558 thoughts on “Monday 23 December: The rise of unelected power poses a grave threat to Britain’s democracy”

  3. The wife is off very early to Waitrose this morning to get all the Christmas groceries despite shopping what seems like every day for the last week or so.

    Golf course is still closed.

    1. I did my final w/rose run yes’day morning. When I arrived it was quiet but after 10 minutes the store filled up & it was chaotic.

      According to the BBC News St Ives is cut off by the floods, which is absolute nonsense.

      1. The BBC are trying to claim half the country is flooded. which is not the case. There has been some minor flooding but that not unusual at this time of year a lot of it is down to the drains not being cleaned very often now., They used to typically clean them once a year now it is very infrequent and could be up to 5 years

    2. You have had a lucky escape, I am surprised you were not dragged along as an assistant shopper or more accurately a provider of cash and carrier of bags

        1. I am aware that in shops we are easily distracted particularly if we can see a nice pub narbye

          2. Off you pop then! By the way, notification of your comment has only just appeared, early hours of Boxing Day! Happy Christmas!

  4. Good Morning, all

    SIR – The new Government needs to take urgent action over the concerns raised by Charles Moore and others about the rampant growth in unelected power within the “establishment”.

    Mr Moore correctly focuses most of his fire on the judiciary because it is undeniable, except by the wilfully obtuse, that many senior judges have become increasingly – and, on the matter of Brexit, brazenly – political (although not party-political).

    Also of concern are the attempts to shut down criticism of bias displayed by senior legal figures, Whitehall mandarins or BBC presenters. Yes, these people should be independent. But they must also be accountable.

    Terry Smith
    London NW11

    Meanwhile over at the Graun…
    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2bb62fb05fd82211c96209459ed58fb17e7894d7/206_29_4000_2402/master/4000.jpg?width=940&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=2d4dc343fc3a4bd40c21662ecba4e52b

    BTL:
    “Somewhere along the line someone at the BBC seems to have thought that Twitter didn’t need BBC editorial guidelines, that senior editors could be trusted.

    However, the real problem is that the BBC does not grasp that they have to be beyond reproach, that means not just being unbiased, but avoiding even the appearance of bias.

    I have a long list of things the BBC should consider stopping: unattributed briefings, pre-announcing events (and analysing them before they gave happened), vox pops, Twitter quotes, 24 news channel, generally stop trying to be first with the news and win by being accurate with the news.

    The BBC should review their news reports every day and ask themselves: “Is that what really happened today?” Until they can say hand on heart ”Yes” then they are failing.”

    Methinks they don’t like it up ’em.

  6. SIR – It is correct that cross-Channel people-smuggling (Letters, December 19) will continue as long as the traffickers and those trafficked perceive it as largely successful.

    A problem with a policy of extended patrolling in French waters is that the new boats on which vast amounts have pointlessly been spent are, unlike the full-size cutters, unsuitable for sustained periods at sea, especially in such inhospitable waters. Buying the small (rescue) boats gave an illusion of useful activity but was not supported by a considered, long-term strategy.

    David Raynes
    Bath

    Need something with a gun turret near the bow.

  7. Britain’s position in the Brexit trade talks is far stronger than the gloomsters claim
    ROGER BOOTLE – 22 DECEMBER 2019 • 7:00PM

    There’s no need to worry about trade after Brexit

    We can negotiate a deal with the EU in a year, and it’s not the end of the world if we don’t

    Here we go again! After Boris Johnson’s crushing victory, the Remainerish Tendency hasn’t missed a beat in returning to the fray. The issue that is now causing acute angst is the possibility that we will leave the European Union by the end of next year without a trade deal. According to all the usual suspects, this is set to bring disaster. Does this ring a bell?

    The context is the hitherto widespread, lazy assumption in the media and elsewhere that a big Johnson majority would allow the Prime Minister to sideline the serious eurosceptics in his party and go for a “soft” Brexit, involving an extension to the transition period and as close an association with the EU as possible.

    This assumed that Mr Johnson wanted a soft Brexit and/or that achieving this is in his and the country’s interests. But why? It is typical of the Remainer mindset that they cannot get their head around the idea that Brexit is not some disaster whose scope and reach must be minimised, but rather a set of challenges to be met and opportunities to be seized.

    Many have argued that trade negotiations with the EU will drag on for years, condemning businesses to an extended period of the very uncertainty that has so bedevilled their planning and reduced their investment. Yet Mr Johnson’s move last week to enshrine the date of the end of the transition period in law has cut through this argument. Unless you believe that this law will be overturned, then we will definitely leave the EU’s Customs Union and Single Market by the end of next year. The only remaining uncertainty is whether we leave with a trade deal or instead trade with the EU under World Trade Organisation terms.

    The latter has been described as a “no-deal” departure from the EU. These two words have acquired talismanic importance. “No-deal” is widely regarded as “crashing out”. The “cliff-edge” is apparently back in business.

    If nothing else, you have to hand it to the wordsmiths in the Remainer camp. For “no-deal” was originally used to describe the situation where we left the EU without any sort of agreement on anything. Even Mrs May’s ill-fated “deal” did not include a trade agreement. That was left to be negotiated later.

    The truth is that, given that Mr Johnson has struck a departure deal with the EU and that it will be enacted by Parliament, there is no way that the UK will be leaving “without a deal” in the original meaning of the expression. And there have been lots of mini-agreements on the likes of aircraft landing rights.

    Of course, we could still leave without a trade deal. Indeed, the usual gloomsters argue that getting a trade agreement with the EU by the end of next year is impossible. This is defeatist nonsense. It is eminently feasible given the political will. Unlike in most trade negotiations, in this case both partners begin from a situation of zero trade barriers and regulatory alignment. Moreover, there is the recent deal with Canada to use as a template. Nor is it absolutely necessary to have every aspect of our future relationship with the EU covered in a single deal. It might well be possible to secure an agreement by the end of next year on some aspects while continuing negotiations on others.

    Regulation is going to be the sticking point. Supposedly, the European Commission wants to insist that the UK accepts pretty much full regulatory alignment with the EU and only in return for this will it concede full access to its markets, including in financial services. It would be madness for the UK to agree to any such thing.

    The essential economic case for Brexit has still not sunk in among the commentariat. To listen to Remainers bemoaning our looming fate outside the EU, you would think that the union is a zone of stonking economic success. But it isn’t. It is mired in comparative economic failure. And the regulatory regime is one of the factors responsible. What’s more, the EU’s shortcomings are likely to intensify as it moves on to yet closer integration. Even if it means leaving without a trade deal, this is a bloc whose regulatory regime we should be itching to detach ourselves from, not aligning ourselves with.

    Over the coming year, the Johnson government will be simultaneously trying to do trade deals with other countries, in particular the US. If it secures such deals but does not reach a trade agreement on tariff-free trade with the EU, then EU producers will suffer massive price competition in the UK market. While the price of goods imported into the UK from the rest of the world will fall, as tariffs on these goods are cut, the price of EU-produced goods imported into the UK will rise as tariffs are imposed. The consequence is that Continental producers of everything from cars to cheeses would be hit very hard. Perceiving this threat ahead of them, they are going to be putting huge pressure on their governments to do a deal with the UK.

    All along, Remainers have under-estimated the strength of the Brexit case. Their thinking has been dominated by a perception of British weakness. In reality, the only weak thing about Britain’s position has been her government. Now the election result has transformed the political situation.

    Remainers have undergone several shocks over the last few years, starting with the Brexit vote in 2016. I believe that they are soon going to experience another one. The Johnson government is going to succeed in doing trade deals with the EU and several other countries, and without preserving close regulatory alignment with the EU. And, what’s more, the UK economy is going to do exceedingly well. Happy Christmas.

    Roger Bootle is chairman of Capital Economics. His latest book, The AI Economy – Work, Wealth and Welfare in the Robot Age, has recently been published by Nicholas Brealey.

    Top Comments
    Patrick Freel 22 Dec 2019 7:15PM
    The cliff edge is what the Labour party and remainers in general have just gone over.

    1. A real expert on trade said a deadline is essential to focus minds on reaching a deal. He also felt that 50% to 90% of the deal will be straight forwards and can be concluded quickly the issues may be around working conditions , state aid and environmental issues even here he did not thing it would be a significant issue as we are unlikely to deviate much it would be minor adjustments to suit UK needs,

      With regard to food which tend to be treated differently to most goods he expect us to reach an agreement with the EU similar to the agreement New Zealand has where the EU would accept UK food standards but would check a sample of 2%

      1. Working conditions have no place in a trade deal. Environmental issues are not our problem either. For Heaven’s sake!
        It is the Remainers who are endlessly whining that the UK will lower working condition and ignore environmental issues. Who cares if the EU does it? Not us. It is none of our business, literally.
        Oh, and we won’t be lowering our standards in anything. Why would we? To upset our workers?
        High standards add value to goods.
        Added value is key to perception and profit.

    2. Oh Gosh!
      What I said yesterday and last year, and the year before that. All very obvious to all except grovelling Remainers on the payroll of the EU.

  8. Total Ban on Smoking in NHS England Hospitals From April 2020

    From April a strict smoking ban is being introduced in all NHS England Hospitals. From that date smoking will be totally banned on NHS England hospital property. This included the grounds and car parks including smoking in parked cars. All smoking shelters will be removed from NHS England Hospitals

    1. Yo JB

      and when the inmates go mad, for the want of a ‘drag’ (not the BBC type of Drag), who will protect the staff.

      And, will it apply to staff,from the mythical cleaner to thr Minister IC Hospitals: the ban must be complete

      1. I think one of the big problems they have had is large numbers of people smoking just outside the entrance doors smoking

  10. No comments allowed on this….

    BBC director-general rejects claims of election bias and says: ‘People trust us’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/12/22/TELEMMGLPICT000218834587_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqEDjTm7JpzhSGR1_8ApEWQA1vLvhkMtVb21dMmpQBfEs.jpeg?imwidth=1240
    Anita Singh, arts and entertainment editor – 22 DECEMBER 2019 • 9:00PM

    The BBC director-general has rejected all claims of bias in its election coverage, insisting that the corporation has the public’s trust.

