Saturday 2 December: The absurd spectacle of yet another carbon-guzzling climate summit

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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532 thoughts on “Saturday 2 December: The absurd spectacle of yet another carbon-guzzling climate summit”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    Question Time
    Boris Johnson goes to Washington for a meeting with Joe Biden. After dinner, Biden says to Johnson, “Well Boris, I don’t know what you think of the members of your Cabinet, but mine are all bright and brilliant.”

    “How do you know?” asks Johnson.

    “Oh well, it’s simple” says Biden; “They all have to take special tests before they can be a minister. Wait a second.”

    He calls Nancy Pelosi over and says to her, “Tell me Nancy, who is the child of your father and of your mother, who is not your brother and is not your sister?”

    “Ah, that’s simple Mr. President,” says Nancy, “it is me!”

    “Well done Nancy” says Biden and Boris is very impressed.

    Boris returns to London and wonders about the intelligence of the members of his Cabinet. He calls in Michael Gove and says,

    “Michael, tell me, who is the child of your father and of your mother, who is not your brother and is not your sister?”

    Gove thinks and thinks… but does not know the answer. “Can I think about it a bit further Boris? May I let you know tomorrow?”

    “Of course,” says Boris, “you’ve got 24 hours.”

    Gove goes away, thinks as hard as he can, calls in his team but no one knows the answer. Twenty hours later, he is very worried, still no answer and only four hours to go. Eventually he gets an idea, “I’ll ask Riki Sunack, he’s clever, he’ll know the answer.”

    He calls Sunak. “Riki” he says, “tell me, who is the child of your father and of your mother, who is not your brother and is not your sister?”

    “Very simple,” says Sunak, “it’s me!” “Of course” says Gove and calls Johnson. “Boris” says Gove, “I have the answer, it’s Riki Sunak”.

    “No you idiot” says Boris, “it’s Nancy Pelosi!!!!!!”

  2. -1C Broken cloud with forecast of some sun later.

    Forecast Temp for Sunday 9C with heavy rain.

  4. From the DT

    “Snow hit parts of London on Friday and the icy conditions are forecast
    to continue throughout the weekend. It comes after temperatures plunged
    to their lowest since March.”

    Well what do they bloody expect in December?

    1. ‘Morning Ndovu! We’ve got about 2 inches of snow this morning! I did wonder why it was so quiet when I woke up! Phoebe and the birds aren’t amused!
      The naked cat is wrapped up in his fleecy blanket, glowering at the world!

      1. Morning Sue.
        No snow here beyond the light splattering t’other day, but it’s -7°C this morning.

        1. Ooh! That’s a bit chilly! The temp has gone up a bit now, and it looks quite festive! 🎄

        1. It was very cold last night! We were actually grateful to Dobbie the naked one, for bringing the heat!
          😘

      3. No snow here but it’s bloody cold – minus 3.C Very frosty on every twig and I don’t think it lifted at all during the day. Starting to be foggy as we drove home about 430pm. Glad to be home – we were going to a concert this evening but our driver decided she wasn’t risking the foggy conditions. Shame to miss the concert but we weren’t sorry to stay home.

    2. 🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂

    3. We were supposed to be enjoying a Mediterranean climate by now and snow was to be a thing of the past. Pity the weather didn’t read the script.

  7. 379245+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Can Britain escape its addiction to immigration – and thrive?
    A reliance on foreign workers has gone from ‘ace card’ to headache for the Tories and left the UK with a knotty economic dilemma

    No bloody way hossa the fighting,independent spirit is fast leaving these Isles via the polling stations and with the majority voters consent

    ALL the while their ,the majority voters, political role models
    have jetted off for their Christmas jollies at Davos,

    What happens at Davos meetings?

    Bilateral meetings between heads of state and corporate chieftains take up much of their schedules. On the main promenade of Davos, shop fronts and restaurants are taken over by companies and nations, becoming venues for parties and discussion panels that attract attendees and media.

    Plus being a hookers delight, and the chance to group discuss fiddling both musical & criminal while their Countries burn.

    The English PM ( Prime muppet) has brought a couple of billion to the divvy up kitty, while on the English home front
    Rosy & Albert have just joined the long,long queue for hip replacements,

    The time draws nigh for you to remember that these life styles
    cannot be maintained without YOUR lab/lib/con coalition input.

  8. G’day everyone,

    It’s a foggy start to the day at McPhee Towers, wind in the North but wafting around to the South during the day. we should see some sun this afternoon, -3℃ rising to +1℃.

    Apparently 400,000 people are attending the ‘do in the desert’ otherwise known as COP 28. The letters page has very kindly given us a snapshot of the people who wish to tell us how to live our lives. What a shower.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/93ddd24e3cad0d9317895d9fff680388b0b1e9e3e5d0c8a5ad8e67ce2f3641e4.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ab780c53d51d179b2ead78f0dd7301f533534181c51b1c2b90165f3a7574ed81.png

    What is not funny is that King Charles III is there and he made the opening address to the assembled throng telling the World what it must do. UK Column covered it right at the start of yesterday’s news.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d0357f864db142b00255f9809fd854df132e57d6258769be3088a25ecf05ddc3.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1b5521919cc7cbc812d606b7b8d4a34450ddd265fe0205983c388c449cf84369.png

    https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/uk-column-news-1st-december-2023

    He finished by saying “We are all connected, not only as human beings, but with all living things and all that sustains life. As part of this grand and sacred system, harmony with nature must be maintained. the Earth does not belong to us, we belong to the Earth”.

    There you have it, Mother Earth is sacred and welcome to your new religion. I wonder if he has consulted God..

    2. A post from ARRSE:-

      But its for the Greater Good.
      And any suggestions that its a Party for the Elites are just XFRW lies – Yes there may have been an increase in the number of young attractive single women arriving in the UAE but 97% of the Party goers delegates agree that is just an increase in waitresses and 99% agree that is settled.

    3. One thing I might be permitted to point out, it’s not all about how much money is spread around the planet to make peoples live better. Decades ago people in general didn’t have much money and so called climate change didn’t even exist. Its about the people making money, that is the main reason for ‘climate change’.
      It’s so obvious but the ‘THEY’ don’t want to face the facts.

      1. More and more people are beginning to notice that Net Zero has nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with manipulation and money.

        1. Net Zero like every other globalist scam is about taking the taxes paid by the middle class to fund so called public-private NGOs run by billionaires such as Bill Gates.

          As with pandemic planning and mass vaccination the Gates’ initiatives make him yet more wealthy but using public funding.

          The utter hypocrisy of the likes of the most privileged persons on the planet determining the fate of the world population, many of whom live in abject poverty, is becoming comical. Accordingly we should laugh at these fools and loudly ridicule their antics.

    4. Broken promises?

      The Idiot King has followed the example of the politicians.

      He promised not to get involved in politics and immediately broke his word.

      1. Sandringham Estate Winter Light Trail 2023
        Nestled deep within Sandringham Estate, awaits a spectacular, illuminated trail, full of wonder and intrigue, to delight and enthral your senses.

        As darkness descends, join us on our enchanting journey, as we weave a captivating light trail through the Royal Parkland at Sandringham. Immerse yourself in our mesmerising mile long trail, with stunning lighting elements and fabulous light play, all set to music.

        A timeless experience to be enjoyed by all, young and old alike.
        Luminate Sandringham will run nightly, from Saturday 11th November to Sunday 24th December 2023
        Tickets must be pre-booked online in advance.

        https://luminate.live/sandringham-estate

        1. “Tickets must be pre-booked online in advance“. How could they be booked online after the event? Tautology!!

        2. “Tickets must be pre-booked online in advance“. How could they be booked online after the event? Tautology!!

