Thursday 8 December: Public-sector strikes are an insult to the country’s hard-working self-employed taxpayers

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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644 thoughts on “Thursday 8 December: Public-sector strikes are an insult to the country’s hard-working self-employed taxpayers”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, Today’s story here

    Mistaken Identity

    An Alabama pastor said to his congregation, “Someone in this congregation has spread a rumour that I belong to the Ku Klux Klan. This is a horrible lie and one which a Christian community cannot tolerate. I am embarrassed and do not intend to accept this. Now, I want the party who said this to stand and ask forgiveness from God and this Christian family.”

    No one moved. The preacher continued, “Don’t you have the nerve to face me and admit this is a falsehood? Remember, you will be forgiven and, in your heart, you will feel glory. Now stand and confess your transgression.” Again, all was quiet.

    Then, slowly, a drop-dead gorgeous blonde with a body that would stop a runaway train rose from the third pew. Her head was bowed and her voice quivered as she spoke.

    “Reverend there has been a terrible misunderstanding. I never said you were a member of the Ku Klux Klan. I simply told a couple of my friends that you were a wizard under the sheets.”

    The preacher fell to his knees, his wife fainted, and the congregation roared.
    Life is short, smile while you still have teeth.

      1. Knocking myself out with all the last minute packing for the move tomorrow.

        I fear I shall have to leave some of it to the removal guys.

        I shall just KBO.

          1. Just moving to a different (sub-Basement) flat in the same building. Less stairs + a chair-lift and a garden view (as opposed to the current roof-tops of Moffat.

          3. About 300 yards from where I am now to the new flat. Easier access to the garden and car park.

          1. I hope so because most that’s left is plastic boxes and (what I’m not good at) glasses.

  2. DON’T MESS WITH SENIORS!!!
    Morning All, just got these from my Sister-in-Law in Canada:

    We went to breakfast at a restaurant where the ‘seniors’ special’ was two eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast for $2.99. ‘Sounds good,’ my wife said. ‘But I don’t want the eggs..’

    ‘Then, I’ll have to charge you $3.49 because you’re ordering a la carte, the waitress warned her.

    You mean I’d have to pay for not taking the eggs?’ my wife asked incredulously. ‘YES!’ stated the waitress..

    ‘I’ll take the special then,’ my wife said..

    ‘How do you want your eggs?’ the waitress asked.

    ‘Raw and in the shell,’ my wife replied.

    She took the two eggs home and baked a cake.
    ========================================
    A sweet grandmother Sarah telephoned Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn and she timidly asked,”Is it possible to speak to someone who can tell me how a patient is doing?”

    The operator said, “I’ll be glad to help, dear. What’s the name and room number?” The grandmother in her weak, tremulous voice said, “Sarah Room 302.” The operator replied, “Let me place you on hold while I check with her nurse.”

    After a few minutes, the operator returned to the phone and said, “Oh, I have good news. Her nurse just told me that Sarah is doing very well. Her blood pressure is fine; her blood work just came back as normal, and her physician, Dr. Brown, has scheduled her to be discharged on Tuesday.”

    The grandmother said, “Thank you. That’s wonderful! I was so worried. God bless you for the good news.” The operator replied, “You’re more than welcome. Is Sarah your daughter?”

    The grandmother said, “No, I’m Sarah in 302. No one tells me anything!”

  5. Johnny Norfolk gave this a brief mention last night:

    Michael Gove approves UK’s first deep coal mine for 30 years
    Levelling Up Secretary backs Cumbria project after accepting that fossil fuel is vital for UK steel
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/12/07/michael-gove-approves-uks-first-deep-coal-mine-30-years/

    From the reaction in some quarters, anyone would think the government had proposed strip mining the UK’s national parks. I expect activist judges will strike it down but maybe – perversely – the eco-madness will eventually turn out to be a good thing:

    Blackouts will trigger a people’s revolt against the new eco-tyranny
    Green policies are popular in theory, but can only be sustained if they don’t threaten our quality of life
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/07/blackouts-will-trigger-peoples-revolt-against-new-eco-tyranny/

      1. Yep, global socialism isn’t interested in the environment. It is solely devoted to retarding our economic progress.

        The comical thing is those fools think that the world will stay the same when they force us backward. It is a continual struggle between ignorance, stupidity, poverty and misery on the Left and progress and opportunity on the Right.

        1. I know I use the word myself, but I feel we should stop referring to the foul creatures in control or those of mind-blowing wealth as the “elite”.
          They are not elite, they are simply exceptionally greedy bastards stealing, directly or indirectly, from the rest of the population. They are no different from gangsters.

    2. The Left are morons and should be ignored. As it is, the coal is only to be used for steel manufacture. What’s made from steel? Windmills. Rather than using this energy dense material as a general heating and lighting fuel, the state is restricting it to making steel.

      The desperation of these fools is staggering.

      1. Morning all. I don’t see these fools as being desperate, everything is going just the way they want it to. And the public can do nothing about it as far as I can see.

      2. No, not just windmills. Knives, axes, spears, rifle barrels, machetes, spades and all sorts of useful tools.

  6. Public-sector strikes are an insult to the country’s hard-working self-employed taxpayers

    We have the self employed that take every knock back in their stride and carry on and then we have the self entitled that just want to work less and be paid more while expecting the country to worship them.

    1. Colleague at work was telling me he gets lunch occasionally from one of the few independent shops in our area – I think he said Floral St (nor Covent Garden). Apparently the woman who runs it now opens only 3 1/2 days a week because of all the working from home (for the record, we are in all days). Our Xmas bash has been cancelled next week because of the strikes. The backbone of England (I use that word advisedly as I have no view on the rest of the UK) is being obliterated. It’s very sad.

      With that I must go as I am running late.

      1. One thing we could do to kick MPs into toch is to make them all self employed under IR35 and then prevent them from repealing it for themselves.

        But that’d require a democracy, and we don’t have one of those.

        1. I’m sure they will enjoy issuing monthly invoices (including VAT) as well their VAT returns and expenses claims.

          Been there, done that and knew all the tax fiddles.

        2. Top post. Often think the same myself. And make ‘em register for VAT as well, so they can feel the love of that particular tax.

      2. Our Christmas lunch was sandwiches, chips and cakes with coffee or tea. The only items offered hot were small sausages and fish fingers.
        The restaurant was conserving gas and electricity. However it was good to meet old colleagues after 3 years.

    1. Morning Ob, -5.5 here. However, it is 15’c inside. We lose about 1′ every 4 hours or so if the heating isn’t on.

  8. German prince arrested over plot to overthrow government has suspected business links to Britain. 7 December 2022.

    A German prince with suspected business links to Britain has been arrested in connection with an extremist plot to overthrow the country’s democratic Republic and install him as King.

    Prosecutors have alleged that Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss was the leader of a sinister group conspiring since November 2021 to storm the Bundestag, the seat of the German parliament.

    More than 3,000 police officers swooped on dozens of properties at dawn on Wednesday in one of the largest raids in modern German history.

    I guess these are the German equivalent of National Action, the UK‘s “Far-Right” terrorist group that’s never actually killed anyone. The whole reads like a concocted fairy tale. The “Royal” leader. The geographical dispersal of the “plotters”. The reference to “Anti-vaxxers” and “Covid deniers” with a dash of QAnon thrown in. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that they all have the Anarchists Cookbook on their Kindles and signed copies of Mein Kampff in their lederhosen. This is either a gross over reaction by the Security Services or much more likely a distraction by the Government from its policies both Domestic and Foreign. .

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/12/07/germany-foils-ex-military-plot-storm-bundestag-qanon-linked/

    1. It reads VERY like a fairy tale!
      If I were being cynical, I might suspect that someone wants to make it absolutely impossible for anyone in Germany to suggest that policies come from any source but Olaf Scholz (that’s the polite version of what I wanted to say).

      1. The smears and lies around the group are almost hilarious. It reads like a Lefty guide to labels.

    2. Heinrich of Reuss, aka Harry the Red! Fear not, it’s just another headline grabbing stunt from the Markles Meeja Muppets.

  9. Morning all. Quick cut’n’paste of about half Alastair Heath’s article on Blackouts; I don’t agree with the conclusion he draws in the final para, in the sense that politicians may think they are “talented” and “elite”, ditto those top civil servants – but they are more like the mediocre than the meritocratic. In my view.

    “…We are nearing a turning point for democratic support for environmentalism. Gordon Brown’s 2008 Climate Change Act legislated to slash CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, a seismic shift pushed through with little debate but much superficial public approval. Theresa May strengthened this to 100 per cent by 2050, the “net zero” target; again, the public liked the sound of this, if not of Mrs May. China will continue to increase its emissions by more than we cut ours, but our entire ruling class has signed up to this iron-clad legal framework, with no dissent tolerated.

    Thanks to technology and markets, it ought to be possible to decarbonise without ruining our society and economy, but 14 years on the revolution is proceeding just about as disastrously as anybody could have imagined. In typical British fashion, our political class has taken all the easy decisions first, and none of the tough ones. The blunders, the groupthink, the demented short-termism and the mind-boggling bureaucratic incompetence have amounted to one of the greatest national scandals of the past few decades.

    It’s easy to stop extracting fossil fuels or to boast about the decline of our carbon-emitting manufacturing sector, especially when we simply switch to importing goods, oil and gas from abroad, congratulating ourselves on our brilliance. We didn’t bother to construct gas-storage facilities or stress-test supply chains for geopolitical risk. We built offshore wind farms and solar but Britain also needed its own Pierre Messmer, the Gaullist who launched France’s huge nuclear programme. Instead, we got Nick Clegg: in a humiliating video from 2010, he rejects increasing nuclear capacity because it would have taken until 2021 or 2022 to come online….

