Saturday 30 December: It’s not just the wealthiest who are punished by inheritance tax

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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485 thoughts on “Saturday 30 December: It’s not just the wealthiest who are punished by inheritance tax”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    Headlines from the American Papers – or how not to use English!
    Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says
    Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
    Safety Experts Say School Bus Passengers Should Be Belted
    Drunk Gets Nine Months in Violin Case
    Survivor of Siamese Twins Joins Parents
    Farmer Bill Dies in House
    Iraqi Head Seeks Arms
    Stud Tires Out
    Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
    Soviet Virgin Lands Short of Goal Again
    British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands
    Lung Cancer in Women Mushrooms
    Eye Drops off Shelf
    Reagan Wins on Budget, But More Lies Ahead
    Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim
    Enraged Cow Injures Farmer with Axe

    1. Great fun again, Sir Jasper. And the one about “Iraq Head Seeks Arms” reminds me of a poem we were introduced to at school which contained the deliberate joke. “A cannonball blew off the soldier’s legs, so he laid down his arms”. Must Google that and see if I can find it. I just love word-play, as you may have guessed.

      POSTSCRIPT: Google found it. Written by Thomas Hood, a friend of Charles Dickens, one of my favourite authors, it is called:

      FAITHLESS NELLY GRAY

      Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
      And used to war’s alarms;
      But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
      So he laid down his arms.

      Now as they bore him off the field,
      Said he, ‘Let others shoot;
      For here I leave my second leg,
      And the Forty-second Foot.’

      The army-surgeons made him limbs:
      Said he, ‘They’re only pegs;
      But there’s as wooden members quite,
      As represent my legs.’

      Now Ben he loved a pretty maid, —
      Her name was Nelly Gray;
      So he went to pay her his devours,
      When he devoured his pay.

      But when he called on Nelly Gray,
      She made him quite a scoff;
      And when she saw his wooden legs,
      Began to take them off.

      ‘O Nelly Gray! O Nelly Gray!
      Is this your love so warm?
      The love that loves a scarlet coat
      Should be a little more uniform.’

      Said she, ‘I loved a soldier once,
      For he was blithe and brave;
      But I will never have a man
      With both legs in the grave.’

      ‘Before you had those timber toes
      Your love I did allow;
      But then, you know, you stand upon
      Another footing now.’

      ‘O Nelly Gray! O Nelly Gray!
      For all your jeering speeches,
      At duty’s call I left my legs
      In Badajos’s breaches.’

      ‘Why, then,’ said she, ‘you’ve lost the feet
      Of legs in war’s alarms,
      And now you cannot wear your shoes
      Upon your feats of arms!’

      ‘O false and fickle Nelly Gray!
      I know why you refuse:
      Though I’ve no feet, some other man
      Is standing in my shoes.’

      ‘I wish I ne’er had seen your face;
      But, now, a long farewell!
      For you will be my death — alas!
      You will not be my Nell!’

      Now when he went from Nelly Gray
      His heart so heavy got,
      And life was such a burden grown,
      It made him take a knot.

      So round his melancholy neck
      A rope he did intwine,
      And, for his second time in life,
      Enlisted in the Line.

      One end he tied around a beam,
      And then removed his pegs;
      And, as his legs were off — of course
      He soon was off his legs.

      And there he hung till he was dead
      As any nail in town;
      For, though distress had cut him up,
      It could not cut him down.

      A dozen men sat on his corpse,
      To find out why he died, —
      And they buried Ben in four cross-roads
      With a stake in his inside.

      1. And Thomas Hood’s Faithless Sally Brown’s paramour had a punful end!

        His death which happened in his berth
        At forty odd befell
        They went and told the sexton
        And the sexton tolled the bell.

  2. Morning all. The latest RNLI debacle:

    “ THE RNLI has refused to accept a donation from a fox hunt in Ireland that had planned a New Year’s Eve fundraiser for the charity.

    The Dungarvan Foxhounds Supporters Club was hoping to raise money for the lifeboat organisation on Sunday.

    It wrote on its Facebook page that “members of the RNLI will hold a bucket collection boosted by a cap donation from the club” at its annual Christmas charity event and meet on New Year’s Eve.

    Supporters were urged to “come early or bring a friend on foot or mounted” to raise funds for lifeboat volunteers who patrol the coastline off Waterford in Ireland. But bosses at the RNLI’s head office in Poole, Dorset, wrote to the hunt to explain that the charity would only accept donations from organisations “in keeping with the values of the institution”.

    In a statement, the hunt said: “Regrettably the RNLI HQ have declined our fundraising efforts on New Year’s Eve. So, new plan to be decided in the coming days.”

    The move triggered a clash between the pro and anti-hunting lobby on social media about whether a life-saving charity should accept donations from fox hunters. Chris Packham, the naturalist and and presenter, backed the RNLI decision, prompting scores of animal rights activists to follow suit. “Wake up!,” he wrote on social media. “The whole wide world is sick of the barbaric, anachronistic, entitled and abject cruelty to wildlife still currently perpetuated by hunting.

    “Top work by the RNLI, a charity dedicated to saving lives – not wasting them. Maybe offer your blood money to the weapons industry?”

    A spokesman for the RNLI said: “The RNLI was approached by a local hunt club in Ireland who wished to hold a bucket collection with fundraising branch volunteers at an upcoming live fox hunt. This request was considered by the RNLI and declined.

    “As a charity that saves lives at sea and on inland waters and which operates across both the UK and Ireland, the RNLI reserves the right to decline donations.

    “ The practice of fox hunting is one that evokes strong feelings in many, including our volunteers and supporters, from all sides of the debate.

    “We are grateful for the support that our communities give to our lifesavers and the decisions taken on donations are done in consideration of supporting them and ensuring that our core focus remains on the mission of the charity.”

    ‘The whole wide world is sick of the barbaric, entitled and abject cruelty perpetuated by hunting’

    Gary McCartney, the director of the Countryside Alliance Ireland, said: “It is disappointing that a charity which provides such an important service would turn down donations raised by the rural community taking part in an entirely lawful activity. We sincerely hope the RNLI reconsiders their position, and work with rural people going forward, rather than alienating them”.

    The hunt supporters club did not respond to a request for a comment.”

    I would add, the practice of taxiing illegal immigrants to England also “evokes strong emotions in some”…

    1. Taxiing – yes, that’s why the RNLI are no longer in our wills. Did a lot of fundraising for them when younger, now no more.

      1. Good morning,
        My late father was a strong supporter of the RNLI. Since his untimely passing in the 1980s, this once worthy charity has changed beyond all recognition; he would no longer recognise it. No doubt they still carry out ‘proper’ rescues, but that has been eclipsed by its unjustifiable work aiding and abetting the border farce and traffickers.

        1. If you believed their begging adverts, they only ever rescue white people. I have better things to do with my money.

    2. Everything has become political with freedoms being removed by the far left all the time. The RNLI has become a far left organisation. what a pity.

      1. This nonsense surfaced with “Mug Gate” when some bint from head office took umbrage over a jokey birthday gift from his friends to one of the volunteers.

    4. Dungarvan is in the Irish Republic. Why would the Royal National Lifeboat Institution be operating there?

      1. The RNLI work through the UN funded by the International Developement fund. Meaning the British taxpayer is teaching Bangaldeshi’s how to swim while we continue to close our swimming pools because their is no money.

      3. Be interesting to find out if they accept donations from Roman Catholic priests who may have abused children?

      4. I was on a small boat course in Cowes at the same time as about 15 Irish lads were training with the RNLI. Good bunch and all from the Republic. And as a coincidence I was fishing for bass from the golf course side of Dungarvan estuary a dozen years ago as an upside down canoe whizzed past with the outgoing tide. Clinging to the tail end was a fisherman (still holding his rod) and a small RNLI rescue craft in pursuit.

    5. I wouldn’t give a penny to the illegal immigrant taxi service. I would, however, donate to the Hunt Servants’ Benevolent Society (which, thanks to the antis, can no longer hold a collection at meets). Packham knows sod all about hunting. I don’t know about Ireland, but here hunting is following pre-laid trails.

  3. Wordle 924 4/6

    Good morning, chums, here I am again. A good result for Wordle today: I got it in four – or was it three? Anyhow I am happy with the result.

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

    Now to look for Sir Jasper’s morning joke. Enjoy your day.

  8. It’s not just the wealthiest who are punished by inheritance tax

    They cannot really allow generational inherited wealth among the lower & middle classes, they might realise the benefit of having a strong family unit that then might become a threat to the control of the rich and powerful

  9. ‘Morning All

    Medley Time

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d85d5eb4b95b0cd5b6b7180057be90cd6cbd3227346174eeae06e5a1e6aa48a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/878c9301a8007633de70903e26fb17eb469816bc6d6a8a53b36591e90ec4e3b8.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1339325ccbd730a18255dae52d55214897e0e27ec3e528e93cae5d999662cbb8.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/277c459812f6b191184b862ca77b14afc634f148bcf9d6154f1846a1bb217d8b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bfaba1005b870ba6c184b30d1cdf17228d90133aef758b3e684c5596085cf94c.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/20c24ffc5d52abc7acd79036cf781860532e67b9929e9ff7eaf91b261f9fbd82.jpg

    Finally,”What could possibly go wrong”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0befb453bc14e5e0bf59b13821584d64c812436bb3e22b648be4317a387376ee.png

    1. I like the Poles, or at least pretty much all of the ones I have met – I do feel sorry that Tusk, an arch Eurocrat, has somehow managed to take power in their country.. God help them!

      1. Fixed election?
        I, too, like all the Polish people I have met. My first contact with Polish people was as a child, when an elderly Polish couple (they seemed elderly at the time but were probably no older than 50) lived in our street. The man had flown with the RAF during WW2. His wife was fondly known to all the local children as ‘Nanna Fox.’
        Now living not too far from South Holland, we had quite a number of Polish families at our local village primary school. Without exception, they were decent people who expected their children to behave and work hard in school. Not that the same can be said of many of their compatriots in Spalding or Boston!

        1. There is a big difference between the Europeans who settled in the UK after WW2 because they had fled their own countries and couldn’t go home and the huge invasion post-2003 which saw large parts of modest English towns turned into enclaves full of jabbering Slavs.

          I went to school in the 60s and 70s with the sons and daughters of European refugees: Poles, Hungarians, Yugoslavs, Cypriots, Maltese, Italians. In most cases the fathers were the immigrants and the mothers British but even where they weren’t the children were brought up to be British. That was the way it had to be. Their numbers were relatively small and they had to fit in, although the Italians remained quite Italian!

          So many arrived with the eastward expansion of the EU, often as whole families, that there was less pressure on the parents to learn English. They have stuck together. This is human nature. They are not absorbed as the post-WW2 immigrants were. Large parts of our towns and cities are not British anymore and even if the European immigrants are not hostile to Western life as are some immigrants, their arrival in such numbers has changed our country in a way that no one would ever have allowed had they been asked.