    5. Bliar is there too apparently – perhaps it is true that he is in line for head of the WEF.

  10. Morning all 🙂😊
    Frosty again rain forecast later, how did they work that out ? I suspect diversity takes the lead here too much white stuff.😉
    And yes climate change ? WTF and who are they trying to kid with their exhausted claims. Now that 70 plus thousands have probably left dubai and the clear up is completed there’s obviously room for a lot of homeless Palestinians. Oh hang on a moment…….
    Apparently 400 thousand !?

    1. The jamboree doesn’t end until 12th December, so be prepared for more lectures, posturing and unachievable targets.

  11. 379245+ up ticks,

    Sunak set to push for hard-line Rwanda law to secure deportations
    The ‘full fat’ option, backed by Suella Braverman, would allow ministers to ignore the ECHR but risks dividing the party

    Sunak set to push for hard-line Rwanda law to secure deportations prior to the General election only to double up on intake post General Election.

    Fattwat cameron done the same, pledged a reduction then increased the intake.

  12. 379245+ up ticks,

    You may well ask, we are suffering the same in England,

    Frank Gent
    @FrankGent3
    ·
    11h
    How are these savages getting elected into public office? What a fucking ingrate. #IslamIsTheProblem
    Quote
    Contrarian
    @ContrarianTribe
    ·
    11h
    🇮🇪Ireland’s first Bangladeshi Mayor says the Irish citizens who protested against their children being stabbed by a criminal migrant should be “shot in the head or publicly beaten to death”.😳

    https://x.com/FrankGent3/status/1730698211709346175?s=20

    1. I find it hard to understand that after all the years of violence and uprising the people of Ireland seem to, ‘have left the building’.

      1. What would happen in Ireland if the Catholics and Protestants united to expend the violence they used to expend upon each other and then lavished it upon the Muslims?

        1. I very much doubt that the stabber will turn up knee-capped. That’s not what the IRA do.

    2. Apparently he has clarified what he was saying to state he was actually referring to the attacker, not the protesters.
      If that is the case, then is his command of English up to the position he holds?

      1. 379245+ up ticks,

        Morning Bob,

        Sad to say
        With the population count overall Ireland, English / Irish (gaelic) will be second languages, same with major cities in England.

    3. I hate this. You should be either Irish or Bangladeshi. If you are Bangladeshi, you should be in Bangladesh, not in public office in Ireland.

  13. Good morning all.
    A rather chilly -7°C here this morning, with a bright start and scattered clouds.
    Sat up in bed this morning as t’Lad stopped overnight after going to a funeral yesterday.

  14. Quiet today probably all tucked up under the duvets. Climate change eh ?
    What’s happened to old Bill ?

    1. There was a quite adequate ceasefire operating until 7th October. Wonder how that was ended.

      1. Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics,
        And the Catholics hate the Protestants,
        And the Hindus hate the Moslems,
        And everybody hates the Jews.

        [Tom Lehrer: National Brotherhood Week]

    4. If only more people woke up – a perennial problem for the sheep amongst us – and realised that muslims use the victim tactic to further their cause. No matter what atrocities muslims commit it’s always the case that the muslim’s victims are deserving of the atrocities. The Rohingya in Myanmar are a case in point, their behaviour required the government of Myanmar to expel them. India doesn’t want them either.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3af24ff7e73033d4261a1fbb81882e91d9d3a3e759794105e2ce2f5fcf66b279.png

      The muslim creed has conquest and subjugation at its heart.

      1. Islam means submission. We need to stop using the arabic term and translate it so people understand.

  17. Morning, all Y’all.
    Bright, clear skies, really lovely day, but temps down at -14C as aresult. Brr.
    Cloud forecast this next week, supposed to be only minus blue single figures C.
    I’ll have another coffee, I think.

    1. You are in the middle of snow armageddon and freezing apocalypse and all you can think about is a second cup of coffee?
      I like your style…
      Good morning.

      1. Good plan, Tom.
        Me, I had a sniff of wine at lunch, and have just woken up in the sofa, with a snuggly cat keeping me warm. Fire lit, wine refreshed, more NoTTL.
        Man, I’m bushed after last week.

  21. The absurd spectacle of yet another carbon-guzzling climate summit

    Does COP stand for Commissars Oppressing People?

      1. And all the vast billions of $$ given by charities and governments to these places has made no difference to the poverty and uselessness, except for the top politicians, who stole it all.

    3. The meddlesome Idiot King, dressed in a little brief authority, most ignorant of what he’s most assured plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven as makes the Angels weep!

  22. Good morning from a very foggy freezing South Dorset

    William Shakespeare – “When icicles hang by the wall” – from Love’s Labour’s Lost

    When icicles hang by the wall,

    And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,

    And Tom bears logs into the hall,

    And milk comes frozen home in pail,

    When blood is nipp’d, and ways be foul,

    Then nightly sings the staring owl:

    ‘Tu-who;

    Tu-whit, Tu-who’ – A merry note,

    While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

    When all aloud the wind doth blow,

    And coughing drowns the parson’s saw,

    And birds sit brooding in the snow,

    And Marian’s nose looks red and raw,

    When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,

    Then nightly sings the staring owl:

    ‘Tu-who;

    Tu-whit, Tu-who’ – A merry note,

    While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

    1. A friend of mine who was an English teacher in another West country school had a girlfriend whom he called Greasy Joan.

    2. A Short Analysis of the Shakespeare Song ‘When Daisies Pied’

      ‘When Daisies Pied and Violets Blue’ is a song from Shakespeare’s play Love’s Labour’s Lost. Although it’s easy, because this is a song, to dismiss its meaning as frivolous or the words as ‘nonsense’, it’s worth stopping to analyse the lyrics of the song and their place in the play as a whole. Here’s the text of ‘When Daisies Pied and Violets Blue’ followed by a few words of comment and analysis.

      When daisies pied and violets blue
      And lady-smocks all silver-white
      And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
      Do paint the meadows with delight,
      The cuckoo then, on every tree,
      Mocks married men; for thus sings he:
      ‘Cuckoo;
      Cuckoo, cuckoo!’ O, word of fear,
      Unpleasing to a married ear!

      When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
      And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks,
      When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
      And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
      The cuckoo then, on every tree,
      Mocks married men; for thus sings he,
      ‘Cuckoo;
      Cuckoo, cuckoo!’ O, word of fear,
      Unpleasing to a married ear!

      When icicles hang by the wall,
      And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
      And Tom bears logs into the hall,
      And milk comes frozen home in pail,
      When blood is nipp’d, and ways be foul,
      Then nightly sings the staring owl,
      ‘Tu-whit, tu-whoo!’—a merry note,
      While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
      When all aloud the wind doth blow,

      And coughing drowns the parson’s saw,
      And birds sit brooding in the snow,
      And Marian’s nose looks red and raw,
      When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
      Then nightly sings the staring owl,
      ‘Tu-whit, tu-whoo!’—a merry note,
      While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

      ‘When Daisies Pied and Violets Blue’ is a song from one of Shakespeare’s less famous plays, the comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost; in fact, the song concludes the play. In the play, the song is sung by ‘Ver’ and ‘Hiems’, presumably alter egos of Holofernes and Nathaniel, two of the ‘learned men’ from Love’s Labour’s Lost. This would make sense, since Holofernes had been accused earlier in the play (in Act 5 Scene 1) of being cuckolded. And although it begins as an apparently upbeat song about the flowers in springtime (‘daisies pied’ meaning, of course, daisies of lots of different colours: see Gerard Manley Hopkins’s ‘Pied Beauty’ for the definitive poetic statement about ‘pied’ or multicoloured things), the song is actually about wives cheating on their husbands. The reference to the cuckoo mocking married men is the clue here: ‘cuckoo’ being a reminder of ‘cuckold’, and an allusion to the cuckoo’s trick of laying its eggs in another bird’s nest, thus suggesting someone who has usurped another, or taken their place in the ‘nest’ (bed?).

