507 thoughts on “Saturday 7 December: Corbyn vs Johnson presents a crossroads like Callaghan vs Thatcher”

  2. Saudi student kills three in attack at Florida naval air station, says official. Sat 7 Dec 2019

    Trump added that Saudi leader, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, had called him to express his condolences. “The King said that the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter, and that this person in no way shape or form represents the feelings of the Saudi people who love the American people,” Trump said.

    Morning everyone. I thought you might needed a laugh to start the day! It should never be forgotten (though the elites would like it to be) that 9/11 was a Saudi plot with Saudi players.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/06/florida-shooting-reports-pensacola-naval-base-latest

  4. Didn’t watch the debate last night, I don’t think that it was a crossroads though, it was more like a choice between u-turn back to the 1970s socialist dystopia or careering ahead into globalist, corporatist world government dystopia.

    1. In fairness to Nick Robinson, he certainly made a better fist of it than the harpies that are usually given the job.

    2. Good man, B3, neither did I. Two allegedly grown men throwing soundbites at each other does not make good telly. I have maintained my 100% avoidance of this increasingly daft activity and my blood pressure is grateful for it.

    1. I think that Boris has made a calculated decision not to do the interview. He has weighed up the potential damage that may be caused by a Neil interview against the damage caused to his image by not doing the interview, and decided that the latter is the least worst option.

      2. Indeed. And Brillo’s ridiculously ill-judged diatribe after the Farage interview has somehow legitimized BoJo’s decision not to come out to play. If that is the way our state broadcaster wishes to behave then I feel that some viewers will forgive his non-appearance after the employment of such bullying. I reckon that goading the PM has backfired.

  8. Manifesto Fiction

    The politicians seem to be trying to outdo each other with deliverable and not properly costed claims. Take Labor they made a claim that the average family would be £6,700 a year better of under Labor. The size of that figure alone should ring alarm bells that it is fake

    How did they attempt to make that claim? First they assumed the Average family would have 2 £1000 Rail season tickets. The reality is the Average UK family does not possess even one season ticket and they only use rail on average twice a year another bit of the claim was based on the Average family having two children in full time child care wheres as the average family has no children in childcare,

    They carefully avoided the tax increases they would face by trying to pretend they were not increases but changjs to allowances

  9. Good Morning thinkers

    Dull fine dry morning here , the sparrows are chattering away in the bushes / treetops .

    Has anyone else noticed Corbyn’s perfunctory sniff.. Heaven forfend that we will have to endure that if we are confronted by a hung Lab/SNP government ..

    Nah , of course not , I must have had a bad dream..

  11. The Fake Claims by the Politicians on the UK becoming Carbon Neutral by 2030 and the fake costs

    Some basic facts to start. Over 90% of UK homes are heated by Gas

    Over 99% of UK vehicles currently on the road are diesel or petrol

    The average car in the UK is kept for 11 years

    Less than 1% of new cars being purchased are electric

    The industry doe not have the capacity to switch to electric in the above timescales

    Costings about 85% of petrol and Diesel is taxes. if they switch to electric there is a massive financial black hole. as just £0.01 raises £9B a year so the revenue lost is massive and not one party has costed that in (To be far the 8%% comes down marginally as there is 5% VAT on electric)

    Capacity problem. WE do not have the generation capacity for electric cars nor the charging capacity nor the grid capacity

    How they tax electric cars in the future would be difficult as electric cars can just be plugged into any 13 amp socked. They could increase electricity prices by 80% but that would not go down well and no one would switch from gas heating top electric

    Home Heating – Labour intend to phase out Gas boilers which over 90% of homes use for heating. The problem is the only viable alternative is electric which even now is very expensive. There are heat pumps but they are very expensive and very inefficient and you would need much larger radiators and you would need homes to be super insulated. Pretty much impossible to do with existing homes and very very expensive to do on with new homes and to add to it in winter you would still need supplementary heating

    Kevin MccLoud of Grand Designs set up a company building so called Green Homes and the first one buil had heat pumps. After endless complaints that they did not heat the home properly they had to retrofit gas boilers ) The company is now as far as I know in Administration)

    1. Taxing electric cars is easy. As Norway did in the 80s, when diesel cars were rare so all diesel fuel was tax free for truckers, the annual mot recorded the mileage and they sent you a bill based on distance travelled. With modern gps and 5g, this kind of scheme would be a doddle.

    2. Going ‘carbon neutral’ is impossible, even if there was a scientific reason for doing so. And doing it in eleven years is even more unachievable. Such promises can be summed up in one word – greenwash.

      ‘Morning, BJ.

      1. None of the things in the manifestos have been properly costed in my view even fo the direct cots. When you add up all the indirect costs you are probably looking to treble the amount they have costed in their manifestos

        You then have to look at the timescales being claimed and in the manifestos none of these has been considered they just assume it is feasible which it is not. To try to claim that they can make the UK carbon neutral by 2040 is just pure fiction. They have not even looked at planes and shipping neither and timescales there would run to several years to replace existing fleets and thats without the little fact that there i no technology to replace them at present that would be carbon neutral

        Labour have now just come out with they are going to replace the entire UK bus fleet with electric buses by 2030. Besides the massive costs is the fact that it would make most bus route in the UK non commercially viable. THey also do not have the range or use outside of London and there would be the massive cost of putting in substations in the garages and running new power cables to them. In Rural UK that could be 20Km of road to be dug up

        It is easy to see why major government project go 3 or 4 times over budget and are delivered several years late

  12. Morning all

    SIR – In the frightening years following the British Winter of Discontent of 1978-79 (as the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher were elected in place of Labour under James Callaghan), one of my employees said to me: “Are we going to be all right?”

    I said that we were lucky enough to have outstanding customers, both in Britain and overseas, and that he and I together were going to deliver extremely attractive products to all of them, which would then give us all the future opportunities that we could handle.

    And so it was.

    Graham Clifton

    Kingston upon Thames, Surrey

    1. SIR – Not without some incredulity, I read that Labour’s plan to help small businesses is to place “a network of small business advisers in Post Office branches”.

      The small businesses I work with are clear. They need an immediate end to the senseless impasse around Brexit that dogged the last Parliament, resulting in uncertainty and suppression of confidence.

      Who are all these advisers? Would they be allowed to help sort the mail while they await the next victims of the dither and delay of the most Left‑wing Labour government in living memory? Or would that send the postmasters out on strike?

      Joseph Hill

      Gloucester

      SIR – Having personally enjoyed and taken for granted 38 years of moderate government and the benefit it brings of security, safety, freedom and prosperity, I am extremely concerned that Labour’s policies will take us back to an era of paralysis.

      We must stand united to protect our families, communities and core values from the threat of Labour’s extreme policies.

      Derek Shedden

      Sutton Coldfield

  14. Morning again

    SIR – You report (December 6) that four Brexit Party MEPs have quit the party. Is it right for them to retain their seats in the European Parliament?

    Unlike our MPs in Westminster, MEPs are appointed from party lists by proportional representation. In other words, people vote for a party, not an individual. If sitting MEPs leave their party, it would be logical for them to lose their seats so that the party could appoint replacements. Otherwise the electorate is defrauded of the representation for which it voted.

    Iwan Price-Evans

    Croydon, Surrey

  15. Pedant’s petard

    SIR – This went viral online, made all the more poignant by the final word (Letters, December 6): “Text from wife: ‘Your great.’ Reply from me: ‘No, you’re great.’ She’s been happy all day. Should I tell her I was only correcting her grammer?”

    David Leech

    Balcombe, West Sussex

  16. SIR – The sad truth is that many people will vote Labour despite its anti-Semitism (Letters, December 6) and, worse, others will do so because of its anti-Semitism.

    John Frankel

    Newbury, Berkshire

    SIR – The Jewish Labour Movement claims that 47 per cent of Jews who live in this country will consider leaving if the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn gets into power (report, December 6). They will not be on their own.

    Ken Culley

    Marlborough, Wiltshire

    1. Which leads to another question. Why the Eff is there a Jewish Labour Movement?
      Makes the devotees who threw themselves under the wheels of Juggernaut appear practically sane.

        2. Good morning Lovely Truthfulness.

          The article you have posted does not appear on my screen – only blank appears. Does anyone else have the same problem?

          It’s there now.

    2. Woolton Pies? (Looking at the ingredients, you certainly wouldn’t need an alarm clock the next morning.)

      Ingredients

      1lb swede
      1lb carrot
      1lb cauliflower
      1lb spring onion
      1lb potato
      1 teaspoon of marmite or vegetable extract
      oatmeal

      For the pastry:

      6oz flour
      1 ½ oz butter
      1 ½ oz lard
      2oz raw potatoes

      Equipment

      Mixing bowl
      Pie or casserole dish
      Sharp knife
      Chopping board
      Measuring scales
      Pan
      Grater

      Making and cooking it

      Always wash your hands before preparing food Always wash your hands before preparing food.

