"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
I feel sorry for her - she's probably not very bright, she said something stupid in the heat of the moment, and now she's in jail, separated from her kids. But she committed a serious crime, inciting violence during a pogrom in which innocent people including children were close to being burned to death. And giving people harsher sentences during outbreaks of mass violence is an established practice to discourage others, as we saw in 2011. So while I feel sorry for her I can't really disagree with the sentence. Anyone who views her as a martyr is an idiot.
For all those wondering if there could be a Green/Left Party alliance, you may wish to note that such things are not unheard of in pan-European politics. Plus my own Solarpunk article predicted it.
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
Context is everything. She called for hotels to be set on fire during riots where people tried to do just that. She could have incited the death of dozens of people.
When you or I say 'Starmer should be put against the wall and shot' it is a figure of speech and has no consequences. It isn't going to incite anyone to do it. When kids call 999 and claim a house is on fire they need a damn good talking to (as do their parents) and have the consequences of their actions hammered home, they may even be subject to some punishment. However someone shouting 'fire' in a packed theatre could very likely be responsible for multiple deaths and therefore needs a much more serious punishment.
What she did was not trivial. It was very serious and the consequences were potentially much more serious than many violent criminals.
The people in the theatre don't mean to trample each other to death; any rioters she incited to burn hotels would have had their own criminal intent too.
So do you think there should not be an offence of inciting to riot then? Do you not think that speeches and online content rile up crowds to do stuff they wouldn't do otherwise? Do you think the conspiracy laws should all be repealed then? Do you think those that commit conspiracy to murder should be let off?
Just because you and I wouldn't be there in the first place, doesn't mean others should not be held responsible for inciting a crowd or causing a riotous crowd to form in the first place.
They are probably more responsible than the mindless thugs that follow them.
"So did anyone have to verify their age to watch Bonnie Blue getting graphically railed on Channel 4 tonight, or does the dystopian new Online Safety Bill not apply to mainstream TV, that kids can watch?"
Wait until the Witchfinder Generals find out what we were watching on Top Of the Pops in mid 1970s.
Maybe early Channel 4's "Red triangle" system will come back. The big warning to all teenagers that they should 100% watch this arty filth.
[Kenny Everett voice:] "Colonel Clean here. You don't have to watch this perversitude and naked-fleshy bummery! You've got a (k)nob - use it!"
Andrew Neil @afneil The British government position over ‘recognising Palestine’ is unravelling fast tonight. Or at least bereft of logical explanation. From official UK government statements it seems that Keir Starmer’s position is that, if a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is reached because Hamas releases all hostages, the UK will NOT recognise Palestine. Not sure what’s in it for Hamas. But if no ceasefire is reached because Hamas refuses to release all hostages, the UK WILL recognise Palestine (whatever that means). Talk about perverse incentives.
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
I feel sorry for her - she's probably not very bright, she said something stupid in the heat of the moment, and now she's in jail, separated from her kids. But she committed a serious crime, inciting violence during a pogrom in which innocent people including children were close to being burned to death. And giving people harsher sentences during outbreaks of mass violence is an established practice to discourage others, as we saw in 2011. So while I feel sorry for her I can't really disagree with the sentence. Anyone who views her as a martyr is an idiot.
She didn’t tweet “during a pogrom”. It was before any serious violence. Get it right
Interesting thought on the Allison Pearson Telegraph piece thread.
Lucy Connolly should stand as a Reform candidate for Parliament.
I don't know - could she?
(The thread is really quite rabid. They do NOT like being told that Allison Pearson is a fantasist who needs to do some homework.)
No. Legislation brought in after Bobby Sands got elected in the 1980s prevents the incarcerated from standing.
Yes, but she'll be out by 2028. Full sentence was just over 3 years, so even the whole sentence will be done.
Is a previous jail sentence an inhibition? I'm not sure.
There was an online petition to make it so in 2015, but it received TWO signatures.
Surely there were cases in NI of released IRA and other (IVF) previously imprisoned people standing? Wasn't Jerry Adams in the Long Kesh around 1972, but I'm not sure if that was a criminal conviction?
Interesting thought on the Allison Pearson Telegraph piece thread.
Lucy Connolly should stand as a Reform candidate for Parliament.
I don't know - could she?
(The thread is really quite rabid. They do NOT like being told that Allison Pearson is a fantasist who needs to do some homework.)
Reform would be crazy to even contemplate that . I can’t imagine any scenario where she’d be a candidate for them . Although of course they were happy to have McMurdock , and the media gave them a free pass on that . Can you imagine the furore if another party did the same .
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
Context is everything. She called for hotels to be set on fire during riots where people tried to do just that. She could have incited the death of dozens of people.
When you or I say 'Starmer should be put against the wall and shot' it is a figure of speech and has no consequences. It isn't going to incite anyone to do it. When kids call 999 and claim a house is on fire they need a damn good talking to (as do their parents) and have the consequences of their actions hammered home, they may even be subject to some punishment. However someone shouting 'fire' in a packed theatre could very likely be responsible for multiple deaths and therefore needs a much more serious punishment.
What she did was not trivial. It was very serious and the consequences were potentially much more serious than many violent criminals.
The people in the theatre don't mean to trample each other to death; any rioters she incited to burn hotels would have had their own criminal intent too.
So do you think there should not be an offence of inciting to riot then? Do you not think that speeches and online content rile up crowds to do stuff they wouldn't do otherwise? Do you think the conspiracy laws should all be repealed then? Do you think those that commit conspiracy to murder should be let off?
No. And you can tell, because I neither said nor implied anything like that.
Interesting thought on the Allison Pearson Telegraph piece thread.
Lucy Connolly should stand as a Reform candidate for Parliament.
I don't know - could she?
(The thread is really quite rabid. They do NOT like being told that Allison Pearson is a fantasist who needs to do some homework.)
Reform would be crazy to even contemplate that . I can’t imagine any scenario where she’d be a candidate for them . Although of course they were happy to have McMurdock , and the media gave them a free pass on that . Can you imagine the furore if another party did the same .
If they believe she's whiter than white and in Two Tier Keir, then it would be like Martin Bell standing against Neil Hamilton .... if she went for Holborn & St Pancras !
And are you seriously suggesting that Reform are not crazy?
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
I feel sorry for her - she's probably not very bright, she said something stupid in the heat of the moment, and now she's in jail, separated from her kids. But she committed a serious crime, inciting violence during a pogrom in which innocent people including children were close to being burned to death. And giving people harsher sentences during outbreaks of mass violence is an established practice to discourage others, as we saw in 2011. So while I feel sorry for her I can't really disagree with the sentence. Anyone who views her as a martyr is an idiot.
She didn’t tweet “during a pogrom”. It was before any serious violence. Get it right
She called for hostels to be set on fire, her tweet was viewed over 300,000 times, and shortly afterwards hostels were set on fire and people were close to being burned to death. That is about as clear a case of incitement to violence as you can get, and that is a serious offence. So I feel sorry for her but I can't really argue with the sentence.
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
Context is everything. She called for hotels to be set on fire during riots where people tried to do just that. She could have incited the death of dozens of people.
When you or I say 'Starmer should be put against the wall and shot' it is a figure of speech and has no consequences. It isn't going to incite anyone to do it. When kids call 999 and claim a house is on fire they need a damn good talking to (as do their parents) and have the consequences of their actions hammered home, they may even be subject to some punishment. However someone shouting 'fire' in a packed theatre could very likely be responsible for multiple deaths and therefore needs a much more serious punishment.
What she did was not trivial. It was very serious and the consequences were potentially much more serious than many violent criminals.
The people in the theatre don't mean to trample each other to death; any rioters she incited to burn hotels would have had their own criminal intent too.
So do you think there should not be an offence of inciting to riot then? Do you not think that speeches and online content rile up crowds to do stuff they wouldn't do otherwise? Do you think the conspiracy laws should all be repealed then? Do you think those that commit conspiracy to murder should be let off?
No. And you can tell, because I neither said nor implied anything like that.
I think you did. It is degrees. Just because the theatre goers are completely innocent and the rioters (who actually may not have been rioters if not for the abundance of incitement) are not innocent does not mean she did not commit a serious crime. You were giving her a free pass because the rioters had their own criminal intent and the theatre goers didn't.
To take that to its logical conclusion (and going full Goodwin) it is like saying Hitler was innocent because a lot of those that followed him were up for a fight anyway. It is nonsense.
Incitement to commit arson during a time of tension is to put it mildly very serious.
Interesting thought on the Allison Pearson Telegraph piece thread.
Lucy Connolly should stand as a Reform candidate for Parliament.
I don't know - could she?
(The thread is really quite rabid. They do NOT like being told that Allison Pearson is a fantasist who needs to do some homework.)
No. Legislation brought in after Bobby Sands got elected in the 1980s prevents the incarcerated from standing.
Yes, but she'll be out by 2028. Full sentence was just over 3 years, so even the whole sentence will be done.
Is a previous jail sentence an inhibition? I'm not sure.
There was an online petition to make it so in 2015, but it received TWO signatures.
Surely there were cases in NI of released IRA and other (IVF) previously imprisoned people standing? Wasn't Jerry Adams in the Long Kesh around 1972, but I'm not sure if that was a criminal conviction?
I don't mean the IVF, do I? That's the old name of the association of University Christian Unions, and of the Graduate Lonely Hearts Social Club.
Interesting thought on the Allison Pearson Telegraph piece thread.
Lucy Connolly should stand as a Reform candidate for Parliament.
