Monday 13 January: Years of government failure have led Britain towards an energy crisis

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

595 thoughts on “Monday 13 January: Years of government failure have led Britain towards an energy crisis”

  1. Good morning Geoff and Chums. Am I first?
    Here is the second Monday Giggle of 2025:
    A priest had his bicycle stolen and thought that a member of his flock was to blame. In need of advice, he consulted his bishop who suggested that he root out the thief by preaching a sermon on the Ten Commandments. The idea was that when the priest got to ‘Thou shalt not steal’ he should pause and look around the church for anyone behaving in a guilty manner. In this way, it was hoped that the culprit would give himself away.

    A couple of weeks later, the bishop bumped into the priest and asked him whether the plan had worked.

    “Well, yes” said the priest, “but not quite in the way you had envisaged. I was going through the Ten Commandments one by one, and when I got to ‘Thou shalt not commit Adultery’ I remembered where I had left my bike.”

  2. Good morning Geoff and Chums. Am I first?
    Here is the second Monday Giggle of 2025:
    A priest had his bicycle stolen and thought that a member of his flock was to blame. In need of advice, he consulted his bishop who suggested that he root out the thief by preaching a sermon on the Ten Commandments. The idea was that when the priest got to ‘Thou shalt not steal’ he should pause and look around the church for anyone behaving in a guilty manner. In this way, it was hoped that the culprit would give himself away.

    A couple of weeks later, the bishop bumped into the priest and asked him whether the plan had worked.

    “Well, yes” said the priest, “but not quite in the way you had envisaged. I was going through the Ten Commandments one by one, and when I got to ‘Thou shalt not commit Adultery’ I remembered where I had left my bike.”

  3. Good morning Geoff and Chums. Am I first?
    Here is the second Monday Giggle of 2025:
    A priest had his bicycle stolen and thought that a member of his flock was to blame. In need of advice, he consulted his bishop who suggested that he root out the thief by preaching a sermon on the Ten Commandments. The idea was that when the priest got to ‘Thou shalt not steal’ he should pause and look around the church for anyone behaving in a guilty manner. In this way, it was hoped that the culprit would give himself away.

    A couple of weeks later, the bishop bumped into the priest and asked him whether the plan had worked.

    “Well, yes” said the priest, “but not quite in the way you had envisaged. I was going through the Ten Commandments one by one, and when I got to ‘Thou shalt not commit Adultery’ I remembered where I had left my bike.”

  4. Good morrow gentlefolk, especially Geoff and thank you for his wonderful work on this site

  6. Good morning all.
    Another cold start, but supposedly a bit less cold at 2.1°C, not that is feels like it but up from a minimum of -1° from yesterday.
    Still dark but getting lighter and again, no discernible wind.

  9. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,304 4/6

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

  10. And in his latest upload, his best to date, Starkey says "Starmer will be chewed up and spat out."
    October 28, 2022.. BC/AD before Musk & after Musk.
    The day Musk took over Twitter was as important as the Trump victory if not more.. reckons David Starkey.

    "We didn’t have the 1st amendment, and since 1968 we have pursued race relations.. it explicitly needs censorship.. demands state intervention with the deliberate suppression of Free Speech in the name of racial harmony."

      1. Spare a thought for me – I'm three hours behind the lot of you, and given to dancing all night at that! 🤣

  13. British troops ‘should join post-war peacekeeping force in Ukraine’. 13 January 2025.

    British troops should be sent to Ukraine as part of a post-war peacekeeping force, former defence secretaries have urged.

    It comes as Sir Keir Starmer is expected to visit the country for the first time since becoming Prime Minister in the coming weeks.

    Vladimir Putin is not going to agree to what would in effect be a NATO toe in the door. It is to prevent this outcome that the war is being fought.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/12/british-troops-post-war-peacekeeping-force-ukraine-defence/

    1. Has Russia ever been defeated in battle on its home soil? A nation that is built on its capacity to endure suffering and retreat to places no other army in its right mind could live for long will take any level of punishment are re-emerge from the depths.

      Any "over by Christmas" mentality is simply absurd. The best that can be achieved is a sort of eternal limbo, putting off any idea of a final solution, and getting on with whatever life brings day-by-day. Life would be better without the bombing,

    2. Grant Shapps and Sir Gavin Williamson, who both served as defence secretary. One is a moron and the other is a clown. The UK should not be giving billions to Ukraine, but we all know that the money eventually ends up in the coffers of politicians and industrialists – all at the expense of the British tax payer. Both of them has been engaged in shady financial dealings before. Now they are prepared to put British troops lives at risk and perhaps all out war with one of the most powerful military organisations in the world. Both of them should be stripped of office and whipped out of Parliament – and those that support them too.

    3. Some good BTL comments, a few of whcih are below! It has to be said that most don’t seem to think Shltts and Williamson are talking anything but their usual borrox!
      – I'd rather they stayed here and defended the south coast against the daily invasion of dinghy men
      – What a pair of useless clowns. They should have dealt with the child rape gangs. Two disgraceful characters.
      – The UK with the most expensive energy in the world can barely afford to keep the lights on is robbing it's pensioners and children and is heading for a NetZero recession yet these people still think it can afford foreign wars.

        1. But who is going to tie their bootlaces and wipe their ars*s when they sh*t themselves at the first sound of gunfire?

          1. Who cares? Send them a training video, possibly by Starlink or X, and let them crack on.

    5. Suggesting sending some of the dwindling HM Forces to act as peacekeepers after a CIA/EU instigated fracas seems delusional. If the armchair warriors are unwilling to volunteer their services, perhaps they might give thought to UN peacekeepers. After all, isn't that why they receive so much funding?

  14. Good Morning Folks,

    No frost this morning +2 degrees here.
    Although still a bit of snow lying about in shady areas,
    Just like on Starmers head.

  15. Years of government failure have led Britain towards an energy crisis

    There has been no government failure, what we have is what they always intended to give us.

    1. That's going to be a painful realisation for the majority of people.

      Not only the energy crisis but food, the attacks on farmers and land are not coincidental, they are linked to the "climate scam" by the very words spoken and the planned actions e.g. messing with cattle's digestive system either by using chemicals or genetic meddling. Next up, an attack on water?

      Do not expect any improvements during Starmer's reign.

      1. People have never really caught on to the speech the then Prince Charles made at Davos,
        He said that, We Cannot Go On Like This.
        He meant our way of life had to completely change for the greater good and to save the planet.
        For those that survive it all, that is.
        Nobody really understood that he just meant only us in the West.
        Our governments are all committed to that, whomever is elected, signed up to in law under the Net Zero agenda.
        Unless we get a leader like Trump, I suppose and changes the law.

  16. Cabinet told public spending cuts must be ‘ruthless’. 13 January 2025.

    The Treasury has ordered cabinet ministers to be “ruthless” in identifying public spending cuts as Labour battles to prove its economic plan is working.

    An internal letter from Number 11 about Rachel Reeves’s spending review, seen by The Telegraph, admits that “difficult” decisions on budgets will be needed.

    Foreign Aid? Freebies for Channel Hoppers? No. Cancel Winter payments? Cut pensions? Yes.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/12/cabinet-told-public-spending-cuts-must-be-ruthless/

    1. Freebies for Channel Hoppers?

      There's an easy £8Million/day = £2.9Billion/annum just for starters. Isn't that around two years WFA, right there?

  17. Good Morning!

    Today’s FSB article, MULTICULTURALISM AND INVERTED MORALITY by Geoff Leach sketches a grotesque society where morality is inverted and which he says multiculturalism has created in his home town of Rochdale.

    If you missed them please read Nanumaga’s ‘ The Dilemma That Won’t Go Away ’, which suggests a novel solution to Reform’s TR problem, and Iain Hunter’s superb Common Law . Know your inalienable rights.

    Energy watch 07.10. Demand: 47.485GW. Supply: Hydrocarbons 38.5%; Wind 37.7%; Imports 4.2%; Biomass 5.7% and Nuclear 11.1%

    We are importing 1.97GW from Norway, Ireland and Northern Ireland – classed as imports – but exporting 4.68GW to France, Belgium and Denmark.

    Once again dear readers, we are always looking for articles, so please submit one if you have something to say. It can be on any subject (within the realms of decency). Or, if you would like articles on any subject, please do let us know.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  21. We hand over our data to the algorithms to be analysed to dictate how we are to be controlled, and in return we get Horizon with all its miscarriages of justice. Has anyone actually been charged for what happened since 1998?

    Why do we need to pay for more growth in this sort of thing?

    Professor Wendy Hall is a glib management-speaking idiot with her "don''t worry your pretty little heads" message… what we can expect when the machine takes over and shuts off any accountability to anyone other than Elon Musk and Google.

    Why is the British Government going along? Are they being bullied by Trump?

    1. Is this regarding Labour's desperate quest to understand common sense using 'AI'?

      What Labour want is for someone else to tell them that socialism works and that they are doing the right things so they can say 'look, we're doing the right things, AI says so.'

      Of course, in reality, Labour are morons who couldn't run a bath. What needs to be done is simple. They just won't do it for political reasons. Crime, energy, justice, immigration, taxation, state services nothing will be done because what is needed goes against their ideology.

      1. AI does not and cannot pass moral judgements, and it is debatable whether AI has or could have any sense of ethics independent of those that control what it thinks.

        What is does do is to close off all options other than the one being presented by the controllers. Without it, there is some scope for thinking or exploring outside the box and maybe coming up with something better.

        The classic case is the Facebook algorithm that sets the agenda for teenagers. By presenting suicide as the only option that is considered relevant by AI, then is it any surprise that even the mentally sound decide to kill themselves?

    1. We are about to get one in Scotland and something I agree with if it will deter the idiots in campervans who can't drive them and who clog up our single track roads, leave litter and dump grey water (and associated solids) everywhere, they bring nothing to the local economy
      Edit – plus the boy racers who hire Ferraris, Maseratis etc and think they are on Route 66 for a race

    3. In that case , charge every boat person a fee for landing in the UK.

      Charge every one of a certain religion who clears off on holiday from Luton /Manchester/ Leeds Bradford / elsewhere Airport an exit and a re-entrance fee ..

