Monday 27 November: Royal Mail seems to be ignorant of its own appalling standard of service

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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447 thoughts on “Monday 27 November: Royal Mail seems to be ignorant of its own appalling standard of service”

        1. Yes thanks. Pouring with rain though, might have to light the fire and find a film to watch.

      1. Ah well, I woke at 5.26, thanks to the naked cat trying to get under the quilt! He’s now in bed, but I’m not!

      2. I’m wondering why i am. I keep looking at the time and date but nothing makes sense at the moment.

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    Keep It Up
    An old man turned 115 and was being interviewed by a reporter for the local paper. During the interview, the reporter noticed that the yard was full of children of all ages playing together. A very pretty girl of about 19 served fresh tea.
    “Are these your grandkids?” the reporter asked.
    “Naw, they all my young ‘uns,” the old man replied with a sly grin.
    “Your kids?” said the reporter. “What about this beautiful young lady who keeps bringing us tea? Is she one of your children too?”
    “Naw,” said the old man. “She’s my wife!”
    “Your wife?” said the surprised reporter. “But she can’t be more than 19 years old!”
    “That’s right!” said the old man with pride.
    “Well, surely you can’t be having sex with a 19-year-old!” the reporter remarked.
    “Sure” said the old man. “We have sex every night. Every night two of my boys helps me on her, and every morning six of my boys helps me off.”
    “Wait just one minute,” said the newspaperman. “Why does it only take two of your boys to put you on, but it takes six of them to take you off?”
    “Because” the spry old man said, wagging his fist, “I fights ’em!”

  5. Royal Mail seems to be ignorant of its own appalling standard of service

    Well we had a parcel delivered yesterday by Royal Mail, on a Sunday lunchtime.

    I had to leave my roast beef to go and answer the door, another example of bad service.

    1. Ofcom did a probe and said everything is fine. So…that’s all right then.

      One only needs to look at churn rates to know if a business is solid or shit.

  6. ‘Morning All

    Oh Tommy,Tommy

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a02ff7f4bb77196e34f52e51038a911cd744bbc8ce528aabc4441be98d9e7c23.jpg

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/349832fe006554375b37dae0aba886f8f3589cb6be5409ce3997bb00693a60a6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/55b67d5fce66b94e0a756a69a1abafd90c956327938ecff92f8aad4da8a10c80.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/24e9abeaea6f1dd6fd7ccf31ff968bfd7e60add5426cdb3a36dc2bc21a0a4d47.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c6b0b6b689510938be9e5bbc23c25312d1394dd9c36d3fb0b4130177fd59fda2.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/27167f2b1a1f32085fab8fae408094cec076a4bab6361ca43e0d2dc5bd4dc850.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0251ee2768ef72722be00cc164b8b5fed19249524a2c9b9f9853062f1496eed9.png

          1. I don’t understand your use of ‘WI Meeting’

            WI has from time immemorial meant Womens’ Institute.

          4. Yes. It should be a proscribed organisation. Not only do they make jam and cakes they do flower arranging for churches. And if that isn’t bad enough they do knitting too !

          5. I’m fully in favour of the WI; I seem to recall that they gave the warmonger Blair a hard time, when he attended their annual jamboree. The vacuous fool thought he was just going to turn on the charm for some decent press, but they gave him both barrels.

      2. I wonder what the vile mob handed bullying bastards have done with, just out having a coffee, Tommy now ?

      3. Only on the first Tuesday of every month.
        Night rates if they rough up the girls after 8.0 pm?

    2. Why doesn’t her son or her supportive neighbours put up some peanut feeders and similar?

      I have several such feeders and pigeons aren’t interested. We get too few gulls here to know, but I doubt they would be remotely tempted.

      I get literally dozens of birds of several varieties feeding quite happily.

      1. Dunno..
        Neighbour across the road from me throws all sorts of stuff into the garden. Loads gulls everywhere. They crap all over the cars. At the end of the day what does it matter…Being a good neighbour and not picking fights over nothing is more important than stressing over bird crap on your windscreen.

        1. It’s that kind of behaviour that makes for bad neighbours.
          If it’s obviously attracting gulls etc why do it?
          I hope they attract furry as well as flying rats into their home and garden.

    3. Pigeons can be more than a nuisance. They are the political classes of the bird world. Help themselves to anything available and crap all over as they fly off.
      They can’t stop her using a hanging feeder.

        1. Wring neck. Rip off breasts. Remove skin including feathers. Poach for 5 minutes in the stock made from their bones then saute in butter.
          Hang the carcass in the garden to attract more pigeons.
          Follow me for more tips !

    4. With the story in the D Mail you would think the council will make a u-turn and apologise, for PR reasons if nothing else.

      1. The RSPB are now a left wing woke organisation. They would agitate for her fines to be increased.

      1. The very reason we were delighted that there were only two other English people in the commune…..

    4. 2°C on a clear Costa Clyde, rising to a balmy 7°C under light cloud after lunch. Walking football shall be dry, unlike last Thursday when aqualungs were required.

  10. 379092+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 27 November: Royal Mail seems to be ignorant of its own appalling standard of service.

    Just one of the many services being intentionally run down via the overseeing hierarchy.

    When the herd majority finally catch on they are assisting in the construction of RESET with every vote then, tis chain mail that will be sought by the overseeing political mobsters.

  11. 379072+ up ticks,

    A good read, deals within deals,

    Dt,

    Sunak’s migrant deal with Braverman revealed
    Prime Minister consented to demand as he needed her support during campaign last year, claim ousted home secretary’s allies

    By
    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
    26 November 2023 • 9:30pm
    Suella Braverman cited Rishi Sunak’s failure to stick to their deal in her scathing ‘departure’ letter after being fired as Home Secretary earlier this month
    Suella Braverman cited Rishi Sunak’s failure to stick to their deal in her scathing ‘departure’ letter after being fired as Home Secretary earlier this month
    Rishi Sunak agreed to raise the salary threshold for migrants to £40,000 as part of a deal he struck with Suella Braverman, according to a copy of the pact seen by the Telegraph.

    Mr Sunak agreed to a four-point migration plan as he sought her support during his leadership bid last year, allies of Mrs Braverman say.

    Chief among them was a pledge to raise the minimum salary threshold required for a foreign skilled worker visa from £26,000 to £40,000, a proposal that was publicly backed last week by Boris Johnson, the architect of the post-Brexit points-based migration system.

    A copy of the agreement on migration, seen by the Telegraph, showed that they proposed to close down the graduate visa route, restrict the number of dependants that legal migrants could bring and prioritise Russell Group university applicants when evaluating student visa applications.

    Mrs Braverman cited the Prime Minister’s failure to stick to their deal in her scathing “departure” letter that she published after being fired as Home Secretary earlier this month.

    Details of the deal have emerged days after official figures showed that net migration hit a record 745,000 in the year to December 2022, three times pre-Brexit levels and blowing apart the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto commitment to reduce overall numbers below 239,000.

    Mr Sunak has not denied discussing policy options with Mrs Braverman or the existence of a document, but Downing Street has rejected any characterisation of it as a deal.

    ‘I’m getting on with delivering things’
    Mr Sunak told the Mail on Sunday: “Of course, you have conversations with people when you are in a leadership election and not just Suella.” Asked if he was worried about her producing proof of the deal, he replied: “That’s a question for her. I’m getting on with actually delivering things.”

    Sources close to Mrs Braverman said the deal was not signed by Mr Sunak but that it was verbally agreed on multiple occasions – and in front of witnesses – and that he left their meeting with a physical copy of the document.

    They claimed that after agreeing the deal and making her Home Secretary, No 10 failed to take legal migration seriously, declaring instead that small boats were the public’s prime concern.

    Six letters, each setting out detailed policy options and sent to No 10 either by Mrs Braverman or her office, were ignored, according to sources close to the former home secretary. In one, in November 2022,weeks after her appointment, she said she had instructed officials to “work up a set of proposals”.

    “Our manifesto commitment that overall immigration numbers will come down is at risk because of recent trends on visa grants…we can and must deliver our manifesto promise of lowering overall numbers in a manner that is consistent with supporting economic growth,” she said.

