Monday 1 January: The New Year Honours list has got its priorities wrong again for 2024

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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456 thoughts on “Monday 1 January: The New Year Honours list has got its priorities wrong again for 2024”

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    Poor Fanny Green

    An Irish man went to confession in St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.
    ‘Father’, he confessed, ‘it has been one month since my last confession.
    I had sex with Fanny Green twice last month.’
    The priest told the sinner, ‘You are forgiven. Go out and say three Hail Mary’s.’
    Soon thereafter, another Irish man entered the confessional.
    ‘Father, it has been two months since my last confession. I’ve had sex with Fanny Green twice a week for the past two months.’
    This time, the priest questioned, ‘Who is this Fanny Green?’
    ‘A new woman in the neighbourhood,’ the sinner replied.
    ‘Very well,’ sighed the priest. Go and say ten Hail Mary’s.
    At mass the next morning, as the priest prepared to deliver the sermon, a tall, voluptuous, drop-dead gorgeous red headed woman entered the sanctuary.
    The eyes of every man in the church fell upon her as she slowly sashayed up the aisle and sat down right in front of the priest.
    Her dress was green and very short, and she wore matching, shiny emerald-green shoes.
    The priest and the altar boy gasped as the woman in the green dress and matching green shoes sat with her legs spread slightly apart, but just enough to realize she wasn’t wearing any underwear.
    The priest turned to the altar boy and whispered, ‘Is that Fanny Green?’
    The bug-eyed altar boy couldn’t believe his ears but managed to calmly reply,
    ‘No Father, I think it’s just a reflection from her shoes’

  3. Happy New Year All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b8c25fcbf9620cf7906fada99dfc7ddd814887838380e51b9066117a057b1299.jpg

    Early Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e41f0ffb1732856b4dd1f9272d5c9eaa8e9d987da464ae7a3f374463ab9022ad.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59b06072e13e6c80c4f1daee3babbd85e2c6bca802cb460c276df087e0543259.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/137ee6f1fda661820216cd24bbce7f6f7b5a00ec8d1923423a9bbe57da74438a.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a2f813859217e3cda1eb47f45a302dd0fc14fcf5e205efcc1fcc5c443fcf1f9.jpg

    That’s bloody cheating!!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a2f813859217e3cda1eb47f45a302dd0fc14fcf5e205efcc1fcc5c443fcf1f9.jpg

    1. The Warqueen rolled over and said ‘I love you’ this morning. I thought, wow, provider, father and all that.

      Nahh. It was just for buying her full covering (with a hood and slippers) thermal pyjamas.

  4. Signing off now in 2024. I’ve first footed (dead heated with Kadi!) and changed the calendars. Tomorrow will be a lazy day before the giddy round starts again.

  7. Just got into bed, what a lovely evening we have just had with our lovely neighbours. Not too much booze, enough to make it enjoyable. And lots of humour.
    Happy New year all and all the best for the future.
    Best wishes to Geoff and we can’t thank you enough for what you do for us.
    We’d all be candles in the wind with out you.
    0220 2024 good night

  9. Good morning, chums. White rabbits, a pinch and a punch. And, most of all, a Happy New Year to one and all. Now I’m off to do bits and bobs. Enjoy your day.

    Wordle 926 4/6

    I did it in four today – a splendid result. (Well, better than yesterday at least.)

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    1. Slow but steady
      Wordle 926 4/6

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  11. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story
    It Pays to Argue

    A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.
    For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover.
    In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife’s bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box.
    When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totalling $95,000.
    He asked her about the contents.
    ‘When we were to be married,’ she said, ‘ my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.’
    The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving!!
    He almost burst with happiness.
    ‘Honey,’ he said, ‘that explains the doll, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?’
    ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘that’s the money I made from selling the dolls.’

  13. The New Year Honours list has got its priorities wrong again for 2024

    Haven’t seen much yet of it apart from the goalkeeper woman, I hope she gets Lineker’s job

    2. The young 11yo who raised over £1.5 million for a charity despite having no legs deserves an honour more than any of the political scum who get one

  14. Kicked off the new year with a Birdie

    Wordle 926 3/6

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    1. Apparently an election in November. All to cling on, hoping, desperately that the economy will have recovered – despite their every effort being to destroy it and make people poorer – and people will feel better off and thus vote for them.

      Same as they like taking the credit for inflation falling – by removing those things government is responsible for making expensive from the calculations.

      It is an act of such supreme desperation, cowardice and pathos that it reveals how incredibly weak and useless Sunak is.

      1. Yes, but unfortunately many of the voting public are easily led, indoctrinated and/or stupid.

  16. 2024 will be a year of reckoning – the weak West must adapt, or perish. 1 January 2023.

    Elections in countries like Belarus and Russia are, of course, a sham. Democracy as we understand it is diluting in India, where Narendra Modi leads what some call an “ethnic democracy”; in South Africa, where the corruption of the ANC is killing good government; and in Pakistan, where it is difficult to determine who among politicians, the military and intelligence agencies holds power. So much for all that aid spending.

    Around the world, the forces of democracy face challenges greater than at any time since the end of the Cold War. The fighting in Ukraine goes on, and if Donald Trump wins the US presidential election this November, he will likely threaten to end American support for Kyiv unless President Zelensky negotiates – and cedes territory – to Vladimir Putin.Relative Western decline and the rise of Chinese power means Taiwan, where elections this month are dominated by the threat posed by Beijing, is in grave danger. But Chinese aggression has other consequences, such as India’s growing relationship with Russia, which thwarts Western attempts to isolate Putin, and the need for the US and its allies to focus diplomatic and military resources in the Pacific.

    The “Forces of Democracy” are no more! They have been destroyed from within! Corruption and Immigration has dissolved the bonds of mutual interest and beliefs as intended.

    The absence of Democracy does not preclude Wars or hostile Foreign Policies. Its major effect is on the people whose wishes, as we can see in the UK, are simply ignored. They simply exist to serve.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/31/2024-a-year-of-reckoning-weak-west-must-adapt-perish/

    1. However great our contempt for Peter Mandelson we cannot deny that he was right when he said that we are now living in the post-democratic age.

      1. Only because that loathesome effluent made it so. Government is corrupt, poisoned and poisonous. Mandelson is the epitome of that pollution.

        When democracy is finally restored to this nation that man, alongside Blair will be hanged by a foot, flogged, flayed and disemboweled, his property and assets given away at his signature. The remains will be forced to live on the streets and people encouraged to kick their revolting remains as a lesson in what becomes of the utterly corrupt.

    2. To suggest that the UK is a democracy is a laugable joke. Shunk spent so much time wrangling to stab Boris in the back that he ignored the useless incompetence of his department. When he didn’t win, chums sprung a financial trap to remove the elected candidate the globalists were fightened of to install their own stooge.

    3. …India, where Narendra Modi leads what some call an “ethnic democracy”…

      Like the UK until 1948?

  17. My assessment of 2023

    The Conservatives after a very poor start coming out of the pandemic have made us one of the worlds leading countries in imposing the globalist reset and new world order.
    There is a lot to feel proud about.
    If there is any nation state self destruction that needs doing, it’s nice to know that we are the world leaders in it and it can only get better and move to an even higher level under a Labour government.

    1. Thing is, only the political class want this ‘new world order’ of socialism, communism and enforced decline.

      It was when the state said ‘we need higher taxes to pay back the money borrowed during the pandemic’ that they showed their hand. The idea that actually, it wasn’t our debt but theirs was beyond them. That they should make cuts in the waste and inefficiency, that the exposed incompetence, laziness and failure should be addressed was lost on them. It was just ‘we’ve spent it, now give us more’.

  20. Nearly sixty years ago, someone gave me a ‘Film Star Scrapbook’ for my 8th birthday. Since I had no interest whatsoever in film stars, I crossed that out and wrote in ‘Geography’, which I found much more interesting.

    Each year, I have a calendar on the wall where I write all my appointments, and is big enough not to travel or scurry or be hacked into by Google. Most years, they have natural themes. They could be dogs, or garden birds or beauty spots in England. This year, with great irony, I was late getting my calendar and ending up sending off for the ‘Talking Pictures’ calendar. Stuffed with images of and trivia about film stars…

    I don’t have the patience I used to have to cross through them all and write in cheery war zones.

    2. I bought one last month from the Magnet micropub in Broadstairs. It features photos of the patrons’ pets. Proceeds go to the Thanet Animal Group.

