Wednesday 24 August: Living with the anxiety of losing one’s sight for want of an appointment for an injection

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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490 thoughts on “Wednesday 24 August: Living with the anxiety of losing one’s sight for want of an appointment for an injection”

    1. None of which will actually affect the Gimmegrants as everything is geared to ensure they get instant health care, free housing, food and heating, etc

    2. A belated good morning, all. Dull here in N Essex.

      With the cost of energy projected to soar it will not only be house-building that will be frozen.

      I mentioned a couple of days ago the high level of house building close to my home and further afield around Colchester: I have not noticed a ‘freeze’ locally as the sound of the excavators and the power nailing tools continues day after day.

      1. Elder son and I drove to the tip and then Lidl. It was the first time he’d been round that way for months. He was taken aback by the new housing.

    2. 355338+ up ticks,

      Morning C,

      Can’t be having that it jars with the current societies
      mindset as is, choice of killing tool gun,knife, crossbow, machete ?

    1. 355338+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      A second rate goebels,

      More for sure we are paying the price for treachery on bringing to mind the brexit / tory (ino) support group,
      and the part played by yourself & the ukip nec on bringing down Gerard Batten and a very credible genuine UKIP party coming through.

    2. I think this country would owe him a lot if Brexit had been achieved rather than circumvented by TPTB.

      His response to this war and the pandemic, and the response of the other Reform top people has been disappointing.

      Lawrence Fox is not an accomplished politician, but I wonder whether he has more vision than Reform.

    1. Here, too. Vaguely hoping the rain will wash away the consequences on my skylight of having parked my van under a tree evidently popular with large birds.

      1. That’s the problem of blackberries – bright purple bird poo all over the car. 🙁

  8. Britain will expose Putin’s lies to the world. Liz Truss. 24 August 2022.

    The grim reality of Putin’s war has made Russia a global pariah. As Foreign Secretary, I have been relentless in calling out the horrors of this conflict, such as the massacre of civilians in towns like Bucha and Russia’s attack on global food security by blockading Ukraine’s ports. I followed up these words with action such as dispatching war crimes experts to gather evidence.

    When malign actors are ready to peddle falsehoods, our duty is to ensure the world hears the truth. That is why we set up the Government Information Cell to counter the Kremlin’s false narratives. We will continue to step up our work to counter the efforts of Russia and other authoritarian regimes to use disinformation to sow confusion and undermine global stability, drawing on the skills and tools at our disposal alongside our international partners.

    Actually the Ukies mined the ports and the Russians have agreed to the Grain Ships moving which would seem to nullify this supposed purpose but never mind; I am more interested in the “Government Information Cell”. This is sub listed on Google and there’s even a civil service entry which reads more like a demented Daily Express article than the measured tones of Whitehall. Nevertheless it does go on to tell us….

    We are building the capability to deliver fast communication with impact, in real-time and on the basis of 24/7 monitoring, content production, response and rebuttal. The Information Cell enhances our ability to counter the threat posed by information warfare and exposes Russian audiences to the truth about Putin’s war. It is a leaflet drop operation for the social media age.

    Even more important than what the Information Cell does, is what it does not do. Unlike Russia, our model is based on the UK Government using facts to expose the truth. Its unofficial motto has become “the truth, well told”. We do not propagate disinformation ourselves.

    Of course not! The UK Government is noted for its adherence to the “truth”. This “Information Cell” has accumulated “500 communicators” for this non-purpose and is modelled on a previous operation to counter Covid Lies and Disinformation!

    Enough said?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/23/britain-will-expose-putins-lies-world/
    https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/news/responding-to-russias-invasion/

    1. When malign actors are ready to peddle falsehoods, our duty is to ensure the world hears the truth.

      She is full of it, isn’t she. And to think this is our next head prefect.

      1. 355338+ up ticks,

        LIM,

        The long line continues major, the wretch cameron., treacherous treasa, the mad turkish delight, she will still find support in the “party”
        before ALL else manner.

        1. Then why not instigate a NATO alliance to bring Putin to the table? Is it because the psychotic Democrats are obsessed with destroying all the good Trump did while abusing a clearly ill old man? The feverish assault on common sense around the world is staggering. These fools think they can hold back the tide.

    2. It sounds like we have more to be afraid from Truss’s response to Putin than we have to be afraid of Putin.

    3. Good analysis of the guff. 24/7 monitoring, eh? Couldn’t possibly extend to the entire population in the name of ‘safety’…

      1. A pincer movement with the ‘Online Harm Bill’, currently worming it’s way through Westminster.

    6. To me, “Information Cell” = Propaganda Unit. Sadly, for the recipients of Truss’s information in her, “leaflet drop operation for the social media age,” they will not have the bonus of copious amounts of free toilet paper.

      Russia’s attack on global food security by blockading Ukraine’s ports.

      The above has a distinct whiff of WEFism about it.

      If she does become PM (I like LiM’s “head prefect”) she should quit sabre rattling and concentrate on the vast array of problems on the ‘Home Front’. The prognosis for this coming winter period and beyond is not good and an attempt to use Putin and his Ukrainian adventure as a deflection tactic will not go down well.

      1. Morning Korky. It is almost impossible to grasp the size and nature of the vast disinformation machine that is part of the British State. From 77 Brigade to the Nudge Unit it distorts, blocks and corrupts the entire narrative so completely that reality itself disappears!

        1. How much of the printed cash will she use to pay for advertising in the MSM to get her message across?😎

          1. 30 pieces of taxpayer-funded silver to each media company seems to be the going rate.

        2. Apparently, the communists at ‘independent’ SAGE are also intending to ramp up operations come September. Media sales/viewers are in the toilet, yet no one in ‘authority’ can join the dots of misinformation to lack of belief.

          I had a hospital appointment on Monday and was asked why I wasn’t wearing a mask. I said, having read their guidelines, I was exempt and reminded them that their guidelines barred them from asking why. I was not hassled, the staff were lovely and I was homeward bound three hours later.

      2. What else can they do? Admit they’re malice over using taxation to make nuclear, gas and coal unaffordable so wind can compete? Will they admit that the contracts for difference are hideous documents written expressly to favour the wind mill owners – many of whom give back handers to government officials? Will they admin the intentional delays and stalling to nuclear? To the intentional closure of the Rough storage facility? Of the deliberately hindered fracking wells?

        Will they admit the tide of dross could easily have been removed?

        Of course they won’t. The entire farce is beyond a joke. It’s a campaign of terrorism specifically engineered by big state to achieve a miserable, nasty goal set by twisted, insane rich morons who want power at any cost.

    7. “When malign actors are ready to peddle falsehoods…”

      This is a government that easily bears the title of ‘Malign Actors (and Actresses)’

      I note no recognition of the reasons for Putin’s invasion, no mention of Ukraine, EU, USA lies, distortion and propaganda.

      1. Don’t you come round here brandishing ‘reasons’, that’s against the governmental online harm bill aspirations.

    8. When malign actors are ready to peddle falsehoods, our duty is to ensure the world hears the truth.
      You mean like when Murderous Matt Hancock stood up in the Commons and told us Vit D had been tested for Convid?? Which was a total lie??
      That sort of “Malign Actor” That sort of “Falsehood” ??
      No,thought not……..
      ‘Morning Minty

    9. Using facts to expose the truth? Bollocks. The state lies habitually. It spreads it’s version of the truth, a mismatched, inconsistent invented fabrication. It refuses to publish the fact that the pakistani muslims are the biggest group of paedophile racists preferring to say it was white men. It isn’t.

      They lie. It’s all they do.

    10. “We do not propagate disinformation ourselves” – well, that’s one lie exposed already!!

    11. “We do not propagate disinformation ourselves” – well, that’s one lie exposed already!!

    1. Morning, Bill. Soggy and grey in thr New Forest.

      Did I catch that you are orf to Brittany? If so, the salt-marsh lamb is a thing of wonder 🙂

  10. Good morning all. A dull and muggy 14° start this morning with no rain at the moment, but the air feeling very damp.

    A run to Derby to see Stepson today.

    1. BoB: I shall be in Derby for a few nights from next Tuesday, will you be back of home then? If so, any chance of popping in for a cuppa (and maybe a biscuit) and a natter?

        1. The latter is best for me. I’m thinking of the 1st of September, mid-morning. Is that OK?

          1. Next Thursday? Sounds reasonable.
            I need to get the place tidied up so that give me an impulse to start!

          2. Not sure exactly where you live. Does Annie have your contact details (address and/or telephone?) I’ll phone her later and see if she can help.

          6. Yes, I did BoB – and thanks. I sent you a reply and didn’t bother contacting Annie. See you when specified some time ago.

          7. Should I bring my clipboard with me, tick all the boxes where applicable and award you marks out of 100? Lol. It’s you I’m coming to see, not a pristine house.

    2. BoB: I shall be in Derby for a few nights from next Tuesday, will you be back of home then? If so, any chance of popping in for a cuppa (and maybe a biscuit) and a natter?

  12. Police warming up to dispense instant justice to three young teenage hooligans after an eight month campaign of vandalism against the facilities at a bowls club.

