Monday 2 January: If the Church wants to attract new clergy, it must offer better support

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

729 thoughts on “Monday 2 January: If the Church wants to attract new clergy, it must offer better support”

  1. The Pickle Slicer

    Yossel worked in a Polish pickle factory. For many years he had a powerful desire to put his penis in the pickle slicer. Unable to stand it any longer, he sought professional help from the factory psychologist.

    After six months, the therapist gave up. He advised Yossel to go ahead and do it or he would probably never have any peace of mind.

    The next day he came home from work very early. His wife, Sacha, became alarmed and wanted to know what had happened.

    Yossel tearfully confessed his tormenting desire to put his penis in the pickle slicer. He went on to explain that today he finally went ahead and did it, and he was immediately fired.

    Sacha gasped and ran over to her husband. She quickly yanked down his trousers and underpants only to find a normal, completely intact penis. She looked up and said, “I don’t understand. What about the pickle slicer?”

    Yossel replied, “I think she got fired, too.
     

    Good Morrow, Gentlefolk. Doubled up as I went to bed.
    Frightening air-show disaster

    Amazing photo shows great detail

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/afe2a2f0d6fdad24d3ce2a1efaed0fd584419b5f5148ac3b47495038496fafa1.jpg
    This is tough to see.
    But it illustrates the possible dangers of attending these shows.

    The pilot was bringing his craft in at a low altitude and apparently lost control. It narrowly missed the crowd gathered for the air show and slammed into four buildings. One can only imagine the horror of the occupants in the buildings.

    Probably ” scared the crap out of them!

  2. Good morning, everyone! I’m away back to bed now, hopefully I will get another three hours sleep….. it is not much fun being an insomniac.

      1. I frequently spend two or three of the night hours out of bed these ‘days’. Oh, for the sleep of youth!

    4. Happy Birthday Poppiesmum ,

      I am wondering whether our parents heard a lovely song from a musical called Bless the Bride, early 1947 ,and gave us our Christian names ..

      I know my grandfather told me that , and he actually sang the song to me .

      Enjoy the rest of your day , when you are awake .

      1. Thank you, Belle – and yes, they may well have done. I hope Jack Spaniel is doing all right?

        1. Hello pm, yep Jack spaniel is hanging on , eating and drinking , coughing alot , but happy to venture out for a short walk where rabbits gather , and the fresh pellets are probably similar to aniseed balls, as he has a few nibbles.

          How is Poppie coping , and just as importantly , how about you.. do you have this cough virus?

          1. Hi Belle, yes, I have this cough virus, it started with an awful sore throat which lasted 4 days or so, then the cough, cough, cough, and then a head and tubes full of gunge… then a pause and now a streaming nose. I am hoping this will be the virus’s swan song (and not mine).

            I am so pleased Jack is hanging on there for you. Poppie bounced out to meet our younger son and two little boys, this afternoon, she has always been our chief greeter. She gets tired more quickly and has developed a cough over the last three days which seems to be slowly getting better thankfully. What will be, will be. I am grateful to have had these few months to come to terms with things, well, as well as I can.

    6. Happy birthday and may you survive many more New Year arrivals, to celebrate your birthday on the second.

      1. Thank you – I have quite a few to go to outlast our long lived relatives, a quarter of the time I have already spent here. I hope the pension lasts!

    8. Happy birthday, Mum. Hope you have a pleasant day, after having caught up on your sleep!

    10. Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 🎂 🥳 🥂Poppiesmum! 💓 Have a super day!

      1. Thank you Ndovu! We were going to take family to the the waffle restaurant in St Albans but they (as I am too) are unwell with this horrid bug going around, so it is be rescheduled.

    12. Sorry, Mum, I didn’t realise it was your Birthday.

      When you wake and have had your tea, have a very Happy Day.

  3. Morning, all Y’all.
    Working day, unfortunately. Not in the mood. Hope you are feeling more positive!

  4. Morning everyone. I’m having problems with my Main Computer and so I’m on my backup laptop. This may cause some delays in posting comments. Ahhh! I hear you say. Every cloud has a silver lining!

    1. They are going to be swamped with wasters and anyone with initiative is going to jump ship to somewhere sensible.

      1. It’s going to wreck their tourist industry.

        Why stay on your feet for ten hours a day when you can stay at home and be paid.

  7. 369615+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Celebrations over, the piper must be paid and reality for once faced.

    We are now living through the odious consequences of a politico’s
    delight via 40 years of a self inflicted party before Country voting pattern.

    History will, i’m sure name this period ” The time of the great whinge” the only opposition being a stinko letter to YOUR Mp not the area Mp, YOUR Mp, that is surely along the lines of writing a letter to no balls gobbels 39/45, most likely that would produce a more satisfactory result.

    Unity under one leader /one party.

    https://twitter.com/sophielouisecc/status/1609609853223182338?s=20&t=RkgI8pr9JALNZktBiQmrKA

    1. 369612+ up ticks,,

      O2O,

      This governing party business Og smacks of
      a do it yourself lockin, that Og is precisely what it is.

  8. Ministers studying plans for UK child-specific terrorism orders. 2 January 2022.

    Ministers are studying plans that would result in children being compelled to accept help or face jail, devised by Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.

    The move comes as the number of children arrested has increased, mainly for lower-level terrorism offences, such as sharing propaganda or downloading material. The rise has been fuelled by growing internet use and an increase in terrorist propaganda available online, with children as young as 13 being arrested.

    Who decides what’s propaganda?

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/02/ministers-studying-plans-for-uk-child-specific-terrorism-orders

    1. ‘Ministers are studying plans’

      Begin with a lie and i won’t bother to read the rest. Ministers don’t study anything except their bank balances. They have minions to do the heavy lifting and are presented with bullet points and sound bites.

    1. I wonder how many mansions there are in Hell. Maybe just one cell for all this degeneracy.
      Again, please spare us.

      1. ‘In my Fathers house are many mansions’….not sure how many old Nick has got!

      1. A bloke pretending to be a woman pretending to be a priest.

        What is next?

        I feel a certain morbid curiosity.

        1. ‘Morning, LIM. If it’s a cock-in-a-frock you’re after, look no further than Grayson Perry – a weirdo posing as an artist. What better recipient for a Knighthood?

          1. Morning HughJ,
            Let me be as clear as possible”
            I am not after a cock in a frock.
            But out of curiosity I looked up Grayson and found he is a Knight.
            I am now even more despondent at the state of the nation.

          3. He was only knighted this time I think. He uses “Claire ” as an alter ego as part of performance art I think. He’s not actually a trannie.

          4. Surprised he was not made a Dame. EDIT – what would that be? Being Damed?
            We are really skidding off track at the moment.

          5. Me too! Our slide into full-on wokery continues unabated. This morning I awoke to the sound of Toady, having forgotten to cancel the alarm on the clock radio. What should I hear but the voice of Bilko, revelling in today’s (ridiculous) ‘guest editor’ – described as the first black head of John Lewis. I’m assuming that any white people who have doing the same for Toady were not described by their colour/race??

            No, thought not.

          7. The one, married with kids. I suppose its just theatre like the part of panto dame but he does seem to believe in the transformation. It seems to make him a good living though.

      2. I would post a reply, but I’m currently in dispute with Tw@ter for asking whether someone was “a trannie with a fanny”!

      3. Bit heavy handed with the slap.
        Needs advice from the beauty counter at his local department store.
        Edit: ooops …… ze/they/whatever’s department store.

  10. If the Church wants to attract clergy it must do what it says on the tin – be Christian.
    Offering support then ties the beneficiaries to their benefactor’s will – if the Church is Christian, well and good. But if it is woke, please spare us.

    2. Welby is an atheist and he was appointed by Cameron, another atheist, who went to the same school as he did.

      1. ‘Atheist’ is an absurd name given by those who think that their belief system is better than that of those who they are name-calling.

        It is as silly and negative as it is nonsensical. A bit like calling someone who doesn’t smoke a ‘non-smoker’, when being so is positive. We don’t call those who do not murder ‘non-murderers’, those who don’t bugger ‘non-buggerers’ or those who don’t steal ‘non-thieves’. With that in mind, why should someone who doesn’t believe in ‘theism’ (a man-made condition) be labelled an atheist (non-theist)?

  13. ‘Morning, Peeps, and a belated happy New Year to Geoff and his flock.

    SIR – I am a retired GP, working part-time in an urgent treatment centre in central London. A Bangladeshi patient who had been unable to access his GP, recently told me: “In my country you can always see a doctor the same day.”

    Last week, my 81-year-old brother was taken to his local A&E department, confused and in great pain. He spent more than 24 hours on a trolley and is now in a side room being nursed by his 80-year-old wife. Nobody can tell her when he will be assessed by a doctor.

    The NHS is collapsing. The key problems are a lack of primary care and “bed-blocking”. The Government should declare a state of emergency. GP surgeries should be staffed seven days a week until the situation is stabilised, and hotels should be requisitioned so that fit patients who have nowhere to go can be discharged.

    Dr Gregory Tanner
    Middlezoy, Somerset

    Tragic, isn’t it Dr Tanner? Emergency medicine is collapsing before our eyes, and primary care is heading in the same direction. Opening GP surgeries for seven days a week is a fine ambition, but where will the additional staff come from?  I get the impression that some GPs are more than happy to continue shirking from home, and even reducing the days they are available. Still, all is saved – the NHS is being handed an additional £14.1bn over two (or is it three?) years, and half a billion to speed up discharges.  So that’s all sorted then.  Stand by for another flurry of non-jobs creation with so much extra funding sloshing around…

    2. …and hotels should be requisitioned…

      Hotels?! Is Dr Tanner living under that metaphorical rock?

      1. I suspect that the words he didn’t add were “instead of being given to useless layabouts who paid criminals in order to enter the UK illegally so that they didn’t have to get a visa by actually working, eg like the care workers who come on visas from third world countries and work long hours for little pay.”

        1. Yes, much better, bb2, but somehow this version might have been just a little too close to the truth for the letters editor.

