Wednesday 15 September: The Cabinet is incapable of the radical thinking needed to help the NHS

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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682 thoughts on “Wednesday 15 September: The Cabinet is incapable of the radical thinking needed to help the NHS”

  1. Good morning all from an overcast Derbyshire. No rain at the moment and a cooler 7½°C outside.

    1. Good morning m’dear!
      I cheated. I’d already typed it on Notepad and copied it ready to paste!

        1. ‘Morning, Sue.

          Or, as Thatcher was heard to say, nail the mole. That was after a security leak.

        1. Actually, this song was written by the Sherman brothers for Mary Poppins, but not used. And then inserted in Bedknobs and Broomsticks at a later date. One of their best songs, in my opinion.

          PS – Manners! Good morning all!

          1. Very interesting, Elsie. I love the film and particularly the hapless David Tomlinson up against the stern Angela Lansbury!

  7. Changing face of warfare means Armed Forces‘need more Qs than 007s. 15 September 2021.

    General Sir Patrick Sanders said future warfare needed to focus less on traditional methods and more on cyber, and called on the Armed Forces “to place equal value and afford equal status to computer scientists, data engineers and cyber operators as we do on the traditional warrior elite”.

    “If we focus, as some commentary has done, on the number of grey hulls the Navy has, the number of Fighter Squadrons in the RAF and the strength of the regular Army, we will simply perpetuate a traditional, industrial age force that is costly,

    He said: “We will have to address the skills gap through attracting far more diverse talent, by inward investment so that coding and data literacy are seen as being as much a core skill as weapon handling, by much greater use of a larger and more diverse reserve, and by enabling a much more porous and flexible flow of talent between defence, industry and academia.”

    Morning everyone. Less fatuous drivel would probably help as well. I note that he managed to get two diverses in the last paragraph.

    This latest outburst of defence oriented announcements is all by way of helping everyone to forget the catastrophe that is Afghanistan, where without any of these aids, a primitive gang of Muslim Warriors has just defeated the world’s most advanced states. So much for technology! As always in Battle it is the last man standing that wins!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/14/military-needs-qs-007s-says-army-chief/

    2. I find it amusing, and depressing, that a senior officer who has no background whatsoever in matters technical, when promoted to head up a department of defence with responsibility for matters related to informatiom, becomes an overnight expert on the topic. The only thing Sanders has achieved is to change the name of Joint Services Command to Strategic Command.

  8. Changing face of warfare means Armed Forces‘need more Qs than 007s. 15 September 2021.

    General Sir Patrick Sanders said future warfare needed to focus less on traditional methods and more on cyber, and called on the Armed Forces “to place equal value and afford equal status to computer scientists, data engineers and cyber operators as we do on the traditional warrior elite”.

    “If we focus, as some commentary has done, on the number of grey hulls the Navy has, the number of Fighter Squadrons in the RAF and the strength of the regular Army, we will simply perpetuate a traditional, industrial age force that is costly,

    He said: “We will have to address the skills gap through attracting far more diverse talent, by inward investment so that coding and data literacy are seen as being as much a core skill as weapon handling, by much greater use of a larger and more diverse reserve, and by enabling a much more porous and flexible flow of talent between defence, industry and academia.”

    Morning everyone. Less fatuous drivel would probably help as well. I note that he managed to get two diverses in the last paragraph.

    This latest outburst of defence oriented announcements is all by way of helping everyone to forget the catastrophe that is Afghanistan, where without any of these aids, a primitive gang of Muslim Warriors has just defeated the world’s most advanced states. So much for technology! As always in Battle it is the last man standing that wins!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/14/military-needs-qs-007s-says-army-chief/

    1. 338857+ up ticks,
      Morning C,
      A reset lesson in obedience is being taught via the politico’s & the teachers, as in, Ours is NOT to reason why, Ours is but to do & die, Dan.

  13. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Atlantic bravery
    SIR – Once again the RAF has been flying vintage aircraft as part of the celebrations commemorating the 1940 Battle of Britain victory.

    I have no wish to diminish the young pilots’ bravery, but more should be done to remember the Battle of the Atlantic. This ran from September 1939 to May 1945 and Churchill described it as the most important battle of the Second World War. Had the North Atlantic supply routes failed, Britain would have gone down within weeks.

    During the six weeks of what the RAF calls the Battle of Britain, when it lost about 550 aircrew, just under 2,000 Royal Navy and Merchant Navy sailors were lost in the North Atlantic. They should also be remembered.

    Lt Col I R Berchem (retd)
    Barton Bendish, Norfolk

    Quite right, Col Berchem. And let us not forget today’s date, although I imagine that the BBC will do its best to do so.

    1. A BTL comment on the letter:

      John Birkett
      15 Sep 2021 12:37AM
      If we had lost the Battle of Britain we would also then have lost the Battle of the Atlantic (and the whole war); so surely the former must be the most important of WW2.

    3. A bonus point for saying aircrew, not pilots, but minus 10 for missing out double that 550, the figure for Fighter Command only, in Coastal Command and Bomber Command aircrew on direct Battle of Britain targets (barges, ports, airfields etc).

  14. BTL@DTletters

    Sean Halliday
    15 Sep 2021 3:10AM
    The Revd Banner wants us to pay reparations to blacks for slavery.

    The Revd Banner is from Cambridge University. I didn’t know they employed stupid clerics. Britain didn’t enslave these people – they were already slaves, so if reparations are required he’ll have to ask African potentates for the money. In any case if Britain, Spain, France, Portugal hadn’t bought these slaves, they’d have been slaughtered. It was legal and accepted worldwide. Perhaps he also doesn’t know that in the Southern states of America if one bought a slave you were responsible for him or her for life – not until they passed retirement age. They couldn’t just be thrown out on the street when they were no longer useful. They were housed, fed, medically looked after. 13,000 Blacks had slaves at the outbreak of the American Civil War. After the war 4 million slaves were freed and were sent to camps beside Union Army installations. A quarter of them died through starvation and disease. So many that slaves went back to their plantations.

    In the West Indies, like America, it would not make sense to mistreat your slaves. They were an asset. A healthy male would cost, in today’s money, £30,000. I don’t believe they were put down when they reached 65 years old. Maybe the Revd Banner will want the working class serfs of Britain to receive reparations thanks to feudalism.

    If the CofE employs such dunderheads is it any wonder people are giving up on them in droves?

    1. Thank you Mr Halliday for re-iterating points which I have been making for years. Copies of slave invoices are online. I have previously pointed out that no one buys a new BMW and beats it with a stick. Slaves were not wanted by the people who initially sold them. African chiefs had prisoners taken in war, and excess relatives, some of whom might challenge for leadership. It was a case of being killed or sold.
      But that reality matters not a jot to the darkies of today, who should be paying us for their very existence, for their free education, free lives and freedom itself, not whining, complaining and demanding more from a society to which they and their lucky (non-castrated) slave ancestors have contributed almost nothing.

      1. Fishers of Men? That was the image used in The Holy Bible to describe those who converted unbelievers into Christians.

        But it seems that just as fish rot and putrefy from the head down the same has happened to the fishers of men in the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury is the Prince of Putrescence. Ergo it is hardly surprising that his clerical staff are beginning to decompose and stink.

        1. I suggested here yesterday that the C of E undertook to be totally responsible for the housing, clothing feeding and all financial needs of the illegal immigrants so that the taxpayers do not have to foot the bill? The CofE should also be responsible for any payments of compensation for slavery.

        1. That vehicle to which you refer, as a reference point to the state of that gentleman’s mental health, was a BMC 1100. The sad thing is that that vehicle was, in fact, the last surviving example of a car that, along with the square-wheeled Allegro, epitomised everything that was wrong with our mass production car factories.

    2. By far the worse slave owners were the islamics in Spain and other places. At the time they use to send out their pirate boats and capture young children from the British isles and Ireland for the use of at the Alhambra. At one stage they had 6,000 in store. Those that weren’t suitable were fed to the pride of lions they kept.
      It’s all in this 3 part TV series https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7335228/

  15. Good morning, Gentlefolk, I wonder if we might see some parallels here:

    Management Organisation

    An organisation is like a tree full of monkeys, all on different limbs at different levels.

    Some monkeys are climbing up, some down.

    The monkeys on top look down and see a tree full of smiling faces.

    The monkeys on the bottom look up and see nothing but arseholes.

    1. It’s just the general situation in most countries. And the who have to look up have to pay for everything including the most useless at the top.

  16. Morning all

    SIR – Nick Timothy’s assertion (Comment, September 13) that “we need to raise more taxes” to pay for healthcare comes straight from the Old Labour playbook.

    Having worked as a consultant in the NHS, I don’t believe that any government has got to grips with public-sector waste and profligacy. Even Margaret Thatcher failed.

    It was recently reported that there are more people employed by the health service who have no medical or nursing qualifications than there are doctors and nurses. As a patient, I have found some of the treatment to be exemplary; some less so.

    The basic problem with the NHS is that patients are disenfranchised. Radical thinking is required to solve this problem – but nobody in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet is capable of it.

    Ian Strachan

    SIR – In 1993, when I was managing director of a care home company, the chairman and I were invited to the House of Commons to speak to a select committee on health.

    Our experience in the care home sector had made us aware of the huge problem looming over the Government, caused by an ageing population and the consequent difficulty in finding finance to meet the growing demand for care. It was apparent that the Community Care Act, implemented in April of that year, was going to hinder rather than help.

    We suggested that a small increase in National Insurance contributions might be taken and ring-fenced for social care. We were laughed out of the meeting. If the idea had at least been considered at the time, we would not be in the dreadful state we are now.

    Anthea Burdess

    Bradfield, Berkshire

    SIR – Introducing his plans for health and social care on September 7, the Prime Minister said: “Our National Health Service is the pride of the whole United Kingdom.”

    As a retired general practitioner who worked for 41 years for the NHS, I do not share his pride. When I was in practice, I frequently felt embarrassed to be part of the NHS: embarrassed that I could not always see patients as soon as I and they would have wished; embarrassed that I could not arrange scans and other complex diagnostic procedures promptly; embarrassed that most of my hospital referrals had to wait months, or sometimes years, to be dealt with; and embarrassed that many other European countries were outperforming Britain in important areas such as cardiovascular disease, cancer treatment and the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    There are many talented, dedicated and hard-working clinical staff in the NHS, but their efforts are frequently frustrated by the stifling dysfunctional bureaucracy that goes with a nationalised industry. Until we face up to that reality, we will never have a health service that really meets the needs of the British people.

