Saturday 7 December: Justin Welby’s shameful speech was further proof of his unfitness to lead

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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642 thoughts on “Saturday 7 December: Justin Welby’s shameful speech was further proof of his unfitness to lead”

  1. Good Morning Geoff and your Readers. I'm First!
    I spent a year living in upstate New York. On New Year's Eve there was 50 inches of snow and my car outside was just a two inch bump waiting to be dug out. So like Quasimodo, this little story rings a bell:
    Today's Tale – American theme
    My husband and I purchased an old home in Northern New York State from two elderly sisters. Winter was fast approaching and the years first snow came early and I was concerned about the house's lack of insulation. "If they could live here all those years, so can we!" my husband confidently declared. One November night the temperature plunged to below zero, and we woke up to find interior walls covered with frost. My husband called the sisters to ask how they had kept the house warm. After a rather brief conversation, he hung up. "For the past 30 years," he muttered, "they've gone to Florida for the winter."

  5. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for Saturday's NoTTLe page.

    Wordle 1,267 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  6. Morning all 🙂😊
    Early to bed early to rise….I'm not sure about the rest of that one, but I've just made a nice cuppa and enjoying it.
    I'm sure i noticed some looks of embarrassment in the lofty lords during 'the speech'. I was once told on a tour that the seating for the bishop's had to have a guardrail put around it, because some of them had dropped off.

    1. I read the other day that the cereals we eat for breakfast are contaminated with Glyphosate used to kill weeds. And is causing many cases of dementia.
      But as usual with all these seemingly wild claims it is impossible for the average person believe if they are true.

        1. Totally agree and what I have noticed is members of my own family seem they are being taken in by all the current BS that’s being pimped and pumped out now.

  8. Good to see that wind turbines are generating 51% of Britain's electricity at the moment (14.87 gigawatts, 51.68%, at 0739, dropping back to 14.80gw now at 0746). If Mr Edward Miliband could only order a gale every weekday, energy prices would fall and eecowarriors would worship him.

    2. 3 nuclear power stations could produce that reliably, consistently all year round for a tenth of the cost.

      They also wouldn't need to stop when the wind got to high nor would they require paying when the wind dropped completely. Oh, and remember we're still paying for that electricity at prices far higher than gas – which is double it's real cost due to tax AND including windmill subsidy, so really windmill energy is at least 4 times the price of gas and, once paid for nearly 6 times that of nuclear.

      While yes, for one day of the year we're getting a return, the rest of the time they're just a massive cost.

  10. STOP PRESS

    For anyone who is interested in watching the first Mass in Notre Dame tomorrow – FRANCE 2 (television) is running two programmes. The first at 09.00 – 10.30 (FRENCH time) – the Mass itself from 10.30 -12.00 (FRENCH time). One can watch on computers/laptops etc. You may nee to change the VPN to France.

  11. Medley Time
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/014ced1e650c855252fdcdee66c8feb9e54a2f011a2847eab7d50ed75868c23c.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dbfebb47a75bbd762de76f5455fc3cae04a649058fc0d330e34598b2f44e3146.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d212c0b41f9587fd3161de3db57a7f03aa6e26e656a55d7a2890b687b7fb3dd6.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/76f27ef147b795eaa448e0b13ebe4c0dd5fdc70c0de9d01aeb357667be86690c.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5fa3d0a8ecd4d8b9bb3bb8b2b77688acb7ad8a993096ad8e304a304e3506d0a9.png
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    1. 398259+ up ticks,

      Morning Rik,

      Sorry, must beg to differ on energy prices, no way, even if we had a daily gale.

      1. I thought windmills were paid to stop when the wind got too high?

        Seems the bill payer is dumped with every cost for those pointless things. That's why energy bills are now 300% what they used to be.

    2. I doubt Brendan O'Carroll would pretend to be black. How come it's OK to pretend to be a woman?

  12. 398259+up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Britain is in dire need of cells NOT electric cells for transport but brain cells for the electoral majority voters and
    prison cells for the majority of self serving politico's.

    Tell me why at least 52% of this nation are marching to the tune of the multi coloured, treacherous,political sugar plum
    parliamentary fairies, when we are men & women, far greater in integrity and patriotism standing than the ruling, bordering on criminality, cartel.

    https://x.com/WorldByWolf/status/1865039769664639370

      1. I doubt that Surrey had many migrants in 1962 unless one counts the parts that became incorporated into Greater London. Stockwell yes, Reigate no.

  13. Is this now global event some sort of warning to the electrical faults that have so often caused such catastrophic damage.
    Just askin'……?

        1. I was pleased to read he suffers from mental health issues.

          Personally, i hope he has nightmares every night.

    2. Odd that the Left always play the man, never the ball. How is farage an extremist? He isn't a racist, small minded hardly applies. All MPs are egomaniacs and as for fascist, you're the one calling to silence someone you hate, Alistair.

      It sounds as if you're projecting: as all Lefties do.

      1. An ad hominem attack is a tacit admission that the person making it has no coherent argument to make. I think there's a quotation from Socrates saying the same thing, but I can't find a reference to it at the moment.

  20. Good morning all. I hope the weather has not been destructive to anyone.
    It's -1°C on the repurposed Pantry Thermometer with light rain and, when I first checked the temperature, despite the wind roaring through the trees at the top of the valley, it was absolute calm air.
    Then as I looked round, the (surviving) trees up the hill behind the house began to move slightly, then began swaying quite a bit as a gust made it's way down to the valley bottom.

  22. Good morning, all. Blowy with occasional rain squalls.

    Rupert Lowe MP reiterating that the path to recovery and prosperity is not via the moribund government services e.g. HMRC or via taxing people more. Enterprise, entrepreneurship, inventiveness and small government are needed to get the UK back onto its feet, not the dead, but still grasping, hand of a government led(?) by 'Milestones Starmer'.

    https://x.com/RupertLowe10/status/1865290946918703528

    1. Starmer isn't capable of recognising he is the problem. He, like all Lefties, cannot see past his own ideology. He thinks he is relevant when he isn't. He thinks he can do things when he shouldn't. He thinks what he does is useful when it isn't.

    1. Scum err, Starmer has replied with the same tired lies. This is why petitions are so frustrating. We want rid of them. It shouldn't be a request to debate it. We should simply command they those stupid, mendacious, gormless fools be removed.

      Black hole, mess, foundations – the response is 'Up yours. We'll rob you blind, wreck everything and do what we damned well want and make you pay.'

  24. Well, well: I haven't always been wrong. A few days ago, I suggested that Wallace's lawyers should claim he suffers from Tourette's Syndrome and that the present attacks on him are discrimination.

    Today I read that it is claimed he is "autistic", and that is why he has such unpleasant behaviour.

    Take a bow, Mr Thomas!!

    1. Autism has you say odd things at odd times, but it isn't an excuse for being overly sexual. Why can't he just be honest. He was rude and over the top because he wasn't getting it as much as he wanted.

    2. Strewth, I thought you meant Ed Miliband when your referred to Wallace. Then I read the replies and the mention of overly sexual made me realise it wasn’t.

  25. Tomorrow I'm booked on a cruise with lunch on the Thames and I'm therefore watching the weather closely. Earlier in the week the strong wind was forecast to carry on through the daylight hours of Sunday but now the forecast shows the wind falling away around 8 am. Fingers crossed that the forecasters have it correct. Gusts around 20mph sound much more comfortable than > 40mph.

    1. Fingers very firmly crossed for you.
      It sounds like a lovely outing and it would be a shame to miss it.

      1. Thanks, Anne. I've zipped the detachable fleece into my rain, or is that shower proof, winter coat.

    2. 67 mph gusts today and we are supposed to be in the yellow wind warning area.
      I haven’t much confidence in their accuracy at times although they keep telling me what the climate will be in 100 years.

      1. Base wind still only 24-mph here in East Anglia and won't get worse. 45-mph gusts. The eye of the storm is in the N. Sea, so it can't get stronger. We used to get weather presenters telling us all these obvious facts once upon a time but no, today it's all about the hype.

        1. The worst of it seems to be on the SW flank, just where we were overnight.
          The Met Office seems to love naming everything it can, it loses its impact over time but I must say last night was a cracker and it will only ease gradually today, so for once they seemed to have called it right.

          1. Left side of country will have the worst, gusts up to 65-mph with a base of around 30-35 mph, starting Westerly turning gradually into a Northerly as the anticyclone moves towards the Lincs coast.

            They’ve called it right, but the media are reporting “winds of 80-mph”, which is disingenuous. Yes, out in the Atlantic maybe and 65 in the Irish Sea, as usual, but not overland.

  26. Nothing is ever anybody's fault.
    The slightest human quirk has been handily medicalised.
    Kirchingggg…….

  27. Good Moaning.
    The invalid doesn't seem upset at missing his chance to get blown round the local fields (I have visions of him hovering on the end of his lead like a fury balloon).
    Good chance for me to have a play with the madeleine baking tray that I bought in Long Melford the other day.
    Once again, MB will play his hallowed guinea pig role.

        1. It's the original farmhouse. The "modern" farmhouse is two storey and dates from just before the US Declaration of Independence.
          So, the wooden farmhouse is older than he USA!

          1. When I took a party of French visitors to Ironbridge, I took delight in pointing out that, when the bridge was made, France was still a monarchy.

    1. "She's terrified!" Emily Maitlis has on air meltdown as she realises Nigel Farage will be next UK PM
      Dan Wootton.

  30. Good morning Nottlers.

    Some local news : a wild boar weighing 172 kilos (380 pounds) has been shot by the local société de chasse in Lanvallay, a village about four mikes away from us. We have had quite a few of these animals in our garden in the last few years. It is best to steer clear of them as they are very dangerous – especially when cornered.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a147cfd0639c1c1f8cd137bb417f0e9745e1ab3bb013a9bfcc1dec7740237882.png

      1. In Laure they would patrol the edge of the village and knock over the (large) public rubbish bins. The local chasseurs did go for them – and we would eat the meat from young ones at village events. (Low food yards!!)

    2. I know the flesh will be a bit strong for mote tastes, but looks good for a barbeque!

  31. Norman Foster's architectural style might not be to everyone's tastes but he got a cheer from me this morning on the Today programme. When asked by the idiot Amol Rajan whether the restoration of Notre Dame should have been a bit more 'modern', he replied no, no and no again. He talked of the restorations of Manchester town hall and the Roman temple at Nimes in France, how the former appeared 'shockingly new' when more than a century of soot was removed from its stonework. How did Rajan respond? Mockingly. "I've never heard Manchester town hall and the Parthenon be compared in the same sentence."