      There are a number of even subtler clues, bits of wordplay hidden within the lyrics to the song: ‘lady-smocks’ are another term for cuckoo-flowers, thus chiming with the cuckoo-cuckold connections being made elsewhere in that opening verse; but there’s also a faint pun, as H. R. Woudhuysen points out in his notes to the Arden edition of the play, “Love’s Labours Lost” (Arden Shakespeare.Third Series) (The Arden Shakespeare), on ‘ladies’ mocks’, i.e. women mocking men by cheating on them behind their backs.

      From this opening verse, ripe with suggestions of unfaithfulness, we move to some further references to the natural world which need deciphering and analysing: larks, for instance, are ‘ploughmen’s clocks’ because the lark, in rising early and singing its dawn song, wakes the ploughman early in the morning ready for his work, like a natural alarm clock. The reference to ‘turtles’ that ‘tread’ is not a nod to the amphibian but to another bird, the turtle-dove (this is also true of the ‘turtle’ in Shakespeare’s poem ‘The Phoenix and Turtle’). ‘Tread’, however, is perhaps not as innocent as it first seems, since it had the alternative meaning of ‘copulate’ or ‘mate with’, and turtle-doves were associated with love – although, somewhat ironically given the rest of the song, with enduring love, or mating for life.

      After these first two verses, we move from springtime to winter in the third and fourth verses of ‘When Daisies Pied’. Dick the shepherd (‘Dick’, like Tom, was a generic name for a lad or young man) is blowing on his fingernails to warm himself during the cold weather, and another man, Tom, is bringing in firewood to keep the house warm. Birds return towards the end of the penultimate stanza, but this time with the ‘staring owl’ which says ‘Tu-whit, tu-whoo!’ (actually an impossibility, since strictly speaking it would take two owls, one male and one female, to make these two different noises). Woudhuysen draws our attention to another hidden meaning: ‘Tu-whit’ may here be a pun on ‘to it’, meaning ‘to have sex’, with ‘Tu-whoo’ summoning ‘to who?’, of course. The refrain which concludes both this and the final verse, ‘While greasy Joan doth keel the pot’, refers to a lower-class woman (Joan, like Dick and Tom, being a common name among lower-class people at the time of the play), covered in grease, ‘keeling’ or cooling a pot, probably by stirring it to prevent it from boiling over. It’s winter, after all: Joan is presumably cooking Dick and Tom a warming stew or soup…

      In the final verse, winter continues unabated: ‘parson’s saw’ refers not to the implement but to a sermon or ‘saw’ given by the priest; Marian is another generic woman, like Joan; ‘roasted crabs’ refers to apples (crab-apples) being cooked rather than the crustacean. We end with the same words that had concluded the third verse.

      The cultural associations and implications of Shakespeare’s words are often not apparent to us from such a great distance as four centuries, so a few words of textual analysis help to bring these extra senses to the fore again.

      1. Bless you Ped, I thoroughly enjoyed reading that, and there’s so much I didn’t know .

        l partly knew a little , dear Will was so observant and passionate . he clearly knew the the language of courtship in a sexy way .

        1. I’m afraid I find Shakespeare completely impenetrable, I understand the words but not the order he placed them, but instead of getting an explanation at school, I was treated as a moron and made fun of by the teacher.
          So, I have never read anything of his voluntarily since.
          Still, REALLY upset Teacher, name Tolkien, by getting an A-grade in O-level English literature. Bastard.

  24. ‘Morning All

    Climate you say…………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/937f08227acc04bf5d4df48a75e0f5adca41018c2ab701f9bce6b2fac8206364.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/67b6abe7839ff327d8899e5cd5cc6a7d45a3df206e3759688282608e770c7718.jpg

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/18b298694b1c2fda6f142bf9318fe4afb9fcf28d5f41bd43b85bd2916dc926f8.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/22c9bab8d335aa20a7a0c5ecc3eb478045e2bce4df42b24758d363a29be5e665.jpg

    Never Forget Never Forgive…….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ea5f874026be7dc965a5d1481a8a6c79b177bd8790c442ae5e4770f0b38c4133.jpg

    https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1700928136567742503

    https://imageproxyb.ifunny.co/crop:x-20,resize:640x,quality:90×75/images/d414ceeda820f2a2ea270c5e4bf1c58a9e46af66d228ad60aec4081033fea8b8_1.jpg

  25. The lighter side……….

    https://twitter.com/WonderW97800751/status/1730340801903812807?s=20

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7362135ed26732b5a7ae48001810356db6bf8f2f2b5c4f33a89e8d96a1f7f3b2.jpg

    https://gab.com/Wanderers_Choice/posts/111502966910877164

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eeb71a658db6ec3badf46315a527fc0cc4d6123b89a3a6261ca64be3f05dc502.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6eae75dacfccb4099a9bd48bd277dbf0ca4d2487eb35fd55f511b420bcdaa9b1.gif

    3. Just watched Sarah Millican on YouTube. A live show for an hour – it looked like these folk, but 30 years later. Quite startled me, so it did.

    4. I use to love going to the Odeon at Hendon, tuppence for the bus ride and some pocket money, walk home through allotments and fields with my mates playing games.
      The Odeon at Hendon was demolished long ago and is now a block of flats.

      2. It may have been a vaxx-related sudden death. Not necessarily the cold.

        Definitely the cold hearts of our leaders played a role though, as they splash out billions we don’t have to “reparations” for imaginery CO2 effects.

        1. Yes, and other effects of the industrial revolution are things like electricity, heating, air-conditioning, transport, hospitals, drugs. How about those things all go too, as “reparations” for bringing them in, in the first place??

          1. Not mentioned! Also not mentioned were any limits or end dates set upon our generosity. I suppose it will finish when the West is destroyed.

      1. 379245+up ticks,

        Morning RE,
        Lest we forget they were voted into power again,again,again & again by, in many a case, the best of the worst brigade.

      2. I spoke to a greeniac yesterday and argued that everything was about economics. The getting a job, keeping and spending your own money was all that mattered.

        He argued that no, it was about the environment, that people must be educated to what to do.

        He didn’t like being told his suggestion was a command economy and has never, will never and can never work. It is simply a route to communism and communism creates poverty, misery and deaths.

    4. Homelessness in the UK is an abomination. The state happily pours endless amounts of money into the invader but leaves people in real poverty in the UK. I hate them. They’re just scum.

      They’ve flooded the country with welfare scroungers which suits them, welfare scroungers who contribute nothing, receive massive amounts of cash, cause all the problems and cost an absolute fortune while using up services (the walk in centre was almost entirely full of foreigners in black sacks this morning) and contributing nothing but terrorism while there are millions of locals unemployed, the workers are crushingly taxed and people are dying because of it.

      When will these fools learn? Socialism does not work. Never has, never will.

    1. What the EU does, the UK adopts. Dear life, we left that hated organisation solely to get away from it’s communist oppression. Why will the state not allow us to leave?

      1. Becuase we need to implement the same plan at the same time. We cannot be seen to deviate as that would give hope to others

      2. 379245+up ticks,

        Morning W,

        Because the state is supported by a united 48% of the peoples, against a dis-united 52% of the peoples

      3. We left that organisation so that British politicians could have the freedom to freely and independently mimic it.

        I overheard a lady earlier today explaining to her elderly parents that, since leaving the EU, gifts which she posts to her son, daughter-in-law and their children in Germany now have to have an exterior customs declaration showing a description of the contents, their weight and monetary value.

        I don’t recall that being mentioned as a benefit of leaving.

        1. I used regularly to send parcels and presentsto friends abroad. Even before we left, we had to fill in a customs sticker and state the contents and value. It’s now white whereas before it was green, but don’t blame Brexit.