    The letter set out two additional proposals, one for a cap on overall visa rates, with numbers annually set by Parliament, and a second scrapping the shortage occupation list, where employers can hire foreign workers at 20 per cent below the going rate. This has been recommended by the Government’s own Migration Advisory Committee (MAC).

    Tackling net migration was the top item in the agreement, which opened by warning record numbers of visas were being issued including a “large increase in numbers of foreign students from developing countries attending non-Russell group universities on business studies master’s with dependants”.

    It proposed: “A. Close down the graduate visa route. B. Restrict number of dependents. C. Prioritise particular universities and courses. D. Increase salary thresholds for skilled workers from £25k to £40k.”

    In her November 2022 letter, she advocated replacing the two-year graduate visa route with a four-month stay when overseas students could try to get a job and could switch their visa over from student to work. This was in line with a 2018 recommendation by the MAC.

    A ban on nearly all postgraduate students bringing in dependents apart from those on research programmes was announced in May by Mr Sunak, which he has described as the single toughest measure in years to reduce net migration.

    However, he is under pressure to go further. Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, who co-signed Mrs Braverman’s final letter in October this year, is pressing for a ban on care workers bringing in dependants and a cap on health and social care visas.

    No 10 is “actively considering” measures, understood to include restrictions on care worker dependents and an increase in the skilled worker salary threshold. On Sunday, a spokesman said Mr Sunak had been very clear he believed migration was too high and had to come down to more “sustainable” levels. They noted the numbers were slowing, adding: “We’re prepared to act and do more.”

    ‘Suella had policy principles’
    However, a Tory ally of Mrs Braverman said: “The Prime Minister needs to get on with delivering our 2019 manifesto promise rather than trying to kid people with warm words and vague pledges. Suella was very clear what needed to be done and he just ignored her. That’s why they didn’t like her – because she had policy principles.”

    Ministers are expected this week to make final decisions on the new treaty with Rwanda and bill to declare it safe after the policy was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court.

    The bill will enshrine in law a treaty under which Rwanda commits not to remove any migrant deported from the UK, a move designed to answer the main criticism by the supreme court that asylum seekers could be returned to their homelands to face persecution.

    1. “I’m getting on with delivering things” says Sunak.
      What things?
      Paperclips?
      WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty?

  12. 379072+ up ticks

    Richard Braine reposted
    D
    @biologyphen0m
    ·
    Nov 25
    🆕Scottish COVID inquiry|Day 16

    ❌41yo dies of ‘COVID’ after ventilation

    ‘the doctors were lying to me on a daily basis..nurses were lying to me on a daily basis..everything that was in my brothers notes was different to what i was being told on a daily basis’

    https://x.com/biologyphen0m/status/1728472816528285932?s=20

    1. “Trust has given rise to a trustee board that is almost entirely white and privileged. While the profile of the staff of the trust is more diverse, we recognise that, throughout the organisation, most of us do not have experience of what it means to be discriminated against because of our colour.‘”

      You bloody do now.

    2. What does this charity support? They are going to suspend all grants so I can’t see people wanting to donate to them. I certainly wouldn’t.

      1. Apparently, we’re donating whether we like it or not, it receives money from taxpayer funds.

  15. A belated good morning to all.
    After a wet night, the rain continues with a totally miserable 1°C outside. Needless to say very dull and cloudy outside too.

    1. Good morning, Bob. A constant -7ºC here for the past few days (and nights) with more expected over the next 10 days at least.

        1. Luft-Luft värmepumpen. Supplemented by a few oil-filled electric radiators. It is very cheap and efficient.

  16. Good morning.
    Slovakia now rejects WHO pandemic treaty slavery.
    This is good, because they are in the EU, so this refusal will strengthen the organised EU-wide campaign against the treaty.

    2. Is there an organised EU-wide campaign against it? I’d be interested in any articles if you could provide a link please. I know that Estonia has also rejected it. But what at the moment is supposed to be a unanimous decision, as I understand it p, they will simply amend the rules to make it a majority decision. And the U.K. will definitely sign us up to it.

    4. Countries that have experienced repression in the past century or so recognise tyranny (actual or potential) when they see it.
      Countries like Britain have coasted along on the myth of benevolent government for so long they are incapable of recognising the danger.

  17. Good morning all,

    A light morning at Castle McPhee but rain later. Wind in the West going to Nor’-Nor’-West and temperature flat-lining at 8℃.

    Among the letters this morning is this one in reaction to Camilla Tominey’s recent destruction of the Convid inquiry.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a11f90373458a134df2c377a5959fd3d80a67f2ee11b089f2a87e33151737909.png

    I don’t know whether Dr Moloney is a medical doctor or a D.Phil but I can help her a bit with her last sentence. It’s not the ballot box where punishment needs to be meted out. It’s prison. And they should think themselves lucky we don’t have the death penalty.

    Not much from me today, we’re off to the Great Wen mid-morning for some Christmas shopping today and tomorrow. At least there shouldn’t be any pro-Hamas shenanigans on Monday and Tuesday.

  18. Last night was genuinely uncomfortable. The wall side of our bedroom was freezing. We’re told there’s the maximum amount of insulation in there, but it simply cannot be true.

    I’m going to call some people today to ask them about this as it’s simply intolerable.

    1. Move to Scandyland. All our houses have very effective 15″ thick wall insulation and triple-glazing. Warm as toast, we are.

      The houses are all open-plan (the only door we shut is the bog) and pine flooring (no pesky carpet-dust to breathe). I wouldn’t swap it, especially as it is -7ºC outside and I’m all toasty inside.

        2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba605985e1684e40dd7a8027d4e7946c1218bf3777921f09e6f8b7cb0c7dab49.jpg

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2f5a57c37b52ff40e76415106c5528302e194df9d31653ebedc35327aa2f28a2.jpg Most triple-glazed windows have adjustable vents situated in the frames. They give draught-free ventilation.

          The triple-glazed windows in the lounge (top photo) are sealed-unit double glazed hinged to a third glazed panel that contains an internal venetian blind. These are standard in a lot of houses here. The double and the single panes lock together and are side hinged so that they open towards the inside for easy cleaning.

          In the UK doors tend to open inwards and windows tend to open outwards. The exact opposite is in effect here in Sweden. Main doors to a property opening outwards have three benefits. 1. Snow doesn’t fall inside when you open the door. 2. There is more space inside for arranging furniture (you don’t need to keep an area clear where the door opens onto). 3. Outward opening doors are much more difficult to force open by blunt trauma from outside.

          Inward opening windows are much easier to clean: you have no need for ladders.

          1. Strangely, the door to Firstborn’s farmhouse opens inwards. That will be changed when we change the door.

          6. When I was a child and we had proper winters, I recall opening the back door (it opened inwards) and being confronted with a wall of snow at least half way up the door opening.

    2. If it’s an outside facing wall with a flat timber window board inside you can drill a hole in it, to check the installation in the cavity. Easy to repair as well.

      1. Aye, we’re told there’s ‘industry permitted’ in there but it isn’t enough. Called people to ask what could be done.

        Just a bit sick of this place, to be honest.

  19. Morning all 🙂😊
    What a grey day. Damp as well. Yuk.
    It’s not just the Royal mail, most of our usual organised services have developed an indifferent attitude. As in take it or leave it.
    I heard of a friend of a friends husband who had Afib for two years with out treatment at all, recently died of a heart attack. His AF was probably caused by the covid jabs. But it seems nobody in the NHS could be bothered to help him in North East Herts.
    When I sent a written complaint about the indifferent treatment I was suffering at my hospital. The equally indifferent reply from the management turned the whole thing on its head and blamed me. Whilst the secretary was lying.
    Just about sums up what’s mentioned regarding the mail. But it hasn’t killed anyone…..yet.
    And Ogga’s post.

  23. Only Boris Johnson could call soaring immigration ‘a victory for Brexit’
    The Conservative Woman : https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/only-boris-johnson-could-call-soaring-immigration-a-victory-for-brexit/

    BTL

    Ann Widdecombe on GB News last night implied what I have been saying for some time: that it had been a very grave error for the Brexit Party not to have contested seats held by remainer Conservatives in the 2019 general election.

