Monday 4 December: Are Labour’s plans for the NHS anything more than wishful thinking?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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548 thoughts on “Monday 4 December: Are Labour’s plans for the NHS anything more than wishful thinking?”

  2. ‘Morning All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/045a1fc05c1790e2c817f7766d5022f2e97d7f6a17324aa57b16a8ed42e310b2.jpg

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      1. Morning Sue.

        Next time it snows in your neck of the woods I think you ought to show us how it’s done!

      2. Those young ladies from Newcastle are very sensible, Sue Mac, they are all wearing gloves to keep their hands warm. Lol.

      3. Morning Sue

        Brave girls ..

        I was born in that part of the world , and yes , I have rolled in the snow , sadly though in the South not the nitheringly cold North, which I do prefer .

    2. That snow is shockingly white, and a breach of diversity rules. When are they going to arrange rainbow snow?

    1. 379298+ up ticks,

      Morning Rik

      If proven without doubt, it has taken on many aspect of refined nazism via blackmail as in
      jab or job loss.

    3. Steve Kirsch has a good article on his sub-stack re this release and analysis of data. Also, Kirsch has been in contact with Prof Norman Fenton (for whom Kirsch has great respect ) for advice on the analysis.
      The original interview with “Winston Smith” had a difficult and emotional start but improved as he dealt with the data and explained his conclusions.

    4. Steve Kirsch has a good article on his sub-stack re this release and analysis of data. Also, Kirsch has been in contact with Prof Norman Fenton (for whom Kirsch has great respect ) for advice on the analysis.
      The original interview with “Winston Smith” had a difficult and emotional start but improved as he dealt with the data and explained his conclusions.

    5. And they still boast that Boris Johnson was ahead of all the other countries in Europe in getting the vaccines gene therapies into people!

  5. Todays forecast for the South of England.

    A rather cloudy and wet day, with outbreaks of rain throughout. Rain
    will be heavy at times, especially towards the far west of the region
    during the morning, and perhaps again later in the day. Breezy and less
    cold. Maximum temperature 8 °C.

  6. Ric Metcalfe, leader

    of the Labour-run authority, said: “We understand some people’s

    disappointment that Lincoln Christmas Market is no more. “However, we simply could not continue delivering an event that has been deemed a significant risk to public safety,” he said.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/24937772/england-christmas-market-open-oldest-popular-beautiful/#:~:text=Ric%20Metcalfe%2C%20leader%20of%20the,public%20safety%2C%22%20he%20said.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b54d1acd6873690a30e533171ae4d68f294701797cb11bdf6eba8e3a1d39fc06.jpg

    So not even the barriers of Korancrete suffice any more…………

    “They won’t change our way of life”

    Aye Right

  7. Good morning all,

    A dreich morning at McPhee Towers and staying that way. Wind in the South-East going East and temperature flat-lining at 7℃.

    Waking early, I started the day today with an injection of Starkey Wisdom. This is from a month ago at UCL, I think, and you can’t hear the questions so Dr Starkey has provided subtitles. But it’s Starkey we all want to hear anyway. The solution to our current ailments lies in history but above all, we have to begin by overturning all the Blair/Brown “reforms”.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5m6qDmq2tI&t=32s

  9. 379287+ up ticks,

    Morning Each
    A rhetorical menu pledging fodder for fools,

    Monday 4 December: Are Labour’s plans for the NHS anything more than wishful thinking?

    Dt
    Labour more trusted than Tories to grow the economy
    Poll findings will come as a major boost to Sir Keir Starmer as he prepares to set out plan to increase national wealth

    Probably has “strength through joy” also in mind.

    2. Good morning FA

      This comment appeared on F/B earlier . Is it true?

      Electric car – the biggest scam the world has ever seen?
      Has anyone ever thought about this?
      ‘If all cars were electric…
      And if we were stuck in a three hour traffic jam in the cold of a snowstorm, our batteries would be completely dead.
      Because electric cars basically don’t have heating.
      And the fact that I was stuck all night on the street without battery, heating, wipes, radio, GPS, battery died a long time ago.
      You can try to call emergency services and protect women and children, but they cannot come to help because every road is closed and probably every police car will be electric.
      And when the roads are blocked by thousands of cars, no one will be able to move forward. How do you charge batteries on the spot?
      Traffic jams are the same problem even during holidays.
      It would not be possible to turn on the air conditioning in an electric car for a short time. Your batteries would be dead in no time!
      Of course no politician or journalist is talking about this, but it will happen.

      1. Good morning, It is definitely true Maggie, and you can’t get a bus because they’ll be electric too.

        1. I mentioned this previously but when we were in London overnight back in July. My wife sat by a bus station near St Barts hospital. A large SUV was park in a disabled space. And likely friends of the mayor approached, including two female’s, five all together got in and drove off. Not a single person showed any sign of disabledment. It was an electric vehicle. A good way to get about under the ULEZ setup and free parking.

      2. It’s nonsense to suggest that electric cars do not have heating. Shorting out the leads on a Li-ion battery or simply warming them up with a candle flame will give you all the heating you need on a cold day. Don’t try this at home though.

        1. Exactly! And it will only take one burning EV for everyone in the 3 hour traffic jam to warm their hands nicely.

      3. Something it’s hard to imagine.
        More stupidity ahead.
        Due to the mass inter-tribal meeting in next to China, the carbon capital of the world, dubai.
        It’s just been proven beyond any doubt that climate change is not a likely issue it’s more about profit margins.
        I can never see the main mode of transport for the rich and self-important being by battery. But only as is, aviation fuel.

      4. “How do you charge batteries on the spot?”
        As the RAC do: With a portable (hydrocarbon-fuelled) generator!

        1. Difficult when the roads are blocked by thousands of cars with flat batteries…

          I wonder how many such electric generators the combined breakdown services own and can bring into operation simultaneously and how long it takes to get a car sufficiently charged that it can be driven to a fixed charging point.

          Accessing, charging and clearing the cars to allow further access will be quite a logistical problem.

  12. Good morning all.
    A miserable start to the day weather-wise. The forecast continuing snow has turned to steady rain with -1°C on the Yard Thermometer.
    I don’t think I’ll be doing a lot outside today.

  13. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not pleasant out side. Only two words, grey wet.
    Not knowing what labour’s plan for the NHS is, I suspect it will be their usual suckit and see attitude of learning by their mistakes. I have not an ounce of confidence in any of the bodies in Westminster or any of those in Whitehall.
    Everything they do, seems to be anti the majority opinion and if designed as the invasion seems to have been, to destroy our social structure and long established culture. And to ruin our countryside.
    Therefore I will never be voting for any of the major parties again. I see no point.

      1. Good morning J

        Dreary here as well, we had a lot of rain last night . Pip needed to go out into the garden after midnight .. Moh towelled him down , soaked to the skin .
        The latest fat balls I bought for the bird feeders have created a slimy mess under the tables , so I have to keep scraping the grass beneath, I have never had to do that before . The balls are made of softer fats , RSPB stuff. Very annoying .

        2. I’ve made rain lids for the bird feeders from large aluminium foil pie trays, a couple of holes for the hanger and they keep the rain off quite well.

          1. Brilliant idea, you are so hands on and practical , Bob .

            Moh doesn’t do stuff, but son no1 has a very capable pair of hands , being an electrician , but sadly not in the domestic line of things ..

        1. The dogs, as is their wont when I have to get up early, took it in turns to want to be let out at two-hourly intervals. They finally gave up at 05.30.

    1. MoH was watching the whole ‘debate’ and I listened. Sheer misuse of power for future ill-doings.

      1. Invading our privacy , MM.

        Moh’s late mother was means tested when she required home care before the house was sold to pay for residential care alongside those whom the state paid for .

        The old dear had minimal savings , and a house that she and her late husband had owned for 60 years, worth peanuts .

        1. Same for my Mother, Belle.
          The Council paid for the care home whilst we sold and cleared her house, then refunded the Council.
          That was a sad day when we finally handed over. She’d lived there since 1974, so 47 years. Most of her furniture was scrapped as nobody wanted it; we managed to sell some smaller stuff, and kept a couple of bits ourselves.
          The only positive thing is that, now it’s done, we won’t have to do it again once she shuffles off. I just hope there’s nothing in her will that she specifically wanted to go to anyone, because it ain’t there any more. We asked the solicitor who said “no”, but …

    2. This is extremely worrying.

      I would have said that the Government has completely lost touch with the people it governs had they ever had touch with them in the first place.

      This story should be splashed all over the MSM and all government minsters and MPs grilled. Well done to Stephen Timms for bringing it to our attention!

      Of course the big lie that the government has been pushing for some time is that the pension is a benefit rather than something for which one has made contributions. The proof of this lie is that, having worked in two tax regimes in France and UK, I discovered that there was a shortfall in my contributions. I managed to rectify this by paying a cash sum.

