Saturday 21 December: The economic outlook is bleak for earners and savers under Labour

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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690 thoughts on “Saturday 21 December: The economic outlook is bleak for earners and savers under Labour”

    1. Warm and sunny in Los Angeles. Or at least it will be tomorrow morning. Still Friday night here. By the time morning comes it’ll be late afternoon in the UK.

        1. First time in 70 years I’ve been in a warm place for Xmas. Can’t get nostalgic about cold.
          No snow, no rain. Just blue sky and sunshine. I suppose that’s why so many come to live in California.

  3. G'morning Geoff and the usual bunch.
    Today's Tale
    Sometimes women are overly suspicious of their husbands.
    When Adam stayed out very late for a few nights, Eve became upset.
    “You are running around with other women” she charged.
    “You are being unreasonable” Adam responded. “You are the only woman on Earth.”
    The quarrel continued until Adam fell asleep, only to be awakened by someone poking him in the chest.
    It was Eve. “What do you think you are doing?” Adam demanded.
    “Counting your ribs,” said Eve.

    1. It appears that the perpetrator is an ex-Muslim anti-Islam doctor and supporter of AfD who fled from Saudi.

      That's the story and they're sticking to it. Odd that he should choose a Christmas market and not an open air prayer gathering.

  6. Two killed, almost 70 injured in German Christmas market terror attack. 21 December 2024.

    Police arrested the 50-year-old suspect who is a doctor from Saudi Arabia and has lived in Germany since 2006, the premier of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff, said.

    The suspect had been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 23 miles (36 kilometres) south of Magdeburg, according to officials.

    “As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city,” Mr Haseloff said.

    He was also a keen stamp collector and model railway enthusiast.

    PS. No comments allowed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/20/germany-magdeburg-christmas-market/

    1. What sort of mentality leads a person supposedly dedicated to saving human life to deliberately taking it in such a violent manner? (It's a rhetorical question).

      1. It does not make sense to me. From what I have heard, he was no religious fanatic.

        More likely is that he suffered some sort of medical breakdown, either a heart attack with his foot on the accelerator, or even a mental breakdown whereby he did not know what he was doing. Did he survive the incident, and if so, has he been questioned by police?

          1. Mental illness, like covid, is catching it seems. How many old people get terminal dementia as soon as they are installed in a home?

  7. Posted late last night but worth repeating.

    Rembrandt Square Amsterdam. The concrete barriers clustered around lampposts were originally spaced out at intervals alongside the kerb, making vehicle access to the cafe terraces very difficult for any potential jihadi to carry out a similar manoeuvre. This was about 6 years ago. The pavement at this point is a drop-down so access by a speeding vehicle would be relatively easy. Made perfect sense at the time.
    .
    Now, for inexplicable reasons, the barriers have been moved into clusters around lampposts, making such access easier. This was about 3 years ago. Imagine a vehicle coming along the street facing the camera at speed, ploughing into the tables of the 3 Sisters pub, on the left of the image. There could be over 100 people sat around the tables, covered with glasses and crockery with the potential to cause some serious death and injury in any such attack.
    I have been in many of the cafes/bars along this street many times and now choose my seating with this in mind. What a state of affairs.
    Similar pavement terraces extend the whole length of the square for over 100 yards, so the potential for mayhem is incalculable.

    2. I think you will find that 'inexplicable reasons' are invariably decisions made by members of the Peter Principle brigade.

      1. Or, TPTB simply want mayhem in Europe, to make the WEF's One World Government so much more acceptable to the masses.

  9. Good morning, chums, and thanks to Geoff, for today's NoTTLe site. Today is a special day for me, but it hasn't been mentioned by either Richard or Caroline, so I can only assume that it is Caroline who keeps the Birthday Book for NoTTLers and that her being in bed with the 'flu is the reason why nothing has appeared on this site. So I wish Caroline a speedy recovery and I leave it to you – if you care to – to wish me a Happy 79th birthday as I enter my 80th year on this planet.

    Wordle 1,281 5/6

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    2. Morning Elsie, ands a very Happy Birthday to you. Those of us with Birthdays very close to Christmas have always had to put up with "Oh, this present is for Christmas AND Birthday", so I will wish you a Merry Christmas as well.

      And for Caroline Tracey, being the Lady of the House and also normally the Engine of the Home, I wish you a speedy recovery and a quiet Christmas. Let's see what Richard can do.
      RC
      EDIT 4 hours later:
      Is it Caroline Tracey or Carolyn Thomas who is laid low with the lurgi? Apols to the one who is OK, 'cos she is probably pretty busy these last few days.

      1. Thank you rough common. (Good morning, btw.) I used to get a packet of jelly babies and was told not to complain as I would get lots of presents on Christmas Day. As an adult no-one wanted to come to my birthday party. ("Would love to, but am still writing Christmas cards" and so on. I tried celebrating a "Half Birthday" in June, but it just wasn't the same). Well that's enough whingeing for another year. Today I am off with a chum to enjoy a celebratory meal at a local pub, so I am sure it will be very enjoyable.

        1. That's sad to read, Elsie. A birthday isn't just a party, it's a celebration of onesself.
          We take them seriously in my little family for that reason.
          Have a great day, and how good is it that the daylight extends from the day you were born?

          1. Thanks, Herr Oberst, and a Good Morning to you, too. As I young person I used to say I was born, not on the shortest day of the year, but on the longest night (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) referring to common "night-time activities". Now I just wish the daylight hours got longer sooner; not so much wanting "night-time activities".

          2. Elsie, those "night time activities" must have taken place around 21st March 1945, with servicemen and women looking at being Demobbed.
            What was your Dad doing then, (apart from "night time activities")?

          3. Well, roughcommon, he was in "protected employment" with Rolls-Royce, making Merlin engines for Spitfires for the war effort. My mother was in a sorry depressed state, and dad thought that another child (I had three older siblings) would give her something to keep her pleasantly occupied. When he told the GP of his plans he was told that it was an unwise idea. But Dad was a determined person and decided to ignore the doctor. Of course when I came along she sunk even deeper into depression and Dad's mother and siblings, who relied on public transport and lived some 250 miles away, had to rally round to look after me during the bitterly cold winter of '45/'46 when I almost died of pneumonia. However, I survived and I have my father (and mother, of course) to thank for being here today and able to chat on the NoTTLe site with good friends such as yourself.

        2. Just think yourself lucky you didn't, like my god daughter, have a birthday on Christmas Day itself!

    3. Morning again Elsie, I've just had a thought (and I'm 4 years older than you, so that's quite an effort!).
      Here's a little tiny present: from today on, the dark nights will be getting SHORTER. And you get that every year.

    7. Caroline has the flu too? I thought that was Bill's MR.

      I wish you the most happiest of Birthdays and when i see you i will give you a great big kiss !

    10. Oh Elsie! Wishing you a very Happy Birthday! Hope you have a wonderful day and treat yourself well!
      Thinking of you! 🎂🥂🎶💕

    12. Happy birthday, Elsie.
      This was my effort.

      Wordle 1,281 5/6

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      1. Thank you, Conners, and all the many NoTTLers who have kindly sent me good wishes for my birthday today. I am now home after a wonderful meal out with a chum to keep me company. The waistline has suffered a little but all in all it was a wonderful day. Once again, my thanks to all – too many to list – who have wished me well today.

        2. Never mind the waistline; this sort of celebration only comes round once a year (and special event celebrations even more rarely).

  10. 399108+ up ticks,

    Is this news ?

    The lab/lib/con coalition have been at it these past 30 plus years
    aiding and abetting as a coalition to bring down Great Britain and to date having great success.

    Camilla Tominey
    Miliband’s eco lunacy will wreck Britain and enrich the Chinese dictatorship
    What is the point of achieving net zero here if it means importing Chinese steel made by burning coal?

    2. Not only that Ogga, the coal comes all the way from Australia.
      And the UAE is also one of the world's greatest polluters because every thing it does is run on fossil fuels.
      Even the water desalination where they pollute the oceans by returning tonnes of extracted salt.
      What is millipede doing about that.
      Absolutely nothing at all.

    1. I note that Darryl still displays a Ukie flag. As they said in Yes Minister, that's very brave.

  13. Labour councillor torches Starmer for by election loss. 21 December 2024.

    He lied to us all to get elected and does not deserve to be the leader of the Labour party. Good honest councillors will lose their seats because of Kier [sic] Starmer’s actions and his attack on working class people. I hope that election results like this, Labour coming third in a seat that only 6 months ago became one of our safest seats, will be the kick up the arse the National Labour Party needs but the truth is I don’t think Starmer gives a damn.

    Councillor Steve Edwards. (Labour).

    The peasants are revolting.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/labour-councillor-torches-starmer-for-by-election-loss/

    3. Dear Steve. Take a look around you. It's not just that Starmer lied. It's the fact that you believed the cunt in the first place.
      Dear Steve. Take a look around you. You might live in a nice neighbourhood but the Third World is just about to engulf you.
      Dear Steve. Happy Winterval.

      1. Very well said, Phizz – and Happy Solstice to you and all other Nottlrs etc…

        This will probably be my only contribution today ("Hurrah" they cried) but after a bad night, and having been violently triggered by your highly accurate description of Starmer the Granny Harmer, I feel a major rant coming on…

        Well f..k my old boots! Our incompetent, lying, on-the-take PM, who vowed to abolish the House of Lords, is stuffing in 30 more of the parasitic bastards. At £361 per day just for turning up (tax free of course) I make that very nearly 2 million quid pa, assuming they turn up for at least 180 days, during which they will no doubt trough at the taxpayer-subsidised bars and dining rooms – oh, and don't forget the unlimited travel and accommodation expenses too. As if that wasn't bad enough, Mandelslime is to be our ambassador in the US – the very same person who a few years ago slagged off Trump as a racist and "A danger to the world".* Far from being embarrassed, the senior Labour gobshites seem proud to insult the leader of the free world and to call him every name under the sun. I trust that Nigel has had a word in the ear of Trump and his senior people, and that Mandelslime, Lammy and all the other Labour shitbags, will be frozen out. What has this country come to? I do hope Trump gets his own back by sending us an ambassador who is rabidly anti-EUSSR. Starmer's pathetic excuse for a government deserves nothing less.

        Now, if you will excuse me, I have a long list of jobs to attend to.