  24. Good morning, all. Frost free, patchy clouds, dry and a light breeze. Washing is on.

    Real crime committed with evidence and information of where the felons are operating from, leading to apprehension? Don't bank on it. Isn't law enforcement helped in their purpose by intelligence gathering and collating the facts? Apparently not if the will to do so isn't in place.

    https://x.com/Tessadunlop/status/1878489122668433600

    2. Naff of Libtard Dunlop.. your ilk created this mess.

      Give the extent to which incumbent governments were slayed in elections last year it is worth noting how little Kamala Harris lost by.
      Imagine if she had been given time to prepare.

      1. She is abominably rude to everyone – especially to Jacob Rees-Mogg and his guests when she is on his programme on GB News..

    4. Not accurate? It's GPS! GPS is accurate to a few metres. It's easy to find where they're taken. Follow the blacks or dindus and you'll find crime.

  25. Good morning, a milder day at last, drifts in on a cloudy breeze .
    A somewhat belated new years greeting to everyone – health, wealth and happiness x

  26. Censorship within the DT BTL columns again. I've just had two deleted:-
    I replied to this comment:-

    Edwin Pugh
    57 min ago
    Reply to Richard Vine – view message
    That applies only to those who chose to interpret its words that way. The Koran repeatedly commands Muslims to keep promises and uphold covenants. That includes treaties among nations and extends to individuals living under non-Muslim rule. Muslims have lived as minorities in non-Muslim societies since the beginning of Islam — from Christian Abyssinia to imperial China. And fiqh scholars have always insisted that Muslims in non-Muslim lands must obey the laws of those lands and do no harm within host countries.

    With this:- https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/88f0831ee52f66cbb17ba9abf7467150a7d40def9e34ba2170887357f909bfbf.png
    And also made this comment which also got deleted:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/781919726b318cb49c918e14be7f242f31dc0d0b66d5236bd0e07da4c4a3b72b.png

    1. You forgot to mention how they ran Spain and stored children in caves for the use of. And still it goes on.
      They don't like the truth Bob.

    1. The muslim created Labour a voting block that could be depended upon to constantly demand welfare, police services, free housing, the works. It is utterly state dependent and always will be. It also refuses to integrate, making it's allegiance to whoever pays their bills. It is utterly savage, and thus has to be pandered to. It can't be ignored or made to work because it has no useful skills.

    1. 600m over 5 years. £120m a year, 300,000 a day? Aliexpress does that in an hour. Government. A pointless, stultifying entity of no value, purpose or use.

      1. On reflection this is a deflection from our rejection and our need for another election.

  30. 400126+ up ticks,

    MOrning Each,

    Monday 13 January: Years of government failure have led Britain towards an energy crisis

    Should read,
    Monday 13 January:Alternating years of government failure have led Britain towards a major survival crisis.

    It took some doing over these last thirty plus years but once lab./lib/con ( coalition )party members decided that
    "Lest we forget" was to be dropped in favour of " Best we forget" for the good of the party, thereby planting our feet as a nation firmly on the sharply angled road titled RESET AKA skid row.

    The "Take down" pattern was triggered decades ago, an old political tart called miranda fired the first shot as triple times PM in lifting the entry to GB latch to the worlds criminal fraternity.

    Sanity returned for a while only to be followed by treachery via the coalition being formed ALL governing party members were working / voting for the "take down GB political man" via a close shop political agenda.

      2. Since 2008 we have had an energy crisis as government has repeatedly driven down our ability to produce he energy we need. Waste, inefficiency, incompetence, arrogance and blatant troughing has put a tax scam above national need.

        Officialdom should be hanged for treason.

      4. 400126+ upticks,

        N,
        First they manufacture a problem
        then bring in the already manufactured answer.

  31. G'day all,

    Lovely dawn at Castle McPhee today, wind South, 0℃ going up to 4℃ by midday.

    The Way We Were…….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-FuBW-4fV4

    This was the RAF which I joined in 1970 on the University Cadetship Scheme and I was proud to serve in as a Hunter, Harrier and Tornado pilot until 1989. I look at it today and it makes me weep. Thanks for the memories.

    1. Respect! Couldn't agree more, reminded me of my days on QRA with the Lightnings and previous to that on the Canberra B(I)8s in Germany

    2. I hope that woman was given special treatment for being… a woman. All that fuel, I hope they filled in form climatechangestupidity-9948484-asdsd03444-/kfkdff in triplicate before going off to bother that defenceless other aircraft and planted 1 billion trees and made sure to counter their 'carbon footprint' with a diversity quota.

      1. Maybe Mother Nature could be prosecuted for growing all those inflammable trees and shrubs.

    4. But many glorious changes – for example, ranks including the term Aircraft Man/Woman are now called “Aviator” because it is not gender specific. Er, no – the feminine equivalent to aviator is aviatrix. For the first time ever, the current Chief of Air Staff is an engineer and not aircrew so perhaps he can turn things around and get the RAF away from wokedom.

  32. G'day all,

    Lovely dawn at Castle McPhee today, wind South, 0℃ going up to 4℃ by midday.

    The Way We Were…….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-FuBW-4fV4

    This was the RAF which I joined in 1970 on the University Cadetship Scheme and I was proud to serve in as a Hunter, Harrier and Tornado pilot until 1989. I look at it today and it makes me weep. Thanks for the memories.

        1. Even decent, humanitarian, sensitive people sometimes have a wicked sense of humour and cannot avoid laughing at the most tasteless and cruellest of jokes: like the whore is a leper colony who complained that business was dropping off.

        2. Even decent, humanitarian, sensitive people sometimes have a wicked sense of humour and cannot avoid laughing at the most tasteless and cruellest of jokes: like the whore is a leper colony who complained that business was dropping off.

      1. I don't really know why anyone was surprised. After the sexist waffle, the political verbiage, the lies and deceit the budget was going to be a complete mess and it was. Tax rises to force inflation, taxes on education which would backfire and cause demand for state school places, massive debt, taxes on jobs that would stop recruitment, hikes to wages forcing ever more costs on businesses, further suppressing recruitment.

        The outcome of tax and high prices was obvious – so obvious a child could see it. Job losses and no new jobs being created. higher prices due to those companies that cannot adsorb the shocks having to pass on the costs through products.

        Lower tax revenues, higher welfare costs, more debt. Reeves and the Treasury never, ever considered the consequences. The woman is dumb.

      3. Clearly, government is no team-based affair between the various departments, or Reeve's financial plans would have been discussed and bullet-proofed in Cabinet before roll-out. Thus, there'd be no back-pedalling, as the whole cabinet would have been behind it.
        Unless that's how it's done and she's the fall-person, of course.

    2. Hear you, not sure she'd want to work with Farage but if she did join be a big boost for Reform.

        1. Hear you. Farage doesn’t want any other big beasts in Reform. And I doubt she’d work with him, as I say above.

          1. Farage's perceived tendency to resent anyone else with a high profile is the reason why I remain a sceptic.

          2. I wonder how long Farage will be able to put up with the fact that Rupert Lowe is emerging as not only the best MP in the H o C but the most rational member of the Reform Party.

            The fact that Farage could not work with Ben Habib, and that he had to lie about Tommy Robinson are things which may well lead to his undoing.

          5. Take your point, but most people in public life are too, my experience. Perhaps there’s a factory somewhere, churning ’em out?

    3. Gawd.. Liz Truss.
      Remainiac & supporter of NCRI complaining about deep state. LOL.
      “The NCRI offers a clear and democratic vision for Iran’s future.”

      1. The fact that she had an adulterous relationship with a more senior Conservative MP, Mark Field, in order to further her career has made me suspicious of her integrity and loyalty to her family.

        The fact that she was a Cameron prodigy who was foisted upon Wisbech against the wishes of the local party did not make her popular and she lost her Parliamentary seat last year.

        The fact that she is holding on to the ex-PM gratuity of £100,000 pa for life despite the shortness of her time in office makes her appear grasping, greedy and grabbing.

        Indeed she is a very unpleasant woman – but this doesn't mean that she was wrong about the UK economy and time will judge her far more kindly that it will judge Rachel from Accounts.

    5. Agreed in full.

      As PM she wasn't given a chance. The Left-wing 'Blob' decided she was against their agenda, therefore her defenestration was swift and clinical.

  37. Good morning Nottlers, 11°C windy with light rain. Walking football should be challenging in these conditions, though warmer than last week's-5°C. That's if we actually get to play. Whitletts Victoria had to eject some wee thugs on Saturday as they were lobbing flares onto the all weather pitch! Seems some of them came back later and broke into the ground to cause more mayhem. All caught on cctv. The club posted about the incident, saying they wouldn't post the video until plod and the parents had caught up with the little tinkers. Perhaps if we let slip to #TwoTierKeir that the graffiti was all against the sand people…

  38. Good morning, all. Later than usual – isn't an extra 1½ hours in bed nice?

    No frost; cloudy.

    1. Yes, but I'd prefer it were at this end of the day rather than lying awake until gone 2 am.

        2. I keep a box in stock. I can go for months without needing them.
          If I get 2 or 3 poor nights in a row, I then take the tablets; but never for more that 3 nights to avoid habituation. I also give aggravating factors like coffee a miss for a few days.
          I can usually diagnose the cause (the weeks while selling Allan Towers and buying the Dower House were peak pill time).

      2. I'm normally in bed before 22:00, after dozing in the sofa. Sleep like the dead except fr a few occasions… I suspect that it's due to overwork of the remaining brain cell reading NoTTL in the evening.

  39. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not quite as chilly and the sun has actually made an appearance. What would we do without it ?
    I can only recap on all the things that have been said for many decades, our problem as ever is, the wrong type of people are involved in politics. None of them appear to learn from the mistakes from the past, they come out guns blazing trying to achieve a dream that's obviously not going to happen and in the meantime wreck everything else they come into contact with. And we (are forced) have to find the money to finance it all. While they stuff their pockets with our cash. And eventually 'walk away'.

    1. The entire Left wing state closes ranks to protect their own. The BBC isn't going to say 'look, what did you expect massive hikes to taxes and businesses to have?', is it? Nor is it ever going to challenge VAT on education with the simple argument that education is a vaunted human right, not a luxury, so the tax is simply abusive.

      No, the hard Left mouthpiece will always, always support high taxes, debt and waste because, at heart the BBC is just another government department.

        1. I imagine Labour will force it into general taxation and make folk pay for it with a 'communications tax' on internet connections. That's what Al Beeb has been hankering for.

