Thursday 23 November: Tax cuts are welcome – but they don’t mend years of broken promises

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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552 thoughts on “Thursday 23 November: Tax cuts are welcome – but they don’t mend years of broken promises”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    At Least You’re Thinking
    The teacher says, “Class, we are going to play a little game today! I’m going to see whether you can guess what’s in my desk from the clues I give you. So here are the clues… it’s 12 inches long, it’s hard, and it has numbers on it.”
    Little Jonny sits there for a moment, then raises his hand.
    “Yes Jonny? Do you think you know what it is?”
    Jonny says, “It’s a ruler!”
    The teacher replies, “No Jonny, it’s not a ruler. It’s a maths book! But at least you’re thinking!”
    A few minutes go by and Jonny raises his hand. The teacher says, “Yes, Jonny?”
    Jonny says, “I have a puzzle for you! I have something in my pants that is 6 inches long, is hard, and has nuts.”
    The teacher, furious, replies, “Jonny! We’re not going to play that kind of game!”
    To which Jonny says, “Don’t get upset, it’s only a chocolate bar… but at least you’re thinking!”

  3. Tax cuts are welcome – but they don’t mend years of broken promises

    It looks like the Conservatives are suffering a death by a thousand non cuts

    1. I went to the ICAEW’s Annual Hardman Tax lecture last night. The lecture was given by Dan Neidle who runs the Tax Policy Associates. He was very funny. The title was: “The worst features of the UK tax system and what we can do about them”. He opened the lecture by noting (a) pretty much everyone giving the annual address in the last 30 years had commented on the dire state of the UK tax system and (b) when he wrote his lecture, it was before we knew the Autumn Statement would be in the afternoon so at lunchtime yesterday he was sweating away in case his entire speech became redundant. We all laughed.

  4. Good morning.
    Has anyone else had this letter? It looks to me like commercial companies wanting people’s data for research and using the NHS to gather it. Unethical if so, but that’s not new.

    Myer Carditis
    @Band_aGen
    ·
    8h
    Today I received an invite from the NHS, http://ourfuturehealth.org …and they want blood samples from which they plan to analyse my DNA.
    This means they would know that my blood is untainted and could target me specifically.
    NO WAY JOSE. Has anyone else received this letter?
    link with photo:
    https://twitter.com/Band_aGen/status/1727449945664360917

      1. I haven’t, Conners. Is that what you give Oscar and Kadi before they go to sleep? Lol. Seriously, though, what gives me problems is the mid-afternoon nap I take when I don’t have enough jobs I feel like doing and thus am unable to stay awake until bedtime. So I have a few extra mid-afternoon Zeds which throws my sleep cycle out of kilter.

        1. No, I just give him his last half a paracetamol and squirt his eyes with Hylo Forte (on the vet’s recommendation). Camomile tea is a natural, caffeine free, calming drink. Although I don’t really like tea, I will occasionally have a herbal potion and this one helps me relax and get to sleep.

  6. Could someone remind me – what tax cuts? The tiny reduction in NI is destroyed by the gargantuan inflation costs and, as a result, fiscal drag from freezing the tax allowances – an act that a chancellor simply shouldn’t be allowed to do.

    In fact, we would be better off being able to refuse any part of government budget entirely.

    1. Good morning, wibbling. It’s just an attempt to attract votes in a Spring 2024 General Election. It will have absolutely no effect on the result; we are doomed to five years of a disastrous Labour government.

      2. Despite an increase, supposedly, of 8.5% in my pension next April. I shall NOT vote for Lib/Lab/Con/Green but will look for an independent/Reform or vote NOTA..

        Bang goes the rest of my 2nd Pension, which should be £120 but has already dwindled to £73 after the taxman has clawed at it. From where will they now take the 8.5% rise after April. Not hard to guess.

      3. Despite an increase, supposedly, of 8.5% in my pension next April. I shall NOT vote for Lib/Lab/Con/Green but will look for an independent/Reform or vote NOTA.

      1. Folk aren’t falling for it though. The comments below Alister Heath’s article – normally restricted to Left wing nut jobs, losers and idiots arguing against his common sense are full of folk saying ‘pull the other one.’

        What bothers most is that – as the meme goes – we know they’re lying, they know they’re lying, we know they know they’re lying but we can’t stop them. That basis of democracy does not exist. TO prevent this moronic crash we must be able to stop big government’s gormless plans.

        DEFRA, for example still insists on collecting all the same information it did when we were chained to the EU – for no reason. There is waste everywhere in the state and absolutely no will whatsoever to resolve it. Demanding 0.5% productivity improvement is farcical. The state doesn’t produce anything. It is a cost.

        2. If DEFRA didn’t collect the info, they’d be found wanting when we’re shoe-horned back in against our will.

      2. Just like Brown’s 2p tax drop – when in fact he’d abolished the 10p rate so everyone who paid tax was paying the bigger rate.

  7. Veteran
    anti-Islam populist leader Geert Wilders is heading for a dramatic
    victory in the Dutch general election, according to a first results
    forecast.

    After
    25 years in parliament, his Freedom party (PVV) is projected to win 36
    seats, well ahead of his nearest rival, a left-wing alliance.

    “The PVV can no longer be ignored,” he said. “We will govern.”

    If confirmed the result will shake Dutch politics.

    But he will have to persuade other parties to join him in a coalition government.

    His target is 76 seats in the 150-seat parliament. From The BBC.

    1. In Germany, the other parties refuse to work with the AfD, so we could yet see an alliance cobbled together from the other parties excluding Wilders, thus disenfranchising his voters.

  8. ‘Morning All

    Here we go again…………….

    Mysterious pneumonia outbreak leaves China’s hospitals ‘overwhelmed with sick children’

    Alert issued to global scientists as infection tears through schools in Beijing and Liaoning province

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/mysterious-pneumonia-outbreak-china-hospitals-sick-children-b1122117.html

    Medley

    https://twitter.com/toadmeister/status/1727373405177930048?s=20

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/668a3735c976f19c05d77044695a071ac4c22c50e142c3d8f2455e4b020200e2.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/647316b24e8270459f5f6877f6b8fdf0a2b088d6dc95821924b7aaaa4287ddbc.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eab900cdf60842e72280ee38022e588ac73967c1f01661b97987b5d4baa2bcf6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/451ecb1245e369c104558dc0eb69c27f57611174e08318e5e34f81772c0e018f.jpg

    1. I don’t know Sweden’s demographic but their population is 10 million in a country about double the size of the UK. Ours is 82 million (according to Tesco).

      Thus there is more opportunity for infection. Although, this could be nonsense as folk might all live in cities. I don’t know. I just know the UK is ten times over populated.

      1. Moot point anyway, as covid wasn’t more dangerous than the flu.

        Whitty must know that what he is saying is not true, but it’s still worth saying it from his point of view, because what he says will be uncritically put into headlines across the mainstream media and will reinforce the message for those who still believe.

  9. So it looks like whomever was in power during the pandemic charade are now getting a spanking in elections

  10. 379001+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Whoops a daisy, go for it Geert,

    Anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders wins Dutch election
    Far-Right political veteran, 60, predicted to have largest share after campaign demanding a Nexit referendum and zero asylum seekers

    1. And so will begin wall to wall coverage of relentless attacks by the media, stirred up by the state, the fifth column, Lefties… he hasn’t a chance.

      It’s odd though – when the Left do get their way they don’t see it and demand a complete change – for their people – who continue doing the same damage that last lot did. When the result is still as destructive and damaging as before, they blame the other lot – who were doing just as they demanded.

    2. The Netherlands has a PR system, so Wilders will have to conform to the restraints of a coalition Govt.

        1. I’ve only just seen Bill’s post, but I was about to get personal and call him a Very Silly Sausage for suggesting that I was grey and dreary.

  12. Good morning all.
    A bit of a windy night and a surprising less cold 7°C start this morning. Not raining as yet, but overcast with rather fast moving clouds.

  13. It wasn’t a terrorist.

    Motorist who plowed into Canadian border in fireball crash that sparked terror fears is New York businessman who was driving a $300,000 Bentley ‘Flying Spur’ with his wife – as casino owner reveals they stopped by just moments before border post inferno
    Two people were killed on Wednesday morning when a car crashed into the median at the border between the United States and Canada, in Niagara
    Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, said on Wednesday evening there was no indication of any terrorism activity
    Both people inside the car are believed to be Americans from western New York, Hochul said: CNN reported it was a 56-year-old businessman and his wife

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12781829/niagara-bridge-usa-canada-terrorism-explosion-gambling.html

    1. Still a bit weird though. Cars don’t just explode into a fireball like that in real life!
      Was it electric or petrol, I wonder, and what was the mechanism that caused it to explode? I hope we will get the answers to these questions.

          2. OK, I didn’t know that Bentley offered diesel options. The car was, apparently, a Flying Spur (in more ways than one) and my diesel comment was tongue-in-cheek, as I’m sure you realised.

          3. They don’t make many diesel options, so you were right that they are rare. I got the bit about it being obviously a diesel 🙂 Bentleys are quite common in Crewe because that’s where they are made (as one GE Labour candidate failed to realise).

      3. Apparently it was baulked by another car and took avoiding action – maybe but why was it travelling that fast heading towards a border crossing?

        1. It’s probably the first time ever a car like that has exploded.
          It’s has a similar aspect to the Luton fire.
          Strange how it happened at a border control.

    4. Why did they feel the need to immediately say no terrorism was involved? Do they know something we don’t? (sarc).

      1. The only thing that is certain is that when they say an incident is not “terrorist related” it probably is.

  14. This job has just popped up on freelancermap:

    Photo Collection and Annotation – English | Remote
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/db2bfe07a3f0a4bf3867e1c9567580d6c3ecbeaa5f4dc50cb5eacb2ff946582c.jpg

    As far as I can make out, they are paying people (young and gullible!) to annotate their OWN photos!
    So everyone in those photos will be identified by name, which is huge business – they sell these databases of names and faces to police forces and security services all over the world.

