Saturday 28 December: Kemi Badenoch should focus on making the Tories credible again

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

689 thoughts on “Saturday 28 December: Kemi Badenoch should focus on making the Tories credible again”

      1. It's all very tiresome, isn't it? A desperate bias to force a defensive response. The media are always the slowest to learn as they've become used to setting the agenda for so long. To find themselves utterly unwanted and rejected must be frightening.

        Perhaps they could change how they approach things and acknowledge that their 'far Right' is actually the central attitude.

    3. So they attack her with a false slur on herself and Donald Trump so she returns fire with both barrels.
      Well said that Lass!!
      I would love to see a subtitled version of the full video.

    5. Quick. Find her a safe seat in Blighty.
      One of only three sane Labour MPs this century was the German Gisela Stuart. (The other two were Kate Hoey and Frank Field.)

  4. WE THANK YOU GEOFF FOR YOUR TIRELESS EFFORTS ON OUR BEHALF

    (That’s quite enough CAPS but just to prove I did read yesterday’s memo).

    I hope you are better/ on the road to recovery.

    I am getting ready for the mega-drive to Cornwall.

    We are civilised and proceed separately (sod the environment- mental well-being is more important). Hubby set off 2 hours ago; I will take my chances with the traffic, once I’ve cleaned the house and sorted the fridge, and the rubbish.

  5. Good Morning Geoff and Nottler Folk. I hope all went well for Geoff yesterday.
    Today's Tale, with apologies to Scottish readers

    One afternoon a Scotsman was riding in his limousine when he saw two Englishmen along the roadside eating grass. He immediately ordered his driver to stop and he got out to investigate.

    He asked one man, "Why are you eating grass?"

    "We don't have any money for food," the poor man replied. "We have to eat grass."

    "Well, then, you can come with me to my house and I’ll feed you," the Scotsman said.

    "But sir, I have a wife and two children with me. They are over there, under that tree."

    "Bring them along," the Scotsman replied.

    Turning to the other poor man he stated, "You too come with us"

    The second man, in a pitiful voice, then said, "But sir, I also have a wife and SIX children with me!"
    "Bring them all, as well," the Scotsman answered magnanimously.

    They all entered the car, which was no easy task, even for a car as large as the limousine was.

    Once under way, one of the poor English fellows turned to the Scotsman and said,
    “Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us with you."

    The Scotsman replied, "Glad to do it. You'll really love my place. The grass is almost a foot high."

  6. Good morning, chums and THANK YOU, GEOFF, FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK IN UPDATING THIS PAGE ON A DAILY BASIS.

    Wordle 1,288 5/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all. I hope we'll get an update from Geoff when he feels up to it. Impressed that he managed to do the NOTTL page this morning, when he must have other things on his mind!
      Wordle 1,288 4/6

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    2. It took me a while to cotton on…

      Wordle 1,288 5/6

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    3. Spot on with Geoff.
      Tough Wordle today and only got it by elimination.

      Wordle 1,288 4/6

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  8. Scholarship pupils

    SIR – As an immigrant who arrived in the UK with parents who spoke little English, I understand the transformative power of education. I am a first-generation university student – an option made possible in large part due to the local private school I attended on a scholarship.

    However, Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private school fees threatens to close that door for many. While the policy is being framed as a move toward equality, its actual impact will be the obverse. With fewer scholarships on offer, fewer children from disadvantaged backgrounds will have access to the opportunities I was fortunate enough to receive. The private schools that do survive will probably become more elitist, widening the gap between the privileged few and the rest of society.

    It’s clear that the Government’s policy is not about raising vast sums of tax revenue. The stated intention is to create a more aspirational society. But how can we aspire when opportunities are being taken away from those who need them most? Regardless of political affiliation, we must ask ourselves: is this truly the kind of society we want to build?

    The British dream has always been about creating a society where everyone, regardless of their background, has the opportunity to succeed. For children like me, private schools are not the elite institutions many picture; they are a lifeline, a chance to escape the limitations of circumstance and build a better future.

    Malik Fraz Ahmad
    Bradford, West Yorkshire

    Well said…

    1. Mr Ahmad's education was clearly not wasted. The concept of a "British dream" is new to me though. Unfortunately far too many peoples' British dream is to recreate their homeland, but with benefits.

    2. LAbour are socialists. Their entire ethos is control. If people get a decent education, unchained from the state then there's a danger they'll start to think. Thinking is bad for socialism as then folk tend to laugh at it.

      The correct solution would be to close down the department for education and give 'parents' – not schools – a voucher for a child's education, worth up to £10,000. After all, without the council and department for education soaking up masses of cash the entire amount can go to the child.

      The parent, as the customer, then chooses where to send their pupil. They could even home school them if they wanted. Or, five parents could band together for their special needs/super bright kids and ask a retired teacher to teach them.

      Schools who fail are bought out by successful ones. Schools can reject pupils and lose the funding. A failing school can have the parent move the money in part away from the school and into another.

      Government is completely cut out of the equation.

    3. There are 26000 independent (private) schools in the UK and 10.63 million pupils in all schools. If every independent school offers 20 scholarships (probably way too high a number) and only one half of the 10.63 million pupils are of secondary school age, scholarships benefit only a tiny proportion of students. They are those who are already greatly advantaged by their talent, intellect and industriousness – why should they also benefit from tax advantages?

      1. I don’t think Independent schools should be taxed. By parents sending and paying for their children to study there it alleviates the pressure on state schools.

        Not all can have prizes !

        1. I think that there should be equality of opportunity for all in both health care and education. However, I recognise that there will always be private health care and education but I see no reason why either of them should be given tax advantages.

          1. Then all education should be taxed? Not forgetting these private schools allow their facilities to be used by other groups including state schools. Make their business model crumble and those facilities will go with them.

          2. State schools are part of the state which surely can’t tax itself. As your final sentence makes clear, private schools are businesses and should not be immune from any of the taxation demands or the business pressures that all businesses face.

          3. Universities are businesses too, are they taxed? They seem to be able to pay chancellors and Deans several hundred thousand pounds a year. I don’t think Independent schools pay any where near that much.

    4. The stated intention is not the real intention. The aim is to drag everybody down and make aspiration and bettering oneself near impossible. Labour doesn't like the plebs to get uppity; they tend not to vote Labour then.

      1. I remember. I was brought up on a council estate. Even my parents thought i thought too much of myself and should just go and work in the factory. My peer group was as bad. If you suggested you wanted more you just got bullied.

        CRABS IN A BUCKET.

        My brothers and sisters still feel the same way 50 years later.

        The reason i have as little to do with them as possible.

  9. Good morning all,

    Dull and misty at McPhee Towers, wind South-West 5-7℃ today

    Right, that the festivities over. Back to the war, for war it is.

    Does everyone agree that King Charles III blew it in his Christmas Day speech? We know where he stands now, and it's not with us. Gavin Ashenden at Catholic Unscripted explains.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2bYUIJ9wTA

    1. "..and so this year we know what he's doing. He's picked a side. and it seems to me effectively announced he's on the side of the state against the people. The trouble is.. they're his people. The monarchy rules to protect his people. Parliament ought to rule to protect its people. Now it isn't."

    3. "Diversity of faith provides strength, not weakness."
      No, King Charles.. Diversity Inclusion & Equity are the weapons they've brought against us to destroy our society to turn it into a new form of cultural communism. If you come to us as The King of Diversity then you are not our King.

    4. Southport. Here, The King was taking the side of the repressive state. There isn't anyway back from this. That was a very serious moment. A very serious shift in the allegiance of the one agency in our country for historic reasons ought to be on the side of the people.

    5. I didn't listen (I guessed what it would be like). When I mentioned that to a friend, she said, ""not a Royalist?" On the contrary, I just don't trust Charles; too in bed with the WEF and too woke. She thought it was a good speech, which surprised me because in all other things we are on the same hymn sheet.

  10. Good morning, all. Overcast, damp but last night's mist has almost dissipated.

    The speculation around Reeves's next move i.e. raise taxes again to improve growth should place her in the economics' dunce's corner. Here is a 6 mins 36 secs video that she should watch repeatedly until she "gets it".

    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1872855650394619946
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2bc819eaf4c14d929ef49617b88cff4730851fc34bce9086f4cd8a0705f68d09.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b62925a58f5f6a19c3d6a72bd0e5f381f8fff87a3b2e0a132e11ea2bec96cd99.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2b3512849bdadbac75cb378d18a3c4147dfbd13044942afd52ddc627e0f0dfcb.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7c885224bddef78c62a56d4346077b83df10c6ecb4524e577e11ccfe90279938.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/375f789bbc2f4f432042833d3e25e13683a19564bc5f8301cda8af1efc546bba.png

    1. The farce of hiking business NI rates will be spun as 'we didn't increase it. Your company did. They should have just taken the hit on their excess profits'.

      And proles, being thick will agree with this.

      Milton Friedman is a sensible man and an actual economist- unlike the moron Reeves and anyone in the Treasury.

    1. When Cameron changed the logo from the torch to that green tree it was rather a notice that they were going backward.

    1. Aye, but it's warm and dry indoors. The only real issue we have is the Mother in law hasn't gone home yet.

      1. Got rid of our visiters yesterday!
        As much as I love having t'Lad & Dr. Daughter here, it's nice to get back to normal when they go!

  14. Today FSB has an article on the tricky topic of Skin Colour by Canadian correspondent JL and we are also asking you to sign this Petition , entirely unrelated to skin colour, demanding that we close the borders and suspend ALL immigration for 5 years. We know they will pay no attention but it could have an effect to waken things up if it attracts a lot of signatures.

    Energy watch 08:00: Demand: 28.857GW. Supply: Hydrocarbons 48%; Wind 16.5%; Imports 4.8%, Biomass 8.4% and Nuclear 17.4%. No prizes for guessing what would happen if the 48% of our electricity produced by gas were to disappear – as is planned.

    freespeechbacklash.com

    2. I am gobsmacked that solar doesn't feature on that list….

      I drove past a huge solar power station yesterday, all the panels turned up towards the thick fog! Our land produces beef, mutton, oats, wheat – not ruddy solar power!

        1. I had to do a very long and annoying round trip of about two hours’ drive each way, and I was marvelling at how dark it was in the middle of the day! Thick fog.