    Dr Tim Cantor

    Tunbridge Wells,

    1. ‘Morning, Epi. An interesting BTL comment about today’s NHS letters:

      Janet Thrawn
      15 Sep 2021 1:56AM
      I am a retired hospital consultant, as are many of my friends. If any are leftie in outlook then they hide it very well. Most of us are antipathetic to our GP colleagues, and resentful of their part-time professional lives. My brother is a GP, as are many of his friends. They are mostly socialist, and also nationalist. They have no complaints about Tony Blair’s new contract. They are in clover. Work part-time NHS, do private work several days a week. Happy days. Any massive organisation like the hospital-based NHS is bound to have administrative inefficiencies as hospitals strive to obey Government directives on collecting mostly useless data, observing diversity and inclusivity targets, and making all staff aware of how to lift patients, etc. Worthy in theory, mostly worthless in practice. Nothing short of dramatic and radical rethinking is required, but no party has the cohones to even discuss it.

    1. Which reminds me; we had to throw out our living Christmas Tree, so I must look into a replacement.
      For an extra tenner, we had a tree that did at least 5 Christmasses.

  20. Morning again

    Vaccinating children

    SIR – Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, attempts to justify the decision to vaccinate children aged between 12 and 15 by citing the benefits to their mental health, and the reduced disruption to schooling (report, September 14).

    These “benefits” only exist thanks to the disastrous political decision to shut schools, and the Government’s use of fear tactics to scare the public into compliance with its Covid policy.

    They have nothing to do with Covid directly: they are simply consequences of bad government.

    Alton Ainley

    Fenny Compton, Warwickshire

    SIR – As an undergraduate at Edinburgh University Medical School, I was taught about the consent process. The main concept instilled into my thinking was the phrase primum non nocere: “first, do no harm”.

    This is particularly important when vaccinating children where there is risk, albeit small, with no discernible benefit for the individual.

    Dr Stephen Swindells

    Ripon, North Yorkshire

    1. Good to see D Swindells cite the ethical statement, “first do no harm”, as that action appears to be missing from many, if not all, the doctors involved with this duplicitous government. However, he mentions that there exists a small risk: while that is true for the moment of the jab and for a few weeks or months post the jab he has absolutely no idea what the medium and long term effects could or will be. Therefore the risk cannot be defined at the moment, either for children or adults of any age.

  21. 338857+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Wednesday 15 September: The Cabinet is incapable of the radical thinking needed to help the NHS

    We are thinking that these cabinet types are THINKING, on any level, what i’m thinking is thinking on a national level has been superseded by
    ordered, orders arriving from a higher office.

    They have played the part before, magnificently it must be said, a lesson in appeasement & rubber stamping, the touching of the forelock was to say the least… touching, regarding brussels.

    I’m also thinking that a peoples radical reset is urgently needed as with a
    re- shuffle of 650 OUT reset , replace, 650 IN not in one hit, but a few eliminated at every voting opportunity, that adds a large element of FEAR
    & that should be appreciated by the fear portraying politico’s.

    Time is surely limited as DOVER is pointing out daily these “parties” in question are gaining strength in changing the United Kingdoms infrastructure & establishing a kapo army.

  22. Russian elections: How democratic are they? 15 September 2021.

    In Russia, ahead of this week’s parliamentary and local elections, many opposition candidates have been prevented from running, and some forced to flee.
    The authorities insist the vote will be free and fair and deny claims it will be rigged in favour of the ruling party United Russia.

    How can anyone in the West ask such a question? The United States is now so corrupt it makes an utter mockery of being a Democracy while the UK is a Police State where Free Speech has been abolished and State Propaganda is a daily reality!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-58557994

    2. The trouble with democracy is that it will produce the wrong result unless it is carefully controlled.

      The French system is far from ideal but at least it is still very difficult to obtain a postal vote which means that the results are probably more honest than in either the UK or the USA.

      Postal voting existed in France until 1975, when it was banned (except in very limited circumstances) due to fears of voter fraud. The highly publicized use of widespread postal voting in the 2020 United States presidential election has reignited debate in France about the use of postal voting, but no consensus or concrete plans exist for reintroducing it.

      At the last general election in Britain postal votes came to nearly 20% of votes cast. I would have thought that an honest politician would be doing all that is possible to clean up the system but, it seems, there are very few honest politicians in Britain or anywhere else.

      1. I wonder what the percentage was before the enrichment of muslim paedophiles and terrorists, black stabbings, Bulgarian drug runners, Romanian organised crime.

      2. I used my postal vote in the last UK general election but I’ll only be able to continue doing so for the next five years. After that I become disenfranchised.

        [And, frankly, too bloody old to care!]

        1. We moved to France in 1989 and so I lost my vote thanks to Blair in 2004. Caroline has never been resident in Holland since her childhood and has never been entitled to vote anywhere in her life.

          I would have been quite happy with Blair robbing me of my vote if the EU – of which he was so very keen – had seen to it that all EU citizens had the right to vote in the EU countries in which they were officially resident – but of course neither Blair no any other of our grubby politicians are remotely interested in democracy at ground floor level.

          Are there any depths to the perfidy of the disgusting Mr Cameron? Having promised all British citizens resident in the EU a vote in the referendum he broke his word when it seemed as if they would not vote the right way.

          If British subjects are disenfranchised then the likes of Blair and Cameron don’t give a toss. Scum is too kind a word for them

          1. When we lived in Oz for four years it was compulsory to Vote, but because we moved around so much we never bother to register.
            I was once told off, but………
            I’ve just started reading one of my birthday presents The Whistle Blower by Robert Peston. What drew me to it was the way he described some the ‘the elite’ he has met, (not his quote) as those who would not bat an eyelid if a life was taken in their name.
            I just hope there is not the same out come as in The Ghost Writer.

      1. Yo minty

        i reguarly get ‘upticks’ from him

        Happy BD old fella, and 364 happy unbirthdays for the coming year

    3. Grattis på födelsedagen, Very Very Old Fella. Hope you are well and have a good day.👍🏻🍰🍷

      [I notice that Rastus has added an extra ‘Very’ for your birthday! 🤣]

      2. He certainly deserves it!

        I do hope he is well and thriving – I haven’t seen him here recently.

    4. Grattis på födelsedagen, Very Very Old Fella. Hope you are well and have a good day.👍🏻🍰🍷

      [I notice that Rastus has added an extra ‘Very’ for your birthday! 🤣]

    8. Since we don’t see you around these days, VVOF, I can only add my wishes for a Very Happy Birthday (and many more) here, rather than directly to you.

  25. Today is the first birthday of Gus and Pickles. When we are feeling strong, we will round them up, comb their hair, put on their bow-ties and take their photograph.

    There may well be a long delay…..{:¬))

          3. A feeble link between candles and The Two Ronnies…..(the connection is pretty thin I must admit)

    2. Good morning Bill

      I can’t believe how quickly a year has flashed by .

      Your cat journal has been a breath of fresh air , it has been a pleasure reading about their adventures in to the great unknown of your garden .

      Now that they are maturing into adulthood , there will be more fun ahead, thank you for posting all the lovely photos of them.

      3. Soon he’ll be all growed up.
        Er …. I may have to think that one through.
        On the plus side, it’s Battle of Britain Day.

    5. Good grief! Where has the year gone? You must be so delighted by their wonderful companionship and their foibles! Have a happy time! 😸😸

  26. This week’s failed letter to the DT:

    SIR — Most on the Right who are astounded because the Tories are no longer Conservative are guilty of having taken their eyes off the ball. Whilst the Right slumbered in a complacent torpor, the Left surreptitiously motivated their forces and inveigled themselves into every echelon of British society.

    Their malignant mitochondria insidiously infested the news media, the NHS, the judiciary, the police, education, the church, and now — as is clearly obvious to all — even the Conservative Party. The Right have their smug arrogance to blame for permitting this complete take-over by the Left happen right under their sleepy noses.

    A Grizzly B.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7591148dadcd56d1d091add655d69a336299438f3cb7fd1bb6e5056cb426cbcc.png It is no surprise to me that, in a country that has been completely taken over by the Left, any media outlet deemed to be on the Right will be attacked without mercy by the new Lefty establishment.

    If a positive and powerful underground movement designed to usurp that establishment is not made by the Right, and soon, it will be all over without a whimper. Any country gets the ruling class that it deserves. The UK is, right now, a socialist kingdom. Fight it or get used to it.

    1. The Right were not asleep. We believe in freedom and choice, welcoming a range of views to make our own minds up.

      However, Blair deliberately ruined this nation to create a voting bloc. A consistent, welfare dependent, destructive group devoted to the undoing of this nation. His massive expansion of the state created legions of non-jobs, public sector pay soared and the Left began their crusade.

      When we questioned it, we were screamed at. That worked at first, but now the racists, the liars, the scum, the mindless, fascistic Left have gone too far and even normal people just living their lives have looked around and said ‘that’s not right’.

      The Left have done exactly the same as they did in 1937, in Mao’s China, in Stalin’s Russia. They infiltrated, then poisoned. Their tactics don’t change. To defeat them we must be vigilant for the enemy within, and that’s going to mean when the war they start finishes them off, we don’t let the serpent grow back.

      1. “The Right were not asleep. We believe in freedom and choice, welcoming a range of views to make our own minds up.”

        Why are you telling me that? You are preaching to the converted; I’ve been passing that same message, on this very forum … and its forerunner, for the past eleven years.

        If you want to know more on the subject, read this excellent eBook:
        https://1518bef4-bd8f-4123-a4c4-d07f5878f592.filesusr.com/ugd/e42793_b3a9c979e20b414e943212ef97b1c28b.pdf

          1. No apology needed, wibbs. We exist to debate and your submission was full of pertinent observations.

    2. GBN is trying to do too much over too many hours.
      Mainstream telly is probably no longer the way to get your views across.

      1. The problem is that there is nowhere to get your views across. No one in power takes any notice of social media nor any of the fringe publications and websites.

  27. Shamima Begum tells UK: ‘I could help you fight terrorism because you clearly don’t know what you’re doing’. 15 September 2021.

    Former Islamic State (IS) bride Shamima Begum has told the UK that she can help fight terrorism in Britain “because you clearly don’t know what you’re doing”.

    The 22-year-old, who fled her east London home for Syria as a 15-year-old schoolgirl, said she wanted to be brought back to the UK and face terror charges in order to prove her innocence.

    She had her British citizenship stripped for travelling to the Middle East to join the terror group.

    She’ll be telling us next that she’s a Christian and was working for Mi6 all along!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/15/shamima-begum-tells-uk-could-help-fight-terrorism-clearly-dont/

    3. She saw baskets of heads and witnessed torture, and she shacked up with a nasty bit of work and had his babies .

      That creature from hell is a chameleon , how strange that she has adopted a Western facade of painted nails , make up and body shaping clothes.

      She probably witnessed the deaths of many people and probably applauded the cruelty of her cold blooded spouse .

