Sunday 29 December: Reintroduce National Service to boost the Armed Forces and transform young lives

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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554 thoughts on “Sunday 29 December: Reintroduce National Service to boost the Armed Forces and transform young lives”

  1. Good morning Geoff and everybody. Looks like I am first again.
    Geoff, I hope the surgery was a success.

    Today's Tale is a Golfing one

    Four guys have been going to the same golfing trip to St Andrews for many years.

    Two days before the group is to leave, Jack's wife puts her foot down and tells him he isn't going and that she's got something else planned.

    Naturally, Jack's mates are very upset that he can't go, but what can they do.

    Two days later, the three get to St Andrews only to find Jack sitting at the bar with four drinks set up!

    "Wow, Jack, how long you been here, and how did you talk your missus into letting you go?" they say with astonishment.

    "Well, actually, I've been here since last night.

    You see yesterday evening, I was sitting in my living room chair and my wife came up behind me and put her hands over my eyes and asked, 'Guess who?" I pulled her hands off, and there she was, wearing only a see-through nightie.

    She took my hand and pulled me into our bedroom. On her bedside table I saw the book '50 Shades of Grey'.

    She had lit candles and sprinkled rose petals around and on the bed she had handcuffs and ropes!

    Then she slipped off her nightie, laid on the bed and said, "Okay tie me up, hand-cuff me to the bed, and do whatever you want."

    "So, here I am!"

  2. Good morning Geoff and everybody. Looks like I am first again.
    Geoff, I hope the surgery was a success.

    Today's Tale is a Golfing one

    Four guys have been going to the same golfing trip to St Andrews for many years.

    Two days before the group is to leave, Jack's wife puts her foot down and tells him he isn't going and that she's got something else planned.

    Naturally, Jack's mates are very upset that he can't go, but what can they do.

    Two days later, the three get to St Andrews only to find Jack sitting at the bar with four drinks set up!

    "Wow, Jack, how long you been here, and how did you talk your missus into letting you go?" they say with astonishment.

    "Well, actually, I've been here since last night.

    You see yesterday evening, I was sitting in my living room chair and my wife came up behind me and put her hands over my eyes and asked, 'Guess who?" I pulled her hands off, and there she was, wearing only a see-through nightie.

    She took my hand and pulled me into our bedroom. On her bedside table I saw the book '50 Shades of Grey'.

    She had lit candles and sprinkled rose petals around and on the bed she had handcuffs and ropes!

    Then she slipped off her nightie, laid on the bed and said, "Okay tie me up, hand-cuff me to the bed, and do whatever you want."

    "So, here I am!"

  3. Good morning Geoff and everybody. Looks like I am first again.
    Geoff, I hope the surgery was a success.

    Today's Tale is a Golfing one

    Four guys have been going to the same golfing trip to St Andrews for many years.

    Two days before the group is to leave, Jack's wife puts her foot down and tells him he isn't going and that she's got something else planned.

    Naturally, Jack's mates are very upset that he can't go, but what can they do.

    Two days later, the three get to St Andrews only to find Jack sitting at the bar with four drinks set up!

    "Wow, Jack, how long you been here, and how did you talk your missus into letting you go?" they say with astonishment.

    "Well, actually, I've been here since last night.

    You see yesterday evening, I was sitting in my living room chair and my wife came up behind me and put her hands over my eyes and asked, 'Guess who?" I pulled her hands off, and there she was, wearing only a see-through nightie.

    She took my hand and pulled me into our bedroom. On her bedside table I saw the book '50 Shades of Grey'.

    She had lit candles and sprinkled rose petals around and on the bed she had handcuffs and ropes!

    Then she slipped off her nightie, laid on the bed and said, "Okay tie me up, hand-cuff me to the bed, and do whatever you want."

    "So, here I am!"

    1. From the de facto HM Opposition party.
      Poor old Kemi doesn't know her backend from her frontend.

      1. "She'll never be a leader as long as her arse points upwards!"

        Not my words, overheard from a random Welsh observer

  8. 399477+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    The feelings betwixt the peoples and the elites of the realm especially the faux politico's at this moment in time, and with what has been revealed in regards to the political actions and obvious intentions one could see it as inviting on board a great deal of trouble resulting in the return of press gangs.

    Cannon fodder is the siren call seemingly in todays army with so many currently leaving, they have linked the creation of wars and the "overpopulated world" heading the WEF /NWO RESET agenda ,and want none of it.

    Today the defence of the realm is a complete fallacy as the Dover invasion shows on a daily basis.

    Dt,
    Sunday 29 December: Reintroduce National Service to boost the Armed Forces and transform young lives

  9. Britain to give Ukraine £11m to bring Russian war criminals to justice. 29 December 2024.

    Britain has pledged to give nearly £11 million to Ukraine to help bring Russian war criminals to justice for atrocities committed during Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the country.

    The Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on Sunday that it will give bodies, including the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office, £4.5 million to support Ukrainian documentation, investigation and prosecution of war crimes.

    Money to Burn. Just not on heating pensioners homes. Lol.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/29/britain-ukraine-11m-bring-russian-war-criminals-justice/#comment

    1. This government has already shown us all how totally stupid they All are.
      Can the army now move in and remove them before it's too late…..or is it already too late ?

      1. I think it's already too late if you're expecting common sense from the armed forces; they've been subverted.

  10. Morning all 🙂😊
    It's a bit dark and misty 'over Wills mums'
    and very close to freezing.
    Who on earth came up with the idea to get our younger generation into the armed forces?
    Obviously a hidden reason. What are our political idiots upto now?

  11. None of this money will disappear into the Cayman islands, Switzerland or any other tax haven favoured by crooked officials….

    2. I used to love Cornwall, 1960's and 70's , overrun with tourists , and huge price hikes now , loverly jarb to those who support the local economy though.

    4. I used to spend my summers in St Mawes and regularly sailed over to Helford in my sailing dinghy when I was a child and have lunch at either the Ferry Boat Inn or the Shipwright's Arms.

      When there was a party in Helford and I was in my late teens my parents let me borrow their boat and I took a couple of friends with me to sail to Helford where we anchored for the night, went to the party, slept on the boat and sailed back to St Mawes the following morning.

      How lucky I was to have had such a marvellous childhood.

      1. "sailed over to Helford in my sailing dinghy"
        A few more of those and The Telegraph will race to recruit you.

      1. Along the Cornish bank of the Tamar this morning I saw a yellow flowering primrose. I can't remember seeing one in December before.

  14. G'day all,

    Dull again at Castle McPhee, wind South-West 4-8℃ today. Another round of climate change on the way for Tuesday and Wednesday.

    Does anyone else see something fishy in this 'Lady Bates' story?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/45ea4f60bd5f3a3a95ed0607378f742a11c3ee06092a030aae7b5ee286beb0bb.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/28/tory-peers-wife-cut-ties-china-groups-amid-spy-fears/

    How does someone with a limited grasp of English and £50 in her pocket go on to 'make millions' unless she was a CCP plant with back-up?

      1. The King is 76; IIRC seventy five was the age at which the late Queen Elizabeth (may God rest her soul!) specified as automatic retirement time for anyone in her service, eg Lords Lieutenant and their Deputies.
        ( at 77 one can still be hale and hearty, but the next generation should be starting to help)

  15. 'Morning All
    Medley Time
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    2. That first day back at work one is no joke! I once went back to work after Christmas and couldn't remember the name of the product that I had been working on for about five years. Plus the building will be freezing, so wear double layers.

    1. Nigel Farage doesn't seem to be high in the cartoonists' views. Mind you, any publicity is good publicity perhaps.

  20. In today’s main FSB article Iain Hunter sets out just how much of the Marxist plan has already been implemented by government in the west, and of the damage this has done to society. Socialism – What's Not to Hate exposes the full horrors of creeping socialism but, as Iain says, in 2025 the fightback really begins, and the outcome of that fight will determine whether or not we will retain our freedom, property and prosperity. FSB intends to play its part in that fightback, and we hope we will have your support.

    Please read it and tell us what you think.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  21. In today’s main FSB article Iain Hunter sets out just how much of the Marxist plan has already been implemented by government in the west, and of the damage this has done to society. Socialism – What's Not to Hate exposes the full horrors of creeping socialism but, as Iain says, in 2025 the fightback really begins, and the outcome of that fight will determine whether or not we will retain our freedom, property and prosperity. FSB intends to play its part in that fightback, and we hope we will have your support.

