Friday 25 December: Counting our blessings on a Christmas Day like no other

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/12/25/letters-counting-blessings-christmas-day-like-no/

614 thoughts on “Friday 25 December: Counting our blessings on a Christmas Day like no other”

  1. I can but only echo HK’s description of 2020 as a terrible year: especially poignant for me as It will be the first Christmas since 1966 that I will be without the Lady who made my life so complete. However, I wish one and all a Merry Christmas and look forward with hope for a vast improvement in 2021.

    1. A hole has been torn in your life and the edges are still very raw and painful to touch.
      As time goes on that hole will remain, but the edges will heal and become less painful to touch.

      Have a Merry Christmas and all the best for going forward.

    2. Very well understood, Korks, let’s hope the future gets brighter for you, as it has for me.

    3. As a wise NoTTLer said to me in my time of loss, you don’t get over it, you just get used to it.

      KBO, matey – that is what she would have wanted.

      1. And you eventually lose the desire to tear a new a***hole for anyone making reference to “closure”.

        1. When I hear people talking about closure I always know that either a) they’ve never been there or b) they are simply thick or c) that the poor devils have only just been hit and have yet to realise that you don’t “get over it” … ever.

  2. The Saxon Queen with a clean axe and tinsel wrapped longbow wishes all you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year full of God’s blessings.
    ( and a much better year then this one ) Have a lovely day xx

  3. Happy Crimbo, Geoff and Peeps!

    A couple of pieces of Christmas music for you.  The first is a 1959 recording of the choir of Temple Church singing The Three Kings.  This was on a record bought by my father in the early 1960s, and was always played first as my sister and I helped to decorate the tree. It signalled the true arrival of Christmas and it evokes some magical childhood memories:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r8mGYbHXHRE

    The second is O Magnum Mysterium by Lauridsen, sung here by the choir of King’s College.  For me this magical, haunting piece has the ‘tingle factor’ in spades:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7KvrbYZB2vY

    I hope you all have a peaceful and contented Christmas, and here’s to a much improved 2021.

    HJ

  4. Words cannot express adequately my utter loathing of online shopping. Because the shops closed about ten days ago where I live, Christmas presents had to be online or from the supermarket.
    A large magazine publisher consistently refuses my credit card. The card handler tells me it’s the seller’s website that’s rejecting it for some reason.
    Another large company sent me an email with payment details for a gift voucher – it is sitting in my outlook inbox right now, with only the information “your message cannot be viewed. Please check your internet connection.”
    People are utterly mad to drive real shops out of business for this online nonsense!

    1. All the better to control us with those social credits when they arrive on the scene. It is early days yet. They are in the process of getting us accustomed to shopping for our needs online. Then they will move on to the next stage.

  5. Robert Tombs
    The EU knew what it stood to lose and backed down
    24 December 2020, 5:00pm

    From the very beginning, the whole question of British and European integration has turned fundamentally on the question of sovereignty, as Ursula von der Leyen accepted this afternoon. Those who favoured membership then and now dismiss sovereignty as a meaningless or outdated notion in a world of interconnection. The events of the last four years, and perhaps even more the last few days, should have made them think again. The question of fishing had the merit of making sovereignty concrete and understandable, which is why it became suddenly so crucial. You may decide to give or lend certain rights or powers to others, but who makes that decision? Who has the power to make the decision stick? In a nutshell, that is sovereignty, as fundamental today as ever.

    When we voted in 2016, it was not wholly clear whether the United Kingdom was still a sovereign country. Professor Vernon Bogdanor, the eminent constitutional specialist, was not alone among legal experts in considering that the European Communities Act (1972) abrogated the sovereignty of parliament by recognising the legislative and judicial superiority of the EEC, and later the EU. The easy answer was that parliament could repeal that Act. The more difficult question was: would it? The decision was handed to the electorate in the 2016 referendum. Again, an act of sovereignty, this time exercised by the people. But again, as we all know, the real question was whether that decision would be carried out.

    Only then was the true question of sovereignty posed, not as a discussion among constitutional lawyers, but as raw political reality. Was the United Kingdom still a sovereign state? Whatever the legal theory, if the UK had given in to pressure and voted again to reverse its decision, it would have ceased in practice to be a sovereign state for the indefinite future. Sovereignty that cannot be exercised is sovereignty lost. By this criterion, EU member states (most obviously Greece, Ireland and Italy, and perhaps others where popular votes have been overruled) have in reality given up their sovereignty. Perhaps, indeed, they all have. President Macron frequently talks of ‘a sovereign Europe’. He may be right. Which other EU country, however much it grumbles, will dare to exit?

    Britain’s uncertainty was ended by a reassertion of sovereignty by the entity that ultimately holds it in a democracy: the people. The referendum vote was confirmed by a series of elections. But the reality of sovereignty was still not secured. Sovereignty needs agents: in this case, Boris Johnson, his government, and his negotiators led by David Frost. Frost in a speech in Brussels last February said that ‘the EU must, if it is to achieve what it wants in the world, find a way of relating to its neighbours as friends and genuinely sovereign equals.’

    This seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. The EU had at first threatened that Britain would be left ‘very lonely on the edge of the Atlantic,’ in the words of Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament. But when the Johnson government said that third-country status was just what it wanted, the EU insisted on the contrary that the UK must accept a dependent relationship because of its ‘economic interconnectedness and geographical proximity’. David Frost, in a polite but forthright letter on 19 May, retorted that this ‘is not an argument that can hope to be accepted in the 21st century.’

    The EU appeared not to agree. Like a nineteenth-century imperial power, it was claiming that the UK must remain in its sphere of influence. Fishing rights, although in economic terms relatively minor, crystallised the issue. So did the reasonable-sounding demands for a ‘level playing field’ – the EU has shown a remarkable ability to control the linguistics of the debate. In fact it was insisting that the UK should remain subject to its own legislation and its own legal order. No neutral arbitration was to be permitted. By the end, it was demanding the right to control British law and policy over an indeterminate range of issues: anything, in fact, that it judged damaging to its own interest – which was not only to maintain its profitable export surplus in the UK, but even more to maintain the EU as ‘sovereign Europe’.

    If the government had accepted this, would we in reality have been a sovereign state? Would we have been a real democracy, for democracy is meaningless without sovereignty? Or would we, like the unfortunate Greeks and Italians, have in reality accepted that we could no longer make political choices that were not approved by the EU? As Jean-Claude Juncker had summed it up bluntly, ‘Il ne peut y avoir de choix démocratique contre les traités européens’. A former British representative to the EU proclaimed in the House of Lords, with seeming satisfaction, ‘We will huff and puff but, in the end, we will basically come to heel.’

    Well, today it seems we haven’t. Over the last few days in Brussels, the much vaunted unity of the EU seems to have crumbled. Despite what some ‘Remainers’ and pro-EU media in Britain have constantly proclaimed for four years, the British government showed that it meant what it said and calmly played its trump card. If the EU did not respect our sovereign rights, there would be no agreement and Britain would willingly trade on WTO terms. The EU knew what it stood to lose, and it sensibly backed down. Let us hope that this is the beginning of a period of sensible and friendly relations between the UK and the EU, rather than a new phase in the tug of war of the last four years. The challenge now is for present and future British governments to show that sovereignty is not an empty word, but the means of increasing the welfare of its people, finding a role in the world and consolidating the United Kingdom itself.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-eu-knew-what-it-stood-to-lose-and-backed-down

      1. I went to great lengths to avoid listening to either Boris or Ursie lest I choke on whatever was in my glass at that time. It is certain that there are some ‘nasties’ lurking in the 2,000+ pages but, for the next couple of days until forensic analysis becomes available, I take joy in our having moved so substantially away from what Treason May & Ollie Robbins were aiming for.

        This BTL comment appeared below Matthew Lynn’s Speccie piece

        John Andrews • 17 hours ago
        Writing as a diehard but not swivel-eyed campaigner, I remind the wretched Remoaners how much damage they have done to our country. Had they accepted the referendum result we could, for example, have owned 100% of Our Fish by now. And we could have paid perhaps £20bn instead of £40bn for the deal that has been concluded. And we could have concluded the deal 4 years ago and, by now, have been on the high road to economic recovery by now. So they’re wreckers and should spend what’s left of the ‘transition period’ wearing sackcloth and ashes and beating their breasts. Since it’s Christmas they can probably excuse themselves flagellation.

        https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/britain-has-won-the-biggest-brexit-prize-of-all

      2. On the question of Sovereignty, von der Leyen is going to have to deal with Hungary and Poland – both ripe to exit – notwithstanding the populations (not to be confused with the leaders) of both France and Holland.

        I foresee a massive implosion of the the EU, preceded by the demise of the Euro, and culminating in its eventual dissolution sometime in the next 24 months.

