1,107 thoughts on “Tuesday 14 January: Royal family difficulties will prove no cause for republicans to rejoice”

    1. Morning, Peddy.
      :-))
      At least, I think it is. We have strong winds, it’s still dark, and it’s been raining all night (Rain! In January…! Unheard of, it should be snow), so it’s difficult to tell what time of day it is.

      1. ‘Moring, Paul.

        I sleep with my phone under my pillow. When I want to know the time, it’s Handy! Bilingual pun – BOOM! BOOM!

  2. Another peoples’s revolt in France. Spiked. 14 January 2020.

    Of course, the pension strikes are by no means the first mass rebellion against Macron’s vision for France. The gilets jaunes began their weekly protests over a year ago. And just as with the yellow vests, the police response to the pension strikes has been brutal. Officers have been filmed firing rubber bullets at point-blank range. Teargas has been fired with reckless abandon. Violent repression is the order of the day under Macron’s ‘liberalising’ regime.

    French workers are defending their living standards against a ruthless establishment. They deserve our solidarity.

    Morning everyone. This should in no wise be taken as support for Macron or his ideas but the reality is that all State run pension provisions are by their very nature unsustainable Ponzi Schemes. The UK keeps putting off the inevitable by reducing the payouts when it’s politically feasible and running side schemes that they shut down after a few years while pocketing the proceeds.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/01/14/another-peoples-revolt-in-france/

  3. Good Morning all

    SIR – Without wishing to be over-sensitive, not allowing Big Ben to bong on January 31 is actually insensitive to Leavers.

    Simon McIlroy
    Croydon, Surrey

  4. SIR – Overlooked in the frenzy of concern over what the Royal family costs this country are the staggering sums in tourist revenue generated by its mere existence as our world-unique headship of state.

    How many tourists flock to Berlin or Paris to gaze at the residences of Frau Merkel or Monsieur Macron? Ballpark figure? Zero. Yet tourist-generated income because of our Royal family and its attendant pageantry is conservatively estimated at billions – far more than that institution could ever cost us.

    If a single family member, sixth in line to the throne, wishes to withdraw to a more private life, one thing is guaranteed. We will all survive and prosper.

    Frederick Forsyth
    Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

    Meghan’s marketing plans for brand Sussex Royal are the very opposite of ‘withdraw to a more private life’. A disaster for Harry and survival for us.

  5. Roger Scruton knew the precious value of freedom
    Melanie Phillips

    The late philosopher repeatedly exposed the tendency of the left to suppress independent thought

    The death of Sir Roger Scruton is a loss that our troubled culture can ill afford. He was Britain’s greatest contemporary philosopher and also its most lyrical.

    The author of more than 50 books, he didn’t just write about Kant and Wittgenstein. He also wrote luminously about beauty and music, architecture and sexual desire, fox-hunting and piety, art and the rural idyll.

    Much misrepresented and traduced, Sir Roger analysed, defended and embodied conservatism which he understood to a rare degree. He articulated and championed the deep connections between conservatism, the English countryside and national identity.

    He recognised that without a shared home and culture based on the inherited values, customs and laws of a nation state there can be no sense of “we”. Above all, Sir Roger realised that conservatism was about the defence of collective memory and freedom, or it was nothing.

    In his book How to Be a Conservative, published in 2014, he recalled his astonishment when, witnessing the 1968 student riots in Paris, he realised that these radicals wanted to destroy freedom in pursuit of the illusory benefits of Marxism.

    From this he concluded that the political alternative to revolutionary socialism was conservatism. But when he started teaching at London university, he discovered that without exception his colleagues opposed conservatism which they said was the enemy of fairness and those “struggling for peace” against American imperialism.

    From then on, his life became a progressively more urgent battle in which he fought academia and cultural orthodoxies and lost.

    In Britain, he witnessed at first hand the “long march through the institutions” which undermined core values along with enterprise, national sovereignty and patriotism.

    In communist eastern Europe, he bravely helped dissidents to fight oppression, culminating in his own arrest and expulsion from Czechoslovakia in 1985.

    This relationship opened his eyes, not just to the evils of the Soviet Union but the importance of “the bringing to consciousness of forgotten things”. He also realised that in Britain, Labour Party socialism expressed the same contempt for human freedom through its agenda of controlling society in the name of equality.

    In How to Be a Conservative, he wrote that ordinary people were trying to “live by their lights, raising families, enjoying communities, worshipping their gods and adopting a settled and affirmative culture — these attempts are scorned and ridiculed by the Guardian class.”

    As a result, he wrote, conservatives now had to “move quietly and discreetly… known only to each other as they move in disguise”. At the same time, he realised that many of them no longer understood what they needed to conserve. So his Conservative Philosophy Group tried to restore conservatism to the Conservative Party.

    As someone who occasionally attended its meetings, I felt we resembled a small flotilla of ships from another age, buffeted by tempests and mountainous seas and relying for our perilous navigation on Sir Roger’s north star.

    As the years went on, the totalitarian characteristics which he had helped battle in eastern Europe surfaced in Britain under a different guise.

    The universities, those supposed crucibles of fearless and independent thought (but which had long since hounded him out), started openly suppressing ideas. On campus as elsewhere, the culture wars of identity politics were claiming real victims through character assassination and social and professional ostracism.

    Last year, he himself fell victim to this when an article in the New Statesman smeared him by distorting comments he had made in an interview. Worse still, on the basis of nothing other than these falsehoods, the Tory housing minister James Brokenshire sacked him as chairman of a government commission — thus proving Sir Roger’s point about the party’s moral vacuum. Both the magazine and Brokenshire subsequently apologised and Sir Roger was restored to his role. But the injustice of the affair badly wounded him.

    It is difficult to convey to anyone who hasn’t experienced such an onslaught the impact this can have on the victim’s life and wellbeing. It becomes hard to dispatch the feeling that, despite the support of friends and even any subsequent apology, the forces of darkness are steadily extinguishing the lights of justice and decency.

    But Sir Roger’s exceptional character still shone through these trials. Gentle and self-effacing, he had rare qualities of humility and generosity of spirit. In a moving essay published last month in The Spectator, he wrote: “Coming close to death you begin to know what life means, and what it means is gratitude”.

    We should remember him not for the horrible hit-job which blighted the end of his life but for his sweetness of character, dry wit and magnificent writing, which will remain in our minds and hearts and through which he will continue to teach us about truth, freedom and what it is to be human.

    May his memory be for a blessing.

    1. As the years went on, the totalitarian characteristics which he had helped battle in eastern Europe surfaced in Britain under a different guise.

      To my mind this is one of the most amazing though under reported occurrences of the last twenty years. As the monstrous tyranny of the old Soviet Union crumbled into dust its practices were resurrected in the UK! Thought Police. Marxist Doctrine. State Propaganda, all were transferrred here. It is almost as if there is some unwritten requirement that there must always be in the world some level of Political Evil and we are the next practitioners!

      1. When the Ying withers away, there is nothing to compare the Yang with. If there is no opposite, what do you compare yourself with? If there was no dark, how would we know it was light?

        1. Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.

          ― Lao Tsu, Tao Teh Ching.

          Morning Oberst.

          1. Good morning, Minty.

            The quotation applies equally to the miles of
            column inches about the Sussexes.

      2. Morning Minty

        Our collective memory and identity must not be diminished or lost sight of ..

        The old style Trotskyites who sat on the back benches who are now fronting Labour are part of the bad collective memory that was fashionable during the 1960’s . Our own national identity is being trashed by these people .

        I fear we have have lost a man who was an exceptional mentor , thinker and cultural hero . I do hope his wise thoughts are never ever forgotten .

    2. “on the basis of nothing other than these falsehoods, the Tory housing minister James Brokenshire sacked him as chairman of a government commission” – There was a tweet yesterday from Boris on Sir Roger’s death, and I replied that the Tories should hang their heads in shame over that attack. To pillory someone/anyone without basis in fact is a terrible thing, whether highborn, or lowborn.

      1. Brokenshire is a miserable worm; the sort that should fall victim to Bozza’s Valentine’s Day massacre. Fortunately, he no longer is anything other than an MP, so that’s one less for the shredder.

    3. “on the basis of nothing other than these falsehoods, the Tory housing minister James Brokenshire sacked him as chairman of a government commission” – There was a tweet yesterday from Boris on Sir Roger’s death, and I replied that the Tories should hang their heads in shame over that attack. To pillory someone/anyone without basis in fact is a terrible thing, whether highborn, or lowborn.

  7. UK can avoid EU’s level playing field demands by opting for loose relationship, says VDL

    CHIEF eurocrat Ursula von der Leyen has admitted Boris Johnson can avoid the European Union’s demands for a “level playing field” by agreeing a looser future relationship with Brussels.

    Speaking in Luxembourg, the European Commission President suggested the bloc would lower its demands for the UK to remain aligned to its rulebook if the Prime Minister sacrifices access to the single market. Senior EU leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Angela Merkel, have raised concerns the UK would become an economic competitor if allowed to diverge its standards while being allowed to maintain trade ties on the Continent. Mrs von der Leyen today said: “Great Britain is our friend, the Brits are our friends – it is a friendship that has been growing for a long time but we have to break new ground with each other.

    1. What kind of relationship did Canada agree with the EU? Why not copy and paste.
      Morning, Bill

      1. Does Canada’s agreement include financing Ginger and Minger’s security costs?
        Or am I getting my treaties in a twist?

  8. Morning, all!
    Hope today is a better news day than yesterday.
    I’m not on about the Royals (although less of their toings & froings would be good), I’m on about Nottlers writing about giving up with NTTL. Some quote the loss of upvotes, some the mumblings about loss of upvotes… I didn’t know it was a competition to get upvotes – or downvotes, for that matter. Personally, I’m saddened by the loss of good companions on NTTL, and hope for their rapid return. Meanwhile, I don’t give a rats arse about vote count, since the loss of ups and increase in downs are not as a result of NTTL (dis)approval, but some other agency whose opinion matters nowt to me. Except my comment about Kippling yesterday… 🙁 but the downvoter put their hand up, and it was well deserved!
    I hope we can get by this, and resume discussions, grumbles, eeyore moments and the like as before.

    1. Morning OB

      I feel the same as you ..It is all a bit like the Hokey Cokey, we shake it all about!

      Up votes, down votes, what’s it all about .

      I hope people don’t abandon Nottler because of such a daft vote count either.

      1. The upvote gobbler seems full as my votes are starting to go up again..pity as I wanted to be part of the elite zero club and be done with the silly things. I do hope those who have left return, life is too short and precioue to be taken out by a flawed system..

    2. I couldn’t agree more. Votes are worthless tokens. What matters is the friendship, the company and the laughter. Members give support when it is required, I wish they would remove all up and down voting. It is not rquired. A lovely site I pop into to say hello is being plagued by a number of downvoters. They won’t keep me away as I care for neither up nor downers, Just the people. They matter and only they matter,

        1. As do I and I missed you all very much when I was away last year. The fact we can joke the way we do is an added bonus and something to be treasured.

        1. Oh absolutely!!!! Is that Edelweiss in the foreground? I know there is a white variety….”blossoms of snow” in the song, but wondered if there was a blue one too. Yes there is so much in this world to be thankful for and upvotes imo are not one of them. Still I understand why they are to some and respect that. They are just not for me.

          2. Delivered by an American blogging friend from cactus country,
            that’s a flower too, apparently, according to him anyway.

        2. Hello, welcome to this side of the tempestous seas Cowboy 😉

          They’ve gone quiet atm, hopefully utterly full of munching upv0tes .

      3. Good evening Jenny and all fellow Nottlers. It is indeed sad that some friends have left because of the bots. Although I don’t contribute much these days (long story…), I often look in for the friendly common sense, informative comments and humour, and would greatly miss not being here. Seems years (and not a few grey hairs) since the old days of Telegraph letters!

        1. I have just seen this in my notifications as I am off to sleep but wanted to reply – hopefully, if the storm behaves, I may sleep. I remember you !! It is very sad some have left and I don’t understand why. A bot is nothing, a nonentity, but we are human – friends and comrades. For me, this is still the ‘old letters’, just a little change but still good humour, informative discussions and often, a walk down memory lane. I am not new to bots, flaggers, downvoters nor trolls – all cowards and Billy no mates. Yes, they used to bother me but then something took over in me…a sense of what was really important. You can become a target for lots of reasons, if you are popular, in disagreement with a particular issue, if someone was banned from a site and took a dislike to someone who wasn’t, the list goes on. I got loads of downvotes just last night because a site I like had been targeted. It won’t keep me away from it I assure you. I would never allow such behaviour to lose me, good friends. Instead, I will stand with them. I actually posted a gif of an airplane showering the downvoters with downvotes that got featured. Lol. The downvoters were not there tonight but that is not to say they won’t be back. I just hope, those who have ‘left’ see this and come back. Never let the bad guys win. Take care M……bless you…..xxxx

          1. Whether or not I have lost any votes, I haven’t the faintest idea, and neither do I care! Friendship here is more important than some random bot or troll.
            Fingers crossed for calm overnight weather for you. Fairly still here ….. for now. Goodnight Jenny. X

        1. Nope, just a new name and new avatar. Bike’s been off the road for a while – must get it MOTd

    6. Given that the votes seemingly disappeared by means of a “bot” instigated by persons unknown and not a personal attack, I was rather surprised that some contributors departed the platform. I do hear the argument that having zero votes may result in you being blackballed when trying to make comments on other forums.

    7. Very true, Paul.

      Those of us who were regulars on the old DT letters’ forum had to put up with the occasional idiotic troll but, in the main, we were a self-regulated group who got along fine and posted some intelligent matter.

      The problem with this forum is those Johnny-come-latelys who don’t have that sense of camaraderie that we shared on the old forum. Too many “newbies” on here are terminally boring one-trick-ponies, whose tedious and repetitious drivel ruins the intrinsic friendly nature of the forum.

      This is the main reason why I piss off for extended spells since the high level of idiocy among many corespondents, who have unfortunately decamped here, is off-putting. I wish they would go elsewhere and bore the pants off each other and leave the rest of us in peace!

      1. Good morning Grizzly, I have to say that I am much the same as you. Why some people have to be so repetitive and argumentative I do not know. It would be grand if we could return to those previous times.

        Trying to read the comments BTL on the DT is, (when comments are allowed), impossible most times. The same trolls repeating the same arguments, false news and generally trying to wind people up. It does feel that since the Referendum ‘dark powers’ have realised that people no longer get all their news via the BBC. As their arguments are built on sand they resort to hectoring and the old “repeat something enough times then people will believe it” attitude.

      2. All oldies were once newbies Grizz….but if I am included, will be happy to bow out gracefully.

        1. Not at all, Jenny. Newbies, like you good self, are a breath of fresh air and I hope you’ll stay around for a good while yet. x

          The ones I am talking about are self-evident by the detritus they post, over and over again, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

          1. Phew, I know I can be a bit silly sometimes but never argumentative, always respectful. Thank you…..xxx

    8. ‘Afternoon, Paul, late on parade after an awful night.

