Friday 19 January: What the hounding of Katharine Birbalsingh says about British culture

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.

643 thoughts on “Friday 19 January: What the hounding of Katharine Birbalsingh says about British culture”

  1. Good morning, chums. First today, and a Wordle in five.

    Wordle 944 5/6

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

    1. Good Morning Elsie

      Second and in Three

      Wordle 944 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨🟨🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. 172nd and matching Elsie
        Wordle 944 5/6

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

    2. Snow starting to melt up here so I guess it’s slightly warmer although it doesn’t feel like it

  4. Good Morning All. -1.2C Clear sky with slight frost, Full sun to come. East Sussex Coast. (Seaford Bay)

  5. Good Morning All. -1.2C Clear sky with slight frost, Full sun to come. East Sussex Coast. (Seaford Bay)

  6. Good Morning All. -1.2C Clear sky with slight frost, Full sun to come. East Sussex Coast. (Seaford Bay)

    1. Good morning, Sailing Gypsy. (I hope that “Sawadee Ka” is not swearing at us all. Lol.)

  9. What the hounding of Katharine Birbalsingh says about British culture

    It says that Islam rules

        1. Are you sure?

          Nato braced for all-out war with Russia in the next 20 years: Top defence chief issues starkest warning yet and says civilians and governments must brace for cataclysmic conflicts and potential conscription

  10. Attack on Ulez camera led to girl, six, being injured in car accident. 19 January 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ec7e8c0dd1a8a0177f4c5206d3c98f7ad4d40f56cd7e3210548a55c0880f06ba.jpg

    Chief Inspector Prita Shoma said: “Two police units, who should have been available to answer 999 calls, were instead required to spend the morning managing traffic.

    “The people who are carrying out this criminal damage are putting the public at risk. This morning, there has been a collision between two cars on Court Road, at the location of one of the damaged traffic lights, in which a child was injured.

    “I would urge the people carrying out these crimes to stop immediately.”

    There is of course no connection with the two incidents but the lack of public sympathy for the police’s task requires a comment. The article is useful though for the information. There seems to be an impressive campaign being waged against these devices.

    The latest incident comes after eight sets of lights in Bromley were chopped down early on Monday morning.

    More power to their elbows!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/18/ulez-camera-attack-blamed-for-car-accident/

    1. “Lack of public sympathy” to the Police who are operating a taxation scheme.

      It would be better if the Police concentrated on knife crime on London streets.

    2. It’s criminal damage. Better to nobble the local council leaders, MPs etc. For example, local tradesmen could start doing KYC checks on potential customers.

  12. Nato warns of all-out war with Russia in next 20 years. 19 January 2024

    Civilians must prepare for all-out war with Russia in the next 20 years, a top Nato military official has warned.

    While armed forces are primed for the outbreak of war, private citizens need to be ready for a conflict that would require wholesale change in their lives, Adml Rob Bauer said on Thursday.

    Large numbers of civilians will need to be mobilised in case of the outbreak of war and governments should put in place systems to manage the process, Adml Bauer told reporters after a meeting of Nato defence chiefs in Brussels.

    Of course Russia with its 143 million population is going to invade Europe with its 764 million + the US. It will be a walkover. (sarc) There is also the unspoken corollary that any such conflict woulld rapidly morph into a Nuclear Exchange.

    This article is really about boosting support for Ukraine in the present.

    In what is now becoming the normal the BTL comments reflect this ( the Nudge Unit Trolls are still in bed) understanding.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/01/18/nato-warns-of-war-with-russia-putin-next-20-years-ukraine/

    1. With such a prediction you might expect our leaders to arrange a huddle and talk about solutions to such a conflict in Europe. Whilst we havent yet expanded the slaughter beyond Ukraine, it could be a time for level headed discussion not clouded by the emotions of war. But it seems beyond the wit of our leaders who see the destruction of Russia as a noble aim to nudge our continent into all out conflict. Fools, the lot of them.

    1. Good Morning, Wm. I was ‘missing in action’ and off piste a couple of days ago so failed to wish you a Very Happy Birthday.

    1. That’s offensive. Only ‘low caste’ Hindus have a tendency to convert to Christianity.

      1. Because the reality is that low caste Hindus are persecuted, despised and shunned by the likes of Rishi Sunak. Opting out of Hinduism is their only choice. Millions have converted to Buddhism for the same reason. Might sound impressive but taking the population of India in to account millions of Christians or Buddhists doesn’t amount to much. Interesting fact.

        The wheel and lions on the Indian flag is the symbol of the great Buddhist emperor Ashoka. Nehru and most of the elite of his time regarded Hinduism as the bane of India always to hold India back. They hoped that Buddhism could regain its status as the national religion for the sake of India’s progress. Indira Gandhi was of the same opinion.

  16. The ‘trial’ of Katharine Birbalsingh is a battle for the future of Britain

    There’s a vital principle at stake in the case: whether ‘rights’ culture is allowed to trump social cohesion

    FRASER NELSON
    18 January 2024 • 7:56pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/01/18/TELEMMGLPICT000190666432_17056076976290_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqdyzzeLTVDDdM_6qhSz43_P4Xpit_DMGvdp2n7FDd82k.jpeg?imwidth=680

    The Michaela Community School in northwest London is not just a curiosity: it’s a phenomenon. Its head teacher, Katharine Birbalsingh, has such a big public profile that you might wonder if her school lives up to its hype.

    It does. Results are astonishing. Its pupils leave, on average, with better grades than most private schools – but a quarter of Michaela pupils are on free school meals. When it comes to raising attainment, Michaela was recently ranked first out of 6,959 secondaries. You’d hope that her model would be copied and rolled out nationally. Instead, she’s being sued.

    The trial of Katharine Birbalsingh – or, at least, her school – is a story of our times. Anyone who innovates in state education needs to be ready for battle because they are taking on an establishment. They can expect lawsuits on bizarre pretexts and technicalities. Their antagonists specialise in rustling up legal aid – so the taxpayer sues the taxpayer.

    It has become a form of routine harassment, punishing those who deviate from the norm. But to end up in the High Court is unusual, even for the free school movement.

    She’s being sued over her strict policy of secularism, which she regards as the glue that binds her multi-faith school together. About half of the 700 pupils are Muslim – so it would be quite an impact if the school (a converted office block) was to somehow empty rooms for lunchtime prayers.

    It would also threaten an important principle: to have no form of separation or segregation, on grounds of religion or ethnicity. That everyone is together and equal: and swallow differences, so they all get on.

    A founding principle of the school is that teachers control the culture, not just the lessons. Pupils stay silent in corridors, unless greeting passing staff. At lunchtime, they eat in assigned groups of six. One pupil sets the table, another fetches and serves food, another wipes up.

    It’s seen as a vital ritual, to emphasise that all are part of the same school family. Other inner-city schools have problems with gangs, bullying and tensions between Caribbean and African, Hindu and Muslim, Sunni and Shia. Michaela’s mixed lunchtimes are intended to avoid that.

    At first, meat was served. But Hindus avoided the beef and Muslims the pork: pupils started to segregate. To avoid this, lunch at Michaela is now all vegetarian. Cohesion is crucial, as is equality before the rules. So when one pupil started to pray at lunchtime, then was joined by others, and then other Muslims were pressured into joining in, it was a serious challenge to school culture. A social media campaign started and teachers started being threatened by outsiders. School governors tried to end the debate by voting, 11-to-1, to ban prayer. A pupil sued – and here we are.

    But this is about more than just one school. In her statement, Birbalsingh has said that this is about the basis on which a multi-faith Britain can be made to work: asking everyone to give up something, not to insist on everything, so we can all get on. She has been giving a polite “no” for years. Christian parents complain about the Sunday revision sessions; Jehovah’s Witnesses about Macbeth (they dislike the study of witches), Hindus about plates that touch eggs. She has said, to each of them: please accept the school’s ethos. We all need to compromise.

    So you can see the principle at stake here. One one hand is what the French call laïcité: an agreement to leave religion out of certain areas (like the classroom) so that people of all religions and none can rub along together.

    Against this we have the grievance industry, preaching minority rights. Claiming that “freedom of religion” somehow compels schools to open prayer rooms, or drop whatever may offend a minority – like Macbeth or Sunday study or plates that touch eggs – even if they are within majority national culture.

    With Michaela, the proposition is clear: everyone compromises. Few pupils really want vegetarian food, everyone is asked to eat it – but that’s so they can all get along together and come up with the kind of academic results that you’d be lucky to find in a £20,000-a-year private school. Everyone agrees that their “right” – to meat, prayer rooms or an uninterrupted lunchtime – is there to be sacrificed so they can take part in this educational miracle.

    But Birbalsingh has run ahead of the Government. What Michaela does works: but it is not protected by law.

    The real scandal, of course, is that this nonsense has gone to the High Court in the first place. But the Tories have been confused on this for years, not sure whether to pose as champions of diversity or enemies of identity politics. One piece of official advice says schools must ensure they are “enabling Muslim pupils to pray at prescribed times”. Another says schools are not “required to provide any pupil with a physical space, such as a prayer room”. Which is it?

    As Rishi Sunak has found out with Rwanda, his party has left a legal mess so deep that rule by lawyers has supplanted rule of law. This is why Britain’s most successful state school is now on trial.

    It’s quite possible that Birbalsingh loses, staff are obliged to open prayer rooms so the Muslim pupils disappear upstairs while non-Muslims go to have lunch, thereby destroying the cohesion that all of its staff fought so hard to create. And the Muslim parents who liked their children not being intimidated by more conservative-religious peers will lose this protection.

    It’s sometimes said that Britain created the world’s most successful multi-faith democracy, without really thinking about it. But perhaps we should start thinking about it. One in 10 school pupils now live in Muslim families: what to do when a small number start to ask for prayer rooms? How many head teachers would, as Birbalsingh has done, hold out even if this means going to the High Court?

    The Tories often say they are the party taking on the forces of identity politics – but it’s the Birbalsinghs of this world who fight the battles. With a few more months still left in power, the Conservatives can do a lot more to make sure the law is on her side.

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

    Daphne Gratton
    9 HRS AGO
    Muslim activists will bring Katherine down and they will bring our country down.

    Paul norris
    9 HRS AGO
    This woman is an absolute legend. We need many more like her and if the “Establishment” fails to support her fully in this – would the last person to leave GB turn the lights out

    Steven McFarland
    9 HRS AGO
    50 years ago, everything was just fine in most schools. Morning assembly, hyms, perhaps a harvest festival celebration, and a nativity play at Xmas – all part of a relaxed, luke warm C of E backdrop to normal life. Then THEY started to arrive, and our religion shuffled off into the wings – while THEIR po xy fantasies were ring fenced by new laws. Now OUR traditional way of life is melting away, to be replaced by something wholly alien and repellent.

      1. I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s a requirement even to hold an assembly these days.

    2. Steven McFarland says what many, many of us think. And Katharine Birbalsingh, whatever her undoubted excellence as a teacher and whether she intends it or not, is aiding and abetting the process. She is actually a part of our problem.

      Where are the white British children in the photograph?

      2. No, she is NOT part of the problem, she is part of the solution to the problem and deserves the utmost support of the country.