      She was possibly a bully and torturer herself, she probably saw people pleading for their lives .

      As far as I can gather , she belonged to a death cult .

      I hope she burns in hell .

      2. She had watched light entertainment such as a captured pilot being burnt to death.
        Strangely enough, at 15, you and I would know that was not a nice thing to do. I doubt we’d have been turned on by it.

    4. It’s not just the fact that she must be punished for her crimes, but also she should be made an example of, in order to dissuade her fellow Muslims from following the same path in future. She must never be allowed to return to the UK.

  28. My washing machine started it’s spin cycle yesterday, went ‘boom’ and the drum filled with grey, acrid smoke. The cycle finished, the clothes came out.

    The question I’ve got is whether to bother with a repair with an indefinitely timeline (and cost) or spend £400 on a new machine.

    When our venerable dishwasher went sideways the chap quoted over £380 for repair. I told him a new machine was half that cost.

      1. Sadly my thinking too! Spending £200 on repair and parts only to need another machine in 3 months is just £200 down the drain.

      1. I think that’s part of the current plan.
        But there are places where the washing could become more soiled.

    4. One often finds that the cost of a spare part for e.g. a washing machine, dishwasher, vacuum cleaner etc. is more than 50% of the cost of a new appliance! It becomes a no-brainer – might as well buy a new one, because even if you repair the first fault, how soon will another fault appear? I’m sure manufacturers bump up the price of spares in order to persuade you to buy new.

      I like to ‘make-do-and-mend’ as much as possible, but it probably works out cheaper in the long run to buy a new machine. Pity, as it would be better for the environment to keep appliances as long as possible.

      1. This is my concern as well… what else will go wrong?

        While it might get another year, what next will fail? There’re new Samsung’s with 10 year motor warranties which look promising.

        I booked an engineer appointment for Sunday just to see.

    5. I’ve just bought a new washing machine to replace a 22 year old one (still going strong but showing signs of age), the new one’s spin cycle is so smooth I can balance a £1 coin on it on full tilt spin speed. The old one would be dancing across the floor.

    6. It was the spin cycle that broke the washing machine here.
      It was finding it more & more difficult to turn over & start the spin, giving a big ‘bump’ as it turned.
      Then it suddenly lost control & started spinning faster & faster & faster…the machine was literally rocking across the floor..I thought it might explode on me.
      Then abruptly stopped & gave up the ghost.
      My friend said the ball bearings had worn out.

      The landlady refused to replace it.

      I don’t want a cheap washing machine.
      In my experience they never work very well, & never last either.
      I don’t agree with using hardly any water…the clothes are not clean.
      I bought a Miele 3 years ago & it was total bliss.
      The difference was quite incredible, on many factors, but mostly the degree of cleanliness. Fresh really was fresh. The programmes are fully adjustable…etc etc.
      When I moved I sold it to my engineer friend, & he is now using it to do my washing for me (although I wash much by hand, the silks etc).
      I believe one can buy a 7kg Miele for £650.
      Imho they are worth every penny. Miele say all their machines last a min of 20 years.
      The engineering is superb.

      1. Ours is 15 years old, rose, and never had a problem. Had a 10-year guarantee, which demonstrates Miele’s confidence in its products.

    7. It was the spin cycle that broke the washing machine here.
      It was finding it more & more difficult to turn over & start the spin, giving a big ‘bump’ as it turned.
      Then it suddenly lost control & started spinning faster & faster & faster…the machine was literally rocking across the floor..I thought it might explode on me.
      Then abruptly stopped & gave up the ghost.
      My friend said the ball bearings had worn out.

      The landlady refused to replace it.

      I don’t want a cheap washing machine.
      In my experience they never work very well, & never last either.
      I don’t agree with using hardly any water…the clothes are not clean.
      I bought a Miele 3 years ago & it was total bliss.
      The difference was quite incredible, on many factors, but mostly the degree of cleanliness. Fresh really was fresh. The programmes are fully adjustable…etc etc.
      When I moved I sold it to my engineer friend, & he is now using it to do my washing for me (although I wash much by hand, the silks etc).
      I believe one can buy a 7kg Miele for £650.
      Imho they are worth every penny. Miele say all their machines last a min of 20 years.
      The engineering is superb.

  29. Johnson is not having a good few days politically: first, the leap in NI rates takes him below Starmer in the ratings; second, the confusion and the usual U-turn Central reaction around the people control measure that is “vaccine passports”; third, the ongoing “vaccinate” the 12 -15 yo row, and finally, today, GB News report a record high inflation rise of 3.2%.

    Long may his travails confound both him and his rotten to the core government.

      1. Not possible. A U turn implies he is going in one direction in the first place. In reality he is all over the place.

        2. It reminds me of when Christo was a child and we tried to explain the meaning of the word omnipresent to him. “Does this mean,” said Christo, “that God is all over the place and needs to be better organised?”

          1. I like that! (But he wasn’t a Gunner, motto “Ubique” translated as “Everywhere” , often referred to as “All over the bloody place”)

          2. Talking of football supporters at Arsenal I did enjoy the announcement that the actor who played the King if Siam in the musical film never wore after-shave lotion on his bald pate because he was a Liverpool supporter and Yul never wore cologne.

    2. And from Me Happy birthday Old Fella, I have recent experience of how treasured those happy occasion can be.
      I hope you have a good day.

    3. September is a busy month! Do we all predate the resumption of telly broadcasting? Those January nights were pretty interminable.
      VeryVery Happy Birthday, VeryVery Old Fella.

    1. I think the statists are quite happy with the lack of free speech and voting corruption because it suits them.

      Odd, when it doesn’t, they scream and shout. Far simpler for them just to admit their hypocrisy.

  32. CalMac Ferries have announced that the businesses which have been asked to quote for the building of new ferries are all outside the UK, in Rumania, Poland and Turkey. So what we have is a nationalised company in Scotland – Calmac -not buying their ships from the nationalised ship-building company, Ferguson’s.
    Instead the order will be places with foreign shipyards that have been subsidised by their governments for decades.

    2. It appears they will be considered in the future but haven’t the capacity at the moment owing to the debacle of the 2 Calmac ferry over-runs and costs

      1. Aha! In the future, eh? The law of unintended consequences!
        Good morning, Alec! How are you getting on? Nice bit of weather up there!

    2. I thought these ‘refugee’ camps were ISIS/Taliban hunting grounds?
      How come she’s got away with showing her flesh (face in particular).

        1. ‘Morning, Anne, liked your little rhyme but now (I guess tongue in cheek) you are delving into superfluity – a well-known woke and journo trait.

    3. Clever, cleverer, cleverest.
      Never let it rest;
      Till you’re really clever,
      If not the cleverest.

    3. OK, let’s take everything you have first. Once that’s all gone, we’ll lend you equipment suitable for our consideration of your role.

      You don’t like that though, will you?

  38. ER at it again Junction 23 for South Mimms a d Junction 8 at Reigate to junction 9 at Leatherhead. Another blockage in Kent due to a demonstration on the roundabout at Junction 1B causing congestion on the approach to the Dartford crossing. Police need to get tough with these idiots.

    1. Police get tough? No chance. They won’t do anything until after lunch – apart from arresting motorists who take the law in their own hands.

      1. I learned that 80 years ago Anne but pretended I believed it to follow the money. A farthing went a long way in my early years.

      2. Christo and Henry went on believing in Father Christmas for many years because they worked out that he only brought presents to those who believed in him.

    3. They only get tough if you tend to tell thing as they are.
      Boris’s water cannon would have come in handy.

        1. I think he had two stored away some where it was during his term as London mayor.
          I can’t imagine they were sent for scrap.
          My word since the ‘bastards’ got rid of Thatcher we have had some terrible people in charge of this once safe, respected and socially structured country.

    1. ‘…halal consumers eat more meat per capita than the general population…’

      I look forward to XR giving them special attention in their next lecture on the perils of livestock farming.

    2. No, it isn’t. The entire practice should be outlawed permanently and the muslims reminded they are tolerated guests. We will not change to suit them. They must adapt to suit us.

          1. I completely agree wibbling. But again “we” have no power or say whatsoever in what is going on. It is the government’s doing and, until there is civil disobedience on a grand scale, it will continue. But then, of course, the police will be turned on us.

  40. Last night, listening to “Today in Parliament” – Radio 4; I heard an MP going on about special rights for black expectant mothers . . ?
    The MP claimed they weren’t being treated as well as the white mothers . . . .I didn’t get the whole gist of the MP’s complaints, but it sounded very much like a BLM take on supposed “white privelege” . . !!
    I think the MP may have been Marsha de Cordova, the shadow women and equalities secretary . .?

    2. Yes, but I imagine she’s skirting the issue of single mothers, an unknown father and general fecklessness amongst the welfare dependent black minorities.

  41. Last night, listening to “Today in Parliament” – Radio 4; I heard an MP going on about special rights for black expectant mothers . . ?
    The MP claimed they weren’t being treated as well as the white mothers . . . .I didn’t get the whole gist of the MP’s complaints, but it sounded very much like a BLM take on supposed “white privelege” . . !!
    I think the MP may have been Marsha de Cordova, the shadow women and equalities secretary . .?

    2. The EU loses hundreds of millions through fraud, graft, corruption and plain theft. The vaccine nonsense was delayed because the buyer was trying to skim off the top!

      As regards it main budget – the EU is forbidden from carrying over a deficit. It has to spend within it’s means. However, because it’s a bunch of moronic communists, it spends next years money ‘this year’, effectively doubling it’ income. It’s still indebted, but clever fiddling and accounting keeps the costs off book.

      This is why it is so eager to have it’s own tax income. VAT goes to the EU, after all but their goal was a separate tax entirely. One removed from national governments but collected by, but never seen by them. The EU would then hike this tax as it wanted.

    1. Labelling others is the Left’s latest weapon. Make people think they’re not ‘acceptable’ by labelling them. Distinguish, identify and erase your enemies.

      The Left haven’t changed.

      1. 338857+ up ticks,
        Afternoon JR,
        I believe he is Norm Macdonald sad to say he died recently of cancer aged 61,RIP.

        1. Thanks ogga. I’m going to check if there are any talks/speeches by him on You Tube and articles. I like to do that when I come across someone new.

    3. Cisters, cisters
      There were never such devoted cisters

      Lord help the mister
      Who comes between me and my cister
      And lord help the cister who comes between me and my man

  44. Our doctor, our lovely Françoise, who lectures at university and is a fully qualified surgeon as well as being a GP, has been suspended because she refuses to have the vaccine.

    She knows considerably more about the subject than the Jobsworths who suspended her.

