dispute and his conduct – it does put the “good guy” into some perspective…..

            * google “A bridgen judge.”

          3. And many of us here thought that Owen Paterson was one of the best MPs in the Conservative Party.

    3. And in other matters (family litigation):

      “In April 2022 High Court Judge Brian Rawlings ruled against Bridgen, stating that he “lied under oath and behaved in an abusive, arrogant and aggressive manner”, was “an unreliable and combative witness who tried to conceal his own misconduct”, and “gave evasive and argumentative answers and tangential speeches that avoided answering the questions””

      Just saying…

    4. We often criticise MPs for not having a background in science or maths etc. Not so Mr Bridgen.

      He went on to study genetics and behaviour at the University of Nottingham, graduating with a degree in biological sciences.

      His Wiki’ page indicates that he has courted controversy in the past, not always to his discredit.

      1. He seems to have been a ‘serial misspeaker’.

        On 11 January 2023, he was suspended from the Conservative Party whip for spreading COVID misinformation.[13]
        This involved tweeting an article, authored by Prof. Joshua Guetzkow
        from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and republished by ZeroHedge[14],
        regarding CDC analysis of VAERS safety signals that shows that the
        number of serious adverse events reported in less than two years for
        mRNA COVID-19 vaccines is 5.5 times larger than all serious reports for
        vaccines given to adults in the US since 2009 (~73,000 vs. ~13,000).[15]
        He tweeted the article with the caption: “As one consultant
        cardiologist said to me this is the biggest crime against humanity since
        the holocaust”.[16]

    7. The jungle man Hancock, Independent MP, at PMQs persuaded our PM to criticise the debate AB spoke in as being disgraceful. Anti Semitism cropped up in the PM’s answer but I don’t know for sure that it referred to the debate. Obviously our PM is still protecting untested mRNA vaccines
      see Ndovu below for what happened to AB

  41. Heroes of the BBC

    On now – Radio 4’s celebration of the Blessed heroine, Shamima Begum, who is being cruelly martyred by the evil British government for her devotion to family and faith. First 30 minutes in the second series of her tormented life after being stripped of her British citizenship by the heartless Tories. A BBC spokespersonthing said “We will not stop until this cruel banishment has been rescinded and Blessed Shamima is hugely compensated”. “This series could run as long as the Archers” ‘it’ added. “It could, of course, be over by Christmas if the RMT, Post Office, Rail, doctors and nurses strike is successful and the cruel oligarchs running ruining the country are ousted and replaced by the compassionate and benevolent Socialist Labour Party”. Support your brethren in the BBC, pay your trivial licence fee on time and listen in for more news of the Heroes of the BBC.

    2. Deport her to Japan, tell them she’s a soldier who was British and is guilty of war crimes and would they kindly hang her, or unkindly hang her, their choice.

    6. Instead of glorifying the scum traitor, wouldn’t it be far better to terminate her? We could also terminate a whole swathe of BBC executives while we’re at it.

    7. What a pity she wasn’t in the wrong place at the wrong time (or, as far as we are concerned, the right place at the right time)!

  42. 369784 + up ticks,

    Wednesday 11 January: Britain must learn from health systems abroad if the NHS is to survive

    The NHS is also a casualty, another victim of the political coalition LLC, (WEF), condoned by the majority voter,and clearly self inflicted.

    More deflection from the real ANTI English issue, THE INVASION.

    May one ask will the incoming potential troops be eligible to vote
    in the fast approaching local council elections because in many a case a prayer mat WILL be MANDATORY.

  43. You know, the more people avoid saying what they mean, the more chance there is of misinterpretation. They then get confused with ‘that isn’t what I meant!’

    They then sit there flustered thinking the other party is confused and the other party then thinks ‘I know what you meant. Why didn’t you just say that?’
    ‘I didn’t want to hurt you.’
    Well, the outcome hasn’t changed, I’d rather honesty than dancing around the issue.

      1. Just someone saying ‘We should do this’ when they mean we should categorically not do this. It makes my head hurt.

  44. Just call me a rebel. A wild child if you so wish.
    I have defied government advice: not only did I get out of bed this morning – I’ve used kettles, boiling water, stairs, the cooker and ……….. wait for it …….. I have taken a small dog for a walk around suburban fields and paths.
    I am one of life’s dare devils.

        1. We all are. What counts is what we do with the time left.

          Note to self…
          Call wine merchant.
          Call dealer.
          Block book brothel.

          That should take care of one day. Not sure what to do with the rest of the week.

    2. And just tell us at what time you will be banging your saucepans to show your high regard for the “envy of the world…..”

