Friday 16 December: The regrettable nursing strike could still have a constructive outcome

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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763 thoughts on “Friday 16 December: The regrettable nursing strike could still have a constructive outcome”

  1. Good morning all.
    Another bloody cold start to the day. -8°C outside with a clear sky yet again and a waning slightly crescent moon high in the sky above the front of the house telling me it’s about another 3 weeks before the next full moon.

    1. Just came down to discover 3 inches of snow! At least it’s a bit warmer! Good morning all!

      3. Morning Sue, no snow overnight but freezing – got to go out later for six monthly diabetic check 😘

  3. The regrettable nursing strike could still have a constructive outcome

    I see what they are doing, it’s just protecting the NHS again by not providing a service.

    1. Same here!
      And the Pantry, the coldest room in the house, is also in minus figures this morning, -½°C!!

      Yes, I do keep the door shut!

      1. Last year I revamped the kitchen, new units etc. I discovered the kick board heater was well past its best, corroded etc. I made the decision not to replace it, no need I thought, the kitchen is always warm enough, what with the oven and hob being used.
        I am start to rethink my decision but at least it is warmer than your pantry.

          2. We’re hoping to renovate the kitchen next year, including underfloor heating. For a tiled surface, that should be cosy!

          4. Nah! Central heating has made soft people softer and more susceptible to disease. In the ‘good’ ol’ days when we had a coal fire that heated the room to three yards in front of it and all rooms has single-glazing that frosted up (especially in the icy bedrooms), we were all much healthier and far more robust.

          5. I experienced that as well when I was younger. Now I will settle for CH thank you.
            The only thing I miss about the open coal fire is the toast on the end of the toasting fork and chestnuts at Christmas.

          6. There’s a bedroom under the kitchen, so the floor doesn’t get uncomfortably cold – not even for bare feet.

          8. Brr!
            Housebuilding codes here mandate that the floor is insulated, so you can get concrete over isopor insulation. It’s like that in our basement, but kitchen is on the middle floor of 3.

          3. As I said, I never bothered to replace it but the plumbing is still in situ so I may fit one. They don’t give out a lot of heat but enough to take the edge off in mornings such as today.

          5. Aren’t you supposed to say “I am indebted to my learned friend”, Bill? Lol. A belated “Good Morning” and all at Thomas Towers – how is Pickle’s foot doing?

          6. Good morning, Harry. Pickles is on the mend. He has been out for a couple of hours – now asleep in front of the stove.

          7. Sorry I got Pickles’ name wrong, Uncle Bill. I shall pass the good news on to The Master (Mr Lime) and I am sure he will be pleased to hear the medical report.

  7. Mornings, all Y’all.
    Still dark. Warmer this morning, only -13C and supposed to be warming further.

  8. Isn’t it strange, the lack of news at the moment?
    Apart from Harry & Meg nothing much appears to be happening.

    1. Follow
      Alasdair Macleod
      Willem Middelkoop
      James Delingpole
      Gold Telegraph
      on Twit, and you hear more or less what’s really going on in the world!

    2. It’s when trivia about Moaning Migraine and Humid Harry dominate the headlines you can be sure that the really nasty things are happening out of sight.

    3. The Online Harm Bill, currently being pushed through WEFminster, and the push towards the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) are newsworthy items TPTB would rather you were told about after the fact.

      Now, back to Ginge and Cringe…

      Edit to add: The ongoing protests in Brazil (50 days and counting) against their Dominion-like fixed ‘election’ are also seemingly being kept under the radar.

  9. EU corruption

    SIR – The recent arrest of four European Union officials on charges
    of taking money from an external government seeking to gain influence (report, December 14) has been described as threatening the future of the EU, and the biggest case of its kind.

    However, both direct and indirect fraud and corruption have dogged
    the EU since the commission resigned en masse in March 1999 after an
    independent investigation found widespread fraud and nepotism. Not all
    commissioners were mentioned in that report. At the time the EU court of
    auditors had consistently failed to sign off the EU budget because of
    irregularities.

    In March 2016 (just before the Brexit referendum) another independent
    investigation commissioned by the European parliament estimated that
    fraud and corruption cost the EU in excess of £750 billion in GDP terms
    annually.

    It can therefore be assumed the future of the EU will not be threatened by this latest scandal.

    David Taylor
    Lymington, Hampshire

    No wonder they behave in such a high handed arrogant fashion. They are bullet proof.

    2. Morning Phizz. It’s a tyranny. The executive has no democratic links to the people and is thus indifferent to their wishes or interests. It is simply a Globalist tool for the enslavement of the Indigenous population of Europe!

    3. And yet somebody running a small business who makes a genuine error in his or her accounts can be heavily fined and put out of business.

      The days when people in politics were in it to give service and not to line their own pockets are long gone.

      1. And, as someone pointed out on Twit, they are coming down heavily on Italy for protecting cash transactions. According to Brussels, that’s tantamount to encouraging crime!

  10. Reposted from late last night.

    Friday 16th December, 2022

    PLUM

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e281877e66f9640965428cfaf7612b736a56b10f037dc7830d6ff3f7e0f8aba9.png

    and very many joyous returns

    Even if we don’ t see you here we all remember you with fondness and hope to see you again here soon.

    We hope all is well in Cornwall – a place that many of us love

    And we hope you are listening to the Beatles, the Travelling Wilburys and George Harrison

    With great affection from

    Caroline and Rastus

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMJEtLjnO7E

    2. I hope Plum will receive our good wishes – perhaps via her daughter or Lacoste. Happy Birthday Plum.

    5. Grattis på födelsedagen, Plum-Tart.

      Go steady on the cooking sherry🍷 and have a lovely day!🎂😊

    8. Happy Birthday, Plum! I’m in Cornwall, so you should be able to hear me singing very clearly. 🙂🙂 x

    9. Its Plum’s birthday today. Plum is (probably) not online – but her daughter might notice!

      Happy Birthday sweetie 🙂

    10. Happy birthday, Plum! Have a wonderful day and we’re thinking of you! Miss your Happy Hours and the Bash Street Kids! 😘💐🍾

  11. US to expand training of Ukrainian forces. 16 December 2022.

    The US military will be expanding its training of Ukrainian military personnel in Germany, the Pentagon has said, including training in combined arms.

    Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said the new training will involve approximately 500 Ukrainians per month and will not require an increase in US troop deployments to Europe.

    Will these people ever realise that they are now simply sacrificial pawns in the struggle to maintain the US Hegemony over Europe?

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2022/12/15/russia-ukraine-live-news-ukrainian-forces-shell-donetsk-russia

    1. Evil barstewards dragging the world into war that we, the people will lose and they the elites will profit from – as usual.

    2. I expect the Ukes are being lied to just as much as we are. Zelensky has a tight grip on their media.

  12. ‘Morning, Peeps. A harsh (for here) -2°C this morning, but the prospect of 6° tomorrow and a whopping 9° on Sunday is most encouraging.

    SIR – Did John Birkett consider what the BBC might inflict on the public if it brought back The Brains Trust?

    I doubt it would provide the same calibre of discussion as the original. Instead, I suspect the BBC would give us the likes of Gary Lineker, Jo Brand, Joe Lycett, Amol Rajan and Stephen Fry.

    N P Scott
    Reigate, Surrey

    Quite so, Mr Scott. The absence of intellectuals in broadcasting these days is woeful, but you have cleverly ensured that most of the BBC’s usual boxes have been neatlly ticked with your list!

    2. It wouldn’t be hard to set up a program of a similar format to be broadcast on the internet – in fact, there are many internet content producers who do exactly that.

  13. ‘Morning, Peeps. A harsh (for here) -2°C this morning, but the prospect of 6° tomorrow and a whopping 9° on Sunday is most encouraging.

    SIR – Did John Birkett consider what the BBC might inflict on the public if it brought back The Brains Trust?

    I doubt it would provide the same calibre of discussion as the original. Instead, I suspect the BBC would give us the likes of Gary Lineker, Jo Brand, Joe Lycett, Amol Rajan and Stephen Fry.

    N P Scott
    Reigate, Surrey

    Quite so, Mr Scott. The absence of intellectuals in broadcasting these days is woeful, but you have cleverly ensured that most of the BBC’s usual boxes have been neatlly ticked with your list!

  16. SIR – We Telegraph readers were delighted to learn of our power in overturning M&S’s ban on serving toasted teacakes after 11am. Sadly we had less success when, some time ago, readers complained of the difficulty in opening Weetabix wrapping cleanly.

    Not a peep from Weetabix management – nor any improvements in the unwrapping procedure.

    Geoffrey Taylor
    Bracknell, Berkshire

    Sharp, pointed knife between the first and second pieces, Mr Taylor. There, that wasn’t too difficult, was it? And if I can do it…

    Good to tackle the really important things so early in the day!

          2. “Can I please have all the pans and sharp knives out of your room? And I’m putting a light coloured wash on, so give me your sheets. They haven’t been changed for weeks!”

    2. You may put up as many lighting devices up as you wish, but it will still not stop people “running a red light”.

    3. IMO a much better idea would be to follow the French and place a small repeater set of lights on the pylon at around driver head height.

    4. I like those! Only useful with simple traffic lights, though, not the fiendishly complicated filters only intelligible to the impatient local in the car behind that I seem to encounter every day… 🤣🤣

  18. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story:

    Creation

    On the first day, God created the dog and said, “Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.”

    The dog said, “That’s a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I’ll give you back the other ten?” So God saw it was good.

    On the second day, God created the monkey and said, “Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give you a twenty-year life span.”

    The monkey said, “Monkey tricks for twenty years? That’s a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?” And God, again saw it was good.

    On the third day, God created the cow and said, “You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer’s family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.”

    The cow said, “That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I’ll give back the other forty?” And God agreed it was good.

    On the fourth day, God created humans and said, “Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I’ll give you twenty years.”

    But the human said, “Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?” “Okay,” said God. “You asked for it.”

    So that is why for our first twenty years, we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years, we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years, we sit in front of the TV and bark at everyone.

    Life has now been explained to you.

    There is no need to thank me for this valuable information. I’m doing it as a public service. If you are looking for me, I will be sitting in front of the TV.

  20. New splashback paint dampener for drinkers caught short

    Urine-repellant paint has been sprayed on some walls in Westminster where drinkers regularly relieve themselves after a night out.

    It will give revellers a nasty surprise as it creates a water-repellent coating designed to bounce fluid back on to anyone urinating against the surface, leaving them soaked.

    Aicha Less, deputy leader of Westminster city council, said: “Residents and businesses are fed up. It’s finally payback time and we’re taking action to stop people using alleyways or doorways as a lavatory.

    “The ingenious paint is one of a number of steps we are taking to discourage people from relieving themselves in public or on private property. With more people enjoying Soho and the West End in the lead-up to Christmas, we are also stepping up enforcement and the hefty fine is the last thing people want before the holidays. If people are caught short after a night out, I encourage visitors to go before you leave the venue or use the public toilets around Soho and Westminster instead of using alleyways or side streets.”

    Those urinating in the street can be fined up to £150 through a fixed penalty notice. Westminster council said it was compelled to take action after spending nearly £900,000 a year cleaning up the urine-soaked streets.

    The splashback paint is part of the “Don’t Pee off Soho” campaign.

    Cllr Patrick Lilley, Soho and LGBTQ+ champion at the council, said: “I think it is an absolute disgrace that long-suffering residents have to put up with tourists using Soho as their personal toilet.

    “If someone did their business outside your front door, I’m sure you’d feel the same. The anti-pee paint, combined with the community protection notices, should teach those perpetrators a lesson.

    It’s not just the walls that require it. Young women are not averse to squatting in any convenient shop doorway when sozzled after a night out.

    1. You see both men and women peeing on the side of the road as you drive along in France. They are not at all embarrassed or self-conscious – indeed some of them wave cheerfully as you drive past.

      1. Tourists often do it up here but to be fair there’s a lack of facilities as councils have closed most of the bogs

        2. I remember some cruel schoolmasters told us to tie a knot in it if we wanted to pee before the end of a lesson.

      2. The side of the road is fine, but you wouldn’t want to have a shop that stank to high heaven with piss when you opened it up every morning.