    Politicians everywhere are overreaching, having drawn an incorrect lesson from Covid, namely that we will be willing to give up on our jobs, prosperity and freedoms in the name of a climate emergency. Germany faces crippling deindustrialisation, to great angst. The Dutch are nationalising and shutting “polluting” farms, triggering widespread fury. Switzerland’s winter contingency plans are modelled on lockdowns. Electric cars would be banned from non-essential journeys, shop hours cut and streaming services downgraded; sports matches, concerts and theatres could be cancelled.

    The public might wear this once because of Ukraine, but it won’t tolerate intermittent energy becoming the norm. In typically condescending fashion, France’s plans are described as délestage – load shedding, getting rid of ballast, of “non-essential” energy users – as if bankrupting businesses were obviously necessary for the common good. We are halfway along FA Hayek’s Road to Serfdom.

    So why this new snobbery? One answer can be gleaned from another visionary dystopian classic, Michael Young’s The Rise of the Meritocracy. A side effect of individualistic meritocracy, which I otherwise support, is that those who rise to the top become entitled and look down upon everybody else. As Young put it, “by imperceptible degrees an aristocracy of birth has turned into an aristocracy of talent”. The result is the return of anti-capitalist, neo-feudal attitudes: the elites nudge and compel the masses to do what is good for them, safe in the knowledge that the powerful will retain their privileges, their exclusive “Zil” traffic lanes, their private jets…”

    1. Morning MIR. Who says that there’s Democratic Support? Like most policies it has simply been dumped on the peasants without so much as a nod toward acceptance. As with Mass Immigration it’s an Elite program to demonstrate their virtue without any consideration of the costs to ordinary people.

      1. Indeed – I for one have never supported it (but am told by MSM that I do)…and no mainstream political party has the guts to state the obvious. We are on a race to the bottom, led by vain, egotistical politicians wanting a “legacy”. Which they will get all right.

        Oh and with my tin-foil hat on, WEF.

        1. I don’t think it’s guts to admit it. I thin they’re doing everything they can to hidee the deliberate, intentional malice of their globalist masters.

          Recovering the economy is relatively easy. It means the state takes the pain for a decade or 7 but who cares. We do not need diversity, net zero, greenwashing wonks. It means the Left get upset. Boohoo. They get upset about any deviation form their fascist ideal.

          The problem the state has is that people are beginning to notice their demented vision for the future. That is worrying them, so expect more distractions, waffle, puff and lies in future. Heck, Putin gave them endless excuses. That’s why there’s no real interest in ending the war.

      2. Exactly. This pathetic pretense that it ever had a democratic mandate is just another lie heaped on top of many.

      3. Morning, all. Clear, calm and a sharp frost here in N Essex.

        …without any consideration of the costs to ordinary people.

        It’s about time that more ordinary people woke up to the fact that the ‘elites’ do not pay any consideration at all to those the elites condemn as ordinary. Perhaps a few blackouts and shortages of essential foodstuffs will sound the alarm bells. Sadly, I’m certain that the captured MSM will have contingency propaganda and deflection stories waiting to roll of the presses when such occurrences arise.

        1. The Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss story from Germany (posted by Minty above) certainly fits the bill. As Germany struggles for energy to support it’s industrial base and Merkel’s immigration chickens come home to roost, what better time for ‘raids’ against a ‘terrorist’ group?

          All avidly ‘reported’, in technocolour by a compliant meeja.

    2. It really is astonishing how the mainstream self-styled “serious” press can carry on pretending that these things are happening quite by chance and due to inept politicians in each country.

      The next stages are being planned in plain sight in Canada at the moment, where there is a summit about the “crisis” of disappearing species. The new goal is to set aside a third of the world as protected areas for nature.

      This is probably how they aim to herd us out of the countryside and into cities where we can be more easily controlled, eg the Tri State City that is planned for northern Belgium and the Netherlands.

    3. Well we’ve all seen the ‘talented’ elite going to junkets all over the world on their private jets to strut their stuff while the rest of us shiver and starve.

  11. ‘morning All

    Modern life…….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7a717993e3c8715dc52e6f9b7efda3f51add49c2e50346b39a863a33a1630100.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5c0757c07ef2c20f5a722538e428788ad5c1cd6cbe2cfaf9ce07e2d393317bdf.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d0e030423198e69bde64e18df17a7e0c759e4fd3a219a6fafc8e43c2ee00d98b.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/63d11d852cd9adc28f43bb778c75f3b9d506523c0cf30cbc0ee258c197047b02.jpg

    And finally………

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/258324aab65f5b2c425932454802336be671cc8a990fa6cad6cc8745dd702376.jpg

  12. West urged to seize Russia’s frozen $350bn to fund war in Ukraine. 7 December 2022.

    The West must seize $350 billion in frozen Russian funds and use it to arm Ukrainians, MPs and MEPs have been told.
    Bill Browder, the British financier and arch-critic of Vladimir Putin, led calls in Brussels on Wednesday to free up the money to fund the war in Ukraine.

    Liz Truss, who was foreign secretary at the time, announced earlier this year that Britain had frozen $350 billion of “Putin’s war chest” as it targeted banks and financial institutions – a move seen as hitting the Russian economy harder than sanctioning individuals.

    When the West used to follow Christian Morality this was called theft! Though it’s not problem to Browder who’s a thief anyway. His main but unspoken complaint is that Vlad caught him with his fingers in the till. It is of course also massively counterproductive. These deposits are made on the understanding that they are sacrosanct. Who is going to deposit their Foreign Holdings abroad if they are at risk of seizure in some dispute? It is yet another self-inflicted shot in the foot of the Dollar Hegemony!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/12/07/west-urged-seize-russias-frozen-350bn-fund-war-ukraine/

    1. That looks like the start of a really good clusterfcuk, so it does. The unintended consequences could very easily be grave – would the A-rabs keep their money in a country that would do that? and they have A LOT of money invested in the UK.

      1. Morning Oberst. These people are already getting their acts aligned to create a new currency that will bypass the dollar.

    2. Considering the egregious levels of tax we labour under the state as no problem stealing other people’s property.

    3. When I read ‘the British financier and arch-critic’ I could picture Kenneth Williams, posturing saying, “Ooo, get him.” When it comes to gravitas and integrity Williams is head and shoulders above the likes of Browser. It’s a funny old world.

    1. Whoopi Goldberg apparently defending Blazing Saddles. It’s truly absurd. Anyone criticising that masterpiece of silliness needs slapping.

        1. Apparently defending. I think she’s been scuppered by her gormless wailing about Kyle Rittenhouse and is now being a bit more careful about her gob.

      2. Whoops! I knew there was a job I needed to do before dark yesterday. With any luck, their position beside the relatively warm compost bins will have offered some protection.

          1. Good morning NtN,
            Or as MH says, ‘Cold enough to freeze the knickers off any vicar’s daughter.’ Not a phrase I’d heard until I met him.

          2. Good morning NtN,
            Or as MH says, ‘Cold enough to freeze the knickers off any vicar’s daughter.’ Not a phrase I’d heard until I met him.

      2. -6 here in East Hants while I was outside at 4:30 observing the Martian occultation.

    3. …and Mars providing an added interest. When I got up to pump bilges at 2-ish the moonlight was unusually bright, lighting up everything in the garden.

      ‘Morning, Bill.

        1. Probably has a compost bin in need of extra nitrogen.
          When I’m working up the “garden” and need to pump bilges my compost bins get used, but I do stress,

          working up the garden.

          1. I pee on the current one at least twice a day. I have about half a dozen in varying degrees of maturity; this season’s is already several cubic metres of various garden and domestic waste.

    4. Good morning Bill.
      Saw it as I was driving home last night and decided to do a bit of shopping at Croots just outside Duffield so I could get a better view!

  16. SIR – It seems clear that Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, and his acolytes believe that the only “working” people are those represented by their union and the others that are planning strikes over the next few weeks. But the reality is that there are many other working people outside the public sector who understand that, due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, many of the wage demands are unrealistic, and we all have to tighten our belts accordingly.

    The posturing of Mr Lynch and others is frankly disgusting and these politically motivated strikes should be a source of shame. Those who are planning to strike should be asking themselves who pays their wages. It is not the Government but hard-pressed taxpayers – the genuine “working” people.

    Nigel Hindle
    Tytherington, Wiltshire

    Nicely put, Mr Hindle. Unfortunately it won’t have any effect on some of the more parasitic elements of the public sector, but it is good to see the start of what may become a fight-back. There’s a very long way to go, however.

    1. SIR – I am self-employed. If I do not work, I do not get paid. It is now too easy for people in the public sector to strike and withdraw their labour. Time for change.

      Jack Marriott
      Churt, Surrey

      Spot on, Mr Marriott.

    2. It’s simply exhausting. Inflation has become policy. It’s caused by the government’s market rigging energy prices and borrowing and wasting – to pay the already high salaries of officialdom.

      It’s really time to admit this and to reverse course. To undo all the damaging legislation and taxes, to abandon the socialist failure and to just get on with being Conservatives with all the unpopularity amongst the dossers that will cause. When you’re happy to hire diversity wonks on 60,000 + yet cannot understand how this adds to waste, inefficiency and cost to the services now demanding more money you’re simply not fit to govern.

