Monday 19 December: Customers let down by British Gas just when they needed it most

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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636 thoughts on “Monday 19 December: Customers let down by British Gas just when they needed it most”

          2. Oh yes! Was up at 5.17! Alan had to be up at 6.30 to get Hector to the Vet School to have his toenail removed, and I was worried I wouldn’t wake up! But I did – horribly early! The twins arrived at 8!

  2. Ello, ello, ello.

    To the title – until we frack, reopen our North Sea wells, and get on with nuclear, complaining about the gas provider is just rearranging the deckchairs. Little local annoyances designed to keep our eyes off the bigger picture.

    The US is now subsidising European industry to set up with them because their energy is cheaper.

    And our City-bought politicians are doing sweet FA about it. Does anyone think the gas provider can be put under any pressure to do a decent job?

    1. Good morning, LessIsMore. Very valid points. I believe that the Liz Truss /Kwasi Kwarteng Budget addressed some of these issues, which is why I no longer support our current Government, so intent on reversing all her intentions to attract inward investment and grow our economy. I’ll stop there – I’m beginning to sound like Eeyore.

  4. Argh! Morning already? Bleagh! Dark, snowing, cats to box up and take to the cat hotel, then packing for trip to In-Laws for Christmas.
    I’d rather be snug in bed…
    Morning, all Y’all.

  5. Customers let down by British Gas just when they needed it most. 19 December 2022.

    SIR – On Saturday’s letters page, Malcolm Beaton described how he was let down by British Gas’s HomeCare cover. That same day, my husband and I had an almost identical experience.

    In below freezing temperatures, we awoke to discover we had no heating or hot water. Phoning the emergency numbers – there are several – entailed holding for more than two hours. We did not find the website helpful.
    Fortunately, our local plumber arrived on the day, as Mr Beaton’s did. And, like Mr Beaton, we shall now cancel our useless HomeCare contract.

    Diana Dixon.
    Tonbridge, Kent

    The Light finally Dawns at the Dixon Household! Hallelujah!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/12/19/letters-customers-let-british-gas-just-when-needed/

  6. Is the headline about British Gas the company, Centrica the pipeline operator, or gas from British oil & gas fields (operated by many different companies) or LNG import (ditto, with export from regaification plant via Centrica’s pipelines to users)? Can’t read the article, and in the general way the telegraph has of being badly edited and inaccurate, not sure I’ll find the answer.

      1. Broke the DT paywall, and it seems it’s about boiler sericing. I was expecting fracking, gas prices and the like, but hey, whaatever.

  7. Ello, ello, ello.
    To the title – until we frack, reopen our North Sea wells, and get on with nuclear, arguing about the gas provider is just rearranging the deckchairs. Little local conflicts designed to keep our eyes off the bigger picture.
    The US is now subsidising European industry to set up with them because their energy is cheaper.
    And our City-bought politicians are doing sweet FA about it.

    4. My neighbour, with whom I rarely have political conversations, had a long tirade this morning, of which energy (lack of/costs/failure to frack/unwillingness to mine coal/useless windmills) formed a large part 🙂 Perhaps the fightback is starting?

      1. Please God.
        My fear is that TPTB are now so secure that it no longer matters how annoyed we get with them. They believe they are safe.
        And here I am torn.
        A. I hope they are. I am all for law and order – that is my bread and butter. I do not want chaos because the innocent will suffer most.

        B. If some nutcase got through and cured a load of them from their addiction to oxygen, I might be tempted to shrug a little.

  9. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. Some advice about F***ing

    Good medical advice

    1. F***ing once a week is good for your health, but its harmful if done every day.

    2. F***ing relaxes your mind & body.

    3. F***ing refreshes you.

    4. After F***ing don’t eat too much; go for more liquids.

    5. Try F***ing in bed cause it can save you valuable energy.

    6. F***ing can even reduce your cholesterol levels.

    So remember, Fasting is good for many aspects of health & may the good Lord cleanse your dirty mind.

    1. Good morning, Tom and thanks for the laugh. I thought the punch-line would be passing wind instead of intercourse, but you caught me out today! That’s what makes jokes so funny: the unexpected punch-line.

    2. On the first item we are doing the 5.2 regime (eating normally of five days and eating less on the other 2) but I don’t seem to be losing any weight.

      2. Only on a low-carb OMAD (one meal a day) diet, such as the one I enjoy, with some exercise (20 mins on an exercise bike daily) will guarantee you to lose weight.

  10. UK to announce major new artillery package for Ukraine. 19 December 2022.

    The UK is set to announce a major new artillery package for Ukraine as British prime minister Rishi Sunak prepares to meet with his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts in Riga, Latvia, on Monday.

    According to a statement issued by the prime minister’s office and as cited by Agence France-Presse, he will announce Britain’s intention to supply “hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition next year under a £250m ($304m) contract that will ensure a constant flow of critical artillery ammunition to Ukraine throughout 2023”.

    Cowardly Putin is running out of options. Telegraph.

    Putin’s sudden capitulation is a real prospect. Telegraph.

    Putin’s War Makes Russian Stocks World’s Worst With Grim Outlook. Bloomberg

    Which is it? War without end or sudden collapse?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/dec/19/russia-ukraine-war-live-news-drone-strike-on-kyiv-uk-to-announce-new-artillery-package?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-639fd2a68f0816e812ef2908#block-639fd2a68f0816e812ef2908

    3. 369060+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,

      May one ask,
      On the domestic front mass mess, how many millions are being spent on the viaduct dwellers sleeping arrangements war being waged inclusive of ex forces personnel.

      1. One of the aspects of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four was that war was a permanent state of things but the country against whom you were at war could change overnight without explanation and your old ally suddenly became your deadliest enemy.

        In Orwell’s world there were just three states – Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia.

        You can see where the globalists want to take us. When the Labour Party first came to power in 1997 I proclaimed that one Blair created a Nightmare vision and another Blair saw it as an idealistic dream and used the novel as a practical manual.

  11. UK to announce major new artillery package for Ukraine. 19 December 2022.

    The UK is set to announce a major new artillery package for Ukraine as British prime minister Rishi Sunak prepares to meet with his Nordic, Baltic and Dutch counterparts in Riga, Latvia, on Monday.

    According to a statement issued by the prime minister’s office and as cited by Agence France-Presse, he will announce Britain’s intention to supply “hundreds of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition next year under a £250m ($304m) contract that will ensure a constant flow of critical artillery ammunition to Ukraine throughout 2023”.

    Cowardly Putin is running out of options. Telegraph.

    Putin’s sudden capitulation is a real prospect. Telegraph.

    Putin’s War Makes Russian Stocks World’s Worst With Grim Outlook. Bloomberg

    Which is it? War without end or sudden collapse?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/dec/19/russia-ukraine-war-live-news-drone-strike-on-kyiv-uk-to-announce-new-artillery-package?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-639fd2a68f0816e812ef2908#block-639fd2a68f0816e812ef2908

  12. Good morning.
    Here is a Twit poll from Elon Musk about whether he should stay or go as Twit leader
    https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097
    I find it hard to believe that he would take this decision based on this poll, methinks the results may be fixed the way he wants them to go…
    but you still have four hours to influence the decision if you’re a Twitterer.

      1. That was my first thought, but it does seem to be from him.
        This poster has probably got it about right:

        Zsolt Wilhelm
        @ZsoltWilhelm
        ·
        7h
        Replying to
        @elonmusk
        Let me predict the consequences of this poll:

        If „yes“, Elon will be CEO for a few months longer until he finds a devoted successor.

        If „no“, Elon will be CEO for a few months longer until he finds a devoted successor.

    2. I understand it’s an exercise to expose bots. Musk must be doing something right, he’s upsetting the Leftwaffe.

      1. Really? Splendid!

        I’m still on the fence about Musk – I think the banksters could bankrupt him overnight if they wanted to, which for some reason, they don’t.

  13. ‘Morning, Peeps.  It feels like a heatwave here, although we could do without another 24 hours of rain…

    SIR – I get my Weetabix out of the wrapper (Letters, December 17) by using a serrated kitchen knife to slice lengthwise between the first and second biscuit. A doddle.

    Alan Hodgetts
    Harleston, Norfolk

    I made this very suggestion a couple of days ago – Mr Hodgetts is possibly a reader of Nottl?

    SIR – The Weetabix problem is easily resolved. Buy bran flakes instead.

    Kevin Platt
    Walsall, Staffordshire

    Mr Platt’s suggestion is somewhat more radical but not without merit!.

    Well, that’s the important matter of the day dealt with, off shortly for some wet and windy bus-driving.

    2. I get my Weetabix out of the wrapper (Letters, December 17) by using a serrated kitchen knife to slice lengthwise between the first and second biscuit.

      As do I Mr Hodgett and I imagine about ten million other consumers.

          2. sets you up for the day if you have to miss lunch. The pud I have is made from fresh blood not dried.

          2. My mum did it too.

            She would also serve Shredded Wheat with hot milk. It made the biscuits soggy, slimy and tasted vile. I loathe hot milk!

    1. Good morning Mr T, and everyone.
      Britain seems much darker than it used to be, must be climate change.

  16. Morning, all. Ten degrees or so warmer than this time yesterday. Dark still but appears light rain is around if the windows are anything to go by.

    How much more delusional must the Tories become before the penny drops? The years 2010 – 2019 weren’t the greatest advert for conservative politics and so they elected the clown prince to lead them and the electorate fell for it. It has all gone sour as the lies and corruption have been exposed.
    The result is a coup d’état by Sunak, Hunt et al. Where the Country is headed under these placemen is anybody’s guess but it will not be sunlit uplands. Weak, gutless and acquiescent Tory MPs are responsible for the predicament the Country finds itself in. They cannot shift the blame elsewhere: it has all happened on their watch.

    https://twitter.com/BrugesGroup/status/1604450245555163136

    2. They don’t care, they know if they keep voting for globalist policies they will be looked after with a nice job when out of office.

      1. Tice is too close to the political establishment. He did have a good pandemic, but he’s friends with ghastly Hancock.
        It’s all just theatre.

        1. Morning blackbox2 – You can be friends with someone but not agree with the friend’s politics or religion etc. Perhaps Mr Tice can gain vital information from his friend Mr Hancock. At the moment Reform is the party for me.