      2. Very well said, Phizz – and Happy Solstice to you and all other Nottlrs etc…

        This will probably be my only contribution today ("Hurrah" they cried) but after a bad night, and having been violently triggered by your highly accurate description of Starmer the Granny Harmer, I feel a major rant coming on…

        Well f..k my old boots! Our incompetent, lying, on-the-take PM, who vowed to abolish the House of Lords, is stuffing in 30 more of the parasitic bastards. At £361 per day just for turning up (tax free of course) I make that very nearly 2 million quid pa, assuming they turn up for at least 180 days, during which they will no doubt trough at the taxpayer-subsidised bars and dining rooms – oh, and don't forget the unlimited travel and accommodation expenses too. As if that wasn't bad enough, Mandelslime is to be our ambassador in the US – the very same person who a few years ago slagged off Trump as a racist and "A danger to the world".* Far from being embarrassed, the senior Labour gobshites seem proud to insult the leader of the free world and to call him every name under the sun. I trust that Nigel has had a word in the ear of Trump and his senior people, and that Mandelslime, Lammy and all the other Labour shitbags, will be frozen out. What has this country come to? I do hope Trump gets his own back by sending us an ambassador who is rabidly anti-EUSSR. Starmer's pathetic excuse for a government deserves nothing less.

        Now, if you will excuse me, I have a long list of jobs to attend to.

    4. I wonder if Councillor Edwards would have expressed such an opinion if he had been successfully re-elected?

      1. I think the councillor who lambasted 2TK is still in office. There was a by-election for what had been a Labour seat and I presume that was because another Labour councillor stood down or died. labour came 3rd after the Tory and Reform candidates.

        1. Yes you are correct I read the relevant article incorrectly. My doubt still persists, if the Labour Party had successfully defended the seat would Councillor Edwards still written his social media outburst?

  15. Good morning all.
    A bit of a nasty start this morning, but I did have a better night's sleep, so off to Stoke in an hour or so.
    Light rain outside and windy with 6.7°C on the new Yard Thermometer.
    Yesterday's max was 7.5 with a min of 2.9.

    Lots of comments removed overnight, including some of mine, after the Magdaberg attack yesterday evening.
    When is the Telegraph finally going to stand up for free speech?

    1. Precision versus Accuracy
      BoB, the following is pure pedantry. I hope you don’t take offence.

      I always used to smile when I saw you quoting 7 “and a half” degrees on your ‘old’ yard thermometer. That old one got dropped recently and now you have a new one, presumably digital, which reads to a tenth of a degree.

      When I was studying chemistry at university, I was introduced to the Beckmann thermometer, which can read temperature changes to a PRECISION of 0.01 degrees Celsius. So if you measure the freezing temperature of pure water, then add some salt to it and measure again, you will notice a small depression of the freezing point. The Beckmann thermometer can measure this easily, but it can’t tell you WHAT the temperatures were, before and after. So it has very high PRECISION, but no ACCURACY.

      A case in point: when my late wife was bedbound, I bought three identical digital thermometers so that I could keep an eye on temperatures in different rooms. All three displayed the temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit to 0.1 degree. BUT (and here’s the point of my post today) when placed side by side in the same room, they disagreed with one another by up to 2 or 3°C. So despite having higher PRECISION than your old “yard thermometer”, they cannot be called ACCURATE.

      Bob, I would bet that if you bought an identical second yard thermometer and put them side-by-side, they would also disagree. Perhaps you could then report the average of the two. I still love to read your daily news and your love of auctions.

    2. When/if they get the right buyer.
      I wonder if Elon Musk is interested.
      The amount needed is pocket money by his standards.

  16. Oh, you say the nicest things, Minty. How old did you think I was – 25? Lol. (Good morning, btw.)

  17. Good morning all. Damp and unwelcoming morning – but at least, today, the year begins to turn.

  18. Magdeburg…."No idea about motive". "Not thought to be a terrorist" – yeah, right. Just another methodist bad driver.

  20. The BBC's Frank Gardner spouting the line on the Breakfast show "we mustn't jump to conclusions" about the attack in Magdeburg. He said there have been reports that the perpetrator is somehow part of AfD, or that he is actually anti-Islamic. They can't help themselves, can they?

    1. Here's another example.
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14215759/Magdeburg-car-attack-Saudi-Arabia-doctor-ex-Muslim-Germany-Islamising-Europe.html

      MailOnline can reveal that al-Abdulmohsen, a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy from the Saudi Arabian city of Hofuf, moved to Germany in 2006 and lives in Bernburg. He has been recognised as a refugee since 2016.

      Previous media reports suggest he had worked to help ex-Muslims, particularly women, to flee Saudi Arabia after turning their backs on the religion.

      Analysis of his social media reveals tweets in support of Germany's anti-immigration party AfD, while he has also made comments supporting Elon Musk, far-right thug Tommy Robinson and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

      No official motive for the attack has been identified by police.

      1. "Previous media reports suggest…."

        In other words, even we think they are lying, but what they've said is convenient to us, so we'll go along with it.

    2. I post this on FB 12 hours ago

      I guess those that search social media for hate speech will be working all over the Christmas in the wake of the German Christmas market attack.
      Mainstream media will receive orders not to mention who did it, while releasing news that he is a Christian that voted AfD

  22. Thanks so much, vvof. A lovely card, which reminds me of the first birthday cake I can remember, when I was just three years old! Lol. (And a very Good Morning to you, btw.)

  24. Saxony-Anhalt's governor, Reiner Haseloff..

    “As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city."

    Thoughts & prayers.. shocked.. if only there was a clue.. carry on as you were.

    2. Apparently the alleged perp does not have the usual attributes of a Christmas attacker. He doesn't seem mentally ill or radicalised according to the BBC. Well, islam might just cover all the possibilities but there is no one at broadcasting house who would dare say so.

        1. It is a cliche, but I remember psychologists (not psychiatrists) being as mad as their patients.
          There was a reason behind their chosen discipline.

      2. "radicalised according to the BBC" … because of course the BBC would be capable of spotting a radical of any sort.

    3. I wonder why he chose to drive into a Christmas market? Christmas? What's that about? A Christmas market? What's he got against… Christmas,?

        1. I realise that. Probably wanted to buy a Christmassy 'knüstknacker" or twee alpine log cabin cunningly carved out to reveal a stable like the ones that you find in Bethlehem. I'd think they'll find in the end that he was a learner driver on a provisional licence whose inexpert foot slipped off the clutch.

    4. Oma's in bits (she contacted via ouija board).
      Kept himself to himself, but always said "Guten Morgen".

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    It's not only the weather, but the future outlook is grey. And all 'thanks' to our collection of past and present political idiots. Things are not quite working out how they expected. But you can't tell them anything, as we unfortunately have discovered in time they already think they know it all. But more often than not they get it all wrong. Again and again and again.

    1. On the contrary I think this is exactly what they planned. Blair wanted a voting bloc of his own that he could control through welfare so he imported a bunch of stone age savages and gave them free houses and cash.

      The EU did the same across Europe and flooded it with sewage.

      He enacted endless law to protect his favoured voters and punished the citizen. His taxes clawed vast amounts from the lowest paid so he could keep them low paid.

      Then we finally got a say and voted to leave the hated EU and since then every effort by big fat state has been to ensure cataclysm. Tax harmonisation when we could have cut them. Hikes in every tax going. Enforced green madness. Inflation from those taxes. Inflation met with hiking interest rates. Companies sent to the wall by crushing legislation and taxation. individuals kept poor through the double whammy, decent people held back to promote the foreigner.

      The state wanted this. There's no other explanation. It wanted revenge. it wanted to say 'well, you got your vote, we told you what would happen and it has' – yes, because the damned state has forced it!

      1. I’m not sure that jointly, they are that clever.
        But we all know Blair and others should be in jail for treason.

  26. You may be right, Ndovu. With my increasing age, I become more and more confused! But I thought Mrs Rastus was poorly in some way.

  27. Hello again. Today Free Speech's Grumpy Old Git Graham Bedford is back with questions about smart meters ; Are they honest? Are they reliable? Are they spying on you? Are they the precursors of rationing? Why are they pushing them so hard? Do you have one? If not, will you have one? Lets us know in the comments and vote in the poll.

    And our Christmas story today is a true one from the Armstrong garden about it’s resident Robin and its relationship with the residents.

    And join the debates on this page, on subjects like the Christmas market attack in Germany, and the Establishment’s plan to change the rules on political donations now the Musk is likely to donate to Reform.

    freespeechbacklash.com

    1. Tom,
      I followed your link (above) to Free Speech Backlash (on my usual MacBook Air) and posted quite a long comment on Smart Meters, which WAS published a little while ago, and to which you replied.

      BUT: now when I click that link (on my Windows 11 Desktop PC upstairs), either from within NTTL blog post above, or by Googling Free Speech Backlash, I now get a message "Access Denied. You are not authorised to access this page." Is anything wrong?

      EDIT: Just had a peek on my MacBook and I CAN view (and edit) your Grumpy Old Folk posts. I saw there that Jeremy Morfey wrote that had also been denied access. I think it's because I am not automatically logged in to Disqus on my Windows 11 Desktop PC, whereas I AM automatically loggin on th MacBook. Problem solved (I think!). I will login to Disqus on the PC and see if I can get in. RC

      1. I think jeremy’s post was made yesterday, before the article was published but which I inadvertently put up while playing around. I unpublished the article for a few minutes an hour or so ago to fix a wee problem. maybe you tried to access it then. It ahould be alright now.

    2. In response to your questions about smart meters, No. No. Yes. Yes. They want to be able to control consumption. No. No.

  28. As agenda 2030 fast approaches and the public finally put two and two together and realise that our government and those all over the West are working in unison against their own people.
    They will come to understand that all the prep work, creating supreme courts, quangos and their influence over the mainstream media and institutions that take away power from their elected representatives to hold government to account all started during the Blair era and has just been ongoing ever since.
    While comprehending that they have been taken for a ride all this time and that we are in the end game, the vultures are circling with nothing much that can be done about it through civilised means if anyone had the will to try.

