Sunday 11 December: Striking NHS workers have cause to resent government failure to fix a broken system

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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668 thoughts on “Sunday 11 December: Striking NHS workers have cause to resent government failure to fix a broken system”

  4. Good morning, all. Same old same old – cold dark and miserable.

    Has Southpaw fallen on his sword yet?

    1. Took the dog out at 6:30. Yes it was cold and dark. But once we got into it, it was lovely.

      Enjoying a nice mug of tea and will embark on the ironing in a minute.

      Just one thing from the Terriblegraph, in the Daniel Hannah piece.

      “In a perfect world, being an MP would be a second job. They would all be expected to carry on with whatever they were doing before. They would get compensation for the time they had to take off from their main jobs, but not a salary. They would meet less often, and we would in consequence have a lighter government sustained by citizen-legislators.”

      I recall this was the status quo ante Bliar, who wanted to make the House of Commons “family friendly” so stopped the late night sittings, and also thought it was a good idea to “professionalise” politicos. And we all know how that has turned out.

      1. The more lavish the expense accounts and the higher the salaries the worse the politicians.

        There should never be dangled a financial incentive to attract people into politics – you will only attract scumbags..

      2. It was. Hence sitting started in the afternoon.
        It also meant that the MPs had a hinterland; they experienced life outside the Westminster sand pit.

      3. If there is anything in the current set up which does not work, you can bet your last Pfennig that Blair caused it.

    2. Over my dead body. Though that would please them too. I’ll take at least one of them with me.

  7. Morning all! I was all set to drive to Oxford this morning – but it’s snowing and I don’t think I can face it.

  8. Gawd help Paris (and other cities) when they lose………

    https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1601715600270557184?s=20&t=EcB8k-dfO9jf7vKuxzs64w

    Meanwhile……

    “Asylum seekers in hotels ‘could be recruited by extremist groups’

    Officials in Stoke-on-Trent concerned about resurgence of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which promotes the creation of an Islamic state.”

    That’s gratitude for you. Your taxes are funding the luxury existence of terrorists who are plotting to kill you.
    What could possibly go wrong…..

    1. 368874+ up ticks,

      Morning Rik,

      That warning comes to late for the United Kingdom they already have been, the not so secret army on standby.

    2. Don’t be surprised Rik.

      Many years ago ISIS stated that they would be sending their operatives over the Channel in rubber dinghies.

      The British government promptly denied this.

      Why?

      Now it appears that it is certainly happening….yet still the British government won’t deport wrong doers.

      1. I fear that the trained ISIS agents won’t do anything wrong to arouse suspicion, until it’s too late.

  9. 368874+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    I do not see that as giving them the right to take their
    grievances out on their medically suffering, in the car park waiting ambulances, their TIMING is a dangerous fault adding to the mentally stressed out population.

    After two years of the softening up campaign via the political odious overseers, lock down offending offensive
    in brainwashing the white indigenous that they are far right racist plus ALL things nasty & being the cause of ALL the country’s problems.

    There are still many peoples refusing to accept, we are at war with the overseeing odious, aka elites, government / union dons.

    Conclusion,

    The old ropery at the Chatham Dockyard site, when sanity returns will be working 24/7, leveling out justice.

    Sunday 11 December: Striking NHS workers have cause to resent government failure to fix a broken system

    There really is a time and a place for everything.

  10. ‘Morning, Peeps. Another rather nippy -4°C overnight, as I found out when I had to go out at 2am to turn off our external light decorations, having realised that the timeswitch had failed…

    SIR – Wing Commander Peter Masterman (Letters, December 4) recalls his terrifying experience of flying through the fireball of a mid-air collision of a Victor tanker aircraft and a Canberra bomber.

    He says his thoughts and prayers were with the eight RAF aircrew who died that night. My own thoughts are also with them. Little comfort, but I think only seven crew died that night – I should have been the eighth.

    The Victor was operating from the Tanker Training Flight (TTF) at RAF Marham and was a co-pilot training flight. As such, as a navigator radar, I was not required so only four crew flew. I was also leaving the TTF the following day on posting.

    The irony is that I may have witnessed the accident. Sitting in my home in Swaffham that evening I saw a flash in the northern sky which at the time I took to be a flash of lightning.

    The Victor captain was my first on the V Force and with the other aircrew who died is buried in the village church at Marham.

    Les Hurst
    Lytham, Lancashire

    Even now, after all these years, that must be a chilling thought.

    2. Speaking as an ignorant landlubber, I wonder if a) lightning caused the explosion or b) if Les Hurst simply saw a flash of lightning.
      A mid air explosion would have produced flames which would have lasted much longer than lightning.
      Either way, tragic and indicative of the human cost of the Cold War.

    3. I’m just reading “Scramble” by Tom Neil. He recounts how as an RAF cadet he was on aircraft marshalling duties and chatted to a Lysander pilot and tried to get a ride in the back seat. The pilot agreed if Tom could get a chest parachute. He failed and saw the aircraft take off. The pilot waved a sign of regret to him. Tom watched as the Lysander took off, then plunged into the ground. He survived the Battle of Britain and died fairly recently in his nineties.

  11. The West has more reason to fear a rational Vladimir Putin. 11 December 2022.

    We remain united for now, but if the Russian president is in it for the long-term, the free world’s unity may soon crumble.

    Putin did none of those things. Instead, even as Ukrainian troops advanced in Kharkiv and Kherson, he escalated by announcing a “partial” mobilisation, blew up his own Baltic gas pipelines and declared the captured territories of Ukraine an “integral part of Russia … forever”. But even as he escalated, hopes that Putin was a Hitler-style madman whose interference would scupper his own war effort proved unfounded.

    The Free World eh? The problem is that I’m old enough to remember it. It was back when you could say what you liked about anything whatsoever without the slightest fear of Sanction or Arrest. When you could listen to Lord Haw Haw while at war with Germany. Promote the Christian Message at Speakers Corner without being dragged off by the police. When the Telegraph and its ilk didn’t promote propaganda articles saying blatant untruths such as Russia blowing up its own pipelines. It is not just that this is a lie. It is a stupid lie. It contradicts all reason. No one believes it. Even the Germans haven’t swallowed it. The Elites themselves avoid repeating it for fear of looking ridiculous. They don’t deny it either of course! This is the key to the modern West. It has abandoned Truth for Lies.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/10/west-has-reason-fear-rational-vladimir-putin/

      1. “All kinds of slime will now be hurled at me, saying I am trying to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I’m not. I continue to think it stupid, barbaric and wrong”
        People like Hitchens puzzle me.
        He can see that the West is and was in bad faith and is led by dangerous idiots, but he continues to blame Putin.
        Meikle has acknowledged that the M8nsk agreements were signed to gave Ukraine the chance to arm itself.
        If the Russians had not invaded the D8nbas would have been overrun.
        We had better pray he is not replaced by someone more radical.

        1. Putin was wrong to invade, but he would also have been wrong not to, because the “West” couldn’t care less about Ukraine doing to Russo-Ukrainians what Radovan Karadžić did in Yugoslavia.

          Putin did it, but I blame the USA, the EU and NATO for forcing his hand.
          They are as evil as each other.

          I am probably wrong but I suspect that if Putin made a huge mistake it was going in far, far too softly at the outset.

    2. Free world’s unity? What planet is the Telegraph on?

      There is a small rump of countries still loyal to the corrupt American empire. The rest of the world is united in its contempt for the US cabal and its desire to get rid of the worthless fiat dollar.

  14. SIR – Sandra Clark (Letters, December 4) quite rightly draws attention to the fact that the Church of England is managing its own decline by cutting parish clergy in order to reduce costs. She also points out that in 2020 the Church generated some £84 million more than its expenditure.

    The real issue is that the Church’s 42 dioceses have become bloated bureaucracies funded by the parishes but are accountable to no one. The diocese of Oxford has just 310 stipendiary parish clergy and yet it has more than 150 staff listed at its diocesan office. Twenty-seven of the 42 dioceses are operating at a deficit and their response is to reduce the number of parish clergy rather than reduce their own costs. This results in reduced income from the parishes, which leads to further reductions in clergy and will eventually bankrupt the dioceses as well as empty the churches.

    One solution to this issue is to take away all administrative and financial functions from the dioceses and put these into a slimmed-down central body accountable to the Church Commissioners. The bishops and archdeacons, thus unburdened from administration and finance, for which they are untrained and unsuited, would focus on ministry and mission, to which they have been called. The substantial reduction in central costs would mean that more money could be spent on providing clergy in parishes, which is where the Church ministers to the people and provides support to communities in times of stress as well as times of joy.

    Stephen Billyeald
    Pangbourne, Berkshire

    One of those letters that leaps off the page for its logic and common sense. However, bureaucracies are very good at protecting the status quo, however bad and wasteful they may be. Over to you, Justin Welby; it’s time for some serious leadership.

    3. If there is a problem Welby can be sure to make it far worse.

      I am convinced that Cameron, known for being an atheist, appointed his fellow Old Etonian to be archpillock with the specific brief to destroy the Church of England. This is probably the only job where he has got the results that were wanted.