      My chief concern is not so much up/down votes but for disqus to allow such goings on, indicates a fearful lack of security and, while hackers probably have little or no interest in us apart from our bank balances and access thereto, it obviously allows malicious nerds the ability to play pop with viruses and ransomware.

    9. Well said. And those who decide to re-incarnate with a new name, give us clue to your former self.

  9. Diane Abbott told to ‘stay away’ from Rebecca Long Bailey’s Labour leadership campaign

    Brexit Party MEP Rupert Lowe mocked Labour’s Ms Abbott who took to Twitter to announce she is backing Ms Long Bailey in the contest to replace Jeremy Corbyn following his disaster general election defeat that saw his party see the worst result since before the start of the Second World War. Ms Abbott said: “Pleased to nominate Becky Long Bailey for leader and Richard Burgon for deputy leader @UKLabour @RLong_Bailey @RichardBurgon.” Mr Lowe retweeted her post, adding his own thoughts.

    1. Pity Diane Abbott isn’t standing for election as leader. That would surely kill off the Labour Party if she were to win. Still, it would provide great entertainment every week at Prime Minister’s Question Time.

    2. I can see Gibraltar’s East Side lit by the rising sun at this very moment.

      A calm and tranquil morning with the sea like a mill pond.

  12. Morning all

    SIR – I was the national convenor of the campaign that won the Australian referendum on the monarchy, against a republican movement supported by vast wealth, the mainstream media, most politicians, celebrities and assorted elites.

    I can tell you that the current rearrangements within the Royal family will have no effect whatsoever in changing the Australian constitution. That defeat was national, in every state and 72 per cent of electorates. A second referendum would result in an even greater landslide.

    In reporting the present perturbation within our Royal family, the army of London-based royal watchers should be reminded that, while comment is free, facts are sacred.

    Contrary to most reports, Frogmore Cottage was not funded by the British taxpayer, nor indeed is our Royal family.

    Given that the British Government effectively taxes the income of the Queen’s Crown Estate at almost four times the company tax rate, yet expects the Queen to pay for almost everything else, why should anyone quibble about the cost of fulfilling the UK’s obligations to ensure the security concerning internationally protected persons?

    If as a result of new arrangements, one realm – Canada – has the good fortune of seeing more of some royals, this would seem most desirable, especially if they remain committed to their excellent charitable projects, including that remarkable creation, the Invictus Games.

    Professor David Flint

    Bondi Beach, New South Wales, Australia

  13. SIR – If the Duchess of Sussex didn’t want an extended family for her son she should have married Tom or Dick, but not Harry.

    Camilla Coats-Carr

    Teddington, Middlesex

    1. As I commented yesterday .. sorry to repeat myself .

      Meghan is the perpetrator of coercive and controlling behaviour over Harry, of that I am certain .

      He could be a victim of psychological domestic abuse.

      1. Tom, Dick or Harry
        She finally met her Harry. I do not know how many Toms but I am positive she came across lots of Dicks in her career as a C Class actress.

  14. Morning again

    SIR – Professor Sir Roger Scruton (Obituaries, January 13) taught me as an undergraduate and was my PhD supervisor.

    He was a brilliant, cultured man and, unlike some philosophers, who focus on abstruse technical trivialities, he concentrated on the most important features of the human condition. He wrote courageously against the spirit of the modern age, with its philistine materialism.

    In contrast to his malicious detractors, he was scrupulously fair in his criticisms of his opponents and treated them with respect. He was a principled, hardworking, kind and generous man who combined high seriousness with a wonderful, if dry, sense of humour.

    His life and work have been inspiring and the world is a lesser place without him.

    Dr Frank Palmer

    Twickenham, Middlesex

  15. SIR – The drop in John Lewis’s profits (report, January 10) is no surprise.

    Here in Cheltenham, millions have been spent on its new store, which is a triumph of style over substance and seems to have more staff than customers. The local Waitrose has morphed from a light and spacious shop into another run-of-the-mill supermarket, with fewer staff, more self-service tills and an area where customers can bring their own containers for certain groceries that no one seems to be using.

    The so-called improvements, to say nothing of loose paving stones outside the entrance, have put many people off going there.

    One of the partners informed me that bosses were afraid it used to be a “snob shop”. Actually, that was its unique selling point.

    Fiona Wild

    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    1. ” that no one seems to be using.” Sounds like the electric car charging points installed at my local Tesco, which have removed 6 or 7 parking places. I’ve only ever seen one used. At Christmas, presumably a visitor from the effete south.

    1. Talking about the BBC……are they still going ahead with charging over 75s for license or is Boris sitting on them? It will grieve me to have to pay for it again.

  17. Today is the day Microsoft trashes its business model. It is its new Coca-Cola day, the day the revolutionary guard shot down its own people in a friendly airliner.

    I can appreciate Microsoft executives applying the legal small print by not maintaining a product any longer than the ten years they feel they must, and Windows 7 users must get learn a new system and can expect shiny PCs to be rendered obsolete by commercial needs of an American corporation that too must earn its living.

    What sinks Microsoft though is the dreadful reverse in the usability and the usability of Windows 8, and the infestation of malware over which customers have no control of Windows 10.

    The attitude of Apple and Google are little better. This forces all of us reliant on home computers to communicate with one another here either to risk the jungle of global hackers, trying to ignore them or rely on third party security apps to protect us, in the same way we must rely on private hospitals when the NHS PFI wealth generators no longer admit patients before they die in the ambulance, or turn to the Linux community and learn to type in text instructions onto command lines, going back to skills we thought we left behind with DOS.

    1. Computing these days takes me back to when I used to run after a bus and when the driver always held out the possibility I’d catch it but always kept the speed slightly above my own.

      Just when you think you’ve mastered the latest software, the buggers make it obsolete and it’s back down the snake to square one.

      That said, my computer is my lifeline and without it I’d be up a gum tree without a paddle. It’s those who don’t have a history of using the things and who try to master today’s complexity that I feel sorry for. Those who’ve missed the bloat, so to speak.

      1. I used to have a Nokia 1610 phone. Worked fine. You could make phone calls with it and the battery charge lasted a month ( and you could drop it on the floor and it didn’t break). Last year my son replaced it with some Apple thingy. Needs charging every day. Whirs, buzzes and whatever every so often and I haven’t got a clue how to stop it. I don’t use it for the Internet, the buttons are too small and I’m b*ggered if I’m going to use it to pay for stuff. I hate the damn thing.

        2. I must admit, modern technology does have its uses. For example, I have a habit of talking to myself on my travels and it’s handy when someone passes to pretend I’m on a hands-free wotsit that many young people use these days. Years ago, the men in white coats would have whisked me off, pronto.

          As for a smart phone, I don’t need one and haven’t got one.

          1. My daughter and her OH bought me an ipad for Christmas and I love it….never thought I would but I do and love the games.

          2. Judging by the number of people I almost bump into on my travels and the lit-up faces in the pubs in town, there’s obviously some attraction about the things.

            I have a tablet I bought a few years ago and only use it for e-books. A waste really.

          3. I am stuck indoors for much of the time so it has been a Godsend. I don’t use it for my emails or the net, still like my lap top but having great fun with the apps.

          4. “Smart” phone? Are they well-dressed and immaculately groomed?

            Why can’t they be called an “intuitive” mobile phone?

          5. I used to get flattered when the faces of the young girls who sat next to me in the pub lit up. Sadly, it wasn’t me causing it but the reflection off their wotsit screens.

          7. I shall continue my campaign against vapid and air-headed Americanisms for as long as I draw breath. It may end up being futile but I shall not aver.

  18. Nigel Farage ‘will not take a penny’ of £153,000 MEP golden goodbye. 13 january 2020.

    Nigel Farage “will not take a penny” of the £153,000 windfall he could claim for his 20-year stint as a member of the European parliament, his spokesman has said, as the UK’s 73 MEPs are set to be told on Monday night about any cash payouts they are due.

    One could point out that Nigel is scarcely in the Beggars League but one suspects this would not prevent any of his contemporaries hoovering up every penny that was available. As in so much else he is a law unto himself. He has performed inestimable services to his country in the most difficult circumstances without ex gratia payment in either recognition or reward. We must hope history at the least will look on him kindly!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/13/farage-will-not-take-a-penny-of-153000-mep-golden-goodbye-due

    1. Good morning, Minty

      And let us hope that those who poured scorn on him will be looked at very unkindly by history.

    2. ‘Afternoon, Minty, anything that contributes to the downfall of the EU and its silly Euro (€) is to be seized upon even if it harmonises one’s bank balance.

      Hey Nigel, if you don’t want it, I’ll take it.

    4. What will the £135k that Nigel is forgoing be spent on? Something truly worthwhile, no doubt.

    2. Morning OLT,
      Why would it cost 1/2 million quid to pull a rope a ring a bloody bell ?
      Get a cheaper bell ringer.
      I would have though ALL church bells would have rung anyway to also celebrate we still have churches.

    3. Morning OLT – BBC radio 4 will surely sound the Big Ben bong on the hour which we have patiently waited for as they have the appropriate recordings. In London the Mayor could borrow the speaker system ,for calling the faithful, from the Finsbury Mosque and play the BBC Bong at full blast from the Bell tower to satisfy the warring factions gathered in Westminster to celebrate this illustrious and historic occasion

      1. Morning, Clyde.

        The BBC, a cartel of Lefty remainiacs, will probably boycott any bell ringing (even recorded bells) as a mark of MSM spite.

        2. I see HSBC are starting up their “we are not an island” TV campaign again.

          They obviously feel that Brexit is not a done thing.

        3. I see HSBC are starting up their “we are not an island” TV campaign again.

          They obviously feel that Brexit is not yet a done thing.

          2. Well they are the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, so they would, wouldn’t they?

    4. Ah, some time ago I wrote to the heads of the Christian Churches throughout the UK suggesting that bells be rung to celebrate something* and to confirm our Christian presence and heritage. I received replies from one or two of them. None of them were positive or supportive.

      * I forget what, possibly “All Saints”…

      1. I suppose the Papes wouldn’t celebrate our leaving a mega-European organisation.
        The CoE needs to remember its origins.

        1. Well, the CoE were disinclined to ring bells. Possibly some might find such behaviour offensive…

    5. I know you’ve put 1100 (Zulu) but that would be 11 a.m. I believe we leave at 23:00.

      Sorry to be pedantic OLT but my ex-military mind cavils at mis-appropriation.

    6. Westminster Abbey has bells. I expect All Saints Fulham will be in mourning. I stay because the 1662 Book of Common Prayer stays but the preaching is full-on leftist crap.

  20. We have bright sunshine now and the wind has dropped….how lovely and something to celebrate today.

    1. Wet and windy again here in southern Sweden. At least it is not cold (7ºC) with no snow or frost (yet!).

      2. Still there is always something to be glad about Grizz. We had a frost yesterday and the winds were dreadful. It is lovely today.

    2. Pleasant here in Derbyshire at the moment, but Rain Radar shews a band of wet coming in from the SW, Plum Tart & Molamola are probably getting wet as I type.
      Sadly, it’s due to start up here at 11ish.

      1. Yes, rain is on the way here too but enjoying a nice bright morning with a coffee and Bel Vita.

    4. Good for you, make the most of it. Gale force winds and rain for us poor soft southwesterners until this evening.

      1. Oh Brendon is on his way so I just thought it was nice to enjoy breakfast looking at the sunshine. Batten down the hatches M…..xxx

  21. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has said there is still much to
    discuss over the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s move to his country – there are concerns who is to foot the bill.

    Simple….let those who wish to change their lives foot the bill. Neither Canada nor the UK should have to fund their chosen lifestyles if they stray from the one they had already – just like anyone else would have to weigh up moving home and changing careers.

    1. I envy Canada a great deal. It’s beautiful mountains; the wide spaces in which to lose yourself if you wish, it’s inhabitants who are more laid back than the Australians and as generous as Americans without their Flag Waving but they lucked out with Trudeau. He is a preposterous poseur without a single virtue to his name!

        1. After the last twenty years no Brit can gloat about the choices of other country’s electors!

    2. I know someone who emigrated to Canada half a century ago. Strict medical tests and lots of questions.

    3. Totally agree. Why should taxpayers in any country support a couple of liggers?
      Now: how many H&M tea towels and commemorative plates can I buy up at wholesale rates for future birthdays and Christmases?
      Like Mrs. Tiggiwinkle 50p coins, they’re an investment, you understand

  22. BTL@DTletters

    Rob Thompson 14 Jan 2020 9:11AM
    Megxit and Brexit.

    Two women face different crises.

    One dithers for 3 years; the other sets up solutions in 3 days.

    If only HM had been in charge of Brexit.

  23. I feel abit hypersensitive now … nearly 4 years on, admitting that I supported Brexit.. there is a kind of shocked silence , a shyness .. rather similar to whether one was admitting that one was for Cromwell or the King ..

    The countryside is changing .. attitudes are altering .. I think that forty somethings are remainers .. internationalists .. wine imbibers , foreign travellers , jobs in finance , baguette chompers.. and full of Harry and Megan supporters .

    People who shop in the local shop , who meet for a gossip as they queue for posting parcels , look guarded and fearful when Brexit is mentioned .. it is all in a look .. over the spectacles , guarded .. yes , and not too joyful.

    Fuel prices have escalated hugely , local garage says it could be the prospect of Brexit .. or it may be knee jerk reaction by oil companies re Iran .. what is it?

    Who is profiteering.. and is this why the minor royals have Mexited.. tax purposes?

    1. My local newsagents are very cautious discussing Leaving the EU because so many of their middle class customers are Remainers.

      2. Morning Bob

        Belonging to a rural lifestyle can become a rather touchy affair .. I am not a coward, but.. well people who you thought you knew react very differently. Politics is not the social thing that it once was .. There are some really horrid things happening these days!

        1. One of the local Marxists, who I’d previously got along with, was so disgusted by my standing for UKIP in the local elections he now refuses to speak to me.

        2. Most people go with the flow and believe whatever they hear on the telly, so inevitably a lot think Brexit is bad and global warming is real. I was looking at the comments made on the Solar Power installation to be considered for planning in our parish and there were two objections, myself and one other – arguing in relation to the details of the application, and then a swarm supporting the proposal, which I know for a fact are friends and relatives of the local landowner who went round anyone he thought he could get to support it (my son made it clear I would not be supporting it – glad I was out), and they are all airy fairy comments about global warming destoying the futures of their grandchildren. It is quite clear they have never bothered thinking about that or any other problems facing mankind in anything but a very superficial way.

          1. Most go with the flow. Sheeple, I think the name is. The independent thinkers are few and far between – fortunately, half the world’s supply are here on NTTL!

        3. Those within Britain who hate Britain cannot bear the thought of Britain succeeding. I am reminded of Shakespeare’s words in KIng Lear:

          That nature, which contemns its origin
          Cannot be bordered certain in itself.

          Those who hate themselves are probably right! They have twisted natures and, as Albany says of his treacherous wife, Goneril:

          She that herself will sliver and disbranch
          From her material sap perforce must wither
          And come to deadly use.

