Wednesday 2 September: The NHS’s extreme aversion to risk is costing cancer patients their lives

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/09/01/lettersthe-nhss-extreme-aversion-risk-costing-cancer-patients/

673 thoughts on “Wednesday 2 September: The NHS’s extreme aversion to risk is costing cancer patients their lives”

  2. No, fascists are not on the march. Spiked. 2 September 2020.

    Perhaps the first thing to do here is salute Hope Not Hate’s indefatigability. Maintaining an anti-fascist organisation, with salaried staff, investigations, a website and publications, in an era when Britain lacks a fascist group capable of filling a socially distanced train carriage, is an achievement. Earlier this year the UK seems to have proscribed under counter-terrorism legislation an organisation, the Feuerkrieg Division, that no longer exists, and which was formed by a 13-year-old.

    Morning everyone. Well it’s not so much indefatigability as being financed, like its sister organisation Antifa, by the taxpayer. Both have played their parts in writing down Robinson and Farage and are of course the bastard offspring of Mi5.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/09/01/no-fascists-are-not-on-the-march/

    1. I disagree with Spiked here. Fascists are indeed on the march, but they don’t call themselves Fascists.

      We live in a topsy-turvy time whereby words mean the exact opposite to what we think they mean. This is done as a cover, or a distraction, so the true villains can get away with their nefarious activities far longer than they could if their colours were true. The innocent are tainted with the misdeeds of others, simply because they are named as the villains.

      2. 323223+ up ticks,
        Morning JM,
        Word of mouth can do a lot of damage used in a odious manner
        & who has the gift of the gab more so than politico’s.

    2. Hate not Hope are the new “fascists”. Strong arm bully boys, and girls, ever ready to bring in rentamob by bus. All paid for by their Government-funded sponsor and Trade Unions.

    1. ‘Morning, B3. It is high time that Handycock was told his services are no longer required in view of the neglect of many non-C19 patients, many more of whom will meet an early death if various estimates are to be believed. When the whole wretched pandemic is finally reviewed the failure to provide even the most basic care in parts of the NHS for so long after the emergency was over has all the makings of a national scandal that will make the East Midlands debacle look almost insignificant by comparison. If Johnson wants to start a worthwhile campaign, perhaps he would like to turn his attention to this, instead of his pitiful performance so far.

      1. As if by magic…

        SIR – You report (August 26) that a cancer patient, Adrian Rogers, aged 46, had been scheduled to undergo surgery in April 2020, but that this was cancelled , as doctors decided it was “too risky” to perform it during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the subsequent delay, his cancer became terminal.

        Allison Pearson (Features, August 26), who has been gathering readers’ stories concerning their NHS treatment, wrote of her conversation with Jai Chitnavis, an eminent surgeon and professor of medicine, concerning the fact that 300 to 400 beds in Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge – which never came close to being overwhelmed by Covid-19 – are empty.

        Given how many other similar cases there are of vital treatment being withheld while beds are vacant, shouldn’t someone be held accountable?

        Niâ Watson
        Lyminge, Kent

        2. If there are three or four hundred beds empty the NHS can close some wards and save money.

          Perhaps that’s the idea?

      2. I wonder if the masked sheep will actually get mildly miffed when the mortality rates appear next Spring.
        That’s if the figures are anywhere near truthful.
        Morning, HJ.

  5. The Covid fascists have stepped up a gear this morning, they must be getting told that they haven’t destroyed their economies enough yet and the masses are not yet submissive enough

  7. Like Joe Biden, I feel forced to hide my stammer. How many more of us are out there? 2 September 2020.

    At an intimate campaign event in August 2019, Joe Biden was speaking to a crowd of supporters when his verbal faculties appeared to fail him. The former vice-president was discussing his foreign policy experience, and tried to mention the name of President Obama, his senior in the White House for eight years. But just as he reached that second word, Biden stopped. He stood silently for a few seconds, staring into the distance, with no sound leaving his mouth. After a short, uncomfortable pause, he appeared to give up, and said “my boss” instead.

    Perhaps. But when I watched that clip, another possibility sprung to mind. Like Biden, and 70 million others, I have a stammer; and like Biden, some of my friends and colleagues have no idea, or tell me they “barely notice”. We are in the group known by speech therapists as “covert” or “interiorised” stammerers, defined by our ability to hide our verbal blocks behind an array of linguistic tricks. As children, our stammers were obvious and life-impacting; now, as adults, they play out largely inside our own heads.

    I see. Joe isn’t really senile he’s just like us (well 50 million of us); a covert stammerer! Well they had to come up with something and this is the best they could do!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/like-joe-biden-feel-forced-hide-stammer-many-us/

    1. B b b b but he is s s s senile not someone with a speech im im im impe….

      M m m morning M m m m inty.

  8. 323223+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Have I been denying the credit that the lab/lib/con coalition
    party members /supporters / voters are rightfully due in recognising that from the outset,that reset was the main aim of the coalition, and to continue giving support & votes was really showing false trust in the party until such times as the coalition showed enough of it’s true agenda.

    So maybe it has been a brilliant ploy on behalf of the supporting members, supporter,voters persevering and making the coalition break out it’s true colours.

    1. Your unwavering support of the ruins of UKIP is well understood here, and it’s always good to have one in every village.

      We must move on though, since ruins are no good to anybody when the very fabric of our nation and our national culture is being torn down by those who con us that they know better. UKIP cannot address this alone.

      What we need is a another coalition of thoughtful souls with rather better aspirations for the nation. There is a gaggle of small parties on the fringes, which do need to find common ground, rather than dwell on what divides them, pandering to the Establishment policy of Divide-and-Rule. Therefore UKIP must be capable of living alongside and working with Greens. In the mix too are old Liberals and Social Democrats, whose rump remnants of a party that once held sway briefly in the 1980s, who have moved in their isolation towards the radical reformist agenda that is ironically geared to turning the nation back from the abyss of authoritarian wokeism. Even the Establishment parties of Conservative and Labour have a large number within their ilk who are hanging on grimly out of loyalty, but see little in today’s parties that they can identify or sympathise with.

      I welcome such a forum here, and wherever it is still permitted. I note that the New Statesman, which once was a forum for the thoughtful Left, has abdicated this responsibility, preferring only to spout the views of its chosen metropolitan columnists, who are deeply flawed in their outlook. The Spectator, for all its Tunbridge Wells reactionism, does still encourage free debate among its readers, especially those who dissent from their columnists. I even suspect some of their writers like to stir the pot if they feel their readers are getting lethargic. Us nottlers, of course, are the emperors of open debate, even if most of us are knocking on a bit now.

      1. 323223+ up ticks,
        JM,
        Gerard Batten has shown the way what can be done in building a credible party, UKIP was taken down for being a future credible party, orchestrated treachery.

        As for ” hanging on grimly out of loyalty” i read that
        as misplaced loyalty in putting party before country having done & still doing serious damage to these Isles, their continuing support & vote whether they agree to it or not adds fuel to ALL odious actions taken via the coalition, & coalition it is.
        Currently there is NO joined up opposition and that is what is sorely needed.

        1. Much as I like Gerard Batten for his courage in tackling the Islamic menace, he is several leaders back now in UKIP’s game of musical chairs, and he fell out with Farage. If he and Farage cannot get on, when they are fairly kindred spirits, how on earth could he work alongside, say, the Prince of Wales?

    1. 323223+ up ticks,
      Morning JN,
      Triggering the onset of reset there is enough chaff in the air to shroud any issue,

    2. It is very generous of Iceland to acknowledge the plight of British fishing fleets to the rapaciousness of EU intransigence, considering that a generation ago, the British were after their cod.

    1. Disgusting.
      I bet they all go to charity dinners at their employers expense and charge raffle tickets etc. to expenses.
      Needs root and branch reform just like its mother organisation.

    2. I have never, and will never, give to this cause which is more about Z class celebrities doing stupid stunts to give themselves a ‘feel good’ factor. Nor do I give to any ***** Relief. The only charity I now support is Alzheimers Scotland.

    4. We’ve always avoided CIN like the plague.
      BBC and other people’s money.
      Just think about it.

  13. Morning all

    SIR – Telephone consultations for patients with life-threatening conditions are now being offered for January 2022 (August 31). Previous letters (August 29) complain that GPs are directing patients to call 111 to avoid face-to-face consultations. Cancer charities say that delays in screenings are now affecting 2.4 million patients.

    We stayed at home to protect the NHS, but at present the NHS is not currently doing its job of looking after us.

    Alan Rogers

    Epsom, Surrey

    SIR – Since the end of the lockdown I have had a haircut, twice visited my dentist and been a few times to the supermarket – but I can’t get a doctor’s appointment.

    Three weeks ago I phoned my surgery as I’m suffering from an extremely painful wrist. I was told the doctor could phone me in a few days’ time or a nurse could phone later that day. A pleasant nurse confirmed my Google diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome. She said that if painkillers didn’t work, I would need an injection. My condition didn’t improve, so I phoned to arrange one. I was told that this wasn’t possible. The next stage would be for a doctor to phone me in eight days’ time to discuss the problem.

    Boris Johnson is to open schools. What about opening the surgeries?

    Don Cowie

    Poole, Dorset

    SIR – After my wife developed a sore throat and my daughter lost her sense of smell and taste, we tried to book them in for Covid tests. The NHS website advised that only 150 tests per day were possible on the Wirral, which has a population in excess of 325,000. There were no time slots allocated, and we were simply asked to provide contact details and symptoms.

    My wife has an elderly mother with a heart condition. We are still waiting to hear from the NHS. If we are to prevent a second wave, the NHS must improve the way it deals with suspected Covid cases.

    Christopher Learmont-Hughes

    Caldy, Wirral

  14. Morning again

    SIR – William Dalrymple (Weekend, August 29) correctly states that in “around 1600, India controlled around 250 per cent of the world’s GDP, while Britain created 1.7 per cent at that point. By the end of the Raj, those figures were reversed.”

    Unfortunately, to quote Professor Tirthankar Roy of the London School of Economics, “the idea that India was once a prosperous society, which British oppression made poor, has circulated through academic and political circles for decades. The statistic that India produced 25 per cent of the world’s output in 1800 and 2.4 per cent in 1900 does not mean that India was once rich and became poor. It only tells us that industrial productivity in the West increased four to six times during this period.

    “The one idea that the literature quickly dismisses is that the British enriched themselves at the expense of the colonies. The arguments for the Empire rested more on strategic interests than on material gains.”

    Dr Christopher Maycock

    Crediton, Devon

  16. The NHS and risk.

    Yesterday, several weeks after making the appointment, I rang the doctors for a reminder of my time as the “text reminder” hadn’t come through. “We don’t bother with that now” came the reply.. The reception dragon demanded name, address, DoB and mobile number, then reminded me sternly to “wear a mask and do not arrive more than 5 minutes early”. I arrived 3 minutes early, mask on, then went to the double auto doors. First one open, 2nd one didn’t, then I noticed a sign telling me to use the intercom ( to speak to the reception dragon I could see 10 feet the other side of the glass door). Pressing it I was asked why I was there ???? and then for name, address, DoB and mobile number, then told I had to enter, use the sanitizer and use one of the marked seats. I entered. used the stuff and saw that out of every bank of 4 seats, 3 were marked not to be used. There was no other person in the waiting area. I could hear the back office staff chatting and laughing merrily, with clearly nothing to do. The nurse, came for me (late??) despite nobody else being there. Into the room, and name, address, DoB and mobile number later. . .to which I added . . “A cup of tea at 9am . .my tablets . . . and a phone call here to be lectured”, she took two small bottles of my blood ( cue the Tony Hancock gags). I sarcastically then asked her when the white pensioner genocide was going to start to free up houses for the flood from Calais. Not amused. I left.