    Johnson gave Farage no quid pro quo and not one word of thanks when he won with a sixty seat majority – but this majority did not rid the House of Commons of far too many remainers who have done their best to thwart Brexit. This was not difficult to do with a prime minister who was not committed to Brexit.

    Had The Brexit Party had any influence after that election then Johnson would not have been able to betray the Northern Irish and the fishermen and now we have lost Northern Ireland entirely with Sunak’ Great Windsor Betrayal.

    Ann Widdecombe made it clear last night: The Reform Party will not make any pact with Sunak’s miserable , treacherous and incompetent party.

  24. Good Moaning.
    A big thank you to all NOTTLers who came up with printer suggestions.
    I have bookmarked them and will call in my PCN to discuss and sort out the glitch.
    I suspect I’m asking too much of a pretty basic printer.
    (Thoughts for Christmas list!)

  25. S.S. Clan Macfadyen.

    Complement:
    92 (82 dead and 10 survivors).
    6,705 tons of sugar, 5 tons of hemp and rum and mail.

    At 00.02 hours on 27th November 1942 the unescorted Clan Macfadyen (Master Percy Edgar Williams) was hit on the starboard side by two G7e torpedoes from U-508 (Georg Staats) 95 miles southeast of Galeota Point, Trinidad. The U-boat had chased the zigzagging freighter for 13 hours and missed her with a spread of two G7e torpedoes at 13.24 hours on 26th November. The first attack was not noticed and the vessel stopped zigzagging about one hour before the torpedoes struck, broke the ship in two and caused her to sink within 4 minutes. The fore end sank after capsizing and the after end went down on even keel. The crew of 84 men and eight gunners (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 12pdr and six machine guns) had no time to launch the lifeboats and only a few men managed to rescue themselves on rafts. The survivors observed the U-boat surfacing nearby, but it left the area without questioning them. Three crew members and one gunner were picked up from a raft by the Harvard and landed at Port of Spain on 31st November. Six crew members on another raft made landfall on Trinidad on 1st December. The master, 74 crew members and seven gunners were lost.

    Type IXC U-Boat U-508 was sunk on 12 November 1943 in the Bay of Biscay north of Cape Ortegal, Spain, by depth charges from a US Liberator aircraft (VB-103 USN/C). 57 dead (all hands lost).

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/br/clan_macfadyen.jpg

  26. I liked this letter…

    SIR – I was interested to read about the 10 worst Doctor Who episodes (Culture, telegraph.co.uk, November 22).
    As a young child, I watched the programme from the first episode, and
    my imagination was captivated by the stories. I did not notice the
    creaky sets and costumes (although my parents might have done). Perhaps,
    too, the production was not so out of place when compared with other
    programmes at the time, such as Muffin the Mule and The Woodentops.

    I
    particularly remember “The Web Planet”, and was later very impressed to
    discover that my new maths teacher had appeared in it. I was fascinated
    to hear about the ingenuity of the costume makers. For example, the
    insects’ multi-faceted eyes were plastic tea strainers.

    Many
    years later, on discovering that the BBC had found the episode and
    released it on DVD, I purchased a copy, and experienced a curious moment
    when I heard one of the creatures speak unmistakably with my teacher’s
    voice.

    Jonathan Mann
    Gunnislake, Cornwall

      1. My British Constitution (A Level) teacher’s brother was Bernard Holley. They looked quite alike so it was weird seeing the brother on TV and then going into class.

    2. But who remember the other aliens in that programme?
      The insectoid Optra and Menoptra and the woodlouse like Larvi guns?

  27. A more pro Palestinian take.

    The question was a valid one: “How could you, a conservative and a gentleman, be for them?” The man is an acquaintance of long standing, also a gent, so I bothered to explain: “Because I’ve been there and have seen what’s going on up close.”
    Needless to say, it was the Middle East we were talking about, and my sympathy for the Palestinians, as opposed to tiny Israel surrounded by hostile Arab nations. I was based in Amman back in 1969 and during “Black September” one year later, when King Hussein destroyed the PLO effort to take over his country. I had visited the Palestinian refugee camps for those evicted by Israeli settlers during the founding of Israel in 1948. I then covered the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and have visited many more such camps in Lebanon since then. All I can say is once you’ve seen the misery of life in those camps, it takes a heart of stone to ignore them.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-deadly-pattern/
    I have to wonder why, if they are so persecuted, the number of Palestinian refugees has increased roughly 50 fold over the years.

    1. The misery is of their own creation and they weren’t evicted in 1948. Their fellow Arabs told them to move out so that they could move their armies in and obliterate the Jews in preparation for an Arab takeover.

      1. There have been a few quietly spoken, strongly persuasive videos put up on Nottle.
        At a human level one must sympathise with individuals, at a group level I think they bring it on themselves.
        Israel knows in its heart that one lost war finishes it for them.
        They also know the threat of that war will never go away as long as there are Arabs and Islam.

        1. True though the Jordanians, Syrians and Saudis seem to realise what’s best for them if they want economic stability. Qatar seems suspect and the Iranian mullahs are sh*t stirrers but I think Trump proved that the Arabs are not all hot-headed? We’re not as close to the ME sparking WWIII as some would have us believe?

          1. Why are the Palestinians still in camps, and why do the Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians and Saudis not accept them in as fellow Arabs and Muslims?

    3. It seems to me that hamas have used Palestinian’s for sacrificed, so attention can be focused on them, as the oppressed.
      That’s how the islamic mind set operates. To them that’s probably better than suicide bombs.

      1. The Hebrew Scriptures certainly don’t but then nor do the Gospels of course. With the latter it becomes a matter of how do you define fornication, since I think that’s all that is explicity discouraged. Those who push for same sex marriage may believe that eradicates fornication since they define it as sex outside marriage.

  30. overheard from office:
    Older daughter in the kitchen: If I don’t meet anyone, I might just become a nun
    Younger daughter homes straight in on the drawback to that: Getting up at 5 am to pray. You’d never get along with that.

    1. The last time i met a Nun she asked me for a light. Not surprising really. We were on the terrace bar of the hotel Phoenicia. It aint all praying and singing.

      1. 1066 and All That

        Question Paper Rubric.

        Mother …………….? (If Nun write None!)

  31. overheard from office:
    Older daughter in the kitchen: If I don’t meet anyone, I might just become a nun
    Younger daughter homes straight in on the drawback to that: Getting up at 5 am to pray. You’d never get along with that.

    1. My response, Mum, “A great pity that we don’t do the same here in the UK. There is golden opportunity presenting itself at the General Election.
      DON’T vote Lib/Lab/Con/Green – they’re all the same.      “

      1. I have no intention of voting for the Uniparty, SJ. Perish the thought. And if it lets Labour in, so be it. I’ll be gone soon enough.

    2. He’s brilliant. Well spoken and very clear. I would vote for him. What do we get? Flip flop Starmer.

    3. Spot on.
      We have the same problem with our own politicians. Westminster needs a clear out and new faces need to be there.

        1. Perhaps the public should arrange a few coach trips to visit the house and move in.
          How would they cope ?

      2. But the new faces must be those aged at least 40 who have had success in jobs outside politics.

        1. Our local MP was I believe in banking. He supports the arrival immigrants. That’s why I’ll never vote for him again.

  33. Daily Mail

    Ministers were accused of a cover-up last
    night after it was revealed that soldiers did secretly spy on British
    critics of the Government’s response to Covid.

    The release of new documents contradict official assertions that a shadowy Army unit had only been monitoring foreign powers.

    The
    Mail on Sunday revealed earlier this year that military operatives in
    the UK’s ‘information warfare’ brigade were part of a sinister scheme to
    keep a close eye on politicians and high-profile journalists who raised
    doubts about the pandemic response.

    They
    compiled dossiers on public figures – such as ex-Minister David Davis,
    who questioned the modelling behind alarming death toll predictions, and
    The Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens – and reported their
    dissenting views back to No 10.

    Documents
    obtained by the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch revealed the
    Government cells included the MoD’s 77th Brigade, which deploys
    ‘non-lethal engagement and legitimate non-military levers as a means to
    adapt behaviours of adversaries’.