    Lord Hall of Birkenhead said that provoking the ire of both the Conservative and Labour parties proved that the BBC is impartial.

    In his first public riposte to accusations of political bias, Lord Hall said the BBC remains “the envy of the world”.

    Writing in the Telegraph, he said: “Around 27 million people in the UK came to the BBC website to find out about the election results. It was a reminder of the trust people place in the BBC.

    “Yes, of course we faced some criticism for our election coverage. That is to be expected as the national broadcaster. Where we can and need to improve we will.

    “But the fact criticism came from all sides of the political divide shows to me that we were doing our job without fear or favour.”

    That assessment does not chime with comments made by the BBC’s head of news and current affairs, Fran Unsworth, who said earlier this month: “I don’t necessarily subscribe to the view that if we get complaints from both sides, we are doing something right.”

    Downing Street was so incensed by the BBC’s coverage during the election campaign that Tory sources said they would boycott Radio 4’s flagship Today programme, and called for an internal review into impartiality.

    The corporation broadcast a monologue by Andrew Neil in which he savaged Boris Johnson’s refusal to give him an interview. The attack was criticised by Lord Grade, the former BBC chairman, who said it was wrong to use “humiliation tactics” in a bid to force the Prime Minister to take questions.

    In a two-week period during the election campaign, the BBC received a record 24,435 complaints.

    A Question Time Leaders’ Special drew 4,417 complaints, many from people angry that the audience was weighted against the Tories.

    At the same time, the Labour Party claimed that the BBC was biased against Jeremy Corbyn. They cited a clip of Alex Forsyth, a political reporter, talking about Mr Johnson winning the majority “he so deserves”. BBC sources said the remark was a slip of the tongue.

    Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor, was accused of spreading fake news when she tweeted that a Labour activist had punched a Tory adviser outside a hospital. Video footage later that day proved the claim to be incorrect.

    It was reported yesterday that the BBC is considering restricting journalists’ use of Twitter, asking them not to tweet breaking political news unless they are sure of the facts.

    Lord Hall’s bullish defence of the corporation comes days after Mr Johnson suggested that the licence fee could be scrapped. The Prime Minister said he was “certainly looking at it”, saying: “I think the system of funding by what is effectively a general tax…. bears reflection.”

    Lord Hall writes in The Telegraph that “there is always debate the future of the BBC. It is an important national institution and one people care strongly about. But one thing is certain: creatively this country is the envy of the world and the BBC is at the very heart of that ecosystem.”

    A BBC source said of the election coverage: “No one is saying that nothing ever goes wrong. But the idea that we are biased one way or another is totally false.”

    Improvements to political coverage are expected to focus on spending more time outside London and producing news content that will chime with younger viewers.

    The corporation’s priority for 2020 is to find ways of attracting and holding on to a young audience that is turning its back on linear viewing in favour of Netflix and other on-demand services. Improvements will be announced in the New Year to the iPlayer service, the much-criticised BBC Sounds and online news, in response to changing consumer habits among the under-35s.

    An internal document leaked to Broadcast magazine warned that the level of BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four viewing among 16-34-year-olds was “dangerously close to the brink” and that the growth in iPlayer viewing had failed to mitigate the decline.

    The three channels reached only 46.6 per cent of that age group in the period from April to September 2019, down from 51.9 per cent for the same period in 2018. BBC One suffered the greatest drop.

    But Lord Hall insisted that the BBC is making great progress, with more under-35s watching iPlayer than ever more.

    He said that the BBC is a superior offering to Netflix or Amazon, which rely on algorithms to decide what viewers want to watch. “As streaming services proliferate, the challenge for all players will be to offer a confident distinctiveness rather than leaving everything to algorithm. A service that nobody else can provide,” he said.

    ************************************************************************************************

    For the sake of completeness and poor NoTTLers, below is Lord Hall’s laughable pleading. All the family can have fun rubbishing it.

    The BBC is at the heart of British innovation throughout the year
    TONY HALL – 22 DECEMBER 2019 • 9:12PM

    The secret to a great Christmas is simple: bring people together and make sure there’s something for everyone. That’s always been the goal of Christmas on the BBC. And when it comes to TV I believe we still set the gold standard.

    This year we’ve got a stellar line up of British talent and creativity. Brand new drama like A Christmas Carol and Dracula, alongside big favourites like Call the Midwife and Doctor Who. TV to bring the whole family together like Worzel Gummidge, The Snail and the Whale, The Goes Wrong Show and our Strictly special. Comedy from Miranda and Michael McIntyre, Mrs Brown’s Boys and brand new Gavin and Stacey.

    That’s all before you even get to the stack of box sets that we’ve loaded onto iPlayer. And if you prefer something to listen to instead, there’s a whole host of content on BBC Sounds too.

    It caps a year that has demonstrated once again the world-class creative firepower of the BBC. For all the debate over how people are now watching and listening in different ways, we are showing that we are every bit as relevant as ever to today’s audiences, and can offer even more value for money.

    iPlayer is a great example. We’ve been working hard over the past year to transform it from a catch-up service to a destination in its own right, with more box sets and more content available for longer. And it’s a strategy that’s really working, for audiences old and young.

    This year we’ve broken all records, breaking 4 billion programme requests for the first time. In November alone, we had more than 439 million programme requests – iPlayer’s biggest ever month.

    Crucially, more under-35s are watching iPlayer than ever before. Commentators are right to suggest that the BBC’s future success depends above all on being able to reach these younger audiences. What can often be overlooked is just how much progress we are already making.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/12/22/TELEMMGLPICT000216266698_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQfyf2A9a6I9YchsjMeADBa08.jpeg?imwidth=1240
    RuPaul’s Drag Race UH
    There will always be more for us to do but we are on track. In the space of a year, iPlayer’s reach to young audiences has increased by around 20 per cent. It’s been fuelled by exclusive content like RuPaul’s Drag Race, and blockbuster box sets such as Killing Eve (which, alone, had 100 million requests). And this is just the start. We will always be looking to innovate in new and different ways.

    This is all part of a truly ambitious digital strategy for the BBC in the 2020s and beyond. A year after launch, BBC Sounds now reaches nearly 3m adults weekly. The number of people using BBC News Online has also increased 26 per cent year-on-year.

    Around 27m people in the UK came to the BBC website to find out about the election results. It was a reminder of the trust people place in the BBC. Yes of course we faced some criticism for our election coverage. That is to be expected as the national broadcaster. Where we can and need to improve we will. But the fact criticism came from all sides of the political divide shows to me that we were doing our job without fear or favour.

    There is always debate about the future of the BBC. It is an important national institution and one people care strongly about. But one thing is certain: creatively this country is the envy of the world and the BBC is at the very heart of that ecosystem. That’s why I have complete belief in our ability to compete and succeed in the new media age. It is not born from complacency , but rather confidence in our talent as a nation to innovate, create and inspire. More than 180 awards this year – including 16 Emmys – tell their own story about the BBC’s own place at global television’s top table.

    Of course the huge global players have had a major impact on our media environment. We all have to continue to adapt – and fast. But as a country we should be confident of our ability to compete globally. The power of our creative reach is going to be more important than ever for us as a country.

    As streaming services proliferate, the challenge for all players will be to offer a confident distinctiveness rather than leaving everything to algorithm. A service that nobody else can provide. That is what I believe this country has helped to build over decades at the BBC as Britain’s creative champion We must not and will not stand still. I will be announcing further far reaching changes early in the New Year. Our mission is simple.

    We must continue to make sure we deliver something for everyone in this country – at Christmas and throughout the year.

    Baron Hall of Birkenhead is Director General of the BBC

    2. Well, the BBC did report the election results.
      That’s about it though. We do not watch much TV. The occasional drama – the last one was “Killing Eve’, and none of the self-styled comedies. We don’t watch the news either.
      The first item, the main item, on BBC TV News this morning at 6:00AM was about some football player complaining of being insulted. Well, diddums.
      Football players have always been insulted in my lifetime. It is a work hazard. It happens in many workplaces. If I was being paid £40,000 a week I would not care if people made monkey noises at me, bee noises, elephant noises, white rhino noises. Not one little bit.

    4. This would be the same Lord Hall who agreed to fund free TV for over 75s in return for a package of goodies from the Government, describing it as “a good deal for the BBC”, would it? As he’s since gone back on the agreement, surely the Government should take back all that it offered, such as the licence fee increases?? And as for the Christmas schedules – utter carp!

  11. Aircraft fuel is notoriously dirty. This airline is betting on clean electricity

    With this specialized company it might just about be possible but for large aircraft it is an impossibility

    Batteries are quite heave and bulky and have a fraction of the energy density of liquid fuel and weight and space are critical in aircraft an even bigger issue is batteries are potential hazardous and following fires in Boeing planes the FAA required batteries to be encased in a steel container which further eats up space and adds weigh. Now with a small battery that approach is fine but with large banks of batteries what you are in effect doing is creating a potential bomb so that approach cannot be used so short of a technological breakthrough we are not going to see large electrically powered planes

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/aircraft-fuel-is-notoriously-dirty-this-airline-is-betting-on-clean-electricity/ar-BBY8u7T?ocid=spartandhp

    2. All they need is a wind turbine fitted, so once airborne and up to speed, the batteries will remain charged.

      1. Sound good but it is extra weigh and does nothing for the aerodynamics of a plane which would be almost impossible to control in wind

  12. Good morning, all. Very late on parade. Woke at 6,55 – decided to have five more minutes, and the next thing I knew it was 8.40!

    Wet over night – dry and sunny now.

    Good to see the beeboids defending the indefensible.

  13. Just read the tripe about the beeb. If Lord Hall of Moneybags tells us it is fair, and impartial and lovely and full of talent, who are we – “stupid people” to argue?

