A wilding

I agree. Whatever you think of constitutional monarchy, (and personally I think she did an exemplary job of being a ceremonial head of state) the Queen always did what she considered her duty. She clearly made mistakes (noticeably Charles' education and forced first marriage) but she had an impressive work ethic. She literally got off of her deathbed to carry out her last ceremonial change over of PM! (And poor woman, going from PM Churchill to PMs Johnson and Truss.) So while I find the obsequies a bit overdone, I am not going to begrudge them. It is the end of an era. And I consider notional dancing on her grave a bit uncouth, in the way that dancing on, for example, Boris Johnson's would not be.

As another recent retiree, it seems pretty good so far, Advice: There is lots of volunteer work out there, even if much of it needs some specialist skills. I recommend easing in gently and not taking on too many things too quickly. If your garden is not big enough for veg, try looking into getting an allotment. Though they are also a lot of work, perhaps consider getting a half or quarter sized one. Do make sure you get your wills, lasting powers of attorney, living wills, etc sorted out now. Don't wait until someone gets ill. (Though perhaps at only 44 you can wait a bit longer!)

Tell us about it. Haven't you noticed the contempt that many of us hold him in? The key to understanding Johnson is the quote in one of his childhood school reports to the effect that he gets upset at the very idea that he should be expected to follow the rules that every one else has to. To his mind he has done no wrong because it is impossible for him to do wrong. Complaints about his actions are to be resented, met with a charm offensive, or ignored, and to be forgotten as soon as possible.

In the UK libraries are run by the state at the taxpayer's expense. So the taxpayer pays. (However, as with most public services in the UK, the funding has been drying up and many libraries have been downsized or closed. Another stupid ideology driven economy.)

I would not want to swear to that, Though Mrs W apparently had no idea that she was a lesbian until I mentioned it shortly after she quit, for whatever that is worth. However her actions over the last year or so of her reign more than justified her defenestration. She probably hung on for as long as she did only because Patel found it useful to keep someone in the role who knew that one word from Patel would finish her off. Not to mention that the Jean Charles de Menezes fiasco should have prevented her ever being given the job in the first place.

Several countries, including the UK have a Public Lending Right system, under which authors are paid a small fee every time one of their books is borrowed from a library. As I understand it, for at least some authors this adds up to a significant income.

Several countries, including the UK have a Public Lending Right system, under which authors are paid a small fee every time one of their books is borrowed from a library. As I understand it, for at least some authors this adds up to a significant income.

Sorry, but the implication that Cressida Dick was forced out because she was a lesbian is complete nonsense, Nor is she even the first Met Commissioner whose resignation, after a long string of issues, was finally forced when the mayor of London publicly lost confidence in them. Edit: she is absolutely right about the Police and Crime Commissioners though. They are a mostly a waste of space, having been created by Cameron as sinecures so as to increase his powers of patronage,

If you want help I can definitely recommend the Samaritans. I have known a couple of their volunteers and once phoned them myself (on behalf of someone else). In my experience they really are good.

Review bombing

Corruption as usual. Get "the Government" to pay for an expensive lawyer to act on Johnson's behalf and to give him legitimacy. Have them produce some sort of statement in defence of Johnson. Big up what it says while refusing to let anyone see it. Get the Tory supporting parts of the media to join in. Have them declare: What a disaster it will be if Ministers have to be careful not to say things that are not true to Parliament! How shocking that they cannot lie and be immune from being called out on it! How impossible it will be if they have to quickly correct the record if it turns out that something they said was false! The defence seems basically to once more be that Johnson is a fool rather than a knave. The "knowingly" in "never knowingly mislead parliament" is being asked to do a lot of work. More generally, it does feel that the Tory establishment is worried that Truss will be a disaster and is increasingly hankering to have Johnson back again. But given that they are worried that he would lose his seat in a recall by-election if he is censored, then surely they understand that he is now an electoral liability?

And what about the risk of being hurt or killed in a vehicle accident on the way to or from the vaccination centre? Because that might well approach 1/1,000,000 in the UK.

Our German relatives also make heavy use of it. They seemed to be visiting somewhere almost every other day.

While getting the taxpayer to pay for his own energy usage ...

Truss really does have only one answer for anything doesn't she. "Tax cuts". And they called Theresa May the Maybot ... At least Thatcher had a self justification for tax cuts - that the wealth would "trickle down" to the poor. If Truss has one, I have not heard it.

The Russians are bullies who specialise in brinkmanship. The idea is to convince people that they are capable of anything to make them cower. This has always been how they operate.

Where does Jeremy Corbyn come in? I thought he was still suspended from the Labour party? Edit:

It has been a more sudden thing. The Tories have had a crazy wing for a long time, but since the Brexit referendum they have completely taken the party over in a comparatively short time. From my Remainer perspective this was a predictable consequence of the impossibility of making good on the promises made by the Brexiteers. Look at the way that Cameron and many of his peers made a rapid exit for example.

Agreed. Though apparently our Rishi was consistently a "damn the torpedoes, let Covid rip until we gain herd immunity" guy but was shouted down by the rest of the Cabinet. If you want a gallows laugh, do read the articles. The tone of his remarks seemed oddly familiar, and having thought about it, it is because he sounds just like post sacking Dominic Cummings. It seems that he was always right about everything and the mistakes were all other people's.

Rishi Sunak: Mistake to ‘empower scientists’ in Covid pandemic Apparently we did not consider the trade offs of restrictions, such as missed doctor appointments and mounting NHS backlogs. I would make a sarcastic comment or two, but it is such an open goal I can't be bothered. (Just think "had enough of experts" or "I have alternative facts"). Edit: Ninjaed

It would be easy to let the privileges committee do its stuff, and hope that it dishes Johnson. She can still condemn their actions to keep the Johnson supporters onside. Trying to block them would be a Johnsonian like breach of the UK's unwritten constitution. It would burn her political capital amongst the wider electorate, by her being seen to both be endorsing Johnson's behaviour and demonstrating his contempt for rules. On the other hand elements in the Tory party might well block the privileges committee anyway. And even if they don't, it is still a long road to a recall petition and a by election kicking Johnson out of parliament. Even then, he would doubtless once more once more become a right wing media personality wielding a lot of influence. He might even stand for parliament again at the next election if he can find a sufficiently safe seat.

Would you like to sin With Elinor Glyn On a tiger skin? Or would you prefer to err with her on some other fur? (That has always stuck in my mind for some reason )

Yes, think about that number for a moment. 31 energy suppliers. A stupidly large number for the size of the market. But of course they were all able to operate with the backstop that the consumer and/or the taxpayer would pick up the bill when they failed. It shows the nonsense of the idea that there is any sort of real market going on. The people running those companies were mostly well aware that they would go out of business if prices went up. Their business model was to extract as much money out of the system as possible for as long as the going was good and to walk away as soon as it went bad, Depending on your point of view, the regulator was either asleep at the wheel or placed in an impossible position. But it is extremely difficult to make out that privatisation has, in practice, been successful.

If you dig into the case I linked, you see that the police needed a lot of persuasion to prosecute and probably only did so in the end because of heavy pressure from the parents of the dead baby. A question of resources and priorities I suppose.

I think that doctors need real courage to tell a patient they can no longer drive. They have to face the patient's likely denial and wrath, and to work through some time consuming official procedures as well. Plus there are legitimate issues of patient confidentiality. Small wonder that most of them just give advice to give up, even though the patient then often wilfully misinterprets or ignores this advice and goes on driving anyway. I am morally certain that in one of my cases the doctor did advise giving up, but the person concerned then lied to us (and possibly themselves) about what the doctor had said.