      2. Solar power station? I think you'll find they're solar subsidy harvesting plantations. Similar to wind subsidy harvesting plantations, but even more intermittent.

        1. Feargal, it doesn't matter how intermittent it is, as long as they are showing bumper profits from the taxpayers.

          1. Indeed, the only thing guaranteed not to be intermittent are the subsidies. There is a small light at the end of the tunnel. There’s an article on WattsUpWithThat about an energy firm being ordered to remove 84 windmills from Native American land in Oklahoma by 1 December 2025. The Italian firm are also being billed for the cost of damages.
            It will be interesting to see, should the removal ever come about, whether the massive foundations for the dismantled windmills will also be dug up and removed.
            I remember just over 20 years ago driving from San Diego to the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake. Driving through the Mojave Desert on Route 14, looking West the mountains at the edge of the desert were festooned with around 1000 windmills, upon checking only 300 of which were operational but it wasn’t deemed cost effective to remove the useless 700!
            I’m sure Milliband and his fellow Nett Zero zealots have factored such expenses in for 20 years time. 🤔

  15. Today FSB has an article on the tricky topic of Skin Colour by Canadian correspondent JL and we are also asking you to sign this Petition , entirely unrelated to skin colour, demanding that we close the borders and suspend ALL immigration for 5 years. We know they will pay no attention but it could have an effect to waken things up if it attracts a lot of signatures.

    Energy watch 08:00: Demand: 28.857GW. Supply: Hydrocarbons 48%; Wind 16.5%; Imports 4.8%, Biomass 8.4% and Nuclear 17.4%. No prizes for guessing what would happen if the 48% of our electricity produced by gas were to disappear – as is planned.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  16. Had a bit of an adventure on Christmas morning whilst staying with my daughter and her very young family. Her next door neighbour had been locked out of his house by his wife who has dementia. He was desperate to get back inside as the oven was on cooking the roast. All windows and doors were locked. Son in law and I suggested drilling out the garage door lock. The lock was well and truly destroyed but no joy in getting the door open. The Fire Brigade were called and to their credit they turned out with blues and twos blaring!. Eventually with 6 of us pushing the top of the wide garage door there was sufficient space for the smallest firewoman to crawl underneath and locate the door keys in the hall and let the husband in.
    Fire brigade suggested fitting a key lock box (as even if one can't remember the combination they can be forcibly broken open).

    The 160 mile journey back home yesterday took twice as long as normal as we used A roads to avoid long sections of the M6 and M5 as well as a 10 mile stretch of the M4. Traffic news reporting a total of 2 hours delays on those sections of motorways that we would normally use. Finally within 30 minutes of home A police car blocked the A road 'Road Ahead closed" so we had the joy of a 20 minute detour which took us through the delightful town of Tetbury which we now plan to visit when the weather improves…

      2. Bridgnorth double plus good. A nice town.

        It was on her way back from Bridgnorth in Lockdown that my mother (then about 78) was done for running the county line.

      3. Bridgnorth double plus good. A nice town.

        It was on her way back from Bridgnorth in Lockdown that my mother (then about 78) was done for running the county line.

    2. I have a key safe – MOH used to forget the key and if I was out, panic set in. Combination is no longer set as birthdate 🙂

  18. Good morning all. Sat with my 1st mug of tea in my usual place.
    A thick and sullen blanket of mist hanging over the place this morning and a temperature of 4.1°C shewn on the thermometer with a range of 4.5° and 1.8°C for yesterday.

    I've a load of mixed pulses steeping ready for some home made broth but I need more vegetables so will have to go shopping.

    1. You've used up all the veg? That's an achievement. I usually produce a vat of fridge soup sometime around Twelfth Night.
      i.e. all the unused veggies that look a bit "tired" after three weeks in the fridge/garden shed.

          1. I did dinner for 6 plus the one who couldn't make it. So i made up a hamper for him and off loaded all the leftovers. That got that out of the way !

  20. Morning, all Y'all.
    Fog -again.
    I hope the page being up as usual means Geoff is in good fettle and fully fit-for-fight.

    1. Farage/Badenoch is just the latest pantomime being put on to distract us. Who cares, they are just different faces of the hierarchy exploiting us.

    2. Gove, who has spent the past couple of decades slithering around the bowels of the Conservative Party like a Poundshop Machiavelli, is about as politically balanced as the bBC. He has attempted to skew leadership contests since he found out that his face (either of them) doesn't fit. He and Red Andy Marr should do a double act.

        1. Thank you, one of the advantages of having an account on X is that remarks have to be succinct and understandable.

          It is also worth recognising that ALL messages and DMs are held by X (Meta also do so). Something Hapless Humza did not consider when he, briefly, intended to sue Elon Musk for calling him a super racist. As soon as Musk mentioned that the legal discovery process would expose ScooterBoy’s apparently racist DMs, he dropped it like a bacon buttie. Hapless Humza is only comfortable in the grey legal world of ‘he said, she said’. Facts are his kryptonite.

      2. As MB isn't watching I will mention a common factor; Scottish heritage.
        Apologies to all the lovely Scots on NOTTL; even Essex produces duds.

  23. Yo and Good moaning all, from a dank, damp, wet, dull and soggy C d S.

    What did i Miss about CAPiTAL LEttERSs

    1. Sosraboc late last night. Let me find it and get back to you.

      Posted below now in a reply to me. Must get moving – am of to Cornwall!

      1. Here it is:
        ”If Geoff manages to open Nottle tomorrow, whoever is "first responder" must express our thanks and do it in:

        CAPITAL LETTERS!”

      2. The only people they recognise as 'innocent' are fellow 7th Century adherents, everyone else is fair game.

      3. Innocent refers to muslims so when the koran says to spare the innocent, it doesn't apply to kuffars.

  25. 399434+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Not long now,the farage chap is arguing with bandylocks and the new mecca (non bingo ) is well on the way to being established
    in england topped up daily via the dover invasion flood gates, locked by the politico's in the openwide setting.

    We, the indigenous have certainly screwed old blighty in a strength through joy, love of party before Country fashion, via the polling stations

    One more political shuffing of shite will be enough to trigger the mullahs into taking action, relying on Trumpy to sort out OUR self made in the main problems is totally OUT OF ORDER.

    https://x.com/Basil_TGMD/status/1872536515915682259

    2. Political bollocks!

      A very limp attempt at making the majority believe something "great" is happening in the city that has been reported as having the lowest average IQ in the UK.

      Generational first cousin marriage anyone?

      1. The first time that the emblem of culture was a petri dish? If we weren't aware these awards were just a self-congratulatory beanfest for the local government bureaucracy, this award should remove any doubt.

    3. It depends on what is meant by "culture". The meaning seems to have changed from what was originally meant.

      1. Oh I don't know. The "cultures" being imported match EXACTLY one definition, that of being a petri dish with growth of a dangerous pathogen growing in it.

        1. Yes, that's what I meant. City of culture originally wasn't intended to mean City of petri dish-grown pathogens…

    4. The test of inclusion will come if events include a Real Ale festival and a Whisky tasting event….

  26. 399434+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Not long now,the farage chap is arguing with bandylocks and the new mecca (non bingo ) is well on the way to being established
    in england topped up daily via the dover invasion flood gates, locked by the politico's in the openwide setting.

    We, the indigenous have certainly screwed old blighty in a strength through joy, love of party before Country fashion, via the polling stations

    One more political shuffing of shite will be enough to trigger the mullahs into taking action, relying on Trumpy to sort out OUR self made in the main problems is totally OUT OF ORDER.

    https://x.com/Basil_TGMD/status/1872536515915682259

  27. Morning all 🙂😊
    Grey misty and damp.
    Isn't this normal for the after Christmas period, our out of office politicians making a lot of noise and arm waving to try and cover up another year of achieving absolutely nothing useful. As in sweet eff all.
    Let's be honest if they were actually capable of anything except the above. This country would never have become more of an increasing burden on and for the people who actually born here, work and have lived here for decades.

      1. Thanks for asking, but now I have a cold and can’t stop sneezing. It’s driving me mad.
        We’ve run out of tissues because the grandchildren were drawing and painting on the kitchen floor tiles and decided to clean it all up using our last box of Kleenex tissues.
        Just had a brief visit from number two and little grandson to collect all their presents from boxing day. Wife’s volunteering at the local library this morning. I’m sneezing and coughing home alone.
        How about you and yours ?

        1. We're ok – just the two of us till the 'boys' return from visiting their father. Younger son's birthday tomorrow.

        2. Provided it's not the dreaded Izal or Bronco, loo paper is a good substitute.
          In our young mother days, we used to carry a bog roll in our handbags for various baby and toddler excretions.

          1. Does Izal still exist? It must be very unhygienic, the way everything it is supposed to catch slithers off…

          2. Izal germicide was all we got at home in the 40s – one step up from the Daily Mirror (and stronger when moist)

          4. Each sheet at Wooler Glendale School had "Northumberland Education Committee" printed upon it.
            At Army Cadet Camp it was "Government Property".

          5. In my local park (Holland Park – nice little place it was, given its position) toilets the printing was "Now wash your hands, please".

          6. That makes sense at least. In my local supermarket, there is a sign over the basins saying "now wash your hands"
            The dirty beggars who've made a break for the door without washing won't even see it!

          7. In my local park (Holland Park – nice little place it was, given its position) toilets the printing was "Now wash your hands, please".

          9. A few years ago we bought medicated soft Izal wipes but those are no longer on the shelves in Boots. We use Anusol wipes instead.

            Andrex toilet rolls and Anusol wipes are luxury compared with my experiences as a boy and an outside loo. Squares of newspaper holed and hanging on a string were all that was available. I imagine our backsides were covered in black newsprint from the Bath and Wilts Evening Chronicle.

          10. There’s a brand of soft wipes called Pure that are allegedly fully flushable and that I have found to be very good.
            I suspect that the branding supremos who came up with the name ‘Pure’ were not aware that pure was the name given to dog excrement in times past. Poor people used to work the streets of London as pure collectors as they could sell it to the tanning industry. At one point they were following dogs and fighting over the right to scrape up the turds.

          13. Kitchen roll is not suitable to be flushed down the toilet (it doesn't disintegrate like loo paper and tissues) – and germy used tissues are not a good idea in the waste paper basket.

