But It's A Totally Different Demographic Now..

When HMT Empire Windrush arrived on the shores of Tilbury Docks in 1948, over a thousand migrants, mostly of Caribbean descent, answered the call from a government and an NHS unable to fill posts in the aftermath of World War 2.

Today, there are well over 200 nationalities working in the NHS, with one in four of the entire workforce coming from overseas. When you include those who came as migrants but have since acquired British citizenship, the figure is higher still. Migration is part of the very DNA of our health service and social care services.

Maybe so, but we have to also face the fact that the modern influx of black and brown faces is a very, very different beast to that long-ago migration. 

No longer are we importing former colonial subjects, inculcated with the 'British way of doing things', able to speak clear English and with a work ethic that made them valuable. Things their descendents sadly often appear not to have inherited. 

No, the modern influx is often of those with little to no work ethic at all, from cultures that hate us or our freedoms, and who are little more than fifth columnists.

I have had the privilege of working with some amazing nurses during my career — including those who have trained all over the world. What unites nursing staff, whether British born or from across the globe, is care of the patient and a commitment to public service.

Maybe ask us 'customers' if we agree, eh? 

As Chief Nurse at King’s College Hospital, one of the largest hospital trusts in London, I saw selflessness and bravery every day.

In truth, our health and care services wouldn’t have survived the pandemic without our international colleagues.

Strange how no-one feels the same for the farmers, power station workers, highway maintenance men and shop workers, who surely are equally as deserving and actually worked to keep the nation running, the lights on and food on the shelves, while the NHS was manning empty hospitals, a fact even BBC Verify knows they can't challenge. 

For me, two things are true at the same time. We must welcome, treasure and respect our migrant nursing staff. We also need our government to recognise the value of nursing by investing to make it a more attractive career for young people from the UK.

We must, must we? No.  

It's not just about an incompetent, lying Chancellor

It's much, much more, as we all know.

But firstly ... which topic to go with this Sunday morning? Could have been abandoned pets, Patrick Byrne/Emerald Robinson/DJT, something nasty about Trudeau, something less nasty about Danielle Smith ... or maybe this below, not strictly Sunday fayre. As this is now ultra late (slept in, yes), here tis:

Not sure I could have put it better.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do

Not being completely up with these things, I had to look up when Advent starts ... it's tomorrow, Sunday. I was once in a Mosque as guest of a dignitary of a Russian Republic, taking the shoes off. Many years earlier, downunder, I was in a Synagogue during a new campaign for a super chandelier ... again as a guest, wearing a kipar or skullcap.

My gf and I were in a Buddhist temple a couple of decades ago, lighting a candle. I've also lit a candle in a Roman Catholic church. I have a tiny Orthodox cross for a pendant, bought in a Khram, the main one in a city. I've a vague memory of being in Westminster cathedral. I've been in the middle of Stonehenge many decades ago now near dawn. I've been in a Masonic Lodge for a concert by Talking Heads.

Point of all this? What to do when in a temporarily elevated position as a guest? How to react?  Obviously, in my mind at least, when in Rome, do as the Romans do ... yes, in the Sistine Chapel, I did lie on the floor and look up ... no one told me off.

How deeply? How far to get into it?  Depends on which country it was. In Sicily, it was obviously a Catholic church building or nothing. In Westminster Cathedral, it was obviously CofE.  One does as one must as a guest.

Christmas is an awkward time for the various hordes in Britain, inc. the atheist horde, although the latter have an escape valve ... Santa, reindeer, presents around the tree, Christmas stockings. By the way, I've been in Santa's workshop in Rovaniemi, Suomi, said hi to a reindeer as I went in. Ate a reindeer sandwich some days later with my hosts at a farm ... that bit I do regret, feeling they and I had crossed some red line.

I failed to unsubscribe from Quora, never got into Reddit ... they cater for the same normie crowd that Readers Digest used to ... very middling, secular ... types of people who watched Days of our Lives or listened to the Archies. My parents were avid Corrie fans.  One does as the Romans do, when in Rome.

This was in Quora this morning, from one Andrew Wright:

I’ve seen a couple shows that I can describe as being “disappointed” or “let down” by, but “ripped off?” One, and only one famous musician earns that lowly distinction.

This was at least 30 years ago. It’s Christmastime in Chicago and the iconic Chicago Theater is hosting for one night only, “The John Denver Christmas Show!”

