Wednesday 21 December: The NHS can be reformed only if all political parties unite to achieve it

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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599 thoughts on “Wednesday 21 December: The NHS can be reformed only if all political parties unite to achieve it”

  1. Well it seems at least two of us are currently awake!

    Morning folks and a very happy Birthday to Elsie.

      1. Good morning Elsie, and a very Happy Birthday to you! Have a wonderful day and keep safe! 😘🌹🎂🍾

      2. Happy Birthday Elsie. Good heavens. You are older than me! For the next nine months anyway!

        1. Thank you, young Grizzly. It was interesting to see at the end of the above clip that Ed Byrnes was preparing to film YELLOWSTONE KELLY with Clint Eastwood, a film I knew about but have never seen. I also remember that he had a cameo in GREASE with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. (Not a lot of people know that – © Michael Caine.)

        1. If you look at the top half of Richard and Caroline’s post (the one with the cartoon) you will see that they have pictured me as topless. How cheeky of them! Lol.

          1. Happy Birthday young lady! I hope you have many more to come.
            Have a spiffing day. 🎂

          3. Happy Birthday young lady! I hope you have many more to come.
            Have a spiffing day. 🎂

          4. Have a lovely day Elsie – and for goodness sake put some clothes on, this is not a day to catch a chill!

          5. Thank you, Hugh J. You’d be surprised how many layers of clothing I am wearing these day – sometimes even in bed! Lol.

        1. Thank you, Paul. I didn’t understand a single word of the song, but the message was very clear and reading the message on the RHS cake certainly helped. Lol.

  2. Morning all (or, not so). Have read half the paper and it’s not a good day. Thought I’d post this lovely letter from John and Michael, who want to remove a statue of Cromwell to be nice to our Irish friends:

    “ The Irish press has reported that Paul Johnston, the British ambassador to Ireland, told an audience at Trinity College Dublin that Oliver Cromwell’s actions in Ireland were “completely and wholly indefensible”. He also quoted Winston Churchill’s A History of the English Speaking-peoples: The Age of Revolution (1957), which says that Cromwell had become a “potent obstacle to the harmony of the English-speaking people throughout the world” and “upon all of us there still lies ‘the curse of Cromwell’”.

    We agree, and think it is time to remove Cromwell’s statue from outside Westminster Hall, part of the original Palace of Westminster. After 373 years Parliament should acknowledge Cromwell’s atrocities in Ireland and his error in attempting to proscribe the Catholic religion.

    This would be a simple way of showing regard for the Irish people, which would do no harm and be well received. The statue aroused great controversy in Parliament even before it was erected in 1899. This is an opportune time for action, as it could be replaced by a statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who was a unifying leader.

    John Barstow and Michael Varvill Fittleworth, West Sussex

    Fwiw I am fed up of removing statutes. We should keep ‘em where they are, and if necessary have a debate about them. Grumping off to work now but will go in a different way and wave to Oliver on my way past. I am no Oliver fan by the way – I always secretly wanted Charles to win, even though he was clearly wrong. But Wromantic.

    1. I’m no fan of Cromwell, either, but no historical figure is perfect. Removing statues is just pandering to a few people in the present day. Statues were erected originally to praise the person to which they are dedicated, but can be used now to generate a debate on their legacy, good and bad.

      1. Red Ken Livingsprat, whilst London Mayor, complained that no one knew who the staues depicted. Perhaps he should have cut back on his taxi expenses and used the surplus to provide explanatory signs?

    2. Replying to myself. I can report Parliament Square is a mess but not too much traffic – presumably everyone is on holiday. Anyway, the below is why John and Michael are so utterly wrong, 20th April 1653:

      “ It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place,

      which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice.

      Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government.

      Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

      Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess?

      Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

      Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?

      Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.

      Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God’s help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.

      I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place.

      Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.

      In the name of God, go!”

    3. Couldn’t agree more, Mir (and good morning). This craze of trying to rewrite history or, worse still, trying to eradicate aspects of it, is down to the New Puritans and their excessive virtue-signalling. Mind you, if they pull him down and chuck him in the Thames then the rozzers will simply stand and watch…

      1. … “the rozzers will simply stand and watch”…
        And wait: carrying trays of coffee, hot chocolate and assorted bikkies.

      1. No, it’s a reference to one of the greatest books of all time: “1066 and all that”.

        The Cavaliers were Wrong, but Wromantic. The Puritans were Right, but Repulsive.

        I am going to dig it out when I get home and have a chuckle.

  3. Good Morning Folks

    Dry clear start here not too cold.

    Can see a Cheshire cat moon very low in the sky towards the south east

    1. The waning old moon rising just ahead of the sun is a very beautiful sight, followed a few days later by the new moon appearing just after the sun has set.

  4. The NHS can be reformed only if all political parties unite to achieve it

    What and lose the only issue that Lab/Con have to have a fake argument about every election while ignoring everything else.

    1. The NHS has become too useful for the Left as a political cudgel to use to lambast the Tories at election times for Labour to want to do anything to reform it and, with any attempt by the Tories resulting in the now traditional screams of “SAVE OUR NHS” and “THEY WANT TO PRIVATISE OUR NHS”, always orchestrated by the same vested interests of the Unions & bureaucratic REMFs mean that they do not have the courage to even suggest such a thing.

        2. Rear Echelon Mother F*****s. Probably of WW2 origin, but widely used during the Viet Nam War. It refers to those who, whilst on active service remain in the support bases away from any action.

          1. Base Details

            If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath
            I’d live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
            And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
            You’d see me with my puffy petulant face,
            Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
            Reading the Roll of Honour. “Poor young chap,”
            I’d say — “I used to know his father well;
            Yes, we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap.”
            And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
            I’d toddle safely home and die — in bed.

            Siegfried Sassoon – March 1917

          2. A similar phrase from servicemen serving in Afghanistan was the term ‘fobbits’; i.e. those who never left the confines of a forward operating base (FOB).

    1. Thank you, BoB. Keep well and don’t do too much heavy lifting and wall-building. Be like me and take the day off today.

      1. Already having a break from wall building, it’s too wet for that!
        I will be getting the woodstack filled though.

  7. 36987+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Wednesday 21 December: The NHS can be reformed only if all political parties unite to achieve it

    Ho ho ho, but they have been united these past forty years most certainly in criminality / treachery flooding these Isles with criminals / wanna be criminals, umbrella bearers for their imported paedophiles, re.JAY report plus strongly suspected
    herd cullers ( selective slaughters)

    Reality,
    Yesteryear you were sent in many cases to convalescent homes on the coast

    Convalesce Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Web
    When you convalesce, you heal or grow strong after illness or injury, often by staying off your feet. The related adjective convalescent means “recovering …

    Currently it could be said with all honesty these “homes” are filled to their rafters with, one can only take as being garrisoned foreign malitia.

    Militia troops
    A militia (/mɪˈlɪʃə/) is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need.

    That time could very well be fast approaching.

    2. Come on Bill, today will last for 24 hours, just like all the others.

      Shirley, you mean daylight hours

    3. Good morning, Bill. I think that Grizzly might correct you and say that you mean the shortest daylight hours since all days are the same length of 24 hours. Furthermore, if you look at daylight hours you will see that they do not start to get longer in total until Friday the 24th. But I know what you mean, and it is very churlish of me to mention it.

        1. Not at all, BoB. My birthday is always on the Winter Solstice (December the 21 st) although the shortest day day with the shortest number of hours usually varies by a couple of days or so.

  9. It’s war, and the enemy is our government. 21 December 2022.

    Many people today are convinced that we are fighting World War Three, and I believe this to be true. Our common enemy is not another militarised nation. Our enemy is our own government and those who are in league with it, who seek to forge a world which is anti-Christian, anti-humanitarian, anti-freedom and without compassion or empathy. The future this small ‘elite’ see is one of concentrated wealth for themselves. A future with far fewer people to muddy the waters. A life where technology is blended with humanity in the form of transhumanism. A cashless society. An existence where control and order is maintained by constant surveillance and monitoring of our everyday lives. Those who oppose this dystopian vision will be increasingly marginalised and excluded.

    This is all perfectly true of course. If there is an error in it, it is that it is insufficient. We are at the mercy of people who hate and despise us! We know from history what happens to marginalised social groupings!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/its-war-and-the-enemy-is-our-government/

    2. Morning, Araminta and all. Bright, dry and calm in N Essex this morning.

      Here are both a tough read and watch (video) sourced from documentation in the public domain. The authoress, Karen Kingston, an analyst and researcher, bases her thesis on information available from the USA government, the latter’s agencies, companies and institutions.
      If I have understood what Kingston is claiming, then, the idea of an airborne ‘virus’ spreading CV-19 is false and the many good people who are pursuing that avenue of thought and research in their attempts to understand the phenomenon have been duped i.e. they are unknowingly controlled opposition.

      Read here:

      Karen Kingston – Gain of Function mRNA Research

      Interview with Stew Peters here:

      Karen Kingston Interview

      1. You can, but you have to shuffle your cursor about to find the G sweet spot that takes the upvote.

          4. I cannot comment on iPad, iPhones or even iRons.

            I find that Apple systems are pretty incomprehensible to me and well over-priced.

  11. ‘Morning, Peeps.  And a happy Winter Solstice to one and all – but not until 21:47 today so hold your horses…

    SIR – I do not agree with the way Jeremy Clarkson expressed his dislike of the Duchess of Sussex in his newspaper column (Letters, December 20), but if we value free speech we should allow people to be rude and offensive provided they do not break the law.