          This observation applies to both the thwarted Remainers and Prince Harry who have ‘disbranched’ from their ‘material sap’ will probably discover that they come to an unhappy end.

        4. See my more recent reply to you – some of my good friends and neighbours are remainers but we haven’t fallen out over it.

      3. Offer to help them one day with deliveries of the Times and Le Guardian, and then you will have a useful map of local remainers.

      4. Our local newspaper was full of letters over the election period – nearly all from remainers. The new Tory woman won.

    2. Morning T-B – You were not the only one to support Leave. 17.4 million of UK voted the same. We expected some problems with our decision but there are bigger problems with Remaining in the EU which have never been seriously debated. We will take what comes on the chin and deal with it free from the shackles of Brussels. You have nothing to fear.

    3. Morning Belle. No one supposes that all will run smoothly as we leave. We still have powerful enemies both within the EU and the UK who will do everything possible to poison the well, but we are at least out of this Fascist organisation!

      1. It is the enemies within who will be the most offensive: even though they no longer have any power mean-spirited people like Bercow, Benn, Grieve, Major, Heseltine and Clarke will do their best to urinate on the parade.

          1. Precisely. I have said all along if these backstabbing sour grapes had got behind the referendum result, we could have kicked ass a long time ago and got on with the job.

        2. Time for a spot of Cicero; again.

          “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”

          ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

          1. A very wise man.
            I recently read “Lustrum” one of the trilogy by Robert Harris. Must look out for the others.

          2. Chaucer put it very well in The Merchant’s Tale:

            O perilous fyr, that in the bedstraw bredeth!
            O famulier foo, that his servyce bedeth!
            O servant traytour, false hoomly hewe,.
            Lyk to the naddre in bosom sly …

            The imagery of the fire in your bedding and the adder in your bosom is very apt.

    4. Fuel price has F*CK ALL to do with Brexit. War with Iran, a fart by a cat in Saudi, all affect the spot price, as does the enormous tax take by government. Also, it’s winter and the demand is higher, pushing up the price. £-$ exchange also.
      We have higher oil price here in Norway, too. It went up by 20p/litre when Trump started rattling swords at Iran.

    5. No one knows how this will pan out as it has not been done before. My hopes are for a bright future as I would think we all want. It’s time to sprinkle sugar on the sour grape remainers and get on with the job.

    7. Just chill, Mags and don’t worry!

      Even my Rory Stewart fan club good friend and neighbour next door has accepted that Brexit is happening. At a New Year drinks party the other day another of our neighbours came out of the closet and celebrated the “silent majority”. We’re all out there, and can say who we are, now.

      As for fuel prices, they go up and down at the shake of a turban or tea towel.

    9. Clucking bell.
      I had enough trouble finding the coffee and sunflower oil in our re-organised Lidl.
      Maybe in my distracted state, I missed all that!
      🙂

  24. Morning Each,
    IN lieu to being denied ringing BIG BENNIE on Brexitexit could the ringing not be transferred, as being more accessible seemingly, to political necks ?
    Working on Arty the hit mans rate, as seen as
    artichokes two for a pound in Tesco’s, we could claim an awful lot of “own back” that is long overdue for 1/2 a
    million quid.

      1. Morning AS,
        An old joke is inclusive in the post,
        Arty the very cheap hit man carries out a contract to bump of a clients MRs who worked checkout in Tesco’s, he first mistakenly choked the wrong lady, hence the following days headlines Artichokes two for a pound in Tesco’s.
        I do believe that Emperor Nero 68 ad done the first telling.

    3. I understand a brain cell was injected into his head. The brain cell couldn’t see any other cells and cried out in an echoey voice “Is there anyone there?” Voices from the depths replied “We’re all down here”

    4. “I have You in my eye, sir. And I shall KEEP You in my eye until You learn to behave and do as You’re told.”

      (The Madness of King George)

    5. And just think how much bad news is being buried by the politicians, thanks to your shenanigans.

    1. I have to confess to loving the Beatles and even their single lives after group split…always have.

  30. Roger Scruton kept the light of conservative philosophy burning in dark times. We owe it to him to follow his example

    DOUGLAS MURRAY

    One afternoon in 1985 an English philosopher could be found wandering the drizzly grounds of Glasgow University. As the editor of the Salisbury Review and author of notorious books and articles, Roger Scruton had been publicly identified as a conservative. As a result, student groups had protested his appearance and “no-platformed” him. So while the student society who had invited him scrambled for another venue to host their speaker, Scruton watched a parade of the university’s authorities pass by in their pomp, off to bestow an honorary degree on Robert Mugabe.

    That story (told in his memoir Gentle Regrets) was typical Scruton: funny, gentle and packed with truth-kicks…

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/13/owe-roger-scruton-follow-example/

    Would a kind Nottler care to post the rest?

    2. This is the article in full from the tablet edition, it may well be an abridged version of the printed article.

      We owe it to Scruton to follow his example
      Condemned for the heresy of conservatism, the great philosopher never gave up on rational argument
      Douglas Murray
      One afternoon in 1985, an English philosopher could be found wandering the drizzly grounds of Glasgow University. As the editor of The Salisbury Review and author of notorious books and articles, Roger Scruton had been publicly identified as a conservative. As a result, student groups had protested his appearance and “no-platformed” him. So while the student society which had invited him scrambled for another venue to host its speaker, Scruton watched a parade of the university’s authorities pass by in their pomp, off to bestow an honorary degree on Robert Mugabe.
      That story (told in his memoir Gentle Regrets) was typical Scruton: funny, gentle and packed with truth-kicks.
      One of the minor kicks in that story is that Scruton, who passed away at the weekend, was indeed for many years treated in this country as some kind of pariah. True, his numerous books got printed (and were often boycotted) and for some years he had a weekly column in a national newspaper. But having had the doors of academia shut on him early for the heresy of conservative thought, making a living as a freelance intellectual in Britain was not easy.
      Yet his response never was to moan, but rather to look on everything with that particular Scrutonian mixture of quiet amusement and profound acceptance. The acceptance part may not have come easily, but it did give him the calm and confidence that allowed him to spend decades building a catalogue of intellectual work not exceeded by anyone in his generation and rivalled by few in our history.
      His works included studies of Kant, Spinoza and modern philosophy, as well as dissections of popular culture and defences of high culture. In works such as his jewel-like On Hunting (1998) and England: An Elegy (2000) he voiced a profound and deep hymn to the country that he loved. “We are needy creatures,” he once wrote, “and our greatest need is for home.”
      While that home may have seemed cold to him at times, abroad the story was very different. Across Europe, America and further afield Scruton’s reputation grew vast. His books on beauty, architecture, philosophy, music, and more were translated and discussed everywhere. It was as though distance allowed people to ignore the squalls and recognise him for what he was: a towering intellect and one of the great philosophers of the age – someone who stood above political tribes and sought to spend his time focusing on what matters.
      In recent years that quest brought him to the question of home. Specifically of how more people – whatever their wealth – might live in buildings which we commonly recognise as beautiful.
      Britain was slow to recognise what it had. Early in the last decade, unbeknown to him, a few of Roger’s friends began a campaign to finally get him an honour. One of the most wonderful things about what followed was not just that it was successful (he was knighted in 2016) but that the list of people who wanted to write letters in support of his nomination was so long and varied. As well as religious and cultural leaders in the UK, it most movingly included people whom he had taught in the ‘“underground university” behind the Iron Curtain in the Eighties, a time when Roger had gone in and out of the Eastern bloc at considerable risk, simply to keep the light of philosophy burning in the communist darkness. Perhaps it should be no surprise that so many of his former students went on to lead their countries once they got their freedom back.
      He worried about freedom at home of course. In the last year of his life he experienced part of the totalitarian impulse of our own time, where attempts to find people guilty of new heresies and “cancel” them seem as active (if not yet quite as severe in their consequences) as in the countries he once travelled to. Just as he was constantly educating and constantly encouraging, so he was ever warning.
      In his final piece for this paper, published last year, he warned that our own society may be entering a realm of “cultural darkness, in which rational argument and respect for the opponent are disappearing from public discourse, and in which increasingly, on every issue that matters, there is only one permitted view, and a licence to persecute all the heretics that do not subscribe to it”.
      If that course can be avoided then it can only be by leadership and example. There could be no better example than the great man we have just lost.

      2. Thank you Ndovu, glad to be one of the trusted ones. And I am as Alf says the better half! 😹😹😹

          4. Of course! Would you be able to send ecd a little private message and ask him if he’d come back under another name?

  32. Britain’s least used railway stations revealed

    Two railway stations in north-west England are the joint least used in Britain, new figures show.
    Greater Manchester’s Denton and Cheshire’s Stanlow and Thornton were both used by just 46 passengers in the year to March 31 2019, the Office and Rail and Road (ORR) said.
    Reddish South, also in Greater Manchester, was the only other station in the country to record just double-digit annual usage, at 60 passengers.

  33. Good afternoon from the daughter of Alfred the Great,
    the most famous Saxon Queen and the first ( quite modestly said 😉

        1. What about mince pies? Didn’t get any this Christmas, and SWMBO makes fabulous mince pies – not bought mincemeat, either, so I feel depraved.
          :{{

          1. …so I feel depraved.

            I don’t think that depraved is the word you want. Try deprived.

          2. * cough * I’ve already pointed that out whilst you
            were absent earlier. Depraved was all wrong .

          5. Poor thing, that just isn’t right 😉 btw you mean deprived and
            not depraved * standing in for Mr Viking * 😉

            I didn’t have any brandy cream or just cream with the
            Christmas pudding, it was served with a drizzle of warm
            sauce of some description and it wasn’t even as nice as custard.

          8. Maybe you don’t like dried fruits, Mr Viking.
            Btw, Stollen is a Easter Cake not Christmas.

          9. Where did you get that from? In my experience (16 years living in Germany) Stollen is always eaten around Christmas

            Stollen is a fruit bread of nuts, spices, and dried or candied fruit, coated with powdered sugar or icing sugar. It is a traditional German bread eaten during the Christmas season, when it is called Weihnachtsstollen or Christstollen. Wikipedia

          10. It’s a big cake with icing on the outside, I just thought
            It was an Easter Cake, I was clearly wrong.

    2. If you ever come to Gloucester you can see the remains of St Oswald’s Priory, built in her time.

      1. I will do that if ever visiting Gloucester .
        There is a bronze statue in Tamworth as well I believe.

  34. Police errors may have let abusers of up to 52 children escape justice. 14 January 2020.

    Greater Manchester police assistant chief constable Mabs Hussain said that victims attacked as children had been denied justice. He said that detectives reinvestigating the allegations from those who say they were sexually abused as children in the original investigation have identified many more suspected victims.

    Hussain denied any suggestion that the original inquiry was inadequate because offenders were mostly from an Asian background: “There was no suggestion that there was any fear, from the evidence I have seen.”

    They were not “Asians” as reported here and on the BBC half an hour ago, but Pakis and 52 are a fraction of the number of actual victims!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/14/police-errors-may-have-let-abusers-of-up-to-52-children-escape-justice

    1. Actually identified as Pakistani on WATO just now. Also Huwawei being given a hard time.

  36. How on earth can it come to this, and within one of our great institutions too?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/049f0fe463d21ac3716d76d00bba388382e83933e83270bf18a6541a62140843.png

    Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules ,
    Of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these.
    But of all the world’s brave heroes, there’s none that can compare.
    With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadiers.

    Those heroes of antiquity ne’er saw a cannon ball,
    Or knew the force of powder to slay their foes withal.
    But our brave boys do know it, and banish all their fears,
    With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.

    Whene’er we are commanded to storm the palisades,
    Our leaders march with fusees, and we with hand grenades.
    We throw them from the glacis, about the enemies’ ears.
    With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers.

    And when the siege is over, we to the town repair.
    The townsmen cry, “Hurrah, boys, here comes a Grenadier!
    Here come the Grenadiers, my boys, who know no doubts or fears!
    Then sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers.

    Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health of those
    Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the loupèd clothes.
    May they and their commanders live happy all their years.
    With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.

    Sadly and unfortunately, there is a new final verse:

    There’s a catch in this brave story, and its one to make you cry.
    Some guards don’t bathe in glory, their stock is not so high.
    When old standards have been lowered, it should bring you all to tears.
    There are toerags, toerags, toerag scum, in the British Grenadiers.

      1. They should be de-epauletted in front of all the Guards on a special parade, then dismissed in disgrace.

      1. I’m going to build me a time machine and go back into the past and tell King Edward I, Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Winston Churchill, Field Marshal Lord Montgomery, and a few other British patriots who fought to keep us free, that their modern counterparts are inviting the enemy to come and live among us and attack us from within.

        Those historical figures would probably hang me as a liar and a charlatan!

        Yet more evidence for my growing file of how stupidity is taking over mankind.

        1. You couldn’t make it up could you? Yes, those historical figures would not believe you for sure. It is all just a crying shame. There is no way back unfortunately and I fear for our children. Goodness knows what lies ahead.

          3. It is like an episode of the US series I am watching – ‘Designated Survivor’.

          4. Oh, dear. I watched that series, but it got so woke I gave up halfway through series 3 on Netflix.
            I did the same with Madam Secretary. I could overlook the inversion of reality for most of it, but the final straw was Hillary Clinton being a guest on one episode.

          5. Oh no – you are kidding…I have just finished series one and enjoyed it. I was looking forward to more but hear it went downhill.

  37. Okay, that’s me – I have a special birthday next week so doing a little online shop for something Harry Potterish for my collection. Yep, I am an HP fan and I know you may not think of me in the same way from now on. I just had to confess….lol. Catch in a bit. Have a lovely afternoon.

    2. Enjoy!
      Remind our failing minds, and we’ll sing Happy Birthday for you!
      30, is it?

  38. I can honestly say I never thought of this answer…

    WHERE DO RED-HEADED BABIES COME FROM?

    After their baby was born, the panicked father went to see the Obstetrician. ‘Doctor,’ the man said, ‘I don’t mind telling you, but I’m a little upset because my daughter has red hair. She can’t possibly be mine!!’

    ‘Nonsense,’ the doctor said…’Even though you and your wife both have black hair, one of your ancestors may have contributed red hair to the gene pool.’

    ‘It isn’t possible,’ the man insisted. ‘This can’t be, our families on both sides had jet-black hair for generations.’

    “Well,” said the doctor, “let me ask you this. How often do you have sex?”

    The man seemed a bit ashamed… ‘I’ve been working very hard for the past year. We only made love once or twice every few months.’

    ‘Well, there you have it!’ The doctor said confidently….

    “It’s Rust!”

  39. Has anyone noticed that the remainers that were against Brexit because of the risk to the economy, trade, jobs like car manufacturers closing and moving abroad are the very same people that want urgent action on climate change whereby all that will be lost in any case and they are fully supportive of it.

    1. Funny that isn’t it? Seems they’re wrong about just about everything really (joining the ERM, the Euro, the Leave vote, No Deal Brexit). Why should we believe anything they tell us ever again?

