Wednesday 17 January: The Rwanda resignations leave traditional Tory supporters in despair

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

646 thoughts on “Wednesday 17 January: The Rwanda resignations leave traditional Tory supporters in despair”

      1. Spent most of the night awake, aching muscles and joints, and sweating. Not going to work today, especially with the expected gales and heavy snow.
        Back in bed, with good coffee, pills and potions taken. Zzzzz…

        1. Ooh! Sorry to hear you feel rotten, but I’m jealous that you’re back in bed! Freezing here!

          1. We have strong winds, -7C, and heavy snow. Worse forecast for tomorrow. Buses, trains, planes not running, motorways closed.
            Properly wintery.

        2. Admit it, you’re too scared to go in after yesterday’s “raid”, in case they’re waiting to ambush you for wrong-think.

        4. Morning, the ‘100 day cough’ is around over here apparently. I’m into the 2nd week with the lurgy and just beginning to recover. ‘Orrible. Wish you well.

          1. Thanks!
            Little bits of phlegm stuck in the throat don’t help – pharmacist told me that different cough mixtures address these issues, so gave me one that loosens the deep-down phlegm. Not very pretty, but getting better. A day in the sofa, followed by snow shifting when it’s stopped blowing around… I’ll post a photo as a reply here.

    1. I worked as a contractor for Fujitsu for about twelve years (not on any UK government stuff like Horizon). My CV is suddenly worth about half what it was before….

      My current computer is more than ten years old, a top of the range Fujitsu laptop. It’s so good that I can still develop software with bloated Microsoft products on it to this day. I’m thinking of forking out the $$$$$ for another top of the range Fujitsu when this one expires. I know from testing various software products over the years that Fujitsu laptops give fewer problems than cheaper makes too.

      1. Yes, Fujitsu appears to be so good that by the Post Office’s boss’s own admission all the money paid to the Post Office

        by various sub postmasters has now disappeared.

        Yes, that’s what he said on oath to the Inquiry.

        Hope that BB2 doesn’t do internet banking on his Fujitsu.

        1. I am female. Fujitsu is a huge corporation, and I worked in Germany. Standards of software development there were extremely high and better than any other company where I’ve worked before or since. Our project was very popular with the customer, because they got hardly any calls on their support line about our software!

          1. Good.

            As you probably know, the standards of Fujitsu software developers on the Post Office Horizon project

            were lacerated at the Court of Inquiry yesterday [we watched on TV]

            It would be interesting to discover why a great big company such as Fujitsu allowed such sub-standard work.

          2. It’s not just software development. All developers make mistakes. It’s the project management and test teams too. Was enough time allowed for testing? Was there a good system in place for reporting bugs? Who was responsible for security on the project? Who was responsible for allowing data to be changed in a live system? Who knew about that and didn’t say anything?
            The office where I worked was a former department of Siemens, and had very good organisation and ethics.

            I’ve seen some bad software development in my time, but where this one went completely off the rails was the pig-headed and utterly incomprehensible insistence that the software could not be faulty. A system like Horizon will NEVER be bug free.

          3. We agree with your comment. Such a pity that top management and politicians couldn’t see that.

  3. “ SIR – I believe we should stop eating meat, dairy, fish and eggs to prevent animal suffering and death. That is why I am vegan.

    In the meantime, MPS will ban live animal exports (Week in Westminster, January 16), but this will not apply to Northern Ireland, as MPS have conspired to keep it effectively in the EU. That’s why I’ll vote Reform – to restore sovereignty. Mark Richards”

    VEGANS. If we all stopped eating meat, dairy, and eggs there would be no animals. How will this “prevent animal suffering” when they will all be dead? Though fish may be happy.

    2. “I believe we should stop eating meat, dairy, fish and eggs…”
      You only speak for yourself. Don’t use “We”.

    3. So if we stop eating meat, there will be no animals. And who will be feeding the Pill to cows and putting condoms on bulls when they start to get horny?

    1. Instead of being transported to hell, the dinghy illegal migrants are bringing hell with them.

  6. Good morning, chums. I did the Wordle in four today.

    Wordle 942 4/6

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

    2. Likewise

      Wordle 942 4/6

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

      I should have applied a bit of thought before my second guess, I was sure there would be no matches but went ahead anyway.

  8. The Rwanda resignations leave traditional Tory supporters in despair

    Everything always appears to be against international law for some reason.
    It is beginning to look like anything but an open border is against international law

      1. Araminta, I don’t think that it’s an or situation. We need a revolution to literally eject from power the continuously failing “sitting members” of both houses and secondly the threat of a civil war to put those who would usurp our culture and way of life in their place. The ruthless ejection of the useless politicians would send a message, whether or not that would be a sufficiently strong message to those who would continue their treasonous ways is questionable and a kinetic war may be the only way to settle the issue.

        We are English/Welsh/Scottish/Irish/British and we want our country back.

    2. Yes Bob, it’s so interesting that President Macron claims to deport 30,000 foreign criminals a year

      from France, but “international law” prevents Britain from doing so.

        1. You could be right Sos, however the point that I’m making is that “international law” does not

          prevent the French government from taking action to protect their citizens.

          2. The French have never been bothered about the “rule of law”, it’s an Anglo-Saxon concept. The French have a pick and mix attitude – they pick what suits them and ignore the rest.

  10. Rwanda rebels now face a huge dilemma. 17 January 2024.

    If the Bill gets through the Commons, it will still face challenges in the House of Lords, whose amendments will then come back to MPs at some point. This has been a bruising process for Mr Sunak for arguably little gain. Even if the flights to Rwanda do take off, they are expected to carry just a few hundred migrants at most.

    As the quote says there is no realistic possibility of this actually making any difference to immigration. It is all about fooling the peasants so as to gain their votes. As soon as the election is over it will be back to normal. The only real possibility of change; and even that is fraught with equivocation, is a victory for Reform.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/01/16/rwanda-deal-commons-rebellion-rishi-sunak-immigration/

  11. Good morning, all. Dark but evidence of a frost on the roof of the shed.

    Courtesy of June Slater’s X timeline.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f86593521038d322d490d82dafbf7eb9410f5522bd0e2a11a3547bed2ef79c9e.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dbd5944ce7053e61a18b7906a2de52909e1db938f7364940497975a8f7a58c58.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e9b7f717775d8a119177a43fe8dfd6aaa60b69726b2737b70d10237c5950d1ed.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/66165b3894e278736dd0b6976185ae3612f713a542bab4c62413b94401ad6662.png

    1. Bininfluencer.

      Ours is Tony, who lives opposite.

      The Refuse Disposal Supremos have just ‘bin’ : Black and Green today (the Bins, not the men/people)

    3. No need for ‘binfluencers’ here. Both bins are put out together and emptied on the same day, once a fortnight.

      1. You are the binfluencer in your street then….

        I always wait until my neighbours have put theirs out, they check the days for me…

      2. We have a total of five bins of different content and three different sizes.
        But it all works quite well.

        1. A green bin for general household rubbish and a brown bin for food waste is all we have.
          Waste paper and card, glass, and (crushed) cans are taken to the large skips on a piece of waste land in the centre of the village.
          Everything else is taken to the council tip, a couple of miles away, where there are massive skips for all manner of rubbish, including: bricks and concrete, timber, garden waste, metal, electrical and electronics, chemicals, plastics, and a few more.
          The system works very well and it means we don’t have to worry about having more than two bins at home.

    2. Over two operations, which ran from October 2022 to December 2022 and March 2023 to October 2023 respectively, 27 people were arrested and subsequently charged.
      Of these, 21 were convicted. Fourteen have been sentenced to a total of 26 years in prison.

      In other words they’ll be out again in about 18 months, and can we deport them? Ha bloody ha…

  13. SIR – I recently bought some beautiful, ripe tomatoes on the vine that came from Holland.
    Since the climate there is similar to Britain’s, why can’t the same be grown in this country to save shipping?

    Judy Williams
    Lydeard St Lawrence, Somerset.

    Whenever I buy tomatoes I buy them for their flavour, how good they taste, not their looks. Why do so many people these days, Judith, think that the word ‘beautiful’ is a synonym for delicious? It is not! ‘Beautiful’ means pretty, handsome, good to look at, pulchitrudinously pleasing. It does not describe the flavour of a food.

        1. We had a delicious turkey at Christmas, raised by a local farmer. Very fatty – I rendered lots the fattier bits down and have a jar of dripping which I am still using, and some marvelous scratchings.

          (American Disqus does not recognise the word scratchings lol)

        2. When I was a student I took a variety of jobs during the summer. One year I spent a month as a roustabout on an oil rig in the North Sea; another year I worked at a turkey farm and had to use a machine to take the wrinkly skin off gizzards.

          Gizzards are considered a delicacy in France and are known as gésiers but skinning them was not my favourite summer job so I quickly moved on to a building site and worked as a manual labourer.

    2. Had Judy any information regarding the cultivation of the tomatoes? The Dutch have massive greenhouses, with increased (triple?) levels of CO2 pumped in to increase plant growth. Not that CO2 is a GHG, but if a similar practice were carried out in UK greenhouses, how would this compare to the CO2 output from shipping?

      2. The Dutch tomatoes available in winter are, in my experience, completely devoid of flavour. That is why I only eat seasonally when food is at its best.

        2. I fully agree Grizz, and they would be just as tasteless if forced out of season in the UK.

        3. I only eat seasonally at Christmas when I have a mince pie with my morning cup of decaf. For the rest of the year I eat cold Hot Cross Buns. Lol.

      3. Huge greenhouse erected, filled with tomatoes and CO2, on Lorraine Way in Mid-Suffolk. Operating for at least two years.