    3. I have done all of that (except I walked TWO dogs – double the risk!) AND I drove a car and rode a horse. You don’t come much more dare-devil than that! 🙂 All I needed was to pilot a light aircraft and I’d have a full house!

    2. An interesting insight which the numpties in Westminster ignore for popularity and votes. Not one of them has the backbone to stand up and state the obvious.

      “In spite of the climate zealots, there will be no serious alternative to fossil fuels for many decades. Fossil fuels account for 83% of global energy.

      Global growth can only be achieved with energy. Since renewables today only account for 6% and are growing very slowly, there will be no serious alternative to fossil fuels for many decades.

      In spite of that, Western governments in Europe and the US have not only stopped investing in fossil fuels, but also closed down pipe lines, coal mines and nuclear power plants. This is of course sheer political and economic lunacy and a very rapid method to achieve a collapse of the world economy. Add to that the Russian sanctions and we have a global recipe for disaster.

      Without fossil fuels, the world economy will collapse. In spite of that, political pressure has slowed down fossil fuel production substantially. As the graph shows, fossil fuel production is likely to decline by 26% by 2048. Increases in nuclear and, hydro and renewables will not compensate for that fall. The effect will be a fall in global GDP and trade.”

    3. An interesting insight which the numpties in Westminster ignore for popularity and votes. Not one of them has the backbone to stand up and state the obvious.

      “In spite of the climate zealots, there will be no serious alternative to fossil fuels for many decades. Fossil fuels account for 83% of global energy.

      Global growth can only be achieved with energy. Since renewables today only account for 6% and are growing very slowly, there will be no serious alternative to fossil fuels for many decades.

      In spite of that, Western governments in Europe and the US have not only stopped investing in fossil fuels, but also closed down pipe lines, coal mines and nuclear power plants. This is of course sheer political and economic lunacy and a very rapid method to achieve a collapse of the world economy. Add to that the Russian sanctions and we have a global recipe for disaster.

      Without fossil fuels, the world economy will collapse. In spite of that, political pressure has slowed down fossil fuel production substantially. As the graph shows, fossil fuel production is likely to decline by 26% by 2048. Increases in nuclear and, hydro and renewables will not compensate for that fall. The effect will be a fall in global GDP and trade.”

    4. Or, you can buy Swiss francs, which are backed by gold. It’s one of the few currencies that is. That’s why Switzerland has far fewer of the problems our entirely debased, baseless currency does.

  47. Beijing Fears Russia Becoming ‘Minor Power’ Under ‘Crazy’ Putin. 11 January 2023.

    Beijing is planning to reorient its foreign policy away from Moscow fearing a decline in Russia’s economic and political clout as a direct result of its disastrous invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s eventual downfall, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing anonymous Chinese officials and regional experts.

    Though Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to strengthen bilateral ties during a video conference in late December, sources told the FT that mistrust towards the Russian leader is growing among the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party.

    Oh of course. Who listens to the Presidents of Russia and China when they can get the real stuff from anonymous officials and regional experts?

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/01/10/beijing-fears-russia-becoming-minor-power-under-crazy-putin-ft-a79911

    2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/783bd2239580d981ea374b85c9616103f67d5fe9e3171009ea7b9ec33a7a77be.png
      Russia and China have boosted trade turnover to record volumes and may reach their target of $200 billion ahead of schedule, China’s ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui told TASS news agency on Wednesday.

      In February 2022 Moscow and Beijing signed a declaration on strategic partnership and, in April, they agreed to bring bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2024.

      The Chinese diplomat pointed out that volumes of mutual trade are growing rapidly and are “updating a historic maximum” time and again. Russia-China trade is expected to surge by 25% by the end of 2022 and may exceed $180 billion, Zhang said, adding that “we are full of confidence that Chinese-Russian cooperation will receive a new, big development, despite the negative consequences of the pandemic.”

      READ MORE: Russian oil giant wants to supply gas to China – Kommersant
      Last year, in the period from January to November, volumes of agricultural turnover between the countries surged by 36% to $6 billion, according to official data. Moscow and Beijing also completed a number of projects in transport infrastructure, including the launch of railroad and motorway bridges over the Amur River in the Far East, which separates the countries.

      The ambassador also noted that Russia and China are ready “to restore mutual travel of citizens as soon as possible” and to deepen their strategic cooperation in various sectors such as tourism, education, sport and cultural relations.

    3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/783bd2239580d981ea374b85c9616103f67d5fe9e3171009ea7b9ec33a7a77be.png
      Russia and China have boosted trade turnover to record volumes and may reach their target of $200 billion ahead of schedule, China’s ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui told TASS news agency on Wednesday.