Me? Not a fan. But I’ve gone to see plenty of acts where I “wasn’t a fan” and more often than not I come away pleasantly surprised. So, who was a fan? Grandma was! So…this’ll be awesome. We’ll pick up Grandma, take her out to dinner, and then enjoy a Christmas concert as a light snowfall gently meanders through the twinkling downtown lights.

John Denver had other ideas. On stage was a stool, a guitar, and a spotlight. No color. Not even a sprig of holly. The place is full. We’re near the front. Maybe 20th row or so. John comes out and starts to play. There’s plenty of hardcore fans who know every word and are singing along. Yep ok, fine. Pretty standard stuff.

Christmas? Zero, zip, nada. Maybe a generic, “Happy Holidays?” Again, no. What seasonal wishes, one might ask,John Denver want to convey?

Oh, why, politics! It wasn’t more than twenty minutes or so before the “John Denver Christmas Show” became long lectures/rants punctuated less and less frequently by an occasional (politically-tinged) song

 

As the show approached the one hour mark, we decided we’d had enough. I’m not sure I’ve ever walked out on a show before or since but we stood up from our seats and turned to do just that. Amazingly, we were the hold outs! As we walked up the aisle we discovered that 3/4 of the theater had already beaten us to it!

So, obvious next question is ... how much respect to show other people's commemorations and festivities? Well this of course includes this Ramadan and Diwali thing. Purim and other festivities from Judaism get a mention, someone writes an online piece ... as far as we're concerned, fine. I have two Romanian friends so I say Buno Diminatsa, transliterated, out of courtesy.

Two lots from the subcontinent though and the middle-east are seriously extracting the micturation, putting it politely. They can F off in my book because they've seriously crossed a line, they need stopping.

Question is ... how?  They're obviously aided and abetted by a traitor govt.

Letting The Side Down, Ladies...

A women's rights campaigner has rejected calls for female-only Tube carriages and said it should be men who are segregated in order to drive down harassment and sexual assault on the network.

 If that name sounds familiar, Reader, it should....

Patsy Stevenson, who was arrested by the Met Police at the Sarah Everard vigil, said a men-only carriage would be a better solution than segregating victims, because they constitute the 'majority' of offenders.

And - if such a thing was even possible on the overcrowded and unmonitored Tube - a men only carriage would result in...what, if not all the others being 'women only carriages'? 

Didn't think this through did you, airhead!  

It comes after the launch of a petition by UCL student Camille Brown, who called for women-only carriages on the Tube and for Sadiq Khan and TfL to 'do more to protect women'.

Ms Brown's petition, which has more than 13,000 signatures, asked for at least one dedicated women-only carriage on every Tube line in an attempt to curb gender-based harassment.

13,000 and I wonder how many of those were regular London Tube commuters. Because I am. and I know full well this idea is a total impossibility. As TfL (under the Muslim  Mayor of London, always happy to consider barmy virtue signalling insanity) know:

 The proposal has also been rebuffed by Transport for London (TfL) bosses who say they will not be considering women-only carriages.

Why does anyone entertain this nonsense? One interviewer wasn't happy to, and that's when the mask dropped: 

When challenged by presenter Wilfred Frost, who said that surely the problem 'could not be the majority of men', Ms Stevenson said: 'That would be lovely if it was a small minority, unfortunately it's definitely not. '

Good grief!  

Reaction to the murdering pensioners in hospital bill

 Nikki da Costa on X (not formatted, not abridged, as it was):

Something very odd is happening behind the scenes on Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill.

Multiple sources say Falconer is talking up with Govt bypassing the House of Lords entirely using the Parliament Acts — and has been planning this since the summer

That's why their first move, within hours of Committee starting, was to cry foul. They WANTED to escalate. And why language since then has hinted at something imminent: e.g. Kim Leadbeater to Times Radio: “I’m looking at ways..." and Paul Brand below:

Paul Brand

@PaulBrandITV

At close of debate, the Lords have only managed to get through one group of amendments to the Assisted Dying Bill today, representing 21 amendments in total.

Meanwhile, 82 new amendments were added in the last week alone.

Lords can't debate them as fast as they're being added.

At this rate the bill will be talked out by peers, unless something changes.

Now hearing some peers being told: “Accept our bill — or we’ll ram it through unchanged next session using the Parliament Acts and you will not have a further say”. Classic bullying. But here’s why that threat is nowhere near as scary as they want you to think:

The Parliament Acts are not a nuclear button. They’re a safety valve protecting Lords’ right to scrutinise. Wakeham Commission: because there is no check on Parliament, “the will of Parliament must be the product of careful consideration and debate… not wilfully [exercised]"

To force this bill through with the Parliament Acts next session, Falconer/Leadbeater would need:

'The whole idea is just to make driving unpleasant...'