      Hi Magneteers, here are just a few of the wonderful pet pictures we have for our 2024 calendar in aid of Thanet Animal Group. The last day to send your favourite pet pic for inclusion is Sunday 1st October to themagnetmicropub@gmail.com. #themagnetbroadstairs #thanetanimalgroup #tag #Broadstairs

      https://www.facebook.com/TheMagnetMicropub/posts/829606438956451

      https://scontent-man2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/384441417_829606455623116_3772394109961867713_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p526x296&_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=dd5e9f&_nc_ohc=NE8km30CmlIAX_oClrG&_nc_oc=AQkL3rrWGAz6KSbTN0B5epZJBBG9ksnWRGcE5Sa_rXM2NKIaBYuIfPniRHAPcbR5kUN1-ZYxb4lkG3CVZmKrbJFl&_nc_ht=scontent-man2-1.xx&oh=00_AfCGBtBQbeo6uI2r1TD0Bl3Nx_-fmDqDqHflUidJF0x3WA&oe=65971BF4

    3. I received a Jersey Naturally calendar this year (to go with my racing and Spitfire versions). It has 12 pictures of delightful Jersey cows on it.

  22. Cerne Abbas Giant’s manhood restored to cheese

    Oxford Cheese Company had been accused of ‘emasculating’ figure after removing oversized phallus from vintage cheddar

    Telegraph Reporters
    31 December 2023 • 5:34pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/12/31/TELEMMGLPICT000361271571_17040434750590_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqnWG5O-ONY95CoHJGE_0GjuEF_BzZH9KgI5zMAB0l0FU.jpeg?imwidth=680
    The Oxford Cheese Company confirmed that the giant has been returned to his former glory CREDIT: BNPS

    In June, the Oxford Cheese Company was criticised for featuring the giant on its Cerne Abbas Man vintage cheddar – minus the figure’s oversized phallus.

    But customers who have recently purchased the Dorset-inspired product have spotted the giant’s manhood once again featured on the cheese’s packaging.

    Ivan Kirby, an Oxfordshire resident, purchased the cheese from a shop in Yarnton, near Oxford, after being amused by the change in packaging.

    He said that the change was a “victory for common sense”.

    He added: “I think it’s splendid that they’ve seen sense and truly made their vintage cheddar full strength.”

    At 180ft, the giant is Britain’s largest, and possibly best-known, chalk hill figure.

    Various theories abound about the club-wielding giant and his mysteriously large appendage.

    Many believe that the carving is an ancient fertility symbol, while others say it depicts the Greco-Roman hero Hercules.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/12/31/TELEMMGLPICT000361271576_17040436224330_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqRo0U4xU-30oDveS4pXV-Vv4Xpit_DMGvdp2n7FDd82k.jpeg?imwidth=960
    Oxford Cheese Company’s Cerne Abbas Man vintage cheddar – minus the figure’s oversized phallus

    Vic Irvine, the head brewer at Cerne Abbas Brewery, previously accused the cheesemakers of “emasculating” the giant.

    “I think the cheese manufacturers are terrible rotters for taking our giant and taking his penis off him,” he said earlier this year.

    Mr Irvine said that he was pleased to see the giant’s phallus back on the packaging but hit out at the company for using the image without making cheese in the village of Cerne Abbas.

    He said: “It’s obviously nice to see our giant restored to his former glory after being emasculated so disrespectfully.

    “However the original ‘cheddar’ wasn’t even made in the Somerset parish with the famous gorge and then for the mystery substance to be marketed by a cheesemonger of Oxford smacks of desperation.

    “We are proud of our Dorset heritage and we can see the giant from our brewery and more importantly he can see us.

    “We love our village and we love our giant.

    “We brew beer with barley grown in the Cerne Valley and harvest our own hops that we grow up the side of the brewery in September as we firmly believe that local is best.”

    A spokesman for the Oxford Cheese Company confirmed that the giant’s manhood had now been returned to the cover of the cheese.

    **********************************

    John Thomas
    11 HRS AGO
    Just because he has a penis, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a man, said a Mr Starmer of Westminster

    John Mulvany
    9 HRS AGO
    Reply to John Thomas
    And could anybody doubt such a comment from such an apposite commenter?

    W Sewell
    12 HRS AGO
    Surprised he wasn’t wearing a pride flag, as all our traditions and folk lore are being warped by the diversity disease.

    Fred Smith
    13 HRS AGO
    Oversized? Looks on the small side to me 🙂

    3. As the Warqueen said ‘Do you have any idea how long it takes to get used to something that big?!’

      (which had me thinking, as I book time on an electronmicroscope to find the thing).

    4. I’m not sure that using a phallus – regardless of size – is the best way to market cheese. It suggests a harvested by-product from those who don’t keep clean “downstairs”.

  23. SIR – I have long been a contributor to RNLI. I like its clarity of mission, and the obvious direct benefit derived by receivers of its services. Now, however, it seems to wish to take a view as to whether its donors are worthy to join in its enterprise (“RNLI turns down donation from Irish fox hunt”, report, December 30).

    I very much doubt whether the recipients of its service will care where the funding came from as they await rescue. Thank goodness they are not asked to justify their worthiness before being hauled into the lifeboat.

    This is a growing trend that should be strenuously resisted. Unless it is very clear that the donors are acting illegally or immorally, their money should be accepted, and used for the charity’s stated purpose. Until I am sure that the RNLI has no wish to judge me, I shall withhold my contributions.

    Andrew Pearse

    “And so say all of us.”

    1. I think that the RNLI is deliberately turning away those who fund it through voluntary contributions.

      If it is no longer a viable service funded by donations then it will have to be run by the state and if it is run by the state it will become even more open to infiltration by the woke.

      1. Morning Richard. It is the richest charity in the UK and could probably run forever without any further donations.

        1. I have been a Shoreline member of the RNLI for over 50 years and I pay an annual sub.

          But I am not at all sure that I should continue. My heart and my head are not in agreement.

          In Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra Enobarbus, the cynical old soldier, prides himself on the rational pragmatism of the decisions he makes and when he sees the military judgement of his adored general, Antony, subdued by Cleopatra his loyalty begins to waver:

          I’ll follow yet the wounded chance of Antony
          Though my judgement sits in the wind against me.

          But his rationality wins over his sentiment and he deserts his master. But having done so he deeply regrets his betrayal and is deeply ashamed of having been a ‘master-leaver’:

          I fight against thee? No. I will go seek
          Some ditch wherein to die; the foul’st best fits
          My latter part of life.

          So the old cynic dies of a broken heart.

      1. Which is effectively what I write on their begging letter envelopes before posting back “return to sender”.

    3. RNLI should not be acting on the side of the illegals. “Rescuees” should be returned from whence they came.

    4. Thank goodness they are not asked to justify their worthiness before being hauled into the lifeboat.

      May I fiddle

      A shame Doveristas are not asked to justify their worthiness before being hauled into the lifeboat.

  24. SIR – The language used to describe assisted suicide (Letters, December 30) has changed over the years. The move towards “assistance in dying” and “assisted dying” typifies the tactic whereby a complex or unsettling topic is transformed quietly into a more acceptable euphemism. Will assisted dying soon become “assisted passing”?

    It would be a shame for such a complex ethical and societal issue with potential for harm to be reduced to soundbites and euphemisms.

    Jane Fleming FRCPI
    Ballymacar, Co Wexford

  25. What hereditary peers bring to the Lords

    SIR – When the life peers were first created in 1958, it immediately gave the prime minister of the day a tool to change the balance of power in Westminster. Prior to this, hereditary peers were there to keep a steadying hand on the Commons. That was their main purpose.

    When, in 1999, Sir Tony Blair decided to remove the majority of hereditary peers and undemocratically replace them with a “plastic” peerage of his own making, it tipped the balance hugely in favour of his government.

    Thus, in answer to MP Andrew Rosindell’s question (Peterborough, December 30), I believe that Westminster should seriously consider reinstating the hereditaries, who in general at least have a history of service to their country.

    John Fagan
    Fulmer, Buckinghamshire

    1. And in the meantime restrict the membership of HoL to a maximum of 200 and reduce the HoC by at least 50%.

    3. It should not be possible to appoint anybody at any level to the polittical side of government. Such as Cameron to Lords to Government.
      Whether the second house is voted in or based on hereditaries, I am less excited about. If voted in, it should be on a different basis to the Commons – such as PR by region.

  26. Absolute must watch documentary on BBC2 about the Covid-19 pandemic, tomorrow night at 9.00pm. Two brothers from the Wuhan Research Centre, where Trump suspects it was engineered, were due to get on Flight MH370 that mysteriously disappeared. It seems they were the guys behind the development of the new strain, and intending to use it as a weapon. Someone caught wind of their plans and purposely downed the plane. BUT… neither of them got on the flight and no-one knows what happened to them. It’s really interesting. Don’t miss it, it’s called ‘Two Wongs Don’t Make a Flight!’

    HNY!