    The comments were offensive, as are many on Twitter, but we should take it with a shrug of the shoulders and move on.

    Stephen Barklem
    Woking, Surrey

    Quite so, Mr Barklem.  Indeed, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was stirring up the ‘permanently offended’.  If so it worked a treat!

      1. ‘Morning, Bill. I thought that his ‘apology’ was deliberately OTT and was in fact mocking the whiners and whingers.

    2. It gets worse. Apparently MPs are demanding “something must be done” about Jeremy Clarkson:
      “ OZENS of MPS have urged The Sun to take “definitive action” against Jeremy Clarkson after his column about the Duchess of Sussex generated more complaints to the press regulator than any other in its history.
      The former Top Gear presenter faced a public backlash after writing that he was “dreaming of the day when she (Meghan) is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her”.
      He added: “Everyone who’s my age thinks the same way.”
      The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) revealed that the article had triggered a record number of complaints, topping 20,800 by 5pm last night. An Ipso spokesman said: “We will follow our usual processes to examine the complaints we have received. This will take longer than usual because of the volume.”
      The previous most complained-about article was linked to the Stonehaven train derailment. Published in The Scottish Sun in August 2020, it received more than 16,860 complaints.
      As the Clarkson backlash grew last night, 65 MPS led by Caroline Nokes, the Tory chairman of the women and equalities committee, said in an open letter to Victoria Newton, editor of The Sun: “Enough is enough.”
      The letter was signed by 54 female and 11 male MPS. Signatories included Harriet Harman, the former acting Labour leader, and Andrea Leadsom, a senior Conservative backbencher who has held a number of Cabinet posts.
      They wrote: “We are horrified at the recent article by Jeremy Clarkson in your publication. As parliamentarians of every persuasion, we condemn in the strongest terms the violent misogynistic language against the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle.
      “This sort of language has no place in our country, and it is unacceptable that it was allowed to be published in a mainstream newspaper.”
      The MPS said that “hateful articles” such as Clarkson’s column, published last week, “do not exist in a vacuum” and “directly contribute” to threats such as those previously received by the Duchess.
      They concluded: “Enough is enough. We cannot allow this type of behaviour to go unchecked any longer. We welcome The Sun’s retraction of the article, we now demand action is taken against Mr Clarkson and an unreserved apology is issued to Ms Markle immediately.
      “We further demand definitive action is taken to ensure no article like this is ever published again.”
      The Sun’s website on Monday was updated to say: “In light of Jeremy Clarkson’s tweet, he has asked us to take last week’s column down.”
      Mr Clarkson said that he was “horrified to have caused so much hurt”.
      MOs are too dumb to work out the “record number of complaints” are probably multiple complaints from grievance-seeking activists. But hey – “hate”. There’s nothing we dislike more.

      1. As was commented elsewhere; 20,000 complaints in three days? That’s almost as many as the number of illegals landing on our southern shores over the same timeframe!

      2. “DOZENS of MPS have urged The Sun to take “definitive action” against Jeremy Clarkson after his column about the Duchess of Sussex generated more complaints to the press regulator than any other in its history.

        I’ve noticed this sudden outburts of public consciousness about something of no importance whatsoever. There was something similar with Musk’s offer to resign the other day. Is this a bot program?

      3. Since ‘Game of Thrones’ seems to have been viewed or read by millions in this country, I’m surprised (not) that his reference wasn’t recognised.

      4. When the leftie comedienne stated on the BBC that people should throw acid in Tories’ faces I can’t recall

        Caroline Nokes MP objecting to it.

    1. Thank you, Alec. It’s kind of you to remember. And thanks to everyone else on here. I am now about to go off site to enjoy the rest of my special day.

        1. Thank you, Bill. I shall only go out to a brief tea and cake with a few friends today. But – as ever – I shall be watching a film on YouTube or from my DVD collection. Last night it was BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB which I thoroughly enjoyed. All the best to you, the MR, and the two little furry creatures.

      5. I expect you’ll be unable to escape my rendition of Happy Birthday no matter where you may be. 👿🤣

        1. Thank you, poppiesmum. I’ve had a great day, thank you, and celebrated by cooking myself a Beef Stroganoff followed by a Gooseberry Fool and a glass of wine. Now settling down to watch tonight’s comedy film called WATER with Leonard Rossiter and Billy Connolly.

  13. This is not just a danger to women, allowing autogynephiles into woman’s spaces is, perhaps the least of it, but a negation of what it really is to be a woman.
    With luck the people of Scotland will wake up and reject this madness.

    15-year-old children will be able to begin process of changing gender under SNP trans law
    Nicola Sturgeon’s government rejected pleas to make concessions to critics of its controversial transgender reforms

    By
    Daniel Sanderson,
    SCOTTISH CORRESPONDENT

    Teenagers as young as 15 will be able to begin the process of legally changing their sex after MSPs blocked a last-ditch bid to exclude children from Nicola Sturgeon’s transgender reforms.

    The SNP government on Tuesday rejected pleas to make meaningful concessions to critics of its controversial proposals, as a minister confirmed that Scots would become eligible to apply to change their legal sex on the day of their 16th birthday.

    Shona Robison, a close ally of Ms Sturgeon who is steering the bill through Holyrood, confirmed time spent living in an “acquired gender” as a 15-year-old would count towards a six-month minimum time period required by the legislation.

    A bid by Jackie Baillie, the Scottish Labour deputy leader, to close the loophole was opposed by the Scottish government. An attempt to keep the legal age limit at 18 was also defeated, by 87 votes to 37.

    Safeguards designed to make it harder for sex offenders to fraudulently apply to change their legal gender were also voted down on Tuesday, to the dismay of feminist critics.

    The proposals had been designed to address concerns the legislation will be exploited by male predators to gain access to women’s spaces.

    However, Maggie Chapman, a Green MSP who is one of the legislation’s most vocal cheerleaders, accused MSPs of sending transphobic “dog whistles” which “equate trans people with sex offenders.”

    A final vote on the legislation, which will allow Scots to change their legal sex simply by signing a declaration, will take place on Wednesday.

    The provision to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to apply for Gender Recognition Certificates (GRCs) for the first time, potentially against their parents’ wishes, is the most unpopular aspect of what is among the most contentious Bills in Holyrood’s history.

    MSPs who oppose the plans, including several SNP rebels, warned that allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to choose to change their sex risked encouraging them onto an irreversible medical pathway.

    Figures show that the number of young people with gender identity issues has rocketed over recent years, for reasons that are not yet fully understood, with the phenomenon particularly prominent among girls.

    ‘Bad faith actors’
    Ash Regan, the former government minister who resigned from government to vote against the Bill, urged MSPs to exercise “extreme caution” and warned that it was not appropriate to allow 16-year-olds to decide on such a profound change.

    However, Ms Chapman insisted lowering the age limit was “the right thing to do”.

    “Changing one’s legal gender is not something one does on a whim,” she insisted.

    Meanwhile, the SNP government was also accused by one of its own backbenchers of prioritising the rights of male sex offenders above women.

    Michelle Thomson, who has previously spoken publicly about being raped as a teenager, had proposed a change to the legislation that would have prevented those accused of serious sexual offences from obtaining a GRC before a trial.

    She warned that under existing proposals, this could lead to a female rape victim having to address her attacker as “she” or “her” in a courtroom.

    However, it was opposed by the Scottish Government on the grounds that it could breach human rights legislation and create a risk of the legislation being struck down by the courts.

    “My biggest concern about this Bill is bad faith actors, about whom the First Minister herself has recognised concerns,” Ms Thomson said.

    “In a court case won by the Scottish Government they argued that a man with a GRC becomes a woman for all purposes.

    “The logical extension of this position is that the Scottish Government also regards a man convicted of rape or sexual assault [with a GRC] as a women for all purposes.

    “Is that really the Government view, and what message does it send to women? Does the government understand that they are putting the rights of a GRC-seeking man, charged with sexual assault or rape, above the rights of the woman who is the victim?”

    Living in an ‘acquired gender’
    Alexander Burnett, the Tory MSP, claimed that the Scottish Government of going to “extraordinary lengths” to push the Bill through by Christmas in an attempt to dodge scrutiny.

    Holyrood sat late into the evening on Tuesday to vote on more than 150 amendments in a highly unusual timetable.

    A late bid by the Scottish Tories to have today’s vote delayed until the new year was defeated after it failed to attract support of other opposition parties.

    Ms Robison said that she did not support the attempt to raise the age at which someone could apply for a GRC to 16 years and six months, so that the time period of living in an “acquired gender” was not completed by a 15-year-old.

    “Setting a minimum age of sixteen and a half would be confusing,” she said. “The principle of the Bill is that someone will declare they have been living in their acquired gender… and it’s a retrospective look. The person can only apply from 16 onwards, they can’t apply at 15-and-a-half.”

    She said other measures would be put in place to hand police the powers to block a GRC application from a sex offender or suspect.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/20/15-year-old-children-will-able-begin-process-changing-gender/

    20 December 2022 • 8:20pm

    Pictures from the above give the strong impression that the Daily Telegraph strongly supports the SNSP proposals:-
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2022/12/20/TELEMMGLPICT000320240600_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqedkAEilW4a0ZEdF_CvTIr_4Xpit_DMGvdp2n7FDd82k.jpeg?imwidth=960

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2022/12/20/TELEMMGLPICT000320240649_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf6Aezwuvexs_ues-aCB_TCg.jpeg?imwidth=680

    2. There is a good picture in the Terriblegraph of a man with a sign stating the facts (men cannot become women) and a finger-wagging menstruator berating him. Her placard is all about “trans-rights”.

