Monday 26 December: Britain needs a war Cabinet to get to grips with the collapsing NHS

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

413 thoughts on “Monday 26 December: Britain needs a war Cabinet to get to grips with the collapsing NHS”

    1. Morning Minty. The warqueen wakes up and complains about Ozzie having had an accident during the night. That I’ve had a cold for a week is lost on her as I can’t smell anything.

    1. An addition to last night’s post: Feeling groggy last night I posted an early “Good night” message. But by the time I had looked up the Donner Party reference (fascinating) and King Charles III’s Christmas message (disappointing) I was feeling more awake. So I listened to Mark Steyn’s “Song of the Week” on Serenade Radio at 5.30 pm (“White Christmas” by Irving Berlin) and then I did watch Alistair Sim in SCROOGE which was excellent.

  3. Labour calls for toughening of Hunting Act and vows to close ‘loophole’. 26 December 2022.

    More than 430 convictions for hunting have been secured since 2010, figures reveal amid calls to strengthen the law before this year’s Boxing Day parades.

    Labour, which introduced legislation to tackle fox hunting in 2004, has vowed to toughen up the Hunting Act to close a “loophole”.

    Jim McMahon, the shadow environment secretary, wants to outlaw “trail hunting”, which generally consists of allowing hounds to follow a scent laid down with a rag.

    Labour said the activity was used as a “smokescreen” for illegal activity.

    Without being in anyway involved in hunting, or even one of its supporters, can I point out that this, like the original law, is motivated solely by Class Envy. It shows along with the projected Trans Laws the utter unworthiness of the Labour Party to rule the UK! In a Country and Society that is disintegrating around their ears they are concerned with irrelevant socialist trifles.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/26/labour-calls-for-toughening-of-hunting-act-and-vows-to-close-loophole

    2. …In a Country and Society that is disintegrating around their ears they are concerned with irrelevant socialist trifles.

      Of course they’re only interested in socialist trifles: having the Country disintegrate is THE PLAN. If the electorate believes that the Labour Party, especially under the leadership of the oleaginous Starmer, will improve the state of the Country then they will be in for a shock as great as the Johnson betrayal.

    3. On the other hand, in the Terriblegraph today:
      “The ban on hunting was driven by “moral outrage” rather than animal welfare, the man who wrote the law has said, as packs prepare for their Boxing Day meets today.

      Daniel Greenberg, the barrister who drafted the 2004 Act, said he was “troubled” by the law, as it did not show enough respect to the “minority cultural opinions” or traditions of those in the hunting community…

      He said: “I felt that the Act was driven more by a moral outrage angle than animal welfare, and that troubled me. The difference between a parliamentary democracy and a parliamentary dictatorship is the respect shown to minority opinions and rights.

      “Here we had some people who objected on moral grounds to hunting and other people who didn’t.

      “I think Parliament should be very careful before it just counts up the numbers and says: ‘Right, anti-hunters are greater in number than hunters, so we are banning hunting’.”…”

      1. It didn’t trouble him enough at the time.
        Kerchingggg …… another cottage in the Dordogne passes into English hands.

      2. Sounds like he needs the same amount of sympathy as the man who built the gates at Auschwitz.

      3. But that’s how labour think. Because all Ps are thick, and Labour Mps especially dense, and seem to have nothing to do (despite an energy crisis, rampant inflaton, crippling taxes, a forthcoming collapse of the most experienced and competent professionals in the country, ballooning debt…) they fixate on something their prole supporters hate – because they are ignorant as well.

        MPs should be hunted. I think this would solve many problems. First, they’re pointless vermin. 2. It’d keep their numbers down. 3. It’d make them feel how the tax payers feels. 4. It’s a damned good idea to teach them to stay in line.

      4. The antis (sabs) are relatively small in number but they make a great deal of noise (and can be very threatening).

    4. 369325+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,

      It really does amaze me that in the aftermath of mass uncontrolled immigration / JAY report, mass foreign paedophilia there was not an open season declared on bagging a brace of politico’s

    5. Well, her highness is saddled and about to set off on a rag hunt. No, it isn’t a smokescreen, it’s just a bunch of twits in silly clothes… silly tight clothes… belting about on horseback. Labour hate it because they are still fighting a pathetic class war – or more pretending to. At the moment they’re the toffs so far are they from the chavs, welfarists and foreigners they purport to represent.

      1. Labour is prejudiced and bigoted. The Banwen Miners Hunt are hardly toffs (and if they got out of their urban ghettos to see who hunts, they’d find a wide cross-section of society).

    6. As someone who used to ride to hounds (and is still a hunt supporter – I was out this morning, but not mounted), I can say that this stupid dog’s breakfast of an Act has done absolutely nothing for fox welfare. They are still shot (and wounded), trapped (and can gnaw off their paw to free themselves or die of gangrene) and gassed. Numbers need to be culled; as the advert goes, “eat British lamb, 20,000 foxes can’t be wrong”. The advantage of hunting is that it culls the sick, the stupid and the old (there is no welfare state in nature) so that the fit, healthy and clever survive to improve the gene pool. The Hunting Act makes the owner of two dogs a criminal if he lets them indulge in natural activity, but the Welfare Act (also Labour legislation) makes the same person a criminal if he does NOT give his dogs the opportunity to indulge in natural behaviour! Blair and Zanu Labour were a disaster.

  5. There has only been a shortage of eggs at supermarkets. Lots available from the smaller producers at the farm gate. in fact they are better than the supermarkets and fresher.

  7. March of the Technocrats Part 1: The roots of revolution. 26 December 2022.

    It might have ended there but for the creation of the Trilateral Commission. The idea was presented to the Bilderberg Group, an annual meeting established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America, in 1972 by David Rockefeller, chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank and Zbigniew Brzezinski, Professor of Public Law and Government at Columbia University. Encouraged by the response they got from that elite group they formed the Trilateral Commission in 1973 with the Governor of Georgia and soon-to-be 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, as the third founder. Brzezinski had already identified Carter as presidential material and Rockefeller considered him easily manipulable. The membership was made up of about 300 people from governments, corporate magnates and academia, roughly 100 each from North America, Europe and Japan with the aim of co-ordinating ideas and working together towards a New International Economic Order which has since morphed into the New World Order.

    Just a little useful information Nottlers!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/march-of-the-technocrats-part-1-the-roots-of-revolution/

  8. Good morning all

    Dull day here , 5c .. colder than yesterday .

    I wish this sort of idiocy didn’t catch my eye , but it sounds so much like the nonsense that hard working businesses in South Aftica have to employ.. workers that fit the tick boxing but who wreck competant working reputations .

    “Woke NHS bosses are forcing interview panels to explain why they have hired a white person over someone from an ethnic minority, the Daily Mail can reveal.

    A policy at the Royal Free in north London requires staff to compile reports justifying why the successful candidate was deemed ‘more suitable’.

    They must write to the trust’s chief executive with evidence on how they scored the non-white applicant and come up with suggestions on how the candidate can improve for next time.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11573591/NHS-bosses-want-interview-panels-justify-hired-white-person.html

    2. It’s a nonsense. Most of the staff at the two hospitals where OH was recently a patient were from any country in the world except this one.

    3. Good morning Belle.
      Given the unrepresentative proportion of staff that are effnics, it would be more appropriate for the panels to justify why they, yet again, appointed another non British person.

  9. ‘Morning, Peeps, and a happy Boxing Day to all.

    During the early hours I had the grave misfortune to listen to a programme on the World Service entitled ‘How to speak to a climate denier’ (BBC Sounds, link below).

    Now, before you ask why anyone would want to listen to such a predictable pile of horse excrement from the leading UK exponent of this ludicrous scam – well, I didn’t initially, but I found myself drawn in to something so hideously and completely biased, totally  fascinated by the sheer awfulness of it. 

