Wednesday 7 December: Union barons are exploiting Britain’s vulnerability to create a crisis

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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474 thoughts on “Wednesday 7 December: Union barons are exploiting Britain’s vulnerability to create a crisis”

  3. ‘Morning all

    Start with some laffs

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2280e51b0bbbc1d98af45661c41d0d0ceac00d673b4e10fa67463e74f3fb6ca1.jpg

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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6c9b6cf4ba8eecee72259da3e6df5345d6ce7adfd0bbe31b09922b5e92a82c3a.jpg

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  4. Union barons are exploiting Britain’s vulnerability to create a crisis

    Tell me a time when that has never been the case.

  5. US doubling its UK gas exports in deal to end dependence on Russia. 7 December 2022.

    The US is to double gas exports to UK, it will be announced on Wednesday as the country faces the first major test of energy resilience in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.

    With temperatures set to plunge below freezing, Rishi Sunak announced the new partnership designed to wean Britain off Russian gas.

    The PM said it would boost energy security, efficiency and affordability, will cut prices and ensure the UK’s national supply can “never again be manipulated by the whims of a failing regime.

    All this concern! It’s quite heartwarming. The doubling of US supplies will have no effect on the UK’s customer costs or energy security since the original amount is miniscule in relation to the UK’s total gas requirement.

    Because we are in no way dependent on Russian Gas and have ample supplies from Norway and Qatar and face no shortages one can only assume that this is a rip off that will make both Rishi and Joe much richer! This is borne out by the creation of a separate mechanism for overseeing the deal.

    To this end, we are establishing a Joint Action Group for Energy Security and Affordability to accelerate our immediate cooperation on short-term action to support energy security and affordability in the United Kingdom and across Europe. GUARDIAN.

    If this were indeed just an addition to present supplies none of this would be needed. Billing would simply follow previous practices. The people on this “Group” are almost certainly fellow cronies there to make sure that the suppliers don’t stiff (there’s no honour among thieves) them and that the cash goes into Joe and Rishi’s accounts!

    This is almost certainly the pattern for the future where a divided population are kept in a state of perpetual want and fear and pay their Masters for the privilege of Serfdom.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/07/us-doubling-uk-gas-exports-deal-end-dependence-russia/

    1. Hmm so it’s all working out well for the USA be corporations again, can’t think why that is.

    2. Does the UK have sufficient capacity to offload/store an increase in LPG supply? Asking for a concerned member of the public.

      1. Yes Korky. It’s hardly made the papers (surprise surprise) but we have taken on extra and pumped it directly to the continent for their storage facilities. Mostly to assuage Geman anxiety and prevent them getting unduly excited about the Americans blowing up their pipeline!

      2. Yes Korky. It’s hardly made the papers (surprise surprise) but we have taken on extra and pumped it directly to the continent for their storage facilities. Mostly to assuage Geman anxiety and prevent them getting unduly excited about the Americans blowing up their pipeline!

    3. Maybe it’s time we looked into links between the US and the British environmental lobby (ExR, JSO etc….).
      One country seems to be doing very well out of the current farrago; and it’s not Blighty.

  6. US doubling its UK gas exports in deal to end dependence on Russia. 7 December 2022.

    The US is to double gas exports to UK, it will be announced on Wednesday as the country faces the first major test of energy resilience in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.

    With temperatures set to plunge below freezing, Rishi Sunak announced the new partnership designed to wean Britain off Russian gas.

    The PM said it would boost energy security, efficiency and affordability, will cut prices and ensure the UK’s national supply can “never again be manipulated by the whims of a failing regime.

    All this concern! It’s quite heartwarming. The doubling of US supplies will have no effect on the UK’s customer costs or energy security since the original amount is miniscule in relation to the UK’s total gas requirement.

    Because we are in no way dependent on Russian Gas and have ample supplies from Norway and Qatar and face no shortages one can only assume that this is a rip off that will make both Rishi and Joe much richer! This is borne out by the creation of a separate mechanism for overseeing the deal.

    To this end, we are establishing a Joint Action Group for Energy Security and Affordability to accelerate our immediate cooperation on short-term action to support energy security and affordability in the United Kingdom and across Europe. GUARDIAN.

    If this were indeed just an addition to present supplies none of this would be needed. Billing would simply follow previous practices. The people on this “Group” are almost certainly fellow cronies there to make sure that the suppliers don’t stiff (there’s no honour among thieves) them and that the cash goes into Joe and Rishi’s accounts!

    This is almost certainly the pattern for the future where a divided population are kept in a state of perpetual want and fear and pay their Masters for the privilege of Serfdom.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/07/us-doubling-uk-gas-exports-deal-end-dependence-russia/

  7. The objective is to enslave us all……..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f371c35bf638782d3bcaf269782e4c71bec95f51428f7bebae05d22bdd0879e.png

    The signatories

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa864fc93abb39ca92f871627bac958f804e0cdc3f45d6a11c928152403f266c.png

    Kindly freeze and starve quietly at home lest you disturb your betters…………

    They’re not giving up or slowing down one iota

    Meanwhile in Canada…..

    https://twitter.com/goddersbloom/status/1600182215391838208

  9. Harry and Meghan honoured in US for ‘heroic’ stance against ‘structural racism in Royal family’. 7 December 2022.

    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been called “incredibly brave” for addressing racial injustice, as the couple received a human rights award at a gala in New York.

    Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation, said she was “proud” to be honouring Meghan and Harry at its event on Tuesday night for their “heroic” stance against the “structural racism” of the Monarchy.

    “They’ve stood up, they’ve talked about racial justice and they’ve talked about mental illness in a way that was incredibly brave,” said Ms Kennedy, daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy. “For Meghan to get out there on national television and normalise discussion of mental health, at this point, is incredibly important and very brave.”

    The anguish! The pain! The suffering! The racism! How do they endure it? I guess going to shows like this with seats at $1M a piece helps just a little.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/12/07/harry-meghan-honoured-heroic-acts-receive-human-rights-award/

    2. It must be very difficult to deal with all that wealth and attention. She is lucky she is black or there would be nothing to carp about, ginger doesn’t really win prizes.

  10. Harry and Meghan honoured in US for ‘heroic’ stance against ‘structural racism in Royal family’. 7 December 2022.

    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been called “incredibly brave” for addressing racial injustice, as the couple received a human rights award at a gala in New York.

    Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation, said she was “proud” to be honouring Meghan and Harry at its event on Tuesday night for their “heroic” stance against the “structural racism” of the Monarchy.

    “They’ve stood up, they’ve talked about racial justice and they’ve talked about mental illness in a way that was incredibly brave,” said Ms Kennedy, daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy. “For Meghan to get out there on national television and normalise discussion of mental health, at this point, is incredibly important and very brave.”

    The anguish! The pain! The suffering! The racism! How do they endure it? I guess going to shows like this with seats at $1M a piece helps just a little.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/12/07/harry-meghan-honoured-heroic-acts-receive-human-rights-award/

  11. Hope this eagle start to the day reflects on my golf later

    Wordle 536 2/6

    ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  12. Good morning, all. Dry and overcast with a breeze here in N Essex. Outside temperature unknown but raging inferno in me after reading what the MHRA are up to. Parents have to safeguard their precious little ones from these people.

    They’re not stopping anytime soon. JCVI need to say NO!

    Daily Sceptic – UK Approves Pfizer Jab for Babies

    Scathing comments BTL.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fd30535cd7b6613b13500b711b8a1b46a5ba12b164a161c4a8ca3bc821c6262b.png

    Apologies, I didn’t check the link. Sorted.

  13. 368756+up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Shows one how low we have sunk as a nation when yet another segment of the hierarchy elites aka gangsters put the boot into their own kinfolk, neighbours.

    One island of peace and goodwill, visitations, etc in a two year sea of trouble, encased within an ocean of treachery and turbulence these past 30 plus years, Christmas is to be denied.

    In short, the politico’s do not need treacherous foreign input they have enough within the counties infrastructure.