      The fact remains, you can have all the “rights” you want in the world, but the man’s sign is correct. Men cannot become women.

    4. Elsie McSelfie’s reliance on the Greens is proving to be detrimental to the normal Scots.

    5. I dislike the whole concept intensely.
      However, if the legal age of consent for medical treatments and intervention is 16, then logically they should be allowed to make their own decisions.
      But, as far as I am concerned, that does not mean they will ever be “women/men” nor should they be allowed into female/male spaces until all of their genitalia etc have been surgically removed/replaced and they have completed whatever drug therapies are required.

    6. Encouraging this child abuse is disgusting. No 15 year old is mature enough to make a decision to be mutilated for life.

      1. Stick insects are parthenogenetic.

        I think most trans people are self – deluded and trying to be something they are not. It’s a mental health issue. But many others are doing it to subvert young people into believing this nonsense.

      2. And apparently the sperm count in men is now greatly reduced and so men are now far less manly than they used top be.

        In his version of Herrick’s recommendation that we should gather our rosebuds when we were, as it were, still up to gathering rosebuds, Tom Lehrer wrote this song. But it seems that it is the younger generation rather than our generation which is now running out of time!

        Since I still appreciate you, let’s find love while we may.
        Because I know I’ll hate you when you are old and grey.
        So say you love me here and now, I’ll make the most of that.
        Say you love and trust me, for I know you’ll disgust me
        When you’re old and getting fat.

        An awful debility,
        A lessened utility,
        A loss of mobility
        Is a strong possibility.
        In all probability
        I’ll lose my virility
        And you your fertility
        And desirability,
        And this liability
        Of total sterility
        Will lead to hostility
        And a sense of futility,
        So let’s act with agility
        While we still have facility,
        For we’ll soon reach senility
        And lose the ability.

        Your teeth will start to go, dear, your waist will start to spread.
        In twenty years or so, dear, I’ll wish that you were dead.
        I’ll never love you then at all the way I do today.
        So please remember, when I leave in December, I told you so in May.

    8. Autogynephilia is the favourite theory of feminists to explain men wanting to become women, but I think it stinks of academia. Feminists also completely fail to acknowledge how the political feminist movement paved the way for the political trans movement.

      There is a known link between autism and being trans. There is also a known link between autism and gut health.

      Before running off with high-falutin psychological theories, some tests should be run on fixing the gut flora and fauna of men who feel disturbed by their masculinity (which is a horrible condition to have).

      Re Belle’s post above: we KNOW that many people have poor gut health. A little known study in New York in 2020/2021 concluded that there was a strong link between patients with the poorest gut health and those who died of covid.

      But this will never happen, because both sides of this debate have been hijacked by the loony left, who as we know, are incapable of thinking logically.

      1. But the Buffoon Boris Bonker-Johnson was persuaded by his woke wife to talk about toxic masculinity which was a bit rich coming from the Feckless Fumbling Fornicator.

  14. The NHS can be reformed only if all political parties unite to achieve it.

    Well its not gonna happen then, is it?

    Next question?

    I am so glad I don’t pay for the useless rag the DT has become.

    1. 369087+ up ticks,

      Morning lim,

      They are united, a coalition, on one major issue the destruction of the United Kingdom as was prior to the eu.

      Repress, replace, RESET has the eu as a corner stone.

      1. Quite. But NHS reform is still not going to happen.
        They have to keep the spectacle of antagonism alive.

  16. SIR – I have spent months ringing British Gas about my bills (Letters, December 20).

    The company has decided that, despite being a 73-year-old widow in a wheelchair, I am using gas and electricity billed at nearly £1,000 per month. This is based on an erroneous estimation of usage.

    I have grown accustomed to tunes and directions to press numbers for different reasons, and have written down the names of many people who understand my problem and vow to ring back with a solution. None have. I even managed to speak to a manager once, but she didn’t ring back either.

    I am owed a vast amount of money from the past two years, and am having nightmares and migraines. I stopped my direct debit, but have now been told that British Gas is going to fine me because it has had to email me about missed payments. I’ve been with the company since 1971 but can’t wait to escape.

    Susan Kunc
    Brighouse, West Yorkshire

    Let’s hope that this letter will finally awaken the BG robbers!  And if she hasn’t switched since privatisation in 1986 then she has been well and truly fleeced, poor woman.

     SIR – It was small comfort to read (Letters, December 19) that I am not the only person over 70 who will be without heating or hot water until January 6 due to a broken boiler. It is bad enough that British Gas doesn’t have enough engineers, but nor will it find an associate engineer using its “local heroes” service.

    Jim Ward
    France Lynch, Gloucestershire

    Call in a local firm and present the bill to BG under breach of contract – and then cancel it!

  17. Good morning Nottlers, a brisk, damp morning with the north face of Tesco Irvine ahead. I usually shop on a Wednesday morning as weekends are just mad. However, over the past couple of weeks strangers have been spotted in the aisles. Sadly those poor souls seem to get the trollies with the wobbly wheel and the duff satnav. I’ll be done by 10, then it will be time to start my Christmas shopping.

    1. The bakery where my daughter is working is insanely busy at the moment. They are attached to a supermarket, and the supermarket staff are pulling all-nighters and are even grumpier than usual. I shop there, but I always get a strong feeling that the staff collectively hate the customers.

      1. The staff at supermarkets make all the difference. The Intermarché in our area had rude and disgruntled people behind the tills so when Super U opened up a kilometre away the staff always greeted you with a smile. The result is that everybody has moved his or her business to Super U.

        Mind you some of the customers are very horrible, patronising and rude to the people behind the tills. We make a point of greeting them with a sunny smile.

          2. They analyse all the data and sell it on to anyone who wants it.
            For example, they know when a woman is pregnant by what she buys in the supermarket. An early mistake was when they started delivering catalogues of baby things, before the couples had even told their families, which alarmed customers naturally. So now they mix the information in with other things, eg in online adverts.
            What if your grocery buying profile matches statistically to that of someone who’s more likely to have car accidents? Are you really comfortable with that information being purchased by your car insurance and fed into the quote that you get?

          3. I take no notice of such things. and have never had a problem. I have far more other things to concern me rather than the marketing man.

          4. None of us really know how this information is used, or how much of it is collected though. I think it does affect us, but in ways we don’t realise. In any case, on principle, I don’t like sharing it.

  18. Violent incident in Rathkeale ‘absolutely unacceptable’ – justice minister. 21 December 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b13a27243c58b04507be79aeef2c695970da9c6a7d9b6b669ece26f8faa96e20.jpg

    Gardai responded to a report of a number of vehicles being driven dangerously on Monday afternoon.

    Mr Harris condemned the violent scenes, and urged those with any information to come forward and speak to gardai.

    Mr Harris said: “The scenes in Rathkeale yesterday were absolutely unacceptable.

    “This government is committed to building stronger, safer communities – in rural Ireland and in our towns and cities. Everybody has the right to feel safe and to be safe in their homes.

    “In response to these scenes yesterday, the Garda Armed Support Unit was deployed rapidly.

    Another report says that a machete was found at the scene and is simlarly reticent about the perpetrators. It’s more what is not said. The Ministers words have that opaque quality that we are familiar with here in the UK. I’m sure Nottlers will know what I mean!

    https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/violent-incident-in-rathkeale-absolutely-unacceptable-justice-minister-42232850.html

  21. Raining. Likely to continue all morning.

    I had a thought yesterday. The sort of people who ostentatiously wear or display Ukrainian flags are the very same who would scream blue murder, and call one a fascist, if one wore or displayed the Cross of St George.

    Funny that.

    1. I used to pass a van that sold hot dogs and stuff in a layby. He flew the Ukrainian flag and the Union flag. For the last couple of weeks the Ukrainian flag is nowhere to be seen. I did wonder if he’d woken up to what was really going on.

  24. Idle on parade this morning but Good morrow, Gentlefolk. Today’s story and Happy Birthday, Elsie.

    An awful crop of ‘Dad’ jokes

    When chemists die, they barium.

    Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

    I know a guy who’s addicted to brake fluid. He says he can stop any time.

    How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.

    I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.

    This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I’d never met herbivore.

    I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. I just can’t put it down.

    I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.

    They told me I had type-A blood, but it was a Type-O.

    PMS jokes aren’t funny; period.

    Why were the Indians in America first? They had reservations.

    I didn’t like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.

    Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who lost her job because she couldn’t control her pupils?

    When you get a bladder infection urine trouble.

    Broken pencils are pointless.

    I tried to catch some fog, but I mist.

    What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.

    England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.

    I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest.

    I dropped out of communism class because of lousy Marx.

    All the toilets in London’s police stations have been stolen. The police have nothing to go on.

    I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.

    Haunted French pancakes give me the crepes.

    Velcro what a rip off!

    A cartoonist was found dead in his home. Details are sketchy.

    Venison for dinner again? Oh deer!

    Be kind to your dentist. He has fillings, too.

    1. Well, it took me until 1.40 am on Thursday the 22nd, Tom, but I found your collection of funnies at last. And thank you for your best wishes for my birthday. I’m now off to bed and looking forward to your first post on Thursday the 22nd of December.

      1. 01:47 and I’ve just got back out of bed and made tea. Hopint that Geoff might have done a midnight ghost. but alas no.

        I may be late dans le matin.

