Wednesday 5 April: It’s time to take on the outlandish claims of Scottish nationalists

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/05/04/letters-time-take-outlandish-claims-scottish-nationalists/

668 thoughts on “Wednesday 5 April: It’s time to take on the outlandish claims of Scottish nationalists”

  2. Morning, all Y’all.
    Cold, dark, wet (sleety & snowy) morning here. Where’s that global warming when you need it?

    1. SShhhhhh! Silence! It’s climate change because it kept snowing and that annoyed us when people laughed at us. As the climate will always change due to ‘weather’ we’ve a sure fire winner.

      More sensibly, it blasted annoys me.

      We need genuinely more efficient, greener energy sources. That’s hydrogen or fusion. Nothing else. Windmills and solar are just a hideous waste of energy and materials.
      We do need fewer people. Sadly, while thick people are encouraged to breed that won’t happen.
      We must stop gimmigration. By supporting and enforcing poverty in the third world we do nothing to help them. We need to trade with them fairly, evenly. The EU destroys this by dumping our products and swamping the market. This is utterly wrong. If we traded at market prices they could grow and develop as we have, building the infrastructure and tooling they need.

      Yet rich people here keep the third world poor, then fiddle it so that they’re made rich by taking money from poor people here. This is stupid and unsustainable, let alone unfair.

      Do we need to ask China and India to stop building power stations? Probably, but they don’t care. They then go on a drive for ‘clean’ energy that dams up rivers other, smaller countries rely upon. The Lefty greens in the west are happy, but millions starve.

      Both China and India has regions of truly grinding poverty, pollution and disease yet other parts have incredible technology and wealth. That’s for them to solve, not us. I think we need to accept that life is cheap for them and that they don’t care.

  3. Taliban launch fresh Helmand offensive as US troops withdraw. 4 May 2021.

    The offensive came as Afghans and their international backers watch to see how well Afghan forces can stand alone against the insurgency.

    Morning everyone. I’m holding off on admitting that I was wrong about Biden withdrawing from Afghanistan until I see it actually happen! As to the Afghan Government; if they make it past Christmas I for one shall be very surprised. The last Kabul president that treated with an occupying Foreign Power [Russia] was Mohammad Najibullah who was subsequently tortured to death then castrated and hanged by the Taliban. Hartlepool it’s not! So expect a rush to the airport as it gets hairy!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/04/taliban-launch-fresh-helmand-offensive-us-troops-withdraw/

    1. The only foreigners to have successfully civilised the Afghans were the 1970s hippies in their VW camper vans.

    2. Septic / Saudi funding via Pakistan created in madarrassas the Taliban. Post Russian exit, reversion back to tribal homelands. All US proxy leaders – Hamid Karzai, Ashraf Ghani had no control anywhere outside Kabul. Rare earth mineral deposits already tied into Iran. China / Russia Belt and Road Initiative gone forward [not too far from Durand line]. Biggest loss for septics, aside Mil Ind Complex [and politically too many body bags] is Helmand as they lost a major portion of the supply chain for heroin to be used in US

      Apart from never understanding history and making same mistakes, US as summed up by Sean Bean quote https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2568de25fd6db76c012c5be489d15f1676a18a3fd3a025cab2ac8220bad89b12.jpg again again got their moral idealogy wrong. As they did in Vietnam

    3. Afghans are too riddled with tribalism, corruption and religion to be a functioning democracy with or without the Taliban threat. The central elite have been propped up by countless US blood and treasure for decades but its remit extends little beyond Kabul’s protected walls and the lives of the people are little, if any, improved.

      It’s time to accept reality. The Afghans don’t want us and don’t want to be like us. Time to accept defeat, stop throwing good blood and treasure after bad and turn attention to things that can be improved.

  4. More Postcards from the Edge jottings from Outer Utopia:

    SIR – The SNP MSP Emma Harper has suggested that a hard border between Scotland and England would create jobs (report, May 2).

    Just as we were recovering from this silly assertion, Alex Salmond now argues that, in the event of independence, Scotland should refuse to take on any share of the UK national debt (report, May 4).

    What voters in Scotland desperately need is an authoritative economic assessment of the likely costs of independence – not this ridiculous and misleading posturing.

    Dr John R Drummond
    Cellardyke, Fife

    SIR – Though I am married to a Scot, I find it astonishing that we English maintain such a high degree of affection for Scotland in the face of the nationalists’ hostile rhetoric.

    There is no acknowledgment of the support that Scotland receives through the outdated mechanism of the Barnett formula and other pro-Scotland policies. Nor is there any recognition of the world-beating security, covering the entire UK, provided by our Armed Forces, GCHQ and the security services. What does the SNP intend to replace these with, and at what cost?

    I hope the Scots are sensible enough to reject the party’s populist negativity.

    Jeremy Lane
    Black Bourton, Oxfordshire

    SIR – Boris Johnson plans to spend billions of pounds on Scotland in order to “save the Union”.

    Does he not realise that, if you pay a blackmailer, she will only come back for more? All he is doing is encouraging waverers to vote SNP in the hope of even more goodies.

    Michael R Jolley
    Ormskirk, Lancashire

    SIR – While I agree that the potential break-up of the Union is something that the whole of the UK should be able to decide on (Letters, May 4), I fear that a majority of English voters would be happy to see Scotland go.

    The referendum question would need to be carefully worded, too. “Should we preserve the Union?” may prompt a different response from “Should Scotland be independent?”

    A C H Irvine
    Grantham, Lincolnshire

    SIR – Scotland is similar in size to South Carolina. If South Carolina broke away from the US, where would it figure on the world stage?

    The US is a country of 50 states, covering 3.8 million square miles with a population of 328.2 million in 2019. By air, Washington to San Francisco is 2,435 miles, Washington to Austin, Texas is 1,318 miles, and Washington to Anchorage, Alaska is 3,356 miles.

    The UK effectively has four “states”, covering 93,638 square miles with a population of 66.65 million in 2019. The distance from Aberdeen to London by air is 398 miles. If a country 40 times larger than us, with five times as many people, can make it work, why can’t we? Let’s all pull together.

    D A Glass
    Leiston, Suffolk

    Vaccines and travel

    SIR – Julia Sharpe (Letters, May 2), writing about summer travel, thinks it would be shameful if the young were disadvantaged yet again “in favour of the vaccinated elderly”.

    As one of the latter, I wish to point out that the young have many years ahead of them to travel. We too may miss out on another summer without travel at a time in life when every day is a blessing. We have also endured lonely hours to “save the NHS” for those who needed it, some paying the ultimate price.

    Those who are still waiting for a vaccine are in the low-risk category and will not have to wait long. I suggest looking at the bigger picture.

    Ann Jackson
    Maidstone, Kent

    SIR – Boris Johnson has said there is a “good chance” he will scrap social distancing rules on June 21 (report, May 4), but will this also be for MPs?

    Since March 2020, ministers have ruled by diktat, with a socially distanced parliament reduced to a cipher, using video links and proxy voting. We need MPs back in the House and talking, so that they can hold the Government to account and restore a working democracy.

    Michael Staples
    Seaford, East Sussex

    Flat owners trapped

    SIR – Shame on our MPs for passing the incompetent and incomplete Fire Safety Bill (Letters, April 30).

    Huge numbers of flats across the country require urgent remedial treatment, and the £5 billion allocated by the Government to assist these essential repairs is totally inadequate.

    Many flats have already been declared unsafe and owners are having to fund 24-hour “fire watch” services so that they can live safely in their own homes. It is not only poor-quality cladding that poses a risk, but also the use of inappropriate materials for balconies and general insulation. Even quite recently completed buildings have not been equipped with adequate fire breaks, or sprinkler and alarm systems. These faults must be rectified.

    Leaseholders who bought in good faith are now trapped in their properties – unable to sell or insure them or move out. They face crippling financial bills, possible bankruptcy and even homelessness. The Government must urgently address the full cost of this disgraceful situation, and also ensure that the construction industry foots some of the bill.

    Patrick B Osada
    Warfield, Berkshire

    Driverless disparity

    SIR – I consider it utterly ludicrous that we should consider allowing self-driving cars on the roads (report, April 28) when we still have drivers on trains.

    Gerry Woods
    Havant, Hampshire

    Extreme golf

    SIR – During my golfing days in Rhodesia (around 1964) I played at Victoria Falls, where the pro offered hand towels inscribed with the local golfing by-laws.

    For example, if an elephant trod on your ball, it could be replaced without penalty; if wild pigs bit a chunk out of your ball, it could be replaced without penalty; if lions appeared, you could retire beyond the three-minute delay without penalty.

    There were 10 such rules, but I am afraid I can’t remember them all, and I gave my towels away as presents.

    Mick Wood
    Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

    Political police

    SIR – When police and crime commissioners (Letters, May 2) were introduced in 2012 we were assured that they would be independent (presumably this meant non-political) and cheaper than the county council police committees they replaced.

    From the outset, political parties have fielded candidates and canvassed for their election, and on taking office these commissioners quickly built up their own little empires – on top of their own salaries ranging from £70,000 to £100,000.

    What good have they done for policing? How much money have they saved? How independent are they? Can anyone answer these questions before we vote tomorrow?

    Christopher Whitfeld
    Blandford Forum, Dorset

    Income tax sting

    SIR – Sam Brodbeck (Money, May 1) compares American income tax rates with “our highest rate – at 45 per cent for income over £150,000 a year”.

    In fact, the highest marginal rate of UK income tax is currently the 60 per cent applying between £100,000 and £125,140 – the result of 40 per cent direct tax and the reduction of the personal allowance by £1 for every £2 of income above £100,000, until the allowance becomes zero.

    Christopher Johnson
    Maidenhead, Berkshire

    Worth the weight

    SIR – I keep a number of old keys (Letters, May 3) on my key ring, because their sheer size and weight make it almost impossible for it to go missing from my trouser pocket.

    Gordon Moser
    Barkingside, Essex

    SIR – My father saved empty cardboard boxes up in the attic “to keep the come-in-handy in”.

    Joanna Sharpe
    Pitton, Wiltshire

    SIR – While clearing an elderly uncle’s house we found a box labelled “All the razor blades I have used since 1975”. He was always very well turned out.

    Tom Gadsby
    Cublington, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – When clearing out my late father’s bungalow a number of years ago, I accidentally loosened the panel at the side of his bath. Inside were a dozen pairs of old shoes.

    Pam Haycock
    Slindon, West Sussex

    Creepy-crawly culprit for box plant balding

    SIR – Camilla Tominey’s balding box plant puzzle (Comment, May 1) is solved by an excellent article – with remedies – in this month’s edition of the Royal Horticultural Society’s The Garden: it’s box blight or attack by the box moth caterpillar.

    I commend RHS membership: it gives free advice upon receipt of samples of plant mysteries.

    Peter Saunders
    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    SIR – The caterpillar of the box hedge moth is a recent invader from overseas and a big problem at the moment. I recommend spraying hedges with TopBuxus XenTari insecticide, which is available online.

    It won’t help areas already stripped by the grubs, but will prevent further damage.

    Guy Newman
    Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire

    Years of inaction led to the crisis in social care

    SIR – Sir Andrew Dilnot and Jeremy Hunt (Comment, May 1) are by far the best qualified to point out the deficiencies in government policy regarding social care.

    Sir Andrew’s report has been ignored since it was published in July 2011. Mr Hunt became health secretary a year later and occupied this key policymaking Cabinet position until 2018. Am I alone in wondering why he did nothing in more than five years, but now feels qualified to criticise his successor?

    The Dilnot report is not a political football; its findings point out the discrimination being perpetrated on the elderly. Lack of action by Mr Hunt, and his successors, has cost my 97-year-old mother everything that she and my late Battle of Britain pilot father built up in their years together following the Second World War.

    Dr Michael A Fopp
    Soulbury, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – Sir Andrew Dilnot and Jeremy Hunt want taxpayers to pay for everyone’s lifetime social care costs in excess of £45,000. They complain that, under current arrangements, 50,000 dementia sufferers have to sell their homes every year to cover their cost of care. What they don’t mention is that nobody has to sell their home for as long as their spouse is still living there. The local authority must foot the bill if one partner has to go into a care home. Only when the home is no longer needed by either party does it have to be sold.

    I struggle to see why it is unreasonable to expect people to draw down capital they no longer need to pay for care they now require. Nor do I understand how it can be justifiable to require taxpayers to fund other people’s care costs so they can leave bigger bequests to their children.

    Peter Saunders
    Hastings, East Sussex

    1. Does Mr Saunders think it is OK for his children (or if he has none, other peoples children) to pay for his state pension?

      2. I understand Mr Saunders’ complaint. However he looks at the world solely from his own perspective. He sounds desperately Lefty – you’ve earned it, I want it taken from you so I don’t have to pay for it.

        I’d not like to pay for other children’s education, nor for the train subsidy. Or Shami Chakrbalty. Or Boris’ wallpaper. Or Mandelson’s corruption. Blair’s security. The hundreds of thousands of civil servants in the home office.

    2. Folk forget that Sturgeon doesn’t want to be independent.
      What she wants is to hop on the Eu gravy train to swim in the trough, and as a result of that get some money from the EU for Scotland but mainly it’s about her.

      She doesn’t care what happens to Scotland. Like all statists, it’s just a weapon to get her own way.

      The SNP won’t present a costed indy sheet as it’s unpalatable to her, so she does what all her type do – she lies. When presented with one from Westminster that sets out the debt obligations, currency loan cost, the end of Barnett formula, the removal of public sector jobs and tariff walls she would rubbish it as she cannot live in the real world.

      It seems an attempt at blackmail. Her bluff should be called and the consequences made clear and published, with easy references that hammer the SNP repeatedly. Scots may then stubbornly vote for it regardless out of spite or they may realise how utterly incompetent Sturgeon is and get rid of her and actually become independent financially through tax cuts and business offers.

      1. she’s going nowhere, she’s just using it as attempt at blackmail, as you said, to meet her [own] demands. Call her bluff as most Scots know they’d be worse off

      2. The SNP policy of independence has proven to be a vote-winning Unique Selling Proposition. That does not in any way mean that the SNP wish the country to be independent. The USP has kept them in power for some time (it was a long hard climb.). As long as Scotland is part of the UK the ruling cliques of Sturgeon and cronies have power without responsibility. Most debacles can be blamed on others. The record of successive Scottish governments in the last 20 year has been a trail of failures in every facet of Scottish life. Labour are as guilty as the SNP, and were a force behind the flow of immigrants to Scotland.
        The Barnett Formula is not a gift. It is simply a way of calculating how much of the UK expenditure should be in Scotland, just as there is a formula for calculating expenditure in London, Northumberland etc.