I don't know - could she?
(The thread is really quite rabid. They do NOT like being told that Allison Pearson is a fantasist who needs to do some homework.)
No. Legislation brought in after Bobby Sands got elected in the 1980s prevents the incarcerated from standing.
Yes, but she'll be out by 2028. Full sentence was just over 3 years, so even the whole sentence will be done.
Is a previous jail sentence an inhibition? I'm not sure.
There was an online petition to make it so in 2015, but it received TWO signatures.
Surely there were cases in NI of released IRA and other (IVF) previously imprisoned people standing? Wasn't Jerry Adams in the Long Kesh around 1972, but I'm not sure if that was a criminal conviction?
Interesting thought on the Allison Pearson Telegraph piece thread.
Lucy Connolly should stand as a Reform candidate for Parliament.
I don't know - could she?
(The thread is really quite rabid. They do NOT like being told that Allison Pearson is a fantasist who needs to do some homework.)
No. Legislation brought in after Bobby Sands got elected in the 1980s prevents the incarcerated from standing.
Yes, but she'll be out by 2028. Full sentence was just over 3 years, so even the whole sentence will be done.
Is a previous jail sentence an inhibition? I'm not sure.
There was an online petition to make it so in 2015, but it received TWO signatures.
Surely there were cases in NI of released IRA and other (IVF) previously imprisoned people standing? Wasn't Jerry Adams in the Long Kesh around 1972, but I'm not sure if that was a criminal conviction?
The Gazette has asked me to write about this thing called "the Online Safety Act"
Has anyone got any thoughts? I hear bad things
Beyond terrible. Another post passed as we sleepwalk our way into the totalitarian surveillance state. And all to appease earnestly woke do-gooders who wouldn't recognise a VPL if it joined them for breakfast.
Is it during the traditional twerking stage of breakfast that you recognise the visible panty line?
How are you doing, you poor old sod? Are you still in hospital? Do you need cheering up?!
I'm back home now, which is much better
I miss the morphine drip and button, but it's so much calmer and quieter here. And they have given me a bottle of Oramorph and loads of codeine, so I'm managing the pain
I live across the road from my folks, so my Mum is delivering three meals a day and helping keep the house clean, and my Dad is nearby for medical expertise
I can't believe how many cards I've had, mostly from people I deliver mail to. And quite a few have had cash in too. I always try to be a cheerful and friendly postie, but the support from people has been rather surprising
I'm being as idle as possible, which I find really difficult..
Great to hear you're out of hospital. Your story of the NHS is sadly typical. If you don't scream and shout or have someone who can scream and shout (or cajole) on your behalf, you're fucked.
I always feel sorry for those who "don't make a fuss" and suffer as a result.
The NHS is just absolute garbage. Institutionally. I'm sure you had instances of great care from individuals.
My father should escape their clutches tomorrow.
He was pretty poorly last week and the doctors have fast tracked him out with a party pack of drugs (who says we don't have assisted dying already?) but this week he looks much better and I suspect they have been somewhat pessimistic, though only time will tell.
If I hadn't turned up at mealtimes he would have suffered the usual indignity of having lunch left out of his reach and then taken away again with the usual 'not hungry today [name]?' Grrrr.
Some nurses did make an effort, others not so much.
My sympathies for your Father. We've been having a similar issue with. Y grandmother recently. She was in hospital after a fall and was sent to a 'rehabilitation unit' to get her back on her feet. They did no rehabilitation while she got sicker with various infections. They had the gall to call one of them a "Community transmitted infection" rather than "Hospital transmitted infection". She started to lose her faculties as they left all of her magazines and things out of reach.
By contrast my husband has been having health problems recently and has had an excellent experience with the NHS. I can only conclude that they put less effort into treating the elderly.
As I posted down the thread a few minutes ago - the NHS is a total patchwork. It seems just bare brute luck whether you get shite or brilliance in your particular situation.
My personal experience of hospital wards and the elderly is do not allow your aged relative to be admitted under almost all circumstances because they will get worse.
My experience of the NHS and GP system has been quite like a 'game' of Snakes and Ladders. You progress a bit through the system, then - oh no! - you didn't get to that appointment because the letter informing you of it arrived three days after the appointment. Now you're back to the bottom of the queue!
Need to see your GP? Able to phone at exactly 08.01 and wait on the phone for 20 minutes? You stand a chance. Maybe the GP will even give you a thought other than "Can we dope this person out of my office within 3 minutes?"
I irrationally dislike Wes Streeting (I'm entirely willing to admit) - but I hope he gets a vague handle on this with the cash he's been given. Even something as basic as a contact form for your GP that let you type in why you wanted an appointment. Madness to even think of such a thing, I realise. But futuristically you could imagine (sci-fi alert!) it scanned your records with 'the AI' and gave the GP a two-minute start on your appointment. Better than the zero minutes they had otherwise.
Last time I had an appointment with an NHS clinic it had a date and time - but no address. No postcode, no contact details - zilch. Name was totally generic. It was pure fluke I turned up at the right clinic on the day. I've had friends who missed heart scans as they went to the 'wrong' clinic. It seems like it's a very inward focussed system. Of course you know that you - patient 1235691 - should attend clinic AB-1X, and not clinic SY-2Y. Doh!.
I wonder how many people have died due to the Tuttle vs. Buttle thing.
Interesting thought on the Allison Pearson Telegraph piece thread.
Lucy Connolly should stand as a Reform candidate for Parliament.
I don't know - could she?
(The thread is really quite rabid. They do NOT like being told that Allison Pearson is a fantasist who needs to do some homework.)
Reform would be crazy to even contemplate that . I can’t imagine any scenario where she’d be a candidate for them . Although of course they were happy to have McMurdock , and the media gave them a free pass on that . Can you imagine the furore if another party did the same .
If they believe she's whiter than white and in Two Tier Keir, then it would be like Martin Bell standing against Neil Hamilton .... if she went for Holborn & St Pancras !
I’m sure Farage wants to spend the GE campaign explaining why they’ve chosen a candidate who was banged up for demanding the mob burn down a hotel .
The Gazette has asked me to write about this thing called "the Online Safety Act"
Has anyone got any thoughts? I hear bad things
Beyond terrible. Another post passed as we sleepwalk our way into the totalitarian surveillance state. And all to appease earnestly woke do-gooders who wouldn't recognise a VPL if it joined them for breakfast.
Is it during the traditional twerking stage of breakfast that you recognise the visible panty line?
How are you doing, you poor old sod? Are you still in hospital? Do you need cheering up?!
I'm back home now, which is much better
I miss the morphine drip and button, but it's so much calmer and quieter here. And they have given me a bottle of Oramorph and loads of codeine, so I'm managing the pain
I live across the road from my folks, so my Mum is delivering three meals a day and helping keep the house clean, and my Dad is nearby for medical expertise
I can't believe how many cards I've had, mostly from people I deliver mail to. And quite a few have had cash in too. I always try to be a cheerful and friendly postie, but the support from people has been rather surprising
I'm being as idle as possible, which I find really difficult..
Great to hear you're out of hospital. Your story of the NHS is sadly typical. If you don't scream and shout or have someone who can scream and shout (or cajole) on your behalf, you're fucked.
I always feel sorry for those who "don't make a fuss" and suffer as a result.
The NHS is just absolute garbage. Institutionally. I'm sure you had instances of great care from individuals.
My father should escape their clutches tomorrow.
He was pretty poorly last week and the doctors have fast tracked him out with a party pack of drugs (who says we don't have assisted dying already?) but this week he looks much better and I suspect they have been somewhat pessimistic, though only time will tell.
If I hadn't turned up at mealtimes he would have suffered the usual indignity of having lunch left out of his reach and then taken away again with the usual 'not hungry today [name]?' Grrrr.
Some nurses did make an effort, others not so much.
My sympathies for your Father. We've been having a similar issue with. Y grandmother recently. She was in hospital after a fall and was sent to a 'rehabilitation unit' to get her back on her feet. They did no rehabilitation while she got sicker with various infections. They had the gall to call one of them a "Community transmitted infection" rather than "Hospital transmitted infection". She started to lose her faculties as they left all of her magazines and things out of reach.
By contrast my husband has been having health problems recently and has had an excellent experience with the NHS. I can only conclude that they put less effort into treating the elderly.
Thanks. He's over 90 now and not great in several ways so I'm more concerned that he is treated well than desperately worried about medical outcomes.
There is definitely age discrimination in several sectors and physiotherapy is one of the worst offenders, although as mentioned above there is often a long waiting list for everyone.
There might be specific budget constraints but if you took a wider view and made sure people leaving didn't fall over quite so much or could get back to work earlier you'd save a lot more money elsewhere. I thought that was the original point of the NHS?
The Gazette has asked me to write about this thing called "the Online Safety Act"
Has anyone got any thoughts? I hear bad things
Beyond terrible. Another post passed as we sleepwalk our way into the totalitarian surveillance state. And all to appease earnestly woke do-gooders who wouldn't recognise a VPL if it joined them for breakfast.
Is it during the traditional twerking stage of breakfast that you recognise the visible panty line?
How are you doing, you poor old sod? Are you still in hospital? Do you need cheering up?!
I'm back home now, which is much better
I miss the morphine drip and button, but it's so much calmer and quieter here. And they have given me a bottle of Oramorph and loads of codeine, so I'm managing the pain
I live across the road from my folks, so my Mum is delivering three meals a day and helping keep the house clean, and my Dad is nearby for medical expertise
I can't believe how many cards I've had, mostly from people I deliver mail to. And quite a few have had cash in too. I always try to be a cheerful and friendly postie, but the support from people has been rather surprising
I'm being as idle as possible, which I find really difficult..
