Monday 11 December: We would enjoy old age more if we did not fear an undignified death

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.

522 thoughts on “Monday 11 December: We would enjoy old age more if we did not fear an undignified death”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story (nasty and not nice)

    Prison Diet
    A shy, nerdy white guy gets thrown in prison for embezzling. He gets a huge, mean-looking black guy as his bunkmate.
    The black guy goes over to the new inmate and says “Me and you gonna play HOUSE. You wanna be de MOMMY? Or do you wanna be de DADDY?” Thinking fast, the terrified little white guy says, “I’ll be the daddy, if you don’t mind.”
    “Hell no, I don’t mind!” the black inmate responds, “Now come on over here and SUCK MAMMA’S DICK!”

  4. ‘morning all

    Christmas Laff

    THIS list of ‘Christmas carols for the mentally disturbed’ was
    published with the backing of a social services department. The
    publishers have now withdrawn the magazine, Marooned, to remove the
    offending article.

    1. Schizophrenia
    – Do You Hear What I Hear?

    2. Multiple Personality Disorder
    – We Three Kings Disoriented Are.

    3. Dementia
    – I Think I’ll be Home For Christmas.

    4. Narcissistic
    – Hark The Herald Angels Sing About Me.

    5. Manic
    – Deck The Halls And Walls And House And Lawn And Stores And Office And Town And Cars And And Buses And Trucks And trees And…

    6. Paranoid
    – Santa Clause Is Coming To Town To Get Me.

    7. Borderline Personality Disorder
    – Thoughts of Roasting On An Open Fire.

    8. Personality Disorder
    – You Better Watch Out, I’m Gonna Cry, I’m Gonna Pout, Maybe I’ll Tell You Why.

    9. Attention Deficit Disorder
    – Silent Night, Holy Oooh Look At The Froggy, Can I Have A Chocolate, Why Is France So Far Away.

    10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
    –
    Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
    Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, …

  6. Medley

    Remember those Christmas jumpers Nan used to knit you??

    Mine was insufficiently ambitious……

    https://twitter.com/McLovinOvenUSMC/status/1733919476100325661?s=20

    Awkward

    https://twitter.com/iamyesyouareno/status/1733828357031182752

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7fb59931feee624afb09ea630b191d4f65e205488a1eef02db302644e2f3caf1.jpg

    https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=568,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/pending_media_attachments/files/009/260/395/original/571966005b7225c5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/485cc775784dd65e4694f77bdce1e915d3904fa3f9552851b0540d12d7df4fe5.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4be7605822ad48e72ba7421805534e31fbfa66271de60299843dac3da20330b7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/602eb5a579d46b4e0ba1c0e0b6cde5eede8b21910c7bf26044f9ea26c03a4561.png

  8. Good morning, chums. I hope I find you all well. I’m off to watch WONKA at the cinema today. It’s apparently a back story to the Willy Wonka story by Roald Dahl which has been filmed twice, but I have watched neither of those two, nor have I read the book. All I know about it from the trailer is that his best pal is a young girl of colour. Do they marry in the original story, have children, and then go shopping for sofas in furniture shops? Lol. I do get quite cross when the film director makes these politically correct casting decisions – it turns me completely off the black character even before I have given her a chance to play her part – for all I know she is a perfectly decent actress and plays a likeable character. The problem, amongst others, is that the Academy Awards committee have decided that such casting is essential if the film wishes to even be considered for an Oscar award. And an Oscar win makes it more likely that the film will be much more profitable.

    1. Does it mention if they buy their sofa in the run-up to a bank holiday?
      Have to keep the story accurate.
      Morning, Olaf’s relict.

    2. Good morning Ms Bloodaxe and everyone. The actress is not exactly ‘black’, she looks to be ‘cafe au lait’.

      1. Indeed, and she’s not too bad an actress. But the film is a strange mixture of British and American actors, the songs are poor with imperfect rhymes and the film, whilst short, drags a bit. Rowan Atkinson has the best and funniest line when he interrupts a funeral service to answer a ringing phone. “Hello”, he says “Pulpit here!” I found this hilarious, to be honest. I would recommend it as a film for younger children, but not particularly enjoyable for their accompanying parents.

  10. Morning, all Y’all. Dark. Lots snow needed shifted before could drive the car to station, so missed the regular train. Bummer.

  11. 379360_ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    When. and. if the nasty bastard is found send it to Israel as a spearhead for others with the same mindset, under an emergency mandatory law.

    Met asks for help to find pro-Palestine protester carrying ‘final solution’ placard
    The force says it ‘understands why people are angry and disappointed that this man wasn’t arrested’ on Saturday’s march in London.

    Ps.
    Peoples will remain angry & disappointed due to their repetitive voting pattern, as in party before Country.

    1. Amazing. With blanket surveillance only equal to that of China, the Met can’t identify the demonstrator.

      1. Facial recognition is about harvesting data. Not to actually find wrongdoers.
        Besides…it’s all a matter of resources. If the offended person is rich and powerful they can suddenly find the resources.

  12. Royal Navy donates vital mine-hunting ships to Ukraine navy. 11 December 2023.

    Britain has donated Royal Navy mine-hunter ships to Ukraine in a boost for Kyiv’s Black Sea operations.

    The two ships that use high-definition sonar will be transferred to the Ukraine navy, which is expected to modify the vessels to operate underwater drones.

    It’s a good thing that we don’t live on an island where the government are continually telling us our underwater pipelines and communication cables are in danger from an aggressive foreign power.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/12/11/royal-navy-mine-hunting-ships-ukraine-navy-black-sea/

    2. Either the obvious culprits or they could be Jocasta and Ophelia from a big house in Hampstead.

    4. My village may be boring and quiet, but at least we don’t (so far) have any savages living here or in nearby villages. Though there are no doubt many of them living in nearby towns.

      1. They are out and about all round here (a “hostel” has been created in a former nursing home”).

        1. I certainly wouldn’t feel safe anywhere they were visible, or even knowing they were living close by.

          1. We had no say in the matter; they just turned up and later we discovered where they were being housed.

  14. Finally! I did it in four.

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

    1. Fhats agood number
      Wordle 905 4/6

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

  16. Challenger 2 Tank In The Snow: A Symbol Of Disappointment … And Hope. 9 December 2023.

    A moody photo of a lonely Ukrainian Challenger 2 tank, nestled in the snow apparently in Robotyne, in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast, is a portrait of disappointment—and hope.

    If Ukraine’s long-anticipated 2023 counteroffensive had achieved all of its objectives, that tank wouldn’t have been in Robotyne as the snow fell recently. It would’ve been in Melitopol, 40 miles to the south.

    But that the Challenger 2 is around to be photographed is a reminder that the Ukrainian military still has most of its newer Western-made equipment. And if the Ukrainians can reshape the battlefield, they can try again to drive on Melitopol.
    It won’t be easy, of course. In fact, it might be even harder a second time.

    When the Ukrainian army’s 47th Mechanized Brigade attacked south of Mala Tokmachka on June 8, kicking off the main effort of Kyiv’s counteroffensive, the goal was to liberate Robotyne, five miles to the south, within 24 hours.

    But it took 10 weeks, instead—and for one main reason: Russian minefields between Mala Tokmachka and Robotyne were denser than Ukrainian forces anticipated. Much denser. The 47th Brigade lost dozens of vehicles and potentially hundreds of people in its disastrous first assault.

    The plan, as detailed in an exhaustive new report from The Washington Post, was for Robotyne to be a springboard for the Ukrainians to strike toward occupied Melitopol.

    Instead, the Ukrainian counteroffensive corps ground to a halt in Robotyne, shortly after breaching the outermost layer of the main Russian trenchline threading through that town and neighboring Verbove.

    The battered 47th Brigade and its partner, the 33rd Brigade, led the attack with their Leopard 2 tanks until the 82nd Air Assault Brigade deployed in August, relieving the 47th so its weary troopers could rest and repair their vehicles.

    The 82nd Brigade is the main, or even sole, user of some of Ukraine’s best foreign-donated vehicles: American-made Stryker wheeled fighting vehicles, Marder tracked fighting vehicles from Germany and all 14 Challenger 2s that the United Kingdom provided.