    A ten minute rendition of the Macarena.

    https://external.flhr10-2.fna.fbcdn.net/emg1/v/t13/133521926959866287?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.dailymail.co.uk%2F1s%2F2022%2F08%2F23%2F15%2F61647347-0-image-a-46_1661263852029.jpg&fb_obo=1&utld=co.uk&stp=c0.5000×0.5000f_dst-jpg_flffffff_p500x261_q75&ccb=13-1&oh=06_AaqomWbKY7yV_LyZ5-U2-gWzi-OZSbcBe8msFRLUHtLnhA&oe=63079480&_nc_sid=c504da

  13. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – I have a visual impairment – macular degeneration – for which I should have injections at six-weekly intervals to protect my remaining sight. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get these appointments.

    In July, on the BBC’s Wales Live, an ophthalmic consultant said that unless more staff were recruited, “people in Wales would go needlessly blind”. In June, I wrote to my Senedd member. He wrote to our local health board asking for an urgent investigation into the lack of timely appointments. He is still awaiting a response.

    It is nearly 10 weeks since my last injection. Following my most recent complaint, two weeks ago, I was told it could be a further two to four weeks before an appointment was available.

    My complaint elicited a response from the health board, which accepted the “permanent impact on people’s sight” and the effect that stress could have on patients’ general health.

    In spite of this, there is no sign to date of an appointment, so I go to bed each night wondering whether my sight will have deteriorated overnight.

    Pam Perceval-Maxwell
    Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire

    We have reached a pretty low state, and there is no sign of any improvement.

    1. SIR – An elderly friend made an appointment to see his GP. The wait was three weeks. On the day of the appointment he was told by text that it was cancelled, as the GP felt unwell.

      Instead of being given a new appointment, he was told to get on the website and reapply for one, for which he might have to wait three weeks.

      There is something so wrong with the system. Are we there to serve the NHS or is it there to serve us?

      Dr Mervyn Druian
      London NW3

      I think we all know the answer to that one, Dr Druian.

      2. The NHS is like an anagram of your name: Durian.

        It stinks and only when one gets past the stink does it function sweetly.

      1. As I’ve said to BoB, just now, pretty much done except for a few odds and ends,

        …and thank you too, Minty, for asking.

    1. I wonder how much longer the public has to wait before the identify of the murderer of that lovely old chap in his wheelchair is known. And that of the 9 year old little girl in Liverpool.
      Someone needs to get a firm grip in this country it long past ‘going to the dogs’ already.

        1. No doubt some foreign gang member.

          Until we’re prepared to put a cattle killing bolt gun to their heads nothing will change.

        2. Not well displayed or mentioned on the media. But massively coverage of the young lady nurse who was found after weeks of searching.

        1. As our black lab has aged 1
          (12) she seems to have become rather grumpy.
          When she barks now she always wants to have the last word. Even if it’s just a little grumble. It’s quite amusing.

          1. My setter used to be like that; you’d tell him to be quiet and he’d stop barking, then sotto voce he’d give one very quiet “woof”.

          2. Dotty, the chuahua, I’ve had to leave behind (and I miss her) also had to have the last word, no matter how severe the last word (from me) was.

            Shame, shame, I cannot have pets here.

    2. As soon as the pakistani muslims are arrested, charged, as soon as there’s phone evidence, as soon as there’s a the slightest problem take them to a slaughterhouse and execute them.

      I’m sick of this namby pamby Left wing oh be nice: these people rape children mechanistically. They have no place in society and their disgusting culture is worse than nuclear waste.

  17. Good Morning. It is gray, dark, cold and raining. I think “we’ll have had our summer”.

      2. We’re enjoying our fourth cloudless day, with temperatures back up to 25ºC, after a few days of cloud and a bit of rain last week.

    2. Was 10 weeks of hellish weather not enough? It’s not cold, it is expected to be 24 today.. Cold would be needing to close a window.

      1. We have had 6 or 7 really sunny days. Forecast for today is 19˚max with rain and possibly thunder.

  18. SIR – Record daily numbers of illegal immigrants are crossing the Channel (report, August 23).

    It is has become obvious, both to exasperated British residents and the world in general, that our Government is a laughing stock and powerless to stop this influx.

    Malcolm Bransgrove
    West Wittering, West Sussex

    SIR – The latest ruse used by illegal immigrants to avoid being returned to their countries of origin is to claim that they have been trafficked.

    This would mean they were brought here against their will – so why would they not wish to return home?

    Charles Micklethwaite
    Leeds, West Yorkshire

    SIR – Such an endless stream of unchecked, uninvited military-aged young men is not managed immigration. It is an invasion.

    V A West
    Alcester, Warwickshire

    “Laughing stock” just about sums up this ludicrous farce.

    1. A couple of BTL comments:

      Olivia Wilde
      1 HR AGO
      With the plethora of criteria for asylum claims, such as religious persecution, trafficking, being LGBTQ+ which can be so easily faked and very hard to prove, Is it any wonder that hardly any are ever deported?!
      Deliberately destroying personal documents en route once safely on board aircraft or dinghies, along with disposing of mobile ‘phones should be reason alone for anyone to be denied entry and turned round abruptly and sent on their way no questions asked.
      Their human rights are always considered over and above OUR human rights to live In our own country without the fear of being passed over for housing, healthcare and much else besides in favour of anyone who decides to “rock up” on our shores.
      If nothing else, this complete and utter farce is a slap in the face to all genuine asylum claimants, or people who apply at great expense and bureaucracy through the legal channels already provided for such cases…

      Kate Wydra
      1 HR AGO
      Real asylum seekers do not destroy their documentation.
      People trafficking is a criminal enterprise that the French authorities seem reluctant to tackle. Maybe because some of them are ultra violent Albanian gangsters?
      The Border Force and the RNLI go out into to the channel and seek out these dinghies and escort them to Britain. Why are they not escorting them back to France? The French don’t want them, but neither do we.
      We have our own poor and homeless that are being pushed down the list because of illegal immigration. We also have our own home grown gangsters. We don’t need to import them from Albania.

      * * *

      Well said both!

      1. They have passed through dozens of countries to get here. In not one of them did they stop and apply for asylum or refugee status.

        Not one of those countries bothered to process them hoping, like the gypos that they’d just go somewhere else.

        It’s time to stop pandering and start being unpleasant. When they invade – gypos or criminal gimmigrants, push them away and if they get uppity, use force. They’ve no rights, they’re criminals, vermin and scum . Why should we be forced to put up with them? The tide of filth won’t stop. We’ve got to deal with it brutally if we want this country to exist. Silence them, remove them, punish them. Make them unwelcome.

    2. ‘Morning, Hugh. The government may well be a laughing stock among the electorate; however, it is simply fulfilling the requirements, diktats and demands of its string-pullers — the WEF and the global corporations — in implementing their New World (dis)Order.

    3. The preposterous idea that government is sat there working 15 hour days to stop the tide of filth being brought in, going through endless documents frenziedly to find a way to deport them is false. It is a nonsense.

      Government, the entire state edifice is gleefully bringing in this horde of scum with the specific and sole intent of destroying this country. It hates us and is trying, feverishly to punish us for not getting it’s own way over Brexit. The invasion is deliberate. Not one of these vermin will be removed.

      It is time to face facts. The state is the enemy.

        1. However it’s spelled, it’s Arabic for an invasion of fit young men of fighting age to secure islamic control.

    2. And when the facts come out of the genocide carried out on our country? Of the massive strain on resources? On the welfare addiction of the wasters?

      Will the state be forced to ac then? Of course. It’ll hide the facts.

      I remember asking if the census database access was audited. It’s a simple toggle to control and log. After the flim flam it was clear that it wasn’t, and wouldn’t be, with no restrictions or controls over who and when. Government has absolutely no regard for our money, time or data. Therefore it must be given none of it.

      1. 355338+ up ticks,

        Morning W,
        “Will the state be forced to act then”?

        Well really there should be NO political state
        as is currently left after the enlightenment period.

  20. What a marvellous lady from a very special and selfless generation:

    Stella ‘Jaye’ Edwards, wild-spirited female ATA pilot of the Second World War – obituary

    ‘It was just fun… I was doing something that no one in the family did. And that was the chief aim of my life – doing my own thing’

    ByTelegraph Obituaries 23 August 2022 • 5:58pm

    Stella “Jaye” Edwards, who has died aged 103, was the last surviving British pilot of the wartime Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) that delivered every type of aircraft to RAF airfields and depots.

    The third daughter of an Australian trader, she was born Stella Joyce Petersen on October 12 1918 at Beckenham, Kent, and grew up in the county. She was educated privately before working in the childcare sector.

    Whether it was scaling walls, climbing trees or riding her bicycle off into the countryside, Jaye, as she became known to her friends, was an adventurer. “I think I was always a bit wild,” she later admitted.

    During the inter-war years, she had encountered a barnstormer (a pilot who travelled the country to sell aeroplane rides and to perform stunts) in a local field, and was attracted by the air circuses popular at the time. It was these, together with the pioneering exploits of the numerous aviatrixes, that planted the first seeds of her longing to fly.