    Here, we have the closed minds of various Beeboids pretending to have conversations on this subject, when much of it seemed to me to be carefully scripted. Apparently everyone who dares to challenge the ‘settled science’ of man-made global warming is a bigot.  Never mind if you, like me, accept that the climate is changing but not because of anything we have done to it, we are indeed all very bad people. And if you dare to suggest that we cannot somehow reverse the changes, and will certainly bankrupt ourselves in the process if we continue to attempt such idiocy, then you are some kind of certifiable  lunatic.

    For sheer propaganda lasting 27 minutes this nonsense takes the biscuit!  Needless to say, my complaint will be compiled and sent off today.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct3kk1?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

    1. Surely science is never “settled” – otherwise we wouldn’t have, for example, particle physics, as any fule know the atom is the smallest thing in science???

        1. A very good example. Let’s assume it is, and then find evidence to prove it.

          Sadly, such is lacking, so we change our hypothesis to… the Earth is a cube and we start again.

      2. You know that and I know that, but until the Bigoted Broadcasting Corpn is reined in or closed they refuse to know that!

        ‘Morning, SB.

  10. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – Andrew Pearse (Letters, December 21) is right – the problems facing the NHS are far too great for one party to address, though I was pleased that Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, recognised the need for reform from the Labour benches.

    Under successive governments, root-and-branch changes – from working more closely with the private sector to having a state-sponsored health insurance scheme – have been vetoed because of political ideologies, often within the NHS itself.

    We need the equivalent of a war Cabinet to be set up, with members from all main political parties. We need to forget political point-scoring and prepare to look at seismic changes within the NHS. These should include structure, efficiency, better on-the-ground training and management accountability. Given how much better health services are in other countries that spend comparable amounts, we can’t just drift along as we are.

    Barry Gibbs
    Wimborne, Dorset

    I would say that this is a recipe for a squabble-fest of gargantuan proportions, but in the unlikely event that such a suggestion gets off the ground, it should be on the basis that we lock the doors and throw away the keys until they come up with something remotely workable!

      1. ‘Morning, Belle. If anyone needs proof that the NHS bosses have lost the plot then this must surely be it!

        1. Quite a number at the NNUH. In the Respiratory Medicine dept there were three chaps who looked (and sounded) exactly like Indian Army officers. Short hair; brisk manner..

    2. Boxing day greetings Hugh.
      Barry Gibbs “…a state-sponsored health insurance scheme ” – isn’t that what the not insignificant NI contribution/tax is partly for?

  11. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – Andrew Pearse (Letters, December 21) is right – the problems facing the NHS are far too great for one party to address, though I was pleased that Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, recognised the need for reform from the Labour benches.

    Under successive governments, root-and-branch changes – from working more closely with the private sector to having a state-sponsored health insurance scheme – have been vetoed because of political ideologies, often within the NHS itself.

    We need the equivalent of a war Cabinet to be set up, with members from all main political parties. We need to forget political point-scoring and prepare to look at seismic changes within the NHS. These should include structure, efficiency, better on-the-ground training and management accountability. Given how much better health services are in other countries that spend comparable amounts, we can’t just drift along as we are.

    Barry Gibbs
    Wimborne, Dorset

    I would say that this is a recipe for a squabble-fest of gargantuan proportions, but in the unlikely event that such a suggestion gets off the ground, it should be on the basis that we lock the doors and throw away the keys until they come up with something remotely workable!

  12. Morning all, never usually up this early but I have a gig starting at 11am. A function for those on their own at Xmas, food and music (and warmth) in the local village hall

      1. Wasn’t too bad Sue, the weather put a lot off I think. Yesterday was just another day to me except more phone calls.
        Hope you enjoyed your day 😘

    2. Not a great turnout because of the weather but those that came enjoyed it. A party of about 20 from India came in, they were doing the NC500 but everywhere was shut so they couldn’t get any lunch so they stayed for 1/2 hour and ate a load of free food then went on their way . Home now, just in time I think as the cat shot out of the door like a greyhound, must have been holding it in.

  13. Have any of you noticed frost damaged shrubs and plants in your gardens . The heavy frost and ice 10 days ago wiped out quite a few in our garden , yet amazingly , a Mahonia is in flower and has attracted a couple of bumble bees and smaller bees , so that makes me feel happy.

    One of the front gardens not too far away, shows the daffodils are days away from flowering .

  14. Our core values endure with King Charles. 26 December 2022.

    The guard may change, but we see this Christmas that the principles that motivate the tradition live on

    Our new King began by paying tribute to “my beloved mother” and acknowledging the nation’s grief, adding that Christmas is a “poignant time” for those who have lost loved ones. “We feel their absence at every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition.”

    His Majesty has a deep appreciation of the importance of tradition – the military, the arts, constitution and Church – and for its ability to provide ballast in times of trouble. Just knowing such things are there is a comfort.

    If he did indeed say this then he’s either a fool or a villain. These traditions are now as dead as the proverbial Dodo! All have been Wokified and bear no resemblance to their forerunners. They are shadows of their former selves and in many cases their absolute antithesis.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/12/25/core-values-endure-king-charles/

  16. SIR – Philip Johnston (Comment, December 21) asks why Germany spends a similar amount per capita on health care to Britain yet has more hospital beds (7.8 versus 2.4 per 100,000 people), more critical care beds (27 versus 7.3) and better outcomes. The answer is efficiency.

    Fifty years ago there were long-stay geriatric wards into which the frail elderly were moved to free up acute service beds. The pace was slower and they attracted nurses who responded to their calling to care for such people. Some patients died there, some were discharged into the community.

    These wards were closed to save money and because they were considered demeaning. Of course, they were not as demeaning as what we see now – 93-year-olds on the floor for 25 hours with broken hips with a further 12-hour wait to be admitted.

    No efforts at reform by politicians obsessed with re-election will have any impact until there are more beds.

    Michael Joy
    Taunton, Somerset

    I think Mr Joy is confused. We can’t have beds without the staff to run them. Our (formerly) local hospital was built to provide 26 beds, but due to penny-pinching over staffing levels by the health authority only a maximum of 16 can be occupied at a time.

    1. I presume the penny-pinching over staffing levels is only applicable to the lower ranks in direct contact with the patients an does not apply to the senior Diversity and “Lived Experience” Managers?

    2. Germany uses an insurance model with a ceiling and state backing. Here the government tries to control healthcare.

  17. SIR – The mantra of the electricity industry has always been that electricity must be generated “where it’s wanted, when it’s wanted”. There are two good reasons for this. First, the cost and environmental impact of high-voltage transmission are huge. Secondly, there is no economically viable gigawatt-scale electricity storage solution on the horizon.

    The largest lithium-ion battery presently proposed has a capacity of 0.5 gigawatt-hours, whereas if the country was to rely on renewables during a future cold spell, such as the recent one, somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 gigawatt-hours of storage capacity would be required. Lithium-ion batteries are expensive, difficult to recycle, have a short life compared to a power station, contain highly flammable materials that burn furiously and use materials dependent on a fraught supply chain. They are excellent for phones and laptops but, as many drivers of electric cars will soon realise, when range degradation becomes unacceptable, their cars will become worthless and the cost of replacing the battery can exceed the value of the car. Using the population of electric cars as a means of storage would exacerbate range degradation at the expense of the owners and could render cars inoperable during periods of high demand.

    If the country is to meet its net-zero targets, the Government must immediately instigate a policy that enables the private sector to embark on a programme of investment and construction of small-scale nuclear power stations able to provide the bulk of Britain’s electricity. Large-scale nuclear plants are exceedingly difficult to finance because of the capital cost and long lead times but, given the right commercial and permitting environment, small-scale plants, as developed by Rolls-Royce, could prove attractive for the private sector and provide electricity “where it’s wanted, when it’s wanted”. Development of a thriving “mini-nuke” industry could lead to substantial exports and thousands of highly skilled jobs.