    2. Three hour ambulance waits? As short as that? Here you’re lucky if you get an ambulance within three hours.

  16. Morning all 😊
    I’ve been through a particularly difficult 12 days. With the NHS. I can’t seem to get any further with my heart problem. Except I had some blood tests. Even getting an appointment to have the results decoded to me, almost came to a verbal arm wresting match with the receptionist. Finally my gp rang yesterday with some medication updates. Not really nail on the head, but…..
    I’m sitting up in bed with my ticker reminding me it’s still here. Banging away. Out of breath after climbing the stairs bringing the two, earlier than usual, mugs of tea up. I’ve Sent emails to the cardiology department begging for further treatment. They can’t even be bothered to reply. It’s not as if they don’t already know what the problem is.
    FOAD seems to be the general scenario.
    I expect if I offered to pay for the treatment I’d be in like a shot. But why should I ?
    It’s akin to pestering a window cleaner, they finally arrive, but break all the glass. You can still see out (owt) but you won’t have to bother us anymore.
    Happy Christmas and Happy New year…..how nice that would be.

      1. Yes several times Phiz. I think they are inundated as well.
        One of them told me that an appointment for next June has been bought forward……to next April. But I’ve not been told about this.

    2. Sorry to hear that RE.
      Here we’re in heart trouble too. OH is in hospital in Oxford – yesterday afternoon he was told he was on the list for Thursday for a TAVI. Then later the consultant came round and told him the condition of his coronary arteries is too bad for that and he needs a by pass. Sometime next week possibly. We’re both a bit gobsmacked now. They’ve been looking at his test results for the past three weeks and not telling us anything. He phoned twice yesterday evening, pretty upset.

        1. I’m going in to see him this morning. Susan next door is taking me. It’s a 100 mile round trip. A long time since I used to drive there regularly when younger son was a student.

      3. Thanks for the kind words.
        I’ve literally just had a phone call from the cardiology department. They’ve written a letter to me and my GP and suggested that I should have another ECG ASAP. Last week was the last one ?? What’s the point ?
        It’s so frustrating trying to achieve anything when you know the only way to improve a situation is a practical approach. Not letters and phone calls.
        They know what the problems are. Fix it !

        1. I’ve lost count of the number of diagnostic tests they’ve done. They would tell him nothing in Gloucester. He was moved to Oxford on Saturday.

          1. This is what is getting on my nerves. They know what is wrong and what they need to do.
            I’ve just had a phone call from the cardiology sec. Telling me to have another ECG. I had one last week.
            It’s not treatment it’s just time waisting.

      5. That’s not only sad, Ndovu, it’s also disgusting! And b**t***s are planning to go on strike too!

      6. Not nice for any time, let alone the run-up to Christmas.
        My sympathy to you and Eddy.

    3. Sorry to hear about your travails Eddy. I would like to write something reassuring but these are dreadful times and I’m afraid that I would add to your woes not ease them. I’ll just wish you well and a change in circumstances.

    4. And still they give more importance to Diversity Managers than sorting the problem out.

  17. China’s Xi to visit Saudi Arabia to ‘bolster ties’. 7 December 2022.

    The Chinese leader will arrive on Wednesday for only his third trip abroad since the coronavirus pandemic began and his first to Saudi Arabia since 2016.

    The visit followed an invitation from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman “to bolster historic ties and strategic partnership between the two countries”, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said on Tuesday.

    You can see here the realignment of strategic forces that is taking place. The American hegemony is under threat and they are doing everything possible to maintain it. The weakening of Russia under the guise of helping Ukraine. The cornering of the European energy market. The sanctions on all and sundry who exhibit even the remotest signs of independence. These gangster methods leave a great deal to be desired and have undoubtedly left a bad taste in the mouths of even their allies! Whether this will work we don’t yet know but there’s no doubt that the majority of countries would prefer a multi-polar world for obvious reasons .

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/6/chinas-xi-to-visit-saudi-arabia-from-wednesday

    2. When I first misread the opening line I wondered why China were sending a cricket or football XI. The USA and friends, are certainly attempting to bring pressure to bear on Russia. Not content with Biden’s money laundry in Ukraine, there was a report (that I failed to note the source of) yesterday that the USA are getting involved in the Japanese-Russian dispute over the Kurilsk Islands and are seeking support in the region from South Korea and China!

      Apparently, there wasn’t time or space to update on the Spratly Islands, possibly due to the lack of Russian involvement or that China is carrying on regardless setting up military operating bases on man-built islands in the area.

      It’s a funny old world.

  18. Oh dear the ghost of Christmases yet to come
    https://twitter.com/AllBiteNoBark88/status/1599962503056097281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1600092107779121152%7Ctwgr%5Ef1a4279f35e9fb4f17007326a4dae7a29385bf17%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefaultf%3Dgoingpostalcomt_i%3D8452120https3A2F2Fgoing-postal.com2F3Fp3D84521t_u%3Dhttps3A2F2Fgoing-postal.com2F20222F122Fa-postcard-from-india-road-trip-part-1-delhi-jaipur-karauli2Ft_e%3DA20Postcard20From20India3B20Road20Trip20Part2013B20Delhi-Jaipur-Karaulit_d%3DA20Postcard20From20India3B20Road20Trip20Part2013B20Delhi-Jaipur-Karaulit_t%3DA20Postcard20From20India3B20Road20Trip20Part2013B20Delhi-Jaipur-Karaulis_o%3Ddescversion%3D4c4ed5f9c855358a26d5235a7c63f777

    2. “Anything that has ‘smart’ on it does not have your best interests at heart.”

      I’ve been saying this for as long as the idiotic misuse of that word (which means neat and tidy) was adopted by the Yanks (and their fawning copycats) to mean ‘clever’ or ‘intelligent’. It doesn’t!

      This is as bad as calling someone who is unintelligent ‘dumb’. Dumb means mute, nothing more. Anyone attempting to foist anything ‘smart’ on me will get short shrift!

  19. Good morning, all, on the anniversary of a Day that will Live in Infamy. Never been keen on the Japs, me – though I admire the way they keep the slammers out.

    2. Loads of Japs were actively spying in Hawaii in the years before the attack, so they had done the best reconnaissance possible.
      On one of the outlying islands some Americans spotted the Jap airforce by using radar, or their ears, but it was so early in the morning that they could not raise an alarm on Oahu.
      In any case, the attack on Pearl Harbour was a strategic error; the bombers missed the repair facilities and a mere seven months later the USA crippled the Japanese navy in the Battle of Midway.

  20. This item appeared in the DT late yesterday…here is the headline:

    “Elderly cancer patient with broken hip forced to wait seven hours in rain for ambulance

    Keith Royles (85) was covered with a tarpaulin and an umbrella placed over his head during the agonising wait”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d8b20cc66c18cbcd6bb94f214e7a7b00a8c2cbd5b3a24d6abbb182c8e6b7283a.jpg

    The collapse of the NHS continues apace. This morning I was due an annual blood test to monitor a cancer op four years ago, prior to an annual review at a hospital (but probably by phone). Yesterday I received a garbled text from my GP surgery, telling me that they are short of staff and that “I may
    be contacted to rearrange it…” Well, I haven’t been contacted so I’m going anyway. Nothing like as bad as this poor chap, which is indicative of a chaotic ‘service’ where 2,000 managers on 6-figure salaries couldn’t run a bath.

    2. It’s pretty obvious that the State and the NHS in particular have collapsed! It’s like Hitler in the Fuhrerbunker; the transmission of orders to forces that no longer listen or even care what they say!

      1. If a rubber boat invader was treated in the same way they’d have 5,000 pounds shoved in their pocket.

      2. Soros and Schwab will be well-pleased with their WEF-placement item, Sunak. All their objectives are being fulfliled in double-quick time, by this muppet, without even a trace of a head wobble.

        1. I see the obnoxious little git has done another U turn, removing the ban on onshore wind farms – another promise broken!

          2. Ah, but he’s not white so we mustn’t be unkind or rude about him!

            Bring back John Major – at least he is white (as well as grey), old, male, lower middle class, hypocritical, incompetent and an adulterous fornicator so we can say what we like about him without being called racist!

