Saturday 18 January: The Church of England must do more to support this nation’s great cathedrals

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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622 thoughts on “Saturday 18 January: The Church of England must do more to support this nation’s great cathedrals”

    1. That is what happens when you sit idly by, with your thumbs up your arse, and passively permit the Left to take over the establishment.

    3. At least two adverse aspects about releasing all the transcripts is that there are perverts who will take great pleasure in reading them and be encouraged to commit such things themselves. And the poor victims may re-live their trauma, particularly if their identities should be accidentally disclosed.

  5. Rise of the Right: Milei, Meloni, Trump, Musk, Farage – it’s our world now. 18 January 2025.

    Mr Farage will certainly be in Washington, as will Mr Wilders, Mr Zemmour and Tom van Grieken of Vlaams Belang. The AfD’s Ms Weidel was invited and her co-leader will attend. Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki, the former Law and Justice prime minister, will also be there.

    They have much in common, with Mr Trump and each other. A provocative style, a hostility toward migrants, wokery and those they call “the elites” and the effective use of social media to communicate directly with voters.

    We just need to get rid of these Marxist Traitors in Westminster and we can join them..,

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/01/17/rise-of-the-right-milei-meloni-trump-musk-farage/

    1. Good morning Araminta and everyone.
      "Hostility toward migrants" Surely 'hostility toward uncontrolled illegal immigration' ?

    2. Defence of the Realm is a time-honoured concept. The citizens of the country need to take it to heart.

      And then initiate action to accomplish it.

      1. That is why Blair disarmed the GBP.
        Must get pally with our local drug dealer; he should have ready access to fire power.

    3. Ah but whose world is it really?

      All this crap about voter id. Designed to get people begging for voter id, which will then be delivered as a digital id, soon to be implanted in a chip in your arm.
      I didn't make that up, I just read the plan.

  6. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe page.

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
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  8. Good morning all.
    Another not so cold and dry start to the day. Looks overcast with a low of 3.1°C on the digital display with a maximum of 8.1°C. Still not a lot of wind.

  10. FSB's new article today is Iain Hunter’s exposure of socialism for the murderous ideology that it is. In The Bloody Truth he relates what always happens under socialist regimes and why. Psychologist Xandra H’s article Do you want to live forever? and the Grumpy Old Git Graham Bedford’s piece Is Covid the new man flu, or just a cold? are well worth reading if you missed them.

    Energy watch 07.30. Demand: 34.152GW. Supply: Hydrocarbons 53.4%; Wind 20.5%; Imports 4.7%; Biomass 9.2% and Nuclear 10.3%. Solar: 0%.

    Even with relatively low demand, wind can only generate 20% of our need.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  11. Good Moaning.

    "Mark Zuckerberg has blamed his long-time lieutenant Sheryl Sandberg for masterminding Facebook’s diversity projects as the billionaire seeks to repair ties with Donald Trump."

    Please, pretty please, Mr. Trump. Do you have any time (alternate Thursday afternoons would be a start) to take over Blighty and make it the 51st State?

    3. What an utter little rat MZ must be, blaming the second in command! Well I guess Sheryl Sandberg will have learned her lesson the hard way.

  12. Reading the print edition of the DT this morning, my heart leapt at the headline: "Khan sentenced to 14 years for corruption" only to have my hopes dashed when it turns out to be the creekiter and not the caliph of Londonistan.

        3. There appears to some doubt whether you are 62 not out, Rastus's scorecard, or 52 not out Phizzee's scorecard.
          Either way have a great day and keep up the good innings.

        6. Rumours that it's your birthday, Stormy. Hope it's the best one yet!
          Have a great day!

        10. Happy Birthday, Stormy! Have a great day, and may the sun🌞bless you on these God-forsaken, grey, windswept isles of ours 🎊🥂🍾🍷🍨🎂🍰🎊

  13. Stopped at a supermarket the other day, and in the chilled section there was a shelf tag for 'Vegan balls'.
    Intrigued, and slightly anxious, I observed that the packets actually contained 'Vegan Meatballs'.
    It may well be different to that of the British, but no-one can deny that the Germans have a sense of humour.
    (Brand Vemondo, in stock at Lidl)

      1. The same shop had a large hanging display sign stating
        "But one get one free". (mandarin orange segments)
        There are about 970 Lidl supermarkets in the UK.

    3. A much loved former neighbour of mine, who sadly died last year, point blank refused to enter the Lidl store just round the corner. Dear Ulla was German and when I asked her what she had against the shop she said, “It’s German”.

      The canteen at work has vegan sausages on the breakfast menu which bear no resemblance to real sausages beyond being the same shape. They look like mashed vegetables and have a distinct appearance of having been predigested. Nothing would persuade me to eat one.

      1. You can see her point, she went to the trouble of emigrating from her home country after all! Bit like moving to Italy and Sainsbury's popping up on the corner!

        1. Oh yes. There were two products of her homeland that Ulla loved. JS Bach and Goethe. She told me it was pointless reading Goethe in translation because his use of the German language was what made him special.

          1. An Irish labourer turned up at a building site and asked the site manager if there were any jobs going. The manager, who hated the Irish, thought, 'I'll give this thick Mick a test'.

            He asked him: "OK, Paddy, what's the difference between a joist and a girder?"

            Paddy replied: "Oh, to be sure, that's an easy one. Joyce wrote Ulysses; Goethe wrote Faust,"

    4. One of my small delights when living in Germany was contemplating the existence of vegan liver sausage. The world is full of wonders.

    5. I had to laugh; in the supermarket tonight there were packs of plant-based, no pork bacon. What?!

  14. Morning all 🙂😊
    Same old grey chilly start, but not the dense fog predicted nor of course the double figure temps they all talked and waved their arms about. Funny that, or just the usual thing.
    It seems that the church of England is another one of our long established traditional organisations that is being effected by the Wokey brain wood worm. Where are all the traditional stalwarts ? Politics has taken a Dopey Wokey bashing and look what has happened to our country.

      1. I’m still getting messages from our surgery to have more jab.
        They can jab themselves.

        1. Me too..can now have the combined ‘for my convenience’. Response unprintable….jab off, or similar…

          1. Combined! Larks-a-Lordy! The 'covid' jab swipes your immune system, then gets set to work at enhancing the effects of the dna in the 'flu jab. And 'vaccination' against a respiratory tract infection leaves you vulnerable to any other respiratory illness which may be flying around that winter. I know you know all this, though, KJ. Buyer beware.

          2. Thanks ‘mum…yes ‘deed I do, thankful for online comments the ones confirmed not just me (including your good self). Pfizer made a lot, a lot, of various currency – likely for funding future endeavours 🙁

        2. I got one this week exhorting me to have the RSV jab. And the display screen in the waiting room yesterday on about it too. (I was only there waiting for OH to have his prostate antigen jab).
          Why is it only for ages 75-79 and not the over 80s?

        4. Met some friends of a friend in the local supermarket; they've had the jabs and gone down with the lurgy every time. I pointed out the jabs weren't doing the job, but it think it went whoosh over their head.

  16. There you are Stormy! Wishing you a very Happy Birthday and hope you have a wonderful day! 🎂🥂⭐️

    1. U hav to respeck the manemagemt for tolrating minor misteaks and avoiding throwing away about 200 square metres of unused plastic promotional material. (the letters 't' and 'y' are adjacent on a querty keyboard)

      1. Tie ping on boxing glohvez.
        Call me old fashedion bert We've never been inside a lidl shop.

        1. I'm a creatureof habit and shop at Morrisons but I did go into Lidl once last year and was impressed by their meat section.

          1. Me2, Ndovu. Both Aldi and Lidl were originally German supermarkets,I think – don't know if they still are. Before I kept falling over and still allowed to drive/shop, I would often call there after Morrisons. Meat/dairy/alcohol all own brand but good quality at reasonable prices. Think both have websites for household goods – I've used the Aldi one, good.

          2. They are still German. There’s an Aldi quite near but I haven’t been there. Are you able to get out at all now? I didn’t know you kept falling 😕 are you OK now?