          1. I liked what Tice was saying, but he is together with Isabelle Oakeshott as well, and she’s as establishment as they come.
            I think if Reform got the government (some chance!), nothing would change.
            But if they stay on a small vote, they’ll perhaps carry on being an effective opposition, which is better than no opposition, I guess.

    4. It would be good to know the Westminster voting intentions in Scotland. Is Labour gaining votes in Scotland?
      Reform is gaining support but needs more votes.

  18. Waiting 16 minutes for the Surgery to answer my call only to be told that they can’t take my call “Goodbye”.

    Redialled and I suppose that’s going to be another 1/2 hour out of my life listening to their awful Muzak.

  19. 369060+ up ticks,

    Demoralisation is the name of the political overseers game, arthritis in the trigger finger their aim.

    The troop accommodation does not creak at night as much as it… gurgles, seemingly.

    Political hands clean as accommodation handled via private company

    Potential enemy enamas sitting in hotel close by sipping coffee and awaiting breakfast.

    Looks like the only upgrade our troops will receive is a berth under a viaduct.

  20. Listening during the night to Chips Channon’s last volume of diaries (they ended in 1957) it was amusing to hear him describe the Conservative Party is being in “terminal self-destruction”…..

    Plus ça change, eh?

  21. Even though the snow has gone the golf course is still shut.

    Ground still frozen beneath the surface so the water is just laying on the surface

  25. Government inspired waste? Just how many vanity projects i.e. jobs for the boys and girls, exist?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/310491c1bd68e154ec9fa38b02d89d4e9e03a9dea72f2ee9107decd9ab8c6005.png

  27. £100 million? How on earth can they justify such outrageous spending on wishy-washy nonsense? Even a single penny of that would be excessive.

    1. It started out as a job creation programme for ambitious third-raters. Now, it has led to a divided and fearful society. Result!

  • A noticeably much less cold start to the day, +5½°C outside, looks like Global Warming has returned! Very dull and wet outside, a lot of rain through the night.

    1. I’m not wearing multiple layers today – and all the snow’s gone! It’s wet and windy here.

  • And how many directorships has Olly got lined up for 2025?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/12/18/decisions-asylum-echr-will-respected-government-says-oliver/

    “Decisions on asylum by the ECHR will be respected by the government, says Oliver Dowden

    Cabinet Office minister reiterates that the Government will always abide by the rule of law despite toughening up migration policy

    18 December 2022 • 9:53pm

    Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden

    Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden

    Britain will continue to follow European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rulings on asylum cases, a senior Rishi Sunak ally has said.

    Oliver Dowden, the Cabinet Office minister, said the UK will “always abide by the rule of law” after Suella Braverman launched a bid to toughen up the Government’s stance.

    The Home Secretary is pushing for legislation that would remove the influence of the ECHR when considering the appeals of irregular migrants.

    She has sided with Tory rebels who fear the Government’s latest plan to crack down on small boat crossings and boost deportations does not go far enough.

    The Prime Minister has promised to bring forward a new law to “make unambiguously clear that if you enter the UK illegally you should not be able to remain here”.

    But the Home Secretary is concerned that removals will continue to be hampered by rulings from the Strasbourg-based ECHR.

    She wants to introduce “notwithstanding clauses” into the domestic rulebook that would instruct British courts to ignore its verdicts in specific cases.

    These would include where asylum seekers were using the right to a family life to resist deportation.

    Asked about the plans, Mr Dowden told Times Radio: “The government will always abide by the rule of law. So, of course, we will abide by any judgment that comes from that court.”

    British judges are not automatically bound by rulings from Strasbourg, but they are required to take them into account.

    Interim order

    In June, the ECHR sparked Tory fury by issuing an interim order to prevent the removal of an Iraqi national to Rwanda.

    Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, has argued such edicts have no solid legal basis and is considering instructing UK courts to ignore them in future.

    Mr Dowden’s remarks came with the High Court set to rule on Monday on the legality of the flagship Rwanda immigration policy.

    The senior Cabinet minister said No 10 believes it has a “very robust case” and the judgment will go in its favour.

    He insisted the scheme was “another tool at our disposal to make sure we deal with this terrible trade of migrant traffickers”.

    And he also expressed hopes that a recent returns agreement with Albania will dramatically curb arrivals.

    Mr Dowden said the system hasn’t “been treating Albanian cases in the correct way” by classifying the Balkan nation as a safe country.

    “It has been regrettable that over the past year or so there has been a big spike in the number of Albanians coming across on that route,” he told GB News.

    “It is simply unsustainable to have the kind of growth we’ve seen in cross-Channel movement. If it continues on this trajectory the numbers are going to get worse and worse.

    “We have to get those numbers down and the wider politics reflects people’s frustration. If we succeed in dealing with it hopefully the voters will recognise the steps that we’re taking.

    “Alongside restoring stability to the economy and gripping the NHS, those are the three big priorities of the Prime Minister going into next year.”

    Mr Dowden said the rise in small boat crossings was “a byproduct of some of the tougher measures we’ve taken” cracking down on use of the Channel Tunnel and ferries.

    But he also admitted that the Modern Slavery Act, introduced by former prime minister Theresa May, is “open to abuse” and will be toughened up next month.

    “We will address some of those abuses to make sure we can make sure people are returned in many cases where they’re not at the moment,” he pledged.”

    1. They keep mouthing dignified words into the gale
      while the country crumbles.
      they expect us to follow.

      (that is a political haiku btw. Should have something about cherry blossom in too, but meh.)

      1. I doubt many of them.keep tbeir shoes polished, so the lack of cherry blossom is understandable…

    2. 369050+ up ticks,

      AS,
      I believe that the quran has influence in parliament so that endorses the lies /deceit as in promises,pledges,& vows made defunct in regards to coalition politico’s

    3. In other words, nothing will change; on the contrary, it will just continue to worsen.
      Suella Braverman appears to be thwarted at every step.

  • A post on Going Postal which I think will strike a chord on several here:-

    Judas was Paid-Lytham St Trans
    11 hours ago edited
    I was thinking earlier about Christmases long past. I remember my childhood festivities during the early years of my life when we lived with my Nan and Grandad in (what seemed so then) a large Victorian house just off Hamilton Square in Birkenhead. Shopping was done at the main shopping street called Grange Road which was just a half mile or so away. The street itself was about a half mile long and had everything you could possibly need. In addition to that and perhaps a little closer was Birkenhead Market, a veritable Aladdin’s Cave of delights and a place of wonder for any child. It is 60 years since I trod its cobbled alleyways but I can still hear the sounds and smell the smells in my head.

    I was still just a child when the council decided to begin its enforced upheavals. A huge out of town estate called Woodchurch was built and thousands of downtowners moved there on a promise of fresh air and open spaces. Oh, and inside lavatories. Not long after other gargantuan estates followed; Ford and Noctorum. Again, the great ejection from old Birkenhead continued apace.

    The market has long gone, burned to the ground one night in what some feel were suspicious circumstances and replaced with a modern alternative that could not hold a candle to its alluring charms. Grange Road struggles on but is a shadow of its former self and I am told is a haunt of immigrants begging for money and other sundry dossers.

    I live now in a very different town but I remember the old place with much affection. I do so for what it was and not for what it has become. As I drove to Tesco today and sat in a queue along with dozens of other cars, all of us belching fumes into the atmosphere, I mused on the supposed meaning of progress. Those far off days were certainly colder, a lot leaner and in many ways considerably harder but there were compensations. I would gladly swap many of the supposed benefits of modern living for the rootedness and community that once we took for granted and wrongly imagined would always be there.

    1. I live now in a very different town but I remember the old place with much affection.

      As do we all. I take refuge in the past. It is a place of great warmth and familiarity. We should never forget that it was taken from us by Lies and Fraud.

    2. Good morning, I think a lot of us can relate to this, I was born and raised in Bath which I thought was a wonderful City at the time.
      These days when I go back to visit family etc I hate what it has become, a City with a council who seems determined to run it into the ground.

      1. I was born and raised in a village; then developers built on all the farmland, put a school where I used to play sliding down the bales in the red Dutch barn and joined it up with the two villages either side in ribbon development. I’ve never wanted to go back.

        1. People expect houses, the answer must surely be to control the population of the country to match the infrastructure, not the other way round. How many has entered the country, both legally and illegally.

          1. I kept making the point that we don’t have a “housing crisis” we have a “population crisis”. It didn’t go well with the planners who were trying to persuade us that the reason we needed more housing was that people were living longer and getting divorced! What about the imported equivalents of Derby and Southampton?

      2. Me too. I hold many childhood memories, weekends spent in Alexandra Park or Victoria Gardens playing. The great Central Market and Arcade, Walcot Street with the old Cattle Market and the Red House Bakery, the churches, the Abbey, Colmers department store, the Tobacco shop on Gay Street at its corner with Queen Square, the pubs especially The Saracen’s Head, the Artist materials shop on Green Street, Quiet Street, the milliners shops, the artisan dwellings lost in the sixties and seventies such as those on Ballance Street. So much fabric of a fabulous city torn down by ignorant town councillors and planners.

    3. Grange Road Birkenhead, East and West. A mecca for me back then because the camera and projector shops were all there..
      Of course the national Mecca was Wallace Heaton’s in London. I think when they were suddenly taken over, unbelievably, by Dixons, it was the moment I woke up and realised how transient things had become and decline had started.

      1. During a recent visit to Birkenhead we commented on the magnificent Town Hall building to a lady outside. Without further ado, she summoned a chap from within who gave us an impromptu guided tour of the whole building. We were quite taken aback by the friendly hospitality and by the Grade One listed Town Hall which was as as delightful inside as it was out.

    4. Colchester had a spate of ‘useful’ fires on abandoned sites that were ripe for development.
      In fact, round the corner from us, a rambling, local authority building caught fire twice in one week: presumably the first one didn’t cause irretrievable damage.

          2. Now that’s a good question, Tom! I aim to be there….however SiL is not too great at the moment.

  • ‘Morning All

    Top advice……

    Do not drink and wrap presents

    Also if anyone gets a remote control for Christmas, I need it back thanks.

  • Martyn’s law: plans unveiled for counter-terror rules for UK venues. 19 December 2022.