        Living in hope, I don’t wish to die in despair

        1. “…its eventual dissolution sometime in the next 24 months.”

          If so, yet another foreign policy triumph for Perfidious Albion sur le continent!

        2. “…its eventual dissolution sometime in the next 24 months.”

          If so, yet another foreign policy triumph for Perfidious Albion sur le continent!

        4. I hope so. We’ve been thinking along those lines for years, but it’s never seemed to happen.

        1. She seemed to think that ‘sovereignty’ couldn’t be achieved without at least 27 member states.

          1. Ah, but that is “European sovereignty” – the aim she and her fellow commissars are after – the end of the nation state, all subsumed into Great Europe.

          5. She was seen to be so useless as Minister of Defence that they jumped at the opportunity to shuffle her off to the European Commission ASAP.

          6. Astounding that her incompetence was rewarded by promotion to EU President.
            How involved was she in the defence procurement scandal that saw her abruptly shuffled off to the EU? Was it sheer incompetence or did she have sticky fingers in the pie too?

          11. I saw a sign in Bavaria at the time that was printed something like a “Beware, Tanks” notice and had a message along the lines of “Beware useless defence minister”.

    2. Hmm. I’ll believe it when the small print has been analysed by someone on OUR side and given a thumb.

      1. A very Happy Christmas to you, Carolyn and the kittens

        I do hope the “deal” it does not turn out to be as bad as the WA>

      1. Yes Joseph, public beatings will be frequent.

        Not only to relieve their bitterness over losing so much income from a vassal state, but also to discourage others from Leaving.

        You read it here first.

    4. That’s the danger. If the govt *doesn’t* take this opportunity to cut taxes, red tape, to bin almost all EU nonsense and actually start to recover the economy on to a strong, private enterprise, market capital led basis then it’s all for nothing.

  6. Pinched from ZH:

    Bitcoin the Crypto Currency: Redux
    (sung to the tune of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer)

    You know Zcash and SwiftCoin
    And Ethereum and IOTA
    Monero and Lite Coin
    And Dash and Ripple
    But do you recall
    The most famous Crypto of all?

    Bitcoin the crypto currency
    Had a very rapid rise
    And if you ever saw it
    You couldn’t wear all the gold it now buys
    All of the other currencies
    Used to laugh and call it names
    They never let poor Bitcoin
    Play in any currency games

    Then one rocky COVID year
    CME came to say
    Bitcoin with your blockchain air tight
    Won’t you join our trading platform tonight?

    Then all the traders loved it
    Even as some shouted out “Ponzi”
    “Bitcoin the crypto currency
    You’ll come back one day, just see!”

    – Douglas Porter

  9. Putin’s approval rating stayed at 61% to 65% in 2020. 25 December 2020

    MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. The approval of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions remained at about 61%-65% throughout the year, says Valery Fyodorov, head of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM).

    “If we talk integral estimations, then, throughout this year, the approval rating of the president varied in a narrow range between 61% and 65%. In November, it was 62%, of almost exactly in the middle of this range,” Fyodorov said.

    He pointed out that the approval level is currently higher it was in the spring of 2018, when the rating plunged due to the increase of the retirement age.

    Looks like Vlad’s on course for another couple of years!

    https://tass.com/society/1239593

    1. His approval rating could be negative – hell, it probably is. It’s not as if anyone can do anything about it.

    2. We could do with a man of character in charge.
      Edit: Come to think of it, the only man of character we have had in living memory was a woman.

        1. He could have moobs like Samantha Fox, if he had the best interest of the country at heart, I would not mind.

        1. You must be taking the mickey. His predecessor was a man of character, in my opinion, but the system is weighted against anything but mediocrity. I am not sure what we can do about it.
          But looking at Russia, I can only wonder where leaders are. They are certainly not in government – and Labour are worse.

          1. Batten has character, he made a couple of mistakes but then again, he’s honest, so hardly qualified to be a politician.

            Your last sentence is something that I have pondered as well, because I was at university along with the current generation.
            I suspect that Michael Gove has had a lot to do with keeping strong people of our generation out of Parliament. That A list that he and Cameron ran was basically a way of getting yes-men and yes-women into the House of Commons. At least one strong right wing Conservative (who might have challenged Gove) was ordered by CCO to be de-selected in 2010. It is to the eternal shame of the branches that they went along with this dictatorial and in the end, stupid policy.
            I say stupid, because Gove and Cameron thought they could run the party without the Tory right, so we didn’t need to be represented in Parliament. Boris’s victory was due to one issue alone – if you take that one issue out, the Tories haven’t had a convincing win since 1992, which is coincidentally the last time I voted for them.

            In the 80s, we were spoilt for choice with so many good people in Parliament, that many of us didn’t see an urgent need to serve our country in public office. Naively, we believed that the good people would always come along, not realising that we were they.
            I think this vacuum is being filled by the younger generation, who are appalled at the quality of politicians that they grew up with. But from my generation, the only honest politicians I know are Jacob Rees-Mogg and Jackie Doyle-Price. I knew many more, but none worth a scrap of respect. And Jacob, having money and style, rose to a prominence that he did not deserve based on his abilities.

            I could give you a full list of the assorted rascals, knaves, crooks, scallywags, weevils, hapless incompetents and bluffers who comprise the rest of my political acquaintance, but that would be mean!

          2. Apologies, I did not mean to impugn Batten. I have no reason to doubt his honesty and you are correct – that is indeed a dangerous quality in politics. But I would say that a political man of character would need also to have some charisma – I mean, stage presence – and Mr. Batten does lack that in my opinion, whatever other virtues we might find in him.
            As for your political acquaintances, I would be very curious to read your views. I think that one of the reasons this class of scoundrels gets away with so much is that we do not talk about what they do. So much of their dishonesty is protected by secrecy.
            The cold light of day and a bit of fresh air could do the country some good.

          6. 327808+ up ticks,
            Morning Lim,
            Far from “taking the mickey” tis you that has no knowledge of the last say, three years as to what has befallen the real UKIP / Batten in way of treachery.
            His ” predecessor” bolton / farage ?
            As for lab being worse, worse than what? all three are a coalition, a close shop, & have been such openly since Mrs Thatcher.

          7. Apologies to you, I am not aware of what he and UKIP have had to endure. I am quite certain it is as underhand and treacherous as anything the establishment can throw at someone who’s views they want to obfuscate.
            I meant Farage.
            As I say, to BB2 below, I would include in character some political charisma. I do not see it in Batten. But perhaps that is because the MSM agree that I should not see him. If that is the case, I stand corrected.

          8. Apologies to you, I am not aware of what he and UKIP have had to endure. I am quite certain it is as underhand and treacherous as anything the establishment can throw at someone who’s views they want to obfuscate.
            I meant Farage.
            As I say to BB2 below, I would include in character some political charisma. I do not see it in Batten. But perhaps that is because the MSM agree that I should not see him. If that is the case, I stand corrected.

          10. That episode sat uneasily with me.
            But
            Tommy Robinson though not a racist, is an islamophobe… perhaps with reasons on which he might agree with Farage.
            He is also quite a subtle thinker.
            But he is something of a thug. He will go to a fistfight rather than avoid it. That has it’s legitimate uses BTW – we can thank TR for the end of the statue-toppling BLM absurdity of last summer.
            But before judging Farage we should note that TR had to leave the EDL for exactly the reasons for which Farage always refused entry to UKIP anyone with a BNP or NF or EDL past. That end of politics does attract the people Farage describes, and if you want to be taken seriously on the political stage you cannot allow your party to be associated with them.
            Farage is like me, a certain generation SE London boy: he was at Dulwich College while I was at Hatcham Askes. He will remember the skinheads fighting the Mods and the Punks.
            I had black mates who would come into school having had to escape the previous day from gangs shouting n1gger, n1gger, n1gger, or who would throw bananas at them.
            It is not TRs fault that this sort of people are attracted to him, and I would rather their energies were spent in EDL than in another BNP, but I think that from a practical point of view, Farage was right.

          11. Tommy Robinson although is not a racist he is an islamophobe…

            Islamophobe or Islamorealist?
            And if you refuse to allow those disturbed by and distrustful of that diktats of the Government regarding immigration and race relations a voice, then is it so surprising that they turn towards increasingly extreme groups to get their views heard?

          12. 327808+ up ticks,
            Lim,
            The farage condemns himself shown by his condemnation of decent peoples that cannot be denied.
            Imo & on reflection he is / has been a tory and a tory coxswain when running UKIP. on leaving the party his support of bolton was also a give away.

            Tommy Robinson Left the EDL prior to them turning ugly.

            There is no love lost between farage & Robinson that is for sure, & farage / islamic ideology is on par with Andy Capp & the labour exchange.

