Saturday 24 December: The Church of England has embraced bureaucracy at the expense of ministry

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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748 thoughts on “Saturday 24 December: The Church of England has embraced bureaucracy at the expense of ministry”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    This is very true!

    Speakers ON! Click the link below.

    Age Activated Attention Disorder

    I laughed at this until I realized that this is exactly what I do.

    Now finally somebody has made a clip of it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=6oHBG3ABUJU&vq=medium

    “Be who you are and say what you feel because the people who mind don’t matter, and the people who matter don’t mind.” (Dr. Seuss)

    1. A very good start to the day, Tom, with your wonderful morning funnies. And this is so true at our age.

    2. Why is it so hard to finish….hang on, I must just go and do the washing up, but first I’ll bring some more logs in for the stove….

  2. V tired.

    I had about 2 or 3 hours sleep last night (no not waiting for Santa) so I’m off back to bed.

    1. Tom, please be careful and go straight to bed. Only stop off in the bathroom for a quick tinkle. If you notice the loo roll is almost ended, don’t go searching for a new one or you might discover the TV remote. Right there, next to the warm Coca-Cola. That’s right, made by the people who designed the current image of the tubby, red-cloaked Santa who will be visiting you later today. You’ll need to put out a glass of milk for him and a carrot for Rudolph. So you’ll need to go downstairs again to open the fridge for the carrot and the milk. But when you open the fridge you’ll find the spectacles you mislaid. By the time you’ve done all these things you’ll have forgotten exactly why you went upstairs six hours ago and baffled why you are still very tired. Lol.

  4. Keir Starmer: Pro-trans laws are needed across UK
    Labour leader’s vow to update rules on gender self-identification emerges in wake of controversial changes passed by Scottish Parliament
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/12/23/keir-starmer-pro-trans-laws-needed-across-uk/

    Since it is very likely Starmer will be the next PM, it would seem the madness (and the danger) of Scottish trans rights Gender Recognition laws will be introduced into the rest of the UK.

    3. Sturgeon’s Bill was the Trojan Horse to test the waters. None of these blatantly stupid or repressive laws are conceived in isolation.

    4. I would laugh if Starmer lost and when the public are asked why they didn’t vote Labour that will be the reason given.

  5. There’s no cause for optimism about broken Britain. 23 December 2022.

    The cost of living and inflation crises are one factor. We are all seeing the bills for everything from petrol to food skyrocketing. All things beyond our control, we are told by politicians. Particularly energy costs.

    Which means they ignore the short-termist idiocy of this country’s energy policy for the best part of 20 years. They neglect to mention the fact that we didn’t have to be in this position. We are in it because we have had a generation of politicians unwilling to make decisions that weren’t even tough.

    Never thought I would see that in the MSM though it is Douglas Murray.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/23/no-cause-optimism-broken-britain/

    1. 369241+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      “Could you imagine if we oppressed Islam in this way?”

      Councils loading up, potential troops / kapos in place, reinforcements arriving daily, I’ve a feeling we ain’t going to be long in finding out.

      Christmas today / eid tomorrow,

  8. Good morning, everyone. Enjoy your day but don’t go to bed too late. And keep your eyes closed tight so that Santa will leave you lots of lovely presents – you have been nice but not too naughty this year, haven’t you? Lol.

      1. (Deep intake of breff)
        I haven’t felt this frightened on a Christmas Eve since I accidentally, at the age of 6, set fire to my brother’s nappies that were airing by the fire.

  10. Morning, all! Raring to go – there’s lots to be done – but waiting for someone else to get up before I can make tea, as I know I’ll set off the alarm in my cousin’s house if I venture downstairs now… 🤣🤣

  11. Morning, all. Broken cloud, damp and calm this morning in N Essex.

    Biden’s rushed $1.7 Trillion ‘omnibus’ bill is causing a stir in the USA. Over here it would appear that our no-less underhand government is bringing forth changes piecemeal. ‘They’ are most definitely NOT giving up.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f2560f874c2e9bb04f31ee69f9c876f64a301d4635d0e6c6c86d31a5bfdf2ca.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c4dbb0db1e4ef4b4bf1055604885024165140c175d6fd16f547fce5fe32eb397.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/34fbe85158563b6d2bc10b05d2e82e2d91e91627d56cc845f6a61648fb5340bb.png

    Dr John Campbell has doubts No prizes for anyone spotting the Dr’s Freudian(?) typo between 5 and 6 minutes in.

    1. If the last one turns out to be true, a lot of people are going to refuse jabs. I guess the next thing will be banning them from NHS treatment.
      People are going to have to get their heads around planning healthcare that doesn’t involve the NHS. – apart from the money that the government steals from them to pay for it, of course.

    1. Good moaning, Annie. Be like me and eat a Hot Cross Bun with your morning elevensies. Like putting Brussel Sprouts on to boil in April in time for Christmas, it’s never too soon to celebrate Easter with a Hot Cross Bun. Lol. PS – Leave Sparty’s Mince Pies until mid-summer.

      1. Hot Cross Bun filled with a slice of strong Cheddar: 20 seconds in the microwave ……. scrummy tucker.
        Good Moaning, Olaf’s Relict.

        1. Ooh! Sounds yummy! Please do not give Sparty mince pies! Extremely bad for doggies!
          I’m sure you know that but ours is still a thief at 12+ years old!

          1. One of the advantages of a small dog is that they can’t reach stuff on the kitchen work tops.
            All joking aside, yes, I did know. Ditto chocolate, onions, leeks and garlic.
            And Spartie’s not good on fat.

        1. I’m dining with the neighbours tomorrow. Then their friends on boxing day. Doggies are allowed. They don’t know what they are letting themselves in for.

          Happy Christmas to all at Allan Towers.

  15. Sad to hear of death of Gaby Hutchinson in the crush at the O2 Brixton Academy.

    Comments made by her partner Phobie Turley make for strange reading with repeated use of
    ‘they’ instead of ‘she’. Is this something we have to resign ourselves to?

    “They did not deserve this,” Ms Turley said. “Justice needs to be served and
    someone needs to be found accountable for what happened. Not just for
    Gaby, but just for Rebecca as well.”

    “They were just a good person,” Ms Turley said. “Gaby literally would have done
    anything for anyone at the drop of a hat. They weren’t bothered who
    you were, Gaby would have given you the shirt off their back if
    someone else needed it. And they were like that our entire
    relationship. They did everything for me from the minute we met.”

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/asake-gig-crush-london-o2-brixton-academy-licence-suspended-partner-gaby-hutchinson-b1049269.html

    3. Madness personified.

      To be accurate (though ungrammatical) it ought to be “they was”….

    4. It’s the usual suspects at these events. Not the first time it has happened either. It doesn’t happen at Glastonbury because the attendees tend to be white.

  16. Keir Starmer: Pro-trans laws are needed across UK. 24 December 2022.

    Labour leader’s vow to update rules on gender self-identification emerges in wake of controversial changes passed by Scottish Parliament.

    In a message to Pink News for Pride last year, he said his priority was “forming the next government so we can introduce legislation and change society so that, whoever you are, you can lead a happy and fulfilled life. We are committed to updating the GRA to introduce self-declaration for trans people”.

    No right thinking person should vote for or support this man or his party. He and they are fully paid up members of the Cultural Marxist Elites. His inability to even define Woman is an indicator of his utter moral and intellectual degeneracy.

    The actual numbers of trans are miniscule but an Act of Parliament would affect much larger numbers of women who would be exposed to the threat of sexual violence from them. Even if you believe that trans are discriminated against, this would be no reason to enfranchise their views in law. Being a member of a minority is not itself indicative of discrimination nor does it automatically confer rectitude on your cause. If it did we could bring in laws justifying Paedophilia or Incest; or for that matter any other sexual deviancy. Such of course is the norm in the tales of decadent civilisations. It is not that they are themselves the cause of this decline, but they are an infallible sign of its inevitable end.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/12/23/keir-starmer-pro-trans-laws-needed-across-uk/

    2. Starmer is the acme of a politician supporting the folly of truculent minorities. Does this pale shadow of a politician really believe in anything substantial?

    5. Good morning Minty.
      It is dangerous madness. How many votes does he think he will gain? Just jumping on another trendy bandwagon with no thought for the 99.9% of decent people. It isn’t that long ago the Liebour was so vocal about feminism and women’s rights. Not only is this current fad totally against the rights of normal girls and women, it also poses real dangers.
      I can’t see it being a vote winner amongst their beloved slammers. No doubt, hordes of thick dyed-in-the-wool Liebour supporters will still vote for them though.
      It is not just economic Armageddon that a Liebour government would bring.

      1. Morning Mum. The country and its institutions are collapsing around his ears and he’s worried about Trans issues?

        1. Deflecting attention from the fact he, and his looney party, have no inkling about how to deal with any of the issues that matter.

    6. ‘Morning, Minty. We all know that Sir Kneel Hindsight cares not for the thousands of young girls abused by the rape gangs, don’t we? If he did then why did he fail to prosecute those who perpetrated this appalling crime on a grand scale when he was DPP? The man is a coward and one of particularly poor judgement.

  17. 369241+ up ticks,

    So it is highly likely that the next PM will yet again, be of the nine bob note variety,

    This QC starmer the charmer (Queer ….) leads the party that gave us such delights as rotherham plus via mass uncontrolled immigration ( ongoing) now about to embrace a wooly woofters menu that will delight many a bent bastard.

    Remember,
    For more of the same YOUR vote for best of the worst / party first counts.

        1. 369241+ up ticks,

          Morning B3,

          All I could find, By Grace Newton
          23 hours ago
          Updated
          23 hours ago

          Police did not give details about the victim’s age, but a woman has confirmed locally that it was her four-year-old daughter.

          Humberside Police said: “Three people are currently in our custody after we received reports of an attempted abduction in Grimsby involving a van on Thursday 22 December.

          “Officers were immediately dispatched to the area and three men were arrested shortly afterwards. All three remain in our custody overnight whilst our enquiries continue. The vehicle involved has also been recovered by police.”

        1. 369241+ up ticks,

          Morning Anne,

          Tis a language within a language they, the political oppressors and minions use
          polcop speak,

          Example,
          WW2, Navajo Code Talkers used their own tribal patter.