      Remove the outer leaves from the cauliflower and dice into small pieces, add the chunks to the pan

      Top tail and peel the carrots, dice into small chunks and add to the pan

      Cut the swede in half, peel, dice into small chunks and add to the pan

      Peel the potatoes, dice into small chunks and add to the pan

      Top and tail the spring onions, chop into small pieces and add to the pan

      Add a teaspoon of marmite or vegetable extract

      Add a tablespoon of oatmeal

      Cover the vegetables with water and place on the cooker to boil and soften

      Put the flour in a mixing bowl

      Add the butter and lard

      Rub the fat into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs

      Grate 2oz of raw potatoes and add these to the mixing bowl

      Add a little water and work into a pastry mix (you will need to work quickly so the potato does not turn the pastry grey)

      Remove the vegetables from the cooker, drain and place in a pie dish

      Flour the surface and roll out the pastry to the size needed to cover the pie dish

      Place the pastry over the edges sealing the edges to the pie dish, trim the pastry and make a few cuts in the pastry to let out the steam during cooking

      Brush the surfaces with milk

      Place in a moderate oven for half an hour

      Remove from the oven and serve with brown gravy and carrots.

      1. Yo anne

        1lb swede. I hope it is not from anyone Mr Grizzle knows.

        Do different cuts of Swede affect the price ie, if it is his/her heart, will the pie be more costly than if it were buttocks etc

        1. I’m thinking about 1lb of spring onions. Have you seen the price of a small bunch (approx 6)?

  18. SIR – I may be missing something about the drive to plant millions of trees to mitigate climate change.

    Seedlings are placed very close to each other to ensure enough survive. When a plantation is 10 or 15 years old, it is thinned to allow the remaining trees to thrive. The thinnings are not commercially viable and so are probably burned, which returns the captured carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Fifteen years later, the plantation is thinned again to ensure the remaining trees reach maturity, the thinnings burned and the carbon dioxide returned whence it came.

    There is also the matter of fallen leaves, which decay and release gases such as nitrous oxide, which is several times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Has the net carbon capture of this process been authoritatively defined?

    J R Ball

    Hale, Cheshire

    1. Nothing has been authoritatively defined Mr Ball otherwise we would not be caught in a mammoth fraud and disgrace to science. Our production of CO2 is small and cannot lead to catastrophe. Our attempts to minimise it are trivial and will have no effect other than to deny salvation to the poor and transfer vast wealth to the rich.

      1. The extraordinary aspect is that this ‘science’ is presented as unanimous. There can be no absolute consensus in science as is advanced by ‘global warming by human actions’. The Scientific Method was well described as proceeding from the wrong hypothesis to the less wrong hypothesis and so on. My own unsupported by evidence suspicion is that here, as in all over former academic disciplines, the rule is ‘if you want a career and access to grants the better to further that career you had better swallow all your doubts and knuckle under.’ There is also an ancient pathology at work here in my view. The desire to wipe out as many of our fellow human beings as possible. The 20th century can be explained by episodes where the competing ideologies were essentially judged for their success on mass murder rates. It is just that some were more open about their motives than others.

    3. J R Ball:

      “I may be missing something about the drive to plant millions of trees to mitigate climate change.”

      The thing you’re missing, Mr/Ms Ball, is that mitigation is just a ruse. The real reason is that when our politicians’ climate-change promises start to bite, we’ll have enough wood for the sailing ships we used to build.

  19. Listening to Andrew Castle on LBC and playing is Blair’s speech from yesterday. Here he is reprising his time-frame idea to focus his words i.e. ‘weapons of mass destruction arriving in 45 minutes’ nonsense but now it’s 6 days to stop Brexit, 6 days to save…
    Every word dripping with concern for, well, Tony Blair and his globalist pals, of course.

    1. He never quite made the grade as a tennis player and he is now determined not quite to make the grade as a journalist.

      1. As a radio interviewer he is quite robust in manner but narrow in his views. He is not in Nick Ferrari’s class as he lacks Ferrari’s subtlety in the use of language and especially in the art of put-downs. Perhaps his radio persona is a reflection of his tennis ability i.e. fair technician but lacking a range of shots and the art of deceiving the opponent. However, I prefer him to a number of LBC presenters e.g. O’Brien, Mair and Fogarty.

  20. Only in the USA! (Worth a reprint)

    It’s time again for the annual ‘Stella Awards’!

    For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old
    Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the
    McDonald’s in New Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember, she
    took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was
    driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that?

    That’s right – these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits
    and verdicts in the U.S.A. – a fundamental aspect of their basic ‘culture’,
    which they consider the rest of the world should adopt! The kind of
    cases that make intelligent, humane people scratch their heads!

    Here are the Stellas for a few years ago: –

    * SEVENTH PLACE *

    Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers
    after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a
    furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the
    verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

    Start scratching!

    * SIXTH PLACE *

    Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses
    when his neighbour ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman
    apparently didn’t notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was
    trying to steal his neighbour’s hubcaps.

    Scratch some more…

    * FIFTH PLACE *

    Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just
    burgled, by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage
    door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open.
    Worse, he couldn’t re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to
    the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight
    – count them – EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag
    of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner’s insurance company claiming undue
    mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay
    Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.

    Keep scratching. There are more…
    Double hand scratching after this one.

    * FOURTH PLACE *

    Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella’s
    when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten
    on his bottom by his next door neighbour’s beagle – even though the beagle
    was on a chain in its owner’s fenced yard! Williams did not get as much
    as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked
    at the time of the bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the
    yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun!

    Pick a new spot to scratch, you’re getting a bald spot..

    * THIRD PLACE *

    Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania – because a jury ordered a Philadelphia
    restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and
    broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor. Ms.
    Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an
    argument. Whatever happened to people being responsible for their own actions ?

    Only two more so ease up on the scratching…

    *SECOND PLACE*

    Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby
    city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her
    two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies’
    room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night
    club had to pay her $12,000…. oh, yeah, plus dental expenses!

    Ok. Here we go! Drum roll …

    * FIRST PLACE *

    This year’s runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: – Mrs. Merv Grazinski
    of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor
    home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on
    to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the
    driver’s seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich.
    Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and
    overturned. Also, not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not
    putting in the owner’s manual that she couldn’t actually leave the driver’s seat
    while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her
    – are you sitting down? – $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home.

    Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just
    in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

  21. Funny Old World
    The McCann case and the cock-ups involved are MSM headlines and all over the Brekkie Sofa shows with “Victim Group” representatives calling for the heads of those responsible
    Fair enough, heads SHOULD roll,sackings are appropriate,pensions should be lost or curtailed and the hoary old “Lessons have been learned” shouldn’t work this time.
    Yet nearly every week (if you look hard enough) you can read of the latest trial over the savage abuse and rape of children by Moslem gangs………..
    Where is the indignation
    Where is the publicity
    Where are the consequences for those that failed their duty to these children??
    But hey,at least no-one will call them Islamophobic for mentioning it then…………………………………….

    1. Morning Rik,
      It is a very sad state of affairs when there are many that put the party first
      even before the welfare of children, & certainly before country, the Jay report
      has shown us that quite clearly.

    2. Rik, can’t help but agree with your comment. However, your penultimate line could more accurately read:

      Where are the consequences for those that are failing in their duty to these children??

      There can be no doubt that the abuse continues and that the responsible authorities are using the old, “look a squirrel,” misdirection technique when the opportunity arises e.g. the ‘mistake’ to release McCann. We need a bit of balance between one group of rapists and another, don’t we?

    3. Not wishing to detract from the horrendous crimes of the perpetrators, where tf were the parents of these children?

      1. Many are “In Care” But you make a valid point,one I have made myself
        Where are the Fathers,Brothers,Cousins??

        1. I seem to remember that one father did take action against the rapists.
          Guess who the police arrested.

          1. Early on in this sorry saga of turning a blind eye, one or two Sikh fathers got involved in protecting their daughters and ended up in prison. Knowing the enmity that exists between Sikhs and moslems it’s rather surprising that the rapists went for Sikh girls. Of course, there’s always the thought that the perpetrators took the lack of action by the police etc. against them to mean tacit acceptance of their behaviour.

          3. Not only Sikhs but least one non-immigrant father was dragged away by the police from the house in which his 13 – 14 yo daughter was being serially raped. I don’t suppose we’ll ever know the full extent of what went on and that includes the number of fathers/brothers threatened with arrest when trying to get girls out from under the rapists’ clutches. Makes one wonder who is exercising control on what is still going on, as it surely is.

          4. The police clearly condoned these rapes, which were facilitated by the operators and staff of care homes. The 13 year old girls were treated as if they had chosen prostitution as a profession. (And as if prostitutes did not also deserve the protection of the Law.)

  22. James Patrick Bulger (16 March 1990 – 12 February 1993) was a 2-year-old boy from Kirkby, Merseyside, England, who was abducted, tortured and killed by two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.

    Imprisonment is sometimes not effective enough .. Where are those monsters now.. I hope they are being monitored ..

    Now we are hearing about this.. which is so frightening , this and the Westminster bridge debacle proves the evil that is amongst us all .

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7760395/Joseph-McCann-tearaway-14-receiving-one-Britains-ASBOs.html

    1. Yo T_B

      James Bulger killer ‘terrified for his life‘ after photos circulate on social media

      ONE of British toddler James Bulger’s killers has reportedly demanded plastic surgery after photographs allegedly showing what he looks like now were circulated on social media at the weekend.

      At least two images purporting to be recent snaps of Jon Venables, now 35, were leaked to Twitter along with his new name and the prison in which
      he is currently incarcerated.

      https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/james-bulger-killer-terrified-for-his-life-after-photos-circulate-on-social-media/news-story/47bd785e3f1fbd8d51c0b8ce8fa44c44

      1. Let Venables be terrified for his life. He is costing the taxpayer £tens of thousands for his keep, security and anonymity. He is probably safer now than the average UK citizen..