  27. She’s not bothered….no really….not bothered in the slightest….and wouldn’t have accepted anything that was awarded anyway….she wouldn’t want to appear pushy.

    BTL@DTletters

    A Allan
    4 MIN AGO
    Reply to Peter Macdonald – view message
    Being offered a gong or title now suggests you are toady.
    It is more honourable to be overlooked.

    1. 🙂
      An OBE was awarded to a local worthy for ‘political services’.
      Another local worthy, who had done far more for her ‘community’ – really worked her socks off – got a BEM.

      1. My F-i-L always referred to recipients of the BEM as being particular worthy.

        Their award reminded him of the people right at the front line defending Queen and Country with musket and bayonet.

        1. Polly, our local postmistress, got the BEM last year. She took on the village Post Office and totally revamped and revitalised the attached village store. She is behind everything good that happens in the village.

          1. People like her are worth a hundred Baroness Mones. (choose your own over-elevated wastrel)

  28. A Happy New Year to all,

    Dawn reveals a light cloud cover at McPhee Towers, sunny periods this morning giving way to heavy rain from mid afternoon. Wind in the South-West going South, 5 to 8℃.

    Is this what 2024 holds for us?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9362d44329340d6a2bfd396e092799b0f8c263271411c8dbbbc72779d507504c.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/12/31/rishi-sunak-dominic-cummings-david-cameron-james-forsyth/

    Another senior backbencher added: “This smacks of political naivety. The government has a cult of youth problem. The consequence of bringing back Cummings would have been an immediate rebellion by parliamentarians.”

    Some are already pointing the finger of blame at the Prime Minister’s political secretary and Winchester College contemporary James Forsyth.

    Forsyth, 42, who is married to Johnson’s former press secretary Allegra Stratton, is close to Cummings having worked as the political editor of The Spectator, where Cummings’ wife Mary Wakefield has been on the staff for more than 20 years.

    He is also closer than the average aide to the Prime Minister, having chosen him to be the best man at his wedding to Stratton in 2011. The pair are godparents to each other’s children.

    Yet Sunak’s decision to reach out to a “toxic” figure like Cummings lends weight to the growing fears that the Prime Minister’s team is out of its depth and sinking fast, with a recent poll revealing Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is the most popular leader in 390 seats in England, Wales and Scotland – while the Prime Minister is voters’ first choice in just four seats.

    According to one Tory MP: “Right now James Forsyth is a problem. He is no strategist and is risk averse.”

    What a clique is in Downing Street. Forsyth wasn’t even all that impressive as political editor of the Spectator as anyone who has watched much of Spectator TV’s offerings on YouTube will know. Above all, what desperately needs to happen is that we break out of this cult of youth which has wrecked our country since 1997. Governing is far too serious a business to be in the hands of 35-45 year-olds. I’d prefer them to be 15-20 years older and wiser.

  29. Good morning all.
    A bit of a clearer start today. Not raining at the moment, wind appears to have moderated and it’s a tad under 2°C on the Yard Thermometer.

  30. Happy New Year to all and let us hope it turns out to be a good one after the last few depressing ones. Not been posting much as really not had much to say.

  31. Wishing a very HAPPY, Healthy, Safe and Prosperous NEW YEAR to All NoTTLers, and a big Thank You to Geoff for all your efforts in keeping us together.

    SKÅL!🍾🥂

  32. Want to go down a rabbit-hole at the start of 2024? The one containing the Evil of Hollywood, Satanism, Epstein, Illuminati, God and spritual existence beyond our material dimension? Then this is for you. James Delingpole with Sean Stone, documentary film-maker and son of Oliver Stone, director, producer, screen writer and examiner of American politics.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0f78d4b902f8c3ff79bb03bfec934be95ec077041f5a63ed14715fb9b94bc40.png

    https://odysee.com/@JamesDelingpoleChannel:0/2023-12-13_Sean-Stone:f

  33. Happy New Year to NOTTLers.
    Let’s hope our pearls of wit and wisdom have positive rather than negative developments on which to comment.
    For a start; it’s not raining.
    Tra la la ……..

  34. To all who have retained their sanity after 2023: look after yourselves, there are fewer of us about.

    Happy New Year. Keep healthy

  35. A letter and BTL Comment:-

    SIR – Your interview with the two leaders of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee was depressing. If the dispute had been about conditions of service in the modern NHS, it would have had whole-hearted support from the public and from those of us who worked for the NHS for many years.

    However, the campaign involving pickets and posters highlight nothing but pay. It is about money.
    The damage this dispute has caused to the medical profession will be slow to recover – if at all.

    Dr Robert Walker FRCPE
    Great Clifton, Cumbria

    R. Spowart
    15 MIN AGO
    Message Actions
    Dr Robert Walker FRCPE is wrong.
    Money is not the main driver of this dispute, but rather a wish to embarrass a Tory (all be it Tory in name only) Government and to strengthen Labour’s chances at the coming election.

  36. Good morning. A very Happy New Year to you all. Blue skies and sunshine starts the year. Worrying!!.

    1. Blueish here but some cloud and not sunny at the moment. Hopefully will stay dry for a while.

  37. Morning, all Y’all.
    2024… Happy New Year!
    Man, but we have some snow! Snowed heavily all night, and still going. Got to go & shift it shortly, once breakfast is done.

  38. 7 hours ago
    381100+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    How is the third world war shaping up, all the pieces maneuvering into place in readiness for the grand annihilation
    via weapons of war that can move faster than shit after a rank indian curry has been consumed.

    Surely the English Channel ” invasion” issue demanded Royal Naval attention many,many yesterdays ago,

    As in,
    HMS Lancaster, which is being considered for a move to the Red Sea, is equipped with the Sea Ceptor missile system, which can fire at three times the speed of sound and is designed to protect an area of 500 square miles – around the size of Greater Manchester.

    (The protection of Greater Manchester seems to be an abject failure with the WEF forces winning the day.)

    Unlike the Sea Viper system installed on HMS Diamond, the Sea Ceptor can also fire at small, fast-moving craft such as speedboats, which have been used by Houthi rebels in the region to attack container ships in the Red Sea.

    May one ask,
    Would such protection be of use patrolling the English Channel
    and deterring the foreign forces en route to England to boost the already massive crime rate.

    In short the only brooms I see tied to mastheads are on ALL WEF / NWO vessels.

    2. Here’s my question: who stamped them? The civil service is full of pointless paperwork, so there’ll be a paper trail. Once that’s uncovered, will the error be corrected by sacking the person who did it? Then there’s their managers (all 5 layers of them) – will they be getting the sack?

      Of course not. Incompetence isn’t punished in the state. The error is not corrected. They’ll simply brush it off and ignore it and the public will pay the price.

    3. Letting in sisters, cousins and aunts? For breeding purposes.
      Letting in brothers, male cousins and uncles to bleed the welfare state.
      Don’t forget the grannies and grandads.

  40. Good morning and a Happy New Year to all.

    I’ve been over on TCW’s site this morning reading a couple of articles written by Paul Weston. He’s written six and I must find time to start at the beginning.

      1. In the first article it states that he intends to write 20 or more. The articles are fairly short, and clutter free. In this way he intends to get his points over without producing endless graphs and charts, just imparting a series of examples.

    2. I wrote a few paragraphs on a particular problem for a customer who asked a question through our free channel. They then called up and wanted to talk about it claiming it was too much to read.

      So I read them the paragraphs and sent them a bill.

      2. Put a TL;DR at the front!
        I posted an update to a ticket on 20th December, and two days later, TWO colleagues posted under my update, asking the very questions that I had already answered. What is wrong with people these days, they can’t concentrate long enough to read more than

        a

        single

        line!

        NOTTLers excepted of course, who mostly grew up in a more civilised age.

        1. I constantly advise people who are writing to members of a hierarchy to use bullet points and not go over one side of the paper. Even then, I think it strains the recipient’s brain cell.

    1. Welcome back, stranger, and a happy, happy New Year to you. Don’t leave us devoid of your input, It’s all grist to our mill.. xx

    1. The problem is, Khan can just keep pouring public money into replacing them, so they’re constantly fighting a tide. The only solution is to prevent him from spending money at all.

      When that happens, it is a victory. Until then, praiseworthy as this is it’s not solving the long term problem.

      1. 381100+ up ticks,

        Morning W,

        Agreed but, it must not be put aside until later, then forgotten, we must keep chipping away piecemeal, daily.

        1. Until he chooses to step aside from his present position, the only way to remove him is to hire an assassin. Until then, he’ll win every London mayoral election he contests.

          2. I’m afraid you are right David. I’ve just come back from the ‘Great Wen’ or as I prefer to call it the Great When? i.e When will the population of London become an Islamic majority? Quite possibly within my life time says a native born Londoner….