    3. Has she seen the glasshouses in Cloggyland? Acres and hectares of them, stretching as far as the eye can see.
      I don’t like tomatoes that much.

      1. Not just in Clogland. More and more once-fertile and very productive fields outside Spalding are being covered in vast expanses of glass houses.

        1. More food comes from those glass houses than will be produced when they turn farmland east of Spalding into a housing estate.

          1. Never mind housing estates, several fields immediately east of the A16 are already filled with expanding ‘traveller’ camps.

      2. Not just in Clogland. More and more once-fertile and very productive fields outside Spalding are being covered in vast expanses of glass houses.

  14. SIR – I recently bought some beautiful, ripe tomatoes on the vine that came from Holland.
    Since the climate there is similar to Britain’s, why can’t the same be grown in this country to save shipping?

    Judy Williams
    Lydeard St Lawrence, Somerset.

    Whenever I buy tomatoes I buy them for their flavour, how good they taste, not their looks. Why do so many people these days, Judith, think that the word ‘beautiful’ is a synonym for delicious? It is not! ‘Beautiful’ means pretty, handsome, good to look at, pulchitrudinously pleasing. It does not describe the flavour of a food.

  15. Yo and Good morning Day to you all.

    The temperature outside, according to my brand new ‘phone is 0 degrees

    I shall believe it!

    We are due to have our smart meters changed next week, for even smarter ones.
    Has anyone undergone the change and how much disruption does it cause.

    My worry, as age takes it toll, is that the meters will be smarter than we are…..

    1. Be aware that if your meter takes its own readings (has a communication unit) and you accept their app so that you can monitor your usage, then you’re giving them all your electricity consumption in real time, which can be measured every few seconds or every few minutes (it’ll be uploaded to their servers).

      From this, a lot of information can be deduced, such as how many people in your house, how often you go away and even what appliances you have.

      If you have other “smart” gadgets like a robot vacuum cleaner or robot lawnmower, they get the exact layout of your house and garden, information about your furniture and whether you’re tidy or messy. All this information is sold onto commercial databases.
      A modern car gives them a constant trickle of information about how you drive.

      It’s all too easy to forget or ignore how much information one is giving away.

      1. Yo BB2.

        I posted earlier that I was lloking for a hand operated pump, for my B-i-L to use on his car.

        When I looked on Amazon, it directed me to a satisfactory item and said it was suitable for AdBlue (for diesel fuel),
        for which he needed it……. spooky

        He had mention the word in the house, but I did not use it on my ‘puter.

        Alexa the bitch has been unplugged

      2. I’ve seen our robot vacuum cleaner and robot lawnmower close together when I walk in unexpectedly. They then make clicking noises and roll off in opposite directions. Should I be worried?

        1. yes….

          Google (whose business is stealing people’s data) bought a robot vacuum cleaner manufacturer a couple of years ago…

  16. Good day all,

    A grey dawn over McPhee Towers. Wind in the North-East going North, -2℃ going up to +1℃ today.

    Michael Deacon is spot on this morning.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aa9e00c6aab8276941fc8667319e9c5e46b45c6103a221d1fa042cc8e55ac515.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/16/collapse-of-universities-would-be-great-news-for-britain/

    Someone I know rather well, a possessor of four degrees (three from Oxbridge) including a D.Phil and who is a university administrator agrees with him.

      1. Yeah. Especially that thing in the centre wearing a pink tee-shirt-type-garment and a green skirt.

        1. The scrawny bloke? How proud his parents must be. I can just imagine what my dear old Dad would have said – let’s just say, he was ‘not impressed’ when my brother used to go out wearing a denim jacket.

    3. More means worse.
      [Kingsley Amis]

      The value of university degrees is inversely proportionate to the number of today’s university students
      [Rastus]

  17. On the subject of ex dame of the Post Office, I have just realised her name is a tpyo:

    It is not Vennells, but Venal:

    showing or motivated by susceptibility to bribery; corrupt.

    2. For those who didn’t read the Mail on Sunday, a quote:

      Sir Tony Blair had close links with Fujitsu BEFORE he became Prime Minister and signed off on the £900m Post Office contract with the firm in 1999 despite being warned that the Horizon accounting software looked ‘increasingly flawed’

      Tony Blair had a relationship with Fujitsu and met its bosses in Japan and Britain. He was PM when contracts were awarded to Fujitsu, including the Horizon deal

      Post Office scandal victims have accused Sir Tony Blair of having a cosy relationship with the Japanese IT firm behind the software that ruined their lives.

      It emerged the former PM signed off on the £900million Post Office contract with Fujitsu in 1999 despite being warned that the firm’s Horizon accounting software looked ‘increasingly flawed’.

      Now the MoS can reveal Mr Blair had close links with the firm going back years. He travelled for private briefings with Fujitsu bosses in Japan in 1996, a year before he entered No10, and met its executives in his Sedgefield constituency.

      He went on to oversee several billion-pound Government contracts handed to Fujitsu while he was in power. Last night, victims said Mr Blair had ‘very serious questions to answer’.

  18. On the subject of ex dame of the Post Office, I have just realised her name is a tpyo:

    It is not Vennells, but Venal:

    showing or motivated by susceptibility to bribery; corrupt.

  19. SIR – I believe we should stop eating meat, dairy, fish and eggs to prevent animal suffering and death. That is why I am vegan.

    In the meantime, MPS will ban live animal exports (Week in Westminster, January 16), but this will not apply to Northern Ireland, as MPS have conspired to keep it effectively in the EU. That’s why I’ll vote Reform – to restore sovereignty.

    Mark Richards
    Brighton, East Sussex

    I am collating reams of indisputable, concrete evidence that conclusively proves that ‘vegans’, such as you, Marky, have depleted thinking power and reasoning capacity directly due to your idiotic insistence on eating unnatural vegetation and refusing to nourish your mind and body on natural meat products.

    Your (and others’) ‘decision’ to vote for the Reform Party will directly lead to a Labour Party landslide and all the manifold ills that will bring to the population of the UK.

    The world is gaining a massive overpopulation of vacuum-heads, just like you, that are utterly zombie-like and clueless. I suppose the only good news from this is that, in physics, nature abhors a vacuum. I expect nature to do its job and cleanse the planet of all vacuum-heads.

    Generation Z? That ‘Z’ must stand for Zombie.

    1. Oh dear Mark Richards, do you not realise how many animals suffer and die so that soulless deserts of soy and rapeseed can be grown for you to poison yourself with?

      I’m never going to Brighton again – I might lose half my brain irreversibly when I cross the city boundary. Sounds unlikely, but reading the nonsense that comes out of that place, I don’t feel like taking any chances.

      1. Working in adjacent Hove one day, at lunchtime I walked into a cafe ‘Planet Janet‘ saw the huge bowl of Tuna Mayo behind the counter and asked for a Ham Sandwich. All conversation in the cafe stopped dead! Whoops!

        1. I would have asked them for some slices of cured dead-pig meat on some decent brioche bread (enriched with loads of butter).

          I’m a bit of an agent provocateur when it comes to vegetablists.

        2. Actually, I think it’s closed now. Obviously not enough virtue signalling vegans in Brighton.

      2. I know a very rude limerick about a sailor from Brighton – but I shall let someone else post it here.

      1. No, Tom. I don’t subscribe to the normal online DT, only the “virtual newspaper” version.

          1. I ate it in the 60’s when in Germany – the local steak house served them and you couldn’t taste the difference

          2. You would if you were hungry enough though. Think, Holland in the war, the Ukraine during Holdomor, or the Chinese during the cultural revolution and more recently the North Koreans, repeatedly.

    4. I think Mark’s intention was simply to smear the Reform Party and brand members vegan lunatics……

    5. I fear that Labour is going to win the election by a landslide with or without the intervention of The Reform Party.

      Anything that completely wipes out the well-to-the-left-of-centre Conservative Party is no bad thing .

      The cancer needs to be cut out of the body politic.

    6. I expect he’s only voting reform because his local green party watermelon is hanging up her hemp sandals and retiring on a gold plated pension.

  20. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story (Sorry but today, The Joke Book dies)

    A HEART-WARMING TALE FROM AMERICA:
    The teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment: Get their parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it. The next day, the kids came back and, one by one, began to tell their stories.
    There were all the regular types of stuff: spilled milk and pennies saved. But then the teacher realized, much to her dismay, that only Janie was left.
    ‘Janie, do you have a story to share?’ ”Yes ma’am. My daddy told me a story about my Mommy. She was a Marine pilot
    in Desert Storm, and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory, and all she had was a flask of whiskey, a pistol, and a survival knife.
    She drank the whiskey on the way down so the bottle wouldn’t break, and then her parachute landed her right in the middle of 20 Iraqi troops.
    She shot 15 of them with the pistol, until she ran out of bullets, killed four more with the knife, till the blade broke, and then she killed the last Iraqi with her bare hands.
    ”Good Heavens,” said the horrified teacher. “What did your Daddy tell you was the moral to this horrible story?”
    “Don’t fuck with Mommy when she’s been drinking.”

    1. The man missed his vocation. He would have been ideal as a megalomaniac villain in one or more of the James Bond films.

    4. Remember how Mark Steyn described this monster:

      “Klaus Schwab – the sinister Teutonic megalomaniac hiding in plain sight.”

      And the Idiot King is one of Schwab’s most enthusiastic disciples!