    Any young relative who snaps you on their phone and stores their photos in Google whatever cloud storage could then be naming you for a few dollars, and hey presto, you’re on the database. Better just hope that you don’t bear an unfortunate resemblance to any drug dealers, domestic terrorists etc.

    1. It says that he’s in favour of open borders, but it’ll be a while before there’s a queue to get in. Good luck to him anyway.

      1. Telemachus of all people coined the description “a cross between Boris Johnson and Chucky” in the TCW comments.

        Milei is a WEFer who wants the Falklands.

    2. But are you in favour of the Islamic take over?

      Nothing surely could be further and more extreme right. After all Islam wishes to exterminate all Jews and destroy the state of Israel; it wants to persecute and kill homosexuals, it wants to stamp out all other religions and systems of law, it wants to forbid free speech and has no time for democracy and it wants women to be considered as second-class citizens subordinated to men and covered from head to toe in horrible black tent-like clothes.

      1. No way, Richard, I’m hoping the revolution will take care of that – Muslims and politicians are fair game for the revolutionaries.

  18. Good day all,

    Nice start to the day at Castle McPhee and remaining so, wind in the West but temperature flat-lining at 10℃.

    A bit of bright news from the Netherlands:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/62ec48a0ea7fa72e0674b9ccfe782d7cd15afaaa05ae862662e859e250cfba50.png https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/22/anti-islam-firebrand-geert-wilders-wins-dutch-election/ https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b4c27106a6afda4b00c77b8e4201d72dbba5d078b9eb1f17dd3b68661501f104.png

    He has to form a coaltion and it will be no easy matter apparently but it’s good news anyway for anyone concerned about the destruction of European nations, including ours.

        3. Pim Fortuyn, a Dutch politician, was assassinated by Volkert van der Graaf in Hilversum, North Holland on 6 May 2002, nine days before the general election of 2002, in which he was leading.

    2. Whitey cops it again.
      When a known drug dealer and someone who assaults pregnant women dies, the world kneels. There’s something terribly wrong out there.

      1. I did get a vicarious pleasure out of seeing them shit their pants when reality came beating down on them.

    5. Oh look! They’re all foreign. Wasn’t it Biden lauding that fewer white kids had been born vs blacks? Would someone point out that this is the future?

  20. Morning all 🙂😊
    The usual weather but once again not what they forecast. Which is not unusual.
    Tax cuts are only figments of the imagination, they’ll claw it all back soon.
    More lies. Nothing changes.
    Stop the boats and send all of the scroungers back.
    Just do it, it’s a guaranteed landslide election victory. Unless of course you devious political devil’s are planning something else.

    1. By the way, the whole “superintelligence unlocked by OpenAI” story – published in Reuters no less! – stinks to high heaven. Neural networks, which power today’s very tepid AI were invented in the 80s and it has taken until now to bring them to market. They are pretty rubbish.

  22. Yesterday’s UK Column News had an interesting section by Debi Evans.

    https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/uk-column-news-22nd-november-2023

    Listen from 16:10 to 27:30 on the timeline. Debi talks about an organisation called CREST.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28d2fc46e2c32e8f52a92c1ef758329d286fbc01b921397d51854f8e356c9ed0.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2623dbcbfacfad2b573f1ed1236b5b1afd3f5372a7110c6f4bd0ff11b0d63aac.png

    They have a poster boy, a Professor Sander van der Linden who has written a book called Foolproof in which he advises people how to counter “conspriracy theorists” and their “misinformation”.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2454a1cbb67bb5cc439dc129cdc9ef561cae9110d2122aa2582566e38b4a5986.png

    Here he is. He is based in Cambridge and seems like a nice chap.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3aae573d96ff51d24987bce7f6b82b490a6a387ff32547f452a7a58a59b64a8b.png

    Hold your horses. He is endorsed by none other than Marianna Spring, she of the fake, doctored CV.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/60ccaeba7f32ab142b7eb3ffcb85a4439908f54a65c67be5be3c5616e6af7a97.png

    It seems to me that he is the Dr Goebels de nos jours. Anyway you can listen to Debi if you like and judge for yourselves but know that ‘they’ are definitely watching us.

        2. O/T Bill, after your mention a few days ago about Dutch Masters book, Upside Down World I ordered a copy which arrived yesterday. Looking forward to reading it.

    2. Professor Van der Linden got his PhD from a thesis on climate change.

      Interesting !

      It’s the same old crowd, again and again.

    3. While there seems to be good reason to doubt official sources of information, social media is itself rife with nonsense. Sorting the wheat from the chaff becomes tiresome and unrewarding, so the best remedy is to either to mistrust everything or retreat from it. Of course it’s not easy to avoid everything but I encounter far less than I once did. I spend much less time actively seeking out “news”, although one chances upon it in places like this or when others are watching or listening to news sources, and sometimes, when one deeply mistrusts something on social media, it becomes overwhelmingly tempting to find counterfactual evidence. I occasionally post counterfactual sources here but I quite often think it’s not worth the bother as they won’t be believed by those whose opinions are already set in stone.

  23. Yesterday’s UK Column News had an interesting section by Debi Evans.

    https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/uk-column-news-22nd-november-2023

    Listen from 16:10 to 27:30 on the timeline. Debi talks about an organisation called CREST.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28d2fc46e2c32e8f52a92c1ef758329d286fbc01b921397d51854f8e356c9ed0.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2623dbcbfacfad2b573f1ed1236b5b1afd3f5372a7110c6f4bd0ff11b0d63aac.png

    They have a poster boy, a Professor Sander van der Linden who has written a book called Foolproof in which he advises people how to counter “conspriracy theorists” and their “misinformation”.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2454a1cbb67bb5cc439dc129cdc9ef561cae9110d2122aa2582566e38b4a5986.png

    Here he is. He is based in Cambridge and seems like a nice chap.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3aae573d96ff51d24987bce7f6b82b490a6a387ff32547f452a7a58a59b64a8b.png

    Hold your horses. He is endorsed by none other than Marianna Spring, she of the fake, doctored CV.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/60ccaeba7f32ab142b7eb3ffcb85a4439908f54a65c67be5be3c5616e6af7a97.png

    It seems to me that he is the Dr Goebels de nos jours. Anyway you can listen to Debi if you like and judge for yourselves but know that ‘they’ are definitely watching us.

  24. Yesterday’s UK Column News had an interesting section by Debi Evans.

    https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/uk-column-news-22nd-november-2023

    Listen from 16:10 to 27:30 on the timeline. Debi talks about an organisation called CREST.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28d2fc46e2c32e8f52a92c1ef758329d286fbc01b921397d51854f8e356c9ed0.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2623dbcbfacfad2b573f1ed1236b5b1afd3f5372a7110c6f4bd0ff11b0d63aac.png

    They have a poster boy, a Professor Sander van der Linden who has written a book called Foolproof in which he advises people how to counter “conspriracy theorists” and their “misinformation”.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2454a1cbb67bb5cc439dc129cdc9ef561cae9110d2122aa2582566e38b4a5986.png

    Here he is. He is based in Cambridge and seems like a nice chap.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3aae573d96ff51d24987bce7f6b82b490a6a387ff32547f452a7a58a59b64a8b.png

    Hold your horses. He is endorsed by none other than Marianna Spring, she of the fake, doctored CV.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/60ccaeba7f32ab142b7eb3ffcb85a4439908f54a65c67be5be3c5616e6af7a97.png

    It seems to me that he is the Dr Goebels de nos jours. Anyway you can listen to Debi if you like and judge for yourselves but know that ‘they’ are definitely watching us.

    1. Our troops are not allowed to complain.
      When they started posting on social media the disgusting food they were being served they were threatened with dire consequences. I saw one video where he turned over his fried egg and it was covered in blue mould. Lap it up Tommies !
      Failing that…shoot your superiors.

      1. There is an old adage in the Army – if they aren’t complaining, then there’s something wrong. It’s a release valve. Let ’em grumble then just get on with the job in hand.
        As for the food, I never had any problems with it. Generally good, often excellent and occasionally outstanding. However, the new system of Pay As You Dine uses more civilian contractors and dose attract much criticism.

    2. Disgusting, although I might try to get hold of one and set it up at the end of the garden for our son.

        2. I’ll say it’s for a Sudanese refugee. Oh, but they’d set him up in the house and I’d be at the end of the garden.

        1. It would be such a shame if a wayward firework were to burn it to the ground. Not suggesting anything…

        2. Good Morning, Maggiebelle

          I am currently working my way through my collection of P.G. Wodehouse books and of course many of the characters in them belong to the Drones Club!

    3. The High Court specifies that all unemployed gimmigrants must be given accommodation equivalent or better

      than a three star hotel.

      1. That is disgusting.
        When using my own money I stay in three star at best, and more usually small B&B’s

        1. We try to overnight in charming pubs. Smaller business gets our money, plus only a flight or two of stairs to good booze, and usually excellent food.

  27. Why we won’t be watching Nigel in the jungle
    Michael Fahey: The Conservative Woman-

    Nigel Farage has done what both the BBC and the Conservative Party have done: he has alienated his natural allies and supporters in the hope of winning an elusive audience from those who despise him. It can only fail.

    BTL

    The fatal mistake that Nigel Farage made was that he stood down Brexit Party candidates in seats held by remainer Conservative MPs in the 2019 election without getting any quid pro quo from Johnson.

    Simply – Farage lost his nerve. Johnson was never committed to Brexit – he saw that it was a way to garner votes and so, with an uncommitted prime minister and both Houses of Parliament vehemently pro-Remain, a proper Brexit was thwarted from outset.

  28. Good morning all

    Grey November ,11 c slight breeze .

    RISHI Sunak is braced for a huge Tory backlash after new stats showed net migration hit a record high of 745,000 last year – more than the entire population of Newcastle.

    Bungling data experts drastically upgraded their previous estimate of 606,000 by almost 145,000 this morning.

    In the 12 months to June 2023 net migration stood at 672,000, representing a slight dip on the 745,000 for 2022.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/24828317/sunak-backlash-net-migration-hit-record/?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=web_push_notification&utm_campaign=web_push_2023-11-23

    1. Do we accept that within 40 years Britain’s churches will have been destroyed, the remaining Christians persecuted or murdered and Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral converted into Mosques?

