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Latest according to Bev Stohl "Noam has not made significant progress, I’m sorry to say. I doubt he will be able to return to the public eye, as he is not communicating much if at all. At 95, his natural aging process is also a factor. His body is tired. I will continue to keep you posted as I learn more. Thank you all for caring. Bev"

Battlestar Gallactica’s Terry Carter dead at 95.

I didn't get around to posting about Sunak's shitty speech yesterday about sicknote Britain. Isn't it funny how the Tories solution is always to reclassify people as being fit for work under false pretences rather than dealing with the underlying issues. Maybe if we had hospitals fit for purpose, anything resembling a functioning mental healthcare system, a social care system that actually helped people recover and so much more besides (not to mention appropriate pandemic response measures that kept people safe when it was most needed) that we wouldn't have so many people claiming benefits. I do have personal experience. My dad suffered a stroke in 2010 at 59 - left him with no short-term memory and scrambled long-term memory. He has common sense, he can function on a day-to-day level and has a certain amount of independence - can walk to the paper shop and get his paper, but anything more complicated is a minefield (if we sent him to Asda, by the time he's got there, he'd have forgotten what he went for). You can have the same conversation with him umpteen times in a day and the Blackburn in his mind is not the same as the Blackburn of 2024 (from bus routes to shops in town to the price of anything). Anyway, that's just some background to saying that when the DWP did their reviews when they were moving everybody over to PIP, dad was reassessed. We did our own count-up of the points as we saw them and got that he should be on the lower rate for mobility and the higher rate for the living, which would match what he was previously on. When the verdict came back, he got nothing. Not a single point on the whole review. 0/30. Benefits stopped. Took it to review: no change. Appealed it. Months went by. Eventually appeal date came up. Took him to a tribunal in Blackburn with a judge and two medical advisers. They asked him some questions, we helped him to answer where necessary - went out and waited for the verdict. Worn down, we weren't sure we'd get anything at all. We went back in to be told he would get the higher rate for living and the lower rate for mobility. With no prospect of change, they said it would be indefinite, but officially labelled it for 10 years, simply because that way we wouldn't be blindsided by a sudden review at some point. But the hope is since we've already won on appeal once, he should be safe now. But it was a ridiculous and worrying 6-8 months (something like that, I forget how long it was now, I've tried to blank it out). Unsurprising newsflash: the Tories are heartless bastards.

Thanksgiving of 2018.

Not sure I mentioned it before but anyway. As some of you know, my late brother was severely head injured by a drunk driver in Spain. Usual - years and years spent fundraising, hospital care, my parents decided to care for him at home and fought for an extension to the house. He was incapable of walking, speaking or feeding himself. Anyhow, cut to years later, mother on carers' allowance (which got cut down the minute she received she received her miserly NHS pension) and disability allowance, they brought in PIP (this turned out to be in my brother's last year of life). They did three assessments for a man in a hospital bed with no function. Three. Think on that. We finally got notification of his eligibility shortly after he had already died - some 9 months after the assessments. Then for some reason, they insisted on repayment of some of the benefits he had already received. Cut back to a couple of years earlier, my mother died so I gave up my very well paid job and moved home to receive 70 quid a week carers' allowance. We did have help from the Local Authority, but I was still doing around 70 hours a week feeding and observation - one pound sterling an hour remuneration. So I well recall the day there was a knock at the door and lo and behold there was a representative from the local jobcentre. Who asked if there was any way I could take up a wee job. After explaining the situation and the measly amount I was receiving, she still pressed the matter, saying that they could look into respite care. So I asked what kind of respite I would be getting if I was being sent out to work during that time. I wasn't visited again. This is the pressure that many people on benefits already get. In many cases it isn't a lifestyle choice, it is a real public service that some of us do to actually save the NHS from crumbling into the sea and we are rewarded with all the shit Sunak & Co (and his predecessors) can dole out. The tax system in contrast is full of loopholes and exemptions, etched to suit the Government of the day and their cronies. And nobody talks about it.

Not a death anniversary as such, but I missed my own anniversary on death list. Twenty years ago on the 20th April 2004, I joined the death list. (Actually it was a bit earlier as I lurked for a couple of months before joining).

Esther Ranzen has been forced to pull out of a Westminster debate on assisted dying because she is too ill. She was planning to attend the debate on Monday. Dame Esther Rantzen sends message to MPs after pulling out of assisted dying debate No new information, second time in a month that she's not appeared at an event (see post above by @RadGuy). From the article: In a statement Dame Esther said: "While, sadly, my health issues (I have stage four lung cancer) prevent me from attending it myself, I will be watching the debate closely as it affects my own decision to go to Dignitas in Zurich if necessary, to protect my family from witnessing a painful death."