      2. I nearly had a rant about Dr Tanner’s Bangladeshi patient who says things are better”in his country”, but decided against it for the sake of my blood pressure.

        1. Me too, Mir. I suspect that the system works better almost everywhere else, including the infamous Bongo Bongo Land!

        2. Immigrants have been helping themselves to free non contributary NHS treatment for decades. When was Dr Tanners letter first written, 1960 ?

          1. A Bangladeshi patient who had been unable to access his GP, recently told me: “In my country you can always see a doctor the same day.”
            I wonder how much tax he has paid in this ‘not his country. ‘Nobody is stopping him from returning to what he still regards as his country…. preferably taking his (most likely) considerable number of offspring, grandchildren and any other ‘family members’ who followed him here.

    3. Government must act on this NHS emergency
      SIR – I am a retired GP, working part-time in an urgent treatment centre in central London. A Bangladeshi patient who had been unable to access his GP, recently told me: “In my country you can always see a doctor the same day.”

      We all know the answer for that patient, don’t we?

    5. Bed blocking is a problem, but not as much a problem as importing thousands who have access to treatment combined with not checking if those who rock up and get treatment are entitled to it.

  15. The land where nothing much works anymore…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/32832308e9b61947057d720f6cd06115f63586e722b1d16202a50a1e983782b0.png

    I like this comment. Reminds me of the old joke, ‘A large hole appeared in the road, three men from the council are looking into it’.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b165c10142306e7036665db483da8ab72711ce380628fd42e27c57cba0875186.png

    Daily Sceptic – Trees Planted By Councils Die Off After Rush Job To Show Off Green Credentials

      2. That’s how later the fields are described as ‘Brown Field’. And then covered in new cheap housing.
        And we are still shipping and flying too much food into the UK.

      3. Food production? The current government is bribing farmers to leave the industry: why would doing that be policy? Re-wilding is also policy and implies that land used for other purposes e.g. farmland, will be lost. Food shortages are the inevitable result of governments’, here and elsewhere, policies.

    2. Looks like a lot of plastic used as well. Perhaps the period of drought was partly to blame.

    3. ‘Morning, Korky.

      I’m wondering whether this DT article, published on New Year’s Eve, was the source for the Daily Sceptic item?  Either way, it has prompted me to question an item in the local free sheet about a tree-planting programme about to be undertaken nearby.  Enquiries of East Sussex County Council and Rother District Council now in hand, not the least of which will be the cost and the extent of the aftercare, bearing in mind that some of the planting will take place “in early Spring”.  That is almost the worst possible time of year unless provision has been made for frequent watering – which I somehow doubt.  Now that the photos have been published I’m guessing that this is it – greenwash has been achieved and it’s on to the next madcap scheme. After all, it’s only council taxpayers’ money and there’s plenty more where that comes from.

      * * *

      Trees planted by councils die after ‘rush job to show off green credentials’

      Local authorities spend more than £11m of taxpayers’ cash on schemes but often fail to record survival rate

      By Emma Gatten, ENVIRONMENT EDITOR 31 December 2022 • 7:31pm

      Millions in taxpayer money has been spent to plant trees that may not have survived, according to analysis of council data by the Telegraph.

      At least 80 local authorities are failing to record whether trees planted to help climate change are surviving, despite them spending more than £11 million in council and central Government funds.

      Others report survival rates well below expected, with some projects leaving no trees alive amid concern that planting schemes are being undertaken without adequate expertise.

      Experts say a survival rate of 90-95 per cent should be expected if tree-planting schemes are well planned and have adequate aftercare.

      The high rates of failure, and lack of monitoring, among local authority schemes raise concerns that money is being wasted on rushed planting projects. Some local authorities said failed trees would be replaced, requiring additional resources and manpower.

      The deaths of trees planted for carbon offsetting purposes also raises concerns that councils and businesses may be able to greenwash their pollution, by claiming to have offset their emissions with trees that do not survive.

      The Government has pledged more than £9 million to plant hundreds of thousands of trees in communities across England, to help hit its targets of 30,000 hectares of new woodland annually across the UK by 2025.

      But Andy Egan, the head of conservation policy for the Woodland Trust, which provides grant funding for council tree planting schemes, said local authorities often lacked the resources to look after newly planted trees.

      “Too many local authorities lack the additional resources and capacity needed to look after newly planted trees and to help them survive conditions like the drought we had this summer,” he said. “Equally poor planning practice is putting many much-loved mature trees at risk.”

      “The Woodland Trust is calling on Government to use its Environmental Improvement Plan to ensure the long-term investment that’s needed to protect and care for our urban trees is in place.”

      Under the Environmental Improvement Plan, which will report annually from next year, the Government is expected to set out what progress has been made on improvements to the natural environment.

      The Telegraph asked councils what tree planting schemes had been undertaken to help tackle climate change, help reach net zero or improve air quality.

      More than a quarter of those that replied said they had no record of how many trees had survived from various tree planting schemes dating back to 2015.

      The Greater London Authority, which has spent £6 million on more than over 430,000 new trees since Sadiq Khan became mayor in 2016, said it did not have records on how many had survived.

      A spokesman said recipients of grants were required to replace trees lost within three years, but said the GLA would “continue to review how we can improve and monitor our successful tree planting programmes”.

      Brighton and Hove has spent more £400,000 planting hundreds of trees to help the city become carbon neutral by 2030, but does not have records of their survival.

      Friends of the Earth, the conservation group, said tree loss can be reduced to 5 per cent with community involvement in after care. This includes checking plants are getting adequate water and sunlight.

      Mike Childs, head of science, policy & research at Friends of the Earth, said: “Some mortality is to be expected when planting trees, but a lack of proper aftercare can mean the proportion dying is much higher.

      “Local authorities are right to keep investing in planting as trees are so important to nature and mental health. At the same time, the Government’s tree action plan needs to scale up ambition, improve its strategy, and ultimately understand that planting new trees is about more than sticking saplings in the ground and hoping they will survive by ensuring long-term aftercare plans are in place and properly funded.”

      Several councils reported significant damage as a result of this year’s drought. Wyre Council reported that 6,000 young trees that were planted on a disused tip site in the council control died during the “exceptional heat”, amounting to 60 per cent of those planted.

      In one scheme in East Staffordshire, hundreds of saplings planted as carbon offsets by local businesses were destroyed by vandalism. The council said they would be replaced by a significantly smaller number of mature trees.
      In another scheme in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, just 10 per cent of 6,500 trees were estimated to have survived after being planted in spring this year on a former waste site.

      Charlie Gardner, a conservationist at the University of Kent, surveyed the site at King’s Lynn independently and concluded that planting had taken place at the wrong time of year, and with little aftercare. “I was shocked to see the state of it, I couldn’t believe how bad a job they’d done,” he said. “Planting in May is madness anyway, but they could at least have made sure they planted the roots properly.”

      “The whole thing seems like a rush job, done for show instead of making sure it’s done properly.”

      “It’s such a shame because they’ve wasted lots of money and missed out on an opportunity to do something really beneficial.”

      King’s Lynn said it had replaced 1,000 whips earlier this month and would check on their progress.

      Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “It’s vital that local authorities have the investment and expertise they need to plan, protect and maintain woodland and trees properly.

      He added: “This is all the more vital in the context of private markets for carbon or nutrient offsets, where poorly planned tree planting can provide a fig leaf for continuing pollution or development.

      “Trees and woodlands need to be a sustainable part of a resilient ecosystem, with plenty of buffer built in for those occasions where trees may be lost.”

      1. There is a region of France I heard about several decades ago where they would plant trees on a 200 to 250 year rotation.
        Essentially, they would plant oak, interspersed with beech and ash.
        The ash, being a faster growing tree, would force the beech & oak to grow straight and would then be thinned out over several years, first for firewood, then furniture etc. leaving the beech & oak to continue growing.
        Then they harvested the beech to leave the oak to grow to maturity when it too would be harvested.

        And then it would all begin again.

        2. I suppose it keeps the supply going when they need to repair cathedrals after ‘electrical faults’.

    4. The real objection to the scheme should be its utter futility, as though planting trees in our little island is going to make the slightest difference to the volume of CO2 in the atmosphere. Truly the supporters of these schemes have no sense of proportion.

  17. 369615+ up ticks,

    For stem read excellerate tis nearer the truth.

    Dt

    Border Force officers join French beach patrols to stem Channel migrant crossings
    First officers were deployed alongside gendarmes working to thwart departures from northern beaches just before Christmas

  18. Maybe I’m just sensitive because “our Aynuk” was our local MP and has been dreadfully and wilfully misrepresented for the past 50+ years.

    I don’t watch “Call the Midwife” but here’s an extract from the TV review of the latest episode. I won’t be rushing to watch it, but oh look! The script writers appear to have managed to bash Mr Powell and signal their virtue at the same time. Well done, script writers. I bet you don’t know the first thing about what Enoch was actually trying to say, and would be surprised if you did any actual proper research on the subject. Still, that would require actual critical thinking skills, so that will never happen. But at least the reviewer noticed it even if she concluded that nobody really cares now. Well, I do, still. Rant over, thanks for bearing with me and maybe I’ll give up ranting for Lent.

    “ The Big Political Issue was Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech. Lucille (Leonie Elliott) was upset by his words. Doubtless immigrant nurses were put out by Powell’s speech, but would they have said “the damage is done, he has said that resenting immigrants is acceptable”, as Lucille did?

    Probably not, but what’s the point in minding? Nobody is watching Midwife with these things in mind. They are watching for a harmless nostalgia trip, to see woolly 21st-century liberal values projected into the past. The creators can’t have known the timing would be so fortuitous, with the recent nurse strikes. But the accidental political angle, about how we value those who care for us at our most vulnerable moments, is more effective than the overt race-relations lesson.”

    1. We used to watch Call the Midwife but haven’t done for years now.
      Most of the nurses in the two hospitals where OH was recently treated were not English.
      Powell was prescient and foretold trouble but I think much of the source of resentment is not against foreign nurses but rather the feeling that native English people are now second class. “White privilege” is absolute rubbish.