    4. Lovely cosy office job. Saves getting up early on a Sunday morning to hang about in a bleak empty church.

  15. SIR – In 1976, somewhat ahead of his time, my husband installed a 60 ft wind turbine (report, December 4) on our island off the coast of Connecticut in order to generate our own electricity – and, occasionally, it worked.

    Regattas in full sail would stream by; my husband, incensed, would climb the tower to give the windmill a spin. I learnt to heat my Carmen rollers over the gas stove. The turbine cost over $12,000. For the same amount we could have paid for three electric lines from shore and had the advantage of being able to run the vacuum and the fridge at the same time.

    I divorced my husband in 1981 and married an Englishman who had numerous plug points in his London flat.

    Astrid Ronning King
    Walberswick, Suffolk

    We know how you felt, Ms King! Right now, the might of 11,479 wind turbines, the cost of which are a ludicrous burden on all our electricity bills, are producing a magnificent 0.98GW towards a total demand of just under 31GW. Or, in other words, 3.2% of demand. What a fantastic asset they are!

    1. With households cutting back on heating, wonder if there will be an increase in burst pipes, given that a percentage of heat produced will, of course, exit via the loft. Any reduction could result in frozen pipes.

      1. ‘Morning, Oldie. Yes, mega-thick loft insulation may well result in frozen pipes when temperatures are as low as this. Fortunately the chimney here at Janus Towers runs up through my bedroom and into the loft above, so there is heat for both when the fire is lit every evening.

      1. From Ndovu’s photo, it looks as though the solar panels won’t be seeing much light today…

        Just had a quick look outside our house; yup, the neighbour’s solar panels are barely visible through a thick coating of snow!

        1. We had to rinse the solar panels on Mianda regularly because they worked less well when covered in dust. I should imagine that solar panels on roof tops must be far less efficient when they are dirty.

          1. How often do we really think people clean them?
            I wiped my car windows yesterday – a very embarrassing experience. And at least they are accessible.

    3. Walberswick, on a classy part of the Suffolk coast close to Southwold (Adnams beers), Aldeburgh (music festival along with great fish & chips) and Sizewell (nuclear reactor). I wonder if Ms King is for or agin the planned addition at Sizewell?

    2. Just when you didn’t need it, too. I’m sure we all eagerly await the return of global warming…

      1. But shall we mildly put up with the Government’s absurd Net Zero policy or can we be inspired by Henry V, summon up the blood and imitate the action of the (Siberian) tiger and oppose it?

    3. Blue sky up here J. Hope it doesn’t stop you from seeing hubby and celebrating his birthday

        1. Looks like it’s covering Oxford as well. I’ve tried phoning the ward phone but all I get is a recorded message. I hope someone tells him it’s snowing there.

        2. It is moving very slowly, K – and I don’t think it is going to come anywhere near you or me.

          1. That’s my estimation, too. There’s quite a bit of ‘rubbish’ in the Channel but that looks as if it’s bound for the Calais area. 👍

          2. Rubbish in the Channel, bound for Calais? Don’t tell me they are sending some of the invaders back!

      1. It’s thicker than that now, though it’s more or less stopped falling. The neighbours are out with snow clearing kit and grit. Will have to take some more photos.

          1. Forgive me, Jules, for being frivolous. It must be a terribly worrying time for you and John.

          2. Yes – and I was all set to drive there today- meeting a friend on the way at Burford so she could navigate the last bit from the big roundabout to the hospital.

          5. I hope you can make it, although looking at your photos I suspect the celebrations will have to wait.

            I know you’ve tried phoning but can you remind the hospital staff?

          7. When is that, N? Would it help if we all send you a card each to take to him? So he needs a second bedside table?

          11. I’m sorry for that, but best not risk not arriving due to being upside down in a ditch. That helps nobody.
            Hope you can get a call through.
            (Sorry I’m behind the thread, but the pad isn’t showing replies unless I refresh & go looking.)

          14. I will manage – it’s warm in here with the heating (I’m not scrimping on it) but

            he was already getting depressed. I don’t think it’s doing anything for his mental health being shut in there not knowing when, if ever, he will get the treatment he needs.

          15. Same day as my little bruv. Poor lad (and your hubbie) so close to Christmas messes up the prezzie giving regime,

          17. I did put in a quick prayer for the two of you (while the rectorette galloped through the ceremony).

          19. I hope it will, too. I claim no special hot line, but frequently we are told, “be not afraid”. It’s something I cling to frequently.

      2. We wish you both well and hope you can get to John soon and tell him the NoTTLers are all wishing a speedy resolution to his problems and a quick recovery. Xx

    4. I’m no expert, but wendyball seems to have declined to how much pushing, shoving and tripping you can get away with, followed by an Oscar winning performance by the fallen of rolling on the ground gripping an ankle. Sometimes this theatre has got to be ignored and I think that is what the ref was doing.

  22. Good morning all

    -3c here and freezing .. grail snow,, patio is white , sky is dark , heavy frost last night . Dogs had their last minute wees at 12.30pm.. found a hedgehog under the bird feeders . It should be hibernating.. not there this morning thank goodness.

    Snowing properly now . Lots of plants have collapsed during the recent frosts .. nasturtiums, dahlias, begonias etc .

    1. I had to leave some fuchsias outside to take their chance – put a bit of bubble wrap over them but it’s blown away a bit.

      1. Good day for renewables here: cloud cover and no wind!

        But it has dawned on Macron that he was unwise not to maintain his nuclear power stations and slowly they are getting productive again.

        1. There’s no such creature as a wise politician.
          Everything they do is ‘off the cuff on the wing’ guess work.
          Simon Seebag Montifeori has a new book out featuring this particular aspect of all of our lives.

        1. I’ve just had a chuckle remembering the race-baiting eejit David Lammy claiming that the use of black/white smoke during the process of electing a new Pope was racist. I’d suggest that he’s thicker than a whalemeat sandwich but he’s the one on £250K pa in pay and expenses for his day job – with income streams from other part time employment.

      3. Is that like Chomsky’s “colourless green ideas sleep …” or are you sending a message to the Resistance?

    4. Indoor gas powered turbines are currently generating almost 20 times the total output of open air power stations.

  24. Sharp frost overnight and still now. However, it is also SUNNY – and the sun shining on the white trees is very nice to see.

  25. Putin set UK on search for new friends. 11 December 2022.

    If you’re reading this in a cold house in the UK with a woolly hat on your head, if you’ve winced at the cost of filling up the car, if you’ve taken in Ukrainian refugees, then your life has been changed by Vladimir Putin’s decision to wage war against an independent country.

    Of course. I can remember when he banned fracking and blew up those coal fired power stations then refused to sell us any oil.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63929487

      1. Petrol is down to 130.9ppl here. The queue to get to the petrol station was so long I decided against topping up!

    1. It had only just started here when I made the tea at 7.15, all ready to drive to Oxford. Can’t get through on the ward phone to let him know I’m not coming.

      2. Which hospital is it? If the Churchill, I could pop to the ward tomorrow with a message for you if you still can’t make it.

          1. Oh that’s a shame, but if the weather does prevent you coming over for a while and there is anything he needs, let me know and I can try to get down there afer work tomorrow, or on tue when I have the day off.

          1. The Patient liason service might work on a different number. Tel: 01865 221473
            Email: PALS@ouh.nhs.uk. worth a try.
            Also, there is bound to be a Chaplaincy which should have someone able to pop in and wish him many happy returns.

          2. So far I’ve phoned the switchboard several times – recorded covid message then it’s diverted to a hospital in Banbury. Another recorded message with another number which didn’t get me anywhere. I’ll try the PALS but they’re probably off as well today.

    3. Half an inch of rain fell as snow yesterday, might have been more but the gauge has frozen up… Woken up this morning by a large fall of snow from the roof. Now +0.8C.

    1. Bored, testosterone fuelled young men, fired up by a book dictated by murderous mediaeval nutter ……. what could possibly go wrong?

  28. Not saying I live in a rough area but just bought an advent calendar and half the windows are boarded up!

    1. With the cold snap well and truly upon us and the paths round our way
      being so treacherous, I’ve just knocked on my elderly next door
      neighbour to see if she needed anything from the shops. Turned out she
      did, so I gave her a list of stuff to get for me as well. Seems daft
      both of us going out when it’s so cold and icy.

      Follow me for more handy tips.

  29. Here’s an interesting discussion about the political-economic state of the world.
    Wealthion is a US investment consultancy that runs a pretty good internet series on various aspects of wealth.
    One point that is discussed is the population fall in China, and how the world will manage falling population in the coming century.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMNaCbE3P4w

  30. If I were bright enough to learn photoshopping, I would do one those meems showing Michael Gove staring enraptured at the Swedish teenager, and a thought bubble about revenge coal mines.

    2. Utter bollox – I note there seems to be no mention of the brave Ukrainians shelling their own people for the crime of speaking Russian, although to be fair I couldn’t read too much of the rubbish and gave up early on!