  26. Good morning all. Especially to Elsie – many happy returns, 🥳 happy Birthday to you, have a great day.

    So glad to hear Ndovu has her OH home now, he’s probably delighted to be home. Look after yourselves and take things easy. Hope True Belle’s son has his op very very soon, bet he’s cross with himself over such a silly accident. And Ready Eddy, hope they sort you out at the horspiddle toot sweet. It’s all happening today.

    Have a great day all you Nottlers, and lang may her lumps reek (or summat like that).

    1. Morning vw – Lang may yer lum [chimney] reek. Well used Scottish phrase. Long life and prosperity.

  27. 369078+ up ticks,

    There you have it,

    ost
    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    Dec 19
    Please pass this on.

    The Euro Parliament, voting on a proposal from the Commission, wants co2 emmissions cut by 55% by the end of the decade.

    The EU does not have the power to impose taxes directly but Directives must be passed into law by member states. These cuts will mean higher prices for everyone & will effectively be taxes on individual energy & heating bills, & prices on everything else will inevitably rise.

    Britain is technically not a member of the EU but you can guarantee our Globalist puppet govnt (Tory or Labour) will follow suite.

    Meanwhile, the Globalist puppet Scum MSM will say nothing about it.

    Translate post
    MEPs vote to reform the EU’s emissions system and impose a carbon tax
    MEPs vote to reform the EU’s emissions system and impose a carbon tax

    The positive votes come two weeks after chaotic scenes erupted in the hemicycle, delaying the three key laws. #EuropeNews

    http://www.euronews.com
    Posted on 6:34 PM · Dec 19th, 2022
    53 Likes
    24 Reposts
    Yelik
    @Yelik
    ·
    Dec 19
    Replying to @gjb2021
    New World Order out of death, destruction and chaos

    Some Key Points.

    This is not about money or power but sinister evil sweeping across mother earth

    There is no climate emergency or global warming crises – only natural cycles.

    Polar ice caps are growing

    ‘They’ have managed to associate pollution with CO2 and is therefore a dangerous enemy of mankind – nope.

    Lowering CO2 will cause the planet will go baron, no food and less oxygen – an excuse for rapid depopulation by genocide medicines.

    The planet becomes greener with more carbon dioxide (it is about 15% greener than 20 years ago) which allows mother earth to produce more food for a growing population.

    100 global corporations are responsible for around 75% of all pollution which kills millions each year.

      1. And imposed from on high with no democratic vote too!

        Britain of course, voted against it a few years ago – but no doubt we shall still get it.

  28. I think this is a really nicely written DT article , it is kind and considerate .

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/21/minor-royals-best-british/

    “Of course, in this sense The Firm is like any other institution: so many of which run through the hard work of unseen individuals doing unglamorous jobs. Churches depend on people giving up their time as wardens, vergers, and church council members. It is their quiet graft that keeps some of our most ancient buildings in good repair. The bishops would do well to remember them next time they pontificate on political matters.

    This feels like a generational divide – and one I’ve been thinking about a lot since I lost my grandma this year. She was a stalwart of the community and an indefatigable volunteer who put in countless hours baking cakes for the church, Girl Guides and tennis club, and running the WI and local Country Market. What will happen to civic society without such people around? I am reminded of George Eliot’s beautiful words at the end of Middlemarch, “the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts … the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs”.

    We may not hear so much about them, but members of the late Queen’s extended family, well beyond the core royals, continue to follow her example of lifelong duty, as do thousands of community-minded “good eggs” up and down the country. All our lives are richer for their service.

    1. Hmmm. Bit idealised. They do a job – they are also very privileged, and the job is not about serving us, it’s about ensuring that they maintain that privilege.
      It was a fair exchange in my opinion, for having a neutral, stable head of state AS LONG AS the head of state was loyal to our country, and not to their fellow foreign billionaires.

  29. Seventy eight percent of British MPs are millionaires.

    Which makes twenty two percent who can’t fill their expense claims in properly.

  30. Boomers: “I can’t believe I wore bell bottoms!”
    Gen-X: “I can’t believe I wore my hair like that!”
    Millennials: “I can’t believe I was Goth/Emo!”
    Gen-Z: “I can’t believe I cut my dick off!”

  31. I went for a job at the Royal Mail sorting office yesterday. After the
    interview I was given a tour of the depot.
    I asked the guy taking the tour “What’s that machine?”
    “That’s the Acme 3000 Auto Sorter System. It can sort 150,000 letters an
    hour and it’s 99.5% accurate. It’s controlled by 12 supercomputers,
    each of which is 5000 times more powerful than an average desktop PC. It
    has over 15,000 state-of-the-art optical location identification
    sensors, contains enough circuit boards to entirely cover the pitch at
    the new Wembley stadium and it has 200 miles of fibre-optic cable. It
    cost over ?100 million to develop,” he boasted proudly.
    “What happens to the letters after it’s finished sorting them?” I asked.
    “We give them to a bloke on a push bike.”

      1. I don’t accept tips because the tipping culture
        indirectly fosters poverty and discrimination at the expense of
        employees who are not necessarily rewarded according to the service they
        provided.

          2. True though!
            One of my children was telling me recently about a min wage job in the area where the tips go into a tip jar, and the employer takes them.

          4. Yes. I had a boss that did that. Peter the Greek.

            I was also distressed in another job waiting tables that the Inland Revenue had estimated my tips and took £10 from me every week.

            I asked my boss for extra hours to make up the shortfall. Again i was distressed at the end of the week because this took me over the tax limit and i ended up with even less money in my pay packet.

            Minimum wage part time jobs should not be taxed at all.

          5. Yes, they should. However, taxes should be low and flat. Everyone should pay a flat rate of tax, at 15%. Nothing else. No taxes on fuel, energy, electricity. No council tax, no business taxes at all either which would make goods more expensive.

            In exchange, one tax of 10% on all goods which goes to the local council.

            That way you can avoid the tax if you want. I do appreciate that helps the rich over the poor – as the richer can buy better stuff and save money that way but equally others could save up.

            I find the concept of tips to be daft. How do you judge it? What’s appropriate? Who gets it? I got told off by leaving a tip for £20 yet others leave £10. The whole lark is daft.

            As with the strikers, the problem isn’t pay. It’s tax.

          6. If it wasn’t for my tips i would have been destitute. My wage only just covered the rent on a dingy bedsit. My tips meant i could eat.

            I tip 10% for ordinary and 15% for upmarket.

          7. As I discussed with a chum complaining about Amazon’s delivery practices, the problem then is one of competition – for the job. If anyone can do the work, then there’s an oversupply ofproduct (workers). Too many workers means low wages.

            (I present this as a simple equation, making no comment on the morality)

            While too many people (thanks to uncontrolled immigration) are distorting the market, wages will remain low and poverty increase. It is simply another bonkers example of government’s moronic policies.

    2. Ahem. I know it sounds nice, but OCR could be done by one machine with a couple of decent processors. What it’d need is RAM.

      And even that could handle 8 or more lanes at speed.

  32. Harry and Meghan have issued a press release stating they have now changed their pronouns.
    From now on they would like to be referred to as Me/Me and Me/Me respectively.

    1. There’s a post in the Wail about a carol having it’s words changed. It – and most everything else – brings me back to this quote:

      Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing
      day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”

      Then you think, forgive them, they know not what they do, but… of course, they do.

      The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”
      ― George Orwell, 1984

      The hatred of the Left is boundless. All they want is power to subjuigate others for their own vicious, evil ends.

      Only the twisted mind of the hypocritically insane could not see 1984 as a warning. The Left use it as a guidebook.

  35. People are dying because the NHS behemoth is broken beyond repair. 21 December 2022.

    The strikes are just the tip of the iceberg: the entire nationalised system is now starting to collapse.

    Johnston talks mostly about the NHS here but in reality the sub-heading, though correct, is in the wrong tense. The British State has already collapsed. It’s institutions are moribund. This does not meant that nothing at all is unavailable, only that like any Third World polity nothing can be relied upon except the grift and the corruption of the Political Elites. So long as they can print money it will continue to limp along just as it does in Haiti, Argentina or Sub Saharan Africa. It is when the cash runs out that the true state of things will be revealed!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/20/people-dying-nhs-behemoth-broken-beyond-repair/

    1. The cash ran out decades ago, just after Brown wasted it all. Since then we’ve been hobbling along, hamstrung, crippled, crawling desperate for income, having to go to the state for contracts because it has taken all the money in the first place.

      The public sector, having eaten the private is having the private hang on to it to keep going. It is an oroboros and cannot continue. The real problem is that instead of taking the eocnomic pain the state prints more money, devaluing the currency further to keep paying ever more people to do jobs that don’t need to be done to keep the economy going. It’s an elastic band stretched so far as to be useless.

      There will be no recovery. The economy is doomed. This is why the intent has got to be to go to the IMF to give them the power to force us back into the hated EU. This is what the state wants.

  36. People are dying because the NHS behemoth is broken beyond repair. 21 December 2022.

    The strikes are just the tip of the iceberg: the entire nationalised system is now starting to collapse.

    Johnston talks mostly about the NHS here but in reality the sub-heading, though correct, is in the wrong tense. The British State has already collapsed. It’s institutions are moribund. This does not meant that nothing at all is unavailable, only that like any Third World polity nothing can be relied upon except the grift and the corruption of the Political Elites. So long as they can print money it will continue to limp along just as it does in Haiti, Argentina or Sub Saharan Africa. It is when the cash runs out that the true state of things will be revealed!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/20/people-dying-nhs-behemoth-broken-beyond-repair/

  37. 369078+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    It is not the fault of unions if patients die during ambulance strikes, says Unison boss
    Christina McAnea says it is ‘absolutely the Government’s’ fault and accuses them of being ‘totally irresponsible’

    Living proof that zombies exist and the brain dead
    are active among us.