          Here’s Steve Jacks from the DT letters column in 2013:

          Nothing against Poles. Nothing against any nationality per se, but I don’t understand why we’re now expected to accommodate a couple of million Polish people arriving in a handful of years and pretend that it’s nothing but an unmitigated boon, bowing down in humble gratitude at the supermen and women from the old Soviet block as if our lives weren’t complete until they graced us with their presence.

          Polish people are just fine. But that hardly seems the point, as far as I’m concerned. Massive unlimited immigration designed to change Britain radically, rapidly and permanently is only a smidge less bitter pill ‘cos the folks are called Mieszko, Katarzyna, Krzysztof, Andrzej and somethin-ski rather than Mohammad, Mohamad, Muhamad, Muhammad or something-Nbogo. Ok, a big smidge, but still, it’s not floating my boat as much as it seems to everyone else’s.

          And I’m getting bored with all the WW2 stuff. Yeah, I get it, Poland did their bit, but as I understand it we went to war on their behalf after they got invaded and conquered in 5 minutes flat. Yep, so a fair few Poles joined the resistance and Allied forces. Ok, that’s to be expected, no? Why are we supposed to marvel at that?

          Battle of Britain pilots by nationality:
          What is beyond dispute is that the names on the monuments in London and at Dover are correct. 2,917 men flew in the battle. Of them 2,334 were British, 145 Polish, 126 New Zealanders, 99 Canadian, 88 Czechoslovakians, 33 Australian, 29, Belgian, 25 South African, 13 French, 11 American, 10 Irish, 3 Rhodesians, and 1 Jamaican.
          (source: Norman Tebbit blog – names on the monuments in London and in Dover)

          To me that says I’d rather go and put some flowers on my British grandparents grave or go out and buy an old British fella dinner or a drink at the bar than subordinate the efforts of my own ancestors to spend my time lavishing praise on some Polish 20-somethings whose ancestors were fighting for their own country, not mine.

          Anyway, whatever. I suppose I’ll just stick to the party line that Polish people are utterly amazing and perfect and it’s all good and bring on a few more million Bulgarian and Romanians and isn’t it just all enriching and vibrant and diverse, hooray.

          1. Brexit may have stopped the influx from Eastern Europe but has done nothing to stem the tide from elsewhere.

  10. The UN sends more asylum seekers to Rwanda – despite opposing Britain’s scheme to send migrants to the country

    UN is branded ‘double-dealing’ for sending more asylum seekers to Rwanda
    Gov’t insider said UN ‘two-faced sh****’ with ‘more brass neck than C-3PO’
    By DAVID BARRETT HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR

    PUBLISHED: 00:23, 30 December 2023 | UPDATED: 01:58, 30 December 2023

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12911401/asylum-seekers-Rwanda-Britain-migrants.html

    1. If anyone should ask, it’s nailed on that sufficient PCR primers are available to confirm the presence of this “variant”.

      IIRC, during the ‘Plandemic’, testing was off the scale and the number of cases burgeoned. Just how many PCR machines existed in the testing centres?

      They, i.e. the government and its agents, have demonstrated that they are incapable of organising/overseeing a long in the planning infrastructure project i.e. HS2 but a surprise “virus” arising, no problem with providing testing kits, primers, analysis machines, trained personnel to oversee/operate intricate methods, beds etc for the Nightingales, “vaccines” etc. all in short order. The outlier in all of this amazing organisational feat was the provision of the most basic equipment, PPE. A scandal in its own right.

      All you doubters of the government’s and its agents’ ability to organise and act should think again: they/it can do it when the “need” arises.

      Interesting short video re PCR that prompted a longer comment than I planned initially.

      PCR Testing for Dummies?

    2. Unfortunately, the mass of people ARE morons. I even had my younger son questioning why I refuse to submit to any more jabbies.

    1. 381020 + up ticks,

      O2O,
      I do believe the need is most certainly there via serious used people power, to demand a brace of the alleged political / pharmaceutical
      hierarchy to explain in court, to MASS satisfaction, just what has / is taking place.

      It is certainly NOT the time for gearing up for
      a General Election and a guarantee of more of the same rerun of death via lockdown, and
      selective culling.

      1. It still used the spike protein and has been shown to cause fatal blood clots. I had two jabs of that stuff before it was withdrawn – I think I dodged a bullet there.

  13. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/29811e72df268d20729814a65df695de3a984e1f/0_0_4000_2667/master/4000.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=f930ae24f855193fef8047a37160a7da
    Macaques huddle together for warmth at a hot spring in Nagano, Japan. Known as snow monkeys, the animals soak in the 40C water every day during cold weather, spending their bathtime grooming, snoozing and playing on visitors’ camera tripods.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/cd404182516550c044ce518ba90ff17d332f7c43/0_0_4000_2667/master/4000.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=1ff3c493e8745d681a32373d79a6a701
    Elephants feed as the rain finally falls in Hwange national park, northern Zimbabwe. The region has been hit by weeks of drought and high temperatures, causing the deaths of more than 100 elephants. The park maintains solar-powered boreholes for its animals, but authorities say even these cannot provide enough water during an El Niño year such as this one.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f8a401f316a22b7e0752ef8511ed4b0f52e20df8/0_0_7360_4912/master/7360.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=0df134a527df050f4cc3e9231fbbec05
    An Indian one-horned rhino grazes at the Pobitora wildlife sanctuary, Assam, India. In conservation terms, the species is a huge success. There were only about 200 left at the start of the 20th century; now they number more than 4,000, partly thanks to a ‘baby boom’ that occurred during the pandemic, when they were largely left alone by humans.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3467fe593dea0f6d36cc3f330db02f9f71553d34/0_0_3859_2563/master/3859.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=aee4d10c7744d5e06ec4cb038f0099f0
    A rare sighting on a mild Christmas Day of waxwings in south London. The flock of 13 was feeding on berries from a pink rowan tree in a garden. The waxwings have migrated across from Scandinavia due to a shortage of food there and have been sighted across the UK.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3e491b755da922e2c7943e89519d7944eb3fde18/0_0_4134_2756/master/4134.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=b1daf103db976d3890d3795cf680ba50
    Flamingos appear even more long-legged than usual as they’re reflected in Larnaca salt lake, Cyprus.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8914a524b1bb699c04c6ed7af9f089afddd2fe80/0_346_4155_2494/master/4155.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=78e7012c24384b1b3585e4f481feb298
    Sea lions obstruct the path of riot police during clashes with fishers who are protesting against the government after the repeal of the existing fishing law and the non-payment of promised bonuses in Valparaíso, Chile.

  16. Good morning all.
    A miserable damp morning, raining with 0°C on the Yard Thermometer and from the sounds outside, my black, non-recycling bin has just been emptied.

  17. Good Moaning.
    There are times when one’s imagination just can’t rise to the challenge.

    “US university chancellor sacked for vegan porn videos

    Adult stars and Dr Joe Gow’s wife also appear online in cookery-themed ‘sex scenes with a plant-powered couple’”

    3. Anne,
      I bought some oranges recently; checking on the label for thiabendazole (TBZ), I noticed the phrase ‘Not suitable for vegans’. I wonder if the warning originated from A&E.

  18. QUENTIN LETTS advice for 2024

    Archbishop of Canterbury — swear box to be sited at Lambeth Palace to try to stop His Grace saying naughty words whenever he thinks about the Tory party.

    Duke of York — to move to the shires and become a dairy farmer. Much more fruitful than waiting at Windsor for forgiveness.

    Rishi Sunak — to give up that executive jet. Plenty of time for the billionaire lifestyle after Downing Street, Prime Minister.

    Sir Keir Starmer — to grow a handlebar moustache in the hope it gives him political personality.

    Gary Lineker — to book into that monastery on Mount Athos during the general election campaign.

    BORIS JOHNSON: Let 2024 be the year we champion true democracy

    All members of the Supreme Court — to spend a few nights in Doncaster.

    Sadiq Khan — deportment lessons to teach him to walk without strutting.

    Prince Harry — it will take some practice, but ‘Sorry, Dad’ really need not be the hardest words.

    Eddie Izzard — to stop eyeing up seats.

    Omid Scobie — to resist plucking his eyebrows. Embrace the concept of wilding, honey. You are never going to be the next Liz Taylor.

    Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey — if only for his own sanity rather than ours, to stop using those bogus campaign graphs that overstate the Lib Dem vote.

    Piers Morgan — no more Mr Nice Guy in 2024. It’s time to put aside all this modesty.

    Sir Humphrey — to accept the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum.

    Civil servants — to WFO (work from office, or maybe work for once).

    Emmanuel Macron — there comes a point in every middle-aged monsieur’s life when he must accept that he’s going a bit thin on top and ‘le combover’ is starting to look foolish.

    Suella Braverman — to let Nurse take away that voodoo doll of Rishi.

    Baroness Hallett — to rip up everything her Covid Inquiry has done so far and start the whole thing again, this time with a six-month deadline.

    Inquiry lawyer Hugo Keith KC — to stop imagining the sound of serenading saxophones every day that he heads for work.

    Nicola Sturgeon — driving lessons for the motorhome.

    Suella Braverman — to let Nurse take away that voodoo doll of Rishi

    Boris Johnson — to patch things up with Rishi.

    Joe Biden — Mr President, you have had a good run but it has now become embarrassing and the Democrats need a younger candidate.

    Prince William — to keep going with the Welsh lessons. Daliwch ati, bach. Or, as we say east of Offa’s Dyke, keep at it, boy.

    Robert Peston — to stop making the panellists of Radio 4’s Just A Minute look taciturn.

    Rebekah Vardy — to stop going in studs-up.

    The office for budget responsibility — to recruit a gypsy fortune-teller with a crystal ball and a knotted headscarf to replace its forecasters.

    Baroness Mone — to chair the next series of The Apprentice. It would become must-watch telly.

    Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg — to visit a discotheque.

    Erling Haaland — to stop arguing with the ref over the result of the Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066) and claiming ‘Harald Hardrada was onside’.

    Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham — to return to Westminster. Labour’s front bench is pathetically underpowered.

    Queen Camilla — to persuade the King to stop working such long days.

    Joe Biden — Mr President, you have had a good run but it has now become embarrassing and the Democrats need a younger candidate

    Home Secretary James Cleverly — to undo that straining middle button on his jacket. As Scotty on Star Trek used to say ‘She cannae take any more, cap’n’.

    Russell Brand — short-back-and-sides haircuts once a month from now on, please.

    Rachel Reeves — numeracy lessons for the Shadow Chancellor, with special attention to tax-and-spend sums.

    Lord Mandelson — to tell us what he really thinks about Sue Gray, his deadly rival for Sir Keir’s affections.