        1. I think it unlikely that these children will return at the end of the day to homes where they will imbibe any awareness of just whose homeland and whose capital city it is that they are inhabiting – especially the hijab-wearing girls. In the current neo–Marxist anti-white climate, Birbalsingh is contributing to the production of an immigrant-descended, well-educated population which will take precedence over native British people for jobs and promotions, especially in London. Therefore I maintain that she is a part of our problem. We’ll just have to agree to differ on that.

    3. Steven McFarland says what many, many of us think. And Katharine Birbalsingh, whatever her undoubted excellence as a teacher and whether she intends it or not, is aiding and abetting the process. She is actually a part of our problem.

      Where are the white British children in the photograph?

    4. Steven McFarland says what many, many of us think. And Katharine Birbalsingh, whatever her undoubted excellence as a teacher and whether she intends it or not, is aiding and abetting the process. She is actually a part of our problem.

      Where are the white British children in the photograph?

    7. Half the pupils are muslim. Why are they here? If they’re on free school meals that probably means the parents are not working, so here’s an idea. Stop them getting paid to breed. Just cut off the tap. Stop legal aid for these cases. Heck, they’re brought by activists probably funded from a quango so find them, sack them, destroy the quango and bar them from the public sector ever again.

      Solve the problem by stopping them having access to public money in any form.

    8. The same Fraser Nelson who was confidently writing that the UK was such a successful multiculturalism experiment.

  17. Putin is fuelling his war by plundering Africa’s minerals. Dominic Raab, 19 January 2024.

    If we want to turn the tide on the battlefield in Ukraine, compete with China’s Belt and Road scheme, and protect artisanal mining communities from being wiped out, countries sharing the basic values of humanity need to forge a better plan with the business community. Something to think about in Davos.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    David Robson.

    All very well articulated Dominic, but I’m afraid it’s all completely irrelevant. I just read the article on Palestinian protests threatening to close down our primary schools.

    Our biggest threat has been brought into the country by your party.

    This is the reality is it not? As the Elites bustle round taking care of Russia and China we ourselves are being occupied by those who do not love us!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/19/putin-fuelling-war-by-plundering-africas-minerals/

  18. Good morning all.
    Another chilly start with -5½°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    A rather disturbed night for some reason, awake several times through the night, so I just MIGHT head back to bed later.
    Not a lot planned, but I’ve a letter to write to British Gas on behalf of Stepson, they have been grossly overestimating the gas usage of his flat together with a couple of other issues.

    2. The energy companies earn about 4.5% on credit balances, so they are on the same dungheap as MPs and Post Office Counters. IMHO.

  19. Good morning all,

    A lovely frosty dawn again at Castle McPhee, wind in the West but gradually working its way back to the South, -2℃ rising to +4℃ today.

    The red arm of the uniparty, Liebour, are now the faction of the bird-and-bat-munching eco crucifixes. They wish to speed up the despoilation of the countryside with them and with solar panels instead of food production.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1002d974fdd1937380ba2aaaa37ee92272f5b43dbc415042732846219f2da7b3.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/01/18/labour-fast-track-countryside-wind-turbines-solar-net-zero/

    Resistance is not futile. It is a duty.

    1. Dale Vince put one up years ago a couple of miles from here. He claims all his Ecotrickery energy is green.

      1. Is anybody local telling him the truth is otherwise? Is anyone campaigning against him?

          1. I suggested to a greeniac that they pay my bills. They didn’t think they should, as the planet was everyone’s responsibility.

            I suggested he take his zealous hubris elsewhere.

          2. The rank hypocrisy of the UK greeniacs is that wind turbines, EVs etc require massive damage to the planet while being constructed and shipped. However as that happens outside UK it apparently doesn’t matter – “we” are still net zero because it was all done elsewhere – screw the rest of the world as long as we can virtue signal?

      2. Ask him to do without tax payer subsidy and then invest in windmills. His millions would evaporate overnight at the losses.

    2. Starmer should live on the state pension in a council house which has a heat pump or electric radiators forced on him for a few months. In fact, all MPs should.

      That’d change their minds pronto. If it doesn’t, they should be kicked in the face until they stop demanding the wretched things.

      1. I couldn’t agree more, I suspect most of 600 plus would spend more than the current basic annual pension each week. And claiming it back in expenses. They don’t have an effing clue.

    3. Well if that’s the case not one turbine will be raised anywhere near a labour MPs home.

    5. The unremitting stupidity of the general public will ensure a Labour landslide victory.

      You heard it here, first, on Friday, 19 January, 2024.

  20. Speaking on Talk TV just now, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown referred to the furnaces at Port Talbot as “boilers” throughout the interview. Nobody saw fit to correct him.

    2. Geoffrey Clifton-Brown is not fit to speak on Talk TV;
      Geoffrey Clifton-Brown is not fit to be an MP.

    1. My doctor said to me “I hope you’re not going to enjoy this”!
      I replied immediately saying “I hope you’re not”!
      We had a chuckle.

      1. Doctor – “Now then David , relax and try not to get an erection”
        Patient – “Ok but my name isn’t David”
        Doctor – “I know – that’s me”

    3. I was very shocked and taken by surprise as I was so naïf that I did not know what the doctor was about to do when I went for my first prostate check! Caroline, along with the others in the waiting room outside, heard my exclamation of outrage, indignation and dismay!

  22. Good morning all

    Sunny, clear and -6c here , and Moh already away for a game of golf .

    Blackbirds , males and females are already searching for food . Suet ..

  23. Morning all 🙂😊
    Minus 4 but sun peeping over roof tops.
    The hounding of Kathrine Birbalsingh ?
    It shows our culture is broken. Its been wrecked and infiltrated by the Dopey Wokies who seem to have been allowed to take charge in such obviously important decisions for the future of this nation.
    She is right to ban this, an other blatant attempt to undermine British tradition and our own long established cultural rights.

    1. She is on the side of excellence, and thus persona non grata as far as the Left is concerned.

      1. IMHO there is no need for any outside interference by relgious trouble makers in any ‘free schools’ in the country. If the muslims want to spend time on their knees they can build and pay for their own schools.
        As has been the case for many decades. CofE, Catholic, Jewish, etc.
        They need to be put in place once and for all. We all realise that they are trying to bring our nation to its knees in their terms.

        1. The problem they have is that in far too many cases as soon as a “Muslim” school gets OFSTED inspected and rated it comes out as unsatisfactory.

          3. They wouldn’t have come here without an assurance that British taxpayers would support them

          4. I’m sure a posse of Muslim parents could soon make life unbearable for any OFSTED inspector who breathed a word of criticism.

          5. Apart from the radicalisation risks, given that the type of Muslims who would send their children to such a school have net zero intention of integrating, there is a lot to be said for getting them out of the “normal” education system altogether, to stop them undermining successful schools.

          6. It’s a difficult one.
            They would then grow in a Petri dish of hatred towards western culture.
            Sadly, because we have had spineless governments for 30 years, that is happening anyway.

      2. Her pupils do not automatically join the underclass who expect the government to do everything for them.
        She is depriving our ruling cadre of its client state.

    3. Apparently, those arguing for bringing the 7th century death cult prayers to the school are being funded by legal aid!

  24. Are the 3000 jobs being lost at Portalbot the green jobs we’ve heard so much about?

    1. Yes, as in the workers being put out to pasture. The change indicates what is happening in our once great country, from a producer of high grade steel to a processor of scrap metal. It saves 1.5% of the UK’s CO2 emissions apparently…

      1. When all the ex workers die, through lack of government financial support, will the town be turned over to the Doveristas?

    2. Because once more our vipers nest of stupid politicians think that they know best.
      Meanwhile the ‘they’ are obviously making yet another very serious decimating and destructive mistake.
      How thick do they have to be to squirm they way into the Wastemonster factory.

      1. Nut Zero is the excuse.
        Armed Forces need a reliable source of steel – from within their own country.
        Remember what has been done to our Armed Forces and the deliberate cessation of steel production is part of the whole scheme to betray this country.
        You can’t make decent ordnance out of melted down old baked bean tins and rusting BBQ grills.

        1. Precisely. I would add that rather than blow 2.5 billion on the clown in Ukraine this amount should be invested in Port Talbot.

          Of course our ferret faced rat bodied leader is a WEF plant and doing everything as instructed to wreck our country.

      2. Nut Zero is the excuse.
        Armed Forces need a reliable source of steel – from within their own country.
        Remember what has been done to our Armed Forces and the deliberate cessation of steel production is part of the whole scheme to betray this country.
        You can’t make decent ordnance out of melted down old baked bean tins and rusting BBQ grills.

    1. Yo T_B

      You really surprise me (sarc):

      Not a good position for a man o’war!

      How dare you be so.. sexist.

      The final descriptor should be

      Woman o’ war, It o’war, LGBTQWERTYo’war etc

    2. Another expression is being in irons when you get headed and stuck between one tack and another.

  26. More on DEI-ing the dearth
    https://www.takimag.com/article/dei-in-a-fire/

    “There will be no diversity and inclusion since the aim is not to include all but to exclude those deemed to be oppressors.”

    Of course who does this Dr. Golden think needs to be taken down a notch? Whites, heterosexuals, Christians, native English speakers, males, and anyone who does not fit into the leftist-defined “victim” status.

    1. I don’t think this applies to our “guests” in Portland Harbour.

      Stockholm syndrome is a proposed condition or theory that tries to explain why hostages sometimes develop a psychological bond with their captors. It is supposed to result from a rather specific set of circumstances, namely the power imbalances contained in hostage-taking, kidnapping, and abusive relationships.

  29. White men no longer want to fight for a nation that scorns them. 19 January 2024.

    Failure to meet recruiting targets is one thing. Peddling politically motivated and deeply flawed ideologically driven quotas is quite another. In another ill-thought out and controversial move to attempt to fix the UK military’s recruiting crisis, last week Defence Secretary Grant Shapps declared that ‘women are the solution to the Armed Forces recruitment crisis’.

    This is merely the latest apparent policy to attempt to force equality of outcome in the British military. Best illustrating this woke agenda is the Royal Air Force’s shameful recruitment fiasco from 2022 – when it was discovered that female and ethnic minority candidates were prioritised over white male recruits, regardless of suitability.

    The Political Elites have feared and despised the White Working Class for over twenty years. Why would any one of them feel that they owe them any allegiance ? Armies are fuelled by culture. The greatest and most effective of these is Nationalism. Without this unifying force they become mere armed mobs ready to flee at the first signs of serious resistance. It is fortunate that Russia is not a credible threat to the UK. Were we to fight them the reality of the UK’s armed forces would not match those of Ukraine.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/18/us-military-uk-recruiting-crisis-white-male/

      1. Good morning, Rastus. I’ve asked you two questions recently but I’m still waiting for your answers.

        1. Did Henry like his shipwreck chart?
        2. Are you delighted to discover that you will again, as a long-time as an expat, be permitted to vote in UK elections?

        Answers on the back of a 10/- (or Fr1) postal order.😉

    2. Do not fill your armies with foreigners. It will come back to bite you on the arse. As the Romans found out 1,600 years ago.

    3. Shapps has to be the most immature and gormless oaf ever to have been given a cabinet position. His every utterance is alarming. He lacks diplomatic skills and has no empathy for people.