      3. Morning Minty.
        Last night I saw on a rolling headline (not sure what they are called) asking if Britain was on a ‘managed decline’. Understatement, not sure it is managed. Such a depressing thought.

    3. It’s pretty obvious that the State and the NHS in particular have collapsed! It’s like Hitler in the Fuhrerbunker; the transmission of orders to forces that no longer listen or even care what they say!

    4. That is absolutely outrageous.

      And that’s why, although I could have done, I did not ring 999 or 111.

      I think you might find the reason why the NHS has run out staff is because a lot of them have crossed the Rubicon and entered the private sector.
      I know many doctors and surgeon’s have.

      1. I hope that you are right in your final paragraph. This is the only way to solve the NHS problem. Set up a sensible alternative and let the NHS self-implode.

      2. At least the NHS has a thriving job creation scheme for diversity managers, so they will be okay.

        ‘Morning, Eddy.

    5. Fear not – the hospital has employed an “Improvement Director” – so that’s all right.

      1. Before any improvement is feasible, things would have to be made really bad.

        That umbrella was an improvement, wasn’t it. Job done. How about a bonus and a knighthood?

  22. DT headline:

    “‘Incredibly brave’ Harry and Meghan praised for stance against ‘structural racism in Royal family’

    The couple received a human rights award at a gala in New York”

    Tomorrow’s headline:

    “DT readers clear the shelves of sick bowls”

          4. Publishing the novel was a tempestuously successful commercial venture – you could say it was a Prosperous enterprise!

  24. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – On the Today programme on Tuesday, Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT union, came up with the preposterous opinion that the Government and employers are united in a plot against the workers.

    This is his paranoid excuse for co-ordinated strike action by multiple trade unions, which could amount to a general strike in all but name. Such action cynically, ignorantly and cruelly adds to the vulnerability of our economy and well-being, which is the direct result of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. This strike action will damage all of us, including trade union members, and it plays into Putin’s hands.

    The term crisis is overused but a serious crisis now looms on our near horizon: rule over the majority by a few trade union barons.

    M R Jackson
    Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

    The next government will be a socialist one…and will come with union scrotes like Lynch. Goodbye first world, hello third world – if they will have us!

    2. The next government will be a socialist one -not because the British want socialism, but because the Conservatives

      have lost the will to rule.

    3. Such action cynically, ignorantly and cruelly adds to the vulnerability of our economy and well-being, which is the direct result of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

      I’m sorry to tell you Mr Jackson but Vlad is not running the Railways or the NHS and is not in charge of the UK’s energy supplies. I for one wish he were!

    5. The “direct result of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine”? Nothing to do with lockdown, working from home, borrowing billions to furlough people, causing small businesses to go bust, unnecessarily high electricity costs due to manic greenery, pouring billions we don’t have into corrupt foreign regimes and importing useless dross that cost us a fortune and hate our guts, then?

  25. SIR – You report (December 6) that the Prime Minister will relax onshore wind farm curbs.

    For the past week here in Cornwall we have had sunny but very cold days, with temperatures at night dropping to just a degree above freezing. At the same time there has been hardly a breath of wind. The turbines stand motionless: it is not they that keep my house warm, it is my gas boiler.

    What would be the point of ruining more countryside with more turbines when, on calm days like these, they would be absolutely useless?

    Christine Simmonds
    Redruth, Cornwall

    Where have you been all this time, Ms Simmonds?? Congratulations on waking up but your protest is a bit late in the day

    1. Yes true….but it’s a point that needs to be hammered home through our media and useless government.

    2. The state doesn’t care. They believe green is good. Windmills are 100000% efficient, cost nothing and are perfect.

      This is why the state must be stopped from continuing their insane, demented, moronic policy.

  26. That’s lucky. In the US the Dems have secured a slim majority in the Senate. This means that come January 2023 they can retire FJB and the VP can become President and the Dems will still control the Senate. ‘Glad tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy!’

    1. Lefties are still crowing that Biden has ‘created more jobs than Trump ever did’ – yet ignoring that all these ‘jobs’ are state ones, paid for from taxation so not jobs at al.

  28. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, Reasons to be cheerful for today

    16 Logical Reasons Why Some Men Have Dogs & Not Wives:

    1. The later you are, the more excited your dog is to see you.

    2. Dogs don’t notice if you call them by another dog’s name.

    3. Dogs like it if you leave lots of things on the floor.

    4. Dogs’ parents never visit.

    5. Dogs agree that you have to raise your voice to get your point across.

    6. You never have to wait for a dog; they’re ready to go, instantly, 24 hours a day.

    7. Dogs find you amusing when you’re pissed.

    8. Dogs like to go hunting and fishing.

    9. Dogs won’t wake you up at night to ask, “If I died, would you get another dog?”

    10. If a dog has babies, you can put an ad in the paper and sell ’em.

    11. When you squeeze off a silent one, dogs don’t run around frantically with room spray.

    12. Dogs love to ride in the back of a pickup truck.

    13. Dogs never tell you to stop scratching your balls. Instead, they sit pondering why you don’t lick ’em.

    14. Dogs will let you put a studded collar on, without calling you a pervert.

    15. If a dog smells another dog on you, it won’t kick you in the crotch; it just finds it interesting.

    And last but not least

    16. If a dog runs off and leaves you, it won’t take half your stuff.

    To verify these statements, lock your wife and your dog in the garage for an hour. Then open the door, and observe who’s happy to see you!

    1. I did this by accident one day – locked the wife in the garage. I’d closed the big door and didn’t know the back door was locked. I’d pootled off to the shed to move things around and didn’t hear the banging and shouting.

      What alerted me was Wiggy howling. Seems he couldn’t cope with her either.

    2. Number 2 is not entirely true; Kadi gets confused if I accidentally call him Oscar 🙂 Number 6 is definitely not true, either; Oscar has to be woken up gently and coaxed to go for a walk. At least he’s stopped trying to take my fingers off when I put his lead on now.

  29. I had to laugh at people being asked to try and
    assess their carbon footprint.
    Has Sir David or anyone else who is totally obsessed with atmospheric carbon footprints emissions etc etc, questioned the carbon footprint of this pointless football tournament in the middle east. How many jet aircraft have carried thousands of people thousands of miles across the globe to watch it ?
    Come Sir David have a punt.
    Something I forgot to mention is, all of the fuel used for flying these hundreds of thousands of people around the globe comes from the middle east.

  30. Good morning all.
    A bright sunny start to the day with a rather chilly -3°C on the yard thermometer.

    Off to t’Lad’s today, he needs some rubbish shifting.

  32. 368756+ up ticks,

    Gerard Batten,
    As I’m sure anyone who follows me will know, this is just the start of the Climate Change lockdowns.

    In a nutshell – Human beings are destroying the planet & are the enemies of nature. Our freedoms & liberties must be removed stage by stage until we even feel guilty about eating, drinking & breathing.

    Meanwhile the Climate Change High Priests must continue to enjoy all their eletist benefits so that they can officiate to appease the angry gods of nature.

    To remove our freedoms our overseers need us in a state oc fear. And the 80/20 rule applies. 80% of people, or at least accept, the man-made climate change lie.

    The most depressing thing is that it had happened time & time again throughout history, & people just accept it – especially the ‘educated’.

    Eric Worrall 183 Comments
    Essay by Eric Worrall

    First published JoNova; Imagine if your power mad politicians liked Covid Lockdowns so much, they wanted to continue them indefinitely. This is going to be trialled in Oxfordshire in Britain.

    Oxfordshire County Council Pass Climate Lockdown ‘trial’ to Begin in 2024

    Oxfordshire County Council yesterday approved plans to lock residents into one of six zones to ‘save the planet’ from global warming. The latest stage in the ’15 minute city’ agenda is to place electronic gates on key roads in and out of the city, confining residents to their own neighbourhoods.

    Under the new scheme if residents want to leave their zone they will need permission from the Council who gets to decide who is worthy of freedom and who isn’t. Under the new scheme residents will be allowed to leave their zone a maximum of 100 days per year, but in order to even gain this every resident will have to register their car details with the council who will then track their movements via smart cameras round the city.