Great to hear you're out of hospital. Your story of the NHS is sadly typical. If you don't scream and shout or have someone who can scream and shout (or cajole) on your behalf, you're fucked.
I always feel sorry for those who "don't make a fuss" and suffer as a result.
The NHS is just absolute garbage. Institutionally. I'm sure you had instances of great care from individuals.
My father should escape their clutches tomorrow.
He was pretty poorly last week and the doctors have fast tracked him out with a party pack of drugs (who says we don't have assisted dying already?) but this week he looks much better and I suspect they have been somewhat pessimistic, though only time will tell.
If I hadn't turned up at mealtimes he would have suffered the usual indignity of having lunch left out of his reach and then taken away again with the usual 'not hungry today [name]?' Grrrr.
Some nurses did make an effort, others not so much.
My sympathies for your Father. We've been having a similar issue with. Y grandmother recently. She was in hospital after a fall and was sent to a 'rehabilitation unit' to get her back on her feet. They did no rehabilitation while she got sicker with various infections. They had the gall to call one of them a "Community transmitted infection" rather than "Hospital transmitted infection". She started to lose her faculties as they left all of her magazines and things out of reach.
By contrast my husband has been having health problems recently and has had an excellent experience with the NHS. I can only conclude that they put less effort into treating the elderly.
Thanks. He's over 90 now and not great in several ways so I'm more concerned that he is treated well than desperately worried about medical outcomes.
There is definitely age discrimination in several sectors and physiotherapy is one of the worst offenders, although as mentioned above there is often a long waiting list for everyone.
There might be specific budget constraints but if you took a wider view and made sure people leaving didn't fall over quite so much or could get back to work earlier you'd save a lot more money elsewhere. I thought that was the original point of the NHS?
My experience is that physiotherapy has the longest wait lists of anything in nhs.
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
I feel sorry for her - she's probably not very bright, she said something stupid in the heat of the moment, and now she's in jail, separated from her kids. But she committed a serious crime, inciting violence during a pogrom in which innocent people including children were close to being burned to death. And giving people harsher sentences during outbreaks of mass violence is an established practice to discourage others, as we saw in 2011. So while I feel sorry for her I can't really disagree with the sentence. Anyone who views her as a martyr is an idiot.
She didn’t tweet “during a pogrom”. It was before any serious violence. Get it right
That misses a little, tbh.
The famous Connolly tweet was at 8.30pm on the 29th July. There were others before and after (1 of each iirc). There were 300k views.
The first riots in Southport were 8pm the next evening, and involved clashes with police, barricades and shouts of "Tommy Robinson".
That timeline is about right for the tweet to have been a material element of the provocation.
I think that we are probably all reasonably fixed in our opinions by now.
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
I feel sorry for her - she's probably not very bright, she said something stupid in the heat of the moment, and now she's in jail, separated from her kids. But she committed a serious crime, inciting violence during a pogrom in which innocent people including children were close to being burned to death. And giving people harsher sentences during outbreaks of mass violence is an established practice to discourage others, as we saw in 2011. So while I feel sorry for her I can't really disagree with the sentence. Anyone who views her as a martyr is an idiot.
She didn’t tweet “during a pogrom”. It was before any serious violence. Get it right
That misses a little, tbh.
The famous Connolly tweet was at 8.30pm on the 29th July. There were others before and after (1 of each iirc). There were 300k views.
The first riots in Southport were 8pm the next evening, and involved clashes with police, barricades and shouts of "Tommy Robinson".
That timeline is about right for the tweet to have been a material element of the provocation.
I think that we are probably all reasonably fixed in our opinions by now.
The government and judiciary that put her in jail for 31 months - even as it lied to us about tens of thousands of Afghans (some of them Taliban) that it is smuggling into Britain - is no longer legitimate, in my eyes
I owe it no allegiance. I would never fight for it. King and country means nothing to me now
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
I feel sorry for her - she's probably not very bright, she said something stupid in the heat of the moment, and now she's in jail, separated from her kids. But she committed a serious crime, inciting violence during a pogrom in which innocent people including children were close to being burned to death. And giving people harsher sentences during outbreaks of mass violence is an established practice to discourage others, as we saw in 2011. So while I feel sorry for her I can't really disagree with the sentence. Anyone who views her as a martyr is an idiot.
She didn’t tweet “during a pogrom”. It was before any serious violence. Get it right
That misses a little, tbh.
The famous Connolly tweet was at 8.30pm on the 29th July. There were others before and after (1 of each iirc). There were 300k views.
The first riots in Southport were 8pm the next evening, and involved clashes with police, barricades and shouts of "Tommy Robinson".
That timeline is about right for the tweet to have been a material element of the provocation.
I think that we are probably all reasonably fixed in our opinions by now.
The government and judiciary that put her in jail for 31 months - even as it lied to us about tens of thousands of Afghans (some of them Taliban) that it is smuggling into Britain - is no longer legitimate, in my eyes
I owe it no allegiance. I would never fight for it. King and country means nothing to me now
If we were invaded you would, unlikely though that may be.
The Gazette has asked me to write about this thing called "the Online Safety Act"
Has anyone got any thoughts? I hear bad things
Beyond terrible. Another post passed as we sleepwalk our way into the totalitarian surveillance state. And all to appease earnestly woke do-gooders who wouldn't recognise a VPL if it joined them for breakfast.
Is it during the traditional twerking stage of breakfast that you recognise the visible panty line?
How are you doing, you poor old sod? Are you still in hospital? Do you need cheering up?!
I'm back home now, which is much better
I miss the morphine drip and button, but it's so much calmer and quieter here. And they have given me a bottle of Oramorph and loads of codeine, so I'm managing the pain
I live across the road from my folks, so my Mum is delivering three meals a day and helping keep the house clean, and my Dad is nearby for medical expertise
I can't believe how many cards I've had, mostly from people I deliver mail to. And quite a few have had cash in too. I always try to be a cheerful and friendly postie, but the support from people has been rather surprising
I'm being as idle as possible, which I find really difficult..
Great to hear you're out of hospital. Your story of the NHS is sadly typical. If you don't scream and shout or have someone who can scream and shout (or cajole) on your behalf, you're fucked.
I always feel sorry for those who "don't make a fuss" and suffer as a result.
The NHS is just absolute garbage. Institutionally. I'm sure you had instances of great care from individuals.
My father should escape their clutches tomorrow.
He was pretty poorly last week and the doctors have fast tracked him out with a party pack of drugs (who says we don't have assisted dying already?) but this week he looks much better and I suspect they have been somewhat pessimistic, though only time will tell.
If I hadn't turned up at mealtimes he would have suffered the usual indignity of having lunch left out of his reach and then taken away again with the usual 'not hungry today [name]?' Grrrr.
Some nurses did make an effort, others not so much.
My sympathies for your Father. We've been having a similar issue with. Y grandmother recently. She was in hospital after a fall and was sent to a 'rehabilitation unit' to get her back on her feet. They did no rehabilitation while she got sicker with various infections. They had the gall to call one of them a "Community transmitted infection" rather than "Hospital transmitted infection". She started to lose her faculties as they left all of her magazines and things out of reach.
By contrast my husband has been having health problems recently and has had an excellent experience with the NHS. I can only conclude that they put less effort into treating the elderly.
Thanks. He's over 90 now and not great in several ways so I'm more concerned that he is treated well than desperately worried about medical outcomes.
There is definitely age discrimination in several sectors and physiotherapy is one of the worst offenders, although as mentioned above there is often a long waiting list for everyone.
There might be specific budget constraints but if you took a wider view and made sure people leaving didn't fall over quite so much or could get back to work earlier you'd save a lot more money elsewhere. I thought that was the original point of the NHS?
My experience is that physiotherapy has the longest wait lists of anything in nhs.
On the other hand my GP's surgery now has a resident "first contact" physiotherapist who the receptionists will route you to for muscle and joint problems, so you can get an appointment with them within a few days. If your problem is fixable with "here's a programme of exercises, do them twice a day for twelve weeks" (as luckily mine was) it's excellent and probably pretty cheap for the NHS compared to the alternatives.
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
I feel sorry for her - she's probably not very bright, she said something stupid in the heat of the moment, and now she's in jail, separated from her kids. But she committed a serious crime, inciting violence during a pogrom in which innocent people including children were close to being burned to death. And giving people harsher sentences during outbreaks of mass violence is an established practice to discourage others, as we saw in 2011. So while I feel sorry for her I can't really disagree with the sentence. Anyone who views her as a martyr is an idiot.
She didn’t tweet “during a pogrom”. It was before any serious violence. Get it right
That misses a little, tbh.
The famous Connolly tweet was at 8.30pm on the 29th July. There were others before and after (1 of each iirc). There were 300k views.
The first riots in Southport were 8pm the next evening, and involved clashes with police, barricades and shouts of "Tommy Robinson".
That timeline is about right for the tweet to have been a material element of the provocation.
I think that we are probably all reasonably fixed in our opinions by now.
The government and judiciary that put her in jail for 31 months - even as it lied to us about tens of thousands of Afghans (some of them Taliban) that it is smuggling into Britain - is no longer legitimate, in my eyes
I owe it no allegiance. I would never fight for it. King and country means nothing to me now
If we were invaded you would, unlikely though that may be.