      2. Sadly, the Dearly Tolerant laps the bloody programme up and, in fact, wanting to watch it was a major factor in her deciding to get a TV licence after years of not having one.

    2. I’m proud to say that I met Powell at a political meeting in the town where I went to school. A friend and I chatted to him for about 15 minutes after the meeting, during which I was hugely impressed by his intellect, along with his patience in discussing things with a couple of schoolboys. I could count on the fingers of one hand those MPs whom I greatly admired (note the past tense).

      Edited for typo.

    3. What Enoch actually quoted was I see the Tiber foaming with much blood – he was, after all, a Classical scholar. No wonder the media misrepresented it.

  19. Maybe I’m just sensitive because “our Aynuk” was our local MP and has been dreadfully and wilfully misrepresented for the past 50+ years.

    I don’t watch “Call the Midwife” but here’s an extract from the TV review of the latest episode. I won’t be rushing to watch it, but oh look! The script writers appear to have managed to bash Mr Powell and signal their virtue at the same time. Well done, script writers. I bet you don’t know the first thing about what Enoch was actually trying to say, and would be surprised if you did any actual proper research on the subject. Still, that would require actual critical thinking skills, so that will never happen. But at least the reviewer noticed it even if she concluded that nobody really cares now. Well, I do, still. Rant over, thanks for bearing with me and maybe I’ll give up ranting for Lent.

    “ The Big Political Issue was Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech. Lucille (Leonie Elliott) was upset by his words. Doubtless immigrant nurses were put out by Powell’s speech, but would they have said “the damage is done, he has said that resenting immigrants is acceptable”, as Lucille did?

    Probably not, but what’s the point in minding? Nobody is watching Midwife with these things in mind. They are watching for a harmless nostalgia trip, to see woolly 21st-century liberal values projected into the past. The creators can’t have known the timing would be so fortuitous, with the recent nurse strikes. But the accidental political angle, about how we value those who care for us at our most vulnerable moments, is more effective than the overt race-relations lesson.”

  20. Good morning all! A bright start here with 0°C outside.
    The DT is running t’Lad and Student Son back to Derby this morning so with a bit of luck I ought to get the bulk of the logs outside split & stacked. The 2nd stack is about a third full so far.
    Once that lot’s out of the way I can get on with digging out for the next bit of wall!

  21. When the current Pontiff passes away and a woke Vatican elects a black Pope. He will be surrounded by men in white robes with pointy hats waving crosses at him.

    Um…

    1. Would they risk an African restoring Christianity? There are a few tame dolts but the black church tends to be conservative.

  23. An early par three today

    Wordle 562 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟨⬜🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. A slow five. You can see the process.
      Wordle 562 5/6

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

    2. A late Par Four for me.

      Wordle 562 4/6
      🟨⬜🟨⬜🟨
      🟩🟨⬜⬜🟨
      🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  25. Sandra Jones’s letter about the growing deterioration of Westminster and the extreme cost of restoring it to its former glory is all too true.
    Our politicians sit there unable to make the decision to get out of the building and go somewhere else to allow restoration. The cost of restoration is rising and the deterioration is getting dangerous. Demolition may be the last resort.

    1. Demolition may be the last resort.

      Morning Scotty. Preferably with them still inside!

          3. There are well understood expressions that outlive their application.
            Think of the camera symbol to warn you of speed traps; that appliance was last used c.1900.

    2. 360615+ up ticks,

      Morning Cs,

      To be a great benefit to ALL without the knowledge of the in-house politico’s, start the demolition.

    5. We could abolish Stormont, Holyrood and Cardiff, and our UK MPs could spend their time moving between the three. Lol.

    6. HMG could use the Assembly Buildings in Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff on a rotational basis, as per the Brussels / Strasbourg gravy train. The parish councils currently infesting those places could shut down once every three months to let the actual government get on with their day job.

      Once Westminster is restored, the politicians can return after having experienced life outside of the M25.

    3. Does Ginge know that it someone else’s Grudge Baby and was Andrew the real father

    4. If they could choose why didn’t they choose black ones rather than white ones? Archie and Lillibet are, how shall I put it? hideously white!

  27. Morning all 😉 😊
    We took some of our decorations and lights down yesterday. I felt quite happy to wind up the small lights and put them all away until December 2023.
    Tree will be also gone today. It gets recycled. But I have to cut it into small pieces. A way to justify a coffee later this morning 😉.

      1. Our street is filled with ‘statement’ Christmas decorations. We have quite a few large illuminations from the young sections of more recent residents. Fortunately they switch them off before retiring.
        Ours were very modest.

        2. When I see those elaborate lights, my thoughts go to early January. Where on earth do they store them all?

          3. On the grass verges, we still have 4 in a row 5 ft high snow men. Life size reindeer and reindeer on a roof. Masses of dangling bright white lights. A huge santa. And opposite a 3 ft white highly illuminated star. Sometimes they forget to turn that off and it lights up our section of the dark street. If we say anything we’re miserable oldies.
            Thank goodness for window blinds and purposeful curtains. 😊

    2. The DT is in charge of the decorations and will probably de-kit the tree on Thursday.
      As the centre spike has died off I’m planning to retire it early and plant it up the hill.

    3. Grattis på födelsedagen, Poppie’s Mamma! Hope you have a lovely day. 😊👍🏻🥂🎂

  31. We still have a shoe cleaning box, and we both have the brushes we were issued with when serving in the RN.

    My shoe brushes have my maiden name written on them . Rarely used now because I don’t have a pair of black shoes , but it is so strange seeing my maiden name , and knowing my ward shoes had to polished , gleaming clean , and there was a strange satisfaction that polishing my shoes gave , we sat around , with paper or a cloth on our knee to protect our clothes from the tin of sticky wax polish ..

    School shoes were different , and they became scuffed very quickly .

    1. I’ve still got my brushes from when I joined up in 1958 and also my ‘housewife’ which contained needles and cotton, and thread for darning your socks

    2. Me too, I also have amongst my remaining kit my seaman’s knife, and my original kitbag with my official number stencilled on the base!

    3. I always seemed to get as much polish on my shirt cuffs as I did on my shoes.

      As we came out of chapel each morning the school monitors stood looking at our shoes as we walked out and if they were not shiny we were punished.

      We also had to put a high shine on our CCF boots and the leather straps on the spats and use brasso on our belt and spats buckles. We also had a sort of khaki blanco with which to scrub the belts. In your fist year when you were a fag you had to clean and polish your fag master’s corps kit as well as your own.

    4. I have a little leather shoe polishing kit, embossed with rhe words “Don’t do as I do; do as I say. Clean your shoes every day.” It was my grandfather’s, and makes me smile every time I polish my boots.

    5. I, too, have a shoe-cleaning box (with a foot rest on the top). I don’t have any “coloured” shoes, only black or brown, so I clean them fairly often.

  32. Good Moaning.
    “Please, God. Let this be the week when numpty solicitors actually get back to work; productive work would be even better.”

  34. Sharon White (Dame, no less), was banging on about a lack of black history on R4 this am. But when a black was asked about her history at the Palace, all hell broke out. Strange world.

    1. Well I suppose the lack of black history is down to the fact that they couldn’t write it down or record it until a few hundred years ago.

      I suppose that is why we do not know that much about pre-roman history here

      1. Yep, the Greeks, Romans, Arabs (and other Semites) had no interest in Sub-Saharan Africa, so it was late to the party. Are we still allowed to say that the Mediterranean was the cradle of civilisation?

        1. Again I beg to differ, but I haven’t got time. The Med peoples wanted elephant ivory, which must have been brought north to coastal areas, in excahnge for other goods or money. Ditto Roman ceramics were exported as far as India. The Greeks, Romans etc were traders, not just invaders.

          1. I did specify Sub-Saharan Africa. North Africa was a different matter altogether. Black Africans were exported via the Arab slave markets but written language was not established in Sub-Saharan Africa until the colonial era.

        2. Again I beg to differ, but I haven’t got time. The Med peoples wanted elephant ivory, which must have been brought north to coastal areas, in excahnge for other goods or money. Ditto Roman ceramics were exported as far as India. The Greeks, Romans etc were traders, not just invaders.

  35. Sharon White (Dame, no less), was banging on about a lack of black history on R4 this am. But when a black was asked about her history at the Palace, all hell broke out. Strange world.

  36. A surreal souvenir
    SIR – In the late 1960s, I spent nearly a week with Salvador Dalí at his home in Cadaquées. As I demurred some of his more outrageous proposed poses, he decided that I was “pure” and “chaste”., and insisted that I dress up as a nun at his dinner parties.

    I was too overawed to ask for any of the drawings he made of me. However, he did give me a half-smoked cigar (Letters, December 31) and a set of his false teeth. I still have them both.

    Patricia Donati
    Culworth, Northamptonshire

    Many decades ago when we lived in Wimborne , and elderly gentleman , rather arty etc was drinking coffee and studying the clientele in the local coffee shop , I had no idea who he was , but he chatted to me about this and that…

    A few weeks later , I saw him again near the Minster , I had just popped some money in the parking meter , and he stopped to talk .

    He asked me to be a life model for him , I nearly choked with shock . and as he noticed my wedding ring , he suggested I ask my husband first .. The audacity and cheek , and I misconstrued his request as a pick up!!!!

    He then handed me a card .. Sven Berlin .. go and google his art .. similar to Salvador Dali ..

    I saw him a few weeks later , and he asked me again , and I told him my husband didn’t think it was a good idea , but thanked him for his interest .. Sven died in 1999, and off course , he was a well known artist with an interesting background .

    4. You ought to have gone ahead and sat for him. I actually enjoyed my short 5y or so as a life model for a local art teacher’s classes.

      1. Yes , I know , I bitterly regret that I didn’t .

        You must have been sure and confident and quite bold , Bob .

        There must be some amazing paintings of you somewhere .

