Saturday 11 January: Heat pump coercion symbolises all that is wrong with the drive for net zero

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

597 thoughts on “Saturday 11 January: Heat pump coercion symbolises all that is wrong with the drive for net zero”

    1. Your language does not seem to be that of a gentleman, OLT. For a better morning greeting, see Johny Norfolk's post below. Mind you, he failed to thank Geoff. Lol. (Good morning, btw.)

        1. Oh dear, OLT. That was not my intention at all. I was just trying to amuse you. Am I forgiven – pretty please?

  6. No 10 plots billions in disability welfare cuts to ease debt crisis. 11 January 2025.

    Downing Street is preparing billions of pounds worth of cuts to disability benefits in an attempt to calm markets over its economic plan, The Telegraph can reveal.

    No 10 and Treasury figures think significant reductions are needed in the welfare budget, including to personal independence payments (PIP).

    This is a False Flag to justify the coming increase in taxation.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/10/billions-disability-welfare-cuts-calm-markets/

  7. No gas or electricity?

    Never mind, collect Rewards and Climate Points on your George Soros Climate Change Act Loyalty Card. Win millions like Tony Blair and maybe receive a peerage too!

    George Soros wanted the Climate Change Act way back in 2005 and his puppet Tony Blair supplied it to George Soros’ order with the promise of future riches. Tony Blair had already sold extremely valuable British state assets at far below value to George Soros and his consortiums in 2000 and 2003 resulting in huge profits on resale.

    Tony Blair was later rewarded with many years of consultancy work from George Soros worth $millions. David Miliband who arranged the Climate Change Act in 2006/7 was rewarded with the now million dollar CEO position in a New York charity heavily financed by George Soros. David Cameron who was extremely enthusiastic about the Climate Change Act, and who later appointed a number of Soros’ friends to senior positions, encouraged his Conservative Party to vote for it and duly received a directorship of a George Soros financed organisation.

    George Soros’ friends and connections were planted on the Climate Change Committee and the Energy Transitions Commission. Lord Adair Turner, described as in ‘alliance’ with George Soros by the Daily Telegraph, was the first chairman of the Climate Change Committee from 2008 and then chairman of the Energy Transitions Commission from 2016. Lord Adair Turner is a close friend of George Soros like Tony Blair and has managed Britain’s transition to Net Zero continuously except for an interval when he worked personally for George Soros as chairman of George Soros’ Institute for New Economic Thinking. Other friends and connections of George Soros covered for him during this period.

    David Miliband who arranged the Climate Change Act recruited Bryony Worthington from Friends of the Earth to help write the legislation. Bryony Worthington was running the Friends of the Earth Big Ask campaign which was about limiting carbon output by law. Friends of the Earth are part financed by George Soros through Open Society and Bryony Worthington was given a peerage as Baroness Worthington and appointed to the House of Lords by George Soros’ friend David Cameron. Lord Adair Turner was given a peerage by George Soros’ friend Tony Blair in 2005 to arrange the passage of the Climate Change Act 2008 through the House of Lords which his friend George Soros desired. George Soros’ close friend Lord Nicholas Stern who wrote the Stern Report on which the Climate Change Act is based received a peerage from George Soros’ friend Gordon Brown.

    So collect valuable climate points on your George Soros Climate Change Act Loyalty Card and you might be rewarded with a million dollar Soros job and become a Lord or Baroness too!

  8. Good morning, chums, and thank you, Geoff, for today's NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,302 5/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      In the end, one just runs out of other possibilities!
      Wordle 1,302 4/6

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  9. Did you get a knock on yer head over Christmas, Nige?

    Farage Comes Out In Defence Of Shamima Begum
    Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage just said Shemima Begum should be allowed back into the UK.
    Unbelievable.

        3. What the link fails to include is the full quote – he said that his instinct was to keep her out, but the regime change in Syria is such that he would reluctantly let her back in so that she can be locked up in prison (I paraphrase) where we can keep an eye on her. As it happens I don't agree with him; if Begum is here we will surely become an even greater target for ISIS.

          Trust our leftie media to misquote him.

          1. Not even let her back in for incarceration. She made her bed she can lie on it. Actions have consequences.

    2. This is the way he seems to conduct himself frequently. He'll build up trust and confidence in the public and then do something like this to knock down his own popularity. So IMHO he can defer from his supposed leadership and popularity. Stepping off the intensity of the so called bandwagon.

  10. Good morning, all. Clear sky, frost and calm here in N Essex.

    Yesterday's trip to the coast went well. The tide was out, exposing the sandy beach and I walked with my friend to the end of a breakwater where she placed the posy of roses in memory of her late husband. Pie and mash was fine and the place was busy. Good to see a local family business thriving.

    Bonus, on the way home stopped off at Morrison's in Little Clacton and lo and behold the shop had two, one kilo bags of Seville oranges remaining. The oranges are now chez Korky and will be marmalade before too long.😊

    Start the day with a smile or maybe a chuckle at this commercial pilot's sang-froid when responding to the air traffic controller's warning of approaching traffic. Ex-military?

    https://x.com/WallStreetMav/status/1877864836618387742

    1. Glad your day went well, Korky. But "Oi!" are you trying to take over from me as the NoTTLers' marmalade maker in chief?!?!? Lol.

      2. I too bouht Seville oranges yesterday and will be marmalading very soon. I make very coarsely cut, minimal sugar 'bloke' marmalade.

      3. Morning, Elsie.

        My second year, so a mere apprentice in the art of ‘orange jam’ production compared to you. I have to improve my cutting of the shreds, hardest part of the process, I have found. Any tips other than a very sharp knife?

        1. Infinite patience and don't do too much at a time. Maybe just 6 standard 1 lb (254 gram) jars, then take a few days off before doing the next 6 jam jars.

  11. Good moaning.
    A much needed laugh from the DT Letters:

    "SIR – On the subject of thank-you notes (Letters, January 10), my little sister once wrote: “Dear Granny, thank you for the £5”, in her best handwriting on neatly ruled lines.

    When our mother insisted on one more line, she added: “Other Granny gave me £10.”

    Back to the drawing board."

  12. 399985+up

    Morning Each,

    These very dangerous political wretches are really out for the BIG KILL, seemingly one of the cornerstones of RESET is a politico master race, failure at the starting gate is definitely NOT one of their considerations.

    The left (hand) is issuing foreign aid via borrowed monies,
    every day is laundry day, whilst the right (hand ) will take the first wintery steps down the culling road.

    Dt,
    No 10 plots billions in disability welfare cuts to ease debt crisis
    Reductions in welfare budget targeted amid pressure on Chancellor to prove she can hit borrowing rules

    One thing for sure you get what you vote for, sadly the innocents are going to suffer BIG TIME currently there are hotel bills to cover for those R/R foreign troops before action is politically called for.

    Saturday 11 January: Heat pump coercion symbolises all that is wrong with the drive for net zero, you can HUM THAT BLOODY TUNE AGAIN.

    Heat pump concern will NOT apply to any indigenous peoples
    as there is no necessity for them in transit camp daily agendas,
    beginning with a shower …………

    1. British government putting Britain first.
      What a radical idea. We haven't had one of those for nigh on 35 years.

    2. I fear for him. He will be utterly vilified and the target for all the woke, diverse supporting cretins everywhere. Needless to say I thoroughly support all that he says.

  16. The Brompton folding bicycle is perhaps our greatest contribution to "Net Zero", energy security, British industry, economic frugality, you take your pick. I have one. Combined with public transport (buses and branch rail network far more than Intercity and HS2), then the SUV status symbol can be left at home.

    Therefore it is what Rachel Reeves takes to China as our contribution to a trade accord. What do you think the Chinese would do with it?

    I imagine that within a year or two, an identical model called the Sang-Yang would appear at half the price. The Chancellor would then invite Chinese investment in Brompton. After five years, the Brompton factory in the UK would be sold to a developer and production and all the tooling plant shifted to you-know-where.

    And they say we are the colonisers!

    1. At least as colonisers the British gave something to the ordinary people of the countries concerned (law, health, eduction, irrigation, roads, etc.). The Chinese are just asset strippers – a sort of oriental Hanson. The only difference is their method of payment – build something here, build something there.

        1. 'Morning all. On a similar theme:

          Trevor Anderson
          10 hrs ago
          Dear Prime Minister

          Has the insanity of relying on unreliable, inefficient wind and solar to supply the nation with continuous energy yet occurred to you? I suggest not, so may I point out what is glaringly obvious to most of the population, that you and your colleagues appear to be unaware of, or don't care. (Many of us believe the latter).

          1. When it isn’t windy, wind turbines do not produce energy and we have to pay for gas as a back- up.

          2. When it’s too windy, they have to be switched off and we have to pay for that.

          3. When its’ cloudy, solar panels do not produce energy.

          4. A cold snap that has created a much higher demand for energy, with little sun and no wind, has meant calling in gas, As I write, we have less than a week’s gas supply left.

          5. We have no energy security whatsoever, starting with the Tories falling for the deeply flawed science and propaganda of Climate Change. Your government has compounded this economy busting, countryside desecrating, unnecessary project, by allowing your energy secretary to coerce us with his insane, zealous, unaffordable, unachievable, fanatical crusade.

          6. The cost of electricity is increasingly punitive for many of the population, caused by Net Zero profligacy. These high costs also put businesses in jeopardy by substantially increasing their overheads.

          7. An enemy would not have to drop a bomb on us. Stopping our energy imports would grind us to a halt, just as would long windless and sunless spells.

          8. Net Zero by 2050? Irrelevant.

          Let’s face it Sir Keir, for most people, coping with day-to-day living costs is more important than Net Zero. You don't seem to have noticed or care.

          Your time is running out, resign and call an election, you’re unfit for the role.

          Yours sincerely

          Trevor Anderson

          I simply cannot improve on that!

          1. I just hope Starmer and his mob who live solely off the British public and other freebees, sees that

          2. 5. We have no energy security whatsoever, starting with the Tories falling for the deeply flawed science and propaganda of Climate Change. due to a Tory Prime Minister slavering over a Greeniac Princess.

  18. Morning all 🙂😊
    Bright but minus 5 today heating on of course, what else can we do millipede ?
    Heat pumps in theses conditions are as useful as a solar panel in the thunderstorm.
    Wife has walked to her volunteer morning at the library today to save energy clearing the thick frost from the car. At least she'll be warm when she gets there.