        1. Time to dissolve that ridiculous Wee Pretendy Parliament and the other two cash-gobbling assemblies.

          Devolution is just another Bliar policy that needs immediate rescinding an Parliament in Westminster to accept their responsibilities and accountabilities – and boy, would I hold them to account?

    3. I struggle to see why, having worked hard, been prudent and contributed loads of dosh in NICs (including continuing to pay council tax portions towards welfare), people are punished for it while the feckless get everything free.

  6. Good morning.
    Second early topic: Can anyone explain why, in Formula 1, sometimes cars are said to benefit from extra slipstream speed when following another car and other times the commentators say that a driver can’t get close enough to the car ahead because it is driving in ‘dirty’ air?

    While we’re (I’m) on F1, is it better for a team to have its garage at the beginning or at the end of the pit straight? Does the winning team at the end of a season get first choice in the next, and then all the other teams choose next by previous season’s ranking.

    Important questions for 0700h on a Wednesday.

    1. Morning Stormy. My understanding is that the car closely behind actually benefits from a lack of air resistance and a partial vacuum due to the vehicle ahead. It is a sort of pocket! If you are further back than this then you are subjected to the disturbed air of the lead vehicle which increases your own difficulties!

        1. Yes, tailgating should be encouraged. Then, the person being tail gated can get out and smash the head of the person tail gating them on to their windscreen until either their skull or the glass cracks.

          When plod arrive, they shake the hand of the person who was being tail gated, say thank you sir and the tail gater is either dead, or needs another head smashing.

      2. Lorries on motorways keep close to the lorry in front when driving into wind, saves fuel apparently. Racing cyclists keep their sprinters in the middle of the peleton [?] when racing to preserve their energy for the final sprint. It’s an old trick.

        1. And, related to the original post, it’s a significant factor in tin top racing where the longer a chain of cars, the less the overall drag on the combination and the faster it goes. You can see it clearly in action and commentators often refer to cars working together.

    2. Morning Stormy. My understanding is that the car closely behind actually benefits from a lack of air resistance and a partial vacuum due to the vehicle ahead. It is a sort of pocket! If you are further back than this then you are subjected to the disturbed air of the lead vehicle which increases your own difficulties!

    3. mng SID. DRS and extra use of battery power re slipstream, usually within around 1 second at speed they hit on straights, less air resistance. Further back, siar flows distort, hence dirty air. Re second point, it appears positions always based on best teams [based on team standings in Championship] usually nearer entrance to pit entry.

      1. Discounting DRS though, some cars are said to pick up slipstream at different parts of the track where DRS isnt enabled.
        Is it just a matter of distance between the cars? If so, how does a car fight it’s way through the turbulent air to get close enough to get into slipstream.

        1. depends on circuit and cars involved. Obviously driving skill [and a better car], back markers or more frequently strategic use of pit stops [undercut etc].

        2. The closer you get to the car ahead the greater will be the drag reduction. The turbulent air is a red herring for getting close on straights: it has no effect on that, only on subsequent braking and corner speed.

          The car behind gets close by being faster, a combination of driver skill, engine power, aerodynamic design, aerodynamic choice (downforce/drag balance), tyre type and condition, and a host of fiddly issues.

    4. You’re conflating 2 different effects. Driving in the slipstream will reduce drag. However, it also reduces the downforce from the following car’s aerodynamics, causing it to be slower in corners and have more tire degradation, effectively giving the leading car a head start on the next straight. Sometimes the following car is fast enough to overcome this inherent disadvantage, gain from the slipstream effect on the straight and pass. However, all too often, the loss in the preceding corner prevents the following car getting past on the straight when it would have passed with a much lower slipstream effect.

      Garage position depends on the previous year’s constructors standings. The winning team gets to choose either the first or last garage and the rest line up from second to last. The choice varies with tracks depending on the relative advantages of a quicker/easier pit slot entry or quicker/easier exit.

  7. Research reveals the Mary Rose’s multi-national crew. 5 May 2021.

    The Mary Rose – King Henry VIII’s favourite ship – had a crew that was not all British, according to new research.

    It is thought that three of the eight crew being examined could have come from southern European coasts, Iberia, and North Africa.
    The remaining five were likely to have been raised in western Britain, with further research showing one of them was of African ancestry.

    Hmmm? I can find no trace of Diversity Aboard A Tudor Warship: Investigating The Origins Of The Mary Rose Crew Using Multi-isotope Analysis in the files of the Journal of the Royal Society of Open Science. Of the two members cited in the text Richard Madgwick is an osteo-archaologist and Jessica Scorrer is an Assistant Electronic Resources Librarian. No geneticists are cited nor their analysis offered. The story itself is in Sky News and duplicated in four regional newspapers. Make of this what you will!

    https://news.sky.com/story/research-reveals-the-mary-roses-multi-national-crew-12297159

        1. never opened link as soon as I saw it said Sky. More interested in trying to get my head around woke terminology

      4. Two grades below an Electronic Resources Librarian; that’s assuming there exists a Deputy Electronic Resources Librarian (or two). Sounds like the kind of “job” where Deputy Assistant Electronic Resources Librarians also proliferate.

          2. One of these bloody new ones, that take 15 minutes to “warm up”.

    3. 500 years rotting in the Solent is not going to leave any sailor with a lily white complexion.

      1. Sadly yes. I fear they’ll find it because they want to, but necessarily because it exists.

      1. 332361+ up ticks,
        Morning Bob,
        Plus a pair of absorbent underpants I would imagine.

          1. 332361+ up ticks,
            W,
            The filling of the underparts has a squeezing affect on his
            jewels leaving him the only option then of singing soprano in opera.

  11. France threatens to cut off power to Jersey in post-Brexit fishing row. 5 May 2021.

    The French government could cut off the electricity supply to Jersey in an escalating row over post-Brexit fishing rights, a French minister has suggested.

    We should sink every French Fishing Boat that we find in our waters and hang every French Fisherman that falls into our hands!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/04/france-threatens-to-cut-off-power-to-jersey-in-post-brexit-fishing-row

    1. What a waste! The best way to hang French industrial fishermeat is on the end of a line. About time the marine wildlife had something a bit more appetising for their dinner than plastic litter.

    2. Just remember

      With the French “No Good Turn Goes Unpunished”

      viz WWI & WWII

      1. Churchill did everything possible to raise French Fortunes and De Gaulle against American Opposition during WWII, all he received was insults!

        1. They totaly lied to Churchill about the strength of their army in WW2. He was so upset about it. read his History of The Second World War tells you all you need to know about Europe and why we should never trust them.

      2. Churchill did everything possible to raise French Fortunes and De Gaulle against American Opposition during WWII, all he received was insults!

    3. I think we should just invade.

      They are clearly our enemy on our doorstep.

    4. Why blame the French? They’ve always been chauvinistic.

      It’s what we should expect if we let our key infrastructure and industries be controlled by foreign interests. I expect the executive bonuses are good though.

      1. Yup, this was inevitable. We are not energy secure. The more the idiot Left gabble on about green, the more fragile we are. Maybe this is the intent?

    5. ‘Morning, Minty, hopefully that will scupper EDF’s plans for a huge solar ‘farm’ at Bramford (pronounced Bromford) in Suffolk.

    6. I thought it was only the Russians who would do that with their “gas monopoly”…its actually 35% but who’s counting.

  12. Tracker

    A cowboy is walking down a dirt track when he happens upon a crossroads.

    Lying in the middle of the intersection, flat on his belly with an ear to the ground, is an Indian (Native man).

    The Pioneer’s curiosity gets the better of him, after a few minutes of staring he goes over to investigate.

    He no sooner gets there, when the Indian slowly raises his eyes to him and says, “Wagon come. Two families… Four men… and two women.”

    The pioneer is amazed! “Wow! You can really tell all that just from listening to the ground?!”

    “No! They run me over just before YOU got here!”

  13. 332361+ up ticks,
    Surely more deflection material as the overseers semi
    covert ( reset) campaign moves ahead, the equivalent to a brace of battalions regarding potential soldiers has landed on the Dover beach since the start of the year.

    Dt,
    Witch hunt of Troubles veterans must stop, campaigners say after trial collapses
    Plus: Johnny Mercer on how the paratroopers’ lives were decimated over the last 10 years while successive Governments did nothing.

    200 more soldiers to be dragged to court if the farce continues.

    1. Why would any country operate in or trade with the EU if there are alternatives available, when the EU breaks/attempts to break international laws and agreements on a whim.

      1. beyond me sos. They’re not a Nation State, despite what they think in the inner corridors of Brussels. They’re beyond the level of relevance now. I doubt AstraZenica’s bothered

  16. Looks like the over 50s are going to get a third time lucky covid vaccine in the Autumn, to save Christmas.

    2. Many of the readily jabbed population must believe that these potions will set them free, when in fact all the jabs are doing is allowing the government to lay brick after brick in the wall of authoritarianism. They are building their own, and our, prison. Going to be quite a shock to many when they finally wake up.

        1. Of course they won’t be set free by the jabs. The latter are there to imprison the people via the so-called freedom pass.

      2. Back in March of last year the state forced us apart and prevented infection – and the building of antibodies.

        Then it forced masks on us. Again, preventing cross infection.

        Now it is forcibly injecting us with the inert virus so we build the antibodies.

        The trust has gone thanks to scaremongering and the people demanding the lock up ignoring it.

    1. I think that icon appears when a video is playing. A long time ago when websites stole control, played loud adverts and generally intruded on your will you’d often hunt through the tabs to find what was causing the chaos.

      Now.. you have pi-hole, ublock, ghostery, javascript disabler, script blockers and all sorts of others to prevent the nonsense. I complained to a site that it didn’t work without javascript enabled. Their response was ‘tough, up yours.’ So I mentioned the accessibility act and it’s fines for preventing access for the disabled.

    1. 332361+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Years ago you could ID them by them having two extra little fingers, hence I believed this elbow bumping was purely to conceal the extra give away digits.

    2. There’s a lot of fake education about.

      The trouble is that just as the truth to some is fake news to others so genuine education for some is fake education for others.

      1. 332361+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        A great % of the truth can now be physically seen daily
        but there are those that for the good of the party name, NOT content, support & vote in three monkey mode.

        In that mode and judging by the past there is REAL fear for the future.

  20. Hartlepool and the theft of the Labour party. 5 May 2021.

    If these polls are accurate – or even just in the right ballpark – then a long-term structural political realignment that is devastatingly disadvantageous to Labour is taking place. December 2019 will be seen not as an aberration but as a mere staging post.

    But what will have occurred would not really constitute ‘the death of the Labour Party’, just as English cricket did not actually die in 1882. Labour will carry on as a party with hundreds of thousands of members and millions of voters.

    Labour abandoned the White Working Class over twenty years ago so they will be no loss! It is unfortunate that the same fate cannot overtake the Tory Party! Both hate the indigenous population of these islands!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/hartlepool-and-the-theft-of-the-labour-party

    1. If, God Forbid, Labour retain Hartlepool and do reasonable in the council elections, a few pundits will have well deserved egg on their faces.

      1. Does it truly matter who gets elected? The policies will be the same because the ideology is the same. They just change sides, with one side robbing and wasting our money faster than the other.

  21. Hartlepool and the theft of the Labour party. 5 May 2021.

    If these polls are accurate – or even just in the right ballpark – then a long-term structural political realignment that is devastatingly disadvantageous to Labour is taking place. December 2019 will be seen not as an aberration but as a mere staging post.

    But what will have occurred would not really constitute ‘the death of the Labour Party’, just as English cricket did not actually die in 1882. Labour will carry on as a party with hundreds of thousands of members and millions of voters.

    Labour abandoned the White Working Class over twenty years ago so they will be no loss! It is unfortunate that the same fate cannot overtake the Tory Party! Both hate the indigenous population of these islands!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/hartlepool-and-the-theft-of-the-labour-party

  22. Good morning from Derbyshire.
    The weather has returned to a bright, sunny and rather chilly start with just below 2° outside.

    And I see I’ve received a double consolation prize of ERNIE today. Better than nothing I suppose.

    1. As far as we know, ERNIE is one of the few remaining institutions where critical race theory does not affect outcomes or recruitment.

      1. I can well imagine someone getting hold of the details of prizewinners and going into paroxysms of faux rage at the lack of diversity amongst the winners!

        1. Sadly I imagine the winners will be mostly white and middle class. Surprise! Those are the workers, earners and savers. That’s not discrimination, it’s real life!

          I think that premium bonds are an ‘older’ form of saving so the older generation, those richer people firmly in their careers will be those who thought to put monies into bonds.

      2. The evidence just hasn’t been discovered yet but someone will be looking.

      1. How, exactly, would Labour be any different? They’d be more draconian, funding people ever more generously.

        It annoys me (who’d have guessed!) that people ignore Labour’s disgusting corruption when they were in office. It isn’t a party thing. The entire edifice of Westminster is a toxic midden.

    2. I appreciate and understand people’s fear. I accept that some folk did want to hide away.

      However, ignorance and a lack of honesty from the state have created a culture of fear.

      Let those who want to be free, be free. If you still want to stay locked up, by all means do so. At your own cost.

      1. As ever, the tripwire to your completely lucid compromise on freedoms will be that last sentence. I do a weekly shop for my folks (both in their early 80s), buying and transporting the heavier items, to cut down on their need to visit large supermarkets by bus.

        I do this because; I can, it helps them and it provides them some separation from the shopping hordes. If things actually returned to normal tomorrow, the first two reasons would still apply.

        I shop on a midweek morning (it’s normally quieter) and try to time my trip round the store to end at 10am so that my Dad’s wine order can be purchased…I may also purchase a bottle or two for personal use. Meanwhile my Dad takes his daily stroll along the shore front whilst my Mum nips into town with her buddy for a coffee and gossip.

        As you suggest, let those who want to be free, be free.

      1. It’s Wednesday 5th April according to the banner above. Certainly cold enough.

      2. Stupid women. By all means they can behave as they want to and yes, I agree that forests should be preserved – frankly, I agree that there are simply too many people on this planet – certainly too many stupid people.