    1. We have a family outing for ten.
      Six adults and four children to the pantomime at St Albans.
      And a meal out first.
      I struggle with some of the slopes after parking. Maybe a piggy back will help 😉

  30. No pensioner should ever vote Labour again
    The palpable sense of betrayal among millions of retirees will not easily be forgotten
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/no-pensioner-should-ever-vote-labour-again/

    BTL

    The WASPI women were given good warning of the fact that they would have to work, as men did, until the age of 65 to get the full pension. Starmer merely restated what the Conservative government had said: The State cannot afford to pay billions of pounds in reparations.

    The great heartless crime of Starmer, Rayner and Cooper was that they LIED treacherously and made FALSE PROMISES to win the election and they deserve nothing but contempt. They certainly do not deserve to stay in government any longer.

      1. I warned those voting Labour not to do so.

        Trouble is, it was like reciting War and Peace to an earthworm.

    2. The Tories did nothing about it either. They kicked the can down the road. It's unaffordable. The entire state pension is. Public sector pensions are, yet the state keeps getting bigger and bigger and more and more expensive. We keep paying people to breed – who will never work – and after a life time of loafing about on welfare will claim the full state pension.

      We're paying people to rob the country blind. Most of them foreigners.

  31. After scolling down I see another Nottler birthday is present.
    Happy Birthday Elsie have a lovely day 🤩🥂🍾
    All the very best …..Cheers.

  32. Good morning everyone

    10c very strong wind and damp.

    Moh and I are still talking about no 1 son who ran to Dorchester yesterday morning ..1hour 30mins via the back lanes .. Moh met up with him after his own appointment with the breathing gadget people and gave him a lift home ..

    That lad (not so much a lad ) must have Kryptonite in his bones .. because this morning he is taking part in the Durlston Head 5k park run in Swanage ..

    Looks like a lot of fun at Stonehenge this morning .. Morris dancers are clacking their weapons !

      1. And by the time he's 50, his knees will be wrecked, as happened to a multi-marathon running friend of mine. It's the repetitive impact loading in exactly the same way on the joint that does it. Hillwalking over rough ground is healthier, as every step puts the strain on the leg joints at a different angle.

  33. It is precisely 9:31 a.m. GMT, Saturday, 21 December, 2024. The sun is now directly over the Tropic of Capricorn. This is the precise moment of the Winter Solstice when Autumn disappears for the next 9 months. The sun now begins its inexorable journey back North* and each day will soon start having more and more minutes of daylight.👍🏻

    Bog off, Autumn! Welcome to Winter.

    *Note to pedants: I know the sun doesn't 'move North': the earth simply continues on its revolution around the sun, but that physical fact is hardly lyrical or romantic, is it?😊

        1. No, evidently I have. It's just I don't regard it as information – more like a challenge 🤭

        1. Which direction is 'North' when you're floating in the middle of the galaxy? 😉

          Any galaxy will do, do not feel constrained by the Milky Way,

          2. "At this point we should make a distinction between north and magnetic north I feel." Being an eternal pedant, is that Magnetic North and True North or Grid North?

      3. It depends on the frame of reference. In the frame of reference of the solar system the sun doesn't move north, whereas in the frame of reference of a point on the surface of the earth, the line of movement of the sun across the sky does move south and north.

        I used to annoy my old school physics teacher by argiung that, while centrifugal force does not exist in an inertal frame of reference (which is what he taught) it does exist in a rotating (or orbital) frame of reference.

  34. It is precisely 9:31 a.m. GMT, Saturday, 21 December, 2024. The sun is now directly over the Tropic of Capricorn. This is the precise moment of the Winter Solstice when Autumn disappears for the next 9 months. The sun now begins its inexorable journey back North* and each day will soon start having more and more minutes of daylight.👍🏻

    Bog off, Autumn! Welcome to Winter.

    *Note to pedants: I know the sun doesn't 'move North': the earth simply continues on its revolution around the sun, but that physical fact is hardly lyrical or romantic, is it?😊

  35. I realise that. Probably wanted to buy a Christmassy 'knüstknacker" or twee alpine log cabin cunningly carved out to reveal a stable like the ones that you find in Bethlehem. I'd think they'll find in the end that he was a learner driver on a provisional licence whose inexpert foot slipped off the clutch.

      1. Oi, don't diss your old Auntie on her special day, Grizzly. I might call you a Silly Sausage and send you to the naughty step. Lol.

      2. Oi, don't diss your old Auntie on her special day, Grizzly. I might call you a Silly Sausage and send you to the naughty step. Lol.

  37. The seasons are symbolic to the poets. John Milton wrote his pair of pastoral poems reflecting different moods: l'Allegro and the contrasting Il Penseroso, the time for reflection

    And Keats reminds us that Autumn has its music too! And who can forget Frank Sinatra' A Very Good Year?

    Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
    Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
    Conspiring with him how to load and bless
    With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
    To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
    And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
    To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
    With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
    And still more, later flowers for the bees,
    Until they think warm days will never cease,
    For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

    Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
    Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
    Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
    Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
    Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
    Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
    Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
    And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
    Steady thy laden head across a brook;
    Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
    Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

    Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
    Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
    While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
    And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
    Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
    Among the river sallows, borne aloft
    Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
    And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
    Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
    The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
    And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

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

  38. The perp practiced taqiyya and has given gleeful gullible lefties their excuse to point at AfD instead of facing Mecca.

    1. This is the last Nottler birthday for 2024 unless my list is not up to date.

      If there are any additions to be made, corrections or omissions please keep me up to date.

      1. Thank you, Annie. I enjoyed my birthday meal, washed down with your favourite red: two large glasses of Argentine Malbec.

    4. Grattis på födelsedagen, Auntie Elsie. Hope it's a belter (Your belated 21st, that is 😉).👍🏻🥂😊🎂🧸

    6. Happy Birthday, dear Elsie! I shall dance for you tonight, and am sending a kiss across the oceans x

    8. At last, Richard! Is Caroline well? And what a wonderful film The Third Man was: Orson Welles as Harry Lime, Joseph Cotton as Holly Martin, and the lovely Shirley Abicair as Anton Karas. Lol.

  42. It's the hypocrisy and downright lying that sticks in the craw.
    Particularly if you are too young or forgetful to remember previous Labour governments.

  45. Apparently to show his hatred of Muslims.
    (Look, just think like a politician and the logic will be crystal clear.)

  47. Headline in DT

    "Magdeburg attack: Suspect is pro-AfD Saudi doctor who opposed ‘Islamisation’ of Europe"

    Okay, what's this all about, then?

  50. Hey, Beatnik, where you reside, Dude it's Fall- like what happens when you get loaded Man and crash down from the roof of the old caboose, Hombre,

    1. Way to go, Dean. No problemo, my man. Up here, we loaded Dudes just crawl back inside the caboose and hibernate the winter away, Bro. As long as we have a stash of home-made hooch to dissipate reality, we zombie through twilight land in a haze of blissful apathy, Hombre.

      1. Hey Beatnik! That "Reality" trip's for losers, Dude. When Reality becomes total dysfunction organised by the Two Tiers who work for The Man, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, Hombre.

  51. Is it just me or has the bbc taken its all morning 'news' off air.
    Upto a couple of days ago it's been something they have been focusing on for a long time. Continuous morning news
    Now another very old Black and white film.
    What has happened ?

  52. Good morning, all. Wet and miserable this morning.

    Some relatively good news after the atrocity last evening.

    According to a Google search the Sun was over the Tropic of Capricorn at around 09:21 this morning. It has (barely) started its march northward towards the equator and then on to the Tropic of Cancer.

    Starmer's bland and expected statement re Magdeburg carries no weight at all. All blather and no realisation that more of these atrocities will happen as the immigration policies he and his European Union allies are following will bring disaster to both these islands and mainland Europe. Sadly, he and his government are set on 'changing' the culture that has emerged over centuries and therefore will do nothing to try and stop the deteriorating situation.

    It's been reported that Herr Scholz is visiting Magdeburg today, the people should ignore him, or better, drive him out with his tail between his legs.

    1. See my post below, Bill. A genuine Moslem apostate had made approaches to the perp and hit a brick wall. Guy wouldn’t be drawn. A taqiyya spouting fake.

    1. The electromagnetic force is omnipresent; but isn't its effect diminished by gravity, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force?

      Just asking for an acquaintance.

      1. I want be drawn on that. Gravity is a weak force and by rights the galaxy shouldn’t rotate so cohesively at all given how weak it is. And yet it does.

  56. How do the two prominent Muslims Sadiq Khan – who wants to encourage homosexuality with Gay Pride Marches and other celebrations in London – and Lord Alli, who is openly homosexual, avoid being thrown off the top of buildings?

    1. My guess is we all ready know that Richard.
      And there is no back up to those who might want to make certain suggestions.
      As Push turns into Shove and what comes next ?

        1. Like Father Christmas, Wibbling, he is everywhere now and usually in department stores. Most bald men used to sport two tufts on the sides of their pates. Since "The King And I", aka "Anna and the King of Siam", every male shaves their head like Yul Brynner.

    3. I simply do not believe it. Every single time such acts of terrorism are perpetrated it's always muslim. I imagine he (if indeed he did and it's not a state lie) wrote it to cast aspersions on those he hated.

      muslim are killers, fanatic, psychotic killers.

  58. Well, that's better. Full English, washng up done, cooker top degreased, second coffee taken (still no flavour). Women gone out shopping.
    Some Notttling time, after having to log in again…

  59. Thank God for not having to go anywhere today, tired of rushing around, need a rest.
    Reflecting on yesterday, everything went fine – the hotel and Ristoranti Napoli were excellent, traffic was not blocked, and visit to Mother to unload Christmas presents went well. She was asking for a lift to her parent's house, so daft as ever. Had a massive hug – could be the last ever, at her age. Sobering thought.

  60. The point is, if he had been left in Syria, or wherever he came from then those people would still be alive. The culture, if we can dignify it with the word is wholly incompatible with ours here.
    Besides I have severe reservations about him not being of the Islamic persuasion.

    1. A toddler was killed. A dopey, wide eyed little kid looking forward to his presents.

      I'm sorry. I've had enough. Eradicate them. Erase them from the planet. Get rid of them. They won't stop. The Left will never admit their malice – and it is malice. They're a cancer on humanity. Exterminate them.

  64. Well, we've found him, and in my lifetime as well, the actual Saudi Arabian Christian.

  65. G'day all,

    Late to the chat this morning because I was in town early to beat the crowds. Wet and windy here at Castle McPhee, but a tad warmer at 9-11℃ in the South-West breeze.

