Saturday 14 December: Mounting costs for consumers count for little in Ed Miliband’s drive for clean energy

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

602 thoughts on “Saturday 14 December: Mounting costs for consumers count for little in Ed Miliband’s drive for clean energy”

    1. If Trump puts a stop to net zero nonsense in the US, it would become harder for our zealots to push it through here.
      The danger is that it will be stopped in a controlled way after it has already destroyed British farming and industry, just as mass migration will be "halted" when the invasion has already gone too far to stop.
      It must not be forgotten, that it will get harder and harder for them to carry on pretending that the earth is getting hotter if we are heading into a mini ice age during the coming decade as predicted by Zharkova and others.

      1. It just shows yet again how so many people are mugs.Climate change takes hundreds of years to happen it goes up and down all the time. When you see the list of lies yet people still believe it all.

        1. 398786+ up ticks,

          Morning JN,

          Many still believe in the lab/lib/con parties and at last count 48% wanted to be incarcerated

        2. I think we’re just about at tipping point of enough people not believing in it. Those that do, are in a cult though, and will go to their graves with their beliefs.

        1. Minorities will suddenly stop being special and we'll be told "we're the global majority, you must give way to us"
          It's already happening.

    2. When it comes to destroying the economy we are streets ahead of him. Anyway, look on the bright side – when Minibrain the Marxist was asked in the Commons whether he had disclosed certain information about giving a job to someone closely connected to a 'green' donation to Labour of £4m+, he blustered the usual 'all procedures were followed' guff. If it had been disclosed then a straight 'yes' would have sufficed. As it is, he may now be on the same slippery slope that Johnson found himself on – and we all know where that leads. Please, please let it be!

      Worth signing up to Andrew Montford's excellent Net Zero Watch – https://www.netzerowatch.com/

    1. PS interesting wordle today!
      well, interesting if you are interested in wordle and your name does not begin with B. T.
      Wordle 1,274 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟨🟨🟩🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Made it in four.
        Wordle 1,274 4/6

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

  5. Good morning to Geoff and Everybody – somebody's up very early!
    Today's Tales
    The husband comes home early from work and finds his neighbour in bed with his wife.
    “I’ve looked after you all these years, you bastard!” he shouted at his neighbour, “I’ve lent you money, loaned you my car, after all I’ve done for you … and stop doing that while I’m talking to you!”

    Adam was lonely in the garden of Eden so he spoke to God.
    “Hey God, how about some company?”
    “OK,” said God, “I’ll send you Woman. She’ll be beautiful, charming and intelligent. She’ll cook and clean for you and she’ll never argue.”
    “Sounds great!” said Adam. “But how much will she cost?"
    “An arm and a leg, Adam.”
    “Gee … what can I get for just a rib?”

    1. Oggie, you really do confuse me. What on earth is a 15 budgie perch nooter?!?!? (Good morning, btw.)

      1. 398786+ up ticks,

        Morning EB,

        Sorry for the confusion. my tribal Chathamese slip showing,

        An elongated nasal canal container.

        AKA,
        Pinocchio syndrome.

        1. I remember a guy who boasted that he could get 12 budgies standing along his willie but it turned out the end one was only standing on one leg

    2. Yo ogga

      To Angela deRaynged

      I have lots of bridges for you to buy, to get to the new housing

  9. The unmasking of Prince Andrew’s ‘confidant’ is a wake-up call to the threat we face from China. 14 December 2024.

    The UFWD is not a secret organisation, though much of its work is hidden, but it is perhaps the most important means of spreading Chinese influence abroad. The long-standing CCP doctrine about the UFWD is that intelligence should be “nestled” within it. The main way it works is to establish those famous “ties” and then, when necessary, to tighten them. What looks at first like friendship can become coercive. Information extracted by these ties will be relayed to Beijing. It can be used to discredit, blackmail or threaten any contact whom the UFWD decides is uppity, unreliable or worth frightening.

    This is a little thick coming from a Globalist mouthpiece that produces reams of propaganda and routinely censors its reader’s comments. The unpleasant truth is that there is now very little to choose between governance in the UK and China.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/13/duke-of-york-confidant-is-a-wake-up-call-to-china-threat/

    1. Which is more dangerouserer to us Nottlers (and UK in general)

      The influence exerted by the man person who runs the local slopehead nosh shop, ie Chinese

      or

      That exerted on our government by:
      Gates
      Soros
      Davos etc
      WET and all the other Initialisms that direct Starmer (spits) and Co

    2. What is UFWD? I abhor these abbreviations without lucid explanation.United Fuckwits Department?

      1. Morning Tom. United Front Work Department (UFWD). A euphemism for a department within the Chinese Intelligence Community.

        1. Good morning, Minty. You seem to be a woman who understands these strange acronyms. Have you ever considered bringing out a reference book to help people like Tom and me? I am sure it would sell in millions and make you a fortune. Incidentally, on Thursday I was enjoying a meal with friends and one chum spoke about some medical condition which she said was FSD (an example, not the real thing which I can no longer remember). I expressed some confusion and so I asked exactly what FSD meant. The reply came from another chum who explained that it meant something like Social Diseased Fonticella. But, I said, that would be SDF and not FSD. Oh, said first chum, I was mistaken. You see my problem?

    1. John Finch is not a "working person" and is therefore not covered by manifesto pledges.

      Executives are however, especially those employed to make "hard decisions" when confronting public concerns. I heard a serious call for them to be "paid like footballers" in order for their remuneration to be competitive with the Americans. No doubt "hard decisions" need to be taken to pay for it, such as closing down family farms and hardworking developer corporations getting their land cheap for executive housing. Good for growth, we are told.

      1. 398786+ up ticks,

        Morning G,
        The end game was on the cards the minute “miranda” laid down the welcome mat decades ago.
        Mass treacherous idiocy via the polling stations perpetual voting
        motion did the rest right up to 2024.

        Endgame, fight or flight.

        2. He (Bliar) getting what he wanted – although I don’t know why he wanted ID cards in the first place. But there’s a letter in today’s Terriblegraph along the lines of, “I was always anti -ID cards but now there are so many illegals in the country I have come round to thinking they are a good idea”.

          I did wonder if the letter-writer has a point – Bliar wants ID cards and there is a stronger case for them now.

    2. The BBC had a propaganda clip about this on the "News" yesterday. It was about ten minutes long and featured heroic cops against depraved rioters. Finished with. "I'd do it again. As often as its needed." Not something that one hears often nowadays.

      1. In the 80s Private Eye ran a regular pee-take of The Sun running stories about the great many success strong wheat 5 year plan of SkyBSB masquerading as news.
        No different to the BBC pushing DEI & CRT. Surprised they didn't insert a mention of Stephen Lawrence.

        1. Private Eye was the only publication that kept the Post Office Horizon scandal in the news.

          During the general election Ed Davey who was minister responsible for the P.O made an utter fool of himself with all his water baby antics.

          If any more proof were needed that he is a total wanker he agreed to appear on HIGNFY

          Ian Hislop made him squirm.

          The man is an idiot.

          2. I agree Bill (and good moaning, btw). These days he epitomises the smug establishment type, which is why I gave up taking PE several years ago.

          3. He is a persistent and tediously repetitive commenter BTL on The Grimes. No matter what subject, he always brings the evils of Brexit into it.

          7. Computer Weekly kept on with publicising the Horizon scandal as well as Private Eye, but understandably a more niche publication.

  13. Hurrah, my Wordle results at last are showing properly! And of course, Good Morning chums. And thank you, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe page.

    Wordle 1,274 5/6

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

    1. Over a very long time, I have been baffled by these Wordle posts. All I ever get are blank squares. How does it work?

      1. Good morning, Jeremy. When you have completed the day's Wordle (I am assuming that you know how to do this) whether the solution is reached in two, three, four, or however many attempts, you can click on "share" which will copy your solution and keep it in its memory. When you post your solution just click on your mouse and the entire picture of grey yellow and green will appear.

        1. Doesn't help me read the solutions posted up, and no, I don't know how to complete the day's Wordle.

          1. I prefer sudokus – there is an excellent site on the internet : https://www.websudoku.com/ which gives puzzles at four different levels: Easy – Medium – Hard – and Evil.

            Easy and Medium are too easy to be challenging but the Hard ones are the ones I do regukarly. Evil ones are difficult but doable if you take notes.

            You can print them or you can do them on line

          7. OK, Jeremy, perhaps this will help you. Google Wordle and write Wordle in the Google space, then press enter. The screen will change to "Today's Wordle page". Then you will be asked to click on New York Times who own the copyright to Wordle. You will then be asked to enter a favourite five letter word, and I always type AUDIO and press "Enter". At this point any letters that appear in the day's solution will be shown in either green (which means that you have that letter in the correct position) or yellow (meaning that the letter you have chosen will appear in the final answer but NOT in that position). The reason why I start with AUDIO is because it contains every vowel except for E. Let's say that U appears in green, i.e. the letter U is in second place, then all of the other letters do NOT occur in the solution, and in fact they will appear in black on the screen to avoid you making the mistake of wasting another guess using a letter which you have established as not existing in the solution.

            You can then see if you can think of a word to fit with _ U _ _ _. Let's say you try GUEST as your second try. The second letter will still be in green since it is in the correct place. But none of the other letters occur so they will be blacked out when you try your third guess. And you will have discovered that the vowel E is not in the solution. Another "vowel" sound-alike might be the letter Y so you can try it out with your third guess which might be F U N N Y. Yet again, only the green U will be shown as correct so we now know that Y is not in the solution. We are now into your fourth guess. You might try B U R L Y. This is a valid word, but you have not noticed that you have already used the letter Y which your fourth guess told you would not occur in the correct answer.

            Nonetheless it may be that B or R or L do occur in the final word either in the correct spot (green) or perhaps in a different place (yellow) which will help you when you attempt your fifth guess. Once you have guessed correctly (and I cannot think of one solution for this imaginary word) then all letters will be in green so you know you have guessed correctly. The page will now ask you if you wish to share the solution with your chums, so if you click on this then it will say something like "Stored in the Memory"

            When you next post on the NoTTLe site the entire chart will appear. so that others can see how you did. If you got it on your final (sixth) guess, the bottom line will be all green, but if you failed on the final guess then one of the letters will be grey suggesting, for example, that you got _ UNNY but you didn't guess that the first letter was not B but F as there were at that point at least two options to choose from and you chose the wrong one. I hope that this helps.

          8. Thanks. I got it in four, and it would have been three had I not dismissed the word for being too silly and currently presidential.