    Bruce C F Gawler
    Chippenham, Wiltshire

    Congratulations Mr Gawler: you are one more person who has finally woken up to our ‘energy crisis’! However, your cunning plan would require a sensible and pragmatic government, but there is no sign that one of those will appear, cavalry-like, over the horizon in the near future…

    1. Bit before my time, but weren’t utility providers local businesses? Mind you, that was in the days when councillors were men with bottom. They had lived real lives running businesses or were worthies who were with deep roots in their local society. The same applied to any women involved in local government; they understood their patch.
      “An Inspector Calls” has a lot to answer for.

      1. Before the war, the provision of gas, electricity and water was done by local authorities.

          1. They used to make gas out of coal. I remember the gasworks at Poole Harbour; constantly fed coal from Wales by ship, and , oh, that smell!

          2. There was a coking works at the end of the Teams Valley in Gateshead! You’re right! The smell was unbelievable – you could actually taste it!

          4. Where I live now had a gasometer in the nearest market town (dismantled before I came to live here) and when I was a child, I used to walk two miles with my mother (and an old pram) to pick up sacks of coke that were a by-product of the gas works.

      2. And their real lives often included war or national service, hence their sense of duty to serve on councils, and without the need for payment too.

        1. Although I haven’t seen war service (and National Service finished when I was about ten), I serve on my parish council without the need for payment (or expenses).

      3. My father knew J.B. Priestley who threatened to kill him because a girl preferred my father to him!

    2. Mr Gawler – we should build the power stations, but we should also build coal and gas as well. Reliance on one form is idiotic.

      In addition, while national batteries are silly, local ones – for each house – are entirely sensible. Combine that with solar as well and you’re getting somewhere.These, of course, must be made tax deductible.

      Now, with energy generation met, localised storage viable, we’re on the road to energy generating capacity and storage. However, the green agenda isn’t about energy at all. It is about retarding our progress and, basically, shutting down our economy: communism. To replace petrol we neede our current generating capacity again. To remove gas central heating means the same capacity again. An expansion of three times over at minimum. Therefore, the entire green agenda is a lie.

  18. Britain needs a war Cabinet to get to grips with the collapsing NHS

    It certainly does, we are under attack from the forces of globalism.

  19. A heart warming story about the NHS. Prepare to bang your saucepans.

    My elder son runs a company that is hoping to develop a machine which will detect a range of caners from a urine test. Long way to go but he is cautiously optimistic.

    One of his senior researchers used to work at the Radcliffe hospital in Oxford. His work entailed taking samples from patients to be analysed in a different department also at the Radcliffe. This dept was 200 yards away from the main building.

    Now you and I would assume that the researcher took the samples and walked across the open ground to the analysis dept. WRONG!

    The NHS “protocol” required him to contact an approved carrier – which would turn up from its hub 100 miles away, take the sample back to the hub. There it was transferred to a different vehicle and returned to the analysis dept – 48 hours later. This cost £100 each time.

    Envy of the World, eh?

    1. A psychotherapist nurse jokes about her paper work, filling in three physical forms, then walking them across to other buildings for filing – in person. She then complains that she is expected to see 5 patients a day. That’s possible, but the hour wasted physically creating and transporting doumentation is simply waste.

      The inefficiency and waste in that organisation is staggering. They simply don’t care. It’s not their money.

    3. It was once. The simple fact is the third world cannot be allowed to live here. They’ve got to be kept out until they show they can behave.

      1. “It was once. The simple fact is the third world cannot be allowed to live here. They’ve got to be kept out until they show they can behave.”
        Better, I think

  21. I saw the joke woke “king”. Bit of a larf praising our “wonderful emergency services” when many are on strike!!

    I always thought that Christmas was a Christian festival NOT one for “all faiths”. I wonder how WJK reacted to the heart-warming threats against Mohammed Salah – a slammer who dared to have a christmas tree and has been attacked and threatened by his co-slammers.

    And as for the Abbey “Service” organised by the PoW. What on earth was happening with all these mawkish pop songs (and their ghastly singers)? Someone should have a word in her ear and tell her to stick to tradition.

    1. ‘Morning, Bill. I know what you mean. Even Songs of Praise has, for us, become unwatchable, thanks to awful lighting that wouldn’t be out of place in a fairground, together with a band and a gospel choir…

    2. Ah, the Religion of Peace again, where anyone of the Muslim faith referring to Christmas is an apostate.

  22. Good morning to all NoTTLers. I trust you all enjoyed a happy and peaceful Christmas Day.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/501ef4a622613016182ae2a81d071b80dfa05b6f4605acab1ecee8c78d384c86.png This letter is so truthful. I have known for a long time that the country does not value talent and experience and is willing to chuck it on the scrapheap in favour of inexperienced and guileless “yoof”. Phillipa Dobson tells it exactly how it is. You get rid of the talent: only the dross remains.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee6b4e69f53d8368e7be5704b1988ef92d6d20da42e19158424bc453ed1e1f70.png The heading for this Blower cartoon (appended by the DT’s execrable editorship, not Blower, I hasten to add) amply illustrates my point. A proper editor with real journalistic experience (i.e. a true Daily Telegraph type of yore) would have used the proper English word bade instead of the illiterate and gormless “bid”.

  23. 369325+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 26 December: Britain needs a war Cabinet to get to grips with the collapsing NHS

    Slight adjustment,
    Monday 26 December: Britain needs a patriotic war party to get to grips with the existing treacherous conniving, deceitful, manipulating overseers cabinet of WEF trash.

    The NHS is a political tool and used as such at the expense of suffering among the peoples via the lab/lib/con/current ukip
    coalition party.

    The NHS although of importance along with the Russian / Ukraine
    war is deflecting material covering the rapid clicks of the WEF ratchet.

    My way of thinking this tory (ino) party are faultless at forward thinking making in my mind the reform party highly suss as a reshuffled tory (ino) Mk2 ( tis in the name).

    If the 2019 general election and the manipulation of voters was not a glaring pointer in treacherous politics putting party before Country then this Country has very little going for it in regards to patriotism.

      1. 369325+ up ticks,

        Morning Anne,
        So bloody true,the army have proved a success at the airports, so extend their brief to include coastal invasions ie Dover for starters.

        With daily orders from the PEOPLES RESET spokesman, NONE SHALL PASS.

        A couple of replica politico heads on pikes would hint at the PEOPLES RESET
        ongoing intentions.

  25. Good morning all.
    Downstairs is full of sleeping brood, so I’m upstairs on the laptop. -1°C outside and a beautiful morning so far.

  26. Morning all 😉 😊
    We are about to start getting ready for all the family arriving in around 3 hours.
    And as discussed yesterday over our quite Christmas lunch with my senior sister and her ex public schoolboy hubby. The government needs (PDQ) to get it’s arse into gear and do something positive before they completely wreck this once fine nation.
    Just got over an horrendous coughing fit. Last of the antibiotics today.
    And going to to have to catch-up probs tmz, as we missed last night’s very final episode of Doc Martin.

    2. Both my kids (18 & 19) have announced over Xmas they do not plan to live here* (though we are struggling to come up with anywhere else. I favour a couple of South American countries but will have to start looking into it).

      *(reasons given – they want to be successful and don’t think this country celebrates success)

  28. Regarding river pollution – we have left the EU. DEFRA could impose their own policies on water. It could repeal the ban on reservoir building. It could dredge waterways. It chooses not to. All to ensure compliance with EU law designed for *Spain*.

    Why doesn’t it change those policies? The intent is always to remain chained to the hated EU.

  29. Happy Boxing Day!

    Not a very good look out for King Wenceslaus!

    Britain will stagnate on world stage after Jeremy Hunt tax raid, warns CEBR
    Long-term damage will derail growth that would have seen UK overtake Germany, consultancy warns
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/12/26/britain-will-stagnate-world-stage-jeremy-hunt-tax-raid-warns/

    All going to the Schwab/Gates globalist plan. Truss had to be got rid of – her low tax plan might have saved Britain.