Road lanes across the country are to become narrower to stop cars overtaking cyclists as part of a new war on motorists, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Likely to be far more successful than Labour's new war on asylum seekers, since no backbenchers will rebel against it... 

Official guidance quietly published last week on the Government's website states that the standard width of a road lane in Britain – which for almost 150 years has been 12ft – is no longer appropriate because of the safety risk posed to cyclists. Instead, lanes on local roads should either shrink no more than 10ft 8in wide or expand to at least 12ft 10in. Critics say space constraints in towns and cities mean they are far more likely to shrink.

This isn't something the government itself is persuing, it's outsourced it to another celebrity-helmed quango in an attempt to pretend its hands are clean... 

The guidance, which was drawn up by Active Travel England (ATE), a Government agency, will be applied to billions of pounds of future road building schemes, the MoS has learnt. Local authorities which defy the recommendations could see reduced transport funding.

It's yet more activist-driven nonsense with no thought given to the colatteral damage it will produce, slowing down deliveries and snaring emergency vehicles in gridlock. 

ATE's guidance follows a change to the Highway Code in 2022, which instructed drivers to leave space of at least 5ft when overtaking cyclists. ATE, which is led by former Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman, says motorists using a standard 12ft-wide traffic lane 'may try to overtake cyclists when there is not enough space', increasing the risk of collisions.

You know what else increases the risk of collisions, Chris? Cyclists acting like twats! Maybe crack down on that first, eh? 

The Department for Transport said claims that ATE is waging a war on motorists 'are false and misrepresent the guidance'.

'Our hands are clean, we got a proxy doing it for us'. 

We must escape the normie-karen trap

By normie-karen trap, I mean everyone from those who jumped on the bandwagon during covid and said the unvaxxed should be put in camps, untermensch, while they, the ubermensch could roam around freely …

… to today where there are people saying they’re MAGA, MEGA, populist … and yet they are not. I was looking at GB news and it was certainly mouthing the right words but they were essentially talking heads … the getting rid of Steyn, Calvin, Dan Wootton, others was most iffy, very MSM, like Newsmax … only allowed to furiously debate approved topics, never the dark underside … ditto with the Uniparty, plus the socialists such as the greens or crooks like Davey.

A real problem today are the Wokeleft, brainwashed young, esp. student girls:

...plus old biddies such as Polly at the Grauniad. Yet even those who know better are still religiously sticking to their TVs and MSM … not so much the BBC anymore but the Grauniad, “Indie”, Express, Wail … and while onliners are slowly waking up to the actual MSM, the controlled opposition such as Politico, GB News etc. caters for the slightly naive who want a Julia Hartley Brewer or That Alex Woman, “respectably dissident”, never having to face real issues in any depth … happy that this is what “alt” is about.

The real dissidents, for a start, are usually in trouble … they do congregate on X but not on TikTok, Instagram or Facebook which, politically, are play-soc-med, controlled by Wokeleft. The real cit-journos are forever shadowbanned, forever being taken down.

It’s also handicapped by undeveloped research skills … how many times have we had to remind our circle that such and such a person is iffy? Take, for example, a list of immigrant members of Congress, people like Omar who are easy to diss … also anyone Demonrat. That’s the easy bit.

More difficult is Victoria Spartz. She’s GOP and well hidden, yet still in plain sight.  Where to go to find out? Google search? As this post is on ggl, I'll say no more. Ditto with Wiki ... safe enough for nonpolitical topics, useless for political, as it's Wokeleft.

Have a look at that page, scroll down the sidebar to THAT photo.  Look left to right ... Slotkin, Spartz, Biden, right there in the oval office.  If you've been keeping up, you'd know Slotkin ... I was discussing the Seditious Six yesterday with a friend who was clearly not aware because he'd not done the reading ... it was bleedin' obvious.

But that's not enough due diligence. You also need to be aware, if discussing her, that her name is Viktoria, not Victoria.  And Spartz is hubby, who was travelling Moscow-Kiev and met her.  There was also a photo on X this morning of Kelly arm and arm with Soros Jnr.

VS is Ukrainian, in with Biden ... Nuff said yet?  If you get a chance, explore Victoria Nuland in 2014 ... there's a speech of hers on X.  Hence the Wokeleft cry to ban X, run it out of town.  It also mentions Two Tier and rent boys on X, in some detail.