Both the Conservatives and Labour are now both uneasy coalitions and Brexit has shot a bolt right through party politics I think now is the time where we have to reconsider the current voting system and introduce a form of Proportional Representation. It will free up the wings of the parties that disagree with each other to breakaway and we might get a more grown up approach to coalition. Politically the distance between Kier Starmer and Ken Clarke is a lot shorter than it is between Kier Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn or Ken Clarke and Suella Braverman

This is, of course, a perfectly respectable viewpoint. But may I gently point out that if your refusal to vote Labour means the Tories win your seat, then, essentially, you've helped them win. Is it fair? No. But it's how First Past the Post works. (Of course, if another party is in a stronger position in your seat, then not voting Labour makes perfect sense, and you're probably also safe if your seat is a solid Labour seat already - I could vote for any party and Labour will still win here.) I know Labour aren't everybody's cup of tea at the moment, but not voting for them and allowing the Tories back in would be a monumental cock-up.

You're becoming as bad as mango shagger with these pointless thread bumps.

Surely the death of Hayden Gwynne is part of the decision

Apologies for briefly interrupting this very high brow and well considered discussion with something childish. Anyway, as you all were...

Well, Keir's outward, pre-election stance certainly is, but he's keeping his socialist principles closeted for the purposes of getting elected. That, coupled with Rachel Reeves' economic centrism, is enough to disappoint lefties (including me, though not enough to get in the way of being GTTO whatever it takes), but won't put nearly as many of those off voting Labour as shifting leftwards and scaring the floating voters would. If Starmer gets a second term, and there's no reason at this stage to believe he won't, my prediction is that term being a much bigger drive for social mobility and public service strengthening. First term will be for firefighting, second term for rebuilding.

I knew something was off. I grew up a town over from Ethel's Hyannis Port compound. Family gatherings are unheard of outside of Thanksgiving and the summer. I don't know the family personally, but her absence from the local 4th of July parade the last several years has led many locals to believe she is quite frail and it's unlikely she is able to leave home. Very little has been seen of her locally since her granddaughters fatal drug overdose, which occurred inside her home almost five years ago. It's said that really broke her spirit. Again, I have no inside knowledge, just local gossip.

Oh, with the greatest of respect, will you please fuck all the way off. The public couldn't give 2 shites if the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party didn't pay a bit of tax compared to those currently in office. But the Mail will probably get her, because she's a danger to them.

Good luck to Coventry this afternoon in the FA Cup semi. They should be the DL’s honorary team (okok, along with Fort William) as that’s where we invented the DL a mere 6 months before Cov won the 1987 FA Cup. Several of us, including Grim, went to both the qf and semi, the latter a raucous day in Sheffield. This qualified us for tickets to the final, which was scuppered by the local constabulary, who ordered the club to sell tickets early to avoid people camping out at Highfield Road for 48 hours. So we didn’t go to Wembley, but we did do the stagger into town to celebrate with complete strangers, which is a great, blurry memory. Ah nostalgia, beer mats for goalposts isn’t it …

@RoverAndOut sorry to hear about your dad. Best wishes to him and you. I had a stroke in my early twenties and a lot of that feels familiar though I was lucky with my age and the severity level. Short term memory is buggered even today though, among other symptoms I'm stuck with! I do remember vaguely atos, or the dread and atmosphere to the interviews more than the actual questions. Anyhow I'll be cheering the demise of ids come election night. Sunak is a shithead cunt. And a Millionaire one to boot who only knows struggle when his servants are sick. I know what would help improve the nations collective mental health. A fucking election.

Every single word. All the best to your dad. So sorry to hear you all went through this shite. And this is just one example of many where people are getting so fucked over already, leave alone Sunak’s new even cuntier stance, the mental health repercussions of which will be devastating to hundreds of thousands of people, thus creating an even more vicious circle. These cunts need to go, ASAFP.

David Pryor, former Governor of Arkansas from 1975 to 1979 and Senator from 1979 to 1997, has died aged 89.

Kikue Taira reportedly dead: https://longeviquest.com/2024/04/kikue-taira-younger-sister-of-the-worlds-oldest-ever-pair-of-siblings-dies-at-113/ Centenarians DP pick @chilean way

The Rwanda scheme is going to cost £1.8m per person. Tell you what Rishi, give me just £1m and I'll fuck out of the UK for good and someone destined for the plane can stay here, how's that?

Salvador Farrés Oliveras dead

Roedad Khan (wiki) dead at 100 according to his family on Facebook.