    ‘Money expert’ Martin Lewis — to retire to a sun-kissed island in the Caribbean. If he’s such a financial whizz, he can surely afford it.

    Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley — to come and sit in my office and see if he can work when that lunatic Left-wing protester Steve Bray is doing his stuff on the other side of Parliament Square.

    Jeremy Clarkson — to stop trying to do wheelies in his combine harvester.

    Harriet Harman — to no longer model herself on the New Testament’s head-on-a-platter princess Salome.

    Deputy prime minister Oliver ‘Olive’ Dowden — to stop hiding under his desk every time that his forthright Cabinet colleagues Kemi Badenoch or Gillian Keegan wander into Downing Street.

    … and what they got for Christmas
    Liz Truss — after her brief stint as PM, a Blankety Blank cheque book and pen.

    Nigel Farage — a piggybank.

    Wes Streeting — mirrors. Shadow Health Secretary Wes can never have too many.

    Yvette Cooper — a tickling stick, laughing gas, a Mr Bean box-set; anything, dear Lord, to make the poor cabbage stop scowling.

    Angela Rippon — after her exertions on Strictly, several tubes of Deep Heat.

    Lord Cameron — ermine- lined pyjamas.

    New BBC chairman Samir Shah — a tin helmet.

    Sir Mick Jagger — a Zimmer frame with go-faster stripes.

    Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis — a pottery starter kit so that he can learn to make his own statues.

    1. Excellent
      The ‘arched’ Bishop wouldn’t have lasted a week under a king like Henry the second.

    2. Could we change Khan to ‘has his legs broken and not reset so he’s forced to crawl everywhere in agony?’

    3. Letts still holding out for an honour, I see. He refrained from mocking the very mock-worthy King, and praised him and Camilla instead.

  19. Good Morning all,

    Dark and wet at McPhee Towers, rain all day, wind in the South to South-West, 8 to 10℃.

    The caring face of “our” NHS.

    //uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae7bf4ed8949f255c6f50a7a35f9680c63750583647c2ade1362305c771168d6.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/30/junior-doctors-strike-nhs/

    They don’t consider themselves responsible for the walkouts either. “We’re not forcing tens of thousands of doctors out on strike,” says Laurenson. “We’re pulling the legal lever and tens of thousands of doctors are unhappy. Not because of anything we’ve done. But because of what’s happened to them for so many years.”

    Whether or not they feel like leaders, it is their names and faces which have undoubtedly been associated with the strikes. Laurenson was forced to defend himself in April when he was found to have been on holiday while colleagues walked out under his urging. The story wasn’t quite right, he says. “I didn’t go abroad.” He apologised at the time, saying he could see people felt “undermined”. Did he worry people might lose faith in him? “I got a lot of support about the wedding. Loads of junior doctors understand why, right? It’s just so difficult to get time off to actually go to those events, right?”

    Laurenson is the one who was pictured at the helm of a large yacht somewhere at sea while “leading” the first junior doctors’ strike. He now says he’d like to move to work in Vancouver.

    Not until you’ve repaid every penny of the costs of your training, sonny.

    1. Bastards.
      From what I gathered many of our ‘junior minded’ doctors have come to the UK because they were able to earn more money than where they came from.

    3. Boyo had best check on what he would get paid in Vancouver. Private practice is not allowed so his only earnings would be through our equivalent of the nhs.

    4. Junior docs forget – cheerfully – that they’ll go on swiftly to earn more than most everyone in the country. Demanding people pay more now, when their earning potential is so high is just egregious.

  20. Morning all 🙂😊
    My word it’s dark outside today.
    After a day spent in bed. I’m feeling better and more confident in a lot of ways.
    Same old same old,…. Inheritance tax, it’s not the ordinary people who make up the rules and conditions that attack them and their lifestyle. It’s all of the AHs who insist they know everything and let’s face it, most of them should be in jail.

  22. I finished Philip Marsden’s wonderful book “The Spirit Wrestlers” (non-fiction) and am now on Joan Brady’s “The Theory of War”, a fictional novel based on “bounding out” (the practice of selling white children into slavery post-US Civil War, made possible by the dire poverty of many soldiers who had had to participate in that war against black slavery). I am very much enjoying it. I wish i had read all these books years ago, when i bought them!!!!

  23. The Ministry of Justice said the increased use of suspended sentences
    would “stop the merry-go-round of reoffending”. But announcing a
    strategy and implementing it are two different things and few in the
    criminal justice world have much confidence in this working. In the end,
    the people who suffer are the victims of offenders who should either
    have been in jail or subject to stringent probation terms and yet
    managed to evade both.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/12/29/losing-the-streets/
    As someone who watches the odd police documentary I an constantly amazed that offenders seem to have zero fear of the justice system,rightly so it appears as many have dozens if not hundreds of previous convictions with damn all real consequences
    “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time”
    Aye Right don’t make me laff,perhaps it’s time for the “Three strikes and it’s life”

    1. Morning Rik. In my last brush with evildoers the most striking thing was their utter indifference to the Law. By the time the business was over I had joined them and vowed never to have anything to do with it again!

      1. “In my youth,” said the sage, “I took to the Law
        And argued each point with my wife
        And the muscular strength that it gave to my jaw
        Has lasted the rest of my life.”

        [Lewis Carroll]

        No longer any point in arguing. The Law’s main purpose nowadays seen to be to annoy and persecute the innocent and let the guilty off scot free.

    2. The system still works on the basis that criminals are victims of the system when in reality most are simply opportunists.

    3. One strike then the rope regardless of the offence. Crime would virtually stop. Drug use or supply? automatic rope

    4. There seems to be perverted justice for the offenders. Victims don’t matter, they’re an inconvenience in the way of do gooders.

    5. There seems to be perverted justice for the offenders. Victims don’t matter, they’re an inconvenience in the way of do gooders.

    6. You know you don’t live in a democracy when you have s Ministry of “Justice” and a “Supreme” Court.

      Me, I preferred the pre-Bliar, pre-EU centuries-old system of equity (aka Common Law).

    7. A long while ago I was assaulted by some scrote who’d got off a bus. Turns out the judge had just let him out that same day and said ‘stay out of trouble’. Thankfully plod arrived soon after.

      I wrote to the judge asking him if he gave any thought to the others he inflicted these vermin on. I didn’t get a reply.

      The first offence should be an opportunity to rehabilitate. The second a flogging, followed by hard labour. The third just melt the key in the lock and feed them once a day. Let the scum rot.

  24. It’s time to rethink our relations with India. It is getting too close to Russia. 30 December 2023.

    On the day after Boxing Day, while most MPs were on the sofa eating leftovers, an extraordinary meeting was taking place in Moscow.

    Only two countries were involved – Russia and India – but what they discussed has profound implications for the UK. On the agenda seemed to be nothing less than the shaping of a new world order. Behind closed doors, two men – Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and his Indian counterpart – made progress on an extraordinary deal, under which India would tacitly support President Putin’s towering ambitions. After lengthy talks, the pair emerged to trumpet an ever closer partnership.

    “A relationship at every level” is how the Indian Foreign Minister put it gushingly; while Lavrov talked of a “special privileged strategic partnership.” Both men seemed to imply that local difficulties such as the illegal invasion of Ukraine will do nothing to sour their “really very positive feelings” towards each other. At a joint press conference, the Indian foreign minister showed little sign of discomfort as Lavrov spewed forth his typical anti-Western talking points. If anything, he seemed inclined to agree.

    India is of course pursuing its own national ambitions and interests. We should be doing the same but we are caught up in this web of treaties that pervade Europe and are dragging it down. We are going down with it!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/29/modi-bjp-india-russia-vladimir-putin/

    1. Good morning Minty

      We are an Island race .. our mindset used to be pretty solid , that is why we were good at what we did .

      We don’t need foreigners telling us what to do , nor do we need their interference .

      We have our own wisdom ..

      Parliament is so full off self interested foreigners , shall I mention the Royal family, who nearly betrayed us during the last war .

      The woke King is a prime example . If you keep your own counsel, you keep quiet about your opinions or intentions.

      Whose idea is it that we should become a mixed race country .. we are becoming weak and feeble .

      1. Blair wanted a voting block. He set about importing millions of dindus who would vote Labour – because Labour showered them with houses and cash. The Tories continued this, hoping to buy that same voting block.

  25. It is now raining.

    When I saw that a nine year old child had been awarded an “honour”, I assumed he must have been one of UnTrussworth’s economic advisers.

    Funny old world, eh?

    1. Good morning Bill.

      Yes, strange selection again .

      Dispensing sweetening awards willy nilly is so childish ..

      Reward great valour , that’s it .

      2. The first picture shows the Scharnhorst from WW1. Sunk in the battle of the Falkland Islands 1914.

        Wrong War !

          4. Indeed, but naval traditions tend to use the same name for similar types of vessel, which can change considerably over the years.
            If you want to be thoroughly depressed by the way Britain’s navy has shrunk, look up the number of different ships appearing at different Spithead reviews.

          6. I thought we had parked our immigrant barges in the available dry docks…which means we have to scuttle the two remaining warships (both made of plastic)

          8. The Greenies are very pleased with the evidence of advances in effective emissions controls between WWI and WWII. {:^))

    1. Unfortunately not enough people will see this. Or as I do see this war his way, and agree with him.
      And it’s been mentioned that Hitler had a section of his armed forces that were totally islamic.

  28. How can we claim moral superiority over autocracies when judges here and in America seek to take power from the people? Boris Johnson. 30 December 2023.

    If you have not been to Ukraine, let me tell you the fundamental difference between modern Russia and modern Ukraine. Russia is a tyranny, where elections are a farce, where Putin’s political opponents are jailed or poisoned, or — to take the recent ludicrous example of his ex-crony Yevgeny Prigozhin — blown up spectacularly on global TV in what Putin later described as an aircraft malfunction.

    In Ukraine, elections are genuine. In Ukraine, there is a real uncertainty about the outcome. Yes, the crucial difference between Russia and Ukraine is that Ukraine is a democracy.

    You have to wonder how he can write such tosh and keep a straight face! Zelensky has banned all the opposition parties and jailed a couple of their leaders. He’s shut down all the opposition media and the former national religion. This is aside from the UK where democracy has essentially ceased to exist.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12910945/BORIS-JOHNSON-claim-moral-superiority-autocracies-judges-America-seek-power-people-Let-2024-year-champion-true-democracy.html

    1. And in Ukraine, egged on by the USA and the EU, they deposed a legitimately elected government in 2014! Boris is an absolute moron if he really believes what he has written – time for him to shut up and return to well deserved obscurity.

  30. Christmas was flat, but the fresh turkey was cooked beautifully.

    Son no 2 and partner visited the IOW for 5 days, cheap rate re hotel , hovercraft there , but nightmare getting off the island a couple of days ago.

    Hosted a large pre Christmas lunch for veterans .. sadly one of our much loved members was blued and twoed the night before , and that was it .. funeral in the NY..