      1. 381100+ up ticks,

        Morning RE,

        I do believe it has a successful open ended recruitment drive on daily.

    4. Why do you bother with current UKIP? They can barely fill a charabanc. There are many more Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru to fuss about.

      1. 3812100+ up ticks,

        DW,
        So as not to soil the UKIP party name when led for a year under Gerard Batten.

        The current ukip is on par with a dose of crabs on the nations bollocks.

        1. No. The current UKIP is on a par with a single bacterium on the nation’s bollocks.

          1. 381100+ up ticks,

            DW,
            Amended If I may,regarding the current ukip party.

            A single very large, in treachery bacterium on the nations bollocks.

    5. Not all comments beneath are in agreement.

      These are just some.

      Cheryl #💙#EnoughisEnough 🔸
      @buzyizzy21
      ·
      7h
      You’re not in favour of clean air then for Londoners. Shame on you. More children will die

      .

      Jeff Davies
      @hipparchus2000
      ·
      46m
      Of all the hills to die on (see guy who was done for domestic terrorism for blowing up a ULEZ camera), given everything that’s going in in the world, being fixated on a system that is getting only the most stinky 10% of old cars off the road, this has to be the most ridiculous !!

      James Taylor
      @cynicalkind
      ·
      8h
      Criminals

      Meg Irving🕷️💙 ❄️ 🇪🇺 🇵🇸🐇🧶🧵🐦🌼
      @CallyOrange
      ·
      7h
      A high price to the tax payer in replacement costs and a high cost to people’s health. You must be very proud.

      Charles Howarth
      @HowarthCharles
      ·
      4h
      All this performative criminality over rules that affect less than 10% of vehicles.

      Yes, there are weird anomalies in the classifications. Those anomalies must be rectified, but the purpose of the ULEZ is to clean the air we breathe.

      BikingSkiing
      @BikingSkiing
      ·
      1h
      Criminal damage. If you disagree with a scheme set up by the previous Mayor (Johnson) then use your vote to get change.
      Hint, polls show Khan has huge lead so it looks like London voters approve of clean air

      Matt2phat
      @MatthewSmolen
      ·
      7h
      You aren’t winning. You’re criminals

      Sher
      @MohraSher1
      ·
      5h
      There’s no resistance here. They’ll just increase your council tax to pay for replacements. You still lose out.

      1. 381100+ up ticks,

        Evening DW,

        Similar to people opposition I would think, in berlin in the 1930s.

        Most strongly seen regarding the Jewish peoples.

  45. Morning all 🙂😊
    Happy New year. We had a fine send off to 2023 with our old neighbours last night.
    I’ve not been awake for long. We were still at it at gone 2 am.
    Take care and take it easy all.
    All the best for 2024. 🤗🙂

    1. All the best, Eddy.
      2 am you say. I was in bed at 5pm. Though i did hear the fireworks. Dogs didn’t seem to be bothered this time.

      1. Oscar was a bit panicked and barked a few times but mostly took his guidance from Mongo, who spent the evening by the table laden with food, looking hapless and confused. Junior eventually rescued the pastries from him but not before at least 5 people had given the starving (85kg!) lost (cunning) and abandoned (where’s Mongo… getting a tummy rub from 2 different people) forlorn fellow food.

      2. Our neighbour had to pop home because of the fireworks. He brought their lovely little dog back and she laid on the blanket we supplied for the remainder of the evening/ early morning.

  46. Just shovelled the snow, now half dead (unexpected exercise) and enjoying a coffee.
    Snow still falling, in fine flakes, and is now 40cm deep. more shovelling to come. Sigh…

    4. What’s snow?, I ask, given its prolonged absence from these parts for much of the past decade or so. Winters here are noticeably milder than those of what remains of my 20th century memory.

    1. When the state spewed out that the vaccine stopped transmission it was obvious they were lying. The really sad thing is people were too damned ignorant to realise this was an impossible lie.

      What covid showed us more than anything else was how stupid some people are.

      2. If the state did spew out that message, it didn’t come from the pharmaceutical companies. They made plain at the outset that their Covid-19 vaccines had not been tested for their ability to reduce transmission.

  49. Watching BBC2. Rare these days but it’s the New Years Day Concert courtesy of Österreichischer Rundfunk via the European Broadcasting Union, which is separate from and pre-dates the EU. The Vienna Philharmonic is still a predominantly male band and still one of the best in the world. I admire them sticking to their guns.

    1. So glad you mentioned that – we had intended to watch it but forgot! Now we have it on!!

      1. They look Germanic and so did the Nazis. I’d be more worried if they looked as if they’d just got off a boat at Dover.

    3. We have a whole day of Foyle’s War! Excellent programmes. Snuggled down with a cold Guinness… bliss!

  50. US funding for Ukraine dries up. 1 January 2024.

    Ukraine faces the prospect of allowing its cities to be bombed by Russia this winter as missile supplies from the United States dry up.

    Experts warned that Ukraine’s air defences will be unable to repel all of Vladimir Putin’s winter bombing campaign, with the country’s military forced to choose which targets to defend.

    Joe Biden’s administration has sent the last package of military aid available to the White House under a “drawdown” authority that allows the US to give Ukraine its own military supplies.

    Good. The sooner this war ends the better and a victory for Vlad would be better for almost everyone except the Globalists and their lackeys!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/01/01/us-funding-for-ukraine-dries-up/

    1. Even my brother who still believes Putin is the bad guy thinks that Zelensky should give the Donbass region to Russia and end the war. My guess is that he’s not untypical?

    2. It should have been pointed out to the greeniacs and global warmists how much heat and noxious gases are produced from exploding munitions and tank/aircraft usage.

    3. And there wouldn’t have been a war in the first place if Biden and Johnson hadn’t wanted a war and didn’t give a toss about the loss of human life.

  51. Yo all another HNY

    A word of warning.

    My Brother in Law is holidaying with us and the conversation got round to putting Adblue into his diesel car.

    He said it was hard to lift a 20 litre ‘bottle’ to fill the tank.

    I suggested he got a small handpump which would fit the container and do the job easily.

    We looked on Amazon for a suitable one.

    When I found one, on the last last bit of the item page, it was pointed out that the pump worked with Adblue and gave price for the pump and 20 litres of the stuff.

    We have never spoke of Adblue in our house at all. We then thought back about other ‘coincidental’ things have occured on our computers

    You are being watched

    We have now unplugged the “Bitch in the corner”, aka Alexa,

    1. My niece and her husband, with whom I spent Christmas Day, have Alexa and their two little boys (aged 5 & 8) have discovered that they can overrule their parents by simply issuing contrary instructions. I’d be switching Alexa off a lot more often.

      3. We won’t have the damn thing in the house.
        The nephew of Elderly Chum with whom I share power of attorney has Alexa.
        I refuse to discuss her business in his flat.

    2. I think it is Google Android smartphones isn’t it?

      I hate the things. My children have them, I don’t.
      If you get a vanilla Android operating system, I think I am right in saying that it won’t spy on you, because it won’t have all the google crapware apps on it.

    3. These new Digital Voice phones have Alexa on them which you have to set up ( I never have). Handsets are available without the Alexa button.

    4. I visited ‘er oop north when somebody pranged her car. She’d retrieved part of her number plate, so we had a laugh about that. Next day, ad for personalised number plated on my mobile. She talked a lot about buying a plug-in hybrid, very soon I got an ad for a plug-in hybrid. No Alexa, no Siri, just my mobile telephone.

    5. We don’t have an Alexa spy, but I’m fairly sure the ‘smart’ tv listens, even when switched off. Last summer, after a visit from BiL and his wife, I was inundated with emails advertising cruises. No prizes for guessing what we had been discussing at length.

      2. I have three. When I moved here, all the light bulbs were the dimmest possible CFL variety, so I replaced them all with smart LEDs. The lounge window is difficult to reach, due to the corner sofabed in front of it. So I automated the venetian blind. Pleased with this, I’ve done the same with the bedroom and the kitchen. My Ring video doorbell alerts me via Alexa. My Nest thermostat can be controlled with a short voice command. Similarly, the TV (which I rarely use).

        OK – so I’m a bit of a tech geek. Since I live alone, I don’t tend to have conversations for Alexa to listen in to. I don’t use ‘her’ to buy stuff from Amazon, since I think that’s a risk too far.

        But on the whole, she makes life easier. And I haven’t even mentioned streaming radio and music…

        1. Well I guess it makes life easier for you as you’re on your own and saves you getting up to do things. Still not tempted to have one here though.

          1. Each to their own, Jools. I managed to put “smart switches” into the downstairs rooms of the last place, only because I had much of the upstairs floor up for a new cooker circuit. It just followed on from there. Alexa has interrupted only twice. Once when Dianne and her friend Nina (whose daughter is called Alexa) were here. And once when – having issued a command – I said something to myself under my breath. “I wasn’t talking to you” elicited an apology.