  22. America isn’t Britain’s special friend. It couldn’t care less. 17 January 2024.

    In truth, the special relationship, such that it ever existed, lives primarily in the minds of our political class, and the occasional utterances of American politicians when they want a favour. Like clockwork, US Ambassador Jane Hartley resurrected the trope from its usual rigor mortis yesterday in a column following the joint US-UK strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.

    “In light of inflection points we face in the coming year,” she wrote, “I’m certain the world needs the special relationship now more than ever.” In diplomat-speak, there’s a big orange elephant in the room; Donald Trump has been called many things over the years, but an “inflection point”?

    This is news? It has been thus since 1914 when the UK found itself outmatched in Europe and had to appeal to the US for help. Since then it has been downhill all the way. One could wish the UK’s political elites were a little less abject lackeys but even that would be just appearance. I have to admit that the contempt has increased somewhat in recent years but so has mine.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/17/america-isnt-britains-special-friend/

    1. Special relationship, my arse. Maybe on a one to one or family to family human level but not state to state. Never forget, FDR’s WW2 war aim was the end of the British Empire. That said, there are those who say that it’s the power of the City of London which really controls America, that it’s Empire 2.0.

    2. Biden’s ‘special’ relationship is with the Irish, certainly not the UK. We’re useful idiots regarded as nothing more than a fig leaf of diplomacy.

      1. As it is happening world wide.
        Every little crack in the rusting armour of Christian society is being tested.
        And they are getting away with everything.

        1. If we do not take action very soon it will be too late:

          There is a tide in the affairs of men
          Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
          Omitted, all the voyage of their life
          Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

          We shall certainly lose all our ventures and our whole civilisation if we do not do something to save them.

          2. Another quotation that might have been wrongly attributed to John Donne was by Thomas Hood:

            “His death, which happen’d in his berth,
            At forty-odd befell:
            They went and told the sexton, and
            The sexton toll’d the bell.”

          4. Faithless Sally Brown – this was the sad story of a sailor who was unhappy in love and disgracefully treated by his
            inamorata.

            Thomas Hood wrote another comic verse full of puns called Faithless Nellie Grey which was about a soldier who was similarly afflicted in his passion for a woman who did not reciprocate his feelings.

            Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
            And used to war’s alarms;
            But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
            So he laid down his arms.

    2. The parents of the children effected by the Islamic interjection need to make a strong protest against the court.

    3. Islam seems to have met virtually no resistance from the UK establishment. They already have control of our capital city and many other major cities.

      What is their next target? Westminster Abbey made into a mosque with the blessing of Welby? Sharia Law replacing Common Law with the approval of the home secretary? Age of sexual consent reduced to 10 with the urging of Harriet Harman? You name it – you fear it – it’s probably already on the way.

    4. Ms Hannett said the ban at the school, where about half of the roughly 700 students are Muslim, makes the pupil “feel guilty and unhappy, in her words, it ‘messes up her day’”.

      That should make every Briton very fearful.

      Sarah Hannett KC, representing the Muslim pupil, told the court that the prayer policy had the “practical effect of only preventing Muslims from praying because their prayer by nature has a ritualised nature rather than being internal”.

      In other words, a highly public and visual ritual: “Look at us. We are here. Do not try to stop us.”

      This is the then unnamed school that was featured in this article:
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12818507/Is-Taliban-run-school-Kabul-No-one-comprehensives-Death-threats-staff-stopping-Muslim-pupils-praying-girl-forced-quit-choir-religion-bars-singing-pressured-wear-hijab.html

      1. The intrusion of muslim practices into my day-to-day life makes me feel very unhappy (not to mention fearful). It messes up my day. I was here first.

  24. A belated good morning to all.
    Another beautiful but cold winter’s morning with clear skies and -4°C on the yard thermometer.
    A run to Stoke planned for this morning to see stepson so the van will need de-icing.

      1. HN??
        Not decided on what I’m doing but am tempted by a couple of weeks in the Land of the Flying Haggis.

  25. Good morning all, it’s currently 28°F on the Costa Clyde. I’d best get scraping the car windows as I’m off to the north face of Tesco Irvine shortly. In passing, although the Rwanda debacle has grabbed the headlines, there was another vote in Westminster yesterday. This was intended to support the push (putsch?) for the Neverendum of ‘independence’ (through membership on the Brussels / Strasbourg gravy train). Bizarrely, five Scots Nationalist Party members, in cluding Stephen ‘Sinn Fein’ Flynn, did not attend the vote. A case of don’t bite the hand that feeds you?

    Edit to add: the thermometer in the car reckons it was only 23°F, but it was an easy scrape as it was a dry cold.

    Further edit: it may be that Flynn is just borrowing a page from the SF/IRA playbook and attempting to show disregard for Westminster (whilst continuing to scoop up to £250K pa in pay and expenses of course).

    As an aside, when I typed playbook my tablet autocorrected it to playboy.

  26. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not as frosty as yesterday out side.
    Oh yes the Conservatives have quite a lot of repair work to carry out. But I don’t think they have the faintest idea. Or are capable. They know what needs to be done. But are gutless regarding carrying it out. This alone shows they are not worth the bother of the X on the ballot paper.
    Our country has suffered hugely since the equally Major gave Blair the opportunity to play god.
    And if the tories don’t understand what they have to do now, they are as useless and a massive part of our ongoing problem.

  27. Good morning – we have a young man from BT here – hopefully fixing the problems we have with the landline system and the internet.

      1. Well he seems to have got things working now at last. We’ve had no landline working since mid- December and I’ve spent hours online trying to get them to send someone to fix things. He’s just gone now.

        1. Hope you’re not being charged for the landline during the period it wasn’t working.

          1. We pay a monthly charge for broadband and calls and the broadband was working ok all that time. Though the agent I spent ages chatting to online said it was the broadband which had the problem, not the phone, which seemed illogical.

          2. That’s their view to try to avoid crediting you. Don’t let them get away with it.

          3. Ndovu, if you’re with BT you can ask(politely) for a credit against your next bill.

            MOH has had success with that a number of times when our landline has not been working.

    3. Trouble is they say Openreach is responsible for line faults and neither BT or Openreach talk to each other and when you ask how the fault is progressing they say it’s fixed when it damn well isn’t.

    1. “I am just going outside and may be some time” Captain Oates had what Christ said was the greater love to lay down his love for his friends.

      110 years later they are still not looking after our people as Captain Scott requested: they are instead looking after those who follow a totally different prophet with a totally different moral code.

  30. The Texas power grid is on the verge of another fatal collapse. Green energy is absent. 17 January 2024.

    The situation on the Texas power grid this week is going to be a crucial test not just for the grid’s managers at ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas), but also for natural gas suppliers and generators. As weather conditions continued to evolve and deteriorate across the state, ERCOT has issued a conservation request to business and private customers to be in effect from 6am to 10am CST, a time of peak power demand and low renewable production.

    ERCOT’s request blamed the latest failure of the state’s huge wind industry on “unseasonably low wind” conditions, but the reality that the wind tends to die down as temperatures drop is one of the most open secrets in the history of weather. ERCOT officials cannot control weather conditions, obviously, but they can anticipate they will get a lot less wind contribution than their models predict whenever the weather is not ideal. That’s just a given.

    I have nothing against Texans but I have to confess to some schadenfreude here. Perhaps it is the satisfaction of knowing that we are not alone in having a gang of numpties running things? This omnipresent stupidity is a curious thing. It seems to be limited to the white races Elites. One wonders if it is a genetic as opposed to a cultural phenomenon? Did those civilisations that have preceded us down the plughole of history suffer the same?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2024/01/16/green-wind-solar-energy-freezing-texas-power-grid-blackout/

    1. I’m actually surprised as I thought Texas was a common sense state that had acknowledged it gets very hot and very cold and needed energy to adapt to both.

  31. Trafficked, raped and humiliated, the poor white girls of Rochdale cast aside by police
    Laura Perrins: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/trafficked-raped-and-humiliated-the-poor-white-girls-of-rochdale-cast-aside-by-police/

    A couple of BTL comments:

    Millhouse
    Never forget the former MP for Rotherham, Dennis McShame, admitted he knew what was going on with the young girls in his constituency but did nothing about it because he did not want to “rock the multicultural boat”. What an absolute and utter piece of fiIth that man is.

    Reply to Millhouse by Rastus C. Tastey
    The multicultural boat does not just need rocking – it needs holing and sinking so that all its shipmates are drowned.

    Another alarming story in the news is that the Muslims are violently attacking the Michaela School run by Katharine Birbalsingh because she refuses to set aside time each day for Muslim prayer and it is being taken to the High Court.

      2. But that’s the problem. They do get their own schools – which are then failed by OFSTED.

        How far do we push things though? Do we forbid turbans for Sikhs? Where do we draw the line? Personally it would be a blanket ban to remove religion from schools entirely.

        1. But surely Christianity should be the only religion acceptable in state schools in a Christian country with an established church whose head is the reigning monarch?

          Surely if Muslims want their own schools they should be private schools which they pay for themselves? Such schools, however, should be rigorously inspected by Ofsted.

        2. We gave in to Sikhs when the compulsory wearing of helmets on motorcycles was introduced. Sikhs were exempt. The thin end of the wedge.

      3. That wouldn’t suit their purpose at all. They are determined to push islam into every nook and cranny.

    4. This Dennis McShane? The jailbird?

      In November 2013, he
      pleaded guilty to false accounting at the Old Bailey, by submitting
      false receipts for £12,900. On 23 December, he was sentenced to six
      months in prison. He served four months of his sentence in HM Prison
      Belmarsh and HM Prison Brixton, and the rest by wearing an electronic
      tag.

    5. Your last paragraph. The Muslims are well versed in how to agitate to get their way. I’ll bet the court case will rule in their favour.