    These are people I have known for a couple of decades or more , and the group is shrinking.

    Moh and I just don’t know how to get our own house in order ..

    No 1 son is running in Weymouth 5k park run this morning, he is running well with good results .

    Christmas morning run was successful , he will also be running in the New Years day 10k run elsewhere, up hill , and straight and level .

    Traffic yesterday was so dense and busy on all our small roads .. rural and otherwise ..

    If Gove wants to bully rural councils into releasing land for homes , he is stark raving bonkers .. We will all be trapped in traffic jams .

    1. Good morning True Belle and everyone,

      If Gove wants to bully rural councils into releasing land for homes , he is stark raving bonkers.

      1. Gove is one of the worst examples of why certain types should never be allowed to enter politics.

    2. Good morning True Belle and everyone,

      If Gove wants to bully rural councils into releasing land for homes , he is stark raving bonkers.

    3. And that’s why they are trying desperately to stop us driving, and lock us into our “15-minute cities”.

    4. I’m sorry about your veteran, Belle. That’s hard, but at least he got to experience the care and comradeship of you and yor group. Priceless, that is.

    5. Perhaps World of Statistics had better rephrase the question as “Which current world leader do you have the least disrespect for and why?”

  34. I’ve just fed the birds, nuts, suet things and soaked oats with lard and sultanas, and now it’s snowing! Ah, the joy of Glowball boiling!

  35. Watched an early “Doc Martin” on ITV3+1 for light entertainment last night. (2004 -ish?). Conversation before he sacked the receptionist he’d inherited with the practice.

    Doc Martin: “Do you ever check these repeat prescriptions you put on my desk for me to sign?”

    Receptionist: “Of course I does”.

    Doc Martin: ” Well, here you’ve given me one for a woman with erectile dysfunction”.

    Prescient? Or softening us up?

  37. Lifted from June Slater’s X account. @juneslater17

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce40f3c70c552f207f8458d556b1faf8c06794983ca41d606a5d716cff2fb447.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e34dab1a5e37ef407c3f81a29a6099f60b014b2b63b4f4e441ed6c6fe9625704.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/36f9554212fc72afe8b1ce13ec158124c0db65fe36d6c68432cae9a66fa2e035.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0e19669fade5715966dc4f65bb9ae578b908cf920640228b0c5340638ce04aa.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/95b8966d18f902c525ee4b3da40b52cc252ae92dc5ce37376bf5ca38185827ae.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fcc3089611e9d4d06691fd399ca0a7c2e239c8a9e31c10d15d3a88704b1c7006.png

    2. Everywhere you look, big government has made exactly the wrong choice, deliberately. It sits there and says ‘we have raised the minimum wage’.. yet has frozen the tax thresholds, so all it’s really done is make hiring people more expensive.

      It says it is saving the planet – while the planet isn’t changing at all but people can’t afford energy, so other people are forced to pay the bills of those who default.

      At no point does the state do the obvious, simple and rational thing. It’s devoted to doing the exact opposite of the sensible.

  38. Good morning all,
    I have no sympathy for these residents. (With the exception of any who have genuinely fallen on hard times, and were previously employed and paying taxes).
    How many are fake-ugees? How many can’t/won’t speak English? How many are criminals? How many have never worked a day in their lives, and have zero intention of doing so, but expect ‘the gubmint’ to fund their lives/booze/smokes, d rugs, tatts, plastic nails, latest phones and widescreen TVs etc?
    When they are moved (at our expense, natch), how long before their new homes become plagued with filth and squalor?
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12909245/The-worst-place-live-Britain-Families-fleeing-shipping-container-estate-plagued-gangs-prostitutes-call-rusting-homes-world-cesspit-children-killed.html#comments

    2. Moh’s parents lived in an old Nissen hut after the the war on Southampton common .. Nissen huts that the GI’s were housed in .

      My great aunt who was a district midwife , lived in a very cosy warm 2 bedroomed prefab after the war in Guiseley, huge areas of the country were bombed , weren’t they.

      People these days live in mobile homes .. estates of them are everywhere , proper little communities , and they are lovely places .

      Importing 3rd rate people , who then breed with 3rd rate people, then produce 3rd rate children , well what else can one expect , especially those who live off the state , drugged up and boozed to their ears , dysfunctional useless individuals .

      1. Many of the problems are not due to the design of the containers per se, but more the lack of pride, personal responsibility and community amongst the residents.

      2. In the mid 1980s, a primary school near our then home was still using old Nissen huts from WW2 for the 9 infants classrooms. Apparently, when first put up, they had an expected life of 10 years, but these draughty old buildings were still in use some 40+ years later.
        It was not for a good number of years after that they were finally removed.
        I remember my grandparents in Banffshire still living in their prefab in the 1960s.

        1. Quite a few prefabs still in use as housing in Bow in the early 1980s. We lived just round the corner.

      3. Our school consisted of three large rambling late Victorian houses along one of the main roads leading into Colchester (infant, junior and senior schools).
        The senior school was the biggest and many of our classrooms were either wooden ex-RAF huts or Nissen huts.
        They were by far the best classrooms, as the rooms in the main school building were perishingly cold. They had an old central heating system that had never been flushed through (Colchester water is notoriously hard). We used to keep on our blazers, scarves and gloves until the teacher ordered us to remove them. The radiators were lukewarm if you could get near enough to put your hand on one.

    3. The state has forced over 30 million people (Tesco footfall figures suggest a population of over 85 million) on this country in 25 years. Osborne set about endless rent controls and heavy taxes for landlords. Labour massively expanded housing benefit.

      This is the end result. They can’t afford to live here, they’re entirely welfare dependent and want something at someone else’s expense – who can’t afford it themselves.

      Government created this mess. The solution is simple – get the state out of the way.

      1. As we, as individuals, do not have the means to get the state out of the way – simply because there are nowhere near enough of us to do so through the ballot box – the only idea which might work is to foment a mutiny – a substantial one – in the armed forces. Such a rebellion will trigger a bloody civil war as many will remain loyal to the state, and would also meet fierce resistance from sectors of the general public, a great many of whom actually support the nation state as currently structured. If the mutiny succeeded it will have to put down, by force, those who will form militias and terrorist cells determined to restore the status quo ante. It will be ugly and brutal for several years with a great many innocents and bystanders becoming victims of various kinds.

      1. Similar sleeping arrangements in the childhoods of my late father and mother. Shared beds, topping & tailing as well, with 6 and 11 children respectively, 2 bedrooms and a box room in each case. 3 kids in one room would have been unheard of, at least until the older ones were working and living elsewhere.

  39. This is interesting, I think i’ll ask my misses to order a copy of the book from the local library where she is a volunteer.

    Among the scores of files declassified today at the National Archives, several relate to persistent allegations of MI5 wrongdoing, including plots to undermine Harold Wilson’s Labour government, and the possibility of Soviet penetration at the top of the agency.

    These claims appeared in the memoir of the former MI5 officer Peter Wright, whose book Spycatcher the government was determined to ban. As the Guardian’s spook-watcher of the time, I had been served an injunction in 1987 preventing me from revealing Wright’s claims, along with David Leigh of the Observer, beyond the one article I had already written for the newspaper.

    I have been looking forward, then, after more than 35 years, to reading what ministers and their most senior officials in Whitehall recorded at the time. I was far too optimistic. The selected files released today, most marked Secret, reflect what was abundantly clear at the time – namely, that Margaret Thatcher fought tooth and nail in a desperate attempt to ban Spycatcher, first in Australia, where Wright lived after he retired, and then in the rest of the world.
    The files contain no surprises. They confirm what was quite evident at the time, namely that the Spycatcher debacle of the mid-1980s triggered panic in the upper reaches of Whitehall, and that Thatcher was determined to block any attempt to subject MI5 to independent scrutiny. They reflect the painfully obvious concern in Whitehall’s security establishment about how the Spycatcher affair would resurrect evidence that MI5, worried about the loyalty of some of Wilson’s friends, had kept a file on the Labour prime minister (code-named Henry Worthington), and that there was a group of MI5 officers beyond Wright who shared paranoid delusions about Soviet spies in their midst.

    The documents confirm that for years officials and ministers discussed how to block demands – with the Guardian leading the charge – for proper oversight of MI5. One of Thatcher’s closest advisers is quoted in the documents as claiming the pressure for reform came only from a “few MPs and unscrupulous journalists”.

    Regardless, the pressure on MI5 grew amid evidence that it had targeted the National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty), trade union leaders and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1970s and 1980s. Meanwhile, senior MI5 officers were berated in a 1985 Security Commission report on how no action was taken to safeguard Michael Bettaney, an official on the agency’s Soviet desk, who had suffered a breakdown, drank a bottle of whisky a day, and was discovered inebriated in a gutter. He was arrested and sent to prison for 23 years only after he was caught trying to pass documents to the Russian embassy in London.

    One Whitehall official referred in one document released today to the “somewhat secretive and cloistered existence which members of the security service inevitably lived”. After years of procrastination, Thatcher was persuaded to bow to the inevitable. Something had to be done to satisfy the campaign of “investigative journalists” – the view of cabinet secretary Sir Robert Armstrong – threatening to undermine public trust in MI5. But failing trust was beginning to become a concern for MI5’s own officers, especially with the European court of human rights expected to demand the agency was placed on a legal footing for the first time.

    The government finally agreed to take the most cautious of steps. In 1989, a Security Service Act set up a parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) to meet in private. (Only this year, the committee complained about the present government eroding its limited powers.)

    The files declassified today are littered with yellow sheets signed by Whitehall weeders, signalling where page after page has been withheld under the catch-all exemption of section 3(4) of the misnamed Public Records Act. This states that files may be closed indefinitely for “administrative purposes” or “any other special reason”.

    It is clear from the placing of the missing files that many relate to what became known as the “Wilson plot”. The security establishment has always insisted it was a figment of the conspirators’ imaginations. Yet even Wilson’s successor, James Callaghan, expressed concern about a group trying to undermine the Labour government, the declassified papers confirm.

    In the preface to his official history of MI5, published in 2009, the historian Christopher Andrew referred to redactions he had been asked to make. “The most difficult part of the clearance process has concerned the requirements of other government departments,” he wrote. He added: “One significant excision as a result of these requirements in Chapter E4 is, I believe, hard to justify. This and other issues relating to the level of secrecy about past intelligence operations … would, in my view, merit consideration by the intelligence and security committee.”

    Chapter E4 is titled The ‘Wilson Plot’. I asked Sir Malcolm Rifkind, former defence and foreign secretary and then chair of the ISC, whether he would take up Andrew’s invitation. He declined. I made a Freedom of Information Act request to the Cabinet Office asking them to tell me what Andrew was referring to. It refused, saying “intelligence” material was exempted under the act.