        1. Even the French don’t pee much in plain sight in built up areas – they wait until they are in the country and pee on the grass verges.

  21. Morning all 😊
    4 lovely days away with our friends at Holme Lacy coming to an end in a couple of hours. Minus 8 this morning and have to defrosted the car before we pack our belongings in and drive off.
    I’ve been begging for a doctors appointment since first thing, (8am) hopefully the receptionist will book me in just after 5 pm.
    I’ll turn up anyway.
    Slayders.
    Happy birthday Plum. 👍🤗

  23. Modern Life

    Been watching too many tv ads…….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f056fcb80c996bbaa1a8ce2d622fc7ced98196dea8a412dd1ba054bd10b16dab.jpg

    Oof

    https://instapundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Screen-Shot-2022-12-15-at-9.55.39-PM.png

    Awkward…..

    https://twitter.com/WMcHBg/status/1603404217800073220?s=20&t=7MYaaWMLqe5i88J36_tNsw

    I think I prefered the old days………..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8e80c2041e1cbb089451ea37422d4513166b9595d2edc7c37c1d058955afa45b.jpg

    1. Re Essex Police Farce: once upon a time the aim was for representation i.e. where minorities represented, say 4% of the population, then that % would be reflected in those employed in public services. Now, it’s to be over-representation by a huge margin. Other than, look at me I’m so wonderfully woke, what possibly can the driver for this nonsense be?

          2. ‘To Catch A Bame’, starring David Lammy (of Lammynation fame – h/t sosraboc), Ngozi Fulani-Headingly and the Abbottcus. When it gains all the Rotten Tomatoes, the race card will be applied.

      1. Matching the constabulary to the population, clearly. All the Colchester NoTTLers should leave pronto.

      2. I like the fact that Essex criminals are protected and served.
        However, it would seem that I’m expected to catch one for myself.

    4. “Right” bakground, eh?
      Why does the Essex force not strive to reflect the proportions in the county, or is Essex more than 50% bame now?

  24. I have been thinking about the dreadful comments in the press about the much valued Greek EUSSR vice-president lady and her “arrest”. The one with suitcases filled with hundreds of thousands of euro notes.

    I really don’t know what all the fuss is about. The lady obviously had a very successful win on a horse (or several) and is just embarrassed to let people know that she has a gambling addiction…

  25. Just walked down the road to get some groceries,

    I don’t remember it being this cold before and I used to work outside back in the day

          1. We lived in Newport Pagnell then, in a rented flat with no insulation. Had very little money.
            Whole flat froze up. Had to go to work or the pub to use the toilet… had -18C a few nights, and my Polo was about the only car that would start. Saw my first Northern Lights (over Northampton) that winter, too.
            Ah, the good cold days…

  26. Just walked down the road to get some groceries,

    I don’t remember it being this cold before and I used to work outside back in the day

  27. Good morning Nottlers, it’s currently 5°C (14° warmer than this time on Wednesday morning) and, after 10 days of becalmed, frozen days, it back to the ‘normal’ wild and windy with rain/snow forecast over the weekend.

    Thank goodness public houses are weatherproof.

      2. There’s a pub that looks like that on the Swaffham Road (A1065), just south of Fakenham. Was it called The Ostrich or summat?

  28. Here is the weekly FSU newsletter for the half dozen of you that appreciate it!

    Welcome to the FSU’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week.

    The FSU Writers’ Advisory Council – a call for authors!

    Since the FSU launched in February 2020, a growing number of authors have come to us for advice and support – Gillian Philip, Julie Burchill, Helen Joyce, Allison Pearson, Holly Lawford-Smith – and over 250 authors have joined as members. It has become increasingly clear to us that freedom of expression is under severe pressure within the literary world, with publishers and literary agents often failing to defend their authors when their speech rights come under attack.

    Some of the threats our writer members have flagged up include:

    Publishers including morality clauses in contracts.

    Sensitivity readers vetting manuscripts.

    Editors removing content to avoid giving offense (e.g., ‘cultural appropriation’).

    Bookshops refusing to stock books or, if they do, their employees refusing to display them properly.

    Authors being no-platformed from speaking events, such as literary festivals, at the behest of other authors, sponsors or venue staff.

    These issues are of great concern to the FSU, and not just because they directly affect our writer members. The freedom of authors to express themselves and of people to read their work without interference or mediation by self-appointed censors is a fundamental human right.

    To make sure we’re able to give these issues a proper airing in the public square – and that the speech rights of our writer members and authors more generally are protected – we have established a specialist Writers’ Advisory Council (which we will unveil on Sunday). Our hope is that this will lend the FSU’s voice authority when it speaks out in defence of freedom of expression and comes to the defence of beleaguered authors.

    To better support our writer members, the FSU will:

    Ensure that a member of our case team specialises in protecting them from the kinds of censorship listed above and is always available at the end of the phone.

    Cultivate good working relationships with third party providers of specialist advice to authors on issues such as contracts, tax and insurance.

    All of these services will be provided either pro bono or at a below market rate to our writer members. In addition, any writers who join the FSU will have access to all the usual benefits, such as:

    Invitations to members-only events with people like Kathleen Stock, Jack Dee, Andrew Doyle, Graham Linehan and Helen Joyce.

    Discounted tickets to parties, conferences, and comedy nights.

    FSU weekly and monthly newsletters.

    Individually tailored advice from our two full-time case officers, two full-time lawyers and specialist media advisors.

    As with our existing members, from 2023 writer members will also have access to paywalled content on our website, such as:

    FSU authored news articles, videos, and podcasts.

    FAQs on what to do if you’re asked to do something you don’t want to do, such as declare your gender pronouns in the workplace or take an unconscious bias training course.

    Research and briefings on where free speech needs to be better protected in the UK.

    We hope that as many authors as possible will join the FSU, whether to protect themselves, to defend their peers or to build a public voice capable of putting the case for freedom of expression as robustly as possible. If you know of any friends or family that might be interested in our offer, please do share this news with them.

    Office for Students warns universities to stop using equality laws to restrict free speech

    Universities must stop using equality laws as an excuse to restrict free speech, the Office for Students has warned (Guardian, Mail, Telegraph, Times Higher).

    In a research note published this week – Freedom to question, challenge and debate – the higher education regulator for England reminded universities that although they have a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to eliminate discrimination, harassment, and victimisation on the basis of various protected characteristics (e.g. age, disability, religion, sex, gender reassignment and sexual orientation), nevertheless, policies which promote a particular protected characteristic “to the detriment of others”, may “amount to unlawful discrimination” and could have the effect of “curtailing” freedom of expression.

    The organisation’s CEO, Susan Lapworth, said that the new research note had been drawn up by the regulator to highlight the “importance of universities really understanding the nature of that free speech duty, alongside their equality duties”. She added: “Too often we see universities not properly understanding that legal framing, and perhaps leaning more fully into the equality duties than we think that the law supports, and we are concerned that that is acting to curtail free speech in some circumstances.” (Guardian).

    Although it hasn’t received much media attention, there’s another interesting insight into the approach the OfS wants to see universities adopt that’s buried deep in the details of this research note. As per Section 43 of the Education (No 2) Act 1986, universities are currently required to issue and keep up to date a free speech ‘code of practice’. That sounds great, but in practice the legislation only requires that a code set out the procedures that must be followed in connection with the organisation of meetings or other activities taking place on a university’s premises. On page four of the OfS’s research note, however, the regulator expresses its “view” that from now on “a free speech code should go a lot further than that… [t]his means we would expect a university’s free speech code to include broader statements about free speech and academic freedom, and to extend to activities such as teaching and curriculum content”. That‘s good news.

    The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill – the return of Clause 4?

    Last week, Peers voted to scrap Clause 4 of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill, which would have created a statutory tort to enable academics and students to sue universities and students’ unions for compensation if they’d breached their new duties to protect free speech on campus, as set out in the Bill (Telegraph, Times Higher). As we said at the time, we were unhappy about that. Our position is that the new statutory tort is what gives the legislation’s new free speech duties teeth, and if that’s removed, the Bill is essentially a dead letter. However, we also said that there were grounds for optimism. As Toby pointed out to the Telegraph, “The Government amended the Bill to defang the statutory tort in the hope of winning round its critics in the Lords. Plainly, that hasn’t worked, so I very much hope the Government will restore the statutory tort in its original form when the Bill returns to the Commons.”

    As things stand, that looks unlikely to happen. Speaking at an Office for Students (OfS) event on Thursday afternoon, Claire Coutinho, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education, whose brief includes freedom of speech, suggested that the government will now dig its heels in over Clause 4. She said: “We remain resolute that people will have the right to go to court if their complaint cannot be resolved through other routes.” Unfortunately, however, she said the right to sue should be a last resort – the ‘compromise’ the Government proposed but which the Lords rejected. We will be lobbying her to restore the tort as it originally appeared in the Bill and not in a neutered form. Although a date has not yet formally been set for MPs to consider the changes the Lords made to the bill earlier this month, Ms Coutinho did also let slip that the government expected the bill to receive royal assent “early in the new year”.

    Anglican Priest too “dangerous” to be given a platform in the House of Commons

    Writing in the Daily Express, the former Home Secretary Anne Widdicombe gave an update on the recent case of Lynda Rose, one of the first women to be both deaconed and priested in the Anglican church, who was recently no-platformed by a Labour MP at an event in the House of Commons.

    Lynda Rose is the CEO of Voice for Justice UK and also serves as Convenor of the Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group, a non-aligned Parliamentary research group. Back in November, Anne Widdicombe reported how Lynda had been invited to speak at a conference at Parliament on the topic, “Ending violence against women and girls: progress and remaining challenges.” The event was organised by the Women’s Federation for World Peace UK (WFWP) and was chaired by Labour MP, Paulette Hamilton.

    So far, so jolly you might think. But a few days before the event was due to take place, Lynda was telephoned by a member of the WFWP to say that Ms Hamilton had told them to withdraw the invitation, or she would cancel the event. The reason? Rev. Rose holds traditional Christian views on LGBT matters. As Lynda pointed out at the time, the last thing on her mind when speaking on domestic abuse would have been LGBT matters. No matter. Ms Hamilton considered Rose’s views to be “dangerous”, and that was that. As Anne pointed out, in the world according to the Honourable Member for Birmingham, Erlington if you hold particular views on any one thing “you can be comprehensively prevented from expressing views on anything else by those who have taken exception” (Daily Express).

    The “real outrage” in all of this, for Anne Widdicombe, is that a woman priest had been no-platformed for her Christian views in the Houses of Parliament where democracy is supposedly sacrosanct.

    Or had she? In her latest column, Anne reveals that one of her readers had been so incensed by news of Lynda’s no-platforming that she’d written to Ms Hamilton and had now forwarded her a copy of the “gobsmacking” reply she’d received from the MP’s aide. Anne summarises the contents of this exculpatory email as follows: “Lynda Rose had been invited by the organisers of the conference, the aide explained, but they had not consulted Ms Hamilton, so therefore the invitation was an error, and therefore because it was an error it had never been issued at all, and therefore Lynda was not no-platformed because she had never had a platform.” Cancel culture, what cancel culture?

    Joe Kelly fundraiser – show your support!

    We know this is a tough case and not all our members will support us. But if you do, please consider donating to the Crowdfunder for Joe Kelly. With about a week to go until the campaign closes, we really need one final push from members and supporters to help reach our funding target and get this important legal case up and running. The link to find out more about the case and pledge your support is here. (We’re very close to meeting our stretch target.)

    Joe Kelly was convicted and sentenced in Scotland for contravening the Communications Act 2003, section 127(1)(b), which makes it a criminal offence to make an electronic post which is “grossly offensive”. Despite showing remorse – even confessing that this was one of the most stupid things he’d ever done in his life – and despite his counsel’s attempt to defend his right to free speech (which includes, as Lord Sedley stated, the “heretical, unwelcome and provocative”), Scotland’s prosecution service decided to throw the book at Joe, convicting and then sentencing him to a community payback order.

    Having had his appeal denied by the Scottish Courts and having been labelled an “example case” to deter others from “pressing the blue button” and posting allegedly offensive content, Joe is now seeking to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg – and the FSU is supporting him.