    No comments allowed on the essay his PR team wrote; a thousand under the DT woman’s. Safe to say that the beeboids have not many fans….

    Breakfast.

    1. ‘Morning Bill
      The usual trotting out of
      “We are criticised by the right and the left,we must be getting it about right”
      Laughable

    5. I do know the answer to this but don’t know how to hide the answers so I will not spoil it for others.

  15. SIR – Charles Moore outlines a very important issue. No one – whether a civil servant, a judge or an economist – is truly independent. We all bring our personal beliefs and prejudices to our daily activities. His prescription is therefore correct: we elect politicians to make decisions, despite their flaws, because we can hold them to account.

    All others are immune from our displeasure, and it is time to acknowledge this and roll back some of the constitutional changes of the past 15 years.

    Tony Narula FRCS

    Wargrave, Berkshire

  16. SIR – I agree with almost everything Sherelle Jacobs says about the BBC’s metropolitan slant, but she is wrong when she imagines a “Black Country drama with dodgy Brummie accents”.

    I grew up and went to school in Handsworth, that part of north-west Birmingham closest to the Black Country. After medical school, also in Birmingham, I spent a year as a junior hospital doctor in West Bromwich, that part of the Black Country nearest to Birmingham. The school and hospital were two or three miles apart.

    I struggled to understand some of the good folk of the hospital catchment area, so different were their accents. The vocabulary differed, too.

    Keith Sumner

    Derby

  17. SIR – The idea that bamboo lavatory paper (Letters, December 20) is more “sustainable” than the standard offering is absurd. Our Swedish friends manage their trees, pulp and paper mills with ecological zeal, and British production is so efficient that water is returned to sources cleaner than it was originally. I know because I made millions of tons of the stuff.

    Chinese pulp and paper-making processes are highly polluting, and the eco-friendliness of bamboo plantations questionable. Moreover, the notion of shipping high-cube, low-weight products half way round the world is laughable.

    Frank Rooney

    Stocksfield, Northumberland

      1. Warning use of this Bamboo Loo paper may result in splinters

        Quite what difference it makes using paper from bamboo rather than trees who knows. Bamboo is petty much a tree

        1. I don’t know about bog rolls, but it does make jolly comfortable socks.
          Basically, it’s rayon.

    2. Another total daft idea. Most toilet paper included some recycled paper and toilet paper biodegrades very quickly

  18. Notice from the Migrant Dinghy Shipping Company

    Our normal service will be suspended on Christmas day and service will resume on Boxing day. For those though that want to travel on boxing day there will ban additional supplement of £500

  20. Apropos the beeboid poll tax – in yer France everyone has to pay – to the Government – a tax for having a television set. However, it does not go to any broadcasters – not directly, anyway.

    1. We can’t do that. For example, someone has to pay for that 87million pound new set for ‘East Enders’, the fictional serial about the days when there were whiteys in the East End.

    1. Strange that the nasty Corbyn brotherhood haven’t uttered a squeak of protest to the dire controlling behaviour of their communist brethren .

        1. Yeh..

          Labour leadership frontrunner Rebecca Long-Bailey said she would like to rule party with ‘iron fist .. She has no idea .. send her to the salt mines . Nasty little minx .

    2. An interesting and shocking article. The comments under it are interesting – the vast majority are entirely in favour of prisoners having to work hard when they are in poison rather than sitting around – as they do on Britain – watching TV, using their mobile phones, taking drugs and being indoctrinated by severe and cruel religious dogma. Some argue that we ought automatically to subcontract to China the inpriosonment of all those found guilty of terrorism.

      But as well as judging the barbarity of the Chinese regime ought we not remember how PoWs were treated in Germany and Japan?

  22. Please, Tekkie NOTTLers.
    I notice that picture uploads are appearing in a different form.
    Disqus keeps telling me that I’m not logged in (OH, YES I AM!!!) and won’t let me post pictures, but is quite happy with videos and links.
    What has changed and how do I get round it? Is it a Google tweak, as I mostly get my pictures from Google images.

    1. Morning Anne,

      The same has been happening to me over the last few days . Why… signing in time after time is a pain .. I usually sign in via Twitter.. Down loading photos has become a nuisance .. are we being monitored , spied on ?

    6. Try refreshing, Anne. When I first log on, all pictures and Youtube uploads just have a red ‘view’ icon next to them.

      Refreshing allows them to shew without the ‘icon and/or the need to click on it.

      That’s about all the techie advice I can offer.

    7. Hello Anne, it could well be your internet browser.

      I’ve always used Mozilla Firefox but now use Mozilla Firefox Nightly (same company, different product). With the latter, I have the same problem as you and have to use Firefox to upload pictures.

      I did a search the other week and its seems to be a common problem but without, as yet, a solution.

  23. ‘Morning All
    So the Cratchet’s are a mixed race family,who knew
    What’s to come?? A Transgender ghost??

  24. Racism in football.

    Is it really surprising, when football fans see, read and hear that white Britain and its culture and history are to be despised?
    Is it really surprising, when black actors, singers, journalists and politicians can denigrate, with impunity, white working class people as racist bigots who should be ignored?
    Is it really surprising, when even TV advertising and TV shows present a “life” that isn’t actually representative of the true situation?
    Is it really surprising when almost every news programme shows yet more black,on black violence, more black drugs gangs, more black robbers out of all proportion to their actual numbers in the country?

    And is it really surprising that what is actually a small minority of idiots is causing outrage out of all proportion to their actual numbers. These cretins are trying to put off the opposition’s players and it works, so they carry on.

    1. Football isn’t what it was..

      The lads used to be all local , born and bred .. That’s Moh’s opinion anyway .. they had no patois!

      No one can identify with their home teams anymore . Just study the nationality breakdown of the fans at any match .. it appears as if they are all traditional old fashioned Brits!

      1. And yet it seems tens of thousands are happy to pay exorbitant sums each week to see their Princelings kick a football around. It’s not the footballers who are daft…..

      2. Those fans contribute to players’ wages. Most of the players earn in a year what the typical fan might not earn in a lifetime.
        The players “celebrate” in a way almost designed to irritate the opposing team’s fans and some of the principal culprits are the African heritage players.

      3. Professional sport = Oxymoron.

        If I supported a local team it would be my local village team where all the players live in the village.

        One of my best friends from university days played No 8 for England; he was an amateur and rules about money were strictly observed. He was very ‘high profile’ for the time and cashed in on this to write a couple of humorous books about rugby from which all the proceeds went to charity.

        But his day job was entirely different – he was a chartered accountant and had several post-graduate degrees in banking and economics.

      4. ‘Morning, Mags, wendyball is no longer a game, it’s a business financed by and leeching off, a subservient set of fans willing to pay exorbitant amounts to watch a bunch of imported young men (mainly) kick a leather bag, inflated to hardness, around a pitch and occasionally fall about in a play-act of being seriously injured as a result of their running into another player.

        You’ll have gathered I don’t like it much and am sad to see Rugby Union going the same way. All to ensure the directors and managers fat salaries in the Premier Leagues and give impetus to lesser clubs to emulate their foul tactics.

        ‘Morning all, rant over.

        By jove, I needed that (© Ken Dodd’s estate).

        1. I have no interest in sport but I have always thought that international games what is the point when none of the teams appear to be made of the indigenous population of the country, but are full of foreigners. How can one possibly care whether the team wins or not. Similarly at a local level I would have thought it would be more satisfying to support local players – I have no idea whether this is in fact the case or not at lower levels.

      5. Yes the players used to come up through the leagues. Now the Premier league just buy in players it has sucked all the money out of the lower leagues and many of these clubs struggle to survive. The other result is ticket prices for the premier league have gone through the roof

    2. We had a discussion a few minutes ago and came to a similar conclusion. If we are all racist why do they continue to flock here. We are not racist we are realists. The country cannot continue to import such large numbers of people and expect perfect harmony.

      1. I think it was heard by others, but they ignore it. It happens all over the country and announcements are made and fans evicted and then banned for doing so.
        If the players walked off en masse and did so every time it happened the rest of the fans would soon take matters into their own hands.

      3. It might not be long before people start making monkey grunts not out of any sense of racism, but as a protest against the takeover of the national wealth by the Premier League since 1992. This wiped out street football in England by hoovering up all the takings of the sport. These were lavishly spent on huge prestige redevelopments of historic stadia, including Wembley, tens of millions on importing foreign primadonnas, and the diversion of broadcasting money to the League. Phone bills, imposed on all, include a huge levy to subsidise the Premier League.

        This started earlier that 1992, which just consolidated it. Wasn’t much of the Dr Who, Dad’s Army and Not Only But Also archive wiped to free up video tape for Match of the Day?

        Monkey grunting is a very effective way today to mount a protest at this process, and I encourage everyone to indulge.

      4. He was jeered for feigning injury after his opponent caught him a glancing blow with a petulant kick. If he had been a white player few would have taken much notice and it would have been regarded simply as a bit of pantomime.

        Forty or more years ago, when then were hardly any black players in the game, especially at the lower levels, the hard-man centre-half, kicking everything that moved, would have been subject to cries of ‘wildman’, ‘caveman’, ‘savage’, ‘animal’. Today, any spectator directing that at a black player would be arrested. Who remembers the John Terry/Rio Ferdinand case? Despite a court clearing Terry of a criminal offence, the FA decided that it would earn some modern morality points by chucking a suspension at him. He and Ferdinand hurled the vilest of insults at one another but only Terry’s counted because it included a racial element (apparently). So it’s OK to call someone a ****ing **** but not a ****ing black ****. A racial insult is therefore a ‘special’ crime.

    1. Very, very good. I recommend clicking on the blue arrow to all. One doesn’t have to be good at maffs or jommetry to be enthralled.

    1. A C Grayling is I think, the Supreme Court judge who is (hopefully) in for a nasty shock when the final court of appeal is returned to the Law Lords. She is so far up the lefty bum that all she sees is bamboo toilet-paper and deems it good.

      Boris, please get rid of her and her ilk, tout-suite.