    2. That is bloody disgusting what are her reasons for not wanting to be ‘jabbed’ ?
      Of course i may be completely wrong but my guess is she doesn’t believe it is actually a vaccine. And this seems to be what is being revealed in the UK now. Older generation are now being found to have lost some of their supposed immunity to covid. Although they have been ‘jabbed’ twice. I think this booster is just the usual Ars* covering exercise that has to follow another of the ‘experts’ and the ‘elites’ and government eff ups.
      They so rarely get anything in the right order between all of them all.

      1. They talk about a ‘fall in antibodies’ but those naturally decline and are expensive for the body’s system – the long – term protection comes from memory T cells. I’m trusting to mine and not bothering with any booster.

        1. The problem is Ellie they simply didn’t do enough research before the started to insist people had to have the ‘jab’.
          Because of my reactions to the ‘Jabs’ there is no way i’m having a booster.
          It was only over the weekend that i saw what seemed to be an admission from another ‘expert’ that some people have had problems with their hearts swelling due to the ‘Jab’, that seems to be what happened to me. It takes over a month to resettle to normal rhythm. Today from the beginning of August is the first time my pulse had been normal. When the heart is missing its normal rhythm there many other complications including water retention that can effect breathing.
          The ‘expert’ said rather flippantly that “people soon get over it”………… Really ? I wonder how many people have died because they didn’t really get over it and were classified as dying of covid.

          1. The heart problems seem to be more prevalent amongst young men – so you’re in good company there…… glad things have settled down now. As for giving them to schoolchildren – totally wrong when they’re hardly at any risk from the virus.

            I had the AZ jab and OH had the Pfiizer – no problems for either of us but I’d be very wary of having another, now that all these issues and deaths have been reported.

    3. Perhaps she can set up on her own in some way?
      Reiner Fuellmich is setting about buying a hospital or 3 where non-vaxx medical staff can practice.
      There needs to be a network formed.

    4. This is absolutely awful Rastus. The galloping state control of our lives is unbelievable. And probably the next thing to happen will be she will be removed from the list of qualified doctors and/or struck off official bodies. I am so sorry 😐. I find it hard to believe how people cannot understand what is really going on over here either – we are not far behind with all that’s going on in the U.K.

      1. ‘They’ are trying to make that a rule here too. I did a survey yesterday and said I was totally against such coercion and blackmail and that people must have autonomy over what they allow to be injected into their own bodies.

        1. What I want to know is, where are all the Yooman Rights lawyers? For instance, Cherie Blair, what do you have to say about this? Why is there not an outright full scale rebellion by all MPs?

          I thought the Nuremberg Code was signed by the U.K. so how have we come to this?

          1. They are not interested in our ‘ooman rites’ – only those of illegal aliens.

            Some MPs do sem to have murmerings against the coercion, but not nearly enough of them.

      2. On television yesterday I saw Boris Johnson say: “The vaccine is jolly good.”

        That is about as deep as his argument goes – the man is a dangerous nincompoop who is guided by freaks like the socially and sexually autistic Whitty.

          1. If he looks like a freak, behaves like a freak, thinks like a freak, and talks like a freak then the odds are he is a freak..

        2. Of course Boris Johnson thinks the vaccine is “jolly good”, according to imagery of the events he’s allegedly been vaccinated three times!

    1. Morning Richard ,

      I do hope the several alternative non Christian BLM cultures who reside in Britain , who feel it is their right to change our treasured literature , history, statues, and our Anglo Saxon mindset .. start to infight amongst themselves .

      We need them to quarrell amongst each other , cut off each others hands and inflict Sharia/ Sunni/ and Um Danga Dunga cooking pot practises , and leave us alone .. then we can deport them all .

      2. The youngsters fighting in the streets have made a start – by cutting off the hand of one of them……..and stabbing others.

      3. Morning Belle! The only thing wrong with your remark is that “deport” is an old French word from ‘deporter’ to shove off, sling your hook. The French still practice this quint custom. In Britain, I think you are getting it confused with the word ‘import’.

    3. Mr Khan, if you don’t like this country, you’re free to leave. We’re what we are because of our culture. We don’t want to turn it into your version because then you wouldn’t want to live here, would you?

  46. 338857+ up ticks,
    You don’t have to look far, I’ll give out a clue, he marched them up to the top of the hill then he ……

    Any likely looking threat to reset is to be cut off at any branch meeting we are talking master manipulators here, as has happened before covert forces are in play.

    Dt,
    Is the UK really ready for a Right-wing news channel? ho my aching sides,
    any wingalingading news channel of honest reporting would suffice.

    As chair and lead presenter Andrew Neil leaves GB News just three months after launch, we look at what’s going on behind the scenes

    1. 338857+ up ticks.
      O2O,
      They use a great deal of that taqiya material in parliament do they not OG,

      They most assuredly do, daily, every time a boat comes in you might say.

    3. Morning Ogga and all.

      I am resigned to the fact that, one day, she will be allowed back into the U.K., going on past evidence. It is not the public who will “allow” it but the government. After all, they allowed all those other male jihadis back didn’t they so what harm can a single woman do?!

      1. 338857+ up ticks,
        Morning VW,
        Then if the government in question or the questionable government errs twice in succession then it must be changed, & NOT supported for a third shot.

        If it errs ongoing then it can be honestly taken to be their
        treacherous agenda.

        That in term among decent peoples dictates for decent peoples kids sake serious steps MUST be taken to remove them.

        Recent history points out, to allow these politico’s carte
        blanche for the good of the party’s counterfeit name
        ie encourages mass paedophilia rape & abuse, mass
        knifings, mass illegal uncontrolled immigration, double mass sh!te.

    5. She made a mistake, she says.

      Yes, kids do. Usually that’s rebelling – not leaving the country to one specifically advised against going to to become a Jihadi bride where you kill Britons.

      Her mistake is going to cost her living in the desert for the rest of her life. Maybe she’ll learn from it. Maybe it should be an abject lesson to all the other infiltrating terrorists.

    6. I noticed that she figures prominently in the Telegraph, Daily Mail and Daily Express. Obviously no coincidence. Clearly we are about to be treated to the spectacle of this murderous thug in a skirt being rehabilitated and allowed back into the country.

      1. 338857+ up ticks,
        Morning JR,
        Then we must NOT consider it, but bloody well do it, that is get rid of those agreeing to her return, they are
        continuing to put decent peoples lives at risk which they, the politico’s are doing daily via their DOVER campaign.

  49. I see English Touring Opera have been forced to dispute the story from yesterday that they sacked 14 musicians because they were not diverse enough…..

    I received this email this morning:

    English Touring Opera:
    Arrangements for engaging freelance musicians
    English Touring Opera has written today to a number of audience members and musicians who have questions about a report in the Sunday Times related to the recruitment of musicians. The text of our letter is below.

    English Touring Opera engages freelance orchestral musicians for seasonal work, on the basis of excellence, in the same ways as singers and technical staff are engaged for seasonal work. For decades, English Touring Opera has worked with different players for different repertoire and with specialist period, contemporary and chamber groups. When players are engaged for a season, they are advised that a seasonal booking bears no obligation for player or company for future seasons.

    This summer English Touring Opera held open auditions for orchestral musicians in order to continue to hear the very best artists in this country, and strengthen the broad pool of players on whom the company calls. Panellists for those auditions were Gerry Cornelius (Music Director), Holly Mathieson (Associate Artist), Philip Turbett (Orchestral Manager) and guest Chi-Chi Nwanoku (distinguished orchestral musician, and founder of the Chineke! Orchestra). The auditions were immensely rewarding and exciting; several musicians were offered opportunities to work with English Touring Opera for the first time, based on their ability.

    English Touring Opera Director James Conway wrote to a number of players who had performed on tour with the company in seasons 2018 and 2019, but who were not going to be asked for Spring 2022, to advise them of this, to thank them for their work in other seasons, and to indicate that English Touring Opera could ask them to perform in future seasons.

    The company recognises that many of these freelance musicians will have been disappointed, but will always treat people fairly and based on their performance over 50 highly talented musicians will be offered contracts for the forthcoming ETO productions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, recognising the pressures faced by freelance musicians and the need to support a vital part of the music industry, English Touring Opera paid full performance fees to all 67 freelancers engaged on our cancelled spring 2020 tour and created a substantial online programme to serve our regular and new audiences and give freelance artists paid opportunities during an extremely challenging time.

    English Touring Opera is proud of its commitment to the community of high-quality freelance musicians on which the company depends and welcomes talent from the wide range of backgrounds represented amongst them. We will continue to consider every opportunity to work with staff and artists from increasingly diverse backgrounds, wherever we find professional excellence and know that this ambition will only improve the quality of our performances.

    We recognise the Musicians’ Union mission to champion all their members and are confident that the Union will continue to find English Touring Opera a supportive and fair producer.

    3. No mention in the email of the real reason for not employing the original musicians. In the letter, James Conway, the ETO Director wrote:-
      Touring Opera is committed to increasing all kinds of diversity in its team, and while there have been appreciable, steady advances on stage in this area, we have prioritised increased diversity in the orchestra. This is in line with the firm guidance of the Arts Council, principal funder of ETO’s touring work, and of most of the trust funds that support ETO.

      So it was diversity which was the impetus behind the change, not excellence of performers.

    4. They brought in a non-white person so the 4 selectors were ethnically diverse. Perhaps one of the 3 highly paid employees would like to give up their job to a non-White so that their management team had the diversity they preach? Of course, that’ll be different: all these liberals and Wokerati want to hurt others and their views and rules never apply to them.

  50. There’s some opposition in Westminster but will it be enough? The debate is scheduled for the 20th of September, as is that on the requirement for health and social care workers to be vaccinated.

    You recently signed the petition “Outlaw discrimination against those who do not get a Covid-19 vaccination”:

    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/575801

    The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee has published the Government’s response to its report on plans to introduce domestic Covid-status certification, also known as Covid passports.

    Read the Government’s response (HTML): https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmpubadm/670/67002.htm

    Read the Government’s response (PDF): https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/7176/documents/75707/default/

    The Government’s response states that the Government believes that certification would provide a public health benefit, and that it will set out more detail about the settings where certification will be required in due course.

    Responding to the Government’s response, the Chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, William Wragg MP, said:

    “With recent analysis suggesting that vaccinated people carry as much of the virus as the unvaccinated into any setting, the disappointing lack of any scientific basis for the Government’s decision to go ahead could reasonably lead people to conclude that there is in fact no such basis. If the real goal is to drive vaccine uptake, then it is a deeply cynical approach that will be counterproductive.”

    Read the Committee’s press release about the Government’s response: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/327/public-administration-and-constitutional-affairs-committee/news/157355/covid-passport-policy-lacks-scientific-evidence-base/

    What did the Committee’s report on Covid-status certification say?