    So, who believes the AfD-supporting Saudi dissident story? Not I. The 'authorities' get ever more absurd whichever Western country we are talking about.

    2. Not remotely. If he wrote it it was a deliberate false flag. If the media wrote it to spin, well, that's pretty obviously a deceit, but I wouldn't put anything past the Left.

    3. Reported to be a supporter of The Donald and…. right wing thug Tommy Robinson. Yerrrr, I'll have a pint on what they are on.

    1. Not everyone. I don't think 'nice little earners' in the form of freebies count for tax do they?

  67. 399108+ upticks,

    Dt,

    Live Germany market attack: Magdeburg suspect is pro-AfD Saudi doctor

    In today's political climate that doesn't mean a thing, take the lab/lib/con coalition party for instance, one would have ,without hesitation said pro English, one could NOT have been further wrong.

    That very misguided conception has cost innocent, trusting lives
    and is going to cost a,sad to say, damn sight more

    1. Hmm… whatever he is he's an anti Christian Saudi surely. He's a Saudi and he specifically chose a Christmas market. The AfD are against Christians and Christian festivals? That's what they're saying.

      Something doesn't add up here in the ideological domain methinks

      1. The perpetrator of the deadly Christmas market massacre that has left at least five dead wrote that 'slaughtering German citizens indiscriminately' may be a 'path to justice' just months before the horrifying attack.

        1. Justice for whom? Still ideologically unsound. A mental case then? The good Saudi doctor was a candidate for the psychiatric couch, do they suggest?

          Nope, still not getting it.

          1. In espionage terms I believe the concept is a sleeper.
            Hide in plain sight, then strike.
            edit for site sight

          2. A sleeper, quite possibly.

            When they say he was ‘far right’ they actually mean a left leaning politician or State says the incident will be ‘used by the far right’. There’s a massive difference between that and him being ‘far right’, a pretty meaningless term in public discourse.

            But as an unbiased observer what I see is an immigrant into a country with no track record of ostensible belief driving into a specifically local and Christian festival on order to kill people deliberately. Just wondering here… who or what group precisely would approve politically of such an action?

          3. Could it, might it just possibly be, surely it can’t be, perhaps, just perhaps, he really is a jihadist Muslim.

            When one has eliminated all the other alternatives, whatever you have left, however improbable, is the answer.

        1. Really? Must be an echo left over from the NW of England when they were being assailed by the far right. I was led to believe they like to stir up "hate crime" against immigrants and those who adhere to the teachings of 'The Prophet'.

          Blow me down, probably he wasn't very good at reading a map then? He appears to have strayed into a Christmas market in error; presumably one full of Christians and various locals used to visiting it annually.

          Seems the far right is so mixed up these days over its beliefs…

  68. Well, that's the church decoration finished; the local cards delivered; the annual photo of us and G & P under the "tree" for circulation to pals in France. After lunch to butchers to collect ox cheek for our festive fare (two words that – among others – make me puke!)

    I am just so relieved that the Magdeburg killer is a decent sort of chap.

    1. Yes, the Germans thought he was a really nice guy.

      The word Taqqiya obviously doesn't translate into German.

    4. As you almost certainly know, Bill, there used to be a supermarket chain called "Fine Fair".

  69. A dozen arrests were made by Dorset Police linked to the unrest following the Southport stabbings, new figures show.

    The response to a freedom of information request to Dorset Police with figures from November 11 shows a total of 12 arrests were made in relation to the disorder this summer.

    It is possible for an individual to be counted twice in these figures if they were arrested more than once.

    Jabeer Butt, CEO of the Race Equality Foundation, said arrests and prosecutions contributed to the end of the violence, but are not a "long-term solution".

    He said: "The underlying issues that led to Islamophobic disinformation being shared alongside some concluding that violence was an appropriate response to an act of male violence in Southport needs to be addressed.

    A comment

    Islamophobic disinformation you say Jabeer? What the chap with terrorist manuals and a stock of Ricin? Surely not.
    Why are people like Jabeer Butt given any air or print space when they spew nonsense like this?

    3. "an act of male violence in Southport"? That needs more than a little qualification as a description.

    4. "an act of male violence in Southport"? That needs more than a little descriptive qualification.

  70. Jeez it's getting windy up here – looking over the loch it's just white tops and the hens keep laying the same eggs

  71. Great stuff:

    "The appointment of Lord Mandelson as Sir Keir Starmer’s new US ambassador has been criticised by a campaign adviser to Donald Trump, who called the Labour veteran a “moron”."

      1. "I would like a portion of haddock and chips please."

        "Would you like anything to accompany that, Sir?"

        "Oh yes, I'd like some mashed avocado mixed with chopped shallots, chopped tomatoes, chopped chilli pepper, chopped coriander, salt, black pepper, lime juice and a soupçon of toasted ground cumin seeds, please."

      2. "I would like a portion of haddock and chips please."

        "Would you like anything to accompany that, Sir?"

        "Oh yes, I'd like some mashed avocado mixed with chopped shallots, chopped tomatoes, chopped chilli pepper, chopped coriander, salt, black pepper, lime juice and a soupçon of toasted ground cumin seeds, please."

  72. Late on parade:
    Wordle 1,281 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    🟨🟩⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  73. Just testing to see if I am logged in to Disqus. Please ignore this post. Ta, RC.

    EDIT: So I AM logged in to Disqus [NTTL that is], but am being refused access to Free Speech Backlash (see other posts today in both sites).
    Is anyone else affected by this?

    3. You'll have noticed many of the same comments appear both sites, mail Tom at FSB he may know the reason? good luck.

    4. Not so far. I did have trouble just now getting a cursor in the comments box but I shut the page down and it was ok when I reopened it.

  75. I repeat this from last night as this post was taken down by DT after about 15 minutes. It refers to the Saudi murderer.

    Lestat Black
    12 MIN AGO
    Islam is an ideology, a belief system, not a race or ethnicity; it is an inferior ideology. It is a simplistic, violent creed – a Medieval idiot’s guide to life, if you will. It appeals to the lowest common denominator; it is the refuge of the dim-witted, mentally weak, and wilfully ignorant. It attracts violent, insecure, and sadistic men to its creed, because it allows them to feel virtuous whilst expressing the basest elements of their nature.
    Islam is an all-encompassing totalitarian, theocratic belief structure which dictates every aspect of life. It revels in violence and bloodlust. If you are not a Muslim you are an enemy of Islam, plain and simple. It is militaristic, expansionary, and devoid of any enlightened ideals. It crushes all dissent. It is a cultural cancer.
    It makes half the population (women) second class citizens (or outright property); it imposes a positive feedback loop of circular idiocy; a bland mono-culture of arbitrary chauvinistic rules backed with the threat of violence; it seems to be in constant conflict with every other ideology on the planet; it has the explicit goal of dominating and subverting all other societies and belief systems. Given free rein, it nearly always creeps towards some form of Totalitarian Theocracy.
    If our government does not rapidly re-secularise our politics, public spaces and the education system; end Islamic immigration, ban mosque-building, all Islamic 'charities' (vehicles for the spread of Islam), and remove all traces of Sharia, then I fear it is just a matter of time before a full-blown sectarian civil war occurs. Wherever the cancer of Islam spreads and gains a foothold, conflict and bloodshed inevitably follows.

    1. As commented yesterday, Islam seeks to regulate every aspect of life – including how you take a shit.

  76. Buying some veg items at Tesco for 15 pence per pack is rip-off

    The same stuff im LIDL's is 8 pence

    1. Try Tesco's 2 for 1 offers. Often I used to find back in the day that they worked out more expensive each.

        1. No problem for me KJ, since I long gave up braving Tesco at any time of day.

          Nevertheless on this the shortest day, (or is that more correctly the longest night?), I shall go for a walk in a few minutes' time. It's a bit windy and drizzling but It'll do.

          1. Bearing in mind it's the equinox, strong winds are normal – not that you'd believe it from the hysteria.

          2. Sorry, no, it's the winter solstice. The equinoxes are in March and September (equi – equal, nox – night so equal night and day length).

          3. Sorry – when I wrote it, I thought I'd got the wrong term, but I couldn't be bothered to look it up. Abject apologies for incorrect terminology.

        2. No problem for me KJ, since I long gave up braving Tesco at any time of day.

          Nevertheless on this the shortest day, (or is that more correctly the longest night?), I shall go for a walk in a few minutes' time. It's a bit windy and drizzling but It'll do.

    2. That's because they're buying it from another country. So are Tesco, just at a higher mark up.

      Look at the cost of fertilizer in the UK – all because of the green movement. Look at the cost of diesel. Of taxes on farmers and farming equipment.

      Getting vegetables for 15p is a bargain considering they cost so much to grow.

  77. Why am I unable to access my notifications?

    Each time I attempt to I am diverted to some idiotic Disqus page encouraging me to join some vacuous poll, which does not interest me whatsoever!

          1. It’s gone away now but for a couple of hours it was an irritation that I could not get rid of.

  78. At least someone writing in the MSM thinks the way I think.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac5bc3469ed22dacfac9db2827934916936def946a4db73a62bea3845b6482c1.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/inheritance/incompetent-rachel-reeves-abolishing-inheritance-tax/

    We need an honest debate on our principles of taxation, and to do that, we need champions to step forward and point out that while some taxes might need adjustment, some – such as the death tax – need to go altogether.

    It’s not just about shielding family farms and businesses – inheritance tax harms us all by driving wealthy taxpayers abroad, and by stripping capital out of the private sector. It leads to taxpayers making distorting investment decisions to protect wealth rather than investing in ways that would improve our economy and generate more taxes.

    The death tax harms the living and it needs to go.

    All the Tories did in 14 years was talk about abolishing it. Well now they can make it a part of their proposition to the electorate. As can ReformUK. Tinkering with thresholds and allowances will not do. IHT must go. Period.

    1. "All the Tories did in 14 years was talk about abolishing it. Well now they can make it a part of their proposition to the electorate"

      So that they can 'not do' anything about it again no doubt.

      1. Quite, Mr G. Tinkering will continue. There are many unmarried couples of all ages but particularly 50s onwards who cohabit but have no idea of their potential IT at an eyewatering 45%. Consult a solicitor if you think this could be you – or just get married, if so inclined.