    Legislation nicknamed Martyn’s law in memory of a victim of the Manchester Arena bombing is to be introduced to ensure stronger protections against terrorism in public places.

    Martyn Hett, 29, was one of 22 people killed in the attack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017. His mother, Figen Murray, has campaigned for new measures.

    The government said the UK-wide law would require venues and local authorities to draw up preventive action plans against terror attacks. Draft legislation will be published in the early spring.

    A plan without purpose other than to deceive and inconvenience the proles.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/dec/19/martyns-law-plans-unveiled-for-counter-terror-rules-for-uk-venues

    1. They have to accept that it’s all part and parcel of the 21st century ‘society’ they’ve created by importing the third world in all its forms. I recall being told in the Blair era that British society was grey and boring, and needed more ‘vibrancy’.

    2. They have to accept that it’s all part and parcel of the 21st century ‘society’ they’ve created by importing the third world in all its forms. I recall being told in the Blair era that British society was grey and boring, and needed more ‘vibrancy’.

    3. They have to accept that it’s all part and parcel of the 21st century ‘society’ they’ve created by importing the third world in all its forms. I recall being told in the Blair era that British society was grey and boring, and needed more ‘vibrancy’.

    4. Observant muslims do not allow their daughters to attend pop concerts.
      But you can bet they will integrate themselves into the associated layers of bureaucracy.

    5. Of course, it will be those “far right” white protestors who will feel the pinch (apart for the Just Stop Oil and related lunatics, naturally).

  • Am going out to collect the repaired Kenwood mixer. It appears to be warmer out than in the house… The MR has a cold, so will buy up Boots.

    Play nicely. Back son.

    1. In exchange for a hot shower, Sonny Boy gave MB his cold.
      It’s all about sharing.
      (Water supply restored at 3.0pm yesterday. Well done, Anglian Water chaps; imagine working on frozen pipes and cold water in yesterday’s temperatures.)

  • Two letters below in the BBC licence fee. My comment is that of course the bBC has plans to put the licence fee onto our council tax bills and so will have a pretty blunt instrument with regard to knowing whether you are “wealthy” (i.e. pay full council tax) or not. It does not intend to let any household opt out of paying its telly tax.

    “Sir – Lord Hall (“Licence fee reform should force wealthy to pay more for BBC TV”, report, December 17) is correct in one respect: the licence fee certainly does need to be fairer.

    However, a more universally understood definition of fairness should be applied. The BBC should be paid for only by those who want to receive its services.

    It is long past time for viewers to be able to make this choice. The licence fee in its current form is an unjust poll tax and should be abolished.”

    “SIR – Setting aside the nonsense of anyone having to pay more for a deteriorating service, I wonder how the BBC – a non-governmental body – would gain access to the confidential details of my wealth, or lack of it, in order to determine my licence fee.

    Moreover, if the BBC can carry out this sort of means testing, will it only be a matter of time before Tesco starts charging the “wealthy” more for its fruit and veg.”

    1. With a programmable CBDC, discriminatory pricing based on monthly income could be built into the system.
      Probably that’s how they see the TV tax going in the mid to long term.

      1. Probably but I think we believed it was paying for services. Even when income tax was first applied it appears not to have been an efficient way to fund the Napoleonic Wars but Pitt the Younger surely didn’t launder it for personal gain?

        1. When income tax was first introduced it was 0ne penny in the pound – leads me to the quote by Ken Dodd “I thought it still was”

          2. We should go back to £sd, Imperial Measure and avoirdupois, if only to confuse furriners and the woke.

        2. I will remind you that income tax was a temporary measure to help fund the Napoleonic War. Tell yourself that when there is no sunset clause written into legislation.

    1. Very interesting, if depressing, article. To me, the two key sentences were:

      ‘The Swedish authorities parade integration as a social goal, whereas the immigrants themselves have no interest in assimilation with anyone except their own countrymen’.

      ‘Swedes have tired not just of accelerating immigrant crime but of the fact that they themselves are being blamed for the rise in trouble’.

      2. Having lived and worked in Sweden (Stockholm and Norrköping) admittedly in the 1990s and early 2000s, I never really saw the immigrant problem but having talked with a lot of Swedes during that time, of all generations, there is a socialist malaise amongst all of them that verges almost on Communism.

        1. When I was working there in the early 70s, they seemed most upset that I declined to contribute to their collections for the Vietcong.

        2. When I was working there in the early 70s, they seemed most upset that I declined to contribute to their collections for the Vietcong.

      3. I would say that there is a difference between ‘integration’ and ‘fitting in.’

        Caroline is Dutch, I am English, we live in France. Caroline is very well integrated and I fit in happily enough.

        The trouble arises when swathes of people arrive who have no intention of either integrating or fitting in.

        1. France, England and Holland are all Northern European countries with a similar culture and people of the same ethnicity. It annoys me when people say that we’ve always been a country of immigrants, with reference to the age of migration when the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, Normans et al came here. The same applies. All Northern Europeans. Roman culture was the precursor to ours so even those Southern Europeans don’t really count as aliens. Now we are being invaded by alien cultures.

      4. “Slay the unbelievers wherever you find them.” Qur’an 2:191

        “Make war on the infidels living in your neighbourhood.” Qur’an 9:123

        “When opportunity arises, kill the infidels wherever you catch them.” Qur’an 9:5

        I don’t think that the infidel Swedes are going to get the Muslims to integrate !!

        1. You forgot, do not befriend the kuffar and kuffars are lower than cattle – can’t quote sura and verse, but they are in there.

          1. Yes, there is something along those lines.

            Strange that no one in the Home Office has read the Qur’an before encouraging them to settle.

    1. Mine are in pots and they came through just fine. They are okay down to minus 6c in my area of Southern England.

      1. Then they are hardier than I had assumed, excellent!
        The lady I got them all from in Spain seems to have stopped doing them except in unrooted form. I think this is because of the EU rules being tightened to attempt to force us back under the jackboot.

    1. ‘Santa Claus’ or ‘Father Christmas’ is based on St. Nicholas, who was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (modern-day Demre, Turkey). So he would have been of a southern Mediterranean appearance, certainly not black.

      1. In my experience, toddlers are a well-known hazard, whether one is sunbathing topless or not 🙂

  • When the Wendyball tournament started, I stumbled across an AI analysis of the likely outcomes of sides into the last 16.

    Only 10 of those ranked sides made it to the last 16.
    For the last 8 only 6 made it.
    Of the last 4 only 2 made it Argentina and France. The outliers were Croatia who ranked at 11 initially and Morocco who didn’t feature.

    AI was correct in ranking Croatia in front of Morocco for the third place play off and Argentina at 2 ahead of France originally ranked 3.

    Of the initial top 16; Germany 6th, Belgium 9th, Denmark 10th, Uruguay 12th, Mexico 15th and Serbia 16th didn’t make it into the last 16.

    They were replaced/beaten by USA, Poland, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Morocco.

    Not a particularly good performance by the computers. Brazil was ranked highest overall initially.
    The bookies are still relatively safe. their odds at the outset
    Brazil 4/1, France 6/1, Argentina 13/2, England 7/1, Spain 8/1, Germany 10/1, Netherlands 12/1 and Belgium 16/1

      2. Artificial Intelligence.
        I did wonder whether to put it in full but I assumed, clearly incorrectly, that it was a commonly known abbreviation, particularly given the rest of my thread.

        1. It read as A ell. For me, AI = Artificial Insemination (the bull or stallion in a bowler hat). Bucolic round here, you see 🙂

          1. Are you saying that your AI man uses a computer?

            “Not a particularly good performance by the computers.”

          2. The stallion AI business is state of the art, apparently. Breeding racehorses means that AI is totally inadmissable; it all has to be done naturally.

          4. Show jumping stallions are used a lot for AI. It means they can keep on winning (the semen is frozen). Ditto show jumping mares; the fertilised embryo is implanted in a surrogate mare while the dam continues her career. It’s a whole different lifestyle 🙂

          5. Many, many moons ago (hi Plum if you’re looking in by any chance, where’s your splendid picture) I had a discussion with JenniferSP about the AI man and the collection process. This was for bulls.

            I had attended a tour arranged by a farmer in conjunction with the Vet’s school, where the speaker described collecting the sperm while inside a fake cow. Their job was to get a collection device onto the bull’s pizzle before it sprayed. JSP was insistent that it could not have been true.
            If so, it was a very entertaining talk, but I’m sure the speaker was describing real life experiences.

          8. p.s.
            Pondering over this and wondering why.

            Presumably the reason must be that if you watch Frankel cover your mare you can be reasonably certain it’s Frankel’s and not Ernie the Milkman’s horse’s foal that she’s carrying!

          9. True, but few owners actually watch the covering (which takes place in a big barn called a covering shed with the stud groom, the stallion, the mare and her handler). I have seen Frankel at Banstead Manor; he is magnificent.

          10. I saw him race, fairly early on in his career, at Newmarket.
            In the parade ring even an amateur like me could see the horse was something very special.

    2. Thank you, J, quite readable I think, and I believe and it may express what most NoTTLers feel.

    2. I have never been attracted to women with beards and five o’clock shadow.

      But I did have a dear old aunt who developed lung cancer and the treatment she received made her grow a thick moustache. She was very upset and embarrassed by this.

      But there is no excuse for the two people in this clip – they really do need to shave better as their stubble is very visible beneath the make-up.

      1. When I was a boy, I used to stay with an aunt in Newton Abbot. Down the hill was a creamery – a shop selling milk, but and cream. My aunt used to send me there for supplies. The lady behind the counter had a thick beard and moustache. She was charming and helpful but her visage scared the living daylights out of me.

        1. Back then, could this have been an unfortunate woman suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome – not sure why she didn’t shave though.

        2. Back then, to my chagrin, I lost my Mama her char-woman.

          I only asked her if she had to shave often…

          1. We had a femme de ménage who was solidly constructed without being fat. When I mentioned to her daughter that her mother was costeau she told her mother what I had said and she, the mother, was deeply offended.

            But all was well that ended well – she was not at all satisfactory as a charwoman and my innocent comment precipitated her into giving notice.