    What a dope.

    1. Foster had a Damascene conversion around the year 2000 and started spouting words like organic.. vernacular & holistic.
      In the 90s his then wife Lady Sabiha tried to make the staff dress like automatons in grey black turtle neck uniforms. And in the 70s it was considered heresy to even mention wood or any wet trade.
      That said he looks good for 89. Hope he doesn't win the Man Utd contract.. too expensive and doesn't understand footie.

      1. He was certainly demonstrating some respect for the past. It was a shame he didn't do the same for St. Pancras when shoving a giant conservatory into the mouth of the trainshed.

      1. Amoloverrtheplace Rajan, to give him his full name. He seems to front every program, interview, podcast

    1. We can boycott for the time being but the government – whoever that really is – is ensuring that this crap becomes mandatory by 2030. The mandating will go some way to forcing people to give up eating meat and dairy products, a target the government has made clear it supports. There can be no doubt that the PTB are in thrall to the dubious climate change mafia et al.

      Will there be an independent scientist/laboratory capable of testing the milk/meat for the chemicals, or their derivatives after digestion, being fed to the dairy/beef herds? The very fact that one of the chemicals is strongly linked to male infertility is a red flag that cannot be ignored in these dangerous times.

      1. If it's linked to male infertility there are many countries to which it would do well to export it.

  33. Rain has started coming down heavy. Not a total downpour, but enough to make going out VERY unpleasant.
    Daughter has just left to go to Matlock Christmas Market and I might follow in an hour or so as I need to do a few things in Matlock myself.

  34. 'Moring, Peeps and Geoff,

    A bit windy around HJ Towers but fortunately no damage (yet).

    This reader's comment jumped off the page:

    Cuthbert Thomasson
    2 hrs ago
    Some further refutation of Chris Morris' self-serving and specious claims ;

    The bbc creates its own facts out of ideolgy , calls them " settled" and from then on ignores all evidence to the contrary

    Or else sets out to silence and discredit , slander and mock and even try to criminalize anyone who dares take a stand against the bbc monolith.

    Using such heresies as real science and emperical evidence. For example it is no coincidence they routinely deploy religious and radical, left wing terminology such as ' Denier ' ' populist' ' extreme right wing' to dismiss respectively rationalists, democrats and conservatives.

    And whislt they have no such pejorative labels for woke ideologists or radical left wing totalitarian bigots such as themselves, they do have one for genuine genocidal nazi hate-mongers and Hamas' islamist terrorists : 'Activists'.

    In fact, in bbc world any group fanatically opposed to the existance of Western civilisation, intent on our extinction, displaying open contempt for the rule of law and prepared to use violence to impose their despotic will over democratic civilisation are always " Activists".

    Unless they are demonstrating against bbc incited approved and applauded acts of murderous terrorism in Blighty of course in which case they are invariably " extreme right wing racists"

    Those are the facts of the case we hear every day.

    * * *

    Bravo, Sir!

    1. Yep, spot on. The BBC lies by omission and then sets about pushing the narrative. A dementor climate change nut said I denied climate change I asked him when it had become a religion. I don't deny the weather is changing, it does, roughly four times a year.

    3. Both owww and you've my sympathy. Don't damned well wait. Get out and get treated at a walk in centre or just go to A&E.

      1. MMuch as I sympathise with Sir J, Wibb, A&E is not the answer. Unpleasant though it may be, it's not an emergency.

  36. Good morning all,

    Noisy night , the wind has a voice , seems to be backing off a little , no rain just a howling westerly .

    Our heavy wooden bird table blew over , but a cluster of long tailed tits were fluttering on the fat ball container hanging from another bird table which is in a slightly more sheltered .

    Hope you are all okay, and that your greenhouses / tiles on roof /garden toys etc are intact.

    1. 'Morning, Belle. Okay so far on yer sarf coast but our barometer continues to unwind, so we are not out of the woods yet….

    2. Part of a garden fence down but greenhouse intact and chicken coop still in place. Looked out at 5, the wind was howling through tall trees, pretty scary.

    3. In our cul de sac there seems to be a competition between the 40 plus-ish age group and families in exterior Christmas decorations and lighting. After last night a lot of reconstruction is needed especially the life size reindeer and snow men.
      Lights out before 11 pm.

  37. 398259+ up ticks,

    Tis proving a fact the BOYCOTT spike of a silver nature in the hands of decent peoples when applied to the heart of ANY odious,unacceptable issue is LETHAL.

  42. SIR – Was cracking jokes in the House of Lords the right way for Justin Welby to take leave of his colleagues?

    It seems that the Archbishop and other top people in the Church still do not get the full horror of what has been done by some Church leaders to those they are meant to care for.

    Andrew McLuskey
    Ashford, Middlesex

    SIR – Now is a good time to reflect on Justin Welby’s legacy.

    He showed pity in his speech for his diary-keeper, but little sympathy for the survivors of abuse in his church.

    He managed to find plenty of money for reparations, but little for parish priests and their church buildings.

    He presided over an increase in diocesan inclusion and diversity officers, and a decline in parish congregations.

    He loved national ceremony and flummery, and showed disdain for day-to-day parish work.

    He offered few words of scriptural faith, but plenty of comment on woke nonsense.

    Perhaps we should allow the Most Rev Welby to move on to a role that better suits his beliefs and talents. He would do well as an aspiring candidate to be a Labour MP.

    Fred Fearn
    Bridport, Dorset

    Comment , good one

    michael knowles
    1 hr ago
    Statement shortly, Welby's Autistic.

          1. That knob, he left his very young daughter in a pub after a posh meeting he had arranged.

      1. A bunch of spiritual derelicts. The woman isn't even entitled to be a priest let alone a Bishop. The Church of England has become a farce from which Christianity has been expelled.

        1. Revd Husband of old friend has being saying that for decades. He reckons he's the only vicar in the C of E that believes in God.

          1. There's one in Lichfield diocese – I voted for him to be on the See in Vacancy Committee in the hope that he might inject some semblance of Christianity into selection.

  43. Morning all. It's a William McGonagall disaster sort of day here in West Sussex, dark and gloomy with a gale making a masterful effort of howling, I'm sure the seagulls are screaming inland too, if we use our imaginations. Quite warm as well. Anyway, to kick of the day.

    Today my Free Speech Union, badge arrived and very nice it is, gold, depicting a pen clutched in a fist. I'm sure this fellow that Matthew Goodwin talks about here is not a member.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GrtSfdQ41A

    3. My Christmas wish list has “membership of the FSU” firmly at the top.

      Edit. I watched a BBB (Black Belt Barrister)* youtube tiday. He thinks the police are falling foul of GDPR by recording information disproportionate to its use. When recording “NCHIs”.

      *as pointed out by someone of Free Speech Backlash, BBB is becoming increasingly “on our side” and we should support him in his quest to get 1 million subscribers, which was why I was having another look at him today. Reader, I subscribed.

      1. Yes, he is becoming ‘radicalized’, a change from when he was rather mild and that’s not long ago at all.

    4. Absolutely disgusting. We are in a downward spiral that can only end in concentration camps for the native Brits who speak out against this Nasti type oppression.

  44. I've just seen the weather break in the bbc breakfast program. Blimey Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 has been in the firing line of this storm isn't it.
    Early they had a feature set in St Albans.
    Shop/business owners under enormous pressure to stay above the new waterlines set by the government.

  46. I am, physically, a big person. I know this. I've lived in this body for some 45 years. Yet I am going to rant. Other folk who are 'normal sized' simply won't understand any of this.

    Every damned thing is too damned small. Door handles disappear in my hand. Door frames are too narrow. Stairs are too shallow for my feet – at best I cna only get half my foot on the average stair. Then there's rooms. Rooms are too damned small. Stretched out, I can touch both of Junior's bedroom walls. I don't even have to stretch to touch the ceilings. In our room if I hold a measuring stick I can touch all the other walls. That's the biggest bedroom and it's designed for a midget.

    In the loo I got up and bashed up head on the opposite wall, tearing a chunk of my scalp out. Blood sheeting down my head the Warqueen says 'what the hell have you done! as the tiny shelf thing has scraped my flesh away. OK, I am the same dimensions as a three seat sofa but does absolutely everything have to be designed solely for midgets?

    The front door isn't wide enough. Forks are not big enough. Pens are stupid. Telephones may as well be an after eight mint for all the use I can put them too. Our towels are nigh 2 m wide and 1 deep and they're still not big enough.

    Even spades look small in my hands, as if it's a child's sandpit toy. I've said before that Mongo looks like a labrador beside me and he does. His scale only returns when a 'normal' stands with him.

    Arrrggghhhh! Everything is too damned small!

      1. Not quite that bad but everything is pokey. You get used to ducking your head in door ways. You know when Tesco put things on the very top of the shelf? That's a hand reach away.

        Don't get me started on sodding nail scissors.

    2. It's because you live in England. You would be happy in the mid-West, USA. There are actually shops that cater to big people and a middle class home has plenty of room. I used to joke that my front room was built to land a small plane. These are typical and, I would be willing to bet, these are cheaper than your house in the UK.
      https://media.designcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/22201144/living-room-middle-class-small-house-interior-design-for-living-room-on-a-budget.jpg-.jpg
      https://kristenpawlak.decoratingden.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/175/2020/12/0811A1-20.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d0/6a/5c/d06a5cacbfe0770442fee15a47e42ac6.jpg

    4. I’m sure Lucy finds you just the right size. My lap would maybe accommodate her head. Climbing up for a cuddle would be impossible.

    6. Dwarf ranting here.
      Why is ever sodding cupboard and shelf so HIGH UP!!!!
      Why do I have to either climb steps or be nice to some tall bastard to get stuff?

    7. Get yourself a job as a house painter then. With your dimensional excesses you would be able to avoid the need for ladders and scaffolding, allowing a significant cost reduction.

    8. Georgian houses had better proportions; tall ceilings and wide doors (to accommodate ladies' pannier dresses), broad shallow stair cases.

    9. I lived my childhood in the shadow of this problem, as everyone in my family is very tall. I'm the family dwarf, and I'm 5' 8" (girl). My mother did design the house as much as possible to be suited to tall people.
      I think you can and should try to adapt your surroundings for a bigger person where possible, for your own comfort.
      It's a problem that never goes away, so I do understand a bit of your frustration, having heard it so often from my own family.

