While someone working in the private sector will take an average of four days off each year through sick leave, new TPA research has found that for people working in local councils, the number more than doubles to 10! Even compared to the wider public sector, council employees take 30 per cent more time off through illness.
Sickness absence is costing councils around £667 million every year, meaning taxpayers are losing around £3 million per working day. Figures suggest that mental health now accounts for over one quarter of all local authority sickness absence. Council staff are invoking mental health as a reason for sickness absence at more than three times the national level, at a cost of £176 million in a single year.
With a total of 9 million working days lost across a single year, town halls are missing out on the equivalent to 41,302 full time roles. For context, that’s the same size as the workforce at Wetherspoons.
Fermanagh and Omagh reported the highest average of 18.6 days lost, while Glasgow Council clocked up an astonishing 1.32 million days lost in total over three years, the highest in the country. Fenland district council brags about its “happy and motivated workforce” but had the highest days lost due to mental health, making up more than half of their reported reasons for calling in sick.
Just looking at the time factor … there’s Steve’s Holmes up front but a bit short for the slot right now, there’s a second Holmes I also saved, there are plenty of 50s sci-fis but one I’ve held in abeyance for a while is this police procedural, loosely based on Capone. One review said it was more accurate than The Untouchables.
Positives are the two leads, the reasonable story, the way it was a classic crime flick, the sharp copy. Negatives are mainly around the plodding nature of the plot but I quite liked it.
(0448) Morning all … nondescript out there. Posts are up at Orphans and at Jstack. (0735)
5. More vaxx and pureblood tales
4. Steve at 1466
Trump Unloads on “Treasonists” Behind White House Ballroom Lawsuit — Says Preservation Group Exposed ” Top Secret” Military Details to the World
Comey’s Wife Texted Him Meaning of “86” Minutes Before His “86 47” Beach Stunt
Exclusive: RNC Condemns DNC Vote to Abolish ICE – Party Has Been Overtaken by Socialists
Dallas Airport Cancels Plans to Install Islamic Foot Washing Stations After Governor Abbott Intervenes
United Nations calls out Iran for its ‘other war’ – against Christians
Iran Hits Two Ships, Shoots Down Drone as Trump Threatens Hormuz Takeover
US Military Just Gave Cuba A Warning It Can’t Ignore
“The Patriot Math Doesn’t Add Up”: Why 5% of Missiles Won’t Save Ukraine This Winter
From Cairo to Mamdani: Obama’s Long Game
Europe’s shadow war leaves US behind: How the Baltic states and a “coalition of warmongers” are dragging NATO toward the abyss
Much more.
3. Housekeeping
As mentioned at 1466:18, DAD appears to be having posting issues at NOWP, whilst IYE appears to also be having here … see comment under Sat [6&7].
I’m also getting reports (plural) from America that they’re not receiving youtube access to certain youtubes from over here. Add to that my spam attack issue (see yesterday’s post item 6). Plus the keyboard not typing the keys I’m tapping but the ones beside them.
Any common factors? Well maybe it’s only the nourishing unherdable set of sites, no one else has issues. Also, it seems to be our France-based chaps plus me. Our Brit-based seem to have escaped.
Would be interested in your status report.
Now, as to IYE, I would never delete a Miss Marple … or was it a comment, in comments, on Miss Marple? Not sure. At least, if I did, there would be an explanation, especially for one of our three main “droppers”. Plus IYE did not return yesterday. France again?
Those Miss Marples can be found at Sat item 8.
2. DAD at 1466
a) The British public’s view on immigration is even more negative than it was in the wake of the 2016 Brexit referendum to leave the European Union and take back control of the nation’s borders.
b) UK. Burnham Suffers By-Election Defeat Hours After Farage Win. The Liberal Democrats won local by-elections in Devon and Yorkshire, defeating Labour and Reform UK and dealing a setback to Andy Burnham’s leadership ambitions.
c) Russia’s growing blockade of Ukrainian shipping in the Black Sea is threatening both Ukraine’s economy and global food security. With more than 90 per cent of Ukrainian agricultural exports passing through Black Sea ports, prolonged disruptions could cause farmers to struggle to find storage for their backed-up goods, break foreign contracts, and put pressure on global food markets.
d) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mocked the United Kingdom by referring to it as the “Islamic Republic of Britain”, suggesting it could become the first nuclear-armed Islamic republic, during a podcast interview released on August 13, 2026.
e) USA. Fiasco in the factory: taxpayers funded a $533 Million artillery plant that made nothing.
f) Violent brawl erupts on Ceuta beach as illegal Moroccans cause chaos for terrified Spanish locals.
