Saturday 9 December: The Tories need a period out of power to decide what kind of party they are

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

449 thoughts on “Saturday 9 December: The Tories need a period out of power to decide what kind of party they are”

  3. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    It Was Christmas Eve
    One particular Christmas season a long time ago, Santa was getting ready for his annual trip, but there were problems everywhere.
    Four of his elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones, so Santa was beginning to feel
    the pressure of being behind schedule.
    Then Mrs. Claus told Santa that her Mother was coming to visit. This stressed Santa even more.
    Then he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two had jumped the fence
    and were out, heaven knows where. More stress!!!
    Then when he began to load the sleigh one of the boards cracked and the toy bag fell to the ground and scattered the toys.
    So, frustrated, Santa went into the house for a cup of coffee and a shot of whisky. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered
    that the elves had hidden the liquor and there was nothing to drink. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the coffee-pot and
    it broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw
    it was made from. Just then the doorbell rang and Santa
    cursed on his way to the door.
    He opened the door and there was a little angel with a big Christmas tree. The angel said very cheerfully. “Merry Christmas Santa,
    isn’t it just a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Isn’t it a lovely tree? Where would you like me to stick it?”
    Thus began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

    1. Grim will cover just about anything meteorological, of for that matter, the country in general.

  5. Hello again, chums, a poor effort from me this morning on Wordle. But at least I can now post my result properly on the NoTTLe site. Goodbye for now, the local Aldi opens at 8 am and I want to do some shopping there.

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

  6. Good morning all,

    Am I opening the batting today? Cats and dogs at McPhee Towers but clearing up mid morning. Wind veering West, 9℃≫12℃.

    Debi Evans at UK Column had a chat with Ed Dowd about excess deaths and it’s disturbing to say the least. So far in 2023 and with the data not yet including the most recent months, the excesses deaths in the UK are running higher than the total number of civilians killed in WW2. In the US for age group 15-44 so far in 2023 they have lost more young people than in the 12 years of the Vietnam war.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/783660eed8dd145a3645c692a7687d17058f67885e77ec0b9b3b2ba5d1ca3311.png

    https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/the-numbers-dont-lie-excess-deaths-ed-dowd

    We need to keep bombarding the politicians with this.

    All the data is available on Ed Dowd’s website:

    https://phinancetechnologies.com/Home.asp

    2. Thank you for posting. Everyone should hear this. I have posted it on Twitter and I’ve saved it for future reference. Dowd is brilliant.

  7. ‘Morning All

    A lighter Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5413f1620c8de4c7ac29beab9d1dd9b8f733844613108bc75ebc40bf2254142c.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a5eb0608795cd683b49a268743d9ecf8413f1298229a31567c785da20bf71a5d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/82cba7a1e4c9aa45c588a462a35693a5701d88be16c856c8d693f70a26542c4b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/424d54acab7a56879018efe3d8657e1eb0e3f40dcaff502eed96a4f474c2e52a.jpg

    https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/154/231/985/original/4d28eceda52030da.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06381ecce4ffc0e14faa4e041f22b54ccbfd9e02cb516428202bc0d5aa34bc99.jpg

    Finally one for Sos

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6f144c93658bf1bd63448275531eaacaebf7e9e214669cd63ecc2a28bdf12f6b.png

  8. Putin’s new war economy is an existential threat to Europe. 9 December 2023.

    The Nato nations of Europe face an ever-deepening crisis. Russia and China are arming at pace, the former now transitioning to a full war economy. While the US remains stronger than both put together, and the heroic Ukrainian resistance has Moscow’s forces tied down, both these things could change quickly.
    Worse still, there has been a political shift in America. The Trumpite wing of the Republican party does not, I believe, reflect what most Americans want; yet Trump became President and may well again because of terrible Democrat candidates. The hardline Republican politicians currently holding back aid for Ukraine do not speak for most Americans – but the numbers on Capitol Hill are giving them disproportionate influence.

    What’s less well understood is that President Biden, too, is an unreliable ally. He has deliberately refused to give Ukraine weapons which could bring down the Kerch bridges connecting Russia with Crimea – a potentially decisive blow against the Kremlin – because he is cowed by Putin’s nuclear bluster. He wouldn’t even send tanks until he was jostled into it by Britain. He, too, does not represent Americans, despite being commander-in-chief.

    More scaremongering to take your minds off Mass Immigration and the Economy. Russia and China are dangerous though America alone is stronger than both. Really? Sanctions have failed utterly The Kerch Bridge was only opened in 2020 and its loss would soon be replaced by the former ferry traffic. The defeat of Russia in Ukraine, as envisaged here, is not possible without a nuclear exchange since they share a common border. Trump was elected by the people of the United States etc. etc.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/12/09/putin-russia-war-economy-an-existential-threat-to-europe/

    1. Their definition of ‘aid’ to Ukraine being more weapons? The Republicans are right to call a halt to the war. Biden is a senile puppet.

    2. Why are there so many ‘Hawks’ in journalism? Stoking up war fever for whatever reason isn’t a good idea at anytime but with Johnson beating the war drums, Cameron swanning about as FS and the present senile incumbent in the White House it’s the worst of times. Journalists, especially those who want to be taken seriously – apparently a threatened species – should be making the case for negotiation and peace, not stirring up an already explosive mixture as a deflection tactic to cover the machinations of out-of-control governments.

      As for the USA’s military, clearly, Page isn’t aware of the problems that the mandated “vaccinations” have created. One example is the impact on pilots of both fixed wing aeroplanes and helicopters.

    3. Minty, good to see you back here on Nttl. But you are sweating the small stuff; here is my list of strategic factors in WWII: finance (the USA could print money), energy growth & supply (USA), raw materials (USA) manpower (USSR), industrial production (USA & USSR) and high technology (Manhattan Project, Enigma, A-4, radar etc). The factors are still important, but the elephant in the room today is Artificial Intelligence. Either the MSM and governments do not understand the growth rate of AI, or they are desperately holding the beachball under the water whilst waiting for the tsunami. Mixed metaphors!