      3. Um – he isn’t a judge! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._C._Grayling
        He has some interesting ideas about democracy – i.e that it shouldn’t be allowed if it doesn’t deliver the “correct” result! “In his book, Democracy and Its Crisis, Grayling argues that voting systems must be reformed to prevent certain results, such as Brexit and the election of Donald Trump“!!

        Maybe you were thinking of … President of The Supreme Court, The Right Hon the Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE. Brenda Marjorie Hale, Lady Hale of Richmond took up appointment as President of The Supreme Court in September 2017, succeeding Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury. This following her appointment as Deputy President from June 2013. In October 2009 she became the first woman Justice of The Supreme Court.

    2. Another cretin (A C?) who seems to think we can’t travel across Europe if we leave the EU! People moved all across Europe before the EU existed, so there is no reason why we can’t get a train to Berlin – we are aiming to catch a train from Denmark to Sweden in February, and I don’t foresee any real problems. As for the canard that the EU is a peace project, the imbeciles almost started WWIII in Ukraine!

      “which is teaching the world a new & better way to live with itself” – no democratic accountability, rampant corruption, cronyism .. that’s a better way to live???

      1. There are some minor issues. Say you have a property in France and are not normally resident in France this typically means on a short term visa you can stay for a maxim of 90 days. It is though not that difficult to get a 12 month visa as long as you can demonstrate you have accommodation and can support yourself. You would probably need to take out medical insurance but that’s no different as EHIC I think only covers you for upt o a 3 month trip

  28. Funny Old World

    The endless screaming of “RACIST” from the Leftards when you dare express loathing for a vile misogynistic homophobic pig like Stormyz who glamourises guns,gangs and drugs

    The endless screaming of “RACIST”from the Leftards when you point out that whole Moslem communities knew the Rape gangs were operating yet kept silent and all too many even would keep silent about the terrorists in their midst

    The endless screaming of “RACIST”from the Leftards when you express concern about mass immigration (legal and illegal) on the fabric of our society which fills our screens every day

    https://twitter.com/NadiaWhittomeMP/status/1208847161271693321
    Congratulations fuckwit,you and your ilk have turned me into the very thing you scream about

    2. This was because the government had no proper record. It though was equally the fault of the Windrush generation who should have retained documentation as to their right to reside in the UK

    3. Funny, I had just said more or less the same thing to gg. It’s not I’m igration per se, it’s the sheer numbers. And why, if this is such an awful country to be BAME in, do they stay?

        1. …but also the lack of quality and bad intentions of too many

          That is another conundrum that successive governments have failed to address. Inviting people in from Third World tribal areas and expecting them to drop their millennia old customs and belief systems and integrate with the First World exposes the crass stupidity of our politicians: or is there an ulterior motive?

    4. What a load of old cobblers.

      Yarlswood – deportation centre where people whom the legal system has decided should be removed for the good and safety of the nation.

      Babies drowning – evidence? If anyone drowns trying to cross the Channel, one of the busiest and most dangerous stretches of water in the World, in an unsuitable craft then the responsibility rests on those making that decision, not the British people, nor the Government have any responsibility for that decision.

      Windrush elders who built the NHS – absolute tosh. No credit for the mainly white males who took the decision to create the NHS and the majority white people who worked in the system and whose taxes paid for it.

      This woman has learned nothing from the 12th and now tries to blacken and belittle the reputation and achievements of the British people. Toxic Labour still exists and needs to be completely expunged from our lives.

      1. In the old QE Hospital, Birmingham where many 1000s of white British nurses must have worked (and I mean WORKED) over the decades and have usually outnumbered their darker sisters manifoldd, there is only one nurse highlighted and to much lauded, a nurse of Carribean heritage. Dunno what made her so special and what made the others nothing special.

        2. I’m not denigrating the Caribbean nurses who worked in the NHS, far from it. I’m angry that some bint in the Labour Party has attempted to airbrush out of history the English/British white people who made the greatest contribution over the longest period. Rewriting history is not only an unfair pastime, it’s dangerous.

  29. Boris’s Deal

    One thing that the media kept quite about was a major change on trade talks. May’s deal meant we could not have trade talks and agreements with other countries until we had concluded trade talks with the EU. That has now changed we are now after the 31st January free to engage in trade talks with other countries and sign up to trade deals the only proviso being we cannot implement until 2021. This change much improves our bargaining position with the EU well assuming we have a number of big trade deals in the bag

  30. Daily Brexit Betrayal

    I relished the next paragraphs where Mr Bootle lays to rest the Remain argument that a trade deal is impossible:

    “This is defeatist

    nonsense. It is eminently feasible given the political will. Unlike in

    most trade negotiations, in this case both partners begin from a

    situation of zero trade barriers and regulatory alignment. Moreover,

    there is the recent deal with Canada to use as a template. Nor is it

    absolutely necessary to have every aspect of our future relationship

    with the EU covered in a single deal. It might well be possible to

    secure an agreement by the end of next year on some aspects while

    continuing negotiations on others.” (paywalled link)

    Next, about that ‘regulatory alignment’.

    It has been pointed out repeatedly – not that Remainers have taken a

    blind bit of notice – that we’ve been in ‘regulatory alignment’ for 40

    years. Our economy does not start from scratch, like some backwater

    little country where we’ve been doing things differently and need to be

    told by the mighty EU how to do better:

    “Regulation is going

    to be the sticking point. Supposedly, the European Commission wants to

    insist that the UK accepts pretty much full regulatory alignment with

    the EU and only in return for this will it concede full access to its

    markets, including in financial services. It would be madness for the UK

    to agree to any such thing. The essential economic case for Brexit has

    still not sunk in among the commentariat.

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-monday-23rd-december-2019/

    1. Trade deals are made between businesses. They are made under the umbrella of whatever regulatory framework is in place. Simple.
      If the regulatory framework changes the terms of business will be adjusted. Simple.

    1. Apparently The Rev. Martin Luther King was an even greater fornicator than Boris Johnson and Jack Kennedy combined.

    1. If this were the cover of ‘Private Eye’, I would imagine a one-word bubble coming out of Trump’s mouth: “Sucker!”. Doesn’t this sum up what a “massive trade deal” is about?

      1. Morning JM,
        I want to see total severance with the eu, NO ties, then they approach us.
        Whether people like Yanks or not they have proven to be an ally, financially in the past it cost us, but still an ally.

  33. Just back from the tip. Hoped to find something to use as Christmas presents – but the rain put me off.

    Another beeboid lie. They say it is fine here. It isn’t. It is raining, hard.

    1. All the BBC are now interested in is whats happening to the Labour party. Nothing about Brexit and the Tories. So biased but they will not see it.

    3. Our supervised déchèterie takes a firm line and prevents us taking away anything a previous person has dumped. This is a great nuisance for those of us who like to keep an eye open for bits and pieces that might come in handy.

        1. My son who lives in Basel picked up a nice little set of folding table and chairs which someone left out in the street – just fits in his tiny kitchen.

  35. Stamp Duty

    Exemptions

    You do not have to pay SDLT or file a return if:

    no money or other payment changes hands for a land or property transfer

    property is left to you in a will

    property is transferred because of divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership

    you buy a freehold property for less than £40,000

    you buy a new or assigned lease of 7 years or more, as long as the

    premium is less than £40,000 and the annual rent is less than £1,000

    you buy a new or assigned lease of less than 7 years, as long as the amount you pay is less than the residential or non-residential SDLT threshold

    you use alternative property financial arrangements, for example to comply with Sharia law

    https://www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax/reliefs-and-exemptions
    Why the flying f… does Sharia affect tax??

    2. What a lovely fiddle !! We sold our last house to Muslims but I am sure they missed out on that one. We both must remember next time round.

    3. It is almost certainly only applicable between Muslims and will be of benefit to them at taxpayers’ expense.

  36. I picked this up somewhere but lost the link:

    Q: What is your Christmas wish to Santa?

    A: That Labour choose the dream team of David Lammy and Diane Abbott

    1. They will then be able to complain that anyone who does not vote for them is not voting for them because they are black and fascist and then they will all be reported to the police.

    1. That’s a bit unfair to blokes. In my household it is my son who appears to be ahead of the game and has bought everything on line over the last few months and had it delivered to the door. It’s me who has failed miserably on that front and am only just beginning to think about it. (Will start when I have seen my brother off on the train at lunchtime).

    1. Merry Christmas – whilst its legal LOL – and a Happy New Year.
      Keep up th fight but still celebrate 31/1 .
      Cummings will not let us down.
      And Big Ben will boom loud.

      1. Evening EE,
        The Christmas greeting returned with much pleasure to you and family.
        That long await toll will resound around the world.

    1. Call me old fashioned, but so long as these trans people are attacking each other, I care neither a jot nor a tittle.

    2. This “woman”, as he/she it calls him/her/itself, still has a penis and openly admits to being biologically a man. He /she /it risks punishment by the LGBT broadminded junta for blasphemy for saying so. Maybe the punishment should be penisectomy or just castration for a first offence?

  40. ‘Morning, all.

    Members of Parliament are patter-merchants, nothing more – bumping their gums is what they do to earn a dishonest crust – so it’s astonishing that they are such poor speakers, seemingly unable to string a sentence together containing any real meaning. Do they seriously think the electorate will be impressed by this kind of waffle?

    From an interview on Radio 4 with the Labour MP for Manchester Central, Lucy Powell, discussing the infighting that has erupted following Labour’s wipeout at the general election.

    “There is a real appetite amongst Labour members from all different traditions to ….. to now actually come together and use this as a moment of coming together.”

    Où sont les orateurs d’antan?
    ;¬)

    2. What an incredible piece of machinery the brain is.

      Having been locked in mine for centuries, ‘d’antan’ popped out and whizzed me back to when I was an apprentice and when one of the chaps used to serenade us all with “Dantan, where all the lights are low….” (Petula Clark).

          1. When i look at you i cannot deny that there is a God. Because only a God could make someone as wonderful and beautiful as you.