        1. It’s not even as if he repents, viz. the child porno. He’s just an unspeakable, evil coward. As are people of that ilk.

    2. Venables has been in and out of gaol – apparently he has a penchant for kiddieporn and boasting to his fellow prisoners about his identity.
      I think we can say that ‘rehabilitation’ is wasted on him.

    3. Venables, certainly, was back in prison for child pornography. Some people are such that the world would be far better off without them.

  23. I stopped watching the head-to-head last night when Corbyn repeated the canard that our economy is the fifth richest in the world. Fifth largest, perhaps, but fifth richest? Come off it!

    1. We are about 18th richest. Both politicians and the media frequently falsely claim we are he 5 richest

      Labour frequently try to spin the UK debt which of course has gone up under the Conservatives as will still run a large deficit and Labour has normally voted against cuts to which would have eliminated the deficit and put the UK economy om a much stronger basis

      Labour as well has not mentioned how much faster the UK debt would climb under them and how much bigger the UK deficit would become

      1. To be fair to the other side, I am astonished that the Tories still get away with blaming the Crash of 2008 on Labour.

        1. There are a number of ways of measuring it using Gross domestic product (GDP) based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP) per capita. in Dollars for 2018 we came 29th

          1 Qatar 134,623
          2 Macao SAR 122,201
          3 Luxembourg 108,813
          4 Singapore 103,717
          5 Brunei Darussalam 83,777
          6 Ireland 82,439
          7 Norway 76,738
          8 United Arab Emirates 70,474
          9 Kuwait 67,969
          10 Hong Kong SAR 66,517
          11 Switzerland 65,707
          12 United States 64,767
          13 San Marino 61,552
          14 Netherlands 58,255
          15 Saudi Arabia 56,817
          16 Iceland 56,530
          17 Taiwan Province of China 55,244
          18 Sweden 54,071
          19 Germany 53,854
          20 Austria 53,716
          21 Australia 53,559
          22 Denmark 53,552
          23 Bahrain 50,868
          24 Canada 50,626
          25 Belgium 49,480
          26 Malta 48,246
          27 Finland 48,006
          28 France 46,978
          29 United Kingdom 46,782
          30 Oman 46,476
          31 Japan 45,565
          32 South Korea 42,985
          33 Cyprus 41,836
          34 Spain 41,538
          35 New Zealand 41,179
          36 Puerto Rico 40,796
          37 Italy 40,206
          38 Aruba 40,160
          39 Israel 39,160
          40 Czech Republic 39,088
          41 Slovenia 38,634
          42 Slovak Republic 37,021
          43 Lithuania 36,997
          44 Estonia 35,718
          45 The Bahamas 34,421
          46 Poland 33,747
          47 Hungary 33,708
          48 Portugal 33,166
          49 Trinidad and Tobago 32,684
          50 Malaysia 32,455

    2. Many of our politicians seem to forget that wealth in Britain belongs to those who own it, not to the state. The state is up to its eyeballs in debt and still having to borrow to pay its way.

      Just because a few millionaires live in a block of flats, it doesn’t mean the flats’ owner is rich or even solvent.

    3. Many of our politicians seem to forget that wealth in Britain belongs to those who own it, not to the state. The state is up to its eyeballs in debt and still having to borrow to pay its way.

      Just because a few millionaires live in a block of flats, it doesn’t mean the flats’ owner is rich or even solvent.

    1. Morning E,
      Especially since the mid 70s when added spirals to their already corkscrew shape started to accelerate rapidly.

      1. Morning ogga.

        At that time I was too busy doing other things to notice. Probably I’m now seeing more than I used to see.

    3. “However, it did confirm Ms Hall Hall had resigned” I thought that was just a BBC typo, but they use the same name throughout the report; I’m confused, Bleausard Bleausard

  26. Over half a dozen redwings just descended onto our Sorbus’s. Delightful sight but the mistle thrush is also back and he’s a bully.

    1. Maybe he doesn’t like his relatives.
      A rehearsal for Christmas Day in many a British household.

  27. ConWoman

    HOW many times in the past few months have we heard politicians and

    commentators, and those who benefit from high levels of immigration, say

    that the public is no longer bothered about the very high levels of

    immigration that this country continues to experience?

    This is of course untrue and a new Deltapoll, commissioned by Migration Watch UK, gives the lie to the claim (see summary here and report by the Daily Mail here).

    Notwithstanding what we have been repeatedly told, the survey has

    found that nearly two-thirds of respondents (65 per cent) agree that

    recent levels of overseas net migration to the UK are a source of major

    concern for the public. Fewer than a quarter (22 per cent) disagree.

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/whats-the-big-worry-immigration-immigration-immigration/

    1. “Fewer than a quarter (22 per cent) disagree.”

      That’s because they’re immigrants themselves.

      1. Some migrants would agree that we need to control migration. It is mainly those that have lived in the UK a long time. Most migrants though at present are happy to have unlimited number arriving i the UK

        1. “Some migrants would agree that we need to control migration.”

          I agree. I suspect that many who’ve lived here many years and have settled don’t take too kindly to having a massive influx dumped on their doorstep instead of in the leafy suburbs where those responsible for the influx live.

        1. Thank you for improving my Latin vocab. (Memories of the tatty little notebook at the bottom of my satchel.)

    3. The UK has simply been overwhelmed by the very high levels of migration to the UK over the last decade. WEE simply have been unable to cope with the numbers , The official UK population growth per year is almost 600,000 but most experts belie that this considerable understates uit and in any case does not include illegals and asylum seekers etc . Most experts calculate that the true UK population growth is nearer to 1 Million a year

      WE have simply been swamped by the numbers , our housing cannot cope. our transport cannot cope our NHS cannot cope, our schools cannot cope and our police cannot cope nor can social services or prisons and nor can our economy cope

      WE have most of our politicians and a minority of our population though that think that the UK can cope with an unlimited number of people coming to this small and already very over crowded island

      WE have to run very fast to mot even standstill . Things are currently still getting worse and without control over the numbers will in my view continue to get worse

    4. A big problem in my view is our political and electoral system. The voting system ensures the two part cartel continue to be the only parties to be able to gain power which means they can and do stick two fingers up to the electorate

      In recent years as well these two parties and even the Lib-Dems & Greens have morphed into London parties in that they only really represent the Metropolitan London areas

    3. “Data from the Zambezi River Authority shows water flow at its lowest since 1995,”
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/12/07/zimbabwes-worst-drought-100-years-slows-victoria-falls-trickle/
      “Yet scientists are cautious about categorically blaming climate change. There is always seasonal variation in levels.

      Harald Kling, hydrologist at engineering firm Poyry and a Zambezi river expert, said climate science deals in decades, not particular years, “so it’s sometimes difficult to say this is because of climate change because droughts have always occurred”.”

      So how low was it in 1995??

  33. Uber had 6,000 US sexual assault reports in two years

    It is estimated that Uber has 25,000,000 users in the US. I assume the sexual assaults mainly occurred when the Uber er was being shared, It does not seem to be ian issue in the UK but perhaps rie sharing is less common in the UK

    Uber said it received almost 6,000 reports of sexual assault in the United States in 2017 and 2018.

    While the number of cases rose in 2018, the rate of incidents dropped by 16%, as the number of journeys was higher.

    Passengers – as opposed to drivers – accounted for nearly half of those accused of sexual assault.

    The data was published in a report which Uber said showed its commitment to “improving safety for Uber and the entire industry”.

      1. Interestingly when I tried to find a breakdown of figures for London between Private Hire , Uber and Black cabs there was none. Someone tried to obtain one in 2011 and it was claims they had no breakdown and it would take to long to go through the record so the Refused the request

        Interestingly Khan claims to have figures at least for Uber but TfL have never published figures broken down by Uber, Private Hire & Black Cabs

        In general from news reports there seem to be liyttle indication of any serious issues with Uber particularly when there are trice as many Uber cars as black cabs

        https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/cab_related_sexual_assault_stati

        1. Gay couples certainly have to watch their behaviour; I guess that some of the drivers are moonlighting from their role as morality watchdogs.

    2. Why did the sexual assault reports get sent to Uber and not the perlice

      DT Telly Subbies strike again

      1. This data appears to be US data as you say at lest in the UK it is really the responsibility of the person that suffered the offence to report it to the police and not down to a thirds party

  34. MB has decided he will give the snack bar in the ‘eco’ friendly Cambridge mosque a swerve.
    No bacon butties let alone an all-day full English breakfast

      1. I have. I visited the Mosque which celebrated the Aunt of the Prophet. She had an unfortunate accident on the way to prayer. She fell off her donkey, hit her head and died. This isn’t a joke. Though it would be easy to make it one.

          1. “Fuerunt vero et pseudoprophetae in populo …. “
            — 2 Peter 2:1

            …. and as a prophet, Mo was a dead loss.
            ;¬)

            .

      2. I have. I visited the Mosque which celebrated the Aunt of the Prophet. She had an unfortunate accident on the way to prayer. She fell off her donkey, hit her head and died. This isn’t a joke. Though it would be easy to make it one.

    2. Shouted across a busy street.
      “Where shall I meet you?”
      “Ali’s snack bar!”
      “Where’s everyone gone?”

  35. But on to the important Stuff. The Radio Times for today and the rest of the week. The cover and an internal article brings to our attention that the next Dr Who will have four stars. Two are white, and the other two are not.
    There is a long article about Huw Edwards. It is very flattering. Extremely so. If God were the subject of such an article in those terms, He might be embarrassed. Mr Edwards, it seems clear, thinks that it is only his due.