    Communism will make the weather better.

    1. 368756+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      in a land of the decent would this not call for a 100% council member change
      every month / 6 months / one year ?

      1. The whole lot of them should be removed. In a democracy, the public could call for a recall vote and simply get rid of officialdom forcing these stupid nonsense on us.

  33. ‘Incredibly brave’ Harry and Meghan praised for stance against ‘structural racism in Royal family’
    The couple received a human rights award at a gala in New York
    Josie Ensor https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/12/07/harry-meghan-honoured-heroic-acts-receive-human-rights-award/,

    A couple of BTLs

    i) Apparently Ladbrokes are now offering odds of 3-1 that the marriage of Harry and Migraine will not last beyond 2025. Bookmakers usually get it right.

    ii) Would a DNA test which went the wrong way for him and showed that Harry is not a blood relation of King Charles mean that his title of Prince and the subsequent titles given to him and his wife of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would be automatically void?

    If so, bring on the DNA test and see what it produces!

    1. I find the whole farce idiotic now. Meagain is a catastrophic narcissist. It’s evident to anyone who knows the signs. She’s a twisted, bitter, spiteful, psychopath unable to confront her own egotism.

      The pair lied to shirk their duty and sold out their family for money.

      1. I think the public were fond of Prince Harry and, before marriage, he and his brother and W’s wife were great pals together working on behalf of mental health charities. I have completely lost any affection for him Harry, attacking the RF so bitterly and resentfully, how long are the Yanks going to be enthralled by the horrible pair? And after the initial “tell all” stories what then? Oblivion I hope.

        1. The majority of BTL comments in the DM on Meghan and Harry are negative. I think most people agree with you.

    2. Diana was stupid and self obsessed; but she was calculating enough to ensure that heir and spare were legit.

      1. Or she was careless, slipped up and then made sure she shared her bed with Charles so that there wouldn’t be any rumours.

    3. Morning! Mother Nature is the ultimate waycist. Why would any rational person expect the royal family of a northern European kingdom to be anything other than fair skinned.

    4. IMHO you don’t need a DNA test, put Harry between his father and King Charles and see for yourself

    1. One day Lefties will try to shut down Auschwitz on the basis it is legal, but harmful. Then they’ll repeat it. It is inevitable whenever the Left try to re-write history.

  35. Good Moaning.
    Another grey day.
    I know MB and I are old, but I just do not remember this amount of hassle and staff turnover when we were buying houses in our youth.
    Choosing a house you could afford and getting a mortgage were not exactly restful experiences, but once things were handed over to the solicitor, stuff just happened with no further input from us.
    Nowadays, you have part-time solicitors and conveyancing clerks – who always seem to be day off when things happen – and, in days of multiple forms of communication – precious little communication. It took about a month for elderly chum’s nephew and I to realise that things had gone quiet and discover that her house buyer’s solicitor had been taken over by another firm. In our case, our buyers’ buyer’s solicitor let the work accumulate on her desk and then disappeared on holiday. And don’t even mention 2 months and £500 to the Town Hall to produce an electronic communication.
    Reading between the lines of the latest estate agent’s email, I think Holiday Girl has been given the push; but that means someone having to read themselves in and take over the job.
    Oh, for the boring old days when local solicitors were dull local worthies and ….. THINGS WORKED!!!!!!

    1. We had similar issues with the solicitors handling MiL’s estate. Taken over by a bigger firm with several changes in the person handling the case. It made selling her house a very long drawn out hassle. Fortunately, the buyers really wanted the house so they found a temporary rental flat. They were there for the best part of a year.
      The only good thing was that I had managed to peruse MH and his brother to use the estate agent’s conveyancer for the house. They were incredibly efficient, and helped us in chasing the solicitor.

      1. We are finding that the estate agents are more proactive and informative than the solicitors.

        2. When we moved here 25 years ago, we used a licensed conveyancer (not from the estate agent). He was considerably cheaper than quotes from solicitors and extremely efficient.

          1. Our house is rather complicated: it has a long and varied history.
            Our solicitors (who are a long established local company) have been fine; all the problems have arisen further along the line.

    2. Those were, indeed, the days. When I lived in London, and worked from home, people would see me out with the dog every day. They knew where I lived and what I did. I made dozens of new clients – many of whom stayed for years. I was available at weekends – which suited those who were away at work during the day.

      A different world…..

    3. It’s Wibbling’s First Law: the more methods of communication there are, the less information is distributed.

      We have email, text messages, phone calls – estate agents, despite being told to only email me (because chances are I won’t be there, and then won’t see it) they insist on calling me. I don’t like being telephoned. Especially by people who have nothing to say.

  36. Dozhd Controversy In Latvia Inflames Tensions Over Émigré Anti-War Russians. 7 December 2022.

    The decision came after Latvia fined Dozhd 10,000 euros ($10,500) on December 2 for showing a map that included the occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea as part of Russia and calling the Russian armed forces “our army.”

    The same day, Latvia’s state security service opened an investigation into on-air statements by moderator Aleksei Korostelyov on December 1 in which he invited viewers to submit stories about violations of Russian law during the military mobilization decreed by President Vladimir Putin in September and about possible war crimes committed in Ukraine.

    Dozhd has always been an Anti-Putin outlet and was thrown out of Russia for its opposition to the War. Its real offence here is the enquiry into Russian War Crimes which is the foundation stone of Anti-Russian propaganda. It’s a flimsy story at best and would probably collapse under rigorous criticism! Ergo. No criticism allowed.

    https://www.rferl.org/a/dozhd-controversy-latvia-%C3%A9migr%C3%A9-anti-war-russians/32164566.html

  38. Elderly people who fall won’t be able to get ambulance during strikes, says Steve Barclay. 7 December 2022.

    Barclay was asked what services will be operating when ambulance staff in England and Wales go on strike on Wednesday 21 December, and he confirmed the message in the Daily Telegraph’s splash – that elderly people who have a fall will probably have to get to hospital on their own.

    Barclay said that, while the strike was on, ambulance staff would respond to life-threatening incidents – known as a category (cat) one calls. And he said that tomorrow there would be a meeting to discuss how ambulance staff would respond to category two callouts, which cover heart attacks, strokes, epilepsy and burns. He told Times Radio.

    Why don’t you just die you old bastards? That anyone ever voted for these people passes all understanding!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/dec/07/ambulance-strikes-steve-barclay-uk-politics-live?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-63904e788f08cb34a8f54dee#block-63904e788f08cb34a8f54dee

    1. Araminta, this is probably the right moment to remind everyone of the Government minister who

      some months ago called the elderly “useless eaters”

        1. No I don’t.

          I was hoping that somebody would give me the quote.

          I think that it was in the Spring.

          1. “The elderly are useless eaters.” – Henry Kissinger. quoted in the book The Final Days.

            He might have called it the Final Solution…

    3. Why are heart attacks and strokes not cat 1? They are life-threatening and life-changing respectively.

  39. Elderly people who fall won’t be able to get ambulance during strikes, says Steve Barclay. 7 December 2022.

    Barclay was asked what services will be operating when ambulance staff in England and Wales go on strike on Wednesday 21 December, and he confirmed the message in the Daily Telegraph’s splash – that elderly people who have a fall will probably have to get to hospital on their own.

    Barclay said that, while the strike was on, ambulance staff would respond to life-threatening incidents – known as a category (cat) one calls. And he said that tomorrow there would be a meeting to discuss how ambulance staff would respond to category two callouts, which cover heart attacks, strokes, epilepsy and burns. He told Times Radio.

    Why don’t you just die you old bastards? That anyone ever voted for these people passes all understanding!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/dec/07/ambulance-strikes-steve-barclay-uk-politics-live?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-63904e788f08cb34a8f54dee#block-63904e788f08cb34a8f54dee

  40. Foreign Office making ‘draconian’ cuts to overseas aid, says Andrew Mitchell. 7 December 2022.

    Mitchell’s remarkable admission that he was having to impose fierce and draconian cuts of 30% to his department’s bilateral aid program for the rest of this financial year came in evidence to the international development select committee on Tuesday.