    1. "71% Lib Dems"?!?!? I thought that no Lib Dems turned up in Parliament when the matter was debated. Something not quite right here.

    2. This is classic manipulation of the Overton window though. We don't need another inquiry. We need hangings, or failing that, deportations.

      1. We need the establishment to concede that Islam is the problem but they won’t. They shove their heads up their backsides and insist on relative values.

        1. That is what the inquiry needs to cover.
          And why the tacit acceptance that such an inquiry will take years?
          Like Nineteen Eighty Four, the Saville Inquiry is a warning, not a manual.

  21. The Left is plotting to silence Elon Musk – and we know the real reason why

    It’s not because, as they claim, he’s a threat to public order. There’s something they’re far more worried about

    Michael Deacon
    11 January 2025 7:00am GMT

    The public has been horrified anew by the grooming gangs scandal. And so, in response, the Government has leapt into action.

    Not by investigating the scandal itself. But by investigating the man who’s drawn everyone’s attention to it.

    According to the Mirror, the Government’s counter-extremism unit has launched a “probe” into Elon Musk’s tweets “to see if they create a risk to Britain”. Apparently there are “fears” that his “rants” will “trigger violence”. A claim which suggests that any such violence will be the fault of Mr Musk. Rather than of, say, the grooming gangs themselves, or the politicians who are refusing to hold an inquiry into them.

    Still, it’s not just our Government that’s panicking. It seems the entire Western Left wants to shut him down.

    Humza Yousaf, the former First Minister of Scotland, says Mr Musk “needs to be stopped”, because he’s “one of the most dangerous men on the planet”. A senior figure from Hope Not Hate, the Left-wing activist group, calls Mr Musk “an international extremist”. Meanwhile, according to Politico, “up to 150 European Commission officials” watched Mr Musk’s livestreamed interview with the leader of the AfD party on Thursday night, in order to check that it didn’t “break EU law” and “boost the German far Right”.

    You may ask why so many on the Left sound more outraged by Mr Musk than by the horrors he’s tweeting about. Personally, though, I think they have good reason to be scared.

    Not because Mr Musk is a threat to public order, as they claim. It’s because he’s a threat to the Left itself. He’s doing a far better job of exposing its cowardice and hypocrisy than any opposition party.

    So they aren’t frightened for us. They’re frightened for their jobs.

    Modern comedy is no laughing matter
    In 1949, the BBC drew up a strict set of rules for producers of its comedy programmes. “Humour must be clean and untainted directly or by association with vulgarity and suggestiveness,” it sternly decreed. “There is an absolute ban upon the following. Jokes about lavatories, effeminacy in men, immorality of any kind, suggestive references to honeymoon couples…”

    Today such strictures may seem amusingly quaint. Frankly, though, we’re in no position to mock them. Because the comedy gatekeepers of the 2020s are even more humourless.

    For proof, book a ticket to the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. Its organisers have drawn up a “Code of Conduct”, which is to be assiduously followed by everyone involved – including the actual comedians.

    To help make the festival a “safe, positive and inclusive space”, they must “think about what influences your words, opinions and feelings and who they might exclude or harm”. They must make no “derogatory remarks about an individual’s body, manner or sexual activities”. And, while the organisers “believe artists must be free to express themselves, it is unacceptable to exacerbate or reinforce discriminatory or harmful behaviours or views”. All “content and work shared in our spaces” must be performed “with care and without malicious intent”.

    You may be wondering whether the comedians are actually permitted to tell jokes, and if so, what about. But it gets worse. Because, according to the “Code of Conduct”, everyone involved must “acknowledge that bigotry is pervasive and entrenched in our industry and wider society”.

    All I can say is, I pity the poor comedians. Because God only knows how they’re going to squeeze this requirement into their act.

    Perhaps: “Why did the chicken cross the road? To join a mass protest against the apartheid state of Israel’s genocide of the people of occupied Gaza.”

    Or: “An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a bar. Quite rightly, the Irishman and the Scotsman hold the Englishman to account for his country’s shameful legacy of colonialism, slavery and oppression. The Englishman promises to educate himself and do better.”

    Little devil
    Congratulations to the Northern Echo. We aren’t even midway through January, yet already it’s published what will surely be the greatest local news story of the year.

    It’s about a young couple in Redcar who have named their baby son Lucifer – and simply can’t understand why so many people disapprove.

    “It has mostly been people from the older generation who have told us: ‘You can’t call him that, what will it be like when he’s at school?’” says Jess Bell, the boy’s 25-year-old mother. “But we are just normal, loving parents and certainly have no interest in associating our son with the devil, that’s not what this is about. The name is lovely, and it actually means ‘light-bringer’ – which is exactly what he has done for our lives.”

    Little Lucifer’s father – Stefan Wake, 27 – is equally bemused by the fuss. He does note, however, that the baby was born in delivery room six, and then taken with his mother to bed six in room six. “The 666 was a fairly strange coincidence,” he says.

    At any rate, I for one am willing to believe that the couple’s intentions were perfectly innocent. All the same, I will be monitoring the Telegraph’s births column for any further arrivals.

    “To Stefan and Jess, a beautiful son, Beelzebub. A brother for Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Old Nick and Prince of Darkness.”

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

    Nick Clarkson
    1 hr ago
    I’m sure it’ll still be perfectly ok to make “jokes” in Glasgow about Tories, Reform, Musk, Trump…

    Francesca Skinner
    4 min ago
    The Left will look for any excuse to shut down Social Media, they prefer to Govern as proper Communists where nothing is scrutinised and even if it is you will not be allowed on Platforms to voice your opinion. The Senydd in Cardiff paid £245,000 to have G.B. news removed from the Building this tells you the Direction this Government will try and take us in.

    2. Here two smug righteous Labour voting Lefties discuss the new Goebbels.. the new Citizen Kane.. Murdoch..

      "It's deception.. he has no morality.. to suggest a cover up.. we reported & covered it for 10-15 yers…we had a thorough sex abuse enquiry about white male pdfs we even mentioned Rotherham(fact check: once).. it's a settled science..
      then musk attacks poor old Jess Phillips. He called our Jess an evil witch and yet he says he concerned about young women. We must refuse to take him seriously."
      .
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diHcpZvBjT0

      1. Cue: comments section on YT filled with new account activists saying.. "we need more grown up conversations like this.."

      2. Cue: comments section on YT filled with new account activists saying.. "we need more grown up conversations like this.."

      3. I'm old enough to remember when Hislop was funny, before he became an embittered Leftie.As for Marr – he's a biased disgrace.

      5. Two turds competing for the LBC Diarrhea medal and the verbal syphilis cup. They both deserve it.

        1. She is remarkably stupid, even for a third-rate Labourite minister. She didn't think to check why her Shadow number failed to turn up for the debate, but had she done so she would have known that she was in fact in hospital. I was going to say that she failed to engage her brain before sounding off, but in her case that would indeed be a rare occurrence.

      7. And they totally ignore what Musk is exposing, Labour's own hypocrisy over it's role of not only covering up and obfuscating the issue of the Pakistani Rape Gangs but also trying to shut down any attempt to bring the matter to public attention.

  22. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/10/billions-disability-welfare-cuts-calm-markets/
    No 10 plots billions in disability welfare cuts to ease debt crisis
    Reductions in welfare budget targeted amid pressure on Chancellor to prove she can hit borrowing rules

    The article was posted yesterday evening, there are over 3.000edit: nearly 4.000 comments, and they are coming in too fast to be able to read them at all as the lines keep jerking down so quickly.
    After the grooming, now this. A new and COMPETENT government is needed NOW!

    1. Robert Pennell
      13 hrs ago
      Shouldn’t have wasted £38 billion on unproductive public sector workers!

      JMV Vern
      11 hrs ago
      Reply to Robert Pennell
      And £500 billion on a flu.

      Chris Knight
      10 hrs ago
      Reply to Robert Pennell
      The blackest of black holes!

    3. Oberst, even the most competent government in the world can't do anything with the UK finances right now. The country is done, finished. The debt is too high. Soon it will become clear to everyone that there's no money left and Britain has exhausted its possibility to create "money" out of thin air and sell government treasuries to foreigners.
      We've been living on credit for too long.
      The only course of action for a patriotic government would be to stop the boats immediately and deport the army of benefit-dependent foreign men elsewhere. They are costing us a fortune that we don't have, and they will be extremely dangerous to everyone else when their benefits stop because they have no families here, no property and nothing to lose. Then it needs to be made clear to everyone that the party's over – the money's run out.

  23. Iain Hunter continues his superb series of essays at FSB on our Common Law a law that has been subverted by the often unlawful politically-driven statutes, rules and regulations that are being used to strangle the life out of our freedom, culture and democracy. This is essential reading on FSB’s opinion. Know your inalienable rights. Please do read it.

    Frederica’s ‘ Hope – We Need It Now ’‘ is a good read, and her message is more important than ever, as the Globalist enemy that is running and ruining the country wants you to give up hope. Without hope there is no fight, and fight we must.

    Energy watch 08.30: Demand: 37.281GW. Supply: Hydrocarbons 57.7%; Wind 9.3%; Imports 10.9%, Biomass 6.2% and Nuclear 12.7%

    Once again demand is high and wind low, and we are perilously close to blackouts. Last night at 19.30 wind accounted for only 7.5% of demand, with UK having to import over 15%. This is madness. It is killing old people and killing the economy.

    Just a reminder that FSB is always looking for new writers and articles. You can submit them via 'write an article' tab or by email at freespeechbacklash@gmail.com.

  28. Morning all! Sunny day but -5 so not exactly Tahiti. The cat showed zero interest in going out and usually he harasses me first thing so he can prowl his domain.