  33. Good morning Nottlers, another becalmed, crispy day on the Costa Clyde, currently it’s 30°F, although forecast to climb to a balmy 34°F by this afternoon. With a 5mph wind, I thought I’d check gridwatch and notice that the windmill farms blighting the countryside are currently providing 2.74% of our power requirements. On the brightside, it will mean survival for many of our feathered friends.

  34. BTL Comment on the letters page:-

    Anthony Thomas
    30 MIN AGO
    Very interesting article in yesterday Guardian by Professor David Oluoga. In which he states that a young woman of colour and her husband, had been subjected to a unprecedented campaign of abuse and vilification for wanting to simple tell their story. He of course forgot to mention the ‘40 year old’ young woman American Equity Card stated that she was ‘white’ nor did explain at what point the she had decided to become ‘black.’ No mention of course was made of the abuse and vilification they had made against the Royal Family and now the British people. His main attack was however on the tabloid press, conveniently forgetting the Guardians founder had links to slavery, backed the slave owning southern states in the American Civil War and backed Mill owners against their workers trying to gain better wages and working conditions. He then goes on to highlight black footballers who continue to play despite the everyday racism they face, again forgetting that they are paid millions for kick a ball. I believe his academic title should now be Professor of Hypocrisy, Cant and how to forget ‘inconvenient truths.’ Well worth a read.

    Could someone with commenting access please ask Anthony Thomas if Professor Oluoga has ever acknowledged the part his Tribal forebears played in the Slave Trade?
    Not only to the Atlantic Trade, but also the North African Trade?

    1. Morning Bob. Olu[s]oga is a Slavery shill. The BBC (who else) has given him a platform to air his views. I don’t believe that he is actually a professor. I can find no evidence of his having graduated from any University let alone taken a chair.

  35. Three dead and around 12 missing after block of flats collapses. 11 December 2022.

    Huge blast in early hours of Saturday morning caused three-storey building in St Helier to collapse.

    At least three people have died after an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey, it was confirmed on Saturday, with emergency services vowing to work through the night in the hope of finding survivors.

    Around 12 people are missing after a huge blast in the early hours of Saturday morning caused the three-storey building in St Helier to collapse.

    Robin Smith, the chief officer of the States of Jersey Police, said the scene was one of “complete devastation”. He said emergency services would “continue to search throughout the night” with a team of urban search and rescue specialists and firefighters.

    Wonder if they’ll be getting a visit from the Prime Minister and free Accommodation and Compensation?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/10/jersey-fire-pier-road-several-missing-death/

  36. Has NotoNanny surfaced from his basement yet and what has happened to Plum? I know Plum has gone but was it just from this site or worse?

    1. lacoste, and I believe a few others keep in touch with Plum, she’s taking an extended break from Nottle.

    2. No worse, clydesider. Plum has developed an aversion to computers . . . “telling me what to do.” Her daughter monitors her laptop.

  37. Given this bastard’s contribution to the Covid panic and ensuing NHS catastrophe the choice of topics seems particularly insensitive
    He’s a celebrity, get him to demonstrate it personally.

    Matt Hancock ‘plans series of serious documentaries’ on assisted dying and dyslexia after he stands down from role as MP at next election
    Matt Hancock is planning to make documentaries when he steps down as an MP
    The former health secretary announced he would not stand in the next election
    He plans to make ‘serious documentaries’ on assisted dying and dyslexia
    It comes after his controversial appearance on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity last month

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11525739/Matt-Hancock-plans-documentary-series-assisted-dying-dyslexia-steps-MP.html

    2. Dear Matt
      Please do not delay any longer your intention to step down from your role as a Member of Parliament. The public awaits your offerings with bated breath. Do not delay gratification, either yours or ours. GO NOW.

      1. Yes, that 80 seat majority only benefited a boatload of Tory MPs, so they might just as well enable the LibDems or Labour or Reform to get some in before the next general election.

        1. I would love it if the Reclaim and Reform parties would get together but as others have said on here probably their egos would get in the way. I’m sure there would be a lot of support out there for them.

      1. The soundtrack might include songs such as Day Trip to Bangor-Belsen (Didn’t We Have a Lovely Time).

      2. It would be like an advert created by Canadian company Simmons that featured the last few days of some woman going through assisted suicide.

        Absolutely beyond contempt.

    5. Perhaps he will offer himself as an actual candidate for assisted dying.
      The world would be a better place.

    6. Would anyone actually be interested in commissioning him to make any documentaries? Would anyone be interested in watching them?

  38. I have discovered why the WEF hold their annual (anal) meeting in DAVOS. Davos is an acronym Disciple And Voice Of Satan.

  39. Sorry to wend my way into the Wendyball again, but this is a jobs for the Woke boondoggle.
    Absolutely pointless in my view.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11524401/Football-regulator-finally-set-introduced-2023.html

    Has High Risk Anus and his government of all the talons got nothing better to be doing?

    EXCLUSIVE: English football is set for its biggest revolution in 30 years with the introduction of a regulator to be announced in the new year as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signs off on the sweeping change
    A regulator is finally set to be introduced to English football next year
    The move has been given the green light by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
    This is set to be the biggest change in English football since 1992

    4. Loving the anagram sos, 100/10. What on earth is a regulator of football for? Still, it will help the unemployment figures with jobs for the boys, he will need an army of regulatees to assist.
      Edit: Yeah yeah, I know, it’s not an anagram. But I like it!

    5. Loving the anagram sos, 100/10. What on earth is a regulator of football for? Still, it will help the unemployment figures with jobs for the boys, he will need an army of regulatees to assist.

  40. ‘It’s probably the biggest hole in my life’: Stephen Fry, 65, says his biggest regret is not having kids. D Fail

    Has no-one told him you can’t get them via the back door?

    1. Make your choices and stick with them, bit late to start complaining about the consequences now.

      1. He is probably still fertile, so he could do an Elton John. Plenty of impoverished young females around the world.

        Of course he is from Norfolk so he might really be referring to authentic ‘kids’.

    2. He had a very troubled adolescence himself and even ended up in prison.

      I wonder how he would have coped with a child like himself?

  41. That’s this morning’s heavy work done.
    3 x 12″ paving slabs and 10 x concrete blocks hoiked on top of the woodstack and carried up the “garden” to somewhere close to where they will be used.
    Only another 20 blocks to do, hopefully by midweek if the snow holds off. There is NO WAY I want to be lugging 4″ high density blocks up that hill with snow on the ground.

    It’s dull & misty outside with an occasional desultory snowflake drifting down as if trying to find it’s way to a drift.

  42. National Grid Home WPD Live

    Demand 10,032.39 MW
    Import 8,779.78 MW
    Generation 1,252.82 MW

    (WPD PSR name change
    We’ll still be dedicated to keeping the lights on in your local area As a Priority Services Customer, we wanted to let you know that our name is changing. From September Western Power Distribution (WPD) will be known as National Grid. We’re still the company that keeps your electricity flowing, safely and reliably. We do it across the South West, East and West Midlands and South Wales – and this isn’t going to change.)

  44. Been up in Felixstowe for a couple of days,

    Quite nice really, reminds me of how things used to be in London about 50 years ago

    1. I love the glum faces glued to the podium! Priceless!
      Compare with the delight at their cleverness in the “just glued” shot in the concert hall.

  47. China can be a ‘partner for good’, says Cleverly ahead of major speech. 11 December 2022.

    The Foreign Secretary was pressed on the exact nature of the UK’s relationship with China, Saudi Arabia and other countries ahead of his speech on Monday, in which he is expected to argue the UK must align with a crop of increasingly influential countries across Latin America,

    He’s either drunk or deranged and quite possibly both. I have never in my entire lifetime had anything good to say about China or the Chinese Communist Party. It has murdered more people than Hitler and Stalin combined and is at present engaged in another bout of its periodic fits of Genocide.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/james-cleverly-china-rishi-sunak-saudi-arabia-latin-america-b2243065.html

    1. The discussion that I linked earlier has a lot to say about why China is treating its citizens so badly. I suppose Not-very-Cleverly is reflecting the pro-China stance of Sunak’s Hunt’s Mr Global’s government

  48. China can be a ‘partner for good’, says Cleverly ahead of major speech. 11 December 2022.

    The Foreign Secretary was pressed on the exact nature of the UK’s relationship with China, Saudi Arabia and other countries ahead of his speech on Monday, in which he is expected to argue the UK must align with a crop of increasingly influential countries across Latin America,

    He’s either drunk or deranged and quite possibly both. I have never in my entire lifetime had anything good to say about China or the Chinese Communist Party. It has murdered more people than Hitler and Stalin combined and is at present engaged in another bout of its periodic fits of Genocide.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/james-cleverly-china-rishi-sunak-saudi-arabia-latin-america-b2243065.html

  49. If the Striking NHS workers have cause to resent government failure to fix a broken system, why do they not quit and go and work somewhere else, instead of breaking the system further by demanding loadsa dosh?

    1. My old mans words to a ‘T’! Well, go and improve your lot! The world is your lobster!

      1. I have the same view about any strike that involves pay rises.
        Don’t like the pay & conditions? Think you’re worth more? Then quit, put yourself on the market and work in a better place, more to your liking.