I’m quite genuine. This country’s government and Establishment no longer has my basic loyalty. It’s quite possible I would assist an invader to get rid of them
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
I feel sorry for her - she's probably not very bright, she said something stupid in the heat of the moment, and now she's in jail, separated from her kids. But she committed a serious crime, inciting violence during a pogrom in which innocent people including children were close to being burned to death. And giving people harsher sentences during outbreaks of mass violence is an established practice to discourage others, as we saw in 2011. So while I feel sorry for her I can't really disagree with the sentence. Anyone who views her as a martyr is an idiot.
She didn’t tweet “during a pogrom”. It was before any serious violence. Get it right
That misses a little, tbh.
The famous Connolly tweet was at 8.30pm on the 29th July. There were others before and after (1 of each iirc). There were 300k views.
The first riots in Southport were 8pm the next evening, and involved clashes with police, barricades and shouts of "Tommy Robinson".
That timeline is about right for the tweet to have been a material element of the provocation.
I think that we are probably all reasonably fixed in our opinions by now.
The government and judiciary that put her in jail for 31 months - even as it lied to us about tens of thousands of Afghans (some of them Taliban) that it is smuggling into Britain - is no longer legitimate, in my eyes
I owe it no allegiance. I would never fight for it. King and country means nothing to me now
If we were invaded you would, unlikely though that may be.
I’m quite genuine. This country’s government and Establishment no longer has my basic loyalty. It’s quite possible I would assist an invader to get rid of them
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
I feel sorry for her - she's probably not very bright, she said something stupid in the heat of the moment, and now she's in jail, separated from her kids. But she committed a serious crime, inciting violence during a pogrom in which innocent people including children were close to being burned to death. And giving people harsher sentences during outbreaks of mass violence is an established practice to discourage others, as we saw in 2011. So while I feel sorry for her I can't really disagree with the sentence. Anyone who views her as a martyr is an idiot.
She didn’t tweet “during a pogrom”. It was before any serious violence. Get it right
That misses a little, tbh.
The famous Connolly tweet was at 8.30pm on the 29th July. There were others before and after (1 of each iirc). There were 300k views.
The first riots in Southport were 8pm the next evening, and involved clashes with police, barricades and shouts of "Tommy Robinson".
That timeline is about right for the tweet to have been a material element of the provocation.
I think that we are probably all reasonably fixed in our opinions by now.
The government and judiciary that put her in jail for 31 months - even as it lied to us about tens of thousands of Afghans (some of them Taliban) that it is smuggling into Britain - is no longer legitimate, in my eyes
I owe it no allegiance. I would never fight for it. King and country means nothing to me now
If we were invaded you would, unlikely though that may be.
I’m quite genuine. This country’s government and Establishment no longer has my basic loyalty. It’s quite possible I would assist an invader to get rid of them
That's your brain rotting away in real time. *popcorn gif*
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
I feel sorry for her - she's probably not very bright, she said something stupid in the heat of the moment, and now she's in jail, separated from her kids. But she committed a serious crime, inciting violence during a pogrom in which innocent people including children were close to being burned to death. And giving people harsher sentences during outbreaks of mass violence is an established practice to discourage others, as we saw in 2011. So while I feel sorry for her I can't really disagree with the sentence. Anyone who views her as a martyr is an idiot.
She didn’t tweet “during a pogrom”. It was before any serious violence. Get it right
That misses a little, tbh.
The famous Connolly tweet was at 8.30pm on the 29th July. There were others before and after (1 of each iirc). There were 300k views.
The first riots in Southport were 8pm the next evening, and involved clashes with police, barricades and shouts of "Tommy Robinson".
That timeline is about right for the tweet to have been a material element of the provocation.
I think that we are probably all reasonably fixed in our opinions by now.
The government and judiciary that put her in jail for 31 months - even as it lied to us about tens of thousands of Afghans (some of them Taliban) that it is smuggling into Britain - is no longer legitimate, in my eyes
I owe it no allegiance. I would never fight for it. King and country means nothing to me now
The UK has its share of problems but that’s the same everywhere . There are much worse places to live and many would love to live in the UK . So for heavens sake stop being so miserable , you seem to have a nice life , travel a lot and from what you’ve said have a good relationship with your children . Is life so bad ?
A tsunami watch is in place for the entire U.S. West Coast after an 8.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka region, with warnings also issued in Hawaii and Japan, where waves as high as 10 feet are forecast. The earthquake’s epicenter was 40 miles off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, at a depth of about11 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It ranks among the top 10 strongest earthquakes ever recorded.
The Gazette has asked me to write about this thing called "the Online Safety Act"
Has anyone got any thoughts? I hear bad things
Beyond terrible. Another post passed as we sleepwalk our way into the totalitarian surveillance state. And all to appease earnestly woke do-gooders who wouldn't recognise a VPL if it joined them for breakfast.
Is it during the traditional twerking stage of breakfast that you recognise the visible panty line?
How are you doing, you poor old sod? Are you still in hospital? Do you need cheering up?!
I'm back home now, which is much better
I miss the morphine drip and button, but it's so much calmer and quieter here. And they have given me a bottle of Oramorph and loads of codeine, so I'm managing the pain
I live across the road from my folks, so my Mum is delivering three meals a day and helping keep the house clean, and my Dad is nearby for medical expertise
I can't believe how many cards I've had, mostly from people I deliver mail to. And quite a few have had cash in too. I always try to be a cheerful and friendly postie, but the support from people has been rather surprising
I'm being as idle as possible, which I find really difficult..
Great to hear you're out of hospital. Your story of the NHS is sadly typical. If you don't scream and shout or have someone who can scream and shout (or cajole) on your behalf, you're fucked.
I always feel sorry for those who "don't make a fuss" and suffer as a result.
The NHS is just absolute garbage. Institutionally. I'm sure you had instances of great care from individuals.
My father should escape their clutches tomorrow.
He was pretty poorly last week and the doctors have fast tracked him out with a party pack of drugs (who says we don't have assisted dying already?) but this week he looks much better and I suspect they have been somewhat pessimistic, though only time will tell.
If I hadn't turned up at mealtimes he would have suffered the usual indignity of having lunch left out of his reach and then taken away again with the usual 'not hungry today [name]?' Grrrr.
Some nurses did make an effort, others not so much.
My sympathies for your Father. We've been having a similar issue with. Y grandmother recently. She was in hospital after a fall and was sent to a 'rehabilitation unit' to get her back on her feet. They did no rehabilitation while she got sicker with various infections. They had the gall to call one of them a "Community transmitted infection" rather than "Hospital transmitted infection". She started to lose her faculties as they left all of her magazines and things out of reach.
By contrast my husband has been having health problems recently and has had an excellent experience with the NHS. I can only conclude that they put less effort into treating the elderly.
As I posted down the thread a few minutes ago - the NHS is a total patchwork. It seems just bare brute luck whether you get shite or brilliance in your particular situation.
My personal experience of hospital wards and the elderly is do not allow your aged relative to be admitted under almost all circumstances because they will get worse.
My experience of the NHS and GP system has been quite like a 'game' of Snakes and Ladders. You progress a bit through the system, then - oh no! - you didn't get to that appointment because the letter informing you of it arrived three days after the appointment. Now you're back to the bottom of the queue!
Need to see your GP? Able to phone at exactly 08.01 and wait on the phone for 20 minutes? You stand a chance. Maybe the GP will even give you a thought other than "Can we dope this person out of my office within 3 minutes?"
I irrationally dislike Wes Streeting (I'm entirely willing to admit) - but I hope he gets a vague handle on this with the cash he's been given. Even something as basic as a contact form for your GP that let you type in why you wanted an appointment. Madness to even think of such a thing, I realise. But futuristically you could imagine (sci-fi alert!) it scanned your records with 'the AI' and gave the GP a two-minute start on your appointment. Better than the zero minutes they had otherwise.
Last time I had an appointment with an NHS clinic it had a date and time - but no address. No postcode, no contact details - zilch. Name was totally generic. It was pure fluke I turned up at the right clinic on the day. I've had friends who missed heart scans as they went to the 'wrong' clinic. It seems like it's a very inward focussed system. Of course you know that you - patient 1235691 - should attend clinic AB-1X, and not clinic SY-2Y. Doh!.
I wonder how many people have died due to the Tuttle vs. Buttle thing.
My own GP has the online contact form you call for. Are you sure yours doesn't? Have you checked it has not been added recently? Of course, given GPs are independent businesses, they may do things in different ways.
A tsunami watch is in place for the entire U.S. West Coast after an 8.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka region, with warnings also issued in Hawaii and Japan, where waves as high as 10 feet are forecast. The earthquake’s epicenter was 40 miles off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, at a depth of about11 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It ranks among the top 10 strongest earthquakes ever recorded.
The value bet, surely, is on the Reformed Conservatives, led by Nigel Farage to win the next election.
If the Conservative Party is staring defeat in the face in late 2027, and it is clear that a merger with Reform will save a *lot* of MPs jobs, then it becomes the most likely outcome.
But why would Nige/Reform want to take that baggage, I'm sure they'll accept a few defections but in the run up to the election does he really want to be bogged down with MPs who were in the previous government that oversaw 2m net migration in 3 years?
Because he'd inherit the Conservatives money and infrastructure, and eliminate the only competition on the right. So long as he was the one in charge, then Reform voters would go with it.
But he'll get that after the election anyway if the polls stay consistent.