      Either sort it out, or go.

  17. El BBC: Strikes are good, aren’t they? Yes, they are, da bruvvas….
    Inflation is an important way to control what the proles spend, isn’t it? Yes, da bruvvas….
    High taxes are important to pay for the country’s services aren’t they…..

    Bored now.

  18. Amongst all the doom and gloom I find it very satisfying this morning to note the reaction of the Greenie and Limp Dumb nutjobs and their associated bedwetters, all of whom are trying to outdo each other by jacking up the ‘climate emergency’ (sic) into an immediate global catastrophe where even reaching the end of today is pretty unlikely. I refer, of course, to the decision to go ahead with the coking-coal mine in Cumbria.

    Our pitiful government has actually got something right for once by refusing to give in yet again to those climate fanatics who got us into this awful mess in the first place. Bravo! But they had better press on with it before Labour gets in – and gives way.

    1. Woah there.

      The mine’s coal is only going to be allowed to be use for steel. Not for general energy production. Thus I’d question whether they’ve got that right. It’s another absurd limitation when one were not needed. All to meet the green agenda and ensure continued compliance with EU law.

      1. ‘Morning, Wibb. Yes, as I said, it’s coking coal, not the ordinary stuff we use on the fire. But it’s a start…

        1. Any coal produced internally is good news as it gives the British a chance to stand up to blackmail from those

          foreign nations selling us energy.

          2. Morning Janet, it was reported this morning on Radio Scotland that most of it will be exported

          3. All coal can be burnt, thus whatever coal you have can be used to resist “energy blackmail” by hostile states.

            We can, of course, export it in exchange for imports of a more suitable coal.

            The important thing is that we can stand up to blackmail……………………if our politicians want.

          4. Drax power station has 300 years of coal under it, yet uses imported wood pellets from Washington State at enormous cost.

    2. “But they had better press on with it before Labour gets in – and gives way” or before Fishi the weak crumbles and does yet another U turn!

  19. SIR – The current strikes and their planned dates confirm my belief that union leaders are not concerned about their members, or the general public, but use strikes to beat the government

    Mike Aston
    Stourbridge, Worcestershire

    Quite right, Mr Aston. In view of the clear collusion now some of these strikes are political in all but name – and therefore they are unlawful. Unfortunately the government seems content to sit back and let it all happen. Another winter of discontent is developing, and they seem not to care at all.

    1. Stourbridge hasn’t been in Worcestershire for years! It’s in the West Midlands – I should know, my brother lives there and he always used to castigate me for putting “Worcestershire” in the address because it was out of date.

  20. SIR – Surely the time has come to demote the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and remove their titles (“How will the Royal family react to Harry and Meghan’s latest tell-all TV show ‘attacks’?”, report, December 7). They hold these courtesy of the British Royal family, which they clearly despise. Ergo the trappings that go with that association should be removed.

    It would be a huge relief to many to have some means of demonstrating our disgust with how they are portraying our monarchy and by association our country. Enough is enough.

    Victoria Cockburn
    Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire

    It certainly is, Ms Cockburn. They are running rings around Charlie boy and in the process doing great damage to the family. If we never heard from Ginge and Whinge again it would still be too soon!

    2. According to the MR (who is up in these matters) if they cancelled the Dukery stuff Brash can still call himself Prince and so Trash would be Princess. Apparently, from the point of view of the joke woke “king” – this would be worse.

      I am merely reporting…..

      1. If the Palace were to remove those titles it would only serve to bolster Harry and Migraine’s Truth.
        However, i do believe they should remove the non disclosure agreements on the staff who were bullied. Fight fire with fire.

        Good morning.

        1. Totally agree.
          The Gruesome Twosome are already martyrs in their own minds; don’t confirm it.
          But it is certainly time the staff were released from loyalty to a couple who showed none to them.

          2. And while we’re at it let’s hear from Lady Susan Hussey what she feels about the way has has been treated by her odious godson and his even odiouser father?

          3. Lady SH is just that; a lady.
            She would no more dream of whingeing – or giving ‘her truth’ – than I would contemplate doing a maths degree.

      2. I can’t believe the Dopey Wokey media coverage these two have brought on themselves.
        I use to like Harry.
        I wonder if he’s got the results from his DNA test yet. I thought they had to have one by law in the states prior to being Wed.

      3. Who tosses a giver?

        If a rose by any other name would smell as sweet then surely a turd by any other name stink as foul?

    3. Ah yes, the poor, put upon couple who fled the RF because of all the racism etc and just wanted a quiet life without constant press intrusion????

      1. “...without constant press intrusion.”

        Which they seek out at every opportunity. Hypocrites!

  21. It was indeed sad to hear yesterday that Caroline Grace, the talented Spitfire pilot, had been killed in a car crash, in just the same way that her husband Nick died some years ago.

    Here is the DT article published late yesterday:

    World’s only female Spitfire pilot dies in car crash

    Family left ‘traumatised’ by Carolyn Grace’s unexpected death, 34 years after her husband suffered the same fate

    By Catherine Lough 7 December 2022 • 5:29pm

    The world’s only female Spitfire pilot has died in a car crash, her family have announced.

    Carolyn Grace pioneered the restoration of Second World War Spitfires in the 1980s with her late husband, Nick, from their home in Cornwall and went on to become the only female pilot of Spitfires.

    When Nick died in a car crash in 1988, she learned to fly the historic Spitfire they restored together in memory of her husband and clocked up over 900 hours in the air over the next three decades, flying it at air shows and memorial events across Europe.

    The Spitfire ML407, known as the “Grace Spitfire”, is one of only a handful of working models to still exist and was the first to shoot down an enemy plane on D-Day in June 1944.

    Carolyn, originally from Australia, died in a car crash in New South Wales on December 2, 34 years after her husband suffered the same fate, her family have confirmed.

    The 70-year-old was driving her Suzuki car in Goulburn, about 120 miles south west of Sydney, when she collided with a silver Hilux.

    She was airlifted to hospital but died of her injuries, while her 38-year-old son Richard, a passenger in the car at the time, survived the crash and was treated for minor injuries.

    Carolyn’s daughter, Daisy Grace, said the family had been left “traumatised” by her unexpected death.

    Daisy, who helped Carolyn run their Spitfire restoration business, Air Leasing Limited in Northamptonshire, with brother Richard, said: “It is with great sadness that we must announce that Carolyn Grace has been killed in a car accident on Friday.

    “This is a traumatic, and unexpected, loss to all of us.”

    Carolyn’s death has sparked tributes from hundreds of aviation enthusiasts and institutions describing her as an “inspirational woman” and a “legend of the sky”.

    Andy Saunders, a Battle of Britain historian, said: “With her husband Nick, Carolyn Grace was the first pioneers of Spitfire restoration in Britain.

    “It is a tragic irony that she has died in a car crash, just as Nick had died in 1988.

    “It is awful news. Her death is a huge loss to the world of historic aviation.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b5f899553d15c025c78d54b20c3c1a75ef0f316efb10968925d155b2e8c719c7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2d9cd517c8399458171849d245aa98c3575c66e25b5f0dc892b617bdd4432c77.jpg

    Incidentally, she was not ‘the world’s only female Spitfire pilot’ but pointing this out is to take nothing away from this remarkable woman.

    1. Some leading BTL posts:

      Justin Bedford12 HRS AGO

      What a tragedy. The film A Perfect Lady, about the restoration of ML407, shows so clearly the love Nick and Carolyn had for each other, and now they’re both gone. Very sad, but all strength to Richard.

      Fillus Flog9 HRS AGO

      Tragic news . I saw her fly over Hatfield House in a battle of the proms concert. She flew that spitfire at hedge height – made the hairs on your neck stand out hearing those Merlin engines. RIP Carolyn

      Sublime Zandonai48 MIN AGO

      Same for me with those Merlins. Holst’s Land of Hope and Glory played as Grace came in over the house at speed. Tears streamed down my cheeks.

      It’s said by the glib that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. It seems I’m a scoundrel.

    2. I’ve lost track of whether Australia changed over to left hand driving. If so, I suppose this could have parallels with our own problems with the US base.

  22. Good morning all.
    Another frosty start with a tad under -4°C on the outside thermometer. The temperature in the pantry, the coldest room in the house is not a low warmer!
    Looks like being a clear sunny day again.

      1. Amazing how it never put us oldies and the teachers off, who probably got out of bed early enough to make it to school each day. And ironically probably cycled, or used public transport. Not many of them had cars.

        1. I took a bus for a couple of miles and then walked the rest of the way (about a mile and a half). It was all uphill on the way there, too!

      2. Meant to comment yesterday on a picture in the Terriblegraph. A light dusting in snow in the Cairngorms and the caption was about a man “struggling through the snow” to get to work.

        I was going to add the comment that I was only surprised the caption didn’t say that the man was “forced to struggle through the snow” (the over/mis-use of the verb “force” by Terriblegraph hacks is a particular bug bear of mine).

      3. Meant to comment yesterday on a picture in the Terriblegraph. A light dusting in snow in the Cairngorms and the caption was about a man “struggling through the snow” to get to work.

        I was going to add the comment that I was only surprised the caption didn’t say that the man was “forced to struggle through the snow” (the over/mis-use of the verb “force” by Terriblegraph hacks is a particular bug bear of mine).

