Sunday 19 January: Labour’s war on public sector waste will fail unless it looks hard at the Civil Service

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.

764 thoughts on “Sunday 19 January: Labour’s war on public sector waste will fail unless it looks hard at the Civil Service”

    1. The chap was clearly a far-right trouble-maker. Well done, the police for spotting him….

  3. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe page.

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
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  6. 'Morning All
    Sunday Medley.some laffs,some not
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  7. Good morning, all. Dark still but the forecast is for pretty much the same as recent days.

    It's the Russian Embassy but if it's true then Starmer needs reining in: British military bases in Ukraine and long range missile development?

    I know I've posted this before, Book of Rules of War, Page 1, Rule 1, DO NOT MARCH ON MOSCOW!

    Only the other day he didn't clearly rule out putting troops into Ukraine but waffled around the question. A PM with the best interests of the UK as the number one priority wouldn't be contemplating crazy ventures against the Russian Bear.

    https://x.com/RussianEmbassy/status/1880638951435731023

    1. What gives the idiot Starmer the authority to promise billions of pound of UK taxpayer's money to a corrupt regime for the next hundred years? He should be dragged back to the UK and stripped of his office and ill-gotten wealth.

  9. Good morning all. Now sat with my mug of tea and listening to Radio 3.
    No stars visible, seems to be a an overcast start to the day but still dry, The digital bit of the thermometer say's it's currently 1.9°C and yesterday's maximum was a cool 3.8° dropping to an even cooler 1°C overnight.

    1. His voice and bombastic delivery style do put a lot of people off, but he does raise a lot of valid points.

      1. I can tolerate him for short periods and I have to agree that he does do a lot of research before broadcasting.

    2. Further comment, that video clip that starts Jones's commentary, a fuller version is played later, is horrifying.
      Who the FOXTROT has been running the USA for the past 4 years?
      It also raises the question, did the people of the USA REALLY give a majority of votes to Biden?

    3. I don't think we will ever know the truth on that one. It could be anything from Biden is a dribbling wreck and we've seen a series of actors wearing latex masks in public to Biden is completely healthy and has the same kind of Alzheimers that afflicted Ernest Saunders.

      Clips of Biden behaving irrationally have been strategically released on the internet since he became Prsident, including one taken in the White House gardens. Nobody just gets to release videos they took on their phone in the private areas of the White house. Also, there is the video of Biden, completely compos mentis talking to Obama at a funeral last year. The alt media is just as infiltrated as the legacy media.

      I tend to lean towards the latter explanation. Why would they do that? To steer people towards voting for Trump, the Messiah President with the uncanny ability to dodge death by millemetres merely by turning his head, who is going to lead Americans into digital slavery.save America! If you are selling out a country to a one-world government of technocrats, you need a charismatic leader to fool people into accepting that, especially if the people are well armed.
      Also, you can't prosecute someone who is suffering from Alzheimers so they will get away with the looting of the past few years.

      2. I feel the same about Reform, BB2 – that Labour (and the rest of the Uniparty) is very definitely steering us into its arms. Labour is now a parody of a parody. I don't think Reform is actually what 'they' want us to believe, I think it is a seedling movement for the One World Government – they are all in it together. I try not to think this! – but the idea keeps coming back to haunt me. I don't trust Lowe's fervour. It provides a foil to the truly awfulness of Labour. The backgrounds of Tice (vaccine, Ukraine and Oakeshott) and Farage are dodgy. On my journey through life I have realised that leopards do not change there spots, we are who we are. There are very few road-to-Damascus conversions. I have asked Lowe and Farage several times for a comment on the Climate and Nature Bill due for its second reading on 24 Jan, if eventually passed this will turn our lives upside down. I have received nothing in reply. They obviously want this Bill to evade scrutiny, why? Also Lowe voted in favour of the Assisted Dying Bill after asking 2000-ish of his constituents for their opinion – that was a clever move as it exonerated him from the decision-making and gave him brownie points for due diligence.

        Regarding Trump I am really not sure about the bullet incident. For a while after he seemed to lose his focus and energy, there was a haunted, drawn look about him which would have been difficult to reproduce by acting alone. However (back to those leopards again!) wasn't Trump democrat-supporting up tp a decade or so ago? Also tongue-in-cheek comments regarding Trump taking over Canada, Greenland and latterly the UK – are we being prepped by this idea into acceptance of the One World Government?

        Grok has told me that my scepticism is so thick it could be used for insulation although I have not shared these thoughts on X.

        1. Yes, I think Reform is definitely the British Trump movement.
          Didn’t know that about Lowe – not a good look to avoid talking about the Climate and Nature Bill.
          Agree about Tice and Farage.
          Apparently the whole Canada, Greenland, Mexico thing appears in plans from some years ago. For one world government, the world is to be divided into ten zones, and the northern Americas are supposed to be part of it. This is the same plan that requires people to live in “Human Settlement Zones”, the majority of the land being given over to rewilding.
          All agreed by international conferences.

  11. good morning. I have been catching up on yesterday’s Terriblegraph and have been shouting at -well, I suppose the furniture as it’s just me in the house – at the imbecilic response to the “moral money” dilemma. The person writing the “answer” is a woman. It is so wrong on so many levels I just don’t know where to begin with it. Grrrrrrr!

    ””q. My wife and I have a joint mortgage, which was due to have been repaid early this year. To my utter surprise, and horror, I have recently found out that the mortgage has been amended (by her) to “interest only” for the last few years, thus leaving a sizable balance to be repaid.

    The mortgage is paid from her account by direct debit, so I have been completely unaware of the subterfuge.
    I had no prior knowledge of this, seeing no letters from the building society, nor signing any documents.

    I have been at my wits’ end following the discovery, and consider my 38-year marriage to be over in most aspects. I have had some awfully dark thoughts about my own life going forward. That there is a great deal of equity in the house makes no difference whatsoever – it’s the deception that is increasingly unbearable.
    – Anon

    Dear Reader
    AYour distress is palpable, and I am sorry you are going through this. Your dilemma has a legal, economic and moral aspect. I have asked the Telegraph’s legal expert, Gary Rycroft, to comment on that part of it, while I tackle the other elements.

    I want to start with the economics. Mortgage debt is “good” debt. As a professional adviser specialising in helping clients manage personal resources to best effect, I will often recommend that inexpensive residential mortgage debt remains part of a personal financial plan in favour of more effective use of the capital in other areas. Many of my clients aspire to being debt-free – but when you get a spreadsheet involved the answer is rarely to prioritise clearing the mortgage. Gearing is how you make money using someone else’s money, and is practised by business owners and wealth managers. Using borrowed money to leverage an opportunity allows wealth creators to increase exposure or accelerate returns. The idea is that the amount they can make exceeds the cost of the borrowing, and thus delivers a profit. It introduces risk as well as opportunity – for instance, if the growth doesn’t materialise, or the cost of the debt ends up being higher than expected. This must be factored in. However, it is hard to lose money over the long term by using a residential mortgage secured at very competitive interest rates to invest in, say, a well diversified global equity portfolio that just tracks markets.

    If you had done that for the past 10 years, the average interest rate, according to Bank of England, would have been 5.74pc against an annualised investment return of 10.15pc, according to MSCI World Index to August 2024. Happy days!
    Obviously, no one can guarantee the same result over the next 10 years, although the science of investing and basic economics make the probability of a positive outcome very high indeed.

    You don’t mention what your wife has done with the money that was not allocated to pay off the mortgage. If she has been investing, then she probably did you a favour and there is a pot of money somewhere that can be used to pay off the mortgage balance with some to spare.

    Maybe she used the money to pay bills and keep the home going when the cost of living was rising and ends were not meeting? Maybe she was just sick of not having any money and has used the extra income to fund things she wanted. Without knowing this part of the story, I don’t know if you have been disadvantaged financially or if you are in profit.

    There is a legal aspect to your situation that falls outside of my wheelhouse. Legal expert Gary Rycroft said that if this change to your mortgage was made with your existing lender, there would be no need to revalue the house or re-sign the mortgage deed, however he would expect there to be a requirement for those named on the mortgage to sign a new loan agreement – and it is “of concern” that you were not asked to do this, or made aware of the change.

    It may be, Mr Rycroft supposed, that the change was authorised by an electronic signature – but regardless of whether it was by this or a “wet” signature, if your consent to the change has been given without your authority then, on the face of it, what your wife has done is unlawful and may be forgery and/or a contractual misrepresentation to your lender in breach of your loan agreement. If you think this could be the case, you may want to consult a solicitor to unpick what has happened and decide on your next steps.

    The lack of inclusion in the alteration to mortgage arrangements insults you, and I agree you had a right to be consulted. I wonder though if after 38 years of managing the family finances your wife thought she might be capable of making the decision, and authorised by decades of taking on the delegated responsibility?

    It is easy in long-term relationships for delegation to creep toward abdication. A discussion with your wife seems overdue. Talk about it. Express your disappointment at not being mortgage-free when it clearly meant a lot to you. Find out where and when your paths diverged: it will likely be a revealing and valuable exercise for you both to revisit joint goals and ambitions, exchanging communication for assumptions to avoid any further misunderstandings.

    One mistake in 38 years is pretty good going and, as I said at the start, from an economic point of view, it probably wasn’t a mistake.

    Hope this helps reframe your disappointment and thank you for sharing your dilemma with us.”

    1. I read that yesterday and thought – well she's paying so good for her and she probably told him but he wasn't listening. After 38 years it should have been paid off long ago. We cleared ours long before we retired.

      1. Completely disagree with you on this one, Ndovu. I paid our (joint) mortgage and would never have dreamed of changing it unilaterally without discussing it with my husband first.

        “It’s one mistake in 38 years and you probably are better off for it” or however she ends it. Ffs.

        “She probably spent the money on other stuff you were too mean to provide her”.

        We paid our mortgage off (early) a few years ago. At every step in the way, and every financial decision I recommended, I discussed with my husband and if he didn’t see my point of view I went away, rethought and came up with better arguments as to why my way was correct. Or not, possibly. But usually correct.

        Edit. Re the 38 years. That’s quite reasonably explained. An initial mortgage, then a big move 10 or so years in and extending the mortgage but with a 25 year term to make it affordable. When we did our big move after 10 years, we had to remortgage and they wanted us to take out a new 25 year term but I insisted on 20. And when rates were low, I insisted on over-paying every penny we had. In fact, since I took my first mortgage our when I was 21, I was paying a mortgage for 34 years and if we hadn’t overpaid/used some of my pension TFLS to pay off the (admittedly small) balance, we would have another 5 years to go – which would essentially be 40 years of my life paying it.

        1. In our 46 years of marriage, I am the one who has handled the finances, but I have never made a decision on mortgage payments, insurance, savings etc. without consulting my wife first. To change the mortgage without informing one's spouse is incredible.

          1. Indeed.
            We paid down the mortgage on the current house a year or so ago, after aout 12 years, and diverted the payments to savings & investment. Now we need a new loan to replace the bathroom floor & kitchen ceiling, so will reopen it again. Hope to have it cleared before retirement.

        2. I had a mortgage with the first husband and was still paying it when we got divorced and I had to pay him a lump sum as part of the settlement. I paid that off and was debt free when we bought this house in ’95 and married in ’97. We agreed to share the mortgage payments and he paid his half off first and mine took a bit longer. But he retired seven years before I did.

          1. Same as me; I had to increase the mortgage (which by then was relatively small) to buy out my ex. Never mind that I had paid 4/5 of the property in the first place, as well as being mother to two and the main breadwinner…(moral: never marry a Beta-male unless he is thoroughly nice and kind).

            As I didn't know what was going to happen with my work I changed to an interest-only mortgage, but paid the same premiums as when it had been repayment. Happily I have been mortgage free for some years and would never take out one again.

        3. When the interest rates were falling in the 80s I kept the same repayments which meant after paying a small amount owing I paid off the mortgage, haven't had one since. That made one helluva difference in my savings later

          1. For years I had a 50 pence mortgage (i e I only owed the Building Society 50p). I could pay it off at any time, they didn't charge me for keeping the deeds and the only stipulation was that I arranged the house insurance through them. I only ended the arrangement when they got greedy about insurance premiums.

      2. Completely disagree with you on this one, Ndovu. I paid our (joint) mortgage and would never have dreamed of changing it unilaterally without discussing it with my husband first.

        “It’s one mistake in 38 years and you probably are better off for it” or however she ends it. Ffs.

        “She probably spent the money on other stuff you were too mean to provide her”.

        We paid our mortgage off (early) a few years ago. At every step in the way, and every financial decision I recommended, I discussed with my husband and if he didn’t see my point of view I went away, rethought and came up with better arguments as to why my way was correct. Or not, possibly. But usually correct.

        Edit. Re the 38 years. That’s quite reasonably explained. An initial mortgage, then a big move 10 or so years in and extending the mortgage but with a 25 year term to make it affordable. When we did our big move after 10 years, we had to remortgage and they wanted us to take out a new 25 year term but I insisted on 20. And when rates were low, I insisted on over-paying every penny we had. In fact, since I took my first mortgage our when I was 21, I was paying a mortgage for 34 years and if we hadn’t overpaid/used some of my pension TFLS to pay off the (admittedly small) balance, we would have another 5 years to go – which would essentially be 40 years of my life paying it.

    2. "when it clearly meant a lot to you"

      What a patronising pat on the head from a fool who doesn't understand that debt is the currency of slaves.
      Plus the person who wrote this is an imbecile who is clearly unaware of gathering economic clouds. I am paying down my mortgage as fast as I can. It's not 2000 any more.

      As far as the moral side goes, it could be anything from her saving a pot to flee a violent marriage to her controlling and manipulating their finances. There's no way to know.

      3. Re mortgage rates – also true. We probably all remember Black Wednesday and mortgage rates spiking. I had literally just bought my first house (age 22) and it was the end of my world. My husband would have been 15 at the time and completely oblivious to it. But it explains my paranoia about interest rates – and here we are in 2024.

        1. I was trying to sell my house in Southampton ant trying to buy in Derbyshire when that happened. It was not nice!

          One think I made sure of was, right from the start of my 1st mortgage, I used Standing Orders instead of Direct Debits to give me a small amount of flexibility to make a overpayment of "round up to the next fiver and add a fiver".
          That gave me a chance to slowly reduce the amount we owed and also reduce the interest amount I was paying.
          As my pay was increasing, I was able to increase the overpayments to rounding up to the next tenner and added a tenner.