    The Cabinet Office could do all of us a favour by publishing all the documents relating to this still mysterious episode in recent British political history.

    Richard Norton-Taylor writes for the Guardian on defence and security. He joined the Guardian in 1973 as European correspondent and was later security editor

    1. Father in Law worked for the Guardian in those distant days and he always alluded to scandals in the Wilson Government that they could not publish.

      1. I hated Wilson for what he did to Rhodesia. It was a lovey well organised and well run country before he started interfering.
        And then I hated him even more with his SET, Selective Employment Tax. Lots of people were forced into self employment and subsequently their state pensions are affected.

  40. HMS Fidelity (D 57).
    Special service vessel (SSV)
    Complement:
    378 (368 dead and 10 survivors).
    Commandos and two landing craft

    On 28th December 1942, HMS Fidelity (D 57) (Cdr C.A.M. Péri) fell behind convoy ONS-154 due to engine trouble and streamed its torpedo nets, which brought down her speed to 2-3 knots. The next day, the commander decided to head for the Azores and launched her motor torpedo boat HMS MTB-105 and a Kingfisher floatplane for anti-submarine patrol. The aircraft spotted two lifeboats of Empire Shackleton which were towed by the two landing craft to HMS Fidelity. 43 survivors were picked up and the aircraft and the landing craft were lifted aboard again.
    At 21.38 hours on 29th December, U-225 (Leimkühler) fired the stern torpedo at HMS Fidelity, but missed. U-615 (Kapitzky) observed the suspicious vessel during the day and attacked her with five single torpedoes between 22.00 and 23.00 hours, but they either missed or were caught by the torpedo nets. At 16.38 hours on 30th December, the vessel was finally hit by two torpedoes from U-435 (Siegfried Strelow) and sank immediately after heavy detonations. The U-boat reported a surprising high number of survivors on overcrowded rafts and swimming in the water, none of them were rescued and all drowned in the worsening weather. 274 crew members, 51 Royal Marines and the 43 survivors were lost. The landing craft HMS LCV-752 and HMS LCV-754 on board were lost with the ship. The engines of the MTB broke down and the crew of eight men were later rescued by HMCS Woodstock (K 238) (T/A/Cdr G.H. Griffiths, RCN), which then scuttled the disabled vessel. They were the only survivors apart from two men that had been picked up by HMCS St. Laurent (H 83) (A/Cdr G.S. Windeyer, RCN) after the other Kingfisher floatplane from the vessel crashed on take off on 28th December.

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-435 was sunk on 9th July 1943 in the North Atlantic west of Lisbon, Portugal by depth charges from a US Liberator aircraft (1st A/S Sqn USAAF/B). 48 dead (all hands lost).

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/warships/br/ssv_hms_fidelity.jpg

    1. Do you know the story of the SS Anselm, sunk north of the Azores by Das Boot, the U96? My dad was both one of the survivors and a fan of the film about the U96.

          2. Got to bed about 03:00 – all went well, just took time. As far as I know, no new germs, but I did step up the use of alcohol as sanitising agent, epecially internally.
            Plenty snow shifting to get car out of car park. Fortunately, not too cold (-5C or so).

          4. Difficult one, that.
            As we got home, Firstborn got himself a Ribena, and muttered how nice it was to have water that didn’t taste of swimming pools… but the local pub was lovely, cider the same, and staying with olds tended to make any converstaion loud – to be heard over the telly! In balance, home is better, as the house is the temperature we like, the TV quiet, and the beds our own. Also, cats at home…

          9. Had to collect them from cat hotel before 10:00, so awoke far too early following an 03:00 bedtime.
            Delighted to see us, and the house & grounds thoroughly patrolled and sniffed immediately on arrival.

          11. Here’s one from the UBoat site – there’s a tab for the 20 most successful boats, and when you look, none of them lasted more than 10 patrols!
            Whether because their commanders were very press-on types or what, but to think, as crew, yuo’d only last up to 10 patrols… might dive one to drink, that. What a pity that brave lads like them were on the wrong side… Respect.

          13. I guess the same could be said, with very similar statistics, of the bomber forces hammering the Contiment… ten missions, then just gone with almost no trace.
            Brave lads all. What a loss of talent. Respect.

          14. Alan Brook who was Churchill’s CIGS said the poor performance of the British army generalship up to about the middle of 1942 could be put down to all the brightest and best junior officers being killed on the Somme and Passchendaele et al.

          16. Field Marshal Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, KG, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO & Bar no less.
            He managed to keep Churchill on a leash.

      1. I think I said a couple of days ago John, the Canadians punched way above their weight in both wars, and the contribution they made to the Battle of the Atlantic in both building merchant ships and escorts (and manning them) was incredible.

    1. 7D “spot” = difficult situation. Scots island IONA (sans A)

      13D = opposite of a communist….

  42. ‘Moscow is full of Del Boys now’: Putin’s war economy lurches towards full-blown crisis. 30 December 2023.

    “Moscow is full of Del Boys,” says one businessman who has lived in the Russian capital for years, referring to the wheeler-dealing main character in Only Fools and Horses.

    “They used to be comrades, now they’re Del Boys. You can get literally anything. Bentleys seem to be all the rage lately.”

    Chris Weafer, the founder of consultancy Macro Advisory who splits his time between the UK, central Asia and Russia, says he has no trouble doing the weekly shop.

    “There are all sorts of ways to bring in what people want,” he says. “In the store in the building that I live in, you can get parma ham, French and Italian cheeses, French wine – all of the things that you shouldn’t be able to get. They’re all available, and the price is roughly 20pc higher than it was pre-war.”

    Lol! This is hilariously adrift. The headline describes a catastrophe while the article absolutely refutes it and describes a Russian economy completely indifferent to sanctions of any kind.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/12/30/russia-economy-defence-spending-putin-ukraine-war/?li_source=LI&li_medium=for_you

    1. What is amazing is that, despite its war footing, Ukraine has the same proportion of Teslas and EV charging points as the United States. This is mainly because what is considered a write-off in the US is an economically repairable EV in Ukraine.

      This was discovered after the owner of a written-off Tesla got a message from his vehicle, now called Mike, that it needed a software update. It was located by its sofware to be in Eastern Ukraine and subsequently received its update.

      1. Afternoon Angie. I would like to go to Ukraine and look around for myself. I have an idea what it is actually like. A sort of black market spiv’s paradise where you can buy anything at all courtesy of Foreign Aid. The war is actually being fought by those poor suckers at the front while everyone else is just gliding along. A littlle like post war Vienna à la Third Man.

    2. “the price is roughly 20pc higher than it was pre-war.””

      I would hazard a guess and say that our supermarket prices have risen more than that in the same time period.

  44. Is this guy one of Wibbling’s disciples?
    https://www.takimag.com/article/markets-and-miracles/

    Government handouts changed people’s thinking. They taught millions of Americans: You are entitled to a check.
    No longer was it individuals’ responsibility to help families, neighbors and ourselves; now it was clearly government’s job.
    The result is that people became dependent on handouts. Government rarely teaches people to be self-sufficient; handouts encourage you to be helpless.
    Welfare created something never seen before in America: a near-permanent “underclass.”

    1. Afternoon Sos. Welfare is probably the right thing in the short term. In the long it is a catastrophe. It destroys self-reliance, promotes idleness and fecklessness. It can erode all manner of socially desirable traits. It actually undermines the unity of the people.

        1. Too many low skilled people means low wages means state subsidy means more taxes on business (to pay for it) which means unemployment and more state dependence.

          It’s a clear vicious spiral downward. The state then makes everything more expensive by forcing up the basics of life – fuel, energy and housing meaning more people struggle and worse, cannot improve (see huge labour pool) and so government rigs the min wage, creating more unemployment creating more welfare demand which means more tax…. and around we go!

          The solution is obvious. Slam closed the border. Deport millions of people. Just get rid of them. Remove the min wage. Let markets work. Low labour + wage flexibility means people move jobs more often for better conditions/pay. Cheaper fuel and housing makes them more mobile. Lower taxes means companies can offer more to employees.

          It’s so damned obvious it’s a wonder the gormless oaf Hunt and Sunk can’t see it, yet; for some reason the entire Treasury believes, steadfastly in the downward spiral of high tax big state – meddling, not the release of freedoms and markets. Why?

          1. Short of a civil war, it isn’t going to happen, and even if there was a civil war the UK would not recover in decades.

          2. Sadly true. Too many people are wholly dependent upon big government. Although, I do wonder what will happen when Labour force the price of energy to 70p / KWh.

            Ah, of course – they’ll blame the energy companies and the gullible fools will fall for it.

          3. Labour/Guardian/BBC says:
            Sink or swim!
            Social Darwinism!
            You’re on your own!
            There’s no such thing as society!
            Trickle down!
            Race to the bottom!

            Have I omitted any?

          4. Labour/Guardian/BBC says:
            Sink or swim!
            Social Darwinism!
            You’re on your own!
            There’s no such thing as society!
            Trickle down!
            Race to the bottom!

            Have I omitted any?

    2. If I had followers I’d convince them to think for themselves.

      But the poster is right. We see it everywhere. If you give people something someone else has been forced to pay for then you remove the impetus to earn it, you destroy the value of the item to the recipient and thus without value or effort the item is wasted and then the hand is held out again.

      At the macro level this is famine in the third world (and no, I do not want to see people starve, I DO want them to provide for themselves) and the local a teenage single mother with 5 brats looking for a 6th to get a bigger house – as the Mail article earlier presents.

      Knowing someone else will benefit from your effort destroys the impetus of earning (which is the fundamental failure of socialism that Lefties ignore). That enforced inefficiency of the workforce creates greed – those wanting other people’s money and selfishness – those not wanting to work to pay for others and society fails and the wealth gap becomes a chasm.

      1. That’s rather clear and profound, Wibbling. Copied, and saved elsewhere for reference. I hope you don’t mind.

      2. A friend of mine turned 60 before Christmas and now has her bus pass, but it can’t be used before 9 am. Another friend (slightly younger) said she would make all transport in London “free”.

        I rolled my eyes and said, what, like “free” healthcare, “free” nursery places, “free” school meals?

        Not to mention that Transport for London is bankrupt because the Khunt bribed people to vote for him by saying he wouldn’t increase the fares. See how well that worked out.

      3. “Friday afternoon” televisions were avoided in the Soviet Union.
        The workers (“they pretend to pay us, we pretend to work”) knocked out tellies on Friday afternoons so shoddy – even by Soviet standards – that they were fire hazards.

    3. Morning to all. For the most part, workers in the US only get social security for six months, there is no entitlement. And that’s only when you lose your job. In most states if you have not paid in, you get nothing and you have to prove you are actively looking for work.

        1. Trouble is, it is very hard to generalise. Regulations differ from State to State and from city to city within the State.