    4. Minty, good to see you back here on Nttl. But you are sweating the small stuff; here is my list of strategic factors in WWII: finance (the USA could print money), energy growth & supply (USA), raw materials (USA) manpower (USSR), industrial production (USA & USSR) and high technology (Manhattan Project, Enigma, A-4, radar etc). The factors are still important, but the elephant in the room today is Artificial Intelligence. Either the MSM and governments do not understand the growth rate of AI, or they are desperately holding the beachball under the water whilst waiting for the tsunami. Mixed metaphors!

  9. Putin’s new war economy is an existential threat to Europe. 9 December 2023.

    The Nato nations of Europe face an ever-deepening crisis. Russia and China are arming at pace, the former now transitioning to a full war economy. While the US remains stronger than both put together, and the heroic Ukrainian resistance has Moscow’s forces tied down, both these things could change quickly.
    Worse still, there has been a political shift in America. The Trumpite wing of the Republican party does not, I believe, reflect what most Americans want; yet Trump became President and may well again because of terrible Democrat candidates. The hardline Republican politicians currently holding back aid for Ukraine do not speak for most Americans – but the numbers on Capitol Hill are giving them disproportionate influence.

    What’s less well understood is that President Biden, too, is an unreliable ally. He has deliberately refused to give Ukraine weapons which could bring down the Kerch bridges connecting Russia with Crimea – a potentially decisive blow against the Kremlin – because he is cowed by Putin’s nuclear bluster. He wouldn’t even send tanks until he was jostled into it by Britain. He, too, does not represent Americans, despite being commander-in-chief.

    More scaremongering to take your minds off Mass Immigration and the Economy. Russia and China are dangerous though America alone is stronger than both. Really? Sanctions have failed utterly The Kerch Bridge was only opened in 2020 and its loss would soon be replaced by the former ferry traffic. The defeat of Russia in Ukraine, as envisaged here, is not possible without a nuclear exchange since they share a common border. Trump was elected by the people of the United States etc. etc.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/12/09/putin-russia-war-economy-an-existential-threat-to-europe/

  10. Good Moaning.
    Kathy Gyngell’s TCW Saturday address. (A long one.)

    Dear Readers,

    MY WEEK started with a bang for once. Not on Sunday, which invariably finds me at my computer, catching up with email backlogs and sorting copy for the next week, but on Monday when I went to Portcullis House, at Andrew Bridgen’s invitation, to a ‘presentation on the pandemic and its consequences’ co-ordinated and chaired by himself.

    He’d got the leading dissenting scientists and medics from the US whom we have all read about or followed on X/Twitter over to London – Dr David Martin, Dr Ryan Cole, Dr Pierre Kory, Dr Robert Malone and the dissenting stats analyst commentator Steve Kirsch, plus our own Professor Angus Dalgleish, to treat 16 MPs (see here for the full list) and a packed room of UK Covid sceptics to someblistering, fact-based exposés of the virus. We heard aboutPharma’s immunity and impunity, the scientific community’s corrupt response, the suppression of viable and already tested medication, ‘safe and effective’ propaganda when ‘endgame mRNA therapy’ has proved so unsafe and ineffective, the booster effect – more injections, more infection – the death of science, excess deaths and the leaked New Zealand data, and missing (unreleased) ONS data. Drs Mike Yeadon and Peter McCullough were scheduled to make video presentations but a tech breakdown prevented them.

    I am not even going to skate through the six powerful presentations; I am aiming to post the power points on TCW next week.

    What really interested me was the reactions of the MPs, to whom these impressive American scientists were quite new, to the revelation that our chief scientists are charlatans and that the ‘safe and effective’ reassurances given to the British were straight lies. Would they listen or walk? One or two did leave, but for most their concentration didn’t waver. At one mention of post-vaccine adverse events amongst the scientists’ own patients, families and friends, I swear I saw a few heads nod. How, Ian Paisley asked, would MPs such as he manage public fear once his constituents were made aware of the truth imparted to them? Several stayed behind to talk. There was no hostility and no denial.

    I left with the best ‘feeling’ I have had for a while, thinking perhaps we can shift the dial; also about the lone MP who’d made it happen. Neither a toff nor a street fighter, no doubt as flawed as we all are, it crossed my mind that Andrew Bridgen would make an unlikely yet fascinating character for a political thriller – if I had the skill to write it! Not quite, but nearly a Graham Greene anti-hero, a man whose ordinary and unheroic presence belies an inner steel and brain. Yes, there is something remarkable about him.

    Having delivered this encomium I had better come clean. As well as grabbing him to thank him for the evening, I managed to ask him if he’d be the keynote speaker at TCW’s Tenth Anniversary fundraising bash next March. And he said Yes! More details about that – date, venue, other guests and ticket purchase – to come after Christmas.

    What of the rest of the week? An imploding Conservative Party at home and an ever more openly hypocritical COP abroad; Ukraine all but forgotten even though Zelensky’s grip on power is in question. According to Seymour Hersh, the US President and his foreign policy aides are being left on the outside ‘as serious peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have rapidly gained momentum’. No one is pretending any longer. Even the Telegraph’s Con Coughlin admits Putin is close to victory, as we have consistently prophesied.

    Boris Johnson, once the cock of the walk of Kiev, we’ve seen bedraggled and weepy in front of the Covid Inquiry this week. On Tuesday in these pages Neville Hodgkinson set out the 21 vital questions Hallett should put to the former Prime Minister (but didn’t) on the sequence of events and people behind the genetic engineering of the virus which caused Covid to become a human pathogen. These issues should of course be across every newspaper too. It’s so frustrating. However small the readership, the papers still have purchase that social media sites like our just don’t, whatever the superior quality of our journalism. Which it is.

    I want to know the answers to Neville’s finely honed questions. How much did Johnson know of what they always knew? Was he hoodwinked, bullied or just lazy as Vallance, Farrar, Whitty and co perpetrated their coup? As often in the Shakespearean tragicomedy that is Johnson’s life, his various early instincts (which he now regrets expressing) were right: ‘Why are we destroying everything for people who will die anyway soon?’ was, as Bob Moran points out, a morally valid point. Immoral and with devastating consequences was his failure to stick with it.

    The cowed figure at the Hallett inquiry was a far cry from the Johnson of December 2019 who swept the Tories to their whopping victory. Even then it was a lousy rotten party that deserved to die. They encouraged him in the main to deliver a useless Brexit and swung into action to open the borders to chaos. Sunak’s and Cleverley’s transparent globalism must be the final nail in the coffin. Without borders there is no democracy. Suella Braverman needs to remember another politician, 119 years ago, who said: ‘I hate the Tory party, their men, their words and their methods. I feel no sort of sympathy with them’. With that, Winston Churchill walked away from his party.