  79. At least someone writing in the MSM thinks the way I think.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac5bc3469ed22dacfac9db2827934916936def946a4db73a62bea3845b6482c1.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/inheritance/incompetent-rachel-reeves-abolishing-inheritance-tax/

    We need an honest debate on our principles of taxation, and to do that, we need champions to step forward and point out that while some taxes might need adjustment, some – such as the death tax – need to go altogether.

    It’s not just about shielding family farms and businesses – inheritance tax harms us all by driving wealthy taxpayers abroad, and by stripping capital out of the private sector. It leads to taxpayers making distorting investment decisions to protect wealth rather than investing in ways that would improve our economy and generate more taxes.

    The death tax harms the living and it needs to go.

    All the Tories did in 14 years was talk about abolishing it. Well now they can make it a part of their proposition to the electorate. As can ReformUK. Tinkering with thresholds and allowances will not do. IHT must go. Period.

  80. You'll notice that although the Tories are making a fuss about the changes to IHT, they

    have not given any sort of undertaking that they will change back if ever they get into power.

    1. No. They never do. Giving them the 80-seat majority in 2019 and then seeing them fail to repeal the damaging legislation enacted by the Blair/Brown regime of 1997-2010 was the moment the scales fell from my eyes about that party.

      3. Seeing them given an 80 seat majority to get Brexit done and seeing it done in was the moment I started to hate.

  81. Inheritance tax, capital gains tax, stamp duty, the hoax of national insurance, fuel duty, the abomination of VAT, council tax, business rates, insurance taxes… you name it, we are grostesquely overtaxed by some of the most egregious, effort destroying taxes in the world.

    1. I'm hoping Putin fires a missile at Westminster while MP's are debating their pay rise and expenses.

      That should get all of them in one go.

      Happy Christmas !

  82. This Labour administration has five whole years in which to complete their given task — their raison d'être — which to completely destroy the country. What is more, no one is doing a single thing to prevent it happening.

    It would seem that no one (or grouping) has either the balls or the brains to counter any of this.

    The defence of the realm has to come from somewhere if the government have given up on their prime tenet. Unfortunately I don't see any signs of the emergence of any organisation whose sole remit — and honourable intention — is just that.

        1. You only have to read or listen to what the top brass say, bearing in mind they are all political appointments. And look at them. Warriors they are not. Soldiers such as the late General Sir Mike Jackson who took shit from no-one are a gone breed. The Vice Chief of the Defence Staff is a woman – General Sharon Nesmith . She thinks feely-touchy stuff, yoga and group-hugs, would make staff meetings go better. That says it all.

    2. I know this is controversial, Grizzly (good afternoon btw x) but, even speaking as a woman, I think this is part and parcel of the feminisation of society generally. There are things men can do that I can't, and vice versa. A concern is what's happened in (especially infants and junior) schools, from 'climate change' to 'women's lib'..and just about anything else.

      1. Especially the introduction into schools of perversions like "Drag story time", sexualisation of young children's 'textbooks' with over -sexual imagery; Insistence on ridiculous pronouns…….

        The 'climate change propaganda is another matter that also plays on young people's fears.

        1. Exactly so, Ndovu. One of my grandchildren, I talked about my take on it – this was several years ago, and I was more correct than school. Especially of interest is SPO (south pacific occillation, which affects trade winds). Mind, not as interesting as TikTok etc which I think should be banned for under-70s.

          2. It’s a Chinese company, part of ByteDance – I think Trump’s talking about banning it. Do I think it suitable…hmmm..it’s full of short videos, I think mostly for those of a young age with vacuous minds? But I haven’t used it, so can’t really say, sorry :-))

        1. Of a mind, as per x too few birds out and about today, very strong gusty winds here (similar to various online places…I’ll say no more :-DDD)

          1. Same here, sadly. Yesterday was bright, cold and sunny. Today it’s grey, cold, blowing a hooley and persisting it down!😘

          2. No rain ..yet…could be slushy snow n ice…’always look on the bright side of life’….🎹😁 lovely Eric Idle……

          6. AAha..a music man? I’m not a sports fan, but t’Other Half is. What music do you like…guessing classical?

          7. Yes, but I used to watch the horse racing when I did have a TV. I like classical, baroque, opera and church music.

          8. Not opera much, for me, although I like the storylines and some voices. Have found a few singers I like eg Guesaldo Six and also Ben ** can’t bring surnname to mind, very young, visits abandoned churches…still with intact organs which he tunes and then plays. His videos on YouTube. As if you like horse racing!😄..I’ve been a few times when I was younger I didn’t like the stable girls whipping. But I’m like my grandmother, have a flutter. Do you have a favourite opera..or more than one, Conway? 🎶🎶🎶

          9. I like Alcina (nice tunes, verdi prati, etc) and Carmen. I don’t bet, strangely enough; looking at the horses is enough for me. Ben Maton, I think, the Salisbury organist.

          10. I remember my dad liked Carmen. Good – betting soon get out of hand. I like horses too, have a small sculpture of one i bought at an art fair. That’s the fellow..what do you think to him?😊

    3. The UK forces have a long way to go if they are to lead the neutering of the armed forces.

      Trudeau has been at it for nine years and his task is almost complete. The latest defence review lambasted the lack of personnel and the almost total disrepair of military equipment but the revirpew did brag about the increased diversity in the forces. It was noted that every Canadian forces mission now includes Diversity officers as key personnel.

      it is reassuring to know that while our soldiers in Europe need to buy their own equipment, they can be confident that their commanders are checking that every male toilet has the required tampon dispenser.

      1. Judging by the posters in the RAF station I visit on a fairly regular basis, we are a "defence force" of woke snowflake fairies.

    4. And supposedly our dear Monarch's constitutional role is to prevent such things happening. Some chance! The constitutional reason for his and his family's existence in their exalted position is dwindling – and I am a monarchist!

        1. It’s got to the point where he is not doing what he should be doing in terms of protecting this country and its people. I don’t think he is an out-and-out evil globalist, but I think he has been hoodwinked quite easily by those who are.

    5. And supposedly our dear Monarch's constitutional role is to prevent such things happening. Some chance! The constitutional reason for his and his family's existence in their exalted position is dwindling – and I am a monarchist!

  83. This Labour administration has five whole years in which to complete their given task — their raison d'être — which to completely destroy the country. What is more, no one is doing a single thing to prevent it happening.

    It would seem that no one (or grouping) has either the balls or the brains to counter any of this.

    The defence of the realm has to come from somewhere if the government have given up on their prime tenet. Unfortunately I don't see any signs of the emergence of any organisation whose sole remit — and honourable intention — is just that.

    1. I think its totally 'witting' because she is a communist, even if a not very bright and over-promoted one.

      1. It is unlikely that the notion that she is doing harm flits across her consciousness for more than a nano-second, if that.

  85. How far will the Trump/ DOGE team go in revealing the past shenanigans of deep state & NASA?
    For instance will they declassify LBJs visit to the fake Lunar Module set assembled in a warehouse on Cannon Air Force Base New Mexico on 1 June 1968. Then its dismantling on 3 June 1968. 15 others had access.

    I think it best they leave that one well alone.

  91. Magdeburg latest: Five dead, including one child, two hundred injured, forty seriously. He should be nailed to a tree left to rot.

  92. GoCompare..

    Nigel Farage mobbed by fans at local chippie. Happy to chat with drinkers coming in for food and a pint early on a Saturday evening in Clacton-on-Sea and who believes every "pub as a Parliament". Several wanted a photograph, and one woman even gave Nigel a hug.

    Supervisor of contingent of highly trained armed protection officers warned Tony Blair not to visit any coffee shop.. anywhere.

  93. The leader of 'Brent' has decided that it's not the illegal immigrants that are causing the housing problems.
    Well if that is the case send the 'effing lot of them back to were they came from.
    before they add to the problem.
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/labour-s-plan-to-fix-britain-s-broken-asylum-system-to-trigger-chaos-for-councils-as-social-housing-waiting-lists-soar/ar-AA1wfaS0?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=f9797a1aa3e5451ea8e3338e960452d1&ei=130

    1. There is definitely another big attempted cover up going on. Leading from the front once again and every time, all of our cowards.

    2. I didn't believe it for a minute. Same as the Trump shooter was a Republican. Yeah…he joined the day before.

  95. Friendliest place on earth is Essex. Provided of course that you can take a joke and love shopping.

    1. I remember this good old Joke.
      A young lady was injured in a car accident near Brentwood and the ambulance medic was first to get to the scene. She was obviously not too badly injured but trapped by the wreckage. And he could see a small pool of blood on the floor below her, after he had come to the conclusion she wasn't badly injured and just b needed getting out of the mess, he said do you know where are you bleeding
      from ? She snapped back immediately with I'm from Bleedin' Harlow that's where.
      Coat ready to grab…..

      2. That’s about right. It’s like that good quality wine that Essex girls love: “can we go to Lakeside?”

        Boom boom.

      3. I once slept under the M25 roundabout at Brentwood, when I was hitching back from France. It must have been 1988 or 1989. Got picked up by a man with a broken leg, and then an Irish man, then a Canadian couple (I had to tell them NEVER to pick up hitchhikers!). I ended up in Brentwood having got a lift with a guy in Dover who (with hindsight) was a drug dealer. His car had a broken quarter light, too.

  96. That’s the one, El Nino been in charge recent years, the reason for all the warmth and sunny days…now we have La Nina …wouldn’t you know it more cold, more sharpness….females eh -:-DDDD

        1. I need to get up and do some cleaning………
          Just bought a pair of cheap, anti-glare night driving over-specs ……….. of course, they’re Chinese so by the time they arrive the spring will have come.

          1. Was it a UK seller tho, N? I had a pair of sungems…bits kept flaking off..be interested to know if they work, the dazzle rings a nuisance night driving 😒

          2. Well – we’ll see if they are any good – but as they are Chinese I probably won’t get them for months!

          3. OMGoodness, Ndovu…I think China often seems to have a UK supplier so hopefully arrive soon. Hope they don’t flake, don’t get any in your eyes 👀

      1. They’re machines, possibly those who set up the settings – they might agree. Or not. Have you read The Machine Stops, Forster…:-)

          2. I found it quite disturbing but immensely enjoyable, like all his short stories. I thought later that Logan’s Run was loosely based on it.