    In 1939, when the National Women’s Air Reserve was founded, she joined and began flying lessons in a Tiger Moth, gaining her pilot’s licence on the day war broke out. It was not until 1943 that she was able to enrol in the ATA – often given the name “Ancient and Tattered Airmen” due to the age and various disabilities of some of the pilots. She joined as a third officer and, due to her previous experience, soon graduated to ferrying single-engine aircraft.

    She joined No 7 Pool based at Sherburn-in-Elmet in Yorkshire, and near to numerous aircraft factories in the region. Amongst the twenty different types of aircraft she flew were her favourites, the Spitfire and the Hurricane. She also flew the Mustang fighter, the Swordfish and the ungainly Fairey Barracuda, a Navy torpedo bomber. Later she graduated to flying twin-engine light transport aircraft.

    Many a Second World War pilot, and more, waxed lyrical about the Spitfire, but not Jaye. “Well to be honest, they were planes,” she said matter-of-factly. “I looked upon them as something to fly so I didn’t really look upon them as being that different. Yes, you had to be a littler bit more careful with some than others; you made sure you knew the speeds that you needed, but it was still just flying.”

    Although she did not fly again, her love of aircraft remained and she looked back on her service with the ATA with pride. She said her experience as a pilot made her more independent, allowing her to find her own way, away from the influences of family and older siblings. “It was just fun”, she said, “I think one of things about it perhaps was that I was doing something that no one in the family did. And that was the chief aim of my life – doing my own thing.”

    After the war, she began to travel, visiting friends and family in Singapore and Australia, eventually arriving in Vancouver in 1948 where she met her husband, Bill Edwards, trained as a teacher and taught for many years.

    The role of the ATA pilots service was overlooked for many years until the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, approved the award of a commemorative badge to those who had served. Jaye was unaware of this until reading about the award. A badge was immediately sent to her for presentation in Vancouver.

    In 2011, Jaye returned to England for the opening, by Prince Michael of Kent, of the ATA gallery and permanent display to “Grandma Flew Spitfires” at the Maidenhead Heritage Centre, close to the wartime ATA headquarters at White Waltham airfield.

    Her husband predeceased her and she is survived by their son.

    “Jaye” Edwards, born October 12 1918, died August 15 2022 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ed86911afdc47fe285d176596be0611aa4ec5f7d6a722e37dea5aaa25f624f53.jpg

      1. No, Anne, but I devoured Biggles, while my sister was stuck into Worrals – and I peeked at a few.

  21. SIR – Zewditu Gebreyohanes (“Rejoin the National Trust to save it from wokery”, Comment, August 19) makes some misleading claims.

    The National Trust tracks staff and volunteer engagement through an independent survey provider, and has above-average scores in the sector. There is no increasing gulf between management and “everyone below”.

    At Clandon Park House, we will spend all the money we received from the insurance settlement after the 2015 fire, and more – investing it in conserving and regenerating this building to the highest standards.

    The Charity Commission can and does investigate individual complaints as a robust regulator.

    Finally, we look forward to the broadest cross-section of members making their voices heard at our annual general meeting, whether they are supporters of funded political campaign groups that have not published their accounts, or otherwise.

    Jan Lasik
    General Counsel and Secretary, National Trust
    Swindon, Wiltshire

    The Charity Commission is “…a robust regulator…”? What’s one of those??

    I sense that Restore Trust has the NT somewhat rattled.

    1. If the NT had bothered to spend a few measly quid fireproofing the area around the electrical distribution board, as was suggested, then Clandon Park House might not have burned down.

    3. The woman at the National Distrust I visited in Norfolk p1$$ed me off so badly I didn’t go to the next NT property I had on my list. Not only did they not get what I would have spent in the shop and cafe, but I shelved the idea of taking out life membership (£1345.00).

  22. Good morning everyone .

    Dull mild day here, just like still Autumn misty quiet mornings where the spiders webs look pretty and sparkly.

    Woodies are eating the elderberries , otherwise all quiet .

    Moh was away at 7am golfing .

    Just thought you would enjoy this little clip .. how things were ..https://twitter.com/Katt2080/status/1562263848526266368.

    Gang culture has really reached every corner of the UK .. it is unstoppable .

    2. 355338+ up ticks,

      Morning TB,

      Yesteryear, proud & upright

      Currently, role models for poofs & bent

  23. The USA has promised another $3,000,000,000 aid to Ukraine. That should be a great help to the arms manufacturers who were getting worried about the reduction in US promoted conflicts worldwide. The UK is struggling to find the £3,000,000,000 aid it promised ‘Keef’ or whatever his/its current name is. Further reductions in medical and social services to pay for that and the half million illegal immigrants luxuriating in pokey first and second class hotels are to be enforced as soon as the next puppet is installed in Parliament. We You must all do your share to alleviate poverty and oppression throughout the world.

    1. 355338+ up ticks,

      Morning P,

      Lets be fair Ped in regards to the lab/lib/con coalition supporter / member / voter they done their best these last three decades, they have brought many a benefit to the United Kingdom, let we list just a fe……………

  24. The EU must shut out Russian tourists to damage Putin’s regime. 24 August 2022.

    Yet, it would be a travesty if national self-interest was allowed to undermine efforts to defend Ukraine from Russian aggression. Targeting ordinary Russian citizens may seem like an unfair escalation of the West’s sanctions regime but it could prove to be among the most powerful and effective weapons that can be deployed against Putin, provoking first disquiet, then protest and eventually perhaps unrest.

    Forcing Russians to spend their money at home and not here will damage Putin? I think not! This is about as stupid an idea as the rest of the “Sanctions”!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/08/24/eu-must-shut-russian-tourists-damage-putins-regime/

    1. If it continues like this the Russians will be sunbathing in central Kiev in six months time. The BBC and other propaganda services will still be broadcasting tales of Russian atrocities and wholesale defeat. The Krauts won’t stand a chance with their pokey towels on sunbeds stunts.

  25. The EU must shut out Russian tourists to damage Putin’s regime. 24 August 2022.

    Yet, it would be a travesty if national self-interest was allowed to undermine efforts to defend Ukraine from Russian aggression. Targeting ordinary Russian citizens may seem like an unfair escalation of the West’s sanctions regime but it could prove to be among the most powerful and effective weapons that can be deployed against Putin, provoking first disquiet, then protest and eventually perhaps unrest.

    Forcing Russians to spend their money at home and not here will damage Putin? I think not! This is about as stupid an idea as the rest of the “Sanctions”!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/08/24/eu-must-shut-russian-tourists-damage-putins-regime/

  26. SIR — What is ‘Amazing’ is the fact that the title of the standard, medium-difficulty Sudoku puzzle published in the Daily Telegraph every day has been curiously (and speciously) altered from being a sensible English ‘Moderate’ to a vapid American ‘Regular’ (Letters, August 22). Does this mean we will get one frequently, punctually, every day.

    A Grizzly B (unpublished).

    1. Hey, Beatnik, your diet of pine cones while riding those rails made you super regular, Dude.

        1. Thank you! I come and go- I will try to visit more regularly as it is a haven of sanity in a world now collapsing visibly before our eyes.

          1. We don’t know if we’re coming or going in this crazy world. This haven of sanity is a refuge.

      2. Hey Dean, you gotta realise, Dude, that them cone seeds is known as railroad hominy grits to us ‘bos-in-the-know, Man!

        1. That should never have been allowed. AS soon as they started up, plod should have surrounded them and silenced it then removed the lot from this country.

          Heck, they’re all welfare spongers anyway.

    4. I thought (and hoped) at first, that they were queuing up to leave.

      Alas, just welcoming some Nabob criminal.

  29. A tennis fan who was ejected from the Wimbledon men’s final after Nick Kyrgios accused her of being drunk has launched legal action against the star player.
    Anna Palus, 32, was temporarily removed from Centre Court during the Grand Slam final after Kyrgios accused her of having “700 drinks” in a complaint to the umpire.
    The medical lawyer is now suing the Australian player for defamation over the incident, accusing him of making a “reckless and entirely baseless” allegation.

    https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/jc6dTp4SJJ8EQwTbpqhh0A–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY2NztjZj13ZWJw/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/QJpP7502P3RJe60VnscEkA–~B/aD04MzQ7dz0xMjAwO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u/https://media.zenfs.com/en/evening_standard_239/b34583ce7787a52a93624367769628f3

    A new McEnroe – and even more stupid – if that is possible.

    2. Everyone associated with that idiotic sport is beyond stupid. Wimpledon [sic] is a MAJOR tournament, not a “Grand Slam”. The last two people to win a (rare) grand slam at tennis were Rod Laver, in 1969, and Steffi Graf, in 1988.

      Calling a lawn tennis major a “grand slam” is as ridiculous as winning just one hand at Contract Bridge and calling that a “grand slam”.

      1. I agree. OTOH, I’ve given up trying to make that point as I get nowhere fast 🙁

        1. I agree, Sean. Trying to explain facts, history and common sense to the younger generation is like going to sea in a sieve.

  30. Morning all 😃
    And thanks again for all the kind comments regarding my long awaited cardioversion and its successful outcome.