      But I cannot follow of the logic which says that the pension is not something to which you have contributed but you still have to top up your contributions!

      Now we are seeing the rabbit! If a pension is a benefit rather than a right the government will say they have the right to pry into your bank account.

  16. Q. How can you tell that Net Zero is a fraudulent scam baited to entrap the gullible?

    A. The Idiot King has swallowed it hook, line and sinker

      1. Yes – there is none so ardent as the gulled convert! Many people who give up smoking cigarettes seem to think they should have a missionary zeal to persuade others to give them up too.!

        1. I encourage smokers to carry on smoking as the tax they pay goes toward paying my pension.

    2. I’ve given up watching football now. It has lost the proverbial plot.
      I think the kneeling did it for me.

  19. Better llate than never,

    Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    Gruesome
    A beautiful lady is on an aeroplane, and finds herself sitting next to a Scotsman, all decked out in traditional Scottish garb. The lady got the attention of the Scot,
    “Excuse me, but what do Scottish men wear under their kilts?”
    The man replied, “Why don’ ye reach under me kilt and find out?”
    So the lady reaches under his kilt, then pulls back in horror. “Oh, that’s so gruesome!” she exclaimed.
    The Scotsman responded without missing a beat, “Aye, why don’ ye reach under again and make it grew some more!”

  20. Good morning, all. Dull with outbreaks of rain expected.

    Yesterday I put up a comment re British geniuses with a tongue in cheek poke at the woke idea that these geniuses were ‘black people’.

    Now this:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5e6aa7e365d8c7c98da3d965062ff428e8818f9e692f18421c9a9da940d3b082.png

    Some good comments below the line, including:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/554147907f097783e148e22a12494434030846b587befa1b0c9fe05ab1d8fdb8.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1c0160fb2a1084e2ed2e80ddfa95ea223963b24389e41b92584c68e0fe2f087e.png

    Daily Sceptics – Jamaican Slaves had Idea that Spurred Industrial Revolution Stolen by Inventor Henry Cort

    2. Slave Master (SM): Isaac, get cutting that cotton, or I will have you flogged
      Isaac: Sorry Massa, I is just inventing Gravity, then I will publish it on the internet, which I invented last week, just after I has invented
      Electricity
      Steam Engines
      Radio
      telephones

      Railways
      Gliders
      Internal Combustion Engine (Diesel and Petrol)

      Jet Engine
      Aircraft
      MuckDonalds
      Printing Press
      and Wokism

    3. “Dr” Jenny Bulstrode. Her Cambridge PhD. Twaddle.

      “Abstract
      This thesis charts the globalising role of British geomagnetism in the age of revolution and reform. In the earlier decades of the nineteenth century, significant fiscal-military state resources were directed toward linking three momentous magnetic enterprises: Admiralty reform of practical magnetic navigation; novel electromagnetic research; and British engagement in an international campaign to survey the earth’s magnetism. From hardware to personnel, these resources were heavily invested with certain principles of labour organisation. In the late eighteenth and earlier nineteenth century industrial materials such as copper, paper, and glass, were remanufactured into new forms designed to depend upon extreme systems of labour extraction. Iron best embodies this transformation. In order to chart the globalising role of British geomagnetism this thesis follows the interests of magnetic administrators and military mathematicians whose situated concerns were navigated by a new kind of iron. Particularly pivotal are the researches of Woolwich Military Academy mathematics master Peter Barlow, who took lessons from timber and torsion to make iron twist and link the three magnetic enterprises in capital bonds. The ferrous focus dictates the compass of this thesis: from Cornish mines to West Indian docks and Greenland fisheries, and its combinations: from Newcastle Town Moor to the Martinique marina. Combination, resistance, and revolution prove critical. The protests of English commons are shown to have fuelled the launch of the magnetic campaign, just as the uprisings of the Black Atlantic formed its material and theoretical infrastructure. Legislation and materials were reformed to reveal apparently natural laws, while the realities of contingency, struggle, and newer subtler forms of exploitation were lauded as inevitable progress. British geomagnetism in the age of revolution and reform charted a particular kind of extreme labour extraction embodied in a new kind of iron: a global metal in globalisation’s reconstitution of the globe”.

      7. Incomprehensible. I haven’t a clue what that word salad is trying to convey. Upshot is, I don’t think that it will sell very well.

    4. “Dr” Jenny Bulstrode. Her Cambridge PhD. Twaddle.

      “Abstract
      This thesis charts the globalising role of British geomagnetism in the age of revolution and reform. In the earlier decades of the nineteenth century, significant fiscal-military state resources were directed toward linking three momentous magnetic enterprises: Admiralty reform of practical magnetic navigation; novel electromagnetic research; and British engagement in an international campaign to survey the earth’s magnetism. From hardware to personnel, these resources were heavily invested with certain principles of labour organisation. In the late eighteenth and earlier nineteenth century industrial materials such as copper, paper, and glass, were remanufactured into new forms designed to depend upon extreme systems of labour extraction. Iron best embodies this transformation. In order to chart the globalising role of British geomagnetism this thesis follows the interests of magnetic administrators and military mathematicians whose situated concerns were navigated by a new kind of iron. Particularly pivotal are the researches of Woolwich Military Academy mathematics master Peter Barlow, who took lessons from timber and torsion to make iron twist and link the three magnetic enterprises in capital bonds. The ferrous focus dictates the compass of this thesis: from Cornish mines to West Indian docks and Greenland fisheries, and its combinations: from Newcastle Town Moor to the Martinique marina. Combination, resistance, and revolution prove critical. The protests of English commons are shown to have fuelled the launch of the magnetic campaign, just as the uprisings of the Black Atlantic formed its material and theoretical infrastructure. Legislation and materials were reformed to reveal apparently natural laws, while the realities of contingency, struggle, and newer subtler forms of exploitation were lauded as inevitable progress. British geomagnetism in the age of revolution and reform charted a particular kind of extreme labour extraction embodied in a new kind of iron: a global metal in globalisation’s reconstitution of the globe”.

    5. It’s true.
      Britain did not abolish the slave trade.

      Hell’s teeth, blacks are enslaving blacks today, in huge numbers.
      Ditto Arabs, ditto central Europeans, ditto Asians.

      I would not be surprised if there are more people enslaved in the world today than there were at the height of the British Empire.

      1. Approx 9-11 million were transported across the Atlantic. There are estimated to be around 50 million slaves in the world today.

        1. Thank you.
          That was almost certainly not the majority of slaves in the world at the time, but your 50 million certainly suggests I may be correct in my guestimate.

      2. Recent statistics show that there are some 50 million people in slavery in the world today: that is 1 in 150 world-wide. (Source : https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_norm/—ipec/documents/publication/wcms_854733.pdf )

        Compare and contrast with :

        Over the period of the Atlantic Slave Trade, from approximately 1526 to 1867, some 12.5 million captured men, women, and children were put on ships in Africa, and 10.7 million arrived in the Americas. (Source : https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teacher-resources/historical-context-facts-about-slave-trade-and-slavery )

        The Barbary slave trade involved 1 million to 1.25 million white slaves between 1530 and 1780 (Source : https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/teacher-resources/historical-context-facts-about-slave-trade-and-slavery )

        So the truth of the matter is that there have never, ever, in the history of mankind, been more slaves in the world than today.

        2. And of course it was the Africans who were selling the slaves to the traders who shipped them across the Atlantic.

          1. Dr. Mos Shimmy-bimbam’s forebears being one of the tribes involved in the foul trade.

        1. That was my view too, although one might argue we closed it down in its then format rather than managed to abolish altogether.

          People like her, who wish to denigrate Britain, use that type of tactic all the time. I despise them.

        2. It was, but the Royal Navy also acted to suppress much of the Arab Slave Trade throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. An action that is largely unrecognised despite it being one of the driving forces behind the Colonisation of Africa by Great Britain.

      4. I abhor those whose slavishly follow partial aspects of the international slave trade without recognising the Barbary slave trade involving over 1,000,000 European slaves as documented by Giles Milton in his book ‘White Gold’ and others.

        1. They only quote what suits them, blacks were the principal victims.
          The fact that they as descendants would almost certainly not exist escapes their thought process.

  21. Obesity costing Britain’s economy almost £100bn a year
    Government’s former food tsar calls for ministers to roll out smoking-style restrictions on junk food

    Fast food outlets are so popular , people are too scared to put their ovens on .

    Moh and I had to visit Poole for a few things , several weeks ago , we had never ever tried Greggs … what greasy rubbish pastry and disgusting tasting coffee.. an experience we never ever wish to repeat ever again .

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/04/britains-obesity-problem-costing-economy/

      1. I pass one on the way to work and it’s high viz alley. Queue half way down the street all workmen types, the occasional suit and boot.

        Good for them! Folk should be allowed to do what they like with their lives. If the state wants to change how that is paid for, that’s up to it.

