All urban areas – whether in France, England or wherever – are growing more ominous, though they do vary in whether the menace is mostly just that or a prelude to violence. I should qualify by saying very touristy areas, say Central Oxford, are mostly ‘better’. But go to the central parts of Oxford that aren’t overrun with tourists and it’s increasingly a zone for drugs and the mentally ill, with boarded-up shops, street-boozers and gangs of Middle Eastern/Albanian blokes lurking in shop doors. The menace is palpable.
And not all historic cities are as good! There’s one which is astonishing given its fame, albeit a past with a grim aura: Richard III was, of course, Duke of Gloucester, and I believe in historical resonance. Edward II has a magnificent tomb, in the stunning cathedral; he was murdered by having a red-hot poker shoved up his backside.
I spent Bank Holiday Monday there; metaphorical link intended. It’s a truly awful city, seriously wrong in feel. The magnificent Gothic cathedral forms a bizarre oasis, approached down a charming alley but hemmed in by vape shops, dope smoking, drug dealing, injecting and feral kids on bikes. Very little else that’s medieval survives, in part due to its 19th-century industrial heritage.
Gloucester always was a weird place, but it’s now completely dystopian. The regenerated Quays area of old warehouses – full of designer shops, flats and restaurants – is vaguely pleasant, but doesn’t remotely compensate. Not least when some festival is blaring out that moronic political theme-tune to Tony Blair: ‘Things Can Only Get Better’.
Easy to see how the Wests operated unnoticed. Some of the locals look alarmingly similar to Fred and Rose: heaven knows what’s under their patios or in their cellars. To be fair, everyone I spoke with – I make a habit of random conversations in new places – was disarmingly cheerful, on how frightful the place was. A delightful woman said the council had simply knocked down almost anything worth preserving but were now pondering rebuilding it somehow…
The nearby Forest of Dean is like England’s Deep South and sits brooding, very close. Keir Smarmer wouldn’t dare set foot there; it would be like Deliverance for him! Imagine the prancing ninny dragged into some pub to discuss ‘what a woman is’ with the cheery locals.
I’d pay to witness it.
Paul Sutton can be found on Substack. His new book on woke issues The Poetry of Gin and Tea is out now.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Next paid 3 day seminar: ‘GlobaloneyBoiing and how it causes cancer, heart attacks and ugly nurses’
Next one after that: ‘Midazolam, murder, and euthansia and why we need to do it more often – tips and tricks for beginners’
Next one after: ‘Stabbinations, profits and Transhumanism – how to stab effectively and safely’
Followed by: ‘Dance routines in empty hospitals during a scamdemic – intermediate level’
etc
End. The. National. Death. Service.
Next one: The Roman Empire flourished during the Roman Warm Period. How an increase in temperatures leads to colonialism and how you can prevent it by turning down the heating on your wards.
Next one: Don’t clap for carers. How not to contract an STD at work.
Next one: How to tackle the obesity crisis. A beginners guide to fat shaming.
Next one: How to frame a neonatal nurse to cover up failings in your department. An advanced course for senior managers.
More Tax payers hard earned ££,s down the SH1TTER !
Memo from the Prime Minister’s office:
“Steve, important we respond to show that we’re on the side of ordinary working people, so suggest you:
1. Make announcement today that you’re a bit miffed about this
2. Er…think (1) should be enough, so no further action required.
Cheers mate. Rish”
I’ll tell you who needs unconscious bias training – the radicals that organise these conferences and push these insane agendas on everyone. They, more than anyone else, need to examine their biases. In fact they probably need psychotherapy pretty urgently.
Please don’t call it a Diversity Conference. It has nothing to do with Diversity. Our enemies have chosen this language in order to make anyone who opposes their mad, evil ideas seem like they are against “diversity” (whatever that means) – and what nice, right-thinking person could possibly be against that?
We must now always put an Orwellian interpretation on anything coming from those nominally in authority.
I’m completely against diversity when it means giving respect to a minor attracted person & child abusers. When I started in the NHS in the late 1980s they were called paedophiles & mandatory training was for child protection, how to spot grooming behaviours & prevent harm. How the world has changed. I’d be going through a disciplinary if I were still working as there is no way I could stop protecting children by going along with this perverted nonsense.
Patient care should be the focus of healthcare & that includes being aware of signs of abuse rather than facilitating abuse disguised as healthcare.
I’ve spotted a couple in my career & with the right intervention have helped to protect a wife & 2 children.
NHS internal emails and intranet announcements have the writer specify their preferred method of address, such as ‘he/him’.
Benches outside hospitals, a Southeastern Railway locomotive, and the logo of a branch of a high street bank are striped in the rainbow + chevron colours. Perhaps the new banknotes featuring the portrait of the King will be the next to display this sign of the new conformity.
The very fact that Fishy and his ministers are allowing this jamboree to proceed tells us all we need to know about where their priorities lie and whose side they are on.
An NHS waiting list of seven million and a regional health authority is organising a three day talking shop on pronouns? FFS!
Jacqueline Scott, the head nutter for this outfit, should be loudly and publicly sacked and made an example of.
Unfortunately, this crap is all part of the Agenda 2030 ESG criminal enterprise and we all know where Fishy takes his orders from so this shit will simply continue.
NHS motto:
F. the patients we’re on a jamboree.
Some people may well die while this beano plays out.
Beautifully put.
Thank you.
Brilliant, HP!
Thanks Aethelred
What on god’s green earth is this to do with healthcare? Nothing. How many times do you, as the NHS customer, find yourself in the position of being confused what to call someone? Never I should think. So it’s all about brainwashing the healthcare service in idiotic language. And this is a conference for 1,000 people over 3 days which is going to cost money. And who are all these attendees? People taken away from the actual business that the NHS is meant to deliver. It’s a effing disgrace!
This is worse than a disgrace: It’s New Labour authorized fraud. There’s a so-called equalities act which demands that all public services must DIE (note the wording) and hence, hordes of consultant and ‘charitable’ poleeches attach themselves to anything with a budget in order to suck it dry.
Seconded Aethelred
If I called a patient by the wrong name or title, they were usually quick to say what I should have called them. How does that differ from not knowing which pronoun to use? I’m certain that a very quick & firm correction would be made!!
I´m pretty sure that if doctors and nurse were in charge of the health service, we would not see this inversion of clinical priorities.
Given the way doctors and nurses have conducted themselves these last three years, I cannot support that contention.