    2. A mutant asparagus after being given 4 vaccinations and still catching Covid?

      It certainly looks like a Yukka; is it the first time it’s flowered?

      1. ‘Morning, sos. Yes, although to be fair we have only been here 18 months. Last year we cleared away some of the surrounding jungle, perhaps that has had an effect.

    4. I had something similar in the yard in NC- leaves like razor blades and it only flowered once in my time there. It was an Agave.

  33. ‘Morning All

    Spiked on policing

    If the British police were a commercial organisation, trading standards

    would have been on to them a long time ago. It is simply impossible to

    believe that any business would get away with failing so monumentally to

    do what it is obliged to do in the service of its customers. Yet the

    disparity between the service taxpayers are entitled to expect from our

    police, and what we actually get, is so enormous that it might, in other

    spheres, lead to a charge of fraud by false representation.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/23/how-the-police-became-the-footsoldiers-of-woke/

    An experienced detective explains more to Farage,not happy with the current model

    https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1562145736048926720?s=20&t=cVl_-M7tTjl7P2tQX1UK1g

  34. Albanians offer free bus ride to Channel

    Ads posted on Tiktok by people smugglers to take refugees to French coast branded ‘unacceptable’

    Albanian people-smuggling gangs are offering free minibus trips from southern Europe to the north French coast for migrants seeking to cross the Channel. The gangs are openly promoting the “100 per cent secure” service in adverts on the social media platform Tiktok, with migrants driven from Albania to the trafficking gangs in France, often run by Iraqi Kurds, where they pay up to £5,000 per person to make the 22-mile journey, according to Albanian immigration sources. ALBANIAN people-smuggling gangs are offering free minibus trips from southern Europe to the north French coast for migrants seeking to cross the Channel.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da9ebc6b47b626044b86a9297e376ebd01f4aae3a3c0af73acfac6b012dffef2.png

    It comes as a record 1,295 migrants crossed the Channel on Monday, beating the previous daily high of 1,185 last November, according to the Ministry of Defence. As many as four in 10 are Albanians, says a UK intelligence report.

    In the busiest day of the year, the Royal Navy and Border Force intercepted 27 boats from France, each on average carrying nearly 50 migrants. It takes the total reaching the UK past 22,500 this year, more than double 2021’s rate at the same point.

    Despite the record numbers, France yesterday said it was owed more than €10million (£8.4million) by Britain to cover the costs of the 800 officers and air surveillance deployed to tackle the migrants on the beaches.

    In a statement to The Daily Telegraph, the Hauts-de-france prefecture claimed it was now preventing 60 per cent of attempted crossings but said its officers were in danger of being overwhelmed by rising violence and the use of “flash mobs” of up to 200 migrants to disrupt police efforts to stop them.

    Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, is understood to be preparing to announce new security measures within days although a fresh multimillion-pound deal with the French to follow last year’s £54million package has yet to be agreed.

    Ms Patel yesterday indicated that she would like to remain as Home Secretary, saying “My record speaks volumes” after she was asked whether she wanted to keep her job when the next prime minister takes over in two weeks’ time, during a 3am police raid in Surrey with the National Crime Agency.

    “That’s the choice of the next leader,” Ms Patel told Sky News. “But the fact of the matter is this party was elected with a very clear manifesto commitment to beat crime, cut crime, but also deliver 20,000 more police officers. I think my record in that time speaks volumes.”

    An estimated 200 more migrants reached the UK yesterday, taking the total for August to around 6,500, the second highest monthly total and close to the record of 6,878 last November.

    The adverts on Tiktok have seen the traffickers offering “bargain” prices and Channel crossings on small boats that have “never been cheaper”, from £5,000 to as little as £3,500 per migrant.

    Border Force experts suggested the people-smugglers may be cutting prices to open up new markets like the Albanians previously unable to afford the charges.

    Adverts on Tiktok (pictured right) offered minibuses from Shkoder, a city in northern Albania, to Dunkirk. “Shkoder to Dunkirk everyday trips. For more info DM,” said one. “Journey every day. 100 per cent secure,” said another with a video.

    “Boys just started the journey to Dunkirk. Thanx boys. God helps you. Hurry up. Can get info DM,” said a third with a video from behind the driver’s seat as the car sped along a dual carriageway at night.

    An Albanian immigration source said: “The Albanian gangs provide the people and link up with the Kurds who provide the boats and the logistics.

    “The Albanians are coming for economic reasons. There is huge poverty in Albania and they want to get to the UK for a better life and good employment. Most end up working in the black market especially in construction.

    “Some of them – especially the younger boys – get involved in criminality, working in cannabis farms, in order to pay off the £5,000 they have paid for the crossing.”

    Shkoder, a city with high unemployment rates, is dubbed the Palermo of Albania because of its reputation as a base for family criminal gangs.

    An Albanian from the city working as a “gardener” in one of the cannabis farms set up around the UK was murdered earlier this month. Tory MPS yesterday demanded fast-track removal of illegal Albanian migrants given the UK has a deportation agreement with the Balkan state, the rethink of the deal with France to only pay on results and preparations to derogate from the European Convention on Human Rights. Natalie Elphicke, Tory MP for Dover, said: “We simply cannot afford to carry on with failed French agreements and should only pay by results – that means the result of people not arriving here illegally by small boats launched from France.”

    Ms Patel said: “Social media posts used by criminal people-smugglers promoting illegal crossings are totally unacceptable.

    Clueless, whining so-called politicians are also ‘totally unacceptable’, Mizz Patel! You, and all your political counterparts throughout Europe, are complicit in carrying out the express wishes of the WEF and their mouthpiece, MSM.

    1. It’s perfectly clear to anyone except the government and the police that crime is now completely out of control. And the clue is hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants arriving in the UK and let’s be honest nobody has the faintest idea who they are were they come from why and how they are allowed to land in the UK.
      The police appear to be more interested in social and mental health issues. Only when it’s considererd convenient do they take firm action. After the reaction has been assessed. All those men at Heathrow in TB’s earlier clip should have been arrested. For public disturbance.
      But as usual nothing was done.

    1. My mother once said that she likes to live on the top of a hill, so that she can see her enemies coming, whereas I like to live in a forest where my enemies cannot see me.

      A while ago, i was agonising over how to erect a roof over an outbuilding I was erecting, specifically the heavy oak corner rafters held together by a central queen post. This was 15 feet in the air, and although I had a scaffold tower, it was a scary proposition holding the post in the air with one hand, the queen post with another and banging in the peg with the third hand. Sometimes I wish I were born an octopus! It was quite likely that the weight of the beam would topple taking me over the edge with it.

      I improvised a prop for the queen post, using a steel filing cabinet and a couple of bricks, but it was mighty wobbly. Furthermore, while there was room up there for the cabinet, that did not leave enough room for me to open the trap door to get down without putting both legs in the air, and bending down to work the catch. Nor could I get past the cabinet to do the rafters on the far side without dangling from the guard rails, monkey-style.

      I really did not want to be up there, and put it off for weeks, staring at the thing and wondering if there was a way to do this safely.

      In the end, the only way I could get over this inconvenient survival instinct and live dangerously enough to get the job done, was to get the longest ladder I could find, tie it to the tower and have the top of the ladder high enough over the queen post to support it enough to dispense with the need for the cabinet and also be able to fit the corner rafter with just the two arms God allocated me. Then I found out that it was a mistake to fit the braces first, and had to drill these free before I could get it to fit together, and all still 15 feet in the air.

      It makes me fill with wonder with Buster Keaton and his associates who built up New York’s skyline on planks.

  36. Modern Life…..
    https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1562310602269380608?s=20&t=iGKQGQT3DCO1WcVj0RbE5Q

    https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1562228453889302528?s=20&t=iGKQGQT3DCO1WcVj0RbE5Q

    https://twitter.com/NiCoLeEliSei1/status/1562070317165592578?s=20&t=iGKQGQT3DCO1WcVj0RbE5Q

    https://twitter.com/fimetic/status/1562089855739432961?s=20&t=gdlBHD4zb5XcQrPIb_warg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d6f4ebe559b0ac3afe3e615d38719826f9b15bd85f89db5f1ccba1e4bf60ad6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2f29c33997cee8ffc36cfbe4f5c999dbcf4063dedbbd04737f013fca164cd695.jpg
    It’s all just too depressing ain’t it………

    1. I really do wish the state would stop giving my money away, especially to foreigners and especially to muslims. They use it to buy bombs to kill us.

      1. I stopped maintenance payments to my ex-wife when she was using the money to hire lawyers to frustrate contact between me and our children.

    3. Ain’t dat dah troof.

      WTF ??? why do kids have be introduced to idiot men who dress up as women.
      I remember going to lots of pubs in North London in my late teens early twenties, out of the majority most of us we hated that sort of thing. And still it goes on……

      2. Because, no matter what some people think, they are nasty unpleasant, cold, unfeeling creatures.

    1. Morning! They have no understanding whatsoever of what part oil derivatives play in their lives and yes, they need to learn the hard way since merely making the information available yields no rational response.