          3. ‘Morning, N..thanks for info confirmation. Be interested in your assessment if you ever try Aldi? I’ve had ‘hypermobility’ aka loose joints, all my life, sort of arthritis in reserve. If I overdid sport esp running would be a bit painful. Also, syncope aka fainting, something to do with blood pressure….both conditions have improved with age, one of the few benefits – yay! x…either that or I just got used to them…..

          5. Wine from Lidl is the only wine I have poured away down the sink. I'm a creature of habit, too. I never went there again. It was my one and only visit.

          6. They do some nice German things. I went to the one in Stroud while my car was in for a minor repair across the road. Their meat and veg was good.

  19. I read that It's your birthday today, I hope you have a lovely day today and everything that goes with it. 🤩🥂🍾 cheers have a lovely day.

    1. I can edge that, my mother grew up in Hendon and her next door neighbours were the Compton family.
      She was at Bell Lane school with Dennis. So how’s that 😉🏏

        1. I think Dennis only played as a teenage amateur, it was his elder brother Leslie who played long term for Arsenal, more than 20 years.
          Sister's name was Hilda, a lovely lady she use to hand me raspberries over the fence

  22. Where is everyone this morning ?
    After 11 hours it's time to get out of bed and get busy with my Saturday treat. A large bacon and egg sandwich and a cup of ground strong coffee.
    Slayders all.
    I hope Phizz is OK today. 🤔🤞🙏

    3. Cleaning and cooking. Sitting down for a few minutes to work out what time i need to leave for my match.

      Working backwards, 13:45 pb, there 30 mins before = 13:15, 20 minutes to cycle over there round it up for simplicity ok need to leave here at 12:45 which is quarter to one. Right. Think i have got that.

      Off to check on the stew.

  25. Morning, all Y'all.
    Late. By God, it was dark last night, like a sack over the head. Sucked all the energy out of one, so it did. Slept late and now on second coffee.

    3. That would make him a teenager in the 70s.

      A car wreck of an economy thanks to a Labour government.
      Rampant Inflation. Cosseted unions. Energy blackouts.
      Man Utd about to be relegated.

      Hang on a minute..

    6. Grattis på födelsedagen, D-Cup. Hope your (D-)Cup runneth over today!😊🥂👍🏻🎂😘

    1. As my old friend with a grey parrot use to say when he did the housework.
      Make sure you check and polish it behind the kitchen door.

    2. If you want some extra practice, we have plenty here you are welcome to… 🙁
      I'll even provide refreshments, it'll take a while.

      1. My cleaner made a mess yesterday which i have just cleaned up ! She cleaned all the frames in the conservatory and messed up all the windows.

        1. My mother once bollocked the window-cleaner. She said, "Did you used to be in the Navy?"
          Puzzled, he replied, "No, why?"
          She came back, "Because you've cleaned the windows as if they're portholes. You've missed all the corners!"

  32. It seems to me that the left have spent the time since the end of the Second World War reducing the status of our country to that of a sub Saharan hell hole and now complain when the President of the United States treats Starmer like the dictator of a sub Saharan hell hole.

    1. Looking forward to DT's statement, due shortly, re Chagos deal. Suspect he might just not be happy about it.

    2. The far left bandwagon has done more psychological damage to Britain than hitler managed to inflict.

    3. There cannot be a World Government until the nation states are destroyed. That is why no UK government of any colour will stop the flood of immigrants. Did you see the picture of Badenoch cosying up to Schwab? They are all globalists.

  33. From the Terriblegraph, about the rule of lawyers. Of course in my view the cause is 50 years of being in the EU, undermining our concept of common law, and Bliar and his “reforms”, including the abolition of the post of Lord Chancellor and the creation of the “Supreme court”. As I said at the time, you know you don’t live in a democracy when you have a “Supreme court” in the constitution.

    “THE next time Britain has a Rightwing government, whichever party finds itself atop the smouldering heap of ashes could do a lot worse than top its agenda with a lightly modified line from Henry VI: “The first thing we do, let’s sack all the lawyers”.

    If the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing mankind he doesn’t exist, the greatest trick the legal profession ever pulled was convincing voters that it needed to be in charge in order to safeguard their interests. The result of this expanding legal activism has been to make Britain something close to ungovernable.

    Decisions large and small appear increasingly subject to final sign-off not by ministers or by Parliament, but by the judiciary. Judges hold the power to decide that businesses can’t pay workers in different jobs different wages based on spurious comparisons, the ability to completely reshape the framework for oil exploration, declare the Government’s decision not to spend more on criminal defence lawyers unlawful, and, perhaps most interestingly, to completely disarm efforts to defend the UK’s borders.

    Even leaving aside the Rwanda debacle, the list of individual cases where judges have intervened to keep people in Britain against the will of the Government is long and impressive.

    The costs of this approach to law are steep. Sometimes these costs are direct – lengthy delays to infrastructure projects, or an extra £3.7bn in disability benefits handed out, or a bizarre approach to equal pay bankrupting Birmingham City Council – and sometimes they are indirect.

    Britain’s policymakers can barely move without a judge tripping them up, or at least the threat of a court case. Neither can many of Britain’s companies, for that matter. This is a recipe for stagnation, where systems evolve less to achieve specified ends than to avoid getting sued or judicially reviewed into oblivion.

    It also undermines our democracy. Policymakers have allowed activists and lawyers to press for controversial and inherently political decisions to be moved into the realm of law. When changing governments fails to change policy, public anger is rational and understandable.

    The incentives for this process aren’t hard to parse. If the government decides to cut disability benefits, and you think it shouldn’t, you can either attempt to win over the public and parliament, and work through the political process for years to achieve change. Or you can ask a judge, and see if they can’t rule it unlawful, shortcircuiting a lot of tedious effort. (My bold)

    For politicians, the incentives are even less noble. Lord Falconer remarked in 2003 that Labour’s approach was “to place power where it should be: increasingly not with politicians but with those best fitted in different ways to deploy it”. The aim of this process was to depoliticise policy.

    Cynically, this might be read as removing policy from political control, trusting institutional incentives to deliver the right outcomes when the wrong party was in power. Some laws appear to fit this bill quite neatly, particularly the Human Rights Act. And some decisions resulted less from legislation than changes in judicial culture, slowly expanding the scope of judicial review beyond all recognition.
    Under the Conservatives, the result of this seemed to be a government that pulled on the levers of power only to find them strangely disconnected from outcomes. Under Labour, things will likely look different: the grasp of the legal profession will be solidified.

    Sir Keir Starmer is practically the embodiment of process over politics, and his Attorney General, Richard Hermer, has made the approach of this Government quite clear.

    His Bingham lecture was filled with a sort of indignation that people might disagree with the project of legalistic liberal democracy, outraged at populist attacks on “elites” including “judges. Lawyers. A free press. NGOs. Parliament. The Academy” and, heaven forfend, the “Civil Service”.

    But if Hermer’s concept of the rule of law is one where the rule of law is absolute, likely interpreted to include the role of the judge as effective policymaker and incorporating the empire of human rights, he should be open to the idea that legal utopianism is open to criticism too.

    A state where rules and processes are used to continually block and dispute government action will end up in gridlock. A state where the political preferences of a small activist minority are embedded into the legal system is one that will produce dissatisfaction with the democratic system. As much as it might pain the legal profession to admit it, nobody voted for the rule of lawyers. The “populist” backlash is going nowhere.”

  34. Nurse. NURSE!!!!!!
    Bring the straitjacket. The one with the big red rose.
    Rachel from Accounts has finally flipped.

    'I'm going to be in Davos,' she said this week, 'to tell some of the world's biggest companies and investors that UK plc is burning bright.'
    This is self-deception of a high order. Nobody at the WEF is going to buy it.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-14297875/ANDREW-NEIL-Rachel-Accounts-repeats-self-deluded-guff-UK-plc-burning-bright-Davos-week-shell-laughed-town.html

        1. Carlson has a worldwide audience, sos, so it's possible. My dad used to say he'd worked with one of Ian Smith's sons, never quite sure if I believed him or not.