      If we do not accept it but do nothing to stop it happening then it will happen. Enoch Powell warned us – but his warnings went unheeded. Warnings are no longer enough so can anything be done without civil uprising?

      1. Vote Reform. They will now line up to say we should not vote for them so please tell what we should do then. You knowwho you are !!!

        4. If I had to choose between Conservative, Labour, Lib/Dem or Reform I would go for Reform though I find Richard Tice nice enough but completely uninspiring.

        5. Reform is the only Party among the alternatives that is refusing to help out the anti vote by co-operation. Short-sighted, in my view. I doubt they will get enough concentrated votes to win but they will split the vote.

      2. On an architectural level, I would hate to see any of Britain’s churches destroyed. I still put a considerable effort into keeping four of them in good shape. But – tongue in cheek – I have mocked up photos of two of our four village churches, with towers adapted to take minarets and a dome. Can’t now find them, sadly, but they made their point at the time.

        My employment contract has less than two years to run. I’ve no idea what is likely to happen beyond then, but at 68, I’ll still be one of the youngest in the parish. If I were required to recite the Adhan, five times a day, before then, I wouldn’t be totally surprised. Obviously, I’d resign. I’ve had pefectly present holidays in Kaş, Antalya, but I’m acutely aware that the Mosque by the harbour is a converted Greek Orthodox church.

        1. And the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul? Originally a magnificent church finally completed in 537 – 43 years before the birth of Mohammed in Mecca. It is now a mosque.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/540c8d0e41dd42eb1ad1bd82584400978bbd936201dc3f725b03a119b12a2301.png

          Those of my generation who took Common Entrance will remember the History paper for which you had to learn a long list of dates by heart.

          Who can forget the dates of The Battle of Hastings, The Battle of Agincourt, The Battle of Bannockburn, the Execution of Charles 1st, The Great Plague of London followed by the the Great Fire the following year, the Mission of St Augustine and Julius Caesar’s invasions of Britain to name but a few?

          (They are still in my head – I learnt things parrot fashion!).

          2. My history teacher said there were only 5 dates to remember and one of them was the Synod of Whitby!!! I forget why!!!

          3. Hi, Richard, Just re-opened Thursday’s page to reply. I went on Uganda Cruise 221 in February 1971. The “Blue Mosque” was in the itinerary. Amazing building, but at no time were we told of its history. We were warned about Istanbul taffic, thoug, so that’s OK…

    2. Rounded up to 800,000 to be closer to fact, that’s around 200,000 new homes. That probably adds up to around 150,000 plus hectares of land. Larger than the area of the Isle of Mann.
      Why are our useless politicians doing this?

    3. Bearing in mind that this is NET immigration – ie the number left over after the leavers have been subtracted, the figures are even more disturbing.

  30. How the look of our site here is changing. We are getting the razzmatazz of ordinary sites.

      2. I use Chrome as search engine. If you click on the ink splot top right, go to settings, Chrome has a (not very good) adblocker. See if that works.

  31. How the look of our site here is changing. We are getting the razzmatazz of ordinary sites.

  32. Back from t’market. Very busy though fewer stalls. Tesco still have their 25% off hooch offer. The MR persuaded me….

    And – amazingly – the SUN is out. Won’t last, of course.

  33. Caroline went under the knife yesterday and she now has a prosthetic thumb.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ae61b88270fbae7fe77c371e5f94a0984bec2615f6342b8e2d1e01bf32bcba1.png

    She is still bandaged up, wears a sling and is having to take a pharmacy full of pills. It will take about four weeks for everything to heal but she is hoping to be able to cope at Christmas with a rather incompetent surrogate major domo on hand who is doing his best! A dinner party for New Year’s Eve: 7 around the table: Caroline’s sister and her latest husband, Henry and Jess, our octogenarian Irish friend, Jim, and Caroline and me. The whole ham is going into salt and spice solution this weekend and will have nearly five weeks to get properly pickled!

    I certainly would never have been employed as a dresser by any dramatic company but I am doing my best to deal with such jobs for my lovely wife,

    Of course playing the organ at church is now out of the question but our lovely Doctor Françoise will be standing in but Caroline will sit beside her to give advice.

    5. Best wishes to Caroline Richard.
      Our neighbour had a hip replacement yesterday Spire in Harpenden same hospital where my wife had hers about 8 years ago and has a scar ten inches in length. She is Coming home later today.

          1. I had lots and lots of physio before my op and was moving up and down the corridors on crutches within 48 hours and then able to negotiate stairs in 72, but they still didn’t discharge me for another couple of days.
            I was streets ahead of the rest of the cohort done when I was.
            But I was much younger than most of them.

          2. I had to mount 4 steps and down the other side before they let me go.
            The surgeon who performed op was a member of the same golf club. When he came to see me just before the op (15 years ago) I tapped him on the arm and said. “I know where you live.”
            He rolled up.

          3. My knee was a total wreck and when I went to have it seen to, the surgeon said there was no point until my hip had been repaired.
            Now that was a surprise!

            Apparently the limping caused by the knee had destroyed the hip joint. I didn’t know because the pain from the knee overrode the pain from the hip and I didn’t realise it was that bad.

          4. I’ve also have had a problem with my left knee for more than 30 years. I had an arthroscopy and who ever did the job stuffed it up. Self employed I had to take 10 plus weeks off work and have the op again. It just slowed down the deteriation. The only thing that let’s me walk short distances is the steroid injections.
            I have another appointment next month.

          5. That is very unlucky.
            Because HG is/was a highly respected professional, I was lucky enough to have my first done under the knife of one of the founding fathers, David Dandy.

            What was a serious operation pre arthroscopy became commonplace; my knee was done and I walked out the same day.
            At the time it was revolutionary.

            Being a silly sod I carried on playing rugby, and carried on being injured, and carried on being operated upon!

            I suspect that if one measured the total scars on the sides, the front, and the rear of my right knee it might well be over a yard.

            Eventually I broke one of the cruciate ligaments and nearly broke the other, and that was the end of playing my rugby.

    6. Wishing Caroline all the best for a swift recovery. Sending all good wishes to you both! 😘

    9. So desperately sorry, Richard and Caroline. Without feet, I can muddle through, manuals only. As noted previously, with help, I managed JSB’s Toccata in D minor last Sunday, with someone else playing the pedal part. I had a taste of what it might be like to be an organist with less than full use of one’s hands. Thanks, Astra Zeneca. Thankfully, the potion wore off.

      Both of my thumbs’ proximal joints are… somewhat iffy. I seriously wonder whether 50-odd years of being an organist have exacerbated this. Don’t give up, Caroline…

    10. Thinking of you both, Richard, and I hope Caroline’s recovery is a fast and comfortable one. Be very firm with her over Christmas and the New Year, and refuse to let her into the kitchen.

      1. Decades ago my mother had a replacement knuckle joint. Whenever she went to hospital. The docs were keen to see how it worked for her.

    12. Best wishes to Caroline. Would you please let her know that I have some seed for her! Please remind me of your website so I can get your address. Thanks.

    13. Good luck, Caroline and to Richard who stands by your side with aid available as required. Go to it both of you and there’ll be a happy ending.

    14. Isn’t it a replacement joint, rather than a prosthetic thumb (which implies that she has an artificial thumb)?

    15. The profile of the new metal joint reminds me of an Asian dagger in a scabbard.
      Hope Caroline gets well soon.

  34. Caroline went under the knife yesterday and she now has a prosthetic thumb.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ae61b88270fbae7fe77c371e5f94a0984bec2615f6342b8e2d1e01bf32bcba1.png

    She is still bandaged up, wears a sling and is having to take a pharmacy full of pills. It will take about four weeks for everything to heal but she is hoping to be able to cope at Christmas with a rather incompetent surrogate major domo on hand who is doing his best! A dinner party for New Year’s Eve: 7 around the table: Caroline’s sister and her latest husband, Henry and Jess, our octogenarian Irish friend, Jim, and Caroline and me. The whole ham is going into salt and spice solution this weekend and will have nearly five weeks to get properly pickled!

    I certainly would never have been employed as a dresser by any dramatic company but I am doing my best to deal with such jobs for my lovely wife,

    Of course playing the organ at church is now out of the question but our lovely Doctor Françoise will be standing in but Caroline will sit beside her to give advice.

    1. From 01/01/2024, that will be 365 (366 for leap years) days a year, as the word “Christmas” will no longer be recognised in UK

    2. I happened to see a calendar of Matt cartoons when I was in town; one was a shepherd berating his dog who was watching sheep on the computer screen, “it’s time you stopped working from home!”

  36. Morning, all. Bright and breezy chez Korky.

    Canada’s Trudeau is not a good man and here is one reason why. Vitamins and health supplements have played a large part in the fight against ‘covid’ and now Trudeau is working to make possible the banning of these products.

    We should remain vigilant should Sunak et al. try this here.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/543da26e7cf355a41e0db3d5a0cdd876aae186aff9bd94f85e0fa60e1bbddc0a.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/80e144b718313a070dc387701ed9fa737ecfd976fe509d3ad83426a8880392e3.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf3fe699267a9a626e6342af4e9253999aa8987a4c8bbec4d9db539ae0e485a0.png

    Trudeau Uses Subterfuge to Ban Natural Health Products

    2. I read about this some time ago. After years of telling us that supplements don’t work, I suppose they’ve realised that we who take them are putting quite a dent in pharma profits.
      We must be doing something right!
      Trudeau and his cohort of followers in the Canadian parliament really are unpleasant extremists.

    3. I seem to recall the EU trying to ban herbal medicines a while ago. Some things disappeared off the shelves.

    1. Wow, I hope he has a lot of protection. Well done that man.
      But surely this underlines the purposes of islam in general.
      So Qatar is the country is funding hamas. Which in turn means we are, Japan, Singapore, China, South Korea, Thialand because we buy oil from them
      It’s very very worrying indeed that our pointless useless government don’t have a clue who they are letting into our country.
      Time for our idiots to button up and close the borders and get rid of potential terrorist groups.