            I’m also a part time flatterer. :o)

  41. Sacla’, Waitrose and Aldi pesto products recalled over peanut fears

    This really show the near impossibility of producing allergen free foods in a commercial environment

    Dozens of pesto products from Italian sauce maker Sacla’ are being recalled over fears they may contain peanuts without mentioning them on the label.
    The Food Standards Agency has issued an allergy alert, warning that 25 pesto products may be affected.
    The list of products also include own-brand jars of pesto from supermarkets Waitrose and Aldi.
    The FSA said the products are a possible health risk for anyone with an allergy to peanuts.

    In a statement, Sacla’ UK’s managing director Clare Blampied said: “The health, safety and welfare of our customers is our number one priority. We took immediate action to recall every batch of every Sacla’ pesto recipe when we were made aware that some cashew nuts, which had been delivered by an external supplier, might contain traces of peanuts.

      1. The allergy arises due to dendritic cells recognizing peanut allergens as foreign pathogens.

        From Wiki.

      2. One theory on the increase in peanut allergy is linked to cheap baby oil – containing peanut oil – which was liberally splashed around on infant bottoms.

          1. Apparently not always. It can fire up the immune system and trigger an allergy.
            I have a friend who was fine with nuts until the age of 19; the first she knew she had developed the allergy is when she woke up in hospital.

  42. Q: What message do you think the BBC is sending out by having Stormzy read the Chistmas Carol by Charles Dickens and liberally spraying the Reading with 4-letter words

    A: That we face a choice: We can stand by and watch the rubbishing of British heritage and culture OR we can castrate the BBC

      1. Or both, as part of a drive to cut down on foul language in post-Brexit Britain and too many Caribbean sprogs.

    4. Defenestration is too good for them. They are actively trying to destroy our culture and traditions. Common purpose drones the lot of them. (except our Sue).

    5. When is he reading it? If he is “liberally spraying the reading …” it just shows how contemptuous of the British public the BBC really is – as if we needed Edit: Stormzy

      1. How very odd. The post above is incomplete. What I actually typed was –
        as if we needed it. It also shows how contemptible Stormy is. Is that his name?
        The edit was to put the z in the name.

  44. Saudi Arabia sentences five to death for murder of Jamal Khashoggi.(Guardian).
    (The anti-Trump bit is at the bottom of the article).

        1. It would be nice if just once in a while the perpetrators who gave “the hint” also had their heads removed at chop-chop square.

  45. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
    Had a very shiny nose
    And if you ever saw it
    You would even say it glows
    All of the other reindeer
    Used to laugh and call him names
    They never let poor Rudolph
    Join in any reindeer games
    Then one foggy Christmas Eve
    Santa came to say
    “Rudolph, with your nose so bright
    Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”
    Then how the reindeer loved him
    As they shouted out with glee
    “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
    You’ll go down in history”
    Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
    Had a very shiny nose
    And if you ever saw it
    You would even say it glows

        2. It’s been like April today.

          I had intended nipping out for a loaf this morning (all I needed) but have only just done it because of the earlier rain. In and out of the local freezer place for a Kingsmill 50/50 for £1 and with a “Merry Christmas” from the checkout girl, I’m all set for the big event.

    2. Shakespeare’s Bardolph also had a red nose as a result of heavy drinking and he too was used as a torch to light the way at night.

      When I arrived at the school at which I used to teach a member of staff was actually named Bardoph. He had left the school the previous term so I did not really know him but he had the reputation of being almost always drunk and indeed he had the sort of nose that lived up to his moniker. Talk about life imitating art!

      Imagine the delight of my IVth Form when we studied Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 and came across Falstaff’s description of his drinking companion, Bardolph and the rather equivocal economic advantages of having a friend like Edward Lear’s bong with a luminous nose!

      Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern: but the sack that thou hast drunk me would have bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest chandler’s in Europe.

      .

  46. As Christmas Day is only 2 days away thought I’d share the recipe for the stuffing we use. It’s from the Stork Margarine cook book we received when we married, nearly 52 years ago. vw and I can thoroughly recommend it.

    Forcemeat stuffing
    Melt 2oz margarine and add 4 oz white breadcrumbs (from a stale loaf) and mix both in a basin with 1 level teaspoon chopped parsley and half teaspoon mixed herbs (we use only mixed herbs) and the grated rind of 1 lemon. Season well with salt and pepper stir In enough beaten egg and milk to bind the mixture. Chopped ham or bacon can be added for a richer flavour and a grating of nutmeg on top adds flavour as well.

    We bake it in a separate dish and it’s really good cold.

    1. Nice to see a new recipe, we seem to have been stuffed by the same lot in Brussels for the last 40 years.

      1. I’m certain butter will do but you can hardly expect a Stork margarine cookbook to tell you to use butter instead. :-))

    3. Paxo Thyme and Leek for me this year. Done in a microwave, it won’t be as good as the real thing but it will still be the best part of my Christmas dinner – as stuffing always is.

  47. Oh FFS

    Islamist extremists in Britain’s prisons are holding makeshift Sharia

    trials, circulating banned books and openly grooming young Muslim

    inmates, The Times has been told.

    A former prisoner who

    claims that he took part in Sharia courts and punishment beatings has

    given a detailed account of how he came to join a group of prisoners at

    HMP Woodhill, Milton Keynes, who pledged allegiance to Isis.

    The

    revelations have prompted security experts to call for a fundamental

    review of terrorist radicalisation in jails across Britain.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/islamist-extremists-hold-sharia-trials-and-groom-young-muslims-in-british-prisons-2pq7ptjtp

    2. You have to wonder who is running the prisons.
      No don’t bother answering, we all know that the “authorities” do nothing.

      1. It would not surprise me to discover that the prison service has been infiltrated by slammers.

        They are in the police, the immigration dept and the Home Office……

        1. Passport Office now has call to prayer. Local Government as well as national has been infiltrated. Baggage handlers and security at Airports.

    3. “Knock, knock.”
      “Who’s there?”
      “Warder Jenkins with your early morning Earl Grey, Mr. Rashid, Sir.”

      1. “The private equity firm buying defence company Cobham has given legally binding guarantees it will protect British jobs after the £4bn deal goes through.”

        That seems to be all the fashion these days, when you want to do the opposite of what you are saying for public consumption. Make it Legally Binding. Then you do what you were going to do anyway.

  49. A bit late in the day, I’d like to commend to you a documentary series by the fabulous Ken Burns (he of the Vietnam War and the Second World War) called “Country Music”

    It is in nine parts and was shown on BBC4. I think that most of the episodes are still viewable on catch up.

    Quite unlike the sort of cock-up yer Beeboids would have made….. Fascinating clips of film, singers and bands – and very clued up talking heads.

          3. Possibly……..but they are usually far better than most BBC rubbish and the subtitles means I can follow it, unlike the English ones when they can only mumble. We quite enjoyed the French one which finished a few weeks ago, followed by an American one. That was harder work as no subtitles.

        2. No, part of the strategy for ‘licence’ retention. Whenever they are told to cut back, they start talking about closing that channel, I’m sure you’ve noticed…

    2. We’ve been watching it – it has been superb, moving too. The deprivation only a hundred years or so ago shocked me, let alone the new generation. Country music has an innate honesty, which I admire and respect.

      2. I like Dolly Parton. But singing about dead dogs and widowed or divorced husbands doesn’t appeal. And we can blame Billy Ray Cyrus for the abomination known as line dancing. Give me ABBA any day.

        Merry Christmas to you and yours…

        1. (I like ABBA as well. Country Music is for a different frame of mind on those long evenings of reflection. 🙂

          Country Music was taken over years ago by corporate hipsters who turned it into something soulless with no depth. They sacked people such as Johnny Cash and hired Taylor “bury me in a Y-shaped coffin” Swift. The majority of it is empty pop music with a cowboy hat stuck on the top.

          There are still some good ones out there though. In a world that was becoming increasingly “diverse” and weak willed – they could not have people singing about such outdated concepts as love of your country, hard work and, dare it be mentioned, believing in something that could not be easily packaged and sold to you.

          Here is one good guy – Alan Jackson – and you don’t need to believe in anything to find this version of “Amazing Grace” touching your soul. Sung in an empty building with no distractions, his voice and the song stand on their own.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogxLNlgKM8c

      3. One of the best gifts that my father gave me, among many others, was his love of country music. There are some exceptionally powerful songs with a “purity” that you don’t find very often in other forms of music. Once you get past the “riding the herd and lassoing ladies on the range” level of songs anyway. 🙂

        Here is a very famous one from Johnny Cash as he was nearing his final years. His wife was still alive at that point (she appears in it) and it shows lots of images from his life, including the “shotgun shack” that he grew up in as a boy and he went back to visit as a man. It is a bit sad, and it is a cover of another’s song which is why some of the minor lyrics might seem odd, but the strength and power of his voice shines through, even at his advanced years.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI

    3. Considering the amount of telly I watch, I object to the TV licence. That said, BBC4 comes up with some marvelous documentaries so my objection is tempered a little.

      As for music documentaries – brilliant stuff, especially for one who only heard the music but hadn’t a clue who the majority of the artists were. For example, I always thought a Vandella was a car and often wondered why Martha needed more than one.

  50. Interestingly, the storm of abuse against all things decent, traditional, and Tory voting from lefties and snowflakes on both sociaj media and the BBC has ratcheted up since the General Election. We’ve never before had our racism shining out so cllearly, according to these emoters. I think that The Naughty Step isn’t going to be enough …. the BBC’s comatose body needs to be at the foot of the stairs.

    1. “…. the BBC’s comatose lifeless body needs to be at the foot of the stairs.”

      That’s more like it!

      BBC morghūljas

    1. I bought their Lincolnshire Sprouts today and had a good laugh with the checkout lady about it. Great stuff.

    2. Perhaps, like most of us, they hate Brussels and have just shown where they’re grown. Not worth getting all steamed up over.