          1. My wife's grandmother kept a picture of her being introduced to Ian Smith, post UDI, in pride of place on her piano.

      2. Tucker Carlson (American political commentator).

        “Britain on top of the world. To this day Britain claims to have won both of the 20th century world wars, but together, they destroyed that nation forever. After victory came humiliation. The Empire evaporated and, along with it, Britain’s self-confidence and, ultimately, its self-respect.

        It’s hard to believe now that Britain wasn’t always a regional banking centre/refugee camp, it was a real place with a history, a language, a culture and a genuinely remarkable people. A country in the North Atlantic the size of Alabama that somehow took over the world and ruled it with decency unmatched by any empire in human history.

        The British Empire was not perfect but it was far more humane than any other, ever. Queen Elizabeth II was the last living link to a truly Great Britain. ‘The British Empire was evil’, they wrote, apparently totally unaware of what came after it. And speaking of what did come after the British Empire; how, for example, did Africa fare after the British left. Let’s see.

        Uganda got Idi Amin, who was a cannibal! [Southern] Rhodesia became Zimbabwe and then became the poorest country on the planet under the racist lunatic, Robert Mugabe. As of tonight South Africa is still being run into the ground by an incompetent kleptocrat called Cyril Ramaphosa. So it’s hard to see any of that as an improvement, because it is not an improvement. And now, of course, the entire continent of Africa has a new master, the Chinese government. China is the latest colonial power to dominate Africa. Its subjects will be pining for the British soon, assuming they are not already.

        In an ideal world there would not be empires, only sovereign nations, but we don’t have that world. In the real world, the one that we live in, strong countries dominate weak countries and that trend shows no sign of changing. The very least you can say about the English [sic] is that they took their colonial responsibilities seriously. They didn’t just take things, they added. When the US government withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years we left behind airstrips, shipping containers and guns. When the British pulled out of India they left behind an entire civilisation, a language, legal systems, schools, churches and public buildings, all of which are still in use today. In fact the British did not commit genocide except, arguably, against the Dutch during the Boer War[s].

        The British did give the world the Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus and free speech. They helped end the transatlantic slave trade as well as the ritual murders of widows in India. The British Empire spread Protestant Christianity to the entire world. It published some of the greatest literature ever written and produced the finest manufactured goods ever made anywhere, at any time, including now. It was an impressive place run by impressive people. We will see many empires, going forward, but we will never see one so benign. That’s true, and because it’s true the people who would like to run the world in a far harsher way, would like to make certain that you don’t know it. And so they destroy the evidence, the evidence that ever existed, erase the memory. That’s why they’re doing it.”

        2. A couple of days ago I mentioned the fact that when my father revisited the Sudan shortly after retiring as governor of the Northern Province a group of elders met him and said: "The only thing you ever did wrong was to leave us."

          How right the elders were. Since the British left the Sudan, which they had governed humanely, justly and competently, the Sudan has suffered from endless civil wars, genocide, famine , plague, the destruction of the infrastructure, health care, education, the economy, the justice system and finally partition.

          And not surprisingly the Sudanese people wish to leave their homeland and move to Britain in rubber dinghies because, no matter how awful Britain has become, it is still preferable to what the Sudan now is.

        3. The Empire didn't just evaporate after the Wars – the USA did a heck of a lot, both during those wars and afterwards, to undermine both the UK and the Empire. The same ilk of people that now "would like to run the world in a far harsher way".

  36. Cold and grey today: Could have done better:
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    1. Oh gosh, sun shone in my grid. Or something…
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  37. Smallest county wiped off the map (again) under Rayner's plans.

    THE historic county of Rutland could be abolished as part of Angela Rayner’s reorganisation of local government. The Deputy Prime Minister wants to cover the country with councils looking after 500,000 people but Rutland, England’s smallest county, has a population of just 41,000. The district has been referred to as a county since the 12th century, but it was merged into Leicestershire as part of Edward Heath’s controversial reforms of 1974.

    Following a public campaign, Rutland was reborn in 1995 as a unitary authority. Under Ms Rayner’s plans, district councils would be merged into counties to create new unitary authorities. Alongside this, smaller unitaries could be merged into larger ones. The proposals have led Leicestershire to call for its merger with Rutland to be restored.

    Alicia Kearns, the Conservative MP for Rutland and Stamford, said: “Angela Rayner and the bureaucrats have launched an assault on rural communities – stripping Rutlanders of our identity appears to be next on their quest for legacy and riding rough-shod over local accountability.
    “Rutland is a very special place, we are intensely proud of our county and community, and we don’t take kindly to being railroaded.
    “People are flabbergasted they may have to fight for their county again. Smaller can be better, we’re the toprated council in the country for social care, the issue councils up and down the country are struggling with most.”

    Ms Kearns has called a public meeting in Oakham – the county’s main town – to discuss the implications of the Deputy Prime Minister’s plans.
    She said: “The proposals put into doubt the future of Rutland as a county council. I want to hold a public meeting to ensure Rutlanders understand what the Government is proposing, the potential outcomes of their proposals and what different stakeholders are proposing.” Chaz Ellis, whose father was a part of the Rutland independence campaign in the 1990s and drove a lorry round the county to popularise the movement, said: “The idea that we might have to fight for it again is both disheartening and galvanising. It’s frustrating to think that Rutland’s autonomy might be dismissed as inconsequential once again.

    He added: “Historic counties are not arbitrary lines, they are the result of generations of shared traditions, heritage and community.” Mr Ellis said that if the county were merged into Leicestershire, its “distinctive character and needs might be eroded”. Last week Leicestershire county council said it wanted to see one unitary council to cover the city of Leicester and another covering rural areas of Leicestershire along with Rutland.

    Local district councils and Rutland issued a response citing their disappointment, saying nothing had been decided. Lucy Stephenson, leader of the Tory group on Rutland county council, said Rutland’s voice could be lost owing to its small population. She said: “This is not the only way to slice our East Midlands cake. We have population similarities with the Harborough villages, with Melton. “Is there not a case to be made for two smaller unitaries covering our geography, firmly placing our growing populations at the heart of local democracy?”

    Gale Waller, leader of Rutland county council, was also open to compromise. She said: “The success of a council is heavily influenced by the relationship between scale and physical geography. Councils work best when their boundaries reflect the way people live their lives, where they go to work, learn, shop, spend their leisure time and get healthcare.” Gerard Dugdill, of the British Counties Campaign, said that if reorganisation must happen, the name of Rutland must be preserved in the name of the new authority.

    No matter what changes pathetic politicians make, locals in every area will continue to use traditional county names and addresses.

    On a road junction at Firbeck in "South Yorkshire" there is an old cast-iron signpost with a crest atop that still proudly declares West Riding.

    1. I wouldn't be at all surprised if all the counties are rolled up into the Regional Offices so favoured by the EU. I know for a fact the the Regional Office for South East England still exists in Guildford……

    2. I wouldn't be at all surprised if all the counties are rolled up into the Regional Offices so favoured by the EU. I know for a fact the the Regional Office for South East England still exists in Guildford……

    3. Argh! South Yorkshire. Guaranteed to wind me up. As you’ll know but I don’t tire of repeating, Riding derives from the Old Norse word for a third. The Vikings divided their territory into three parts, the North Riding, East Riding and West Riding. There can be no humans in the South because the South is the location of the Great Ash Tree, the Tree of Life and the Land of the Gods. Bluddy commies obsess over African and Arab paganism and know nothing of their own roots.

        1. But, but…the Vikings didn’t create Gaul. York dates from AD71 but prior to the Viking invasion, Yorkshire didn’t exist.

          2. Yorkshire is a mind-set as much as it is a county, Grizz….there are many, many honorary members…..I don't know if any nottlers remember George Whitebread (Harry Enfield)…but there's my dad….

          4. Harry Enfield went to the school I went to in Horsham, Sussex. Like me, he knew all about Yorkshire.

        2. All Gaul is quartered into three halves?

          Who began his translation of De bello Gallico thus?

