Best Of

Oliver Stirling
@OWS1892
·
2h
Freaks. An absolute menagerie of full-blown freaks.

https://x.com/OWS1892/status/1964353905120117045

At least she looked embarrassed at singing “God save the Queen”. We’ve all been there…

This reads as if people often sing the national anthem. I'm not sure I ever have. Not that I've avoided it or anything, the scenario just hasn't arisen. Is this unusual? Do PBers have a lot of singing the national anthem in their lives?

I'm Freemason and we sing the national anthem at each Lodge meeting. It's also often used to mark the end of events like Carols on the highstreet etc.

There was a facinating article in the Daily Mirror (it came up on my feed) where some poor millennial reporter went to Frinton and was appaled to find the national anthem was played at the end of some event at the local there and there was a picture of the Queen behind the bar. Poor dear couldn't wait till she got back to London to 'breathe ' again

Oliver Stirling
@OWS1892
·
2h
Freaks. An absolute menagerie of full-blown freaks.

https://x.com/OWS1892/status/1964353905120117045

At least she looked embarrassed at singing “God save the Queen”. We’ve all been there…

This reads as if people often sing the national anthem. I'm not sure I ever have. Not that I've avoided it or anything, the scenario just hasn't arisen. Is this unusual? Do PBers have a lot of singing the national anthem in their lives?

Daley Thompson just whistled

Apparently England fans tonight were singing - Starmer is a w....r !!!!!

Are the Basques fond of virtue signalling, millionaire pensioners cosplaying as refugees? ✊🏻

We’ve been thinking about where to escape to if the nationalist right does take power in the UK. It’s looking like the Basque Country. They will never, ever take fascist shit. Ever. Even if Spain goes PP/Vox, the Basques will not and they will fight against it. Gora Euskadi ✊️

https://bsky.app/profile/jwsidders.bsky.social/post/3ly6w3omuzk2h

Bluesky is now, almost completely, ludicrous prats like him

Where do you go these days if you want neither prattish centrist dads nor racist shitbags?

Certainly not here. Although I have to concede prattish centrist dads are in the majority.

Are the Basques fond of virtue signalling, millionaire pensioners cosplaying as refugees? ✊🏻

We’ve been thinking about where to escape to if the nationalist right does take power in the UK. It’s looking like the Basque Country. They will never, ever take fascist shit. Ever. Even if Spain goes PP/Vox, the Basques will not and they will fight against it. Gora Euskadi ✊️

https://bsky.app/profile/jwsidders.bsky.social/post/3ly6w3omuzk2h

Bluesky is now, almost completely, ludicrous prats like him

A truly fascinating individual. Equal parts Brent, Partridge and James O’Brien.

I just read his last 40 Bluesky posts. My god

So there really is a centrist equivalent of Graham Linehan or Lozza Fox. And it’s happened to him

Musk’s purchase of X may, in retrospect, be one of the most significant political events of the 2020s. Yes we all
know it allowed right wing voices new room to speak (for good and bad) but at the same time it forced centre lefties and lefties (like Southam) into a silo - Bluesky - where they’ve gone bonkers. Radicalised by Echoes, rabbitholed in mirrors

Are the Basques fond of virtue signalling, millionaire pensioners cosplaying as refugees? ✊🏻

We’ve been thinking about where to escape to if the nationalist right does take power in the UK. It’s looking like the Basque Country. They will never, ever take fascist shit. Ever. Even if Spain goes PP/Vox, the Basques will not and they will fight against it. Gora Euskadi ✊️

https://bsky.app/profile/jwsidders.bsky.social/post/3ly6w3omuzk2h

Bluesky is now, almost completely, ludicrous prats like him

Where do you go these days if you want neither prattish centrist dads nor racist shitbags?

Go down the pub. Spend time with friends or family. Avoid social media.
Or come to pb.com where the racist shitbags and prattish centrist dads are in perfect balance.

Oliver Stirling
@OWS1892
·
2h
Freaks. An absolute menagerie of full-blown freaks.

https://x.com/OWS1892/status/1964353905120117045

At least she looked embarrassed at singing “God save the Queen”. We’ve all been there…

This reads as if people often sing the national anthem. I'm not sure I ever have. Not that I've avoided it or anything, the scenario just hasn't arisen. Is this unusual? Do PBers have a lot of singing the national anthem in their lives?

I went to the Proclamation Ceremony in Bristol, a sound system was linked to The Cathedral, when the organist played The National Anthem, I'm certain that there was a confused crowd trying hard to adjust. Not everyone sang God Save The King.

It makes you despair

Llandudno RNLI inshore lifeboat was called to an injury to a lady in her 70s have fallen in a local speedboat on a trip and, whilst the speedboat came alongside the jetty, she couldn't move and the 4 person crew administered Entonox [ they are trained to do this] and with the help of the coastguards carried her to a local hotel to await ambulance

It arrived 9 [Nine] hours later to take her to hospital !!!!!!

That is shocking. I, and I suspect most, have already concluded that if I or my wife ever need a hip or knee replacement or rapid attention to a variety of ailments then there is little option other than to go private with the NHS being a literal and unacceptable pain. But A&E is one of the things they are supposed to be good at. £188bn in a year. WTF are they spending it on other than themselves?

An ageing population. A lot of the ambulance delays relate to inadequate social care.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9423059/ is a good summary.

The causes of these increased waits are complex and are a symptom of pressures within the NHS and social care system. Waits for social care mean it is difficult to discharge patients from hospital, which means there is a lack of hospital beds, which means that accident and emergency (A&E) staff can’t get patients out of their department, and, ultimately, paramedics queuing outside hospitals can’t hand their patients over to A&E staff.

I'm sorry. £188bn is more than £500m a day. And they can't even produce an ambulance? Their performance is literally killing people every day. It is time we stopped pretending that that is ok.

I suspect it would be cheaper to pay an adult social care worker to do a home safety assessment and if necessary get some chap with an electric screwdriver to fit a hand rail or ramp to assist mobility issues.

But that would go against the grain of hating on Councils. Pretending that all they do is diversity.

Our press is poison.

Hunt was right to bring social care and health into the same department but the benefits have been less than we might have hoped.

I have mentioned this before but the hospital my daughter works at, Ninewells in Dundee, has a department who start working on the discharge of every patient when they are admitted so by the time they finish their treatment their social care package that allows them to go home is already in place preventing bed blocking. It does involve the NHS taking on responsibilities and costs that are not really theirs but the savings are so obvious that there is a stream of visitors from other Trusts looking to see how they do it.

That is very interesting. Hopefully other trusts will take this up if they don't already.

Sadly, I have far too much experience of the interface between NHS and social care through my own family's experiences.

An issue that is not discussed enough imho is the ridiculous level of box ticking and risk aversion that hospitals display about discharge. I presume it is our litigation culture but it is nuts and government needs to sort it out.

I have found, and it has been confirmed by others I know in similar situations, that getting someone out of hospital when there is some level of care need - EVEN IF THE NEED IS CLEARLY MET - is like getting blood out of the proverbial stone. In one situation I was involved in very directly involving a family member - six different professional disciplines had to all sign off on discharge. The ward doctor was almost a pawn in the game frankly. Everyone of these disciplines seemed to be looking for reasons to delay discharge just in case...