    Please read it and tell us what you think.

    freespeechbacklash.com

          2. Brilliant, very impressive and well done you. I’ll listen to it again later.😊🎹🎷
            I can play my own version on acoustic guitar.
            My fingers aren’t so agile these days.

  25. Good morning, all. Overcast at the moment with a forecast of sunshine from mid-morning. Very calm.

    Richard Tice appears to have the "Climate Change" portfolio within Reform. His latest foray in to the subject has created a flurry of responses, not all critical by any means but many 'educating' Tice on land rebound, post the last Ice Age (isostatic rebound). A bit more research from Tice before commenting wouldn't go amiss.
    https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1873005020574302654

    Clearly, Ice Ages are catastrophic climate events spread over millions of years. We are being fed the opposite, a warming catastrophe happening over a few decades. Not many decades earlier we were being informed of an approaching ice age. Having to change the parameters of your scam 180 degrees in short order isn't a good look. Sadly, the MSM have played their part and we are where we are.

    Google: Emphasis is mine.

    Yes, land in areas that were once covered by ice sheets during the last ice age is still rebounding today. This process is called glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) or post-glacial rebound:
    Explanation
    The weight of the ice sheets during the ice age depressed the land, but when the ice melted, the land began to slowly rebound. This process is still happening today, though at a much slower rate.
    Examples
    In areas like central Scandinavia and around Hudson Bay, the land is stillrisingby over a centimeter per year. In contrast, areas thatbulgedupwards around the ice sheets, like the Baltic states and parts of North America, aresubsiding.
    Impact
    The rebound of land masses can cause regional changes in sea level. This is still affecting some northern coasts, such as parts of Alaska.

  26. No sniggerin.. some good honest hard working people have lost a lot of money. LOL.

    Rory Campbell's (PPE Oxford) son of Alastair Campbell.. betting syndicate has just imploded taking £5 million with it.

    'Rory told us that at no time could he lose more than 5 per cent of the total betting fund to a single bookmaker and that his job was to manage that risk.

    'Then suddenly all the money has just disappeared.

    1. What's the betting 5% of the fund was placed with each of 20 different bookmakers – See 101 Economics For Dummies (Reeves Edition)

      1. Alastair Campbell and his partner Fiona Millar believed to have invested nearly £300,000. LOL.

        Around 20 of the investors have compiled a dossier of evidence to pass to the police, including contracts setting out how the syndicate would run, bank statements, emails stating that the fund was profitable and spreadsheets detailing how much it was supposedly making.

        Dossier..? There's that word again.

    2. "this has left a lot of people in serious financial trouble as many had invested a decent proportion of their overall wealth in something Rory described as 'massively low risk''.

      I invest a small amount in crypto currencies. The state insists i tell them what percentage of my overall wealth is invested on a monthly basis.

      This obviously doesn't apply to dodgy football betting syndicates.

      I wonder what Charlie Falconer is charging Alastair Campbell in legal fees in his efforts to put out the fire.

      1. The state insists i tell..

        Ah there's a subtle difference.
        Crypto currencies very essence is "decentralisation".. the arch enemy & nemesis of "central" bankers.

      2. You mentioned Doge coin when it was worth two bob, now it costs 5/3d.
        Still an opportunity, especially as Nigel's friend Elon will be in charge of DOGE in the USA.

    3. It would appear that in Rory Campbell's case the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

  27. QUESTIONS OF ANCESTRY

    SIR – As the son of the fertility doctor Patrick Steptoe, I am very sorry for the distress experienced by David Gertler and Roz Snyder when they discovered that the men they knew as their fathers were not biologically related to them (report, December 22).

    Genetic testing websites such as 23andMe and http://Ancestry.com have brought to light numerous shocks to people’s beliefs about their heritage. These are vividly illustrated in the recent series of radio programmes called The Gift. However, the implication that my father was involved in some shabby side hustle through his private practice to help couples with fertility problems is both disparaging and wrong.

    Although I was not aware that Patrick helped couples with donor insemination, this does not surprise me. He was fully committed to finding ways to help infertile women, and while working on IVF did many other procedures such as tubal surgery. The use of sperm donated by healthy young men was common, and as a student I had friends who donated sperm for £10. So although this approach was not advertised widely, its use was not secret, and Patrick might well have used it when appropriate. It is inconceivable that the women involved did not give consent, and they would have been well aware of the procedure they were undergoing.

    Whether or not the mothers told their husbands is not known. Sadly, the mothers of David and Roz had died before this information came to light, but there are many instances in which women did not reveal what had happened, and let the men assume that the child was theirs. The fact that birth certificates did not indicate that the father was an anonymous donor is not surprising.

    Registration of the use of donated sperm, eggs and embryos was made mandatory in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act in 1991. However, the voluntary Donor Conceived Register, administered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, matches donors and donor-conceived people treated before 1991.

    Before the 1990s, medical staff often advised donor conception parents not to tell their children about their conception. So it is likely that more individuals will discover potentially devastating information about their parents in the future.

    Professor Andrew Steptoe
    London W1

    Please excuse me if this sounds naïve but why do David Gertler and Roz Snyder need an apology? Yes, I appreciate that it must have been a shock for them to discover that the man who they thought was their biological father, wasn't.

    However, if that 'mistake' (whether accidental or deliberate) had not been made, then this pair would never have existed! Two other — completely different — humans would have been born in their place.

    1. Anger and negative emotions seem to be easier for human beings to generate than the positive ones such as gratitude, humility and love. Evolution, predators, self defence, mammoth hunters etc. Edit: the original article was interesting. In Spain there was a saying: if the mare does not get into foal, change the stallion.

    2. What a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive. We'll have half siblings marrying each other.

  30. The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation

    Vladimir Lenin

    At least the blue arm of the controlled propaganda machine is talking about it.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b6c6621200f515331ee83fa3b188c146270f0c9efa073228afcdc1ae44b4bf5.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/12/28/unending-tax-assault-middle-classes-labour-reeves-starmer/

    The attack on private pensions and school fees is Marxism 101. The attack on family farms is a globalist land-grab. But what the Gatesograph will not do is call it what it is – a communist revolution in progress in which the CONservative party is complicit. They are ALL Fabians.

    It really is time for a revolt.

      1. D.H. Lawrence won great fame for writing a 'smutty' book. Of course those of a prurient nature bought it in their millions and were bitterly disappointed by the fact that its pretentiousness far outweighed its naughty bits.

        I thought it ironic that in the 1960s pseudo-intellectual students, most of whom were thoroughly middle class themselves, raved over the author who wrote:

        How Beastly the Bourgeois Is

        How beastly the bourgeois is
        especially the male of the species–

        Presentable, eminently presentable–
        shall I make you a present of him?

        Isn't he handsome? Isn't he healthy? Isn't he a fine specimen?
        Doesn't he look the fresh clean Englishman, outside?
        Isn't it God's own image? tramping his thirty miles a day
        after partridges, or a little rubber ball?
        wouldn't you like to be like that, well off, and quite the
        thing

        Oh, but wait!
        Let him meet a new emotion, let him be faced with another
        man's need,
        let him come home to a bit of moral difficulty, let life
        face him with a new demand on his understanding
        and then watch him go soggy, like a wet meringue.
        Watch him turn into a mess, either a fool or a bully.
        Just watch the display of him, confronted with a new
        demand on his intelligence,
        a new life-demand.

        How beastly the bourgeois is
        especially the male of the species–

        Nicely groomed, like a mushroom
        standing there so sleek and erect and eyeable–
        and like a fungus, living on the remains of a bygone life
        sucking his life out of the dead leaves of greater life
        than his own.

        And even so, he's stale, he's been there too long.
        Touch him, and you'll find he's all gone inside
        just like an old mushroom, all wormy inside, and hollow
        under a smooth skin and an upright appearance.

        Full of seething, wormy, hollow feelings
        rather nasty–
        How beastly the bourgeois is!

        Standing in their thousands, these appearances, in damp
        England
        what a pity they can't all be kicked over
        like sickening toadstools, and left to melt back, swiftly
        into the soil of England.