    1. I have no objection to persons of any colour appearing in the media. I remember in my younger days when if you happened to be Jewish you were shut out of so many things. But actors or whatever should be chosen for their talent, not for a quota.

      1. Well, have look at the numbers you see, in plays, adverts, in historical dramas, in magazine programmes, comedies, in panel shows.
        I would suggest that the number would exceed 10%. This would suggest quota rather than talent.
        As for Jews, who knows? You cannot tell by sight (I won’t make any jokes about appearance.). One of my long ago colleagues was a Jew. I knew because he said so. Nor was I unaware of sectarianism. There were large businesses in Edinburgh that would not employ Catholics, such as myself. The school on the CV was a giveaway.

        Edited for grammar, typos, and to make more sense.

  36. Afternoon all. I would be interested to know what fellow Nottler’s ideal outcome of the election would be? I’m guessing there are not many Corbynistas here, but would you like to see a thumping Conservative majority? Personally, I would like to see a small Tory majority but with someTBP and DUP MPs needing to prop it up. This would force Johnson to deliver a real Brexit and perhaps some actual small-c conservative policies as well.

    I don’t want Johnson to be able to govern alone. I wouldn’t trust the PC, Europhile Tories as far as I can throw them!

    1. We are outnumbered and have to be satisfied with what we get. People have short memories, Neither party deserve a single vote, but most people have forgotten everything that has gone before, already. Kicking the can down the road worked. Why do you think Theresa May is smiling ?
      The glimmer of democracy has faded, now.

      1. See my post above for the issues ie NI does not want hard border but you have to have a tax point somewhere well until we reach a free trade deal with the EU

    2. NI wants to sort of sit on the fence and that’s an impossibility. If NI comes out of the EU it means a hard border but it does not want a hard boarder

      Boris approach of having a tax border nominally at the ports is about at present the best you can get. If the EU is sensible and we reach a free trade deal with the EU then the need for a tax point at the ports pretty much becomes redundant

      1. A hard border like what the EU has with Switzerland? The one you don’t notice as you drive through without stopping?
        How about San Marino? Does San Marino, which is not in the EU, have a hard border with Italy? I don’t know, but I doubt it. Any offers?
        The notion of a hard border between Eire and NI is beyond preposterous, for the simple reason that it would be completely ignored. (There are dozens and dozens and dozens of unmarked crossings. Will there be a contract put out for someone to build barriers, razor wire fences and watchtowers?)

        1. Well what Boris is planning is pretty much that.. There is also a land border between Norway & Sweden

          The so called border down the North sea is just a nominal tax point which you have to have. In practice 96% of traffic is pre cleared and all tht happens is at the port the bar code on the paper work is swiped. There may also b a small percentage of random stops as now. Thousand of Non EU trucks go through Dover now everyone of them is not stopped for checks

        2. Indeed. The EU has about 42 external borders. How about the borders between, say French Guyana (EU) and Brazil/Suriname?
          The whole NI border issue is a colossal red herring designed to thwart Brexit.

    3. I am in agreement with you JK but surprised that some Brexit Party candidates are standing. Are there any prominent possible Brexit MPs? Boris may get his WA2 through but if he keeps his word on our fishing controls the EU atr likely to throw it back at him. Then there will be chaos. Will Boris wait and go out on WTO terms on 31 January? I am not holding my breath. The traitors are coming out of the shadows now.

      1. Afternoon C,.
        The treacherous politico’s have been emerging from the shadows more strongly by the day ever since the dead sheep,
        & the dog strangler knifed Margret Thatcher.
        They still find support / votes.
        Those currently active in brexit
        in many respects are the same peoples / parties that
        gave us cause to have a referendum, the brexit group is, in the main, made up from those parties.
        I am pro Brexitexit.

    5. Afternoon JK,
      A UKIP walkover after having the current NEc resign and allowing the
      real patriotic members to once again
      bring UKIP to the fore.

    6. “with someTBP and DUP MPs needing to prop it up”. In other words, some parties without enough support on their own merits to gain more than a few MPs, being able to blackmail the government into adopting measures that they would not otherwise adopt. Isn’t power without responsibility the traditional privilege of the whore?

    7. Agreed JK, Johnson is going to need some prefects around to stop him becoming the school bully.

  37. Britain’s reign as a world superpower is over – and it’s all thanks to Brexit. Indy 6 December 2019.

    Future historians may well pick 2019 as a decisive year in the decline of the US and UK as world powers. Of course, the UK started at a much lower level in the international pecking order than the US, but the direction of travel in both cases is the same.

    This is adjusting facts to fit wishes. The US is not in decline. It is still by far the world’s most powerful cultural, financial and military State. Does it have difficulties? Yes but it also has the resources to deal with them. The UK on the other hand ceased to be a superpower long before Brexit and it could probably be attributed to VE day with its pretensions to the title finally crushed at Suez while its further decline on almost every front seems to be irreversible. The breakup of the Union and the absorption of the pieces into the EU are not unlikely possibilities.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-uk-britain-boris-johnson-us-saudi-syria-nato-a9236286.html

    1. Morning to you, I would go further and say the breakup of the Union is a very likely possibility. As time goes by, more and more will feel aggrieved at perceived wrongs inflicted by those b@st@rd English and will seek to disassociate themselves away us. Their destination of the EU will not matter a jot to them as long as they leave us behind.
      The same possibility applies to a Labour government sooner or later being elected, only afterwards will the realisation of what was thrown away hit home. If Labour had a leader with the same beliefs but managed a more low key public persona to his or her Marxist beliefs, they could well have been in No10 by the end of the week.
      Edited for grammer.

      2. Well, the incompetence and cowardice of the Scottish Government is a real stumbling block to Scotland leaving the Union. (If this is what they are like now, what will it be like when they are in full control?)
        There is a general malaise in the UK. If that can be sorted, then the Union might well settle.

        1. Afternoon, incompetence and cowardice should be a stumbling block towards an election of a government and winning an independence referendum. The problem is, it is dependent on the electorate, and after hearing the numbers still willing to vote Corbyn and Labour, my faith in common sense is somewhat bruised.

          1. There is no “common sense”. I have rejoiced in my intelligence, despite the fact it has made me no friends and brought on a few beatings. (Why is big and strong good, but intelligence is disliked, when neither is a choice?)
            So I am filled with exasperation and despair. This is redoubled now as we have four candidates;
            Revoke,
            Remain,
            WA-Remain
            Who knows – Labour don’t mention Brexit in their candidate circular?

  39. Not having any smelling salts in the house, I’m just off out to get some fresh air to bring me round after checking the price of stamps.

    1. I bought some recently and when the Girl Behind the post Office counter asked if I “wanted anything else? ” I replied: “A Securicor escort home please….

          2. Sorry, Eddy, it takes disqus all this time to pass your response onto me.

            Anyway, if you can remember 1/2d post you must have been beta testing Rowland Hill’s great idea

          3. Hello NTN. Just landed.

            Not only remember but have the original somewhere.

            I did stick a second class stamp on my post to you the other day but suspect it got delayed even more with the Christmas stuff.

  43. Labour vows to electrify England’s entire bus fleet by 2030

    Another totally impossible promise. They put electric bus in 1 garage and for 1 route and had to install a sub station in the garages and the National grid had to dig up several kilometers of road to run in new power cables. Cost of the buses is another issue they are very expensive about 50% more. Charging them is another big problem. They may work in London where most routes are quite short and the mileage they cover is low

    The bus building capacity could not possible renew the entire London bus fleet by 2030 and most buses are quite new so scraping them would be very costly

    Outside of London and perhaps a few of the large cities electric bus would be so expensive almost no bus routes would be commercially viable the bus companies are already seriously struggling

    This seems to be yet another uncosted addition to Lab ours manifesto

    1. Another day, another impossible ‘promise’. Strangely, this wasn’t in their recently-published manifesto, further proof that it is headless chicken time at Liebour HQ.

  44. Spiked

    The colour / talent controversy reveals something else, too: how today’s

    virtual leftists now see racism everywhere, even where it doesn’t

    exist. They’re convinced all Tories

    are racist, that all Tory voters are a little bit racist, that Brexit

    is racist. The great irony to their spying of racism in every opinion

    they disagree with, and in every community they view as too pro-Tory or

    too pro-Brexit, is that they are exposing their own prejudices. Indeed,

    this hysterical and phoney ‘anti-racism’ that spots racial hatred in

    every nook and cranny of mass society is the key prejudice of our times:

    it views voters and tabloid newspaper-readers and old people as the dim

    imbibers of hatred and stupidity who must be re-educated by young woke

    graduates. The middle-class left’s feverish obsession with racism is its

    own kind of hatred.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/12/06/the-hysteria-of-the-boris-bashers/

    1. Opinions hated by The Left are either RACIST or FASCIST.
      I’m having an argument with one such moron on Tw@ter at the moment.

    2. I wonder if the lack of thinking, analysis, reflection, and foresight by so many is the result of something that they have imbibed? Fluoride in the water?
      We mature folk seem to be broadcasting on wavelengths that they cannot receive.

      Edited for typo

    1. Yes we would. It would have massive effects on the Earths geology and position in Space. No tides either!

      1. The Moon stabilises the Earth’s tilt and hence the seasons and climate. If the Moon was no longer there the Earth could start wobbling around its axis and there’s no telling where it might settle. Basically, chaos.