        I must have been coy and I know Moh would have protested and accused me of all sorts of things .

        A few years later I painted a portrait of Moh wrapped in a short towel, I thought it was pretty good, he hated it , and I also painted an abstract kneeling thing of me,, I was hopeless with faces , so it was similar to primitive art .

        When we packed up to move house , Moh said I should junk the paintings as part of a tip chuck out …

        Reluctantly disposed of them , with other bits and pieces .. and my painting of me and Moh were retrieved by a nice looking chap who said you can’t throw these away, and bunged it in his car .

        After we moved house, from the place I loved , I lost the urge to do anything creative .. a part of me was lost forever .

        1. Yes, Maggie, old age has somewhat dimmed my creativity as well – though mine is writing – I find it tough now, to write about daily goings on in my second book.

      1. In the nude but he would have kept his socks on because he needed somewhere to keep his paintbrushes.

    6. I used to go to life drawing classes. One day I met one of the models and couldn’t resist remarking, “I didn’t recognise you with your clothes on!” 🙂

    1. At least Mr Redwood is trying to say the right things – a shame his party is not listening.

      1. There are a number of Conservative MPs who should now be resigning – and without any further delay – from their parliamentary seats and then standing again in by elections as Independents, as members of the Reform Party or in a newly formed party.

        The longer people like John Redwood stay in place the less credible they will become.

        It may contradict the cliché and turn it on its head but it looks to me as if it is the rats who will stay in the sinking ship and that those with any integrity will leave it.

      2. The Conservatives never have listened to John Redwood. He is too direct, intelligent and honest for them.
        I was praising him some thirty years ago: the reaction of the establishment Conservatives listening to me was like a Bateman cartoon.

      3. Your comment is spot on and the problem for Redwood isn’t that the Tory party isn’t listening but that an intelligent man such as Redwood doesn’t understand that the Tory government/party doesn’t represent his brand any longer.

    2. The latest Triggernometry has Francis Foster saying out loud what a lot of us are thinking. This country is a busted flush and our politicians are too stupid and greedy to put it right.

  38. Putin ‘must be tried for war crimes’ as soon as possible. 2 January 2023.

    British international prosecutor Sir Geoffrey Nice called the Russian president a ‘guilty man’.

    Russian president Vladimir Putin is a “guilty man” and must be tried for war crimes in Ukraine as soon as possible, according to a British international prosecutor.

    Sir Geoffrey Nice, who led the case against Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Serbia, told Radio 4 that Ukrainians have a clear legal case of atrocities that amount to crimes because civilian targets should never be bombed or otherwise attacked.

    He’s obviously going to get a fair trial there then! In actuality Vlad’s “War Crimes” pale alongside those of Blair and Bush; Cameron and Sarkozy.
    Iraq is now no more than a US Gas Station where even the Cash goes into an American Bank and Libya, once having the highest standard of living in Africa, is now a Financial and Social corpse. Only Syria has escaped this fate, thanks ironically to Vlad’s intervention. It’s not difficult to see why the Middle East is sitting this one out.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/01/01/putin-must-tried-war-crimes-soon-possible/

    1. Will the EU also be charged? What about us, for supplying weapons rather than trying to force peace? Biden, for not using America’s military muscle as part of NATO to end the conflict?

    2. Vlad’s New Year speech talks about upholding traditional family values. (It’s reproduced on the Russian Embassy in London page on Facebook.) For that crime against Critical Theory alone, he must be tried!

    5. ‘ a clear legal case of atrocities that amount to crimes because civilian targets should never be bombed or otherwise’

      Dresden? The Blitz? Who was prosecuted for those atrocities?

      1. They certainly thought about having a pop at ‘Bomber’ Harris but he remained protected.

        Several of the German High Command featured at Nuremberg – those that hadn’t swallowed their cyanide pills.

      2. The NATO forces targeted civilian infrastructure when they bombed Belgrade and killed some 20k civilians. All on the pretence that Serbia was responsible for the civil war in Bosnia.

        1. Wiki reckons there were about 525 civilian and 1000 military fatalities. Of course many more were wounded.

      3. Hugh Trenchard was a proponent of the heavy bombers.
        For the first few years of WWII, area bombing was the only way to attack Germany. The financial cost was enormous, but Britain was committed to the strategy, regardless of its effectiveness.

        At the end of the war Marshal of the Royal Air Force ‘Bomber’ Harris was not ennobled*, and his 55,573 dead airmen were forgotten, alongside the survivors who were not awarded a British campaign medal.
        *Possibly he protested.

        1. Fair does to Butch; he pointed out they had sown the tempest and they would reap the whirlwind.

      4. Dresden was an unfortunate conglomeration of circumstances (old, timbered houses close together and the weather conditions).

    6. So, Geoff Nice-but-Dim thinks Putin should be tried because he’s guilty? Doesn’t exactly sound like he supports the “innocent until proven guilty” law model? Does Geoff think Zelensky should also stand trial then, for bombing his own peopel?

      1. Reminds me of the line in a Western – “We’ll give you a fair trial before we hang you”.

  39. Good morning, everyone. Late on parade for me today, I’m afraid. Now to hunt for NoToNanny’s funnies.

    1. I think that is worse for women. I don’t mind a female nurse even if it’s about my intimate bits and pieces.

      1. I am relaxed about who treats me; a male nurse or doctor is merely doing his job. Something I had to explain to a shocked teenage granddaughter in relation to a bed bath when I was last in hospital.
        But a great many patients understandably do not take that view, and they should neither be called names nor placed in such a distasteful position just to advance a current dogma.

      2. Infact, for some ‘inspections’, I would rather a proper female person do it than a male, in whatever guise but,
        The choice must be available

      3. Same here. When I had a catheter removed after an op a few years ago she explained in a lot of detail what she was about to do. Being somewhat impatient I nearly volunteered to remove it myself! Anyway, she approached my middle leg as if it was an unexploded bomb. Its removal seemed to take an age…perhaps she was just making the most of it, although personally I wouldn’t envy that aspect of her job. After all, she was working full time in Urology so must have handled a few of those in her long career as a specialist nurse..

      4. I’m not keen on a male coming near my ‘Tom Dick and Harry’ and would prefer a female nurse provided they promised not to laugh – a trannie would be out of the question.

        1. Male/Female Doctors and Nurses see so many bits it is just part of the job. My only concern would be when they were doing their inspection i would get a stiffy. But they have probably seen that too.

  41. If Sharon White had spent less time wrecking John Lewis and more time studying African and Arab slave traders – she’d know more about “black history”.

        1. Except I’m talking about African history – not Windrush.

          They have to research their own family trees as did I, laboriously.

    3. As she is from ‘ackney or the like, Im not sure why she is interested in black history. Parents from the Windrush ‘generation’; there seem to be more on that vessel than the Titanic.

  42. A Taki article on words, in particular new, false definitions.

    Put simply, therefore, the Cambridge Dictionary wordsmiths are lying, but then, as in Orwell, lies can very easily be subjectively redefined as being the truth by those lucky enough to occupy those lofty positions of institutional power that allow them thereby to control public use of the language. Controlling language is to control how people think, to confer upon oneself the godlike ability to define reality itself; in the words of one perceptive critic, the less-than-harmless Cambridge drudges were engaging in the sinister task of “altering words in order to alter minds.”

    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-dictionary-definition-of-stupid-redefining-the-word-woman/

        1. A Happy New Year, Mr Bruin

          I think the last link that I posted works but I had tried two others that were blocked.

    2. Goebbels followed the same line, as did Stalin. The fascist Left always seek to control language first and foremost. They start subtle – ‘liberal’, ‘progressive’ and then the onslaught begins.

  43. Gay Paris
    A slightly different take on the recent Paris riots.

    Whether the Kurd-killer was a crank or a Turkish emissary, the Kurdish community blamed the French for failing to protect their people. Really? Perhaps sir and his wives would like 24/7 personal security? Leave it once again to the French taxpayer, allez! What becomes clearer with each of these internecine disputes—be the killer a racist nutjob or a Turkish hitman—is that when countries import sectarian religions, they also import either the strife that goes with it or a whole new civil war. Then it’s their problem.

    The Turkish deep state—everyone’s got one these days—despises Kurds, and particularly the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). To be fair, they have a point, PKK flags being bright red and featuring in one corner a rather clever symbol composed of a yellow hammer and sickle, which may be familiar to you. They were conspicuous in Paris. The PKK are also proscribed worldwide as a terrorist organization—a point to which we will return—but at what stage did a Muslim country in the Asiatics get to tell France who can and cannot march in their streets? Around the same time China opened police stations to look for dissidents in the Americas, I guess.
    The PKK are not Commie LARPers. They are a proscribed terrorist organization banned across the E.U., the U.S.—ah, forget about it, it’s easier to say where they aren’t banned. North Korea or Cuba would probably buy them a beer, but the latest Global Terrorism Index hardly puts them in the big league. So why the blanket ban? Well, the Index is produced by the Institute of Economics and Peace, which is a branch of the European Union, which is de facto run by Germany, which has always appeased Turkey. So perhaps the Turks forced the ban but kept the PKK out of the papers to avoid giving them publicity. Just a thought.

    LARPers are live action role-players.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/paris-city-of-riots/

    1. We can’t have the truth getting out, can we? As it is, white folks are the only group who do not immediately riot, destroy, loot and ruin when one of their number is killed.

      Can you imagine how we could have purged Birmingham of effluent over the cause of Lee Rigby? Yet we don’t think like that. Why do they, and more, why do they get away with it?

    2. The only Kurd I know is the son of a retired senior Iraqi officer; educated and polite, he runs a business and you wouldn’t want to mess with him.

      1. The children are being neutered. Whether it’s being done deliberately to prevent them breeding is secondary to that being the inevitable outcome.

        1. Hi Sue. Tried again but could only open the first reply which led to copious tweets and pictures supporting fundraising requests.

