Friday 8 December: Britain should prepare for a future pandemic – not rake over the past

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

777 thoughts on “Friday 8 December: Britain should prepare for a future pandemic – not rake over the past”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    One Size Fits All
    Two nuns were behind the convent smoking cigarettes, when one said, “It’s bad enough that we have to sneak out here to smoke, but it really is a problem getting rid of the cigarette butts so that Mother Superior doesn’t find them.”
    The second nun said, “I’ve found a marvellous invention called the condom, which works really well for this problem. You just open the packet up, take out the condom, and put the cigarette butt in, roll it up, and dispose of it later!”
    The first nun was quite impressed and asked where she could find them.
    “You get them at the drug store, sister, just go and ask the pharmacist for them.”
    The next day the good sister went to the drug store and walked up to the counter. “Good morning, Sister,” said the pharmacist. “What can I do for you today?”
    “I’d like some condoms please,” said the nun.
    The pharmacist was a little taken aback, but recovered soon enough and asked, “How many boxes would you like – there are twelve to a box.”
    “I’ll take six boxes,” said the nun. “That should last about a week!”
    The pharmacist was truly flabbergasted by this time, and was almost afraid to ask any more questions, but his professionalism prevailed. “Sister, what size condoms would you like? We have large, extra large, and big liar size.”
    The sister thought for a minute, and finally said, “I’m not certain, perhaps you could recommend a good size for a Camel?”

    1. I see ‘content unavailable’ beat me to it – I wish RichardSK would make himself visible.

      1. I’m a bit pissed off that I didn’t get any upvotes on the joke I recently posted about a spine.

        Can you remember it?

        It was about a week back….

    2. Here’s one for you Tom…

      Choruses of braindead sheeple gather in city centres and cry out “Palestine will be free.. From the river, to the sea!”

      One absolute legend walking by screams out in response “From Lands End to John O’Groats.. send the fuckers home on boats!”

  2. I went to Cash Converters today trying to raise some much needed cash for Christmas.
    They gave me three flat screen TV’s, two Smart phones and a lamp stand.
    They didn’t even want the gun…

  3. The TV licence man knocked at the door today.

    I showed him my licence from 2003.

    He said “This licence is twenty years old and out of date.

    I said, “So are your programmes”

    1. One good thing the Detective Sergeant says is that buying items which “fell off the back of the lorry” simply fuels the problem. And what about buying free accommodation for illegal migrants? Does that not further the problem?

      1. This is the thing though isn’t it……….People buying that shit from the back of a lorry normally takes place in motorway service station car parks…as the newbies arrive……….in the same place.. I expect the cctv was not up to snuff.

      1. But the Palestinians are starving! Not those Palestinians obviously…Quite like the third from the left though…nice panties…probably stole them from the 10 year old child he raped and murdered…on second thoughts..

    2. Two ladies are chatting.

      “My ass is killing me”

      “You finally let David fuck you up the ass?”

      “Yeah, I heard it’s a great way to cure constipation”

      “And has it worked?”

      “Well we’ve been doing it for 3 weeks now and no. He’s still constipated”

      Too early?

    1. IT WASN’T HIS FAULT !!! He said…should we do it? Then he said..i don’t want to…then he said okay but make sure you use vaseline if i’m going to be fucked.

        1. Bit manic i’m afraid. Bleeding hasn’t stopped so i have been playing online casino poker. They use very blue language.

          1. I assumed you’d had a rough night.
            Do I delicately ask if doctors or anyone medical is on your case?
            Can your neighbours gee things up?

          2. It is what i most love about this site. Thank you for asking but i’m dropping the Doctors and drugs. My neighbours are cool. Not that they are aware of the recent episodes. No need to worry. Everything will be fine.

            How are your levels?

          3. Assuming it is still from your nose; my bother suffered persistent nose bleeds on and off for years. The doctors couldn’t find what caused it
            He wasn’t on medication.
            He found that almost the only way to stop them was to blow his nose hard. It was messy, but did the trick. Might be worth one try?

          4. I have some really good Rorschach tissues in red and white i will post for you later. After the nose blow i could feel it going down the back of my throat. Still doing it. No need to worry..at least my Tinnitus has stopped.

          5. Let’s hope that’s phlegm from sinuses draining and ear canals unblocking, you may have hit two birds with one stone.

          6. Let’s hope not..all that phlegm was red. I kept all the tissues. I’m thinking of exhibiting them at the Tate. Some even look like smiley faces.

    2. Funnily enough, despite this ‘inquiry’ being a “Get Boris” ring of bullies, he’s coming out of it rather better than the legal fat cats and their enablers hoped.
      His first reaction was correct; he seemingly looked beyond the immediate panic, but then was overwhelmed by the shouters and hysterics around him.
      Understandable, but then we have had prime ministers who have withstood greater pressures albeit in the days before the MSM wielded such power. Their role in this appalling farrago was absolutely disgraceful.

    3. Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
      Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
      The lone and level sands stretch far away.

    1. They’ll get there in the end. Oh, to live in a land where there is a right to bears arms and where the ‘elites’ run scared because everyone knows who they are and where they live.

    1. If the Russians are so good at it all they would have to do to undermine democracy in the UK is to publish Nichola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson’s Whatsapps.

      What i find risible is these can be retrieved under a court order even from an American based company.

      1. I think the Russians stole those emails so they could gain information on how to undermine democracy

    2. Big Bad Russians story? How do we know this is true? Will the ex-MI6 go public on this, and say what’s taken? No. In any case, he should be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act if he kept classified material on his private PC.
      Too many holes for me to believe this.

      1. The Nudge Unit was set up by a bunch of xxxxs. They then employed a lot of ex xxxxs. No surprise they can’t find their wives xxxxs. Seeing as they divorced them years ago for being xxxxs. The rest became traffic wardens.

      2. Morning Oberst. There’s a rash of these pettifogging stories about Russia at the moment. Vlad snubs ambassador etc. They are just fillers to distract from Ukraine.

  14. 379277+ up ticks,

    Morning Each.

    Translated from Portuguese by
    Amid this environment of sabotage, Representative Andrew Bridgen ( @ABridgen ) led a group of modern heroes – scientists and doctors who chose to break their silence and face institutional resistance.

    The front line included notable names such as Dr. David E. Martin, Dr. Pierre Kory (
    @PierreKory
    ), Dr. Ryan Cole (
    @drcole12
    ), Dr. Robert Malone (
    @RWMaloneMD
    ), Professor Angus Dalgleish and Steve Kirsch (
    @stkirsch
    ).
    https://x.com/PaladinRood/status/1732499481109688758?s=20

    1. 379277+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Lords, parliamentarians and renowned doctors were targets of sabotage during a crucial meeting in the British Parliament.

      We are conducting an in-depth investigation to understand the reasons behind this sabotage and orchestrated censorship.

      To date, all videos and audios of the hearing held on December 4th remain unknown.

      In this thread, we will share the information we have already gathered, aiming to disseminate the suppressed revelations to the public. Therefore, we will continue to update the thread as we discover more details about this day of surprising revelations.

      If you have information about this event, please send a message via Telegram ( http://t.me/paladinrood ) so we can share it.

      The information will not be retained by the conspirators; we are determined to introduce them to the world.

      We count on your support.

  15. Britain should prepare for a future pandemic – not rake over the past

    We were already prepared for a pandemic, this wasn’t a pandemic, this was just the kickstart for the great reset

    1. 379277+ up ticks,

      Morning B3,

      To bloody true, and the tribals are preparing to give it a boost.

    2. They would love it if we stopped asking questions or pointing out how many people they killed. We haven’t even started raking over the past properly!

  16. Good morning, chums. I seem to be devoid of energy today, so I may just go back to bed in a couple of minutes once I have had a skim of NoTTLe posts so far and then had a go at today’s Wordle.

    1. Why isn’t there a British anchor? You know, someone whose family tree has roots in the UK dating back to when the century only has 3 numbers?
      Same here in Norway. What happened to all the born & bred Norwegians? Hardly to be seen any more, between all the wogs and blacks.

  19. Good Moaning.
    It’s not actually raining. I apologise for starting the day on a bum note.
    Excerpt from Allison Pearson in the Tellygraff.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/07/sham-covid-inquiry-ignoring-victims-of-lockdown/

    “Sons like Rick, who emailed to tell me that staff at Salford Royal Hospital refused to let him in to see his dying father in May 2020. “I arrived to a near-deserted hospital, masked-up, hands sanitised. A nurse opened the door of the ward. ‘Yes?’ she said. I introduced myself and asked to be able to see my dad in his final hours. ‘No’, she said, ‘only your sister is allowed to see him’. I explained that I had purposely sacrificed not visiting in the weeks prior in order to assist with the pandemic effort, take pressure off the NHS, and try to minimise the spread of Covid, but that I desperately hoped she could find a way to accommodate me in seeing my father for the final time.

    “‘No, sorry, hospital policy, only one named visitor per patient and you are clearly not your sister.’

    “I paced the corridor, knowing that my father was literally just metres away from me on the other side of the wall. I knocked again. Eventually, the same nurse plus a senior female nurse/manager came out. Once again, I begged, praised them for their heroic efforts and said, ‘Could I just please come in to see my father for a few minutes for the last time?’

    “Hallelujah, it worked! The senior nurse said, ‘Yes’, but then came out with the devastating words that broke me in two – ‘But now you will be the only named visitor for your father. Your sister will not be allowed in again.’

    “The nurses turned, and held the ward door open for me. I stood rooted to the spot, just a metre away from entering the Promised Land where my dad lay. ‘I can’t do that to my sister,’ I said, ‘Surely, you’re not asking me to make a split-second decision between my father and my sister? Surely, this cannot be the policy of the hospital?’

    “The response was as rigid and intransigent as ever. ‘You need to decide because we are very busy in the middle of a pandemic,’ was the senior one’s reply. My eyes stinging with tears, I could barely get my final words out, ‘Could you please tell my dad I came to see him?’”

    Rick’s father died two days later. “He died wondering why his eldest child hadn’t been to see him when he needed me most in his final hours,” says Rick. “Experiences like my father’s (and in many cases much worse) won’t get aired at the Covid Inquiry. Gove, Vallance, Whitty, Hancock & Co, with their regrets that the measures taken weren’t stringent enough or soon enough, will win the day. Only Boris will get the blame. None of them cared about my father, or my sister, or me. None of them cared about so many like us. They should be forced to listen to the testimony of those whose lives they devastated with their draconian, incoherent, inconsistent and often barmy diktats. “

    1. Beyond awful. And it does make it much worse that so often, the diktats are delivered by someone who can barely speak English who seems to relish putting down a person of another race.