      1. 379001+ up ticks,

        Afternoon RE,
        I do consider this “governing body” to be more akin to being a gang of highly successful racketeers.

        As for the mass illegal immigration that was brought about initially by a
        “lavvy loiterer” one anthony charlie lynton. out of pure spite.

  38. Good Morning one and all

    Yes, I am still alive and more importantly kicking. It’s a year yesterday that the wonderfully named neurosurgeon Crispin Wigfield spent 6 hours carefully removing the bony met that was pressing on my spinal cord, sadly his efforts to reconnect my lower body to my brain seemed to have no effect and I continued to deteriorate and in January this year I was discharged into a care home saturated in morphine and misery with a prognosis of 5 to 8 weeks of life remaining.

    SWMBO and SWMBO junior were having none of this and over time and much physio things began to twitch and move under my command.

    Yesterday I was able, unaided, to sit myself upright on the edge of the bed, this was not an elegant manoeuvre and involved a lot of grunting and puffing but by / insert deity of choice here / I’ve been riding on a cloud of euphoria ever since.

    I’ve a long way to go before I can chase the carers up and down the corridor but now at least it could be possible and the vision of returning home is no longer an impossibility

    7. I hope your improvement continues Datz, it’s awful having serous health problems.
      Crispin Wigfield at Frenchay. Brilliant, there are quiet a few excellent surgeons out there these days.
      Well done Erin and Erin Jnr as well, fantastic.

    8. That’s great news Datz – I’ve been wondering how you were since your last infrequent appearance on here. It sounds as though you’re making good progress – long may it continue!

    9. Great news! I once met a guy at a party who told me that he’d broken his back and been told that he’d never walk again but refused to believe it and he was certainly standing in front of me unaided to have the conversation. At that time he was involving himself in a charity aimed at helping others make a similar recovery. I never met him again and can’t even remember his name but I recall our conversation because his was a remarkable story.

    10. What inspiring and wonderful news, Datz! Well done to those tough ladies who have been at your side, presumably driving you on! Keep up the good work and lovely to see you! 👏🏻💕

    11. Wonderful news, Datz.

      Do not go gentle into that good night,
      Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
      Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

      Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
      Because their words had forked no lightning they
      Do not go gentle into that good night.

      Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
      Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
      Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

      Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
      And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
      Do not go gentle into that good night.

      Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
      Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
      Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

      And you, my father, there on the sad height,
      Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
      Do not go gentle into that good night.
      Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

    17. Fantastic News Datz. You should follow my 93 yo MiL’s example. 3 years ago she was given hours to live and an end of life care package. She is an obstinate so & so. Last week a new Physio got her to try walking something she hadn’t tried for 3 tears. At this rate she will outlive me!

    18. You’ve had a gruelling year or two, Datz, but your resilience, your determination and that of your family is an inspiration. Continue to fight the good fight.

      1. Clever, isn’t it? Hike the min wage – add cost to business, especially in NI and the state claws in more cash and the worker pays more tax. If it pushes the worker over the 12.5K threshold they pay more tax. The state gets 58p the worker 69p. Multiply that out though and for every thousand jobs one is lost due to higher costs.

        Every sngle decision these fools make is designed to further hike tax and push toward socialism – abject dependence on the state machine.

  40. Good Moa Afternoon.

    Well, Oi larfed:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/11/22/inviting-harry-and-meghan-for-christmas-disaster-for-royals/

    “Inviting Harry and Meghan for Christmas would be nothing short of a disaster for the Royal family

    A reconciliation during the festive season is a heartwarming suggestion – but I fear King Charles might come to regret an invitation

    22 November 2023 • 6:25pm

    What an incredible story this would be. According to a national newspaper, an unnamed friend of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex says the couple would “readily accept” an invitation to spend Christmas with the Royal family at Sandringham.

    It’s certainly a heartwarming suggestion. For the sake of all concerned, however, we’d better hope that no such invitation is forthcoming – because I fear that the King would soon regret it. As everyone knows, even the happiest of families can end up rowing at Christmas, never mind families that are already at one another’s throats.

    And then there’s the risk that the Sussexes would give a tell-all television interview to Oprah Winfrey afterwards. Just imagine…

    Oprah: “So you guys spent Christmas with Harry’s folks back in England. You must have been so thrilled when King Charles asked you over.”

    Meghan: “We were. Christmas has always been such a special time for me. Santa is actually a really close friend of mine. As a little girl, I was just so humbled by his work as a philanthropist and humanitarian, bringing hope to all the children of the world. And that was a big inspiration for the kind of compassionate global activism I do today.”

    Oprah: “That’s so wonderful. And so how did it go with Harry’s family?”

    Harry: “It was a complete disaster.”

    Oprah: “Oh no. What happened?”

    Harry: “It started when I asked William if he’d like to pull a cracker with me. It was my cracker, so he should have let me win. I mean, that’s the rule of cracker-pulling, everyone knows that. But he pulled really hard, so he won. And then he put the paper crown on his head. Like he was trying to really rub it in that he’s going to be king, and I’m only the spare.”

    Oprah: “How awful. I can’t believe anyone could be so insensitive.”

    Harry: “But that wasn’t all. Inside the cracker was a tiny plastic comb. And just because he won, he insisted on keeping it. Even though he doesn’t need a comb. Whereas I still do. Just about.”

    Oprah: “Harry, I’m so sorry that that happened to you. It must have been so traumatic. But Meghan, what about you? Were you able to patch things up with the other royals?”

    Meghan: “No. Not after the really upsetting Christmas present they gave me. You won’t believe what it was.”

    Oprah: “Go on.”

    Meghan: “It was a Barbie princess doll.”

    Oprah: “Oh my God. That is so insulting.”

    Meghan: “I know. Because I’ve already got the Barbie princess doll. And I’d specifically asked for the Barbie Dreamhouse Playset. It’s just yet more proof that they never listen to me.”

    Oprah: “Wow.”

    Harry: “Obviously we were both really unhappy, and wanted to leave. But then my dad tried to calm things down by suggesting a nice festive game of charades. So we agreed to stay.”

    Oprah: “That must have taken so much strength and courage.”

    Harry: “But then William took the first go. He did the sign for a book. Then the sign for ‘title, one word’. And then he started miming someone screaming and wailing and crying their eyes out. I was absolutely furious. ‘Hey!’ I shouted. ‘You’re blatantly doing Spare! My book!’”

    Oprah: “Unbelievable.”

    Harry: “He looked really puzzled, and said, ‘No I’m not. It’s Misery, by Stephen King.’ But I wasn’t falling for that. So we walked straight out, and caught the first private jet home.” “

    2. The papers are trying to make this into the drama of the year, but if you’re on bad terms with part of your family, the last time and place to have a reconciliation should be a large family Christmas!
      Princess Michael would be getting her brooches out again with the drama of it all!

  41. Write to your MPs about this:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8add0026ed199ce24ea174cd29712feffd5e3e9847f02f958b69912e44104892.png https://saveoursovereignty.co.uk

    Here’s the template:

    Dear (insert name of MP),

    You will have received an invitation from MP Andrew Bridgen to attend a meeting on the 4th December 2023 and I am writing to ask if you would be so kind as to attend the address to MPs.

    Doctors and Analysts will give short speeches concerning the pandemic and its consequences. Dr David E. Martin, Dr Pierre Kory, Dr Robert Malone, Professor Angus Dalgleish, Dr Ryan Cole, Steve Kirsch and a brief recorded address by Dr Peter McCullough. There will then be a Q and A Session.

    Dr David E. Martin is founder and Chairman of M-CAM International, RASA Energy and is a Batten Fellow of the University of Virginia.

    Dr Pierre Kory is co-founder, President and Chief Medical Officer of Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance and a specialist in internal medicine, pulmonary diseases and critical care medicine.

    Dr Robert Malone is a Physician and Bio-Chemist with his early work focussing on mRNA technology, pharmaceuticals and drug repurposing research and has served as Director of Clinical Affairs for Avancer Group, Assistant Professor of biotechnology at Kennesaw State University, CEO and co-founder of Atheric Pharmaceutical and Chief Medical Officer at Alchem Laboratories.

    Professor Angus Dalgleish MD FRCP FRACP FRCPath FMedSci is Foundation Professor of Oncology of the University of London, St Georges Medical School with over 500 publications and is best known for his contribution to HIV/AIDS research.

    Dr Ryan Cole is a board-certified dermatopathologist (AP&CP) and CEO/Medical Director of Cole Diagnostics and has worked as an independent Pathologist since 2004.

    Dr Peter McCullough is a Cardiologist and was Vice Chief of Internal Medicine at Baylor University Medical Centre and Professor at Texas A&M university.

    Steve Kirsch is Founder of Vaccine Safety Research Foundation and received a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

    As one your constituents, I would appreciate it if you made every effort to attend this address.

    I would also urge you to give your support to a three-hour debate on excess deaths, which I know is supported by many thousands of constituents across the UK. We need a three-hour debate on excess deaths as we have experienced more excess deaths since July 2021 than in the whole of 2020. Unlike during the pandemic, however, these deaths are not disproportionately of the old. In other words, the excess deaths are striking down people in the prime of life, but no one seems to care.

    Members of Parliament can prove that they care by supporting Andrew Bridgen MPs call for a three-hour backbench business debate on trends in excess deaths in the House of Commons chamber. Securing this debate is in the interest of all the general public, including myself.

    Sincerely,

    Your Constituent (insert your name)

    I did it an hour ago. It’s a good idea to cc the constituency office or chairman directly whatever email addresses are available on the constituency party website. That way the MPs might get pressure from the constituency officers as well as members of the public.

    1. I’ve not noticed excess deaths in the House of Commons chamber. On the contrary, there seems to be a dearth.

  42. Write to your MPs about this:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8add0026ed199ce24ea174cd29712feffd5e3e9847f02f958b69912e44104892.png https://saveoursovereignty.co.uk

    Here’s the template:

    Dear (insert name of MP),

    You will have received an invitation from MP Andrew Bridgen to attend a meeting on the 4th December 2023 and I am writing to ask if you would be so kind as to attend the address to MPs.