    Your value as a human supporting / voting for these overseeing type Zomz is precisely net zero.

    1. No, it is solely the ambulance and nurses who are responsible.

      The governemnt created this situation, but you don’t see car manufacturers, power engineneers, shop workers striking, do you? They’re paid less than you are, with no automatic pay rises. It is the unions trying to hold the government hostage by proxy. You know it, we know it.

      We’d all like more money. The simple fact is that my taxes have to be earned before you can take them for yourself. The government doesn’t pay you, I do. Through extortion and threat. You can be useless, yet you still get paid. If I am, I don’t. I see my income destroyed on diversity hires, green nonsense and other tripe.

      Over 70% of my income is taken in tax and now you want more for doing the same job, using lives as the leverage? Sod off. You want to break the social contract? See what happens when I stop bothering.

      1. This may seem pathetic, but every time I buy stuff in the sales, I ponder on the amount of VAT the government isn’t getting.
        Ditto goods from charity shops.

        1. It’s a good thought, but I’d look on it as the government already robbing us blind in tax so up theirs.

          remember that goods sold in a sale are still making a profit, just not as much. Now imagine the cost of goods if national insurance (a job tax), business rates, waste taxes, corporation taxes, insurance taxes, energy taxes, delivery fuel duty (and all the taxes of the delivery company) were not included. Oh, and import duty, because we don’t make stuff here. It’s made overseas – where it’s economical to do so.

    2. It’s the same logic by which we blame Russia for our refusal to buy gas, coal and oil from them. Likewise if the powers that be kill you then it’s your fault for existing because if you didn’t exist, they wouldn’t be able to kill you. Right?

    1. One of the few advantages of sochul meeja is that it comes back to bite those who brag on it.

      1. A new and decisive advantage of Twitter is that it brings much of the (substantial chunk of) news which the MSM has been hiding or lying about.

  39. Apologies if this has already been mentioned but …
    The appalling lack of editorial care in the DT has been mentionjed here before, but in the paper today is a photo of three service personnel practising lifting a patient up a flight of stairs – the caption says they are “from the Household Division” – odd then that they are all wearing green berets, two with Royal Marines badges visible and one person wearing a shoulder flash that reads “Royal Marines Commando” – the DT really need to BUFFS!

    2. “Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence.”
      Oscar Wilde

      Oscar Wilde is always blamed for quotations – Wikipedia attributes it to Wilde but I am not convinced that it is true. Can anyone furnish me with the context?

  42. 369078+ up ticks,

    You sure they can’t get this chap off on a technicality.

    brietbart,

    Migrant Who Drugged Woman To Death and Filmed Himself Raping Her Sentenced

    Italian court sentenced migrant who filmed himself sexually abusing a woman he had given drugs to and who later died of an overdose.

    Sentence complete will be deported to the uk.

      1. 369078+ up ticks,

        Morning N,

        You really must get with the program
        when did it ever matter what we wanted.
        He / it would be the one needed to make up another full battalion.

      1. The fact that they have the training does not mean that they will be authorised to use it.
        It would not surprise me if ministers refused permission.

  44. From the DT:

    University cancels dozens of ‘harmful’ words and phrases to avoid causing offence

    Stanford plans to do away with language it believes is sexist, ableist and potentially racist

    ByDavid Millward, US CORRESPONDENT 20 December 2022 • 9:01pm

    Stanford University has identified a host of words and phrases it wants to do away with as part of its “elimination of harmful language initiative”.

    After 18 months engaging with “stakeholder groups”, the 131-year-old university – whose alumni include Elon Musk, John Kennedy, Reese Witherspoon and Tiger Woods – has unveiled the results of its labours.

    The guide’s targets include “ableist” language that “devalues people who live with disabilities”.

    So, a “blind study” – which “furthers an ableist culture” – becomes a “masked study”.

    Similarly, a person can no longer be described as “tone deaf” because it trivialises disabilities. Unenlightened, however, is acceptable.

    No more ‘pow wows’ and ‘gurus’

    The university first revealed the plan in May and wants to remove the words from its websites and IT systems.

    The guide outlaws 13 words and phrases for being “culturally appropriative” – misusing terms with particular significance to groups such as Native Americans.

    Thus, the phrase “bury the hatchet” is excised because it appropriates “a centuries-old tradition among some North American indigenous peoples”. It should be replaced by “call a truce”.

    Similarly, a “pow wow” becomes a “get together” and a “guru” an expert, to avoid negating a word seen as a sign of respect in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions.

    More than 30 terms are deemed sexist, including “seminal”, which the university said reinforces “male-dominated language” and should be replaced by “ground-breaking”.

    Trans people become “non-gendering conforming folk”.

    More than 30 terms are deemed to denote “institutionalised racism”.

    An aircraft’s black box – which “assigns negative connotations to the colour black” must instead be referred to as a “mystery box” or flight recorder.

    Terms deemed violent and potentially upsetting

    Seemingly anodyne terms and phrases were deemed violent and potentially upsetting.

    “Killing two birds with one stone” was deemed to be an expression that normalises violence against animals, as was “beating a dead horse”.

    Even “rule of thumb” appears to have fallen foul of the university’s initiative, because it refers to “an old British law that allowed men to beat their wives with sticks no wider than their thumb”.

    Such is the university’s determination to avoid causing offence to anyone, even the guide was released with a content warning.

    “This website contains language that is offensive or harmful,” it says. “Please engage with this website at your own pace.”

    My, how frequently the first of April comes around these days!

    2. How stupid can you get? The “rule of thumb” does not refer to “an old British law that allowed men to beat their wives with sticks no wider than their thumb”, since no such law ever existed. Historically, the width of the thumb, or “thumb’s breadth”, was used as the equivalent of an inch in the cloth trade; similar expressions existed in Latin and French as well. That is the origin, not reference to a law which never was. Dumb Yanks.

    3. What will Stanford do about the name of its sports teams? The Cardinal; not plural, just The Cardinal. Sexist against women?

    8. Have they banned hysteria, as in hysterectomy. Defo sexist. One could say that sinister discriminates agains those of us who are left handed. Where to stop? Pure 1984. Happy to stop addressing negroes by the English translation.

    11. There is a difference between blind and masked – I would suggest a masked study would be one where the facts are hidden!

  45. WHO WILL RID US OF THIS TURBULENT PRIEST?

    Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby lectures MP for complaining about him ‘preaching from the pulpit’ as he trolls the Tories AGAIN over £140m Rwanda deportation policy for Channel migrants
    Justin Welby targeted Jonathan Gullis over criticism of bishops this week
    Stoke MP said there were ‘too many people using the pulpit to preach from’
    Archbishop: ‘Look forward to advice on what we should be doing in the pulpit’
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11561419/Archbishop-Canterbury-Justin-Welby-lectures-MP-trolls-Tories-Rwanda-deportations.html

      1. Recollections may vary – I was taught it was “turbulent” when I was at prep school.

        2. “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” (also expressed as “troublesome priest” or “meddlesome priest”) is a quote attributed to Henry II of England preceding the death of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. While the quote was not expressed as an order, it prompted four knights to travel from Normandy to Canterbury, where they killed Becket. The phrase is commonly used in modern-day contexts to express that a ruler’s wish may be interpreted as a command by his or her subordinates.

          Wikipedia. So MUST be true!!

      1. He should stick to the Gospel and leave politics alone.

        “When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders
        believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong –
        faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles
        and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush
        until it’s too late.”

        ―

        Frank Herbert,

    3. We need a King Henry: preferably II or VIII, although overall they did seem to be a decisive bunch.

  46. Volodymyr Zelensky makes surprise visit to battle-torn front-line city of Bakhmut. 21 December 2022.

    Despite almost constant artillery bombardments and waves of ground assaults, Ukraine has managed to maintain control over Bakhmut.

    Both Moscow and Kyiv have sustained significant casualties, with sometimes hundreds killed or wounded each day, in the battle over the town.

    Mr Zelensky praised the bravery of the Ukrainian soldiers caught up in the horrific conditions, faced by intense shelling and frontal attacks in fighting reminiscent of the First World War.

    There are many oddities about this war. The reporting of it foremost. The idea of Zelensky visiting under the conditions described above is like reading that Johnson is going on patrol in Vietnam or Blair leading the charge into Baghdad. Aside from the propaganda about Atrocities, Genocide etc, one of the foremost omissions is the lack of frontline reporting. There are no real time embedded journalists, just after action reports. Now I concede the need for operational security but there seems to be something more here. Several ideas occur; that the Ukraine army is in such dire straits that it cannot be filmed or that the army is so interpenetrated with NATO forces that exposure cannot be even risked! Whichever, I suspect that I will have to live another decade to find out!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/12/20/president-zelensky-visits-frontline-city-bakhmut-give-awards/

    1. A quote from an article by Henry Kissinger:

      The first world war was a kind of cultural suicide that destroyed Europe’s eminence. Europe’s leaders sleepwalked – in the phrase of historian Christopher Clark – into a conflict which none of them would have entered had they foreseen the world at war’s end in 1918. In the previous decades, they had expressed their rivalries by creating two sets of alliances whose strategies had become linked by their respective schedules for mobilisation. As a result, in 1914, the murder of the Austrian Crown Prince in Sarajevo, Bosnia by a Serb nationalist was allowed to escalate into a general war that began when Germany executed its all-purpose plan to defeat France by attacking neutral Belgium at the other end of Europe.
      The nations of Europe, insufficiently familiar with how technology had enhanced their respective military forces, proceeded to inflict unprecedented devastation on one another.