        1. Or do what we did. Give up our jobs with no other jobs or income in the offing; move to a foreign country and set up our own business from scratch; put starting our own family on hold for four years until we were making enough money to support having children without any help from the state.

        2. Move to Canada, there are many vacancies for doctors and nurses.

          Oh the pay is crap, the system is falling apart and there are no options to earn a bit more by doing private work.

          Socialism at its best.

    2. A lot of them have gone into the private sector or joined agencies that pay better salaries. But the NHS have landed themselves with the extra expense.
      Needing Tax payer’s bailouts.

    3. If they resent the Government’s failure to fix the system, then why the FOXTROT, whenever ANY reform of “Our” NHS is proposed, it is immediately greeted by the same hysteric knee-jerk reaction and demented screams of “SAVE OUR NHS” and “THEY WANT TO PRIVATISE OUR NHS” and always from the same vested interests of the NHS Unions & bureaucratic REMFs?

      And note that when they scream “Our NHS” they mean exactly that, THEIR NHS, not ours.
      We, the poor bloody taxpayer, are just an inconvenience who are expected to stump up ever increasing sums of money to pay for the burgeoning number of non-jobs they keep recruiting for.

      3. That’s not a serious attempt to pass himself off as a woman – that’s just taking the p.

  51. Silly me.
    Just needed to stuff a wee bit of fibreglass insulation into a crack in the wall… now, my fingers seem to consist mostly of invisible itchy spikes. ARGH! Such a tiny piece of fluff didn’t seem to warrant hunting for clumsy great gloves. What an eejit, eh?

    1. lots of remedy suggestions online, eg warm soapy water, Epsom salts or even vinegar. I Wonder if a peelable glue might work? Something like Copydex.

      1. There’s a thought. Thanks!
        Internally applied alcohol might help, too. Worth the experiment.
        Cheersh!

  52. A wife asks her husband, “Could you please go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk and if they have avocados, get 6.
    A short time later the husband comes back with 6 cartons of milk. The wife asks him, “Why did you buy 6 cartons of milk”
    He replied, “They had avocados.”

  53. Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary is putting the Royal family at risk from extremists, the former head of royalty protection has warned.

    Security expert Dai Davies, a former divisional commander in the Metropolitan Police who guarded Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the family, said the couple had raised a “credible threat” by attacking their relatives on race grounds.

    “There’s a small minority that think Meghan walks on water,” he said. “I’ve always said there’s a greater risk from fixated individuals than there is from terrorists.

    “Because their narrative has been attached to race to the extent it has – you could have those at the extreme end of the taking knee variety having a go at members of the Royal family.

    “I really think it could create a small minority who might. I think it’s a credible threat and I think it should be taken very seriously, especially now the documentary has come out.”

    Referring to the King twice being on the receiving end of egg-throwing since he took the throne, the former senior policeman added: “Twice now Charles has had eggs thrown at him.

    “I was surprised the first time at the slowness of the reaction. I think it’s a real possibility that they do face these sorts of incidents especially as the King and Queen Consort and the Prince and Princess of Wales are in such close contact with the public.”

    His comments came as George R Franks, former US policeman and an associate professor at Stephen F Austin University in Texas, raised concerns that “the destructive and damaging comments and allegations made by Harry and Meghan Markle are placing the life and safety of members of the Royal family in jeopardy.”

    He said: “I have been studying their increasingly tenacious attack on the character of the Royals and the institution of the monarchy for the past several months with a growing concern for the safety of the members of the ‘working royals’, but also for the children of the Prince and Princess of Wales.

    “I have experience with cases where individuals have committed or attempted to commit violent crimes in support of the cause of another towards whom they have become enamoured and protective.

    “All we need is one individual becoming obsessed with creating a situation that would place Harry as the heir apparent, and we could have a disastrous outcome.”

    He cited the example of the attempted assassination of former US president Ronald Reagan by John Hinkley, who was motivated by his belief that his act would impress American actress Jodi Foster, with whom he was obsessed.

    Political and military figures were last night reported as urging the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to not attend the coming Coronation due to their controversial Netflix series.

    Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, party veteran David Mellor, Lady Antonia Fraser, the historian and author, Conservative MP Bob Seely and historian Lord Andrew Roberts were among those who were opposed to the couple being at the May 6 ceremony.

    The now retired Rear Admiral Chris Parry shared the same view and told the Mail on Sunday: “The Coronation is another red carpet event for them – and they are likely to tread and tell. They are not consistent with the dignity and the importance of the occasion.”

    In the first volume of the six-part series, both Harry and Meghan complain that they were not “protected” enough, despite being guarded around the clock by taxpayer-funded officers from the Metropolitan police’s SO14 division during their entire time in the Royal family. Bodyguards operate in plainclothes and are routinely armed with 9mm Glock 17 pistols.

    The Duke also said members of his family questioned why Meghan needed more protection from the media than their wives had been given, and that they failed to grasp the “race element”.

    He also spoke of the Royal family’s “huge level of unconscious bias”, which he described as “no-one’s fault” but essential to “make right”, adding: “In this family, sometimes you are part of the problem rather than part of the solution.”

    Writer Afua Hirsch, who has been openly critical of the monarchy in the past, referred to the Commonwealth in the programme as “Empire 2.0”, accusing Britain of having “extracted wealth” from countries that remain inter-generationally poor.

    Royal sources condemned the comments as “deeply offensive” to Queen Elizabeth II’s legacy.

    Over the years, royalty protection officers have been involved in several high-profile incidents. In January 1994, when Prince Charles was giving a speech in Sydney, protester David Kang rushed the stage and fired two blank rounds from a starter’s pistol.

    Superintendent Colin Trimming, the senior bodyguard, received a gallantry medal for his cool and quick thinking during the incident.

    In June 1981, the late Queen was shot at as she rode down The Mall during the Trooping the Colour ceremony. Marcus Sarjeant fired six blanks from the crowd before he was arrested at the scene and charged under the Treason Act of 1842.

    He later told prosecutors he was inspired by the assassination of John Lennon, and the assassination attempts on Reagan and Pope John Paul II.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/12/10/harry-meghans-documentary-may-put-royal-family-risk-warns-ex/

    SD

    Sky Dancer
    40 MIN AGO
    Remove Harry from the line of succession. Then sue him in court for proof of “structural racism”
    Another photo of that poor dog with TWO broken front legs.
    “Don’t leave her alone with children or animals” said her brother.

    AA

    Aye Adams
    57 MIN AGO
    Well – it looks that she at least -and behind her the woke part of America and beyond – got what they wanted. So far.

    EJ

    eric james
    1 HR AGO
    How can Meghan tell the difference between people who just don’t like her or those that dislike her because of race.?

    JH

    Jane Hannam
    31 MIN AGO
    People dislike Megan not becous of her race or colour but becose she’s a really rather unpleasant woman

    EF

    Eric Flint
    5 MIN AGO
    Is it perhaps Meghan herself who appears to be ‘racist’ simply interchanging her preferred ethnicity to meet with her own agenda? She has had a chip on her biracial shoulder since a young child having grown up with the undercurrent of racism that is so prevalent within America. Whenever she has been faced with negative public opinion she has immediately used her perceived ‘race; to excuse her own behaviour yet preferring to use ‘Caucasian’ on her C.V. and earlier passport.

      2. No! This is not aimed at Meghan and Harry – this is aimed at members of the public who can’t stand Charles and William and have been converted to republicanism by their repugnant WEF support and wokeness!

    2. Not to forget https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2022%2F09%2F17%2Fwhat-happened-in-the-princess-anne-kidnap-attempt-of-1974-17395891%2F

      Anne, the Princess Royal, is renowned for being resilient and hard-working.

      And she has personified grace and strength as she has carried on duties and represented her mother, Queen Elizabeth II, after her death on September 8.

      Anne described the ‘honour’ she has felt accompanying her late mother on her final journeys.

      The Queen’s only daughter, Anne is often regarded as one of the hardest working royals, which could explain her enduring popularity.

      Kevin S. MacLeod, the Canadian Secretary to the Queen, said of Anne in 2014: ‘Her credo is, “Keep me busy. I’m here to work. I’m here to do good things. I’m here to meet as many people as possible”’ and she means this – she has often carried out more public duties per year than any other royal.

      Keen to pitch in and do her duties, Anne rarely causes a public scandal. But she was involved in one of the most shocking royal moments in memory – a kidnapping attempt.

      What happened when someone tried to kidnap Princess Anne in 1974?
      Princess Anne and her first husband Mark Phillips were returning to Buckingham Palace on 20 March 1974 from a charity event on Pall Mall when their car was forced to stop by a Ford Escort.

      The driver of that Escort was Ian Ball. When the Princess Royal’s car came to a stop, Ball jumped out and began firing a pistol.

      Anne’s personal police protection officer, Inspector James Beaton, jumped out to try to detain Ball, however, Beaton’s firearm, a Walther PPK, jammed, and he ended up being struck by one of Ball’s bullets.

      Beaton wasn’t the only one to be hurt in the kidnapping attempt.

      Anne’s chauffeur, Alex Callender, was shot as he tried to disarm Ball, as was Brian McConnell, a nearby tabloid journalist who attempted to intervene.