    What the hell they are all being paid for I do not know.

    1. Sounds familiar. There were never any people on the rare occasions that I ventured to the GP outfit – except for staff larking about being officious.

      Although – to be fair – if one persisted on the phone, they didn’t ask for more than DoB. They have an online “request” form – which one fills in and then waits for a response within “six hours”. Usually they phone on the wrong telephone number; the landline, not the mobile. – or the other way round just to fool you.

      1. No problems.
        The doctor phoned me back within 20 mins. re. my Norah Batty stockings. Ok. they were the wrong colour buy hey he got the size right…..!

    2. Getting into my surgery is harder than getting into Fort Knox. You have to press the intercom button and undergo an interrogation, starting with “do you have an appointment?” No I need to collect something from you. Ten or more questions later I was told the receptionist would put it “the other side of the glass” and then let me enter to retrieve it. Two seconds to get what I needed and five minutes undergoing a grilling – there were no patients in the waiting room, either.

    2. 323223+ up ticks,
      They probable would go home if accompanied by a flat pack house and an
      elasticated giro stretching years into the future, may one ask who voted them in ?

    1. You can see the Anglosphere disintegrating by increments as its institutions, history and beliefs are trashed. Though it gets very little mention in the history books, mutual confidence is the glue that holds societies together. The immigrants all imagine that they are going to take this over and enjoy the benefits free of charge. They won’t. When we go, it will go with us!

      1. As happened in Rhodesia–.

        Mugabe promised the blacks everything, and when the white men were thrown out the economy didn’t work any more

    2. From the headline above

      Zimbabwe to return land seized from foreign farmers

      My cousin was born in Rhodesia, had a Rhodesian/Zimbabwean passport and had his farm stolen from him by Mugabe’s thugs. Within a few years one of the most prosperous farms in the country employing and housing thousands of people had become a desert and the former workers and their families sacked and made homeless and destitute.

      The Tracey family bought the land they farmed legitimately paying the government for it – they did not ‘seize’ it.

      How stupid do you have to be not to understand that black lives did matter to the whites but did not matter one jot to the blacks?

    3. From the headline above

      Zimbabwe to return land seized from foreign farmers

      My cousin was born in Rhodesia, had a Rhodesian/Zimbabwean passport and had his farm stolen from him by Mugabe’s thugs. Within a few years one of the most prosperous farms in the country employing and housing thousands of people had become a desert and the former workers and their families sacked and made homeless and destitute.

      The Tracey family bought the land they farmed legitimately paying the government for it – they did not ‘seize’ it.

      How stupid do you have to be not to understand that black lives did matter to the whites but did not matter one jot to the blacks?

      1. I know someone who used to work out there many years ago and when he described on his return ( pre email days ) what was happening, he said that it would never work. It didn’t. He has said that since they removed the white farmers we have been handing more and more aid to the region.

        I hope things went better for your cousin and family afterwards.

    1. That has reminded me – we were awakened one morning many years ago to the sound of our elder three year old son trying to release his 9 month old brother from his wooden cot. He was sawing at the bars with a carving knife… He had climbed over the stair gate, and helped himself to the carving knife from the kitchen drawer. And there is no-one more safety conscious than me, ‘Anxious’ is my middle name.

      1. It really doesn’t matter what you do, the rug rats will find some way to make you look silly.
        Ditto dogs, cats, sheep, husbands…

  21. 323223+up ticks,
    The most threatening thing those illegals kipping in Park Lane have to fear is being put into a five star hotel.

    Tell me when the hotel bill is bigger than the national debt and can no longer be supported, what then ?

      1. 323223+ up ticks,
        Morning AS,
        Put nothing past them,
        I posted long ago I can see mandatory lodgering being on the cards if so it must be allotted evenly among those that supported lab/lib/con in a party first manner, ( mass uncontrolled immigration party’s) why really should decent innocent peoples be persecuted further.
        Say thee each, different hues & gender.

          1. 323223+ up ticks,
            Now there’s a thought said the governance politico
            high speed launches full of pregnant foreign women all due within an hour landing at Dover.
            Must suggest to the re-set team a boom in baby burka wearers could really be the killer punch needed to bring old Blighty down on both knees
            five times a day.

  22. Morning, all! Happy to report that I am back from my adventures undrownded, albeit somewhat battered by the elements and painfully aware that there are bits of leg muscle that lie dormant when you live the life of a plains dweller, as I currently do.

      2. Actually, the rain stopped just before pitching the tent. The ground was utterly sodden for the first day, making negotiating slopes interesting. We all slipped at least once, but no broken bones. So cold on the first night that I wore all the clothes I’d brought and had trouble zipping the sleeping bag. Nearly got blown off the tops by freezing winds.

        Heavenly!

        1. Sleeping outdoors it’s best not to wear too many layers. Many a time on exercise, sleeping al fresco, (not with Al Fresco) I found it warmer in my gonk bag wearing just a t shirt rather than all the extra layers of combat jacket, liner etc

        2. Sleeping outdoors it’s best not to wear too many layers. Many a time on exercise, sleeping al fresco, (not with Al Fresco) I found it warmer in my gonk bag wearing just a t shirt rather than all the extra layers of combat jacket, liner etc

      1. Not as such. Winds too high to get to Helvellyn via Striding Edge so we scrambled up onto High Street. Amazing to think there was a Roman road up there!

      1. I have never been a regular watcher of this programme, Bill, but you missed two wonderful parts: John Sergeant pulling his partner across the dance floor like a sack of potatoes, and Ann Widdecombe (suspended from wires) sailing through the air to be caught by her dancing partner.

        1. Yer ackshul dance routines are quite good to watch, it’s the judges (except for CRH who is quite the wag) and the waffle during the set changes that are dire.

          As with most progs these days, I record anything I may want to see then I can FF through all the cr*p and just watch the bits I want to watch.

    4. The BBC seem to find programmes that normal people like and then make them as unappealing as possible to anyone with any moral standards.

        2. Er . . . .That was the surname of one of the contestants on University Challenge the other night . . Do I win a prize?

  24. The MR and I are thinking about planning a two night trip to yer France. The administrative “formalities” (in both countries) appear to be designed to put people off travelling.

    Apparently, the UK “locator” form has to be down-loaded onto a smart phone. As it happens, the MR (who is a wizard with IT) has one – but I don’t. What happens to the large minority of the population who has neither a smart phone nor internet access?

    Just asking.

    4. They’re troglodytes and are to be dismissed out of hand.
      They are non-people.
      Apropos nothing else. As younger people find the full stop. worrying . I am determined. to use it more.

    5. We used the “locator form” three weeks ago when we did a day trip to the UK for a family funeral. You don’t need to download it onto a smartphone, you can also print it and take it with you.

      1. You had to spend some time filling in the beastly form as it was very badly written.

        Indeed the French are notoriously bad at writing websites – you said at the time that this form was so bad it could have been written by a Frenchman!

      2. Thank you, Caroline. That has set a small part of my pore brane at rest! I loathe these on-line forms…

        1. While I note that – this is what the UK Govt website says:

          You must complete the form online. Do not print out the form and fill it in by hand.

          When you arrive at the UK border you’ll need to show either:

          a printed copy of the document attached to your confirmation email
          the document attached to the confirmation email on your phone
          Border Force officers will use the QR code at the top of the document to check you have completed the form successfully.

          1. I was detained for more than half an hour at Plymouth while the UK Border Farce interrogated me about my lifestyle and reason for existing, just because my phone was on the blink and I couldn’t register on line. We were only told about the form filling when we had disembarked.

          2. Questions for you – -luxury air-conditioned coaches to hotels and free lives for the replacements.

  25. I laid awake last night for some time and had a thought.
    Most of us here are probably too old want to demonstrate on street.
    How about we take advantage of modern technology and do a cyber attack on government ministers. If, say, 10,000 people all decided to send the same message on the same day to Boris’s email address. Next day to Priti Patel etc. Be interesting to see what would happen.

      1. Maybe Alf self-identifies as a chicken, Peddy. (Good morning to you and all fellow NoTTLers, btw.)

        2. I’m feeling rather bullish this morning and used the word as AtG would have in 800 AD. :-))
          English is a living language and has changed over time and will continue to do so. Look at the word gay. Used to mean carefree and happy. Now it’s take to be queer and miserable. A change for the worse is think.

          1. English is a living language and has changed over time and will continue to do so.

            So your objection to my use of Uni for University is invalid, n’est-ce pas?

          2. I hope txt spk will never be valid but it may be eventually when they have signs outside universities saying Oxford or Cambridge Uni. Of course with ‘woke’ it might be next year.

  26. Can’t wait for the Annual outing this autumn of the BBC Strickly Come Dancing –
    Highlight is going to be that boxer from Leeds, Nicola Adams, with a female partner – not sure which one will be wearing the sequins?

  27. I’ve just been sitting a teaching session about the drug PReP (Pre Exposure Prophylaxis to HIV) and have just heard the term ‘front hole sex’ for the first time.
    Does that mean ‘people who menstruate’ no longer have vaginas?

      1. Many people, these days, think that a vulva is a ‘vagina’. They don’t know their arse from their elbow!

  29. I fully subscribe to Allison Pearson’s view of the NHS.

    Here is my experience. Sorry if it’s a bit longwinded.

    My discourse with them started a few weeks ago when I had problems with my breathing. I had managed to get a face-to-face with a doctor who didn’t examine me at all and recommended a spirometry test and to book it at reception. When I tried to do so I was told they weren’t doing them due to coronapanic but a nurse would phone me. I then took this up with the CCG and sent the following to the CEO.

    I am a patient at ……………… and visited the doctor last Tuesday with shortness of breath. He was concerned, as I was, and arranged a chest X-ray for me which I had on Saturday and wants me to have a spirometry test. I was told that a nurse would phone me with an appointment.

    By late Friday afternoon I hadn’t been called and sent a message to the surgery asking what was happening. This morning I received a message back, nobody seems to talk to anybody anymore, to say that

    “The nurse is not doing spirometry at the moment
    We have put you on a waiting list and the Nurse will contact you as soon as they restart these appointments”.

    Please can you explain to me why these tests are not being carried out? As far as I understand it there is one tube into which I blow, and a handle to hold whilst doing so. Both of these can be sanitised before and after use.

    On the day that one of the headlines in this morning’s Daily Telegraph states “No Covid cases for a month in most English areas..” I get the message that offers no hope of a test for the foreseeable future.

    1. As deaths from Covid-19 are dropping what is the justification for the continuing embargo on treating patients?
    2. Is my diagnosis going to be delayed so that my condition may worsen and require radical treatment?
    3. What is the justification for continuing this policy set, presumably, by Surrey Heartland CCG?
    4. Infections may be up but you would expect that if more testing is taking place. However deaths are down which logically says the infection is less serious now.
    We, the public, have “saved the NHS”. It is now time for the NHS to get back to saving the public.