  53. Right, mug of tea drunk and posts caught up on, I’ve now got a chainsaw to sharpen, having cut through an ash root with a small chunk of limestone in the wrong place!
    Bugger!!
    A lovely day though, bright winter sunshine.

    1. “… a small chunk of limestone in the wrong place!”

      Well, you will live in the White Peak (Limestone). I bet you’re chuffed you don’t live in the Dark Peak (Millstone Grit).😉

      1. Softer water from millstone grit? I never succeeded in getting my Yorkshire mum to appreciate the limescale problem we have in London.

        1. Soft water is vital for distilling whisky; however, hard water is necessary for brewing bitter beer.

          1. The process at Glenmorangie
            starts with mashing unpeated barley with water from the distillery’s
            Tarlogie Springs – making this one of a small number of hard water sites
            in Scotland. and its so good.

  54. Wordle was painful today….
    Wordle 926 6/6

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

    1. I cheated. Totally nonplussed so looked at a clues site that gave me the first letter and a hint. Then the penny dropped.
      Wordle 926 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Par four
      Wordle 926 4/6

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

      1. Metoo.

        Wordle 926 4/6

        ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
        ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
        ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Par today.

      Wordle 926 4/6

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

    5. Normalpar

      Wordle 926 4/6

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

    3. Gosh – a SUB lane!

      Clever stuff. Hideously white, I notice. Where is the Diversity???

    4. As Laing’s Project QS, building Sainsburys at Pound Lane, Norwich, we had a couple of ‘white lining’ incidents. The access to the site was essentially the East leg of a crossroads. The West and South legs were the Outer Ring Road. The North leg was… irrelevant. The Architect produced external works drawings, showing “Give Way” markings at the exit from our site. Unfortunately, he failed to take into account that the Highways authority had installed traffic lights at the junction. And the white lining guy followed the drawing. Much confusion reigned, until the lines were erased (i.e. burned off).

      The day before the official opening, the entire site team, and several managers from Regional Office worked from early to late Sunday to finish things off. Just as we finally relaxed, the Regional Director appeared, saying “we have a problem”. At the front of the store, between the entrance and the Doctor’s Surgery, newly painted on the brick paviors, was the word “B I C Y C Y C L E S“…

  56. Bill Thomas is a severe critic of his MR’s former pupil, Ben Youngs, because of his kicking the ball to the opposition after a scrum. However some would argue that such a ploy can be successful.

    Anyone who has coached (a term I use loosely) an under 15 Junior Colts “B” team will be aware that the best strategy is to lose scrums and lineouts because the opposition will drop their passes, make a muddle and lose ground.

    I have seen a J.C. “B” team advancing from within its own 22 metre line by an unbroken succession of line out and scrum losses to their opposition’s line, fluking a try and winning the match.

    1. Good afternoon, Rastus.

      I’m with Bill. The fact that the clueless Youngs was serially chosen to represent his national team, over the infinitely more talented Danny Care, shows just how idiotic the selection policy has been and still is.

      2. Happy New Year Grizzly

        Have you ever ‘coached’ an Under 15 Junior Colts ‘B’ team?

        I have.

  58. Happy, healthy New Year to all Nottlers. May your words of wisdom, sanity and common sense never dry up.

  60. M.V. Brageland.

    Complement:
    28 (0 dead and 28 survivors).
    4,750 tons of coffee, wool, cheese and 60 tons of mail

    At 04.30 hours on 1st January 1943 the neutral Brageland was stopped by U-164 (Otto Fechner) off the Brazilian coast, searched by a boarding party of three men and sunk according to the prize rules. The Germans ordered the crew to abandon ship in 30 minutes and then fired a torpedo, which caused the ship to sink by the bow after 6 minutes.

    Type IXC U-Boat U-164 was sunk on 6th January 1943 in the South Atlantic north-west of Fortaleza, Brazil by depth charges from a US Catalina aircraft (VP-83 USN/P-2). 54 dead and 2 survivors.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/sw/brageland.jpg

    1. That’s about par for all our politicians, and the rest of the PYB – including the Royal Family.

      Personally, I don’t think that QEII coming on TV and haranguing us non-vaxxed as being selfish was excused by her age.

      1. I must have missed that. How appalling. HMG behind it I’m sure. She would never voluntarily have said anything so outside her remit. What a wonderful monarch she was.

        1. I think she was probably being advised by her eldest son; Prince Philip had not long since died and I suspect he was the power behind the throne all those years – she had lost her way. What she actually said was ‘we should think of others’ – I think that the Queen would have balked at the word ‘selfish’. It was said at a time when it was coming out that there was a low pick-up of the vax among ethnic groups.

    2. That’s about par for all our politicians, and the rest of the PYB – including the Royal Family.

      Personally, I don’t think that QEII coming on TV and haranguing us non-vaxxed as being selfish was excused by her age.

  63. Saw chain duly sharpened and a load of sawn logs now requiring splitting, hoiking over to the firewood shelter and stacking.
    Repeat as necessary until the stack is full.

    Also rinsed out the bowl of pulses I steeped overnight and have started my traditional pan of New Year’s Broth off using the liquid from boiling the ham we had as part of Christmas Dinner.

  64. Don’t give up meat, it’s better for your health than you think. 1 January 2023.

    Veganism and vegetarianism have become shorthand terms for healthier lifestyles, says Dr Wenpeng You, biomedicine researcher at the University of Adelaide in Australia. But after he and his team examined the overall health effects of meat consumption in 175 countries, taking into account factors including affluence, obesity and overall calorie consumption, their results, published in the International Journal of General Medicine last year, suggest that meat consumption does not send people to an early grave. In fact, it extends life expectancy.

    Dr You is not hugely surprised. Humans, he suggests, are hardwired to eat animal protein. “Until about 12,000 years ago, there were not many sources of other nutrients that we could digest.”

    In fact, meat may become an increasingly useful and convenient source of nutrition as we age, suggests Prof James Goodwin, director of science at the Brain Health Network and author of Supercharge Your Brain. “From middle age onwards, a process called sarcopenia, or muscle loss, progresses at 1-2 per cent a year.” If you want to counter this loss, 30 per cent of your food should be protein, he suggests.

    I’m glad of that. Not that it makes much difference. Pretty well every main meal of my day consists of some Meat base. Steak, chicken, bacon and the occasional offal. Lambs liver mostly. The only exception is Fish and Salad for two days.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/diet/nutrition/meat-is-better-for-you-than-you-think/?li_source=LI&li_medium=for_you

    1. However, the powers that be are stating that we cannot have real meat and must start eating bugs.

      Are you ready for thirty percent of your food being ground up grubs and crickets?

      1. Are you ready for thirty percent of your food being ground up grubs and crickets?

        A ctually No.

    2. I listened to a retired doctor at church explaining to three veggies how humans have the teeth and digestive system of carnivores. Those who are ideologically committed simply refuse to budge. Intelligent and otherwise practical and capable people.

      1. cf otherwise “Intelligent, practical and capable people” who thought that Hitler was really on the ball. And, of course, knew absolutely nothing at all about the “camps”…..

    3. Got this from Sainsbury’s earlier. “ Whether you’re swapping to a meat-free lifestyle or trying something new this January, we’ve got ideas to get your New Year started.” Then further on suggestions for meat-free January.

    4. “Don’t give up meat, it’s better for your health than you think.”

      Problem is, most people who refuse to eat meat are not capable of rational thought.

    1. We went to a neighbourly get-together on Coronation Day, if you can call that celebrating it.

    1. As ifficult as it is, there are too many people on the planet. However, that’s not really the issue – it’s that there are too many unproductive people on the planet. Too many people who are not driving humanity forward. Too few contributing meaningfully to advancing the species. Too few consuming resources without producing value.

      It’s cruel to say it. These globalists might think there’s no issue there. It’s partly why they want massive uncontrolled immigration – the idea of the useless eaters moving to advanced nations allows them to ‘achieve’ something. It doesn’t work. Advanced societies are held back, not driven forward.

      1. There are plenty of places that are not over-populated – but they all seem to want to migrate to once-prosperous countries like the UK and the US and European countries.

  68. 381100+ up ticks,

    While awaiting a government position have we made sure he is alright for accommodation / welfare ?

    Dt,

    Albanian crime boss allowed to stay in UK after claiming deportation breaches his human rights
    Immigration judges grant his appeal against removal of citizenship and deportation on grounds that Home Office failed to consider his rights

      1. 381100+ up ticks,

        Afternoon J jh,

        Working life in the construction trade I’ve had a chest-full of DCMs.