  32. A toddler was tragically found curled up in the dark at the knees of his dead father weeks after his mother last saw him alive at Christmas.

    The body of two-year-old Bronson Battersby was found in the Skegness home of his dad Kenneth on January 9 after days of attempts to contact them by concerned social services.

    The child – who was classed as vulnerable and was being checked on weekly – was found in his pyjamas in the dark alongside the family’s emaciated pet boxer dog Skylar who survived

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12972759/bronson-battersby-final-fortnight-starved-dehydrated-five-days.html?ito=push-notification&ci=wr1LZVO7i8&cri=wMo8-7Clsm&si=p3DSQ2YwOLik&xi=b5f60c52-6dce-4376-9749-a62e964f078c&ai=12972759

    Words are not enough , we should all be weeping

    Now a timeline has revealed the tragic final weeks of Bronson’s life:

    Before Christmas – Bronson’s mother Sarah Piesse sees him alive for the last time and argues with the boy’s father Kenneth Battersby.
    Boxing Day – A neighbour goes to see Kenneth and Bronson at their home in Skegness.
    December 27 – Sixty-year-old Kenneth messages the neighbour to thank her for checking in on them. He also receives a text from a social worker arranging a visit on January 2.
    December 29 – The earliest date Kenneth could have died based on the results of a post-mortem.
    January 2 – The social worker arrives at the house but gets no answer when knocking on the door. She contacts the police.
    January 4 – The social worker returns to Kenneth’s Skegness home and again receives no answer, She once again contacts the police.
    January 9 – The social worker, using a key from Kenneth’s landlord, gets into his home. She finds the bodies of Bronson and his father.
    January 16 – Family get the results of a post-mortem showing Kenneth died of a heart attack and Bronson from dehydration and starvation.

    1. Why is the mother blaming the social worker who tried three times to see the father and son and eventually got in and found them both dead? It’s certainly not her fault. She tried to get the police round there.

    3. What do you say to that? Has the state failed? In this instance no. But that poor boy. No neighbours? To what extent has society broken that this can happen?

    4. Words are not enough , we should all be weeping – what makes you think we aren’t? Poor wee lad. Seems like the Father deserves sympathy, too, since he obviously didn’t delberately create the situation.
      02-01-2024: Police weren’t much help, at about the last moment they could have been. Knowing the situation, I’d have likely broken in. Easier to fix a window than a dead toddler.

  33. Man jailed for smuggling woman into the UK behind his glove box

    Border Force found the Vietnamese migrant wedged in a custom-made hideaway in the modified dashboard of the Vauxhall Vectra car

    Jozef Balog, a Slovakian, was jailed for two and a half years at Canterbury Crown Court on Tuesday for assisting unlawful immigration.

    Pondering: Has any Cross Channel (small inflatable) Ferry operator ever been prosecuted and jailed for delivering Doverista?

    If so, if the penalty could be 2000 life sentences for the operator

    Additionally, when the boats ‘sink’ why is the driver of that means of transport not prosecuted

    Just asking

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/16/man-jailed-smuggling-vietnamese-woman-uk-glove-box/

    1. My word could this be the start of something big, something significant?
      As in stuffing our jails with all the other guilty people smugglers in our country.
      We’re gonna need lots of bigger jails.

    2. Those inflatables they come over on are for one use only. The smugglers say au revoir on the French side after showing one of the illegals how to operate the thing.

    1. The consequences of the US fighting proxy wars in far off places. It normally happens somewhere in the back of beyond and bourn by unfortunate foreigners. Now its happening in our back yard and affecting people rather like ourselves, I have some sympathy with the ordinary Ukes and their losses and the utter trashing of their country. I hear that our new Laird is out taking the mountain air with his WEF mates and seeking further solidarity in continuing the carnage. Having lived through the Cold War, and been part of the forces in Germany, I was thankful that the threat of war receded after the wall came down. I never imagined that we would have a war in Europe again in my lifetime.

      1. I wonder if the quickly arranged NATO war games in Eastern Europe have many Americans among their ranks and do the American people understand that their Military is now likely to be fighting another war on foreign soil.

    2. No, they’re the faces of men injured in a pointless war. We need a strong leader to say to Putin ‘Enough is enough This needs to end, you’re going to negotiate.’

      At the moment the ideal man is Xi Jinping!

      1. Morning Wibbles. Vlad has no object to negotiating. The Ukies will not entertain it. Zelensky is currently holding a meeting in Davos that purports to be about negotiating. Russia is not invited. It is simply a publicity gimmick to distract attention.

        1. Why should he negotiate?

          Risky Sunhat has just announced a gift of $2.5billion to him.

          Fortunately Britain is a very wealthy country that can afford to give away this kind of money.

          He is obviously demanding more money from the participants at Davos.

          1. I hate to say it Janet. This wasn’t ready cash down the back of the Sofa. Britain has to borrow billions each year to fund all government commitments and promises. The $2.5 billion has almost certainly been borrowed and added to our National Debt. 🙁

          2. And inflation. Ultimately we, our children, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be paying for all this for decades and decades into the future.

      3. But Putin wanted to negotiate back in March 2022. Johnson and the rest of the West stopped Zelensky from any such thing, so why should any offer from Putin be received any differently now? Let alone there be any idea of dragging Putin to the negotiating table by the West. We need a strong leader to say to our idiots in charge of the West that ‘enough is enough’.

    3. In winter, fighting the Russians? Nobody will be smiling, you can be sure of that. Just ask those who fought there for that nice Mr Hitler.

      1. NATO running out of ammunition is a massive threat. We gave it all to the Ukies, they pooped it off to no good effect, now manufacturing cannot keep up with demand. Maybe the “Peace Dividend” should have been better invested?
        At some point very quickly, we’ll come to a crossroads, if NATO decide to fight Russia:
        Option 1: Run out of ammo, and capituale very soon. NATO loses
        Option 2: Go nuclear. Nobody wins
        And over what? It’s all REALLY EFFING STUPID anyway. So, with those options, best to pack it in now, let Russia deal with Ukraine, and shoot Zelensky and his mates.

        1. I don’t believe that there will be a NATO war for the simple reason that NATO has neither the manpower or the equipment to wage that sort of war. It’s the bellicose attitude of the Wizard of Oz that prevails and is designed to keep the rest of us in a state of anxiety and confusion. This, muddying the waters, suits the ambitions of the corrupt elite who are trying to steal democracy from us.

    6. A negotiation which would have saved hundreds of thousands of live was very much on the cards before the warmongers such as Biden and Johnson got involved and encouraged Zelensky to get involved with war. They all have blood on their hands and
      Ukraine will be very much worse off than if they had not gone to war in the first place..

      1. The War Bitch is Victoria Nuland. Have a listen to what the late Gonzalo Lira had to say about her a year or so ago. It’s probably what got him re-arrested in Ukraine while trying to escape and claim asylum in Hungary. He died due to medical neglect while in prison – more than likely on the instructions of Nuland.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=TzR—YDDIQ

      2. The War Bitch is Victoria Nuland. Have a listen to what the late Gonzalo Lira had to say about her a year or so ago. It’s probably what got him re-arrested in Ukraine while trying to escape and claim asylum in Hungary. He died due to medical neglect while in prison – more than likely on the instructions of Nuland.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=TzR—YDDIQ

  35. Trump is gaining popularity in some US states but what lies behind what he has in store as a presidential election outcome.
    A large incentive for his presidential success depends on the viability of the internal combustion engined vehicle production with the attendant job retention and the fact that China is fast becoming an EV only automated car producer.

    This has created a rift between Trump and Musk as the future of EVs versus ICE vehicles in the US is facing a problematic future if Trump succeeds:

    https://youtu.be/m0zDsZm77m8?si=V_tIqygvfL5ponG9

    1. I don’t want EVs shut down. That’s just silly. Why not talk to the industry, especially the battery makers and really investigate quality changes. They would all be in favour of that.

      1. Wheras I do. We don’t have the grid to cope. Nor will we have the power generation capacity with the current lunatic energy policies.

        1. What I want is for the market to decide. Not to have it forced on us. If EVs are better, they will win. But making us change to them whether or not we want to is wrong.

          1. The same with the heat pumps that will be forced on us. A local builder bought the field behind us some years ago to build his family a bungalow. He installed a ground source heat pump during the build, and built his home to work with that, appropriate insulation and so on. Even so, he needs his wood burner and other additional heat sources when it is really cold.
            Retrofitting of either ground or air source heat pumps, and expecting them to keep us adequately warm during all weathers, is madness.

    4. Not much faith in EVs in Chicago at the moment.

      In the cold weather EVs are literally not charging, parking lots around chargers are surrounded by dead Teslas.

  36. Off topic,

    We have been searching for a car to replace my old failed Peugeot.. 307 SW 1.6.. 172,000 miles.. engine still strong .
    We visited Bournemouth and Poole , and yesterday was a marathon effort, too many petrol, not many diesels.

    Bill mentioned Skoda Yeti… lovely cars .. but out of our price range .

    So, answers on a postcard … What should I choose? (used car)

    2. There’s no straightforward answer Belle. You have to take what’s available. The only creditable advice is to have a mechanic look it over before buying. At all costs you have to avoid buying one that has been in a crash and reconstituted!

      2. Good advice. When I bought my current car, my mechanic checked it over and said it was okay.

    3. There’s no straightforward answer Belle. You have to take what’s available. The only creditable advice is to have a mechanic look it over before buying. At all costs you have to avoid buying one that has been in a crash and reconstituted!

