Sunday 18 December: It’s time for Britain’s institutions to stand up for the values that made the country great

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

733 thoughts on “Sunday 18 December: It’s time for Britain’s institutions to stand up for the values that made the country great”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story:

    Proud To Fart

    A little old guy goes to the doctor and says, “Doctor I have this problem with gas, but it really doesn’t bother me too much. They never smell and are always silent. As a matter of fact, I’ve farted at least 20 times since I’ve been here in your office. You didn’t know I was farting because they didn’t smell and are silent.”

    The doctor says, “I see. Take these pills and come back to see me next week.”

    The next week the guy goes back, “Doctor,” he says, “I don’t know what the hell you gave me, but now my farts, although still silent, they stink terribly.”

    “Good”, the doctor said. “Now that we’ve cleared up your sinuses, let’s work on your hearing.”

  2. Is anyone close to Ready Eddy – I had message from him last night, I had asked about an Australian Pension and this was his response:

    “Sorry I’ve been a bit under the weather for two days..
    I’m having a lot of trouble with my medication. I have an appointment with a doctor Monday morning.
    That’s why I’m awake now Tom. It’s all gone pear-shaped.
    I’ll keep the light on I might doze off. 😉😴    ”

    He’s Answered:

    Thank you Tom. I’m okay, I have two of our sons and their families living close to us. That includes my lovely wife with me.
    I’ve just taken a 40 mg furosemide tablet I probably have a lot of fluid on my chest.
    It makes breathing quite difficult and very frustrating.
    I’ll get there, thanks for your concern.

    2. Morning all 😊.
      Thank you Tom. I’m okay, I have two of our sons and their families living close to us. That includes my lovely wife with me.
      I’ve just taken a 40 mg furosemide tablet I probably have a lot of fluid on my chest.
      It makes breathing quite difficult and very frustrating.
      I’ll get there, thanks for your concern.

        1. Sadly I think you’re spot on Obs.
          I’m having a bit of a nightmare today.
          I’ll just have to sit it out until the morning, when I have my app.
          If he doesn’t suggest I need urgent treatment then there’s very reputable private hospital close to us I might have to dig into the savings and see what they can do.
          I’ll send him the effing bill.

          2. From what I have just about cardioversion. The success rate is around 90% plus, but not it seems if the treatment is left as long as I had to wait. Which was well over 12 months.

    1. Dr Bhakdi is brilliant and has been consistent in his opposition to the “vaccines” from early on.

    1. Morning, bb2 and all. Frosty but with a thaw forecast later today.

      The Kennedy waves appear to have washed away sufficient debris to expose doubts about the USA ‘s Administrative State’s involvement with getting rid of Nixon and now they’re going after Trump again. Who is really in power in the USA? It’s looking clear that it isn’t the people. With the Tory party’s shenanigans to get Sunak and Hunt in the driving seat it looks as though we have a similar problem.
      War Room discussion:

      War Room – Lawyer Discusses Nixon’s Demise

    1. Glad to hear of the “laying all about”, Bob3. Supermarkets have been reporting a shortage of eggs, so this will hopefully ease the shortage. Lol. (Good morning, btw.)

  10. US accused of illegal abduction of Lockerbie bomb suspect from Libya. 18 December 2022.

    The abduction of a former Libyan intelligence operative accused of preparing the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 and his transfer into US custody raises concerns about a renewed willingness in Washington to flout international law to hunt alleged terrorist fugitives.

    Even if you believe this account there’s nothing at all unusual about it. The recently exchanged Viktor Bout was kidnapped, tried and imprisoned on completely fake charges.

    Rendition, Drone strikes, illegal invasions of other countries; blowing up pipelines; all covered with a thin film of lies in justification are now simply demonstrations of the American Hegemonies indifference to international opinion and law.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/18/us-accused-of-abduction-of-lockerbie-bomb-suspect-from-libya

  12. It’s time for Britain’s institutions to stand up for the values that made the country great

    It’s time for people to stand up to the leadership of our great institutions and throw them all out.

    They appear to be on a separate wavelength to the rest of the country.

        1. Professor Schlechtelfmeter – bad penalty.
          Dr Piers Revieux – peer review.
          Dr Maw Phun Ding – der!

    3. Lol would be great if it were true.

      Reading the comments btl on this piece brought to mind Peter Handke’s “Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elf Meter” which was on my university reading list 35 years ago. I’ve always wondered what it was about – it’s such a great title for a book.

      Edit: needless to say, I didn’t read it at the time (or most of the other books on the reading list). My German is better now than it ever was when I was at Uni.

    4. Lol would be great if it were true.

      Reading the comments btl on this piece brought to mind Peter Handke’s “Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elf Meter” which was on my university reading list 35 years ago. I’ve always wondered what it was about – it’s such a great title for a book.

  17. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – I was saddened but not surprised to read that the Civil Service has asked its employees to hold “festive celebrations” rather than the age-old tradition of a Christmas party (report, December 11).

    Every day, the vast majority of people in this country are being told by a very small minority what we can say, do, eat and believe. This minority is seemingly able to protest in the most destructive fashion, avoid any form of penalty and gain vast amounts of air time on the BBC and ITV to promote its point of view.

    Britain has been one of the most diverse and welcoming countries in the world. You can be any gender you want, eat whatever food you want, observe whichever religion you want, speak whatever language you want. Why are we allowing this small minority of unelected do-gooders and violent protesters to tell us that we must change our traditional way of life and beliefs to suit theirs?

    While they are being supported by civil servants (who mostly “work” from home), the police (who take glued-to-motorway protesters cups of tea and cushions), and courts that are unable to lock them up, they feel that they are winning. Nothing could be further from the truth. For the majority of the public (for whom the aforementioned organisations no longer speak), a protestor pulling off a destructive stunt will have the opposite effect and make us more determined to ignore or condemn what they are promoting.

    We are not going to protest as they do. We have not been asked to vote on whether we want any of these changes. So why are they being forced upon us? Knee-jerk reactions by our institutions to these minority fads should stop, and what little common sense is left should be used to decide what is best to ensure this great country remains so.

    Has there ever been anyone of any faith in this country who has ever complained about a Christmas party?

    Jeremy Quitman
    Fownhope, Herefordshire

    The New Puritans are in charge now, Mr Quitman. I blame soshal meeja, and when I am in charge it will be banned on the first day of my dictatorship!

    1. The top BTL post on the pile this morning:

      Alan Lawrence
      7 HRS AGO
      Jeremy Quitman, stand up and take a bow. You speak for most who post on here and many millions beyond I’ll wager.

    2. Mr Quitman (unfortunate name, really) is obviously a foam-flecked, far-right, extremist racist. We should invite him to join NoTTL.

    3. The Left have alway fought to control language. Through language, thought. If you can control how people think, if you can punish the normal and excuse the abnormal then you have power. Once you can make 2+2=5 you can do anything.

      The state has done that. For example – why was that bloke tooting his horn at plod, and being warned that it hurt plod’s ears not able to charge that police officer with wasting police time, harrassment and a slew of other charges? That’s a small example. Why are the adverts for bame only applicants to plod not being removed?

      The state keeps forcing this nonsense on us because it is too big, too expensive and has vastly too much of our money and thus seeks ever more to fulfil unnecessary work that it need never do, solely to report on previous work it didn’t need to do and so on, ad nauseum.

    2. I did my masters at Cambridge some 20 years ago. Beautiful city. Not any more now it’s over run with weirdos.

        1. They just wanted to sell their country out. The Left want to destroy it.

          Comically, they think nothing will change except their grand utopian vision.

    3. Thank you for posting that, I enjoyed it – a trip down memory lane for me, I have canoed down that stretch quite a few times in my youth on a quiet summer’s evening, bliss. I’ve been through the lock on Jesus Green, I was terrified each time. On one occasion a duckling jumped into my lap just by Trinity – we both said aaaagghhhh! together and he hopped back off smartish into the Cam to rejoin his siblings. Although we live only 8 miles south of Cambridge, it’s years since I’ve been there. It reminds me of a theme park now.

    4. Thank you for posting that, Stephen. Informative as well as being beautiful and relaxing. What was perhaps best for me was that – unlike so many other video posts – there was no loud drumbeat filled pop music to spoil the video. Even when a little music was added in the final few seconds over the credits, it was gentle and unintrusive.

    5. Thank you for posting that, Stephen. Informative as well as being beautiful and relaxing. What was perhaps best for me was that – unlike so many other video posts – there was no loud drumbeat filled pop music to spoil the video. Even when a little music was added in the final few seconds over the credits, it was gentle and unintrusive.