        ( Don’t come Monday)

  69. Just back from walking to the bottle bank. I tell anyone whom I meet that they are from soldier neighbour’s house!

    Chilly out. Sun has gone in and it is clouding over. Rain expected in 2 hours.

          1. Just the one day. Two days ago we took two very full large bags!!

            Was my “assistance” with the crossword any use?

    3. I put the bedding in the wash and hung it out while it was quite nice out there.
      Didn’t notice the weather till it had obviously been raining quite hard for at least half an hour…….
      Wet bedding on the radiators now. Needs to dry before going back on the bed.

  70. During lunch at work, I ate 3 plates of beans (which I know I shouldn’t). When I got home, my husband seemed excited to see me and exclaimed delightedly, “Darling I have a surprise for dinner tonight.”
    He then blindfolded me and led me to my chair at the dinner table. I took a seat and just as he was about to remove my blindfold, the telephone rang.
    He made me promise not to touch the blindfold until he returned and went to answer the call.
    The beans I had consumed were still affecting me and the pressure was becoming unbearable, so while my husband was out of the room I seized the opportunity, shifted my weight to one leg and let one go.
    It was not only loud, but it smelled like a fertilizer truck running over a skunk in front of a garbage dump!
    I took my napkin from my lap and fanned the air around me vigorously. Then, shifting to the other leg, I ripped off three more.
    The stink was worse than cooked cabbage. Keeping my ears carefully tuned to the conversation in the other room, I went on releasing atomic bombs like this for another few minutes.
    The pleasure was indescribable!
    Eventually the telephone farewells signalled the end of my freedom, so I quickly fanned the air a few more times with my napkin, placed it on my lap and folded my hands back on it feeling very relieved and pleased with myself.
    My face must have been the picture of innocence when my husband returned, apologizing for taking so long.
    He asked me if I had peaked through the blindfold, and I assured him I had not.
    At this point, he removed the blindfold, and twelve dinner guests seated around the table, with their hands to their noses, chorused, “Happy Birthday!”

    1. Yes, a good one!
      I first heard a version of that being recited by Sgt. Dick Kingswell RE at a drama club dinner when I was at Chepstow probably in 1969 or 70.

    2. They need a dog. You can blame any fart on a dog, even if it’s clearly one of your own. A ripping parm, the gentle whumph, the really stinky ones, the wet ones, whatever type, whoever passed it the call is always ‘Mongo!’ and over he bounds, massive tail awagging, slobbering, football sized head, great googly eyes swivelling about amongst the people who love him most.

      This all sounds lovely until you remember that this great beast has paws the size of a toilet roll. Paws that seems to find your ging-gang goolies.

  71. And that is the “Pantry Stack”, so called because it is on the outside of the pantry wall, now half filled and I’m now enjoying a 1st sampling of my broth. Very nice, but needs to boil a bit longer!

  72. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0119f8d89059aea58bb9a0d66681e59ade41ddd5bb2ceb28c7bd08e627dfd23.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/12/31/cologne-cathedral-new-years-eve-terrorist-attack-germany/

    BTL

    “We must be mad, literally mad, to be permitting the annual inflow of people who are for the most part the material of the future growth of the immigrant-descended population. It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre.”

    This is what a lunatic MP said many years ago and he was vilified and described as a foul racist.

    I wonder if there might have been just the tiniest inkling of truth in the warning he gave not only to the people of Britain but to all people of Europe?

      2. The lunatic in question said that 50,000 in a year was dangerously high – Britain is now receiving more than ten times that number.

      3. You only have to look at the growth in the percentage of muslims in the population over the years. Given their fecundity we’ll be a minority in our country in short order.

  74. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/01/let-this-be-the-year-britain-stops-lying-to-itself/

    This is all very well, but the state loves lying to us. It’s got a while unit for the job. It tells us it is planning the biggest package of tax cuts in January – which is a lie. It says it has reduced inflation – a lie. That the energy companies are responsible for high energy costs. All lies. It goes on about how dangerous co2 is – a lie.

    The state continually lies. it does so reflexively. It likes lying. If it told the truth it would collapse in on itself so deep and extensive is it’s treachery. Can you imagine the outcry if Sunak stood up and said ‘Yes, we’ve made energy expensive, fuel expensive and that’s made food expensive. We also destroyed the value of your earnings for our own benefit. We are solely responsible for inflation and the chaos you’re living in. To pretend otherwise, we removed housing energy from the inflation figures.’ That’s justthe economic level, let alone the refusal to enact Brexit, to stop the invasion of foreigners.

    He won’t. He can’t. He’s a backstabbing rodent. They’re all vermin. James Daly got away with it because the Tories have nothing to lose any more.

      1. It’s that old saying – the thug gets bored, and will eventually leave you alone, but the dogooder never, ever gets bored of meddling, always thinks he knows best and never, ever stops.

        Thing is, the state doesn’t act for our benefit but it’s own. The agenda of the civil service and political class is simply self serving.

        1. “She’s the sort of woman who lives for others—you can always tell the others by their hunted expression.” C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (1942).

  76. Iranian warship enters Red Sea. 1 January 2024.

    An Iranian war ship has passed through the Houthi-plagued Bab Al-Mandab strait into the Red Sea, Iran’s Tasnim news agency has reported.

    It did not disclose the Alborz frigate’s mission but said Iranian naval vessels had been operating in the region “to secure shipping lanes since 2009”.

    Well we have seen this New Year in. I’m not sure that we are going to manage the next Fellow Nottlers!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/01/01/israel-hamas-war-latest-missiles-new-year/

  77. What is it about railway projects? HS2 anyone?

    Small railway footbridge takes longer to build than Empire State Building

    Network Rail’s construction of the bridge at Theale station is more than 10 years overdue

    Gordon Rayner, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
    1 January 2024 • 2:15pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/12/19/TELEMMGLPICT000360489565_17030011533700_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqLTQ0EpdyofhS_BoPXNG32eghkXsHyHX3ZMTy5LjC8A.jpeg?imwidth=680

    The new footbridge at Theale station is more than 10 years overdue

    One is a 102-storey giant regarded in its heyday as the eighth wonder of the world, the other a prefabricated footbridge at the Princess of Wales’s local railway station.

    Yet the Empire State Building in New York took less time to build than Network Rail is taking to complete a small pedestrian walkway on the London to Bristol line.

    Passengers have been left fuming at the interminably slow pace of work on the bridge at Theale station near Reading in Berkshire, where the Princess’s parents and siblings are often seen boarding trains to London.

    Construction was already 10 years overdue when it began in January 2023 and it is not expected to open until spring 2024. In contrast, the Empire State Building, which was for decades the tallest building in the world, took just one year and 45 days to complete.

    Theale’s MP, Sir Alok Sharma, described the footbridge saga as a “case study” in British bureaucracy and inefficiency.

    When the new bridge does finally open it will be the first time wheelchair users will be able to catch trains from the station since it opened in 1847.

    Funding for the upgrade to Theale station, which is the nearest station to Carole and Michael Middleton’s home in Bucklebury, was first announced in December 2011, with the budget set at £1.25 million.

    A new ticket office was built in 2014 but is yet to open because of delays to the footbridge. In the meantime the budget has rocketed to £9.5 million – coincidentally the same cash sum the Empire State Building cost to build.

    The 13 years it will have taken for the village station to undergo its refresh – assuming there are no further delays – is the same length of time it took to build Big Ben or, according to the Bible, King Solomon’s Palace.

    In the meantime, passengers access the platforms via steps down from a road bridge, which means there is no disabled access.

    Sir Alok told The Telegraph: “The redevelopment of Theale station is a classic case study in just how slowly even relatively small infrastructure projects are delivered in our country, with resultant cost increases having to be picked up by the taxpayer.

    “We have to get much better at untangling the stifling bureaucracy and red tape in our system which holds back the time-efficient and cost effective delivery of infrastructure.”

    David Sidebottom, director at the independent watchdog Transport Focus, said: “Investment in accessibility improvements at Theale station is a welcome move to help passengers with disabilities travel with greater confidence, however the delays have been frustrating and disappointing.

    “Passengers will want assurances that there will be no further delays and for the station to have step-free access as soon as possible.”

    Caroline Stickland, chief executive of Transport for All, said any improvements to disabled access were welcome but “the pace of change must increase”.

    She said the latest research found that almost half of disabled people report issues with lifts and a lack of step-free access at railway stations.

    A Network Rail spokesman said: “Plans to build a new footbridge with lifts at Theale station, part of the Department for Transport’s Access for All programme, were approved in January 2013 alongside a range of improvements including a new ticket office and expanded car park. At this time, funding was only provided for the ticket office and to progress design work for the footbridge.