    The case Joe’s counsel will make focuses on ensuring this “deterrence” (i.e., “chilling effect”) on free expression does not materialise. It will also ensure Scotland is not left behind as the only country in the UK in which it’s illegal to say something “grossly offensive”, which it will be if the Communications Act is repealed in the rest of the UK.

    Statements made by means of a public telecommunications system, like Kelly’s tweet, should not need to have artistic or political meaning for them be protected by the right to free speech laid down in the European Convention on Human Rights. If applied in the way that the Sheriff did in Kelly’s case, the term “grossly offensive” is far too vague and his conviction will indeed have a chilling effect – a person’s right to freedom of speech should not be subject to interference on this basis.

    Any donations made are to fund the legal expenses associated with preparing an application to the European Court of Human Rights. If permission to hear the case in Strasbourg is granted, we hope the remainder of the case will be funded by the Court’s own system of legal aid. You can pledge your support here.

    Sharing the newsletter

    As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture. You can share our newsletters on social media with the buttons below to help us spread the word. If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Best wishes,

    1. The suppression of free speech in fiction seems to be happening at the editorial level. Books now seem to have to have quotas of ridiculously unlikely scenarios on the woke wish list, or they simply won’t be published at all.
      I have stopped buying new fiction at all because of this. There’s probably some quite decent self-published or US stuff out there, but I haven’t started looking for it.

    2. I certainly appreciate it, Grizz. As you know, I also receive these but you normally beat me to posting them here.

  29. And now for something more uplifting:

    Captain Robert Robinson, Royal Irish Fusilier awarded a DCM for his courage under fire near Bologna who also took part in the invasion of Sicily – obituary

    In an attack near Bologna he carried on fighting despite being hit in the head and back by grenade fragments

    ByTelegraph Obituaries 15 December 2022 • 6:00pm

    Captain Robert Robinson, who has died aged 99, had an adventurous career spanning three hard-fought campaigns and culminating in the award of a Distinguished Conduct Medal.

    In the autumn of 1944, Robinson was a sergeant in command of a platoon of the 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Fusiliers (1st Faughs). He had played a notable part in the capture of a feature near Fontanélice, on the River Senio, south-east of Bologna, and on the night of October 8 he led a patrol of 10 men to mop up on the battalion front.

    They ran into a German platoon close to a house about 500 yards away from his unit’s forward positions and came under fire from machine guns and mortars. Robinson closed with the enemy, and with six other Tommy gunners accounted for a section and two other Germans who tried to rush them from a flank.

    Despite being hit in the head and back by grenade fragments, he reorganised his small force, some of whom had been wounded, and continued the fight for more than an hour. He then made a skilful withdrawal under heavy fire while supervising the evacuation of the wounded.

    Without regard for his own injuries, he helped to carry some of the wounded and was able to provide his HQ with valuable information before the medics insisted on moving him to hospital. The citation for his DCM paid tribute to his courage and inspiring leadership in this engagement – which, it concluded, was only equalled by his outstanding record in previous actions.

    Robert James Robinson, the fourth of eight children, was born on March 22 1923, at Tully, near Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh. The fieldcraft he learnt as a lad, stalking rabbits, hares and wild duck, was to prove very useful in his soldiering.

    Always known as “Bob”, he went to the local school and, when war broke out, despite being a year under age, he was determined to enlist. A battalion of the Faughs was being raised at Ballykinler and he was quickly signed up.

    The battalion was employed on internal security duties in Northern Ireland, guarding bridges, railway lines and other key installations, not only against the Germans but also the IRA. Robinson found the duties tedious and volunteered to be transferred to the 1st Battalion in England.

    The 1st Faughs, part of 38th Infantry Brigade, landed in North Africa in November 1942. During the winter months the enemy had air superiority, and all movement in the forward area had to be made at night.

    On one occasion, he and his men were ordered to collect the bodies of six German paratroopers. They had been killed during an attack a fortnight earlier and, concealed among rocks, scrub and gullies, had not been discovered until then.

    One of them, a young German officer, had a photograph in his hand. It showed an attractive young woman with her child smiling and waving at the camera. The officer had obviously taken it out of his pocket to say goodbye to them when he lay dying. Robinson and his men passed the photograph among themselves in silence. They were much affected by it.

    After a big divisional attack in which a number of Germans were taken prisoner, he noticed one of his Fusiliers laughing and exchanging photographs with a prisoner. It turned out that the Fusilier was a good amateur boxer, and he and the German had been opponents in a championship held in America.

    During a night attack, Robinson was wounded in the arm and leg by shrapnel from a grenade. He spent several weeks in a tented field hospital in Algiers before returning to his unit.

    In April 1943, he was digging in close to a large rock and had only exposed his head for a second when a sniper’s bullet missed it by a fraction. The bullet continued in a downward trajectory and hit another man just behind his collarbone and emerged below his shoulder blade without touching a bone. The two congratulated each other on their escape from serious injury.

    The regiment fought with distinction in the Tunisian campaign before taking part in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. Early the following month, his company was getting ready to lead a battalion attack on Centuripe, a hill town close to Mount Etna. At the O (Order) Group, he was struck by his company commander’s deathly pallor. The man was known to be fit and well, and all the other men were tanned from campaigning in high summer.

    Robinson’s platoon led the attack. His company commander followed and, in heavy fighting, he was hit in the chest almost immediately by machine gun fire and killed. Robinson was convinced that the man had had a premonition of his death.

    In the advance towards the town’s main cemetery, five rounds from an enemy machine gun passed through one of the legs of his trousers. One of them burned a furrow close to his ankle but he was otherwise unhurt.

    He was less fortunate later that month when shell shrapnel left him with a compound fracture of the arm. He was flown by Dakota to a base hospital in Cairo for a month, before spending a fortnight in a convalescence camp in Alexandria.

    In October 1943, he was posted back to his unit on the Italian mainland and rejoined them in forward positions on the River Sangro. In May 1944, he took part in the Battle of Monte Cassino and the advance up the Liri Valley towards Rome, before attacking German positions close to Lake Trasimene.

    After a rest and refit in Egypt, the 1st Faughs returned to Italy. Robinson was promoted to company sergeant-major and, in November, during a month’s leave at home, he learned that he had been awarded the DCM. He was presented with the medal by George VI in 1949.

    In early January 1945, he returned to Italy and took part in the Battle of the Argenta Gap before reaching the River Po and hearing that the war in Europe was over. After the war, he was promoted to warrant officer class two. In 1957, he was commissioned as a quartermaster, and subsequently posted to 1st Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, with whom he served in Berlin.

    In 1966, after serving for 26 years in every rank up to captain and having been wounded five times, he retired from the Army. He had remained in close touch with Lieutenant-Colonel John Coldwell-Horsfall DSO, MC and Bar, his former commanding officer, who offered him a job in the family business.

    Robinson became the production manager at Webster & Horsfall, based near Solihull, West Midlands, and remained there until he retired in 1988. In 2005, he was invited to a lunch at Buckingham Palace to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. He wrote a memoir of his wartime adventures entitled Glimpses of War.

    In 1952, he married Hilda Pogue. On their 70th wedding anniversary, they received a card from King Charles. She survives him, with their son and daughter.

    Captain Robert Robinson, born March 22 1923, died November 2 2022

    * * *

    A BTL poster writes:

    John Gordon-Smith1 HR AGO

    Magnificent reading obituaries of these selfless men of yesteryear. Not too many of this calibre about these days; if any.

    Hear, hear, Mr Gordon.

    2. I disagree with that comment. I believe that there are MANY such people around today, and, given the “right” situation would act and behave in much the same way.

  30. Morning, all!

    Realised I left a photo here yesterday with an enigma attached, then got thoroughly distracted by a wagyu steak and a bottle of Caliburn ale, and forgot to give the answer. 🤣 Sorry!

    Tintagel, it was. Here are another couple of photos, taken looking left and right as I was drawn by the light to the point. Absolutely magical! I am looking forward to exploring further. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ca796fcb1cd212433031a13fbaa5389dfb39425a2407b29b9002527da34252b3.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1424910e52ce68dc7084f78059c5f0c71769738f6696e48696a8da4c791a64e7.jpg

      1. Don’t worry; it was lightly there, and I managed to find a virgin patch by driving up a hairpin bend at an angle that felt nearer vertical than horizontal. How I made it back I’ll never know! 🤣

    4. The only time I got to Tintagel was during my interregnum from the railway when I was being paid to have motoring holidays in some of the most beautiful parts of the Britain.
      Sadly, we did not have much time for exploration of such parts as we were doing drive testing of the then new Airwave Tetra radio system for the police.

      1. My late brother was obsessed with Diane Keen. This photograph has reminded me that she was, indeed, a very fetching lady.

          1. Sam Peckinpah (Ken Norton was a boxer). It starred Dustin Hoffman and was banned from cinemas for decades (as was Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange), both for ‘excessive violence’.

          5. I lost me copy yonks ago, Pet. Around the time I was droppin’ me dottle on the proggie mat (after I’d been on the shuggy boats, plodgin’, an’ ridin’ cuddies in Cullercoats), though but!😘

          9. It (Straw Dogs) was certainly controversial, Grizzly, but it received a BBFC (British Board of Film Censors, later re-labelled British Board of Film Certification) certificate and was certainly not banned by them. Perhaps it was the (local council) Watch Committee who over-rode the BBFC and – just as happened at a later date with The Life Of Brian – they decided that it was not allowed to be screened at their local cinemas.

            To be fair, this could sometimes work the other way round, such as when the local council would allow school parties to attend screenings of the X-rated (no-one under 18 to be admitted) films of (Polanski’s?) Macbeth and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, because the under-age children had been studying the play/book at school and watching the film would have been helpful to their studies.

          10. Ayup, Auntie Elsie. Thanks for that.

            I know in the case of A Clockwork Orange, it was Stanley Kubrick himself who withdrew his own film after complaints about the violence. It was only after his death, four decades later, that it came out again and it is, judging by today’s standards, quite mild.

            “Kubrick personally pulled the film from release in the United Kingdom after receiving death threats following a series of copycat crimes based on the film; it was thus completely unavailable legally in the UK until after Kubrick’s death, and not re-released until 2000.”

          11. Absolutely correct. I originally watched it when it was first released, before Kubrick decided to “pull” it.

          13. I saw Polanski’s Macbeth when I was 15 and studying it for ‘O’ level. It was screened at our local library!

          14. I think I may have been mistaken, Sue Mac in that in those days, the X certificate may have meant under-16s rather than under-18s could not be admitted.

          15. Actually I think you were right but we were allowed to see it because of the exams! Racy stuff! It was 1972

          18. The Tuschinski is a strange building, a fusion of Art-Deco and Art Nouveau architecture in appearance. In the seventies the seating consisted of sweeping curved timber benches, most uncomfortable.

  33. Just seen this on GP

    I’ve noticed that my comments on the Telegraph haven’t been commented on or liked for several months now, I phoned them today to cancel my sub because they’ve published two articles, one anti-Trump and the other anti-Musk in one day. Both articles’ comment sections are full of the kind of Trump Derangement rants that most of the commenters can’t be Telegraph subscribers but activist interns.

    Anyway, I mentioned my comments not being liked or replied to and he said to email moderation@telegraph.co.uk and ask why.

    This is the reply:

    Dear Reader,

    Thank you for getting in touch regarding our commenting platform.

    We can confirm that you have been permanently banned from our commenting platform due to leaving comments which contravene our community guidelines.

    Our guidelines also state that all content is subject to our Terms of Use and we reserve the right to remove any content, comments and/or commenting privileges at any time, without reason and without prior notice or warning and will not enter into any discussions regarding moderation decisions or actions.

    Kind Regards,

    The Community Moderation Team

    So they’ve been taking my money, letting me comment and the comment shows up for me, but not to anybody else.

    I’m tempted to send in a Data Protection Subject Access Request to find out why they banned me, I’m intrigued what the reason could be. I’ve never swore on there, said anything sexist or racist. I can only assume a few comments I made about Treason May and the UN Compact for Global Migration pissed one of the moderators off.

    2. Is that you or the poster on GP? I’m assuming the piece is about another subscriber’s experiences.

    3. Good morning Bob

      That is identical to the inch to the response I received ftom the DT when I commented on Ginge and Cringe and something else amd was banned forever .