      In February 2022 Moscow and Beijing signed a declaration on strategic partnership and, in April, they agreed to bring bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2024.

      The Chinese diplomat pointed out that volumes of mutual trade are growing rapidly and are “updating a historic maximum” time and again. Russia-China trade is expected to surge by 25% by the end of 2022 and may exceed $180 billion, Zhang said, adding that “we are full of confidence that Chinese-Russian cooperation will receive a new, big development, despite the negative consequences of the pandemic.”

      READ MORE: Russian oil giant wants to supply gas to China – Kommersant
      Last year, in the period from January to November, volumes of agricultural turnover between the countries surged by 36% to $6 billion, according to official data. Moscow and Beijing also completed a number of projects in transport infrastructure, including the launch of railroad and motorway bridges over the Amur River in the Far East, which separates the countries.

      The ambassador also noted that Russia and China are ready “to restore mutual travel of citizens as soon as possible” and to deepen their strategic cooperation in various sectors such as tourism, education, sport and cultural relations.

      2. Mackeson was OK, not as heavy as Guinness.

        But that’s why today, having been brought up on both Mild & Bitter from age 14, I cannot drink more than a pint of either, I feel bloated.

        I’d rather stay with Belgian beers, preferably Affligem.

        1. I’ve never enjoyed the flavour of stout and although I can enjoy the odd Belgian beer (as well as a few other continental brews), I am much more happy with a decent English bitter (real) ale.

          Harvey’s of Sussex (which Johnny Norfolk introduced me to) is simply one of the best beers I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying. It is utterly sublime.

          1. When we used to climb on southern sandstone there was a pub [near Groombridge??] that sold Harvey’s – an excellent pint, which sadly did little for the power to weight ration!

          2. Possibly The Crown, it’s the more likely to appeal to passers-by.
            It’s on the left just as you leave Groombridge and opposite Groombridge Place which featured in various programmes and films, possibly the best known being The Draughtsman’s Contract.
            Pleasant part of the world.

          3. Possibly The Crown, it’s the more likely to appeal to passers-by.
            It’s on the left just as you leave Groombridge and opposite Groombridge Place which featured in various programmes and films, possibly the best known being The Draughtsman’s Contract.
            Pleasant part of the world.

      4. Titanic Brewery’s Plum Porter is lovely and Dancing Duck’s Dark Drake Oatmeal Stout is a mean in a glass.

  49. Russia’s space agency on Wednesday announced it would be sending a rescue capsule to evacuate the crew of the International Space Station after a meteorite damaged the spacecraft that was due to return them to Earth.

    “The Soyuz MS-23 launch is on February 20, 2023 in an unmanned mode,” Roscosmos said.

    The MS-22 spacecraft that was originally set to bring Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio back to Earth had been damaged by a small meteorite strike, Roscosmos said on Wednesday, ruling out a technical fault.

    Cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin arrived at the ISS with NASA astronaut Frank Rubio on board the Soyuz MS-22 in September 2022. They had been due to return to Earth on the MS-22 in March 2023.

    But the MS-22 experienced a leak and pressure drop in its cooling system on Dec. 15, causing a rise in the capsule’s temperature and forcing the last-minute cancellation of Prokopyev and Petelin’s spacewalk.

    1. Oh dear. Putting Russians in a good light. I expect the usual suspects will try and fuck up the mission to stop that. And consider Franscisco Rubio collatarel damage.

  51. Spot the deliberate mistake:-

    Wife hanged for her lover’s crime could be pardoned 100 years later after U-turn
    Claims of decades-long injustice to be reassessed after Edith Thompson was executed over the murder of her husband in 1923

    By
    Daniel Capurro,
    SENIOR REPORTER & HISTORY CORRESPONDENT
    10 January 2023 • 5:06pm
    Edith Thompson was hanged in 1923
    It was a case that shocked and scandalised Edwardian Britain and ended in the hanging of a 29-year-old woman on the basis of a few scribbled love letters.

    Now, after decades of academics and campaigners arguing that Edith Thompson was the victim of rampant sexism and classism, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is set to look again at her case, reversing a decision it took only last year.

    Thompson was executed by hanging at Holloway Prison on Jan 9 1923, three months after her lover, Freddy Bywaters, had murdered her husband, Percy.

    Crowds outside Holloway Prison, where Edith Thompson was hanged on Jan 9 1923
    Crowds outside Holloway Prison, where Edith Thompson was hanged on Jan 9 1923 CREDIT: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
    The Thompsons had been on their way home from an outing to the theatre. While walking home from Ilford station, Bywaters jumped out of a nearby garden and stabbed Percy, leaving him mortally wounded, before escaping.