    1. With the amount of people who suffered from the ‘side effects ‘ of the ‘vaccines’ I still doubt if many politicians etc had the real jabs.
      The ratio per jab with them suffering, was absolutely minimal compared to the rest of the population. I still say Boris’ covid stay in hospital was faked. His nurse soon vanished out of the country, away from the scene.
      If he had been jabbed, how did he catch covid ? Proof the ‘vaccine’ didn’t work and none of his family or close associates caught it ?
      My whole family did, as we gathered together for a 40th birthday celebration in Cornwall last year. All jabbed except the children who did not catch it.

      1. “If he had been jabbed, how did he catch Covid ?”

        He had Covid long before the vaccines were available.

      2. I think he did have it – he looked very ill at the Thursday clap session, before he was carted off. The ‘jabs’ were just theatre – he didn’t need them as he had natural immunity.

        He was ill long before the jabs were available. I do think they made a meal of it to scare people.

        1. he looked very ill at the Thursday clap session,………..make up and acting. Easy for a liar. 😊😉

          1. It was a day or two before he was carted off to hospital. I think he was genuinely ill and had a high temperature. Whether he was actually at death’s door is another matter.

          2. Knock! Knock!
            “Who’s there?”
            “Who’s asking?”
            “Death, you’re at Death’s door; again, who’s there?”
            “Boris Johnson”
            “Well, I hear you knocking but you can’t come in”

      3. I suppose I do keep banging on about the fact that even though I am well up my 70s and overweight and supposedly one of the most vulnerable members of society, when I had Covid I just spent a day in bed sleeping it off and it was over. Many of our fully jabbed friends and family had Covid at the same time and were quite ill. Caroline had it at the same time as I did and did not even have to take to her bed.

        Of course our experience is completely irrelevant!

        The big danger is that feeble and weak politicians will capitulate to the WHO which will manage to impose compulsory vaccinations on everybody and God knows how many people they will murder inthis way.

        1. I read this morning that the new conservative government in New Zealand has voted against accepting the WHO treaty.

          2. And now it seems Slovenia and Estonia have too.

            People in Eastern Europe, who lived under totalitarian communism, recognise it now, when they cut through the covid bullsh!t and see that the truth was that most people were not at risk of dying from the virus, and more have died since then from the enforced jabs.

        2. The banning of smoking isn’t also part of the WHO thing, is it? Is that why Sunak has pushed it? It just seems every decision that stooge takes is to appease globalist ideals, never ones for the UK.

          1. Sunk pushed the smoking ban as he followed the NZ government policy – but now they have chucked out the socialists and abandoned their policies.

            I don’t think it was from WHO, rather Horseface.

        3. But surely, Rastus, if you had felt unwell for one day pre-covid scam you would just have gone to bed and got better? Did you test yourself? – bearing in mind the PCR tests were useless and not meant for diagnostic purposes?

          I’m afraid I cannot understand why people bought any of these tests simply because the free ones were being discontinued. Don’t people know if they are not well? Are people still “testing” themselves?

          I don’t mean to be rude but those are my thoughts.

          1. People are still testing – they wouldn’t know it was covid otherwise as the symptoms are those of any coronavirus or rhinovirus, which we have lived with all our lives.

            We were sent a box of tests early this year, and I guess many others were too. The box is still unopened.

            When the free ones were available, I sent for one as a nervous friend who was having a pre-Christmas coffee morning and had recently had surgery (in 2021) asked if we could do that. I used only one (one nostril only) and donated the rest to my neighbours.

    3. It is depressing that the state’s response to not getting what it wanted was oppression.

      Depressing, but not surprising.

  34. A bit of colour for a gloomy day.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/99be46ee6c46a5417ef004fc0c33f32288c3e458d144c89bce0baf2d3cb4fe3f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e220ed0344b0183c0c7c289e09180e2550b4ddd8ebfb77b13f842fba6624da6.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d9200077d00b9699cb6bb4759edde969826176b3a01c65b56c14870037433851.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/86d876efba22b064a5bb8362ae1d511918e78b7c628196f3179c09bbf7048a09.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d6307b3075134db56bc75264814a93153a76ae1d5f70916124709f3539f96a4.jpg

  35. I’m a bit of a hoarder but I don’t think I’m this bad. At least I’ve buried my dead cats in the garden.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12795131/Is-Britains-worst-hoarder-Bodies-mummified-cats-discovered-piles-belongings-left-home-cleaners-say-worst-case-seen.html?ico=related-replace

    Is THIS Britain’s worst hoarder? Bodies of mummified
    cats are discovered in among piles of belongings left in home – as
    cleaners say it is the ‘worst case’ they have ever seen

    The extreme case was uncovered after the male homeowner in his 70 died

    **CONTENT WARNING: Some readers may find images upsetting **

  39. Yeah, yeah, of course the jabs are safe.
    Follow those in the know.

    Two thirds of frontline NHS staff have shunned Covid and flu vaccines this winter, MailOnline can reveal.
    Only 21.8 per cent have so far had a Covid booster, according to latest data on the health service’s staff vaccination campaign.
    Meanwhile, flu jab uptake sits at 28.9 per cent.
    It suggests, at best, only slightly more than a fifth have had both.

    Figures for both jabs are far below the heady heights recorded just a few years ago.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12788381/As-FIFTH-NHS-staff-Covid-flu-jabs-winter.html

      1. Our lovely doctor Françoise, to whom our greatest thanks are due for advising us not to take the jabs , is playing the organ in church until Caroline’s right hand is out of its bandages – yesterday Caroline sat beside her on the organ bench and played what she could to help out with her left hand!

    2. A couple of weeks ago, the lass at the local greengrocers was off sick; the effects of flu and covid jab.
      (Sorry, I’ll write that again: A couple of week’s ago, the las’s at the greengrocers’ was …….)

  40. Footage shows mask-wearing crowds piling into an ‘overwhelmed’ Beijing hospital amid fears over mystery pneumonia sweeping country – but China insists flu and usual winter bugs are to blame, NOT a new virus
    Beijing has called for more people to get vaccinated amid the wave of infections

    Local media has reported health facilities as being ‘overwhelmed with sick children’.
    However, China’s health ministry claims it can cope with the spike in sickness, which sparked global panic last week when news of the situation emerged.
    Concerns led the World Health Organization (WHO), in a rare public intervention, to formally request further information from Beijing on the infections.
    Commentators highlighted the wave of sickness was eerily similar to the reports that emerged just prior to Covid, which China was accused of covering up.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12794953/China-says-FLU-known-viruses-blame-mystery-wave-pneumonia-overwhelming-hospitals.html

    If the Chinese are denying it, it’s probably the real thing and hitting the young this time around.

    Whoops, Apocolypse.

    1. Nothing that comes out of China is accidental or incidental. And that includes ‘footage’.

      2. It’s the Chinese New Year of the Dragon, (wood Dragon) in February so it will be clog makers sent to the Netherlands as a punishment for Geert Wilders

      1. Yes, though as near as damnit Shepherds Bush. Home is W6 and work is W12 but just down the road.

        1. I worked on a couple of jobs in Hammersmith. Early 70s we refurbished a couple of class rooms at Latimer Upper school.
          And made some alterations to the house next door to Vanessa Redgrave, we use to see her nearly every day taking her young daughter to school on the back seat of her two wheel bicycle.
          She’s in her mid 80s now.
          That must have kept her fit.🚴

      2. Or a Shepherd’s hut for around £25,000.
        There’s a second hand one on the market that might be cheaper, but it will need deep cleaning to remove all the bullshit.