          When we did buy the place we've been in for over 30y, the same principle of overpayment allowed us to pay off the mortgage substantially early.

          1. That's what I did; every time the payment went up (I lived through the high interest rates) when they went down again I left the payments (Standing Order) the same so I paid off the capital earlier and I didn't have nasty shocks if interest rates increased again because the increase was less.

      4. Mr Micawber knew full well the misery of expenditure exceeding revenue.

        One of the most criminal things that Blair set in motion was Students debt.

        Those of us here who went to university will probably have started their working lives debt free. We would either have been given means tested maintenance grants or we were funded by our parents as both Caroline and I were. My father gave me the same amount of money as I would have received had I had a full grant and I supplemented my 'income' by doing jobs such as working as a roustabout on an oil rig in the North Seas during the summer holidays.

        We were determined that both our sons should also start their working lives debt free as we had done but of course we had to dig into our savings to do so and at the age of 78 I am still involved with running our courses.

        Our 'repayment' has been that both our sons found good jobs immediately they left university, have been fully employed ever since and both were able to get on the property ladder in their 20s.

  12. The 3lb lump of brisket & veg I've had quietly braising away on a medium slow cooker overnight has been turned down to low for the next 4 or 5 hours.
    It smells bloody gorgeous!!
    To be served with mashed tatties & steamed cabbage.

    2. Oh gosh, I can smell it as well , and I expect the meat will be soft and buttery , and yes mash , delicious with the stew juices ..

      Well done Bob.

      1. A year or so since I last did it, but it's been one of my standard dishes for years!

  15. Morning all 🙂😊
    Government weather, cold grey unpleasant not helping anyone and completely unpredictable.
    Sunny at the end of the week. We will have wait and see.
    We watched a 2025 Netflix film with Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx, and others, last night. 'Back in Action'. It was interesting in many aspects. It all ended up on and in the Thames.

    1. I think Mr Riddell has a slightly left leaning. I could be wrong of course – he probably is a Marxist communist fanatic.

  17. 400243+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Agreed BUTled by a government minister who has not sinned
    would be as rare as unicorn shite.

    Surely before any forward going progress can be made this very ,very,long term issue has GOT to be settled and in EXPRESS MODE / TOMMY ROBINSON fashion.

    Those pakistani's serving time now DEPORT along with families and close friends, commute sentence today, DEPORT TODAY
    act as you mean to go on into the future.

    As it stands and courtesy of the wisdom of the electorate we are, via overseas aid, purchasing paedophiles from pakistan.

    Welfare supplies the shekels to daily rape / abuse, that up to now has been covertly allow in return for a lab/lib/con coalition vote.

    You cannot return a country to its former state of decency with such odious footings the options now are ACT or COMPLY with the parties agenda.

    Bill Cash
    Only a statutory inquiry will reveal the truth about the grooming gangs
    Many have questions to answer about what was allowed to happen in some of our northern towns

  18. I could be prime minister before Trump leaves office. 19 January 2025.

    Nigel Farage has predicted that he could be prime minister before Donald Trump leaves office in four years in a worldwide “political tide” of Right-wing election wins.

    The Reform UK leader told Republicans at a party to celebrate Mr Trump’s inauguration that he believes he will win the next election, which he said could come sooner than Sir Keir Starmer’s five-year term.

    It is possible I suppose but we might also have an Islamic Caliphate or indeed a fully-fledged Marxist Police State. The only thing in favour of the first is the United States ruled by President Trump. Whichever, that UK that we formerly lived in is now as dead as the proverbial Dodo. Freedom and Democracy are no more.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/18/farage-next-prime-minister-trump-political-tide-right-wing/

    1. Time to become the 51st. state.
      Hawaii is 2,000 miles from the US mainland.
      We are 3,000 miles away, so roughly the same as from the east to the west coast of America.

  19. Curses. My motorbike has a flat battery. Do i fix it like the good feminist i ought to be, or wait for hubby to come back from Cornwall to do it for me? I have a ton of books i’d lime to read.

    1. Your last sentence gives you the answer.
      (And you will have time to give your smell choker a good slap.)

  20. A story within a story within a story..

    Gang relieve high end Cobham and Wimbledon stores of their 'pre-loved' Chanel and Hermes handbags worth thousands.
    Neither Surrey Police nor the Metropolitan Police 'showed the slightest interest'..
    'The safety of my mainly female staff is a prime concern,' says Mrs Mengers..
    but will continue to vote for Continuity-Tory, and support activist daughter in her pursuit of social justice.

    If only there could have been a clue, or information in the detection of a crime. It's so peaceful around here in leafy progressive liberal land.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e268cf7c09563ee00a66129c75668dba338158eb21bf3b998a17476aa49de039.png

    1. They are a plague and need dealing with .. Snatchers , thieves , huddled menaces .. they are the golliwogs from Noddy stories that the media and woke varieties wanted to ban from all bookshelves… but they are reality , and I can see, smell and fear their presence is growing in numbers daily, as they cross the channel by the boat full over 1,000 last week .

  21. Good morning all ,

    Damp dull day , but here we are tracking no1 son on Garmin as he runs the coastal route to Weymouth just over 23.5k.

    That lad must have kryptonite in his bloodstream , and we are truly blessed that he has got over some appalling difficulties he had more than 10 years ago . He will be 56 years old next month .

    He sprinted through the 5k Park run yesterday .. just a doddle , and now this high hill route , and work next week , away from the house at 6am every morning , he has enviable energy levels , and long may his perseverance last.

  22. And another story that unfortunately suggests things are going to get much much worse before, if ever, getting better with Imogen and her type in control of the institutions..

    University student Imogen's 30-man rape hell: How a young woman's trip to Italy turned into a fight for survival against mob 'who grew more excited' the more terrified she became..

    In spite of the ordeal she pleads..
    Much has been made of the background of the attackers in the Italian press. 'I think it is disgusting that people would use our traumatic story to push a political agenda. 'It was not in the name of religion..

    Yes dear. Brainwashing is intact.. even after a gang rape.

    2. My older son put on a utube video showing one of those travel bloggers travelling through Italy and visiting Italian cities .

      You would be shocked rigid , and put off visiting anywhere now because the Italian police have lost control of the African and S/Asian hordes plaguing the genuine tourists with begging / selling bracelets / posters/ conjuring tricks / street gambling / pick pocketers .

      The graffiti on beautiful old buildings and the mess , human mess is heart breaking .

      Our cities of great historical culture are being ruined and vandalised by sub Saharans and the rest .

      It is similar to someone burgling one's home and vandalising it..

      The law has let EVERYONE down . Poor Europe and poor us .

    3. This is the default 'get out of jail' deflection card peddled by the likes of Jess Phillips & Owen Jones..

      This isn't about Islam attacking our women or our way of life.. no this is all about men in general attacking women. Anyone mentioning the Palestine flag waving, and the chanting f*** Italy f*** white women is just faaaar right stirring up trouble.

    4. I believe there was a story of a 'helper' who went to work in the Calais jungle. She was raped but did not report the matter because she thought it would damage the illegal immigrants' cause if she did so.

      1. I believe there have been several cases of rapes in the migrant camps being unreported for that reason.

        1. I misread…and thought you had written “several cases..went unreported…that season”. And it didn’t strike me as odd, that there might be such a season for raping girls. And possibly women and boys too. But of course there is no closed season on these things.

      2. I seem to remember a Swedish (?) girl who was involved in 'helping' the scum actually being murdered and her family didn't want to make a fuss.

    5. Not in the name of religion? Were they Catholics objecting to your Protestant faith? Or were they muslims following the instructions in their "holy book" as to how to deal with kuffar women?

  24. Coming control of movement? I remember seeing two vehicles in Colchester High St just before Christmas marked as facial recognition units but didn't notice a police presence as portrayed in this clip. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention. If I see them again I think I'll have an urge to blow my nose.

    Quick search found this.

    Am I allowed to cover my face when approaching a face recognition camera located in a public space?
    There is no legislation in place prohibiting the use of face covering, however, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 state that the police have the power to require removal of facial coverings in England and Wales if they feel they are being worn for the purpose of concealing identity and if they believe incidents involving violence may take place in any locality.

    Facial Recognition Technology

    Looks as if the police have the authority "if they feel"; open season on the people, then.

    https://x.com/Rightanglenews/status/1880670219993337969

  25. Only two of first sixteen letters in the answer.
    And another reason for only just getting it right.
    Wordle 1,310 6/6

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    1. Big fat zero, here
      Wordle 1,310 X/6

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  26. FSB's article today is Book Two of Richard Craven’s epic The Wokeiad , amusingly and wittily demonstrating the lunacies of the Woke Crew.

    And if you missed them, we recommend Iain Hunter’s exposure of socialism for the murderous ideology that it is. In The Bloody Truth he relates what always happens under socialist regimes and why. Psychologist Xandra H’s article Do you want to live forever? and the Grumpy Old Git Graham Bedford’s piece Is Covid the new man flu, or just a cold? are well worth reading if you missed them.

    Energy watch 09.00. Demand: 332.917GW. Supply: Hydrocarbons 61.1%; Wind 10.3%; Imports 6%; Biomass 9.4% and Nuclear 10.7%. Solar: 0%.

    Even with relatively low demand, wind can only generate 10% of our need. Gas is supplying over 60% and blackouts are not far off. If gas powered stations were shut down, as Mad Miliband wants, most of the country would be without an electricity supply.

    You can tell when things are very tight, as they draw down energy from pumped storage reserves, filled up (expensively) when there is enough capacity. But even so, pumped storage can only supply 0.4% of demand. Today, with a total demand of 31.37 GW, we can only produce 29.82 GW, and are importing power from France, Holland, Norway, Denmark and Northern Ireland (sic), while exporting it to France (sic) and Belgium.

    freespeechbacklash.com

    1. In the old CEGB days, pumped storage was intended for he times when a power station suddenly disconnedted – you could have power almost at the touch of a button until an alternative power station could come on the bars. It's not intended for generating long-term.

    2. Notice that during winter energy gets more expensive – usually twice over? That's because the market has been broken. Oh, it appears so, but when our energy sources were not unreliable we were not forced to pay when energy wasn't produced either – nor for the purchase, installation, decomissioning, maintenance and repair of the energy generating systems, connecting lines, transmission network, storage…

      We pay and pay and pay for something that doesn't work and breaks the market.

      1. The market works pretty well elsewhere wib, in countries not infected by the woke virus. In China for example, which has far less energy resouirces than UK, domestic electricity prices (unsubsidised) are eith to ten times cheaper than here, where it is all down to tax and green subsidies. The only people happy about this are ecomaniacs like Dale Vince – who also happens to be a major beneficiary.

    1. Given we can see where they've come from it'd be child's play to just ignore them, as we should.

      If they keep trying to get here, shoot them.

        1. Quite. I was a child in the Canal Zone 1949-1951. There were many airfields, several garrisons….

  29. Altogether now: pinch the bridge of your nose and nasally intone "Let me be clear, it's always someone else's fault."

    "The row over the Government's handling of the grooming gangs crisis deepened last night, amid claims that Sir Keir Starmer blames Home Secretary Yvette Cooper for Labour's faltering response.
    No 10 insiders said her department failed to alert Downing Street when calls for a new Home Office-led inquiry were first raised."

    "Hilary Benn was behind the decision to approve a law change that paves the way for Gerry Adams to claim compensation, Number 10 has confirmed.
    The Northern Ireland Secretary was the main actor behind the Government's decision to table a law change which, it is warned, will allow the former Sinn Fein leader and 400 other former suspected Northern Irish terrorists to lodge compensation claims."

    Addendum: and nothing … but NOTHING … ever crosses his desk.

        1. Her's is 70bn. I don't think people really understand the monies involved. 70bn is 20 days government waste. Reeves has added practically a month's additional cost of the state on to the private sector, while hammering that private sector.

          She's a fool and must go.

    3. How in a sane world can Adams claim compensation and soldiers be punished?

      It's utterly insane.

    2. Absolutely ridiculous – the aim of that course is to produce an elite force; naturally the scum in Parliament despise that concept! Absolutely no idea.

    3. No amount of training provides for battlefield situations. However they'd be better off looking at the real waste, such as 150,000 civil servants in the MoD.

      Labour are ideologically incapable of admitting the problem and doing what must be done. At least two thirds of that department could be sacked with no loss of result. Real savings. Repeat that across half a dozen government departments and quangos and suddenly we're saving 10-20bn a year, every year not just immediately, not with the on-going savings.

        1. At least it would be less than we pay them nominally to "work", and perhaps, just perhaps, some of them might even leave the country.

    4. The dropout rate for the Royal Marine Commandos during their training can be quite high, typically ranging from 30% to 40%. This is primarily due to the rigorous nature of the training, which includes physical and mental challenges designed to prepare candidates for the demanding role of a Royal Marine. The training program lasts about 32 weeks, with only those who meet the stringent standards successfully completing it. Factors contributing to dropout include physical fitness levels, mental resilience, and the ability to cope with the demanding environment.

      Matty Taylor aka The Angry Bootneck, tells how halfway through the training he called his father to tell him he couldn't take anymore and was quitting. His father said "Don't come home.. if you do.. you'll be staying in shed at bottom of t'garden." Then put the phone down.

      Ha! He passed the training then went to war five times..
      Always good for a larf once a week.

      https://www.youtube.com/@AngryBootneck

      1. They used to have a very good rehabilitation programme for those who had to drop out due to injury – quite a few people who went through that completed the course later – very effective but probably expensive. Perhaps if we cancelled hotels for illegals we could afford to keep funding world class military training??

    5. The dropout rate for the Royal Marine Commandos during their training can be quite high, typically ranging from 30% to 40%. This is primarily due to the rigorous nature of the training, which includes physical and mental challenges designed to prepare candidates for the demanding role of a Royal Marine. The training program lasts about 32 weeks, with only those who meet the stringent standards successfully completing it. Factors contributing to dropout include physical fitness levels, mental resilience, and the ability to cope with the demanding environment.

      Matty Taylor aka The Angry Bootneck, tells how halfway through the training he called his father to tell him he couldn't take anymore and was quitting. His father said "Don't come home.. if you do.. you'll be staying in shed at bottom of t'garden." Then put the phone down.