      2. Nothing wrong with Brussels; it’s the bloody inhabitants that are the problem, as I said yes’day.

        Note to Rastus: when it comes to repetition, anything you can do I can do better.

    6. By “sprouts” in a bag I would understand freshly germinated seeds such as cress, or young greens.

      The miniature cabbages which we call Brussels sprouts are something quite different’ I’m not having any this year; instead leeks, red endive & fennel.

      2. I shall buy some sprouts this afternoon – so far have had none yet this winter as OH doesn’t like them.

        1. Problem is sprouts are now past their best. You should try them as soon as they appear in the shops ( from England) in Sept/Oct/Nov. same for parsnips.

      1. Tomorrow, we shall be mainly having: leeks, cavolo nero and curly greens from the potager.

        I’ll be me length of straw….

  52. Morning all.

    Why must “the Government” do something about the racism in football? (Front page of FT). This problem could easily be solved the the FA itself. All that has to be done is the referee abandons the game in question and the FA bans both teams from playing the next 6 scheduled matches. That would concentrate minds. The problem is that there is not the will on the part of the FA to really do anything about it so people bleat on about the Government doing something for them.
    Edit: Front page of DT not FT!

      2. “Sticks and stones may hurt my bones but words . . . . . . .”
        The more fuss is made then the more it will encourage those idiots who relish this type of behaviour!

    2. The problem there is that supporters of say Arsenal would turn up at matches of their rivals Tottenham and Chelsea during a derby match and get them banned as you suggest.

      The laws of unintended consequences will come into play.

      As I see it it’s in the players’ hands, they can withdraw their labour, but it would need the support of the clubs themselves and even then I can see fans of a side losing 3-0 deciding an abandonned game is to their advantage.

    3. Excuse my ignorance but what form does this “racism” take? As long as they refrain from fisticuffs, if the fans want to insult each other and the players, why not just let them? Do we not have far worse things to worry about.

    4. In junior football the spectators are separated by a line of whitewash on the grass. Although the term is “junior” many players are anything but. There are few jessies playing junior football. I was accidentally watching a match involving Whitehall Welfare and some other team whose name I have forgotten. The winger had the ball and was running at speed up the touchline well into the opposition half. As he was passing a particularly voluble spectator, a supporter of the opposition, this pitchside commentator was unwise enough to utter some unpleasant and derogatory epithet.
      The winger let the ball run on, and turning on the proverbial tanner, approached the spectator, decked him, and then refocussed on the game. The winger chased the ball, caught up with it and crossed into the box. Alas, the referee decided that laying out an onlooker was some kind of infringement and blew his whistle.

      1. That must have been quite funny to see at the time but …! Our grandson plays football, he’s 16, and his club has always had great support from, mostly, the dads although we go along a lot of the time. Have to say all are very well behaved, so much so, that referees have commented how nice it is not to get the usual abuse. It’s quite awful to hear some of the shouting dads, especially considering the lads are doing their best.

    5. That story was all the BBC news could find to tell us last night. Not nice for the footballer in question but is it really headline news taking up half the time allotted?

      2. A black/woke musician who brought the black cloud of Gangsta Rap to the British mainstream music scene.

  55. The wife watched the new scrooge last night on BBC and said it was really good.
    It’s going to be a long Christmas this year

    1. I didn’t see it. Have they ” modernised ” it, with Scrooge saying – ” We are all in this together “?

      1. Scrooge comes out as gay and admits to being lovers with Marley, Marley had been having an affair with Bob Cratchit, hence the enmity, Tiny Tim is the love child of Nephew Fred and Old Ma Cratchit but when he finds out transitions into a girl.

  56. From The Guardian –

    ” China is to cut tariffs on more than 850 goods from 1 January in order to boost growth in the world’s second biggest economy.

    In a move designed to draw a contrast with Donald Trump’s
    protectionist approach to trade, Beijing said there would be a temporary
    cut in duties on products ranging from frozen pork to semiconductors.”

    I would have thought that this was a sign of victory for Trump ? Am I wrong ?
    I never like challenging the Guardan’s experts, who of course know than me.

    1. Nothing to do with shortages of pork after African swine fever or a need to buy in semiconductors?

    2. Tariffs are not the only tool that China use. In their ongoing spat with Canada many hitherto acceptable goods have been banned because they fall below Chinese standards.

  57. What a delicious irony that the smug, look at us being so diverse, press twit from the beeboids – which is a perfect example of all that is wrong with the outfit, is published on the same day as Lord Hall of Loadsamoney publishes his apologia.

  58. I hear that Jeremy Corbyn is to finance a new-style non-profit-making Co-operative supermarket, to provide employment for all the Labour candidates who lost their seats at the recent election.
    It will be called Marx and Spencer.

    1. He could call it Cohen’s and send “help me” cards (hidden in bottles of whisky)to people in China.

    1. “A police spokesman said the suspect is described as being around 5ft 8in
      tall, was wearing a black, hooded top and scarf and spoke with a
      foreign accent.”
      Who’d have thought it ? I hope the poor doggie doesn’t end up in a pot for Ugandan Christmas Dinner.

    2. I like that hashtag. I did not know who this muppet was a week ago, but he is absolutely the standard “angry swarthy fellow with extra chips for those shoulders” cardboard cut-out. There must be a factory somewhere that churns them out on a conveyor belt. Even some of the famous ladies look very peeved while they are insisting that they are fine.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/08275b7ffee59c092cc8353788f88fd7b684ab434be6cd6d54cb4a24256269d2.jpg

  63. Together we can end rough sleeping’: Boris Johnson joins Evening Standard homelessness campaign

    Boris Johnson today backed the Evening Standard’s ambitious campaign to tackle homelessness in London and end rough sleeping within four years.
    The Prime Minister announced £260 million of support for homelessness projects during a visit with this newspaper’s proprietor Evgeny Lebedev to a shelter for homeless women.

    The stream of money will help local services save thousands of people from being forced to sleep rough. More than half — some £134 million — will go to London boroughs, with the rest spreading across the country via 300 local authorities.

    1. “More than half…will go to London boroughs…”

      The Labour councils will hate that. They’ll consider it tainted money.

      1. They’ll take the money and spend it on something else. A new project for the Advancement of Coloured People perhaps.

    3. Many ‘rough sleepers’ do so because they have mental health issues. Is the money going to help tackle that issue?

      1. You’d love to believe that yet absolutely none of the rough sleepers I have met fit into that category. What does tie them together is that they are all childless. Those with mental health issues qualify as vulnerable and so they get help. Those with children get help. The disabled get help. The rest get no help whatsoever.
        There’s about 15 regular rough sleepers around the station I work at. One killed himself last week by diving onto the lines late at night. He was living in an abandoned car and it got removed along with most of his possessions.

    4. Re-opening mental hospitals would be a good start.
      There was a reason why they were called ‘asylums’.
      The Victorians chose their words with care.

  64. O’Neil on the madness

    Standing up for women’s rights is a risky business

    these days. Just ask JK Rowling. She has had merry hell rained down upon

    her over the past 24 hours. She has been called a stupid cunt, a bitch,

    trash, an old woman and so fucking ugly by an army of tweeting sexists.

    Her crime? She defended the right of a woman to express her opinion

    about sex and gender without losing her job.

    The witch-hunting of JK Rowling, the ceaseless online abuse of her

    over the past day and night, exposes how unhinged, hateful and outright

    misogynistic the transgender movement has become.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/12/20/the-witch-hunting-of-jk-rowling/

  66. The only NHS facility for transgender young people in the UK is the

    Tavistock and Portman Trust. Since 2015, 35 staff have resigned from the

    Gender Identity Development service citing the lack of credible

    research into gender dysphoria and treatment and why there has been such

    an increase in cases. As one doctor at the conference told me:

    “As demand surged for under 18-year-olds,

    it became clear that these young girls, in particular, had some very

    serious psychological problems, but were almost instantly affirmed as

    being ‘gender dysphoric’. That diagnosis is all that is needed to be

    rubber-stamped for testosterone, and subsequent surgery. Many of us that

    resigned over this are very worried indeed where it is leading.”

    But few dare speak out. Dr David Bell, consultant psychiatrist at the

    Tavistock, described why it’s so difficult for those services which

    deal with trans identity to accept the detransition movement.

    “Detransitioners are a threat to an ideology that has acquired an almost

    totalitarian quality and cannot be challenged,” he says. “It is

    extraordinary the way in which, without any evidence at all, trans

    ideology has had the ears of politicians up to the highest level.”

    https://unherd.com/2019/12/the-nhs-is-failing-trans-kids/

  67. BBC Accuses Boris Govt of ‘Trumpian’ Tactics Amidst Impartiality Row

    A BBC editor has complained that Number 10’s boycott of Radio 4’s Today programme is a “Trumpian” plot to “delegitimise” the broadcaster.

    Ministers in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Cabinet have been noted for their conspicuous absence from the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme. Sources speaking to The Telegraph shortly after the Conservatives won their biggest majority since 1987 accused the BBC of biased coverage during the election and called on the taxpayer-funded broadcaster to launch an internal investigation into its coverage.

    “The BBC speaks to a pro-Remain metropolitan bubble in Islington, not the real world represented by Wakefield and Workington,” the source had said, while another source told The Times that the show was simply “irrelevant”.

    Sarah Sands, who has edited the BBC Radio 4 show for the last three years, told the station’s own Feedback programme that the popular government was acting in the manner of U.S. President Donald Trump, who frequently calls out the mainstream media for fake news and bias.

    Asked whether the boycott would last, Ms Sands said: “At the moment, that’s the policy.”

    “The government won a big majority, it sees Labour in disarray, it thinks it’s a pretty good time to put the foot on the windpipe of an independent broadcaster. So the strategy is quite Trumpian: to delegitimise the BBC,” she added.
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/12/23/bbc-accuses-boris-govt-of-trumpian-tactics-amidst-impartiality-row/

    Bog orff, darlin’. Count yer blessings that it’s only your windpipe.