          1. You can either click the blue bird in the right hand corner, or the other links, eg “read 30 replies”.

    4. The sooner this nonsense ends, and these people are treated as what they are – mentally ill – we’re never going to treat this insanity.

    5. Andrew Doyle had an interview with two such people on his GB News show last night.

    6. Age-restricted adult content. This content might not be appropriate for everyone. To view this media, you’ll need to add your birthdate to your profile. Twitter also uses your age to show more relevant content, including ads, as explained in our Privacy Policy. Learn more
      I’m not adding my date of birth – even a false one!

  46. She failed – but Trussonomics still offers the answer to the crisis gripping Britain
    The debate around wages misses the point – Britain must push for growth at all costs
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/01/02/failed-trussonomics-still-offers-answer-crisis-gripping-britain/

    I must admit that I did not much like Adultera Truss at a personal level but she has been disgracefully treated by the Conservative Party and the MSM.

    I should imagine that Wrattstrangler is a pseudonym or a nom de plume and I wonder if his family come from the Lower Saxony town of Hamelin. Whatever the truth is about his antecedents I often find myself in agreement with him.

    Percival Wrattstrangler’s BTL today

    The moment Truss won the leadership election the MSM and the Conservative Party in Parliament started working on how to get rid of her – this is what Schwab at the WEF wanted so that’s what they gave him because the sooner the UK economy is shredded the sooner the Great Reset can be implemented.

    The only chance that current Conservative Party MPs have of saving their careers is if they resign now before they are kicked out by the electorate who have decided never to vote Conservative again. They could then stand again as Independents or as Reform Party candidates because they present themselves as Conservative Party candidates the are finished.

      1. I certainly use the pseudonym of Richard Tracey when I post my comment under DT articles.

          1. When I was at university my friends invented the soubriquet of Rastus C Tastey for me but this was not the name the bishop gave me at my Christening in Khartoum in1946!

            What’s in a name? Young Ms Capulet thought that young Mr Montagu’s odour would be the same no matter what his label proclaimed!

          2. The Duke of Wellington: “I may have been born in Ireland but I am still English. Being born in a stable doesn’t make one a horse!”

        2. Richard is a fine name and that of my husband ( lionheart of England as I call him ) . One of those strong traditional names rather than Gary and other more modern names. If Rastus is your ‘ real name ‘ it’s very unusual and has a Latin feel about it .

          1. Gary started off as a diminutive of Gareth, a fine old Welsh name.

            ‘Garry’ is also a diminutive of Garfield, as in Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, AO, OCC, NH, the most talented all-round cricketer in history.

          3. It’s a very fine name and never shortened to Rick but I know many do shorten their names .

          4. Those who call me Rich, Richie, Rick, Ricky, Dick or Dickie do so at their peril. My wife calls me Darling, my sons call me Dad and apart from one or two of my university friends who still call me Rastus most people call me Richard. Of course, as a schoolmaster the boys had several names for me – some more pejorative than others..

          5. “Dick is not a name: it is an appendage!” Richard Burton.

            A friend, who routinely introduces himself as Dick is always called “Rick” by his female sidekick. She even signs “Hilary & Rick” on Christmas cards but I still call him by the name he prefers: Dick.

      1. All Bill needed to do was fully Open a past page
        Enter “Control F”
        Enter name of Riski’s accomplice
        Select Highlight all
        Then click ‘up’ or ‘down’ icons

        1. There was no name to insert (except that of the unknown NoTTLer who posted …. That’s the trouble.

    3. Any proper, currently in post Conservative MP, could do worse than resign from the party, stand down as MP and put himself forward as an independent candidate using those points as a manifesto template.

      1. You think they care?
        Stay silent until the next election and collect their golden pension.

      2. I have been saying this for some time now. Indeed, my friend, Mr Wrattstrangler, has already reiterated this point in one of his BTL DT comments this morning.

    4. The only reason they don’t do any of these things is because they know that no other party will do so either.

      Is Richard Tice bright enough to cotton on to the fact that he must commit his party to doing these things rather than just posturing?

    5. T-B -Get the Northern Ireland problem without further delay and no dithering agreement with the EU. Northern Ireland is part of the UK.

  54. Afternoon All

    Can I have the Government arrested??

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/084101ae19f01b8705e0a5461ce34d16d038b3acd1795ec92d429519845ee25b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/884c68156dc705cdb86067fc580891cec3f7e0501055793e8d5703119d43951b.jpg

    Science……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8c69741bfd998e514ee905d77faab10027192f0a2e1ab7e034b2a70646a629cf.jpg

    https://twitter.com/PlainSpeakingUK/status/1609533225281490945?t=mgumO1vxfX95zAh_RePr4A&s=19

  55. I prefer names used in their full . Richard instead of Rick , David instead of Dave, Stephen instead of Steve, Christopher instead of Chris, Phil instead of Philip and Peter instead of Pete but there are exceptions to the rule such as Tom instead of Thomas and Kate instead of Catherine and Lotte instead of Charlotte, Jenny instead of Jennifer and Penny instead of Penelope, or Millie instead of Amelia .

      1. William is a very nice name but Harry is better then Harold .
        Bill Is to William, as Phil is to Philip .

        1. I’ve known two Harolds whose names were abbreviated to Aitch, not terribly nice sounding, to be honest.

          1. I’d never know how to pronounce Aitch but I’d imagine is sounds like a dropped letter .

        2. Harry is a popular diminutive of Henry but is not used as a shorted form of Harold. Some Harrys have that name given to them (a popular one is one of our own co-correspodents, on this very forum) and were never a Henry or (heaven forfend) a Harold.

    2. Call me Rick, Dick od Ricky and I will probably ignore you. Not Intentonally but that is not my name.

      The assistant at the building supply store calls me Sir Richard, that is good enough for me,

      1. Sir Richard is very fine indeed whereas Rick, Dick or Dicky are so demeaning of a dignified name of strength and character.

          1. My Christian name is French, I’ve never liked it. Prefer to be known by my middle name which is Kitty .

          2. Lovely to meet you, French. 😂😂😂. I don’t like my Christian name either so use my middle name (Margaret, I don’t like that either), so am Maggie. I’m not sure many like their Christian name.

          3. I put up with mine……. I really don’t quite understand my parents’ thought processes at the time. They named me after a Belgian girl they met – but ‘anglicised’ my name – in the process making it masculine. My second name refers to a person who befriended my father but in the end they had a huge falling out.

      3. My user name is an alias I borrowed from my great grandfather. My real name is Michael. I am usually known as Mick/Micky but never Mike.

    3. Call me Rick, Dick od Ricky and I will probably ignore you. Not Intentonally but that is not my name.

      The assistant at the building supply store calls me Sir Richard, that is good enough for me,

    4. Yet I don’t like my full name. I prefer the short form. Ultimately it’s a courtesy to the other. Heck, I’d even extend that to some bloke in a dress wanting to be called ‘Rebecca’. It’s not who they are, but it’s their choice. What i won’t do is call someone by a plural, as that’s fundamentally wrong.

      3. I prefer the short form of my Christian name as it’s the English version (people almost always get the foreign one wrong).

        1. I performed Burlington Bertie from Bow at a school variety show many years ago- when I was teaching. Wore a bowler hat instead of a topper- no-one had a top hat;-)

          1. You didn’t know me then – I have two regular and one opera hat! I used to wear the regular ones for riding (although I do have a penguin suit with which I could have worn the opera top hat).

      2. I rather like the sound o Bertie . Very much that of a country English Gentleman .

      3. I think “Bertie” was the short-form or nick-name of George V’s second son (Albert) who became George VI.

    9. I find the shortening of my granddaughter’s name from Olivia to Liv particularly loathsome – not just because it is ugly, but I associate it with an unpleasant individual I once knew, and with the treacherous and murderous wife Livia of the Emperor Augustus.

      1. Olivia is such a beautiful distinguished name why on earth would anyone shorten it to Liv which doesn’t sound nice at all. Its such a shame.

    1. As each day, week, month, year passes, its seems less likely that we will ever hear about one of the members of Parliament, House of Lords, the home office or any other of the senior know it all brigade. That has gone down with now well known cardiology/stroke side effects from all the covid jabs and myriad of booster. I can’t think what might have actually taken place to separate these people from the rest of the British public.
      Comments welcome. 🤔

      1. Eddy I believe Sir Christopher Chope has raised it in the HoC and there has been a Select Committee meeting where Andrew Bridgen also spoke of vaccine injuries. So there are moves afoot it’s just that the overwhelming majority of MPs and Lords are fully on song with the official narratives.

        There are also Inquiries going on but I’m pretty sure the terms of reference are either all-encompassing, so that everything gets lost in translation, or extremely limited. I had kept some links for a while but recently decided nothing is going to come of it and my BP needs TLC so have deleted them. Too many people are determined to remain fooled rather than admit they have been fooled.

        1. Interesting.
          Including myself I know of four other people who have/are suffering from such complaints. One suddenly had a massive heart attack followed by a fatal stroke.
          No previous health problems.

          4. I hate to say that my elderly BIL has had every jab and booster available.
            And he’s in hospital right now with extreme fluctuating blood pressure and very weak heart beats.

          6. My cardioversion lasted only 3 months almost to the day.
            I’ve got to discuss the letter from cardiology with a GP.
            At the end of my 3 day stay in hospital before Christmas, a cardiologists came to see me. He spoke briefly but I was not in a good place to understand what he quickly and briefly said. I’m still none the wiser. Something about increasing medication and changing it.
            I can’t take the double dose they gave me it knocks me for six in the morning. And I quite often have to go back to bed. So now I only take half. At least I can get around the house.
            What a palaver 🤔

          7. OH has a bagful of meds and he is very tired. The earliest we could get a phone call from the GP was Jan 16th – the meds all run out this week.

        2. Crazed teacher friend gets all loud & screechy anytime anyone even implies that the Covid vax isn’t perfect.
          I know several vaccinated who have had covid several times (according to the nose swab), whereas I, vaccinated often with boosters against cholera, never caught cholera once.