    But those vehicles, while more sophisticated than the ex-Soviet vehicles that most Ukrainian brigades still use, still are vulnerable to mines. In late August or early September, one of the 69-ton, four-person Challenger 2s struck a mine outside Robotyne.

    Immobilized, it was an easy target for a Russian anti-tank missile that set it ablaze and apparently cooked off the 120-millimeter ammunition charges in the turret. The crew reportedly escaped before the vehicle burned to a crisp.

    That shattered, charred Challenger 2 may as well have signaled the end of the Ukrainian counteroffensive—and the freezing of the front line. Robotyne was supposed to be the first objective of the counteroffensive. Instead, it was the last.

    Soon after the 47th Brigade departed the front line—temporarily, as it soon rushed to the defense of Avdiivka, in the east—the counteroffensive corps, including the newly-deployed 82nd Brigade, halted its main attack.

    Yes, the Russians are inching toward Avdiivka, at catastrophic cost in people and equipment. Yes, the Ukrainian marine corps has crossed the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast and established a promising bridgehead on the river’s left bank.

    But everywhere else where the fighting continues, neither army is making meaningful advances. Instead, both sides are digging in, probing, swapping artillery and kamikaze drones, mobilizing new forces, inducting fresh equipment and, if they’re smart, reflecting on the past year of war.

    For the Ukrainians, the main lesson should be clear: Russian fortifications—mines, mainly—are a much bigger impediment to a speedy advance than anyone had anticipated.

    The bad news, for Kyiv, is that its troops have not yet liberated Melitopol. The good news is that Ukrainian brigades halted well short of Melitopol while still in possession of most of their Strykers, Marders, Leopard 2s and Challenger 2. That one Challenger 2 that blew up outside Robotyne is the only Challenger 2 we know for sure the Ukrainians have lost.

    All that equipment could support future attacks.

    But if and when the Ukrainians do attack again, they’ll likely face even stiffer defenses than they did the first time. The Russians know their minefields work. They had time to seed even more mines before the ground began freezing.

    So something has to change to afford Ukraine a greater chance of success in a second counteroffensive. That something must mitigate the profound danger mines pose to advancing brigades.

    I’ve put this up in full (minus the photograph} because it more nearly approximates to the sort of coverage I expect of a war. Informative and interesting you would think that the British aspect would make it Front Page News in the UK’s MSM. I’ve certainly read nothing like this.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/12/09/a-lonely-ukrainian-challenger-2-tank-in-the-snow-a-symbol-of-disappointment–and-hope/

    2. It’s a great pity that Zelensky, Biden and the War Hawks didn’t do a little reading before provoking the Russian Bear.

      Lord Montgomery of Alamein.

      Rule 1, on page 1 of the book of war, is: ‘Do not march on Moscow’…

      speech, House of Lords, 30 May 1962

      Oxford Essential Quotations.

        1. They did and their failures should be a lesson to the likes of Biden and the other hawks.

    4. Not even Ghengis Khan, Hitler and Napoleon combined could shift a well dug-in Russian. Their capacity for enduring and inflicting suffering seems to have no bounds. Maybe it’s their weather?

      Perhaps Zelenskyy needs to look at history to find how Russia has been pushed back in the past. I suggest that the most effective weapon is to use the Russian capacity for corruption, chaos and passion against them?

      I remember Marshal Tito had a cunning plan against a possible Soviet invasion. At any sign of threat (and the invasion of Hungary in 1956 was such a threat), his forces would place crates of oranges on the roadside where tanks were likely to come. Russians, eager for fresh fruit, would eagerly get out of their tanks to steal the oranges, where they could be picked off at will by snipers hiding in the bushes.

    2. Has there ever been a case of a Muslim woman being gang-raped by a group of Christian men?

        1. I have not seen such a report.

          But if this ever did happen the Christians would be the first to condemn it.

    3. That poor woman. According to one of the replies, it took paramedics two hours to stabilise her before they could transfer her to hospital, where she is now fighting for her life. And the sub-human savages were released on bail?
      Another reply suggested the culprits should have their testicles and manhood removed as punishment. Then have what they did tattooed on the forehead. Sounds reasonable to me.

  18. California is going bankrupt. 11 December 2023.

    The little tactical problem that led to this reversal is not unique, it’s a feature of allowing politicians a chequebook anywhere. When the money rolls in then every interest group and political constituency gets allocated yet more taxpayer money in spending. That’s just the way it works – asking politicians to save is like insisting kiddies keep the sweeties for next week. So, every time the California treasury does receive some money there are multitudes of plans to spend all that and more. Those plans are always rises in annual spending which will have to be sustained into the future. So, as and when revenue falls the deficit becomes an ogre – as now. Cutting spending is extremely difficult as it now means disappointing – and fighting against – every interest group and political constituency previously favoured.

    The Americans are ahead of us even here! The only consolation; if that is what it is; is that we will eventually surpass them. We will suffer not only Financial but Social Collapse!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/10/california-bankrupt-debt-budget-finances-woke/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. The down side of democracy.
      Buying votes with the voters’ own money. (At least, with those who pay tax.)

  19. California is going bankrupt. 11 December 2023.

    The little tactical problem that led to this reversal is not unique, it’s a feature of allowing politicians a chequebook anywhere. When the money rolls in then every interest group and political constituency gets allocated yet more taxpayer money in spending. That’s just the way it works – asking politicians to save is like insisting kiddies keep the sweeties for next week. So, every time the California treasury does receive some money there are multitudes of plans to spend all that and more. Those plans are always rises in annual spending which will have to be sustained into the future. So, as and when revenue falls the deficit becomes an ogre – as now. Cutting spending is extremely difficult as it now means disappointing – and fighting against – every interest group and political constituency previously favoured.

    The Americans are ahead of us even here! The only consolation; if that is what it is; is that we will eventually surpass them. We will suffer not only Financial but Social Collapse!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/10/california-bankrupt-debt-budget-finances-woke/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

          1. At least Christians can be humorous about their religion unlike Muslims who want to kill anyone who makes a joke about Mohammed.

  21. Rwanda flights are fair and will deter bogus asylum seekers. David Davis. 11 December 2023.

    This is supported by a legally binding treaty, backed up by evidence that Rwanda is a safe and prosperous country. Both the UK and Rwanda are completely committed to this partnership, with both sides willing to do what it takes to get the deal up and running and flights taking off as soon as possible.

    The legislation is very clear. It confirms that Rwanda is a safe country and will prevent the courts from second-guessing Parliament’s will. It will disapply parts of the Human Rights Act so that it can’t be used to block our policy. Illegal migrants will no longer be able to bring systemic challenges in our domestic courts or frustrate removal.

    Aside from the blatant lies this is the most shameless piece of misdirection and sophistry (there’s no mention of “legal” immigration) I cannot imagine what Davis was offered to write it. It couldn’t be a position in the next Tory Government because there isn’t going to be one. A position outside? A huge wadge of cash? Take your pick.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/12/10/david-davis-illegal-migration-rwanda-vote-sunak-boats/

    1. I do not like many politicians but I certainly dislike David Davis far less than I dislike Dave Cameron, Traita May, Bonker Johnson or Sunak.

      1. 379360+ up ticks,

        Morning JB F,

        Morally unacceptable, if found guilty he also
        should, be up for swinging.

    3. Can we rely on our courts to put justice above their fear of Muslims.

      Judeo Christian morality and ethical and legal practice are completely incompatible with Islam and Sharia Law.

      Our politicians are probably completely aware of this but they are caught like rabbits in the glare of headlights and do nothing.

  25. Good morning, all. Bright and breezy today. Good washing/drying day.

    No stopping the narrative, despite all the evidence that’s coming to light. To turn 180 degrees now would destroy the government’s, the NHS’s and all those GPs’ position of these dangerous potions: ergo, this nonsense will continue until…

    https://twitter.com/DVATW/status/1733997887221117321

    Here’s one who can’t or won’t put two and two together despite the literature available from real doctors/scientists.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3f3416d17fc60fa1ee6291f7863abaac5c65d30b4e6e624f85334d74b76ee996.png

    Words fail me. Next up, reindeer dander.🤡🤡🤡

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/420b1bd134f10b3bd1e5bdeaa0d6c7bdff207ea1f65f5529b27d66d2db1efd9b.png

    1. In their defence, they might. Most folk store them in an attic, and attics have thick insulation which if disturbed can muddle down and get into lungs.