      Ha! He passed the training then went to war five times..
      Always good for a larf once a week.

      https://www.youtube.com/@AngryBootneck

  31. UK power sources at 10:00 UK time today:
    Gas: 57,8%
    Wind: 9,3%
    Nuclear: 9,4%
    Imports 12,6%
    Solar 0,4%
    Hydro: 1,4%

    2. Imports consuming increasingly more and more. It doesn't matter how many windmills Milioaf forces into the sea bed. They're useless when they don't work. When they do work they only operate in ideal conditions at 40% efficiency. Then there's the gas power plants that're kept in idle to make up the remnant and can charge basically whatever they like. £5 a kw last time.

      Add on government taxes and that's £15 per kw/h. All to defend the failed, pointless, market breaking, ruinous stupidity of a hard Left tax scam.

  32. Loss of status as being ranked #1 with the SAS and Paras = loss of good recruits = further loss of status

    1. All shall have prizes doesn't work when it comes to the fighting forces – actually, it doesn't work in life generally, but there are still plenty of deluded people who think it does.

        1. Infamy! Infamy! – they've all got in in for me!

          Sodomy! Sodomy! They all thinks it's odd of me!

        1. Sourdough is the only soft bread worth eating – has body and flavour. The rest is just dull.

          2. I make my own crumpets and pikelets. The ones in Rastus's photo are what I call crumpets.

            My pikelets are the same recipe but I do not contain them inside a ring when cooking them so they spread out a little and become thinner, like a thick small pancake.

  35. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/net-zero/labour-council-charge-petrol-drivers-more-to-park/

    Now imagine we lived in a democracy where the state were servile to the public will. Imagine now their trying to pass this off.

    Imagine a world where local councils were funded by the profits of business, not from a tax they can hike on demand. Suddenly they'd look to do everything possible to bring business into the town and have people spend money. This necessary, rational capitalist approach would utterly dismantle government ethos.

    1. You would need a Conservative government to do that but we haven't had a remotely conservative government for over 30 years.

    1. I would mention packs of butter, but it's Sunday and I'm a girlie with naturally good taste.

  38. Look who's scared. He thinks he's some sort of World Leader rather than mayor of a city that's rapidly going to the dogs thanks to his administration. That's why he has to travel round 'his patch' in an armoured convoy.

    Opinion
    The far right
    This is my three-point plan for standing up to the far right and the billionaire bullies
    Sadiq Khan
    Sadiq Khan
    Putting pressure on social media companies to tackle hate and misinformation is a start, but there’s more that the centre left can do

    Sadiq Khan warns western democracy at risk from ‘resurgent fascism’ ahead of Trump inauguration
    Sat 18 Jan 2025 17.00 GMT

    Progressives across the western world face a century-defining challenge – and the stakes for liberal democracy couldn’t be higher.

    The far right is on the march. From Switzerland and Sweden to Hungary, Austria and Italy, European nations are coming under the influence of extreme nativist parties that are hostile to democratic institutions, immigrant populations and fact-based journalism.

    By exploiting economic concerns and a growing distrust of political and media institutions, these reactionary populists have been able to attract new supporters. In Germany, the AfD is on course for a breakthrough in next month’s federal elections. In France, the National Rally is topping presidential polls. And, of course, in the US, Donald Trump is back.

    These are deeply worrying times, especially if you’re a member of a minority community. As historians and commentators increasingly find echoes of the 1920s and 30s in the present day, we cannot afford to throw in the towel. We must make a renewed and concerted effort to confront these forces and expose them for what they are: opportunists who seek to divide people for personal and political gain. Not to mention their financial backers who selfishly choose to put the profits of their companies over the interests of our democracies.

    We need to be frank about who we’re dealing with. I agree with the government that we need to be pragmatic on the international stage, but progressives around the world should never yield ground to the far right, nor be afraid to speak truth to power.

    We also need a serious strategy to halt the extremists in their tracks. First, we must ratchet up the pressure on social media companies to tackle lies, hate and misinformation. The situation has been made far worse by the actions of Elon Musk, who has reinstated the accounts of far-right figures, including Tommy Robinson. According to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Robinson racked up 434m views on X during the riots last summer as he called for “mass deportations”.

    Responsible tech has enormous potential to enhance our health, environment and quality of life – and just this week I joined the prime minister as he announced his new AI strategy, which will help to turbocharge economic growth. But it’s high time governments around the world forced social media companies to clean up their act. There has been a dereliction of duty to confront the harm they’re causing, which cannot continue.

    A billionaire bully shouldn’t be able to use his social media platform as a propaganda tool to amplify lies and advance the cause of the far right. Nor should social media companies be able to evade responsibility for algorithms that maximise – and monetise – hate. Lawmakers and regulators across the world need to get tough, especially as Meta – the owner of Facebook and Instagram – bends the knee to the incoming Trump administration by removing independent factcheckers. In the UK, the Online Safety Act should be the floor, not the ceiling, of what’s required.

    Second, we should challenge so-called mainstream politicians who are normalising the ideas and language of the far right. We’ve recently seen senior members of the shadow cabinet using dehumanising language that used to be considered alien to British values and political debate. But the Overton window is shifting before our eyes – leading to extreme arguments becoming acceptable in our public discourse. This only emboldens the far right.

    Finally, the centre left – and liberal democracy more widely – need to prove we can still deliver for working people. We must take a hard look at our own political shortcomings and have the self-awareness to acknowledge that while social media is fuelling racist populism and polarisation, it’s not the only reason people are gravitating to extremes.

    A decades-long rise in inequality, massively exacerbated under the last government, combined with falling living standards and a failure to build more integrated communities, is creating fertile conditions for the far right. It’s up to us to demonstrate that democracy and equality are still the path to prosperity and a better future.

    We should be in no doubt, this is a perilous moment. The spectre of a resurgent fascism haunts the west. But in London, we’ve shown that we can defeat the politics of fear and division, with hope, unity and practical policies – such as free school meals, fares freezes, free skills training and social housebuilding that improve people’s lives. To ward off the far right, we must be unflinching in defence of our democracy and values, and in our determination to enhance the welfare and material conditions of our communities.

    At a national level, our Labour government is right to be investing in and reforming our schools, hospitals and other public services to show mainstream politics is a force for good. And in London, we’ll continue to stand tall as a beacon of inclusion. But there is more we can – and must – do to inoculate our societies against the virus of far-right populism. History shows us the time to act is now.

    Sadiq Khan is the mayor of London

    2. Who does he think he is? Snivelling little git. He witters about "far right", nativism and extremes but what he actually means are normal people who are sick and tired of rising crime levels, committed by people who seem to be immune from prosecution. People who are tired of being exploited by freeloaders who contribute nothing are not far right – they are angry!

    5. Sadiq Khan is the mayor of London

      He is also co-chair of the C40 cities project: when the people of London find out what he's planning for them, across a range of items, including food, travel and clothing, he may very well find that he has a problem.

    6. He's got a nerve talking about "British values" – he wouldn't recognise a British value if it bit him (and I wish one would).

  41. This is a list of left-wing publications published regularly in the United Kingdom. Wikipedia
    Current publications
    Daily
    Daily Mirror – mainstream newspaper which has consistently supported the Labour Party since the 1945 general election.
    The Guardian – mainstream newspaper which has consistently supported centre-left politics, either reflected by the Labour Party or the Liberal Democrats.
    The Morning Star – co-operative, reader-owned socialist newspaper. Britain's Road to Socialism, the programme of the Communist Party of Britain, underlies the paper's editorial stance. It was formerly the Daily Worker, before being renamed in 1966.
    The News Line – from the Workers Revolutionary Party. Previously Workers Press. [Newsfeed updated daily online but limited print circulation.]
    Weekly
    New Statesman – independent political and cultural magazine.
    The New Worker – from the New Communist Party of Britain.
    The Observer – centre-left mainstream newspaper published on Sundays, a sister paper to The Guardian and The Guardian Weekly.
    The Socialist – from the Socialist Party (England and Wales).
    Socialist Worker – from the Socialist Workers Party.
    Sunday Mirror – sister newspaper to Daily Mirror, published every Sunday.
    Weekly Worker – from the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee).
    Solidarity – from the Alliance for Workers' Liberty.

    I searched for a list of Right-wing publications but got this result: The page "List of right-wing publications in the United Kingdom" does not exist.

    How come the Telegraph is listed in neither?

    1. From ChatGPT: using the same question as above.
      The Daily Telegraph – A widely-read British newspaper with a conservative editorial stance.
      The Times – A respected national newspaper that tends to lean towards the right on many issues, although it maintains a broad centrist appeal.
      The Sun – A popular tabloid known for its right-wing politics, often supporting the Conservative Party and focusing on populist themes.
      The Daily Mail – A conservative-leaning daily, known for its strong right-wing editorial voice and often critical of progressive policies.
      The Spectator – A long-standing conservative weekly magazine covering politics, culture, and current affairs.
      The Conservative Woman – A political blog and online magazine that focuses on right-wing views, particularly from a socially conservative perspective.
      The Express – A daily newspaper that is generally seen as supporting right-wing politics and the Conservative Party.
      The Sun on Sunday – The Sunday edition of The Sun, continuing its populist and right-wing stance.
      The Weekly Standard (UK Edition) – While primarily an American publication, it occasionally publishes UK-specific content with a conservative slant.
      These publications range from broadsheets to tabloids, offering various perspectives but generally aligning with right-wing, conservative, or populist political views.

      1. The trouble is that today's right wing would have been considered very left wing 40 years ago.

        George Orwell was considered left wing in his day. Would he still be considered left wing today?

        1. Orwell was a very independent thinker. He disliked what he called ‘smelly little orthodoxies’. 1984 was never approved by politically correct left wingers, I remember when I was at school in the late sixties and early seventies teachers ignored 1984 much preferring Huxley’s vision of the future in Brave New World.

          1. I was at school in the early 1960s and was encouraged to read both books which I did.

          2. Probably quite a difference between early and late sixties. And my school was an inner London Comprehensive, I remember the French teacher saying people were ‘nuts’ if they voted Conservative.

          6. My school did NUJMB and I have no idea what was set for Eng Lit books as we were excused doing it because we took our O Levels in 4 years not 5 (hot house flowers we were and oddly enough, nobody cracked or got depressed, we just got on and did it without counselling).

          7. Not so many people sat for GCE in the early sixties.
            Maybe that’s why they didn’t need so much counselling.

      2. From ChatGPT – a recently introduced AI Bot designed to provide answers that serve the left-wing status quo. A bit like the BBC but not as widespread and expensive – yet!

        The above list is a joke. Wikipedia was correct: The page "List of right-wing publications in the United Kingdom" does not exist.

  45. A millionaire quits Starmer’s Britain every 45 minutes

    Exodus accelerates by 157pc in a year as Labour scraps tax perks for wealthy foreign investors

    ONE millionaire left Britain every 45 minutes in the year Labour came to power, figures suggest. The UK lost 10,800 millionaires to overseas countries last year, more than double the number in 2023, according to new data. The wealth exodus equates to 30 millionaires leaving a day – approximately one every three quarters of an hour.

    It comes as Labour plans to abolish tax laws that allow foreign investors to reside in Britain while sheltering offshore wealth from domestic taxes.
    Jason Hollands, the managing director of financial advisers Evelyn Partners, said: “The signal it sends to people [is] that the country has a hostile attitude to wealthy people who will bring money into the UK.”

    The number of high net-worth individuals – with liquid assets of more than $1million (£821,153) – leaving the UK rose by 157 per cent in 2024, according to figures compiled by analytics firm New World Wealth for advisers Henley & Partners. They showed more than 10,000 millionaires left last year, up from the previous year’s figures of just 4,300. It came in the year a snap election was called by Rishi Sunak that saw Labour come to power with a landslide victory.

    No other country except China saw greater capital flight than the UK between January 2024 and December of 2024, according to the figures. Italy – which unveiled a flat tax rate for nondoms in 2017 – was one of the most popular destinations for those leaving, along with Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the US and Singapore. New World Wealth said 78 centi-millionaires and 12 billionaires left the country last year.

    Prominent people to have announced their departure from Britain recently include Charlie Mullins, the Pimlico Plumbers founder, and Christian Angermayer, the German technology entrepreneur. Neither are non-doms. Figures published by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs from 2023 show there were 74,000 non-doms in the UK. In April, a new regime – designed by Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor, and kept by the Labour Government – will come into effect. It gives new nondoms coming to Britain four years in which their foreign wealth is not subject to domestic taxes. After that, they will be expected to pay the same tax as an ordinary British taxpayer.

    Existing non-doms will be given a two-year transition period to the scheme. Foreign earnings will also face the threat of inheritance tax.
    David Hawkins, of Foreign Investors for Britain, a group representing non-doms, told The Times the policy is “a monumental act of national self-harm”.

    A Government spokesman said: “We are committed to tax reforms that are progressive and underpinned by fairness.
    “It is right that those who can afford to, contribute their fair share to fix the foundations to provide stability and fund public services to drive growth.”

    What is the quarter-wit Commie twat going to do when there are no more wealth-creators left in the country? Will that make him realise that his cretinous Marxist philosophy is failing (yet again) when there is no more money to steal from the rich to squander on his champagne socialist cohorts?

    1. These cretins would argue that if everywhere had exactly the same tax regimes there would be nowhere to flee to, so the wealthy would flock back.

      2. "If wishes were fishes…"

        Not likely is it, especially when the rest of the world are sick to the teeth of the creeping Leftism of latter years and have now gone back to the Right.

        1. I'm not convinced that the world is going "back to the Right", I think it's heading back to the centre, there's a long way to go yet before it gets back to what Reagan and Thatcher would have though thought of as the Right

    2. Ms Rayner said. "It's about sharing that wealth and understanding where that wealth comes from."
      "there would be no billionaires and no one would live in poverty" in a fair society.
      "We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich as long as they pay their taxes."

      We've had lots of roundtable meetings.. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further in an urgent round of roundtable meetings with stakeholders at the roundtable to discuss ways to increase delivery of fair taxation and will work closely with with our Labours to take forward key strategic priorities with every sector over the upcoming months. I look forward to our close collaboration, to deliver for working people and for the country.