    It’s this abysmal state of democracy, establishment elites more in touch with their pals at COP28 than with their own people, that bothers us at TCW. This week we put COP’s anti-science, money grabbing, economically and socially destructive gravy train under our spotlight: Neil Bryce on Dubai’s cynical greenwashing, John Ellwood on the grifters and the shysters, Philip Patrick on why we need to attack their bad science, and Janice Davis’s alert that the COP squad are coming for our cows. They are all first-class reads.

    Yes, we do our best to call it all out, but the trouble is that it is not enough. As Philip Patrick says, these smug elitists don’t care about being called hypocrites: they think they have a special pass. So we have to think about action too. And there’s no point thinking it can be left to the minor political parties with no power or influence. We need a mass movement to hold every MP standing for election to account. Remember Neil Oliver’s call some weeks ago for direct democracy? Since then the seeds of a movement have started to sprout. Sean Flanagan’s Twitter space events have attracted thousands. Various grassroots groups have begun to talk to each other. Our new column, Democracy in Decay, which started on Thursday, is dedicated to this and will follow and report on developments. Reclaiming democracy has to start somewhere.”

  11. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/12/08/elderly-gazan-accuses-hamas-stealing-aid-rare-criticism/

    Brave woman. Had enough.

    “Elderly Gazan accuses Hamas of stealing aid in rare criticism, telling group ‘shoot me if you want’

    Woman, who seemed unconcerned about consequences of speaking out, claims terrorists hoards donations in tunnels

    8 December 2023 • 3:06pm

    An elderly Palestinian woman has accused Hamas of hoarding international aid during a live TV interview, in a rare case of Gazans criticising the group in the media.

    The unnamed woman was speaking to Al Jazeera when she took Hamas to task, apparently unconcerned about the consequences of doing so.

    “All the aid goes underground,” she said in Arabic, an apparent reference to Hamas’ vast network of underground tunnels, which it uses to hide supplies for the war on Israel. “It does not reach all the people.

    “We came here from Gaza city … all the aid is meant for us. I am not afraid, I am talking to them as well,” she added, before the journalist interjects.

    “A lot of aid is coming, it is being distributed, this is what they say,” he said, before passing back the TV microphone.

    The unidentified woman then wagged her finger at him and said: “Hamas takes everything to their homes. They can take me, shoot me or do whatever they want to me.”

    “It seems the situation is unclear,” said Al Jazeera’s interviewer in response.

    Video footage of the exchange, aired on an Al Jazeera live stream on Wednesday, went viral after it was reposted online by the digital translation service MEMRI.

    The group – which was co-founded by a former Israeli intelligence officer and an Israeli-American political scientist – said it worked to “bridge the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East”.

    The Telegraph has confirmed that the English subtitles added by MEMRI accurately reflect the original broadcast in Arabic on Al Jazeera.

    It came as the United Nations warned that civil order in the Gaza Strip was breaking down, as the death toll on the Palestinian side approached 18,000 people, including many children.

    “Civil order is breaking down in Gaza – the streets feel wild, particularly after dark,” said Thomas White, the director of UNRWA [UN Palestinian refugee agency], on X, formerly Twitter.

    “Some aid convoys are being looted and UN vehicles stoned. Society is on the brink of full-blown collapse. UNRWA continues to serve the population with what limited aid we have.”

    “

  12. 379329+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Dt,

    Too many migrants to integrate into society, says Jenrick
    Tories face ‘red-hot fury of voters’ unless they do more to bring down numbers, says ex-immigration minister

    Truth be told the only honesty shown since early post Thatcher was in naming the intake, ” invasion” set up and orchestrated
    by the lab/lib/con coalition party, and given, over the intervening decades, continued support via the party before Country brigade.

    The islamic intake in towns and cities already rules the roost throughout these Isles, london ,the lost capital being a prime example.

    Outstanding treachery in bringing this Country to its appeasing knee via the polling stations is a thing of wonderment, as we
    “nut the deck” shortly, five times a day.

    1. Our kind government is We are paying the wages (and pension contributions) of 5,870,000 public sector employees.

    2. Something to take the simmer to a boil, that net immigration figure of 672,000 at the end of June was revised up to 745,000.

  18. To the Title:
    Out of Power???
    They need a period out of power?

    How about: they need a long period in prison? – and some of them a few short steps up a gallows.
    Flippin Telegraph.

    Apart from that – Comment ca va, les copains?
    Still at it.

      1. 379319+ up ticks,

        Afternoon SIADC

        Not if constructed by a blackface, special dispensation dpncha know.

  20. Good morning.
    3½°C outside and heavy rain. A totally miserable, dark start to the day.

        1. If it cannot ‘plough’ the snow away, it can melt it, when the EV batteries catch fire

          Yo tim

  23. Good morning everyone

    The most miserable of days, strong wind and rain .

    No 1 son running in Weymouth 5k Park Run this morning, starts at 9am . No 2 son on his way down from Worthing with partner ..for short visit .

    2. Good morning Maggiebelle

      Christo is 30 and married and has a wife; Henry, 28, met his girlfriend at the age of 17 on his first day at UEA – they are an established couple who live together and plan to marry in the future when they decide to have children so I call her his fiasco.

      I am too old-fashioned to use the term ‘partner’ – for me it has business connotations.

  25. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c3f9064dcd7d2ef10f30fa71b84c5289909d63d8e81a5680d3874944bee7e097.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/09/kemi-badenoch-has-shown-what-she-is-made-of/

    BTL I agree with the BTLiner – Mr Bryant is, without doubt, one of the most repulsive men in politics

    Chis Bryant – What’s to like?

    Minor public school hypocrite
    Resigned from being Anglican priest.
    Whinger over sexuality issues.
    Abuses parliamentary privilege to slander Farage
    Mean spirited, petty and nasty.