    Apparently Elon Musk will pay for all of Tommy Robinsons legal fees. So that's a good thing. Also, the infuriating Piers Morgan keeps being slapped down in his irrational hatred of Tommy Robinson. The latest individuals to rebuke him being Gad Saad and Tim Poole. Watching Morgan, you can see he's clutching at strews to justify himself but the coward can't admit that he is wrong.

    worst of all today, Nigel Farage is rethinking his position on Shamima Begum. So, on top of his statement that we can't upset the Muslims because they will be the majority by 2050, he's crawling toward betrayal on allowing that creature back into the UK. He also lied about reforming Reform. Apparently he has done nothing at all about democratizing the Party. He is still the owner and it looks like it will stay that way. So he insists on being top dog until it destroys Reform. And there are still those who think he is the best answer for the UK and not driven by a monumental ego that must be the centre of attention. I can think of four people that would be better, Matt Goodwin, Rupert Lowe, Ben Habib and the soon to arrive, Ant Middleton.

    1. They will certainly be the majority by 2050 – when their numbers reach 10% of the indigenous population they start 'clearing' the country, and who will stop them? It looks as though they will have a clear run through. Is not the statement (being thrown around X, anyway) regarding Begum a political sabotage in response to Farage's statement that he will give Labour 100 days to commit to an Inquiry on the 'grooming' gangs before funding his own, private Inquiry? There are so many stories being thrown around and the PTB will do anything now to destroy Reform. Part of me does feel Reform may be a seedling party which will slide seamlessly into the WEF world. There is no-one in whom we can put our trust, not Rupert Lowe – what are his true motives? – not Ben Habib and certainly not Richard Tice. Elon Musk is out there stirring the pot…..

      1. Hallo Poppie. They will only be the majority if we let them. That's the point. There are plenty of ways to stop them. But fools have no will.
        As for Reform, I'm a member but, I have never trusted Farage and the more he opens his mouth, the more I find him to be a fraud and a liar. I learnt the other day, from someone who knows him, that he would refer to Gerard Batten of UKIP as: "The help". So confirming my observation, the other day, that he is a class snob as well. His remark about Gerard is particularly egregious because it was Gerard who did all the work for UKIP, Farage was just the mouth. Without Gerard Farage would not have had a platform.
        As for Rupert Lowe and the others. We must judge them on what they do and say. So far I do not find any fault with Ben Habib or Rupert. As for Elon Musk. I don't think he is 'stirring the pot' he is telling the truthy and, in British politics, that is seen as rather unsavory. We would rather pretend that decay, corruption and degeneracy are fine.

        1. Yes, I agree with most of that which you said. As for Musk, if everything is as it seems, fine – but is he ‘stirring the pot’ to show how terrible is our govt in order to lead us into the arms of the WEF one world govt, to make the people desperately accepting of this? Accepting of any hope offered? Is he in fact a pied piper for the WEF? I have seen Musk photographed at these WEF functions…. but then you would attend, wouldn’t you? In order to find out what it is all about, if you moved with anyone in those circles.

          I have just watched and listened to a video of an interview with Farage, in which he says he does not wish to see the return of Begum – his words have been twisted and used against him. He does not keep his lateral thoughts on the subject to himself, he plays around with them, he does not stay with the point (he is enraptured and totally involved with his ideas and sound of his own voice) and throws these views at the interviewer thus allowing for manipulation and a different interpretation of his views at a later stage. I agree about his being a class snob. So many things that we say and their interpretation depend on the mood, the atmosphere, the situation and the company in which we say them. I try to keep an open mind at this stage.

          I’ll see if I can find and copy the interview with Farage, I couldn’t find an available link at the time.

          1. Thanks about interview. I try to listen to all sides so if you find it.
            Elon & the WEF. I wouldn’t fall for thar one. I think that Elon says what he likes because he can afford to. It’s that simple. Have you seen his reaction when he was asked about trying to be diplomatic or censoring himself because X was being boycotted by advertisers? He says something to the effect that you can offer me money, anything you like, but I don’t care.

          2. I know….. I like Elon from what I have seen – but I have become so accustomed to being let down that I prepare myself to expect betrayal from these people. Trump was very friendly with Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral, but I suppose these people have, on the face of it, got to get along. I noticed that it was Obama who initiated the conversation. Melania looked unhappy, concerned with keeping herself together. The only person I have any faith in is Putin. In my head I have taken up residence in Russia. It is all emotionally exhausting.

          3. Well obviously, Poppy, you are preaching to the converted when it comes to Putin. A more vilified leader it is hard to imagine.

          4. Yes…. I know!

            I found the interview with Farage, it was on a Telegram channel but it does not provide a link in the browser and there is limited sharing allowed only. It was an ITV interview regarding Begum as centre stage, it seemed clear that he (Farage) had no wish to see Begum return but I thought his attitude, his general demeanour, was ambiguous.

            I expect you know about this horror about to be visited upon us for its 2nd reading on the 24 January?
            https://x.com/chrislittlewoo8/status/1878445280455991441

        2. When Nigel flounced off and UKIP's finances were parlous, Gerard was the one to turn them around. Gerard was also prepared to talk about the pernicious nature of islam. I met him once (in the EU parliament at Strasbourg) and I thought he was a good bloke.

  29. Morning all! Sunny day but -5 so not exactly Tahiti. The cat showed zero interest in going out and usually he harasses me first thing so he can prowl his domain.

    Apparently Elon Musk will pay for all of Tommy Robinsons legal fees. So that's a good thing. Also, the infuriating Piers Morgan keeps being slapped down in his irrational hatred of Tommy Robinson. The latest individuals to rebuke him being Gad Saad and Tim Poole. Watching Morgan, you can see he's clutching at strews to justify himself but the coward can't admit that he is wrong.

    worst of all today, Nigel Farage is rethinking his position on Shamima Begum. So, on top of his statement that we can't upset the Muslims because they will be the majority by 2050, he's crawling toward betrayal on allowing that creature back into the UK. He also lied about reforming Reform. Apparently he has done nothing at all about democratizing the Party. He is still the owner and it looks like it will stay that way. So he insists on being top dog until it destroys Reform. And there are still those who think he is the best answer for the UK and not driven by a monumental ego that must be the centre of attention. I can think of four people that would be better, Matt Goodwin, Rupert Lowe, Ben Habib and the soon to arrive, Ant Middleton.

  30. Morning all! Sunny day but -5 so not exactly Tahiti. The cat showed zero interest in going out and usually he harasses me first thing so he can prowl his domain.

    Apparently Elon Musk will pay for all of Tommy Robinsons legal fees. So that's a good thing. Also, the infuriating Piers Morgan keeps being slapped down in his irrational hatred of Tommy Robinson. The latest individuals to rebuke him being Gad Saad and Tim Poole. Watching Morgan, you can see he's clutching at strews to justify himself but the coward can't admit that he is wrong.

    worst of all today, Nigel Farage is rethinking his position on Shamima Begum. So, on top of his statement that we can't upset the Muslims because they will be the majority by 2050, he's crawling toward betrayal on allowing that creature back into the UK. He also lied about reforming Reform. Apparently he has done nothing at all about democratizing the Party. He is still the owner and it looks like it will stay that way. So he insists on being top dog until it destroys Reform. And there are still those who think he is the best answer for the UK and not driven by a monumental ego that must be the centre of attention. I can think of four people that would be better, Matt Goodwin, Rupert Lowe, Ben Habib and the soon to arrive, Ant Middleton.

    1. That should be printed out as a poster and pasted on to every possible space in London and any other big town.

    2. That should be printed out as a poster and pasted on to every possible space in London and any other big town.

    1. Every single 'authority' in that chart is in the southern part of England.

      I wonder what that tells us?

    1. Don't forget half a million snivel serpents and the train drivers.
      (Sounds like a pop group.)

    2. As you know I prefer to call him Herr Starmer or The Starmerfuhrer. But someone referred to him as Keir Stalin. On reflection I realized that's more accurate because besides hating farmers and old people, he also hates people who contradict him as 'far right thugs' Then there is private enterprise, the life blood of a prosperous country, he detests that too. So Keir Stalin he is.

        1. Starmfuehrer for me. But there ate so many good ones.

          My second fave is Sir Kneel. Lest we forget.

  36. Good morning folks – no I didn't get the opportunity to review Islands for Sale (more's the pity)….

    Here's Michael Deacon from the DT (Apologies if it has already been posted below)

    Modern comedy is no laughing matter
    In 1949, the BBC drew up a strict set of rules for producers of its comedy programmes. “Humour must be clean and untainted directly or by association with vulgarity and suggestiveness,” it sternly decreed. “There is an absolute ban upon the following. Jokes about lavatories, effeminacy in men, immorality of any kind, suggestive references to honeymoon couples…”

    Today such strictures may seem amusingly quaint. Frankly, though, we’re in no position to mock them. Because the comedy gatekeepers of the 2020s are even more humourless.

    For proof, book a ticket to the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. Its organisers have drawn up a “Code of Conduct”, which is to be assiduously followed by everyone involved – including the actual comedians.

    To help make the festival a “safe, positive and inclusive space”, they must “think about what influences your words, opinions and feelings and who they might exclude or harm”. They must make no “derogatory remarks about an individual’s body, manner or sexual activities”. And, while the organisers “believe artists must be free to express themselves, it is unacceptable to exacerbate or reinforce discriminatory or harmful behaviours or views”. All “content and work shared in our spaces” must be performed “with care and without malicious intent”.

    You may be wondering whether the comedians are actually permitted to tell jokes, and if so, what about. But it gets worse. Because, according to the “Code of Conduct”, everyone involved must “acknowledge that bigotry is pervasive and entrenched in our industry and wider society”.

    All I can say is, I pity the poor comedians. Because God only knows how they’re going to squeeze this requirement into their act.

    Perhaps: “Why did the chicken cross the road? To join a mass protest against the apartheid state of Israel’s genocide of the people of occupied Gaza.”

    Or: “An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a bar. Quite rightly, the Irishman and the Scotsman hold the Englishman to account for his country’s shameful legacy of colonialism, slavery and oppression. The Englishman promises to educate himself and do better.”

    1. Good morning King Stephen

      I posted another part of Michael Deacon's article about naming children. You may see many personifications of Beelzebub armed with machetes on the UK's streets but very few are actually Christened Sataned and given the name Beelzebub

    3. Anyone who remembers'Round the Horne' will know that the 1949 rules were completely ignored, not to mention Humph on ISIHAC.