      1. One of our friends died during that time.
        We all had to watch the service via a camera in the chapel.
        The few who were allowed to attend were masked up etc …..
        What a way to say goodbye to someone who had spent 77 years working, raising a family, looking after a chronically sick husband and who was overall a good person who contributed to the well-being of this country.

          3. Okay i do have words. Which in the interests of politesse Geoff would have to ban me….Seething anger will have to do for now.

    2. That wasn’t the case when an old friend of mine died in Dec 2020. His wife and their six adult children were all allowed at his bedside.

    3. Dear heavens above, my cheeks are wet with trickling tears.

      How cruel . Words are not enough. Where did tenderness and compassion go?

      We will soon be hearing that ill patients over 70 yrs old were assessed and given DNR certificates/ live or die.

      1. That has already happened with the ‘Pathway’. Family not informed. Then the Gosport war memorial putting people on auto inject morphine…some not 60 years old…no one has been prosecuted for any of these deaths because it’s our fabulous NHS.

      2. They did that to me Maggie, the last time I was hospitalised. (I’m 79).

        I refuse to go to horse piddle these days.

    4. This happened to a friend of mine after lockdown in Bristol. Her 19 year old son was in critical condition after a car crash and was airlifted there from Glastonbury area. By the time she got there, her ex husband had beaten her too it and was the only person allowed to visit his son. Imagine denying a mother this. It’s inhumane.

    5. My God.
      Speechless. Can barely type, as I can’t see the keys properly.
      Those in charge should have petrol poured on them and set alight, so they burn even before they reach hell. Even down to the charge nurse.

  21. Just got today’s Wordle in four, chums, and I managed to copy and paste it here although with enormous gaps between my four attempts.

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

    Whoa! I just found out how to delete the enormous gaps, something I couldn’t manage on previous days. Pat on the back for me!

  22. Just got today’s Wordle in four, chums, and I managed to copy and paste it here although with enormous gaps between my four attempts.

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

    Whoa! I just found out how to delete the enormous gaps, something I couldn’t manage on previous days. Pat on the back for me!

  24. Latest Breaking News – Reports are coming out that the Russians have been intercepting and stealing secret government emails.
    Officials are saying that they are trying to find out the secret of undermining democracy and enslaving the masses without people realising.
    But they do no think that any vital information has been lost though as all the pandemic and net zero strategies were sent via whatsapp.

    1. They had difficulty getting the guy who invented the Hokey Kokey into his coffin – they put his left leg in………

  27. Good morning all. I’m feeling a lot better than yesterday!
    A tad below 3°C at the moment, still very dark but not raining.

    Looking at Ogga’s posting of an X-Tw:ter link last night, I found this from the same Yemini commentator:-

    To all my Arab and Muslim friends who say that it was ”bad timing” for me to travel to Israel,

    I am told that calling Israelis and Jews my brothers and sisters comes in ”bad timing,” while the Arab and Muslim world is shifting towards a Hitler-level of Jew-hatred.

    This picture was taken at Gaza’s border. As I heard the shootings and saw the bombings, and as I was getting messages accusing me of ”justifying a genocide” – the sound of the bombs took me back to my country Yemen, it took me back to 10 years of your silence.

    Do you really want to talk about “timing”?

    Let’s talk about timing.

    For 10 years, I watched as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and 8 Arab countries bombed and destroyed my country, while you were all silent.

    For 10 years, I watched as almost 10 million Yemeni children, my people, were starved and demolished, both physically, mentally, and spiritually, while you were all silent.

    For 10 years, I watched reports about how my people started boiling grass and random plants to feed their children, while you were all silent.

    For 10 years, I watched as Yemeni airports were closed, hospitals were bombed, and Arab nations terrorized my cousins, friends, and family, while you were all silent.

    For 10 years, I watched the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world unfold right in front of my eyes in my country towards my people, while you were all silent.

    10 years of Arab destruction and you didn’t move. You didn’t even flinch.

    Where were you in the last 10 years?

    Do you really want to talk about ”timing”?

    Let’s talk about timing.

    Where were these protests of millions of Arabs and Muslims condemning the greatest war and most daunting humanitarian crisis of our time in the past 10 years?

    Why haven’t I ever seen you raise Yemeni flags and calls to ”stop the genocide of Yemen” in the past 10 years?

    Why were your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok feeds full of food reviews, but never angry letters of condemnation and sighs of frustration?

    10 years weren’t ever “good timing” for you to ever speak up and condemn Saudi Arabia and Iran?

    10 years weren’t ever ”good timing” for you to mobilize demonstrations and speak up and condemn Saudi Arabia and Iran?

    If you think that you can lecture me about “bad timing,” a Yemeni child of war who has breathed your air of silence and apathy for over a decade, you can respectfully go fuck yourself.

    Yours truly,

    A Yemeni who sees through your piercing hypocrisy.

    https://twitter.com/JustLuai/status/1732735067372372206

    1. Agreed.
      Nobody gave a shit, likely because it was carried out by our “friends” in Arabia. Money talks, or in this case, stops the talk.

      1. And yet people are passionately taking the side of Israel or Gaza in the latest war, having ignored the slaughter in Yemen for years!

      2. I always understood that Yemen was a proxy war between Iran (who armed and funded the ‘rebels’) and Sodding Arabia (armed and funded by their oil customers). Yemen has been a war zone for the past 60+ years.

    2. ‘Good morning all. I’m feeling a lot better than yesterday!
      A tad below 3°C at the moment’

      Sorry to inform you but you are dead !

    1. How does Mr Fox make a living now that he is denied any jobs in the acting profession?

      1. 379277+ up ticks,

        Morning DW,

        Same as any other politic, difference being I believe him to be on the side of the Godly.

    1. Damned clever finding 270 nationalities in one street, when there aren’t even 200 worldwide.

      1. Ah but.

        Every tribe/gang on the planet pretends it’s a different nationality, if it gets them an advantage over others.

      2. You have forgotten Scouse, Geordie, Cockney, Brummie, Estuary and tribal languages spoken by Suveners, Scotch, etc.

      3. I suppose it depends on how you define a nation. There are ethnicities without their own state, a prominent example being the Kurds. Others which spring to mind are the Yazidis and Rohingya. Once you start differentiating all the native peoples of North and South America, Australasia, large parts of Africa, Asia, even Europe (are Bretons and Sami, for example, nations?) you can begin to see how the numbers mount up.

    1. Good morning Bill

      A different breed of man has been diluted down over the decades .

      Education was strict and disciplined decades ago, children were seen and not heard , parents were parents , strict , firm and children did not take centre place .

      Moh is addicted to lots of the Royal Navy in action videos filmed decades ago, pre and post war … Many captains of ships /aircraft carriers etc pre war/ post war were decision makers and disciplinarian’s .

      True grit came down through the generations , didn’t it and still does , but a rare occurrence.

      The educators are one’s parents , but the harsh reality is youngsters are being educated by a horrendous weak national curriculum .

      Many youngsters are also spoilt and petulant .

      1. We home-schooled our boys as we sailed around the Mediterranean until they went to boarding schools in England for their Sixth Form studies which worked very well. On our travels we met people from all walks of life and when we were at home often there were our students with us so that had a great amount of social contact with people.

    2. A good idea but would need to include similar action against the snivel serpents, currently acting as anchors to any proposal from the elected officials.

  32. Occasionally I glance at the news headlines in The Grimes. I notice the catastrophic decline in standards of public service. Last weekend in yer Lunnon, we went to the NPG and to Buck House to see paintings of Tudor men who ran the country then. Their faces. Granite and totally determined. They were people who took no prisoners and enforced their plans (until they lost their heads, of course). What a different breed of men from those whom we see today. They wouldn’t have lasted ten minutes.

    2. Today those Tudor men wouldn’t have lasted 10 minutes before they were disgraced and cancelled.

    3. Nowadays: “They were are people who took take no prisoners and enforced their plans…”
      No difference that I can see, just that now we have more information sources so we can see the manipulation, criminality, etc now. Back then, we couldn’t, as there were no alternative info. sources.

      1. I beg to differ, Paul. Back then, the men knew exactly what they were doing and how to achieve it. The Clowns posing as a government today simply have no idea about anything.

  33. Good morning, all. Not raining but everything very wet from yesterday’s downpour. Sunny day with a light breeze forecast.

    The New Zealand “vaccine” revelations’ impact is spreading and exposing not only disturbing facts re the “vaccine” but a number of people who were promoting inoculation. This video exposes the push to get pregnant women “vaccinated”.

    How can anyone trust a “professional” who uses the term, “…pregnant people,” when referring to pregnant women. Woke is too weak a description for someone that stupid and evil.

    https://twitter.com/c_plushie/status/1732861665258221927

    1. A bit of a shame mate that that they can’t speak proper English. Are they sayin’ it’s safe or it isn’t? Time for another tinny.

    2. Ardern’s assertion that the Kiwis should only listen to her diktats needs further investigation.

      2. Her assertion that only her government could be trusted to be truthful felt quite sinister to my mind.

          1. Bear in mind that she had two years working for Blair before becoming

            Prime Minister of New Zealand.

  34. 379277+ up ticks,

    May one ask MR sunak & co, could some form of border control work to benefit the British Isles, it has NEVER been seriously tried since the cottaging / toilet attendant PM lifted the entry latch.

    Illegal migration to Germany drops dramatically since introduction of border controls
    Olaf Scholz’s coalition has vowed to reduce the number of people crossing over the country’s land borders in change from Merkel era

    1. My thoughts are that British politicians are allowing thousands of unhealthy unvaccinated migrants with STDS , Aids , sickle cell anaemia, mental illnesses .. and no tangible life skills apart from fornicating and praying to Allah .

      We are more at risk from them than we were from Covid

  35. ‘Morning All

    AS the Convid Farce (Enquiry) rumbles on never forgive never forget

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c8d7135399b92081ba5b8a7bf5a1af542bb7924010026b122f5999ee767b311a.jpg

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2bfadc04cab73dfe92aad3fc4458c0d51663895551a62467df5ca5e386edde55.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c63ae6d608627a0ff86b2ddf09a86e3a860ea556148a6d12afe682c15351d1ec.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/05387f07651223095ec0eb5083ada2527ca8a26f08a92e8994a2f7cb219c8ac7.jpg

    https://twitter.com/Richard_1942/status/1732434757491835259?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bbbefb896eb8b326ffb80834c0b63688155cf9dae0bba7598c2c90cf5d5e973e.jpg

    2. Rather than as a percentage, I would prefer Sad Dick’s crime wave was listed by actual number of atrocities.

    3. That’s because what happened to George Floyd was evil incarnate whereas the Dublin stabbing victims suffered an unexceptional mishap.