  46. Update on the motorbike situation. I watched the YouTube video and dug out the jump leads. But our jump leads are for a Volvo battery and the motorbike terminals are tiny. I know we have some motorbike jump leads somewhere but couldn’t find them. So I went to Halfords and came across something we talked about in here over a year ago, which I had forgotten about – the jump starter – and I am now the proud possessor of one. So I am just charging it up. It will come in handy for the Z3, which we don’t use much anymore as it costs us £12.50 every time we move it off our drive (thanks, Khunt) – it’s battery is in the boot and due to (owing to? Oh my goodness I’m scared to type) because of the way our drive is configured, it’s difficult to get to the Z3 boot with another car to jump start it.

    And I forgot the eggs when I was out and I’m supposed to be making a birthday cake🙁

      1. No. Wrong recipe. Drop scones are what the Yanks call ‘pancakes’ and they contain no yeast.

      1. Sorry, I hoped it wouldn’t. There a printed version of the conversation, but whoever did the typing wasn’t up to it.

  49. I'm off to potter about outside.
    But first I need my boots, fleece and overalls on!
    TTFN.

    2. ADHD a ‘manufactured epidemic’. Drug companies have ‘massive financial incentives’..
      Seven million American kids – that’s 11.4 per cent of them – are said to have ADHD.

      Keeeerching.

  53. I've earache again. It's manageable with paracetamol and not discharging. However, last time this happened a day later it did start weeping and the pain was intolerable as my head swelled up.

    I'm tempted to wait until Monday and to call the docs. I've dihydrocodine tablets if it gets too much. What would folk suggest?

    3. How often is this recurring?
      Sounds like a chronic infection flaring up again.
      What is your local walk-in/A&E like? Depending on your local knowledge, I can understand your indecision.

    4. Have you had 'the jab'? If so, get to A&E because the jab swipes your immune system and things like infections take off. If unjabbed, you could possibly wait until tomorrow, depending on your own assessment. Do not linger with ear infections, they are too close to your personal control centre. All the best.

      1. When my head swelled up my head was a good 15% bigger. It was very, very painful.

        I wonder if it'll get radically worse overnight. At the moment there's no discharge indicating infection, but I'm not sure. I may call the ENT people and ask their advice.

        1. Do call someone. I’ve noticed that these things gather apace and pick up steam whilst your body is at a low ebb and sleeping.

        2. I would call. At least, you can get opening times for tomorrow. They might suggest you go in right now and get fixed soonest.

      2. The problem with ear pain, like tooth pain, is it is so close to your brain you cannot ignore it.

    5. Otex ear drops. Failing that olive oil. Failing that…go to A&E. It might be more serious than you think if your head is swelling.

    6. AI Overview
      Learn more
      Ear Pain Without An Infection: What You Should Know – Head …
      Earaches and headaches can occur together due to a number of possible reasons, including ear infections, sinus infections, or upper respiratory tract infections.

      Ear infections
      Middle ear infection (otitis media): A bacterial or viral infection that can cause ear pain, fever, and headaches. The infection can swell the eustachian tubes, which can lead to fluid buildup and ear pain. This pressure can also extend to the head, causing headaches.

      Ruptured eardrum: A sudden stop in severe pain could indicate a ruptured eardrum.
      Sinus infections
      Caused by allergies, infections, or irritants, sinus infections can cause headaches, fever, and facial tenderness.
      Upper respiratory tract infections
      Can cause earaches, headaches, and swollen lymph nodes. The viruses that cause these infections, like colds, are contagious.

      Other possible causes
      Labyrinthitis, an inflammation of the inner ear that's usually caused by a viral infection
      Indoor allergens, like dust mites, pet dander, and mold

      Home remedies
      Resting
      Drinking lukewarm beverages
      Applying essential oils like peppermint or eucalyptus to your temples
      Inhaling steam from a hot shower or bowl of hot water
      Gently blowing your nose while pinching your nostrils

      Seek medical advice if:
      You have a sudden severe headache
      You have swelling behind your ear
      Your symptoms worsen, even with treatment
      You have a high fever
      New symptoms appear, like dizziness, severe headache, or twitching of the face muscles

      You quite clearly need medical advice and treatment , Wibbling.

  55. Interesting article from the Spekkie.
    I suspect many NOTTLers have either donated to, or bought something from the Emmaus Trust.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-frances-jimmy-savile-also-got-away-with-his-evil/#comments-container

    "How France’s Jimmy Savile also got away with his evil

    19 January 2025, 6:00am

    "This week nine more charges of sexual abuse were levelled against Abbé Pierre, the late French Roman Catholic priest who for decades was regarded as a modern-day saint.

    This brings to 33 the number of charges, ranging from sexual assault to the rape of a boy, all alleged to have been committed between the 1960s and shortly before the priest’s death in 2007 at the age of 94. Among the latest complainants are a woman now 58, who detailed how she was assaulted by Abbé Pierre exactly fifty years ago. ‘Several times I’ve wanted to shout to the world that this man isn’t who he says he is,’ the woman said in an interview this week. ‘But who would have believed me? People weren’t ready to hear that about Abbé Pierre.’

    The priest – whose real name was Henri Grouès – is reported to have been a voracious sexual predator, who indulged his perversion around the world in hotels, hospitals, airplanes, youth camps and when was engaged on humanitarian missions.

    The first revelations from seven eye-witnesses were published last July, followed by 17 further cases in a report issued in September.

    ‘We are in a state of shock, very hurt and very angry,’ said the head of the Abbé Pierre Foundation in September. ‘We extend our fullest support to all the victims who have had the courage to speak out.’

    The Foundation dropped the priest’s name from its title as a result of the revelations and the Emmaus anti-poverty charity, which Abbé Pierre founded in 1949 – and which operates in more than 40 countries – has also airbrushed him from its history. Across France, streets named in his honour have been rechristened and street art on which his face appeared have been erased.

    Following the latest revelations, France’s Conference of Bishops issued a statement in which they expressed their ‘horror’ at the priest’s alleged crimes. ‘To realise that he used his media aura and the social work he had built…to sexually abuse women, children and people in precarious situations is appalling.’

    The true number of his victims is believed to be in the hundreds but many are now dead and others too ashamed or frightened to come forward. A lot were vulnerable women and children, who went to the priest for help and were raped or assaulted.

    The BBC reported on the scandal last year and stated that there is ‘growing evidence’ that many people were aware of Abbé Pierre’s depravity but said nothing. ‘Partly this was because in these earlier times – the first alleged assaults were in the 1950s – such actions were not treated very seriously,’ said the BBC.

    That is one reason. But there is another more disturbing explanation as to why Abbé Pierre was able to get away with his sexual abuse for so long: he was a figurehead of the social revolution that swept France in 1968, the bourgeois Socialist students whose motto was ‘It is forbidden to forbid’.

    Jimmy Savile created an alter ago while he committed his monstrous crimes in the same period, that of the tireless charity worker who ran marathons for good causes and volunteered as a porter at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

    Virtue was also the modus operandi of Abbé Pierre. Anti-nuclear and anti-colonialist, he was champion of the homeless in the decades after the war and towards the end of the century he became a powerful voice for migrants.

    His bete noire was Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, whose views on mass immigration were diametrically opposed to Abbé Pierre’s. The priest appeared on television on more than one occasion to order Le Pen to ‘shut his mouth’ and desist from warning of the dangers of mass immigration. It reinforced the priest’s reputation as a darling of the progressive left.

    There was, however, one area of common ground for Le Pen and Abbé Pierre, and that was their anti-Semitism.

    In a 1991 interview with the Catholic magazine, Life, Abbé Pierre questioned Israel’s right to exist. Two years later he gave another interview to two authors for a book on which they working. During the discussion, Abbé Pierre said there had been no holocaust during the war; rather he accused Joshua, the leader of the Israelite tribes who conquered Canaan, as the instigator of a holocaust. ‘We were very embarrassed,’ said the authors later. ‘If the most popular man in France says bad things about the Jews, that’s authorising the whole of France to think: “maybe it’s true”.’ The authors omitted Abbé Pierre’s anti-Semitism from their book.

    In 1996 the priest offered vociferous support to his good friend Roger Garaudy. The communist turned Islamist was at the time on trial for Holocaust denial, and Pierre was quoted as saying the holocaust had been ‘exaggerated’. He also renewed his attack on Israel, describing the country as ‘suicidal’ and criticising their policy towards Palestine.

    Jean-Marie Le Pen was asked for this thoughts on Abbé Pierre’s endorsement of a holocaust denier and said he didn’t want to get involved in a ‘tricky debate’ as it would probably end with him in court. However, he did repeat his assertion, first made in an interview in 1987, that while he did not deny the existence of the gas chambers, they were a ‘detail’ of the second world war.

    Le Pen was convicted on multiple occasions for contesting crimes against humanity, the last occasion in 2016 after having once more insisted that the gas chambers were a ‘detail’.

    No charges were ever brought against Abbé Pierre for similar claims. On the contrary when he died in 2007, France’s Human Rights League – who had taken Le Pen to court more than once – lauded the priest as ‘a fellow fighter for the respect of all rights for all…through his refusal of misery and his support for the most disadvantaged, the undocumented’.

    A few of his victims did speak out, such as the woman who was filmed in 2007 recounting the day she was assaulted by the priest in the 1980s. The filmmaker heard similar accounts from two other women but his documentary was rejected by every broadcaster. ‘At the time, the omerta was total,’ said the filmmaker, Patrick Charles-Messance, this week. ‘He was an icon, and you don’t touch icons.’"

    1. Sounds familiar – we have that same problem in the UK but it isn't one priest, it is hundreds, if not thousands, of sexual perverts molesting and raping children and teenagers and the PTB turning a blind eye, and in the case of Starmer, actually helping them to avoid prosecution. He, and all the other accomplices, should be brought to account, stripped of their ill-gotten gains and jailed/deported.

  57. 1st bit of outside work done and having a 5 min sit down.
    Mainly swept up the woodchips from using the chain saw and started carrying mushroom trays of sticks down from beside the chopsaw.
    Now plan carrying the Christmas Tree up to it's off duty location and taking the sawhorse up to the next pile of logs for sawing.

    Next break I'll be having a mug of tea!

  59. The world record increase in CO2 has recently been recorded at the world’s benchmark climate monitoring station, Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii.

    Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that form the Island of Hawaii in the U.S. state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Mauna Loa is Earth's largest active volcano by both mass and volume. It was historically considered to be the largest volcano on Earth until Tamu Massif was discovered to be larger.

    Whoever thought of building an international CO2 monitoring station at the top of one of the largest volcanoes in the world? Could the fact that it erupts fairly regularly, the last time ending December 13, 2022, have any effect on the CO2 levels? No, I thought not.

    We are all going to die!

    2. First it was CO2 that was the problem – we bought diesel cars.
      Then it was particulates – we started dumping diesel cars.
      Then it was methane – we started having to eat vegetables instead of cows.
      Now it's sulphate aerosols – we must stop climbing up volcanoes because we've ditched fossil fuelled cars after finding that EV's weren't a viable option

      https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/volcanoes-can-affect-climate

      1. The emissions from the fires in LA have negated all the savings made in the history of the climate scam

    3. First it was CO2 that was the problem – we bought diesel cars.
      Then it was particulates – we started dumping diesel cars.
      Then it was methane – we started having to eat vegetables instead of cows.
      Now it's sulphate aerosols – we must stop climbing up volcanoes because we've ditched fossil fuelled cars after finding that EV's weren't a viable option

      https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/volcanoes-can-affect-climate

  60. https://x.com/True_Belle/status/1880955554916663736 She should have remained just a bit of cheap actressy fluff , and no more .. her instincts were that of an alley cat!

    What a destructive bundle of nonsense that couple are.

    Harry should have listened to his grandfather .

    Do you want to know something , I was banned from commenting on the DT years ago by honestly saying similar things nearly 7 years ago !!!!

    1. "Actresses are for having a bit if fun with – not for marrying." was Prince Philips's advice.

        1. He was a hard man, gave excellent advice to HM the Queen, and I agree, sorely missed.

  61. Sunday 19 January, 2025, Bournville …. a day where the cloud mantle is so deep that it's as if we have been allotted nine hours of twilight before the street-lghts engage.

  63. Another couple of bits done and I'm in for my mug of tea and the potatoes and cabbage have just been put on.
    And just to stop Bill from whinging:-
    Where I have been working:-
    Temporary stack of chopped logs waiting to be stacked undercover as soon as there is space for them:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/31fe1238ade92fd500a665b74bb7cbd3445a1ed1d0f0cf6adb125a6236e50179.jpg
    Sawn logs waiting for splitting and for some reason when trying to post portrait photos, Disqusting is chopping the bottom off:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f9eb445426c792ac1e067d38219f1802cd245478b4556fc6ae4882aa09ce1ce1.jpg
    The Sawhorse
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5011442ce3b64dbe2e2d66ed205eb8d7372678b8dd748c127dfa09f41b9d4e0a.jpg Which is now up the "garden" waiting to do this lot:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/74201ed877d202a75ae16a499fea1ab24ad64a4484480e655b4abadb80de1a7f.jpg You can see the mushroom trays full of sticks behind them.
    And the Christmas tree in its "resting" location:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7a930431b26f9138c619c5e9f707baf7fb1b3bec32c378b1e24582699547e688.jpg Note part of the Via Gellia (on more accurately "Hollin's Mill".
    Here's the older part of it:-

        1. No. That's the older part of the Mill on the other side of the road.
          There was an earlier, much smaller mill which was demolished when that one was built well over 100y ago.

        2. I would be very interested to see a picture of the house in which Bob lives.

          In the 36 years in which we have owned and lived in Le Grand Osier we have changed the place a great deal but we were able to recuperate stones from old ruins in the garden so that what we have built and renovated does not look look new.

          The building on the left was a complete ruin with no roof and we got a professional builder to renovate it because until it was renovated we could not start to run our courses. The renovation was finished in March 1990 and our first course started only a week after the buikders left!

          The garage in the middle was built by me and Chalky to see if we could do it. In fact Chalky did all the skilled work and I worked the cement mixer, did the manual work and sorted out the materials. Caroline did the tedious admin and sorted out the planning permission.