    Thompson and Bywaters were soon arrested and their trial became a national sensation, with unemployed men lining up in the queue outside the Old Bailey to sell their spots to eager viewers.

    Bywaters and Thompson were both adamant that she had no knowledge of or involvement in Bywaters’ attack. She may have longed to be rid of her husband, but she had never asked her lover to kill him or taken part in any plotting.

    The evidence against her was circumstantial at best, her supporters and academics have argued. The key piece of evidence was a series of letters written by Thompson to Bywaters while he was away serving in the Merchant Navy.

    In them, she wrote of her envy for a woman who had lost several husbands.

    “Yesterday I met a woman who had lost three husbands and not through the war, two were drowned and one committed suicide, and some people I know can’t lose one. How unfair everything is,” she wrote.

    In others, she wrote about having put glass from a lightbulb in his food, to no effect, and of trying to poison him. However, a post-mortem examination of Percy, however, found no evidence of either glass or poison.

    Freddy Bywaters, left, and Edith Thompson, centre, were sentenced to death over the murder of Percy Thompson, right
    Freddy Bywaters, left, and Edith Thompson, centre, were sentenced to death over the murder of Percy Thompson, right CREDIT: Getty Images
    Prof René Weis, of University College London, an expert in the case who is leading the campaign and was made Thompson’s heir and executor by her family, has dismissed the writings as simple fantasies.

    Rather than accept that the letters presented limited evidence, the judge in the case instructed the jurors to give them additional weight because of the lack of other evidence.

    Prof Weis and others have long argued that Thompson’s true crime was to reject the life laid out for her as a working-class woman.

    Rather than settle down with Percy, she enjoyed nights outs in London’s most glamorous venues and trips to Paris. She was drawn to Bywaters, a man eight years younger than her, by his thrilling tales of travel and adventure as a mariner.

    Such was the reaction against her, a young woman who had it all at a time of post-First World War gloom, that Bywaters himself came to be seen as a victim of her manipulative ways.

    “The public came to admire Freddy and intensely dislike Edith, a siren who had seduced a young man and thus set in motion a chain reaction that resulted in one man’s death and the certain execution of a ‘lad’,” Prof Weis told the BBC.

    The law firm behind the request applied for a judicial review, arguing that the MoJ had made a series of errors.

    The firm then received a note, the BBC reported, that the department was reconsidering and that the process had been restarted.

    Prof Weis told The Telegraph that it was one of the most significant legal cases in British history. Thompson’s case became central to campaigns to abolish the death penalty, he said, and it was thanks to her that Britain became a “kinder, more humane country”.

    1. Edith Thompson was hanged in 1923
      It was a case that shocked and scandalised Edwardian Britain

      Edward VII died in 1910 – 13 years before Thompson was hanged, so it wasn’t ‘Edwardian’ Britain.

    2. Traces of ground glass would probably not have been detectable in 1923, after digestion process. Certainly not fatal, so she could well have attempted to harm or murder her husband.

    4. Lol the answer should be “Ministry of Justice”…..akin to us having a “Supreme Court”.

      You know you don’t live in a democracy when you have these lofty institutions

    1. Scraped in today.
      Wordle 571 6/6

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

    2. Bogey five here

      Wordle 571 5/6

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

      1. Par today.
        Wordle 571 4/6

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

        1. Par Four for me too.

          Wordle 571 4/6
          ⬜🟨🟨🟩⬜
          🟨🟩⬜🟩⬜
          🟨🟩⬜🟩⬜
          🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      2. Wordle 571 3/6
        ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
        ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
        Daily Quordle 352
        3️⃣5️⃣
        6️⃣7️⃣
        quordle.com
        ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
        🟩🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
        ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
        ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
        ⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
        ⬜🟨🟨🟨🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
        ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
        🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
        🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
        ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  53. Phew! A decent start to the day so I felled the last of the clump of elm I’ve been busy getting rid of, and the bloody thing slid down the bank almost to the road! NOT what I’d planned.
    Still, it gave me an excuse to begin clearing out the stand of elms adjacent to the road that I still have to fell.
    I’ve four 2″ to 4½” trunks to drop so did a ½ hour with the big strimmer to cut the undergrowth on the verge to allow easier access.
    That last bit was VERY knackering!!

    1. The whole lot seem VERY knackering to me. I become exhausted just reading about your workings.

      1. I’m planning to commence sawing, splitting & stacking what I’ve felled so far, but probably not tomorrow as I’m hoping to trundle into Derby to see how Stepson is coping back, at LONG last, in his flat.

    4. I’m getting a little concerned about NoTTLers these days. A few days ago Bill Thomas was mooning, and now BoB is dropping his trunks. Lol.