    He said the aid budget had been “out of control” since his department was having to carry the first year costs of a fast growing number of refugees coming from official development assistance (ODA) eligible countries such as Ukraine, Afghanistan and Syria.

    The Home Office estimates it is spending £2bn on refugee accommodation and a further £1bn on food and travel for refugees, with the entire cost taken out of the overseas aid budget.

    It’s a good job that I’m not doing the cutting. It would be 100% regardless of who was coming!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/dec/06/foreign-office-making-draconian-cuts-to-overseas-aid-says-andrew-mitchell

    1. Apparently he hadn’t realised that Blighty was still sending FA to China.
      He’s been in or around the FA scam for years; observation obviously not his thing.

      2. I’m not sure I realised we were sending FA to China. I would have thought UK is all out of money just now and can’t “aid” anybody!

        2. It would be so that the chinese official kicks it back the the sender’s offshore account.

        3. Mitchell has been involved in FA for decades; it’s his thing and he lurves giving away our money while berating us for not donating more.
          Amazing how somebody so ‘expert’ in these matters could also be so ignorant of the amounts being dished out – and to whom they were being dished.

    2. The Red Cross supports refugees. It’s a charity. Let them do it.

      I find I have become very hard of heart but the state seems determined to give away every penny I earn. Over a decade ago, before big fat useless state decided to give money away I wouldn’t have flickered at supporting Ukrainian refugees – Syrian ones, yes, as that part of the world is a mess all the time.

      Now, when it’s been forced and institutionalised, with politicians demanding ever more be borrowed, wasted it’s simply absurd.

  41. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7df28b1f1974c73c39f93832694739a14a797a8db865d15d582a8a52479b016d.png A disastrous Christmas encounter with Sooty

    SIR – I am 76 years old. As a small boy the highlight of my day was to watch Sooty on television (“Whisper it – secret to Sooty’s 75-year career is ‘simplicity’”, report, December 5).

    Then it was black and white and poor quality by today’s standards. For Christmas my parents gave me a Sooty hand puppet, which was perfect but for the fact that he was yellow and black and I only knew him as black and white. Disaster for everyone – I rejected him and my parents were devastated.

    Christopher Cann
    Shaftesbury, Dorset

    True story: Just before Christmas during the 1984–1985 coal miners’ strike I was stationed at Renishaw police station in N E Derbyshire. During an uneventful night shift, I was relaxing taking my break reading a local newspaper. I started laughing when I noticed that Sooty was appearing at a theatre in Barnsley. This led to a bit of chat about watching Sooty on television when we were younger. Then two young probationary constables entered the room and asked what we were laughing about.

    I looked at them, deadpan, and said, “We are organising a bus trip to go and see The Sooty Show in Barnsley on Saturday night. Do you want to come with us?” They both gave me a stare and said, “Sooty? Are you taking the piss?” I replied, “It’s not the kiddy version. This is a special adult show that is getting rave reviews. We’re [the shift] not going to miss it.” The other officers present struggled to conceal their mirth. I continued, “All those who want to come with us should write their names down on a sheet of paper and we’ll get the thing organised. I know a chap who has a minibus that we can hire cheaply.”

    “Where shall we be picked up and at what time?” they asked. “Oh, 7:00 p.m. on Saturday evening outside the front door of divisional headquarters. Don’t be late. We’ll take the money from you on the bus. OK?” The other officers present were sniggering as this pair left the room.

    At the ‘appointed time’ on Saturday night, the two young constables, along with their girlfriends (who had apparently taken some convincing this was the real deal) stood waiting patiently outside the front door of divisional HQ. After 15 minutes they started to get suspicious when no one else had turned up. Eventually they went inside to the enquiry desk and asked where the bus was for the shift outing to see Sooty. The officer on the enquiry desk burst out laughing and told them that they must have been ‘had’. They were furious, but not as furious as their girlfriends were.

    The next time they turned up on shift, they were routinely referred to as ‘Sooty’ and ‘Sweep’ and it took a long time for them to live down the ridicule.

      2. And, do you know, both chaps have remained friends with me until this day and often laugh about how gullible they had been and they took it as a character-building exercise. No snowflakes there.

    1. Youngest niece is like that.
      Marriage failed after about 12-18 months.
      Very sad, she’s a lovely lass.

      1. That’s a shame. Marriage and relationships don’t seem to last with the younger generation.

        1. Younger generation might have found relationships easier with the house prices of 1-2 generations back …

          1. When we met one of us was in the younger generation at 24 but the other, at 40, was not.

            Be that as it may we are now coming up to 35 years of very happy marriage this coming Spring.

        2. I know several young ladies who are lonely, I don’t know them well enough to understand why.
          And don’t want to.

          1. Judging from what I occasionally read in the papers, many young women are self-obsessed, have weird views about men, go clubbing a lot. Like one-night stands, but have no wish for “commitment” – then in their 30s/40s try to get babies by sperm donation..because they are broody.

            All very odd to this old buffer.

          2. Our youngest, 33 now, has been living with his lovely lady for (Cannons Park) around ten years. Both have good well paid jobs. She is 31 and still no signs of official attachment. They have just been to Rome for her 31st BD. Waddathey like ?

          3. Our youngest’s marriage lasted 2 1/2 years. She was similarly self-obsessed, endless pricey ‘beauty’ treatments (she was very pretty, didn’t need them), forever out clubbing & drinking with her friends and even took a couple of holidays with them each year. Our son is infinitely better off without her – in every sense of the word. She walked away with more than enough dosh (mostly from son and us) to put a deposit on a house. Instead, she remained true to type. Blew it on a brand new car and a holiday or two with the friends. I can only hope karma gets her in the end.

        3. Seems to me, and this is a real generalisation, young people are so busy having sex with whoever, whenever, they just don’t bother getting to know any body, just jump in and look no further than that. They think they’re enjoying themselves. But to find that one special person IMO you need to get to know them.

        5. I wonder how much “fairy tale” they get these days – mega party, flash clothes, and more?
          We had poverty for a few years, where the treat for the week was a single pint in the pub. Past-sell by food. Apartment ready for demolition. minimal heating. Helped us fit together better – married 40 years July this year.

      2. Our son lived with his partner for ten years.

        They eventually get married and two years later, she decides that marriage is not for them and they split up.

    2. That is based on a true story; Maureen Lipman’s mum pushed Jack Rosenthal to the edge of the family photo composition.

        1. While I was ‘taking a rest’ I discovered some interesting facts.
          On one of the Place in the Sun progs, there was a guy who had been a squash coach. As i use to play a lot of squash i looked him up.
          Alongside the details of his career was an article on the game as it stands. It mentioned the world No. 4 who is an arab and that he often cheats but doesn’t like to admit it. Later that day i was reading about the time laps between concept of the Qatar Football tournament and the actual staging of it. Some ten years, which gave enough time to pick large groups of young man and train them to play football. As the arab nations have never been recognised as sporting. I didn’t know any of this, but it appears they were also trained to cheat. But it hasn’t got them very far. Nor did that happen to the student who tried to cheat at an examination according to a friend d of mine who was once involved in higher education. Caught hook line and sinker with the printed information of the answers to his questions. A young arab but he emphatically denied the obvious cheating but took the punishment dish out at the tribunal.

  45. As the young barista gave me my change, I said…
    “Thank you young man.”
    He snapped back..”Did you just assume my gender? I’ll have you know I’ve just recently transitioned.”
    “I’m sorry.”I Said” I had no idea. In that case..Thank you, young attention seeking wanker.

  47. The Twitter Files just got a lot more interesting. Freddy Gray 7 December 2022.

    As I wrote earlier, last week Matt Taibbi, the journalist chosen by Elon Musk to reveal what really happened behind-the-app during the 2020 presidential election, published the first instalment of the ‘Twitter Files’. He did it as a long Twitter ‘thread’ which showed various panicky corporate communications about the ethics of suppressing intriguing political information. This was important stuff but it wasn’t exactly explosive. We all knew that Big Tech censored information in order to help Joe Biden. Lots of Democrat-friendly journalists were therefore quick to pour cold water on the news. Nothing to see here, folks, move on.

