Wednesday 29 November: The Elgin Marbles dispute reveals the incompetence of the PM’s team

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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496 thoughts on “Wednesday 29 November: The Elgin Marbles dispute reveals the incompetence of the PM’s team”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    Private Lesson
    A father was discussing the “birds and the bees” with his son. He asked his son if he had any questions.
    “Dad, what do a woman’s private parts look like?”
    The father thought for a moment and said, “son, before sex it looks like the softest petal on the most beautiful pink rose.”
    “What about after sex?”
    The father thought a little longer, “Have you ever seen a bulldog eating mayonnaise?”

    1. -2°c here in Moffat and I’ve to hobble to the shops about 08:00.

      Not looking forward to it but I need full fat milk.

      1. Can you not wait a little longer until the temperature is above freezing, Tom. Please take the greatest care. And good morning, btw.

        1. I shall love to wait longer bur I need milk for my tea, Elsie.

          I do take the greatest care. knowning that I’m prone to falling,

  3. The Elgin Marbles dispute reveals the incompetence of the PM’s team

    I wonder if Asia and Africa will ask for their people back?

  5. Good morning.
    Word on Twitter is that the little girl in Ireland is dead, but the (immigrant) family can’t speak to doctors and have been directed to the Garda who have threatened them and told them not to speak to anyone.
    This is a private journalist on Twitter, make of it what you will.
    Criminal charges should be brought against those who fashioned and promoted the “far right” narrative including the despicable worm masquerading as leader.
    https://twitter.com/jeffgallagher76/status/1729642415068225803

      1. Will it happen – no chance. as elsewhere they’ll just close ranks, and protect their positions and pensions.

        Time to kick ’em all out. Useless incompetents..

        1. If they were merely useless, we could cope with that. It’s that they are malignant and actively destructive I can’t get over.

    2. Yes, I heard that a few days ago – that her life support had been switched off. She allegedly had had her throat slit and multiple stab wounds, poor little soul. The nurse who attended her at the scene was a transgender filipino and part time actor. Something odd about all this, but as I am not feeling well (winter flu virus, nothing serious) I can’t be bothered to delve further atm. I am thinking perhaps this might be a false flag event (though not that the event didn’t occur). Just a thought.

  6. Good morning, all. Clear and frosty with a waning gibbous Moon in the western sky.

    In this one segment of the War Room Dr Robert Malone exposes the next ‘health porn story’ coming out of China and energy expert Dave Walsh discusses the electrification fantasy coming to light in California and how Florida aims to emulate the former’s failure. The energy madness is by no measure unique to UK politicians and their hangers-on.

    War Room – China’s Respiratory Illness and California’s Shortage of Power and EV Charge Points

  7. Good morning all.
    A chillier -4°C this morning with a waxing gibbous moon still hanging high in the clear sky.

  8. 379132+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Covid could be ‘man-made’, Michael Gove tells inquiry
    Levelling Up Secretary also defends Boris Johnson and says Cabinet Office was not effective at dealing with crises

    Read as,
    Covid could be ‘man-made’, Michael Gove ( took the tory (ino) arse covering course has high proficiency badge ) tells inquiry .
    Levelling Up Secretary also defends Boris Johnson and says Cabinet Office was highly effective at dealing with crises in line with WEF instructions.

    One can really see the political serpents giving a little to protect the WEF hydra heads.

    ,

  10. Does anyone know anything about working in the blockchain industry?
    Specifically, what are most of the jobs doing? Are they building the digital prison, or are they relatively harmless things like logistics or computer game currencies?

    1. Blockchain is an open source protocol for building digital currencies.

      More specifically it is a database of records linked cryptographically (encrypted using shared keys). The second blockk links to the first, the third to the second and so forth.

      That’s why it is so terrifying to government and why the soon to be forced ‘digital currency’ won’t use it. You cannot ‘destroy’ the value of blockchain based currency by creating another ten million of it whenever the state wants to devalue the currency. The whole system prevents that.

      A friend of mine is a ‘digital nomad’ (lives out of a back pack) and passed through the UK a few weeks back. He was paid in bitcoin which he transferred into sterling. He’s a diligent chap and registers his being in the country but HMRC are simply too slow to keep up with him. He earned about 20K in the week he was here moving bitcoin about, updating the various tracker apps and is building the integration system for a shop chain to take bitcoin as payments directly. He doesn’t try to evade tax. He’s diligent in his declarations but he is simply moving too fast, the technology too opaque for the lumpen, incompetent, slow, moronic government to keep up.

      He’s currently in Chile having bought his ticket in bitcoin. He has a ‘house’ in Sweden, more of a shed really which is full of mining computers. Every so often he adds more solar panels or converts the heat into a turbine thingy to power them.

      When big fat state forces an utterly unbacked, fiat currency solely for their benefit on us we must move to bitcoin or another blockchain based currency – it’s no different to Argentina using the Dollar instead of Pesos. The state wants to make money worthless. Blockchain enforces its value and keeps it away from government’s grasping hands.

      3. Do you happen to have an idea of how much roughly your friend is getting? Three figures per hour? Four figures per day? (says she hopefully)
        A lot of the work seems to be around smart contracts. I reckon I have a lot of the ground knowledge, and it might be worth doing a short course and getting into smart contract contracts.

  11. I wonder how many of the climate predictions: weather, sea levels, carbon output reduction etc. etc. made around the time of COP 1 in Berlin in 1995, have actually come to pass.

      1. My guess is that what change there has been has made matters worse, by their definitions, eg vastly increased use of fossil fuels in developing nations.
        The fact that people’s lives will have been improved is irrelevant to those pushing the agenda.

          3. You may well be right but i go here for advice…

            All leaves and conifer needles will eventually break down into leafmould. Some leaves, such as oak, beech or hornbeam, break down with little assistance and produce an excellent quality product.

            Leafmould / RHS Gardening

  13. 379132+ up ticks,

    Politicians have created a multicultural monster beyond control. Who gets the blame? We do

    Due to the continuation of the voting pattern regardless of consequence & no opposition party to oppose the lab/lib/con
    pro eu / WEF coalition party.

    The political elite are branding riots in Dublin last week as violently ‘far-Right’ – but it’s mass migration that presents the real danger

    We the electorate, really must bear the load of the cross……cast in the polling stations.

    1. John Waters is an Irish journalist and commentator who has locked horns with the establishment and is totally horrified by the trajectory the politicians have created for the nation. Go to 7:00 in this interview. Whoever writes headlines for this news organisation needs to go back to school but John Waters is blistering in his condemnation of Ireland’s politicians and police. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylNIg7cZ68M

      1. Alison Pearson writes a good article on the absurdity of branding decent people ‘far right’. Apparently some Grannies were tired of black and middle eastern gimmigrants hanging around a school and following children home (the state told them children to dress more modestly) and labelled them as ‘far right’.

        It’s putrid. The vermin have got to go.

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/11/28/politicians-have-created-a-multicultural-monster/

        1. According to John Waters, the man in Ireland who killed those two gay men had 350,000 euros in his house and this seemed very odd to him but the police were unconcerned. I will not elaborate but this policy has the makings for catastrophic civil unrest and one has to wonder if this is not the intention. The authorities- and in Ireland this is already beginning, then bring in new laws aimed at the native population as a consequence so it all appears to be part of a plan- just as other recent events have been. All in all, beyond troubling.

        2. “The vermin have got to go.”

          Of course they have got to go – but are any of the UK politicians keen to make them go and even if they were how would they make them go?

          Is it already too late and are we now completely stuffed?

        1. Yes, good morning!
          Needless to say the authorities are coming for him but he says he’s okay with that- the usual lawfare and as Mark Steyn has said for years: “The process is the punishment.”