  54. Prince Harry’s 400-page temper tantrum. Spiked 11 January 20-23.

    Spare is one of the most annoying books I have ever read.

    Actually, Spare is a big, fat, wordy act of gaslighting. It’s a 400-page tantrum about family and money and tiaras (I’m not joking). It’s primal therapy masquerading as memoir, where the aim seems to be less to tell the truth about what’s being going on in the deranged House of Windsor than to absolve Harry and Meghan of any responsibility for it. These two are never to blame for anything, apparently. Drama and malice just magically appear whenever they’re around. Curious. Most of all, Spare is an act of fraternal treachery. I don’t know much about life in a royal family. But I know about brothers. And I know that if any of my brothers did to me what Harry has done to William in this infernal book, it would be game over. The betrayal of confidence contained in this self-pitying tome is extraordinary.

    Good luck to you Brendan; even if it didn’t cost £14 I still wouldn’t buy it!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/01/11/prince-harrys-400-page-temper-tantrum/

    1. In a year or two there will be plenty of copies available in charity shops, two for a pound.
      They might even give you £2 if they are desperate.

      2. Someone suggested that Drax, the wood-pellet burning Power Station, might be interested in the ‘Remaindered’ copies.

        2. Only if they have been shipped 1000 miles over land then 3000 miles across the sea. Got to be green you see.

        1. Er, no, I was trying to suggest that a charity shop might pay you the sum of £2 to remove 2 copies of the Memoirs. I’ll get my coat.

    2. Here’s another choice extract from, that very amusing article [and thanks for posting] .. “The rotten heart of this book is its double standards over peace and privacy. I am going to put it plainly: Harry is a hypocrite. He moans about the Mail on Sunday’s decision to publish a letter that Meghan wrote to her dad. H&M eventually sued over that breach of privacy. To see something ‘so deeply personal’ being ‘smeared across the front pages’ felt ‘invasive’, says Harry. And yet, he then tells us in eye-watering detail about his blow-ups with William, about William’s temperament, about every little thing William said. He publishes Kate’s text messages. He reports what his own father said to him“

      1. Completely agree, but I must say I would be VERY surprised if those really are Kate’s text messages.

      1. There’s no comparison – the round-shouldered look isn’t good either – but mainly it’s the choice of tight dress. Very constricting – but Kate’s look is perfectly natural.

      2. It was dreadful here yesterday which made my excursion to the supermarket great fun! We had about 2 hours of sun this morning and it’s been hissing it down and blowing hard ever since.

    3. I thought they had to be powered down in strong winds.

      Here in the borders, it was blowing a hooley.

    4. Yes, producing a lot of power now, which is good. However, when the wind drops, and the demand is still there….

  56. The publisher of Prince Harry’s controversial memoir says sales have exceeded its “most bullish expectations”.
    Transworld Penguin Random House said Spare was its fastest-selling non-fiction book with sales so far topping 400,000 copies.

    That’s four hundred thousand toilets provided with arsewipes fit for a prince. I do hope there is an image on every page.

  57. Talking of Twats:

    The famous poet, Robert Browning, wrote Pippa Passes, a verse play that contained two memorable phrases:

    The year’s at the spring
    And day’s at the morn;
    Morning’s at seven;
    The hill-side’s dew-pearled;
    The lark’s on the wing;
    The snail’s on the thorn:
    God’s in his heaven—
    All’s right with the world!     , , ,

    But at night, brother howlet, over the woods,
    Toll the world to thy chantry;
    Sing to the bats’ sleek sisterhoods
    Full complines with gallantry:
    Then, owls and bats,
    Cowls and twats,
    Monks and nuns, in a cloister’s moods,
    Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry!

    He too thought it was a type of hat.

      1. Tha munt go’art baht t’at. (For suveners who can’t read Yorkshire – Thou must not go out without a hat.) There is a famous song about the perils of going hatless.

          2. I’m only ‘aif Yorkshire, me. [and ‘aif Derbyshire]

            I was born in an old Victorian workhouse. You can’t get more Oliver Twist than that!

          3. My maternal grandmother was born in Holborn Workhouse in 1886, when it still was a workhouse. She hated the idea of having been born in a workhouse.

          4. The ‘nursing home’ for mothers where I was born is now a ‘nursing home’ for old people – so perhaps I should check in there for my final days. Then I would have come full circle.

          7. I suppose she would in those days. Me, it tickled me pink when I found out that Scarsdale Hospital, Chesterfield was previously a workhouse.