    After a week I had not received an acknowledgment and sent a second copy with this message

    As you can see I sent you this email a week ago and am surprised that I have not received the courtesy of an acknowledgement let alone a reply. Perhaps it didn’t arrive but I have not had a bounce back saying it didn’t.
    Is the instruction not to carry out spirometry tests a CCG directive or is it an individual surgery decision?
    Although the number of infections is increasing due to increased testing the number of deaths continues to fall. This indicates that the seriousness of this disease is either diminishing or there is now a herd immunity. What is the CCG’s position on this?
    Professor Karol Sikora tells us that there are less than 400 cases in hospital – “In England, there are now 305 Coronavirus patients in hospital with 33 patients on ventilation. At the peak those numbers were around 17,000 and 2,800”
    No sign of any increase in hospital admissions too. It’s so important to look at the whole picture, not just reported cases.
    I really would like answers to my questions unless you consider it demeaning to correspond with a public request. You will note I have copied this email to my MP in the hope that if you don’t reply he will take this up with the Health Minister.

    I repeat that we, the public, have saved the NHS it is now time for the NHS to start saving the public and do what we pay our taxes for.

    My MP’s assistant replied to me with this

    Thank you for copying Mr Lord in to your correspondence regarding spirometry tests. I just want to mention that authorities may take up to 28 days to respond. Due to the coronavirus situation, sometimes it has taken even longer.

    My blood pressure went skyward and I responded thus

    Thank you for your reply.

    I am at a loss to know why. Coronavirus seems to be a standard excuse for not doing a lot. Perhaps they’re getting so many emails etc because the NHS has effectively shut down as far as all people are concerned. I went past St Peter’s hospital over the weekend and a large poster outside effectively said don’t come into the hospital if you have coronavirus.

    If the NHS are not going to see people who have coronavirus, including doctors surgeries, and they’re not going to see you if you don’t have coronavirus what on Earth are they doing?.

    As I said in my email to the CEO of Surrey Heartlands CCG the public have saved the NHS now it’s time for the NHS to return full time to doing what they’re all paid to do and that is start to Save the Public.

    This farce had gone on long enough. We are going to have millions of people made unemployed by the continued fear campaign on radio and television. Thousand dying from untreated diseases such as cancer and cardiac disease. Hundreds, if not thousands, of suicides as people lose their jobs and can’t repay their mortgages. An escalation of family break-ups and domestic violence. We’re already seeing an increase in civil unrest and riots because the police are being selective in who they apply the law to.

    All this, unbelievably, from a ‘Conservative’ government, less than 9 months since the GE, with an 80 seat majority. It would be quite unbelievable if it wasn’t happening before our very eyes.

    As you may guess, I feel very strongly about what has and still is happening to my country. Somebody needs to get a grip of things and stop the fear campaign, try to coordinate what is said, get rid of the masks, get rid of distancing and tell the teachers etc that if they don’t get back to work their pay will stop.

    1. “…tell the teachers etc that if they don’t get back to work their pay will stop.”

      Hear bl**dy hear.

    3. What a pity you did not have access to my GP Dr Brilliant – who arranged for me to have immediate admission to the NNUH. And, within two hours, I was in a gown being seen by the white coated.,,And three weeks on, I am (almost) cured.

    4. Good morning. A neighbour forwarded the following whistleblower statement this morning. I see it’s done the rounds of the internet already, but posting it here seems appropriate:

      I am a consultant at a major , regional hospital in Surrey. By major you can take that to indicate that we have an A&E department. I had agreed to give an interview to an anti lockdown activist in which I would have revealed my identity. I have since changed my mind and only feel able to give an anonymous statement. I have changed my mind simply because all staff , no matter what grade, at all hospitals have been warned that if they give any media interviews at all or make any statements to either the Main Stream Press or smaller, independent press /social media we may immediately be suspended without pay. I have a family, dependents and I simply can’t do it to them. I therefore can not reveal my identity at this time but wish to state as follows:

      In my opinion, and that of many of my colleagues, there has been no Covid Pandemic, certainly not in the Surrey region and I have heard from other colleagues this picture is the same throughout the country. Our hospital would normally expect to see around 350,000 out patients a year. Around 95,000 patients are admitted to hospital in a normal year and we would expect to see around a similar figure, perhaps 100,000 patients pass through our A&E department. In the months from March to June (inclusive) we would normally expect to see 100,000 out patients,

      around 30,000 patients admitted tohospital and perhaps 30,000 pass through A&E.

      This year (and thesefigures are almost impossible to get hold of) we are over 95% down on all those numbers. In effect, the hospital has been pretty much empty for that entire period.

      At the start, staff that questioned this were told that we were being used as ‘redundant’ capacity, kept back for the ‘deluge’ we were told would come. It never did come, and when staff began to question this, comments like, ‘for the greater good’ and to ‘protect the NHS’ came down from above. Now its just along the lines of, ‘Shut up or you don’t get paid’. The few Covid cases that we have had , get repeatedly tested, and every single test counted as a new case. Meaning the figures reported back to ONS / PHE (Office for National Statistics & Public Health England) were almost exponentially inflated. It could be that Covid cases reported by hospitals are between 5 to 10x higher than the real number of cases.
      There has been no pandemic and this goes a long way to explain why figures for the UK are so much higher than anywhere else in Europe.
      The trust has been running empty ambulances during lockdown and is still doing it now. By this I mean ambulances are driving around, with their emergency alert systems active (sirens & / or lights) with no job to go to. This I believe has been to give the impression to the public that there is more demand for ambulances than there actually is. Staff only wear face coverings/ masks & social distance when public facing, as soon as they are out of public view, the masks come off and social distancing is not observed. Indeed jokes are made about the measures, and I have heard staff express amazement that despite warnings on packets and at point of sales, telling people masks are totally ineffective and dangerous , the public still buy them, because a politician has told them too.

      We have cancelled the vast majority of operations and of these ALL elective surgery has been cancelled. That’s surgery that has been pre planned / waiting list. Non elective Surgery, this tends to be emergency surgery or that which is deemed urgent has been severely curtailed. The outcome of this is simple. People are at best being denied basic medical care and at worst, being left to die, in some cases, in much distress and pain.

      Regarding death certification. All staff that are responsible for this have been encouraged where possible to put Covid-19 complications as reason for death, even though the patient may have been asymptomatic and also not even tested for covid. I feel this simply amounts to fraudulently completed death certificates and has been responsible to grossly inflating the number of Covid deaths. The fact is that regardless of what you actually die of in hospital, it is likely that Covid-19 will feature on your death certificate. I have included with my statement the detailed published guidance from Government on Death Certification which shows how Covid-19, as a factor is encouraged to at least feature on a death certificate. Remember Covid-19 itself can not kill. What kills is complications from the virus, typically pneumonia like symptoms. These complications are in reality incredibly rare but have featured and a large amount of death certificates issued in recent months. As long as
      Covid-19 appears on a death certificate, that death is counted as
      Covid-19 in the figures released by the ONS and PHE. I genuinely believe that many death certificates, especially amongst the older 65+ demographic have been fraudulently completed so as to be counted as Covid-19 deaths when in reality Covid-19 complications did not cause the death.

      There have been Thursday nights when I stood, alone in my office and cried as I heard people cheering and clapping outside. It sickens me to see all the ‘Thank You NHS’ signs up everywhere and the stolen rainbow that for me now says one word and word only ; Fear.

      There are many good people in the NHS and whilst I do not plead forgiveness for myself, I do plead for them. Most are on low pay, they joined for the right reasons and I did and have been bullied and threatened that if they don’t ‘stay on message’ they don’t eat.
      I know that if a way could be found to assure staff within the NHS of safety against reprisals, there would be a tsunami of whistleblowers which I have no doubt would help end this complete and brutal insanity.
      I am finding it increasingly hard to live with what I have been involved in and I am sorry this has happened. To end, I would simply say this.
      Politicians haven’t changed, the country has just made a fatal mistake and started trusting them without question.

      * anonymous

        1. Almost the same in Canada. I took my wife to A&E about two weeks ago. Almost no one in the waiting room but a four hour wait to be seen, heaven knows how long it would have taken to be serviced if the waiting room had been full.

          At least our system is still sort of working. A&E doctor contacted our GP who telephoned us to arrange treatment which was promptly scheduled in an outpatient clinic.

      2. That is is appalling but not unexpected.
        It gives weight to the feeling of a conspiracy within the Anglosphere.
        I won’t bother to repeat the names responsible as it might make me choke.

        1. The fear seems to have been ramped up even further in NZ and Australia – with secondary lockdowns for very few ‘cases’ and even fewer deaths. The isolationism seems to have been accepted by their people, but for how long can they keep that up as their economies atrophy?

          1. I got your email. Have made a donation. I didn’t use this years calendar and i still have some cards so it seemed pointless to buy more.

        2. What it shows more than anything is the terror people feel of opposing the system.

          That’s wrong. Anyone should be able to say what they want to without consequence except for – why do you feel that way and what can we do about that?

          1. You are right. My wife and I do not swallow this politically motivated coronavirus pandemic. It’s far too easy but its purpose has always been to see how far the public could be pushed especially by the continuous and continuing project fear advertising on both radio and television. It has terrified people into paranoia. It will be beyond my lifetime before the west has recovered if at all. I refuse to let any government have control over my body and brain.

      3. Get ready for the witch hunt. The truth will eventually come out. Those that have been organising the cover up will be given a Golden Handshake – and quietly put in a different job with no financial loss.

    5. Covid’s been wonderful for the state machine.

      Everything can be pushed back a clear month – until the individual gets bored. Any problems can be blamed on covid, any delays, any procedures.

      It’s interesting in contrast though: the private sector, foods, gubbins and what not – has flooded in providing solutions and been even more responsive to meet demand.

      Perhaps if big state were paid *after* they provided the service rather than paid even if they didn’t they too would be efficient?

    6. They just want us to die – so that they can clock up even more “Covid deaths” and so scare the shit out of the under 50s.

  30. SIR – Early in my career, I was taught that one important technique was “management by walking about”.

    A daily stroll around a department of junior workers, stopping to chat at random, often reveals more about the challenges facing a business than can be learnt through formal line management.

    Ray Bralsford
    Plymouth, Devon

    It also enables the boss to spot those with drive and ideas as future managers. However, it can go wrong…the office that I worked in at the start of my career was run by a branch manager who wanted to get to know his staff by name. He decided to undertake personally the delivery of the monthly payslips, hoping that this would speed up the process, but he gave up after the first attempt because he got into a right old muddle – which then had to be sorted out by the section heads. Nice try, however. (And yes, he turned out to be an excellent BM.)

    1. I realised over the years that each level told their immediate bosses more what they wanted to hear than what they should have been told. This got worse the further up the ladder it went. By the time it reached the top it was completely unrecognisable from what started.

  31. ‘Morning, Peeps. It is not just we Nottlrs who have noticed the appallingly partisan approach to modern policing, although I fear that it is far worse than the Rev Fothergill suggests:

    SIR – It is absurdly inconsistent of the police to allow Extinction Rebellion protesters to hold mass rallies in London, while also moving to arrest Piers Corbyn and fine him £10,000 for meeting in Trafalgar Square with a few hundred people who object to the heavy-handedness of restrictions imposed to tackle Covid-19 (report, August 31).

    Under the current orthodoxy, it seems that anything “green” is good, and anything considered “fringe” must be stamped out with the full force of the law.

    Rev Richard Fothergill
    Windermere, Cumbria

    Compare and contrast Countryside Alliance and ‘Pride’ marches…

    1. I was lucky I didn’t attend the CA march where heads were broken (I’d been on the others, but I was in Mongolia at the time of that one).

  32. 323223+ up ticks,
    Old andy up north seems to be having problems with the natives, could very well be another Rorkes Drift in the making.