    But Musk and Taibbi promised more and last night Taibbi dropped a genuinely shocking ‘supplemental thread’ explaining why the Twitter files had not been quite as sensational as some hoped. It seems that, without Musk’s knowledge, somebody within the organisation had been vetting the files which Taibbi and Bari Weiss — the other journalist Musk has anointed to do the story — were allowed to see. And that somebody was Jim Baker, the former FBI general counsel who, extraordinarily enough, has the title of Twitter Deputy General Counsel. Or rather he did. Musk sacked him yesterday.

    Baker is, as Taibbi puts it, ‘something of a Zelig of FBI controversies dating back to 2016… He resigned in 2018 after an investigation into leaks to the press.’

    Yikes. Any intelligent commentator who doesn’t recognise this as a potentially enormous scandal is being wilfully blind at best. What is increasingly clear is that the FBI and Twitter were working hand-in-glove to suppress what they deemed to be ‘misinformation’ — which actually turned out to be a true story about the now President’s son. The level of ‘collusion’ — to use a word we heard a lot in relation to Russia and Trump in 2016 — between law enforcement agencies, partisan political actors, and Big Tech is starting to become painfully clear. Bari Weiss will deliver the next batch of Twitter files — on Twitter, natch — and the story has only got more interesting. The old defence of Twitter was that it was a private company and in a free world a private company can publish or not publish whatever it wants. But what if that private company is being manipulated by state actors?
    Another interesting aspect: one of the main figures involved in suppressing the — true, remember — Hunter Biden story was Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former ‘legal, public policy, and trust and safety lead’. The Biden administration later gave her an advisory role at the the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is an arm of the Department of Homeland Security. That seems fishy, to put it mildly.

    Twitter is a global company and so the inevitable next question is: did the website also restrict politically sensitive content on the request of partisan or security agency actors in other countries too? Did it — to use another hot term from 2016 — engage in ‘foreign interference’?

    If so, where? Musk has already hinted that he will look into allegations that ‘Twitter personnel’ were giving preference to left-wing candidates in Brazil. What about the United Kingdom? Why, for instance, was the trouble-causing Twitter account Politics for All nuked? These are questions worth exploring, especially as Parliament considers the Online Safety Bill — which is partly designed to protect the public from our unhealthy habit of sharing too much.

    Gray is either a moron or a liar who thinks that we are! All this; the truth about Hunter Biden’s laptop. The collusion of the MSM. The Democrat bias of Twitter. The corruption of the FBI, could all have been read on Nottl two years ago.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-twitter-files-just-got-a-lot-more-interesting/

        1. One in the East and one in the West, a pincer movement.
          The globalists will be getting quite desperate as they must have thought that getting rid of P. Trump would stop any opposition to their plans.
          Only to find they have another, determined to bring them down and this one not restrained by politics.

    3. The least surprising part of this tale is that the Leftwaffe scribes all attacked Mark Taibbi but left the meat of his argument well alone. I noticed yesterday that a few of the (self-selected) great and the good Leftwaffe types were complaining that their tweets were getting less traction than before Musk started cleaning the stables.

      They couldn’t get their heads around the idea that their apparent lack of retweets etc was down to the fact that they were no longer artificially ‘boosted’ by a Leftwaffe supporting system but assumed/claimed that they were being suppressed.

      Reality is a bitch.

  48. Bogey 5 today.

    Wordle 536 5/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Managed a par despite making a schoolboy error on 2nd line.

      Wordle 536 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
      🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. A Birdie Three for me.

        Wordle 536 3/6
        🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
        🟨⬜🟨🟨🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  49. Police investigating raid on Raheem Sterling’s £6m mansion make two arrests over attempted burglary nearby as they probe if they are linked

    DM Story

    If you want the police to investigate the crime when you have had your house broken into and robbed then it helps if you were born in Jamaica but play wendyball for England.

    (I looked up this footballer on the internet – apparently his father was murdered in Jamaica when he was 2 years old and his mother was in the Jamaican national athletics team.)

    2. Thought the norm was to issue a crime reference number and advise victims to contact their insurance company.

  53. According to a local who works for a building society, their busiest time of year for mortgage enquiries is the week between Christmas and the New Year. Apparently half the enquiries are from young folk who decided to get engaged over Christmas and the other half is from married couples who’ve decided to get a divorce. In both cases the individuals want to know how much they can borrow!

  54. I am having a bad week, what with odd phone calls and a parcel that has not been delivered.
    I sent my daughter a parcel containing Xmas goodies that should have arrived by dpd on Saturday, it’s now Wednesday and when I checked the reason why the delay, all I get is ‘parcel delayed due unforseen circumstances’.
    Their site offered a chat line to resolve my problem.
    After a couple of questions, I realised it was an automated response.
    The devil horns on my forehead started to appear, so I asked for the square root of – 1, its response was???
    Then, would you believe “I am not human but well trained – what is your question, I’m here to help” by this time I gave up.

    3. Some good BTL comments; “He didn’t communicate with the public when in office, he dictated, threatened, coerced, and bribed. I would suggest that his communication skills are sadly lacking.” and my favourite “His only ‘new way to communicate’ should be through the door of a prison cell”

    4. Some good BTL comments; “He didn’t communicate with the public when in office, he dictated, threatened, coerced, and bribed. I would suggest that his communication skills are sadly lacking.” and my favourite “His only ‘new way to communicate’ should be through the door of a prison cell”

  56. I see that Fishi Rishi (Young Global Leader) is going to “bring in tough laws” to clamp down on strikes.

    The powers already exist – under the Emergency Powers Act 1920 (as amended)

    Declare a State of Emergency – then direct strikers to return to work on pain of imprisonment. Simple.

      1. Especially ones that will extend their powers (under the guise of “unintended consequences” of course).

    2. Given that 70% of our prison places are filled with muslims and there really arne’t any free that’s just not workable.

      Better option is to have the unions pay strikers salaries. Wipe the unions out. Have ‘da bruvvas’ crippled

      And for pity’s sake: end union time. If people want to work for a union, then they either do it unpaid or they are paid by the union. Not the employer.

  59. Well, what an interesting time triggered by a post card.
    This afternoon, MB was sorting out his office and found an old Christmas postcard addressed to ‘Fred’ (no surname).
    It was a picture of the Maitland Sanatorium, near Reading. As MB had an Uncle Fred, we assumed it was for him but we wondered why he was in a TB home in Berkshire. As I dug in, it proved to be the wrong assumption.
    Further research showed that it was from a nurse – one of the well brought up young ladies for whom nursing was their first professional job. Kate Luard had been Matron of the sanatorium and then became a well respected WWI nurse who wrote a couple of books about her experiences. Her father and two of her brothers were Rectors of Great and Little Birch.
    Her oldest brother Fred was headmaster of the old Birch Elementary School; MB could remember his mother taking him to have tea with her old teacher.
    We also learnt about the Tosbells, a Colchester/Mersea based family with whom Fred had lodged.
    And all from one small oblong of pasteboard.

      1. The problem is that it has always been all about Trump as far as Trump is concerned.

        If the silly man had kept his nose out of the whole mid-term process the GOP would have walked it.
        He didn’t and neither did they.

        1. It was the failure of the GOP to fund candidates in key seats that led to the losses such as Kari Lake in Arizona (plus ballot harvesting and latent ballot steals) and Herschel Walker in Georgia.

          The Democrats outspent Republicans several times over using the millions stolen after channeling through Ukraine and FTX. Sam Bankman Fried was the second largest donor to the Democrats after George Soros.

          Trump is far from stupid. He is a scrupulously frank operator and sees precisely what is going on. He has been warning the world about the Deep State corruption of the Mafiosa Pelosi, Clinton, Obama and Biden crime families.

          1. That may all be true, but unfortunately he is causing more division than he should be in the party.
            If he stands, he’ll lose, and he will ensure that the Democrats get a flying start.

            He’s now history, a total distraction from the real politics/economics, and he should stand back to give the Republicans a fighting chance.

