Thursday, 11 December 2025
The eternal, conflicting schedules of antiWoke forces
Wednesday, 10 December 2025
Cut-Price Zebra Crossings?
A scheme that trialled the use of “unlawful” zebra crossings on side roads has been hailed a success after increasing the number of motorists who stop to let pedestrians cross the road.
But if they aren’t legal, why are they putting them in? Why aren’t they putting in legal ones?
The initiative was launched by Westminster council on 11 side roads, at junctions with main roads such as Millbank, Horseferry Road, Pimlico Road and Wardour Steet. Typically, drivers exiting side roads – or turning in from main roads – tend not give way to pedestrians waiting to cross the road, despite being required to do so under a recent update of the Highway Code.But when “side road zebra crossings” were introduced, the trial found that drivers stopped on about 80 per cent of occasions – about double the number prior to their introduction.
So drivers aren’t recognising that they aren’t legal, clearly. Well, most of them, anyway!
Westminster believes the results are so compelling that it is urging all 32 other London boroughs to follow its lead and introduce similar measures. Southwark is believed to be the next in line to do so.
A council urging other councils to do something illegal! Gosh, why isn’t this considered a scandal? Is it because it’s working?
Max Sullivan, Westminster’s cabinet member for streets, said the idea was “a rare unicorn… effective, popular and cheap”. He said: “I would like all boroughs to engage with it.”
You forgot ‘legal’, Max! Why isn’t it legal then?
Mr Sullivan said that traditional zebra crossings cost £60,000 to £120,000 each to install, due to the electrical connections required. By comparison, the “side road zebras” can be installed for £20,000 to £25,000, a “fraction of the cost”, including the cost of monitoring, he said.
And when someone's eventually run down on one of them, what are the CPS going to charge the driver with? What is the victim going to sue the council for, for encouraging a belief that this was a safe road crossing?
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
Monday, 8 December 2025
The NHS Is On It's Knees, Yet Has Time For This?
The HIV action plan, to be unveiled on World Aids Day on Monday, aims to re-engage the thousands of people who have left HIV care, bringing them back to lifesaving treatment. The £170m package also includes funding for opt-out HIV testing at A&Es during routine blood tests in areas with the highest rates, including London and Manchester.
I thought the NHS was struggling to treat the people that WANT to be treated, without worrying about the ones that don't want to be treated?
A steady decrease in HIV diagnoses was recorded in England from 2005, but progress faltered during the pandemic, with testing disrupted and an increase in the number of new cases. As a result of new treatments, HIV is now a manageable condition.
Given the plethora of evidence around to show how to avoid infection, why is it rising? New ‘Britons’, perhaps.
There are also as many as one in 10 people living with diagnosed HIV who are not under medical care, according to a National AIDS Trust report published in September. The latest action plan aims to renew efforts to re-engage people with treatment and boost testing to ensure that transmissions continue to be pushed down.
Why do they need to be reengaged?
The Department for Health and Social Care said it would target its support towards the approximately 5,000 people living with HIV who had fallen out of medical care, for reasons including mental health issues, addiction, poverty and fear of judgment. Hospital staff in trusts where the opt-out scheme is in place will receive anti-stigma training, so patients can access care without fear of being judged for their HIV status.
So what demographic area are we focussing on here?
Prof Susan Hopkins, the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, said the latest figures showed progress towards the 2030 target, with about 95% of those living with HIV now knowing they have the virus. “But about 4,700 people remain undiagnosed, including one in three in Black African communities and higher rates of late diagnosis in older age groups,” she said. “People need testing that meets them where they are, in ways that feel safe and accessible.”
I say we cut them loose, if they don't want to benefit from modern medical advances, that's their choicw.
Sunday, 7 December 2025
Probably need to address the allegedly inveterate liars
It’s fair to say Rachel Reeves’ second budget has been about as controversial as her first one. The chaos in advance of the budget has continued after with blame games and briefings, the head of the OBR resigning, an emergency press conference from the prime minister and the PM’s chief secretary blowing apart their previous claims of a £22 billion black hole. While the optics and politics might be bad for ministers, the budget itself is unravelling before our eyes.While the chancellor and her team have stressed the £21.7 billion of headroom, as Adam Smith explained in the Telegraph, this figure is “built on sand”. In order to maintain this headroom, Reeves is now committed to cutting departmental spending, increasing energy bills, and reining in welfare spending (not really, just slowing its increase).While we’d certainly cheer on two of those - you can guess which ones - does anyone really think Labour backbenchers would tolerate any of it, beyond the reimposition of green levies on energy bills that is… And that’s before her back-loaded tax rises kick in.Elsewhere, Reeves delighted in cutting business rates for pubs by 5 pence, but as ever it was just more smoke and mirrors. The loss of rate relief combined with new rateable values mean pubs will see their tax bills sky rocket. Throw in minimum wage increases and bigger national insurance bills and you get 90 per cent of pubs now expecting to hike the price of a pint while the hospitality sector could lose 100,000 jobs. Not forgetting that taxes already account for 28 per cent of your pint!
Just a quick word about fair usage ... ordinarily, I go with up to half the post from the source but in this case, as it's a newsletter with no url, it seemed to be a reasonable way to get it to readers.
Saturday, 6 December 2025
Poor document issued by the White House ... misses so much of the danger
Friday, 5 December 2025
If There's No Stigma Why Are You 'Working To Break The Cycle'?
The Princess of Wales has called for an end to the "stigma" surrounding addiction, and urged people to offer "empathy and support" to those dependent on alcohol, drugs or gambling.