      2. Beautiful pictures. We have our first frost this morning and it’s -3 but feels like -6.

    3. What a fantastic sunrise – thank you for the pictures!
      If I saw the above over the Bavarian Alps, and if I could see the mountains very clearly, I’d assume that some warm air was coming up from Italy and hitting the cold air on the north side of the mountains.
      But in Britain, mostly everything is to do with depressions coming in from the Atlantic!

      2. Yurss – pretty certain there’s no warm air coming up from Italy this morning. 🤣🤣 Or anywhere else, for that matter.

  25. Article in today’s DT:

    “BBC must plan for full ‘switch-off’ of terrestrial TV

    Director general says broadcaster could become internet-only”

    How I wish that we were planning ‘for a full switch-off’ of the BBC…

  26. Good morning all, yet another clear, becalmed day on the Costa Clyde where the forcast recklns it will barely reach above freezing. No golf today, but as it would consist of winter tees, fairway mats and temporary greens I’m not too concerned.

    The forecast is similar until next Thursday, when snow is expected. I’m sure the windmill farms are wishing that they had planted solar panels.

  27. Morning all 😊
    Brightness out side and minus 3, but darkness on the political front as they once again seek pages of excuses for their interminable errors.

  28. As Tory climate champion Alok Sharma points out, way more jobs would be created by developing green industries in the area – as many as 6,000, according to estimates from the Local Government Association.

    No, Sharma, jobs created by government paid for by taxation are NOT jobs. They do not create new wealth. They are merely spending tax income on something that isn’t wanted as if it were wanted, the private sector would already be doing it. The problem is the state forbids the building of the things the real economy wants.

  29. 368794+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 8 December: Public-sector strikes are an insult to the country’s hard-working self-employed taxpayers

    Thursday 8 December: Public-sector strikes are an insult to the country’s well being period.

    The unions are in collusion with the WEF politico’s in toppling the last remaining columns of decency, common sense, within the very tentative future infrastructure of society.

    The circling political vultures have settled IMO the sides have been defined quite clearly, you are either pro polititco / WEF /unions ( repress / replace / RESET
    constructor’s ) or anti.

    At this moment in time the enemy within is kicking frick out of a semi dead nation, when they succeed in killing off the remnants of a once decent country where will they turn next…. but on themselves.

    One cannot help but notice via history that as soon as decency,dignity,and self respect is taken out of the equation, hell is unleashed.

    1. Biden wants to stop fracking though…and Sunak would prefer to get gas from America in *diesel tankers* than dig it up here.

      I despair. It’s as if someone asked them what the stupidest things to do would be and they leapt at both of them.

      1. I agree with your sentiment but I’m certain that neither of them need to be prompted to come up with the most stupid idea imaginable. Comes with the territory when you’ve become enamoured with Schwab & Co.

    2. It’s already being manipulated by a failing regime – except it’s Biden’s not Vlad’s!

      1. Your description applies to both ‘tits’, shirley. Maybe that was your intent?

        Thank you for the card, by the way.

  32. If the Germans have arrested people who they claim are plotting an over throw of government. Why are our union bosses not being arrested for the same reasons ?

    1. I don’t think they are dubbed ‘Right Wing’.
      The Germans seem quite content for recent arrivals to murder, rape and maim their citizens. But they are not “Right Wing”: No Sirree ……

      1. 😉i know our union leaders are not dubbed right wing Anne……
        But they are hell bent on challenging government’s directives.
        Their current priority is to cause as much disruption as they possibly can. A couple of weeks behind bars for most of them wouldn’t be unpopular with the majority of the public.

  33. Good morning all.
    I subscribe to the bargain basement version of the Telegraph.
    The webpage shows loads of headlines, presumably chosen by algywhatsit.
    I trawl downwards until my eyes settle upon something interesting.
    Today it was the sad news that a certain George Leonard ‘Johnny’ Johnson has departed.
    He was 101, so not unexpected.
    What hits me is that some years ago he was awarded an MBE. Not even an OBE.
    RIP Squadron Leader Johnson, and thank you.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/08/last-surviving-dambuster-george-leonard-johnny-johnson-dead/

  34. Good news for British coal mining on BBC TV this morning when interviewee David said that after careful consideration by the PTB coal production at the new Government approved coal mine would be considered carbon neutral.

    After the EU classification that methane gas is already carbon neutral this puts Europe in a strong position to reach net zero long before whatever the legal deadline is!

    https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britain-approves-first-new-coal-mine-decades-2022-12-07/

    1. So as with having a pandemic by redefining the meaning of pandemic, you reach net zero be redefining the meaning of carbon neutral. That way a little sense creeps in without the powers that be admitting they were wrong?

    2. It is only for the production of steel, though. IIRC the EU has also categorised nuclear as carbon neutral. Read it a little while ago so apologise for not being able to provide a link.

      1. Yet Norwegian hydropower is apparently very Carbon Un-neutral, according to the EU… wonder how that works…

  35. Am I alone in going on a News Strike? The news has been so cumulatively depressing in 2022 that I no longer voluntarily consume any broadcast news … as long as I can stay away from hospital, minimise dependency on rail travel, and we don’t get a “migrant” hostel/hotel in the immediate neighbourhood, I should be OK. I will confine myself to reading books, occasional newspapers, doing the odd Codeword/Sudoku, and, especially, in sunny weather going for walks , and watching YouTube – especially football podcasts, and continue watching the (brilliantly managed) revival of Newcastle United.

    1. Join the club. I now do a quick recce and decide that I have no wish to slash my wrists today.
      I have withdrawn into a cocoon of selfishness.

    2. I have taken a sabbatical from news/social media including this forum with just the very very occasional look at the state of the world. The wendyball competition started it, and from what Mrs VVOF tells me winge and ginge will continue it for another week or so.
      Certainly helps my BP, the world can go to hell in a handcart with me being blissfully unaware for a while longer, and I will return just before Christmas to give you all my seasons greetings.

    3. I haven’t bothered turning the telly on for three weeks now since OH has been confined to hospital. No propaganda has passed me here.

    4. #MeToo, Lewis. I’m leaving the TV behind when I move, it’s all dross these days and, like you, I’ll watch YouTube and spend time on NTTL.

    5. I have been doing that for years – since the 2016 referendum result.

      Saves so much angst.

    6. I have been doing that for years – since the 2016 referendum result.

      Saves so much angst.

    7. I’m with you. Problem is, I don’t believe a word of it, either, and am happy to avoid.
      Most Internet MSN news gets ignored, too. It’s all lies and misdirection.

  37. Good Moaning.
    What a lovely day for defrosting the windscreen and asking the car if it would like sprinkles or a 99 with that.

    1. Good morning, Annie. You and Bill feeling well enough to pencil in a date for the December lunch I have offered you both?

        2. Phizzee, you are neither Anne Allan nor her Bill. In fact you are a Very Silly Sausage, and it you don’t behave I shall send you to the naughty step. Lol.

  38. Just back from the market. Jolly nippy there – below zero. BUT – bright blue sky and lovely sun.

  39. Good morning all.

    Frosty morning here , a real white out , -2c . The sky is blue , sunshine , but nitheringly cold . Birds are busy on the garden feeders .

    Did anyone see that wonderful prog last night on the box about the 1963 snow storm .. long winter especiall so in the West country. Cliff Michelmore narrated .

    1. No – I haven’t turned on the telly for three weeks now.

      Must fill up the bird feeders – they’ve been frantically feeding this morning.

      Washing about to finish so will hang it outside (well wrapped up).
      I well remember the winter of 1963 – it was indeed a cold one.

      1. How is it with OH, Jules? Is he still in Oxford? Is there a date for him to be mended yet??

        1. Yes – still in Oxford but still no date for the major surgery he needs. He’s getting very frustrated there.

    2. Didn’t need to watch it, Maggie, I was at RAF West Raynham in N Norfolk at the time and, the Station Commander had had a bollocking from Group, because the runway wasn’t open, we were all on snow clearance duty but the engineers had rigged up two Meteor engines with jet effluxes facing forward, on a trolley pushed by a bowser to fuel them, they cleared the runway tout suite. We missed our nips of rum and brandy thereafter.

      1. Spent many happy hours in the MRD, the most fun was trying to blow the tanker backwards

      2. They tried the same trick on the railway to clear snow drifts, but the blast from the engines cleared not only the snow, but the ballast supporting the track too.

    3. Shame, I missed that. But I remember leaving work in Harrow at 5:30 and the
      No. 18 bus I was on, ploughed straight into the roundabout Belmont circle near Cannons Park. I had to walk home from there to Mill Hill. Around 12 miles. No way to contact home. Arrived around Around 8 pm. Where have you been ? asked my mum. Nice warm house, dinner in the oven.

    4. BBC local radio were talking the other day about that cold snap in 1963, then corrected it to starting on Boxing Day 1962. I remember it well, taking our mad mongrel for a walk on Boxing evening and watching him burrow into the drifts. After New Year being stopped by the local constable demanding why wasn’t I in school: when I told him I was attending a school 10 miles away and the road remained impassable he accepted my explanation. Icy drifts remained under north facing hedgerows into March/April on our cross country route out to Colne Engaine. I wonder what the ‘snowflakes😎’ of today would make of a similar occurrence?

      1. -20 while waiting at the top of Wormingford hill for a bus that was 2 hours late.
        For some reason, that experience has stuck in my memory.

        1. Frozen in time?
          The hill down to Aldham Ford Street and the Wakes Colne to White Colne hill would have been bad but the Wormingford hill probably had those two beaten.

          1. Wormingford is more open and bleaker.
            When we lived on the edge of Aldham, I used to catch the bus in the ‘High Street’ near the Queen’s Head.