          16. That reminds me of the government-issued toilet paper in the Civil Service. I was pleased from the heart of my bottom when a softer, kinder product was introduced.

          17. RAF bog paper used to have 'Government Property' printed on each sheet which gave some satisfaction to the user during use. It was also a cheaper alternative to 'wet and dry' when sanding down paintwork.

          18. The Civil Service paper also had “Government Property” printed on it. I am sure, though, that it didn’t apply to used sheets. I endured this type of paper at No1 S of TT, thinking that it was part of the regime to toughen us up so was shocked to find that it was in general use throughout government service military and civil.

          20. 91st Jan 59 – Dec 61. You were 87th or 88th, I recall from an exchange 5 or 6 years ago in the old Telegraph forum.

          22. A lot of us squaddies in BAOR would buy the soft tissue from the NAAFI. Known as comfibum!

  28. 399434+ up ticks,

    Priorities,priorities,priorities,

    Farage demands apology from Badenoch in ‘fake membership numbers’ row
    Conservative leader hit out after Reform’s online tally overtook last known number of registered Tory members

    Surely,surely,surely the incoming foreign daily troop movements
    via Dover is very seriously of more importance than interparty point scoring to satisfy egos ?

    1. Kemi made a big mistake by her reaction.
      I know that, having given power away to various quangos and outside bodies, Westminster is now a giant sandpit, but there is no need to highlight the fact.

        1. That's irrelevant. They did everything of note everywhere in the world. They built the pyramids, they built London, they invented telephones, electricity – anything you care to name, they created/invented it.

      2. They were all grey. Like a population of John Majors. Those weren't pyramids, they were circus tents.

          1. Ooh! Spooky! I’m re-reading Lyall Watsons ‘Supernature’ at the moment! I must away and build a pyramid for my Gillette Lady!

          2. Blimey. That's blast from the past.
            Thank goodness we don't have quack science todaaa ……. er ……
            Can I get back to you?

    4. Ah, the old aliens story back again….it's one of their three chosen lines that "require" a global government solution, so they keep pushing it despite nobody buying.
      the other two being deadly viruses and climate change of course.
      They've been pushing aliens since 1945.

  30. University Challenge yesterday was entertaining. My score was three questions answered that the teams didn't know. The one that I thought was the simplest was along the lines of 'which metal is used as a covering for steel to prevent its corrosion and is mixed with copper to produce the alloy brass?'. While eight arts graduates gazed vacantly into space in immobile ignorance I simply answered 'zinc'.

  31. University Challenge yesterday was entertaining. My score was three questions answered that the teams didn't know. The one that I thought was the simplest was along the lines of 'which metal is used as a covering for steel to prevent its corrosion and is mixed with copper to produce the alloy brass?'. While eight arts graduates gazed vacantly into space in immobile ignorance I simply answered 'zinc'.

  32. Apropos my earlier comment on Milton Friedman etc.

    Rupert Lowe MP is certainly putting himself about in Parliament and in our own political swamp and the denizens within it.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9fd2bbe9b966729b8ca915a690d7eef992a10b226d7533cbf504ae5c3cfed134.png
    We need to slash back the size of the state, urgently – it is too big, too powerful, too far-reaching.

    I always thought it was a mess, but since being elected an MP? Far, far worse than any of us realise. Never underestimate the damage a do-gooding arrogant bureaucrat can inflict on productive Britain.

    There is an army of these people now, building their own little empires in councils, quangos, hospitals and public sector institutions all across the country. Entirely untouchable, accountable to nobody. Constructing this self-sustaining industry, which contributes nothing, but obstructs everything.

    Anyone who has dealt with the state, or those decent people working within it, will know exactly the type of individual I am referring to…

    Cosy work environments, zero accountability, great pensions, job security, no targets. The out of office reply in regular use…

    It’s a scam. These bureaucrats have embedded themselves into the system, building it so that their own little role seems irreplaceable. An overly complicated form for this, diversity training for that – who can solve it? The do-gooding bureaucrat.

    So wonderfully encapsulated by the thousands of diversity officers now roaming the corridors of hospitals, departments and local councils – searching for racial wrongs to right.

    We need to root these people out. They wouldn’t last a fortnight in the private sector, but are protected in their own cosy little bubble. All funded by the men and women doing actual work.

    The bureaucratic monster state must be challenged.

    I detest how these freeloaders are gliding through life on the back of productive Britain. Brutal cuts are required to the management class.

    As the great Javier Milei so eloquently says – AFUERA!

    1. Rupert Lowe, like Andrew Bridgen before him, is one against 649 – with their full Whitehall support. The difference being, Lowe is asking questions about the bureaucracy stifling government actions, whilst also pointing out the failures of the government. The #KeirmerRouge has no answer to his multi-pronged attack, unlike Bridgen who was reduced to vax damage and undermined by his own party.
      The likes of Milliband and Reeves can continue to swat away at him but he sticks to the facts and can't be ignored, however much they would wish to. With Starmer hoping to keep the focus on global matters, whilst turning a blind eye to the realities his gimmegration policies are causing at home, we should hope Rupert Lowe maintains his health and focus.
      Lowe is a tactical problem for the uniparty as they try to convince us of their broadbrush strategic goals.

      1. I think that Rupert Lowe is the prime minister Britain needs.

        My fear is that Farage will find his competence and ability a threat.

      2. They'll use him to garner votes for Reform and then sideline him somehow – embarrassing revelations/a ministerial job where the civil serpents won't let him do anything or simple old-fashioned pressure to shut up and go away.

    2. A depressing experience at my local level was seeing good Conservative (genuine, small c) activists become the bureaucrats' mouthpieces once elected to the council.

      1. I was elected to the council; it drives me to despair to see the woke waste drivel I get served up by people who, frankly, don't serve any useful purpose.

  33. 399434+up ticks,

    Fraser Nelson
    Britain’s integration miracle is a beacon of hope amid instability
    Keir Starmer talks doom and gloom, but this is an amazing country – never more so than now

    That, is of course the view from Calais, Britain’s integration miracle is a beacon of hope and plenty of scope for
    raping / paedophilia, abusing in general under the protective umbrella of the WEF/NWO political cartel.

    1. Integration? What integration?

      Fraser Nelson is living in cloud cuckoo land. The sheer hubris of the man. Keir Starmer taught us all to "integrate" did he? A master stroke of socialist genius and understanding in how to bring about peace and harmony? One asks if Fraser Nelson is just another of those privileged poshos who've lived all their lives in a closeted world separated from the ordinary people. We've always integrated with anyone we meet. Starmer and 'his Britain' are irrelevant.

      Integration ain't the problem. Simply excluding vast numbers of the population and pronouncing the privileged newcomer to be good citizens does not integration make, I find.

      2. 399434+ up ticks,

        Morning JG,
        I truly see it as a rhetorical 40 years old trojan horse, constructing daily and successfully a fighting force under the misbelieving gaze of a simple minded opposition.

        2. Yes exactly so. Just feed the people the same old diet of gradual improvement with the suggestion that in every way we’re getting better with each passing day. They’ll be happy.

      3. Expecting us, whose ancestors go back generations, to fit in with foreign ways and call it "integration" is an insult.

    2. Integration? What integration?

      Fraser Nelson is living in cloud cuckoo land. The sheer hubris of the man. Keir Starmer taught us all to "integrate" did he? A master stroke of socialist genius and understanding in how to bring about peace and harmony? One asks if Fraser Nelson is just another of those privileged poshos who've lived all their lives in a closeted world separated from the ordinary people. We've always integrated with anyone we meet. Starmer and 'his Britain' are irrelevant.

      Integration ain't the problem. Simply excluding vast numbers of the population and pronouncing the privileged newcomer to be good citizens does not integration make, I find.

  34. I see what you meant about "Outnumbered". I didn't laugh once – or even smile. The MR thought it was OK.

      1. The original series – years ago – was quite funny – largely because the children was expected to ad lib rather than learn scripts.

          1. Revisiting Norfolk this past autumn was a massive disappointment. It was inconceivable just how much everything has deteriorated in just 13 years.

      3. Me neither. Well I might have seen one or two but found that everyone was awfully whiney and the children far too precocios

  37. Terrorist suing Saracen's Head pubs insists money would go to 'orphans of Gaza'

    Khalid Baqa alleges signs at various hostelries are 'offensive' as landlords say they will not change their establishments' names

    Tom McArdle, Will Bolton, Crime correspondents
    27 December 2024 9:55am GMT

    A convicted terrorist who is suing a pub called the Saracen's Head over its "deeply offensive" name said he would donate any money he won to "the orphans of Gaza".

    Khalid Baqa, who was previously jailed for distributing jihadist propaganda, has launched legal action against the owner of a pub that uses the name in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. He has also sent emails threatening to take action against two other pubs called the Saracen's Head in Hereford and Hertfordshire.

    In a statement to The Telegraph, he said that if Robbie Hayes, the owner of the Saracen's Head Inn in Amersham, was "stubborn enough not to remove or amend" the name, he would continue with his legal action. Baqa, who is seeking £1,850 over the "depiction of a brown skinned bearded Arab", said that if he was successful all the money would go to "orphans in Gaza or Syria".

    As well as suing Mr Hayes pub, Baqa has threatened Peter Dillingham, 59, who owns a 17th-century pub with the name in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire. "It's frankly ridiculous – a convicted terrorist scared of a pub sign", Mr Dillingham told The Sun newspaper.

    Simon Belsey, 49, landlord of the historic Grade-I listed Saracen's Head on the banks of the River Wye in Hereford, said he has also received legal letters from Baqa. Mr Belsey said the 300-year-old pub, which he took over in May, will have to close if he has to fight any civil action in the courts.

    He told The Telegraph: "I don't see how people can come in and start saying what we can do in our pubs that have been here for years. They are not going to change the name. It's the Saracen's Head and it will stay the Saracen's Head."

    Mr Belsey said he had received the support of lots of locals and hoped the claim would not be pursued following the level of publicity it had received.

    Responding to Mr Belsey's comments, Baqa said that he was willing to offer Mr Belsey a "hefty discount". Baqa was jailed at the Old Bailey in 2018 after being found with jihadist leaflets on the Tube. He admitted to five counts of dissemination of terrorist publications.