Another mistake, abolishing shame as the Left wanted us to do hasn’t ushered in a paradise on earth, has it?
Catherine, who sent the message to mark Addiction Awareness Week, said "significant progress" has been made to better understand addiction, but warned more needs to be done. The princess is the patron of The Forward Trust, a charity that tries to break the cycle of addiction and is behind the campaign running from 23-30 November.
Ah, a mouthpiece and figurehead, like her long lost mother-in-law-who-never-was. Just another modern example of why the Monarchy is no longer something we can be proud of.
She said addiction was "not a choice or a personal failing, but a complex mental health condition that should be met with empathy and support".
We have enough of those going untreated and their sufferers free to spread misery already, don’t we? Why add more?
She added: "But still, even now in 2025, people's experience of addiction is shaped by fear, shame and judgement. This needs to change.
"The stigma surrounding those who face addiction allows it to thrive behind closed doors, impacting families and communities, and ultimately ruining lives."
Are the progressives determined to strip every last vestige of personal choice from everything? Sorry, rhetorical question, I guess…
Thursday, 4 December 2025
On big name pundits and on the NHS
This is going to be a long post because it covers two topics ... one completing the post from Tuesday, correcting an error ... the other about the NHS.
First the Tuesday post ... I was criticising big name alt-pundits with "shows" on TV and radio ... mentioning Benny Johnson and Emerald Robinson in the States but I was also thinking Hannity and Beck, even Alex Jones.
Though still not enamoured of "empire builders" on the back of news, there is a flip side to the argument ... the big names do attract the attention of people like ... for example ... DJT:
And the fact is ... "smaller" pundits do not. There it is. Meanwhile, back over here in Blighty ... if Rupert is to be believed ... don't get ill. If you do, your chance of treatment is slim, unless you go private:
I find it so difficult to believe that in 2025 Britain, different parts of the NHS just refuse to talk to each other. The lack of joined up thinking in the health service is just remarkable. Sheer incompetence at every turn, and we're expected to be grateful for this third world level of service?
Wednesday, 3 December 2025
These Aren't 'Examples Of A Concerning Staff Culture'
Home Office contractors are over-using restraint in immigration detention centres and failing to tackle the toxic culture behind bars, according to the findings of a new watchdog report described as “deeply concerning”.
Oh, boo hoo!
It highlighted how routine handcuffing, particularly during hospital transfers, appeared to have become the default rather than the exception. In one case, a frail 70-year-old man was handcuffed despite paperwork noting no evidence of risk.
What about the risk of escape?
The IMB national chair, Elisabeth Davies, said: “It’s about operational force being used for operational convenience.” She added that she has written to the Home Office “numerous times” raising concerns about the high levels of handcuffing and the lack of clear justification provided.
Frankly, operational convenience should always win out over the feelings of these bleeding hearts.
The report provided examples of restraint IMB is concerned about, including a man who was on constant suicide watch who was screaming and resisting removal. He took off his trousers and was carried naked from the waist down to a plane. Staff took turns to push his head against his seat. The report found the impact on his dignity to be “profound”.
What about the impact on the rest of the passengers? Or don't they count?
It also reprinted a note on a detention centre staff whiteboard saying: “Thought of the Day: Handle Stressful situations like a dog. If you can’t eat it or hump it, piss on it or walk away.” Davies said the sign was not hidden in any way. She has called for changes in staff culture and said the sign was an example of staff culture: “I think that offers little reassurance.”
There are worse motivational signs and at least this one wasn't purchased in a job lot by an office dresser..
Another example of a concerning staff culture highlighted by the report involved an incident where a personal protection trainer told officers: “If someone’s coming at me, I’m going to keep myself safe. I don’t worry about what’s proportionate, I won’t worry about Serco or my job, my priority is to look after myself.”
Who could possibly argue that this was the wrong attitude? Well, except the bleeding-heart female manager of this wretched organisation, of course.
Missed opportunities for de-escalation are also identified in the report, including a case where a man was restrained after failing to obey an instruction to stand up. The report finds no evidence of a trauma-informed approach, despite many detained people having experienced trauma, including torture and trafficking, with nothing to indicate that this was being considered when planning or executing force interventions.
If an order is given and someone fails to obey it, what should they do, Lizzy? Just wait until he feels like doing it? Why is this wet blanket in her position, anywway? Were there no male ex-prison governors available for the job?
“We need meaningful cultural change and robust accountability to protect the rights of highly vulnerable people in detention. As national chair, I call on the Home Office to act urgently to strengthen oversight, embed trauma-informed practices, and ensure that force is only used when absolutely necessary.”
I call on the Home Office to ensure the right people with the right attitudes are given the job of IMB chair!
Tuesday, 2 December 2025
Stating the obvious and building an empire
Lara Logan delivered one of the clearest, most powerful breakdowns you’ll hear this year — and it’s only 2 minutes long. Her core argument: many of today’s biggest “crises” share the exact same pattern on purpose. They take something natural or unavoidable… → label it a fatal flaw → declare it impossible to ever fully fix → and then demand endless control to “manage” it. Examples she gives: • Breathing out CO2 (essential for plants & all life) → framed as planetary poison • Natural human tendency to feel most comfortable around shared culture & values (Chinatown, Little Italy, every diaspora ever) → branded as bigotry • Normal masculine or feminine instincts → called “toxic” • Even consciousness itself → “unconscious bias” you can never fully escape “Create a problem that can never be solved,” she says, “and you can rule through it forever.” Once you hear her explain the tactic, you start seeing it everywhere — climate, identity, food, energy, speech. If you’ve felt something was off for years but couldn’t quite name it… this is it.







