A wilding

The Russians are well known for doing dangerous violent aggressive stuff that makes little sense. It is designed to intimidate people, make them think that the Russians are capable of anything and must be placated.

At the risk of being Godwined this sounds distinctly reminiscent of German military strategy in the second half of WW2. Ironic really. A case of convergent behaviour of desperate dictators I suppose. Edit: this was in response to

Duplicate post (bloody edit function)

I have started, so I will continue for a bit ... Sorry, but your mother, in your words, "went on a rampage, smashing everything in sight for more than an hour, threatening to kill the cat when it came looking what was going on and kept threatening to destroy everything I own when at school and unable to stop her". And she kept up this behaviour until you had apologised and promised to do what she wanted. Even taking into account that this was your version of events, that is unquestionably abusive, however much she felt that you had insulted her. Probably hypochondria then. But listen to her claiming credit for "not complaining" while saying that you must stay with her until she dies because of this vague unspecified illness that she refuses to see a doctor about. Of course she has her self justifications, and of course she wants to sell those self justifications to you as well. But read what you have said! She denies that she's trying to talk you out of your ideas when clearly she is trying to talk (and rage and guilt) you out of them, and explicitly insisting that you must stay with her whatever your ideas are. Of course mothers worry endlessly about their offspring, but only dysfunctional ones try to keep them tied to their apron strings instead of letting them make their own mistakes and learn to fly by themselves. And her labelling your wish to do your own thing as "selfish" gives the lie to her claim to only be wanting what is best for you. As for her being "aghast that you are not more thankful" for all she has done for you - I can only give you my stance on that. Which is that we don't ask to be born and so are not in debt to our parents for birthing us and (hopefully) bringing us up. What debt we incur is one to be paid forward to our own children. We owe our parents honour, as the biblical commandment has it, and we should support them in their old age where possible and necessary, but once we get to adulthood we do not owe them obedience and we have the right to chose our own path.

You do realise that that is outright abusive behaviour on her part? I imagine that you know that her "illness" is hypochondria at best and completely fictitious at worst, and that she is using it as a weapon to control you. The bit about not wanting to see a doctor is telling. You are absolutely not being selfish. Getting some distance between you is the obvious sensible thing to do. What is more, it will probably be good for her too - without you there she will be forced to work out some sort of life for herself that does not revolve round her dysfunctional relationship with you. Good luck with your application. (Bad practice to give online advice I know, but your situation is just so clear I can't resist.)

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.

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.

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.

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

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 )

I had somehow missed that he had written another book. They are always worth a try, I have added it to my list.

That was the one who walked out. She reminded me strongly of one of my relatives, who gets aggressively furiously angry whenever her (sometimes way out there) beliefs are challenged, and is also very much into herbalism. To be fair to her, she is a chronic invalid that the NHS has been unable to do much for (though she has not made it easy for them), and who has been engaged in a years long battle with social services to get support.

There was an interesting Hannah Fry programme on the BBC the other night about Covid anti-vaxers. She gathered together a disparate group of people who had refused vaccination for various reasons, listened to them and tried to gently broaden their minds a bit. You see why she is such a good science communicator, it was interesting, even if she had a lot more patience with some of them than I would have done. I particularly noted when one of them just got up and walked out of the room when told things she did not want to hear. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0019g27/unvaccinated

If it helps, neck pain is often caused directly or indirectly by stress. Reviewing your posture, especially when seated, might be a good idea. I also suggest consulting a physiotherapist if possible.

Also a great deal of money has been and is being spent on investigating climate change and ways to ameliorate it. Though possibly not as much has has been spent obfuscating it. Not to mention hounding and ridiculing climate change scientists.

Possibly a Red Kite? Not sure how many of them there are up there, but they are very common in parts of England now. Their wide forked tail is usually their most obvious distinguishing feature.

Serves him right for not letting Joe Root get his century ...

Ouch, that sounds very unpleasant. They do seem to reduce the weight of some of there components down to the point where sometimes they only just have structural integrity don't they?

Woeful batting. Except possibly from Lees. The team clearly still has a serious attitude problem.

To be fair the socialised (if now underfunded) NHS has a similar problem. If you have a significant medical issue it is best to have a partner, relative or friend keeping you company who can act as your advocate as necessary. The usual problem is something slipping between the cracks because of lack of resourcing, though specialisation leading to conditions being treated rather than the whole patient can sometimes also be a factor.

Not going to criticise the NHS because some relatively minor first and second hand bad experiences with them were clearly down to them being overstretched and under resourced. But happy to have a crack at private medics, probably my best story is: An uncle (call him John) had a temporary urinary catheter inserted after an operation some years back. Elderly and a bit muddled, he found it inconvenient and uncomfortable and arranged to see a private doctor about it. This resulted in him going to a private hospital and having the catheter removed. They kept him under observation for an hour or so and then sent him home at 5pm because the private hospital was only open during working hours. Apparently it had not occurred to them that the catheter was there for a reason. So at about midnight Uncle John phoned 999 with a literally bursting bladder and was rushed to NHS A&E to have another catheter put in. Thankfully there was no long term damage, but it could have been very unpleasant.

Yes I have watched our understanding of the Roman occupation of Britain change in my lifetime to a narrative of slow decay beginning within only a hundred years or so after they invaded. (The relatively well preserved city of Calleva Atrebatum is not far from us and we have followed the yearly archaeological investigations there for a while as the story has slowly changed.)

The whole of LotR is full of miraculous exact timings. This has been argued as evidence that Iluvatar was quietly managing events in a manner distinctly reminiscent of a Christian god.