          Politico’s and police use polcop
          AKA manipulating bullshite,

    1. Good morning Hugh.
      Leaf clearing – that’s a good idea for this fine sunny day. A good incentive to crack on with the cleaning with the leaf job as a reward. Fresh air, rosy cheeks and good composting matter. I chop the leaves up with the lawnmower.
      Enjoy your little treasures. Sadly, I doubt we will ever see our grandchildren at Christmas. A brief Skype call tomorrow while we watch them unwrap our presents will be our lot. Still, better than nothing!

      1. ‘Morning, Mum. Yes, leaf-clearing beats a gym hands down – and it’s free of course. Are your grandchildren a long way from you, or living abroad perhaps?

    3. I finally got round to cutting back the rest of my raspberry canes today. It’s the latest I’ve ever been completing that task. Usually it’s done before November!

  20. SIR – It was wrong for the nurse Francesca Morgan to be prosecuted for stealing two pills to treat a headache, leading to the loss of her reputation, her job and her home. What sort of country are we if such things are allowed by the parties to the judicial process?

    Ms Morgan suggested she acted on an “assumption” that taking the pills in these circumstances would not require written permission. Imagine taking a sticking plaster after cutting your finger. Would you seek written permission for that too?

    As a former police prosecutor, criminal defence lawyer and part-time judge, I fail to see how this case could ever have come to court, and why on earth the lady entered a plea of guilty rather than electing a trial by jury. I only hope she realises that some of us find the whole thing disgraceful.

    John Twitchen
    Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

    Couldn’t agree more, Mr Twitchen. Surely this was something that should have been dealt with as an internal disciplinary matter. The NHS bosses who instigated this should be utterly ashamed, particularly when we are already short of nurses. What kind of signal does this send to those considering such a career?

    It’s also a bit rich when protesters frequently break the law with the assistance of the police and cause far greater damage and disruption to the rest of us.

    1. I did wonder when I read that report whether there was a deeper ishoo…. That she had been nicking drugs for some time and was only caught when the headache pills were taken.

      1. You may be right, Bill, in which case a final written warning would surely have been more appropriate?

          1. Then presumably someone in the NHS might care to explain why, on the face of it, the punishment was out of all proportion to the crime. The deafening silence so far indicates to me that they care not about fairness and reputation.

      2. Yes, occasionally I hear people grumbling that they received a fixed penalty for being two mph over the 30 speed limit; locally the GotYou! device used to be set at 35 mph.
        IIRC the stronger co-codamol pills are prescription only.

        1. Everything over 8mg/500mg needs a prescription. These were the strongest I could buy over the counter when I ran out.

    3. There is more to this than meets the eye.
      When we were training, we had a fellow student nurse who was, to put it mildly, a sleaze ball. He would harass the young male nurses, but always kept his behaviour just this side of being actionable.
      Eventually, the hospital sacked him for stealing a bottle of milk.

  21. I see reports that service personnel dealt very swiftly and efficiently with passport control. Hardly surprising. Soldiers etc have all experienced the condescending and surly slowness of Border Farce and simply wanted to deal fairly and pleasantly with their “customers”.

    Border Farce spokesman says that BF (how appropriate) staff “have to look at many ishoos and look out for traffickers, paedophiles, people trying to enter illegally….”

    As BF is shipping several hundred illegals to the UK every sodding day……. I’ll say no more.

    It also appears that those dozens of auto-scanners that are invariably out of order were – amazingly – ALL open and working.

    BF Unions may have blown a bloody great hole in their “grievances”….

    1. Border Force like the majority of civil servants are foot draggers and lollygaggers. The Military have shown them up for the wastrels they are.

      Good morning.

        1. Good morning Belle.
          A depressing list of statistics.
          How can their women be expected to work? They are busy out- breeding normal people. When they are in the majority, who is going to pay the taxes that fund their lifestyles?
          Of the 37% of their men who allegedly work, what proportion are taxi drivers not declaring much of their takings?

        3. I’m very suspicious of the type of post that gives so-called statistics without any links to provide proof.

          2. Thanks, Phizzee – that is the type of information which the Twitter poster should have provided.

          3. Which means we need many more of them which is why the RNLI and the Border Farce are helping them to enter Britain.

      2. With a bit of luck they plan to strike for at least 6 months.
        Make it 6 – or even 60 – years. Missing you already.

    2. Our family went back to Dubai from LHR yesterday and said they were through very quickly and not a soldier in sight. All BF staff.
      Just saying.

  23. Russia to teach schoolchildren how to use assault rifles and grenades. 24 Deecember 2022.

    Under a new nationwide school curriculum, published on Thursday, 16 and 17 year olds will study “elements of basic military training”, which will include lessons on hand grenades and administering first aid on the battlefield.

    It comes amid calls for greater patriotism in schools as Russia struggles to turn the war in Ukraine in its favour 10 months in.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Graham Boyd.

    Putin is going full Kim Jong-un now. A year ago Russia wasn’t much different to any other poorer European country. Since then, Putin has transformed it into a third world, paranoid state that’s living in a very different past.

    The Russian people are running out of time to wake up and act before their lives are transformed beyond recognition.

    You have to wonder how anyone living in the Modern UK could write (Bold Type) such bilge. I would rather Russia’s education system as delineated here than the Cultural Marxist claptrap our children are subjected too!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/12/23/russia-teach-schoolchildren-how-use-assault-rifles-grenades/

    1. I don’t know if it is still the case, but virtually every private sector, ie Public School in the UK had some sort of military training unit. Bill Thomas’s had Army, Navy and Air Force sections.

      1. Yes, the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) which was responsible for fostering discipline, responsibility, teamwork and independence in our youngsters, although I don’t think it includes grenade training…

        I saw many otherwise ordinary youngsters go on to do extraordinary things in their careers as a result of their cadet training.

        1. We threw dummies.
          We also had three fully automatic Bren guns. They were fun, and surprisingly accurate too.

        2. It did in the 60’s with dummies; and live ammunition was used for pistol, rifle and Bren. BT’s school even had its own indoor and outdoor rifle ranges with regular visits to Bisley too.

    2. Do schools still have Army Cadets? I joined age 12, was trained in the use of rifles, how to assault & defend positions, even grenade throwing (with dummies).
      So?

      2. Yes. (Cue boastful Grannie)
        Our Grandson has just become a sergeant in the RHS army cadet corps. He actually enjoys camping in Thetford Forest during November.
        (He has also outstripped his big sister; she only reached the rank of corporal.)

    3. A hysterical over reaction to what is in effect a form of National Service. Better to teach teenagers how to use guns safely than how to masturbate.

    4. Talking of Marxist claptrap, the Russian school children have, erm, dodged a bullet. If they lived in the Socialist Republic of Nippystan they wouldn’t have time to learn useful skills like weapon handling, as they’d be too busy reassigning their bodyparts from Derek to Doris or Bunty to Jim.

  24. Russia to teach schoolchildren how to use assault rifles and grenades. 24 Deecember 2022.

    Under a new nationwide school curriculum, published on Thursday, 16 and 17 year olds will study “elements of basic military training”, which will include lessons on hand grenades and administering first aid on the battlefield.

    It comes amid calls for greater patriotism in schools as Russia struggles to turn the war in Ukraine in its favour 10 months in.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Graham Boyd.

    Putin is going full Kim Jong-un now. A year ago Russia wasn’t much different to any other poorer European country. Since then, Putin has transformed it into a third world, paranoid state that’s living in a very different past.

    The Russian people are running out of time to wake up and act before their lives are transformed beyond recognition.

    You have to wonder how anyone living in the Modern UK could write (Bold Type) such bilge. I would rather Russia’s education system as delineated here than the Cultural Marxist claptrap our children are subjected too!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/12/23/russia-teach-schoolchildren-how-use-assault-rifles-grenades/

  25. 369241+ up ticks,

    Kneel starmer is on a vote winner there this issue will attract those wishing to be seen as complete @rseholes.

    I do believe he is trying to come out of the closet but his knicker elastic is caught on a hanger.

    Dt,
    Sir Keir Starmer: Pro-trans laws are needed across UK
    Labour leader’s vow to update rules on gender self-identification emerges in wake of controversial changes passed by Scottish Parliament

    2. Yes Belle! They really don’t like not being in control of everything! And you will be the nearest target! Try to ignore it! 🙄🌹

    3. Yes. Ignore it just as you would a toddler having a tantrum.
      Haven’t you some chums to visit or dogs needing a good walk?
      Failing that, the Christmas Eve queues in ASDA* are probably better tempered and more interesting. (* Other supermarkets are available.)

    4. When I’m tired and everything aches, some little irritation can blow up to a lot of noise.

    5. Is your own personal experience prompting this question?

      Caroline is a far more difficult patient than I am. But she disputes this aggressively – especially when she is under the weather and irrational. By contrast I remain sweet-natured and try to sleep.

  28. Police issue warning over drug-laced Quality Street and Celebrations tubs

    In the form of edible cannabis, the drugs were wrapped up in similar looking colourful wrappers to closely resemble their counterparts, according to the force; the Quality Streets, Celebrations and Aero Minis were instead named “Quality Heat”, “Calibrations” and “Ammo Minis”.

    https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/police-issue-warning-over-drug-7961877

  29. A very late good morning to one and all.
    A bit of bother with the main computer today so I’ve had to switch over to the laptop. Will have to get Student Son to look at it.

    0°C this morning and a bright dry morning today.
    Hopefully I’ll be getting a bit of wood sawn, split and stacked today.

  30. Morning all 😉
    It seems that I might be over the worse, but still have a few things to iron out. And I’m not ordering a Stana stair lift. Hopefully the NHS cardiologists have taken on a bit less private work in the New Year and they be able to fit me in before July. 🤔🤗
    🤩Happy Christmas 🥳 to you all, have as much fun as you dare. 🍾🥂

    2. Good news Eddy! Now, do as you’re told and try not to enjoy yourself! Thinking of you!🎄🍾⛄️

    2. Britain is finished economically, socially, morally, legally, culturally – in fact totally.

    3. Britain is finished economically, socially, morally, legally, culturally – in fact totally.

  33. Completely forgot that I have to make a loaf. Should have started at 8 am. Busy busy. Back son.

  35. I can’t help noticing, everywhere I look especially in the newspapers, that there are numerous warnings telling people how to avoid catching the flu.

    The FLU?

    Where the hell has that been hiding since 2019?

    1. That was one of the many joys of covid. It killed off ‘flu. No one died of ‘flu or pneumonia or heart failure for two whole years…..

    3. I do get fed up with people in work saying “I’ve got the flu” when what they have got is a cold, maybe a bad cold, but a cold.

      I have had flu once in my life. It completely floors you. I couldn’t even get of bed for a week.