          A few sources attribute it to a "Dr. Barrett," and an item in Notes & Queries refers to Dr. Barrett as vice-provost of Trinity College Dublin, so that's probably John "Jacky" Barrett (1753-1821), known for his eccentricity and humour. It's generally described as a facetious translation, namely a quip rather than the clumsy start of a serious published translation. However, most sources seem to refer to this generically as "the Irishman's translation" of Caesar, suggesting it may have begun as a joke (like an Irish bull) and was only later apocryphally attributed to Barrett, just as Rev. Spooner didn't really say all the spoonerisms attributed to him.

          C. Julius Caesar, Gallic War (Commentarii de Bello Gallico.)
          All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in our Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws.

      2. In the same manner Lincolnshire has its three historical divisions of: Lindsey, Holland and Kesteven.

        1. At Eton the school term is called a half and there are three halfs in the school year.

          2. There are two sorts of Fives – Eton Fives and Rugby Fives. We played Rugby Fives at the school to which I went. Fives is a handball game in which you wear padded gloves..

            One of the Etonians who came on a French course with us last year was in the UK racquets team. Racquets and Squash are similar but not quite the same! I used to play squash.

      3. Not all commies didn't give a monkey's. My diminutive (and very gobby) Pinko cousin took positive action when Ted Heath's government destroyed the traditional county system.

        As part of that reorganisation a group of north-east Derbyshire villages were to become part of the new "South Yorkshire". The residents of a number of those villages destined for change capitulated and accepted the new order. However, the residents of Barlborough, led by my feisty cousin and her good pal, Dennis Skinner, took a massive signed petition and handed it in at 10 Downing Street telling Heath that Barlborough would leave Derbyshire "over their dead bodies".

        Barlborough remains in Derbyshire.

          1. Before 1974, my parents paid their rates to the Dorking & Horley Rural District Council. Then someone decide Dorking was better merged with Leatherhead, and all the villages directed by the town majority. Villages no longer counted under Heath's new order.

            Then someone decided that Gatwick Airport should be in the same county as its nearest large town, Crawley, and so it became part of West Sussex, leaving Charlwood and Horley with a ruddy great airport on its doorstep and no way of controlling it.

          2. All those years ago, the local rag published a letter from me, suggesting that Gatwick Airport should be made a Surrey-West Sussex condominium.

          6. In the early 1970s, a large housing estate was built in one of the villages surrounding Colchester.
            Permission was granted by Lexden and Winstree Rural District Council.
            During the building of the estate, corners were cut.
            By the time the faults became apparent, Colchester Borough Council was the presiding authority.
            Lots of lovely buck passing ensued. I have no idea if the drainage problems were ever solved.

    4. Again showing their vindictiveness and imbedded hate for peaceful middle class areas of the UK

    5. 'Afternoon, Grizz 😊…yet another example of a Labour politician working hand-in-glove with our real government – the Civil Service, who will do their darndest to carry out their agenda whilst they can. Thatcher didn't warn us just to past the time of day…

      1. What a waste of time and energy, this tinkering with boundaries to make it look like you're doing something. Bah! Fcuk them all.

        1. Agree. Guess who pays for the f*ckery….many people don’t seem to realise government only gets funding from two sources – UK taxation (you, me, barney mcgrew, businesses etc)…or in the form of Bonds (Gilts) various organisations lending money to government at an agreed interest rate….that’s it, far as I know…

    7. This 500,000 balkanization of the country, is it part of some EU plan?
      Rayner couldn't have thought of it herself

        1. You could be the new Boadicea.

          [Yes, I'm a traditionalist and I will not be told how to spell words. 'Boudicca' (now 'Boudica' FFS) is an abomination. As are: 'sulfur', 'Mumbai', 'Beijing' and a good few others!]

          1. Scythes on the Noddy car wheels.
            I'm sure my local garage could manage that; they've managed to keep the Noddy car fighting fit for yonks.

    8. I visited Rutland once, and thought Eric Idle's parody of it as an English ruritania quite accurate. It could quite happily sit alongside Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Liechtenstein as one of humanity's charming little oddities. I wish it well.

      I wrote an article a while back opposing Rayner's apeing of Heath's wretched 1974 reorganisation. What does she think she is, a wannabe Tory?

      I was born in Middlesex, which got swallowed up by Greater London in 1965, and now live in Worcestershire, which was merged for a while with Herefordshire, even though Anglo-Saxon law-abiding Worcestershire with its village greens is a world apart from the other side of the Malvern Hills, which is Celtic at heart and not over-enamoured by authority. Neither sit well with rules imposed by the woke conurbations of the West Midlands region.

      1. "Gaily into Ruislip Gardens
        Runs the red electric train,
        With a thousand Ta's and Pardon's
        Daintily alights Elaine;
        Hurries down the concrete station
        With a frown of concentration,
        Out into the outskirt's edges
        Where a few surviving hedges
        Keep alive our lost Elysium – rural Middlesex again."

        1. Sir John Betjeman CBE, no doubt. A favourite of mine and — IMHO — in the top ten of English poets.

          2. So beautifully un-enriched! I remember it well; tea parties, playing tennis, swimming in the lido, going hunting. A lost world.

        2. My Victorian era primary school was condemned when I was there and a new one built in Normansfield Avenue, formerly a rather dark sinister lane with tall trees, no houses and a large wall surrounding a Gothic mansion that was knocked down and the grounds built over. We had ‘Nature’ lessons – a walk into Bushy Park to count the squirrels.

          On the other side of the lock was a large semi-wild piece of wasteland – Ham Common, strictly speaking in Surrey, although I wasn’t aware of crossing the county boundary over the beautiful cast iron footbridge. I often used to dream about it, and what was on the far side. It was like exploring Narnia. From my A-Z atlas (which I still have),there was a strange shaped island called Eel Pie, which awoke all sorts of visions in my imagination although I never went there until I was in my thirties.

          I was able to hum the start-up music for Associated-Rediffusion from memory, which really annoyed my older brother in the next room. They stopped the music after I moved to Dorking and replaced it with something composed by Johnny Dankworth. I never heard it again until about fifty years later when someone posted it online. Although I did not recognise the tune straight away, it brought back all sorts of memories of early 1960s Middlesex.

          I remember the county boundary between Middlesex and London was at Chiswick. The county town was Isleworth, but I never went there.

    1. It’s possibly online somewhere, Per…but certainly not on what my better half refers to as ‘Bint Broadcasting Company’……….

    1. Mr Holmes said that Ms Rayner should be sent a bill for the “estimated costs of civil service time during the move, calculated at private sector rates”.

      Which she will probably claim on expenses, so the taxpayers will end up covering costs twice.

      1. She will have already done that.
        It’s not just this mob they are all an absolute disgusting disgrace. And the Lords included.

    2. If the cleaners work in government building, does that make them civil servants?
      I really cannot see Sir Humphrey sweating and swearing as he manoeuvres a bed base round a bend in the stairs.

      1. Depends who the employer is, I guess. If it's the Home office, then yes; if it's Clean-a-Phone, then no.

      2. Probably jobs for friends and family, a nice little earner with a decent none contributory pension.

  45. Countdown to Trump office.. Gentle reminder for the Lefties, they're not messing around this time.

    ABC News & CNN quickly settling fake news lawsuits. CBS Next?
    Whaddaya know Janet Yellen made sure debt ceiling hit one day after Trump inauguration after spaffing $15 trillion.
    Trump plans mass deportation raids across the country less than 24 hours after the inauguration.
    Trump not taking any chances.. Inauguration Moved Indoors.

    Dontcha just love evil Trot Lefties..

    1. The news networks are owned by the Hollywood Studios. As well as Fox, ABC is Disney, CNN is Warner Bros, NBC is Universal and CBS is Paramount. The extent of the Trump effect will be interesting.

  46. Did Rachel from Accounts & Keir Starmer learn anything from Mossad's pager attack?

    Chinese EVs are embedded with cellular modules that can be remotely controlled allowing anyone with access to direct them.
    Within all of these vehicles there are these cellular networks… and they can provide access and information to whoever wishes to control it.

    The UK remains an outlier among Western states not imposing controls on Chinese EVs. The outgoing Biden administration on Tuesday effectively banned Chinese cars and trucks from the US market with new regulations.