        1. On a more serious note, minute silences are held for the deceased. Although what happened to the children and their teacher was dreadful, none have died, although one child remains seriously ill in intensive care.

          1. I don’t know if it’s true but I understood that the child is brain dead but still on life support machinery.

          2. Oh, no. I hadn’t seen any details of injuries sustained. I truly wished there was some hope for the poor little mite. What the parents are going through now is almost unimaginable. If true, it’s like a bereavement without closure until somebody has to make the painful decision to withdraw life support.

          4. If true, there would almost certainly have been a great loss of blood, sufficient to cause the brain death Sos mentioned. I just hope these reports are unfounded, but the child must have suffered great injuries to still be on the critical list.

            I’ll not shed a tear if the monster who did this has suffered irreparable brain damage, even if he might not be considered fit enough to stand trial.

          7. The monster that attacked children outside a school in Dublin. ‘They’ like to keep a lid on these things. Perversly enough you can probably find the whole story on Press TV…which happens to be Iranian.

          8. Islam is completely incompatible with a moral system which is based on Judeo-Christian philosophy, law and behaviour.

            Either all followers of Islam should leave Europe or the rest of us should leave. At the moment it looks as if the PTB would be more in favour of the former!

    4. That Tweet from that dolt Morgan needs to be repeated endlessly to remind the world how this man is so uninformed and unhinged and helped immensely in the process that pushed the nation over the cliff edge and made dangerous anti-social behaviour acceptable. He appeared to be a ” voice of reason and concern” when the opposite was the reality. We saw how quickly people became intolerant and potentially dangerous to their fellow citizens who tried to work out what was really happening and deal with facts- questioning dangerous propaganda and the incipient madness of crowds talked up by the likes if him in the MSM- useful idiots, all of them and he at the forefront egging them on.

      2. Morgan has since apologised and said he was wrong. The problem is he’s in that group of influential idiots who idiots listen to.

        His views give them the perceived right to behave as they want to. I’ve been reading a lot of https://lowstatus.substack.com/p/a-world-turned-upside-down and I find myself agreeing with many of his points. They’re apolitical inn that they argue both sides are at fault (which they are) and present rather not a conspiracy theory, but a clear ‘there’s a problem, keep ignoring it if you will, but eventually you’re going to have to face it’ view.

  36. “Go and get the coffees in, luv”

    Joey Barton compares female football commentators to men talking about knitting
    Laura Woods leads criticism of the former Bristol Rovers manager, who claimed that women are keeping men out of TV jobs

    Ben Rumsby

    Joey Barton has compared women commentating on football to men talking about knitting in a ‘sexist’ rant.

    Barton is facing a backlash for a series of posts made on X, which included calling for men to boycott watching games with female presenters and pundits while branding those who challenged him as “Eunuchs”.

    The controversial former player, who was sacked as manager of Bristol Rovers in October, condemned the growing trend of women covering the men’s game, seemingly while watching Amazon Prime Video’s live coverage of the Premier League.

    Apparently offended by the presence of presenters like Gabby Logan, Eni Aluko, Siobhan Chamberlain and Robyn Cowen, Barton wrote: “Women shouldn’t be talking with any kind of authority in the men’s game. Come on. Let’s be serious.

    “It’s a completely different game. If you don’t accept that. We will always see things differently.

    “The women’s game is thriving. Fantastic to see. I cannot take a thing they say serious in the men’s arena. #namaste”

    He added: “Any man who listens to women commentary or co-comms needs their heads testing… #sticktoyourowngame.”

    ‘You give them a f—— inch…”
    After other users of the platform accused him of sexism Barton resorted to a succession of crude insults before doubling down on his previous remarks.

    “Stand by everything I’ve said on women commenting and co-comms on the men’s football,” he wrote. “Like me talking about knitting or netball. Way out of my comfort zone. Some of the men are bad enough! We have gone too far.

    “You cannot watch a game now without hearing the nonsense. Any man who says otherwise is an absolute fart parcel.”

    He also singled out his former club, Manchester City, over a clip of a woman setting the scene ahead of their Champions League game against RB Leipzig last week, slamming the presence of the “influencer”.

    “I mean look at the nonsense,” he wrote. You give them a f—— inch… Was going to use the hashtag #Getthemout but no doubt it will be taken out of context…

    “Out the stadiums and off the concourses with the influencer f—— nonsense. Men surely, enough’s enough? Someone got to say something or it won’t ever end.”

    The ‘influencer’ Barton targeted transpired to be the club’s social media editor, Georgia Hampson.

    Barton also added: “Of course loads of ex-top players can’t get a gig because the TV companies have quotas to fill and boxes to tick

    “Their experience thrown on the landfill to accommodate the ‘Woke’. Only way they will change if it hits them in the pocket.

    “That only happens when the men decide to switch off.”

    ‘These tweets only encourage a pile on’
    Laura Woods, the TNT Sports presenter, accused Barton of provoking a sexist “pile-on” of women who cover the Premier League. She said: “Usually avoid these conversations as I don’t like adding more oxygen. But throwing young vloggers to the wolves is wrong.

    “I started my career vlogging and I’ve always got on with Joey. He also sent me a lovely good luck message for TNT in June. Does that make him a eunuch too?”

    She added: “Joey’s entitled to his opinion. If he feels that strongly about women in the men’s game he could ask for a private conversation with the broadcasters & state his case.

    “These tweets only encourage a pile on for the women getting on with their jobs. Or was that the intention?”

    Despite his string of offensive remarks, Barton will face no action from the Football Association for breaking its rules on such comments because he made them while out of work and is deemed outside its jurisdiction.

    ‘Misogyny is commonplace for women in football’
    Barton’s posts came despite his support for the #HERGAMETOO campaign, which aims to fight against sexism in sport, while he was Rovers manager.

    Shortly before his sacking, which followed one win in five League One games, Barton publicly backed Kevin Keegan after the latter declared he did not like listening to female pundits talking about the England men’s team.

    At a live event in Bristol, Keegan had said: “I’m not as keen, I’ve got to be honest, and it may not be a view shared. I don’t like to listen to ladies talking about the England men’s team at the match because I don’t think it’s the same experience. I have a problem with that.”

    In response to that, Barton had posted on X: “Kevin Keegan. Ballon D’or winner 1978. England manager. He’s bang on.”

    Barton’s comments were also condemned by anti-discrimination group Kick It Out, who said: “Questioning whether women should have a voice in a discussion would be unacceptable in any aspect of society, so why is football any different?

    “The uncomfortable truth is that sexism and misogyny is far too commonplace for women in football, whether that’s in the terraces, in the workplace or online.

    “At Kick It Out this season, we’ve already received more than double the number of reports based on sexism and misogyny than we had at this point last season. In the context of a 400 per cent rise in sexism and misogyny reports in 2022-23 from the previous season, these reports paint a damning picture of a game where women still endure unacceptable levels of abuse.

    “And we know misogynistic views can lead to intimidation and threats, and the potential for women and girls to drop out of the game. So, while misogynistic comments about female punditry online may be shocking because they’re in the public eye, they provide a stark reminder of the consequences sexist behaviour can have on the experience of women and girls in football.”

    Barton’s most recent remarks also came just a week after he appeared to downplay his brother Michael’s role in a 2005 racially-motivated murder as a “f—— scrap”.

    Barton was playing for Manchester City when his brother was convicted of murdering Anthony Walker before going on to serve 17 years of a life sentence for his part in killing the black 18-year-old.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/12/07/joey-barton-female-commentators-men-talking-about-knitting/

    I feel The Telegraph are playing the man and not the ball here.

    1. Joey Barton is a violent thug. Why he is given media support can only be guessed at. Probably the BBC bigging him up for when they retire Linekar.

      1. Because, in this case, he’s right and said what a lot of people think. Carragher, the spitter, still writes in the DT!

          1. Ah pet! I’ve just found your reply! I’ve had a busy day and thank you for insulting! I love the banter! 💕

      2. Certainly, he has been a thug. However, his views are worth a hearing … and might he not have mellowed with age and experience? …. something which was certainly not true of Ron Atkinson at the traffic lights in Birmingham a couple of decades ago (road rage case).

        1. You mean like Anders Breivik and Andrew Tate? Not sure they will get invited on the BBC though they did like George Best wife beater alcoholic druggy so who can say.

      1. I have zero interest in any sport that doesn’t feature four legs, a mane and a tail 🙂 Some of the women commentators are very knowledgeable and explain things really well to those who haven’t been with horses all their lives. There is one “paddock expert” who can’t have been chosen for his expertise as he spouts a lot of nonsense. He’s the diversity hire.

    3. I have no difficulty with women providing commentary and punditry for any sport, so long as they have the expertise needed to explain to viewers what’s happening/has happened. Taking football in isolation, though, there is a habit amongst commentators to raise voices and to add a gritty/gutsy timbre during particularly exciting moments and, I confess, it comes across less well from women. That’s not a reflection of their capabilities but of my aesthetic sensibilities.

      In cricket, a sport I watch and listen to most frequently, the women’s game gets a lot more coverage than it once did. Going by Sky Sports’ broadcasts, the women’s game has a predominance of women commentators and pundits with a minority of men taking part, the mirror image of the men’s game where men are predominant in the commentary box and in the studio. The balance seems about right to me.

      1. I’m no footie fan and usually while OH is watching male or female footie I keep my head down and carry on tapping at the keyboard. But I do find I can zone out the male voices more easily, and some of the female voices are SHRILL!

      2. Good morning, Stig.

        “The balance seems about right to me.”

        You would say that wouldn’t you? You are far more enlightened and correct in your thinking than than many of us here!

      3. I don’t watch a lot of football but I do wish the women they employ didn’t have screechy voices and wouls stop talking once in a while.

          1. Grizz mourns the loss of the more mature and measured voices of the past. When I think of Kenneth Wolstenholme, for example, I quite understand his point.

        2. I wish pretty well everybody in the world would stop talking once in a while.
          Had to shout at my manager recently, as he asked questions then kept talking, so there was no space to answer. Tpld him to “shut the fcuk up for a while and listen”.