    2. It’s yet more meddling, more programming. Do as we say, we know best. It says ‘you’re fat, you must be controlled on what you eat and because others are convinced they add to the mass of ‘they’re costing me money!’.

      I absolutely hate the government. It is an utter abomination. Just leave people alone, you bitter, hateful, useless people.

      1. I agree, they are just saying something that they think we will all agree with as a way to bring in yet more controlling legislation.

    3. Henry Dimbleby was the lead non-executive Board member of DEFRA from March 2018 to March 2023. Henry was co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain.

      Where does that figure come from! In any case £100bn is nothing these days! .

    4. What constitutes junk food is subjective of course so who’s to decide. I consider highly processed vegan muck to be junk.

  24. Good moaning all. A tad grey today but trying to brighten up.

    “SIR – Why does everybody interviewed on television or the radio – from sportsmen to Cabinet ministers – feel it necessary to say “Thank you for having me?” at the end, like a small child leaving a birthday party?”

    Wynne Weston-Davies

    It may not be necessary but nice manners I think. What’s wrong with it? If nothing else we can at least be pleasant to each other. There’s more than enough nastiness in this world.

    1. Yes, I agree that saying thank for for lettimg me come on your show to tell my story or put my point of view or air my research on a particular topic is indeed just good manners and shows proper gratitude.

  25. The Rwanda policy needs an iron-clad Bill

    The Prime Minister cannot allow the defeatism or cowardice of some of his Tory colleagues to get in the way of ending this scandal

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 2 December 2023 • 10:00pm

    It is decision time for Rishi Sunak. Perhaps as early as this week, the Government could put forward its plans for finally getting the Rwanda scheme off the ground and deporting illegal migrants to the east African country.

    The Rwanda plan is not perfect: in particular, it would only entail a limited number of deportations. But there is no way in which the numbers crossing the Channel can be seriously reduced without a credible deterrent, and the Prime Minister has made stopping the boats one of his core pledges to the public. He cannot afford to betray the voters on this now.

    The Government is understood to be considering a range of proposals for counteracting the criticisms made of the policy by the Supreme Court, which ruled it unlawful last month. A Bill is expected to be introduced that will declare Rwanda safe for asylum seekers and enshrine in law a new treaty with the country.

    But on whether to go further, ministers are split. Some favour merely disapplying the UK Human Rights Act in asylum claims. Others fear that this would not go far enough. Conservative backbenchers such as Sir Bill Cash who writes in this paper today, argue that a full-fat alternative, including “notwithstanding” clauses, would remove the right of judicial review.

    This could permit the Government to ignore the European Convention on Human Rights without leaving it. A legally sound Bill may also have to account for a much wider range of treaties which underpin the principle of non-refoulement, perhaps including the 1984 UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the 1966 UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

    There is some disquiet over whether this latter option, even if it only focuses on the ECHR, would get through Parliament, principally because of opposition in the House of Lords, but also because of a rump of Conservative MPs who have set their faces against their own voters. The Prime Minister cannot allow the defeatism or cowardice of some of his Tory colleagues to get in the way of ending this scandal.

    The thousands of migrants entering the country illegally every year are infuriating the public, and potentially constitute a security threat given that we do not know who they are. But the fact that outdated international conventions can stop our representatives from doing what they were elected to do also threatens to undermine faith in democracy itself.

    The Prime Minister needs to take a similarly hard-headed approach to legal migration. The current numbers are making a mockery of the promise inherent in Brexit that Britain would once again have control over its borders.

    Mr Sunak should not be afraid of a fight on migration – illegal or legal. A semi-skimmed version of the Rwanda plan will not be enough. It would only confirm to the voters that the Government, too terrified of offending bien pensant opinion, is not serious about stopping the boats.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/12/02/the-rwanda-policy-needs-an-iron-clad-bill/

    This isn’t really about immigrants and the Rwanda scheme but lawfare. Rwanda is good in principle but bad in practice – the Australian scheme worked better because they had a handy island close by (2,000 miles from Brisbane is close down there). This is about human rights laws and international conventions hobbling governments.

    This follows on from the report on here yesterday about Islamist schoolgirls using the ECHR aggressively to practise their death cult:
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12818507/Is-Taliban-run-school-Kabul-No-one-comprehensives-Death-threats-staff-stopping-Muslim-pupils-praying-girl-forced-quit-choir-religion-bars-singing-pressured-wear-hijab.html

    1. Is there something totemic about Rwanda? Why not come to an arrangement with a different country, one that will not offend the sensibilities of the Supreme Court? I suppose that the more acceptable countries would either demand a higher fee for accommodating our asylum seeker applicants or refuse, point blank, to entertain the idea.

    2. The best deterrent would be to tell them they get nothing whatsoever from the State.

      If they arrive, they can go and join the black economy but they get absolutely no aid or assistance of any kind, monetary medical, housing etc. EVER. Their own people can provide that.

      And there will be a zero tolerance to any further law breaking.

    3. If we want an island to send them let’s build one. Half a dozen barrels lashed together 100 miles off Ireland should do it. If the welfare shoppers don’t like it, tough.

  26. The Rwanda policy needs an iron-clad Bill

    The Prime Minister cannot allow the defeatism or cowardice of some of his Tory colleagues to get in the way of ending this scandal

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 2 December 2023 • 10:00pm

    It is decision time for Rishi Sunak. Perhaps as early as this week, the Government could put forward its plans for finally getting the Rwanda scheme off the ground and deporting illegal migrants to the east African country.

    The Rwanda plan is not perfect: in particular, it would only entail a limited number of deportations. But there is no way in which the numbers crossing the Channel can be seriously reduced without a credible deterrent, and the Prime Minister has made stopping the boats one of his core pledges to the public. He cannot afford to betray the voters on this now.

    The Government is understood to be considering a range of proposals for counteracting the criticisms made of the policy by the Supreme Court, which ruled it unlawful last month. A Bill is expected to be introduced that will declare Rwanda safe for asylum seekers and enshrine in law a new treaty with the country.

    But on whether to go further, ministers are split. Some favour merely disapplying the UK Human Rights Act in asylum claims. Others fear that this would not go far enough. Conservative backbenchers such as Sir Bill Cash who writes in this paper today, argue that a full-fat alternative, including “notwithstanding” clauses, would remove the right of judicial review.

    This could permit the Government to ignore the European Convention on Human Rights without leaving it. A legally sound Bill may also have to account for a much wider range of treaties which underpin the principle of non-refoulement, perhaps including the 1984 UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the 1966 UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

    There is some disquiet over whether this latter option, even if it only focuses on the ECHR, would get through Parliament, principally because of opposition in the House of Lords, but also because of a rump of Conservative MPs who have set their faces against their own voters. The Prime Minister cannot allow the defeatism or cowardice of some of his Tory colleagues to get in the way of ending this scandal.

    The thousands of migrants entering the country illegally every year are infuriating the public, and potentially constitute a security threat given that we do not know who they are. But the fact that outdated international conventions can stop our representatives from doing what they were elected to do also threatens to undermine faith in democracy itself.

    The Prime Minister needs to take a similarly hard-headed approach to legal migration. The current numbers are making a mockery of the promise inherent in Brexit that Britain would once again have control over its borders.

    Mr Sunak should not be afraid of a fight on migration – illegal or legal. A semi-skimmed version of the Rwanda plan will not be enough. It would only confirm to the voters that the Government, too terrified of offending bien pensant opinion, is not serious about stopping the boats.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/12/02/the-rwanda-policy-needs-an-iron-clad-bill/

    This isn’t really about immigrants and the Rwanda scheme but lawfare. Rwanda is good in principle but bad in practice – the Australian scheme worked better because they had a handy island close by (2,000 miles from Brisbane is close down there). This is about human rights laws and international conventions hobbling governments.

    This follows on from the report on here yesterday about Islamist schoolgirls using the ECHR aggressively to practise their death cult:
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12818507/Is-Taliban-run-school-Kabul-No-one-comprehensives-Death-threats-staff-stopping-Muslim-pupils-praying-girl-forced-quit-choir-religion-bars-singing-pressured-wear-hijab.html

  27. SIR – Michael Deacon (Way of the World, December 2)
    is right about Christmas food. Why have boring turkey, lardy mince
    pies, artery-clogging plum pudding and greasy roast potatoes become
    “traditional fayre”?

    My family will be delighted to join us for a
    seafood-rich paella and a semifreddo, with the best Jerez sherry, this
    Christmas lunchtime.

    Susie Flood
    Swanage, Dorset

    If Susie Flood’s description of Christmas dinner is how she cooks, i am not at all surprised everyone is delighted she is cooking rice with bits instead.

          2. For a centerpiece if you have friends and or family around i like to decorate the joint with a brush of butter. A handful of chopped mint, parsley and basil. Then scattered with pomegranate seeds. Looks like it is jewel encrusted. Not a lot of effort but it looks great.
            I like it when i put it in the middle of the table and people go….ooh.