        1. Morning, Bill. It went well. Even with my very inadequate grasp of French, my ear picks up the Franglais element in the pronunciation but that’s inevitable of course, despite best efforts. The young man who read the first lesson sounded the most authentic. Also the choir of course. Those parts of the service that were in English were as per the diktats of Queen Elizabeth I, as to how the church should commemorate the massacre.

          1. It reminded me that the Huguenots were, of course, Protestants.

            It also made me recall a very touching event in Fakenham 30+ years ago. The 16 year old son of a couple of teachers at the local secondary school was killed in a car crash. They were Catholics. The Catholic church in the town is quite small. The boy was very popular, as were his parents. The PCC of the Parish Church, and the then Rector, immediately offer the Parish Church for the funeral Mass.

            Over 700 people attended. The church was completely full. The Rector gave a brief preamble, welcoming everyone. Then handed over to the RC Priests saying, “This is the first Mass in this church since the Reformation.” It was a very moving service in many ways.

      2. An old favourite that can’t be repeated often enough:

        “Greta’s Green Day

        One crisp winter morning in Sweden, a cute little girl named Greta woke up to a perfect world, one where there were no petroleum products ruining the earth. She tossed aside her cotton sheet and wool blanket and stepped out onto a dirt floor covered with willow bark that had been pulverised with rocks.

        “What’s this?” she asked.

        “Pulverised willow bark,” replied her fairy godmother.

        “What happened to the carpet?” she asked.

        “The carpet was nylon, which is made from Butadiene and hydrogen cyanide, both made from petroleum,” came the response.

        Greta smiled, acknowledging that adjustments are necessary to save the planet, and moved to the sink to brush her teeth where instead of a toothbrush, she found a willow, mangled on one end to expose wood fibre bristles.

        “Your old toothbrush?” noted her godmother, “Also nylon.”

        “Where’s the water?” asked Greta.

        “Down the road in the canal,” replied her godmother, ‘Just make sure you avoid water with cholera in it”

        “Why’s there no running water?” Greta asked, becoming a little peevish.

        “Well,” said her godmother, who happened to teach engineering at MIT, “Where do we begin?”

        There followed a long monologue about how sink valves need elastomer seats and how copper pipes contain copper, which has to be mined and how it’s impossible to make all-electric earth-moving equipment with no gear lubrication or tyres and how ore has to be smelted to make metal, and that’s tough to do, with only electricity as a source of heat, and, even if you use only electricity, the wires need insulation, which is petroleum-based, and though most of Sweden’s energy is produced in an environmentally friendly way because of hydro and nuclear, if you do a mass and energy balance around the whole system, you still need lots of petroleum products like lubricants and nylon and rubber for tyres and asphalt for filling potholes and wax and iPhone plastic and elastic to hold your underwear up while operating a copper smelting furnace and . . .

        “What’s for breakfast?” interjected Greta, whose head was hurting.

        “Fresh, range-fed chicken eggs,” replied her godmother. “raw.”

        “How so, raw?” inquired Greta.

        “Well, …

        . . .” And once again, Greta was told about the need for petroleum products like transformer oil and scores of petroleum products essential for producing metals for frying pans and in the end was educated about how you can’t have a petroleum-free world and then cook eggs. Unless you rip your front fence up and start a fire and carefully cook your egg in an orange peel like you do in Boy Scouts. Not that you can find oranges in Sweden anymore.

        “But I want poached eggs like my Aunt Tilda makes,” lamented Greta.

        “Tilda died this morning,” the godmother explained. “Bacterial pneumonia.”

        “What?!” interjected Greta. “No one dies of bacterial pneumonia! We have penicillin.”

        “Not anymore,” explained godmother “The production of penicillin requires chemical extraction using isobutyl acetate, which, if you know your organic chemistry, is petroleum-based. Lots of people are dying, which is problematic because there’s not any easy way of disposing of the bodies since backhoes need hydraulic oil and crematoriums can’t really burn many bodies using as fuel Swedish fences and furniture, which are rapidly disappearing – being used on the black market for roasting eggs and staying warm.”

        This represents only a fraction of Greta’s day, a day without microphones to exclaim into and a day without much food, and a day without carbon-fibre boats to sail in, but a day that will save the planet.

        Tune in tomorrow when Greta needs a root canal and learns how Novocain is synthesised.”

    2. However did they get to Clacket Lane service station?

      It’s way out in the sticks.

      There’s no public transport.

    3. How did they get to Clacket Lane service station?

      It’s out in the sticks.

      There’s no public transport.

  40. Good morning, everyone. Late on parade today because I didn’t sleep well last night and came downstairs to surf the net for around four hours.

    1. That is such a familiar story – the same happens to me and I surf for a couple of hours and then go back to bed, usually as the dawn is breaking, whence I usually manage to fall asleep. Unfortunately I feel a wreck that day. It is happening more and more often these days.

  41. Vladimir Putin’s army has lost 80,000 soldiers “killed, wounded, captured, gone missing or deserted” in his six-month war in Ukraine, a minister said on Wednesday.
    Armed forces minister James Heappey stressed that Mr Putin’s conflict was being “fought on an enormous scale”.
    He told BBC Breakfast: “Our analysis is that around 80,000 Russians have been killed, wounded, captured, have gone missing or have deserted.
    “This is a war that is being fought on an enormous scale.
    “It still rages.”

    Ukrainian defence chiefs say around 9,000 of their troops have been killed since Mr Putin launched his invasion on February 24.

    Can one of of Services personnel or historians tell if these figures add up? The ratios seem out of all proportion.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/vladimir-putin-ukraine-war-russia-six-months-independence-day-latest-news-b1020518.html

    2. The figures are totally unbelieveable. Though the British and French were the attackers at the Somme casualties were roughly equal. The figures in your post are more suited to the massacre of troops surrounded in a cauldron than on the battlefield!

  43. Hhmmm:

    “Mountain biker Rab Wardell has died in his sleep aged 37 – just two days after winning the Scottish championship”.

        2. Depends. On the Tour de France riders were taking EPO*. This increased red blood cells allowing more oxygen storage which enhanced performance. However it thickened the blood, turned it to syrup, and the heart slowed down when the cyclist was asleep. At night the soigneurs wakened the cyclists several times a night. Otherwise they might have died in their sleep. It happened to several riders.

          *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythropoietin

  44. Robert Kennedy’s v iew on Fauci’s departure as reported by Celian Farber:

    ‘Robert F. Kennedy Jr., author of The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and The Global War on Democracy and Public Health.
    [A soaring best-seller— #1 in medical ethics, #1 in public health, # 2 in virology— despite blackout censorship in all mainstream media and
    tech platforms. Over 20,300 reviews, almost 90% of them 5 stars.]

    ”Why do you think Fauci resigned now?” I asked.

    He replied:

    “All the lies are starting to unravel. Even Dr. Fauci’s propaganda commissars at CNN are asking why our country, under Dr. Fauci’s helmsmanship, had the world’s highest Covid body counts.

    “His hand picked investigator on the Lancet Commission, Jeffrey Sachs, is now functionally accusing Dr. Fauci, and his minion, Peter Daszak, of helping to create Covid in the Wuhan lab, and of lying incessantly to cover their tracks.

    “In recent days, his key and most loyal subordinates: Robert Redfield, Robert Kadlec, Christian Hassel, and Lawrence Tabec, have all distanced themselves, trying to get clear of the splatter zone.

    Even Birx and Walensky are doing Mea Culpas. The rats are leaving the ship. The Omertà is collapsing.”

    —Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,

    statement via text message Celia Farber @ The Truth Barrier, 08/24/2

    1. Until there is a clear statement that Fauci was wrong nothing will change. That will never happen because once he’s shown to be be wrong, the entire edifice crumbles.

      1. I think that started to happen and is now going to gather pace. The process is slowed by the absence of anythjing in the media to confirm apart from the fact that they are now publishing the truth in tiny bite-size portions really just to cover their backsides. I was amused to see that the Telegraph published Jordan Peterson’s excoriation of Deloitte’s propaganda BS for the globalists. I am still banned by them for saying the sort of stuff Jordan put so well!

  45. Smart hats simply emphasise the scruffiness of the battledress. As for the dick in the tight blue suit…

    Return of the traditional police hat as force scraps baseball caps

    Lancashire Constabulary is bringing back formal headgear in a bid to reinforce authority and respect in modern policing

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ccd40f975ab5c55606e76c121eb9972756416d0eee903ff2d0e8495f66892646.jpg
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/23/return-policemans-hat-force-scraps-baseball-caps/

    Meanwhile, over the hills in Yorkshire, police have told off some pensioners for providing evidence of criminality.

    Bowling club scolded by police for filming young vandals

    The West Yorkshire club decided to take matters into its own hands after experiencing ‘unprecedented’ amount of break-ins and damage

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/23/bowling-club-sets-cctv-catch-young-vandals-scolded-police/

    MAKING THE STREETS SAFER!

    1. The Blue Suit – good job we can’t see his white socks.
      More than likely the Political Appointee The Police and Crime Commissioner. One of May’s wonder actions.

    2. The idiot left think that if you hug and bribe a low IQ criminal opportunist, it miraculously ceases to be a low IQ criminal opportunist.