  31. Church of England’s first trans archdeacon: ‘I promised I’d not prioritise being a priest over love’
    Rachel Mann on her second poetry collection, finding God on her journey between genders, and the church’s refusal to validate same-sex love
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/rachel-mann-poet-church-of-england-archdeacon-interview/

    KENT: Is this the promised end?
    EDGAR: Or image of that horrow?

    [King Lear]

    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

    .[W.B.Yeats]

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ec9c6e894e5c721e3d56256b6b36985d24e623536053fe038333cefe5c609fd7.png

    1. Surely if you become a priest you prioritise that over everything; that means ministering to your flock, worshipping Christ, living a good life …

  32. ‘Morning All

    The green energy transformation in the public sector continues and it’s all going as well as can be expected.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90341daebdabaf23338af169f2730d7ca3d5ed1a30f823ecd2a702fdfe4fde94.png

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6f1fe4dddfece75ffd4933d58b38c9f9a18061810bae4ca111ee52d98cd147ff.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da8d65ac1ee903c6f2a5a39c715fb453092a451d2ac08cf1cd13e749412604f3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9e9a65a68a287867f74cf95d82bb7ddf9818e5fa8e2a88c54789c8bd1e846f93.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dcc832e66878fa0b82f2e8f14eba3eba9d60d91a98d038cc3815f6abd9928d43.jpg

  33. Good morrow, gentlefolk. I’ve decided to go back to the first.
    Scream if it’s all too familiar.

    FOUR FRIENDS

    Four friends, who hadn’t seen each other in 30 years, reunited at a party
    After several drinks, one of the men had to use the rest room.
    Those who remained talked about their kids.
    The first guy said, ‘My son is my pride and joy. He started working at a successful company at the bottom of the barrel.
    He studied Economics and Business Administration and soon began to climb the corporate ladder and now he’s the president of the company. He became so rich that he gave his best friend a top of the line Mercedes for his birthday.’
    The second guy said, ‘Darn, that’s terrific! My son is also my pride and joy. He started working for a big airline, then went to flight school to become a pilot. Eventually he became a partner in the company, where he owns the majority of its assets, He’s so rich that he gave his best friend a brand-new jet for his birthday.’
    The third man said: ‘Well, that’s terrific! My son studied in the best universities and became an engineer. Then he started his own construction company and is now a multimillionaire. He also gave away something very nice and expensive to his best friend for his birthday: A 30,000 square foot mansion.’
    The three friends congratulated each other just as the fourth returned from the restroom and asked: ‘What are all the congratulations for?’
    One of the three said: ‘We were talking about the pride we feel for the successes of our sons. What about your son?’
    The fourth man replied: ‘My son is gay and makes a living dancing as a stripper at a nightclub.’
    The three friends said: ‘What a shame… what a disappointment.’
    The fourth man replied: ‘No, I’m not ashamed. He’s my son and I love him.
    And he hasn’t done too badly either. His birthday was two weeks ago, and he received a beautiful 30,000 square foot mansion, a brand-new jet and a top of the line Mercedes from his three boyfriends.

  34. Morning all,

    Temp outside in Ipswich hovering about zero degC.
    Measured MOH’s Subaru 12v battery which reads 0% charge:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/33a665c41d771ac969a07b332b318bfdba9bf3c647f1a4ca773a28c9623634d7.jpg

    Being san ICE car in freezing temperatures I have no worries about it not being able to start below 12 volts because the battery is not really dead until it reaches 10.5 volts.

    On the other hand, whilst an EV’s 12 volt battery also measures good in this situation, the EV will not start because the battery management system says there is no charge left in its 12 volt battery

  37. 382092+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Dt,
    Nato warns of all-out war with Russia in next 20 years
    Top official urges civilians as well as governments to prepare for life-changing conflict and potential conscription

    May one ask,

    Has anyone ask Ivan Ivanov or Tommy Atkins their feelings ?
    A lady now in the process of giving birth can rest assured that the child male / female / tranny will have full ( short lived) employment as compulsory trench fodder, for the deaf / daft bastards among us the ruling enemas are TELLING US NOW.

    Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” “Violence is the last resort of the incompetent,
    and brother, we do have very dangerous political incompetents
    in abundance.

    That nuclear stuff hurts, terminally.

    1. Frankly, if that is the case and I was younger, I would go to Russia and fight on their side. NATO and the USA in particular, created this problem with its perfidious conduct toward Russia during the collapse of the USSR. With regard to Russia, we are the enemies of truth and justice and the Russians are its allies. Russia is not our foe. Our enemies are Islam and the Chinese Communist regime.

      1. I agree. Russia has never sought conflict but has been obliged to develop ways to effectively defend itself. Thus we see their attritional war strategies in the recent defeat of the Ukrainian offensive.

        The US by contrast is accustomed to throwing men and machinery at its supposed enemy without any clear strategy or aims.

        The US has never won a war, failed ignominiously in Vietnam, caused mayhem in Iraq and followed up with more carnage in Libya. As for the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle words are hard to find.

    2. The ageing UK population doesn’t bode well for the outcomes foreseen by the NATO admiral.
      However, the UK does have the advantage of being able to deploy young fit civilians by the boat load for the defence of this attractive country should they wish to stay here. 🤔

    3. The ageing UK population doesn’t bode well for the outcomes foreseen by the NATO admiral.
      However, the UK does have the advantage of being able to deploy young fit civilians by the boat load for the defence of this attractive country should they wish to stay here. 🤔

    4. If NATO are going to war within 20 years, that’s a very short time-span to re-arm sufficiently.

      1. Yet our cretinous UK government are allowing the closure of Port Talbot leaving us having to import virgin steel from China or India.

        Ukraine was easily defeated by Russia because the collective west could not match Russia in artillery shell production and because Ukraine has run out of men prepared to fight a proxy war.

  38. Morning all, sun again, q2uite disturbing.
    Another school threatened. Iv’e reproduced whole article for those who do not subscribe to The Telegraph.

    Primary school embroiled in Palestine row may be forced to close
    Barclay Primary School, in east London, may switch to online learning after ‘arson and bomb threats’ over Islamophobia accusations

    Gabriella Swerling,
    SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS EDITOR and
    Robert Mendick,
    CHIEF REPORTER
    18 January 2024 • 6:00pm

    A second school accused of Islamophobia may be forced to close its doors over its headteacher’s decision to ban children from wearing pro-Palestinian badges, The Telegraph can reveal.

    Barclay Primary School in Leyton, east London, sent a letter to parents warning that it may have to “revert to online learning” if the safety of children and staff cannot be guaranteed after it had received bomb threats over the policy.

    It comes after Katharine Birbalsingh, the head of Michaela Community School in Brent, north-west London, was forced to close for Christmas two days early after hoax claims that bombs had been placed on the premises following a decision to impose a “prayer ban”.

    Glass bottles were tossed over the railings and a brick was thrown through one teacher’s window, leaving staff “fearing for their lives”. The school is facing a High Court challenge from a Muslim pupil.

    Protests at Barclay Primary were triggered on Dec 21 after a TikTok video alleging that an eight-year-old pupil was being bullied by teachers for being Palestinian went viral.

    The protests forced the school to shut two days early at the end of last term because of “escalating threats against staff” caused by “malicious fabrications”. The video was viewed more than 250,000 times.

    The backlash has continued into the new year, with police officers stationed at the school amid “allegations of anti-Muslim prejudice and Islamophobia towards staff members”.

    In a letter seen by The Telegraph, Lion Academy Trust, which runs Barclay Primary School, wrote to all parents on Jan 10, warning that measures were being taken “to secure the school for the benefit of children and staff” amid “despicable threats”.

    It said that over the Christmas period, “a serious threat was received in writing” and shared with police, and that on Jan 9, an anonymous caller “made a series of racial slurs and a further threat to commit criminal damage (arson) against the school and to individual staff”.
    Among the measures being taken are hiring private security, securing additional support from the Metropolitan Police, closing the main reception and installing CCTV.

    The letter added that “further measures” are being considered if “this situation does not revert to a normal mode of operation” or if “the safety of children or staff cannot be assured”. This means that officials will “close the school and revert to online learning for as long as we believe it is necessary”.

    It concluded: “This is the option of last resort – but please be aware that, should staff continue to be threatened, then we will have no option but to close the school.

    “Additionally, if any parent or individual is proven to be involved in instigating this campaign against the school, via their actions online or in-person, we will act to ban those individuals from attending the site(s).”

    On Jan 8, Justin James, the executive head teacher of Barclay Primary School, had written to parents saying that no evidence to support any allegations of bullying or misconduct had been found through either an external or internal investigation.

    “Staff have been subject to a severe degree of misconduct and harassment, which now forms the basis of a series of criminal investigations that are currently taking place,” he wrote.

    ‘Staff are being intimidated’
    Speaking on condition of anonymity, a concerned staff member at the school said: “Barclay Primary School is currently being targeted by a group of parents who are pushing a political agenda and accusations of Islamophobia by not adhering to the school’s uniform policy.

    “Staff are being intimidated, bullied, abused, threatened and confronted as a result of misinformation and manipulation of the trust for this agenda.

    “The bomb threat that was made during the Christmas holidayled to the police being at the school in January for the first week of school, with more anxiety for staff. This has been further escalated by a recent arson threat and severe threats of violence and abuse of staff over the past weeks.

    “I personally am scared for my safety and all staff within the school. I am shocked that this is happening to a primary school. I chose to work at this school because it is one of the best in the country and I value its dedication and hard work. What has been happening is unacceptable for the staff and children – no school should be subjected to this.”

    The source said the trust was forced to send the letter to parents “due to alarming threats of bomb attacks, arson and the continued severe intimidation and racial allegations of anti-Muslim prejudice and Islamophobia towards staff members”.

    Before Christmas, masked men had climbed the school’s fence at night to hang Palestinian flags around its perimeter and protesters gathered outside the school chanting: “Barclay, shame on you” and “education is under attack”.

    The school had asked parents to stop sending their children to the school wearing any items alluding to political allegiance.

    The member of staff said: “These threats were the result of the pro-Palestinian protest held outside the school on Dec 21, which then gathered worldwide media attention and viral TikTok videos shared to shame staff and the school.

    “The behaviour of the community in sharing false and malicious information online has directly led to threats of violence, severe harassment, harsh and unjustified allegations and staff not feeling safe at work.”

    Barclay Primary School and Lion Academy Trust declined to comment.

    1. Much as I admire Katharine Birbalsingh and what she’s achieved, I would quibble with her on one point. When most of us nottlers were at school, academic standards and expected standards of behaviour were much higher than today and we had an act of Christian worship in the school assembly hall every morning. She has little choice but to adopt a relativist approach but the truth is that Christianity and Islam are not equal. The one is beneficial to society, the other not.

      1. Agree completely Sue. Islam should be treated as a cancer and not allowed to spread in the UK. All Muslims should be invited to depart, to be polite about it.

        1. A polite request might be couched in the following terms, “We will be ever so grateful if you would just fuck off back to the shithole you came from!”

      2. Given where her school is located, I think she has made the best of the situation.
        It is clear that the school has no religious bias one way or the other. There are religious schools if parents prefer them. This one makes it clear that whatever the pupils’ background, this is a lay school.