    Thank gawd Johnson banned Huawei from 5G network.

    2. She frames the question cautiously and he’s goading her into asking bluntly if there are Pakistani Moslem rape gangs so that he can yell, “Waycist! Waycist!” which will shut down all discussion.

    3. Slimy little git! He also claimed that London was NOT less safe than when he took over, despite all the hard evidence to the contrary!

    4. Of course there are! Wherever these slime collect, there are grooming gangs. The question should be "What are you doing about the grooming gangs in London?"

    5. Absolutely epic.
      She reminds me of Spartacus with a bone.
      I have distributed the film to friends and family.
      Who is she? Apart from being a London councillor?

    2. What's it called? Bozo and Bint? Not a Cluedo, the pair of them. Anyway, I thought it was an ad for the next woke version of Dr Who. 'Dr Who's destroying the UK?' should be the first episode title.

    1. We could stop pouring money into Africa to "fight climate change". That would provide WFA for a lot of needy pensioners.

  50. Rachel the cleaner knocked over a standard lamp and smashed the shade. The exact same one she smashed last time. She refused to take any money and said she would pay for it that way.

    I said take the bloody money. She eventually did but under protest.

    I can't complain really as she dog sits for free and grooms both dogs for free. Saving me a lot of money. She saves me £50 a day in boarding fees and 2 X £40 in grooming fees.

    1. For a moment I thought you was writing about our Dear (as in effing expensive) Chancellor!

      1. My Rachel has OCD. She is thorough in her cleaning when she isn't smashing things.

        Rachel just destroys my lamps not whole countries.

          1. Reeves is insane. My Rachel is just borderline loony.

            She is not only hard working and generous but she makes me laugh. Which is priceless.

      2. That was my reaction.
        Then I realised she couldn't even make tea, let alone wheel the trolley round.

      3. Rachel from accounts would dump manure on your carpet and tell you she’d done a brilliant job.

  52. A phone call to Amazon (UK) Customer Services ended up with this gobbledegook in my email inbox.

    We are nit requiring you to return the replaced item back to us, and we're sorry about the inconvenience that caused you and I do really rest assured you that you won't be charge for it and I already disabled the notification of the return that was sent to you.

    If this is the result of the minimum of ten years of compulsory school education in Britain, then you, the tax payers, have been robbed.

          1. Well done and congratulations to Caroline. Bet it sells better than Uncle Bill's ruminations. :@)

          2. Its been on the market for years – it's known as a back boiler – it continues to sell a small amount of copies every year.

          4. The shortfall is due to the fact that fewer and fewer schools are teaching French to "A" level.

          5. Not something i know anything about but given your home and grounds and how you like to entertain and whatnot…there must be other avenues. I would be happy just to pay for a course on cooking what people around you eat. In a rustic kitchen with local markets. There is nothing like that where i live .

          6. I expect that MFL have become "optional" again and so, being difficult, they are being dropped in favour of "computer studies" and "business studies".

      1. In our schools they tended to say the full "nitwit" when using it as an insult, even the teachers used it.

    4. Panic not, my white middle-class son has secured an internship with them next summer at their Swansea office, and I confidently predict he will be running the place* by September. We then just need to get me somehow to the position of PM and all our worries will be over. But I can’t have all of you in my cabinet so you will have to take turns.

      *edit: by which i mean, the global Amazon empire, not its Swansea branch.

        1. It was hard work, believe me. He has been applying for anything and evert for 6 months. But that’s par for the course if you don’t have a box you can tick.

    5. Panic not, my white middle-class son has secured an internship with them next summer at their Swansea office, and I confidently predict he will be running the place* by September. We then just need to get me somehow to the position of PM and all our worries will be over. But I can’t have all of you in my cabinet so you will have to take turns.

      *edit: by which i mean, the global Amazon empire, not its Swansea branch.

  53. All of Attorney General Hermer’s Most Curious Clients

    Eyebrows are hitting the ceiling over Attorney General Richard Hermer, with pressure piling on the PM to recuse him of involvement in public inquiries amid growing concerns of potential conflicts of interest. Guido gives co-conspirators some of Starmer’s top legal adviser’s more curious cases against the government in the past:

    Hermer pocketed £30,000 to represent Gerry Adams in a High Court case against IRA bomb victims. The case heads to trial next year. A reminder that Starmer is planning to allow Gerry and 400 other IRA suspects compensation…
    In 2020, Hermer acted for Liberty against the Home Office, the human rights group that argued for Shamima Begum’s right to return to the UK to appeal her citizenship revocation.

    In 2023, Hermer represented Afghan families accusing Britain’s Armed Forces of war crimes during the Independent Inquiry on Afghanistan. Sparking Robert Jenrick to call for Hermer to “publicly recuse” himself from involvement in the Afghanistan inquiry…

    Hermer fought the Home Office to help migrants stay in the UK, contesting guidance on how age should be assessed. He acted for Eritrean man claiming to be an unaccompanied child. The Supreme Court rejected the argument in 2021…
    From 2021 to 2021, Hermer represented Palestinian former Guantanamo Bay detainee, alleged terrorist and reported “senior bin Laden official” Abu Zubaydah against the Foreign Office. Zubaydah alleged that between 2002 and 2006 he was unlawfully rendered by CIA agent, and Hermer brought the case to the UK, alleging that UK intelligence services were complicit…

    Meanwhile, Hermer also advised Labour on their boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) bill targeting Israel, whilst previously pushing for the International Court of Justice to consider whether Israel qualifies as an “apartheid state.” He’s also close pals with Starmer’s mate and Mauritius’ chief legal adviser Philippe Sands from their Matrix Chambers days. Not to mention he donated £5,000 towards Starmer’s leadership campaign…

    17 January 2025 @ 17:20

    1. Obsessive-compulsive disorder. She also mutters continuously. Excellent worker though. She cleaned my bathroom last time. Took her 2 hours. She even washed the ceiling !

      I found out her birthday is 2 days before mine so i went on Amazon and bought a big box of Hotel Chocolat.

    2. Both Firstborn & I have rifles, shotguns and handguns stored (in a locked cabinet) at home.
      But then, there is still some democracy left in Norway.

      2. I wonder if I shall be able to buy a firearm now that I have Swedish citizenship?

        A ·22 air rifle would suffice. Just for aiming at rats (of all colours) of course!

        1. Probably.
          We had to take and pass the hunting test to get a rifle & shotgun certificate – it's interesting material, covering the habits of hunted anumals in Norway, riles and regulations, shooting technique, firearms safety – interesting even if you don't want to go hunting.
          Then we could apply for a long gun permit.
          We both have Mauser K98 – Firstborn's is modified, mine original, both awesomely accurate rifles made in 1942 and 1943. Both of us have telescopic sights, can shoot the bollocks off a fly at 100+ metres.
          We also have shotguns: I have a double-barrelled 12-bore.
          The guns are fun to shoot, but after the offing of Firstborn's pigs a few years ago, I realised that I 'm not interested in killing living creatures, whether for food or otherwise, so the weapons are now kept for practice of difficult skills, not hunting.

    1. The marchers wanted to descend on Broadcasting House in the pretence that the BBC is pro-Israel. GBN is reporting that they were forbidden “due to the proximity of a local synagogue”. It’s the Central Synagogue in Great Portland Street. The main one in the City of Westminster.

      1. You have to be pretty warped if you think the vilely anti-semitic al-beeb is pro-israel

  58. Starmer’s hatred of free speech will trigger economic war with the United States. 18 January 2025.

    I don’t doubt that Labour MPs deplore the rape of vulnerable girls. Yet they are uneasily aware that the councils at fault were largely Labour-controlled. For decades, Labour politicians have elevated anti-racism as the supreme value, and they don’t like to hear stories that undermine the narrative of happy integration. Plus, MPs were understandably angry when Musk responded to Jess Phillips’s opposition to an inquiry by calling her a “rape genocide apologist”.