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    Sandringham Estate Winter Light Trail 2023
    Nestled deep within Sandringham Estate, awaits a spectacular, illuminated trail, full of wonder and intrigue, to delight and enthral your senses.

    As darkness descends, join us on our enchanting journey, as we weave a captivating light trail through the Royal Parkland at Sandringham. Immerse yourself in our mesmerising mile long trail, with stunning lighting elements and fabulous light play, all set to music.

    A timeless experience to be enjoyed by all, young and old alike.
    Luminate Sandringham will run nightly, from Saturday 11th November to Sunday 24th December 2023
    Tickets must be pre-booked online in advance.

  30. People who predicted that euthanasia would be a slippery slope were right! Amazing!

    Kevin Vallier
    @kvallier
    I’m still amazed that the anti-euthanasia people were 100% correct about the slippery slope to mass death. Canada is in a mass suicide crisis. All that their PM will do is offer them a helpline. Watching this unfold is changing my policy views a lot.

    Quote
    Justin Trudeau
    @JustinTrudeau
    As of today, Canada’s new suicide crisis and emotional distress helpline is available across the country. If you need help or know someone who does, you can reach out to 9-8-8 by phone and text, in English and French, at any time of day and any day of the week.
    5:46 AM · Dec 1, 2023

    Dogbox
    @Dogbox19
    The reason you are amazed is that people such as yourself have been taught that the “slippery slope” is an informal logical fallacy, whereas in fact it is the first rule of politics.

    RANDY
    @R_continuum
    In Canada suicide hotline calls you

    Tyler Pearson
    @_gidDy_Up_
    and now Canada’s govt is telling ppl the expansion of maid to ppl with mental illness will only effect an “incredibly small number”

    1. Luckily the liberals can’t organize the traditional pass up I’m a brewey.

      Calls to 988 will probably go to voice-mail or at best there will be a recording “your call is important to us, please stay on the line”,

      1. “your call is important to us, please stay on the line”.

        But not if there is a train coming, obviously.

      2. “your call is important to us, please stay on the line”.

        But not if there is a train coming, obviously.

  31. Good morning, all. Overcast, dank and cold here. Early shopping as per usual on a Saturday but forgot number one item, eggs. Have to toddle off to Lidl to buy a dozen or else the raspberry jam frangipane I’ve planned to take to tonight’s ‘Blood Runners’ charity dance won’t be made.

    Meanwhile… London.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0da1a5e7a387680f768d6f8d92c6a4ade2cd8486a7d7c143c6222e509c3256d.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9699be4faac2e55e2326e39388814282187aa05257c574ac622875d683f9deb8.png

    1. I love these images where you can’t easily tell whether it’s upside down or not.

  33. Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen.
    Lets see if I’ve got this right, the amount of carbon we put into the atmosphere is inversely proportional to the amount we pay in tax? Is that how Climate Change works?

        1. I’ve got a surplus here. In fact I’m thinking of selling it.

          Er … I know he was speaking in jest. I replied in jest. Jest in time too.😉

  35. I personally would vote Heritage Party, UKIP or Bridgen/Fox rather than Reform, but the principle is sound…

    John Ganges
    @dunstablian

    For those Tory voters thinking of voting Reform but afraid of letting Labour in fear not, Labour have won that election already, Sunak has made sure of that. Voting Reform accepting that fact is therefore a vote for change which nobody denies is long overdue. Please do it.

    1. It doesn’t matter if Labour get in. The policies will be exactly the same. They just change sides. Nothing changes for the UK. The statet ensures we get poorer, unhappier and that everything is made worse – because that suits them.

      1. Yes let the lefties find out what labour do to ruin the economy even faster than the Tories.

        1. ut they’ll just blame ‘Tory cuts’ for the problem and claim how awful the mess left by the last lot was forcing them to enforce socialism as the only solution.

  36. A suprise even for the employees, Butlins have recently closed two popular holiday camp sites. But it’s been rapidly denied that the buildings will not be used to house illegal migrants.
    Really.

    2. Every job lost and replaced with statist ones is a huge net loss to the economy. All these ‘green jobs’ Lefties crow about are the same. Welfare by any other name.

    1. I read some of the comments below a politics joe video and they truly are ghastly. The hatred, projection and spite of the Left is mind boggling. Worse, they genuinely believe the bilge they spew out. As always with Lefties though, it’s only one level down examination: always ‘da wich’, always ‘da torwees’. They are so blinkered, so utterly egotistical that you wonder how they breathe.

    3. B Gates was not a good man —
      He had his little ways.
      And sometimes no one spoke to him
      For days and days and days.
      And men who came across him,
      When walking in the town,
      Gave him a supercilious stare,
      Or passed with noses in the air —
      And bad B Gates stood dumbly there,
      Blushing beneath his frown.

      (With apols to A A Milnes)

  39. Modern day US Democrats are little more than communism lite; but without the law and order. RFK might just split their vote

    It’s been said many times — and it happens to be true — that if JFK were alive today and he were espousing the ideas of his 1,000-day presidency, he would be a Republican. JFK was a staunch Cold War anti-communist/socialist. He espoused lower tax rates, was pro-life, served our country in uniform valiantly, was patriotic, was a hawk on protecting First Amendment civil liberties, and he and his brother, who served as attorney general, took on union and government corruption.
    “The party leaders today denounce RFK for what were mainstream Democratic values 60 years ago.”
    Not many Democratic leaders today check any of these boxes.

    It was JFK who famously said that “it is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now.”
    When I met with RFK Jr. a few weeks ago, he told me, “I learned from my uncle that tax rate cuts incentivize growth.” JFK cut tax rates by 30%, and almost all Democrats back then supported the measure. The economy and revenues exploded. The rich paid more, not less.
    Today, Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren want to raise tax rates to 50%, 60% and 70%, not lower them. That would blow up the economy.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/dems-have-now-officially-rejected-president-john-f-kennedys-legacy/

  40. Have any of you heard of or Have you been watching The Fall of the Cabal by Janet Ossebaard,,.on YouTube and Bit Chute, I have it on good authority that it is a terrific series which my friend has been watching from the beginning… she , Janet has since disappeared and people are really worried about her. She’s taken nothing with her and not withdrawn any money from her accounts,,,i think uncovering all of this garbage by the elite has taken it’s toll. I hope it’s just that but those who follow her are really worried as we know what they are capable of.
    What a terrible thing to have happened.

    1. After seeing the slaughter by Hamas of innocents. The beheading of babies and the brutal killings of people in front of their families including the mutilation of their pets in front of them i don’t have much empathy left for Palestinians.
      Was this woman here to work or was she claiming benefits? Generous enough to support the entire household.

      Merry Christmas. Another term we may no longer use in case it offends the perpetually offended.

      2. The Christian Arabs are OK. Went to St George’s cathedral in Jerusalem once. We were told that the service would be in Arabic but we’d be provided with translations. We were given the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and the New English Hymnal. The hymns were sung in both languages simultaneously.

        1. I once went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and was shown an altar in a large side chapel which was said to be the actual place where Christ was crucified. I crept under the altar on my hands and knees and placed my hand in the hole that was supposed to have held the cross. When I re-emerged I saw a seated Greek Orthodox priest in white robes, wearing a black Kalimavkion (hat), with his hand out begging for a donation. I wished him ‘Good luck’ and left.
          The church is well worth a visit as it includes the reputed site of Christ’s tomb, a fissure in an interior wall said to be caused by the earthquake and the Rock of Golgotha. The alter is now protected by a glass screen but you can still touch the rock through a hole in the glass. There is also a ladder above the main entrance that has been there since before 1757, which remains in place to this day because of disputes over who has rights to what and where in the church.
          https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/Golgota%2C_chr%C3%A1m_Bo%C5%BE%C3%ADho_hrobu%2C_Jeruzal%C3%A9m.jpg/290px-Golgota%2C_chr%C3%A1m_Bo%C5%BE%C3%ADho_hrobu%2C_Jeruzal%C3%A9m.jpg
          https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/The_Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre-Jerusalem.JPG/1024px-The_Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre-Jerusalem.JPG

      3. The more they do that, the less of a sh!t I give for any of the bastards. Wipe them all off the face of the earth.

    3. The Londoner is a welfare dependent welfare shopper. Will she now complain about Hamas using civilians as human shields?