      3. It would have quite an effect on shore life as all of the worlds seas and oceans became still lakes.

        1. On the brighter side though, with no tides to worry about, there will be less flooding and coastal erosion caused by climate change.

        2. Afternoon Meredith. The moon provides much more than an astronomical backdrop for romance. There are doubts that life on Earth could have evolved without it acting as a meteorite shield. Some of the most serious arguments for Anthropocentrism depend on it.

        3. The Sun has a small impact on tides so there would be some movement and wind would still be generated to stir the waters.

    2. Regarding sending parcels. One is better off going online and finding a carrier. They are often half the price of what the Post Office charges. And they will come to your home and pick it up. I was charged £47 to send a parcel containing two books recently. If i had used the online service it would have been £20. The stupid thing is that it was exactly the same carrier.

        1. I won’t touch any company that uses Hermes. I just thought that they were incompetent with every box that they delivered being wrapped up in tape saying fragile. Then I noticed that the boxes were not dented or damaged in any way, and all of the tape was around the centre. All of the boxes were being opened at one of the depots to see what was inside. When then usually only found books, they taped them back up and sent them on.

          Until the day they claimed to have delivered a parcel and had a squiggle on their website claiming that I had signed for it. It was faked and the parcel was clearly stolen when the depot worker liked what they saw inside. It is only by accident that something gets delivered by them now when I don’t know they are being used. The current count is 4 faked signatures saying that I have signed for parcels that have been left with others.

          They were a 2 star company until last December when 5 star reviews started appearing every 90 seconds from 09:00am to 05:00pm. All of them looking very similar in wording. They have picked up 250,000 such reviews by now but they cannot hide the vast number of people who have parcels stolen / disappear or have faked signatures for items that were not delivered.

          Some of these reviews can be quite sad when someone has sent something of sentimental value, and had it “tracked / recorded delivery” only for it to disappear anyway:

          https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.myhermes.co.uk?languages=en&stars=1

    3. Good afternoon Belle,
      I sort of bugger off and don’t stick your nose in our business. Takes a long time for the nationalised industry mentality to wear off.

    1. The situation in Sweden has deteriorated to such an extent that the Danish government has introduced border checks from Sweden to ensure their country’s security.

      Says it all really!

      1. In October, the former CEO of Scania, a major trucking company in Sweden, warned that the country could be headed towards a civil war due to the social problems that have bubbled up as a result taking in massive numbers of migrants from alien cultures.

    2. Why, actually, did they take in all those migrants ? Had they never heard ” if you can’t afford it, don’t buy it ” ?
      If I were a migrant, I would not like to be looked on as a problem by my hosts.And I certainly would not like to
      be made responsible for re-housing these old people. Back home in Bongo-Bongo land we treat our old people with respect.

      1. Is it not reasonable to say that we shall not take any more immigrants in to live in the country until there is enough housing to house the existing population, enough food to feed them. enough sources of energy to heat them and provide them with adequate electricity and gas, enough public and private transport, enough schools to educate their children, enough doctors nurses and hospitals etc. etc etc.

        In brief no new immigration until the infrastructure can cope.

        1. Reason doesn’t come into EU diktats – we are going to have more quotas. Whether we like it or not.

        2. Of course it is reasonable. What is totally and unequivocally unreasonable is to expect our political leaders to give a tuppenny toss about such reason.

  49. DT article today by Michael Deacon

    The question every voter is asking: how can we trust any of them?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/07/question-every-voter-asking-can-trust/

    “Sod it. Just say anything. Never mind whether it’s true. As long as you say it loudly and confidently, enough people will believe it.”

    But does anybody with an IQ of over 100 believe that Boris Johnson is telling the truth? His ‘brilliant Brexit deal’ is neither brilliant nor Brexit – it is abject surrender. Why is he not prepared to defend it in any detail?

    It seems that the MSM rule is that you can attack the Johnson Brexit for being Brexit – but you cannot attack it for not being Brexit.

    Most of the MSM’s attacks on Boris Johnson start with the premise that Johnson’s WA is a real Brexit and not the sham it really is. As soon as the threat of a real examination of Johnson arises on the shape of Andrew Neil then article after article in the MSM attacks Andrew Neil. His direct truthfulness is clearly now completely out of step with the age in which we live.

    Edit addition:

    “The nature of bad news infects the teller.”

    The messenger in Shakepeare’s play bringing the news to Cleopatra that Antony has married Octavia incenses her with so much rage that the poor chap is dragged away to be whipped. Andrew Neil could bring the wrong sort of news about the WA so he has become the whipping boy.

  52. Daily Brexit Betrayal

    But ask yourselves: who would actually spend a

    Friday evening during the Christmas Party season watching this drivel,

    except for us politics nerds! A reporter, writing about his impressions

    ‘on the campaign trail’ for the Times, has noticed this same attitude

    ,of not giving a damn any more, amongst us peasants living in the sticks

    beyond the Westminster Bubble:

    “A great many of our fellow countrymen and women

    aren’t that bothered about the democratic process. They don’t take it

    nearly as seriously as we do, partly because they genuinely feel

    disempowered and overlooked, and partly because, in the face of

    adversity, people learn that if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. And partly,

    I think, satire and scepticism have long been a feature of our national

    character — and there still is a national character, even in these

    schismatic times — not to take very much, least of all politics, too

    seriously.” (link, paywalled)

    Well, we’ll take it seriously enough in the privacy

    of the polling booths – we just don’t talk about it to reporters …!

    Illustrating my call to investigate the role played by the MSM in this

    election is an article in The Times, reporting that there are already

    some rumblings coming from our ‘betters’:

    “Leading broadcasters have been accused of letting a

    “sense of entitlement” drive “hysterical” rows with politicians as the

    Conservatives turned their fire on the BBC and Channel 4. Senior media

    figures warned that broadcasters risked breaching their obligation to

    remain impartial during the election by attempting to embarrass leaders

    into granting interviews.” (link, paywalled)

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-saturday-7th-december-2019-five-days-to-polling-day/

    1. They would say that wouldn’t they?
      These mendacious trivia-pluggers are living in a bubble only made possible by those who took up arms for democracy.
      It is not we, the folk bundled up against the cold on the Clapham omnibus, who don’t care about democracy. We knew the people who took up arms, prepared to die for it. We lived with and talked with them. It’s them, the latte licking, self-entitled, superficial media dipsticks.
      They are the older version of the child in the advert considering the choice, “Daddy or chips?”.
      The children prefer chips.

  53. Interesting Article

    Thus, in

    the UK, we have two electorally important Asian communities, polarised

    on religious grounds, with tensions stoked up over Kashmir, which is

    being reflected in UK politics, where the Indians are increasingly

    supporting the Conservatives while the Pakistanis support Labour.

    Each community, respectively, could be characterised as Islamophobic and

    antisemitic and, given their pivotal roles in the coming election, it

    would be surprising if some of their attitudes did not rub off on the

    political parties that they support. In fact, for each party to enhance

    and maintain that support, it would seem necessary for them to reflect

    the values of the communities that are giving that support.

    Despite even CNN reporting in the issue, there has been scant attention been paid to it in the UK legacy media as a whole, although the Guardian

    yesterday had Shami Chakrabarti, shadow attorney general, trying to

    redress the balance by writing that, “British Hindus voting for Labour

    are not ‘traitors’ to India”.

    http://eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=87448#disqus_thread
    Explains why Baker among others are pandering to the “Asian” bloc votes

  54. BBC.

    “Climate change: Oceans running out of oxygen as temperatures rise.”

    Increase fishing to save them from a slow death.

    1. Any mention of this?:
      “Humanity has drastically increased the amount of fertilizer we use to produce ever higher crop yields. However, when that fertilizer runs off into our waterways it eventually makes its way to the ocean. When that happens, microbial communities and algae all of a sudden receive a massive delivery of food. Bacteria and algae colonies exponentially increase to feed on the newly delivered food and when that happens they respire, same as humans. As in, they take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, removing dissolved oxygen from the ocean.”
      https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2017/08/10/oceans-losing-oxygen-94-million-years-ago/#3a13b4c57235
      10/8/2017

  55. Good morning all. Smoking ….

    How was I Born?

    A 10-year-old girl asks her mom; “Mommy, how was I born?
    ” The mom smiled and replied, “Once upon a time daddy and I decided to plant a wonderful little seed.
    “Daddy sowed the seed carefully and I took care of it every day.
    “After a while the seed started to grow, and it got bigger and bigger. In a few months it turned into a beautiful healthy plant.

    “So, we took the plant, dried it, smoked it, and got so high that we had sex without a condom.”

  56. Leaked NHS documents used by Jeremy Corbyn in Labour’s general election campaigning have been linked to a Russian disinformation operation on Reddit, the social media site has revealed.

    Corbyn claim that the NHS is up for sale is totally fake, He seems to be using as well Trumps initial claim that everything is on the table including the NHS in trade talks

    That was a total misunderstanding of what was meant. IT did not mean the US wanted to buy the NHS, First the NHS is not a PLC so it would be impossible and second even by US company standards it would be impossible for a single company to be able to afford to buy it

    What was meant was that the US should be able to continue to bid for NHS contract. Corbyn carefully fail to mention that under EU legislation all contracts over a £150,000 have to go out to open international tender

    2. And a major component of the thousand-plus tons of concrete needed for the foundations of every wind turbine.

    3. Cement is the source of about 8% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

      How can this be changed

      Get Diane Abbot to do the sums!