      1. Bill, you know of course that anything that doesn’t toe the NWO line is fake fake fake, most especially if true.

    2. I thought I recognised that Yeats quote – it’s on the opening page of Murray Smith’s excellent book “The Devil’s Juggler”!

      1. I liked his Golden Apples of the Sun gleaned from one of Ray Bradbury’s books.

        Though I am old with wandering
        Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
        I will find out where she has gone
        And kiss her lips and take her hands;
        And walk among long dappled grass,
        And pluck till time and times are done
        The silver apples of the moon,
        The golden apples of the sun.

        WB Yeats,

      2. I liked his Golden Apples of the Sun gleaned from one of Ray Bradbury’s books.

        Though I am old with wandering
        Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
        I will find out where she has gone
        And kiss her lips and take her hands;
        And walk among long dappled grass,
        And pluck till time and times are done
        The silver apples of the moon,
        The golden apples of the sun.

        WB Yeats,

        1. When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
          And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
          And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
          Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

          How many loved your moments of glad grace,
          And loved your beauty with love false or true,
          But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
          And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

          And bending down beside the glowing bars,
          Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
          And paced upon the mountains overhead
          And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

    5. “Think I’ve now found the right church. ”

      ….but have you found the right God?
      I’m still looking. I haven’t given up yet but my patience is wearing thin….

      1. Oh, God is God. The Church of England disappearing rapidly down the woke rabbit hole is the problem. Very few common sense conservative with a small c clergy left.

    6. This quotation from W.B. Yeats’s The Second Coming is one to which I frequently refer. The final couplet is full of menace.

      And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
      Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

      1. I always liked An Irish Airman Foresees His Death (had to learn it at school) and Down By The Sully Gardens (which was set to music).

  34. SIR – It is heartening that Dr Jenny Harries (report, August 29), the ddeputy chief medical officer, acknowledges that masks , and other Covid measures, have caused disabled people problems.

    As parents of children with additional needs, we ask head teachers to balance Dr Harries’s assertion that masks “can be very reassuring” with the fact that pupils who rely heavily on non-verbal communication may feel excluded when faces are covered.

    We urge the Government to provide guidelines to ensure that children with such needs are equally considered.

    Liam and Leonora Hunt

    York

        1. Morning! Out flying today, face nappy required on plane & in office. :-((
          Its going to be a baaaaad day.

  35. Good morning, all. A lovely sunny start – though chilly.

    I dreamed that I was at a reception in the Far East, where Lady Mountbatten asked me to hang a painting by Winston. There was a hook prepared, but it was clear that it was too far to reach and the painting would not fit in the space.

    It was a relief to wake up…!

    1. I can sympathise with that. Since the onset of ‘Lymes disease’ I have suffered many adverse effects, one of which is restless dreaming. I have some important task to complete and time is of essence but something always crops up and frustrates the task. I often wake up exhausted not having achieved the desired end. Worse still, I am almost paralysed. My arms and legs feel like lead weights. It is so bad at times I have to get up before 11am and get myself a cup of tea. 😁

  36. My loo reading right now is a study of Feng Shui. The ignorant regard this as Kung Fu superstition, but I prefer to regard it as a form of applied psychology honed over many millennia of experience and observation in China as its fortunes ebb and flow from devastation to prosperity and back again.

    Today’s lesson is about the concept of ‘qi’, which translates loosely as ‘living breath’, but requires quite a lot of imagination in order to understand what it is really about.

    There are three types:

    -there is the angry and destructive, which operates in straight lines and is an unrestrained yang spirit that creates a feeling of anxiety and aggression.

    – there is the sinking into lethargy and depression, a stagnancy of unrestrained yin that moves us into zombies of hopelessness.

    – then there is the living breath that wafts around – neither motionless nor aggressive, but meandering hither and thither calmly and pleasantly. It has elements of both yin and yang, which can be extreme from time to time, but these do not overwhelm or threaten, but are subject to the whims of time and fate, and we deal with each encounter as they come.

    It is the last that Feng Shui endeavours to bring to the front of our lives and our environment.

    1. So THAT’s what Spartie is doing on his walks; practising Feng Shui.
      He wanders from one spot to another and eventually decides to have a pee.

      1. Absolutely! I have a pang of conscience each time I get the urge. Do I give it to the roses? Do I pee on the gate to discourage the neighbour’s dog? Do I water that birch tree my niece grew on from a seed? Or do I get lazy and just use the bowl, sending all that golden goodness into the septic tank?

        Decisions, decisions, decisions. I’d better have a lie down… no, I can’t do that either.

      2. My dog wanders from spot to spot reading his wee mails and deciding whether to reply or not 🙂

    4. Good morning Jeremy

      Your post was an interesting if confusing read.

      I always assumed that Feng Shui was a cult that those with OCD took seriously . Cushions in the right position , salt and pepper , pepper salt, table mats and position of furniture and no clutter.

      I expect you will instruct me to Google Feng Shui.

      The lavvy loo reading is an excellent place to practise deep breathing though , don’t strain too much, bad for the piles!

      1. It depends how much you want to dedicate your life to it.

        I am far too lazy to go in for much fusspottery. Put something where it feels right, and it can look after itself for the next ten years before I get round to dusting under it.

    5. The first describes Antifa and Extinction Rebellion.

      The second describes Snowflakes.

      The third describes normal people. ie me.

      Good morning JM.

    6. It seems very vague Jeremy and is probably the precursor of Taoism. I suspect its laid back qualities are its main attraction.

    7. There is a branch of Feng Shui that is more esoteric than that of Qi. It can only be appreciated by those who were around in the 1950s. Simply repeat the following: Ying tong, ying tong, ying tong, ying tong, ying tong yiddle i po, Ying tong, ying tong, ying tong yiddle i po, yiddle i po, Ying tong, ying tong, ying tong, ying tong, ying tong yiddle i po, Ying tong, ying tong, ying tong yiddle i po, yiddle i po. Yiiiing, tongy, yiddy diddy da doh, ying yiddy, Ying tong diddle, yiddledy boo, Ying tong, ying tong, ying tong yiddle, ying tong yiddle i po, Ying tong, ying tong, ying tong yiddle i po, yiddle i po, and you will be instantly transported into a world of happiness.

      Do NOT, whatever you do, open the door to the people in white coats – who will usually arrive within five minutes of you commencing the mantra.

    8. Interesting comment but I found myself trying to pigeonhole Nottlers into one of your 3 listed categories.
      I naturally placed myself in category 3.

      4. If I feel like indulging in alcohol early-ish in the day, I console myself with the thought the sun is over the yardarm somewhere in the world 🙂

          2. With drinks like that I managed to enjoy a truly American peanut butter and onion sandwich at the golf club on Monday.

          5. I normally put sliced tomatoes on peanut butter. I didn’t like the sound of peanut butter and onion but it’s growing on me. I would brine the onions first though to get rid of the sharpness.

      1. My grandmother always had a sherry and played 2 games of patience before her lunch! She knelt on the floor to play and drink! I can see her yet!

  38. Most powerful elected US Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, pictured without a face covering in hair salon.. 2 September 2020.

    Quite a big story coming out of the US with Nancy Pelosi pictured having her done in a San Francisco hair salon without a mask on.

    Footage obtained by Fox News showed the House of Representatives speaker inside the premises on Monday, breaking the city’s coronavirus-prevention rules.

    It gets worse for Pelosi as hair salons have been closed by law in San Francisco, and so therefore she shouldn’t have been there.

    I hardly feel that I can castigate her for that since I don’t believe in them either. Lol!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/sep/02/coronavirus-live-news-us-wont-cooperate-with-who-vaccine-china-uk-trump-brazil-cases-near-4m?page=with:block-5f4f6baa8f08b8a6c6696dc1#block-5f4f6baa8f08b8a6c6696dc1

    2. Well disobeying the rules cost Phil Hogan his position last week. One rule for the elite and one for the plebs.

      1. Exactly. Rules don’t apply to the elite so why is anyone surprised?

        How many leaders were not fully coiffed during the panic? Well OK you could not tell with Boris and Trudeau does not count as a leader.

          1. Boris is going bald . He is using his long hair to partially cover the baldness. It was obvious at PMQs today.

  39. A charity called “Aid Convoy” has been struck off the register of charities. Not easy to find out anything as searches on “aid convoy” turned up all sorts including a convoy of aid from Solidarity Union in Poland to protestors in Belarus last week. Who knew?
    But I digress. The entry for Aid Convoy in the register lacked much of the required information. The charity survived a previous inquiry and ignored subsequent instructions to do things properly. It looks as if the charity was run fraudulently for around 8 years. About £3m cannot be accounted for. The trustees, Muhammed Mumin and Asim Shafaq have been disqualified from trusteeship for eight years. Nice work if you can get it.
    Of course, it seems clear that charities can carry on fraud for years, abstract lots of money, and the worst is disqualification, not prison. (The worse your record-keeping the better as there is then no evidence.). Look for the report on the BBC…no. wait, don’t bother.

    https://www.accountancydaily.co/aid-charity-struck-over-financial-failings

    1. Some years ago I was involved in unseating some trustees from a wildlife charity, which had been witholding funds for their own aims. My role was only to keep donors and supporters informed, but a legal firm worked pro bono and eventually uncovered a considerable sum that had been hidden.
      The Charity Commission refused to do anything, so this Aid convoy must have really been fraudulent.
      We have found, as trustees for a small charity, that so long as you return the annual accounts prompty, nothing is interfered with.

    2. I remember reading of the convoys taking fresh food etc to Romanian orphanages – then when going back to check found it had all been locked away and left to rot.

    4. Aid Convoy? This sounds reminiscent of the one that used to ship supplies into Syria for the Jihadists and of which one of the British drivers was subsequently murdered in the most brutal fashion. I have always thought that he was betrayed!

    1. For those of us who are not white:

      “We banis bilong susu you wanpela connection to the modern world”

      “Next month we will be stret long taim with antidepressants”

        1. My sister had an enormous and very fecund sow which was named Bathsheba.

          One Sunday at church the vicar was telling the disgraceful story of how King David put Uriah the Hittite in the front line of battle hoping he would be killed allowing David to enjoy the embraces of Uriah’s widow, Bathsheba.

          At the mention of the name Bathsheba my nephew Jonathan – aged four at the time – announced proudly to the congregation that she had just given birth to thirteen piglets.

    3. Never mind Cameron’s friends, what’s a 20 numberplate doing with a bl00dy sphincter of stars on it?

      1. We haven’t left the EU, we are in a transition period until January before we beg them to rejoin.

        1. Technically we have left the EU (but in name only). If we can survive until 31st December 2020, we will genuinely have left.

          1. While still being subject to all the things that cost our country so dearly. What i am hearing in the news about our fishing grounds and the human rights crap is sounding positive. Which means we ain’t going to get what we want. I believe since Cameron and May and now Boris it was an exercise in stringing us along.

            One could argue if one were prone to conspiracy theory that Covid has been used to hurry along the deaths of dissenters.

            A good day to bury bad news.

            I will believe it when i see it but i don’t hold out any hope.

  42. 323223+ up ticks,
    The Broken Biscuit Co is still at it, they are going to play those, they judge to be offensive numbers at last night of the proms, the only singers will be of BBc ilk.
    We must listen carefully, music will be the same but the sung word could very well be from the Horst- wessel.

  43. Assassins sprinkled poison on Aexei Navalny’s underwear, says scientist who invented novichok as Russian dissident fights for life in a coma. 2 September.