          1. JfC, wibbling – didn’t know that. Likely because more and more refusing to pay. One time I thought it was a ‘Beeb’ licence, but it isn’t – it’s a ‘terrestrial TV licence’. Match of the Day, GBN..and that’s it. Everything else Netflix or Prime.

        2. Apparently Labour are planning to absorb it into general taxes so everyone will have to pay it.

          1. And will we know by how much it increases year by year, I suspect not. There’s a list online of BBC salaries…pips will squeak….

          1. Well done, you x ….I did that, Alec – him glued to MotD decided differently 🤓 Seems likely it will be ‘blended’ into general taxation. I never actually watch/listen to BBC, not for a number of years.

      2. I agree.

        And, as I have posted above, even GB News is not controlling their Left Wing Labour supporting panel guests (there to provide balance!) who always deflect, are thoroughly rude to the other panellists and refuse to ever criticise anything Starmer and his govwernment are doing.

    2. If Liz Truss’s budget hadn’t flushed out the LDI issue, Reeves’s would have: the fact is that Liebour is lucky that we had the “mini-budget event”, else they would be totally and utterly screwed now.

      The sad news is they don’t even realise this. Nor do their Useful Idiots in the MSM.

    3. On the subject of the pillocks that GB News uses to 'provide balance' last night Bill Rammel is completely odious. He constantly deflects, talks over the other members of the panel and refuses to address the government's failures in any way.

      Alex Armstrong (standing in for Ben Leo) allowed Rammel far more time than the other two members of the panel and this completely ruined the programme. And even Patrick Christys last week was unbale to get the repellent Matthew Laza to control his temper.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fac646013551fbf2067eb120433ca3eaf398fe6b97b3289452268a10059e1e97.png

      1. TBF – GBN has to do it (Ofcom is absolutely slavering to find an excuse to close it down), and at least we get to know the enemy.

    2. And that's what Johnson, Gove and Frost did with the EU Brexit deal. The people voted for Brexit and still they gave away the UK's fish along with Northern Ireland!

      (And the EU weren't even grateful. "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" wrote Douglas Adams in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe. The EU has always tried to hitch a ride on the back of the UK and lacks the courtesy to say thanks)

  43. The Warqueen is virtual house hunting. We found somewhere we like. Closer to where we spend most of our free time – the dog walking park and the sports centre. It has gas, a higher EPC, a much smaller garden – we've about an acre here, including the house. It would likely need a new bathroom but everywhere we go seems to. I pointed out there was no space for a dishwasher and that stopped her in her tracks.

    That said, my idea of the dogs bounding about all Summer gambolling around was rather a pipe dream, as most of the time they just like being with us. I don't really like hot weather, Junior tends to be happier playing with his Lego. When the Warqueen did go outside she forgot Oscar, who got sunstroke.

    1. The pool is currently favouring a black at 6:1, but muslim is an outlier at 3:1. Either way, it's a diversity. Almost certainly a criminal and on bennies. Well done Labour. You wanted the sewage here.

    2. If – and the odds are probably higher than IF – the stabber turns out to be one of our enrichers, I can see his point.
      His whole life here has been a bubble of being treated as special and sent to the front of every queue for government services. I mean – talk about lèse majestié.

  46. Glasgow has just opened a drug taking centre where druggies can bring their illegal drugs and take them in a safe place where support services are available. This is costing £2.3M a year. This is supposed to reduce drug deaths. Each of these druggies are there by choice, nobody forces them to take drugs. The £2.3M would be better spent buying drugs and giving them all as much as they wanted, paying the funeral costs and thus ridding society of the drug related crimes and the low life that commits those crime. That would also save the NHS billions a year in treatment costs

    1. And presumably the cost of the drugs would fall dramatically as the criminal drug dealers would be forced out of business.

      1. Exactement Richard, that would also get rid of the dealers. Furthermore I would make anyone caught in the possession of drugs be made to consume the lot in one go.

        1. Unless, of course, the Glasgow politicians gave special contracts to their own preferred dealers and guaranteed their prices!

          Just as Labour seems to want to woo the Muslim vote by turning a blind eye to Pakistani rape gangs I would not put it past some Scottish politicians wanting to woo the criminal drug trade vote.

  47. The true horror of the Rotherham grooming scandal – and the shameful failure to stop it
    It’s hard to fathom how so many young girls could be abused for so long without the authorities intervening
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/13/grooming-gang-victims-rotherham/

    BTL

    Fear of being accused of racism has led to the rape and death of thousands of white working-class girls.

    This is the tragedy of state imposed multiculturalism which requires the indigenous population to be criminalised if they dare voice their worries when those of imported ethnicity or religion are involved in sordid sex crimes.

    As long as freedom of speech is stifled and criminalised the problem will not go away.

    1. They could have intervened. The rape of children by paki muslim could have been stopped. The state didn't want it to.

      1. The dream of diversity and a multicultural paradise in the UK would seem to depend on accepting Pakistani rape gangs as an integral part of that dream!

    3. I feel quite sick after reading that. The police and council officials were all in on it too.

    4. Commenters on the DT are outraged – especially as no comments allowed on the Tim Stanley piece.

    1. This is the first British government I have actively hated.
      And I've lived through four other Labour administrations.
      (AND sodding Heath, Major, Cameron, May and Johnson.)

      1. This lot really is the pits. How many of them actually support the depravity that has been going on for so long and being covered up? The ex DPP for one – the fish rotting from the head down.

        1. Yet their answer seems to be more censorship. Can't have the informed natives revolting!

        2. Yet their answer seems to be more censorship. Can't have the informed natives revolting!

        1. I thought I hated Blair and his wrecking crew, but for real, visceral, poisonous hatred to develop, it's only taken Starmer a matter of months.

    1. 75% of the British believe that multiculturism is a failure. No surprise there but what is far worse is that those who pretend to represent us are pushing it to such an extent that they are jailing people illegitimately. This is the real outrage, that we no longer have representatives in parliament but a gang of people who are in the minority thrusting their ideology down our throats. People who have robbed us of our right to free speech and who implement laws to terrorize the native people of this land and boost those who are invaders. Quite why we tolerate it, I do not understand. My hope is that when Trump is inaugurated as President, he will impose a series of measures against the government of the UK to cripple it and force it from power. Otherwise we are cooked, as far as I can see. Starmer is afraid, apparently, of insurrection and that is why he is stifling us. But he is going the right way to cause that eventuality. His Islamophobia bill will inevitably cause violence. It will be a clear signal that our 2000 year old history and our culture count for nothing.

      1. Johnathan, good morning .

        When all of us who were born in the 30's '40's early 50's etc are gone , none of the present new generations will know what beautiful white Britain looked like , so multiculturism will be the norm , and all the single white mothers who created children from absent black/ brown fathers will say they proudly made the NEW UK.. and the BBC (Black Broadcasting Company ) will glorify their programme making all the more , so what was once black and white TV post war .. will be consigned to the back rooms of history, but the new world will become more black on a coloured screen .

        1. I was 10 when I first saw a black person. She was a nurse at the hospital and I was a patient.

          1. I first saw one on the platform of (was it Putney?) Station. I was only about 3ish. "Mummy, Mummy – look! A Golliwog!" I cried. I suppose in this day and age we would both be imprisoned for life. I was genuinely entranced, it has to be said. My favourite doll/teddy was a (home-made) Golly and my favourite book "Rufty Tufty at the Seaside." I didn't get a smack but I did get told to shush, with the stiff finger on the mouth, a sharp jerk on the arm and that look.

          3. Nor was mine. Nor is the one where we live now. But I remember the nurse because I’d never seen a black person before. She asked me what I was reading. I said “It’s Alice’s adventures in wonderland”…..she said “That’s a children’s book” – I replied “But I am a child”. That was in January 1959.

        2. And you know very well that they will lie about the past and pretend we were always a multicultural country. Unless we take radical steps we will be destroyed. I have no doubt about that.

  51. Good start. Coldest day of the winter so far – 0°C

    Wordle 1,304 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  52. Our neighbour is home for a week from central France. And has asked via a message how I am……. she's only here for a week 😄😉😂

  53. Morning all , Sunny outside, quite nice actually but still cold. My cat, Caticus Khan, has decided that outside is for the birds and will not go out today, thank you. So, as per usual he is having a good hard sleep.

    I was listening to this earlier this morning and found it full of fascinating insights, not only about Elon Musk but also the beginnings of so many American institutions and how they originate in England. It is the wonderful Dr. David Starkey, so one could not expect less. Therefore passing it along as something well worth listening to.

    Why Elon Musk Loves Britain But Hates Keir Starmer by David Starkey
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpGj7M_U-A0

    1. And the resignations from the UK military is still accelerating, I understand, with the suggestion that they might go to Ukraine in some kind of operational mode.

      1. Why would any sensible servicemen want to be lumbered with the mess that the failed CIA/EU coup left behind? Perhaps some of the massive funding given to the UN could support neutral peacekeepers? I jest of course, on past performance things could actually become worse with UN involvement, but why else do they exist? Other than to form climate scamming cabals and medical dictate.

    1. At this moment in the recent history of our politics we the British public might not be wrong to expect some sort of valid and understandable progress in a legal system that has become bogged down in all of its own excrement.

        1. When I saw it on tv it looked more feminine but I wondered if it was supposed to be a "trans-man". I'd say definitely a biological female though.

        4. It is a woman indeed and an insane one that thinks if she can't pull you out of a fire, it's your fault not hers. This woman is the fire chief of LA. Proof of the insanity of PC.

  61. Both my sisters decided to have the flu jab before Christmas. They went together so had the same batch of the vaccine. Recently both went down with flu / flu like symptoms that after two weeks they are still trying to shake off….

    1. My elder sister and he late husband had every single jab they could.
      both had covid and all other associated health problems. al though he had an ongoing health problem's in his old age, he popped his clogs at the end of last November.
      I personally believe they fore-gave all their stored and previous immunities.

      1. This is what the 'covid' jab does, and was intended to do; it wipes out your immune system, it re-invigorates and brings back to life old illnesses our immune system had dealt with and stashed away, and those that were yet to come in order to inflate markedly pharmaceutical (and their investors') profits. We are cash cows to be milked of our illnesses the moment we set foot through any nhs doors. A few years prior to 'covid' I read a small paragraph which claimed that pharma was looking for new ways to 'make people ill' as profits were not accumulating in the manner they wished to see. I couldn't believe the amorality of it; it was a comment that stayed with me and sprang into life during 'covid', one of the many red flags for me. I feel many of our illnesses are caused by the poisons in vaccines over the years and the poisons in our food.