    Doctors and Analysts will give short speeches concerning the pandemic and its consequences. Dr David E. Martin, Dr Pierre Kory, Dr Robert Malone, Professor Angus Dalgleish, Dr Ryan Cole, Steve Kirsch and a brief recorded address by Dr Peter McCullough. There will then be a Q and A Session.

    Dr David E. Martin is founder and Chairman of M-CAM International, RASA Energy and is a Batten Fellow of the University of Virginia.

    Dr Pierre Kory is co-founder, President and Chief Medical Officer of Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance and a specialist in internal medicine, pulmonary diseases and critical care medicine.

    Dr Robert Malone is a Physician and Bio-Chemist with his early work focussing on mRNA technology, pharmaceuticals and drug repurposing research and has served as Director of Clinical Affairs for Avancer Group, Assistant Professor of biotechnology at Kennesaw State University, CEO and co-founder of Atheric Pharmaceutical and Chief Medical Officer at Alchem Laboratories.

    Professor Angus Dalgleish MD FRCP FRACP FRCPath FMedSci is Foundation Professor of Oncology of the University of London, St Georges Medical School with over 500 publications and is best known for his contribution to HIV/AIDS research.

    Dr Ryan Cole is a board-certified dermatopathologist (AP&CP) and CEO/Medical Director of Cole Diagnostics and has worked as an independent Pathologist since 2004.

    Dr Peter McCullough is a Cardiologist and was Vice Chief of Internal Medicine at Baylor University Medical Centre and Professor at Texas A&M university.

    Steve Kirsch is Founder of Vaccine Safety Research Foundation and received a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

    As one your constituents, I would appreciate it if you made every effort to attend this address.

    I would also urge you to give your support to a three-hour debate on excess deaths, which I know is supported by many thousands of constituents across the UK. We need a three-hour debate on excess deaths as we have experienced more excess deaths since July 2021 than in the whole of 2020. Unlike during the pandemic, however, these deaths are not disproportionately of the old. In other words, the excess deaths are striking down people in the prime of life, but no one seems to care.

    Members of Parliament can prove that they care by supporting Andrew Bridgen MPs call for a three-hour backbench business debate on trends in excess deaths in the House of Commons chamber. Securing this debate is in the interest of all the general public, including myself.

    Sincerely,

    Your Constituent (insert your name)

    I did it an hour ago. It’s a good idea to cc the constituency office or chairman directly whatever email addresses are available on the constituency party website. That way the MPs might get pressure from the constituency officers as well as members of the public.

  43. A different take on the Hamas Israeli war.
    I don’t agree with him on many of his points, but let’s hear another opinion.
    https://www.takimag.com/article/a-pretty-good-revenge/

    I find it strange that for such a persecuted people, where many accuse Israel of genocide, that the Palestinians have multiplied to the extent that they have.
    I also find it strange that Israel itself has far more Palestinians and Muslims, pro rata to the Jewish population, within its own borders than the vast majority of Arab countries have Palestinians let alone Christians or Jews.

          1. Only voluntarily but they do, yes. Israel doesn’t conscript Orthodox Jews or Arabs, whether Muslim or Christian.

    2. Ogga posted a speech by Mosab Hussan three hours ago.
      Take a look and hear what he has to say. It’s difficult to believe that a muslim would get away with what he said.
      Perhaps he won’t.

    3. One thing that has come out during this conflict is the eye-watering amount of foreign aid given to Palestinians.

      2. On a per capita basis, if they had just given them each that amount but told them they had to get out of the holy lands the problem might not exist.

        1. I have read on the internet that the tunnels were constructed by the Israelis at one point. Also that there are Chinese engineers in Gaza. Just internet rumours, don’t know what the truth is. Tunnels look pretty robust though from photos.

      3. The sub heading is the making of a dictator, so naturally it will be white man.
        The heroic black man will be the dictator’s assassin.

    2. Dictator was his title, though, surely? A dictator was an extraordinary Roman Republican magistrate with full authority to resolve the specific problem to which he had been assigned (after which his dictatorship was ended).

      1. I also think i know the reason he wasn’t talked about. My mother left home in the year he died. Without his permission and under a cloud.

          1. Mother was a grammar school girl. She was in service when she met my father. I don’t think her father was impressed she married a farm hand. She had had 5 children by the time of grand fathers death in 1957. The eldest by another man. Still causing ructions in the family to this day which is one of the reasons i keep my distance.

          2. Ah, family ructions, we all have had them to some extent or other, but we do, hopefully, survive if not quite forgive.

        2. Nice bit of good news to see today! Have you ever thought of going onto Ancestry.com for more information?

          1. A cousin of mine did the family tree already. I have a copy of his marriage certificate.
            There is one comment on the article. Obviously a cousin. But comments are closed now.

          2. Couldn’t get to the article you mentioned.
            Knowing your interest in things ‘foodie’, glad I am not hosting Thanksgiving today! But have just finished roasting parsnips and carrots with honey to take down to my daughters for the feast!

          3. Steadfast Sydney survived ship’s bombing

            8th May 2018

            Nostalgia

            Portland

            Share

            1 Comment

            2

            A LONDONER who was posted to Portland and survived the bombing of a ship he served on is remembered on the caissons at Portland Harbour.

            Sydney William Dunmore is among the wartime heroes to have a statue
            named after them in a special ceremony on June 6, which will be the 74th
            anniversary of D-Day.

            Sydney was born on February 14 1902 in Sydenham, south-east London. He
            joined the Navy at the age of 19 and saw service before returning to
            civilian life.

            At the outbreak of war he volunteered to re-join the Navy and, at the
            age of 37, was assigned to HMT (Hired Military Transport) Hertfordshire
            as a naval gunner (4 inch).

            In 1942 Sydney was transferred to HMT Thrifty which was permanently
            based at Portland and deployed as a minesweeping drifter, along with
            another vessel called HMT Lady Enid. Thrifty was a 97 foot long, 138 ton
            steam fishing trawler built in 1916 and requisitioned by the Navy for
            defence purposes.

            Converted to a minesweeping role with a 4″ gun mounted on her bow, she
            protected Portland Harbour and, during the Normandy invasion, sailed
            ahead of the invasion fleet sweeping for mines.

            Promoted to petty officer, Sydney saw plenty of action during his time
            in the Navy and, whilst on the Hertfordshire in Portland Harbour in
            1941, the ship was hit by enemy bomb splinters. Fortunately, Sydney
            survived the war uninjured.

            Sydney was married and had seven children (two boys and five girls).
            He lived at various addresses in Weymouth with his family from 1941
            until his death at the age of 55 from heart failure.

            PO Sydney Dunmore RN is depicted on the Phoenix caissons – which were
            towed to Normandy to act as the Mulberry Harbour breakwater in 1944 – in
            his naval ‘all weather’ gear on watch for enemy aircraft. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/20befa5e8ff9ccf62a9e7b780073045ecf40fc016b83c4cf7e27069819fd9300.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a2b6790db3ee22376e609ccf041c96fd25338d961097d7f104b42a376255c42e.jpg

          5. Welcome.
            Regarding the feast. Doing a dish of something each makes it easier on the host.
            I have been invited for Christmas dinner at a friends. I asked if they wanted anything doing and they said no but don’t forget to bring Dolly and Harry.
            I normally do a giant Pavlova but that will be better for Easter.

          9. But never spoken of. Certainly never in my presence.

            I not long ago had a bequest from my mothers brother. All the nieces and nephews got £1000. I think i pointed out the plaque on my decking to you.
            It was my Aunt Mary who disbursed the funds. In following letters it turned out an Uncle i thought long dead had not long died himself. So many secrets. Such a loss for us youngers.

      1. As I was delighted to have traced my Family Tree (on my Mama’s side) back to 530 AD (Egil, King in Sweden, Uppsala).

        1. Incredible. Our surname is quite popular in France. I’ve only got reference back to 1700 and something. In Yarrkshire.

      1. I was being nosy. I wondered how they could afford such a big house. I holidayed there as a child and was curious. I did a search on his name and i found his marriage certificate. Which i had to pay for.
        On the marriage certificate it gave his occupation as Able Seaman on HMS Dieppe. So i searched for that and the article appeared.

          1. i’m 60 next BDay. one brother is two years older the one that looks like him is 5 years older and the other one is 8 years older. With two sisters in between the two eldest brothers.

            They are an absolute nightmare. Marriages, divorces, illegitimate children and one in prison.

          5. I’m a paragon of virtue in comparison. My elder sister was/is a persistent shoplifter. Before it became fashionable !
            Deeply embarrassing to be out with.

        1. I take after my mother more, too (but not, thankfully, in temperament). My brother is the spitting image of our father.

      1. She had already had 5 children by two different fathers by the time my grand father died at 55yrs old. I think she was treated like the black sheep of the family. Which explains the silence.

        1. If you want to, you can pick up an instant copy of his death certificate from the GRO. They’ve recently extended that facility to 1957. They cost only £2.50 for an online copy which you can save, much cheaper than paying for a full certificate or a pdf.

    2. Perhaps our stupid plonkers in government could learn something here……no I think so, they are too set in their stupid destructive ways. And as a result might even come in third.

  48. Afternoon, all. More drizzly rain again today so no work in the garden (the ground is far too wet to walk on, anyway). I had an election leaflet from the Cons today, although I was just about to bin it without reading it because it was green. Nowhere was there anything remotely conservative in it. More spend (= more tax because government money comes from the taxpayer), lies about stopping the boats, still signed up to “net zero”, no mention of anything that would actually help improve education, no recognition that there are too many people being imported and the population is unsustainable (hence the building on green fields without the necessary infrastructure). It looks as though the Limp Dim will be re-elected – although she hasn’t actually achieved anything of note (ambulance times are still horrendous and GP provision is as bad as ever – her main pledges of improvement during the campaign) she does appear regularly in the press. The equivalent of walking around with a clipboard, looking busy.