    1. These creatures will keep changing their tune until they eventually call it the correct way; which will last a few years and then the planet will continue as before. As someone posted along these lines the other day:
      correct climate alarmist projections 0 incorrect projections 47.

    2. As this video from Tony Heller demonstrates, the trend has been for cooling for decades. For reasons that must be questionable and based on political control, the data has been manipulated in the USA by the two main organisations concerned- NASA and NOAA. This short video shows that now, nearly 50% of temperature readings are not from thermometers but those wonderful computer models and many stations that gave readings have been closed and now fake data is used.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coh52TUZcZM

      1. I know! We are heading for a mini ice age at least. And it has NOTHING to do with cars or meat, it’s a function of sun spot activity.

        1. Yes, and Milankovitch Cycles. As Dr Richard Lindzen the astrophysics expert states, CO2 gives one Watt of warming per Sq M while the Milankovitch Cycle currently gives 100 Watts per Sq M but this is ignored!

      2. What next – water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the killing of firstborn children?

    3. when the reality didn’t suit the marketing, the Left changed the marketing. The cash must flow – from you to them. Only by paying ever larger amounts of money can their doom mongering be satiated. They will not stop until you have nothing and they have everything.

      They’re nothing more than demagogues, preaching from a pulpit protestations of terror t keep you afraid and convinced of their ability to save you. That this leaves you unhappy, miserable and poor is irrelevant – to them. All they care about is making you pay for their choices.

    4. How on earth will all the newly arrived jungle bunnies cope. I expect they will be stealing boats from England to get back France.

  38. Keir Starmer confronted by pro-Palestine protesters in Glasgow. 8 December 2023.

    Two people have been arrested after the Labour leader faced cries of ‘war criminal’, ‘you should be in prison’ and ‘baby murderer’

    The video footage is quite entertaining. The protesters all look suitably demented. There is a warning to this though that I tried to comment on in a Spectator article. The Israelis’ are winning the military struggle but they are losing the war of hearts and minds. As for Starmer, this of course is where multiculturalism gets you, you have to have a foot in every camp.

    Except your own that is.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/07/two-arrested-after-starmer-accused-of-facilitating-genocide/

    1. Beer Korma has been able to cruise along, sitting on the fence whilst kneeling to marxists (a trick worthy of the ring master’s son, John Major) and it has stood him in good stead as the so-called Conservative party has imploded.

      Not that Korma’s pack are any more united, but, other than the recent Gaza vote, he hasn’t made any decisions that will impact on the divisions in Labour. Bland pre-manifesto utterings aside.

    2. I have to say I found the parading of near-naked Palestinian male captives yesterday a bit OTT. Al least they still had their pants on. But surely that is the kind of thing that will lose the hearts and minds?

      1. I think you are wrong. They were stripped for security reasons. It also shows their only power comes from their weapons and their chosen form of dress. They are brutal and merciless. This shows them to be the weak fat murdering bastard rapists they are…with big titties and very small penises….

        I shouldn’t have had that second coffee…………

          1. I would only have been disturbed if they were expected to dig their own graves….

            They are murderous thugs.

          4. Have you watched Schindlers List? The Israeli forces are not the Nazis here. Those…let us call them men weren’t all shot in the back of the head into a ditch. They were taken into custody.

          7. It is disturbing when stripped of all dignity. Tell those at the Nova dance festival…Those that are still breathing that is……. Sorry Jules.

          1. Don’t agree, Jules. They were happy enough to parade themselves in their hideous battle-dress and murderous headbands and guns…

          3. I don’t think they have been deliberately ‘paraded’. There are hundreds of newsmen and photographers looking for incriminating propaganda photos.

      3. Morning Ndovu. I did try to make my own views clear in this comment but it passed by unnoticed in the Lynch Mob mentality. Even I find the tv coverage repellent so I can only imagine the effect it has on the unaligned.

  39. Putin’s economic challenges are numerous but surmountable as election looms. 8 December 2023.

    MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Russia’s success in evading a Western oil price cap is helping drive a recovery in economic growth as President Vladimir Putin prepares to run for re-election, despite the problems caused by labour shortages, inflation and high interest rates.

    Russia’s parliament has formally set next year’s presidential election date for March 17. Putin, who on Thursday said the economy was set to grow 3.5% this year, is widely expected to run for a new six-year term.

    No wonder Vlad was looking happy yesterday. He must be pretty confident that he’s going to come out of all this smelling of roses.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putins-economic-challenges-are-numerous-surmountable-election-looms-2023-12-08/

    1. Has there been a change to the Russian constitution? I thought Russian presidents could only serve two consecutive terms before stepping aside, although they can return to serve as president again after one or more presidential terms have elapsed.

      1. Yes I believe that they have changed it David after Vlad’s previous sojourn as Prime Minister!

      2. Yes I believe that they have changed it David after Vlad’s previous sojourn as Prime Minister!

      3. Vlad changed all that nonsense. I imagine the lady challenging him will be found dead of a sudden death quite soon.

      1. Thankyou – it’s criminal the way they are brainwashing young children with this nonsense.

        1. It just shows the depth the cancer has infiltrated that these ideas are not just held by whacky thinkers, but introduced into mainline society.

          2. As she is unable to pronounce “Elgin” correctly…..I doubt she would even know what it is all about.

        2. There was a petition I signed the other day regarding a Norfolk primary school. Terrible things they were ‘teaching’ them, pleasuring themselves and each other, I couldn’t believe it. The parents pressed and pressed and pressed to be shown the teaching material and in the end the school had to show it to them – the parents were appalled. It is child abuse of the worst possible sort. Meanwhile, in China, children of the same age are learning differential calculus. I wonder what it is about Norfolk, perhaps it is considered a backwater from mainstream life where they try these things out on children, I understand that Cornwall has a similar problem where abuse is tried out within schools before going mainstream.

          1. Young children don’t need to be taught these things, they don’t need to know until they are old enough to understand what it’s all about. Some of these teaching materials seem to to be out and out pornography. Children find out what what they like without having it forced on them at school.

  44. I see Lord Snooty is hammering the travel budget again and is in the US. Apparently, he thinks that if we dont drive Vlad back to his homeland, he will attack a NATO country next. Having been held to a small part of Ukraine for more than a year by one adversary, the Lord must be off his trolly to think that Vlad will be advancing on a readied NATO anytime soon.

    1. Lord Snooty as in Cameron? My gosh he’s been busy. Going to all the wrong places as usual. Hope he didn’t leave any children behind this time.
      Vlad ain’t expanding. Nato is. When the going gets tough…who do you think will fold first?

      1. No, Philip, he didn’t forget children but by his own token, has left a bloody great carbon footprint, what with jetting here. there,hither and yon.

        Hypocrite.

      2. The Conservative Party started its decline and inevitable death when they chose Cameron rather than David Davis to be its leader.

        1. I’d say when they knifed Thatcher and gave us John Major. Thatcher was a true conservative, which is why she had to be got rid of.

    3. Putin hasn’t “been held to a small part of Ukraine”. He never had any intention of taking the whole of Ukraine, his intention was to take Crimea and the Eastern part of Ukraine which was Russian speaking and had been under attack from the Azov Brigade for over 10 years. He offered a negotiation over 10 years ago and was rebuffed by US, reinforced by Johnson.

  45. From The Grimes today:

    Next year is set to be the hottest on record and could be the first in which global warming exceeds 1.5C above pre-industrial times, the Met Office has said.

    The Met Office forecasts that 2024 will be between 1.34C and 1.58C warmer than the pre-industrial average, with a central estimate of 1.46C, making it the 11th year in a row in which temperatures have been more than a degree warmer.

    So stand by for a cold, dreary, wet year.

    2. Crikey! The Met office officials will be giving up their boilers, turning off that super computer and all the trappings of modern life then?

      No? what, you mean they don’t believe their own proselytising? Oh! I see! It’s WE who must change to suit them.

      1. Yes Wibbling, they’ve already publicly declared that they are giving up their cars

        and their overseas holidays.

    3. They have weather records for the 4.5 billion years prior to the industrial age? Or if we go by the Hebrew calendar, for the 5520 years between God creating the world and the dawn of the industrial revolution. Either way, the alarmists lose.

  46. Typical modern day conservative – making free with other folks money (and lives)

    “David Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, on Thursday urged US lawmakers to approve fresh aid for Ukraine to help fund Kyiv’s battle against Russian forces. On Wednesday, the US Senate blocked a White House request for $106 billion in emergency aid primarily for Ukraine and Israel, in a move Lord Cameron described as a “Christmas present” to Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

    It was a setback for President Joe Biden, who had urged lawmakers to approve the funds, warning that Putin would not stop with victory in Ukraine and could even attack a NATO nation.

    “We should pass this money to the Ukrainians,” Lord Cameron told the Aspen Security Forum in the US capital. “We should back them and make sure that it’s Putin that loses because if that money doesn’t get voted through, there are only two people that will be smiling.”
    One of them is Putin, and “the other one is Xi Jinping in Beijing,” Lord Cameron said. “And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to give either of those people a Christmas present.”

    1. Lord Greensill could give us all a Christmas present by not spending any more of OUR money, and resigning to return to well deserved obscurity!

    2. We’ve already sent all our weapons to Ukraine and enough young men have died for nothing. It’s time for a negotiated settlement.

      2. If everybody thinks he is dead it will be easier to give him a false identity and set him free to kill again.

      3. If everybody thinks he is dead it will be easier to give him a false identity and set him free to kill again.

  48. Post just arrived. A letter suggesting because of my age i need a cardiovascular review. I need to book a blood test first through the patient access app. If this is not possible i am to phone the practice.
    What to do…what to do….

      1. Just a standard letter to get extra revenue for the practice that is now corporate. Scans, blood tests, Physio. All the things the GP doesn’t have to be involved in in any way. Farm it out…slow it down…they still get paid. Meanwhile…

    2. I’m not allowed to order my warfarin medication until I get an INR. No doubt they’ll do the same for my inhalers as well.

      You’ve got to love the state machine.

          1. What?, and provide lots of rubber dinghies on the west coast pointed in the direction of Eire?

        2. What politicians don’t say is that it’s the envy of other healthcare providers in the amount of money it consumes for so little return. It is not envied by the patient.

      2. I’m 60 in February. I’m going to keep ordering my many prescriptions free to me and sell them to Deliveroo drivers for food.