            I was schooled in Kew / Richmond and was well aware of the dealings within society of them times.

            The “nige” was selectively right on certain issues
            but avoids major issues one of which is fast
            approaching.

            The link was the rhetorical stabbing in the back of 30000 peoples.
            He was treacherously wrong.

          13. Um, “islamophobe” is a made-up word to beat people with and shut down debate. There is nothing phobic (an irrational fear) about being afraid of an ideology which avows it will kill all those who do not belong to it (and often those who belong to the wrong sort of it) with the aim of making the whole world submit (islam means submission) to the will of Allah through the installation of the Caliphate.

  10. 327808+ up ticks,
    Questions really should be asked on this sample alone, surely.

    The EU was also acutely aware that if it did not agree a trade deal Britain would be entitled to 100 per cent of the fish in its waters and, as one Tory MP memorably put it, if EU nations try to fish in UK waters after December 31 “all they will get is a visit from the Royal Navy”.

    A trade deal a multitude did NOT want prior to exit.
    A Royal Navy that is virtually non existent.
    A 100% of the fish which was ours prior to the treachery campaign taking a grip.

    1. I wonder what the value of the deal we have compares with what we would have had under WTO and I do not believe arbitration will not lead to sanctions decided by the EU in case of disagreements.
      – My guess is that this thing is so rotten that we will have to renege on it sooner or later.

      1. Having external arbitration is a really big thing.

        The EU wanted the EU to rule on it’s decisions. Nt only is that laughable, they thought it impossible to have any one else do so. That is the extent of their hubris.

        1. Who/what would that external arbitration be?
          I am beginning to believe – in view of the Western Globalist lock-step on Covid, on the American election, on Brexit, etc. – that certain quarters have the media, judiciary, and every structure that we might hope would be independent have in fact been taken.
          If the EU puppet masters own the court where contentions would be decided, I do not hold much hope that decisions would be made equitably.

  11. There is a nice French meme doing the rounds – a comment from a French medical expert who is a Covid-sceptic.

    “Fancy having to be vaccinated against a virus that is so deadly you have to be tested to see if you have it.”

    1. We gather from family that the Aussies have plenty of vaccines, but that they are waiting to see how the rest of the world’s lab rats react before using them.

      1. Next-door neighbour, who is a vet, on behalf of the government, i.e. at a nearby experimental institution (you may recall the place from your time in Cambridge) – he told p’psdad that it was his civic duty and duty to society to have the vaccine. My comment, on hearing this, is unprintable. He is probably on first name terms with the pharmaceuticals, and far too comfortable sticking needles into animals. Familiarity has bred contempt.

        1. I would suggest that it’s the vet’s civic duty to have one first and wait a while to see if it works, before inflicting it on others.

          1. That is how the conversation started…. he informed during the course of that conversation that he had offered himself as a volunteer in trials, that he had just had the jab but did not know whether he had received a placebo or the actual vaccine. He would not be informed for another year which he had been given. I do not regard it as a social duty to have this vaccine, if one has had it then one is – in theory – protected from the likes of ourselves who will not be rolling up our sleeves pronto. And I very much doubt that society would assist if the vaccine made us seriously ill, or care at all, if we died as a result.

  12. Wishing a very Merry Christmas to all you good NoTTLers (and especially Geoff for putting up with all of us and the sterling work he does). Hope you all have a wonderful day and keep safe and well.

    It is clear blue skies, sunny but with a deep frost here, so a kind of White Christmas after all. I raise my glass to you all.

    HAPPY CHRISTMAS! 🥃🎅🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧🐻

  13. Merry Christmas to all Nottlers.

    I am at the Hotel with just a handful of other socially distanced guests. Hope it doesn’t turn into ‘The Shining’ !

    I am saddened to say that when i check out the day after Boxing day i will be the last guest as they are closing for good.

    On a happier note i wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. May God bless us all.

      1. The Hotel was sold about four years ago to the Kingfisher group. They wanted to redevelop the site and bring it up to date. Trouble is…it is surrounded by National Trust land and they have been thwarted at every turn.

        What makes this place so special is its olde world charm. Covid was probably the last straw but not the entire reason.

        Blessed with clear sky and sunshine here yesterday and today. So not all doom and gloom.

        Dolly had a long walk on the beach. I sat shivering in the cafe.

        Merry Christmas.

        1. It appears i was wrong and they do intend to open at some unspecified time in the future. Who knows.

          1. Enid Blyton stayed here when she was writing the ‘Famous Five’ books. She used a lot of the local landscape for their adventures. The main house hasn’t been changed since her time here. No modern ugliness.

        2. Thank you, Phillip, Bookmarked for later next year – they say that they will re-open on February 12th.

    5. Unfortunately they will not be the last ones closing, these latest rounds of lockdowns and restrictions will probably see many more viable businesses being pushed under.

      Happy Christmas to you sir and to Dolly, time to reenergise the humorous quips to carry us through another year.

      1. It is a nice place normally and everyone talks to each other. Not enough people to grow an atmosphere this time. Glad to be home though.

  15. Good morning all and a Merry Chritmas to everyone.

    LOP after a night shift last night – I watched Father Chritmases travels around the world on the NORAD Santa tracker. What a wonderful thing to be able to show young children – I almost believed myself that he and his reindeer really were galloping across the sky.

  16. California man accused of murdering fellow Covid patient with oxygen tank. 25 December 2020.

    Jesse Martinez, 37, became aggravated when the 82-year-old man sharing his hospital room started praying, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

    Detectives said Mr Martinez then grabbed an oxygen tank and used it to beat the elderly patient.

    Died of Coronavirus!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/24/california-man-accused-murdering-fellow-covid-patient-oxygen/

  17. Back from breakfast, Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon. The bolly is being left for later, as Best Beloved says that even a glass of bubbly would incapacitate her and she has to do battle with a huge 5.5 Kg five-rib of beef, two lots of beef trimmings and a gammon joint.

    The beef will probably see us through the first 6 months of 2021 and it’ll be gammon sandwiches from boxing day to doomsday!

    1. Dice any remaining beef and bag up and freeze for curry and stews.

      Thanks for the funnies. Merry Christmas.

      1. Best Beloved has already decided to slice, bag/box with onion gravy and serve as required on any Sunday when a roast would be in order.

    2. Mrs D has done all the preparation for cooking so I have rewarded her (and me) with a glass of Moet.

      1. Excellent plan, Delboy!
        SWMBO & Firstborn, who both have the cooking talent, are doing just that. Me, I peeled, scrubbed, washed up and other scullery tasks, for which I am admirably suited.

        2. I did the veg (including peeling the spuds I grew myself) and the turkey and pigs in blankets. Then I washed up (aka filled and ran the dishwasher). Only one slight hitch; MOH hovered over me when I was doing the mash, making me nervous and then managed to pull the dishwasher open when it was running to put something in half way through the cycle. I retrieved it and managed to get the door closed again and the machine started. One, two, three, four, five, six …

    4. Cooked a giant joint of beef. About a kilo of the stuff, a roast chicken, some gammon all in with pasta, vegetables.

      That’s the dogs sorted. The humans can have cheese on toast.

  18. The Viking Longhouse echoes to the sounds of food preparation (skilled; the unskilled peeling etc is done by the undersigned), and carols.
    https://youtu.be/RVguSWYwSsA
    Quite poignant: First Christmas ever without extended family, and it’s weird. Not like others, of course, forced to take it alone, for whom I feel a great deal of sympathy.

        1. Do your toast in the oven – it’s the best!

          Slice bread to thickness of your choice, place directly on rack in oven (NOT under the grill!) @ 220C for 7 minutes, turn over for another 3. Comes out crispy-crunchy, better than any toaster. Not exactly energy-saving, but very good.

          1. My homemade white comes out of the toaster crisp and remains crisp after buttering. That reminds me, I haven’t had breakfast or lunch.

          3. I had a late breakfast of Elsie’s marmalade on ‘my’ toast with black coffee.

            Skipped lunch & having an early supper of

            Smoked salmon

            Grilled lobster tail with herb butter & a dill mayonnaise with Pouilly-fumé La Perrièrre 2019

            Perfectly ripe Brie with Chateauneuf du Pape Blason du Rhône 20i8*

            Apple crumble with thick double cream

            Armagnac XO & pieces of chilled chocolate.

            *As this is a young wine, I’m opening it tonight so it can breathe & take on the roast rib of beef tomorrow.

          4. Thank you, peddy, that’s something I’ll try in the Rayburn – that’s energy saving because the oven is always on.

    2. Hello Plum, was wondering where you were!
      God rot the government and their blarsted plague if it means you have to spend Christmas on your own.
      Merry Beans anyway!