    1. I think who is it… the big engineering firm… has gone over to hydrogen as a fuel. It makes sense at every turn. If windmills were devoted to creating hydrogen it would be something – easier to store, an available, mass use fuel, utterly clean….

      JCB, that’s it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19Q7nAYjAJY

      1. By all accounts the USAF used hydrogen quite a bit many years ago and found it far too problematic to continue with it. This is the point- we can use hydrocarbons and have the systems- anything new can create problems but these will, we are told, be overcome. It is all green tomfoolery and will end in an ocean of tears.

      1. That’s just a grille for cosmetic purpose- like on the old Routemaster buses- so would be there as a diesel truck before the conversion to an EV . Presumably, all the mechanicals are removed to save weight as the batteries are so horribly heavy.

  16. Morning all 🙂😊
    Broken cloud but chilly minus one.
    Oh dear not the Elgin marble Row again.
    They way Greece looks after their ancient buildings and artifacts the marbles have been better off staying put in London.

      1. Daft isn’t it.

        I was in touch with one of my nephews last evening. He informed me that where they live in the North Pennines they had snow last week.

  17. Good morning all,

    A hazy sky with a glimmer of light on the Eastern horizon greeted us on opening the curtains at McPhee Towers this morning. It’s clouding over and with the wind in the North it’s going to be a cold day, 2℃ rising to 4℃.

    We’re back from the Great Wen where I was able to observe the progress made in the Great Replacement of the native English in the capital city and it seems to be going gangbusters. In no place we went for refreshment or a meal were we greeted or served by anyone of native English, Scots, Welsh or Irish stock. It’s different in the places of culture we go to such as art galleries and bookshops. And in the taxis, of course. Every time we go to the Wen we move around by taxi and that’s where you’ll come across the Londoners who have abandoned their ancestral homes. They all seem to drive in for their day’s work from places such as Brentwood, Epping or St.Albans. We’ve had some very enjoyable conversations with taxi drivers over the past few years some of who have turned out to be very well read and very well informed despite starting from a position of a limited formal education. Many of these were the older ones who at least had the advantage of having been to school at a time when schools saw it as their duty to ensure that people were literate, numerate and interested in their surroundings. That’s how we met the black cab driver who was an apiarist, the black cab driver who was a history-writer and Civil War re-enacter and the black cab driver with an engineering background who helped to restore steam locomotives. You won’t get such interesting conversations from an Uber driver.

    This time, however, the only topic of conversation was the diminutive Mayor Khan, the ULEZ and the absurd 20 mph limit all over the city. One told us that the nice new electric Hackney Carriage he was driving wasn’t his choice. He’d been forced to buy it (£75k, kerching) because his old diesel cab wasn’t compliant, electric cabs are to be mandated and now he had to postpone his retirement until he’d paid off the finance deal. Another talked about how the 20 mph limit was making congestion worse and was reducing the number of fares he could pick up in a day’s work. A third told us one of his mates had pinged the 20 mph (doing 24 mph) so many times he had his licence withdrawn and now he couldn’t work. They all drive around watching their speedos like hawks instead of the road ahead. And there are cameras everywhere. They’d love to get rid of Khan but seemed to be resigned to his winning again.

    It’s against this back drop that I pick out this letter:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a11dc9edc286b23ceeb24df4f68066deec5b7acdc0edd5673209f909feacda94.png

    Just like the others of their ilk who have held one of The Great Offices of State, Javid, Patel, Braverman ( whose job, like Patel, was simply to make the right noises) they have been manouvered into position to help to implement the planned destruction of the British nation. Their part in it is the destruction of the Conservative Party and they seem to be on the threshold of success.

      1. Uber and minicab drivers or Addison Lee drivers may be council moonlighters but not Black Cab drivers, I think.

        1. Last time i was in a cab he asked me what i thought of AI. After telling me what he thought of it. I told him AI is going to put him out of a job.

          I do wish they would shut up.

      2. For two of us moving around central London it works out not much more than the tube. It’s worth it.

        1. I lived in London for many years. I reckoned then (and still do) that anything less than a mile = walk it. Anything over – tube. Haven’t been in a black cab for over 40 years. Sitting in stationary traffic watching the meter spin up and up….no sirree!!

          1. Agree with the walking bit. Tube – not any more at our age, especially if changes of line are involved. Stationary traffic – pot luck, you win some you lose some.

          2. When I first left school I at the age of 18 I went and worked in an advertising agency in Grosvenor Street. The first job young trainees did was to work in the despatch department which entailed taking delivering various items to the agency’s clients, TV companies and newspaper and magazine’s offices in central London.

            We were given the money for tube and bus fares or, when it was urgent, taxi money. Walking briskly or jogging I could easily get to most destinations more quickly than by bus or tube and in congested traffic I could beat a taxi.

            As we were not generously paid the money we could save on fares was a very welcome addition to our wages.

  18. Good morning all,

    A hazy sky with a glimmer of light on the Eastern horizon greeted us on opening the curtains at McPhee Towers this morning. It’s clouding over and with the wind in the North it’s going to be a cold day, 2℃ rising to 4℃.

    We’re back from the Great Wen where I was able to observe the progress made in the Great Replacement of the native English in the capital city and it seems to be going gangbusters. In no place we went for refreshment or a meal were we greeted or served by anyone of native English, Scots, Welsh or Irish stock. It’s different in the places of culture we go to such as art galleries and bookshops. And in the taxis, of course. Every time we go to the Wen we move around by taxi and that’s where you’ll come across the Londoners who have abandoned their ancestral homes. They all seem to drive in for their day’s work from places such as Brentwood, Epping or St.Albans. We’ve had some very enjoyable conversations with taxi drivers over the past few years some of who have turned out to be very well read and very well informed despite starting from a position of a limited formal education. Many of these were the older ones who at least had the advantage of having been to school at a time when schools saw it as their duty to ensure that people were literate, numerate and interested in their surroundings. That’s how we met the black cab driver who was an apiarist, the black cab driver who was a history-writer and Civil War re-enacter and the black cab driver with an engineering background who helped to restore steam locomotives. You won’t get such interesting conversations from an Uber driver.

    This time, however, the only topic of conversation was the diminutive Mayor Khan, the ULEZ and the absurd 20 mph limit all over the city. One told us that the nice new electric Hackney Carriage he was driving wasn’t his choice. He’d been forced to buy it (£75k, kerching) because his old diesel cab wasn’t compliant, electric cabs are to be mandated and now he had to postpone his retirement until he’d paid off the finance deal. Another talked about how the 20 mph limit was making congestion worse and was reducing the number of fares he could pick up in a day’s work. A third told us one of his mates had pinged the 20 mph (doing 24 mph) so many times he had his licence withdrawn and now he couldn’t work. They all drive around watching their speedos like hawks instead of the road ahead. And there are cameras everywhere. They’d love to get rid of Khan but seemed to be resigned to his winning again.

    It’s against this back drop that I pick out this letter:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a11dc9edc286b23ceeb24df4f68066deec5b7acdc0edd5673209f909feacda94.png

    Just like the others of their ilk who have held one of The Great Offices of State, Javid, Patel, Braverman ( whose job, like Patel, was simply to make the right noises) they have been manouvered into position to help to implement the planned destruction of the British nation. Their part in it is the destruction of the Conservative Party and they seem to be on the threshold of success.