    Pound now at its lowest against the euro in 2022. Economy in a straitjacket with no chance of escaping. Well done Hunt, well done Sunak – just what your masters wanted.

    A couple of BTL comments

    Mark F Nowland : Every conservative on earth already knew all this. Which highlights that there are virtually none in the Conservative Party. They will be destroyed at the next election and rightly so after a decade of socialist lies.
    Time for a new centre right Party.

    Percival Wrattstrangler : Reply to Mark F Nowland – “Time for a new centre right party” – more of the right and less of the centre is needed to restore the equilibrium!

    1. The intent is solely to force us back in to the EU. That’s all their thinking about. Every policy, inflation, debt, taxation. All aimed at destroying this country solely for the intent of forcing us back in to the EU.

      1. In the disastrous event that they succeed in once again shackling us to the German dictatorship, it might take the wind out of Sturgeon’s sails.

  31. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story. Since it’s wet, white and wintry outside and Boxing Day is often flat after Christmas Day, a suitable story:

    Naming Drugs

    All drugs have two names, a trade name and generic name.

    Example, the trade name is Tylenol and its generic name is Acetaminophen…
    Aleve is also called Naproxen.
    Amoxil is also called Amoxicillin and Advil is also called Ibuprofen.

    The FDA had been looking for a generic name for Viagra.
    After careful consideration by a team of government experts, it recently
    announced that it has settled on the generic name of Mycoxafloppin.

    Also considered were Mycoxafailin, Mydixadrupin, Mydixarizin, Dixafix, and of course, Ibepokin.

    Pfizer Corp. announced today that Viagra will soon be available in liquid form, and will be marketed by Pepsi Cola as a power beverage suitable for use as a mixer.

    It will now be possible for a man to literally pour himself a stiff one.

    Obviously, we can no longer call this a soft drink, and it gives new meaning to the names of ‘cocktails’, ‘highballs’ and just a good old-fashioned ‘stiff drink’.

    Pepsi will market the new concoction by the name of: MOUNT & DO.

    Thought for the day: There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer’s research.

    This means that by 2030, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with either or both of them.

    1. Good morning all and a Very Special thank you to Tom, our resident belly laugh maker in chief 😂😉😂. Tom the Tease has excelled himself this morning and I for one am hugely grateful for his ticklers! Hope you had an enjoyable day yesterday, Tom, and thanks for keeping my chuckle meter topped up xxx.

  32. ’tis the season to be racist

    Turning your Christmas tree racist is a new tradition ably fostered by the fun antiwhite financial pogrom-fest that is Black Lives Matter’s annual BlackXmas campaign, first born in 2014. Lasting, appropriately enough, from Black Friday until New Year’s Day, this crazed Christmas crusade encourages individuals to, as BLM’s L.A. branch put it in their weekly email on 8 December, “BUILD BLACK. BUY BLACK. BANK BLACK.”
    “For BLM, Christmas is capitalism, and capitalism is whiteness.”
    The basic idea is to get black people to racially discriminate against white people (or gullible white people to racially discriminate against themselves) by refusing to give them any of their valuable gift-purchasing funds. Doing so is to “reject white capitalism” by “circulat[ing] our dollars within our own community!” thereby to transfer their cash “away from white corporate institutions [and banks] that harm our people,” mirroring the similar “Divest From Israel” campaign.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/tis-the-season-to-be-racist/

  33. Either way, fraud, bribery, embezzlement, and all the other synonyms for “stealing” are alive and well in the E.U., although the Qataris are less than ecstatic about the accusations. They have hinted to Europe that, hey, that’s a nice source of heat and light you have there, it would be a shame if anything happened to it, Qatar being to liquefied gas as Saudi Arabia is to crude oil. If bribes were taken by E.U. politicians, the cost to the recipients might be a little more than a cozy stretch in a comfortable Euro-jail when several million cold Europeans turn up in Brussels with blazing torches not designed to keep them warm.

    If only!

    https://www.takimag.com/article/euro-scandal/

  34. ‘Morning All

    Topical laffs

    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguXevEQDPqGNZLk-oQ_RqpVhY1gdQO4w4wHL3jTQhzuU9XTOPLs9cqxJUBWIlo40z7pBZLOxUvNZ3mqB7x5f-v-gynWUYxvqvMdb-ZcomULMqN6gNZ-ph2aioRWpykngETcmgXg3vBbznjGlpY9KC7rPAxWrUMLY2b91VxMgeYo0ekpQNC_hKjh80D6g/s563/90miles364be576eaef6a7382a7fccb9616058e_889bd680_640.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7290af9ffc1392bba0135367c0a23c15a5c6b97d1850c7fadfafe2cf5936c65d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c437649b2d9a0d62a5b15bc2a4c1cd59ca6f4a71db2dbb08d9aabf6366fd4c81.jpg

    Final Risky One………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d1256ceb08567e0287bc38c12a0b064ec0f0baf4a55227711998a51f26c1d4f.jpg

        1. I’m a transphobic reactionary bigot, Tom. I assume pink top, fluffy slippers and blonde pony tail equals girl.

    2. Apropos my story yesterday, it seems the cost of entry to a Wendyball game is often between £60 – £100, yet the mug ‘fans’ pay up to keep the ‘business’ running and paying eye-watering salaries.

      Sport, it is not.

      1. And people who pay £100 to see a ball game are often the first to bitch about the cost of opera tickets.

  35. Nightmare thought for today:

    If King Charles lives to be as old as his father we are going to have another 25 years of him.

    1. Good morning Rastus.
      What a terrible thought. He’d wear out his wringing do-gooder hands long before that time is up. Compared to the long and devoted service from his late mother, he is such a let-down. I suspect support for the monarchy will decline.

    2. I had a vision of him out in the garden talking to his plants, when a gust of wind takes him by the ears and drives him into the ground like a corkscrew. A fitting end to a ‘wet’ lettuce.

    3. He has always acted as though he was much older than his father. The quavering “I’m a very old man” voice etc.

      He’ll not make old bones. The trouble is that woke William will be far, far worse.

      1. My father had his eye on a rather nice clock of Cousin Jim’s. Cousin Jim, an archtect, was given 6 months to live when he was 28 and then went and lived to the age of 93 having given the clock to Uncle Basil, my father’s brother, who was a doctor in Norwich

      2. My father had his eye on a rather nice clock of Cousin Jim’s. Cousin Jim, an archtect, was given 6 months to live when he was 28 and then went and lived to the age of 93 having given the clock to Uncle Basil, my father’s brother, who was a doctor in Norwich

      3. Wouldn’t it be nice to see them both go under an avalanche at Davos. It’s being so charitable that keeps me…

          1. Yes, checked out this morning and got the tube home. It was a comfortable stay – bed comfortable, food good, staff cheerful – but their WiFi is a bit iffy!

    2. Science, by it’s very nature cannot be settled. What you do is gather more data to add weight to the hypothesis, but that

      data must be constantly challenged.

      Anything else is religion.

      1. As I keep repeating: “Better the question that cannot be answered than the answer that cannot be questioned” – Richard Feynman.

        1. He, however, was a scientist. The Left wing climate change fanatics are priests.

          They cannot allow their religion to be challenged lest the truth come out – that the emperor is wearing no clothes and that climate change is, and has always been a tax scam for moving money from the worker to the state as a form of social control.

          1. It’s Communism. They know people don’t like it, so they found another way of reintroducing it. They aren’t priests, but commisars, champing at the bit for neckshots for those that don’t comply.

          2. I’ve taken the opportunity to publish this, on that Platform, slagging Climate Change:

            Climate Change and You

            The climate ‘science’ is wrong. CO2 being 0.04% of the atmosphere is a cause for good, as it is essential for plant life.

            The atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen. The remaining 1% are various trace elements of which CO2 is but a small part.

            The greatest cause of any change in the Earth’s climate, is due to the cyclical nature of the Sun’s phases, which may lead to vast differences between ice ages and continual heatwaves.