      1. Box up the tree and decorations and cling wrap.
        Though the cynic in me tells me it’s yet another attack to keep people afraid and weaken our culture.

      2. Our Christmas tree sits outside for the year before being brought in for the big day.
        The only problems we have with it is when we forget to keep the bloody thing watered!.

    2. 379360+ up ticks,

      Morning KtK,

      I can only see the road to RESET being by-passed via a new party , massively supported & forming a parallel government.

      The party before Country brigade are currently the biggest problem, anything with a tory tag gets support regardless of being (ino).
      IMHO reform is currently
      tory MK2, as in a continuation of what is.

    3. If Celia Walden aka Mrs Piers Morgan) has any influence over her husband she will persuade him to stand up and admit that he was wrong about the Covid jabs and he is sincerely sorry for the damage caused to anyone who was influenced by him into having them.

      But is Piers Morgan a man with the sort of courage to admit that he was wrong?

        1. Much improved thank you. I even emptied the dishwasher this morning. Had to do it in a crouch though.

          Keep your chin up. It will all be over soon. I mean Christmas…not the end of the world !

  28. Happy days in France
    https://www.takimag.com/article/are-the-french-toast/

    The Unfree French
    Some readers may be aware of events currently playing out—or, according to most media and the authorities, definitely not playing out—in Crépol, a small village in southern France. On the night of Nov. 18, a few hundred local youngsters gathered in the village hall for a dance. Then, the usual French tragedy these days struck: Some Muslims arrived.
    A gang of deprived/depraved (your choice of vowel immediately reveals your politics) “young men with issues around stabbing,” as an old BBC satire once put it, from a nearby ghetto turned up and tried to barge inside, before engaging in what French media disingenuously called a “brawl,” but which really should have been labeled a “pogrom.” A “brawl” implies a fight with grudges and punches swapped on both sides, but this was simply a targeted slaughter of unarmed children by Muslim youths equipped with knives and blocks of concrete, who specifically and explicitly said, “We’re here to stab white people,” as confirmed by at least nine separate witnesses.
    In all, seventeen victims were wounded, including a bouncer who had his fingers sliced off (and then was accused of “racial profiling” by critics for not just letting the Arab attackers in), some of whom ended up in a serious condition in hospital, whilst one 16-year-old boy, Thomas Perrotto, died of wounds after being stabbed in the heart and throat. It appears there has been a poorly reported wave of innocent French persons having their throats slit by unknown assailants in approved halal fashion recently, although this has been strangely obscured by French authorities describing them as suffering from “wounds to the thorax,” presumably banking on the fact most people probably won’t realize what this intentionally vague phrase actually means.

    1. Spot on.

      But things are perhaps moving. I noticed in yesterday’s Figaro that the former Prime Minister (and possible future Presidential candidate) Édouard Philippe, has now said that there is “possibly a new form of anti-white racism”.

      If someone of that political weight is saying this to the mainstream media, then I think we may be looking at some sort of progress. Fingers crossed, in any case!

      https://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/crepol-il-est-bien-possible-qu-il-y-ait-une-forme-nouvelle-de-racisme-anti-blancs-dit-edouard-philippe-20231210

      1. I rather rated Édouard Philippe – though he may wish simply to be Maire of Le Havre. Having said that, being Maire of a large city didn’t stop many previous PMs from getting on! Chaban-Delmas, for one.

        1. Édouard Philippe was in Dinan a few weeks ago to give the Mayor the Légion d’Honneur. The reception was just downstairs from the music school where I was having my organ lesson – I can’t have been more than a few metres away from him, although separated by a concrete floor!

          He is top of the pops in the polls for the best Presidential candidate in the 2027 elections, and his interviews and publications all show that he certainly has the ambition to be a candidate. He also has the support of a number of heavyweights in the current government.

      2. Of course when Marine Le Pen says that there is anti-white racism nobody pays any attention but when Édouard Philippe, a former prime minister, says it people may be more inclined to listen.

        But can you imagine a nominally Conservative prime minister such as Johnson, Major, May or Cameron (and soon to be ex-prime minister Sunak) coming out with the fact that anti-white, anti Christian, anti Jewish racism is a far more horrible problem than those who have an understandable fear of a ‘religion’ which seems to think it is acceptable to rape or murder ‘infidels’.

      3. Anti white racism exists like all forms of racism and it is probably a worldwide phenomenon. In the past it tended to be within the non-white world/community. The new form of anti-white racism is being driven by whites.

    2. There was a powerful argument for the French to take these vicious ungovernable ghettos of violent black Muslims and either pushing them out of France back to North Africa, with an offer they cannot refuse, or simply exterminating the buggers, so that the French can get back to what they do best – enjoying life.

      If this has parallels with feelings in a well-publicised war right now in the Eastern Mediterreanean, then you are right, and anyone reading my posts over the last couple of months will know how uneasy I am about this irony.

      In those, I do not pitch Muslim against French, or Israeli against Palestinian, but rather the struggle is between zealots who must use violence, group hatred and ruthlessness to assert their identity and those who rely on law, common respect and love instead. Whoever they identify as, these are the two camps pitched against each other. Furthermore, where would the latter be without the former acting, without question, to do the dirty work of the soldiering to protect a civilisation from thuggery?

      Perhaps ultimately, any national identity must absolutely depend on the integrity of its military, in all its forms, and on all those that command them. It is why the UK has a King.

      1. The parallel will be when the French finally “snap” as the Israelis have done.
        Israel has suffered Palestinian Muslim provocation for years and apart from the idiot Zionist settlers, pushing onto the West Bank, the Israelis have been relatively selective, targeting specific groups. The Hamas attacks in October changed all that.

        I think you underestimate the problem of trying to accept people who have absolutely no intention of assimilating and who are Hell bent on converting, at best, or replacing the indigenous populations wherever they appear.
        There are already grouping who are suggesting that they should reclaim Spain.
        I fear a repeat of the wars of religion, but with the added white race replacement that many seem to wish upon the world.

      2. I agree that it comes down to the struggle between zealots and reasonable people.

        The eternal problem – and this does not only relate to the current topic – is this : how does one reasonably deal with the forces of unreason?

        1. Perhaps by making sure the superior force owes its loyalty to the reasonable people?

          Republics have a written constitution that one breaches at one’s peril, but when it does, the republic is in trouble.

          Monarchies rely on the goodness of the sovereign. This is by seeing that there is no incentive to be corrupt, since the wealth of royalty and its security in return for an obligation to serve one’s subjects to the best of one’s conscience.

          Neither are infallible, so citizens have to be constantly on their toes and sometimes ready to step in if there is an establishment breakdown, or if it gets perverted by tyranny, stupidity, weakness or apathy.

          It also has to keep up with the times. Society has changed almost beyond recognition even over the last ten years. How does a scripture dating back over 1000 years, upon which one bases our laws and institutions, handle developments even since 2013, let alone over intervening centuries?

          Who would have thought there would be such confusion about what is a man and what is a woman? Or that a few global hi-tech companies would command more money and power than many first world countries? Or that society would rely on the reasoning of machines to the extent that humans could only keep their jobs by complying with algorithms? Or that local wars could generate a stream of refugees and economic migrants into the millions that could overwhelm existing infrastructure?

  29. Presents fot Nottlers!

    This year, he is getting telescopic loppers (difficult to wrap), so he will not have to use a ladder to prune.

    For Mr T, from MR?

      1. Yo sos,

        as we used to say,

        If it looks like 5H1T

        If it smells like 5H1T

        If it tastes like 5H1T

        It is 5H1T

        1. Yo OLT,

          or as WE used to say,

          If it looks like 5H1T

          If it smells like 5H1T

          DON’T taste it.

          It probably is 5H1T

      2. #MeToo.

        If your EV is now unsellable …park it at an airport and torch it. The investigation into the fire will cover it up for you.

        *Follow me for more tips.

    2. So why are they pushing EVs so relentlessly?

      I think that death by EVs spontaneously bursting into flames is another addition to the Covid jabs in the state’s battery of ways to kill us off!

      1. Is the state’s battery . Lithium Ion as it seems to be going up in uncontrollable flames.

    3. Ah yes, the cause was, da dahh.. “accidental ignition”. Well that rules out arson and leaves it open to just about any cause imaginable.