  19. SIR – You report (December 12) that UK spot prices for electricity soared to a record £2,586 a megawatt-hour at the peak hours of 5pm to 6pm last Sunday because low wind speeds meant renewables were failing to provide sufficient electricity.

    Who would have thought it?

    John McDonald
    Mobberley, Cheshire

    SIR – Anyone in England who is tempted to support new onshore wind farms (Letters, December 11) should take a trip north of the border.

    Here you will see turbines in any direction you care to look, despoiling the countryside while they gobble up taxpayers’ money just by standing idle.

    Alastair Hibbert
    Dunfermline, Fife

    I have seen the endless winfarms oop narth and it isn’t a pretty site. All that machinery and technology standing astride our beautiful country, but only providing anything useful when the wind blows.

    1. While the energy market remains rigged – by price fixing and generation – then energy will only ever get more expensive. This, of course, is the intent. The more energy costs, the less people use. The less people use, the more the state can crow about meeting the green nonsense.

      Then the mandarins and Lefties like Gummer and Goldsmith trough away on the subsidy cash into 7 figure non jobs.

          5. We had a “short” sermon (Heaven help us if we get a “long” one!) on resilience this morning. I’m not entirely sure what the point was, except that most of us who, aged 7, wanted to be astronauts, train drivers, teachers or ballerinas didn’t end up in those professions. Me, I wanted to be an Oxford don, but the nearest I got was teaching MFL in a secondary school 🙁

          6. You’d have hated it. You have more integrity in your little finger than exists in an entire Oxford college. Bet your former pupils remember you fondly – there are so many bad teachers around these days, but one remembers the good ones as shining stars.

          7. Well, that’s kind of you to compliment me like that. I regularly get greeted by former pupils by name – trouble is, they were probably 11 when I taught them and they are now in their forties! My memory for faces isn’t good at the best of times! Then after the greeting usually comes the admission, “I wish I’d paid more attention in class” 🙂

          8. Aren’t the Maldives coral reefs that have built up to the surface of the sea and become the foundation of sand and detritus that has formed the islands?
            Surely if the sea does rise the coral will simply grow back up to the surface and keep the islands above sea level?

      2. Oh shucks, you’ll have to stay in and watch the wendy ball. I’m cheering for the white team so its going to be messy..

  21. SIR – Civil servants have been told to find restaurants that do not serve alcohol to avoid “excluding” non-drinkers. I presume they will also have to find restaurants that do not serve meat to avoid excluding vegans.

    Woke gone mad again.

    Rob Dorrell
    Bath, Somerset

    Dear God, is there no end to this crass stupidity??

        1. They will never be placated until they have eliminated everything but islam – and then they will fight among themselves.

    2. It is a complete lack of common sense. I imagine there are many folk internally complaining that this is stupid and obnoxious, but they don’t speak out because, well, it ruins your career.

      Frankly, when you’re going to see women and minorities promoted above you regardless of your effort, merit or worth, it’s not really worth bothering.

    3. ‘Morning, Hugh.

      It’s because the country is run by a Corruptocracy. Most of the modern-day world has followed suit. Every political party on the planet is so bent they are all vying to become “The Nine-Bob Note Party”.

    4. Concept of leaving the organiser to understand that some don’t drink alcohol, or eat pork, and deal accordingly… Bah!
      My teams always had at least one non-drinker, and later, non pork eaters, but a quick chat ensured that they didn’t object to others consuming these, they just didn’t want to themselves. So, be sure there’s interesting non-alcoholic drink, and a menu selction that has veggie & halal / kosher options.

    1. Sudden Death Syndrom, obviously.
      In case we didn’t understand – he died of death. It is often fatal.

        2. I’d venture that it was very long term. Eternal, in fact.

          It’s looking forward to this that helps me not entertain running amok in Westminster.

      4. I think death is getting a bit too uppity – it needs putting in its place by a former Dean of St Paul’s:

        Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
        Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
        For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
        Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
        From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
        Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
        And soonest our best men with thee do go,
        Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
        Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
        And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
        And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
        And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
        One short sleep past, we wake eternally
        And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

    2. Lesson 1.
      Don’t believe government propaganda.
      Lesson 2.
      Stay unfit.
      Lesson £.
      Be a cynical old b’stard: which depends on learning Lesson 1.

    3. One thing we can be absolutely sure of is that his death has nothing to do with the fact that he was fully vaccinated against Covid.

      Our government, which has our best interests at heart, would not still be urging people to keep taking the jabs if they were not useful and safe.

    1. Married Quarters and responsibility for barracks should be taken away from private companies & Civil Servants and handed back to a reformed Royal Engineers Barrack Services.

      1. Totally agree. I have delivered leaflets round the Colchester married quarters.
        Their construction and maintenance absolutely sum up the government’s attitude towards the forces.
        When the ‘houses’ opposite Korky were being built, they were so shoddy, I thought it was a mock village for target practice.

          1. I had a ‘hiring’ in York, when I was at Linton-on-Ouse and then a good married quarter at Laarbruch in Germany.

        2. IIRC, those houses were constructed from concrete formers poured on site. The sole redeeming feature of that small estate is that the streets are named after battle honours from WWII in the Burma campaign e.g. Kohima, Rangoon etc. Fortunately there is a tall hedge and sufficient trees to obscure most of the road directly opposite, especially in Summer.

    2. If the gimmegrants are as multi-skilled as we are told they are, they should be set to work repairing such places.
      Of course if the gimmegrants were allocated such places, rather than hotels, they would probably burn them down.

    3. I am disgusted by the photo of Susan Hussey together with her denouncer. Was it really necessary to subject an old lady to that?
      Still more so by the quote from the BP statement highlighted by Sarah Vine:
      ” ‘Lady Susan has pledged to deepen her awareness of the sensitivities involved and is grateful for the opportunity to learn more about the issues in this area.'”

      I suppose that after a lifetime of serving the monarchy, Susan Hussey doesn’t have the backbone to stand up and tell them where to shove their racism.
      So much for serving the royal family. It’s hard to imagine such a thing happening in the days of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh.

        1. She “betrayed” them though! And the Queen Mother had not treated her at all well.
          Susan Hussey didn’t do anything.

          1. Perhaps they felt that Lady Susan had “betrayed” their woke principles? Who knows how such minds work?

    1. Cloudy here in the east, looks like snow. -2 C. Bit of a breeze to gently waft the streamers of the willow. Good morning Bob.

        1. How’s Best Beloved?
          Or is it too early for a phone call? He’s probably still recovering from a 7.0 am breakfast.

  26. The populist who gets things done. Spiked 18 December 2022.

    Ron DeSantis is the man of the moment in American politics. The Republican governor of Florida first gained a national profile in 2020 for defying Covid lockdown orthodoxy and later for his battles against woke. His smashing re-election victory in the Midterms this November – defeating his Democratic opponent by almost 20 percentage points – has propelled DeSantis to new heights. According to a recent poll, Republicans now prefer DeSantis over Trump to be the party’s presidential candidate in 2024 by a huge 23-point margin. The New York Post has declared him ‘DeFuture’. And he already leads Biden in one early election survey.

    I’ve become a supporter of DeSantis. He walks the walk. He is also younger than the Donald which allows for the possibility of two terms.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/12/17/the-populist-who-gets-things-done/

  27. Morning all, outside thermometer shows +1 C and rain. The car had a sheet of ice on it when it started to rain, hopefully it will soon warm up enough to make the trip to the daughter safer.

  28. According to today’s “Pub Quiz” in the Puzzles section of The Sunday Telegraph, there is a distillery in Scotland called Edinburgh Gin that makes a Christmas gin flavoured with Frankincense and Myrrh.

    I’m guessing that, being Jocks, someone (probably the wee fishwife) ran off with the Gold.

      2. Elsie McSelfie’s puritan rules regarding alcohol pricing have failed. Those who like a tipple, grumble about the prices and carry on. The ‘white lightning’ skool of drinking don’t care about the price as long as their benefits keep the booze flowing. Schottland has just reclaimed the trophy for alcoholism…again. It will look nice on the Shortbread Senate mantlepiece beside the drug addicts silverware.

    3. Olga Krankie is no fishwife. Fishwives were hard working folks with integrity. It is more likely that with Elsie McSelfie’s passion for SF/IRA, she has developed leprechaun-like tendencies concerning hoarding gold.

  29. Good news for the world’s autocrats – EU sleaze is a huge own goal for democracy. 18 December 2022.

    In any international democracy league table, Europe’s parliament of 27 nations might be expected to score well. Likewise, a vice-president of that august body should surely be beyond reproach. And it may be that Eva Kaili, a Greek Socialist MEP who was sacked from her VP post and arrested last week is wrongly accused – as she maintains.