      2. James Delingpole raised that issue in an interview on his Delingpod site with Andrew Bridgen. Pretty sure Bridgen corrected him and said that there have been vaxx injuries among MPs.

        1. Years after I left my C of E school I attended a memorial service for my late father and others at St Mary’s Church Hendon. Seconds after I walked in with my family it was confirmed that my long ago assumption that he was gay, one of our teachers was confirmed. He had moved up to being a priest. Scarily he remembered my name nearly 40 years on.

    5. He came ‘out’ during his training for the priesthood. Didn’t someone realise that he obviously had ‘issues’ and thus take action before ordaining him?

      1. The priesthood has always been the natural home of queers and paedophiles. I doubt anyone took a blind bit of notice of his behaviour. In fact now that the church is so woke it probably sped up his ordination.

        1. That is not a nice thing to say. Every single human group or category will contain a few ‘bad apples’.

    7. This person admits to being autistic and dyspraxic – but is clearly deranged as well. I pity his wife and family. As for the congregation – I guess they must like sparkly eyeshadow too.

  60. Prince Harry says he wants Charles and William ‘back’ but Royal family ‘unwilling to reconcile’. 2 January 2023.

    The Duke of Sussex has accused his family of showing no willingness to reconcile, saying: “I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back.”

    Prince Harry was interviewed by Tom Bradby, ITV’s veteran anchor, to promote his forthcoming memoir, Spare, suggesting that he blames the King and the Prince of Wales for the ongoing family rift.

    In a trailer released on Monday, the Duke said: “It never needed to be this way, the leaking and the planting. I want a family, not an institution.”

    I’ve just caught part of this on the BBC with these very same words. He’s beginning to sound positively obsessed and paranoid.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/01/02/prince-harry-interview-new-book-spare/

      2. Apparently he’s signed a four book deal. With an advance fee of £18m. A lot of people would throw their family under a bus for that?

    2. He has no dignity, does he? Knows it’s going round the whole world and there he is bleating about his own family. Enough already. In fact more than enough. (And I haven’t seen any of his Netflix series or interviews). He should just shut up and go away.

      1. It’s because they are very private people apparently.

        Did you and Alf enjoy the festivities?

        1. Hi Phizzee 😂 yes, their privacy is paramount!

          We had a lovely time thanks, Christmas at son and daughter in law’s plus grandson. We did quite a bit of the prep at home first and also made fruit salad and mince pies (forgot to take the pies!). but nobody could eat any pud anyway. Had a really lovely time. Then they came to us on Boxing Day when we did a Beef Wellington where we all mucked in. Proper family meal and the beef was exquisite I’m delighted to say. You would have been proud of us, being the Resident Chef. Fruit salad was mango, kiwi, papaya with passion fruit, lime zest, honey and walnut oil dressing. All in all it was gorgeous. Then we all slumped in front of tv! Anyway enough of that.

          How’s the cold and cough coming on? Good of your neighbour to share! Hope you’re feeling better.

          1. That all sounds wonderful. Just as it should be. Was your Welly pinkish in the middle?

            I think i am over the worst, thanks for asking. Still nose blowing but i have a decent cough medicine keeping that horrible cough under control.

          2. It was indeed, just as it should be. Even our daughter in law enjoyed it tho she usually asks for hers to be cooked a bit longer. We all said it was the best piece of beef we’d ever had – from Morrisons btw, and the pâté secured with Parma ham. Scrumptious. Glad you’re in recovery mode.

          4. Yup. Hadn’t made the duxelle before and was a bit unsure of how much to cook the mixed mushrooms but it all worked beautifully. Was a bit worried when our son in law, was a professional chef, asked if we’d made it the day before. But there was plenty of time, didn’t eat until about 3. We ordered the fillet a couple of weeks beforehand.

          5. I know people worry about cooking for cooks and chefs. If they are nice people they will be forgiving.

            He did raise a good point though. Beef Wellington can all be done the day before and then just pop it in the oven. At least that way you know the meat and pastry are fully rested.

          6. Didn’t know the whole thing could be cooked the day before. So what do you do, cool it down quickly and put in the fridge overnight and then bring it out say an hour before reheating? And how long to reheat it and would it need resting again?

    3. “I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back.”

      He’s going a funny way about it, with him (and her) constantly criticising his family.

    4. He’s mentally unstable. Nuts . Must be the strange ” brainwashing mushrooms ” in California .

    6. He really has lost it – he and Migraine were the ones who “left the Firm” and wanted peace and quiet, which they sought by appearing on any garbage programme that would air “their truth”.

    7. He really has lost it – he and Migraine were the ones who “left the Firm” and wanted peace and quiet, which they sought by appearing on any garbage programme that would air “their truth”.

  61. They can attribute this to all these conditions but 90% of Portsmouth takeaways have been scoring one star for years.

    Cockroaches, mould and dead mice are not

    uncommon sights for health officials inspecting UK eateries, as data

    shows food hygiene standards are likelier to be lower in more deprived

    areas.

    Atrocious conditions and low

    food hygiene ratings have been attributed to a backlog of inspections

    due to Covid, employers struggling to recruit workers after Brexit and the cost of living crisis.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11591879/Takeaways-poorer-parts-England-likely-fall-hygiene-standards.html

    1. “One main concern identified was the fall in the number of inspections of food businesses because of fewer resources being available to local authorities.”

      A university friend of mine went into public health in the 80s. It was struggling for staff even then. He told me of plenty of cases like those described in the article. Mind you, it was in the badlands of Greater Manchester…

      “The other was the delay in establishing full UK imports controls for high-risk food from the EU, which could mean more unsafe products reaching the UK market.”

      Surely they were getting in before without controls…

      1. Don’t apply logic to anti-Brexit statements – it will cause your head to explode! 🙂

    2. I imagine, if in 100 years time they are still teaching history in places of education, that “The Brexit” will be up there with the two World Wars and the Black Death.

    2. One of the books I read to the first graders in the library was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. I used to cut out large bear paws from construction paper and place them all round the library floor. After the story, we would go on a “bear hunt” and then retrace our steps, just like the book..
      Great fun for all.

        1. Gawd yes. When I think back to some of the old drones I sat through…..one just dictated notes and the other did bugger all except have us read aloud. Nearly put me of Great Expectations and David Copperfield for life.

      2. A popular but very sad tale.
        As Michael Rosen is from a leftwing Jewish immigrant background, I have vaguely imagined it to be a parable about persecution. The language is good for young readers, but Heaven forfend that any children should copy the concept of getting wet and muddy and then having to traipse through a snowstorm (Hoooo wooooo Hoooo wooooo!).

        1. Leaving his extreme left-wing views aside (difficult, sometimes) he is a good broadcaster.

          1. Yes, it was years before I linked the children’s author with the Radio 4 chap.

            His booksales are in excess of 9 million and his typewriter will be preserved in an American university!

          3. So did I until about two years ago when they became stupidly political and after one particularly egregious episode, I cancelled the podcast download.

          1. Allegory, that’s the word I wanted. The book has a certain darkness, like Brothers Grimm.

            The Gruffalo is more joyful, although book two has an aura of sadness.

    3. Reminds me of a guy in my class at York Art School who strapped two big blocks of polystyrene to his feet then stepped into the River Ouse. The polystyrene floated as expected but Steve was underneath not on top as he’d hoped.

      1. I think the lank hair and receding hairline are big enough clues. Besides completely misunderstanding the use of makeup.

  65. Just had the first walk of 2023. 2½ miles. Very agreeable – except for the damned sunshine…!!

        1. The MR should have walked backwards. Better still you should have been a gent and given her your Panama.

          7. For gardening, I use the one my father wore – he died in April 1988. The other, more respectable ones date from the mid 1990s.

          9. I’m sure Bill doesn’t wear a Panama until after Royal Ascot and then saves it for Goodwood 🙂

      1. I wonder how many other countries capital’s populations are similar, and of those how many aren’t cities of countries that are/were essentially white, 50 years ago? Not many would be my guess.

        It seems to me that ONLY the evil white man allows his/her cites and countries to be be overwhelmed by foreigners many of whom hate those countries and the people they have replaced.

        1. The multiculty zealots will answer that it’s payback for the British Empire and will never acknowledge that the empire gave more than it took.

          1. And yet very significant numbers arrive from places that never were part of the British Empire.
            It may have been the largest empire the world has seen, but in absolute terms it was still only quarter of the world and at a time when the world’s population might have been less than 1.5 Billion, the Empire’s might have been under 1/2 a billion
            https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/British_Empire_1921.png/600px-British_Empire_1921.png

          2. Immigration laws were conceived in the early 1900s after there was a wave of Jewish immigration from the Russian empire.

          3. The problem the politicians/idiots have is that they don’t change when they see something isn’t working as intended.

          4. Just compare the Sudan now with the Sudan as it was when the British left it.

            The Sudan has suffered endless civil war, plague, famine, collapse of education, medicine and infrastructure, religious persecution, genocide and partition since the British left.

            And if the British were oppressive rulers why do so many Sudanese people want to leave their homelands to live in Britain?

        2. I thought I’d have a look at the ethnicity of Paris only to learn that;
          “it is illegal for the French State to collect data on ethnicity and race.”

    2. They built the Empire, the NHS, and our society would have collapsed without them, apparently. I await for the revelation that space rockets and computers were actually developed in Africa. Well, they did send a monkey up first, didn’t they.

      1. Quite, and if they really are so marvellous, why is it that they can’t seem to make their ancestors’ homelands safe and prosperous?

        1. Quite.

          When I think of the trillions of pounds that have been given to African countries – and yet most have no running water, sewerage or electricity (outside parts of the larger towns).

      2. “just three examples of ethnic minorities who are bringing our communities together”

        While the other seventeen million four hundred thousand two hundred and eighty one (and counting) are stabbing everything in sight and tearing it apart.