          3. It could be. What I can remember he lived alone, sometimes that can spark imagination. Must look him up, again. 😊

          5. Don’t think so..will look it up..thanks Hertslass, any luck might find it with other works 🤞🙂

  98. Labour’s accelerated net zero drive will create more than 170,000 new jobs in China, according to analysis by the Tories.

    The Conservatives said Ed Miliband’s plans would spark a boom in imports of wind turbines and solar panels that would profit Beijing.

    The Climate Secretary has put a pledge to make the energy grid carbon neutral by the end of the decade at the centre of his net zero drive.

    China dominates production of the technology needed to meet the deadline, including wind turbines, solar panels and electric car batteries.

    It comes at a time when No 10’s dealings with Beijing are under the spotlight following the Chinese spy scandal surrounding Prince Andrew.

    Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, is set to visit China next month for talks on improving economic ties and removing barriers to trade.

    Labour will need to build onshore wind farms across the country to meet its goals, generating 20 gigawatts of extra electricity from them by 2030.

    Tory analysis found that, of the 105,000 jobs expected to be created by the policy, more than half are likely to go abroad and around 32,000 to China.

    Two-thirds of the world’s wind turbine manufacturers are based in China, which has a stranglehold over manufacture of the green technology.

    Mr Miliband also wants to boost the creation of new solar farms and has overridden local objections to approve several huge new projects.

    The Conservatives said that whilst the rollout of solar would create 72,000 jobs, China is so dominant in production that it is set to take 57,000 of them.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/20/miliband-net-zero-create-170000-jobs-china-analysis-shows/

    1. This man is an utter lunatic. Sad thing is so is the rest of the House of Commons. There is nobody to stand up and say we need to call a halt to this mad scheme (they could leave out the ‘mad’ bit!).

      1. Hi VW,

        We have 4 wind turbines here in our area .. based in an old quarry .. they are roughly 400ft .. some times they turn , and they even turn when there is no breeze.. strange that.

        Also , there are electric buses .. not here but in Dorchester and Weymouth. .. not rural!

        I believe heavy huge electric cars are also responsible for wearing the small roads we have around here .
        A garage bod informed me that the weight of those cars cause problems in some carparks , and when they break down , trailers have to be reinforced as well as the wagons who recover them.

        Perhaps Spikey knows more about that sort of thing , I was only listening to a bod who was anti electric car..

        I was almost run over by one the other day .. The rich elderlies buy huge wagons , automatic and electric .. and most of them need their sight testing .

  100. Goodness’ sake, James – take care, carry a big stick. I tried Tesco I think twice? soon scuttled back to Morrisons, I like the staff there – all normal (well, similar to me anyway, a lot of banter and laughter). I now have home delivery, the same – and actually, all quite strong men – I did Sainsburys for a while, they were almost all young slim women, not good – I would say the same for young men – bones not quite set, but females even more so).

  101. Afternoon, all. On early because I shan't be on later, if you know what I mean.

    The economic outlook is bleak under Labour anyway. It's all they've ever done, foul up the economy, from Attlee onwards. Starmer and his wrecking crew are turning out to be even worse than Blair and Brown, which I could scarcely believe possible.

  102. If either of you treated a dog like that, you would be going to prison'.

    This was what a horrified judge told a monstrous mother and father as he jailed them for neglecting a three-year-old boy so badly a doctor said he looked like he'd been kept in a 'concentration camp'.

    The couple from Nottingham, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were found to have habitually left the young boy alone in the conservatory away from their other children with only a pet lizard and rabbit to keep him company.

    He was so starved he tried to eat pet food.

    But the most chilling detail of this case is the sickening reason for the ill treatment found in text messages between the parents.

    While it was admitted in court that the mother could not 'give a good answer' as to why she had treated her son in such a shocking way, it was said that phone conversations suggested that she had 'failed to bond with him from birth'.

    Medics raised concerns after the young boy was rushed to Queen's Medical Centre for critical care in July last year after turning blue and collapsing at a pub in Stoke Bardolph, Nottinghamshire.

    A consultant called the police after the boy arrived as he 'clearly recognised he was the victim of extreme neglect'.

    The boy weighed just 6.2kg – 7.8kg less than he should for a someone his age. And he smelt of stale urine, the Nottingham Post reported.

    The couple were arrested at their six-bedroom home the following day.

    Nottingham Crown Court heard that the mother told officers the boy, one of their three children, was a 'picky eater' and that he did not want to eat anything on the day he collapsed.

    But the truth turned out to be much more sinister.

    And as he unraveled the sick details of the case, Adrian Amer, prosecuting, suggested the reasoning behind the evil mother's actions.

    He told the court: 'The reasons for the neglect is not clear but various text messages between the defendants indicate (she) failed to bond with him from birth.'

    It was also heard in court that the boy was born 'very premature' and was not aware she was pregnant with him 'until her waters broke'.

    Phone records showed the boy's 'health was a frequent topic of conversation.

    '(They spoke of) hiding him from other family members and he was habitually left alone in the conservatory away from the other children with a pet lizard and rabbit to keep him company', Amer added.

    The prosecutor cited medical records showing that the boy had his first and only GP appointment in 2021 when he was just one. They had actively tried to hide the boy from family members and from 'those tracking his condition'.

    When the boy was taken to hospital, another doctor said the child was 'extremely small for his age and was extremely emaciated and described the child as 'looking like it had been in a concentration camp' and smelling of stale urine', according to Amer.

    To even the judge's surprise, it was said that social services and family court had decided to return the boy to the parents' care after spending nine months with social services and with one set of grandparents.

    David Watts, representing the mother, said that the parents were 'doing things correctly now' and that 'things have improved greatly' since the incident.

    He told the court: 'They failed to look after (this child) in a way they had looked after their others and I don't think she can give a good answer to why it happened.

    'But since it happened things have improved greatly.

    'Family courts are satisfied (he) could be returned to the family. Information from social services is that he is now making good progress. He was born very premature. She did not know she was pregnant with him until her waters broke.

    'He's at school and the teachers have told social workers he is doing well. They are doing things correctly now.'

    During sentencing, following the couple's decision to both plead guilty to a single charge of wilful neglect and ill-treatment of a child, Judge Steven Coupland said: 'In July 2023, your three-year-old son collapsed while you were out.

    'He turned blue, stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated. At the hospital it was obvious he had been severely neglected over a period of time.

    'One doctor described him as looking like he had been in a concentration camp because the two of you were effectively starving him both physically and emotionally.

    'You deliberately treated him this way despite others (family) telling you otherwise.

    'You were each deliberately hiding him from those tracking his condition, you were treating him differently from the other children, deliberately leaving him alone at a time he was so hungry he tried to eat pet food left in the room with him.

    'A significant aggravating feature is that you deliberately tried to conceal what you were doing. Social services and family court have made a decision to return him to your care.

    'Given the facts of the case I am surprised by that and both should be given the criminal case papers at the end of this hearing.

    'If either of you treated a dog like that, you would be going to prison. He was a little boy.'

    The pair were sentenced to three years each.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14213953/The-chilling-reason-evil-mother-gave-hiding-emaciated-boy-3-urine-soaked-conservatory-lizard-rabbit-pet-food-eat.html

    1. 3 years! You can get that for holding a placard. Or tweeting hurty words.

      Truly, we live in an upside-down, back-to-front clown world.

  103. Just finished the prep for my huge Beef Welly. All layered and the pastry egg washed. I even managed to put a pastry lattice across the top. I will post a photo when it is cooked tomorrow.

    Takes up a whole shelf in the fridge !

        1. Thank you. She has made a remarkable recovery and appears to be as right as rain.

          I think it was a stress related isshoo – she had had two days of shyte from an organisation she has worked with as an outside contractor for 30 years. Trouble is (as I discovered after 27 years at the beeboids) there are new people involved in the outfit who were not born when she started. And, as always these days, no allowance is ever made for loyalty and devotion to duty.

      2. No they isn't. One couldn't make it as he has a charity event to do. So i invited Clive, my neighbour who was widowed early this year. I will also make up a plate for the charity chugger.

        SEE ! I'm nice ! Try it some time.

  104. Pound to a penny they are muslims. If it were white trash their details would have been published.

    1. Funny, that's what I thought. Had it been a girl they'd mistreated I would have said it was a 100% certainty.

    2. Medics raised concerns after the young boy was rushed to Queen's Medical Centre for critical care in July last year after turning blue and collapsing at a pub in Stoke Bardolph, Nottinghamshire.

      Suggests otherwise.

  105. Got back from Stoke just after 13:15, a beautiful day but with rather strong winds.
    Stepson's OK, did a Lidl shop to buy him a few extras for Christmas.

      3. The DT’s colleagues up at Crich museum are more than a bit jealous of her coming in to a meal being ready to put on the table for her!

    2. Our elder son was visiting London from Odiham twixt tours of Afghanistan. On discovering he was still serving during conversation his fare was not accepted and the cabby leapt out on his arrival to shake his hand. Elder son was pleased but embarrassed and decided to keep off the topic of his employment in London cabs in the future.

    1. The prune and chestnut stuffing took over an hour yesterday. I had to stop for a cocktail !
      Table is all set for tomorrow. All the veg prepared. Just canapes and cheeseboard to do.

      Then roast the spuds. Cook the Welly. Steam the veg. Gravy beef stock is ready to be thickened.

      All systems are now online. Ready for launch. Count down in T minus 22 hours. Check. :@)

    4. Gosh, 36 years ago. I was celebrating my 43rd birthday with chums at Ayr in Scotland, when the news came through. Chums at Ayr Police force later told some horrendous stories of the tragedy, like air hostesses running out of the crashed plane in flames and screaming in agony.

  111. Four have been masticated already. The others are cooling off rapidly in the freezer, I hope they don't get too flaccid and shrink!

      1. Thanks. Half are made with my Yorkshire pork sausage meat and they other half are made with my East Midlands' pork-and-tomato sausage meat. Still warm they are crispy and yummy.👍🏻😘

      2. Thanks. Half are made with my Yorkshire pork sausage meat and they other half are made with my East Midlands' pork-and-tomato sausage meat. Still warm they are crispy and yummy.👍🏻😘

      4. That's the great thing about airfryers. Just paint a little olive oil and a scant sprinkle of salt over your sausage roll and blast it for a few minutes in the airfryer. Crispy crispy pastry.

