sime42

And therein lies the problem. We need a government with gumption, a government with balls and teeth. We've not had one of them for years. I'll try my hand at most things, but I'll draw the line at managing the countries financies. Happy to trust you with my tax if you fancy yourself though! I'll give you a two years trial period to produce some improvements.

I appreciated it, thanks. It was one of the four new words for me. I looked up the first couple but couldn't be bothered there after.

It's an adrenaline addiction I think with most of them. Just the same as any other addiction. If I was that way inclined I'd choose to go jumping off a mountain or something, instead of on the end of a needle in some filthy squalid drug den. Thankfully I'm not that way inclined.

Of course they aren't. It'll involve some pain unfortunately. Of the tax variety probably, as Stephen P noted above. Got to be worth it though. Personally I far rather pay more tax for a decent water supply and clean rivers and seas. Better than paying over the odds for some foreign owned bloodsucking scumbag company to dump shit in our rivers and seas and piss the clean water away into the ground with leaks. Alternatively, maybe the government could stop wasting money on expensive crap like HS2 and fcking AI data centres. Whilst simultaneously having the courage to tax the disgustingly rich elites and American big tech firms.

Wordle 1,490 X/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨 ⬜⬜🟨🟩🟨 🟨🟩⬜🟩⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 WTF was that?! Four words I've never even heard of.

Whilst I take a break from today's particularly grueling Wordle.............. Obviously that would happen if we sold it to another private company, they're parasites as you say. I wasn't suggesting that though. Critical infrastructure is just that, critical. We shouldn't be letting bloodsuckers anywhere near it. If other more civilised countries can make it work why can't we? Top 10 countries where public ownership is totally normal | We Own It WEOWNIT.ORG.UK Public ownership is flourishing across Europe!

Tax rises to pay for nationalising wouldn't be met with my tears certainly. That's the kind of stuff we pay tax for, there's scarcely anything more important to life than water. If it works for Holland there's no reason it shouldn't work for us.

Yep. Disgraceful. We leak and lose 19%, in Holland they only lose 4%. ""One of the results of this asset-stripping model is that leakage rates remain disgracefully high. While the hosepipe bans now being introduced around the nation are likely to save between 3% and 7% of the water we would otherwise use, 19% of the water piped through the network is lost through leakage. Compare this with the publicly owned Dutch system, which loses 4%. For the same reason, no major reservoir has been completed here since 1992.""

High water bills, filthy rivers – and now drought. This is England’s great artificial water crisis of 2025 | George Monbiot | The Guardian WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM In its refusal to nationalise water, it’s clear the government operates in the interests of private capital and not of the country... Not much to disagree with there. (Other than the author maybe). We've been stitched up like kippers by these water companies. And still Labour refuse to nationalise critical infrastructure.

Serious water pollution in England up 60%, government says WWW.BBC.CO.UK Last year had the highest number of pollution events by water companies ever recorded.

Not angry, no. I'm not at all an angry person in life. You should have sensed that by now. I don't know why anyone would get angry all the time about stuff on the internet. Somewhat exasperated, yes. Exasperated at still not succeeding to get the Blagger to answer a straight yes/no question. Exasperated at not being able to find common ground, it's always possible with anyone else. Is the NHS failing because of illegal immigrants? Yes or No.

No Blagger. You're not known for ignoring things that you don't agree with, au contraire in fact. Nor do I believe that you have no interest in why the NHS is not performing. I think that you have an aversion to finding common ground with some people, for some reason. No more BS, time for straight talking. This isn't Arsetalk. Is the NHS failing because of illegal immigrants? Yes or No.

What dubious claims? You didn't answer the question again btw Blagger. If you don't agree with my suggestions as to why the NHS is breaking then say so. Ideally come up with some other ideas. We've established that it's not because of illegal immigrants at least.

I'm pretty certain that you implied it. You have a record of blaming bad stuff on "illegals" and any other kind of "others". You really really need to comprehend the difference between legal and illegal immigrants. Since that was the only point you picked up on, hopefully that means you agreed with everything else. So there aren't many illegal immigrants in UK hospitals, and they're not breaking the NHS. Maybe we can find some common ground, some consensus on why it is failing so badly. Obesity, creeping privatisation, piss poor management, a broken social care system, an aging and increasingly unhealthy population. Do you disagree with any of those, or any other possible causes to add to the list? On a lighter note - dinner! What did you have last night, did you enjoy it?

On that last sentence I think we can all agree. That and the fact that we all enjoyed our dinners.

Lovely, just lovely. I've not had that in years. I used to put a couple of wedges of lemon in as well. The acidity cuts through and compliments the offalness of the liver and the fatty/saltiness of the bacon a treat.

That's an odd conclusion. I wish even some politicians thought like me to be honest, the country would be a better place indeed. IMO obviously! I was merely countering a ridiculous claim made the other day: that illegal immigrants, that arrived yesterday, are somehow breaking our NHS. Since I'd just had first hand experience of the situation. They're not. The NHS is clearly fooked, but it's not because of them. Obesity, creeping privatisation, piss poor management, a broken social care system, an aging and increasingly unhealthy population and a whole host of other issues are doing far more damage than illegal immigrants. That's just fake news for the hard of comprehension to lap up. I'm not against being negative about sapiens of any flavour. Of course there'll be wrong 'uns and idle 'uns among immigrants, (legal and illegal), and if we had a properly functioning immigration system in the UK then we could and should be keeping them out. I'm not buying the idea that there's a higher proportion though, compared to our indigenous population. I'd wager that their average work ethic is better than that of our own cohort of bloated benefit bums. We don't see many British people working their arses off for a pittance doing hard or tedious graft like fruit picking/car washing/caring/parcel delivery work/nail bars/hospital cleaning etc etc. It's far easier just to sit at home on benefits.

I was going to hazard a guess at Hazel.

Tree

(Im)migration is certainly a trend here on Arbtalk. Where is that dedicated thread when we need it? Here's a funny thing. So I've just been in another hospital, the second in almost a week. Guess what? They were both absolutely rammed with immigrants of one flavour or another. I struggled to see a white face amongst the staff actually. All the doctors and consultants that I saw were mainly from the Indian Subcontinent I'd guess. Here's the really funny part; I didn't see any brown fighting age males, i.e. the people apparently arriving in the boats. The people supposedly breaking our NHS, having arrived only yesterday. Not amoungst the patients anyway. As you'd expect; you'd have to be pretty fit and healthy to even attempt to cross the channel in a little rubber boat. Plenty of young brown blokes who were registrars and consultants though. Very competent they have seemed, the few I've dealt with, so presumably didn't just arrive yesterday. I saw loads of other immigrant patients, but they were male and female of equal proportion, complete range of ages, (but largely older), and in most cases obese to a greater or lesser extent. It's a funny old world.

That looks great. I must say: I'm quite envious, wish I had more time for projects like that.

I'll sell you one for the right price. A four pack and a bag of Scratchings should do it. Wordle 1,489 3/6 🟨⬜🟩⬜🟨 🟩🟨⬜🟨⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Nah, I reckon it's real, just someone who's very flexible, double jointed. It's a shit state of affairs though isn't it? Where we can never be sure of the authenticity of any images nowadays. Only going to get worse with AI too. Puerile humour is like the Peter Pan of comedy: it never gets old.