    There are around 30 pubs across the UK that use a variation of the name Saracen's Head. Baqa insisted he was not going to sue all of them. He said: "The main issue for me is not so much the image of a Saracen/Turk on a pub signage, but the actual caption associated [with] the signage. According to my humble knowledge, when the Crusaders went to the Holy Land and fought the Muslims, a decapitated head of a soldier would be brought back as a trophy and great pride was associated with this. If the [word] 'head' is removed from the caption, I would have no issue with any pub in the UK."

    He added: "I have always been offended by these pub signages but was not aware how I could challenge them legally, until now."

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/27/convicted-terrorist-suing-saracens-head-pubs-money-gaza

    I'm offended by the sight of mosques in Briths towns and citiies. I doubt my feet would touch the ground on the way to the nick if I were to start a public campaign against them.

    1. They don't exactly fit in with their surroundings. But then that is probably deliberate, like the congregations.

    2. Perhaps the good landlord could rename his pub, "The Moorish Slaver" or some such? Make it less a celebration of dreadful old England and more one of the quaint habits of the Orient, you realise.

      1. I suggested on here that The Black Boy pub in Sudbury renamed The Lady Elizabeth should have kept the sign and renamed it The Grinning Piccaninny.

        Reference Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech.

        1. Ah, The Black Boy. I remember it well. A relative of mine once tenanted there many moons ago. You’d be a bit late on the renaming mind, since it was changed to the rather wet sounding “The Lady Elizabeth” around 2020. Greene King took it over and found it all “a bit racist”, you see.

      2. I suggest that the landlord replaces the pub sign with a picture of the vexatious litigant, Mr Baqa, and renames the pub 'The Terrorist's Head'.

      1. They are just full of old white people so they will be demolished and Mosques built there instead.

    7. I'm deeply offended by islam in general. Ironic that he objects to "head" in the sign, given that the koran instructs its followers to behead the kuffar.

  38. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/59edaf2e79dbc5f158e88691503342a1b804cb4d/0_0_4200_2800/master/4200.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3917fa719cfdbbffa765e294d3ffc40b Cocoa Beach, Florida

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1ee4389887eb2ac7570b773cc4595edd053ad7e2/0_0_6000_4000/master/6000.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=c3a65ce728bc4a538df2ef44f139b51e Gomadingen, Germany

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e6d1783533ca63f7e54e0cd38cf8b737f228edb3/0_0_7434_4956/master/7434.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=27f101c4e0ff24148be68c94ae505b24 Harbin, China

          1. Another half-forgotten series from the 1960s is Belle and Sebastian (Belle et Sébastien), boy with smart dog. Do you remember the Robinson Crusoe TV theme tune?

    1. Let him waste his money (but it's probably not his own money being used to fund these legal actions). As I have suggested previously, the landlords should organise a Gofundme page to raise money to finance legal defence. I'm sure they would be overwhelmed with support.

  40. It didn't occur to them after the first two that perhaps it was not a good idea to have any more…

  46. "If the [word] 'head' is removed from the caption, I would have no issue with any pub in the UK."

    I'll go along with that, let's remove the Saracen's head.

          1. Remember that it took more than three hundred years to get the ugly hatefilled cult out of Spain. And they are sneaking back again now.

        2. They weren't exactly ordinary people walking down the street, were they?

          Edit: plus they weren't beheaded by other supposedly ordinary people. There's a vast societal difference. Apart from the fact that I did write it ISN'T our culture…not that it wasn't a form of capital punishment in the past.

          1. Indeed they weren't, Dukka.

            Having said that, how many thousands of 'ordinary people' suffered the same (or worse) in those times? Those in my list were recorded due to their fame/notoriety; Joe Soap/Yonder Peasant wasn't because no one gave a shit.

          4. I think the last judicial beheading was of Cato Street conspirator Arthur Thistlewood in 1820

        4. Those were not plebs who ordered it (apart from the Regicides and they weren't yer average citizen).

    2. "If the [word] 'head' is removed from the caption, I would have no issue with any pub in the UK."

      Why does this jihadi criminal think the head isn't attached to the body? The Saracen looks perfectly healthy.

  48. A bright light has appeared in the sky – as Xmas is over I can only assume it's something called 'the Sun'

  50. Councils could issue on-the-spot fines for climbing trees in parks

    Critics say ‘devolution revolution’ will increase fixed penalty notices and could lead authorities to abuse powers

    Councils could issue on-the-spot fines for climbing trees in park

    Existing Proposed
    Littering Playing music or ball games in the park,
    Bin offences Metal detecting
    Fly-tipping Unhealthy food vans
    Truancy Smoking in street
    Parking offences Climbing trees
    Traffic violations Flying model aircraft

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/27/angela-rayner-local-councils-byelaws-english-devolution/

    1. I guess as long as they pay their council dues the council aren't bothered what their business is.

      1. A former Braintree Dustrict councillor who lived next door argued that he should be permitted to build several ‘executive’ houses in the field behind my property because this would increase the council’s revenue.

        The fact that the field was outside the Village Development Boundary, that his building was Listed Grade II* and mine Grade II and that The Street is a rare survivor of a mediaeval village was apparently lost on him. The bugger now lives in Dorset.

    2. Not that many years ago an employer had to apply to officialdom if they wanted to employ a foreign worker – today it seems a complete free for all. I bet HMRC doesn't have the wherewithal to go through the books of all these 'enterprises'….

    3. Not that many years ago an employer had to apply to officialdom if they wanted to employ a foreign worker – today it seems a complete free for all. I bet HMRC doesn't have the wherewithal to go through the books of all these 'enterprises'….

    4. Not that many years ago an employer had to apply to officialdom if they wanted to employ a foreign worker – today it seems a complete free for all. I bet HMRC doesn't have the wherewithal to go through the books of all these 'enterprises'….

      1. …and knock off cigarettes are readily available. That is a tax loss to the treasury. Why does HMRC not investigate.. Stupid question really. It's because they are muslims.

        1. They're incompetent. Thing is, most 'inspectors' are just reading from a script and can't think about the problem because in most cases it's too complicated, so they fudge.

          The diversity's drug laundering gets around the script.

  52. In 2024, the war on Britain’s past became unhinged

    Who knew that Hadrian's Wall was ‘queer’ and Peter Pan was ‘white supremacist’?

    Frank Furedi
    23rd December 2024

    Western cultural institutions have been waging a war on the past for several years now. They have turned national histories into sources of shame, damned key works in the Western canon as racist and pulled down historical monuments. 2024 has been no exception.

    Over the course of the past 12 months, we’ve seen schools, universities and the media all engaged in rewriting, demonising and cancelling the legacy of Western civilisation.

    Britain’s schools have also been a key battleground this year. Activist educators have attempted to make children ashamed of their society’s past. Take the guidance offered by The Key, an education-services company, on how to make the history curriculum ‘anti-racist’. It says that the British Empire should be taught to pupils just as Nazi Germany is taught to them – that is, as the history of a genocidal power committing atrocities. This isn’t an attempt to enlarge children’s understanding of the British Empire, warts and all. This is an attempt to stoke shame.

    Indeed, the aim of so many of these projects is to instill in people a sense of guilt, as if they somehow bear responsibility for the actions of their distant ancestors. This has reached absurd proportions when it comes to the transatlantic slave trade.

    Last month, the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University published a tendentious report on their historical donors’ connections to the slave trade. In particular, it targeted high-street pharmacy Boots, noting how 19th-century businessman Jesse Boot had transformed his father’s pharmaceutical company into a nationwide retailer with the help of banks and premises linked to slavery. Though Boot had nothing to do with slavery himself, the mere fact that he used financial institutions connected to it is seemingly sufficient to tarnish his reputation.

    That this report emerged from British academia is hardly a surprise. Universities are obsessed with signalling their sense of shame about Britain’s history, usually in the name of ‘decolonisation’. Lecturers at one prestigious Russell Group university even renamed its master’s course, ‘Viking and Anglo-Saxon studies’, as ‘Viking and early medieval English studies’. Apparently, the term Anglo-Saxon smacks of ‘white supremacy’ and has too many associations with nationalism. Higher-ups at Cambridge University clearly agree. This year, they removed the term Anglo-Saxon from the university’s world-leading journal, Anglo-Saxon England, re-launching it in May as Early Medieval England and its Neighbours.

    These are not isolated examples. Academic activists have been busy accusing all manner of cultural artefacts of ‘white supremacy’. In its infinite wisdom, York St John University even decided that Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland require trigger warnings to alert readers to their supposedly ‘white supremacist’ themes. Its library also warns readers that adventure stories by Jules Verne and other well-known 19th- and 20th-century novels written for children may contain offensive passages.

    This war on the past hasn’t just involved finding ‘white supremacy’ everywhere. All sorts of bigotry is now being ‘uncovered’. At the University of York, one researcher is busy exploring the theme of ‘Transphobic Invocations of Archaeology’.

    This rewriting of Britain’s past is now a common practice far beyond the nuttier realms of academia. In its guided audio tour, the curators at Royal Museums Greenwich have decided to identify Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III, as ‘the nation’s first royal person of colour’. In doing so, it reinvented a woman born to a German princely dynasty as black – despite scholars having long rejected claims that she had African ancestors. The same museum also assigned LGBT identities to members of the aristocracy as part of its ‘very gay tour’ of Queen Charlotte’s House.

    The most bizarre project designed to ‘queer’ Britain’s past also emerged this year, in the shape of English Heritage’s ‘Seven sites linked to England’s queer history’ blog post. One of the sites deemed ‘queer’ is Hadrian’s Wall. English Heritage justifies this characterisation on the grounds that Hadrian, like many Roman men, had a male lover, called Antinous. Quite why this makes the largest Roman archaeological construction in Britain a symbol of England’s ‘queer history’ is never explained.

    As the queering of Hadrian’s Wall attests, this use and abuse of the past can come across as irrelevant and trivial. But it is far from inconsequential. Through this rewriting and demonisation of history, opponents of Western culture are seeking moral and political hegemony in the present. Their war on the past serves their interests in today’s culture war – indoctrinating people, especially the young, into their identitarian worldview.

    The stakes are high. The contamination of the past, the demonisation of traditions and long-held values, diminishes the capacity of society to endow people’s lives with meaning. A society that becomes ashamed of its historical legacy invariably loses its way. It weakens our capacity to socialise children and dooms them to a permanent crisis of identity. It is our responsibility to the young to fight back in the history wars. Only then can we ensure future generations can benefit from their rich cultural inheritance.