  19. I watched a clip the other day about Gaza and it showed how when Israel was in charge of the strip they grew lots of different types of food and even exported some of it around the world. And now we are either sending money (which will be used to arm further terrorism) of supplies in the order of food etc. I realise a lot of the buildings have been destroyed, but Isn’t it possible to get the current Gazan’s to look after them selves. Or at least be encouraging them to be more self sufficient. After all Israel managed to grow crops on the land which was handed back to them. As was the precious situation in the area. It just seems as usual in these day’s and time’s, when people have a hand in destroying their own lifestyles it’s always everyone else’s fault.
    They need to get themselves out of the mire which appears once again to be, the middle age mindset.

    1. MuzziNazis do something for themselves?
      Next, you’ll be expecting them to grow up and take responsibility for their blighted lives.

      1. Muslim men like African men don’t work unless you whip them.

        Oh dear…my white privilege is showing again.

          2. Last time i was there i stayed at the Victory Services Club. Walked out to find somewhere for a nibble and drink. Turned into Edgware road and found myself in Lebanon. No Tardis required.

      2. In agreement,
        I don’t ever expect anything at all from any of them Anne, except their joint and designated path of hate of the western world and destruction. Their mindset is centuries adrift.

    3. This was in a very interesting clip posted on this forum yesterday.

      It was the same in Rhodesia in that when the farms were stolen from the white farmers by Mugabe – who gave them to his thug friends who murdered and expelled many of the black workers – the whole infrastructure collapsed and the land returned to infertile wasteland within a few years.

      1. That was Harold Wilson’s fault.
        I was in Rhodesia when he was talking (instructing) to Ian Smith.
        Mugabe robbed his treasury had thousands of people murdered because he knew they wouldn’t vote for him.
        White farmers and their families are now being murdered in South Africa as well.

      1. But of course they didn’t build the tunnels.
        Obviously people working at the hospital noticed the tunnels being built. But kept quite. Next time they notice such things happening perhaps they tell someone. But obviously discreetly.

        1. Optimistic mood today.

          No they will not change, just more tunnels, more victimhood, more violence.

  20. Good moaning.
    Bright sun. Freezing cold.
    Aaaarrghhhhh …… it’s global warmi climate change.
    Shut everything down!!!! Quadruple taxes!!!!!! Jab everyone with dodgy liquids!!!!!!!!
    (Quiet voice in the corner ….” er, it’s 29th. November in East Anglia.”)

  21. Off out this morning to see an old friend. She’s 87. One of the very few people still living who came to both my weddings.

    1. When my older sister’s wedding anniversary came round my brother-in-law told me that I was the only person still alive who, apart from him and my sister, had been at the wedding – except my lovely niece, Susie who was in utero and born 5 months later!

  22. UK should rejoin EU to ‘fix’ Brexit, says Ursula von der Leyen
    European Commission president says she tells her children ‘we goofed it up’ when discussing UK’s departure from EU
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/29/uk-rejoin-eu-fix-brexit-ursula-von-der-leyen/

    The EU is disintegrating under this stupid woman’s feet. The EU needs the UK a damned sight more than the UK needs the EU.

    Of course the irony is that if Mendacius Cameron had had any success in getting even the tiniest of concessions when he went a -pleading to the EU the result of the referendum would most likely have been different.

    And then Cameron added mendacious impertinence to insult and incompetence by telling the voters that they were voting for A Reformed EU when EU had not reformed and had absolutely no intention of reforming.

    1. Little Bear tells her children. Well she has seven of them. That’s one thing she’s good at!

    2. The EU has fought Brexit, made it difficult, imposed tariff barriers, argued against access, hindered remaining members of sensible things we used to lead on (erasmus) and continues to fight a rear guard action against the UK, aided and abetted by the sewage in Westminster who are actively fighting the public will in the statist determination to prevent any possible divergence from EU regulation or control.

      Why, inn the name of God are we not cutting corporation tax to below Ireland? The EU is pushing for 15% minimum, our fools push for over 30%. It is moronic. Same for not building reservoirs, for refusing mass welfare shopping gimmigration. Every excuse going is designed to hinder the UK and keep us chained.

      1. I used to think that Sunak was just a personality-free non-entity – but I can now see that he is both mendacious and evil and happy to do whatever Schwab, Soros and Gates want him to do.

  23. Good news! The oven is causing the kitchen to trip out!

    Good news! We need a new oven. Even gooder news! The oven is some bespoke jobbie and needs a plinth built for it.

    Even gooder than good news! The electrical wiring for the new sockets has exposed all sorts of other [beeep] that needs fixing!

        3. We replaced our single electric oven with an AEG double built under oven which is OK. The previous owner had had the kitchen done – no dishwasher ! and a single oven, why I will never know

          7. The actual model is DUB331110M, AEG Built under double oven. Our fitter (mate) just managed to get it to fit in the old single oven space with a bit of fettling. The plinth under it is a bit skew, but it works fine. This one needed hard wiring – the single oven and gas hob were on 13amp plugs (go figure), we treated ourselves to an induction hob at the time, which my husband loves. This one has catalytic lining, but only on the top oven (not according to the book). I think we changed the oven about 2 years ago. Hope this helps

      2. Our Neff, which was old when we moved in 15 years ago has been excellent.
        Odd bulbs have gone and it’s certainly showing its age but from the experience so far I would be tempted again.
        I am NOT tempting Providence.

          1. I had Neff units installed, back in 1984 (gas hob; electric oven), and they were top notch. I’ve heard that their modern standard is now shockingly bad.

      3. You’re not wrong but too late for me. Small multi-oven i.e. fan, grill, microwave is rubbish: the coating on the inside of the door is flaking off and the interior light fails regularly and at about £9 for a bulb I continue to cook without it. The mains powered striker on the wok unit has packed up and the light in the ‘slide-and-hide oven has given up the ghost. Very costly 6 years ago. Wish I’d gone for Bosch/Siemens/AEG.

          1. I have a brand new Air Fryer as well, Spikey. I just need to pluck up the courage to give it a go.

            I’ve gone through the recipe book but have yet to find something to inspire me.

          5. Put meat into air fryer basket, chips and chicken need a spray of oil (Pref olive oil) 20 min @ 180°C turn over halfway, chips should be shaken half way. Sausages and steak 20 min at 180°, turn halfway. Easy peasy

          11. I’ve been considering an air fryer but with so many on the market it’s hard to choose. Dyas had some good offers but it’s nigh on impossible to get the thing to wherever parking is available in the ‘city’.
            Obviously you’re happy with your purchase: care to recommend?

          13. Thanks, Phizzee.

            I now have two recommendations, yours and a friend’s Ninja along with F_A’s warning re Tower. Decisions, decisions!

          14. Though it does work as an airfryer it is more a mini oven. Where it is superior is with an airfryer you get one or two compartments in this you get three shelves. Perfect for ready meals or dishes of a similar size.
            Downside is it doesn’t hold the heat like a conventional oven but it heats quickly. Only goes up to 200c

            If just cooking for two it’s brilliant.
            I haven’t used the main oven since but if i’m roasting a large joint or a turkey i am going to need it.

          15. The more I hear from people who have these appliances the more I feel that having one will be a good decision. Thanks, again.

          16. Mine is a Tower but it’s my second one as the first ones non-stick coating was coming away and was replaced under warranty and therefore I couldn’t recommend that make. Ninja are good but overpriced. I’d recommend getting a double one anyway

          17. Thank you, F_A.

            I have a Ninja coffee maker, a ‘gift’ from Shark when I bought the latter’s vacuum cleaner. Pleased with both appliances, 5+ years and still working well. Yes, I agree a double would be the sensible purchase. A reworking of worktop space is required before I decide.

      4. Our Neff is 16 years old and has given great service. Grill/oven on top of a larger oven. I am considering a new one though as its age has me thinking it might peg out soon.