  15. Well, I thank you for that, but you must admit that some of your posts are incredibly obscure.

    2. 398786+ up ticks,

      EB,
      I consider us to be on a war footing against these criminal political overseers, so name rank & number is the order of the day, admit to nothing especially being guilty, unless you are a porridge addict.

  16. 'Morning All
    Saturday Laffs
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9906ad466ec96313af129a331ac758ea38b588d99a91a7a3b1ebd2c01ff00e16.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/95d2a3d41d369de4d59d00be5e9c9d43710ae209914fa02a75d95dd6e7d03d38.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aa6b7cb72bcb9b47da565860a09dd332ffbc7c141cd94a51d4936f229c88c15a.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5257de027f8f48af0668963b0f3a5501cd1e99c846628856eba9a5f2aabe35f8.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7743b7d4e2b6e766bd140a841412fcd7dcd612bc80184588af31d1f22012b868.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e73ed3372a72c92a4a5d516ae1f47e0687fd14bbe66cb04c31c157c32400fb28.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c9105a9949a83fe195c0c003f60df63d31758c2a777c56536bcd5daab361b1c1.png

    2. Am I unique? I have never heard anything sung by Mariah Carey, and I have no wish to change things.

  17. SIR – Does anything better encapsulate the beigeness of Sir Keir Starmer than his regular lunch of a tuna sandwich (report, December 13)?

    Keith Phair
    Felixstowe, Suffolk

    Tuna is an apex predator.
    Mercury increases as it travels up the food chain.

    Studies show that mercury affects the central nervous system.

    Explains a lot.

    1. I simply do not like the flavour of tunny, so I avoid it.

      Bacon and mushrooms (fried in the bacon fat) suits me.

    2. I simply do not like the flavour of tunny, so I avoid it.

      Bacon and mushrooms (fried in the bacon fat) suits me.

  19. Good morning, all. Overcast and wet at the moment. Possibility of seeing the Sun later, what joy!

    What is going on re the potions?

    Australia:

    https://x.com/craigkellyXXX/status/1867660764351541580
    https://x.com/liz_churchill10/status/1867651523989450909

    UK: Not for publication documents released. Many names listed but quite a few redactions.
    https://x.com/lawrie_dr/status/1867675369756827687
    Tess Lawrie – Inject Now Pay Later Substack

    What now, MHRA?

    1. add to list..

      Ending of the Gareth Wokegate regime along with that school dinner fella.. whatshisname.. that rapper in Belfast.

    2. Anti-vaccine doctor wins bid to resume medical practice
      By Rex Martinich
      Updated December 13 2024 – 8:01am, first published 7:55am
      Facebook
      Twitter
      Whatsapp
      Email
      Dr William Bay, who protested against COVID-19 vaccination, has had a medical ban overturned. Photo: Darren England/AAP PHOTOS
      Dr William Bay, who protested against COVID-19 vaccination, has had a medical ban overturned. Photo: Darren England/AAP PHOTOS

      Supporters have clapped and cheered in court after a doctor who clashed with regulators over COVID-19 vaccines had a medical ban lifted.

      Dr William Anicha Bay had his registration as a medical practitioner suspended by the Medical Board of Australia on August 17, 2022 in response to five complaints involving his anti-vaccine activities.

      Brisbane Supreme Court Justice Thomas Bradley overturned that suspension on Friday after finding Dr Bay had been subject to "bias and failure to afford fair process" over complaints unrelated to his clinical practice.

      Justice Bradley said he was not entering the debate about COVID-19 vaccines.

      "The court is concerned only with whether the decision or the conduct (of the medical board) was free from an error," Justice Bradley stated.

      One of the complaints was that Dr Bay had posted a social media video claiming COVID-19 vaccines had killed his patient and harmed others.

      Another complaint stated Dr Bay had attended an anti-vaccination protest outside the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) office in Brisbane in July 2022.

      A health professional filed a mandatory complaint that Dr Bay had interrupted an Australian Medical Association conference while live streaming video to the internet, yelling "stop forcing these vaccines on the people of Australia who are getting killed by them".

      The medical board found Dr Bay's public statements undermined medical regulators' "position on COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccination".

      It said his statements also "further contravenes the position of local, state and federal government and health authorities, which are in place to protect public health and safety".

      Justice Bradley said the COVID-19 pandemic was an "extraordinary period of history" in which governments encouraged widespread vaccine use.

      However he said that did not allow the medical board to deny Dr Bay information about the complaints or disregard potential bias at hearings.

      "None of these measures extended the board's regulatory role to include protection of government and regulatory agencies from political criticism," Justice Bradley said.

      He ordered the medical board and AHPRA to cover Dr Bay's reasonable legal costs as the regulators had extended the proceedings and made partial admissions at a late stage.

      Australian Associated Press

      Not quite so clear cut as his video suggests.

  20. Доброе утро, товарищи,

    Light grey at McPhee Towers, light wind from the North-West, 5℃-6℃ all day.

    Andrew Bridgen is optimistic about 2025. He reckons the climate and convid conspiracies are going to be blown wide open when the Trump administration takes office, and the Ukraine tragedy brought to a close. A hurricane will come across the Atlantic and blow away the political lighweights running our country. The Tories won't escape, especially the Tories. The worry is what might happen between now and then. There are mad men (and women) on the loose. Very much worth listening to but, boy, does Jim Ferguson like the sound of his own voice.

    https://x.com/ABridgen/status/1867661091461079521

  21. SIR – I once made the huge mistake of ordering a pint of Guinness in a pub in Cork. I got a lecture from the barman in English and Irish before he deigned to serve me with a pint of Murphy’s (Features, December 12).

    David Nunn
    West Malling, Kent

    To be sure, Dave, I would have said "feck you" to any Mick (or anyone else for that matter) who made a decision on what I "ought" to drink.

    I know a lot of people (including many NoTTLers) like to enjoy a pint of the Black Velvet. I have to say, though, that I am not among them. I have abhored the flavour of milk stout (including Guinness) since I first started imbibing beer. Similarly I have never found any discerning depth of flavour in the old-fashioned beer known as 'mild'. As for the cat's piss called lager, well, you can keep it. Similar for any beer-like substance served up from a bottle or … far worse … a tin can!

    No, for me a decent, well-cellared, foaming pint of a top-quality English cask-conditioned bitter ale is as good as it gets.

    Still, we're all different.

    1. IPA for me – my local gets it in specially for their English clients, of which they have many.
      Or Weissbier. Strong Thatchers dry cider.
      In different glasses, obviously.
      Morning, Grizz.

        1. Still. Chilly. Sunrise a few minutes ago.
          Good friend sent sms from Thailand where she's on Christmas holiday… horrible woman!

        2. Beautiful sunshine, about -2C, absolutely no wind. Just about to have Italian lunch… Cheersh!

    2. IPA for me – my local gets it in specially for their English clients, of which they have many.
      Or Weissbier. Strong Thatchers dry cider.
      In different glasses, obviously.
      Morning, Grizz.

    3. You Mr G

      Never ask for a pint of Black and Tan, in rePUBliCAN areas

      A black and tan is prepared by filling a glass halfway with pale ale, then adding stout to fill the glass completely. An upside-down tablespoon may be placed over the glass to avoid splashing and mixing the layers.

      1. Bejabers, Mr Effort!

        Sounds as delightful as a pint of half-and-half.

        Like the jerry pot full of urine thrown out the window by the pub landlord onto Richard Gere and his pal's heads in Yanks!

        "Half-and-half coming up, lads. Half's mine: half's the wife's!"

    4. Here's a true story.
      Late 90s after playing golf in Cork with a 16 member holiday golf society from North London area. We had been held up during the round.
      The local club captain made a welcoming speech while we sat down for a drink after. He made apologies for the delay. And said the club would be happy to give a pint of Guinness as a gesture of good will. One chap put his hand up and said can I have a pint of cider please ?
      The captain replied, well then, that's 15 pints of Guinness and a pinta cider for the poof. All done with much humour.

    5. When my elder sister, Belinda, was pregnant she was told by her doctor to drink a bottle of Mackeson Stout every day.

      1. My mother was told the same during her five confinements. Her preference, though, was Jubilee stout.

        1. Do you remember when you had, every evening, a choice of Guinness or Brandy at night, in British hospitals, or was that a military hospital thing?

          1. Might be. When I produced the boys, most of my contemporary gals of breeding age would choose the Military Hospital rather than the Maternity Home which was very run-down.
            I side stepped the whole issue by giving birth at home.
            (The Military Hospital is no more; that spot is now covered with ticky tacky houses and flats.)

      2. During the Autumn on the geriatric wards, we used to persuade the doctors to diagnose all the old biddies with anaemia. This meant they were prescribed stout to build them up. You just had to remember to lock the clinic room door as the stocks built up.
        A jolly Christmas was had by all.

      3. During the Autumn on the geriatric wards, we used to persuade the doctors to diagnose all the old biddies with anaemia. This meant they were prescribed stout to build them up. You just had to remember to lock the clinic room door as the stocks built up.
        A jolly Christmas was had by all.

      1. It might be good for donkeys (or Pat Taaffe, or Anne, Duchess of Westminster) but I won’t drink it.

      1. Joining you in scuttlebutt stakes, I've always wondered about his different appearance from his three siblings.

          1. He may be an out and out rogue but he is certainly rather better looking than his siblings.

            There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.

            [King Duncan on the Thane of Cawdor]

          2. There seems to be a curious "favourite (rogue) son" parallel between the former HM and one of her former PMs (Lady Thatcher).

            Both progeny were over-entitled, spoilt, and thought they were 'waterproof' in their clandestine dealings.

            Apparently.

        2. Aspersions cast on his dear mother? Surely not!
          I remember the bells ringing in 1960 on the day my mum took me to see a foal.

  24. Good day all.

    Today is the first day of FSB's Christmas, and we kick it off by forgetting all the troubles of this world for the day, offering two short stories, one by Paul Sutton and the other by Charles Dickens , just to get us in the festive mood. We'll get back to teeth gnashing tomorrow, but will also have a short Christmas story every day for the next twelve days.

    I you want more serious stuff today, please explore FSB's nooks and crannies, where there be dragons. If you haven't done so, read Dr Malhotra' s open letter on the great covid death vaccine scandal, or Iain Hunter' s piece on all ou favourite topic, taxation and it's evil effect. My piece on British Genocide is still there, but click on the writers tab, use the big grey arrows on the home page to scroll passed the last 50 articles or so, or click on the category tabs to see what lurks beneath.