      1. It’s not just the idiot Left. The baseball-capped idiot, William Hague, encouraged us to “hug a hoodie”.

  46. The monstrous NHS bureaucracy cares more about saving itself than patients

    The health service is stuck in a vicious circle, whereby it only avoids collapse by failing to treat the public

    SHERELLE JACOBS

    It is official: the public’s sacrifice to “protect the NHS” through the Covid emergency was not a one-off. The inversion of reality – whereby we must serve the NHS, instead of the NHS serving us – is a feature of the system, not a bug.

    It’s not even winter and already health chiefs are planning to beg the public to stay away from A&Es to relieve pressure on hospitals. Patients’ lives are being put at risk as they are urged to call NHS 111 instead – and kept on hold for 20 times longer than is standard.

    This is all ominously reminiscent of lockdown. As it turns out, even back then the NHS never came close to being overwhelmed. Yet people dutifully stayed at home to save it from collapse – with many not seeking medical attention for non-Covid illnesses like cancer. The public is still paying the price, some with their lives, due to the resulting backlog.

    One might have hoped that this would be a tragic one-off. After all, the NHS took the extreme measures that it did in the face of a mysterious new virus. But the way things are going, seasonal shut-downs of varying degrees could become the new normal – with public campaigns that urge people to stay away from hospitals, patients permanently unable to see GPs in person, and cancelled operations stretching endlessly into the future.

    Even though the Government has committed billions of pounds in extra funding, the health service remains barely able to function. It is stuck in a vicious cycle, whereby it must routinely insure itself against a worst-case-scenario collapse by driving patients away. This, of course, only leads to more late-diagnosed cancer patients and more delays in routine treatments and operations, making the backlog even worse. Although the chances of an NHS “Black Wednesday” remain remote, in this era of close managerial surveillance and media scrutiny, such a prospect haunts its senior ranks.

    Such a devastating doom loop has been a long time coming. The NHS has over the years devised countless strategies for keeping non-urgent patients out of hospital – from experimenting with “virtual wards” to half-baked schemes to revive family doctors. Appeals for patients to avoid A&E are nothing new, either, even if in previous years these were less frequent and more local. The bottom line is that, for years, the NHS’s primary strategy has been to reduce the burden that patients put on it, rather than to improve its capacity to treat them.

    There is a structural reason for this. Our health service is idolised as open and equitable, free at the point of use to anyone in need. But in fact, it operates as a “closed” bureaucratic system. Like all such systems, it is absorbed with its own survival, which it seeks to achieve by minimising patient interactions. It avoids direct engagement with outside reality, instead conceiving the latter in a way that suits its own agenda – in this instance, re-imagining patients as its loyal servants, rather than as patients.

    Such survival tactics are a necessary feature of all living systems (known in biology as autopoiesis, or self-creation). They are discernible in virtually all large bureaucracies and corporations, as observed by the systems theorist Niklas Luhmann. But the consequences in healthcare are alarming. Even though it is staffed with many dedicated and altruistic people, the NHS operates as a selfish organism. Its primary aims are to survive and self-replicate (particularly within its managerial ranks) – not to meet the needs of the public.

    Unfortunately, attempts at reform over the years have only reinforced the insular nature of the NHS. In particular, the well-meaning Thatcherite approach to running state organisations that first emerged in the 1980s, known as New Public Management – with its emphasis on efficiency and procedures – has only intensified the health service’s alienation from patients.

    In a nutshell, targets have come to be prioritised over care. Under pressure to boost its efficiency rankings, the NHS rations services and denies patients the very best drugs. Judged in part by the number of appointments they complete, GPs have been able to shift to telephone appointments without much internal scrutiny. Even in an emergency setting, face-to-face interactions with patients often fall outside of “basic procedures” and are thus rushed and lacking in compassion.

    There is an inconvenient fact for the Conservatives in all this, however. For every GP coasting along on three days a week, there are dozens of overworked paramedics, nurses and hospital doctors suffering from burnout and poor mental health. No wonder they are leaving in droves.

    That is going to take money to fix, whether it’s lifting the cap on doctor training placements, or giving paramedics a serious pay rise to address the fact that many could find an easier job for the same salary elsewhere. And that’s just the start. Fixing social care will cost billions. And if we are to avoid a future lockdown, there needs to be a longer-term shift, away from a fixation on efficiency to resilience. Whether that means improving ICU capacity or creating a volunteer “reserve army”, this will also demand significant funds.

    This all is very bad news for voters who would like to see the tax burden fall. That’s why we need to re-examine how the NHS is funded, so that it is not solely reliant on money raised through general taxation. Old-age health funds, operating like pension pots, could allow people to contribute personally to their health costs. Even better, heading towards a German-style social insurance system could raise more money and offer better customer service. In certain Nordic countries, it is the norm for those who can afford it to put something towards certain things like trips to the specialist. Why not here?

    And, while fixating on efficiency has exclusively proved counter-productive, the fact remains that there is far too much waste. Why is the NHS still blowing billions on bad procurement, paying over the odds for aspirin and loo rolls? Why, in the wake of Covid, has it been permitted to spend £42 million on management consultants, enough to pay 1,500 nurse salaries? Why has it just splurged £1 million on LGBTQ and anti-racism events? This is evidence of a bureaucracy that has gone badly wrong.

    But we will not be able to fix any of this until we stop treating the NHS like a god to which we must all offer sacrifice. To save the NHS, we have to accept it for what it really is: a “closed” bureaucracy more interested in its own survival than in the patients it is meant to serve.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/22/monstrous-nhs-bureaucracy-cares-saving-patients/

    BTL:
    Richard Bong
    There are an awful lot of people walking round with clipboards in every NHS setting, I always wonder what they are doing.

    Mr Turner
    About 4 miles a day.

    F A McWeeney
    Impossible. Too many of them are too obese for that.

    1. Well, Mr Bong, that is the standard subterfuge for doing nothing. It used to be seen in large companies, factories and warehouses, before they went bust. A camouflage, often accompanied by with a brown supervisor coat, that has been mentioned in many management books, such as, “In Search of Excellence”. It is a fairly good indicator of nothing much happening.

      2. It’s common among teachers who have been given “head of department” status because they are useless in the classroom.

    2. “There are an awful lot of people walking round with clipboards in every NHS setting, I always wonder what they are doing.”

      Er … they are walking around with a clipboard. It is a time-honoured method of avoiding work known as “skiving”.

        1. We had an SEN on the psycho-geriatric wards who was nowhere to be found while we were getting the patients ready for the day.
          When we finally sat down at 11.0ish for a coffee before starting on the lunchtime routine, she would appear with a couple of dresses over her arm to tell us who needed changing.

          1. When i was on the acute medical ward there was an elderly lady sitting in a day chair opposite me. She had a fall in her home and was taken to be checked out. She kept asking for her walking frame and then bursting into tears. No one came. So i began talking to her. She had been sitting there since the early hours. It was now late afternoon. No one offered any tea or water except once after i had been there 12hhours. I ended up walking out.

      3. Far too many people treat the NHS like a god. When they all stood outside their homes to clap the NHS I dispaired at their ignorance.

  47. Novak Djokovic’s US Covid vaccination ban branded ‘a joke’ by John McEnroe
    Serbian is currently unable to enter the United States despite being listed on the draw for next week’s US Open
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2022/08/24/novak-djokovics-us-covid-vaccination-ban-branded-joke-john-mcenroe/

    Slowly but surely people are beginning to realise that we have been conned. This BTL, when I last looked, was 2nd in the list of most-liked – I should imagine that had this post been posted 6 months ago it would not have clocked up so much DT reader approval.

    BTL
    My wife and I have not been Covid jabbed because we have other medical problems and our doctor assured us that it would be dangerous to be jabbed. We both have had Covid recently but had it extremely mildly – indeed it was only when I had a slight temperature and was tested that my wife was tested and found she had it too. We were both over the disease in 24 hours but we self-isolated for a week and then were clear when we had the follow up test.

    However, my wife plays the organ in church in our parish and this year there has been a complete boom in unexpected deaths amongst healthy people all of whom were vaccinated. More than double the number last year.

    It will probably be some time before the dangers of Covid jabs are fully admitted. There are far too many powerful vested interests to allow the truth to come out just yet – but surely this determined evasion and wilful blindness amongst the sheep-like people cannot last for ever?

      1. When it all started my doctor phoned me and asked if I wanted to be vaccinated given my medical history.I replied no I do not. he cut me off and said in a very pleasant tone. Thats fine you will not hear from me about this again. i am sure that is wanted to hear.

    2. Although we were both exposed to covid along side each other, I was first to show symptoms and had it two days longer. But i had not had any of the boosters.

    3. ‘I tried and tried, but his heart stopped’: Olympic gold cyclist Katie Archibald reveals she desperately battled to save dying partner mountain biker Rab Wardell, 37, after he ‘suffered cardiac arrest as they lay in bed’
      Rab Wardell, 37, died after suffering a cardiac arrest while in bed yesterday
      His partner, Olympian Katie Archibald, 28, said she desperately tried to save him
      He won a major mountain biking race on Sunday despite three punctures

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11141131/Olympic-gold-medal-winner-Katie-Archibald-reveals-battled-save-dying-partner-Rab-Wardell.html#newcomment

      Super-fit young people in sport (and especially men) should not delude themselves and think that they are protected from the dangers of heart disease and myocarditis because they have taken the vaccines experimental gene-therapies.