      Leaving three people injured, Ball approached Anne’s car and told her that he intended to kidnap her and hold her for ransom -for a sum given by varying sources as either £2 million or £3 million – which he claimed he intended to give to the National Health Service to fund mental health treatment.

      Ball told Anne to get out of the car, to which she replied: ‘Not bloody likely!’

      Anne confirmed this in stories over the years, including on an appearance on Michael Parkinson’s chat show in 1980.

      Eventually, she got out of her car along with her lady-in-waiting, Rowena Brassey.

      A passer-by, who very fortunately turned out to be a former boxer named Ron Russell, punched Ball in the back of the head and led Anne away from the scene.

      After this, Police Constable Michael Hills arrived on the scene, and was shot by Ball too, but not before he had called for backup.

      Detective Constable Peter Edmonds, who had been nearby, answered, gave chase, and finally arrested Ball.

      Ian Ball, pictured here being led into court, has been detained under the Mental Health Act since (Picture: Getty)
      Ball was arrested and charged with attempted murder and kidnapping.

      Because of his self-declared mental health problems, he was sentenced to 41 years in Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire.

      He is still detained under the Mental Health Act.

      What happened to Princess Anne’s guard and chauffeur?
      Fortunately, all wounded parties recovered just fine.

      For his actions, Inspector Beaton was awarded the George Cross by the Queen, who was visiting Indonesia when the incident occurred.

      Police Constable Hills and the former boxer Russell were awarded the George Medal, and her chauffeur Callender, the nearby reporter McConnell, and the other police officer on the scene Edmonds were awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.

      The boxer Russell also had his mortgage paid off by the Queen in gratitude for saving her daughter

    3. Not to forget https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2022%2F09%2F17%2Fwhat-happened-in-the-princess-anne-kidnap-attempt-of-1974-17395891%2F

      Anne, the Princess Royal, is renowned for being resilient and hard-working.

      And she has personified grace and strength as she has carried on duties and represented her mother, Queen Elizabeth II, after her death on September 8.

      Anne described the ‘honour’ she has felt accompanying her late mother on her final journeys.

      The Queen’s only daughter, Anne is often regarded as one of the hardest working royals, which could explain her enduring popularity.

      Kevin S. MacLeod, the Canadian Secretary to the Queen, said of Anne in 2014: ‘Her credo is, “Keep me busy. I’m here to work. I’m here to do good things. I’m here to meet as many people as possible”’ and she means this – she has often carried out more public duties per year than any other royal.

      Keen to pitch in and do her duties, Anne rarely causes a public scandal. But she was involved in one of the most shocking royal moments in memory – a kidnapping attempt.

      What happened when someone tried to kidnap Princess Anne in 1974?
      Princess Anne and her first husband Mark Phillips were returning to Buckingham Palace on 20 March 1974 from a charity event on Pall Mall when their car was forced to stop by a Ford Escort.

      The driver of that Escort was Ian Ball. When the Princess Royal’s car came to a stop, Ball jumped out and began firing a pistol.

      Anne’s personal police protection officer, Inspector James Beaton, jumped out to try to detain Ball, however, Beaton’s firearm, a Walther PPK, jammed, and he ended up being struck by one of Ball’s bullets.

      Beaton wasn’t the only one to be hurt in the kidnapping attempt.

      Anne’s chauffeur, Alex Callender, was shot as he tried to disarm Ball, as was Brian McConnell, a nearby tabloid journalist who attempted to intervene.

      Leaving three people injured, Ball approached Anne’s car and told her that he intended to kidnap her and hold her for ransom -for a sum given by varying sources as either £2 million or £3 million – which he claimed he intended to give to the National Health Service to fund mental health treatment.

      Ball told Anne to get out of the car, to which she replied: ‘Not bloody likely!’

      Anne confirmed this in stories over the years, including on an appearance on Michael Parkinson’s chat show in 1980.

      Eventually, she got out of her car along with her lady-in-waiting, Rowena Brassey.

      A passer-by, who very fortunately turned out to be a former boxer named Ron Russell, punched Ball in the back of the head and led Anne away from the scene.

      After this, Police Constable Michael Hills arrived on the scene, and was shot by Ball too, but not before he had called for backup.

      Detective Constable Peter Edmonds, who had been nearby, answered, gave chase, and finally arrested Ball.

      Ian Ball, pictured here being led into court, has been detained under the Mental Health Act since (Picture: Getty)
      Ball was arrested and charged with attempted murder and kidnapping.

      Because of his self-declared mental health problems, he was sentenced to 41 years in Broadmoor, a high-security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire.

      He is still detained under the Mental Health Act.

      What happened to Princess Anne’s guard and chauffeur?
      Fortunately, all wounded parties recovered just fine.

      For his actions, Inspector Beaton was awarded the George Cross by the Queen, who was visiting Indonesia when the incident occurred.

      Police Constable Hills and the former boxer Russell were awarded the George Medal, and her chauffeur Callender, the nearby reporter McConnell, and the other police officer on the scene Edmonds were awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.

      The boxer Russell also had his mortgage paid off by the Queen in gratitude for saving her daughter

    4. I spy Charles’s and William’s fight back – against the British public. If you criticise them now, you’re inciting violence against them.

    5. Has racism stopped Megain from achieving anything? Nope, thought not. In fact, a lick of the tar brush prob gave her an added bit of alure.

  54. Oops…
    Follobanen, the brand-new fast railway between Ski and Oslo, opens today – officially. With a signal problem that means all trains are being directed by mobile phone and not state-of-the-art signalling. So, day #1, trains delayed – or replaced by buses. at a cost of £3,9 billion (to be fair, it’s mostly in a tunnel, so expensive).
    Red faces, not doubles, all round.

    1. Oops again.

      Ottawa built a light rail system a few years ago. Unfortunately their choice of trains would not run in cold weather.

  55. Jeremy Hunt is facing a rebellion from 40 Conservative MPs over £7 billion of government spending on “woke” projects.

    The MPs have written to the Chancellor to demand that ministers cut spending on equality and diversity measures and grants to charities and quangos in order to reduce taxes.

    Their letter criticises Mr Hunt’s decision to “tax the British public at levels not seen since the end of the Second World War”, and to “spend more public money in 2023 and 2024 than at any point since the mid-1970s”.

    It comes ahead of the publication of a new report by the Conservative Way Forward group on Monday, which will claim that £7 billion of public money is spent on “politically motivated and divisive activities” each year.

    The group’s research is based on an audit of government accounts and Freedom of Information requests to 6,000 public bodies, and will point to spending on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives in government, arms-length organisations and contractors including the company building HS2.

    EDI jobs in the public sector cost the taxpayer £557 million a year, the report will claim, while billions are spent on diversity initiatives by quangos including on contributions to a campaign on “unlearning whiteness” by the publicly-funded Arts Council.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/12/10/jeremy-hunt-faces-tory-rebellion-7bn-government-spending-woke/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. More government-sourced money splashed around = more inflation = higher taxes, for longer, to fix.

      1. Half of the “rebels” will be bought off by the Whips. The rest will be made to look stupid and disloyal…

    1. Who’s in the new Tory movement that wants to take back control, I ask myself. And do they realise from whom they have to wrest the control back?

    2. Sorry to bore on but as I have said many times now is the time for all Conservative MPs who despise this government as much as we do to form a group allied to the Reform Party and then, when they are properly prepared, bring down the government and force a general election.

      This may not work – but what other way can Nottlers suggest to get rid of Sunak, Hunt and their minions without giving a totally free pass to Starmer?

    3. It appears and has been obvious for many years. They’ve all become far too dependent on all the money that comes so easily to them and can get their hands on for doing very little.
      Let alone up set the proverbial apple cart.

      1. Yet, chances are that if he had taken advice about the Mosquito he was flying (it was a Canadian built job, not the standard RAF configuration, so the fuel changeover was not in the same place) he might have lived a bit longer and his navigator might have survived, too.

    2. I see you have a down tick that was in no way justified: logged in and gave you an up tick which I would have done anyway.
      Can’t give two 😔

      Guy Penrose Gibson, VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, Legion of Merit.

      1. 368874+ up ticks,

        Afternoon AL,

        I view it as a useful virus, when it down votes I know, as Mr Gibson would say, I’m on target.

        Cheers.

    3. One of the, shall we say “more mature”?, women at church this morning remarked that there were no youngsters in the congregation, but the oldies had all turned out.despite the weather. I observed that ours was the generation that had a “can do” attitude. Most of us had endured wartime conditions or at the least, post war austerity (genuine austerity with rationing and shortages, not the sort bandied about today).

      1. 368874+ up ticks,

        Evening C,

        We had a good turn out at mass, yep powered egg & saccharine, got any gum chum ? nearest we got to global warming was doodle bugs.

        I swear if our gang came across a fattie they’d eat him.

        I do believe alsorted scrumping made up any shortfall.

  58. Some good news for Megan Markle, a survey found only 3% of respondents
    hate her because she’s black; 2% hate her because she’s a woman; 95%
    hate her because she’s a lying gaslighter.