    Frank Furedi is the executive director of the think-tank, MCC-Brussels.

    2. Hadrian's Wall (or Hadrianna's, perhaps) featured in 'Countryfile' a couple of years ago. Matt-nice-but-dim-Baker strolled up a hillock and declared:
      "To the Romans, anyone who wasn't a citizen of Rome was classed as a barbarian so anything over there was barbarian land. Ironically, a wall that was designed to keep the Romans and the foreigners (!!) apart ended up doing exactly the opposite. It created a multi-cultural community of people from all across the empire right here on what today are the northern borders of England."

      1. Edward Gibbon has it that the Romans found that the Scots loved their freedom too much and, being unable to easily subdue them, opted to keep them out. There may have been North Africans among the Roman forces. I think Gibbon makes more sense?

        1. This edition of Countryfile had two guests, a naturalised Muslim and a black African of Canadian nationality, who tried to present the case that Britain had been multicultural and multiracial for 2,000 years because of who the Romans brought with them but that the white British had written them out of history after the Romans left.

    3. "It says that the British Empire should be taught to pupils just as Nazi Germany is taught to them – that is, as the history of a genocidal power committing atrocities. This isn’t an attempt to enlarge children’s understanding of the British Empire, warts and all. This is an attempt to stoke shame." It's also untrue; the Empire gave a lot of things to the colonies – railways, democracy, a common language, sanitation …

  56. Russia likely to blame, says White House. 28 December 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4d4ce2bb96cbe501a101f6c4feb58eb9184addf1d3ce28e27600b56ffef4dc78.png
    ‘Early indications’ suggest Russia shot down an Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, the White House said on Friday.

    John Kirby, the National Security spokesman, did not elaborate on the subject at a press briefing but answered “yes” when asked if there was US intelligence to back up that conclusion.

    What happened here is no real mystery. A scheduled civilian flight from Baku was approaching Grozny airport which was under threat, if not actual attack, by Ukrainian drones at the time. In the kerfuffle the Russian air defences flagged up the flight as a risk and it was attacked by the short range Pantsir System. The missile stuck the aircraft and disabled its communications. The pilots realising the dangers turned away and flew across the Caspian Sea and attempted to land at Aktau in Kazakhstan with the results that we have all seen. It was an error not hostile intent. Kirby does not bother to explain this and neither does the BBC since it would to some extent let the Russians off the hook. Now one does wonder here why the Russians did not warn the approaching aircraft. Could it be that the Ukies were using Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) to aid their attack and blocked any transmissions. Perhaps even with the intent of causing the incident?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/26/russian-missile-system-shot-down-azerbaijan-airlines-plane/

    1. No civil pilot would fly into airspace where active combat was ongoing, and would likely stay away for a while, as even I can see how the defenders would be rather jumpy for a while and likely to shoot at anything approaching – especially if it didn't have IFF, as a civil airliner would not have.
      One small quibble – the ground-to-air missiles are usually like flying shotshells – proximity fuze blows a whole pile of shrapnel around, more likely to hit a fast-flying small target such as an aircraft (Remember the cube-shaped shrapnel from the Buk-missile that shot MH17 down a few years ago? Lots of square holes in the fuselage)

      2. Afternoon Oberst. The damage, so far as we know, was to the tail. It could be that they had already turned away and the missile caught them as they were headed for the Caspian. With the controls disabled they were committed to the flight. We shall have to wait for some further illumination.

        1. That's the only part of the aircraft that hasn't been in the fire, so easier to see the holes. Including the tell-tale exit holes. I've not seen any pictures of the forward part of the fuselage.

    2. Video evidence suggests that the plane suffered a bird strike by a flock of razorbills..🤔

      1. Det statlige nyhetsbyrået siterer presidentens presseapparat på at det i samtalen ble bemerket at passasjerflyet forsøkte å lande samtidig som ukrainske kampdroner angrep «Groznyj, Mozdok og Vladikavkaz». Og at det russiske forsvaret avverget disse angrepene.

        Det nevnes med andre ord ikke spesifikt at passasjerflyet ble skutt ned av det russiske forsvaret, selv om det har vært spekulasjoner rundt dette.

          1. Thanks, he also said something about 'automatic defence'/'automatic fire'. He seemed to recognise the evidence in the fuselage. But, things get lost in translation, sometimes.

        1. I am currently enjoying — and toasting with — a home-made Swedish snaps. Last year steeped some caraway seeds in 40% vodka and left it in a dark cupboard for six months before straining it.
          It has the golden hue of a single-malt scotch whisky and it tastes like a very boozy Nurse Harvey’s Mixture gripe water (which, I only recently discovered, is made from a similar recipe).

          1. Oh my, vodka is my charm, so definitely will try that Grizz (possibly not the gripe water, tho…may save that for someone else 😄😄) still no longtailed tits..sigh..

    1. Do you think that moves may already be afoot (1922 committee?) to make Kemi Badenoch this year's (or next year's) Liz Truss?

        1. Hope so – after their abysmal performance over the past 14 years no amount of embalming fluid will reanimate the corpse.

  60. A reminder from the Supreme Governor of the Church of England..
    The C of E churches across the land in every county & parish are now designated as an extension of the social services open to all faiths.. and there to preach the gospel of diversity, inclusion & equality.

    Remember.. Diversity of faith provides strength, not weakness.

    1. The faith is represented by the Latin phrase Gloria DEI which is founded on the uncertainty as to which pronoun Gloria had chosen.

      1. Dunno.. but what I do know is that the CofE Churches have cancelled salvation until further notice and are now open for therapy.
        This universal therapy is echoed through all the M-faiths; Marxism, Muhammadism and Maoism.
        Remember Peace can only be attained through the state approved M&M&Ms.

    2. I have had an email from the Free Speech Union. It is offering a discounted membership for C of E clergy and there is a suggestion that it would be a good gift for a vicar who believes in freedom of belief and in Christian teaching. Please pass on the info to any interested party.

    1. Yes, they were thought to be of the flocking Pantsir-S genus and they were Russian to get to the breeding airport.

    2. Bird pedant alert: the "bearded tit" (which was never a member of the tit family) has now been properly and officially renamed bearded reedling.

      I fully agree with the rest of that chart, though, especially the colossal tit.

  64. Dunno.. but what I do know is that the CofE Churches have cancelled salvation until further notice and are now open for therapy.
    This universal therapy is echoed through all the M-faiths; Marxism, Muhammadism and Maoism.
    Remember Peace can only be attained through the state approved M&M&Ms.

  65. If you enjoy watching period/costume drama watch Fanny and Alexander. It is considered to be Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece.

    9.4 rating on Rotten Tomatoes

      3. We need a lot more like her all over the western world. If we don't, it will be game over before we know it.

    2. May as well copy & paste the speech and send it to all the right wing parties within industralised Europe. Same same story.
      Luckily Germany have elections next year. Poor old UK have to endure five more years of Starmergeddon.

  68. Signing off early. A zoom in a few minutes; then new people in the house two doors away have invited selected neighbours for a glass of something (I trust alcoholic).

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. He actually obtained planning permission and it took me and fellow villagers a year or more to have the council reverse the decision.

      I was obliged to involve the chief Historic England officer for the three counties, Cambridgeshire, Essex and Hertfordshire, who wrote objecting to the development. Even then it took the casting vote of the chair to defeat the proposal. Braintree is famed for the preponderance of fat Freemasons on its Executive.

      1. They really are the limit. Unfortunately FFs are all over the place. I wonder if any slammer has ever been invited – the rules do seem to be quite easily bent?

      2. They really are the limit. Unfortunately FFs are all over the place. I wonder if any slammer has ever been invited – the rules do seem to be quite easily bent?

        1. Yes, stop the boats… the cars up from London… the bicycles… the ramblers… the campers…. Hell, stop them all!

          1. Pre-lockdown I would find black plastic bags containing dog poo, tied to trees. Since return to 'normality' – no longer. Perhaps they all died from Covid. Or, more likely, vaccine injured.

    1. He, like all Lefties, is convinced of the righteousness of his cause. He doesn't understand the damage he's doing, doesn't even care. His is a higher purpose that you, prole, don't understand.

    2. I think they have quite a few months to GE. Trudeau has given up other than to feather his nest. Poilievre is the man.

  75. Got a very painful throat. Tried several remedies in various bars but to no effect. Must get registered with a doctor.
    Wordle 1,288 3/6
    🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    Good guessing.

        1. Much sympathy.
          Dobendan Strepsils if you can get them. Anti-bacterial and probably really bad for you, but they do numb the pain.
          Vit C and Zinc with Quercetin to get better quickly.

          2. I’m a fan of all. I don’t know what they do with them but they seem good for different situations. The black ones are for serious heavy lifting. The blueberry and cherry ones good for anti snot manoeuvres. The honey lemon for throats too yes. The eucalyptus definitely good for extra breath when bunged.

            I must be a sad git having noted all this 🤭

    3. I suppose it depends how you define growth. If they mean growing the economy then that's easy: you cut taxes, leave people more of their own money to buy stuff, more if then made or prices rise to match demand, but then competitors arrive and prices falkl again but competition drives both forward one way or the other. In either case, jobs are created and salaries rise fuellling more spending and more growth.

      The economics is not complicated and it's self fulfilling – unlike government spending a la Keynes. If Starmer doesn't know – and genuinely doesn't know then he's a moron.

      However I imagine he has really asked the regulators how better to control the economy to ensure Labour can say growth has increased. They won't know because they're incompetent, but they will all say 'more state spending (on them) more debt, more waste. Because having a quarter of all government spending go on debt interest alone isn't enough.

    4. Boost growth?
      more migrants. obv.
      more spaff spending. preferably overseas. obv.
      repeat the word "growth" over & over.
      more centralised planning.
      move closer to the regulatory orbit of the dying EU.
      announce great many strong wheat harvest.
      close all those smelly factories, whatever they are.
      tap into the incredible wealth of talent of the Caribbean & Muslim communities.

    5. The best start would be to call a General Election…oh wait…Official Opposition as bad….Farage gaining more support each day, I like Reform but I'm not all that certain how they'd be in government and it seems likely they wouldn't want to be part of a coalition.