    2. We’ve had a lovely, mild, sunny day here. I did two loads of washing instead of leaving it till tomorrow and I also did a few minutes work in the garden, before walking down to the post van. While chatting to the post lady, we discovered that we both know a lot of people locally – and I’ve known her husband for years through the table tennis league. It’s a very small world round here.

      1. It’s a very small world round here, too. Rather like Norfolk, lots of people are related to each other. One has to be careful what one says 🙂 Even though an incomer, I have picked up the habit of describing people by their relationships/marriages – you know, she was married to that chap whose aunt lives at X …

        1. It was quite a while before I realised that the girl who married one of our neighbours is my ex-husband’s niece – ie first cousin of my sons.

          1. It was a while before I twigged that the person who lived next to one of my neighbours was the cousin of people I was good friends with farther down the street.

        2. Shortly after we moved to Scotland I was standing outside the post office and next to me was a middle aged guy who was twitching (a bit like Jack Douglas disco dancing), I went into the PO and was going to say “I see the village idiot is outside” but decided against it – how lucky was that – his father was behind the counter. I’d have had to move!

    3. We’ve had a lovely, mild, sunny day here. I did two loads of washing instead of leaving it till tomorrow and I also did a few minutes work in the garden, before walking down to the post van. While chatting to the post lady, we discovered that we both know a lot of people locally – and I’ve known her husband for years through the table tennis league. It’s a very small world round here.

  49. Afternoon folks – Lots of good news appeared on here whilst I’ve been away playing with my new partner. We didn’t do too badly coming third out of 11 pairs…..

      1. Certainly not. I refer to my comment late yesterday evening when I explained I was going to bed early as I wanted to be on top form when we played Bridge!

          3. Reminds me of the instructions stencilled on the underside of some trestle tables:

            “Open legs
            Push down stays
            Insert Lifting bar”…..

      2. I use to visit a lovely girl friend in her parents flat in Edgware.
        Parents out socialising her father quite often came home early with out warning. I guess trying to catch us doing something he wouldn’t have approved of. She use to say to him “Evil thinks as evil does”. She was born out of wedlock.

        1. During the mid 1970’s a couple that I once knew came home early, and unexpectedly surprised their baby sitter and her boyfriend. When the young things had had time to compose themselves, the wife took the young lass into her kitchen and said: “I do hope you took precautions…?”

          “Yes”, came the reply: “we used cling film*”

          * A fairly recent invention….

        1. My big sister plays a lot of bridge, she tried to ‘rope’ me in but it was too static for my liking.

    1. Given that means that a large number of useful bods have had enough and left, the figure of useless incomers will be even higher.

    3. It’s stupid.
      I estimate the size of the area needed to provide homes for four in a family, not all of them individually. Would be at least the same in area as The Isle of Man.
      But of course not on the door steps of the guilty parties.

  54. This day in 1940 U-100 (Joachim Schepke) and U-123 (Karl-Heinz Moehle) between them sank 11 ships for 45,486 tons from two convoys, SC-11 and OB-244.

    S.S. Tymeric.

    Complement:
    76 (71 dead and 5 survivors).
    6,150 tons of coal.

    At 08.15 hours on 23rd November 1940 the Tymeric (Master Thomas Fraser) in convoy OB-244 was hit by a stern torpedo from U-123 (Karl-Heinz Moehle) and sank in flames after 17 minutes about 350 miles west-northwest of Malin Head. 71 crew members were lost. The master and four crew members were picked up by HMS Sandwich (L 12) (Cdr M.J. Yeatman, RN) and landed at Liverpool.

    Type IXB U-Boat U-123 was decommissioned on 17th June 1944 at Lorient and laid up in box K3 of the U-boat pen. Scuttled there on 19th August 1944. Wreck captured by US forces in May 1945 and handed over to France.

    Became the French submarine Blaison. Stricken 18th August 1959 as Q165.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/br/tymeric.jpg

  55. 379001+ up ticks,

    They surely must be punchy by now
    they have been supporting mass uncontrolled immigration party’s for 27 years.

    Politics latest new: Migration figures a ‘slap in the face’ for British public, says Braverman

  57. That’s me gone for today. Picked the last of the apples. Prepared incendiary material for (we hope) a bonfire tomorrow. The MR snapped up two
    1 kg bags of parsnips in Morrisons for 17p each. Delicious velouté at lunchtime.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

    1. Bogey today.

      Wordle 887 5/6

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

    2. Par 4 here.

      Wordle 887 4/6

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

    3. It has moved so far to the left that Nottlers are now considered extreme. And useless eaters. The bastards !

      1. Pretty much the only part of my politics that has really changed, and brother how it’s changed, is my attitude to Islam and its adherents.

        1. I’ve been anti-islam ever since I read “the Dagger of Islam” several years ago. It was a real eye-opener and killed off any belief in “the religion of peace”. Everything that was stated about its modus operandi I have seen come true.

          1. Did you see what Belle posted the other day about Bacha Bazi? Institutionalised paedophilia and Bacha Posh where very young girls are sexually abused. And strangely enough it is the Taliban that outlaws it !

          2. There’re some things on this planet that make me wish for the human population to just disappear.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacha_bazi

            “Bacha bāzī (Persian: بچه بازی, lit. ’boy play’) is a practice in which men (sometimes called bacha baz) buy and keep adolescent boys (sometimes called dancing boys) for entertainment and sex. It is a custom in Afghanistan and in historical Turkestan and often involves sexual slavery and child prostitution by older men of young adolescent males. It might also be practiced by Afghan refugees in Pakistan]

            Though outlawed, bacha bazi is still practiced in certain regions of Afghanistan. Force and coercion are common, and security officials of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan stated they were unable to end such practices and that many of the men involved in bacha bazi are powerful and well-armed warlords.

            During times under Taliban currently and previously, bacha bazi carries the death penalty under Taliban law. Under the post-Taliban government, the practice of dancing boys was illegal under Afghan law, but the laws were seldom enforced against powerful offenders, and police had reportedly been complicit in related crimes. The practice of bacha bazi had decreased under the rule of the post-Taliban government. On 23 September 2016, the Taliban militants in northern Baghlan province executed a man and a boy on charges of “bacha bazi” (pederasty).

            And the boy was executed, why?

          4. I have been anti-islam for the last sixty years (one learns a lot from well-researched historical novels). I was therefore shocked when I saw a cluster of the burka’d ones wandering around Staines six years later – shocked that these people had been let loose and allowed to wander at will around our country. And I have been shocked, and dismayed, ever since.

          1. Shower Of Shits Running A Bunch Of Cunts

            Looking at that I don’t think so, but you may be correct.

            Edit for a missed “bold”

          3. Nah, BT knows I’m an utter bastard in the figurative sense.

            In your case I withhold judgement.

            Until we see the kennel club certificate

          4. Hah !
            Veejim DeltaForce at Tarradona was Dolly’s sire. Best puppy at Crufts known to those who love him as Archie.
            See ! I have pedigree…chum.

          6. Speaking of breeding. Harry is intact. Dolly was done early on. He chases her around all day. Saves me walking her in the rain.

          7. Candy is dandy, liquor is quicker, incest is best, but the last thing you want is a Phizzee in the nest?

          8. Don’t you Ogden me or i’ll Dorothy Parker you ! And if that doesn’t work i will Hedda hop all over you !

          10. Kadi has been done (as has Oscar), but the other day I found KD humping his bed. It’s the first time I’ve caught him doing that. I think he’s taking on more and more of the characteristics of my old boy, Charlie!

          11. Shower Of Shits Running A Bunch Of Cunts

            Looking at that I don’t think so, but you may be correct.

            Edit for a missed “bold”

  60. Dear Mr. Quitter,

    I’m inviting you to book your seasonal COVID-19 vaccination. This is because your NHS record suggests you may be at increased risk due to a health condition or medical treatment.
    For a list of eligible health conditions and treatments, go to http://www.nhs.uk/get-covid-vaccine. A healthcare professional will check that vaccination is suitable for you at your appointment.
    You can book using any of the options below unless you have already arranged your vaccination.
    Etc. Etc.

    Filed under ‘delete’.

    1. They’re not giving up this year, are they? I don’t remember them being quite so persistent last year.

        1. NHS informed me by letter of an appointment – I just didn’t bother turning up and have heard nothing since

          2. I wish they didn’t have mine, but in my innocence I let the surgery have them years ago. I thought it might be confidential but it seems they pass it on to all and sundry.

      2. I would like to know what these health conditions or medical treatments are and why my doctor hasn’t told me about them.

        2. Life, its always a fatal condition. Unless you are Mick Jagger or Keith Richards, they are preserved by magic substances taken when young.

    3. When the new Whu ‘flu arrives the latest vax will be deemed useless, and a new one will be offered.

      Equally useless too.

  61. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/23/does-britain-need-its-own-geert-wilders/

    Allison Pearson on form!

    Allison Pearson

    23 November 2023 • 5:59pm

    Leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) Geert Wilders waves as he arrives at a post-election meeting

    It’s been a big week for big hair. In the Netherlands, the silver demi-pompadour of Geert Wilders swept the leader of the Right-wing, anti-Islam PVV party to victory
    in the Dutch general election. A few days earlier, Argentina voted in
    an even more magnificent mane with a small politician attached. Javier Milei’s hair “is baffling the world,” gasped The Wall Street Journal,
    which is not exactly known for its coiffure reportage. The former
    economics commentator and anarcho-capitalist “rocks a mop that reflects
    his nonconformist campaign,” it reported. If you had to describe the
    style of Milei’s tempestuous barnet it would be “Englebert Humperdinck
    dragged through a hedge backwards”.

    Not only has the pending president Milei promised to take a chainsaw to Argentina’s corrupt and bloated state,
    the libertarian revs an actual chainsaw at his rallies. My favourite
    thing, though, is his advisers; the first people he thanked during the
    presidential primaries in August – Conan, Murray, Milton, Robert and
    Lucas. Except they’re not people. They’re all dogs cloned from the
    English mastiff, Conan, whom Milei adopted in 2004 and referred to as
    “literally my son” and my “true and greatest love”. He says his
    “four-legged children” are the “best strategists in the world” and
    credits them with advising him on a host of issues.