  31. Without a Tory-Reform pact, we’re sunk – but egos are almost certain to get in the way
    On the European Right there are deep divisions. That is not true of the UK – but that won’t make doing a deal any less difficult.
    Daniel Hannan : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/28/without-tory-reform-pact-britain-sunk-egos-get-in-the-way/

    Nigel Farage must never forgive the Conservative Party. He withdrew all Brexit Party candidates from contesting seats held by Conservatives – even those who were remainers – in the 2019 general election. This led to Boris Johnson having a resounding victory. But the Brexit Party was betrayed and the Conservatives have made sure that Brexit was thwarted at every turn from the very beginning with the surrender to the EU over both Northern Ireland and British fishing.

    The Conservatives can be trusted no more than Labour or the Lib/Dems

    BTL

    There ain't no room for the both of them – one has to go.

    The Tories have had their time – now it's Reform's turn.

    1. Daniel decided to respond in the BTL yesterday! Surprise, surprise…he managed to alienate a lot of subscribers with his smug, deaf arrogance! Pompous tw@t!

      1. In person Lord Hannan is known to be affable and intelligent and a good speaker at local Conservative events; wasted as an MEP, but financially it probably was a good decision.

    2. "The Conservatives can be trusted no more than Labour or the Lib/Dems"

      I don't know who wrote that but it strikes me he's got a lot of catching up to do.

    3. "The Conservatives can be trusted no more than Labour or the Lib/Dems"

      I don't know who wrote that but it strikes me he's got a lot of catching up to do.

    1. Labour has never, ever represented the working class. Their whole thing is to ensure people are made and kept poor!

  33. Good morning, chums, overslept once again. And thanks, Geoff, for Sunday's NoTTLe site.

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    4. Good luck.
      On the plus side, thank goodness this expensive equipment is being used at weekends.

      1. I confess (without any apology) that this is private health care. I self- referred to a consultant cardiologist. Took two weeks to fix apptmt; ECG10 days later. Seeing White Coated again early Jan.

        Had I risked going through the GP – 3 weeks for apptmt; two weeks for referral letter to NNUH; first apptmt April….

        3. Good for you.
          I used the inheritance from my grandparents (they died in the 1950s and their estate was …. "mishandled" … for the next 60 years) to pay for my hip replacement.

          1. The Labour party bus is a sham. They travel by limo and private jet. Imagine them turning up in a traditional northern constituency how they usually travel

      1. Miliband forgets that when the power goes out he won't be able to call the police to protect him.

        There'll be no fuel for his cars to run away. He'll be isolated, vulnerable and when we're finished with him, in pieces.

  37. Warley Steve
    11h
    Reform must be hurting the UK’s deep state
    A DDOS attack on their server comes as no surprise

    [DDoS Attack means "Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attack" and it is a cybercrime in which the attacker floods a server with internet traffic to prevent users from accessing connected online services and sites.
    A DDoS attack is a crime in most countries. In the U.S., for example, they can be prosecuted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986, and in the UK under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.]

  38. My
    9h
    And it's now Two Tier Advertising from Labour.
    Transport bosses in London has been accused of "making no sense" after ordering a ban on an anti-inheritance tax adverts they have deemed "politically controversial" when just weeks ago they allowed adverts supporting assisted dying to run before a major vote in the Commons.

  39. Danny Champion
    7h
    British people should be free to ridicule and satirise 1sl@m in their own country, and should expect to be protected by the law, security and defence forces.
    So why aren't we?

    7h
    The political elite know they've made a dreadful mistake but it has gone too far for them to admit it.
    The elite will always look after themselves

    So they will come down like a ton of bricks on anyone outside of their pampered Westminster bubble who might try to expose their error

    They have created a pressure-cooker in Britain, we saw a small blast of steam released after Southport

    When the lid blows off, we had all better watch out

    2. The political elite know they've made a dreadful mistake…

      Not a mistake, deliberate, in line with their hatred of the English, Welsh etc. and their masters' orders.

      Their (the political elite) problem is that they're so bloody incompetent they didn't have the plan/resources/infrastructure in place to hide what they are doing. One thing they got partially right is the propaganda via the MSM and that is the idea that these invaders are asylum seekers i.e. fleeing persecution etc. Sadly, too many tools within the public believe that load of cock-and-bull. Rude awakening down the line.

      1. "Not a mistake, deliberate, in line with their hatred of the English, Welsh etc. and their masters' orders".

        Yes. That is what we all need to scream from the rooftops now.

    4. Those in power know that a small voting minority can swing marginal seats. This will work out fine for them until the minority are no longer ,but a powerful dedicated army of occupation.

  42. Massey Ferguson
    4h
    I find Saturday night cider very conducive to new ideas. I propose Rachel"s new dept be given the acronym of Mandate Of No Growth.

  43. Reintroduce National Service to boost the Armed Forces and transform young lives

    Hmm they will more likely be used against us for non-compliance with all globalist agendas

    1. How many Hamas Battalions will there be? What about the cost of all those prayer mats and mobile mosques?

    2. They have already told us that they are planning WW3! Why would we deliver our young people to the meat grinder voluntarily by supporting this?

    1. Good examples of garbage in garbage out are provided by almost any model prepared by Ferguson and used by Government.
      Is there a single example where he got it right?

      1. Rumour suggests that putting exactly the same data into Ferguson's models twice will result in 2 completely different outcomes – not good!

        2. That's actually not fair..
          His model is tried & tested.. You negotiate an agreed sum for funding & your desired outcome.. and his Model produces a Settled Science outcome.

          Trebles all round.

        3. That's actually not fair..
          His model is tried & tested.. You negotiate an agreed sum for funding & your desired outcome.. and his Model produces a Settled Science outcome.

          Trebles all round.

  45. V. Difficult for me today:
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    1. For me too! Thought I wasn't going to get it.
      Wordle 1,289 5/6

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    2. And me.

      Wordle 1,289 5/6

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    1. Farage re-posting on X that he knows much, much more about Starmer re the Southport atrocity. Plenty of speculation BTL on Farage's comment and many not aware that there is a gagging order in place.

      January 20th is the trial date. Will the truth out or will dark forces work to keep the public from knowing. Interesting times.

      1. They're hoping that Jan 20th will be all about Trump's Inauguration and accompanying protests…

      3. The most damaging piece of evidence would be if it were proved that a politician had directed the prosecutions and or the sentences. You know, a sort of ad hoc direction of a public prosecution…

    2. WE WERE LIED TO WE WANT THE ANSWERS

      After the pleasant walk and the pleasant talk the Walrus and the Carpenter continued to chat with the oysters :

      But answer came there none —
      And this was scarcely odd, because
      They'd eaten every one."

      We shall get no answer, no acknowledgement and no apology from Starmer until all of Britain has has been destroyed and eaten up.

    3. He won't say a thing because he doesn't care. To him, the muslim must be protected at all costs.

    4. Massey Ferguson
      52m
      Rumour is that two tier will be applying for non-dom status next year as he will be out of the country more than in it.

  48. Good Moaning.
    A spot of consumer advice.
    1. Carluccio's Affogato is better than Zizzi's.
    2. Lidl's W5 glasses wipes are brilliant for computer screens. (And the surrounding gubbins.)

    And Dunkleflaute still holds sway in Norf Essex.

  49. Good morning everyone.
    IMHO not a good idea to mix opinion with news reporting:
    "The disaster is understood to have happened when dozens of migrants tried to climb aboard a small boat already packed with around 60 people." (English Channel, several people drowned)

    Whereas in South Korea: " Initial reports suggested that the crash was linked to faulty landing gear and a bird strike that occurred during the flight from Bangkok, Thailand.
    The last time the country suffered such a large-scale aviation tragedy was in August 1997, when 228 people were killed in the Korean Airlines Flight 801 crash at Guam. (an estimated 179 people were killed). Every death is a tragedy for someone, but I query the use of the word 'disaster'.

  50. Good morning everyone.
    IMHO not a good idea to mix opinion with news reporting:
    "The disaster is understood to have happened when dozens of migrants tried to climb aboard a small boat already packed with around 60 people." (English Channel, several people drowned)

    Whereas in South Korea: " Initial reports suggested that the crash was linked to faulty landing gear and a bird strike that occurred during the flight from Bangkok, Thailand.
    The last time the country suffered such a large-scale aviation tragedy was in August 1997, when 228 people were killed in the Korean Airlines Flight 801 crash at Guam. (an estimated 179 people were killed). Every death is a tragedy for someone, but I query the use of the word 'disaster'.