      1. Yep. August.

        The oven was fine with the old fuse box. But that needed replacing for the leaking bathroom fixes. Now the new fuse box is tripping on the oven, so we need a new oven.

        Which means we need more work done…

        1. In the same situation, I simply swapped the oven for a small plug-in one, and put it in a place where the circuit looks relatively modern in our crumbling cottage. Path of least resistance, you might say.

          6. Three days in Lunnon will tell…. Sunday – to Sotheby’s to see the Rembrandt “Adoration” wot is up for sale – estimate £10 – £15 million….. I’ll leave a bid….

          7. Wear a ‘just stop oil T shirt’. Cut the picture out of the frame and walk out. No one will bother you.

          8. I like that approach.

            For me, I’ve become slightly hysterical. Junior is wondering when he’ll get hot food. The Warqueen is simply living at work. She is contracted a 4 day week, 10-2 (making a sacrifice in salary to get to see Junior before and after school). Her little firm love this as she brings in a few million quid in clients and doesn’t cost a lot. But she’s taken to 8-6’s because it’s warm there, there’s a kitchen, she can go out for lunch with the other women and have hot food.

            Which leaves me with Oscar, who dislikes me as competition and Mongo, who just dozes until Junior comes home and chaos of ripped up carpets, saw noises, breaking things and directing where crap is supposed to go.

          11. We don’t have fuses on our older circuits. We have some hideous ceramic thing that dates from the 1960s. My son knows the knack of re-setting it when it pops.

          13. Remember what happened the last time a woman used a tool box. You can see it orbiting every 90 minutes.

          17. Jam a big nail in across the fuse connection, your oven will work and as a bonus, you will probably find out where the wiring needs attention.

            Commiserations, we have hadsimilar issues with wiring and plumbing in our new place. It is interesting to see how many ways they managed mess up simple socket and switch installation.

  25. Still a tad chilly – frost lingering. We are risking a trip to Lunnon this weekend. Stay at our usual billet – VERY expensive but ery comfortable and free food and drink in the evenings. Last year they buggered us about – three different rooms in three days. Not relaxing. The MR complained and was offered one free night. She also had a stack of “points” to use plus the chain’s “birthday offer” price reduction. As a result – what would have been a bill for £1,400 comes to one for £200!!! She is available as a negotiator….

    Just hope the Hamas lovers don’t ruin Saturday. Our plans keep us away from the route of their hate march. It’ll be cold but we hope dry.

        1. The knots the met police commissar tied himself in to avoid the obvious truth was putrid. A squirming weasel of a man to cow to terrorists.

          3. What do you expect? The last few of them have been chosen by the WEF-funded Lefty establishment. It is no different from how the last few ‘leaders’ of the Conservative Party have been installed via the same means.

  26. I had a friend request via Facebook from my sister who i haven’t spoken to in more than 10 years. Big mistake !
    She asked me why i had estranged myself from the family. So i told her.
    the next thing she posted (in cold blood) was to write the phrase ‘moving forward’.
    I could strangle the bitch.
    It was full moon too !

      1. She asked if she could visit. She said she could fit me in Sunday morning.
        She has such a wonderful turn of phrase…Not !

  27. The hostage releases hand more power to Hamas

    Many of the Palestinians released will resume the fight which their imprisonment interrupted

    CHARLES MOORE • 28 November 2023 • 6:00am

    It is joyful to see Israeli (and other) hostages of Hamas returned. But joy should not blind us to other consequences. Here, in short order, are a few points:

    1. There is a new, special agony for every hostage (the vast majority) not released. In some cases, Hamas deliberately twists the knife by splitting up families, releasing one member but not another. This increases its power over the fate of those who remain.

    2. Hamas is being accorded kudos for its actions by the media, as if it were merciful. In truth, the releases are just as calculatedly ruthless as were the original killings and kidnappings. It is a mistake to see the hostage returns as a mark of Hamas weakness, let alone a change of heart.

    3. Numerically and morally, these exchanges are unequal. In return for a small number of its citizens, Israel is freeing far more Palestinians, most of whom are guilty of something. The Israelis Hamas frees are wholly innocent.

    4. By announcing that it will extend the releases, Hamas makes itself look virtuous, but in fact is winning more time to regroup. It knows that every day of “pause” damages Israel’s advance and that Israel will be blamed if hostilities resume. Unless Hamas commits a new atrocity – for which it sees no need at present – it will not be.

    5. Bargaining over hostages makes the future taking of hostages more likely. This is partly because the kidnappings are seen to work and partly because many of the Palestinians released will resume the fight against Israel which their imprisonment interrupted. In 2011, Israel gained the release of Gilad Shalit, a single soldier held by Hamas, only by freeing 1,027 prisoners, almost all of them Palestinians or Arab Israelis. With such a result, Hamas naturally came back for more. This will happen again.

    6. The Israeli state is weakened. As a democracy – which Hamas, of course, is not – it must pay attention to public feeling. As a dependent ally, it also cannot ignore American political pressure. Naturally, many Israelis will do almost anything to get their fellow citizens home. If the Israeli government gives in to this, however, it may well be sacrificing the long-term interests of all Israelis to the feelings of the moment. Hamas has managed to make itself the central player in Israeli politics. The fact that these points are almost unnoticed in the West is itself evidence of how well Hamas is doing by having taken hostages.
    ________________________________________

    How many marched?

    There was yet another pro-Palestinian march in London last Saturday. The BBC reported, without any attempt at verification, that the march organisers claimed an attendance of 300,000. Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they?

    Yet I hear from friends who watched Saturday’s march that its numbers were much lower than those of previous ones. The 300,000 figure is about the size of the entire population of Oxford and Cambridge combined. It is incredible, in the accurate sense of that word.

    Some years ago, the police gave up issuing their own estimates of march sizes. They complained it involved them in political argy-bargy. But reasonably accurate march estimates are an important public service because it is numbers, more than anything, that the organisers need to strengthen their cause. Many are therefore unscrupulous about the figures they put out.

    For organisational reasons, the police must in fact make private calculations of march numbers. In the era of drones, the tools required must be easy to operate and quite cheap. They should publish what they find.

    I notice, by the way, that the BBC behaved quite differently about the march against anti-Semitism which took place in London on Sunday. At one point they gave a figure much lower than the estimate of over 100,000 marchers given by the organisers. Funny how the BBC’s critical faculty was suspended for Palestinians, but not for Jews; or perhaps not that funny.
    ________________________________________

    Avoiding potholes the 1940s way

    The AA is right to warn motorists to “avoid puddles”, since nowadays they so often conceal potholes. My mother is over 90 and disabled. Earlier this month, a kind carer took her for a drive round the neighbouring villages she has known so well for so long. This gave great pleasure, but there was a problem. They were so many potholed puddles to avoid that the constant manoeuvring required made my mother car-sick. Country lanes have become altogether too exciting.

    A couple of days later, the carer brought my mother a yellowed newspaper which she had found at home. It was a 1947 copy of the Sunday Dispatch, a now-forgotten newspaper but which at that time had (as its front page boasted) a circulation of 1,969,790.

    “BRITAIN’S ROAD REPAIR SHOCK”, said the splash headline, “Potholes Will Not Be Filled: Winter Chaos Certain”. Councils were being forced to dismiss “roadmen” because of lack of money, the paper reported. Reading the story, we felt almost comforted that some things never change. But on the other hand, Britain in 1947 did have the excuse that the Second World War had ended less than two years earlier, so almost everything needed repair.