  42. Import the third world, join the third world.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12816223/Germany-problem-Mass-market-tabloid-welcomed-Angela-Merkels-decision-let-million-migrants-sounds-startling-warning.html

    A horrifying article which gets worse the more one reads.

    ‘Our world is in chaos, and we are in the middle of it,’ says the paper.
    ‘Since the terrorist attack of Hamas on Israel on October 7, we are experiencing a new dimension of hatred, against our values, our democracy and against Germany.
    ‘In our country, there are many who oppose our way of life. People who celebrate the murder of innocent civilians.
    ‘Those who teach their children to hate others because they are ‘infidels’ (non-believers), those who forbid women from wearing trousers; those who listen to radical preachers because they want a different society. Germany must say no!’

    Actually, Europe must say no!

    1. I would suggest that being forbidden to wear trousers is the least of a Moslem woman’s problems. Being mutilated, raped, forced to outbreed the infidel, forced to cover her face and forbidden her own money rank much higher.

        1. Many have to – many of them would be beaten or beheaded otherwise. Some belief system, eh? Civilised and Enlightened it is not.

          1. Unbelievably, they mostly want to. Women are the worst for groupthink. Behind all the Pakistani rapists in the UK are women who think that white girls are sluts who deserve what they get.

          3. Well if they can get one over the whitey girls while also doing what their menfolk want, what’s to lose? They can hardly say “It’s in your own dirty minds, you monsters” to the men, can they? And they can show how virtuous they are as female slammers at the same time.

            Edit: No doubt the women behind the rapists are glad that their ugly smelly men are forcing themselves on “white girl sluts” instead of having to succumb to their embraces themselves.

          4. Perpetrated by inadequate men, from theor prophet downwards, who know their argument is crap, so the only way is violence and subjugation…

      2. That’s not just moslem women’s problem – slammers have a habit of making their practices everyone’s problem. Perhaps Slamming is everyone’s problem.

      4. All beyond belief unless you are a muzzie. Time to start slaughtering them. They are anti-people. and don’t deserve to live among us.

      1. Television cooks love the “off” word. They like to sauté things “off”, fry things “off”, roast them “off”, boil them “off” and grill them “off”.

        I wonder if Caribbean cooks, when making Jerk Pork, like to jerk it “off”?

  45. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/58a6ea2f18669a3bc7319796709c0211999838845d630fde1c85279d7e8e9c75.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/02/team-sussex-are-full-of-hate-for-princess-of-wales/

    BTL

    But after she married William Kate made a special effort to befriend her brother-in-law and it certainly looked as if they were genuinely fond of each other.

    Migraine obviously was zealous of this friendship and seems to have succeeded in turning her sad and pathetically weak husband against the woman who had been so kind to him.

    I think that when Migraine has finished with Harry and has spat him out he will be forgiven by Katherine who will the persuade her husband to forgive him too – but this can never happen until Harry’s wife has kicked him out and sent him packing with his tail between his legs.

    The DT text above reminds me of the song I wrote about the Nouveau Riche chap’s lament which I wrote in a song 50 years ago!

    I wish I could succeed and be a social winner,
    And I wish my friends arrive at one when I asked them round for dinner
    Oh I know I’ve got the brass
    But I haven’t got the class
    And the whole situation is getting up my …. I mean’s become a farce

  46. Here, in one short Tweet, Alex Klaushofer, encapsulates why the UK is on the edge of the abyss with little chance of backing away.

    Of course, it’s not just the MPs, recent experience of watching my town city councillors either ignore or do not understand what they are being told by members of the public. Add in the likes of Bath, Oxford and of course London where Khant/Won’t ignores what the people want and ploughs his own furrow towards disaster.

    https://twitter.com/alexklaushofer/status/1730575348176187536

  47. Thought I’d share a bit of last night’s delight – a musical evening outside in the warm air of Buenos Aires. (Sorry – I know!! If it helps, it had been horribly sweaty for a day or two and had piddled down much of the day, so the evening was a blessing.)

    My Spanish teacher invited me – it’s his Argentinian folklore (traditional music) band. Turns out he’s a good guitarist and singer (phew – it’s so awkward finding words when people aren’t). A little except of a chacarera to cheer you all up!

    No room to dance, which was a relief, as my feet are killing me.

    https://youtu.be/TRvEM4Vvpys?si=GBmc9QdX9Crft_J7

    4. Enjoyed it. Is everyone there happy with the new President, or at least willing to see if he produces the goods?

      1. Heh! No. Very much akin to the Brexit vote – half of Buenos Aires is publicly in mourning. Interesting times.

      1. I ought to mention that the images and the colours of the characters aren’t original but the sizing, placing, patch-working and quilting are.

  50. Some good news from Ireland…still nothing about the injured children, especially the one who is said to have died

    Cillian
    @CilComLFC
    BREAKING: Leanne Flynn Keogh, who was repeatedly stabbed as she defended young children from the Algerian immigrant last week, has been moved out of Intensive Care this evening.

    Thank God 🙏

          1. For some obscure reason, here in Sweden, the locals call Marie Rose sauce “Rhode Island sauce”.

          2. The Americans invented everything. Including Marie Rose sauce. Except they just add or take out an ingredient or two and call it their invention. Et voila !
            I would have thought the Swedes would have twigged what ‘marie rose’ means.

          3. You’re behind the times, Phizz. The blacks and slammers are fighting over which of them invented simply everything in the whole wide world. Ever.

          4. Yeah, but all they knew how to do was pick cotton once they were shown how to do it.

            As for the slammers they lost the ability to read their ancestors writings.

            Obviously the fault of white people.

  52. 379245+ up ticks,

    Well of course they will, surely then indigenous prisoners will be released and wear ankle Jewellery for 18 months.

    Dt,
    Foreign criminals will serve shorter sentences than Britons under new plan
    Proposals for overseas citizens to be freed from UK jails and deported up to 18 months early are criticised by House of Lords committee

      1. 379245+ up ticks,

        Afternoon ATG,

        Demolish it, that would be considered to be one of the finest bits of demolishing ever achieved on Gods green earth.

    3. He has also been arrested recently for stealing from Debenhams kitchen department. When asked why he did it he said it was a whisk worth taking.

  55. Kate Middleton and King Charles have issued a statement after being
    named in the Royal racism scandal.

    They said, ‘We want to make it clear that when we expressed our concerns
    about Meghan’s baby’s colour, we were merely worried that it might turn
    out ginger.’

      1. I have luscious locks me. I use a hair brush. Combs are for people who wish to look like A. Hitler. And yes, it is you i am looking at.

          2. I was thinking of having a rabbit tattooed onto my pate so that people would think it was a little hair.

          3. I’ve been brought up since the age of 9 with a PAIR of hairbrushes.

            One holds down one side while the other sorts out the majority of hair.

            All followed with a good combing of the hair and then comb the moustache.