        1. If your re-order service is anything like mine they’ll tell you you can’t have them because you’ve already been issued with some (my GP doubled the dose so I needed more. What I was ordering was my repeat prescription for the original pack).

    3. Is it the case that each NHS Trust has its own blood test booking procedure? I went online last time to book a test through a website. Here, you can either book through your GP – online, telephone or at reception – for the visiting phlebotomist, although there was a wait of a few weeks for a spare slot when I last tried. Alternatively, the NHS Trust has a website where you can book a time at one of its hospitals, usually rather sooner than the GP. My nearest hospital no longer allows you to turn up and wait without an appointment as it once did.

      1. Still on the phone.

        In another world i was sent by my GP to the walk in clinic for a blood test. They were quite rude to me and said we don’t take walk ins anymore because of covid. I said what are you doing then seeing as there is no one else in the waiting room? They with bad grace took the blood. I said as they were doing it that i had tried phoning. They said the phones aren’t answered at weekends as they are on the wards.
        I thought yeah yeah yeah.

  49. Don’t miss out – Nearly one hour’s propaganda information campaign on children transiting if they wish. It’s vital that the students requests are listened to if they want to ‘socially transition’, even if that means the parents aren’t consulted first. BBC Radio 4 and World Service.

    1. If the individual is a child then the parents are the only group who have a say. It’s really not complicated but the BBC, like all Left wing organisations seeks to destroy the family.

    2. Is social transitioning the one that entails neither drugs, hormones nor surgery but merely in outward appearance and manner? It’s not easy to keep track of the distinctions.

      As for keeping parents out of the loop without the permission of the child, what else will schools and teachers withhold from parents if requested by students? Violence towards and bullying of others, consumption of illicit substances, possession of weapons?

  50. Prince Harry loses legal challenge in libel claim against Mail on Sunday. 8 December 2023.

    The Duke of Sussex has lost a bid to have the Mail on Sunday publisher’s defence to his High Court libel claim thrown out by a judge.

    The Duke is suing Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over a February 2022 article about his legal challenge against the Home Office following a decision to change his publicly funded security arrangements when visiting the UK.

    I don’t know how he had the gall actually. The taxpayers have enough freeloaders to take care of!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/12/08/prince-harry-loses-libel-claim-mail-on-sunday/

    1. Haven’t you heard? There is a moratorium on that pair of chancers on here. Just to be sure you know who i am talking about it’s the two bit actress and her cuckold Duke. Soon to be estranged. How sad….etcetera.

      1. Discuss them as much as you wish, I just think it gives a couple of wasters air time they don’t deserve.

        He wanted out so he could cash in on his title. That’s the attitude of the whore: all the power, none of the responsibility. He should have had his title and all other advantages removed at the point he gave up the duty. He didn’t want the gilded cage, he doesn’t get to keep the gilding.

      2. Refresh. I added the root of the thread. Apols. I thought it would show up the first time.

    2. It’s probably the words:”Britons never, never, never shall be slaves” that’s triggered them…..

      1. I’d prefer Jerusalem by Blake/Parry but the student wokies would probably not approve of that either?

    4. “Offensive to some”

      Everything is “offensive to some”.

      Maybe we could just have anarchy?

      1. I love you all. No matter how bad …someone always makes me laugh. That is the reason i’m self diagnosing and stopping the Clopidogrel and the rest.
        The real reason i haven’t gone to bed is i don’t want…..my own blood….on my silk sheets.

          1. I would except they seem to be ill/working from home. And there is no way i’m telling them i have silk sheets…i’d never see the last of them….er…what was i saying?

    4. What a clot, or not, to be more accurate. I’m a bleeder too. I carry loads of plasters in all sizes.

      1. A large chap at school was affectionately known by all as ‘Fat Bleeder’. I understand that on joining the police he ended up in the Royal Protection Squad. Clearly his superiors thought if the time came he could stop more bullets that the average PC…..

        2. Very sensible…stick the fat bastard in front………a problem though…Grizz has lost a lot of weight so we will have to find another fat …erm.

      2. The only time i ever had a nose bleed was when my mother smacked me in the head when i was 13. I’m not a bleedin’ little bastard. Well…i probably was then.

          1. If i ever have the pleasure of lunching with Mola i will take extra bandages. Mostly because i feel like thumping him. Git !!!! Goes out on fishing boats all the time!

  53. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a38c8a5be5a9700ca1487e3223d4630317a44201a88085c4b2da50613e9f50c4.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/12/08/footage-rishi-sunak-dutch-pm-mark-ruttes-locked-out-no10/

    Keep those doors firmly locked!

    BTL

    Yesterday’s men.
    They did somethings wrong now they long for Yesterday
    That was Yesterday and Yesterday’s gone
    Yesterday’s papers telling Yesterday’s news.
    All our Yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.

    1. Did Mr Rutte ask Mr Sunak what the weather was like? Can’t imagine anything more important for either to say to each other.

    2. Sunak looks so small and insignificant. I know nobody has control over their height but he just has no “presence” either.

        2. Excellent. I doubt whether any of those featured are still singing. These groups have a steady turnover of singers. My former assistant organist ended up singing Tenor with Voces8. For several years. He did the world tours, the Radio 3 features, etc. Then decided he wasn’t actually a tenor. V8 had shamelessly monopolised his church as a rehearsal venue. For free.

          He’s well out of it, and gets a reasonable living from two Director of Music posts, plus teaching, plus other musical activites.

          Meanwile, here in the grass roots, I’m seeking a (not so Great) reset. Part of my job involves printing weekly newsletters, orders of service and the like. We’re able to do this cheaply, by buying end-of-lease machines from eBay. The current one cost us £190. We’ve had four years of reliable service from it. But in Colour mode, it now turns every page yellow. Quite apart from the waste of toner, the local copier engineer has transmogrified into a carpet shop. I’m assuming retirement, since calls and emails never get through.

          Meanwhile, the parish is struggling, financially, to keep its head above water. So I bought a ‘low mileage’ machine on eBay. At my cost. I explored whether the Parish might like to cover the cost of getting the machine from Kent to Surrey. The response was that a certain Churchwarden, Deputy Lieutenant and former High Sherriff of Surrey might have a redundant copier. This wasn’t the answer I was expecting. Gift horse in the mouth.

          So, the new (to us) machine will arrive within the next few days. I’ll need to get rid of the curent machine (which the Parish didn’t pay for). In 18 years, I’ve striven to get the cheapest possible resources. Our printing costs around 10% of the equivalent leased machine.

          My reasonable suggestion that the new machine (funded by me) would remain my property, should I depart, has sent the Rector and Wardens into conniptions.

      2. We are told that men of small stature make up for it in angry ways. Not seeing it from the little brown squirt myself.

  54. I’ve taken the glass shelf off the top of the extractor hob. Why? Because I kept bashing in to it. It was at head height for me and I’ve already nobbled the fan so i took it off. I also removed a shelf from the fridge, took out the weird plastic holders in it and took a shelf out of a cupboard. The only annoyance was inn moving the cereals I managed to shower myself in porridge oats.

    Although! The new plug sockets let me easily plug in the hoover to sort that out.

    1. If Piers Morgan and Jeremy Vine were standing next to you…which one would you knee in the testicles first?

      1. That’s a really tough one. Maybe bang their heads together first then take your pick?

        I’m a bit behind the story. Why are you stopping clopidogrel? And other meds?

        2. The statins have given me gallstones and sludge.
          The Ramipril has given me Tinnitus.
          The Cloppi result can be seen below.
          These conditions have all come about after being prescribed these drugs.
          Which is why i am stopping taking them.

        1. Bit of a slouch there Johnny. You could knee him and then head but the other on the return posture to retain balance. I love my yoga teacher…she’s fab.

  57. The Latest – Russia attacks port & live from the UAE as Putin visits Middle-Eastern ally. 7 December 2023.

    Today, we bring you the latest news from Ukraine, discuss Poland’s warning that Nato has 3 years to prepare for a Russian attack & we’re on the ground in the UAE to witness Vladimir Putin’s visit to his Middle-Eastern ally.

    This is interesting. If you are a nerd like me that is. It’s the only article under the Ukraine tab. It’s a podcast. There are no written articles. Only someone as paranoid as myself would think that they are; like the Mail last month, going to give it the chop. I’m afraid Ukraine has fallen out of favour.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/12/07/russia-attacks-port-live-from-the-uae-as-putin-visits/

    1. Has Vlad taken back Odessa yet? He’s surely licking ass with savages and RT are spouting crap about a multipolar world because Europe and the US have given Mother Russia no other option if she’s to stay economically viable. Did the loonies in the White House seriously think that their counterparts in the Kremlin would just say oh well, if we can’t trade with the West, we’d better just roll over and die?

    3. Paranoid? Based on some of the responses you get elsewhere (I’m thinking of the Speccie, that well-known soon-to-be-Muslim-owned journal) you’re widely considered to be a Prighozhin troll. Which begs the question – apart from DWP, who funds you now?

      Seriously, though, I ignore all that nonsense. But I think you should henceforth be known as Senna the Soothsayer (cf Up Pompeii)..

  58. The first lesbian kiss on The Archers “should have happened sooner”. D Torygraph

    Samir Shah may be the BBC’s last hope
    The Government’s choice for chair is an independent thinker who wants to restore the public’s trust. (Race commission chair Tony Sewell) D Torygraph
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/Author%20photos/tony_sewell-xlarge.png Tony Sewell TGraph writer.

    Politics latest news: Rwanda plan will ‘put an end’ to hotel costs, No 10 says. D Torygraph

    A crumpled, handwritten note of an alleged “murder plan” to kill transgender teenager Brianna Ghey was found on the bedroom floor of one of her alleged killers, a court has heard. D Torygraph.

    The sooner the A-rabs take it over the better.

  59. The first lesbian kiss on The Archers “should have happened sooner”. D Torygraph

    Samir Shah may be the BBC’s last hope
    The Government’s choice for chair is an independent thinker who wants to restore the public’s trust. (Race commission chair Tony Sewell) D Torygraph
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/Author%20photos/tony_sewell-xlarge.png Tony Sewell TGraph writer.

    Politics latest news: Rwanda plan will ‘put an end’ to hotel costs, No 10 says. D Torygraph

    A crumpled, handwritten note of an alleged “murder plan” to kill transgender teenager Brianna Ghey was found on the bedroom floor of one of her alleged killers, a court has heard. D Torygraph.

    The sooner the A-rabs take it over the better.