            Please feel free to copy and paste this anywhere appropriate.

  37. Stepped out of the door last night, heading for the pub, and I saw Santa steadily heading home after delivering all those parcels. It was probably only the Space Station but it cheered me up no end.

    1. The next time they demand more money for ‘the arts’ perhaps they should be asekd why they’ve wasted so much on Left wing propaganda?

  39. Hi, just wanted to take a minute to wish you a very merry Christmas and a
    happy year, most of all good health! These days people don’t spend much
    time or thought on some personal words to their colleagues,friends and
    family, they just copy and paste some random message and send it on. So
    after all we’ve been though together this year I want to thank you for
    your friendship and wish you a happy and fulfilling 2023 – you’re the
    best gymnastics group anyone could ask for. Best wishes, Barbara.

    3. Would it be OK if I copied and pasted that, and sent it on? Changing the name, of course…!!

        1. No, it’s stopped just to give contrast and make you even more depressed when it restarts.

      1. I agree. The man is a cad. You should demand satisfaction and challenge him, pistols or épées, at dawn.

          4. Oh, come on Grizz. What do dogs look like when they left their legs to pee???

            It must be the slivovit that is slowing you brain…{:¬))

          6. … and Slivovitz is from the countries that make up the old Yugoslavia. Swedes drink snaps (which is different from the German schnapps).

          9. Indeed it is, Tom, and not nearly as nice as the liqueur I have made this autumn from damsons steeped in vodka. It is delicious.

    1. A chum tried to use Evri to send a parcel. As can be imagined, it went missing. She’s tried opening a case for it and they keep refusing to do so, saying it is in transit. The entire system is a farce of canned responses, lies and deceit.

      1. Vax sent a replacement battery for our Blade cleaner – in early November. I got onto them a few weeks ago to tell them it didn’t arrive, so they have sent another. The first one arrived last Thursday – thrown onto our drive.

    2. A chum tried to use Evri to send a parcel. As can be imagined, it went missing. She’s tried opening a case for it and they keep refusing to do so, saying it is in transit. The entire system is a farce of canned responses, lies and deceit.

  43. Just dashing off to be fed by mugs good friends. If you’ve already read this, my apologies for the brain fart.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/25/publishing-covid-model-data-stopped-no-longer-necessary/

    “Publishing Covid model data to be stopped because it is ‘no longer necessary’

    Last model will come out in January as Government looks to distribute resources more equally

    By Joe Pinkstone, Science Correspondent25 December 2022 • 7:00pm

    The Government is normalising Covid so they can use resources more equally with other viruses

    The Government is normalising Covid so they can use resources more equally with other viruses

    The Government will stop publishing Covid modelling in the new year, The Telegraph understands.

    Officials at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) say it is “no longer necessary” to issue updates on the R rate or to release modelling projecting death and hospitalisation numbers.

    The move is understood to be part of the Government’s normalisation of Covid-19 in society and desire to treat the coronavirus in the same way as other viruses, such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or flu, as the UK moves away from the now culturally ingrained hyper-awareness of epidemiological fluctuations.

    Modelling and the role it played in how decisions were made by the Government will likely feature in the Covid inquiry, chaired by Baroness Hallett, which will resume in February.

    Three years of models

    The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and the UKHSA have been producing Covid models and projections for almost three years which have been integral to policy decisions.

    “[The UKHSA] took over the medium-term projections and R estimates some time earlier this year,” Prof John Edmunds, an epidemiologist at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and long-serving scientific pandemic influenza modelling group (SPI-M) member, told the Telegraph.

    The final document providing Covid modelling information will be on Jan 6, 2023, almost three years after government scientific advisers first convened in an “extraordinary meeting” on Jan 13, 2020 to discuss the emergence of the “Wuhan novel coronavirus”.

    Risk to the UK population was said to be “very low” at the time but, by March 2020 the UK was in lockdown and SAGE was meeting regularly with modelling a central component of the Government response.

    Government’s Covid-19 modellers

    Among the list of attendees at this inaugural Covid – although that name did not yet exist at the time – meeting was Prof Peter Horby, who would later be given a knighthood for finding drugs that help treat Covid; Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, who was instrumental in ensuring the UK got the best Covid vaccines as soon as possible as deputy chief medical officer and has also been awarded a knighthood; Prof Neil Ferguson, whose 2020 model of up to 500,000 Britons dying of Covid played a role in the UK going into lockdown; and Prof Edmunds, a central figure behind some of the most pivotal models created throughout the pandemic.

    Prof Wei Shen Lim, head of the JCVI that would later give rulings on who got what vaccine and when, was invited but unable to attend and sent his apologies, official minutes show.

    In the latest documents put out by UKHSA they state that the EMRG’s next publication of projections for Covid hospitalisations and deaths and the “consensus statement on Covid-19” on January 6 “will be the last”.

    The documents include up to date information on the R rate, which was once the most important figure in the fight against the virus; the growth rate, which reveals how much the number of infections is increasing every day; how many people are infected every day; and trends in hospitalisations and deaths from Covid and regional breakdowns.

    Latest R rate figures

    Current figures show the R rate is between 0.8 and 1.2 in Britain, the growth rate is between -4 and +3 per cent, and there are around 100,000 new infections a day.

    These figures have been relatively stable for several months and will remain so now that life is back to normal post-lockdowns.

    “During the pandemic, the R value, growth rate and medium-term projection served as useful indicators to inform public health action and government decisions,” Dr Nick Watkins, chair of the epidemiology modelling review group and chief data scientist at the UKHSA told the Telegraph.

    “Now that vaccines and therapeutics have allowed us to move to a phase where we are living with Covid-19, with surveillance scaled down but still closely monitored through a number of different indicators, the publication of this specific data is no longer necessary.

    “We continue to monitor Covid-19 activity in a similar way to how we monitor a number of other common illnesses and diseases.

    “All data publications are kept under constant review and this modelling data can be reintroduced promptly if needed, for example, if a new variant of concern was to be identified.”

    The data analysis work will continue behind the scenes, the Telegraph understands, but the documents and numbers will no longer be published for the public to see.

    Weekly updates from the UKHSA on flu and Covid will still be published tracking what is happening, and the ONS Covid Infection Survey is slated to keep running also, providing information on how many people have the virus at any one time.

    The Covid dashboard, no longer the omniscient force it once was as a result of free testing ending, will also continue to operate but is expected to be rejigged in the new year also.

    Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said this move by the UKHSA was “perfectly acceptable” as long as the analysis continues behind the scenes.

    “We don’t have regular updates on the UK’s flu or RSV numbers and as we have seen with the recent Group A Strep (iGAS) story, it’s highly unusual to have such granular data,” he said.

    “The data will, I imagine, still be collected, just not published. The funds can probably be used more effectively elsewhere.” “

        1. In his many computer models in the past it has always been proven that they are wrong.

          Yet the Government is still anxious to believe his predictions.

          1. The Gates Foundation website, when I last looked, listed regular donations of £3m and £4m to “Professor Neil Ferguson and Imperial College”. However the funds are shared, Imperial will want to keep it coming?

        2. I contacted him a while ago and asked, very civilly, to see the validation work on his model. Answer came there none.
          In contrast, the FHI model, made in Norway, had the data and modelling method described in our version of the Sun, and the daily infection count and the model predicted figures published daily in the newspapers. So, it was all open, and daily you could see how well the prediction matched reality.
          Wonder why that wasn’t demanded over in the UK?

      2. They are continually updating the climate emergency projections, maybe he can model the end of the world for them.

    3. 369325+ up ticks,

      Anne,

      “The funds can probably be used more effectively elsewhere.”

      China, Pakistan,Ukraine, etc,etc.

    4. I’ve been told by 2 NHS insiders that they’re only pushing the vaccines so much because they literally have millions and millions to get rid of and that very few people are taking up their offers/bullying to get jabbed.
      .