          3. We have a whole ham sitting in salted and spiced water in the garage. On December 30th we shall take it out and put it in fresh water for 24 hours refreshing the water from time to time to get rid of excessive salt.. On December 31st we shall boil it, skin it, score it with knife cuts making diamond shapes into each of which we shall prick a clove having first painted it with a honey and mustard mixture. We shall then bake it and enjoy it hot for New Year’s Eve dinner.

            Here is one from a previous year.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e99222ee6d799fce2abb89f8b23a2974fa1b3df53360a4ddfb7d0ee1398707a.png

          8. I don’t have a big appetite anymore. A really full plate of food puts me off. When cooking for my neighbours/friends he piles so much on and then adds gravy to the top of the peak. Looks like a volcano erupting. I can’t eat like that. Not that i criticise him for it.

          10. We had Goose for Christmas one year when Caroline’s parents were with us – there’s not as much meat on a goose as we had hoped.

            Old Mrs Flipper Flapper was not pleased to have lost her grey goose but the Fox, his vixen and cubs had never had such a feast in their lives and the little ones chewed on the bones.

            Reminds me of Lewis Carroll’s Old Father William:

            “You are old,” said the youth, “and your jaws are too weak
            For anything tougher than suet;
            Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak—
            Pray, how did you manage to do it?”

            “In my youth,” said his father, “I took to the law,
            And argued each case with my wife;
            And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
            Has lasted the rest of my life.”

      3. We have castrated cockerel (aka capon) which is now banned in Britain because all cocks must have balls. Mind you it is quite acceptable for bullocks to have no bollocks!

          2. All things in moderation. I should think any chemicals have passed through the system by time of slaughter.

          6. Shush. you’re not supposed to think like that. One of many evil shenanigans that form the plan to cull us.

      6. The bacon, sprouts, Yorkshires, roast spuds, spicy cranberry, sausages wrapped in bacon, parsnips, cranberry, make it great. And the champagne, white wine, red wine, cognac… make it easily forgotten!

        2. We’ll still be having sprouts wth bacon & chestnuts, cranberry relish, sausages wrapped in bacon, stuffing , roast potatoes, parsnips, etc etc – just not turkey. Much rather have lamb.

      1. Christmas dinner requires a centerpiece. I don’t think a paella, no matter how seafood rich, cuts the mustard.

          1. I like them but when i do a Paella i leave them in their shells so easily avoided. Then i get to hoover up !

    4. I’ll take the sherry. Bin the rest. Northern Europe eats high fat, high cholesterol pork-based food for Christmas. (Some turkey is permitted…).

  28. Chris Packham has accused the Government of delaying a petrol vehicles ban “on a reckless whim for political gain” as he launches a High Court challenge.

    The broadcaster has applied for a judicial review of the Government’s decision
    to ditch the timetable for phasing out petrol and diesel powered cars
    and vans, gas boilers and minimum energy ratings for homes.

    A
    Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said it rejects Mr
    Packham’s claims and will “robustly” defend the challenge.

    The measures and their schedule had been set out in the Government’s Carbon Budget Delivery Plan, which was put before Parliament in March this year.

    In September, Rishi Sunak announced he would delay the ban on selling new diesel and petrol cars from 2030 to 2035.

    Following
    the announcement, Mr Packham wrote to Mr Sunak, the Energy Secretary
    and the Transport Secretary to challenge the decision.

    The environmental campaigner argued that Mr Sunak does not have the legal right to change the timeline of carbon budget pledges at will, since the actioning of the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan is governed by statute.

    Mr
    Packham said he did not receive a satisfactory response to his letter
    and, therefore, filed the judicial review application at the High Court.

    Mr Packham says the grounds for his application for a judicial
    review include obligations under various sections of the Climate Change
    Act

    Credit: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

    He added that the Government’s response to his letter made clear
    that the decision was made without informing the Climate Change
    Committee or Parliament and without providing any reasons for the delays
    to the policies.

    The grounds for his judicial review include obligations under various sections of the Climate Change Act, he said.

    The
    legal challenge cites the requirement to have plans in place to meet
    the budgets if the proposals and policies within them are altered.

    Mr
    Packham argues that the secretaries of state have breached this
    obligation by not confirming or outlining how they still intend to meet
    the latest budget.

    The legal challenge also alleges that there was a breach of the duty to inform the public of the reasons for the decisions to change the policies.

    ‘Disregard for future security of planet’

    Mr Packham said: “We are in a crisis which threatens the whole world, everything living is in danger, including all of us.

    “We
    have the potential to reduce that threat, we have the solutions and we
    have plans and targets. We must not divert from these.

    “To do so on a whim for short-term political gain is reckless and betrays a disregard for the future security of the planet.”

    Rowan
    Smith, a solicitor at Leigh Day, said: “If the Government’s lawyers are
    correct, then the Secretary of State would have carte blanche to rip up
    climate change policy at the drop of the hat, without any repercussions
    whatsoever.”

    Leigh Day said it has instructed barristers David Wolfe KC, Catherine Dobson and Toby Fisher for the legal challenge.

    A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “We strongly reject these claims and will be robustly defending this challenge.

    “We
    have over-delivered on every carbon budget to date and these changes
    keep us on track to meet our legal net zero commitments. We routinely
    publish future emissions projections across all sectors and will
    continue to do so.

    “Recent independent Climate Change Committee
    analysis shows our more pragmatic approach has no material difference on
    our progress to cut emissions.

    “Households will now have more
    time to make the transition, saving some families thousands of pounds at
    a time when cost of living is high.

    I wish someone would run him over.

    1. He’s completely blind to anyone else’s needs or opinions. May have something to do with his Aspergers.
      Any government can rip up or alter previous laws as they see fit. The whole lot needs throwing out.

      I wonder how much publicity will be given for tthe truth bomb from the host of Cop-out 28 – the aptly named Sheik Al-Jaber?

    3. The damned fools shouldn’t have written it into law, should they? MPs chose to specifically to permit this sort of nonsense.

    5. The man’s a fool, however I’m delighted to see him throw his grossly inflated income into the pockets of greedy grasping lawyers without a hope in hell of achieving a satisfactory outcome. Rinse and repeat – many times.

    6. Perhaps Mr ‘king Packham should pop off to the countries that really do pollute the earth. He could make a stance in the next green belt field that is about to be concreted over. His efforts would be more appropriate and even appreciated.

    8. His actions are a bit dotty.

      He has always been a raging and vocal Remainer, yet when the British government decides to follow the EU in their

      legislation of halting the sale of diesel and petrol cars in 2035 he objects to that.

      Yet this is the man who publicised his business of flying tourists to South America????

      1. He buys into the whole global warming nonsense, from what I can tell, so he’s the author of his own misfortunes as a farmer.

        1. I only listened to the first few minutes and lost patience. Cattle and sheep keep the land and the grass healthy by fertilising it naturally. We have cattle grazing here all summer on our unfenced commons. They keep the grasslands healthy and support the rare wild flowers there.

          1. He’s generally common sense, is Harry, but on this issue he’s definitely drunk the kool aid.

        2. First time I’ve watched Harry and his concern with ‘climate change’ was a bit of a let-down. He explained the carbon cycle clearly and should have left it at that. For the green zealots no explanation however scientifically sound will convince them of the error of their ways. These zealots do not have the thinking capacity to then be able to rationalise what the demise of farming will mean for people, including themselves. Lambs to the slaughter.

    2. When I woke yesterday morning I opened the blind in our small ‘office’ and way across the fields I could see a recently introduced herd of cattle.
      It occurred to me that I should pop across and lead two of the cattle home and park them downstairs. A cheap way of warming up the house. Obviously nappies would be needed. And the grass could do with a trim.

    3. I live near Petersham Meadow and about 10 or so years ago the locals raised money to buy it (or the lease, I forget the details) which was then gifted to the National Trust to manage (with an endowment, if I recall correctly). The point was to have the cows grazing in the meadow in the summer.

      The NT has done everything it can recently to renege on the agreement i.e. to take the money and have no cows.

      Their excuse is the risk of people and/or dogs getting hurt.

      I loathe them. And stupid people who don’t put their dogs on leads when they are in a field if animals.

  30. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0b7f03b8af93413be07b6c2944c66c2d43617b8d05653a48c9952193e68314d.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e6db3c4d2410c83086d56994de78ae4591dc81904c8cbfce689c5f6740ad077d.png

    If the crown fits…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f7c6c6a9e714b7d7c008c29d31fd4f8d68295dbf8cbde1e01cb9e84836381a2f.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3e9ca89e0cf92f0944552606a220ea45ff702850e67b3e8a609aaa64f73c31f1.png

    A triumvirate of the worst kind i.e. no humanity in their souls. The smirks have it!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/11e68ae819e854a2506bbce90eacab2831b7706360931e049c9e2c27e103c84b.png

    1. I see Gates is going to buy a super yacht powered by hydrogen – I seem to recall that’s very flammable!?

      3. Where does hydrogen come from?
        Electrolysis of water or reforming of hydrocarbons. Using electricity. Where does the ‘leccy come from? Burning hydrocarbons, mostly.