    The Committee’s report said the Government had so far failed to make the scientific case in favour of the system, and raised concerns that such a system could “disproportionately discriminate” against people on the basis of their race, religion, age or socio-economic background. They concluded plans for Covid passports were “unnecessary” and “unjustified”.

    Read the report (HTML):
    https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmpubadm/42/4202.htm

    Read the report (PDF):
    https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/6264/documents/69158/default/

    Read the Committee’s press release:
    https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/327/public-administration-and-constitutional-affairs-committee/news/155788/no-justification-for-covid-passports-say-committee/

    What is the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee?

    The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee is a cross-party group of MPs which examines constitutional issues, and the quality and standards of administration provided by Civil Service departments. It’s a cross-party committee and is independent of the Government.

    Find out more on their website:
    https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/327/public-administration-and-constitutional-affairs-committee/

    You can get updates on their work by following the Committee on Twitter:
    https://twitter.com/CommonsPACAC

    Thanks,
    The Petitions team
    UK Government and Parliament

    2. Why does the government say we need vaccine passports to prevent passing on the virus but elsewhere that vaccinated people can’t do what they want as they can still pass on the virus?

      3. Because none of this is about a virus nor your health. The virus is a side show, a part of the whole, a trojan horse to bring in control and movement licences to all. Without the fear of death (and note how they ramped that one up) the sort of controls they want over our lives (even down to what we will be allowed to spend our money on) would never have been accepted. They are after the sort of control which will decide when/if you can breed, when you will die. They want to control your cash, your access to it. They want your property and your assets. ‘You will own nothing and be happy’ – Schwab. Check out UN Agenda 21 for 2030. Understand what is going on. Read up about the WEF, Klaus Schwab. Civil unrest will greatly assist their agenda. That is what the protestors are all about on the M25 – to make us angry, to make the wider population angry. That is where the govt’s recent imports will come in useful, to put us down.

        It’s not about a virus, it is not about our health. The ‘vaccine’ (which is not a vaccine, is gene therapy) is an agent of depopulation, that is why govt is accepting the deaths 1,632 so far in the UK as a side effect and not withdrawing the vaccine. If govt doesn’t do something about it, it obviously wants it to happen. Govt will move in hours if to wants something done.

        Know what you are fighting. Get with the fight.

        See these for further information and clarity. They are about 30 mins in length.

        Ernst Wolf
        https://odysee.com/@LongXXvids:c/Ernst-Wolf-speech—summary:3

        Reiner Fuellmich
        https://beforeitsnews.com/prophecy/2021/09/new-dr-reiner-fuellmich-they-are-making-so-many-mistakes-we-are-close-to-a-tipping-point-2523729.html

        1. Have you heard the Delingpod with Dan Tubb? Says the same as Ernst Wolf and Catherine Austin Fitts broadly.

      4. Some months ago Chancellor Merkel said that ALL countries in Europe had agreed the necessity of vaccine passports.

    3. They’ve clearly stirred up a hornet’s nest with these proposals as two petitions are now getting a debate and also the Public Accounts Committee appears to be against cetification requirements.

  51. Sadly I can’t post Allison Pearson’s article in today’s DT as I’m not a subscriber, but it’s well up to her usual standard as she skewers Witless – “the first CMO in history to go against the advice of leading virologists on the JCVI” – as she suggests, I doubt Witless has met a 12 year old recently!

    2. Has Chris Whitty ever met a 12-year-old child? Somehow, I doubt it.

      At a Downing Street briefing, where he explained why he would be approving Covid vaccinations for 12 to 15-year-olds against the recommendation of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (while simultaneously managing to claim the JCVI agreed with him), the Chief Medical Officer made an audacious assertion. Children, said he with that eerie, extra-terrestrial smile of his, “are capable of understanding” complex decisions about their health.

      If Professor Whitty had spent just one breakfast with a 12-year-old, he would know they were not capable of understanding simple decisions regarding the whereabouts of their own trainers, let alone the safety data of a novel mRNA vaccine.

      Incredibly, the CMO went on to say that a pre-teen would be allowed to overrule parents who don’t want them to be jabbed, if they pass something called “a competence assessment”. When he said this, he looked about as comfortable as a man who has recently had a haemorrhoidectomy and is balancing his buttocks with great care on an inflatable gel cushion. He could hardly meet the camera’s gaze.

      Could this be the same Professor Whitty who, back at the start of the pandemic, admitted that the decision on whether to vaccinate became a lot more problematic as you went down the age groups, because children didn’t really suffer from Covid? Must have been some other fellow. This one gave no medical evidence to support his hugely controversial decision, preferring to waffle and wiffle while claiming that jabbing youngsters (who have no need of vaccination) would “avoid disruption to education”.

      Heaven knows, there have been some Kafkaesque moments in the past 18 months, but this one took the Dark Chocolate Hobnob.

      “Let’s increase anxiety in children so we can reduce anxiety in children!” That is the gist of what the CMO was saying, though I accept he has argued the opposite.

      A Government and medical establishment that have repeatedly closed schools, regardless of well-grounded fears about damage to their mental health, was now seriously suggesting that children must be vaccinated to keep schools open and avoid damage to their… oh, mental health!

      At the risk of being disobliging, it’s worth pointing out that closing schools was a political decision taken in the UK, but not elsewhere. British children missed more education than kids in any other European nation except Italy. Not because of the threat to them from the virus, in my view, but because our spineless Education Secretary prostrated himself before militant trade unions who regard children as a nuisance to be navigated between pay packets.

      Just look at that Oxford University study which found that 98.4 per cent of students who were sent home for 10 days under the ludicrous bubble system never went on to develop Covid. It was bubbles and mass testing of children that caused the disruption in education, not the virus.

      So, it is not just disingenuous of Whitty to claim kids must be vaccinated for the sake of their mental health; it is downright deceitful. But what else could he do? The vaccinators for 12 to 15-year-olds were hired months ago, the Department of Health was drumming its fingers, and ministers were going public with their “frustration”. Some argument needed to be cobbled together that would allow Professor Whitty to become the first CMO in history to go against the advice of leading virologists on the JCVI.

      The Any Old Excuse he eventually came up with was eagerly seized upon by Sajid Javid. “I have accepted the unanimous recommendations from the UK chief medical officers to offer vaccination to those aged 12 to 15,” he said. “This will protect young people from catching Covid, reduce transmission in schools and help keep pupils in the classroom.”

      No, it won’t, Secretary of State. The vaccinated are still able to be infected with the Delta variant – have they really not explained that to you? Your own Green Book on Vaccination states: “Fewer than 5 per cent of Covid cases are among children, and in general they appear to exhibit mild disease”; and: “They are also unlikely to be key drivers of transmission at a population level.” Forget Covid; what children need protection from is the Government.

      It is hard to overstate what a grave and potentially divisive moment this is in the public health of the nation. The law on consent may not be new, but a Conservative government has seen fit to undermine parental authority on a matter which properly belongs to the family, not the state. (Imagine the mega-strops over the Shreddies!) And it is doing so in the face of objections from some of its own experts.

      Although it was under huge pressure to wave through vaccination for the younger cohort, the JCVI refused, recommending that children aged between 12 and 15 should “only get a jab if they are clinically vulnerable, or live with someone who is”. In truth, the only thing you can say with certainty about vaccinating 12 to 15-year-olds is we just don’t know. Professor Whitty may say blithely that adverse effects from myocarditis are soon resolved – but does he know that for sure?

      You’d think a bit of caution was in order, wouldn’t you? “Fingers crossed and hope for the best” is not a strategy any decent country could endorse for its children, which means the UK has just sacrificed decency for expediency.

      I laughed when I heard Nadhim Zahawi, the Minister for Covid Vaccine Deployment, tell Radio 4’s Today programme that children who wanted the vaccine against their parents’ wishes would have their capacity to consent assessed by skilled “clinicians”. That’s not what my senior source in the vaccination programme says. I’m afraid the chances are your child’s skilled “clinician” will be Hannah, laid-off cabin crew for easyJet, who has only recently been hired as a vaccinator. What Hannah knows about Gillick competence could be written on an airline serviette.

      Professor Whitty stresses that vaccination is voluntary (his excuse if things go wrong), warning people not to “stigmatise” children who decide not to get jabbed. Once again, the CMO reveals an astonishing naivety about teenagers. NSPCC guidance on Gillick competence says: “Remember that consent is not valid if a young person is being pressured or influenced by someone else.”

      Seriously? As any parent of teenagers would tell you, there is not a waking moment when they are not being influenced by someone else. With scores of kids queuing up in a school hall, and only a thin curtain for privacy, what chance is there of having a meaningful discussion about informed consent or potential side-effects?

      I know some headteachers who are anxious about allowing children to provide their own consent on school premises. I know parents who are desperate to keep their little darlings away from a vaccine with no long-term safety data. But, honestly, what hope have they got against the juggernaut of peer pressure?

      Stop and think for a minute. Until today, schools have had to ask parental permission for a child to have a photograph taken or for a plaster to be applied to their cut knee. In a reckless rush to boost vaccination numbers, what we are witnessing is an unethical and unprecedented land grab by the state of the hearts and minds of our youth.

      1. Parent to child………. “You must have the jab.”
        ………Child, “Not having it”.

        Parent to child ……”Your’e not having the jab”.
        ……….Child, “I bluddy well am.

        2. Brat: Stamp, stamp, stamp; scream!, scream!, scream!; “Shan’t! shan’t! shan’t!”

          Proper parent: SLAP!!!

      2. Meanwhile, £xxxxxxx thousands in debt, my granddaughter, with just over a week to go to start her 3rd year at university, still has no schedule or even an idea of what will be taught and whether it will be on the premises or via Zoom.

          2. Oh Lord…isn’t that full of trouble-makers – both staff and undergraduates. Who vote twice…

      4. If children can decide to have the vaccine, why can’t they buy cigarettes?
        After all, they are capable of understanding complex issues regarding their health…

    1. You misunderstand. He’s taking her back to the hotel to show off his latest frocks from the Paris couture’s.

    2. That whole page, vw, seems to epitomise the current crop of slutty tarts displaying their all for all to see.

    5. Be careful. A lot of fabrics that seem normal become see-through to photos using high-powered flashlights. She knows what’s she’s putting on show in the corridor photos for her to use in self-promotion but that dress probably wouldn’t look see-through in the street (after all, where’s the money in that?).

  53. Good old BBC – First of three, thirty minute, anti-English programmes on Radio 4. Nothing to do with the current push for another referendum on Scotch independence of course.

  56. From today’s Telegraph . .
    “Fire knocks out key electricity cable from France”
    The Interconnector, that largely draws on power from French nuclear stations, supplies more energy into the grid than all the UK’s windfarms . .
    And yet our policy is to keep building more and more windmills . .!