    Energy watch: Demand: 32.738GW. Supply: Hydrocarbons 36.1%; Wind 32.96%; Imports 7.7%, Biomass 7.1% and Nuclear12%.

    freespeechbaclash.com

    1. Reality would be them lying on the ground with their heads chopped off by the windmills of course…

  27. Morning all 🙂😊
    The weather experts need to wave their arms around more, it's still cloudy and damp.
    Millipede is simply trying to justify his existence. If he was really and honestly interested in clean energy he'd move to the middle east and shout and wave his arms about there. Every ounce of CO2 he saves is drownd by the tonnes produced by buring oil.
    And on the sad dick night hood suggestion, wasn't he as a lawyer, once involved in the defence of the London Bombers.
    If he was it's Hardly a qualification for the once prestigious position.

    1. Millipede has certainly justified his existence.

      He has used taxpayers' money to bail out Veritas, a "green" company which pays its top people top money.

      All will be surprised to see the same names, Kinnock's daughter in law, David Milliband and other leftie fellow travellers

  28. Morning, all Y'all.
    Reluctant sunrise, just about up now at 09:40 local time. Otherwise, clear sky and completely still.

    2. An accident with an (emphasised) E bike, according to the press. Slight head injury.
      Still walking and talking.

  30. Good Moaning.
    Lot of Dunkelflaute.
    If only the Germans had cloudy weather, imagine what word they would have invented.

  31. According to the BBC.. (pull out personal compass and proceed 180 degree opposite).

    A British intelligence official has claimed that drone sightings near military bases across the world have 'all the hallmarks' of Russian spies, who could soon coordinate attacks on sensitive UK military infrastructure and industrial sites.
    Amid heightened tensions between Moscow and NATO, a number of unidentified drones were spotted over three US airbases in Britain last month. About 60 RAF personnel have been sent to assist the US Air Force in its investigation..

    Biden administration up to more of their shady shenanigans.

    1. How can an ordinary American hold their heads up proudly after that nasty old git has delved into so much.

      1. Considering that Russia has satellites and modern satellites can read a car number plate, why would they be flying drones in hostile air space? The British intelligence official is obviously lacking in brain power. With people like that no wonder the country is going to hell in a hand basket. He's thicker than your average person in the street. Or what is more likely. He doesn't exist and the entire comment is the fabrication of some gormless civil servant.

    1. Good morning, Grizzly

      I think I mentioned the woman a couple of days ago!

      I said the Raquel Welch, the pin-up, was admired for her desirable figure whereas our chancellor, aka Rachel Welsh, has Welshed on all her promises and her mendacious fiscal figures are totally undesirable.

      3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4aeb39de64fb03b30d470a8ca045fada2d3df38d9048fe70e8db8ce070df74d5.png
        Sunny Prestatyn : Philip Larkin

        Come To Sunny Prestatyn
        Laughed the girl on the poster,
        Kneeling up on the sand
        In tautened white satin.
        Behind her, a hunk of coast, a
        Hotel with palms
        Seemed to expand from her thighs and
        Spread breast-lifting arms.

        She was slapped up one day in March.
        A couple of weeks, and her face
        Was snaggle-toothed and boss-eyed;
        Huge tits and a fissured crotch
        Were scored well in, and the space
        Between her legs held scrawls
        That set her fairly astride
        A tuberous cock and balls

        Autographed Titch Thomas, while
        Someone had used a knife
        Or something to stab right through
        The moustached lips of her smile.
        She was too good for this life.
        Very soon, a great transverse tear
        Left only a hand and some blue.
        Now Fight Cancer is there.

    1. I'm glad that he's wearing the coat of an EU member.

      Clearly demonstrates where his loyalties lie.

  36. SIR — I am a long-standing member of the Conservative Party. I enjoy a good lunch, but according to Kemi Badenoch, our leader, that makes me “a wimp” (report, December 12). I also enjoy sandwiches, which she describes as “not real food”. Is there still a place for me in the party?

    Clive R Garston London SW11

    Good old Kemi. A lass after my own heart.

    In common with most Northerners of my generation (and a good number of Cockneys too, apparently), there is no such things as "Lunch" here. We have always stood firm with the old (and traditional) premise of: Breakfast, Dinner, Tea and Supper, in that order.

    Why on earth Dinner migrated to the evening and replaced by a wimpish milksop word "Lunch" remains beyond me (apparently something to do with those Regency poof fops, the "Dandies"). The same thing happened here in Sweden. the mid-day meal (Dinner) was called Middag. This also migrated to the evening but (curiously) retained it name. Having a meal, ostensibly called "Mid-day" at 7:00 p.m. is beyond absurd.

    2. Your right Grizzly. Here's Wikipedia.

      "Dinner usually refers to what is in many Western cultures the biggest and most formal meal of the day. Historically, the largest meal used to be eaten around midday, and called dinner.[1] Especially among the elite, it gradually migrated to later in the day over the 16th to 19th centuries.[2] The word has different meanings depending on culture, and may mean a meal of any size eaten at any time of day.[3] In particular, it is still sometimes used for a meal at noon or in the early afternoon on special occasions, such as a Christmas dinner.[2] In hot climates, the main meal is more likely to be eaten in the evening, after the temperature has fallen."

      As for Lunch:
      "In England, during the late 17th and 18th centuries, this meal, dinner, was gradually pushed back into the evening, creating a greater time gap between breakfast and dinner. A meal called lunch came to fill this gap.[6] The late evening meal, called supper, became squeezed out as dinner advanced into the evening, and often became a snack. But formal "supper parties", artificially lit by candles, sometimes with entertainment, persisted as late as the Regency era, and a ball normally included supper, often served very late."

    3. Your right Grizzly. Here's Wikipedia.

      "Dinner usually refers to what is in many Western cultures the biggest and most formal meal of the day. Historically, the largest meal used to be eaten around midday, and called dinner.[1] Especially among the elite, it gradually migrated to later in the day over the 16th to 19th centuries.[2] The word has different meanings depending on culture, and may mean a meal of any size eaten at any time of day.[3] In particular, it is still sometimes used for a meal at noon or in the early afternoon on special occasions, such as a Christmas dinner.[2] In hot climates, the main meal is more likely to be eaten in the evening, after the temperature has fallen."

      As for Lunch:
      "In England, during the late 17th and 18th centuries, this meal, dinner, was gradually pushed back into the evening, creating a greater time gap between breakfast and dinner. A meal called lunch came to fill this gap.[6] The late evening meal, called supper, became squeezed out as dinner advanced into the evening, and often became a snack. But formal "supper parties", artificially lit by candles, sometimes with entertainment, persisted as late as the Regency era, and a ball normally included supper, often served very late."

    4. When I was young and looked after by mum and dad, we had breakfast, dinner, tea and supper. I went home from school at “lunchtime” and mum cooked dinner. After school was tea with cakes, also baked by mum. Supper was, as Jules says, a light snack before bedtime.

    5. At school it was always" Dinner Money", never lunch money. Our main meal of the day is dinner at dinner time. Thats called lunch in the south. Our saturday dinner today is ham with fried potatoe,s tomatoes and bread.and mushy peas. Well salted and pepper. post war fare. A glass of Landlord beer at 11 o clock. followed by a glass of red wine.

  37. JK Rowling is right: we must stop pandering to violent ‘trans’ criminals
    This shocking story about a vicious male sex offender makes Ipso’s ruling against The Spectator look all the more absurd.
    Michael Deacon : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/14/jk-rowling-is-right-stop-pandering-violent-trans-criminals/

    Michael Deacon is again on excellent form.

    A sub-headline in his article is

    Female Chauvinist Pigs

    I fear that Mr Deacon has mis-gendered those of a porcine female sex. He should surely have written:

    Female Chauvinist Sows.

    I am sure that Daisy the Cow would not have liked to be called Daisy the Bull just as Lassie would have preferred to have been called a sheep-bitch rather than a sheep-dog! In the same way some oversensitive drakes do not like being referred to as ducks.

    In fact this absurd fuss about terminology should be checked. Some women seem to think that the term 'Mankind' excludes them.

  38. Young men who wear on office stools
    The ties of minor public schools,
    Each learning how to be a sinner
    And tell “a good one” after dinner

    [John Betjeman : The City]

    "Oh, my Friends, be warned by me,
    That Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, and Tea
    Are all the Human Frame requires…''
    With that, the Wretched Child expires.

    [Hilaire Belloc : Henry King]

  39. 'Morning, Peeps and Geoff

    We are promised dry weather today with heady 7 degs at Janus Towers.

    A headline in today's DT:

    "Leaked negotiating papers reveal EU’s price for post-Brexit trade deal
    Free student movement and fishing become main concessions as officials say ‘Keir’s turkey is stuffed"

    As expected, our pitiful excuse for a Prime Minister is seeking to return us to the EUSSR in all but name. I just know that they will walk all over him (and us). He's supremely good at lining his own pockets with 'freebies' – as most of the front bench is – but anything else is well beyond his feeble efforts. I reckon Mr Blobby would make a far better negotiator.

    On a much more pleasurable matter, did anyone else see the programme yesterday evening to mark Alan Bennett's 90th birthday? Most enjoyable, with some laugh-out-loud moments.

    2. I scanned through the EU demands but didn't notice anything we were to get in return. I expect we will be given the privilege of contributing to their funds and providing troops for their wars after DT bugs out.

    3. How many of those ‘young EU citizens’ will actually be from French African colonies or Latin America? How many will then acquire a ‘partner’ and a child so that their human rights enable them to remain here in perpetuity?

      1. The sure way to get cows to stop farting is to have my late mother staring at them with an expression of 'don't you dare'

    3. Send it down here.
      On second thoughts, don't, because it will merely give the council an excuse to employ more greeniacs.

  43. SIR – Ed Miliband is way behind the times. We are surrounded by the sea, with semidiurnal tides. Norway produces most of its energy by hydropower: it has a very low carbon footprint, an ample supply of cheap power, and does not rely on the sun shining or the wind blowing. What more could you ask for?

    Phyllis Jones
    Bedford

    Silly Phyllis. Norway's hydroelectricity is of the conventional type: big dam, big lake. It's not tidal, which has the same the fault as wind and solar i.e. it's not always available on demand.

    And when will commentators stop writing 'power' or 'energy' when they mean electricity?

      1. Tidal or the use of power?

        I think sometimes, for a bit of sport, the eds let a few through so that the writers can be ripped BLT or in subsequent columns.

    2. Also, the engineering techniques required for tidal power have yet to prove up to the task for reliable power generation.

  44. Desperate to find a copy of Office 2016. Mine has given up the ghost and refuses to boot. Can I get some help?

    3. Microsoft Desperate to find more cash for no good reason..

      A pertinent time to remind all that..
      Microsoft is focusing on pushing users to upgrade to Windows 11; however, you will still receive security updates until the end of support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025.