  57. Good morning! Two rivetting subjects raised in the video loaded on this page: firstly, a suggestion from the very solid source Reiner Fuellmich, that it seems possible that the eugenic evils of the Third Reich may be about to re-suface in Germany, and secondly that there is increasing evidence that the mRNA jabs induce a form of lobotomy- persnoality change or suppression. More good news – don’t throw away the aspirin….

    https://expose-news.com/2023/12/02/covid-vaccination-is-changing-personalities/?cmid=869c4388-cb50-4087-b088-68735d3f9b6b

    2. Given how most looters are black i look forward to seeing how these black businesses deal with that little problem.

  61. Four today

    Wordle 896 4/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. And me.

      Wordle 896 4/6

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

    2. Pretty poor today. Wordle 896 6/6

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

      ⬜🟩🟨🟨🟩

      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Me too.

      Wordle 896 4/6

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

      1. Me too

        Wordle 896 4/6

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

    4. Me as well

      Wordle 896 4/6

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

    1. And the consumate lying about the illegal invaders continues.
      More taxpayers money being wasted on politicians lies.

        1. I was taken once when i was little and realised it wasn’t for me because of the big fence stopping me going to the beach.

    3. Canada hasn’t run out of hotel rooms yet. I wonder where they will put the excess invaders, the poor little darlings wouldn’t survive winter in a tent or an uninsulated cottage.

      It’s not just the illegals. We are supposedly bringing in another 500,000 immigrants a year despite there being no housing and a failing healthcare system where over two million in ontario cannot get on the books of a family doctor.

    6. Philip Larkin wrote about the place!

      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.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/555b8950e0fff8557b163c8a6bbedec9e8ee17050d8531d4e16126c116f2a688.png

  68. Evening all – Eugyppius on the expensive waste of money in Germany on unwanted vaccine doses.

    I offer you choice extracts from Die Zeit,
    where reporters have just noticed, as they periodically do, that our
    government has wasted billions of Euros on unneeded vaccine doses, which will now have to be binned because nobody wants them:

    https://www.eugyppius.com/p/snowy-open-thread-expiring-unwanted?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&action=restack-comment&utm_campaign=email-restack-comment&r=z2izz

  69. We’re back from a very chilly Christmas market in Cirencester – the hall was cold, and the shoppers were hanging on to their money mostly but the worst part was the thumping and over-ampfied “music” that we had to endure all afternoon. Not so bad in the morning as they had a childrens’ orchestra playing. After lunch, I was able to zone out the muzak for a while till it was impossible to do so. Very glad to arrive home.

    1. Well the reason they changed the wording from ‘global warming’ to ‘climate change ‘ was due to the lack of warming. They’ve had a lot of snow in Bavaria.

      1. As any real scientist would tell you we are entering a cooling stage. The paid for stooge scientist will tell you the policies enacted to stop global warming are working.

    2. 🙌🤲🙌 I’m actually not willing to pay anything towards this scam but like everyone else have no choice.

    3. Me, miss! Unfortunately, I don’t get a say in the matter (despite never having voted for any of the signed up green addicted parties).

    4. Our useless pointless and incredibly stupid government has set us all up for climate martyrdom.

    5. Since the Idiot King is so sure that the planet is warming here are a few suggestions as to where he should spend the rest of the winter without electrickery, water, gas or any other oil based fuels:,

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ccbd3f7a9df1e1861c7b7ce784ea8a8540d402038513bf983b659ea8dcf0277c.png
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/08274a40400714e2d6b5987cc8138c7147895eb564ac565a4d708945507ce082.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/167de795a77da5ffa141b25c88c6c7b469fe1c0702b57e51871ed314a5011480.png

  73. Evening, all. The meeting at Bangor went ahead, hurdle races only. I only stayed for half the card; I left when it started snowing. The main roads would have been fine (well gritted) but I access my back drive (basically a dirt track) via a side road that never sees salt or grit, so I thought discretion was the better part of valour.

    Chatting to other racegoers, I found they were firmly of the opinion that the “climate change” scam was just that; a means of taxing us into oblivion while not actually doing anything beneficial for the planet.

  75. The Telegraph’s proposed takeover by a foreign state must not be allowed to happen
    It is not an insult to Abu Dhabi to insist on separation between a free-spirited newspaper and the apparatus of government

    he US media company RedBird IMI, funded by the rulers of Abu Dhabi must not be permitted to take ownership of this newspaper. That statement should be obviously true.

    The arguments for it need have nothing to do with the nature of Abu Dhabi’s government, its record on human rights or its attitude to the Western concept of freedom of speech. By most accounts, it is, as a member of the United Arab Emirates federation, a benign force in the region and a reliable friend of this country. What is at issue is not the integrity or the diplomatic standing of this particular nation or its reigning family. Foreign Office ministers who make those considerations central to this question may be committing a damaging error.

    The only point worth considering here is that in a free society no government – including the country’s elected one – should own a news media outlet. The power wielded by a state must be, always and without qualification, separate from the presentation and analysis of information in the public domain. That principle has been one of the distinguishing differences between tyrannies and democracies in the modern world.

    Even media outlets financed by public funding mandates like the BBC, or Channel 4 which is owned by a corporation that belongs to the government but is funded by advertising, have managerial and editorial independence. The suspension of that independence is permissible only in the most severe national emergencies and is rescinded as soon as those crises are resolved. So no, this need not and should not be a diplomatic problem. Abu Dhabi’s governing philosophy, which may be incompatible with our own, and its relations with the West on the world stage, are not relevant to this decision and the rejection of their ownership bid for the Telegraph should not be construed as any kind of insult by the UK government.

    There is a famous quote from the author of the US Constitution, Thomas Jefferson: “If I had to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I would not hesitate to choose the latter.” What Jefferson clearly meant by this was that a government without newspapers could hold power unchecked, but a population empowered by independent news could reject and replace a government. If you cannot see what is happening, you are powerless. If you can see it, there is nothing you cannot do.

    But the underlying premise of his statement is that these two enormously powerful forces – government and news media – must be clearly and indisputably separated. There may be times when news organisations support a sitting (or a foreign) government and other times when they are in implacable opposition – but they must always be, and always be seen as, independent purveyors of fact and analysis.

    Of course, the Jefferson quote uses what might be considered outdated vocabulary. “Newspapers”, in the old sense of printed editions, are thought to be no longer particularly important, so why worry about who owns them? This is an idiotic and pernicious argument. First and most obvious rejoinder: more people than ever are accessing newspaper content in its newer digital form. The Telegraph (and some other British papers) has more readers – and much greater global reach – now than it had in its flourishing print years. Indeed, it is precisely this increasing influence which is attracting buyers like RedBird and its Abu Dhabi backers.

    This dismissive narrative (“newspapers don’t matter anymore”) calls up in evidence the proliferation of social media news outlets which are, supposedly, replacing “legacy” media, particularly among the young. Presumably, the exponents of this glib narrative would be happy to have a public discourse dominated by the grotesque absurdities of Deep Fake video clips, manipulated photographs, unchecked hysterical testimony and outright deception (sometimes generated robotically), overseen by unqualified and possibly irresponsible social media billionaires who are accountable to no one.

    Are there really serious grown-ups who believe that social media has made newspapers – and real journalism – redundant, rather than more urgently needed than ever to hold the tidal wave of fakery and falsehood up to the light? To those naive people, let me explain that a professional newspaper operation is not only subject to all the old legal constraints of libel and contempt, but a whole new battery of Ipso guidelines on accuracy and ethical procedure, overseen by inhouse enforcement officers, in which its trainees are rigorously instructed.

    An equally absurd point that is being made by the insouciant brigade is that the possible sale of the Telegraph only matters to Conservatives who regard it as a bulwark of party political loyalty in an otherwise hostile media environment. I have even heard it said that the upcoming general election will have been a factor in the decision to refer the possible sale to a regulatory investigation since the Tories cannot afford to have their “inhouse” newspaper compromised at such a moment.