        1. And in evidence daily ‘they’ are being promoted as innocence’s more and more on our tv screens.
          Yet another massive mistake by our political classes.

      2. Who are the bigger scum: the scum committing these atrocities, or the scum who are doing nothing to stop their accelerating increase in the country?

        1. The blame must always lie with the wielder of the knife rather than the blade itself. But we know why they’re forcing what will no doubt be over a million criminals on us – it is pure revenge.

    1. Shhh! Don’t mention the hypocrisy, the waste, the inefficiency or the corruption.

      They call it green because the imports don’t count as our own emissions. It truly is pathetic.

    2. Similar vein as exporting carbon dioxide emissions to China and India, together with what remains of the manufacturing industry.

  42. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/74aed67124f8a989efa10ffc64c030f667b5bb58775c94037c1afed7514957e2.png Xi state visit to Riyadh raises concerns in Washington

    XI JINPING was greeted with Saudi jets painting the sky the colours of the Chinese flag as he touched down in Riyadh for a state visit that has caused consternation in Washington.

    The Chinese president is due to hold meetings with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, over the course of the three-day visit, which began yesterday.

    It is understood Riyadh hopes to sign a “strategic partnership” with Beijing to boost bilateral trade, which already stands at $90bn (£73bn) per year. However, US officials are concerned that the state visit is part of Mr Xi’s attempts to build his global influence, amid the current energy crisis and a rapidly growing East-west divide over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    “We are mindful of the influence that China is trying to grow around the world,” White House spokesman John Kirby said yesterday.

    The visit comes amid increased tension between the United States and Saudi Arabia, which reportedly is concerned that Washington has failed to provide enough support in stopping attacks by Iranian proxies in the Gulf region.

    Yesterday, Riyadh was decked out in the red flag of China as the Kingdom gave a far warmer welcome to Mr Xi than the one received by President Joe Biden during his visit in July.

    Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst familiar with the country’s leadership strategy, said “much deeper relations developed in recent years” between China and Saudi Arabia.

    He added that as the largest importer of Saudi oil, China is a “critically important partner”.

    Is it just me or is there a tad more than a touch of irony in the fact that a mass-killer of home-grown Muzzies is kowtowing to the head honcho at Muzzie Central?

          2. Swedes cannot do the ‘ch’ sound. ‘Cheap as chips’ comes out as ‘Sheep as ships’.

          4. Yeah! Weirdos with charisma, panache … and staying power. I’m thinking it’s because we don’t drink warm shandy!

          5. Neither the Germans nor the French can pronounce ‘th’, never mind the differences that there in English.

        3. Very like ‘thank you’ in Chinese – I horrified a masseuse with that particular mistake! 🤣

    2. All those US supplied jets and armaments will be crawled all over by Chinese “advisors” no doubt, small wonder there is concern.
      World Oil to be priced in petroyuan too!

    3. Washington should have been more concerned when it cheated Trump and the American people out of their democracy.
      Now they are stuck with this senile crook and they are still digging in to cover their arses.
      They made their bed. Now we all have to lie in it.

  43. 368789+ up ticks,
    After following him for years, on reflection I do now see him as a covert tory (ino), even when leading the UKIP party, a tory (ino) coxswain< Ogga1.

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    2h
    He DID NOT split the Tory Party.

    UKIP forced David Cameron to grant the Referendum by being an increasing electoral threat.

    Once the Leave vote was in Farage deserted UKIP. He set up the Brexit Party & then stood down its candidates against Tories in the 2019 GE. Farage enabled the Tory 80 seat majority & hence where we are now.

    Farage might have got a few MPs elected & exercised power in a hung parliament. Farage is a Tory at heart.

    https://gettr.com/post/p212td4ac1b

      1. Superglue all their car locks closed and all their house locks too.
        Spray liquid manure through their letter boxes and generally make their lives as inconvenient and unpleasant as possible.
        What’s sauce for the goose…

        1. Vandal!😎
          If you want to make a real job of messing up locks then add bicarbonate of soda, or better still if you can lay your hands on it, graphite powder to the superglue. I received these pearls of wisdom last Sunday and then watched the videos on YouTube. Amazing effect on the hardness and grip of the glue. Graphite takes a little longer to harden but sets harder.

          4. I suppose something that locked the key in the lock but allowed it to turn but not be removed might cramp their styles, giving free access to burglars and other thieves.

    2. Nor does having a vinyl banner, or high vis jackets, or wearing clothes made from oil.

      They’re hypocrites, but are so utterly demented they honestly believe they are above the law.

    4. Blocking major roads should be an offence which should entail withdrawing the driving licence of any driver convicted of committing this offence.

  46. I had to go back to see my doctor today.
    I said, I applied the pile cream that you gave me this morning and I got a very nasty reaction.
    Where exactly did you apply it? he asked.
    I said, on the bus.

  47. Continuing the downward spiral.

    A contract to secure the RCMP communications network has been awarded to a company that is the subsidiary of a Chinese owned company. In the US, that parent company is being investigated for espionage.

    Nothing like asking the fox to guard the hen house.

    Trudeau naturally expressed surprise and blamed the public servants for awarding the contract.

  48. Last “Dambuster” hero has died over 100 years of age. I caught the name Johnson on the BBC radio 4 News. His obituary will surely appear tomorrow.

    1. Already on line:-

      Squadron Leader Johnny Johnson, Lancaster bomb-aimer who was the last survivor of the Dambusters raid – obituary
      When he was appointed MBE, he insisted: ‘It is the squadron that is being honoured with this, not me’

      By
      Telegraph Obituaries
      8 December 2022 • 12:31pm

      Squadron Leader Johnny Johnson, who has died aged 101, was the last survivor to fly on the Dambusters raid, which attacked the Ruhr dams in May 1943.

      Johnson was the bomb-aimer in the crew of American Flight Lieutenant Joe McCarthy, DFC, who had joined the Royal Canadian Air Force before the USA had entered the war. On May 16 1943, 19 crews of No 617 Squadron were briefed for Operation Chastise, a low-level attack to drop Barnes Wallis’s revolutionary “bouncing bomb” on three major dams in the Ruhr. McCarthy’s crew was one of five assigned to attack the Sorpe Dam.

      As the engines of their Lancaster were started, McCarthy’s crew discovered a technical fault and had to switch to the reserve aircraft. Taking off from RAF Scampton near Lincoln 35 minutes late, they crossed the Dutch island of Vlieland at very low level just before midnight. The German gunners had been alerted by the earlier aircraft and had forced one to return with damaged navigation equipment, while another clipped the waves while flying low and also had to return. Two more were shot down, leaving the McCarthy crew as the only survivors tasked to attack the Sorpe.

      A thick mist in the nearby valleys made navigation at 100 feet difficult, but once the crew had found the target, McCarthy set up an attack along its length. Hills either side of the dam made the bombing run particularly difficult and McCarthy had to dive the heavy bomber to 60 feet and level out for a few seconds before climbing out to avoid hills on the other side of the valley. The responsibility for a successful attack then rested with Johnson, the bomb-aimer.

      The crew made repeated runs to get the speed and height correct and it was not until the 10th attempt that Johnson was satisfied; he released the bomb accurately alongside the dam. The explosion from the direct hit was insufficient to break the huge earth wall of the dam and McCarthy set heading for base. They retraced their steps across Germany and the Netherlands and landed back at base.

      The two primary targets, the Möhne and the Eder dams, were breached, but eight of the 19 Lancasters failed to return, with the loss of 53 aircrew.

      There were many gallantry awards for the crews, including the Victoria Cross for the leader, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, a DSO for McCarthy and the DFM for Johnson.

      George Leonard Johnson, always known as “Johnny”, was born in Lincolnshire on February 25 1921, the youngest of six children; his mother died when he was three. His later education was at the Lord Wandsworth Agricultural College in Hampshire; he volunteered for flying duties in the RAFVR and joined in 1940.

      After training as an air gunner he joined No 97 Squadron in July 1942, flying Lancasters. He went on bombing operations with a number of different crews until completing a short course as a bomb-aimer.

      When he returned to No 97 he joined McCarthy’s crew, and on December 21 1943 he flew his first sortie with his new crew, when the target was Munich. Night fighters badly damaged their Lancaster and McCarthy had to make an emergency landing on return. Over the next three months the crew flew 19 operations, including attacks on Berlin, Hamburg and industrial cities in the Ruhr.

      By the end of March, Johnson and his colleagues had completed their tour of operations and were due for a rest. However, McCarthy had recently met Guy Gibson, who was forming “X” Squadron for a special task. Gibson selected the McCarthy crew, and the squadron was soon given the number 617.

      Johnson was due to be married and was given four days’ leave for his wedding before heading for Scampton and six weeks of intense low-flying and bombing training. The pilots and navigators learnt of the target the day before the operation but it was not until early the following day that Johnson and the rest of the aircrew discovered they were to attack the Ruhr dams.

      Following the raid, Johnson went on to fly another 19 bombing operations and was commissioned. McCarthy was promoted and became one of the key leaders under the new CO, Wing Commander Leonard Cheshire, described by Johnson as “the best commander I ever served under”.

      No 617 was issued with a new bomb-sight in order to drop the 12,000 lb blast bomb. During the spring of 1944 the squadron attacked key industrial targets with the huge bomb, many of them in France during the build-up phase to D-Day. Johnson flew his 50th and final operation on April 10 before becoming a bombing instructor.