      They reckon up to 400 million computers will become obsolete overnight.
      keeeeerching..

    4. Microsoft Desperate to find more cash for no good reason..

      A pertinent time to remind all that..
      Microsoft is focusing on pushing users to upgrade to Windows 11; however, you will still receive security updates until the end of support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025.

      They reckon up to 400 million computers will become obsolete overnight.
      keeeeerching..

    2. When my dad was on afternoon shift, he had his dinner at 12 noon before going to work.

      When he was on early shift, he would have it later on his return from work. On those days mum would prepare a light snack at 12 noon and say, "We're just having a bit of 'lunch' today instead of a proper dinner." To her, the concept of a lunch was just a means of filling a void before the main event (i.e. dinner) later.

  47. I am aware that it is a regional thing, but I am explaining why it wasn't always so.

    Upper crust types ("toffs") invariably call their evening meal "supper" and not "dinner".

    2. In common with most Northerners of my generation (and a good number of Cockneys too, apparently), there is no such things as "Lunch" here. We have always stood firm with the old (and traditional) premise of: Breakfast, Dinner, Tea and Supper, in that order.

      Does that make you a toff.

    1. Yes I've just dropped Office completely on my new computer. Libre is just fine. I just gave away my 'not for resale' disc of Office Pro 2010 to someone who's stuck with having to use it for HMRC returns.

  51. He speaks sense because, just like me, he is a committed and dedicated carnivore who eats no weeds (or other crap).

  52. Re all the recent drone sightings.
    Israel, Russia and Ukraine shoot these things down in their hundreds.
    Surely it isn't beyond the capability of the USA or the UK to shoot several down for closer examination?

    1. If it is a manufactured scare, why would they want to shoot them down and embarrass themselves? Of course they are perfectly capable of bringing them down, they just don't want to spoil their own game.

    2. In voice of irritating nasal whine.. "Let's be clear.. in this time of national emergency it's wise for the US delay the Trump inauguration."

  53. Thought I had it in three!
    Wordle 1,274 4/6

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

  54. Yes. You paid your dinner money to have your dinner at dinner time and were supervised by dinner ladies. We were invariably well-behaved and ate our dinner quietly using social graces, excellent table manners and proper dining etiquette.

    Compare that with today where unsupervised piglets ("pupils") cram all manner of carb-and-sugar-laden filth ("lunch") into their gobs using their hands, from a plastic tray. This is what happens when you permit the Left to take over.

      1. You mean those who wish to have a night-time of acid reflux eat their meals late in the evening.

  57. Bad luck, plain sailing here today.

    Wordle 1,274 3/6

    ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  58. 398786+ up ticks,

    How bloody nieve would you have to be to believe this was a mistake,

    Dt,

    Record number of inmates released from prison by mistake
    Sex offenders, violent criminals and drug dealers were among those set free too soon

    1. I've often been labelled as being naïve, but no one has ever called nieve.

      If they did, I'd be at a loss as to how to react!🤣

      1. Sorry Grizz, a Pedant writes (again):

        naïve is feminine. The masculine adjective is naïf.

        So those who called you naïve mis-gendered you. Better report them.

      2. 398786+ up ticks,

        Afternoon G,
        All the while the world is getting its arse reamed the written rhetorical patter ( written verbals) must be word perfect.

        I stand corrected.

  59. Yo All, Goodmaoningfrom C d S.

    There has been a rumpus and a moaning coming from the roof.

    I finally realised that it was the Solar- Panel family waking up, after their short winter holiday

  61. SANDWICHES? LET THEM EAT A HOT MEAL.

    Christopher Howse The Daily Telegraph — Saturday 14 Dec 2024

    As Kemi Badenoch says, the modern sarnie is unfit to feed the working Briton

    Sandwiches! Don’t give me sandwiches. It has justly been observed that if the Duke of Wellington had invented sandwiches and the Earl of Sandwich had invented a kind of boot, we should be wearing sandwiches on our feet and eating wellingtons. I doubt that would assuage the red-blooded appetites of Kemi Badenoch, who has said: “I don’t think sandwiches are a real food.” She is absolutely right – in a way.

    Sandwiches are a barometer of Britain’s fortunes. How foreigners laughed at us in the 1950s when we went travelling with a little packet of jam sandwiches wrapped in greaseproof paper. The jam would fuse sadly to the squashed bread. To a continental, the filling was the real food – a potato omelette or an escalope – and bread was the edible covering.

    Yet Sir Keir Starmer has come out in defence of the “Great British sandwich” as though he hankered for wartime Community Feeding Centres (named “British Restaurants”), which socialist idealists thought a lasting solution to equity in food, to be perpetuated perhaps in a National Sandwich Service, with tuna and sweetcorn (as available) free at the point of consumption.

    Mrs Badenoch likes a steak at her desk when she is busy, resembling in a limited sense the 4th Earl of Sandwich in the 1760s who once spent 24 hours at the gaming table and ate beef between slices of toast. Delicious.

    He had quite a bit on his plate at the time: his wife was going mad, he was beginning a family of five with his 17-year-old mistress and there was the fleet to copper-bottom. His meat-between-bread invention was publicised in a quirky portrait of England by a Frenchman, Pierre-Jean Grosley.
    At that time, and until our own day, the essential criterion for “real food” was heat. Working men might faint away without a hot meal. Only those buried in mines made do with a pasty or hard-pressed harvesters with bread and cheese with their jugs of cider. Street food sold better when hot – pies, potatoes, puddings. Even cross buns were hot.

    Now children never learn to cook but are abused by being given plantbased sandwiches on horrible bread to take to school sweating in plastic boxes. Bossy authorities spend all their effort keeping them out of chicken shops, even though the protein in chicken or burgers makes them tower over their parents.

    Everything is wrong about shopbought sandwiches, and these crimes are now mimicked by home-made versions. Salad is put into sandwiches not for nourishing and appetising variety but to disguise stale bread with vegetable ooze. The bread is only too susceptible to sogginess – the “moist” state Mrs Badenoch detests – when it is made by the high-speed Chorleywood process that does away with patient kneading and proving.

    Abroad, nothing is more restorative to the spirit than witnessing an old Spanish couple from the countryside on the slow train, luggage mysteriously tied up in a cardboard box, getting out their lunch on the stroke of two o’clock. He has a sharp long-bladed penknife to cut, with the pressure from a weathered thumb, a segment from the crisp-crusted loaf baked that morning. She will take this, to put with it a slice from a fat, farmyardy chorizo sausage. No call for butter. Of course they drink dark red local wine with it.

    Rare glories do survive in the British sandwich tradition. Cucumber, as in The Importance of Being Earnest, is summery but not meant to make a meal. Boiled ham with mustard is ideal for funerals. Nana in The Royle Family was right to think “wafer thin ham” close to the territory of vegetarians. Worse is the popular “slimy ham” that slides out of a plastic packet on to your spreadable-covered spongiform bread.

    No, today’s sandwiches are generally solitary, poor and nasty. A hot lunch by contrast is conducive to manners, strengthens the inner Briton and builds up the body politic.

    Well said, Chrissie. You are spot-on with this crusty piece of advice.

    1. Thinly sliced hot rare roast beef and mustard overflowing a baguette is a sandwich. Not those frankenstein offerings sold in shops and on garage forecourts made in factories employing minimum wage foreigners with disgusting toilet habits.

      1. There are a number of considerations influencing my choice. Crusty bread shreds my gums. The spicy and/or sauce based meat dishes freshly cooked in the kitchens at work taste fine but play havoc with my digestive system. Excruciating stomach pain around four hours later. The soft bread pre-packed sarnies don’t do that. Cooked breakfast comprising scrambled eggs, Cumberland sausage and bacon is also safe.

    2. We eat wellington's . Salmon and prawn wellington from Aldi for £4.49 and really good and tasty. Says it does 4 people be we share it between the two of us.

    3. A slice of "a fat, farmyardy chorizo sausage." would make me vomit. Thinly sliced and dry fried for a minute or two either side, and they make an excellent addition to a sandwich of thinly sliced homemade rye sourdough, with slices of fried marinated chicken breast.

      1. Chorizo is OK once in a while and only in small doses. It’s a long way from being my favourite. Swedish sausages (korv) are not on my list either .

    4. Hi Grizz,

      I am a foodie, and had what you might call an (open) sandwich lunch just now (photo attached).
      It was English Cheddar on my own home-baked bread, spread with English butter (none of your hydrogenated Palm oil spread for me).

      On top of the Cheddar was a thin layer of Salami for taste, then local pickle, plus a tiny chipolata sausage. Alongside was shredded English Gem lettuce and local Kentish Victoria cherry tomatoes from Thanet Earth, near Ramsgate, which produces some 400 million tomatoes a year and is one of the largest in (out of) Europe. The fruit course was half a Red Grapefruit (with special serrated grapefruit spoon), the last of local raspberries and a few black grapes. To finish off I had a yogurt with a side of fruit compôte (no additives).

      Remember me telling you a few weeks ago that I worked on the safety-in-use of food colourings, additives and stabilisers for 16 years in the late sixties and seventies? I love fruit, but always wash it because after working on food chemicals I worked for an Agrochemicals research lab, so I know what the farmers spray on the crops.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/97b2d3dc36a7e0b1188292179cc3b78efac5320c18707648a88a637e865d8bf1.jpg

      1. I like salami but am very fussy about it. I love sweet cherry tomatoes too and you can't go wrong with homemade bread.

      2. Sounds very yummy to me, RC.

        The only butter that I can buy, here in Sweden — that does not have a gruesome additive called “syrakulture” (lactic culture) which, to me makes the butter taste and smell rancid even though it is fresh — comes from Finland. I always check to see if the ingredients list is nothing more than cream and salt. I occasionally churn my own butter if I want to be sure of its flavour.

  62. The biggest meteor shower of the year peaks this evening. MSN

    This weekend, the Geminid meteor show will reach its dazzling peak in the skies above Earth.
    Also known as the 'king of meteor showers', the Geminids are the year's most spectacular display and definitely not one to be missed.
    Up to 150 bright meteors will light up the sky every hour, many of them flashing yellow, green, red, or blue.

    2. Many years ago I watched the Geminids offshore West Afica and it was like a firework display only far better. Most of the fiery steaks were bright green and Triffids crossed my mind.

    1. Exactly!
      Number of time there's been a "Fantastic Meteor Shower" or similar event and it's been too cloudy to even think about watching it.