He gets the certainty of Number 10, against the probability of it.
For a man who probably doesn't have two election campaigns ahead of him, that will look pretty attractive.
i agree. Farage would likely take that. It would also give him extra respectability. So it's win-win for both rightwing parties - it saves the Tories (after a fashion) and ushers Nige into Number 10
Instant 40% plus in the polls. A tempter for Farage and the Tories. Given it hands him the keys to number 10, the Tories could probably extract much more than they should from any such deal.
They would secure continued employment for most of their MPs. And Jenrick would probably secure himself a senior Cabinet role post election.
A few MPs, ones who were retiring anyway, might not make the switch. But the alternative for the Conservative party is destruction.
Now: can this scenario be avoided? Probably, but it requires (at the very least) for Kemi to step down.
The Conservative party elected Kemi Badenoch less than a year ago after a devastating GE defeat, she is not the problem for the party right now and I cannot understand why you continue to be so antagonistic towards her as the chosen leader by the current Conservative members who have chosen to remain in the party rather than defect to the Reform party?! I maintain the view that no one who was currently leading the party could do a better job of trying to circle the wagons and trying to rebuild the party in opposition, and certainly not a Farage lite figure in the form of Robert Jenrick which is why he didn't win the leadership contest!
I have been amazed at how many regulars posters on this site have been so quick to write off and write the obituary Conservative party because of the current raise of the Reform party at least four years out from the next GE! I don't remember them writing the same orbituary for the the Libdems after their incredible poor GE result in 2015, or the Labour result in 2019 or the SNP nearly being wiped out in 2024?!
I find it rather telling that the calls for Kemi Badenoch to go are getting louder just as she is starting to make her mark as a new political leader who is honest and tells it like it is. This is totally anecdotal, but like me, the other Conservative members I talk to who voted for her are happy with the direction she is taking the party and like her honest plain speaking media savvy demeanor. She does not have a daily evening slot on GB news like Farage, but she turns up like the other Conservative MPs when it matters far more than he or his four 'current' colleagues ever do in Parliment.
Right now Keir Starmer and his whole Labour political operation is the worst political car crash in my adult life time following UK politics. The Libdems are being left as a protest vote totally unscrunitised, they are just sitting there under the radar doing absolutely nothing apart from throwing women under a bus for the last decade..
David Brindle @DavidJ_Brindle · 7h Almost 1 in 4 #socialcare jobs now held by non-EU overseas workers, @skillsforcare reports. Numbers doubled in just 2 years. Hard to see how sector will cope with visa clampdown.
The old stat was ~84% were British, while people act like all care workers are non-British. Holding the wages down at minimum wage and opening up visas has lowered the British percentage but its still over three quarters.
The sector can cope by paying its staff a market rate. Then people will apply for the jobs. Or the sector can go bust and shut down due to lack of employees. Their choice. No need to import minimum wage people to save a sector from paying a market rate.
As always it’s not that simple…
About half of people in care homes are private pay and the other half are state funded which means they essentially have limited assets.
So if you want to pay care home workers a better salary then local government needs to spend much more (labour costs are c 60% of opex in a care home). If they don’t want to then profits will be basically wiped out - a 33% increase in wages is a 20% increase in costs (which would make most care homes unprofitable).
A significant reduction in care home capacity - which is what you suggest - would result in many people having to stay home (often in unsuitable accommodation) and be cared for by their families. Which would result in a loss of productive capacity in the economy as (usually) women stay home. This would also result in a significant reduction in incomes in these houses with the knock on economic impact.
It all comes down to tax and spend more or allow immigration to plug the gap.
So...
There's certainly a lot of truth to that.
But there's also a deeply fucked up tax and benefits system in the UK that means that it can be very difficult to get people to take minimum wage jobs, because their marginal tax rate is so high.
If you could solved that issue, making effective marginal tax rates never exceed (say) 25% for those at the bottom of the income scale, then you would enable a lot of British people to take these jobs.
The Gazette has asked me to write about this thing called "the Online Safety Act"
Has anyone got any thoughts? I hear bad things
Beyond terrible. Another post passed as we sleepwalk our way into the totalitarian surveillance state. And all to appease earnestly woke do-gooders who wouldn't recognise a VPL if it joined them for breakfast.
Is it during the traditional twerking stage of breakfast that you recognise the visible panty line?
How are you doing, you poor old sod? Are you still in hospital? Do you need cheering up?!
I'm back home now, which is much better
I miss the morphine drip and button, but it's so much calmer and quieter here. And they have given me a bottle of Oramorph and loads of codeine, so I'm managing the pain
I live across the road from my folks, so my Mum is delivering three meals a day and helping keep the house clean, and my Dad is nearby for medical expertise
I can't believe how many cards I've had, mostly from people I deliver mail to. And quite a few have had cash in too. I always try to be a cheerful and friendly postie, but the support from people has been rather surprising
I'm being as idle as possible, which I find really difficult..
Just listening to PB talk about the NHS proves the point
Envy of the world? Good grief
My big hope - and my one main reason for voting for Starmer - was that Labour, of all the parties, would have the guts and the majority and the public sympathy to do serious NHS reform under Streeting
Yet nothing. It is bitterly disappointing, even tragic
The Gazette has asked me to write about this thing called "the Online Safety Act"
Has anyone got any thoughts? I hear bad things
Beyond terrible. Another post passed as we sleepwalk our way into the totalitarian surveillance state. And all to appease earnestly woke do-gooders who wouldn't recognise a VPL if it joined them for breakfast.
Is it during the traditional twerking stage of breakfast that you recognise the visible panty line?
How are you doing, you poor old sod? Are you still in hospital? Do you need cheering up?!
I'm back home now, which is much better
I miss the morphine drip and button, but it's so much calmer and quieter here. And they have given me a bottle of Oramorph and loads of codeine, so I'm managing the pain
I live across the road from my folks, so my Mum is delivering three meals a day and helping keep the house clean, and my Dad is nearby for medical expertise
I can't believe how many cards I've had, mostly from people I deliver mail to. And quite a few have had cash in too. I always try to be a cheerful and friendly postie, but the support from people has been rather surprising
I'm being as idle as possible, which I find really difficult..
Great to hear you're out of hospital. Your story of the NHS is sadly typical. If you don't scream and shout or have someone who can scream and shout (or cajole) on your behalf, you're fucked.
I always feel sorry for those who "don't make a fuss" and suffer as a result.
The NHS is just absolute garbage. Institutionally. I'm sure you had instances of great care from individuals.
It seems to me the public atittude towards the NHS has completely changed in the last few years, yet this has gone unnoticed
eg if we had an Olympics now, would there really be a 2 minute segment in the Opening Ceremony singing its praises? I doubt it. Likewise, would any politician say, with a straight face, "it's the envy of the world"? Or call it "our beloved NHS"?
No, they wouldn't. Or if they did they'd be laughed to scorn. There is much more negativity, and a much wider acceptance that the NHS is a middling health system with some great bits and some terrible flaws. This is a positive evolution for the UK, losing this absurd religion
Agree.
The ridiculous quasi-religious worship is just nuts.
It is a curate's egg of a system and a massive outlier as to its structure and financing.
It is not world beating and it is not the envy of the world. Yet there are numerous pockets of brilliance and individual teams of excellence that are world beating. Its ability to take on new research at least in pockets must be world class. A close relative has an absolute brilliant consultant doctor who she has been seeing for years and who runs an incredible tight ship department and yet this doctor is surrounded by semi-chaos in the other related departments.
Yet the general sharing of excellence and best practice is woeful. The information systems side of things is just beyond shite. Joined up thinking is a joke.
The interface between NHS and social care is a clusterfuck you can see from space.
Anyone who feels the itching urge to bang a pan outside their front door should think about the massive maternity deaths inquiry possibly covering 1000s of deaths or the Nottingham mental health scandal (public inquiries just started). Or listen to the tale on PB on this evening of someone not getting water on the ward because nurses can't nurse.
The worst of it is that anyone who says 'maybe we should have a rethink for the 21st century' just gets shouted down as a privatiser who wants to make the NHS like American healthcare.
The people who work in the NHS are generally good, and well intentioned. I've met some exceptions. But they are rare.
The system appears to be designed to prevent health care. The National Healthcare Prevention Service.
It is, and this is what results in us having lower healthcare outcomes than other countries.
Supply is limited so they manage demand by queuing and barriers: you get it when you try and see a GP, and when they try and fob you off saying it's nothing, and you get it with consultants in clinics, and with elective care waiting lists.
Of course, a lot of men have trouble admitting there's even maybe something wrong with them in the first place, and need a lot of convincing to see a doctor. So it doesn't take much pushback for them to think "must not make a fuss", and give up.
The Gazette has asked me to write about this thing called "the Online Safety Act"
Has anyone got any thoughts? I hear bad things
Beyond terrible. Another post passed as we sleepwalk our way into the totalitarian surveillance state. And all to appease earnestly woke do-gooders who wouldn't recognise a VPL if it joined them for breakfast.
Is it during the traditional twerking stage of breakfast that you recognise the visible panty line?
How are you doing, you poor old sod? Are you still in hospital? Do you need cheering up?!
I'm back home now, which is much better
I miss the morphine drip and button, but it's so much calmer and quieter here. And they have given me a bottle of Oramorph and loads of codeine, so I'm managing the pain
I live across the road from my folks, so my Mum is delivering three meals a day and helping keep the house clean, and my Dad is nearby for medical expertise
I can't believe how many cards I've had, mostly from people I deliver mail to. And quite a few have had cash in too. I always try to be a cheerful and friendly postie, but the support from people has been rather surprising
I'm being as idle as possible, which I find really difficult..