  60. The first lesbian kiss on The Archers “should have happened sooner”. D Torygraph

    Samir Shah may be the BBC’s last hope
    The Government’s choice for chair is an independent thinker who wants to restore the public’s trust. (Race commission chair Tony Sewell) D Torygraph
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/Author%20photos/tony_sewell-xlarge.png Tony Sewell TGraph writer.

    Politics latest news: Rwanda plan will ‘put an end’ to hotel costs, No 10 says. D Torygraph

    A crumpled, handwritten note of an alleged “murder plan” to kill transgender teenager Brianna Ghey was found on the bedroom floor of one of her alleged killers, a court has heard. D Torygraph.

    The sooner the A-rabs take it over the better.

  61. Rwanda plan will ‘put an end’ to hotel costs, No 10 says. 8 December 2023.

    Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan will “put an end” to the costs of keeping Channel migrants in taxpayer-funded hotels, Downing Street has insisted.

    The Telegraph revealed last night that Britain had given Rwanda an extra £100 million this year – on top of the £140 million already paid – before any asylum seekers have been deported to the African state.

    I won £100 on the Premium Bonds last week I’m sure it was down to the Rwanda Plan.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/12/08/politics-latest-news-rishi-sunak-tories-rwanda-immigration/

    1. I’m waiting for the Post Code Lottery to make me a millionaire. Not Long now or I shall have pegged it.

          2. You’ve got enough wonga, I’ve nowt but my pension and a few bennies. Get to the back of the queue.

    2. I got £1,250. Seriously.
      I tried to hire a hit man and he said don’t be stupid…there’s a queue.

    3. As someone pointed out – we have sent more immigration Ministers to Rwanda than immigrants, and it’s already cost £240 million!!

    4. Yes, instead the UK will pay Rwanda oodles of money (that never reraches the intended destination) to put them up in Rwanda. It’ll cost more, you can be sure of that, and fund some local Chief’s new Mercedes, and his three new nubile 16-year-old wives…

      1. Add the Rwanda costs to the money we gave the French (ha!) to stop the boats, and we must be pushing 1 billion by now. And still nothing stopped.

  63. The previous time we played together, we came last…However, at the Bridge Club yesterday morning partner and me came first out of 22 pairs. Both she and me are cock a hoop!

          1. You and me babe: how about it?

            As chat up lines go this had certain je ne sais quoi about it!

          3. Or ‘Can I buy you a drink?’

            ‘No”

            ‘I suppose a f*ck’s out of the question then.’

          4. Or ‘Can I buy you a drink?’

            ‘No”

            ‘I suppose a f*ck’s out of the question then.’

    2. Many years ago on holiday in a cabin in the forests of Sweden with my parents, asked them to teach me bridge. They flatly refused, due to reasons. So, I can’t play. Sounds like a blast, Stephen!

      1. Bridge is a bit like marriage, if you haven’t got a good partner you need a good hand

          2. …when the wind wouldn’t blow
            And the ship wouldn’t go,
            They’d get Larter, the Farter, to start ‘er.

      2. It really is. The average age of the players on a Tuesday or a Thursday morning must be around 75. They are all very polite. The cost for a three and one half hour session is a princely £4, but that includes copious amounts of tea / filter coffee plus plates of decent biscuits. It might just be me but at times during play I can really feel the adrenaline flowing….

        I expect we will resume our normal position at the bottom next time we play!

      3. My cousin Jayne who lives near Bury St Edmunds is an avid Bridge player. Indeed she is a fanatic who plays several times each week.

        When our Henry was at boarding school and aged 16 he went to spend a weekend with her and at the last minute she was let down by her bridge partner so Henry was given a crash course in how to play the game. Apparently they acquitted themselves quite well in the games they played together that evening.

        Henry is quite a good chess player (one of his great grandfathers on the distaff side was a grand master) but he has not kept the bridge going though he now is employed writing computer programs for AI.

  64. About 60 years ago I was obliged to take a swimming test which consisted of jumping off a snow covered cliff into an icy cold fjord in southern Norway and swimming from one side to the other and back half way.. There were hundreds of thousand of small jellyfish about a foot below the surface. I succeeded and was awarded a certificate – for saving my own life? I never knew that there were jellyfish in fjords and would like to know what species they were – Anyone help?

    1. The helmet jelly is found in nearly every ocean of the world, as well as in the Norwegian fjords and in the Mediterranean Sea. The only ocean they are not known to inhabit is the Arctic Ocean.

          2. Try Amazon…. they have everything. Don’t forget to accidently delete your history like Boris.

      1. Some years there are many of the stingers in the Med – indeed we have been stung by them. The next year there would be none at all.

          1. They flourish and bloom when overfishing occurs. They actually benefit when algal blooms happen and make it difficult for fish and other creatures to survive. They are the animal that will survive in our oceans when most of the rest will have died.

          6. My nephews used to lift them out of the sea upside down, and they were the size of dinner plates!

        4. Very susceptible to environmental condition changes, weather, predators, algal blooms and commercial fishing.

      1. I was verging on hypothermia when I finished – nearly killed me. I don’t remember any stings from the thousands of jellyfish though.

  68. Johnny Depp, Bob Geldof and Bono are set to read prayers at The Pogues star Shane MacGowan’s funeral this afternoon D Fail

    An ideal opportunity for music lovers to improve the quality of life – and bung all three of them into the same coffin before it goes to the crematorium.

      1. His was a real human voice. Too much music today is by either rappers or autotuned robots.

        2. Autotune drives me up the wall. Same as robot voices on videos. I cannot get my head around some people being unable to tell the difference!

          1. What saddens me is that there are a great many people who prefer synthetic voices to real ones. When Cher’s Believe was such a big success in 1998, it was partly down to the novelty voice-wobble sound effect, but we all knew that Cher was a fine pop/rock singer who didn’t need it. I had no idea it would presage a widescale usage, not merely to correct those who cannot sing in tune but to add that sound effect to so many recordings that it must be the case that millions of people cannot get enough of synthesised voice-wobble.

      2. If he had his teeth fixed and his ears pinned back he would be a doppleganger for King Charles.
        Imagine that would get him up and about.

    2. Although the self-righteousness of Geldof and Bono is irritating, between them they’ve been responsible for some of my favourite records of the late 70s/early 80s (Geldof) and mid-80s to mid-00s (Bono).

      1. Bono absolutely! Geldof, not so much! Saw U2 in Glasgow in 1986! One of the best gigs ever apart from ELP!

          1. Ah, but I actually nearly fainted (‘cos it was standing only and I’d just had our eldest) and I was helped out near the stage and Bono (in those days) was quite charming

      2. Separate the artist from the art. Or else we’d have nothing left to listen to, read or watch!

          11. I called 999. 5 hours. Not getting a taxi this time because you are back of the queue. We will see. Lots of blood spots everywhere which the dogs seem to like. I’ve ruined my bedding. Tissues stuck up nose and seems to be okay. My real problem now is falling over. Which is why i am sitting…talking to you guys. Don’t worry on my behalf..there are people in screaming distance.

          13. Just back fro ENT. Camera up the nostrils was ghastly. Been in all
            day. Lovely people, I have to take it easy for a couple of weeks.
            Bleeding stopped now. No laundry. No washing up, No bending over.
            Suits me just dandy.

            Thanks for your concern. Appreciated……

          18. I hope you get that fixed Phiz. Do you know what’s causedvit? Did someone punch you in the schnozz?

          19. No one punches the adorable Phizzee !

            Blew me nose too hard i expect.

            Just back fro ENT. Camera up the nostrils was ghastly. Been in all
            day. Lovely people, I have to take it easy for a couple of weeks.
            Bleeding stopped now. No laundry. No washing up, No bending over.
            Suits me just dandy.

            Thanks for your concern. Appreciated……………

          20. I too, fall over easily – all due to low blood pressure. – who knows

            I still refuse to go to horse piddle as they just want to slap DNR notices on me.. Fuck ’em I’m determined to outlive ’em.

          21. Your experience is a truly grim one. I don’t know what you have to do to receive treatment.

          22. Just back fro ENT. Camera up the nostrils was ghastly. Been in all
            day. Lovely people, I have to take it easy for a couple of weeks.
            Bleeding stopped now. No laundry. No washing up, No bending over.
            Suits me just dandy.

            Thanks for your concern. Appreciated……..

    1. I don’t think thatI could achieve such excellent results, I was happy with a birdie
      Wordle 902 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜
      🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Wow. Par for me.

      Wordle 902 4/6

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

    3. I wuz robbed.

      Wordle 902 4/6

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

    5. Birdie Three for me.

      Wordle 902 3/6
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨
      🟩🟨🟩🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    6. I usually play Quordle. But in the light of today’s discussion I tried Wordle and low and behold – a hole in one!

      1. Daily Quordle 683
        6️⃣4️⃣
        7️⃣5️⃣
        m-w.com/games/quordle/
        ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟨⬜🟩🟨⬜
        ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
        🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨🟩🟩⬜🟨
        ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
        🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

        ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
        ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
        ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩⬜🟨⬜
        🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟨🟨
        ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
        ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

  73. 379277+ up ticks,

    LIncoln Council ( lab)decides NO Christmas market due to health & safety, to me more like
    fearing their islamic brethren’s actions.

    Another form of bending the knee.

    1. What could make such a tradition more hazardous this year than those which went before?

      1. At the risk of appearing reasonable, I’ve seen several accounts BTL that it was utterly overcrowded in previous years.

        Admittedly, my first thought was the prohibitive cost of ‘allahu ackbarriers’…

        1. If so, surely the better solution would be to allow the market to continue but restrict numbers. As you say, though, maybe the expense of imposing restrictions was more than they were willing to pay, although it could have been recovered through higher fees imposed on traders.

          2. I’d have to look at the local geography to see quite how that might be effected. I’ve had one short-stay break in Lincoln and Steep Hill springs immediately to mind.

            With its very rural hinterland, I’m a little puzzled that Lincoln’s council is Labour controlled. It doesn’t strike me as typical Labour territory.

          3. Lots of non-indigenous in Lincolnshire (agriworkers from Eastern Europe). One reason why Lincolnshire voted so heavily to Leave.

      2. 379277+up ticks,

        Evening DW,
        A governing coalition party council, submissive, and the need to follow the RESET line.

        1. Those are not risk factors which a Labour council would take into account. They wouldn’t even consider them to be risk factors. The risk factors for a Labour council would be those which provoked attacks by those you mention.