All I'm saying is ... if you plan to argue a topic ... at least do the reading first in sufficient depth.

In two places since Saturday, a lady named Sarah White's interview by Hearts of Gold was posted ... she's the one arrested for showing a British flag.  She has good advice about how to fight back ... no, not by protest rally. By the way, she did raise the Union Flag but the one she's flying in her profile has no blue in the flag.  Wonder why not.

Now, if maybe 15% of us are exploring, while maybe 70% are just disgruntled, exploring only in a cursory, short attention span way, what chance the Karens and normies are ever going to wake up?

Well Tough Luck, Polly, Because Now is When They Are Having it

Britain is an insular country that needs reminding it is not alone in its political turmoil after an omnishambles week for Keir Starmer’s government.

Discontent and distrust spread as global democracy declines. Only 6.6% of the world’s people live in a full democracy, according to the Economist’s global index, down from 12.5% 10 years ago.

Oh dear, is this an inconvenient time for you, Polly?  

Only last year, Britain was heralded as the strong and stable nation of Europe, with Labour commanding a stonking great majority. As a result, the shock is all the worse now that, 16 months later, support for the government has plummeted to 18%, falling a frightening 15 points behind Reform UK.

It's called 'Buyer's Remorse'. 

True, it’s a government blighted by bad luck, inheriting Treasury account books with uncosted promises from the previous chancellor and Brexit damage even worse than predicted...

They can't blame the Tories forever, Polly... 

Voices expecting Starmer to last four years are mute, while despairing talk is only about who will succeed him and when. After the budget, perhaps? Or after May’s potentially apocalyptic local elections?

And the options aren't good. Frankly, its an 'out of the frying pan. into the industrial blast furnace' situation. 

I doubt a panicked leadership election now would lift Labour’s fortunes: a challenge might fail, the attempt would be messy, noisy and divisive, and it might not leave the impression of a fresh party knowing where it’s going.

Then that will be the correct impression. 

MPs might examine their own failings as well as their leader’s. I remain puzzled by how little enthusiasm Labour has managed to spread for the quite impressive list of things it has done in a short time that should please natural supporters.

Polly doesn't elaborate on what she considers  these 'quite impressive things' to be, and a trawl through her latest columns provided no clues. I suppose it depends on your definition of 'impressive'.

Asked what the government has done and what it stands for, sullen voters on doorsteps tell pollsters they don’t know. Well, it’s the difficult job of politicians to light their way, instil optimism and make coherent sense of their policies. For Labour, that’s 10 times harder against the distorting wall of sound of the vast rightwing hate media, far more mendacious now than in Tony Blair’s day. Mistakes are amplified, successes silenced.

Another person who believes there's 'a vast rightwing media' despoite who signs her paycheques. 

Coprighted images

In a bind this Sunday morning as there are two pressing topics I'd like to address, one on free speech and blasphemy laws ... t'other on copyright, esp. regarding images. The first would have the livelier discussion of course, the second, courtesy John in Cheshire, is one of those necessary cautionary tales.

Going to run with this latter, while the blasphemy one is better over at Unherdables in Sunday [1] where there's more scope for far greater length.  Doing this OoL one first.

This is what John in Cheshire sent yesterday:

I know that you do not use Discus, but this may be of interest to you. Tom Armstrong runs "Free Speech Feedback" site.   This morning he received notice of copyright infringement and asked if any readers can help.   This is one reply....

Tom, re the copyright infringement email you received, I asked this question in ChatGPT:

If an image deemed to infringe copyright is posted on a Disqus discussion which has been embedded in an iframe on my site, who should receive the infringement notice, me or Disqus?

This was the reply:

This situation depends on who actually hosts and controls the image, but here’s the practical and widely accepted breakdown:

Who usually receives the copyright notice?

The notice typically goes to the party that publicly published or distributed the infringing image.

In your scenario:

If the image was uploaded inside Disqus, the file is hosted by Disqus, not by you. The user uploaded it into Disqus’s platform, not onto your server. It is displayed on your site only because their system is embedded via an iframe, which keeps their content separate.

Therefore, Disqus is usually the legally responsible “service provider” for the image.
They would be the first target for a DMCA/infringement complaint.

But can you still receive a notice?

Sometimes, yes — even if you’re not ultimately responsible. Copyright-enforcement firms often:

Scan the visual content shown on your webpage ... Don’t understand (or don’t care) that the image is in an iframe ... Send the notice to the website owner anyway because the image appears on your site.