          On the right hand side the bit between the chimneys was the extension we built – again with Chalky's help. We moved into the extension soon after the birth of our first son Christo in 1993.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/60f83f5db13224e3001dbb028b63c5768da277c05617891b9e763b561d4e2d2a.jpg

    3. Indoors looks cosy. Sparky has the right idea. My living room thermometer says 22c. Feels effing freezing outside.

      1. Sue, that’s my daughter’s living room …. (I walked with my daughter to the Garden Centre … it was cold …. and there were few people out and about)

  67. "here we are again, on the eve of The Return of Trumpian Reich, or Morning in America Made Great Again, and the Resistance to the Resistance to the Resistance to Whatever is gathering (because who cares what is actually happening), and the GloboCap Left is hysterically howling, and the Trumpians and Musk Cultists are salivating like Pavlov’s dog over mass deportations, and are drunk on pipe dreams of revenge on the “Libtards,” and the official Covid narrative has been enshrined in history, and actual history is whooshing down the Memory Hole like the contents of an airplane toilet at forty thousand feet, and the New Normal Reich has disappeared into the shadows, because it’s time for Bread and Circus again, and …"
    https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/the-resistance-and-its-double?publication_id=298057&post_id=155144751&isFreemail=true&r=28gmek&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
    Ashes recommended CJ Hopkins's Substack to me and I always enjoy his columns!

  68. I see Charlie Peters of GBN is on a one man crusade to keep the Labour-led graping atrocities Live, and reveals another shocking fact; (though removed on YT)

    A 15 yr-old girl, groomed & graped for more than 2 years, arrested and appeared before the magistrate.. who was [drumroll].. one of her abusers….. and a Labour councilor to boot.

    Judge, jury, executioner.. and participant. Full House!

    1. At least Sadiq Khan is getting to grips with the grape crisis. No dodging the ishoo here. Expect results. Just wish the stooopid questioner could be a little more clearer.
      .
      "situation different waffle waffle.. county lines.. ah but can you define.. here in London issues.. but what do you mean.. why are you nervous.. spell it out.."
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noJCNh60lfk

      2. And this is how Muslims will gain more and more influence in the UK – because they know that anyone calling them out will be accused of 'racism'.

    3. Really couldn't make this sh* up, could we, kbhoy….not really surprised, when Private Eye worth its salt this would have been in the back pages/Paul Foot.

  70. Started watching last night. Just finished watching it. Django Unchained.

    Probably the best film i have seen in years. Recommend.

    1. DeCaprio always good, gives every role his all……..I've seen all his films I think, will check out this one again just to make sure. Thx Phiz x

      1. Tarantino pays homage with love to the best of the Westerns. Even the soundtrack is fantastic. Ennio Moricone no less. Trumpets and whistles !

        1. Cheers, gotta love a bit of Tarantino….on the list, might depend on what Him In the Workshop thinks he’s going to watch…footie…ugh…

          1. It is a bit shocking at times but then given who made it it's no surprise. He even appears in the film. Some might call it conceit. I call it genius.

          3. Guns and splatters !

            I'm watching Anna Haugh Ireland food tour on iplayer at the moment. I never realised how beautiful it is. I understand now why they call it the emerald Isle.

            I want to go there now. Oysters Rockerfeller sold it to me !

          4. Yes, I believe so…have only seen footage, but am told go to the Republic if you really want to see the Irish at play.

          5. Call me stupid but i never really understood the divide. I know there is a lot of hurt and pain but the people and the land are glorious.

            In my mind politics is a dirty word. As are politicians.

          6. You’re not stupid, me neither – something to do with religion, I think – Protestant vs Catholic personified by various politicians. Interesting to note that the Repulic is part of the EU and therefore subject to ECHR, and the NI Agreement ensures parity with the Republic therefore also subject to ECHR…and by extension so is the rest of the UK. Therefore, nothing much the UK can do about immigration numbers, 90% of those being under ECHR. Or so I’m told, this was the explanation I was given by a then CS, a number of years ago. I think many Irish people are happy to be ‘One Ireland’ but very few if any happy with immigration numbers – similar to France, Germany et al….

  71. EcoHealth Alliance, the nonprofit that Dr. Anthony Fauci used to offshore risky gain-of-function research 6 months before the Obama administration banned it, has finally been cut off by the US Government – along with its former president, Peter Daszak, for a period of five years following scrutiny over its work in Wuhan, China ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    The decision by the Department of Health and Human Services was based on findings by the House Oversight Committee, which announced on Friday that EcoHealth and Daszak had been disbarred.

    "Justice for the American people was served today," said Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) in a statement. "Bad actor EcoHealth Alliance and its corrupt former President, Dr. Peter Daszak, were formally debarred by HHS for using taxpayer funds to facilitate dangerous gain-of-function research in China. Today’s decision is not only a victory for the U.S. taxpayer, but also for American national security and the safety of citizens worldwide."

    EcoHealth funding had been suspended in May by HHS, which recommended a permanent ban on funding the nonprofit.
    "Given that a lab-related incident involving gain-of-function research is the most likely origin of COVID-19, EcoHealth and its former President should never again receive a single cent from the U.S. taxpayer," Comer continued.

    As journalist Paul Thacker noted in June, the NIH lied about EcoHealth's gain-of-function research, feeding lies to reporters, while lying to Congress. Meanwhile, former NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci 'prompted' the fabrication of a paper by a cadre of scientists aimed at disproving the Covid-19 lab-leak theory.

    According to US Right to Know, emails obtained in 2020 revealed that a statement in The Lancet authored by 27 prominent public health scientists condemning “conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin” was organized by employees of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit group that has received millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer funding to genetically manipulate coronaviruses with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

    The emails obtained via public records requests show that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak drafted the Lancet statement, and that he intended it to “not be identifiable as coming from any one organization or person” but rather to be seen as “simply a letter from leading scientists”.

    3. "EcoHealth funding had been suspended" ….
      Any chance of the same happening to Fauci and Daszak? As in length of sisal.

  72. Afternoon, all. Cold here – although, thankfully, not of Canadian proportions. It's good of our North-American dwellers (and the Scandis) to remind us that things could be a lot worse!

    It's no use "looking" at the Civil Service, no matter how hard, if all it results in is an enquiry and "lessons will be learned" (they never are). Something needs to be actually done about it.

    1. Hear you, Conway….just to finish our canine conversation…lovely collie turned up here today, I fed n watered, not left my side. Really started to wonder if I could keep when owner turned up…so that's that, unless he returns….

      1. You never know. Kadi is flat out; he's given up pestering for his tea, so I'll wake him up and give it to him now.

        1. It’s that kind of day, wish I could be similarly. Will he eat it if you wake him? what’s on the menu? x

          1. Oh yes, he scoffed the lot. Dish clean enough to put back in the cupboard! 🙂 The remains of the chicken from my sweet and sour (just chicken, I washed all the sauce off) with some working dog kibble. He demanded to go out afterwards – like Charlie, my border, he had to go out and tell the neighbours to brag about it 🙂

          2. Can picture it…:-))) what brand of kibble do you use, Conway…I think my dog (the one with Cushings) needs a change. And I recognise the broadcasting yap…

          3. Just Orlando working dog – being the tax avoider than I am, I choose working dog food (kibble and meat) because it's VAT free. I have become quite knowledgeable about what's VAT rated and what isn't and where possible I choose the zero VAT option. It's the only bit of net zero I agree with!

          6. Dry dog and cat food, Paul…the small round biscuit looking stuff ‘whole food’, I think it upsets a lot of dog digestion especially older ones (their stomach lining thins with age, similar to humans). There’s a lot of choice, number of different brands. Advertised as ‘grain free’ usually, but does contain vegetables, around 50% ‘protein’. Should be soaked for min 5 minutes prior to feeding. The canned food is very similar, that’s what’s called ‘wet’ but similar ingredients. Bit of a racket I reckon, similar to vet fees.

          7. I don't soak the kibble. Never have done; it goes gungy if I do. I feed it dry, albeit in small quantities as a filler. Kadi has plenty of water available.

          8. Me2. I think it’s fairly recent advice…possibly because a number of dogs have developed sickly digestion following a diet of it. What else did you say you feed Kadi, Conway, usually similar to your own meal? Btw..I think the canned stuff is very similar, except ‘wet’ as opposed to ‘dry’..

          9. He gets any meat left over from my meals. He also loves cooked broccoli! Ordinarily I feed him a soup spoonful of working dog meat in jelly with a small amount of dry kibble. He gets that for breakfast and tea. After breakfast he gets a Dentastix for his teeth. He sometimes gets a bone to keep the tartar down. As a treat he gets a rabbit ear (literally), or a pig's ear or a lambskin chew (but I've run out of those and haven't been able to replace them at the moment).

          10. Leftover, brocolli, Dentastix, same here. I used to get those large bones for other dogs I’ve had, but stopped when I noticed they seemed to have the runs. Pig’s ears similarly – do the teeth good but not so much the digestion. The little Border is fine, it’s the Cushings Patterdale has the digestion problems – apparently well-known reading online, there is medication but guess what, expensive – what isn’t these days with vets!

          11. Thanks! We call them cat biscuits, the cats have as much as they want, and share a sachet of quality wet catfood in gravy each morning.

          12. Thanks, too 🙂 what's the brand of wet catfood in gravy please? There might be a canine version, but they're probably similar in any event (and he loves fish…) btw my dog also has Cushings disease, that affects digestion as well as most other aspects, thinner coat etc….

          13. Whiskas our cats prefer, it comes with gravy or jelly (what a choice, eh?). We don’t feed them fish, they develop appalling gas…
            Poor old pooch. That doesn’t sound so much fun.

          14. Going to try him with the Whiskas, at the stage if someone told me to feed him whilst standing on my head singing Dixie I’d likely try that. Interesting the gas from fish (it’s almost all frozen as soon as caught, huge trawlers, or so its reported). Dog loves smoked salmon (don’t we all). Yes, I feel sorry for him, had him since a six week old…went to see a litter, he chose me, came to sit at my feet then on my lap, never been separated since, he’s almost 15 now, not sure how I’ll cope when he goes to the great dog heaven in the sky – he’s otherwise fit and healthy, apart from this digestion issue.

          15. Hope he lasts a lot longer, K. In any case, he’s obviously a good chooser of human… and had a grand life with you, all loved-to-bits and suchlike.

          16. Thank you so much, Paul, for your very kind reply, much appreciated. The little tyke, he’d better frame himself…and back at you, a grand life indeed, all loved-to-bits and suchlike too, Kate xx

          17. It's strange how some dogs just choose you. My red setter was like that; he looked at me and said, "take me!" I hadn't even gone to get a dog; I'd gone with friends who were going to get one. I took him and they ended up not getting a dog at all!

          18. That’s a lovely story, Conway, and a true one…they choose us :-)…I’ve spent the last 24 hrs out of my head worrying about him, he’s now in his basket, legs akimbo, snoring head off. Thankfully.

          19. You shouldn't worry about things you can't change, only the things you can. May you have the grace to know the difference; you'll have a better life!

    2. Morning, Conway. Yup – bit chilly this mornin' over 'ere. Wood stove keeping up with it though – and steak and eggs for breakfast so musn't grumble.

        1. One summer when I was a student I worked as a roustabout on an oil rig in the North Sea and they served T-bone steaks with fried eggs for breakfast!

          1. That's where I first started it – although I was on the other side of the kitchen counter. Breakfast of champions.

          2. No chance without loads of deportations.I don’t want a “vibrant” country, and they can stick their diversity where the sun doesn’t shine.

          6. I was born there, grew up when it was a lovely and civilised city, and now loathe it. Well, not it, but what it has become, largely because of the people in it now and what they have done to it.

    2. Percy Faith's sumptuous Theme From 'A Summer Place', another favourite of mine from the 1960s, when it was played incessantly between films at the Odeon cinema.

      Is that correct, Auntie Elsie?😊

  74. Hey Grizzly. Yeah – it's the Sunday Special on the winter menu. Helps to remind me what day it is – at least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it…

  75. Good afternoon folks,

    Was persuaded to go to Kingston shopping.
    The alternative was doing the garden outside in the cold.
    There seemed to be a lot of bargains going, especially tv's
    Perhaps because there is not much worth watching nowadays.
    I dread going to Kingston, always seem to pick up a parking fine or for some infringement or other

        1. You would have to pay me a great deal to go back to Londonistan. Even then I'm not sure, and I was born, brought up, and lived and worked most of my life there. I loved it. Is it really better to have loved and lost…etc., I sometimes wonder?

        2. Oh wow. That’s above and beyond the call of duty.

          When i have more time i will expand on the connection between Benthall Hall in Broseley and the Benthall Centre in Kingston upon Thames.

          If you thought you saw me about 2:30 pm on the one-way system on my motorbike, you did.

  76. Given it's a Sunday, Quintin Letts is terribly unkind about Stoma.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-14301853/QUENTIN-LETTS-Starmers-mishap-crisis-teetotal-missionary-Man-Wrong-Answers-comeuppance.html

    QUENTIN LETTS: Starmer's lurching from boob to mishap – but the minute there's a crisis he locks himself in the loo. After claiming to be as pure as a teetotal missionary, the Man With All The Wrong Answers is about to get his comeuppance…

    14:11, 19 January 2025
    By QUENTIN LETTS FOR THE DAILY MAIL

    Published: 11:57, 19 January 2025 |

    "These are bumpy days for Lords of the Bedchamber. They, in history, were a king’s most intimate courtiers, their fortunes closely allied to those of the monarch they served.

    The bedchamber title may have faded but the psychological need for political confidants remains. Today we call them ‘friends of the Prime Minister’. There are always a few of them and sometimes, as happened last week in Sir Keir Starmer’s circle, they come a cropper.

    On Tuesday Tulip Siddiq MP, a personal favourite of the Prime Minister, self-vaporised as a Treasury minister. In events worthy of a Joe Orton satire, anti-corruption minister Tulip herself became entangled in corruption allegations linked to her aunt’s former regime in Bangladesh.

    Sir Keir tried to resist the inevitable, hoping that his little friend could be saved for the nation. It was not to be. Snip, snip went the secateurs and on to the compost heap flew Tulip. Sir Keir took the loss bitterly.

    That same day the Foreign Office told a disconsolate PM that his wheeze to surrender the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, and to pay that country £9 billion while renting back a Chagos air base we already own, would have to be delayed.

    This crazy plan, which could now be vetoed by Donald Trump after his inauguration as US President tomorrow, was much promoted by one Philippe Sands KC. Mr Sands – or should that be Monsieur Sands, for he is half-French? – is another ‘friend of the Prime Minister’. He was filmed in 2023 bragging that he had ‘humiliated’ the British Government in the international courts.