  45. Breaking news – Another major storm is about to hit the UK, it’s going to start off with 90 mph winds, then the sun will come out with 25C temperatures, then it will turn very cold with heavy snow, then we will be hit by tornadoes, the weather centre has named it Storm Keir

  46. Just received a letter to do Jury Service.

    It is full of statements that any errors in completion may/will incur a £1000.00 fine. The first demand, on the Undated letter is that I must return it within 7 days…

    I was not happy and told them so. I said shoplifters, burglars etc if ever brought to trial do not incur such fines.

    I also asked them if the would take me to court to fine me

    I am excused the duty anyway, I am 29 (in OLT speak, ie 79)

    1. That’s ridiculous OLT as you point out.
      When I did jury service a few years ago. After the recently released from prison turd was found guilty and the jury had been subjected to aggressive stares from his mates in the public gallery. We all had to be escorted from the court building via the back door.
      You’re better off not doing it.
      I remember getting expenses not sure if it was because I was self employed.

  47. Losing the streets. 30 December 2023.

    One issue the Government does not want coming to the fore in an election year is law and order. Apart from the economy and healthcare, crime is the biggest day-to-day concern for most voters. The Government’s difficulty is that the prison system is full and, as a result, custodial sentences of less than 12 months are effectively being abolished. Inevitably, this means there will be criminals in the community who might otherwise be behind bars.

    You look at all this and note that the Government can produce £4 billion for Ukraine or Global Warming at the drop of a hat which gives you some idea of their priorities. We are the victims of a now completely dysfunctional system. Literally nothing works. It is beyond repair or reform. Unfortunately the inevitable total collapse will not save us either.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/12/29/losing-the-streets/

    1. The state isn’t interested in governance, just globalism. Anything that pushes them on to the big stage has plenty of cash, the issues the public care about are annoyances.

    1. Just adopt an Italian accent and switch to driving on the wrong side of the road. Problem solved.

  49. Having had cards from the UK, can someone tell me what the barcode alongside the stamp indicate?

    3. Another £1.20 on the cost. I like Amazon’s approach. You get a label with a QR code – the crossword larks – and scan it into their lockers – as only the one you can put it in unlocks.

      Royal Mail just seem to want things to be more expensive, not actually better.

    4. The ‘barcode’ means that every Royal Mail postage stamp is unique, and that the PTB can track its retail sale, and thus identify the purchaser from CCTV footage and/or debit card details. After jointly scanning the address and the stamp’s QR code, a computer will link the sender and the receiver in a vast database which may be studied by AI and, at a future date, be accessed by various government agencies.

      1. Yes indeed. I cavilled at them when they appeared, as this was pretty obviously the intention, and was told that no, they were for sending your family little videos… The man even seemed to believe that! 🙄

          2. There isn’t yet a law saying that the person who bought the stamp must be the person who uses it!
            They have dreams of authoritarian control over everything that people spend, but in practice people will find ways to sabotage that very quickly. Vive la revolution!

  50. I mentioned earlier I was reading Joan Brady’s “Theory of War” as part of my attempt to read all the books on my shelves which I haven’t read. It was published in 1993.

    At the back of the book is the author’s note: “My grandfather was a slave. This isn’t an uncommon claim for an American to make if the American is black. But I’m not black. I’m white. My grandfather was white, too….The slave’s life my grandfather led until he ran away at 16 so scarred him that no one who came near him afterwards could escape the effects of it; four of his seven children – including my father – ended up as suicides….Theory of War is an attempt to understand what my grandfather might have felt about what he’d gone through, and what we – his descendants- still have to cope with because of it.”

    I really enjoyed it and think it’s an important book. It won the Whitbread a Book of the Year when it was published. Now it’s out of print and could probably never be reprinted.

    1. The title is available in Kindle format for £4.99 or can be found as a second hand paperback for less than £3. It is a novel, and Ms Brady may describe her father’s death as suicide, but Wiki mentions that he was disabled after a stroke in 1952 and that he died in 1963; perhaps he had just had enough. Bonded labour in post Civil War USA was not a barrel of laughs, but the alternative could have been starvation, disease and death. That is why Eglantyne Jebb was inspired to help thousands of starving women and children after the Great War.

      1. Apparently he swallowed a load of pills that didn’t kill him but disabled him and he had a further stroke later (a lot later, then) which killed him.

        Incidentally the thesis of Doris Lessin!s autobiography is that all the good men died and those left were so traumatised that their offspring were damaged and that has perpetuated down the ages; which is essentially what Joan Brady is saying in her book.

  51. My next book was going to be “Fathers and Sons”. No, not the Turgenev classic, but one of the same name sent to me in error by the second-hand book seller, Abe Books, by one Howard Cunnell, called a memoir and published in 2017. The blurb begins: “As a boy growing up on the south coast of England, the author’s sense of self was dominated by his father’s absence [the father abandoned the mother]. Now, years later, he is a father [actually he is not the father], and his daughter is becoming his son”.

    Now the question is, do I have to read this? Yes, it is on my bookshelf. But I did not order it. I have flicked through it and it seems that it’s about a very mixed-up, right-on, modern blended (in all senses of the word) family, who probably live in Islington.

    The alternative is I can literally chuck it in the bin and move on to Orwell’s “A Clergyman’s Daughter”.

    Your advice would be appreciated!

        1. Hmm. I live in the sunny uplands of Non-Lib Non-Dem Richmond upon Thames, so actually anything is possible.

          1. You could try leaving it on a bench (or a bus or a train) with a “free to a good home” label 🙂

      1. I always thought that until I came across ‘The Citadel’ by Doris Lessing…..omg it was dreadful!
        A woman on a ferry from Athens to Santorini gave it to me, back in 1978

          3. I’m trying to explain that I would never have thrown a book away, but I was sorely tempted!

          5. I’m re-reading Patrick O’Brian’s 20 book Jack Aubrey series for the umpteenth time. I’m on number 10, ‘The Far Side of the World’, number 16 is ‘The Wine-Dark Sea’.

          6. Actually i quite enjoyed her autobiography (though I can’t normally be doing with communists).

        2. I must confess that I shredded and tore to bits my copy of Henry V (Shakespeare) after English Lit O-level.
          Worst book I ever read, and was forced to analyse. Hated it implacably, and Shakespeare with it. Utter tripe.
          Teacher had been a snarky bastard all year, the bullying shite, so was much put out when I got A-grade.

      2. I always thought that until I came across ‘The Citadel’ by Doris Lessing…..omg it was dreadful!
        A woman on a ferry from Athens to Santorini gave it to me, back in 1978

      3. I’ve picked up a few decent books at charity shops.
        The best second hand book shop I’ve ever been to is Barter Books, Alnwick Station Northumberland. Brilliant.

          2. Book free? I’m unlikely to live long enough to read all the books currently piled up waiting to be read!

        2. St. Helena Hospice has a coffee shop with shelves and shelves of books.
          A good hunting ground. I am glad (well, as glad as I could be in the circumstances) that I gave my childhood books to them. At least they would be respected and decently displayed.

      4. I used to think that, but since the age of extreme political correctness, I have become quite comfortable with chucking them in the recycling.

    3. I’m currently re-reading Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee mystery stories. They are thankfully free of any Wokery at all!

    4. “A Clergyman’s Daughter” is not one of Orwell’s best efforts.
      But anything has to be a better read than the other book you have described (even Barbara Cartland).

        1. When I was at university – doing 3 years of English and History – many of us wondered how Barbara Cartland made so much money from her books. We were all voracious readers (hence the subject we were studying) but none of us had read one of her books. And we knew nobody amongst friends and family who had read them either.

          1. When my sister first moved to Greece she did translation for a company called Harlequin, which was the equivalent of Mills and Boon in Europe! Some of the stuff was so awful she used to larf and larf, but people couldn’t get enough of the dreadful stories! Some of the authors were quite well known, but used pen names!

          2. I have just started reading again, for the first time in over 60 years, Kenneth Grahame’s unimpeachable The Wind in the Willows, surely the best children’s book of all time.

            I’ve entered my second childhood.

          3. Me too! I’m reading the Just So Stories beautiful illustrated edition which was given to my dad by his Aunty Isabel at Christmas 1939! Wind in the Willows is fabulous and The Piper at the Gates of Dawn chapter is stunning and makes me cry.

          4. The bloke who originally taught me to type (on a manual machine) used to write for Mills and Boon under a female nom de plume. I believe he made a good living out of it.

          6. When I was 20 and living in Duesseldorf, i learnt German by reading German translations of her books and watching Colombo episodes on das Fernseher dubbed into German

      2. I read it in my student days along with Keep The Aspidistra Flying and it did not make a tremendous impression on me. Mind you in those days I read several novels each week and once I found an author whose books interested me I tried to read all that he or she had written so I read quite a lot of trash as well as good stuff.

          3. The Ray Bradbury bit is the equivalent of a fish pun fest.

            Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes, were three of his most famous novels.

          9. She stood up, when she played the piano
            In a nightclub
            ….
            And they said that she once cut a record
            It never made it….

          1. He was one of those authors one was introduced to by O-level (remember those?).
            “Real” English literature teachers encouraged one to read more of their works, the standard teachers just tended to prime you for the exam off the back of a single book.
            If you were lucky you had a real teacher and you should be blessing them regularly for instilling a reading habit.

          2. Unfortunately I didn’t get him at school. That was Animal Farm, Brave New World etc. My favourite was Lord of the Flies. I found Bradbury in my latish teens because I found Science Fiction.

          4. I was excused Eng Lit because I did my O Levels a year early. I still read a lot, but I don’t have perhaps the same grounding in the “classics” as those who went through it. I had a long reading list for university, but none of those was typical Eng Lit titles.

          5. I was very, very lucky.
            I was introduced to slightly off centre authors, Uris, Price, Heller and similar and although they didn’t help exam results they gave and continue to give a lot of pleasure

          6. I was excluded from Eng Lit because I told the teacher it was all a load of crap and failed a test deliberately

      1. Oh it was 2 or three years ago- I couldn’t be bothered arguing with a company that can’t tell the difference between a 19th century Russian classic about the abolition if serfdom and a book written 160 years later about children “changing gender’.

  53. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/30/hamas-is-succeeding-at-playing-the-west-for-fools/
    Hamas is succeeding at playing the West for fools
    Rampant Israel hatred means terrorist propaganda is given undeserved credence
    This week, the former hostage Mia Schem gave her first television interview. The 21-year-old French-Israeli tattoo artist described how she had been shot, groped and dragged into Gaza by her hair, where she was operated upon by a vet without anaesthetic and kept like an animal in a zoo. “I went through a holocaust,” she said.

    This was not the first time her voice had been heard. Before her release at the beginning of December, she had appeared in a Hamas video parroting propaganda. “People very good, very kind to me,” she had said with fear evident in her eyes.