    4. That’s clever isn’t it, Bob3? “We reserve the right to remove any content… without reason“. It means “we can do what the heck we want to, so just bog off and don’t bother us again”.

    6. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning. Persistent offenders will be banned.

      2. “Less than cordial”: limeys shouldn’t be pouring out remarks about black current affairs or criticising the juice.

    7. It is very off to take your money while hiding from you that you have been banned from commenting.

    8. I noticed the same thing some time ago. A sneaky and dishonest trick, par for the course for the Telegraph and our socialist government who control the editorial.

    9. I believe I too am banned I can’t undersand why! I have noticed that my comments under DT articles go up and stay up for a few minutes but are quickly taken down so when I look for them again they are not there.

      The Daily Telegraph is becoming more and more determined to stamp out views that do not conform with the editorial line.

    11. Go on! Make the Data Protection application! waste their time a lot, and rile the buggers up.

  38. Prince Harry needs a history lesson from Edward VIII
    Like his great-great uncle, the Duke of Sussex left his role in The Firm for a new life – and there are striking similarities
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/12/16/prince-harry-needs-history-lesson-edward-viii/

    Mrs Simpson regretted her third marriage and soon her desire for wealth and social prestige gave way to complete contempt for her weak and boring husband. She became as much a prisoner as Edward, The Duke of Windsor, and, like many women and men with dreary, dull spouses, she looked elsewhere for sexual gratification and fulfilment.

    BTL

    It is a recipe for disaster for a weak and stupid man to marry a manipulative, scheming and malevolent woman.

    But spare a thought for Migraine – the disaster will not be Harry’s alone. She will soon find that a doormat is not a very interesting or stimulating life companion and she will yearn for something better.

    They may not actually divorce but will he be kept like a hamster and she will resent having to order pet food for him and having to have his cage cleaned..

      1. Of course slang – and particularly slang in public schools – varies from place to place and from one age to the next. When I was at school flogging was the word for wanking and tool was the word for willy or prick.

      2. There is a story that they were crossing the Atlantic in a Cunard liner and Miss Marlene Dietrich was in the next cabin. She was awoken early one morning by cries of “Fuck me, Fuck me you bastard.”

    1. He has been making the occasional post, mainly correcting/adding information on articles taken from elsewhere which do not give a full picture.

    2. The Times (once a great newspaper of record) has FOUR pages devoted to this disgusting couple.

    3. Gaslighting is a relatively recent term but one which is being used frequently in the MSM nowadays.

      I remember this song about the street lamp lighter who turned the gas on and off. It is entitled ironically England 1914. The metaphor is that the lamplighter is not coming back again but that Peace will after the war to end all wars!.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff4DdZfxxfA

        1. Morning Bill. It’s from the movie Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer where he tries to drive her mad by manipulating the truth around her.

          2. No although it is a copy of an earlier English film of the same name. Fanny by Gaslight is a completely different plot.

          3. Much obliged. I had assumed that the “F” word would be banned these days, and the film re-titled.

          6. Did she? I saw the book on my grandmothers bookshelf, along with Lady Chatterlys Lover! Very progressive or something, she was!

          7. Lady Chatterley is the most tedious and boring book ever written. It purports to be about a sexual relationship but it’s dire.
            There is much more sexual tension in The Virgin and the Gypsy.
            I will never understand why everyone, in those days, got their knickers in a twist about Lady Chatterley.
            “Is this a book you would allow your wife or servants to read?” Famously asked at the Penguin trial.

          8. I think it was largely the bad language in the novel.
            Apparently there is one passage obliquely describing an act of buggery that, had the prosecution picked up on it, would have seen the ban confirmed.

          10. Didn’t something begin between the time of the Chatterley ban and the Beatles’ first LP?

          12. “D.H. Lawrence is much overrated. He writes pretentious drivel which appeals to frustrated spinsters” Discuss with reference to Gudrun and Ursula in Women in Love and Miriam and Mrs Dawes in Sons and Lovers.

            This would have been an easy essay question for my “A” level Sixth Form class.

          14. and Fanny Craddock whose husband famously said (about crumpets) “I hope they all turn out like Fanny’s”

          16. Of course Sue – doughnuts. The mention of Fanny led me to crumpet, Check was ok thanks, awaiting blood test results

          20. As opposed to her modern equivalent: Fanny Who Gaslights.

            FWG has taken Ginge’s worst traits and enhanced them to a degree where, if he were a patient on the locked ward, you would make sure he was never behind you.
            Maggie was quite right about his eyes; he has been driven insane.

          22. Q: have you seen Fanny by Gaslight?
            A: No, but I’ve seen it by candle light, flashlight and daylight and once by a passing cars headlight

          23. Patrick Hamilton wrote the original play “Gaslight” which opened in London on 31st January 1939. It was filmed in 1940 by Thorold Dickinson. MGM later filmed the 1944 Bergman/Boyer version and attempted to suppress the Dickinson version, but he (Dickinson) struck an extra print of the film which can now be seen. The use of the term “gaslighting” gained popularity much later in recent decades.

        2. Gaslighting is a

          form of psychological abuse in which a person or group causes someone

          to question their own sanity, memories, or perception of reality. People who experience gaslighting may feel confused, anxious, or as though they cannot trust themselves.

          https://www.medicalnewstoday.com › articles › gaslighting

          My elder sister is a master at it,

          6. Shouldn’t your sister be a mistress at it – or has she gone trans?

            Now there’s a way to get back and gaslight her/it/they, whatever.

        2. In 1967/68 I lived in a flat in Broad Court WC2 – a few yards from what was then Bow Street Police Station. There were gaslights and each night a chap would come along with a hooked pole and light them. Occasionally, another chap with a ladder would do some maintenance on the lamp – and look exactly like this photo.

  42. Good Moaning – just about.
    There are large white furry animals splashing in our pond.
    They muttered something about ‘climate change’ in the Arctic. Apparently their woolly coats are too hot for Nova Zemlya.

  43. In for a quick warm up with a mug of tea after chopping some of the larger logs I sawed up t’other day.
    Then the electric saw secured into the sawhorse and plugged and 1st batch sawn & stacked. About another hour or so of sawing & stacking to finish off the logs around the sawhorse still waiting to be sawn, though some of the bits of elm will need chopping.
    Lovely bright & sunny day, but the sun is currently behind the water tower of the mill opposite so it’s not warmed up very much where I’m working.

    1. I went to Confiserie Verdonk and am now scoffing chocolates from their £30 selection box. In the warm.

    1. On yesterday’s page she posted that he was awake and breathing without the tube. Great news and I hope all is still well.

  45. The final word on Brash and Trash from Hilary Rose in The Times today:

    “It is with hearts full of joy that we reach the last three episodes of the H&M show. The couple recently told us that they were advocates for healing, so this week they prised open the festering wound that is their relationship with the royals, rubbed it liberally with salt and ran cackling back to Montecito to count the cash. Let’s take it from the top, for the 4,000th and hopefully last time.

    We learn that Meghan’s private secretary told her it would be hard for the family to adjust to her general fabulousness and legendary charm, and I paraphrase slightly, and perhaps it will turn out to be true, or the private secretary’s truth, or both, or neither. The sun rises over Windsor, because Meghan is there and she is marrying Harry and the first of many town criers makes an appearance because nothing sums up 21st-century England like a town crier. Harry says that he had to have a big public wedding like his brother, when all his bride really wanted was to run away to Gretna Green and say “I do” over an anvil. Meghan credits him with choosing the music for her to walk up the aisle, but try as I might I don’t remember the Beastie Boys featuring that day. Silly me: it was Handel’s Eternal Source of Light Divine, an old favourite of Harry’s from his swastika days.

    Someone called Lucy says the Palace was threatened by Meghan’s popularity, and that’ll tell ’em, Luce, and the subtitles say that melancholic music is playing. Silver Tree makes a welcome return to look serious and confirm that love won. Someone says that the royal family needed a boost of energy, and indeed the late Queen was a notorious sloth, and some bloke from Archewell tells us that it needed “a modernisation that would speak to a new generation of people” and Paddington Bear doffed his cap and said “if only . . .”

    H&M complain that they had to live in an idyllic little cottage with roses around the door, and later we cut to Grenfell Tower in flames, an unspeakable tragedy shoehorned in so that we can admire how caring they are as they meet survivors. We learn that Meghan is bringing “honesty and humanity to those spaces”, which is interesting, and then there’s more Diana, and H&M, and cheering crowds and booing Twitter trolls and Meghan weeping prettily and without shedding a tear or ruining her make-up about the injustice of it all. Do you have any idea how low the ceilings were at that cottage? Or how disbelieving poor Oprah was when she came to tea, and witnessed their squalid living conditions? Tense music plays, a headline from the National Enquirer clinches an argument they had with someone, and over to the bloke from Archewell, who’s talking about power dynamics in a constitutional monarchy.

    Meghan confirms that there is no connection between Harry having lots of friends before he met her and none after, apart from someone called Nicky, who declines to give his surname and probably wasn’t invited to the wedding on account of it not being Clooney. I lost consciousness when Harry started talking about avocados, which Meghan confirmed are a fruit, and when I came round it had something to do with Kate wearing a one-shouldered ball gown. Harry accuses his brother of dark behaviour, and Meghan complains that she wasn’t even allowed to text a photo to her friends, which is up there with her telling Oprah she had her passport taken away on arrival and only managed to take something like 400 foreign holidays in ten minutes. Does that sound true? It does? That’s good enough for them.

    An actress from Suits says something and Meghan, never one to nurse a grudge, digs deep to feel bitter once again about the coverage of her $500,000 baby shower in New York, to which she flew on a private jet and oh look, another town crier. Poignant music plays and the précis of episode five reads: “After private correspondences [sic] with their families are leaked, the couple makes a crucial decision — and ensuing online campaigns turn chilling.” They claim to love the peace and quiet they found in Canada after Megxit, which certainly chimes with everything they’ve said and done since, and Harry asks Meghan if she’s filming him as he jumps into the sea and duh, Harry, yes, she’s filming, otherwise what’s the point? And on and on through trolls, and privacy lawyers, and Grio, which might be a publication, or a Twitter handle, or a town crier, saying royal pundits amplify hate, and if Grio says it then it must be true.

    A headline from the Mercury News is shown as proof of something, Janet Street-Porter says something on Loose Women and a columnist on The Yorkshire Post writes something they don’t like. H&M complain furiously that nobody wanted Meghan at the Sandringham Summit, and for once, I share her pain and fury. How was she supposed to record a private meeting for public consumption and personal gain if they wouldn’t even let her through the door? A lawyer adds: “Not that she would have done that and to suggest otherwise is untrue and grossly defamatory.” Either way, the last few years have been so stressful that only an appointment with a guided meditation instructor could help. “Your work is not to prove your goodness,” she tells them, and having watched six hours of their work, I can confirm that it has not. Meghan talks about the sacrifices she made for this country and wistful music plays. Sentence of the series goes to Harry, who credits “another amazing friend who we’ve never met”, and in London, the Sussex Survivors’ Club wonder if never meeting H&M was perhaps the best, indeed only, way to be their friend.

    I’m tempted to call these moaning morons from Montecito the Moomins for short, but that would be defamatory to Moomins, who would be far too sensible to moan about the difficulties of finding a mansion to call your own just as Covid hit. They did, thank goodness — H&M, not the Moomins — and had a blissful lockdown dancing among wildflowers, while over in London Harry’s 95-year-old grandmother raised national morale with the speech of a lifetime. We will close with a quiz. Who said the following? The prize isn’t me telling you the answer, it is you watching the documentary and knowing that you have been enriched by the wisdom of Moomins.

    “We are going to rebuild and rebuild and rebuild until it is rebuilt.”

    “Keep your big girl panties on.”

    “When we find each other and connect, we’re, like, it’s you, it’s you.”

    “When you’ve lost a huge piece of yourself, getting that back includes getting back those friendships and things that anchor you to who you are.”

    “Raise a glass to the astounding assurance that now life begins and the everlasting knowing that above all, love wins.”

    “These claims are entirely false.”