    As matters stand, Kaili and several others associated with parliament face criminal charges including corruption and money laundering. Their detention followed Belgian police raids that turned up €1.5m in cash, allegedly to be used for advancing EU visa liberalisation and aviation deals favourable to Qatar. Kaili handled parliament’s Middle East relations. Qatar denies all the allegations.

    There is nothing remotely democratic about the EU. It is in fact more Authoritarian than the much maligned Russia. At least Putin was elected! The EU executive is imposed and elected by a cabal of supporters! It has absolutely no connection to the People of Europe. Corruption is not new, it is endemic to the whole structure. It is rotten to its core!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/18/good-news-for-the-worlds-autocrats-eu-sleaze-is-a-huge-own-goal-for-democracy

    1. When I checked, it’s 20 years since Marta Andreason was given the heave-ho.
      A lot of bunga has flowed under the bridge since then.

    2. Whoever wrote that nonsense understands nothing about either democracy or the EU!
      Very lazy assumption cribbed from the propaganda.

  31. ‘Morning All

    Modern Life…..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/88890d6b888e2c12206f8ef15980ef2d9460fab443b1297f48daa1ae6303bf14.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ab6761a6ab2d1337116d530c121a8a8e53df3ff0863517d8478f84d9446d81aa.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/135fbc5eb2fcdc45bd685f661e243fab33b1207fe68b2cbbe1f21168e656ff6c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c4b10c151043d7538af5708598b58b55eac21bb1389f836be8bde1d0358ed32.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/384e0afebba1866fdd00936bfeed68d6efc21e5ae4b1a0af72e97c3ddd4014e8.jpg

    2. Smart phones, smart cars, smart cities, smart homes, smart dildos etc. are all dependent on thick people.

      1. I was at a very interesting meeting last week about starting a local cooperative to buy directly from farmers.
        This is an excellent scheme that buys from the farmers at near supermarket prices, which is around five times what they get for their bulk orders to restaurant chains or supermarkets.
        They were all happily going on about using google documents, yet the food had to be organic.
        They did not seem to get the irony of eating organic food and using junk software.
        I raised my hand and asked whether it would be possible to be a member of this group if one did not own a smartphone. Oh, came the reply, you’d have to join together with someone who has a phone.
        Later, I was talking to one of my neighbours (we are interested in starting a cooperative), who also doesn’t have a smartphone, and we both agreed that if we found a group it will be organised in a more robust way.

        1. SWMBO had the same issue – everything went on Arsebook.
          She doesn’t do that, and I only do because Mother’s care home post pictures and videos daily of the inmates.
          So, she left, after they confirmed that circulating information by email wasn’t an option.

        2. You might want to seek out the PFFA – Peoples’ Food & Farming Alliance.
          they are promoting local food for local people and have set up an online directory for buying direct from the farm.

      2. A smart car – that has radar assited cruise control, lane departure correction, overtaking management and what no all adds to driver aids. In this day and age considering how few people obey the simple rules of the road we need all the help we can get.

        A smart phone has been dumb for far too long. If people saw how noisy the damned thing is in it’s constant phone home privacy invasion – even when such is disabled there’d be uproar.

        Bluntly, there is no reason – Google – for a radio to need location tracking to be enabled. Why does google want this on all the time, deliberately breaking your phone when it cannot determine your location? Oh, they argue. We need it to know where the nearest cell tower is. Google does not need that. The telephone application does.

        If I look at my proxy logs the amount of tracking faff spewed out by our devices is comical.

        I know I am not especially bright, but the tools I use have a job to do. The easier that job is made, the easier my life is to do things I’ll enjoy.

        1. I don’t need a car that will drive itself. I like to be in control – that’s why I don’t employ a chauffeur.

    4. Perhaps, you know, they were busy. And that you waited is generally a sign that people want to eat there.

      I’d also suggest that maybe the lack of staff is down to the cost of hiring someone.

      And, forgive me, but it doesn’t look exactly gourmet, does it?

  33. SARAH VINE: Why I feel deeply uneasy at William’s treatment of Lady Susan – and the way she’s being sent for ‘re-education’
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11549833/SARAH-VINE-feel-deeply-uneasy-Williams-treatment-Lady-Susan.html

    I think that Sarah Vine is considerably improved since she dumped that odious husband of hers! This article is worth reading

    It was a very grave error for poor old Lady Hussey to apologise – it effectively gives credence to that Foul Fullanus Female saying that she was the victim of racial discrimination..

    Ms Vine makes the point which I made here last week that the behaviour of Prince William and King Charles was disgraceful. I would go further and add that their lack of loyalty, lack of judgement, immediate capitulation to wokeness in order to exculpate themselves and sheer lack of moral fortitude shows me that since the death of The Queen the monarchy is no longer in safe hands.

    And just as Fullanus has achieved her objective and won an absurd apology from the misguided old lady the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are now demanding an apology from King Charles and Prince William. If their vassal Fullanus can be given one then why shouldn’t they have one too?

    Come on Charley! Come on Willy! Show them what you’re really made of and give them that apology.

    And then abdicate!

    1. In 3 months Charles and William have undone what 70 odd years of British Royalty represented.

    2. IMO, Lady Hussey is a very well-brought up, kind old lady.
      She understood that she had given offence, which was not her intention, so she apologised. As anyone with an ounce of decency would in those circumstances. What she didn’t understand is that she was the key to a political game that doesn’t care about anyone but themselves, and stuff collateral damage.
      Charles & William, by their actions, chose to shit on her, and thus lose my respect.

  34. 369054+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 18 December: It’s time for Britain’s institutions to stand up for the values that made the country great

    Why ? when we have after decades of
    supporting / voting lab/lib/con coalition the polling booth dictates we are content with what we have.

    If the opportunity currently arose in regards to many of these institutions Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet would have a bulk following.

    This is not an overnight occurrence it , with many other issues within society has been festering for years / decades, much of it voted into & kept in place via the polling booth, democracy seen to be working, the herds needs fulfilled.

    1. No, we are not content. We have not been given a choice. What you call democracy most would call a sham because they know no better.

      1. 369054+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        If choice other than lab/lib/con is denied
        tis no reason to, as many do,vote for the best of the worst that is playing the politico’s game, when the music stops three politico’s three chairs.

    1. CO2 is one of the most stable molecules around. You’d need so much energy to break it up, I can’t see there’d be any net gain in energy.

    3. Combining carbon with oxygen releases energy, therefore releasing carbon from carbon dioxide must consume energy. TANSTAAFL.

    1. I see that RNLI are advertising on TV at the moment.

      I cannot understand from where a charitable service funded by donations and manned by unpaid volunteers is getting its money.

      Any suggestions?

        1. I read somewhere that they are sitting on a cash mountain too. They never used to get government handouts.
          How are the mighty fallen!

    3. For fecks sake. Could not boat owners get out there and start sodding well shooting the scum before the blasted coastguard force more criminal drug dealing rapist murderers on us?

  39. I note some talk about the RNLI so here is my experience of them from more than 20 years ago I employed the local volunteer Cox’n and two of his crew,other local businesses employed the rest of the crew,when the maroon went off obviously they left at full speed the rest of the staff were happy to pick up the weight and of course there was no loss of wages
    It was called supporting your community
    In contrast today’s channel gimmegrant ferries cannot possibly be manned by unpaid volunteers it’s a full time job so who exactly is paying them??
    Dig deep and in the end I expect it’s us via the government
    From helping to save your community to helping to destroy it,sad times

    1. In the past as a member of a diving club, and with self-interest at heart, we raised lots of money for the RNLI by charity events – such as snorkelling eastwards from Bedford on in the Ouse (I even fixed a lock gate as we went by, to the relief of the bargee – a brick at the base of the gate stopped it opening properly. That got the RNLI another £10).
      Now, I have cancelled them from my Will and will not even put 2p in a collection tin, as they are assisting people smugglers and are complicit in illegal immigration. I wonder how they look themselves in the mirror in the morning?

      1. They were collecting outside of tesco the other day and I said no, not while you’re bringing violent criminals here. I’m sure I was branded a racist.

        I couldn’t care less. I’m right.

        2. I send back their begging letters telling them they won’t get a penny from me (apart from in my taxes, but I have no control over that) while they are bringing in illegals. It hasn’t stopped them sending me begging letters.