      2. WE have had no flue jabs or covid jabs. We both went down with the flu, 3 weeks and we have recovered no jabs no doctors no testa no nothing, just rest and time.

  44. “London’s WORST boroughs for knife crime revealed: Capital had more reports of bladed weapons than any other city in 12 months at 13,405 – with Southwark, Westminster and Croydon having the most dangerous streets”

    “Learn to live with it,” © Caliph of Londonistan.

    1. All part of living in a big city, didn’t he also say?

      Yet… who are the victims? Who are the killers? There’s a clear common theme, and a common problem.

          1. Thy can issue fines for that. It’s utterly hypocritical. They ignore criminal activity, threaten those honking – specifically using threats against them for not doing their job, then they set about arresting those they politically disagree with.

            There can be no respect for plod while they don’t do their job or worse, choose how to interpret the law for one group against another.

          2. Sitting here in my rather chilly can be cosy zone , I expect the Met Plod mirror the diversity they are meant to protect .

            Many of us remember when the Met police and other city forces camped down here for the Weymouth and Portland Sailing Olympics .. 2012, and when we dared venture into Weymouth to view events we were all so shocked to view Robocop types of a different colour .. and by goodness weren’t they rough , rude and pushy..

    1. We’ve a long while before they admit it was the vaccine. 30 years, I imagine. Just enough time to put those responsible in the clear. Then there’ll be an enquiry which will find in favour of the government – after about 50 million has been spent on it.

      Well, five hundred million given inflation.

    2. One of those surveys where you find that the victims have a lot of innocuous habits in common, like they all wear white underpants. So white knickers must be dangerous. And this circumstantial twaddle comes from people who only believe correlation equals causation when it suits them.

    3. Well there could be something in it .. hold on, they are shifting the blame though.

      They say that artificial sweeteners in biscuits etc are dangerous for dogs .

      1. Artificial sweeteners are certainly not good for us either (read up about aspartame for instance) but I feel distraction from the true cause is the name of the game here. There is no way I would use artificial sweeteners but I don’t think they are responsible for the sudden plethora of heart attacks and deaths we are seeing.

          4. See my comment this morning first thing about my son’s work…

            He encounters a brick wall with the NHS – I suggested he approach a smaller, more dynamic country, such as Norway.

          5. I can chase a name down – does he have a job title I should aim at – like Technical Director ?

    2. Her friend Tyreece Hon . . . He wrote: ‘So last night this angel gained her wings and headed to the stars (‘like wot we yused too du evry satdi at the Snoz Korner’).

      1. Sadly, I imagine that’s the root. Black drug gangs. Really, can we not just round them up and deport them – ideally at 10,000ft?

    4. When our planet finally explodes due to mankind’s utter stupidity I hope the Earth receives a good orbituary.

    5. When our planet finally explodes due to mankind’s utter stupidity I hope the Earth has a good orbituary.

  50. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11574243/Migrant-smugglers-dont-Christmas-90-cross-Channel-Christmas-Day-small-boats.html?ito=push-notification&ci=_jFEL76kjK&cri=LcCFFsNHkG&si=xYJ0MlrMyMmf&ai=11574243

    Migrant smugglers don’t take Christmas off: Another 90 crossed Channel on Christmas Day in two small boats as 2022 final crossings total heads towards 50,000
    A total of 90 Channel migrants arrived in the UK by small boat on Christmas Day
    It brings the total number who have made the crossing this year up to 45,552
    It comes a week after the Government’s Rwanda scheme was ruled lawful

    ( It appears easier to smuggle 90 people of a different colour across the English channel than it is to deliver our coal which was ordered and paid for on the 8th of December , but has not arrived here yet.)

          1. Years ago , it could have been American.. then when I asked recently , possibly Polish , it is shiny hard stuff, the coal we had years ago was dull coloured and dusty, lots of clinker when burnt .

          1. I don’t know ..

            We used to use a local yard .. a proper coal yard .. but they sold up and the wonderful yard had homes built on it so the supplier moved on , then was taken over by a company in Sheffield of all places .. who then had satellite outlets all over the place .. including Chard of all places ..

            Our deliveries have been coming from Chard in recent years , and they have supplied to many others in the village and local areas as well.

    2. I saw three RIBs come sailing in
      On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day
      I saw three RIBs come sailing in
      On Christmas Day in the morning

      1. And what was in those RIBs all three
        On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day?
        And what was in those RIBs all three
        On Christmas Day in the morning?

        Jihadists and Mad Ali
        On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day
        Jihadists and Mad Ali
        On Christmas Day in the morning

  51. 9h goody, all of our roads are still closed after the weekend snowstorm. Snow did stop yesterday morning but it is now back to add a bit more to the wintery scene.

    I guess that we are not going out to get in the way of the boxing day shoppers.

      1. Midway between Toronto and Montreal, the area is called Prince Edward County. We are close enough to lake ontario to see the benefits of lake effect snow.

        We haven’t heard of any deaths in the area but there are quite a few people had to abandon their cars and have sheltered with strangers for a few days.

        3. We drove through there from Toronto, heading for Quebec City to stay with friends. I remember the name.

  52. A story on Twitter that it’s former CEO Parag Agrawal has just been arrested …. summat to do with child porn.

    1. Going to take the dogs and Junior out in a bit. We need a walk, even around the block.

      Her Warqueenery is hob nobbing with old school chums, so I’m expecting bitter recrimination and sniping later on. If there were not a bucket of ferrero roche she’d have left by now.

  54. I’m off shortly to make what should have been my Christmas Brunch – scrambled egg with smoked salmon.

        1. We’ve been eating for weeks. A nice wee dollop of salmon & scrambled egg would be just the ticket.

      2. Had undercooked turkey (still bleeding) and leather baked potatoes at MiLs place. Superyukk.

      1. Co-op this early afternoon @ £1.35/6. I miss the farm just down the road from Flowton.

        20 eggs (odd sizes) for £2.00.

          3. Probably – they also did duck eggs and (rarely) goose eggs. Yum.

            I haven’t found similar here in the borders.

      2. The recipe is pants, Maggie. Despite the photo shown, Delia doesn’t tell you how to make toast to put the scrambled eggs on. Lol.

      3. Delia’s recipe is like a whore’s drawers, Maggie; ‘they conceal more than they reveal.’

        Scrambled eggs should be made in a small, non-stick, frying pan, using a wooden spoon.

        Her notion of scraping scrambled egg out of a saucepan with the ‘sharp end of a spoon’ is appalling.

        She clearly fell out of butter worship (USA big Margarine) and has returned to the faith.

        Her proportions are nonsense.

        For myself, I use 2 large eggs, 25mg butter, a desert spoonful of single cream and a pinch of salt. I add a quarter tsp. freshly ground black pepper at the end.

        Her heating instructions are fine: take off the heat to prevent over-cooking, keep stirring.

        Perhaps Delia should stick to directing wendyball . . .

        1. Agreed in full. That smug Smith woman only knows the very basics of cookery and she doesn’t even do those well. Her first (best-selling FFS) book on “How to Cook” told those gullible enough to buy it how to boil an egg!

          I have tried, from time to time, to use some of her recipes and I’ve always found them vastly inferior to those of other, far more accomplished, cooks. She’s about the same standard as that gobby little twat, J Oliver, and he only steals other people’s recipes and makes them inedible.

          1. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Thought I was the only one who loathed her! And the Jamie bloke! Looks dirty and not very good!

        2. Moh puts together scrambled egg deliciously the same way as you do , Lacoste .

          I just threw Delia’s recipe into the ring for Tom . assuming he knew nothing about the finer points .

          A nonstick frying pan is a must .

          1. At the moment my cooker is stuck in my old flat, awaiting an Electrician (local) to get his finger out, disconnect the bluddy thing and, with the help of a beefy pal, move it to my current flat and reconnect it. Probably charge me the earth.

            When? Gawd only knows.