      1. #metoo, Stormy.
        My God, did I shiver, sweat, ache and could barely stand up. Took ages to dry the bed out…

      2. I’m with you all the way on that one. I’ve had flu twice in my life and it is roughly the same as being kicked by a mob of horses. A bad cold is not nice but it doesn’t come anywhere close to being flu.

      3. I agree with you, but what is the best term for those bugs that are more than a cold but less than flu?
        You can have a heavy cold without having symptoms like excessive fatigue, aches and pains, headaches etc, so “bad cold” isn’t really adequate.

          1. We need a new word! You’d think that Britons would have 17 different terms for winter bugs, but it seems that “got the flu, still, mustn’t grumble!” covers it all.

  37. Western civilisation is surrendering to the woke totalitarian onslaught

    This year has given little reason to hope that the push to rewrite our history might soon be defeated

    ROBERT TOMBS • 21 December 2022 • 9:00pm

    An anthropologist in Barcelona accuses Britain of stealing $45 trillion from India and starving 100 million Indians to death. So absurd are such claims, and so thoroughly refuted by experts, that one might be tempted to laugh them off. Yet they were publicised by the media and widely picked up online. There are many mischievous or gullible people eager to swallow even the tallest tales.

    Even so, if this were an isolated example of the sort of rhetorical excess that passes for debate, one might just shrug. But it is only one drop in a growing stream of historical slander. As I noted recently in these pages, the Harry & Meghan show, a faithful reflection of cultural fashion, involves several exponents of Critical Race Theory and “anti-colonialism”.

    What is going on? On one level, a cynical desire to jump on a rapidly moving bandwagon and “curate” one’s public image. Thus, the wealthy and privileged can pose as enemies of injustice at little or no cost, especially if the injustice was several centuries ago. Whether consciously or more probably not, this reflects a simplified form of the post-modernism of the 1970s: there is no objective truth, but only a cacophony of “discourses”. So “my truth” is unassailable, and I can choose the version that suits my personal or political interest. Theories meant to subvert power relations do the opposite: in a post-truth world, those with influence can impose their “narrative” and brush aside objections based on fact, evidence or reason.

    Putin and his Chinese equivalents brazenly rewrite the history of Ukraine or Taiwan to justify their aggressive ambitions. Readers of George Orwell know that this is nothing new. Faking history and forcing people to pay lip service to what they know to be false are the hallmarks of totalitarianism.

    In the past few years, we have seen them leaking into liberal democracies through “cancel culture” and the imposition of ideas that most people intuitively reject. Self-censorship reigns. My personal and professional interest in history makes me sensitive to distortions of the past. Persistent attempts are made to recast our history – and the histories of other Anglophone countries – as slavery, exploitation, genocide and racism. Nothing else counts. The development of democracy, widening of freedom, the scientific revolution? Irrelevant.

    Most readers of The Daily Telegraph know enough to judge this at its real value. Yes, Britain was during the 18th century deeply involved in the slave trade – the prime minister William Pitt apologised in 1792 for our “long and cruel injustice” – but the trade was universal, and Britain led its abolition. Yes, colonial rule was sometimes violent but, as most colonial subjects realised, it was less so than what had preceded it, and often less so than what followed it. But balance, understanding and context – indeed everything that permits a genuine understanding of the past – is decreasingly provided by our major cultural institutions.

    Many sixth-formers studying the British Empire are given as an authoritative source notoriously biased propaganda by an Indian politician [in the article, a link to the piece below by Zareer Masani], rather than serious works of research. Museums cannot be relied on. I recently toured Liverpool’s well-known slavery museum, to which schoolchildren are regular visitors, and discovered that African and Arab slave trading were played down, and British leadership in suppressing the trade barely mentioned. Not surprisingly, recent research shows that young people adopt a negative view of their country’s past and hence of its present. How are they meant to form a balanced judgment?

    “Anti-colonialism” seeps into the most unlikely places. In the US, scientific study of ancient human remains has been prevented as disrespectful of the beliefs of indigenous peoples – even when the people concerned have no connection with those alive 2,000 years ago. Archaeologists whose research does not fit the new orthodoxy that all migrations are peaceful are reported to meet secretly online.

    Until recent objections caused a welcome change, the British Library had a defamatory and misleading description of the 18th-century scientist Sir Joseph Banks displayed in its entrance hall. In the past few weeks, we have seen museums vying with each other to “repatriate” objects in their care. The Benin Bronzes have become notorious. So eager have museums and universities been to give them to Nigeria and thus dissociate themselves from colonialism that they have ignored requests made by descendants of slaves to keep them where they are and not return them to the descendants of African slave traders. St Paul’s Cathedral even displayed a memorial glorifying the slave-trading king of Benin, despite the Church’s ostentatious horror at men such as Tobias Rustat. But Rustat was white.

    Art is inevitably in the firing line: might not Hogarth or Cézanne have been depicting objects with a colonial link? Rex Whistler’s mural at the Tate is locked away, even if he was hinting that evil could lurk in Eden. Literature too: European authors with a world reputation are embodiments of colonialism. Mathematics: a form of logic imposed by Western colonialism. Music: Mozart and Beethoven wrote music when slavery was going on. A Cambridge student told me recently he had abandoned his studies of music because he disliked the assumption that he would be more interested in African drumming (he happens to be black) than in counterpoint.

    Which brings us back to history, the past that is not dead and not even past. If our history is turned into a source of evil and shame, what aspects of our civilisation merit respect? Not music, not art, not even mathematics. Not democracy, not freedom. We can argue and point to the facts. But those peddling “woke” history are not much interested, nor do they care that most people disagree with them.

    They feel time is on their side. They control many institutions, whose trustees and employees behave as if they own them. Unless more people object, that will continue. The recent rebellion of National Trust members shows one way forward. Politicians need to be reminded of their duty to ensure that schools are free from propaganda and that taxpayers’ money is used in the public interest. But we have left it dangerously late.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/21/western-civilisation-surrendering-woke-totalitarian-onslaught/

    Britain’s Empire was a matter for pride, not guilt – as we Indians know

    ZAREER MASANI • 22 April 2017

    The Queen’s 91st birthday, last Friday, was an opportunity to reflect upon her reign and to replay those famous photos of her returning in 1952 from what was then the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya to ascend the throne. The sun was already setting on Her Majesty’s Empire, and many thought that was no bad thing.

    Today, in Britain, the word “empire” always seems to be preceded by the word “evil”, with politically correct media and academia glibly assuming that those large swathes of the map that were once painted pink endured unmitigated political oppression and economic exploitation.

    As an Indian historian, I’m bemused by this masochistic glee. With Britain preparing to rebuild trade links with its former empire post-Brexit, does it really need to apologise for its imperial past? Or could it take new pride in what it did to modernise and democratise the world?

    To me the answer is clear. Yet many Britons are ready to swallow the most outrageous allegations about their country’s colonial past. A particularly egregious example is the recent claim by the Indian polemicist Shashi Tharoor, in his book Inglorious Empire, that Winston Churchill had more blood on his hands than Hitler because he caused the death of millions of Bengalis during the famine of 1943.

    The factual basis for the genocide charge against Churchill was his reluctance to divert wartime food supplies from Europe to Bengal – rather different from willing or causing the starvation of Bengalis. Churchill’s belief that the Bengal problem was not a shortage of foodgrains but hoarding and speculation by local traders has since been confirmed by the Nobel Prize-winning Bengali economist Amartya Sen.

    In the current context of resurgent Hindu chauvinism, it’s easy to see why public opinion in India prefers to blame the foreign Raj, rather than greedy Hindu merchants, for past famines. It’s less easy to understand why the British are so eager to take the blame.

    Only a century ago, empire was the default mode of governance across the globe, based on the assumption that larger states with diverse populations and geography and free trade were likely to be richer and more successful.

    Like the nation states that succeeded them, empires varied enormously in their treatment of subject peoples. The benign inclusiveness of Habsburg Mitteleuropa was a world apart from the ruthless racism of the Belgian Congo. The British Raj, with its insistence on the rule of law and individual human rights, was somewhere in between. Its faults have to be seen in the context of a subcontinent emerging from a millennium of despotic rule by invading Muslim elites from Central Asia and indigenous upper caste Hindus.

    The most widely propagated fallacy about British imperial exploitation is the notion that India’s steep decline as the world’s leading textile exporter from the 18th century to the 19th was due to a deliberate policy of deindustrialisation by the British.

    What’s ignored in that economic equation is the adverse impact that Europe’s industrial revolution inevitably had on traditional manufactures in all pre-industrial economies, regardless of who was in charge. Indian handlooms, like those in China or Britain itself, were swamped by the Satanic mills of Manchester. But by the 1860s, Indian businessmen had begun their own industrial revolution, with capital and technology imported from Britain. The thriving textile mills of colonial Bombay were soon giving Manchester a run for its money.

    Of course, the British Empire existed primarily for the benefit of Britain, but its incidental benefits for subject nations could be considerable. To dismiss those as being unintended is like denying the benefits of capitalism because it’s motivated by private profit.

    Many thousands of British personnel in India had a sincere commitment to those they governed, especially in the elite Indian Civil Service, dubbed “heaven-born” for its incorruptibility. Recruited by competitive, open examination, the ICS was far ahead of its domestic British counterpart, attracting the best brains in Britain and India.

    By the time of independence, most of the ICS had been “Indianised”, like the judiciary and the army. That demonstrates the demographic reality that the Raj throughout was more Indian than British. There was no way a few thousand Britons could have ruled a subcontinent of three hundred million for a century and a half without the active cooperation of the vast majority of Indians.

    That’s a collective memory which has faded 70 years on, with hardly any survivors, British or Indian, who had direct experience of the Raj. Historical amnesia is a fertile breeding ground for both the postcolonial guilt of the British liberal Left and the anti-imperialist myths of Indian chauvinists.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/22/britains-empire-matter-pride-not-guilt-indians-know/

    1. I got as far into the first article as Putin rewriting the history of Ukraine. I know from my own family background that Ukraine has no history. It is a creation of the Soviet Union.

      My favourite revisionist myth is that the Spanish Inquisition killed 92 million. There were fewer than 90 million people in the whole of Europe at the time of the Spanish Inquisition.

      2. Correct Sue, the Holy Inquisition concentrated on the Converso problem, and the inquisitors could not make a tortilla without breaking a few eggs.