Great to hear you're out of hospital. Your story of the NHS is sadly typical. If you don't scream and shout or have someone who can scream and shout (or cajole) on your behalf, you're fucked.
I always feel sorry for those who "don't make a fuss" and suffer as a result.
The NHS is just absolute garbage. Institutionally. I'm sure you had instances of great care from individuals.
It seems to me the public atittude towards the NHS has completely changed in the last few years, yet this has gone unnoticed
eg if we had an Olympics now, would there really be a 2 minute segment in the Opening Ceremony singing its praises? I doubt it. Likewise, would any politician say, with a straight face, "it's the envy of the world"? Or call it "our beloved NHS"?
No, they wouldn't. Or if they did they'd be laughed to scorn. There is much more negativity, and a much wider acceptance that the NHS is a middling health system with some great bits and some terrible flaws. This is a positive evolution for the UK, losing this absurd religion
Agree.
The ridiculous quasi-religious worship is just nuts.
It is a curate's egg of a system and a massive outlier as to its structure and financing.
It is not world beating and it is not the envy of the world. Yet there are numerous pockets of brilliance and individual teams of excellence that are world beating. Its ability to take on new research at least in pockets must be world class. A close relative has an absolute brilliant consultant doctor who she has been seeing for years and who runs an incredible tight ship department and yet this doctor is surrounded by semi-chaos in the other related departments.
Yet the general sharing of excellence and best practice is woeful. The information systems side of things is just beyond shite. Joined up thinking is a joke.
The interface between NHS and social care is a clusterfuck you can see from space.
Anyone who feels the itching urge to bang a pan outside their front door should think about the massive maternity deaths inquiry possibly covering 1000s of deaths or the Nottingham mental health scandal (public inquiries just started). Or listen to the tale on PB on this evening of someone not getting water on the ward because nurses can't nurse.
The worst of it is that anyone who says 'maybe we should have a rethink for the 21st century' just gets shouted down as a privatiser who wants to make the NHS like American healthcare.
Spot on. And your post got.. zero likes, until I added on.
The Gazette has asked me to write about this thing called "the Online Safety Act"
Has anyone got any thoughts? I hear bad things
Beyond terrible. Another post passed as we sleepwalk our way into the totalitarian surveillance state. And all to appease earnestly woke do-gooders who wouldn't recognise a VPL if it joined them for breakfast.
Is it during the traditional twerking stage of breakfast that you recognise the visible panty line?
How are you doing, you poor old sod? Are you still in hospital? Do you need cheering up?!
I'm back home now, which is much better
I miss the morphine drip and button, but it's so much calmer and quieter here. And they have given me a bottle of Oramorph and loads of codeine, so I'm managing the pain
I live across the road from my folks, so my Mum is delivering three meals a day and helping keep the house clean, and my Dad is nearby for medical expertise
I can't believe how many cards I've had, mostly from people I deliver mail to. And quite a few have had cash in too. I always try to be a cheerful and friendly postie, but the support from people has been rather surprising
I'm being as idle as possible, which I find really difficult..
Convalescing with free meals delivered three times a day? You are Boris Johnson AICMFP.
I just heard the most depressing prognosis of Britain's economic situation from one of the smartest businessmen I've ever met, who has recently become a friend
Suffice to say, wow we're fucked
And does Britain's smartest businessman think Reform will improve matters?
(that's by way of a test of whether he is)
I don't know his politics that deeply. We have only recently become friends. My guess would be centrist Tory Dad, or even Orange Book Lib Dem
Centrist Dad means normal Lib Dem. It's mild social democrat, which is where such people truly believe the centre to be.
The Gazette has asked me to write about this thing called "the Online Safety Act"
Has anyone got any thoughts? I hear bad things
Beyond terrible. Another post passed as we sleepwalk our way into the totalitarian surveillance state. And all to appease earnestly woke do-gooders who wouldn't recognise a VPL if it joined them for breakfast.
Is it during the traditional twerking stage of breakfast that you recognise the visible panty line?
How are you doing, you poor old sod? Are you still in hospital? Do you need cheering up?!
I'm back home now, which is much better
I miss the morphine drip and button, but it's so much calmer and quieter here. And they have given me a bottle of Oramorph and loads of codeine, so I'm managing the pain
I live across the road from my folks, so my Mum is delivering three meals a day and helping keep the house clean, and my Dad is nearby for medical expertise
I can't believe how many cards I've had, mostly from people I deliver mail to. And quite a few have had cash in too. I always try to be a cheerful and friendly postie, but the support from people has been rather surprising
I'm being as idle as possible, which I find really difficult..
Great to hear you're out of hospital. Your story of the NHS is sadly typical. If you don't scream and shout or have someone who can scream and shout (or cajole) on your behalf, you're fucked.
I always feel sorry for those who "don't make a fuss" and suffer as a result.
The NHS is just absolute garbage. Institutionally. I'm sure you had instances of great care from individuals.
It seems to me the public atittude towards the NHS has completely changed in the last few years, yet this has gone unnoticed
eg if we had an Olympics now, would there really be a 2 minute segment in the Opening Ceremony singing its praises? I doubt it. Likewise, would any politician say, with a straight face, "it's the envy of the world"? Or call it "our beloved NHS"?
No, they wouldn't. Or if they did they'd be laughed to scorn. There is much more negativity, and a much wider acceptance that the NHS is a middling health system with some great bits and some terrible flaws. This is a positive evolution for the UK, losing this absurd religion
Agree.
The ridiculous quasi-religious worship is just nuts.
It is a curate's egg of a system and a massive outlier as to its structure and financing.
It is not world beating and it is not the envy of the world. Yet there are numerous pockets of brilliance and individual teams of excellence that are world beating. Its ability to take on new research at least in pockets must be world class. A close relative has an absolute brilliant consultant doctor who she has been seeing for years and who runs an incredible tight ship department and yet this doctor is surrounded by semi-chaos in the other related departments.
Yet the general sharing of excellence and best practice is woeful. The information systems side of things is just beyond shite. Joined up thinking is a joke.
The interface between NHS and social care is a clusterfuck you can see from space.
Anyone who feels the itching urge to bang a pan outside their front door should think about the massive maternity deaths inquiry possibly covering 1000s of deaths or the Nottingham mental health scandal (public inquiries just started). Or listen to the tale on PB on this evening of someone not getting water on the ward because nurses can't nurse.
The worst of it is that anyone who says 'maybe we should have a rethink for the 21st century' just gets shouted down as a privatiser who wants to make the NHS like American healthcare.
The people who work in the NHS are generally good, and well intentioned. I've met some exceptions. But they are rare.
The system appears to be designed to prevent health care. The National Healthcare Prevention Service.
It is, and this is what results in us having lower healthcare outcomes than other countries.
Supply is limited so they manage demand by queuing and barriers: you get it when you try and see a GP, and when they try and fob you off saying it's nothing, and you get it with consultants in clinics, and with elective care waiting lists.
Of course, a lot of men have trouble admitting there's even maybe something wrong with them in the first place, and need a lot of convincing to see a doctor. So it doesn't take much pushback for them to think "must not make a fuss", and give up.
And then it's too late.
Healthcare outcomes in different countries. Choose your metric and you can get the answer that matches your world view. US is pretty poor and from family experience, if you have cancer get treated in Australia (UK 0 survivors - Australia 2 survivors)
I just heard the most depressing prognosis of Britain's economic situation from one of the smartest businessmen I've ever met, who has recently become a friend
Suffice to say, wow we're fucked
And does Britain's smartest businessman think Reform will improve matters?
(that's by way of a test of whether he is)
I don't know his politics that deeply. We have only recently become friends. My guess would be centrist Tory Dad, or even Orange Book Lib Dem
Centrist Dad means normal Lib Dem. It's mild social democrat, which is where such people truly believe the centre to be.
(Snip)
Where do you see the 'centre' as being (if such a thing actually exists...)?
Interesting thought on the Allison Pearson Telegraph piece thread.
Lucy Connolly should stand as a Reform candidate for Parliament.
I don't know - could she?
(The thread is really quite rabid. They do NOT like being told that Allison Pearson is a fantasist who needs to do some homework.)
The thing people like Pearson miss is Lucy Connolly pleaded guilty and, although people may feel thesentence is excessive, it is in line with the law and the lower end.
I just heard the most depressing prognosis of Britain's economic situation from one of the smartest businessmen I've ever met, who has recently become a friend
Suffice to say, wow we're fucked
And does Britain's smartest businessman think Reform will improve matters?
(that's by way of a test of whether he is)
I don't know his politics that deeply. We have only recently become friends. My guess would be centrist Tory Dad, or even Orange Book Lib Dem
Centrist Dad means normal Lib Dem. It's mild social democrat, which is where such people truly believe the centre to be.
(Snip)
Where do you see the 'centre' as being (if such a thing actually exists...)?
This is well polled and it favours higher spending on public services, low taxes on lower earners, high taxes on wealthy people and tight controls on immigration.
I don't necessarily agree with all that but I recognise that's where the centre of gravity of opinion is.
The Gazette has asked me to write about this thing called "the Online Safety Act"
Has anyone got any thoughts? I hear bad things
Beyond terrible. Another post passed as we sleepwalk our way into the totalitarian surveillance state. And all to appease earnestly woke do-gooders who wouldn't recognise a VPL if it joined them for breakfast.