      .
      Are our politicians wiser now?

      1. Only that they are letting the Ukrainians do the fighting and getting killed this time for them rather than using their own citizens. I wonder how long it will take the Ukrainians wake up to how the have been (mis)used and abused by the west and NATO in their proxy war with Russia..

      2. Afternoon Janet. No! The generation after the first war were much wiser but sadly learned nothing from the second. The mini wars the West has waged since under American tutelage has drained them of all decency and empathy. They are husks of men. One of the main reasons for the rise of Women!

    2. A quote from an article by Henry Kissinger:

      The first world war was a kind of cultural suicide that destroyed Europe’s eminence. Europe’s leaders sleepwalked – in the phrase of historian Christopher Clark – into a conflict which none of them would have entered had they foreseen the world at war’s end in 1918. In the previous decades, they had expressed their rivalries by creating two sets of alliances whose strategies had become linked by their respective schedules for mobilisation. As a result, in 1914, the murder of the Austrian Crown Prince in Sarajevo, Bosnia by a Serb nationalist was allowed to escalate into a general war that began when Germany executed its all-purpose plan to defeat France by attacking neutral Belgium at the other end of Europe.
      The nations of Europe, insufficiently familiar with how technology had enhanced their respective military forces, proceeded to inflict unprecedented devastation on one another.

      .
      Are our politicians wiser now?

    3. A quote from an article by Henry Kissinger:

      The first world war was a kind of cultural suicide that destroyed Europe’s eminence. Europe’s leaders sleepwalked – in the phrase of historian Christopher Clark – into a conflict which none of them would have entered had they foreseen the world at war’s end in 1918. In the previous decades, they had expressed their rivalries by creating two sets of alliances whose strategies had become linked by their respective schedules for mobilisation. As a result, in 1914, the murder of the Austrian Crown Prince in Sarajevo, Bosnia by a Serb nationalist was allowed to escalate into a general war that began when Germany executed its all-purpose plan to defeat France by attacking neutral Belgium at the other end of Europe.
      The nations of Europe, insufficiently familiar with how technology had enhanced their respective military forces, proceeded to inflict unprecedented devastation on one another.

      .
      Are our politicians wiser now?

    4. Recently in a real world social gathering I expressed my doubts about the media reporting in the Ukraine, and I was told that the War would continue to develop, and I inferred that the situation (for everyone outside the USA) would probably not improve.
      I wonder if the USA has a secret strategy, agreed with the PRC, to crush Russia.

      1. The sad fact is that international politics has always been a ruthless and dangerous business, and it is likely to remain that way. Although the intensity of their competition waxes and wanes, great powers fear each other and always compete with each other for power. The overriding goal of each state is to maximize its share of world power, which means gaining power at the expense of other states. But great powers do not merely strive to be the strongest of all the great powers, although that is a welcome outcome. Their ultimate aim is to be the hegemon—that is, the only great power in the system.

        John Mearsheimer. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (Updated Edition)

    5. Recently in a real world social gathering I expressed my doubts about the media reporting in the Ukraine, and I was told that the War would continue to develop, and I inferred that the situation (for everyone outside the USA) would probably not improve.
      I wonder if the USA has a secret strategy, agreed with the PRC, to crush Russia.

    6. If pictures of the ruins are to be believed, whoever ends up running these places has a lot of rebuilding to do.

      Not much of a prize.

    7. As I’m at work, so can access RT.

      21 Dec, 2022 14:44
      HomeRussia & FSU
      Putin explains what Russia faces in Ukraine
      Moscow is confronted by the military capabilities of “almost all major NATO countries,” the Russian president has said
      Putin explains what Russia faces in Ukraine
      Moscow is well aware of the role that NATO is playing in the Ukraine conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. He urged senior defense officials to carefully analyze the capabilities provided to Kiev by the US-led military bloc.

      Speaking at an extended meeting of the Board of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Putin said that Russia is facing the “military potential and capabilities of almost all major NATO countries” in Ukraine, adding that this will not stop Moscow from achieving its objectives.

      He went on to say that “all information about NATO forces [and] the means which are actively being used against us during the special military operation, are well known,” and that all of this should be “carefully analyzed and used” in order to increase the combat capabilities of Russia’s armed forces and security agencies.

      He also said that the Russian forces have acquired a great deal of combat experience during the conflict. He called on senior defense officials to “analyze and systemize it in a timely manner” in order to share what has been learned with military personnel.

      READ MORE: Putin sets priorities for security services
      Earlier this month, Putin blasted the West’s policies of shipping weapons to Ukraine and accused the West of fueling “genocide and terror in the Donbass,” saying it is turning Ukraine into “a colony” and “is cynically using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder, a battering ram against Russia.”

      NATO has claimed that while it supports Ukraine militarily, it is not a party to the conflict. In early December, however, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Washington and NATO of direct involvement in the conflict.

  48. ‘Morning All

    Can’t bear to look at the news so you’ll have to settle for some cats and dogs……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f3f6de0465d1a3b318dab81a234af201da245a5bc3f3dc7f522f4fa11d124ae3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3de7baa1d5226be4b117e89577e2adbd4dfa51ec6358be0d69e8bdc38574f928.jpg

    https://twitter.com/Thund3rB0lt/status/1604920229234364416?s=20&t=9WuRkCUTsY0XTf3SQBNaRg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/129be40094a738210921a8ae5c3e3eed0c36c924a700634efe9deed83a61f2a7.gif

    1. The second joke poses the question: what is the ideal age for people to get married for the first time?

      We ask our groups of students this and the consensus amongst them has remained pretty steady over the years: 25 – 26 for a woman and 27 – 28 for a man.

      I was certainly far too immature and irresponsible to get married before the age of 41.

        1. Well done!

          We’re five years a behind you – Caroline and I are coming up to 35 years of marriage this Spring.

          One of my sisters got married at 20 to a man who was also 20. They have now been happily married for 66 years. My other sister also married at the age of 20. However in her late 30s she dumped her first husband to marry a man 12 years her junior and some of her children by her first husband never really accepted husband Number 2.

        2. #wetoo. Married for 54 years now. Funnily enough we were talking about how naive we were back then but we muddled through and still love each other.

          2. About the same amount of time as we have endured.

            You know that you are getting old when your son asks advice about retirement plans.

      2. We married late – me because I am a gorilla and she because of previous relationships.

        We were about 34 when we married. We’ve our tenth next year. I’m getting her a tin of beans.

          4. I am a firm believer in trying most things once. I treated myself to a small tin of Oscietra caviar. Around £50. After tasting it i could see why they recommend ice cold Vodka with it. I wasn’t keen but i wasn’t going to waste it.

            If i am doing canapes i like to use caviar. But i use lumpfish and salmon trout caviar. Not only are they very cheap but they are also not overpowering.

      3. Nonsense; your inner maturity allowed you to quietly wait until you met the lady of your dreams.

    2. As for ‘He knows when you’ve got snacks’ – if I cover Mongo’s eyes he assumes I’ve vanished and has this stupid surprised face when I take them off.

      1. Kadi stares at strangers in the cafe if they’ve got food (he has the sort of cute face that makes women go “aaah”). Funnily enough, he doesn’t do it to me when I’m eating.

    1. And Musk is too stupid to realise his Twitter poll could be manipulated?

      I don’t think so, I think he wanted proof and his minions are busily gathering it.
      Either that or he is becoming bored with the venture and wants “an out”.

    2. If there’s anyone who thought that social media companies were not corrupt and manipulated… I’ve a bridge to sell you.

  50. I used to think of Lewis Carrol’s Snark and give Snark Alerts when Nottlers came up with groan-inducing puns but I finally gave up and started making terrible puns myself. I cannot match Bill but some of mine are almost as bad.

    There are five ways in which, according to the Captain a genuine, warranted snark can be identified. The 3rd is the most salient here:

    “The third is its slowness in taking a jest.
    Should you happen to venture on one,
    It will sigh like a thing that is deeply distressed:
    And it always looks grave at a pun.

    I am glad that we have amongst us people to cheer us up with jokes. The Bellman was well aware of the need for these and always kept a few handy (like marmelade sandwiches) when they were needed:

    The Bellman perceived that their spirits were low,
    And repeated in musical tone
    Some jokes he had kept for a season of woe—
    But the crew would do nothing but groan.

    1. I suspect that the smell of vape-breath would also be an effective contraception aid, most off-putting!

        1. I can just picture you:

          ” sorry dahlin’, yer breff stinks, can you just hang on while I make a small cup of Miso soup?”

        2. Perhaps you don’t use the smelly ones, because I can assure you that it does linger and can be detected on someone’s breath.

    3. To be honest I do not vape – but I smoke one pipe a day.

      Mind you I have already fathered as many children as I want so my sperm count is no longer relevant. However, they say (and I believe them even if they are wrong) that men who go bald are more manly and virile than those who don’t! We must all cherish our delusions.

    4. It’s the chicken-and-egg conundrum.

      Does sucking a ‘vape’ make you brain-dead. Or does being brain-dead encourage you to suck a ‘vape’. Tough one, that.

      1. No George, having a massive MCI (heart attack to you) encourages one to give up smoking tobacco but a craving for nicotine still persists and ‘vaping’ is the only way to quieten the brain cells.

        One wonders if living in Sweden makes you nasty or being nasty causes you to live in Sweden. Tough one, that.