          2. Mon français est tres mauvais. Google translate only gives me ‘cost’ for costeau . Is that what it means?

          4. Thank you, Connors, I’ll try and remember it for the vocabulary. Though my forte is Deutsche, even though it might be ‘plat’

        3. Something about the Devon air?

          Aunt Marjorie had a house in a village called Willand not far from Cullompton. I sometimes cycled over there for tea on Sunday afternoons as it was only five miles away from Blundell’s which was just outside Tiverton.

    3. I wonder if they (as in both of them) are naturally full of bullshit, or whether they have to work very hard to appear as stupid as possible.

      1. This is the public face of transwomen, but in private there is depression, insomia, hoarding, OCD…the list goes on and on, from what I have observed.

        1. Um, I’m not trans, but I’ve been depressed and insomniac, I’m a dreadful hoarder and I have more than a touch of OCD (“I’ve started so I’ll finish” come what may!)!

  • If a Muslim called Yusof picked up the unemployment benefit would it be fair to say that Mo Jo’s not working!

  • Back. Warmer out than in. Snow? What snow?? Not a sign of it anywhere. Slight drizzle. Just cut the branch of Holm Oak that will serve as an “out of cat reach” tree.

    The woodburner has been playing up – burning much too fast. Rang the sweep – who usually needs at least three months notice to call. He is coming round tomorrow after lunch. How about that for service?

    2. As the temp has risen by 10 degrees outside, inside my flat it’s fallen by 2 degrees. The wind was only about 2-4 mph on Saturday whereas now it’s 18 mph. The draught makes a difference and in an old and listed building there isn’t much one can do.

      1. I have the same problem, but my house is definitely unlisted, unless it’s on a ‘to be condemned’ list somewhere.

      2. I have the same problem, but my house is definitely unlisted, unless it’s on a ‘to be condemned’ list somewhere.

        1. Still 22/23 degrees C at home so I’m not complainng. Bl**dy freezing in the office though. Any further news from Oxford today?

          1. Not yet, but I expect he will phone later on. I’m going in to see him tomorrow – a good friend is driving.

  • 369060+ up ticks,

    Migration topping one million each year set to be ‘new norm’ for decades to come
    Leading think tank says Government should highlight benefits of people coming to work legally while cracking down on small boat crossings.

    Will never happen beneficially for these Isles via
    the odious coalition .

    Migration topping one million each year set to be ‘new norm’ for decades to come
    Leading think tank says Governments should highlight benefits of people coming to work in theory, legally, paedophilia,rape & abuse assorted criminality while cracking down on the indigenous.

    The repress, replace, RESET is continuing tolerable well with help from the electorate majority oddly enough but, onwards and downwards, Rome wasn’t built in a day… WEF wasn’t there,

    Ogga1.

    1. How can a country of this size possibly absorb a million each year for decades to come? We’re full already.

      1. Given those who are already here, in 20 years Britain would no longer be majority white even in rural areas as well as in London. But that is all part of the plan and that is one of the reasons why Cameron appointed Welby to ensure that the CofE along with everything else even remotely British was extinguished.

          1. I seldom go into Stroud – it’s an odd place, full of incomers, mostly lefties. Extinction Rebellion was born in Stroud.

            I prefer to stay here – three miles away. Strangely the MP is a Tory.

      2. 369069+ up ticks,
        Afternoon N,

        “We” will not be around once the invading numbers are making them the majority then the rwanda campaign will take off, only difference being “we” will be going.

    2. Hell, we are having trouble with the idiots pla. To import 500,000 foreigners into Canada.

      We have the room but there are a few minor inconveniences such as housing and health care that will cause problems.

        1. I should imagine, thanks to Blair’s open door policy, we are way beyond 500k and we don’t have the room!

  • I put my Christmas order in with Ocado mid October to guarantee a slot and delivery on 20th December that suited me. I’m feeding 8 people but didn’t want turkey so went for a free range cockerel.

    I checked on their site today to see if it was fresh or frozen and saw that they had reduced it 33%. So i dumped out the £48 one and put in the same bird for £32. :@)

    Obviously at this late stage they are attempting to clear stock.

    2. We are having a capon as usual.

      Even though it is quite acceptable in the UK to castrate bulls to produce beef it is cruel, inhumane and illegal to castrate cockerels to get excellent capon meat.

      What a cock and bull story!

      1. What’s the flavour of a capon like?
        The farm shop where I am buying meat at the moment sells mostly cockerels. The flavour is a bit strong – but I like that they refuse to kill the chicks, but raise them in the traditional way for meat.

  • Phew!! That’s a useful couple of hours done. I’ve split &, after dragging 7 large builder’s bucket loads down, stacked all the elm logs lying up the “garden”. Got finished just in time to avoid the sleet shower that’s knocked further outside plans on the head!

    I’ve now got the logs I sawed t’other day in front of the carport to split & stack, then, after dragging the sawhorse round to the front, the smaller logs that have been there for up to a couple of years now.

    1. Have you managed yet to convince Hadrian to resign from his day job and let you take over?

      I too work hard on firewood but I saw everything I can by hand. Though must admit I cheat over the Christmas period because Caroline’s sister’s latest husband always brings his chainsaw with him to cut wood of a diameter of more than 10 “for me.

      I find the Monty Python song inspirational but I certainly don’t follow Michael Palin’s dress code.

  • This post is with reference to discussions on who is considered to be the most talented and most successful footballer in history (I baulk at calling anyone, in any sphere of excellence, “the best” or “the greatest”). Naturally, various opinions abound, so I give the case for Edson Arantes do Nascimento (“Pelé”):

    Since retiring, Pelé has continued to be lauded by players, coaches, journalists and others. Brazilian attacking midfielder Zico, who represented Brazil at the 1978, 1982 and 1986 FIFA World Cup, stated: “This debate about the player of the century is absurd. There’s only one possible answer: Pelé. He’s the greatest player of all time, and by some distance I might add”. French three-time Ballon d’Or winner Michel Platini said: “There’s Pelé the man, and then Pelé the player. And to play like Pelé is to play like God.” Diego Maradona joint FIFA Player of the Century, and the player Pelé is historically compared with, stated, “It’s too bad we never got along, but he was an awesome player”. Prolific Brazilian striker Romário, winner of the 1994 FIFA World Cup and player of the tournament, remarked: “It’s only inevitable I look up to Pelé. He’s like a God to us”. Five-time FIFA Ballon d’Or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo said, “Pelé is the greatest player in football history, and there will only be one Pelé”, while José Mourinho, twice UEFA Champions League winning manager, commented: “I think he is football. You have the real special one – Mr. Pelé.” Real Madrid honorary president and former player, Alfredo Di Stéfano, opined: “The best player ever? Pelé. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are both great players with specific qualities, but Pelé was better”.

    Presenting Pelé with the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award, former South African president Nelson Mandela said, “To watch him play was to watch the delight of a child combined with the extraordinary grace of a man in full.” US politician and political scientist Henry Kissinger stated: “Performance at a high level in any sport is to exceed the ordinary human scale. But Pelé’s performance transcended that of the ordinary star by as much as the star exceeds ordinary performance.” After a reporter asked if his fame compared to that of Jesus, Pelé joked, “There are parts of the world where Jesus Christ is not so well known.” The artist Andy Warhol (who painted a portrait of Pelé) also quipped, “Pelé was one of the few who contradicted my theory: instead of 15 minutes of fame, he will have 15 centuries.”Barney Ronay, writing for The Guardian, stated, “What is certain is that Pelé invented this game, the idea of individual global sporting superstardom, and in a way that is unrepeatable now.”

    In 2000, the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) voted Pelé the World Player of the Century. In 1999, the International Olympic Committee elected him the Athlete of the Century and Time magazine named Pelé one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century. During his playing days, Pelé was for a period the highest-paid athlete in the world. Pelé’s “electrifying play and penchant for spectacular goals” made him a star around the world. To take full advantage of his popularity, his teams toured internationally. During his career, he became known as “The Black Pearl” (A Pérola Negra), “The King of Football” (O Rei do Futebol), “The King Pelé” (O Rei Pelé) or simply “The King” (O Rei). In 2014, the city of Santos inaugurated the Pelé museum – Museu Pelé – which displays a 2,400 piece collection of Pelé memorabilia. Approximately $22 million was invested in the construction of the museum, housed in a 19th-century mansion.

    In January 2014, Pelé was awarded the first ever FIFA Ballon d’Or Prix d’Honneur as an acknowledgment from the world governing body of the sport for his contribution to world football. After changing the rules in 1995, France Football did an extensive analysis in 2015 of the players who would have won the award if it was open for them since 1956—the year the Ballon d’Or award started. Their study revealed that Pelé would have received the award a record seven times (Ballon d’or: Le nouveau palmarès). The original recipients, however, remain unchanged. In 2020, Pelé was named in the Ballon d’Or Dream Team, a greatest all-time XI.

    According to the RSSSF, Pelé is one of the most successful goal-scorers in the world, scoring 538 league goals, a total of 775 in 840 official games and a tally of 1,301 goals in 1,390 appearances during his professional senior career, which included friendlies and tour games. He’s ranked among the leading scorer in football history in both official and total matches. After his retirement in 1977 he played eight exhibition games and scored three goals.

        1. I didn’t say I like bagpipes, all I said was that I can play them.

          As for Wendyball, it’s no longer a sport, it’s a business and may the best cheat win.

          1. I think most modern day sports have now been tarnished by malevolent outside interests who are more interested in making a quick return on their investments than the Corinthian ideal.

          3. And since rugby went professional it too has gone to the dogs.

            And now even lady dogs play rugby as well as wendyball professionally.

          5. At least the refs decisions are respected however daft they sometimes appear to be. The sight of a 20 stone player being yellow or red carded by a 7 stone ref and slinking off without argument should be shown to wendyball players. Football refs and FIFA should show some balls and stop all the acting

          6. We watched quite a lot of the football (me doing sudoku and looking up every so often). It really makes me cross with all shirt-pulling and fouls that referees ignore or not, there’s little consistency. Does it depend on which team pays him the most?

            Must say the argy bargies played brilliantly most of the time. I didn’t want either of them to win!

          7. My particular gripe about the whole thing was the way the players are now gathering around the referees in a very aggressive manner, with some even going so far as to touch the ref, even when he is stepping backwards to avoid it. It should be an automatic sending off.
            The worst offenders by a long way were the African teams, Morocco in particular.