    4. How about a newer version of the old Peugeot? I’ve no intention of changing my diesel 206 which passed the MOT last month with no problems. It’s a 2007 model. Just under 48,000 on the clock.

    5. Have you considered getting a second opinion on your car, whether it can be tweaked and a different MoT garage?

    6. TB, you seem to know lots of aged soldiers etc; could you find someone who is about to give up driving and offer to adopt their vehicle?

    7. Just in case you fancy a petrol Ford with the Eco boost engine, beware that they need a cam belt change at 10 years or 150k miles. When built, the belts were not lifed or designed to be changed, so it costs £1000 upwards to do the job. There are plenty of these engines reaching 10 years old right now. Its a beautiful engine, but the savings in fuel have just been gobbled up by the garage job on mine.

      1. We have snowstorm – motorway closed, buses & trains not running, ploughs working at full tilt. Even ploughs ending up in ditches…
        Not seen it like this here in the South before. Snow flying about so thickly it’s like someone whitewashed the windows…

        1. It froze hard overnight here; when I took Kadi out for a walk, I realised that the concrete path by the garage was actually just a sheet of ice!

  38. How could you tell the differnce between lab and con? Neither are anything but statist left-wing traitors and eejits.

    1. That’s why I think there won’t be a landslide. It will be GE2010 all over again, with a bastardised coalition of none of the talents.

    2. Just because the Conservative Party needs to be exterminated does not mean that the Labour Party should not have to be exterminated too.

      1. A tad under -4°C on the Yard Thermometer an hour ago.
        If it stays clear will get colder overnight.

    3. Drive between Hartington and Froghall over the Staffordshire Moors en route to Stoke was like that.
      Mist filling the valleys and absolutely clear on the tops.
      Bloody cold, but beautiful.

  40. Things went well at the hospital yesterday. I will now be getting oxygen, which is a relief. I finished listened to this a few minutes ago. Apparently it was, in its day, more popular than Scheherazade, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Antar. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd80g7wJWuQ

    2. Good news, Johnathan!
      I know the piece – wonderful music. I often wonder where the talent comes from, to be able to craft something like this, voice by voice, and have the most amazing result.
      Proof that there is a God?

      1. Oh yes! Plus talent and intelligence are not necessarily related. Mozart must be the ultimate proof of that. A silly man with zero common sense and an absolute musical genius who couldn’t comprehend why others lacked his inspiration.

      1. As I wrote to my local MP (Phillipa Whitford) a few years ago, the SNP seemed determined to stop sectarianism in Scottish (mainly Glaswegian) football. At the same time they were hell bent on dragging sectarian barbarians into the country that would make the Old Firm shenanigans look like Laurel and Hardy.

      1. It would rank in the top 70 in Pakistan itself, but ranks 2nd in the UK, behind Birmingham. (London has more in absolute numbers but spread within areas)
        Bradford is 25% Pakistani.

  44. By golly, same as my first car – 1957 vintage, bought in 1969 for £90. Although didn’t realise it until after it was eventually sold on, registration plate (638F) would be worth much more than the car!

      1. My younger son’s first and only car was a Morris Minor – he doesn’t need a car in Basel as he uses public transport or his bike.

  46. Good afternoon, all. Took a slurp of Night Nurse at 10 pm – slept fitfully until 5 am – then out like a light….. Perhaps I should take the dose at 4 pm…!!

    1. We certainly aren’t policing (not in the normal sense at least) the SE coast of England, but that’s because the one way shipping route is being facilitated by TPTB.

    2. One of the items that Ian Hislop didn’t have time to mention is although we don’t have a Statute of Limitations in this country

      there is the principle of time limits, which in the case of fraud means that no offender can be brought to trial after six years.

      It is interesting to note the number of very important people anxious to spin this out for more than six years.

      Did they all have their fingers in the till?

      Obviously not.

      But they still had their reasons to delay this.

      Politics, corruption, old boys network? Who knows?

    2. A few years ago the GP surgery that I’d been with for yonks was shut down by the care quality whatever it’s called commission due to bad admin so I went in search of another doctor and found one in a new build near Hammersmith Bridge. I walked in to a large waiting room with rows and rows of plastic chairs and a reception desk that ran the full length of the room. At first glance it was empty but on closer inspection I saw that there was a woman just visible behind the desk so approached her. She snapped at me and I explained why I was there. She gave me a sample bottle and a 20 page questionnaire and told me to return with both filled. When I got home I read the questionnaire. It was unreasonably intrusive but then I got to the last question and read, “Have you ever felt like killing yourself”. At that point I started to laugh and laughed till I was clutching my sides. Both questionnaire and sample bottle went straight in the recycle bag. (I signed up with the GP service at Charing Cross Hospital. Two page form required plus my passport and council tax statement. No urine sample.)

    3. Why talk to Dr Alexa when you could do what any doctor would do and go straight to an AI App like BingAI.

      DIL’s brother experienced sudden pain in both legs followed by severe muscular weakness in them whilst cycling with his son to school.

      I put this question for a diagnosis to BingAI:

      what would the diagnosis be for sudden leg pain becoming flaccid

      Dr Bing suggsted AFM – acute flaccid myelitis quoting an exhaustive set of article references.
      AFM could possibly be caused by the COVID virus and affects the grey matter in the spinal column.

      DIL’s brother, who is now in King’s College Hospital, has undergone MRI scans and spinal fluid tests to try and ascertain the cause.

      1. I love the way they keep it just below £50,000 per person (£5 below per person, based on two sharing!) to make it seem more affordable…!

    2. Oh, won’t someone think of the CO₂ offset!

      I can’t think of anything worse than so many organised trips and flights TBH.

      1. I agree, I am taking the Urine, (a Four Funnelled Coal Fired Steamer) out of Barry Island. to Ilfracombe

  51. Afternoon All

    Lighter Side

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/68ab07e8e67835e551567a19578af6ec3b5df759cfa2b58dc4584f6f3fb26883.jpg

    https://twitter.com/DANIELMCAVOY9/status/1746954452228088052?t=fJMnGV6iziYTdy8zb8W2CQ&s=08

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/31be0374686dda47f9a19df1a2d6cf0524a1097bddc521e4d40c9f59bf091ebf.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c916d88464707b23cb150027ed1437ddf2454da84795b4883e815fa3397ecf29.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c3c8118a42c83e25fd8528b38350c5f738f023b91975b747dbf059724998a1a1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff0c2beaf2ce135376ea6de74eee0ca5abf8a0be05e9431e10b95c7f5de01554.gif

    https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/157/173/182/original/29224843b08c8867.jpg

  52. 382008+ up ticks,

    Afternoon Each,

    Dt,
    Hooked on cheap money, the Tories have wasted 14 years in power
    Party only has itself to blame as it careens towards seemingly certain defeat

    They really must be given a successive failure award in regards to their anti British Isles actions, and in recognition, at long last,of their allegiance going to WEF first & foremost followed by their pro brussels stance especially clear as day since 24/6/2016.

    Councils now going skint on account pakistani space program needs funding,

    Just been informed at the chemist they now need a week to scratch around for medication, two days are out the window
    ( the culling is finding other outlets) also some councils are saying some residents receiving home help attention may have to be moved into care homes ( I take that as one step from camps)

    I assume any money saved will go towards the Ukraine war effort.

    Tories have wasted 14 years in power
    Party only has itself to blame as it careens towards seemingly certain defeat.

    “Itself to blame” ?
    Every step orchestrated , they, in the eyes of the WEF / NWO have never put a foot wrong.

    We are witnessing the death of blighty via mass uncontrolled / controlled ,manipulated, immigration, with the voting majorities consent.[

      1. 382008 + up ticks,

        Afternoon C,
        Currently it could be a good thing if we become the 51
        state under Trump, a better option than being in an ongoing odious state under the mass uncontrolled / controlled /paedophile umbrella / lab/lib/con pro eu coalition party.

        1. Things aren’t exactly bright and rosy over the water, either. I follow US politics quite closely and they’re in some right bother, too.

  53. Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/04a45297fe4e88956f7d11845cd1008cdf0cb24230fbdc19990cbcd76ac4c58d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8830654636447c1629c345965f83d1a61cadf654fec40ef2cc50a1c70d19f17d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/189b22e36375375d2ff09f408c8573f869e5d7bca84ce9f928bbc157876b1363.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/02a9a6eb9460b7beb654e8bdaca0fb54bd0ddb2515298f5a81702f967be1bcd9.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f6d09efb22aa6e34714a56365fa0a432942ff6f252b5d15fdeca252f9adad67.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0877be42b234bfed5c65e94ee5a72fc1d3b54988cce440d749862bf191a9d863.jpg

  55. Funny thing. Justice system – civil and criminal – in disarray with huge backlogs because there are not enough judges. Suddenly, overnight, Fishi can produce 150 new ones – just like that. What an amazing fellow he is….

    4. “For now I’m a Judge! And a good Judge, too! Though all my

      law be fudge, Yet I’ll never, never budge, But I’ll live and die a Judge! And a

      good Judge, too!”

      1. I was a jury member in a production of Trial By Jury which the MCR (Masters’ Common Room) put on at Allhallows in the 1970s.

        This was a memorable line:

        She may very well pass for forty-three in the dusk, with a light behind her!”

        and one which came to mind a couple of years ago when I heard someone in the congregation say “Qui est cette jeune femme tellement jolie qui joue de l”orgue?”

  56. The reason i was unable to get through to the GP recently was because everyone on the GP lists received a text message from the prescribing team wrongly stating that a GP appointment would be necessary to discuss a medication. A medication that no one had ordered. 40,000 trying to phone on the same morning.
    I got through today and the receptionist said i would need to call at 8am in the scrabble to make an appointment. And they have the nerve to suggest they are using triage when in reality it’s whoever gets answered first.