    3. Treets, Spangles, Marathons and Bar Six

      Oh, and a sense of decency, a work ethic and judging by the confusion of our yoof would it would seem, biology teachers

  27. Well said Dr Dalrymple

    Perhaps I am more sensitive to them than I once was, but it seems to me that hectoring and badgering semi-political public messages (mostly paid for at public expense, of course) are much more prominent than they used to be. This is a West-wide phenomenon, originating from the United States—because all other Western countries are far too brain-dead to resist the ideological siren song, or songs, of the technologically most advanced country in the world, however deleterious those songs might be. We are to be hectored into virtue, virtue being principally a matter of the opinions that we hold.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/get-the-message/

    1. We’re very unvirtuous here then. and we know the Cop-out attendees are the biggest hypocrites around, apart from sheikh Al-Jaber who spoke the truth.

  28. Sensible, down to earth (sorry) comment the Green scam.
    He concludes:

    The bigger question environmentalists should be asking is: What has the half-trillion dollars that have been spent on climate change bought? No measurable results.
    Fossil fuel use reached an all-time high in 2022 and 2023, and carbon emissions have been climbing rather than receding. The more governments spend, the more money the United Nations insists we need to spend. The U.N.’s latest report says more than $4 trillion needs to be spent each year until 2030 to stop global warming.
    With that much money, we can end global hunger and illiteracy.
    Instead, the fanatics in the Biden administration and the billionaire donor class demand that we save the planet from carbon emissions at any cost, and if that means diminishing funds for fighting real pollution that kills people, so be it.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/green-groups-are-no-longer-promoting-a-cleaner-environment/

  29. UKIP pushed out a circular yesterday that included the following about the banning of sale of ICE cars. “Under pressure from the Civil Servants, on Monday 4th December his government used a Statutory Instrument to amend the 2035 date back to 2030. This legislation enforces a target of 80% of cars sales to be electric by 2030.” Not seen this mentioned anywhere else and their info is not normally misleading..

    1. We all know that Sunak is completely invertebrate. I wonder if, at base, he doesn’t even have a coccyx?

  30. To all you people with heaven knows what “apps” on your phones and computers.

    These apps “make my life easier,” I tell Brockwell. “Convenience matters.”
    “Convenience absolutely matters,” Brockwell agrees, “but privacy is important. … The U.S. government knows what color underwear you like to buy and what kinds of videos make you scroll a little bit slower.”
    “So, what?” I say.
    “That data is forever,” she points out. “Stored in permanent records associated with your identity in databases in Utah.”
    Brockwell says, “You have no control over what regime might come to power tomorrow, over which hacker might get access to that data. You have no control over what societal norms might change in the next 10 years and that data suddenly becomes incriminating. You’re basically making a bet that you and the people with the guns (the government) will always stay on good terms.”
    “What if they made cryptocurrency illegal? Made guns illegal? Everyone who partakes in that suddenly becomes a criminal,” she says, adding, “Look at what happened in China. Hong Kong used to be a bastion of freedom.”
    When China crushed that freedom, they used people’s phones to track and punish protesters.

    Think about all those people the Left and woke are busy cancelling using on-line comments made 10 or more years ago. Don’t say we haven’t been warned.
    https://www.takimag.com/article/how-private-is-private/

    1. The recent case of the retired met police Whatsapp group that shared racist jokes, springs to mind. They have been given jail time, albeit suspended. 50 years ago such conversations would have been heard in pubs. Not saying that was right, but now as soon as you put something out there by electronic means, the state has the laws to decide that it is offensive and bang you up. So much for privacy. In Scotland, I believe that you can already be held to account for what you say in private.

      1. I strongly suspect that Nottle, and others like it, will become curse for those who have posted on them or left upvotes on comments.

        1. I’m considering options for my declining years, somewhere secure with free food and heating and you don’t have to pay the telly tax! Now, have you heard the one about the English man, Welsh man and Irish man…

    1. I was told about a seemingly normal girl who was self-identifying as a lesbian. I have known her for years and never seen her show the slightest interest in women.
      Further than that, she has actually shown considerable interest in men.
      I told my wife: I am more of a lesbian than she is. At least I fancy women.

      But why go through the whole charade?
      We are in queer times indeed.

        1. One of my best friends always said he could understand lesbians because he too found women sexually attractive but that he could not understand male homosexuals as the mere thought of any sexual activity with a man was deeply repugnant to him

          Another of my friends who was four times married and sired several children said that he was homosexual in all ways except sexually!

          2. What an odd thing to say. Off course he wouldn’t e attracted to sex with a man if he is heterosexual – similarly a heterosexual woman isn’t attracted to sex with a woman. Tell him that fortunately for the whole human race and all sexually reproducing organisms, the female of the species doesn’t find its males sexually repugnant.

          3. What an odd thing to say. Off course he wouldn’t e attracted to sex with a man if he is heterosexual – similarly a heterosexual woman isn’t attracted to sex with a woman. Tell him that fortunately for the whole human race and all sexually reproducing organisms, the female of the species doesn’t find its males sexually repugnant.

  35. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e3d984efcbcc96654f58e5fe981a0cc4983b8d365b3d5a249244ed08da41828c.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/08/tory-rebellion-too-late-sunaks-rwanda-bill-only-hope/

    BTL

    It is time to rebuild our broken political system.

    The Conservative Party is not only not conservative but it is flawed and corrupt to it very core.

    All sitting Conservative MPs who are to the right of centre (Yes, Mr Rees-Mogg – this means you) must resign before the New Year and either join Reform or start a new party. Admit that that the Conservative Party is dead, put it in its coffin and cremate or bury it. The longer the rotting corpse is not disposed of the greater will be the stink of its putrification.

  36. I’ve emailed Phizzee asking how he is and to let Nottlers know. I’m about to go and knock a few balls around at table tennis, so better if he can reply to do it here.

    Back later.

  37. It is curious when the only two politicians who have the balls to state the bleeding obvious – that there are tens of thousands too many people entering the country illegally – are black women.

    1. Not really curious! Probably the wrong ‘sort’ of black! Those ones who wish to contribute!

  39. 379319+ up ticks,

    Saturday 9 December: The Tories need a period out of power to decide what kind of party they are

    Sad to say they will be celebrating their fortieth anniversary shortly,genuine Tories that is, of being on the outside looking in.

    These political impostors inclusive of lab/lib-dems have successfully destroyed all trust in governing political parties, via deceit, lies & treachery leaving in their wake a clear unopposed path for islamification of these Isles.

    Coming shortly, your five a day will be done on prayer mats and NOT preparing veg, via the current voting pattern.