  40. Good afternoon all. Be Careful What You Wear in Public

    From the Southwest Florida Daily News comes this story of a Sarasota couple who drove to Wal-Mart only to have their car break down in the lot.

    The man sent his wife in to do their shopping and he stayed to make repairs.
    The wife returned later to see a small group of people near their car.
    As she approached, she saw a pair of male legs protruding from under the chassis. Although the man was in shorts, his lack of underwear made his
    private parts glaringly public ones.
    Unable to stand the embarrassment, she dutifully stepped forward, quickly slipped her hand up his shorts and tucked everything safely back out of
    view.
    On regaining her balance standing upright she looked across the hood and found herself staring directly at her husband who was standing idly by.

    The mechanic however, had to have 3 stitches in his head.

  41. RL is getting back into his stride…

    RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: And the Oscar for Best Actress goes to… Meghan Markle

    PUBLISHED: 22:50, 13 January 2020 | UPDATED: 22:50, 13 January 2020

    The Queen deserves better than this, as I wrote on Friday, but she certainly hasn’t let it affect her legendary equilibrium.

    Yesterday’s hastily convened summit at Sandringham was a reminder to everyone, not just Harry and Meghan, exactly who’s in charge.

    Her gaff. Her rules.

    Even Philip was told to make himself scarce, for the sake of his own health. The last thing the frail 98-year-old Duke of Edinburgh needed was the prospect of Little Miss Markle laying down the law from Canada.

    Her Maj was clearly determined, too, that the crisis was only going to cause minimum disruption to her daily routine.

    She insisted that the summit be wound up in time for tea, so she could settle down in front of Pointless with a cup of Earl Grey and a plate of ginger biscuits.

    How quintessentially English. As a young woman, the Queen will have grown up with Jack Buchanan’s whimsical 1935 song Everything Stops For Tea, a celebration of our love affair with a nice cuppa.

    Curiously, when Long John Baldry recorded his own version of Everything Stops For Tea in 1972, it was co-produced by Elton John and Rod Stewart.

    Fast-forward five decades and we now learn that Harry and Meghan decided to tell Elton John about their decision before informing Her Maj. No doubt they felt that was the least they could do after Elton paid for their private jet.

    Presumably, they couldn’t get hold of Rod Stewart, who was still sleeping off his 75th birthday celebrations.

    This is the world they now inhabit: beholden to a merry-go-round of septuagenarian pop stars, superwoke showbiz riff-raff, snouts-in-the-trough politicians and dubious billionaires. They’re welcome to each other.

    Still, whatever you think about the Sussexes’ unilateral declaration of independence, there’s no doubt it has contributed enormously to the gaiety of the nation. Just sit back and enjoy it.

    Never having been a monarchist, I rarely take any notice of royal tittle-tattle. But over the weekend, I’ve savoured every cough and spit. The devil, as always, is in the detail.

    Frankly, it’s difficult to know where to start. I haven’t stopped laughing for days.

    There appears to be no limit to Meghan’s self-absorption and obsession with privacy, when it suits her.

    According to one paper, we should have spotted that the couple were intending to do a Captain Oates when they took both their dogs to Canada for their six-week Christmas holiday.

    Royal ‘sources’ confided that Meghan wouldn’t have contemplated subjecting her pet beagle and black Labrador to such a gruelling, nine-hour plane journey if she hadn’t been planning an extended stay away from Britain. The beagle is called Guy, and was rescued from a Kentucky swamp before Meghan adopted him. Oh, the sun shines bright on my old Kentucky swamp . . .

    But we’re not allowed to know anything about the Labrador. The couple have never released the name of the dog, which they acquired in 2018. We’re not even told whether it is male or female.

    What’s the big secret? Has the Lab ticked the box marked ‘no publicity’? Is Meghan worried that if its identity is made public, it will be hounded (so to speak) by the puparazzi?

    Is she concerned that every time the Lab goes walkies it will have to wear a baseball cap and sunglasses and be surrounded by burly minders — like Madonna, when she goes jogging. There was also a hilarious report about Harry’s attempts to pass himself off as one of the locals on Vancouver Island.

    According to the owner of a home decor store, while shopping for Christmas decorations, the Prince pulled a blue woolly hat down over his eyes and effected a terrible Canadian accent.

    On a small island, where everyone knows everyone else, he was doomed to failure, especially as he was accompanied by a close protection officer. He couldn’t have been more conspicuous if he tried.

    He might just as well have dressed up as a Mountie and started singing I’m A Lumberjack, I wish I’d been a Princess, just like my dear Mama . . .

    The shop’s owner said: ‘I thought there was something familiar about him, even though I could barely see his face.’

    Then the penny dropped. ‘Oh, my God, you’re Prince Andrew!’ You couldn’t make it up. And speaking of close protection officers, it was reported that the couple’s taxpayer-funded security detail could be downgraded once they turn their back on royal duties. They won’t be left ‘unguarded’, however, although their protection officers will now carry Tasers instead of shooters.

    Thank God, we were worried sick.

    Never mind that the Old Bill think nothing of leaving the rest of us unguarded. I’ve been trying to imagine the top-level meeting at the Yard to review the couple’s security arrangements.

    ‘Now listen up. The fifth floor have decreed that security for the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk must be downgraded concomitant to the reduction in their royal commitments. Any suggestions? Yes, Hollis.’

    ‘Why don’t we swap their protection officers’ guns for Tasers? That should send out the right message.’ ‘Excellent idea. In fact, let ’em make do with truncheons and whistles. And instead of half a dozen Range Rovers, in future they can be accompanied everywhere by a bobby on a bicycle.’

    Still, they shouldn’t be in much danger in laid-back Canada, which looks certain to be their destination for the forseeable.

    Meghan has announced via ‘friends’ that she won’t live in the U.S. while the evil Donald Trump remains President.

    Don’t you just love the arrogance of the woman, presuming to tell 327 million Americans who they are allowed to elect?

    Funny how she won’t live in a country run by ‘racist’ Trump, but sucks up to Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, who has been caught out blacking up, not once but several times.

    She’s also playing the victim card for all it’s worth — those ‘friends’ again threatening a warts ’n’ all interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which she will smear the Royal Family as racist and sexist, unless she gets the settlement she wants.

    As Home Secretary Priti Flamingo says, the idea that Meghan has been forced out of Britain by racism is beyond absurd.

    Maybe the makers of The Crown can hire Ms Markle to play herself in a movie version — with Chris Evans as Harry and Al Jolson as Trudeau. Nailed on for a Best Actress Oscar, I’d have thought.

    Finally, I loved the story which said that, rather than learning about the couple’s announcement from TV, Her Maj read it first on her iPad.

    I couldn’t help smiling. For my mum’s 91st birthday last summer, I bought her a new iPad. She now sits up half the night reading Mail Online. Maybe our 93-year-old Queen does the same.

    Meanwhile, I have visions of the situation room at Sandringham being kitted out with one of the giant screens you see in White House war rooms, like the time they took out Osama Bin Laden.

    You can just imagine Her Maj sitting there in a bomber jacket with the royal crest on her chest, directing operations, as General Sir Alan Fitztightly informs her: ‘Ma’am, we have a drone in situ over Vancouver Island and have eyeballs on the target. We await your instructions . . .’

      1. Little Miss Markle
        Forgot to sparkle
        When her money was taken away.
        She grabbed up young Archie
        Called the Royal Family starchy
        And spat in the face of UK.

    3. At the end of the day, Harry should have had more respect for his very ageing Grandparents. They didn’t need this.

    5. For your information, Little John (How’s Robin, by the way?), since you cannot be bothered to research: Vancouver Island, at 12,079 square miles, is the 43rd largest island on the planet. It is half as big again as Sicily and four times the size of Jamaica!

      It is certainly very far from a “little island where everyone knows each other”.

  42. I see they’ve decided against ringing Big Ben for Brexit.

    Apparently the temporary floor they put in place to allow it to be rung for New Year has already been removed and it would take half a million quid to replace it, so the Parliamentary Committee that rules about such things has decided that it’s not worth the cost.

    I’d have thought throwing off the shackles of the EU would be a damned sight more important and memorable occasion than changing the page on a calendar, an event that happens yearly. It can hardly have come as a surprise that Brexit was due only a month after the New Year, so why weren’t arrangements made to work around the temporary floor and keep it in place.

    If this was impractical, which knacker at Westminster decided that a New Year party was more significant than Brexit? We should be told.

    1. New Year celebrations appeal to the majority of people across the political, social and religious divides. The reality is that the majority of the electorate did not vote for Brexit in the referendum, so ringing Big Ben to celebrate it is not likely to win their approval and support, and is likely to exacerbate the divisions across the country. There is also a good chance that even some Brexiteers are going to be upset at the sort of Brexit that we will get. This country will never achieve the benefits of Brexit unless there is a willingness of the population to come together and put the arguments aside.

        1. It’s an equal reality – reality is reality; the majority did not vote for Brexit, the majority didn’t vote to remain,. But the crux of the matter is, exactly what I said, that ringing Big Ben to celebrate Brexit would not appeal to the majority, or do you really think that the majority of the population are going to be ecstatic about BB pealing for Brexit? Now that wouldn’t be reality!

          1. I don’t give a stuff, any more than I give a stuff whether or not the supporters of the losing side in the FA cup final might feel aggrieved at the winning side holding a coach top tour to celebrate their victory.

      2. Your last paragraph is a telling one. Had the Remainers put the arguments aside in June 2016 after the referendum result and got behind the Government to deliver the result we would not be in the position we are in today.

        2. That is absolutely true but many remainers have done exactly what you suggest. Many haven’t, of course, but intransigence is not confined to one side. A Brexit that many leavers and remainers would have supported could have been achieved long ago but for the absolute unwillingness of some Brexiteers to compromise.

      3. That “majority” you are lauding is made up of a coterie of those who came second in the referendum added to those who couldn’t be arsed to vote. By your warped logic, the losing side should side up with the non-voters and “win” every general election. That way we would now be a communist state under Corb Jong-yn.

        Let the bells ring out long and loud to send a clear message to the country that common sense won and we now have our freedom!

        1. Failure to vote should be added to the winning side as they clearly are OK with whatever the result is, as they couldn’t be arsed to express an opinion.

        2. I am afraid that the warped logic is yours. There is nothing in what I posted to support your statement about losing sides. I simply stated facts. By the way, you are very free with your complaints when you think that people are not using English terms when they are available. Well, a “coterie” is a small group of people and not the millions who did not vote for Brexit, nor the millions who did. Use English properly and stop frothing at the mouth when you do not agree with what someone has posted.

          1. Frothing at the mouth? Where did you get that from? I simply educated you and elucidated you about simple facts.

            I shouldn’t have waste my time (as I’m doing again here).

    2. The parliamentary committee are a nobbut bunch of Lefty establishment remainers throwing their teddies out of the cot.

      Shan’t! Shan’t! Shan’t!

    4. We could have a street party……remember those? Seems ages since we had them but certainly some marking of the day should be celebrated. National holiday at the very least.

        2. Be brave!!!……lol. When I go out in my power chair, I take a small hot water bottle and a fleecy blanket……tis heaven. We could sit at our tables the same. We are made of strong stuff!!….lol.

          1. Get a two-seater chair, like the old double-seats at the back of the cinema… cuddle a friend! Much better than hot water bottles, and they can pass you a shot of something internally warming, too!
            :-))

          2. I have a job steering the single one. To be fair, I have not knocked anyone nor anything over…yet.

          3. I’m thankful that when our sons were small, double pushchairs hadn’t been invented.
            I would have decimated Colchester’s population.
            (Thereby continuing a fine old Roman tradition.)

          4. Then you need staff to take care of your every need.
            Can I apply? I seem to be pissing the boss off – he wants an easy life, I want to make the business good & effective. The two are not compatible.

          6. My chair actually turns 360 degrees on the spot…..which is great for an old witch….lol. After two years however I managed to wear out two gear boxes. Lol.

          8. Oh ha ha…I don’t know how I did it. The darned chair developed this whistle and I took it to the workshop and the engineer was baffled because he had not come across it before. Between you, me and the lamppost, I have a feeling I should not have been on steep inclines at the local park. But hey, I am fearless. Lol.

          9. Yer Weegies have their house thermostats turned up to tropical, and moan when they come round to ours where the response to “I feel cold” is “put on a jumper, then”.

  43. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0b20d3d5fc9a6a3f3133893041964bd2c49f6135dd7fa1658225aa17108a14b.jpg SIR – Sky lanterns are implicated in the fire that destroyed the ape house at Krefeld zoo in Germany in the early minutes of 2020 (report, January 2), killing a number of animals, including orangutans and gorillas.

    These unregulated free-flying incendiaries are not just a fire hazard but also present a grave risk to the livestock and wildlife that encounter their remains.
    What more must it take before they are banned?

    Charles Smith-Jones
    Landrake, Cornwall

    This is yet more evidence of the intrinsic, steadily increasing—and unstoppable—moronic behaviour of the human species. The human stupidity quotient continues to rise by the second; it will not belong before mankind self-destructs.

    1. Morning Grizz….I read that!! I had not heard of these things until I came to wish Happy New Year to everyone and mentioned how my cats loved fireworks. A few posted about these and when I read the story, I immediately thought of our conversation here. How tragic.

      1. Morning, Jenny.

        What kind of genius thinks, “I know, I’ll light a fire, and then send it up with the wind and not give a shit where it comes down or what it destroys!”

        I have a very apt word to describe such people but it might upset the sensitivities of a few on this forum.

        3. Weren’t the Japanese trying to do the same thing with small incendiary bombs attached to balloons as a way of attacking the American mainland, which they couldn’t reach with aircraft?

          1. Yes, they did*. As batty as the American plan to release incendiary bats ( yes, the live fly at night creatures, not cricket) over Tokyo and its wooden houses.

            *However, matching the release of the balloons to the winds was impractical.

        5. I’ll likely outdo you, Grizz. We see the damn things floating by every 1 January, towards dry wooden houses… a neighbour had to call the fire brigade some years ago, as one landed on his roof and started a fire. And, as you see in Sweden, a dry wooden house burns really well.

      2. Interestingly, helium that is let loose in the atmosphere is lost forever as it rises into the something sphere (ionosphere?). It cannot be recovered.
        Whereas our waste of rare earths in mobile phones and other junk is not lost, but may be recovered from landfill in the centuries to come.

        1. Interestingly, one of the major sources of helium is from hydrocarbons, or should I say our evil non-renewable fossil fuels.

        2. There are already examples of landfill sites being mined to extract metals and even plastics that are now more precious than they were when thrown away. Apparently there are distinct strata already.

        3. A very good point.

          We have people telling our children the balloons ‘go to heaven’ but not telling them we’re stealing helium from their future (and choking sea life).

          I believe helium is essential for MRI scanners.

          1. Reminds me of the little lad who, on seeing his mum in the bath, said “What are those?” To which she replied “They’re balloons which will lift me to heaven”.
            One day the lad went running to his father crying “Mummie’s dying” His Dad said “Why do you think that?”
            The lad replied “Mr Jones next door is blowing her balloons up and she’s shouting ‘God I’m coming’ “

    4. They have been the source of many moorland fires in Scotland. Muirburn is bad enough without this extra danger

      1. Morning, O#1.

        Clearly shown by voting for ANY party. The modern human psyche is trashed, in any case. There is no hope left. Time for another (more sensible species) to take over.