      How many deaths will it take till he knows
      That too many people have died.

      [Bob Dylan]

    4. Caroline has looked and has seen that all comments on this article have been taken down. I wonder why!

      But apparently Bill Gates pays millions to the DT so this once great newspaper must behave like his lapdog.

  48. 355338+ up ticks,

    Take no notice of this chap Batten he is a rightist averse to being a wrongist.

    Left & right wing have long ago taken flight.

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    19m
    The Electoral Commission is not ‘independent’ or ‘unbiased’ – it is are dominated by left-wing ideologues. UKIP, & other smaller parties, had first hand experience of this.

    The EC should be abolished. There sould be a simple party registration system, & everything else should come under the criminal law as it used to.

    Tories quietly unveil ‘dangerous’ power grab to neuter elections watchdog — The Mirror

    The plan to undermine the independence of the Electoral Commission has been likened to “giving a toddler a gun –

    https://gettr.com/post/p1o0n7h0831

    1. In a village to the north of Colchester there were two little round houses; the night’s quota of drunks were dumped there to sober up. They were stacked up with their backs to the wall and feet pointing inwards.
      The following morning, they had a three mile walk back into town with a throbbing head and probably covered in a selection of human secretions.

      1. It’s achingly obvious that this foreigner was on drugs, thought nothing of speeding to show off and thus crashed and killed someone.

        Stop treating him, kick him into the street – coma or not.

        1. And made enough money for £100,000 set of wheels.
          I wonder how he managed that? (Innocent face.)

    1. It’s already effecting the results some students still don’t have them yet and are worried they might miss out on placings at Universities.

      1. It is simply spiteful. A vindictive, nasty, petty attempt by people not worth a pay rise to demand one.

        Yes, there’s a significant issue with costs, but the main drivers of that are government borrowing, spending, taxation, QE and waste. Having the state spend more will only accelerate that chaos. Radical reform is needed urgently and it’s very clear that government needs to be shredded.

        If it isn’t, there simply won’t be anything left. Cut, hack, strim, shred, burn.

    1. 355338+ up ticks,

      Afternoon RE,
      Take a poll on any remaining Londoner’s did they feel safer under the Krays, many will answer in the affirmative
      is my belief.

      2. A now retired work colleague once told me that he grew up just round the corner from where the Krays lived and it was a very safe and civilised neighbourhood. The Krays were a discriminating brand of thug?

        1. I believe women were safe and the Krays would be violent to the attackers of women. Their mum was like a goddess to them.
          If you have to have crime it may as well be organised crime. Fewer people get hurt.

          1. I was introduced to one of the Kray twins when I was knee high to a Grasshopper, while staying with a great aunt in London one summer.
            It was a number of years before I realised Reggie was a notorious gangster.
            They had boundaries they would never cross and woe betide anyone who harmed women and/or children.

          3. I was very young and he seemed just another nice person one meets as a child.
            No idea and still don’t, how my aunt knew him, although her husband was some sort of legal/financial consultant.
            Intriguing but a stone best left unturned.

        2. We lived in an estate where Kray family also lived, in the 1980s. Rough part of the Isle of Dogs.
          No burglary, no violence, no trouble, women could be out alone a night.

    3. Would Kubla be any better that Sadiq, Imran or Genghis? And if you khant agree on this why not break the mould, think like an Egyptian and go for Ozymandias?

      1. I’d put Anne Widdecombe in charge of the country, she’s seems to be the only person who has any commonsense.
        She was on a TV programme this morning she says it like it is, or should be.

    1. Comments have been removed by the DT from the item about Rab Wardell’s sudden death.
      Too many people noticing that the young and fit seem to be dying unexpectedly.

    2. Comments have been removed by the DT from the item about Rab Wardell’s sudden death.
      Too many people noticing that the young and fit seem to be dying unexpectedly.

  53. “The man who was chased and shot by the killer of Olivia Pratt-Korbel is a former drug dealer who was jailed for 45 months in 2018 for a string of burglary offences, the Telegraph can reveal.”
    Golly Gosh; now who’d have thought it?

    2. Next BBC headline: “Decriminalise drugs to save children’s lives,” says expert.

      1. Both in such cases, but why should crime statistics vary so much between races where the levels of poverty/need are similar and why should Africans appear to commit so much more violent crime in proportion to their numbers?

        1. “Race Differences in Intelligence” by Richard Lynn offers some possible clues from the perspective of evolutionary biology.

        2. I think a scientific answer to that will never be sought. All I’ll say is that I remember in neighbour in Joburg being burgled (for a TV, VCR recorder and loose cash – no guns to be found) and the three burglars’ parting shot was to take the bound and gagged wife and iron her back with an electric iron. She was lucky not to be raped. Not come across burglaries like that here (yet ….).

    2. There are demographics who don’t function in society and thus never create it, existing only in might makes right. These demographics have never progressed beyond savagery and have no respect – or understanding of the family unit because it gives them no benefit. Their society has life made cheap because it is short and brutal – precisely because they make no effort to improve it.

      There are others who have had to work together to create a functioning society and thus create wealth, technology, education – they are the bedrock fo the nuclear family.

      When you force those two utterly opposed cultures together and do not keep the savages under control and teach them how to behave, you have anarchy. The savages, of course, resort to crime. They’ve no useful skills, no ability, no purpose. They don’t know how to function in a structured society and so set about taking from it in the only way they know.

      The solution? Remove the savages.

    3. Isn’t that why bleks are disproportionately represented in the crime figures. The African chiefs sold off their criminals to the slave traders; I shouldn’t think the chiefs could believe their luck.

      1. That chart in the Takimag piece is telling – 2.9% whites die from homicide in the USA, and 28.7% blacks. So they are the victims as well as the perpretrators.

      2. I’ve been suggesting this for years, and even a Nigerian friend of my son makes precisely the same observation.

        He has no time whatsoever for the black criminals, he’s worked extremely hard to be where he is and doesn’t appreciate being tarred with the same brush.

    1. Just looked up Gurdasani. She’s a doctor of philosophy not medicine and lectures in “machine learning”. An epidemiologist, as in mathematician and statistician who applies computer programmed formulas to medical statistics. Much like Ferguson. I wonder if her funding comes from the same source?

  56. Incredible moment South African farmer turns the tables on three armed robbers. 24 August 2022.

    The farmer puts on a front that he is afraid and begs for his life as he is dragged towards the bush, but within seconds he has made the decision the would be for him life-or-death – with CCTV footage from the garage capturing the confrontation.

    In the video, the farmer bravely grabs the loaded gun held by his main captor and quickly overpowers him before taking aim as all three robbers realise they have met their match and sprint away into the darkness.

    Unfortunately he didn’t kill them!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11137231/South-Africa-Incredible-moment-farmer-turns-tables-three-armed-robbers.html

    1. A shame. The scum would have killed him, and frankly, it’s 3 wasters done away with.

      1. I would imaging the SA police’s sympathies would not be on the side of the farmer.
        Like Blighty, really.

        1. Interesting the report on Al Jazeera about the problems in SA.

          Sad that the BBC never reports on blick countries’ problems.

        2. Bit like the police sympathising for the little scrotes who ruined a Green bowling club the other day , and the long suffering members of the club set up an ambush to catch the little beasts , but the police would have none of it .

    2. This is what BLM want, this is what Schwab and the WEF want, this is what politicians want, and what the nincompoop Prince Charles wants (though he may be to dim to be aware of it) this what the imbecile Archbishop Canterbury wants – the destruction of ordered society.

      Lawnessness has already arrived in Britain and it will probably require a civil war to get rid of it.

    1. He’s right, sadly. They’ve no interest in the future of the country and solely in it for themselves. As soon as Truss gets in she will start campaigning for the next election with the same tired lies.

  58. Brooding on clot shots.
    Rab Wardell is a similar colouring and type to a younger MB. He also comes from much the same area as MB’s Scottish family. I am now beginning to wonder if there is a racial or genetic strand to these side effects.

    1. Anne
      The trauma that Katie Archibald has been through / is going through is unimaginable . Poor Rab Wardell, so terrible and tragic .

      Clot shots will get us all thinking and brooding about them .

      So many What Why and How.. to ponder over .

    1. We could if the police and the government wanted to do so. Trouble is they don’t.

    2. Similar to down town in any major city in Africa .

      I have seen baying machete holding mobs like that in the Sudan , and Nigeria ..

      I cannot believe we are seeing these stone age imbeciles savaging each other here in the UK .

      To hell with calling them British , get rid of them by showing them some old fashioned British justice … cat ‘o’nine tails and hard labour in chains .. They will then wish they were back in the land of their great grand parents .

    3. As long as they stick to wiping out each other and and we don’t waste medical treatment on them.
      To put it another way; if only we had politicians with backbone who are on the side of this country.
      Just off to feed the pink unicorn.