    1. Isn’t this something our Mothers taught us when we had our first lace up shoes at about age 4?

      Are the snowflakes so thick that they have to be taught at at age 18 – and by the Sun?

      ‘Evening, Mags.

  62. I’m off to a local event now but I’lll leave you with the latest page from old UB’s Almanac :

    UB’s Election ponder predictions:-

    Workable Tory majority:-

    Unions call all members out on strike in protest.

    Students and Educators take every Friday off to block Streets and shout a lot.

    Massive left wing demonstrations.

    Demands for a re-election escalating to outbreaks of thuggery and violence in the name of democracy.

    Gina Miller et al take every attempt of Parliament to legislate to the Supreme Court on the basis of some small matter of procedure or moral precedent etc, Supreme Court will inevitably find in in her favour .

    May’s WA (v1.2) will eventually pass though both houses and a diminished he UK will remain in the EU.

    Small Majority:-

    See above but not so optimistic.

    Hung Parliament:-

    Another 4 years of vicious bitching , back stabbing and virtue signalling.

    Labour Win:-

    Flights of Unicorns display synchronised acrobatics with Gloucester Old Spots.

    toodle pip

  64. Katie Price is ‘at the center of a police probe after threatening to KILL toyboy ex Charles Drury and leaving him worried for his safety’

    The police in my view should not waste much time o this she is as daft as a bat in my view,. A quick word with her and a caution. I doubt she has any intent to kill him

  66. Here’s something interesting:
    https://canadafreepress.com/article/renaissance-in-climate-physics-plus-political-reform
    Renaissance in Climate Physics Plus Political Reform
    There have been two great experiments in authoritarian government and each burdened society with bad science and confiscatory taxation. In the early 1600s the establishment insisted that the universe rotated around the Earth. More recently, the establishment insists that violent weather and global warming are due to society’s incorrect behavior. Climate alarmists from Maurice Strong, in the 1990s, to today’s Christiana Figueres, have advised using the UN to basically change the Western World to a political system dominated by bureaucrats

    It goes on to say:
    In the 1990s physicists, Penn and Livingston, determined that the long trend in the Sun’s increasing activity would reverse to declining. It has with Solar Cycles 23 and 24 being the weakest since the early 1900s.

    There’s a link to this article:
    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/09/say-goodbye-sunspots
    Say Goodbye to Sunspots?
    By Phil BerardelliSep. 14, 2010, 2:41 PM

    Scientists studying sunspots for the past 2 decades have concluded that the magnetic field that triggers their formation has been steadily declining. If the current trend continues, by 2016 the sun’s face may become spotless and remain that way for decades—a phenomenon that in the 17th century coincided with a prolonged period of cooling on Earth.

    And here’s an image of today’s sun:
    https://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/sunspots/
    No sunspots. And there’s been very few for a couple of years.
    These predictions have been accurate so far.

    1. Ask any Eco-Loon “What is a Maunder Minimum” Almost none have a clue
      All walk around carrying a powerful personal computer yet wilful ignorance is the norm

      2. “The Maunder Minimum, also known as the “prolonged sunspot
        minimum”, is the name used for the period around 1645 to 1715 during
        which sunspots became exceedingly rare, as was then noted by solar
        observers”
        In the year 1655, a Swedish girl called Greta Thunderstorm warned that if action was not taken, the world would come to an end in thirty years time.
        As they did in those days, they burned her as a witch, and in due course the sunspots came back.

      3. Doesn’t “wilful ignorance” imply some degree of rational and informed or even misinformed reasoning? Plain and simple stupidity is the predominant quality

        1. I thought it meant they could find out the truth if they wanted but fear it would overturn their preconceived beliefs.

    3. It seems that Annunziata Rees Mogg is just as deceptive and duplicitous as her brother.

      We rumbled the fact that he was a smooth talking serpent who spoke with a forked tongue but we now see that infirmity of purpose and treachery are things these two siblings share.

      2. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH!!!

        (Repetition)

      3. It would seem to be a family thing. They are all in it together. Probably like another political family.

  68. Cobyn’s idea of a Scandinavian Socialist type state for the UK is somewhat outdated. Sweden is not actually Socialist there are for example almost no Nationalized companies in Sweden. The few there are have to operate on a commercial basis. Education in Sweden operates on a similar basis to the UK with privately run schools and state run schools. The railways in Sweden are privatized

    Quick facts on the healthcare system in Sweden

    Here are some quick facts about the Swedish healthcare system:
    Type of healthcare system: Universal
    Average cost of an emergency room visit: 300 kr (£30, US$38, and AU$47.5)
    Average cost of a doctor’s visit: 200 kr (£20, US$25, and AU$31)
    Number of pharmacies: 1,400
    Number of hospitals: 79
    Population % covered by health insurance: 100%

  70. The likes of China and Russia fight wars in the shadows. Time for Britain to shine the light. 7 DECEMBER 2019.

    Political warfare is back. That was the key message from Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Nick Carter’s annual lecture, delivered on Thursday evening. Such warfare, he said, is “being conducted by authoritarian opponents” and “is attacking our way of life and our freedom”. He went to warn that it was “remarkably difficult to defeat without undermining the very freedoms we seek to protect”.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE..

    Hughes- Johnson 7 Dec 2019 10:55AM.

    A partner at Goldman explained it like this. When all is said and done, the disagreements between China, Russia and the West are just those of drug dealers squabbling to control the prime patch in front of the school gates. The real enemy is the drug and its supplier. The modern world is yoked by a legally enforced Tyranny of Usury, omnipotent rule by the Banking Cartel’s Created Debt.
    The Nation States have been reduced to competing Pyramid Schemes, enslaving their citizens in open air debtor’s prisons. If we in Britain wanted to shine the light, we’d be advocating for the return of Sound Money and Measure to proceedings, but that would require an honest appraisal of the City of London and our true role in facilitating the Cult.

    Mmmmm. I shall have to mull that over!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/07/likes-china-russia-fight-wars-shadows-time-britain-shine-light/#comments

  73. DT Headline at 1800 hrs

    General election poll Tories down to eight-point lead
    The poll puts the party on course for a majority of just 14

    The gap between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn has narrowed yet again

    They all blame Nigel Farage but he has never moved from his position about what Brexit should be. He offered a pact with Johnson which would have assured Johnson back in Downing Street a proper Brexit rather than BRINO

    But Boris Johnson lacked the integrity and nous to make pact with Nigel Farage.

    Pomposity, arrogance, hubris and buffoonery have led us to this possible nightmare of a Corbyn government. But it will not be Farage’s fault if it happens – it will be entirely the fault of the Conservative Party under the feckless fumbler Johnson

    2. Do you think these polls are linked to stock market traders? they could be making millions sell one day get a bad poll buy back get a good poll then sell?

    3. Most of the Labour recovery is in London where the votes pile up and change nothing.

      Will you be disappointed if Corbyn doesn’t win ?

      1. As I said to TB below – there is no good result. Corbyn will probably destroy Britain more slowly that Johnson so under torture I would have to vote for the less bad option.

    4. Rastus,
      I do not put much store into polls, but if I did I would say that there are many voters who see Johnson for what he is, a closet remainer.
      If to be only 8 points clear of the most inept leader of the Labour Party in my lifetime, that is a damming indictment of just how bad Johnson and his party are.

    5. Well, come Friday , investments will plummet if Corbyn is successful ..

      Life will become very gloomy .. We will be joining the 3rd world and in a real old mess .

      Corbyn and his old pals will stuff everything up.

      1. The tragedy is that there can be no good outcome. The question as usual is – Who is the least bad?

        I vehemently despise and loathe Johnson as much as I despised and loathed May – but Corbyn must make those living in Britain feel suicidal. I am almost grateful that Blair robbed me of my vote.

          1. T,
            The mayday done plenty it just was not beneficial to these Isles.
            What has johnson done
            exactly to instill confidence in any but the eu ?

      2. If the speculators are afraid of a Corbyn win, why is the pound-dollar rate still collapsing upwards ( sorry, B.B.C. ) ?
        1.31+ as I write this.

      3. LOL If Corbyn is successful on Friday then the demand for Unicorn burgers will skyrocket. 🙂

        The media are just doing what they always do – manipulating people with made up figures. Labour started this campaign as a basket case knocking on heavens door. They have had disaster after disaster yet the polls still, laughably, have them at 34%. This “pretend narrowing of the vote” is just to scare the horses so that Conservatives will go out and vote for Boris and give him a majority to get his terrible Withdrawal Agreement through.

        The polling companies are even less trusted and are more biased than the BBC and Sky News rolled into one. If Boris gets a majority then that is Brexit stopped for the next 5 years, and we will see real poverty hit the United Kingdom under the European Unions control. A hung Parliament will do us nicely.

        1. R,
          when you have three parties that are rated as sh!te,sh!te,& sh!te the outcome is going to contain a great deal of,
          wait for it…. SH!TE.
          But the electorate know this.
          This is the regular battle between parties
          regardless of odious consequences to country
          The very same voting pattern / parties that got us to where we are today as a nation, that is, in deep eyebrow level sh!te.

  74. DT Headline

    Andrew Leadsom interview Brexit uncertainty is ‘massively damaging’ to business

    Premium

    Interview with the business secretary by Russell Lynch

    Good to know that the DT typesetters and proof readers are so dedicated to getting things right!