    2. But woe betide anyone not genuflecting
      towards ramadamadingdong and Diwali at their time of year

    2. This has appeared in so many places now it must be a meme which we can keep ramming down the BBC’s throat as we cancel our licences.

  75. Good heavens! There are no comments allowed on the obit for the race baiting ‘poet’! Sorry! I may have missed them!🙄

    2. Perhaps he had a codicil in his Will that anyone who criticised his crappy life they would be punched. That’s poetic that is…

        3. Sadly not – there are tens of thousands of these feckless men around. Spawning children by the dozen. Beating up their women…. The end is listless.

  77. Ukrainian men trekking through mountains to dodge conscription . 8 December 2023 • 3:43pm

    Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last February, the country has been under martial law, meaning men between the ages of 18 to 60 are prohibited from leaving.

    But 650,000 fighting age men have managed to flee Ukraine since the war began and have received residency in Europe, according to official EU data.

    Usually if you wait long enough some snippet of truthful information will slip through the censorship barrier.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/12/08/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-putin-us-aid-live/

      1. Which is where many of them will have gone of course. There are claims from the Western press of bad treatment there but no evidence presented and it seems unlikely anyway. There’s more reason for Russians to regard them as their own than as enemies.

          2. Someone on here did many moons ago tell me the difference between a gif and a meme, but what a totally blank screen has to do with waking up is beyond me, Sue Mac.

          3. I had no idea either! I just hit that little square box under this one, that says gif! Then pick one you like!

  79. Daughter and 30-month-old whirling dervish grand-daughter have just left after a five-day visit. Peace descends and order being recreated from chaos. While they were here we had the TV on CBeebies, the BBC childrens’ channel, a few times to entertain the dervish. The indoctrination and subversion is blatant: White people in the minority; white men, when seen, were portrayed as dolts or soys and a central presenter was dressed in a royal blue waistcoat covered in yellow stars. This stuff is poison. Keep your chidren/grand-children away from it.

    4. I noticed that pre-covid when I used to visit a friend who would put the TV on for the grandchildren. It was full-on diversity and woke.

    1. I wondered about the length of their breeding life. Apparently they can live up to 30 years in captivity but the female enters the panda equivalent of menopause in her early 20s.

      1. Our vet daughter did an extra (intercalated) degree in large animal conservation. It included rare Amur tigers and pandas. She came to the conclusion that pandas were so lazy and un evolved that they will make themselves extinct.

  81. Reform UK’s surging support could cost Tories up to 35 seats. 8 December 2023.

    Reform is polling at around 10 per cent nationally, compared with a typical score of five per cent a year ago, and far above the two per cent secured by the Brexit Party in 2019.

    The situation would become even worse for Mr Sunak if Nigel Farage returned to politics following his stint on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, given his name recognition with the public.

    We really need revolution but we might have to settle for Reform.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/12/08/reform-uk-surging-support-cost-tories-35-seats-election/

          1. You miserable old grouch, Bill. If this weren’t the season of goodwill I might just swear at you and call you a Very Silly Sausage! Lol.

  82. That’s me done for. Turned out to be a nice day – lots of sun, no wind and moderately mild (for the time of year). Took out a bank loan to buy some 2nd class stamps….

    However, tomorrow we have the village Christmas Fair – and shite weather is forecast, no matter where one looks. The MR will be in the Village Hall slaving. I’ll stay at home and make a loaf.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain – if I am spared.

      1. Perhaps, but it’ll be 8 years+ when the next election happens since June 23rd 2016. An awful lot of people have seen the disastrous Tory governments, with equally disastrous opposition, forcing totally illogical agendas contrary to any common sense seeking voter’s wishes. If Reform isn’t undermined by other similar right wing rivals, then I can almost see voters returning a meaningful number of seats.
        Wishful thinking perhaps, but there’s nearly a year to go.

    3. It will be remembered as the lost opportunity.

      The state fought Brexit so ferverishly the public were sick of the remoaners and kicked back, gifting the party promising to uphold the public will a huge majority. That party then proceeded to do absolutely nothing that would have benefitted the country from that huge mandate.

      Erase them. It is the only way they will learn to walk at heel.

  85. Can I change the subject with a silly question .

    1. Ants do not have lungs.
    2. Ants do not have ears.
    3. Ants are farmers.
    4. Ants have two stomachs.
    5. Ants can swim.
    6. Ants are slave owners.
    7. Ants are older than dinosaurs.
    8. There are more than 12,000 species of ants worldwide.
    9. An ant can lift 20 times its body weight.
    10. Some queen ants can live for several years and have millions of offspring.
    11. When ants fight, they usually fight to the death.
    12. When the colony’s queen dies, the colony can only survive for a few months.
    13. Ants can live for up to two hours without oxygen.
    14. Ants have no blood.

    If they don’t have lungs … what and how can they survive with out oxygen for 2 hours?

    3. Spiracles: a network of pipes that transport oxygen and CO2 to/from the body parts by diffusion. That limits their size (thank God: Think spiders!), also takes time for the O2/CO2 to diffuse. Like all insects.
      Put n ant in a neutral atmosphere such as nitrogen for any length of time, and they die.

        1. To my mind they are fairly shallow light entertainers. I remain tepid in my feelings about them. They are pale shadows of Bruce Forsythe, Bob Monkhouse, Hughie Green and others of their stature. I know that Ant & Dec are popular but I struggle to understand why. I can only acknowledge that it happens to be true.

          I’ve seen people in hysterics watching Mrs Brown, yet I cannot see why. ‘She’ lacks lacks any subtlety or finesse and leaves me cold. When it come to Irish humour, Father Ted knocks the socks off ‘her’, in my opinion.

      1. So to get rid of the blighters all one needs to do is put a large spiral of honey in front of the little blighters?

    10. They have a far greater surface area to body volume than us. And the scale of this makes their body systems and functions very different from ours.

  86. Foul though this may be; how is it that thousands of pro Hamas supporters are not being treated similarly? “let’s kill all the Jews”
    or
    People can claim certain occupations, in what is essentially a white country; (although was a white country might be nearer the mark) “Hideously white” is acceptable?

    Or are certain groups above the law?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12842837/Football-fan-racially-abused-Rio-Ferdinand-Wolves-Premier-League-match-fans-allowed-following-Covid-jailed-six-months-banned-watching-live-matches-seven-years.html

    2. Yes. It’s as simple as that. Policing in the UK is comically two tier. Muslim gets a free ride while everyone else is punished for saying a man in a dress is a man.

    3. “‘Mr Arnold is not a young man gifted with intelligence. He knows what he did is wrong and he needs to be punished for it.’”

      How cringeworthy can this get?

  87. Would it be churlish of me to question why Sky News has been broadcasting unbroken coverage of Shane MacGowan’s funeral? I recognise that he was something of a lovable rogue with a spectacular disdain for his own health and had some notable successes as an entertainer, but I don’t see him as someone so admired and loved by a broad cross-section of the general public that he merits this level of media attention.

          2. You assume I spend a lot of time in shops that play muzak between November and the New Year!

          4. Well that’s embarrassing. It is a good song. I don’t remember ever having heard it before.
            I am completely unmusical…

          5. How others cannot have heard this song at this time of year over the past 35 years escapes me. Then again, I’ve never listened to Desert Island Discs, so I suppose we’re all weirdos in our own particular way.

  88. Boris, if you really want to do something about chaos makers, declare open season on ALL Islamic jihadists, wherever they are.
    Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and particularly the Middle East. It doesn’t matter which flavour of Islam they espouse, kill the terrorists and their financiers.

    Root them out, kill their leaders without mercy, assassinate their hate preachers and destroy their bases, wherever they are.

    Putin is one of the least of the world’s many, many problems.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12842645/BORIS-JOHNSON-america-help-ukraine-win-alone.html

    1. If Boris gave a stuff about chaos he would have used the majority he had to force real significant change by undoing all the damage Blair and Brown had done, of radically unravelling the endless miles of red tape holding this country back.

    2. A rough definition of Chaos Theory”;

      “Small differences in initial conditions, such as those due to errors in measurements or due to rounding errors in numerical computation, can yield widely diverging outcomes for such dynamical systems, rendering long-term prediction of their behavior impossible in general.“

  89. Has anyone noticed that the only time that the Left promotes or even mentions Christmas is when they want a Christmas strike to spoil everyone’s Christmas.
    How ironic is that ?

  90. 379277+ up ticks,

    Here we go again tory (ino) party MK2 coming through on the rails,

    Dt,
    Reform UK’s surging support could cost Tories up to 35 seats
    Richard Tice’s Right-wing party sees share of vote more than double in poll and is poised to inflict mortal damage on Rishi Sunak

    1. Heaven forfend a political party will offer something the public actually want and would benefit from!

      But that’s the problem, isn’t it? The statist Left really do believe they know better. They believe that by removing our freedoms they are helping us. Through high taxes we have more choice. They genuinely, fervently believe they are better than the proles they purport to rule.

      I imagine if asked why he hasn’t simply cut taxes Sunak would say they need the money to pay off debt/to maintain public services. Both are lies, yet he believes them.

      1. Many millions will vote Labour/Lib Dem/Green/SNP/Plaid Cymru (amongst others of their ilk) at the forthcoming General Election. I presume they offer something that their voters want. Whether it will be something they would benefit from is another matter entirely, but most probably imagine they will. Some, of course, vote out of spite, not to benefit themselves but to disadvantage others against whom they have a grievance (real or imagined).

  91. Evening, all. The trees are ready to put up and all the decorations have been put handy, but nothing has actually been completed yet. I have, however, written up three sets of minutes (the secretary resigned all of a sudden), created an agenda, sent those docs off to members ready for the meeting next week and helped out a friend dealing with the estate after her father’s death. I even managed to cut down some very straggly Japanese anemone that had suffered in the frost, ready for the green bin emptying next week.
    As for the headline, we should “prepare for the next pandemic” by ensuring that the hospitals are ready and capable. Operation Cygnet showed up weaknesses that were not addressed. Somehow, I don’t think that’s what they’ve got in mind.

  92. A man after your own heart, ogga. He’s not wrong though!

    Legalman
    @UScrimeReview
    It’s now almost 2024. Still nobody in “the deep state” or responsible 4the Covid scam has been locked up. Nobody on trial. No charges even filed. And STILL the people run around arguing about “voting” & telling me it “will happen”. I really am sick of living among such fools.

    1. I think a better question is why is Japan not held to the same standard as we are. They’ve taken about 80 people in the time we’ve had 30 million forced on us.