1. Gab is 10 today
… Andrew Torba:
“Today marks 10 years of Gab. What started in 2016 as a simple mission to defend free speech has survived deplatforming, censorship, government pressure, attacks, threats, and just about everything else you can imagine. Through all of it, you stood with us and kept us building.
I published a special 10th anniversary article today looking back at that incredible journey, the sacrifices along the way, and why I believe the next decade—especially our work with Gab AI—may be even more important than the first.”
Gab was certainly an idea which had its day, maybe still does but it seems to be largely American in scope, in the 2016 MAGA mould, even Q, Christian Nationalist (an interesting concept). I still have one friend over there posting, Lainey.
(1207) Afternoon all. I feel a film coming on soon, must check the vault. But first this post. (1538)
7. Jenna Ellis
Some sources have written about her … who is she? You’ll see.
Jenna Ellis was on Trump’s legal team. When everyone was suing him and all the horrible things were going on she finally had to plead guilty to something that was made up and she was not able to fight because of the Biden ( Obama) mafia. Had she not pleaded guilty she would have spent just about the rest of her life in prison on trumped up charges. She has spoken about it.
That was during the times when Letitia James, Fannie Willis and all those others were railroading Trump, as you know, as well as those who were connected to him. I think you might want to hear what she has to say about it. Jenna Ellis was indeed disbarred. Do you know why? I would imagine she would wear the reason for it as a badge of honour.
After the trial, she went total bonkers against Trump, speaking very bad things about him publicly, of things I knew were not true, as I watched every 2020 hearing. I know she may have had to say some things but this was after the case ended and her admission. I saw through her and many did as well. So, though I have an open mind, I do not like gossip and neither does God, as you know. Ellis lost all my respect as she continued and lost many others’ respect in MAGA.
One more thing about Ellis and 2020 election. They had multiple, many poll watchers, thumb drives and saying the internet was never used while it was proven the internet was being used to show proof of the election fraud. Each of the 7 swing purple states had enough to show Trump was clearly the winner. Judges wouldn’t even look at the proof of each state.
Pennsylvania republican Senator Doug Mastriano was the main guy fighting to prove election fraud. Ellis later stated no election fraud, lied in court, to save herself. She saw it as clear as anyone but lied to save her behind. She does have a chance to get reinstated I believe next year in Colorado.I even wrote her to please stop the lies. Many of us did.
6. I’m under attack from a strange source
Have a look at this screenshot if you will:
Some will understand what this is about. This is part of my HQ dashboard. In yellow is spam. Now the system, WP, knows it is spam … it has coloured it yellow. But it still presents it to me as spam to be decided upon.
How much spam? Well I used to get about 20 a day. Some time back, I went to switch on the Akismet anti-spam. It said put in an API key. I do have one from long ago, still valid, forever … it’s inside NOWP.
NOWP will not now let me access it … a valid API key. They’ve removed the page where it could be found.
Uh huh. So they now say buy one. Three options, all money. But there’s another thing … I must prove I’m 18. Now, on NOWP’s 19th birthday, WP sent me congratulations. So it acknowledges that I must be 19, plus whatever age they demand for people to have a site.
So they already know I’m well over 19. But they won’t let me proceed.
They ask me to verify age in order to pay the money to stop the spam. And suddenly, the spam was 91 items from around 2330 last evening, until about 0430 this morning. Five hours = 91 spam. At a site with only medium traffic in Brit terms, low traffic in American.
And that is the stalemate. And unless I can find a slip of paper with my API on it from 19 years ago, there’s no resolution.