    The current political miscreants
    ( gangsters in pinstripe)

    7. I did too!

      Caroline saw it going backwards and then forwards. She denies that she is no-brained and insists she is a genius.!

  41. Phhizzee did reply to me and he sounds in a bad way. A&E had a five hour wait so he went home. He’s decided to go back today. He thanked us for our concern.

    1. Thanks for the update. I can’t see Phizzee’s posts so a little unsighted on the drama. Hopefully he’ll be seen today though 5 hours may not be enough. Waiting times in A&E seem to be awful at the best of times.

      I had to go for a hand X-ray last month (no, not that Matron), and I sat next to a woman who had just come from 10 hours in A&E and just been sent for an x-ray.

    2. Thanks for the update. I can’t see Phizzee’s posts so a little unsighted on the drama. Hopefully he’ll be seen today though 5 hours may not be enough. Waiting times in A&E seem to be awful at the best of times.

      I had to go for a hand X-ray last month (no, not that Matron), and I sat next to a woman who had just come from 10 hours in A&E and just been sent for an x-ray.

  42. 380319+ up ticks,

    AstraZeneca vaccine linked with ‘spike’ in cases of rare disease that can paralyse victims
    As studies report rise ‘attributable to’ Covid jab, The Telegraph speaks to people who developed Guillain-Barré syndrome after vaccination

    Investigations team
    8 December 2023 • 7:19pm

    Anthony Shingler was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome after having the AstraZeneca vaccine CREDIT: PAUL COOPER FOR THE TELEGRAPH
    Scientists have drawn a link between the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and a “spike” in cases of a rare disease that can leave its victims paralysed…

    Will this be the future remit of the political gangsters, ongoing ?
    Every lab/lib/con coalition
    current supporter /voter will eventually be awarded a crippling prize from your parties jabbolottory.

    .

    1. An acquaintance had GB syndrome, just before Covid IIRC. He nearly died, but he was saved by some non-British, medically qualified, friends who were visiting and who recognised the symptoms. The NHS had to swallow its pride, correct the diagnosis and provide treatment. Recovery was very slow.

    2. An acquaintance had GB syndrome, just before Covid IIRC. He nearly died, but he was saved by some non-British, medically qualified, friends who were visiting and who recognised the symptoms. The NHS had to swallow its pride, correct the diagnosis and provide treatment. Recovery was very slow.

  43. Britain’s debt timebomb is about to explode – and politicians are too timid to defuse it. MPs are ignoring 300 years of economic precedent to splash the cash
    rather than make the tough decisions that will save the nation from ruin.

    We have a generation of people and of politicians who have grown up with debt and credit, a mindset of instant gratification. No longer do you have to save up for something – you buy it on credit. This generation of politicians have been nurtured in this mindset. When I was a youngster we, and our parents, had been nurtured with a mindset of saving, debt was bad, you didn’t borrow. We then entered an era which migrated being paid in cash to that of paid to your bank account, and the banks saw the opportunity to make money out of debt with the introduction of the credit card. Borrowing entered the corporate world where debt financing became the norm instead of equity, aided by the tax regime because debt can be carried forward against corporate tax whereas equity share dividends are post tax items, the tax system encourages debt funding. The entire financial ecosystem today is one of debt, and making money from debt. Debt is now packaged into junk bonds and sold betwen financial institutions. No wonder we are living in a debt based political mindset.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/12/09/britain-debt-spending-economy-politics-deficit-tax/

    1. Yesterday evening he had a nosebleed that wouldn’t stop. He also said he was ditching all his meds, which may not have been a good idea. In his reply to my email this morning he said it was still bleeding and going down his throat. He was going to go back to A&E and try again. He also said if it didn’t stop by Monday he’d ring the doctor. I don’t know if one of his meds is blood thinner.

        1. Is that a blood thinner? When my OH went for his post-op checkup they said that was no longer necessary.

          9. “About clopidogrel
            Clopidogrel is an antiplatelet medicine. It prevents platelets (a type of blood cell) from sticking together and forming a dangerous blood clot.”

            At the same time though, wounds don’t stop bleeding and bruising occurs easily and rapidly.

          1. Got a couple of fresh beauties on my left wrist and don’t remember knocking them. The worst culprit seems to be delving into shop fridges searching for better sell-by items.

    2. Just back fro ENT. Camera up the nostrils was ghastly. Been in
      all day. Lovely people, I have to take it easy for a couple of
      weeks. Bleeding stopped now. No laundry. No washing up, No
      bending over. Suits me just dandy.

      Thanks for your concern. Appreciated…..

  45. No 2 son and partner set off from Worthing at 8am .. the rang and told us they were in Bournemouth at 1130am .

    They rang again and said they were in Wareham ,, then no contact until now … they are in the pub in the village .. My morning and afternoon plans are ruined , it is like DPD deliveries , they give a time and don’t deliver . time now just after 4 30, Pip spaniel needs a walk and I have a few other things to do, quite fed up .

    No 1 son ran in appalling weather this morning Weymouth 5k park run.. ….19mins 56 secs in 30 mph wind , he came 5th. a wow from me .

    1. That’s no way to treat you! All the same if you’d prepared lunch for them. Take the dog out and see them when you get back.

  47. 379319+ up ticks,

    Tell her in the most diplomatic manner, no need to be nasty, the second word is …. off.

    breitbart,

    Barbados Prime Minister Demands $4.9 Trillion in Slavery Reparations

    Ps,

    As a goodwill gesture send her a diet sheet.

  48. Well. I have just watched Tucker Carlson with Alex Jones. I ended up having far more respect for Alex Jones than I thought I would.
    Here it is, with time stamps. They talk mostly about Jones’s career and his warnings about what the predator class is up to – hiding in plain sight if you take the trouble to plough through all the material as Jones does. Alex Jones’s uncompromising attitude to what he has read and heard is fairly frightening, but at the same time, neither he nor TC are defeatist. Alex Jones thinks that if enough people understand what’s going on, it will automatically fail, because it can only be brought in via hoodwinking the people eg covid scam.
    The predator class’s plans are very grand (ridiculously so!) and very dystopian, but bringing them to fruition is hard, and ought to fail.
    They end up with a very interesting discussion on death and the predator class.
    https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1732897835572461582

  49. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/135f07c3273a1f21d38747a4a948b7bd966f6bee5dfafd450c0e9d472187713d.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/12/09/french-are-the-most-eurosceptic-people-in-europe-poll-finds/

    The three EU countries which voted by referendum against the European Constitution Treaty were The Netherlands, France and Ireland.
    The French and Dutch were ignored; the Irish were told to vote again and if they voted the wrong way the next time they would lose €bns of EU funding.