    1. How any British politician at Westminster from 1990 onwards can have the barefaced effrontery to cast rocks at Israel for causing civilian casualties in war when they are provably far, far worse just proves what desperate hypocrites they are. The last PM to set out on a war where we deliberately took care to reduce casualties and achieved just that was Margaret Thatcher in the Falklands.

  53. A rather belated good morning to all.
    Couldn't be bothered to fire up the laptop and have only just reclaimed the living room from t'Lad.

    From what I could see of it through the bathroom window it was a lovely sunrise an hour ago and it still looks pleasant outside as I type.
    The new Yard Thermometer shows 6.3°C at the moment and we appear to have had a high of 7.8° and low of 4.1°C.

    1. Does your laptop need firing up? All I do with mine is open the lid. Everything is just as I left it…….

      We had a glimmer of sunshine an hour or two ago but it's clouded over now. Not tempted to go out.

    1. They will all be put onto our taxes and public spending and the reduction in the quality/availability of public services and quality of life.
      .

    2. Presumably into Rayner's new Council housing paid for by us with land provided by farmers forced to sell up and brownfield sites that used to support edge of town businesses that no longer make a living.

      I for one shall continue to refer to it as illegal immigration and who knows? I'm no legal eagle, but some might wonder if the government is complicit in aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the commission of illegal activity with those boats.

      2. They are complicit. They know where the boats come from. They know where they are stored prior to distribution from a German warehouse.

        Apparently, under German law their hands are tied and can do nothing about it.

        They could change the law i suppose but that ain't gonna happen.

        1. Change the law? Dear me, what were you thinking Phizzee? Probably some ECHR directive would put a stop to that right in its tracks.

      3. 399477+ up ticks,

        Afternoon JG.

        All the way complicit transporting & money laundering via the french.

      4. Legal aid should not be available to them.
        Leave the EHCR.
        Leave WHO.
        If politicos want to attend WEF make it illegal to claim on expenses of set against tax.

      5. Thing is, James – I don't recall it being in any manifesto, don't suppose it would be tho'. All this 'stuff' about ECHR…just leave and have done with it. German gov't falling/fallen – never a better time. Domino effect.

    3. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-part-13-deportation

      It's not complicated. We can remove them as we wish. If they invoke article 8 that doesn't mean we cannot remove them. We just send them somewhere else while we wait.

      Clearly, the government lawyers are useless. Although I imagine the legal aid being fire hosed on criminals is 100% of the problem. A solution is to remove that. Stop the lawyers getting paid and they'll stop doing the work and the criminal illegal immigrant will be returned.

    1. Dramatic approaches… especially the one when the departing aircraft hadn't yet left the runway.

    2. Yes. Many times. When based at Changi we made regular trips t0 Hong Kong. I have a 8mm film of the approach to Kai Tak filmed from the beam widow of a Shackleton. Quite interesting.

  56. "If seven maids with seven mops
    Swept it [HoC] for half a year;
    Do you suppose", the Walrus said,
    "That they would get it clear?"
    "I doubt it", said the Carpenter,
    And shed a bitter tear.

      2. Hercules Porridge?

        Name given to Poirot by the character played by Angela Lansbury in Death on the Nile (1978).

  57. 399477+ up ticks,

    When they, the politico's / pharmaceuticals think of a way to incarcerate en masse the indigenous, they will use it.

    One instance would be to reintroduce national service to control & manipulate young minds also a war zone is a great culling tool.

    What I find the height of hypocrisy is in all probability many of those repeatedly pointing out Tommy Robinson was the founder of the EDF have been / are repeated supporter / member / voters of the lab/lib/con anti English / pro eu coalition.

    https://x.com/GSGB01/status/1873123668370366576

    1. Put it like this: When Francis Drake did precisely the same thing that Steve Lennon keeps doing … he was knighted!

      1. 399477+up ticks,

        Afternoon G,
        Currently the reverse of everything seems to be the way to go, they are more likely to knight the
        MUSLIM P. O .R .G.

    2. Oh dear.. Trump administration to apply pressure to release UK political prisoners.
      Cue: U-turns.. BBC invite TR onto Strictly. C4 makes move for Bake-Off appearance.

    1. Remote and ineffectual Don
      That dared attack my Chesterton,

      [Hillaire Belloc]

      or

      You sad inadequate, moron
      Who pours scorn on our Robinson.
      And may your stomach start to heave
      Abusing Yaxley-Lennon, Steve.

  61. We came to Cornwall to visit husband’s brother, who had invited us to lunch today.

    Unfortunately it’s just been called off due to illness.

  64. That's a bummer. 🙁
    About to go for a pint in the Weatleigh Inn, Instow. They do great food, beer and cider there – had a rather good supper last night.

    1. Is the Lobster Pot still there?

      My first teaching job in the early 1970s was at a school in Bideford.

      They used to have musical evenings at the Lobster Pot and I went along with my guitar.

      2. Seems not around as a pub, but it might well have turned into a bistro of the same name.

  66. Quite normal. It's ok as long as the departing aircraft is airborne before you touch down. In my career I had landing clearances given well below 100ft above the runway just as I was about to hit TOGA (Take Off/Go Around power) and go-around.

    All cross-wind landings and they're not bothering to kick-off the drift – not great for tyre longevity.

    1. Is it true when landing an aircraft when the runway is wet you put it down quite hard so the tyres get traction sooner?

      1. The guidance is not to fanny around trying to get a greasy landing whilst using up the runway beneath you. Just Get the plane down asap so that the brakes can do their stuff. There is some truth about breaking through the wet layer but a bounce would really mess things up if you overcook it. Flying from Bristol and its short runway for 5 years certainly made you think!

    2. Philadelphia airport is so close to the Delaware River that when landing it seems from inside the plane that you’re about to be ditched into the water.

  67. How about instead: the disaster was caused by criminal gangs aided and abetted by the British government sending a clear signal that they would reward illegal immigrants willing to risk their lives crossing one of the busiest most dangerous waterways in the world in the middle of winter using unseaworthy vessels.

    Just playing with the 'opinion' word there. Seems to me that the most corrosive word in that report was really 'happened'. As in happenstance.

    Fate, eh? Despite your best efforts sometimes shit just seems to happen.

    2. I once mistakenly left my desktop on overnight and next morning I found that the Gates from Hell had without my consent changed my operating system from Windows XP to Windows 10 without my consent.

      I still shutdown my desktop after each daytime session to maintain internet silence.
      Just like flying during the war when you needed to maintain radio silence except for operational reasons so as not to give your position away. Mission critical operations maintain complete silemce.

      BTW there are concerning reports that Microsoft are putting users' privacy at risk by putting an AI feature on Windows 11 to restore the state of your PC by recording what you've been doing on it.

    3. Err… how? It goes to sleep, entering a low power mode. The battery isn't put under strain.

      Now, leaving it on, plugged in AND with the lid closed can be a problem (mostly because you're not looking at it) but that's rare.

      A virus is a misnomer as you'd have to have an active network connection and, usually these are shut down. Being honest, Linux and Mac OS are fairly tough these days. Windows, being built on Windows NT and broken in multiple places to make it more annoying (such as writing an ad server into an operating system – Microsoft, you utter sewage!) is more vulnerable.

  69. I’d agree, except with the last one in a single detail. Before being allowed to attend the WEF in order to represent us politicos must put the decision before a national referendum.

      1. Well, sometimes the children need to be kept on a short leash otherwise they get a bit headstrong. Now is definitely one of those times.

  71. For those unacquainted with the acronym a PORG (Person Of Restricted Growth) is the politically correct term for a dwarf such as the London mayor.

    (I believe the term first surfaced in one of Tom Sharpe's delightfully scurrilous novels)

  74. Back and had lunch. Very smooth. Arrived early; seen early; called "Mr Thomas" (instead of William); light by £375. Worth every penny. The joys of private medicine.

    Interestingly, during my absence, neither cat had moved….

        1. When J had his the specialist nurse came out with a printout and told him to go straight to A&E. He wasn't ready for that so we went home. Spoke to the GP that afternoon and we were back at A&E a few days later with a letter and full medical printout from the surgery. He was admitted.