  • Alec Bradley
    26 MIN AGO
    “…the salaries of train drivers are mentioned less often.” – Lisa Dumbavand, Letters
    The drivers, whose union is ASLEF, are not on strike. If they are often not working, it is because the members of the RMT union are on strike.

    Can someone point out to Mr. Bradley that whilst ASLEF has traditionally been the main drivers’ union, the situation is no longer as clear cut? Many drivers are members of RMT and hence are on strike.

      1. Having worked in the industry, No.
        Driverless may be ok in low speed urban situations, but on Intercity 100mph plus routes? No. That would be a step too far.

        1. Is there a logical reason for that abrupt ‘No’?

          I think the Japanese very fast trains are driverless or, more or less, drive themselves; they may have a watcher in the cab but the trains effectively drive themselves and Japan isn’t the only country employing that sort of technology.

          1. Good until things go wrong. And going wrong at 150mph is a whole different ball game to going wrong at 30mph.

    1. Gee, people moan at everything. Apparently, the Trafalgar Square tree isn’t acceptable, either, even though it’s a gift from Oslo, supplied free.

        2. Indeed.
          The tree is selected years in advance, and given special treatment until it is hooked to a crane and cut (not felled, that might break things), packed and shipped. Gratitude to the UK, capital city to capital city, for all the support in throwing the Narsties out 77 years ago.

          3. I would imagine that 95% of present day Londoners have no idea about the Second World War or our part in it.

          5. I have a 17m tall Norwegian spruce in my garden. You’ll never get me up it, though, to decorate it!

      3. Its too easy to grumble these days on the social mmeeja. Once upon a time you would have to scribe a letter, one o pines.

          9. Thanks King Stephen! I now feel a bit of a bark…ooops berk! 🫢! Now I’ve got to crawl to Uncle Bill!

          10. You’ll need several dozen pairs of knee pads – It’s a very long way from Scotland to North Norfolk…..

    2. No Christmas cheer allowed in the New World Order championed by Charles. Champagne and grouse for them, solar powered non-lights and grousing for us. Happy Winterval.

      2. I have solar powered lights in my garden. At this time of year they are pathetic. Mind you, I don’t sit out much in the garden to need them at the moment.

      3. I would like King Charles to have spend the whole winter in living quarters that are heated to no more than 5 degrees centigrade.

        If he did that then people might take his views on global warming more seriously.

        I would also like him to only use electricity he has generated himself from solar panels and a wind generator in his garden. We did that on Mianda – but we cheated because we had a petrol powered generator and when we were in a marina we were connected to a mains supply.

        But as Charles is more virtuous than we are he should not be allowed anything to top up his renewable sources.

  • Good to see Toy Boy Macron looking a complete idiot at the Cup Final yesterday.

    Also to see the excellent play Mbappé giving him a complete brush off when Toy Boy tried to kiss and fondle him.

    1. I saw a clip on t’internet with a caption to the effect of “the new Joe Biden.”
      Appalling.

  • I always thought an Englishman’s home was his castle….
    Not for much longer, according to DT article “Baby Boomers refusing to downsize, behind surge in homes with empty bedrooms” by Melissa Lawford. BLT comments are priceless!!

        1. where do they dream up these figures from? We’ve recently been tentatively looking to sell up and buy a bungalow but they’re very few and far between, they haven’t built bungalows for many years. So if we did find one we’d need to do a lot of work on it. Maybe an apartment would be suitable, ground floor, or with lift, because Alf has knee problems, and that’s the only reason we’re even considering a move. We love where we are and our neighbours, transport wise very convenient, don’t really want to move at all. It was the same with the car. We had a vw Passat which we loved but was becoming difficult for Alf to get in and out of so now we have a Skoda Kodiaq. And when you consider stamp duty, legal fees plus VAT, estate agents fees plus VAT, it’s bloody expensive. Thieving government. Besides all that some grown up children go back to live with parents coz buying/renting is too expensive. Or the “parents” help their kids out fianancially. HMG should keep its nose out of it. (And a lot more besides).

          1. Look into getting a second hand stair lift to help Alf. You can actually have a lift fitted if you have space for it. Stick to your home if you possibly can.

          2. In many ways, I would like to downsize but we need the 2 spare bedrooms for when son in Canada visits with our grandchildren. There simply aren’t any hotels, b&b nearby. Nearest alternative would be to buy a smaller house/bungalow with room for a 4 berth caravan.

      2. CL

        Clare Louise Coleman
        14 MIN AGO
        ‘Baby boomers refusing to downsize behind surge in homes with empty bedrooms.’
        The headline is a work of genius, isn’t it? It conjures up visions of Bert the Pensioner kicking and screaming as the men from the ministry come to take away his home and offer it to more deserving occupants. Why can’t he see that it’s not just about him? Off to a stack-a-grandad apartment with him, the nasty old g*t.
        Then there’s the ‘*surge* in homes with empty bedrooms’. What absolute rot. I would bet that the number of bedrooms to which householders have access hasn’t changed much at all over the years. There has, however been a marked surge in ridiculous headlines. Are they all written by thirteen year olds on work experience?

        1. They are written by people with an agenda. Since 1997 the spin doctors have controlled the narrative and the language. We need to be aware of what’s going on.

      3. Sorry, vw, had to go out after posting and by the time I’m back home, the online edition seems to have done the usual vanishing act!

    2. I expect HMG is considering billeting gimmegrunts on those with “spare” bedrooms. Wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

      1. 369060+ up ticks

        Afternoon VW,
        As I posted some time ago compulsory lodgering.

        Deterrent, keep a piglet in each spare room eat when to large, replace with piglet.

      2. From the census they know how many people are at an address and the council know how many bedrooms there are from your council tax (more or less). They will work together to find whether you can house a gimmegrunt. It might force some people (males) living on their own to take in 18 yo nymphomaniacs just to stop them

      3. Better ask the jokey wokey King, how many rooms does he have at Buck House, Windsor, Osborne, Sandringham and Balmoral?

        …and any other little hideaways like Highgrove and Much Binding in the Marsh?

      2. They have been doing this for almost 15 years now, since the last economic crash in 2008: “the boomers have stolen your future” to distract from where the blame truly lay – with the government. It was so blatant but the young couldn’t see it, perhaps deliberately so. Now it’s property. Will they be forming armies to physically force us out? Will they be assisting the migrants with this? I fear the groundwork is being prepared. Nothing would surprise me now.

        1. More likely they will put ridiculous requirements on houses to be net zero, to try and force owners out.

          1. They are already rolling plans out for that on private rentals and will be expanding them to include owner occupiers.

  • Not bad par four in these conditions

    Wordle 548 4/6

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

    1. A bleeding Bogey Five for me.

      Wordle 548 5/6
      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩
      🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
      🟩⬜🟩🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Likewise.

      Wordle 548 4/6

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

    3. A birdie for a change.
      Wordle 548 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟨🟩
      🟩🟨🟩🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Birdie for me too. Should got an Eagle- I had two words in mind to try and plumped for the wrong one.

  • Just spent the morning shopping for Christmas gifts. Well, not exactly shopping. I kept providing the debit card.

      1. You can always tell the difference.
        Hi risk anus wears his long trousers too short, to give the optical illusion that he’s taller than he really is.

  • Combing through the threads I noticed that there was a mention of Cockerels and Capons. It spurred me to put my thinking cap on and wondered if there might be a run of fowl puns to be had?

  • Afternoon, all. Well, what a difference a day makes! 16.5 degrees C outside (and since the Rayburn takes a while to subside, don’t ask what temperature it is inside – suffice it to say, shirtsleeve order is fine!). Just received a Christmas card from my brother letting me know his wife had been ill for six years and had died in September! He might have mentioned it earlier! It isn’t as though he doesn’t have my address, even if he’s lost my phone number. Families, eh? Still, that is better than MOH’s sister who didn’t even send a Christmas card after they fell out. It was only by accident I managed to get a contact number for her daughter to tell her about the death. Writing of death (there seems to be a lot of it about at the moment), we will be burying Kadi’s former owner tomorrow. He’ll be taken to the funeral (where I’ll be reading a poem written years ago by the deceased) so I hope nobody objects to dogs in church (it will be dogs because I can’t leave Oscar behind now he’s got used to having a companion).

      1. Well, what I believe and what CofE clergy believe are probably two different things 🙂 Mind you, our rectorette brings one of her dogs to evensong (because, believe it or not, she doesn’t feel safe walking across the car park from the rectory to the church in the dark!) and both Kadi and Oscar have attended concerts (and Oscar attended on Good Friday). I believe this service is being taken by a lay preacher (there is no vicar at the church) so we shall see.

        1. Most of the dogs and I have owned and known have been better behaved than many humans I have met.

          1. When people don’t want my dogs in their shop, not only do they lose a customer, but I tell them that my dogs are better behaved than most children!

      2. There were several dogs in attendance at our carol service yesterday.
        All very well behaved.
        HG was bitten on her lip when she was very young and is extremely wary of dogs. She wasn’t best pleased when an owner and dog decided to sit next to her. The dog was beautifully behaved.
        I did not feel it was appropriate for us to swap places.
        1 It would have been somewhat rude
        2 The owner was a pretty, young woman
        3 She was wearing a very, very short skirt!

          1. Not yet. travel tomorrow. Watching the news regarding boarder force strikes for when we’re due to leave. Regretting the visit, tbh. Too much hassle.

      4. Hi Lottie,
        Had you forgotten this gem by Rudyard Kipling?

        Eddi, priest of St. Wilfrid
        In his chapel at Manhood End,
        Ordered a midnight service
        For such as cared to attend.

        But the Saxons were keeping Christmas,
        And the night was stormy as well.
        Nobody came to service,
        Though Eddi rang the bell.

        ‘Wicked weather for walking,’
        Said Eddi of Manhood End.
        ‘But I must go on with the service
        For such as care to attend.

        The altar-lamps were lighted, –
        An old marsh-donkey came,
        Bold as a guest invited,
        And stared at the guttering flame.

        The storm beat on at the windows,
        The water splashed on the floor,
        And a wet, yoke-weary bullock
        Pushed in through the open door.