        1. People use them up here as self catering accommodation and £25k is around the selling price

        2. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/253485111049606/?ref=browse_tab&referral_code=marketplace_general&referral_story_type=general&tracking=%7B%22qid%22%3A%22-3000505862039518407%22%2C%22mf_story_key%22%3A%22390582488765665722%22%2C%22commerce_rank_obj%22%3A%22%7B%5C%22target_id%5C%22%3A390582488765665722%2C%5C%22target_type%5C%22%3A6%2C%5C%22primary_position%5C%22%3A16%2C%5C%22ranking_signature%5C%22%3A696584694043926516%2C%5C%22commerce_channel%5C%22%3A501%2C%5C%22value%5C%22%3A3.8307737544365e-5%2C%5C%22upsell_type%5C%22%3A129%2C%5C%22candidate_retrieval_source_map%5C%22%3A%7B%5C%226693438390766857%5C%22%3A805%2C%5C%227013650678697106%5C%22%3A3099%2C%5C%226614690998653694%5C%22%3A3099%7D%2C%5C%22grouping_info%5C%22%3Anull%7D%22%2C%22lightning_feed_qid%22%3A%22-3000512321790427750%22%2C%22lightning_feed_ranking_signature%22%3A%225376525426409665584%22%2C%22ftmd_400706%22%3A%22111112l%22%7D

  46. New episode of Doctor Who with David Tennant and Catherine Tate. Gone back to how it used to be. They’ve abandoned the woke nonsense. Very high production values. Iplayer. The Meep.

    2. We watched it on Saturday! What can I say? Complete and utter drivel from start to finish – and my OH is a long term Dr. Who fan! It was terrible.

    1. Big business’s love of globalisation tends to one-sidedness. (See also in this respect regional restrictions on DVDs.)

  48. OT – e-mail from grand-daughter. Baby (still unnamed) out of Intensive Care. She starts the message:

    “Well what a weekend we’ve all had!”

    The understatement of the year – in this family, anyway!!

      1. Indeed. My son set up with Ellie’s mother about 18 years ago. We have known Ellie and her brother Al since they were at Primary School. We just think of them both in exactly the same way as my four “proper” grandchildren.

          5. Born at 36 weeks. Six pounds odd – now out and (almost) about! But on oxygen to get the lungs working OK.

          8. With two great grandchildren, welcome to the club.

            Unfortunately I don’t see them that often – one in Tasmania, the other somewhere in the West Country abandoned by the father – bastard.

  49. They are so civilised, are they not?
    No wonder we need so many to come and live in the UK.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12796053/Girl-sentenced-death-village-executed-family-honour-killing-dancing-boys-social-media-Pakistan.html

    The second girl, who was rescued by the pol­ice due to the expected threats to her life, was returned home with her father soon after, as a senior civil judge ruled that her life was not in any danger.
    The boys who appeared in the videos have also gone into hiding, fearing reprisals.
    As per local tradition, the jirga had declared those who appeared in the images circulating on social media as ‘chor’ (thieves) and issued a decree for their killing.
    Every year, hundreds of women in Muslim Pakistan are victims of honour killings, carried out by relatives professing to be acting in defence of a family’s honour often in deeply conservative rural areas, say human rights groups.
    Dr Farzana Bari, a human rights activist told Geo.tv of her concern for the safety of the second girl.
    She believed that she would likely be murdered sooner or later and remains under serious threat, continuing that ‘she has probably been misguided by her family. Knowing the kind of mindset that exists in the area, I think this girl would be killed.’

    I doubt the second girl will live to be married, even an arranged one.

    2. From my observations, Black History Month goes on for …. rather more than 4 weeks.
      So, who knows?

    4. Ages. It’s morphed into Cyber Monday and a week of something or other. I did, however, get two ink cartridges for the price of one using their offer.

  51. Phew!
    Pet ‘Pooter Nerd came up trumps.
    The problem appears to be Word.
    At PPN’s behest, I’ve used Pages for designing and had absolutely no problems with printing.
    (Finding things like underlining was a different matter; thank heavens for cold wet days when hunkering down at home is a necessity and you can concentrate.)

    1. If you’ve got WORD, Anne, on office, you should also have PowerPoint – a little effort and it’s much easier to use. Use my card to you as a template.

    1. You’re not supposed to notice that they had anything to do with it. Oh look a covid/squirrel/Ukraine/Gaza/alien spaceship/cyber pandemic….

    3. The idiot must recognise that throwing billions at the crooks in Pfizer, Moderna and Astra Zeneca, throwing billions at illegal immigrants and putting the imported scum in 4 Star hotels, penalising the middle class producers with high taxes and inflicting higher energy prices on just about every single person in the land in pursuance of utterly mad fake climate change ‘science’ would take its toll.

      I might add the mindless support of a proxy US war in Ukraine.

      1. It was an open goal to make the most of Brexit. To unravel acres of appalling legislation, to undo the DIE nonsense, to really make positive changes and they refused to. Instead, Sunak was playing politics to knife his boss to get a job that the party refused him in the first place.

        It is staggering how appalling those fools are.

  54. Reform UK ‘in discussions’ with Tory MPs furious at PM’s migration ‘betrayal’

    Richard Tice insists no one has been promised cash to defect after claims made by Conservative deputy chairman Lee Anderson

    By Amy Gibbons • 26 November 2023 • 11:39am

    Richard Tice, the leader of Reform UK, has claimed he has had “numerous discussions” with Conservative MPs – including ministers – who are “furious” with the Government’s “betrayal” on migration. But he insisted no one has been promised cash to defect after Lee Anderson, the Tory deputy chairman, said he was offered “a lot of money” to switch sides.

    Mr Tice said he was “happy to confirm” he had been in talks with a number of Conservative MPs – including both ministers and former ministers – who are livid with the Government’s failure to stop the boats. He said he would keep the discussions “completely confidential”, but hinted he had offered them “the chance to change the shape of the debate”.

    Laura Trott, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said a vote for Reform “is a vote for Keir Starmer as prime minister”.

    It comes after Mr Anderson was caught on tape claiming he was offered cash to join Mr Tice’s party, founded by former UKIP and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage. In a recording obtained by The Sunday Times, the Ashfield MP can be heard saying: “Now there is a political party that begins with an R that offered me a lot of money to join them. I say a lot of money, I mean a lot of money.”

    The newspaper said the remarks were made at a “Lagers with Lee” meeting at Cambridge Rugby Club in October.

    Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Tice said: “I’m very happy to confirm that I’ve had numerous discussions with a number of Tory MPs, ministers, former ministers, who are absolutely furious with the complete betrayal of the Government’s promises, furious with the failure to stop the boats, furious with opening the borders to mass immigration.

    “Obviously I will keep those discussions completely confidential, but let me make it absolutely clear: no cash or money has in any way been offered. What has been offered is the chance to change the shape of the debate.”

    Reform has only taken small proportions of the vote in recent by-elections. But that has not stopped some Conservatives fearing that it could tempt Tory voters frustrated by issues such as the small boats crisis to switch allegiances at the next general election.

    Their concerns appear to be playing out in the polls, with a recent YouGov survey suggesting some 12 per cent of those who supported the Conservatives in 2019 now back Reform. Meanwhile, Mr Tice’s party is hitting near 10 per cent of the overall vote.

    Speaking to Sky News, Ms Trott insisted that she was not worried about Reform outflanking her party from the Right. She said: “I’d be very clear that a vote for Reform or any other party which is not Conservative is a vote for Keir Starmer as prime minister. But what I would say is one of the reasons it’s so important for me to come on shows like yours is for us to communicate as a Government what we are doing to stop the boats.”

    Mr Sunak also used an interview with the Mail on Sunday to warn dissatisfied Tories against abandoning the party. He said: “A vote for everyone who is not a Conservative is a vote to put Keir Starmer into office.”

    Mr Anderson has been approached for comment.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/11/26/reform-uk-richard-tice-discussion-tory-mps-migration

    Tittle-tattle, tactics or more trouble for the Tories?

    2. Arrant nonsense, I would say. Where’s the money? People don’t care about Tory MPs enough to offer them loads of money. Anderson’s out of touch with reality if he thinks that’s credible.
      Tories clearly rattled though. No wonder. They are children playing at being in government.

      1. I can’t imagine Tice doing anything like that he seems to be the only politician who’s telling the truth and has never had to lie as too many of prominent MPs have.

        1. He lies alright. He’s controlled opposition. But he doesn’t have the money, and anyway, who wants that bunch of shysters!

          1. We’ve already got a huge bunch of shysters. They turn up the volume as soon as the competition starts.

        2. I cannot recall a single thing he has said, not that there’s much of to recall as I’ve heard and read very little from him.

    4. “a vote for…. any other party which is not Conservative” – that rules out voting for your party then young Trott, because they certainly aren’t Conservative!