  76. We're flying out of Bristol on Tuesday. Didn't know they lacked for length there… I assume not Filton?

    2. It is 2000m, which is plenty under normal conditions but not much room for error. Most big airports are 2500-3000m. We could be limited by weight on long trips such as Egypt.

    3. Filton has been built upon.
      The finest runway in the Southwest with superb rail and road connections and, for Bristol Airport they chose a former RAF base to the South of the city that was built as a blind approach training establishment, the location being selected because of the high incidence of fog!

  81. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/28/tax-breaks-private-schools-luxury-britain-cant-afford-vat/

    It's the 'we can't afford to give education a tax break' that gets me.

    Firstly, apply VAT is not a tax break, it's a tax. You could choose to not tax at all. That isn't a tax break. It's NOT taxing.

    Then there's the 'can't afford not to'. This again is a nonsense. It's like my saying I can't afford my mortgage because I've spaffed my money on onlyfans. It is spending that is over committed, not revenue.

    But hey. Spin your vindictive, spiteful assault on parents saving you money however you want. You just prove how deceitful you are.

    1. Ms Phillipson has never had a job in the independent ('private') sector and was selected as a prospective candidate from a women-only shortlist. She has two children and an unnamed husband, I wonder where they go to school?

      1. The only thing I know about her is that she is a truly repulsive, vindictive, sadistic, cruel woman who makes me use too many adjectives when I try to describe her!

    2. This statement in the Tellegaff on the same day they report that TTK is giving ANOTHER £11M to Ukraine, this time to gather evidence against Russian war criminals!

      1. Yes, I think so…Paul’s website accepts comments. I think Chris may be on X, but no website. Thankfully – I spend far too much time online as it is……

  83. The automatic upgrade was just vile. We had dozens of customers caught out by that even through central management of updates. Microsoft deliberately – yes! – overrode that.

  85. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1199130e86e890612a1ad3e262b75f7275219200/0_498_3226_1936/master/3226.jpg?width=980&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=c9260249b8781d8c3e33866e2002d22f `Ipswich
     https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d7e439e41f431d261b5bf262191d28c4bcb522fa/0_0_6730_4622/master/6730.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=a96ffa61a08cd0537d3449a855fcedce Taurus Forest, Frankfurt

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6a4d204ae4d132e38ad6dfbb8104f4066d8db4e0/0_0_6589_4393/master/6589.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=d0a9f7181c18b18130559204e1a535b9 Baden-Württemberg, south-west Germany

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/852d285c5805e147374f9150761bb8488a22a39a/0_0_2048_1536/master/2048.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=eec6591ac41ba965e20735eafe4a2cbc Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, UK has been celebrating the birth of three Northern African lion cubs.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2827dddb96e402a8a3899cb0fb8b3eb9cd694e07/0_148_4747_2848/master/4747.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=4316efe71cdfdb1050888489c4e49e7c A water vole in Kent

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c1344221130d5dda66377f9ad8e122be3f9f6bbb/0_0_4634_3107/master/4634.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=917310f1b1f35c28713551bcf21f63fd Richmond Park

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/264298a00de9e508ac37590d3957e0cb100d4535/0_0_2177_1530/master/2177.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=53988bbd239dd611381e21b48eda515c Montecito, CA

  86. I don't know Chris as I don't do X at all. Sounds like it's a pity he's not more widely known.

    1. That is a little too technical for me to understand. 5 is clearly on the bottom trend line but why should the btc/dollar ration drop to that and what does it mean?

    1. The great historian Edward Gibbon said of the collapse of Athens: “In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.”


      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/29/britain-defence-dangers-putin-china-forces-disarray/

      As we enter 2025, the world is a more dangerous place for the population of the United Kingdom than ever in my lifetime. Our government’s primary responsibilities towards its people, namely keeping them safe and well, are founded in the UK on our NHS and our military. Both are in complete disarray, and we can no longer afford either in their current form.

      The burdens of social security benefits, state handouts and gold-plated public sector pensions have robbed future generations of the certainties I grew up with. This comes at a time when the world enters a savage competition for vital resources, when the rules-based international order is in retreat in the face of prejudice, totalitarian regimes and apathy in the well fed West.

      We have seen the greatest movement of populations since the Second World War, propelled to some degree by the conflicts which we see every day in the media. There are also the less fashionable conflicts, which we see very little of, but which are harming many more lives. The civil war in Sudan, the struggle in Yemen and the myriad conflicts across Africa – including the wars in the Sahel and in the Congo – are affecting many times more people than those suffering in Palestine or Lebanon.

      Pity in our society, it would seem, is guided primarily by social media trends – often trends manipulated by malign influencers in Russia, Iran and China. They delight in watching the liberal establishment destroy our future by slavish obedience to a distorted (and often factually inaccurate) version of our past. This is readily absorbed and then parroted in the student unions and common rooms across our country, often with little fact checking or pause for thought.

      As we wait for the beginning of the second Donald Trump presidency, we should look ahead. The likelihood of a peace deal in Ukraine is high. The expectation of the Ukrainians is that it would be an interbellum that would allow Putin’s Russia to regroup, re-equip and rearm so as to come again better prepared – not only to conquer Ukraine but potentially all of Europe. Even as any deal is signed, they will be likewise rearming, re-equipping and bracing for the next round.

      Meanwhile many in the West will try to wish the danger away with undermanned, poorly equipped and reluctant militaries. Trump’s presidency will also see economic pressure on China as never before: but like a shark, China must keep moving forward if it is to survive. This, even as its working population shrinks at an alarming rate thanks to the curse of 4, 2, 1 – that is four grandparents, two parents, one child. Even so there is an alarming rate of youth unemployment and far more males than females within that younger population. It may be that war and conquest will seem like the only way forward for China, and with an increasingly efficient and well-equipped military, an option for which it is increasingly ready.

      Here at home with the public finances squeezed, our own military is, of course, at the back of the queue. It’s increasingly harder to join, for some Byzantine bureaucratic reason, and with the outflow at an alarming rate our military capability is disappearing like snow off a ditch. The overstretched army can always recover if it is given the means to do so. But the warnings of our Army leadership as well as the retired military are being ignored.

      The RAF has suffered serious harm from political correctness in the recent past and the Royal Navy is also in peril from underfunding and a recruitment crisis.

      Yet even with the dark shadows of world war or an invasion of Europe looming, the talk in the current government is still of more cuts. One ray of light for the UK defence industry is the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) which is a UK led collaboration involving Japan and Italy and with Saudi Arabia exploring involvement. Yet GCAP could well be axed even as China demonstrates what may be the most capable sixth generation fighter in the world at present. To cancel GCAP would, in my opinion, be like Prime Minster Neville Chamberlain cancelling the production of the Spitfire in the late 1930s.

      All in all, the outlook is bleak as we enter the new year. For the defence of our way of life we can’t just keep relying on a Trump-led USA. The government needs to actually make some hard decisions or, in our national quest to be free from responsibilities, we will face the fate of the Athenians: the loss of all of our freedoms, comforts and security.

      Colonel Tim Collins is a former British Army officer. He served in the SAS and as commander of the Royal Irish for the invasion of Iraq, when his before-battle speech to his soldiers made headlines around the world

  96. Didn’t realise it was Richmond. As you say, only reds there. I was going by the ‘shield’ impression on the forehead in the picture. A bit indistinct, so I wasn’t sure.

  97. Netzero
    4h
    Labour’s policies so far have led to “one of the biggest transfers from the aspirant class to the public sector that anyone has ever seen”, adding: “It sends out a shocking signal to anyone who is trying to do the right thing by themselves and their family to try and get on in life.

        1. Which has made the planet greener. Which is the last thing 'they' want if we are all going to eating insects.

    2. Can the phrase climate change have more than one interpretation?
      Because the agenda has never been about variance in atmospheric conditions.

  99. Why is an English title being bestowed on this short arsed sallow creature who parades around in an expensive armoured car .. he has changed our capital city , our critical financial heart , our ancient trading post for Great Britain . Our genuine Londoners , with their sharp tongues and minds , and who have been cast out and replaced by negroes and others who do not adhere to the tolling of bells , but instead the call of the Muezzin .

    The City stinks, feels unsafe , is grubby , and is now bedevilled with a wildness and violence , on public transport, the streets , the big stores , local shops , hospitals and schools .. and of course flats and housing estates .

    I am just disgusted .. and now every city in Britain has probably got a similar character as Mayor , as has probably every local government head .