        1. It nearly killed me, after I had the first AZ jab my heart went into AFIB.
          It returned to normal. I Had the second and then a flu jab. And it took over three years and two operations to get back to normal. Many other people I know had heart problems.
          Two died.
          And thousands of others died due to unexpected sudden health problems.
          The biggest lie since climate.
          I now am still waiting after 6 years on the fake waiting list for a knee operation. I refer to my self no longer as a patient, but now as one of many nhs Victims.

    2. Had a flu jab, against my better judgement, some 10+ years ago, and have never had flu symptoms that bad in my life. Normally get off pretty lihjtly, but was prostrated for a week. Never again, so when the said Covid was like flu, here, have a jab, I said NO! Thank goodness… now Vitamin D3 keeps those pesky viruses at bay, and I don't even get colds.

      1. It was said (undercover) that covid was a disease of Vit D deficiency during the covid years. But people will slap on sunscreens with their carcinogenic ingredients, and take statins to 'lower cholesterol' – cholesterol is required to synthesise with the sunlight which falls on the skin to manufacture Vit D – and we are where we are today. A sick society.

        1. I can't help thinking that the whole sunscreen thing was also a money-making scam, pm. But then, MH has skin cancer (from growing up in the tropics with freckly skin) and I have a suspect thingy now, even though I am (was) quite dark. But I do remember always getting burnt before I became "quite dark" skinwise, and every hols involved sunburn and calamine lotion as per. I just have no trust at all for Big Pharma or Big whatevah = all the apex predators that hold thrall over our governments.

    4. There was that rumour of a super…. something or other protecting someone in the northern hemisphere that had absolutely nothing to do with either of them and their marriage. Squirrel over there….

  64. I’m absolutely astounded, I tell you! Who would have imagined the end of the ‘lavender’ marriage??

  65. I watched a bit of a TV programme set aboard one of the two aircraft carriers, I think Elizabeth as Charles has been unable to function at sea.

    The carrier was part of a small group working a way through the Black Sea. There were confrontations with Russian vessels and a series of silly stand-offs.

    The crew were both incredibly young and ill informed. One fat wench supposedly steering the vessel and coordinating actions even spoke of “poking the Russian Bear” seemingly without realising that she and the vessel could be easily sunk by Russian forces.

    One confrontation concerned the waters around Crimea which were claimed to be Ukrainian Territorial Waters. There seemed a complete disregard for the fact that Crimea was lost to Russia a decade ago and that in a month or two Ukraine will no longer cost as a viable state.

    For the much diminished forces of the UK to be “poking the Russian Bear” is the height of folly. The politicians using and abusing what is left of our armed forces in this way is frankly criminal. The same people who have reduced our abilities to either fight wars or even defend ourselves against attack are responsible for this national embarrassment and should be tried for Treason.

    1. Why? Because if the extent of the corruption, fraud, back handers and refusal to stop the rape of children gets out I imagine almost every council official, police officer, social worker, prison guard, hostel runner, spad, and most civil servants would find themselves in court on charges of aiding, abetting, endorsing and for most encouraging the rape of children by pakistani muslim paedophiles.

      It would be a purge of the Left on a scale undreamt of since Nuremburg.

  67. Inauguration Day Tue, Jan 21, 2025.
    Will Trump force a fresh UK election? Hope so.

    However, as noted below David Starkey reckons it was X wot won the 24 US election. And it'll be X that brings down Starmer.

    "Twitter was the principle instrument of censorship. The principle means.. by cancellation, by which the code of Omertà on the silence of race was brutally enforced by the destruction of reputation.. the destruction of career.. the destruction of social standing. I've always said if they could burn people alive whom they tried as heretics they would have been burned alive.
    October 28, 2022..The day he took over Twitter.. when he walks in with the kitchen sink.. that's the moment everything changes."

  68. MeanGreenMachine
    6m
    They called her “seaweed” at school because not even the tide would take her out.

  69. There's that tweet thang again.
    Starmer will be defeated and forced into an early election by the constant drip drip drip of Tweets.

  70. There's that tweet thang again.
    Starmer will be defeated and forced into an early election by the constant drip drip drip of Tweets.

  71. We miss our lovely Black Lab but…
    Some one made a good point the other day…. Who clears up when a guide dog has had a poo ?

    2. Eddy, David Blunkett had a guide dog called Lucy, who once or twice was sick in Parliament. I would imagine that one of the Parliament staff dealt with the matter.

  74. Force them to accept that the rape gangs are in their modus operandi unique to and a product of Islam and the entire leftist narrative falls apart.

  75. Look , I don't want to be vulgar or upset any one .. but the child groomers and abusers .. do the perverts have miniscule dongs.. and if the government were to think re scales of absurdity , the grossness of the vile rapes carried out by these Muslim and whoever barturds would I hope reveal unpleasant truths ..

    Because of what I am saying , the males involved in defiling the youngsters , if their appendages are of normal goat shagging size , all politicians ought to examine their own zipped up conscience's .. and reel with horror knowing what a dreadful painful experience these children were subjected to .

    I cannot voice anything stronger than that .. but knowing the arrogance of many , the male politicians must address these disgusting crimes now.

    1. They used other implements besides their dongs. Things like broken bottles. Absolutely depraved.

      1. One option is to do the same to them. Ghandi was right in that an eye for an eye will make the world blind, but these are muslim and don't share those values – or any. We should punish them with the same barbarity they carried out on their victims.

    1. It seems the Church has discovered that, well, religion and it's teachings is something to put aside as it suits.

      Honestly, I give up. Every single thing that should be confronting evil, is evil. It's as if the jungle of spite, malice and corruption grew everywhere.

  77. Good day, everyone!

    On a positive note (much needed, by the look of it…), I got sidetracked on my way home yesterday evening by a nice sunset in my local park (Plaza San Martín in Buenos Aires). I sat for ages watching the huge moon brighten as the colours faded from the sky, and would have posted the photos then, but you would mostly have been in bed by that time.

    Sending warmth!

    Katy

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1d3e717e68e2889541fdd38d6054762a42f192d9d198e117c3efd70510a63c7b.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9e126445ff9ff5543bea65e794c586918339f0c18d3a61f62c06797c204bb6bf.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e04965793bb583326067930c8c504b06fa576d53a32038ae6db35717dbdf7260.jpg

    2. I have been looking at it on Google earth and it's not far from the sea either.

      Cam De Los Alisos looks like a decent place to be, lots of seating despite an old couple drying their clothes on the bench and lots of tables and seeting in the shade of trees.

    4. "my local park, Buenos Aires…" and moon at dusk… unbelievably romantic, Ashes, especially when seen from a -10C snow & ice-covered Norway, where it's dark by 16:00.
      Sighs heavily

      1. Yurss. Sorry about that!

        You have cats, though, and the jewelled sparkle of freezing winter sun on newly minted snowflakes…

    5. But the pronunciation varies
      Buenos Airs or Buenos Airies

      How do you pronounce it?

      1. I pronounce when speaking Spanish it as do the locals – each vowel distinct (all short) and the terminal ‘s’ pretty much swallowed.

        Except that sounds mannered when speaking English 🤣🤣 so I sort of mumble it. I’m sure you know the feeling!

        1. I've been roundly castigated for using the correct pronunciation by my betters here, Ashes! Apparently it's as declasse as saying "Paree" instead of Paris in the UK. It is incumbent upon any of us who wish to be accepted into polite society to call it Boonus Airs. Apparently.

          Loved your pictures – thank you, needed a boost. Envious. too :-))) x

          1. Luckily for me I wouldn’t know polite society if I tripped over it. 🤣

            Glad the photos made you smile!

            K.x

    6. That tower looks rather like Colchester Town Hall.
      Talking of parochial matters, the wake for Elderly Chum is a posh tea at GreyFriars.
      Think of us as we force down delicate sarnies and fancy cakes on Wednesday afternoon.

  78. BBC editor may sue Owen Jones over Israel bias claim
    Raffi Berg is accused of failing to uphold impartiality in coverage of the Gaza conflict
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/13/bbc-editor-may-sue-owen-jones-over-israel-bias-claim/

    I know where I stand on the question of Muslims raping women in either Israel or Rotherham. I am not so sure as to where the current government or the BBC stands.

    BTL

    Most of us are appalled, disgusted and angry about the Pakistani Muslim Rape Gangs. But does the BBC want to uphold its impartiality on this issue?

    1. Funny you should say that. I am reserved and mild-natured. On seeing that my instinct was to rush in and kick them in the face. How dare they use our sacred places with such contempt, and settle back on their ample lesbian bums so complacently.

    1. It’s easy to see why these Hertfordshire towns are so desirable. Enjoy them while you can.

      Indeed. England itself will soon be just a memory.

      1. We live just north of St Albans and have already had threats of planning applications. And Shaw's corner, not far away, is one of the areas where an application has been submitted for a huge solar farm. How other local services including waste management would cope with such a huge influx of residents is hard to imagine.

          2. We spent time at an "eco lodge" in Oz, which had a sort of deep trench under the dunny and a fan which blew warm air across one's arris as nature took its course. Apparently, the liquids were somehow magically dispersed and the solids dessicated and rendered useful, or at least non-toxic. So it needn't be that awful – but, as with all these "eco" solutions, it gobbles up power. I suppose, in Oz, there is plenty of sunshine to supply it. It would be great to import the idea to India, for example, which still has a serious problem with an apparent addiction to crapping in the open air (on the street).

            Although none of the technology addresses the sheer toxicity involved in the manufacture of solar panels, nor the problem of how to dispose of them and their poisonous chemicals when their short life is through..

          3. I used an "eco loo" in Oz. It was basically a hut containing a plank with a hole in it over a long drop. After one had finished, one poured leaves down the chute to help compost it. No electricity involved.

          5. I’d guess that’s what the indigenous had been doing for around 30 thousand years before the brits arrived. 😁
            Late 70s After a two day drive from Adelaide to a sheep station at Narran lake. Just after we arrived my wife went to the loo, a dunny along side the house.
            And when she came back asked Ron the owner if the holes in the corrugated iron behind the pan were for ventilation. Nah he said, that’s where I shoot the snakes.