      3. And, Sue, I always remember that before those prayers started in the morning “RCs and Jews may be excused.” was the cry, and those of faiths other than C of E, withdrew to the library.

          2. One of my little group of close old schoolfriends was one of those Catholics – the other is of Jewish heritage. It didn’t affect our friendship at all.

            I remember our RE teacher well – she wouldn’t survive in today’s climate of PC and wokery – I remember her remarking that somebody was “tarred with the brush”…….

        2. I joined the ODs (Other Denominations) who retired to the NAAFI whilst the C of E froze on the parade ground. During RE at schools we used to go to a small room in the Education Centre where there would be a selection of magazines like Tit Bits, Reveille and Parade to look at and discus with the Wing Co Padre

        3. I joined the ODs (Other Denominations) who retired to the NAAFI whilst the C of E froze on the parade ground. During RE at schools we used to go to a small room in the Education Centre where there would be a selection of magazines like Tit Bits, Reveille and Parade to look at and discus with the Wing Co Padre

        4. In my school, the RC contingent met in a classroom away from the hall. No announcement was made. If we had any Jews, I was not aware of it.

    2. SIR – Writing as a former head teacher, I believe the dispute at Michaela could and should have been avoided.

      First, the school should have become its own admissions authority, meaning that it develops its own application form for prospective pupils, and the completed forms are considered by the school governors’ admissions committee, not the local authority. It should be made clear on the form that parents agree to support all school policies.

      Secondly, the prayer policy should make clear that the only prayers acceptable are those which are part of the morning assembly.

      Thirdly, with the original application form the parent should have to include a signed copy of the home-school agreement, which should contain an unambiguous reference to prayers. If this signed agreement is not submitted, the application should either not be considered or be given a low-priority ranking.

      David S Ainsworth
      Manchester

  39. Good morning, Grizzly

    1. Yes, I thanked you for sending this to me and Henry was most impressed. When he came over for the New Year he did not come by car and I still need to put a perspex cover on it so we can take it to Lancaster.

    2. Mea Culpa – I thought I had replied last night but on checking my posting history I see that I must have written it without posting it. A friend of mine has sent me all the details of how to reclaim my UK vote.

    Caroline is applying for French nationality. I don’t know if I should also apply for dual nationality which I believe is what you have in Sweden?

    1. Thanks. Go for it, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

      Visit the UK and show your UK passport, at immigration, for quick entry. Return home and show your EU (French) passport for the same hassle-free experience.

  40. Effing Insane! (But bloody good for the lawyers involved!)

    “A pupil taking Katharine Birbalsingh to the High Court for imposing a prayer ban at a London state school is using public money to fund the case.

    The Muslim pupil, who cannot be named, has secured legal aid for the judicial review into the prayer policy at Michaela Community School in Brent.

    The bill for the case so far is estimated at between £100,000 and £150,000, The Times reported.

    Lawyers are normally paid at the end of civil legal aid cases. If the pupil is successful, the school trust could be ordered to pay the costs.

    1. I don’t know what powers the school trustees or governors have, but it would serve the local community right if the school was closed and all pupils told to make alternative arrangements.
      It might make the non-Muslim parents and the non-hyper-religious Muslim parents tell the parents of the trouble-makers to take their children elsewhere.
      Until they fight back it’s going to get worse and worse, to the detriment of the BAME minority.

    2. We dont need a court case, the outcome is predictable. Many muslims seem to train in the law and provide the hidden force behind this girl who is portrayed as one poor pupil, picked upon and whose rights are being crushed by an islamophobic establishment. This impression could not be further from the truth and is a very clever approach. The UK taxpayer picks up the tab win or lose, clever, eh..

  41. The Fraser Nelson article on Katharine Birbalsingh’s school.

    Fiscal McPhee
    Steven McFarland says what many, many of us think. And Katharine Birbalsingh, whatever her undoubted excellence as a teacher and whether she intends it or not, is aiding and abetting the process. She is actually a part of our problem.

    Where are the white British children in the photograph?

    Bob of Bonsall
    No, she is NOT part of the problem, she is part of the solution to the problem and deserves the utmost support of the country.

    I put the article up last night and made this point: objections by Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Hindus have been presented as equivalent to those made by Muslims. They’re not. The Muslims are by far the biggest single group in this cultural war:

    “This isn’t about all cultures but one – and it’s not ours…There are simply too many tensions here. The lid cannot be screwed down, either by decency or by legislative force. Soon it will blow.

    We were here first. FIOFO.”

    I’m largely with Fiscal McPhee here. For all the good that comes out of her school (and much of what she does is merely to copy what was still common in the 1980s), she is fighting a war that cannot be won.

    1. I’ll bring my reply to Bob up to the top:

      I think it unlikely that these children will return at the end of the day to homes where they will imbibe any awareness of just whose homeland and whose capital city it is that they are inhabiting – especially the hijab-wearing girls. In the current neo–Marxist anti-white climate, Birbalsingh is contributing to the production of an immigrant-descended, well-educated population which will take precedence over native British people for jobs and promotions, especially in London. Therefore I maintain that she is a part of our problem. We’ll just have to agree to differ on that.

      1. The problem being that London – OUR capital city – is already majority non-English and a large part of that majority is Muslim.

  43. The former First Minister of Scotland deleted all her WhatsApp messages, especially anything connected with … remind me, do bears defecate in the woods?

      1. Fires are a regular natural occurrence in Australia, Ndovu, some of the native flora need fires for their seed germination.

        1. Some are – others are caused by arsonists. Also the practice of leaving a lot of dry tinder brushwood.

          1. I believe the leaving of the dry brush is a natural way of ensuring that a fire will then burn swiftly but not damage mature plants.

        2. There are birds in Australia that use cinders and flaming brush to create fires to drive out prey.

        3. But, thank’s to the official policy of not clearing dead vegetation from scrubland, when fires do occur, there is that much more fuel for them, leading to worse and more damaging fires.

        4. Building towns right next to those areas out in the bush/outback is not a natural occurrence. It is as crassly stupid as building homes in the UK on a flood plain.

          3. Especially when they don’t allow people to clear away brushwood thus providing more fuel for wildfires.

      2. Fires are a regular natural occurrence in Australia, Ndovu, some of the native flora need fires for their seed germination.

    2. But they had to get this bit into that report!

      “Lightning strikes played a huge role in last year’s fires,
      according to Quebec’s Forest Fire Protection Agency. “Nearly 53% of
      fires were caused by lightning causing more than 99% of the area burned
      this year,” a spokesperson for the fire agency told CNN.

      Focusing on a single cause can also obscure the role of human-caused global warming, which is fueling the very hot and dry conditions that help fires spread faster, and burn longer and more intensely.”

    3. But they had to get this bit into that report!

      “Lightning strikes played a huge role in last year’s fires,
      according to Quebec’s Forest Fire Protection Agency. “Nearly 53% of
      fires were caused by lightning causing more than 99% of the area burned
      this year,” a spokesperson for the fire agency told CNN.

      Focusing on a single cause can also obscure the role of human-caused global warming, which is fueling the very hot and dry conditions that help fires spread faster, and burn longer and more intensely.”

    4. Same happened in Australia a couple of years ago.
      Even Spain two people were arrested for starting the blazes

    1. Did the WEF vet his speech beforehand? And Milei also didn’t mince his words – nor did the Saudi leader who opened the Convid Cop 28.

      Are the sensible people beginning to strike back against the consensus of the scams? Hopefully it will embolden some countries (not ours of course) to throw out the WHO takeover pllandemic.

    2. “The American way of life”?

      Would that be everyone speaking the exact same limited-vocabulary, slang version of pidgin English?
      No one being able to afford medical treatment?
      Everyone carrying handguns (and high-powered military weapons) in order to shoot each other on whim?
      Turning the consumption of junk food and clinical obesity into an art form.

      Is that what you mean by “The American way of life”?

    3. On the contrary, buying larger measures is much cheaper than buying two smaller wine measures.

      1. I agree, Elsie, it’s just more bollocks to try to control our habits. I drink Guinness at the local, but on the extremely rare occasions when they’ve run out (the bar staff quake when I enter and have to tell me, despite me being the nicest and most understanding person on earth, no kidding), I’ll drink the 175ml size glasses just so I don’t drink too much, despite it being more economical to buy the 250ml glass.

    1. Wondering why Hamza Yousef has been so keen to send “Scottish”millions to the poppy growers of Afghany.

  48. Just watching the Men’s Downhill ski race, from Kitzbühel – several shots of that rank hypocrite John Kerry in the crowd – presumably taking a break from Davos? I wonder how much jet fuel and other emissions his trip has consumed/generated?

    1. I shall never forget the wonderful voice of David Vine, at the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Olympics:

      “It’s Klammer … on the Hahnemkahm … and he’s flying!“

  50. David Frost: If only….

    “The future belongs to those who show up.” So says the writer and commentator Mark Steyn, one of the few who warned early on about the demographic problems the rest of us are now beginning to discuss. But it is not just who shows up: whether we are having enough children. It is also where they show up. For demography, migration, and indeed our economic problems are closely linked.

    Dr Paul Morland, demographer, author, and former Oxford academic, and Philip Pilkington, an economist, set out the issues last year in a paper entitled “Migration, Stagnation, or Procreation: Quantifying the Demographic Trilemma”. It shows that, in Britain in the late 1970s, there were four workers for every dependent person. There are now only three, and other things being equal there will be two by 2050. The population is ageing, and fertility rates are now around 1.5 children per woman: well under the replacement rate.

    They argue that there are three possible responses. The first is to have more children: the “Israel” route, where on average each woman has more than three. But Israel is unique in the West. No one else has found a way of reliably making it happen, and countries that have tried, such as France and Hungary, have only marginally succeeded.

    The second is to accept a shrinking, ageing population: the “Japan” route. The problem here is that it tends to result in stagnation not dynamism, as Japan’s low growth rates show.

    And the third is to bring in a replacement population to make up the numbers. We know what the problem with this is: the price in social cohesion – and more. Yet this is what much of the West, including Britain, has chosen all the same.
    It’s a persuasive and important argument. But perhaps it doesn’t go far enough.

    After all, mass immigration doesn’t seem to have helped economic growth. Our societies are growing more slowly than ever, and, in Britain anyway, growth per head is slower still: according to the OBR, the economy expanded, just, last year, but each of us individually still got poorer.

    Maybe in fact high migration, with its fiscal costs, strain on public services, and impact on social cohesion, is damaging growth? Maybe the essentially unlimited supply of cheap flexible labour, first from Europe and now from the rest of the world, has harmed our productivity performance?

    Moreover, immigration may not be a viable route out of the problem anyway. If we bring in more foreign workers to stop the number of dependents per worker shrinking, it produces extraordinary inflows. On plausible assumptions about fertility, it means that, by the 2050s, something like a third of Britain’s population will have been born overseas, and 40-50 per cent by the 2080s. (The current figure is 16 per cent.) Back of an envelope analysis off the back of the Morland paper shows that this implies immigration at maybe half to three quarters of a million every year for decades.

    This means total demographic transformation for any nation that tries it. Britain would be a completely different country if it did, and our future would indeed be in the hands of those who showed up here. The current levels of population change across Europe are already the most dramatic since the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West. Doubling or tripling them is surely unsustainable. In the end, voters simply won’t support it, and if current politicians won’t stop it, as they should, then they will vote for ones who will.