  75. From Guido Fawkes – and I couldn’t agree more:

    Former BBC editor David Elstein, who launched Channel 5, hit out at broadcasters’ ‘sense of entitlement’ and ‘generalised hostility’ to politicians.
    He told The Times: ‘I don’t think Andrew Neil helped himself by putting out such a public challenge because he made it inevitable that it would be turned down.’
    Mr Elstein said Channel 4 News’ decision to use ice sculptures as replacements for the Prime Minister and Nigel Farage as ‘regrettable, foolish and childish’.
    Conservative peer and former BBC and ITV chairman Lord Grade of Yarmouth urged regulator Ofcom to look into the rules surrounding empty chairing.
    He claimed broadcasters were sounding hysterical, and said Neil’s words on Thursday were ‘pretty close to the edge’.
    ‘What’s coming through is an arrogance on the part of the journalists in the media, which I think is unwarranted, unnecessary and unseemly,’ Lord Grade said.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7766551/Ex-BBC-editor-accuses-TV-channels-childish-election-bias-fuelling-generalised-hostility.html#reader-comments

    1. “‘What’s coming through is an arrogance on the part of the journalists in
      the media, which I think is unwarranted, unnecessary and unseemly,’
      Lord Grade said.

      It takes some people an awfully long time to wake up to reality.

  76. I think I’ve fallen in love ❤ with an opinion poll…. Labour -20 !

    Wrexham, constituency voting intention: CON: 44% (-) LAB: 29% (-20) PC: 10% (+5) BREX: 9% (+9) LDEM: 6% (+3) GRN: 2% (-) via @Survation, 27 – 30 Nov Chgs. w/ GE2017

  78. BBC DJ brands The Pogues’ Christmas classic Fairytale of New York an ‘offensive pile of downmarket chav bilge’ and calls for it to be banned.

    DJ Alex Dyke (who he?) told listeners he was ‘no longer comfortable’ with the song. Before going on air, he tweeted that The Pogues’ Christmas hit should be banned. Dyke said he didn’t want children hearing the lyrics and singing along to them.

    Never heard of Mr. Dyke but I find myself in complete agreement with him. I don’t want to hear the unedifying story of Irish drunk/druggie scumbags at Christmas, nor indeed at any other time of the year and although the Pogues’ crap is uniquely unpleasant, I have to say I don’t much care for Christmas ‘pop’ at all. Here are just four examples from a long list of crap songs inflicted on us in the name of Christmas that I would consign to oblivion if I had my way.

    1. Merry Christmas Everybody (Slade)
    2. I Wish It Could be Christmas Everyday (Wizzard)
    3. Wonderful Christmas Time (Paul McCartney)
    4. Last Christmas (Wham)

    Anybody else have any suggestions?

    1. That Pogues one is my all time favourite Christmas song. Head and shoulders above any other.

      And the bells were ringing out for Christmas day.

      2. My “pub of choice” 30 years ago had a lot of bikers, Goths and students in it. At Christmas when the wine had been flowing and that song came on… The windows of the pub rattled with 100 raised voices singing the chorus.

        You can see why the politically correct BBC do not like it, with lines such as “You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot” in it.

        1. It resonates as a song and the bells bit at the end of the harsh bits is what sells it to me.

      1. I’m not as butch or as queer as he is. I did enjoy his breathing control and ability to reach the higher notes though.

        1. That’s my facial dyslexia. You posted a picture of a 007 evening a few days ago, and I would have said the two were the same person, apart from the age difference.

          Now you know why I don’t like parties as I can’t tell people apart.

          1. You are not going to believe this but i have exactly the same problem. Added to that the fact that i am guaranteed to say exactly the wrong thing in any social situation. Fuckit. Oops…see !

          2. I can totally believe it.

            It is a surprisingly common affliction, but it varies quite a lot as to how bad it is between individuals.

            If they are “out of context” I fail to recognise my wife and children, let alone my brothers and sisters. It sounds amusing; it is anything but.

          3. I understand.

            I am on very good terms with all the people at my Dental surgery and often have a laugh and joke with them but i could be attending a social event and i wouldn’t recognise them.

            I am sure your wife and children understand the situation.

            Members of my family and in particular their closest friends do not. Which is why i dislike a party as much as you.

          5. I do tend to use my for want of a better word ‘disabilities’ to my advantage. When in the relaxed company of friends i often have them laughing out loud.

            I do a passable Duke of Edinburgh and a very funny Alan Bennett. To cover my embarrassment.

          6. Now that is hilarious .. because I can hear the DoE speaking in undecipherable mutterdom , as only the royals do , and Alan Bennett has a very special gentle preciseness of observation and comment .

          7. The Duke is a gold mine of phrases which can also be slightly altered for effect as long as they are said in received pronunciation. ( Just imagine her Majesty speaking ).

            This one for example only needs a slight change to show disdain of the event one is attending.
            “We don’t come to Canada for our health. We can think of other ways of enjoying ourselves”.

            Alan Bennett has even more withering scorn untempered with exasperation. Always a good party piece.

          8. My wife tells all our friends that if they see me outside they should come up to me and say who they are.

            And we all joke that if they don’t want to talk to me it isn’t a problem because I wouldn’t have a clue that they had snubbed me!

          9. Sos , hear this then..

            When Moh was based off shore for 16 years East Shetland basin .. Brent oilfields .. flying helos.. I used to drive up to Heathrow to meet his Aberdeen flight if it was going to be late .. I arrived on time .. I saw him and waved .. a few yards away from him , i thought he spotted me ..nope he looked at me and just stepped onto the Heathrow coach for Bournemouth .. just like that .. He has done that several times .. no connection whatsoever .. He must have been mind numbingly tired each time .. many a lonely long drive I have had on the way home.. That was before the days of mobile phones as they are now!

          10. I sympathise.

            I went to collect my children in London, my brother was bringing them from my parent’s home oop north. I walked straight past them all on the station platform.

            I hate the problem because I don’t like offending people (unless I deliberately set out to do so.)

          12. A few stock phrases always come in handy. Obviously only if you mean it. Such as…. It’s so nice to see you again !…What’ll you have?

          14. To my eyes, it could be the same man a few years apart. Take away your grin, which lifts the whole face, and they are too similar for me to tell apart, if I was walking down the street.

            And I’m not joking.

          15. Interesting. A persons relaxed face can often appear to be somewhat threatening. Probably accounts for why there are so often brawls in clubs and pubs.

            In that shot i was a bit taken by surprise. I was having a great time in one of my favourite Bars in Sliema/Malta with some friends and as i turned to them the pic was taken.

            The chap behind me in the pic is the shift duty manager. His job is to make sure i am poured into the taxi.

    3. That song was quite a surprise, not having heard this singer before. I was expecting a Sean Bean style gravelly voice and instead at 15 seconds we heard Minnie Mouse. More power to him though, and may he find happiness in life. With Sean in mind though, here is the famous Sharpe theme with some nice pictures on it:

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

      1. I can watch the Sharpe series again and again. And I read and re-read the books.

        Sean Bean was an inspired casting for the main part, as were most of the rest of the cast.

    4. Roberta Flack had the hit, but Ewan McColl wrote it for his wife Peggy Seeger in the 1950s.

  80. Part of General Sir Nick Carter’s speech to the R.U.S.I. this week

    Daesh, and the extremist ideas it represents, has absolutely not
    been defeated – indeed the threat from terrorism has proliferated – as
    was sadly demonstrated once again in last Friday’s attack at London
    Bridge. And the conditions in parts of the world are not conducive to
    reducing the growth of extremism. For example, the IMF and the
    Brenthurst Foundation state that 62% of the population of sub-Saharan
    Africa is under the age of 25, by 2030 the population will be around
    1.65 million, and by 2050 it will have doubled from today to around 2.1
    billion, with some 900 million living in cities. Poor governance,
    conflict, parlous economic growth, and climate change suggest that
    population displacement and migration will increase significantly from
    the relatively small numbers we have seen so far. And of course, none of
    this is helped by great power competition and a new scramble for
    Africa’s resources.     –     Emphasis by Larkers A.D.

    1. We donate articles to the Red Cross here, I don’t think there is a Sally-ally anywhere nearby.

      It amuses us that the main pickers and gleaners are obviously Muslims, but we console ourselves that the bits and pieces go to people/children who want them.

    2. It seems a good choice. That Denis Prager article is American. but it resonates well with over here.
      I would rather be dead in a ditch than give to Oxfam or the Save the (Muslim) Children Fund.
      My own old socks go to the Mind charity or the (local) St. Gemmas hospice.
      I leave it to Jeremy Corbyn to donate to the PLO.

    3. I have written a will where 25% of my estate goes to EACH, East Anglia Children’s’ Hospice. A few years ago I noticed that the Leader of Braintree District Council, in addition to his salary and perks from Braintree District Council, is taking six figures from the charity.

      The man is one of those corrupt Freemasons who try to influence planning decisions to reward their developer friends and to ignore planning law and lawful objectors. I fully expect the prat to be given some reward such as a CBE or Knighthood given that the charity is supported by Kate Middleton aka Duchess of Cambridge.

  85. There is an article in today’s DT by Annunziata Rees-Mogg

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/07/annunziata-rees-mogg-warns-nigel-farage-faces-going-hero-zero/

    Et tu Annunziata?

    Do you expect praise for wielding the knife along with the other turncoats who do not, after all, want a proper Brexit?