    Russian dissident Alexei Navalny could have had poison sprinkled in his underwear, according to the scientist who invented the nerve agent Novichok.

    Friends of the Putin critic have suggested his tea was spiked in an airport cafe, but former Soviet scientist Vladimir Uglev said assassins could have sprinkled a deadly toxin on his socks or underwear.

    Of course! Poisoned socks! It all fits. Particularly how he managed to fall ill after he was on the plane to Moscow where the Germans seemingly had a plane on standby waiting to fly him to Berlin! The poor Englishwoman woman who is at present waiting to die so she can be flown home must be truly envious!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8688831/Assassins-sprinkled-poison-Alexei-Navalnys-underwear.html

  44. Astonishing images show exhausted migrants struggling ashore and collapsing on a Dover beach after four dinghies dodge Border Force boats during daring Channel dash. 2 September 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/31795ea8a077ab9fceb7466d7fce3098c0629a0d622deee7aa97515895e1374d.jpg

    Dramatic photographs showed migrants staggering onto a British beach today after a potentially record-breaking number were picked up off the coast with up to 25 boats crossing the English Channel.

    Pictures taken this morning showed one group wading through the water and looking exhausted as they collapsed and sat down on rocks on the Kent coast at Dover after making the perilous journey from France.

    Two dinghies were brought as close to shore as possible before the migrants got out and walked through the water, falling over and ending up soaking wet by the time they reached the sand and shingle.

    It doesn’t look as dramatic as D Day or Okinawa but it will see the end of us!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8689307/Exhausted-migrants-wade-shore-collapse-Dover-beach.html

    2. From that snap, it looks as though white people are aiding and abetting this criminal activity. Why are they not prosecuted?

      1. Yes. They wouldn’t be if they’d applied legally.

        As it is, they must be sent back. Where to I do not care, just not here.

        1. If they really were refugees, Germany would have taken them and so would France. These are failed asylum seekers who for some nefarious reason we are unable to deport. The majority of them are fit young men. Guard any daughters you may have because our Government won’t.

          2. And from a so called Conservative Government at that. I feel that Boris, Priti and Rishi are ringers.

            I remember the craptard Cameron saying he looked forward to the day we had a Muslim Prime Minister.

          3. We haven’t had real conservatives in the “Conservative” Party since Maggie was knifed in the back for realising the truth about the EU.

          4. And now the stabber is a member of the 48 group.

            *** i am finding it very difficult not to use the most profane language…

            Bollocks and …………………fucking bastards………….. oops.

    4. If they get health problems through getting wet through then the NHS will have plenty of nice clean warm beds – for them. Meanwhile WE . . . .can’t get treatment.

    5. 323223+ up ticks,
      Afternoon AS,
      May one ask, does this “see the end of us”
      only apply to the lab/lib/con member / voters or to the multitude of not guilty / innocent peoples nationwide ?

    7. If they are dodging BF boats then they are clearly up to a lot worse than just wanting to be freeloading here.

    8. Perhaps the message in this image will get through to prospective immigrants that there are salt water channel crocodiles on the Dover shoreline.🐊🐊🐊

    9. I see Priti’s new Clandestine Channel Threat Commander is working well. Probably still deciding the interior on his taxpayer funded car.

    2. To spend in the sense of giving (to charity).

      I once got a very black look from a hotel manager in Cuxhaven when I asked him if the staff had a Spendedose (charity tin), Whereas I should have said Kaffeekasse (box for tips).

      1. Caroline meant to write: ‘spreading’ rather than ‘spending’.

        As I am sure you will know P.G. Wodehouse is invaluable when you run out of laughing gas and his character, Lord Ickenham, dedicated his life to ‘spreading sweetness and light’. People who try to bring sweetness and light can also wreak chaos and in the Wodehouse stories Lord Ickenham’s nephew, Pongo Twistleton, usually was the victim of his acts of altruism.

        One of Caroline’s finest qualities is that she loves P.G. Wodehouse’s books as much as I do. Indeed it is always an excellent sign if a woman is a fan of Pelham Grenville – far too many women find him silly and trivial which entirely misses the point.

        Incidentally, we have had a problem with smelly drains recently and we call a stink a twistleton after Pongo.

  47. Apropos the very disturbing arrest video from Austraila posted way below just seen a very acute comment

    “I heard someone say recently that the problem with Australia isn’t that they are all descended from prisoners.It’s that they are also descended from the prison guards”
    A classic “Too true to be good”

  48. DM Story

    Family of British breast cancer survivor fighting for her life in hospital in Turkey where treatment will cost £10,000 a DAY are told by government she can’t be repatriated unless she dies.

    I have found the Turkish medical system very good – but you certainly have to pay for it and indeed, unlike the NHS, the longer they can keep you in hospital the better.

    Some years ago I had to spend a few days in hospital in Marmaris. When I came to leave they kept hold of my passport and would not let me go until my medical insurance company confirmed that they would be paying the bill and so we had to make frantic phone calls and send faxes and e-mails to sort it out.

    3. Yet boatload after boatload are ferried in here for unlimited treatment, inevitably followed by their families for more of the same.

      1. Some countries have this strange idea that if you want something you have to pay for it but England welcomes anyone who cannot pay and punishes those who do.

    4. I fell seriously ill in Jeddah in 2009 and spent two weeks in hospital. The bill was presented and I was confined to my room until the insurance co settled. Not difficult.

    5. I found the story in the DM – and her daughter’s GoFundMe page has come up with enough donations to fly her mother home.

  49. Completely O/T.
    I have been waiting for Parcelforce to deliver to me today. On the tracker system it said my delivery would be between 4 – 5 pm. At 12 o clock the van was showing as 250 yds away – Damn good service I thought. My delivery then spent 2.5 hrs on a sightseeing tour of the locality. Frustrating, but it was still delivered 1.5 hrs early. So well done Parcelforce – but also – why was it took miles when it was SOOOOOO close??? The van was also delivering to another house 20 yds away and was about to drive away after that one – until I shouted to ask the driver if he was delivering here. He had to search his list !!!!!. Or else he would have drove away.

    2. That happened to me once. It may have something to do with where your parcel was situated on the van. I could see that mine had gone via the local cafe.

        1. Certainly the drivers do.

          It seems strange but since we got so many foreigners come here to work i found politeness levels had increased. Plus, better service in restaurants.

          Not the scroungers but the workers.

      2. When we were living in France, we had a parcel from our younger son that took eight weeks to deliver, from Bedfordshire. It was full of important stuff – a Sainsbury magazine for his mum, our home post, chocolate biscuits. It did arrive eventually. When we inspected the postmark we understood. The parcel had taken a detour – by way of Honduras. The surprising thing was that it had arrived at all, intact.

          2. Oops. I have no idea what Tunnock bars for p’dad means.

            I know Tunnocks tea cakes but for the rest you have lost me. You’re not Scottish me we lassie?

          4. No, I am a Yorkshire lass! Tunnocks bars are similar to Kitkats, wafery biscuit covered in chocolate, too sweet for me but p’dad has a penchant for them. Poppiesdad is Charles, my old man.

        2. I regularly get letters redirected from Norfolk. My village shares its name with one not far from King’s Lynn!

          3. I regularly get post for a neighbour who lives the other side of two roads away, in a retirement village. What i find strange is that they also occasionally get mine. We share the first four digits of the post code but the rest is very different. I began to wonder if the postie was trying to set us up for a date.

    3. I had a delivery last night from Sainsbury’s. I dont often need enough for a delivery but this time I added enough bits and pieces to meet the minimum cost.
      When the driver arrived, he had the whole delivery loose in four crates. He said they were cutting down on bags. It took me ages to unload each individual item while the driver stood six feet from my door watching.

      1. I had just the same experience from Sainsbury yesterday. Previously on their website they said everything would be bagged to safeguard their staff. This time i stocked up on tinned goods (12 of everything in a tin). Arrived without bags. Oh what fun we had. I said to the delivery chap that this must take longer and he said they all hated it.

        I always have a couple of collapsible crates available and knew it would be a blooming rigmarole.

        Word to the wise…..buy tinned goods, bog rolls and machetes. Apparently in America, Walmart has run out of guns and ammo.

    4. I had a phone call this lunch time from the district nurse, telling me she was outside my house. It turns out she wasn’t; she was across town at a former hotel with the same name! She said she was local and she should have realised!

    1. Out of six so far
      2 white
      3 black
      1 Indian

      Truly representative of the UK population, not.

      1. Who is better than who will forever remain subjective. One man’s pork pie and crackling is another mans quinoa and kale salad.

      2. In this case, Richard, I must disagree. Although technically accomplished, it lacks the emotion of Eric’s playing.

    3. I’ve spotted three of the original artists who recorded this song on the Beatles’ White Album. Is that Dhani Harrison there too?

  53. Moh played golf in the Wednesday rollup this morning, up early .. Left me in a slilent house , no parrot noises or good mornings.. just the dogs fussing around as usual.

    I drove the car to here https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/purbeck-countryside/features/hartland-moor and walked the dogs , sky was overcast and slightly breezy , the heather was fading , though the bees were still buzzing .

    I found several black shiny beetles on their backs , and turned them the right way up, I saw very few butterflies , but a noticed some strange wasp like creatures , very small with pinched in abdomens , I think they are called Solitary Wasps, lots of varieties and quite pretty , that is if you can get a good look at them.

    The lane through the moor was so busy with cyclists , just the type who are cycling in the Tour de France.. they all seem so tall, lanky and gangly hunched over their bikes… are they a new breed of men, they all look like clones , but no doubt are very fit!

    Many visitors had stopped to stroll to Middlebere with their binoculars to look at the birds on this end of Poole harbour and perhaps see the wading birds
    or even an Osprey

    https://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2013/08/the-dorset-walk-middlebere-and-wytch-heaths/

    We saw an Osprey last year during the Spring , and felt overwhelmed and delighted to see this bird that had travelled so far to fish then continue it’s journey perhaps to Scotland .

    The dogs had a good gallop , the weather seemed to be getting quite chilly, I just had a light sleeved top on , so was pleased to get back to the car.

    I wasn’t far from home , so called into a local farm shop which has a caravan site ( Characters like Syd James and Bernard Bresslaw spring to mind all hale and hearty ), and lots of hens , peacocks , geese and little fluffy legged hens … proper old fashioned farm shop, and bought a dozen large eggs , some watercress and a nice chocolate cake .. didn’t buy any meat this time , but their sausages and beef are usually delicious .

    I buy my garden bird food there, and my parrot mix .. now no longer.

    Moh was home by the time I got back with the dogs , and he commented on how miserable it was to return to an empty house , no welcomes , no whistles , nothing .

    So that be it pals , just started to drizzle with rain .

    1. It’s not until an animal or bird goes that you realise how much their little sounds – let alone a chatty parrot – contribute to the background noise in the house. Small things like pattering of feet and ruffling of feathers are all part of the white noise that makes up your home.
      While walking Spartie this afternoon I noticed that the ivy must be in bloom as the bushes were swarming with some type of hover fly/wasp/bee. Such an unprepossessing plant must produce the goods for some insects.

      1. Oh Anne , I am glad you understand and appreciate the void that exists in an empty house..

        My heart aches for those who have lost their human life pals.

        I am just looking up occasionally at an empty corner .. We dismantled the cage and took all the loose food to the tip , but I put a local message out on the village f/b site for anyone who had parrots to see if they would like the sealed specialist treats and bits and pieces that they enjoy shredding , I had no idea there were so many parrot owners in the village and surrounding area!