    Besides, as the Sunday Dispatch story explained, there were only three million drivers on British roads then. Today, there are more than 10 times that number, so the pothole problem has far more victims.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/28/hostage-releases-hand-more-power-to-hamas/

    Meanwhile, Uncle Joe shows he still doesn’t know his arse from his elbow:

    Joe Biden has said allowing the conflict to continue in Gaza would “give Hamas what they seek”.

    The US president said Hamas launched its 7 October because it fears “nothing more than Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace”.

    “To continue down the path of terror, violence, killing, and war is to give Hamas what they seek,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

    His tweet caused confusion, with some questioning whether Biden was signalling a softening of the US stance on the conflict. He has previously opposed a ceasefire, saying that it would not bring peace between Israel and Hamas.

    “As long as Hamas clings to its ideology of destruction, a ceasefire is not peace,” he wrote in a Washington Post opinion article earlier this month.

    But a senior official from Biden’s administration told Jewish Insider that his tweet was “not a change in policy”, adding that it came from a longer speech he delivered last week.

    “He meant that we can’t lose hope for peace, ultimately, in the region, that it’s still incredibly important that we continue to lay the groundwork for, and create the conditions for, a lasting peace, and that involves a two-state solution,” the official said.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67562488

    3. I mentioned the other day that I’ve been noticing the supermarket bookshelves now have a large majority of female authors.

      1. The books are unreadable. I got one by mistake from a charity shop, and it was obsessed with skin colour, which was mentioned regularly throughout the book. Donald Trump even made an appearance, and the two villains were of course, the only two straight, white, male characters.
        Thank goodness I only paid a pound to some charidee for this nonsense, which ended up swiftly in the recycling bin. The author and editor are completely out of touch with the reading public.
        It had rave reviews of course!

      1. I’m reading The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. There’s a nice anecdote early on about a passenger who couldn’t figure out why his brand new watch seemed to be losing time on the Atlantic crossing.

    3. Shingles can be extremely unpleasant.
      It knocked my father for six. From a very fit, three or four games a week golfer who also went to the gym and swam regularly he was nearly blinded by it and had to give up his sport and cut back heavily on his gardening. He never really recovered and it aged him 10 years.
      Assuming you don’t have contraindications so you shouldn’t have one I would go for it.

      2. I remember nursing an old dear who had had shingles.
        She had lost most of her hair and was nearly blind.
        An undignified last few years for a lady who had been a local worthy.

        1. It was.
          I always thought he would hit 100 until he got it.
          It was quickly apparent that it would be very unlikely.

    4. My multi-covid jabbed colleague is currently off with shingles. I know someone else who got shingles after getting covid in the first wave.
      Multi-jabbed colleague told me with a straight face that everyone ought to get the shingles jab. I said “mmm” in a non-commital way.
      Two people in my family have had shingles without long term effects, though it was extremely unpleasant.

      Of course shingles only happens post chicken pox yada yada, but I understood that it is triggered if your immune system is stressed. It has also been mentioned as a covid jab side effect. So the idea of stressing your immune system with yet another jab would seem to be counter-productive. I know they say it only stresses you enough to trigger immunity etc, but they would say that, wouldn’t they. They are marketing this thing, not on a mission to care about our health.

      Also, I would research exactly what’s in the shot before you let them inject it into your blood stream. Monkey DNA, DNA from aborted babies, aluminium, formaldehyde etc. These factors probably weigh on the negative side.

    5. I’ve been offered it in the past too and I ignored it. I’m not taking any ‘medical interventions’ which are not necessary except to save my life in an emergency. It’s up to you.

    7. Had the jab (it came in two shots) several years ago. Slight discomfort but that is it. Discomfort in the walkert as well as the jab is not covered by the provincial health insurance and we had to pay about $350 each.

      I haven’t had shingles since then so I cannot comment on its efficiency or ameleorating effect.

    8. Apparently you can have shingles more than once. It’s very painful and nasty so I did have the jab a couple of years ago. No after effects.

    9. I had shingles 38 years ago and got the jab a couple of years ago – no harm in having the jab, definitely better than shingles

        1. MOH used PoxClin mousse to treat the post jab Shingles. The nurse who gave her the jab told her afterwards that it would only prevent a more severe reaction to Shingles. She said that if she had known that then she wouldn’t have opted to get jabbed.

    2. Bliar of course made it much much easier to use a postal vote. I think we should go back to the old rules – on pretty much everything.

  31. One for Grizzly:
    Daily Mail says that a barrister has been fined for giving a vintage German salute. Distasteful, but the article then states:

    “While it is not technically a criminal offensive to carry out the salute in the UK, it is considered a form hate speech.” The man was called to the Bar in 1973.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12804089/Barrister-fined-250-giving-Heil-Hitler-Nazi-salute-saying-jawohl-end-criminal-trial.html#newcomment

    1. So it’s illegal then, without ever actually having been made illegal.
      Which one of us didn’t mock Hitler by giving a narzi salute as a child?? Even the Queen did it!

      3. Ironically, the concept was introduced in Germany as ‘Volksverhetzung’ sometime after the end of the Second World War. (thank you Wiki).

        1. People were forced to do it in Germany. Even children at the Kindergarten. If they couldn’t do that salute on the first day, their parents were asked why not.

      4. Ironically, the concept was introduced in Germany as ‘Volksverhetzung’ sometime after the end of the Second World War. (thank you Wiki).

        1. It wasn’t a symbol of hate when I was a child, because we all knew that we were against the nazis, there was no doubt about that. Ironic that now, when there are millions who think that Hitler had the right idea, it’s illegal.

          1. It depends which of his ideas you mean. The mass slaughter of Jews, Slavs, Romanies and the mentally ill, amongst others, and the conquests of neighbouring states wouldn’t be on my list of his best ideas.

          2. When muslims and people of Pakistani origin say that Hitler had some good ideas, I usually assume they are referring to the Jews. It is very unpleasant. Already 25 years ago I heard this and was furious that they feel confident enough to voice support for Hitler in Britain.

    2. We must understand that is irrelevant whether or not you have broken the law – if they are determined to arrest and punish you then they will do so.

      Look at the way they have treated Tommy Robinson.

        1. He was actually having breakfast. It was a political hit, they don’t even try and hide their actions these days. As for the barrister, who declares what is distasteful, even amongst this select company there will be some greatly differing views on taste.

        2. He was actually having breakfast. It was a political hit, they don’t even try and hide their actions these days. As for the barrister, who declares what is distasteful, even amongst this select company there will be some greatly differing views on taste.

      2. Whatever your views on TR his treatment by the bullies of the state ( I include judges) is despicable.

  33. I learned two interesting facts today: It’s not as easy as you’d think
    having a pee on a moving train. And my ban covers ALL Hornby shops.

      1. I don’t need an invitation. I get invited to manage the logistics. Somehow a case or two of Champagne is never accounted for…

    2. Reminds me of the joke about the Christmas cake ingredients sent from Australia to wartime Blighty.

        1. Here too! -3 this morning! Twins here for a sleepover last night – Mummy & Daddy’s wedding anniversary! Went to Callendar Park and the sand was frozen in the sand pit!⛄️

        1. If it is you’re in trouble with poor kidney function. Which reminds me about lunch tomorrow. Baaah..

  39. Here’s a charming local story for cat fans.

    A cat, whose home is nearby, is a frequent visitor to Stevenage railway station, endearing itself to station staff and passengers alike.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67232823

    It has generated much social media comment, sufficient to secure its own Christmas pop record with the prospect of a book, too.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67407334

    Sadly, there’s always a scrote on hand trying to spoil things. A teenager aimed a kick at the cat. Fortunately, it came to no harm and still visits the station.

    https://www.thecomet.net/news/23944060.nala-cat-kicked-stevenage-railway-station-incident/

  40. S.S. Thornliebank.
    .
    Complement:
    80 (80 dead – no survivors).
    General cargo and munitions.

    At 04.11 hours on 29th November 1941 U-43 (Wolfgang Lüth) fired a spread of two stern torpedoes at a ship of convoy OS-12 about 240 miles north-northwest of the Azores. The Thornliebank (Master Sydney Letton) was hit by both torpedoes and blew up in a great explosion. The master, 69 crew members and ten gunners were lost. Debris from the ship fell around the surfaced U-boat and injured the Obersteuermann slightly at the upper arm. The next day, the Germans found an 10cm shell without fuse, which had been blown from the torpedoed ship onto the conning tower over a distance of about 1,300 yards.