    So relying on immigration to solve our problems is ultimately unviable. And we don’t really know how to get people to have more children, either. Maybe it will just happen, in one of these unpredictable societal trends. And maybe it won’t.
    So the third route – adjusting to the situation as it is – is the only one we can reasonably plan for. Doing so requires two things. First, a near-halt to current levels of immigration for a decade or so and then only very cautiously raising them. We need a pause to allow social cohesion to be rebuilt. Of course, that won’t just happen: we have to be much more assertive in our institutions and governance in promoting collective loyalty, British history, and British ways of doing things. Take a leaf out of Katharine Birbalsingh’s book.

    And, second, we need reform and deregulation to get people back into the workforce and bring productivity and growth. If we can reduce the number of dependents and make every worker more productive, we can stave off the problems of demographic decline. That, too, will require a collective national effort.

    We seem wholly unready for this at the moment. Those who want a dramatic cut in immigration aren’t always the biggest fans of deregulation and spending cuts. Those who want to boost growth often seem to see immigration as a crucial part of achieving it. And – to judge by the reaction to Miriam Cates’ tentative efforts to raise these issues – most politicians prefer to avoid talking honestly about the issues at all.

    But not choosing is itself to choose. The current path gives us the worst of all worlds. Let’s get a grip now – while we still can.

    1. We’re not importing workers. The cross-channel traffic brings only benefit dependents. Young men with IQs of 85 or lower, unless all you want to do is give them guns and free rein to shoot anything that moves, are not capable of sustaining gainful employment.

    2. We were warned long ago by Enoch Powell – decades before Mark Steyn had to remind us.

      A prophet is not without honour save in his own country.

      We did not listen, we did not know how
      Perhaps we’ll listen now?

    3. Here’s an idea. Why don’t HMG stop the rush to our children being owned by the state, let children stay at home with mum until they are of school age. Of course, first of all, drastically reduce welfare payments. Deport All those arriving without official papers immediately no matter what the ECHR says.

      1. And deport (with absolutely no appeals and a permanent ban on coming back) all immigrants (with their whole families) who commit crimes, whether they arrived legally or not. The majority of those criminal dregs live on benefits, so that’s a further saving.

        1. Address also the problem that 50% of muslim men and 75% of muslim women are economically inactive.

          1. Many (most?) of them are uneducated and don’t speak English. (And have no intention of doing so unless free interpreters are stopped, even then would only learn enough to be able fill in benefits claim forms & healthcare.)

          2. Had an example of this yesterday, even in this rural location. We’ve had a lot of tinted incomers foisted on the local town and one came into a shop when I was there, pointed to what he wanted, paid by card and demanded in a foreign language a bag to put the purchase in. Grabbed the bag and disappeared. The ladies who were serving were quite shocked. The shape of things to come.

      2. Or father – that will help reduce the disadvantage working women have by taking time out of their careers to raise children.

    4. Has anyone mentioned paying people not to work as being part of the problem? The Soviet Union used to give mothers a medal for producing multiple children (akin to Stakhanovites). France has incentives for une famille nombreuse. The problem, as I see it, is not so much not producing children as the wrong sorts producing children.

  51. Britain must prepare for war. America won’t save us this time. 19 January 2024.

    Nato’s Military Committee is quite right. We must relearn how to recruit, deploy, mobilise and sustain, whilst our industrial bases and societies must better align with our defence engagement and national interests. Continuing blindly down this wider path of Treasury-appeasing underinvestment, at a time of increasing American disengagement, is strategically incoherent to our national security – and that of Europe’s.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Ryan Brighton.

    Without warm bodies, it doesn’t matter how much we rearm.

    And it’s becoming increasingly clear native British men have no interest fighting for a country they don’t recognise, never mind it’s “interests” abroad, hence dismal recruitment and retainment.

    All the flag-waving and Churchillian rhetoric isn’t going to persuade them to get minced whilst their daughters get gang-raped at home.

    Pretty difficult to argue with that!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/19/britain-must-prepare-for-war-america-wont-save-us-this-time/

    1. The media claim that the new Green furnaces to be installed at Port Talbot can only use scrap

      metal, thus Britain will be unable to make its own quality steel.

      Doesn’t matter, we can always buy our military grade steel from China to build tanks and naval ships.

    3. Too many of the ones who do want to join the army tend to be thick, poorly educated and no civilian employer will touch them.

      1. I used to find that the thickest, bolshiest and most lacking in self-discipline always said they wanted to join the Armed Forces when asked what they wanted to do when they left! It was hard not to laugh, knowing what a rude awakening was in store for them.

  52. Here’s another fantastic talk with Alex Thomson of UK Column. His knowledge of scripture is truly encyclopaedic. If you are interested in or concerned about the history of the Holy Land, current events in Israel and Gaza and the story of the Jewish diaspora this will be 1 hour 50 minutes of your time well spent. It might be a good idea, as Alex suggests, to listen to his recent podcast with James Delingpole first as this follows on from that in a number of areas.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b94af409f8912e2a3638f0253224a072f4efcebd6305db48252454995dd7360a.png

    https://riseuk.substack.com/p/a-conversation-with-alex-thomson

    The Delingpod with Alex.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/43bf96d22975396976d74fc4c7a6412afafde47b5fcd85e5b9ff2e8015f98610.png

    https://odysee.com/@JamesDelingpoleChannel:0/2023-12-07_Alex-Thomson:a

  55. TATA’s closure of the Port Tabot steel makig blast furnaces is driven by net zero carbon cutting targets.
    The impact will not anly be felt by the local community but by the UK’s provision of quality ‘virgin’ steel which will be replaced by melting down scrap metal using electric arc furnaces:

    https://youtu.be/HskbPlWtlvY?si=kFoWpEXQ0lCqEJ18

    The following video shows what happens when you use inferior metal to make BYD (Beyond Your Dreams) vehicles:

    https://youtu.be/IInTanHjnK0?si=x5D_4Tv77984UrS9

    1. Does Sky reference that energy, taxation and employer costs has been made so expensive it is no longer possible to run the plant?

      Sunak dribbling on about how much they had ‘invested’ – utter scum. He and his stupid policies of tax, waste and ruin have destroyed jobs. Real jobs. Making real things. Gods I hate these sewage.

      1. Afternoon all.

        We’ve been given a leaflet from the Con party. It tells us that “taxes cut for families and businesses, inflation halved, they’re helping families with childcare costs, 6,100. More doctors, 16,800 more nurses20,000 more police officers for England and wales.

        All in all it’s a pack of lies or half truths.

        1. Not worth using as loo roll. Hateful wasters lying through their teeth. hey *caused* soaring inflation. It is still high, the difference is the government keeps taking out the things that make inflation high from the basket of goods!

          1. Plus the whole energy problem is entirely down to HMG. Surely they all should see that net zero is impossible. It’s most certainly undesirable with the usual incentives for installing heat pumps – that are nowhere near as efficient as gas boilers and punishing us all again by ‘fining’ companies for not meeting their ridiculous targets. Either way costs go in only one direction.

    2. The riot police will be out in full and there won’t be a softly softly approach as we have seen with the Pro Terrorist marches.

      1. This will tell us which side the police, the civil service and the politicians are on.

        [As if we don’t already know]

    3. No can do, Tommy, at 79, I cannot walk, cannot travel. I can only sit and bump my gums to my lonely walls.

          1. At what stage are you? I ask because I discovered that the oxygen made a huge difference and I have only tried it the once when being tested the other day at the hospital.

          2. Apart from ‘dire’ I don’t keep track and GPs want me to travel 25 miles for an MRI. I have refused.

    4. TR will be arrested and bundled into a police van in first minute.

      Tragic but probably true.

    1. Prohibition was a huge success. It got the Kennedy’s into office from all their bootlegging.

      1. And the Seagram (Bronfman) family became multi multi millionaires. Ontario’s based company no longer in existence but the family all very rich.

    3. Cannot drink or smoke ciggies in public places over in BC but apparently drug taking is protected by the charter of rights and they will even give you the drugs that you want.

      We’ll what do you expect from a country where some are looking forward to Mark Carney becoming Trudeaus replacement.

      1. That’ll mean the whole of Nottle emigrating if things don’t change and go back to how they were.

  61. Cracked it, Erin shopping in the car. Beautiful sunny day. Had a letter to post and a prescription to collect. Wrapped up warm winter coat scarf double gloves Norwegian wooly hat. I say three and a half miles there and back. The hill is the killer towards the end.
    Sitting relaxing now.

      1. Thanks VW, I need to try and get fit again.
        Shame we don’t still have our lovely Lottie dog. She walked so many miles with me during her 12 years.

          1. We’re hoping to go back to Oz for maybe a couple of months this year.
            It would be a problem having a new dog looked after for that long Conners.

  64. My youngest sister who lives on the edge of the Kruger park , is currently on holiday on Mauritius , the video she has forwarded on to us is beautiful, sheer heaven .. It looks magnificent .

    I think the holidays from SA are probably cheaper.

    Younger sister lives nr Cape Town .. her area is lovely , but beset by power outages and other things that make life difficult.

    My brother lives near Sandton ..

    I don’t think I could deal with a 12 hour flight any longer, and all that airport hassle .

    3. I’ve been around the world twice, once in each direction plus many hours flying to Singapore and Australia and many European (work) flights.

      Now I’ve had enough, like you Maggie – no more.

    3. An insecure little man. I saw him once many years ago in the old Television Centre canteen. He sat at a small table on his own with his head down on his chest in a pose that said go away, I don’t want to play. Quite a contrast to Roger Moore striding down a corridor with very upright posture.

      2. Is skill with a football inversely proportionate to a person’s common sense and judgement,

  66. Apologies if this has already been posted: I’ve been buzzing around.
    My only comment is “Quelle Surprise”.

    “Nicola Sturgeon and her deputy deleted all of their pandemic WhatsApp messages, the Covid Inquiry has heard.

    At a hearing in Edinburgh on Friday, the inquiry was told that Ms Sturgeon, the former first minister, had “retained no messages whatsoever” over the pandemic, while John Swinney, her deputy, used an “auto-delete function”.

    Ms Sturgeon had repeatedly refused to say whether she deleted her WhatsApp messages after the inquiry complained that key decision-makers had failed to hand over the information.

    However, during evidence from Lesley Fraser, the director general corporate of the Scottish Government, Jamie Dawson KC, lead counsel for the inquiry’s module on Scotland, revealed that all of Ms Sturgeon’s messages had been deleted.

    Making reference to a schedule of what messages could be handed to the inquiry, he said: “Under the box ‘Nicola Sturgeon’, it says that messages were not retained, they were deleted in routine tidying up of inboxes or changes of phones, unable to retrieve messages.”

    1. Doesn’t work like that. The other side will still have them.

      However, isn’t it a crime to tamper with evidence in a criminal investigation?

      1. Yes. The Inquiry only need to request from the company the messages which will still be cached.

          1. I know it costs companies to keep these messages long term. Just clogging up storage but i would be surprised if they auto deleted high ranking officials messages. Just like the Post Office and potential leverage.
            Speaking of which…I know someone who has had personal work place contact of the operations officer for the PO and he was an absolute fucking shit. Screaming in peoples faces to get what he wanted done. Vennels Enforcer. I hope he has his day in court.