    3. Yo sos

      They are certainly advertising their presence in UK, infact, if you believe TV Commercials, there ain’t no Whieys left in UK

    4. “The Office for National Statistics recently published figures which showed for the first time that White British people are the minority in London. The usual extremists used this as a way to try to divide our communities however the New Year Honours have highlighted again how ethnic minorities are leading the way to build a better Britain.”

      The most flawed logic I have seen for quite some time.

      1. It is not extreme to think that getting rid of the indigenous is a bad idea. The New Year’s honours, however, disproportionately reward ethnics (who are rapidly becoming a majority).

    5. Was the down vote because of the link or what I wrote, Mr Twig?
      Disagree by all means, but a reason might be nice.

      1. I can’t see a down vote there – they are more often than not done by mistake. Especially if the user is on the new-style interface. I reverted to the old one.

        1. It’s still there after several refreshes.

          I refresh the page frequently to try to be sure, before posting replies after an absence, that someone else hasn’t already made the response I would have.

          I agree it is often a mistake, but if I see one I like to be able to respond to the “problem”.

          2. It’s only because I like to be able to debate with the other poster, if a subject might be contentious, that I don’t like unquantified “downers”

  68. Phew! I’m knackered again!
    5h (with breaks) of swinging the axe has filled the woodstack another third.
    There is a small amount of thinner stuff that needs to be saw, split & stacked which I plan doing tomorrow, weather permitting.

    2. Caroline’s sister, Pierrette, and her latest husband, Sjoerd, have been to stay for the New Year. Sjoerd is an excellent worker and he brought his chain saw with him and we have a great amount of wood to stack. He has stacked his own wood in their home in Holland in Norwegian Round Wood Piles (called holz hausen) and Caroline is keen to build one herself:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5de0c61ecce7dd03b39f42e2a21665d34d005230abfce073b69b5b4298826a47.jpg

      1. Wow, that’s a lot of wood!

        I’m just finishing off burning the wood from stack number two of nine.
        There is a largeish oak due to come down soon, which should produce at least five new stacks and I’ve got to do some thinning, so we should be OK for the next few years.

      2. Very nice, but I do not have the space for that close enough to be convenient for the house.

    1. Won 4 Bafta awards.

      We’re in an English village shortly before Dunkirk. “Mr. Tom” Oakley
      still broods over the death of his wife and small son while he was away
      in the navy during WWI, and grief has made him a surly hermit. Now
      children evacuated from London are overwhelming volunteers to house
      them. Practically under protest, Mr. Tom takes in a painfully quiet
      10-year-old, who gradually reveals big problems. William nightly wets
      the bed. He can’t read or write, although he is intelligent and shows
      artistic talent. He constantly dreads going to hell. Scars cover his
      back. Mr. Tom soon realizes that his little boarder comes from a
      horribly abusive home, and determines to provide him a better one. All
      goes well until William’s mother persuades him to return to London for a
      few days’ visit. When Mr. Tom hears nothing from the boy after two
      weeks, he can endure the loneliness and worry no longer.

      1. Is that the one with whatisname in? The chap who is walking out with Anna Nuclear Wintour?

      3. Did John Thaw play the part in a film?

        I remember reading the book aloud to my boys at bedtime when they were little.

    2. Just watched it and bawled my eyes out, as I did the first time I read the book. A great performance by John Thaw.

      2. He was a fine actor. The Sweeney didn’t represent his abilities, and rather put him in the shade, IMO.

      3. You guys prompted me to search on YouTube and I found it.

        Just finished watching it – very emotional, as you say and John Thaw was magnificent.

        Well worth 97 minutes of my time and William called him ‘Dad’.

  71. Maro Itoje: Sing Swing Low if you want, rugby star tells England fans
    Itoje argues that most England supporters sing the controversial Swing Low song to support their team and not out of malice
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/02/maro-itoje-sing-swing-low-want-rugby-star-tells-england-fans/

    They are coming for vulgar rugby songs now!

    I wonder where Percival Wrattstrangler went to school and in which position he played

    A BTL comment:

    Anyone who has played rugby will know that this song has to be accompanied by hand signals if it is to satisfy the singers.

    I learnt all about, Dinah, what the engineer said before he died and the hirsuteness of the Mayor of Bayswater’s daughter when I was a schoolboy and spent many Saturday afternoons singing in the team bus as we returned to Tiverton from matches against Sherborne, Clifton, Downside, Taunton, Canford, Cheltenham or Bryanston.

    2. Blundell’s is on the outskirts of Tiverton.
      By Jove the man’s an impostor, because the name is surely hyphenated, Wratt-Strangler.

  72. I shall love you and leave you – a bit early. I am engrossed in “Going to Church in Medieval England” by by Nicholas Orme. Truly rivetting – if only to see that 1200+ years ago, parishes faced the same sort of problems as they do today: interfering bishops, greedy priests, scrooge-like parishioners, badly behaved children in church…..upkeep, raising tithes….

    Whether one is a churchgoer or a believer or not – it is a fascinating book. And, notwithstanding the evident scholarship of the author, an easy read. I commend it.

    Have a spiffing evening…again.

    A demain

        1. Don’t point at me. I never did any work in the criminal courts. Indeed, my view was that the sooner anyone accused was banged up for life, the better.

          2. I should add that my views were well known and tended to deter anyone facing a criminal case!

            TTFN

          5. Of course, I forgot that. I never did it but our grandson, on his 18th birthday, last year received a jury service summons. He managed to postpone it for a year, did it this year and ended up foreman of the jury.

    2. Rioting and burning of hundreds of cars is a yearly ritual in Paris and other French cities. Hardly mentioned in UK propaganda services.

      1. Yesterday’s “Nice Matin” showed a burned out car with the caption: “A quiet New Year’s Eve this year”

    3. “German youth in migrant heavy neighbourhoods….”

      For a moment then I thought it really WAS German Youth finally reacting against their country’s invasion.

    1. 369615+ upticks,

      O2O,
      That is what RESET is all about Og, the complaining party members will be replaced on the next incoming tide.

      1. 369615+ up ticks,

        Evening T5,

        Sad news that , I can understand the peoples being out of the game maybe sleeping off celebratory drinks, but the dog surely would have sensed something wrong.

  75. Evening, all. What a difference a bit of sunshine makes! I took the dogs for a long walk (I was wrong about the shops being back to normal), collected my sketch pad and pencils from the studio so I could start my new year’s resolution of doing at least one sketch a day (I did three), cleared away a lot of dead foliage so you can see the bulbs coming through and finished pruning the roses I’d missed first time round, changed the drip feeders in the tubs, tidied my clothes away (I’m dreadful; I dump everything rather than hanging it up or putting it in drawers) and while I was doing that, I threw out some old shirts that were frayed at the cuffs and/or collar (but I kept the buttons and the cotton ones for dusters), swapped some furniture around and took some bulbs that I’d been forcing out of the conservatory. I’d like to think the dull day blues were over, but I suspect tomorrow lethargy will reign once more.

        1. It’s just as well you didn’t write trannysylvaniBoB, he’d have had your legs chain sawed at the knee.

        2. When the keeper of the house shall tremble and the strong men bow themselves … (Ecclesiastes)

      2. That will probably be it for the week! Unfortunately, when I was clearing a cupboard out, I dropped a bottle of TCP (thankfully, there wasn’t much in it), so the kitchen smells of it. I swept up all the broken glass – just as well as Oscar decided to try to lick up the TCP! I did manage to stop him and then I had to mop the floor to be sure.

        1. TCP, one of those smells that brings back all sorts of memories, depending where one sniffs it!

    2. You amaze me. I have piles of leaves in the garden and piles of clean laundry to fold. I have to work around a mob of Chihuahuas that continually accuse me of not feeding them and trying to trip me up. I think they have smelt my liver !

      1. I still have piles of leaves in the garden – I’ve only just made a start on clearing up. Oscar and Kadi were worn out by the walk – they both went to bed! What amazed me was that I felt energised enough even to make a start.

          1. I think it was the sunshine. I probably suffer from SAD and should use a lightbox. When the sun shone I felt so much better and felt able to tackle making a start.

          3. It did for me; I’ve been feeling really apathetic for the last few weeks – dull, dark days do me no good at all. I find it depressing when I have to put the light on at two o’clock in the afternoon because it’s so miserable and I can’t be bothered to do anything. Consequently, the list of things I need to do builds up and I don’t know where to start, so I don’t!

    3. Well done, Conners. I too am slowly but surely sorting out things – for example, tomorrow I am attending a funeral (with The Master, Harry Lime) and today I sorted out my dark suit, clean white shirt and black tie. I also sorted through my birthday and Christmas cards and now am ready to spend part of tomorrow emailing thanks to all and sundry. I also took advantage of the dry and sunny weather to watch and dry five T-shirts. Slowly but surely I am getting there. ALSO, tonight I watched MONSIEUR HULOT’S HOLIDAY for the very first time. Absolutely delightful and a film I shall return to again and again. Tom, if ever you get out of sorts, I suggest you watch it. It’s available free of charge on YouTube.

      1. Glad to hear you’re making progress, Elsie, but sorry to hear you have a funeral to attend.

      1. Thank you, Rik! Fingers crossed it is true. We would never hear about it anyway, it’s only skanky Brits (I’m one of them) who vote to leave the lovey-dovey club that is the viper’s nest named the eu.

    7. Probably just dreaming but that never does harm.the only news I can find linking Hungary and the EU is the ongoing funding dispute.

      Good enough reason to leave.

      1. There were numerous threads around the end of September and early October, but it seems to have died down, hence my wondering whether reports are being supressed.

    10. If any one of our useless politicians had half brain cell, they would set up an alliance btw theUK and Hungary. A free trade union, perhaps. Other independent European nations welcome to join.

      Sadly….