    5. I wonder if it might also have been an Anderson “sting”?
      If a reporter could do what the ST (Sunday Times, not Sanitary Towel) did perhaps another reporter was trying on the same.

    6. …… A vote for everyone who is not a Conservative is a vote to put Keir Starmer into office.
      Could High risk Anus tell us what a Conservative looks like.

    7. I do hope Reform is being ultra-cautious, if this is in any way accurate. I remember the whole Douglas Carswell and UKIP association that turned sour. Anyone still a Conservative MP at this point is either a true believer in the Marx-inspired bull, or else is too cowardly or comfortable as an MP to risk abandoning the party. Just the sort of people that Reform doesn’t want in its ranks. They’ll only cause trouble and eventually quit. No doubt when they’ve already been elected as MP.

    1. His comment about the child “who was lost and is found” was an international disgrace,

      The man should be driven from the office of Teapot and sent to Gaza where he’ll find little warmth in their greeting…..and should avoid tall buildings (assuming there are any left).

      2. It is frightening to see high profile individuals on the world stage refuse to accept that the actions of certain slammers are absolutely inhuman. We remember the Yasidis of Iraq suffering dreadfully under ISIS, but there have been countless other atrocities committed in the name of their god. I dont remember the protests. Until you correctly identify a problem, you are unable to solve it. So the world’s ideological elephant slowly takes residence in our towns and cities, and similar to the beast in the wild, is destructive to its environment.

    2. Same as the SNP. And the London wrecker. It’s about time our ‘leaders regained some form of consciousness’.

  57. That’s me gone. A horrid, grey and wet day. Just stayed indoors and read.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain. I hope.

  58. It’s a great pity that the Royal Family can’t sue that little shit Scoobie Doobie Dung from here to Penury.

    1. I’m sure it could be done in a roundabout way. And for goodness sake ban Brash and Trash from entering this country. Apparently they “wouldn’t mind” being invited here for Christmas. Well, a lot of the British population WOULD mind.

    2. I’m sure it could be done in a roundabout way. And for goodness sake ban Brash and Trash from entering this country. Apparently they “wouldn’t mind” being invited here for Christmas. Well, a lot of the British population WOULD mind.

  59. Slipped up today

    Wordle 891 4/6

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

    1. Wasn’t a nice easy word today
      Wordle 891 5/6

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

    2. Same here.

      Wordle 891 4/6

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

    3. Much to my surprise…

      Wordle 891 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  60. One to ponder:
    It’s fairly long but worth the effort.

    Camus is most famous today for coining the term “Great Replacement,” used to describe the way the native white populations of the West are being increasingly substituted by hordes of unassimilable black Africans and brown Muslims from abroad, at the behest of…well, who knows? Some say George Soros; some say the Elders of Zion; others blame the dreaded World Economic Forum. For Camus himself, the true guilty party is a rather more unexpected individual: Adolf Hitler.
    Camus is often dismissed nowadays as a “conspiracy theorist,” a label that has long degenerated into a mere propaganda term. Laughably, critics try to pretend the phenomenon of the Great Replacement isn’t even occurring, despite clear demographic data to the contrary. As Camus has repeatedly said, his idea is not a conspiracy, it is an observation…an observation you would have to be willfully blind not to see.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/adolf-hitler-his-part-in-our-downfall/

    2. Camus? For a while I thought you were talking about the famous Albert Camus, and this puzzled me because he has been dead since 1960.

      This upstart ‘Camus’ is someone I’ve never heard of!

      1. There are times when I believe this is all intentional.
        I console myself that the promulgators will be forced to go down with the ship.

  61. For those with an interest in Wendyball.
    Bellingham is in exalted company:
    Jude Bellingham scored his 14th goal of the season as Real Madrid returned to the top of La Liga with a 3-0 victory at lowly Cadiz.
    He now has the most goals by any Real Madrid player in their first 15 games.
    The previous record of 13 was jointly held by Cristiano Ronaldo, Alfredo di Stefano and Pruden.

      3. Before their descendant turned from field sports to sports fields, which school did the Bellamy family prefer? Writer Alfred Shaughnessy went to Eton, Simon Williams was at Harrow and producer John Hawkesworth attended Rugby.

  62. Peter Sweden on Substack:
    The EU is now finding more ways to take away your freedoms. They want to take away ownership of your old car and scrap it! Yes, you read that correctly.

    “The EU has something called End-of-life vehicles directive, and they are looking to expand this to become so draconian that it reminds of something that would have happened in the Communist Soviet Union.

    A new set of criteria will be established that will decide whether you will be allowed to keep your car. If your car does not meet the criteria, the EU will seize your car and scrap it.

    One of the criteria is that if your car has missed it’s regular EU checkup for two years, then it is considered to be “waste” and they will scrap it.

    Another thing they are talking about as well is to introduce a “circular passport” for vehicles. In other words, a passport for your car. This is madness.

    If the cost of repairing your car exceeds the value of your car, then the EU will seize it and scrap it for you. Very nice of them…

    There is an exception however for cars that are more than 30 years old. But they have to be original. Meaning that if you put a different engine in it than original and your car hasn’t been through an EU control check within the last two years, then they will scrap it!

    Meaning that many older cars will be considered “waste” by the EU and they will SEIZE your car and scrap it for you – All under the excuse of recycling and meeting climate goals.

    In reality, this means that you will no longer own your car. In reality, your car will belong to the state and they will decide for how long you can have your car. You will own nothing and you will be happy…

    They are using climate change and the environment as an excuse to take away your freedom and control your life.

    And this doesn’t even make any sense from an environmental perspective either. You know what emits a lot of carbon emissions? Producing new cars. Especially the production of new electric cars.

    So to seize and scrap people’s old cars in order to force them to buy new cars is not good for the environment. Repairing an already existing car with spare parts is by far the best thing to do if you care about carbon emissions.

    But this isn’t about saving the environment really. This is about control.
    They want what’s called a “circularity in design and production”. They don’t want you to have your car for too long. They want it back. I’m sure the car manufacturers are very happy about this as it will give them more customers more often.

    Or people will not be able to afford a new car so they will end up with no car at all, being forced to take public transport or take the bike.

    The few people who will be able to afford a new expensive electric car will be the eli.te and the rich.

    Maybe this is just a scheme to take away the freedoms of regular people. You know who else took away the freedoms of regular people? The Soviet Union.

    This is Climate Communism.
    So far this is just a suggested new law change, so there is still hope that they will not go through with it. Which is why it is important that you share this news everywhere you can to raise awareness. If enough people say NO, then perhaps they will reconsider!”

    What one can expect from the EU. Bastards.

      1. No we didn’t. We just pretended to leave. Edit: or rather, our disgusting politicals did. We still get covered with spittle if the EU sneezes.

    2. The value of most elderly vehicles is enormous.
      And their presence is akin to museum pieces. What next on their stupid menu.
      Old buildings ?
      Old people ?
      Oh yes all ready tried that one.
      What is the ultimate aim of these horrible bastards. And who exactly are they ?

      1. Follow the money. And families and financial institutions with an R either at the beginning or the middle of their names, for starters.

    3. The most eco-friendly car is a Series Land Rover. not because they use no fuel (they use it by the ocean) but because they are endlessly repaired and never scrapped.
      (edit: Terrible spellings…)

    4. My 18 year old Land Rover is effectively depreciated down to zero. Certainly as far as I’m concerned.
      In a bad year it costs probably 3-5000 euros to keep it on the road, repairs due to its usage, tyres, servicing, lubricants etc.
      On a good year less than 1,000.
      It has nearly 200,000 miles on the clock and it serves us very well.
      One that has half its age and mileage would cost nearly the same to maintain, so why would I spend more than I paid for mine to swap, let alone buy a new car?
      It almost certainly costs less environmentally than replacing it with a much smaller new car.

    6. A BTL Comment. Wouldn’t surprise me if it was accurate.

      “Last Wednesday in the ‘Promised Land’, the European Parliament made another stride towards a centralist superstate, voting to amend the European Union treaties and limit the sovereignty of member states by abolishing their state veto powers. As I understand it, the European Commission, which will decide policy on environmental protection, biodiversity, foreign and security policy, border protection, public health, civil defence, industry, and education would also be reduced from 27 people down to 15.”