    3. I just wish Geert Wilders all the best, he obviously has millions behind him from the election results.
      Hopefully this much needed sensible adjustment in politics will catch on.

  62. Nasty thought for the day.
    As the Hamas hostages are released, I hope the Israeli’s keep them under wraps until all the agreed victims are free.
    I fear that most of of the women will have been raped and having their stories published before all of them are freed might stop the releases continuing.

  63. Another Nazti thought for the day:

    How far do you think the apparatchiks of the EU will go to ensure the edifice isn’t broken apart by various frexit, nexit, hexit’s?
    Will they go so far as to ask those countries to enforce martial law to keep the populaces subjugated and themselves in power?

      2. New war started plus a new pandemic. We could always ignore them. The police have shown how cowardly they are. We just need enough people to shout no and they retreat.

    2. The answer is the same they gave for saving the €. “Whatever it takes”. These people are not going to give up now. I dont know whether the truth was bent, but a while back there were photos of EU badged military resources.

          2. We have senior serving foreign police and army in our own units. On secondment of course. For training purposes. Not sure why gold command needs training but there you go.
            We also haven’t been told about all the bushfires in African countries we are expending our people on in the interests of France, Germany and yet again the bloody U.S.

      2. The late Christopher Booker once stated that there were firearms stored within one of the EU commission’s buildings in Belgium. The mystery was that the semi automatic rifles etc were nothing to do with the Belgian gendarmerie, nor NATO. So who purchased them and who could authorise their use? (Late 1990s IIRC)

    3. They may well attempt to get the army involved, but isn’t it usually at the level of colonels that the military coup occurs. They’re just about still able to see the mood of the ranks beneath.

      Edited out an excess apostrophe/

    4. They may well attempt to get the army involved, but isn’t it usually at the level of colonels that the military coup occurs. They’re just about still able to see the mood of the ranks beneath.

      Edited out an excess apostrophe/

  64. Re my earlier comment wondering why there were police cordons and crowds shouting.

    ‘Get them out!’: Furious Dubliners drive police out of City Centre after five people including three children are stabbed as unverified rumours swirl around suspect was foreign national

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12785095/Get-Furious-Dubliners-drive-police-City-Centre-five-people-including-three-children-stabbed-unverified-rumours-swirl-suspect-foreign-national.html

    Even if it wasn’t a foreign national, the fact that crowds gather in this way shows that we’re sitting on a powder keg, and that the incomers are playing with matches.

    1. From what I know and have learnt from and about the people in Ireland, they simply will not stand for this outrageous vile nonsense.
      We have a very important lesson to be taken in and hopefully learnt. From them and from Geert Wilders.

    2. About time. The berobed ones can’t have it all their own way. Batley embattled where they all formed a mob to intimidate the school. Besides their more recent and intimidating violence on our streets.

    3. It obviously was a foreign national because the Garda representative was so insistent that “there is no terrorism involved”

  65. I’m doing an uncle Bill.
    I’m going to have a strum.
    Eagles stuff.
    Goodnight all.
    Be back tomorrow after my GP appointment.

      1. Compare and contrast to the dirges of Taylor Swift and Adele ‘i’ve been dumped again by my boyfriend’ excuse for navel gazing codswallop.

          1. I know Adele can. Both her and Swifty fill stadiums and are mega rich. Adele when she started out was a very fat young lady. Now she looks like a sexbot.

          2. As I recall, she can’t pronounce the letter “L” – instead substituting “w”. As in “adewwe”.

          4. Adele certainly can. She has a most powerful voice which, I trust, is not autotuned. If I’m wrong about her and Amy Winehouse then I’m afraid I shall consign all 21st century pop singers to the dustbin. That ghastly device renders talented singers obsolete or turns the untalented into ugly-sounding robots. I might just as well listen to Stephen Hawking having a sing-song.

    2. Good luck, Eddy.

      I told Bill Thomas to wear a pointed hat because Barn door eagles have been spotted over Norfolk. We wouldn’t want him plucked away and flown to an eerie but i would pay to see the video…..evil face.

    1. Very sad.
      The Irish have had more than their fair share of “troubles”, this adds insult to injury.

      1. They’ve had more than enough immigration.

        The Dutch have voted for Wilders and the French will probably vote for Le Pen.

        Interesting to note that the three countries that voted by referendum against the European Constitution Treaty were Ireland, France and The Netherlands.

        The Irish were told to vote again or else they would have EU funding removed; the French and Dutch referendums were just ignored and the European Constitution Treaty was renamed the Lisbon Treaty and no countries were allowed to have a referendum on the matter.

        When the Remainers finally succeed in getting Britain back into the EU they may well find that there are very few other countries still in it!

    2. There have been countless attacks by Muslim Brotherhood and related terror groups in the US in recent years. Many have involved the destruction of prime real estate zones in major cities using proxies such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter such as occurred in Minneapolis.

      Other targets have been food distribution hubs and warehouses.

      When the very first media and authority’s response to some explosion is to deny terrorist activity you may be certain that said event was indeed a terrorist event.

  68. ‘Hooligans’ clash with police and torch cars in Dublin after school stabbing left girl and woman seriously hurt: Riots erupt amid unconfirmed rumours knifeman is foreign national – police say attack was ‘not terror’ but mob chants ‘get them out’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12785095/Get-Furious-Dubliners-drive-police-City-Centre-five-people-including-three-children-stabbed-unverified-rumours-swirl-suspect-foreign-national.html

    Even if it wasn’t a gimmegrant or a Muslim, their own actions have brought this reaction upon themselves.
    I have little sympathy.

      2. I wonder if the PTB thought adding an alien religion to an already sectarian country would make things work better. Answers on a postage stamp……………unfranked of course !

  69. I had a little stroll around Christchurch Priory earlier, a beautiful building no matter your belief:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/daca5680f4aeca5789ca901e653153603aeedf3b993b632529aeab5015ae7e0f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b45404eafe17c80fe9efcb0a6a43d566328598c62d2ad485cfd995bceec3a61a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e2249d8e2f0aafef3506f5e69e5861c7ccee880d2ccc2f1ac4c2e3598db19afe.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/69688bca6ec9ce14085a7b3ddd5c0cee9a6361dbca992ee1ab2e48cbf95b6751.jpg

    1. Many, many years ago I took a work colleague on a tour of Paris. We had to stay in the city over the weekends we were working.
      Everything from culture to strip clubs, he was a naïve young man.
      One of the places I took him was Sainte-Chapelle.
      I went ahead to watch his expression as he came from the stairs to see the windows.
      His jaw dropped nearly a foot!

      1. That’s all very well but you try working cloakroom shift from 2 to 9. Not just rubber gloves but waders…and only on 5 francs an hour !

          2. I think you have the makings of a great C21st Philosopher …and no I’m not taking the Pizz!

  70. Here’s one for you:
    You can’t run through a camp site.
    Its “ran”, because it’s past tents…

  71. Logged on to weight watchers last night, and the site asked me if I’d accept cookies… I think it’s a trick question!

    1. After we saw with the Nova Festival rampage they prefer to stab and shoot them in the head while fucking them. I suppose they like fucking warm corpses.

    2. Yo Ol

      Wish I could sing in tune…

      I have been ‘sent off’ for ‘my out of tune singing’, of the National Anthem, whilst joining at Rugby Matches

      1. I thought it was virtually impossible to sing the National Anthem out of tune – it’s such a dirge.

          1. Only because we only sing two verses to avoid upsetting the Scots (and they will be offended by the English anyway!).

      2. #metoo.
        :-((
        Same goes for dancing, in my case. Sent off for moving out of synch with everyone else…

  75. A pleasant day in Derby picking up my blazer. I must get some photos done of me wearing it!
    However, 375 unread comments is a bit much to catch up with, so I will bid you all a Good Night.

  77. Revealed: King Charles secretly profiting from the assets of dead citizens
    Exclusive: Assets of thousands of people in north-west England used to upgrade king’s property empire via archaic custom

    ‘He would turn in his grave’: the dead whose assets went to King Charles’s estate
    How bona vacantia is used to collect money from dead people https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/23/revealed-king-charles-secretly-profiting-from-the-assets-of-dead-citizens

    2. If a person dies intestate their property reverts to the Crown. In practice such assets are managed by the Crown Estate Commissioners. The utilisation of funds obtained by the Duchy of Lancaster is perhaps little different to the purloining of funds by the Crown Estate Commissioners elsewhere in the land.

      The monies obtained pay for the Civil List since the time from memory of Charles I.

      The basis of land and property ownership has always been based on the assumption that the Crown owns everything and merely temporarily grants certain entitlements such as freeholds. How else would such vast estates have been granted to the assortment of robber barons now owning them?

    3. Isn’t this true of previous monarchs? It seems odd to pick on King Charles III when his mother and previous monarchs benefited, if it can be said that they personally did so. It’s a centuries old practice. This is the unclaimed wealth of those who due intestate. While I see no particular reason in this day and age that it should resort to the Crown, it’s not easy to see who or what else is better entitled to it other than the Treasury as yet another source of tax.

      1. Morning all. Maybe there is another agenda to this? As in, down with the monarchy we need a republic?

  78. Hundreds of staff face dismissal unless they agree to changes in conditions that could reduce their annual earnings by up to 20%. Photograph: iWebbstock/Alamy
    P&O Ferries
    P&O Cruises and Cunard prepare to fire and rehire more than 900 UK staff
    Cruise firms prepare to dismiss crew unless they accept salary cuts and flexible working arrangements

    Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent
    @GwynTopham
    Thu 23 Nov 2023 19.29 GMT
    P&O Cruises and fellow cruise firm Cunard are preparing to fire and rehire more than 900 UK-based crew unless they accept salary cuts and more flexible working arrangements.

    The affected crew include officers on the British flagship, the luxury ocean liner Queen Mary 2, and nine other ships operated under Carnival UK, which is part of the $18bn-listed Carnival group.

    The staff work on ships out of Southampton but are employed via a management company based in Bermuda, with notice of potential redundancies signed off by an operational head based in Mumbai.