  31. Regarding today’s topic of how some lives go downhill gradually and painfully whilst others have an abrupt and unexpected ending, this reminded me of how Lead-Acid compares with Lithium-ion. battery performance.

    This reannotated graph shows how EVs with 12v batteries, just like humans, can be very reliable up to their designed age but are likely to fail catastrophically without warning at any time and have to be carted off in a recovery truck.

    ICE cars however, with a 12v alternator to charge the low voltage battery, are like the familiar gradual human degeneration on ther struggling efforts towards the graveyard.

    Thanks to the NHS both types of humans will be offered jump starting and parts replacement unless the chassis is beyond repair.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0f3c0be0414c5e002d03cfc69762649b787c0ac02e68fd46f29bad75625bffb7.jpg

    1. There was a report in my local rag today about how a coffin was rescued from a hearse that burst into flames on the way to a funeral. If it had been a cremation they needn’t have bothered!

  33. LEO MCKINSTRY: As senior civil servants’ bonuses are
    linked to promoting inclusivity… From African drumming classes to
    books on white supremacy, how the public sector pours hundreds of
    millions into the diversity money pit.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12848139/LEO-MCKINSTRY-senior-civil-servants-bonuses-linked-promoting-inclusivity-African-drumming-classes-books-white-supremacy-public-sector-pours-hundreds-millions-diversity-money-pit.html

    Who signed that off?

      1. Same with local councils who put planters in busy high streets. No one voted for that. I’m looking forward to the day when Jeremy Vine goes arse over tit on one. Should make a good video as he wears a headcam.

  34. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2ac77f34318fadfee989c6c6e834f75accd1614cc2e111c383e4fe67db371603.png
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/a-life-ruined-by-the-vaccine-and-a-new-low-in-the-battle-for-compensation/

    Remember Mark Steyn?

    He was keen to bring our attention to the damage caused by the Covid jabs and he had several people who had struggled to get any compensation on his programme on GB News.

    He also brought our attention to the case of underage white girls who had been raped by Pakistani rape gangs.

    OFCOM followed the PTB’s instructions and persecuted Mark Steyn until the craven GB News gave in to the bullies and sacked him

    And now GBNews never mentions either Vaccine Damage or Muslim Rape Gangs! I wonder why not?

        1. I think I would be more vocal if close personal friends or family had suffered Covid jab damage.

          1. True. You have a responsibility to family and friends. She has a responsibility to her constituents. Question is…if none of her family or friends had suffered would she have spoken out?

    1. Many of P.G. Wodehouse’s characters have to use false beards from time to time in order to conceal their identities.

      Some people can grow impressive beards in about a week. Others produce rather weedy efforts. I can grow a reasonable moustache but the beard on my chin is rather disappointing so I keep it cleanly shaven. Indeed my only attempt at a beard was liked by our dog Rumpole when he was a puppy and green in judgement but not by anyone else!

      It is not a question of manliness or virility – but I do think that Laurence Fox should accept the fact that his attempts at growing facial hair are not at all successful and he would look better clean shaven! (And after shaving he really must look into the ways of removing horrible to-be-regretted tattoos).

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57672b6cfea90c07986dafc8ec5c2566ee3c62d8251a9e0dea52156df20de89f.jpg

        1. I admit I do not like tattoos. When I was snapping whippers only criminals and sailors had tattoos – women never had them; and only gypsies, pirates and women wore earrings

          4. With ref to what shall we do with?

            Do you have tattoos or piercings? One of my uncles had a discreet anchor tattooed on his forearm in the First World War but as far as I know no one else on my side of the family has any skin graffiti – but I could be wrong.

            On the other hand Caroline has a nephew who is covered in horrible tattooed daubs as he is trying to make his way in life as a Rapper and, so they tell me, you can’t be a successful rapper without tattoos: it’s a crap rap without tats.

  37. My OH is 81 today! He’s busy making a chocolate mousse…….. This time last year we had a heavy snowfall and I couldn’t drive to Oxford on his 80th birthday where he was in hospital awaiting a triple by-pass – I’m very lucky that he’s still here, and well, apart from the AF and loads of meds to take.

    2. Happy Birthday to OH! I can’t believe it’s a year since he was in hospital! 🤦🏻‍♀️🥂🎉🎂

    3. Wishing him a happy birthday, and for a healthy new year to come.
      It doesn’t seem like a year since he was in hospital and you had all the difficulties associated with visiting out of your area.

      1. It doesn’t – but “the older you get, the quicker it goes” as my mum used to say, and she was right, of course.

          1. It might be for you! Not my favourite time of year I have to say. Though it is good to hear from old friends and the boys turn up for a day or two.

          2. I mean as time flies.
            Our family Christmases when i was little were a total bun fight.
            Hope you have a list of chores for the boys ! They will get bored otherwise.

        2. Of course it all slows down again if you’re sitting in an armchair in a nursing home couting down to the next cuppa ’cause you can’t really see to read or hear the television and you’re not sure whether so and so visited yesterday or will come tomorrow.

          1. I hope it doesn’t get to that stage. Losing one’s marbles must be the worst thing, but in that case one day must be much like another.

          2. I get daily pictures of that, from Mother’s care home. They do get things to do, but there’s a lot of sitting, waiting for God.

      1. Thankyou Sue! We’ll have his chocolate mousse for pud, after whatever I make as main course.

        I hope there will be a few at least more……… and that neither of us is sent on our way down a ‘pathway’.

  39. The significance of this report is massive; it is what I and thousands of others have been demanding since 2020. If we want to break the cabal and clean up our local national environment we must get started on this type of investigation and prosecution here, in the face of the criminals who infest our intitutions. Matt Hancock should be at the head of the line for such process.

    https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/italian-health-minister-under-investigation?publication_id=257742&post_id=139688334&isFreemail=false&r=10qzvs&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

      2. ‘He did the best he could under the circumstances’.

        Handing out multi million pound contracts to chums.

  40. Maybe it was a letter in the paper today as I can’t find reference to it below bit I have been wracking (?) my brains as to the book I read recently about putting people down when they got too old. it was “The Fixed Period” by Antony Trollope.

  41. 379360+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Covid inquiry latest: Rishi Sunak insists he is not a ‘prolific’ user of WhatsApp – watch live
    sunak: Deeply sorry to all those who lost loved ones in the pandemic

    Understatement of ALL time, Sorryyyy we killed off some of your moms,dads, sisters, brothers,
    aunts, uncles, the good news is Mr Gates is bringing out a feel good / forget & forgive tablet / jab just in time for the General Election.

    Your vote is still of value to us right up until we are relieved by the mighty mullahs , can’t
    wait a ?

  42. An honorary Nottlander speaks.

    The Covid Inquiry is a shameless cover-up

    Rishi Sunak will be the latest politician to appear at this show trial run by the Blob to exculpate the Blob

    MATT RIDLEY • 10 December 2023 • 7:00pm

    On Monday, Rishi Sunak will appear at the Covid Inquiry. It barely matters what he says because it is as predictable as sunrise that he will be pilloried for the mistakes of others, that being the modern purpose of politicians, it seems.

    In his own appearance, Boris Johnson said that he was “very much impressed and dependent upon the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser, both of whom are outstanding experts in their field”. Weren’t we all? In those early months of 2020, most of us trusted Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty to find the best way through the impending pandemic. We were glad to “follow the science”.

    Yet now we have to listen to a lawyer, Hugo Keith KC, tell us with the benefit of three years of hindsight, that the entire pandemic was all the fault of politicians.

    The virus, the Chinese regime and the scientists are spotless in their reputations, it seems. Had Sunak and Johnson acted differently, then apparently almost nobody would have died.

    This is claptrap. No country – not Sweden, not Japan, not Outer Mongolia – escaped the pandemic. Britain suffered about as many waves of the virus and excess deaths per head of population as France, Germany, and Italy, and rather better than Spain. Many places that did well in the first wave did badly in later waves.

    Not that Mr Keith knows this: he shamelessly told Mr Johnson that Britain had one of the worst pandemics in Europe and had to be corrected by the former prime minister.