    1. Finding the same with NHS Scotland, Philip, all bloody useless.The French and Spanish systems are much better.

      1. Never have any problems up here Tom
        Ring the surgery for an appointment “Certainly, what time would suit you?”
        Repeat prescription? delivered in 3 days

      1. It’s only the poor that get shoved out the door early. She may have had a more serious op like a hysterectomy.

        2. These days, they kick you out within a day or two of having a hysterectomy. After mine 12 years ago, I was only kept in for a 2nd night because of a bad reaction to the anaesthetic.

          2. There is only a finite amount of staff. When a surgeon operates there are many other support staff like nurses, anaesthetists and even porters. It’s about availability not just doing contracted hours where they are not actually operating.

          5. Indeed, but outside their NHS contracted hours.

            Unless you are proposing that all doctors in the UK be forced to work solely for the NHS?

          7. Presumably, if the Government really wanted to do something about backlogs, they could spend the Ukraine and other similar waste of billions, paying for NHS patients to be treated in the private sector.
            Without a healthy private sector the NHS would be even more over-stretched and worse than it is now.

          8. Added to that people are using their life savings to have a private operation. Which leaves them more at risk of dependency in the future.

        1. Not these days. I was only kept in for a 2nd night because of a bad reaction to the anaesthetic – that was 12 years ago.

      3. Caroline, our son, Henry and I have all had our gall bladders taken out. Caroline and I spent 3 – 4 days in hospital but Henry was in and out of hospital in a day. I had my appendix out in1982 and was in hospital for 5 days but surgery has changed since then.

        Caroline reckons it must be gynaecological.

        1. It depends on the procedure. My mother’s full hysterectomy was accompanied by repairs to a prolapse as well as to her pelvic floor. She was in for three weeks with months of recuperation afterwards.

          1. I’m guessing that that will have been at least 30 years ago, when people were kept in hospital far longer than they tend to be today.

            For example, when our oldest was born, women tended to stay in for a week or ten days. Now they seem to be in and out in 48 hours.

            When I had the first of my, far too many, knee operations it was a few days, then David Dandy appeared with his arthroscopy technique and it was in and out in the day.

  59. “Ukraine-Russia war: Nato military chief demands ‘warfighting transition”- DT. Just what the world needs, an even bigger war. Its a great pity that our wets dont have the gumption of the Palees who can whistle up 100k+ in London every week shouting for a cease fire.

    1. The Palees only want a ceasefire because Israel is winning, if the Israelis were losing they’d be on the streets celebrating and singing from the river to the sea.

    1. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12973103/Labour-frontbencher-Wes-Streeting-faces-challenge-pro-Palestinian-candidate-election-amid-anger-Gaza-stance.html

      Labour frontbencher Wes Streeting is facing a challenge from a pro-Palestinian candidate at the general election amid anger at the party’s stance on Gaza.
      The shadow health secretary is set to battle with Leanne Mohamad to hold onto his Ilford North seat, in Greater London, when voters go to the polls later this year.
      Ms Mohamad was this week chosen as an independent parliamentary candidate by the Redbridge Community Action Group.
      The grassroots organisation was created last year following the outbreak of fresh conflict between Israel and Hamas.
      Its website states it ‘came together after we witnessed the grotesque genocide in Gaza’ and vows to challenge Mr Streeting’s seat and ‘beat him at the next election’.
      The group’s aim is to ‘prepare an independent candidate who is strong on Palestine, NHS, racism, islamophobia and the cost-of-living crisis’.

      1. The slammers may well do this in many seats where there is a slammer majority population…. What larks, eh?

        1. When one considers the damage caused by the LibDems holding the balance of power, the thought of an Islamic party alongside Labour holding them to ransom is horrifying.

      2. If Miss Mohammedan and her ilk succeed it will be because the powers that be want it, given that these people mostly vote by post to ensure that the head of the family gets to fill in all the forms on behalf of his harem (not to mention his dead relatives) and postal votes are as easy to discard as they are to fake.

    3. “Islam and Islamism as a totalitarian ideology can be defeated. With its policy of open borders, Europe has taken the path of submission.” . Correct as I understand it a translation of Islam is in fact Submission (accomplished!)

    1. That other BBC useless idiot, Monty Don on Gardeners’ World is just as bad at shoving the puerile “climate change” bollocks down everyone’s throat every episode. That’s why I’ve stopped watching the crap.

      Kate Humble and Bill Oddie never did it on Springwatch and Percy Thrower never did it on Gardening Club. That was long before the BBC was hijacked by Lefty ‘woke’ cretins who have destroyed the Corporation’s Reithian ideals.

      1. I believe Oddie was “cancelled” because he stated the climate change scam was just that. Similar to David Bellamy.

    3. What kind of surgery requires three months’ recovery? Sounds serious – unless it’s the kind that would be a paracetamol and back to work on Friday for the rest of us.

  65. I have a blood clot in my leg…they won’t operate.
    I have a collapsed disc in my neck…they won’t operate.
    I have gall stones…they won’t operate.

    1. The French medical system is not as good as it used to be but it is still very considerably better than what you get in the UK.

      Anyone who seriously believes that the NHS is the envy of the world needs a lobotomy but he or she should not be advised to have it done in UK!

    2. The French medical system is not as good as it used to be but it is still very considerably better than what you get in the UK.

      Anyone who seriously believes that the NHS is the envy of the world needs a lobotomy but he or she should not be advised to have it done in UK!

  67. I wish the good folk would stay away. Remember Genesis Ch.18…

    22 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord.

    23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

    24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?

    25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

    26 And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

    1. God said to Lotte regarding the impending destruction “Get your husband and flee” She alas turned round and was turned to stone.
      I often wondered what happened to the flea

          1. You know how it is. When we grow older and more cynical we just blank out all the things we feel not worthy. Just like GP’s not telling the over 60’s they have kidney disease.

  69. How did Rayner get into university having left school pregnant at 16 with very poor GCSEs?

      1. A sack of tatties tied with string. She has a terrible figure which she squashes into ill-fitting and badly designed clothes.

    1. I’d avoid anything with a DSG gearbox. The ones on the larger engines are usually okay, but if the clutch pack goes it’s a big bill. Traditional torque converter auto or manual is best.

    2. When I was contemplating Motability cars, the Seat Ateca was a favour. Ironically, I didn’t proceed (thanks, DVLA) and instead, Dianne took my advice. She has a 2019 Excellence Lux 1.5 with DSG. Come the end of the PCP, she financed the balloon payment and is keeping it. It’s a bloody lovely car, with all the bells and whistles. Thus far, it’s been utterly reliable.

      Very similar to the Tiguan. In fact, she test drove a PHEV Tiguan (among others), and really liked it. With her solar panels and Tesla Powerwall battery, one might have supposed running a car mostly on sunlight would be a no-brainer. One would be wrong. Over a four year contract, the saving on fuel couldn’t possibly compensate for the extra cost of a PHEV.

    1. Aye, good going. But there’s a flurry of issues reported by VW group car owners relating to DSG gearboxes. Why take the risk?

      1. In fairness, no-one posts on forums to say their car has been utterly reliable. In the last couple of decades, I had three company Ford Mondeos, a Discovery 2 Td5, three Alfa 156’s, two Renault Megane Scenics and a Mercedes C-Class estate. Which have the worst reputation for reliability?

        The Disco was a speculative ebay purchase, which supposedly, but erroneously, needed a new engine. First Alfa was a company car, but the company hadn’t bothered to service it. Second Alfa was superb. There’s nothing quite like the V6 sound. Last Alfa was another ebay purchase. In Glasgow. Didn’t cost a lot, it fell far short of its description. But I took it anyway. A Discovery-owning neighbour relieved me of it in the snow, by reversing over it…

        1. I agree about forums and general perceptions. I was going more off what industry figures regarding warranty and repair issues says. If you look after a car, it’s much more likely to prove reliable, regardless of make and model.

        2. I am not tempting Providence.

          My Disco 3 TDV HSE has been brilliant. We bought it second hand with 18k on the clock.
          180k+ miles on the clock now. We’ve always had it main dealer serviced.
          Repairs have been expensive, but never as much as the depreciation on a newer car.
          We love it, it’s perfect for our needs. Mainly local runs and a couple of trips back to the UK every year.

          1. My Disco 2 Td5 was an absolute bargain. Listed as needing a new engine on eBay, I found a low-mileage engine there as well. Both were duly delivered to Dianne’s place (she had a carport). Having left the last QS job, and handed the company Mondeo back, I was now reliant on the 600 Honda Hornet. Bought an engine crane (subsequently sold). Whilst dismantling, I found that the ECU was full of oil. There was an issue with these engines transferring oil from the cylinder head via caplillary action. Check. Sorted. Got the beast running; drove it through two of our most snowy winters of recent memory. Stopped putting the tow rope away, since every time I went out, I’d find a lesser mortal struggling to get up a slight incline. It was also a handy gardening tool – I had a few bushes I wanted rid of. Merely ‘towed’ them out.

            I sold the old engine on eBay, with full disclosure. The purchaser was keen to buy any other bits I had. So I sold him the old turbocharger. Unfortunately. Not long after, I found myself trying to join the A3 on a particularly short acceleration lane. No-one seemed willing to move over. It was only on the way home that I realised that no-one was following me. Or – more accurately – they were lost in a cloud of white smoke. I’d blown the turbo, having just dispensed with the old one.