  59. What’s the difference between the England team and a teabag?
    The teabag stays in the cup longer.

      2. …..Hush, hush, whisper who dares
        Christopher Robin is saying his prayers,
        God bless mummy, I know that’s right-
        Wasn’t it fun in the bath tonight?
        The cold’s so cold and the hot’s so hot-
        Oh god bless daddy, I quite forgot……

          2. Little boy lies at the foot of the stair
            Lily white hands caressing his hair
            Dear God
            Couldn’t be worse
            Christopher Ronin is shagging his nurse.

      1. Given the racial profile of most of them, judging by appearances, they are possibly family members!

    3. I thought border farce were busy making life very uncomfortable and obscenely difficult at our airports and legal channel crossings.

  64. According to the Standard, temperatures are due to plunge to -3C.
    Hell, that doesn’t even freeze the sea, so it ain’t cold.

    1. My windscreen washers froze up on the motorway earlier, bit annoying with all the salt spraying up

      1. Had that some years ago, in a hire car. Was rerduced to stopping on the hard shoulder several times to throw snow on the windscreen to get it clear for the next 10 miles or so.
        Bloody awful, it was. No screen wash additive, just water.

  65. The McCartney Legacy review: what Paul really got up to in the Wings years
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/mccartney-legacy-review-what-paul-really-got-wings-years/

    Laurence Juber – one time lead guitarist for Wings – is probably the very best guitarist in the pop world – he outmarks Knopfler and he outerics Clapton! Google him and you will see that I am right! But he is also a brilliant acoustic guitar player who can outjulian Bream, outjohn Williams and outdjango Reinhardt.

  66. Sunshine being gradually replaced by fog – which will freeze. Visibility down to 300 yards.

    It IS winter, after all….

        1. No – but he eventually realised I wasn’t coming and phoned me. He was glad to hear I was at home and hadn’t got stuck somewhere. There doesn’t appear to have been snow there but of course there are no windows in the ward. He’s just given me another number to try which is the recption desk in the Heart centre. Just about to try it and see if anyone answers.

    1. The rightous West believes they have god on their side and can do no wrong. So it seems that Europe will be sacrificed and turned into an economic wasteland. A price worth paying, Boris. Not in my book TY..

  68. I’m in trouble with my family now. After the suggestion yesterday that Qatar might be eligible for the next Olympic games. I had a
    Monty Python moment and replied to someone on FB trying to imagine a ladies swimming relay team clad in (regulation) burkas.
    The Wokeys suggested it would be seen as racist. What has happened to the world ?
    Perhaps they’d be better off being asked just to proceed with the winter Olympics…….

      1. You’ve probably saved my life already, Mannie Thanks. I’ll show them that on boxing day when they all come to lunch.

  69. OH finally realised I wasn’t going to get to Oxford today and phoned me. They don’t seem to have had snow there but it was moving north east – and it reached Cheltenham some time later than here. We had about six inches dumped here – more than I’ve seen since 2010. Our neighbours have been out with shovels and grit and cleared two tracks in the lane for cars to drive in and also did the steps up to the house for me. It remains to be seen how long it will last and whether I can get out in the next day or two.

      1. Yes – he had complained to one of the staff about the heat in there, and he was taken to an outside door to feel the temperature out there……… he didn’t think they’d had snow there though.

      1. He’s given me a number for reception which actually gets answered by a person, so I do have the means to phone there now.

    5. I wonder how much he weighs?

      Funnily enough Orson Welles somehow managed to carry off his adiposity rather better.

    6. I wonder how much he weighs?

      Funnily enough Orson Welles somehow managed to carry off his adiposity rather better.

  72. Chilly in church for matins this morning. The boiler has packed up. Sod’s Law and all that. No snow yet in London but very cold. Came home and put on an extra layer as I’m back to carry a candle this evening. The Midwife is coming to do adult baptism and confirmation.

    1. I am these days agnostic but, it’s so nice hearing people like yourself keeping religious traditions going, against so much negativity.

    2. I am these days agnostic but, it’s so nice hearing people like yourself keeping religious traditions going, against so much negativity.

      1. Packed up. Faculty approved and a new boiler to come. This evening the head server instructed that we were to light every candle in the place in the hope of generating some heat.

        1. Just a thought, it might be better to install two boilers, depending on the demand and fuel source. That way you could use one boiler or the other during milder weather, and both together when it’s really cold.
          Also, if one fails the odds are that the other should still be working.

    5. Quite warm for the Eucharist this morning. There was a baptism afterwards – usually, they’ve been doing them in the service, so this was reverting to what I used to consider normal. I’ll be reading for the carol service next week. I’d better take my specs in case the light’s dim!

        1. No because they don’t leave water in the font. The rectorette pours a bit in from a jug, blesses it and then spoons a bit onto the child being baptised.

  73. European Parliament vice-president arrested in Qatar corruption investigation
    Eva Kaili was taken into custody alongside four others for questioning over alleged ‘corruption’ and ‘money laundering’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/12/10/eva-kaili-arrested-european-parliament-qatar-corruption-investigation/

    Clearly they need to pay EU politicians much more so they won’t need to resort to fraud and theft to supplement their over meagre salaries and expenses?

  74. A total of 2,706 farmers made an initial application for the Lump Sum Exit Scheme by the deadline of 30 September 2022, Defra has revealed.

    The scheme offers Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) claimants in England who wish to leave the industry a lump sum in place of the direct payments they could otherwise receive if they carry on farming until the end of 2027.

    A Defra spokesperson said: “The decision to retire or leave farming can be extremely difficult and the one-off Lump Sum Exit Scheme (LSES) will enable a small number of farmers to leave the industry in a planned way.

    See also: Defra confirms landlords cannot apply for lump sum exit cash

    “The scheme will free up land for new and existing farmers, alongside our upcoming New Entrants Scheme which will attract new talent into agriculture for the future.”

    https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/farmers-lump-sum-exit-scheme-application-figures-released

      1. Council Estates with allotments, grow your own. But steal other’s products when the oportunity occurs.

          1. Indepenance equaled blaten Racism. The ANC and associates have wrecked Southern Africa.
            Did you read the Book, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun ?

    2. Shutting down food production as demanded by the WEF. More sophisticated than Rutte in the Netherlands. I don’t believe a word of the bullshit contained in the final paragraph.
      What, may we ask, is the ‘future’? Less meat production, less dairy and more vegan crap? The current Tories are a disgrace and a danger to the health and wellbeing of the people.

  75. Here is a poem I had to commit to memory when I was twelve-ish , for an exam I took when I was snugly tucked away in B/school .

    The Healing Snow by Sir Alfred Noyes.
    A pure white mantle blotted out the world I used to know,
    There was no scarlet in the sky or on the hills below,
    gently as mercy out of heaven came down the healing snow.

    The trees that were so dark and bare stood up in radiant white,
    And the road forgot its furrowed care as day forgets the night
    And the new heaven and the new earth lay robed in dazzling light.

    And every flake that fell from heaven was like an angel’s kiss
    Or a feather fluttering from the wings of some dear soul in bliss
    Who gently leaned from that bright world to soothe the pain of this.

    1. Three of Alfred Noyes’s poems which I enjoyed as a child and which my sons enjoyed too when they were children: The Highwayman, Kew in Lilac Time, and When Daddy Fell into the Pond. I heard the poet recite The Highwayman when he was a very old man and I was a very young child at prep school.

  78. You matter!
    Until you multiply yourself by the square of the speed of light.
    Then you energy!

        2. Schrödinger’s cat didn’t like Whiskas, so it was never going to be alive when the box was opened.
          No matter how much advertising/propaganda: if nature says no! tuff.

          1. Although the little feline bastard LOVED Whiskas yesterday and couldn’t get enough of it…..

    3. Did Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington see the same black cat on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo?

      Seeing a black cat is a good omen in Britain and a bad omen in France. Gareth Southgate was clearly very remiss in not taking a black cat with him to Quatar,’

  80. I’m watching Saracens v Edinburgh 7-7 at the moment. An awful lot of steam rising off those scrumages. Glow Ball Warming ?

      1. We had to go out on family business.
        I saw our local lad Owen Farrel miss two penalties.
        But they pulled it back. Well done.

    2. I hate it when reading a good book and a person of interest is referred to as elderly and turns out to be 10yrs younger than I am!

      1. When P.G. Wodehouse was writing one of his Blandings novels he described Clarence, Lord Emsworth as an absent-minded old gentleman in his 60s and his younger brother, Galahad Threepwood, as a sprightly old gentleman in the late 50s. At the time he wrote this Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was in his 80s. Fred Wedlock wrote a song with the encouraging line: “A man is just as old as the woman he feels.“

          2. Swallows and Amazons: love those books.
            We both read to each other: C S Lewis Narnia series, Blandings and all of the Terry Pratchet books, although I was not interested in them when my wife first introduced me to them.

            Sorry for the edits: my fingers are not doing well on the phone.

          3. We also read all the C.S.Lewis Narnia stories and Henry has read everything that Terry Pritchett has ever written. But we did Home School’ in French and Caroline also read some of the works of Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas as it was important that our children did not lose their bilinguality .