    “All small beasts should have bows in their tails/ Or they’ll find themselves locked in Hemulen jails/ If you make a mistake, get ready to pay/ You can’t blame another and then run away.””

        2. If Terence becomes Terry, does Harry spring from Harrence?
          I’ll get me coat (and hat, scarf, gloves, fur-lined boots…)

      2. They lost the dance off to Willi Wanka & Katrionic Commonlass.
        They went out to the theme from Last Tango in Halifax.

  46. The final word on Brash and Trash from Hilary Rose in The Times today:

    “It is with hearts full of joy that we reach the last three episodes of the H&M show. The couple recently told us that they were advocates for healing, so this week they prised open the festering wound that is their relationship with the royals, rubbed it liberally with salt and ran cackling back to Montecito to count the cash. Let’s take it from the top, for the 4,000th and hopefully last time.

    We learn that Meghan’s private secretary told her it would be hard for the family to adjust to her general fabulousness and legendary charm, and I paraphrase slightly, and perhaps it will turn out to be true, or the private secretary’s truth, or both, or neither. The sun rises over Windsor, because Meghan is there and she is marrying Harry and the first of many town criers makes an appearance because nothing sums up 21st-century England like a town crier. Harry says that he had to have a big public wedding like his brother, when all his bride really wanted was to run away to Gretna Green and say “I do” over an anvil. Meghan credits him with choosing the music for her to walk up the aisle, but try as I might I don’t remember the Beastie Boys featuring that day. Silly me: it was Handel’s Eternal Source of Light Divine, an old favourite of Harry’s from his swastika days.

    Someone called Lucy says the Palace was threatened by Meghan’s popularity, and that’ll tell ’em, Luce, and the subtitles say that melancholic music is playing. Silver Tree makes a welcome return to look serious and confirm that love won. Someone says that the royal family needed a boost of energy, and indeed the late Queen was a notorious sloth, and some bloke from Archewell tells us that it needed “a modernisation that would speak to a new generation of people” and Paddington Bear doffed his cap and said “if only . . .”

    H&M complain that they had to live in an idyllic little cottage with roses around the door, and later we cut to Grenfell Tower in flames, an unspeakable tragedy shoehorned in so that we can admire how caring they are as they meet survivors. We learn that Meghan is bringing “honesty and humanity to those spaces”, which is interesting, and then there’s more Diana, and H&M, and cheering crowds and booing Twitter trolls and Meghan weeping prettily and without shedding a tear or ruining her make-up about the injustice of it all. Do you have any idea how low the ceilings were at that cottage? Or how disbelieving poor Oprah was when she came to tea, and witnessed their squalid living conditions? Tense music plays, a headline from the National Enquirer clinches an argument they had with someone, and over to the bloke from Archewell, who’s talking about power dynamics in a constitutional monarchy.

    Meghan confirms that there is no connection between Harry having lots of friends before he met her and none after, apart from someone called Nicky, who declines to give his surname and probably wasn’t invited to the wedding on account of it not being Clooney. I lost consciousness when Harry started talking about avocados, which Meghan confirmed are a fruit, and when I came round it had something to do with Kate wearing a one-shouldered ball gown. Harry accuses his brother of dark behaviour, and Meghan complains that she wasn’t even allowed to text a photo to her friends, which is up there with her telling Oprah she had her passport taken away on arrival and only managed to take something like 400 foreign holidays in ten minutes. Does that sound true? It does? That’s good enough for them.

    An actress from Suits says something and Meghan, never one to nurse a grudge, digs deep to feel bitter once again about the coverage of her $500,000 baby shower in New York, to which she flew on a private jet and oh look, another town crier. Poignant music plays and the précis of episode five reads: “After private correspondences [sic] with their families are leaked, the couple makes a crucial decision — and ensuing online campaigns turn chilling.” They claim to love the peace and quiet they found in Canada after Megxit, which certainly chimes with everything they’ve said and done since, and Harry asks Meghan if she’s filming him as he jumps into the sea and duh, Harry, yes, she’s filming, otherwise what’s the point? And on and on through trolls, and privacy lawyers, and Grio, which might be a publication, or a Twitter handle, or a town crier, saying royal pundits amplify hate, and if Grio says it then it must be true.

    A headline from the Mercury News is shown as proof of something, Janet Street-Porter says something on Loose Women and a columnist on The Yorkshire Post writes something they don’t like. H&M complain furiously that nobody wanted Meghan at the Sandringham Summit, and for once, I share her pain and fury. How was she supposed to record a private meeting for public consumption and personal gain if they wouldn’t even let her through the door? A lawyer adds: “Not that she would have done that and to suggest otherwise is untrue and grossly defamatory.” Either way, the last few years have been so stressful that only an appointment with a guided meditation instructor could help. “Your work is not to prove your goodness,” she tells them, and having watched six hours of their work, I can confirm that it has not. Meghan talks about the sacrifices she made for this country and wistful music plays. Sentence of the series goes to Harry, who credits “another amazing friend who we’ve never met”, and in London, the Sussex Survivors’ Club wonder if never meeting H&M was perhaps the best, indeed only, way to be their friend.

    I’m tempted to call these moaning morons from Montecito the Moomins for short, but that would be defamatory to Moomins, who would be far too sensible to moan about the difficulties of finding a mansion to call your own just as Covid hit. They did, thank goodness — H&M, not the Moomins — and had a blissful lockdown dancing among wildflowers, while over in London Harry’s 95-year-old grandmother raised national morale with the speech of a lifetime. We will close with a quiz. Who said the following? The prize isn’t me telling you the answer, it is you watching the documentary and knowing that you have been enriched by the wisdom of Moomins.

    “We are going to rebuild and rebuild and rebuild until it is rebuilt.”

    “Keep your big girl panties on.”

    “When we find each other and connect, we’re, like, it’s you, it’s you.”

    “When you’ve lost a huge piece of yourself, getting that back includes getting back those friendships and things that anchor you to who you are.”

    “Raise a glass to the astounding assurance that now life begins and the everlasting knowing that above all, love wins.”

    “These claims are entirely false.”

    “All small beasts should have bows in their tails/ Or they’ll find themselves locked in Hemulen jails/ If you make a mistake, get ready to pay/ You can’t blame another and then run away.””

  47. Huge mountain of Evri parcels found dumped in woodland. 15 Dec 2022.

    A man has been arrested on suspicion of theft after a mountain of suspected stolen parcels were found dumped in a woodland.

    The pile of sacks, letters and boxes were found by a passerby in the Luton area of Chatham, Kent, on December 4.

    Dozens of deliveries were swiped from a delivery depot operated by courier company Evri, formerly known as Hermes, in Aylesford.

    Confirmation of those Nottlers who informed us of this useless carrier!

    https://metro.co.uk/2022/12/15/mountain-of-parcels-stolen-from-evri-depot-and-fly-tipped-in-wood-17941625/

    2. Not remotely surprised. The loser though, will be the customer. As with no discussion of the theft (Evri won’t release which parcels were stolen), and simply no delivery the only loser will be the sender and receiver.

  48. Labour would not win a Commons majority with the by-election swing seen in Stretford and Urmston, a leading political scientist has said.
    Andrew Western secured 69.65 per cent of the votes, up 9.34 per cent on the snap general election three years ago, and with a 10.5 per cent swing from Conservatives to Labour. (Lab Western 12,828 votes – Conservative Emily Carter-Kandola 2,922 votes. Oooh, bit close that!)
    In a speech to Stand Up to Racism Manchester, Western claimed to have “chased Tommy Robinson out of Trafford”, and expressed his concern about Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, describing the latter as “far right”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2022/12/16/TELEMMGLPICT000319828104_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqflqy7C_9_-Jt9M13Z1ZP8PNfo_WrLf4H8_qtQuBW9ow.jpeg?imwidth=680

    Another starving lad from northern slums succeeds in keeping the Tory wolves from the door and paves the way for ‘Prime Minister’ Angela Rayne’s bid for No 10.

    1. As I mentioned the other day, the Reform party did terribly badly for one hoping to have lots of MPs.

      1. Sadly yes. Despite the statements on comment fora I do not believe they will challenge the Lib Dems, let alone the communists (Labour) or socialists (Tories).

        1. To which the only conclusion is that we are doomed as Private Fraser said we would be.

        2. Until they can overcome Farage’s massive ego and they all AMALGAMATE with Reclaim and possibly UKIP

    2. Mr Creosote didn’t chase anyone out of anywhere. Wether you like T. Robinson or not he is not a coward and would have faced the big mouthed fatty down.

      1. Good afternoon Phizzee.

        Did you see my suggestion on this forum yesterday that the BBC should appoint Tommy Robinson as the new tennis correspondent to cover Wimbledon? They should do this as a counterbalance to Gary Lineker and restore the BBC’s reputation for political impartiality.

          6. She’s been a generalist sports reporter for quite a few years, has Tommy Robinson?
            By all means appoint TR as a current affairs counterbalance where at least he could make a genuine contribution.

          7. I wrote a glowing reference for a friend of mine who used to be my house tutor when I was a housemaster at Allhallows. This helped him secure a job as the Head of Modern Languages in a well-known girls’ school where he taught French to both Clare Balding and Miranda Hart.

            He returned the favour by recommending our French courses and indeed over 100 girls from this school have been on courses with us in the past 33 years.

          8. I am a great believer in recommending people that I know are good, not out of loyalty, but because they are competent.

            I would never actively discourage someone but I might suggest alternatives as well.

          9. She didn’t appear, despite her background, to know a lot about [horse] racing when she was on Bbc Racing.

          12. My feeble attempt at humour rather relied on the fact that most people must surely know that Tommy Robinson probably knows absolutely nothing whatsoever about tennis.

    3. Another starving gay lad from northern slums succeeds in keeping the Tory wolves from the door and paves the way for ‘Prime Minister’ Angela Rayne’s bid for No 10.

    4. Another starving gay lad from northern slums succeeds in keeping the Tory wolves from the door and paves the way for ‘Prime Minister’ Angela Rayne’s bid for No 10.

    7. Odd how everyone is ‘Far Right’ when you want to demonise rather than understand them. So much easier to label. Like every other Left wing fascist throughout history.

      Although note: all those behind him are so hideously white.

      1. “He’s a fascist!”

        “For decades, this has been a favourite smear of the Left, aimed directly at those on the Right, or (erroneously and witlessly) at others on the Left who have an opposing point of view. Every American Republican president—for that matter, virtually every Republican—since the 1970s has been called a fascist; nowadays, this happens more than ever.

        This label is based on the notion — the false assumption — that fascism is a phenomenon of the political Right. The Left says it is, and —unfortunately — some self-styled ‘white supremacists’ and neo-Nazis witlessly embrace the label.

        But are they correct?

        To answer this question, we have to ask what fascism really means: What is its underlying ideology? Where does it even come from?

        These are not easy questions to answer. We know the name of the philosopher of Capitalism: Adam Smith. We know the name of the philosopher of Marxism: Karl Marx. But who’s the philosopher of Fascism?

        Yes—exactly. You don’t know? Don’t feel bad. Almost no one knows. This is not because he doesn’t exist, but because historians, most of whom are on the political Left, had to erase him from history in order to avoid confronting fascism’s actual beliefs. So, let me introduce him to you. His name is Giovanni Gentile.

        Born in 1875, he was one of the world’s most influential philosophers in the first half of the twentieth century. Gentile believed that there were two “diametrically opposed” types of democracy. One is liberal democracy, such as that of the United States, which Gentile dismisses as individualistic — too centred on liberty and personal rights — and therefore selfish. The other, the one Gentile recommends, is what he considered to be “true democracy” in which individuals willingly subordinate themselves to the state.

        Like his philosophical mentor, Karl Marx, Gentile wanted to create a community that resembles the family, a community where we are “all in this together.” It’s easy to see the attraction of this idea. Indeed, it remains a common rhetorical theme of the Left.

        For example, at the 1984 convention of the Democratic Party, the governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, likened America to an extended family where, through the government, people all take care of each other.

        Nothing’s changed. Twenty-eight years later, a slogan of the 2012 Democratic Party convention was, “The government is the only thing we all belong to.” They might as well have been quoting Gentile.