    2. BTL:

      Two beers or not two beers
      4 HRS AGO
      Remember the absolute furore over Boris’ messages, even though he handed his phone in. The incessant media castigation.
      Wee Nicky deletes hers and it’s tumbleweed.

      Hu McG
      4 HRS AGO
      Where’s the minutes of your meetings with Salmond? err, dunno
      Where’s the £600,00 in donations? err, dunno
      Where’s the campervan? err, dunno
      Where’s the COVID whatsapp messages? err, dunno
      Where’s your selfies from COP28? oh right, got them here on ma phone
      ’nuff said …….

      George Plum
      4 HRS AGO
      Reply to Hu McG
      Don’t forget the £500,000 on bereavement payments that has gone missing. A total of £1,100000.

      1. “Ay cannae recall”…….
        Repeat ad nauseam. 8 hours of it, if I don’t disremember.

    1. Don’t wear a pair of short and a skimpy shirt when sitting at at home and it’s 10°C. Wear something more appropriate.
      Follow me for more survival tips.

      1. I thought you were more of a shiny yellow mackintosh, Guernsey sweater and sou’wester sort of chappie.

        1. 20 years of seafaring (10 years, at least, actually on the water), and I was always nautical miles away from being a sailor, despite me being cox’n of the FRC and the workboat when problems arose with our towed gear. All seems like a dream now. The first 10 years were good, fishing off the bow etc in warm waters and seeing things that 99% of the general public has never seen. The last 10 years I had to work like I was on the Narcissus.

      2. There is an advert with a black woman (is there any other sort of women in adverts?) coming home to a cold house when it’s frosty. It’s an advert for an electrically heated blanket, but my first thought is always, “why don’t you go back to Africa? It’s much warmer there).

          1. Years ago, such thoughts would never have occured to me. I would probably never have noticed if it was a black woman. I’ve had diversity shoved down my throat so much that it has made me completely antagonistic. It’s relentless. These days it’s a case of “spot the white” (who isn’t accompanied by a black in a relationship).

      1. I would think so, yes. The development is being advertised as available for shared ownership and the online spreadsheet shows apartments ranging from approx 400-700 sq ft and starting at around half a million pounds but not all units are for sale. The spreadsheet gives the income needed to buy a percentage and rent the rest and that starts at £58k per annum. I can’t help but suspect that even those units not reserved and ostensibly for sale will actually be bought up by organisations not individuals and that the end goal is to fill them with migrants.

    3. I’d rather be looking out on the North York Moors … or Exmoor.

      I much prefer to gaze at rivers, trees, grass and hills than stare at concrete, glass, bricks and tarmac.

  71. ‘Night All

    From elsewhere:

    Do white British people ever understand how bad colonies are and want to say sorry?

    Yes.White British people realise how bad colonies are which is why since
    1867, Britain has taken on a policy of decolonisation, starting with
    Canada.

    The bit which annoys white British people is this constant
    nonsense that white British people were seemingly the only ever
    colonisers of the world and even though literally no one alive today had
    anything to do with it, they’re somehow to blame.

    Do Mongolians
    ever understand that their country massacred 10% of the world’s known
    population during the Khan dynasty and want to say sorry?

    Do Japanese people ever understand that their ancestors murdered twelve
    million people in less than two decades throughout the 1930s and 1940s
    and want to say sorry?

    Do Turkish people ever understand that they committed genocide against the Armenians and want to say sorry?

    Do Peruvians ever understand that the Inca Empire enslaved, murdered and
    sacrificed up to ten million people across South America and want to say
    sorry?

    Do the Irish ever understand that they had a thriving
    slave trade with Scandinavian countries, trading in captured folk from
    Britain during the Viking era and want to say sorry?

    Do North African countries ever realise that their white slave trade actually
    raided the coasts of Cornwall and took white British people as slaves
    fifty years before the first British slave ship even set sail, and want
    to say sorry?

    Does anyone else out there ever realise that it was
    Britain that abolished slavery and forced all legal trading in slaves
    around the globe to end or face war and want to say, thank you?

    Does anyone else out there ever realise it was the British who invented
    vaccines and then distributed them globally. Britain then set about
    trying to eradicate diseases such as malaria from much of South East
    Asia, and does anyone want to say thank you?

    Does anyone else out
    there ever realise that in 2018 the Japanese board of industry and
    trading declared that 55% of the World’s leading ideas, inventions and
    discoveries came from Britain and want to say thank you?

    No country is perfect, we’ve all messed up, but for God’s sake let’s focus
    on the World’s achievements and celebrate them instead of constantly
    banging on about the dark side of history regardless of what nation you
    come from.

    Would you see a young German person, born in the 21st
    century, and accuse them of the holocaust? No of course not. So stop
    doing the same against Britain, it’s just getting annoying and shows
    your genuine lack of historical knowledge
    ‘Nuff Said………………….

    1. I know a lot of us have a problem with RNLI but do the Irish ever say thank you to the RNLI for patrolling the coastline and saving the lives of Irish men, women and children.

      Edited ‘cos of gobbledygook.

    2. Copied and pasted that for future reference and possible use. Could be improved a bit but It’s good.

  72. Bog standard Par Four.

    Wordle 944 4/6
    🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Me too.

      Wordle 944 4/6

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

    3. Blimey, I’d almost forgotten to do it.

      Wordle 944 4/6

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

  74. S.S. Lady Hawkins.

    Complement;
    322 (251 dead and 71 survivors).

    At 07.43 hours on 19th January 1942 the unescorted Lady Hawkins (Master Huntly Osborne Giffin) was hit by two stern torpedoes from U-66 (Richard Zapp) and sank after 30 minutes about 150 miles east of Cape Hatteras. The master, 86 crew members, one gunner and 163 passengers (including four DBS) were lost. The chief officer, 20 crew members and 50 passengers were picked up after five days by the Coamo and landed at San Juan, Puerto Rico on 28th January.

    Type IXC U-Boat U-66 was sunk on 6th May 1944 in the Atlantic west of the Cape Verde Islands by depth charges, gunfire and ramming from Avenger and Wildcat aircraft (VC-55 USN) of the US escort carrier USS Block Island and by the US destroyer escort USS Buckley. 24 dead and 36 survivors.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/ca/lady_hawkins.jpg

  77. Just thought that I would mention this, I’ve stopped using Lurpak spread. I’ve had it on toast and sandwiches for many years. Since my childhood in actual fact when we were required to use margarine during family difficulties . The problem is that there was a post on Nottl a few months back which pointed out the high rape seed content. I looked again a couple weeks ago and the mix is now 52% milk and 25% rapeseed oil. This is not by any stretch of the imagination Butter! Not unnaturally I have my suspicions that the Government has had its finger in this. Any way from now on it is pure slightly salted butter.

    1. Agreed. Anything made of seed oils or with seed oil in it is not good for human health. I came to the conclusion a long time ago that if you assume the exact opposite of what we are told is bad for us is the truth (except in the case of all mass-produced, ultra-processed food), not only will you be ok but you will thrive. So it is with animal fat. I eat the fat and gristle on steaks, lamb chops, duck breast and chicken skin and bones, much to SWMBO’s disgust, and have done so for decades. Full fat milk, unpasteurised if possible, and full fat butter, cream and cheese. And here I am, active, fit and lean at nearly 73.

        1. It’s not a seed oil (rapeseed, sunflower seed etc). Top quality olive oil is fine but it has to be the best. The cheap stuff is adulterated with goodness knows what (had that from an Italian).

          1. I suspect we may eat similarly, we are certainly similarly young…

            The French health service is very keen on check-ups. This one was an age related prostate check after my six monthly blood test.
            The most recent referral stated:
            Patiente asymptomatique en parfait état général
            Asymptomatic patient in perfect general condition.

          2. If you eat only fresh meat and dairy, fish, veg, pulses, seeds, nuts and fruit and avoid all industrially produced food, patisserie and confectionary with e-numbers, flavour enhancers, artificial clouring, added sugar and salt etc then we probably do.

          4. As long as it’s not red. That’s often laced with additives. Real ale and good cider.👍

          5. Good Gawd, proper red wine is heaven’s health drink.

            Although, to be fair, I really, really do miss my real ale.

    3. Recently, I’ve been using Lurpak ‘softest’ – purely because most butters simply refuse to spread. But your point is noted. I’ve half a pack of actual butter in the fridge. I’ll leave it out of the fridge tonight, for tomorrow’s toast…

      1. I’ve switched to butter and leave the butter dish out on the kitchen counter all the time. Even with the central heating on, it doesn’t become rancid.

      2. I don’t know if you can get it, but Président demi-sel is excellent.
        Probably horribly bad for me, but I eat lots.

    4. I don’t know if there’s a difference between cold-pressed Rapeseed oil and the cheaper stuff. I suspect that the former is far better in terms of health, but you can bet it won’t be used in butter spreads or anything else. Money talks.

        1. Free range fresh eggs make the best Mayonnaise and Hollandaise. The shop bought stuff is disgusting. It doesn’t take long to make. Worth the effort.

      2. Milk from cows that eat luscious green grass have always made the best butter and cream. It really is worth paying the extra/real price.

    8. Lurpak is disgusting. You must have been conditioned ! Try and source Calon Wen slightly salted. You put that on a decent bit of bread and you will feel/taste like you have gone to heaven.

  78. Just thought that I would mention this, I’ve stopped using Lurpak spread. I’ve had it on toast and sandwiches for many years. Since my childhood in actual fact when we were required to use margarine during family difficulties . The problem is that there was a post on Nottl a few months back which pointed out the high rape seed content. I looked again a couple weeks ago and the mix is now 52% milk and 25% rapeseed oil. This not by any stretch of the imagination Butter! Not unnaturally I have my suspicions that the Government has had its finger in this. Any way from now on it is pure slightly salted butter.

      1. Well, I’ll be damned, HG had just called me in to the sitting room to look at that cartoon.

        Facebook, small world.

    1. Maybe it was a teenage ‘mother’ who had hidden her pregnancy, and was frightened of her family’s reaction. But even so, she could have left the poor mite somewhere warm. Even a tube station would have been better, away from the frost.

  82. Temporary Lieutenant Harold Reginald Newgass, GC (3rd August 1896 – 17th November 1984), Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve.