    I don’t think that they deplored it at all. I think that they secretly approved. Those snooty white bitches getting what they deserved.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/18/starmers-hatred-free-speech-trigger-economic-war-with-us/#comment

    3. I can't put my finger on it – not that I would want to – but there is something very sordidly nasty about Jess Phillips

      1. She never looks really well, Rastus – anorexic, for a number of years. Sufficient to make a person slightly bonkers, I think.

          1. I think anorexia a mental condition, Sue? Her hair looks a bit manky, but dieting (or so I'm told, never done it) can apparently cause that?

  59. Readers here who are interested in matters relating to the Church of England might like to read this article by Ian Paul on Justin Welby's legacy to the Church. The author has been on General Synod and is a long-established and highly-regarded blogger and commentator on CofE subjects. The article is well-considered and based on a great deal of factual evidence and the experience of the author. While being written in a respectful tone, the article concludes that Justin Welby's tenure as Archbishop has been resoundingly disastrous, because of his failings of character.
    https://www.psephizo.com/life-ministry/what-is-justin-welbys-legacy-to-the-church-of-england/
    P.S. It's not short!
    [Edited simulaneously with first upvote.]

    2. I haven't read it yet, but that Welby was disastrous is not news to us at the grass roots. I am on the diocesan synod and the woke stuff I am expected to take as gospel has to be seen to be believed.

          4. Is anything useful? I’m dreading my grandchildren telling me what they’re doing….

          5. More or less science, far as I can make out. Some other subjects, school of grandmother…especially ‘Climate Change’, had that conversation quite a few years ago.

      2. Somewhere over the Rainbow skies are Red
        A place all normal folk really dread!

        Edited for scanning!

      3. Somewhere over the Rainbow skies are Red
        A place all normal folk really dread!

        Edited for scanning!

      5. There's a 20 odd acre wood I used to walk in…found one of those attached to a tree, seemingly a message. Stopped walking there….

        1. Should have taken it down! I binned the Free Palestine sticker attached to the pole of the dog bin (and dropped it in the dog poo bin where it belonged).

    2. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇸🇪I have both English and Swedish flags here, including some sticky plastic labels, with my name on, that is flanked by both flags.

      Woe betide any Swede telling this dual-nationality chap (two passports) that he cannot fly his flags!

    2. Especially, since the release of sausages, correction hostages, is to be accompanied by a simultaneous release of Hamas terrorists, which enables Hamas to build up its command structure once more. And everyone seems to have forgotten that Hezbollah are also terrorists and need dealing with.

  63. Wordle 1,309 2/6

    ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 18 Jan 2025

    An empty-headed Eagle?

    1. Impressive! Par here.

      Wordle 1,309 4/6

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

      1. Wordle 1,309 3/6

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

        Really can't believe I did this….because I'm usually a fairly good example of the actual word….🤪…next up…Spelling Bee…

          3. Not that bad…yet, Paul. Hope you’re doing OK. Footie seems boring, he fell asleep whilst watching it….back to Mahjong…..

          7. I had a small glass with my weekly Spaghetti Bolognese. But whisky will be up next Saturday night when I celebrate Rabbie Burns' birthday with Haggis, Neeps and Tatties.

        2. Brilliant KJ, just exceptional….. (although I'm struggling to see what your second guess might have been – was it a plural?)

          2. I think it must have been Sills – which makes it even more intriguing as you really should have had an Eagle 2!! Keep doing it, we like to see more people at the 'Five O'Clock Club' !! x

          3. I hate to not claim it, G…but I could just as easily have stumbled on it typing the wrong letter…I will keep trying (I can be so)..😄 what is the five o’clock club btw? See you again, Kate x

          4. To try to avoid gumming up the thread with Wordle answers throughout the day, we encourage people to post all at once at around 5 O’Clock when Lacoste leads the line – I do Wordle fairly early in the morning but wait until the ‘Five O’Clock Club’ to post! You should try it KJ! x

          5. I will thx G…you don’t mean 5am…do you? My family are competitive, it’s whoever gets across the line first 🙄😄

    2. Blimey, well done, par here.
      Wordle 1,309 4/6

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

    3. Wow, Rene, that's one hell of a good call – I thought I was doing well choosing the right one of two options (for the first time in 3 days) to squeak a par!

      Wordle 1,309 4/6

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

    4. I spent too much time resting on yesterday's laurels
      Wordle 1,309 5/6

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

  64. On the mnemonic theme below. This was made up by a friend of mine at school aons ago. Who is up for the challenge of working out what it helped us remember?

    Silver, my horse, eats oats.

      1. No

        Edit. We were about 15 and it was geography (the old fashioned kind, before it became politicised and all about “people”).

        3. Silver, My Horse, Eats Oats.? No, I still don't get it, MIR. PS – I do now, you are referring to lakes.

        4. Silver, My Horse, Eats Oats.? No, I still don't get it, MIR. PS – I do now, you are referring to lakes.

    3. I had more trouble remembering mnemonics that what they were supposed to remind me of…

      1. Aside from the rainbow, the only ones I learnt were for music notes. FACE in the spaces and Eggs Go Bad Down Fulford on the lines. Fulford is a village near York so I guess that version is regional.

          1. Google says monarchs, so…Norman, Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Tudor, Stuart, Hanover, Windsor.

          3. That misses out the Houses of Orange and Saxe-Coberg.
            I use No Plan Like Yours To Study OUR History SO Wisely.

        3. Eat Good Bread Dear Father, as my Dad taught me. BTW, I was in Imphal barracks on Fulford Road in the 80s. Sadly, pubs in Fulford shut at 10.30 but 11.00 in York, so I rarely went to Fulford for a pint.

  65. That's me gone for today. Not a hint of sunshine. Chilly all day – colder tomorrow, apparently. Still, managed to make a start on pruning the white wisteria. What a job… And there are two more to do after this one is completed.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain

    1. I thought… not very warm in here… then went outside to do the bin and got hit by a blast of ice cold air

  67. Really dark outside just now.
    Here at Firstborn's in the country, there's no light from dwellings or streetlights, so it's almost as dark as closing your eyes. Apart from a mall but really bright planet to the West just now. That's lit really brightly. The clear sky helps.

    1. BTL – The next four years is going to be grim. If, finally, when it's over, the country will have learned a lesson. If it chooses yet more Socialism at that point it'll be time to strip the copper wire out of the building.

    2. We have labour government here, and an election this year. The only question is, how bad will their result be. Hopefully, awful – everybody hates them.

    3. I don't think Labour thought there would be any consequences for their actions at all.

      However, it's not really Reeves who writes this nonsense, it's the Treasury. If they don't understand cause and effect – and clearly they don't – then they're incompetent.

      Moreover what they've done is made employing people more expensive in two directions: they've hiked the cost of employing someone directly with a higher min wage AND lowered the floor for national insurance. A double whammy of cost on the employer and in reality the employee won't really benefit because they'll lose a third of the 2 quid in tax.

      The correct approach was to raise the tax allowance, but then the state loses out. Shame.

      1. Let's face it – if the Treasury staff were any good, they would be working in the private sector and earning more.

    4. I don't know why they made those assumptions. A cursory glance at the events of the seventies would have told them that most of them, at least, would happen.

  72. Steve Bannon on GB News..
    "There won't be as much trouble as 2016. Then, this city (Washington) was like an armed camp, barricaded..
    We're battle hardened.. Starmer sticks out like a sore thumb… With Farage as PM we'll go next level.."

    1. Does he have any spare time to sort out Blighty?
      This time, we should welcome the Spanish Armada.

  74. Right I’m off to a friend’s 60th. The answer to my question was the Great Lakes.

    Superior
    Michigan
    Huron
    Eyrie
    Ontario

    (No, I don’t know how to spell them but for 45 years I’ve known them!)

    1. There’s a pop song of our era in which those words appear – I simply can’t remember the title..

      3. John Denver wrote a lot of songs about eagles. He died aged only 53 but his final album was dire. His guardian angel said “No More”!