      After the war, he trained as a navigator and flew with Coastal Command’s No 120 Squadron flying the new Shackleton aircraft, a derivative of the Lancaster. In 1957 he left for Singapore to be an operations officer in a maritime air headquarters. After three years he returned to the UK to spend his final tour in the RAF on a Thor ballistic missile site in Lincolnshire. He decided to leave the RAF in 1962.

      Johnson then trained as a schoolteacher, and after gaining four years’ experience he moved to teach inmates at Rampton Hospital before spending 14 years teaching and counselling at a mental health institution. His work with people with psychiatric issues attracted widespread praise and was recognised, together with his other public service, by the award in 2017 of an honorary doctorate by the University of Lincoln, of which he was extremely proud.

      He retired in 1980 and moved to Torquay, where he was active in local politics and was elected as a councillor for Torbay. He was also the chairman of the local Conservative Association.

      After the death of his wife Johnson moved to Bristol. In 2008 he returned to the Ruhr dams while a documentary film was being made. He recognised that the raid was exciting and valuable at the time, but in later life, once he became aware of the scale of losses on both sides, he questioned the need for the attack and regretted the heavy loss of life. He was very moved after meeting German locals and survivors. His performance and manner during the filming received wide acclaim.

      By the time of the 70th anniversary of the Dams raid in May 2013 there were few survivors left, and it marked the beginning of a period when the quiet and modest Johnson became a celebrity. He made many appearances including at the Royal Albert Hall and the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and he had a 20-minute audience with the Queen. In May 2018 he flew in the Lancaster of the RAF’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight – occupying the bomb-aimer’s position.

      In the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours he was appointed MBE, “for services to Second World War remembrance and the community in Bristol”. When asked his feelings about his award, he replied: “It is the squadron that is being honoured with this, not me.” His pursuit of suitable recognition for the work of Bomber Command never flagged.

      Johnson was a great raconteur. He analysed the Dams Raid from the German and the British perspectives, criticised the revisionists – who, he pointed out, were not there – and he considered the moral aspects of having to kill civilians. He feared letting his crew down more than he feared the enemy. He also believed that today’s youth would prove themselves just as capable as his generation.

      Johnson remained a lifelong friend of Joe McCarthy and his family and he spoke highly of his pilot in his 2014 memoir The Last British Dambuster.

      Johnny Johnson married Gwyneth Morgan in May 1943; she died in August 2005. Their son and two daughters survive them.

      Johnny Johnson, born November 25 1921, died December 7 2022

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2022/12/08/squadron-leader-johnny-johnson-lancaster-bomb-aimer-who-last/

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2022/12/08/TELEMMGLPICT000187756332_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqek9vKm18v_rkIPH9w2GMNpPHkRvugymKLtqq96r_VP8.jpeg?imwidth=680

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2022/12/08/TELEMMGLPICT000273749774_1_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqgjhKaeOMMC79n188U3hJU06nc88CnITLOJwy0u0TXU0.jpeg?imwidth=960

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2022/12/08/TELEMMGLPICT000319042411_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqfnSl4U1yN5VHOAelFsJbpVEZlm34NLjyqTSv693sUns.jpeg?imwidth=960

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2022/12/08/TELEMMGLPICT000319042407_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqiQj7W4lNs_2AO5EKWD18peeP2nt_42v3jdrgqSCmrrs.jpeg?imwidth=960

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2022/12/08/TELEMMGLPICT000319042410_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=960

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2022/12/08/TELEMMGLPICT000319043620_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=960

      1. I met him in the 70s when a member of the ROC, he gave us a lecture on weather forecasting of all things. I remember him saying “With your back to the wind the low pressure area is on your left” He made the subject interesting

        1. Moh knew the sister of John Hoppy Hopgood, pilot and 2nd in command in the May 1943 Dambusters raid, died a hero at just 21 years old. Wounded by flak and with his Lancaster M-Mother ablaze, Hoppy had no hope of escape yet managed to gain height for two of his crew to parachute to safety. The plane crashed moments later. Using Hoppy s school diary and letters to his mother and sister, this book tells the story of how a boy from a small Surrey village matured into a gutsy war hero. A veteran of forty-eight bombing sorties and an expert pilot in three Bomber Command Squadrons, this is the man who taught Guy Gibson how to fly a Lancaster.

          https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/627065/Dambuster-pilot-medal-auction-24k-John-Hoppy-Hopgood

      2. Not to be confused with Johnnie Johnson:

        Air Vice Marshal James Edgar Johnson, CB, CBE, DSO & Two Bars, DFC & Bar, DL (9 March 1915 – 30 January 2001), nicknamed “Johnnie”, was an English Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot and flying ace who flew and fought during the Second World War, credited with 34 individual victories over enemy aircraft, as well as seven shared victories, three shared probable, ten damaged, three shared damaged and one destroyed on the ground.

        Both true heroes.

      3. Last of a remarkable bunch of young men. For me, one of the most poignant scenes in any film is the returning Lancaster (Gibson’s?) coming in to land on the grass field post raid accompanied by the soundtrack. Never fails to create emotion within me.
        It’s a shame that the Telegraph got the date of JJ’s first sortie with McCarthy wrong (wrong year). Never mind, JJ and the rest of 617 remain heroes and that’s what matters.

        Due to its construction the Sorpe Dam was not ‘bounced’, rather the bomb was dropped along its length in the hope that the blast would create cracks that would allow water to seep into the earth core and eventually cause the dam to fail. One bomb was never going to be sufficient.

        1. I have just finished yet another reading of “Bomber” by Len Deighton. That must be at least 5o times – prolly more.

          I am always impressed at the courage of men to get into a plane to fly hundreds of miles knowing that they may well not return. And to do that day after day. I have known bomber crews (my Father was in the RAF) and am always staggered by their sang-froid.

      5. What an incredible man. Shows the uselessness of the honours system when the man gets an MBE while some sports Prima Donna gets a knighthood for scoring a goal or similar.
        This man together with many heroes do not get the recognition they deserve until they die.

  49. What do you call a bunch of chess players bragging about their games in a hotel lobby at Christmas?
    Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.

      1. I have an account. I just don’t bother with it. Same with Facebook. I prefer talking to you folks on here.

  51. Ed Miliband is a complete green loser. It appears that he would sacrifice the remainder of our industrial base etc. on the altar of Climate Crisis. Where are these secure long-term jobs going to come from if the UK depends on unreliable power gleaned from capricious weather systems? He has no clue about the science of energy production but he feels that he can spout his ideological green clap-trap non-stop.

    https://twitter.com/iainmartin1/status/1600601791221141520

    1. To pinch the joke about Clement Attlee – “An empty taxi drew up, and Ed Miliband got out.”

    2. Oh do be quiet milioaf. You’re an incompetent berk lacking a brain. Green doesn’t create jobs, it destroys them.

      There is nothing, not a thing about unreliables. The best climate leadership we could offer is to bin the green crap and get fracking, build so much nuclear we glow in the dark and use coal for energy.

      Then once the furnaces are running, kick Miliband and the other greeniacs into them.

  54. 368789+up ticks,

    Any truth in that the border force have asked a spokesman for the English people for an armistice and maybe a game of football at Christmas.

    1. I assume Marlene doesn’t do the Postcode Lottery.
      She might win and then people would know where she’s from.

      1. I won a tenner today. Same as my stake. I don’t do permanently offended though so it probably doesn’t count.

        1. Book by James Vance Marshall , used to be on the CSE Lit book list. Movie is nothing like the book.

    2. I wish they would go on strike, then we wouldn’t have to listen to their pitiful whining! If only the MSM would only give them what they claimed to want – peace and quiet!

      1. After their latest allegations their is no going back. Once the wheels come off…which they will eventually…they will get their peace and quiet. Then Harry strangles the gaslighting bitch.

        1. Before then – she’ll divorce him – claiming half of Windsor Castle – and banning access to the half-caste offspring.

      2. But for her connection to Harsehole, 99% of her celebrity mates wouldn’t give her the time of day.

    1. She really is taking the pi&&. Notice the sly sideways glance at Harry afterwards to see how he reacted. In any case if PH was so worried about his mother never having been eased into things why was he not helping Meagain. The two of them stink.
      Edited to make sense

    2. I was hoping that when she proclaimed that she thought it was unfair that men could be applauded for their sexual exploits when they were younger but that women were branded as sluts when their sexual adventures came to light that we were about to hear plenty of salacious accounts of Migraines’ own sluttery. That she was, in effect trying to get her own retaliation in first.

      I wonder what Harry and Migraine would say and do if every man with whom she has fornicated gave his graphic and true account of the occasion(s). After all Migraine is keen on her truth being aired so why not the truth of her former paramours.

      2. It may yet happen. I’m sure Charles is considering his response.
        I think he should remove them from the line of succession – they clearly don’t want to be part of the RF or the British state any more.

  58. Forgive my naïveté – but WHY is the MSM giving so much coverage to the vile and obnoxious Brash and Trash?

    When they got first together I said here that she was trouble in spades – and was roundly castigated by lotsa NoTTLers….

    1. I thought the majority of Nottlers agreed with you. And I certainly was sad that he didn’t find a (wooo here comes some whitey racism) nice English girl.

      1. Many did – but quite a few said I was being unfair to the delightful young lovers.

        I haven’t been a student of human nature all these years for nothing!!