            Time to move on. Two problems: the ‘heated passenger seat’ burned a small hole in Dianne’s skirt, and the air suspension had a tendency to deflate overnight. Took it to We Buy Any Car, and – regardless of any issues – they paid me ratrher more than the initial purchase price to take it off my hands.

            It was fun while it lasted.

          2. HG uses that wretched heated seat all the time, perhaps your tale might make her consider turning it off every now and then!

  74. Indeed. Most people do not want Biden/Harris, too old and Trump is considered too unpredictable. So a real quandary facing most electors.

    1. Trump is very much predictable, in my estimation. The MSM like to spin the narrative that he’s an out-of-control cannon ball. He’ll be back as president, and he’ll be far more predictable than the loser they’ve been lumbered with for the last four years. And I hope that the world will be more predictable (and safe) as a result.

  76. 382008+ up ticks,

    Afternoon BF,

    I am thinking more of right thinker numbers, currently as soon as either lab/lib/con
    amalgamate with the muslim brotherhood these Isles will be no place for decent peoples.

    1. That’s a rather defeatist view. I think that things will change for the better before then. People are talking openly about things which a few years ago no ordinary person would dare speak in public. And it’s not just here, but overseas in the Netherlands, France…

      1. 382008+ up ticks,
        BF,
        No way a defeatist and as for ” a few year ago ” we not only spoke in public but took actions against a very similar enema,and set loose the tongue once again of the clogs & frogs, lest we forget 1939 / 45.

    1. Blimey. Just a 3 here.
      Wordle 942 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Wow! Boring four for me.

      Wordle 942 4/6

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

  78. 382008+ up ticks,

    What more dastardly treachery is afoot from this political cartel whilst in its death throes.

    Dt,

    Negotiators hold secret talks over Sunak’s Brexit deal
    Officials hoped that confirmation from EU that its officials agree with UK interpretation of the deal could weaken the DUP’s opposition

    1. ‘Mr Milei also gave a speech to the politicians and business people gathered in Davos in which he warned that “the Western world is in danger”.

      He said: “Those who are meant to defend the values of the West have been co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism, and therefore poverty.”‘

      Good for him.

      https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/argentinian-president-says-he-has-begun-discussions-with-uk-about-falkland-islands/ar-AA1n8wfc

        1. Seems likely. A friend of mine had a hysterectomy at the London Clinic a few years ago and was there, from memory, for at least a week. Hers was caused by large fibroids that kept coming back despite previous efforts to remove them. I visited her in the hospital. It’s a hotel with medicine!

    2. It’s only “not an option” because France would not accept them.
      The UK should send them back and if needed cause a huge diplomatic furore.
      You can guarantee that France would eventually take them, and immediately deport them as illegal immigrants.
      Possibly the best route out of this bollocks. Perhaps we should have a secret agreement?

      2. Exactly, so many laws have been broken by the industry launching these migrants, dumping them back on a French beach a long way from where they started and a shrug of the shoulders would quickly sort the problem.

          1. Just do it, sod the consequences. There will be alot of huffing and puffing and muttering about international law, just ignore all the hooha.

          2. Who do you think will do the “Dumping” – the RN, RNLI, concerned citizens? It is ludicrous to think that the RN and RNLI would deliberately engage in illegal acts so you are left with concerned citizens who would have to accept arrest, a hefty fine, possible imprisonment and a criminal record, not to mention the hostile response by a large, violent bunch of “dumpees”.

          3. Those who willingly pick them up, the BF mainly. Its just a matter of returning them from whence they came. If the RNLI genuinely rescues someone at sea, the victim can hardly complain about being landed safely in their country of origin and the French can not stop the facilitation of the rescue to land. We have become too accepting of what we are told, that we are powerless to change things. Just Do It as Nike says and sod the French, they let the migrants into their country, its their problem to sort out.

    3. I have never liked him and when he left young his young daughter in a pub it spoke volumes.
      Why are so many horrible people in charge of our lives our country and our future ?

  84. That’s me done for the day. A thoroughly weird day. Still feeling the after effects of the Night Nurse. Best to lay off it tonight, I think…(yawns – again).

    I’ll leave you with this thought. In 1963, government information about how survivors of a nuclear attack should behave, included this advice: “Wear stout shoes and be sure to have a blanket to keep you warm.” As ever on the ball, eh?

    A demain.

  87. I read that a new proposal is being considered by the possible next government. Male residents of the UK must by law grow a beard.
    And wear knee pads.
    I’ve just got use to my new Christmas present a new electrc razor. Oh Booger.
    Only Joe King.
    Night all.

  88. So Charlie-boy’s got an enlarged prostate.
    Don’t all we men, at his age?
    Does the King’s fingerer-upper-in-waiting wear special gloves?

    1. 🎵It’s just a quick insert and jump to the left🎵

      An enlarged prostate does not signify anything bad.

      Saying that…all prostates must be investigated…Let’s line up all MP’s including the ones that think women can be men and men can be women and give them a good shafting.

        1. Why? What’s wrong with mine!
          It is perfect in every way….and after my 31st January colonoscopy i will be able to provide you a video. No charge !

          1. I’d prefer it if you caught the numerous very unpleasant diseases that would be transmitted, rather than me.

    1. As a youngster in Canada, in the 1950’s, where that amount of snow wasn’t out of the ordinary and 6 foot snowdrifts against the front door were very commonplace, I think an awful lot of fuss is being made for next to nothing.

      2. Its unusual for South Norway. Everything is stopped up.
        Many roads closed, all trains stopped, not many planes around. Lots snow & wind.

  90. This explains it all
    Grizzly is a trannie.

    Warning vegans! Animal proteins are crucial for healthy aging, major study of 50,000 women shows
    Eating plant-based with small amounts of animal protein wards off diseases
    Research shows that vegan diets can be harmful for overall health
    Find the latest news on plant based diets on our fabulous new wellness channel

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wellness-us/nutrition/article-12974033/warning-vegans-animal-protein-crucial-healthy-aging-study.html

  91. Here’s a thought to rest with.
    LooTun Airport have always promised not to allow flights to take off before 6 am on a daily basis. There have always been flights in the early hours for mail delivery around the Isles.
    Suddenly they have announced that they are now a 24 hour service. And much earlier flights can be heard I certain areas not too far away.
    Since the huge accident that was caused by an allegedly ‘electric desiel range rover’ that destroyed the whole multi storey carpark.
    And hundreds of cars.
    Some rumours have surfaced that instead of the car park being replaced as a car park, a whole new passenger terminal will be built on the area.
    The airport authority has been seeking expansion of the airport over many years.
    What a perfect opportunity.

    1. Cynicism becomes you. And i will add to that……………….there is no such thing as coincidence.

        1. Well that’s a…..predetermined chain of events created by people who wish to manipulate you. Or just something else…

      2. Exactly my thinking.
        I’ll test my good old mate in Bedfordshire with that one, who is often annoyed with their version of corporate greed.

        1. Given our relative ages it might possibly be the time to ‘nod and smile’………………

    1. We try to visit a grave further east where a family member rests having been killed towards the end of the offensive, 18th October.

      1. I visit the CWGC graveyards whenever I get the chance. I find them very dusty on occasion.

        2. My Gt uncle is buried in the CWGC cemetery at Lapugnoy. He died of pneumonia on 10th October 1918 aged 32. He was in the Welsh Regiment and had enlisted in 1914.

          1. What an utter pisser! Goes through the whole war and is carried off by disease at the last moment.

          2. After years in the trenches I’m not surprised he was weakened. He actually had quite a sad life – born posthumously as his father had drowned several months earlier. He became a shop assistant, apprenticed to his uncle. Spent several years in the Glamorgan county asylum with mental health problems. Was released just before he signed up as a soldier.

          3. Tough and short life.
            Good man himself for joining up – and wickedly unfair not to be demobbed.

          4. Some months after he died, my grandfather (his brother) and his sister received his financial assets – £12.4.0 each, which included his “war gratuity”. My grandfather also received his medals and bible. I presume my late cousin’s son now has those.

        3. Each times
          I have visited Thiepval, Tyne Cot and the Menin Gate someone has been peeling onions behind the wall.

        4. Each times
          I have visited Thiepval, Tyne Cot and the Menin Gate someone has been peeling onions behind the wall.

  93. Despite the cold it was a lovely day for a drive over the Staffs Moors to visit Stepson.
    It was -2°C when I got home, then about 4ish it was -4 and, according to the DT who’s just walked back from her Wednesday cleaning job, it’s -7°C!!!
    I’m ready for an early night so am logging off and away to bed.

    G’night all.

      1. -3°C in Cornwall, but apparently feeling like -7°C with the light north wind. Chilly coming back from the pub an hour ago but a beautiful half waxing moon and some bright planets and stars.

        1. Been snowing here for 4 hours now so it’ll be interesting how much there’ll be by morning

          1. Matchingyou snowflakes snowflake. Staff have been out three times today clearing the driveway and paths.

            Damn, it’s a tough life watching them work.

  94. Staggers back in amazement…
    On Winter watch, an expert was given a golden key to blame climate change.

    Instead, he stated that because more people were looking for something it was more likely it would be found!
    And then explained what was involved.

    Animals adapt; blimey, whodathunkit.

  95. Evening, all. I think that traditional Tory voters had despaired long before the Rwanda debacle.

    2. As I told my MP, one Simon Ho@re, I haven’t left the Conservative Party, the Conservative Party has left me.

      1. I think he’s one of them. He’s handing Argentina over to big corporations. Also, I read somewhere that they’re using the dollar? which would help the US a little.

      2. You may be right and time will tell. But why make a speech there at all? Associating with liars, murderers and perverts is not going to promote debate. The Filth would love us to think they are worried and in retreat. Not at all IMO.