  64. Before we get too carried away with the spying activities of Prince Epstein – let us remember that the former Chancellor of the Exchequer (Jeremy Rhyming) is married to a member of the Chinese Communist Party….

    1. A bit of a conflict there for him as all Chinese everywhere are expected to swear allegiance to their dear leader.

    2. Thank you, Bill. I knew one of that shower was married to a chinky spy but couldn’t remember which one. The Duke of York is the decoy-distraction du jour now that alternatives such as the Gregg Wallace story have run out of steam.

    2. Works well for our daughter and sil. Been out there for nearly 13 years with no problem.
      If only successive governments in this country would make all the immigrants abide by our rules we wouldn't be in the sh1t state we are now.

  68. An hour and a half doing a couple of jobs, refitting the spare tyre in it's place on the van and digging up some bramble roots.
    Now sat with, for a change, a cafetiere of coffee!

  69. H6 was invited to Prince Andrew's birthday party in 2020 and was told he could act on his behalf when dealing with potential investors in China.

    Questions.. questions being asked how The Palace, The Home Office & MI6 failed to recognise the spy named as H6 conducting “covert and deceptive activity” on behalf of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) and would likely pose a threat to national security.
    .
    If only there was a clue.. some kind of clue.
    .
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8e18c0dccd9972be93f028438fd23e4f3cf9ced69d5b5e0319fd26f837a4915e.png

  70. Good grief that was fun!
    A phone call from a UK format mobile number that turned out to be Microsoft asking why I was ignoring the error messages I was receiving.
    I decided to spin them along and kept telling them not to talk when I was trying to explain what was happening on the screen.
    I managed over 5 minutes before cutting to the scam and asking him if he wanted my debit card and bank details and shouting at him for nearly a minute before he eventually hung up!
    At least that's 5 minutes he wasn't scamming anyone else!

    1. I had a call from a young Indian lady. Before she said anything I thought 'here we go again' and after letting her do her schpiel for a while, I strung her along with silly questions and, I guess she finally realised what I was doing. She paused and then, in her sweetest voice, said 'mother fucker' and cut me off. How very dare her 🙂

      1. Jimmy,
        If you want to give as good as you get if replying to Indian scammers, then just call them "Madarchod", with a long "a",which is the M-F word in Hindi (and also, I believe, in Bengali and a few other dialects/languages of the Subcontinent). I have used it myself.

    2. During my father's final run in.. he was on the scammers database and would receive a minimum of 5 calls per day. Cash rich, vulnerable & independent.. he was the perfect target. And at that age it was no use explaining the dangers.. he was in no mood to listen.

      Anyhow, my brother came up with a brilliant idea. Tipex out the CVV numbers on his cards.
      The scam call would go on & on & on & on lidderally for hours. He didn't need to act the fool he genuinely tried to help them. The scammers were so close yet so far from the cash prize.

      2. Yes, that wasalso my solution.
        Debit cards are too risky for seriously old folk, and credit cards not easy to get a refund under £100.
        NB scratch out the CVV number before applying Tippex. Can also recommend cordless phones with call barring.

    3. During my father's final run in.. he was on the scammers database and would receive a minimum of 5 calls per day. Cash rich, vulnerable & independent.. he was the perfect target. And at that age it was no use explaining the dangers.. he was in no mood to listen.

      Anyhow, my brother came up with a brilliant idea. Tipex out the CVV numbers on his cards.
      The scam call would go on & on & on & on lidderally for hours. He didn't need to act the fool he genuinely tried to help them. The scammers were so close yet so far from the cash prize.

    4. I have read recently that a very helpful use of AI is to produce a chatbot that will keep a scammer on a call for as long as possible with no human intervention. Brilliant!

    5. We never answer our land line unless we recognise the number.
      There is a message feature if they want to use it.

        2. We would be lost without ours. Our mobile signal is virtually non-existent apart from an occasional, flickering one bar.

          1. Same where we are in that we only get a couple of bars; howver, we get 4G on the mobile through the router. That means while we are in the house we get a very strong signal.

      2. In my voluntary job, I have to call a lot of people I don't know at times. Most people don't seem to answer the phone nowadays! It's really annoying!!

    6. Hee-hee. The one before last I got of those they gave me an obscure folder on the computer that had a file in it that they read the number out for me over the phone obviously claiming they'd found a virus on the computer using their security software. How else would they know if they were not genuine? Unfortunately for them I know computers and recognised it immediately as a checksum file that simply keeps account of the numbers in the directory. It always reads the same unless there's an accounting error. Didn't end well for them that one.

      In the last one a woman from India tried the same trick so I took something nearer your approach and just asked if she'd got family. She said yes trying to sound all caring and friendly. So I asked a bit about them, where she grew up etc. She gave names of sons and daughters. I just asked, well, how'd they feel if a scammer rang up from England and diddled their mum out of all her savings claiming to be a Microsoft security engineer. She just hung up.

    7. I often try to do the same and I’ve managed to waste their time by anything up to 30 minutes. I can easily do my own chores and hobbies at the same time by telling them that my computer is very slow (they agree that this is because my computer has been compromised). Every 10 minutes or so, I ask “are you still there?” to keep them on the hook. Someone always comes to the door when I want to finish the dialogue as I don’t want to anger them and risk phone calls at 3 pm.

    8. There is a recent Sky film called The Beekeeper. Our hero takes against a call centre that has been scamming, he marches in with a couple of jerry cans of fuel and blows it up! He let the operators out first. Now if I was to put that on X, I might find I get a few years free board and lodge in an institution..

    9. Our landline has a 'call guardian' feature that weeds out all those scam calls. As we've never had anything by Microsoft in this house I'd know they weren't genuine anyway.

    10. I eax in an IBM office many years ago when I received a call on my mobile from some fraudster claiming to be with IBM. It was very easy to string that joker along for a few minutes whilst searching for his ID in the blue pages (internal directory). Sorry, can you spell your last name again?

  71. Afternoon all. Am on my mobile waiting for a friend so who knows what rubbish I will be typing! I am not familiar with how it works but at least I can read the comments and it passes the time.

  72. 45 minutes was enough. Filled a wheelbarrow with fallen branches cut into lengths for the stove. The sun is misleading – it is still COLD!

    Global boiling, eh?

  73. Our number three and his fiancee are there, very busy earning a good living.
    We also have friends whose daughter and young family have been living there for around 15 years.

  74. I think so Sue. And I also think it’s intended to get people to stop consuming dairy products and beef.

  75. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    Graham Linehan: I’m leaving Britain
    13 December 2024, 11:46am

    To the world of comedy, where it transpires that renowned gender critical activist Graham Linehan is looking for pastures new. The Irish comedian – who worked on Father Ted and The IT Crowd – took to X/Twitter this week to announce he is leaving Britain to move to America after claiming ‘freedom of speech is in bad shape at the moment’ in the UK.

    In a video released on Elon Musk’s social media site, Linehan discussed his attempts to dismantle gender ideology and how he received ‘no support’ from his colleagues in the industry in the process. ‘As a result,’ he admitted, ‘I haven’t worked in five years.’ But it’s not all doom and gloom. Linehan announced he has written three episodes of a new sitcom, which he will work on in Arizona in a new production company – alongside non other than actor Rob Schneider and GB News presenter Andrew Doyle. Talk about a turnaround!

    Describing the concept as ‘pretty damn good’, Linehan – who was banned from performing in Edinburgh’s Leith Arches last year over his gender critical views – revealed that his new show is ‘not anti-woke comedy’, adding: ‘I think that would be as dead an end as the woke movement itself is.’

    Linehan has previously discussed how dramatically his life changed when he began speaking out about his views on the trans issue, with Debbie Hayton writing last year for The Spectator that ‘jobs began falling away’ for the comedy writer. ‘Accused by his opponents of transphobia, he has found himself out of work and out of his marriage,’ she noted.

    The Irish comedian has hinted that his new Arizona show with Doyle and Schneider has ‘two years to try’ to make an impact. It certainly sounds like it’ll be quite the treat. Stay tuned…

    Steerpike
    WRITTEN BY
    Steerpike
    Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

    1. Excellent news. Obviously the prigs over here will be all sniffly but so what. Genuine comedy is hard to find in Britain.

    2. Hollywood and the British acting profession has a history of paedophiles, woofters, transgender and sexually deviants. They also have strong connections with politicians and influential persons. They are extremely vindictive and vengeful too.

  76. You keep on keeping warm burning all that wood and you'll have millipede knocking on your door.
    Give him a slap from the Nottlers Bill.

    1. Count me in. He's a very dangerous bloke imo. Add Reeves WFA take-away, could be some criminal cases this winter. And now Norwegians are fretting about their hydro power being linked to UK when they think they should have it all, let's hope the cable doesn't get cut as others have been.

      1. Shipping all that power over to you guys leaves less for us, and thus the price rises noticeably.

  77. The 10 warning signs of high blood pressure – and what to do about it. 14 December 2024.

    Hypertension affects one in four of us – but is known as a ‘silent killer’

    BELOW THE LINE.

    christian Thompson.

    Over the last 40 years the "high bp" numbers have been brought down again and again.
    They also stopped mentioning that higher bp is considered normal as you age.
    The effect as always is more over medication.

    A Allan.
    Reply to christian Thompson.

    Precisely.

    A 75 year old can only achieve the "ideal" blood pressure for a 25 year old through heavy medication.
    Cui bono?

    I have recently been for my Diabetes 2 check-up. I didn’t want to go because I know where it leads. It leads to pill popping and blood pressure tests. And so it is. I’m now on Statins, something I have avoided for the last twenty years. My BP has been high for as long as I can remember but I have no doubts that if I dropped dead of a cerebral haemorrhage tomorrow the quack would nod sagely and say “Blood Pressure” . I have actually bought my own machine and have to say that it’s not far short of guessing. I can see now why the nurses always look frustrated when they are checking it. There seems to be no consensus to it at all. The time of day, whether you want to go to the Loo, how you sit, whatever, all have an effect. This A Allan person seems to be onto something here. Blood pressure levels like blood sugar levels have been reduced drastically in the last ten years. I’m sure the Pharmacy industry are pleased.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/conditions/heart-health/why-blood-pressure-high/

    1. My missus, ex nurse says you shouldn't be checking your own pressure in any case, because it'll never give an accurate reading.

      1. I never get my blood pressure checked at the surgery as I have white coat syndrome with knobs on.
        I react as if I've been sent to the head master's study.

        2. I’m the same unfortunately. I never do it now and I never do my own either. I used to have to get checked for my job along with other tests back in the day every year and the doctor just got used to me. Still trying to break the machine then, he’d say. I shall take that with a pinch of salt as usual.