Is it during the traditional twerking stage of breakfast that you recognise the visible panty line?
How are you doing, you poor old sod? Are you still in hospital? Do you need cheering up?!
I'm back home now, which is much better
I miss the morphine drip and button, but it's so much calmer and quieter here. And they have given me a bottle of Oramorph and loads of codeine, so I'm managing the pain
I live across the road from my folks, so my Mum is delivering three meals a day and helping keep the house clean, and my Dad is nearby for medical expertise
I can't believe how many cards I've had, mostly from people I deliver mail to. And quite a few have had cash in too. I always try to be a cheerful and friendly postie, but the support from people has been rather surprising
I'm being as idle as possible, which I find really difficult..
Great to hear you're out of hospital. Your story of the NHS is sadly typical. If you don't scream and shout or have someone who can scream and shout (or cajole) on your behalf, you're fucked.
I always feel sorry for those who "don't make a fuss" and suffer as a result.
The NHS is just absolute garbage. Institutionally. I'm sure you had instances of great care from individuals.
It seems to me the public atittude towards the NHS has completely changed in the last few years, yet this has gone unnoticed
eg if we had an Olympics now, would there really be a 2 minute segment in the Opening Ceremony singing its praises? I doubt it. Likewise, would any politician say, with a straight face, "it's the envy of the world"? Or call it "our beloved NHS"?
No, they wouldn't. Or if they did they'd be laughed to scorn. There is much more negativity, and a much wider acceptance that the NHS is a middling health system with some great bits and some terrible flaws. This is a positive evolution for the UK, losing this absurd religion
Agree.
The ridiculous quasi-religious worship is just nuts.
It is a curate's egg of a system and a massive outlier as to its structure and financing.
It is not world beating and it is not the envy of the world. Yet there are numerous pockets of brilliance and individual teams of excellence that are world beating. Its ability to take on new research at least in pockets must be world class. A close relative has an absolute brilliant consultant doctor who she has been seeing for years and who runs an incredible tight ship department and yet this doctor is surrounded by semi-chaos in the other related departments.
Yet the general sharing of excellence and best practice is woeful. The information systems side of things is just beyond shite. Joined up thinking is a joke.
The interface between NHS and social care is a clusterfuck you can see from space.
Anyone who feels the itching urge to bang a pan outside their front door should think about the massive maternity deaths inquiry possibly covering 1000s of deaths or the Nottingham mental health scandal (public inquiries just started). Or listen to the tale on PB on this evening of someone not getting water on the ward because nurses can't nurse.
The worst of it is that anyone who says 'maybe we should have a rethink for the 21st century' just gets shouted down as a privatiser who wants to make the NHS like American healthcare.
The people who work in the NHS are generally good, and well intentioned. I've met some exceptions. But they are rare.
The system appears to be designed to prevent health care. The National Healthcare Prevention Service.
It is, and this is what results in us having lower healthcare outcomes than other countries.
Supply is limited so they manage demand by queuing and barriers: you get it when you try and see a GP, and when they try and fob you off saying it's nothing, and you get it with consultants in clinics, and with elective care waiting lists.
Of course, a lot of men have trouble admitting there's even maybe something wrong with them in the first place, and need a lot of convincing to see a doctor. So it doesn't take much pushback for them to think "must not make a fuss", and give up.
And then it's too late.
Healthcare outcomes in different countries. Choose your metric and you can get the answer that matches your world view. US is pretty poor and from family experience, if you have cancer get treated in Australia (UK 0 survivors - Australia 2 survivors)
Yes, it's comparatively cheap and, as a monopoly provider, can exercise its force with its supply chain but it's healthcare outcomes I'm most interested in - which aren't great.
The Gazette has asked me to write about this thing called "the Online Safety Act"
Has anyone got any thoughts? I hear bad things
Beyond terrible. Another post passed as we sleepwalk our way into the totalitarian surveillance state. And all to appease earnestly woke do-gooders who wouldn't recognise a VPL if it joined them for breakfast.
Is it during the traditional twerking stage of breakfast that you recognise the visible panty line?
How are you doing, you poor old sod? Are you still in hospital? Do you need cheering up?!
I'm back home now, which is much better
I miss the morphine drip and button, but it's so much calmer and quieter here. And they have given me a bottle of Oramorph and loads of codeine, so I'm managing the pain
I live across the road from my folks, so my Mum is delivering three meals a day and helping keep the house clean, and my Dad is nearby for medical expertise
I can't believe how many cards I've had, mostly from people I deliver mail to. And quite a few have had cash in too. I always try to be a cheerful and friendly postie, but the support from people has been rather surprising
I'm being as idle as possible, which I find really difficult..
Good to hear you are being nursed. What a nasty surprise
I can recommend Tehran, Clarkson's Farm 2, and The Leopard in terms of recent TV, to see you through the idleness
Just done Tehran series 1 and 2 thanks to PB recommendations.
I'm very curious though - is there really an elite Iranian superclass of junta members whose children live in hedonistic and insanely rich madness e.g. fast sports cars, tennis clubs, high end drinking dens, drugs out of their ears, wild discos etc etc???
See the middle series of Bureau des Legendes, widely acclaimed as the most realistic series about the intelligence services
Interesting thought on the Allison Pearson Telegraph piece thread.
Lucy Connolly should stand as a Reform candidate for Parliament.
I don't know - could she?
(The thread is really quite rabid. They do NOT like being told that Allison Pearson is a fantasist who needs to do some homework.)
No. Legislation brought in after Bobby Sands got elected in the 1980s prevents the incarcerated from standing.
Yes, but she'll be out by 2028. Full sentence was just over 3 years, so even the whole sentence will be done.
Is a previous jail sentence an inhibition? I'm not sure.
There was an online petition to make it so in 2015, but it received TWO signatures.
Surely there were cases in NI of released IRA and other (IVF) previously imprisoned people standing? Wasn't Jerry Adams in the Long Kesh around 1972, but I'm not sure if that was a criminal conviction?
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
Context is everything. She called for hotels to be set on fire during riots where people tried to do just that. She could have incited the death of dozens of people.
When you or I say 'Starmer should be put against the wall and shot' it is a figure of speech and has no consequences. It isn't going to incite anyone to do it. When kids call 999 and claim a house is on fire they need a damn good talking to (as do their parents) and have the consequences of their actions hammered home, they may even be subject to some punishment. However someone shouting 'fire' in a packed theatre could very likely be responsible for multiple deaths and therefore needs a much more serious punishment.
What she did was not trivial. It was very serious and the consequences were potentially much more serious than many violent criminals.
I thought she said “set the hotels on fire for all I care”? That doesn’t strike me as an instruction, it’s a nasty way of saying she doesn’t care if illegal immigrants live or die. If someone said “blast them into the channel with a water cannon for all I care” about the small boat people, would that warrant three years in prison, if there were riots on the beaches of Kent at the time?
8,7! A tsunami watch is in place for the entire U.S. West Coast after an 8.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka region, with warnings also issued in Hawaii and Japan, where waves as high as 10 feet are forecast. The earthquake’s epicenter was 40 miles off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, at a depth of about11 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It ranks among the top 10 strongest earthquakes ever recorded. source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/07/29/tsunami-west-coast-japan-87-quake-russia/
(For the record: I am far enough away from the coast not to worry -- and far enough away so that taking photos of any impact is impractical.)
I'm in SF, and the waves are due to hit at 1230am
So long as you're not sitting on the dock of the bay...
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
Context is everything. She called for hotels to be set on fire during riots where people tried to do just that. She could have incited the death of dozens of people.
When you or I say 'Starmer should be put against the wall and shot' it is a figure of speech and has no consequences. It isn't going to incite anyone to do it. When kids call 999 and claim a house is on fire they need a damn good talking to (as do their parents) and have the consequences of their actions hammered home, they may even be subject to some punishment. However someone shouting 'fire' in a packed theatre could very likely be responsible for multiple deaths and therefore needs a much more serious punishment.
What she did was not trivial. It was very serious and the consequences were potentially much more serious than many violent criminals.
I thought she said “set the hotels on fire for all I care”? That doesn’t strike me as an instruction, it’s a nasty way of saying she doesn’t care if illegal immigrants live or die. If someone said “blast them into the channel with a water cannon for all I care” about the small boat people, would that warrant three years in prison, if there were riots on the beaches of Kent at the time?
I seem to recall a Lib Dem candidate in 2019 saying that he felt that Cameron should have been throttled for his handling of Brexit, or words to that effect, and he was then forced out as a candidate under the ensuing, Conservative-led, hue and cry. So it is not just the nasty and the stupid we are dealing with here, there is also the hypocrisy.
This is the real scandal of the NHS. (Well, one of them anyway.)
Yet Streeting is surprised that the Residents are pissed off.
From the KIngs Fund data. Fewer nurses and doctors. But stats being what they are, Japan and the US have less but Japan's outcomes are significantly better in Japan to the US. Healthier lifestyles less need to be 'fixed'
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
I feel sorry for her - she's probably not very bright, she said something stupid in the heat of the moment, and now she's in jail, separated from her kids. But she committed a serious crime, inciting violence during a pogrom in which innocent people including children were close to being burned to death. And giving people harsher sentences during outbreaks of mass violence is an established practice to discourage others, as we saw in 2011. So while I feel sorry for her I can't really disagree with the sentence. Anyone who views her as a martyr is an idiot.