    2. “There is something truly problematic about a king telling his subjects that the age of convenience is over ……”
      [Jeffery A Tucker (above)]

      On a serious note the absence of public loos in British towns is very annoying. The indigenous population does not want to ‘go native’ in parts of town now occupied by newcomers.

      The Beatles’ unhygienic response?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4E6KtQg_z0

    3. Meme people should leave Melinda out of it. She is three degrees of separation, and I have yet to hear anyone speak ill of her. Obviously Mrs Gates is wealthy and involved in charitable & NGO work, but she is neither a public figure nor a politician.

    4. The King is a constitutional monarch and has no right to tell people what they can and can’t do. His mother understood that and kept out of politics. She only slipped up once and that was when she told people to have the toxic jabs.

      1. In keeping her opinions to herself (or at least, only expressing them with her own family & trusted friends/staff), the late Queen earned great respect and popularity. The current monarch is too stupid, and/or full of his own delusions of importance, to realise how he is harming the monarchy. From what I have heard, his older son is likely to be as bad.

        1. Yes. Kate’s pretty discreet though. Perhaps she will have some influence over him when the time comes.

        2. I said as much this afternoon (at the Christmas RAFA junket). General view was that Charlie was not to be trusted.

  31. The common sense majority is being cowed into silence by activist zealots

    Small groups are being allowed to impose their views on green policy and identity politics on all of us

    PHILIP JOHNSTON • 28 November 2023 • 8:00pm

    Last winter there was misery in the Alps. A shortage of snow led to predictions of a disaster under such headlines as “Is this the end of skiing?” They were accompanied by photographs of thin strips of artificial snow on slopes usually buried under feet of the white stuff. Over the New Year, parts of north-west Switzerland recorded temperatures close to 20C.

    The BBC reported: “Many resorts are aware that they only have two options: close or adapt their business model to cope with mounting climate threats.”

    Well, this year the northern Alps have more pre-season pistes open than at any time in recent history after days of heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures.

    The point of this story is not to deny that there is a global warming trend, but not to confuse weather with climate. Nowadays, every storm, blizzard, flood, dry spell, forest fire or deluge is attributed to climate change.

    This means it is often hard to discern a long-term change from a short-term event. When fires in parts of the world where they have been commonplace for centuries – and are key to plant growth – are said to be solely the consequence of warming, people are being deliberately misled. This apparent inability to distinguish between the vagaries of the weather and climate change does not help in the debate about what to do about it.

    Neither, in truth, do the annual jamborees organised by the UN for the past quarter of a century and whose latest iteration starts in Dubai tomorrow. Most people would regard a refusal to see every unusual weather event as a symptom of global warming as common sense. It is possible to acknowledge long-term trends without seeing normal autumn gales and winter storms in the context of climate change.

    But the zealots think differently. A group called Climate Genocide Act Now, which is linked to Extinction Rebellion, is planning legal action against this newspaper for what it calls misleading and inadequate coverage of climate change. It wants the case heard, believe it or not, in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and says it has a professional legal opinion noting that policies causing climate change can be prosecuted as crimes against humanity.

    This includes questioning the cost of getting to net zero, challenging the timetable for introducing electric cars and reporting on the difficulties of installing heat pumps. The failure to connect weather events like the recent Storm Ciaran to the broader narrative of climate change is another point of criticism, as are adverts encouraging people to take a foreign holiday.

    “We’re planning to get a dossier of evidence covering six months, and submit a case to the International Criminal Court to say that this is evidence of incitement of crimes against humanity. We think we’ve got a chance of getting there,” the group’s leader said. At least it will be good work for the lawyers.

    This is clearly a tiny group of fanatics, and yet such people increasingly wield an inordinate amount of influence in many walks of life, not least the arts world. Ahead of the Cop28 conference in Dubai, the actress Olivia Colman is appearing in a campaign video dressed up as a latex-clad oil executive, criticising the relationship between pension funds and the fossil fuel industry.

    “The cash from your pensions has helped us dig, drill and destroy more of the planet than ever before. We’ve even managed to build a few little wind turbines to keep Greta and her chums happy,” she says. “Every little drop from your precious nest egg adds up, so while the global temperature may go up a teensy, weensy degree or two our profits are literally soaring.”

    When it comes to misrepresentation, there is quite a lot in that statement. We have built more than a “few little wind turbines” and we need oil and gas to keep the lights on, so either we import it or extract it from our own territory. Our pension funds need to be profitable to sustain an ageing population. But I suppose these considerations don’t matter to the eco-fanatics, not least when the Bank of England itself has a specific climate change remit.

    We give too much credence to these small but very vocal campaign groups. One of the most potent is Stonewall, which seems to have managed to bludgeon the public and corporate sectors into spending vast sums to conform to its demands for diversity and inclusivity. Most major companies employ people whose only (well-paid) job is to impose a particular ideology on its workforce.

    The NHS, struggling to clear a record backlog of cases, employs hundreds of diversity officers while many businesses covet Stonewall’s imprimatur as a diversity champion. Schools and colleges still seem to be enrolled on Stonewall programmes to promote transgender inclusion. But its reach is wider still. Yesterday, we reported how the UK’s human rights watchdog, the EHRC, could be blacklisted by the UN apparently after Stonewall objected to the way the organisation defended biological sex.

    Why do we allow these pressure groups so much influence? The guilt generated by Black Lives Matter, an anti-capitalist movement that wanted to dismantle the police, has caused normally rational people to hand over their life savings to atone for their family involvement in slavery hundreds of years ago.

    Universities ban speakers because they refuse to say a man can menstruate; the police arrest preachers for saying something disobliging about Pride marches; teachers are unwilling to tell parents that their eight-year-old boy wants to be a girl; and we are accused of genocide because we point out the cost of heat pumps.

    It is telling that these pressure groups never take their climate change campaign on to the streets of Beijing or protest for trans rights in Jeddah or demand reparations for slavery from the oil-rich Arab nations. They target the West because it provides them the latitude to make a very nice living from their insidious social engineering while the majority is cowed into silence.

    I hesitate to say this, but there is a small chance it might snow here in the next few days, which is unusual this early in the winter though hardly unprecedented. That’s another offence to be taken into consideration by the ICC in The Hague.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/28/the-common-sense-majority-is-being-cowed-into-silence/

    This is relevant to the Chris Packham report posted by Phizzee and the Rwanda article that I posted. Judicial activism is crippling governance.

    1. If the ICC did its job and insisted on being provided with all the available evidence and testimonies from equally well qualified man-made climate change sceptics instead of just the promulgators it isn’t inconceivable that they could throw the whole thing out as built on unfounded evidence.
      That would be a hoot.
      And then my alarm clock sounded.

      1. It says this to me before I even tried to comment;

        “Sorry, it looks like you’re not the right age to use this here.“

    3. It’s an inaccurate depiction of Blyton’s view of Africans. She had them in grass skirts with bones through their noses.

      2. She was racist though. As a child, I found her description of Africans uncomfortable to read, and I didn’t even know any black people.

      3. If I had a bone inserted through my nose would it be called inappropriate cultural appropriation?

    4. “The final member of the five is the gang’s furry friend Timmy the dog, who will be played by Kip, a bearded-collie cross-dresser.“

    5. I saw it earlier TB it was on this morning.
      Same goes for Shakespeare etc I could be Nelson next.

      1. Othello used to be played by white actors such as Laurence Olivier and Anthony Hopkins in black make-up; this would be considered to be outrageous cultural appropriation today!

        However the playing field is not level!

        A black man can happily play the part of a white man but not the other way round.
        A homosexual can play a heterosexual but a heterosexual must not play a homosexual.
        Many women have played Hamlet – but how many men have played Ophelia?

        1. Slightly off topic…

          Peter O’Toole in MacBeth.

          A production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Mr. O’Toole was about to open in
          the lead role in a stage production. For the scene following the murder
          of the King, the character of Macbeth was to enter the stage covered in
          blood from the deed. The director complained in rehearsals that the
          costume was not “bloody” enough. So Mr. O’Toole, applies more blood. The
          director was still unsatisfied. This happened several times. The
          following day, prior to the rehearsal, Mr. O’Toole is reputed to have
          had a tub backstage filled with pigs blood from a local butcher shop. He
          then immersed himself in the tub from head to foot before entering for
          the scene in question literally soaked with blood and trailing copious
          quantities behind him.

    6. So predictably stupid. Looking at the photo, George is probably a time traveller, sent back to lead the namby-pamby white kids on adventures. And she will be lesbian of course.