  38. Western civilisation is surrendering to the woke totalitarian onslaught

    This year has given little reason to hope that the push to rewrite our history might soon be defeated

    ROBERT TOMBS • 21 December 2022 • 9:00pm

    An anthropologist in Barcelona accuses Britain of stealing $45 trillion from India and starving 100 million Indians to death. So absurd are such claims, and so thoroughly refuted by experts, that one might be tempted to laugh them off. Yet they were publicised by the media and widely picked up online. There are many mischievous or gullible people eager to swallow even the tallest tales.

    Even so, if this were an isolated example of the sort of rhetorical excess that passes for debate, one might just shrug. But it is only one drop in a growing stream of historical slander. As I noted recently in these pages, the Harry & Meghan show, a faithful reflection of cultural fashion, involves several exponents of Critical Race Theory and “anti-colonialism”.

    What is going on? On one level, a cynical desire to jump on a rapidly moving bandwagon and “curate” one’s public image. Thus, the wealthy and privileged can pose as enemies of injustice at little or no cost, especially if the injustice was several centuries ago. Whether consciously or more probably not, this reflects a simplified form of the post-modernism of the 1970s: there is no objective truth, but only a cacophony of “discourses”. So “my truth” is unassailable, and I can choose the version that suits my personal or political interest. Theories meant to subvert power relations do the opposite: in a post-truth world, those with influence can impose their “narrative” and brush aside objections based on fact, evidence or reason.

    Putin and his Chinese equivalents brazenly rewrite the history of Ukraine or Taiwan to justify their aggressive ambitions. Readers of George Orwell know that this is nothing new. Faking history and forcing people to pay lip service to what they know to be false are the hallmarks of totalitarianism.

    In the past few years, we have seen them leaking into liberal democracies through “cancel culture” and the imposition of ideas that most people intuitively reject. Self-censorship reigns. My personal and professional interest in history makes me sensitive to distortions of the past. Persistent attempts are made to recast our history – and the histories of other Anglophone countries – as slavery, exploitation, genocide and racism. Nothing else counts. The development of democracy, widening of freedom, the scientific revolution? Irrelevant.

    Most readers of The Daily Telegraph know enough to judge this at its real value. Yes, Britain was during the 18th century deeply involved in the slave trade – the prime minister William Pitt apologised in 1792 for our “long and cruel injustice” – but the trade was universal, and Britain led its abolition. Yes, colonial rule was sometimes violent but, as most colonial subjects realised, it was less so than what had preceded it, and often less so than what followed it. But balance, understanding and context – indeed everything that permits a genuine understanding of the past – is decreasingly provided by our major cultural institutions.

    Many sixth-formers studying the British Empire are given as an authoritative source notoriously biased propaganda by an Indian politician [in the article, a link to the piece below by Zareer Masani], rather than serious works of research. Museums cannot be relied on. I recently toured Liverpool’s well-known slavery museum, to which schoolchildren are regular visitors, and discovered that African and Arab slave trading were played down, and British leadership in suppressing the trade barely mentioned. Not surprisingly, recent research shows that young people adopt a negative view of their country’s past and hence of its present. How are they meant to form a balanced judgment?

    “Anti-colonialism” seeps into the most unlikely places. In the US, scientific study of ancient human remains has been prevented as disrespectful of the beliefs of indigenous peoples – even when the people concerned have no connection with those alive 2,000 years ago. Archaeologists whose research does not fit the new orthodoxy that all migrations are peaceful are reported to meet secretly online.

    Until recent objections caused a welcome change, the British Library had a defamatory and misleading description of the 18th-century scientist Sir Joseph Banks displayed in its entrance hall. In the past few weeks, we have seen museums vying with each other to “repatriate” objects in their care. The Benin Bronzes have become notorious. So eager have museums and universities been to give them to Nigeria and thus dissociate themselves from colonialism that they have ignored requests made by descendants of slaves to keep them where they are and not return them to the descendants of African slave traders. St Paul’s Cathedral even displayed a memorial glorifying the slave-trading king of Benin, despite the Church’s ostentatious horror at men such as Tobias Rustat. But Rustat was white.

    Art is inevitably in the firing line: might not Hogarth or Cézanne have been depicting objects with a colonial link? Rex Whistler’s mural at the Tate is locked away, even if he was hinting that evil could lurk in Eden. Literature too: European authors with a world reputation are embodiments of colonialism. Mathematics: a form of logic imposed by Western colonialism. Music: Mozart and Beethoven wrote music when slavery was going on. A Cambridge student told me recently he had abandoned his studies of music because he disliked the assumption that he would be more interested in African drumming (he happens to be black) than in counterpoint.

    Which brings us back to history, the past that is not dead and not even past. If our history is turned into a source of evil and shame, what aspects of our civilisation merit respect? Not music, not art, not even mathematics. Not democracy, not freedom. We can argue and point to the facts. But those peddling “woke” history are not much interested, nor do they care that most people disagree with them.

    They feel time is on their side. They control many institutions, whose trustees and employees behave as if they own them. Unless more people object, that will continue. The recent rebellion of National Trust members shows one way forward. Politicians need to be reminded of their duty to ensure that schools are free from propaganda and that taxpayers’ money is used in the public interest. But we have left it dangerously late.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/21/western-civilisation-surrendering-woke-totalitarian-onslaught/

    Britain’s Empire was a matter for pride, not guilt – as we Indians know

    ZAREER MASANI • 22 April 2017

    The Queen’s 91st birthday, last Friday, was an opportunity to reflect upon her reign and to replay those famous photos of her returning in 1952 from what was then the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya to ascend the throne. The sun was already setting on Her Majesty’s Empire, and many thought that was no bad thing.

    Today, in Britain, the word “empire” always seems to be preceded by the word “evil”, with politically correct media and academia glibly assuming that those large swathes of the map that were once painted pink endured unmitigated political oppression and economic exploitation.

    As an Indian historian, I’m bemused by this masochistic glee. With Britain preparing to rebuild trade links with its former empire post-Brexit, does it really need to apologise for its imperial past? Or could it take new pride in what it did to modernise and democratise the world?

    To me the answer is clear. Yet many Britons are ready to swallow the most outrageous allegations about their country’s colonial past. A particularly egregious example is the recent claim by the Indian polemicist Shashi Tharoor, in his book Inglorious Empire, that Winston Churchill had more blood on his hands than Hitler because he caused the death of millions of Bengalis during the famine of 1943.

    The factual basis for the genocide charge against Churchill was his reluctance to divert wartime food supplies from Europe to Bengal – rather different from willing or causing the starvation of Bengalis. Churchill’s belief that the Bengal problem was not a shortage of foodgrains but hoarding and speculation by local traders has since been confirmed by the Nobel Prize-winning Bengali economist Amartya Sen.

    In the current context of resurgent Hindu chauvinism, it’s easy to see why public opinion in India prefers to blame the foreign Raj, rather than greedy Hindu merchants, for past famines. It’s less easy to understand why the British are so eager to take the blame.

    Only a century ago, empire was the default mode of governance across the globe, based on the assumption that larger states with diverse populations and geography and free trade were likely to be richer and more successful.

    Like the nation states that succeeded them, empires varied enormously in their treatment of subject peoples. The benign inclusiveness of Habsburg Mitteleuropa was a world apart from the ruthless racism of the Belgian Congo. The British Raj, with its insistence on the rule of law and individual human rights, was somewhere in between. Its faults have to be seen in the context of a subcontinent emerging from a millennium of despotic rule by invading Muslim elites from Central Asia and indigenous upper caste Hindus.

    The most widely propagated fallacy about British imperial exploitation is the notion that India’s steep decline as the world’s leading textile exporter from the 18th century to the 19th was due to a deliberate policy of deindustrialisation by the British.

    What’s ignored in that economic equation is the adverse impact that Europe’s industrial revolution inevitably had on traditional manufactures in all pre-industrial economies, regardless of who was in charge. Indian handlooms, like those in China or Britain itself, were swamped by the Satanic mills of Manchester. But by the 1860s, Indian businessmen had begun their own industrial revolution, with capital and technology imported from Britain. The thriving textile mills of colonial Bombay were soon giving Manchester a run for its money.

    Of course, the British Empire existed primarily for the benefit of Britain, but its incidental benefits for subject nations could be considerable. To dismiss those as being unintended is like denying the benefits of capitalism because it’s motivated by private profit.

    Many thousands of British personnel in India had a sincere commitment to those they governed, especially in the elite Indian Civil Service, dubbed “heaven-born” for its incorruptibility. Recruited by competitive, open examination, the ICS was far ahead of its domestic British counterpart, attracting the best brains in Britain and India.

    By the time of independence, most of the ICS had been “Indianised”, like the judiciary and the army. That demonstrates the demographic reality that the Raj throughout was more Indian than British. There was no way a few thousand Britons could have ruled a subcontinent of three hundred million for a century and a half without the active cooperation of the vast majority of Indians.

    That’s a collective memory which has faded 70 years on, with hardly any survivors, British or Indian, who had direct experience of the Raj. Historical amnesia is a fertile breeding ground for both the postcolonial guilt of the British liberal Left and the anti-imperialist myths of Indian chauvinists.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/22/britains-empire-matter-pride-not-guilt-indians-know/

  39. Is this how the NHS dies?

    The service cannot survive in its present form, and we must plan for what comes next – like charging for GP appointments

    KATIE MUSGRAVE

    This week, many GP surgeries around the country have messaged patients asking them not to book an appointment, unless it is urgent. With the addition of ambulance staff striking across England and Wales – hot on the heels of nursing strikes and thousands of cancelled procedures – the public have also been advised not to call 999, except in life-threatening emergencies.

    Such situations beg the question: is healthcare no longer available in Britain? Are we witnessing the demise of the NHS?

    It is clear the events unfolding this week are the culmination of years of NHS mismanagement. Staff are exhausted, demoralised and desperate. The warning signs were there: an ageing and increasingly unhealthy population, a reduction in hospital bed numbers, increasing demands for GP appointments; coupled with longer waits for outpatient appointments, surgery, ambulances, and in emergency departments. Every metric will diagnose the same underlying issue – a health service which is entirely failing to keep up with rapidly expanding demand, and unravelling in the process.

    In such circumstances, healthcare workers will be regularly faced with impossible dilemmas. Patients who need care, who cannot be seen. People in severe pain, who will wait hours, or days, for treatment. Families forced to administer cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on loved ones for more than an hour before help arrives. Scenarios which should be unthinkable in a civilised society. Still, a Deliveroo pizza could be there in minutes…

    NHS leaders have been so ideologically wedded to the principle of offering care free at the point of access, that they have foolishly sidelined other priorities: such as safety, quality, and reasonable levels of accessibility. Do you want your cancer to be swiftly diagnosed and treated? Would you like to give birth in a hospital with enough midwives in order to guarantee safety? Not in the NHS. But it is free – you should be grateful for what you get.