    Why why why… and why a knighthood .. that man has crippled the City .

  101. We are TRYING to complete a jigsaw puzzle .. it is a killer !

    One of four that I paid pennies for bought from a charity shop.

    Moh and I like jigsaws.. we have been constructing this one since Christmas afternoon .. a few hours at a time .. the light in the dining room needs to be brighter .

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bc3391add00963911150e70ea80d07963a63d82f0df613b340327361851698a1.jpg

    https://wasgij.com/puzzles/run-like-the-wind/

    The whole idea of the jigsaw , is not what you see in front of you , but what is happening behind the scenes .. We have done so many pretty jigsaws , but these are real puzzles and rather challenging .

    We are now day 4, and my goodness we are even focussing on the solution when we dropping off to sleep ..

    Both of us have been oblivious to the goings on on TV .
    We narrowly avoided a cat strike .. the wretched thing would have sent the whole puzzle sliding off the table .

    I don't know how Bill copes with his cats..we have to shut the door, and Pip spaniel🐾🐾 just snoozes on the arm chair .

    I know, one of you will will probably ask , if the jigsaws are bought in a charity shop , how do we know all the bits are there ?

    We will find out in a couple of days 😬😉

    3. When we were looking after 2 of the grandchildren last week I was on the floor doing 4 different sized puzzles with Andrew, who is 4, and Lucy nearly 6. We’d done 3 of the puzzles and were nearly finished the 4th when I noticed we were short of bits. Mad scrabble around the floor, the dogs and the table before I saw Andrews naughty little face! He had the pieces in his underpants!

        1. He’s smarter than that! He wanted to put the last piece in! My sister used to do the same, but she sat on them! 🤦🏻‍♀️

    4. When we were looking after 2 of the grandchildren last week I was on the floor doing 4 different sized puzzles with Andrew, who is 4, and Lucy nearly 6. We’d done 3 of the puzzles and were nearly finished the 4th when I noticed we were short of bits. Mad scrabble around the floor, the dogs and the table before I saw Andrews naughty little face! He had the pieces in his underpants!

      2. Yes , he was nice and cosy , Anne, we had the radiators on and son the runner was drying his go faster shoes out , so the photo is not really meant to be on here , but what the hell .

        The jigsaw has fixated us , good therapy and a distraction .. however there will be golf tomorrow and more of a routine and I must get around and walk a bit more .. although my wrist watch step counter has had a couple of 8,000 days! SadIly my back is no better , but I guess one must count ones blessings.

        Hope your family Christmas was comfortable . It will soon be Osprey spotting time again , probably February , if weather is okay .

    7. You don't know, but sometimes they are given to charity shops because of missing pieces…sadists….speaking of which, mah jong also quite sadistic if you fancy a change….

      1. We have played Mah Jong , chess , battleships and the rest years ago .. and of course when the children were small .

        I am not a card player , I once hosted a fund raising bridge session .. Wow, it was deathly serious, and a few people looked as if they needed to lie down for a rest.

  102. That is a brown pelican Pelecanus occidentalis californicus in the Montecito, California sunset photograph.

    I saw my first one in 1980 and they are ubiquitous all along that pacific coastline.

  105. They have been on about the heat since the two warm days we had in the summer. If they think this Christmas has been warm, they haven't been outside. I dont class 5dec C in the day, as it has been for most of the last week, as warm.

    1. 5C in December is normal from my long memory. It’s Mid Jan to early April you have to watch, especially here in the East.

      1. As I once read in The Daily Telegraph on the Letters Page in days of yore, one reader wrote "5, 10, and 21 [degrees Centigrade], Winter, Spring, and Summer Sun". I have never forgotten it and it is a wonderfully helpful mnemonic.

        1. That’s very perceptive. I hadn’t heard it but I’m always rattling on about those three levels for season change. Much to the boredom of friends and family I’m sure.

  106. Yeah but,….. the two short towers are cooling towers letting off steam.
    It's been as misty as that here today. Perhaps we should send the millipede across to stop them, because its obviously drifting across and causing much concern.

    1. You know what Eddy,

      The thick fog we are all experiencing , over a week now, is because the Labour Government has lied it's arse off , and the fog is is the bad fibbing breath from Starmer and his cronies , especially so from old burger breath Miliband .

      Funny eh, no sunshine , no wind , the turbines don't turn and the Christmas solar lights at the front of our house flicker then die after half an hour, solar lights , give us a break ..

      Cold weather due next week , I expect you feel the cold , Moh does, I wonder how many people really feel the cold and shudder and shiver , Moh feels it around his shoulders and hands and feet ..

      I am lucky , more of me than Moh and the cold I can cope with , but the heat is a no no, so I pray we don't have an early hot Springtime !

      1. My good lady came back home after a brief outing earlier and said as I sat watching a nature programme on tv, oh it's cold in here now. I told her that we were supposed to feel cold, its government intentions.
        But I did of course turn up the heating.

  107. He probably didn't even get the votes required to 'win' his crooked mates would have been sure of that during the 'counting' process.
    No body else could check it because it was all set up that way.
    All the evidence destroyed within hours of the winning
    announcement.

  111. I've witnessed possibly friends of the current M o London driving around in a large electric vehicle and using blue badge parking. All 5 of them mid 40s and all perfectly fit. Not even a wooden leg underneath the tradition long gowns.
    I expect there is a lot more things like that going on.

      2. The pedant in me thinks that you meant to write "Owing to" since the phrase "I am not leaving" is a verb and not a noun. Maybe Grizzly can adjudicate?

        2. I just nicked it off someone else… no “messenger shooting” please….but we know the people who but these memes together aren’t necessarily the best grammarians….

    2. Very good. Took me ages just come up with a bogie 5.

      Wordle 1,289 5/6

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

      1. Me too.
        Wordle 1,289 5/6

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

    3. Another tough one , not a word that I would use.

      Wordle 1,289 4/6

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

    4. Good stuff Rene!

      Well I never, I only entered the third word to secure the position of the letter M (my second word is OPIUM) – and it was the actual one!
      Highly fortuitous birdie!!

      Wordle 1,289 3/6

      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    7. I looked for a clue and got “woman priest”. Eh? (It was for today, I checked.)

      Wordle 1,289 4/6

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

  117. I guess they count the pieces and compare to what it says on the box, rather than do the jigsaws and find the last piece missing….? 😅 have you volunteered, MiB?

  118. I played cards a lot with my parents, from preschool onwards. I play Mah Jong online, it is quite addictive…easy to skip a drink and/or meal…..

  119. I hear on the news that the moronic Reeves has said that she doesn't accept that putting VAT on school fees will drive pupils to be moved to already over-stretched state schools! The woman is so stupid I'm amazed she can breathe and walk at the same time!

    1. Rachel Thieves doesn't get that soaking the more wealthy has a cut off point. They are not even going to make any money out of it for FS.

      1. Making money isn't the point. It's to soak those nasty privileged rich and stop their children getting a decent education.

    2. If private schools close and the burden doesn't fall on the state sector, then that will mean that people have moved abroad or are home schooling to avoid state schools. Don't think she really thought that one through.

  120. That's me for today. Dreary until dusk when the sun appeared – to larf at us.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain

  121. I can't be bothered with another big meal today,
    I'll just settle for two rounds of ham and pickle sandwiches and some pickled onions.
    Followed by some Christmas cake and a few leftover chocolates.
    Plus there might be some cheese knocking about

    2. I would advise you to avoid any cheese that is "knocking about".

      Until you find what is causing that knocking, of course.

      1. Our 3 are in their twenties. No more lovely cuddles since they were about 10. Grab as many as you can while you can. 😀

          1. Funnily our granddaughters didn’t like cuddles but grandson did until he became a trainee teenager aged about 10 or 11. 😭

    1. It's not just the pensions over here, it's the benefits they have coerced out of the government. Free dental care, prescriptions and travel insurance add quite bit to the overall cost.

      2. And indeed so are these 2 cracking little lads , happy smiles and a very bright future ahead of them , another lovely set of grandchildren and of course mustn’t forget to mention your pet wuffle .. a wheaten terrier?

        1. He is mad Harry, the Cockapoo! Now 8 years old and no less crazy than he was as a puppy! A great family dog and he adores the boys!