    Never in the history of Britain have politicians so clearly abandoned their own policies and instincts at the behest of the technocrats. This was made plain day after day as the scientists took to the airwaves and stood behind podiums, saying nothing different from the politicians who echoed and praised them.

    Unsurprisingly, the scientists got a lot wrong. I vividly remembering attending a packed meeting on March 10 2020 in the House of Lords at which Dr Whitty told us that there was no risk in travelling on public transport. “Yerwhat?” I thought. He appeared to be entirely in thrall to the “it’s not airborne” myth.

    Then I remember the experts going too far in the opposite direction: showing inaccurate slides to justify a second lockdown in the autumn of 2020, using idiotic models to demand an unnecessary (as it turned out) third lockdown in December 2021, and failing utterly to take into account the damage lockdowns were doing to mental health, children’s education and cancer diagnoses.

    Boris Johnson also made mistakes, of course, but if anything he listened too much to scientific advisers – both before and after he nearly died of the disease. His biggest mistake, in my view, was to abandon – at the experts’ behest – a Swedish-style voluntary lockdown for a draconian and compulsory one, which has devastated children’s education and resulted in an epidemic of deaths from cancer and heart disease.

    Yet we now know that on excess deaths Sweden did better than almost any country in Europe; economically, too, it suffered less harm.

    Excuses about Sweden being an obedient and low-density population are irrelevant – because the “experts” sang a very different tune at the time.

    They did not say, “Oh well, it might work in Sweden but not here”; they said Sweden would become “the world’s cautionary tale”, was “unlikely to feel economic benefit”, a “catastrophe”, a “disaster”. Yet Mr Keith appears to be blissfully unaware of all this.

    More and more, it looks as if this inquiry, set up by the Blob, staffed and run by the Blob, sees its job as blaming the politicians and excusing the Blob.

    Indeed, I sometimes wonder, as I watch politicians taking the blame for the blunders of quangoes and agencies, whether that is all elected legislators now are: designated scapegoats.

    If the lesson the inquiry learns is that everything would have been fine if a different team of politicians had been elected in 2019, that will be not only wrong but dangerous.

    The five true lessons of the pandemic are: epidemiology is unpredictable so planning ahead won’t work; changing course can be sensible; authoritarianism is a mistake; experts do not have a monopoly on wisdom; and there are always trade-offs.

    When Sunak makes his appearance, I bet you will not hear these.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/10/rishi-sunak-covid-inquiry-evidence-cover-up/

    1. Ridley sees through the sham that is the ‘Covid Inquiry’ but fails to see through the Plandemic sham. He repeats the virus and the China narrative and ignores the shady characters in the background and the lockstep approach of the western politicians. Who organised that? Is one question he should be asking.

      Ridley should then ask himself another very basic question: what was the result of the Plandemic? It was, of course, the “vaccine”, the Universal Vaccine, a product much desired and planned for over decades.

      Following that question, Ridley should then ask himself: what is the real outcome of the deployment of this Universal Vaccine?
      Hint: it’s not the health of billions of people.

      If Ridley needs some real facts he should consult with people who have researched the history of the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen and its development in the USA and probably later in Wuhan China. Another line of enquiry would be Naomi Wolf and her huge team that together are successfully dissecting and then revealing the information in the documentation that Pfizer wanted locked away for 75 years.

      IMHO, until he does some really deep journalistic research he is applying almost as much whitewash as the ‘Covid Inquiry’.

      1. That’s a bit harsh. He’s writing about the inquiry. He’s written plenty on the subject before.

        China covered up the origins of Covid. It’s time the Inquiry asked why
        Beijing’s lies denied the world a chance to stop the spread, costing millions of lives. We deserve to know the truth
        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/28/gove-covid-inquiry-man-made-china-wuhan/

        An independent inquiry into Covid’s origins is long overdue
        The premature dismissal of the Wuhan lab leak theory casts a shadow over the scientific community
        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/25/independent-inquiry-covids-origins-long-overdue/

        I was duped by the Covid lab leak deniers
        That senior scientists saw evidence for theories that they trashed in public has shattered trust in science
        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/12/duped-covid-lab-leak-deniers/

        1. Matt writes about science, but he is not a scientist; however, his wife IS a scientist and a Professor. He was one of the first journalists to mention vitamin D3 with regard to possible prevention of covid 19.

        2. Harsh? Not as harsh as the reaction of the control freaks and liars who placed constraints on people’s freedoms: where was the MSM during those dark days?

          Has Ridley put his career on the line by researching and exposing the evil that brought the Country to its knees? Many have and have paid the cost: now, that’s harsh.

          Whatever China did or didn’t do, Dr David Martin’s & Karen Kingston’s research efforts have exposed the origin and long term gestation of the pathogen. We deserve a hard hitting exposé on the origin etc. from the UK MSM, not a discussion around the hackneyed narrative.

          1. “…until he does some really deep journalistic research he is applying almost as much whitewash as the ‘Covid Inquiry’.”

            And this is hogwash. Why on earth are you trying to lay guilt on Ridley? He does write “The virus, the Chinese regime and the scientists are spotless in their reputations, it seems” as he mocks Hugo Keith. His article on being duped was written a year ago.

            Let us suppose that the virus was indeed novel and did emerge naturally. The questions over lockdown etc. would still apply.

      2. That’s a bit harsh. He’s writing about the inquiry. He’s written plenty on the subject before.

        China covered up the origins of Covid. It’s time the Inquiry asked why
        Beijing’s lies denied the world a chance to stop the spread, costing millions of lives. We deserve to know the truth
        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/28/gove-covid-inquiry-man-made-china-wuhan/

        An independent inquiry into Covid’s origins is long overdue
        The premature dismissal of the Wuhan lab leak theory casts a shadow over the scientific community
        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/25/independent-inquiry-covids-origins-long-overdue/

        I was duped by the Covid lab leak deniers
        That senior scientists saw evidence for theories that they trashed in public has shattered trust in science
        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/12/duped-covid-lab-leak-deniers/

    2. As the Chinese would say if there was an outbreak of honesty, borrocks! There is no evidence of a pandemic. None at all.

    1. It’s still a pig in a wig. Go stand in Tower Hamlets if you want to see what real transphobia looks like.

      2. Sad, fat balding, middle aged white bloke who no one pays any attention to. Looks like he has found a way around that.

  44. I was dying to make a comment here – but fortunately I didn’t die. 🤔
    It could have been painful. 😰

    1. The headline is bollocks. I want to pass away in my sleep when I’m well past 100 or go as and when the Good Lord sees fit. I do NOT want to be murdered and if anyone other than me and the Good Lord are involved, it IS murder. End of.

        1. I do but I have much sympathy for those who feel driven to take their own lives. It’s a sin but then fear too is a sin and we’re all sinners. It’s tragic that people commit suicide and praying for their souls seems right and proper. As for whether they should be interred in hallowed ground, which of us will have that privilege now anyway?

          1. Of course Ophelia who distributed flowers and herbs hardly trod the primrose path when she sought her final exit.

  45. Today’s bugbear. All the bluddy printer settings in the office were changed over the weekend without due warning and the bleedin’ things don’t work proper! Progress. Grrrr…

    1. Dear Sue,

      I’ve noticed that recently you have begun to make more use of more colourful language. I sincerely hope it helps. Just don’t let the barstewards grind you down. X

    3. It must be one of those ‘New and Improved models.
      If it’s New why didn’t they improve it before launching it?
      If it’s Improved it can’t be new and it probably doesn’t work properly any more. :-))

      2. One way to get an earful is to repond “The printer is working fine, it is just that your computer isn’t properly connected to it ….”

    4. Ah, the IT Sport Department was busy again. They are all drunk on the power of central software control these days.

      On my computer, a small program that I use EVERY BL***Y DAY just vanished. Gone, without trace, and what’s more, according to their software installation plan, it can only be reinstalled centrally by them, after I have started a help desk ticket.

      This happens regularly, every few weeks as their automatic updates mash up my computer.

  46. 379360+ up ticks,

    May one ask, if we ALL agree diversity is good would that qualify us to go on rape & rob sprees ?

  47. 379360+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Home Office earmarks £1.1bn to manage arrival of Channel migrants
    Official documents reveal the Government anticipates that the small boats will continue to arrive

    This must surely mean we will be making them offers they cannot refuse, to return to their countries of origin.