    2. …and erroneously named ‘Solar Farms’, that take away acres of crop growing, arable land that could reduce our dependance on 39% of imported food.

      1. Can’t do anything sensible like putting the panels on factory rooftops – – and leave farmland for what it does best can they?

  58. 338857+ up ticks,
    The priti awful & tubbs the turk are allegedly supplying the Channel border force with jet skis, I believe it is to allow the playing of water polo in between escort to DOVER duties.

  59. Julie Burchill
    AOC, the Met Gala and the misery of fashion
    14 September 2021, 12:18pm
    https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/blt549c26bdaaab2dc1/6140892764c8007a9bde96a7/GettyImages-1340159480.png?format=jpg&width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds
    *
    *
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    Fouquieria • a day ago
    Those Met Gala celebrity outfits… the unbearable in the unwearable.

    CKB • a day ago
    I imagine this is pretty much what the Roman elite looked like when the Visigoths came crashing through the Northern gates.

    1. Does the woman on the right carry a bicycle pump with her to keep things inflated to the right level?

          1. There is nothing more revolting, off-putting, or a complete turn-off than plastic tits. Proper breasts, of any size, with a natural hang, are worth their weight in gold.

          1. The origin of the Victorian bustle. Europeans had begun exploring Africa and what a Ghanaian woman I used to know called, “a bum you can sit a tea cup on” became the height of fashion.

    4. Could we start by taking all of her property away? Not just the house, but all her posessions.

      We could give her a tent to stay in – a leaking one. After all, if she loves socialism so much, she’s incredibly eager to remain in a capitalism economy. Or is she just a massive hypocrite?

  60. Cressida Dick is staying as Met chief, but who else would take the poisoned chalice? 15 September 2021.

    After many calls for her resignation, Dick is the latest in a line of commissioners to be blamed for the police service’s failures.

    Lol. Then who else should we blame? This article is quite amazing in that it denies that anything can or should be done about the stupidity and incompetence that Dick has presided over; not a little of it personal, and that she should stay because there is no one who could do any better! If this is so then we should just sack the lot and go back to the Bow Street Runners!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/15/cressida-dick-met-chief-commissioners-police

    1. The big problem for the UK police is that the distinct deterioration in recruiting standards was initiated way back in 1978 with the implementation of the idiotic and asinine graduate-entry scheme. I warned against this at the time and I have not shut up since. Prior to that, police recruitment was implemented by choosing the best physical and intelligent specimens from a wide range of experienced personnel. Those who had a wide experience of life in “civvy street” or the armed forces formed the bulk of recruitment. Applicants had to pass a wide range of intelligence (IQ), physical and comprehension tests; the emphasis was always on common sense and this was determined by searching questions at the interview stage. It was a system that had stood the test of time; it wasn’t broken so did not need fixing.

      Unfortunately, the halfwits in the government and their snivel serpent lackies degreed that old-time coppers were now dinosaurs and some injection of “intellect” from outside was need to bring the police into the future. As a result they were inundated with applications from graduates with lower degrees in social sciences, media studies and music. Theses ingenues, with little or no experience of life on the streets, were not only recruited, but they were given acceleration promotion. As time went by, this lot, now in control and boosted by their Common Purpose dogma, were in a position to continue recruiting (and indoctrinating) like minds.

      This brings us to the conundrum of how to replace Dick. Every possible candidate currently serving at high rank in the British police has been cut from the same cloth and brainwashed by the same ideological claptrap. Maybe it is time to cut to the chase and locate some retiring admiral or general (one who can be proven to be trusted) to overhaul a failed system and return some credibility — not to mention a soupçon of military discipline — back into the British police.

      I somehow doubt that the lizards in charge will listen to this brand of old-fashioned common sense, though.

      1. Unfortunately a similar situation exists in the military, so the liklihood of getting a retired admiral, general or air marshall who is not infected with the same woke BLM LBGT idological claptrap is pretty thin.

        1. I’m sure that a proper recruitment programme and interrogation of suitable candidates (by those with the correct mindset) would find what we are looking for. They would also have a caveat on their recruitment that matters must improve within a set period of time or they would be summarily dismissed without pension. Not all of those enjoying high rank in the armed forces [note: I don’t use the term “services”] are tainted. Yet!

      2. I was privileged to have met a soldier who served briefly as a Chief Constable at the end of WWII. They needed someone, he was available and took the job (for less than a year IIRC).

        1. The most successful and innovative police chief of the past century was Captain Sir Percy Sillitoe, KBE, who famously smashed the razor gangs of Sheffield and Glasgow in the aftermath of WWI. He inhabited a completely different universe to some of his successors, notably the Common Purpose-indoctrinated idiots now running the British police, among them hapless ‘modernist’ creatures such as Cressida Dick and Rachel Swann.

          Sillitoe gave his appraisal of what makes an ideal police officer: “It does not seem to me essential that a police constable should be a man of more than average intelligence or that he is necessarily going to be a better policeman if his standard of education is higher than the next man’s. My view was—and still is—that the police force needs not exceptionally high standards of education, but very great integrity and strength of character, combined with very great wisdom which comes to some—though not all—men when they have had wide and varied practical experience of human nature.”

          Sir Percy went on to dismiss claims that the concept of a graduate entry scheme, way back in the 1920s, was a good idea: “To me it seemed absurd that these young men should be sent out as the superiors of superintendents twice their age who often had a great fund of real knowledge acquired through their years of service, and who were now, as a result of this scheme, debarred from any chance of promotion beyond that rank.”

          Sillitoe was a pioneer in many aspects of modern policing. His autobiography, Cloak Without Dagger, makes compelling reading. It is high time that another Percy Sillitoe was located and recruited.

          The sooner we return to having proper, streetwise, and dedicated public servants running the police in the UK the better off everyone will be.

      3. Moh plays golf with many retired policemen , all of whom are Moh’s age or there abouts , and I have met a few , and they say the the same as you Grizz.

    1. That he got it after the shot doesn’t mean the shot caused it and there is no information on his long-term prospects.

      Even if we assume the shot caused it, on its own it means nothing. Even healthy young people like him are suffering damage and dying because of Covid, so we need a comparison of the risks on both sides of the equation.

      1. Do you accept death within 28 days of a positive pcr test – which by its nature cannot diagnose infection – as definitely covid without any further evidence, Dale? That’s how the numbers have been compiled. Yet an otherwise healthy person becomes very ill within days of the jab and suddenly there isn’t any proof of causation. Yeah, right.

          5. 🙂
            Edit: having read the NTTL intro again, is it says “ Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome”. There is, indeed, no mention of “reasoned”. Sorry, my bad (as my kids would say).

        2. Sue, why are you taking that line? I frequently post here on the deceptive statistics, data and definitions used in the Covid debacle, including that highly-misleading cover-all definition.

          FWIW I am a professional engineer and professional statistician who, from my analyses of both sides, is pro-vaccination for most but anti-vaccination for the youngest. I want to see reasoned and balanced debate, not partisan propaganda.

          2. You sound like my daughter-in-law when we were discussing the various merits of face masks. At one point she said “you do realise I am a project leader with the Medical Research Council, don’t you?”

            FWIW, our lovely son, who got himself double Pfizer jabbed to protect his vulnerable, shielding wife (above mentioned), has lost his hair and beard in a non-typical male hair loss pattern in the months following these so-called vaccinations. He looks moth-eaten. Goodness knows what is awaiting him in this gene-therapy package further down the line. The RAF didn’t succeed in their two attempts at seeing him off, but it is possible that Johnson and Gates will. My heart aches.

        3. “…death within 28 days of a positive pcr test – which by its nature cannot diagnose infection – as definitely covid without any further evidence, Dale? That’s how the numbers have been compiled.”
          Look at https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths and, as I am utterly fed up with pointing out, you’ll find both 28 days and “Covid on the death certificate”, and the latter is the noticeably bigger number. See below, for today’s data.
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/550b091de340e98ef86259de0b948116a364276f79c96c4e0c66c26071233ba2.jpg

        4. “…death within 28 days of a positive pcr test – which by its nature cannot diagnose infection – as definitely covid without any further evidence, Dale? That’s how the numbers have been compiled.”
          Look at https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths and, as I am utterly fed up with pointing out, you’ll find both 28 days and “Covid on the death certificate”, and the latter is the noticeably bigger number. See below, for today’s data.
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/550b091de340e98ef86259de0b948116a364276f79c96c4e0c66c26071233ba2.jpg

      2. Long term prospects: young men diagnosed with myocarditis 50% mortality rate within five years. Until the ‘vaccine’ myocarditis was unheard of in young men. You are only hearing about a selected few. The rest are being swept under the carpet.

          2. The other link is interesting but essentially states what we kniow. “Comorbidity rose substantially with age…”

          3. Government facts mean exactly what government want them to mean at any given time, Sue. Nothing more, nothing less. I suppose it has ever been thus but never more than now. They have been getting away with it for so long they have become blasé.

        1. True. I was just using the OP’s word.
          To respond in kind, many end up knocked out after a jab. . . .

    2. It is well known that a placebo can induce a response in a patient that the patient has been told to expect.
      This is why double blind trials are carried out to validate the effectiveness of a drug because neither the patient nor the doctor knows which treatnent has been administered.

      In this case, the subject had a preconceived idea about a COVID drug’s side effects whilst the medical professional giving the injection couldn’t have guaranteed an outcome without any side effects. Furthermore the patient has conceded to take the vaccination under duress.

      The odds are therefore strongly weighted in favour of this patient developing a condition through autosuggestively inducing his body’s response to his fear of the vaccination by actually manisfesting his anticipated response.

      Cases like this, where physical responses cannot be proven by medical reasoning, enter into the fields of psychology and psychiatry.

      1. Angie, good points. There are some excellent books on placebos and psychosomatic illnesses and reactions. I read many whilst researching the issues a couple of years ago and found the subject fascinating. Psychological causes of illness are widespread; for example, one book was by a neurologist who said that the majority of patients seeing her for epilepsy were either faking it or had a psychosomatic issue, not epilepsy.

      2. However the ‘psychosomatic’ occurrence can also be used as an excuse and ‘brush off’…as it frequently was for me for 23 years until the NHS deigned to allow me to have an expensive echocardiogram, (my father having died young & undiagnosed in the meantime); echocardiograms not being available privately due to the cost of machines.

      3. That may be true, but sounds uncomfortably like victim-blaming.
        This is one reason why I don’t want to have the jabs now, having read about the side-effects, I’d be irrationally certain that I’d be one of the unlucky ones!

      1. The Belgian Health Minister – is her neck REALLY that fat.

        I guess she has shares in Macdonalds, KFC, Sub et al. No advert for health.