    By normal standards, the notion that the savages who butchered babies and carried out bestial sexual violence would be credibly described as “very kind” by a hostage under duress would be dismissed. But in a world of Israelophobia, the clip went viral.

    Millions of viewers began to see Hamas as noble freedom fighters maligned by the duplicitous and bloodsucking Jews. By the time the poor woman was able to tell the truth, the damage had been done.

    This grim vignette is emblematic of how the West has been played by Hamas. In a climate of Israelophobia, morality has been turned on its head. Hamas attempts an act of genocide, yet that same crime is pinned on Israel. Hamas butchers hundreds of innocents, yet Israel gets the blame.

    The terrorists know exactly what they are doing. For years, they have dealt with UN officials, NGO representatives and the international media. They understand the Weltanschauung of such circles. They know that they need only enable a supply of videos of civilian casualties and the credulous journalists, sneering diplomats, jihadi sympathisers and useful idiots will do the rest.

    As a result, the disinformation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza – Israel has been falsely accused of that since Soviet times – is accepted as fact. During a lesson on Lord of the Flies, my daughter’s English teacher cited the actions of the IDF, not Hamas, as a recent modern example of the “savagery” that killed Piggy.

    That is not to downplay the suffering in Gaza. A just and defensive war is as hellish as any other, and every decent heart aches for peace. But our emotions are being manipulated to draw us onto the side of darkness. The truth remains the truth: Israel is acting as any other democracy would in impossible circumstances.

    The Ministry of Defence does not produce a Ukraine-style daily briefing on the true facts of the Gaza conflict. It should. But even if we accept Hamas’s figures, Israel’s combatant-to-civilian death ratio in the Strip is believed to be 1:2. This is broadly in line with British and American forces in urban warfare, even though Gaza, with its hundreds of miles of tunnels filled with zombie jihadis with no fear of death, presents an unprecedented challenge. In clashes in Lebanon, Israel has killed about 146 combatants and 19 civilians, a ratio unmatched in modern warfare.

    For Hamas, every innocent casualty is a victory. As far back as 2008, it was collaborating with Iranian planners to design hospitals and schools that could hold missiles. The logic is simple: the martyrs live on in Heaven, the media broadcasts heartrending footage, and the world ratchets up pressure for a ceasefire. Then October 7 can be planned again.

    By the same token, every death is a tragedy for Israel. It has done well to prevent the toll from mounting higher by warning civilians before attacks. As John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, remarked: “There are very few modern militaries in the world that would do that. I don’t know that [we] would do that.”

    In this age of soggy thinking, it has proven depressingly easy to flip the public into the darkness. With Israelophobia on its side, Hamas hasn’t even bothered to keep its strategy secret. Controlling emotion is what counts.

    Jake Wallis Simons is the author of Israelophobia and the editor of The Jewish Chronicle

    2. The whole point of the October the 7th attack was to provoke an Israeli response that could then be used by Hamas for propaganda purposes.
      Because of the stupidity of Western Liberal Socialists, that strategy has succeeded.

      1. Indeed.
        The Israelis are predictable in their counter-smiting, makes it easy for Hamas to set up a reprisal they want, when they want it, and the propaganda does the rest.

        1. So what comes next? With almost every country aligned against Israel ,surely the Islamic side are building towards an overwhelming attack on Judaism.
          Will it be direct attacks on Israel from Syria or Lebanon or what will happen?

    3. We know from the experience of the downed Tornado crew how muslims will use hostages for propaganda.

  54. By the way, the 1996 Fast Show Christmas Special was – in the main – very funny. How one misses the rapid fire, off-beat (and off-colour) humour these days.

  55. For those who have an interest Mountain Warehouse has got some very good deals on walking boots at the moment. I bought a pair this afternoon for £45 when they should have been £120.

    2. To get to my nearest Mountain Warehouse would probably cost me the difference! I still have a very good pair of Italian Mountain Boots that are serviceable.

  56. For all you cat lovers (i.e. not me)

    Acrobatic cats, inspired by Salvador Dalí – in pictures

    Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek isn’t sure how he ended up shooting a calendar. The Austrian photographer and director’s main work was campaigns for the likes of Apple and Adidas, so he was confused when a Viennese art publisher asked him to shoot one. “Half in fun I told them: ‘Sure, let’s do a cat calendar.’” Inspired by Dalí Atomicus (1948), a photograph by Salvador Dalí and Philippe Halsman, featuring the surrealist artist and three flying felines, the Jumping Cats series was born. De Koekkoek says his subjects’ amazing acrobatics are just what cats do when you’re not looking. “At first they were sceptical about me hanging out with them 24/7, but after a while they didn’t care. They started jumping and dancing around the house.”

    Jumping Cats is available as an everlasting calendar
    Alice Fisher

    Main image: A detail from one of Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek’s photographs of airborne cats.
    Sat 30 Dec 2023 17.00 GMT

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/122fece11575522ab3dd74b89020391c67353441/697_352_2402_1441/master/2402.jpg?width=980&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=564145fccc05b3858b2a65f5dbfbe4c8

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/350ad480b535fad12bf82090638c9f9a2fafd1ae/0_0_3099_4134/master/3099.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=baf8687e5bc036189ca5f98ab79fe1b6

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e14609519cbf51b5f10142b2cb6f13b5a50269e7/0_0_3098_4134/master/3098.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=31b4105040b92d7a4cb9db36295f6943

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3ef9546f6483a781f3de116604acfca597ea573c/0_0_3099_4134/master/3099.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=c62f5d7175bec22e1825c088751384ef

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2a82941c3a0f15f1ba004aaffe1e07d79c2bbcfa/0_0_3099_4134/master/3099.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=ea81c01071f4c46d3a965c59b4c9c64f

    3. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/937402af238d9df2526ba446364a9c2287528d53/0_0_3098_4134/master/3098.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=c32815f79f0f99adb02017f226ca4f5b

      https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/905c419510a80a37fc34cb9203867add5f3d3845/0_0_3099_4134/master/3099.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=fe481a1a2fefd57a71caae4817a9e9ae

      https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/50e633c8ee47e99d53755730b342faccfed97ea2/0_0_3099_4134/master/3099.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=a7e0a629471d0a213a33f48552f8d65f

      https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/97c78a44a4b75e91293b7d7f6451298ab2184a1b/0_0_3098_4134/master/3098.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3b9b782a6b6fa1da9c89e967ae858f8d

      https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b8c2d6ca8836a198dff2a8547d42b40cc67393b8/0_0_3099_4134/master/3099.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=9c9815d14bf4c71843162cac9492e84c

      https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/966f2e60ff6e4846a9a11d2d496636c4d14a96de/0_0_3099_4134/master/3099.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=ba8529ee54e3880469a8d10d98589a3f

      https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/608ff5c4e192748e801213b0f45bb25007339038/0_0_3099_4134/master/3099.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=a34946bc12aa93a99c917890d71bdf52

      https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2023/dec/30/acrobatic-cats-inspired-by-salvador-dali-in-pictures

  57. Wrong choice: should have been an Eagle!

    Wordle 924 3/6
    🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
    🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. A lowly par for me.

      Wordle 924 4/6

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

      1. Maybe this will make you feel better….
        Note to self: wind down after work before doing Wordle
        Wordle 924 6/6

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

        1. If I don’t get in 3 goes, I stop and take an hour off. Frequently you see the solution immediately. There again, when there are many choices it’s purely down to luck.

    2. Par for me today.

      Wordle 924 4/6

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

    4. A comfortable par. I had most of the letters so it was just fill the gap.

      Wordle 924 4/6

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

  58. Wrong choice: should have been an Eagle!

    Wordle 924 3/6
    🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
    🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  60. That’s me for this (yet again) dreary day. Jigsaw well on the way to a successful conclusion. Richard Ford novel up to expectations.

    About to have a glass of medicine.

    Have a jolly evening imagining that Tomorrow is the Last Day…{:¬))

    A demain

  61. 381020+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    To put this in its true perspective,
    will it reach rotherham levels ?

    Dt,
    Why the full extent of Hamas’s sex crimes may never be known
    First responders to massacre saw raped and abused bodies, but the rapidity of events – and cultural taboos – may leave the truth uncovered

    1. Your last word is, I believe, the opposite of what you mean. An uncovered truth us a revealed one.

      1. Journalistic error by the Telegraph. The truth may never be covered (ie reported) by the MSM because of the impracticality of forensic investigation followed by judicial process.

      2. Journalistic error by the Telegraph. The truth may never be covered (ie reported) by the MSM because of the impracticality of forensic investigation followed by judicial process.

    1. Utterly non sequitur, and completely off topic, but read on and you’ll see where I’m coming from re settled science.

      I’ve been watching numerous programmes on dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.
      All the computer generated hunting/chasing/eating assumes that the creatures were then as creatures are now.

      Just for sake of argument:

      consider whether herbivores in large numbers died of natural causes and the carnivores were actually carrion eaters, like crows and jackals.
      bigger carrion eaters got first picks, look at the African Savannah
      that herbivores could use their tails to smash the legs of any creature stupid enough to attack; you might be T-Rex but a ton of tail smashing sideways into your legs would almost certainly bring you down and turn you into a ready meal for many
      there were so many large creatures that there was plenty to go around even without being a predator trying to catch things

      Why is this hypothesis any worse than the crap we are being sold as settled science?

      1. A reasonable hypothesis, sos.

        If we take a look at the corvids, evolved dinosaurs, they have a very mixed diet including carrion, small birds and small mammals along with fruits and nuts. However, I wouldn’t expect a corvid to attack a fit fox but they would certainly clean up a fox corpse.
        The corvids that visit my garden e.g. crows, jackdaws and magpies devour anything I put out with the large crow and its mate always getting first dibs. Size matters in the corvid world.😎

        1. When I was out riding (you’re pretty much invisible to wildlife on horseback) I’ve seen crows mobbing a fox which definitely didn’t look moribund, let alone dead.

          1. That’s interesting, Conway. Do you think that they were hunting it or driving it away from something to eat they had decided was theirs? My pair of crows, I believe that they are crows and not rooks because they’re either a pair or solitary, saw off an aggressive herring gull that was eating something I had put out for my garden birds. The spat took a few minutes of squawking and posturing on both sides before the gull decided that he/she was outmatched.

        2. Essentially I was joking, because I really don’t know.

          But where I started from is the fact that what I was taught in Archaeology and Anthropology as FACT has been disproved by more recent research.

          1. Settled science and accepted archaeology need to be challenged. The latter’s timeline e.g. Sumer is the cradle of civilisation has been upset by new discoveries e.g. Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, dated to be millennia older than Sumer and there are some interesting sites in South America e.g. Puma Punku.

            Even the erosion on the Sphynx raises questions with claims that the erosion was caused by rainfall and run-off and not wind-blown sand: if true, this fact would place the civilisation in the Nile Valley to a much earlier era.