    Type IXC U-Boat U-43 was sunk on 30th July 1943 in the North Atlantic south-west of the Azores by a Fido homing torpedo from an Avenger aircraft (VC-29 USN/T-13), assisted by a Wildcat aircraft (VC-29 USN/F-2), of the US escort carrier USS Santee. 55 dead (all hands lost).

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

      1. Having done a (very unscientific) study, it could be as bad on colliers or iron ore ships. They sank very quickly with no chance of launching boats, and this time of year, even in the waters to the north of Britain and not necessarily in the Arctic Circle the cold killed very fast.

  41. Cold here in West Virginia, down to -7 celsius over night. But looks like a clear and sunny day ahead. Yesterday driving back from Winchester, Virginia, we ran through a few snow flurries, time for checking freezer and pantry contents before anything drastic happens!!

  44. Now that’s what I call a health service.

    A friend sliced a tendon in his hand at about 11.30 am. A very deep cut and lots of blood flowing.
    Local A&E looked at it and decided he needed to get to a specialist unit at a different hospital about 60 miles away.
    Ambulance arranged, patient taken, assessed by the specialist and operated on and returned here.
    Hospital informs his wife he’s back. His wife collects him from the hospital.
    Home by 11 pm.

      1. The local hospital is good and very well equipped, but one of their strengths appears to be triage.
        Another friend had a serious fall and was assessed and helicoptered to the best specialist and treated similarly quickly; although his required a fairly long stay, which was a pain for his wife visiting him.

          1. In many ways the French system is very good. But it is not perfect. When we lived in Laure the rule was if you broke a leg or had something obvious – go to Carcassonne Hospital. But if you were ILL – Don’t go there: you’ll die!

            Incidentally, just before we left, they built a brand new hospital wing – with all the operating theatres on the ground floor (for easy access)….. In that part of France, from time to time, there are deluges – (12 inches of rain in a day sort of thing). Just as the new wing was opened – we had one of those – and the whole of the ground floor was flooded three feet deep..

          2. Nope.
            Something called carte vitale covers the majority of treatments and drugs etc.
            Often the cost charged by a specialist might exceed the standard tariff so you would have to pay the difference.
            If you want certain upgrades you can take out something called a mutuelle a form of insurance which provides things like the extra charges or depending on the level a private room.
            It certainly isn’t as “Free” as the NHS.

  45. Anyone who did not realise that The Great Windsor Sell Out was a deliberate betrayal of the UK by the treacherous Mr Sunak must have been completely naïf.

    The Conservative Party cannot afford to keep Sunak as leader for a moment longer.

    From Today’s Times :

    Next generation will reverse Brexit, Von der Leyen says. Britain is on a “direction of travel” towards eventually rejoining the European Union, the president of the European Commission has claimed, suggesting it is up to the next generation to reverse Brexit. Ursula von der Leyen described the signing of the Windsor framework — to amend the controversial Northern Ireland protocol — as “a new beginning”.

      1. Von der Leyen is no Merkel. Under her management the EU has become irrelevant. The EU support of the US proxy war in Ukraine has exposed the EU as powerless and weak.

        The UK is also a disgrace having sent US emissary Boris Johnson to force Ukraine to prosecute an offensive, an offensive which has proven disastrous. The Ukrainian war has failed and Russia is strengthened. We are yet to witness the full extent of the reputational and economic damage done to the EU, UK and NATO.

    2. I suspect her prediction will turn out to be correct. Younger people have less animosity towards the EU – no animosity at all in many cases – than their elders. As teenagers join the electorate and older people leave it, its composition will eventually change such that those who wish to remain outside the EU will become a minority, unless the process of getting older prompts a change in attitudes such that remaining outside grows more popular as younger people become middle-aged. It won’t happen anytime soon. I suspect even a good number of those who would prefer we had never left might not want to go through the whole process again in the opposite direction so soon after leaving.

      1. Are you optimistic that Britain will rejoin the glorious EU or pessimistic about this gut-wrenching repulsive prospect?

          1. France would be far better off out of it. Macron does not dare give the French a referendum on continued membership as he fears the electorate would vote against it.

            In the referendum for the European Constitution Treaty The Netherlands voted 62% – 38% against it and the French voted 55% to 45% against it – both referendums were ignored. The Irish also voted against the Treaty but they were told to go away and vote again or the EU would withdraw its payments to Ireland so they were blackmailed into voting in favour in a second referendum. The European Constitution Treaty was renamed the Lisbon Treaty and no referendums were allowed!

            I think The Netherlands, France and Ireland are not the only EU countries to have become thoroughly disillusioned with the EU. And it looks as if Marine Le Pen is ahead of Macron in recent polling and she is definitely eurosceptic.

            By the time the UK rejoins the EU there may not be many countries left in it!

          7. ALL of these, and I mean ALL of these are expecting to be net recipients of the largesse of those who will leave.

        2. At the moment it is not a gut-wrenching repulsive prospect. Life has changed so little since we left that going back would be unnoticeable if you could shut yourself away from all news.

          Even Boris Johnson’s much proclaimed restoration of crown stamps on pint beer glasses has turned out to be purely voluntary and was never outlawed by the EU in the first place. Although the CE stamp became compulsory, the crown stamp could have been retained as decoration and as reassurance for those who saw its disappearance as a crime against humanity.

          1. I stand with Caliban:

            Freedom High Day! Freedom High Day!

            And he was left to his own devices when Prospero, who used to boss him about something rotten, returned to Italy.

            Boris Johnson is a bonking buffoon who espoused Brexit for this own political advantage. He has betrayed Brexit as have both Houses of Parliament and the Civil Service.

          2. Life has changed so little since we “left” because in fact we haven’t! It could have changed massively for the better (less regulation, lower taxes, WTO rules on trading to name but a few).

        3. As we’ve never properly left, still following the edicts of various parts of Brussels, it’s an impossible question.

      2. They would squeeze us until the pips squeaked to go back.
        I still think it will implode into something quite different from what we see now.

      4. “But what more oft in Nations grown corrupt,
        And by their vices brought to servitude,
        Than to love Bondage more than Liberty,
        Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty;”

        [John Milton: Samson Agonistes}

      5. You are absolutely right, Stig. I have the opportunity to mix with large numbers of people of all ages and circumstances, and I seldom hear anyone voice strong support for the status quo. The majority seem to be either long-time remainers or apathetic about the subject. Those under 45 years of age seem, as you suggest, to have little animosity towards the EU. Of course, it is possible that those who are still strongly in favour of Brexit keep quiet.

    3. Assuming that the EU lasts that long. I don’t think it will. Nor do I think the whole younger generation shoo-in with left-wingery is quite as bad as some might believe.

  46. Signing off early – a lecture from Rome starts at 5 pm about how all roads lead to, er, Rome.

    A demain

      1. Some of it certainly but there’s a large underclass of white and longer-settled black people.

    3. Labour mismanaged blames Tory for underfunding while they overspend. Their time is coming too. Won’t make any difference which ideology they pretend to support.