      4. Absolutely ridiculous people, as is their ‘going through the motions’.

    1. Well, its far safer for robbers, rapists, drug dealers and the stabbers whose extended families vote for the jerk. Sadly, the opposition is split and by the end of Khan’s next term, London will be a cesspit.

      1. the “system’s Special Interest / Focus Groups” will ensure with vote number manipulation Khan stays in. London is a cess pit, and I’m originally from London

        1. Having lived and worked in London during the early 70s, I’m so glad that I don’t even have to visit it anymore. Yes, it’s a cesspit and it is being enhanced by the biggest stinking turd one could never hope to find.

          1. totally agree. Having grew up, lived, worked there I was glad to leave. Last time I was back in summer 2016, it was even worse and that was Central London. the only person I understood all day was driver when in Black Taxi and only then because we were in the same secondary school. As usual, journey got changed as we went for a pint or three, out of town! If it hadn’t been for him clocking me, my journey would have been even shorter

          1. It didn’t have to be. The slide could have been reversed and as for all the gabbling in foreign, people call it diverse but it isn’t. It’s just puddles of different groups who don’t interact.

            Everyone is rude, it’s disgustingly dirty, people push and shove all the time – I moved out as if I hadn’t I’d have gone postal.

    2. At some level, you have to admire Khan. He’s brazenly lying and denying the facts. His tenure has been a complete disaster, a hypocrite, liar, cheat, crook, incompetent, racist fool.

      And he denies it entirely! Credit to him, he’s scum, effluent and he knows it, but as he has an entrenched voting base due to fraud and corruption inherent in that voting bloc.

      As he will never be got rid of, the necessary option is to destroy the post completely and make the waste of money that is the mayoral office building cheap privately rented offices and Khan hung outside.

      1. Someone in the London assembly asking Khant some awkward questions.
        The picture on the video start is a bit misleading as it’s actually Khant beinf criticised.

  26. This morning’s important news from Aunty. Blacks found on the Mary Rose. Family of Irish terrorist given the oxygen of publicity. One of the many Chachrabints bleating that we are not saving India. No mention of the scuffle in Brent Cross yesterday evening. The screw gets another turn. I need to go and look at the spring flowers.

        1. Staring at the walls.
          Wouldn’t that be cruel and unnatural punishment?

    2. I doubt there’s a global conference where India and China could NOT be invited to. They almost literally own us.

  28. So how does this EU fishing deal work?
    We have to liaise with the EU as one entity, then France somehow is allowed to go it alone and starts making threats.
    France either does it all through the EU or they leave and make their own fishing deals.

    1. 332361+ up ticks,
      Morning B3,
      It is far to complicated for the man in the street to fathom, leave it to the political professionals.
      Just make sure the peoples on the shop floor support & vote lab/lib/con on the morrow to back up said professionals.
      Keep in mind herd member yours in NOT to wonder why yours is but to .. …

    2. Boris Johnson betrayed our fishermen and along with his broken promise over the Irish Sea Border he has not reclaimed our fishing waters for British fishermen.

      The trouble for the French is that Boris Johnson’s total capitulation was not not abject enough. Without total self-abasement and humiliation even an unconditional surrender just won’t dice the Dijon, cut the Colman’s or macerate the mustard.

    1. I’m with the toddler. He looks disgusted and wanting to give Boris a firm backhander.

    2. I think that very few politicians have worked out that the electorate loathes each one of them and when he or she votes he votes for the one he /she loathes the least.

      ogga’s advise is not to vote for Lib/Lab/Con but if the only other option on the ballot paper was a candidate for the Trans Vegan Party how would he vote?

      1. Ogga also practices the “History is not replete with political successes built on insulting the electorate” approach by insulting those who don’t vote UKIP or whatever it’s called these days.

      2. NOTA works for me – or will tomorrow.

        Reminder bring a black felt-tip.

    1. He clearly has mental health issues and quite possibly is a danger to the public. I hope the R.S.P.C.A bring a prosecution against him.

    2. Shouting at or hitting a dog doesn’t teach it anything as it is not bright enough to link the event with the consequence.

      Violence is utterly unacceptable. Even while training and competing in Muay Thai you’ve someone in the ring with you aware of what’s going on and it’s competitive, never out of anger. Once you lose your temper, you’ve stuffed. At my competition level if there’s a problem both sides back off.

  31. 332361+ up ticks,
    Yoweeeeee,
    This surely is a snip ain’t it ?

    Equalities Minister Liz Truss evoked Boris Johnson’s and Joe Biden’s globalist-progressive “Build Back Better” slogan when she announced the cost for trans people to legally change gender would be cut from £140 ($195) to just £5 ($7).

    1. Strange how some people are both against change (Liz Truss voted REMAIN) and, yet, also for it (gender change … rather a big deal).

        1. Frankly I’d prefer ministers stuck to the wall. They can’t do anything there.

          2. Hmm… in principle I agree, but… the metal would be better used elsewhere.

            Speaking of which, going to take the small person to archery.

        2. she’s heavily involved in US funding for full on privatisation of NHS at present. Give it a couple of weeks and she’ll be a shareholder

      2. A prisoner said he was a woman. He got put into a women’s prison.

        He then raped a female inmate.

        Anyone would think he’d planned it. The pandering must end. Your sex is defined at birth. Pretend you’re something you’re not by all means but it is not the responsibility of the tax payer to indulge you.

        1. These people have tried to make the rest of us believe that “gender”, a grammatical construct, is different from “sex”, a biological determination.

          Most of us know this is complete rubbish.

          2. I’m happy – genuinely – for people to pretend whatever they want. The line gets drawn where they make me change to suit them.

            When a bloke dresses up as a woman and demands to be called so, the answer must be – no. I’ll be polite, but I refuse to pander to your psychosis. In a truly liberal – not the fascist Left wing one we live in, free speech, libertarian view the person pretending would accept that. After all, they have the freedom from others but equally others have the same freedoms.

            What the weirdo lobby want is to dictate terms and get special treatment. Down that road leads madness.

            I remember once we tendered for a job updating the comps and network at a women’s shelter. As all of us were CRB checked for schools and what not, we were aware there would be significant issues and talked them through, kept out of the way at points (four tubby blokes in a broom cupboard holding big rackmount switches is not fun) and what not. Then you read about a trans man getting in one and attacking the very woman who’d gone there to escape. It’s mental.

            End the madness. Society should be based on freedom from, not freedom to.

          3. Yes – and they should be kept well away from children, too. Puberty blockers should be banned.

        1. Morning og…bit parky this morning.A max. of 4 here today…roll on Spring!

        1. Just had that very conversation.We’re lucky to have the Russian border to the East and the cold wide Baltic to the West.
          It limits the rif-raff getting in.

    3. Are they moving from surgery to the two bricks method?

      Good morning!

      1. 332361+ up ticks,
        Morning SE,
        The polling booth tells me that thumb injuries will escalate
        owing to the brick method.

      2. it seems to be further than that according to the White Paper promoted by Truss “Hooking testicles to a car battery, ensure Red is positive, Black is negative, and make sure his nuts are wet”.

        Unfortunately Truss being trussed, she was unable to fathom out the opposite procedure. Either way she complies with the “Build Back Better” narrative

    5. don’t forget Ogga Truss gave Julie Bishop, ex-Aus FM, an unpaid role on the G7’s Gender Equality Advisory Council, her paid role being a job with [Call me Dave fame] Greensill Capital in 2019. Attached is a glimpse of her political road crash past https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/09080c2a9e5c6ccd567b586ca0adde4980718c8e2cbe5d7b4c937653ddb76a4f.png so now’s she’s fully on message “Buy One, Get One Free” [and the chance to vote twice at the same time]

      1. In other words, do your bloody homework before you dare to start pontificating.

        1. Good morning NTN – did you see my reply to your ‘goodnight post’ about your book last night? I finished it at the weekend.

          1. Thank you, Mum and Good morning. Yes, I had it in my in-box this morning and I’m very happy that you enjoyed it as a bedtime read.

            The sequel is on the stocks at the moment but more as a Journal of daily happenings (and government misdemeanours) than as a book.

            I don’t know but it may only be published after I’ve shuffled off…

          2. I hope you live to see it published – otherwise there might be bits you would rather have edited out!

          3. Don’t shuffle off just yet. As much as I would like to read the sequel I would rather read your daily postings than posthumous writings, however curious I may be to discover What Happened Next.

      2. Incompetence in ministers is not a new thing. Failure and ineptitude abound.

    6. Let me guess. The tax payer is picking up the bill? If someone is so self obsessed they should be required to pay for the operation themselves, privately.

        1. Flip knows. Given then obsession with the nut case community it’s probably the whole thing.

          The state has too much money. These people are sick, they are ill in the head. They need therapy. if they won’t realise that, tough. I, the tax payer am robbed of over 65% of my income to indulge the fantasies of wasters.

          1. ‘Morning, Wibbles, a slight correction, “The state has borrowed too much money“

        2. You can pick up a kitchen knife or a tube of superglue for a fiver.

          1. Even cheaper in Poundland?
            That would leave enough change for a nice lipstick

  33. Re-posted from late last night.

    Horror outside M&S as man, 21, is stabbed to death in brawl in London’s Brent Cross shopping centre – forcing customers to be evacuated as police launch murder probe and arrest two men

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9542703/Londons-Brent-Cross-shopping-centre-evacuated-reports-stabbing-inside-shop.html

    I looked and I looked but nowhere in this report could I get any physical description of the chap who was stabbed and the people who stabbed him. However we do know that the stabbed chap was 21 and the others involved were aged 18 so we must keep an eye open to see if we can spot any 18 year old chaps in Brent.

    1. Ye Gods, it’s now sunny and hardly a cloud in the sky – it’s still ‘kin cold though

  35. Biden says hopes to meet Putin during June trip to Europe. May 4, 2021.

    U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he would like to hold his proposed summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin during his June trip to Europe.

    “That is my hope and expectation. We’re working on it,” Biden told reporters after a speech about the U.S. response to the coronavirus.

    “I would also like to have my balls dragged across a cheese grater at the same time if we can possibly manage it!”

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-says-hopes-meet-putin-during-june-trip-europe-2021-05-04/

    1. Demented Joe’s either planning on falling over every time out in public when in Europe or he’s admitted without realising it on taking weed and hallucinating for the whole month of June. Either way, situation normal. If he goes face to face in a chat with VVP, unless he’s hallucinating, he’ll get demolished

    3. Unfortunately for Dopey Joe, Russia is not in the EU and only a small part is actually IN Europe (the Continent) and I doubt that Putin will put himself out to travel West to talk to an ar5ehole.

    4. Setting the agenda will be the problem.Putin’s not interested in lectures..Biden is.

    1. If he would slow down, he might just become understandable – I’m sure he has good things to say, unfortunately I cannot hear them.

  37. Moh has just arrived back from his golf course , put the grill on cooked some rashers of bacon , mushrooms and fried an egg, kettle boiling for a couple of mugs of coffee, and guess what, the dark sky opened and the road and grass are white with grail .. really cold , colder than yesterday .

    He enjoyed his late breakfast , and the smell of grilled bacon is rather nice .

    2nd jabs later !

    1. My OH is playing tennis this morning – singles with a lady. The sun was shining when he went, but it’s getting greyer by the minute now.

    4. That must have ben an early Tee Off TB.
      We had a brief hail storm yesterday.

  38. Good morning all. Scathing article from Allison Pearson about disfunctional GPs

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/05/04/reason-youvenot-seen-gp-recently-frankly-scandal/

    Have you managed to see your GP lately? I mean, actually see them in person, not on a screen, or heard them during a consultation down the phone? Or have you, perhaps, been asked to send the surgery a photo of the tumour on your leg, which is what one reader tells me happened to her 94-year-old mother?

    If you have seen a GP, congratulations! You are one of the lucky ones. What follows is a story about a lovely woman, a beloved wife, mother and dear friend, one of the tens of thousands who wasn’t lucky.

    Back in November, Nick Stokes emailed the Planet Normal podcast to protest that the NHS was being turned into the “National Covid Service”, and misinformation was being spread about hospitals being overwhelmed. “If there is a shortage of beds, that happens every single year – it is not due to Covid! I can remember several years of black alerts, ambulances unable to unload etc due to flu cases, but I don’t remember everything else being cancelled or people being told to stay at home.”

    As the former chair of a major NHS Hospital Trust, Nick knew what he was talking about. In February, he wrote to us again, this time with shocking personal experience of the National Covid Service. “I would never have imagined the nightmare we have now had. Since the summer, my wife Joy has been complaining of leg and bottom pains to our GPs on the phone, only to be fobbed off. The doctors put it down to arthritis. Yet my wife previously had breast cancer 15 years ago, which should have rung alarm bells.

    “The pains worsened in October, but the receptionist still refused to make a face-to-face appointment, saying we could be given a telephone one but no more.

    “Due to Covid, face-to-face was said to be for emergency only. We were told we could self-refer to physio (the surgery wouldn’t do it), yet, when we did, all the physio would do was a phone consultation followed by some exercises. Our GPs ignored our increasingly frantic requests (and letters from physios) for an X-ray or scan. Weeks passed and Joy’s condition continued to worsen until she could not walk unaided. Eventually, her pain became so severe, I demanded painkillers. Only then did the GP book her an X-ray for early January.”

    The X-ray revealed that cancer had eaten into Joy’s hip and femur. A major operation followed. Nick was utterly distraught on behalf of his wife of 46 years. “Is it surprising that we are both bitter and traumatised? This, Allison, is the truth of what happens when Covid is all that matters. If I hear Matt Hancock say once more that GP and hospital services are looking after all those who need the NHS, I will scream. If I hear him boasting that GPs can now provide the same service through telephone contact, I will throw something at the TV.

    “The truth is very different. Our GP actually admitted that he was horrified how my wife had deteriorated when he eventually saw her in person! The cancer that was not diagnosed because our GPs would not see patients face-to-face has spread, not just to Joy’s bones, but into her brain. She is too weak to commence the full cancer treatment. Joy is fearful and frightened while I cannot contemplate life without her. Turning the NHS into the National Covid Service has caused my wife and I endless pain and suffering.”

    Joy Stokes’s funeral was last Thursday. She was 69 years old. Nick said it was a struggle to get the numbers down to 30 for a Covid-compliant service “for somebody as popular as Joy”. It is a mark of the woman that her very last visit, when she was clearly dying, was to console a friend in the village whose cancer was also terminal.