          6. I thought about using a dunny in the outback, but I lost the urge to go when lots of eyes stared back at me from the opening! There was also the warning about feral bees tacked to the outside of the shed which wasn't conducive to relaxation.

          7. For years after we had come back to the UK to live, I use to lift the lid and seat with my foot. The red backs were a bit of a worry. 🕷

    2. “Most liveable county” aaahgggghhhhhhhhhhh
      When I go mad with an 🪓, will one of you please speak up in my defence?

      1. And how long will it be before the suburbs are all destroyed by effing diversity.
        Sad dick Kahnt has already captured everything inside the M25 and now calling it London.

    1. Lefties don't really like democracy. It has a tendency to reject their stupid nonsense and get rid of them.

    1. Two funny comments..

      Robotic arms brought in, it must be serious. Are they trying to form the letter C..

      Energy superpower, AI superpower, turnips and sausages superpower..

    2. Two funny comments..

      Robotic arms brought in, it must be serious. Are they trying to form the letter C..

      Energy superpower, AI superpower, turnips and sausages superpower..

    1. Until I read the reply, I assumed it was the female Krankie getting shirty because her other half fancied the girlfriend.

      1. Unlikely. He, too, bats for the other side. (I have a vague memory of some other gay SNP despot, a "close friend" to the "husband" involving transferred public money. So many abuses of power to remember. So little time.).

    2. The Warqueen's sister looks almost the same as the Warqueen but with a mass of platinum coloured hair. She does something for an oil company – geo engineering I think. Spends most of her time out of the country on a boat.

      We think she killed her first husband. The current one is a gentle little fellow called Charles who is a solicitor and likes cheese. Mongo likes him, so he's probably ok but I think he's a serial killer.

          2. Mick and Paddy in a bar.

            Paddy: 'Oi tink I'll go and chat up that lass over there'
            Mick: 'You're wasting yer time, Paddy, she's a Lesbian'
            Paddy: 'No problem, watch this…..'

            Paddy saunters over to the girl and asks confidently
            'So tell me darlin', which part of Lesbia are ye from?'

    2. Blood's a bugger to get out of stone but I'd happily suggest slamming their heads into the ground. Nasty, stupid, ignorant, arrogant cretins.

  86. More empty words from Starmer, not an iota of policy, as per usual.

    Regarding AI, how exactly will your government "turbocharge" anything by using this tool? Oh, and by the way, we do not want your "Plan for Change", we would rather have something useful. Failing that, treading water would be more welcome.

    https://x.com/context_outside/status/1878770179037094081

    While we're on the subject of your government…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c1688faac6f8c73d8e90bfb2d4b1d453ede67c1f76d88dbefb81d74f8a5c74a0.png

    1. Used properly, AI should remove 10's of thousands of public sector drones. Virtually anyone who can work from home should be replaceable by AI.
      Ooopps

      1. I work from home most of the time. I wish I could replace me with a chat bot. Then I could spend all day playing with the dogs.

          1. Oh I don't know…. at the moment i am drawing pictures of boxes and writing little numbers beside them.. like this 10.1.4.16/20!

      2. I’m waiting for someone from the Cabinet, or just below that level, to mention that firemen will be allowed to work from home. Surely, it’s just a matter of time.🤣

      1. No, what he means is he's going to waste vast amounts of money ensuring he gets the answers he wants to say his stupid political decisions are not the destructive, backward chaotic idiocy they are.

    3. At CES I commented that AI was the noughties 'turbo'. There were power supplies there with ruddy 'AI' on them. A flippin' power supply.

      You ask the booth people and they talk about adjustments to the rail demands dynamically and you say 'didn't it used to do that depending on draw?' The quicker, honest ones admit it's marketing BS and move on to the silent fans, or better MOSFETs but the dim ones blither on about 'AI'. Saw some RAM with AI as well. By that time I'd stopped laughing and was just fed up.

  87. ‘Windsor Framework Review’ Hijacked by New Cabinet Office EU Surrender Unit

    Co-conspirators will cast their minds back to Rishi Sunak’s flagship dodgy ‘Windsor Framework’ amendment to the Northern Ireland Protocol, which Brexiters sent up an alarmed bat signal about at the time it was signed. Now Labour is now running a ‘Windsor Framework Review’ – supposedly an objective, independent check up on how the mechanism is operating. Cool, sounds good, anyone checked who’s running the review?

    Turns out the review is being run by the notoriously independent Cabinet Office – specifically, Guido is told by well-placed sources, the new EU surrender unit. Oh…

    The terms of reference for the review, quietly published last week, state the secretariat will: “operate with full regard to the independence of the Review.” But this team of officials will report to the new Second Permanent Secretary for EU and International Economic Affairs, who will lead Starmer’s surrender squad…

    The government is stonewalling parliamentary questions about the number of officials appointed to the surrender unit and to questions about who will be on the selection panel of the Second Permanent Secretary role. Meanwhile, the Windsor Framework Review is being hijacked and used as a trojan horse for taking the UK back into the EU…

    Away from these underhand government processes, encumbered with a majority remain-backing and much smaller parliamentary party, there is currently scant intervention from the Conservatives on Labour’s quickly multiplying efforts to roll back and reverse Brexit. Another opportunity for Reform unless the Tories get a grip…

    13 January 2025 @ 14:13

  88. February 23rd.. make note in diary.

    Germany's far-right vows 'total border closures' and mass deportations if it wins election

    1. If it's Right wing to protect yourself from savages who rape your children then I happy and proud to be right wing.

      The Left, therefore want welfare dependent, abusive rapists.

    2. I may have mentioned before that the strongest support for the 'far right' AfD covers the region of Germany that was previously 'East Germany'. I don't think it's coincidental that those Germans who suffered 45 years of communism under Moscow are unwilling to suffer communism under Brussels/Strasbourg.

      1. Merkel was an East German politician (OK born in W Germany, but her father chose to relocate to E Germany).

    1. ….and their gas and electricity disconnected. Removal of all items that have been made from crude oil including medicines.

      1. Good idea, but it's not just medicine. Their glasses for a start. And those clothes. The jeans. Shoes. And their homes, of course. It's been cold outside. i have no problem killing stupid, miserable Lefties, but others might.

        On that, talking to an arch greeniac outside. He'd driven there, so I took his keys away. He said he was cold, so I took his coat as well. I suggested he get used to his so wanted future: one without energy, heat or light.

  91. Aha, this is the story the Murrell divorce squirrel is there for.

    Six years late and four times over budget at £400MILLION, SNPs fiasco-plagued Scottish islands ferry service finally enters service

          2. I think they already have, but there's some sort of peculiar gagging order in place (I kid you not)…also rumours of a highly placed third party.

          6. I couldn’t possibly comment, opopanax, other than to comment anything is possible. Tbh, corruption likely at a few different levels.

          4. Because Scotland has a history of gross incompetence in such matters.
            Aircraft carriers, for example.

      5. £400 million?
        An absolute bargain, at least there's something to show for the money.

        The Department of Health and Social Care's accounts for 2022-23, published on 25 January, show that £9.9bn of the £13.6bn worth of PPE that it bought between 2020 and 2022 was unusable or its value had plummeted since it was purchased.

    1. "…jailed immediately by Sheriff Andrew Murphy for three Months" FFS, is that all – police say "some of the worst material they had ever come across" and he gets 3 months!??

      1. Three months ????
        A dopey Wokey joke.
        I bet he'll even have some sort of protection as well.

      2. Now if he'd tweeted that muslims were abusing children they'd have locked him up and thrown away the key.

      1. Correct, for offences committed on May 3, 2003.

        A LABOUR party activist who stood for election to his local council was jailed yesterday for having pornographic scenes of child abuse on his home computer.

        There were gasps of shock from the public as details of the films downloaded from the internet by Ian Rankin were spelled out at Falkirk Sheriff Court. In one of 45 video clips, one six-year-old girl was tied up and raped.

        Rankin, 47, of Kilsyth Road, Haggs, Stirlingshire, admitted that on May 3, 2003, he made indecent photographs or pseudo photographs of children. They were uncovered by a Central Scotland Police team who raided his house after receiving information.

        The raid came on the same day that Rankin was trying to get elected as the Scottish Labour party candidate for the Larbert ward on Falkirk Council in last year's local government elections. He lost – coming second to the SNP.

        Alastair McSporran, depute fiscal, told the court: ''Police received information that Mr Rankin had this type of material on his computer. They searched his house.

        ''On examination of the hard drive of his computer, they found a substantial amount of adult pornography generally.

        ''Other films showed young children being raped and sodomised by adults. It was the worst ever found by Central Scotland Police.''

        Mathew Berlow, defending, said that Rankin, a first offender, was ''full of remorse and self-disgust''.

        Sheriff Andrew Murphy jailed Rankin, a chef studying hotel catering at Stirling University, for three months and put him on the sex offenders' register for seven years.

        https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12500145.labour-party-activist-jailed-for-downloading-child-porn-videos/

  94. Post
    Conversation
    Jim Ferguson
    @JimFergusonUK
    Labour Party super activist and Council Candidate Ian Rankin was jailed for having in his possession video material containing some of the vilest kinds of child sexual abuse.

    Police say it was some of the worst paedophile material they had ever come across. Some of the children were raped while tied to posts and ceiling beams.

    Most videos were of young children tied up and sodomised. Police raided Rankin’s home on the same day that he was standing for election in Labour held Lambert Ward.

    The shock from Falkirk Sheriff Court jury was palpable as the details of the videos were revealed. The prosecution explained that in one of the 45 videos, a six year old child was tied up, beaten and raped.

    After hearing the evidence some of the jury were reduced to tears.

    Consequently Ian Rankin from Kilsyth Road, Haggs, Stirlingshire was jailed immediately by Sheriff Andrew Murphy for three Months and put on the sex offenders register for a total of Seven Years.

    Jailed for 3 months. Compare and contrast.

        1. Just read it, good, thanks. More power to Peters. Speaking at the weekend to people, it's been well known in the far North of England for some time. He's correct when he says 50 towns and cities – very likely more.

          2. Very likely only a certain percentage of inhabitants your neck of the wood did, Sue. Worrying to say the least, local police were not only aware, but also seem to have been actually involved. Mark Steyn has more info.

          3. It happened in 2004. I checked because Sheriff Murphy (known locally as the ‘hanging judge!)
            retired a few years back.