    The treaty was renamed The Lisbon Treaty which was identical to the European Constitution Treaty but no country was allowed to have a referendum on it.

    All is not lost, Macron is terrified of holding an EU referendum because he fears the French would vote to leave; no party in the Netherlands wants to go into coalition with Gert Wilders because of his desire to have a EU referendum; and the fanatical Irish EU zealot, Leo Varadkar, is becoming more and more loathed for preferring child-murdering Muslims to the indigenous Irish.

    It cannot be long before there is civil uprising and revolt. The ordinary people cannot be ignored for ever.

    1. Today my Polish barber told me that the Poles are sick of the EU as well. She thinks they might leave. Most of my many anglo-Italian friends and Anglo-Irish voted to leave at the referendum.
      People want to run their own affairs. That should not be so difficult to grasp.

    2. If this had been the Middle Ages, that uprising and revolt would have happened decades ago. Modern day people, while good at making a lot of noise, possess neither the courage nor the intelligence to mount any form of armed rebellion.

      1. In days of old princes raised armies against each other and led their troops in to battle. The Mountbatten-Windsors snipe at one another in the gossip columns.

          1. Question for you, Moly.

            In recent times we’ve spoken about strange and weird sea fish (cusk, ling, etc). I’ve come across another that I’ve yet to try and it seems it has lots of names. I first heard it referred to on Masterchef: The Professionals as stone bass Argyrosomus regius, but I couldn’t locate any immediate reference to it. It seems that it is variously referred to as: meagre, croaker, jewfish, shade-fish, sowa, kir, corvina and salmon-bass.

            I wondered if you had come across it and are able to comment on its suitability as a food item?

          2. Certainly never seen one in the flesh. Rare in the wild but can grow to some size. East Atlantic from Scandinavia down to DR Congo, plus the Med. It has, by Lessepsian migration (using the Suez Canal), also reached the Red Sea.

            Some good information here about it and attempts at farming it, which don’t appear to have been very successful.

            https://www.thefishsociety.co.uk/blogs/fishopedia/stone-bass

            and here, for some recipes:

            https://www.thefishsociety.co.uk/blogs/articles-and-stories/stone-bass-is-on-the-rise

        2. Not me, King Stephen, I just squeaked through in 6. PS – I do it first thing in the morning, yet most NoTTLers wait until mid-afternoon. Why is this?

    2. Well done. Par for me.

      Wordle 903 4/6

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

    3. And another three for me today.

      Wordle 903 3/6
      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Saint Stephen – the chap on whose feast day Good King Wenceslas looked out – was the first Christian martyr who was stoned to death.

      [Like many children I thought that Good King Wences was a bit of a hermit who stayed indoors and never looked at the view until the day after Christmas which was when he last looked out. I was rather put out to learn that his full name was Wenceslas and not Wences and that I had misunderstood the song I was singing]

          1. I wouldn’t put it past them. My Gt Grandparents came from TH. It’s changed a bit since their day.

  52. ‘The Tories need a period out of power to decide what kind of party they are’

    No, the Tories need to be destroyed, so that a proper conservative party can take its place. The Conservative Party will never be reformed, will never serve the interests of the people. We don’t have decades left for people to realise this, after yet another betrayal. Time’s ticking. Peter Hitchens was spot on.

    1. The MPs were tested, and the vast majority of them were found to be utterly spineless and devoid of morals.
      The constituency parties are also to blame – they should not have accepted a dictatorship from the top. What are Central Office going to do? sack the entire branch if they insist on choosing their own candidate?
      Conservatives are just too rules-abiding for their own good!

      1. The best guide to the nature of present MP’s is Batley Man. Out of six hundred not one could be found to support him!

      2. Your last sentence is interesting. We were in a sainsburythis arvo but they had a power outage so no smart checkout available or any other means of payment. Long queues while things were fixed, staff went round offering sweets and I said to Alf, we could all have walked out of the store with our shopping and nobody would have been stopped. But all were very obedient and waited to pay. (We just abandoned our trolley and left). I wonder if anyone did just walk out!

    2. All sitting Conservative MPs who are to the right of centre must resign before the New Year and either join Reform or start a new party.
      They must admit that that the Conservative Party is dead, put it in its coffin and cremate or bury it. The longer the rotting corpse is not disposed of the greater will be the stink of its putrification.

      1. I don’t want them in Reform. If they had any principles, they would have resigned long ago. They’d only go to Reform to save their own hides.

    3. That would also send a strong message to all parties: Take voters for granted, and democracy will kill you.

      1. As it should. It’s an abomination that any party should exist after having betrayed voters. This applies equally to Labour.

  53. Busy old day. Popped out at 8:30 to get some stuff from the local corner shop and Plod caught me doing probably 30 in a 20. No one else around. It’s hard when you’ve been driving for 40 years where the limit is 30 to adjust to these new (unasked for) limits. I will have to wait and see what my punishment is. Of course, there was no one about so no “risk” to anyone. What makes it worse is that I see bad driving, really dangerous driving every day, but Plod is only concerned about “speeding” (where the limit has been lowered to catch us all out). The worse thing is, it works: soon, everyone will be petrified to drive because the limits are a mess and Plod is out to catch you whether it’s dangerous or not.

    Well. I booked a ticket for the local Church fundraiser tonight so I will go there and just sit in the calm of the place and listen to the (hopefully) beautiful music and singing. It will calm the soul.

    1. With luck, you’ll be offered a place on a ‘Speed Awareness Course’. No points on your licence.

      1. I did one of those a few years ago. I think it depends how many mph over the ‘limit’ you are.

          1. Did they tell you you were going to be prosecuted/fined or did they merely give you a ticking off and a warning?
            If there was nobody about, and the limit is fairly new, you might just get lucky.