        1. I knew someone was going to say something about the difference between them. I assume the rest of her matches the head/neck. Did they put her in that job as a MASSIVE hint?

    3. The Canadian health minister looks as if she has recently been dug up.

      The top two vampires need a stake to the heart.

      Jabba the Hut was better looking.

      The U.S Health advisor needs to have her balls sliced off….Oh…she has.

        1. He is but he is being set up to take the fall. I think he is autistic, not socially aware, and that and his obsessions that go with it are being exploited by government for its purpose. He won’t see the end coming and because of his autism (in both cases) he won’t know how to deal with it.

          I am relieved some of us see it how it is.

          PS I am not making excuses for him!

  64. Good afternoon from a Saxon Queen with blooded axe and pursed longbow accompanied by very sharp arrows.

    It has been a fairly cloudy day but the sun has just come out. Just about to wander into the garden with some hummus, pitta bread, Greek salad and glass of white wine; not forgetting the sun hat .

      1. Hello Mr Viking, it was a wine that was already open and corked that was in the fridge ( half a bottle left) . Spanish wine, it was very nice.

          1. Yes It was and very nice. During the summer ( or early autumn) when the weather is warm its nice to have one or two lunches in the garden with a glass of wine, very civilised..

    2. Yes please officer. A cushion, a blanket, and a bong. Perhaps a Vegan meal for when i get the munchies later.

      …Certainly, perhaps a back rub later?

    3. Insulate Britain

      ‘It is a total no-brainer and yet this Government refuses to get on with the job. This is criminal negligence.’

      https://metro.co.uk/2021/09/15/m25-blocked-by-insulate-britain-climate-protesters-again-15260705/

      Not necessarily.
      With COVID cases increasing, the Government may well get on with the job of asking us to open all our windows in the middle of winter. Then all of the insulating initiatives it has generated will go out of the window!

    4. “[Insulation] is a total no-brainer” they say. So why haven’t they done it to their own homes? Could it be either:
      1. They have no brains. Or,
      2. They are pampered fools sublimating their inadequacies in a pathetic ‘cause’ and hurting others in return for the pain they feel?

        1. Do you mean that if either Gus or Pickles tried to give you a massage it wouldn’t come up to scratch?

  69. Three people died yesterday after a car crashed into building near Notting Hill D Fail

    The trapped driver of a car that sped ‘at 90mph’ into a sheltered housing block and burst into flames screamed ‘get me out of here!’ before the vehicle exploded and left three people dead. “Someone else shouted ”move away, bro, it’s going to blow”.

    90 MPH on a narrow road in Notting Hill at 4.10 in the morning. Must have been something important they had to deliver.

    4. The site is next to a humped bridge and witnesses said the car sped over it before the crash, the driver either coming across it unexpectedly or, as IMO is more likely, enjoying the sensation of being airborne before losing control.

      A shame, but the Darwin Awards have another entry.

      1. Not much of a hump, steady rise from Westbourne Park Station side, you wouldn’t notice at 30/40mph. Road bends very slightly to the left. At 90mph it would be less than a second from centre of bridge to crash site.

  70. And in other news, the agent for Gus and Pickles has issued a small selection of their official Birthday photographs.

    Gus relaxing
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8b197e478b6bdc67ec53f04ffd55779541586ea75f7a932df62803058122fb0c.jpg

    Pickles (and mouse)
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bda462be2da88920c6c9ff916c7888844101417337dd6ed4f9097e57a0de36c8.jpg

    The two of them (Pickles on the left as you look)
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/91d103eac30d72b7d051e1f24a9256ff1cda02681a419761e61abce1fe5621db.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8f5fefbe9ef9d92efb2a72e0a36035e1ecef31dbbdff924ed8d0f99209ea9b52.jpg

          7. “Disc jockeys of Freeman’s generation were, it seems, deeply attached to their jewellery. Jimmy Savile boasts of receiving the Male Jewellery Wearer of the Year Award from the British Jewellery Association, but Freeman’s collection was quite as remarkable. He used to wear a huge knob of diamonds given to him by his mother, a chunky gold identity bracelet bearing the inscription “Fluff”, a gold wishbone ring which he bought for himself, an ELP enamel pendant, presented to him by Emerson Lake and Palmer’s grateful record company, and a splendid gold pendant, given to him on his 50th birthday by “two very dear friends”, Bernie and Diana Coral of Coral’s Casinos” Craig Brown 2006

            In March 1994, Freeman revealed on breakfast television that he had become celibate in 1981, but had previously been bisexual. Died in 2006 of arthritis – or something or other.

    3. Pickles “The staff are just about doing ok”
      Gus “Suppose so,we wont kill and eat them just yet”

    2. She is definitely wearing the trousers. How obvious.
      She is also standing on a box to make herself ‘level’ with Gingernut.

      1. I rather think that he is sitting on a stone bench. Can’t risk her neck by having her climb upon a box.

      2. Had a similar conversation in the pub tonight; chap was talking peace and love so I put him right about the tenets of islam.

    2. Miss Begum is determined to get back here. Wants what she had before – but was too stupid to know what good was.

      2. Shylock had to renounce Judaism and become a Christian.

        Would this woman be prepared to renounce Islam, become a Christian and attend church services every Sunday?

      3. Sorry, Shamima was not stupid, she was an intelligent fifteen year old child who managed to fool the security systems at London Gatwick Airport. Revealed the relevant PTB to be a bunch of complete numpties.
        If you regard her as a young adult who got exactly what she deserved, I will point you towards some white trash teenage hookers in Rotherham.

          2. I wonder when Norway will be prevented from sending a Christmas Tree to Trafalgar Square each December since it symbolises the allies’ triumphalism over poor defenceless Germany?

    2. Spitfires flying overhead today. As they do most days in these ‘ere parts. As I write this, there they are.

  76. I see Johnson is shuffling chairs on the Titanic Cabinet deck. Not much to choose from though, it will undoubtedly be a cabinet of yes men (or women).

    3. So, Draab – having f*cked up the FCO – moves on to do the same with the justice system.

      Why wasn’t he cast into outer darkness?

        1. Education
          Dominic went to Dr Challoner’s Grammar School, and studied law at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and for a Masters at Cambridge, winning the Clive Parry Prize for International Law.

          Career before politics
          Dominic started his career as a business lawyer at City law firm Linklaters, working on project finance, international litigation and competition law. He also spent time on secondments at Liberty (the human rights NGO) and in Brussels advising on EU and WTO law.

          Dominic later worked at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office between 2000 and 2006 on a range of issues from investor protection to war crimes policy.

          https://www.gov.uk/government/people/dominic-raab

    1. Viewers of Al Jazeera will remember that only about a week ago Mr Raab made a speech in Qatar stating that he intended to give £285million

      to Afghanistan.

      Can we have our money back please?

  78. Summary
    Boris Johnson is reshuffling his top team of government ministers
    Dominic Raab confirmed as justice secretary, lord chancellor and deputy prime minister
    Gavin Williamson is the first to go as he is sacked from his post as education secretary
    Robert Buckland is sacked as justice secretary
    Robert Jenrick says he is proud of what his department achieved as he goes from his role as communities secretary
    The new cabinet is expected to be appointed this afternoon and junior ministerial appointments will continue into tomorrow
    The prime minister has left his office at Parliament and returned to Downing Street

    1. Chuck all the Scrabble® tiles into a cloth bag; shake the bag; then pour them all out onto the table.

      Same tiles!

  80. A woman involved in a 4 car crash at the South Mimms 23 exit from the M25 was helicoptered to hospital. One car was crushed to half its size. The ER rebellion is thought to be the cause.

    1. Here’s hoping the woman is largely unhurt and ok. Else the ER whingers should be charged with murder.

          1. That’s as maybe. If, by their inaction, they caused or permitted a crime, their defence would be thrown out by a sensible jury.

          2. I’d like to think that would be the case; however, if any of them could furnish copies of operational orders (i.e. standing force orders) which give the authority for them to behave as they do, then a few bumholes would be twitching in the upper rank structure.

    2. Give me a loaded AK 47 and an 007 licence and I’ll clear that motorway in seconds.

      I know! I know! I’m too soft!

          2. Oh how I would love to have the chance to say that to Extinction Rebellion (and mean it).
            I am not normally a peace-loving sort of person.

    3. Made me wonder if these characters could be liable financially for the chaos they cause? After all, they are acting illegally. I had also wondered what legal situation would be if someone, say, died as result of an ambulance being delayed, which could be directly attributable to their actions.

      Presumably they consider death(s) a small price to pay to get lofts insulated.

    4. We need an equivalent of the French Riot Police, the CRS, with a Home Secretary willing to use them. A few broken skulls would be a nice deterrent.

      1. A tank or two. That’s what the CRS were using at the start of the plague quarantine in yer France.

    5. We need an equivalent of the French Riot Police, the CRS, with a Home Secretary willing to use them. A few broken skulls would be a nice deterrent.

  82. More sad news: ‘Kind and caring’ aspiring musician, 16, stabbed to death with a machete after high-speed car chase near Old Trafford’

    Rhamero West, 16, was found with horrific injuries and a number of stab wounds on Norton Street by Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester just before 6pm last Thursday. The BMW crashed and Rhamero fled but he slipped, was caught and was slashed and stabbed in both legs with a machete and knife.
    He was stabbed following a pursuit involving two vehicles which is understood to have begun a mile away in the Moss Side area of the city.

    16 Year old – BMW? Three of them got away – How sad!

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/09/11/01/47770923-9979395-Rhamero_West_was_stabbed_by_two_men_at_6pm_on_Thursday_following-a-65_1631319158905.jpg

    2. Why is the existence of gangs tolerated? A society made up of intelligent people that was well led would not tolerate this for one second. All gang members, associates and hangers-on would be rounded up and summarily dealt with. Paperwork would not be necessary and it would cost the exchequer very little if their recently-hanged (or shot) bodies were dumped in the Atlantic.

      A society gets the gangs it deserves.

    3. It is sad but in my (considerable) experience this sort of thing rarely happens to kids who stay in and do their homework.
      I live in Peckham. All my own kids know someone who is or has been in prison for murder. WE all know kids who have been murdered.

      And we twiddle our thumbs and worry about gender neutral effing toilets, and not stereotyping girls to wear dresses unless they are boys who want to be girls.

      The solution is to give back authority to the parents, stop incentivising women to kick men our and marry the state, start encouraging boys to be men – people who work hard and take care of their families.
      There is a lot of work to do.

    1. The sex pest. Ideal. He’ll make sure every school insists that girls are taught separately – and are veiled. And are stopped from drama, sport….