    2. I posed this very question 30 minutes ago. I almost wonder if they are being given a kick back from the traffickers?

      They worked a good wheeze on the Greek island, Symi. A few years ago we were navigating the narrow channel between the main island and the uninhabited island of Nimos to its north when we heard some shouts from a group of dusky people who had been dumped in the night. They held a banner with the simple message HELP emblazoned upon it. We tried to call up the coastguards on Channel 16 on the VHF radio and got no response so when we got to port we telephoned to say that there were some stranded immigrants on Nimos. The coastguards were not at all concerned and said they would go around later in the afternoon to collect them.

      We discovered that the authorities in Symi were delighted to receive illegal immigrants from Northern Africa because, by EU regs, they had to send them to Athens. They made a deal with the ferry company which called every day to take the immigrants there for 20€ a head. Then they submitted a bill to the EU charging the standard 100 € for each one they sent. A nice little earner for the Mayor of Symi!

        1. As Home office employees, yes, they do. Bit odd that the state is paying them to commit crime though, but hey, just another backward farce in socialist Brtiain.

  40. Another major news story that isn’t being followed in the mainstream media
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w93XoP5g95o
    Ten minute video with some analysis of the EU price cap on Russian oil, and its likely consequences.
    His conclusion is that it will lead to a fragmented energy market, with different prices for different countries, and different countries insuring their own oil delivery ships. At present, Europe dominates the maritime insurance market according to Ziehan. Another “accidental” own goal for Europe, then.

  43. From a big article on pg. 27 – How mo­torists fund Khan’s Ulez cash ma­chine

    “… Khan has made no secret that expanding the Ulez across all of Greater London, including stinging motorists for £12.50 to drop loved ones off at Heathrow, was a difficult decision. He said in November: “The easy thing to do is to kick the can down the road. If you look at history – and I’ve studied it recently to refresh myself
    – in the 1950s, when you could see the smog, there were also people opposing the government to remove power stations from the heart of our city.” The Mayor was defiant when presented with the results of the public consultation that showed the majority of Londoners opposed his plans. “I didn’t call a referendum; this was a consultation,” he said. The scheme is not allowed to be “revenue generating” and he has pledged to plough all the money made from the £12.50-a-day charge into better public transport and active travel…. A spokesman for the Mayor says: “With around 4,000 Londoners still dying from toxic air it was a necessary [measure]….”

    1. I take it that ” plough all the money made from the £12.50-a-day charge into better public transport and active travel” is a euphemism for we will use it to pay off TFLs debts.

          1. Hope you get some downtime over Christmas. It’s important to chill for a while, as I found out by not having vacation for quite a while now.
            Makes one loopy… Wibble!

    2. Active travel – forcing people to walk. Will he? They don’t die from toxic air. There is no such thing.

      What there is is a massive overcrowding and welfare problem.

  45. I’ll let you all into my guilty secret.

    I watched with dismay as woke Charlie boy got madder and madder with his bizarre obsessions. I hoped and prayed that his mother would outlive him – and the crown pass to William.

    Of course, it now turns out that thick, woke William is as bad (if not worse) that the woke, joke “king”.

    And the adulteress Parker-Bowles can NEVER be “Queen” for me – out of the question.

    1. So Camilla is the adulteress – never mind that Diana was having an affair within 15 months of William being born (years before C&C resumed their affair) – the first of many affairs – or that Charles also committed adultery. No – you lay all the blame on one woman. Such misplaced misogyny is so disappointing.

      1. Charles seems to be rather an onanist, too. William appears to be working hard to manage that prize.
        A pox on them. Kate seems a nice lady.

        1. And Camillia who I have had an acquaintance with for many years (she lived in the next village and would scrounge a ciggy out hunting) is a quiet unassuming lady with a fine sense of humour. He husband Andrew was a serial adulterer from the time they married. After very many years of putting up with Andrew’s behaviour she found love with Charles and appears to have made him very happy.

          1. I suspected as much, since you never hear anything from her or about her.
            Good on her. I’d never get involved with that nest of vipers, she must be very strong for it to not affect her.

          4. Not actually in Corsham itself – Byde Mill which is between Corsham & Lacock. She bought the house at Reybridge which is Lacock – we lived Sandy Lane – which is the top of the hill from Lacock

          7. Good evening m’Dear! A welcome return I hope?

            And yes, I’ve heard about Mr. Parker Bowels shenanigans a few times.

            Yes, that was a typo, but it does seem to fit his character!

          8. Good evening m’Dear! A welcome return I hope?

            And yes, I’ve heard about Mr. Parker Bowels shenanigans a few times.

            Yes, that was a typo, but it does seem to fit his character!

        2. “My strange and self abuse is the initiate fear that wants hard use.”

          This line from the Scottish play calls to mind Brian Aldiss’s A Hand Reared Boy and Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint.

      2. I am not misogynistic. Woke Chas is just as bad. And it is said that William has also a bit on the side.

        I find the whole bunch of them unappealing.

      3. I agree about not laying the blame on the woman – I blame Charles for being such an arrogant nincompoop as to marry an aristocratic broodmare (as he thought) when his heart lay elsewhere. Selber Schuld!

        Camilla will never be Queen for me because Charles promised that she would be Queen Consort only in order to get public approval for his marriage and then instantly started a campaign to have her accepted as Queen, and I cannot stomach his hypocrisy. Queen Consort is a perfectly good title, and judging by what we saw of her gracefully putting up with Charles’s petulant pen peeves, Queen Nanny might be a better one!

  46. OT – the beeboid Radio 3 is broadcasting “Christmas music round the World”. Just brilliant to hear (in one segment) Catalan spoken on air!!!

    1. Just heard a little bit of Britten’s Carols when I was bringing my car home from where I abandoned it on Friday afternoon. Temperature is just above freezing and it’s drizzling a bit. Let’s hope this snow will soon be gone.

  47. 369054+ up ticks,

    Before your very eyes granddad & grandma are suffering depression so are being sent home.

    Not only the weather that is chilling , the actions of humanoids is far worse,, all their odious yesterdays
    are currently our todays.

    Canada haven’t got the bollocks / backbone to openly round up & liquidate the depressed etc,etc so they advise & assist along the road to countrywide damnation, they are somewhat ahead of the Disunited Kingdom but rest assured with the
    “help” of the electorate majority we will catch up.

    https://twitter.com/auschwitzxhibit/status/1604401317656629249?s=20&t=thGbJAyyvYfQukqgAOxuCw

    2. Yes, a friend with disabilities was admitted to hospital around March 2020. He was discharged after a Covid test, developed covid and was returned to the hospital where he died. The family received his ashes.

    3. Canada is said to own no gold, having sold its reserves of some 46 tonnes since 2000.
      https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/gold-reserves
      The world is moving inexorably back onto some kind of gold standard.

      If I were a Canadian that owned gold, I think I would be looking for a very distant, deep hiding place for it…
      When a government stops respecting the rule of law, nothing is off the table.

  48. Trip to and return from the daughter’s house safely negotiated, no more sign of freezing rain or black ice. Her oven packed up last night, tripped the whole house mains. You can guess who was called upon to investigate, with the words “I need you to fix the oven so I can cook the meal I promised you and Mum on Christmas Eve” ringing in my ears.
    Blown element removed and replacement one ordered, delivery promised for tomorrow. I hope Royal Mail is not involved or I can see us having cheese and pickle sandwiches on Christmas Eve.
    Ho Ho Ho!

      1. I left the ordering to her nibs, I only made sure she ordered the correct replacement.

      2. A chum hates Amazon. He despises them vehemently, to the point of silliness. Nor will he make the link between massivegimmigration, welfare dependency and low wages – namely their relationship to one another.

        He just thinks that amazon drivers are penalised for not delivering parcels and forced to deliver a set amount per day.

        Yes, the figures are high – which I why I don’t do the job. If those doing it were better skilled, neither would they. Nor if there were, say 10 million fewer people in the country would wages be so low. Nor, if welfare were not so generous (his partner doesn’t work at all) would the first wo problems exist.

        Amazon is the ultimate expression of the ruthlessness of markets – and their success.

    2. Elder son and family have just used Allan Towers’ showers.
      Apparently most of north Colchester is without water; some mega main has ruptured.

    3. In this house, known as cheese-a-pickle, after Firstborn some 29 years ago.
      I love cheese & pickle, especially with fierce pickled onions!

      1. The pickled onions make an appearance on Boxing Day, all part of the cold meat and pickles day. I consider it the best day of the holidays, a pint or two down the local followed by family and friends for cold meat and pickles.