        1. I couldn’t source a Stilton, Tom, so I’ve got a Roquefort and Gruyère to go with the St Agur. I shall be having mine with a younger (2015) Graham’s LBV port.

      2. Actually, that sounds absolutely fine …. probably even more so to MB who has spent his morning washing up and hoovering.

        1. Had a bellyful of Swedish food last night. There’s only so many bits of salmon, ham, pickled herring, meat balls, little sausages, cheese, Jansson’s temptation, bread, and crispbreads one can tolerate!

          New Year will be roast rib of beef and all things English!

          1. We had a fusion meal last night.
            Prawn starter, roast turkey etc… for the main course and risalamande for pud. ( I got the whole almond.)
            Mostly cooked by granddaughter, so well done that girl.

  21. Merry Christmas, one and all and it deserves a Christmas Story:

    Presents From Santa
    A little girl is in line to see Santa. When it’s her turn, she climbs up on Santa’s lap. Santa asks,

    “What would you like Santa to bring you for Christmas?”

    The little girl replies, “I want a Barbie and GI Joe.”

    Santa looks at the little girl and says, “I thought Barbie comes with Ken.”

    “No,” said the little girl. “She comes with GI Joe. She fakes with Ken!”

    Thank you, Geoff, for your devotion to duty.

  22. Well, what a terrible year. Despite everything may I wish you a joyful and peaceful Christmas, and a New Year which brings renewed health and happiness to us all.

  23. Sir
    When I was asked by my children and grandchildren what I would like for Christmas I used to answer that a bit of peace and quiet would be nice.
    Now that I’ve got it, I don’t like it.

    Steve Cartridge, Bolton, Lancs

    I think some of us would agree with Steve.

    1. Never have I seen such negativity from a cartoonist, Citroen1 – how sad. But. nonetheless, a very Happy Christmas to everyone on here.

      1. ‘Tis The Times, Elsie. In recent years they have become as miserable a bunch wasters as one could never wish to meet….the very antithesis of NoTTLers who are invariably joyous. {:^))

        2. Not sure I can agree with the “invariably”, Citroen1, based on recent comments on this site.

          3. Although my parents were older, I wasn’t put into frocks until being britched at age 5.

            Happy Christmas, Stephen.

          6. Yep, still bowling around in a romper suit, pissed as usual.

            Ain’t second childhood wonderful. Happy Christmas , Bill.

      1. We had a phone (for some reason). Grimsdyke 168. Funny that I can remember that but not where I left my glasses!

        3. That would be before the Grimsdyke exchange was dial-up. No dial on the phone, you had to lift the receiver, wake up an operator, and tell him/her what number you wanted.

          1. Grimsdyke Telephone Exchange
            HC Deb 11 December 1946 vol 431 c241W241W
            §117. Mr. Skinnard asked the Assistant Postmaster-General whether, in view of the difficulties experienced by subscribers using the Grimsdyke telephone exchange, it is now possible to announce a date by which this, exchange will be converted to the automatic system.
            §Mr. Burke The difficulties referred to by my hon Friend arose from a shortage of operating staff. This has now been overcome and the quality of service should improve as the new staff gains in experience. Grimsdyke exchange can be extended to meet the requirements of new subscribers and its conversion to automatic working is not therefore being considered in present conditions.

          2. But if it was a “party line”, then you had to tell the operator which person you wanted to speak to

          4. When I lived in Verwood & had the practice in Southampton, the PO tried to force me to share my home line with yokels across the road. I successfully beat them off by arguing that my patients must be able to reach me 24/7.

          5. Usually known as “party lines”, IIRR. We had one, mercifully briefly. If we were on the phone and the other party wished to make a call, he would rattle the cradle until we gave up.

      2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9f329333cfca8b71619381dfde857d835cf5634bfa28df28c23be0f47e6b5503.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14628855b07726dce5f512a9e6dadd94edb251b1cd54c7efad69cac13abed9cb.jpgMorning Bob,In the spirit of Christmas I submit a portrait of myself taken in 1939.
        I wish you and all Nottlers best wishes for today and the New Year.
        Now that we have got some sovereignty back we should now start to get our liberty back.
        I apologise Citroen This reply was for Bill Thomas but I don’t think he’ll mind.

  28. Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is causing allergic reactions at a rate that is higher than ‘what one could expect from’ other shots, says the chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed. 25 December 2020.

    The chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed said on Wednesday that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is causing more allergic reactions than typically seen from other vaccines.

    Dr. Moncef Slaoui said that the last time he was updated on allergic reactions was on Tuesday, when there were six cases, CNN reported.

    ‘That frequency, as it stood yesterday, is superior to what one would expect with other vaccines,’ he said.

    Wait till everyone who has had it turns into a goat on New Year’s Eve!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9085941/Pfizer-COVID-19-vaccine-causing-allergic-reactions-rate-superior-shots.html

    1. ‘Morning, Minty. Just six? There are surely a few reactions to the annual ‘flu vaccinations, the science for which has been around for years. I regard such a low number as quite encouraging.

  32. Seems like we beat off those pesky bots yesterday; no posts trapped in the pending net as of 08:30/07:30 today. Proper job!

    1. Interesting!

      As soon as Boris declared “Victory” all the bots ceased.

      Anybody got an explanation?

    2. All the moderators must have spent a great deal of your valuable time in this effort, so thank you for that.

    4. Don’t speak too soon, Paul. The day is het young.

      God jul!

      Apropos, I was going to ask you if you would let a few through tomorrow (Boxing Day) so we could enjoy some Field Sport after breakfast, please?

      1. Just post them, and a mod will release them. Might repeal the premoderate, if today goes well.

      1. Team effort.
        The good thing with having folk spread across the timezones, you can keep the pressure up!

  33. SIR – My husband is currently deployed to a turbulent region 4,000 miles away. He has been there for four months, and has another two or three to go.

    I received a letter this week from his major, thanking both of us for the sacrifice that he is making this Christmas to improve the lives of others. I am indeed incredibly proud of him.

    We are currently posted in Yorkshire, but we both come from Kent (although our cat is Yorkshire born, bred and rescued).

    Throughout my husband’s deployment, I knew that Christmas would be different without him, but I also knew that spending three days with my mother in Kent would be a well-deserved treat. This, however, has not happened. For the first time in my life, I am not able to see my mother – or any member of my family.

    So please spare a thought for military spouses who are posted (on a good day) five hours from their families, and are now unable to spend Christmas Day with their loved ones. Roll on Easter.

    Hannah Page
    Richmond, North Yorkshire

    That’s a tough one, Hannah. If it’s any comfort, many others will be alone over Christmas, but it will improve over time.

    1. Unfortunately, Hugh, during my time in the Royal Air Force, the answer to anyone who moaned – about anything – would be, “If you can’t take a joke, you shouldn’t have signed on.”

      Hard-hearted I know but black humour was often the only way to get through. (Humour of of other colours, may be available).

    2. Unfortunately, Hugh, during my time in the Royal Air Force, the answer to anyone who moaned – about anything – would be, “If you can’t take a joke, you shouldn’t have signed on.”

      Hard-hearted I know but black humour was often the only way to get through. (Humour of of other colours, may be available).

    3. Unfortunately, Hugh, during my time in the Royal Air Force, the answer to anyone who moaned – about anything – would be, “If you can’t take a joke, you shouldn’t have signed on.”

      Hard-hearted I know but black humour was often the only way to get through. (Humour of of other colours, may be available).

      2. I always imagined “they scraped him off the tarmac like a lump of strawberry jam” was more red humour than black humour, unless you’re a Duke, in which case it’s blue.

    4. Spare a though, Hannah, for my late Mother who was parted from her husband from 1942 until 1948 while he was serving in the Royal Air Force. They were together for about three months in total during that time.

      1. Same here, Bill. My father went off to war in 1939 when I was three. He returned in 1945 when I was nine and I saw him as a complete stranger. Posted to BAOR in 1947 and me off to boarding school at the age of twelve so I never had a normal relationship with my father.

          1. I did not live full time with BOTH my parents until February 1949 – and then until April 1952 when I was packed off to hateful boarding school. I next lived full time with them when I was 18.

            Young people today…..are unaware of the weird lives of their grand-parents.

          3. Both my parents went to boarding school before and during the war and hated it. My father was sent away as a full time boarder at the age of seven. He has no friends from that time, and never speaks of it. He left school at 16 with no qualifications, getting out as fast as he could.
            My mother said that her home life effectively ended when she was eleven, though being extravert, she coped with it better than my father.
            Needless to say, we went to day schools. Boarding was not even considered, and not just because of the cost!

          2. My Papa signed up, aged 19, in the Queen’s Westminster Rifles in 1914 aged just 19 and fought again in WWII with the Suffolk Regiment.