    2. Sadly the country was lost long before he was appointed Secretary of State for Education and Propaganda.

    3. I am afraid that I agree with the view expressed in one of Oscar Wilde’s plays: that one should judge by appearances and only superficial people do not do so.

      I know nothing about Nadhim Zahawi so I judge him by how he looks to me – and to me he looks a completely foul, humourless and nasty man.

      1. To quote William Shirer, who was referring to a German bureaucrat “A greasy shifty eyed little man, paunchy, with staring eyes, whose face always reminded the author of a frog.”

  85. BBC chairman Richard Sharp confirms Jess Brammar HAS been appointed to top news role despite her background as anti-Brexit left-winger who ranted about Boris Johnson Dreary Fail

    Ms Bramar is delighted, of course. She has deleted all her tweets ( more than 16,000 posts) critical of Boris Johnson, Brexit and Britain’s imperial past.

    A left-wing anti-British, pro EU, Tory hating, misogynistic shemale in the BBC’s top news role. Who could ever of imagined this happening? The mind boggles.

    1. “Who could ever have imagined this happening?”

      All of us, Ped. All of us.

      It is one of the reasons that I never watch or listen to any beeboid news/current affairs/politics. Ever.

  86. That’s me gone for this very satisfactory day. Two year old cats on the two best and most comfortable chairs sleeping off their celebratory mice. They have given us such happiness over the last 46 weeks (and a few days of anxiety!). The best thing that happened to us during the plague.

    Picked another 3½ lb of raspberries (as I did on Monday…!) The variety is marvellous – called “September”. Prolific it certainly is – and easy to manage.

    Market tomorrow. Have a jolly evening planning the new school curriculum to fit in with a slammer’s views.

    A demain.

  88. We don’t have to like Shamima Begum or her cynical ‘glow up’, but we must try to understand her

    I’ve got a better idea, we could arrange for her to be shot.

    2. From a friend:

      Today is Battle of Britain Day, which is one of the most important days in the calendar for all British people.

      In my irregular viewing of TV and radio today I was very surprised that no mention was made of it.

      On the other hand, there was a lot of publicity given to Shamima Begum, a Muslim Bangladeshi long term member of ISIS

      who is trying to gain entry to Britain.

      On the BBC national news this evening there is more about Shamima Begum, but nothing about the Battle of Britain.

      Perhaps this is an admission from the media who has finally won the Battle for Britain?

    2. Idi Amin had a Foreign Secretary. She made a lot of money for him. At the time we referred to her exploits as Ugandan negotiations.

      Dear old Liz trussed-up should perform well.

  90. 338857+up ticks,
    I do believe she was the salt dispenser in the Ugandan navy, slave ship department for victims of whip rounds.

    1. My recollection from the playground, sweetie! … x

      “Hitler had only one big ball,
      Göring had two but they were small,
      Himmler had something similar,
      But poor old Goebbels had no balls at all.”

    2. Happy Battle of Britain day. For some reason my church is celebrating BoB Sunday next week. Parade was last week in Shrewsbury. I discovered this morning that our (stand in) priest was at Cranwell.

    1. As I recall, Shamima Begum was unfazed by “human heads in barrels” – coz “it’s alright with Muslims …”

    2. Pity she didn’t cop a bullet. She’s a fake, a phoney through and through. No twenty-something year old wears the western style outfits she comes up with. They look like an islamic extremist’s idea of western clothes.

    3. I have to ask why this repulsive woman should be of any concern to us.

      Forgiveness is a Christian concept. The concept does not figure in the multiple manipulations and inventions of Islam since its invention and which we now know as militant Islam.

    4. I have to ask why this repulsive woman should be of any concern to us.

      Forgiveness is a Christian concept. The concept does not figure in the multiple manipulations and inventions of Islam since its invention and which we now know as militant Islam.

    5. You have to repent to receive forgiveness. She, as a muslim, has nothing to regret because she was following the koran so she would hardly be penitent.

    1. Night, Rik. My Dad was allocated a company Ford Popular in the Fifties. The Owners Manual hung around until my Mum shuffled off in 2003. It gave clear instructions for greasing various nipples, every 3000 miles.

      3. A chap I know bought a Morgan in the early nineties. There was a button beneath the dash which had to be pressed every 200 miles or so in order to grease the brakes. I think it had a small Fiat engine and recall it stank of creosote on a hot day.

        The latest Morgan cars by contrast have modern suspension, all aluminium bodywork and powerful BMW engines.

        1. A cousin had an unfinished Morgan project in his barn. He’s since shuffled off, and I doubt whether he ever completed the Moggy.I used the same barn to refurbish a Clubman Estate which I bought from a former site engineer colleague, before he became famous and stupendously rich. Such is life…

  96. Thank all of you who sent me such kind thoughts today on my birthday.
    I have given myself a break from MSM news and consequently forums such as this to help keep my sanity.
    I plan to resume posting sooner rather than later, you lucky people. 😊

          1. 40 acres of examples of dwellings ranging from about c1350 to c1720 and associated agricultural crafts. It is where they film The Repair Shop and they were indeed filming yesterday. We even had what I call the Teddy Bear Ladies walk across for a chat with us about it all.

          2. Fabulous. I have seen the occasional Repair Shop episode and they are very good. I have been to Avoncroft, which is similar in that it has taken buildings from various places and painstakingly rebuilt them on the site.

    6. “I have given myself a break from MSM news and consequently forums such as this to help keep my sanity.”

      But we spend most of our time talking about the bad news!

    9. You’ve been missed! Welcome back – I find this chat helps to keep me sane and make sense of what goes on.

      I hope you had a good day for your birthday.

    10. You’ve been missed! Welcome back – I find this chat helps to keep me sane and make sense of what goes on.

      I hope you had a good day for your birthday.

    11. Happy birthday, vvof. I was late on parade yesterday (in fact I didn’t get there until early today!).

        1. Yes, thank you, vvof. I am slowly working through the clearances necessary. As I am terrible about throwing anything away, that’s probably the hardest part! Not only do I have to get rid of MOH’s stuff like clothes (what would I do with them?), I also have to clear out the conservatory as it is about to be rebuilt in October. I am down to three chairs, 8 boxes, a bookcase, an artist’s portfolio and a filing cabinet, so that’s terrific progress. Oh, and a Stubbs copy which I had to do at college and which turned out quite well; I need to have that framed. I have, however, had to stop for a snifter or two to recover 🙂

    12. Happy Birthday, vvof! I hope you had a great day!
      The single most important thing you can do is to switch of your tv for good in order to regain control of your mind – and return to nottle!

      1. Thank you and that is exactly what I tried to do, although I did read some comments posted by Nottlers and upticked occasionally.

  97. Cabinet reshuffle: Losers, winners and challenges ahead

    Justice backlog among issues on Raab’s new desk

    There have been eight justice secretaries since the Conservatives came to power in 2010 – and Robert Buckland’s two years, one month and 22 days makes him the third-longest holder of a post that the entire legal establishment regards as having being treated as an afterthought.

    Mr Buckland, a respected lawyer and former judge, leaves office with 58,000 serious criminal cases waiting to come to a Crown Court. That’s 4,000 more than in January, when official watchdogs warned that the backlog was already of grave concern.

    The upshot is that some victims will be waiting four years for justice. Incoming Justice Secretary Dominic Raab may not have actually been appointed to deal with this problem – but to take on an ideological challenge.

    Mr Raab has credentials for speaking up on some human rights legal issues, yet he is also one of the most vocal critics of the Human Rights Act, one of the cornerstones of the modern British constitution.

    He’s long called for it to be replaced or repealed – and the government’s long-promised review of human rights law is now in his hands. We’ll soon find out where Mr Raab ultimately stands on one of the most important but misunderstood legal issues of our times.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-58575894

    Enough people understand perfectly well that top-down, generalistic rights legislation too often works in favour of the criminal against the law-abiding. It’s not that difficult.

    1. The HRA was written by lawyers for lawyers. That’s why it is suitably vague and thus open to different interpretations by the judiciary.

      1. That is awful, the visual shocking. I am detesting seeing white coats with smiley faces putting needles into tender young skin, anybody’s skin. And nurses in uniform.

    2. That’s a shocker – but they are far more into vaccinations generally in the US than we are here – and they shove all sorts at babies.

      1. Yup. Some believe that the MMR ‘vaccines’ have given rise to autism in children. I noted some time ago that they have special schools for autistic children in the USA, cases of autism which correlate closely with the introduction and continuance of these jabs.

        Of course those promoting jabs and having financial interests in pharmaceuticals will deny this connection.

        It is worth noting that all of our chief medical advisors have strong links and interests in pharmaceutical companies. I would not trust any of them as far as I could throw them.

          1. Indeed they were, but not with a vaccine where there are so many mysterious side-effects appearing and where they weren’t put through years of comprehensive testing.
            I noted yet another scare recently.
            https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9993693/More-30-000-women-reported-period-disruption-getting-Covid-vaccine.html
            Now, it may just be the sheer scale of people being vaccinated, but there are lots of instances of unusual responses to them.

            I am not anti vaccination per se, I’ve had the two and will no doubt be in line for a third, what I am against is using babies as lab rats.

    4. They charge a fortune for the ‘vaccines’ (which are anything but) then roll out much cheaper doses of the same crap to the Third World.

      The excessive costs of the relatively small quantities of ‘vaccines’ consumed by the wealthy countries are made up for by the exponentially greater numbers required to ‘vaccinate’ the populations of the poorer countries. We likely pay the pharmaceuticals for the lot.

      There is no liability placed on the pharmaceuticals for their experimental and untested ‘vaccines’ and much of their research funding is also derived from public funds.

  102. Apologies, I have already tweeted this below in context. My copy of another clip did not embed itself on my clipboard to paste, the original one was still there. I don’t know how to remove it. Oh…. it has gone.

    2. I tried to show this to Caroline this morning (Thursday) but your link has been taken down!

  105. Good night all.

    A sticky, muggy evening, so shirtless, I made a chili-con-carne without meat. Bit miffed to discover I had run out of tins of corn, so I diced a large potato. No rice.

      2. No, Stormy, it was a chili-sin-carne. A chili-sans-carne is the opposite of a chii-avec-carne.

        🙂

        Or should I say a chili-avec/sans-viande?

  106. Regarding the Johnson, Biden, “that fella down under” (©️J.Biden) announcement, the Ozzy POS referred to them as “lovers of freedom”. These people have no shame.

  107. Evening, all. Yet another meeting tonight (but this one didn’t go on so long and I ended up in the pub afterwards). What is it with meetings – you have none for two years then suddenly I’ve had five in the space of ten days! As for the headline – they could have stopped after incapable! Never mind the shuffle; if you rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic, the end is still the same.

  110. Goodnight all. Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed to so few – and that’s only our Mess bills 🙂

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