      1. Round The Horne had Julian and Sandy, didn’t it. Definitely taking the mick out of effeminate men?

          2. Dame Celia Molestrangler and ageing juvenile Binkie Hucksback. I have most episodes in MP3..

          3. Listening to it used to be a Sunday treat for us. I loved it even though I was too young to understand a lot of it.

          4. "Next week we'll be looking into see-through blouses"….. and "Pinky & Perky live at Smithfield". …

          7. "Next week we'll be looking into see-through blouses"….. and "Pinky & Perky live at Smithfield". …

  37. A belated good morning to all and what a beautiful sunny one it is too with clear skies and very little wind.
    Absolutely bloody cold though, -4.8°C when I took the milk bottle out to the crate, up from yesterday's minimum of 5.9°. Yesterday's maximum never even got above zero with -1.2°C!!!

    It appears that, after voting not to allow a Rape Gang Enquiry, Anneliese Dodds is taking up cudgels on behalf of the women of Afghanistan.
    https://x.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1878015603996291546

      1. Who shall we show our support to: Muzzie voters … or white children?

        Oo! Tough one, that!

        1. Not for Labour it isn't. "I'll support whoever keeps my snout near the trough" – and I thought that pigs were haram.

        2. Not for Labour it isn't. "I'll support whoever keeps my snout near the trough" – and I thought that pigs were haram.

      3. She one of many sh*t stains. In fact, the political landscape is just one big expanse of turds.

    1. As Raja Miah the Muslim Grooming Gang Whistleblower says..

      With the help of progressive liberals every inner city community centre & mosque is run like 1920s Chicago as a mob-like mafia.
      And gawd help anyone that gets in the way. With the police & Mayor & politicos in their pocket they are above the law and do as they please.

    2. As Raja Miah the Muslim Grooming Gang Whistleblower says..

      With the help of progressive liberals every inner city community centre & mosque is run like 1920s Chicago as a mob-like mafia.
      And gawd help anyone that gets in the way. With the police & Mayor & politicos in their pocket they are above the law and do as they please.

    3. I am certainly against any inquiry.

      I would sooner go for a St Valentine's Day Massacre. But, hey ho, that's just me.

  39. Michael Deacon in today's DT:

    Little devil

    Congratulations to the Northern Echo. We aren’t even midway through January, yet already it’s published what will surely be the greatest local news story of the year.

    It’s about a young couple in Redcar who have named their baby son Lucifer – and simply can’t understand why so many people disapprove.

    “It has mostly been people from the older generation who have told us: ‘You can’t call him that, what will it be like when he’s at school?’” says Jess Bell, the boy’s 25-year-old mother. “But we are just normal, loving parents and certainly have no interest in associating our son with the devil, that’s not what this is about. The name is lovely, and it actually means ‘light-bringer’ – which is exactly what he has done for our lives.”

    Little Lucifer’s father – Stefan Wake, 27 – is equally bemused by the fuss. He does note, however, that the baby was born in delivery room six, and then taken with his mother to bed six in room six. “The 666 was a fairly strange coincidence,” he says.

    At any rate, I for one am willing to believe that the couple’s intentions were perfectly innocent. All the same, I will be monitoring the Telegraph’s births column for any further arrivals.

    “To Stefan and Jess, a beautiful son, Beelzebub. A brother for Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Old Nick and Prince of Darkness.”

    BTL

    Go to John Milton's Paradise Lost and you will find three other prominent fallen angels: Belial, Mammon and Moloch whose names can be harvested to compete with the omnipresent Muhammed which is currently top of the list of popular names.

    2. My guess is that they watched the sci-fi series 'Lucifer' in which he is indeed the good guy being put under trials in order to understand humanity and creation, so he can take over from his 'dad' God, when he retires.

    1. I admire the the pie chart's use of 'raw sienna' to cover the Asian category, somewhere between yellow and brown. Depending on the monitor of course, and one's unconscious bias.

  42. A proper good morning to you all .

    Sunny fresh start to the day , no frost , no breeze , nothing to tell us it is winter here in South Dorset . 0c.. so feels cold , deceptive , grass is green no frost on the roof tops , and looking out of one of the top windows across to fields and forests , they are looking golden ..

    I had a look at the DT letters , nothing much I want to comment on , but have you read the comments , the majority look as if there are Guardian reader invader comments , some are very childish .

    I am still on the DT naughty list , so I cannot even sign into make a comment .

      2. Yes , I saw that, what a filthy idiot .

        How are you today , has the pain become less, I expect you are uncomfortable when you are in your bed , shifting around can be painful.

        1. I’ve had no pain, Belle, only mild discomfort, no swelling, no redness, no bruising. I’ve had far worse (superficially) from falling off my bike as a child. It was the same with dental implants, only mild discomfort (poppiesdad’s face swelled up like a hamster when he had one done!) I have to be careful when moving around, the knee feels insecure, I do get twinges from time to time to remind me – I can’t go up the stairs yet foot over foot, it has to be one step at a time. In answer to your query the other day – the blog page had closed by the time I saw it – we have steep, narrow cottage stairs between two walls, no hand rail and with a twist at the foot of the stairs. The tread is narrow. I wasn’t feeling very well yesterday, I felt as if I had a winter virus coming on, with nausea and stomach pains but it seems to have cleared overnight.

          I am doing the exercises I have been given and I apologise to anyone reading this who got entangled with my V.E. Bott, GA-induced crankiness on Thursday. I wanted to stamp my little foot. There is an inner child in all of us. However, I have decided I will just go with the flow and get it over and done with.

          1. Sounds as though you are doing the right things and recovering well. We have cottage stairs like that – but the more modern extension which includes our bedroom is up only six stairs, with a handrail so quite easily negotiated for oldies like us. We're staying put!

          2. Yes, we are too, Ndovu, we have a downstairs bathroom and could, if necessary, live downstairs completely.

        1. It’s doing ok Ndovu, thank you, see my very recent reply to Belle. I removed the bandage yesterday, as instructed, removed the dressings to re-apply and was astonished at how normal everything looked. I feel though that I am suffering from the after effects of the GA, I feel below par, a bit fluey and not up to much! I just want to lie on the sofa and chill out. Fortunately poppiesdad is perfectly competent around the house and said that looking after me was no more than usual, anyway!!

          1. After heart surgery, my doctor told me to ignore the advice from the hospital about anesthetic. They might have said a few days, according 5o him it was really a few weeks before all side effects were gone.

            Just sit back and enjoy the pampering.

          2. Thank you – I am sorry I was cranky the other day – my problem is I don’t know if I am doing the exercises correctly and I get frustrated – my patience with myself was sadly lacking. Also the problems in the world are looming ever larger, I worry about being massacred and/or starved on our little island, the world seems to have lost its marbles. I shall bear in mind your advice about the anaesthetic, I was told about a couple of days at the hospital!

          3. Lying about and resting is what your body needs to recover your strength – so listen to it and rest and get better. the wound seems to be healing well – that's good!

      9. It's a case of "In the Bleak Midwinter" here, pm. "Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone .." Pretty with all the hoar frost, though.

    2. What on earth did you say, Maggie?
      Heck, you are far politer than I am.
      On a totally different subject, MB is looking forward to the osprey's return. The website send him a catch-up every so often.

  43. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14271725/Britains-Asian-grooming-gangs-scandal-laid-bare-Interactive-map-reveals-shocking-extent-predatory-men-sexually-abused-young-girls-FORTY-ONE-UK-towns-staggering-number-free-streets.html

    Britain's Asian grooming gangs scandal laid bare: Interactive map reveals shocking extent of predatory men who sexually abused young girls across FORTY ONE UK towns… and the staggering number now free and back on the streets
    By EIRIAN JANE PROSSER and JAMES FIELDING

    Published: 09:12, 11 January 2025 | Updated: 09:34, 11 January 2025

    This the result of politicians allowing and kowtowing to a religion that is misogynist and filthy , and allowing our beautiful homeland to be desecrated by these primitives ..

    They are everywhere .

    1. The Lefties are keen/ desperate/ determined to assert that it's been settled long ago.. doesn't happen anymore.

      In any case you've already had Prof Alexis Jay's £186.6 million seven-year inquiry into the countless ways children had been sexually abused in England and Wales. It even mentioned "grooming gangs" four times.

    3. I'm surprised Gloucester isn't on that map – there's a sizable Paki community there and also black areas.

    4. The boss kept telling me that no the UK cannot be that bad. Todays DM headline is clearing up that dream of the UK still being the UK of yesteryear.

  44. Good morning, all. Very late on parade. Slept badly – then overslept. Frost and cold here. Cloudy.

      1. Smug Leftie remainiac Mike Buckley Director at Independent Commission on UK-EU Relations & Matt Goodwin.

    2. For GOD'S SAKE. It is not just the Pakistani Rape Gangs per se that need investigating, the elected representatives and officials, both national and local, who not only ignored but also took action to suppress attempts to bring the matter to public attention, also need to be investigated, named and held to account.
      Unfortunately, because a large number of them were and still are members of the Labour Party, this current Government will never agree to any enquiry which risks exposes them.
      They covered up the Rape Gangs for years, we MUST NOT let them get away with covering up their party's own culpability.

    1. My next door neighbour has a heatpump. It's always been crap but her ex had it installed and collected the subsidies to pay for it before he buggered off and left her in 2015. Eventually (five years later) the divorce court awarded her the house so now she's having to replace the heat pump with a more modern one and it's going to cost her a fortune. We're sticking with our oil-fired boiler.

      1. Well done I had Oil fired for many years without problems and the cost was always overstated

        1. We've been here thirty years and had two new boilers in that time. No gas but we do have a log burner which has been in action this week. Most of our neighbours have similar set ups.

  47. Mr Cadbury met Miss Rowntree on a Double Decker.

    It was just After Eight.

    They got off at Quality Street.

    He asked her name. ‘Polo, I’m the one with the hole’ she said with a Wispa.

    ‘I’m Marathon, the one with the nuts’ he replied.

    He touched her Cream Eggs, which was a Kinder Surprise for her.

    Then he slipped his hand into her Snickers, which made her Ripple.

    He fondled her Jelly Babies and she rubbed his Tic Tacs.

    Soon they were Heart Throbs.

    It was a Fab moment as she screamed in Turkish Delight.

    But, 3 days later, his Sherbet Dip Dab started to itch.

    Turns out Miss Rowntree had been with Bertie Bassett and he had Allsorts!