    Nick has given me permission to share his darling wife’s story with you because he wants those GPs who are still hiding behind their receptionists to know that reserving face-to-face appointments for “emergencies only” can be a death sentence.

    With pubs and restaurants doing their level best to offer a service outside under an awning in the foul weather, with hairdressers cutting hair wearing PPE, with Covid deaths reported as one on Monday, what possible excuse do GPs still have for not seeing very sick, scared people like Joy Stokes?

    Before Covid, around eight out of 10 GP appointments were conducted face to face. At the height of lockdown, in April 2020, that figure reportedly fell to between seven and eight per cent. The widely lamented failure to resume appointments in person has given rise to the suspicion that GPs will never get back to normal. Indeed, Covid is being used as cover for driving though a change in working practices which would be abhorrent to most British people, should they ever be consulted.

    One Telegraph reader tells me she recently had a letter from her doctor saying that, henceforth, he would only offer video appointments. Richard, another reader who, after a fortnight, finally managed to get through on the phone, was told by his doctor that she needed to know his blood pressure before she renewed his medication.

    “Great, at least I get to see her in person!” thought Richard. Not a bit of it. He was frankly astonished to hear the GP suggest that he buy a blood pressure monitor – “You can get one for around £20” – and do the reading himself. No further prescriptions would be issued until Richard told the doctor his blood pressure.

    Is this what the future holds? DIY diagnosis which spares GPs the tedium of having to, you know, do their job? Just to be on the safe side, Marjorie, I’d purchase some goggles and a chainsaw for an impromptu, at-home amputation.

    How many GPs support these innovations which fly in the face of good medical practice as it has been taught for centuries?

    “I listened to Nick’s email about his wife on Planet Normal and I felt embarrassed to be a General Practitioner,” wrote Andrew from Devon. “The failure to see patients face to face has been awful. I hate it! We are trying to assess people, over the phone, with every symptom under the sun e.g. pain, breathlessness, weight loss, depression etc. It’s impossible. I’ve been trying to see patients face to face throughout this whole crisis. I lobby my fellow practice partners about returning our surgery back to normal, but sadly they remain cautious about a waiting room full of people. This is despite over 90 per cent of our patients aged over 50 having been vaccinated! Why are so many so-called ‘educated’ people still scared? I recently had a couple of cases where, were it not for seeing the patient face to face, the patient might no longer be with us. The thought makes me shudder. I desperately want Nick to know that there are GPs out there who have continued with face to face consultations as we know this is all too often the best way.”

    Others GPs have emailed to tell me about their own Joys, patients whose cancer could have been picked up if only they’d been examined in person. “This afternoon, I saw someone in his forties with Stage 4 lung cancer,” writes Claire, a GP in east London. “Poor guy doesn’t stand a chance.”

    Like Andrew, Claire has pleaded with colleagues to go back to normal surgery, seeing all patients face to face, but she’s been told this is “not allowed because we can’t do the social distancing required in our small waiting room”. At the moment, any patients fortunate enough to be seen are given a specific time to come in, well apart from other face-to-face appointments. “Apparently, there are no plans for this to change,” says Claire, “I’m thinking of leaving my job. This is not patient care, I feel like an administrator.”

    Who or what is responsible for this insidious, deeply worrying revolution in primary care? One practice manager says that NHS England dictates Standard Operating Procedure and that GPs will be breaking their contract (with regard to patient safety and wellbeing) if they return to the previous pattern of working. Doctors are still expected to see face-to-face those that need it, “but NHS England expect that to be a definite minority”.

    The guidance says GPs can’t go back to the way things were unless patients in the waiting room can be socially distanced, and most surgeries have small waiting rooms where that isn’t possible. Plus, the consulting room has to be cleaned down after each patient, so they can only see half as many patients as previously.

    Honestly, how pathetic! If The Dog and Duck can put up a marquee in the car park to serve drinks, why can’t GPs think creatively and do the same for blood tests? Most women would gladly have half a shandy with their smear test.

    Behind these sly manoeuvrings, I fear there are other, financial, concerns at work. A recent report said that demand for GP appointments has soared in the last year, at the same time as thousands of extra GPs promised by the Government have still to materialise.

    Back in April, Matt Hancock said that “patients who have got used to online GP and outpatient appointments during the crisis may not want face-to-face appointments when things go back to normal”. The Secretary of State stressed that the NHS “must not lose” the digital “advances” that have been made during the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Advances for whom, Secretary of State? They’re not advances if you’re a woman called Joy with excruciating pain in your leg who couldn’t get to see a GP who would probably have taken one look at her and referred her for an urgent scan, which would have found her cancer earlier, and enabled her to start life-prolonging treatment.

    Here’s the thing, Mr Hancock. Most people still want to see a GP, not send them a photo of their ailment or take their own blood pressure. They don’t care to be part of your cost-cutting, digital healthcare revolution which strips the human touch from the doctor-patient relationship.

    Nick Stokes asked me to tell his wife’s story so people would insist on better care from their GP and the Government might change the rules for surgeries “because at least then Joy’s suffering will end in her leaving the world with a positive legacy”. Are you able to see your GP? Are you a GP who wants to see patients but can’t? If so, please let me know. Our lives shouldn’t be at the mercy of bureaucrats who don’t care about the emotional consequences of their rules.

    Let us be on the side of Joy. Not sorrow.

    1. Sadly , there will be many more cancers missed – due also to patients’ reluctance to go to the surgery for examination, as well as the doctors’ reluctance to see them.

    2. A thoroughly biting article, thank you Alison Pearson and KenL. I can only hope that Hancock ends up as the bitten one , he is on a level with Sad Dick Khant for high-turdism.

    3. “Plus, the consulting room has to be cleaned down after each patient, so they can only see half as many patients as previously.”
      Not at my Doctor’s surgery, it doesn’t. Yes, he will wipe the arms of the chair and the table if you leant on it, and of course shift the paper roll that covers the couch, but nowt else. They ask you to space out in the waiting room, and to come up a minute or so before your appointment time. Is the virus in the UK especially virulent? or are your GPs especially useless?

      1. I think i have been exceptionally lucky in my treatments. When describing my symptoms over the phone my GP told me to come to the surgery straight away. Dr Lakes then called the hospital and had the Vascular consultant bleeped. I was seen the next monday.

        I had cause to visit different three different departments over the next eight weeks. Several telephone calls from two different departments monitoring two conditions and to see how the meds were working.

        I am also undergoing an annual cardiovascular review with another doctor and have also received support in my giving up smoking.

        I am certainly getting value for money.

        I feel very sorry for people who have not had a diagnosis for a serious condition.

        I don’t understand why if Joy was in so much pain she didn’t go to A&E which would have bypassed the reluctant GP. And she would have been X-rayed.

        1. I can also say that OH has had good care over the last few months.

          People were put off going to A&E last year – and it didn’t occur to me to go there until I rang 111 for OH.

          The politicians and media ramping up the fear factor are also to blame for Joy’s death.

          1. I agree. But the pain should have motivated her to go.

            When i had to go to A&E for an unrelated but painful condition there were only four other people there. Queen Alexandra hospital A&E is normally busy.

            It still took a doctor two hours to get to examine me.

            I did have a very nice nurse though. Keeping me supplied with pipettes of morphine.

          2. It’s the dreaded English disease: “I don’t want to be a bother”.

          3. They were very quick to assess and deal with OH at New Year – Saturday night and all.

        2. Calling an ambulance saved MB’s life or at least made it bearable more rapidly. If he’d gone through the usual route of GP and onwards, he’d just about have seen some cardio bloke – probably in Basildon roughly 30 miles away.
          Inadvertently, we by-passed a lot of NHS bureaucracy.

    4. Poppiesdad (Charles) went fir a blood test. He asked the nurse if he could have his blood pressure checked. It’s not working, said nurse, you’ll have to check your own. “What!” Said Charles. “Haven’t you got a machine? You can get one for £20” said nurse. He was flabbergasted. There was also another exchange of conversation re his unvaccinated status, I won’t go into it at the moment because I have already posted about that. Anyway, his blood test results came back, they showed he was pre-diabetic and should keep off sugar. From the doctor. By text. Just like that. That was it.

      Edit: inserted ‘said nurse’ second line.

      1. A good friend of mine was also told she was pre-diabetic and was recommended to a course (online I think) on diet. She reduced her sugar and carb intake and has lost about half a stone. That seems to ward off the diabetes.

        1. Poppiesdad doesn’t need to lose any weight, I’d lose him down a drain covering if he did.

          2. No, ’tain’t, Anne, I’ve gone up from 95Kg to 107Kg at the last count and am looking quite pregnant

          5. Mine’s like that! He’s lost a bit of muscle over the last year though.

        2. I’m down from 10 stone to 9 1/2 and i’ve been sitting in a chair since January.

        3. He has just phoned the surgery to get someone to explain the results of the blood test (they all seemed normal). A doctor will phone him back on Friday 14 May.

          1. “Keep off sugar” is utterly pathetic. I would advise Charles to moderate his carb intake. While home monitoring is frowned upon by the medics, he could learn a lot by purchasing a blood glucose meter, and seeing what effect his diet has on his blood glucose. I can let you have a spare meter, and test strips (I seem to use them less frequently than the prescription allows). I don’t have a spare ‘lancing device’, but these are available on the web (I can bung you some spare lancets, though).

            Send me a message via Hertslass, and I’ll do the rest. “Normal” blood glucose is 5.6 mmol/l. Anything over 10 is potentially damaging. The medical Powers that Be are dismissive of home testing. But it becomes essential if one is on insulin, so you can judge the insulin dose. Regardless, if one tests before eating, then a couple of hours after (‘post prandial’), one can clearly see the effect of different foods…

          2. Geoff – thank you, that is very kind. All the results of his blood tests were normal, even his blood glucose, it was his glycated haemoglobin (does this make sense) that was 42, which just tipped him into the pre-diabetes zone. Charles is going to have another blood test later this month (psa) and the glycated hb will be included as well.

            I couldn’t believe the doctor’s message – and by text. I think at least a phone call would have been in order to explain things. I think we are being prepared for a dismantling-by-stealth of the nhs. This is a very basic service now. I had gestational diabetes and my father had type 1, so I do remember a little about what to eat and what not to eat, how carbohydrate, starchy foods are converted into sugar in the body. Despite this, it is a completely new and bemusing new area in our life.

            Your offer is very kind – we will wait though for the time being to see what the next blood test throws up and take it from there, and I will contact you via Hertslass (an invaluable service she provides). I will let you know the result of his next blood test regardless. And my apologies for not having replied more quickly, I have only just checked my notifications for today. All the best. And thank you.

    5. Behind these sly manoeuvrings, I fear there are other, financial, concerns at work. A recent report said that demand for GP appointments has soared in the last year, at the same time as thousands of extra GPs promised by the Government have still to materialise.

      I had it on good authority that GPs are out there busy administering the vaccines. But where amongst al the volunteers at the vaccination facilities are they.
      I i’m not sure if it’s true, but on top of their salaries they are being paid per jab. But twice i have been to the local Jab centre and not seen one of the 12 GPs involved in the two surgeries in our area. But bumped into two old golfing mates and a barber Saturday morning, which proves they had been contacted by the same surgery as we were.

      1. I have only been to our surgery once in the last two years – that was when I saw the nurse for the flu jab and she persuaded me to have the pneumonia one as well. Fortunately I’ve not needed a doctor since I had shingles.

        I did meet our new Dr when I went for my 2nd covid jab – at the local health centre, not the surgery – he was masked up but I could see he was young, and he did my jab. OH has had a few telephone consultations with him, but not in person. He must have a sense of humour if he asked all the old dears if they were, or could be pregnant.

    6. National Covid Service ….
      It’s about saving the NHS not patients.

      Since my ankle injury a year ago I have been in touch with 9 doctors! NINE…
      I have seen 2 in surgery the others by phone/ email. My torn tendon should
      have been stitched but due to Lockdown I was left in considerable pain.
      Walking is difficult due to pressure on knees,hip and back which is painful.
      –
      I’m inclined to write to the Daily Mail headed…

      “The NHS Made me a Cripple”

      1. Afternoon Plum and all Nottlers.

        Please write to whichever newspaper you can think of. GPs are paid according to their patient lists, as I understand it, so are being paid to fob people off. Nice “%work” if you can get it. Covid has beCome a wonderful excuse to not do something, it’s become a national pastime. I am so sorry for you.

        I think part of the problem is we’ve been told “the NHS is sacred”, and people are afraid to complain for fear of the consequences. I really feel our Covid system needs a darn good shake up, with a mixture of NHS and private work. We’re all paying for the NHS but as it’s free at the point of use some have abused it in the past (including health tourists). What is the problem in asking to see someone’s ID. Abroad if you need medical help it’s the first thing they ask for. We have to pay at the dentist, at opticians, podiatrist, and physiotherapy has a year long waiting list on the NHS (probably longer now!). It really is not fit for purpose. For emergencies the NHS is second to none. But emergencies do not happen to everybody. It’s the routine stuff that is so shabby.

        1. I’d like to know precisely WTF doctors are doing…..

          If you ring the surgery you’re told NOT to visit if you have Covid …. ring 111.
          You can only get an app. if you are lucky and get past the dragon
          receptionist and then it’s a phone call …

          1. Not my experience with our surgery – can’t fault the service. There again I live in a sparsely populated area with lots of community spirit.

          4. A ‘Dragon’ story (repeat)

            Ear Infection

            This is so true!

            They always ask at the surgery why you are there, and you have to tell them (in front of others) what’s wrong and sometimes it is embarrassing.

            There’s nothing worse than a Doctor’s Receptionist who insists you tell her what is wrong with you in a room full of other patients.
            I know most of us have experienced this, and I love the way this old guy handled it. (This is pre-covid of course)

            The 65-year-old man walked into a crowded waiting room and approached the desk.
            The Receptionist said, ‘Yes sir, what are you seeing the Doctor for today?’
            ‘There’s something wrong with my dick’, he replied.

            The receptionist became irritated and said, ‘You shouldn’t come into a crowded waiting room and say things like that.’

            ‘Why not, you asked me what was wrong and I told you,’ he said.

            The Receptionist replied; ‘Now you’ve caused some embarrassment in this room full of people. You should have said there is something wrong with your ear or something and discussed the problem further with the Doctor in private.’

            The man replied, ‘You shouldn’t ask people questions in a roomful of strangers, if the answer could embarrass anyone. The man walked out, waited several minutes, and then re-entered.