    2. They talk’t of his having a Cardinall’s Hat,
      They’d send him as soon an old Nun’s Twat.

  62. I made I my mind last week to get rid of my van. I’ve had it for 15 years. Although in excellent condition. It’s due for an MOT this month. A few minor adjustments improvements are needed. From last January to now, I’ve manage only around 50 miles. In It’s 19 years it has still not achieved more than 58.000. Miles.
    We had done the deal and it was registered in the company name.
    Because our local garage owner has been showing keen interest for the last 4 years.
    Due to a break in the whether, I rang the office to let them know it was empty tidy and ready for collection around lunchtime. Surprisingly enough he was here to collect it within ten minutes. I discovered he was
    out walking his lovely 12 month old
    Semi Lab dog, close by. Ours had a lovely time greeting his dog. But his had to sit in the passenger footwell. Our lab was only happy sitting on the passenger seat. Which was covered in her hair. Which my good lady cleaning assistant, cleaned off.
    More room on the drive at last.
    At least three happy people. 😊

    Job done.

    1. Mongo sits in the passenger seat. Trying to get him to sit on the backseat was a non starter, as he pushed his way in to the front – got stuck and needed help getting out again.

      Congrats on the van sale.

      1. We are very pleased thanks.
        As a car we have an estate and she’s getting old now and needs helping with her back end. It’s a bit like a rugby tackle.

      2. Oscar is a backseat driver; he complains in my ear when we stop, whether it’s because we’ve reached our destination or are held up at road works/red lights. Kadi sits on the front seat with his back to the engine. I had to get him a dog seat because he was in danger of sliding off. You’ve seen the pictures of the cartoon cat with all four legs outstretched? Getting him into it is a bit like that; you get one leg in and by the time you’ve put another leg in, he’s taken the first one out. Once he’s decided it’s actually more comfortable and more secure to sit in it (and he can actually see out of the window), he’s fine.

    1. That looks typical of a politician, at any stage they have already blamed everyone else for all their ongoing errors.

    3. A Brownie is a type of hobgoblin that comes out at night to perform household tasks. Homeowner should leave out a bowl of cream or porridge for them.
      Could use a few round here 😉
      So, is the name of a hobgoblin going to be changed too?

      2. I was a Kelpie!
        ‘We’re the little Scottish Kelpies
        Smart and quick, and ready helpers’

    7. Why are young boy scouts called ‘wolf cubs’ when wolves don’t have ‘cubs’?

      They have pups (as do all dogs).

  65. ‘Night All

    Not about today leave you with a little medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e493023cf2f60a4e308005e14beca438267048acbf24a1db5bded451e2a364cf.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d9aaa7a896be064988a198c1e4ac5a1f391664f847cec1594f51c8e8d7d2aed.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b6b5dd85fc5b07ff3e3be340f3daeb7699f115f5b9df6ce4168f748d2659359d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/00408f97746d612945459f6386ad0bcd761df6d572f3de5d7d8ed5e2f571131c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c01cce074a1d7fb3eb431c32655d804a562c3959f8e91debb23b9b44f8f243e5.png

  66. That’s me gone. A sunny but chilly and windy day. Tomorrow grey and milder – so the Wet Office says. To market.

    Have a bright and cheerful evening sitting round your candle.

    A demain.

    2. Hello bb2

      I shopped earlier this afternoon in the small Sainsbury in Wareham, and by the checkout was a bookstall displaying the brats book , £14, only one book was missing from the display, and customers in the queue had plenty of opinions and disgust for Harry.

      ‘It was no palace’: Prince Harry admits he was ‘EMBARRASSED’ to show Meghan his Nottingham Cottage home and reveals the Suits actress likened it to a ‘frat house’
      Harry says Meghan ‘gave no indication of disillusionment’ after seeing exterior
      However, duke says she made a comment about a ‘frat house’ after stepping in
      He recalls how she was particularly unimpressed with a brown beanbag chair
      Read More: ‘Time fixed my todger, when would it work its magic on my heart?’: The most toe-curling quotes from Prince Harry’s book

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11622987/Prince-Harry-admits-EMBARRASSED-Meghan-Markle-Nottingham-Cottage-home.html

      1. If they don’t want Nottingham Cottage, I’ll have it. A two bedroom house designed by Sir Christopher Wren would, er, suit nicely. Don’t suppose the name is familiar to Megain?

      2. According to my local rag, it is the best-selling non-fiction book. I think they’ve put it in the wrong category (like Blair’s memoirs).

  70. Remainer elites were the original election deniers
    It is a convenient fiction for the liberal-Left that the threat comes solely from the ‘populist’ Right

    An interesting article by Douglas Murray in the DT.