So in practice

You might be contacted, even if you’re not legally the uploader or host. If it happens, the correct response is usually to direct them to Disqus, since that’s the hosting & upload platform.

Why the iframe matters

When content is embedded via an iframe, your site is not “hosting” the content. You are not “reproducing” or “transmitting” the image; the browser loads it from Disqus’s server, not yours.

Legally, it’s more like linking, not publishing. This makes you much less likely to be considered the infringing party.

Important exception

If you yourself encouraged, solicited, or asked users to upload copyrighted images, a copyright owner might argue contributory infringement.

Summary ... most likely scenario

For normal Disqus usage, this is not an issue. Disqus, because they host the user-uploaded image.

However, you might still receive a notice simply because the image is visible on your page. If so, the appropriate response is to explain that the content is delivered via Disqus iframe. Provide the copyright claimant with Disqus’s DMCA agent info.

All right, that was the sum total of the text sent to me, pertaining particularly to Disqus. Frankly, I avoid Disqus like the plague or any other highly manipulative commercial comments offering, with two exceptions ... Google Blogger, plus Word Press. We could throw in Substack too. Each has its own set of Ts and Cs, plus it allows some things to happen, not others, on its own platform.

The complication is that different Ts and Cs apply in the US, Canada, the UK, the EU and the antipodes, where "first world civilisation" is found (risible today) ... and those Ts and Cs clash.

We're talking here about image copyright, not text nor footage.  The approach at OoL is (see policies in navbar):

Regarding copyright, all attempts are made to attribute images but if there's any issue, we require 24 hours to take down but will not, in any way, shape or form, respond to attempts at extortion.

The thing there is that "decent" complainants allow that period of grace ... for me, personally, it means instantly, upon reading it ... I take the image down.  It's not normally an issue at OoL but it often can be on some pages of Unherdables.  That's for us ... for Julia and me here.

The issue is predators deliberately scouring the net in order to relieve unsuspecting image uploaders of their hardearned ... extorters. We admins have that set response above.

With you, ordinarily, you would not be aware of the legal ins and outs but there is one exception, called "hotlinking":

That's a no-no.  I avoid it usually by screenshooting the pic, compressing it, as well as asking the uploader for permission or if not possible, then at least attributing afap.

Of Bailey at the BofE, Rupert, Monty Python and Ancient Rome

Rupert wrote, two days ago:

The Governor of the Bank of England must resign. Earlier this month, I was provided with evidence stating that Andrew Bailey had sent this correspondence to Bank of England staff following my criticism of a Bank internship scheme that specifically excluded white applicants. Bailey sent this message to Bank staff, using Bank of England systems. "Mr Lowe has stooped to a level no politician should ever stoop to. It’s entirely regrettable and frankly we should have no time for this sort of thing." Strict rules specifically prevent Bank staff from acting politically - which this evidently is. I have contacted Mr Bailey, who has just responded with this. "In my message to staff of 24 October, to which you refer in your email, I made these points clear to my colleagues across the Bank who may have had concerns about your comments condemning these programmes as ‘vile’ and as 'racist filth’." This is outrageous. I made fair criticisms of an internship scheme that specifically banned white people from applying. The Bank's independence is of absolute importance, the governor must be impartial and uninvolved in politics - particularly not to use the bank's influence to spread any political messaging against a sitting MP. This is disgraceful behaviour. Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, must resign or be sacked.

Hearts of Oak wrote 13 hours ago now:

Lord Pearson telling the government that the Grooming Gang problem should not be laid at the door of Pakistani Men but with Muslim Men. Therefore the problem is religious and not ethnic. Hear the gasps from the chamber at the end.

In Monty Python's Dead Bishop sketch, the housewife says to the officer: Society is to blame."

"We'll be charging them too."

There's truth in that though. Much as people might not like it, there was a code of ethics underpinning western society even as recently as the mid 60s which the people of the time at least paid lip service to ... see Profumo, Ward, Christine Keeler and Mandy R-D.

The loss of that code, which so many critics saw as just a Sodom and Gomorrah danger, was vastly more than that ... it was hordes coming south to ancient Rome, it was also a different flood of hordes up through the Iberian Peninsula, it was the later Gates of Vienna ... the badly educated person today, brought up on Fabian Wokery at home and in schools (see Enoch Burke) is truly ignorant of past ... condemned to repeat the same invasion and dark ages as before.