            The Receptionist smiled smugly and asked, ‘Yes?’

            ‘There’s something wrong with my ear,’ he stated.

            The Receptionist nodded approvingly and smiled, knowing he had taken her advice. ‘And what is wrong with your ear, Sir?’

            ‘I can’t piss out of it,’ he replied.

            The waiting room erupted in laughter…

            Mess with seniors and you’re going to lose

        2. My GP was actually doing covid jabs yesterday. For a doctor, she made a reasonable fist of the job.

      1. That’s been coming for a long time. I have a great deal of specialist knowledge on mortality and life expectancy and my advice, based on how long doctors and dentists live after various ages of retirement, suitably adjusted for other influences, was a significant factor in my elder brother, a dentist, taking early retirement. He’s never looked back, particularly as his wife resents his presence at home and forces him out to his golf club – win, win.

        Blair’s ‘reforms’ took away much of the expectation and reward for doctors and dentists to stay on. Other pressures such as administration/management changes and the greater number of women doctors resulting in more part-time working and early retirement only make matters worse.

        If you think getting to see a GP is bad now, wait for 10 years.

        1. We’re doing our bit. In addition to having our very own sphygmomanometer (my, they’re a darn sight easier to use than in my yoof) we now have a thermometer that works.
          Selfishly, it suits me fine as going to the GPs always feels like being called into the headmasters’ office.

          1. Ooh, get you and your long words – had to look it up and, as I thought, it’s blood-pressure machikiner.

    8. The main problem is not GPs but PHE. Yes, some GP surgeries have performed poorly, but most are doing a reasonable job in difficult circumstances, notably PHE’s bullying jobsworth behaviour that forces GPs to hide from their customers.

    9. Not condoning the non-sensical practices resulting in nil face to face GP consultations, I simply don’t understand why Joy didn’t take herself off to A&E…..

      1. Probably she didn’t consider it an accident or an emergency – and there have been lots of complaints that people are using A&E instead of consulting their GPs.

      1. simple – was wearing face mask and rubber gloves under his own variant of the Hippocratic oath citing it’s “local custom”. His ID’s protected because he’s a member of the nearby Freemasons Lodge

    1. Sad as i is in India they are b not reducing any carbon at the moment with all the funeral pyres.
      And two Indian delegates have now gone into isolation, It’s hardy infallible is it, they have already traveled and been in contact with others some where. Where on earth do all these political people keep their collective single brain cell ?

        1. 650 plus useless people we all have to pay for.
          I dread to think what the real financial and human cost of all their inherent tomfoolery is.

          1. unless it’s all exposed and transparently laid out publicly, they’ll dodge the human cost angle at every turn. Financially, most of it’ll be in offshore tax haven

          4. Please, Eddy, spoil your ballot with ‘None Of The Above’.

            The more who do it, the more effective it will be.

    1. Was there a hand that nudged him.. cos there was certainly someone close.

    2. Without in any way dissing the cat – I think the lens on the camera distorts distance. I don’t think it is as far to that flat roof as the film suggests.

      Assuming that it isn’t faked, of course!

      1. Unless the film has been slowed down I would guess it must be around 30 feet.

          3. Many thanks. Great survivors, cats! As G & P would say were they not both deeply asleep!

          3. I wasn’t certain what that was, but the “window” quite a way above it is still a good distance below the parapet the cat’s leaping off.

            Either way, I wouldn’t attempt the leap!

    1. The options: either Agree or Strongly Agree (Disagree is not an option)

    2. I got as far as the second question. The questionnaire presupposes climate change and that we can do something meaningful about it. The first point is not really certain and the second is nonsense.

    3. After I’d clicked “cynical” in answer to the first question it wouldn’t let me go any further.

      I suppose these fundamental Christians prefer their flock to be ovine.

      1. another version of “command and control”. And ensuring with sufficient volume of right responses, they get their fees

  44. Brent crude about to reach $70/barrel.
    It shows that some countries are back to normal.

    1. Traffic levels round here are pretty much back to normal, though my neighbours are still working from home and I guess many others are, too.

      1. One of my neighbours is still working from home. Her partner has to go into work because he doesn’t have room on his drive to park a RN Warship.

        2. I understand. Those didicois get everywhere; once they spot a bit of metal in your driveway …..

  45. US seen as bigger threat to democracy than Russia or China, global poll finds. 5 May 2021.

    Whereas in the spring of 2020 people in both more democratic and less democratic countries were equally satisfied with their government’s pandemic response (70%), a year later the approval ratings have dropped down to 65% in less democratic countries, but in more democratic countries the rating has fallen to 51%. In Europe the figure is 45%. Positive ratings reach 76% in Asia.

    In perhaps the most startling finding, nearly half (44%) of respondents in the 53 countries surveyed are concerned that the US threatens democracy in their country; fear of Chinese influence is by contrast 38%, and fear of Russian influence is lowest at 28%. The findings may in part reflect views on US comparative power, but they show neither the US, nor the G7, can simply assume the mantle of defenders of democracy.

    They are not “Defenders of Democracy”! Like the UK they are not even a Democracy themselves! The World has turned Full Circle and they have become what they once opposed. The UK is a Polity of Liars much like the former Soviet Union. It uses the same methods as its former enemy. The Thought Police, the crushing of Free Speech, endless propaganda, an atmosphere of Fear to keep the proles in line! It is a Marxist State in all but name and concealed behind a Potemkinesque mirage of Liberal Democracy!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/05/us-threat-democracy-russia-china-global-poll

        1. I have no idea what a Democracy is anymore Alf.
          This all stems from Minty’s post of a global poll.Suppose we gather an American,a Brit ,a Russian,a Chinese and a Belgian and ask them.
          Would they all agree?

      2. we do collectively, as people. Politicians merely hijack to virtue signal attaching in their mind, their moral labels

        1. Can a “regime” with an elected President be a Democracy?
          If so,why is it called a “regime”

          1. regime’s another label banded about onto those Nations that don’t toe the “Western line” aka say, Veneuzuela, or Russia come to that point

          3. it is when used by poltiicians. Not sure if you caught sight but earlier this am, I posted a couple of VVPs videos on yday’s link before Geoff uploaded todays. I think it was first one loaded where he lacerated the US media. In that he talks about democracy thats sits with the people. And if they want collectively change, things change. If you can’t find it, I’ll di them out and you can go through

          5. no prob. the moment I hear any “Western Hemisphere leader” cite Democracy and it’s values followed by “Regime”, I take it as a given their in full BS mode

      3. The Democratic Republic of the Congo.

        There – couldn’t say fairer.

    1. How can his defence lawyer, one Fiona Lamb, sleep at night? “… has had quite an unpleasant experience being in custody”. GOOD!
      As for the judge, Ray Singh, he expressed ‘real concerns’ over releasing Walker, but also said there were issues over continued detention in prison. But it’s ok to put countless young girls in danger by releasing him? Vile and dangerous scum.

  47. Good morning all
    Not been around for a few days as have been overwhelmed with bowls admin, playing and coaching.

    We’ve had new gas main laid in our road started mid April. We live on a corner junction with a slightly bigger road and we have holes either side of the road and found out yesterday they now have to connect our main to the larger one across the road and they’ve put in 3 way traffic lights.
    Two yellow jacketed non workers outside a few minutes ago and I asked when it will all be finished and noticed they’d stopped work on the new hole. They explained they had to stop as they’re waiting for a piece of paper. Is it the council, I asked. No it’s SGN (Southern Gas Networks) and, yes you’ve guessed, it’s the Elf & bloody Safety bit of paper that’s stopping the whole thing progressing.

    What a state the country is in when work has to completely stop because of the lack of a piece of paper. Common Sense has been replaced with total stupidity. Rant over.

    1. I sympathise (that word in the dictionary between shlt and syphilis) but It depends what the paper is. I’d say it was bad management, if only by having the workmen wasting time rather than any inconvenience to you (we’re just irritating bystanders to them). I wouldn’t like a repaired or replacement gas main being filled over until it had been inspected and signed off. I’ve seen too many accidents and incidents, several fatal, where a link in the chain was people wrongly assuming that something, including safety checks, had been done and the lack of signed paper was an oversight and not the critical warning it was.

      Yes, I have been responsible for H&S. it gets a bad name from the stupidity of bureaucrats and bed-wetters, but overall the various actions of the last 50 years have made life less dangerous and protected the environment.

      1. I had dinner in a Pub in Lincolnshire. I asked the waitress for a cocktail stick because i had something trapped in my teeth. She refused and said it was because of H&S. Dumbarse.

        My understanding is a risk assessment has to be done. Obviously it wasn’t.

      2. They assured me it was all ready to go but SGN had not sent the paperwork. They were very good when they rand the new main to our house. They had to dig a hole in our driveway as the link between the main and our house was part metal and part plastic following an extension in 1991. I agree that there has to be safety checks but is it likely the chap at the site will phone HQ and say it’s all OK and someone ticks the boxes that says OK and has never seen the hole?

      1. Best be safe when it comes to cuts.

        Wasn’t there a recent case in the Manchester area where a nurse was effectively fired for changing a blood transfusion supply because the approved requisition was not available.
        The fact that it was in an ambulance during a mad dash transfer of a patient and the transfusion saved the patients life was deemed irrelevant.

    1. Doesn’t matter if we agree, disagree or want it stopped. The state doesn’t care and forces through it’s insane agenda regardless.

      Imagine if we lived in a oh, I dunno, democracy?

      1. Did that happen before or after King Arthur knocked up his round table? The one where if you polished it Merlin appeared and granted you three wishes?

        1. Merlin granted wishes? I should have paid for attention to Arthurian legends.

          I’ll get some books in.

      2. 332361+ up ticks,
        W,
        I think it matters a great deal, IMO we as a people ( herd) are at the moment on a test bed, seemingly being run to destruction in many cases much of the herd self harming via the polling booth.
        The three main tools of anarchy / treachery are plain to see and the results are witnessed on a daily basis the tools being of course the lab/lib/con coalition party.

        “Doesn’t matter if we agree, disagree or want it stopped. The state doesn’t care and forces through it’s insane agenda regardless”.

        Agreed BUT, the herd does not have to condone it with a loving X, every time.

    2. good money providing Plaid Cymru with their meds. Presume that’s what the defence lawyer meant by “previous good character”

    3. ‘Come to sunny Prestatyn’ was the message on the vandalised poster encouraging people to holiday in this Welsh resort about which Philip Larkin wrote his poem. It looks as if these Welsh drug dealers followed the poster’s advice which is why they got such good tans. Maybe they helped deface the poster as well.

      Come to sunny Prestatyn
      Laughed the girl on the poster
      Kneeling up on the sand
      In tautened white satin
      Behind her, a hunk of coast, a
      Hotel with palms
      Seemed to expand from her thighs and
      Spread breast-lifting arms

      She was slapped up one day in March
      A couple of weeks and her face
      Was snaggle-toothed and boss-eyed
      Hugh tits and a fissured crotch
      Were scrawled well in, and the space
      Between her legs held scrawls
      That set her fairly astride
      A huge cock and balls

      Autographed Titch Thomas while
      Someone had used a knife
      Or something to stab right through
      The moustached lips of her smile
      She was too good for this life
      Very soon, a great transverse tear
      Left only a hand and some blue
      Now Fight Cancer is there.

        1. might have to wait for the post mortem report from the knackers yard on that to validate. then quietly release it on Friday and “bury it” in the election results

    2. Is this the 21 year old whose name and ethnic origin was not mentioned in the report? This report gave no information about the identity of his stabbers other than that they were 18 years old.

      Do the people who supress this sort of thing seriously think that anyone other than a total imbecile will not draw his or her own conclusions and be thoroughly pissed off at being patronised. Who knows, such condescension might even make people racist!

      1. Yes, Rastus, the very same. Who could possibly have guessed his ethnicity. That was yesterday, today it is a man of color(sic) with non-colored wife and four kids, who has been stabbed to death for telling some youths to stop creating a disturbance. The place was an estate in Basildon nicknamed Alcatraz. No mention of the perpetrator’s ethnicity. Any guesses?

      2. they do Rastus, they’re taught what to think and follow it benignly. Another product of the system. anyone thinking differently or place any challenge as to truth, immediately gets branded racist. that’s all they know in how “to perform”. DM, like the rest of MSM will of course suppress it, their owners are making money on keeping it going, despite this not being news, unless in the local online rag. Anyone on here can rip this article to shreds in one read. Strip it back to brass tacks, he knew the game, he upped the ante and paid for it.

      3. Mayor Kahn, Dickie, loud mouth know all MPs etc have an awful lot to answer for.

    1. And in the mean time the latest editions of the slaves freely arrive on a daily basis at Dover.
      Isn’t this how it all started, a trip across the sea and menial jobs for board and lodgings.

  52. Farmer left paralysed by violent robbery in South Africa 20 years ago is tied up and murdered in his wheelchair in a second horrifying attack.

    A helpless farmer shot through the spine by robbers and left paralysed 20 years ago in South Africa was tied up in his wheelchair and cruelly strangled to death in a second attack.

    His death has sparked fury in the town of Winterton in KwaZulu-Natal province, especially as his attackers were not captured after the first assault.

    Alf Lees the Democratic Alliance MP for Uthukela constituency said: ‘Who would murder a man in a wheelchair? A man who was unarmed and physically unable to defend himself?

    I’ll give you three guesses Alf!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9540777/South-African-farmer-paralysed-robbery-20-years-ago-tied-murdered-wheelchair.html

  53. “A 25-year-old Malian woman has given birth to nine babies”

    A government spokesperson said we are doing our utmost to see that she is given the finest NHS treatment. First of all we have to get her here from the hospital in Morocco.

        1. absolutely, just like the 55 yr old Algerian in Secondary School practising the 2 x table while selling dope in the tuck shop

        2. absolutely, just like the 55 yr old Algerian in Secondary School practising the 2 x table while selling dope in the tuck shop

      1. No, rubbish film. All the cast are white. One is a police officer. The other a scientist. A male scientist. I mean, like, he she be a wumaaan.

        The shark is sort of white, so that’s ok.

        But the poster? ohmagaaad. It’s like sooo penetration…patriarchy….

        Can’t do it any more. Off to take the beast outside!

        1. We stayed in New England for a wedding anniversary and went to Martha’s Vineyard on the ferry The Island Queen, that was featured in the film.
          I could have moved in and styed there. I loved the place.