        1. G,
          The very party that designed & activated the
          referendum / Brexitexit has been /is being
          suppressed throughout it’s political lifespan
          even though it has shown
          100% patriotism & success, WHY ?

          1. Maybe because they cannot organise to fart in their own underpants? How many leaders have there been in the last few years? One every 5 minutes at least. They can’t manage to get their message in the press, they can’t even stick to the same message, everybody does their own thing… if they were a football team, they’d be playing on 11 different pitches of a Saturday afternoon.

          2. Morning O,
            Tell me when it comes to treachery who is top of the treachery league ? lab / lib/con.
            When it comes to flooding the Country with undesirables, ongoing, who comes top of the league lab/lib/con.
            When it comes to condoning and strongly portraying PC/ Appeasement to such an extent
            it has endangered, killed.maimed peoples,
            who comes top of the league but lab/lib/con.
            Who has had a proven run of treacherous
            party leaders but lab/lib/con.
            Chuck your rose tinted glasses and TRY doing away with the three monkey mode of thinking,
            you might surprise yourself, might.

          3. So what is happening in UKIP? There have been three emails sent out from three different chairman in the last month. It’s like they are playing musical chairs.

          4. Morning C,
            On kipper central Gerard Batten lays out why he quit UKIP, worth a visit if interested.
            My personal belief is the NEc is criminally at fault either in trying to destroy the party totally
            or run it on PC / Appeasement lines thereby
            falling in line with lab/lib/con.
            If allowed to get away with their odious dealings then they are laying a precedent for
            others in the future and that is unacceptable.

          6. C,
            He lays out his reasons and as I see it he had no other choice.
            In my book UKIP in the main have always been right proven by the fact that other parties are not shy of using UKIP policies.
            They have also always been suppressed, WHY ?

          7. Gerard Batten is a man who speaks a lot of common sense but it seems the rest of Ukip don’t agree. He should stand as a Tory.

          8. N,
            Currently become a ersatz tory you mean, same as farage, Gerard Battens self respect would not allow it methinks.
            Please read up on the NEcs actions in regards to Gerard Batten / Richard Braine, plus many others it is the NEc who would be more suited to the lab/lib/con coalition party & their adherence to PC / Appeasmentism.

          10. N,
            Better in the cold and keeping your self respect
            than otherwise.
            No one in their right minds supports treachery & deceit politico’s.

          11. Having read his article, I really can’t see how UKIP can survive. At present I really don’t think it is a party worth voting for. Whether it can resurrect itself before the next election remains to be seen. The mainstream parties cherry pick the good ideas from all the other minor parties.

          12. C,
            By the same token the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition party have not been a party one would vote for since Thatcher was knifed.
            They continue to find support / votes regardless of their obvious ongoing treachery, deceit etc.

            What I asked was why UKIP was suppressed time & time again and why the smear campaign waged by the UKIP nec against Batten / Braine, how could these two leaders in all decency, be faulted, & WHY.

          13. My point exactly. They can’t even get incompetence right, and wonder why nobody wants to elect them!

          14. You miss the point. Again.
            Brexit party, UKIP, whatever, cannot organise themselves to do anything. They come across as a group of Markles – self-obsessed incompetents. No wonder there isn’t any serious vote for them.
            I offered to help out UKIP a few summers ago, with the website design. When I discovered the other designers were doing whatever the F they wanted, with no design brief, no strategy, no coordination, and NOBODY WAS CONTROlLING IT (or even seemed to be trying), I realised properly that they were a waste of effort and would amount to nothing. So I baled. And I was right – they are a waste – they can’t even be primadonnas properly.
            This has nothing to do with how carp the other parties are – UKIP look just like Labour these days, blaming everybody but themselves because the electorate didn’t like the message. Well, I suggest you blame the tossers that run UKIP for their utter uselessness, and the population of the UK will join in with that, as UKIP haven’t given any kind of a credible option to the usual 3 parties.

          15. O,
            Complete and utter rubbish seemingly by someone who is embittered by maybe being knocked back.
            The brexit party was a ersatz tory top up force
            only a fool would say otherwise.
            UKIP won an eu election.
            UKIP designed & activated the referendum whilst the lab/lib/con pro eu rubber stampers
            were busy trying to dismantle the UK in favour of brussels in, short acting as bag men for a crime syndicate.
            I suggest you catch up on the latest UKIP NEc treachery & ask yourself why it is happening ?
            Ask yourself what was wrong with Gerard Batten, what was wrong with Richard Braine ?
            Ask yourself why are good honest, self respecting peoples getting repeatedly kicked into touch.
            Maybe for many lab/lib/con current supporter / voters it is just to hard to face the fact that it
            has been their continuing support / votes that
            has brought about our present odious state as a nation.
            You would I believe deny that the policies of the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition and their adherence to use PC / Appeasement, that has killed & maimed within our society, UKIP never had a hand in that.
            Political treachery, since the Thatcher knifing
            has been downhill, gaining speed on a daily basis fueled by fools.

          18. As soon as I hear that old ” Lib/ Lab / Con
            old cherry bleated out I tend to switch off entirely .

          19. …” if they were a football team, they’d be playing on 11 different pitches of a Saturday afternoon.”
            That’s a new one on me, but definitely one to remember.

          1. The Monster Raving Party had a cat as it’s leader for a brief time (after Lord Sutch died I think). I always though they should have kept the cat as their official leader.

          3. I will confess to being a loather of dogs. I know this will cause deep sadness to all dog lovers here. But you are welcome to gather up any dogs that come in my direction into your tender loving care.

          4. I don’t loathe dogs, I just don’t get all gooey over them. Don’t talk to them in a squeaky voice as if they are a retarded 2 year-old.
            Although, when they slobber over me, it does get pretty close to loathing, I must admit…

          5. I can tolerate dogs so long as I am not expected to interact with them in any way. I think they are their best when used as proper working dogs – probably because they have been well trained, aren’t bored and get lots of exercise.

          2. We cleared them out last weekend.
            I loathe decorations hanging around too long after Christmas.
            (I also don’t like putting them up more than a week beforehand.)

      1. The flooding was due to climate change and this drop is due to a low tide. They just choose what suits their agenda.

  45. Prince Harry ‘snubbed’ Royal Marines memorial service for 11 killed by IRA bomb to go to Lion King premiere where he touted wife Meghan Markle for Disney voiceover job
    The Duke of Sussex collared the powerful Disney chief Bob Iger in July last year
    He touted Meghan Markle’s interest in doing voiceover work on the red carpet
    Footage emerged of the meeting, in which Harry told Iger: ‘She’s very interested’
    Piers Morgan was among those who criticised Harry for the apparent ‘snub’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7884853/Prince-Harry-snubbed-Royal-Marines-memorial-service-11-killed-IRA-bomb.html

      1. I suspect stories of his cavorting and wild parties will soon surface as well..

        He is a little cad .. a brainless oaf , and unworthy of anymore praise!

          2. So is his brother.
            We are all the offspring of our parents, but few of us follow the same trajectory as our siblings.

        4. He’s never grown up. Emotionally he’s stuck at 12 years old – that little boy walking behind his mother’s coffin. The woman has played on that.

  46. I really hate that thing with some new websites where if you hover over a link, it opens. Is there any way I can fix it so that the link only opens if I click on it?

        1. How does Ghostery work? Ghostery is a browser extension, a piece of software that extends the functionality of a web browser on a desktop computer. Ghostery
          monitors all the different web servers that are being called from a
          particular web page and matches them with a library of data collection
          tools (trackers).
          How does Ghostery work? – Ghostery

          https://www.ghostery.com › faqs › how-does-ghostery-work

    2. I get bloody mad with websites where you start reading about, say, a holiday, & immediately a window opens asking if you want to book before you’ve read the 2nd sentence.

    3. I think it’s deliberate Joseph so the answer is probably NO! I find newspapers the most irritating where they suddenly break out into deafening music!

      1. Earlier today, I made on online payment with Barclays. It took me ages to find “Make a payment”. Wiki is another offender.

  47. Here’s another one you can bank: Meghan Markle will weigh into the 2020 Presidential Election with gusto, and her hysterical anti-Trump whingeing will be a great embarrassment to The Royal Family and HMG. …

      1. And a huge boost to Meghan’s career as so many Hollywood tycoons are virulently anti-Trump.

    4. A friend of ours new James Hewitt’s father well and as soon as he saw Harry, his words were “That’s Jimmy’s boy”. I’ll go and wash my mouth out with soap now.

  49. Afternoon all! The storm knocked our power out since lunchtime and had to reboot everything to get back here.

    Just when I’d got all the candles sorted for later, but at least we can have a cup of tea now.

      1. They do – but at least I got the bed made up for my weekend visitor – I spend too much time here.

        2. Totally brilliant. Recorded at Klooks Kleek, a venue not unknown to me back then… The savage style was so strange back then to those stuck with trad jazz and pop…

      1. And J has found one of his swift boxes blown to shreds. He can’t get up the ladder till his arm has fully healed.

          2. I have been up a ladder most of the morning. Didn’t really notice the wind or the rain while I was concentrating on the wiring.

      2. Just walked the Springer for an hour in the forest. The wind was such that I was concerned it might bring a tree down. Rain was driving into my face. The dog loved it!

    4. We had a brief 1 minute power cut last night – not enough time to get my generator started so I can switch my lights on and thumb my nose at my neighbours

    6. Sorry to hear that, we live in a very dense wooded area get
      power cuts far too often, they are not pleasant, especially when
      Its cold, dark and they happen for more then a few hours .
      Hope you have a gas hob at least. We did buy these useful things
      from Amazon, small lights that you wear around your head on a strap
      such as those that are worn when going down caves.
      Brilliant and better then touches . The wind is quite ferocious
      atm. Keep warm .

      1. Brilliant and better then touches

        I think I’d rather have touches in the dark than torches.

      2. We used to get far more than we do these days – and this one was only for an hour or two. We have no gas here, but we do have a woodburner.

        2. It’s good you have a wood burner, they are helpful.
          They happen here far too frequently, once we had a power
          cut for 12 hours, that was awful. It’s also a worry in regards
          to the freezer foods . Always have food in the house that
          can be cooked on the gas hob such as sausages and beans.
          A bit worried about this wind, I must admit 😉

    1. DM stated this morning that odds against a divorce within 5 years are 3-1.
      I reckon that is a good price and money could be made on Betfair (not my scene).
      Someone remarked that Prince H was well happy before he married, but now he is not. Of course, that situation is not unique to Harry.

      1. Marry in haste and regret for the rest of your life.

        I do remember their courtship was kept extremely private. What Meg wants Meg gets. That should have been a red flag to him but then raging hormones and manipulative women is never a good mix for a young man.

        1. He’s 35. “Young men” and “raging hormones”, were terms we used to use in respect of teenagers. He should have known a lot better than to get himself drawn into that relationship.

          1. Generation Snowflake don’t mature until after 30yrs old apparently. A justification for us letting in children with full beards.

          2. His brother seems to have handled his life with a bit more sanity. But then, he married an English girl who at least understood the royalty, its role in Britain, and what was expected of a royal spouse.

          3. As has been said elsewhere “He’s like Private Pike after a lobotomy.” Overly harsh and cruel but we all get the drift.

          4. I recited a part of the lyrics of this marvellous song when I said a few words at my own wedding reception at the age of 41 to a bride who was just 26.

            When he fancies he is past love it is then he meets his last love
            And he loves her as he’s never loved before.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIoGE2ntZrg

        2. He was well into his 30’s when he met her and should have had more judgement.

          Many of us have probably fallen in love with an impossible person at some stage in our lives. Thank God I did not commit matrimony with any of my early mistakes.

          1. I’m not against people marrying young and starting a family. I’m against whirlwind romances in celebritydom which inevitably end in failure.

          3. One of my sisters fell in love and got pregnant at the age of 20 by a man who was also 20 – they got married 6 months before the birth of my first fantastic niece when Uncle Richard was 10 years old and then had 3 more very splendid and successful children all of whom are themselves happily married.

            My sister and her husband have now been very happily married for 62 years.

          4. One of my sisters fell in love and got pregnant at the age of 20 by a man who was also 20 – they got married 6 months before the birth of my first fantastic niece when Uncle Richard was 10 years old and then had 3 more very splendid and successful children all of whom are themselves happily married.

            My sister and her husband have now been very happily married for 62 years.

          5. …and your liege and master had steered clear of having a manipulative wife.

            Good Af’noon Anne {:^))

      2. Marry in haste and regret for the rest of your life.

        I do remember their courtship was kept extremely private. What Meg wants Meg gets. That should have been a red flag to him but then raging hormones and manipulative women is never a good mix for a young man.

      3. She’s encouraged him to pick at (mental) scabs.
        There’s a very good reason why Mother Nature makes us forget as much unpleasantness as possible.

        1. That is a wise comment, Anne.

          We all do our best to forget bad and hurtful things that happen to us but people like Harry’s wife seem to take a sadistic delight in scratching at sores which haven’t quite healed in order to open them up again and make them hurt.

          Poor Harry will need to see a shrink to sort him out if he has not already done so.

          1. Unearthing “nasties” buried in our memories is basic psychotherapy as far as I can tell. Once opened up, these nasty memories require constant “maintenance”, so the shrinks generate plenty of work for themselves.

          3. I watched the same thing happen to married friends of mine.
            The husband had had a strange upbringing and was full of problems; a ward sister – a good ten years older than he – latched on to this when he was training on her ward. She was forever claiming she had overcome cancer, unhappy marriage etc…
            Having grabbed him, she alienated him from wife and friends; the divorce was inevitable. During the rest of his life, we saw him about twice. He had always been a bit unusual but funny and kind; for his last few years, he become withdrawn and inarticulate.
            Some years later, he died of kidney cancer at the age of 38.
            His widow then nipped over to America and made a third, very lucrative marriage.

          5. Yes. He and I met on a first day of training and we became friends straight away.
            His first wife and I are still good friends.

      4. She’s encouraged him to pick at (mental) scabs.
        There’s a very good reason why Mother Nature makes us forget as much unpleasantness as possible.

    2. A very good new word.

      Just woken up from my nap, haven’t read the article, but knew immediately what was meant.

  51. Intellectual property lawyer ‘trademarks Sussex Royal brand in
    America to teach Harry and Meghan a lesson about having a proper plan’

    Except that it turns out that the Sucksesses had already registered with the World
    Intellectual Property Organisation on December 31 – a full week before
    him.

    This grabdication (© Julie Buchill) has been being planned for quite a while.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7885255/Intellectual-property-lawyer-trademarks-Sussex-Royal-brand-America.html

  52. Black as midnight here. What a miserable day it turned out but cosy in the cottage.

      1. No it doesn’t, I agree. We are not posh by any standards yet everyone who visits ‘Wren Cottage’ says how homely and cosy it is.