            Robert Schoch – The Great Sphynx of Giza

      2. The herbivore dinosaurs stayed together, as there is some safety in large herds. The carnivores travelled in small packs, or would have hunted individually. If a carnivore’s group grew large, and food became scarce, one of the smaller lads would provide dinner. Carrion works best for birds because they can cover a large area whilst gliding.

        1. So you say.

          But how do you really know, were you there?
          You’re no better than the TV people. It’s ALL hypothesis

          1. Have you ever watched a murmuration of starlings late in the afternoon, when they are deciding where to roost? Try to express that mathematically, and you will see that non-human animals are not unintelligent. My dinosaur hypothesis is based on nowt but common sense and observation.

          2. I have, and it is extraordinary, but concluding that dinosaurs acted as modern creatures do is just that, mere hypothesis.
            The equal likelihood is that modern creatures learned from their predecessors mistakes and successes and evolved.

        1. If so, he’s a fool; but I suspect that if he’s commenting that way, he’s using that to make a different point

      4. Carnivore populations are usually far smaller than the animals they prey on. They often will eat carrion too. Teeth are an important guide to diet and behaviour. The relative numbers of (assumed) herbivores and (assumed) carnivores should be roughly reflected in the numbers of fossilised dinosaurs and and other prehistoric creatures. But, as you say, palaeontology ain’t a settled science. It’s fascinating, and true palaeontologists recognise this and are open to new findings. The TV and entertainment business and what they produce is just that, entertainment.
        I don’t watch the things, as you say, they don’t know WTF really went on.

          1. I remember an excellent book I read in the 70s about a theory that the larger dinosaurs were warm blooded. It made an awful lot of sense. It might even be an accepted view now. I shall have a search and see if I can find the book, online of course, I would have left it somewhere a long time ago.

          5. If I remember correctly I posted his avatar before he had one and he took it. That could be my memory at fault though.

          6. either way; you both have good ones.
            I change mine to reflect the time of year and my mood.
            Generally very cross!

          9. It would need an exciting new find I think for a big challenge. The most amazing find, to my mind, was the Burgess Shales in the States. Early 20th century I think. Mind blowing to a palaeontologist.

          10. The South American finds were the ones I found extraordinary.

            But what it seems to show for me, is that it is yet another example of how the settled science gets proven wrong.

          12. I didn’t recall, my initial reaction is that it was earlier than 2007, but time contracts as I get older. But both of those are examples of what I refer to.

    1. I think the caption must be wrong, given that Wyschaete is on the ridge just outside Ypres, ie some way to the north of Mons. You’d have to be retreating away from the Marne to end up there.

    2. I think the caption must be wrong, given that Wyschaete is on the ridge just outside Ypres, ie some way to the north of Mons. You’d have to be retreating away from the Marne to end up there.

  64. I think I’ll push off for today battery very low. I’m tired anyway.
    Happy New year to all, if I don’t get my battery topped up.

    3. Eritrea, population: 3.6–6.7 million according to Wiki. With a margin of error like that I wonder how many are actually here.

  67. Evening, all. Had a visit today from a friend whose mother had not long died; he said that he was going to be hit for IHT. He isn’t particularly wealthy, but his mother did have assets.

      1. He won’t, arguing that the state needs the money to pay off the debt.

        You have to listen to that language – it assumes our money is theirs by default and we are permitted to keep some.

      3. I said there was no chance Snuk would honour what he’d promised. If he got re-elected, it would have become merely an aspiration.

    2. Almost anyone who owns a detached house, mortgage free, will find themselves potentially liable for this legalised theft.

        1. Debatable.
          I’m one of five, and even after allowances the tax man took more than any of us got as individuals.
          OK, we were lucky to have had relatively rich parents, but given how much tax they paid over their lifetimes the State gets too much.

          2. The origin of that last phrase was when urine was bought by tanners and fullers. It you didn’t have a pot you had no means of getting extra cash!

          3. The sad thing was they both came from well off families but were basically disowned. Each for very different reasons.

      2. Lest we forget!

        Election promise by Cameron when Brown was prime minister before 2010 general election.

        WE SHALL RAISE THE THRESHOLD OF INHERITANCE TAX TO £1M

        IHT Threshold in 2024 : £350,000

        1. It should be raised to what it should be had Cyclops Brown not abandoned the previous practice of thresholds being raised more or less in line with inflation.
          His “Fiscal Drag” policy has robbed millions.

        2. It should be raised to what it should be had Cyclops Brown not abandoned the previous practice of thresholds being raised more or less in line with inflation.
          His “Fiscal Drag” policy has robbed millions.

        3. Doesn’t this double when one of you dies ie the survivor inherits the deceased’s allowance

    3. Meetoo. My father didnt have a wife or a property when he died 3 weeks ago. Well those asylum seekers are not going to pay their own hotel bills, are they…

    2. And TR is under a court injunction not to go within the M25 to report any goings on in the City
      The establishment is fully behind the islamification of our once great country. We are stuffed..

    1. And the same police who knelt at the black looting mob. Who attack victims of pakistani muslim paedophile rape, who didn’t disperse the hamas muslim mob, who let the joilers block roads and go for those demanding they be moved.

      As humans I don’t want them hurt, but they’ve got no public support because that same support has been kicked in the teeth over and over again by the Left wng arrogance of their leadership

    2. This country has been wrecked by our government and Whitehall. The ‘plot’ has long been abandoned.
      How are the idiots in charge ever going to try and justify this.

  71. Not posted much today, (again) but had a run to Belper for a bit of shopping and then didn’t do a lot for the rest of the day until I had a walk up to the Barley Mow, getting soaked on the last 300y!
    A couple of enjoyable pints, then over to the King’s Head for another pint and a walk home.

  72. Top baby names of 2023 revealed as royal link lifts one contender
    Coronation of King Charles behind top 10 entrance, but old favourite Frederick still no 1 for boys in list compiled from Telegraph column

    Patrick Sawer,
    SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
    30 December 2023 • 8:00pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/30/top-baby-names-2023-revealed-royal-event-linked-rise/

    Harry Christopher
    1 HR AGO
    Imagine all the fantastic variations. Mohamed. Mohammad. Muhammad. Who needs anything else?!

    Comment by George Kelson.

    GK

    George Kelson
    1 HR AGO
    Lies, Muhammad is the top name. They trying to stop us from learning the invasion is from within as well as from the boats.
    Time to end immigration and start deportation of the people who don’t want to integrate and coexist.

    5
    5 older replies
    SHOW OLDER REPLIES
    Reply by Tom Hodgson.

    TH

    Tom Hodgson
    58 MIN AGO
    Absolutely. We all know Mohammed is top of the list

    Reply by George Kelson.

    GK

    George Kelson
    55 MIN AGO
    True Tom, after the next election and Labour do nothing we might get a government that will enact the will of the people. If its not to late…

    Comment by Nanny McPhee.

    NM

    Nanny McPhee
    1 HR AGO
    We should be like other countries and stop the use of non British names, if we are ever going have integration into British societ

    1. The names parents give their children nowadays tells you much about the parents.

      My father was Frederick and my mother Stella. My maternal grandmother was Thursa. My father’s sisters had lovely names too many to mention (12) and likewise my mother’s sisters Grace, Frances, Sylvia.

      I got lucky and was named John James.

      I know of people with quite long classical names but they are often given a short more familiar handle, Ab for Abraham, Roo or some such abbreviation to conceal a longer more pretentious name.

      Ptolemy is popular for men and Elektra for women.

  75. BLAIRE WHITE
    @MsBlaireWhite
    30-50% of people have no internal monologue.
    Only 15% of people have what scientists deem as self-awareness.
    The suspicion you have that everyone around you is stupid and barely sentient is 100% valid.

    sound plausible?
    Apparently this statistic was based on researchers stopping people and asking what they were thinking about and that number of people said “nothing”
    Not that I am biased or anything, but I bet 100% of the people thinking about nothing were men. It seems to be a purely masculine ability….whereas women are always obsessing about what someone said last week or whether they left the gas on.

    1. Sex, beer, sport and cars. Other thoughts are occasionally and briefly available.

      Obviously a middle-aged man would reply ‘nothing’ to a young female researcher, because it sounds more prudent than ‘your boobs’.

    2. I know a female who claims that she never dreams, which I find odd. Mine are quite vivid and sometimes hyper real. Occasionally night nurse’s paralysis too, which is horrible. Mum had that and my siblings are fellow sufferers.

      2. What I find with dreams is that the atmosphere of the dream, which can be quite strong, pervades and persists well into the morning.

    3. What you say about women’s thoughts is probably true. The men just didn’t want others to know what they’d been thinking.

    4. I am always having conversations with myself, being an only child I developed a rich, inner life. If I were stopped and asked what I was thinking about I would probably say ‘nothing’ too; either it would be personal, confidential or I just couldn’t be bothered to explain to anyone else.

    5. Morning all. I’m thinking about cleaning, the washing, de-cluttering (yet to start!), worrying about grandchildren driving …

  76. One of Britain’s best actors, Tom Wilkinson, has died suddenly.

    My favourite part of his was his rôle as Seth Pecksniff in the superb 1994 production of Martin Chuzzlewit.

      1. I watched that recently, wasn’t it Tom Hiddleston? I didn’t know him either until I watched the series.

        1. I got the two Toms mixed up too, molamola, but it was Wilkinson who died in the first MARIGOLD HOTEL and in real life, and it was Hiddleston who starred as THE NIGHT MANAGER on TV with Hugh Laurie. and I often confuse two Hughs – Laurie and Grant.

  78. I loved Matt Letissier’s remarks about King Charles’ opinions. “His mentor was Lord Mountbatten his brother Prince Andrew and his best friend Jimmy Saville. NOT MY KING.”

  79. Well, chums, I’ll now wish you all a Good Night as I head for bed. Sleep well and I’ll see you all tomorrow.

  80. The penny finally dropped for me a few months ago regarding Biden’s motives in promoting the proxy war in Ukraine. It was simply to sacrifice Ukraine and its army and civilians to launder American taxpayer cash back to the elites in Washington.

    Biden and his cabal of Obama retreads with Obama pulling the strings never thought for a moment that Ukraine could defeat Putin and effect regime change in Russia. Biden simply wanted to filch US tax dollars to feed his corrupt regime and empty the US coffers.

    What better way to con the voters than to put a clown actor in place and give him sufficient rope to hang himself. First pretend that Zelensky is a war hero equivalent to a Churchill and then set the idiot running with gifts of historic armaments.

    I truly believe the outcome of the Ukraine war and Ukraine’s defeat was always inevitable but the purpose was never to achieve victory but instead to line the pockets of American politicians and their donors.

    We are witnessing pure evil and Obama and Biden are heads of the same snake.

    1. Can we conclude that the non-USA politicos who have supported the Ukraine – Russian war are exemplars of Barnum’s, “one born every second,” thesis?

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