    1. Thanks for that information, ashesthandust. He works so hard on all of his many activities and of late has taken a lot to “shouting” when excoriating politicians et al on his GBNews appearances. Recent strikes and JustStopOil activities forced him to abandon his taxi in central London a couple of weeks ago and run to the GBNews studios, arriving with just seconds to spare before he appeared on screen. I do hope that these two heart attacks will convince him to pace himself much more. It would be a tragedy to lose him for he continues to be both informative and entertaining and battling for truth in this hypocritical world we live in.

      1. I feared that he had been nobbled by OffCon, OffTwat – or whatever the censoring organisation calls itself.

        I do hope he will be better soon and will be back on GBNews again. I wish him well.

    3. It’s a measure of where we are getting to when one’s reaction to this bad news is to wonder if the heart attacks were natural or otherwise.
      And with good reason, – millions of them…

  53. One gets somewhat tired of hearing about ‘ adulterery committing ‘ Camilla ‘. Since her death, Diana has become some kind of saint. In reality she had numerous affairs and many with married men, her last one was a muzzie. Charles loves/ loved Camilla and she him, I am sure if Diana had survived then she’d lost that halo long ago . Camilla is supposedly a quiet lady with a wicked sense of humour and loves the countryside .

    1. It is sad to say, but as Charles spends his time knighting CEOs of Pharmas directly responsible for many deaths, and makes one of his first engagements with Trudeau, discussions of adultery hardly move the needle for me at least. Time to wake up from the rosy memory of what our monarchy was until recently I fear.

      2. I really don’t think so. The monarchy are part of our culture and history, something uttely unique. There are those who want a Republic ( especially the left ) but I’m sure the thoughts of a President Starmer, Blair etc should put pay to that. We’ve had good monarchs and some who’ve not been so good.
        Maybe it’d be a good idea to return to divine rule of Kings instead of politicians having so much power. But anyway the Saxon Queen is a firm monarchist and the monarchy will outlive King Charles and those who whine about him .

          1. Hmmm, Jonathan. I was making a point in favour of Camilla and against the sainted Diana, which wasn’t about Covid vaccinations or meetings.

        2. The only reason that the monarchy has survived in the UK is because the Divine Right of Kings was abolished. Otherwise it would have gone the same way as that of the monarchies of France, Germany, Russia etc.

          And who would vote for Blair or Starmer? A Republic in Britain would be a constitutional one, not a presidential one (such as the USA).

          2. You either set up your Republic as a Presidential one (e.g. USA) or a Constitutional one (e.g. Republic of Ireland). Any ‘mission creep’ would involve binning the Constitution.

          5. These days I think they would try for absolutism, but leave out any reference to the Almighty 🙂

        3. I used to be a monarchist (after all, at one time I swore allegiance to Her Majesty and I was always on the Cavalier side in the Sealed Knot, living, as I do, in an area that was for the King in the Civil War), but dopey, wokey, disloyal Charlie and Willie are rapidly turning me into a republican!

      3. Agreed. HM and Philip had standards and self-discipline. I probably didn’t agree with all of them, but at least I didn’t have that constant nagging suspicion that the King resents me and is on the verge of blubbing.

    2. It is sad to say, but as Charles spends his time knighting CEOs of Pharmas directly responsible for many deaths, and makes one of his first engagements with Trudeau, discussions of adultery hardly move the needle for me at least. Time to wake up from the rosy memory of what our monarchy was until recently I fear.

    3. This is a point I have made many times.

      * Apparently the Sainted Painted Lady was the first to commit adultery and once she started she found it hard to stop: there was Manakee and Hewitt, Gilbey and Carling, and then the more exotic Khan and Al Fayed – but to be fair, Uncle Tom Cobley and his fellow equestrians probably did not feature on the list on their way to Widecombe Fair.

      By contrast the King, as far as we know, had just one extra-marital affair and he made his victim his mistress after his wife’s death and they married her a few years later.

      * Recollections may vary on this point.

      1. That can only be the story if you believe the fairy tale about Charles having renounced Camilla forever upon his marriage.

        1. Even if he didn’t (and personally, I don’t believe he did; I expect he wanted to have his cake and eat it), he was still only unfaithful with one woman

      2. Tom Pearce, Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawke…

        All along, down along, out along, lea.

    4. She died early enough to be seen as a martyr. Her behaviour was only hinted at in The Crown (lovers climbing in through the downstairs window), but that’s to appease the audience, I assume.

      When the woman died I didn’t understand the demented outpouring. Few people had met her. Almost no one knew her. I doubt the children laying a teddy bear had the foggiest who she was.

      Now, when Her Majesty died, that was a woman to be proud of. A lifetime of service, dignity and courage. You didn’t need to know her personally to respect who she was and what she gave to the country.

      1. The hysteria when Diana died was actually frightening.
        Up till then, I had assumed that I lived in a rational – if somewhat quirky – country.
        Events since have shown that the British have become ‘foreign’; even the ones with a long record of ancestry on this island.

        1. It was ludicrous. I believe this was when Tony Blair coined the phrase ‘ peoples princess ‘ . The Queen, our English idiosyncrasies and all we are were criticised because of Diana’s death. The weeping in the streets and elsewhere wasn’t normal.

      2. The Diana hysteria was, like so many things damaging to the nation’s health, orchestrated by Blair. The “People’s Princess” – well I’m a person and she had NOTHING to do with me.

    5. I can’t understand all the animosity directed against Queen Camilla. She goes about her work quietly and does not seek publicity. She is, to me, a far better ambassador of the monarchy than the current Monarch. I think she is more in the mould of The Queen.
      She will always be Queen Camilla to me.

  54. Harry and Meghan ‘now want their own apology from the Royal Family’ after late Queen’s lady-in-waiting Lady Susan Hussey met black charity boss Ngozi Fulani for ‘reconciliation’ talks at the Palace
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11550089/Harry-Meghan-want-apology-Lady-Susan-Hussey-met-black-campaigner-Ngozi-Fulani.html

    Reminds me of Liz Truss’s short time in No 10. From the moment she gave in on the top rate of tax she was finished .

    Whether or not Susan Hussey and the monarchy are racist (a term which means whatever you want it to mean) is irrelevant. The fact that the Prince of Wales and his father, the King, behaved like treacherous disloyal cowards towards Lady Hussey and made her feel she owed the trap setter, Fullanus, an apology is what is relevant and could be the Truss moment for Charley Boy and Bald Willy.

    Imagine Henry V in Harfleur rapidly looking at his smart phone to see if could make a last minute booking with Brittany Ferries to go back to England and avoid a potentially unpleasant confrontation at Agincourt.

    (Incidentally Brittany Ferries still offer crossings from Portsmouth to Ouistreham which is quite near Harfleur).

    1. Je ne comprehends pas: how could Prince Harry apologise to himself? Kneel in front of a mirror?

      1. Harry and Migraine want Harry’s father, brother, and sister in law a grovelling apology.

          1. It was probably under the sea, millions of years ago, as much of Kent is composed of chalk, which originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor.

          2. You are quite right. By some aberration, I was convinced that Westerham was on the coast. I am going mad. All that whining, I expect.

        2. On the A25 between Borough Green, where, if my memory serves me correctly, it breaks away from the A20 and Guildford.
          Used to travel along it frequently in the early ’70s when doing stores cabbies between Maidstone and 321(?) Engineer Stores Park at Longmoor.

    3. There is a chasm of difference between the terms “racist” and “racial hatred”.

      I am a racist (as are most humans), since I naturally put my own welfare, as well as that of my family, tribe, locality, race and country, above any other. I am not guilty, however, of racial hatred per se since I have friends from many other races.

      [In my second sentence I use the word ‘naturally’ naturally!]

      1. Those behaviours do not make you a racist. Racism is the explicit and irrational dislike of people based solely on their ethnicity.

        Remember we are one species – one race – the human one.

        Where Lefties go wrong – deliberately – is conflating the actions of individuals with their skin colour and thus blaming others for not supporting and endorsing that behaviour *because of* the ethnicity of the perpetrator.

        In reality, it is the Left who are the racists because of the conflation of action with ethnicity rather than individual action. However, that’s Lefties entirely – they cannot consider the individual. They have to label , to generalise. Otherwise their slurs don’t work.

        1. Remember we are one species – one race – the human one.

          The term ‘human race’ is illogical. A race is a variant of a species. Biologists are becoming a bit sensitive about the term, some preferring just ‘variant’ or ‘geographical variant’, even ‘chromosomal variant’.