            We fitted extra bookshelves on Mianda and each time we went back to France to earn our living by running more courses we used our whole travel allowances on carrying some books out to the boat and then others back home again. Here we are with some friends who came to supper.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3e6e19e2d10f78206bc60ce6327a215431b302471041139664df20ae80885c4c.jpg

          4. One of the best things one can ever give children, is a love of reading, as you obviously know from what I can see .
            My daughter, at a very early age, read Lord of the Rings. We were not convinced; asked a number of questions and then said “The library we have is free for you to choose” as she was able to quote sections of the 3 books almost verbatim.
            Our downfall was that whenever we moved, books became the biggest problem: do we keep or give away, it was usually keep.
            When moving back to UK from Oman, our packers were surprised at the number of books we wanted to keep.
            Fortunately their manager (Indian) was a book lover as well and as a lot of stuff was going to be in storage for 6 months, made sure everything was packed well.
            Our library arrived in UK after transit by ship through the Red Sea and we are now trying to avoid adding to it…. difficult !

          5. My favourite Blandings Castle book is a short story entitled “The Girlfriend” where Lord Emsworth makes friends with a little girl from London evacuated to the country. It might even be my favourite P G Wodehouse.

      1. Yesterday upon the stair
        I met a man who wasn’t there,
        He wasn’t there again today,
        Oh how I wish he’d go away.

      2. My furniture’s joints creak something awful when I get up or sit down. Hope it’s not me…

  82. Yo All

    I have just put the Sprouts on to cook

    For Xmas 2030. They have to go on now as there will be no means of heating them when I need them

    2. 368874+ up ticks,

      Evening ktK,

      Amen to that very true post.

      The current herd is well past the time to
      commence,
      “The Beginnings” is a 1917 poem by the English writer Rudyard Kipling. The poem is about how the English people, although naturally peaceful, slowly become filled with a hate which will lead to the “advent” of a new epoch.

      “

  86. Looking at Gridwatch, UK, in the last few minutes our fossil fuel coal is generating more than twice the power of renewals wind and solar put together – good job we’ve still got plenty of it!

    2. Just rig up bright lights to shine on the solar cells, and gian fans to blow on the wind…. oh!

    3. Bu, but we only need another 10000000000000000000 solar farms and windmills and we can banish evil fossil fuels forever!

  87. Another Effin’ Bogey Five!

    Wordle 540 5/6
    ⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. No, she doesn’t do Wordle and avoids her computer, srb. She does several non-computer puzzles which are unfamiliar to me!

        1. Give her my very best wishes, for all its faults the DT print edition has numerous entertaining puzzles.

          1. p;s;
            Thank you for keeping in touch with her. She is missed, her gentle sense of humour was a tonic when she posted her happy hour caption themes at the end of the afternoon.

    2. And for me

      Wordle 540 5/6

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

    3. A birdie for me. A lucky 1st go.

      Wordle 540 3/6

      🟨⬜🟩⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  89. Evening, all. I’m here because I decided not to make a 40 mile round trip to Shrewsbury to a carol concert in the Abbey, given the weather conditions. This morning, it snowed (on top of yesterday’s ice – hence my undignified slide into a lonicera bush as I was trying to take the dogs for a longer walk than yesterday) and it was foggy. Temperature has risen slightly, but I expect it to drop again now it’s dark. I put a CD of carols on and had a glass of wine with my meal instead. As for the headline, it has always seemed to me that those most opposed to reform of the NHS’s broken system are the very unions whose members are now “resentful”. The moment meaningful reform is suggested, there are screams of “privatisation”. They can’t have it both ways.

    1. Sad to miss a carol concert, Conners, but likely the wisest decision given the circumstances.

      1. I’ll be going to one at my own church (5 miles up the road) next Sunday. I’d better; I’m one of the readers! I missed this one in Shrewsbury last year for some reason (possibly the weather or maybe I was under the weather; I don’t recall).

    2. There is always next year – I kid myself…

      Good evening, Conwy. The lanes have been sort of gritted – but not the dangerous crossroads!

      1. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have the talent to play like that?
        Sigh
        I can barely make a parp! in any key.

        2. Me Too.

          Had a carol service this morning. ‘Twas a long way from the usual Nine Lessons thing. But in these post-“killer virus” times, we do the best we can. Our tiny choir was augented by a family who have a second home here. One is a High Court judge. Add to which a Deputy Lieutenant / former High Sherriff.

          Much fun ensued. Shame about the organist (me), who pointed his prostheses at the pedals, and hit the right notes with a success rate of around 40%…

          Next Wednesday,we’re doing carols while the wrinklies attend the so-called Tower Café in church.. Guitar and piano. What’s not to like? Actually. we had a fun rehearsal today. I’m somewhat uplifted…

          2. It’s the thought that counts, Geoff (apparently).
            Even without feet, you can do so much better than I can, that I’m in no state to complain.

      2. Not a problem with it being the wrong season, BoB. I usually have a Hot Cross Bun with my morning coffee. Lol.

      4. It’s a bit early for Easter, isn’t it? We’re only the third Sunday in Advent (Gaudete Sunday)!

    4. I remember seeing a clip of the the comedian Jack Whitehall addressing an audience of young people at a freshers’ inauguration party in one of the new renamed Blair tech college universities.

      “Why are you here?” he asked.

      He then answered his own question.

      “You’re here because you didn’t get good enough “A” levels to go anywhere else!”

      1. I doubt it. They’d need to send the lot back to do that. I have to confess, the fact the Abbey is just down the road from the Lion (Wyle Cop eventually turns into Abbey Foregate) was an extra factor in my reluctance to risk the trip in weather that could have turned nastier as darkness fell.

    1. But will the glaciers stop melting? And will the sea-levels stop rising? And will the polar bears sigh with relief?

  91. What happened to the Harry we all knew?
    Many of us recall the Prince as a cheeky mischief-maker – but the first episodes of the Sussexes’ Netflix series show a different character
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/12/11/what-happened-harry-knew/

    BTL

    Macbeth may have murdered sleep but Migraine has destroyed the young man Harry used to be cutting him into little pieces. She then got some of her Hollywood friends who used to work for The Hammer House of Horror to take the pieces and make a Frankenstein zombie of a monster with no discernible intelligence or personality.

    1. A woman will either make a man better or worse. 44 years of marriage, and I think I’m better for it. Will Harry be able to say the same? I doubt his marriage will last that long.

    2. Harry’s pupils are tiny pinpricks .

      He looks spaced out .. is that witch and her mother drugging him , or hasn’t he dropped his previous habits ?

      2. Yes, I thought there was something odd about his eyes….. I couldn’t make out what it was… that’s it, it was the pupils. It made him look creepy. Heroin? It was pointed out on Twitter that the scene where he was pushing a grey pram around didn’t have a baby in the pram.

        1. I still say she is exercising coercive control over him .. Did you ever see that horrible film called Misery.. he will end up totally broken .. I wonder how long her staff stay around , I suspect she goes through them like a dose of Andrews liver salts .

  92. What happened to the Harry we all knew?
    Many of us recall the Prince as a cheeky mischief-maker – but the first episodes of the Sussexes’ Netflix series show a different character
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/12/11/what-happened-harry-knew/

    BTL

    Macbeth may have murdered sleep but Migraine has destroyed the young man Harry used to be cutting him into little pieces. She then got some of her Hollywood friends who used to work for The Hammer House of Horror to take the pieces and make a Frankenstein zombie of a monster with no discernible intelligence or personality.

  94. That’s me for today. The sun was a bonus – though the temp barely moved above 0ºC No sub-zeros tonight – apparently.

    Have a smashing evening.

    A demain

      1. Light snow due here later tonight, followed rapidly by heavy snow until the early morning. Fortunately my car was moved back into the garage yesterday after planting the tulip bulbs.

        2. According to my weather app, there was no snow, but temperatures were -3 degrees C. No one told my outdoor thermometer, though, because it read +3 degrees C and it’s white over with a dusting of snow!

    1. A word to those morons, May is a month;
      May this, May that, maybe a moment month of August reflection might help.

        2. If the shortened for of aluminium is ally, and molybdenum is molly, what about titanium?

  97. Well, don’t use Saga!

    We have heating and hot water emergency insurance included in our home insurance with them. I have now spent in total more than 2 1/2 hours waiting to get through to them, on three different occasions. D has also spent ages on the phone. We have no heating or hot water from our boiler that one of their contractors gave an annual service to three months ago. I have low blood pressure and feel the cold a lot. (But I think it is rising….).

    We first made a “claim” about 9-10 a.m. yesterday. By 12 noon I rang and when I had got through was told that this claim was not showing so I was allocated a job number and told that a contractor would ring within two hours. After nearly three hours someone rang said hello – hello – I CAN’T HEAR ANYONE, put the phone down and apparently cancelled the whole job (they didn’t try to ring back, or try my mobile).

    Again, having waited and waited to get through, late that afternoon I was eventually allocated another “job” with another contractor (having been told that the previous contractor had cancelled that job). Again, someone would contact us within two hours, with a view to to doing the work today. Nobody has contacted us in the 27 hours since.