      2. If he fancies black girls, he could have chosen to marry some nice, modest, well brought up, Christian diplomat’s daughter from Botswana or somewhere like that, who would have been adored.
        But he was going out with a nice English girl, and she dumped him, allegedly for being an entitled prat.
        Let’s face it, he wasn’t in the frame of mind to attract and keep someone good.

      1. Me neither! My first thought was ‘tarty trollop’! And that was being kind! The real word was the one used for refuse from a mine!

    5. She would have avoided all the trouble and intrusion if she had just married a good ol’ black bro from the ‘hood. I’m sure she would be ecstatically happy… or not.

    6. “…WHY is the MSM giving so much coverage to the vile and obnoxious Brash and Trash?”

      ‘cos it sells newspapers to a gullible population.

    7. I suppose they don’t have to report any real news if they fill their pages up with Megarryflix.

  59. One for the Notlasses.

    A new poll has found women are getting angrier. Not just here in the UK but the world over. In 150 countries, during the last 10 years, the fury has been growing from a simmering “WTF” to an all-out red-hot rage. A decade ago men and women reported the same levels of anger and stress. Yet 10 years later and the women surveyed are angrier than men by some margin — and it’s been worse since the pandemic.

    So what’s happened? Are women really filled with more fury than before or, rather, have we just found our voice? I’m afraid to say, from where I’m standing, there is a lot to be angry about.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/women-rage-rising-since-covid-b1045849.html

        1. Theresa May. Suella Bravomen. Nicola Murrell. Mrs Merkel. Ursula Vonder Leyen. VP Kamala Harris. Hillary Clinton. Jacinda Ardent.
          Priti Useful.

          2. We seem to be arguing in parallel dimensions. My point is that although women may be at a disadvantage in Islamic culture, I sometimes sympathise with their menfolk.

  60. That’s me done. Gorgeous, sunny day – but decidedly chilly. Same again tomorrow and for the next few days.

    I saw the Wet Office Project Fear – it’s sodding winter, for God’s sake….!!

    Have a delightful evening.

    A demain.

  61. 368789+ up ticks,

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    47m
    This was a tragic accident for all concerned. Mrs Sacoolas should have stayed to face the music in a British court. I don’t suppose for a minute she intentionally meant to drive on the wrong side of the road but she fled to the USA under cover of diplomatic immunity.

    The UK has a completely one-sided Extradition Treaty with the US – essentially, they can take our people just as they like but we can only take theirs if they agree.

    Julian Assange had spent 10 years trying to avoid being sent to life-long imprisonment in the US for the ‘crime’ of exposing the malevolent criminality of the US political establishment, eg the Clinton Crime Family.

    Our subservient government & political Supreme Court, should tear up the Treaty & set Assange free….more

    Anne Sacoolas: Former US spy avoids jail over death of teen motorcyclist Harry Dunn — Sky News

    Former US spy Anne Sacoolas has been sentenced to eight months imprisonment suspended for 12 months for causing the death of

    https://gettr.com/post/p213xd7ac8c

    1. Comment:-

      Bob_Of_Bonsall
      @Bob_Of_Bonsall
      ·
      Just Now
      Replying to @gjb2021
      Correct me if I’m wrong, but when the accident was first reported I got the impression that US bases in the UK followed the American rules of the road and drove on the Right, only changing over to the Left when leaving the base.
      If so, then this should have been flagged as a major contributory factor in the accident.

      Looking back to my service in Germany, it was ALWAYS follow the German rules of driving, even in camp.

      1. My memory is poor at times Bob but when I visited Lakenheath and Mildenhall I’m sure they were driving on the left on the camp

  62. I would love Laura Kuennesburg to interview the Meghan Minx and as her a few questions .

    “What attracted you to the grandson of the Queen and the 2nd son of the heir to the British throne , a reckless ginger haired millionaire. What did you have in common . Are you a choosy super stalker who needed a social lift”

    2. Shame Robin Day is not still around.

      “I’m going to be very rude and ask you a lot of questions; and if you don’t answer them I’m going to be even ruder!” ©Mike Yarwood.

  63. It’s getting to that point where Harsehole needs to say that Meagain knows and will publish something extremely embarrassing about the Clintons.

    1. I note this spoofer’s twitter name sounds awfully like many of the continuity voices on Sky Sports, including the golf.

    6. Looking at that picture, wouldn’t the graffiti cause more offense than the street name.

  67. Possibly I’m a cynical old bat (nooooooo …. I hear you cry) but the Beeb interviewed an old biddy about her heat or eat dilemma.
    She was interviewed in her sittingroom; she was wearing a short sleeved, collarless dress and her legs were bare. Even indoors, you need a serious level of warmth to dress like that on a frosty December day.
    I am reasonably fit – probably fitter than she is – but I am wearing a top, with a long-sleeved dress over it, plus a cardigan and trousers.
    And the heating is switched on.

        1. If I had to go now, that would be one of the better exits…
          };-))
          I hope that he recovers totally, and soon.

        2. Really sorry to hear that Ann, it’s what caused our son to be hospitalised for 5 weeks November last year when he was critically ill. Hope he makes a full recovery Eventually.

        3. How is your husband doing Anne. We hope he’s on the road to recovery. It was this time last year our son was critically ill in hospital, ventilated, and it was touch and go. Fingers crossed. x

    2. Heat or eat? No dilemma. You always eat and then wrap up well. When it gets really parky I wear a long-sleeved teeshirt; a long-sleeved crew-neck shirt; a long-sleeved woolly-pully (it’s all about layering); then sometimes a gilet-type waistcoat and a beanie hat on my bald bonce!

      When push comes to shove I have merino-wool long johns and long-sleeved vest; plenty of pairs of thick woolly socks; winter gloves; and fleece jackets (all bought for my trip up to the Arctic four years ago).

      I do not have a woolly codpiece though!😊

        1. A hosepipe always need lagging in wintry weather. I’d have a big problem on my night-time wanderings across the landing if it froze up!

      2. Good point. You’d almost think the media was trying to tell people that they’re helpless.

    3. I am wearing a bra , vest 2 jumpers , knicks , jeans , socks and shoes , Moh is wearing more than me , and son is wrapped up as well , we have a fire in the grate , the frost hasn’t left the garden all day , and crike Moses , it is cold brrrrr.. We have been out with the dogs and dressed for the weather .

      Mothers are not dressing their children properly, little ones especially so .

      Teenagers dress as they want , but they also rely on their parents to clothe them properly.

      Men still seem to be wearing shorts , I guess that is casual macho .

      1. I’m wearing a vest, shirt, gansie and warm scarf, jeans socks and thick shoes in the house!
        When it gets really cold, out will come the long-sleeved second vest and the fleece undershirt!

        1. I am wearing a bra, a ‘body’, a longsleeved stripey vest style t-shirt, a short sleeved normal cotton t-shirt over, an M&S ‘cashmillon’ jumper of several years vintage. Right. That’s the top half… bottom half – knickers, 60 denier black tights, two pairs of socks, one pair thin, the outer pair walking boot thickness, black trousers. On top of all this, my thick fleecey navy onesie into which I step fully clothed. Oh, a pair of boot-style slippers.

          6. Oh dear, but I still use some of the words mentioned there!! I must be just an old fashioned girl, after all!!
            Thanks for the link.

          10. So useful to just step into esp when one has to make frequent evening trips into the garden with a dog. I got mine from House of Bath years ago, I don’t know if it exists anymore but you must be able to find onesies like mine online – the fleece on mine is almost fleece jacket quality and it has a zip front with a funnel neck collar which will zip up to my nose if required for extra cosiness! Perhaps you could find a dressmaker/seamstress to make you one if you can’t find one off-the-peg. I wouldn’t be without mine, I have two. Fleece is so hard wearing, I don’t think I’ll have to buy another in this lifetime.

          12. Gosh, they look quite glam! Mine deffo isn’t glam, it’s not figure hugging as some of these seem to be – the nearest to mine is probably the sherpa teddy, 16th one from the beginning and the fluffy sherpa, 3rd from the end. Having seen those, I might get one to sleep in, I wouldn’t want to sleep in mine because it’s too thick.

      1. 368789+ up ticks,

        Evening MIR,

        They are not answering an emergency, they are on standby I would think 24/7.

    2. Perhaps, they have all enjoyed an overwhelming influx of an archaic, savage and incompatible culture?

  70. Not QUITE -5°C outside at the moment.

    Tip run yesterday included having to get rid of a load of soil which I decided would not be going to the tip, but up the “garden”, so was loaded into the van and brought home.
    I’ve now got about ¼ton of bagged soil ready to be carried up to where it’s needed!

  71. As if I really needed any more reasons to hate the Covidians!

    FIFTEEN children under 15 have now died from killer Strep A complication this winter as health chiefs say knock-on effects of Covid lockdowns may be to blame for unusually big outbreak
    Victims include under-10s in England, Northern Ireland and Wales
    Strep A can cause infections, including impetigo, scarlet fever and strep throat
    In extremely rare cases, the bacteria can trigger a life-threatening complication

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11517193/FIFTEEN-children-died-Strep-Britain-winter.html

      1. It’s a very dangerous disease, but had children lived “normal” lives, my belief is that they would probably have caught it, and recovered from it, before it became as deadly.

        1. Strep A is not normally dangerous. However imprisonment has weakened everybody’s immune system and that’s why there’s been an outbreak of really nasty long lasting colds/coughs and strep A infections. I wonder if it’s to do with the illegal immigrants who have reintroduced diphtheria into the U.K.
          A link you may find interesting: re diphtheria
          https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31890394/

          1. My take on it was that what wasn’t dangerous has suddenly become so, which suggests to me that something is very badly amiss.