  98. The only thing shocking about a 1997-style wipeout is that Sunak might keep 169 seats

    It’s one thing to alienate the floating voter, but they’ve been acting like they were their natural supporters’ own worst enemy

    ALLISON PEARSON • 16 January 2024 • 7:30pm

    A YouGov poll splashed across Monday’s front page foresees a shocking electoral wipeout for the Conservatives on the scale of their 1997 defeat by Labour.

    But were you shocked when you saw it? Is anyone really shocked? The only shocking thing about the shock poll, I think, is that it reckons the shockingly bad Tories will manage to hang on to 169 seats.

    Wishful thinking, to my mind. A far superior and more reliable opinion poll – the comments under articles like this one in The Telegraph no less – has seen this asteroid coming for over 18 months. It is one thing to alienate the floating voter, but the Conservatives have been governing as if they were their natural supporters’ own worst enemy.

    It is hard to overstate the sense of betrayal and anger. Back in October, I said that the Tories would be lucky to retain 150 seats and that was before we heard the Oh-dear-God legal immigration figures.

    To wilfully welcome a population the size of Birmingham when your own people are struggling to access healthcare, housing and safe maternity services, which they have paid for out of their taxes, goes beyond mere incompetence. It is plain rude.

    A “kick in the teeth”, as Suella Braverman said. Oh, and massively disrespectful of your loyal supporters. Immigration at those levels undermines social cohesion and it stops social mobility in its tracks because too many of our young people, who know they will never own a home and must live in extortionate rented accommodation while they pay off their student loan (like my two, in fact), get despondent and give up.

    The UK now has a higher proportion of foreign-born residents than the United States – more than 10 million people, which is 15 per cent of our population and roughly twice as many as it was 10 years ago.

    Did any Conservative vote for that? Did they heck. But the people in whom we first placed our trust back in 2010, whose manifesto commitments we stupidly believed, went ahead and did it anyway. How did Tory MPs come to believe they were better judges of what the country needs than the British voter?

    While many who came to this country as immigrants, and the children of those immigrants, are making a fantastic contribution and are every bit as British as any of us, we all know there are a horrifying number of idle ratbags sponging off the efforts of hardworking families, getting priority for social housing, university places and even hospital appointments.

    A poisonous minority hates the West while living in the, er, West and enjoying its comforts and freedoms. We don’t want them here.

    Record mass immigration “and under a Conservative government”. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read or heard that incredulous rider. People say it all the time: The highest taxes for 70 years “and under a Conservative government”.

    Over 40,000 migrants arriving illegally on our southern coast “and under a Conservative government”.

    Blackmailing the motorist into buying EVs they can’t afford and struggle to resell “and under a Conservative government”.

    Failing to exploit our own bountiful energy resources by banning fracking and shutting perfectly good coal-fired power stations “and under a Conservative government”.

    Pursuing the economic suicide that is net zero, which gives comfort to our enemies and won’t make a gnat’s breath of difference to global carbon emissions, “and under a Conservative government”.

    Allowing trans ideology and batshit crazy Marxist identity politics to take root in our schools and institutions “and under a Conservative government”. Hospitals asking male patients if they could be pregnant “and under a Conservative government”.

    Ditto “people with cervixes”. Woman. The word you are looking for is WOMAN! “And under a Conservative government.” Putting up thousands of illegal migrants in hotels while our homeless veterans sleep on the streets “and under a Conservative government”.

    The British Army no longer regarded by our allies as a top-level fighting force “and under a Conservative government”. The RAF found guilty of discriminating against white men “and under a Conservative government”. Businesses still reeling from lockdown hit with a brutal rise in corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent “and under a Conservative government”.

    It’s hardly an exhaustive list of the unTory abominations we have witnessed over 14 years of Conservative government. Do feel free to add your own.

    So, when people shake their heads sorrowfully, marvelling that such and such a thing has taken place under – of all people – a Conservative government there is clearly a residual sense, a powerful nostalgia if you like, that Conservatives would never have allowed it to happen, not on their watch.

    Sadly, the party no longer merits the benefit of the doubt. Why should we trust Rishi Sunak? Whenever the Tories appear to be tacking back in the right direction, it turns out to be a minor adjustment; the bare minimum they can get away with without causing a fit of the vapours in Ursula von der Leyen. Or upsetting all those Blue Wall voters they presume are on the Left of the party. (They’re not.)

    Things the Conservatives used to be good at, which was often not doing too much, they are now really bad at. People calling themselves Conservative MPs have allowed all of the above list to happen, which tells us that they are imposters.

    Because they don’t like or believe in Conservative things; they are liberal globalists who have no particular allegiance to this blessed plot so the dilution of its culture is irrelevant, the comfort and safety of our people unimportant. In fact, many Conservative MPs appear to despise Conservative values, and they loathe those of us who love them. The feeling is mutual, I can assure you.

    The Rwanda plan in particular, and immigration in general, are now routinely scorned by so-called One Nation Conservatives as a concern of the “Right of the party” or even the “far-Right” when, in fact, the majority of Tory voters are very concerned indeed. (This is why only 38 per cent of the 13.9 million people who backed Boris in 2019 will definitely vote for the Tories again this year. If they’re lucky.)

    On Radio 4’s Today programme, Miriam Cates explained why she, Robert Jenrick and other “rebel” Tory MPs are demanding the Rwanda Bill be tightened up to prevent the farcical merry-go-round of appeals and the disappearance of potential criminals and terrorists.

    In November, the Home Office admitted that they do not know the whereabouts of 17,000 asylum seekers whose claims have been discontinued. In a functioning country, that scandalous admission would have seen public apologies and resignations. In Broken Britain, it was par for the course.

    As Cates pointed out to a disapproving Mishal Husain (you can practically hear her shuddering fastidiously into the microphone, can’t you?): “The British people have had enough of it.”

    A poll in The Telegraph, the Sheffield MP said, showed that “in almost all constituencies in the country the preferred option is for quick detention and deportation (to Rwanda)”. If Cates, an eminently sensible, down-to-earth Northerner is now considered a far-Right trouble-maker, it is hardly surprising that Reform UK is hoovering up Tory votes.

    Analysis of that shocking yet not-at-all shocking opinion poll warned that 96 Conservative seats will be lost because Reform will be standing a candidate in every constituency. As if it were Reform’s fault!

    Nigel Farage and Richard Tice are not to blame for the fact that former Conservatives cannot bear to vote for a party which has let them down in almost every single regard, even if the alternative is Starmergeddon.

    Last week, I interviewed Ben Habib, the co-deputy leader of Reform, for the Planet Normal podcast and was taken aback. Who was this excellent fellow talking with such passion about putting the interests of British people first? Ben sounded, well, he sounded like a Conservative actually.

    A sound nearly as extinct as the call of the hooded grebe or the kakapo. If I lived in Wellingborough, where Ben is standing in the forthcoming by-election, I would vote for him like a shot.

    Many just like me will feel the same. The Conservatives pocketed our votes and used them to create a country we barely recognise. The UK needs and wants a Right-wing party. If Tory MPs find our views distasteful, other parties are available.

    The democratic process, when it swings round every five years, has a neat way of showing an arrogant and imposter government who is boss. The ballot does not lie.

    I’m sure the Labour landslide will be every bit as awful as we fear, but true Conservatives will emerge from the rubble and, with our help, they will build again. (Even the Canadian Conservatives managed to recover after losing 167 seats and retaining only two in 1993.)

    At least there’s one thing to look forward to. It’s going to be a lot more fun hating a government you didn’t vote for.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/01/16/conservative-election-1997-wipeout-sunak-government-voters/

    Much of what is wrong with the UK is a product of Labour policy 1997-2010, unchanged (except for the worse) by a succession of faux-Tory administrations. Labour won’t undo any of it. There’s little that the ‘Tories’ have done of which it disapproves. One exception is the Rwanda business. Labour will allow the criminal tide to remain…or will it? I have pondered on an unlikely consequence, which is that Labour might get away with measures which would be regarded as ‘racist’ if implemented by the ‘Tories’. However, the party is so dependent on immigrant votes and volunteers that it would probably be reluctant to exercise any proper control of immigration.

    Can one simultaneously fear and hope that Labour will be so disastrously bad for the UK that out of the inevitable ruins something better might emerge?

    1. Put in a list like that, the Tories deserve not just to be voted out, but to be buried in a mass grave, using caterpillar graders.

  99. Just in the nick of six. Bl**dy annoying when there are several options and you just keep picking the wrong one, I had the correct word in mind in a list of possibles at 3 but chose alternatives 🙁 🙁

    Wordle 942 6/6

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

    5. Thanks Rastus and Caroline.
      You do a fantastic job of keeping up with the anniversaries of this motley crew.

  103. Goodnight everyone. Minus 3.5 degrees C here. Have just stoked the Rayburn to keep the chill off.

  104. Nugger.
    Woke up over an hour ago and unable to get back to sleep, so came downstairs.
    It’s a tad under -8°C with a totally clear sky full of stars so likely to get colder before sunrise.

  105. Just pinched off Going Postal:-

    Rattus
    an hour ago
    In the 80s women had a full bush down there, a full bush.
    80s a full bush.
    90s a landing strip.
    2000s Bald.
    2023….Cock !

  108. It’s not a French problem – it’s our problem. Our benefits, social security and other advantages make illegal immigration too attractive. The UK could easily remove the attractiveness but bleeding-heart liberals, social warriors and, let’s be honest, wealthy business people who want cheap labour would be up in arms if a government tried to do so.

Comments are closed.