          2. BP machines are so much simpler than when I trained. You would need to be a contortionist to take your own BP with the old sphygmomanometers.
            About £20- 25 and you can now take the readings yourself.

      2. She's correct, nurse once actually told me that (you know how nurses can sometimes do that, disagree with drs once they've left).

    2. A 75 year old can only achieve the "ideal" blood pressure for a 25 year old through heavy medication.

      I'd dispute that. How come I (nearly 74) have the BP of a 25-year old? Unless its a 25-year-old land whale.

    3. A. Allan chap here.
      It is normal for BP to vary during the day; in fact, the same readings throughout are suspect.
      It is the endless application of "guidelines" with no deeper independent thought that leads to polypharmacy and all its attendant ills.
      Of course, it is much easier and covers the arse, if one merely obeys orders.

      2. I am very suspicious of the whole thing.
        I tend to be 120/80; 110/70.
        My resting heart rate is normally in the 55/60 range.
        I had a heart attack, completely out of the blue, and my GP was staggered when I reported it.
        I have had the Covid jabs, but unless they impose the same restrictions on travel, shopping etc that they did last time, I won't be doing so again.

    4. Even though you're prescribed statins, you don't have to take them. I started throwing mine in the bin and I feel all the better for it. Went for a blood test two weeks ago – cholesterol fine, BP below 130.

      1. Afternoon Sam. My policy here is to try and weasel out of it all later. One cannot refuse treatment. Who knows? You might actually catch something.

        2. If you return, and say it's not working for you (or you think it isn't) – look forward to further scripts/different meds. Best medic at my surgery was NP until he retired. I started with sciatica a few years ago, couldn't get an appointment – he phoned me and asked how I was doing ,I explained I'd found exercises online which really helped, he replied 'thank God, all I could do is meds and put you on a physio list, currently several months long'. (I did go to a physio, bought special cushion..no help.)

      2. Afternoon Sam. My policy here is to try and weasel out of it all later. One cannot refuse treatment. Who knows? You might actually catch something.

      3. Afternoon Sam. My policy here is to try and weasel out of it all later. One cannot refuse treatment. Who knows? You might actually catch something.

      4. Well done, Sam. The only downside is that not-needed unwanted meds costs the NHS (i.e. us, taxpayers) a fortune. To say nothing of funding Junior Doc costs in terms of education/training for xx years and once qualified they leave for more highly paid pastures eg Oz.

    5. I had a series of nagging texts from the surgery a few months ago so to get them off my back I borrowed a bp monitor from my neighbour and took some readings. It varied depending on time of day etc etc. Lower in the morning, higher in the afternoon. I sent them a couple of the lower readings and they were ok with those.

      The MidWestern Doctor is a good one to read on various health topics and corroborates what we know – that the 'normal' levels have been greatly reduced in order to get everyone on medication.

      1. When I have my twice yearly diabetic check the nurse always calls me in and the first thing she checks is my BP which is daft – why not let me settle down first. It's always high until I've rested for a few minutes and with controlled breathing I can get it down. Not helped by the nurse being a bit of a 'looker'. I have a monitor at home which I check before I go and sometimes they'll accept that reading

    6. My blood pressure is fine. The problem is that my heart rate bounces around between 100 and 150+ and dances the Cha Cha Cha.

        1. Thank you. Until a few weeks ago I wasn’t on any regular meds but now have beta blockers. Echocardiogram tomorrow afternoon.

    7. No-one seems to know, Araminta…where the measurement of 120/80 came from, and how one size fits all. I got a text from surgery telling me they hadn't taken myh bp for five years and I should visit imminently. Presumably so they can prescribe meds (that's the real reason). Each to his/her own, but I'm not planning to go in. I remember Lockdowns, not seeing anyone, people queuing outside in the rain to collect prescription meds. B*tards.

      1. Afternoon KJ. This is my first Diabetes checkup since Covid. They simply haven’t contacted me. During the crisis my blood sugar shot up to 25. They refused to allow me into the Medical Centre. I had to go to the Hospital. Needless to say I take all this with large amounts of salt

        1. Isn't taking anything with a large dose of salt supposed to be bad for you?

          I believe that the theory is that no salt makes the food taste bland so you won't eat as much.

  79. That's SWMBO's car washed and cleaned inside ( I hate "valeted") – no money went into an illegal migrant's hands. She cooks my dinner in return. The old ways are the best.

  80. Not feeling well today i'm sitting watching an old Black and White Film a satire on British industry. So many wonderful british actor's and actresses. I'm All Right Jack. Sky arts HD.

      1. I'm Alright Jack…he was very funny, I was sorry to learn he suffered bouts of depression most of his adult life.

          1. Yes, I think he married quite a few times, none lasted. Depression/manic disorder/whatever – I imagine very difficult to live with.

          1. That’s me these days, James – donkey permanently on the edge…🫏🫏(are these donkeys? emoji seems to think so…😂😂😂)

          2. That’s me these days, James – donkey permanently on the edge…🫏🫏(are these donkeys? emoji seems to think so…😂😂😂)

  82. How come it took decades to get an EU referendum,
    It has taken 8 years and we still don't know if we have properly left the EU.
    But then Starmer can just waltz in and in six months sign us back up to the evil empire without so much as a by you leave to the public?

    1. What Reform needs to do is announce that whatever Starmer agrees with the EU, they will reverse when they take power.
      Where is Farage?

      1. Rupert Lowe should say it. Farage may be a better show man but Lowe is more rational, determined and credible than Farage.

          1. Farage boasts of his brief career in the world of finance but Lowe's business experience knocks Farage into a cocked hat!

      1. The only thing they changed was passport/visa free holidays because that’s all yer average remoaner thinks EU membership is about. They also prattle on about wanting their children to be able to study and work on the continent, which Brits have always done anyway. A friend’s daughter is currently studying in Milan because despite good A levels, all the UK universities she applied to rejected her on account of being a white Christian who won a scholarship to a good school.

        1. Blood boiling, Sue. Mine went to UK universities – one did a year in France, got pregnant…:-( other one done really well, a hard worker).Hope the lass has a good experience, hard work and some play :-))

        2. My sister taught English in Paris in the 1960s. The ignorance of anti-Brexiteers was (and still is) appalling.

      2. The diverse albino person amongst the logs was Johnson who never believed in Brexit and decided that Brexit gave him an excellent opportunity to bungle the deal.

      4. We didn't. They absorbed all EU legislation into UK law. Then they kept signing up to any new idiocy the EU put out. There is a border down the Irish Sea and NI is effectively still in the EU. The NI agreement which can't be altered or it will wreck the Good Friday Agreement keeps this arrangement in place. We have been shafted.

        1. Exactly, Conway. Dereliction of democracy. What’s the point of voting? I’m not certain, doubt I ever will again – part of the plan perhaps.

  84. Our last doc retired soon after the scamdemic – he was good and actually came out to see me twice a few years ago when I had some sort of gallbladder flare-up. He was also happy to refer OH to a private consultant via the NHS. We saw every Dr at the practice when his heart trouble started just over two years ago – all perfectly pleasant but you never saw the same one twice running.

    1. Ditto.

      The private heart bloke I saw on Thursday reminded me that he had seen me in 2006. At that time, he was recommended by the GP who had been "mine" for over 20 years – and continued to be until he retired in 2012.
      Always saw him. He knew me and my foibles – prescribed very little medication.

      Now one sees some person whom one has never (or perhaps only once or twice) seen before, who knows nothing about you apart from what the "computer says" and invariably calls me William although I have repeatedly told them that – if they must use a Christian name – call me Bill. The name by which I have been known for most of my 83 years.

  85. Number of civilians killed in Gaza ‘inflated to vilify Israel’
    Researchers accuse Gaza ministry of health of overstating casualty data
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/14/number-civilians-killed-gaza-inflated-to-vilify-israel/

    BTL

    How many innocent people were killed because they were human shields deliberately put in front of military targets by Hamas for propaganda purposes?

    I would hazard that far more people were killed by Hamas for publicity reasons than deliberately killed by Israel. Indeed Israel tried to give advance warning so that innocent people could get out of the way. Hamas has worked out that a large proportion of people in the west are gullible enough and stupid enough to believe Hamas's propaganda.

    2. All innocent children, medical staff and charity workers bringing supplies to the civilians sheltering in unheated tents by their bombed out apartments.

    4. I remember seeing a clip of a young girl being carried away from damaged buildings. By three different men on obviously three faked occasions.
      And seeing children's toys laying on damaged rubble. But the rubble a had weeds growing through it.
      Never trust an Arab.
      What happened to the Israeli hostages ? Still not released as arranged.

    5. I would suggest that a large number of alleged civilians were also actively not only supporting Hanas but also actvley fighting for it. Women and children included.

  86. To be the Best*
    Wow! I don't think I have ever clicked on Best before (you know, those three choices – Best, Newest, Oldest – at the top end of the NTTL blog).

    My Today's Tales this morning came out Best with 21 up-ticks. Isn't that nice for my first visit. (Sorry, can't help bragging).

    I'll go and stand in the corner for a bit.

    * Title of my late wife's favourite book by Barbara Taylor Bradford

    1. Well done! But my favourite braggard is still Mr Toad!

      The clever men at Oxford
      Know all that there is to be knowed
      But they none of them know one half as much
      As intelligent Mr Toad!

      It would be interesting see a Worst category for the posts that receive the most down votes!

      The best lack all conviction
      While the worst are full of passionate intensity!

    2. Well done! But my favourite braggard is still Mr Toad!

      The clever men at Oxford
      Know all that there is to be knowed
      But they none of them know one half as much
      As intelligent Mr Toad!

      It would be interesting see a Worst category for the posts that receive the most down votes!

      The best lack all conviction
      While the worst are full of passionate intensity!

  89. St. John the Baptist, Bere Regis.

    THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST Bere Regis Church can be traced back to Norman times (there is some evidence of a previous Saxon church) and it is recorded that King John, after abandoning an invasion of Normandy in 1205, landed at Studland and came to the Manor House at Bere Regis. This house was in the field opposite the east end of the church, known to this day as Court Green. King John later paid fifteen visits to Bere Regis.