            Two wars does something to a man and I hated him (I was born in 1944 so couldn’t identify with his actions). A strict disciplinarian.

      3. I am just reading Stranger in The House by Julie Summers (she of Jambusters). It’s about how the women coped with their husbands being away and returning changed (particularly ex Japanese-POWs) or those whose men never came back at all and the children’s reactions to fathers they either didn’t remember or had never seen. How did you feel when your father came back, Bill?

  34. Good afternoon, and Happy Christmas to all NOTTLers.
    Recovered from evening with family and now hovering over the turkey like another hen, in a manner of speaking. I’ve not had to do a Christmas lunch for several years so am somewhat out of practice.

    1. Surely one pair of each is all that’s needed, Bob?
      And – why a pair of pants? You can’t get just a single pant, surely? Same with trousers – who has a trouser?
      Edit: trousers (bukser) is plural in yer Weegie, too. Weird!

    2. Surely one pair of each is all that’s needed, Bob?
      And – why a pair of pants? You can’t get just a single pant, surely? Same with trousers – who has a trouser?
      Edit: trousers (bukser) is plural in yer Weegie, too. Weird!

      1. I read somewhere recently that originally trousers came singly; one for each leg. It was only later that they were joined up into a pair.

        1. Used to wear fireman’s waterproof trousers like that – separate legs, and tie to the belt. Good point!

          2. That’s the word I was looking for! Chaps! You can get them for hunting or fishing over here, they are called “lårings”.
            Thanks!

          3. I have a set of full chaps (waterproof) and some half chaps for riding (they are like the tops of long boots and fit over jodhpur boots.

      3. They are singular in French (le pantalon). I always thought they were singular at the top and plural at the bottom 🙂

  37. Afternoon all,

    Allison Pearson is usually good value, and particularly today:

    The vindictive EU tried to humiliate Britain. But we proved we have the character for independence

    We will never again need to hear the six glummest words in the English language: ‘Over to Katya Adler in Brussels’

    ALLISON PEARSON
    24 December 2020 • 3:26pm

    “Brexit means Brexit.” Goodness, how innocent we were all those centuries ago when Theresa May and her chief EU negotiator, Olly Robbins, were still asking the Brussels mafia what price they would accept for allowing us to leave the European Union. And Donald Tusk posted a picture on Instagram of Mrs May admiring some cakes with the caption, “A piece of cake, perhaps? Sorry, no cherries.”

    The then-president of the European Council treated the then British prime minister not just disrespectfully but with jaw-dropping insolence for what he saw as her attempt to “cherry-pick” access to the Single Market. To be fair to Tusk, he perfectly captured the tone of the negotiations for a trade deal between the EU and its second highest-contributing member: arrogant, vengeful, obstructive, sneaky, spiteful and downright bloody rude.

    Like a sociopathic jilted fiance, the EU wasn’t content to just get the ring back. It wanted to humiliate the UK, shave our head and send us to a nunnery so we would never enjoy relations with anyone else ever again.

    It took an exhausting, nerve-shredding, Remainer-dodging 1,317 days from the referendum result on June 23 2016 to get out. And another 327 days until a trade deal was finally agreed. This time, there is none of that air-punching WE DID IT! sense which millions of us felt on January 31 when Union Jacks fluttered in the Mall and I heard a Geordie girl crying with happiness on the radio because we were finally leaving.

    Instead, there will be quiet satisfaction that our negotiating team, led by the terriertastic David Frost, hung in there and held its nerve as Michel Barnier announced, yet again, that “the cliff edge” was near and the “clock is ticking”. All well-worn, coded EU threats designed to panic the hated Brits into taking whatever crumbs off the table the other 27 deigned to give us.

    Kudos also to the PM. It feels like another lifetime when Buoyant Boris was balm to our souls, delivering a stonking general election victory on a promise to Get Brexit Done. Covid seemed to make him half the man, and not just because he lost weight. As Tennyson said of Ulysses, “We are not now that strength which in old days/ Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are/Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will.”

    There was a calculated bravura in the PM’s claim that a no-deal Brexit was “now a strong probability”. His bold assertion that it would be a “good outcome” if we left without a deal came before President Macron, his petulant inner Napoleon never far from the surface, closed the French border and lorries queued up the M20 into the corona badlands of the Medway towns. Put it this way, Robert Robinson would have made Boris team captain on Call My Bluff.

    Each side will claim the other blinked first. At first glance, though, it looks like we did a lot better than was predicted. Zero tariffs and zero quotas mean a better deal than any other country. Yes, the EU can impose tariffs if we make a molehill in their level playing field, but at least there is no role at all for the European Court of Justice which over-ruled the laws voted for by the British people.

    In the next few days, purists will pore over the small print, wrinkle their noses and declare this is BRINO – Brexit In Name Only. Most of us will just heave a huge sigh of relief and rejoice that we don’t have an aggrieved EU holding up vaccines and satsumas to add to our Covid worries.

    Look at it this way, we will never again need to hear the six glummest words in the English language: “Over to Katya Adler in Brussels.”

    The United Kingdom just became the first country to honour the result of a referendum which defied the wishes of the European autocracy. It walked away with its own borders, its own laws and (eventually) the best part of our own seas. There is great pride to be taken in that. The EU revealed its true colours in the negotiations. We made the right decision. We’re on our own now. Some noble work may yet be done. Over the last four and a half long, bruising years of bartering for our freedom we’ve shown that we have the character to do it. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Brexit meant Brexit. But we knew that, didn’t we?

    A BTL comment or two:

    Bill Hickling
    24 Dec 2020 4:00PM

    Incredibly the Remainers are still fighting the last war. We just had Lord Adonis on the BBC (naturally!) saying we should re-join the single market.

    A period of silence from him and his mates Campbell, Blair, Major, Benn, et.al. would be most welcome.

    Ed Richards
    24 Dec 2020 3:51PM

    “Look at it this way, we will never again need to hear the six glummest words in the English language: “Over to Katya Adler in Brussels.”

    Brilliant!

    And hopefully we won’t have to read the defeatist disinformation of the DT’s Brussels correspondent either!

      1. Nah – she’ll get some promotion and a vast pay increase. Director of Bollocks Department.

      2. No, the EU’s publicity machine will take her on to project their view…oh, hang on, I think they did that a long time ago…

  38. Rod Liddle
    At least Santa will arrive before Hermes
    24 December 2020, 9:47pm

    Itook advantage of Google and NORAD’s ‘Santa tracking app’ to find out when my presents would be delivered. It says that my gifts should arrive in eight hours. Fine, I’m happy with that. Better than Hermes. But I notice three things. First, Google seems of the opinion that Santa is either a man or a woman, contrary to traditional thinking. There is an image of a woman Santa and a man Santa together. And yet, in the sleigh itself, there is no trace of the woman. Is she at home cooking mince pies? How recherche is that? I also notice that while Santa is allowed to be a woman, she is not allowed to be black or asian. Only whites allowed: isn’t that racist on the part of Google? I also notice that at the time I accessed the app, Santa was delivering parcels to people in Lahore and Karachi: is that not a grave insult to Islam?

    Happy Christmas, all of you. And let us work hard, this coming year, to develop a new weapon which will expunge from the world Google, Facebook and every other virtue-signalling corporate whore who hoves into view.

    1. And yet, in the sleigh itself, there is no trace of the woman.

      The reason you can’t see her is that she is behind the sleigh pushing.

      ‘Morning, Citroen.

  39. 327808+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Wishing each & all a good Christmas and a much happier New Year.

    We have suffered Christmases before where a political force was trying it’s best to kill us without a velvet glove, learn from history.

    My belief is that when ALL is revealed we will observe a neat row of stitches around the coastline of these Isles.

    May one add do NOT on no account stand DOWN what remains of the guardians of this Nation, it happened post 24/6/2016 with dire consequences.

  40. Anger as Trump pardons Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner’s father. Indy 25 December 2020.

    The White House on Wednesday announced full pardons for another slate of Donald Trump allies and friends, including former campaign advisers Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, plus Charles Kushner, the father of Mr Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.

    The first two men faced charges stemming from the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in US politics, and neither cooperated with the special counsel.

    Trump is doing what is right here since these people were mostly framed by the false Russia narrative propagated by the Deep State and the Democratic Party!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-issues-pardons-for-roger-stone-paul-manafort-and-jared-kushner-s-father-b1778474.html

  41. Happy Christmas everyone.

    SIR – When asked by my children and grandchildren what I would like for Christmas, I used to answer that a bit of peace and quiet would be nice.

    Now I’ve got it, I don’t like it.

    Steve Cartridge

    Bolton, Lancashire

  42. A very Happy Christmas to all the Nottlers

    and a Happy Birthday to the one whose birthday we celebrate today.