    1. Senior Service took a Player down Park Drive to the Embassy down Piccadilly and laid her on a Gold Leaf.

      He took out his Rothman's King Size and stuffed it up her Virginia.

      Nine months later, out popped a little Cadet. This shows Senior Service satisfies.

      The above would be unintelligible to a millennial, who would be completely unaware of any of those 1960s items.

          1. The Scottish cigarette manufacturer Kensitas, instead of including paper cards with their packets used to include these machine woven fabric patches inside a paper folder. We inherited these and Carol thought to make a decorative use for them.

          2. Very nice, too. I had no idea Kensitas did that. Oddly enough, I had heard of the make (and I've never smoked).

          4. I had to research them from an original machine woven silk fabric card which had its paper folder intact. The others were loose. These date from the 1830’s and are highly collectible. You can find them on eBay.

            We found whole sets of paper cigarette cards in the attic but have not yet got around to appraising their value. Everybody smoked in the thirties and I believe Kensitas Club are still the Number One cigarette in Scotland.

    2. Very good. Many years ago my mother’s youngest sister was housekeeper for the Rowntrees and they kept in touch and were very supportive for the rest of her life. When aunty died aged 100, various Rowntree family members came to the interment service at the parish church in Menston in Wharfedale. The last time I’ll ever see them, now that connection is gone.

        1. We had relatives who farmed at Beckermonds, where two becks meet to form the river Wharfe. (streams to suveners). There was, and still is, a natural pool where we went swimming – but it was always bl**dy cold.

      3. The Rowntrees: wonderful family and simply the best confectioners the UK has ever known.

        I would vote for Fry's as the second best. Curiously both were families of Quakers.

  49. Yesterday a large glass mysteriously leapt off a kitchen shelf scattering sharp fragments everywhere. Last night I tripped over a broken fence post on the unlit floor of the parking area. I wasn't hurt because I did a parachute roll but my lovely light brown jacket was badly stained. This morning I have a stinking cold, flu possibly, I could hardly breath. When I have posted this I will check my weekly lotto numbers – bound to be better than the recent run of bad luck . . . don't you think?

    Good start with today's Wordle:

    Wordle 1,302 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. I should stay in bed if i were you. Safest place. Erm…have you checked your electric blanket?

      2. Can't stay in bed. I feed the birds every morning. Two or three black and white rats (Magpies) the rest are sparrows, robins, great tits and blue tits with a few crows and the occasional stranger.

    2. Oh that’s a bummer. Well done with wordle but I hope your jacket can be cleaned and more importantly that the flu symptoms ease. If the breathing problem doesn’t, A&E is best.

      1. Never do take the flu jab but I read in a local paper there is a lot of it about in Western Brittany. I have had to stop kissing the ladies . . . and no, I don't kiss the men!

    11. Well done. Had to go all the way today.
      Wordle 1,302 6/6

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

  52. Assad loyalist tied to a tree and shot in the head in public execution. 11 January 2025.

    The purported act of aggression comes at a time of uncertainty surrounding the response of Syria’s new rulers to loyalists of the Assad regime.

    The transitional authorities, appointed by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which led the offensive that toppled Assad last month, have sought to assure religious and ethnic minorities that their rights will be upheld.

    Of course. Starmer should send them some more money

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/01/10/assad-loyalist-shot-in-head-public-execution-damascus-syria/

    2. Ach, no need to concern yourself, Araminta…he surely will. Straight out of the spaffing it up a wall fund.

  53. OT – any history buffs among NoTTLers may find interesting a three-part series on PBS America on the Battle of Crete. Because it was such a cock up, it was not something we were taught about when I was young. My only (thin) knowledge is from the novels of Evelyn Waugh.

  54. G'day all,

    Back from the Saturday morning visit to the market baker and the butcher, chores done. It was cold outside the castle this morning, -7℃ but it had warmed up to -3C by the time I got home. It's a lovely sunny day with the light wind in the East. should see +1℃ by early afternoon.

    A little bit of cheer driving into town: I noticed as I went down a long hill that the speed camera midway down had been smashed sideways and bent. It looks as though someone had come along with a JCB and swiped it with the bucket. i remember that happening some years ago along a stretch of the A40 between Oxford and Cheltenham where there are several cameras. Someone had smashed them all sideways with a digger.

    It hasn't taken Reaves long to crash the economy, has it? She's just done what all Marxist wreckers do.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e6f1ba29d69a89ff5a19b40c02e5bda85a4d5b984951b52a536841b00c4fa4c6.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/10/billions-disability-welfare-cuts-calm-markets/

    Here she is getting her next set of instructions from Head Office.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4f07594d49d0984b41e1eeca95f20cbad9737a4af370f8403829d049a366997c.png

    2. People will move from LTSB to Unemployment Benefit, no SME owner in their right mind would employ a shirker. Perhaps Reeves is negotiating not just a trade deal but also a labour deal.

    5. She needs to up the money raising campaign a bit.

      Once Trump takes over canada and we become US citizens, our UK pensions will qualify for indexing jyst as is done for Brits living in the US.

      There are a lit of expats here so that is going to cost you!

  55. G'day all,

    Back from the Saturday morning visit to the market baker and the butcher, chores done. It was cold outside the castle this morning, -7℃ but it had warmed up to -3C by the time I got home. It's a lovely sunny day with the light wind in the East. should see +1℃ by early afternoon.

    A little bit of cheer driving into town: I noticed as I went down a long hill that the speed camera midway down had been smashed sideways and bent. It looks as though someone had come along with a JCB and swiped it with the bucket. i remember that happening some years ago along a stretch of the A40 between Oxford and Cheltenham where there are several cameras. Someone had smashed them all sideways with a digger.

    It hasn't taken Reaves long to crash the economy, has it? She's just done what all Marxist wreckers do.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e6f1ba29d69a89ff5a19b40c02e5bda85a4d5b984951b52a536841b00c4fa4c6.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/10/billions-disability-welfare-cuts-calm-markets/

    Here she is getting her next set of instructions from Head Office.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4f07594d49d0984b41e1eeca95f20cbad9737a4af370f8403829d049a366997c.png

  57. Mark Zuckerberg Tells Joe Rogan: Biden Officials Screamed and Cursed at Us to Censor ‘Things that Were True’

    Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan in an interview published Friday that “people in the Biden administration” pushed Meta “super hard” to censor users who were posting “true” information about the coronavirus vaccines. “These people from the Biden administration would call up our team and scream at them and curse,” Zuckerberg said.

    On Friday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan that he felt censorship on his platforms “hit the most extreme” during “the Biden administration, when they were trying to roll out the vaccine program.”

    “Now, I’m generally pretty pro rolling out vaccines,” Zuckerberg continued, adding, “I think, on balance, the vaccines are more positive than negative, but I think that while they’re trying to push that program, they also tried to censor anyone who was basically arguing against it.”

    “And they pushed us super hard to take down things that, honestly, were true,” the Meta CEO added. “They basically pushed us and said, ‘Anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down.”

    Rogan then asked, “Who is they? Who’s telling you to take down things that talk about vaccine side effects?”

    “It was people in the Biden Administration,” Zuckerberg answered.

    The Meta CEO went on to insist, “I wasn’t involved in those conversations directly.”

    “These people from the Biden administration would call up our team and scream at them and curse,” Zuckerberg said.

    Zuckerberg added that the Biden administration demanded his company “take down this meme of Leonardo DiCaprio looking at a TV, talking about how ten years from now you’re going to see an ad that says if you took a COVID vaccine, you’re eligible for some kind of payment — this class action lawsuit-type meme.”

    “And they’re like, ‘You have to take the down,'” the Meta CEO said of the Biden administration.

    Zuckerberg added that there were instances in which Meta refused to take down “humor and satire,” resulting in President Joe Biden accusing Meta of “killing people.”

    “And then all these different agencies and branches of government basically started investigating and coming after out company,” Zuckerberg said.

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2025/01/10/mark-zuckerberg-tells-joe-rogan-biden-officials-screamed-and-cursed-at-us-to-censor-things-that-were-true/

    1. "Please, Donald, you were really my one true love all along."
      Cringe…. slurp …. cringe …………

      1. Well Zuckerberg did have a meeting with Trump at Mar a Lago. Obviously had the facts of life explained to him.

        1. Certainly was, Grizz. He had a number of them, often about me, as I think I’ve mentioned afore? (Good to see your Yorkshire side, as per.)

    3. Damoscene moment or realising which side his bread is buttered as Trump and Musk ride into town?

  58. Flaps down; undercarriage locked; prepare for landing
    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/db09f3fd9b404d4c1da29ebf0bb40cfffca08c73/0_0_4626_3084/master/4626.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=e364b5ea95e4b94130f2bafd9971daf6
    https://c8.alamy.com/comp/R20JKD/london-england-november-2018-close-up-view-of-the-wheels-down-and-flaps-down-on-a-boeing-747-jumbo-jet-as-it-comes-in-to-land-at-london-heathrow-R20JKD.jpg
    A dalmatian pelican comes in to land near Lake Kerkini, northern Greece.

    1. How do the 1619 people explain Pennsylvania? I suppose they just lie. The Great Peace Treaty between William Penn and Chief Tamanend was famously never signed and never broken. Penn paid 1200 guineas for the land and Philadelphia was never fortified. Penn’s Quakers and the Delaware Nation lived side by side. Tamanend was revered by both communities. The white settlers called him Sant Tammany and his own people said he was a man of such goodness he could commune directly with the Great Spirit.

    3. Brainwashing children is the easiest thing in the world. All religions and political ideologies recognised this fact centuries ago and still it goes on.

    4. This is vile. Especially when we know that the smugglers of illegals were taking videos of school girls in England and using them on Tic Toc as the sexual spoils of men, if they go to England.

      1. It’s as if they’re pimping the girls out. Should be immediately banned by HMG.

        The Welsh Refugee Council members should all be prosecuted. This is unbelievable.

    6. Any head teacher and teacher who persuaded my child to make a video like that would be a sorry teacher in short order.

  62. I have mentioned, a couple of time, Tim Pool. Many of you probably haven't heard of him because he is not well known on this side of the pond. But he is an excellent commentator on things conservative. So here he is giving his opinion about Tommy Robinson and the rape gangs. He sets straight a number of thing about Tommy's convictions that are more than worth considering. Overall this is a fantastic summation of the situation.