  48. Last weekend an email form the local Nextdoor website popped into my inbox. Thames Valley Police appealing for information. Apparently a woman in her 40s was raped while walking through Victoria Park in Newbury late on Thursday night last.

    Guess who’s been moving into Newbury in increasing numbers these past few months.

    1. Mormons? No No don’t tell me…Amish? All those horses and wagons making shit and giving the locals roses…shouldn’t be allowed.

      1. It was lovely getting caught in the face by the frozen spray. It could feel like a wire brush.

  51. ‘Night All

    Nothing like a spicy internet rumour to cheer up your day…………..

    https://twitter.com/tracyohanlon74/status/1729849218850766978?t=MTq2ibqmkFv2AY1sf-qbjQ&s=19

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c1643370d9b8e999f2c6c67d37f88165691ae7ea2c39352635d0a126c738f77.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ea8043b0aac346dc4405084f077727b28f5ba5a7585fa5b7c0f587b3133e8529.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f451a6ea97f56db53e255edeedf687bdd8c8b2dd26cbae62fa34b0c8fbbcfed0.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da8cb2f929106ba056e477343cbb37832ace5ce3df5ea2dc317e36594d44ecd4.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f814d12d7c6abd6047ed13c7b2ef7aae847fb4f6806f5772afc28c5bf32003e5.jpg

    1. If that last one is true, and the little girl is dead, riots calling for his resignation and imprisonment would be entirely appropriate.

    2. There is something very odd about this case. The story that the little girl’s family have only been able to talk to the police and been told not to speak to journalists, even threatened with prison. They are migrants too remember, so this is all happening in a foreign country for them. An enormous contrast to other victims’ families, which have been paraded in front of the media with public statements of forgiveness which surely cannot have been made with rational contemplation.
      Varadkar seems to have put himself right in the middle of it completely unnecessarily, with his highly offensive rants about “far right” protesters.

    1. And how does he think white people will feel when they walk into somewhere and they’re a minority? Or is that okay?

    5. What a prick. There are so many of people who have decended from parents for over seas and never ‘king stop moaning. The doors open buddy. Do one. He’s actually on bbc 4 now winter walks. Cumbria. On his own probably everyone else’s fault he’s alone.

        1. Funny how a walk alone in the countryside has so many other people involved.
          I/we managed to do that many times alone and with a camera or being paid for it.

      2. I like the programme, I utterly ignore the presenter.
        And to show I might not be quite the racist that I appear to be, I also ignore most presenters and watch what they are presenting.

  56. Meridian Tonight:
    After spending 20 years encouraging people to get ‘carbon neutral’ log burners the government is concerned about the pollution they cause.
    In an unconnected story it appears it is difficult to tax logs.

  57. I would put quite a few quid on a bet that stated that if the child really is dead, that Hamas deliberately killed him to gain maximum propaganda value against the Israelis.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12805071/Israel-says-checking-Hamas-claim-ten-month-old-baby-Kfir-Bibas-killed-alongside-mother-brother-Gaza.html
    My current suspicion is that they sold him on to one of the other terrorist groups for a bargaining chip, and that that group refused to return him when Hamas could make good use of him
    .
    Hamas then cut their losses and the other group have to acknowledge what they are doing, if he reappears.

  58. See Lozza Fox and many others for more details………..

    Andrew Lawrence
    @andrewlawrence
    Someone asked me yesterday why I threw away a decent career in comedy, for the sake of speaking out.
    Well, it’s because this country is being subsumed by grim authoritarian communist fuckery.
    And if people like me don’t kick against it, then my seven year old daughter has a very shit life to look forward to.

    And when I made the decision to play my part in having a child, it was
    under the moral condition that I would do everything I could to give her
    a happy life.
    Using whatever shitty little platform I’d built
    through my comedy to tell the truth about what’s happening- and thereby
    sabotaging my own vaguely successful career- wasn’t much of a choice as
    far as I’m concerned, but something of a moral necessity.
    It was about choosing not to be a cowardly, money-grubbing, little cunt.

    And,of course, for the resourceful, there’s always more than one way to
    earn a living, so it doesn’t feel like I’ve thrown away so very much in
    fact.
    Brave Men

    1. Graham Linehan in his book “Tough Crowd”. When people asked him why he was speaking out (against trans activists) his only possible reply was: “Why aren’t you?”

    1. sosracynic writes:

      Don’t these people speak to their children, read to their children, communicate with their children at all?

      sosrarealist writes:

      Don’t be silly, that’s the State’s job.

    2. Funny how I can’t remember any BBC presenter ever challenging a minister about this…

  60. Thought for the end of a cold, wet, miserable day.

    A world without Islam would be better or worse?
    A world without Christianity would be better or worse?
    A world without religion would be better or worse?
    A world without socialism would be better or worse?
    A world without the BBC would be better or worse?
    A world without “fossil fuels” would be better or worse?
    A world without white people would be better or worse?
    A world without politics would be better or worse?

    Me:-
    better
    worse
    better
    better
    marginally better
    much worse
    much much worse
    much much better.

    2. Seems fair.
      Islam waxing, Christianity waning (apparently, although not with me) and the country going down the pan.

    3. If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
      If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
      If you can meet with TriumphPolitics and DisasterReligion
      And treat those two impostors just the same.

        2. Drat and double drat, Sos. I was going to tell Grizzly that he baked exceedingly good cakes and ask for a five bob postal order for identifying his new name.

  61. Baad sosraboc

    Nottle up voters

    Sue, Sue, Rik-Redux and you (sosraboc) anneallan, Eddy, and Phiz

    Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub.

    2. Wot? Just came in and this is the first comment, I suppose I’ll have to scroll on down to find out !!

      1. Not really, it was a conversation starter.

        I’ve noticed over the years that certain Nottlers tend to give up votes a lot more than other miserable sods, you know who you are.
        It’s actually very pleasant because they appreciate that people have made the effort to post a comment.

        1. Just the one for this Sos.
          And but I’ve noticed as well.
          But it doesn’t bother me.
          It’s pretty typical of life and generally our lives I’d say.

          1. As a net zero, it doesn’t affect me!

            But they pop up in the notifications and I like the fact that it suggests they’ve read what I’ve written.

          4. No I didn’t get as far as the second vino.
            Instead of going to bed I’ve got a cuppa tea.
            That’ll mean getting out to the ‘bathroom’ earlier.

        2. So much on here is political, for which I have no comment, either because I have no knowledge of the people involved, or the time difference makes anything I say, out of context to you lot, who have gone to get your beauty sleep!!

          6. He has an unfortunate habit of looking in the mirror before he posts.

            If he’s there he can, but usually he isn’t, so doesn’t.

          10. Non political, I’ll bet no one can better almost ten hours sleep each night. Toilet breaks excluded.
            I’ve always been the same, I could have slept on an ironing board or even a clothes line after a few beers. 😊😴

          11. I have an uncle, a very, very senior Oxford professor, who usually sleeps for 12 hours every night.
            Went to bed early evening, and got up early morning.
            He could “do” normal hours when necessary but always reverted to this routine.
            His wife commented that for all that oddity at least he kept to the same routine.
            Many of his contemporaries/equivalents slept odd hours so that they might be heading to bed at 2 in the afternoon and be awake at 3 in the morning; so she thought she was much better off and was happy!

        3. I do – and it can mean nothing more than “I’ve read your comment” or it can mean “I agree with your comment”. It might just mean “I’m being polite but don’t want to reply.”