            Currently I have to use a bluddy awful microwave.

          2. you can still have scrambled eggs via your microwave .. quite simple .

            so sorry to hear you are stuck up a gum tree Tom.

            I hope you get sorted soon .

          3. Microwave is the only way I can DO scrambled eggs. I cannot even do a boiled egg. I have a single butane gas ring but i’m leery of testing it at the moment. Honestly, I’m just very confused.

          4. Tom, I prefer to do scrambled egg in the microwave. Saves scraping the burnt remains from the pan. My oven is 700 W – yours may vary. But I stick the contents in and set the oven for 2:00. Each 20 seconds, I take the jug out and stir. Your mileage may vary…

          5. Mine oven varies inasmuch that it is permanently at zero watts – see my reply to Maggie (True-Belle).

          1. Au contraire, je trouve que l’abus le plus fréquent d’egs brouillés – c’est au microonde, Geoff !

  57. Funny thing yesterday. Did the zoom with elder son and his lovely wife.

    They described the ENORMOUS meal they had had for lunch – several hours of eating and drinking. Step grandson (aged 25) hove into camera shot, he having shared the feast, to say that he was just going to make a cheese sandwich and did anyone else want one!! He, too, was presenting the Zelensky “look” even down to the camouflage T-shirt… Wish I’d thought to patent it….

    1. Crap 6 for me.
      Wordle 555 6/6

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

      1. You can’t think properly on a full stomach

        Wordle 555 6/6

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

        2. And I thought that it was just me having trouble
          Wordle 555 5/6

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

    2. After 2 successive eagles and a birdie yesterday I have fallen to a double bogie today.
      Wordle 555 6/6

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

  60. That’s the heap of logs waiting to be sawn all sawn and sufficient split to fill the woodstack. I actually managed to get the Student Son off his computer long enough to help with the stacking!

    We’ve nearly burnt through the 2nd woodstack which I’ll probably begin stacking at the weekend after it’s been emptied and cleaned out. I’ve a load of sycamore stashed on the other side of the millpond I plan starting to drag over for cutting up and stacking plus a few bits of fallen wood up the road.

    I don’t plan getting cold next winter!

    1. It seems to me that, with all that hard work, you won’t be cold this winter, either! Wood has the advantage that it warms you twice; once when you cut it and again when you burn it (that could be said to be three times if you count stacking it).

  61. That’s me gone. Nice sunny day, though chilly. Rain expected tomorrow.

    Have a cheerful evening. They are repeating “Tutti Frutti” on BBC4. 1987….seems just the other day. Robby Coltrane, a newcomer called Emma Thompson, Richard Wilson…. Those were the days.

    A demain.

  62. That’s me gone. Nice sunny day, though chilly. Rain expected tomorrow.

    Have a cheerful evening. They are repeating “Tutti Frutti” on BBC4. 1987….seems just the other day. Robby Coltrane, a newcomer called Emma Thompson, Richard Wilson…. Those were the days.

    A demain.

    1. Its about time every prediction made has never happened, yet people will just not face the truth as with covid.

    2. Neither of these two guys understand the whole idea of Climate Change. How do I get this to them?

      Climate Change and You

      The climate ‘science’ is wrong. CO2 being 0.04% of the atmosphere is a cause for good, as it is essential for plant life.

      The atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen. The remaining 1% are various trace elements of which CO2 is but a small part.

      The greatest cause of any change in the Earth’s climate, is due to the cyclical nature of the Sun’s phases, which may lead to vast differences between ice ages and continual heatwaves.

      Please feel free to copy and paste this anywhere appropriate.

      1. It’s all about taking charge and the great reset to world communism. So the science doesn’t matter, just that enough useful idiots go along with it for long enough that our new commissars can take over.
        Then it’s neckshots all round.

    1. Napier? Tell him to FO back to New Zealand. Joking apart, I’m afraid the CoE is infested with woke social justice warriors.Not everywhere, thank God, but the fish rots from the head down. Welby and Cottrell – that’s you.

  66. Right, that’s me about to drag myself down to the pub for a couple of hours.
    Will probably not be back on line tonight so TTFN all.

        1. Thanks. I’ve just started watching ‘The commitments’ and I’d forgotten how funny it was, especially when the protagonist is giving auditions to prospective members to his new band. Very apt and I’ll watch the rest when I get home.

          2. I’m watching it free on a Bing streaming site or something. Dreadful large Spanish subtitles but not bad otherwise

            https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=the+commitments&&view=detail&mid=0A043C14A0B05211B8200A043C14A0B05211B820&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dthe%2520commitments%26qs%3Dn%26form%3DQBVDMH%26%3D%2525eManage%2520Your%2520Search%2520History%2525E%26sp%3D-1%26pq%3Dthe%2520commitments%26sc%3D10-15%26sk%3D%26cvid%3D9A5C00096AED443BAF8FD59F154B30F9%26ghsh%3D0%26ghacc%3D0%26ghpl%3D

    3. Cheers, BoB. I’d do the same, but the village is sadly pub-free. I could just about walk there. but would almost certainly be flattened by a passing vehicle on the extremely bendy, footpath-free road. Enjoy…

      1. That’s bad, Geoff. Just think of the damage to the car, let alone what fate would behold Nttl without you …

        1. I believe there are products for removing embarassing dead pedestrian stains from one’s car bodywork, Paul. Prolly not stocked by Halfords.

          Now living about 150 m from a station, I decided that there was no point in owning a car. But South Western Railways have abandoned the North Downs line, at least until mid-January.

          A reassessment is under way. I could have a Motability car – all I need is to get someone from DVLA to renew my licence (as a diabetic on insulin, they only last three years, mine expired a few years ago, and for a while my eyesight was borderline. I believe the eyesight (in the good eye) is good enough now. I can easily drive an automatic with my prostheses – just don’t ask how I know that…

          Since DVLA are still working from home, when they’re not on strike, and they’re not dealing with paper medical questionaires, it could take some time.

          Ho hum…

          1. I sympathise with you, Geoff. I’ve been trying to change the address on my Driving licence since 1st August – No response from DVLA that I would trust. so I’ve left it alone until they work normally, and kept my licence with the old address. If stopped, I’ll explain why.

    4. Excellent plan, Bob
      Just in from The Packet in Cardiff Bay.
      Run out of Brains SA, but a pair of comely lasses caught the eye of Firstborn & Second Son…
      Don’t think they pulled.

      1. Quite, Big Sis…

        There’s a thought-provoking piece about Stephen at the Speccie today.

        “Few people in Britain know that Boxing Day is kept by the Christian churches as the feast of St Stephen, the first Christian martyr. But if they do know, it is not because they have a great familiarity with the church calendar. Many today do not even know, after all, what Christians commemorate at Easter, let alone on a day mainly set aside for turkey sandwiches and visits to the sales. Yet while the other two festivals within the Christmas octave, St John and the Holy Innocents, are hardly known at all, St Stephen’s day does still have a vague presence in popular thought because of John Mason Neale’s hymn or carol, published in 1835 and still a favourite, ‘Good King Wenceslas’. According to the legend versified by Neale, ‘Wenceslas’ (Vaclav the Good, duke of Bohemia in the tenth century) ‘looked out’ at the snowy scene in which a poor man was gathering winter fuel ‘on the feast of Stephen’. The story commemorated in the carol is so much better known than the account of Stephen’s martyrdom in Acts 7:54-60 that 26 December seems more a celebration of St Wenceslas than of St Stephen. The meaning of the day is taken to be that of the carol’s last lines:

        Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
        wealth or rank possessing:
        ye who now do bless the poor
        shall yourselves find blessing.

        This is, of course, in no way a bad or wrong-headed message. It is one of the traditional themes of Christmastide, when we remember, as St Paul put it, that ‘you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich’ (2 Corinthians 8:9).