    (Caroline is practising her playing and we shall be off to mass in an hour’s time.)

    1. Thank you for reminding me! Must go upstairs and find my Happy Birthday Jesus jersey…

      Merry Christmas to you too! We are missing church this year, as we are not in the parish of the church we usually attend, and it’s probably unfair to take up a slot that will certainly be very much in demand for Christmas morning in the parish where we are.

      1. My parish (at least I’m on the Parish Register there, although I don’t actually live within the parish boundaries) is in Tier 3 (I am in Tier 2). They have cancelled services and the one remaining is ticket only. I haven’t been to church since before Easter.

  43. Can you imagine what Jesus’ life would have been like if, instead of being born into the Roman police state, he had been born and raised in the American police state?

    Consider the following if you will.

    Had Jesus been born in the era of the America police state, rather than traveling to Bethlehem for a census, Jesus’ parents would have been mailed a 28-page American Community Survey, a mandatory government questionnaire documenting their habits, household inhabitants, work schedule, how many toilets are in your home, etc. The penalty for not responding to this invasive survey can go as high as $5,000.

    Instead of being born in a manger, Jesus might have been born at home. Rather than wise men and shepherds bringing gifts, however, the baby’s parents might have been forced to ward off visits from state social workers intent on prosecuting them for the home birth. One couple in Washington had all three of their children removed after social services objected to the two youngest being birthed in an unassisted home delivery.

    Had Jesus been born in a hospital, his blood and DNA would have been taken without his parents’ knowledge or consent and entered into a government biobank. While most states require newborn screening, a growing number are holding onto that genetic material long-term for research, analysis and purposes yet to be disclosed.

    From the time he was old enough to attend school, Jesus would have been drilled in lessons of compliance and obedience to government authorities, while learning little about his own rights. Had he been daring enough to speak out against injustice while still in school, he might have found himself tasered or beaten by a school resource officer, or at the very least suspended under a school zero tolerance policy that punishes minor infractions as harshly as more serious offenses.

    Had Jesus disappeared for a few hours let alone days as a 12-year-old, his parents would have been handcuffed, arrested and jailed for parental negligence. Parents across the country have been arrested for far less “offenses” such as allowing their children to walk to the park unaccompanied and play in their front yard alone.

    Rather than disappearing from the history books from his early teenaged years to adulthood, Jesus’ movements and personal data—including his biometrics—would have been documented, tracked, monitored and filed by governmental agencies and corporations such as Google and Microsoft. Incredibly, 95 percent of school districts share their student records with outside companies that are contracted to manage data, which they then use to market products to us.

    From the moment Jesus made contact with an “extremist” such as John the Baptist, he would have been flagged for surveillance because of his association with a prominent activist, peaceful or otherwise. Since 9/11, the FBI has actively carried out surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations on a broad range of activist groups, from animal rights groups to poverty relief, anti-war groups and other such “extremist” organizations.

    Jesus’ anti-government views would certainly have resulted in him being labeled a domestic extremist. Law enforcement agencies are being trained to recognize signs of anti-government extremism during interactions with potential extremists who share a “belief in the approaching collapse of government and the economy.”

    More here: https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/what_if_the_christ_child_had_been_born_in_the_american_police_state

    1. Of course if he’d been born in the UK he would have been fitted up a dozen times by now with the MSM accusing him of far-right links and racist propaganda.

      3. It’s funny how Jesus’s words are just as much of a sword now as they were in His day! And how the powers that be are just as prone to see His message as subversive.

  44. A very happy Christmas to Sue Edison [I know you’re out there! 😘]. Did you manage to complete the hike to Jorvik?

    1. Happy Christmas Grizz & all Nottlers.

      No, the coach company and hotel were fine but my family went all Covid bedwetter on me, so stuck in Shepherds Bush. They sent presents via Amazon and will Zoom later. Pressies useless. I’m peed off with them.

      I went to Midnight Mass and the Christmas Day service this morning so not completely isolated. Didn’t book in to the hotel at Barbican after all, so spent a lot on a taxi to take me back and forth. The driver is a pal of the building manager where I live. Very chatty, bless-im.

      The guy I sit near enough to talk to in church will be home alone zooming his wife today, as she’s working in Trinidad and neither of them can travel.

      The organist ended the service this morning with the Radetzky March, which was rather jolly. I wonder if there’ll be a New Years Day concert from Vienna?

      1. Hi Sue! Happy Christmas!
        Families, eh? who’d have ’em?
        SWMBOs have organised a zoom this afternoon, but hasn’t sent the booking. WTF?

        1. I endured one of those on the 23rd. It was … er … different.

          Sorry, but I’m not one for being on display to all and sundry. What’s wrong with a good old-fashioned telephone call?

          1. Multi-way call (us, Brother, brother, parents). And free. Visuals are a “bonus” – I like to sit out of shot.

          5. Of course. I have only been able to see one – in September. He came to a nearby B&B. Otherwise I have not been WITH any of them for over a year. A great wrench.

          7. One saddening thing about my mother’s dementia… it’s too late for her to engage with her grandsons, and when she was well, she never bothered. Never phoned them, never asked them to visit, absolutely nowt. MiL, however, invited them both to visit when they were small (we’d deliver them either to the airport or to Grandma at LHR), she & FiL’d take them fishing, to Bovingdon, to some postcard museum… you name it. My mother – nowt. That’s really sad, and a lesson to us all – there’s no day like today to engage with those you love.

          10. Works for me, but the lads aren’t in relationships, and I can’t see any in the near future. Let alone marriages…

          13. It’s free, and there’s multiple parties. Zoom is carp, but kind of works until it doesn’t.

          3. I’m afraid we used to catch goldfish/crucian carp crosses in a Richmond Park pond and use them for live baiting for pike (don’t tell him) in the Thames.

      4. Glad you were safe, Our Susan. I know what you men about “bedwetters”…..

        Enjoy the rest of the day.

      5. It’s funny that you should mention useless prezzies, Sue.

        I received, from a friend, an extremely useful long-handled plastic ice-scraper for a frost-encrusted car’s windscreen. On the other end of it is an extremely useful brush for clearing snow off the car. I’m now all set for an extremely useful trauma-free winter’s motoring.

        Incredibly, the extremely useful ice-scraper/brush matches the one I got last Christmas. It also, astonishingly, matches the extremely useful one I got the Christmas before that. Not only that, it also …

  47. It’s easy to see that Boros’ sovereignty declaration is only fit for the trash can.

    In theory Britain gets 15% more fish in the first year and 2.5% more for each of the following 4 years.

    From year 5, Britain can exclude the EU completely.

    By which time, there’ll be no fish left so Britain gets 100% of nothing !

    1. As delightful as it would be to destroy the European’s fishing industry as it did to ours, a phased reduction is probably more sensible.

      Happy Christmas all.

    1. I wonder if she’s been fined yet?

      Ooops – manners – Merry Christmas Nottlers, and thanks again to Geoff for this relief valve.

      1. ‘Morning, Sue and Nanners. I have the feeling that the Salmond enquiry might just provide the come-uppance so many of us look forward to!

        1. She certainly is on very shoogly ground….what a shame,eh? Hope you have a wonderful Christmas, Hugh!

        3. Hopefully a slap in the face from one wet fish to another.

          ‘Morning Hugh and seasonal felicitations.

  50. Yo All

    Just watched the Queen unite the country in five minutes, with her speech

    Boris and Co will soon didvide it

    1. Boris has done much better than most on here expected; its about time to give him some credit.

      History will …

      1. The UK has won its sovereignty from a grieving EU. This is as good a deal as we could have dreamed
        JANET DALEY
        24 December 2020 • 4:58pm

        In the end it didn’t happen at five minutes to midnight. It was two minutes to midnight. Everybody wanted a form of words he could present to the home audience as a win – or, in the case of the EU, if not a victory, at least a palatable outcome.

        Apparently they spent the last 12 hours counting herring. Macron had to fend off the threat of rioting fishermen and Marine Le Pen, and Boris had to hang on to Grimsby. We will find out eventually how finely they had to slice the grape for their own audiences, but they can probably count on the fact that Covid and its attendant catastrophic consequences have blunted the more purist forms of critique. To have walked over the cliff of no deal now would have seemed like absolute insanity. Most of the populations of the key European states are so punch drunk from the pandemic that they are – almost – beyond caring about the detail.

        But the press conferences told the real story of who had won most. Ursula von der Leyen and Michel Barnier looked as if they were delivering memorial speeches at a funeral. Mrs Von der Leyen, who may well have been the quiet heroine of this story, displayed faultless diplomacy in her dignified grief. But the most revealing point in her solemn disquisition was her clear failure, still, to understand what the word “sovereignty” meant. It should be understood, she said, in the twenty-first century to be something more like the EU ideal: solidarity and harmony between partners. But that, of course, is not what it means. As Boris Johnson – who was clearly, and justifiably, not sad at all – made clear, what sovereignty actually means is that our laws will be determined by our own elected parliament and interpreted by our own judges. And it is that understanding – that profound difference of basic principle – which underlies our incompatibility with the European ideology.