    The main glory of the church is the magnificent carved and painted oak roof given by Cardinal Morton in about 1485. Morton was born in Milborne St.Andrew, once part of Bere Regis parish, in 1420. He read law at Balliol College, Oxford, and became, after a series of adventures during the Wars of the Roses, one of the chief advisers to the Earl of Richmond in exile in Flanders. When Richmond became Henry VII, Morton was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1486 and Lord Chancellor one year later. In 1493 he was made a cardinal and in 1495 he became Chancellor of the University of Oxford. Morton died in 1500 and lies buried in Canterbury Cathedral. He is thought to have given the roof in memory of his mother, who was a Turberville. He has gone down in history as the inventor of Morton's Fork and hence as the spiritual father of the Inland Revenue. At the east end of the roof there is a boss of the head of Thomas Morton himself. As tax collector and judicial authority he levied high taxes on the ostentatiously rich, but apparently taxed more modest spenders equally severely on the grounds that they were concealing their wealth. On either side project the figures of the twelve Apostles. Among them Saint Peter can be identified by his keys and triple crown. The ten small heads have not been identified. The roof is unique and there is not another quite like it anywhere in the world. It should be studied carefully. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d76058a1ce1e665af7f59c093e39ac12daef6113664e36b496bc9e888e4b796d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0a4027fa6180468b20de11e62eed3d91e5bdb2701849d38e708cc8d374cf381.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c218655d556472384620989192344bffab524637003f57f880f621279d3b98aa.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/64de9e34d53edf2215a514271c307f0077b054346a4541ceec20b2379b4b1dbc.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/192d557fdfd014af0aff896ace208812eed7631fe0685720629c86bb152c15fd.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/39d2ca9f690f9ec7357a54229d28b469d567b8357cf49f872540762e319b8f50.jpg

      1. Given that John majorly pee'd off the only literate people of the time, I tend to suspend judgement.
        His big brother Richard was a useless King of England; no interest in this place whatsoever. He was only in this country when he wanted to extort money.
        But because he was away on the Crusades, the monks gave him a pass.
        (There is also a suspicion that he was gay, but again because unlike William Rufus he was engaging in approved religious activities, he was made out to be frightfully noble.)

  91. VAT on Private School Fees

    Just been reading the Telegraph article 'Private school fees will force families out of the army, say senior officers.'

    Half way down it showed a photo of one James Cartlidge, captioned 'James Cartlidge, the Defence Secretary, said some people are now…'

    As I read through his moaning and critical article, I thought 'Hang on, he's dead against his own Government's policy!' I should have guessed that his party affiliation in the caption could not be correct. But how can I possibly keep up with the musical chairs taking place on both sides of Westmonster?

    Which Nottler can name the current Defence Secretary without looking it up?

    Of course, he is NOT Defence Secretary but the Shadow Defence Secretary, as it says at the end of his piece. Good ole DT editors.

    1. It's probably done for our business which we started from scratch in 1990 and which has flourished ever since.

      As I said here yesterday the majority of our students come from private schools and their parents are not rich enough to pay a 20% increase in their school fees as well as paying for their children to come on a course with us. The fact that this tax is going to be applied in the middle of the school year shows just how very nasty and spiteful this government is.

      At the age of 62 Caroline is still a few years short of retirement age and so we wish Starmer as much ill fortune as he has brought to the world in general and specifically to us!.

      1. Rastus, je ressens ta douleur. Ce groupe de gouvernement « étudiant » doit être éliminé et fusillé.

        Je suppose que vous resterez tous les deux en France et ne retournerez pas dans ce pays perdu.

      3. Report says Surrey county doesn’t have enough places in State schools for all those wanting to transfer in year 9 (3rd form in old money).

      4. Rastus,
        Je ressens ta douleur. Ce mauvais gouvernement « étudiant » devrait être déposé et anéanti.
        Je suppose que vous resterez tous les deux en France et ne retournerez pas dans ce pays perdu.

        EDIT: Oh, la vache !
        Je pensais que ma réponse précédente avait été supprimée par Disqus, mais la voilà, plus bas dans la page.

      2. More than a little – it is! My father often used to read the lesson at Mattins in the 1950s and 1960s. I grew up in St Mawes and it was our parish church.

        We used to winter our boat just in front of the family grave and when my parents came to do maintenance work and antifouling in between tides my mother could also lay flowers in memory of her parents.

      3. More than a little – it is! My father often used to read the lesson at Mattins in the 1950s and 1960s. I grew up in St Mawes and it was our parish church.

        We used to winter our boat just in front of the family grave and when my parents came to do maintenance work and antifouling in between tides my mother could also lay flowers in memory of her parents.

  93. I used to be obsessed with Peter Sellers when was young. If I ever were to go on Mastermind, he could be my specialist subject.

    1. I liked him very much, Storm…he reminded me of my dad, I only found out much later he suffered depression too, much earlier than available treatment. A different person in drink, I suspect he could have been helped.

  95. I'm using my new home PC – so much easier using a keyboard rather than a tablet or 'phone as I have always done up 'til now.

    1. Wait till you spill a drink over your keyboard – as I did recently – don't despair. Using your mouse click on 'Settings' then 'Accessibility' and all being well you can turn on an on-screen keyboard which allows you to continue until the keyboard dries out!

    2. You can use all your fingers now rather than just your thumbs !

      You will also find your piano playing improves !

    2. Five for me.

      Wordle 1,274 5/6

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

    1. Piss poor bogey from me (again) today. How did you get on Rene? ;-))

      Wordle 1,274 5/6

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

    3. Many divots of multiple colour.

      Wordle 1,274 6/6

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

  101. We used to holiday at Penhallow Farm, Ruan High Lanes, not far from there, in the 1960’s.
    Beautiful part of the world.

  102. Stephenroi,
    One of my late wife's Bridge partners knew I was 'good with computers' and asked me to fix her keyboard after she spilt hot chocolate over it. Reluctantly, I agreed, took it home, stripped it down (twice) and cleaned it well enough to work.

    THEN I looked on the Internet and found that quite decent Cherry keyboards were selling for as little as £6.25 (20 years ago).

    I will NEVER again clean an inundated or even worn-out PC keyboard.

      1. Can you type using a mouse on your on-screen keyboard as fast as you can with fingers (or voice, if you are set up for it)? OK, you may have a touch screen on your Desktop or laptop.

        1. No of course not. The only key I couldn't use after the mopped up spillage was 0 so it wasn't an insurmountable problem…

          1. As I still get PC and Apple call-outs to a very few good friends, I kept a small supply uf USB keyboards. I just used up my last one last month for a friend, 20% of whose keycaps had the letters worn off. I just gave him one of my 'spares'. I need to order a few more.

            Yeah, I know I should be able to type without looking, but I was tranferring stuff from his old, worn-out PC to a new Windows 11 PC (spit) and configuring things to provide both wireless and USB printing on both his printers at the same time from ALL his devices (including iPad and iPhone). That requires that you don't make silly mistakes on the half-blind keyboard that he had on his old PC.

            EDIT: There, just ordered another keyboard: £9.29 including 15% off. And it will arrive tomorrow (Sunday).

        1. Obviously an Apple keyboard. The 'escalator' is the Option key, the 'propellor' is the Command key and the ^ is the Control key. I support mostly PCs but I use Apple MacBook most of the time because it just WORKS..

          1. Thanks!
            I hate everything Apple – and MS aren't much better.
            Boght a MS Surface PC a couple years ago, and it's what a PC should be. Thin touch screen. Detachable folding keypad that actually works like a keyboard. No moving parts, it just works. Absolutely superb!

  103. The evil folk do…
    "A 20-year-old woman has filed suit against California hospitals and doctors, saying they rushed to conclude she suffered from gender dysphoria and then “fast-tracked [her] onto the conveyor belt of irreversibly damaging” medical interventions that included puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and a double-mastectomy at age 14.

    According to the complaint filed in Los Angeles, Kaya Clementine Breen says she was sexually abused as a young child and that, around age 11 or 12, "began struggling with the thought of developing into a woman and began to believe that life would be easier if she were a boy." When she shared those feelings with a school counselor, the counselor told Breen that she must be transgender, and then called her parents to push the same assumption as a fact. "

    1. I often think the perpetrators are freaks, trying to create more freaks like themselves to justify their existence.

  104. Briiliant! We've just had the local Farmer Christmas Tractor Run through the village, each one festooned with Christmas lights. One in the middle, a JCB, had it's arm extended with reindeer-shaped light display and a sleigh with a waving Father Christmas in it. Much pomp-pomping of air horns. I reckon there were at least a hundred farm vehicles in the procession.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/767fe3d1857f60102e703af83f7de6c6fe1cbf1cda7e23381251077c3fc35806.png
    They got the phase of the moon wrong in this; it's a braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht the nicht awricht.

    2. Our local parade which is also a tractor run almost ended in disaster when ths police stopped one float for driving under the influence. The problem went away when the officer realised how much ribbing she would get from fellow officers if she gave a ticket to Santa and his happy helpers.

    3. Ours used to be a flatback, with pixies/little helpers (ie children) sitting on the edges…..long time ago now…

    3. The destruction of Edinburgh? Again? I thought it had been done in the 1960s when I was at school there but, no, it was ten times worse when I was last there in 2019. Potentially the most beautiful, the most dramatic, the most romantic city in the British Isles. Utterly ruined by Edinburgh City Council.

  107. That's me done for today. Soon be time for a glass of medication. I wonder whether the sky willbe clear enough to see the meteor shower. Prolly not.

    Have a jolly evening. If you wish your blood to boil – watch the TV prog about the "curating" of a new ballet called "Nutcracker". Like watching £50 notes been burned in a huge fire.

    A demain

    1. I was so looking forward to the Geminids – having seen them before they are truly mesmerising – but we have a continued cloud cover up here in the frozen North so no deal…..

    4. That is absolutely spot on! Particularly the fact that everything is black and you need a bleeding arc light to see anything!

        1. All European countries, including UK, should immediately announce and follow suit, ‘mum. Farage/Tice likely to announce? we’ll see. Enough is more than enough.

  111. I was wondering if there was a direct link between the number of migrants crossing the channel each day by dinghy and a fall in the energy supplied by renewables to the national grid.
    We could make forecasts each day for channel crossing numbers just by simply going on the gridwatch site.

  112. Why did Tony Blair insert the Supreme Court above parliament?
    Why does Keir Starmer love the Supreme Court?
    Why did arch remainiac Lady Hale revel in her power in the Supreme Court and prevent an election?
    Ah..

    Romania’s Supreme Court has simply cancelled the election, because of a danger that the wrong person would win.

    1. Just as absurd..

      A Muslim woman who was raised in Saudi Arabia is trying to abolish jury trials in Britain

      Shabana Mahmood, the Lord Chancellor, is attempting to do away with seven hundred years of English tradition and remove the right to jury trials for many offences. This would bring Britain more in line with Muslim tradition.