      1. See the thread above, James was initially referring to a response from roughcommon about previous posts. My leg feeling a bit longer now with all the pulling……….

    2. Why does everyone always clickbait about what tremendous thing is about to be exposed? Just expose it.

  114. That's me till later,…… off to the bus stop now free and (no parking) for the Pizza and the panto.

    1. That's the way to do it , Eddy , and don't forget , who is behind you.

      Q: Why does Dick Whittington have a beard?
      A: Because eight out of ten owners know that their cats prefer whiskers.

      Q: What did Cinderella say when the chemist mislaid her photos?
      A: Some day my prints will come.

      ‘If I find out you lied to me I’ll come down on you like a ton of pricks, and no that’s not a typo. I’ll drop the House of Lords on you.’

  115. Could be, especially in subs….no further comment. Quite fancy driving a tank, myself…on the Santa list 😀

      1. I wish, Conway…will take that as the compliment I’m sure it’s intended. Great photos, thanks – made my day. (I’m also compared to Katie Hopkins..hmm..possibly but not always the language…)…btw postal order in the post….:-)))

    1. Why are the PTB so terrified of free speech? Is it because they wish to suppress it completely?

    2. That's just a way of isolating him n'est ce pas? What would be the point of interviewing him if you couldn't report on it? This is real Soviet Stuff.

    3. I have sent a couple of postcards, a birthday card and a Christmas card (in unstuck envelopes) to him. I don’t say much – what is there to say? – but I hope it sends a message to the authorities.

      If anyone wants his address I can dig it out.

  120. 399108+ up ticks,

    Who precisely are the met warning about is it primely the governing political overseers or those foreign chaps they are replacing the indigenous peoples with, the situation is getting very confusing.

    Dt,
    Met warns public to stay vigilant after terror attack on Christmas market in Germany
    Report any suspicious activity, police urge as armed officers patrol Britain’s festive attractions

    The fact is the decent British folk are in my book fighting on two fronts.

  121. Par four, again…
    Wordle 1,281 4/6

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    1. I finally got there…
      Wordle 1,281 5/6

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      1. I’m back now, Elsie. Thank you for your good wishes. Hope you had a great birthday and the Master, too 🙂

  125. I made a couple of quiches this morning, one to eat now and one for Boxing Day. We ate 3/4 of the one and left the remaining quarter for the lad for his lunch. The other quiche I left out to cool. We went out for a walk and came back to find he’d taken 1/4 of the quiche out of the whole one…you couldn’t make it up.

    Anyway it turns out I had managed to leave a ceramic baking bean in it.

    Oops!

      1. The only one worth making is sausage, bacon. One uses a very strong cheese, a lot of bacon and sausage.

          1. MIR had no pretence about calling hers a Lorraine.

            BTW: We carnivores do not suffer from sore heads (or sore owt else, for that matter!).😉

      2. Never understood that one. I wouldn't eat or make it often, but I do enjoy one. Especially about 30' after it comes out of the oven, not too hot and not too cold.

        1. I think it was meant to be a joke – but I don't mind a slice of quiche though when my mother made it she called it 'Bacon and Egg Pie'

    5. I used to lay out clean clothes for my son to go to (primary) school in. Many times, he managed not to notice them and to come downstairs in yesterday's dirty T shirt……!

    6. That's young people for you! I recall my younger son, as a teenager, "helping out" by putting everything in the washing machine – coloureds, hand-wash only, wash separately etc etc….as well as what had bee pristine whites…

  126. So what could possibly be the motive for all these attacks on people attending Western cultural events?
    It cannot be to influence our political classes, they couldn't cares less about us.
    Or they wouldn't be waving in so many potential copy cat followers of that way of thinking and acting.
    So it must an attempt at changing the way we live and our culture over time through fear.

    1. Yet the state continually told us that would never happen.

      And years later, we have crash bollards, armed police, a disproportionate muslim prison population, endless law to force 'tolerance' (silence) of criticizing muslim, we have 'hate' laws, 'non crime hate incidents' to jail those pointing out the truth. We've people – for some odd reason – angry at the state's lies over a muslim killer of children in jail. muslim thugs get to assault police officers, they bomb civilians but are pandered with their own legal system. One is an MP because the population of that area is infested with muslim and he talks about incest and deformed children as if it is normal. White folks crowding together get controlled and charged. muslims doing the same get ignored as 'communidees' might get uppity.

      We've a two tier justice, policing, courts, prison and social system to pander to and defend the most dangerous, violent, vicious, evil barbarians this country has known since we fought the Vikings who, in contrast were flippin' angelic. 2000 years of civilised society undone by a bunch of freeloading savages who have no business, right or value being here, but are given everything – housing, homes, privilege – including the cover up of mechanised rape of children above and beyond the citizen.

      And still – still the entire blob rampages to protect these creatures.

    2. If irrational fear of Islam – as they say Islamophobia is – then surely the Muslim population should do their bit to stamp it out!

      How about a few large Muslim protests against Muslim rape gangs, against Muslim acts of terrorism, and against anti-Semitic groups such as Hamas?

      But from 23 years ago:

      Muslim leaders condemn Lady Thatcher for being inflammatory in expressing the view that Muslims should stand up and say "Not in Our Name!" and proclaim the fact that they abhor terrorism.
      https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/oct/04/uk.september11

      Lady Thatcher yesterday made her first contribution to the debate on terrorism, criticising Muslim leaders for failing to speak out against the September 11 atrocities. Her comments immediately sparked outrage.

      On the day that the home secretary David Blunkett announced new measures to combat anti-Muslim hate crimes, which have risen in the wake of the attacks on America, the former Tory leader told the Times: "The people who brought down those towers were Muslims and Muslims must stand up and say that is not the way of Islam. They must say that it is disgraceful. I have not heard enough condemnation from Muslim priests."

      Lady Thatcher's comments were described as inflammatory and ill-informed by members of the Muslim community in Britain.

      etc – follow the link.

      1. Isn't the graun dependent on the Russell trust investments – which are invested off shore. The graun loses money every month. Elon wouldn't want to buy it.

    2. Going out in a bit to a neighbour's bit of a soirée, so will watch all of this later. The man has certainly got some front!

    2. I have enough to share
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    3. Close call here.

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    4. A rare Eagle. From a choice of twenty two possibles I chose the second in alphabetical order. I was tempted to enter LLAMA.

      Wordle 1,281 2/6

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    5. Likewise, pretty boring really….

      Wordle 1,281 4/6

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    1. I don't think that'll be William Wilberforce on the wall, and what's the frightened pigeon up to outside?

  136. Saint John the Baptist, Bere Regis.

    "The main glory of the church is the magnificent carved and painted oak roof given by Cardinal Morton in about 1485. Morton was born in Milborne St.Andrew, once part of Bere Regis parish, in 1420. He read law at Balliol College, Oxford, and became, after a series of adventures during the Wars of the Roses, one of the chief advisers to the Earl of Richmond in exile in Flanders. When Richmond became Henry VII, Morton was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1486 and Lord Chancellor one year later. In 1493 he was made a cardinal and in 1495 he became Chancellor of the University of Oxford. Morton died in 1500 and lies buried in Canterbury Cathedral. He is thought to have given the roof in memory of his mother, who was a Turberville. He has gone down in history as the inventor of Morton's Fork and hence as the spiritual father of the Inland Revenue. At the east end of the roof there is a boss of the head of Thomas Morton himself. As tax collector and judicial authority he levied high taxes on the ostentatiously rich, but apparently taxed more modest spenders equally severely on the grounds that they were concealing their wealth. On either side project the figures of the twelve Apostles. Among them Saint Peter can be identified by his keys and triple crown. The ten small heads have not been identified. The roof is unique and there is not another quite like it anywhere in the world. It should be studied carefully."
     https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1e8a73344d0ba0bc992ca8325e6208b40b7eb38bea9007764d2fb51d47f1ab27.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/32c0d8cef9bb7916f5548c5747349747febde7bbbfc86cd72662a2e46ecb47cb.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a24fbac997ca6e7769244be27dd15ca05ddf3d50bc16468131a30445e30464b.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/165b3434df8ef22fbf8d1c9ebc909686ba2837d6b017c1b023624f091749c3c2.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da139efc823ce35f94744b027ebc5e1898eb19c2f1bd56636b567824153cd007.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/913db1489547849b2a5d80888ce98013a33a884e74eee1aee4a366610720aaee.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8911f1f4b792801f3fa5be3f4a2c2e663d17bd183def90e503c347c03c987f7a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0055f793f71afbe2817ff89e394bc2c17a6a6ba25fa54770576a46eeb5b7f2e8.jpg

    2. An elderly man we know, but sadly now in a home .. fell off the church tower when he was a lad .. and had a soft landing in a high pile of compost .. not injured, he was attending to the flag at the time .

    3. John Betjeman loved visiting churches with his lady friends.

      This poem on his feelings after the end of a relationship is poignant:

      The Cockney Amorist

      Oh when my love, my darling,
      You've left me here alone,
      I'll walk the streets of London
      Which once seemed all our own.

      The vast suburban churches
      Together we have found:
      The ones which smelt of gaslight
      The ones in incense drown'd;
      I'll use them now for praying in
      And not for looking round.

      No more the Hackney Empire
      Shall find us in its stalls
      When on the limelit crooner
      The thankful curtain falls,
      And soft electric lamplight
      Reveals the gilded walls.

      I will not go to Finsbury Park
      The putting course to see
      Nor cross the crowded High Road
      To Williamsons' to tea,
      For these and all the other things
      Were part of you and me.

      I love you, oh my darling,
      And what I can't make out
      Is why since you have left me
      I'm somehow still about.

      1. The last couplet of Rupert Brooke's poem calls to mind the conclusion of Betjeman's.

        The Life Beyond : Rupert Brooke

        He wakes, who never thought to wake again,
        Who held the end was Death. He opens eyes
        Slowly, to one long living oozing plain
        Closed down by the strange eyeless heavens. He lies;
        And waits; and once in timeless sick surmise
        Through the dead air heaves up an unknown hand,
        Like a dry branch. No life is in that land,
        Himself not lives, but is a thing that cries;
        An unmeaning point upon the mid; a speck
        Of moveless horror; an Immortal One
        Cleansed of the world, sentient and dead; a fly
        Fast-stuck in grey sweat on a corpse’s neck.