          4. He is just another wealthy old pensioner.
            People want someone younger with lead in their pencil or a nice pair of t1ts.

          5. They could do a Hell of a lot worse than Candace Owens.
            She ticks a lot of boxes and as far as I can see is a genuine conservative Republican.

          6. Hi Sos,

            I cannot subscribe to your theories. I will suggest that the precise opposite of your theory is the Truth.

            The essential problem with the Republican Party in Congress and the Senate is that many of their numbers are ‘Swamp Creatures’. By this phrase, coined by the real President Trump, as opposed to the’Resident’ Joe Biden, it explains that those happy to bask in the privileges of the US government have proven to be susceptible to outside forces, financial contributions and other emoluments.

            Much of this is freely available to anyone seriously asking questions about these contradictions.

            Go do a bit of research rather than repeating a debunked Media message.

        2. I would say the opposite, it is the Republicans from within that caused the loss, they would rather a Democrat win than have trump win the next election, or the last one, just as some Conservatives here would rather lose to Labour than leave the EU, which they tried very hard to do at one point under May and are doing it again now.

          2. But we have die hard Conservatives that would rather let Labour in than leave the EU, I expect there is a large contingent of Globalists in both Democrat and Republican parties working together for the great reset, just like they are here.

            Trump is about the only person I would trust to take on these people.

          4. Isn’t DeSantis funded by a globalist?
            And the mainstream media haven’t got it in for him, which speaks volumes.
            With my tin foil hat on then what if the conniving forces of globalism promoted someone plausible enough to push Trump to one side.
            Job done and people would think that they had voted for someone on their side.

        1. Thank you. That is a GREAT relief. Truly remarkable, the following that Honest Joe Biden attracts…

  61. That’s me back from t’Lad’s. One load of rubbish sorted from the BtL, a bit from t’Lad’s and a couple of bags of garden stull from next door to the BtL for goodwill.
    The only problem, the slot booked at the Derby tip was not 12:30 today, but 12:30 for Friday, so we got turned away!
    Went back to t’Lad’s to print off his receipt when he realised the bopped drollock so he managed to rebook for 14:15!!
    Did a bit of shopping in Wicke’s and Lidl’s, then called in to Croots farm shop at Duffield before heading home for dinner.

    Now relaxing with over 200 posts to scan through, or not as the mood takes me.

    1. Why-aye. He’s a canny lad, is Chris Rea.

      My favourite of his is Stainsby Girls from the ‘Shamrock Diaries’ LP.

  64. That’s nice Boarder Farce to go on strike 23 December for a week. Apparently, they are struggling with cost-of-living… gosh, who’d a thunk it?
    Since entering UK without documentation is the easiest way, ending in a freebie hotel, how about HMG just fire the lot of they bastards, as they are clearly useless. The Ronald Reagen approach.

    1. BTL in The Grimes – the eco-freak, remainiac lefty panty-waists think that Border Farce is doing a grand job.

    2. Will we notice? Or does that mean there will be fewer unwanteds and unneededs picked up and put in hotels at our expense?

      1. I think it’s the airport staff who will be striking, rather than the taxi service for the invaders.

        2. No BF? No customs? Time to pop over to yer France and buy 5000 cigarettes and 20 litres of gin.

  65. I don’t know anything about the i newspaper, but it does appear to agree with me (therefore, it’s right).

    “The i newspaper reported on Wednesday that Mr Hancock’s decision comes after his local constituency chairman wrote to the Conservative Chief Whip Simon Hart that the MP is “not fit to represent this constituency”.”

    2. On a totally unrelated topic, Mrs. Allan, can I say that you are a Very Silly Sausage? Yesterday I heard someone pushing something through my letterbox. It later turned out that it was you delivering a Christmas card for me. Had you bothered to ring the doorbell I would have opened the door and said “Hello!” and offered you a tea, coffee or glass of something stronger. You missed out there!!! Lol.

      1. Ta ever so, Olaf’s Relict.
        As MB nicked my car without asking, he mucked up my plans for the day, so I was in rather a rush during the afternoon.
        My teeth were somewhat gritted.

    3. Simon Hart is a former head of the Countryside Alliance. You’d think he’d be onto the loonies in power about the deleterious effects of building on green fields and using good farmland for solar panels in bulk (“farms” they ain’t).

  66. Well, well, well.
    It might be that a lot of Nottlers are related!

    Drinking three glasses of wine a week could be in your DNA: The amount of alcohol you get through is ‘significantly’ influenced by your genes, study finds
    Researchers analysed genes and studied alcohol intake of 3.4 million people
    Amount of wine you get through in a week is significantly influenced by genes
    It could add as many as three drinks to someone’s average weekly consumption

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11513041/Amount-alcohol-significantly-influenced-genes-study-finds.html

    Of course, if it was Nottlers that should have read:
    It could add as many as three drinks to someone’s average weekly daily consumption

    1. Only three a week 😉😆
      That was rather racist to suggest its mainly white people who have such good and advanced sophisticated taste to drink red wine.
      It must be our Roman genes.

    2. “and studied alcohol intake of 3.4 million people”

      If they used the figures from questions asked by the NHS then they’re probably understated by a significant amount.
      Edit; Hic.

    3. “and studied alcohol intake of 3.4 million people”

      If they used the figures from questions asked by the NHS then they’re probably understated by a significant amount.
      Edit; Hic.

  67. That’s me for today. Looks like a chilly few days coming up. Must look out another pullover.

    Have a superlative evening.

    A demain (market day).

  68. ‘Far right’ coup attempt in Germany.
    Why not indeed, why not.
    Have another go at it.

    1. Everyone that tries to resist the Globalist stranglehold on the Western world is deemed a populist or far right or both

      1. It’s being to make them all look rather stupid.
        Harry and Megain basking in it in New York……….zzzzzz

    2. Being called “far-Right” is simply an absurdity.

      Being labelled ‘far-Right’ (or ‘hard-Right’) is preposterously idiotic. If you are on the Right of the political spectrum it means you shower, work, know the words to the national anthem, belong to a family, voted Brexit, eat meat, and prefer single-sex lavatories. Have I missed anything?

      Oh yes, you’ve missed a lot. It also means you are a self-sufficient individualist who is innovative, entrepreneurial, enterprising, hard-working, and enjoys low taxation and small government. Moreover, your preference is a free-market economy (and you do not go in for mob-handedness, rioting and civil disorder). You expect these positive attributes to be encouraged and rewarded. Your self-esteem, your family, your locality and your country come first, and you are prepared to kill (and die) to defend them.

      In a nutshell, you are NORMAL.

      Therefore it logically follows that to be ridiculously labelled as being ‘far-Right’ means that you must be an extremely self-sufficient individualist who is extremely innovative, extremely entrepreneurial, extremely enterprising, extremely hard-working, and enjoys extremely low taxation and extremely small government, etc.

      If that is the case, then you may call me extremely ‘far-Right’ until the cows come home

      1. “(and you do not go in for mob-handedness, rioting and civil disorder)”
        This might be subject to change if things don’t change.

        1. “Might” being the apposite word. Alas, people appear to be too apathetic to actually get out and do something about it other than moaning about the situation.

      3. Absolutely and totally agree Grizz.
        I really get pissed off with the smug faces on our media when they use the phrase. It’s hard to imagine how far left everything has traveled and now become since people like or grandparents and parents returned from fighting hitler and other enemies.
        Their sacrifices now add up to absolutely nothing.

    4. The ‘Night of the Long Knives’ in the summer of 1938 was a very complex set of killings in Germany and not a ‘coup’ as much as a retaining of power. This one was obviously nipped in the bud, but I know little of German politics.

      1. I suspect the whole story’s been blown up.. It sounds frankly silly and unbelievable, like a group of disgruntled citizens having a late night drunken conversation.
        Let us not forget that in spring of 2022, the German parliament was debating whether or not a controversial injection should be made mandatory or not. That’s extreme, in my book. The Overton window is moving towards authoritarianism in front of our eyes, in Britain too (Oxford!).