    UK COVERED UP Grooming Gangs To PROTECT Leftist Ideology, Tommy Robinson WAS RIGHT
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3_SG-7Z0hI

  63. Dense fog, crisp air and a windless sky today. Brilliant for a good walk.

    An excellent extract from an article in the Critic today:

    "Starmer’s focus on perceived falsehoods echoes the sentiments made by the Rev Richard Coles on X in relation to the furore: “Free speech ensures the right to say unpopular things. It does not enshrine any right to say untrue things.”

    Actually it does your good Reverendship. If that weren't true then the entire cabinet would be obliged to present themselves down at Westminster nick for processing post haste.

    Not once have I personally argued that Starmer should be prevented from telling me misinformation. In fact I believe he and Rachel et al should be encouraged to tell more of them. Expand upon them and add as many embellishments as you can dream up, I encourage you. You're hardly making sense as it is. The sooner that you provide the evidence of your mendacity so that even the hardest of thinking among us can understand, the better frankly. Then you can just go.

  64. They've all been gaslighting the population for donkey's years telling porkies about "global warming/boiling" and the Nut Zero BS. Not to mention the other lot locking us all up over a cold virus, and then making people ill with the toxic jabs.

    1. They have. The thing I find most offensive is the way they take advantage of people's honest openness to sell them lies. Con artists most of them. They think we are complete idiots, though. That's the ultimate spite of the small people who inhabit Westminster these days.

    2. They have. The thing I find most offensive is the way they take advantage of people's honest openness to sell them lies. Con artists most of them. They think we are complete idiots, though. That's the ultimate spite of the small people who inhabit Westminster these days.

      1. 3cm according to my laptop. It alternates between a snow warning and a "cold weather/feels colder" statement.

          2. Black ice is no fun, driveway here is lethal…Kadi recognised home in view, nice warm bed and hopefully a bite to eat washed down with clean water. Hope you weren’t hurt, Conway….no hadn’t seen skijoring, looks like possibly started out as a necessity but morphed into sport/betting. I remember snail betting some years ago. Also Cameron being pulled by huskies..cue headlines ‘Cameron hugging a husky etc..’

  66. Trouble is they have managed to con at least half of the population who actually believe the bullshit and lies. Most of my well-educated and intelligent friends have fallen for it.

  67. Nice try. James, some think more a Guy Fawkes moment…they do have heating problems in the HoP, after all….😊

  70. Of course they'd rather we didn't hear about that. Nor about the Great Barrier Reef regenerating….

    3. Terrible. How much criminal evidence is being reduced to ashes in all these fires? Sex trafficking Sean “Diddy” Combs has lost his California house too. Very conveniently timed.

  73. A gas boiler is not worth being replaced by a heat pump:

    Gas costs 6p per kwh
    Electricity costs at least as four times as much at over at 24p per kWh

    However a quarter of every kWh is needed to electrically pump each kWh out of the air or ground.

    Have you worked out why the capital investment required in replacing a gas boiler with a heat pump makes absolutely no financial sense whatsover?

    1. As I have said before, insulate your house within an inch of its life, and your gas bill will be so low that any savings you make by installing a heat pump won't justify the cost of a heat pump and the new radiators needed. Discounted cash flow, anyone? (I'll get me overcoat.)

    1. I suspect a land grab by the very lefties whose second, third and fourth homes have been temporarily lost.

      A similar occurrence was the targeted area of Hawaii where the indigenous homes were destroyed in order to make space and land with a shoreline for Oprah Winfrey and her cabal of Epstein Island visiting paedophiles including Bill Gates.

    2. He says..

      Keir Starmer has pledged that all members of all communities would “be safe”..

      The government is doing all it can to ensure police can respond where needed..

      The prime minister has vowed to do "whatever it takes to bring this thug to justice"..

      The prime minister blames misinformation for The Batley teacher's suspension..

      If there is one thing that symbolises the deepest cause of concern for us Labours, it’s that many Muslims across the country, and including here in Yorkshire, feel unsafe on our streets at night.

      That's enuff.

      1. 'If there is one thing that symbolises the least of concern for us Labours, it’s that many young women across the country, and including here in Yorkshire, feel unsafe on our streets at night'.

  77. Three of the usual quartet having a drink in the pub a few days ago chatting about this and that and towards the end AI cropped up. Two of us held the opinion that AI, whilst a leap forward and a great tool, will not take over the innate ability of the human brain to be inventive, insightful and capable of producing ideas out of pure thought, whatever pure thought is. The other person disagreed.

    Is this a simple example of the human brain innovating from pure thought? A piece of paper, some toothbrushes and correctly placed microphones producing musical support to a guitarist. Whatever, it's clever.

    https://x.com/HumansNoContext/status/1877442641262162061

    1. Very good, I've seen a few great guitar players and it's always made me feel like chopping mine up when I get home. Martin Taylor, John Williams, Tommy Emanuel ,Eric Clapton, Peter Green many others.
      Always innovative.
      Guitar's are such a wonderful instrument.

        1. Not seen him live but have seen a tribute band.
          My eldest plays lead in a band.
          I taught him everything he knows 🤣😂😅😉

          1. I haven't seen him live either but he is good.

            I was holidaying in Barcelona and sitting on a cafe terrace. A busker who looked very young was playing Spanish Guitar. Entrancing. Everyone applauded when he finished.

            It's what makes good memories when something unplanned is so good.

          2. I remember being somewhere on the coast and there were some of those lovely dancer’s performing their wonderful Flamenco with guitar.

        2. Santana is my favourite lead guitarist. I know others might be more technically proficient, but he can make the guitar sing.

        3. Santana is my favourite lead guitarist. I know others might be more technically proficient, but he can make the guitar sing.

      2. American Richard Bennett who has toured with Mark Knopfler and Steuart Smith who tours with the Eagles are both brilliant guitarists.

        2. Glen Campbell, when I saw a video of what he really could do with a git-box, blew my socks off.

    2. will not take over..
      AI can never computate; consciousness, perception or free will.
      It's our only defence.
      However, as Stephen Hawking wryly noted AI can easily overwhelm us.. because it takes us so long to procreate & rear our children.

    3. The key word in AI is "Artificial". AI describes the Cabinet, artificial politicians with little if any intelligence.

      2. AI used to be a term farmers used when they wanted their cows to be in calf.

        As a surprised cow was heard to remark : " I can't understand it – I'm pregnant – Straight up and down – no bull."

        1. Banned for thoroughbred breeding; it has to be a wham, bam and thank you ma'am job with racehorses.

    4. The expression "Artificial Intelligence" is every bit as much of an oxymoron as "Alternative Comedy", i.e. they are the polar opposite of what they claim to be.

      Artificial Cleverness, Artificial Inventiveness or, simply, Artificial Resourcefulness or Artificial Amart-Alecness might be more apposite. Whatever the case, "Intelligence" does not feature since most people are far too stupid to be able to comprehend what is meant by intelligence.

      1. AI is data retrieval. Nothing more or less. It does retrieve data more efficiently than the human memory though.

        1. Precisely. A series of ones and zeroes, in any configuration, will never amount to intelligence.

    2. I've had internal insulation put in mine (and panelling on the walls in the dining room). Helps with the heat loss. I'd have shutters if I could (conservation area so modern double glazed windows are a no-no and handmade double glazed replacements are out of my league).

  80. Oh dear, how sad, never mind!

    I bet the cow has at least four more houses, dotted all over Democratland.

  81. Just landed.

    Turned on phone and pretty much the first message was Book Group and some tirade against Musk. I was so cross I just deleted the whole thing. I think I am through.

    1. I used to belong to a church book group whose taste in “popular theology” went steadily downhill. When they chose a book by someone on the list of Common Purpose graduates compiled by Brian Gerrish, I could take no more.

    3. Gosh. And you’re only 63. (I read John Stuart Mill’s autobiography. He learnt Greek and Latin at age 3.)

      1. Ah, was that the John Stuart Mill who of his own free will, on half a pint of shandy was particularly ill?

      2. Imagine that today – the child would be incarcerated with children with learning difficulties for being too bright.

    2. I can visualise orange hi-viz gilets like the ones worn by Just Stop Oil protesters with those words in capitals printed on them.

    2. Don't tell Two Tier about this. He'll probably insist that the Brfitish taxpayer pays reparations.

    7. I confess that I laughed out loud at that. Oh the irony is unbearable.

      At the time of the George Floyd riots (sorry, mainly peaceful protests) in the US, the right-wing media proposed that BLM should stand for Burn Loot and Murder, as many black-owned business and shops were destroyed by fire in the riots. Then, when the news of how the donations to BLM were spent by the its leaders, that was changed to Buy Luxury Mansions. I guess the two alternatives need to be combined now.

    1. China being a close trading partner with Russia doesn’t matter then. We have principles. If you don’t like them, we have others.

    2. I hope Labour's Islamic vote isn't aware of how the Chinese treat their Muslims.
      Actually – yes I do.

    1. Canada has only promised another $400 million but there again, parliament is prorogued so they cannot pass spending bills.

  89. Renewables contributing 12,1% of UK electricity needs. Gas 54,6%. Plus gas CH as well, of course.

    1. There can be no other reason for Net Zero other than to destroy the British economy completely and to put the majority of the people into poverty so that a Communist state can be set up.

      Rachel from Accounts has made a start with the economic side of things; she has now gone to China to practise the diplomatic skills she learnt at the BoE when it was her turn to distribute the tea and hand out the biscuits when there weren't enough McVitie's chocolate digestives to go round.

  92. It says a lot about the state of the government of the UK and the way Society is disintegrating before our eyes when the current Government announced in summer an enquiry into the pricing of tickets for the 2025 Oasis concerts but refuse to hold an enquiry into the Gr***ing G**gs' activities.

    1. I don't want an enquiry into GG's activities, I want to see an enquiry into everyone who knew about the GGs and to establish exactly what they did, or did not do, to close them down and catch and prosecute the offenders.

    2. Also I noticed from comments on a local social media page that Labour's aim to set people against each other is working. There were some nasty comments about pensioners complaining about the loss of the WFA (from presumably younger people).