      1. We had a veto until Blair gave it away. Every time we used it it was ignored. The EU is just removing an annoyance it doesn’t want to deal with.

    7. The whole point of electric cars without expanding energy generating capacity is to remove personal mobility.The Left have always hated that people can go from point to point unhindered by the state.

    8. The same with private property if it does not come up to the prescribed eco-climate-standards, I was reading today. Your home will be expropriated and apparently you will be turfed out….. to where? We will probably be turfed out by the newly arrived, new State employees. Just when are we going to rise up and be outraged by all this? ‘Mustn’t grumble’ seems to be engraved within our dna.

      1. We will be forced to take in immigrants no doubt before that.

        There must be some action group somewhere – the whole things stinks in a way that we have never seen in this country before.

        1. Shades of Dr Zhivago. I recall a German friend many years ago saying relatives of his in East Germany had to take in refugees post war, but at least they were of a similar cultural background and language.

          Having to take in these people doesn’t bear thinking about; I have run this scenario past myself on occasion. I will be in my eighties probably by then although TPTB are doing their damnedest to kill us off. I don’t think their cull is going as well as they expected so far. I suppose it all seemed so easy when they were planning and plotting in their ivory towers over their canapés and sauvignon blanc, their success depending on our gullibility which they thought was in the bag, a given. To survive one has to be prepared to think the unthinkable.

    9. Some time ago the EU produced a requirement that by 2050 there would only be permitted

      7 million cars in Britain.

      Obviously the Elite can’t give up their cars because they are important state functionaries.

      This proposal to get rid of the older cars owned by the peasantry appears very sensible.

          1. I know, my comment was a personal one. As for senior politicians, they are disgusting and beneath contempt.

            Unfortunately, my respect for most of the British voting population is not very high either.

  63. Part of an article in the Critic, here: https://thecritic.co.uk/become-ungovernable-civil-service-edition/

    “ Not getting things done is a mere hobby or part time gig for most British workers. But for a dedicated core of professionals, the people who forge the path of collective listlessness for the rest of us, it’s a vocation. I’m speaking of course of the British civil service. In a classic Yes, Minister vein, British civil servants routinely obstruct the ministers elected to make policy, and ministers have little recourse as they lack hiring or firing powers over those who are notionally under their employ.

    Imagine you were asked to be CEO of a failing company. You’re told to manage 70,000 employees, a budget of £9.4 billion, and given 3-5 years to substantially improve things. But you’ll only be paid £150,000, be under constant media scrutiny, and have no power to hire, fire or discipline your staff. Would anyone in the private sector take this deal? That’s exactly the situation that faced Dominic Raab as Justice Secretary, before he was forced to resign over allegations of “bullying” by civil servants. Raab worked from 7:30 in the morning till 10 at night. He worked from the car and on weekends. Within the limits of ministerial authority, he tried to act as a forceful and responsible executive – he called regular meetings with civil servants, expected them to be prepared and informed, and would also summon individuals to reprimand them for missing deadlines. These are normal features of office hierarchy, but it was these details that formed the substance of complaints against him: he never shouted, or swore, he simply set, and sought to enforce, high standards. For doing even this seeming minimum, he was forced out.

    This gives us some sense of the rot that starts from the head of the fish — competence is punished, inertia rewarded; obstructionism is treated as a responsible act, questioning it is bullying. Just as Raab was ejected by civil servants, Suella Braverman was pushed out by the Met, who cried bloody murder at the prospect that their policing of protests might be open to criticism. The Met, like the civil service, is an increasingly self-governing entity, only partially answerable to elected officials. Whilst “operational independence”, in its proper bounds, is an admirable principle, in practice it has been distorted into a cover for politicised policing that actual politicians cannot question or change.

    At multiple levels of decision making, there is a widening gulf between intention and action, planning and practice, which is systematically crippling our country. Decline is managed ever more badly, and worsening outcomes force reactive and expensive policy which in turn limits our ability to act still further. At the heart of all of it is a British establishment dominated by deadening proceduralism, the suppression of agency, and the collective evasion of responsibility. The intransigence and “computer says no” approach of our public servants is replicated everywhere from the managerial HR capitalism of big business to the committee-sitting classes who govern education and the arts.

    What, if anything, can break us out of our collective malaise? The Tory party has manifestly failed to take on the “blob” after 13 years “in power” (as we charmingly still refer to being in government). The Labour party is on its way in, with a massive range of problems to solve and promises to keep. Unfortunately they’ve shown little appetite to do anything other than cheer on institutional intransigence. Perhaps this is just what oppositions do, but Labour will soon have to shift its thinking if it wants to get anything done. This is a task that goes beyond left and right, and will require long-term and cross-party cooperation if we are to break the grip of inertia and get Britain moving.”

    2. The modern cry-baby approach is also infecting the private sector. A friend who works for a big US company tells stories that would make your hair stand on end! Lazy, self-indulgent, authoritarian people have too much power.

    3. The only thing that will make the civil service change is massive redundancy. A complete obliteration of the DIE nonsense. An end to equality legislation. If woke civil servants get uppity then they aren’t pandered to but are simply sacked.

    4. The sure way for any government to get the Civil Service to do what it wanted would be to let the mandarins know that, until their departments toed the line, none of them would be nominated for any state awards. No knighthoods, no CBE’s, no OBE’s – nothing at all!

    5. The sure way for any government to get the Civil Service to do what it wanted would be to let the mandarins know that, until their departments toed the line, none of them would be nominated for any state awards. No knighthoods, no CBE’s, no OBE’s – nothing at all!

  64. The developing world should be grateful for Britain’s historical role

    If we wish to direct taxpayers’ money to other countries, it should be on terms we decide and its use should be closely monitored

    ROBERT TOMBS • 21 November 2023 • 12:25pm

    It is impossible to know what exactly lies behind the sublime mandarin prose of the Government’s latest International Development white paper. But when ministers are said to believe that we must act with “humility”, “acknowledge our past” and shift from an “outdated ‘donor-recipient’ model”, my translation into basic English is that we must act as if we owe money to foreign governments as compensation for our past wickedness and must ask no questions and expect nothing in return.

    When the former Department for International Development was merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, I thought naively that this might be a way of coordinating our aid and foreign policy in a way that might benefit Britain as well as recipients. As a French official told me, “We admire your altruistic policy on aid. Of course, we wouldn’t adopt it ourselves.” I mentioned this to a young and rising FCDO official, who was horrified: “We owe these countries money for the terrible things we’ve done in the past.”

    The arguments against this view of the world seem to me so obvious and now so familiar, I feel almost ashamed to repeat them. But as the Government seems to be tentatively climbing on the reparations bandwagon along with several universities, a number of wealthy families and the Church of England, perhaps it is worth stating the obvious. First, foreign aid is taxpayers’ money, and taxpayers have the right to expect some return and at least the assurance that their money is being properly spent and the outcome monitored. Otherwise, why not allow taxpayers to opt out of the Government’s aid scheme and give their money to a charity of their choice?

    Second, those of us who identify in some way with the nation’s past do have causes of regret and even shame (though I doubt if any normal person feels anything like the breast-beating guilt that some try to foist on us). Yes, Britain was a major participant in slavery for a time. Yes, colonialism involved a degree of violence in some circumstances. But equally, even those with the tenderest consciences should also have ample cause for quiet satisfaction and even pride.

    Most obviously, Britain led the world in abolishing the various slave trades that had been a fundamental part of human society for as long as history is recorded. It banned British slave trading. It pressed for the insertion of an anti-slave-trade clause in the Treaty of Vienna (1815). It deployed the Royal Navy and diplomatic pressure – and bribes to African rulers sometimes backed up by force – to supress the slave trade from West Africa, even at the risk of major friction with slaving states including France and the USA. It used a huge sum of taxpayers’ money as a means of hastening emancipation. It used diplomatic pressure, ships and money to end the huge trade via East Africa with the Arab world. Some diplomats even ransomed slaves and hid escapees in their own houses. At least the pressure for reparations is causing this extraordinary history to be better known.