  47. Доброе утро, товарищи,

    Wet and windy at McPhee Towers, 5℃. Not running any flags up the pole today. Very quiet in town and hardly any market traders braving the weather.

    Have we all seen Tucker Carlson talking with Sergei Lavrov?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmgDf6QiCps
    He seems like a proper Foreign Minister. And we have Lammy, God help us.

  49. 'Morning, again.

    Charles Moore on good form this morning. For those without access:

    Miliband’s net zero zealotry risks killing Labour’s dream of growth
    The Energy Secretary’s ideological mission will make us all poor

    Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, was guest of honour at The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year Awards on Tuesday night. He was in excellent form, making jokes not only at the expense of the Tories, but of his own party too. In the following, he combined both:

    “I’m sorry that your protégée Kemi can’t be here tonight,” said Mr Streeting to the editor, Michael Gove. “But it’s good to see her repeating all the same mistakes we made in opposition. Trashing her party’s own record… talking to the members, not the voters. Kemi, if you carry on like this, you’ll be energy secretary in 10 years’ time.”

    Ed Miliband was not present, but he will have noticed and been unamused by Mr Streeting’s Blairite tease. He was once the leader of the opposition and is the current Energy Secretary – or rather, to give him his full, portentously ideological title, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. He is on a mission.

    Mr Streeting’s jibe aside, this has been a good week for Mr Miliband. His net zero mission was confirmed as one of Sir Keir Starmer’s six “measurable milestones” (have you ever met a milestone that wasn’t measurable?). Milestone Five, Sir Keir told us, is “clean power by 2030”, making us secure against “a tyrant like Putin” as “a clean-energy superpower” with “home-grown British energy”.

    Actually, Mr Miliband is somewhat selective about home-grown British energy. He is phasing out all North Sea gas and oil and would not dream of fracking British shale. But he is determined to make us home-grow wind farms with their accompanying 5-6,000 more pylons covering the country by 2030. He also wants to triple solar photovoltaic capacity by the same date, which means filling a total agricultural area not much smaller than Berkshire.

    I think Mr Miliband may find his home-grownery overtaken by Chris Wright, the energy entrepreneur who is Donald Trump’s choice for US energy secretary and intends to follow his master’s intention of “drilling, drilling, drilling” for oil and gas. The Trump aim is not net zero carbon by 2050, but “zero energy poverty”. We shall be able to conduct a controlled experiment to see which is more popular.

    Labour’s Milestone Five also declares that the Government committed to “keeping bills down” and “at least 95 per cent low carbon by 2030”. These are incompatible aims, if bills are allowed to reflect real costs. (If they are not, people and businesses will have to pay in taxes instead.) We can have as many wind farms as we like, but they cannot cure the problem of intermittency – not only the famous winter days when there is no wind, but also what the Royal Society calls “wind-drought years”.

    To prevent energy rationing or power cuts, we shall still need to keep gas turbines too and therefore, as the Global Warming Policy Foundation points out, still bear a double system cost. And because no one knows exactly when gas will be needed, we shall have to buy it not in long-term contracts but at far higher spot-market prices. Britain already has the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world. How can we be “an energy superpower” in such circumstances? The Milestone will become a millstone.

    Then there is Mr Miliband’s enthusiasm for Electric Vehicles (EVs). Unlike wind farms, EVs may ultimately prove the better technology. Many drivers like their silence, acceleration, simplicity and easy handling. But they are far more inconvenient than the internal combustion engine (ICE) – range anxiety, the slowness and shortage of charging points, their weight (its effect on tyres and roads) and what happens when the battery – for which we mostly depend on China – goes wrong.

    A friend tells me about his brother-in-law’s Tesla. It went into a pothole: the battery was ruined by water. The replacement would have cost £17,000; a reconditioned battery was a trifling £10,000. Such battery costs keep EVs’ second-hand values very low. As happens with technological change at first, the price of new EVs is very high. Markets iron this out over time. But once politics interferes with business development, everything goes wrong.

    Because they cannot be confident about the future, British drivers are stalling. The industry is therefore doing the same. New car sales to private buyers (as opposed to fleets, who are incentivised) are down 11.8 per cent on last year.

    The issue of costs is acute. New car prices have shot up: the average of all types was just below £23,000 in 2009 and reached nearly £53,000 in 2003, a 129 per cent increase. Over the same period, real wages have increased by about 6 per cent. The average new EV costs £62,000. It is not surprising that nearly half the 34 million cars on our roads are more than 10 years old.
    On the radio this week, I heard the boss of Ford UK, speaking in the ingratiatingly polite tones of one seeking subsidy. Ford loves the Government’s “ambition”, she said, “It’s just that there isn’t customer demand.” Just! It reminded me of the old saying, “The operation was a success: unfortunately, the patient died.”

    The only surprise about Stellantis’s announcement that it will close its Luton van factory is that it has taken so long. Yet Mr Miliband is fining the companies that fail to hit his 22 per cent quota of EV sales this year and will ratchet up this percentage to 80 per cent of new cars by 2030. The companies can meet this quota only by fiddles like delaying into the next tax year the sales of petrol and diesel cars to would-be customers, artificially creating queues.

    We already know that Western Europe’s dominance of the ICE era will not be replicated if the era of EVs is coming. This is bad for us and near-fatal to Germany. We are over-virtuous, over-regulated, over-costed. China, which is none of those things, and is entirely cynical about net zero, can capture our markets.

    In the world of EVs, people speak enthusiastically about the rapid acceleration produced by “PSMs”, initials which stand for “permanently excited synchronous motors”. Perhaps Mr Miliband thinks he can achieve a similar acceleration politically. But politics is different from business, its mistakes made hideous by its failure to understand customers and markets. In politics, PSM should stand for “permanently excited socialist ministers” of all parties (yes, plenty under the Tories too). It spells doom.

    The tragedy is that this is unnecessary. There is no climate “emergency”. Even the report of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) does not endorse that word. It follows that there is no need for net zero by 2050, let alone by 2030. It is not the concern about climate change which is causing such harm, but the panic.

    In recent days, we have seen the weird non-car advertisement for the new Jaguar, followed by the first pictures of the new design. It reminds me of the time when tobacco advertisers, scared by attacks on smoking and its promotion, started to create ads which featured no cigarettes and no brand names, fighting only for market share of something which was on the way out.

    The Jaguar ad feels a bit like that – the result of a mental crisis about why it exists at all. But whereas cigarettes were always a luxury, cars are, for most people, a semi-necessity – an emancipation for the poor, essential transport for most families, a major part of working life and therefore of prosperity. If they suffer a nervous breakdown, so will Western civilisation. Quite possibly, that is the intention.

    (Spot the typo?)

    2. Charles Moore admitting that NetZero is baseless and the goal is to destroy Western civilisation? Wonders will never cease!

      It worries me that the establishment is moving on to admitting the mass migration is a mistake, and the goal is to bring down the west. That means we have moved into the next phase, where we're past the tipping point of being able to correct anything.

      1. Agreed. The repair of the West will be very uncomfortable.
        Time to move to Russia, maybe?

  50. Wet and windy – and the weather is even worse:
    Wordle 1,267 4/6

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

  52. Just published in Free Speech – T he British Government is Guilty of Genocide Against the British People . Please read and comment, and vote on whether you agree. 

    Also, just posted in the Boycott Book is a comment updating the Bovaer boycott. Rupert Lowe is supporting it, but the BBC's propaganda police have de-bunked the claim that it is dangerous. Bill Gates features. 

    As our headline today points out, Miliband is plotting to raise electricity bills even further in his lunatic bid to achieve net zero, despite Britain having some of the highest electricity prices in the world. At the time of writing, with gales covering the country, wind generated electricity is producing only 49.2% of total demand – with imports accounting for a whopping 19.3%, in an island sitting on vast reserves of relatively cheap energy. Obviously, by reducing demand through higher prices, the eco-nuts can claim that wind is producing a higher percentage of supply. 

    Finally, the Big Petition needs only another 32,000 to reach the three million mark – please mobilise your mates, friends and family.

    1. Actually that's a really good idea – while we are at it, how about recruiting a few more ethnic Russians – after all they really can speak the language like a native [great for eavesdropping] and they understand the Russian mindset far better than we ever could! /sarc

    2. Actually that's a really good idea – while we are at it, how about recruiting a few more ethnic Russians – after all they really can speak the language like a native [great for eavesdropping] and they understand the Russian mindset far better than we ever could! /sarc

  55. DT Letters today:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/12/07/justin-welbys-speech-was-proof-of-his-unfitness-to-lead/

    One of the letters by Mr Harvey seems to think that in spite of all the difficulties facing small businesses with this Labour government in power. people should stop grumbling – I think he thinks those running small businesses should go bankrupt with a smile!

    BTL

    I wonder if Iain Harvey of Richmond, Surrey is keen to start a new business today? Indeed, has Mr Harvey ever run his own business or worked in a small private company? He certainly has the point of view of an over-pampered person who works in the public sector.

    We started our own business 35 years ago and it has flourished. We are now at risk of going out of business as a result of Labour's attack on small businesses.

    1. Looking at companies house Ian seems to be the director of many companies. All differently named. All doing the same thing. All at the same address.

        1. If i am looking for a company to do some work for me i look them up on companies house.

          If i see the same person was a director of a company since dissolved and a name change i become suspicious.

  56. DT Letters today:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/12/07/justin-welbys-speech-was-proof-of-his-unfitness-to-lead/

    One of the letters by Mr Harvey seems to think that in spite of all the difficulties facing small businesses with this Labour government in power. people should stop grumbling – I think he thinks those running small businesses should go bankrupt with a smile!

    BTL

    I wonder if Iain Harvey of Richmond, Surrey is keen to start a new business today? Indeed, has Mr Harvey ever run his own business or worked in a small private company? He certainly has the point of view of an over-pampered person who works in the public sector.

    We started our own business 35 years ago and it has flourished. We are now at risk of going out of business as a result of Labour's attack on small businesses.

  58. 398259+ up ticks,

    Of course it is happening in the United Kingdom ALL that is happening in islamic countries is replicated here.

    These odious dealings are witnessed by the political governing bodies, and up until the last General Election consented to via the polling stations in England.

    Think about it LABOUR in with the governing shout even after keeping the rotherham / pakistani gift wrapped package under wrappings for 16 plus years until being revealed by the JAY report.
    With an ex PM still with a shout and being AKA miranda still finding support.

    https://x.com/realMaalouf/status/1865086803826344261

      1. One would have thought that the leftie middle-class women of a certain age might have had something to say….

        Silly me.