    Maybe he spoke too soon. Sir Keir, when teased about his closeness to this bungler, snapped a single-word reply. The Prime Minister was plainly not amused.

    And then the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, caught a crab. His lordship is Sir Keir’s oldest chum at the bar and, like Philippe Sands, gave thousands of pounds in political donations to achieve a Starmer government.

    On politics and law, particularly radical Left-wing intergovernmentalism, the young Hermer and Starmer were inseparable idealogues, blood brothers in the fight against the capitalist West and its populist urges.

    They believed not so much in national borders as in a world order dominated by global quangos under the aegis of ‘international law’. In pursuit of such ideals Lord Hermer, a smarmy fellow who needs no convincing of his intellectual brilliance, was on the verge of discreetly securing a change in the law that could have obliged the Government to pay damages to Gerry Adams.

    How he and his old comrade Keir, in days of yore, would have relished such an outcome! But these days Sir Keir has public opinion to consider.

    Did Lord Hermer keep Downing Street informed of his potentially incendiary concession to Adams (who, by the by, previously paid the very same Hermer a reported £30,000 to act as his barrister)? Maybe not.

    On Wednesday morning, when the Policy Exchange think-tank published an exposé of Lord Hermer’s legislative scheming, a

    large shovel of ordure hit the No 10 air conditioning. Sir Keir was confronted about the controversy in the House of Commons and blurted that he would do everything he could to stop Adams being paid a penny of taxpayers’ money.

    To use bedchamber terminology, it looked as if Lord Hermer had just been flushed down the thunderbox.

    ‘Friends of the Prime Minister’ are intriguing not so much in themselves – they are usually expendable – as for what their presence can tell us about their patrons. In the 1920s, the Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George was befriended by Maundy Gregory, a theatre producer and upper-class pimp who sold peerages on Lloyd George’s behalf.

    Half a century later, the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson appointed his pal Joe Kagan to the House of Lords. Lithuania-born Kagan, a raincoat manufacturer, so flaunted his new connections that he earned the attentions of MI5 and the Inland Revenue, and was sent to prison for tax evasion.

    Edward Heath’s dearest friend, at least in the political sense, was an ardently Europhile Tory MP, Madron Seligman. It was Seligman who on the fall of Margaret Thatcher in 1990 telephoned Heath and said ‘rejoice, rejoice’.

    Tony Blair, ever prodigal, had a whole raft of New Labour best buddies. ‘Tony’s Cronies’ included Michael ‘cash for honours’ Levy, the constitution-smashing Charles Falconer and fragrant Anji Hunter, all three now in the Lords.

    Mrs Thatcher was close to her war-hero colleague Airey Neave and later to the somewhat gamier advertising man Lord (Tim) Bell.

    Boris Johnson did not have an obvious best pal, save perhaps for Dilyn the dog, but he often appeared to be swarmed by his publicity-prone family. He promoted his brother Jo to the upper house.

    To be ‘the Prime Minister’s friend’ must, at first, be a fine thing. The best restaurant tables materialise. Ambitious mandarins suddenly express fascination in your pet projects.

    There are invitations to dinners. Non-executive directorships may be wafted under your nose and peerages plop into your lap like autumn damsons.

    But one other, less congenial thing ensues: public scrutiny. This finished off Tulip Siddiq and it has done Messrs Sands and Hermer little good, no matter how much they may scorn populist opinion. It has also damaged Sir Keir Starmer and the Government he is so palpably, painfully struggling to lead.

    What a hash the booby is making of it. When he took office he made a vainglorious claim that the grown-ups were back in charge.

    ‘I promise a new purpose,’ he honked in that adenoidal voice.

    ‘We will drag politics in the country back to service and tilt our economy back towards the interests of working people.’ How wonderful those words might have seemed. But how hollow they now ring. Many of us may suspect that the much-derided Sunak government made a much better fist of economic stability.

    In her first Budget, Sir Keir’s Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, succeeded only in tilting the economy back towards higher interest payments for working people’s mortgages.

    Those same working people he claimed to champion have had their jobs imperilled by a National Insurance rise that the Labour manifesto had seemed to preclude.

    Farmers were driven to despair after being whacked by a new inheritance tax. Meanwhile Sir Keir’s Education Secretary, the class-warrior ‘Scary Bridget’ Phillipson, has taken her mallet to independent education, imposing 20 per cent VAT on private school fees. Not satisfied with that destructive policy, she also intends to remove the academic focus from academy schools, one of the successes of both the Blair and the Conservative-led governments of the past quarter of a century.

    On top of all this, Ed Miliband is charging about Westminster like a loon, trousers flapping and tongue waving like a wind-sock while his zeal for net zero adds thousands of pounds to household living costs.

    How will more expensive domestic boilers and family cars ‘tilt our economy towards the interests of working people’?

    Sir Keir’s promised ‘Government of service’ has looked more like a Government of self-service. Sue Gray, his first chief of staff at No 10, stamped her pretty shoes on the carpet and demanded a salary of £170,000, more than the PM himself was paid.

    Starmer the Righteous was slow to see this for the outrage it was. It was several weeks before Ms Gray left Downing Street and she has since been rewarded for her bad behaviour with a peerage. So that’s what Labour’s manifesto meant by ‘House of Lords reform’!

    Sir Keir drearily intones that he is the man to take ‘tough decisions’. When those decisions are close to home, he scarpers like a nudist from a snapping crocodile.

    That certainly happened with Louise Haigh, whom he made Transport Secretary even though she had been convicted of fraud.

    When the story broke, Sir Keir was painfully slow to realise that Ms Haigh was a goner. This from the man who denounced Tory leaders for their lack of moral clarity and executive despatch.

    It was the same last week when he promoted Treasury minister Emma Reynolds to become the new City and anti-corruption minister, even though she previously worked as a lobbyist for Chinese interests. Among all those Labour backbenchers at Westminster was there really no one with a more hygienic curriculum vitae?

    Ms Reynolds may not have broken any rules but it didn’t look good. In politics, that matters.

    What does ‘leader’ Starmer do at these recurring moments of crisis? Does he gather a council of war or does he lock himself in the loo and refuse to talk to anyone who is not an old friend from the bar?

    He displays no ear for political trouble and, for that matter, little notion of the British national interest. Maybe that is what happens when you have spent most of

    your life in high-falutin’ legal sets where they think intergovernmental bodies matter more than national electorates.

    The Chagos Isles surrender is an act of obvious and needless national self-harm. Nor has he done us much good with his sullen attitude to President-elect Trump.

    Soon Sir Keir will travel to Brussels to suck up to the EU, which is another of those supra-national organisations that he, Monsieur Sands and the slightly sinister Lord Hermer so worship.

    Lurching from boob to mishap, miscue to blooper, Sir Keir curls his lip at critics and insists it is all going swimmingly.

    You might not want to be the press aide tasked with telling him what the public prints have been saying, or informing him of his latest personal polling figures.

    At press conferences and in the Commons he has become peevish and snarky, the opposite of statesmanlike. At PMQs last week he yobbishly gloated that the public had put the Conservatives ‘in the bin’ at the last election.

    It was a revealing moment for allegedly so lofty a lawyer. There is no novelty in his phrases ever, no grace in his gait and no evidence of a hinterland beyond the fact that he was once a reasonable flautist.

    He does not read novels. His speeches are prosaic. He has no wit. This is our Prime Minister. Donald Trump will eat him for brunch.

    There have been so many gaffes in these first six months that the early scandal about Lord Alli now feels like ancient history.

    Come, come, you remember munificent Lord Alli. He was the Labour peer who bought a wardrobe of expensive new clothes for male-mannequin Sir Keir.

    And not just clothes. He even paid for his new spectacles. At the same time Lord Alli was given a security pass that allowed him to come and go in No 10 as he pleased. This ‘passes for glasses’ sensation coincided with Sir Keir’s decision to stop millions of old-age pensioners receiving their winter fuel allowances.

    That was not the end of his free-loading. There were boxes at football matches. And he and Lady Starmer accepted valuable tickets to see Taylor Swift twice in concert.

    Charming as it was to see the Starmers together for once, it all started to whiff a bit when we learned that Ms Swift had – on the say, not least, of Lord Hermer! – been given the sort of police motorcade normally reserved for visiting heads of state.

    Back in July, Sir Keir looked the country in the eye and claimed to be as pure as a teetotal missionary. Six months on we see the comeuppance of a petulant prig, The Man With All The Wrong Answers.

    Can we call it poetic justice? To adapt the literary allusion, we were led to believe he would be as steadfast and honourable as Mr Valiant-For-Truth in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.

    It turns out that the Bunyan characters he more closely resembles are Messrs Obstinate, Pliable and Timorous.

    With the next election not due until 2029, it could be a very, very long four years."

    1. Well that was a very satisfactory read. Just one quibble – tickets for Taylor Swift concerts may be expensive, they can NOT reasonably be described as "valuable" – unless QL was being snarky.

      The Daily Sceptic article linked early this morning used the word "technocrat" or "technocracy" to describe the new system of government being pushed by TPTB.
      This article comes perilously close as well, with Letts admitting that "They believed not so much in national borders as in a world order dominated by global quangos under the aegis of ‘international law’. "

      Is the dam finally breaking, and are normies going to be told by mainstream figures that a shadowy group of ultra rich people are currently mounting a coup to replace nation states with a non-democratic one world government where the masses will be controlled by technology?
      Or are journalists now allowed to use these terms in order to prep people for it when it comes out from the shadows?

    2. "Among all those Labour backbenchers at Westminster was there really no one with a more hygienic curriculum vitae?" Probably not; this is what happens when you follow box-ticking rules and quotas.

  77. I see that that they are closing a bar in parliament because of an alleged spiked drink
    I'm wondering now if golf clubs will have to now close their spike bars.

    2. Bloodnock: Little does he know that I am as clever as the next man.

      Eccles: Little does he know that I am the next man!

    3. I belive its changed a bit since I spent a week with 6 friends celebrating my 21st birthday.

    4. Traveled to Harrogate today to attend a family member’s funeral tomorrow, just seen the gritter in action outside my hotel.
      Never mind off to Australia on Thursday, must remember the sun screen.

    1. Bruce Everiss
      2h
      It's a funny thing, but putting the word 'social' in front of almost any word somehow succeeds in inverting the meaning … 'social justice', 'social care', 'social security,' 'social contract' …

    1. I want to go too.

      We have people on here who have yachts.

      People who have Chateaux.

      I implore you all to look down the back of your sofas to crowd fund me !

      2. The difference between normal people and Lefties is that normal people see someone with a nice car or house and think 'I want to earn my way to that.'

        A Lefty thinks 'I must take that from them so they cannot have it. More, I must destroy that which they have for myself as only I know what it should be spent on.'

    2. When the Warqueen started earning properly she set up systems to keep her money away from the government. Apparently it was 'trivially simple'. As she said, it's the difference between 24k a month or 9. Oddly, she was a bit motivated. These were the same tax structures she sold to her clients and advised on. The state is utterly stupid and gormless. If it taxed less, it would raise more. It is someone smashing a fist into a water barrel and thinking if it smashes again and again the few drops it manages to grasp are more.

      It hasn't considered taking less from vastly more because the hard Left state is packed with fools.

      2. Great, unless you are PAYE. A lot of lawyers aren’t- they are self-employed and can fiddle accordingly.

        I shall never forget Len Livingstone wondering why people don’t employ their nanny through their personal services company. Which shows how put of touch he was, even then, even as a socialist.

        Edit. Ken.

      3. Great, unless you are PAYE. A lot of lawyers aren’t- they are self-employed and can fiddle accordingly.

        I shall never forget Len Livingstone wondering why people don’t employ their nanny through their personal services company. Which shows how put of touch he was, even then, even as a socialist.

        Edit. Ken.

      4. It no longer seems like taxing us to raise money, but taxing to deprive us of our cash and to make our lives hard, difficult and best of all (from their point of view)…. miserable.

          1. They usually try to disguise the spite but this lot are so brazen and in-yer-face with it.

  82. Wordle No. 1,310 4/6

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

    Wordle 19 Jan 2025

    A paddling Par Four?

    1. The dreaded -O-ER which has done for me on at least two previous occasions. I was starting to feel a little concerned but I remembered a little rhyme that has served me well in the past – 'If it's starting to trouble you, go for a W!

      Very fortunate par!

      Wordle 1,310 4/6

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

        1. Yes, it doesnt feature in my three starter words, and it's surprising how often it has helped me.

          1. Noted!
            I have a stock of standard second words that contain S, T and R, but beyond that I hadn’t extended my algorithm so to speak.

    2. A just in time here.

      Wordle 1,310 6/6

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

      3. Outta time, me

        Wordle 1,310 X/6

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

    3. Almost a Par. Should have taken another minute!

      Wordle 1,310 5/6

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

    4. I foolishly tried to find more clues

      Wordle 1,310 5/6

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

    5. Confession. I realised there were way too many options and looked for a clue. The clue pertained to the structure of the word rather than the meaning but it was all I needed.

      Wordle 1,310 4/6

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

      1. How about the judge being frit that the family or "communities" of the convicted will take it out on him? IMO that is the reason for a lot of these lenient sentences.

        1. Maybe, I think it's more likely the judge was carefully chosen to ensure he would give the 'right' result to protect the Left wing state.

    6. That's all very true, so I hope it's sent around the world and our useless government will be punished, along with the last government morons.

  84. Hullo all, went to the urgent treatment centre and was told I've a fungal infection. I've special drops but a swab needs to be taken tomorrow, so will put that in for the docs, as well as getting this prescription.

    Annoyingly we are rather low on fodda as no one has shopped (as the only other adult is somewhat absent minded).

    Thank you for your advice, suggestions and support!

    1. Get well soon, wibbling 🙂 I get my Morrisons food order home delivered. Other choices are Sainsburys, Tesco, for home delivery. Good luck, Kate x

        1. Unfortunately, no Waitrose here. Aldi/Lidl can be good for meat, dairy, alcohol, and fresh fruit n veg if you go early and on delivery day. My mother loved shopping especially markets, dragged me around with her, possibly why I don’t like it 😀

          1. Hi KJ. We never buy milk from Aldi as they use Arla milk, that’s from cows who have been ‘treated’ with some product to stop them farting. Don’t like the idea of more chemicals being added to what should be a natural product. Don’t know about Lidl.