    On the evening of 28th – 29th November 1940, a German parachute mine fell on the Garston Gas Works in Liverpool. It was unknown whether it was magnetic, acoustic, delayed action or just a “dud”. Consequently, this caused extensive disruption in the area, with factory work halted and over 6,000 people removed from the vicinity. Additionally, railway and dock sidings were closed and the gas supply to the south and east of Liverpool was disrupted.
    The “luftmine” had fallen through a large gas holder and its parachute had become entangled in the hole in the roof. The large entry hole made by the mine allowed gas to escape and a portion of the roof to sink. The mine was resting on the floor nearly upright, nose down in some 7 feet (2.1 m) of oily water. It was also leaning on one of the 7 feet high brick piers on which, in turn, the iron pillars that supported the roof were fixed.
    Additionally, the mine’s fuse mechanism was against the pillar, meaning that the mine had to be turned before it could be defused. Some of the water was pumped out and an access hole was cut into the side of the gas holder. The job of now rendering the mine safe was left to Temporary Lieutenant Harold Newgass.
    Newgass could only enter the gas holder with the aid of breathing apparatus supplying oxygen via cylinder. The Auxiliary Fire Service prepared six cylinders, each with a life of about 30 minutes. He would have to take it in stages over the next two days.
    Newgass now worked hard to use each available cylinder’s 30-minute window. The strain of the operation meant that Newgass used more and more oxygen and the 30 minutes dwindled rapidly. He later commented: “Working in an oxygen mask is a bit of a strain”.
    Using the first cylinder, Newgass checked the mine and prepared his plan to defuse the device. Using the second cylinder, he carried his tools and a ladder to the mine. On the third sortie he placed sandbags around the nose of the mine, and tied the top of the mine to the iron roof support.
    On 30th November 1940, using the fourth cylinder, Newgass began the difficult defusing operation. Turning the mine to reveal the fuse he then removed it and the unit primer and detonator. Almost exhausted Newgass returned for the fifth cylinder and now turned the mine further to undo clock-keep ring. With his final cylinder he was again to extract the clock, rendering the mine inert.
    Garston employers now removed the mine by removing it with block and tackle. It was put on a lorry for disposal. Had the mine detonated, the whole of Garston Works, and much of the surrounding properties would have been completely destroyed in the blast.

    A defused, German 1000kg ‘Luftmine’ similar to the one defused by Newgass.
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/German_parachute_mine.jpg

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/59/Harold_Newgass.jpg/150px-Harold_Newgass.jpg

    4. Boris has read the writing on the wall and is readying himself for the next chapter. Shame the piece of shit couldn’t manage to make any deals with the U.S while he was PM.

  84. Gosh. I thought I’d have a snooze after lunch at 12.30. Just woken up. In order to sign off until Wednesday morning, prolly.

    Play nicely while I am away.

    3. Your body knows what it needs. Don’t fight it. Besides….it’s prolly all those night nurses tiring you out !

  85. Vlad has apparently withdrawn or discontinued a 70 year old agreement allowing UK fishing vessels access to Russian waters including the Barents Sea.

    So the foolish financial and military support we have given to a clown in Ukraine, apart from causing most of our present ills, is now to deprive us of Fish & Chips.

    We must be mad to continue on the path of destruction now generally named The Zelensky Curse. Sanctions against Russia imposed by the fools in government have backfired and made all manner of supply problems for our economy.

    London is no longer the No.1 place to do financial trading and Lloyds of London and Lloyds Register are shrinking. The former is unable to insure international shipping thanks to the mad bombing of Yemen with accompanying threat risk to same shipping in the Red Sea.

    Our support of Biden and poodle like adherence to US support of Ukraine has proven disastrous for our country. Our useless politicians need replacement asap.

    1. I find it quite extraordinary that Sunak can find £2.5 billion for The Zelensky Curse when an equivalent amount would preserve Port Talbot for many decades to come.

      2. He could have also used that money to pay junior doctors a decent wage. I expect he laughed at that.

    2. And Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, added; ‘Rishi Sunak has no idea of the misery NHS patients are going through. When patients try to tell him, he laughs in their faces and walks away. When Sunak asks for their vote later this year, he will get a taste of his own medicine.’

      Sunak is undoubtedly a hopeless nonentity but I do wonder where Mr Streeting and the pensioner have been for the last 27 years.

        1. Fair enough if so but the point stands. A good new PM (no, don’t laugh, it could happen) would be declared a failure if he/she hadn’t fixed a quarter of a century’s problems in the first six months in office.

          Sadly, some of these people have the right to vote.

    3. MumIsBusy: I have read elsewhere that this is a carefully edited clip by Labour, and that in reality Sunak engaged with the woman, after which she thanked him for his response and only then did he walk away. I have no idea whether this is true or not, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

      2. Indeed.
        And all the parties do similarly.
        The Brown one was a bit different, he was caught “bigoting” off guard.

          3. I expect many people have been in a job which is stressful at times. To do what he did shows his true nature.

        2. I saw it live. It was amusing when it was played back to him an hour or so later, publicly. The moment he realised what was coming, the humiliation, was gold.

          2. Not forgetting the other traitor to the people Vince Cable who sold off the Royal Mail for pennies. They are all in it together.

      1. Didn’t make any difference, she still voted Labour. I hold out no hope of the electorate ever coming to its senses.

    1. I’ve long been of the opinion that “Grizelda” deserves a much wider view.
      If he/she had a major outlet, (Private eye and the spectator are not what they were) the cartoons would get the exposure they deserve.
      They are very often as pertinent as Matt’s.

      I would place Robert Thompson in that category too.

      Oddly enough, because of the similarity of style, I do wonder if T&G are the same individual.

  89. Of course the liar has heard no such thing but he dreamed up this to be quotable

    Quote of the day

    ‘In the cocktail parties of Davos, I am told, the global wokerati have been trembling so violently that you could hear the ice tinkling in their negronis.’

    – Boris Johnson on the return of Donald Trump.

  90. Slightly off topic, but in a BobofBonsall mode.

    I was taking a couple of bits of wood for the fire just now and they felt heavy, probably because I’ve been vey busy and the muscles ache. I decided to weigh the basket on the weigh, (ho ho) in.
    It was 6 kilo, which should now mean I don’t need to put anything more in the stove this evening.

    On that basis, and multiplying up the number of barrow loads I’ve shifted since the end of November, I have a log pile that weighs roughly 34 tons.

    I haven’t even started to attack the really big bits, I need a forester to do the cutting.

        1. My grandfather wasn’t my grandfather he was my great uncle. His second wife was my grandmother. He also moved in a mistress who he fathered a daughter by. We went to school together being the same age. All hell broke loose at home when i was asked at school if she was my sister (same age) and i said i believed she was my step aunt. Not sure really why i was the one punished for other people’s sins.

      1. That boy’s a fule, as his broken axe-shaft shows!.
        My really big bits are roughly 20-30% larger diameter than the one he’s attacking and only 1/2 to 2/3 the height.
        I hit the edges at roughly the 6 inch point with the felling axe and they tend to split off fairly easily.
        I work around the circumference at similar split, working very gradually inwards and always recalling good old 1/2 M x V².
        Very sharp axe, very high velocity and wonders to beheld.

        1. He could have split 8t in half as many blows with a wedge and ham er ut judging by his smug smirk at the end, splitting the log wasn’t his main aim

          7. I just looked up my bungalow on Zoopla. Apparently i’m rich. Only paid £72,000 for it, now valued at £350,000.
            Hope they don’t find any of the bodies.

          8. Just plant a flower bed over the bodies. No respectful investigator would disturb a good display.

          4. They might be temporary tattoos that scrub off. There again would that amount of scrubbing be worthwhile?

          5. Quasimodo went to the doctors to see what could be done about his hump.
            The doc asked him to take his coat off, then he asked him to take his jacket off, then his pullover, then his shirt, the doc then said “when you went to school you carried your books in a satchel didn’t you?” “Yes” said Quasi. Doc said “Did you ever wonder what happened to it?

    4. Je comprends, it will not be economical, but in Scandinavia they have tractor PTO powered firewood processors which might be what you need to attack the fallen oak trunks.

  92. Received an email this afternoon from my nephew in Chicago to let me know my Christmas card had just arrived. It was sent early in December and was very clearly addressed with a typed label. The post office delivered it marked “Missent to Malaysia” [sic]. What the…!

  93. Port Talbot has been sacrificed to the angry god of net zero

    Its workers had good jobs producing steel. Now a whole community has been left with nothing

    ALLISON PEARSON • 19 January 2024 • 7:49pm

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/253e64830d0b61a9d2bb4b365ca563c54aec9af0d93e191bc464f523581d307c.jpg
    [CREDIT: Matthew Horwood/Getty]

    How to murder a town. The Port Talbot steelworks is not part of Port Talbot, the steelworks is Port Talbot. They say 12 per cent of the residents work at the plant but, if you only count those of working age, it’s more like a third. The Indian owners, Tata Steel, announced the loss of up to 2,500 jobs, many of them the main breadwinner in their families.

    The knock-on effects on the delicate ecosystem of the wider community – on the cafes, the hairdressers, the corner shops, the gym, the pubs where the men get a beer after a long, thirsty shift – will be as devastating as they are inevitable. It is a knockout blow for South Wales which has had to soak up so much punishment over the years.

    Everyone who cares about that small corner of our country is enraged, sorrowful. My Welsh barrister friend sent a one-word text: “Democide”.

    During the Seventies, my family used to drive through Port Talbot at night as we neared the end of the long journey to visit my grandparents.

    What a thrill it was to see that great castle etched on the skyline, a Hogwarts of industry with a solitary gas flame flickering atop a thin tower. As a child, I imagined a fire-breathing dragon lived in the steelworks, but it must have been the red glow of the two blast furnaces. As part of a transition to “greener, cheaper” steelmaking operations, we learnt they would be closed. That mighty Welsh dragon was slain.

    Why? The high price of UK energy makes Port Talbot uncompetitive but other countries heavily subsidise their steelworks.

    Ultimately, this human catastrophe is a political choice. Make no mistake; some 141,931 people (the population of greater Neath Port Talbot) have been sacrificed on the altar of net zero. That absurd and misanthropic creed which calls British workers losing their jobs “progress” while their carbon will now be emitted in India and China.

    Never mind that NATO has just warned there will be a war with Russia “in the next 20 years”. Clearly, this is the ideal moment for the UK to shut one of the best steel-making furnaces in the world, start producing “net zero steel” out of Steptoe & Son scrap, while importing the higher quality steel needed to make weapons from – Oh, dear! – our enemies and competitors. The only G7 nation with no first-class steel manufacturing – are they serious? You might almost get the impression the nation was run by a fifth column plotting its downfall.

    Unfortunately for Port Talbot, those who should be defending the plant against the green globalists are heavily-compromised hypocrites. Little relief is to be expected from Wales’s First Minister Mark Drakeford and his fatuous 20mph speed limit. “For lower emissions” as a sign on the M4 which runs above the town boasts. (Driving slower can actually produce more emissions, but science must never get in the way of virtue signalling.)

    Stephen Kinnock, Labour MP for Aberavon, did attack the decision to “follow the Conservative business model of managed decline for British steelmaking” which would destroy the jobs of thousands of people, “each of whom have dedicated their lives to an industry which underpins Britain’s automotive industry, railways, defence sector, consumer goods, construction, wind turbines and so much more.”

    Stirring words, although Stephen has somehow forgotten that the policies of his own eco-zealot party are entirely in tune with the annihilation of Port Talbot. When Sir Keir Starmer promises “thousands of green jobs”, he leaves out the part about the destruction of nearly all our remaining manufacturing jobs to appease that angry god, net zero.

    The Tory government, too, is complicit in this vast act of national self-harm. Euthanising Port Talbot steelworks will make diddly squat difference to the UK’s relatively low CO2 emissions while causing incalculable human suffering. Still, looking on the bright side, something to boast about at the next COP summit, eh Rishi?