          4. Excellent, Sue. Reminded me of Dylan’s ‘Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts’…’went to get the hangin’ judge but the hangin’ judge was drunk’….always a big Dylan fan, rightly/wrongly x

    1. Nothing to worry about. The British government public have paid for their other mansions in Florida and Hawaii, just in case something like this happened.

    2. Those of who are pro-Russian have been pointing out the corruption but since the majority of Westerners are so irrational about what is going on, its been water off a ducks back. Many of us have been saying all along that the real criminals are Zelenskyy and his goons and the Russians the good guys. But since this war is about the West stealing the resources of Russia we have been condemned as traitors. The traitors are the people who refused to listen and let the West murder thousands upon thousands of both Ukrainians and Russians, they were stupid xenophobes because their governments told them to be. A contemptuous monkey see, monkey do attitude. So well done all the anti-Russians you have enriched the thugs who will retire comfortably in the West and metaphorically speaking continue to spit in the eye of the West, by spending the Wests money on their very comfortable retirement. They have plenty to rebuild their mansions or buy up another one.

  96. 3 months and on the sex offenders register for 6 years.

    There comes a point where no punishment is enough.

    Find those who committed these offences and don't jail them. Cut bits off them. Toes. Then a foot. Saw off a leg – while they're conscious, of course. Pull teeth out. Break ribs. Collapse a lung. Ram a hedge trimmer up their backsides and run it for a bit. Use a drill on an ear. A hole saw on cheeks. Have those others also involved made to watch as well.

    Before they die, crucify them.

      1. I don't want them to die. I want them to suffer. Although, a bit of Negan (Walking Dead) would be appropriate.

        1. The time honoured practice of being hanged, drawn and quartered would suffice. Mind, I'd rather not watch. The heads were stuck on London Bridge as a warning and so that the birdies got their share of the fun.

  97. This article is too long to be posted.
    Here are a couple of snippets.

    "Meanwhile, girls lived in terror. The Casey review heard about crimes including “rape with a broken bottle and girls being ordered to kiss perpetrators’ feet at gun point”. Whistleblowers reported that children as young as 11 were collected from care homes by abusers and by taxis with “no attempts to disguise what they were doing”; staff failed to intervene, terrified of being called “racist”. The taxi drivers, in turn, sometimes met these girls “on official council business”, when they were “taken by cab from the home to the schools”." ………

    ……. "As late as 2010, a Safeguarding Children Board report in Rotherham found that grooming had “cultural characteristics.…which are locally sensitive in terms of diversity”, with “potential to endanger the harmony of community relationships”. The result: “great care” was taken in writing up a report “to ensure that its findings embrace Rotherham’s qualities of diversity. It is imperative that wider suggestions of a cultural problem are avoided”."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/13/grooming-gang-victims-rotherham/

      1. These days the Left would squeal 'waycist'. Far better to drag the lot into the public and then start punishment.

      2. 400126+ up ticks,

        Afternoon RE.
        As I said many moons ago concerning parliament, only to have it rejected by the daily express.

        1. The power of mass psychosis (?). Nobody on their own would have come up with that attitude, it took years of brainwashing.

          3. I read somewhere that the families of convicted Pakistani muslim rapists would be in the court and outside, stamping and yeling that it was nasty discrimination. They were all in on it. Deport the lot.

    3. More today on marksteynonline.com for those who can stand it. Possibly one reason he was targetted to silence.

    3. You're in.. you're in.. you f off.

      Hungary’s Viktor Orban China’s Xi Jinping, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, Japan’s Takeshi Iwaya.

      NFI..
      Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen & The Lord Protector of Paedophiles.

      1. Trudeau is not going but Danielle Smith the premier of Alberta is going. The village idiot claims that he will be "busy criss-crossing Canada “to remain connected with Canadians”.

        Apart from a couple of US talk show appearances, we haven't seen hide nor hair of Trudeau since his "I will be resigning" announcement so this excuse sounds like total b.s.

        Latest rumour is that the minority NDP party have been bought and will support the liberals when parliament finally resumes.

  99. Wordle 1,304 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 13 Jan 2025

    A cape for Birdie Three?

    1. Not so good for me and another guess in the dark managed to uncover the answer.

      Wordle 1,304 4/6

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

      2. And there was I thinking I'm a genius today!
        Wordle 1,304 3/6

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

    3. Well done, par here.
      Wordle 1,304 4/6

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

    4. Well done Rene, just the par here….

      Wordle 1,304 4/6

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

        1. Thank you, lacoste. I often do them quite late and it is too late to post them. Normally I’m in the 4-5 bracket, though.

    1. Yes indeed, many happy hours spent with my two boys watching, humming along to the theme tune, and imitating Ringo! RIP Britt…..

  102. Police State you say?
    https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/jack-straw-jury-trial-justice-system-britain-b1204527.html

    The British public are about to be presented with a series of “big ideas” to fix the criminal justice system which is currently utterly broken.

    The rationale for radical change will seem overwhelming – 73,000+ cases in the Crown Court backlog, trials listed into 2028, victims and witnesses abandoning all hope in the torrid delays.

    One of those “big ideas” has been pitched early, presumably to gauge the level of public opposition – replacing juries in some mid-level trials with a panel of a judge and two magistrates.

    Jack Straw, the former Justice Secretary, is now arguing that defendants should be stripped of the right to elect a Crown Court jury trial, something he tried and failed to do 25 years ago when in power.

      1. They could simplify it even further. Just give everyone on their 16th birthday a year in prison. No need for a jury.

      2. That’s why over the years many Magistrates’ Courts have been closed. Our own governments are good at changing the legislation along the way with a particular outcome in mind.

    2. The Guardian.. I kid you not.. some time ago wrote an article proposing local Sharia Courts in key cities to relieve backlog.
      Article vanished.

    3. Ah the continental system. Convenient, that. Should make it even easier to slip us back into the EU. Democracy? What's that?

  105. Now, I am not a bond market expert, in fact what I know about the bond markets could be written on a postage stamp and leave room for a prayer.
    however, I have grasped the basic principle that when nobody wants to buy government bonds because they are not considered a good risk, then the price falls and the interest on the bonds rises.
    So rising bond yields are Very Bad News Indeed, and Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng had to resign because they caused it….bearing this in mind, see the chart below.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/65a4bc3a4b78ba1fc3c6c68163016da71a39ea11bb9f25a0e22ade242900f29b.jpg

    Thinking of an alternative investment?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98a6995ad4f5fd6e34d4cd5e6e0a0dc0d16bae559da90c6a3c0e20db8bbd5776.jpg

    1. because they caused it..

      The so-called Truss crashes economy is a false.

      Truth be told.. the US dollar topped on 28 September around lunchtime.. across the board.. the Yen euro £.. in the aftermath of a whopping 3/4 percentage point interest hike by Janet Yellen on 22nd September 2022. The BofE rate hike response put the Leveraged up to their eye balls pension funds on the wrong side of interest rate swaps.

      Unfortunately for Truss on 6 October the US then reported a huge collapse in full-time jobs which eventually filtered through the markets as meaning the Fed would probably weaken the $ (and conversely strengthen the £).. which coincidently aligned with the appointment of Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor on 14 October 2022.. who was then hailed as the saviour of the economy from the bad evil useless Liz Truss.

      1. I thought my sentence was sufficiently sarcastic to make clear what I thought of that narrative…the chart illustrates the longer term picture too

    3. PS Absolutely no idea why these regulations have been brought in recently

      "The Bank of England will hide the identities of any pension funds, insurers or hedge funds bailed out under a new financial stability tool to prevent a wider crisis engulfing the economy, Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said."

  106. Houston.. Houston.. we have a problem (broadcast in irritating nasal whine)..

    Labour MP sarah Champion calls for national inquiry locally led, and demands investigation as to whether the Paki Muslim gangs are still operating.

    Cue: release of gasps.. and calls of shame.

  107. Evening, all. Thankfully it's above zero today. Fingers crossed spring is on the way.

    The energy crisis is government made. They may be failures, but this "crisis" was always intended.

    1. Rotherham Grooming Gang Inquiry Told Not to Investigate ‘Senior Officers’, Says Whistleblower

      Kurt Zindulka13 Jan 202535
      5:08

      A whistleblower has claimed that an inquiry into the Rotherham child rape grooming gang scandal intentionally avoided implicating senior police officers in a report on local failures to protect young girls in the English town.

      The left-wing Labour government of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has claimed that previous local investigations into Muslim grooming gangs have been sufficient and that a fresh national inquiry into the widespread child abuse and the politically correct failures to safeguard primarily young white girls is not needed.

      However, a whistleblower has claimed that one of the top reports was hindered by an institutional desire to obfuscate the potential role of police leadership.

      In an interview with the Times of London, an unnamed whistleblower involved in Operation Linden by the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) said that the investigation was underfunded, unnecessarily limited to Rotherham, and was told where not to look too closely, and thus “barely scratched the surface” of the scale of the scandal.

      “We were actively told not to pursue senior officers… It was just largely incompetent. There was just no passion or desire within the IOPC to understand what went wrong in Rotherham and find out why those girls were let down,” the whistleblower said.

      “We were told to focus on junior officers who handled the complaints from individual victims. But this was happening across the country, where lower-ranked officers were ignoring CSE [child sexual exploitation],” the whistleblower continued.

      “I thought it was important to know why that was. Whether this culture was sanctioned at higher up levels. But I was told ‘you cannot pursue senior officers, suggesting they should have known what was going on’.”

      The whistleblower said that in light of “all the failures in Rotherham, I don’t think the public would really buy that” no senior officers plaid a role. The whistleblower also accused the IOPC of overlooking incidents of police failing to investigate or even question “older Asian men” found with young and drunk girls.

      “There were so many allegations of ‘no-criming’ [failure to file a crime report] and different approaches to avoiding investigating CSE — we just didn’t get to the bottom of it,” the whistleblower said.

      “Meanwhile we were told to focus on Rotherham alone, but it was very clear not only that there were force-wide systemic problems but problems in other parts of the country. I don’t think the failings have been truly properly investigated.”

      Despite findings from the Jay report that at least 1,400 young girls were systematically sexually abused in Rotherham, no police officers were meaningfully punished or fired following the completion of the investigation from the Independent Office for Police Conduct in 2022. At most, some officers were given written warnings or “management advice”.