  33. Black market meat
    The RSPCA said it was aware of a number of cases where calves and cows had been killed in a manner which suggested it had been done for black market meat.

    A spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, we have recently seen similar incidents involving calves being slaughtered and butchered in farmers’ fields, and we suspect this is then for their meat to be sold on the black market.

    “These are shocking and concerning incidents which would have caused the calves significant distress and suffering.”

    The charity has urged anyone who might have any information about this to contact the police, adding it will also “be on hand” if assistance is required.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-67590372

    1. It’s the slammers. They’ve been doing it to sheep for years. What’s the penalty for cattle rustling these days? Community service?

    3. There was a report today of a farmer finding the remains of two of his cows that had been butchered for meat. It’s disgusting.

  35. It’s foul out there – I just walked down to the post van and it WASN’T THERE! What a waste of time and effort. We only have the post van for an hour or so twice a week. Not going out again today so will have to go to Minch tomorrow.

  36. Yuk
    https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/doctor-who-season-14-episode-2-review-b1124394.html

    Isaac Newton had Indian heritage and the Doctor is gay and fancies him.
    Yes, the returning showrunner Russell T Davies’ second episode back continues to gleefully rub the faces of the haters in a big pile of steaming Woke. In fact, ‘Wild Blue Yonder’, which Davies also wrote, has a false start purely to do that – ok not purely, also to set up a brilliantly silly running joke – with a little stop off in 1666 when the Tardis crash lands into the tree under which Newton had just had the apple drop on his head, before toddling off again to the location of the episode proper. It’s a highly amusing little flourish, since Newton is played by the excellent British-Indian actor Nathanial Curtis from It’s a Sin, and it causes Catherine Tate’s Donna to reflect later, “Wasn’t Isaac Newton hot?”, and for David Tennant’s Doctor to concur: “He was, so hot…oh! Is that who I am now?” slightly taken aback at this apparent change of sexuality in his new incarnation. “Well it was never far from the surface,” Donna deadpans.
    “Wait, the Doctor isn’t gay!…and…and I think you’ll find Sir Isaac was very much white!’ splutter a thousand GB News trolls in their front rooms, before hurling their toad-in-the-holes at the flat screen.

    1. A shame the Tardis didn’t land in the City of London on 3 September 1666 and spare us all. It’s actually standing in the reception area at TV Centre of course. There’s a light on inside but no-one at home.

    2. It might be treating whims of sexuality with some humour, but do kids get influenced by this sort of stuff?

      1. Oh, and using the word “haters” probably indicates something lurking beneath the light hearted approach, to me.

      2. It’s a steady drip, drip, drip effect which eventually makes young people believe things that aren’t true.

        1. Didn’t Göbbels say something about if you say something often enough, it becomes the truth?

          1. The Bellman’s Theory –
            What I tell you three times is true.
            [The Hunting of the Snark – Lewis Carroll]

            “Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
            That alone should encourage the crew.
            Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
            What I tell you three times is true.”

    3. Shan’t be watching it so they can do what they like. I just wish I didn’t have to fund the muck so I can legally watch ITV racing.

  38. 379298+ up ticks,

    Lets make it a NEW YEAR REVOLUTION.

    Tony Corocher
    @TonyCorocher
    ·
    4h
    Replying to
    @JimFergusonUK
    Let’s go Jim! Maximum exposure in all possible ways. Let’s stand with Barry and get the public informed + get the truth out about one of the most corrupt agendas out there! Let’s make people aware of the incredible dangers the WEF and WHO represent

    https://x.com/TonyCorocher/status/1731641542555677080?s=20

    Lets make it a NEW YEAR REVOLUTION

  40. The U.K. has thankfully seen the back of its empire, however the husk of what remains of our state has been hijacked by less overt internationalists. In 2016 the nation called for freedom but has found itself tied by an obdurate elite to a collapsing multicultural system heading to its own disastrous demise. Even the arch-conspirator, Henry Kissinger, has acknowledged the dangerous waters into which it has borne us. So, what to do?
    First, the failure of the multi-cult bully state must be acknowledged. Okay, done. The requirement now is to see our nation reborn, a state in which the people come first and the politicians second. It is time for us to govern and for them to administer, actioning our wishes and avoiding bloody embroilments benefiting a few. The lie that they represent us has been made plain, even to an idiot in the remotest of villages. Our parties are the patsies of much greater forces, multinational interests and international organizations that are manned by dictators, royals, and chumps—both elected and directed. I say, enough already.

    Without direct democracy our beaches will continue to see more boots on the ground than we sent over to save Europe on D-Day, bringing to our shores and streets the very people Kissinger belatedly realized could not be assimilated.
    Why do our legislators allow this? Why are they complicit in the national collapse we face? Merkle, Cameron, and Kissinger have all pointed out the problem, but have they provided any solutions? None. Just the opposite. Their mouths make statements that their brains have no intention of coming to terms with. Well, as a former intelligence officer with sixteen years in uniform under his belt, followed by decades in Muslim-majority nations, I will explain the outcome; unlike them, I will also detail the solution.
    The threat from terror most obviously but most pointedly avoided by those who should be interested in protecting the state comes from Muslims closely adhering to the strictures of Sharia. One does not hear much of Confucians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs filling up our high-security prison wings. Nor, in truth, those much-mentioned but little-met white fascists. Where are they? Why are far-right nutters not being locked up as disproportionately as the knife-wielding apostate-haters who hunt down innocents and ex-Muslims alike?

    https://www.takimag.com/article/enough-already/

    edit for block quote

  41. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/064c9837d1f0aff0c1a51e1dd11461ed6c600f835bea5dc183ff3b76dcde4b84.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/12/04/tories-warned-lose-whip-rebel-infected-blood-scandal-vote/

    This is beyond disgusting.

    What more of a nudge do the backbenchers have to have before saying unanimously that they have had enough and they are leaving the unconservative Conservative Party to join Reform.

    Come on Jacob Rees-Mogg – are you a man or an invertebrate worm?

    1. The latter. Anyone with principles would have left years ago. That’s why I don’t want any jumping ship to Reform. They’d only being doing it to save their own behinds.

      1. I tend to agree, but until “new tory” gets seats they might as well not exist.
        The future doesn’t look good if the king-makers in a non-majority government are the Muslims, and give it a few years that may well be the case.

        1. They need to make a clean break before the election.

          The sooner they start rebuilding a new conservative Conservative Party the better.

    2. Just drag it out as long as they can. The Postmaster/Mistress Horizon scandal. The Gosport War Memorial scandal. The infected blood scandal. And the yet to be Vaccine deaths scandal.
      Not a single MP is strong enough to fight the corrupt house of lords and house of commons. I spit on them all.

      1. You may not like him, but give Bridgen his due, he is trying.

        In both senses, but more power to his elbow

      1. When I was still working (DWP) Christmas holidays were called “Religious festival holidays”. It’s been going on for years.

        1. It’s certainly been creeping in over the years. Imagine the uproar (and probably some acts of violence and murder) if tptb tried to rename important dates of the slammer calendar.

        2. 1989 in Birmingham was the first time for me. Winterval.
          Wankers. Most of the ethnics were African/Carribean black and had integrated. They celebrated Christmas with us.
          It’s the usual intolerant muslims that fuck everything up in this country.

        3. Did you wish everybody “Happy Winter”?

          Please tell me that you didn’t say “Happy holidays”.🤬

    1. There was a disturbing piece in Saturday’s DT magazine about a girl addicted to Fentanyl. Wait till the markets here are flooded with that stuff.

      As for the Albanians – none of them should be accepted for asylum.

      1. I have zero tolerance for drug pushers and little for the users.
        If middle class cocaine snorters and similar were prosecuted and sent to prison for a short sharp shock the market might dry up and the pushers would be hurt too.

        1. Fat chance of that happening.

          The government over here may as well be selling fentanyl. Their safe drug supply program has flooded the market with less potent drugs in an attempt to keep users safe but the real addicts just sell the the approved stuff that they were given to buy more fentanyl.

      2. I read that article. It sounds and absolute nightmare, though the mother did seem to make some very strange choices.
        I have to say the constant name dropping really irritated me.

        1. Yes – but reading it while we were at the Christmas market on Saturday enabled me to zone out the terrible “musak” for a while. Her lifestyle seemed to lead the girl into that kind of life, but she seemed to try her best to shield the girl from it.

  44. I’m sure the PTB can cancel these people, but will they cancel the real dangers to public safety and order?
    Ha bluddy ha.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12822967/covent-garden-street-performers-today-new-restrictions.html

    Covent Garden’s iconic street performers will find out today if they face restrictions that they fear could put them out of business and end a 400-year-old tradition.
    Westminster Council will today decide whether to enforce a fee-based licensing system that limits a performer’s space to just five metres, bans any sound amplification in some areas and disallows the use of ‘dangerous props’.
    Such regulations would make it all but impossible for anyone but the live statues to continue performing, according to the Covent Garden Street Performers (CGSPA) association, whose members have been boycotting the new rules

      2. Free expression i expect. Unregulated. Which the authorities hate almost as much as being lampooned. Control. Muzzies don’t like people enjoying themselves. Lots of reasons.
        If the people didn’t like it they wouldn’t throw money at them.