        St Paul is here speaking primarily of the metaphorical ‘riches’ Christ had as God, and the equally metaphorical ‘poverty’ involved in his becoming incarnate in our world. But he immediately links this with God’s concern for the literally poor – the passage from which these words are taken is concerned with Paul’s collection for poor Christians in Jerusalem – and there are many exhortations in the Old Testament for those with enough to remember poor people and to share their goods with them.

        Many believe that Jesus was also poor in a literal sense, though the Gospels are unclear about that: Mark, for example, seems to indicate that he had a house in Capernaum, and a carpenter wouldn’t have been on the bread line. But still, if what we take away from singing the carol is the importance of ‘sharing our food with the hungry’ (Isaiah 58:7), no one, least of all in a country where there is increasing dependence on food banks, should regard that as anything but a good outcome.

        This is not, however, the original, or perhaps the deepest message of ‘the feast of Stephen’. Stephen’s martyrdom did not result from his care for the poor, but from the way he witnessed to the faith by insisting on something that was, and is, much more controversial: what is now often referred to as ‘speaking truth to power’.

        Stephen is presented in the account in Acts as the first exemplar of the imitation of Christ, and this not only in his suffering, and his prayer that God might forgive his executioners, but also in preaching a message that challenged the religious authorities. We do not know exactly why Jesus himself was arrested and convicted, but we may be sure, in his case too, that it was not because he taught that people should be kind to the poor. That was a teaching wholly uncontroversial within first century Judaism. The unwelcome challenge he presented lay more in the contentious claim that God had repudiated the Temple in Jerusalem, and with it the authorities who had, in the words of Jesus, ‘made it a den of robbers’ (Luke 19:45-6). Anti-Temple rhetoric seems likely to have been what offended the Jewish leaders enough to get Jesus indicted on a false charge of treason against Rome, framed in such a way that the Roman governor could hardly fail to act on it. A similar attack on the Temple seems to have been the reason for Stephen’s execution (Acts 7:47-50). In the accounts we have, in the two-volume work we know as Luke and Acts, Jesus and Stephen are both clearly described as denouncing the Temple, and it seems to be implied that that was at least one major factor leading to their condemnation.

        Whether that is the whole story, historically speaking, we can’t be sure, but it is certainly how the biblical writers appear to have seen the matter. Stephen’s long speech to the Sanhedrin (Acts 7:2-53) retells the history of Israel so as to bring out the repeated pattern of national sin, much as the prophets had done (see for example Amos 4:6-12, or Ezekiel 20:5-31). Its climax is his attack on the Temple as a fatal attempt to domesticate God, as though God could literally dwell in a shrine made by human hands. This final jibe is what his hearers cannot stand. Stephen’s message is not, simply and uncontroversially, ‘be kind to those in need’, important as that is. Rather, it throws down a challenge of a sharply political kind to the existing order of the day. Stephen is not simply a kindly forerunner of Vaclav the Good, as conceived by the legend underlying Neale’s carol. He is more like John the Baptist, as we encounter him in our Advent readings.

        There is one feature of the commemoration of St Stephen that is obvious, although, from a historical point of view, it may also be accidental. We celebrate his martyrdom on the very next day after Christmas Day – suddenly wrenching our eyes away from the peaceful scene in Bethlehem to contemplate, incongruously, a man being stoned to death. Christian writers, however, have seen in this weird juxtaposition a deliberate paradox pointing to much that is distinctive about Christian belief. An ancient Matins responsory, still used in the modern Liturgy of the Hours, sets it out very simply and profoundly:

        Yesterday the Lord was born on earth, that Stephen might be born in heaven; he entered into the world, that Stephen might enter the heavens.

        Stephen’s martyrdom does not negate the joy of the Nativity, but is in some mysterious way a confirmation of it. The point is developed in a sermon for St Stephen’s day by Fulgentius of Ruspe, a contemporary of St Augustine in North Africa, which is also used in the modern Office of Readings: ‘The love that brought Christ from heaven to earth raised Stephen from earth to heaven; shown first in the King, it later shone forth in his soldier.’ The symmetry strikes such writers only because of this accidental placement, which sets the celebration of the church’s first martyr immediately next to the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The ideas this suggests to them, however, are general truths of the Christian faith, with its odd belief in human life with God as an indissoluble blend of suffering and glory so puzzling to many sceptical observers.

        The paradox here is expounded effectively by T. S. Eliot, in the Christmas sermon he puts into the mouth of Thomas Becket in Murder in the Cathedral:

        Not only do we at the feast of Christmas celebrate [in the Eucharist] at once Our Lord’s Birth and His Death: but on the next day we celebrate the martyrdom of His first martyr, the blessed Stephen. Is it an accident, do you think, that the day of the first martyr follows

        immediately the day of the Birth of Christ? By no means. Just as we rejoice and mourn at once, in the Birth and in the Passion of Our Lord; so also, in a smaller figure, we both rejoice and mourn in the death of martyrs. We mourn, for the sins of the world that has martyred them; we rejoice, that another soul is numbered among the Saints in Heaven, for the glory of God and for the salvation of men. Beloved, we do not think of a martyr simply as a good Christian who has been killed because he is a Christian: for that would be solely to mourn. We do not think of him simply as a good Christian who has been elevated to the company of the Saints: for that would be simply to rejoice: and neither our mourning nor our rejoicing is as the world’s is.

        The gospel Christians proclaim does certainly entail some such interplay of joy and sorrow, whether Eliot — always inclined to highlight the sorrow! — got the balance completely right or not. The juxtaposition of Christmas Day and the Feast of Stephen, whether deliberate or not, says something about this theme, this complication of mere seasonal cheerfulness through the acknowledgement of the sufferings not only of Christ, but also of the world he came to save. But it points, too, to the opposite (but not equal and opposite) insistence that these sufferings will be mysteriously transformed by joy. As we recall at Easter, Christ’s wounds remain in his risen body, but that body is much more than merely a resuscitated version of the one that was crucified, because in him everything is made new. With due respect to Eliot, the joy outweighs the sorrow.

        The arrangement of the church’s year may often strike us as rather shambolic, because it grew rather than being planned. The Christmas octave, surely, despite a few rationalisations in the light of Vatican II, could still do with a bit of tidying up. But in so strangely placing the celebration of St Stephen on 26 December it gives us the opportunity to reflect on some central truths of our faith. The placement may be fortuitous, but it is also fortunate.”

        1. Thank you, Geoff, that is a far fuller explanation of all I never knew of either St Stephen or Wencelas.

          2. Done that 3 times – it’s like you waiting for your coal, Maggie.

            RVS number noted and will call them on Wednesday after Bank Hols are over.

        2. I knew some of that as a basic grounding in religion is necessary when doing Lit. The proximity of Christ’s birth- the beginning- and the martyrdom of the first saint on the next date has always been a topic of discussion.
          It is true, TS Eliot tended to be a gloomy sod.

  69. Evening, all. If by needing a “war cabinet” they mean an all-party cabinet, I think we’ve already got that; all the parties appear to be singing from the same hymn sheet. They are globalist, pro mass immigration, in favour of the great reset, greeniac and socialist. None of those properties will fix the NHS.

    2. We need to be rid of both Sunak and ‘Chase the Bitch’ both of them are WEF acolytes. Not my idea of democracy as we knew it.

      1. A BTL:

        Riski Sunhat does not care about the ECJ, only what his With Effect From
        masters/mistresses/undecideds tell him to do

        The Great Reste (anagram) rolls on

      2. Ask yourself all: who actually installed Sunak and Skunt – and how?

        ‘Twas nothing to do with Parliamentary Democracy …

        1. And now the pound is lower against the euro than at any time in 2022 – lower that it was at its worst during Liz Truss’s time.

          Weren’t Hunt and Sunak meant to save rather than to destroy Britain?

          I am becoming more and more convinced that Hunt and Sunak are mere puppets for Schwab and Gates.

    3. Our ‘war cabinet’ couldn’t fight its way into – or out of – a paper bag.

      God help us!

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