        Trying – but not always succeeding – to resist triumphalism, Boris had the clearest, strongest argument possible: we are now, indisputably, part of a giant free trade zone with Europe but also able to make free trade agreements with other countries. We are in the most advantageous global position that we might have hoped for. He too was diplomatic in his explanation of why our membership of the EU had foundered. It was a fundamental historical difference in our political cultures: nations like Germany, France and Italy were determined that their peoples should never go to war with one another again – and the Benelux countries which had been trampled in the process were eager to go along.

        But the UK – he did not quite say – does not share in that guilty remorse, and is proud of the independent and courageous role it played in the events of the last century. The consolidation and diminishing of national power which seemed the morally right path for so many European states was not appropriate or comfortable for us. So we have, at last, found our rightful place in a trading relationship and friendly partnership with the EU that does not involve a diminution of the democratic accountability of our elected government.

        There will be much forensic examination of the details of this new charter for restoring independence, by people who have spent half their lives dedicated to the cause. But I do hope that not too many of my Brexiteer friends will decide to go down in the last ditch over fishing quotas or semantic interpretations. They are, I know, deeply conscientious and much too honourable to lose. And this is as good a deal as we could have dreamed.

  51. Christmas greetings to all and in particular to Nigel Farage who helped us to be where we are today and to Gina Miller who IMHO inadvertently helped seal the deal a while back, oh she must be mortified right now. I also would like to thank the BTL boys, girls and turdlings of the Guardian for making my Christmas by seeing them dissolve into a boiling vat of hate, resentment, bile, raging fury and bigotry . oh yes

    1. Have a great Chrismas too, Datz.
      Despite the stress and virus, things haven’t turned out so badly after all!

  52. May all the inhabitants on this island of sanity in a sea of troubles, have a wonderful Christmas

    Cheers, Nottlers.

  54. Just watched the Queen’s speech. She is squandering a lifetime of earning people’s respect by selling out to the wokes. It’s the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth apparently, but she’s not allowed to say this without paying tribute to Mary Seacole.
    And she can’t talk about Christmas without mentioning every other faith!

    1. I had a look on YouTube but abandoned it after the first minute. There are fireworks going off outside. Maybe that always happens in The Bush at Christmas. I’m not usually here.

      3. Fireworks have been going off here, too. Fortunately, the aged hound is now deaf, or I would have been typing this with him draped around my shoulders.

      2. Not that I ever read.
        I heard about Mary Seacole years before the left picked up on her, when I lived in Kensal Green in London. She was a very interesting character!
        When she passed through Turkey on her way to the Crimea, she declared that the only industrious creatures there were the fleas! Her story is wonderful, however, it is one of many inspiring stories of nineteenth century British women, and she did NOT found modern nursing, as Florence Nightingale did.

    4. Good evening Blackbox2 and a Happy Christmas to you.

      Who wrote the speech for her? You are correct – much of it was sheer wokery.

      And doesn’t the creed of the Church of which she is the Head say that we believe in one God – the one who is the father of Christ, his only begotten son?
      So why does she mention other religions on Christmas Day? Does she not believe the words she must say every time she takes communion?


      I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible, and invisible:

      And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, Begotten of his Father before all Worlds, God God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God, Begotten not made, Being of one substance with the Father, By whom all things were made: Who for vs men, and for our Salvation came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man, And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, And ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead: Whose kingdom shall have no end.

      And I believe in the holy Ghost, The Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets. And I believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of Sins, And I look for the Resurrection of the dead, And the life of the world to come.

      1. I am coming to believe that she cares only for her family’s continuing position as heads of state!
        Valid claim to be descended from the Prophet Mohammed indeed! If I thought there was a chance that I was descended from a raping, looting pederast and control freak, I would be ashamed enough to keep decently quiet about it!

      2. I understand she wrote it herself, Richard, which is somewhat worrying if she feels she has to go down that route.

    5. I thought that when I read a report of it. I was glad I didn’t watch it. What has Diwali got to do with Christmas? Then there was a photo of Charley boy with his hands together (namaste, I presume) greeting staff in Birmingham hospital grounds. The others didn’t look particularly tinted, so why?

    4. What a beautiful photograph, Bill. My very best wishes for a Happy Christmas to the Most Recent, yourself and the two scallywags.

      1. There’s a ginger cat in the neighbourhood which often makes up to me when I go outside, especially if I’m working on the shrubs. I think he/she wants to adopt me, but Missy would be furious. I talk to him/her, but that’s as far as it goes.

  56. Just returned from a festive dog/walk/amble and I’ve been really lifted by the nice normal families we’ve met and chatted to , they’re just full of happiness and good will. I can’t speak for the (fool)hardy folks indulging in a festive swim but they seem happy with it.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/38c0b5573b28d14dde4e385f1e61b314a42921344b764b18cee5508ddeaec67e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/589ae1817b68b1ffa9483521d2795268cab564dede72966be6e4afef229e3fba.jpg

    1. My father was a member of the Bournemouth Spartans. They swam in the sea every Sunday morning throughout the year, also Christmas & New Year’s mornings.

    2. My father was one of the daft buggers would swim in the North Sea off Hartlepool on New Years day.

  57. Decided to come home. The staff were charming and did the best they could. So few guests in the big sprawling place that i was feeling a bit bored. 🙁

    1. Enjoy Dolly’s company and spoil her rotten.

      Sorry your Christmas didn’t meet expectations.

      1. Thanks. I was just bored. Others have had it a lot worse than I. There’s no place like home.

        Clicks heels. 🙂

      1. Not been in an English pub for almost exactly 365 days… Second Son had become old enough to buy ME a cider!
        No pubs, bars or alcohol with meals here. Getting more than averagely peed off about it.

        2. As of tonight, no pubs, bars or restaurants here. We can enjoy Christmas day (sort of) but at midnight it all goes pumpkin shaped for a month.

          All of five confirmed cases in the county, at least we now know someone who knows someone who has caught the bug. However, the side effects of tuesdays shingles vaccination are worse than the average case round here.

          1. The council in the big town (Kongsberg) “near” Firstborn’s farm has just closed all the pubs, despite that so far, all infections have been traced to Council premises! These are the same clowns who, a couple of years ago, wanted all the ducks that live on the town’s river shot, because of gooseshit in the town… and it’s not allowed to shoot in town!
            Clowns. Arseholes.

          2. Clowns? Our lot are closing ski hills but golf courses are allowed to remain open.

            December in Ontario is hardly prime golfing weather.

          4. Right or wong, it is spelling sometimes. Is it the fault of the chinese?

            Hopefully they were not planning ahead to the latest lock down being extended into summer.

    5. That is surprising after all of the media gushing about the great escape from the London lock down.

        1. we get to the equivalent level at midnight tonight. One last fling with dinner at the golf club this evening, after that nothing.

      1. I’ve spent too many nights in hotels to choose to go there, especially to eat. Most hotel restaurants do versions of French cooking, and I find it dull – I’d rather have carry-out pizza.

      1. Feliz Navidad.
        Across the water your Danish neighbours were dining on minkieburgers. (with those sticky caramel spuds)

      1. PCR Test as practised by NHS gives almost 100% false positive whereas Lateral Flow Test gives the same percentage of false negatives. You really could not make it up.

  61. Today’s cocktail is … a Brenda … a Brenda.

    Gin & Dubonnet with ice & lemon slice, what better to slurp while watching her Maj?

    BTW, has she had laser eye treatment? She read the autocue without specs.

  62. Wishing Geoff & all NTTL readers and their families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2021, be safe & well and enjoy the festive season despite the current difficult circumstances. I am not returning to active daily posting on here and this is just a one time visit as this account is now retired – you will find me posting using the ID Sputnik One on The Sputniks Orbit & the TGIOF blogspot – the links are on my profile. God bless you all & God bless a Great Britain free at last from EU slavery! All the best, Pud in Tel Aviv, Israel
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e873a8e8391c512a97d71238a158871ae3368a960a773e26dd4cc70d1d3664a.gif

    7. Good to see from you, Hat!
      Happy Christmas, and a better 2021 to you & yours.
      Don’t be a stranger – miss your input.

  63. Hope you are all having a happy Christmas Day – bright and sunny here but cold. We went for a short walk then came back & had scrambled egg & smoked salmon for lunch. Will start cooking the duck later.