  45. Apparently -24C just down the road from Firstborn’s farm this morning. That’s cold! Let’s hope we get some cloud cover so it will warm up – some snow would be welcome, too, lighten the place up a bit.

    2. Maybe He should send out invitations to a bunch of political creatures. All their hot air will warm things up.

  46. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/606acc134c82ef717c7eaeda0b969491ca6996a6f62f4cdb411c196c1ed9d5e9.png This is a sight never seen on Swedish roads in winter.

    When will they ever learn? When will they ev … er learn?

    The universal, ad nauseam, whinge: “We don’t get enough snow here to warrant winter tyres!” “We don’t get enough fog here to warrant daytime headlamps!”

    And still cars routinely skid off the roads to become write-offs.
    And still there are multiple pile-ups in fog with only a few motorists using their headlamps.
    And still there are countless clowns killed because they know better.

    When will they ever learn … ?

    1. Vredestein (NL) make winter tyres – not as soft as the Nordic compound, but still better than the standard UK summer tyre.
      Had a set on my Polo in Scotland in 1990. Excellent choice! Here in Norway, we buy the best available, as once the tyres let go, it’s up to the huge truck coming the other way to decide how badly you are hurt.

      1. We are obliged to have winter tyres fitted between December 1 and April 15.

        It’s a good job we decided to bring it forward, this year, and have ours put on by November 15.

        1. Here in South Norway, it’s 01 October to 30 April for winter tyres.
          In cities, you have to pay a tax (wow!) to have studded tyres. All country folk use studs.

        2. Winter tyres are not mandatory here but we do get a hefty discount on car insurance if we have them.

          Not that we have any snow yet but it is cold enough for the softer tread to be worthwhile..

    3. I was out driving twice today.
      Bad visibility and at least 25 drivers with out any lights on.
      Around 8 with lights on but only one working.
      This evening I doubt if the same were driving around the same areas. But several with only one headlamp. And the standard of driving in the UK now has hit rock bottom.

      1. That’s probably because a lot of them are foreign and haven’t taken a UK driving test (some will have had others take it for them).

      2. Possibly blame automatic headlights for that. Drivers just let the car do all the thinking now. In my opinion, automatic lights should be banned. If drivers can’t be bothered to take responsibility for these things, take away their licences.

        1. It’s highly likely that those without their headlights on don’t have automatic sensors.

        2. Automatic headlights, automatic dipping main beam, automatic wipers and automatic braking are all valuable driving aids and don’t interfere with driving.

          I could disable most of those features on my car but why would I?

        3. I’m not sure about that, our car headlights are on auto at this time of the year you cant go wrong. But I’m quite sure that there are many hundreds of drivers on our roads who have never passed a driving test in the UK or even tead the highway code.

          1. I’m not sure you’re correct, I have automatic headlights and they most certainly are NOT totally trustworthy.
            I often have to override the setting on to manual because the sensors either don’t turn them on or turn them off under certain back ground lighting conditions.
            95% of the time they’re fine, but the time one needs them is often in the 5% when they’re not.

          2. Oh well, maybe different settings. It being serviced in the morning and passed its MOT last month. Something must be okay. We don’t seem to have any probs. 🤗

          3. Do MOT’s test the lighting sensitivity in the UK?
            Here, as far as I know, they only check whether they work and are correctly aligned.

          4. I believe so. It’s fairly strict on the obvious. Tires, brakes, exhaust, steering, windscreen, wipers, suspension, lights. But you can bet your boots there are now quite a few bogus and crooked people in the motor trade.

      3. What do you expect? Half the population can’t speak English and driving on non-UK licences.

      4. What do you expect? Half the population can’t speak English and driving on non-UK licences.

    4. Winter tyres are overkill for 95% of the UK. It’s just people who don’t have a clue how to drive or keep their cars in proper condition. Anyone with a brain would know that driving at normal speeds in these conditions is a recipe for disaster!

        1. I am confident that a well funded environmental scientist could “prove” that the additional pollution from such tyres kills more people than are saved.

          1. Especially if the science is proven.

            As our winter tyres have a softer tread compound they will doubtless wear more than summer tyres and that will result in more stuff on the road so more pollution.

      2. We’ve always used the best performance all weather tyres regardless of cost. Their the only connection to the road in your 30 mph (4 ton) car.

        1. 4 ton? Blimey, what are you driving?! All weathers are probably the best choice for most drivers.

          1. I’m thinking of the relative weight of a 1 ton car travelling at 30 mph. Not a scientific calculation but a complete guess. Would the calculation be weight x velocity?

          3. I splashed (ho ho) out on some Michelin crossover tyres recently, all weather/season, because of the recent snow requirements in France.
            They were expensive but my MPG has improved out of all proportion, the ride is better, light snow, slush, gravel, puddles, they are brilliant.
            On a quick and dirty calculation they are so good that they may well pay for themselves versus others I have used.
            The amount of visible wear is negligible at the same mileage compared with the previous Pirellis.

          4. I thought that France/Germany et al. mandated winter, rather than all-season, tyres during certain months of the year? Either way, they definitely come into their own at higher altitudes/freezing temperatures.

          5. It varies according to where you are driving.

            Why on earth should it be necessary to have winter tyres in areas where the chances of frost, let alone heavy snow and ice, are next to zero?
            Nice for example.

      3. “Winter tyres are overkill for 95% of the UK.”

        I couldn’t disagree more. Severe wintry road conditions can descend at any time during the winter months, as they frequently do, and catch motorists unaware. Over the years I have witnessed countless motorists struggling to keep their cars on the road during such times. I have also attended countless road traffic collisions at such times and seen carnage and serious injuries result.

        If people are willing to play Russian roulette with their cars (and with their own and other people’s lives) then this is simply a clear indication of the colossal level of stupidity that they are wallowing in. Is risking your life and risking your car being written off worth it? The same question can be put to those cretins who drive during the hours of darkness and in thick fog with no headlamps on.

        1. Certain departments here require chains/sleeves to be carried and drivers are expected to put them on if the conditions require them. Putting full winter tyres on where I live for the one or two days of snow we get is total overkill, more people are likely to die of respiratory problems than would ever be saved by forcing winter tyres for even a few months a year.

          You can put the finest tyres for the condition on the car but if the cretin drives in self-destruct mode they make no difference.

    5. German winter tyres are very similar to everyday British tyres. Its German summer tyres, they are slicks for summer speeding on the unlimited speed roads. My all weather tyres here are so similar to my winter tyres on my German car when we lived in Germany.

  47. Evening, all. Shall be making a brief visit then away for a while and hopefully back later. Parish council tonight.

  48. I have just enjoyed myself filling in a survey on the proposed devolution for ‘Greater Lincolnshire.’ I didn’t mince my words.

    1. Rubbish.
      That is their Kwanzaa tree, Christmas is banned by any self respecting left wing broadcaster,

  50. Par here today
    Wordle 898 4/6

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

      3. Welcome home. Good to see you back.

        Your ears must have been burning, we were only discussing your absence the other day.

        I hope all is well with you and yours.

        We were also discussing PT recently, do you have any news?

          3. is there anything we can do to make things easier for you? Obviously there are limitations but if we can we will.

          5. How awful for you I more than hope you are now recovering from what put you in there.
            Can you tell us what caused it.
            Best regards and best wishes to you.

          7. Balance: inability to recover – solo – from a fall . . .
            Scoliosis . . .
            Arterial Fibrillation . . .

            Now ‘Home’ – with 4 visiting ‘carers’.

          8. You have been through the wars and back again…. good to see you posting. We have wondered how you were..

      7. Well done and welcome back! I got a two yesterday so not surprised it was tough today.

        Wordle 898 5/6

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

    2. Schoolboy error on 2 or new tactics?
      A pleasant 3 here.

      Wordle 898 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜
      ⬜🟨🟨🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Took me a while.

      Wordle 898 5/6

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

        1. When admiring it in the mirror, do be careful you don’t do a somersault and vanish up it, you old oozlum bird.

          We’d miss your company.

          2. Extraordinary, that’ exactly what she told me too.

            “You know that chap Phizzee that you admire, his arse is almost as big an arse as he is.”

            Who was I to argue?

    2. One I tried to pass in Tesco this morning nearly filled the Isle.
      Go on…… pass the butt.

  52. Just back from the local Christmas Market in the pouring, nay Persisting it down rain.
    I was rather taken by some wonderful wooden Salt & Pepper mills some 9-12 inches tall shaped as Chess pieces. I said to the stall-holder “I see you’ve embraced diversity with your Black Bishops” and, “Do you accept a cheque, mate?”. …..