        1. I was a heavy smoker (real fags) until age 32, Tom. I started getting breathless so I visited a hypnotist, who taught me how to relax properly and eschew the taste (and my craving) of tobacco. I have never smoked since.
          You don’t have to take my posts personally, they are generalisations that are not aimed at you.

    1. Claims of a non-crime whch if properly investigated, probably can’t be substantiated anyway.

  54. Skin of teeth today.
    Wordle 550 6/6

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

    1. Beat you for a change!
      Wordle 550 4/6

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

    3. Par for me.
      Wordle 550 4/6

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

    4. Bogey Five today.

      Wordle 550 5/6
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
      ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
      🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    5. Wordle 550 3/6

      🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
      🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      Do you all try different starter words or use the same one?

  55. So much for Sunak/Hunt rescuing the pound. Look at the graph over the last few days – the pound is now lower against the euro than it was when Truss was ousted and it is still falling.

  56. Black Mould – The new cause of death in the home?

    Today, absence of ambulance can be a contributory cause of death. At one time it was COVID. Then it became vaccination for COVID. Mould then triggered a Strep A case which led to a run on antibiotics and now this has become a national life threatening issue for the NHS.

    So is the main cause of death now Strep A infection, lack of antibiotics or black mould?

    Surprisingly enough it’s actually home insulation because insulation stops heat loss by not allowing cold draughts. It’s actually draughts that provide sufficient ventilation to prevent moulds, stopping Strep A infection and therefore releasing sufficient antiobiotics which we shouldn’t be taking anyway.

    This guy explains how you can trade the cost of heating your home by not insulating it with acceptong the draughts and venting out the mould. This is a good idea to stop you from struggling to breathe and having to call an ambulance for a Category 1 call:

    https://youtu.be/8gf3JDjGBmA

  58. Lily Allen: ‘Nepo babies’ like me are scapegoats and deserve sympathy
    The singer said celebrity offspring benefit from nepotism and a privileged upbringing but were starved of love by their narcissistic parents.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/20/lily-allen-nepo-babies-like-scapegoats-deserve-sympathy/

    It is open season for people to slag off their parents – Migraine and Harry are trying to make it fashionable. Funny though that Migraine is chummy with her mummy (who abandoned her when she was a little girl) and contemptuous of her father who brought her up, loved her and paid for her private schooling. Harry is probably aware that there is no mileage in slagging off his mother who is too much of an icon to be criticised in spite of having numerous lovers when he was a little boy. But his father, who is admittedly boring, pompous and stupid, is bruised with brickbats incessantly by his younger son

    None of us is a perfect parent and none of us had perfect parents but most of us and our parents did our best.

      1. How CAN you say that? She has spent much time trying to SAVE the poor illegal migrants – often spending a whole hour at the jungle in Calais….

        A true hero of our time….

    2. Oh poor me. Nobody loves me. Sniffs. I am so unloved. Boo Hoo. As i jet between homes in New York and the Cotswolds.

      Too much internalising ! Try doing something for others and stop focusing on yourself ! You’ll feel better for it.

      2. “She’s the sort of woman who lives for others – you can tell the others by their hunted expression.”

        ― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

    3. Lily Allen’s father is Keith Allen: actor, ‘comedian’, and downright Pinko vanker!

      [He did, though, play an outrageously good Jonas Chuzzlewit in the 1994 TV production of Martin Chuzzlewit (the one starring the outstanding Paul Scofield as the title character).]

  59. Kwanzaa, a new one to me.

    Kwanzaa is an annual celebration of African-American culture from December 26 to January 1, culminating in a communal feast called Karamu, usually on the sixth day. It was created by activist Maulana Karenga, based on African harvest festival traditions from various parts of West and Southeast Africa.

    This not a religious holiday but rather an invention by black activists.
    Why would they choose those dates for any reason other than to piggyback off Christianity?

      1. Just for fun, here’s an alternative Christmas story.

        There is no year zero in BC/AD.

        His likely birth would have been September, due to seasonal issues mentioned in the bible.
        https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/when-was-jesus-born

        which would make sense if one suggested that he was conceived at the start of what was eventually to be the Christian New Year, ie the missing year zero, when he was in utero.

        Saturnalia was a big holiday and as you say they jumped on the bandwagon, the rest is history.

        2. Christ’s birthday was likely in the spring as the shepherds were watching their flocks- lambing is usually in the spring.

          1. I doubt they would abandon their flocks during lambing season, when they are most vulnerable to predators, whereas at the end of the summer before they are brought down from the higher pastures there is far less risk.

            Either way, I was merely responding to the Saturnalia comment.

        3. I read that it was 15th. September.
          But it clashed with Battle of Britain Day, so something had to give.

    2. Kwanzaa has been around for years; in my library I had Hannukah, Kwanzaa and Christmas books. They are all peaceful celebrations- or should be.

    2. The Western MSM said Putin Biden was about to be overthrown,

      had terminal Cancer,

      can barely walk and recently

      fell down stairs and

      defecated himself.

    3. The Western MSM said Putin Biden was about to be overthrown,

      had terminal Cancer,

      can barely walk and recently

      fell down stairs and

      defecated himself.

    2. That’s simple.
      American weaponry is sold to corrupt regimes everywhere.
      America abandoned God knows what weaponry in Afghanistan.
      Probably all brokered by the arms dealer the Yanks swapped for a basketball player.
      No doubt the Ukrainians are selling stuff on too, perhaps being broker by Hunter, with 10% for the big guy.

  62. Confusion and tension high at US-Mexico border despite upholding of Covid-era rules. 21 December 2022.

    Along the US southern border, two cities – El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez just across the waters of the Rio Grande in Mexico – were trying to prepare for a new surge of as many as 5,000 new migrants a day as pandemic-era immigration restrictions were set to expire this week, setting in motion plans for emergency housing, food and other essentials.

    The “West” is slowly disappearing. It will be gone within another generation!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/20/us-mexico-border-pandemic-expiring-restrictions

  63. Merry Christmas

    “arrested on suspicion of silent prayer”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5971dbd8222bc4aa5ceb43038f280c31f3113b97f2aeae84c71a42960cb5e4b2.jpg
    Jesus Wept……….
    Edit more detail here
    https://mychristiandaily.com/british-woman-arrested-for-silent-prayer-outside-abortion-clinic/#:~:text=British%20Woman%20Arrested%20for%20%E2%80%98Silent%E2%80%99%20Prayer%20Outside%20Abortion,praying%20in%20the%20privacy%20of%20her%20own%20mind

    3. Much better to do it noisily, arse in the air, on a mat, in a high street or a public park. No chance of being arrested!

  64. London to be plunged into darkness tonight as it ‘stands in solidarity with Ukraine’ 21 December 2022.

    Vladimir Putin ordered his invasion of Ukraine almost exactly 10 months ago.

    London will go dark for an hour tonight in a symbolic show of support for the war-torn nation on the shortest day of the year. Mayor Sadiq Khan is among those backing the event, which is the brainchild of members of Ukraine’s Parliament, in conjunction with United for Ukraine (U4U), a coalition of more than 500 MPs and MEPs of different countries, as well as the Mayor of London’s office.

    Lights illuminating Trafalgar Square, Canterbury Cathedral, Lambeth Palace, and the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh will be switched off at 8pm, with members of the public encouraged to follow suit by turning off the lights of their Christmas decorations.

    Almost exactly? Just about sums it up.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1712303/london-news-an-hour-for-ukraine-trafalgar-square-sadiq-khan-russia

    1. I expect santa Sunak will be delivering lots of luvverly weapons as demanded by the Ukes to keep the battle raging.

    3. Think I’ll go around and switch all my lights on in a show of the truth FUBAR.
      And there was light.

    5. Turning off tights illuminating Trafalgar Square and Lambeth Palace will hardly ‘plunge London into darkness‘.

    7. 369078 + up ticks.

      Evening AS,
      Blackout curtains don’t work against domestic terrorist and we have them in great abundance.

    8. A stupid and futile gesture. Ukraine will no longer exist as a country within a few months. Putin has a real army and thousands of advanced military vehicles and missiles.

      Ukraine by contrast has a dwindling army and a bunch of volunteers from the Foreign Legion. Ukraine has the promise of military equipment such as Patriot missiles but these would take months to organise and commission and in any event do not work particularly well.

      The massive sums of money promised by Biden and our useless government are being siphoned off and money laundered as has been proven in the USA. Check FTX and Democrat Funding.

    9. Since when did ten months (about/more or less) become an anniversary worth celebrating? I think it was an excuse to cover up a blackout because the lecky ran out.

    1. 369078+ up ticks,

      Evening LD,

      I know of quite a few that believe in the lab/lib/con/current ukip coalition.

  67. Interesting – I cleaned the computer and then just loaded the NTTL page without signing in, closed the window, exited the browser and ran Ccleaner.

    It found 120 trackers and I.0 Mb of junk. Shews you how much you accumulate, even on a clean computer.

  69. That’s me for today. Wet but less chilly. The stove is now working correctly – thanks to the chimney sweep.

    Market tomorrow first thing. Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

  70. Just got back from a 140 mile round trip in pissing rain to play at a Xmas party for wrinklies – a good time was had by all. Nice Xmas lunch with clootie dumpling instead of Xmas pudding

      1. I get as much out of it as they do. It brings them to life with all the 60s music I play – it’s reliving their youth. I have 90 year old groupies who are after my body but can’t remember why!