  79. Starmer asks a regulator? He's just an orders-taker basically. He couldn't lead the way out of a paper bag. He really is pathetic apart from just being melevolent.

  80. Slash taxes. Slash the Blob. Deregulate your nonsense DEI. Set fire to the quangos.

    One other thing. If you are not up to the job…fuck off !

    1. And, crucially, completely abandon the enforced hard left 'esg' nonsense that is driving business overseas. So much is wasted with goverment forcing utterly pointless nonsense on companies – how many women employees there are, how many are in director posts, how much electricity do we use… all pointless. Scrap it.

      1. I was thinking they may re-open air raid type shelters, we can all hug to keep warm….seriously, a cold winter on the cards, wait until a few old people get sick or worse, hospitals overcrowded. It might just hit the fan then.

        1. Um, the Anderson shelters (we had one) were damp and cold, even with a Thermos and hot water bottles.

        2. They have! It’s called Warm Spaces and was heavily promoted last year. Still officially going, but unclear and not advertised this year.

          1. Ah yes, I heard of that, BB2 – most towns/cities seem to have them, for the lost, the lonely, the homeless. Once you start down that track, not many turn back 😢 thankful it’s not any of mine.

          2. Not just the lost, the homeless and the lonely. Here they are open to everybody – I've even used them on occasion (they were showing a film I wanted to see and anyway, it's my council taxes that were providing it).

    2. It's probably all the pollution that's drifted over from the oil burning middle east and coal burning China.

      1. It's my fault; I lit the Rayburn today because the temperature has dropped to single figures outside.

  83. It is being reported that key business watchdogs have been asked to come up with ideas to remove barriers to growth to improve our fast tanking economy.
    The most obvious barrier to growth is this Labour government, so their best advice would be to call a general election as soon as possible.

    3. Trouble is, those giving the advice might see the only answer as being joined to Brussels again (regardless of the reality that it wouldn't improve the economy).

  84. I would also add…stop processing asylum claims from people who entered illegally without any documentation. It's quite simple really when you are not driven by ideology.

    1. A large proportion. I've seen footage of them cobbing such docs overboard…that way they can claim asylum, and claim benefits from day one. Whereas you or I would likely need a quack certificate we can't work, then go onto a list for Emergency Payment, then finally claim LTSB – take weeks. Suggest we start growing beards, may look more realistic.

    2. Edited. If you want to stop the invasion, you are going to have to accept some structural changes.

      1. Oi! In the first place I don't want a biometric ID card with my DNA on a database and secondly, I'm representing my Town in France next year; I want to be able to buy stuff when I'm over there.

  85. On the one hand the government says that it wants to grow the economy.
    While on the other hand it wants to achieve net zero targets by 2030
    Isn't that a prime example of an Oxymoron?

    1. But, but, but…Bob3…growing the GREEN economy, very good for some pockets…guess whose..Always follow the money…

      1. They're having one last round of printing and looting before the whole fiat money scam collapses – leaving us and our descendants with the bill.

        1. A Bitcoin fan? I wanted to buy one at release, family as ever ‘no’. I must be adopted… what happened to Sunak’s CBDC, think it sank without trace? It will surely happen at some point, don’t you think?

    2. But, but, but…Bob3…growing the GREEN economy, very good for some pockets…guess whose..Always follow the money…

      2. I think of him as TTK, FG, FH Starmer. Two tier Keir, free gear farmer harmer Starmer. Rolls off the tongue nicely!

      3. I think of him as TTK, FG, FH Starmer. Two tier Keir, free gear farmer harmer Starmer. Rolls off the tongue nicely!

    4. The IMF stated recently that Britain was the fastest de-industrialising economy in the world.

      Certainly net zero will be achieved by 2030.

      At last !!

      A success for Labour.

  86. They don't understand that. They honestly, truly can't understand that they are wrong. They think they're heroes in their own story. They've no ability to understand why they are wrong. To them, green is good. It will create good outcomes – because they will it to be.

    That their insane, market breaking farce is causing endless damage they're having to fix is beyond them. They just don't care.

    1. We have probably spent a billion on that between France and Rwanda. Doesn't seem to be working very well.

      Those boats arriving at Calais could be intercepted. They could also be intercepted on the beach as they are being inflated. The authorities on both sides are happy for this to continue.

      1. Did I read Germany are using the Rwandan facilities (the ones Sunak gov't provided) to process asylum seekers, or am I making that up just to annoy myself even more than I already am……

      2. Especially the French. They're b*stards on both sides of the Channel. And how about having a go at the RNLI volunteers who bring them in. Anyone who volunteers now deserves to be named in their community.

        1. They got rid of the long serving volunteers often for spurious reasons. Like the chap with decades of experience but because his tea mug had breasts on it they got rid. Visiting children might have been upset apparently.

  88. We've rifles that could hole the boat from 2 miles out. As soon as they start sinkng they'll have no choice but to turn back.

    1. Or the RNLI could tow the boats back to shore from, err, French waters.
      That they don't means that I have defunded them. Sadly.

      1. so have I and when I get the usual begging letter I write: No way am I funding your taxi service.

      1. How about naming and shaming RNLI volunteers. Surely their neighbours must have something to say to them? Are they being paid in their day jobs while they volunteer?

  89. It's a prime example of cognitive dissonance.

    Labour always arrives on the same bandwagon with their own pet projects. Then it all begins to fall apart and they schism yet again. It won't be Net Zero by 2030. It will be the Caliphate.

  91. If they used fossil fuel power up and kick start the wind turbines into action they would blow away all the fog thus facilitating more sun for the solar panels.
    I always had the theory that hundreds of thousands of wind turbines taking energy out of the atmosphere will alter the weather far for than CO2 ever could.

  92. You’re braver than I am, N :-))! But yes, it’s excellent. I think there’s even a website, listing household tasks it’s good for rectifying.

  93. Starmer must return Elgin Marbles for Brussels reset, ex-EU chief says
    Margaritas Schinas, a former European Commission vice-president, tells the Prime Minister to ‘open a new era of mutual respect’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/28/starmer-must-return-elgin-marbles-for-brussels-reset/

    i.e. The EU demands respect from Brexit Britain but The EU has nothing but contempt for Brexit Britain!

    Once Evila May started surrendering on Brexit showing that she was lying when she said : "Brexit Means Brexit" and "No deal Is Better Than A Bad Deal" the EU realised that the days of Churchill and Thatcher were long gone and that Britain was no longer bold and self-confident but a patsy. (i.e. a country easily taken advantage of, especially by being cheated or blamed for something.)

    Starmer has all the characteristics of the foolish weak man : he caves in when he should be firm and resolute and he is pettishly obstinate when he needs to be reasonable.

    The EU have weighed him up correctly – they know he will be a pushover and do whatever they want him to do

    3. I don't know about a pushover – he's fully signed up to the project! He'll be an enthusiastic supporter of everything they want.

    4. Where's the respect for Lord Elgin practically bankrupting himself to save them from the Turks and the weather?

      1. Where's the mention that they were bought, not stolen, and if they'd been left in situ they would no longer exist?

        1. Not just that, but Lord Elgin taking an interest in them prompted the locals to take a closer look at what they were destroying and recognise the value of the surviving pieces.

  95. Bogey here – I thought that was another toughie!

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  96. Four for me too.

    Wordle 1,288 4/6

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  97. A tough one I found. Par here too.

    Wordle 1,288 4/6

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  99. FYI, anyone who hasn't yet cancelled their Spectator subscription – I scrubbed mine just before Christmas and it came back with an offer of three months for £1 a month for a digital subscription before going back up to £32.99 per quarter. I'll have my three £1 months and then scrub.

    1. £32.99 seems very expensive especially as I’ve been reading it for free for years. Recently free reading has become more difficult as pay walls become less penetrable

      1. Hello Kate. If you go through the cancelation process in your account that should generate a "before you leave us have a £1 a month offer".

        1. Hello A A! listening to Buckley earlier, thought of you…I’ve been through cancellation a couple of times already, possibly for Nelson third time’s the charm, supposed to be terminated in a couple of days. Bovvered? not much, really….K x 😂

          1. Was it the Live at Sin-E Legacy Edition you had on? I have been working my way through quite a bit of Zappa recently, the 80s stuff. I have found it hard work. There's a lightness and whimsy to the early stuff. Still some cracking moments. There's a double album called "Guitar" which is an instrumental effort (fancy that) I would recommend, some excellent guitar playing on there.

            Regarding The Spectator: I have now tapped out. There's far too much Liberal-Left guff on there, it needs to change. This isn't necessarily a call for something that looks Right wing, it's a call for honest thoughtful writing.

          2. I think it was, bought that on your recommendation…I tend to just space out, helps me painting/drawing, make fewer mistakes that way. I don’t know the double, will look out for it, thanks x…….Spectator is a shadow of its former self, both in articles and comments (some of which I think are edited) but Gove was always a snake. Talk about revolving doors. If you have other recommendations, please let me know? For someone lives in a democracy, fast losing faith and doubt I’m the only one A A.

          3. Hey tell you what landed on my door step the other day… a Music from Twin Peaks CD. I’ve not listened to it yet, but already know generally what area we are in from it from the TV series. Digital synth era spookiness. Them synth pads.

          4. Oh my Lord…must be three decades ago? I could never get into it, but I know some who did. Whatever happened to it? Synth pads…😎 😂😂 think there's quite a number of vids on YouTube.

  100. Had a nice drive down to Cornwall, with my daughter. Six plus hours but it was sticky around Stonehenge and we were in her little 1l Corsa. we sang all the way. It was fun! Now with husband and son at the Helford River Sailing Club.

    2. Great weather for crossing the Channel in a dinghy but not for a sailing boat. Enjoy yourselves.

    5. Government responds:

      "If you don't like it, go elsewhere. All these gimmegrants have left plenty of room where they come from."

    8. The morons in Wastemonster and Whitehall who live entirely off public funding never take a blind bit of notice of public opinion.

    9. I will have signed it when I've clicked on the link (have to open up that email address to do it and I've just closed it down). Not that I think it will do any good. Just gives tin ears Starmer a warm glow to see how many people he's p1$$ing off.