          1. They’re always .UPSET and will be, until we are a caliphate.

            Deport the lot, families and all.

            Stop sucking on the taxpayer’s teat

  50. That’s me gone. Signing off early as we are going to a Carol Service at Gresham’s School, where the MR’s finished her teaching in the UK.

    Have a spiffing evening planning your new cabinet.

    A demain.

    1. Have a good evening. Wrap up warm. If still chilly stuff a load of paper or hymn sheets down your front. That is the advice tramps give anyway.

          4. Me! Just because i asked you to join me for afternoon Tea at the Moonfleet without your husband? What could you be thinking other than nibbles !

          5. Must admit I don’t like self check-outs but the queue was so long in Aldi I went to the self check and said to this young lass who was helping people that I’d never done this before and could she help. She unloaded my trolley, scanned all the goods, put them back in the trolley, showed me how to pay and wished me a happy Xmas. So I turned a self check into a normal checkout

          6. You..with that thinking could be the new CEO of John Lewis ! How do you feel about blacking up, saying you are a trans lesbian with one leg? Starting salary £80,000 per week. Now don’t toss me off so fast…that’s 7 days a month on a sandy beach in Barbados.

            You will have to supply your own sarong/sandals !

          7. The ..let us call it News is often a downer. Just attempting to change the paradigm.

            If i can make people laugh i consider my job done……and my tab paid!!! :@)

          8. Sosraboc taught me everything i know …Then i discounted all that and did better than that old fossil..

          9. Well done.
            Shame you didn’t have the whit to recognise the wit.
            But then a fossil has lasted for years whereas an old fart disappears on the wind…

          11. Well done.
            Shame you didn’t have the whit to recognise the wit.
            But then a fossil has lasted for years whereas an old fart disappears on the wind…

        2. The other two in the account of the men a woman should never think of marrying were:

          Geoffrey Boycott because once you got him in you’ll never get him out;
          Stanley Matthews who dribbles before he shoots.

  52. Just back from Inverness – raided Lidl and Aldi for 14 joints of meat, 20 chicken breasts, 15 tins of potatoes (make great roasties in the air fryer), 20 packets of Oaties, 10 jars marmalade, 640 tea bags, 10 pork chops, a huge gammon joint, 6 kilos steak mince, 8 steaks , a few other bits and pieces and a partridge in a pear tree 🎹. That’ll keep me going for next year

    2. That’s what I call a real stock-up!! Have noted your comment about tins of potatoes, never tried that, always used leftover boiled spuds!

          3. Label on the tin says ‘Peeled Plum Potatoes’ and underneath in a smaller font ‘in a tomato sauced’

            Included in provisions supplied by SSAFA. (Soldiers, Sailors and Air Force Association).

      2. Drain the spuds , dry with a paper towel. Put a tablespoon of olive oil in a bowl, add some dried parsley, salt, black pepper and garlic salt. Rattle the spuds round in a pad to roughen them a bit, Coat the spuds with the mixture then put in the air fryer for 25 min at 195/200°C. Shake them a couple of times during that time. Enjoy!

    6. I really should, at this time of year, be concentrating on emptying the freezer so that I can refill it during the week after Christmas when the supermarkets cut the price of their short-shelf-life stuff after Christmas.

    9. Right Alec, you’ve mentioned the A word. I want to know how they work and if they’re any good.

      As far as my reading shows, an air fryer does somethings well but what about things like sausage rolls? Garlic bread?

      With the oven off we’ve been having a lot of salads and sort of ‘chicken in a frying pan’ but it’s pretty duff stuff and I’d quite like a sausage thatisn’t grey mush (quiet at the back there, Phizzee!)

      We’re looking at: https://www.johnlewis.com/ninja-af100uk-air-fryer-grey/p4846470

      Do you have any recommendations?

      1. I use a Tower air fryer – it’s actually a replacement as the non-stick coating was coming away on the original. At the moment I’ve only cooked chop, chicken breasts, steak, chips, roast potatoes and warmed food up in mine but I do have a recipe book from Amazon if I feel adventurous in the future. Definitely recommend them but I’d leave the choice of make to you but I would recommend getting a double one for convenience. Amazon have a good range of them – however Ninja is a good make but well overpriced

    1. Can’t compete with that.

      Wordle 905 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
      ⬜🟨🟨🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Birdie Three for me Too!

        Wordle 905 3/6
        ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
        🟨⬜🟨⬜🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. A good starter word! But I used my usual.

      Wordle 905 4/6

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

    2. Harry, you stupid son of a bitch a word from the wise, “quit while you’re still relatively solvent” unless you’re using this as practice for you very expensive divorce proceedings.

      1. Since his wife gaslighted him and his family with her let us be charitable and call them her womanly wiles cunt available whenever you want it babyand he has lost all respect from any of them, he could repent. Or he could just strangle the bitch. Kidnap the children. Beg forgiveness.

          1. I did blank the rude word. You didn’t have to reveal like some perverse advent calendar.
            Besides…Like Sue…I’m getting grumpy, and calling it like it is, is something the Mods can deal with.
            Tomorrow is another day…said someone once in an overlong boring film.

  57. I’ve heard only recently on (Planet Earth Doom ?) that because of global warming, 99% of coral reefs will have disappeared in 30 years time so there’s still a small chance of me diving on what’s left when I’m 120.

    Things aren’t so bad as David Attenbrough really makes out. 🤔

      1. For media good news is bad news. Same reason they dropped Bill Oddie in favour of the autistic Packham and also David Bellamy. They were the early birds cancelled.

        1. Sunak knows. The exercise in throwing as much money down the drain continues. The only reason it slows is when headlines like HS2 is untenable he/they pretend to make changes. Then they waste billions elsewhere. Exactly the same as those guys on Oxford street who would do the find the pea under a cup game with their fold out suitcases. They would employ a look out guy. In Rishi’s case i’m not sure who that is now but when plod came along they would vanish like smoke. Only to reappear when the coast was clear.
          Sounds like Boris and Farage to me.

  58. I always live in hope.

    Perhaps this brave individual may start a groundswell that shovels all this shit into the mire where it belongs and takes all its supporters with it.

    Teacher jailed indefinitely for refusing to ‘call a boy a girl’: Enoch Burke who wouldn’t use trans pupil’s pronouns won’t be released until he stays away from his old school – and the ‘country is behind him’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12849569/enoch-burke-refuse-transgender-pronouns-indefinite-prison-sentence.html

    1. It always begins with one or two principled people. He’s stuck resolutely to his principles, even though it’s cost him a great deal. People like that achieve great things.

      2. The outcome may or may not have been to the UK’s liking, but Bobby Sands and the other 10 or so who died showed what can be achieved by single-minded determination.
        I hope it is resolved before this man goes as far.

    2. Nobody does non cooperation like the Irish when they set their minds to it. Well done him though. The kids are in charge in state schools now as far as I can see, and who knows how many teachers have been sacked?

      2. I expect many of them were given ‘words of advice’ and decided to go quietly into the night and do something easier like shark wrestling.

    3. I’m genuinely confused as I thought truth was it’s own defence. The boy is male. Not wanting to indulge his fantasy is not weird, just sensible. In a court he cannot refer to something as something it is not.

      1. You live in the past, where reality was real, not a figment of the imagination of the deranged..

      1. That is why my Dolly Chichuahua now weighs 5 kilo. I have no will power. And very soon her walks will consist of a skateboard controlled by SatNav.

          1. I did. I have. I also no longer need to hoover anywhere or for that matter pick up fallen leaves in the garden.

        2. Mongo is 18 times that. How do you cope with a dog that’s the same weight as my dear beloved Miniclaude?

    2. It’s when the black hole decides he wants a cuddle off his daddy and stands on his hind legs and puts his forepaws over your shoulders.

      Although, with the oven not working he’s been on a sausage roll diet (not having them, rather than having them).

      1. Greggs probably has an emergency sausage roll number. I’m sure they would be prepared to deliver in bulk. If you could assure the delivery driver he wouldn’t be slobbered over and trampled to death. You might have to pay a bit extra in that case…

    3. After my recent incident i was unable to stop Dolly and Harry drinking my blood off the floor !

        1. Of course the most senior management have no clue what their minions are doing and don’t give a shit as long as profit is made.