        1. My parents had a thatched cottage on the edge of the New Forest near Lymington. We had an open log fire and were very snug.

          1. I have always wanted to live in a thatched cottage..I would love it! I will have to make do with creating a little thatched doll house. Hubby bought me a kit years ago but I never got around to building it. I live in hope.

      2. …nothing beats a good central heating system. Best “wintry” thing we did when building our house was to instal underfloor hydronic heating which keeps us toasty even in the face of 20 odd degrees of frost outside.

          1. I used to love staying at my grandparents when I was young – they had good old fashioned stone hot water “bottles”. Usually too hot for my feet when I went to bed, but retained heat for a long time.

          2. Oh we had those….ha ha. Happy days. I sleep on our sofa so technically ‘in bed’ most days, and nights – cosy footstool, faux fur throw and a bottle if I need it.

          1. No. Though we did have a good dose of snow a week or so back, but then the temperatures shot back up (near 70°F Sunday). We are not into roughing it so our house, though timber framed and cedar clad, is rather less “agricultural” than your example.

          2. I have started to watch that now and it looks interesting so will watch the rest after tea.

          3. That is compelling viewing. I only switched it on for a few seconds and now 10 minutes have passed. 🙂

            Those are real skills. I would probably kill myself sawing the first floorboard. I have just got to the part where he is using a “Kelly Kettle” and that has reminded me to go and get some food and make a cup of tea. I have one of those steel kettles, but I’ll stick to flipping the switch on the electric one instead.

          4. Lol !!! – I was the same…..still have not started my tea. Hubby askd what I would like…later I said.

          5. There’s a TV series here called Building off the Grid. Full of projects like this. Quite a few episodes seem to be up on Youtube.

          6. Well – that was great, thank you. As Meredith said…..compelling. Now I want a cabin. It can be my holiday home. No thanks to his diet. Lol.

  54. Ferguson shipyard bosses blamed for ferries fiasco

    Bosses at Ferguson shipyard were to blame for the delay and spiralling cost of two new CalMac ferries, according to the chief executive of the government agency which placed the orders.
    Kevin Hobbs, of CMAL, also rejected calls for the unfinished ferries to be scrapped and the work started again.
    The vessels are £100m over budget and likely to be three years overdue.
    Jim McColl, the former chairman of the Inverclyde shipyard, has previously blamed CMAL for the fiasco.

    4. This is what happens when councils give tossers somewhere nice to live .. That poor dear child , what sort of disgusting parents could do a thing like that

    8. Inside the squalid ‘rubbish tip’ home where neglected boy, seven, was found living surrounded by dirty needles, rotting food, faeces and flies after missing school for SIX MONTHS – as his parents avoid jail for cruelty
      Heroin needles, rubbish and rotten food were strewn about fly-infested home
      Social services and police attended the home to find the child living in ‘squalor’
      Both of the parents have pleaded guilty to an offence of child cruelty by neglect

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7885343/Neglected-boy-seven-living-squalid-rubbish-tip-home-drug-addict-parents.html

      2. It is a widespread problem in the UK. These sort of people need to be house in special accommodation where they can be supervised and shown how to manage a budget and how to clean

    1. Our very good friend, Grizzly, is depressed about the state of humanity at the moment. Like Private Frazer he is convinced that we are all doomed. I suggested he listen to this song to cheer him up a bit but it did not cheer him up at all.

      1. You know me so well!!…that is exactly what I am having…tea and toast…yum. Playing this while I munch…..thank you…xx

    1. It’s ‘remainer mindset syndrome’…..let’s keep voting til I get the answer I want.

      1. I fear for her sanity, given her constant desire to see Scotland commit financial suicide.

  65. Labour peer Lord Lea suspended ‘to undergo conduct training’ after being accused of ‘stalkerish’ behaviour by young female staff

    A Labour peer has been suspended after being found guilty of harassment following accusations made against him by two female members of Parliamentary staff.
    Lord David Lea of Crondall was accused of “stalkerish” behaviour by a young woman after he told her he had kept a photo of her at his home for years and invited her over to drink champagne.
    And a second woman said the 82-year-old had approached her in her officer and said he was going to write a “sexually suggestive” poem about her.
    The peer, who had been the subject of almost 20 complaints in total also including making a racist remark, has been suspended whilst he undergoes training for appropriate conduct.
    Commissioner for Standards, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, revealed the allegations in a report published on Tuesday.

    1. Poor old chap – that kind of behavour was seen as normal 50 years ago. He’s not got with the modern times.

      1. Rather than to attempt to retrain him I would suggest he be pensioned off. The Lords is grossly overstaffed in any case

    2. There’s an old chap who comes to music nights, early 80s,who’s a bit touchy-feely with any female he can get to come within grasping range. Gets away with murder frankly.

    2. One of the things we most miss now that our boys have grown up and have left home is reading aloud to our sons.

      We used to spend at least half an hour each evening at bed time reading with each boy; I read to one in English while Caroline read to the other in French. When we finished a book we swapped boys and if there was a gap waiting for the others to finish a book we filled in the time with poetry. And when we were living on Mianda (our boat) and homeschooling the boys we read aloud en famille and in these years we covered a tremendous amount of both French and English literature.

      This is probably the greatest legacy we have given our boys – a love of books which they have not lost even though one is now an aerospace design engineer and the other works in computers.

      1. What a wonderful upbringing and start to life your boys have had. I am sure they know and appreciate it. I can’t think of anything more exciting than living on a boat.

        1. I’m sure their are worse replys within the dark subterranean tunnels
          of which others frequent .
          Oh and send our regards to Cromwell, he hasn’t visited for awhile,
          he should before he loses his head again.

    2. It’s good to see some Sunshine on a foul, wet and windy day.

      You don’t comment often enough – you’re always welcome here. I agree with your post, too, as there are many reasons for upticking and none for downvoting. If I disapprove of a comment i either say so or just ignore it.

      I hope our silent friends Sue Macfarlane and Cheshire Lad will pop in sometimes, not forgetting IceAnnie.

      1. Thank you. Like you I don’t see the point of downvoting. But from other commenters, I get the impression they often are from bots. The problem with downvotes is that mess up the order in which best comments are seen, relegating them down.

    3. Apropos the current imbroglio over the loss of “valued” upticks, I hereby repost a comment I made a long time back on this very topic.

      Around 8 years ago, as an experiment, I posted a list of contributors showing their uptick-to-vote ratio. It was quite enlightening but inconclusive, since some posters attract a bigger number of upvotes because of their popularity and nothing to do with the high quality of their content. Such exercises are never objective.

      Here is the post:

      Morning, Geoff.

      Whilst your total of ‘upvotes’ is laudable, I have taken an extrapolation of most of the regular commentators on this forum (apologies to any I’ve missed) and divided the number of their ‘upvotes’ by the number of their posts to get an average of upvotes-per-post, which gives a better overview of their relative success as a poster. The results are as follows:

      Chezz 33·34 (upticks per comment).
      Durnovaria: 23·80
      William Stanier 20·87
      Rastus C Tastey: 19·49
      Telfennol: 18·90
      Ryeatley: 15·57
      Crosscop: 15·32
      John M: 14·58
      Oldgit13: 14·43
      Johnny Norfolk: 14·35
      Peteh: 13·92
      Nick R: 13·57
      Wuffo the Wonderdog: 13·56
      Flexico: 13·10
      Unimpressed One: 12·94
      National Treasure: 11·52
      Kaypea: 11·33
      Ogga1: 11·29
      JP1000: 9·77
      Anne Allan: 9·28
      The Hidden Paw: 9·27
      Man On The Bus: 9·25
      Simon Coulter: 9·18
      Andrew Banks: 9·14
      Daniel FG: 8·17
      Sir Jasper: 8·16 [No to Nanny]
      JDavidJ: 7·67
      Grumpy Old Fool: 7·24
      Geoffrey Woollard: 6·86
      Spikey: 6·75 [Fallick Alec]
      Surfaceman: 6·29
      Delboy36: 5·80
      Toots: 5·41
      Oberstleutnant: 5·36
      Grizzly: 5·25
      Zaharadelasierra: 4·79 [Elsie Bloodaxe]
      Naomi Onions: 4·29
      One Last Time: 4·18
      Pete Green: 4·18
      Nicol Sinclair: 4·02
      The Central Scrutiniser: 3·97 [Gavin Rider]
      RichardL: 3·48
      Plum Tart: 3·32
      Neil Ashley: 3·32
      Garlands: 2·96
      Lady of the Lake: 2·79
      JTRMedic: 2·27
      Peddy the Viking: 1·75
      Colin St Claire de Lune: 1·67
      Thatlldo: 1·58

      In the great scheme of things this doesn’t mean much, but it shows we all have a long way to go before we reach the heights of popularity Chezz has deservedly attained. I wonder if there are any other regulars who can top that?

      Interesting to note that a good number of posters from those old DT days still exist on this channel; however, a lot more have now moved on, much to our loss.

      1. I’m not listed, but I was running at about 3:1 overall, on a variety of sites. I haven’t checked my other account, but it’s considerably less than that by now, I expect.

      2. I was just thinking a couple of days ago about whatever happened to Zaharadelasierra as I drove over Puerto de las Palomas and looked down on the village of that name.

      3. I was just thinking a couple of days ago about whatever happened to Zaharadelasierra as I drove over Puerto de las Palomas and looked down on the village of that name.

      4. Doh! You’ve given the game away now, Grizzly. (© That 1930s/40s ventriloquist whose dummy’s head fell off and rolled across the stage).

  70. To Whom it may Concern

    As of today I m transitioning. I genuinely think I am the PM so this has to be respected. I therefore should be allowed into number 10

  71. I was given Ken Clarke’s autobiography for Christmas by a friend who thinks I need “recalibrating”.

    2. O2O,
      For every action there is a re-action as in, paedophilia action = Tommy
      Robinson re-action & Tommy is judged / jailed by the governance.
      And a great many peoples call him a racist and agree with the governing body.
      PC / Appeasement party followers / voters how much more of this sh!te can they stomach?

  74. That wind outside is becoming worse and makes you feel
    chilled to the bones. Oh please hurry up the first snowdrops of Spring .

        1. Well…I am a witch – and former pupil at Hogwarts…..but I have my limits…lol. Hope you feel better soon, my good wishes to you.

        2. I chewed raw onions, and drank tea with proper honey. (not at the same time)
          The cough went in a couple of days, after it had been attacking my lungs for a month.

      1. How wonderful, not seen any here, mind you I ‘ve not left
        the house for a week 😉 the snowdrops come out first here,
        I like to write poetry about wild flowers and they are the first
        every year .

      2. We have a few drops of snow but winter hasn’t really hit us yet.

        Final hookup of our generator being done right now so hopefully we will be as snug as rug puppies if the worst hits.

      3. What’s long and thin
        covered in skin
        red in parts
        and goes in tarts?

        Rhubarb

        At least 6 inches high…..

  75. Beware of the internet version of the Telegraph at present. There is a large, fully across the page, picture of that gurning ‘celeb’ female across the whole of the top.
    And then further down an article by AEP about how the world will be forced to ‘decarbonise’. No comments allowed. His opinions have always been a bit dubious, but now he’s gone off his trolley completely. No comments allowed of course.

    2. It was not appropriate for her to be there, not unnecessary. Again, “Who does that dame think she is?”

  76. Boris has negotiated better rate than Big Ben. St Paul’s have offered to ring their bells for free other than a donation to the church

          3. Coaches, meals, professionally made banners & placards, printed flyers & if needs be provides a lawyer for their court appearance if arrested for breaching the peace

  77. Greggs may have assumed near total domination as country’s largest bakery chain but in Cornwall their vegan sausage rolls have been driven away by the proud pasty eaters.

    The high street giant set up its first Cornish shop in the town of Saltash, on the border near Plymouth, in July 2018 but after a year of poor trading they have confirmed that it has been closed down.

    Greggs set up the small bakery in a service station near the A38 without much fanfare and chose not to offer pasties so as not to spark a bitter pasty war.

    It was branded “junk’’ and “Satan’s franchise’’ by residents and has now closed after a “thorough review” by the company.

    The Greggs bakery shut its shop in…September!

    1. Veganism is a bullying fascist cult, it’s a politicised movement
      which wishes to control and dictate. It’s not remotely normal
      to eat the contents of the lawnmower and wear plastic .

      What a shame about the Greggs bakery, I’ve visited a few in Cornwall
      for some nice pasties .

      1. Greggs is more hype than substance. The vegan products are rubbish in my view. Lots of seasoning and colouring and artifical flavouring

      1. Good question…and also for veggies….which I am. I would not dream of eating ‘vegetarian’ sausages for example. I don’t get the vegan thing at all.

        1. My husband cousins are all Vegetarians and they very much
          enjoy cheeses, eggs and all dairy products, love their puddings.
          We eat pasta with vegetable and tomato sauces twice a week
          and resotto, only eating meat 3 or 4 days a week .
          Vegan food is just awful and i should imagine
          they get very cold in the winter wearing polyester instead of
          wool jumpers .

          1. I love cheese and veg and eggs….my favourite. I don’t eat meat because I love animals (Just my belief and choice – hubby loves animals but eats meat) but I am not a fanatic and wouldn’t expect family or anyone else to give up meat. Veganism however, makes no sense to me at all. I don’t get it.

          2. My sister-in-law is a pescatarian. Certainly makes life easier as you’re not so confined with ingredients.

          3. I was at first. I gave up red meat and poultry but loved fish so ate that for a while and found it hard to give up. But oesophageal problems forced my hand.

          4. There are three groups of people in this world I can never understand, namely, vegetarians, teetotallers and homosexuals. Imagine missing out in the three finest things in life !

          6. I don’t understand why they don’t use wool or do they prefer the sheep to die of heat exhaustion in the summer?

          8. Vegans are against any human exploitation of animals, which is why they reject leather, honey and all sorts of products that contain animal derivatives. Not sure about their thoughts on wool.
            It’s a sort of puritanical fascism, or general misanthropy on a huge scale. That degree of intolerance leads inexorably to authoritarianism, which the world witnessed several times during the 20th century.

          9. Quite so. I wonder what they would do with all the farm animals if everyone stopped eating them. And would they miss fields full of sheep and cows. Probably not, I expect most live in an urban environment.

  79. Flybe is saved: Government strikes deal with airline’s shareholders to keep it afloat
    Andrea Leadsom today revealed the government has struck a deal with Flybe
    The airline, based in Exeter, south west England, employs around 2,000 people
    Sajid Javid had held talks on deferring the company’s air passenger duty bill
    By HENRY MARTIN FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 18:12, 14 January 2020 | UPDATED: 19:01, 14 January 2020

    What a relief for Richard Branson

    1. THe business as it stands though is not really viable. It will need to reduce the number of airports it serves

  81. Ollie Robbins collected his knighthood from Prince William this afternoon.

    Naggers and I were having lunch at The Three Magpies (a.k.a. The Three Mosquitoes because it is next to the Kennet & Avon canal) when she texted a request that the dubbing sword be sharpened especially for the occasion. Naughty girl.