        I gave a small bin of goodies away free to the owner of a thirteen year old African Grey , and it was greatly appreciated .

      3. For me it was the silence coupled with the big, empty space where he used to lie. The house was just not a home.

        1. I just so love my little Dolly Chi. She is four and a half now. She is so sweet and so sneaky where food is concerned. I feed her…quite often bits of meat and then she will stare at her bowl with her ears lowered as if to say…………’Why haven’t you fed me ! ‘

          When she goes…if she goes before me…i will replace her from the same breeder because i really couldn’t cope with the empty space.

          1. My current mutt is 16 and a half and we’ve had him since he was four months old. That is a very long time to share one’s life with a hairy beastie and then lose him 🙁 Fingers crossed he will keep soldiering on for a while; being a crossbreed, he should have hybrid vigour.

          2. My Vet told me Dolly was a kilo overweight. The Kennel club say her weight is fine for a non showing dog. My Vet says that she will suffer from arthritis as she is small boned. The Kennel club say not to worry.

            Duh !

            No matter how long or short a life……………enjoying that time is more important than worrying about other contradictory opinions of knowitalls.

            Do you have a pic you can post pls.

          3. I posted one yesterday of him snoozing in the campervan under Bill’s thread of dogs’ names. Will see if I can find another one.

          6. What he may lack in looks (although his cuteness rating is high) he certainly makes up for in personality!

    4. It sounds as if you had a nice but melancholy day, Belle.

      Get another Birdie. Don’t tell hubby. In fact, buy it as a gift for him !

      1. Hi Phizzee , melancholy yes.

        How is life next to the Solent , do you ever walk along there with Dolly?

        Parrots cost £thousands, the price is incredible these days .

        I expect we will get over things , we had to make arrangements in our will in case Happy out lived us . People don’t understand when they buy them that that these parrots have long lives!

        1. I take Dolly to Lee when i go for fish and chips. In summer she isn’t allowed on the beach so we sit in the memorial garden which is sunken/safe for Dolly and very pleasant. She hasn’t had a pee on the memorial yet but i put that down to the fact that i’m eating and might drop a crumb or two.

          It seems the price of pets has rocketed since lockdown but our Anne Allan suggested that might change when people go back to work. If they ever do. So keep a lookout.

        2. Do they not have a parrot rescue for abandoned birds? I got my first adult dog from the Irish Setters’ Breeders Rescue. They took in setters who, for no fault of their own, couldn’t stay with their original owners. Mine had come to the centre, at the age of 6, because his owners had arthritis and couldn’t cope with him. He was adorable and such a gentleman.

        3. Do they not have a parrot rescue for abandoned birds? I got my first adult dog from the Irish Setters’ Breeders Rescue. They took in setters who, for no fault of their own, couldn’t stay with their original owners. Mine had come to the centre, at the age of 6, because his owners had arthritis and couldn’t cope with him. He was adorable and such a gentleman.

  54. From Taki-Just Knock it Off. Easier said than done

    Just Knock It Off
    Steve Sailer, September 02, 2020

    This week the mainstream media finally grudgingly admitted the possibility of what I’ve been hollering for three months: that their declaration of a “racial reckoning” has unleashed destruction and mayhem across America.

    While most of the press’ attention is focused on a handful of whites shooting other whites over politics, the statistically much bigger phenomenon all summer has been the Black Lives Matter-inspired rise in black-on-black shootings.

    For example, the number of shooting victims in New York City so far this year is up 95 percent over 2019. While the press is now harping on supposed right-wing violence, there probably aren’t a lot of violent Trumpists in the Bronx.

    What about elsewhere? National crime data trickles in slowly, but one useful source is the Wikipedia page on mass shootings (defined as incidents in which four or more people were struck by bullets, but not necessarily killed).

    With one day left in August, the total number of mass shootings in the U.S. since June 1 is 257, up 72 percent from 149 in 2019’s same period.

    Fortunately, these huge increases in total number of people shot may not translate into equally immense increases in murders, because 2020’s shooters don’t seem as efficient at killing people. Fewer people appear to be dying per person shot this year. For example, murders are up only 35 percent in New York City due to a decline in marksmanship among Gotham’s would-be assassins.

    This suggests that a large fraction of the Summer of George’s incremental shootings are by blacks, who historically have had the lowest ratio of kills to wounded. (Contrary to what you might assume from watching rap videos, holding your gun sideways doesn’t actually help you shoot straight.)

    Although the national press has promoted the idea that almost all mass shootings are carried out by white male terrorists with rifles in schools or churches, those are rare, although horrifically lethal when they do happen.

    “Stop thinking you need to kill a guy for dissing you.”
    That’s because the prototypical white mass shooting is carried out by a lone gunman bent on suicide or life in prison who sticks around to finish off the wounded because he has made up his mind he’s not going home ever. These leave more dead, fewer wounded.

    In contrast to suicidal white mass shootings, black shootings tend toward the homicidal: Several handgun-armed young men shoot up a picnic or block party intending to kill somebody in the crowd with whom they are angry. And then they run off, figuring if they lie low at their grandma’s house for a few days, it’ll all blow over. Many of those shot are merely bystanders, whom the shooters don’t bother to hunt down because they didn’t have much in the way of hard feelings toward them in the first place. They just happened to be, as they so often say, in the wrong place at the wrong time.

    These kinds of mass shootings cause fewer dead but more wounded.

    (The third kind of mass shooting, which few talk about, is domestic murder-suicides.)

    The more you read up on black-on-black shootings, the more pointless and stupid they seem. Which in a way is good news. These aren’t inevitable tragedies that are fated by the inexorable laws of the universe. They’re just dumb decisions made by people who haven’t been taught by society just how ridiculous their values and behavior are.

    There’s a win-win solution out there that nobody is talking about: Blacks could improve the attitudes of others toward them by rectifying their actions. The wise social scientist James Q. Wilson summed up a lifetime of studying crime in 2002:

    A central problem—perhaps the central problem—in improving the relationship between white and black Americans is the difference in racial crime rates…. Black men commit murders at a rate about eight times greater than that for white men.

    Hence, the single most effective way to improve America’s race problem would be for blacks to stop killing people so much.

    For instance, do you want cops to be gentler with blacks? Do you want more integration of neighborhoods? Then give the police and neighbors less good reason to fear blacks’ violent impulsiveness.

    How can America encourage African-Americans to be more law-abiding?

    The first step when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging. The current national orgy of excuse-making and praise for blacks is exacerbating their already severe self-destructiveness.

    The second step is to tell the truth about black crime.

    The third step is for government, media, and institutions to encourage blacks to reform.

    In 2018, blacks were per capita 7.9 times more likely to be murder offenders than the rest of the U.S. population, which includes 60 million Hispanics.

    That is a ridiculous ratio.

    I’m sorry, but it is time to stop excusing away the absurdly high rate of black criminality as an inevitable outcome of poverty or systemic racism or whatever and start asking blacks to just knock it off.

    At present, contrary to most assumptions, black men are much more criminally inclined than white men at all levels of income. Harvard economist Raj Chetty discovered that black men who grew up in families in the 99th percentile of income for the whole population (not the black population, but the fabled One Percent overall) were as likely to be imprisoned as white men who grew up at only the 34th percentile.

    That ought to be embarrassing for blacks, but The New York Times headlined Chetty’s findings as:

    Extensive Data Shows Punishing Reach of Racism for Black Boys

    Mexican-Americans are about as poor as African-Americans, but their murder rate is notably lower. It’s hard to get reliable figures on Latino crime rates because many American police departments still don’t break out Hispanics as a separate category from whites; but, whatever it is, it clearly is only a fraction of the black rate.

    Is it unreasonable to call on African-Americans to lower their murder rate to the Mexican-American level?

    Or are blacks just genetically fated to have a vastly higher murder rate?

    Maybe, but cultures have reformed themselves over time, especially if assisted by carrots and sticks from the outside. For instance, the Chinese-American murder rate is minuscule today, but was the highest in San Francisco during the 19th-century Tong Wars.

    Note that the murder rate today is extremely high in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, quite high in Mexico (higher than among Mexican-Americans), and not all that terrible in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. It appears that Latin Americans tend to react to historical circumstances, such as the perceived legitimacy of the government and the shift of cocaine trafficking away from Colombia in the 1990s.

    But a large fraction of American black-on-black killings aren’t due to wars between international cartels over vast profits, but are instead over petty disputes. The Los Angeles Times’ homicide reporter Jill Leovy recounted in her 2015 book Ghettoside that in South Central:

    Debts and competition over goods and women—especially women—drove many killings. But insults, snitching, drunken antics, and the classic “unwanted party guests” also were common homicide motives.

    My guess is that there are some low-hanging fruit in contemporary African-American culture—absurdly dysfunctional tendencies—that should and could be made taboo.

    For example, there should be a cultural proscription on the disgraceful practice of shooting up funerals and other memorial services. Self-respecting criminals should be ashamed to do that. For example, on Aug. 22 Harry Siegel of the New York Daily News reported:

    An 18-year old, with a two-week-old baby, was shot dead Wednesday just outside Prospect Park on his way to a vigil for a 42-year-old who’d been shot dead Sunday after he’d gone to a vigil for a 28-year-old who’d been shot dead the previous Wednesday.

    If this chain of memorial murders were a virus, it would have an R naught of 1.0.

    Mayors and governors could help blunt the current spike in black-on-black carnage by announcing that the bans on large gatherings due to the pandemic apply to black funerals, too.

    But, as we saw with the immense George Floyd and John Lewis funeral orgies, those rules don’t seem to apply to blacks.

    In the long run, we could have laws preventing males between, say, 13 and 35 from attending memorial services for murdered gang members. (Would it hurt to get the message across to young knuckleheads that their funerals will be inglorious?)

    From not shooting up funerals, we could then move on, in baby steps, to establishing a new norm that it is disgusting to shoot at somebody in a crowd rather than to wait until he’s alone.

    And, eventually… Stop thinking you need to kill a guy for dissing you. You feel mad at the moment, but in the long run, you will be okay. In contrast, your committing murder brings shame on your race.

    Instead, however, our society has been pushing in the opposite direction, promoting in blacks an ever-growing sense of megalomania and impunity.

    How’s that working out for us?

    1. I remember once, on a CQB (Close Quarter Battle) range when one of our platoon, for some reason issued a sub-machine gun instead of a rifle, unloaded the whole magazine at a target, shooting from the hip. She shot the target neatly in half 🙂 🙂

      1. I was firing a Bren (that dates me) at Bisley when a hare lollopped across the range. Couldn’t resist.

        3. Brens were still in service in the 1980s, Falklands and after. Maybe even into the 1990s?. Of course that is also some time ago . . .

          Perhaps the real tell would be .303 or 7.62?

        4. Brens were still in service in the 1980s, Falklands and after. Maybe even into the 1990s? Of course that is also some time ago . . .

          Perhaps the real tell would be: Bren in .303 or 7.62?

  56. 323223+ up ticks,
    When you look back on the 24/6/2016 victory and realise the extent of treachery the lab/lib/con coalition were/are capable of they must have thought all their Christmases had come at once to still have supporters / voters.
    Then in a joint effort they took the one trick pony party UKIP outside and shot it, in point of fact they shot the only patriotic
    unit with the horse sense to exit, we are suffering the outcome.
    Dover has been on the cards since 24/6/2016 showing just who is running things.