          2. Plod was in the car with the gun. So nothing official-yet. But they were laughing at me so…

          3. Cause for a formal complaint?
            Write down all the circumstances so that you can demonstrate a fairly contemporaneous (and highly shaken up by the total lack of respect) experience.
            If fined at least make their lives unpleasant too.

      2. No i did that 2 years and 51 weeks ago. My daughter was at the end of her first term at Uni and tested positive for covid on the very last day of term. She had no food as she was planning on driving home that day. If you remember it was very strict – 10 day isolation. I had been at mum and dad’s and drove down to pass food through her (thankfully ground floor) window. I then had to race home to walk the dog as my son (who was /is a very talented footballer and had an important match that day couldn’t do it) and got caught on the A316 where it went for 50 to 40. I was clocked doing 44 but there was a new camera – it’s practically invisible, high up on a wire. Virtually impossible to see it, unless you know it’s there. Hubby was at his folks that weekend.

        1. I don’t think you can do another within three years – but you may be lucky, if they are late sending the penalty notice.

          1. That’s what I’m hoping!

            Loving the Alex Jones/Tucker Carlson vid that was posted earlier. Well worth the watch.

            And oh – that horse has started walking forwards now!!!! Caroline and I must be – something!!! (Special???)

          2. It used to be if you were stopped then that’s it. If you weren’t stopped they have to issue a notice of intended prosecution within 10 days.
            Good luck and fingers crossed for you.

    3. It’s very difficult to do 20 in a modern car, particularly an automatic. I have to keep mine in manual mode 2nd gear, which isn’t really ideal for the deadly global climate catastrophe.

      1. I’m very fortunate. I’ve got speed control which will stick at 20 mph. As I didn’t vote for any of the councillors who imposed virtually a blanket 20 mph limit across the city, it gives me a degree of satisfaction to engage 20 mph as I drive down one mile long hills and let those (some of whom voted for the limit) fume behind me! Eff ’em!

      2. We are coming over to the UK for Christmas with crumblies, and renting a car… will have to be very awake to avoid the new limits catching us out.

        1. And the ULEZ and the 15 minute towns. And the carparks with number-plate recognition but machines that don’t work…so you still get a huge penalty.

          Deep joy.

        2. You could set a ‘filter’ on your satnav to sound a warning if you exceed the speed limit. As long as you and the satnav avoid Wales, or else the beeps would rot your eardrums.

      4. Most of the time you’re in third, not fourth, which wastes fuel, emitting more pollution, at higher revs.

        But it’s not about that. It, like every other ‘green’ farce, is about control.

    4. Driving in Cardiff yesterday visiting our new granddaughter and doing the nursery school run for her 2yr old sister, I found myself watching the speedo rather than the road.

    5. There is absolutely no need for the 20mph limits. They are simply to hinder people getting around.But that’s the plan, isn’t it? If folk find driving an annoyance they simply won’t bother. Objective met.

  54. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan and one of the most powerful bankers in the world, dropped a bombshell the other day when he said in public that Bitcoin is used only by criminals, drug trafficker and money launderers, and if he was in the government, he would shut it down.
    His speech has been mixed into a rap song…the headlinesin the video (which flash up too quickly!) are all times when JP Morgan was found to be, er, committing crimes, on Dimon’s watch.
    https://twitter.com/songadaymann/status/1732838509021458895

    3. As Armageddon for the Conservative party approaches concern for the multi-vehicle pile-up that it has become runs deep.

  56. OT – the rain eased just as the Village Christmas Craft Fair ended at 1 pm. Despite the rain and cold – lots of people came. £686 was received – and split between Village Hall and Church. The MR sold 420 raffle tickets…. The raffle prizes were fantastic.

    So – despite net zero, mass immigration, slammer hate marches and 15 minute cities – small country villages keep calm and carry on.

    2. We are going to the Brains of the Village Quiz tonight to support the local fundraising effort!

          7. Good to see you Phizzee! Hope you feel better and don’t overdo things to start the bleeding again, y’hear?

          9. That’s cheered me up.
            You’re back.
            Having seen Grizzy’s bucket earlier (don’t look, it will bring on palpitations) I was very concerned for your wellbeing.

          10. Can’t remember who i have posted to now so…

            Just back fro ENT. Camera up the nostrils was ghastly. Been in
            all day. Lovely people, I have to take it easy for a couple of
            weeks. Bleeding stopped now. No laundry. No washing up, No
            bending over. Suits me just dandy.

            Thanks for your concern. Appreciated.

    1. Just turned on the imitation log fire -it uses less electricity now as I’ve swapped the three 40 watt bulbs for equivalent fake flame red LEDs.

      The flickering flame effect can be seen from the other side of the lounge!

        1. Of course not. Heat is all in the mind! Angie wears three pullovers, long johns and thick cord trousers. Muffler and gloves, too….

          3. We originally had a gas fire here with real flanes and ceramic logs. We decided to go electric when MOH started child minding – it was a bit safer.

            After an evening’s meeting with a local community group one member couldn’t understand why the logs in the gas fire had stayed the same all evening.

        2. It can warm the room but only if you turn the heat switches on.

          It doesn’t make sense to do that because electricity costs five times as much as gas per kwh and the blower sends smelly dust and noise round the lounge.

        1. I had had enough of cats that weren’t doing their job and traded the one attached to my diesel for an electric.

  60. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/09/civil-servant-hinted-cash-call-dogs-off-baroness-mone/

    I’ve no real interest in the PPE fiasco and the suggestion it will go away with sufficient bribery… well, at the moment the only people losing is the tax payer in being forced to fund state incompetence. The department for health didn’t bother to check the supplier. It didn’t bother to confirm the goods were sufficient. Yes, she got away with it but so did many other companies – all making a profit at tax payers expense for companies that existed immediately the cash was announced.

    The treasury was incompetent in refusing to use aggregated statistics, the DoH was inept for not checking supplies. This is what happens when central government does things. It is now flailing about trying to find someone to blame and a Tory peer is an easy target.

    Stop wasting public money, go away, and sack those who were responsible for giving away public funds.

    1. I bet the Convid inquiry will never discover that because they won’t ask relevant questions.

      1. The inquiry has already made up it’s mind what it will find. They’ve already expanded it to include Brexit. The whole thing is a farce that’ll run for over a decade at a cost of £160,000 a day.

        1. I think I’ve said on here that the report was written before the charade started and it’s safely lock away until the lawyers make rhe PPE scandal look like value for money.