    1. Vicky C-M is a Lefty BBC placement. She rarely misses an opportunity to ridicule the Conservatives, even before they became ridiculous.

      1. Her father Alan Coren edited Punch for nearly a decade and also wrote quite amusing articles. I have The Sanity Inspector on my shelves.

        1. He was also the very witty team leader on Call My Bluff. His daughter married the Lefty BBC ‘Comic’, David Mitchell.

    1. Raja Miah is a star..
      Anti grooming gang campaigner described as 'a dangerous man' by senior Labour Party politicians now in government.

      When politicians like
      @AndyBurnhamGM
      suddenly 'change their mind' and admit to limitations to their published reports on the gang rape of children, it is not because they've seen the light. It is because the darkness has become too obvious to deny and they realise their careers are at risk.

  95. Afternoon, all. Fingers crossed I have a reliable internet connection today. Yesterday was extremely frustrating. Temperature still below zero C and the waste pipe in the bathroom froze up so the water wouldn't drain – this despite keeping the radiator on in the bathroom. Eventually I managed to get it cleared, but then the connection to the U bend started leaking. I knew I had some PTFE tape, but could I find it? I had visions of a flood, but fortunately, before the small basin (all I could fit in under the leak) overflowed I found the thread sealant and managed to stop the leak – phew! Life is never dull at chateau Conway! Kadi and I haven't had a proper walk for two days because the uncleared roads and pavements are a sheet of ice. I'd like to be able to dock them some of my council tax for lack of service provision.

    What symbolises all that is wrong with net zero is that it a) is totally unnecessary, b) ignores the real science, c) is going to lead blackouts because energy provision is totally inadequate and d) costs a fortune while wrecking the economy. Have I left anything out?

      1. How many of that 22% are ruing the day that their tribal voting has put the Country into real peril?

        1. I read somewhere that 22% of Labour voters didn't want an enquiry – presumably they are the muzzies.

          1. Grizzly, the new (Labour) MP for the Colchester constituency where Korky and I live voted to cancel the Winter Fuel Allowance and also NOT to have an enquiry into Muslim Gang Rape.

        1. I've a spare kitchen caddy I use in the van when iy's kitted for camping. Lined with a compostable bag first and disposed of in the 1st available dog-shit bin.

  97. Wordle 1,302 4/6

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

    Wordle 11 Jan 2025

    A grubby Par Four?

    1. I actually failed today, though this looks feasible. I was stumped and went looking for clues but inadvertently scrolled down too far and saw the answer. The first three lines are genuine guesses.

      Wordle 1,302 4/6

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

    2. Tricky word I thought – guessed the right one of two to get away with a bogey!

      Wordle 1,302 5/6

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

    3. I was led on a very miserable journey.

      Wordle 1,302 X/6

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

    4. That was a weird journey, almost nothing after three attempts but a worthwhile effort to find something / anything to help.

      Wordle 1,302 4/6

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

      1. What happened after your second attempt, Richard? It looks like you didn't search for a word in your third attempt which would include the two yellow ones found in your second attempt in a different position..

    1. How can that man say such things, is he a disciple of the Devil?
      Stupid question, really.
      Of course he is.

      The truly terrifying thing is that there will be literally millions of Muslims who agree.

    2. Islamic is NOT civic law. If you want to live under Islamic law, you HAVE to go to a country where Islamic law is civic law.

      i am not sure why its so difficult for the Left to understand this fundamental, but easy, point.

    3. There seems to be a conspiracy amongst western authorities and judiciary to either acquit these rapists or give them extremely soft sentences for some reason. Why is this happening?

      1. 399985+ upticks,

        Evening VW,

        I see it as,along with many other issues, demoralise the decent folk
        in a softening up campaign all roads are leading to RESET.

        There are also many among us that will assist the political overseers in their odious quest, lest we forget the grieving lady who’s son moved his chair closer
        to comfort her only to be told distance was the order of the day.

  103. Antifa & faaaar left out in force to disrupt AfD Conference. Musk streaming speeches live on X.
    Weimar Republic revisited.
    Lefties will lose.. as always.

  104. Farage clarification.. Leftie MSN deliberately mangled his interview. Members of Trump team suggested bringing back Shamima Begum to face Guantanamo Bay style trial.
    Farage said hmmm this is a conversation I need to have.

    Trust UK justice system? Nah.

          1. Sam Moore: a gutsy singer and half of the Sam & Dave double act, successful in the second half of the Sixties with such hits as Soul Man, Hold On, I'm Coming and Soul Sister, Brown Sugar, recorded in Memphis for the Stax record label. That still makes it four by my reckoning.

          7. I much admire Sam Cooke. He had a beautiful voice. His early death was a sad loss.

      4. Me neither. I’ve heard of Sam Cooke but he died in 1964. This seems to be another black singer.

      5. I bopped to Sam and Dave throughout the late 60s/early 70s. A far higher standard of music than those tired old greasy Teds from the 50s.🤣

        1. Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, B. B. King – those were the days.

  106. Well, that's me for today. An odd day – sleeping until lunchtime! I hope tonight is more usual. A very chilly night in store – down to minus 3ºC -so cats will be provided with a heater in the porch. Yes, we spoil them! And, yes, they expect it.

    Have a spiffing evening – we will watch the last part of the Battle of Crete on PSB America. I really DO recommend it.

    A demain.

          1. But, due to the absolute genius of devolution, it is concentrated here. Or, should I say, it was, because now it will be implemented across the rUK

    2. Find out who had the authority to drop it, and you'll almost certainly find the person who authorised it in the first place

      1. What was the nationality of the latest BBC perv to be outed but gently and lucratively unpunished?

      2. What was the nationality of the latest BBC perv to be outed but gently and lucratively unpunished?

    1. 20% of the British electorate inflicted these vindictive numpties on us.
      Aided and abetted by the crassest 14 years of an allegedly Conservative government.
      Please can Blighty become the 51st Sate? We are incapable of producing capable, let alone patriotic, politicians.

      2. 51st state? You will have to fight for that title.

        Maybe Greenland will just be a US territory like Guam or Puerto Rico but Western Canadians and Trump are all gooey eyed about the possibilities.

    2. I like the idea of Starmer being prosecuted in the US – perhaps he would be extradited via the famous treaty? – but I still have a very strong feeling of sitting in the front row of the stalls while a theatre piece is played out for my benefit.

  109. Let's hear it for East Anglia.
    It is also jolly nice cream and butter.

    "Fen Farm Dairy, in Bungay, said that it's Baron Bigod cheese was praised by Fine Food Digest annual best brands survey.

    The post on social media said: "We were beyond excited to receive the news last night that Baron Bigod has won Best British Cheese for the 3rd year running, in the Fine Food Digest annual Best Brands survey!

    "This enormous survey was based on votes by independent retailers such as farm shops, delis and cheesemongers across the UK, so we want to say a massive thank you, not only to those who voted for us but also to all of you who have popped into your local shop and bought a piece of Baron over the past year. Every one of you have helped us to achieve this."

    1. But, natch, cancelled because no descendants of slaves enslaved people were involved in the process.

    2. Do they use Bovaer…?
      I wrote to St Helens goats milk dairy to ask them recently, and they confirmed that they don't use any such additives.

      1. That’s what I thought (and said), Bill, bean as e woz a Wrapper, which is why I was directed to this song and given a firm telling off. I have to confess that the song is beautiful and the singer a Christian.

        1. Have just read up n Wikipedia and he worked in an oil refinery in Southampton for two years! And yes, he is a Christian.

  113. The former Labour MP for Hove, Ivor Caplin, was arrested today (Saturday 11 January) after a sting by paedophile hunters.

    The sting was live-streamed on Facebook and further footage of the arrest was shared online.

    Sussex Police said: “We are aware of footage circulating on social media showing a man in Brighton being detained on suspicion of engaging in online sexual communications with a child.

    “Officers can confirm that a local 66-year-old man was arrested on Saturday January 11 and currently remains in custody. https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2025/01/11/former-hove-mp-arrested/

    1. White paedophile man arrested. Photo released immediately. Deflection. He may have child porn on his computer. Highly unlikely he took part in gang torture, rape and murder.

    2. Some times they seem to go out of their way to name shame and blame and make certain points which is understandable. But seemingly not as often as they should.

      1. They hardly bother with that. The Left can be guaranteed to close ranks. Heck the entire political class protect their own.

    4. Known as squirrel Caplin, Igor agreed to be the fall guy in exchange for Gawd knows what benefits for his family and friends.

  115. Does anyone know anything about the French animal bronze sculptor Pierre Jules Mene?
    I recently bought a little horse signed P J Mene, but I think it is a copy, or a cast made by someone else after his death. The detail is not very good and the horse is cast in brass, not bronze. Still a beautiful horse and I only paid peanuts for it, but am curious as I have never seen a sculpture like this in brass before.

      1. Obviously I looked up the basics, else how would I know his name?

        I suspect my horse comes from Birmingham and is a 20th century fake. Heart stopped when I saw the prices that Mene's work goes for, but I don't think there is any danger of that. Just wondered if anyone had come across brass animal castings or if Mene ever worked in brass.
        Fortunately I bought it because I liked it, and none of my horse sculptures have cost more than about 50 pounds anyway!

        1. There were lots of copies (quite legitimately as the foundries bought the rights). Does it have a Brummy accent? 🙂

  118. I'm orff to bed. I really enjoyed watching the TV programme Our Tiny Islands.
    Not so much all the botanical gardening in the Scilly's but a lot of the other places appeal to me.
    Good night all 😴

  121. The Mystery of the Climate Change Act 2008 and Lord Adair Turner.

    ''Are there any other points you wish to draw to my attention, Mr Holmes?''

    ''To the curious matter of Lord Adair Turner, Inspector Gregory''.

    ''George Soros' close friend, Lord Adair Turner, has managed the Climate Change Act 2008 for most of the last seventeen years, Mr Holmes''.

    ''That, Inspector Gregory, is the curious matter''.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9963050/Lord-Turner-forms-unlikely-alliance-with-Soros.html

    1. Increasingly ignoring the political fall out of Labour's support base being exposed as savage child rapists I think far too many of them would be hauled out as paedophiles. After all, harm-to-man wanted to promote paedophlilia with PIE.