        ‘How do I know what is greatest,
        How do I know what is least?
        That is My Father’s business,’
        Said Eddi, Wilfrid’s priest.

        ‘But – three are gathered together –
        Listen to me and attend.
        I bring good news, my brethren!’
        Said Eddi of Manhood End.

        And he told the Ox of a Manger
        And a Stall in Bethlehem,
        And he spoke to the Ass of a Rider,
        That rode to Jerusalem.

        They steamed and dripped in the chancel,
        They listened and never stirred,
        While, just as though they were Bishops,
        Eddi preached them The Word,

        Till the gale blew off on the marshes
        And the windows showed the day,
        And the Ox and the Ass together
        Wheeled and clattered away.

        And when the Saxons mocked him,
        Said Eddi of Manhood End,
        ‘I dare not shut His chapel
        On such as care to attend.’

    2. Goodness, Conners. Families. Nobody bothered to tell me my Great-Aunt had dies and was buried until afterwards – and she was the only Grandmother figure I had, both grandmothers dying around the time I was born.
      Glad that Oscar has settled down; we all need a companion!

      1. Thankfully Oscar has mellowed; he has, on more than one occasion recently, allowed a stranger to stroke him on the head without reacting. When I think how he was when I first got him, it’s nothing short of miraculous! I still can’t brush him, though 🙁

        1. Lots of hard work and love on your behalf, Conners.
          No miracle – your hard work.
          Respect, man.

          1. He still has his moments! When he’s been eating, my toes have been close to disaster on a couple of occasions, even recently – fortunately, he’s remembered in time and stopped himself. I still have to be careful how I wake him up – it’s when he’s groggy and just coming round that his memory is most instinctive and he defaults to the bad old days.

  • The very sudden (and complete) thaw last night revealed two places where water leaked into the house. Trying very hard to look on a sort of bright side, my theory is that two inches of ice thawing in about three hours had to go somewhere – and the gutters were frozen. So the thaw water had to find a route – and chose the nearest one.

  • BBC radio news headline: “Charities have condemned the High Court decision that the Rwanda plan is lawful.”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64024461

    Who’d have thought it? By all means criticise it as impractical or ineffective but please stop pretending these are refugees (especially you, Ms Thewliss).

    An appeal is likely, which will probably take months and, knowing what the Supreme Court is like will, probably succeed. In the meantime, 10 times as many ‘legal’ migrants will pour into the country.

    1. And the policy is to obey the ECHR when it gets appealed there in due course around about 2030, just in time for net zero (ho ho)

      1. Copied from today’s Evening Standard newsletter:

        The High Court has ruled that the government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful, following an appeal by campaigners, charities and migrants. A summary of the ruling stated:
        “We have concluded that it is lawful for the government to make arrangements for relocating asylum seekers to Rwanda and for their asylum claims to be determined in Rwanda rather than the UK”.
        However, the ruling included an important caveat that could potentially render the policy if not moot then more challenging for the government to operate. The justices added that the home secretary “must consider fully the circumstance of each individual claimant.”
        That is a potentially critical judgement, because it raises questions not about the morality of the policy but whether it is capable of working as envisaged, with asylum seekers sent quickly to Rwanda should they arrive in Britain by illegal means. Today’s ruling likely makes that far more difficult – by increasing the amount of time, legal restrictions and cost for each removal.
        Of course, the plan was never about sending large numbers of people to Rwanda. The country lacks the capacity to handle any significant figures. This is about deterrence, predicated on the idea that anyone could be deported, and relatively swiftly.

    2. They/she do a lot of photoshopping, Belle. I have seen much of it on other sites. That is why I doubt the existence of their children. All we see are photographs. Photoshopped. There is always someone who can find the original photo with a different baby/small child. MM lives her life inside her head, and projects it onto her audience.

    3. Somebody has photoshopped the original photo and superimposed Harry and Meghan’s faces. Fake nooz.

    4. So the DNA test on Harry will have to determine:

      a) Is his father really his father? and
      b) Are his children really his children?

    5. Who are you saying are the fraudsters, Maggie. The Montecito pair or the pair on the left?

  • Good afternoon, Peeps.

    Headline in the DT:

    Rishi Sunak tells Gary Neville to stick to football after pundit hits out at Government

    Former footballer voiced solidarity with striking nurses, drawing parallels between treatment of migrant workers in Qatar and UK workers

    * * *

    I hadn’t previously heard of Neville, but understand that he is a football commentator. All I can say, is – he needs to decide what he wants to do: be a football commentator or a political commentator. He simply can’t be both because his political views should not form part of the former as this is a blatant abuse of his position, particularly with (I assume) so many youngsters watching. Of course, if he was working for the BBC he would immediately place them in breach of their Charter, whereas there is no duty for ITV to be impartial. In fact they have just shrugged it off as being his view and not theirs. That simply isn’t good enough but presumably his bosses secretly agree, otherwise they would surely have disciplined him, or better still sacked him – subject to the requirements of his contract of course.

    I just wonder why he and others cannot seem to understand what being professional is about, and what responsibilty is entailed when taking part in a broadcast about sport.

    Sorry if this may have been covered elsewhere today; I haven’t had time to look at all the other comments on here today.

    4. Neville has always been a gobby Manc.

      It is no coincidence that Manc rhymes with Wank.

      He was a gobby right back for Man Ure and England before becoming a gobby television football ‘expert’.

    5. The migrant workers were bribing hiring people for a job. The Nurses are on strike. One exists in a competitive market with wages controlled by worker availablililty, the other are nurses, who don’t and aren’t.

    1. Hunt is going to announce a budget early in the year, so expect taxes to go up, the economy to slow, the state to waste more and services to get even worse.

        1. Almost certainly. I’m expecting it now. The biggest betrayal of the public this century.

          I told a chum when we left that they’d never let us leave. I gave him my theory a few weeks ago and he mocked it, almost shouting that we should never have left because ‘it’s not got us anything’.

          They do not understand what they are giving up.

          1. They also do not understand why we appear “not to have got anything”. We should have our freedom, the restoration of Common Law, control of our borders and of our fiscal policy. That we have not is not the fault of Brexit, it’s the fault of those politicians who have not delivered Brexit.

  • Well, the anti-cat “tree” is in place – horizontal branches of Holm Oak (evergreen, Mrs Macfarlane!!). The knack is to let them rest overnight – so that any “dropping” is sorted out. Then prune tomorrow and add lights and decorations.

    G & P were thrilled when the stuff was brought into the house – and played with it a bit – then got bored. Gus, I suspect thinks that “something is up”… Pickles just sleeps.

    The outdoor higher temperature continues – but won’t last. Rain expected tonight. And some sunshine tomorrow.

    Have a jolly evening. Drinking helps….

    A demain.

  • God Helps Those Who Help Themselves.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/19/church-england-official-took-52m-spent-flights-burberry/

    “Church of England official took £5.2m and spent it on flights and Burberry

    Martin Sargeant was head of operations for the Diocese of London, and requested the money for ‘dysfunctional churches’

    19 December 2022 • 5:02pm

    A Church of England official who “took more flights than Alan Whicker” spent the proceeds of a £5.2 million fraud on Burberry, Ted Baker and online fruit machines, a court heard.

    Martin Sargeant, 53, was head of operations for the Diocese of London, which controls churches and their coffers in the capital.

    He requested cash for “dysfunctional churches” and the money went straight into his pocket. Sargeant pocketed just over £5.2 million and the cash was “lavished on his lifestyle”, prosecutor Joey Kwong told Southwark Crown Court.

    He bought seven properties, three of them in Scotland worth £1 million “including a riverside log cabin which can be rented out as a business,” said the prosecutor.

    ‘Alan Whicker would not have clocked up as many flights’

    Mr Kwong said a statement from an American Express bank account showed Sarjeant spent £2,700 at fashion store Ted Baker in February 2012.

    “In January 2013, £1,616 spent at Burberry and £4,000 spent on hotels in the same month … and in the three months between May and July 2013 he spent £30,000 at the Soho Hotel in London,” Mr Kwong said.

    Sargeant was a BA frequent flyer who flew over 180 times with the airline between 2010 and 2019, with flights to New York and other such destinations, the court heard.

    At a previous hearing, Malachy Packenham, prosecuting, referenced the late Alan Whicker, who presented the popular travel documentary series Whicker’s World on TV from 1958 to 1994, when he said: “Alan Whicker would not have clocked up as many flights as this defendant did.”

    The Diocese of London have not been able to maintain their buildings and some have been closed to the public, according to an impact statement read to the court.

    Sargeant had ‘long-standing gambling addiction’

    Mark Ruffell, defending, said Sargeant has a “long-standing gambling addiction”. He told the court: “This wasn’t a fraud from the start, It was a fraud that came about because he had influence with substantial amounts of money.

    “He explained at the start of that interview that he had a gambling addiction and at some points was losing £20,000 a day from online fruit machines”.

    Mr Ruffell said Sargeant’s gambling addiction began when he was just 15 and would bunk off school to place bets.

    Mr Ruffell told the court that Sargeant “created a fantasy life to hide lies” and that he is “sorry for everything”.

    Sargeant, of Maughan Street, Dudley, West Midlands, admitted one count of fraud by abuse of position and was jailed for five years.

    Judge Michael Grieve, KC, told him: “You admitted that as you did this you knew the church was close to bankruptcy.

    “This was a sophisticated fraud carried out systematically for a period 11 years resulting to a massive loss to the churches of London which they could ill afford.” “

      1. Yes, but prisoners “on best behaviour” only serve around half of their sentence, so 22 years would be better, lacoste.

  • We are now living through the dire consequences of lockdown

    The health service is on its knees and the public is owed a full explanation of who is to blame for this scandalous situation

    ALLISON PEARSON • 14 December 2022 • 2:00pm

    Afriend’s husband has had his operation cancelled. Again. The first time, Rob was actually in the hospital and hadn’t eaten anything for more than 24 hours before they finally tipped him out. He was in tears. As there are over 7.2 million on the waiting list, getting admitted for a procedure is roughly akin to your numbers coming up on EuroMillions while enjoying cocktails with George Clooney.