          2. I usually upvote because I agree with the sentiment of the post. If I don’t agree with all of it, I don’t upvote. It doesn’t mean I entirely disapprove.

        4. I amfive hours behind most, six hours behind others. I really can’t be bothered to troll through 400 comments and upvote them all because I have seen them.

          When I agree, I will often upvote.

  62. Ha bluddy ha!

    A load of bollock feeding bastards getting hoist on their own petards?
    I hope it’s the end of this particular piece of celebretidiocy, TV programming, and Press sewer overflow.

    I’m a Celebrity in meltdown: Jamie Lynn Spears becomes second star to quit after Grace Dent walked as ITV insiders say they are ‘struggling to keep up with the drama’ and aren’t sleeping as they battle to fix ‘mess’ of jungle show

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12806135/Im-Celebrity-Jamie-Lynn-Spears-quits-ITV-insiders-struggling.html

    1. Not really interested but from what I can make out some are more at home in the ‘jungle’, which is really rain forest.

    2. One of the ‘circus’ promotions to keep those daft enough to watch it occupied whilst the £500 I’m due from my taxes, or much more likely, from a printing press, is a crumb of the ‘bread’ from that infamous duo.

      Sunak & Co need a docile populace whilst they create their ‘Big Stick’; part of which is the importation of thousands of unknown young men of fighting age from the Third World.

  63. We went to buy a Christmas tree this morning. After having to water pine trees sweep up the needles and chop.them up and dispose of them. We’ve change our minds on fresh pine trees and bought a fake tree but from 3 ft away you can’t tell.
    Home Base has recently pulled its socks up, I’ve not been inside one for about two years. Much better.
    The tree was a bit more expensive but more practical for an elderly couple.
    Tiling all finished today clear up tomorrow.
    Hair cut in the morning. Much needed.
    Another glass of 🍷that’s only half.
    Must do better.
    I’ll be leaving you now……who said that ?
    Night all. Sleep well.

      1. Don’t panic Mr Main-waring
        It won’t be assemble until at least 10th Dec.
        I’ll bet its more environmental friendly than chopping down the real thing. All recyclable and recycled materials.

    1. Well done. Par for me.

      Wordle 893 4/6

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

      1. 4 for me too, Sue.

        Wordle 893 4/6

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

    2. Par for me
      Wordle 893 4/6

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

  65. I’m off for a bath.
    DT’s just back from her cleaning job and says the temperature outside is -4°C, same as 1st thing this morning.
    Even on a clear day like today, we only get 2h of direct sunlight due to the sun not clearing the top of the valley to the South followed by the mill water tower until 11:00 and then dipping below the valley side at 13:00.
    And then the temperature really drops quickly.

    G’night and sleep well.

      1. Err, this is Bob of Bonsall you’re replying to.

        It will have been a cold bath, by “normal” people’s standards, a very cold bath!

        1. At this time of year I do tend to have piping hot baths, but given that the DT ran the bath it was merely warm!

  66. Good grief, the greeniac’s greeniac has finally WOKEn up to a filthy truth:
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/29/cop28-billionaires-blocking-action-save-planet-protest

    But we cannot discount the possibility that some of these people really don’t care, even about their own children. There are two convergent forces here: first, many of those who rise to positions of great economic or political power have personality disorders, particularly narcissism or psychopathy. These disorders are often the driving forces behind their ambition, and the means by which they overcome obstacles to the acquisition of wealth and power – such as guilt about their treatment of others – which would deter other people from achieving such dominance.

    The second factor is that once great wealth has been acquired, it seems to reinforce these tendencies, inhibiting connection, affection and contrition. Money buys isolation. It allows people to wall themselves off from others, in their mansions, yachts and private jets, not just physically but also cognitively, stifling awareness of their social and environmental impacts, shutting out other people’s concerns and challenges. Great wealth encourages a sense of entitlement and egotism. It seems to suppress trust, empathy and generosity. Affluence also appears to diminish people’s interest in looking after their own children. If any other condition generated these symptoms, we would call it a mental illness. Perhaps this is how extreme wealth should be classified.

    So the fight against environmental breakdown is not and has never been just a fight against environmental breakdown. It is also a fight against the great maldistribution of wealth and power that blights every aspect of life on planet Earth. Billionaires – even the more enlightened ones – are bad for us. We cannot afford to keep them.

    1. He’s right about the attitudes of the wealthiest of the wealthy but they’ve always been with us. He’s right about the mess we make of the planet but just plain wrong on burning skies and boiling seas. And then there’s this:

      Networks funded by fossil fuel companies deliberately aggregate the issues, connecting green policies with communism and violent revolution, while promoting political candidates who will clamp down simultaneously on environmental action, democracy and redistribution.

      Conspiracy theorist!

        1. BBC Countryfile, 9th July

          Moonbat: “What we’re looking at here is one of the most damaging industries on Earth, the keeping of ruminant livestock, cattle and sheep. They’re extremely damaging for several reasons, and only one of those reasons is methane. They also produce nitrous oxide, which is another powerful greenhouse gas. But far greater than those impacts is their ecological and carbon opportunity costs i.e. the cost of what you’re not doing because those cattle and sheep are grazing on your land. In the short term, they could be wild ecosystems, which store more carbon than the grazing systems currently in use.”

          He then spoke of the worth of renewable energy before disappearing off the edge of reality by declaring livestock farming to be morally wrong.

    2. That’s a constructive twisting of the green communist agenda against the predator class. Impressed.

  67. Right, chums, the witching hour of 10 pm approaches so I shall wish you all a good night. I hope to see you all at 7 am tomorrow. Sleep well.

  68. India puts six states on health alert as WHO tries to get information from China regarding walking pneumonia which is affecting children in Northern regions of the country.

    Higher than usual incidences of breathing problems are also being noted amongst children in the Netherlands but to date the explanation of the high levels of hospitalisation is the combined presence of a number of common seasonal viruses.

    Whilst the UK COVID enquiry continues to consider the Government’s shortcomings in assessing the seriousness of that virus, are lessons being learnt fast enough to be prepared for what may be about to arrive in the UK – whether it’s just a fuss about nothing or something a little more serious?

    https://youtu.be/KvEI4iuYfzg?si=KhsAr_0UeM4OmMdP

  69. Evening, all. Back to arriving after everybody else has gone! I was at a quiz for the Hunt Supporters’ Club. We didn’t win, but we didn’t come last, either, so not a bad result.

  71. (Reposted from very late last night)

    David Cameron’s return has put the pro-EU, anti-Israel blob back in charge
    The Foreign Office has been emboldened to defy Rishi Sunak, and restart all of its old campaigns
    DT

    I can’t help thinking that bringing in Cameron will soon have the same effect on Sunak’s premiership as bringing in Hunt had on Truss’s!

    All well and good – but the Conservative Party needs to be extinguished completely yet if The Reform Party or some other right of centre party cannot get off the ground vey soon the UK will be lost to the Powers of Darkness forever.

  73. Had we an educated and disciplined government with an experienced civil service then King Charles III would have been dissuaded from attending the COP 28 shindig and if attending to keep his twisted mouth firmly shut.

    Instead the idiot King is determined it seems to betray the actual interests of his country in order one assumes to seek adulation on the rickety foundations of his beloved ‘world stage’.

    The sooner Charles III departs the ‘world stage’ the better for all. I personally hoped for some sort of empathy from our King but as ever now remain deeply disappointed and disaffected by the statements and actions of an irredeemably cretinous person.

    To think that millions of pounds have been expended on our present Monarch, monies intended to educate and teach a future king about leadership and kingship have been squandered on the prize fool we are left with makes me nauseous. What a profound waste of our precious resources.

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