  123. We left early for a swimming competition and Warqueen and I nipped to a charity gym classes event in the meanwhile. Then I spent the afternoon playing with a computer for a customer while she read her Jeff Booth book. After some risotto we both 'stopped' and fell asleep.

    We were both awake late in the night – well, morning – where I was trying to think of ways to keep the company making money and she lied about wanting some water to join me. El Warqueen can be a royal pain in the bottom sometimes, but that night, when it was 13' c downstairs, wrapped in blankets with her insomniac husband she is really quite special.

      1. She wouldn't understand it if she did. Reeves is a stupid woman who refuses to make the necessary decisions because it undermines her politically.

        1. Principles for Navigating Debt Crises, there are four ways to navigate debt crises:

          Austerity
          Debt defaults or restructuring
          Central bank printing and other monetary stimulus
          Transfers of wealth (i.e. higher taxes for the rich) and universal basic income

          The unfortunate reality is that policymakers almost always turn to the last two options, and mostly option 3.

          Central bank stimulus aims to sustain the debt-driven growth, at least in the short run. People feel richer, asset prices appreciate, but eventually the effects of currency debasement take their toll.

          Ultimately, the strategy fails because bondholders begin to price the risk. Societies become increasingly polarized, too, and as inequality increases, the risk of totalitarianism grows. Worse, history tells us that this process often precedes revolutions and wars.

          Option 4 is also not an optimal solution. Higher taxes on the wealthy create disincentives to innovate and drive growth. Again, this means that we create a drag on the growth that policymakers desperately need to support the debt.

          Universal basic income (UBI) is another probable approach. Not only does it disincentivise work and incentivise being paid for nothing, but this policy is also practically complex to administer. But the real problem here is that wealth transfers simply don’t address the root cause of the problem.

          Both approaches ignore the necessity and inevitability of a debt reset. But worse, both options rely on governments controlling monetary policy and controlling the value of money.

          Our debt spiral started as a result of the scrapping of the gold standard. Booth points to Bitcoin as an example of a potential monetary solution, which is decentralised in nature, fixed in supply, and, in theory, unable to be manipulated by anyone.

          To truly resolve our debt spiral and to take advantage of the age of deflation, Booth advocates the simplest solution of all. Why don’t we stop intervening and simply let deflation play out? Booth believes that while it may be painful at first, the long-term result is much more preferable than sustaining the debt cycle for longer.

          Gawd, I do love my laptop.

          1. Bitcoin, or a blockchain backed system would be a good replacement for Sterling. The problem is, big fat state wouldn't be able to devalue it.

            Fundamentally state speding must be cut. I get it; there's a consideration that 200,000 civil servants being sacked would mean less money going in to local shops but that money comes from local shops in the first place. All public sector pay is just welfare of a form. We do not need 150,000 civil servants in the MoD. There's half that many serving soldiers and it's proved itself incompetent.

      2. She wouldn't understand it if she did. Reeves is a stupid woman who refuses to make the necessary decisions because it undermines her politically.

    2. Hairy dogs, just as warm and less trouble. Fine words of wisdom… having been to the pub! Hic.

    1. It was 16 upstairs, but we have the thermostat up there because when it was downstairs, upstairs got to 23-24'c and more, the heat pump went ballistic and was using KW a minute.

      You can't go anywhere here without your attendant floof. Folk say Newfoundland's are people dogs, but it's true. They really don't like to be away from you.

    1. It is just a shocking state of affairs, we all know this was, and still is going on, but few people will talk.

    2. I said earlier over at Free Speech Backlash and I'll say it here. Another example of a Labour politician believing we are all just one goose-step away from Ethno Nationalist violence. It shows how corrupt, rotten and jaundiced a view of the British people many in the Labour Party and the wider Left have.

  126. Goodnight, everyone. Dog needs to be woken up to go to bed. I've got the hot water bottles in and the Rayburn is made up and ticking over nicely. I hope the thaw will have set in for tomorrow and I'll be able to get to church.

  128. Dominic Cummings is helping orchestrate Elon Musk’s vitriolic attacks on British politicians including Sir Keir Starmer, senior Government sources have claimed.

    Boris Johnson’s former No 10 adviser – who is planning a new ‘StartUp Party’ which he hopes will smash the traditional Westminster system – is understood to be communicating with Mr Musk on WhatsApp.

    The sources say that Mr Cummings, who has called for huge cuts to the size of the British state, is advising Mr Musk on his mission to slash trillions of dollars from US government spending on behalf of incoming President Donald Trump.

    But they also believe Mr Cummings has encouraged Mr Musk’s incendiary social media posts calling for Sir Keir to be removed from office and even imprisoned amid criticism of the Prime Minister’s record on the grooming gangs scandal.

    Mr Musk has also called for Nigel Farage to be toppled, although the Reform UK leader yesterday said he was back on good terms with the owner of X.

    Sources close to Mr Farage said the Tesla billionaire regretted his broadside and that the pair have since reconciled. ‘Musk felt a bit contrite. It’s all fine now,’ an insider told The Mail on Sunday.

    Labour’s suspicions Mr Musk and Mr Cummings were in cahoots were aroused by the tech tycoon’s use of British terminology such as ‘two-tier Keir’ and the timings of his posts.

    Many were put out in the middle of the night in America – coinciding with daytime in the UK – leading the sources to conclude Mr Musk ‘must have a UK-based co-conspirator writing the posts for him’. However, tweets can be scheduled to go out at any time.

    Dominic Cummings is helping orchestrate Elon Musk’s vitriolic attacks on British politicians including Sir Keir Starmer, senior Government sources have claimed.

    Boris Johnson’s former No 10 adviser – who is planning a new ‘StartUp Party’ which he hopes will smash the traditional Westminster system – is understood to be communicating with Mr Musk on WhatsApp.

    The sources say that Mr Cummings, who has called for huge cuts to the size of the British state, is advising Mr Musk on his mission to slash trillions of dollars from US government spending on behalf of incoming President Donald Trump.

    But they also believe Mr Cummings has encouraged Mr Musk’s incendiary social media posts calling for Sir Keir to be removed from office and even imprisoned amid criticism of the Prime Minister’s record on the grooming gangs scandal.

    Mr Musk has also called for Nigel Farage to be toppled, although the Reform UK leader yesterday said he was back on good terms with the owner of X.

    Sources close to Mr Farage said the Tesla billionaire regretted his broadside and that the pair have since reconciled. ‘Musk felt a bit contrite. It’s all fine now,’ an insider told The Mail on Sunday.

    Labour’s suspicions Mr Musk and Mr Cummings were in cahoots were aroused by the tech tycoon’s use of British terminology such as ‘two-tier Keir’ and the timings of his posts.

    Many were put out in the middle of the night in America – coinciding with daytime in the UK – leading the sources to conclude Mr Musk ‘must have a UK-based co-conspirator writing the posts for him’. However, tweets can be scheduled to go out at any time.

    An ally of Mr Musk said it was '100 per cent true' that he was in dialogue with former Number 10 adviser Dominic Cummings

    Cummings is planning a new ‘StartUp Party’ which he hopes will smash the traditional Westminster system – is understood to be communicating with Mr Musk via WhatsApp

    There had previously been rumours that Mr Musk was planning to donate $100 million to Nigel Farage's Reform Party

    An ally of Mr Musk said: ‘It is 100 per cent true that they [Musk and Cummings] are talking about smaller government and the end of the traditional party system.

    ‘It is not just Elon – Dom is in constant contact with major Silicon Valley figures, who are becoming increasingly anti-woke’.

    Sources said Mr Cummings and Mr Musk were exchanging ideas via a WhatsApp group shared with an unidentified American businessman.

    Last week, it was claimed that Mr Musk, who also owns SpaceX and is worth an estimated £339 billion, had spoken in private to associates about ways to destabilise the British Government, motivated by concerns that ‘Western civilisation itself was threatened’ by Labour policies.

    It was reported that he had sought information about whether it might be possible to build support for alternative British political movements.

    On X, Mr Musk has described the Prime Minister as ‘evil’, and said he should be in prison as he was ‘complicit in the rape of Britain’ during his tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions, when police were investigating grooming gangs.

    He also asked his 210 million online followers whether America should ‘liberate’ Britain from its ‘tyrannical government’. Sir Keir accused Mr Musk of ‘spreading lies and misinformation’.

    It was revealed last week that the Home Office’s Homeland Security group, which is responsible for reducing national security risks, was monitoring Mr Musk’s posts.

    1. I've got a problem with Cummings – he's a treacherous bastard that cant be trusted.

      Unfortunately it doesnt reflect well on Musk – but I dont believe he gives a flying youknowwhat anyway…..(good on him!)

      2. He can be trusted to do what's right for his vision of the world. At one point it seemed Bunter shared that vision. Then he didn't.

        I got the impression from his covid inquiry rhetoric that he was in charge and had been elected PM. Bunter was just a necessity.

        1. Sorry AA (nice to see you here btw!) but he'd sell his own granny down the road if he thought it might cover his own treacherous arse……

          1. I've not followed him in too close a detai to assert such. However this would be consistent with his covid inquiry contribution which I did listen to.

      3. He can be trusted to do what's right for his vision of the world. At one point it seemed Bunter shared that vision. Then he didn't.

        I got the impression from his covid inquiry rhetoric that he was in charge and had been elected PM. Bunter was just a necessity.

    2. "Mr Musk has also called for Nigel Farage to be toppled".

      Ah, it all makes sense now. If there's anyone more interested in blocking Farage it's probably Cummings; more so than Starmer or Badenoch I'd guess.

      Elon musk be feeling like a bit of a ninny right now

  129. Many atheists are beginning to believe in God because they can see that only He can and will will make Starmer and the whole of his evil government rot in Hell.

    (removed from DT's BTLs)

    1. Starmer and Co being in their present positions of power must be making a lot of people disbelieve in any Christian God.

  131. In this era of mass surveillance, facial recognition, all our personal and medical data on line, we can be tracked by our mobile phones, devices in our homes can listen to what we say.

    While all the time we are told by government and powers that be that if we have nothing to hide, then we have nothing to fear.

    So then why can't we have an open national public inquiry into the grooming gang scandals.
    After all if the powers that be have nothing to hide then they have nothing to fear.

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