    3. There's something rather sick about it being recorded on TikTok.
      They must be very proud of what they are doing.

    2. It's on, it 'works'. It is 19'c inside at the mo. Wouldn't say it's that bone deep warmth you really want but it's not 12'c as it was last year.

      A chum and I were talking about this and we both concluded we were tired of the compromises we kept having to make to live. He has his house at 17.5 for the four of them. Our downstairs is 16.5, upstairs 19. Why should we be beholden to the demented psychosis of spiteful, arrogant, petty politicians desperate for their next trougher non job?

  62. I'd point out that the reason this country has such a massive spike in terrorism is entirely down to the diversity.

    But hey. Let's let them in to our security programmes so they can subvert and infiltrate those and eventually blow them up.

    Clucking tankers.

  64. I am very jealous. The Warqueen's not little either, nor is Junior (he's already at my shoulder).

    Yes, everything in the UK is pokey and small. I pointed this out to someone 'normal' and they immediately saw the problem. My hands are half again as big as most people's.

      1. Now imagine having another foot to bend down to!

        One nice thing about our old farm house is that the kitchen floor had been dug out as it used to be a cow shed, so you'd go up two steps through the hole they used to push cows through (I couldn't touch the sides with my elbows out) down two steps to the kitchen where the worktops would be 'where the floor was supposed to be', so at least 6" higher than normal.

        The doors were 'stable' door sized as again, livestock were supposed to get around them.

        We've toyed actually with demolishing the current house and rebuilding it on one level, but the current idea is to see if we can buy a bit of land and build on that to our specification.

        1. Our house is an old stone cottage – the ceiling in the sitting room is about three feet higher than most modern rooms. I think it probably housed a large weaving loom when it was first built. It's built into the hillside so part of it is underground.

      2. TBF; despite my lack of inches, I have the ironing board at its highest setting.
        Must be hell for anyone above 5'3".

    1. Only by our lot. Other stone-age cultures certainly don't think we are equal to them; and they are right, we aren't equal, but not in the way they think.

      1. Crikey, thought he’d set up as Limited, and they needed audits (perhaps he didn’t so he wouldn’t, sole trader).

        1. No, there are lots of exemptions. I M about to go out but will try and remember to get back to you on this

    3. Discrimination against white people is NOT racism. They are to be marginalised and side-lined due to their obvious "white privilege".

      1. Aye up me ducks.

        Given how much i spend each month on gambling, £12 is neither here nor there.

        1. Might be one to ask if you've gone beyond enjoying it and are heading toward compulsion. The brain's reward centre is a powrful thing.

        2. I buy raffle tickets and rarely win. I comfort myself that the money goes to good causes and I wouldn't want the prizes anyway.

    1. I know one shouldn't go on appearances, but I can't see his piggy little eyes and weak mouth without feeling the urge to slap his face…

    2. 11 lead the way to more despair and think they know best about everything. I wonder do they ever look out of the window and consider public opinion. 11 against nearly three million.

      The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “Call a General Election”.

      Government responded:

      This Government was elected on a mandate of change at the July 2024 general election. Our full focus is on fixing the foundations, rebuilding Britain, and restoring public confidence in government.

      …The Prime Minister can call a general election at a time of their choosing by requesting a dissolution of Parliament from the Sovereign within the five-year life of a Parliament. The Government was elected by …
      … devolved and local government, business and unions, and the whole of civil society in a shared purpose. The Government will continue to deliver the manifesto of change that it was elected on. Cabinet Office
      Click this link to view the response online:

      https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700143?reveal_response=yes

      This petition has over 100,000 signatures. The Petitions Committee will consider it for a debate. They can also gather further evidence and press the government for action.

      The Committee is made up of 11 MPs, from political parties in government and in opposition. It is entirely independent of the Government. Find out more about the Committee: https://petition.parliament.uk/help#petitions-committee

      Thanks,
      The Petitions team
      UK Government and Parliament

      You’re receiving this email because you signed this petition: “Call a General Election”.

  74. Advance notice. I will be one ot the ones in blue. Live streaming from Surbiton at 1 pm. (We are both the last-selected sides of our respective clubs and one of outr players is the same age as my mum (80) so don’t expect too much). Edit, tune in about 10 minutes past as it won’t start on time🙂

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uz_L1G8aZAQ

  75. No problem, Mir…things may have changed, a few decades since I was involved in business of any type. (watch out for fallen trees, btw – very high winds here.) Also, will be mia myself, so may be late evening when I get back to you…🤔😊

    1. methane alert! methane alert! get that beast on meds before it kills us all (got to keep pharmas going at all cost, not actual farmers…)

  77. Woke King Charles the 3rd should revoke Starmers Knighthood , why because Starmer and co have ruined the country in five months and turned it into a Marxist fiefdom .

    3. He can't. Didn't you see my rant the other day? The powers of the monarch have almost been completely stripped away, thanks, in great part, to his mother not exercising them. The kings powers have been taken by politicians in parallel to the rights of the people whom the king represents against Parliament. It's these sort of subtleties of the English constitution, people fail to understand. "The king represents the people against parliament". and that has come to nothing because while the people slept, thieving politicians came into the house and robbed us of our constitutional rights due entirely to the fact that we failed to make enough of a fuss.

      2. Charles could practice by telling Trudeau to resign and call an election.

        He is supposed to be our king as well.

  79. Remanded since August.
    The only plus.. is this needs to ramp up and make the Uniparty unelectable.
    Five more years.. ugh.

          1. My good lady and i were in a butterfly 'farm' in Rhodes, Petaloudes valley, a few years ago and a crowd of Italian people came into the area where the notices asked people not to make a noise, the noise they were making was deafening and that was only their own low key conversations.

      1. He got stopped at Heathrow with some cannabis. He was working with Gordon Ramsay who is seriously against drugs. So he had to go.

    4. "'He was quite stroppy on the set of Emission Impossible and, following an accident on set, the crew were offered therapy because they found the resulting fall-out very hard. 'Filming was halted and Gino was put on a training course.'
      The source explained Gino has a sporran, the pocket on a Scottish kilt, which he calls Justin Beaver and regularly flashes. "

      How dreadful – causing distress using unwoke phrases and hurty words. I believe the victims will get more than adequate financial compensation though – millions even.

  86. One Saturday, I got up early to go fishing but heavy rain and wind forced me to cancel.

    I quietly undressed and slipped back into bed, cuddling up to my wife. "Terrible weather out there," I whispered.

    Without turning around she replied, "Can you believe my idiot husband went out fishing in this?"

    2. Last Wednesday I was the idiot at sea being flung all over the boat, and yes, I left the house at 0530.

  87. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/07/how-minimum-wage-obliterated-worth-of-university-degree/

    The min wage is idiotic. There's no floor to labour as some jobs simply don't merit paying. When you're employed, your employer sets your worth to the company. If they can't do that below a certain value then they either reduce the hours or simply don't create the job at all.

    What the useless government should have done is raise the tax allowance and scrap the upper and higher rates so the more you earn, the more you keep.

    But hey. That sort of logic is beyond the morons in government who want to control everything.

    It's also obvious that if the min wage is hiked more tax is raised and more revenue clawed in. That jobs are destroyed is irrelevant to government. It doesn't understand consequences.

  88. 🎵 Last Christmas I gave you my heart.
    The very next day you said you were gay
    This year now I know you are queer
    I’ll give it to someone better. 🎵

  89. My wife was crying because she still could not understand, "How Kamala could lose the popular vote."

    "Easy, men with balls voted for Trump…. women with balls voted for Harris."

  91. I think the eye of the storm went an hour ago .

    We are now back in the storm pouring with rain , gusting , 8c, on yellow , horrible .. several power cuts down in Lulworth and elsewhere .

  94. I found the adverts infuriating and stopped watching commercial TV more than a decade ago. If i want anything i torrent it. It also allows you to cut out the ads.

    2. Unfortunately Labour will be bringing in a spare bedroom tax that will force people to take in lodgers under the rent-a-room scheme. Then comes the cuckooing. What may be a nice Nigerian lady comes with Mr Bombastic, the boyfriend.

  100. Meaning of Keir:

    Keir is of Celtic, English Gypsy, and Old Norse origin, and it is used mainly in English and Scottish. From Celtic roots, its meaning is 'dark-skinned' – in this context,

    Black faced gyppo – That explains a lot.

      1. Both seemingly filled with hatred for the British people, the way of life and it's long established culture.

      2. Elizabeth Line station worker, 61, dies after suffering serious head wounds in 'unprovoked' attack as police charge man

        A 61-year-old station worker has died after sustaining serious head injuries during an alleged 'unprovoked' attack in east London, as police confirmed a 28-year-old man was arrested and remains in custody.

        Police were called to Ilford railway station at around 8.49pm on Wednesday night following reports of a serious assault involving the Elizabeth Line employee.

        Paramedics and London's Air Ambulance also attended, and the man, a customer experiences assistant, was taken to hospital with serious head injuries.

        A 28-year-old man was arrested and subsequently charged with Section 18 GBH, Affray and possession of a prohibited offensive weapon in a private place following the attack.

        British Transport Police detectives said they would make an application to amend the charges following the victim's death.

        Ayodele Jamgbadi, 28, from Ilford, yesterday appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court and was remanded in custody.

        He will next appear at Inner London Crown Court on 7 January, 2025.

        One of the victim's colleagues told Metro: 'I don't know why the man attacked him, but it was unprovoked.'

        In a separate statement shared on X, a former colleague paid tribute to the customer experiences assistant as 'the most down to earth and friendly bloke you can imagine.'

        They added: '[He] never got himself in bother like some staff do, was always chill and a pleasure to work with.'

        Maryan Eslamdoust, general secretary of Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA Union), said she was 'deeply saddened' by the news.

        In a statement on X, she said: 'We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of a transport worker following a violent incident at Ilford station on 4 December. Our thoughts are with his family.

        'This underscores the urgent need to expand BTP and make offences against transport workers a specific crime. Action is overdue.'

        Mick Lynch, general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), also issued a statement sending condolences.

        He said: 'We are deeply saddened by the passing of our member, who died following an attack while at work.

        'The whole union sends its condolences to their family, friends and colleagues at this awful time and everyone's thoughts at RMT are with them.'

        In an earlier statement following the man's initial arrest, Superintendent Nick Sedgemore said: 'There is absolutely no place for violence on the railway network.'