    Just caught up with all the Christmas greetings and pics of little boys……

  64. I am signing off for the day. Have a smashing evening. We are having flat iron steak, our own potatoes and greens, washed down with a bottle of Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande 1983 – one of the last of the claret I bought when I was well off in the 1980s.

    I hope to join you another day.

    Oh, by the way, at Cley we saw a Woodcock about 20 yards away. Fantastic sight.

    A demain.

      1. Yes – it was busy feeding on the ground. Oblivious to passers by. A stunning thing to see.

  66. Enjoy the rest of the evening, chaps/esses – I’m off now to crank up the oven for the roast duck, most of which will keep us going for a day or two.

    2. Apparently a mighty big car bomb in an RV. They are reporting that policemen lured to the site by reports of gunfire so it is not just intentional property damage, whoever did it was also after injuring or killing people.

        1. It’s the US remember, there are quite a few extremists* out there that just want to harm the world. Remember how MacVeigh set off that bomb in Oklahoma City.

          * I won’t dignify them as left or right wing, they are so far removed from reality that a link to one side or another is meaningless.

  68. We’ve taken back control in a fantastic new deal and are an independent coastal state which is why we can’t catch more than 15% of our own fish.

    C-19 is so serious which is why a new £100,000,000 Nightingale hospital has just been closed and all the equipment sent to an old aircraft hanger, despite a long list of recently retired NHS doctors and nurses who have volunteered to return to work.

      1. That’s an outstanding argument from an ardent Boros Johnson supporter.

        Goes with the territory I guess !

      3. That’s an outstanding argument from an ardent Boros Johnson supporter.

        Goes with the territory I guess !

          1. Oh okkaaay… you only want the UK to have 15% of her fish and the EU can have the rest…..

            Got it now !

          4. But unfortunately to very few else. I understand it, because I’m well-travelled, but it’s a bit difficult to chew.

    1. ” Is it too early to party….”?

      No, sweetie; I drank a glass of Fizz with the Queen at 3.pm ! … x

  71. Evening, all. I trust you’ve all had a happy festive day. I managed to achieve a Christmas dinner (turkey with all the trimmings) with nothing burned, nothing under-done and everything ready at the same time! I’m still reeling from the shock.

    4. That is a real achievement. Well done. Even with two of us scampering around the kitchen (and taking the dog for a walk) one item was ready too soon and had to be revived in the microwave oven. Dog is stuffed full of turkey, well as full as we would allow her to be. A funny old Christmas, though.

      1. I planned it like a military operation with timings. Weighed the turkey meat and worked back from 1pm according to its cooking time. Then I had the other timings set out and started them at the correct time after the turkey had gone in the oven, having reminded myself to peel the spuds and put the plates in the bottom oven to warm. Of course, I had to stoke the Rayburn first and get it going at the right temperature, then I walked the dog before I started cooking. Thank goodness it’s only once a year!

      2. We had duck as turkey is too much for just two of us. But we had the usual trimmings, and cranberry & orange relish is just as good with duck.

        1. I’ve just finished stripping the last of the meat from the well boiled carcass.

          We used a slight variation on a Nigel Slater recipe, because we had a bird that was really a teenager rather than an adult, so added a couple of magrets. (a fatty breast if you haven’t met the cut before).

          For a total of 32 Euros on duck we’ve had/will have, 6 very greedy portions of roast duck, two of duck fried rice and four big bowls of soup. All of it delicious.

          I think we may well do that again in the future.

    5. As there is only the 2 of us over this Christmas period, roast beef with all the trimmings for lunch followed by a few G&T tonight. Cooking was a joint (get it?) effort between us that turned out just fine.
      Turkey will stay in the freezer until the family can come round, never celebrated Christmas at Easter time before but that’s the bet to myself regarding when gatherings can take place.

      1. Well, there are only two of us (and the dog), but I had a crown and a thigh (or rather, a third of a crown and ditto a thigh). There will still be a lot for the dog after we’ve had sandwiches, cold turkey and probably had it made into some kind of rissole if I can find a recipe in one of the cookbooks.

        1. Turkey rissole ain’t sounding good, let the dog have at it. The missus roasted the turkey (the only cooking she does in the year) and overcooked it by the usual 2 hours. I’m doing a leg of lamb tomorrow as we have company.

          1. It was only an example. I have lots of cookbooks (I’m a biblioholic) so there will be something somewhere that will suit, I expect.

          5. Turkey risotto is a contentious subject in our house. Half the family hate it as much as the other half love it!

    6. I have to admit that my pigs-in-blankets would not have stood out a BLM rally.
      Didn’t affect me as I don’t like them, but possibly that’s not a very festive reaction.

          2. Thank you peddy we did, with our daughter and son in law at their house.We had a vid link with our son and his wife who live in Malta 20c and off onto the roof.

        2. I had a wonderful friend who described things like that as NOCD – not our clarse darling! And HKLP – holds knife like pen! We used to hoot with laughter! Ah the joys of youth!

          5. We had an Indian associate in the practice. He was well educated, good looking, a brilliant surgeon & good company, but he chewed with his mouth open. Not someone to have lunch with, unfortunately.

          4. Supermarket shelves….????

            I like sausage and bacon rolls, but I want to be absolutely certain which sausage and which bacon goes into the making of them.

  74. I’ve seen neither Northampton nor Southampton on here today.

    Wherever they are and whatever they’re doing, I wish them both a warm Happy Christmas! 😊🎅

      1. Norf Zummerzet here, still confined to barracks, oh well it gives me time to do some PC work.

      1. When I was at school, a friend had to go to A&E because he got his hampton caught in his (metal) zip.
        :-((

    1. I hope you are wrong PP but until the lawyers have taken a view I will keep my fingers crossed that we are sovereign.

      Fish is problematic for the reason that Heath gave it all away and the French Dutch and Danes have gotten so accustomed to plundering our stocks with their industrial trawlers. A gradual claw back of our percentage catch was both inevitable and probably sensible given that we now have the opportunity to rebuild our fleet which will take time.

      1. I agree with you about fishing and a couple of weeks ago I suggested that EU fishermen should be given a finite time in which to end all their fishing activities in British waters after which they would have to pay Britain for licences if they wished to continue to do so. The problem with the Borisbodge on fishing is that we regain control of our waters far too slowly.

        1. I think control of coastal waters and fishing rights was foremost a symbol of our sovereignty and important for that.

          We make a big thing about agriculture yet as with fishing it represents but a small percentage of GDP. Hopefully both agriculture and fishing will thrive again when unshackled from the dead dread hand of the EU.

          1. Many people accepted Boris Johnson’s word that his WA was ‘oven-ready’ and ‘brilliant’. The truth was that it was a disaster.

            This time we need to look very carefully at the deal. The thing that alarms me is that Farage seems to have accepted it without having had enough time to study it properly. Clay: feet of?

          3. If you look at my posting history (yesterday or the day before) , you will see that that I said that the bulk of the agreement was settled quite some time ago, so Farage & co., only had to study the final details.

          4. 327808+ up ticks,
            Evening R,
            There are still those that hold trust in the party and it has not deserved trust for decades, the genuine tory party has long gone, peoples are putting trust now in the tory sh!te party.
            The farage deserves a K and join the other
            miscreants in the HOl.

          5. 327808+ up ticks,
            Ptv,
            The same has been said during the major era, the wretches cameron / cleggs,eras,
            the may era, and now the johnson era.

    1. Finishing up with the end of Act 1 of Tosca……. we ‘ve enjoyed it.

      A musical evening today – Bach while I was cooking; Acts 2 & 3 of Tosca while we had dinner, and then the Royal Opera concert.
      A different Christmas from usual but enjoyable.

  77. Two more England cricketers return to the pavilion for the last time.

    John Edrich:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/55445972

    Robin Jackman:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/55447494

    Edrich averaged 55 in Tests in Oz. In one match out there he returned to the crease from hospital after having had two ribs cracked by Denis Lillee. He was one of the bravest (maddest?) cricketers ever. He was with Brian Close at Old Trafford on that infamous Saturday evening against the West Indies at Old Trafford in 1976. How appropriate it was that he should have accompanied hardman Close on that shameful occasion. No protective gear back then.

    Jackman’s career was tainted by his links with South Africa, leading to the cancellation of a Test in the Caribbean in 1980. A fine county bowler but perhaps not quite Test standard.

    1. I have memories of watching Edrich and Boycott opening for England when I was watching on an old Ferranti valve TV in black and white.

      Edrich was a punchy batsman and always presented the full face of the bat. He gave the impression of permanence at the crease, as did Boycott. Ken Barrington was a safe pair of hands at 3 in those days.

      Lillee and Thomson were fearsome for Australia. West Indies produced Wes Hall, Charlie Griffiths, Michael Holding and other really hostile bowlers in that era. Far worse than the body line stuff of the previous era.

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