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenUK/status/1301071094326140928

    1. Blame the conductor which she refuted. Scratches head…oh i know, blame the virus. It doesn’t have a lawyer.

    3. 323223+ up ticks,
      Morning PT,
      Yes, I do believe he would be a runaway
      especially with the growing islamic ideology
      trend building within the party.

    4. 323223+ up ticks,
      PT,
      Double him up with moggy call it game set & match advantage to the opposition, put the light off on leaving and close the door on the United Kingdom, forever.

      1. Good afternoon, ogga

        How about the dream team of Kilroy-Silk, Bolton and Batten. Mind you there is long list of past UKIP leaders including Nigel Farage whom, I believe, you dislike.

        1. 323223+ up ticks,
          Afternoon R,
          That rings of old toryism, Kilroy – Silk I liked but a showman, no harm done.
          bolton was an out & out bounder plus tis my belief a conduit for farage hence the anti Batten letter to the ersatz UKIp nec & the anti UKIP membership rant on LBC from farage when Gerard took the leadership.
          Where do you get your info ?
          I dislike farage for his political play which I believe
          his input help bring about the demise of a decent
          credible party under the Batten leadership.
          Now I assume of course you was / are a tory and voted such, could you explain to me the treacherous trail against this nation the tory’s took
          via major, clegg, the wretch cameron, may,still waiting the verdict on johnson but it does not look good.
          You see real UKIP was seen by many as being a one horse party, if that was the case that horse was NEVER a ringer, as with the lab/lib/con coalition
          party steeped in deceit & treachery.

        2. Bolton was useless. I was shocked by his threats to party members at the EGM. My hands are clean; I never voted for him. Gerard rescued the party from the financial mess that his predecessors had left and deserves respect.

    6. Owen Paterson.

      One of the best reasons why he should be prime minister is that he does not want to be and he does not push himself forward in a vulgar way. It has been said before that the greatest disqualifiaction for being prime minister is wanting to be prime minister.

      Sue Edison posted a part of The Second Coming above – two very relevant lines:

      The best lack all conviction, while the worst
      Are full of passionate intensity

  59. BLM could cost Biden the presidency. Spiked. 2 Septmeber 2020.

    The Democratic Party is in a difficult position. It relies on the activism of its BLM-supporting left-wing to connect with voters and drive turnout. But it is precisely its left-wing’s support for BLM, and its role in the violence and unrest in US cities, which could stop a lot of Americans from voting Democrat.

    Most Americans are proud of their cultural heritage and support the police. They will be put off by scenes of looting and destruction within their cities. Most citizens value social stability and are uncomfortable with radical, violent change. They are understandably more concerned with improving socio-economic reality than achieving political utopias. Biden and the Democratic establishment seem to have forgotten this. And it could well win Trump a second term.

    Let us hope so but one could point out that the Powers of Darkness have invested a great deal of Time and Money in attempting to dispose of Trump and put their own man in the White House. Are they really going to postpone everything for another four years? Could they even do so if they wished? It would seem to me that they will proceed to more direct methods! Perhaps even the likelihood of his election would suffice to see him assassinated since it would not appear so obvious!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/09/02/blm-could-cost-biden-the-presidency/

    1. The Dems have a death wish. If they seriously wanted the White House these demonstrations would have been cut off as soon as they started, all that Portland is doing is increase the middle American desire for a peaceful life.

      Similarly if the Republicans wanted to show leadership they could be leaning on police to not use firearms except in exceptional cases. What was Mondays shooting, a supposed cycle code infringement?

      So don’t be surprised if it continues, both parties seem happy with the mess and a bit of martyrdom never hurt the cause.

  60. Dozens of swifts screaming overhead – they must surely be about to leave – and are waiting to complete their travel documents…..

    Wonderful sight.

      1. In Cambridge they are usually gone by mid August latest, usually that year’s batch following on their parents’ flight. The last to arrive and the first to depart. They always remind me of adolescent boys, screaming and careering around the place.

        1. They are wonderful! Our pair raised two chicks which fledged early in August. The parents stayed for a week to rest and recover and then they were gone.

        2. True for the swifts, martins and swallows, but it’s your cuckoo that must be last to arrive and first to leave.

          1. Yes, you are right but I was thinking in terms of the swallow/martin/swift brigade and their families.

      2. In Cambridge they are usually gone by mid August latest, usually that year’s batch following on their parents’ flight. The last to arrive and the first to depart. They always remind me of adolescent boys, screaming and careering around the place.

      4. Perhaps they are House Martins – they were quite high and I can’t see that well, anyway!

        1. House Martins don’t scream – they make a little bubbly sound, and they are smaller, with short wings, not sickle shaped. But they are usually still around in September and getting ready to leave.

          1. According to the MR, who has far better earsight than I do – they were making a hell of a screaming din!

  61. 323223+ up ticks,
    There is another scheme,start up I believe it is called, for 6 months I believe at basis pay to ready youngsters for real work if it ever reappears, can any of the governance party supporters tell me as there appears to be a bumper day at the Dover bridgehead of invaders today,
    A, which set of youngsters are going to benefit from the scheme.
    B, will it be a tax funded scheme.
    C,With many reluctant to return to work how will tax be generated.

  63. That’s me gone. Very successful day – again. Lots of gardening – and made a new bed for the roses.

    Discovered that despite the three page letter from the hospital to my GP listing my condition and the two medicines essential for my existence – nothing appears on my GP online record. I suppose they are far too busy telling people to FOAD to be able to add stuff…..

    Never mind – I’ll keep at them. I have two more weeks before the existing stuff runs out….

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

  64. Come November Trump will win the election
    He will pull the plug on Davos, the pandemic and climate change scams
    All the globalist puppet Western governments will resign
    The war on democracy and the nation state will be over.

    4. It would be lovely to see him win a second term, one reason being just to see the MSM and lefty faces looking shocked and dismayed.

    6. The Dems are doing everything they can to help him win but I think that bug cases will grow in line with flu cases to give an almighty mess.

    7. Trump will win. He would have sacked Fauci by now if he was serious about ending the pandemic scam. I hope you are right about the climate change scam.

      Turkey will be at war with Greece over territory and gas exploration. Russia and Iran will join forces with the Turks and Israel will get involved for the Greeks along with the French who still have a navy.

      There will be multiple Islamist terrorist attacks throughout the UK and France propagated by those given sanctuary in both countries. More Christian churches will be torched.

      Our useless politicians will continue to fill their boots at our expense.

      Blacks will continue killing other blacks and ‘smoking’ anyone who ‘disses’ them.

      Hopefully Tony Blair will kick the bucket.

        1. Hello Sue. No I stopped taking Building Design years ago because it is full of pro Modernist rubbish as is the case with most architectural journals.

          The idea of placing service towers on the outside of a building was not invented by Richard Rogers. Northumbrian castles pre-date the ‘largest pigeon roost’ in the City of London, so expensive to maintain that the original client Lloyd’s of London moved out.

          I have visited the flat roofed house in Wimbledon when working with Rogers’ son Ab Rogers on a Tea Room in Cheltenham. The house and studio were nothing special and the siting in a wedge between massive traditional mansions really strange. Ab has now sold the property but had been living there and using the surgery block as his studio.

          In truth I have never liked Rogers’ stuff. The exhibition building in Paris replaced a valuable mediaeval quarter which shocked many of us at that time.

        2. Hello Sue. No I stopped taking Building Design years ago because it is full of pro Modernist rubbish as is the case with most architectural journals.

          The idea of placing service towers on the outside of a building was not invented by Richard Rogers. Northumbrian castles pre-date the ‘largest pigeon roost’ in the City of London, so expensive to maintain that the original client Lloyd’s of London moved out.

          I have visited the flat roofed house in Wimbledon when working with Rogers’ son Ab Rogers on a Tea Room in Cheltenham. The house and studio were nothing special and the siting in a wedge between massive traditional mansions really strange. Ab has now sold the property but had been living there and using the surgery block as his studio.

          In truth I have never liked Rogers’ stuff. The exhibition building in Paris replaced a valuable mediaeval quarter which shocked many of us at that time.

          1. I knew you weren’t keen on his work, which is why I thought you’d be pleased he wouldn’t be inflicting any more of it on the rest of us!

    3. Why do they pixelate the tiny penises and the droopy boobies? We all know what they look like. Pixelate the faces so we don’t laugh at them in the supermarket. Just sayin’. 🙂

  68. Today’s neologism

    Cooncave
    adjective: cooncave
    Having an outline or surface that curves inwards like the interior of a circle or sphere, inhabited by illegal immigrants.

    1. Cooncaine
      Noun: The street drug of choice that induces extra stabby-stabby among dealers fighting for territory

  69. Today’s neologism

    Cooncave
    adjective: cooncave
    Having an outline or surface that curves inwards like the interior of a circle or sphere, inhabited by illegal immigrants.

          1. I would buy you lunch, Bill, but Norfolk is a nightmare to get to from where i live. Would a Groupon voucher do? 🙂

          8. I got a free SEK100 voucher today. I went back to the Coop and took my rotten celery with me. I told the manageress that it was compost, not food, and advised her to up her game on quality control.

            I demanded recompense for my unnecessary trip to take the thing back. She refunded the price I had paid for the celery, actually giving me back double what I’d paid for it, plus the voucher for “goodwill”.

          12. “Voucher”, eh? That forces you to go back…..

            If a shop sold me compost, I’d never darken its doorstep again – AND tell a dozen or some friends and neighbours, so that THEY boycott the place, too.

          13. I go back in any case, since they are the only outlet in Skåne that sells decent boiled ham (Mjällbyskinka) and a few other things I cannot get elsewhere. If I had no intention of going back I would have demanded (and received) cash.

            I once took a £4 mouldy pizza back to Morrisons in Fakenham and demanded my money back and compensation for wasting my time. I also wrote to the makers of the pizza and to Morrisons’ head office. I then found myself under a deluge of compensatory cash and vouchers, totalling £38, for the £4 pizza.

        1. Welcome. I only support small and local charity. All tax payers already support the monolithic charity wasters.

        1. I have the max. I use them to top up my monthly restaurant and drinkies and then replace the funds. Always got new bonds. Seems to work. Try cashing them in and re-buy.

      1. I is diamond i is. So shiny I have to wear dark glasses when i admire myself in the mirror. 🙂

  72. Evening, all. The Connemara really tried hard this afternoon and managed flying changes (of leg in canter) on both reins. So proud of him.

    2. Great picture.
      I hope our resident photographer, bassetedge is OK,

      I believe he heads off to the hills at this time of year.

      1. He hasn’t been seen since the spring……… he did some walking during lockdown and then disappeared.

      2. He got fed up with puns. Fish puns in particular. He thought we were being trivial. As if….

        2. The pish fun never fails to make me giggle, even though the same ones come out every time.

    1. That is very interesting. But my children were at school in France and Germany, where peanut allergies are very rare. For example, there were no rules banning peanuts in school lunches. How does this fit in with that article, which talks about the west as one block?

  77. Did Erdogan order his generals to sink a Greek warship? 2 September 2020, 12:02pm.

    Could war finally be coming to the eastern Mediterranean? It’s not as excitable a question as it might first appear. In an article titled, ‘Erdogan’s calculated war,’ the German newspaper Die Welt quoted sources from the Turkish military saying that president Recep Tayyip Erdogan had recently ordered his generals to sink a Greek warship, without inflicting casualties. They refused. Then came the suggestion to down a Greek aircraft. Again, they refused.