    2. …….popular government was acting in the manner of U.S. President Donald
      Trump, who frequently calls out the mainstream media for fake news and
      bias….
      Yes, love. Trumpie is right. Now you piss off and leave us alone……..

        1. Hello Bill, very funny. Hope you and the MR have a lovely Christmas, not too much medicine, mind! Or you will be in trouble with Nurse!

          1. Thanks, Jill. We will. Just fixed skype time with elder son and his tribe.

            Me drink too much? Sharp intake of breath…..!! Moderation in all things. So I am told.

      2. Thanks, jtl. It’s smaller than I imagined i.e. size of a small rat or is it a juvenile?

        2. They are small, not much bigger than a field mouse. We used to see them often when we lived in Maryland, our two cats at the time, chased them but (to my knowledge) never quick enough to catch one!

    2. We dealt with this earlier. I was delighted that these nutcases are fighting among themselves.

        1. Apparently people were weeping in Tesco and Sainsbury’s because of a 30 minute wait at the checkout.

          That’ll teach ’em…

          1. Not sure what the problem is. They could just play ‘Angry Birds’ on their I-Phones. Or just watch other birds meltdown in the queue.

      1. “Mawuli Klu said the election result “exposes the fundamentally racist global appetite, white supremacist, fascist orientation and mindsets of the British establishment.” And: “Boris Johnson seems to be following that Churchill tradition of promoting British white supremacy.”

        Mawuli sounds like a man with a deep inferiority complex and he is finding it very difficult to hide it. He could always try working for a living to build his own society in his native land, instead of shouting at people in history who got off their backsides and really changed the world.

        But this man has clearly made a living out of doing what he does, as I found this article from 15 years ago. That is a long time to spend whining.

        “200 years on, the Queen is told to say sorry for Britain’s role in slave trade.” 5 Dec 2004.

        https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/dec/05/race.monarchy

  70. Good evening, everyone. Just a quick flying visit to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. Ribs are mending slowly and I look forward to getting back to normal (or what passes for it!) by the New Year.

    1. Good evening, Conwy. I didn’t know you had taken a tumble. I was away for five weeks.

      Advice – try not to laugh….. Plays merry hell.

    4. I feel your pain. I fell over on some steps while on Holiday and i still have some stiffness. Then, i couldn’t even get out of bed. I had to roll onto the floor. Tramadol and Vodka cocktails are the answer. Provided you don’t mind missing Christmas !

      A Happy Christmas to you and yours, Conway.

      1. Getting out of bed (or even turning over) was problematical for at least a couple of weeks. It wasn’t so bad when I was in hospital because I had one of those beds where you have a remote control to raise or lower parts of it. When I got back home I had to make do with hauling myself up and gritting my teeth 🙁

      1. Unfortunately, it was. Peter Perfect the Connemara turned into Peter Pratt and frightened himself, dumping me on the floor in the process. Still, after a month off while the ribs healed, I am due to start riding again on NYE.

        1. Ouch! I wondered if it was the Connemara. Good to hear that you’re on the mend and will be back in the saddle soon though.

    2. Your mistake wasn’t murdering your wife and family at Christmas, it was eating them for Christmas dinner..

      1. Yep.
        My highest BMI corresponded with my peak sporting fitness.
        Pushing obese according to BMI, but playing sports at county and national level.

      1. 😀 Given our average age group on here, I imagine most nottlers are orphans? I certainly am. On Dads side my folks were immigrants too but white Ashkenazi types who fended for themselves.

      2. Then miraculously the parents,aunties uncles and cousins will be discovered alive and must be allowed to reunite with the kiddies
        Here of course,not in whatever pesthole they come from

      1. Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray thy poor heart to woman. Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders’ books, and defy the foul fiend.

        Good advice from Edgar when he was feigning madness when he was out in the storm with Lear.

        This is a very wrenching scene in Shakespeare’s starkest play. The old king is doing his best to appear sane while Edgar, Gloucester’s legitimate son, is doing his best to appear insane as he pretends to be poor, mad, Tom o’Bedlam.

        .

  75. For anyone who may have missed it, today’s top BTL comment on DTletters

    Max Bonamy 23 Dec 2019 4:14AM

    Dear Santa,

    I have been a good boy. Despite this I ask nothing for myself.

    I would like instead to donate my Wishlist to the benefit of the quiet, sensible, decent, long-suffering, non-Twitterati majority. Ergo, for the 12 days of Christmas, please:

    1. Make Bercow and his bollox go away. Permanently.

    2. Make BBC news and editorial service subscription only (let’s see if the market agrees with Tony Hall’s glowing self-assessment today).

    3. Stop the HoL from being a repository for cronies and political rejects (who, Lord Trees please note, add nothing to its revisionist expertise).

    4. Imbue moderate Muslims with a New Year resolve to set up a rival organisation to the unrepresentative, divisive, victimhood-promoting Muslim Council of Great Britain.

    5. Imbue celebrities with the self-awareness that their unsolicited views on the state of the nation only create an equal and opposite effect, i.e. they best stick to the day job.

    6. Drive the poisonous Hydra of Cultural Marxism from our shores.

    7. Take the Supreme Court and other unelected bodies down several political pegs.

    8. Grant the Westminster Tories the nous and savvy to deliver for the first-time Tories of the North; what’s good for those constituencies will be good for the country as a whole.

    9. Grant that, without forgoing compassion, common sense and biological reality return to the trans debate.

    10. Grant Remainers the wisdom to accept we are leaving and thus jumpstart the nation’s healing process.

    11. Grant Momentum their continued grip on Labour so the sane and able can look forward to a roaring 20s.

    12. Prod Boris to give Nigel public recognition; he knows, or should know, he wouldn’t be there without him.

    Love, Max xx

    1. “Aroint thee, witch!” the rump-fed runnion
      cries.

      Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’
      th’ Tiger;

      But in a sieve I’ll thither sail,

      And like a rat without a tail,

      10I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.

  77. COFFEE HOUSE – Three reasons to walk away from a trade deal with the EU now
    Matthew Lynn – 23 December 2019 – 12:18 PM

    Just when you might have thought that our departure from the EU was finally dealt with it turns out another cliff edge is looming. We have only a year to agree a trade deal with the rest of Europe. Already there are scare stories about how we may crash out without one, and plenty of controversy about what kind of concessions we will have to make to Brussels. By the time the first tulips are flowering in the spring, Project Fear will be back up and running again. But hold on. Before we start negotiating we should ask ourselves a bigger question. Do we really want a trade deal with the EU? The answer might well be that we don’t.

    Sure, of course we’d want a deal if it didn’t come with conditions attached. It would be crazy to say no. In a perfect world, we would be happy to offer the EU zero tariff access to our market in return for zero tariff access to theirs. And given that they run a £66 billion trade surplus with us they would be crazy to say no.

    The trouble is, the EU is not an organisation that does straightforward economics. In truth, it has become very hard to work with. Partners in a trade deal have to sign up to EU regulatory and labour standards and possibly very soon tax harmonisation as well. That is true of any country that does a deal with Brussels, and it will be true in spades for the UK, for the simple reason that most other countries across the rest of the continent are already worried about a deregulated UK undercutting their high tax, expensive welfare, rigid labour market economic models. We are likely to be faced with a series of tough demands before our exporters are allowed unrestricted access to the EU market. There is a simple solution to that, however. Just walk away. Why? There are three reasons.

    First, our trade with the EU is in steady, relentless decline. True, Europe is still our largest single trade partner, but its share of our exports has been declining by about one percentage point a year. With a permanently weak economy, that is only going to continue, and with most of the growth in our exports coming from services and digital products where distance is relatively unimportant, Europe matters less and less to the British economy every year.

    Next, a trade deal with the EU may well be incompatible with one with US. The regulatory systems are too far apart, and the gulf is growing wider all the time (which is why Brussels hasn’t managed to agree a deal with Washington despite years of negotiations). Ultimately, the UK may have to choose between a deal with one or the other. That is a tough call. But ultimately, America is the better bet. It has a faster growing economy, and one that is more compatible with our services- and tech-based economy.

    Finally, negotiations will be fraught and difficult. Businesses have already been through three years of cliff edges, precipices, and no-deal deadlines. There is no question that has damaged confidence, and tied up valuable resources. If we walk away from a deal now, and tell companies we will trade on WTO terms with the EU from 2021 then at least they know what is happening and can plan accordingly. The uncertainty ends.

    The one thing we should surely learned from three painful years of trying to get out of the EU is that it is better to have a clean break. If the EU offered us a zero-tariff deal with few strings attached, based on the fact that are regulatory systems are already completely aligned, and to be agreed immediately and wrapped up in a few weeks, that would be fantastic. We should take it. But if it involves months of wrangling and huge concessions, followed by delays, and yet more extensions agreed at late night summits, then it would be better simply to walk away now. We should take whatever economic hit that involved and move on.

    **************************************************************************

    Forlorn Hope • 5 hours ago
    A ” deal ” would be code for preparation to rejoin.

    frank davidson • 6 hours ago
    Good points. A deal could be agreed and then scuppered by the EU next Christmas leaving no deal and £33 billions out of pocket. Just leave.

    Ug • 5 hours ago
    Matthew Lynn, very well said.
    The simple truth is that the EU is not going to allow a worse situation to prevail voluntarily – ever.
    If you need evidence just look towards the China v America trade situation.
    There is only one way we can secure a mutually fair free trade agreement and that is from a perspective of improvement for both sides.
    Now as Mathew has already said that means trading on WTO terms.
    We can do this today at no cost outside of the Tariff scheme which we would actually profit from, or we can pay billions for a transition period that will achieve nothing at all.

    Ken • 5 hours ago
    The EU financial system is failing and some big European banks will collapse. The UK will be on the hook for the bailout if we are still in the EU. Better get out completely on 31 Jan and then negotiate a deal afterwards, but negotiate from the outside. Prioritise deals with the US, Australia, NZ and others.

    2. Evening Z,
      A deal with the eu currently is a drag anchor slowing our progress forward
      & giving the remainers ammunition.
      OUT is out & most definitely not
      nearly out.