    Health workers are desperate and will protest about pay and conditions, perhaps genuinely believing that if they were paid more, the situation would improve. Yet, higher pay alone will not fix the many dysfunctional and morally indefensible scenarios unfolding in the NHS.

    As a GP, my workload could be dramatically reduced if the public were motivated to better manage their own health concerns. Every year, more patients call on the first day of a sore throat or ear infection, and GP surgeries manage an enormous volume of presentations which truly do not require a doctor: from colicky babies, to low level anxiety or insomnia. Colleagues that work in emergency departments report a significant proportion of their attendances are far from emergencies.

    A small fee for a GP or A&E appointment would, over time, teach the public to self-care better. British people prefer to save their pennies when they can.

    If GPs’ capacity were restored, we could give better quality care significantly reducing referrals to hospital, and visits to emergency departments. Wider reforms are clearly necessary – especially in the social care sector – but a shift towards greater patient responsibility would reap quick rewards.

    GP appointments are presently booked mindlessly by a public who have not been taught the value of medical attention. If everything is free, nothing is valued, and the very thing desired (access to a timely GP appointment, or emergency care when needed) is not available.

    Rishi Sunak’s government cannot face down these strikes. The public will remain sympathetic towards healthcare workers, who they know face unenviable situations daily. A compromise must be reached between the government and unions. But the NHS in its present form will not survive, and plans must be drawn up for what comes next.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/22/how-nhs-dies/

      1. No mention of the massive influx of people who have put nothing into the system but make huge demands on it?

        2. Statistically most economic migrants are young healthy males. Sadly, they often come from populations where cousin marriage is relatively normal.

          1. …and are full of nasty diseases without so much as a medical check or any other check, before landing.

    2. The public are not sympathetic toward the strikers. We would all like more money. While the state robs me to give it to you, I have less.

      What these unionists are demanding is that i work more, have less while they work less and have more. Why is that fair?

        1. And yet… it doesn’t work. I see the cretin Sunak is trying to force retirees back into the workforce.

          He’s seen the tax income collapse (as was inevitable) and is annoyed, as he assumed people would just keep paying more for him to spaff up a wall.

          Clearly, the Laffer curve isn’t something he understands.

        1. One of my favourite people. Thomas Sowell is not only extremely bright, he’s right.

          His book, Basic Economics is one i thoroughly recommend.

          1. If more black people were like Thomas Sowell and Candace Owens there would be no more racism.

  40. Hallo all. Still alive. I’ll be back as per normal after January, I hope, with tales of the nightmare that’s called the NHS. An essential operation has been put off four times by those idiots and, as a result, spent the last two months in hospital. Reform does not quite cover what the NHS needs.

    Although I’m Orthodox and enjoy reminding you of that at the correct time for Christmas, I wanted to jump in here and wish you via Gregorian reckoning a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. And put up my favorite carol as a little token of peace, good wishes and love for you all. Things I have learn a lot about over the last year with its trials and tribulations that turned out to be a gift from God. It’s all in the way you look at it! I’m sure many of you will know exactly what I mean. But here is the carol in, what strikes me as a splendid Baroque setting.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUoMbfrFUKc

    3. Merry Christmas, Jonathan! Has your op been scheduled yet? Wishing you well – and all Nottlers at the mercy of the NHS!

      1. No. Operation has yet to be arranged but they promise it will be in January, the last surgeon promised me that I would be first in line but I don’t believe them.. At this point I don’t really believe them, my opinion of the NHS is so low now that I think they are a bunch of liars that I cannot trust. I sincerely hope I’m wrong because I’m in the position of landing back in emergency within a moments notice and waiting, yet again for an ambulance that turns up 9 hours later.

        1. I don’t think they deceive deliberately. I think they’re so unreliable and inefficient that throwing darts at a calendar is probably as effective.

    5. Blimey JR that must be boring spending all that time in hospital. If they did the procedure they could have freed up a much needed bed.

      Hope you get some good news soon.

      Happy Christmas…if you can mange it !

    7. Best Wishes, JR. Fingers crossed that they, the NHS, remove their collective finger from wherever it is and organise your operation in January.

    8. Hello Johnathan! What a horrible time of it you have had. I do hope you will get the operation successfully soon. Much sympathy, and a peaceful Christmas to you too.

    9. Hello, Johnathan. Good to see you here again. Sorry you’ve had such a long stay in hospital and the problem still isn’t resolved. Hope it gets sorted soon.

    4. Hell is freezing over!

      Global Warming has been put permanently on hold to allow for the arrival of the New Ice Age.

  42. Cardigan B shows off a room FILLED with Christmas presents… as she cuddles her sleeping son D Fail

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/12/24/08/65904083-11571439-_Tis_the_season_Cardi_B_30_took_to_Instagram_to_share_a_room_in_-a-72_1671871795354.jpg

    . . . and there’s more! A girl needs her fillers, slapstick and breast improvement kits – and not just at Xmas either.

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/12/23/14/65861755-11569695-Posing_She_also_worked_as_an_OnlyFans_model_and_was_a_dancer_who-a-114_1671806535977.jpg

    3. Isn’t there a Nottler called Hugh Janus whose nom de plume boasts of the size of his posterior?

    1. I commented on this very article in the ‘virtual newspaper’ edition of today’s DT:

      “I’m guessing that those soldiers have not had enough time to be properly trained in how to adopt a scowl, being miserable, slow, and as unnecessarily obstructive as possible.”

      1. Indeed, Grizz. And the “helper” on Tuesday blaming everyone because the automatic gates woere rejecting most passports. Nice welome.

    2. And when it is discovered that a Christmas bomber/knifeman/truck driver came through during that period the border farce will claim it’s the Army’s fault and that they would have identified them and detained them, no doubt.

  44. Bodies scattered on streets of Kherson in Christmas Eve attack. 24 December 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff6b218c13455c03029f3ce8c81b8dcfe357c975f4946329ec687b65ff5cd8b4.png

    At least five people have been killed in a Christmas Eve strike on the centre of Kherson, which left bodies littering the streets amid scenes of devastation during the holiday period.

    Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said Russia had intentionally fired at civilian targets to “intimidate” the Ukrainian population in the recently liberated city.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0ed8a47e7328c4a4f09ec2eb3372117de1f43f097816f45655c8598a44d36ccb.png

    In the first picture the umbrella remains upright with no signs of shredding and the table objects are undisturbed. Though there are some branches scattered around, the trees themselves are unmarked while the booths retain their glass and tiles.

    The second photograph shows cars on fire but no signs of impact damage while the road signs remain in place. In the left background shoppers carry on undismayed. There are no signs of ambulances or a police presence. No barriers or warning signs of possible unexploded ordinance.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/12/24/russia-ukraine-latest-putin-blog-zelensky/

    2. How did the windows survive a blast that could take out two cars parkeed that far away from each other? Where is the impact crater?

      I know the first casuality of war and what not, but this is pathetic.

        1. Ooooooh! Musn’t say that. Putin the Destroyer wantonly and maliciously attacked defenceless Ukuleleland to impress his gay friends in the Kremlin – Not that there is anything wrong with having gay friends!

    5. Minty, I am as cynical as the average nttl reader, but those booths are mass produced and the blue roofs are probably formed from powder coated steel; a modern version of corrugated iron. The windows could be made of toughened glass or PMMA.

      1. Afternoon Tim. The blast from a series of Artillery shells would have blown off the roofs of the booths, flattened the structure and splintered the trees!

    6. Enlarge the picture and you can see a white haired elderly lady doing her shopping.

      The woman walking away from the supposed body probably punched his lights out for mis-gendering her.

        1. I thought it might have been pigs blood:
          ‘The name of the rose’ by Umberto Eco.

          Ps. the film was good but the book, like all Umberto Eco’s, is very good.

      1. He’s a closet female but he hasn’t got the hang of lipstick and powder puffs yet. Poufs he can cope with, powder puffs are a bit trickier.

    3. Rev Richard has always seemed to be a warmhearted person; is your comment a general attack on gay people, or just a dig at centre left priests & the Church of England?

      2. I used to attend a church with a warm-hearted Rector. I didn’t know the whole group that well, but there was a teenager who was the Rector’s daughter.
        One day, I was volunteering at a church-related event, and we were sitting together and he said out of the blue, “Some people think I’m a sinner.”
        I had no idea what he was talking about, but even beginner Christians know that everyone is a sinner, so it was a very odd thing to say.
        He wore a wedding ring, so I then asked someone else point blank if she could point out the Rector’s wife to me, and she gave me a funny look and said “he is married to X (another man).”
        So clearly there was an “insider” group who knew this, and who were so politically correct that they carried on with the blithe assumption that this was theologically not important, and that nobody had the smallest reason to comment on it, and then there was an “outsider” group of church-goers who weren’t aware at all. Because I had volunteered, he had assumed I was an “insider.” Many of the outsiders were Africans who probably wouldn’t have taken communion from a man who himself was clearly not in a state of grace.
        Of course, this woman couldn’t keep her damn silly left wing mouth shut, she evidently went rushing round with the story because next time I met the Rector, he was very fake with me, as though I was then a bad person with whom he didn’t want to associate, because I hadn’t immediately said oh how wonderful, it makes no difference to me.
        So my point is that the warmth dried up immediately that his real religion was challenged, which was homosexuality, not Christianity.

      3. Ah but Tim, not all warm hearted people are intellectually and emotionally suited to the priesthood.

        1. By flaunting the fact that he was an ordained CofE minister he was trying to capitalise on being a vicar who was always clad in his dog collar. He never convinced me that he was a sincere man of God – he was far more interested in his media career.

      4. I don’t have a problem with him. I find him to be a very personable TV presenter. Quite a decent pianist too.

    1. I understand that some ancestors of victims of the holocaust do not consider themselves to be white, so much and would be offended to be lumped in with gentiles

    2. Meh, she’s always been anti-white, racist as I believe it used to be defined between about 1960 and 2018.

      1. I have found this woman free of talent, very unfunny and full of self-importance. I have always thought that those who said that they liked her were only saying it because they thought that that was the right thing to say and that if they did not say it they would be deemed to be racists.