    3. We all know that there is a severe shortage of Malian babies in the UK and this has already reached crisis level so the more we can invite to come and live in Britain the better.

        1. Pity she didn’t rock up in the UK before the birth …she would have received excellent care before cancer and Covid patients….

      2. I recognise Boris and the Carrie person, and Harold… but not the others. Is one Hitler?

        Why is Boris playing chess on a cake?

        1. Yes, Hitler back right and back right is Fred West. As for your Q, I’ll have “a stab” [no pun intended] is how much cake he wants to eat

  55. Had a sunny spell – went down the hill to buy a birthday present for friend next door – left it outside for her as she didn’t seem to be in, now the heavens have opened again – another hailstorm! Hope the pressie doesn’t get too wet!

    2. We’ve had similar weather; thunder and lightning, hail, sleet, torrential rain, strong winds and a few bouts of sunshine. The roads were starting to flood as I drove back from the stables.

  56. Atrial fibrillation can take a number of forms but it essentially a loss of atrioventricular synchronisation leading to an irregular heartbeat.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/short-of-breath-you-might-have-atrial-fibrillation-fl785vg0m

    But how do you measure the level of heartbeat of heartbeart asynchrony.

    Doctors use an ECG monitor that should include a rhythym strip of ten seconds duration from which measurements of changes in the heartbeat interval (R-R) can be made and many of them are interpretive, providing an analysis of variant heart rhythyms.

    I have used a Polar H10 fitness chest strap with the HR Monitor smartphone app to produce downloadable data that can produce a visual interpretation of heart interval irregularities during both rest and exercise over far longer durations.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7421b2418182b745ee2226d66bf8c1432c0880d55fbd4931a9948f1dc0c7b73d.gif

    This GIF is my heart at rest in a supine position which interestingly shows a degree of asynchrony due to the breathing cycle.

    1. That is a very good heart rate. Mine sits at about 80 usually. My fitbit had a fit and beeped and flashed, sent the alert email out during a Body Combat class when it hit 190. It thought I was having a stroke.

      1. 190? That must be a good class, my aerobics class only stretches my ticker to about 140 bmp.

      2. I’m afraid the medical profession takes a pretty dim view of patients using fitness devices as a diagnostiic tool.

    2. Six years ago this coming December with two of my sons we had just set off for a country walk to a local pub on Boxing day. My eldest said your out of breath pops, I had only walked about 100 yards. He was right it turned out that I had suddenly developed Afib. If you have it the try a restart but the drug Amiodarone had fixed mine it’s not for long term use or long lasting, it just gets you back on the right track, Just under Twelve months later I was in Hammersmith hospital for the 7am start of the catheter ablation to fix it. I was able to walk out in the afternoon and taken home. But there is no certainty of what caused my TIA a month later, but it could have been the ablation. One of my friends had an ablation last moth at Papworth. They used a method of freezing the leaky veins this time instead of ‘punching through’ from one heart chamber to another. Perhaps it’s a new method.
      Now i’ll read the article.

      1. Just as i found it, but couldn’t read all of the article.
        AFib is quite common, some people including the elderly chap at the end of our road had it for years before it was diagnosed.
        I have recently had another bout of it, pulse racing, high BP legs feel like lead, quite traumatising, can’t take in enough breath and extreme tiredness. I went to A&E as my GP was in hiding. some of my medication was increased and i’m good now. And I already have appointments this month with cardiology.
        One needs to be careful when knocking back the booze the strong stuff can bring it on.

      2. Do you now understand what Afib is?

        I quizzed many medical professionals about the interpretation of my ECGs after I was deemed to have Afib.

        I never saw evidence of a rhythm strip having being recorded as part of any of my ECGs and I still don’t have a satisfactory explanation as to how their interpretion could lead to a diagnosis of Afib that would justify the intervantion of treatment.

        1. Apparently it’s very common across the northern hemisphere, why i have no idea.
          Some people have Afib without knowing it. Until a bad bout hits them.
          I had to have umpteen ECGs and 24 hour monitors before it was decided I needed the ablation. I was also taken into to cardiology to have a ‘restart’ but because of the powerful drug Amiodarone i didn’t need the restart. But long term use of this drug is not recommended it has serious side effects. Fortunately for me it worked with in two weeks and then the dosage is reduced.
          As far as i understand medicine and it’s cures, Afib is when the blood returning to the heart is not re-entering at a regular flow and the the areas where the veins terminate are weaken, the blood is not oxygenated sufficiently as it is recirculated from the second chamber, which causes the shortness of breath. What the catheter ablation does is it zaps the weak areas to stem the interrupted flow, making it more regular.

          1. Thanks for your comment Ready Eddy.

            I raised the Afib issue after seeing the Times headline but did not read the the article.

            But mainly because I was presumed to have Afib yet my GP was unable to explain why after handing her my own personal four-lead ECG monitor tracing which also gave interpretive explanations from the recording.

            Also later, as I was about to be cardioverted in the hospital’s heart centre, I asked the cardiology nurse to explain from the pre-cardioversion ECG trace that had just been taken why I needed a cardioversion.

            Some minutes later after a conultation behind the screens, I was told that I was indeed in sinus rhythym already and that I didn’t need a cardioversion after all. I was immediately discharged from the heart centre with just a small amendment to my drug prescription.

            I am not convinced that Afib can be diagnosed with just an ECG trace that is not accompanied by at least a ten second rhythym strip and an interpretive output.

            That is why I suggested the use of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) measurements under exertive exercise with a Polar fitness chest strap monitor and Poincaré chart analysis to investigate a ‘variant’ ECG trace that a patient was querying with a cardiologist.

            The results of our exhaustive investigation were dismissed by the cardiologist as the patient’s interpretive ECG had been taken before the adminstration of drugs and further ECGs were considered inappropriate due to added costs.

            The patient was left with the status quo with no diagnosis and took one of the cardiologists off label drug solutions to address the symptoms rather than the cause of their unpredictable heart rate variability.

            I am no further forward in establishing a formal definition for a diagnosis of Afib which is disturbing considering the presumed prevalence of the condition.

  57. Interesting piece and copied in comments so far – Have We Seen the End of Covid? https://unherd.com/2021/05/have-we-seen-the-end-of-covid/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups%5B0%5D=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=e220325e85&mc_eid=f8bf59e7dc

    Elizabeth Cronin

    I love the comments on Unherd. Like the publication they are usually intelligent without vitriol. Obviously I am including you in that group. You are one of the few individuals to mention the money flowing to zombie corporations. I heard one economist say it isn’t as bad as one thinks as Japan has been doing it for many years – but that is not pure capitalism. It’s just nonsense.

    Mike Boosh

    They haven’t got the social credit and national ID Card system set up yet, so they’ll need to ramp up the fear again to remind everyone why they need to “comply”. This isn’t over until any prospect of freedom is completely and permanently exterminated.

    Nigel Clarke

    You mean the idea that covid will be amongst us, and thus the MSM fear factory will krank out all the death and destruction pieces again, confirming it’s presence…flu deaths will be ignored and recorded as covid, slowly increasing the number of deaths until it becomes an absolute necessity to lock us up again, keep wearing masks, keep social distancing, close “non-essential” businesses…

    …In summer last year I said (not based on anything other than a complete absolute and utter mistrust of .gov) that the winter would be the time they would lock us all up again. Next winter will be the same.

    1. It will only be so if the public goes along with it. My MP must be sick and tired of hearing from me but I hope that everyone will email and complain to their MP. Government must be made aware that the game is up and we have had enough.

      1. As an endemic virus it will always be here at a low level and back every winter. It’s high time they let us free to get on with things and stop the fear campaign.

        2. Totally agree. I think Witless actually said that very thing some time ago. It is a political decision to keep us in limbo.

          I consider the government has stolen over a year of my life. (Suppose I should be grateful to still be alive!).

          ETA: The psychological warfare is to continue for a possible 2 more years. I have just found this link advertising for a new ad campaign contractor.

          https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/notice/005534-2021/pdf

        3. I was just considering today how much easier things were before the panic set in; I used to call in at the surgery on my way past and book an appointment or drop my repeat prescription request in to collect a couple of days later. Now I hang on the phone (at my expense) for ages and then when the receptionist eventually answers she tries to get me to do an on-line consultation, which I can’t do. The last thing they want is to let patients in for appointments. As for ordering repeat prescriptions, once they refused to accept paper requests, I used to be able to do it on the website and it took a couple of days. Now I have to email POD and it takes about a week.

          1. What a palaver! I haven’t needed anything so I don’t know the system now. OH has been having some treatment, but they have been pretty good at our surgery.

    2. Mike Boosh, “This isn’t over until any prospect of freedom the present government is completely and permanently exterminated.“

    1. I had this mental image of St Peter crying out words of banishment: “Hell,EU,yer – Hell,EU,yer!”

    5. After 27 years of marriage the symbol of recognition is sculpture, perhaps she gave him a half Nelson or some concrete boots.

  62. Guardian article:

    ‘A Guardian analysis finds EU countries used brutal tactics to stop nearly 40,000 asylum seekers crossing borders’.

    The paper seems quite upset about this.

  64. Enjoy the rest of 5th April [for newcomers scroll up]. and thanks to all for the usual variety of topics and for those who manage to visit the various MSM. time to get daughter organised for Mombasa trip tomorrow

  65. Levi’s launderette model Nick Kamen dead at 59:

    Good friends Boy George and Susie Cave lead tributes to the star. Kamen was first brought to the public’s attention in 1984 when Ray Petri featured him on the front cover of The Face showed him wearing a ski-hat, lipstick, orange roll-neck sweater and aviator sunglasses. Only 59 eh? What could possibly have caused that to a clean living AC/DC bender like him? His mentor, Petri, died in August of 1989 at the age of 41 of AIDS.

    4. When you watch the Laundry ad you realise just how far we have fallen. Modern nonsense is Left, the bloke would be replaced with a trans, the women would all be gays… it’s absurd.

  66. Does anyone else wonder which security service is involved when one receives the message on the PC “Important Security Software Update now available”?

    1. Afternoon Stephen. I always take it as given that the Security Services are reading my computer as if it were a Supermarket offer!

    2. The Jehovah’s Witness Security Service, you didn’t think those knocks on the door were innocent did you, whilst they have your attention at the front of the house their black ops people are round the back of your house planting listening devices & micro infra red camera’s ! ( just kidding )

        1. And its the same with free lessons from the Arthur Murray school of dancing, they get you out of the house so they can tap your phones & put a hidden camera in your fridge to see if are buying enough organic fruit & vegetables !

    1. Take your odd socks down there and see if they have any matching. The next time you lose one you will still have a pair.

    2. I’ll pass that on to our slimmer fitter sons, more their style but one of the Tee shirts would have suited me.

    1. Ah, the days when we shot dangerous terrorists rather than fed, clothed, housed and encouraged their actions.

      1. Those taking part are fortunate not to have been prosecuted 40 years on….

        1. Yep – hearing about how serving military are being prosecuted and IRA exonerated is disgusting.

          There could have been discussion, but instead they chose violence.

      1. !7 minutes, eh? I bet the bames could have done it much more quickly….(sarc).

        2. Plonker…… Someone that drinks poor red wine ie. Plonk found mainly in Liverpool at Yates Wine Lodge.

    2. Good to meet you I am Johnny Norfolk from Sussex born in Lancashire.

          1. Yes the Coconut was one of the blogs I created when the channels got closed down, it replaced my very large channel “News” , Its owned nowadays by my friend & former deputy on News, Rata from the USA, but I am still an Admin Mod & page author on it.

          3. Yes he disappeared for a while from NTJP ( Not The Jerusalem Post ) and I came looking for him on here, now he’s back on NTJP https://ntjp.news/ but gone from here & I’m gone from NTJP but back on NTTL, strange world ain’t it !

          5. Unfortunately his profile is closed & he doesn’t answer to Tagged messages ( probably got his notifications turned off – like me ) but if you would like him to return I’ll try & pass on a message too him. Tony is well in his 80’s now & seems to take offense easily.

          6. He’s welcome to come back if he wants to.

            You probably know Geoff finally banned Peddy after he was unnecessarily nasty to Conway.

    3. Happy Wednesday Laura my friend, this is Brexit Central , all of us on here are veteran posters on the UK Daily Telegraph website from back when it used Disqus between 2011 – 2016 & after that Geoff Graham ( the head honcho on here ) created a pro-Brexit Disqus channel called Not The Telegraph Letters ( NTTL for short & we call ourselves ‘Nottlers’ ) & with the closing of the Channels on Sept.1st 2019 Geoff created this WordPress blog with Disqus installed for commenting .
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a678ad293baa34840eb0cbcdf5b51da935eff283a96d7338b940d94842e47172.gif

    4. Welcome Laura. Hope you like crumble recipes, colours of bog rolls and my jokes !

    6. Welcome.
      Looking at your vote profile you might fit in well here.
      There are many with zero, usually a good sign.

  70. ‘Fascist’ Russia bill could bar up to 200,000 Alexei Navalny supporters from running for parliament. 5 May 2021.

    Mr Navalny, who rose to prominence thanks to his investigations into official corruption, survived a near-fatal nerve agent poisoning last year and spent months convalescing in Germany before returning to Russia in January.

    He was arrested upon arrival, jailed and later sentenced to nearly three years in prison for failing to meet his probation officer while he was in hospital in Germany.

    I like the way they just slip these things in like the sealed Novichok bottle in Salisbury. Navalny wasn’t in hospital, in fact he’d spent a fortnight jogging round the Black Forest and a week on the Costa del Sol getting ready for his “Hunger Strike” ordeal before returning to Russia!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/05/fascist-russia-bill-could-bar-200000-alexei-navalny-supporters/

      2. I’m not either. Like just about every Russian politician, he’s a nasty piece of work beneath the surface. He may not be as nasty as Putin, but he’s still nasty and doesn’t deserve our support beyond his treatment at Putin’s hands.

        I have similar views on Ukrainian politicians.

        They all deserve each other.

  71. I will never vote Labour or Lib, or green and i now add Tory to my list.

    1. Doesn’t leave a lot of choice – have you got a Monster Raving Loony candidate?

      1. At least I have the ABOLISH Party for my X’s here so that I can waste my vote with a good heart.

          1. That’s true – no Likud candidates but tons of Muslim Brotherhood ones standing as Labour party candidates & many hold high office such as Sadiq Khan mayor of London!