        Now, remember, Gentile was a man of the Left. He was a committed socialist. For Gentile, fascism is a form of socialism; indeed, its most workable form. While the socialism of Marx mobilises people on the basis of class; fascism mobilises people by appealing to their national identity as well as their class. Fascists are socialists with a national identity. German Fascists in the 1930s were called Nazis—basically a contraction of the term “national socialist.”

        For Gentile, all private action should be oriented to serve society; there is no distinction between the private interest and the public interest. Correctly understood, the two are identical. And who is the administrative arm of the society? It’s none other than the State. Consequently, to submit to society is to submit to the state; not just in economic matters, but in all matters. Since everything is political, the state gets to tell everyone how to think and what to do.

        It was another Italian, Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943 who turned Gentile’s words into action. In his La Dottrina Del Fascismo, one of the doctrinal statements of early fascism, Mussolini wrote: “All is in the State and nothing human exists or has value outside the State.” He was merely paraphrasing Gentile.

        The Italian philosopher is now lost in obscurity; but his philosophy could not be more relevant because it closely parallels that of the modern Left. Gentile’s work speaks directly to progressives who champion the centralised State. Here in America, the Left has vastly expanded state control over the private sector, from healthcare to banking to education to energy. This state-directed capitalism is precisely what German and Italian fascists implemented in the 1930s.

        Leftists can’t acknowledge their man, Gentile, because that would undermine their attempt to bind conservatism to fascism. Conservatism wants small government so that individual liberty can flourish. The Left, like Gentile, wants the opposite: to place the resources of the individual and industry in the service of a centralised State. To acknowledge Gentile is to acknowledge that fascism bears a deep kinship to the ideology of today’s Left. So they will keep Gentile where they’ve got him: dead, buried and forgotten. But we should remember, or the ghost of fascism will continue to haunt us.”

        1. “The other, the one Gentile recommends, is what he considered to be “true democracy” in which individuals willingly subordinate themselves to the state.”

          Hence the Nationalsozialist party in Germany from 1933 onward.

  50. That’s my planned outside jobs done for the day, a load of wood sawn, chopped & stacked.
    The sun never got round to where I was working, by the time it cleared the water tower and mill building, it had already dipped below the horizon.
    Both fires now lit and I’ve an hour & a half to fill in before putting a meal of for S@H son to have when he gets home from work.
    I plan doing sausage rolls (shop bought from the flog it off cheap section) & oven chips perhaps with baked beans or tinned tomatoes.

        1. Il ne faut pas souffler une framboise dans la société polie.

          I always enjoy using idioms or clichés which don’t really translate into French. Mind you the plumber who came to clean our central heating system this morning enjoyed hearing about les singes en laiton once I had explained it to him.

          1. ‘Un petit morceau de tout droit’ was one of my father’s famous ones which we still use and laugh a lot!

          2. Voudriez-vous un petit morceau de comment va ton père was not a very successful chat up line if one was trying to fascinate rather than mystify and obfuscate!

          7. To add to your collection:

            Man sollte in feiner Gesellschaft keine Himbeere blasen. Deutsch…

            …and Swedish, Man ska inte blåsa hallon i det artiga samhället.

    4. I cannot believe that this slow-witted idiot is actually two years younger than I am.

      But as Regan said of her father, King Lear:

      ‘Tis the infirmity of his age: yet he hath ever
      but slenderly known himself.

      I thought of this line when the drooling old idiot took that Ngozi Fullananus person’s side rather than the side of Lady Hussey who was his mother’s oldest friend and most loyal supporter and who was also his heir’s godmother.

      1. Four years younger than I – and I’m quite wobbly but don’t need Winkin’ Blinkin’ and Nod to assist me, yet.

    2. He paid your good money then had to chase them?

      I know that government procurement is not very efficient but that really is a poor return.

  53. Though the sun has shone all day, the temp hasn’t risen above zero = so everything is now like a skating rink.

    Sunday afternoon the change starts. So the Wet Office says. Flooding, I expect….

    1. Thaw started here at about 15:00 when I hobbled into town to pick up my prescriptions.

      Snow felt slushy underfoot.

      1. Take GREAT care, Tom. Sub-zero temps expected in Moffat until after lunch on Sunday. The “slush” will freeze hard and be lethal.

      2. I hate wet at this time of year. It makes for icy, and that makes for arses hitting the ground with extreme force.
        Fortunately, I have winter boots with adjustable spikes, for when it’s icy under foot.

        1. I slipped on some ice, way back in 1979, and hit my arse on the pavement so hard I suffered a spondylolisthesis*.

          [*My spine, at the juncture of L5/S1, is out-of-place by ¼”. This caused me years of agonising and debilitating sciatica.]

          3. OW!
            :-((
            SWMBO broke her coccyx 3 years ago, slipping on the steps outside the house. We got a heater fitted, as well as bags of salt.

          4. Damaged mine 20y ago sledging down a bank with t’Lad when he was a lot smaller.
            Sledge threw us off when it went over a molehill t’Lad went rolling down hill and my coccyx impacted onto another frozen molehill.
            I was in agony for months afterwards, but the day after the impact I had to drive to Sheffield to do a Physics Exam for my teacher training degree. That was NOT nice but at least the invigilators were sympathetic.

        2. I was given a pair of boots like that a few years ago.
          Sadly, they were extremely uncomfortable, so I had to give them away.

          1. Bugger 🙁
            Mine are lovely & warm, so much so that you need extra shoes at work. High ankle stops the inside filling with snow, too 😀
            Have yet to slam the derriere into the ice when wearing them.

  55. Lady Susan Hussey meets Ngozi Fulani to apologise as palace pledges to increase diversity training
    The two women enjoyed a ‘wonderfully warm’ meeting at Buckingham Palace that ‘shows a path to resolution can be found with kindness’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/12/16/lady-susan-hussey-apologises-ngozi-fulani-palace-announces-enhanced/

    If Lady Hussey did this on the instructions of King Charles and his heir then the sooner we have a republic the better.

    2. Absolutely no need for Lady Hussey to apologise it’s the black horror who should apologise, but that’s English Ladies for you.

      Put the other at ease and then stick in the knife!

      1. This has reopened the question of King Charles’s complete lack of judgement and weakness.

        This Fullanus woman sprung a trap (in which poor old Lady Hussey was snared) to help support Migraine’s and Hamster Harry’s assertion that the royal family is “racist”

        To be weak is miserable as John Milton’s Satan asserted. But King Charles’s weakness backed up by his obscene lack of judgement raise very serious questions about whether he is fit to be King and if, indeed, the monarchy should endure.

        1. Fir for nothing but I hope Putin’s nuclear strike takes out this bit of ‘nastiness’ and the heir apparent and Westminster for sure, preferably with both houses sitting.

          ’twill be sad for many courtiers but if you must hang onto loser’s coat-tails, be sure to distant yourself before the lethal strike.

          George, with a suitable Regent, might just restore the Monarchy.

    4. I suspect Lady Hussey will have been the instigator. She seems the kind of old-fashioned person who would be horrified to have given offence, and well brought up to make amends – never mind how artificial the “affront” to the other party.

  56. Lady Susan Hussey meets Ngozi Fulani to apologise as palace pledges to increase diversity training
    The two women enjoyed a ‘wonderfully warm’ meeting at Buckingham Palace that ‘shows a path to resolution can be found with kindness’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/12/16/lady-susan-hussey-apologises-ngozi-fulani-palace-announces-enhanced/

    If Lady Hussey did this on the instructions of King Charles and his heir then the sooner we have a republic the better.

    3. Bad practice to winch a vehicle onto the truck using the cars towing point. They can fail and there is no secondary attachment. Should be using ‘brother straps’ one on each lower wishbone – if one breaks the other will hold it. AND you shouldn’t have anyone inside the car when winching, open the window and steer whilst using the remote for the winch.

      1. Considering what he’s suffered health-wise I’m surprised he looks as good as he does. Agree about the voice and his song writing is good as well.

  59. Signing off early. In half an hour we have to set out on foot along the skating rink (formerly Croxton Road) to the church where – apparently – a song recital will take place.

    Fortunately, the MR has discovered a long forgotten pair of moonboots that I bought over 30 years ago – and never wore! They still appear to be usable.

    So I wish you all a cheerful evening. Don’t attempt to drive anywhere.

    A demain – if we are spared.

    2. As a gentleman one should always try to ensure that if you should both fall that it is you that acts as the cushion.

      It might hurt, but if you can’t get up again the extra covering will keep you warm.

    3. Careful, Bill. the rubber soles will have hardened and stiffened, and may well be slippery on ice!

  60. Well, went out to do a bit of wood splitting for half an hour before putting the tea on for the S@H.
    I’ve some large ash logs out the front done and got two of them split, but had to use the sledge and wedge to get them started.

    Just had my tea and been listening to this:-
    https://youtu.be/7oj63klgeEg

    1. These Dutch Bach performances are so good! I listened to “The art of Fugue ” last night in an arrangement for voices and instruments and it was wonderful. Always my favourite composer. Never a bad piece.

  61. off topic

    I am reading a book about spies and double agents in WW2, “Double Cross” by Ben Macintyre.
    There is a piece about possibly the worst anti-British double agent of them all, Antony Blunt.
    Apparently his code name was Tony, the only instance of a spy being coded by his real name.

    It made me wonder if “Call me Tony” Blair might have been making a subtle joke, given the wanton destruction he has achieved against Great Britain.

    1. I’m back from a foray to the shops – first time I’ve taken the car out since the snow came. The roads were ok, but a bit dicey coming back via the Common, so I left the car and half the shopping up there and walked down our hill.

      I spoke to the intensive care nurse this morning and she said he’s doing well – conscious and breathing without tubes. She said he would be more comfortable after the drains were removed, and we should be able to have a chat this evening.

      3. Good news , how frustrating to be so far from the hospital .

        Sounds as if they are taking care of him properly, and communicating well with you.

        Hope you are taking care of yourself re eating etc

        1. I am thanks – went down the hill this afternoon to do some shopping. Left the car up on the Common and walked down. so I’ve got some food for this evening.

          Gemma the nurse just phoned and said he’s doing very well – we just said ‘hello’ as he’s a bit tired, but sitting in a chair and has been up and walking round. He might feel more up to talking tomorrow .

          1. Op like that will have really taken the energy out of him. It’ll take a while to get it back. Also, the being still in bed is de-energizing.

          2. Good news, so pleased for you and him, it sounds like his recovery is going in the right direction. Look after yourself too, it is hard being the supporting partner.

      5. Great news, I guess the worst is over and he’ll continue to make good progress. You take care of yourself too

      9. Ah, that’s what I wanted to hear. Popped in to find out. I hope he recovers smoothly and that you can go and see him very soon.

          1. Take an early night, N, and gather your energies. Looks like the worst is over – I very much hope.

  63. Today has been so cold .. the garden has been white and slippery since Sunday, managed to fill my bird feeders by walking along with a garden fork ..

    Had to go to Halfords in Dorchester for a new battery to be fitted , my car had to be jump started before driving it , and Moh needed a new tyre for his car .

    More medication for the older dog , 2 weeks worth .. £106 .. … Money tree is nearly barren .

    2. We are paying something similar for Poppie. A bit worrying, she is off her food today…. our money tree is looking very forlorn, the dentist has been giving it a good shake as well.

      The winter virus I have had as left me very lethargic and with a terrible cough, an hour or so ago I was coughing so much I couldn’t get my breath, I thought I was going to expire.

      3. Re Poppie’s medicine, see my advice to True Belle. It might help the money tree survive, if not flourish.

        1. Thanks, Conway – poppiesdad is googling even whilst I write, I think he mentioned something like Animed….

          1. I use Viovet or Animed.
            I scan and email over the prescription. The tablets cost about half what a vet charges, because these companies have economies of scale.

      4. Oh dear, hope you are both feeling better now. Covonia works well for any cough I might have.

        1. I’ve seen it in the supermarket, I’ll get some. I’ve never been troubled by coughs but this bug has really got to me. I’m pleased to say that Poppie perked up this evening, I think the cold has been getting to her although she is of course wrapped up – she still needs and wants to go out for a walk – however she took an interest in dinner preparations this evening and ate her meal. She then spent half an hour ‘killing’ her stuffed toys and chomping on her chews.