        I thought when love for you died, I should die.
        It’s dead. Alone, most strangely, I live on.

        1. True love knows no boundaries
          and yet with love it binds
          And true lovers are bound tightly
          With pleasures passion-kind

          True lovers need no boundaries
          Each is free to part their ways
          But for a lover who is parted
          Dawns the solitude of days
          dawns the solitude of days
          dawns the solitude of days

          You have moved to a new eternity
          Whilst I've stood still in mine
          Bound up by love completely
          So foolish so Divine!

          1. Wagner

            By Rupert Brooke

            Creeps in half wanton, half asleep,
            One with a fat wide hairless face.
            He likes love-music that is cheap;
            Likes women in a crowded place;
            And wants to hear the noise they're making.

            His heavy eyelids droop half-over,
            Great pouches swing beneath his eyes.
            He listens, thinks himself the lover,
            Heaves from his stomach wheezy sighs;
            He likes to feel his heart's a-breaking.

            The music swells. His gross legs quiver.
            His little lips are bright with slime.
            The music swells. The women shiver.
            And all the while, in perfect time,
            His pendulous stomach hangs a-shaking.

  139. I may have posted this one before but not being fitted with any type of memory makes it difficult to know.

  140. That's me gone for today. The trip to the butcher meant we bought twice what we had planned! All produced within a mile of the house.

    A damp, grey day but not cold, as such. Just dank.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain

  141. “How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.

    The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property — either as a child, a wife, or a concubine — must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.

    Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytising faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.”

    Winston S. Churchill: The River War (1899).

    1. Sir Winston Churchill had so much wisdom .

      He knew so much.. Why does no one listen to his wise words of caution .

      The March of the Mahdi is real ..

  145. German intelligence warned of ISIL 'hit squads' among refugees..
    German intelligence services have evidence that “hit squads” from the Islamic State terror group have infiltrated the country disguised as refugees.
    Iran and the Sleeper Threat to Germany..
    fears of Iranian sleeper cells waiting to attack..

    Helpful advice from Blue Peter's I-SPY guidebook.
    See it. Say it. Sorted
    You should tell a member of your local Church or House Master what you have seen. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/49bc054cbab13dd8e2ea626b112bfa58eb32313d9f09398d1d319ea35ff7f7b2.jpg

    1. They come to Europe. They're given endless money, free housing, they are treated specially by plod and state.

      We don't bother them – most of us are too busy paying their welfare bills. Why – anyone – why do they hate us when we move heaven and Earth to pander to them?

      2. They hate us because they think we are weak and stupid and deserve to be taken advantage of!

        (Maybe they're right?)

      3. They hate us because we're infidels. We need to be turned into dhimmis, converted or killed. The welfare is simply jizya, their right while they turn this formerly Christian country into a muslim hell hole.

    2. Is that passport for real? How come it's circulated round the world immediately? Or was it found among the wreckage?

  146. Can I ask you to look at this Wiki reference .

    Afghanistan

    The remnants of an army, Jellalabad (sic), January 13, 1842, better known as Remnants of an Army, is an 1879 oil-on-canvas painting by Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler. It depicts William Brydon, assistant surgeon in the Bengal Army, arriving at the gates of Jalalabad in January 1842. The walls of Jalalabad loom over a desolate plain and riders from the garrison gallop from the gate to reach the solitary figure bringing the first word of the fate of the "Army of Afghanistan".

    Supposedly Brydon was initially thought to be the only survivor of the approximately 16,000 soldiers and camp followers from the 1842 retreat from Kabul in the First Anglo-Afghan War, and is shown toiling the last few miles to safety on an exhausted and dying horse. A few other stragglers from the army arrived later, and larger numbers were eventually released or rescued after spending time as captives of Afghan forces.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remnants_of_an_Army

    Why are we allowing people from backward states into our homeland ..

    We will have nothing left .. they don't like us .

    1. They don't like us or our way of life, but they like what we've got. They don't seem to realise that if they take over, they will be in exactly the same position that they were in when they left their own shit-hole country.

    2. Many years ago, when my first husband was in the army, we lived in Bazaar Road in Tidworth. Our block of 24 little terraced houses was Mooltan. The barracks was in Aliwal and Bhurtpore, the hospital in Delhi, and the married quarters in Kandahar, Jellalabad, Lucknow and Mooltan.

      1. When I used to ride out from the RHA stables in Colchester the roads were Poperinghe and others named after WW1 battlefields (Ypres, Menin, Aisne Cambrai …).

    3. That's the whole idea; we shall have nothing and be forced to be happy about it. They don't merely dislike us, they HATE us.

    2. " I hear you're an Islamophobe now, Father? Should we all be Islamophobic now? What's the Church's position? I'm so busy down on the farm I won't have much time for the ol' Islamophobia".

    1. I got carried away in Waitrose (not literally I must add) buying chocolate, amongst other things, little nibbly things, the things it's nice and useful to have in 'just in case'. I made myself put some Bailey's pouring cream back on the shelf….. I told myself it would only make me fat. I came home exhausted.

  149. good news! turns out the lad, who is at Uni in Cardiff and has a part-time job in the Pontcanna branch of Co-Op (calm down ladies!) has a £20 bonus to spend by the end of the year!

  150. By warning people to be vigilant and guard against attack on Christmas Markets the authorities are inferring that there are people out there that might want to attack them because of their extreme religious / cultural beliefs.
    Then surely they must be guilty of a hate crime, by putting that thought in the attendees heads.

    3. I will be interested to hear what my German friends think when we next meet up for Book Club.

      Unfortunately I will be in Riyadh, – business trip on 4th Jan, book club that evening.

      True story.

      (edit: for those “not keeping up”, I live in Germany-On-Thames (aka the Liberal-Luvviedom of Richmond upon Thames) and my children went to the German School London for the first 8/9 years of their schooling, me having studied German and lived and worked there o a md off over 20 years).

      Edit. We could also wheel-out a real-life aunty, in the form of Tante Inge, who married my husband’s mother’s brother. I like Tante Inge very much and she has a fascinating back-story, escaping with her family from Schwerin with just a backpack when she was 15.

    4. I will be interested to hear what my German friends think when we next meet up for Book Club.

      Unfortunately I will be in Riyadh, – business trip on 4th Jan, book club that evening.

      True story.

      (edit: for those “not keeping up”, I live in Germany-On-Thames (aka the Liberal-Luvviedom of Richmond upon Thames) and my children went to the German School London for the first 8/9 years of their schooling, me having studied German and lived and worked there o a md off over 20 years).

      Edit. We could also wheel-out a real-life aunty, in the form of Tante Inge, who married my husband’s mother’s brother. I like Tante Inge very much and she has a fascinating back-story, escaping with her family from Schwerin with just a backpack when she was 15.

    5. When will the English, Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish come out and say:

      WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH

      Kipling is one of our best loved poets. He is despised by the left and so-called intellectuals because he is popular.

      And of course the PTB would burn his books if they could because they don't approve of what he says and they would say he is guilty of spreading hate crime.


      It was not part of their blood,
      It came to them very late
      With long arrears to make good,
      When the English began to hate.

      They were not easily moved,
      They were icy-willing to wait
      Till every count should be proved,
      Ere the English began to hate.

      Their voices were even and low,
      Their eyes were level and straight.
      There was neither sign nor show,
      When the English began to hate.

      It was not preached to the crowd,
      It was not taught by the State.
      No man spoke it aloud,
      When the English began to hate.

      It was not suddenly bred,
      It will not swiftly abate,
      Through the chill years ahead,
      When Time shall count from the date
      That the English began to hate.

      1. It's sad, but even the great George Orwell didn't like him. That was then, but perhaps he would today?

        1. This is a rather moot point. Some claim that English has been changed to Saxon; others that Saxon was changed to English. My admittedly elementary and superficial research on the Internet has not persuaded me either way.

  153. Our village holds a Spring fair .. We were advised by Dorset Council not to have it in the lane with a thoroughfare , but to hold it in a less accessible area to traffic, just in case there was a drive through attack. A village , for goodness sake .. the blighters are everywhere and cause fear and terror just by their presence.

  154. Thought for the day
    The actions of the Christmas market maniac will be blamed on him being "forced" to disavow Islam.

  156. Yvette Cooper
    @YvetteCooperMP
    ·
    20h
    Thinking of all those affected by the truly appalling news from Magdeburg tonight. We stand with the people of Germany as they support the victims and their loved ones, and with all the security and emergency services who are responding tonight.
    Quote
    Keir Starmer
    @Keir_Starmer
    ·
    21h
    I am horrified by the atrocious attack in Magdeburg tonight.

    My thoughts are with the victims, their families and all those affected.

    We stand with the people of Germany. https://x.com/guyf_awksITisME/status/1870496963755692452

    1. This, of course, is what the muslim killer wanted. The state leaps to protect muslim and punishes decent people. He's achieved his goal of ever more pollution pouring into Europe.

  161. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/21/net-zero-grocery-tax-push-up-shopping-bills-by-1-billion/

    Government should be taken out and shot.

    Not only is food already expensive due to taxation and inflation (a tax of its own) but adding to it is simply insulting – and all for a tax scam. If, instead of building recycling plants the fools built windmills.

    The Tories should have repealed this ghastly nonsense legislation. They simply made it worse.

  162. Settling in for Fury v Usyk2 – the first fight was a cracker and looking forward to more of the same!

    Edit: I promise not to post the result for anyone hoping to watch tomorrow morning!!

  166. Well, chums, today has been a very happy one indeed. Many thanks to all who kindly wished me a very Happy Birthday. I am now off for an early bedtime. I wish you all a very Good Night, chums. Sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

  167. Evening, folks. Just back from a lovely party with a lot of like-minded people. It's surprising the number who observed we don't have free speech or democracy (including the taxi driver who took me there and back). It seems woke is not very well nor is it thriving in the darkest reaches of Shropshire countryside. Kadi had not shredded the Christmas card envelope which had fallen on the floor, so he must be feeling okay about my being out and leaving him in charge – truth to be said, he's had a lot of practice this last month!

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