          Who shops at Next anyway? Even black looters run to Footlocker.

    2. I doubt the marketing people thought about Lockerbie. From my experience they’re all 13 year old kids.

    3. I refer to them as jabs – if I have to use the “V” word I put it in inverted commas or italics or I use the term gene therapy.

    1. I saw that on the news just now – I hope those sadistic killers rot in hell. I remember when the neighbour saw the maggots under the door. How anyone can treat a fellow being like that is beyond belief.

        2. I’ve been using Vapes since 2016 when I gave up tobacco smoking.

          No ill effects and no adverse smell.

          3. Maybe they didn’t like to. I know a couple of people who vape and it stinks, mind you so did the smoke (and i used to smoke 40 a day until I gave up overnight)

          4. Depends on the liquid you use – Mine “Oh My God” and ‘Tobacco’ flavour. No smell at all.

  64. Went to quacks. Steroids and antibiotics. My peak flow – lung capacity – was 60. It’s usually about 650. Took 5 attempts with me not coughing.

    I couldn’t collect the meds today so getting them tomorrow.

  65. Thought for the day
    Which end of year Jewish or Christian festivals will be attacked by Muslim maniacs, and where?
    My starter for ten is on Friday, the end of Chanukah, probably at or near the Temple in Jerusalem.
    Bethlehem has already surrendered to them.

      1. Christmas markets are being cancelled all over in the UK. They are scared they are so popular that people might be crushed in the crowds. Nothing to do with swivel eyed muslim lone wolfs driving trucks into the queues of children in the queue for Father Christmas. Obviously a stolen truck by someone with mental issues who didn’t mention in any way Allah the paedophile murderous child rapist. Nope.. Not at all.

        1. If you are planning a nice bit of terrorist mayhem, it’s hard to steal a truck when all of those deranged Norwegian Methodists have already stolen them.

    1. Good luck

      Off topic
      I watched a TV programme called River Monsters (?) a fascinating insight on angling for large fish and in this case exonerating the alligator gar.
      Very interesting.

      1. An interesting fish down southern states way. Jeremy Wade has done a few seasons of River Monsters, but it does become a bit predictable as the series progresses.

  67. Ignorance or deliberately falsifying the truth?

    From the Beeb:
    “Switzerland, a country of around nine million people, has a high rate of gun ownership.
    Small Arms Survey, a Swiss-based organisation that monitors global trends in armed violence, estimates the number of firearms in civilian possession at 2.3 million.”

    I understood that anyone who has served in the Swiss Armed forces is obliged to keep a gun at home. Happy to be corrected on this point.

    1. I can only refer to the late 1990’s, but then that comment would have been spot on, and it’s actually very surprising what individuals might have stored at home.
      A Swiss friend of mine, who was a specialist reserve officer, had a full blown machine gun at home with sufficient ammunition to enable a massacre. It was stored under very strict conditions in a gun safe.
      OK, I will admit that I had to take that on trust because I saw the safe but he refused to open it. However, I had known him and his family for years and have no reason to question what he told me!
      It has probably changed since then, but I suspect the Beeb is fabricating to suit an agenda.

        1. I can’t comment on Austria , but in Switzerland, at that time, it was everywhere, you served, you retained a weapon, town or country.

          1. I worked in the seventies with the representative of the Swiss company Boursari. They specialised in buried concrete tanks for storage of oil and other liquids.

            These were constructed in reinforced concrete by Italians and tiled internally by Portuguese. I put one such under my building on Rampayne Street in Pimlico and a second under Vauxhall Bridge Road. These held oil for emergency generators in two buildings.

            The representative, whose name escapes me, lived in the Charing Cross Hotel and had served two years doing Swiss national service. He was obliged to have a gun in his home in Switzerland along with a basement bunker.

            Shortly afterwards I was in Heidelberg with friends whose father was at the time the Research Director for the Swiss company Brown Boveri Kent (now ABB). He joked that at some board meeting the Germans mocked the Swiss with their single gun ownership saying “what if there are twice as many of us Germans than you Swiss?” To which the Swiss replied “Then we shoot twice”.

    2. I had a sheaf knife when i was 12 years old. I didn’t then go kill all the little bastards that made me mad at school though. Or even consider using such a thing as a weapon.

      1. I did too, and a flick-knife.
        But they didn’t really feature in my armoury.
        My grandfather used a cut throat razor to shave. He used a pair, and every few years he would buy a new pair.
        He kept the old ones in a basement, where I discovered them.
        I was initially bullied but was left very well alone at school when I produced a razor.

        Probably because it was a public school (ask BT) where such things were pretty much unheard of.

          3. I suppose, but then i had never been to a school where people licked baths or sniffed boots. :@)

          7. It was a joke, something you never appear to spot unless it is explained to you in words of few syllables.

          8. You only have to write (joke) after it and we, lovers of our native language, will not get so pedantic.

          9. I suspect that 95% of Nottlers who read the exchange would have recognised that “fourty” was a pun on forté and that “fourty” was a deliberate spelling mistake to show it was a joke.
            There; now do you understand it?

          1. No such thing at MTS.

            I played rugby for the first XV and at an away match at Harrow I was staggered to find that there were individual baths for every player, and that the fags cleaned the boots.

            We had filthy communal baths, but the first team had a separate changing room with home and away troughs.

        3. I have several cut throat razors inherited over the years but never used by me. The finest is German and made in Solingen and very sharp. There is a full set of seven razors labelled for each day of the week.

          I wish to dispose of these but am unsure as to whether it is a good idea to advertise for sale in the UK at present. Anyone have any ideas?

          1. Solingen is where fine swords are made to this day.

            Perhaps a traditional English barber who still provides wet shaves might be interested?

          3. Please send to:

            Tom Hunn
            Flat 11, Dowding House.
            Old Well Road.
            Moffat, DG10 9iAW
            Scotland,
            United Kingdom.

        1. Ours were used to gut fish we nicked from the local fisheries. After…and i say after we were denied entry to the scouts.

    3. My understanding of Swiss gun ownership concurs.
      I understand that compulsory military training in Switzerland confers the authority to keep personal firearms.

      1. A bit like Israelis. Both the Swiss and the Israelis don’t seem to have mass shoot’em ups in schools and Walmart. Can’t see a connection myself……………..

        1. It’s all about health and safety.
          The Swiss have no concept of such a concept – if you get injured you are own your own.

          I went into a Swiss DIY store and the wood planks were too long to fit in daughter’s car. The employee went off and got me a saw to cut them up myself.

          In UK cuttimg up has to be done by professional cutting up people in the back room.

    4. It used to be that in Norway. After military service and whilst you were still liable for call-up, you had an annual few days refresher – and kept your personal weapon at home. That would be a handgun, and a longarm – a mate used to keep a MG-3 at home, with about ten boxes of link!

  68. Ignorance or deliberately falsifying the truth?

    From the Beeb:
    “Switzerland, a country of around nine million people, has a high rate of gun ownership.
    Small Arms Survey, a Swiss-based organisation that monitors global trends in armed violence, estimates the number of firearms in civilian possession at 2.3 million.”

    I understood that anyone who has served in the Swiss Armed forces is obliged to keep a gun at home. Happy to be corrected on this point.

  69. 379360+ up ticks,

    If fact then I would consider that to be the lowest point politics could possibly reach.

    breitbart,

    The farage chap hints at Political Comeback, ‘Would Not Rule Out’ Conservative
    Party Takeover

    1. Don’t even need to watch. Seen media saying if you are 20’s and renting you will never own your own home….

        1. I expect they secretly want to be dominated. Something their best friends (parents) never did when they were toddlers. I wish them hell.

    3. I thought Anderson was somewhat patronising towards the end.
      It’s a great shame that JP isn’t part of every early 20’s required study.
      Whatever their subject.

    4. Very true about one or two children late in life.
      I was very keen to have my children younger, so that I would not be the all-controlling, all-knowing, all-protective mother. I partially grew up alongside my children.

      1. #metoo.
        First when aged 30, second when aged 40.
        Despite my influence, they seem to have turned out well-balanced young men. Must be SWMBOs influence.