    3. I suggest you get a prescription from your vet (for which, obviously, you will have to pay), then buy the medicine on line. One of my friends has a dog with Cushings and she does this. She saves a fortune.

      1. Evening Conway,

        I do get a prescription and buy on line . Jack has been prescribed Corvental .. a drug for heart and lung. He has been on that drug for months now .. there is a national shortage , and we were fretting over the postal strike etc , so I had to ask the vet or an emergency supply.. 2 weeks worth was all they could supply.

        Did you know the Nhs has problems accessing 150 drugs?

        2. They changed one of mine from Raboprozal to Lanzoprazol because they said they were no longer making it, but wouldn’t be surprised if it was more financially lucrative to the pharmacy.

    4. Money well spent, Maggie. Don’t forget to wrap you hubby’s new tyre carefully in festive wrapping paper before you put it under the Christmas tree. Lol.

  64. It’s still freezing cold , everywhere iced up and the little lane to the bottom of the hill difficult to drive upon . But never mind, we pass the shortest day next week and Spring will soon be on its way. I shall go and cook dinner .

    7. I’ve watched it three times in passing and it’s still magic. Forgive the pun but it was a real eye-opener for that child.

  66. Par Four today.

    Wordle 545 4/6
    🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟨⬜🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. The Tastey tart scored a three early this morning.

      A joke Mrs Tracey, a play on his monica moniker

          2. No – but if I start typing “W-o-r-“, Google helpfully offers “Here lies Wordle…”

            Since the NYT acquired Wordle, I usually start with “liars”. But sometimes “abode” or “adobe” since they have three vowels. Hope I haven’t given too much away…

          3. Give away all you want to me, I don’t play. I did it once and scored a three.

            From what I can glean, Adieu looks a good start.

      2. Caroline is certainly not a tart and even if she were it would have to be gluten free as she has coeliac disease.

      1. Yes: I phoned her at Happy Hour today, she was on her first birthday sherry – and delighted to hear of all ‘your’ good wishes!

        She continues to have a computer aversion – but will maybe give it a go over this weekend, Rastus . . .

    3. Likewise.
      Wordle 545 4/6

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

      1. Grrr
        Wordle 545 6/6

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

    5. Can’t remember the word but here’s what I got.
      Wordle 545 3/6

      ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  67. Evening, all. It has barely got above freezing today. Fortunately, the Rayburn has decided to co-operate and rise above “simmer” and I’ve lit the fire in the sitting room. The smoke has now cleared! The chimney was so cold I couldn’t initially overcome the down-draught, but eventually I did so I’m now toasing my toes and the dogs are asleep in their baskets. All’s right with the world 🙂 I’ve cooked my evening meal (I missed out on lunch because a neighbour rang me, but thanks to the mutliple layers of clothing, I couldn’t reach my mobile in time before it clicked off, so I went round to see what she needed and ended up having coffee and a natter) and am just finishing off a glass of port.

    2. We didn’t get above freezing. Haven’t for a couple of days now.

      One plus side, the wall over the road has the most beautiful build-up of dendritic ice crystals!

  71. Sometimes, when you cry, nobody sees your tears.
    Sometimes, when you’re hurt, nobody sees your pain.
    Sometimes, when you’re sad, nobody sees your sorrow.
    But fart just the once…

    1. I did. I also knew where the quote came from (but I had to go to Sunday School and church when i was a child).

          1. The first time I saw that, it was a graffito in a student’s bar lavatory, about 50 years ago.

  74. Want £115,000-a-year? Apply for the latest woke NHS role: Fury over advert for a ‘director of lived experience’ who is able to create ‘brave spaces’ for staff and patients
    Critics said the ‘non-job’ is inexcusable given the record NHS waits for treatment
    The Midlands ‘director of lived experience’ must be able to create ‘brave spaces’
    Job ad boasts the senior leadership role is a first of its kind in the health service
    By JOHN ELY SENIOR HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE

    The ad, placed by the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, boasts how it is the first job of its kind in the health service.

    The NHS has previously referred to experiencing racism or discrimination or being a ‘white ally’ and recognising white privilege as examples of a ‘lived experience’.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11545437/Want-115-000-year-Apply-latest-woke-NHS-role.html

    Read the ad!

      1. And this will be replicated by all the other Trusts, and then there will be their underlings as well…….. all these pointless non-jobs when the service is struggling to cope with treating patients.

    3. My BLT comment:

      I found it difficult to continue reading the totally ‘woke’ article, when Nurses are striking for a 19% rise that could easily be accommodated by slashing so many of these non-jobs and reducing senior managers obscene pay-outs.

      Physician, heal thyself.

      2. Yes – in your hour of need, they stepped up. I hope tthings are better for you now – are you settled in your new flat?

        1. Getting there, J, but without the company I crave, I’m still lonely and isolated but I shall just KBO.

  76. Chinese carry-out: £12
    Tip: £1
    Getting home after a drive in the snow and ice and finding they forgot part of the order: riceless.

  77. Yet another piece on TV about people who can’t afford to feed their families.

    Whilst I sympathise, I would like to ask them all what they feel about herds and hordes of gimmegrants crossing the channel and being put up at taxpayers’ expense with board, heating, food and spending money while they struggle.

    2. Minnie is thinking “Where is my Bobby (the cat) hiding?”, Ena is thinking “I wonder if my grandson Herman will get anywhere with his pop group the Hermits?”, and Martha is thinking “I wonder how much longer I’ve got before I have to find another job on TV?” Lol.

      PS – Not sure about Peter Noone being Ena Sharples’ grandson – it may have been Davy Jones of The Monkees.

    3. Gawd, there couldn’t have been much television back then, I still remember their names and everything.

  79. Right, I’ve been a bit active of late, so a few piccies so you can see what I’ve been up to:-
    59 Concrete blocks stacked ready for use next to The Wall.
    There is a 60th block, but that is positioned ready for use on the first, upper wall I did last year.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/001a9c813eadfa87f49d44b1cb72e88d242d04ebe70799df2225601c294fc72f.jpg

    A load of soil some from t’Lad’s, some from a couple of knackered planters at the Buy-to-let:-
    Adjacent to it are the main trunk logs of the largish dead elm. Some bits are ready for splitting & stacking, but most will need to be sawn before splitting.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7be6cfb542a265b52272f6a9300fa54ede7ea59fad6319c2345a0be1904d1748.jpg

    Looking down onto the and of The Wall, you can see how much backfilling is going to be needed to get it anywhere near level!
    Still a lot of work to do. If it defrosts over Christmas, when the family are all here, I might try and organise them into a works party to dig out the next section ready for the concrete footing.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/19b12fc48e537e5720eb91b2cdcefd07cdbef7571caa08ec4f3ba5fe33d9c8c5.jpg

    Looking across to the mill and up the side of the valley. Barely half past two when I took that and the sun had dropped below the lip of the valley before it even cleared the water tower & mill building. I’d earlier been working right down the bottom right corner of the picture.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2083c8150837d0f475cf7e62123f4a1ec2d6365b7e51c59985b047bf3e5e1bd9.jpg

    And this is the woodstack I’m refilling with part of the adjoining stack that is being emptied! All the restacked wood has been sawn and, where necessary chopped since Wednesday!!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b3535a58f20685b382d7033cada12216b7371a4054fed6027efb4af94027a0c3.jpg

    3. “ If it defrosts over Christmas, when the family are all here, I might try and organise them into a works party to dig out the next section ready for the concrete footing.”

      Better arrange that out before they’ve had Christmas dinner.

        1. “I don’t want to go to grandpa’s this year, mum, I’ve still got blisters from last year!”

          1. Don’t have any grandchildren yet and I doubt if I’ll see any in the near to mid-future.

          4. Christo married this year and I fear that he wants to become a father. And Henry might commit matrimony now that Jessica is about to get her Ph.D and secure a good job in academia which gives her generous maternity leave.

  80. An MP has urged the University of Hull not to sell a former student halls of residence to the government to house asylum-seekers.

    David Davis claimed converting The Lawns in Cottingham would bring “unsustainable and unacceptable pressure” on the area.

    He said he had spoken to the university’s vice-chancellor and the home secretary to voice his opposition.

    The university said no decisions had been made over the site’s future.

    Mr Davis comments come after Rishi Sunak said his government was in “active discussions” over “a range of alternative sites” for asylum-seeker housing as ministers look to cut spending on hotels.

    The proposed new locations included disused holiday parks, former student halls and surplus military sites, the prime minister told the House of Commons on Tuesday. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-63978991

    1. If the government really wanted to stop it, perhaps the best approach is to force such areas to accept them?

      The backlash might be so intense that forcing the boats back to France rather than rescuing the criminals, no matter the deaths, would be the public’s choice.

      1. Was Philip Larkin still the librarian at Hull University in your day?

        At UEA I lived first in the Students’ residences at Horsham St Faith – ex-RAF living quarters – and then on Suffolk Terrace on the UEA Earlham campus.

        At Southampton University (where I did my PGCE) I lived at the Glen Eyre students’ residences.

        1. I was at the FE College next door, so I can’t say, I’m afraid. The only contact I had with the university was singing in their choir.

    2. At last I understand why Bill Thomas refers to me as “Harry” from time to time. He must have a photo of me in my younger years when I dressed in red and sang on stage. Lol.

    4. Given some of those curves – some rolling stock will have an appointment with the wheel-lathe.

  85. The thing I like about Nottlers is that they always try to keep a balance in life.

    When they kick a man in the balls they do not discriminate between the left and the right!

      1. Was Madam Cholet your role model?

        Madame Cholet – a very kind-hearted but short-tempered female

    4. My first 45 (RPM) was “Johnny Remember Me” by John Leyton. I suspect i still have it somewhere (but I don’t have a photo of it to post).

    5. 1962? You were an early starter with Heinz Burt’s little ensemble.

      My first 45 was Do Wah Diddy Diddy by Manfred Mann in 1964.

    6. And their follow up was called Globetrooter which people nicknamed Telstar in Blue Jeans!

      https://www.google.com/search?q=globetrotter+tornadoes+youtube&ei=bA6dY8bfDIuJkdUP15eXqAM&ved=0ahUKEwjGxcrqs__7AhWLRKQEHdfLBTUQ4dUDCA8&oq=globetrotter+tornadoes+youtube&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQDDIFCAAQogQyBQgAEKIEOgoIABBHENYEELADOgcIABCABBANOggIABAFEB4QDToKCAAQCBAeEA8QDToICAAQCBAeEA06BQgAEIYDOggIIRDDBBCgAToKCCEQwwQQChCgAUoECEEYAEoECEYYAFDUCFjeJGCBO2gBcAF4AIABhwGIAYAJkgEDMi44mAEAoAEByAEIwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:652f4f54,vid:RdRhOhb4rnE

    7. And their follow up was called Globetrooter which people nicknamed Telstar in Blue Jeans!

      https://www.google.com/search?q=globetrotter+tornadoes+youtube&ei=bA6dY8bfDIuJkdUP15eXqAM&ved=0ahUKEwjGxcrqs__7AhWLRKQEHdfLBTUQ4dUDCA8&oq=globetrotter+tornadoes+youtube&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQDDIFCAAQogQyBQgAEKIEOgoIABBHENYEELADOgcIABCABBANOggIABAFEB4QDToKCAAQCBAeEA8QDToICAAQCBAeEA06BQgAEIYDOggIIRDDBBCgAToKCCEQwwQQChCgAUoECEEYAEoECEYYAFDUCFjeJGCBO2gBcAF4AIABhwGIAYAJkgEDMi44mAEAoAEByAEIwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:652f4f54,vid:RdRhOhb4rnE

    5. 2022 plus 40 = 2062.

      Subtract your age – and you will inevitably get the year of your birth 🙂

  90. I know it will give some of the superlative cooks on here, the heebie-jeebies but, since the u-wave is my only viable cooking asset at the moment, could some kind soul give me the ingredients, time and heat, to make scrambled eggs for breakfast to-morrow?

      1. I think Tom means the Greek letter (pronounced mi-oo) which is written with a vertical line on the left of the English letter “u” and pronounced “Micro” as in micro watt, micro gram and in Tom’s case microwave.