      Why are we forced to suffer the invasion?

      2. 379277+ up ricks,

        Evening W,

        I truly believe it is because more of the same is asked for these past 40 years, via the polling stations.

    1. Great – any “British citizen” who lives abroad can now vote in our elections. When one thinks of all the foreigners given British citizenship, some of whom (but not nearly enough) have gone back, the thought is appalling. I guess this covers people who have been deported as well.

      So those Romanians and Poles who were given citizenship when we left the EU can go back home and vote. Ditto Albanians and anyone else who has been given citizenship.

      This is simply against our constitution.

      1. Non citizens (and 16 year olds) can already vote in Welsh elections. I imagine you just need an address in Wales.

      1. Good evening mola…makes no difference to me. I have very few ties left in the UK, and will not be returning, I do not see the logic for me to vote on government and/or policies where I do not live.

        1. Good for you, jill. I know you’re somewhere out in the sticks over there, and that’s the only place to be over here too.

        2. I could understand the logic of not being allowed to vote in UK general elections because I live and pay my taxes in France. However what outraged me was that when Blair robbed me of my vote he did nothing to ensure that UK nationals living and working in other EU countries were automatically given voting rights in the countries where they were living and working. Had Blair negotiated with the EU to get this those British people working in the EU would have thought it was fair – but no, we were disenfranchised. I had no vote in the UK even though I am British – but I have no vote in France because I am British and not French.

          That piece of filthy pond life Cameron promised UK nationals living in the EU a vote in the Brexit referendum but when he discovered that not all of us were pro EU he decided to break his promise.

          I wish nothing but ill on both Blair and Cameron. May they both rot!

          1. Whilst I understand your indignation about the Brexit vote, we now know that leaving the EU amounts to little more than remaining aligned with it. I’m not sure which is more dismaying: being denied a vote or discovering that voting with the majority makes virtually no difference.

    3. Index my pension and I will vote for you.

      What on earth do most of us long term expats know about UK politics to be able to make an informed decision.

      1. I doubt that has crossed their mind. It could be that they think that ex-pats abroad would be more favourable to a return to the Evil Empire.

    4. That means that my son cannot vote in UK elections. We left the UK when he was ten years old

      1. To be fair, Richard, I don’t think children aged 10 or less should have a vote in the UK having spent the rest of their lives growing up and living in another country. If he’s entitled to a vote in Canada, should that not suffice?

  95. I received an email today which had been sent to all 18,000 staff asking for donations for a project a nurse are working on with a charity to bring clean water to a village I Uganda.

    Call me naive, but its 2023 ffs, why can’t they organise their own clean water?

      1. We, through charity, hold them back. Then we’re told how awful we are. The whole farce is moronic.

    3. Because their failure is cyclical.

      They have a need, but no engineers. We rock up and give them everything they could want
      The engineers in training decide to become veg sellers

      No new infrastructure is built.

      No new machinery commissioned
      No experienced gathered.

      Then they need more help and the cycle continues.

      The only way out is to say ‘sorry lads, you’re on your own’

    4. Yes, but the money is certainly filtered down when it arrives at the bottom of the muddy well. 1% perhaps. 99% wasted on the top societal folk as the distribution system does its job.

    5. I mentioned it earlier in the week, my father was sent to Uganda in 1959 under British Aid to work for the geological service. Part of his job was to find water bearing rocks and sink boreholes. He left in 1974 when Idi Amin made the country too dangerous to live in. Its hardly rocket science and not high tech, but African governments seem to lack the will to provide the basics.

    6. They have the same problem that the governments of Ghana and Nigeria openly acknowledge. Open defecation. They don’t need more wells. They need to stop peeing in the well and crapping in the stream. Then they’ll have clean water.

    7. Given the amount that’s been donated to Africa for wells and water supplies, someone is taking the piss as well as misdirecting all those donations.

        1. Ah, yes. Thanks. Made worse by making evil remarks then laughing himself silly. I haven’t missed an emergency trip to hospital, then. Phew!

          1. I think he’s been up for about 36 hours, hopefully he’s crashed out and will get a good night’s sleep.

          2. Just back fro ENT. Camera up the nostrils was ghastly. Been in all
            day. Lovely people, I have to take it easy for a couple of weeks.
            Bleeding stopped now. No laundry. No washing up, No bending over.
            Suits me just dandy.

            Thanks for your concern. Appreciated……

    2. Just back fro ENT. Camera up the nostrils was ghastly. Been in all
      day. Lovely people, I have to take it easy for a couple of weeks.
      Bleeding stopped now. No laundry. No washing up, No bending over.
      Suits me just dandy.

      Thanks for your concern. Appreciated…

  97. An opportune excuse being prepared to attack Iran?

    US embassy in Baghdad is bombarded with 60mm mortar rounds by Iran-aligned militias marking the first time it’s EVER been fired upon as explosions rock city in the early hours of the morning
    Missiles were fired at the diplomatic hub in Iraq in the early hours of Friday morning and they set off the emergency sirens
    Staff and residents in the local area were told to ‘take cover and await further instruction’ as the sound of explosions rung out
    A US embassy spokesman said there were no casualties, but the attack reportedly damaged the headquarters of an Iraqi security agency

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12842089/US-embassy-Baghdad-bombarded-fiery-mortar-rounds-attack-Iran-militia.html

      1. I’m not convinced that would change the course of the curse.
        The cancer is too deeply embedded in the world.

    1. He is still under threat of prison for contempt. He has another hearing on Monday against bail restrictions. The state will not let him free.

    1. Well, it seems to me that it is one postman who is really rotten and not Royal Mail.

    2. It is £2.20 now to post a Christmas card overseas, be it Germany or Australia. I won’t be sending any next year.

      1. I’d better take out a mortgage when I post my overseas cards tomorrow by the looks of things. That’s the problem with being a radio ham; friends all over the world and none in this country 🙂

    1. Good night, BoB. Did the long journey in your new van do the trick on clearing the problem you had?

      1. Didn’t go to Stoke t’other day. I was too knackered after the disturbed Wednesday night to risk it, especially considering the foul weather.

    2. Just back fro ENT. Camera up the nostrils was ghastly. Been in all
      day. Lovely people, I have to take it easy for a couple of weeks.
      Bleeding stopped now. No laundry. No washing up, No bending over.
      Suits me just dandy.

      Thanks for your concern. Appreciated.

  102. A woman on GB News just said, “The UK doesn’t have open borders. You don’t have open borders. You have freedom of movement”. I give in. These people are thick. Night night all!

    1. Freedom of movement is entirely different to open borders. I thought everybody knew that. (Tut) Some people! 😉

  103. Well, good night chums. I hope you all sleep well and enjoy your weekend. See you all tomorrow.

  106. I have been searching for my 2lb loaf tin. And it transpires it’s in Southampton with my daughter!

    2. I wouldn’t trust a 2lb loaf tin as far as I could throw it. They are notoriously fickle in their loyalties.

  108. Many of our readers have raised concerns over the potential sale of Telegraph Media Group to the Abu Dhabi-linked Redbird IMI.

    While Ofcom carries out its investigation we are inviting the submission of comments on the process. Email salecomments@telegraph.co.uk to have your say.

    1. I have come to the conclusion that having a say is meaningless. “We hear what you say” is merely a prelude to taking no notice of it.

  111. Have you ever been driven to distraction by saturation advertising to the point that, regardless of how good the product is, you become determined not to buy or experience it? That’s how I have set my face against watching any of Sky’s Christmas movies this year. They’ve plugged them several times an hour of every hour of every day for a few weeks with yet more to come. They’ve even resorted to promoting them twice in single ad breaks. This is no longer about persuasion. This has become a nagging, bullying torment. It’s relentless. They’d argue that we need constant reminders to ensure we don’t forget what they are offering. I’d say I’m insulted by their presumption that I have the attention span of a gnat. In endeavouring to ensure they capture one extra viewer, they are at risk of pissing off ten others. They can stick their Christmas movies where the sun don’t shine as far as I’m concerned.

    1. I feel the same about the relentless conditioning with adverts featuring the tinted. I don’t want it, it is not aimed at my demographic, so eff orf!

      1. That’s what the UK looks like to advertising agencies that rarely venture much beyond London.

  112. Goodnight, folks. Chateau Conway is now in festive mode; trees up and decorated, fairy lights ready to switch on, candle bridge lit, creche on display, and tea light holders lighting scenes. Cards are in a holder looking all neat and tidy. All I need to do now is wrap the rest of the presents and write the remaining cards then send them off and that will be Christmas sorted. Annoyingly, I cannot find the box which has the fanciest of the tree decorations. It is no longer under the stairs where I used to keep it. Clearly I have had a rearrangement and forgotten where I’ve put it 🙁

    1. Sounds a bit like this place.
      Things get “put away somewhere safe” and are never seen again!

    3. You’re sure that Oscar didn’t eat it whilst you were out for a walk with Kadi and he (Oscar) refused to join the two of you? Lol.

        2. Morning Elsie. It’s probably computer trouble. For someone running this Blog he’s back in Commodore 64 days.

        3. Morning Elsie. It’s probably computer trouble. For someone running this Blog he’s back in Commodore 64 days.

      1. No worries, Geoff. Good to catch up on zeds. Me, I slept nearly twelve hours last night, waking at about 09:30 to the sound of snowploughs.

  114. Geoff notwithstanding, Here is today’s story:

    Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    It Was Christmas Eve
    One particular Christmas season a long time ago, Santa was getting ready for his annual trip, but there were problems everywhere.
    Four of his elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones, so Santa was beginning to feel
    the pressure of being behind schedule.
    Then Mrs. Claus told Santa that her Mother was coming to visit. This stressed Santa even more.
    Then he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two had jumped the fence
    and were out, heaven knows where. More stress!!!
    Then when he began to load the sleigh one of the boards cracked and the toy bag fell to the ground and scattered the toys.
    So, frustrated, Santa went into the house for a cup of coffee and a shot of whisky. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered
    that the elves had hidden the liquor and there was nothing to drink. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the coffee-pot and
    it broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw
    it was made from. Just then the doorbell rang and Santa
    cursed on his way to the door.
    He opened the door and there was a little angel with a big Christmas tree. The angel said very cheerfully. “Merry Christmas Santa,
    isn’t it just a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Isn’t it a lovely tree? Where would you like me to stick it?”
    Thus began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

    1. I really enjoyed today’s joke, Sir Jasper. Thanks, and I’ll now sign off and return later in the day.

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