Davy51

I think the abandonment of industry training boards has played a big hand as well. The UK found it cheaper to import EU labour.

My flu jab is booked for mid September. Will i get a booster as well ? Will have to wait & see.

Our doctor has been using hospitals for blood tests for quite a few years.

The days when public transport actually provided a public service Artie. Those golden days of yore.

Exactly Obs, where are all their close neighbours & muslim friends in their hour of need? Btw ,why do we need to fund them anyway when they have very rich cousins in the Gulf states?

The transport industry was short of drivers by many thousands when i retired ten years ago. It is the only industry where the so called H&S friendly Eu Drivers Directive made it possible to work even longer hours ,which has been exploited by many companies. The driver's CPC is also another expense unless you work for a company which will foot the bill. The congestion & dog eat dog attitude of other road users doesn't help & most HGVs have been prohibited from parking in towns & cities & pushed onto bleak lorry parks & m/way services or even lay-bys. Drivers & their vehicles are generally treated with disdain these days until someone's milk ,bread or newspaper fails to arrive.

We could always train the willing ones up to make up for the shortfall of lorry drivers, Obs. By the way ,i see we have a new ISIS faction doing the biz in Afghanistan.

When you consider this Taliban influx into Afghanistan i have to wonder if this more to do with certain oil rich states in the Gulf, who may or may not be sponsoring these actions, in order to get a healthy stake in the eco battery market for when their oil is no longer needed in today's quantities.

Water cannon ,get them cold & wet.

Have we to assume that the refugees will all be fully tested & vaxed & quarantined on arrival in the UK ? As for the Taliban ,if the leopard hasn't changed its spots ,will have free rein to do what it wants under its regime ,once foreign troops are out of the country, without fear of retribution.

"Aunty Andy ",not much has changed . I must confess my den of iniquity was the Queen's on Orford Lane. No doubt similar films but i think we sometimes got Sir Gallahad.

Having done some web surfing , their doesn't seem to be much clamour from Arab & Muslim nations to give refuge to fleeing Afghans. We are one of the major donors of help.

I think the most we can expect is to be able to tolerate Covid ,similar to a common cold.

Hasn't Afghanistan always been a pretty insular nation ? They have fought tooth & nail to repel much more powerful aggressors . Perhaps that is the goal of the Taliban who we hadn't even heard of till a tv programme about 25 years. Are the Taliban exporters of terror or do they just want to be left to get on with their Sharia state with no outside interference? Perhaps the best policy is to just remove the non fanatical muslims etc & allow them to resettle in secular neighbouring countries.

The triple lock definitely needs to stay to keep us pensioners up with inflation . Apparently, we could be in for an 8% rise if one news report is to be believed.

TBH Obs , there are other benefits to be tapped into when pension age is reached that will either increase what money you get paid or alternatively reduces your outgoings. The biggest problem that needs to be tackled is the seemingly ever increasing pension age & why bus passes are granted at 60 in NI,Wales & Scotland whereas the English now only get bus passes on reaching the women's retirement age which i think is currently 66. What needs to be impressed on the young of today is the importance of ensuring their cards are stamped regularly to get enough NI contributions to receive their pensions at the maximum rate.

No doubt the EU will soon be erecting new & highly visible signs at its Eastern borders to direct refugees quickly & efficiently through member states & towards the ever open door of the UK . Could there even be a role for any type of UN peacekeeping force in Afghanistan ?

Obviously, the intelligence gathering has failed to notice all these dormant Taliban extremists who have now swarmed over their cities. As you say though Obs Afghanistan has been more than equal to every country that has tried to subdue it.

..of lives & money the campaign in Afghanistan has become. Lives lost & ruined when all the Taliban needed to do was wait till our backs were turned & the take the country over anyway.

Knock it off the Brexit divorce bill. Let the Eu pay for them.

Possibly so Latch. If you are familiar with Orford Lane ,i seem to remember the entrance to the school being about 50 yards towards town from Shaw's butchers. It was only a small opening to the school considering it's importance to Catholic families.

Luckily the environment minister can jet off to 30+ countries to drum up interest in the autumn climate conference.

I remember the school & Bell Hall from living in Orford Lane though i haven't been in either. You used to see quite a lot of folk heading to the Bell Hall on opening nights. St Benedict's church was further along Orford Lane ,just behind the Queens picture house.

Perhaps the scallywag with the pin who used to stalk the corridors of the London Rubber Company could be your man ,Obs.

I think his name is Gavin Richards. I believe one of his medals was for servicing Fiats.