      2. Puts me in mind of those Charles Atlas adverts in the sixties. The head of some old codger was pre-photoshop ‘planted’ on the muscle bound body but the giveaway was that the neck was wider/thicker than the cranium.

        The chap is only ever photographed squinting; deeply suspicious, sly and smug.

  82. Mistake-a.
    Unblocked Ogga1 for the first time in a while, in the hope he had become a sentient human being now Brexit seems to be happening, but he’s the same as ever. Like Labour, refuses to see that the electorate don’t rate UKIP.
    Fine, reblocked. It’s like talking to a wall.

      1. ‘Afternoon, Plum, not always a question of disagreeing, it’s often a case that the blockee is just tiresome, with the same old, same old ad nauseum. I haven’t blocked Ogga but I have the parrot, as the space saved is better occupied by the more sensible.

          2. Sorry…I thought you meant the downvoter naming. I cannot say, it is not fair to bring any past problems to this site. I just know and happy to leave it in the past.

    3. Just because universities no-platform people with whom their students disagree we at Nottleland should be rather more open-minded.

      Yes, I wish that Britain leaving the EU was more important to ogga than his blind adoration of UKIP.

      But many of us here would possibly vote for the Conservative Party – but that does not mean that we are unaware of its many very serious shortcomings. ogga seems to have a very peculiar loyalty to UKIP which is rather sad but he should not automatically be blocked.

      .

    1. I suspect that Nigel would reject one. I certainly would, although it’s hardly likely. Despite me having an exchange of emails today with the High Sheriff of Surrey…

      1. Does the High Sheriff want to feel your collar, Geoff?

        I suspect Nigel might accept a Kt (which, contrary to ogga’s assertion, would not put him on the red benches/gravy train) or even a Bart (as per Denis Thatcher) but wouldn’t want to become a bogus Baron with its limited lifetime sell-by date. A dukedom?

        3. I suggested we might present her with a toy sheriff’s badge upon her investiture. It must be somewhat unusual for both partners in a marriage to have been High Sheriff, but that’s where we are. BB’s now departed Father was Lord Lieutenant for a while. Her hubby was HS in 2001 (just before Penelope Keith), and is is now a DL.

        4. There was a brief thread just after we won the Referendum, and I thought that Nigel should be made a Duke for his services to the United Kingdom and making us a Sovereign Nation again. That would put him below the Royals and Princes, but far above any civil servant that had been rewarded with a title for their treachery.

          It is nice to think of those who tried to sell us out to the European Union being down on their knees before Duke Nigel.

      2. Evening GG,
        If he thought it would enhance his image then I
        think not.
        Based on his own rhetoric, not hearsay.

  84. I’m worried now. I have been invited to attend a luncheon where all the other guests are bladed.

    2. Suggest you shave with a Wilkinson Sword razor blade that way you won’t feel left out…..

  85. Santander Cuts Rate

    Santander has slashed the rate it pays on its 123 Current account . from 1.5% to 1% It has also put a cap of £15 on cashback

          2. THe so called bankers and economist have created an awful mess. They have cut interest rates to almost zero whih has encouraged excessive borrowing whilst at the same time discouraging saving. THis in my view will not end well as when inflation takes of and intrested rates rise people have no buffer and will be in serious trouble as will many companies in fact many companies already have cash flow problems

    1. Not a good idea. Big cats should be wild, not kept as pets. Nor in South African lion farms, for canned hunting.

          2. On our visit there, we didn’t see any cats – lots of other things, though, and the highlight was a hyena suckling her young ones.

          3. Then I was very fortunate indeed. We sat and watched them for ages. A few elephants passed but that made me uneasy. Not sure they like our intrusion at all. The lions were very good, they sat on some rocks and never batted an eyelid.

      1. I just think it would be such a privilege. I know it is not possible…I just wish……

    3. That must be nice for the lion, and not just because he has not eaten the guy. 🙂

      The lions won’t have felt that before we came along because their paws don’t have the dexterity of the human hand.

      2. They are so beautiful. Do you know the story of Christian the lion?……I have the DVD and watch it all the time. The day Christian meets the two men who raised him then set him free…..makes me cry every time.

          1. That doesn’t interest me as much as the lion when he first saw them again. It showed me just how wonderful these animals are. I loved them all the more.

          3. Extremely!……the love Christian showed those two men (forget their names)……..will go with me to my grave.

        2. I don’t know this Christian the lion of which you speak. I think that they are fairly majestic, but I have limited interest in them. I watched “Born Free” as a child, but would not go out of my way to watch a documentary on them these days. That one that you mention does sound nice through. 🙂

          1. Briefly, two men bought a lion cub in Harrods in the 60s,,,yes!!! They raised him until the lion was too big. So they decided to set him free. They contacted Joy and George Adamson (Born Free) and after a long time, they managed to set the lion free in Africa. After a couple of years, the men went back to Africa to see if Christion had settled and George Adamson went to bring Christian to them. When Christian saw them…he ran to them, jumping up and hugging them. It was a lovely reunion.

          3. In those days, folks made pets of pumas and cheetahs – hard to believe today isn’t it.

          4. No – cheetahs are sought after in Arab countries as pets, thus leading to the reduction in their numbers in the wild to an estimated 7,000. Many cubs are caught and traded, most dying before they reach their destination.

          5. N……I meant back in the 60s. I have important news. Downvoters names are now visible like upvoters…and it is about time. Hopefully, this will stop them and our members can return. I have been talking all this time to a friend. Pity it took Disqus so long but at last they have done this.

          7. Yes….and hopefully this will make posting a safer place and those who left because of it will return. I do hope so. You can downvote my comment and see …..

        1. Oberst has a great big one, perhaps he would let you cuddle it. I’m talking about his kitty cat before anyone gets any ideas.

          1. I have seen it!!!! I still love to cuddle my two quite small ones in comparison to Obers cats.

  87. Guardian Closes City section

    Grant money funding it has come to an end. It had been funded by the Rockefeller foundation

  88. Goodnight everyone, i shall go to sleep very early and try and not listen
    to the wind. There is an Owl or two I normally hear at this time of
    night and in the early hours but not this night.
    I am very fond of nocturnal animals, the sites, sounds and smells of
    the twilight hours but arnt going anywhere in this weather, apart from asleep.

  89. Have just read that the DoS did not take part in the crunch meeting because she and Harry “deemed it unnecessary”. What a coward she is. Can’t wait to see the back of her – permanently.
    Edited: deemed not seemed

      1. Oh, come on! Stand By Your Man is so genderist!.

        It should be Stand By Your Chosen Whatever. [Man, woman, boy, girl, trans, cat, giraffe, obelisk or armchair!]

    5. Why should she have been involved, none of the other spouses were.

      Agreed re wanting to see the back of her, it can’t come quickly enough.
      Unfortunately, I suspect that she will be an incurable disease causing distress to the Monarchy for many years, even if as I suspect, that it ends with a divorce.

    1. Rebecca Long Bailey should join the Liberal er …. Democrats. They are the party of opportunism, seeking to tap into supposedly popular and woke sentiments in order to steal votes.

      When the realities of a carbon free economy are explained to the idiots viz. a return to a sort of Flintstone economy without the humour then the penny might eventually drop.

  91. This is starting to get interesting….

    ‘The Duchess must have hoped the threat of legal action would have brought a halt to what she perceived as the Mail on Sunday’s campaign against her.

    But on Tuesday night, any chance of putting a lid on the rift with her father – and further adverse newspaper reports – appeared to have been blown sky high.

    The defence document lodged yesterday in the High Court in London exposes in full their deteriorating relationship while accusing the Duchess of allegedly being – in part at least – an architect of her own breach of privacy. It suggests that when she wrote the letter to her father, she was aware it would likely end up in the public domain.

    In its legal defence submitted to the High Court, the Mail on Sunday argues that the “letter was written and sent by the Claimant [Duchess of Sussex] with a view to it being read by third parties and/ or disclosed to the public, alternatively knowing that the same was very likely”.

    The defence submission states: “The Letter does not appear to contain the Claimant’s deepest and most private thoughts but to be an admonishment by the Claimant of her father for failing to behave as she would have wished.

    “Amongst other things, she accused him of breaking her heart, manufacturing pain, being paranoid, being ridiculed, fabricating stories, of attacking Prince Harry, and continually lying. The newspaper alleges that the Duchess had taken “great care over its presentation” adding: “The Letter appears to have been immaculately copied out by the Claimant in her own elaborate handwriting from a previous draft. There are no crossings-out or amendments as there usually are with a spontaneous draft. It is to be inferred also from the care the Claimant took over the presentation of the letter that she anticipated it being disclosed to and read by third parties.”

    The defence claim goes on: “It [the Letter] rehearses the Claimant’s version of the history of her relationship with her father and her family in a way that strongly suggests the Claimant wanted or expected third parties to read it.”

    The legal documents adds: “Except for receipt of the letter, Mr Markle has not heard from his daughter since he wrote to tell her he was too ill to attend her wedding, nor has he ever been introduced to or met Prince Harry or their son, his grandson.”

    Premium unfortunately…

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2020/01/14/court-documents-detail-meghan-markles-deteriorating-relationshi

    1. My sympathy for Mr Markle just increased hugely.
      Not introduced to husband & grandchild?? WTF??

      1. Precisely. Meghan seems to be ashamed of her father. That is not a very pretty sight to behold. We know little about him but he should at least have been given some acknowledgement by his daughter.

        He is her father after all. What sort of heartless bitch does that to a parent.

  92. There is a stygian gloom blowing amongst the trees outside,
    as dark as Hades. Not too pleasant. I’ll close the curtains and
    try to ignore the howling. Saxon Queen hopes tomorrow is brighter.

    2. Unkind to ignore the howling, A.

      Just let your other half in, he’s probably feeling the cold.

    3. “I’ll close the curtains and try to ignore the howling.”
      Anything to keep the wolf from the door.

      2. In dire accents utter this prayer,
        God’s who hold sway over ghastly souls and over
        Tartarus crowded with the damned and thou o
        Styx of Sussex who I behold ghastly in thy shadowy depths.

          1. Nanight…..I like that word, I must remember it. Just groomed the two kitties so off to sleep now…..xx

  97. Carbon is a gas. Just heard it on the BBC, so it must be true. (Well, it is a gas at high enough temperatures, but I don’t think even the climate hysterics have that in mind.)

    1. More self hatred from the Left. Humans are made up from 18% Carbon. More in my case as a smoker. >>Coughs.

    3. The lack of scientific awareness present in our media these days is a worry. When I think back to the BBC broadcasters of the past, such as Raymond Baxter and many others and compare them to this bunch of art school rejects my head reels.

      1. Here’s another one from a day or so again: X will generate enough electricity to power 800 homes every year. So, not a kilowatt in sight (might confuse us), and what the devil is meant by “every year”?

      2. I asked the girl with dulcet tone,
        To order me a buttered scone.
        The silly girl has been and gone,
        And ordered me a buttered scone.

  99. I notice that with all this wall to wall climate change project fear we get 24/7 they never ever tell us the consequences to our Western civilisation of going carbon neutral, not one thing, how will we pay for the NHS and public services when we hobble our industry and our ability to trade with the rest of the world.

    1. Good gracious, Bob, that would entail using the one cell brain to look forward and anticipate the consequences!

      1. It is impossible to debate with climate changers on this issue, all they want to do is call anyone that questions the narrative a denier, that is the limit of their thought processes, not sure what they are expecting to happen.

        1. Just like questioning immigration makes you a racist, and any comment on the supposed “spectrum” of the sexes really brings the howling mob down on you. Yelling loudly has always been the reaction of those intellectually unable to argue “their corner” in any debate.

          1. Just questioning the illegal immigrants crossing into Canada from the US gets us labelled racist up here.

          3. Mainly Nigerians, they enter the US on a tourist visa then hot foot it up to Vermont and walk across the border into Quebec.

            Strangely, if you go to a border crossing and ask for asylum you can be refused entry. If you sneak across the border and then ask for asylum, your application has to be processed.

          4. I used to listen to PHC when Garrison Keillor hosted it and thus have a passing interest in St Paul Minnesota as I would have liked have gone to a performance in the Fitzgerald Theater, I only mention this as I see St Paul has a population of >74K Somalis with the associated activities. With temperatures regularly well below -20ºC in the winter months you have to wonder why.

        2. Sadly you’re right. Maybe one day someone in authority will try to bring some sanity back into the mix although I’m not sure things haven’t gone too far opinions to be reversed.

  100. Apparently, the Duchess of Sussex did not exercise her option to join ‘the family consultation’ by telephone from Canada …

    1. Given any of the current crop of Democratic hopefuls, Trump will get re-elected. Then what will the snowflakes do then, poor things?

    2. It’s some drunk volunteer or campaign staffer mouthing off. Meanwhile Trump actually recently threatened to destroy Iran’s cultural sites and retaliate with disproportionate force (both war crimes) as well as four years worth of inflammatory and violent rhetoric from both himself, members of his administration and supporters.

      1. That was just sabre rattling. It was the Iranians who shot down the airliner, full of their own people.

  102. Almost Half of Those in Debt to Govt Are Migration-Origin Men

    How long can Sweden carry the cost of all these migrants. Those that arrived in 2015 90% are still unemployed. I would suspect that having been unemployed for almost 5 years most will never work

    Clealy this mass migration experiment has been a massive failure and the signs are not good for the future with ever increasing crime rate in Sweden

    According to University of Lund researcher Davor Vuleta, young migrant-background men are heavily overrepresented among those who owe money to Sweden’s government debt collection agency.

    Mr Vuleta said that his doctoral forensic sociology research, which looks at people who have debts registered with Sweden’s government debt collection agency Kronofogden, has revealed that young migration-background men aged 18 to 25 account for 47 per cent of debtors, SVT reports.

    Two-thirds of these men are said to have both low education levels and low rates of personal income as well.

    Vuleta explained that the data reveals signs that the young men are becoming segregated from the rest of Swedish society, saying, “If you live in segregated areas, you are more likely to end up in social exclusion, which in turn can lead to financial exclusion.”

    The average debt for those in the 18 to 25 age group currently sits at 42,000 Swedish Krona (£3,416/4,438), up by 40 per cent since 2010.

    Debts will be less likely to be collected from migration-background young men, on average, due to the much higher unemployment rate for such individuals in Sweden.

    A report in 2019 noted that 90 per cent of the migrants who came to Sweden during the height of the 2015 migrant crisis and received permanent residency were also unemployed.

    Professor and economist Per Lundborg floated the idea of creating more jobs that do not require advanced education or training to help get migrants into the labour force.

    “Sweden is one of the most high-tech countries in the world, where we streamline simpler jobs. Therefore, the knowledge gap is too large for many of the refugee immigrants who come here,” he said.

    Sweden Unemployment Rate Approaching Highest in EU Sweden’s unemployment rate is rising and is now one of the highest in the EU, despite Prime Minister Stefan Löfven promising to reduce it.