      Contrary to longstanding denials of politically correct failures from police and local officials, the IOPC had previously found that police in Rotherham had been aware that child rape grooming “had been going on for 30 years and the police could do nothing because of racial tensions,” given that most of the victims were young white girls while most of the perpetrators were of South Asian heritage, a British euphemism typically referring to Pakistanis, or others from the subcontinent such as Bangladeshis and Indians.

      The watchdog cited one unnamed Rotherham Police chief inspector as saying: “With it being Asians, we can’t afford for this to be coming out as Rotherham would erupt.”

      Former police detective turned grooming gang whistleblower Maggie Oliver claimed at the time that the decision by the IOPC not to fire or punish officers involved in the failures demonstrated the “corrupt” nature of such reports.

      The latest revelations come amid increasing pressure on the left-wing Labour government of Prime Minister Starmer to launch a national inquiry. Starmer, who has dismissed demands for a national investigation as coming from the “far-right“, ordered members of his party to reject a motion in the House of Commons to open an inquiry.

      Contrary to Starmer’s claims that the demand for a full investigation as being a product of the “far-right”, a YouGov survey last week found that 76 per cent of the public back an inquiry. Additionally, a poll from More in Common found that 41 per cent believe that the grooming gang scandal was intentionally covered up.

      Responding to the claims from the whistleblower, a spokesman from the IOPC said: “Every one of the 91 investigations within Operation Linden was carried out thoroughly and all lines of enquiry explored by up to 50 IOPC staff. Throughout the seven-year investigation, the second largest in our history, our priority was the welfare of the survivors, who showed incredible bravery in coming forward.

      “We identified systemic issues including failures in leadership, lack of professional curiosity, cultural issues and gaps in skills and training. Where individual failings were identified, they were addressed.”

      https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/01/13/rotherham-grooming-gang-inquiry-told-not-to-investigate-senior-officers-says-whistleblower/

      1. If there is a public enquiry it should be about all those in the public sector who facilitated the mass rapes.
        We know it's Muslim males, principally from Pakistan.
        What we need to know is the names of ALL those who did little or nothing to stop it happening, or whose actions/inactions facilitated the criminals.

          3. It's all over the North of England, Paul…an old problem. The furore will die down. Doubt the situation will change.

  109. Trump administration are preparing a legal response to Starmer's election 24 interference.

    Yes.

    1. Extreme measures on the table. YES!
      Economic sanctions. YES!
      Diplomatic isolation. YES!
      Seeking international tribunal to make an example of Starmer. YES!

  111. I usually recommend tonic water, but this may be worth investigating:

    Night cramps are a problem readers often ask me about – they’re a common complaint and hitherto I’ve been at a loss to advise an effective treatment.

    But a study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, has shown that in adults aged over 65, vitamin K2 (also known as menaquinone) reduced both cramp frequency and severity to a significant degree, with no side-effects. At last we have something to recommend.
    However, there is one caveat: it shouldn’t be taken if you’re on warfarin as this drug works by blocking vitamin K, which plays a key role in blood clotting. Vitamin K2 is available over the counter – in the study, the patients were taking one 200mcg capsule a day.

    Taken from a paywall piece in the DM

      1. Not one I had heard of and looking it up I might be wary.
        I've been a tonic water taker for years and it seems to work for me.
        Not 100%, so I may try the K2.

        If Apixaban works for you, good luck.
        Stick with the tried and tested.

  112. If a disgusting, vindictive government (whatever colour) can pursue former soldiers many, many years later for so-called battlefield "offences" – they can definitely go after councillors, police, social workers, MPs etc who deliberately lied about slammer gang rape of underage children..

    And then I woke up.

  113. THat's me for today. Less cold but grey all day. Also felt a bit odd (again – sighs) so took it easy with the help of a ginger cat.

    I have "every confidence" that I will be normal tomorrow.

    A demain.

  114. Rod Liddle
    Trump 2.0 is more than a ‘vibe shift’
    12 January 2025, 4:45pm

    People don’t like to use the term ‘vibe shift’, but I suspect it will turn out to be rather more than that. Certainly, I have never known opinion to change so rapidly – almost overnight.

    I’m talking about Donald Trump, or, more properly, how he is regarded. On Saturday morning, I was presenting my new Times Radio show (10 a.m. to 1 p.m., tune in, tune in, please!) and struggled to find any interviewees who might criticise Donald Trump. In a lengthy debate on World War Three, the wonderful Lord Owen (Labour, then SDP) was optimistic we would avoid conflict largely because of Trump’s presidency, and he praised Trump’s determination to provide security for his own country and his recognition of the strategic importance of Greenland and the Panama Canal. Humphrey Hawksley (Lib-Dem-ish), debating the issue with him, agreed – especially regarding Greenland.

    Earlier, I had spoken to Sir Trevor Phillips (Labour) and Juliet Samuel (centre-right), and both agreed with Trump on Greenland and even more so on the Chagos Islands. Before the show, I had read a piece extolling the virtues of Trump’s adventurism by the usually amenably liberal (and always well-informed) Roger Boyes, in The Times. I remember the issue of Greenland arising during Trump’s first presidency and the overwhelming view was that he was ‘mental’. Not any more. Not on Greenland, Chagos, or his foreign policy in general.

    It is a remarkable shift and should give us all grounds for great cheer. It is only six or seven months ago that people would look at me as if I were a leper for suggesting a Trump presidency might be a lot better for us and the world. Even then, I heavily caveated my remarks so as not to be considered a pariah.

    This shift has not yet manifested itself in the BBC, of course…

  115. Private schools slash teachers’ pay and pensions after VAT raid
    Schools resorting to fire and rehire practices to cut costs, union warns
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/teachers-denied-pay-rises-pressured-pension-cuts-vat-raid/

    I predict that if the government holds its current line there will be a severe shortage of competent teachers and the standard of education provided by the state will become progressively worse and worse.

    Of course the Labour Party has form with its determination to bugger up children's lives.

    BTL

    Before Blair became prime minister in 1997 there was an excellent arrangement called the Assisted Places Scheme.

    This scheme meant that if, for example, a gifted pupil wanted to study a subject or subjects that his local state school did not offer – then the local authority could provide the funds for that pupil to go to an independent school. This gave pupils the chance of a wider range of subjects and it saved the state school from having to employ more teachers to cover their missing subjects. It was a win/win all round.

    One of the very first things that Blair did was to scrap the scheme promising that the money 'saved' would be spent to improve the teaching of missing subjects in state schools and more money would be set aside for especially bright pupils. Of course no money was saved, the bright pupils had their choices curtailed and nobody gained. It was loss/loss all round.

    1. Labour simply don't want an intelligent population, who can think. It might ask questions that would be uncomfortable for Labour to answer. And perish the thought that some working-class children could get educated beyond their parents' means.

      The success of that programme is apparent in the moronic chavs who are in Parliament Government nowadays.

      1. Too true. Above all, Labour doesn't want a population that is used to thinking critically and analysing things.

    2. Blair….when his mouth was moving…still going strong @ Tony Blair Institute. Just don't mention Dr David Kelly.

    3. "I predict that if the government holds its current line there will be a severe shortage of competent teachers and the standard of education provided by the state will become progressively worse and worse."

      The current teaching arrangement has already done irreparable damage and that was the intention right from the start.

  116. You have to admire them really, a destroyed economy in only six months, it took Gordon Brown a good ten years to achieve the same result, but I suppose he did take the banks down too, which we still haven't recovered from and he managed to sell half our gold reserves for peanuts.
    So Reeves still has a lot of work to do. if she wants to take his crown away.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/27503004136e1af7f4c79d9fd2d2cb60ad6924ea157d1ff0158094217a83fa21.png

    1. Brown also destroyed the best private pension regime in the Western world – thank you, you boss-eyed tw*t…….

      1. Brown and others. He doesn't seem to have had a great deal more real understanding than Reeves.

        1. I disagree Herts, Brown was a seriously good economist, but driven by a messianic socialist zeal to destroy the private sector.
          Speaking as somebody who was personally negatively affected by his tax raids on pension funds, I hope he spends the rest of his life forced to watch Teletubbies (believe me that's a hell on earth) until he croaks….
          Good bloody riddance!

          2. Brown only abolished advance corporation tax credits (ACT) for pension funds. The ridiculous taxation on "surplus" and the accountancy profession also completely screwed up defined benefit schemes.

            How was advance advertising our gold for sale (co-incidentally the USA was a bit short on its gold reserves) and then selling it at rock bottom prices destructive to the private sector, specifically? How was that the action of a seriously good economist?

          3. To be fair Herts, when he sold (to convert to US$ I understand) gold was broadly seen as finished having experienced a 20 year gradual devaluation to about 20% of its former value – alas it recovered spectacularly from that low making him look a complete berk… it’s like betting on the wrong gee-gee at the races…

          6. When he sold, he also made it clear that he was selling long enough ahead for the price to fall even further. I saw (I wish I could get it back) a video by an respected American economic commentator ,which showed that Brown had been leant upon by Washington to sell. I don’t know the veracity or otherwise of this, but it wouldn’t surprise me, especially as the US gold reserves were down, and that the USA bought up most of the gold at a very good price.

          7. That actually makes sense, though I'm not 100% sure as to why he would have felt he had to kowtow to the US…

          8. Who knows ? Blair was certainly "influenced" by Soros, so who knows what was going on across the Atlantic…

          9. Apparently Blair met with Soros at the New York Plaza on….. aaargh no, I’m turning into Pretty Polly!!!

          10. Who knows ? Blair was certainly "influenced" by Soros, so who knows what was going on across the Atlantic…

      3. Poor old Gordon, don’t know what he does with himself these days <sarc>

        Gordon Brown is the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Since September 2021, he also serves as WHO Ambassador for Global Health Financing.

        Are they really thinking of bringing him back instead of Rachel Thieves.

          3. You left out one eyed purple people eater, or one eyed git if you prefer, G4…his wife was really lovely, however did she cope..

      1. He certainly colluded and put nothing in place to mitigate it. I suppose it is the story of Labour's life – it's MO – and this statement could equally apply to the torture, rape and enslavement of indigenous children by Pakistani Rape Gangs.

      2. Yes. He put all the structures in place that created it. I remember reading an article several years afterwards which described how he had “set sll the traffic lights to green” – a crash being inevitable. But he did a great job at deflecting blame on “the bankers” – aided by the usual Useful Idiots.