          2. I was about to say the same thing ( a few hours late) but you beat me to it. As you correctly point out, the word ‘race’ describes one level in the classification of living things, just one degree below species. Humans are not a ‘race’, that term is nothing more than a silly, ill-considered colloquialism.

            ‘Homo’ is a genus, ‘sapiens’ is a species. The next sub-division lists the five recognised racial stereotypes: Caucasian (Europiform); Mongoloid (Mongoliform); Negroid (Negriform); Aborigines (Australiform); and Bushmen (Khoisaniform). Any human not wholly belonging to one of those races is considered to be of mixed-race heritage.

            Arabs (Semites) and Indians are both full members of the Caucasian race. Polynesian islanders, Chinese and Eskimos are all of the Mongoloid race.

        2. “Racism is the explicit and irrational dislike of people based solely on their ethnicity.”

          I disagree: that description describes Racial Hatred. We all tend to favour our own race but not hatefully so. Just as we favour our own family and our own country. I consider myself to be ‘racist’ if I favour my own race but do not hate other races per se. An -ist is a follower of a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy, typically a political ideology or an artistic movement. Ergo, I am a ‘follower’ (supporter) of my own race, not a hater of other races.

      2. Dying Speech of an Old Philosopher
        BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR

        I strove with none, for none was worth my strife:
        Nature I loved, and, next to Nature, Art:
        I warm’d both hands before the fire of Life;
        It sinks; and I am ready to depart.

    4. There is a chasm of difference between the terms “racist” and “racial hatred”.

      I am a racist (as are most humans), since I naturally put my own welfare, as well as that of my family, tribe, locality, race and country, above any other. I am not guilty, however, of racial hatred per se since I have friends from many other races.

      [In my second sentence I use the word ‘naturally’ naturally!]

    5. Sadly it’s the wokiest world that politicians have created which has lead to this disgrace against lady Susan Hussey and of course it was a complete set up .
      A previous King named Charles stood upto Parliament and it didn’t end well for him .
      It concerns me that William seems wokiest but I hope the Princess of Wales will help him away from too many errors and I’m sure he’ll make a superb King one day .

        1. The Princess of Wales is kind, gracious, respectful, dutiful and has elegance and genuine charm. She’ll make a fine Queen .

          2. I always thought the RF kept their opinions to themselves. Never explain, never complain. HM the Queen was exemplary in this. Pity the next generation isn’t.

          3. I’m sure she does have her opinions, but is no longer permitted to express them. The price she has to pay for taking the Prince’s shilling.

  55. Just read an article on the dangers of drinking.
    Scared the doodah out of me, so it did.
    So, after today, that’s it!
    No more reading!

  56. Just read an article on the dangers of drinking.
    Scared the doodah out of me, so it did.
    So, after today, that’s it!
    No more reading!

  57. A useful morning playing with the chainsaws! Used the larger one I keep in the yard to slice up some larger diameter ash & sycamore logs in from of the car port ready for splitting, then went up the garden to use the smaller saw to sort out the bits of the elm I dropped a couple weeks ago then split a large builder’s bucket worth of log & got them stacked.
    I had planned doing up to split another bucket load, but the rain has arrived and it’s bloody nasty out there!

  58. Just when you thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse!

    “Former SAGE member Jeremy Farrar, one of the most influential pro-lockdown advisors in the United Kingdom and considered by some to be akin to the UK’s Anthony Fauci, has been given a major promotion to become Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization, one of the most powerful positions at the WHO alongside its director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Farrar is currently director of the Wellcome Trust, one of the world’s most influential nonprofits and largest investors in vaccines, with countless billions in offshore funding and close ties to the Gates Foundation.”

    4. Tedros is wanted for being an effing genocidal terrorist in his homeland. I guess the WHO is just staying true to form.

  59. My son just asked “where does poo come from?”
    After a little embarrasement, I gave him a full explanation.
    He looked confused for a while, and then asked “But what about Tigger?”

    2. When I was nursing , and as students we did the bedpan rounds .. We always wondered why pooh was mostly the same colour (except if different diseases showed different colours , pale and that sort of thing )

      Usually , no matter what you eat , the colour is virtually consistent in shade and tone!!!!

      Digestion is usually strong and reliable ..

      A child asked me about horses grazing , cows munching , rabbits chewing .. eating green stuff , yet their stools are always brown , funny that , isn’t it .

  60. After my fatuous post about Ouistreham/Westerham – I have now remembered what I was actually thinking about.

    Sangatte in yer France. Sandgate in yer Kent. Twenty miles or so apart.

    I am going to the Carol Service now. I’ll be back in the rain later.

  62. Some poor woman just told me that shes had her pipes freeze . She’s just got power back after two days, she’s lost all her food in the freezer as it defrosted and her microwave has blown up. I said I still hope you manage to have a nice Christmas – didn’t quite know what else to say.

    2. If you’ve got power, you could have offered to bring her a hot drink and some soup – assuming she’s not too far away.

    3. Mains power outages, especilly when as a result of ice and snow, can result in surges here in UK, when the mains supply tries to stabilise.
      Always switch off at the socket most all appliances such as TV/video/hifi/ microwave cookers and especially computer equipment (unless on UPS) when the mains first goes off.
      Put a light on and watch until it stays on for a while before switching things back on. It’s a pain, but cheaper than getting the item fixed.

      1. We have been plagued by mini powercuts lasting a few seconds. This does not give time to switch off equipment before it comes back on. I have invested in a Uninterruptable Power Supply for router phone and main PC.

        1. Unfortunately we don’t have a robust main suppy anymore. Your solution is the only way to protect equipment, but not everyone knows or can afford a good UPS.

      2. Thank you. I shall remember that for myself too, we get a huge amount of powercuts, as soon as it rains heavily or its windy its a worry- they can be anything from half an hour – 24 hours ( with a bad storm ) – lots of trees here and we’re on a hill facing north. Know not to open the freezer door and turn the computer off but don’t go around turning off all the appliances and lights- shall do so in future.

          7. Piggy on the railway
            Picking up stones
            Along came a Bayer-Garrett driver
            And broke his bones….

        4. Bob’s is bigger.

          In fact, I’ve an image of nothing more than the walls of Alleppo and Selçuk.

      3. Anti trans [beep]. Ah yes, such tolerance you have for the views of others, yet how quickly you demand they conform to your ego. You have no allies. You’re a useful idiot the political class are exploiting to seem current – mainly because they want your vote. That you excllude the Tories show your pathetic weakness of mind.

        Let’s be clear – you’re a man living a fantasy. Live that fantasy, but never ever pretend it is reality.

    4. If you are so emotional fragile as, when being a man you dress as a woman; that you cannot cope with critique then perhaps you know you’re living a fiction and retreat to childhood as a defence.

      As for telling others to – rudely – shut up – then you’re simply reinforcing that your ego cannot sustain your fantasy.

      You’re not a woman. You’re a man. A small, frightened man hiding his true self behind a fictional persona. That fear shouldn’t be indulged. That merely allows you to hide in your delusion rather than living your life.

    5. This all started years ago.

      I can date this back to 1983 when I was working in Paris as an English assistant at a French lycée. A friend of mine introduced me to a friend of his, Kenny, who was reading Engineering with French at Bath and was doing a six-month stint at one of the French engineering schools. This introduction happened at a café in the evening, where a whole lot of Bath students were meeting up. I promised Kenny I’d show him my favorite off-the-tourist-track places in Paris and from then on we spent most Sunday afternoons walking around the city.

      We got on really well and used to chat away as we were exploring. One day, after we’d spent three or four Sunday afternoons together, he mentioned his Indian background. I’d never noticed… Having lived in India for part of my childhood, in my mind Indian people talked and moved in a certain way, and he didn’t conform to that, having been born and brought up in England.

      And when I told him that it had never occurred to me that he was anything but English, I was mystified by his reaction that he thought I was lying. And then, when he realised that I meant it, he was upset.

      So difficult knowing how to react to people who are determined to feel hurt.

  64. Afternoon all. Had an interesting journey to the Wigmore yesterday evening. Severe delays on the tube so I took the bus. Three buses actually. Bus number two only got as far as Victoria Gate when an unholy row began on the upper deck. There were a lot of young people up there and there seemed to be fighting. I gathered from the screaming and hollering that at least one person was hurt. The driver stopped the bus and we all got off. I’ll never know the full story. I confess I was too absorbed in my own anxiety to be overly inquisitive. All part of life in the Big City eh, Mayor Khan? Thankfully I arrived at the hall with ten minutes to spare.

      1. What on EARTH makes you think that? What a slur on the vicious fighters who are home grown and white.

    2. Rows terrify me , and your experience must have made you shudder with anxiety .

      I hope you had a lovely evening .