  69. Well, I’m off to bed for an early night tonight. See you all tomorrow. Sleep well, folks.

  70. The bad news is that airport staff are going on strike for 8 days over Christmas.

    The good news is that Albanians will be unaffected

  71. Well, after a totally clear sky all day, the temperature when I arrived home just after 4:30 was already down to -3½°C. It’s now -4½°.

  72. This can’t be true , can it?

    https://twitter.com/Justice_forum/status/1600583720825753602

    Sunak planning to clear the asylum backlog with an amnesty to illegal immigrants from Pakistan and the Middle East. More Tory Treachery! 😡

    Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plans to clear the ever-growing backlog of asylum applications by simply granting what amounts to an amnesty to migrants from a number of African and Middle Eastern countries, reports suggest.

    In order to tackle Britain’s growing backlog of asylum claims, which was already up over 300 per cent to around 110,000 in March and is now even higher at around 150,000, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is plotting with immigration minister Robert Jenrick to simply rubber stamp all claimants from high “grant rates” countries such as Afghanistan and Syria after basic identity and security checks, according to The Times. https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/12/05/uk-sunak-to-clear-asylum-backlog-by-granting-amnesty-in-all-but-name-report/

    1. Until every single one of the half million dross are removed – I care not how – the problem hasn’t been solved.

      Get. Rid. Of. Them.

      1. Maybe we should come to an agreement with some other country, say Afgaf for example, that we swap countries lock, stock and barrell. We all go over there and they all come over here. I’ll wager that within ten years the people will start moving the other way having made a mess of what they were given.

  73. Evening, all. I’m surprised the headline letter writer saw fit to mention it; it’s what unions do. It’s been very cold today; 3 degrees C when I took the dogs out this morning and it only warmed up to 4 degrees, before sinking back down below its starting point. It will be hot water bottles in bed tonight, I think! Despite the plunging temperatures chill, Coolio and I did a dressage test today (he’s had a new hackamore and looks very smart in it). He did well, apart from shying at a patch of sunlight and then refusing to continue cantering until he’d had a good look at it and satisfied himself it wasn’t going to eat him. Good job we weren’t being scored and it was only a practice! It wouldn’t have been elimination, but we’d have got virtually no marks for that movement.

      1. I can only see a blank space, Maggie. Who is it supposed to be?

        Edit; now I’ve come to the main page I can see it’s Carolyn Grace. Sad. She and Richard will be reunited now.

        1. Carolyn Grace – died 2 Dec in a car accident. “One of the all time great Spitfire pilots.”

          1. Thank you. It was weird; there was no picture at all in notifications, but when I went on the main page, there it was. I haven’t come across that before.

    2. Perhaps he resented the hackamore, Conners; you’ve never mentioned that Coolio is headstrong …

      1. No, he goes much better in a hackamore; much more relaxed than in a bit; I’ve ridden him with his Happy Mouth in and with his hackamore and the latter is certainly better for him in terms of not being so tight and not hollowing. He does tend to get a bit headstrong when he’s had to do a lot of canter movements; coming back to collected trot is definitely a struggle and would go down as “resistance” on the marks sheet!

        1. I love reading your posts about you and your ‘orse, Conners even though I’ve no idea what any of it means🙃🙃

          2. A hackamore is a bitless bridle. The pressure is on the nose and poll rather than on the bars of the mouth. A Happy Mouth is a soft snaffle bit (the least severe of the bit range) with a plastic mouthpiece. If I were to compete in dressage I wouldn’t be allowed to ride in a hackamore, although there is talk of more choice in bits being allowed.

          3. Thank you. It’s always fascinating to hear someone talk so passionately about their hobbies. I’ll look up some pictures of what you’ve described.

          4. A bit like me and all these “golf” (Eagle, Birdie) posts which consist of yellow, green and grey squares each day. Lol.

          5. A bit like me and all these “golf” (Eagle, Birdie) posts which consist of yellow, green and grey squares each day. Lol.

          6. A bit like me and all these “golf” (Eagle, Birdie) posts which consist of yellow, green and grey squares each day. Lol.

    1. I thought that was bloody obvious! Only the Left wing mind denies it, and that’s because they live in a permanent state of cognitive dissonance.

      1. Welfarism, its promoters, Socialists and corrupt politicians of all parties are seeking to destroy Britain.

        The wholesale importation of young men supposedly fleeing the shitholes they and their forebears created, almost exclusively without their females left waiting for the call back home but with a spattering of very young children; children intended for requisition and child abuse by our bent politicos and their paedo friends, in order to enter Britain spells disaster. These aliens are here at the behest of our government(s) and the Satanic visions for our country funded by the WHO, WEF, UN organisations and the shitty billionaires including Rothschilds, Rockerfellers, Gates, Bezos and Soros to name but a few.

  75. It is snowing, just up the road from Skegness

    The heating in the house works well and the Solar Panels have “worked” for the last two days (ie Sunshine)

    1. -2C here OLT

      My older dog , 14 years, scratches to go in the garden every so often to wee… He is so deaf that when I call him , I have to look for him, , and then I start shivering … brrr.

      1. I have a similar problem with Poppie, Belle. During the day she is fine, but come the evening it is a constant demand to go into the garden to tiddle. She scratches at the living room door, ‘oh no, not again!’ and it is so cold out there. She had a vet appt last Friday and he is pleased with her condition; a few weeks ago he thought long and hard about her being with us at Christmas, now he said bring her back at the beginning of February for a check-up!

        I find ‘Vanish for carpets and upholstery’ invaluable. Now she is on diuretics the vet warned us about ‘accidents’ – in 7 weeks he has had three, and one of those was on bonfire night.

        1. Lily drinks quite a lot – and sometimes she balances herself on the edge of the tray and pees on the floor instead – there’s quite a wodge of paper down to soak it up.

          2. We occasionally buy a Telegraph and they are good for a floor covering around the litter tray.

        2. Yep , I have stains everwhere now , and during the summer invested in a Vax carpet cleaner .. carpets have been cleaned many times now . He will cock is leg on the stair post or sneak into the dining room if someone leaves the door open .. It is the pills he is on for his heart and lungs .. Corvental .

          I have tried all sorts of pet sprays for carpets .

          Take a look at this hilarious pic .. so true .

          Been into the garden just now, heavy frost and -3C .. last minute wees !

  76. Feeling quite weary now…….might get ready for bed soon. May come back with my phone in bed.

      1. Yes – Susan and I went to Oxford – an hour and a half each way.

        He perked up a bit while we were there.

        After being told yesterday afternoon that he would have a TAVI on Thursday, the consultant told him in the evening that he would need full open heart surgery and a by pass, as his coronary arteries were in poor condition. That was bad news but he seems to be coming to terms with it now.

        Off to bed shortly. if I have the energy to get up and get ready.

        2. They’re really really good with the heart stuff, don’t worry. I had nearly 2 weeks on the cardio ward and they do a great job.

        4. It’s good to have such helpful neighbours. That’s quite a way to drive. Hope it all happens very soon.

      2. Thanks for the hot chocolate suggestion – I just had some and it went down well. I’m in bed now.

      3. Very tired…….. hot chocolate last night was good – just going to make another to take up to bed.

  77. Hi all
    Just seen the best ad ever. Specsavers, where the delivery guy has to carry a big box up to the 10th floor only to find he’s in the wrong block. Makes me chuckle every time.

  81. Time for bed, my bottle of vino is empty and I have a new book from the library that I must start: Column of Fire by Ken Follett.

    Have a peaceful night everyone.

  82. New coal mine at Whitehaven has been given the go ahead. Great news and lets hope it the first of many.

      1. The Woodhouse Colliery scheme has been given the green light by Communities Secretary Michael Gove. The mine near Whitehaven in Cumbria would dig up coking coal for steel production in the UK and abroad.2 hours ago

  84. Goodnight, folks. I’ve got an early start tomorrow; I’m off to a funeral in North Wales.

  85. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk. I shall be busy tomorrow, as I have to pack up the kitchen and any thing else that hasn’t yet been packed.

  86. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk. I shall be busy tomorrow, as I have to pack up the kitchen and any thing else that hasn’t yet been packed.

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