  48. 🎶It’s beginning to look a lot like Chris-tmas🎶🎄✝️

    Afternoon everybody. Ready for the big day? Sprouts on?

      3. Ho, isn’t that a bit painful? and I hope you wash your hands before preparing that Capon you said you’d got.

      4. Ho, isn’t that a bit painful? and I hope you wash your hands before preparing that Capon you said you’d got.

    2. Too late to put the sprouts on for this year, Stormy. They’ll be ready for next Christmas!
      How’s it going with you? All under control?

    3. It’s looking a bit too much like Christmas here. It started snowing about 24 hours ago and hasn’t let up. The police have closed all roads in the county and there are som3 power cuts where trees have been blown down taking power lines with them.

      Worst of all, they have closed the gym early so no last minute classes today.

        1. Probably the most real that we have seen in about 40 years, it has completely swamped the services – it is like England after an inch of snow. .

          They have also closed the main highway between Toronto and the east. Lots of people are stranded at the service stations instead of getting home for Christmas.

          Luckily we don’t need to go out so it is almost life as normal for us.

    4. No spouts in the shops here. All the other expats go there early and snaffled them up.

      Christmas buffet (julbord) tonight: Two roast hams (one green, one smoked); one salmon (lax); various herrings (sill); meatballs (körtbollar); tiny sausages (prinskorv); hard-boiled eggs; cheeses; crackers; breads; salad; Jansson’s Frestelse (a type of potato dauphinois); brown cabbage (brunkål); trotters in aspic; eels in aspic; cold slices of roe deer; all supplemented with my home-made sausage rolls and just-baked mince pies.

          1. Ho well, the Landrover would not make it in time 😢
            Have a good time over the Christmas holidays.

      3. Oh that sounds wonderful, pet! Would love to join you! I could bring stotties and pease-pudding?

        1. Why-aye and thanks, Pet. Some stotties would gan doon a stoater. 😘

          I shall make some pease pudding next week with some of the left-over green ham.

    5. MiL is decidedly in the bottle, my brother is playing crazy golf with Junior, Ozzie is sat next to the warqueen as she works her way through a box of Ferrro roche watching the Big Bang Theory.

  49. 🎶It’s beginning to look a lot like Chris-tmas🎶🎄✝️

    Afternoon everybody. Ready for the big day? Sprouts on?

  50. Prince Andrew ‘kicked out’ of Buckingham Palace by King Charles
    The Duke of York, 62, will reportedly no longer be permitted to hold an office inside the building or use it as an address for correspondence.
    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/prince-andrew-king-charles-epstein-buckingham-palace-b1049284.html

    Prince Andrew has been kicked out of Buckingham Palace by his brother King Charles, according to reports. The Duke of York, 62, will no longer be permitted to hold an office inside the building or use it as an address for correspondence. A source told The Sun: “Any presence at the Palace is officially over. The King has made it clear. He isn’t a working royal. He’s on his own.” It means staff Andrew had retained at the Palace since stepping down from official duties in 2019 could face the sack.

    It comes after Andrew paid a £12million settlement in a US civil sex assault case brought by Virginia Giuffre.

    Andrew has strenuously denied any allegation of sexual assault. It is claimed the Duke is now looking to recruit a communications team in a bid to salvage what remains of his reputation. It also comes just days after the Queen Consort took over Andrew’s role as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards in a shake-up of senior royal military positions. The shuffle will see the Princess of Wales promoted to her first Army role, taking over as colonel of the Irish Guards from her husband. The Prince of Wales will become colonel of the Welsh Guards instead.

    Buckingham Palace announced the changes ahead of next year’s Trooping the Colour, which has marked the official birthday of the British Sovereign for more than 250 years.

    1. As Rastus has said before, I think old jug-ears is a spoilt, selfish and mean-spirited old man. Not a good look for a new Monarch.

      1. I’m not a Charles fan, but Andrew is far too stupid and has too great a penchant for low company to be representing Britain. Those photos of the criminals Epstein and Maxwell making merry at Buckingham Palace and Balmoral were grounds for sacking in themselves. One would hope that Charles has not thrown his brother out of the family, however he is not obliged to pander to his delusions of being close to power.

          1. yeah well, as I said, I’m not a Charles fan either!
            I could hold my nose about him personally, but I can’t forgive his allegiance to foreign billionaires over us, the British people.

          2. An apt name he chose, especially when looking at the last two that held the name, especially the second one.

          4. At least he didn’t pick a German name.
            People forget that his antecedents are German.

          5. An apt name he chose, especially when looking at the last two that held the name, especially the second one.

          1. Hi Sue, I veer from mischievous through to plain unkind.
            At any one time there must be millions of seks workers around the world who happen to be under eighteen. Probably 99% don´t enjoy their work, but starvation or forced marriage or 80 hour weeks are the other options. Transactional secks may not be healthy or pleasant, but it scarcely can be classed as ´rape´.

          2. Without naming them.

            Easier to attack an 83 year old woman who was a loyal friend to his mother!

    2. A pattern is beginning to emerge.

      King Charles has not been at all pleasant to his brother Edward over the Duke of Edinburgh title, he has condemned his brother Andrew who has not been found guilty of anything and now he has turned against his mother’s oldest friend, Susan Hussey, and taken the side of a mock African charlatan against her.

      I am beginning to see from where his second son, Harry, gets his vindictiveness, spite and mean-spirited nastiness!

      1. The Duke of Edinburgh title is hard to justify, because he allegedly wants to take it from one monarch’s child and give it to another who happens to be his direct descendant.
        After the Sussex and York disasters, one could understand if he felt that a row of royal Dukes was rather toxic for the “brand.”

      2. You may be right. Remember that Andrew was reportedly Queen Elizabeth’s favourite son. That will have rankled.

        I personally had some hopes for Charles but he does appear vindictive towards members of his immediate family. He is tainted by his devotion to the anthropomorphic climate change racket and throughout his privileged life has consistently preferred the advices of charlatans especially on Architecture and Science.

        Andrew by contrast has taken little interest in anything other than chasing shabby women, has associated with filth such as Epstein and those suspected clients of Epstein who infest the Satanist WEF and other globalist elites.

    3. A pattern is beginning to emerge.

      King Charles has not been at all pleasant to his brother Edward over the Duke of Edinburgh title, he has condemned his brother Andrew who has not been found guilty of anything and now he has turned against his mother’s oldest friend, Susan Hussey, and taken the side of a mock African charlatan against her.

      I am beginning to see from where his second son, Harry, gets his vindictiveness, spite and mean-spirited nastiness!

  51. Apparently, this Strep A “pandemic” (or panic, anyway) is nothing of the sort. It turns up every year – some worse than others. 2018, for example, was worse than this year (so far).

    Yet another aspect of Project Fear.

    2. Are the deaths lower as well this year or have the Covid vaccines increased the comparative death rate?

  53. 369241+ up ticks,

    Regarding paedophilia and children’s welfare safety NO coalition party lab/lib/con/ current ukip can be trusted or for that matter NO supporter of a proven mass uncontrolled immigration party, post JAY report.

    Many of the victims are as we are about to enjoy the joys of Christmas, have already had years of mental anguish

    No party is worth support .with a history of paedophilia importation

    https://twitter.com/UnityNewsNet/status/1606627507062571008?s=20&t=j0riVdiDig3aPb9QCf_Ccw

    1. That they waste time and effort pandering to the mentally ill shows how absurd and pointless government is.

      There are vastly mor eimportant things to be getting on with – reducing inflation (cutting taxes), cutting state spending, removing appalling law, arranging trade relations, deporting gimmigrants.

      If they’ve time to spend on a tiny, irrelevant minority of nutters then they’re not resolving the bigger issues.

  54. Well Done Boots!!
    After the farce the NHS made of getting my various prescriptions ordered the Pharmacy has come up trumps and all were available for collection today!!

    1. How depressing that something as simple as filling a prescription successfully is seen as an event of note.

    1. As Morgan Freeman said ‘I don’t want a black history month. Black history is american history.’

      But the Left do so love their labels.

    2. Black history month doesn’t take long to write:

      “We wus slaves
      Then we wus freed
      Now we riot and loot
      ‘Cos we is free.”

      END.

  64. BBC: ‘Gunman opens fire in central Paris killing 3 and wounding 3 others.’

    I’m shocked and horrified. It’s ‘gunperson’ you gender-exclusionary fascists!

    1. They’re a bit late, that was yesterday. I’m surprised the BBC didn’t start with ‘Evil Far Right White Supremacist Nazi sympathiser attacks small children at asylum camp.’

      Has it alsoignored that the gimmigrants have no kicked off and started their own riot?

  65. I got a job as a bellhop in a swanky hotel. On my first day the manager said ‘Please show this couple up.’

    I said ‘Well his tailor is awful, and judging by the age difference she’s only with him for his money.’

      2. Dolly got the bathroom door open and the masked assassin turned my living room into an Andrex advert.

        1. It made me laugh the first time! The 4/5/6th not so much! Then the twins started doing it!

  69. Since I spoke on here earlier , my older best pal spannel has had a funny turn .. been so sick .. foam .. and he is leaning to one side .. visit to the vet just after 10am.. and she examined him .. full of tumours .. but she said he had had not a stroke , but a vestibular incident .Balance has gone . symptons similar to sea sickness .. and wobbly. He is flat out by my side now , on antibiotics and anti vomit tabs . Palliative care until after Christmas .. I have to syringe water into his mouth to keep his liquids up .. to give him a chance .

    I know what the outcome should have been this morning .. he is nearly 15 years old .

    The coal hasn’t appeared yet .. delivery was promised yesterday after a harassed phone call from me yesterday morning .

    Everything has gone tits up .

    Son hasn’t got a date for his leg and ankle op ..

    Oh Father Christmas if you loved me at all…

    1. This will be of no consolation but, lately here, it seems troubles never come singly.

      (I have tears running down my face as I have just made the stuffing for tomorrow and those onions were strong!)

    2. Sorry to hear about your slings and arrows of outrageous fortune but as Big Red India Rubber Balls are no longer available in Britain all you can do is cock a snook at the slings and arrows!

      Very best wishes for Christmas from Caroline and Rastus

    4. So sorry to hear that Maggie, make him as comfortable as possible and hope for the best. I’m sure all our thoughts are with you

    5. Oh Maggie, I think we all have been where you are, at one time or another. As Phizzee says below, plenty of Nottler shoulders here for you, hugs.