  104. I bought a present (along with others) this afternoon, for one of my great nieces. Well, I can’t find it! Searched the car, the porch, the house and the bins! Not a sign of it! It definitely came out of the trolley, and I’m fairly sure it came into the house! What a bummer!
    Edit: and it’s sparkly, so I really shouldn’t have lost it!

    1. Silly question, do you use carrier bags and have you checked it isn't still inside one of the bags?
      We often miss something small when emptying them and folding them into each other for storing between shopping trips.

      1. The girth of my fingers is variable. Some times my signet ring and wedding ring are tight fits and sometimes they are loose fits.

        I once lost my signet ring in a pair of gloves – I took off the glove without realising that the ring had stayed inside it and I did not find the ring until I next wore the pair of gloves having wasted several frantic hours searching.

        I have worn the ring bearing the family crest since my 21st Birthday when my father gave it to me.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/996b49641ccafe1828943f09109b68f4daf85930a63536f95aaaad11872af87d.jpg

        1. I lost mine once, at a village event.
          An announcement came over the tannoy regarding someone losing a ring; I hadn’t realised it had slipped off.
          Nowadays I have great difficulty removing either of them.

    3. In the fridge, Sue? It'll turn up. Sit down, shut your eyes and see yourself getting out of the car and taking things into the house…

    5. Have you looked under the seats in the car? Between the seats/seat cushions? On the drive/path to the house in the shrubbery (if you have one)?

    6. I've hacked into Phizzee's computer to check where his hidden cameras are watching you.

      I like your bathroom and bedroom.
      But so far, no joy on spotting the sparkler.

      1. Yee ha! Found it! It must have slid off the top of the pile of purchases I took up to our bedroom, as I went through the door! It was under my telescope/clothes hanger!
        Thank you all for your excellent advice – it’s so annoying ‘losing’ something you know is around!

        3. Phizzee’s cameras are all over your house.

          I recommend you start by removing the ones in your bedhead and showerhead.

      2. Yee ha! Found it! It must have slid off the top of the pile of purchases I took up to our bedroom, as I went through the door! It was under my telescope/clothes hanger!
        Thank you all for your excellent advice – it’s so annoying ‘losing’ something you know is around!

  105. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    Brits have bleak outlook for 2025
    Steerpike28 December 2024, 2:53pm
    Dear oh dear. The Labour lot have not fared well in opinion polling this year and More in Common’s New Year poll has certainly not bucked that trend. The new survey, which quizzed more than 2,400 people, reveals that half of Brits believe 2025 will be worse than 2024 – while less than a quarter think it will be better. It’s yet more bad news for Starmer’s army…

    The new polling suggests that nearly 20 per cent of people are concerned next year will be ‘much worse’ than the last 12 months – while a quarter believe 2025 will remain the same. Even a third of Labour voters are convinced things will get worse next year, while almost two-thirds of Reform and Tory voters feel the same. Crikey.

    And there are some rather interesting thoughts about what exactly will happen in 2025. Almost a third of Brits think Sir Keir Starmer will resign as PM, with just over a quarter convinced that 2025 will be the year Prince William becomes King. Half of those polled worry AI development will result in ‘serious job losses’ around the world, a quarter hope for a royal baby announcement – and only a fifth expect NHS waiting lists to fall. Might these predictions really come to pass? Stay tuned…

    1. I don't normally celebrate NYE, but I do normally stay up until midnight to "see the New Year in" and first foot. I'm not sure I'll bother this year. The prospects are dire.

      1. I’m going to be in Los Angeles for New Year’s Eve. By the time it arrives everyone I know will have been in bed for hours. Living in the past here in California is disconcerting.
        Hope 2025 will not be any worse than other years but the future is always a great unknown. Makes me think of a clip of Orson Welles at a NYE party with welcome 1939 in the background.

        1. "I'm going to be in Los Angeles for New Year's Eve." Well, I suppose someone has to do it 🙂 My Aussie friends will be in next year way before I get there.

        1. 2024 hasn't been that bad in many ways, but it was getting worse towards the end. There will be 365 days for that worsening to increase, so I'm in no rush for it to arrive.

    2. We don’t need to worry that ‘AI developments will result in serious job losses’ … (around the world) … Labour has guaranteed it with all the tax hikes and promises of more to come.

      There is no way they can seriously believe their policies are to allow/ensure/encourage growth in the U.K. They have guaranteed the exact opposite.

  107. Well she has more balls than most. As Elon Musk observes:

    "Mr Musk took issue with the AfD being branded as “far Right”, instead deeming the party advocates of political realism without the political correctness.

    Pointing to Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, who has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka, he said: “Does that sound like Hitler to you?”, adding: “To those who condemn the AfD as extremist, I say: Don’t be fooled by the label attached to it.”

  109. Proud of my par. I wen off at a complete tanget and found success.

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  110. BS of course. The only black Africans in the Roman Empire got there via the Arab slave markets. The Romans didn’t believe it was worth expending resources on Sub-Saharan Africa. The wokies tend not understand the difference between Sub-Saharan and North Africa.

    1. In the village of Burgh-by-Sands is a plaque which reads "The first recorded African community in Britain guarded a Roman fort on this site 3rd century AD". The African guest proclaimed: "I came here to honour the ancestors, to honour the black history that's right here in the English countryside. Black people have been here. People of colour have been here. We belong here."

      The programme even dared to imply a link with Syria and refugees because some Roman archers allegedly came from what is now Syria.

      Not available on iPlayer but I found this (without sub-titles) on Dailymotion:
      https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8cx3u4

      The prime bullshit begins at about 23:40.

  113. Evening, all, Local rag is warning of "severe weather", i e snow and fog, coming down from the north for the New Year. Just as well I wasn't planning on going anywhere, then.

    As Kemi Badenoch was part of the non-Tory Tories, it's unlikely, tainted as she is, that she would be able to convince people that a leopard really has changed its spots.

    4. Nah, can't be. Its the warmest year ever, well in the last 150 years. Oh, and that is if you believe they the can measure the temperature of a complex planetary system.

  117. I know it's still early but I've had enough today headaches, sneezing and coughing like it's about to go out of fashion.
    I'm recording Zoe Wanamaker on Charles Dickens. She is the image of one of my aunt's, a lovely lady, now long gone.
    Night all 😴

    1. Can you provide a link to this programme, Ready Eddy? I'm a great Dickens fan and would love to watch or listen to it at a later date. Thanks.

      1. I'm awake again after a 'bathroom break' do you have catch up on your home TV system EB ? You'll be able to find it on there. That's really the best I can do to help. 🤗

    2. Can you provide a link to this programme, Ready Eddy? I'm a great Dickens fan and would love to watch or listen to it at a later date. Thanks.

  120. Re losing stuff. My (lovely) daughter managed to lose her mobile phone earlier this year. Long story, involving her lack of internet at home and her (inherited) miserliness.

    Her story is, she switched off her mobile data as she left her office; went to her car, which is in the basement of the building where her office is; and drove to her house (where she parked on the drive). The phone has not been seen since, and, because she had turned her data off, we haven’t been able to track it.

    An expensive mistake, as she had to biy herself a new phone.

    1. Has your daughter tried phoning her phone to hear if there is a ring tone? A thief would have removed the SIM. And has she searched her little car thoroughly with the help of a bright torch?

    2. Has your daughter tried phoning her phone to hear if there is a ring tone? A thief would have removed the SIM. And has she searched her little car thoroughly with the help of a bright torch?

  121. Thanks, hadn’t realised. I think most small cinemas have closed now, can find more or less anything online. Last time I went, more or less empty, and very expensive. Want to say what the film you wanted to see was?😊

  122. It was a sort of "Flicks in the Sticks" because we don't have any cinemas locally. I am not ashamed to admit that I wanted to see the film version of Downton Abbey.

    1. I think the local one is similar. Used to be in a large, draughty building, looked quite magnificent in poor light. Never more than half a dozen people, last time I went. Downton Abbey – no shame there, Maggie Smith (as ever) magnificent. Did you ever see her in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie?

      1. This was in the local Civic Centre. Modern, but warm – and we got a cup of tea and a biscuit. Can't recall seeing the film TPoMJB, but I heard about it. I don't actually watch many films.

      1. Yuk! I got a bargain yesterday in Saiburys! A whole salmon down from £32 to £7.99! So I filleted it and now have 10 very decent steaks in the freezer! The head, tail and bits are in the wheelie bin!

  124. Apropos of nothing, I received a dozen books for Christmas and have just finished one – In The Middle of Nowhere. I've been to Metheringham several times, so it was interesting to read the stories of people who served there. Sort of fleshed out the bare bones, so to speak.

  125. I didn't think I'd be able to post that – I haven't been able to post images since I got this laptop a year ago!

    2. It’s finally ‘broken in’ ! Do you remember the days when new cars had stickers on the back window saying ‘Running in – please pass’?

  126. It was good, 1969, went with a boyfriend. From a Muriel Spark novel, also good. Currently watching Breaking Bad, perhaps you don't watch that either 😊

        1. Book. Hobbies as well; gardening (weather permitting), painting (when I get the time), amateur radio (for special event stations), coaching dressage (used to be riding but I've got lots of joint problems now). Other things to fill my time as well (meetings, coffee mornings, fellowship lunches, RAFA, walking the dog …).

          1. You sound to have a full diary…best to keep mind and body occupied. I have ‘loose joints’ (hypermobility) too, but I manage OK, it’s not too bad. My dogs are old now, sleep most of the time. Goodnight, Conway 🙂

          3. I guess from horseriding? Tell me tmrw what subjects you like to paint (if it was that sort of painting) and medium…guessing oils, landscapes..horses? Sleep well, Conway 😴

          4. I dabble in just about every medium. I paint horses, dogs and landscapes. Useless at 3D work and can’t get my head around printing.

          5. I’ve used most too, now settled on Daler traditional (not acrylic) gouache, not quite as heavy as W&N. I had enough of printing when I still worked.

          6. Good morning, Conway – hope you slept well and up for the fight, as usual 🙂 Think I may have figured out dog’s problem (or one of them). I have two dogs both used to be on PetPlan but husband cancelled the D/D. I think dog nay have worms – he has all the signs apart from not seen any actual worms, have ordered wormer and will see how that goes. See you later, Kate x

  127. BBC radio news, 9pm:

    A senior editor at the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag on Sonntag has resigned after it published an article by Elon Musk praising the far-right AfD party. Mr Musk said it was the only party that could save Germany and denied it was extremist.