  76. Maybe it's somehing to do with the weather, the time of the year, or something, but last evening and today, I feel very down. I have no energy, sense of humour (!) has been disarmed, and listening to my favourite YouTube tracks brings forth sadness rather than joy.
    Made the mistake of listening to this – reminds me powerfully of my beautiful friend Elaine, whom I met in Sicily, and chose to take her life back in 1997, leaving husband and two lovely young lads. That's the problem with self-deletion – the hurt left behind. I have a powerful sense of guilt that I wasn't a good enough friend to her that she didn't feel that I could help her out with her misery. This music makes me cry every time, I miss her so.
    Apologies. But the effects if self-deletion are quite widespread, and in this case, how does the husbad and two (now grown-up lads) feel?
    https://youtu.be/7O049oi2Dxw?si=mpaV5rfXclJs2lLy The positive thing o this is that I look on others now with diffeent eyes. If they are my friend, I do my absolute best to care and support them.
    Weird, eh?

    1. I've felt the same lack of enthusiasm and downright miserableness for about a week. Part of it is the dull days (light on at 15.00) and part unhappy anniversaries and sad events.

      1. Know the feeling, Conners.
        “Looking forward to” the news of Mother’s demise. That will be fun

        1. Been there, done that (with MOH), but when it happened it came suddenly and I was unprepared. I frequently think "what a relief!", though and try not to feel guilty.

          1. I remember a post from another, wiser, NoTTLer. It might even have been yours, so I apologise if so. It goes: "I'm glad MOH died first, because I couldn't wish this feeling of loss on her if the position was reversed".
            Very gentle and profound. I'm in the same position – I know how bad it will be, just hope that SWMBO doesn't get that painful experience. Mother has, and I saw how much it hurt.

    2. Quite frankly, the unrelenting grey weather isn't exactly a mood lifter. And January, apart from being the heart of bleak mid-winter, is always a draining post festivities month.
      In Blighty, we have a grey and greedy man and his grey and greedy apparatchiks determined to dismantle all that is good about our country.
      Speaking personally, I am currently running on hatred and cake. I have never been so hate filled and helpless as I feel at the moment.
      (And we all ate a lot of cake when granddaughter and her chums came round for tea and gossip.)
      You should not feel guilty about your friend, but that is easier said than done.

        1. I agree. I have never hated before.
          I am angry that such awful people have generated such an unfamiliar emotion.
          I worry for my grandchildren as much as anything; particularly the girls.

          1. I understand.
            I hate it when they do that to me – and I don’t have grands, either.
            Take care, lass, don’t get all bitter and twisted about it. None of it is your doing.
            ;-*)

      2. There's a song called January by Pilot. It sums up what you are feeling Anne. And most of us are feeling.

  77. Evening, all. Gone very cold this evening. Did manage to do a little in the garden this afternoon and then went shopping – not my favourite occupation.

    The CofE must do more to support Christianity in this country!

    3. And did those feet in ancient time
      Walk upon Englands mountains green:
      And was the holy Lamb of God,
      On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

      And did the Countenance Divine,
      Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
      And was Jerusalem builded here,
      Among these Carp Wokista Mills?

    4. Apparently going down to -16C in these parts tonight. I suppose that for once the met office will get it right.

  81. I did….fire-back…:-)) I have found a range of different things on my walks…more or less empty bottles, freshly discarded, and other not so savoury things. Not post-lockdowns tho’…..hmmm….

  83. Yes, indeed Paul. My dog not well, likely to keep me awake…😒….you have a good sleep, sweet dreams!

        1. He'll be 10 in July. Yes we still go for a walk once a day. He sleeps a lot – me, less so since he gets me up at two-hourly intervals during the night sometimes and I can't get back to sleep! I made a rod for my own back by rewarding his predecessor with a half a biscuit when he came back in after asking to go out (to make sure he was clean in the house), in which Kadi also participated. This little so-and-so uses it as an excuse to get biscuits, going out, sniffing the air, coming straight back in and expecting a reward 🙁

          1. I bought some of those probiotics on vet recommendation….expensive, surprisingly both love them….:-(….love the picture you paint of doggo going out,sniffing air, quick return and bisquit…😆😆….what kind of biscuit, btw?

  85. Would you believe that the liberals are offering each Gaza refugee(?) a nice $3,000 handout plus free healthcare, language training and work permits. They have approved almost 5,000 applications with very little in the way of security checks.

    Then they wonder why Trump is making border security a big issue!

  86. If only Cass Elliot had shared her sandwich with Karen Carpenter, they might have both still been around!

  91. Mrs Bee and I both thought that way and I have drawn the straw to still be here. Mind you, we also said we hoped the survivor wouldn’t have long in this world afterwards (and not doing anything stupid to hasten it).

    1. I don’t know what I’d do in your position, Eric, were SWMBO to be taken from me. Try to comfort myself with that she isn’t the one suffering, I guess, but that would only last a millisecond or two. So, KBO.

      1. Yeah, that huge fence that Egypt built is designed to keep Egyptians from crossing the border into Gaza </sarc>.

  93. Plenty of Jews to kill in America. /sarc
    What are your idiots thinking?
    Yes, I know, Liberals and thinking is a contra (ho ho) diction in terms.

  95. Well, chums, I'm off to bed now. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all rested tomorrow.

  99. The Great Lakes; Superior (Silver), Michigan (My), Huron (Horse), Erie (Eats), Ontario (Oats).

    2. Looks like she's really scary. As fast as she moves towards the cameraman he walks away from her. If he's not careful he'll trip over something behind him. Lol.

    3. Oh dear. I can hear barrels being scraped. Why didn't they send Ed Davey instead? At least we could all have had a laugh.

        1. Ah! I remember the photos! Absolutely lovely- what a clever man you are, and your wife’s gorgeous patchworks!

          1. Thank you Sue. Many, many hours of work put in by both of us. She's currently upstairs in her sewing room transforming 38 metres of White cotton twill into about 20 tablecloths for the forthcoming village Burns night do!

        2. I installed new kitchens in my first four houses. It was hard but satisfying work. Not cheap though!

  104. PETER HITCHENS: Starmer may strut the world pretending Britain is still an important player, but he's no more powerful than the King of Legoland. And here are the problems he REALLY needs to confront in broken Britain

    Rattling through the Ukrainian night in his T-shirt, aboard Kiev’s grandiose official train, Sir Keir Starmer ponders spending yet more money we do not have on a war in which we have no interest.

    What is this foolishness? Who and what does Sir Keir think he is? What sort of country does he think he leads? He speaks as if he imagines he is the late Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, a mighty ruler commanding huge armies. Yet he is not really much more powerful than the King of Legoland. He has no money, and he has no strength.

    Our state is so weak that shoplifters laugh at it as they hurry home with their loot. Burglars and vandals likewise scoff at it. Supposedly illegal marijuana is grown in flourishing criminal farms using stolen electricity. It is then consumed openly in the streets. Yet nothing is done.

    This matters. Almost daily we see another case in which a crazed killer has been smoking this ghastly, dangerous drug. You want to know why we have so much knife crime? This is almost certainly why. Sir Keir’s not interested. This has become a country in which we more or less apologise to illegal drug takers, for the damage they do to the rest of us. Here, have a free needle, and a special tax-funded place to stick it in your arm.

    The state is so feeble at defending our shores that scores of illegal immigrants pour ashore almost daily on our undefended beaches. Much of our Navy is immobile or conked out. Our Army is tiny. Our fabled superpower nuclear deterrent, when tested, either veers crazily over the USA or plops, lifeless, into the sea. I suspect it will be a while before we risk any more such tests. I often wonder if we are only pretending it exists.

    Yet we stomp about in Ukraine with gifts of money and missiles.

    Why do we do this? If Britain has such stern principles against foreign countries being invaded, why did we illegally invade Iraq on false pretences in 2003 and bomb Serbia without UN approval in 1999? If we loathe tyrants so much, why do we perpetually suck up to Saudi Arabia, the reigning Olympic champion in repression, despotism, injustice etc? All our rhetoric about Russia is just that, hypocritical bombast, bellowed by a global mouse through an enormous megaphone.

    The USA wants a confrontation with Russia. It has been seeking one since Washington adopted the aggressive and rather stupid Wolfowitz Doctrine in 1992. But why should we join in?