    1. We were invited to a chateau in the St Emilion AC by friends this afternoon.
      A fascinating session talking to the vignerons/owners.
      It was delightful to discus the family connections in the area and to get inside information regarding the blending processes. It seems to be 20% genius, 60% the terroir, 20% the grapes themselves.
      One doesn’t appreciate how much goes into it all, legal, quality control, timing, tastebuds and a nose to die for; the list of attributes is lengthy, to say the least.

        1. True.
          We talked about the current very heavy rain, the vineyards lower down are flooded, but the thing they fear most of all is hail.
          Particularly in Spring. Apparently it damages the buds at their most vulnerable point.

          The French meteo, and believe it or not there appears to be a section that is totally dedicated to forecasting for the wine regions, is suggesting that April 2024 will be particularly bad around here!!
          I hope not.

          The owners spoke excellent English, but they didn’t let on until we had been there for quite a while, even though we had been introduced by French friends who will certainly have told them!. I suspect they were sorting us as mere tourists from people who were genuinely interested. For most of the early part of the visit we only spoke in French.

          I have just about enough knowledge and franglais to ask questions that made them pause before answering.

          A splendid afternoon.

          And, for what it might be worth, they think/hope that this year’s vintage will be exceptional. Theirs is a St Emilion Grand Cru, they’ve been there for well over 150 years, so I have more than a sneaking suspicion that they might know what they are talking about!

          The enthusiasm for what the do was invigorating for me.
          The French word “metier” covers numerous meanings but in their case it’s the sheer joy of the work that they were born into.
          As I said a splendid afternoon.
          They are very hopeful from the tastings and analyses so far.
          I was very surprised by how much analysis is now required.

      2. Can thoroughly recommend the book: ‘The ripening Sun‘ about an English woman abandoned by her partner, who produced wines and eventually become an AOC Judge….

  62. A busy day.
    Trans-peak bus to Derby, then to the Chemist’s for Step-son’s prescription.
    Back to bus-station for one of the number 6 services to Belper, getting off beside the Babington Hospital before crossing the road for a pint in the Tavern, a pub I’ve been past thousands of times over the past 30y but never, until now, called in to.
    And what a gem of a pub it is too with a very old fashioned feel to it and a decent pint of Timmy Taylor’s Boltmaker.

    Then to Aldi for a bit of shopping and thence to Arkwright’s on Campbell Street for a rather nice Cinder Toffee Porter before catching another Trans-peak back to Cromford for the walk home.

    A loud roaring outside as a fairly strong wing whips it’s way through the tree lined valley and it’s bloody wet too.

    1. Always good to be pleasantly surprised.

      And then you kick yourself for not trying it years ago!

  63. Church fundraiser going well. A chap called Nigel Pegram, whom I don’t know but may be familiar to some of you, is doing the readings. Oops just about to start again.

  66. Just something to mention as Sos was visiting a vineyard today.
    Drinking a glass of recently purchased Wolf Blass Vineyards Release Chardonnay. Pleasant, but something was clicking in my memory. I’m certainly no connoisseur. Searched in the nether regions of my bijou cellar and found a bottle of exactly the same wine from 2021. I opened the older bottle, and did a taste test. Much more body and flavour. This year’s (not unpleasant at all, but palpably thinner taste) is 10.5% ABV as opposed to the 2021 bottle at 13% ABV. Just wondering if this is a common phenomenon due to weather etc.

    2. When I was speaking with the owners of the vineyard (if I understood correctly) the alcohol levels appear to be determined by the sugar levels of the grapes.
      One of the important aspects seems to be the balancing of the sugar conversion to alcohol. They get a thin crust at the top of the fermentation vessels and spray what is essentially pure juice that has flowed to the bottom of the large tanks onto the crust at the top.
      It helps that conversion.
      Theirs generally can sit in the 12.5 to 14 range but most typically 13/13.5.

  67. Well, with the wind still roaring through the trees outside ^ the fire died down, I’m going to put the fireguard in place and go to bed.
    G’night all.

    2. That reminded me to damp down the logs on the fire by turning the red LEDs to off – no need for a guard, these LEDs are so cool

  68. From Phizzee, an hour or so ago.

    Just back fro ENT. Camera up the nostrils was ghastly. Been in all

    day. Lovely people, I have to take it easy for a couple of weeks.

    Bleeding stopped now. No laundry. No washing up, No bending over.

    Suits me just dandy.

    Thanks for your concern. Appreciated.

  69. The new Doctor Who!

    Mizero Ncuti Gatwa is a Rwandan-Scottish actor. He began his career on stage at the Dundee Repertory Theatre. He was nominated for an Ian Charleson Award for his performance as Mercutio in a 2014 production of Romeo & Juliet at HOME.

    1. The RSC are very into “colour blind casting” which in reality just means black people playing white characters. I saw their production of “Cymbeline” at Stratford, which had a black woman playing the title role of an Ancient Brit king. Takes suspension of disbelief too far.

  70. Christmas pressie idea?

    Yes, I bought a few as gifts .. something to cuddle into that is warm and cosy!

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Extra-Water-Bottle-Fleece-Cover/dp/B0C5D667VC/ref=sr_1_19_sspa?content-id=amzn1.sym.59378071-39c1-44f0-b788-2a76290ba6aa%3Aamzn1.sym.59378071-39c1-44f0-b788-2a76290ba6aa&keywords=hot+water+bottle+long&pd_rd_r=601a98a9-0133-4919-987d-7af219efb416&pd_rd_w=LKSnX&pd_rd_wg=k3qAU&pf_rd_p=59378071-39c1-44f0-b788-2a76290ba6aa&pf_rd_r=02NCY1ZJ99JFDE46A806&qid=1702157568&sr=8-19-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGY&psc=1

  72. Evening, all. Went to a Carol Concert at Meifod this afternoon. Very Christmassy, lovely music, excellent choir. Feel really festive now. Just need some time (and for it to stop raining) so I can get the outside trees decorated.

    As for the headline, the last time the Tories were out of power they seemed to decide they were Blair-lite and not conservative at all.

  73. Watching ‘A Matter of Life or Death’. A bloody long time since I last watched it, probably 60 years. There’s not an ounce of religion in me but there’s a few tears worth in it.

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