    1. Well he said that all his life he had been the shy type and that now he just wanted to come out of his shell

    2. I was pleased to read that your husband is now at home! I am sure he will relax and feel happier at home. Hopefully he will be in the mood for a peaceful and happy Christmas. Warmest wishes to you both.

      1. Thankyou – he’s a bit frail as yet but it’s good to have him home. Lily has hardly left his lap since he came home.

        2. Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice greatly! (I read the lesson this morning and I’ve been listening to the Messiah) 🙂

    5. U.S. Army procedure for removing shell stuck in breach:

      Put on helmets and flack vests. This mainly protects your ID tags.
      Kick the tube to dislodge the shell.
      Pour water in the muzzle . The water will hopefully get past the shell and form a cushion between the shell and firing pin.
      Detach the tube from the baseplate and tilt the mortar forward. Have a man carefully catch the 30 lb shell.
      Carry the shell to a designated disposal area behind the position.
      Reassemble the mortar and continue to fire.

      Brian Wheeler, retired U.S. Army Officer

  73. I have just watched a live feed on vivafrei of the Maricopa County Keri Lake proceedings, mesmerised by the competence of the expert witness on all things from cyber security to voting machines (from Alabama) and the condescending prattle of the District Attorney questioning him.

    It appears that the reason so many printer ballots were rejected by tabulators on election day was because the ballot images were scaled to 19” when printing on 20” paper. Other serious election malpractices are being exposed. It was compelling viewing and shows that the crooks running the election are stupid beyond belief.

          1. VPN is your friend. A few half decent ones are available, Proton is free for a single account with limited access.

          2. I have the facility, but nine times out of ten I find it seems to mean that I can’t retain logins/passwords/preferences, which results in needing SMS passwords to connect to things I use regularly, the PITA factor trumps the interest factor.

      1. Google is your friend…just enter Kari Lake, Arizona and pick and choose between headings.

    3. They are only stupid if they fail to get away with the cheating and they are brought to account and punished.
      That unfortunately is very much in doubt as 2020 showed us.

  74. Just got a Christmas card from my sister in law. She told me that she had lost both her parents in the last 18 months.

    My thought was why are you telling me?? at this time ??
    Send a letter or send Greetings.

    1. Quite!

      Christmas cards containing typical, typed, round-robin messages:

      1 Everything our children/grandchildren are doing is outstanding and you should be jealous (YSBJ)
      2 We’ve had another year cruising, holidaying and visiting said children/grandchildren and YSBJ
      3 I’ve found eternal happiness with my new partner/s having divorced (your very good friend, but they’ve forgotten) YSBJ
      3 Everyone is suffering dying and you should be grateful you’re not: YSBG, grateful

    2. Quite agree.
      I have a friend with whom I have worked and laughed for many years.
      I am ashamed to admit that I now dread visiting her as her conversation is dominated by death and illness.
      Look, I KNOW most of these people and I do not enjoy hearing about their travails.

      1. If i arrange an event and invite people i expect them to be polite. Humorous bitching adds to the occasion. If they rubbish my canapes they are dead meat !!!. Or eventually the next canape ingredient.

      2. To be fair, there is too much of it around. I know I am getting older, and so is everyone I know, but in my immediate circle there have been two cancer diagnoses and a heart attack this year. Just heard about the latest cancer case today. All multi-jabbed, though the numbers are small enough for it to be coincidence.

    3. ‘To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.’

      2. Sorry Tim, but I lost both my parents 40 years ago this past week, 3 days apart. I was 28 at the time.
        I love The Importance of Being Earnest but this year, for me, the 40th anniversary has hit me.

          1. It doesn’t- I think it’s the 40 that has got to me. If I am honest, I don’t really miss my mother but she died at 59 a week before her 60th birthday, Christmas day. Dad died 3 days later from an aortic aneurysm. He was 63. I will be 69 next month and I have, so far, outlived all my birth family- my brother died at 56.
            Life’s a bitch isn’t it.
            I am not seeking sympathy as we all have had losses and issues. Truly, I feel for those who currently have health problems and cannot get the assistance they need.
            Have a very nice Christmas Mola and best wishes to you and yours. X

          3. I believe that a regular Nottler is going through this at the moment (roughcommon?) his wife of 50+ years wasn’t expected to last until Christmas.
            My thoughts are with him.
            I hope I’ve recollected the correct individual and mea culpa if not.

          4. I am not religious but when I say ” I will keep you in my thoughts”, I mean it.
            We have some rather serious issues here at Lake Lodge but, as we are fairly young, we will try to battle through into the new year. We both have appointments in Feb but whether we can make until then is up for debate.
            Have a merry Christmas Sos and all the best for the new year.

          7. Again, I feel for you, Ann, I hear something underlying in what is expected in February.

            I’m sure you will make and continue onwards, please do – for each other – that matters so much.

          11. It was but after the funeral – Dec 30th- we all got pissed! My then husband, my brother and his fiancee – we needed it.

          12. I know exactly how you feel, Ann.

            I lost my father to cancer in 1955 when I was just 11 but my greatest loss was my Mama in 1980 – she was 77 and was my friend as well.

            I am the last survivor of 9 siblings and that makes me feel isolated and lonely with no-one to turn to.

            But, as Winston said, KBO!

          14. Abdominal aortic aneurysm? Can be fixed but it is a tricky operation. Worth knowing that it is not easy to spot via an X-ray, so ultrasound (sonogram) is better.

          15. Our surgery advertises a triple A examination available for men over 60 years of age. Well worth having. Alf had it some years ago.

        3. My father died in 1984. I met Caroline in1986, we married in 1988, Christo was born in 1993 and Henry in 1995. My great sadness is that they never met him – they would have loved him as much as I did.

    4. I thought that your sister in law would have mentioned losing one of her parents on last years card.

          1. Phizzee never stamps his cards, half the pleasure is them paying double postage for the disappointment.

  75. Sicker than ever, how d3pravedcan these liberals get?

    Just as Ottawa publicly acknowledges that its assisted suicide regime might have gone too far, critics have highlighted the existence of a little-known medical assistance in dying children’s activity book that was funded by the Canadian government.

    The Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Activity Book was first published in July by the group Canadian Virtual Hospice.

    2. Forgive the cynic in me.
      Why are people suddenly highlighting this book which, had they not commented, might have remained in relative obscurity?
      Now it will become standard reading.
      Who wins? Certainly not the children and the parents of those children that it’s aimed at.

      BUT, I would add a caveat, because I have not read it.

      If the children are in the later stages of terminal illnesses and are only going to suffer increasing pain, MAID may be a better answer for them and their parents, than making them suffer unto the bitter end.

      1. The book was mentioned in a article in one of our newspapers today.

        I have not read the book but the article infers that it is not aimed at terminally ill children, more a way to introduce kids to the concept of assisted suicide.

          2. I piloted a Dakota for a short spell once, long ago in central Africa. The proper pilot was drinking coffee and smoking a Marlboro with his window down.

          4. Flew itself. One engine fails then just return and take another aircraft or continue. Both engines fail and put it down anywhere with a few hundred yards of flattish land. I experienced the first scenario and we went back for the backup aircraft.

    3. What on Earth is wrong with Lefties? Are they so monumentally moronic, or is it just ‘dang, we got found out in our latest attempt at genocide?’

  76. Evening, all. If all the political parties agree, I suspect the end result won’t be good for the plebs,

    2. Socialist Dogma is incompatible with a system of running an efficient, patient-caring, health service . . .

  77. Well, that’s me for tonight folks. So I wish you all a peaceful and restful sleep. I haven’t seen anything from Tom (I’ve only read the early and very late posts). I hope that he is well. Good night, everyone.

  78. We went to a Christmas party last night at a neighbour’s place up the road. Lovely that we knew everyone and had a great time. The couple who held it honestly deserve an award. The rest of us just mumbled about “Would love to do it etc…”, but realise what a huge effort it takes. I was quite proud that we weren’t the last couple to leave. Talked about it at the 5 o’clock club beer this evening at the local. Maybe next year.

    1. Forgive me, but how long have we all been here? 6 years? WE’ve said this from the very beginning!

      It’s like ruddy economists complaining no one could possiblly have predicted that massive government borrowing, debt and then crapping all over the workers in the economy with tax hikes would cause chaos and a massive drop in tax receipts.

      ANYONE could have seen that! It was blinkin’ blatantly obvious!

  80. Yay!! Classic Disqus is back hit the dropdown button by your name and click classic disqus
    Edit
    Hmm not here it seems works at Going Postal

      1. I quite like that – as long as the names are small and unobtrusive. I can filter the talk out from the names more easily when they’re different colours.

    7. Worked for me! Thank you for the tip – that is MUCH better!
      With the new Disqus and one’s name in huge letters, I felt as though everyone was standing up in front of a crowd and shouting their posts!

  81. The time has come for me to go-
    I might be back tomorrow with a brand new show.
    Sleep well Y’all.

    1. Not so much of the knee-trembler I’d have thought, Mum but I’d love to make your knees tremble, but that’s just me.

    2. Not really scary, because she is hooked on to the waist level wire which is screwed into the rock. The really scary part would have been those brave souls who created the track in the first place. No, the scariest bit for me had I been in her place would have been my worrying whether a train was coming the other way when I approached a blind corner. Lol.

      1. It was scary for me just looking at it! I am phobic about heights (and immense depths) my legs turn to jelly and for some reason I have an urge to jump – to get away from it, I suppose. Not rational, I know, but these things never are. I first discovered this when I climbed to the top of Walter Scott’s Memorial in Edinburgh.

  84. I too am saying, Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolks. See you tomorrow on a day of, marginally, a few seconds more light.

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