    Wrattstrangler endorses the point that the Left in the USA is even more corrupt and anti-democratic as the UK Left is.

    BTL

    As far as the US are concerned I am of the opinion that the Democrats have sewn up election trickery so tightly that the Republicans will never win another presidential election again unless and until postal voting is severely modified and all results can be announced on the same day.

  71. Well done, Andrew Bridgen. You’ve just given your opponents an excuse to close down the debate…

      1. An interesting comparison. Powell’s use of language was rather lofty; Bridgen’s was simply foolish and thus the greater error, especially in this touchy age.

        1. But after the rivers of blood speech the powers that be reacted in the same way as they have to Bridgen.
          And he didn’t even say it.
          He just reported what a cardiologist told him

          1. He just reported what a cardiologist told him.

            He was keen to use the anecdotal quote – letter writers and landladies – but I’ve never heard that one so attributed.

        1. However, it has the advantage of being true, as far as we know anyway. If AIDS came out of the same research program, then it’s the worst since that.

    3. I don’t think it can be closed now. The number of clinicians and experts who are publicly categorising the injuries and deaths caused by these injections (they are NOT vaccines) is increasing rapidly.
      The people who wanted to ban the non injected from using the NHS (Piers Morgan, Andrew Neil among others) are going to have a lot of egg on their faces.

    4. Interesting that the use of the ‘Holocaust’ comparison to Covid 19 restrictions/lockdowns/masking/mandatory vaccines et al, is so vigorously condemned when Labour MPs can happily support Muslim terrorism in Israel. I’m afraid we have a Goebbels-like propaganda system here.

    1. My local rag had a couple of articles about his and Wills’ time at Shawbury (which I read for the aviation angle, of course). At least Harry appears to have some self awareness; he said he was a basket case when he came to do his helicopter solo. He appears not to have changed much.

      1. Obvs never acted on that self-awareness. Man’s an arse, and that’s me being polite.

    3. No, Oscar would be sitting on my lap if I didn’t sit at a table (he tries even though I sit at a table to eat). He has appalling manners, but he’s a bit old to learn much. Having said that, he has improved slightly.

  75. Earlier I drew attention to the XI.06 magnitude Solar Flare that occurred late yesterday UTC. Today the Royal Mail is reporting ‘Cyber problems’ for its overseas mail. Yesterday evening my TV signal experience some distortion. I do wonder if all these instances are related to the solar flare?

    2. I wonder how much global warming/climate change that single solar flare produced versus mankind’s efforts over the last year?

    4. Solar flares used to bugger up our positioning processing data during marine hydrocarbon exploration. As it was all satellite dependent, I’m sure this solar flare has affected signals all over the planet.

      1. I had an episode of solar flares on an onshore gas terminal about 20 years ago. I was testing the cathodic protection system and had turned off the transformer supplying power to the anodes. Next day, the buried pipework should have de-polarised significantly, instead, the pipework was far more electrically negative than the previous day.
        I couldn’t find any extraneous sources of stray current and phoning some workmates round the country, I found they were all getting funnies. Late in the day, one of the onsite sparks, who was into astronomy, mentioned solar flares, as a storm had been predicted. He was right. Fortunately, it was OK the next day but it cost a day’s work.

    3. From February passports (new or renewed) will cost more. The government claims the increase is necessary to fund “improvement” – hah! Who do they think they are kidding?

      1. It’s going to be difficult to improve on my recent experience of my passport renewal in just under 2 working days . (From 2:00pm Friday to 10:00 am Tuesday!)

      1. Hi Sue , I am sitting here tapping away, staying silent …

        Yes , both son and Moh are cheering .. 2–0 now , live streamed via his laptop .

    3. The POS set to destroy our culture and social structure, gets deeper and higher every hour.

    4. “This guy won’t be attacking a fighting age male. He will be attacking an elderly couple or children. He isn’t a warrior he’s a coward. UK is the first place anyone ever listened to him so he has power. Before he was a void of being. This is what they do with precieved power. ”

      Most peculiar; those words could describe almost anyone within the government, but somehow I can’t seem to match the photo to a specific Tory MP.

  78. Re the Uranium in scrap metal.
    Of course it was safe; ha ha.

    My bet is that this was a trial run and that similar trial runs are going on with various methods of transport.

  79. What?

    Army, Navy and RAF to send troops to Japan in ‘significant’ new deal and warning to China
    Rishi Sunak will today sign a historic agreement allowing British troops to be deployed in Japan. The Prime Minister, in a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, will declare it “the most significant defence agreement between the two countries in more than a century.”
    By MICHAEL KNOWLES – DAILY EXPRESS DEFENCE EDITOR https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1719498/British-Army-Japan-defence-agreement-Navy-RAF-Tempest-jet

    1. Shift our armed forces to the other side of the earth while a new army arrives across the channel. Whoopee!

    2. Its so that we can get involved with another conflict if China has a go at Taiwan. Gotta get onto the world stage, you know, sigh….

