OneGuyFromBarlick

From my heroine Judge Judy's show today -

I went to the Doctor's office and asked him how to live to be a hundred. His advice was just two words.

Dead right David, particularly on the last three steps of your stairs at home.
According to ROSPA domestic accidents cost the UK economy £45.63billion annually. (LINK)

We've all seen it, watch someone with restricted mobility and they with a lot of difficulty shuffle along until until they get within about 3 feet of something they can hang on to. Instead of taking that extra step they lean over miss judging the distance and fall over. Result... broken Hip. Not the best thing to be doing in todays covid ridden plague island.

A bad fall in old age often marks the beginning of the end. We've seen it in our parents and others. Sometimes it results in the onset of dementia, other times death soon follows. The fall is often a big step change downwards in longevity. Best avoided at all costs!

You are both right.
Ken, did you see the report by London Underground that the number of falls on stairs had risen and they suspected it was because people weren't using the hand rails on account of fear of Covid infection.
The main reason I use a walking stick is extra insurance against losing my balance.
Two blokes I knew who were in the tank room at Holme on Spalding Moor dairy died of cancer. They both said that it was a fall on the stairs at the dairy that triggered it.

"For a long time I have not said what I believed, nor do I ever believe what I say, and if indeed sometimes I do happen to tell the truth, I hide it among so many lies that it is hard to find."

Niccolo Machiavelli c.1532.
Remind you of anyone?

Dominic Cummings tweeted this today - and since it is a question I've been shoutimg at the TV for a while, I'll post it here -

"Labour should be asking: You say you were repeatedly assured... BY WHO (sic) AND WHY HAVEN'T YOU FIRED THEM YET? "

By not asking this very obvious question to the PM, and all his faithful ministers who followed the 'line to take' yesterday, they are failing us.

I dream that as a protest against Mr Johnson's lies they do not ask a single question at the next press conference / presentation. Won't happen though.

Tripps wrote: ↑10 Dec 2021, 14:43 Dominic Cummings tweeted this today - and since it is a question I've been shoutimg at the TV for a while, I'll post it here -

"Labour should be asking: You say you were repeatedly assured... BY WHO (sic) AND WHY HAVEN'T YOU FIRED THEM YET? "

By not asking this very obvious question to the PM, and all his faithful ministers who followed the 'line to take' yesterday, they are failing us.

I dream that as a protest against Mr Johnson's lies they do not ask a single question at the next press conference / presentation. Won't happen though.

Why haven't they asked the most obvious question may be because they have already got a fall guy to take the rap and possibly a very generous golden parachute that would kill the speculation in one move. Leave it unasked and you may get some very nervous people prepared to implicate others to save their own skins. Left alone the plot gets bigger and bigger drawing in more people who were hoping to escape the drop.
This is my own cynical view which may be completely off beam but when dealing with a nest of vipers its best to keep away for a while.

'Nest of vipers'. What a good description Ken.
David, you are quite right but in the Alice in Wonderland world that is the Palace of Westminster, things are not always as they seem in the world outside to us, the oiks..... (Especially if you were educated in Slough.)

If the people at the party haven't done anything wrong why aren't the public told who they were?

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" (Juvenal)

Unmasked lady in Town Square to a shopkeeper on smoking break outside.
" Is it me or is it quiet? Some people are taking this Covid far too seriously!"
Yes Love, they are and I'm one of them!

Take your pick for Quote Lie of the Day from our Prime Minister


1. Boris Johnson has said he "certainly broke no rules" as questions continue to plague the government over parties during lockdown last Christmas.

2. At least one person in the UK has died with the Omicron coronavirus variant, the prime minister has said.

3. I think that the idea that this is a milder version of the virus - that's something we need to set to one side.

David, handy for him to have something to be executive and urgent to speak about that has nothing to do with his purely political problems. The by-election will be another element in his defences. (but he could be in trouble if it goes badly....)

Chris Witty responding to accusations from Tory MPs that he is overstepping the line by giving advice to the public on Covid measures...
"From the very beginning, the very first chief medical officer in the 1850s, chief medical officers have always given advice to the general public." LINK

From Comments elsewhere

"If ever you feel useless just remember that it took the US 4 Presidents, trillions of dollars, thousands of lives, and 20 years to replace the Taliban with.....

"

I hadn't seen that Peter. Joy Morrissey is an extremely silly woman if she thinks that politicians are better qualified to give advice than the MOH. She should read some history and I would recommend THIS Wikipedia article on Dr John Snow and the efficacy of his advice on drinking dirty water and Cholera.
But think of the billions of dollars firms like Halliburton made out of the war David. Much of the money spent was recycled through the US economy. Think of the effort needed to make the munitions and war machinery. When the 'trillions of dollars are mentioned the impression is given that the money simply vanished into the sands of Afghanistan. War is one of the best stimulants to trading and industrial activity there is.

Stanley wrote: ↑18 Dec 2021, 04:29 ar is one of the best stimulants to trading and industrial activity there is.

Yes, and we paid Krupps for the fuses we used in our ordinance to bomb them. Not even war stands in the way of a profit.

It's useful sometimes to stand back and take a look at where our current capitalist system has taken us. It began with us making products and providing services that other people needed. You didn't always have what the other person wanted so money was invented to provide the system with liquidity. Thousands of years later we've arrived at a situation where making products and providing services has become a minor part of the system while the major part consists of creaming off profit at all the many stages from, for example, design of the product to finally delivering it. This is the real magic money tree - the more steps you insert into the process, the more opportunities to skim off some profit. Result? 1. Products and services are too expensive unless made `offshore' in a very low-wage economy or by suppressing the local `onshore' wages. 2. A small sector of the population gets rich from the skimmings at the multitude of stages without being significantly productive in the true sense of making the things and providing the services. I know it's being going on for a long time but it's now become extreme and something will break eventually.

That's a good succinct explanation of the reason things are expensive Peter. Thanks.
If anyone wants to really understand what's going on and the dangers, read 'Capital' by Thomas Piketty.....

Stanley wrote: ↑19 Dec 2021, 04:59 That's a good succinct explanation of the reason things are expensive Peter. Thanks.

We aim to please! (I should put that phrase in the Flatley Dryer thread!)

Quite right about the Krupps Fuses Ian, see THIS page quoting from Manchester's book on Krupps. (More trustworthy than the writer suggests in my opinion.)
Note also his comments about the armour plate Cartel which was even more egregious.

Elsewhere Stanley referred to the 'dramatic rendition' used by modern news readers on radio and TV. This reminds me of the frequent need for senior editors at The Times to remind their writers and editors to avoid `elegant variation' - the attempts to avoid repetition by throwing in a lot of synonyms, which simply results in irritated readers.

Wikipedia gives plenty of examples... Wikipedia

It is tempting and I have always tried to avoid repetition. I didn't use synonyms as much as coming at the subject from a different direction... (If that makes any sense.)

From the daugher of Archbishop Desmond Tutu at his funeral.

"I don't know what a cockle is - but whatever it is - it has been warmed"