    2. Sadly, I agree. There is no one – no one – for the normal, right minded saver, worker home owner to vote for.

      1. I have a Reform Party candidate for whom I will pen a cross on the ballot. I know nothing about him other than what he published on his leaflet (former dairy farmer and marketing manager) but he cannot be worse than the 3 Stooges’ candidates. The latter are a disgrace and have betrayed our Country at every turn in recent decades. Every vote against the 3 Stooges is a bonus.

        1. There are the usual suspects for the PCC gravy train, but there is a Reform (ex-UKIP) candidate, which offers a choice.

      2. There’s a local ‘party’ here: “Residents for Guildford and Villages”. I suspect they’re all frustrated LibDems, but at least they’re not the LibLabCon Uniparty. So they have my vote for Surrey CC. The PCC election has two Uniparty candidates, and two independents. Kevin Hurley has my vote. He’s an ex senior copper, and talks much sense. He addressed a UKIP Conference a few years ago, and I was impressed. Then, there’s the Parish Council, all of whom resigned in the last year. I’m new here, and have no idea what the issues were. Suffice to say that I had to select eight candidates from a field of nine. One of those withheld her address, so I’ve voted for the other eight…

        4. She is so full of fun. She is adorable. Just the sort of girl I would have chased forty years ago before I met Caroline!

    1. Afternoon Ped, you will get no argument from me on that score, that Elsi Bowlegge-Lion is the spitting image of Megan Markle squatting in the loo

  74. Interesting piece by Mr Ward here:

    https://therealslog.com/2021/05/05/trumps-big-mistake-being-right/

    Edit to include:
    ”
    Shortly before a Presidential press conference on April 23rd 2020, Donald Trump came across the manufacturer of a chlorine dioxide formulation for medical use. The President listened to the bloke’s claims and test results. At the Presser, Trump said he was impressed with the use of small-dose water soluble CLO2 in attacking the virus Covid19.

    Two hundred megatons of excrement were poured by the media all over the POTUS hairstyle.

    Forbes ran a piece claiming bleach (chlorine dioxide) was a false cure for COVID-19. Every news agency around the world took the same stance. Frontiers In Political Science observed, “the world was horrified by the President’s suggestion of drinking household disinfectants to prevent COVID-19.…chlorine dioxide is not safe for human consumption.”

    The New York Times saw the claim as evidence of The Donald’s scientific snake-oil mentality, and clear evidence of the “politicization of scientific misinformation.”

    Trump did not, of course, say “drink bleach”. He merely quoted a ClO2-based formulation; but the episode became just another fake folklore put out by the US Libleft press.

    Then a few weeks ago – April 2021 – The Journal of Molecular and Genetic Medicine issued the following evidence:

    ‘Statistics from Bolivia where the use of water-solubilized chlorine dioxide (ClO2) for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 was approved by law in early August 2020, demonstrate a marked reduction in cases and deaths in that country. The highest peak recorded in Bolivia was epidemiological week 29 (10,939 cases), with cases falling to 670 in epidemiological week 45 – a 93% decrease. From a peak of 2,031 daily cases on August 20, 2020, cases dropped to 147 daily cases on October 21, 2020′

    1. Does anybody on this forum still seriously believe that the senile Biden and his coven actually won the presidential election?

      3. I do.
        Answer one question.
        Who got sworn in?

        The fact the election was stolen doesn’t change the result.

  76. I was so annoyed. I was searching for a tunic style suede jacket. Most were around £300 to £500 which i thought was a rip off. I found one in my size and bought it for £180 and the bugger cancelled and gave me my money back 10 days later.

    I just had another look and the expensive ones were on sale ! Just got it for £109 and free delivery. Bargains to be had from distressed shopkeepers folks !

    Now all i need to do is make sure i have washed my neck before i put it on. :@(

  77. Ref letters/posts on being asked to get the machines to test blood pressure and/or glucose levels at home.

    I have both for much less than the cost of providing a single GP check/appointment and less than the increase in government borrowing per taxpayer every day due to spending above income.

    Put your hands in your pockets and enjoy taking control. Spend your energy instead on complaining over the government’s massive overspending.

    1. At one time diasotlic blood pressure was the definitive measure.
      Later it became systolic blood pressure with a guide of 100 + your age as a guide to normality,
      More recently the WHO says it should be 120/80 systoiic/diastolic for everyone.

      What do make of this?

      https://youtu.be/THMWxnD7Fvg

  78. I read an order-order column and then an interesting story took me to the guardian article.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/04/labour-tories-voters-keir-starmer

    I read it, it seemed sensible enough, not the usual screaming rage and confusion over reality. However one thing I didn’t understand was this: ‘The Left is conditioned to doubt that any decent human being could be a Tory’

    Are they idiots? Labour make and keep people poor. This is proven. Left wingery does not work. All evil flows from the Left. Are Lefties brainwashed or something?

    This person:

    lisamarie3
    GochujangForever
    23 hours ago
    167

    Is it labour in trouble or the people they are honestly trying to help?

    I vote Labour and always have because I want society to be fairer for the haves and the have nots not just myself.

    Is obviously stupid, as she has no concept of history or fact. Labour widened the wealth gap, created massive unemployment and destroyed countless jobs and crushed wages through gimmigration.

    It really is time the nutcase Left were made to look at the world as it is, rather than through the loony lenses they use.

    1. The Left are generally driven by hatred and envy for people who they think are better than them, not concern for their fellow man. Their views apply to others, not them, as they are tools to harm those they hate not principles to live by. Facts are irrelevant if they don’t fit their twisted narratives.

      There are a few exceptions such as Blair, but they are opportunists, mainly Lefties for personal gain. Appropriately, Mussolini, the greatest Fascist, was a Communist/socialist before opportunistically changing his stance.

      1. In terms of scandals the general rule is that Labour politicians are involved in grubby financial intrigues trying to enrich themselves, the Conservatives go in for straightforward sex scandals and the Lib/Dems go in for kinky sex scandals.

        The Lib/Dem spokesperson for foreign affairs, Layla Moran, is heading for a spectacular career – she could not belong to any other political party. She was arrested a few years ago for beating up her then boyfriend and has recently come out as a pansexual.

      2. There can be no explanation for Blair except hatred.

        He hated the UK with a passion, and did everything in his power to try to wreck it, its institutions, its ethnicity, its finances, everything.

        I defy you to show me one thing that Blair made better, apart from his bank balance.

  79. 332361+ up ticks,
    Grass up your granny stopped being mass active in 1945
    but, via the lab/lib/con governance overseers is getting a new lease of life.

    This will be the prototype of teaching the oncoming generations ” to heel” inclusive of kneel prior to taking up the full bike park position,at the same time touching the forelock when an imam passes by.

    These goodies will only be obtainable with a lab/lib/con coalition vote.

    https://twitter.com/n_plowman/status/1389640354736099328

    1. What would I do? I would contact the Head of my daughter’s school and tell her to tell the teacher in question never to put my daughter in the invidious position of having to reveal personal information which is NONE OF THE TEACHER”S DAMNED BUSINESS!

    2. That’s like the old leading question: “Have you stopped beating your wife?”. If a pupil doesn’t put their hand up does it mean their parents haven’t had it, they’ve refused to have it, they are too young to have it, the child doesn’t know, only one parent has had it or they simply refuse to answer?

      1. 332361+ up ticks,
        Evening BB2,
        Could open up a great many avenues in the “I want, unless”
        department by a youth of questionable character.

        1. Ha! that already happens. About 12 or 13, they figure out that they can get their parents into trouble by reporting them to social services. Attempts at discipline are then met by “that’s child abuse, I’m calling social services”
          They know that ss help teens to move out if the relationship with their family is too difficult, and force the family to pay.

          It reminds me of the old trick the authorities used to play in East Germany. There was a children’s tv cartoon series that was broadcast in both east and west, but the character had a crucial difference in teh drawing. They would ask the kindergarten kids to draw the character, and so they would know which families were tuning into western tv.

  80. I am signing off early. Another talk from Rome – about Suetonius’s view of the buildings of Rome.

    Have a jolly evening thinking about when life was good.

    A demain

    1. Life is still good. I have ladies queueing up to go out to lunch. I have some real good threads. I have had my teeth fixed. I have money in the bank itching to be spent.

      I still have my film star good looks and i’ve got a whopping great…………….erm..

        1. I saw that play at Weymouth about 1975. Ian Lavender in his Y-fronts was something to be missed.

          2. They were clearly dragging their arses around on Tour.

            Your year sounds about right. I have memory problems whilst trying to forget traumatic memories.

          3. I also looked up the details on Wiki & it said that Michael Crawford ( some mothers do ave em ) was the lead actor but I cant say I recall who was in the show & that was before he did his TV series .

          4. You may well be right. I don’t remember much about that farce except for the pants !

          2. Harry was long out of uniform when the sprog was born. Looks like Meagain it trading off another trope with returning American servicemen to their family and in particular to their DOGS.

          4. Can’t help it, i recognise a gaslighting cow because there are two in my family.

          6. I only have two sisters. They learned early on how to play the guilt game.

          7. Accused you of something, did they?

            That was cruel, even by my standards, apology offered.

          8. Dirty little cocksucking fucking queer was the last thing my dear sister screamed into my face.

            I don’t even like chicken !

          13. And here in the window
            A photo op beckons

            I’ll call him a racist
            10 million, I reckons…

    2. Did sparkles send a complimentary copy to William (apropos my comment yesterday)

    1. Thanks Plum. I was wondering what to watch tonight. True Lies. I like the tango scene. :@)

        1. Since ya askin’….No !

          I liked what Arnold Schwartzaniggar said about money doesn’t make you happy.

          He said i earned 48 million dollars from my films last year and 50 million this year….I’m no happier!

          2. Billy Gates is available…you can be miserable with him. Time to make your move. :@)

  84. The mayoralty experiment has been a disaster. Time to abandon it

    Why can’t I vote to do away with mayors altogether?

    ROSS CLARK

    Like everyone else, I’ll be on tenterhooks in the early hours of Friday morning as those all-important mayoralty election results come in. Can Sadiq Khan earn a second term in London? Will Samuel Williams carry the mantle of the retiring Conservative incumbent Tim Bowles in the West of England? Can Ros Jones – runner-up for the World Mayor Prize in 2018 – secure a third term in Doncaster?

    Or maybe not. Never has a good night’s sleep seemed so attractive. Where did this infestation of mayors – if that is the correct collective pronoun – come from? They certainly weren’t created out of public demand. Whenever people are asked if they would appreciate an extra tier of government they have tended to say no. Remember the big bang of 2012, when people in eleven cities and regions of Britain were asked in referendums whether they would like directly-elected mayors? Nine of them said ‘no’ – including Birmingham (58 percent to 42 percent against), Manchester (53 percent against) and Sheffield (65 percent against). Yet in those three cases, and many others, people ended up with directly-elected mayor anyway. The Cameron government simply ignored the will of the people and created these positions – making a mockery of the claim it was in the cause of boosting local democracy.

    The creation of mayoralties has got so out of hand that many voters are now served by two tiers of elected mayors. On Thursday, residents of Liverpool will go to the polls to elect a Mayor of Liverpool as well as a Liverpool City Regional Mayor. Are you following? In that case, local residents were never asked if they wanted either position created, let alone both.

    Elected mayoralties exist not because the electorate wants them but because they create extra positions of power for the political class. They have become a haven for latter-day Dick Whittingtons whose careers in national politics have stalled for one reason or another. Sadiq Khan is a prime example – as indeed were his predecessors Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone. He could see he wasn’t going to get anywhere under Corbyn, so he sought an alternative perch at City Hall, where he can pretend to be in power. The fact he spends much of his time on matters outside his remit – like a fatuous consultation on whether to decriminalise cannabis – is a sign that he really wants to be somewhere else. He may have bragged a thousand times that his dad was a bus-driver but running buses – one of the few genuine responsibilities of the mayor – seems to be too much of a yawn for him.

    That Boris Johnson successfully used the mayoralty as a successful springboard to better things is part of the problem – it has come to be seen by all as a vehicle for self-promotion. As well as attracting MPs who find themselves in still water, the election campaign has become a parade of YouTube celebrities and minor parties which don’t usually get noticed but who for a few weeks get the chance to parrot their manifestos for green transformation, or whatever. One candidate this time – whom I’m not going to name† because it will only serve his publicity-seeking interests – has pretty well admitted he is only standing in order to slight a fellow candidate with whom he happened to be at school.

    Elected mayors were sold to us on the grounds they would strengthen local government, the inference being that you can’t have the latter if you don’t have the former. Yet for decades London had just that in the form of the London County Council, whose many public works still grace the city now. When London was run by councillors and aldermen, we got paved streets, one of the world’s most advanced sewage systems, the world’s pioneering Underground railway. The elected mayor element has given us instead half-baked projects like Johnson’s garden bridge and Khan’s pop-up bike lanes – including the one in Colliers Woods where cyclists are directed underneath a bus shelter.

    Why don’t we just do away with all these elected mayors and return to having our cities run by dull functionaries who at least managed to seem to get the job done? Trouble is we can’t vote for that on Thursday – and even if we could I suspect the government would ignore it, just as it has done before.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/04/mayoralty-experiment-has-disaster-time-abandon/

    † I will – he is Max Fosh and the target of his childish campaign is Laurence Fox.

    Here are some of the 20 candidates, including the unfortunately monikered ex-Ukipper Peter Gammons:
    https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/who-20-candidates-london-mayor-2021-sadiq-khan-shaun-bailey-niko-omilana-b928031.html

    This one caught my eye:
    Mandu Reid grew up in Swaziland and attended the first ever school in Southern Africa where black children and white children could study together. With its diversity and rich culture, she says London is the “first place that ever truly felt like home”.

    Really? Does Swaziland have a hundred nationalities and a nightly stabfest?

    1. Why can’t I vote to do away with Police and Crime Commissioners? Another empire -building quango in his own right. More wasted taxpayers’ money.

  86. Governments must beware a growing backlash against the rules

    May Day unrest on the Continent betrays the difficulties that authorities will face in maintaining restrictions

    TELEGRAPH VIEW

    May Day has always been taken seriously on the continent, not so much as a celebration of spring as a political event, as Left-wing activists march in support of organised labour. This year, however, with lockdowns still in place such gatherings were deemed unlawful in many European countries but went ahead anyway. The reaction of the authorities was characteristically heavy-handed. In Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Madrid and Turin, riot squads took to the streets to confront marchers. Tear gas was fired and water cannon deployed as police and protesters clashed, leaving dozens injured on both sides.