        On Friday, Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Paul Attwell said: 'We have specialist family liaison officers supporting the victim's family and our thoughts remain with them at this incredibly difficult time.

        'I would like to reassure the public that this is an isolated incident and a 28-year-old man has now been charged and remanded in connection. We are not seeking anyone else.'

        Anyone with information is asked to call British Transport Police on 0800 405040 or text 61016 quoting 699 of 4 December.

        4. Wasn't life dull before we were enriched?
          After all, who wants to go to work of a morning and return home again at the end of the shift?
          Just sooo predictable and banal.

      5. If you have Safari, click on the article.
        Click on File.
        Click on Share.
        Click on 'email this page'
        When the email page appear, go to Send Web Contact as: click on Reader
        The article should appear in your email in a readable form.

    2. “Islam is peace, love and tolerance. Islam celebrates and wants diversity because diversity is our strength. We want more immigrants in London!"

      Islam is none of those things, and when he says "we" I presume he means Muslims.

      1. Looks like a clear case of taqiyya:
        "There are several forms of lying to non-believers that are permitted under certain circumstances, the best known being taqiyya (the Shia name). These circumstances are typically those that advance the cause of Islam – in some cases by gaining the trust of non-believers in order to draw out their vulnerability and defeat them."
        More at: https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/taqiyya.aspx

  105. Why is Radio 4s Any Questions being transmitted from a pokey little hamlet of 400 people in the wilds of Aberdeenshire, miles from anywhere?
    What has attracted the BBC and several Scotch politicians and climate activists to this remote spot?

    Could be this:
    Zero Carbon Daviot is a community run organisation, registered as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). The group was established to bring about radical reductions in carbon emissions in order to avoid runaway climate change.

    3. Ah! Daviot! Another tiny place with a defibrillator next to the cemetery! Oh, and it’s got an asphalt plant! Cue the jokes!

      1. Don't worry about the asphalt plant Sue.

        Asphalt is a by product of oil refining, and once all our refineries

        are shut down there'll be no asphalt, so the plant can be removed.

        1. They’re about to close the one in Grangemouth (just up the road from here) next year! The plan is working!

    3. Already have and circulated it.
      It will be ignored, but just keep chipping away at the bastards.

        1. There seem to be several floating around with this aim in view. I tend to only sign the Gov.UK ones, as at least they demand an acknowledgement from TPTB, however disingenuous. Change UK seem useless, as do that Leftie lot that pretended to be neutral (can't remember their name – 38 degrees?). Isn't Britain First just a tad compromised, or is that my imagination?

        2. They have ripped off the elderly to give the money (and more) to Ukraine, Africa and train drivers.

  110. It was stormy 82 years ago. A harrowing read.

    S.S. Ceramic.

    Complement:
    655 (654 dead and 1 survivor).
    12,362 tons of general cargo and government stores.

    On 26th November 1942 the Ceramic (Master Herbert Charles Elford) left Liverpool in convoy ON-149 with 264 crew members, 14 gunners, 244 military and naval passengers (including 30 nurses of the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service) and 133 fare paying passengers, among them 12 children. On 5th December, she was detached from convoy and began sailing independently as routed.
    Just at midnight on 6th December, the Ceramic was hit by one torpedo from U-515 (Werner Henke) about 420 miles west-northwest of the Azores. Action stations was sounded and two or three minutes later two more torpedoes struck the engine room below the waterline. The engines stopped and the vessel was plunged into darkness. There was very little panic among the passengers and the crew launched approximately eight full laden lifeboats, despite the cold weather, the rough seas and the poor visibility in the darkness. The Ceramic stayed afloat and three hours later U-515 hit the ship with two more torpedoes, which broke her in two and she sank immediately.

    By this time, the sea was very rough and it was raining. The lifeboats were becoming swamped and needed continual bailing out. Some lifeboats capsized and threw the occupants into the water, so that many people were floating in the water, supported by their life jackets. Henke reported the sinking to the BdU and was ordered to return to the site to find the master and to find out where she had been bound. At about midday, the surfaced U-515 returned. A lookout first saw a body, then empty life jackets and the broken mast from the ship. A lifeboat whose occupants waved to him was also seen. It was reported later that Henke was very upset at the sight that greeted him. At this time the wind had almost reached Force 10 and a storm started. The sea was almost swamping the conning tower, so Henke ordered his men to take the first survivor that came close enough to his vessel. Two men threw a rope to one of the men in the water, Sapper Eric Munday of the Royal Engineers, took him aboard and U-515 left the area. A distress signal from Ceramic had been heard and HMS Enterprise (D 52) (Capt H.T.W. Grant, RCN) and the Portuguese destroyer Dao were sent to search for survivors on 9th December, but none were found. Other sailors in the area considered later that this storm was one of the worst storms that they had experienced.

    Type IXC U-Boat U-515 was sunk at 1510hrs on 9th April 1944 in the North Atlantic north-west of Madeira, Portugal by rockets from two Avenger and two Wildcat aircraft (VC-58 USN) of the US escort carrier USS Guadalcanal and depth charges from the US destroyer escorts USS Pope, USS Pillsbury, USS Chatelain and USS Flaherty. 16 dead and 44 survivors.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ea7e600709563d2e298f1ec9a3359a6a6108249d58922b36eeac043cbde70f1.jpg

    2. One wonders why Henke felt it necessary to sink a ship that was already obviously stricken. Sapper Eric Munday was a very lucky chap.

          3. Only after his U-boats were attacked whilst towing lifeboats with survivors

            towards the north African coast.

  112. White British students not allowed to apply for security services internship
    Decision described as ‘blatant discrimination’ and ‘racist’ as MI5, MI6 and GCHQ try to increase diversity among their ranks
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/07/white-british-not-able-apply-security-services-internship/

    They want to recruit as many enemies of the UK as they can find into the security business.

    I think they are going to open recruitment offices outside the gates of HM prisons so that can lure terrorists and rape gang members into the UK's Secret Service the moment they get their early release with less than half their sentence completed.

    1. Problem is that Tarquin and Elfrida might not blend in well when they are asked to go undercover. You know, set a thief to catch a…
      On the other hand, there is always a risk: three US soldiers were arrested recently and charged with being involved in migrant smuggling near the US/Mexico border.

      "HSI agents arrested the soldiers Emilio Mendoza Lopez, Angel Palma, and Enrique Jauregui, who now face a federal criminal charge of bringing in and harboring aliens" Breitbart source.

  114. Sod the weather, another reminder of Spring: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bad5288055b9207b0c6fcc4024c6e159f5be35ddfc3499b04239282bba77f174.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3a00136a9ddeaf8714fef8323c1081a68fb5deb1c741fd87851f5932cf4051b2.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0a7c5854e3e25abd6560fc27bcb54728af7ff1185ca149b3498e8b016c6ac99.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c775d8a8fb895b2cc9c1f94d4f44e94b83c085e8711892f05bd7b38a1f69291a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6b14f30c9645a2887e2e0c147f00c438a2e91a3afb378f8e47d6a7327ff5ef43.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee717baf619567433322891e54227c46b9fec2b965f70baaac44a8d6135c4cf8.jpg

    1. Very nice. I was reminded this morning of the harvest hymn; all is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin. First the blade and then the ear, then the full corn doth appear, come ye thankful people, come. Raise the song of harvest home". I bet those snivel serpents who are working snug in offices (or more likely working from home) have absolutely no idea what it's like to work in a business that is dependent on the vagaries of the weather for success.

  116. The post-war consensus is in tatters – no liberal leader is safe from the fallout. 7 December 2024.

    The specific issues that drive these rebellious uprisings may be local and particular to their own populations but the sentiment that underpins them is remarkably consistent: a sense that government is out of touch, too expensive and indifferent to the real needs and preferences of its citizenry. The issues of migration and taxation recur again and again: pride in national identity and a defence of individual achievement often seem to be at the heart of this.

    We can only hope that they all fall and with it the UK’s Political Elites who are the enemies of its people.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/07/post-war-consensus-in-tatters-no-liberal-leader-safe/

  117. The post-war consensus is in tatters – no liberal leader is safe from the fallout. 7 December 2024.

    The specific issues that drive these rebellious uprisings may be local and particular to their own populations but the sentiment that underpins them is remarkably consistent: a sense that government is out of touch, too expensive and indifferent to the real needs and preferences of its citizenry. The issues of migration and taxation recur again and again: pride in national identity and a defence of individual achievement often seem to be at the heart of this.

    We can only hope that they all fall and with it the UK’s Political Elites who are the enemies of its people.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/07/post-war-consensus-in-tatters-no-liberal-leader-safe/

  120. I realise, but the very basis of their claim is apparently that they need to be able to work from two locations. I've no problem with that; however, if their argument is really that expenses ought to be paid on the basis of need perhaps they'd like to explain why the necessity to heat a single home isn't an equal need?

    Some might need an allowance, some not, which applies both for MPs and people suffering from the effects of punitive rises in heating costs. I unfortunately am still burdened with the old fashioned viewpoint that each should receive according to his needs (e.g. Acts 4:32-35 and 2:44-45). Nowadays we get instead a rather slippery and unconvincing explanation from on high about what's "fair" when evidently it obviously is not.

  121. No Long Wave Radio, no World Service. Must be trouble with transmitter. A bit windy here but not that much.

  122. Wind blowing the radio signal off-course? LIke Brother's garden gate and wheelie bins, all gone…

    1. More likely something has hit the transmitter and damaged it or the mast – or, of course, there could be no leccy.

  123. Afternoon, all. I am here because the venue I was supposed to be visiting was closed due to the weather (as it is a NT property, that would doubtless be "climate apocalypse") and H&S of course. Having battled the gale to get to the post box to send off some Christmas cards when I took Kadi for a walk this morning, I decided that I'd stay in and vegetate. I've lit the fire, cooked some lamb leg steaks for lunch and opened a bottle of Merlot. Cosy doesn't come close 🙂

    Justin Welby is a disgrace. I didn't hear the speech, but I have no doubt it showed him in all his awfulness. I never thought him a fit person for the Archbishopric, even before all the Revelations (or should that be Apocalypse?). But then, judging by who are in the positions of power in the CofE, you don't get on unless you are woke and diverse.

    1. I did post a risky comment yesterday, hoping that the next ABC might be a Christian….

      I realise that that is almost certainly a hate crime….