    “A new ticket office was built by Great Western Railway. In 2021, £9.5 million funding was awarded for Network Rail to build a footbridge and lifts. The new facilities are set to open to the public in spring 2024. Great Western Railway will then begin work to expand the car park.”

    ***************************************

    Jimmy Boy
    44 MIN AGO
    In the old days you’d find somebody who knows how to build a bridge and pay them to do so. These days there has to be a report into the need for it, 1,000 pages of contractor LGBTQ requirements and many months of environmental impact assessments. Then a shell company run by accountants gets the contract, they sub-contract it out to another company which sub-sub-sub contracts it further to a company which makes cake molds because they’re the cheapest. The cake mold company submits a request to make it out of silicon which goes back up the line to the council where the request ends up in the social work department.
    21st century Britain. If it wasn’t so tragic it would be funny.

    1. Our contracts stipulate that subcontracting any part of the scope of work shall be approved by COMPANY – that is, us.

    2. Near round us it has taken about three months to instal a simple set of traffic lights and slightly change the paths surrounding. The Chinese build entire motorways in that time!

      1. Yet introduce failure standards to government and it balks. Suggest markets should operate in the state, with those responsible held accountable and they panic.

        1. My experience of working in the public sector is that about three quarters are the sort of people you wouldn’t trust to run a tap, and never take responsibility for anything.

          1. A joined a team and asked repeatedly for the analysis documents. These are how the system will work. They shouldn’t take long. After nine months of asking I got bored and left the project and the organisation.

            There is simply no sense of accountability. No awareness of the waste. No impetus for efficiency or improvement. They constantly complain they’ve not got enough money but spend what they are given appallingly. I didn’t understand how someone can draw a salary for so long and provide so little for it.

          2. In my experience, public sector workers split into three groups:

            Those that are idle and incompetent, and just want a bomb-proof job for life with a decent salary
            Those that are eager and naive, are usually younger, and start with the best intentions – these folk tend to get disillusioned and leave after a few years
            Those that started out eager and naive, grew wiser and more disillusioned, and are now wearily sitting it out until retirement, having given up doing more than the bare minimum

            Not exactly a recipe for success.

      2. 2 Scottish ferries – 8 years late and £260million over budget!
        Cost to the islands – incalculable and still ongoing.

        2. An innocent and ignorant pensioner writes:

          Why is there no one responsible to ensure that these things are completed on time and within budget?

          Had I run my business that way – I’d have gone bust within a year.

          1. There are people responsible. The problem is there are no consequences for failure, no one pays any price and the myriad ways it can fail are endless and constantly open to challenge by stupid parties.

          2. So would we, and we spend about a billion US on developing an oilfield to production.

          3. That would entail someone actually taking responsibility. The SNP and the lunatic Green tools don’t have anyone with more than a puddle-depth skill or intellect, and so their whole modus operandi involves blaming the ghastly Toaries, Westminster, Barnett or Brexit.

          4. Bill, We all already know that everything our useless political classes come into contact with they eff it up and big time.

          5. That’s because you wouldn’t have had an army of tax paying serfs forced to cover your costs….

      3. Driving home this morning we passed a commercial transit van that had demolished a traffic light and pedestrian crossing island. Said vehicle required an awful lot of hygiene work! Probably more than then 4 vehicles tangoing on the M25 yesterday – debris including wheels and suspension struts strew across two carriage ways…..

    3. Welll, Mr Sharma, you are in government. It’s your choice to resolve. You don’t want to, though, do you? The DIE compilation for Sizewell is longer than the safety report. That could be scrapped. It won’t be, though, will it?

      However, you sum up the problem – “with resultant cost increases having to be picked up by the taxpayer.” Now imagine if it were network rail bosses paying for it. I’d bet it’d be built double quick if the trough were not available.

      There’s a rail bridge privately owned in New Orleans, and a road alongside it. The hurriance destroyed both. The rail bridge was operational within 2 weeks. The road is still a ruin. Why? Because the rail bridge is privately owned. Government, on the other hand, is incompetent, wasteful, inefficient and slow. It has no reason to be efficient. Someone else is paying the biill. Change that and suddenly government would be functional.

    4. Might it be cheaper to provide chauffered road transport for those needing step-free access to railway stations rather than construct such exorbitantly expensive follies?

      1. You may have a point. Wanborough, my local station, has step-free access to Platform 2 (Westbound), but Platform 1 is only accessible via a footbridge: 28 steps up, and another 28 down. Yes – I count them. However, each platform has a “Passenger Assistance Point” notice, complete with a QR code and a phone number for the disabled. Perhaps they send out six strapping blokes with a sedan chair? Or tell them to get back on the next train, wait at Guildford for 25 minutes, and the same train will bring them back to Platform 2? Enquiring minds need to know…

        Not sure a footbridge and two lifts can reasonably be described in these DDA Act days as a folly, though. I’m always grateful when there are lifts. In fact, my old employer, Dean & Dyball, constructed dozens of these at stations in the South East. They were all built to the same design. Perhaps when Balfour Beatty took them over, they threw the drawings away?

      2. Where disabled access to platforms is not available the anable can order a taxi which will be subsidised by the rail company.

    5. Looking at those ramps, I can’t help thinking that even an Olympic wheelchair athlete would struggle to get up them.
      Surely three lifts would have been cheaper and faster to install? And even during the height of rush hour I can’t imagine that that station gets a huge number of passengers.

          2. Of course, silly me, to put them in the most inconvenient places, out of sight out of mind?

          3. If Reading is anything to go by, there will be yellow ‘lift’ pictograms on the platform at one metre intervals. Much as I approve of station lifts, the ones at Aldershot have been out of order for at least a couple of months. They have some catching up to do with Robert Dyas in Guildford, where I was assured in December 2022 that theirs would be fixed in the New Year. In fairness, they didn’t specify which New Year. It certainly wasn’t 2023.

            Ash, the next station from here, has a level crossing, and at least eight trains an hour. The congestion is horrendous. But now they’re building embankments to take the A323 over a new bridge. Apparently, once a new footbridge is erected, they’ll close the level crossing. I await the outcome with much interest.

          4. When I commuted the station had an underpass between platforms (amongst other ways in and out).
            NOT convenient for disabled people, but manageable.

          5. Same where we are. You would think in the 21st century they could have better level crossing technology. We can sit for 15 minutes without a train going through. Then the barriers go up for a minute and back down for another 15 minutes. Hopeless.

    1. I think there’s a third group who are too thick to understand what’s going on and just accept what they’re told, ignorant of the consequence of that err, ignorance.

      1. One such stuck a “My heart is with Palestine” sticker on a pole by the dog waste bin. Lacking a felt tip pen to scrawl “so go and live there, then” on it, I peeled it off and disposed of it (safely, of course).

  80. An easy Bogie Three – should have been an Eagle.

    Wordle 926 3/6
    ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
    🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. I reckon that you would have made the same choice, Bill!

        You – a wordsmith – should have a go at ‘Wordle’ in 2024.

    2. Par today.

      Wordle 926 4/6

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      ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Three for me too but I confess I sought clues.

      Wordle 926 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

          1. I play the Microsoft Solitaire daily events.
            Most days roughly half a million participate, so it’s nowhere near as popular as Wordle.
            I usually get a top 10 in the group of 50 one is allocated to and often get a “Podium”, sometimes even winning the group.
            It’s infuriating to come fourth or lower in the group when you’ve drawn a number of AI bots. It is also almost certain that people have also discovered how to cheat, sorry, clue, the system
            I came in 4th out of 50 a few days ago but overall I was in the top 8,000 of nearly 600,000, so would have won most groups.

          3. If you complete all the challenges, you should usually be in the top 25. Do you log on the instant they open?

            I’ve never tried the Mah Jong, we used to play it as a family on holidays in France, 35-40 years ago.
            I sold the set at a local auction a couple of years ago.

          4. Usually before breakfast, so 6 – 7 hours after they open. I’m supposed to take Lercanidipine half an hour before eating, so the routine goes – fill and boil kettle, make tea, post new NoTTL page, do the daily challenges. By which time, half an hour has elapsed and I can have breakfast. I like to think they keep the brain active, too…

          5. I do the 5 daily challenges in the morning too, and like you they fill the time while the kettle boils and then the tea brews.

            The daily events generally open up at 2 or 3pm here. For podium finishes I am usually more successful the more difficult the problems; probably because I use an old fashioned mouse to move the cards, so easy challenges are not single click movements.
            On one memorable occasion I was in the top 2,000 overall and didn’t even win my group of 50. Grrrhh

  81. That’s me gone for the first time in 2024. We had the very last tomato from last year’s crop for luncheon. Not bad going, considering we almost lost all the plants during the summer “heatwave”.

    Have a jolly evening. I recommend a glass of something tasty.