    6. It's the same destruction. Nothing improved under the Tories – they did absolutely nothing to tackle the problems. When they were required to print huge amounts of money to keep the rotten mess floating, they dutifully produced a pandemic reaction.

  118. Interesting. Sherelle Jacobs at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/13/reeves-duped-by-the-very-establishment-she-champions/

    Reeves has just been duped by the very establishment she champions
    This Government’s fatal flaw is not its socialist radicalism, but its devotion to bankrupt economic orthodoxy

    Is Rachel Reeves the worst Chancellor in British history? As the country’s borrowing costs surge, the country teeters on the brink of a mortgage crisis and traders bet on a crash in the pound, it is tempting to conclude she is uniquely incompetent. If the public’s suspicion that the Chancellor may be out of her depth was first prickled when she became embroiled in a row over apparently embellishing her CV, then by now many voters are convinced that the robotic façade points not only to a lack of charisma, but a deficiency of intellect.

    Perhaps implicit in some of the chatter about the UK’s first female chancellor is the intimation that the PM only gave Reeves the job to tick the diversity and inclusion box. If there was an image that sealed her fate over recent days it was her standing on a Beijing podium adorned with flamingo flowers, in futile pursuit of a China trade deal as the gilt markets went into meltdown. It has inevitably invited comparisons with the Winter of Discontent when Jim Callaghan hobnobbed with Jimmy Carter on the island of Guadeloupe as Britain battled a lorry strike and snowstorms.

    The Tories in particular are keen to push the view that Reeves has been stupendously reckless. There is plenty of evidence to support their case.

    First there was her mangled bid to push the narrative that her predecessors trashed the economy. In practice this attempt to pull the same trick as the coalition did after the credit crunch served only to spook the markets.

    Then there was the public sector pay rise jamboree which left the Government with just £10 billion in fiscal headroom. As plans to radically loosen planning regulation fail to take off, Reeves is being savaged for making promises she can’t keep about growth.

    Shivering in the Commons tea rooms, Labour MPs are warming their petrified spirits with gossip over who could be the next chancellor. “Safe pair of hands” Pat McFadden is currently the number one favourite.

    But to pin all the blame for Britain’s woes on the Chancellor is to overlook one very important consideration. A conventional reading is that the markets feel they have been “duped” by Reeves. The truth is the opposite: it is the system that has duped her.

    What is staggering about this whole saga is that, as far as the Westminster machine is concerned, Reeves has barely put a foot wrong. Consider the reluctance of mandarins to criticise the Chancellor, and contrast it with their antics around the time of the Truss-Kwarteng mini-Budget.

    Perhaps one reason the BBC is not running the current gilt yield crisis as a rolling 24/7 story is that Treasury officials have not been particularly eager to brief against the Government. Whereas during the gilt yield surge under Truss, the Bank of England went out of its way to get the jump on No 10, this time it has brushed off the turmoil as mere “orderly” market moves.

    Since becoming Chancellor, Reeves has followed the Treasury orthodoxy to the letter. After the failed rebellion of the Trussite heretics, Labour has presided over what amounts to a counter-reformation, vowing to stick closely to Whitehall scriptures on economic management.

    Among her first political moves was to increase the influence of the Government’s economic forecaster, the OBR. She also faithfully committed to Bank of England independence.

    Her most foolish decisions to date have Whitehall’s fingerprints all over it. The disastrous winter fuel allowance cut is considered a trademark Treasury policy.

    It is not just the Chancellor, but her forecasters who seem to have underestimated the impact of a hike in employer national insurance contributions on growth.With the OBR’S models inadequately framed to compute the impact of regulation on growth, Reeves is only now looking for ways to cut red tape after a dressing down from big business.

    Worse still, Reeves’s economic strategy hinged on falling interest rates, which Whitehall mandarins assured her were forthcoming when she came to office. At first the Bank seemed to be in lockstep with the Government, incrementally cutting rates. Now, with inflation still sticky, and fears it may overshoot when the latest data are published on Wednesday, it has seemingly got cold feet. And its policy of aggressively selling off £100 billion of bonds is only reinforcing Britain’s high interest rates. While Reeves desperately needs to get the economy going, the Old Lady may wish to slow it down, in order to maintain price stability. We are now in a situation where not only is the system incapable of growth but it essentially does not want it.

    Conservatives are keen on the idea that the Whitehall machine has become a tax-raising, growth-crushing monster because it has been infiltrated by Remainer socialists. In reality the system is behaving more akin to uncontrolled AI, working against our interests.

    Gordon Brown’s decision to grant independence to the Bank of England in the late-1990s, and George Osborne’s grandstanding launch of the independent OBR forecaster – both intended to establish the incoming governments as more fiscally responsible than the last – have caused more harm than good.

    On the one hand, the Bank is dogmatically pursuing low inflation, though it failed fundamentally in this task in wake of the pandemic. On the other, the Treasury and OBR cling to a world-view in which everything that falls out of its core mission of balancing the books, or is not easily measurable and reducible to their models – from entrepreneurship to innovation to growth, all of which thrive in low-tax low-regulation environments – simply does not matter.

    While Reeves may find her days are numbered, whoever succeeds her could find themselves in even more difficult terrain.

    Perhaps the Chancellor deserves to be thrown to the wolves. But let’s not forget the good shepherds who have been guiding her. As a direct result of playing by their book, Britain is heading for full-blown austerity – and Rachel Reeves is destined to be remembered not for being the country’s first female chancellor but for being the most poorly-suited holder of the post since Anthony Barber.

      4. To be fair, there are very few people who wouldn't be, and hardly anyone in the House of Commons. Despite the PPE degrees, only a handful of them are economically literate, I think.

    3. Meh. That analysis peels the first layer off the onion. We aren't getting anywhere near the truth until terms like fiat currency, fractional reserve banking, zero interest rates, chronic government overspending, pandemic fraud and climate fraud are put in the pot and these problems followed up and solved.
      Which will be NEVER because the Bank of England's biggest goal at the moment is to brush through the financial reset without the public blaming those who are responsible for the dire straits in which we find ourselves at the moment.

    1. This is an earlier BTL Comment that has been totally removed without trace:-

      There is a large chunk of this story missing.
      After he reported on Anne Cryer's initial 2003 speech in Keighley where she referred to the systematic rape and sex abuse of underage girls by Pakistani men , Andrew Norfolk allowed himself to be silenced for 8 years before compiling his 2011 Times "expose".
      His reasons for doing so were to avoid giving an excuse for the "Far Right" to stir up "Racism".
      Ironically he was forced into doing so because the British National Party, in the absence of anyone else raising the issue, had begun campaigning on it in Rotherham and were gaining a huge amount of local support for doing so.
      The BNP involvement largely began when a local woman, Marlene Guest, who incidentally had previously stood for election to the local council under the LibDem banner, abruptly defected to the BNP because neither her own party nor of the other parties she approached were interested in taking up the matter of the sexual abuse and exploitation of young girls for fear of appearing "racist" or "Islamophobic".

        1. Thanks, opopanax…big fan for many decades. Still like the old curmudgeon. Glad he split with Joan Baez, bit sanctimonious I thought.

          1. Sanctimonious is right!
            Joan Baez has the most extraordinarily beautiful liquid voice. Last saw her in Cardiff a few years ago. A few years older than me , but the voice still intact, astonishing and perfect in its way. Unique. She still harboured student politics, though, then, was/is woke, and does not seem to think any more deeply than what is trendy, or was trendy in the 60s. Easy to be popular in our shallow zeitgeist without taking the painful steps. Or so it seems to me.
            I still wish i could sing like that, though. https://youtu.be/_f2J4ceCikI?list=PLYiK1H9mDS-Ott3F_r7o6vk2Q0dXBW1lg

          2. I think she wrote 'Diamonds and Rust' about her relationship with Dylan – it's a fabulous track. My old Dad was a huge Baez fan, she has a stunning voice, as you say….

          5. Fully agree, opo. Actually got the shivers just reading your post, remembering that liquid voice. Shame about the politics, an early woke victim – easy to tell others how to live their lives – I suspect because so many women (Libbers) don’t have children to tell how to live, they tell their men (who if any sense ignore them) and everyone else, online. Village gossip writ large. I was more in the Dylan fanbase 😂 Have a spiffing day, opo x

          7. Thanks Rastus x They started out on the same page, but he turned it over – found a different religion. Must have been difficult for her I reckon – physically very beautiful, including that golden voice, perfection in many ways. Dylan was always going to be a bad guy – but I still love his songs, a (beat) poet as much as a musician.

      2. I remember reading about that incident with the BNP taking up the issue, and commenting somewhere that if the reputable parties will not deal with the abuse and exploitation of young girls, then there should be no surprise if people turned to disreputable parties who would. So I can entirely confirm your comment about this event being omitted from the account.

        1. Even now, nobody wants to give Nick Griffin credit for campaigning alone on this issue in the face of a barrage of hate and indifference from the mainstream.

  121. Oh well and so it all goes on, the political idiots are at it again, everysingle thing they come into contact with. Mess upon mess.
    I see that the bbc are back at it…. winding up the old climate change BS again and again and again.
    Instead of going to America and waving yer bloody arms around over something you can't do anything about. What about claiming justice for all those children who were severely abused.
    Good night all. 😴

  122. And, as Bruckner's 9th Symphony comes to an end, I go to bed.
    The 2nd woodstack has been refilled and I've shifted a load of logs ready for sawing and chopping.

    A rather poignant day. Had he not gone for a walk up the M3 outside Basingstoke 18 years ago past October, it would to have been my eldest son's 50th birthday.

    Goodnight all.

    2. Dear heavens Bob..
      So sorry , what a load of grief to carry . You must still hurt .

      Good night and may tomorrow feel less heavy .

      God bless.

    3. Sorry to hear that Bob. Sometimes it's hard to understand what has taken place. I lost a son 9 years ago on the road at Larkhill, he is now in the military cemetery at Tidworth.

      1. I am so sorry to learn this, we carry a lot of heartache with us on our journey through life, just keeping on keeping on the best we can.

        1. There is no point in looking back too much as we cannot change the past. Sadly, our first loss was 37 years ago and not easy when you are young.

    6. I am so sorry, Bob. It's a lot to bear over the years, it doesn't get any easier. Anniversaries are important.

  125. Well, chums, it's now 2.50 am, so I am very belatedly off to bed. Good night, sleep well and I hope to see you all again later today (Tuesday) at around 7 am.

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