      1. It’s the reason i got little Harry. Dolly has a good few years yet but when she goes i will still have him. Then i will get another so i am never without a little furry fiend.

      2. It’s the reason i got little Harry. Dolly has a good few years yet but when she goes i will still have him. Then i will get another so i am never without a little furry fiend.

    6. Sympathy for you Belle.
      It was this time last year our son was critically ill in hospital with double pneumonia. He’s well now but not back to as he was.

    8. Oh darling Belle. What a bugger life can be. I mean there is never a good time for things to go wrong but it certainly seems to all come at once. Sit down as long as you need with your furry pal and think good things. We’re all here for you if you want to shout and bawl at the world and don’t forget that. Thinking of you and sending good thoughts. 🌹💐💕

    9. What would you do with a big, red rubber ball…

      Seriously, Maggie, I feel for you and the awful dilemma, where the solution is obvious but it applies to a very old pal.

      Don’t delay, dear, needs must and the bastard’s driving.

    15. Oh, Belle, I am so sorry, it is so heartbreaking. Our furries give us companionship like no other. You have given him a good life, and he has given you a good life. I feel for you. xx

    16. So sorry to hear that, Maggie. Life does seem to have it in for you at the moment. Hope the doggie recovers despite the tumours and age.

    1. Lovely photo, and Merry Christmas to you too!
      Did the cameraman just say “Watch the birdie” judging by the cats’ full attention?

      1. It was a selfie on a laptop – and the delayed “take” has a flashing countdown – 10, 9 8 etc in large white figures. Gus was mesmerised and, obviously, Pickles, too!!

          1. Nah – this year (their third Christmas) they have absolutely no interest. Much better things to hunt and kill await outdoors.

    6. Lovely photo, Bill. A very Merry Christmas to you, the MR and of course, your fur people, otherwise known as G&P!

    7. Very Happy Christmas to you both and to the sleeping giants! Hope you all have a wonderful day! 😘⛄️🎄🍾

      1. They ARE big now… We shall go to the coast at lunchtime with a thermos of Trombetti Soup and a sausage sandwich.

  72. Record breaking Christmas Eve storm leaves 200M shivering, 1.5M without power. 24 December 2022

    A wild winter storm continued to envelop much of the United States on Saturday, bringing blinding blizzards, freezing rain, flooding and life-threatening cold temperatures for 200 million Americans – and created mayhem for those traveling to see loved ones this Christmas.

    The storm that arrived earlier in the week is nearly unprecedented in scope, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the Mexican border.

    It has downed scores of power lines, leaving around 1.5 million Americans without electricity, with North Carolina alone seeing more than 400,000 outages, and highways are littered with piles of wrecked cars after whiteout conditions caused deadly accidents. And at least 19 people have lost their lives as a result of the brutal weather, latest figures show.

    In three months’ time they will be talking about Global Warming and COP 28!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11571729/United-States-freezing-Christmas-bomb-cyclone-leaves-FedEx-warning-presents-delayed.html

    1. See my post yesterday from TCW site.

      Professor Valentina Zharkova of the University of Northumbria.
      The sun ignores politics.

      1. We are entering a period of increasingly cold weather and extended winters. The climate change ‘scientists’ are as Piers Corbyn remarked fraudsters.

        1. This is my stock reply – see the note at the end, the more publicity, the less likely Climate Change gets and keeps traction:

          Climate Change and You

          The climate ‘science’ is wrong. CO2 being 0.04% of the atmosphere is a cause for good, as it is essential for plant life.

          The atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen. The remaining 1% are various trace elements of which CO2 is but a small part.

          The greatest cause of any change in the Earth’s climate, is due to the cyclical nature of the Sun’s phases, which may lead to vast differences between ice ages and continual heatwaves.

          Please feel free to copy and paste this anywhere appropriate.

    2. Our son was literally blown off his feet while walking home from work in downtown Toronto yesterday. Not injured thankfully. I guess the wind was also strengthened by being funnelled along streets between all the skyscrapers. Apparently the temperature dropped quite quickly too from -3 in the morning to -13. The wind chill made it feel considerably worse though.

  73. Merry Christmas to you all, just one more sleep until Santa brings you all that you deserve (perhaps).
    At least that is my official words of wisdom to the youngest granddaughter to help keep her in line, perhaps it could apply to some Nottlers as well.

      1. Have you considered his present for you is so large he could not fit it in your socks so he sent it by Royal Mail. Keep an eye open for it about Easter.
        I’m sure he, like us are sending you best wishes for Christmas.

  74. Nearly time for putting the Xmas trees together and adding some decoration.
    I shall open a bottle of Shiraz and put some music on the hifi.

    I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas day and may the worries of the world, temporarily leave you.

    3. Definitely time for new glasses. I first read that as women of the world!

      This speed reading brings a new vie2 of the world.

    4. Ginster’s Peppered steak slice and a ham and cheese sarnie, washed down with Affligem Belgian Beer.

      1. One of my neighbours has just arrived with mini sausage rolls and a warm glass of mulled wine – v nice and v thoughtful

      2. 24 came out, piping hot mini rolls.

        As soon as they were on the cooling pack Junior and Mongo had snaffled half of them.

  76. Started to tell everyone about the benefits of eating grapes.
    It’s all about raisin awareness!

    1. The one’s I didn’t publish – more for your collection:

      Short & Sweet – But Not Very PC
      The Grim Reaper came for me last night, and I beat him off with a vacuum cleaner.
      F*ck me, talk about Dyson with death.

      Did you hear about the fat alcoholic transvestite?
      All he wanted to do was eat, drink and be Mary.

      Paddy says, “Mick, I’m thinking of buying a Labrador.”
      “F*ck that” says Mick, “have you seen how many of their owners go blind?”

      A man calls 999 and says, “I think my wife is dead.”
      The operator says, “How do you know?”
      He says, “The sex is the same but the ironing is building up!”

      I was in bed with a blind girl last night and she said that I had the biggest penis she had ever laid her hands on.
      I said, “You’re pulling my leg”

      I’ve just had a letter back from Screwfix. They said they regretted to inform me that they’re not actually a dating agency.

      I spent £40 on eBay last week for a penis enlarger. Just opened it and some bastard’s sent me a magnifying glass!

      I saw a poor old lady fall over today on the ice!! At least I presume she was poor – she only had £1.20 in her purse.

      My girlfriend thinks that I’m a stalker. Well, she’s not exactly my girlfriend yet.

      I woke up last night to find the ghost of Gloria Gaynor standing at the foot of my bed.
      At first, I was afraid…then I was petrified.

      What’s the difference between Iron Man and Iron Woman?
      One’s a Superhero and the other is an instruction.

      An old lady is being examined by the Doctor. He asks, “Have you ever been bedridden?”
      She says, “Yes I have and I’ve been table ended and back-scuttled a few times too!”

      Went for my routine check-up today and everything seemed to be going fine until he stuck his index finger up my arse! Do you think I should change dentists?

      A wife says to her husband, “You’re always pushing me around and talking behind my back.” He says, “What do you expect? You’re in a wheel chair.”

    3. As for helping the homeless. He has done more to damage the homeless than any before. His deliberate EU mandated ‘swamp the UK with criminals’ policy is causing nothing but grief.

      1. The aspect of the whole crisis that infuriates me most of all, is that I know damn well that even had we not been harvesting gimmegrants our own homeless would still be no better off.

        1. There will always be people at the bottom and those who can’t cope with modern life.

          People damaged by drugs, mental health and PTSD and other things.

          To put economic migrants who are potentially a danger to ordinary people in 4 and 5 star accommodations is an obscenity.

          1. Potentially, what do you mean potentially?
            There will be some who most certainly are a danger and I do not think the numbers are insignificant.

          3. Quite so, Phil. And it’s deliberate. When everything finally kicks off, our armed forces – and to some extent, our useless police ‘service’ will be largely on our side. Our Rector – a former Army chaplain – tells me he has made it clear to all those squaddies he dealt with – who they actually serve.

            I believe I had a foretaste of what is to come when I set off to pay my respects to the late Queen. All along the route were hi-viz clad ‘stewards’ barking orders at us. “Keep on the pavement!” – this at 3.00 am, with nary a vehicle in sight.

            Every one of them could have been on a rubber dinghy a few days before. Our future security force is already here.

          4. But they could be helped. The money could be made available. Countless volunteers and min wage people work very hard to support the homeless.

            This government decides a policy of enforced, mass criminal invasion and lo! billions are spaffed on hotels, food and mobile telephones.

          5. As I keep yelling at the TV when the Crisis ad comes on, “If you sent all the foreign criminals and gimmegrants back, you could put the homeless up in hotels and we’d be no worse off!”

  81. Par Four today

    Wordle 553 4/6
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
    🟨⬜🟩🟨🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. My second day running with an eagle, lovely start.

      Wordle 553 2/6

      ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Well done. Three for me.
        Wordle 553 3/6

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

      2. Good start but bad guesses after

        Wordle 553 4/6

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

  83. Well, folks, it is nearing time for me to go and do the ironing. The hired help is being allowed next week off…..(instead of a tip, Philip…)

    After supper, we will continue to watch an appalling ITV prog about the Franch (sic) Riviera….”presented” by an hugely obese, screeching, gross woman who is – apparently – a TV star. Early in the thing she appeared with a grey-haired elderly-looking Scotsman – former F1 driver. Turned out to be David Coulthard who is only 51 – five years younger than my elder son. Apart from being slim and rich, Coulthard has not aged well.

    Then some other rubbish, I expect.

    Have a splendid evening, and to those of you for whom there is still a chance of Midnight Mass – think yourselves lucky……

    A demain

    1. Can’t get a seat at Midnight Mass unless I go to the preceding Carol Service at 11:15pm – it’s packed to the rafters. I’ll go tomorrow morning.

        2. I’m staying a couple of nights at the Premiere Inn on the opposite side of Smithfield Rotunda Garden. Another candle to carry in the morning and no public transport.

      2. Damart underwear. Lifesaver under glamorous dresses when singing oratorios; should apply equally in your situation. Enjoy the service.

    4. Merry Christmas, Jill! I shall have to respond with non-alcoholic punch because I’m driving up to church later for Midnight Mass.

    6. Are you staying warm? Haven’t heard from my son in NC or any pals on the east coast. Hope your Christmas is a good one. Merry turkey.

      1. Yes we are coping quite well, no power outages so far but very cold, down to 4degrees F. overnight and made it up to 14 degrees F. today. Sorry can’t do the conversion to centigrade! Going to daughters tomorrow for family gathering, mustn’t forget dog treats!
        Have a lovely day yourself and your other half.