    Having stayed on the phone for 1 hr and 11 minutes around midday I decided enough was enough. I have written to the CEO saying among other things that if I don’t get an answer by close of play tomorrow I shall call in an independent contractor and claim the cost from Saga.

    7.15 pm and we have still heard nothing. I am now freezing but have a temperature of 100.2. So much for the Christmas Cards I was going to write. Night night, all. Grrrr.

    Excuse typos and edits.

      1. Cheers, BoB. I have my clothes and a dressing gown and an “oodie” fluffy thing, and am about to put on a second pair of woolly socks. It’s probably frying night, tonight!

        Off now – sleep tight and sweet dreams, all

          2. Sadly a typo! My days of being bad are long gone!
            Though I will say that when I was being bad I was rather good!

    2. With all due respect you need a plumber or central heating engineer. Insurance firms just pass the buck to some subcontractor who may or may not be busy. Also, some insurers are remarkably reluctant to pay immediately, and good plumbers (tradesmen, technicians etc) do not need to be pushed around and exploited by tightfisted corporations.
      Here is a September review:
      “Disingenuous and dishonest and try their best to avoid making progress with a claim
      They were happy to take money from me for years and increase my policy cost at renewal. When I put in a claim in 2021, they did everything they could to delay getting anything done. They would just send people round to take a look at the job and cost …”

        1. Unfortunately it seems, most of these insurance contracts are nothing but a scam.
          We have a local heating/plumbing engineer who will respond within 24 hours and earlier if he can.
          I hope all gets sorted and then you look for a local who is reliable.

    3. Good luck. We don’t have any issues like that right now but other ones…
      Sod the bloody NHS and others.

        1. And again you have my thanks. We need to take some action next week re my husband. It is quite serious, I think, but they pushed his appointment back from this month to February. He needs to be seen.
          Your intercession is appreciated.

  98. There was a first.
    Chilli chicken and chicken tikka masala pizzas for supper. Not too bad.
    Could be worse – curry with (naan) bread in flavour, but a gross insult to the Italians.

  101. Oh Dear GOD!
    From the Spectator with a BTL Comment:-

    Sam Ashworth-Hayes
    Canada’s assisted dying catastrophe is a warning to Britain
    11 December 2022, 11:08am

    In 1936, King George V lay on his deathbed. As his final hours drew near, the royal physician administered two injections of morphine and cocaine to hasten his passing, ensuring that his death would be announced in the morning papers, and not the ‘less appropriate evening journals’.

    The King’s death was quick, painless, and utterly illegal; British law continues to view assisting suicide in almost any form as a criminal act. With the news this week that the House of Commons is launching an inquiry into assisted dying, this may soon change. For now, what was fit for the King remains, in the eye of the law, unfit for the common man. And thank God for that. Because before any change is made, lawmakers should seriously consider the catastrophe unfolding in Canada.

    Canada is a country much like our own. It shares a common cultural inheritance, language, and system of law with its parent nation. It differs from the United Kingdom in at least one crucial respect; unlike our hidebound and reactionary parliament, it has moved with the times. It is on the right side of history. And, accordingly, Canada is euthanising the poor, the mentally ill, the elderly, and those who are costly to treat, while Britain remains stubbornly wedded to the principle that poverty should not be a death sentence.

    In this brave new world, death is seen as a solution to many previously intractable social issues. Facing eviction and homelessness? Why not apply for assisted suicide? Suffering from chemical sensitivity, and unable to afford the specialised housing necessary for you to live tolerably? Assisted suicide is there to help. Need a stairlift in your home that you can’t afford? We might be able to help, but have you considered saving us the trouble instead? Surgery delayed? We can end your pain permanently, now. Cancer waiting times too long? Well, the waiting time for euthanasia is only a few days.

    There is a reason people have warned against legalising euthanasia time and time again. The incentives for individuals and the state to behave in diabolical ways are simply too strong to be ignored. Once the essential moral safeguard that murder is wrong is abandoned, the creeping normalisation of death by doctor inevitably expands.

    This is again visible in Canada, where 10,000 people were killed by their doctors in 2021 alone. The scope of the law has shifted now from people facing imminent death to those simply experiencing ‘intolerable’ symptoms in the view of the patient or doctor. And – buoyed by these successful outcomes – legislators are now expanding coverage to the mentally ill, who will be offered the option of ending it all. Move fast, break things, and ask questions later.

    The extent of this normalisation is astonishing. One clothing brand ran an advertising campaign centred on a young woman who had chosen to die; that she chose this in response to the failure of the Canadian healthcare system to treat her was left off-screen. ‘If I’m not able to access health care, am I then able to access death care?’ she asked in June; the answer, apparently, was yes.

    This case speaks to a fundamental problem with assisted dying. There are people in Canada who will have begged, time and time again, to be put into suitable housing, or to have other accommodations made for them. But these things are expensive, and involve significant effort on the part of the state bureaucracy. Assisted dying only requires two signatures and the depression of a syringe. And while it might be a terrible outcome for those whose lives could have been saved, euthanasia is a tremendous fiscal boost to the state. The mentally ill are costly, the disabled are costly, the sick are costly. They take up hospital space, they take up doctors’ time, they impose a burden on state services, they require state workers to work.

    As Yuan Yi Zhu has noted in these pages, all this was never intended to happen. The door to Canada’s dystopia was opened in 2015 when the Supreme Court declared that fears of ‘a descent down a slippery slope into homicide’ were just that: fears founded on nothing more than speculation and scaremongering.

    In other words, the slippery slope continues to be the best practical description of how social change actually works: once there is momentum behind a cause, once the essential principled safeguards that a course of action is utterly wrong are abandoned, once we agree in theory that the arguments which compel the first step apply equally to the second. Once, in short, we begin, it is very hard to find a stable place to stop. British policymakers considering following Canada’s lead should consider where it ends.

    WRITTEN BY
    Sam Ashworth-Hayes
    Sam Ashworth-Hayes is a former director of studies at the Henry Jackson Society.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/canadas-assisted-dying-catastrophe-is-a-warning-to-britain/

    Bob of Bonsall • 6 minutes ago
    I’ve always said that we are being subject to the steady drip, drip, drip, drip of propaganda for assisted suicide intended to wear away public opposition as surely as dripping water will wear away the hardest rock.
    And, as with abortion, once the thin end of the wedge has been forced in it will be hammered and hammered to negate whatever “protections” are in place until “voluntary” assisted suicide becomes near compulsory.
    Looking at the example of Canada, the move towards State Mandated Murder will not take very long.

    1. Well said BoB and Sam Ashworth-Hayes.
      I’ve got a suggestion for Canada.
      Change the law so that the public can vote for foul creatures such as Trudeau to be given the final injected solution.

    2. Hello Bob, isn’t the fact that hundreds of class a drug takers , those who snort , sniff , shoot up etc are slowly euthanising themselves , and the bastard drug pushers are the murderers , the facilitators.. of self euthanasia..

      Murder us amongst everywhere .. including the slow heinous response of our much lauded NHS to the aged and infirm and those neglected by medical delay and indifference .

    3. “Two signatures and the depression of a syringe”? It won’t be long before only one signature is needed – look at how abortion escalated.

    4. The clue was in the announcement on the Palace gates….”The King’s life is moving peacefully to its close.”
      The Royal family at the time were in agreement and especially about the timing of the announcement. The “common” evening press were not favoured and it had to be in the more so called dignified morning papers.
      And re other comments re Queen Camilla’s status should Charles shuffle off; she won’t be a Queen Mother but her title will be Queen Dowager.

    6. I’m not going out of this existence in a care home with dementia or whatever. I’ll be ending my life, touch wood, when I feel it’s the right time. I might need some assistance, so we have to have someone we can trust.

    7. And the people who push this through are the same ones who are vehemently against the death penalty for the most heinous crimes.
      To quote my mother it’s all arse about face.

  103. Good night, everyone. I’ve had a restful weekend, slept well last night, and hope to do so tonight. My best wishes to you all for a restful sleep.

    PS – Sadly, I only slept for a couple of hours. Then up to finish reading the background on IMDb to THE SLIPPER AND THE ROSE, which I watched on Sunday evening. It was a disappointment with too many and (in my opinion) very poor Sherman Brothers songs, a far too long and slow film (two and a quarter hours, which could easily have been edited down to 90 minutes). Anyhow, I’ve been wanting to see the film for nearly 50 years so am glad that I finally did get to watch it. Now off to bed to see if I can get enough sleep before my penultimate film at the local cinema with the Wrinklies on an early Monday morning screening (Roald Dahl’s MATILDA – The Musical).

    1. Nooooo, I’m not ready, mince pies and sausage rolls still to bake, pressies to buy and wrap!! Every year I promise myself that I will be well prepared the following year….nver happens!!

      3. I’m sure your family love you just as you are, jill 🙂 I’m afraid I’m one of those annoying people who buys presents throughout the year as I spot them and hide them away. I’ve taken longer over getting the trees and decorations up this year. I think I’ve finally put the finishing touches to them tonight. Only need to clear the boxes away ready for next year now.

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