          4. El Fitt?? Some kind of A-rab?
            ;-))
            Seems straightforward.
            Firstborn was looing a while ago at a job in the military, but the pay of a UK Sergeant was less than he was earning at the time as an Inspection Planner (aged 19) – without all the responsibility and buggers shooting at you. Hmm… what to choose?

          6. Avoid the Army and the Navy. Royal Air Force is probably the cushiest billet, unless you desperately want to get out there and kill someone. You’re gonna be needed, as the Caliphate arises.

      3. It’s probably a shorthand for μ-wave, Spikey.

        μ (the Greek ‘mu’) meaning “micro” (one millionth).

        1. ‘krect, George. Don’t have that letter – it may be in ‘Charmap’ but I cannot be arsed to look.

    3. Whisk a couple of eggs, knob of butter, splash of milk & some salt & pepper in a Pyrex jug ( or similar) place in microwave for approx 30 seconds – you’ll know when it’s done. Don’t forget the toast!

    4. Two eggs, preferably cracked and the contents in a bowl, whisk with a ‘small’ amount of milk along with a teaspoon size knob of butter.
      Zap in microwave until you see the edges solidify,. Take out and whisk again, then zap until just before it looks cooked to taste.
      Whisk again and dump on buttered toast.
      Ps. grate cheese on top of cooked eggs and if you like – marmite on the toast.
      😋😋

        1. Works a treat, but must take out ‘just’ before you think it’s cooked, as it continues cooking for a short time afterwards.

    5. Just follow Andrews recipe and be careful not to overcook the eggs.

      Zap for a bit, stir them up and repeat.

    6. Yo Tom,

      Andrew has probably cracked it, but with my 700 W microwave, I find that (added to a knob of melted butter), two beaten eggs with a splash of milk and appropriate seasoning, will scramble in two or three minutes. Just take it out every 20 seconds, give it a stir, and see how you get on…

      1. Thank you Geoff, That’s the method I used years ago but now with only the micro-wave it’s all I can do.

      2. Ha, microwaves: dangerous buggers, especially when pulsed (radar people will know what I mean) but I forgot that mine is 900 W.

  91. It has been a while since I posted and visited regularly.

    I’m still around, you’ll need those blocks for longer 🙂

    My agency job at FedEx has been a roaring success. They are employing me permanently from January 16th. I get on well with all of my colleagues, my boss thinks so highly of me he told his boss I didn’t even need to be interviewed.

    Through doing actual physical work eight hours per day I’ve lost two and a half stone.

    I fixed the bus issue with a car bought for me by my father, so now my eight hour day is a nine hour day rather than a twelve to fourteen hour day thanks to public transport.

    I’ve repaired my relationship with my folks a bit. We’ve had a couple of lovely pub lunches together for a change instead of being at each other’s throats.

    Last night I went to bed at 4am to get up at 11.30 to get ready for work. At 4.30 my phone rang. It was mum, so I dropped the call, I figured she had bum dialled me. I saw the voicemail, listened to it in case it was anything important but it just sounded of breathing and snoring so yes she’s bum dialled me in her sleep lol. I went back to sleep only to be awoken by a call from my dad ten mins later so I answered it, i was bloody awake by then. It was my brother, gurgling and in tears. It seems dad went to bed, mum stayed up to watch a film and fell asleep in the chair. Dad got up to use the toilet and after finishing and pulling his boxers up he had collapsed in front of him. Their bathroom is small so he ended up kind of kneeling face forward to a wall. My poor mum found him like that after waking from her doze and being a nurse went into resuss mode but he had been gone a while. Told Amy this morning, she’s devastated, then we drove down to check on mum who is totally in shock. Dad had a replacement valve, and a triple or quad bypass done at the same time. Cardiologist reckoned his heart was now healthy. He had COPD from 30+ years smoking senior service but no bronchitis, no phlegm, more emphysema. He struggled with stairs and walking but we didn’t expect him to die. It’s been declared an unexpected death so it looks like they’ll do a post mortem and maybe we’ll find out what happened not that the details matter. I’ve lost a father, Amy has lost a grandfather and just when we had turned a corner in our relationship.

    1. Good to see you, but sorry to hear of your dad’s death. Even worse as you were getting back onto good terms with him.

      1. Thanks Bob.

        Yes it was unexpected. After his heart was fixed he was we thought essentially healthy.

        He loved going private and so saw specialists every week and they ran banks of tests on him which of course all cost money so we were fairly sure he was pretty healthy bar the COPD which nobody had considered end-stage.

    2. God, that’s awful for you all.
      Build on what you have recreated in the family.
      Good luck, you will be in everyone’s thoughts.

      1. For me not so bad, but for my mum and bro well, they couldn’t move him until the police had been who called their sarge, and he had to come to call the coroner and he had to come. All that time he was in the bathroom, the only bathroom.

        1. Sorry. This is probably inappropriate, but your bathroom comment reminds me.

          We had a funeral in church, here in leafy Surrey, a few years ago. A couple of mourners from Hayling Island turned up, about an hour early. No sooner had they entered, but the husband collapsed. He was barely through the door. A Churchwarden – a retired nurse – did her best. Meanwhile, an ambulance was called, and paramedics did their best to
          – unsuccessfully – revive him. But he was blocking the entrance door.

          As folk started to arrive, they could hardly step over this poor chap, so we redirected them to come in via the Vestry. Ultimately, the funeral director arranged for everything to be relocated to Aldershot Crematorium. Meanwhile, several ambulances and police csrs sttended.

          The poor chap was the first corpse I had encountered in sixty-odd years. Several hours passed before he was taken to a parlour of repose. A comedy of errors followed, but ’tis best left unsaid.

        1. Hanging there, life is a gamble, it seems.
          What a bummer for you and your family though- I do understand. It is 40 years this month that my parents died…I am 68 so was only 28 when it happened.
          So I really do appreciate what you are going through.

    4. So sad for you and the family, Thayaric. What an awful shock for you all and my thoughts are with you. Well done for getting your relationship back on track – I’m sure that will be a bit of a comfort to you and your Mum.

      1. Mum is likely going to be a nightmare when she realises how lonely and isolated she is. She’s been with my dad since she was fifteen. She knows no other life. She hasn’t driven in about 35 years.

        I’m only worried about Amy who was very close to her grandad.

    5. So sad Thayaric. No easy way to get over it.

      I can only suggest that you lose yourself in your new job but don’t forget to go home and give your Mum and siblings big hugs.

      Good luck, old chap.

      We’re here when needed.

        1. If it’s done you some good, it was worth the wee effort.

          I’ve been there and NoTTLers pulled me back from the brink.

          know how much it matters. Be strong, old troop.

    6. Great to see from you again, Thayers!
      Excellent news that you have full-time contract – hope the rate is one you can live with. Weight loss – we can all do with some of that! Glad to see that things are looking up… but shit, man, what terrible news. My utmost condolences. Don’t know what to say. That’s really hard.
      My condolences to Amy, too. Poor wee lass, sometimes growing up is hard.

      1. I never went away, I just don’t find much time to read threads properly and post, I could use some thirty-two hour days 🙂

        1. Deepest condolences Thayaric..

          I got caught up with the story of your successul relaunch into your new job and fresh outlook on personal health , then fell to bits when you described the untimely death of your poor father .

          Words are not enough.. life throws us all bitter blows , but than goodness your dear father knew how much he meant to you xx

    7. After the uplifting news of your career, I’m shocked to hear of your loss. Life must go on and I hope that you can cope with events especially at this time of year. Wishing you and the family All the Best.

      1. I’d hardly call it a career but it’s a full-time job at a time of recession and the pay isn’t too terrible.

        The people make the job. They are all really nice people and we have a good laugh and a joke while producing the best figures in the district regularly.

        It’s not a job I ever saw myself doing and it was a struggle at first but the weight coming off has really helped as has the car and so sleeping a bit longer.

        1. Work is far more than earning a living. I was lucky that I actually enjoyed going to work but I enjoyed the company of others and had the added fun of not knowing might happen out of the ordinary that day. If you show a little initiative and are a loyal employee, it doesn’t take much to rise above the ordinary in your chosen field. You seem to have impressed people already, so push onwards and upwards!

    10. That’s awful. Bitter sweet that you repaired the relationship, but lost him so soon afterwards. Very sorry for your loss.

    12. What a sting in the tail; it all seemed to be going so well at first. Sorry about your dad. Hope you, Amy, your brother and your mum are able to cope and come to terms with it.

    13. So sorry to hear that, just when life seemed to be getting so much better for you.

      My husband has just had a triple by-pass done in Oxford and is still in intensive care, but doing ok. He had no hint of heart trouble until a few weeks ago, when he collapsed while playing table tennis.

      1. Six years since my bypass surgery or so I am told. I just remember being very weak for the first few weeks, even sitting up in bed was a challenge. Everything is OK now though and I still go to the gym for regular cardio classes.

        1. Glad to hear you recovered well eventully – it’s a huge assault on one’s body so no wonder it takes time to recover.

          1. In the hospital they told me it takes three months to recover. My GP called that B.S., he said that it would be over a year before I could completely forget about it.

            I still have the scars where they ran me through with the chainsaw though, I doubt that they will ever go away.

          2. My brother plays skittles, a quaint British game of wooden pins, wooden balls and copious amounts of ale.
            The team seriously considered renaming themselves the Zipper Squad as nearly all of them have been under the cardiologist knife.

    14. Sorry to hear the sad news Thayaric. But on a more positive note you had at least made peace with your family beforehand so no regrets there. And great news about your new job. Well done.

    16. So sorry to hear your sad news but take comfort that your relationship had taken a turn for the better at the end. My prayers go out to you and your family.

    17. Deepest condolences Thayaric on the death of your father. My eldest sister who smoked sixty a day for fifty years died with Emphysema and was also bi-polar, having suffered with medical interventions for schizophrenia for decades, according to the Death Certificate.

      Keep focused on the new job. Eventually everything will fall into place. Have faith in God.

    18. So sorry to hear your news, hope your new job helps keeping things in perspective for you. take care.

    19. Russell, I’m so sorry. Whatever the past was, he was your Dad. Don’t know what else to say.

      2. I first sampled Harvey’s best bitter in West Sussex in 2016. It is one of my favourite pints of beer. Truly excellent.

      3. Sadly, King and Barnes was taken over by Hall & Woodhouse, who closed the brewery in Horsham and sold the site for development. K&B was always a good pint.

    2. I think my Affligem Brewers have been just as busy. I had to buy two kegs of weissbier recently as they’d run out of ‘Blonde’ but now back to normal. It’ll see me through Christmas and 1.5 Litres of Whyte and MacKay might help.

      1. Whyte and MacKay, a very underrated blend.
        Their Shackleton (check its history if you don’t recognise) is veryyyy good.

        1. Love it @ £16/Litre on Amazon ( and delivered) as opposed to Moffat Co-op @ £20.

          Up yours, Sturgeon.

        2. Never heard of Shackleton as a whisky; only as an aircraft, best described as 40,000 rivets flying in close formation.

          2. A description I’ve heard before from a good friend, unfortunately those rivets came apart on his aircraft.
            Fuel problems if I recall.

  94. I’ve just been into the kitchen. Yikes! The outside thermometer says it’s -9.5 C. Yesterday poppiesdad took his camera with him, here are some photos with leaves delicately edged in rime frost. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/75c21c03126d1e44a8048476191a60284c7780d5e11595279d1314295f024d3b.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f907a661db7ae67520cc64a84a9d8d7a8a0313f993afa62ebc5fc114209f4ab8.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/821bcc1255587de30d32f213b4a3119847a8176edb9203154b1d7970ec5e5f9e.jpg

  96. Goodnight, all. I’m going to put my feet up (out of any draughts!) and read a book before I go to bed. The fire is burning well, the room is warm and the dogs are asleep. I’ll fill a couple of hot water bottles to warm the bed up before I retire, but I shall wait until the fire burns down before I go up, so as not to waste the heat.

  97. Good night, Gentlefolk and God bless. I shall follow Connor’s advice and take my kindle to bed and carry on with The Morland Dynasty, Book 23.

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