    When I was in Port Talbot before Christmas for a party, people I met from the plant were cautiously optimistic. They still had good jobs with good wages. They still had hopes and plans. “We can manage if we have to go down to a four-day week,” one said, reassuring himself. After the announcement, I’m told the mood in the plant staffroom was “funereal, throwing up with fear”.

    Obviously, I feel this keenly because Port Talbot is in my beloved homeland, but the place that you love is next. The Welsh are generally rather a mild, gently humorous people. They often conclude a dispute by saying, “Fair play to him.”

    This is not fair play. Even with its steelworks still alive, Port Talbot was ailing. To close the plant is to switch off life support. A friend who grew up there, now a Home Counties matriarch, emailed me in distress when it was first mooted that Tata would shut the plant. “The town is already a distressing basket case,” she wrote, “and the people look so old, tired and ill. It’s shocking.”

    It is shocking. Sixteen per cent of Port Talbot’s children live in dire poverty. Not genteel, cost-of-living poverty, but scary, damp, asthmatic, food-bank, lucky-to-get-to-adulthood poverty. The kind of poverty we should be ashamed to have in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The kind of poverty the UK spends billions in foreign aid to relieve in “poor countries”.

    So this is my question. Why are our people treated like this? How many livelihoods have to be lost to achieve that crazy 2050 goal? We need more energy security, more steel security, yet generations of skills, passed down from father to son, are about to be lost in Port Talbot. Once British steel-making has stopped, it won’t be easy to revive.

    China opens new coal-powered power stations and thousands of Welsh working-class people have to take the hit for the obsessions of a millenarian cult. There may be other words for it, but mad and disgusting come to mind.

    Correction. The population of greater Neath Port Talbot sacrificed on the altar of net zero is not 141,931 people. It’s 141,932 if you count my cousin’s beautiful new baby daughter.

    And she should count, I think. Her future, her life chances blighted on the whim of Indian billionaires in another continent. The life support plant of her community switched off to make the planet cleaner. The humans poorer and sadder. That lovely baby girl; the apple of her steelworker daddy’s eye.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/19/port-talbot-has-been-sacrificed-to-the-angry-god-of-net-zer/

    2. If NATO has just warned there will be a war with Russia “in the next 20 years”, why is our Conservative Government dismantling the “Defence of the Realm”?

      1. It’s a really shrewd move really. No steel works = no prime targets…. In any case these days you can buy trillions of ‘Suicide drones’ from Alibaba.com…..

      3. To bolster the idea of the need for a European Defence force. We are already doing it even though we apparently left.

      1. I would mind less if it was a real need, not just another way of depopulating the world of the masses.

    5. If Reform promised to ditch the green agenda entirely would it gain more votes or lose them?

    1. For those who looked at the picture before they looked to see who posted the picture:
      that’s not our resident bargee!

    2. Replace ‘God’ with the ‘Devil’, and we’re there. The dog was created to counter this evil.

  96. Evening, all. British culture has systematically been destroyed. I wonder if it can ever recover.

      1. Oh, I don’t know. What have the Romans ever done for us, apart from straight roads, central heating, lots of words in the language, that is?

          7. Having read and seen Bernard Cornwell’s novels and televisual stuff, it’s not surprising that early Anglo Saxons and Vikings regarded them as demi-gods.

    3. Of course it can. Seventy years of communism failed to destroy Orthodox Christianity in Russia.

    2. I don’t think any of us hates a whole nation indiscriminately, , HerrOberst, although sometimes some countries do come to mind.

      1. Nobody on nottl does, but we keep being informed by thee meejar how appalling Russia is, how evil they all are. That wasn’t the sound of evil.

    3. We have more in common with these Russians than we do with the muzzrats infesting our towns and cities. Far more. Beautiful, btw.

  98. Something stinks .

    Tools
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Lakshmi Mittal

    Lakshmi Niwas Mittal (Hindi: [ˈləkʃmi nɪˈʋaːs ˈmɪtːəl] ⓘ; born 15 June 1950) is an Indian steel magnate,[7] based in the United Kingdom. He is the executive chairman of ArcelorMittal, the world’s second largest steelmaking company,[8] as well as chairman of stainless steel manufacturer Aperam.[9] Mittal owns 38% of ArcelorMittal and holds a 3% stake in EFL Championship side Queens Park Rangers.[10]

    THE HINDUJA GROUP
    The foundation of the Hinduja Group was laid by Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja, a self-made young entrepreneur from the fabled town of Shikarpur (then in undivided India). An entrepreneur, committed philanthropist and a visionary, Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja (P. D. Hinduja) entered the international arena with an office in Iran (the first outside India) in 1919. The twin pillars of the business were Merchant Banking and Trade. The Group remained headquartered in Iran till 1979. It then moved to Europe.

    Spanning across continents, Hinduja Group went on to strengthen its businesses with diversifications in the fields of Mobility, Digital Technology, Media, Entertainment & Communications, Infrastructure Project Development, Lubricants & Specialty Chemicals, Energy, Real Estate and Healthcare, first under the leadership of Ex-Chairman, Srichand and now under Chairman, Gopichand and ably supported by his brothers, Prakash and Ashok Hinduja.

    Have the Indians ruined our economy?

      1. I am led to believe that the high class brothels are delivered. Peasants order groceries online, the elite order debauchery.

        Well after jojo mehta called for farming to be treated as a crime, they wouldn’t order food would they

      1. Wimpey had cutlery. If your wish is to degrade humanity then make them eat with their hands.

  100. A pleasant walk up to the Barley Mow for a pint, then up The Dale, round Uppertown and drop down High Street for a pint in the King’s Head followed by a walk home.
    A cloudy night leading to a pleasant -1½°C on the Yard Thermometer as I got home.

    Too many comments to catch up with though, But I’m enjoying the last of the wood the DT put on to keep the fire going and Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major, K 581, on BBC R3 before I go to bed.

    1. Ever thought of using Fahrenheit to report temperatures? It would avoid all of these pesky half celcius degrees

    4. Their sons were probably flaunting their white privilege by dying while fighting the Axis powers.

    2. I’ve looked but can’t find the demographics of the school. If, as you think they’re all from foreign born immigrant families, we’re truly heading for hell.

    3. I’ve looked at lots of of images of her and the pupils, and as you say, there’s not a white child amongst them. It was too good to be true.
      Bugger!

  106. Very nice to hear they settled in so quickly. Just what they and you both needed. My neighbour took in two rescues a year ago and they seem to have fitted right in too. They keep Harry and Dolly quite agitated when the cats roam the roof tops !

    1. That ugly bitch should take a hike and her spouse the hapless war hero Harry should follow the cow into obscurity. We have other more serious problems and issues to contend with at the present time.

      The Sussex’s credibility was shot some time ago yet they persist in inflaming the British public against them.

      Look you morons, you have chosen to live in California, have plenty of money and a skip full of Hollywood types supporting your inept propositions principally rubbishing the Royal Family in England.

      May I suggest you losers just eff off and then eff off again. I am personally sick of the sight of you idiots and have no burning desire to listen to your fatuous carping.

      1. So sad his mother died in a car crash when he was a boy. It must have hurt him greatly what with being in the public eye and all that.
        My mother also died in a car crash…not in Paris…not with a lover…not with millions bursting into tears. Just on her own coming back from a night at bingo.
        Every time that whining little over privileged shit says anything makes me want to strangle him.

        2. Hi Phizzee,

          My mother was also killed in a car crash, she was on her own, going to post mail and pick up mail from her PO box facility, an idiot smashed into her car head on in SA, she was 60.

          1. These are the things we/ordinary people have to come to terms with. We don’t get the support people like Prince Whinger are offered and in his case it still seems not to be enough.

        3. Many of is have personal tragedies which we can not and do not want to shout about. Its part of life and the human condition.

  110. Tata Steel is an Indian based Company! Group Chairman is Cyrus Mistry! I am trying to find a ‘Connection’ between this Man/Company, and the Sunak’s Parent’s Conglomerate of Companies. I will let you know if I do. Meanwhile- very Funny isn’t it- that as Sunak Deliberately Closes 2 Blast Furnaces, Sacking 3000 workers, this Steel, can now only be Imported- because Tata in Port Talbot, they only Produce ‘Virgin Steel!’
    Their ‘Alternative’ is ‘Recycled Steel’- which is not Pure, and of lower Quality! No other Country will want “Recycled Steel” – when they can Buy the Real thing, made from scratch!
    It takes 5 Years to Modify the Steel-works- to get to what Sunak wants them to be.
    So ‘Very Conveniently’- ALL THIS STEEL will now be ‘Imported’ from his beloved India! (Very Carbon Friendly- NOT!)
    No wonder, spent so much Time over in India- doing so-called ‘Trade deals!’
    Has the Proverbial Penny dropped on you yet?
    @GBNEWS

    @Nigel_Farage

    @TiceRichard

    @MartinDaubney

    @PatrickChristys

    @EssexPR

    @RishiSunak https://twitter.com/Melanie18971658/status/1748390421099655668

    1. The answer to your questions is that Sunak is appointed to destroy our country, its identity and its industrial power.

      When the German fleet was sunk at Capa Flow the clever Germans sought and obtained our agreement to them salvaging the sunken vessels for their steel content. By enabling the recycling of this high quality steel this decision enabled the Germans to build more and better warships which they deployed in WWII.

      Since then steel from sunken vessels pre Chernobyl has immense value for the reason that it has not been subjected to nuclear contamination. This is particularly important for certain bio-chemical applications.

      Any nation pretending to a place in the World Order must have its own steel manufacturing capabilities. This includes so-called ‘Virgin steel’ from a process invented in England and additionally the ability to produce ‘Special Steels’ viz. this means steels formulated for particular properties from Bank Vaults to military armoury.

      1. It, Scapa Flow salvage, is known as pre-Hiroshima steel and is used for specialist applications in medical and scientific products.

    1. Evening to you Phizzee, Not sure that I have come across the phrase ‘global development delay’ not even sure of the meaning, but I agree, there does seem to have been a lot of people drowning in rivers lately…

    2. The term ‘developmental delay’ or ‘global development delay’ is used when a child takes longer to reach certain development milestones than other children their age. This might include learning to walk or talk, movement skills, learning new things and interacting with others socially and emotionally.

      A Mencap definition.

      1. I have a better understanding now thank you. Obviously this boy had problems but i feel we are too quick to judge children. Not everyone is the same. In my case i had extra coaching from a support teacher at primary school for reading. There were no books at home. No bedtime story. But i soon caught up. Labeling children and putting them into boxes is not helpful. Two of my nephews were diagnosed with ADHD. They wouldn’t bother to read anything and with the diagnosis they were then justified in not doing so.

        My mother taught my father how to sign a cheque. Apparently he was dyslexic. Yet another label. When in reality it was the fact he left school at 12 to work on the land and was never educated.

        1. I think sometimes these labels help schools plead for extra money to cope although it’s a bit of a struggle to get that diagnosis in the first place. Back in the 50’s there were “remedial” teachers to give extra help to what were called slow learners and usually they caught up. But now labels are very handy.

    3. The unfortunate Victoria Klembie was sent to the UK from Nigeria to be receive an education and live with her aunt. Murdered by the aunt and BF if I remember correctly but how VK got that permission, I do not know. No surprise that 140,000 Nigerians moved here last year.

Comments are closed.