    Let us hope that life returns to normal tomorrow – and that the GPO can start delivering all the cards etc that it failed to do two weeks ago! Though I notice that the Wet Office is warning about a gigantic gale and torrential rain – which will excuse all commercial failures. I notice that a beeboid woman referred to the (actual) tornado that struck Manchester as a “Volcano”. Makes yer praad, dunnit?

    A demain.

    1. In yer Scotland there have been no trains at all running today. They’re desperate to get everyone on to public transport and then don’t provide any! Marvellous eh?

      2. Many buses in Oslo cancelled due to too much snow. 200 lines affected.
        Doesn’t help.

    2. A gigantic gale and torrential rain? Tomoz? But it’s me burfday, innit? And we is going out – but only as far as Grantchester, just down the road.

    3. I had the last tomatoes from my garden in a salad for my lunch last Friday. Actually, the entire salad was from the garden – wonderful winter lettuce from seed bought in France, portulak, parsley.

    1. Same here. I’m still unable to complete the weeding of my veg plot because it’s too wet to tread on the soil.

      1. The Bill for the construction of the bridge was passed on 19 May 1882 after an eight-day enquiry, the only objections being from rival railway companies

        The bridge was completed in December 1889, and load testing of the completed bridge was carried out on 21 January 1890.

        Construction of the bridge began in 1882 and it was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Duke of Rothesay, the future Edward VII.

        Compare and contrast with almost any major modern UK construction
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_Bridge

  85. V2 Attack New Cross Woolworths 25th November 1944.

    The rocket landed on the Woolworth’s building at 12.44pm It was a sunny Saturday and many people were out shopping. There were rumours that Woolworth’s were selling saucepans (which were in short supply) and a long queue had developed. Neighbouring grocers and butchers stores were also destroyed, and Deptford Town Hall across the road was damaged. Apart from shoppers, casualties included passengers on a passing bus and troops in an army truck. 168 people died. It took three days to clear the debris and 24 bodies were never identified.

    https://www.woolworthsmuseum.co.uk/newcrossv2big.jpg

    1. Frances Spufford wrote “The Light Perpetual”, imagining the lives of five children killed by a similar bomb in November 1944. It’s on my wish-list of books to read; he’s a good author.

      2. It was one of my Book Club choices a couple of years ago. My verdict: OK but not really memorable.

    1. The Left close ranks to protect their own. I would, however, cheer if Blair were dragged off, convicted and jailed for being a paedophile.

      But he won’t. We all know they’ll get away with everything.

    3. “Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
      Filths savour but themselves.”

      [King Lear]

      And Filths don’t come much filthier than Tony Blair.

    4. The about to be released Epstein papers are alleged to suggest that Blair was never invited, as all the other creeps thought he was too repulsive to be allowed on the Island. And if it ever got out that they were associated with him, they would be ostracised in the great circles of WEF perversion.

      Sadly for them, he took his rejection badly, and now, as putative head of the WEF, he selected the judge.
      Vengeance is mine, sayeth the turd.

    5. The child, as they say, is father to the man.

      Both look equally foul to my way of thinking.

    6. The image of a list of telephone numbers tells us nothing about its source but, if being on it confers guilt on those listed, I presume that Conrad & Barbara Black, David Blaine and Mike Bloomberg are equally guilty of whatever being on the list represents. Nothing visible links it to Jeffery Epstein, although “Concerned Citizen” wants us to believe there is one. Why hasn’t CC spelled out exactly what the connection is?

      1. 381166+ up ticks,

        Morning DW,
        Records are missing from the Bow Street Court when anthony charlie lynton was found guilty of cottaging could they not be in there,
        making the link initially, the park public toilet ?

  87. Evening, all. Happy New Year to any nottlers who may not have been so greeted over the last 24 hours!

    I’ve watched the racing from Cheltenham and Musselburgh – 35,200 racegoers and all bar one white – guess which one they interviewed at length. I’m not counting Pitterson who is paid to add colour (he certainly doesn’t add insight). Two Irish runners, two Irish winners. I can’t help wondering why the Irish manage to find so many good horses to plunder our cash. I suspect it may be to do with government support for racing (including favourable VAT policies) across the Irish Sea. I’m also at a loss to see how “Premierisation” will help racing attendances. It certainly wouldn’t encourage me to go more and I’m a dedicated racing fan. Mind you, I get the distinct feeling that mine is NOT the demographic they are trying to encourage.

    Needless to say I have been overlooked for official recognition yet again for my services to fostering good foreign relations, to education and to sheer common sense.

  88. Thought for the day:

    When the Epstein papers are released, what’s the betting that 90% of the focus in the MSM will be on any connection Trump may have had?

      2. It looks as though it may be a Pomeranian, possibly a Pom cross (Yorkshire terrier?) Poms are highly intelligent little dogs. That little clip made me want to dash out and get another pup…. I’d fill the house with dogs if I could.

    1. But the fact they are not shown does feed the prejudices of racists realists. Like me. And me.

    2. There is always the same reason used for not showing the known or alleged criminals.
      Unless our ‘Authorities’ face up to the ongoing facts and their own responsibilities, this pre-arranged lack of information will only allow more of these terrible crimes and vile actions.

  91. Phizzee has been very quiet today.

    I hope it is a well deserved filthy hangover, and nothing serious.

  92. Good night one and all.
    It has been good to see so many former regulars popping in to express New Year’s greetings to fellow Nottlers.
    May you all return more frequently.
    All the best for the rest of 2024.

  93. Just started watching the ITV series about the Post Office/Horizon affair. I really do hope that at least some of those who insisted that Horizon worked perfectly and that all the PO personnel who apparently “lost” money and were subject to indifference, disbelief and hounded were all incompetent, or lying, or dishonest, end up in jail. I suspect “they” will look after their friends and no one will take any responsibility. An absolute scandal. The people responsible for this massive injustice, and for insisting that the computer system was infallible when they must surely have known it wasn’t, need to be fined heavily and sent to prison

    2. We are good friends with a couple who work very hard running their post office.
      Fortunately the idiots in government departments didn’t manage to ruin their lives.

  95. As I was still up at 2:30 am this morning, I think I have the right to turn in now.
    So good night all.
    I just hope this year will be better than the last three. Sometimes I feel at least ten years older.
    Lang may your loom reek. 🤗

    1. Me too, Ready Eddy. So it’s Good Night, chums, from me too. Sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

      1. Another total of 10 hours sleep for me EB it’s amazing. I had two short bathroom breaks. And even went back to sleep for an hour and a half at 7 am.

      1. Thanks.
        I wondered, looked it up and they must have got it wrong.
        My good old father in law use to say it, he wasn’t Scottish but from the north east. But I’d never seen it written before.

  96. Just began watching a James Delingpole video and abandoned it because I’m growing irritated by his hobby horse bitching about who’s really on our side and who’s “controlled opposition”. OK, Georgia Meloni is a fraud but there are some very good people who I believe get some things wrong. That’s just how it is and it applies to all of us.

    1. I stopped listening for that reason. He’s gone right off the deep end in seeing spies everywhere. Plus his constant references to his drug-taking as though it’s something to be proud of.

      1. He was very chippy when he was younger and wrote for the Spectator. He always seemed to need to justify himself.

        I think he had found his notoriety not entirely easy to cope with.

        1. I wonder if being a very public journalist is really the right niche for him?
          I wonder if he wouldn’t be happier in a more introverted career/position?

  97. I experienced a real frustration tonight when the somewhat weirdo** weather chap on GB News remarked that most places in the UK had had a “wetter than average” year in 2023. Wetter than average? …. it’s a wonder the water isn’t up to the shoulders across half the country …. even the toddlers must have got bored with splashing in puddles ….

    ** Quite a few of them seem to register as not-convincingly male gender.

    1. He should receive a pardon. But his life will be at risk now, wherever he goes. The Left are a throughly nasty and vengeful lot.

  99. A lot of comments I’ve not read yet, but it’s time for bed, so goodnight all and again, a Happy New Year to everyone.

    A drive to Stoke to see Stepson planned for tomorrow then, for the rest of the week, weather permitting, finish off getting the Pantry Firewood Stack refilled.

  103. Good morning, chums. Up early today, with lots to do, including a trip to the cinema to watch two films: SOCIETY OF THE SNOW and ONE LIFE, so I am posting my Tuesday entry here as I haven’t the time to wait for the normal NoTTLe starting time of 7 am. And now for today’s Wordle.

    Wordle 927 6/6

    I only just made it (phew!) in six.

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

    1. I don’t know how you managed to get so many variations on the second letter! Ingenious, but very unlucky!

      EDIT: just realised, that must be yesterday’s wordle!

      Wordle 927 4/6

      🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Comments are closed.