  124. https://twitter.com/Friday4768/status/1865127663498612951
    Most places here have African care workers in the community . Blacks looking after old ladies .. not female carers but black male carers .

    In the countries where they come from , the women do all the family stuff.. males are idle procreating menaces, yet why are they allowed to care for vulnerable people in the UK .. especially elderly people who have never ever come across a black before .

    Moh and I were quite distressed to witness 2 black chaps in waterproof kit dragging an elderly man along a heathland path .. when I challenged them , one of them was quite aggressive , and spat out the excuse .. exercise to stop bed sores .. I responded , but he is cold and damp and very old .. and they just dragged him further , poor old chap was staggering , no proper shoes, looked like slipper bootees ..

    They were miles from Wareham , on the heath at Arne .. I thought I was going to have a heart attack , because I was so shocked , and wondered whether they were trying to kill him with harsh exposure .

    Moh suggested that we would be done for racism if we complained .. the aliens are untouchable and beyond criticism.
    I wanted to phone the police ..

    The elderly in the UK are being dismissed as nuisances and no one cares .

    1. We know an old man with Jamaican carers.
      He could not wish for kinder, gentler, more considerate nurses.
      They spoil him rotten, but also protect him from himself. He's a very determined individual.

      1. I am sure your elderly friend has kind Jamaican carers.

        I think I might be referring to Africans .. with limited language skills and culture .

    1. Report it? What's the point? Unless they are saying hurty words against the protected, nothing will happen.

  126. Just watching Graham Norton chatting to Sigourney Weaver. She said before she landed the role of Ripley in Alien she was in an off off Broadway show. She said it was successful. Her character for reasons not explained kept a hedgehog in her vagina.
    Graham said that begs the question 'What did it eat?'
    She said she had to put one leg on the table and feed it lettuce.

    Mind….boggled !

      1. Yo OLT.

        All this is way over my head. Euphemisms and esotorica are usually beyond my ken. And it makes my head hurt.

    1. This is clearly an agenda pushed by the adjacent faaar right and must be thwarted by our last line of defence.. The Speaker of HOC.

      One of the most important categories and one that is integral to Halal religious practice is the slaughter of animals for food. Traditional slaughter has been done for centuries without “stunning”, i.e., the use of a system to render the animal unconscious prior to undertaking the Halal slaughter of animals.

        1. That's interesting. Presumably their squeamishness on this is also connected with the reasons why they do not wish to "trial" their experimental cattle drugs within their own country. Just in the UK.

  130. As many NoTTLers were still asleep when I posted my comment about Notre Dame this morning, I repeat it:

    STOP PRESS

    For anyone who is interested in watching the first Mass in Notre Dame tomorrow – FRANCE 2 (television) is running two programmes. The first at 09.00 – 10.30 (FRENCH time) – the Mass itself from 10.30 -12.00 (FRENCH time). One can watch on computers/laptops etc. You may need to change the VPN to France.

        1. I don't know quite what office he holds (my friend says said relation is very keen to stand on his dignity).

  132. That's me gone for today. A miserably grey day but not anything like the weather some poor folk have had to put up with.

    Tomorrow – rain all day. So will watch Notre Dame Mass and then do Christmas cards.

    Have a spiffing evening

    A demain.

  134. So? It's barbaric and has no place in the 21st century. It isn't done for any practical purpose.

    1. Indeed. The watchword here is “modernise”, and “progress”; yet they must be allowed to hang on to their barbaric “tradition”.

      Did I hear the words “two-tier”?

      1. No need for either practice.
        Northern Europe is not a hot dustbowl c. 1000 BC. With a bit of luck – i.e. Milipede is stamped underfoot – we will still have enough lecky to keep fridges and freezers running.

      2. Well done! Four here – a lucky guess after a lackadaisical first three lines with silly mistakes
        Wordle 1,267 4/6

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    2. Me too.

      Wordle 1,267 4/6

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    3. Struggled on this one
      Wordle 1,267 4/6

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    4. Same here…..

      Wordle 1,267 4/6

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    6. A power cut stopped me posting for 8 hours. Not much to offer except this.
      Wordle 1,267 5/6

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  137. According to a TwitterX post by Catturd diplomats are preparing a Golden Exile for Zelenskyy in London.

    In the past we have given protective exile to the Polish leadership during WWII and likewise to De Gaulle. Neither repaid us particularly well.

    The thought of the green vested midget prancing around South Kensington and of his wife shopping in Harrods already sickens me. How much further must we be allowed to sink under our traitorous politicians. Then again perhaps the midget could be housed in Blenheim Palace, he could afford to buy the place with his filthy lucre stolen from war payments.

    2. How much further must we be allowed forced to sink under our traitorous politicians, Fixed it for you.

    3. It would be nice to think Jamie Churchill would refuse to have him at Blenheim. I thought Zelensky had a bolt hole lined up in Florida? Has Ron DeSantis found a way to keep him out?

  138. Weather eased off and so I walked down to the other Christmas Market, at Cromford Mill, with the DT and then caught a bus to Matlock to meet up with eldest Daughter.
    A pleasant couple of hours, despite the weather turning nasty again, with lots to buy but, other than some cheese, I resisted temptation before catching the 12:37 bus back home.
    Had to do a bit of kindling splitting up the shed, rain had eased off again by then but it was still freezing and not far from turning to sleet.

    Forecast for tomorrow is not particularly brilliant either!

    1. Walked the dogs wrapped up in survival gear. I'll confess man and dogs got half a mile in and turned back when we were blown about by the wind.

      I carried Lucy the last bit as she was flagging.

      1. How dreadful. He was thoroughly unsuitable to be Archbishop of Canterbury from the start, and he just demonstrates it again.
        Ghastly hypocritical destructor.

  140. LATER STOP PRESS

    Apparently, the Notre Dame event with all the nobs is NOW….. FRANCE 2 tv

  142. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/909eab6099f1b96d98cd910b59d88e8ade0ba5cfe5a767a43c9a986443ee3b29.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2d4aafabaf32a544be9699e1e8c5b3902e0e5b50a9ed295288fc11113391b60.jpg
    Having a glorious weekend with no time to peruse NOTTL so please let me know if I've missed anything important.

    Currently sitting in the sunshine by a lake, grease from delicious barbecued lamb all down my chin, listening to tango music in great company whilst waiting for the dancing to start again.

    Sending good vibes your way!

    1. Don't cry for me from Argentina
      The Truth is it's bluudy miserable
      All through these wild days,
      Due to Storm Darragh's existence
      The Met kept its promise
      So do keep your distance….

  144. life in UK 2024

    Under orders from SWMBO, I went to the local Post Office to send an envelope containing Christmas cards to her niece

    It was over weight and oversize, and I had to fork out £2.30.

    That is over SEVEN times my daily rate when I joined the RN as an apprentice

    and it is all down to Starmer and Co

  145. This was suggested by Youtube.
    Saw ABBA on t'telly just recently, and the two lasses have become little old ladies, with white hair, and the blokes have become wrinklies. In this recording, only 15 years old, you can see that Agnetha isn't a young woman any more, by her teeth..
    Still, one of the favourite tracks from my youth (ish)… superb!
    https://youtu.be/p4QqMKe3rwY?si=QRemRjLaua0Dp14I

    1. Sadly, Paul, none of us are getting younger. This was – not least – brought home to me this afternoon, having been invited to the Puttenham & Wanborough Christmas Lunch Party for the first time – along with two of my neighbours. So I guess I'm now officially old.

      Several courses of Christmas Dinner. Free drink. All funded by social events in the village.

      Even had a ride in a Tesla each way (with a slow puncture, admittedly). I commented on the rather impressive display of passing cars, whereupon Maranda, our hostess, switched to a mode where we magically became Santa and his sleigh, while all the passing cars were reindeers, pedestrians were elves, and the audible warning for indicators was Christmas bells. Truly weird, but well done, Elon…

        1. It was indeed. I estimate there were around 80 recipients, and the armies of helpers coped admirably. Did I mention it was free?

          In such circumstances, one tactfully avoids controversial subjects like politics, football and religion, yet I found myself opposite a Surrey lady of a certain age, with opinions which very much chimed with mine. I felt she was a natural Nottler, yet she spoke to someone else about "when she was High Sheriff." Yet she even spoke warmly about Voldemort – sorry, I mean Nigel Farage.

          Might the so-called elite be waking up?

          I bought a ticket for John Rutter's Christmas Celebration in Guildford Cathedral this evening. The previous event left little time to attend, but I could have easily got there by train and taxi. Problem is, that with an anticipated finish of 22:00, there's the small problem of getting home. Perhaps if the Cathedral had a taxi rank? The station always has a profusion of taxis. The fuckwits in the Borough Council have issued far too many licences. I could book a taxi, but the chances of meeting with it with somewhat restricted vision (at the moment) among 920 departing concert-goers, in the dark, seem somewhat limited.

          Google offers two routes down Stag Hill, both of which are unpaved and unlit. Plus one through the University of Surrey. So the only remaining option is to walk down the (steep) access road, in quite the opposite direction, then double back through the adjacent council estate. That's the best option, but the pavements in Guildford are designed to trip up anyone using them.

          So "I'm out." Sadly.

      2. Excellent!
        MoH collected her sewing machine which had been in for a service from the shop where she purchased her first sewing machine 50 years ago. Keith the guy who serviced the machine told her to take care of it and have it serviced more regularly in the future as its replacement would now cost over £4000….

        1. Ouch.
          We called into the wool and thread shop this morning, and there was a sewing machine with four separate bobbins hooked into the needles.
          Our old Singer, one needle, one thread, would have been eaten alive.

          1. That was probably an overlocker machine. These days most new sewing machine come with a mini computer control panel…..

          2. It appeared to be connected to a PC, but I stayed well clear.

            I didn’t want to be stitched up.

      3. In the market this morning there was a chap dressed up as a friendly hobgoblin, driving an engine with the most bizarre trailer, playing Christmas songs. It was something out of a Roald Dahl storybook, pumps, pistons, casks and chimneys.

        It was surreal, but everyone was smiling and laughing fit to split.

        It cheered me up no end, particularly as the weather was diabolical at the time.
        I wish I was telephone competent and could have filmed it.

      1. Probably.
        I keep forgetting for a moment how long ago some of these things were, and that I'm running up to retirement myself. Sigh…

  146. Interesting..

    There is an appeal for the right-minded people that attended “Unite the Kingdom” rally in October to show support for The Farmer Demonstration planned for Wednesday, 11 December.
    The October rally organisers then hope the support will be reciprocated for the Free Tommy Robinson march schedule for February 1st 2025.