    A total of 919 professional, managerial and technical staff across the 10 cruise ships in Carnival UK and Cunard’s fleet face dismissal in early 2024 unless they agree to changes in terms and conditions that could reduce their annual earnings by up to 20%.

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/23/po-cruises-and-cunard-prepares-to-fire-and-rehire-more-than-900-uk-staff

    1. They know they can pay Asians a pittance. This is the hold the company has over UK workers. They are ruthless.

  80. Did you know this ?

    The American canned meat that’s undeniably Asian: four recipes with Spam
    Spam is a shining beacon of culinary innovation through hardship, and represents a complex history across many cultures – and there are even plant-based versions

    There are few food items across the world as divisive as Spam, the small can of processed pork that inspires either love or revulsion.

    I’m part of the Asian diaspora and for me, this very American product tastes like home. The story of Spam in Asian communities is a shared story of resourcefulness and resilience. It’s often difficult to articulate to people as they recoil in disgust, that Spam is not only delicious but is also viewed very differently in our parents’ home countries.

    Chef Rosheen Kaul has created recipes with focusing on one ingredient, Ketchup.
    Australian supermarket tomato sauces tasted and rated – and how to cook with them

    I share my love for the small, rectangular slab of canned pork with millions of Asians and Pacific Islanders across the globe. The use of Spam is ingrained in the regional cuisines of the Philippines, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong, which may seem inconsistent with local cooking styles, ingredients and techniques. So, how did this American tinned meat become embraced by so many cuisines?

    Spam and noodles, Spam and rice, Spam and eggs. Spam has a long history as a convenience product, a food ration, a luxury item and a leftover from US colonialism. It was created in 1937 by Hormel Foods as a way of turning surplus pork shoulder into profit, and to fill a gap in the market for small portions of high quality deli meat with a long shelf life.

    At the time, other companies were using waste products and offcuts like pork noses to make their deli meat, so Spam’s comparative high quality and affordability made it a hit with families struggling through the Great Depression. Its long shelf life and high protein content also made it an ideal military ration. That’s how Spam began its journey around the globe – as a wartime necessity. By the end of the second world war, the US government had bought about 68,000 metric tonnes of it, to feed its army and as aid for its allies.

    After the second world war, Spam’s popularity waned in Europe, but remained hugely popular in the Asia-Pacific. In the Philippines, Spam was an expensive commodity sold in retail stores at US army bases, with one tin often costing almost an average daily wage. Its price and its overt “American-ness” was a large part of its appeal – having Spam or other imported canned goods in your pantry became a symbol of affluence.

    In Hong Kong, where agricultural land (and therefore meat) was scarce and manufacturing was booming, cafes or cha chaan tengs cleverly combined Chinese cooking styles with luxurious, imported foods like Spam, butter and cheese, creating Cantonese interpretations of western fare for factory workers.

    In Hawaii, the US military introduced Spam as an alternative source of protein when local people lost access to a major part of their diet with restrictions on Japanese-American off-shore fishing during the war. It now forms an intrinsic element of Hawaii cuisine.

    Spam Jam
    ‘It’s flavourful as hell’: welcome to Hawaii’s annual Spam festival
    Read more
    The Korean war took Spam farther east. US soldiers bartered with Spam for information from local people left hungry by wartime shortages. It was also smuggled out from army bases along with sausages, baked beans and other canned goods. This period of scarcity gave rise to the now quintessential budae jjigae or “army base stew”, the perfect amalgamation of Korean cooking and American ingredients.

    I grew up in Singapore, eating Spam as part of an “economy/curry rice” offering, with noodles or in fried rice, and at home, where my mum cooked it for us as a treat. Spam is most delicious when simply fried in a pan – salty, soft in the middle, with crispy golden edges. It’s the perfect textural contrast. When diced and stir-fried into rice or eggs, it gives glorious bursts of porky flavour. Simmered, it becomes exceedingly tender and absorbs the flavour of the broth, making it an ideal ingredient in a decadent, spicy stew.

    Sure, Spam is a relic of American colonialism, but it’s also undeniably Asian. It’s a shining beacon of culinary innovation through hardship, and represents a complex history across many cultures. It’s also absolutely delicious.

    A plant-based alternative
    I know encouraging the consumption of a mass-produced meat product comes with huge ethical and environmental issues, but Asia’s love for Spam has also given rise to a brilliant plant-based luncheon meat product called OmniPork. It features as a plant-based “Spam” in McDonald’s in Hong Kong and Macau, and is even available in Australia. It looks and cooks just like Spam does – so feel free to substitute it in to my favourite Spam recipes below.

    https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/jan/17/suspiciously-delicious-undeniably-asian-four-ways-with-spam-recipe

    1. We like Spam with bacon in with it. Its better now than it used to be. Fried for breakfast.

    2. I knew Hawaiians were mad for it (first time I came across this I thought they were joking 🤣), but didn’t know about the rest. Interesting! Thanks.

        1. I remember from my upbringing people regarded Spam as beneath them. Almost any soldier will tell you how wonderful they thought it was. Especially when dipped in batter and fried.

    5. I was watching a cookery competition and the judges were astonished that this Asian lady used spam in her curry. She called it ‘special ham’. They liked the curry.

  81. Right chums, it’s now almost 11 pm so it’s about time I went upstairs to bed. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all tomorrow.

  82. Remainers are now calling Brexit voters thick. They couldn’t be more wrong

    Remember when the liberal Left supposedly championed people who never went to university? Now it seems to hold them in contempt

    ROSS CLARK • 23 November 2023 • 1:18pm

    When you are on the side of liberal enlightenment, you can usually rely on a university study coming along to help you make your point. Ever since June 24, 2016, diehard Remain campaigners have been trying to make out that Leave voters were too thick to know what was good for them, and finally they have the scientific “proof”. A study of 6,366 people by Bath University’s School of Management claims that 73 per cent of those in the highest cognitive group voted Remain, compared with only 40 per cent in the lowest cognitive group.

    To be fair to Chris Dawson, who led the study, he doesn’t quite try to make out that all Brexiteers were stupid, and says there is a large overlap, with some clever people actually voting Leave. But he does assert that an awful lot of people weren’t intelligent enough to sift through information during the campaign which was “contradictory, false and often fraudulent, especially regarding the pro-Leave campaign”.

    This is where his scientific method sinks into mere assertion, because he doesn’t appear to have asked his cohort what inspired them to vote Leave or Remain, nor quantified how much false information they were exposed to from either campaign. How many Remain voters, for example, were swung by the claims made by the Treasury that the economy would crash by 6 per cent and unemployment would soar by 500,000 in the two years after a Brexit vote? Those warnings, and many like it, were presented as if they were fact rather than feeble pieces of modelling – which only ever considered possible negative outcomes from Brexit – and which turned out to be very far wide of the mark.

    It may very well be that more manual and elementary workers – whom you might expect to perform less well in cognitive tests – voted Leave. But there is a very good reason for that, which has nothing to do with them being unable critically to analyse competing electioneering claims. On the contrary, such people correctly worked out that they were the losers from EU free movement. If you were a well-paid professional living in London, free movement could mean cheaper plumbers and nannies. But if you were a plumber or nanny, it could mean competition for your job, suppressing your earnings power.

    A while ago I was speaking to a Leave-supporting lorry driver – just the sort that diehard Remainers seem to think were harming the nation by voting the way they did. Had he got it wrong? Not a bit of it. He hadn’t had a pay rise for years, he said, until the competition from overseas hauliers had dropped away after Brexit. Then he had had four pay rises in a year, with a 40 per cent uplift in total. You can argue that making it harder for EU-based hauliers to operate in Britain has harmed the economy as a whole, but it certainly hadn’t harmed him – he voted the way that he correctly surmised would suit his personal interest.

    There is a wider point to be made here. The liberal Left used to be the champions of people who hadn’t been to university, and perhaps hadn’t performed well at school. Now it seems to hold them in contempt. Remain campaigners risk demonstrating what the political philosopher Michael Sandel has called the “tyranny of merit”. How much longer before the enlightened liberals demand universal suffrage be ended, and that you need a degree to be able to vote?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/23/remainers-are-calling-brexit-voters-thick-they-are-wrong

    1. I’ll still be voting then (I have several bachelors degrees and two masters degrees – and I voted to LEAVE). What academic remainiacs fail to understand is that to get on well in a trade you have to have skills and that takes ability. It may not be academic ability, but it’s ability nonetheless. I’d like to see some of the researchers have to solve engineering or architechtural problems or make a complicated piece of marquetry furniture. They wouldn’t know where to start.

      1. Good evening, Connors,

        Why did you want to have several bachelors degrees? Wouldn’t it have been more interesting and intellectually rewarding to have had fewer BAs and BScs and more doctorates and higher level degrees?

        I only ask because a boy in the school I taught in managed to accumulate 17 “O” levels to try and show how clever he was and then he went and got disappointingly poor “A” levels grades and this meant he could not go the the university to which he had wanted to go.

        1. I got my first BA (Hons) in Russian, but when I was teaching my Head of Dept complained that I didn’t have a French degree (I was teaching French) so I did the Institute of Linguists Final Diploma which is a degree equivalent. Then, when I retired, for pleasure I did a Fine Arts degree. I have an MA and an MPhil – the latter should have been a PhD but I was doing it part time while working and all sorts of things went wrong meaning I couldn’t duplicate it in another school, so I pulled the plug and settled for something rather than nothing. I still live in hope of doing a PhD at some time or other before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

    2. It’s an established fact that Brexit voters watch Corrie, Emmerdale, EastEnders, Strictly, I’m A Celebrity, Britain’s Got Talent and the X Factor. They evidently lack the ability to vote in favour of what is in their own best interest. A committee of the best and brightest must be established to cast votes on their behalf as established voting patterns suggest they do so as acts of self harm. We intervene when the suicidal do it and this would be a similar act of benevolence.

      1. Do the ‘intellectuals’ who swallowed the Covid story, hook line and sinker, need a panel of plebs to vote for them because they believed Ferguson’s failed modelling and all the nonsensical rules that followed.

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