    Such reports would be alarming at any time. Now they are acute. Tensions between Greece and Turkey are greater than they have been since the 1990s. Ostensibly, the problems come from longstanding competition over resources. Recent exploration has shown the eastern Mediterranean to be rich in gas fields, and both Greece and Turkey have their own economic exclusion zones (EEZ) in the sea there. EEZs are the areas in which they have the right to drill and which have become, as a result, quasi-territory.

    Let’s face it the World is gagging for a War. Everybody is tooled up and wants to see how they would do! The Chinese want the Himalaya’s down to the foothills to give them a Tibetan Fortress and they have Wet Dreams about Taiwan. Turkey would like to steal Syria and give the Greeks a thrashing just for old time’s sake. Israel would like large chunks of Syria as well which doesn’t look too good for them! The Americans of course want to try their luck against Russia just to find out if they are actually any match for what must be the First Team. The UK? Well we’ve already been conquered, all that’s needed is to hoist the Crescent Flag over Westminster!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/did-erdogan-order-his-generals-to-sink-a-greek-warship-

          7. An Eskimo was on a motoring tour of New Zealand when his hire car broke down. A breakdown service attended and the mechanic said to him, “It looks like you’ve blown a seal!”

            The enraged Eskimo shouted back, “So what? You shag sheep!”

  79. Apropos all those pampered individuals who while away the working day in a climate-controlled “office”, sitting on their arses in a big posh cosy chair, in front of a “desk”, but wishing to “work” [Hah!] from home lest a big bad bug bites them; and all those school teachers who normally while their time away in a similar “safe” and cushy environment, yet who also don’t have the desire (or gonads) to return to that vocation for the same reason; I offer them this.

    What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. How would you pampered hordes feel if members of the following list of trades and professions also decided that it was “unsafe” to go to work and decided, instead, to “furlough” and “work from home”?

    I give you:

    Butchers, bakers, candlestick-makers, doctors, nurses, barbers, farmers, lumberjacks, chefs, soldiers, dustmen, ice-cream vendors, train drivers, street cleaners, police officers, trawlermen, chimney sweeps, greengrocers, lorry drivers, vegetable pickers, waiters, firemen, telegraph engineers, coastguards, sewerage workers, gas fitters, cobblers, airmen, newsagents, ambulancemen, construction workers, fishmongers, pub landlords, undertakers, zookeepers, hairdressers, electricians, pilots, grocers, bus drivers, shepherds, plumbers, guides, television repairers, shopkeepers, fruit-pickers, sailors, steeplejacks, vicars and donkey-ride attendants (among many others).

    Life wouldn’t then be quite so complacently comfortable for you any longer, would it?

    1. Don’t forget the supermarket staff and other shop workers, who kept going right through, and also the cafe proprieters like our local lady, who set up take-away services and also helped with meals for the vulnerable.

      2. Valley View grocers in Dinas Powys the same. Just did the day job, unlike aqll those wankers listed.

  81. In defence of a ‘herd immunity’ strategy

    The lockdown has crippled our economy, but there was an alternative approach that makes medical sense

    JULLIEN GAER

    The term “herd immunity” is an unfortunate one. Recently, Jeremy Corbyn likened it to the discredited pseudo-science of eugenics, saying that it reminded him of his time working on a pig farm. It is ironic that a man whose tenure over the Labour Party was marked by his apparent blindness to anti-Semitism should have leapt so quickly to accuse others of following a doctrine favoured by the Nazis.

    Suffice it to say that is a grotesque distortion of what “herd immunity” actually entails. The French equivalent, immunité collective, or collective immunity, is a less emotive term which we might do well to adopt in future pandemics.

    Whatever we decide to call it, herd immunity is the process whereby populations acquire resistance to disease. When 60 to 70 per cent of the “herd'” have antibodies to the pathogen in question, the virus may spread initially but quickly comes up against the two-thirds of the population who are immune and is stopped in its tracks. Those who have either survived infection or have had the good fortune to be vaccinated act as a barrier, preventing the virus from coming into contact with those who have been neither infected nor vaccinated.

    In effect, the “strong” protect the vulnerable. It is, in fact, almost the exact opposite of eugenics. But whatever we choose to call it, whether achieved through infection or vaccination, that is the route out of this pandemic.

    Despite rising numbers of Covid-19 infections, the number of deaths, from any cause, in the UK was lower than the average for the corresponding week in the previous five years for eight of the last nine weeks for which data are available. As the respected statistician Sir David Spiegelhalter has pointed out, the problem with Covid-19 is not its lethality but its virulence †; it was not the number of people killed by the pandemic which drove the government into a U-turn on collective immunity, it was the speed with which it swept through the population.

    Hospitals in Northern Italy, some of the best equipped, most sophisticated hospitals in Europe, had all but been overwhelmed. No government could survive the image of bodies piling up on the streets, and Boris Johnson decided that no one should die for lack of an intensive care bed. Alongside stringent lockdown conditions for the population as a whole – the precise opposite of what would have been required to achieve collective immunity – hospitals were emptied and ITU capacity increased in an unprecedented fashion. The knock-on effects, from elderly patients discharged into care homes without having been Covid tested, to stopping the elective treatment of other diseases, will be a crucial part of any future inquiry.

    What distinguishes clinical medicine from the public health advice extolled by the likes of Prof Chris Whitty, is that a clinician is required to give the best advice to each individual patient, whereas the latter has to balance his or her advice for cohorts of the population or the population as a whole; the political dimension is inescapable.

    To each of my many friends and relatives who, through age or comorbidity, is at elevated risk in the pandemic, my advice has been unequivocal: follow the rules and take every reasonable precaution to avoid becoming infected. Happily, I am answerable only to the patients under my care. Were I in the shoes of one of the Government’s health advisers, I might well have had to advise the Prime Minister that the safer course entailed allowing the disease to sweep through the population more or less unchecked.

    The Swedes have been criticised for their no-lockdown approach but, as infection rates are climbing once more in much of the rest of Europe, they may well be vindicated, especially as their economy seems to have been less severely hit than that of many comparable nations. It is, after all, an inescapable truism of public health that poverty kills more people than does communicable disease and it should have been possible in this country to protect the vulnerable without destroying the economy.

    Jullien Gaer is a cardiac surgeon working in London

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/02/defence-herd-immunity-strategy/

    † I have seen many writers use ‘virulence’ to mean lethality rather than infectiousness, which is how Mr Gaer is using it.

    As for ‘eugenics’ – it’s hardly the correct use of the word to describe a strategy which may result in the death of those several decades beyond their reproductive age. Corbyn has spent so long with his vegetables in his allotment that he has become one.

    1. I would like to hear Air Traffic Control people on tape when the two jetliners crashed into the two towers. Actually,….i wouldn’t.

    1. I don’t know why a Scottish ICU nurse is being voted Miss Hong Kong, but they all look good to me.

      1. Half Scottish, born in Scotland to Chinese (Hong Hong) father and Scottish mother.
        No work in hospital due to lack of patients?

  84. The Cretin Speaks……………..

    https://twitter.com/iknownothingab6/status/1301206253218205697?s=20

    Ahem

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/978337f47bd35bd559ab43f99179f4eac1e28797e85f3b57b8e604105a3de081.jpg
    Edit
    Funny Old World
    For a mad dictator/gangster who according to the MSM doesn’t hesitate to murder his political opponents/inconvenient spies etc with the deadliestv toxins on earth Putin is spectacularly shite at getting a result………………
    Perhaps the British Government could arrange lessons…………
    https://twitter.com/georgegalloway/status/1301134302088814593?s=20

    1. Putin wouldn’t need to send the Ivans. He knows the Olgas would do a good enough job for him.

    1. We do love them even when they are as ugly as that…………….. :o)

      Lol. Couldn’t help myself.

          1. Being a mix, he may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he has a definite cuteness factor (his face being his fortune made him spoiled, unfortunately).

  86. We just took our Lhasa Apso to Six Mile Bottom and a specialist animal treatment facility. The poor boy has had six fits in two days and we were advised by our vets to place him with a specialist vet. We decided that whatever the cost we need to know what is wrong and ensure that he does not suffer.

    I was taught that the first indication of advanced civilisation is the treatment of women. I would add that the second indicator would be the treatment of animals. Muslims fail this test miserably.

      3. When I was working in a racing yard, the yard vet had a horse stand on him. He was certain it had broken a bone in his foot, so he went to A&E, where they assured him it was just a bruise. He wasn’t convinced and got the horse X ray machine out so he could photograph it to check. Sure enough, it was broken.

      1. Good advice and that is what we are effectively doing. Most vets do not possess the specialist equipment and diagnostics for potential brain infections.

        Curiously our cat Paris has shown real concern for the little fella. She is not normally a lap type but has been perched on my wife’s lap for an hour which is very unusual.

        Pets are such wonderful companions and their loss can be a real disturbance to our lives.

        This is Paris. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aa2398cde28ee5c80e06e54a430efcd48286d6495288f6ff55819e1f385f7c74.jpg

      2. Good advice and that is what we are effectively doing. Most vets do not possess the specialist equipment and diagnostics for potential brain infections.

        Curiously our cat Paris has shown real concern for the little fella. She is not normally a lap type but has been perched on my wife’s lap for an hour which is very unusual.

        Pets are such wonderful companions and their loss can be a real disturbance to our lives.

        This is Paris. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aa2398cde28ee5c80e06e54a430efcd48286d6495288f6ff55819e1f385f7c74.jpg

      3. A belated congrats on your Premium Bond win. My wife and I both won £75.00 this month. Last month I won £100.00 and my wife nothing.

        Either way with Lloyd’s Bank now paying 0.05% on a savings account balance of over £100,000.00, Premium Bonds are a far better investment. It is a shame that the limit on investments is £50,000.00.

        Are our banks in self destruct mode or what?

        2. That is, believe it or not, a comparatively good rate of return; most accounts round here only pay 0.01%.

          3. Rate varies according to access and duration. The latter can incur a penalty for early withdrawal. Interest and capital repayments can be withdrawn along the way. It is a peer-to-peer business.

            If you are interested, we could both benefit from the “recommend a friend” rewards. Ask Tine (Hertslass) for my “proper” e-mail address.

            Have a look at their site anyway:

            https://www.ratesetter.com/

          5. Safer, and covered by the FSCS, you can get 0.57% with RCI bank, where we keep our rainy day/unepected bills fund.

          6. I have an ISA (why pay unnecessary tax?) and a budget account. Unfortunately, there is nowhere in easy distance to keep a budget account with a decent interest rate – even my internet saver is rubbish. The ISA is a fair distance away. I’m making an excursion tomorrow to have my passbook brought up to date, but I shan’t be taking any money out; that’s what the budget account is for.

          8. The Lloyd’s saving account paid about £50.00 per month on a £100,000.00 balance. It is now about £15.00. The interest rate change was implemented last month.

            My question remains: Why?

        5. Thanks Cori. NS & I bonds are at a much better rate than the banks. If you have a wad that you don’t need immediately they are a good investment. As far as it goes.

  88. DT Story

    Strictly’s same-sex dancing isn’t risky or radical – it’s as old as the tango
    Strictly has allowed same sex couples to compete for the first time, with Olympian Nicola Adams leading the charge. But what’s the big fuss?

    Joyce Grenfell’s Mrs Fanshawe would have won it outright with Mrs Tiverton as her partner!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clOdyzP9fcw

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