    Nothing on the website yet but this has appeared in the house newspaper:

    Shortly after the piece was published online, the editor of the opinion section, Eva Marie Kogel, used the US tech mogul's own platform to post on X that she had submitted her resignation.

    "I always enjoyed heading the opinion department at Welt and Wams. Today a text by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. Yesterday I submitted my resignation after printing," she posted.

    Later, the newspaper published a response:

    "Musk's diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally false," he wrote, referencing the AfD's desire to leave the European Union and seek rapprochement with Russia as well as appease China.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/28/elon-musk-germany-afd-party

    1. I would concur that only a good Treaty with Russia will save Germany. Otto Von Bismarck understood this a century past and stated as much.

      It is high time for sovereign European countries to ditch the EU and its rotten institutions and return to the status of peaceful nation states cooperating with each other on trade and security. Good relations with Russia, a vastly more wealthy country in both resources and technical advancements, is in their interests.

      I expect it will be Trump who will cause this essential rethink in the attitude of NATO member countries towards neighbouring Russia. At the very least I hope so.

    2. Sensible woman. She can now retire in peace and solitude rather than being thrown in front of a train.

    3. I reckon that should be worth a few thousand votes for the AfD.
      Tbh, Musk supporting them makes them look a bit…compromised.

  129. So when asked if she was going to try mounjaro this year

    Diane Abbot replied, no fear it is far too expensive, plus I'm far to old to go climbing mountains in Africa

        3. ♬"The wild dogs cry out in the night
          As they grow restless longing for some solitary company
          I know that I must do what's right
          Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti…"♬

  130. They’ll certainly try it. But it’s a government IT project so it’s DOOMED TO FAILURE.

    Your family made a mistake! the days of making a killing on Bitcoin are over though I fear, as it’s being promoted to the public now.
    I think it will be pushed up into a bubble, and then will collapse at some point. The reason is that Bitcoin transatctions are linked to Tether. Tether is a crypotcurrency backed one to one by US dollars. I have forgotten the details, but the higher the Btc price goes, the more tethers are needed. Guess how tether backs itself? By buying US treasuries!
    So pumping the bitcoin bubble enables the US to increase their debt by selling treasuries to tether, which is now the 18th largest buyer of these things, or so I read. Another scam by the fraudsters that run the US financial system.

    There are more reliable assets than bitcoin to buy to preserve one’s wealth.
    And small silver coins for bartering when they try the failed CBDC experiment.

    1. I recall early days…huge swings, but worth it on the upside. If we do ever have DC it will come from America. Meantime, we have CCs which are a type of digital, one that’s controllable by banks and gov’t. Elimination of cash will make us reliant on cards, to be blanked at will.

      1. There have been a few CBDC pilot projects and afaik, none of them have been successful. The Nigerians have been particularly ingenious at avoiding the eNaira I believe. The govt deliberately reduced the amount of cash in the economy in an attempt to get them to use it.

        1. I guess the motto could be ‘if it ain’t broken don’t fix it’. Similarly, Green Agenda/Net Zero…people aren’t buying that agenda either.

          1. The money IS broken though! But the answer is to go back to a gold standard, not try some CBDC digital prison.

          2. Yes…inflation. Agree, but unlikely to happen. Weren’t the Chinese/Russians planning something along similar lines but couldn’t agree, nothing came of it.

          3. I think it’ll happen, they are still kicking around ideas. I fear they will never want to put precious metals back into the hands of ordinary citizens (because gold and silver are so worthless and pointless…eye-roll…). They’ll try to make some fudge and pass it off as a gold standard in the west at least. They’ll set it up so that it will fail over the medium term and then they can say Oh, gold standards are worthless and take us back onto fiat currency.
            China is estimated to have 25000 + tonnes of gold though and he who has the gold makes the rules… They’re a significant producer and none has been exported for years, plus what they’ve bought.
            The US claims to have 8000 tonnes, but it hasn’t been audited for years.

          4. Coins will no doubt be heavier than notes, also a lot and I mean a lot of online shopping, all digital – very easy to control. Could there be riots, Soylent Green style? US probably has around half of that amount? I think the future is even more digital, older people like cash more than the young. Someone bought a piece of equipment from husband a few years ago, that sort of transaction still often cash. The reason for digital, so they say, is to stop money laundering/drugs..could that be right, BB, what d’you think?

          5. Many people doubt the US has any gold left! It is said that there have been various schemes over the years whereby the gold was leased out to banks who then paid an income to the US govt. Only problem, they sold teh gold and invested the money in order to do so. Just stories that people say.

            I think the old “money laundering” excuse is just what they trot out when they want to restrict people’s freedoms. In the EU, they recently prohibited the purchase of land and buildings with gold. Because of “money laundering” apparently. Yeah right! They can see another Weimar coming, and they don’t want people profiting out of it.
            However much they legislate against money laundering, crime never seems to reduce.

            I think people’s attachment to cash is a cultural thing. My son says that cash is king in Korea – also among younger people. Just the other day, I got charged a 2 pound surcharge for buying a coach ticket from national express with cash. I gave the young, eastern European girl my opinion about efforts to force us to use digital money! She was aware and agreed completely!

          6. I believe BofE is printing fewer and fewer notes as the years go by – they say because new notes are ‘plastic’ therefore last longer. It is true I haven’t seen any older notes in quite a long time. I wonder how crims deal with digital currency, surely they will only deal with cash buyers for drugs and the like. Perhaps barter. You can likely tell I haven’t given this much thought. I believe cash still changes hands at dog fights, and also fist fights. There’s an underworld many of us either don’t recognise, don’t wish to, or daren’t to. Businesses, especially small ones, don’t like to hold much cash – robbery, even when going to safe at the bank end of the day. Very interesting cash is still king in Korea, something else for me to take a look at, thx BB2. The days seem long gone when it was reported young people would travel to European raves with nothing but a card in their pocket 🙂

          7. Nail bars, barber shops, fast food outlets….it’s said that they use monero for international transfers, but I have no personal experience either 🙂

  131. Right, other than a bit of shopping and getting a pan of broth started, not a lot done today.
    T'Lad is back from his trip to see friends in Bury and is stopping overnight.

    Goodnight all.

    1. I trust that Robert Kennedy Jnr will eventually manage to persuade President Trump that the vaccine roll out at ‘warp speed’ was a forgivably stupid error.

      Trump seems even now to cling to the idea that his response to the Covid pandemic was effective. Big man that he is Trump should admit simply that he acted on wrong advice and that he deeply regrets his actions.

      Trump should then give free rein to Kennedy and informed persons such as Mike Yeadon and others to investigate and reach scientifically researched conclusions.

      I just hope that the entire mRNA vaccine industry will be exposed as the main agency of harm to populations that it plainly has become. As a bonus that would destroy Rishi Sunak and his Moderna investments and put the freak behind bars.

    2. I trust that Robert Kennedy Jnr will eventually manage to persuade President Trump that the vaccine roll out at ‘warp speed’ was a forgivably stupid error.

      Trump seems even now to cling to the idea that his response to the Covid pandemic was effective. Big man that he is Trump should admit simply that he acted on wrong advice and that he deeply regrets his actions.

      Trump should then give free rein to Kennedy and informed persons such as Mike Yeadon and others to investigate and reach scientifically researched conclusions.

      I just hope that the entire mRNA vaccine industry will be exposed as the main agency of harm to populations that it plainly has become. As a bonus that would destroy Rishi Sunak and his Moderna investments and put the freak behind bars.

  134. Goodnight, all. Hot water bottle is in the bed and I'm about to stoke the Rayburn and retire. Sleep well.

  135. Good evening all of you.

    Moh and I have been focussing on the jigsaw puzzles I purchased from charity shops for Christmas ..

    Apart from taking the dog for long walks and eating leftover turkey , etc, catching up with long distance relatives , Christmas was over and done with .. We didn't do presents for each other , because we have an expensive month behind us as well as in front of us, however I prepared some nice food , no1 son has had several races to compete in including another short run ,the 5k Weymouth Park run, he did very well .

    I liked this article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/28/make-oracy-the-fourth-r-of-education-theatre-boss-says/

    Make oracy the fourth ‘R’ of education, theatre boss says
    Rufus Norris, the outgoing head of the National Theatre, wants children to learn oral language skills across the curriculum.

    1. You do realise that now we have a Labour government all jigsaw puzzles bought from charity shops have to have at least one piece missing. It's the law !

  136. Talk about spooky coincidences. I've just watched the 1978 version of Death on the Nile, the one starriing Peter Ustinov as Poirot. One of the actresses in that film was a young Olivia Hussey, who I've not seen appearing in anything for decades.

    A soon as the film was finished I checked to news to discover that Hussey died, just yesterday, at the age of 73. An utterly weird coincidence!

  138. Well, chums, I just couldn't keep my eyes open at around 9 pm so I went upstairs for an hour's kip and have just awoken at midnight. I wish you all a Good Night; sleep well and see you all in the morning. As for me, I shall now have a go at Sunday's Wordle ready for Sunday's NoTTLe page, then watch an episode on Talking Pictures TV of Bruno Cremer as Maigret, then continue with a bit of early Spring Cleaning before going back to bed.

      1. It’s always more fun (?) cleaning someone else’s house. Maybe you are on to something. We should all swap for a week!!!!

        Edit: my mum always says she likes coming to my house as she can see results of her cleaning…

  139. Does anyone know why the Egyptian terrorist head of the WHO was in Yemen during the Israeli air strike. I would have thought he would have been in a deep shelter at the WEF headquarters in Geneva.

    1. There was an expression in Oz back in the day,……..jeeze givus a beer mate I'm as dry as a dead dingo's donga. 🤠

    1. Not forgetting that the parent pockets 6 pounds for government expenses. If all parents did that, we'd never have another Labour government!

        1. That would be abusive!! I guess it would be OK if they were role-playing teh government, in the interests of accuracy.

    2. Good evening Geoff, missed your post earlier, now almost 9pm. Hope you are well, and had a good day. Lol Kate x

    1. I would have done, but darling husband, having been born and bred in Buckie, is not over fond of fishy smells! I know..I could have pressure cooked it!

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