    3. The EU are beyond broke and we do not want to be around them when they demand that we bail them out. The future of the United Kingdom is not in wrangling a deal with this failing block. They have so little to offer and their own people are on the path to tearing them down.

      The next time that they try to tell us what to do we should adopt the approach of Dr Evil:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0af5e8487de26efb12176493cd3b413141c08ebb009c99ce3565207539190a39.jpg

  78. A conspiracy theory for you to ponder.

    BBC drama is full of difficult to hear mumbling so it makes it easier to dub into foreign language for sale abroad. Giving two fingers to the people that actually pay for it.

    Discuss.

    3. We have to pay for bbc shute through our cable subscription. BBC is a non-negitiable part of package.
      So, I pay too.

  79. Has anyone named a country less Racist than the UK??
    Have the chippy whiners made any plans to move there??
    No,thought not
    They’ve lost Brexit,so it’s full steam ahead with “Waycism!! and Climate Change
    Just fluck off the lot of you

      1. You’ve nailed it,a classic liberal tolerant person has been driven demented by the Wankeratti
        I hate them all

  80. “The rise of unelected power poses a grave threat to Britain’s democracy”

    Have they only noticed that the UK has an unelected head of state?

  85. Aaaaarrrgghhhhhh …. successfully posted pictures show uploads.disquscdn.com
    Whence cometh this?
    Why can’t I do that with pictures?

      2. Heck. I was spotted after battling through shops and traffic jams.
        Actually, I don’t think I looked that healthy.

  87. Spain joins Poland and threatens to leave the EU how serious these threats at present but it certainly shows unrest with the direction the EU is taking

  89. Osborne has been giving his verdict and advice re. Boris in a Telegraph article. I like this BTL comment:

    Ian Watkins 23 Dec 2019 5:51PM
    I will repeat what Janet Daley said:

    “George Osborne is a buffoon playing at being a serious politician, Boris Johnson is a serious politician playing at being a buffoon”

    Nothing else I have read has summed up better the difference between these two men than that succinct sentence.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/23/george-osborne-claims-boris-johnson-contradiction-used-brexit/#comments

    1. Merry Christmas PT. If you are alone and have no money or friends then i would just like to say……Eff Orf !

      Seriously……… Come and see me some time. :o)

    3. Happy Christmas to you and yours Nanny.

      Grizz would tell you it is not lunch but luncheon. Me, i have my Christmas dinner at 1pm. An hour late for all those factory workers ! :o)

  92. Marin Selves:

    “The BBC have to say they have been neutral. Many in the political wing must be gazing out of their windows wondering what their future holds. And they should worry, because they have been caught picking the pocket of truth and deliberately misinforming its viewers. We pay their extraordinary wages and pensions, and it is time we took back control of the BBC and restored some honesty in it.”

      2. I blame the politicians for nodding through the increases in the Licence Fee and attempting to curry favour with the broadcaster.

        It is now obvious that the BBC has long been infiltrated by Lefties so there is no reason for Boris to continue with the pretence that the BBC is impartial and we should defund the BBC sharpish.

        Boris, just do it and save us a loss of legitimacy.

  93. Night All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a4af9ebd4f1772409dcf96551fce4b9ff74a867f3f793a9f9737851f4ed97d3.gif

    https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/80770900_2587680447994759_9162624448916881408_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_ohc=QqGY-Vq3yMMAQlK9vmqJR–L0kqr_CiojXLxzMn1xD3aTlGufjlKWeIig&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-2.xx&oh=ab0a24f1ad89fb5903e4d37f70228485&oe=5E69E0AB

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/737651a590d8236f4a967db6cf82099d738f48ad5285c5ca04e6666cb9ce6ded.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f23bd3ab8a1dfd382cf0efd5d7f9e29e2583559f72c2d66628679938934e0ad3.gif

    1. I blanched two kilo of Pork loin this afternoon. A Christmas Eve treat for friends and neighbours. I dressed it in honey, Tahini, Soy, Sirracha and fast roasted it in the oven.

      If Dolly had had a gun she would have shot me !

      And i thought she loved me for who i am…. not what i taste like…. :o(

      1. Yeah, right. If you or I carked suddenly, how long would it take for the cats and dogs to tuck in?

        1. Dolly ‘The Killer Toe Chewer and Sock Thief’ would last about five minutes until she decided lunch was ready.

  94. As the MR has forced a glass of medicine into my hand, let me be – briefly – light-hearted … and seasonal.

    Doing anything exciting on Christmas Day?

    We are going to very long-standing Dutch friends who have a house about 10 miles away. Apart from Peter (sic) and Gea, their younger daughter plus husband and two children will be there – and Peter’s South Efrican niece, her husband and their most recent child. And us. Talk about feeling privileged. And, natch, they will ALL speak English the whole day to make us feel welcome.

    I look forward to other entries.

    2. In the spirit of the season, have a c or two ççfćčcç

      Nothing special for us. We always help at the local commu ity centre, serving Christmas dinner. About four hundred meals are planned for this year. Then off to friends for a light supper and mutual commiserations about health problems.

    1. She is just looking for a country that will tolerate her gobby disrespect for its people and its politics. Plenty about, I imagine…

    1. Ah, Boris, but who are the anti-semites?

      Still, not a bad effort, and you did it without any hint of the Mad May head-wobbling.

  98. From the Spekkie:

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/12/three-reasons-to-walk-away-from-a-trade-deal-with-the-eu-now/

    Three reasons to walk away from a trade deal with the EU now | Coffee House

    Just when you might have thought that our departure from the EU was finally dealt with it turns out another cliff edge is looming. We have only a year to agree a trade deal with the rest of Europe. Already there are scare stories about how we may crash out without one, and plenty of controversy about what kind of concessions we will have to make to Brussels. By the time the first tulips are flowering in the spring, Project Fear will be back up and running again. But hold on. Before we start negotiating we should ask ourselves a bigger question. Do we really want a trade deal with the EU? The answer might well be that we don’t.

    Sure, of course we’d want a deal if it didn’t come with conditions attached. It would be crazy to say no. In a perfect world, we would be happy to offer the EU zero tariff access to our market in return for zero tariff access to theirs. And given that they run a £66 billion trade surplus with us they would be crazy to say no.

    The trouble is, the EU is not an organisation that does straightforward economics. In truth, it has become very hard to work with. Partners in a trade deal have to sign up to EU regulatory and labour standards and possibly very soon tax harmonisation as well. That is true of any country that does a deal with Brussels, and it will be true in spades for the UK, for the simple reason that most other countries across the rest of the continent are already worried about a deregulated UK undercutting their high tax, expensive welfare, rigid labour market economic models. We are likely to be faced with a series of tough demands before our exporters are allowed unrestricted access to the EU market. There is a simple solution to that, however. Just walk away. Why? There are three reasons.

    First, our trade with the EU is in steady, relentless decline. True, Europe is still our largest single trade partner, but its share of our exports has been declining by about one percentage point a year. With a permanently weak economy, that is only going to continue, and with most of the growth in our exports coming from services and digital products where distance is relatively unimportant, Europe matters less and less to the British economy every year.

    Next, a trade deal with the EU may well be incompatible with one with US. The regulatory systems are too far apart, and the gulf is growing wider all the time (which is why Brussels hasn’t managed to agree a deal with Washington despite years of negotiations). Ultimately, the UK may have to choose between a deal with one or the other. That is a tough call. But ultimately, America is the better bet. It has a faster growing economy, and one that is more compatible with our services- and tech-based economy.

    Finally, negotiations will be fraught and difficult. Businesses have already been through three years of cliff edges, precipices, and no-deal deadlines. There is no question that has damaged confidence, and tied up valuable resources. If we walk away from a deal now, and tell companies we will trade on WTO terms with the EU from 2021 then at least they know what is happening and can plan accordingly. The uncertainty ends.

    The one thing we should surely learned from three painful years of trying to get out of the EU is that it is better to have a clean break. If the EU offered us a zero-tariff deal with few strings attached, based on the fact that are regulatory systems are already completely aligned, and to be agreed immediately and wrapped up in a few weeks, that would be fantastic. We should take it. But if it involves months of wrangling and huge concessions, followed by delays, and yet more extensions agreed at late night summits, then it would be better simply to walk away now. We should take whatever economic hit that involved and move on.”

    Note to self: stick pins in wax model of 3CV.

    1. We simply need Boris to call their bluff. Those sad bastards at the EU have bullied Great Britain for too long whilst we were under the hopeless leadership of Cameron and May. It is time to put the EU and its mafia in their place. It has been done before and I for one am sick of paying for their indulgences.

    2. The saddest thing about the whole charade is that so many of our elite have needed an EU crutch for so long that they’ve lost all confidence in their ability to manage without one.

      Our government should remember that many votes for them were only on loan and once a debt is reneged on, the chances of borrowing again are remote.

      Let us down at your peril, Boris.

      1. I think Bozza is well aware of that.
        And yes, our politicians have not been totally responsible since 1992.
        Ken Clarke’s longed for parish council.

      2. Evening E,
        Which ever ways boris swings he has no worries, he knows
        that.
        Having seen the electorate voting in political sh!te year on year and accepting that political sh!tes actions.

          1. E,
            Not being a doomster but it should never have got to the stage of time will tell, certainty should have been the order of the day, long ago.

  101. As I awoke this morning I tuned the radio to Radio 4 and think I heard Martha Kearney, she of the weak un-mellifluous voice and garbled pronunciation, advising that Greta Thunberg is to be a guest editor of the programme. These fuckers at the BBC surely have a death wish.

    The BBC is finished. Their pandering to every anti-British minority and a form of mad Climate Science advocated by a pre-menstrual retarded kid is actually repulsive.

    The BBC is a sick joke and cannot be taken seriously.

    2. As i awakened this morning i couldn’t switch the radio on as i had already smashed it with a hammer. (covered in tinsel). All wishing to out-Christmas each other with Slade is what did for me.

Comments are closed.