      What mode of transport did you use to get back home after the concert ?

      Did you watch Laura K this morning , she had some interesting guests . I really loved the choir who sang beautifully outside the RAH, and I don’t know the name of the choir or the lovely piece they sang . I felt a tingle run through me because I enjoyed it so much .

      1. I missed that this morning. Must’ve been lovely. Got the tube home but had a long wait for a packed train. The concert was a period instrument ensemble called Solomon’s Knot performing Christmas music by Johann Kuhnau (1660-1722), JS Bach’s predecessor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig.

  65. Afternoon, all. Just a brief visit as I’m off to the Christmas carol service later (I’m reading the first lesson, so I’d better not be late!). The headline is all very fine, but Blair made sure that it would never happen by his Long March Through The Institutions.

  68. Well – back from Carol Service. 60 people – a massive turnout for this little village. Five lessons and carols. First lesson = perfect. Authorised Version – Isaiah foretells etc.. The other four from the sodding Janet and John bible. Why do they wreck language that has stood the test of time for 500 years? WHY???

    The MR stayed on for completely unnecessary “refreshments” which means she’ll have to walk home in the rain in the DARK.

    Still – I must stop whining…..

          3. Indeed – we are having the on our morning porridge. The MR froze several pounds of the massive crop we had this year.

          5. Stupid boy!

            If you have room in your grounds – the variety of raspberry is “September”. Prolific is inadequate a word to describe its productivity….

          6. Sounds like mine (an autumn-fruiting variety but I don’t remember the name); I started with one cane, now I have a whole soft fruit patch full of them and they are expanding into my greenhouse (the other side of a path) and the veg plot next door!

          7. Indeed – we are having the on our morning porridge. The MR froze several pounds of the massive crop we had this year.

    2. Yes , they wreck everything . Melodic words are vanishing , dumbed down nonsense is thrown at the parishioners.

      The word of God is diluted , and the meaningful words laid down in the scriptures are lost .

        1. When the MR is given a printed version of the Janet and John lesson, she takes her own KJV bible and reads from that.

          1. I was tempted to do that (I’m reading the revised version tonight) but I don’t want to upset the warden who organised it. She’s a nice lass.

          3. I know what Conwy means about not upsetting well meaning people. I usually put my foot in it – or did, when I went to church. When I raised this very point with the then Bishop of Norwich – he said I was completely out of touch and should learn to move with the times.

            Well, Bish – I did “move with the times.” I left the church….

          4. I shall drop a hint when I speak and she’s got time. Between her 90-yr old mother, a full time job, several salukis, a family and the rectorette she’s a bit harassed at the moment.

  70. A bientot, mes amis. Am off to get changed into something warm (and waterproof!) to go to the service. See you afterwards, DV.

  71. In less than 36 hours the outside temperature locally has gone from -6.5C to 10C and is forecast to reach 13C in a couple of hours….

    1. All them glaciers melting…

      Here there is a slow thaw with drizzle but offset by a strong and bitter wind. By this time tomorrow we should have a similar temperature, 13ºC but gales.

    2. It was only just above freezing when I went to fetch my car this morning. Been raining all afternoon, washing the snow away, I hope.

    3. 7’c here and pouring with rain, as it has all day. Outside feels much colder (because of rain).

      Tomorrow does ‘warm up’ though to 10-13. Which will be positively tropical!

  72. A new study just out shows that humans eat more bananas than monkeys.
    Don’t remember when I last ate a monkey!

  73. Scientists announce this afternoon that they have succeeded in making a car that runs on parsley.
    The next stage is to perfect a train that runs on thyme!

  74. It is now actually raining here. A spongeoid yellow cat called Gus has just swum through the catflap.

    1. I ‘ve just driven back to The Smog from Banham where my brother has planted his family. Some very strange neighbours, in that neck.

      Lovely mass at the Quidenham Carmelite monastery.
      Beautiful area under a thin sheet of snow, now sleeted away. Interesting challenges for my very large long car on the local lanes.

        1. More about why my brother’s neighbours won’t talk to him … because he has an old Rolls Royce rottig in his garden. It makes them so angry.
          We’ve got the country going to shit in a handcart. The things people get upset about are beyond me.

          I would invite them to foxtrot oscar.

          2. They can’t even see his garden from their windows. They have to walk along the path to the side of his. And then go home to moan about it.
            What is the matter with people?

          4. Brother probably has, so they did, and not on speaking terms any more.
            God, neighbours can be such a pain.

    2. The Beast has been in and out all day and each time gets soaking wet. He’s either thick or is on some sort of timed patrol.

        1. Poor mole. Can that be bred out of them?

          I imagine Beast would go for a badger. Or a shire horse. There’s a vixen fox outside hiding under the motor, so I’m going to give it some fodder.

          1. Moles have tens of thousands of acres adjoining my estate in which to live and move and have their being. They are NOT welcome under my lawn.

  75. Ibrahima Bah, 19, of no fixed abode, was charged with facilitating attempted illegal entry into the United Kingdom after being
    arrested by police in Kent on Friday.”

    So, (as the yoof of today say) you can (and will be) be arrested for ‘Facilitation of illegal entry to UK’, but not for
    committing the crime of actually landing here.

    3. Why don’t the police arrest every migrant arriving on a dinghy – one of them at least must be responsible for being in command of the boat?
      Edit: And the rest for conspiracy.

      1. Just arrest them all, put them into a shipping container and lock the door. Cut small holes in the roof for water and air. Makes it easier to send them back, costs nothing to store them and the steel prevents a mobile signal getting out.

    4. Flay, flog, beat and then shoot the mangled corpse.

      Force the BBC to push it to France with a note ‘to the next one’.

  76. Par Four today.
    Wordle 547 4/6
    🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩🟨🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Bloody hard work for a bogie.
      Wordle 547 5/6

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

    2. Me too but I entered it thinking no surely, it can’t be!
      Wordle 547 4/6

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

    2. Messi: one world cup.
      Pelé: three world cups (with a leather ball, and the shin scars from the studs of scores of unpunished ‘defenders’).

        1. Did he really need to leave that continent to prove himself? He won two of his World Cup winner’s medals outside South America: in Sweden (Europe), 1958 and in Mexico (North America), 1970. On all three occasions playing (and winning) against the best footballers the rest of the world could throw at him.

          1. Err…

            On all three occasions playing (and winning) against the best footballers the rest of the world could throw at him.

            I may be mistaken, but that applies at every world cup to every player who plays.

          2. Indeed it does. But none of those ‘every player who plays’, except for Edson Arantes du Nascimento, won three World Cups.

  78. That’s me gone for this cold, freezing and now raining day. The temperature is creeping up – but is offset by the bitter wind.

    Have a super evening – there is some wendyball on, apparently. Try not to whine too much.

    A demain.

  79. I don’t really like watching football but that game caused me to look up from the crossword a couple of times.

      5. This shows that MPs don’t give a toss about whether or not the vaccines harm people.

    1. Never in the field of human self entitlement
      Has so much offence been taken
      By so few for so little

  83. I’m not a football fan but if penalties were added to get a result then surely the extra time provision then became redundant? Reason thus dictates that they play normal time and then; absence a result, the penalties immediately. Or better still just the penalties and forget about the game altogether? It’s mind numbingly boring anyway.

    1. I assume this is intended to be humourous but it is uncomfortably near to the truth! I’ve seen it several times!

    3. There I was, a diggin’ this hole, when along come all these bods….(apologies to Bernie Cribbins)

  86. Probably only Wendyball could produce this…….

    “Emiliano Martinez shocks watching world with lewd gesture after Argentina’s World Cup win. Having just starred in the penalty shootout, Aston Villa’s goalkeeper held his Golden Glove trophy to his groin.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a9462212635f1622ec69f9227e5a4e87aa3f5b973828dbb738c06b7be9db5d5b.jpg

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/2022/12/18/emiliano-martinez-shocks-lewd-gesture-argentinas-world-cup-win/

  87. Managed to swallow some Scrabble tiles by accident.
    Symptoms are constant vowel movements. The next trip to the cludgie could spell disaster!

  88. My nephew is looking for a job. Do you have any suggestions?
    He should apply to the Search and Rescue people. They are always looking for people!

  89. I was reading the Telegraph comments the other day and am sure I recognised the names of two people who I was blogging friends with long ago at ConHome ( around 14 years ago ) .
    It wasn’t with disqus back then, we all used our full names, just our little group before politics turned nasty and people left. They’d never blog with disqus, they’d find it too large and brutal. I know it was them and wanted to say hello but I couldn’t, it was another time and place- it’d have been intrusive. More gentle and kind times.