    With nurses going on strike on Thursday [Dec 15], there are likely to be thousands more disappointed Robs. The NHS is required to give two days’ notice of a surgical cancellation but, in a special Winter of Discontent bonus, the postal workers are also on strike, so the letters won’t reach patients in time. Prepare to hear that you won’t be having your coronary angioplasty done on Friday – only the letter breaking that news will arrive sometime in late January.

    What d’you mean, send a text? This is the No Hope Service we’re talking about. The NHS only sets aside its Brezhnev-era Banda machines and uses new technology when there’s a financial incentive. Witness the constant reminders to get your fifth Covid booster. A nice little earner for somebody, I bet. Meanwhile, last Friday in Cwmbran, Army veteran Melvyn Ryan fell and broke his hip. When his granddaughter Nicole found the 89-year-old, he was on the kitchen floor with a bleeding head and in great pain. Nicole dialled 999 and was told no ambulances were available. Not a long wait; just a flat refusal.

    The call handler told Nicole to book a taxi to transport Melvyn to hospital. Nicole and her partner managed to strap her grandfather to a plank and put him in the back of their van where the dogs go.

    “To make matters worse,” Nicole reported, “when we did get him to hospital, the staff said that, had we followed the advice we’d been given and sat him up in a taxi, the break in his hip would have likely ruptured an artery and been catastrophic for him.”

    I’m afraid there will be lots more pensioners awaiting non-existent ambulances. Most elderly people won’t have ventured out in the snow on Monday, but by today they will feel they have to fetch milk and other essentials. Melted snow turning into black ice will be treacherous and the inevitable will happen. Waiting hours for help to come will be lethal in this cold weather. On the bright side, as people have started joking bitterly, at least we won’t notice there’s an ambulance strike because there will be no change in the service.

    While I have a certain sympathy for nurses, midwives and paramedics who are working in grossly-understaffed conditions while senior executives polish their halos and recruit another equality, diversity and inclusion officer at 80 grand a pop, the timing of these strikes is deplorably selfish and callous.

    The unions know full well that the run-up to Christmas is wing-and-a-prayer time in an average year, but this is happening when the health service is on its knees.

    All the more reason for the Government and NHS senior management to offer an apology and a full explanation to the public for how this scandalous situation came about. We know they like to blame Vladimir Putin for everything, but the present parlous state of the NHS is ALSO attributable to lockdown and to catastrophically poor judgment calls.

    According to shocking new OECD figures, the NHS shut down more services during the first year of the pandemic than nearly every other nation in Europe. Cancer-related surgery dropped by more than a quarter compared with 2019. It was the second-highest plunge among the 30 countries included in the Health at a Glance 2022 report. The UK only performed better than Romania. Yes, a budget of 150 billion quid a year and the NHS managed to just about pip Romania. In contrast, Denmark experienced barely any disruption to cancer surgery with a mere 0.6 per cent fall in 2020.

    If you were Danish with Stage 2 cancer in 2020, there’s a very good chance you had your surgery and are now doing well. If you were British with Stage 2 cancer in 2020, you probably died at home or are in palliative care. I’m sorry to be blunt. Actually, I’m not sorry. Someone somewhere took the fatal decision to close or reduce key medical services which has caused thousands of avoidable deaths in this country and which is still causing several hundred excess deaths (non-Covid) every single week.

    Who was it? We’d like a name, please. If it was more than one person let’s have full disclosure. And you know the worst thing? They’re not even sorry. In an eye-popping piece in the Spectator about Matt Hancock’s Pandemic Diaries, which she co-authored, Isabel Oakeshott observes: “As the NHS morphed into a ‘Covid service’ there seems to have been remarkably little discussion at the top of Government about the risk of compromising standards of care for people with other serious illnesses.” Hancock, she says, “admits the NHS misled patients about this sorry state of affairs by declaring everything was fine”.

    The person who might reasonably be expected to balance the needs of all patients is the Chief Medical Officer for England, Sir Chris Whitty. Along with Sir Patrick Vallance, the Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Chris co-authored a report on the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK which was released THIS MONTH. Both men admitted that Britain will face a “prolonged period” of excess deaths after operations were cancelled and people “avoided the NHS” during the pandemic. Sir Chris said that delays in patients coming forward, a reduction in preventative medication (such as statins) and the cancellation of surgeries and screenings “will have led to later and more severe” non-Covid illness. Zero ordure, Sherlock!

    “The combined effect of this will likely lead to a prolonged period of non-Covid excess mortality after the worst period of the pandemic is over,” Whitty and Vallance concluded. “Undoubtedly, some people who would (and could) have come forward did not because of a sense of altruism or perceived risk of being in hospital.”

    Frankly, hearing from these chaps, who were both given gongs for their work, felt a bit like two arsonists providing a commentary on the likely safety implications of having set fire to a highly combustible building. Offering advice to their successors on dealing with any future pandemic, Whitty and Vallance said that the speed with which the Covid vaccines were developed might “lull politicians into a false sense of security, with other new diseases possibly requiring social distancing and lockdowns for even longer”.

    No. No. No. We are now living through the consequences of a purblind pursuit of restrictions that has beggared our economy for a generation and overwhelmed healthcare to the point that an elderly man with a broken hip is told that no ambulance is coming, ever. We can barely call ourselves a civilised country, yet the most public advocates of that ruinous policy have the cheek to suggest that, next time, we could lock down even harder.

    How quickly we forget. This time last year, the champions of Covid restrictions were agitating for another Christmas lockdown. Ignoring the good news from South Africa about the milder Omicron variant, various professors opined that “Plan B restrictions do not go far enough”. Only a principled exit by Lord (David) Frost from the Cabinet and a hundred Tory MPs suddenly rediscovering a spine prevented more carnage.

    This Christmas, we have lockdown by default because of multiple strikes, and the NHS is under siege because of lockdown by design. The “Nothing to do wiv us, Guv” attitude of Hancock, Whitty and Vallance cannot hold. Only by owning the mistakes and promising to never make them again, can trust be rebuilt.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2022/12/14/now-living-dire-consequences-lockdown/

    2. MH and I have both had texts from our GP office saying that because of Strep A ( sore throat) they are overwhelmed. So we are advised to not book, or try to book, appointments.
      MH had his badly needed appointment for 21st of this month pushed back to Feb, at the hospital, I have an appointment in Feb also but, as MH said today, some of the things I describe to him, suggests that it is still skin cancer but has gone into the bone.
      But we must not bother the NHS- they come first and the patients are negligible.
      I am so tempted to buy a lotto ticket and hopefully win and then piss off elsewhere.
      The government has succeeded in its aim- frighten and reduce the populace to a state of panic….even for a sore bloody throat, of which I had hundreds when I was a child.

        2. Listening to the Christmas music from Messiah right now and some parts that I sang so often. Messiah is like an old friend- you can leave it for ages but always come back to it.

      2. Jayzuz. Any reasn not to sort out illness.
        Sorry about that. Can’t hrlp but send hugs – maybe even as warm as those from Ashes…

      3. Holy Smoke. At the risk of provoking a hollow laugh, do you have any good contacts at your local surgery?

        1. I thought you were going to tell us you’d got a doctor’s appointment 🙂 If I’m going to need a doctor, I’m going to make sure I’m in church when the choir is singing; one of them is a doctor in A&E!

    3. One of the bell-ringers from church had actually got to the theatre doors when her op was cancelled! Thankfully, she’s had it now and is recouperating at home.

      1. May as well not be sent; forget the Golden Hour. Here four hour plus waits for an ambulance are common (and still they build more houses on farmland). There have been several instances of people dying because of it. Heads should roll, but we all know they won’t (and the new LD MP, who campaigned about getting waiting times down, has done eff all about it – no improvement whatsoever).

  • One year on, we still haven’t learnt the lessons of lockdown failure

    The apparatus that was so eager to apply restrictions last Christmas is still there, ready to pounce again

    FRASER NELSON • 15 December 2022 • 9:32pm

    It was a year ago today that Britain was set to be locked down again for the fourth time. The Omicron variant was at large and experts at Sage had predicted there would be between 600 to 6,000 deaths a day unless “interventions” were made. Plans were drawn up and an emergency press conference pencilled in – but this time, the script changed. When Rishi Sunak heard what was happening, he threatened to resign. He flew back early from his trip to California and demanded this was discussed at a Cabinet meeting, which, as he knew it would, killed the idea.

    There’s a long list of people who “saved” last Christmas, but Sunak deserves a place near the top. Had he not intervened, the economy and society would have been closed yet again. If the blood-curdling Sage “scenarios” did not come to pass, lockdown would be credited. Sunak had gone along with previous shutdowns, thinking himself a lone voice of dissent. But this time, he had enough support at a time when Boris Johnson had already lost a by-election and lost David Frost, his Brexit minister. He could not afford to lose a Chancellor.

    This tells us three things. First, that Sunak was single-minded enough to take on the whole government machine, risking his career. Next, he’s smart enough to work out when the civil service has been captured by groupthink and find his own information. But perhaps the biggest lesson was that there was – and remains – a massive flaw in the government system, where decisions are taken on unreliable science, with minimal scrutiny. It’s a scandal that ought to have been quickly remedied, but what we see instead is a pattern of denial.

    Lockdown remains at the root of the biggest problems that confront the country, but few are willing to say so. Euphemisms are used, like saying that “the pandemic” destroyed 10 years of progress in education equality. Yet Sweden had a pandemic, but no lockdown, no national school closures below sixth-form and no educational hit.

    The NHS waiting lists, the 565,000 “missing” workers, the rise in at-home deaths, and nearly 9,000 more cancer deaths – all linked to lockdown’s legacy.

    No one disputes the damage – the question is whether it was a price worth paying for a smaller pandemic death toll. But advocates of lockdown seem strikingly uninterested in finding out. A report was published earlier this month by (among others) Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance, the two gentlemen of Corona, to summarise what they learned from handling the pandemic. What about lockdowns? Hard to tell these things, it says, because so many things happen at once. In this way, the £400 billion question – do lockdowns work? – is breezily cast aside.

    The events of last December alone could themselves be enough for an official inquiry, as Sunak knows better than anyone. A former financier, he still reads research notes from banks and received a December 13 paper from JP Morgan. It used real-world South African data to model the UK hospitalisation rate peaking at about 34 per cent of the previous (Delta) wave. Crucial information which, if true, could save the country from another lockdown.