    Almost everyone intelligent in US foreign policy opposed this strategy. The greatest American diplomat of the 20th century, George Kennan, spoke fiercely against it. But it went ahead anyway, with the support of that vain, squalid nuisance, Bill Clinton.

    The crucial thing to grasp is that Putin’s aggression, undoubtedly nasty, is not what you have been told it is. Putin does not dream of the day when his Army washes its boots at Calais, while preparing the first successful invasion of these islands since 1066. He couldn’t if he wanted to.

    He knows that his thuggish armed forces are corrupt, badly equipped, poorly led and badly trained. They still cannot even take the Ukrainian city of Kharkov, 20 miles from the Russian border. So a march on Warsaw, Berlin, Paris and Brussels is unlikely. What he wants is to prevent Ukraine becoming the host for American forces and missiles. This is not wholly unreasonable.

    English foreign policy was based for centuries on keeping the French out of Scotland, a similar principle. You will have to ask yourself why the Americans want to push their power into Eastern Europe, as they have been doing for 35 years, because I can think of no good reason for it. Then again, I still do not know why they invaded Iraq in 2003.

    But I am convinced of one thing. Britain has no interest in this quarrel. On the contrary, it needs to wake up to this key fact: we are no longer a superpower.

    Yet, despite all the stupidities of the past 70 years, this remains a beautiful, potentially prosperous nation. If we choose to use our resources in our own interests, we can rebuild this country as an advanced, peaceful, well-defended, well-policed, just and well-educated place. But the first vital step towards this is to recognise that the nation we need to worry about most is our own.

    The world is not waiting for our supposed wisdom. The world knows that we are a military minnow, and a heavy debtor. We are the only ones who still think that we bestride the globe like a colossus. Wake up. Grow up. Accept reality. Slay the real dragons at home.

    4. Most if not all true, but there is no chance of those smug arrogant and rather ignorant people who mascarade as a British government taking any notice of anything at all said against their mindset and devious adgenda.

    5. I think Hitchens misjudges the Russian armed forces. Only fools like the Ukrainians throw brigade after brigade into a meat grinder. Russia by contrast conducts war by attrition, preserving men and machines and limiting losses.

      Starmer and his potty government are delusional. Nobody is bothered too much about his pathetic agreement with Ukraine which is why few are bothering to cover it even in the Legacy Media.

    2. Isaiah 40:31. "They shall mount up with wings as eagles. they shall run and not be weary. they shall walk and not faint."

  108. Just going to watch the first couple of hours of 'Exodus'. Always enjoyed the film. I think I read the novel many years ago as well.

      1. I totally agree, Grizzly. A wonderful musical memory from my late childhood, although I didn't get to watch the film until much later in my adulthood. Composed by the great Miklos Roszka if I am not mistaken. Oops, I was mistaken. It was composed by Ernest Gold, who won an Oscar for it.

  109. Good afternoon. Found my way here via GQ and Rik R. Happy also to sod off if it's a semi-private group.

      1. Hello Conway.

        Yes, born and brought up in Cumbria but emigrated to northern Ontario, Canada, in the mid 2000's.

        1. Another couple of Canuks here alongside those living in France Norway Sweden etc it's a broad church

          1. Lovely stuff. Depending on where they are, I'd imagine most of the other Canucks are doing what I'm doing right now, which is hunkering down.

            It's right cold and getting colder. It's down to the -30's tonight, and for the next few days. But hey, I'm told it's okay because it's a dry cold.

          3. Hello!

            North Ontario. Day time high – 23C, nightime low -36C. In summer, its +30C.

            66C range makes homesteading…. interesting…

          4. Nice to see you. I can't imagine living in such a place. I am on the south coast of England where temps are between 0c and 25c.

            I did manage to make a snowman once but it didn't last long.

            Are you able to grow anything?

          5. Nice to see you too!

            Oh yes – we (wife and I) grow all the usual stuff that you can grow in England – just a lot more of it because land is ridiculously cheap up here and we have reliable and long, dry summers. Also do grapes and apples for home brew wines and cider.

            It's a winter wasteland, but a lovely spot if you like your own company.

          6. Want a lodger?

            Puts serious head on

            I have been considering emigrating. I will have to look up the requirements. Hungary was looking good but you are expected to know the language which is beyond my ability.

            France is out of the question because French people live there.

            I thought about Malta but they have no real seasons.

            What is the time difference at this moment? For me it's 2.35 AM GMT.

          7. I’m 5 hours behind you. 9:43pm here. But also 70 years behind you.

            Other parts of Canada are different of course. It is, after all, 5,000 miles wide.

          10. Beautiful part of the country. Holidayed in the Lake district a few times. Probably won't be going back though since they turned Windermere into an open sewer.

            Reminds me of the Thomas Covenant novels where beauty is corrupted.

          13. I really should read more. That was the plan – work outside when I can – take the winter off sat in front of the log stove.

            Then I landed here and realised I needed to know about 1000x more about ‘stuff’ than I thought I did. I’ve spent more hours watching youtube on perfecting composting temperatures than I have reading for fun.

          14. UK population also approximately twice that of Canada. And of the 35 million Canadians, 90% live within 100 miles of the border with the USA.

            400 miles north of the border is party central for the rest of us.

          15. I have read news but what do you think is going to happen in Canada now that the hand walking queer has resigned?

            Nods to Beaches Sorry Iris !

          16. I really don’t know. The point of living up here is that I don’t care because it doesn’t affect me. I also recognize that that I have a bit of a grudge against Trudeau because I spent 10 days in Ottawa during the truckers convoy and the gap between the way it was represented, and the reality, was appalling.

            If I had to guess, I’d say the Liberal contest will come down to Carney versus Freeland. Freeland will try to distance herself from Trudeau, which will be tough, so she’s already standing on a pitch of cancelling the carbon tax – a mainstay of the Conservative manifesto.

            The Liberals will also need to make sure whomever they elect has the backing of the NDP. Without them, the Liberal government will fall to the first vote of no confidence by the Conservatives.

          17. Freeland is a trustee of the WEF – anything good said by her will be lies! But you know that already!

          1. Heh heh. Maybe that’s what I was worried about, Elsie. It was Blair winning again that started me on the journey. I decided if I was to keep my sanity – what was left of it anyway – I had to remove myself from funding the insanity.

            The objective was to ‘retire’, work hard to provide for myself, and live beneath the tax threshold. The more you do, the less you need to earn, etc etc.

    2. Be Welcome all fresh blood is needed we are getting more and more radicalised all views are accepted

      1. Hello Rik.

        But no photos of ravioli and seed sandwiches with Pringles. Understood.

        1. Welcome. Not a semi-private group. More like an echo chamber. Feel free to disagree and even swear if you feel the need.

          Got any good recipes? :@)

          6. Possibly a strategy to wind up his opponent?

            I don't follow snooker but i do know how to make someone's head explode…

          7. That was one theory at the time. I also wondered if he learned to play in a place with free snacks. BC is like that.

    3. Hello! I am not normally up this late but I was at a friend’s birthday party. Welcome!

    4. Welcome Distant Cumbrian. We are not an exclusive group; we welcome all provided they behave in a gentlemanly or ladylike manner, i.e. no insults to each other.

    5. Hallo and welcome to Nottl! Mainly retired or older, some are younger – most are fairly right-wing. We all hate the Labour government. If that sounds like your kind of group – you're in.

  111. Goodnight, all. The Rayburn is stoked, the hot water bottles are in the bed and the dog is fast asleep. Time I was off up the wooden hills to Bedfordshire. Up early for church tomorrow.

    1. The first three books in the Old Testament are, in this order, Genesis, Exodus, and Levitus.

        1. No I ain’t. It’s the same in the Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christian Bibles, along with the fourth and fifth books which are Numbers (4th) and Deuteronomy (5th).

  113. Just watched Django Unchained. Tarantino does it again. Not for the faint hearted but Jamie Foxx is superb.

    I watched all those Westerns with my dad. Clint Eastwood in the TGTBTU and now we have it reborn black style.

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