    2. So, the Supreme Court, a creation of Parliament, can overrule Parliament and prevent Parliament calling an election, or even prevent Parliament abolishing it? This is not the Rule of Law, it is the Rule of Lawyers. As such, it is unlawful in itself because, in the Hierarchy of Jurisdiction, the creation cannot have jurisdiction over its creator.

      It really ought to be put to the test as soon as we have a sensible government of the Right.

      1. And, no doubt, all Guardian Readers, BBC & Lefties will scream "Fascist.. nobody is above the Law.. he/she is lidderally Hitler."

      2. And, no doubt, all Guardian Readers, BBC & Lefties will scream "Fascist.. nobody is above the Law.. he/she is lidderally Hitler."

          1. Including the man himself, and his hangers on, Conway. Ordered probiotics for doggo today, some improvement but not as much as I'd like.

          3. Probiotics? Yes, 90 days supply. Also going to try soaking kibble longer. Bit out of further ideas at present 😏

    3. Democracy is a bauble that States hang round their necks so that they can be granted entry into polite society. You don't actually have to do democracy, just spout self righteously about how much you believe in it. It's like the EU definition of the word, basically.

  113. Evening, all. Back on the laptop now, so hopefully will be more sensible. We went off to look at Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire.

    Milioaf looks neither to left nor right to see the destruction he's wreaking with his idiotic policies. As far as he's concerned people freezing to death is a price worth paying.

    1. He's a man with two kitchens, he won't be short of units to burn. Seriously – a very dangerous individual, especially linked to Reeves and her withdrawal of WFA, even more dangerous imo. Going to be a hard winter.

  114. I'll keep posting this:

    “No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers and the law of the land.
    “To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice.”

    That's from 1215AD.

        1. It certainly hasn’t. And thank you for the timely reminder. We need to keep it by us. My original comment was tongue-in-cheek.

          1. Ah, ok. That doesn't always come across on screen. I'm often picked up myself when I'm just being ironic.

    3. MC 1251 Article (Chapter) 39 I think? We should all carry around a laminated card with that on it. It strikes me it could be used against any parking charge, parking fine or speeding fine as well. How about against NCHI or even the dreaded Hate Speech? We must Insist on our right to a Trial by Jury (NB not a 'Jury Trial').

      The justice system is overloaded. They have made it overloaded to create the excuse to do away with Jury Trials. We must insist on our rights under MC1215.

    4. Thing is, Sam…we all know what's happening now, we read it in print or online (and we may have Musk to thank for that).

  115. Just finished watching an episode of Yes Prime Minister on some obscure channel. It’s as good as ever.

  116. Just seen an interview on ITV News of a S Korea general – Lt Gen Chin In-Bum. What a wonderful name.

    2. In a sensible, intelligent country there would be an immediate change of government after an election … not an 11 week wait for the outgoing president to cause as much mischief as possible!

  119. Democracy's been cancelled in Romania – and the Free West is as silent as the grave

    PETER HITCHENS
    THE MAIL ON SUNDAY • 11:46, 14 December 2024

    It was about this time of year, 35 years ago, when I set off eastwards from Berlin, full of fear. I was seeking to get into Romania, then an iron Communist tyranny. I finally made it to the capital, Bucharest, as dusk fell on Christmas Eve. The city was by then gripped by a sort of madness.

    I was warned to beware of snipers at the entrance to my hotel, and zigzagged ludicrously through the snow with a suitcase in one hand and a typewriter in the other. Nobody sniped, but later I sheltered under my bed while red tracer bullets flew by the window in the square outside.

    It was more or less impossible to find out what was going on, though the city's hospitals were full of sad, wounded people, under third-rate Communist healthcare.

    I went because rumours had been spreading of severe discontent, which exploded on December 21, 1989. The country's Communist leader, Nicolae Ceausescu, was heckled during a speech.

    This unthinkable act of bravery by the hecklers started an avalanche that took only four days to sweep the despot to his death – an ugly kangaroo court followed by a so-called 'execution'. This looked more like an assassination to me, when it was shown on Christmas Day on Bucharest TV.

    The general reaction of Europe and the world was one of uncomplicated joy, as it always is when evil regimes fall (see Syria now).

    But Romania has not been especially happy since. And I was shocked to learn last week that its latest presidential election had been cancelled. Yes, you read that right. Romania's Supreme Court has simply cancelled the election, because of a danger that the wrong person would win.

    Let's simplify this. Calin Georgescu, who has said nice things about Vladimir Putin and is definitely not politically correct, did very well in the first round on November 24. As a result he was to be one of two candidates in the decisive second round, which should have taken place on December 8. Now the first round has been wiped from the record and the second round will never happen. Full new elections are promised, but can they now be fair?

    I can see why many in Romania do not want Georgescu to win. He's not my kind of guy either. But that's the problem with democracy. You have to accept the outcome, or it is not democracy. And producing thin 'intelligence' claims of 'Russian intervention' really isn't enough, in a grown-up country, to halt a free poll.

    Two things have struck me about this event. The first is that it happened at all. The second, equally important, has been the absence of protest from bodies who endlessly condemn rigged elections elsewhere. The EU Commission has, as far as I can find, avoided saying anything. A search for NATO condemnation also yielded no results.

    There has been no sign of one of those 'Rose' or 'Orange' or 'Dignity' revolutions that erupt so spontaneously where the West is contesting election results that favour Moscow. Though I should point out, as a former revolutionary, that organising a spontaneous uprising takes a lot of planning, money and hard work.

    The whole thing looks to me like good-old fashioned humbug, and those who have been silent about it should be ignored when they protest, in future, about suppressions of democracy that don't suit them.

    In the meantime, it might be reasonable to worry about how Romanians might react to the cancellation of their democracy after only 35 years.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14192629/PETER-HITCHENS-Heres-need-people-supported-mass-immigration-need-pay-terrible-consequences-themselves.html

    1. Can't remember a time when I didn't appreciate Peter Hitchens. He really doesn't care if anyone agrees with him or not. True democracy = free speech.

    2. I was on the first 'NATO' ship, that went into the Black Sea, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, ie the east USSR, and the West were not warlike to each other any more.

      We docked in Constanta, in Romania

      It seemed peaceful, but there were as many horse-drawn carts as cars on the road.

    1. My mate in refuse collection told me years ago 'it's all nonsense, gets burned (my favourite, use the energy), buried, or dumped at sea.' Another con, folks. Add it to the list.

  121. Queen Bob
    @KingBobIIV

    'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the land,
    Keir Starmer was scheming, with taxes in hand.
    The grannies were starving, no heat for their fire,
    While Keir and his mates drank champagne to admire.

    Two-tier Keir, with his free gear spree,
    Gave handouts to cronies but left none for tea.
    “Tax the poor harder!” cried Rachel, with glee,
    While she filled up her purse with the rich’s decree.

    "Farmer Harmer", they whispered, down in the shire,
    For Keir’s latest rules set their fields aflame higher.
    “And what of the windmills?” Ed Miliband chimed,
    “Let’s build them in Africa—on Britain’s last dime!”

    David Lammy, meanwhile, with passport in hand,
    Flew off to give away some far-off land.
    “Where am I going?” he asked with a grin,
    “Is this Europe, or Africa, or somewhere in between?”
    For Christmas this year, he’ll need quite the look—
    A sturdy new map and a thick history book.

    Old Rachel Thieves, was next to appear,
    “Let’s rob all their pockets, my conscience is clear!”
    From the rich she took nothing, they gave her a grin,
    While the poor cried, “What happened? We’re skint again!”

    And for those who are old, with no heating or stew,
    Labour's solution is ready for you.
    “Take the assisted jab; we’ll see you out right,
    But do it before April, or the tax man will bite!”

    Up on the rooftops, they laughed and they plotted,
    While the working folk’s savings grew tattered and rotted.

    For free gear Keir and his mates so dear,
    Were feasting on steaks while the cupboards stayed clear.

    But lo, as dawn broke, the people awoke,
    And saw through the plans of this laughable bloke.
    “Enough of the nonsense, the taxes, the lies,
    We’re taking our votes, and we’ll cut you to size!”

    So here is the moral, for those who still dream,
    Of leaders who promise and then plot and scheme:
    Beware of the Starmer, the Lammy, the Band,
    Or you’ll find yourself penniless, hand in hand.
    https://x.com/KingBobIIV/status/1867512648373272744

      4. Not In the UK because apart from the problem with panel manufacturing being anything but net zero compluant, the power supply is not stable enough for all of those factories

      6. I nervously scratched my ear and wondered the same thing Mola ..

        Images of little dusky children working from eve to dawn digging up the chemicals that make up the panels .

        Having millions of panels will cause reflective heat, think of a sandy beach or a car park or the middle of a city … hot hot hot.

      7. So you all think it's China, or at least not the UK. So outsourcing manufacturing, CO₂ emissions and jobs. Is that not enough to show how stupid the whole effing plan is?

      8. So you all think it's China, or at least not the UK. So outsourcing manufacturing, CO₂ emissions and jobs. Is that not enough to show how stupid the whole effing plan is?

    2. The quicker we can get rid of all these idiots the safer the future of our British Isles will be.

    1. And then there was the whistleblower who worked for Boeing and who was found dead in his car. And the two guys who upset Hewlett Packard and one was killed in a road "accident" and the other in a sailing "accident".

      Not to mention Dr David Kelly.

      And I always thought we were the good guys!

      3. And the explosive expert who explained how and why certain things happened in the 9/11 incident. Who was accidently run over when a car mounted the pavement.

    2. Ahh just extreme right wing xenophobic bigots, the populous lurves him really. Sorry…. its the drink talking at this time of night.

    3. I'd suggest that what the majority of True Brits actually think of Starmer is unprintable.
      And we thought Johnson was bad…..

  127. Well, it's almost 11 pm, chums, so I'm off to bed now. Good Night all, sleep well, and I'll see you all tomorrow.

  130. 398838+ up ticks,

    Morning Each.

    My sing along with the S(tool)

    Jingle CULL,jingle CULL jingle all the way, as old santa starmer sets out on his christmas slay

  132. Oooh i’ve been to Mayotte, back in 1995. We were supposed to be going to the Comoros but there was a coup going on there and a French gun boat made us divert to Mayotte, where I was transfixed by the French Foreign Legion running around.

    (There’s been a typhoon there).

  133. Oooh i’ve been to Mayotte, back in 1995. We were supposed to be going to the Comoros but there was a coup going on there and a French gun boat made us divert to Mayotte, where I was transfixed by the French Foreign Legion running around.

    (There’s been a typhoon there).

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