          2. Hear you, vw. I suspect it’s in all milk/dairy products, and likely there are other additives to other foodstuffs we know nothing about – as yet. Morrisons used to have their own farms in Sir Ken’s days. UK has a much larger population to feed nowadays, so it’s no surprise food is bulked accordingly 🙁

          3. We get deliveries from a local dairy which actually sent out a circular telling us that their milk did not come from such sources.

        2. I seem to recall a dim n distant memory, wibbling…that Morrisons and Waitrose were both served by Ocado(?)..possibly not today, was some time ago.. I will say this about Morrisons, the staff I’ve met are good, all drivers so far are men, and all cheerful. Sainsburys were often young women/men – they shouldn’t be continuously lifting heavy weights if their bones not fully developed, imo. Hope Waitrose give you good service 🙂

    2. Sorry to read that, wibbling but delighted you’ve been seen and prescribed something. My husband left his infection too long as he was ‘busy’ and ended up with labyrinthitis and a significant loss of hearing.

      1. Apologies, I seem to downticked by accident – that'd be the tremors!

        Aye, bit annoying I can't get it started today but hey ho. First thing tomorrow.

    3. Good for you, hope things improve very soon! Do you have a take-away that delivers or something like that? Treat yourselves (if their food is decent!).

      1. Tonight is a rather boring pizza but we need to get proper food in – vegetables, salads, meat.

        I'm actually a bit ticked off that despite the dogs all going a bit mental at 5 the wife didn't think to feed them.

      1. Me too. I dreaded most my head swelling up as I didn't have any proper pain killers. I do now, but the pressure on my skull and brain had me MRId for damage last time.

        It'll be FINE!!

    5. Thank goodness you listened to us (in a manner of speaking).
      I hope you weren't kept hanging around too long.

  85. Hullo all, went to the urgent treatment centre and was told I've a fungal infection. I've special drops but a swab needs to be taken tomorrow, so will put that in for the docs, as well as getting this prescription.

    Annoyingly we are rather low on fodda as no one has shopped (as the only other adult is somewhat absent minded).

    Thank you for your advice, suggestions and support!

  87. That's me for this really depressing day. Grey and gloomy throughout AND cold. Same again tomorrow. Wonderful this global boiling – makes one feel so thrilled to be alive.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

    1. Hello Bill. Although the low temperatures over here (northern Ontario) are far colder than anything in my native Cumbria – there is one consolation in that when it's really cold, it's always blue sky and sunshine not gloomy. We're at the high temperature for the day, and it's -25C, but you need sunglasses to step outside. Not that I plan on stepping outside you understand….

        1. Hello fellow igloo dweller. Norway was the coldest place I’d lived (although it was only for 4 months) before up here. It’s a beautiful country, and was on my short list when I was looking to bail.

      2. You have sunshine up there? It's up to minus 8 down by lake ontario but it clouded over this morning.

        1. Hello Richard! Pleased to meet you. Yes, azure sky and golden sun, and has been since the dawn. Given the low tonight is -35C I think we'll be in for more of the same until around Wednesday. Barometer has been climbing steadily.

          2. Almost balmy down hers then, for the next few days it is probably going down to -16C or so at night.
            It was actually around zero a day ago

          3. Colder than -10C this morning, and then the sun came out. Lovely! There was even some warmth in it, too.

          4. I was in Stavanger working as a sous chef in a seafood restaurant, but did get to travel around the place. I loved my time there.

          5. Neat! I live a little West of Oslo, not the coldest location. Firstborn lives up-country, it's much colder there.
            Somewhere below, there's a picture taken this morning from his kitchen window. Loadsa snow, and sunshine.

          6. The one with the cat from poster LD?

            I got the (5) dogs out this morning, but it was 15 minutes to fill a sledge with firewood then back inside. Wife is down visiting the kid, and I was left with strict instructions not to do anything effing stupid.

          7. Bob of Bonsall fame will be jealous, he has to carry his firewood without the assistance of a sledge.

          9. The horror.

            If only there were some kind of circular devices we could attach to the bottom of the sledge to make it easier when there isn’t any snow…. :prepares Dragon’s Den pitch:

          16. Afternoon, GQ!

            I’m finding it a bit odd to have another place to post after only ever being a poster in one place before.

          21. I used to know someone in Stavanger; she came to our church when I was living in Colchester. Lost touch years ago, of course.

          22. Probably stood out as the only one not wearing a coat in January. It’s a generalisation of course, but I found everyone I met was just really nice.

          23. I spent some time just up the road in Bergen, the biggest problem was how it only ever got almost dark in summer.

          24. I didn’t get to experience that. If I recall correctly I was there from November to April – it was back when I was in my 20’s and full of piss and vinegar – but I can remember the same ‘Spring is coming!’ vibe as I now have up here.

          25. Had a run ashore there in perhaps 1995ish. Our shore Party Manager had given us an open bar at one of the harbour front hostelries and I remember the barman kept waking me up to say say it was illegal to sleep at the bar.

          26. Had a run ashore there in perhaps 1995ish. Our shore Party Manager had given us an open bar at one of the harbour front hostelries and I remember the barman kept waking me up to say say it was illegal to sleep at the bar.

          27. Give or take a year, that was about the same for me, M.

            Kitchen wasn’t allowed to drink in the front of house after service was completed, we had to spend all our money somewhere else. Probably the same bar….

        2. Hello Richard! Pleased to meet you. Yes, azure sky and golden sun, and has been since the dawn. Given the low tonight is -35C I think we'll be in for more of the same until around Wednesday. Barometer has been climbing steadily.

      3. How do you cope with really extreme cold .
        Does your car freeze up , and how about your heating in your home, what do use use to keep warm .

        Do you have triple glazing , and what on earth do you wear to keep warm outside .

        1. When you get it regularly you cope better than with occasional cold snaps; when I was in Canada people wore down jackets, had well insulated houses and didn't spend much time outside if going from one place to another. Besides the snow is dry; you can't make snowmen out of it. I was surprised to see six foot drifts of snow and plastic snowmen!

        2. Hello, Belle.

          The cars have block heaters, so you plug them in every night if you think you’ll need them the following day. Traditionally it was to save cold-start wear and tear on the engine from oil that would be more like sludge. These days with cold weather synthetic oil, it’s more about being able to get warm air into the cabin more quickly.

          As for the home, we burn our own wood in the winter – for heat and hot water. We have lots of wooded land, so pulling the dead trees means it’s ‘free’. I also don’t have a traditional job, so plenty of time to drag, split, cut the stuff in the warmer months. For Spring and Autumn, I built a DIY solar thermal system that does the water and underfloor heating without needing to burn wood. It’s basically a hosepipe coiled into a box painted black that feeds to the hot water system – but it can’t be used when it’s freezing as I use water, not a water/glycol mix.

          As for inside, we keep it around 23C which means we get to lounge around in tee shirts and shorts. We do have triple glazing on the south facing windows – they are an amazing source of passive solar when the sun is out and the weather is at it’s coldest.

          The house is not well insulated, as it was build around 1920 – and there is a limit to what you can retrofit without spending a bloody fortune.

  88. Never rains, but pours. A longstanding friend in the Glasgow area died this morning, four and a half years after his Motor Neurone Disease diagnosis.

      1. No, it isn’t. He was the first husband of my now sister-in-law. It was an amicable divorce.

      1. When I was working and people asked how I was, I always replied, “On top of the world”, because I thought someone, somewhere would be in a worse place than me, but at times like this…

        1. Yes. We do that. I'm fine how are you.

          I have had visits from the 'black dog' recently.

          It is important to remember good times and not focus on the things that cause us pain.

          Nottle is a place we can talk.

      1. Indeed. I can’t begin to think how his widow will be having lost her first husband to oesophagal cancer around the millennium.

        2. Oof! She'll be neeting some qualiy mates to support her, for sure.
          An aside: Tht's what carried my Father off, and his first wife too. Father in 1997.

    6. Oh eric, what a shock for you, and his family. Not a happy start to the year for you.

    7. My condolences to you, Eric, and to the grieving family of your longstanding friend.

    8. Holy smoke.
      2025 really has not been kind to you and yours.
      My deepest sympathies to you.

          1. And who knows what happens tomorrow with the pissin match between Trump and Trudeau. There could easily be major tariffs on Canadian goods into the US and our village idiot is threatening countervailing tariffs on American goods.

            Anything to avoid controlling the border and cutting drugs, guns and illegal immigration

          3. He's technically in place till the Liberals choose between Freeland and Carney, which I think is March at the latest. Nominations for the leadership contest don't close until late January.

          4. If he goes, there have been rumblings about him changing his mind.
            His replacements are probably no better unless you think that Mark Carney is good for the country. O guarantees that we can get rid of the liberals before October.

          5. If he changes his mind, he’s going to need to promise the NDP something big – or else he’s back to a Pierre P vote of no confidence on the first day of Parliament. I would think Singh is weighing up the consequences for him if he keeps *any* Liberal leader in power till the scheduled GE.

          11. I hope I am too, Ndovu :-)) Did you see Trump last night, I stayed up for a while but didn’t watch the whole thing.

          14. And they will want to get the financial crash out of the way quickly so that they can blame Biden!!

          16. Been building ever since they started recklessly creating dollars.

            Having a fiat currency as the world reserve currency was perhaps not the greatest idea…not for us anyway. It has worked OK for the ultra rich who have used it to loot the world.

          17. Isn’t that what the super-rich have always done, tho, BB2. And likely always will. Sunak didn’t get far with his CBDC, I thought in a way we already have that with debit/credit cards which we need to get cash out of the bank, and buy anything. What’s the expresssion…helically challenged?

          18. No!
            Looting by bankers has always centred around fractional reserve banking, i.e. giving out and using slips of paper claiming that they had more gold than they really had, and relying on not every depositor wanting to redeem their gold at the same time.
            This has always been a profitable scam until it breaks down, but it’s never before been done on the same scale as in the past half century. It was always done locally in just one city or country. Since they stared playing this scam over the whole world, corrupt elites have benefited to the tune of trillions of dollars and a huge slice of the world’s actual physical wealth – land, water and minerals.

            Our fiat money that is digitally represented by plastic cards is not a digital currency, because you always have the option of taking it in cash and using it anonymously. This option holds bankers and governments to some rules that they would rather shed, the better to oppress us with.
            The option to use cash is all that’s protecting us from complete tyranny at the moment.

            Like the other technocratic agendas, CBDCs sneak forward under cover of media blackout. I think it will fail after a lot of suffering and strife if they ever do try it in Britain – it’s gone down like a lead balloon in other countries. But we haven’t had the fiat currency collapse yet – people may be begging for “solutions” when that happens. I think that is the plan.
            Sunak was nothing more than a bit part actor making a commercial for the (world wide) CBDC plan.

          19. Think the point I was trying to make in my usual half-arsed way was that most people (including children) are used to using a bit of plastic with a pin number to purchase whatever they wish. And they like it – actual cash perceived as being quite dirty, notes and coins having passed through many hands. And if you’re a business, no need to go to the bank to deposit cash, it’s all done for you by card. At one time, tradespeople would give a discount if paid in cash, no more – everyone has a bank account, and you can’t be robbed as easily if you don’t carry several hundred pounds of cash. I don’t disagree with your points in any way, BB2, just pointing out that most folks see the convenience of a card (including morning coffee/croissant, no need for pin, just tap the card). And most trying to keep head above water at present – ‘economic crisis’ and all that. Yes, Sunak in favour, what brought my attention to it. Politicians aka robbers eh!

          20. The idea of cash being dirty is a wicked lie. First, it isn’t particularly – people who handle cash don’t have worse health than others. And secondly, silver is a very effective natural anti-bacterial agent!
            So if we had honest money – gold, silver and copper being the monetary metals – most of our money for day-to-day stuff would contain silver, and it would be naturally clean.

            The whole narrative that we are fed around money and monetary metals is a pack of lies designed to make people believe that honest money is undesirable and that dishonest schemes that simulate money are desirable. Anything to keep actual money out of ordinary people’s hands!

            Sorry, I am ranting a bit but I do feel strongly on this subject!

          21. I agree with you BB2, it’s not what I think but what I think various authorities think – and if you think that’s ranting you should hear me on the ‘Green Agenda’…..don’t let’s start..espresso/s first and off we go…see you in a while, Kate x.

          22. The trial if Axel Rudukabana, the muslim who tried to kill the Army major in Kent just prior to Axel Rurukabana’s successful murder attempt in Southport and Ricki “Slit their throats” Jones?

            Shall we open a book? I reckon Jones will get away with it, and Rudukabana and the Major-wannabee-killer will plead mental ‘elth and get away with it too.

          24. Didn't know about the prior major, Mir. But this whole trial stinks and will stink to even higher heaven, I predict. The labour man who called for the throats of those that disagreed with him to be cut (amongst those only too willing so to do) should have been banged up immediately. But he isn't, and he won't be, under our several tier system a la 1984.

          25. They hushed up the Army Officer stabbing, but not before a photo was posted of a black man on a scooter.

          26. Yup!!! I am childishly excited, Connors – even though I do expect the ususal disappointment.

    1. What a fucking disgrace. Sorry to swear (sort of sorry but, y'know). This is horrendous for so many reasons.

      1. Nice try, opo, but no offence taken. I've been saying 'who voted for him?'…seriously, would like to see a breakdown of the numbers. Far as I could throw him.

        1. Those that don’t pay for anything vote for him: those who earn so much money they have elaborate tax arrangements, and those on benefits.

      2. Your language is indeed a disgrace, Opo. You completely fail to mention that he is an unmitigated tw*t…….

  92. Daughter up from Soton as she has a meeting in London. We are going to “Fulham” for 8:30 pm to pick up some bags of soil for her garden….

      1. Talking of Rock 'n' Roll, I only just realised a few days ago why Bill Hayley called his supporting group The Comets: Hayley's Comet.

        1. I thought it was because they liked shopping in a now defunct retailer of electrical goods?

  96. We have finished our supper, small chunk of roast pork(leg ) mashed potato , roasted parsnips , roasted later with the nearly cooked pork , greens and carrots , moh and son like sage and onion stuffing , I am not so keen on onions , and meat juice gravy.

    The skin was beautifully crackled and crunchy , and the pork was delicious , so we will have enough left for another meal tomorrow.

    Just trying to think positively , so apols for being boring .