    11. Tricked they were. Just like the Russians with the Minsks agreements. Much like the UK.

  77. ***BREAKING NEWS***

    Shops report a huge run on pots and pans and wooden spoons as UK public stock up to bang for the NHS

    Return of the MASKS: Now health chiefs say face coverings should be BROUGHT BACK and anyone feeling ill should ‘stay at home’ in echo of pandemic era – as medics claim the NHS is under more pressure than at the height of Covid

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11592439/Return-MASKS-health-chiefs-say-face-coverings-brought-back.html

    1. So, the worst pandemic ever isn’t as bad as a relatively mild winter.
      Why are people sicker? Shurely not because their immune systems are compromised by vaccines and a lack of practice at fighting off infections? Please say it isn’t so.

      1. In the middle of a tarmac runway at midday when there’s been a lot of traffic taking off …

        1. I wonder if they have been ‘renewed’ in that time? These people seem to work to a policy of the end justifying the means since 1997.

      1. We had two or three days of a particularly hot Summer. The rest of the year could be covered in ice but it would still by their reckoning be the hottest year. Which it wasn’t for anyone who is over fifty.

        California suffering catastrophic floods at the moment….ooohh climate change!!!
        California six months ago drought. .oohh climate change !!!

        Reality. California has a regular cycle of wet and dry.

        Hi Grizz…Did your guests all survive the ……..Pork Pies !

  79. Experts?
    Yeah yeah of course they are.
    Two headlines sitting next to each other in the DM.
    Yes, I know, DM, but the point is still valid.
    1.

    NEW Covid variant XBB.1.5 that is already behind one in 25 cases in the UK is a ‘wakeup call’ and could worsen the NHS crisis, experts warn
    Strain has caused alarm in US over its quick spread and a rise in hospitalisations
    XBB.1.5 has mutations that help it better infect people and dodge immunity
    Experts told MailOnline strain is a ‘wakeup call’ and could worsen NHS crisis

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11591623/Experts-claim-NEW-Covid-variant-named-XBB-1-5.html

    2.

    Why there’s NO reason to panic about new Covid variant XBB.1.5: Extremely infectious strain is NOT more likely to kill or hospitalize patients, experts say
    Northeastern states are hotspots for the Covid sub-variant in the United States
    But there is no evidence that the strain is more likely to cause severe disease
    Some experts warn the wave should be a ‘wakeup call’ for authorities

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11592037/XBB-1-5-NOT-likely-kill-hospitalize-patients-experts-say.html

    What a lottra bollux-it-all-is.

        1. Not me, the Chinese wrote it, as well as Western “experts”. Can’t quote the sources.

    4. Sometime soon, despite their best efforts, the truth will make an appearance. It will be code named UXB.

  80. Name and Shame Wokery

    Buy a Tesla they said, good for the planet they said, good long term investment they said…

    Prices of second-hand Teslas have dropped faster than used cars from other brands, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing data from Edmunds.

    In July, the average used Model 3, S, X, or Y would have cost you $67,297. But by November, prices slid 17% to $55,754. Used-car prices on the whole are also coming down after years of short supply, but not as sharply, dropping 4% over the same period, according to Edmunds data.

    https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-used-car-price-bubble-pops-weighs-new-car-demand-2022-12-27/?fbclid=IwAR1E1VAr60pSa2WayRilYraH8VMTSiicB6_kCj7jsfPT2KUDtHZ9JxAxAMU

    Top BTL comment:

    “Don’t forget “loss of charge” whereby all electric vehicle batteries require more power to charge than they can actually hold! Not to mention SUV’s and other larger vehicles are significantly less efficient and these can currently work out more expensive than petrol/diesels!

    Add to this they are not all able to tow and even if they can, they have restrictions! Many of these new electric vehicles have the usual teething problems as with any new model. Also who wants to worry about recharging stress?

    In UK the government are withdrawing all the tax benefits in the near future so where are all the advantages that are proclaimed? Other than climate considerations? Finally they are STILL overpriced.

    2. But all rechargeable batteries need more energy to charge up than they actually deliver.
      A rule of thumb I recall from decades ago is 2kWh in for 1 kWh out.

      1. Shhh….don’t tell greeniacs that or their heads will explode….on second thoughts…

    3. This is why the milk float disapeared. Some people who should know better never learn from history.

    4. There are reports in the US of Hertz hire Teslas causing problems over Christmas.
      Apparently they were losing their charge very quickly, they might run for two hours before needing a full recharge. Not good if you are trying to drive three or four hundred miles for a family gathering.

      1. I was just under 28 when (with the ex) we bought our first house. I bought him out when we divorced so it was all mine in 1992.

    1. Okay if you are a polyglot i suppose but why would that pipeline concern Canada unless there were starchamber deals being done behind their electorates backs?

      No need to answer.

  83. Ever noticed that dogs come in male and female type – and cutting the bollocks off doesn’t make a dog a bitch.

          2. My favourite is the Border Collie but they are too active for me now. They need the countryside and the freedom.

          4. I like to see the collies at work on the sheep farms and in the Cruft obstacle course for dogs. I haven’t had a dog since 1962 nor a cat except our neighbour’s cat which came in for the night and some grub. I enjoyed the cat’s company.

          5. My Scots uncle had a dairy farm- he had two dogs. One older and one quite young. The baker’s van came round into the close at the farm to deliver bread etc. The baker always gave the dogs a bun. In the winter my uncle “babysat” sheep that came down from the higher ground.
            Said uncle was up in a field with the young dog, a Border Collie, and a lot of sheep. The baker’s van pulled into the farm close and beeped his horn. The dog, Ben, ran straight back to the farm so he didn’t miss his bun. Uncle fuming!
            Dogs are smart;-))

          6. I didn’t mind what I got when I had to have my border cross put to sleep, but a border terrier would have been good. I’ve ended up with a pedigree Fox Terrier and then, like London buses, another one came along and he’s a Cairn x Westie. Neither of them would have been my choice, but I’m delighted to have them and I love them to bits.

  84. Plum’s New Year’s resolution:

    “I am going to get a dog.”

    I replied: “I will keep nagging you, until you succeed”!

    3. I hope a doggy friend finds her soon. Tell her not to be too fussy. As long as it has four legs and a tail and is grateful for regular square meals and walks, she’ll be fine.

    4. Tell her to get two just like i have done.

      They keep each other company and are endless fun.

      So much fun in fact that you don’t have time to think of anything else.

      They stampede from room to room chasing each other and play fighting.

      Getting dressed is a laugh as you end up with at least one of them twisted in your long johns.

      They gang up and try to trip you over any time you have a plate in your hand. When the doorbell rings the postman retreats behind their delegated SWAT team.

      I am sorry about what happened to the neighbours cat but we won’t go there……….hum.

        1. I am entirely content in the knowledge that the lady has her own arrangements in that/those departments. I would say more but i have no wish to elevate, unnecessarily, Bill Thomas’s blood pressure. Ahem.

    5. Tell Plum we hope she finds the perfect 4 legged friend soon and we would all like to see a photo!!

    2. I wonder if they all bought them individually and paid into a support fund/charity or they were just handed out to make a point? Like politicians with poppies.

      Actually, i don’t wonder at all.

      If only the BBC was this good at stage management as they used to be it would be worth watching.

  87. Two pleasant bottles of Hogsback and a listen to Mahler 7 on R3!
    Now ready for bed.

    Goodnight all.

  88. BTL Comment on the recent Ukrainian Missile strike that’s reported to have killed dozens of Russian Soldiers:

    “Exactly. If anyone doesn’t realize this is the beginning of a US Led World War 3 then they have their head so far up Biden’s *** they can read his teleprompter”….

    1. The US can do what they like. They are a long way from the area of conflict. The rest of us are not so lucky.

    2. Trump against all odds stopped Hillary Clinton whose presidency would have led to WWIII and was designed to do so.

      WWIII has been somewhat delayed as a result and I and others surmise that its time has past. We are left with a slow grinding conflict in Ukraine that will possibly last for years.

      Our government is slavishly following US policy in contributing to the Ukraine conflict. Trump says he could solve the conflict and cease hostilities in short time. I believe Trump.

      I have a conspiracy theory, that Biden deliberately left advanced US military equipment to the Afghans (Chinese) on purpose in order that their engineers and scientists would reverse engineer the technology. Nothing else makes sense given the craven nature of Biden’s abject capitulation in withdrawal.

      I have recently noted a similar transfer of technology a decade earlier where a sophisticated US surveillance drone was allowed to be ‘captured’ by the Iranians. The facsimiles of these drones are now being sold to Russia by Iran and turning up in Ukraine.

      We are innocents watching the destruction of continents and millions of lives by governments and corporations for maintenance of their own power and profit.

      The worst of it remains that our own elected representatives are integral to the realisation of the project.

      I suppose the ultimate flaw in their ideology is the stupid assumption that solar and wind power will keep our industry and civic power on. These woeful and expensive technologies can never replace fossil fuels, at least not for many years, as we might develop more efficient technologies.

      When one considers that Climate Change as defined by the idiots in the institutions promoting mad theories about loss of polar ice, rising temperatures globally (which are not measurable) to rising sea water levels, have long been debunked by actual ‘science’ then there is hope for us all in 2023.

  89. A note for movie lovers….Shawshank Redemption on Beeb tonight at 10.30. It is one of the 3 Stephen King books I have read and this one was very good.
    Also read Misery and The Green Mile.
    The book was called Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. As it’s on the Beeb it will be on I-Player.
    Edit for stupid typo.

    1. I’m assuming, Ann, that you have enjoyed the films of MISERY and THE GREEN MILE. I have only watched MISERY at a cinema manager’s private screening. When the film ended, we all trooped through the doors to the adjacent bar, only to be greeted in person by Kathy Bates. Aaarghh! I nearly had a heart-attack.

      1. I watched that movie only once- frightened the you know what out of me! Kathy Bates is a wonderful actress. Fried Green Tomatoes? Superb.

          1. I think you would really enjoy all of Fannie Flagg’s books. Fried Green Tomatoes, Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man and Redbird Christmas.
            All set in the south of US.

    2. Shawshank Redemption is as great film. The Green Mile also. His best book though, is The Stand, no question in my mind.

  90. Well, that’s me for tonight. Sleep well, everyone. I hope you all enjoy a restful night.

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