    The organisers are also reaching out to Donald Trump & Elon Musk to exert political pressure onto Farmer-Harmer-Starmer to free a certain CAT D political prisoner currently being held in solitary confinement in a CAT B cell.

    1. TR has explicitly told his supporters not to give up on Reform. However, this may change should Nigel Farage scupper this mission.

    2. I would willingly but I have an appointment I hope the NHS will honour on Wednesday to have a 24 hr holter monitor fitted.

      1. Be very grateful that it isn't a halter monitor with Phizzee monitoring the halter…

        Good luck with it.

    3. I have sent him a postcard and a birthday card and will send him a Christmas card next week

    4. Btw thanks for the info. I should be Ok in London that day – i will go along at lunchtime

  147. Interesting..

    There is an appeal for the right-minded people that attended “Unite the Kingdom” rally in October to show support for The Farmer Demonstration planned for Wednesday, 11 December.
    The October rally organisers then hope the support will be reciprocated for the Free Tommy Robinson march schedule for February 1st 2025.

    The organisers are also reaching out to Donald Trump & Elon Musk to exert political pressure onto Farmer-Harmer-Starmer to free a certain CAT D political prisoner currently being held in solitary confinement in a CAT B cell.

        1. From the Daily Telegraph

          Ignore the BBC’s woke list. Here are the real women of the year
          The BBC included a male scientist on its list of 2024’s most ‘inspiring’ women. Yet it omitted all of the following…

          Michael Deacon07 December 2024 7:00am GMT
          This week the BBC unveiled its list of the 100 most “inspiring and influential women” of 2024. As I wrote in my column on Thursday, however, I couldn’t help but notice a peculiar pattern.

          Among the BBC’s choices were an Israeli woman who is “an outspoken critic of the Israeli government”; an “immigrant rights campaigner” who helped file “criminal charges against Donald Trump”; a Republican who loathes Trump so much, she’s refused to vote Republican at the last three presidential elections; and a male biologist named Brigitte who “analyses landscapes” using “a queer lens”.

          And so on. All in all, it was difficult to avoid the impression that the list was not really about celebrating women. It was about promoting the BBC’s own stridently progressive view of the world.

          So, to redress the balance, here’s an alternative list of “women of the year” – all of whom the BBC overlooked…

          Hilary Cass

          Few people have produced anything more influential in 2024 than the Cass Review – which cast serious doubt on the wisdom of pumping puberty-blocking drugs into vulnerable children confused about their “gender identity”. Oddly, though, the BBC didn’t find space for the review’s author on its list of 100 “influential” women. Still, it did at least find space for a “hijab-wearing heavy metal band”.

          The Darlington nurses

          A group of female NHS staff are suing their employer for letting a male colleague named Rose use the women’s changing room with them. They say they aren’t transphobic – they just don’t feel women should be obliged to undress in front of a man. Quite a big story, this year. But perhaps the BBC forgot about it.

          Mandy Damari

          Mrs Damari, 63, is the mother of a British hostage of Hamas. Ever since Emily, 28, was seized by the Palestinian terror group on October 7, 2023, Mrs Damari has been tirelessly campaigning for her daughter’s release. She would, therefore, have made a strong candidate for the BBC’s list. Instead, however, it chose an Israeli woman who blames Israel’s own government for “failing to find a way to bring the hostages home”. What a curious decision. I wonder why the BBC did that.

          Katharine Birbalsingh

          Two notable successes this year for the woman often described as “Britain’s strictest headmistress”. First, a High Court judge ruled that her school’s ban on prayer rituals was lawful, after a Muslim pupil claimed that it was discriminatory. And second, her school’s GCSE results only narrowly fell short of Eton’s – even though her pupils are drawn from one of London’s most deprived boroughs. No wonder so many people on the Left despise her. She just keeps on showing them up.

          Giorgia Meloni

          This year the Italian PM has taken a stand against deepfake pornography – which, having been a victim of it herself, she describes as “a form of violence against women”. She’s also banned “surrogacy tourism”, making it illegal for Italians to obtain other women’s babies abroad. But the BBC calls her “far-Right”, so forget all that.

          JK Rowling

          In the 11 years since the BBC started compiling its annual list of the world’s most influential women, it has for some reason never managed to find room for the mega-selling author, philanthropist and prominent defender of women’s rights. Still, maybe next year.

          Rosie Duffield

          After telling Sir Keir Starmer in September that he was “entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour Prime Minister”, Ms Duffield set an all-time record: no MP in British parliamentary history has resigned the party whip so soon after an election. A proud boast. Especially in this case.

          HRH Princess of Wales

          Presumably our future Queen’s battle with cancer at the age of 42 wasn’t deemed sufficiently inspirational to make the BBC’s list of 100 “inspiring women”.

          Allison Pearson

          Essex Police’s treatment of our columnist – over a deleted, year-old tweet – was chilling. But perhaps some good will come out of it. First, because the backlash may deter at least some police officers from wasting their time and the taxpayer’s money on pursuing people over their social media posts, while countless real crimes remain unsolved (and even un-investigated). And second, because the whole sorry episode woke the public up to the fact that many supposed liberals – including some who work in journalism themselves – aren’t really all that fussed about free speech.

          Martine Croxall, Kasia Madera, Annita McVeigh and Karin Giannone

          This year, these four female journalists took legal action against their employer – a well-known broadcasting corporation funded by a licence fee – because they claimed they’d been paid significantly less than male colleagues performing equivalent roles. At an employment tribunal, they were told they wouldn’t be able to bring a claim for equal pay. It’s not over, though – because they recently filed an appeal. So perhaps they’ll end up among 2025’s women of the year, instead.

          Way of the World is a twice-weekly satirical look at the headlines aiming to mock the absurdities of the modern world. It is published at 7am every Tuesday and Saturday

    2. Fairly hairy in North Wales, apparently. Brother in Wrexham lost his fence into neighbours gardens, gate in bits, and recycling bins wrecked too.

  149. Not a great day.
    Mist, heavy rain, sun briefly, gales, sun briefly, rain, gales with branches down, sun briefly, sleet, sun briefly, rain, gales.
    Got soaked at the market, electricity/TV playing up.
    Oddly enough it was pretty much as the forecasters forecast.

    Ho hum, it could be worse. Zelensky could be the next head of the EU and Starmer could be replaced by Lammy..

    2. Looks like that senseless war is going to stop as soon as DT takes power, Vlod has today met a leader who will bang heads together.

  150. Is that one of they there "pre-emptive pardons" wot Biden is thinking of? I wonder what God thinks of that!

  151. A DT BTL

    During the COVID lockdown in 2020, if you had family round on Christmas Day, police could force entry to your home and make them go home.

    Does anyone know if this sensible law persists?

      1. A former near neighbour, with whom I would have spent Christmas, delivered a plate of cold Christmas dinner around tea time. Can't complain, except to say the restrictions were a complete load of bollocks.

        1. Yes – they were. My elder son was unable to drive out of Wales and the younger one didn’t fly from Switzerland.

  152. Thought for the day.
    Notre Dame in Paris has celebrated its first Mass since repairs after the fire.
    I wonder what evil and unChristian agreements have been made by the attendees?

    1. Pass. It's nice ot see people in the Old Lady again though.

      We visited as part of our honeymoon many years ago and were awstruck by the beauty and majesty of the place. It's idiotic, but if you stop and listen you can hear generations of chorals, worship and dedication permeating the place.

    2. Yes it's all about backing off and capitulation it always has been.
      It took more than 300 years to get more than 3 million of
      them out of Spain. And their attitude to the rest of humanity hasn't change in the slightest.

    3. We watched it on French TV.

      To be fair Macron speaks extremely well and I was impressed by his speech.

      Weather kept me indoors this afternoon so I watched Kenneth Branagh's Henry V.

      These things bring home how much we have to lose by surrendering our culture, heritage and civilisation to the barbarians and yet our politicians are determined to surrender.

      2. They also say that about Trudeau but if you listen to the words, appearance is all you get.

    4. No. Today was the "reopening" and the consecration of the building and the organ.

      The first Mass is tomorrow (Sunday) at 10.30 YOUR time France 2 (and BFMTV)

      1. Thank you.
        At least that might mean that all the behind the scenes negotiations happen before the important bit.

    1. Heh, William is 6'3, making him an inch shorter than me. Although I'm probably wider at the shoulder than he and the stunted cheese eater combined.

      1. 6'4?

        You're a dwarf after all.

        I've been reading your earlier posts and assumed you must be HUGE.
        My father was your height, and in the 1950's that really was tall, he would have been 14-15 stone then, but very very quick. county/national standard flanker.

        HG's cousin was 6' 5" and probably 20 stone, but surprisingly fit. Several of my rugby playing friends were 6'6 and taller, but generally only around the 17.5 stone range.

        I can no longer get to 6 ft even on tip toe, I really am a dwarf by your standard!!!

        1. Put something on a 6 foot high shelf and even on tippy toes, I would have trouble reaching it.

          Good in small portions.

        2. When I was 21 I was over 6'2". I am now probably under 6'.

          However I am not getting any smaller because I am much wider and heavier than I used to be at 21.

          1. Post-amputation, and before being accepted at Roehampton, I was asked "how tall were you?" "Six feet", I replied. "You'll be shorter", I was told.

            "Did I say six feet? I meant to say 6'4."

            The first pair of prostheses did indeed make me a shortarse. Struggled to reach top shelf of kitchen cupboards, etc. Current pair – I'm back to normal height.

            What was funny was – on admission to Roehampton, I was weighed post op and was asked my normal height. For once in my life, I appeared as normal weight on a BMI chart.

            For what it's worth, I was around 100 kg before the op. 87.4 kg afterwards. I don't recommend amputation as a quick weight loss solution. but… Seven years on, I've dropped a couple of kg. But it's fun at the GP surgery when they ask me to step on the scales. And more so when they check my "feet" for neuropathy…

        3. I’m about 6’5” eldest brother 6’3” other brother 6’8” eldest sister 6’ other sister 5’9”. Mum & dad both 5’10”. All children born at home and we lived in a 3 bedroom flat with toilet and scullery. Tightly packed.

        2. The one in the middle is probably wishing he had at least 50% of the country’s support as Trump, and the one on the right wishes he had a collar and tie like the other two for these occasions.