          2. Pre-school vaccinations: guide to vaccinations from 2 to 5 years (born on or after 1 January 2020):
            This leaflet includes the schedule for babies born on or after 1 January 2020:

            the MMR booster
            the diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio booster
            the annual childhood nasal flu programme
            revised routine immunisation schedule and selective immunisation schedule from January 2020

            The majority of us had those first jabs when we were small children

            I wonder whether parents attend to these matters of protection for their little ones ?

          3. Pertussis is whooping cough, isn’t it? I wasn’t vaccinated against that; I caught it in hospital when I had my tonsils out.

          4. My brothers and sisters all had whooping cough as did I. Our mother would put us in the pram and take us across the bridge by the original coal and Town gas works between Upper and Lower Bristol Roads in Bath to inhale the fumes.

            In the forties and fifties many believed in this ‘cure’.

          5. Underdeveloped and diminished immune systems resulting from lockdowns, mask mandates and the Covid ‘vaccine’. Medically induced AIDS in short.

          6. I’m replying here re your Trump post as it’s locked, presumably timed out.
            I agree re RINOs but there is too much evidence that Trump is chasing policies that are disliked by the swing voters. and not sticking with things such as crime, illegal immigration, education, energy.

            Look at the results of the mid-terms, the Republicans did badly at the top, House and Senate level. Where they stuck with things that were local and mattered, they did well.

    2. Whilst you are at it, they are now talking about an increase in cases if diabetes in the younger crowd.

    3. Chatting to my lovely (borrowing some garlic) neighbour today, who works in the NHS. She told me there is a global shortage of basic antibiotics. And worryingly during a period of many of the new illness, our children are now rapidly catching. It seems these recent health problems have caught the medical ‘experts’ on the back foot. Unlike being incrediably over prepared, as they were, for the Covid pandemic.
      Strange times we live in.

    4. The impetigo is interesting.
      Our friends’ toddler grand-daughter caught impetigo. To us, that is a disease of the poor. Granddaughter lives in a wealthy middle class home – not a 1930s type slum – but her parents were really obsessed with covid and practically went into purdah for a couple of years.

    3. Things may not be quite what the seem… if you look at Harry as she starts her performanance – and all eyes are on MM – he looks sideways and makes eye contact with someone across the room, he is not pleased and momentarily afterwards there is a look of contempt on his face which he hides with a grin, but he is uncomfortable. It’s not obvious the first time one sees it, but it becomes more so the more you look at it.
      https://twitter.com/Knesix/status/1600879011596582912?s=20&t=r63VEZtu2z_ldmOarn8vrQ

      2. He’s a scruffy redhead.

        His Dad should have advised; the Army allows/ used to allow moustaches; the Navy does decent, full-set beards.

        Not for you, Harry.

    4. Things may not be quite what the seem… if you look at Harry as she starts her performanance – and all eyes are on MM – he looks sideways and makes eye contact with someone across the room, he is not pleased and momentarily afterwards there is a look of contempt on his face which he hides with a grin, but he is uncomfortable. It’s not obvious the first time one sees it, but it becomes more so the more you look at it.
      https://twitter.com/Knesix/status/1600879011596582912?s=20&t=r63VEZtu2z_ldmOarn8vrQ

  74. Just saying Hi – permanent ban from the “free-speech” DT for highlighting that the jailed groomers are criminals…

      1. And the hypocrites publish articles about free speech, but only if it fits their narrative.

        1. Exactly.. I expect you are absolutely furious …

          I felt veryy wounded when they emailed me and told me .

          A few months ago I was banned from Twitter for suggesting the oil/ climate freaks who halted traffic and vandalised many things should be TARRED and FEATHERED.. I had a ten day ban .

          1. I was staggered… there was no message, I can still read posts, I can even write them, but nobodt can see them – yet the full subscription is taken. When the penny dropped I emailed them and was told I was permanently banned, no reason given – end of story. Having recently been bereaved, this too was a further cutting off from communication and society. Soon after, the publish opinion pieces on “free speech”!!!

          2. I am sorry for you especially so for your recent bereavement .

            I will probably cancel my subscription to the DT..

            The comments are often sucinct and good fun. What was your Avatar name on the DT?

  75. Evening, all. Been bitterly cold here all day. 1 degree C with a cold wind. I think I shall be looking out the sheepskin!

      1. They warm my hands when I’m stroking them, but, unlike Charlie, they don’t lie on my feet. A pity, really, as my feet are always cold.

  76. No story tomorrow, Gentlefolks, as I’m up at 6 and the removal people, and possibly BT, arrive at 8. So I have to pack my computer and peripherals away.

    I’ll just wish you all, Goodnight and God bless.

    3. Gosh, how did this all happen so quickly? What have I missed? Hope all goes well, keep warm. Night night.

      1. He’s not going far – just from the flat he has to another that overlooks the garden so a nicer one in the same complex.

        1. From Flat 14 to Flat 11, but fear not, all mail for flats goes into the same box so he will get your Christmas card.

    7. Hope everything goes smoothly for you tomorrow (well, later this morning as it is 00:45!).
      Goodnight, God bless.

      1. We are being careful with heating but basically carrying on a usual. What else can we do ?
        I’ve set our gas boiler at 50 degrees, lower in the day time.

          5. Those cubic metre bags of logs can cost £150 each.
            I remember the ‘coal men’ running up our garden path with the bags on their backs and delivering them in to the coal shed.
            I use to love a coal fire, it was my job to clean the hearth ashes in the compost and get it ready for relighting when I came home from school.
            Toasted crumpets sometimes on Saturday evenings.

        2. Go to Weatherspoons, buy a beer at £1.49 a pint and sip slowly, repeat as necessary. You have to be quick to get a table these days. When you return home you wont notice the cold..

          1. 😉 years ago was last time I went into one of those pubs it was full of old people……..
            I was involved in pub refurbishment about 30 years ago. I met Tim when he came to see how we were doing on one of his projects.
            A Nice easy going friendly chap.

  79. I’m just watching BBC news they seem to be blaming the public who are ill, for the problems and short staffing in the NHS.
    You can bet your boots that all those on a higher pay grades at the bbc will never suffer from the backlog. There is no shortage of staff in the private medical sector.
    Just try this, make a phone call to a private medical department and someone will answer it in seconds. NHS and you’ll wait for the phone to be cut off. And the car parks at private hospitals are rammed. Especially the staff sections.

    1. I am not commenting much now but I can relate to your experience. MH spent almost an hour trying to get through to the dept at the hospital that he needs to speak to. Waits, then cut off, or number not in service. Then he finally got a ringing tone only to be told leave a message, and they would get back to him as soon as they could. It is all total bollocks and this is all because of the stupid panic mongering re “covid” .
      We are fed up with it and have thought about buying a lotto ticket and winning and then buggering off to the Seychelles.
      Sod this country right now and sod these useless politicians.

      2. I absolutely and totally agree.
        Another problem is many nurses have signed up to agencies and are keeping the NHS departments going. But the costs to pay the agencies have gone through the proverbial roof.

    2. Nothing to do with the million or so extra souls that were let in and given access to health services last year, oh no certainly not…

      1. Of course it is and the millions who use the NHS and have never paid a penny towards the system.
        It is possible the most horrendous and unfortunately most classic example of how our seedy I’m all right Jack, useless politicians, have effed up everything they come into contact with.
        The NHS was probably once the envy of the world. Now the world has ruined it.

  81. A Par Four today.

    Wordle 537 4/6
    ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜🟨🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Nasty bogey for me.

      Wordle 537 5/6

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

  82. Good night, everyone. I hope you all sleep well and awake refreshed. And a good house/flat move to Tom. Hope all goes well and you are back to your wonderful morning jokes e’er long.

  83. Goodnight, all. I’m off to fill some hot water bottles and get the bed warmed up ready to retire to it.

      1. No extra cost for hot water bottles; the hot water comes from the kettles on the Rayburn and the bottles are re-usable 🙂

      1. That goes without saying! I’m wearing two pairs at the moment and when I took the dogs out this morning (minus 1 degree C) I had a pair of boot socks on as well!

  87. I would like to hear the full truth of what happened on the eve of the Brexit deal when both Boris Johnson and Michael Gove arrived in Brussels. Lord Frost had stood firm on both fishing and Northern Ireland and then, on the arrival of Johnson and Gove, he suddenly capitulated.

    What did Johnson and Gove do to make Frost surrender on these two key points?

    Lord Frost should tell the full truth, he should resign from the Conservative Party, renounce his peerage and stand for election to the House of Commons as a member of the Reform Party.

    This would require courage and integrity. Has he got them?

      1. Yep. They pulled rank.

        Johnson and Gove are two of the most despicable persons ever to have entered British politics. They have been jointly responsible for a faux Brexit and our continuing subjection to the edicts ventured by an equally corrupt globalist-bought EU.

        No sufficient penalties are available for the treatment of these two fraudsters as we have abolished hanging. These two bastards have committed War Crimes (on a scale yet to be calculated) on the British people.

        Just recall the inhuman Covid restrictions, the support they gave for the farcical predictions of the already discredited ‘mathematician’ Neil
        Ferguson of the China funded Imperial College Trojan Horse, both a poor excuse for academic research and very far from excellence in anything but fabrications and lying.

        These duplicitous bastards shall be brought to account for their actions, their Tax affairs shall be scrutinised and their funding by foreigners exposed.

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