    All that I can say to the purveyors of this interpretation is that if you believe that the Telegraph has been a stalwart supporter of this Tory government, you have obviously not read a word that has appeared on these pages for a long time. Cue bitter laughter from inside Downing Street. And in the opposite corner we have the Foreign Office which seems ready to reconcile itself quite happily with this possible sale because its concern with diplomatic accommodation is so much greater than its belief in a troublesome free press.

    Maybe this is the source of a terrible misapprehension about what is at risk. The Foreign Office is, probably more than any other Cabinet department, the beating heart of the British establishment. The guiding philosophy that dictates that establishment approach has been, at least since the national trauma of the Reformation, pragmatism and compromise at home, tact and calculated diplomacy abroad. Defending to the death abstract ideals of freedom was only for volatile revolutionary republics. But if ever there was a moment for a statement of absolute, inviolable commitment to the principle of a free press, this is it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/02/telegraph-takeover-by-foreign-state-must-not-happen/

  77. Concerns degrees like ‘Middle East queer politics’ used as immigration route into UK
    Some university Masters courses, popular with international students, do little to fill the skills gap

    International students can take masters degrees in “Transnational Queer Feminist Politics” and “Queer Studies”, prompting fears that courses which do little to fill skills gaps are being used as an immigration route.

    Soas University of London, popular among international students, with 1,890 studying full time (2021-2022), runs masters courses in the “Anthropology of Food” as well as “Transnational Queer Feminist politics with special reference to the Middle East” – both costing £25,320 per year for overseas students (compared to £12,220 per year for domestic students).

    The latter includes a module on “Queering Migrations and Diasporas” and Soas advertises scholarships for such courses.

    One of these covers living, tuition and return airfare costs for “five Indian nationals” and another is for candidates “who are nationals of Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Palestine territories”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/02/concerns-degrees-transnational-queer-immigration-route/

    At University College London (UCL), the most popular with 22,885 international students (2021/22), overseas students can pay £31,100 to study MAs in Gender, Society and Representation Masters and Race Ethnicity and Postcolonial Studies.

    At the University of York, where 5,765 international students studied between 2021/22, overseas students can apply to do an MA in Queer Studies for £23,900, which allows them to explore “the cultures that shaped us, and the cultures we shape, through an intersectional queer lens.”

    The course includes modules in “Gothic Bodies” and “Late Medieval Sexualities”.

    Under current graduate visa rules, international students are allowed to remain in the UK for at least two years after successfully completing a course.

    This goes up to three years for PhDs and other doctoral qualifications.

    Around 39 per cent of all postgraduates are international students, with the last census showing that a third of the international student population was based in London.

    Prof Brian Bell, the chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), previously told the Sunday Telegraph that he had warned the Government five years ago – when the two-year visa was introduced – that it could offer graduates a backdoor route to remain in the UK in low-skilled work.

    It helped fuel a 10-fold increase in foreign students bringing dependents to the UK.

    Since 2018, the number of postgraduate student dependents has risen from 16,000 to 135,000. There are also 73,000 students on graduate visas.

    Degrees ‘generate income for universities’
    Miriam Cates, a Conservative MP, said: “It’s hard to believe that degree courses such as these carry any merit or academic rigour. They appear to exist only to generate income for universities and provide a low bar route to entry for international students and their dependents.

    “Of course we want the world’s brightest and the best to be able to study for serious degrees at our elite universities, but it is hard to see what skills will be learned from these courses apart from how to deny reality and rewrite history. The Government needs to tighten up study visa rules.”

    Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch, said the findings were “yet more evidence of how desperate the higher education sector is to attract overseas students to supplement their shrinking budgets.

    He said: “Such trendy degrees will do little to advance the interests of people struggling in the countries from which students are coming. In which Middle East or South Asia state might it be useful to brandish a degree in ‘Transnational Queer Feminist Politics’? Universities offering these courses need to take a long look in the mirror.”

    A spokesman for Soas said: “We are proud of our diverse international community at Soas and welcome students from across the globe to study a wide range of subjects including in disciplines such as law, finance and management, politics and languages.”

    A UCL spokesman said: “We are proud to have a thriving and diverse student community at UCL, with the brightest minds from the UK and more than 150 other countries, choosing to study and research here.

    “Analysis commissioned by UCL shows our international students contributed £1.7 billion to the economy in 2018/19 and this is estimated to have supported over 12,000 jobs across the UK.

    “We offer over 650 masters programmes in a huge variety of subjects, including the arts, humanities and social and historical sciences. Our graduates in these academic disciplines go on to have highly successful careers, working globally for private sector companies, governments, schools, charities, NGOs, and as entrepreneurs.

    “This strong international student community also brings fresh ideas, a diverse cultural and social perspective, and extensive networks that bring huge benefit to the UK and beyond.”

    To cut net migration levels, the Government has pledged to restrict the ability of international students to bring family members “on all but postgraduate research routes”.

    The University of York was contacted for commen

    2. “overseas students can apply to do an MA in Queer Studies for £23,900, which allows them to explore “the cultures that shaped us, and the cultures we shape, through an intersectional queer lens.”

      “Excuse me, sir, where might I be finding the Queer Studies lecture?”

      “That’ll be the top floor.”

      2. The course includes modules in “Gothic Bodies” and “Late Medieval Sexualities”.

        Where stables for camels , goats and donkeys , chickens and ducks will be provided on request , course (coarse) details , later .

    3. My second son, Henry, was top of his year at York University when he was awarded a distinction in his Master’s degree in Computer Science and Data Analytics. He is now working writing programs in Artificial Intelligence. His partner/girlfriend/fiasco/whatever has recently been awarded her Ph.D in Mathematics and Statistics.

      As you can imagine we are rather proud of him. But the burning question is: Does he look more Dutch or more English?

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2bfb2a949dd5e03363e83bd6459c8ba3a1229cd2feeb68eecb0870b5d0bdbf5.png

      1. He looks Dutch. It is not just one feature, it is the way they are put together.

        Edit: I asked poppiesdad, who has worked throughout Europe in his younger days, what he thought was his nationality, he suggested Polish, Danish, German in that order.

      3. My elder son also started university life at York doing computer science. He failed maths so had a year out before enrolling at Leeds. His starting salary at BT was way above anything I ever earned. He was awarded Communications prize at Leeds which is odd because he never communicates with his parents!

        2. Well if we are going to tell of the success of our family I’ve got a brother in Liverpool University – well to be honest he’s in a bottle but….

  78. I left the cinema, walked home and announced I was moving’: films that made people emigrate
    If The Lord of the Rings had you yearning for New Zealand, or Julia Roberts on a bike made you fall in love with Bali, you’re not alone. But did you grab your passport and start packing? Meet the people who did

    https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/02/i-left-the-cinema-walked-home-and-announced-i-was-moving-films-that-made-people-emigrate

    The article is enjoyable and thoughtful but brought back the memories I have about my late parents , after they lived here there and everywhere in Africa for 17 years on and off , they decided South Africa was the place for them when Harold Wilson got silly in 1967.

    They expected me to follow them after my UK nursing training had finished . They even arranged further training for me in SA doing midwifery etc and arranged migration papers .

    I wasn’t having any of that nonsense .. I stayed here , and after completing , met Moh , and we got married … they were furious .

    SA was not the life for me .. my lifestyle is not that of a sybarite .. and I don’t like spiders , snakes or multitudes of blacks… ( my decision 57 years ago) aha , looks like the subject of my greatest fears are now here living and creating problems in the Uk.

    1. Ah, you are referring to the snakes in the House of Commons, the Black Mambas and the Govebras…?

    2. I enjoyed some of my times in Africa and not enjoyed others. But, whether south, north, east or west, there’s always that sensation of the possibility of things kicking off and bloody mayhem.