    1. He is the best baby ever! 10 months old and I’ve only heard him cry once! He smiles and chats, and is up on his feet walking round the furniture, the dogs and cat, and his siblings! An absolute little star🌟but I’m not biased…

      1. Of course he is. And of course you are not biased.

        Though i do consider a minimal safe distance ………….

  129. For some reason I am hopeless at uploading images, but there is a farmhouse cheese from the Knock area in Ireland, called Knockanore.

    3. North of Ullapool there's a village called Knockan and they had a shop. The sign directing you to the shop was removed as was too risque

    2. I have a smartphone but I never use it for making payments and I refuse to use parking apps. I'm happy to pay in cash or by bank card.

        1. Cash only for me. Don't want my bank statements clogged up with hundreds of tiny transactions, plus I prefer to keep tabs on my money and stop spending when it's gone!

    4. They think it's ridiculous that OAPs should be allowed to drive cars, Belle, it's quite simple.

  134. Government accused of ‘bullying’ to get pylons built under Ed Miliband’s net zero drive

    Energy Secretary has vowed to take on ‘the blockers’ as resistance to the masts grows across the UK

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2024/12/29/TELEMMGLPICT000397549720_17354923169370_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=960
    The Government has been accused of “bullying” in order to get pylons built under Ed Miliband’s net zero drive.

    Labour’s plans to build thousands of new pylons in rural areas to meet clean power targets are sparking backlash in communities across the UK.

    Mr Miliband, the Energy Secretary, has vowed to make the energy grid carbon neutral by the end of the decade in a bid to hit Government targets, calling the proposed roll-out of new pylons, wind turbines and solar panels a matter of “national security”.

    He has also vowed to “take on the blockers, the delayers, the obstructionists” in rhetoric criticised by campaigners stretching from Yorkshire to North Wales.

    They have accused the Government of using “bullying tactics” to ride roughshod over local fears and force new pylon projects through.

    Chris Whitfield, 72, said the issue is becoming a “constant nightmare” for him and other residents in Ardleigh, Essex.

    The rural village lies in the path of one of the biggest planned projects, a pylon line more than 110 miles running through East Anglia from Tilbury, on the banks of the River Thames, to Norwich.

    The proposals are for 520 pylons standing 50 metres high with large trenches dug around them at ground level.

    Mr Whitfield said the structures are “monstrosities”, adding: “We’re going to be surrounded. There’s not going to be anywhere in our parish that you won’t see these pylons.

    “At the statutory consultation [earlier this year] there were people in tears about how devastating it’s going to be.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2024/12/29/TELEMMGLPICT000400637133_17354926511380_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqNLFz2QTH6RCwPE4UPA-sBYO2JF_w593QGlWaWVZxraI.jpeg?imwidth=960 *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/29/government-accused-bullying-pylons-built-net-zero-milliband/
    **************************************

    Peter Dawson
    45 min ago
    Millipede is the greatest threat to Britain. Implementing his warped ideology is pure selfishness. He wants the adulation for being the first country to achieve net zero. But he couldn’t care less about the cost to the taxpayer and the widespread impoverishment this will cause. He couldn’t care less that China will burn even more fossil fuels so we can buy solar panels and wind turbines, at inflated prices. He just wants his place in history. His ambition means he’s the most dangerous man in Britain. edited

    Ambrose Ceschin
    38 min ago
    Reply to Peter Dawson
    Using Milliband as a connection of two ends of new electric cable on his ears might give the right result .At least he would be useful and produce some light

    Machiavelli My Hero
    32 min ago
    Reply to Peter Dawson
    He will have a place in history, as the utter fool who reduced the country to a fourth world status.

    1. Why don't they incorporate housing into the pylons, just think how many small flats would fit into those

    2. Even the net zero bigots in Canada have delayed the mandated net zero emission power system for ten years.

      Some recent reports have shown the impossibility of the task. It is strange though, our ecoterrorist minister s not normally deterred by such fine detail.

    3. How many politicians could you dangle by the neck from one large pylon? A sort of large scale mobile swaying in the breeze.

      1. They could then do something useful and be used as weather indicators – wet it is raining etc.

      2. What are pylons made of , Mola, and if we don't produce steel and wire , how much is it going to cost to import the stuff ..

        Around West Dorset , AONB areas , the electric companies are taking down pylons and putting cables underground .

        That Miliband is a blithering idiot , I hope he chokes on his own spittle.

        1. Same as batteries and wind turbines, Maggie, lots of money the government garners from us, but there's already a debt that can't be repaid from our diminishing economy. The Chinese must have some sort of control over our ruling elite. Have they all been on courses to Manchuria?

    4. Most of, if not all of the materials will have to be imported from China or similar countries that still have the common sense to have held their manufacturing processes together.
      Countries that have never been run and deliberately ruined by effing political idiots who have the distinct impression that they know everything.

      1. I regularly meet a neighbour who has a son with knowledge of the power industry. The son says there just isn't enough copper in the market to provide the UK electrical distribution targets for net zero.

        The theft over Christmas of rail network power cables emphasises the pressure on the copper market:

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0916r00kdo

        1. China ended up with most of the worlds copper.
          That greedy idiot Mugabe let them help themselves.

    5. Is it OK to live near a pylon?
      Studies in Sweden, Germany, and New Zealand have indicated a possible link with cancer while similar studies in the UK, Norway, Canada, and the USA have shown no evidence of any health risks. However, most studies so far have investigated the direct effects of electric and magnetic fields on the body.

  138. My
    36m
    I bet they really are regretting letting the University of Exeter into the Russel Group
    Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey hit with trigger warnings by university for ‘distressing’ content

    2. When you look at Oxbridge, Exeter is no worse than some colleges there. Ruddells Russells are overrated – as are many supposedly tertiary educational establishments nowadays,

      1. Many of the better universities are not members of the Russell Group and some pretty poor ones are!.

  140. A view from the US:

    Ed Dowd:

    Dowd contends “crisis level spending” was being administered, along with some bigtime “fraud.”

    Dowd says, “We had 10% deficit to GDP during the Great Financial Crisis (2008 – 2009) when we actually had a crisis. We had 8% deficit to GDP during this election year. You have to ask yourself, what was the crisis?"

    "The crisis was to get the Biden Administration (and Kamala) re-elected. So, they went on binge spending. They borrowed from the future to try to ensure they won.
    They did it two ways: They hired massive amounts of government personnel to float the economy, and they also did illegal immigration.
    We are thinking it was 10 million to 15 million illegal immigrants that came in the last four years. The majority of the illegal immigrants came in the last two years. That stimulated the economy and raised the velocity of money as those people were given money.

    All the NGO’s that facilitated the illegal immigration also got money, and that stimulated the economy. This deficit added $2 trillion, and that was unproductive assets. So, we borrowed from the future to create more government jobs and imported unprecedented amounts of illegal immigrants that don’t add to the economy.

    That’s what we have, and President Trump’s policies are going to reverse all that sugar juice. There are going to be mass deportations and reduced government spending.
    That short term juice is going away, and it was not sustainable anyway. The bond markets are revolting, and that could not have gone on much longer.”

    But it was not just massive money printing and debt creation that hid how bad the real economy was, it was very crooked data. Dowd says,
    “We also had bureaucratic incompetence or fraud or whatever you want to call it. They were padding the non-farm payroll numbers to the tune of 1.25 million jobs…
    If you look at the chart, which we don’t have here, it’s insane.
    It’s one of the biggest misses between reality and estimates we have ever seen.
    It’s a seven-sigma event. It’s 1.25 million jobs. It’s already started downward revisions…

    The 3rd quarter GDP of 3% will be revised down, and when we get . . . the data in February, there will be more GDP economic revisions down. . . . The capital markets made bad decisions on this data. The Fed made bad decisions on this data, and corporations made bad decisions on this data. The price tag is coming due in 2025. Not only that, but we have a slowing economy across the globe…

    The amount of foreign assets in our stock market has never been higher, and this is all going to reverse. The price will be paid in 2025. . . .What’s coming is coming. It’s how low do we go, and when do the animal spirits kick in? So, there is pain coming, and it’s up to the Trump Administration to get all their policies enacted. Then we have a hope and a prayer coming out the other side that we will be way better off.

    The bottom line is there is pain coming regardless. The question is how fast can we restart with Trump’s policies?”
    Dowd likes gold as part of a portfolio, and he is suggesting people get some cash in hand.