    3. Mme Macron looks pretty good for 71, it must be said.

      However, if the roles had been reversed and a 40 year old male teacher had hooked up with a 15 year old female pupil he would have been locked up, wouldnt he? (I'm not aware of the French laws here)

  155. We keep promising ourselves a road trip again but we never seem to get to it.

    And the photos alone look stunning. I will suggest it.

    1. Add it to your bucket list.

      I took a world weary colleague there, rushed up the stairs to watch his face.
      His jaw dropped. He just stood there and blocked the queue behind him.

      And that was before the cleaning.

    1. The people driving this should be put into straight jackets and sent to the front line in Ukraine,

      for target practice.

  158. 'Night All
    "Assad regime on brink as Syrian rebels begin to encircle Damascus "
    There goes the last major Christian community in the ME

  160. I am both shorter and lighter than when I was competing.
    Old me would have knocked current me over with hardly a glance.

    1. I was 5'4" but then during a medical checkup, the nurse recalibrate me as being 5'2". I let her know how displeased I was with her use of metric inches rather than real ones.

    2. I don't weigh myself and haven't been measured for 20 years or so… I used to be 5ft 4 in but probably a couple of inches shorter now.

    1. In comparison with the UK, yes.
      Here they treat us as a unit, in the UK we would be taxed separately, and as a result a lot worse off.

  164. Agreed, certainly better than me, but to be fair that’s not difficult.
    Don’t know, but suspect so.
    OT, tonight’s racing Solitaire might well be one for you, experts only..

  165. I always refer to myself as being 6'2" and 240lbs – but that was my fighting weight (and height) about 40 years ago! I reckon nowadays I'm probably an inch shorter and (at least) 20lbs heavier – I never weigh myself or measure myself as I couldnt stand the disappointment…..

      1. All true. And you went to great lengths to tell me how pissed off you were with Bill's Chicken and Leak pie which had less than two hunks of chicken in it. Another time, you +bride must visit with me and you will be treated royally.

        1. True!! Yesterday I had a super Venison Pie in a bourguignon style sauce, in a restaurant on the outskirts of the Great Wen!

          Post Script: At Lunchtime in the restaurant there were a total of 63 women diners and a grand total of five blokes!

  168. I wonder what, if anything, that bar code represents?

    Probably some appalling sex toy that Phizzee has already bought.

  169. Refuse to fly a pride flag and get fined $15,000. Say that you will not pay and they will garnish your bank account. Just happened in Ontario to the mayor of a small township called Emo.

    I wish that we had a real conservative government in Ontario.

  170. Power cut here from 1pm to 21.10. What a state. Never mind, all good practice for the coming 'Dark Ages'

        1. Crumbs! Best of luck Mola!! I’m tucked away in the North-West with a fairly measly 40-50mph…..

    2. As the old joke goes,
      what did the communists use to light the house before candles?
      Answer, electricity.
      Now just substitute Communists with two tier Kier’s government and the answer will be the same shortly.

  171. A close run thing earlies today.
    Wordle 1,267 5/6

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    1. 4 today. Have missed a few days.
      Wordle 1,267 4/6

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  173. Good night all 😴
    8 for lunch tomorrow including our four grandchildren. Always fun but also a little noisy.

  176. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    Donald Trump is in Paris today to attend the official reopening of the renovated Notre Dame cathedral. The president-elect has what could be described as a love-hate relationship with the French capital. He loves the place but it – more precisely its mayor and most of its right-on residents – hates him.

    This contempt first manifested itself days after he defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Hundreds of protestors took to the streets of Paris, banging pots and pans and chanting ‘No Trump, no hate, no KKK’ and ‘Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go’. The organisers of the rally listed why they believed Trump would be bad for the world: ‘racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, homophobia and transphobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, xenophobia and white nationalism’.

    The situation in some quarters has deteriorated to the extent that even male residents are now frightened

    Another demo was organised in November 2018, when Trump was in France to commemorate the centenary of the end of the Great War. There is also a protest planned for today, the brainchild of the pro-Palestine International Solidarity Movement.

    Trump has never hidden his affection for Paris, but nor has he concealed his sorrow over its steady decline in the last decade. In December 2015, when he was the Republican presidential candidate, Trump explained why he had called for an end to all Muslim immigration to the US. ‘Look at what happened in Paris, the horrible carnage, and frankly …. Paris is no longer the same city it was.’

    He was referencing the triple terror attacks of 2015, all perpetrated by Islamic extremists, which targeted Charlie Hebdo, a Jewish kosher store and the Bataclan theatre.

    In February 2017, Trump again mourned the state of Paris, using a speech at the Conservative Political Action conference in Maryland to tell the audience about his friend Jim. ‘For years, every year during the summer, he would go to Paris,’ explained the president. But no more. ‘Paris is no longer Paris,’ Jim had told Trump.

    In response, the Socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, tweeted a photo of herself with Mickey and Minnie Mouse, dedicating it to Trump and ‘Jim’, and adding: ‘We celebrate the dynamism and the spirit of openness of Paris’.

    A few weeks after Hidalgo’s childish tweet, an elderly Jewish Parisian called Sarah Halimi was beaten to death by a man screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’. Less than a year later another Jewish woman, Mireille Knoll, was murdered in similar circumstances.

    These were isolated incidents but the anti-Semitism that motivated them is not. Paris has arguably become the most anti-Semitic city in Europe: this century, thousands of Jews have either moved out of the city or left the country altogether. In the last year, anti-Semitic acts have soared in France by nearly 200 per cent and over half of these incidents occur in the Paris region.

    It’s not just Jewish women who live in fear in the French capital. In May 2017, weeks after Hidalgo had told Trump about the spirit of openness in Paris, the city’s tabloid Le Parisien reported from a northern suburb where women were afraid to go out because of the aggression they faced from the large number of mainly migrant men.

    Little has changed in the seven years since, although the situation in some quarters of the capital has deteriorated to the extent that even male residents are now frightened. A report earlier this year from the Stalingrad district discovered residents cowering in their apartments from the crack users below. ‘We can’t go out in the evenings any more, it scares us, it worries us,’ explained André. He’d complained to the town hall, the police and the Prefect, ‘but no one has replied’.

    Things are now so bad in the 19th arrondissement that a well-known bank employs security guards to escort its staff from their workplace to the train station. A teacher friend of mine whose school is in the area says these guards are needed to ward off the drug addicts hassling passers-by for money.

    Earlier this year, the Paris metro opened its first ‘safe space’ on the network, promoting it as a place women could alight if they felt under threat during their journey. Many do. Official figures released last week revealed that sexual violence had increased on the Paris transport system by 15 per cent in 2023.

    Most of these incidents don’t make the news. These days it takes something particularly horrific to attract the attention of the media, like the brutal murder of a 19-year-old student in the Bois de Boulogne on a warm late summer’s day. The man charged with her killing is a 22-year-old Moroccan, who should have been deported after raping a young woman in 2019.

    In the days after the death of Philippine, posters began appearing around Paris, bearing an image of the murdered woman along with the details about the suspect’s background. Hidalgo said the posters ‘chilled her’ because of their racist message.

    Were the posters racist? Or did they simply tell the truth, in the same way Donald Trump often tells the truth, however uncomfortable it may be to a Progressive left? He was certainly right about Paris. It is no longer is the city it was.

    Gavin Mortimer
    WRITTEN BY
    Gavin Mortimer
    Gavin Mortimer is a British author who lives in Burgundy after many years in Paris. He writes about French politics, terrorism and sport.

  177. From Coffee house, the Spectator

    Welcome to Labour’s Britain, where failure is lauded and incompetence rewarded. According to reports in the Financial Times, it appears that Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, has ended up on the draft list for the New Years honours. Also thought to be receiving a gong is Labour lefty Emily Thornberry, chair of the foreign affairs committee while rumours abound that Sir Keir’s former chief of staff Sue Gray – who was demoted from the top job just months into Starmer’s premiership – may have also made the cut. Quite the motley crew, eh?

    Mr S is rather perplexed about reports that the London mayor may be set to receive a knighthood – not least because of his rather disastrous reign over the city. Steerpike would remind readers that far from improving life in the capital, the Labour mayor has presided over its demise. Take knife crime in the city, for example. Figures from early 2024 indicated that incidents in London rose at the one of the fastest rates in five years, while muggings at knife-point surged by a third. Or transport: strikes, delays and cancellations have all plagued London’s transport system over the last few years and yet, instead of taking greater steps to address real commuter problems, Khan opted to, er, rename some Overground lines. Great stuff.

    Under Khan, London’s ultra-low emission zone was expanded to an area 18 times larger than what it had been previously – affecting five million more Londoners who were forced to drive compliant cars or face fines. Inspired by his own commitment to tackling climate change, the mayor went on to publish a polemic titled: ‘Breathe: Seven Ways to Win a Greener World.’ Perhaps the politician would have better luck boosting his popularity if he focused on the day job rather than vanity projects, eh? Not that Khan’s staff have any real incentive to perform better, either. As Mr S revealed this year, the number of City Hall fat cats on top rates of pay in 2024 has more than doubled since 2016 – all while the city continues to crumble.

    That’s before addressing the contribution of Khan’s ex-night czar. From bars that announce last orders before 10pm to deserted restaurants in the centre of town, under Khan ‘London is the city that likes to go to bed early with a cup of Horlicks’, as one Times Radio presenter concluded. Rather bafflingly, the London mayor thought paying Amy Lamé a six-figure sum to preside over this demise – despite reports that 25 per cent of the capital’s nightclubs have closed in recent years – was ‘good value’ for money. Thankfully, the woman who inspired the #LameLondon hashtag finally gained some self awareness and stepped away from the job in October this year. Not a second too soon…

    The Financial Times also noted that the draft list has not yet been signed off by either Starmer or King Charles. There may be time yet to make some last minute edits…

    Steerpike
    WRITTEN BY
    Steerpike
    Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

    2. A continuation of the constant desperate appeasement of a certain militant minority.

      If the mayor had been any other religion the thought of rewarding him on his record

      would have been laughed out of court.

    1. Conventional warfare using tanks and artillery is now almost a thing of the past with the advent of drone technologies.

      Likewise vast ocean going aircraft carriers are now almost obsolete given the advanced weapons technologies developed by Russia, China, India and North Korea whilst the Americans were dreaming and their Senators creaming off kickbacks from their vastly overpriced and corrupt defence contractors.

    2. I know it's a never reached summit, but by gosh this must be our current Peak Clownworld.

    1. Note that the royal family is now allowed to show positive body language when greeting Trump…

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