    As for apologising for our former role in slave-trading – which some say is long overdue – Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger made a heartfelt apology more than 150 years ago for “our long and cruel injustice”.

    If that injustice had not in part been repaired by the anti-slavery campaign – which continued well into the 20th century – Britain today would surely be in the same moral position as all those slave-trading and slave-owning states that did little or nothing to stop global slavery at its grim and bloody heyday, or indeed who did their best to perpetuate it. These would include the United States, France, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, China, Turkey, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, India – the list is practically endless. Are all those states being pressed to make reparations to somebody? Are their own governments suggesting they should? Not that I’ve heard.

    Even if one favours reparations, the obvious question is who should pay them and to whom should they be paid? Who can show that they have suffered from the slave trade more than two centuries ago?

    Aid policy should not be distorted by half-baked or self-interested special pleading. If we wish to direct taxpayers money to other countries, it should be on terms we decide and its use and effectiveness should be closely monitored. Otherwise, we risk perpetuating that cynical definition of foreign aid: money given by poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/21/the-third-world-should-be-grateful-for-britain/

  65. The developing world should be grateful for Britain’s historical role

    If we wish to direct taxpayers’ money to other countries, it should be on terms we decide and its use should be closely monitored

    ROBERT TOMBS • 21 November 2023 • 12:25pm

    It is impossible to know what exactly lies behind the sublime mandarin prose of the Government’s latest International Development white paper. But when ministers are said to believe that we must act with “humility”, “acknowledge our past” and shift from an “outdated ‘donor-recipient’ model”, my translation into basic English is that we must act as if we owe money to foreign governments as compensation for our past wickedness and must ask no questions and expect nothing in return.

    When the former Department for International Development was merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, I thought naively that this might be a way of coordinating our aid and foreign policy in a way that might benefit Britain as well as recipients. As a French official told me, “We admire your altruistic policy on aid. Of course, we wouldn’t adopt it ourselves.” I mentioned this to a young and rising FCDO official, who was horrified: “We owe these countries money for the terrible things we’ve done in the past.”

    The arguments against this view of the world seem to me so obvious and now so familiar, I feel almost ashamed to repeat them. But as the Government seems to be tentatively climbing on the reparations bandwagon along with several universities, a number of wealthy families and the Church of England, perhaps it is worth stating the obvious. First, foreign aid is taxpayers’ money, and taxpayers have the right to expect some return and at least the assurance that their money is being properly spent and the outcome monitored. Otherwise, why not allow taxpayers to opt out of the Government’s aid scheme and give their money to a charity of their choice?

    Second, those of us who identify in some way with the nation’s past do have causes of regret and even shame (though I doubt if any normal person feels anything like the breast-beating guilt that some try to foist on us). Yes, Britain was a major participant in slavery for a time. Yes, colonialism involved a degree of violence in some circumstances. But equally, even those with the tenderest consciences should also have ample cause for quiet satisfaction and even pride.

    Most obviously, Britain led the world in abolishing the various slave trades that had been a fundamental part of human society for as long as history is recorded. It banned British slave trading. It pressed for the insertion of an anti-slave-trade clause in the Treaty of Vienna (1815). It deployed the Royal Navy and diplomatic pressure – and bribes to African rulers sometimes backed up by force – to supress the slave trade from West Africa, even at the risk of major friction with slaving states including France and the USA. It used a huge sum of taxpayers’ money as a means of hastening emancipation. It used diplomatic pressure, ships and money to end the huge trade via East Africa with the Arab world. Some diplomats even ransomed slaves and hid escapees in their own houses. At least the pressure for reparations is causing this extraordinary history to be better known.

    As for apologising for our former role in slave-trading – which some say is long overdue – Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger made a heartfelt apology more than 150 years ago for “our long and cruel injustice”.

    If that injustice had not in part been repaired by the anti-slavery campaign – which continued well into the 20th century – Britain today would surely be in the same moral position as all those slave-trading and slave-owning states that did little or nothing to stop global slavery at its grim and bloody heyday, or indeed who did their best to perpetuate it. These would include the United States, France, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, China, Turkey, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, India – the list is practically endless. Are all those states being pressed to make reparations to somebody? Are their own governments suggesting they should? Not that I’ve heard.

    Even if one favours reparations, the obvious question is who should pay them and to whom should they be paid? Who can show that they have suffered from the slave trade more than two centuries ago?

    Aid policy should not be distorted by half-baked or self-interested special pleading. If we wish to direct taxpayers money to other countries, it should be on terms we decide and its use and effectiveness should be closely monitored. Otherwise, we risk perpetuating that cynical definition of foreign aid: money given by poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/21/the-third-world-should-be-grateful-for-britain/

    2. I find the concept of foreign aid reprehensible. Tax payers money is taken by force to benefit the people of the UK, not the rest of the world. I appreciate there are backhanders and wheel greasers that money buys, but that’s plain corruption.

      It isn’t for virtue signalling Left wing idiocy promoted by primitive, low intelligence, over educated social studies students

      1. There is a rot in decent society thet can only be explained by accepting the wildest, craziest, completely loony conspiracy theories you can find on the dark web. Only then you can understand whats going on. PS I seem to be banned from the DT or perhaps its a glitch.

  66. A run up to Stoke to see Stepson planned for tomorrow so I’m off to bed.
    G’night all.

  72. Whilst US politicians are having second thoughts about involving US troops fighting in Ukraine, by contrast Ursula von der Leyen would rather a defeat in Ukraine than allow negotiations to take place.

    The reason the war started was because of the collective western nations’ desire to admit Ukraine into NATO, knowing that Russia would never permit this Russia wished Ukraine to become a bridge between the East and the West. This would have been a good place for Ukraine which would have become the ideal state for development investment. Put simply Ukraine could charge for flows of material trade between East and West and equivalent trade between West and East.

    As matters stand the west, having funded the fool Zelensky, is stuck with the actor Zelensky presiding over a much disabled military and frankly a military disaster in Ukraine. There is presently no mean by which Ukraine can dispose of Zelensky. There can be no elections in Ukraine by Presidential decree.

    The Ukrainian army is exhausted and run down. The average age of those in uniform is over 40 years of age. The evil Zelensky regime is now seeking to force all young men and women to be called up to serve at the Front.

    This is madness. It is past time for talk of peace. Ukraine’s offensive has been a complete failure. Moreover there is no possibility that Ukraine could ever win a war against Russia.

    The Germans are lately waking up except that their politicians are still wedded to the false assertion that Russia will eventually succumb. Those supporting the expansion of NATO and the prosecution of the war against Ukraine are either mad or else in denial. Hitler in his bunker is a closer analogy to Zelensky in Ukraine.

    1. A good summation from the weak controlled politicians’ viewpoint, cori.

      However, IMO, it’s the controllers, whom we can only make guesses about, that are running this calamity. Their end-game is both the collapse and total subjugation of Western civilisation. When the latter is no more these people will turn on their next target. Both Russia and China should be careful about their ‘latest friend/supporters’.

      Something to watch is the reaction of the WHO’s hierarchy and especially its sponsors to the few, at the moment, countries that are spurning the new ‘controls’ that this useless and very dangerous body is proposing.

      Nothing in World politics, wars, health, agriculture etc. is happening in isolation.

  74. Got to restart the ‘puter so dump these here

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/54b7de647b61a6fe47e3300b177f6d5b2f82307c5d07652d450976e9688e4f41.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b8f19d86dc22c36068d13af5d13e4b0ddff8097937274bb3e69780c20fe79082.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7db1447a6e1b2ff6bc409a109943778a9d7d5ac44a0455d0dc01419bb9c67442.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b7e503e27c71068d69b649b2c9271104ac9c874ccc3d179f9c95a600b94efb5b.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/37f505c2fcec22c21412e5f83ea5c1250a39bb0d8d6ac47c5c8f7702074c9677.jpg

    https://i0.wp.com/ace.mu.nu/archives/sat%20joke%2011%2025.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c86ed565db96775367c44e98e049a66e37fc245604311efa1cfd2a71f5d2e23a.jpg

    3. ………..or (for that extra spicy excitement) many areas of London, Birmingham, Manchester etc

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