    Dowd says the war in Syria is going to intensify, and you will be hearing much more negative news from that area in 2025.
    Dowd, who wrote the popular book “Cause Unknown: The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021, 2022 and 2023,” says the epidemic caused by the CV19 injections will be with us for the rest of our lives.

    Dowd released new data that added 800,000 people to the 4 million disabled we already had since the CV19 mRNA vax began. Dowd says,
    “The other thing that is going on is the increase in cancers. Science is following up . . . There is cancer causing agents in the mRNA vaccines, and we are seeing cancers on the rise. . . . There are new (medical insurance) claims among young workers, especially cancer claims. . . .
    Insurance rates are going up across the board.
    The answer to what is going on is to raise prices. They are not differentiating between the vaxed and unvaxed. So, everybody’s prices are going up. Health insurance is going to become unaffordable for most people.”

  141. Evening, all. Went to church this morning – found it hard to remember it was Sunday. The time between Christmas and New Year seems oddly disjointed.

    National Service? Don't make me laugh; today's "I know my rights" barrack room lawyers would never take the discipline. And where would they get the instructors? The PTB have spent decades indoctrinating today's youth with the idea that the nation is racist, nasty, colonialist and generally something to be ashamed of. They reap what they sow.

    1. Well, Eddie, that sounds like a sensible movee. When Cinderella stayed up past midnight her beautiful dress turned into rags, her coach into a pumpkin, and all the rest of her companions into animals. Lol.

      1. Well at this unearthly hour, I’ve just made a cuppa and drank it.
        My party dress is still in the wardrobe and the coach is still on the driveway.
        Give me another four hours and I’ll be fit to go. zzzzz

  144. Unfortunately, they seem to like what they're reaping, as if that has always been the intended crop.

  147. Quote 'the phrase "I am not leaving" is a verb…', can't be as it contains 4 words. There may be a verb within that sentence but the 'phrase' can't be a verb

  148. Reform UK says it has gained 20,000* grassroots supporters in the four days since Kemi Badenoch accused Nigel Farage of faking its membership numbers.
    The party surged past 150,000 paid-up backers on Sunday, with insiders saying the row with the Tory leader had contributed to a spike in sign-ups.
    Mr Farage told The Telegraph that many Conservatives were privately “deeply embarrassed” by her actions and renewed his call for her to apologise.

    Reform’s online membership tracker on Sunday showed that the party had more than 152,000 signed-up grassroots supporters.
    That was up by more than 20,000 on Boxing Day, when the party said it passed the Tories for the first time by exceeding their tally of 131,680.
    It means that Reform now has the second biggest membership of any political party in the UK, behind only Labour which has 367,000 supporters.

    * That's an extra £500,000 into the party's coffers

  149. Jimmy Carter, 39th US President, Dead At 100
    SUNDAY, DEC 29, 2024 – 09:17 PM
    The Washington Post reports that the 39th US president, Jimmy Carter, passed away on Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia.

    1. BTL Comment:

      11 minutes ago

      // "his son confirmed the death, he did not provide an immediate cause. " //

      I will go on a limb and say, maybe he died of old age.

      1. Old age or shame at the way the democrats have failed.

        To say the least he was not the most successful president but compared to todays incumbent he will be a star.

    1. Perhaps they could just do whatever they want to do, to each other. We should be, and keep, out of it.

      No doubt our Beta-male PM we have will be persuaded to wriggle in on the dispute by an interested party.

    2. That could be interesting. I remember reading that after the bungled American withdrawal from Afghanistan leaving billions of dollars worth of military hardware behind, the Taliban ended up as the fourth-best equipped army in the world. Admittedly they may well not have the expertese to use a lot of it, or maintain it for use, but it was still a very big load of kit.

      1. But but Biden told us that they had made all of the equipment unusable, they even showed pictures of Apache helicopters with the control panels smashed and broken.

        Surely they didn't mislead us.

        1. It pays to get suspicious when they go over the top to "prove" to us that something happened.
          Like that call recording of the US marine on the doomed 9/11 flight whose wife overheard him saying "let's roll" just before he hung up the phone.
          The amazing photo of the bullet in the air is another example.

      2. I suspect the American withdrawal from Afghanistan under Biden was designed to leave the military equipment and Bagram Military Airbase. This otherwise inept withdrawal can only have been deliberate. As to what purpose I expect Biden wished to equip the Taliban for some proxy war assignment.

        We all need to remember that Biden was pure evil and cared little or nothing for the US Constitution, his fellow Americans or anyone else. Biden was in politics for his personal enrichment and that of his ‘recognised’ family. He just wasn’t very good at it and never made billionaire status. Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama made more money from subterfuge than Biden.

        I should add that much of the military equipment left by the dolt Biden will have equipped both the Taliban and numerous other terrorist entities such as Pakistan, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthi’s in Sudan and Yemen.

        I shall be glad to see the back of the Biden regime. Hopefully we will simultaneously see the fall of the evil Starmer regime.

  151. How on earth did someone like her become leader. Totaly out of her depth.Just another WEF stooge.

    1. I am still waiting for someone to challenge her on how they obtained those membership numbers from the Reform back end system.

      It could be an interesting conversation.

      1. Was there much competition for the job? Trying to reunite and save a dying party that has lost its way is not exactly a nice easy sinecure.

        Same over here, no one is stepping forward and saying they are ready to take over from Trudeau. – maybe a few months of high on the hog living at double an MPs salary before losing everything and forever being associated with a record election loss.

    4. It's all part of the show. The people are going to triumph as the new, independent party gains power! Democracy in action!
      By the time the electorate have worked out that Reform work in the interests of the same people as LibLabCon, there will be a whole new gullible generation who'll vote Labour and so the circus continues…

      "If you know their name, they're in the game" and Reform got mainstream media publicity denied to other small parties from the moment they were formed, as did that other sideshow run by a very well paid actor.

  152. Q – Why aren't our governments in the West smashing the gangs?

    A – Because they are the gangs.

  153. Jimmy Carter has done very well, living to 100

    He never looked like old bone material when he was President

  155. I have always maintained that I missed a lot by not having to do national service. Not only for personal growth, I would have also had more time to think about a long term career rather than just pivoting based on A level results.

    There again to some extent we had.been hardened by a sadistic headmaster, we were not the mollycoddled youth of today.

    1. It woke my brother up. Unfortunately, by then it was too late for him to do anything about it (he'd wasted his education dossing about with mates who had no ambition).

      2. Unfortunately for my father, it killed his elder brother. It will be 70 years next year.

        We didn’t used to talk about it growing up, but dad will be 86 soon and talks about his brother a lot now.

        Short story: Dad’s brother’s fiancee married another man and they had 2 daughters, who are both unmarried; it was an unhappy marriage and the man went to jail at one point; my uncle’s premature death didn’t just screw up my family.

        1935-1955

    2. I got a taste of it by joining the RAF section of the CCF at School. In 1964 the CCF comprised the entire 4th-6th years with strong contingents in all three sections. By the time I left in 1971 only the RAF section remained….

      1. The grammar school that I went to was one of those new schools built in the late fifties, it was all soulless square boxes but no traditions to rely on.

        Effectively it was just a regular secondary school but for kids that had passed the eleven plus.

  156. Well – tonight we had the birthday Dinner. Younger son 51 today. We had roast beef, roast potatoes & parsnips, carrots, Yorkie puds & gravy, I managed to have it all ready at once! Some smoked salmon to start and Christmas pud with brandy cream afterwards. Then they had cheese & port. I don't eat cheese and J had retired by then.
    I think it went OK.

    3. So pleased you produced a delicious British staple , roast beef and all the trimmings , I expect younger son appreciated your cooking .

      Goodness , they grow up so quickly..

    1. This has been going on for years, unchecked. Glad if it's finally being stopped but I have my doubts.

      1. Is it being stopped? Like you I doubt it.

        I see you, like me, are catching up on last night’s posts. Then I read the earliest on the next day. Good moaning btw.

        1. Good morning! Sometimes I get confused and think I’m on the current day when it’s actually yesterday’s page…

  160. Well, chums, it's turned 11 pm, so I am off upstairs to bed. Good night, sleep well, and I'll see you all tomorrow.

  161. Thank you, Conners – and to Kadi too when the time comes. I'm off now. May we all sleep well.

Comments are closed.