      1. Didn’t know you were a poet…
        Merry Christmas, Sos and to HG all the best for the New Year. I’m off now, I’m ready for a quaff or two!!

        2. Thank you, I hope that you and the lad make your way back down the hill in even better form than you went up it!

  85. Whilst one must sympathise with the families of the victims of the Paris attacks, I can’t help thinking that rioting and attacking the police is going to gain much support from the general population and will serve to infuriate fringe crazies even more.

  87. On RadioSwissClassic I just heard Albert W. Ketèlbey’s “In a Persian Market” for the first time ever. Always liked it.

      3. Ahem. For the first time ever on RadioSwissClassic, I just heard Albert W. Ketèlbey’s “In a Persian Market”. Always liked it.,

  88. Evening, all. I sneaked in an extra ride today. Coolio had been doing gymkhana games before I rode him. He was certainly forward! We did counter canter and he performed nicely. I gave him extra Polos (well, it is Christmas). I also brought him an apple, which I left in the tack room. When I went to get it, it had a bite out of it and it was in the bin! It’s soft and a bit bruised, but it was for Coolio – he doesn’t mind! Note to self – don’t leave any fruit in the tack room if the girls are working on the yard!

  89. I just checked the forecast at weather.com. apparently we have only had two centimeters of snow in that past twenty four hours. In reality, they are digging out from five foot drifts on Main Street and roads are still closed.

    Talk about detached from reality, those forecasters could be politicians.

    1. I’m in the Scottish Borders and, though they are forecasting snow in the highlands, all we have is rain.

      I’ll be back to tell of the actuality in the Scottish Borders, the morn’s morning.

      1. We will be here to hear your impression.

        My wife was born in Dumfries, she escaped when she was very young.

        1. Sympathy to your dear lady and what must have been, a lucky escape.

          I’ve been to the town of Dumfries and I have to admit, I hate it. So many boarded up premises. The only good place is/was the British Heart Foundation shop where I bought most of what was/is my (secondhand) furniture..

          1. Yo, Tom, and Happy Christmas. I was involved in building a new store for Littlewoods in Dumfries, decades ago. The town was OK in those days. Then Littlewoods went down the pan, and Debenhams took over the site. Now it appears to be abandoned. And it was next door to Woolworths. Anyone remember them? I don’t think Dumfries is necessarily the problem, it’s more generally retail, which is struggling.

          1. Crikey! We have a micro climate here! It can be tipping down here, and dry at our daughters house a mile away, and vice versa! We blame Grangemouth!

    2. I wonder how much is drifting?
      I remember walking to School in Wooler with 6′ snow drifts across the road whilst the fields beside were almost down to bare earth.

    3. To speak the truth of the matter does not chime with the narrative of global warming/climate change. Especially when in the future they may have cause to dig up past records and forecasts to support their false claims. It happened here during our very recent cold snap, the Met Office was allegedly caught on the hop – why didn’t they get it right? I think they knew only too well, it just didn’t suit their future purpose. Or the present purpose.

  90. Interesting thing about my visit to the Vet this morning was I recognised her accent , she is South African , from Rustenburg nr Pretoria .

    In between examining Jack , she told me that her family came to Britain afew years ago because her Afrikaans family were farmers , have been attacked / murdered / farm burned down / animals slaughtered etc etc .. too dreadful for words .

    She loves Dorset , but feels fearful for the direction the UK is heading for .

    I agreed with her .

    Now these words ring true ..

    https://twitter.com/jdpkru/status/1606686857407991811/photo/1

    3. Most unlikely that Ian Smith said those words above in that way. However:
      “I have said before, and I repeat, we are prepared to bring black people
      into our Government to work with us. I think we have got to accept that
      in the future Rhodesia is a country for black and white, not white as
      opposed to black and vice versa. I believe this is wrong thinking for
      Rhodesia. We have got to try to get people to change their line of
      thinking if they are still thinking like that. This is outdated in
      Rhodesia today. I don’t believe in majority rule ever in Rhodesia… not
      in 1,000 years. I repeat that I believe in blacks and whites working
      together. If one day it is white and the next day black I believe we
      have failed and it will be a disaster for Rhodesia.”

      Ian Smith, televised speech, 20 March 1976

  93. Doing this now as we are eating blue cheese and drinking Chianti….not sure how long we’ll last ;-))
    A very merry Christmas to you all. I thank you for your messages of support throughout the past year.
    I hope you all have a splendid day and enjoy your family and friends.

    2. Merry Christmas, Ann. It’s raining sticks here – I’m going to need wellies to get to the car, never mind driving up to church!

      1. I had an email from a pal in CT and she has elec and internet. Torrential rain and strong winds but no snow. She has tree limbs all over her yard but her power has stayed on.
        Still nothing from the southern US.

        1. I have had definite signs of progress with Oscar! He was out for ages in the rain and came in soaking. He has just let me dry him – apart from his feet, that is; that still seems to be a no-go area.

          1. Seriously, could he be ticklish? My first Golden, Lenny, hated having his feet touched and we guessed he had ticklish feet. If you ran a finger over one of his pads he would pull his paw away pdq.

          3. I think he might have had his hair pulled which is why he doesn’t like being groomed. He doesn’t just draw his paw away, he used to try to snap at me. He is just at the growly warning stage now, so I don’t push it. Softly, softly and all that … He has come a LONG way.

          4. Certainly some what, Connors. It sounds like you’ve made remarkable progress with him.

            Give him a good scratch between the ears from me. Loverly dog.

          6. As I’ve said to Ann, and I extend it happily to you, Connors and Oscar. have a happy, happy day tomorrow.

          8. I can only repeat what I’ve already said to Ann (Lady of the Lake), “Aye, always hopin'”

          11. Back in the days when teachers knew how to teach, I would get “must try harder” written on my papers. ;-))

          15. Have a very Happy Christmas Conway, with your wonderful canine pals! Enjoy the day! 😘

    3. Sounds great Ann! Very cosy. Have a joyous evening and a lovely day tomorrow. Love and best wishes to you both. 💐🍾

          1. You could always put them on for next Christmas….
            Merry Christmas, Geoff and thanks for keeping us Nottlers sane!!

          7. Wot, Boss

            Sprouts, as I knew them as a lad, need at least 9 months or more betteresterer 10 years in a pressure cooker!

          8. We shred sprouts. Parboil them shred and roast. I think we took the recipe from the Waitrose magazine. I normally follow the recipes for much else in my copy of Good Housekeeping.

    6. I will definitely be raising my glass later, wishing you and your other half the very best for the New Year. In the meantime, have a wonderful day tomorrow.

  94. Spent all day with the next generation – absolute bliss.

    You cannot imagine the animosity I feel towards the fluckers currently in charge and towards those who aspire to depose them and institute their insane regimes!

  95. Wishing you all the best Christmas possible, sufficient food and booze, and time to unwind before putting on next year’s sprouts… I’m away to zed.
    God Jul!

        1. Thank you jill! And all the best for a very Happy Christmas to you and the family!🎄🍾

  96. Wishing you all the best Christmas possible, sufficient food and booze, and time to unwind before putting on next year’s sprouts… I’m away to zed.
    God Jul!

    1. Hello, could I book an appointment for Mongo, please?

      Always has them giggling. I imagine part of that is the bill, or that he has his own bank account.

  99. Goodnight, God bless, Gentlefolk and I may I not only wish you all the very best, not only Christmastide but for the approaching year to come.

  100. It’s late on Christmas Eve and there is an extraordinarily clear sky here; the stars really are a wonder to behold!
    The true beauty of the almost infinite universe.

    I wish you all well and hope that you enjoy Christmas day with your family or friends and even if alone, with your happiest memories.

    To quote Dave Allen, “May your God go with you”

      1. Many thanks and reciprocated.
        When you’ve finished playing with your organ I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing time!

  101. Well I’ve just watched and enjoyed DIE HARD, set in L.A. on Christmas Eve. So now I’m about to head upstairs and sleep before Santa arrives. I wish you all Good Dreams tonight and a Happy Christmas tomorrow.

  102. Goodnight and Merry Christmas, one and all! I shall be off shortly to get the car out and drive up to my nearest church. I shan’t be going to my usual church because it’s five miles away along dark, windy lanes that are sure to be flooded after tonight’s torrential rainfall. Moreover the service here starts 30 mins earlier than the other one, which means I shall be home much sooner, especially as I don’t have so far to drive.

  103. I am totally humbled. The lady I visited yesterday whose doggy had died and I gave her a small gift and one for the pooch. Had talked of inviting her round late pm here.
    Just went into the hall to go and put the heat on in the bedroom upstairs and there were two cards. A £10 gift card from the doggy lady who was unable to come because her daughter is in hospital and she can’t get hold of her. Yet, she took the time to get us a gift and deliver it. I am overwhelmed at times by the thoughtfulness and kindness of others. Am in tears again. Dear sweet lady.
    She said in her note that Toby, her dog, loved us.
    There really is good in this world besides all the nastiness.
    Thought I would share this because it’s Christmas Eve and that is truly in the spirit.

  105. Dear Nottlers
    Here’s wishing everyone a Very Merry 🎄 Christmas tomorrow, whether with family, friends or otherwise, have a wonderful day. And here’s wishing everyone a healthy 2023. (I know that’s a bit previous but still …). Look after you and yours and tell ‘em you love ‘em too. Nighty night one and all from Alf and me.
    Back soon xxx

    3. And to you Jules! Wishing your husband a very speedy recovery and sending love to you both, and Lily!

  108. I know it is depressing to watch our own corrupt politicos and justice system but it is far worse in the USA. The judge in the Kari Lake trial has rejected her arguments. For folk like me and I assume a million others who watched the two day trial, this decision proves that the American judiciary are bought and sold by the globalists. Utterly corrupt!

    On the plus side I do believe that justice will eventually prevail if we keep the faith, faith in God and trust in our human instincts to do good. Most of the problems in our experiences are to do with folk assuming power by superiority over our otherwise collective inclinations moved by common sense. If everyone were to ignore the abusive and divisive prescriptions of the politicians and the state we would function far better as a society.

    Most of the obstacles in the path to our wellbeing are the creation of an arrogant and entitled political class. We need most earnestly to ignore them and simply be good to each other. Nothing else matters.

    A Merry Christmas to all.

    1. Good Morning Geoff! Merry Christmas to you and hope you have a wonderful day! 🎄💕🍾⛄️

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