She didn’t tweet “during a pogrom”. It was before any serious violence. Get it right
That misses a little, tbh.
The famous Connolly tweet was at 8.30pm on the 29th July. There were others before and after (1 of each iirc). There were 300k views.
The first riots in Southport were 8pm the next evening, and involved clashes with police, barricades and shouts of "Tommy Robinson".
That timeline is about right for the tweet to have been a material element of the provocation.
I think that we are probably all reasonably fixed in our opinions by now.
"Allison Pearson They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her A year on from the Southport massacre, the childminder who dared to express her anger over immigration is still in jail" (£)
"Lucy’s role was to be a cautionary tale: a deterrent to anyone thinking of giving voice to their fears about migration."
I suggest she checks out the original tweet.
It was not exactly "I am somewhat worried by immigration and am i bit scared I may not get a GP appointment on time"
There were other tweets she made so it’s not just the one that got all the headlines. The beatification of Connolly by some on the right is vomit inducing .
I think there was one more questionable tweet about three years prior? Something like that?
For this she got 31 months in jail. Given what actual violent criminals get, her sentence is absurdly harsh. And as Pearson points out, in the end it will rebound on this repulsive and illegitimate government, because they have created a martyr
And not a dodgy martyr like Tommeh, a very British mother with no criminal history
Context is everything. She called for hotels to be set on fire during riots where people tried to do just that. She could have incited the death of dozens of people.
When you or I say 'Starmer should be put against the wall and shot' it is a figure of speech and has no consequences. It isn't going to incite anyone to do it. When kids call 999 and claim a house is on fire they need a damn good talking to (as do their parents) and have the consequences of their actions hammered home, they may even be subject to some punishment. However someone shouting 'fire' in a packed theatre could very likely be responsible for multiple deaths and therefore needs a much more serious punishment.
What she did was not trivial. It was very serious and the consequences were potentially much more serious than many violent criminals.
I thought she said “set the hotels on fire for all I care”? That doesn’t strike me as an instruction, it’s a nasty way of saying she doesn’t care if illegal immigrants live or die. If someone said “blast them into the channel with a water cannon for all I care” about the small boat people, would that warrant three years in prison, if there were riots on the beaches of Kent at the time?
I seem to recall a Lib Dem candidate in 2019 saying that he felt that Cameron should have been throttled for his handling of Brexit, or words to that effect, and he was then forced out as a candidate under the ensuing, Conservative-led, hue and cry. So it is not just the nasty and the stupid we are dealing with here, there is also the hypocrisy.
Indeed. Look at the Reform types beating down on Naz Shah for a rewteet which was unintentional and by one of her staff. She’s still attacked for it to this day.
Comments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red–Green_Alliance_(Denmark)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_Green_Left_Alliance
https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2024/05/12/solarpunk/
Just because you and I wouldn't be there in the first place, doesn't mean others should not be held responsible for inciting a crowd or causing a riotous crowd to form in the first place.
They are probably more responsible than the mindless thugs that follow them.
Andrew Neil
@afneil
The British government position over ‘recognising Palestine’ is unravelling fast tonight. Or at least bereft of logical explanation.
From official UK government statements it seems that Keir Starmer’s position is that, if a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is reached because Hamas releases all hostages, the UK will NOT recognise Palestine. Not sure what’s in it for Hamas.
But if no ceasefire is reached because Hamas refuses to release all hostages, the UK WILL recognise Palestine (whatever that means). Talk about perverse incentives.
Exactly what I pointed out two hours ago.
Is a previous jail sentence an inhibition? I'm not sure.
There was an online petition to make it so in 2015, but it received TWO signatures.
Surely there were cases in NI of released IRA and other (IVF) previously imprisoned people standing? Wasn't Jerry Adams in the Long Kesh around 1972, but I'm not sure if that was a criminal conviction?
Matt Goodwin
@GoodwinMJ
·
1h
New
Reform 32% (+3)
Labour 25% (+1)
Tories 17% (-1)
Lib Dems 13% (-)
Greens 8% (-1)
Opinium Research
And are you seriously suggesting that Reform are not crazy?
To take that to its logical conclusion (and going full Goodwin) it is like saying Hitler was innocent because a lot of those that followed him were up for a fight anyway. It is nonsense.
Incitement to commit arson during a time of tension is to put it mildly very serious.
I mean UVF.
Need to see your GP? Able to phone at exactly 08.01 and wait on the phone for 20 minutes? You stand a chance. Maybe the GP will even give you a thought other than "Can we dope this person out of my office within 3 minutes?"
I irrationally dislike Wes Streeting (I'm entirely willing to admit) - but I hope he gets a vague handle on this with the cash he's been given. Even something as basic as a contact form for your GP that let you type in why you wanted an appointment. Madness to even think of such a thing, I realise. But futuristically you could imagine (sci-fi alert!) it scanned your records with 'the AI' and gave the GP a two-minute start on your appointment. Better than the zero minutes they had otherwise.
Last time I had an appointment with an NHS clinic it had a date and time - but no address. No postcode, no contact details - zilch. Name was totally generic. It was pure fluke I turned up at the right clinic on the day. I've had friends who missed heart scans as they went to the 'wrong' clinic. It seems like it's a very inward focussed system. Of course you know that you - patient 1235691 - should attend clinic AB-1X, and not clinic SY-2Y. Doh!.
I wonder how many people have died due to the Tuttle vs. Buttle thing.
There is definitely age discrimination in several sectors and physiotherapy is one of the worst offenders, although as mentioned above there is often a long waiting list for everyone.
There might be specific budget constraints but if you took a wider view and made sure people leaving didn't fall over quite so much or could get back to work earlier you'd save a lot more money elsewhere. I thought that was the original point of the NHS?
The famous Connolly tweet was at 8.30pm on the 29th July. There were others before and after (1 of each iirc). There were 300k views.
The first riots in Southport were 8pm the next evening, and involved clashes with police, barricades and shouts of "Tommy Robinson".
That timeline is about right for the tweet to have been a material element of the provocation.
I think that we are probably all reasonably fixed in our opinions by now.
I owe it no allegiance. I would never fight for it. King and country means nothing to me now
Your fellow Reformer Tice has now said the King was being too globalist and Europhile by mentioning shared challenges of border control and partnership with the French apparently at the President Macron state dinner, which he says the late Queen would not have done
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/11/richard-tice-criticises-king-charles-macron-migrants/
I’m quite genuine. This country’s government and Establishment no longer has my basic loyalty. It’s quite possible I would assist an invader to get rid of them
(For the record: I am far enough away from the coast not to worry -- and far enough away so that taking photos of any impact is impractical.)
(For the record: I am far enough away from the coast not to worry -- and far enough away so that taking photos of any impact is impractical.)
I'm in SF, and the waves are due to hit at 1230am
I have been amazed at how many regulars posters on this site have been so quick to write off and write the obituary Conservative party because of the current raise of the Reform party at least four years out from the next GE! I don't remember them writing the same orbituary for the the Libdems after their incredible poor GE result in 2015, or the Labour result in 2019 or the SNP nearly being wiped out in 2024?!
I find it rather telling that the calls for Kemi Badenoch to go are getting louder just as she is starting to make her mark as a new political leader who is honest and tells it like it is. This is totally anecdotal, but like me, the other Conservative members I talk to who voted for her are happy with the direction she is taking the party and like her honest plain speaking media savvy demeanor. She does not have a daily evening slot on GB news like Farage, but she turns up like the other Conservative MPs when it matters far more than he or his four 'current' colleagues ever do in Parliment.
Right now Keir Starmer and his whole Labour political operation is the worst political car crash in my adult life time following UK politics. The Libdems are being left as a protest vote totally unscrunitised, they are just sitting there under the radar doing absolutely nothing apart from throwing women under a bus for the last decade..
There's certainly a lot of truth to that.
But there's also a deeply fucked up tax and benefits system in the UK that means that it can be very difficult to get people to take minimum wage jobs, because their marginal tax rate is so high.
If you could solved that issue, making effective marginal tax rates never exceed (say) 25% for those at the bottom of the income scale, then you would enable a lot of British people to take these jobs.
https://x.com/DJSnM/status/1950325140077834265
Get well soon.
Supply is limited so they manage demand by queuing and barriers: you get it when you try and see a GP, and when they try and fob you off saying it's nothing, and you get it with consultants in clinics, and with elective care waiting lists.
Of course, a lot of men have trouble admitting there's even maybe something wrong with them in the first place, and need a lot of convincing to see a doctor. So it doesn't take much pushback for them to think "must not make a fuss", and give up.
And then it's too late.
That's the problem.
Religion.
It isn't even Orange Book, let alone Tory.
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/blogs/comparing-nhs-to-health-care-systems-other-countries
In a survey by the British Medical Association, 52 per cent of doctors who have completed foundation training say they do not have a job for August
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/bma-in-new-row-as-thousands-of-junior-doctors-cannot-get-nhs-jobs-pp0d7bt83 (£££)
This is the real scandal of the NHS. (Well, one of them anyway.)
Is there a solution or are they heading the same way as Morecambe.
It would be a shame, a fine club with a long tradition.
https://x.com/secondtierpod/status/1950125257194430814?s=61
https://x.com/hustlebitch_/status/1950393027433816570?s=61
She’s no political prisoner.
I don't necessarily agree with all that but I recognise that's where the centre of gravity of opinion is.
How we've missed him!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3EMolLIbQw
Was that discussed on here 3 weeks ago?
NEW THREAD
Would have been a bit surprising had it not been.