    Peaceful rallies went ahead in many towns and cities, with only a few in the major centres being hijacked by militants intent on trouble. The march in Paris was staged as a demonstration against Emmanuel Macron rather than a Workers’ Day event. The gilets jaunes were back out in force, which will give the French president a renewed headache with elections less than a year away.

    In Berlin, where marches were exempt from lockdown restrictions, the violence towards police was appalling, with demonstrators throwing fireworks, rocks and bottles. It is hardly unusual to see political agitators spoiling for a fight with riot police in Europe, but the lockdowns have brought an extra dimension to this anger, and nor is it confined to political rallies. In Brussels, riot police were deployed to break up a giant open-air party of young people who had evidently had enough of being denied their freedom.

    There is a growing frustration with the restrictions on free movement and the right to gather together that governments across Europe will find increasingly hard to contain while the measures remain in place.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/05/04/governments-must-beware-growing-backlash-against-rules/

    Johnson should worry about riots not against lockdown but in favour of it!

      1. Excellent choice!
        Be a real pest to miss the occasion… like not being at your own birthday party… :-((

        2. Perhaps one could have an “official” funeral while one was still alive…

          I’ll get me shroud.

        3. If one must leave, go out with a bang, and as the soldiers should shout as the tune ends:

          Oi!

        2. I was at Cosford preparing for a para jump when an early Concorde arrived for trials or a VIP demonstration. We were all chucked out of the hangar into the rain swept forecourt. Mustn’t get the supersonic aircraft damp!

          I am getting confused. It wasn’t Cosford, I did a photography course there. It was probably RAF Filton.

          1. As I have said before, I was deployed to Cosford and had a need tovisit the Museum there and I was was chatting to an American who said he flew in Flying Fortress’s in the War (the one thr French forget.about)

            We were standing next to one

          2. It had the only TSR2 produced before the Labour government cancelled the project and the Yanks and the Frogs took advantage and produced advanced aircraft using the same technology.

          4. As I have said before, I was deployed to Cosford and had a need tovisit the Museum there and I was was chatting to an American who said he flew in Flying Fortress’s in the War (the one thr French forget.about)

            We were standing next to one

  89. Come on, Mr O’Flynn. Are you really promoting institutions that produced the likes of Huw Edwards, Melvyn Bragg, Joan Bakewell, David Hockney, a Guardian editor and Wee Willie Hague?

    A grammar school in every town would ‘level up’ Britain in no time

    The loss of the local grammar school is surely a key factor in the narrowing of opportunities for people growing up in “left behind” towns

    PATRICK O’FLYNN

    The secret of good politics, just like good comedy, is timing – and William Hague got his all wrong when he became Tory leader just after Tony Blair’s landslide election win of 1997.

    Blair was a consummate campaigner who was obviously in for the long haul and this rendered Hague’s political output largely pointless, despite his many good ideas.

    But could the time have come to disinter one of Hague’s many policy priorities that came to nothing – the idea of “a grammar school in every town”?

    While Hague made sure he was acknowledged as the product of Wath-upon-Dearne comprehensive, in fact he had earlier attended Ripon Grammar School as a boarder and is ranked as that institution’s most glittering alumnus of modern times, perhaps just a nose ahead of Katharine Viner, the editor-in-chief of The Guardian.

    Ripon, population 17,000, is actually a city and as well as boasting one of the best surviving state-maintained grammar schools in the country, has plenty of other things to put it on the map, not least a beautiful cathedral. But many of our so-called “left behind” towns don’t, especially those that were once internationally renowned for a particular industry that has since declined.

    The loss of the local grammar school (there were 1,600 across Britain in the mid-sixties, compared to just 163 today) coming on top of the loss of industrial pride, is surely a key factor in the narrowing of opportunities for people growing up in such towns. Take, for example, the South Wales town of Llanelli. Its defunct boys’ grammar school – now an FE college – was attended by Michael Howard, one of Hague’s successors as Tory leader. Huw Edwards, the BBC’s pre-eminent news reader is another alumnus.

    At one time Llanelli was world famous for two things – its rugby club and being the world centre of the tinplating industry. The rugby is still going strong, mainly under the banner of the renamed Scarlets club, but the tinplating not so much. Other traditional industries have also declined. Could it do with a rejuvenated grammar school to offer a conveyor belt to fame, fortune and high achievement to its talented young people? I think so.

    Or take the small and remote Cumbrian town of Wigton, population 6,000. Its former Nelson Tomlinson grammar school was the launchpad for Melvyn Bragg, one of Britain’s most important contributors to the arts and high culture. Likewise Joan Bakewell, writer and broadcaster extraordinaire and grand-daughter of factory workers, prospered at the selective Stockport High School for Girls before becoming regarded as the ideal intellectual companion of the “thinking man”. Then there was Stan Barstow, the son of a coal miner and product of Ossett Grammar School in West Yorkshire, who wrote A Kind Of Loving, or John Braine (St Bede’s Grammar School, in the city of Bradford) who sought and found Room At The Top. Another Bradfordian cultural eminence is David Hockney (Bradford Grammar School), perhaps our greatest living artist.

    Are the successors of the Braggs and Bakewells, Barstows and Braines, who have gone through comprehensives that replaced grammars in the “faraway towns” ever going to be discovered? Looking at an arts scene that is increasingly dominated by the products of private schools one has one’s doubts.

    In politics we had a run of five successive grammar school educated prime ministers from the 1960s to the 1990s – Wilson, Heath, Callaghan, Thatcher and Major. But two of our last three PMs have been Etonians. Of course, a lot of that is down to the mass closure of grammar schools overseen by Thatcher when she was Heath’s education secretary. She later bitterly regretted her role in the butchery, bemoaning that the Tories had been “bitten by the bug of comprehensivisation”.

    So all of this brings us back to the question that has reportedly been puzzling the Sir Humphreys of Whitehall: what do we mean by “levelling-up”? Surely reconnecting our towns to the elite institutions of Britain by re-establishing a grammar school wherever there is a demand for one is an idea that Boris Johnson’s Toryism of the “blue wall” should actively be considering.

    Such schools would swiftly become beacons of local pride, sending out a signal that there is nothing to stop a young person in any town from reaching for the stars. And do not believe that the opening up of such routes to success would be resented by the majority of lower academic achievers. Most would just be happy to know that in due course there would be a route for their own children to achieve their potential were they to exhibit outstanding ability.

    Many other things will need to be done to improve life in the left-behind places. Securing good jobs in the manufacturing industries of the future will be absolutely crucial, as will improvements in technical education. But the grammar school as a bade of civic pride and an opportunity for excellence could well be an idea whose time has come round again.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/04/grammar-school-every-town-would-level-britain-no-time/

    3. Grammar schools helped social mobility in a way the comprehensive ethos never could. I attended a grammar school and taught in both secondary moderns and comprehensives. Those in the secondary moderns did better than those in the comps.

      2. I managed to pass the 11+ and went to the local grammar school (not the posh Brentwood school but a new grammar with no history), my brothers did not achieve academic fame and went to the local secondary school.

        As a result, I managed a decent career, my brothers were not given the choice. That is the social mobility that grammar school provided.

        1. My grammar school accepted pupils who had passed the 13+. A second chance.

        2. That mirrors my own experience except to say that I attended the very last Technical School in the UK whereas my unfortunate brothers attended the Secondary School.

          1. I did not have the option of a technical school, it would have been more suited to my abilities.

            It goes deeper than the subjects taught though. My brothers were never given any encouragement to look beyond basic manual or clerical work, a profession was not on the cards for them.

            How goes the house sale?

    4. Hold on, William, I wonder how many ex Grammar School children subscribe here – I do for one and very grateful for my education.

        1. To be fair, HMS Severn (P282), is one of 3 vessels suitable for patrolling our national waters. We should have a dozen more of them being built in home shipyards right now.

      1. 332361+ up ticks,
        Evening M,
        Have you thought this through
        the elephant in the room
        I mean ?

    2. 332361+ upticks,
      Evening TB,
      The real UKIP was the only party that called in vain for controlled immigration.
      This is the tory ( ino) manipulative controlled immigration way, how about
      troop / labour movement ? if one had a suspicious mind.

  92. 332361+ up ticks,
    Back posts many moon ago, when likening the tory type
    brexitexit to a semi reentry missile is finally taking on a solid shape.

    The wretch cameron the first blast off tier, may the intermediate tier,nine month delay treachery clincher,
    semi reentry missile driver johnson, the vehicle
    “the deal”.

    They had a fall back plan just never thought they would have to activate it.

    We could very well be in the sixth year of reset.

    breitbart,
    Delingpole: Why I’m Not Voting Conservative on Thursday – Or, Indeed, Ever Again…

    1. Not much left of it apart from the Royal Festival Hall and that had so many defects that it was remodelled on several occasions.

      I had the misfortune to work a stint in the Soho offices of the architect Edward D Mills off Dean Street, a pedigree pig farmer from Lingfield. A depressing environment. The man was dining out on his association with Sir Hugh Casson who had commissioned him to design that damn wall with its coloured balls. That and the NEC 5 Halls in Birmingham which were mostly designed by Arups being large sheds with ‘space frame’ roof structures.

      Needless to say his own office had those anti-ergonomically designed chairs with coloured plastic balls as feet to the spindly spreading steel wire legs and the obligatory zigzag steel wire hat and coat rack with similar coloured plastic balls. In short the whole thing was ‘balls’.

      Do not get me started on the curtains and rug designed by Mitzi Cunliffe of Harlow New Town fame (that architect was another luminary, Sir Frederick Gibberd, another depressing outfit for whom I had the misfortune to work.)

      Re Gibberd: Think Harlow, Regent’s Park Central Mosque and Coutts’ Bank in The Strand.

      The Festival of Britain gave rise to a number of subsequently highly successful architectural practices. Foremost of these was probably Powell and Moya. Moya was Hungarian from memory.

      The architect of the Festival Hall was the best of those, Peter Moro, whose practice was just off Charlotte Street, a stone’s throw from Gibberd’s office on Percy Street and Rathbone Place.

  94. Promote that policy here and get arrested!

    Why Madrid has rewarded the anti-lockdown Right

    Lockdown isn’t always a surefire vote winner – just ask Madrileños, who won the latest elections with a landslide

    FIONA GOVAN

    Agroup stands in the doorway of a newly opened sushi restaurant in downtown Malasaña chatting loudly as they smoke cigarettes, their masks resting on their chins, while waiting for space to open up within. In the plaza outside, a waiter frantically clears a table to seat a young couple who are already perusing the menu via an app on their mobile phones. Further up the street, traffic has been diverted so that bars can place tables on the cobbles to cater for the crowds of Madrileños meeting their friends for an aperitivo in the warm spring sunshine.

    This is Madrid, a city in the grip of a fourth wave where the Covid-19 infection rate consistently ranks as the highest across Spain’s regions but where, over the last six months, restrictions have been the most lax.

    From lamp-posts that line the streets and from giant billboards across the capital’s metro stations, is the smiling face of the woman who has made this state of semi-normality possible, the self-styled patron saint of the hospitality industry, Isabel Diaz Ayuso. On Tuesday, her gamble paid off, confounding the international political consensus that lockdowns are overwhelmingly popular with the public and securing a landslide win for her conservative Popular Party (PP).

    Under a state of emergency imposed last October by socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, regional authorities were given the power under broad national guidelines to determine health policies and impose their own restrictions. Since then, Ayuso has steadfastly stuck to the belief that there was no need to kill the economy, too. While regions including Catalonia, Andalucia and the Balearic Islands shut down all non-essential businesses including shops, bars and restaurants, Madrid was determined to keep them open, defying Sanchez, health chiefs, and quite often common sense.

    With Ayuso at the helm, for Madrileños the fun, though curbed, didn’t stop. On the evening that England went back into lockdown, I commiserated with my mother over the phone before rushing out to the opera, then joined friends for a glass of wine and tapas just in time to get home for the 11pm curfew (although admittedly that was an early night by Madrid standards).

    Traumatised by the strictest lockdown in western Europe, when for six weeks Spaniards were confined to their homes, unable to go outside even to exercise as the coronavirus raged, Ayuso’s determination to keep things open won support even from those who wouldn’t traditionally buy into her Right-wing political ideology.

    The well-chosen word libertad (freedom) for her campaign slogan hit a chord and on Tuesday she increased her party’s share of the vote by 20 percentage points, doubling the number of seats in the regional assembly from the last election in 2019.

    Although the PP still fell short of a majority and will need the support of the Right-wing Vox party to govern, this isn’t likely to prove a problem for Ayuso, a woman who started her political career tweeting on behalf of a predecessor’s dog. In a defiant response to Left-wing critics during campaigning in March, she said: “When they call you a fascist, you know you’re doing it right … and you’re on the right side of history.”

    Fiona Govan is the Madrid-based digital editor for The Olive Press newspaper

    Footnote:
    The BBC never lets you down. Here’s its view of the election:

    Isabel Díaz Ayuso defeats left in bitter Spanish vote

    Despite more than doubling the Popular Party (PP) seats, Isabel Díaz Ayuso still fell short of a majority and may end up in alliance with the far right.

    While she initially described the vote as a choice between “socialism or freedom”, her opponent Pablo Iglesias, from the left-wing Unidos Podemos (United We Can), spoke of a choice between “democracy or fascism”, highlighting the potential involvement of the far-right Vox party in a future Madrid government.

    Ahead of the election, the Prime Minister Sánchez warned that any pact between the PP and Vox “could be the beginning of the end of democracy”. In 2019, Vox became the first significant far-right force to enter Spain’s parliament in decades.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56978343

  95. Evening, all. It’s about time we took on all outlandish claims, not just those of the Scots Nats.

  98. Goodnight all Nottlers, bedtime music: Parlez-moi d’amour – Avalon Jazz Band

    “Parlez-moi d’amour” is a song written by Jean Lenoir in 1930. Lucienne Boyer was the first singer to record the song.

    Vocals – @Tatiana Eva-Marie
    Violin – Gabe Terracciano
    Guitar – Vinny Raniolo
    Rhythm guitar – Sara L’Abriola
    Bass – Wallace Stelzerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcZCsVlhThU

    2. Mahatma, the link doesn’t seem to work, but if you click on YouTube and then enter “Avalon Jazz Band – Parlez-moi d’amour” you might get there.

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