      2. In my case when I was a child , Sudan pre independence , and post independence, Suez crisis , and being evacuated , Nigeria independence , and later when Moh and I were out there ’77/79, being robbed etc .. SA visiting parents, mother killed in car crash etc .

        I hate the neediness, corruption , filth, noise , overcrowding , dust , heat , humidity and smell.

        In colonial days , things were ordered and not too divisive .

      3. My journey from the airport to my hotel in Casablanca was uneventful though i did notice all the people and fires on the way. The smell was fruity. When i arrived the staff were fine. After visiting a local market arranged by the hotel i had a thought things were not what i was hoping for.
        The following afternoon the desk staff said there was no need to worry even though the taxi driver had tried to charge me a multiple of a thousand for the short trip.
        TBH i didn’t have a much better experience in Spain.

        1. Once I was being taken from the old Athens airport to Syntagma square and the taxi driver assumed I was a tourist.

          I always watched the meter carefully because it was supposed to be moved to a lower rate once within the city boundary.
          The driver hit a different button altogether and the meter started spinning.
          I shouted right into his ear that I had seen what he had done and he panicked and couldn’t turn it off.
          (I can shout for England)
          I told him I was going to report him to the police.

          When we got to the hotel I paid him the usual fare and told him to sod off.

          I’m an old softie.

    3. Our neighbour who I discovered years ago lived about a mile from me in JHB in the late 60s. Has just had a hip op. Saw her today and asked her how she enjoyed her recent holiday in the Cape with her family. Her sister lives in Simonstown I thought her mother lived with her sister. But she told me that she lives in Fish Hoek. Brought back instant memories for me on my travels around the wonderful Cape.
      Almost a bucket list. But could be dangerous these days.

    4. I was in Rhodesia when that stupid pratt Wilson wrecked that wonderful country. It was almost self-sufficient. Mugabe had all the farmers murdered and anyone else who he knew wouldn’t vote for him.
      Blimey our useless know all politicians have caused some damage around the world. They are still at it.

      1. HG’s grandmother had a picture of Ian Smith shaking her hand.
        It took pride of place on the family piano!
        I have no idea what happened to the picture, but I suspect that as a piece of memorabilia it might be worth a few bob.

        1. The people I met on the RMS Pendennis Castle where called Carr. They knew the Smiths.
          I wonder what happened to Sally she was about my age.

      2. When we first moved here we were in Church one day and overheard a lady talking about as a child how she lost both her parents after they went to South Africa, the father as a water engineer, and she was adopted by a Mrs Johnson in Setlegole. So it transpired that she grew up with my wife’s cousin (who runs a crocodile farm near Durban). In later life she became Ian Smith’s secretary. She passed away some years ago.

        1. Interesting Rusty, I met some people on the ship to Cape Town from Salisbury, during our trips around the different parts of southern Africa, my friend and I stayed over with them and they were acquainted with the Smiths and very concerned at what the Wilson Government were upto. And rightly so.
          Another useless idiot British politician.

      3. Worked with half a dozen Rhodesians. All had fought in the bush. Nice guys but very very hard men.

  79. Moving on
    We’ve just finished watching a film starring Jim Broadbent and featuring Charlotte Rampling. The Sense of an Ending.
    Recommended. Nice shots of London included.
    Stuck with one of Erin’s favourites. The Voice. Feeling dozey now. But some very talented female singers. Probably better than the more famous. Just woke up again super performance. All spun around. Now mother and daughter. Where have they been…..standing ovation.

        1. A phrase recently uttered to me after a member of my estranged family said after what they asked what was wrong.

  80. Anyone who says onions are the only vegetable which makes you cry has never been hit in the face by a turnip

      1. Yes – well a swede hit me in the face once but it was my own fault for criticising his Saab😘

      2. Yes – well a swede hit me in the face once but it was my own fault for criticising his Saab😘

          1. Bring back the Royal Tournament, and the gun carriage over the wall race! Wonderful inspiring stuff!

          3. I haven’t seen it on TV! It was the sort of thing the beeb would give up! I really don’t know if it still happens.

          4. I saw a Tattoo performed by the Black Watch Regiment in Washington, DC many years ago, quite made us homesick!

          9. Don’t know if it was the same thing but a sea cadet fell and died Pompey harbour a while ago. That would make all those in offices take a deep breath.

          11. As an RAF apprentice I was on duty at the Royal Tournament in 1959 – quite an experience

          12. Apparently the MOD can’t afford it. They don’t seem to be able to afford service people either. Still…at least their home working energy costs are paid.

            Also….The tourneys show up the French….

    2. Strap tennis racquets on to the soles of your boots. All those people that laugh at you might think twice after you ask them if they need help after they …get my drift?

  86. That was a pleasant evening.
    Just back from a concert by the Melstock Band up at Crich.
    VERY enjoyable!

    A very light snow flurry going up there and it’s a tad below -3½°C outside too.

    1. It is about to kick off in France big time. The French police are vicious at the best of times but their numbers will be insufficient to deal with the impending disorder.

      Much the same applies to the UK except our police are mostly shit scared of two elements in society: gypsies and fundamental Islamists.

      Normal hardworking taxpayers are fair game to our politicised woke fairy police ‘service’.

    1. The Covid jabs have much to do with the lobotomising of those idiots who succumbed to taking them.

      I have noticed all manner of strange actions and behaviours since these Covid jabs were pushed and in the past two years. People driving with no evident road sense, weaving all over the place as though drunk or high on narcotics (which I conclude they are, boosted if you will).

      Then the propensity of those who have taken every booster to deny that a recent onset of pneumonia or some paralysis, heart attack or thrombosis would have been much worse had they not submitted to the jabs. In fact they are as though programmed to utter invective at anyone querying their decisions in the face of impeccable and mounting evidence that they are victims of a massive scam and crime against humanity.

      2. corim, your point re driving tallies with what I’m experiencing around my area. Slow reactions, especially at traffic lights and roundabouts, poor judgement when overtaking, a lack of lane discipline and indication at roundabouts etc have, IMO, increased recently.
        And as for complaints about suffering from ‘long covid’, coughs lasting for weeks on end and having ‘covid’ multiple times, I despair.

      3. I just watched the video that was posted yesterday on the subject of possible mrna induced brain damage.
        The physical mechanism is pretty clearly documented with research studies and autopsies.
        Have I noticed this in my daily life?
        Not sure.
        There are a couple of people I know who seem to have become more extreme, but they were fairly anti-social before covid too. Most people don’t seem to have changed.
        But if you compare this symptom with noticeable symptoms like the rashes, I only know three people who got the rashes. So that would suggest that the brain damage would also be fairly unusual.

      4. “People driving with no evident road sense, weaving all over the place as though drunk or high on narcotics…”

        You’ve just described the normal driving skills of the average Swede.

  90. Up after being kept awake with feeling rather bloated, nauseous and wishing I could throw up.
    Had a bloody great burp and feel a lot better now.

    We’ve had a bit of heavy snow, about 4″ outside and not quite -3½°C.

  91. No Geoff, yet so you’ll have to have today’s story now. Expecting Tesco between 08:00 and 09:00.

    Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    Russian and African Roulette
    There’s this African ambassador visiting Russia and the Russians show the African how to play Russian Roulette. The African thinks to himself, “What a strange and daring culture!”
    The next day the African leaves and goes back to Africa. About a month later, the same Russian ambassador visits with the African ambassador in his own nation. When the Russian gets off the plane the African shows him to a circle of six buxom Nubian babes and says, “We have created our own version of your Russian Roulette!”
    “How do you play?” asks the Russian.
    The African replies, “Any one of these girls will give you a blow job.”
    The Russian says “Wow! What a game! But, uh… where’s the risk? The thrill?”
    The African says, “Oh, there’s risk alright! One of the girls is a cannibal!”

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