    To my annoyance no comments are allowed under the article but I would like to ask Ms Rees-Mogg three more simple questions:

    i) Why did she join the Brexit Party in the first place if she did not think that the Boris Johnson’s rehash of the May surrender vassalage WA was a betrayal of Brexit?

    ii) What has changed as far as the Johnson/May surrender WA is concerned to make her change her mind and betray her new party?

    iii) Is she not afraid that the capitulation of her brother coupled with her present betrayal of the Brexit Party will bring eternal shame down on the now very tainted name, reputation and integrity of the Rees Mogg family?

    1. Is she not afraid that the capitulation of her brother coupled with her present betrayal of the Brexit Party will bring eternal shame down on the now very tainted name, reputation and integrity of the Rees Mogg family?

      They know no Shame. When we abandoned Truth, Honour and Integrity, Shame went with them!

    2. We now have a political class that is riddled with people who think that “Honour” is just a word used by stupid people.

      They feel offended and out of place when they are surrounded by honest people. They cannot get away fast enough.

      1. “Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
        Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
        Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
        ‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
        But he that filches from me my good name
        Robs me of that which not enriches him
        And makes me poor indeed.”

        The wicked irony is that Iago – perhaps the most devious and treacherous character in all Shakespeare’s plays, utters these noble words in Othello.

        2. The whole lot of them have “cast their hearts upon their sleeves for daws to peck at”

    3. iv) When will she be resigning the seat she gained via false pretences,it was election from PR lists not a vote for her personally

      1. And she is also blaming Farage for the possibility of a hung Parliament. You couldn’t make it up.

      2. A good point.

        The head of list system in PR means that it is very difficult for a humble elector to get rid of a person in office who has moved up in the list. A nasty and sleazy office holder can be as foul and treacherous as he/she likes to those who have elected him/her and short of being expelled from the party he or she is comfortably in place for as long as he/she wants to be.

        The treacherous Hilary Benn is a disgrace to his father who put it very well:

        “The test of a democracy is whether you can get rid of the bugger through the ballot box.”

    1. If that had happened to my son I’d not have the mental or physical strength to indulge in such behaviour.

    3. How can any person who truly loved his son behave like this? Frankly I find him totally disgusting.

    4. Unwillingness to accept the fact that his son’s approach to rehabilitation for all offenders was wrong, and directly caused his death?

          3. As I understand it was the Lotus 7; when that went out of production Caterham took over and have continued to develop it – it might have the aerodynamic characteristics of a house brick, but it weighs almost nothing and accelerates faster than some “supercars”!

    2. REVEALED: How wobble in the Earth’s axis 130,000 years ago allowed early humans to leave the ‘Garden Of Eden’ in Botswana where ALL our ancestors could have originated
      Researchers from Sydney University studied DNA of more than 1,000 Africans
      They could trace maternal genes back to common ancestors in Botswana
      Their theory fits with evidence for abundant wetlands near the Zambezi River
      They said people lived in the prehistoric Makgadikgadi–Okavango wetland
      A gigantic lake had been there in the past but broke apart and dried up over time

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7621887/Study-suggests-modern-humans-evolved-ancestors-Botswana.html

  90. The LIb-Dem’s latest brainwave is to have small business advisers in Post Offices. Why who knows. If you want to give a small business advice you need to go to the business

        1. I have worked for and observed several high street and shopping centre retailers. These include Laura Ashley (home wares and women’s fashion) and Carluccio’s (retail shop and restaurant). Others include Middletons Steak House and Huffkins Cotswold bakers.

          Those companies who sold out to foreign investors have more or less failed. Those companies who remained wholly owned and flexible without too much ambition have survived.

          I still do work for restaurateurs such as Roka, Chourangi and Pure along with others.

          It is a tough environment and only the best survive.

        2. I have worked for and observed several high street and shopping centre retailers. These include Laura Ashley (home wares and women’s fashion) and Carluccio’s (retail shop and restaurant). Others include Middletons Steak House and Huffkins Cotswold bakers.

          Those companies who sold out to foreign investors have more or less failed. Those companies who remained wholly owned and flexible without too much ambition have survived.

          I still do work for restaurateurs such as Roka, Chourangi and Pure along with others.

          It is a tough environment and only the best survive.

          3. Reminds me of Terry Pratchett and the series finished by his good friend Neil Gaiman. ‘Good Omens’.

            When trying to convince the Angel, it was suggested that all the best composers were in Hell and that God had a particular liking for the ‘Sound of Music’. Listen to that for eternity ……….lol.

          5. Hay orfully nice of you to mintion that!

            Sorry. Still in Royal mode. Back to Pompey/Hampshire later.

  92. The number of migrants arriving on the Canary Islands by sea has hit ‘crisis levels’, officials warn, as women and children are given free accommodation in hotels to cope. Mail 6 December 2019.

    The number of migrants arriving on the Canary Islands has hit ‘crisis levels’, officials have warned, as women and children have to be put up in ‘four-star’ hotels to cope.

    The archipelago’s government is pressing Spain to take urgent action as boats crammed with men, women and children continue to arrive on the islands on a daily basis, putting an enormous strain on resources and accommodation.

    These will in all probability be blacks from the Sahel with serious health issues. I don’t like using the word crisis which has strong propaganda connotations but I can see in a couple of years this tide of incomers becoming an unstoppable wave. This is of course the responsibility of the European Elites who have encouraged it with spineless policies of appeasement. Who living in conditions of the upmost poverty and squalor would not get up and move if offered a life of relative ease?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7763259/The-number-migrants-arriving-Canary-Islands-sea-hit-crisis-levels.html

    1. If the Arab peninsula can give many a life of luxury, including Westerners , why can’t the same approach be used for impoverished areas of Africa .. why cannot they see the endless possibilities that can be more than dreams..

    2. These reports are always worded so as to give the impression that there are equal numbers of men, women and children. I wonder if that’s really the case?

      1. Afternoon Sue. I would suspect that they are predominantly young men simply because they are the ones most able to make such a trip and very probably like the Sea Peoples who destroyed Civilisation in 1177BC. Who these were and where they came from is a mystery. It takes no great feat of imagination to see them as refugees from poverty seeking somewhere better to live and destroying it in the process.

  94. Corbyns fake NI document

    A give away is at the top it is Marked “SENSITIVE” UK Eyes Only That is not a UK Security Classification it would be marked “SECRET” For UK Eyes Only

  95. I for one like this new red arrow in the bottom RH corner. It gives a smooth, fast track to the top of the page.

        1. Hi Phil. And to you. First Carol Service (ignoring last week’s Advent one) was today, for the Deanery Bellringers, followed by “Christmas Cheer”, which is basically drinks and nibbles in the Village Hall, while the committee tell us what they’ve done in the last 12 months. Brief respite tomorrow, but then we have carol services on the 15th, 18th, 21st, and 22nd. Christmas Eve has a funeral, two Crib Services and two Midnight Masses (obviously, I’m only playing for one of those). Then two Communions on Christmas morning, lunch at t’Mill, then off to Devon on Boxing Day.

          1. Gosh you are going to busy, hope you are having a well deserved relaxing break in Devon after Christmas. Our church only has one carol service and I think I may have successfully inveigled my brother to come and stay that weekend so he will be playing (not sure that I’ve actually told him yet!), which means I will only be inflicting my playing on the congregation on Christmas day.

          2. So very busy. I wish i were as kind hearted as you and Garlands to give my time and energy for others.

            And a funeral on Christmas Eve. How very sad.

            Would love to see you again in the New Year. You can pay if you like !….. :o)

  96. Night All

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1Efdn8kxDVY/Xb7AlINaeBI/AAAAAAAAKzc/IkIwiBQhKM0nVPC3QrUx1YHKmspA5mLngCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/gifs_12.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1f5b2425310dbf3b6d0748c744e4dfd8381d2b445705c8f3e8e7b0aa4df50cd0.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7a676deb4f3d5e391df8a466e6ebb8922ea9035700ba27a32f71a1b8395a461c.gif

    http://forgifs.com/gallery/d/330291-2/Box-cat-head.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a11f8e061c0efa99e73265f976650b5ff3a51477a55e0fca898014b1df835dc.jpg

  101. Near Fatal Accident on the Norwich to Sheringham line

    A near fatal accident occurred on the Norwich to Sheringham line. It appears to be down to the failure of the On board computer system but no one is real sure

    On Saturday, November 24 at around 7.53pm one of Greater Anglia’s new class 755 train was approaching the Norwich Road automatic barrier level crossing at Thorpe End, on its journey between Norwich and Sheringham.

    The barriers were lowered into position with the train travelling around 45mph and around 200m away.

    However, the barriers then lifted, the warning lights went out and traffic proceeded over the crossing – with the train still fast approaching.

    The driver sounded its horn and slammed on its brakes, but could not stop – missing a passing car by just a quarter of a second.

    They have apparently carried out some emergency modifications to the crossing on the line and implemented a 20mph limit at crossing and drivers are required to sound their horn when approaching the crossings

    It tends to indicate a poor design. No single failure of a critical safety system should cause this to happen

  102. Conservative ex PM says don’t vote Conservative…

    How weird !

    Was Sherlock Holmes right about the carousel ?

    I think so !

  103. I am not sure as to why just we are all all footling about Muslims in the UK. On the way we are all suffering the effects of multi culturalism. Such Immigrant ties swamp us with an assortment of Poles and other Eastern
    European miscreants.

    We are stuck wIth many thousands of foreigners of no use whatsoever to our national life and interests.

    2. Sorry. Don’t understand anything you are trying to say. In fact…………..Your post reads like Bill Jackson. Mostly nonsense.

Comments are closed.