  71. Well, a run to Stoke and back with getting stepson signed up for a new doctor’s surgery in between.
    Unfortunately his handwriting is worse than appalling and the receptionist refused to even look at his forms and refused to assist him in filling them in, so I had to do it for him.
    Then she refused to take the forms as we did not have his NHS number and refused to assist by phoning the old surgery. I had to do it.
    Then, not knowing what Chemists’ there are in Stoke, we asked if they had a list.
    No, that would be FAR too helpful, so we had to find one ourselves and will need to advise them later.

    About as much use as tits on a bloody bullfrog!
    Yet, were we “New British” and unable to speak English, we could have an interpreter paid for by the NHS!

    1. I that case, BoB, I would have been just as unhelpful and asked for an interpreter. since the receptionist was just being disruptive.

    3. If that had happened to me i would have stayed right in front of her face until the police came.

  72. Now the village idiot has announced a plan to tax cow farts and burps.

    As part of his war on Canadians, trudeau has announced that our beef and dairy farmers are now responsible for all of the methane being released around the world. If farmers can adapt to new world production techniques, thet can receive carbon credits that can be traded for something unspecified..

    There is no legal way to get rid of him before 2025 unless MPs call a vote of non confidence and throw him out.

    1. What a load of codswallop!! (I’ll leave it to others to use stronger language, cos I’m a lady)….;-))
      PS don’t let him near Biden..

      1. It strikes me that Trudeau is a cancerous lump on Biden’s America and that there is a good chance they will kill each other’s countries.

        1. It didn’t start well with biden, the day biden took office he cancelled an under construction pipeline.

          It would be a calamity for us if Trudeau is still around when Trump takes office but quite entertaining when yer Donald tells Trudeau where to get off.

  73. “Donald Tusk has been elected as Poland’s next prime minister after the government lost a vote of confidence, bringing an end to the conservative Law and Justice party’s eight years in power.
    Mr Tusk, who previously served as prime minister from 2007 to 2014, has pledged to “restore the rule of law” in Poland after years of government intervention in the courts.

    A keen supporter of the EU and a former president of the European Council from 2014-19, Mr Tusk said that rebuilding Poland’s relations with the EU was a priority.”

    They will be EUphoric in Brussels……

    1. Forget seven degrees of separation. I played the organ for the wedding of a former parishioner. His Polish bride went to university with Donald Tusk.

      I did the same for the wedding of a certain Sam Tarry, who – having impregnated his delighful bride, twice – has, by all accounts, shacked up with one Ms Angela “Pottymouth” Rayner, aka The Ginger Growler…

      1. Presumably the soon to be divorced Mrs Tarry sang:

        “Let him go, fu@k Sam Tarry, let him sink or let him swim.
        He doesn’t care for me, nor I don’t care for him.
        He can go and get another, I hope he will enjoy,
        For I’m going to marry a far nicer boy.”….

        1. Were I thirty years younger, I’d offer my non-organ-playing services…

          As a regular user of South Western Railway, I’ve never been reduced to sitting on the floor. Unlike Tarry and Corbyn…

    2. Forget seven degrees of separation. I played the organ for the wedding of a former parishioner. His Polish bride went to university with Donald Tusk.

      I did the same for the wedding of a certain Sam Tarry, who – having impregnated his delighful bride, twice – has, by all accounts, shacked up with one Ms Angela “Pottymouth” Rayner, aka The Ginger Growler…

  74. Right folks, it’s off to bed for me, so I will wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well and I hope you awaken refreshed.

  75. The chocolate mousse was good – we also had melon for starter, then lamb leg steaks with stirfry, and a bottle of Argentine malbec, shiraz cabernet sauvignon blend. All good. With some music.

      1. We’ve had bilingual signs for years, even the instructions (araf, arafwch nawr, pergyl, yn unig, i mewn, dim allan, pan welywch olau goch sefych yma, fford ar gau etc). No wonder I only understand road sign Welsh 🙂

    3. That is very wrong. Road signs shouldn’t be used for virtue signaling, and anyone who can’t read Roman letters has no business driving in Britain.
      Edit I see poppiesmum says it is photoshopped. Thank goodness. But the ones on railway stations and street signs in west London are definitely not photoshopped because I have seen them.

  78. More guff from the warmists.

    COP28: UN climate talks in jeopardy in fossil fuel backlash
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67679732

    The UN climate talks in Dubai could be in jeopardy after some nations reacted furiously to a draft deal on fossil fuels they call “weak”. The draft removed language included in a previous text suggesting that fossil fuels could be “phased out”. All 198 countries at the summit must agree or there is no deal.

    Countries on the frontline of climate change – places where sea-level rises are already destroying homes and storms are killing people – condemned the draft deal.

    And so on…

    I know we all ridicule (and worse) so much that is done in the name of climate change but this report leaves one agape, agog and aghast at the absolute futility of it all. All nations must agree on a text about agreeing on actions which will save the world from all but nothing even if everyone takes full part in the programme of actions – which they won’t – whatever that programme is.

    The world will run out of fossil fuels sometime but I’m already beginning to run out of words.

    1. It’s all a nonsense. They meet every year and expend an enormous amount of hot air – I’m sure they all have a good time as well, at our expense. All for the sake of nothing. Why should we all have to modify our lives for the sake of an imaginary disaster, when countries such as India and China will do no such thing?

    2. Forget all the shit about nations acting together for the good of humanity. It simply will not happen, nor should it.

      Every nation should look after its own. This is the lesson of history.

      The notion that the oil rich Arab Emirates should forgo their principal source of wealth to allow sub-Saharan Africans to take bites of the cherry and prosper is preposterous.

      Wealthy countries maintain their wealth by monopolising their assets, by making it difficult for predator nations to gain free access to those assets but at extreme cost, by spending some of their wealth on subjecting competitors to hostile trading conditions and by monetising their own debts by taxation of literally every one of their subjects.

      It is all very simple. Big fish eat little fish. Check out the famous illustrations of Breugel and Bosch to which I have referred and given explanations before on this channel.

    3. Forget all the shit about nations acting together for the good of humanity. It simply will not happen, nor should it.

      Every nation should look after its own. This is the lesson of history.

      The notion that the oil rich Arab Emirates should forgo their principal source of wealth to allow sub-Saharan Africans to take bites of the cherry and prosper is preposterous.

      Wealthy countries maintain their wealth by monopolising their assets, by making it difficult for predator nations to gain free access to those assets but at extreme cost, by spending some of their wealth on subjecting competitors to hostile trading conditions and by monetising their own debts by taxation of literally every one of their subjects.

      It is all very simple. Big fish eat little fish. Check out the famous illustrations of Breugel and Bosch to which I have referred and given explanations before on this channel.

  79. Evening, all. Went to a funeral this afternoon and discovered that I’m due to go to another next week. It’s that time of year (and life)! It isn’t an undignified death I fear, it’s an undignified life where I can’t get treatment for my ailments on the NHS, the government is taxing me and making keeping warm too expensive and alien cultures are taking over my country.

    1. Understood, Conners. I’m all for a dignified death. We’ve all seen, experienced, family and friends dying. Personally, I do not want to linger on when my time has come. Just been speaking at open mic to, probably, my best friend/neighbour, who has discovered he has a tumour at the base of his tongue. It might turn out ok, touch wood. He has problems swallowing, even beer. I’m all for being allowed to choose a painless way to die.

      1. “I’m all for being allowed to choose a painless way to die”

        Which is why I’ve donated my body to medical science. I cannot abide the thought of being buried and my bits will be cremated after 3 years. In the meantime I shall have afforded many medical students a good laugh.

  82. There was a very good line in an old movie (The Professionals) in which a character played by Robert Ryan says to a character played by Lee Marvin: “You bastard!” To which the Lee Marvin character replies: “In my case it was an accident a birth – but you’re a self-made man!

    Seeing the antics of Prince Louis I am inclined to say that most children who are spoiled brats are spoiled brats because of their parents’ overindulgence. But Prince Louis is a self-made spoiled brat.

    1. A good film, watched it a few times. Claudia Cardinale plays the ‘stolen’ wife if I recall.

  83. Awake since 5.30.

    Stars sparkling .. not sure if there was a frost , because spaniel is still asleep with the grand controller and hasn’t stirred yet .

    2. Good morning Geoff.

      Thank you, and will you be zzzzzing again ?

      I wish I could grab some more sleep , I need some positive energy for a large meeting and lunch later .

Comments are closed.