    But such information was not being shown to the Cabinet members. Instead they were being given terrifying Sage “scenarios” with good news filtered out. On December 15 last year, Whitty was saying: “All the things that we do know [about Omicron] are bad.” This was quite untrue: the milder illness and shorter hospital stays had, by then, been reported by South African authorities. This didn’t stop Dr Jenny Harries, Whitty’s former deputy, proclaiming Omicron to be “probably the most significant threat” since the discovery of Covid.

    By the time the Cabinet met on December 20, JP Morgan was able to predict, correctly, that Omicron hospital admissions would peak at 1,500. Sage was a mess. Its daily death range of 600 to 6,000 was bunkum: the actual peak was 269. This is what Whitty et al should be asking now: why did they get it so wrong? Why were ministers fed such misleading figures? A nation was about to be shut down: shops hit, schools closed, Christmases cancelled, on the strength of scenarios which (as Sage later admitted) were “at variance with reality”. Why was this allowed?

    There is, of course, an even more awkward question. The third lockdown in January 2021 was extended for months on the strength of these Sage “scenarios”. Might these figures have been as off as the Omicron scenarios turned out to be? If so, how much of these UK lockdowns may now prove to have been unnecessary? This isn’t an investigation that Whitty will be conducting in a hurry.

    The formal Covid inquiry looks designed to avoid the hardest questions about lockdowns. It’s not about guilt: we can assume everyone acted honourably, on the best information they had. The question is why dud information was not exposed, or policies properly tested. The basic (in some countries, compulsory) way of judging public health questions is a “quality of life years lost” study: factoring in age and health impacts of the problem and the solution. Sunak was astonished to find that no such study had been conducted for lockdown. It is, of course, not too late to do one now. But not many in Parliament would thank him for it.

    This isn’t about litigating the past, but getting ready for the future. When the next pathogen is discovered, what to do? If old mistakes aren’t recognised, they’re certain to be repeated. There has been no apology or contrition from the main Sage figures for mistakes. Graham Medley, chair of its modellers, even collected a medal from the Royal Society for his work. The apparatus that almost misled Britain into a needless lockdown last Christmas is still there, waiting to snap back into use.

    More than perhaps anyone else in the Cabinet, Sunak knows how rotten the old system was; how dissenting voices were crushed and how many questions seem to have been deliberately ignored. He has many battles to fight before he reforms the pandemic preparedness that failed us so badly last time. He’ll just have to hope – as we all will – that he’ll get it done before the next panic starts.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/15/one-year-still-havent-learnt-lessons-lockdown-failure/

    1. This tells us three things. First, that Sunak was single-minded enough to take on the whole government machine, risking his career.

      Hi risk anus wasn’t risking anything, he could, and can walk away and financially he won’t even feel the breeze as the door slams behind him.

      He’s a fraud.

      1. The praise for Sunak might be misplaced but the real subject is SAGE and its appalling forecasts and advice.

        1. I totally agree.

          SAGE should be disbanded and its members turned into waxworks in a Tussaud’s Hall of Infamy.

          1. Personally, I am a traditionalist. Separate their heads from their shoulders, dip heads in pitch and stick on spikes over London Bridge.

    2. 369060+ up ticks,

      Evening WS,

      Will corporate manslaughter get a mention next time
      round ?

      The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is a landmark in law. For the first time, companies and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care.

    3. Is this a puff piece for “Rishi the Saviour”? Are mutterings about how he was complicit in wrecking the economy being detected in Whitehall?

  • Just been down to the river to get a bucket of water to flush the toilet. Broken water main so whole town has been without all day.

      1. Try the medieval days when it was a privy pit behind the house… and that was for the slightly less impoverished.

        2. Not so mediaeval – when I was living in France (1966) the house had a hut at the bottom of the yard containing a plank with a hole in it suspended over a drop!

    3. Good luck.
      Count your blessings that there is a water source nearby.

      (Joke) If only you had accepted some boat people to live with you, they could have transported water for you, think of all the trouble it would have saved! (it was a joke)

      1. We have had plenty of rain in the last 24 hours. Temperature went from minus 11 to plus 14C.

        1. We had a very similar range to you today, certainly not as cold but a little bit hotter, -7 or 8 to + 17 or 18, depending how high up the side of the valley.

          I had a bizarre experience this morning when I drove away, it was 8° at the house, 3 or 4 in the valley and then I was finding that I was driving through a localised freezing fog which covered the windscreen, very strange.

      2. We have had plenty of rain in the last 24 hours. Temperature went from minus 11 to plus 14C.

    4. Hope there are people working on getting it fixed? My kitchen was without water this morning but only because one of our tanks was being cleaned and disinfected.

      2. I keep checking on Facebook to see if there are any updates but not as yet. The schools closed too so it looks like we will be looking after the grandson tomorrow.

    5. Can’t you get featured on a TV ad? You know, the one where we have to pay £2 a week (on top of everything our government gives away) to build a well for people who have to walk to fetch their water … 🙂

        1. And your task for tomorrow is to obtain some empty 2 litre plastic bottles which should be filled with tap water and kept somewhere safe for emergencies.

          And a rain water butt could also be useful.

          1. Safe and frost free (which is hard to arrange with a water butt; during one of the recent very cold winters, mine froze, the bottom became rounded with the pressure of the ice and it rolled off its plinth! It didn’t do the cold frame near it any good at all!).

        2. If we have a water problem we have regitered as over 70 and have endless water delivered if required. Check with you local water company. Eg. we wee exempted in the last hose pipe ban.

          1. He’s a distraction now. They have two years until the next election and under a year until the first stages.

            DT is going to be in and out of court the whole time.
            Just say that he’s chosen as the front runner, and loses the court cases.
            No GOP candidate, no alternative and Biden or Harris is a shoo-in.

            Do you really believe that the Democrats can’t and won’t set him up to be tried in a Democrat stronghold, with a Democrat appointed judge?
            Debit truth, credit expediency, DT is a millstone, cut the cord and let it sink.

      1. I have no doubt at all that his was better, the problem I see is that he’s now compromised, and the Democrats will do everything within their power to stop him and lawfare is effective, difficult to stop, and in the USA, heavily dependent on where one is tried.

        The Democrats have the whip hand here and they can tie him up in legal cases until the cows come home.

        Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in this case

        2. A bit like UKIP, Trump draws fire for anything he proposes. I like the Donald but New blood with DeSantis would be excellent.

  • Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk. Story time in the morning. I have to ring the surgery ar 08:00 so I should be up betimes.

    1. Good night.
      I’m listening to Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Cantatas 1 to 3 on BBC R3 and will be going up for a bath when it finishes.

  • COP15: Nations reach ‘historic’ deal to protect nature

    Nations have agreed to protect a third of the planet for nature by 2030 in a landmark deal aimed at safeguarding biodiversity.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64019324

    “Scientists have warned that with forests and grasslands being lost at unprecedented rates and oceans under pressure from pollution, humans are pushing the Earth beyond safe limits.”

    But UK land is expendable…

    1. Rather want to say ‘OK, so you’re ending all immigration and encouraging those here to leave, scrapping child benefit to reduce the population of future generations of welfarists?

      Ah, of course you aren’t. How about building a recycling plant rather than shipping our waste to Africa who dump it in the sea?

  • Evening all,
    I’m turning in for an early night tonight. Up early tomorrow to go in to prepare for what havok the second day’s strike may bring.

  • And I’m off for a bath and away to bed too.
    A productive day with a lot of wood split and stacked.

    G’night all.

    2. They were complete fools, if only they combined their riots with a protest about oil, plod would have brought tea and biscuits for them and stood back and watched them torch the place.

  • Today I went with four other u3a Wrinklies to our final cinema visit – after ten years as leader I am stepping down and no-one is willing to take over the reins. The film we saw was AVATAR: The Way Of Water, the second in what seems to be scheduled to become a five or six part series of films. (Part 3 is apparently 90% complete and is scheduled for release in December 2025. If you are considering going to watch AVATAR 2 I wouldn’t bother. Apart from being virtually incomprehensible if you haven’t seen and remember the original, the final 90 minutes of its three and a quarter hours running time seems to be an unending, unnecessary and totally pointless series of glorifying mindless violence. The plot is useless, but the visuals are quite impressive.

    Having issued that warning, may I wish you all a very restful and peaceful night’s sleep. See you all tomorrow.

    1. Sad that your little cinema group is winding down. I guess you’ll still go sometimes but not as a group.

      1. Correct. Some weeks it has been difficult to find a suitable film on a weekly basis, Ndovu.

    2. Got to say, Elsie, the old’uns are far far better. You can stick the new fillums where the sun don’t shine.

      1. As a general rule, molamola, that is true and has had a strong bearing on my decision to stand down. Walt Disney seems to spend all its time buying up film studios in order to gain the right to continue or re-make proven past successes in order to gain a bigger share in the profits. And don’t start me on the Marvel and DC Comics franchises which are mainly “crash bang wallop” films full of CGI effects. The politically correct insertion of Black, Asian and Homosexual characters (now slowly including Transgender ones) is something which irks me and – to me at least – is counter-productive in that it simply increases my resentment of blacks and homosexuals. Rather like the dislike for “Black Lives Matter” here on this site.

        To be fair, however, there are still some good films being made. My final Film Club email lists all of this year’s films and asks members to vote for their “Top Ten Films of 2022” and so far I have identified at least 14 films I thought were good, including BELFAST, WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, THE DUKE, THIRTEEN LIVES (the young football team trapped in a South American cave) and so on.

        Correction to my second sentence: For “Walt Disney” read “Disney Studios”.

        1. Please list the 14 films, Elsie, and I will pass them on to MOH. She spends more time looking for a film to watch than actually watching them.

          1. Here is my shortlist for Mrs molamola to peruse, in the order in which we watched them:

            BELFAST, THE DUKE, OPERATION MINCEMEAT, THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT***, DOWTON ABBEY – A New Era, THE QUIET GIRL, TOP GUN – Maverick, GOOD LUCK TO YOU LEO GRANDE, ELVIS, WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, THIRTEEN LIVES, OFFICIAL COMPETITION***, MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS, THE LOST KING.

            I hope this list is helpful, although the films marked *** may be considered a bit “odd” by the general public.

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