        2. As an extra proper, as opposed to a humorous, response:

          En passant describes the taking of your competitor’s pawn on the same rank.
          It happens when your opponent has just made an initial two-square advance.
          The capturing pawn moves to the square that the opponent’s pawn passed over, as if their pawn had advanced only one square.

    1. Oh! The second one reminds me of my father! If you said ‘the kettle’s boiling’ he’d say ‘No! The water in the kettle is boiling!’ So bloomin’ annoying!

      3. My older brother telling joke when he was little: “There was this man…”Dad: “No, there was a man.”

        1. A pity that your brother didn’t reply:
          “No Dad, there was “this” man he was very specific to the story”

          1. It’s where a part stands in for the whole. In this case, the kettle for the kettle full of water.

      6. We are slowly nearing the shortest day of the year. Or, as Grizzly would say, “the day with the lowest daylight hours because all days are 24 hours long”.

    2. They really don’t like him, do they?!

      “Meanwhile, Farage received a much more muted welcome from his campmates, who all seemed to prize quiet civility over open aggression. Only Fred Sirieix and Nella Rose have directly confronted Farage over his politics, and even then Farage’s bone-deep slipperiness made it difficult for either of them to land a punch. Instead, Farage has been the equivalent of the bigoted relative at Christmas dinner.”

      _____________________________________________________

      “Farage was totally let off the hook by his new campmates…some of the others had a bunch of ants tipped on them. But really they’re just the supporting act to the xenophobe, and it would be silly to pretend otherwise.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/nov/19/im-a-celebrity-get-me-out-of-here-review-cakewalk-for-nigel-farage

      _____________________________________________________

      “It was still pretty clear from the atmospherics that the guy was an old-fashioned ethno-nationalist…”

      “…he has given us Brexit, allied with the globe’s most vocal racist authoritarians, and sown political and social division as profound and sad as I’ve ever known.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/13/nigel-farage-appearance-on-im-a-celebrity-will-entrench-his-jolly-nice-man-facade-ever-further

      4. Wow,Zoe Williams really doesn’t like Nigel,Farage, does she. Don’t watch I’m a celeb … aAnd didn’t bother to read the rest of her article. What a remoaner.

    1. He’s not even our PM only the leader of the Conservative party.
      What absolute vile scum our politicians are.

    2. Don’t get carried away. Last week Trudeau announced that Canada is joining in with this EU scheme.

      We obviously have money to spare.

      1. I liked this one:

        Battery cars still need tyres (oil), lubricants (oil), rubber seals & bushes etc (oil), paint (oil), plastic parts (oil), cable insulation (oil) and tarmac roads (oil).
        The demand for oil and release of greenhouse gases in processing oil won’t be affected all that much by changing the engine & fuel tank for a motor & battery.

        2. Did you see the news from Cumbria today Sos.
          Hundreds of people stuck in snow drifts in their cars. They might have survived if the cars had been electric.

      2. “Man-made environmental disaster, climate change, has been for many decades the greatest and most urgent crisis we face…………” how can something so urgent take many decades?

      3. One would think with that postcode they wouldn’t be quite so suicidal. I can hear the wringing of hands from here !

  60. Busy day today shopping and painting.
    Little (nearly4) grandson here for the day playing with his many cars on the carpet lunch and helping nanny rake up leaves in the garden. I bought a litre of Tesco vodka and one of Tesco Gin bashed the sloes that I recently found at bottom of our chest freezer, for 4 years. Perfect condition. 400 grams in each demijon. Some caster sugar. Not too much, you can add it but you can’t take it out. Shake hard every day, filter in a couple of weeks.
    Should be ready for Boxing Day when we have our family gathering.
    An early night approaches.
    Good night all. Catch up tomorrow.

    1. We make sloe gin this year for consumption next! Life in the country is life in the sloe slow lane 🙂

  61. Got the van back from the garage. After the DPF flush a week past Friday, it’s had an attempt to force a regen which may have worked. Will be driving to step-sons later in the week and see how it does.

    A damp day with a fair amount of rain, so a lot of the snow has gone with the rest expected to be washed away over the next couple of days.

    And with that, I’m off to bed. G’night all.

      2. DPF filters out tiny particles of carbon and the engine management system should periodically trigger a process to burn it off.
        All too often it fails and the resulting blockage triggers warnings on the dashboard.

        1. MOH tells me that a high rev. trip down an open road will clean everything out.

          His idea appears to work as we’ve had no warning lights at all.

    2. “After the DPF flush a week past Friday, it’s had an attempt to force a regen which may have worked.”

      ?????

      1. The previous owner appears to have allowed the DPF to get totally clogged. The flush did appear to have eased the problem, the dash warnings dropped back a couple of notches, but then went back to the “Injection Fault” light.
        Forcing the regen may have burnt off sufficient carbon.
        The DPF has got to be with worst idea ever for vehicles.

          1. Regenerate.
            When the engine control electronics picks up that the filter is becoming blocked and the engine is hot enough on a long run, it’s supposed to inject extra diesel during the exhaust stroke which, theoretically, uses the residual oxygen in the exhaust gasses to burn the carbon off.

  62. Hola amigos. Back home now after the last parish council meeting of the year. Start again on January 4th.

      1. Actually I didn’t have too far to go this evening, but I do have a busy week. Carol Concert in Shrewsbury tomorrow, coffee morning locally on Wednesday and a bash at Bangor racecourse in the evening. Fellowship lunch on Thursday so I can’t go to the funeral of the widow of an ex-RAF bomber pilot which clashes, followed by a meeting in the evening. Friday I hope to get my Christmas decorations up and finish writing my cards before I go to two more Carol Concerts on Saturday and Sunday. It’s all go at this time of year 🙂

  63. Well, after a busy day I had some home-made chicken soup for my supper and was nodding off. So back to bed for more Zeds. Now I am up again and I guess I will not get back to sleep for several hours. So I’ll wish you all a good night, chums. See you all tomorrow.

    2. Ooh…I’d love a Babycham…
      My Grandmother allowed herself a Snowball at Christmas…the hussy !

      1. vw worked for the producers of that, Goldwell, East Malling, Kent, after we married in 1968.

  65. Learning lessons from Down Under

    It’s all very well praising the Australian approach to healthcare, immigration or pensions. But will that translate into action?

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 3 December 2023 • 10:00pm

    Australia is in vogue for British politicians. Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, thinks the pension system Down Under is better than ours and could usefully be adopted here. Wes Streeting, Labour’s health spokesman, believes the NHS has a lot to learn from our antipodean cousins. For years, various Ministers have talked about following the “points-based” immigration approach pioneered by Australia.

    Yet while citing their success in these areas, British political parties have little appetite for implementing the reforms needed to emulate it. Mr Streeting is in Australia to see how things are done there. They spend less of their GDP on health care yet have far better outcomes.

    Mr Streeting is right to say that “this is not just about investment”. He told our health editor: “If we just pour ever-increasing amounts of taxpayer money into a broken system, we will continue to get worse health outcomes than other leading economies. And I genuinely fear for the future sustainability of the NHS in that situation.”

    We could not agree more and, indeed, have been saying so in these columns for years. But that is not the only, or even the most important, lesson to be drawn. The fundamental difference between the NHS and the Australian – and most other – health services is that it is nationalised. Almost all its money comes from the taxpayer.

    Australia has a hybrid system, part public funded, part private through insurance-based Medicare schemes and tax reliefs. Some foreigners can benefit through bilateral agreements but otherwise access is restricted, including to undocumented immigrants.

    It is a universal system with low-cost access to treatment and safety nets for those who cannot afford it. Setting up the system back in the late 1970s was not easy and led to political tensions, even resulting in a general election.

    Is that what Mr Streeting wants to borrow from Australia? So far he has proposed a revival of the polyclinics that Labour tried to introduce 25 years ago only for the idea to be scuppered by the British Medical Association.

    His analysis of what is wrong with the NHS is spot on. He says the ‘front-door’ is broken because primary care no longer works for the benefit of the patients. This delays diagnosis and treatment, costs money and ultimately can cost lives. But if he wants Australian outcomes then Labour needs to commit to the Australian structure. Is it now ready to do so?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/12/03/learning-lessons-from-down-under/

    1. The biggest problem is the unending supply of taxpayer money. Mr Streeting could have learned all he needed to know via email and Zoom. I doubt very much he went on his own with a rucksack on his back.

    1. Many thanks, as always! Appreciate your efforts for this site, which keep us all mainly sane on a daily basis!! Goodnight to you.

    6. Thankyou Geoff,

      I hope you managed to have a decent sleep.

      if you used fabric conditioner in your final rinse, there would be no need to iron anything after the drying session had finished.

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