    Son completed his run across country run to Weymouth in brilliant time , and then he caught the train home , whereupon I picked him up from our local station .. he was splattered with mud , and quite tired .

    From here he ran through a wood and caught up with the coastal path

    2. We were going to have pork but by the time we arrived home I'd decided to go for a quick dinner and we'll have the pork tomorrow instead.

  97. For my sins I was given a ticket to a 6 part Creative Photography course,. (At the time other than my phone I didn't and never had owned a proper camera). Homework for part 2 was to select a subject and then photograph it during the day as the light changes. Given it has been grey and the forecast is for continuing grey I decided to improvise with this box of delights:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba7f408d9c038d1392b1226ae18cfeeaf3de6edd46006424698750adb0bf4d6a.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ba9dc489d2291bfaf829c7768c58f479fd053c90d29c5dc2451194310c9f012.jpg

    1. I have a proper camera but it’s a proper proper camera that needs 35mm film. These days my phone has to do. (My favourite was a Kodak Instamatic 126 that did long exposure. Those were the days!)

      1. 10 minutes research persuaded me to buy a mirrorless digital camera. Until last Thursday I had no idea what Apertures were and I've still to work out the relevance of ISO…..

        1. I find I don't need to know anything about apertures and F stops – I set my camera to auto and concentrate on framing and getting the subject right.

        2. Mine's just a basic SLR. The technical stuff is lost on me. I was quite pleased with my efforts in Brazil though.

    2. Nice piece of agate(?) and is that uncoloured amber? The 2 blue bits look vaguely like mineralised gastropods. Probably miles off.

      1. Lovely pic. I’d love a garden but I couldn’t maintain one. I need to retire to a nursing home with nice grounds.

      4. Sun and flowers.
        We seem to be at the furthest point from that blissful state; whether looking forward or back.

        1. Indeed. When I took the photo the Rhodo Pink Perfection on the right was about 48 years old and the Orange Azalea about 46 years old. Both had been moved three times previously before being plantred there.

          1. Okay, I envy you having created it, even if you left it behind. Mine, strive as I might, doesn't approach that harmony and peace.

    2. No, but close by! Seems a basement flat had dug out its garden. Loads on offer but we could realistically only take 4 sacks – it’s heavy old stuff to put in a Corsa. Think the chap has tons of it so we have barely made a dent. But it’s got to get back to Southampton! I may see if i can get some more for her later.

    1. A Zenit E one presumes?
      Or was it the much later version with a through the lens meter?

      1. No, I had a separate meter. Being mathematically challenged, having astigmatism and not yer world's most practical, it wasn't a great success!

        1. A Zenit B then!!
          My 1st SLR was an E, then I moved on to a couple of Fujicas and then a Nikon FM and I've largely stayed with Nikons ever since, other than a couple of very handy sized Olympus mu pocket cameras that were excellent to use but not what you could term "Squaddie Proof".

  102. I maybe wrong but I think if I set the dial to A (Aperture Priority) it automatically calculates light and exposure time required – although these things can be adjusted manually – so I'm told!

  106. Lovely concert this afternoon! Three very talented female string players – the Veles Trio. They started with Haydn and finished with Beethoven and in between we had three Hungarian composers – Kodaly, Dohnanyi and Leo Weiner. And we had an encore! A Tango!. The girls are all Eastern European – Romanian, Bulgarian and Polish.

  107. No chance! They'll all be let off with warnings if they can even identify them, let alone catch them.

  109. Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have agreed to be interviewed under caution in connection with a pro-Palestinian rally that took place in central London on Saturday, it is understood.

    The former Labour leader and former shadow chancellor will voluntarily attend a police station on Sunday as Scotland Yard continues to investigate what it has said was a co-ordinated effort by organisers to breach conditions imposed on a rally, the BBC reported.

    The Metropolitan Police said that three men, aged 75, 73 and 61, would voluntarily attend a police station in central London on Sunday afternoon to be interviewed under criminal caution.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/19/10-charged-pro-palestine-protest-central-london/

  112. We all did – A stream in a grammar school. It was a real pressure cooker atmosphere when I look back on it, but it just seemed normal at the time. 9 O Levels in 4 years and all academic subjects (French, English Language, Art, Biology, Maths, History, Latin, Geography, Scripture Knowledge).

  114. The 'Agate is a box. The 3 spherical objects – just paperweights. The Bristol blue is genuine. The upside down blue cup has an inscription:
    'Dr Breedlove
    1804
    His Cup'

  115. Our much liked neighbours are now on holiday , visiting the usual Far East Attractions .

    I gather that other golfing members will also be there at the same time

    Vietnam , Thailand and Cambodia are a huge tourist draw ..

    I guess one has to compare notes and talk about something over coffee .

    I can remember when the Vietnam / Cambodia war took it's toll of American servicemen .

    During the year me and my group of RN student nurses were based in Malta in the late '60s, we were invited on board US warships for tours etc , the American sailors recounted some dreadful stories about the frightening time many of them were exposed to during the conflict .

    Older son did all of Australia / Vietnam . Cambodia / Thailand thing as well as following the cricket in Oz, in the late 80's and 90's , and came home with some very graphic stories .
    He also lived in Kuala Lumpur for six months whilst his girlfriend was on contract to play in the Malaysian orchestra out there . She also used to play 4th violin for the Bournemouth Symphony orchestra ..

    We also received some very frightening stories about life out there as well.

    Our other neighbours visited China , they were there for a month .. they visited the Great Wall.. and were shocked to smithereens when they met another couple from our village doing the Great Wall tour , same as them , as well .

    Holidays are soon forgotten , and the photos then put away in shoe boxes , stacked ready for the next , been there dun it adventure .

    1. I loved Malta, one of my favourite silverpoint artists lived there – Viktor Koulback, a Russian emigre. Place always seemed to be half built, half being pulled down.

        1. I didn’t go there – but it looks fab, worth a visit 🙂 I just loved the whole island, and I quite liked Gozo too. It was a work visit and I just tagged along so plenty of time to just wander around. Tourists a plus and also a minus, most places.

    2. Back when we had a Royal Navy, in the late 60's early 70's, I was on the old Ark Royal. Off Florida, helping "work up" the USS America, before she went to Vietnam.

      It was hard work.

      Now, we are left with the Gosport and Torpoint Ferries to protect us

      1. Hi OLT,

        Moh and I had a drive out from here to Portland the other day , we nearly collapsed with shock .. we haven't wandered over the cause way for a couple of years ..

        Once there were frigates and even a carrier and an RFA or two ..
        We weren't too sure what we saw this time , perhaps a foreign minesweeper .. so many buildings erased , or rotting .. but the airfield has a Care home office block and other strange titles, and where the fuel tanks were , a Lidl and lots of industrial buildings related to yachting etc

        The Ferryman pub at the Weymouth end of the causeway is no longer , now flats and more flats galore!

      2. Hi OLT,

        Moh and I had a drive out from here to Portland the other day , we nearly collapsed with shock .. we haven't wandered over the cause way for a couple of years ..

        Once there were frigates and even a carrier and an RFA or two ..
        We weren't too sure what we saw this time , perhaps a foreign minesweeper .. so many buildings erased , or rotting .. but the airfield has a Care home office block and other strange titles, and where the fuel tanks were , a Lidl and lots of industrial buildings related to yachting etc

        The Ferryman pub at the Weymouth end of the causeway is no longer , now flats and more flats galore!

    3. Back when we had a Royal Navy, in the late 60's early 70's, I was on the old Ark Royal. Off Florida, helping "work up" the USS America, before she went to Vietnam.

      It was hard work.

      Now, we are left with the Gosport and Torpoint Ferries to protect us

    4. Back when we had a Royal Navy, in the late 60's early 70's, I was on the old Ark Royal. Off Florida, helping "work up" the USS America, before she went to Vietnam.

      It was hard work.

      Now, we are left with the Gosport and Torpoint Ferries to protect us

    5. Back when we had a Royal Navy, in the late 60's early 70's, I was on the old Ark Royal. Off Florida, helping "work up" the USS America, before she went to Vietnam.

      It was hard work.

      Now, we are left with the Gosport and Torpoint Ferries to protect us

      1. I remember finding a large piece of what I thought was ambergris on Mull while walking with the family along the shoreline. Humped it all the way back to Cornwall to find out, from 2 separate sources, it was just a large lump of pretty wax.

  119. The big trial involving the Welsh Christian kicks off tomorrow, but just by coincidence there is the Inauguration of the 47th President of the USA at the same time.
    Most of our leading politicians wont be there of course, because Davos coincides as well.
    Anyone laying a bet on all those three occurring at the same time could have made a fortune.

  121. I have done part of Oz, but the best bit was going to the Melbourne Cup and backing the winner (Media Puzzle). It was an eye-opener after Royal Ascot! When you mention coincidences, I rode across the Gobi and there were a crowd of us from all over the place. The Australians all came from places I'd visited!

  122. Yes – Hyacinth Macaws, an Amazonian parrotlet; several kinds of monkeys, including Howlers and Marmosets.

  123. I've been to Malaysia, but SE Asia doesn't appeal to me much. There has to be wildlife to see.

      1. One of the reasons I don't want to go there. Thailand – the home of ill-treated elephants and the infamous Tiger Temple.

        1. Yes , agree, they have a different mindset , however having said that , terrible cruelties take place in the UK , and now there are people eating our swans , doing disgusting things to animals and discarding or starving their pets, I just cannot cope with images like that.

          The UK government has done nothing to stem the trade in bushmeat imported to the UK in peoples suitcases .. nor will it ever.

          1. No. I don’t think it’s the English people eating the swans and doing disgusting things…. people with not enough money might be neglecting their pets though. Having a dog or a cat is a commitment for the animal’s lifetime and some people don’t seem to appreciate that.

  127. Thank you for the warm welcome. By way of thanks, let me give you my top tip from DC's 'my wife is away and I'm experimenting' collection.

    Home made white wine with a small amount of dry sherry can be fizzed with a sodastream to make a budget friendly alternative to bubbly.

    2. Always a pleasure to see new contributors, particularly those in distant climes, but with a British perspective on what they describe to us.
      Keep warm.

  132. <iframe width="1250" height="703" src=" https://www.youtube.com/embed/JkAM0uco3YM " title="LIVE: President Donald J. Trump Holds Inauguration Eve Rally in Washington D.C. – 1/19/25" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

        1. Megyn Kelly i assume, an American journalist/TV personality who i think is “on the right”

    3. Zelenskyy has been refused an invitation to the Trump inauguration despite pleading for an invite on three occasions.

      Trump has apparently refused to accept Peter Mandelson as British Ambassador to the US.

      I just wonder when the penny will drop with the dolt Starmer who has clearly prejudiced any prospect of courteous relations between the UK and US. I imagine President Trump will be brutal with Starmer, Lammy and the rest of his ill-informed and stupidly anti-Trump cabal.

      Starmer has not survived his second dose of the Zelensky curse. The fucker is infected and there is no immediate political cure. He should leave the sinking Labour government ship.

      1. In my local area, they are begging for basic help for Ukrainians, including things like blankets, fire extinguishers, baby clothes.
        After all the billions that have been laundered through sent to that country!

      2. Trump has apparently refused to accept Peter Mandelson as British Ambassador to the US.

        I bloody hope so!!

    1. Who is, Ndovu? Gov't/BofE? Likely both. Edit: seems BofE hoping to introduce 'second half of this decade'. Mostly to monitor 'criminal activity'. Ah, nothing to worry about then….

  134. Thanks, Conway…I’m usually pretty steady, or try to be, but he alarmed me a bit – weekend, no vet etc…agree I should know better 🙂

  135. That's a bombshell, if it's true.

    High street banking giant Santander is looking 'to quit Britain over excessive red tape' – a decision which would hit millions of customers and tens of thousands of staff.

    The Spanish banking firm is reportedly considering pulling away from the UK as it assesses its future business transactions.

    According to the Financial Times, it is thought the potential departure from the British Isles is down to frustrations over UK rules introduced after the 2008 financial crisis, which has led to lower returns for the bank than in other markets.

    1. No suprise at all. We are going to see much more of this whilst Labour continue as they are.
      They never learn do they.

  137. About a dozen small azaleas some of which have a second flush of flowers in the autumn. However the plants I'm waiting patiently to flower are three Magnolia Stellatis grown from seed and two Camellia Tricolour which I bought last year from a specialist nursery.

  138. Thank you – and I appreciate the chance to stay in touch with UK dealings. I still have a Father (90), a Mother (84), and a kid sister (50) in Cornwall.

      1. Small world, S. Small world. They are south coast – west of Looe area. The Newfoundland coast of Eastern Canada is so much like Cornwall – especially the northern coast. Rocky coastline, small inlets of painted fishing village cottages and harbours, and a proud maritime tradition.

        One of my good friends up here is a Newfie. On my first day moving in there was a Welcome The Brit Noob party where he and I got to sharing a few stories over a bottle of something. Many of his childhood stories were about watching the sun set over the sea. I had similar stories, but they were about the sun rising in the morning.

  140. White wine in a soda stream? There’s an idea. The sherry to give it a bit of zing?

    1. Aye! My bottle is 840ml. 5 ml of dry sherry (a US teaspoon) gives it a little bit of oak/wood cask taste.

        1. Sherry, Marsala, Madeira…all excellent. I use them to deglaze the pan after cooking steak. Instant gravy without the horrible granules.

  141. Also Ricky “Slit their throats” Jones and Anthony “stab the Army Major in Kent” Esan.

    It’s almost as if they planned it.

    Ob look – a 🐿️

    1. The trial will go on for weeks. Long after the Inauguration is forgotten and the wanqueurs are back from furrin parts.

  142. Goodnight, all. I'm off to the races tomorrow night. Got a runner – not that I think he'll trouble the judge.

  144. Am I the only one who finds it surreal that it's 2025, and I'm watching the soon to be President of the USA dancing along to a live performance by YMCA? If only I actually liked popcorn…

      1. Hello, DC.
        I mostly lurk here, chipping-in only when I forget where I am or there's nothing of great import happening in "the other place". It's a bit more adult (in a good way) here.

        2. Wait, what? You literally call yourself 'Snotsicle' – you are not in a position to comment about that! 🙂

  146. Well, chums, a belated Good Night to you all. I hope to see you all, bright eyed and bushy tailed, tomorrow.

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