    2. One of the people who rode in the school before me was thinking she was too old at 50. I pointed out I was 74 and had no intention of giving up riding – although I had given up jumping 🙂

      1. Father-in-Law took up snowboarding aged about 70.
        Bastard is good at it, too!
        So, you are never too old…

  81. Evening, all. Had a productive day today; before going to church (I read the lesson) I dropped off my old laptop to see if the chap could find a power supply to fit it (I have a boxful of power supplies, but not a single one was suitable). Afterwards, I collected it with a power supply that would charge the battery! Result! I also nipped into the vets to get Oscar’s vaccination card brought up to date (I’d forgotten to take it with me when he had his first jab). Then a quick change and on to ride Coolio. He is really getting the hang of shoulder in now and did some nice work. Next week, we are doing a dressage test (my instructress is looking for tests to compete in and she tries them out on me first!).

  82. Thought for the day.

    If dinghies full of gimmegrants were pouring out of the UK heading for France do you think the French RNLI/border force/navy equivalents would be collecting them and taking them to Calais?
    Would they Hell, they would turn them back.

    We should do the same.

    1. It all seems to revolve around the fact that our governments since the mid 90s (perhaps a lot earlier) have not had the welfare of this country as its raison d’etre.

    2. The government want them to come over, just aren’t open about it. That’s why they facilitate it, with boarder farce and RNLI.
      UN Global Compact on Migration, anybody?

      1. Yes, it very clear that has been the intent from the outset. When folk voted for Brexit the state said ‘right, you wanted less immigration? We’ll force it on you. You ARE going to pay for us not getting our way.’

        Every single effort by the state – crippling high taxes, green, woke, gimmigration has all been to spite Brexit. It is plain, unadulterated revenge.

      1. My patience with all this crap is over.
        Shoot them mid-channel. Puncture the dinghies. Let the crabs and the sharks have the bodies.

        1. Then stick all the politicians in rubber dinghies, tow them out into the channel, and do the same to them.

    1. I pay attention to Peter’s tweets, but the text suggests that anybody unvaccinated is proof against everything, including shark bite. Not accurate. Could do better.

      1. But – everybody (less two or 3) is vaccinated in Oz, so anybody in hospital will be vaccinated.
        Let’s not get carried away here.

    2. Clearly the vaccine doesn’t work. The solution is not to force it on everyone, but to be open and honest and to say ‘we think it will help, but the choice – as with everything in life – is yours to make. Problem is, fascists can’t think like that.

      2. I disagree. The solution is to pull the vaccination programme(s) in their entirety, to conduct investigations into the politicians, pharmaceutical corporations, manufacturers of the ‘vaccines’, distributors and the medical professionals promoting the poisons.

        Nuremberg style trials of those implicated should follow swiftly.

  85. By providing a platform for Shamima Begum – who has been deprived of British citizenship by the Supreme Court – the BBC is perhaps, committing treason?

    Apparently, she prefers chocolate bars to barrels of severed heads nowadays.

    1. Yet it is typical of the BBC to find someone so utterly antithetical to Britain and try to make them into a hero.

        1. I already have. For 6 years we used to get miserable threatening letters from crapita. At one point one of them tried to break in. Once the Warqueen alone at home save for Wiggy did let one in as he lied and when he started to go upstairs Wiggy went ballistic and the bastard threatened to have him put down. I threw the scum out – literally by the throat.

          They threatened court action and I said to try it. ‘I’ll do you for assault!’ he squealed.

      2. The BBC is in large part funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and bodies including the UN and EU. The licence fee is a greater part of its funding but by a small margin.

        It follows that the BBC will promote the narratives of these bodies as we all know it does not give two fucks for the British people. Hence the continued political bias and misinformation the BBC promulgates as we see on denial of vaccine harms and false information about the conduct of the war in Ukraine and Biden-Zelensky corruption. Putin and Russia are winning the war hands down and military equipment donated by the UK and EU is turning up in Nigeria for chrissake!

        By the way, re the Golden Globes bollocks, is Sean Penn the most stupid woke actor on the planet or what? The prat beats our own Prince Harry for sheer ignorance.

  87. Off to bed now, folks. Good night all. I hope you all sleep well and awaken refreshed.

  89. Gales outside and rain also. Gawd I’ve had enough of it- as I am sure you all have.
    Off to bed now- sleep well y’all.

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