    1. What were their names , because I have been commenting for years and made alot of on line friends , as you observed , politics turned really nasty,

      So sad .

        1. She is renowned for breaking wind in public without the least ounce of shame. But, on the other hand, she is an expert on Dickens who is one of my favourite authors.

        1. Sometimes my jokes are a little obscure, Andrew. I have the same problem with others’ acronyms.

    2. Yes, we built it but now our workers are too expensive, we don’t have the engineering (well, we do, but they wouldn’t bother filling in the 500,000 pages of MoD idiocy to qualify). Then there’s the steel, which we don’t make, then the government interference in the shells being fired, which would change every five minutes depending on the kick back company’s offered to a MoD mandarin.

      1. You are missing the fundamental point: we no longer have low-cost energy for steel-making and heavy engineering.

        You can’t build warships with windmills . . .

        1. Damn are you sure? Someone had best tell the village idiot. Canada is trying to build a series of coastal patrol boats using green power.

          Only 8 billion dollars each, a real bargain even though they are many years behind schedule and the few that have been delivered break down regularly.

  92. I’ve just made some very nice hot chocolate with Belgian chocolate, full cream milk, a dash of cream , a hint of cinnamon and small drop of rum. Shall drink it slightly later whilst reading in bed .

    2. I’ve just had a piece of Lindt excellence 90% cocoa dark chocolate – it was vile and I’ve written to them about it

    1. Well, the Department for Education should.

      However, it misses the point. Education in this country is stupid. Classes are too big and the customer excluded. There is far too much state involvement and schools work for the government, not the pupil.

      Parents are not engaged and responsible (two girls, one named Courtney and another named Alice will see Alice be at least an academic year ahead) because welfare is absurdly generous allowing the wrong people to breed.

      Inner city schools are simply overrun with non Engish pupils creating conflict and confusion over languages and outcomes – least of all in language.

      Changing one thing about education isn’t enough. We need to change the fundamentals – remove the state, bring parents in as both the primary customer and paymaster with responsibilities, end welfare.

      1. We home-schooled our sons up to the age of 15 as we sailed around the Mediterranean.

        The result was they were well ahead of their contemporaries academically and both went to university at the age of 17, got good degrees, have got very good jobs, are in stable relationships with either a girlfriend or a wife and have both bought their own first homes in England in their mid-20s.

  95. Me voici de retour, mes amis. Service went well (the choir is magnificent), my reading was much praised and the refreshments afterwards went down a treat. The only hitch was the offertory; someone was supposed to come round with the begging bowl (I asked beforehand in case I should just have left my donation in the dish at the back) but no one did, so the rectorette went back to the altar to receive the alms and oblations, but there weren’t any!

  96. Well that’s me for tonight, folks. Must email my friends in Argentina to congratulate them on winning the World Cup. Sleep well, all of you.

    1. My initial reaction has to be, any government that introduced this reset and CBDC would be committing political suicide.

      Would you ever vote for them in the future?

      1. Who says there will be elections in the future? We are, after all, in the “post democratic age”.

          1. That takes resolution. I don’t see much of it in the younger “mask me, control me, jab me like a pincushion” generation, unfortunately.

        3. I think there will, still be elections. Only because it will maintain the illusion of democracy.
          It seems to me that we are already a ‘one party’ state.
          There is no chance for any political party that does not follow WEF dictates to be elected.
          We are back in the 1600’s when in comes to parliament v population.

          1. The Civil War was Parliament vs the King. These days, both parties are singing from the same hymn sheet and they are both opposed to the indigenous population!

          2. In the beginning yes, but Parliament (Long & Rump) eventually became self-serving as it appears today. Hence the formation of the Barebone’s Parliament, initiated by Oliver Cromwell.
            Then in 1659 Parliament once again decided its members were more important than the people they served and that was Richard Cromwell’s downfall.

    1. RIP Adam, and my condolences to his family.

      BoB, conspiracy theories/hypotheses can be fun, but it is despicable to take advantage of a young man’s tragic death.

      “Epidemiological studies show positive associations between MPB (Ed: male pattern baldness) and
      coronary heart disease (CHD) and CHD related risk factors such as blood
      pressure (BP), diabetes mellitus (DM) or elevated blood lipid levels.
      The results however vary with regard to the pattern of hair loss (i.e.
      moderate, severe, frontal or vertex).”

      There are dozens of such references on the web.

      1. If one looks hard enough, there are dozens of references about world wide ‘sudden’ unexplainable deaths; way above what has normally been seen.

        It would not be unreasonable to expect people to being questioning the reasons why.

        One mans conspiracy theory is anothers truth.

        1. Andrew, it is part of the narrative. Covidians vs conspiracy theorists. Back in the 1920s, the life expectancy of an Indian male in India was 27 years. Females possibly had a lower life expectancy because of maternal mortality.
          There is no biological necessity for humans to live into their seventies, and without wishing to sound like a eugenicist, literally billions of people are alive today who are of little benefit to nature. If a few wonky ones depart early, it is always sad, even tragic, but statistically unremarkable.

          1. I agree, but…
            The connection between C19 inoculation and the sudden death of people who one would not normally expect to die, is a bit strange to say the least.
            It may turn out as you seem to indicate: nothing to do with the gene therapy. The problem is that people have been coerced into taking it, out of fear!
            The death or sudden unexplainable ill health of many who before the C19 inoculation were fit healthy individuals, must need investigation.
            So I reiterate my previous, it’s no wonder many are questioning the advise/coercion government has given them

          2. If you want to question the gene therapy, the next step would be to question the potential long term effects of all vaccines. Although children born today in the West have a higher life expectancy than those born in the 1940s and 1950s, they seem to be more medicalised (if that is the correct expression). I do not recall so many allergies when I was a child.

          3. As a child of the 40’s growing up in industrial Birmingham, I never knew anyone with allergies, until I moved to the US and everyone seem to have allergies to something or other.

        2. Andrew, it is part of the narrative. Covidians vs conspiracy theorists. Back in the 1920s, the life expectancy of an Indian male in India was 27 years. Females possibly had a lower life expectancy because of maternal mortality.
          There is no biological necessity for humans to live into their seventies, and without wishing to sound like a eugenicist, literally billions of people are alive today who are of little benefit to nature. If a few wonky ones depart early, it is always sad, even tragic, but statistically unremarkable.

      2. As part of the administration who forced the vaccine onto unwilling recipients and one who contributed to policies that destroyed the livelihoods, I shed no tears for him. Its interesting that no cause of death is given. At least he would have been safe from the rona, maybe.

        1. One wonders whether there will be a post mortem? Surely there should be if it was a sudden death of a healthy person.

        2. A fundamental problem with socialism is that the sick and needy are allocated resources above their level of utility.
          If the man was as unhealthy as he appeared, it is logical that he should have headed into bureaucracy rather than choose a physically demanding occupation.

          The insanity continues: employees who have flu like to do a nasal penetration test; if negative, it must be flu. But covid can keep them off work for longer and they could choose to avoid family gatherings, so it is worth testing for.
          My point is that many people were (edit: and still are) quietly able to gain advantage from the ‘pandemic’.

    2. Never heard of him, he cannot have been much of a leader. Certainly nothing in the regular media about him.

      The public face of vaccine rollout was Major Denis Fortin but he became too popular and was very conveniently accused of a bit of hokey pokey when he was at military college.

  101. Well the snow has gone, the ice has melted and the rain has been present for about 12 hours today.
    I heard that the wendyball competition final has been played this afternoon, I chose to watch White Christmas with Mrs VVOF instead.
    That is my Christmas viewing for this year.
    Goodnight all.

  102. Goodnight, everyone. I’ve stoked the Rayburn, but I’m going to listen to the Messiah before I turn in.

  104. Whizzing through the DTletters comments . I loved this one

    Mr Turner
    2 HRS AGO
    The scene: Noddy Holder’s dressing room.
    “Flamboyant, sparkly trousers Noddy?”
    “Perfect.”
    “Oversize clown shoes Mr Holder?”
    “Superb.”
    “Kipper tie?”
    “Lovely. Two sugars please.”

  105. Goodnight, Gentlefolk and God bless.

    I trust I shall see you all again dans le matin with a good story for you.

  106. I realise that it is nearly 0ne 35 am.
    But while I was sleeping earlier I seemed to be battleling hard with the ‘important tasks’ of repairing other time pieces and broken squeaky implements. But when I wake up there are none to be found.

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