    2. But….. but….but….. we need them. They are going to revitalise our economy, pay our pensions, invigorate our cultures and society. But if no one will give them work how can they do any of these things?
      They are obviously very valuable because Frau Merkel claimed she needed another 1.7 million and she must know their true value, she is the leader of the EU so surely she knows what she is talking about?
      So why is Sweden frustrating this by refusing them the jobs they are entitled to and so very much more capable of performing than indigenous Swedish people?

      1. The Swedish economy was run on a similar basis to the German one. A highly skilled and highly efficient and productive workforce
        It has no to carry millions of low skilled migrants with a poor work ethic. There is in my view only one outcome unless things change and that is the collapse of the Swedish economy. It will price itself out of the market

        1. A highly skilled and highly efficient and productive workforce

          You must be joking. They are really, really lazy. Hold meetings all day, every day instead of getting on with the work.

        2. I thought we had a provocative work force – I certainly did my bit before I retired.

  103. The Great Unexplained Mystery

    WE are being constantly told that the UK is a horrible nasty racist country and that it is a horrible place for non white people to live. Now if that is true one would expect that lots of non white people would be rushing to leave but strangely no. On the other side if the coin thousands are trying to break into the UK. It is all very odd

  104. Deficit cutting the Swedish way

    The ten lessons Henriksson lays out are:

    1 Sound public finances are a prerequisite for growth. That does not have to mean an aversion to borrowing or major monetary expansion. Henriksson is happy with plenty of the former if the money is wisely invested and Sweden did plenty of the latter, but you cannot just forever put off dealing with public finances.

    2 If you are in debt, you are not free. His underlying point is a sound one: if you are in too much debt then you end up in thrall to the international financial markets. However, becoming debt free is not the only way to avoid this problem; many countries (including Britain) have run manageable debts for long periods of time without running into that problem. So although the exact criteria may not apply to the UK, the basic point does – the less dependant you are on international borrowing to keep the government’s finances afloat, the more freedom you have to do what you want.

    3 The one responsible must put her or his job on the line. The argument here is that this is what gets credibility with the public, financial markets, civil service and political colleagues. If they all know that person X is deadly serious, it then becomes easier to achieve the goals. For example, civil servants may be tempted to try to avoid having to make cuts in their budget and ride out the political impetus to curb the deficit. If they know that they can’t do that, they are more likely to offer up suggestions based on their detailed knowledge of the more obscure corners of the public sector.

    4 Set goals and stick to them. Once again the theme of strong public commitments making the overall job easier features in Henriksson’s list. Here he argues that just as public targets for inflation make controlling inflation easier, so too do they for a deficit.

    5 Consolidation should be designed as a package: “An ad hoc hodgepodge of measures will only have a limited chance of success. Presenting the consolidation measures in one package makes it clear to all interest groups that they are not the only ones being asked to make sacrifices … If a consolidation package consists of both tax increases and expenditure cuts the distributional effect can be fair. When studying the distributional consequences, do not only use the income distribution perspective. There are other dimensions that also are important, such as for instance gender, age and geography.”

    6 Act structurally but be consistent. Perhaps the most surprising recommendation in the pamphlet, this point in Sweden meant a uniform 11% cut from all budgets – a very different approach from the Canadian one of looking at each area of government activity and deciding if it is necessary. The downside of a flat rate cut across the board is that there is no particular reason to believe that the least desirable expenditure is equally distributed across the board. Against this Henriksson argues that only flat rate cuts really get an understanding of the absolute need to find efficiencies seeping in to all corners of the state. It also avoid problems with some sectors feeling they have been picked on unfairly compared to others. In this respect, our coalition government, with its ring fencing of certain expenditure including the NHS, is going for the Canadian model rather than the Swedish one.

    7 Do not leave the problems to the local authorities. Again, this contrasts with the Canadian approach of displacing many issues from the federal government to lower levels. Henriksson’s warning is based on the Swedish experience where local authorities faced a really tight squeeze: “In Sweden it meant that we saw big cuts in schools, healthcare and childcare because they are financed through local taxes. This created enormous political problems.”

    8 Be honest to citizens and financial markets: “Never say that it won’t hurt. Never say that it is peanuts. Having been honest about the effects will not make it much easier, but being dishonest can lead to disaster. This will help ordinary people to plan ahead and to limit shocks.” The comments of Cameron, Osborne and Clegg neatly fit this lesson.

    9 Stick to one message. Tackling a deficit is not simply about producing a list of items to cut or taxes to raise; it’s also a communications challenge to bring the public with you and to win confidence from the financial markets. That makes mixing in tax cuts with the rest of the package tricky: “At one time the government decided to cut down on expenditures to finance a tax cut in VAT on food. The result was that people became furious. ‘You are not cutting down because you need to. You are cutting down because you want to’. That was an impossible argument to handle, since the message was budget discipline, but the action was [making changes to the structure of the tax system].” On this point (and the linked argument against making any spending increases, even small ones in popular areas), the coalition government is taking a very different course from Sweden – looking to use tax cuts and targeted spending increases to garner wider support for the tough measures and also because they are justified in their own right.

    10 Stick to it. Once you have sorted out the deficit, make sure you reform the systems that caused the problem in the first place.
    Overall there are many similarities between Sweden’s approach and the current British one, but also some notable differences – no across the board percentage of cuts and a mix of the tough measures with tax cuts and spending increases. On both those fronts the British approach looks to better suit our circumstances, provided that the rest of the package delivers the necessary financial changes. Whether or not that is the case will be much clearer after the forthcoming budget.

  105. Unspeakable [Title of Bercow’s memoirs to be published next month]

    At long last he’s got something right.

    1. What is a mystery to me is who buys these books. I cannot imagine many people buying them. Is it mandatory for politicians and L’s and Government departments to buy copies

        1. I always thought that the “libraries of record” had to be given a copy, not to buy one.

          As always, the things one learns on Nottle.

        2. Bercow pre-ordered 10,000 copies for distribution to the libraries of institutes of higher learning.

          He charged the bill to Speaker’s expenses before he resigned.

    2. Unspeakable: The Autobiography Hardcover – 6 Feb 2020

      Unspeakable is John Bercow’s characteristically forthright and incisive account of his unique vantagepoint into British politics. Containing verdicts on many of the leading figures of this era, from Tony Blair to David Cameron, Theresa May, and Boris Johnson, Bercow explores and explains the ways in which he has sought to democratise the business of Parliament, using the Speakership to champion the rights of backbench MPs and hold the government to account.

      1. “… the ways in which he has sought to democratise the business of Parliament,”Good grief, even the blurb is absolute bolleau!

      2. “… the ways in which he has sought to democratise the business of Parliament,”Good grief, even the blurb is absolute bolleau!

      3. Very few political auto-biographies or ‘accounts’ are worth the paper they are printed on.

        I can think of a few worth reading on my shelves. The Time of my Life by Denis Healey, Loyalists and Loners and Another Heart and Other Pulses by Michael Foot, The Art of Memory by Lord Butler, The Politics of Consent by Francis Pym and Our Selves Unknown by Lionel Brett.

        Most others are written by ghost writers. Michael Foot may have been a disaster politically but he was a biographer of Swift and a highly accomplished writer.

      4. Very few political auto-biographies or ‘accounts’ are worth the paper they are printed on.

        I can think of a few worth reading on my shelves. The Time of my Life by Denis Healey, Loyalists and Loners and Another Heart and Other Pulses by Michael Foot, The Art of Memory by Lord Butler, The Politics of Consent by Francis Pym and Our Selves Unknown by Lionel Brett.

        Most others are written by ghost writers. Michael Foot may have been a disaster politically but he was a biographer of Swift and a highly accomplished writer.

        1. Michael Foot was a distant cousin of my mother. Never met him, but by all accounts he was charming, intelligent and excellent company, despite his politics.

  106. You must not miss this on Channel 4 at 10pm tonight

    How to Steal Pigs and Influence People

    Summary

    Documentary following a unique community of established vegan and ex-vegan influencers. Some of them are embarking on an escalating series of daring farmyard heists, others are devoted to their back-bedroom chicken sanctuaries, and some are extreme ex-vegans, now notorious for their jaw-dropping raw-meat-only diet. They enjoy hundreds of thousands of followers and know exactly what it takes to make an impact online.

    It is classed as Education

    Soon, like LGBRTDFGHism, it will be made compulsory to be Vegan

    https://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/kvmb2f/how-to-steal-pigs-and-influence-people/

      1. Aha, I’m not Boot. I have changed my name tho’ – until yesterday I was mostly posting with a tea cup avatar.

          5. It’s Storm. I thought it was Boot at first.

            Haste Kontakt mit JSP über Weihnachten gehabt?

  108. Prince William, Kate Middleton and their children are seen getting off a £73 budget flight to Scotland amid row over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s summer of private jet trips

    Prince William, his wife Kate and their children have been spotted getting off a £73 budget flight to Scotland, amid a row over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s private jet trips.

    The Duke of Cambridge and Duchess of Cambridge took the 8.45am flight from Norwich International Airport to Aberdeen Airport with their children this morning.
    The royal couple and their family can be spotted being escorted from the budget FlyBe plane and getting into waiting vehicles, where they are expected to be whisked away to visit the Queen and Prince Philip at Balmoral.

    1. HM and Prince Philip at Balmoral in January?!!!? You’ve got to be joking. Where do get this nonsense from, BJ? Birkhall more likely.

    2. Are you sure that wasn’t during the summer? They do not reside at Balmoral at this time of year, Bill.

      1. Good evening, Prickle.

        I explained to BJ, some weeks ago, that HM was at Sandringham for her usual
        Christmas Hols………perhaps my sarcasm washed over him[!!] when I asked if the
        ‘737’ would land on the road outside St. Mary Magdelan!

      2. Airport Development Fee

        What is the Airport Development Fee?

        Norwich Airport introduced the development fee in 2007 to help fund further development of the airport’s infrastructure and passenger facilities and to maintain and develop the airport’s route network.

        Who has to pay?

        All passengers departing from Norwich Airport will be required to pay the development fee:
        Adults £10 each
        Children (0-15) FREE
        Age applies at time of departure – proof of age may be required.

  110. “Brexit latest news: Commons Speaker warns Big Ben Brexit chimes will cost up to ‘£50,000 a bong’ No problem to reduce costs just let it ring at 2:00 am on the 1st February – at least our French Cousins will understand the significance of Two…….

      1. I think the dull discordant bong is a result of a defect in Big Ben. Hit it with a hammer and that might mean the end of it. I reckon it has a crack or other defect otherwise it would have been re-tuned long ago.

          1. I just checked and the present Big Ben was repaired in situ after cracking similar to its predecessor. The problem was that the hammer was too heavy and too powerful for the bell wall. After repairs the bell was re-orientated so that the clapper struck a different part of the bell to that damaged and repaired.

            After repairs the bell no longer ringed true.

          2. The bell need to be taken down and retuned. A repair will de tune it and the chances of doing a good repair in situ are not good

          3. When mediaeval builders built a church or cathedral the very first part of the construction was a temporary timber tower to enable a bell to be elevated and positioned. The stone construction that followed eventually enabled the bell to in be supported from masonry walls with appropriate timbers built into the masonry.

            It would be well nigh impossible to remove Big Ben to Loughborough or wherever without demolishing a clock face of Elizabeth Tower.

          4. No normally the tower is built and then the bell frame erected and the bell raised up into the frame , It is a fair amount of work to remove the floor and then lower the bell but it can be done. The big problem with big Ben is the height of the tower

          5. I am unfamiliar with the sequence of construction of the presently named Elizabeth Tower but given time have the resources to research it. I think, given the height of the tower walls over 300 feet in height, that your proposition is unlikely.

            This is because the walls of the tower depend on the intermediate floor levels for their stability. It is something structural engineers refer to as ‘slenderness ratio’. Over a certain height walls require lateral support whether by external bracing or internal bracing by the insertion of floors.

            I still do not know what if any your professional qualifications to opine on such matters might include. Be so good as to tell us all about your particular qualifications to support your opinions on technical matters of this type.

          6. How do you think a bell can be erected unless the tower is built ? Towers by nature are tall. They are similar to large chimneys, They do not need internal bracing. If old or badly built you may see chimneys with eternal straps fitted.

        2. Cracks are not a problem they can be repaired and the bell re tuned. It does mean removing the bell and taking it to Loughborough

        3. Quite correct. Apart from the obvious hammer damage, there is a hairline crack which contributes to its characteristic off-tune bong.

          https://live.staticflickr.com/3139/2587362435_d33ff4f8cf_b.jpg
          Wiki:”Big Ben, which tolls the hour at the Palace of Westminster, was cast in 1858 and rung for the first time on 31 May 1859. “Big Ben” weighs 13½ tons and is the largest bell ever cast at the foundry.[8] This bell also cracked because too heavy a hammer was initially used. The crack and the subsequent retuning gives Big Ben its present distinctive tone. A profile template of Big Ben surrounds the entrance door of the Whitechapel Foundry, while the original moulding gauge is retained near the furnaces.[16] The final bill for Big Ben came to £572.[17]”

          An even greater mess was made of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia
          http://daysgoneby.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/the-liberty-bell.jpg
          Wiki:” In 1752 the foundry (known at the time as Lester and Pack)[15] cast the Liberty Bell, which was commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s 1701 Charter of Privileges, Pennsylvania’s original constitution. As a result of damage sustained during its stormy passage across the Atlantic, the bell cracked when it was first rung, and after repeated repairs cracked again in 1846 when rung to mark the birthday of George Washington. Since 2003, the bell has been housed at the Liberty Bell Center near Independence Hall.[8]”

      1. Some sort of safety platform needs to be re-erected at a cost of Squillions (Gov’t contract you see).

        1. To get a bell to bong? No wonder hs2 and crossrail are fcukups with that kind of organisation.

  111. Good night all.
    I will be back tomorrow to continue the fight for our Anglo-Saxon heritage.

    1. Would be nice to think so but we are still going to be stitched up. We haven’t left and we are never going to leave.

      1. My worry is that if Johnson had really wanted a proper Brexit he would have made a sensible deal with TBP which would have assured it.

        That he was not prepared to do so begs two questions:

        i) Why not?
        ii) Does he really plan to have a proper Brexit or a BRINO?

        The fact that Nigel Farage has withdrawn from the fray does not fill me with optimism.

        1. Evening R,
          The peoples have knowingly supported / voted for these pro eu parties, knowing all along the past history of the major political participants and yet still put trust in them .
          Worse still they “hope”
          the man does the right thing.
          The legacy these people could be leaving their kids depending on hope is surely some form of very nasty abuse.

    1. Good morning Geoff

      Still raining here, dogs refused to go into the garden last thing last night , gale blowing , but just after 5am this morning was woken up by requests .. hey ho, damp dogs and sleepy me .. one of them raided the little brown kitchen waste bin, handle was the wrong way , celery bits, stale bread roll , egg shells and coffee grounds .. it is going to be another long day!

    3. Aha, I’m very late, blame my germs and cough-
      It’s rather late to wake up from sleeping.
      Btw I like the vibrant turquoise blue start to the day,
      even if it’s getting dark outside .

Comments are closed.