    1. Considering they’ve no economic use and instantly sit on welfare, how many does the Home office intend to force on us? 10 million – to add to the 25 million wasters already here – 20? 30? What will they eat? What will they do?

      Get rid of them. Get rid of them now.

    2. Turn ’em round, dump ’em in shallow water on the French coast and stab their RIBs

  63. That’s me gone – early – for ten days. Back on 5 September – if I am spared.

    Play nicely while I am away.

    Try not to let the ghastly endlessly depressing news get you down.

    6. I will wave to you as i pass on my trip to Malta. pulls emergency release on aircraft toilet :@)

        2. It would a mistake to announce dates. Social media is watched by opportunists. I’m surprised the Legal Beagle is so unaware. I have already flown a drone over his vast estate and will be investigating any unwatched Trifles ! :@)

  66. Another day another catalogue of effnik violence.
    David Cole of takimag had it right the other day:
    diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE)

    2. My local rag had a picture of a “West Bromich” man who had been jailed for abusing young girls. Guess what, he was a Pakistani muslim.

  67. Nice birdie three today

    Wordle 431 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜🟩🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Well done Bob.

      Wordle 431 4/6

      ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
      ⬛⬛🟩🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. I seem to be making heavy weather of it all lately.
      Even so, I’m still 99% from 165 attempts.
      Wordle 431 5/6

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

      1. He also probably didn’t think he would canceled or assassinated when his self drive car crashed into a bridge stanchion. As has been happening.

          3. Including ‘Gain of Function’ which he denied. Then admitted. Fractions of the Aids virus were reported.

          5. Though the Republicans are likely to take the Senate and Congress those guilty won’t die like poor folks. Ever. it’s not black and white.

          6. Whilst that is true, I certainly hope that the GOP uses lawfare in the same way that the Democrats have and that the bastards are smothered by expensive legal fees that bankrupt them

  69. Prevening, all. The Connemara (Coolio) did some really nice pieces of work this afternoon; we worked on getting his trot to be consistent (he has a tendency to rush), to bend round the inside leg, engage his hind quarters and come down on the bit. He has a habit of thinking he can only do one thing at a time, but towards the end of the session he managed to put it all together. Good pony!

      1. He has improved so much since he arrived, having previously only travelled in straight lines and taken everything in his stride in the hunting field!

    1. That whatsername actress who was going to live in Venice after Brexit should be on the list too.

  71. Whay on earth is Johnson in the Ukraine again. What a complete ass he is. Why anyone wants him back is frightening.

    1. Because the middle-of-the-litter non-entities currently on offer are even.more depressing?

    2. Johnson. What an absolute bastard. Saying British must pay the over the top energy bills because the Ukes are paying in blood. He can fuck tight off!

    3. Self-aggrandisement for his legacy, perhaps?

      I believe BJ’s perception of ‘President Zelenskyy’ – a former comedian – is bizarrely wrong-headed and potentially very dangerous.

      NATO, the EU and Bumbling Biden have misjudged our potential relationship with Vladimir Putin.

      There could well be a catastrophic outcome …

      2. They can be comedians together. How anyone can believe that Zelensky is running the war in Ukraine beggars belief.

    4. Trying to go out on a high and be seen as a ‘Statesman’.

      I always thought he was a buffoon. Nothing has changed my opinion.

    5. I would like Johnson back, put on trial for his many crimes against the people, convicted and his head mounted on a pole at London Bridge as was the custom for traitors.

      The day the bungling oaf uttered the giveaway words ‘build back better’ it was obvious that he had sold our country down the river along with the other ‘world leaders’.

      The enthusiastic adoption of Doctor Rat Fauci’s Covid policies in the UK has damaged and impoverished millions. To throw yet more millions of our money on a Ukrainian puppet regime, Ukraine one of the most corrupt counties in the world, whilst our folk are struggling with spiralling household and energy costs, is beneath contempt and typifies the innate evilness of the man.

      1. If your statement that Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world is correct then I’m surprised that there are not

        more politicians visiting. Or perhaps there are, and the MSM politely ignores their presence.

      1. Keep your stupid nose out of Ukraine, it is just a little local upset and NOTHING to do with us.

  73. Pretending to be civilised again; sipping a cardamom G&T as the sun sinks on my last day in the New Forest.

    Apparently normal people don’t eat the cardamom pods floating in it, though, according to the barman (who’s been supplying me with endless free olives, evidently having forgiven me for making him laugh too much last time).

    Ah well – I tried! 🤣 Cheers, everyone x

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/10884732385a1435f13d231e7564c847241287f05bea654650816faf9d540715.jpg

    2. Cheers.
      Had my G&T with homemade Earl Grey syrup (dead easy to make).
      Must give the cardamom a go.

    3. It looks wonderful… so clear and transparent and beguiling, look at the condensation! I love to hear the ice crack that moment just after it slips below the surface… oh Lordy, I sound like a druggy…

    4. I hate to say this, but cardamom in a G&T sounds dreadful.
      But then again I don’t much like cardamom in coffee either and over the years (out of politeness) have had many small cups of it. The Bedu serve very strong cardamom coffee in small brass or porcelain cups as part of their hospitality ritual.

    5. What’s wrong with a normal G & T that you need to put exotic spices in it?

      Get real.

      1. Cucumber or lemon/lime is passable but otherwise it’s like putting ginger ale in a malt whisky.

      2. Absolutely nothing! I like cardamom, though, and change – and I’m not too enamoured of reality at present 😉

    1. At an absolute minimum we should be reducing the FA budget (foreign aid, not fuck all) by every penny that the gimmegrants cost

  76. Apropos nothing at all I looked up what sort of government Singapore has.
    It’s modelled on Westminster.
    How come Singapore can make such a go of it and we are in dire straits.

    1. Rule of law, very harshly applied?

      Singapore is actually very bad news if one is at the bottom of the pile, it certainly isn’t the Utopia it is sometimes painted to be, much as I like it!

      3. We too are fond of Singapore, we’re planning our next visit in March ’23 and then on to Brisbane.

  78. Emily Maitlis stands truth on its head.

    BBC rebuke over Dominic Cummings remarks made no sense

    The former Newsnight said growing political pressure has led the media to censor itself.†

    She suggested any fear by the BBC and other media outlets to fully tackle the impact of Brexit “feels like a conspiracy against the British people”. Recalling Newsnight’s coverage, Maitlis said: “It might take our producers five minutes to find 60 economists who feared Brexit and five hours to find a sole voice who espoused it. But by the time we went on air we simply had one of each; we presented this unequal effort to our audience as balance. It wasn’t.”

    [And so on…]

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-62662212

    † Too right, but not in the way the scrawny old Gallus means. It’s been keeping the truth from the British people for years and was quite happy to go along with OFCOM censorship over Covid. It has silenced itself over the ‘most corrupt country in Europe’. And AFAIK, the rule on unaccompanied ‘climate sceptics’ still applies.

  79. Right, off to bed!

    At least I’ve, or rather Stepson has, persons officially concerned with his interests so with a bit of luck I might be able to relax a bit!

    Good night all.

    1. You certainly sound as if you need some respite from the worry.
      Hopefully his carers will take enough interest that it will mitigate your concern.

      1. I’ve tried to keep dealing with Stepson at an arm’s length from everything else, not always successfully and I have took my eye off the ball on occasions.

  81. Before i turn in i just want to tell you about our 2 1/2 year old grand son with Leukaemia, he was diagnosed last February just after his second birthday, I mentioned it ages ago and he’s been having very extensive and intensive treatment at both a local hospital and Addenbrookes, and home visits from his nursing team. Those people are so dedicated.
    The work they have been doing is wonderful he was with us most of the day today and we had a lovely time with him. He’s very chatty now and his lovely fair hair has started to grow back. He was very interested in my tomatoes in the green house and some courgettes in the garden. And as a reward he took home a lovely bag of tomatoes he helped pick. It was wonderful to stand with him and do something so simple that he enjoyed enormously. But i still can’t get him to throw a paper aero plane properly.
    So it’s good night from me folks.

      1. Thanks Steph 😉
        It can take up to three years, but the really serious stuff is behind him now. Just the odd interruption for chemo and the rest is routine. I don’t think he will remember much of it as he grows up. He’s the image of his Dad. Our middle son.

    2. What a wonderful result and what a remarkable little lad. I’m not religious but I have said a prayer for him.

      1. You’re a star..the wonderful part of it all is, his level headed parents are trying to help him live as ordinary a life as possible.

    1. I hope you get a better night’s sleep tonight Elsie. It’s very warm here in S. Cambs.

  84. Goodnight and God bless my fellow Gentlefolk. I’m away to bed as I’m knackered. ’til the morning’s light.

  87. What an amazing coincidence!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d0e97990eec95ccb55a85051bc5d91f124b6dee012e64b6aef7866c6a3decd30.jpg

    This video is for people following the US and financial news. Interesting take on the CBDC question. IIRC, the Democrats did make an attempt to get power over the currency back from the Federal Reserve to the Government – perhaps this is why.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukWof0T3Uc8
    Edit: she seems to be a RINO, so perhaps she is a bankster shill…

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