Thursday 14 December: Toothless Tories have broken Brexit promises on immigration control

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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640 thoughts on “Thursday 14 December: Toothless Tories have broken Brexit promises on immigration control”

  3. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story – a radio quiz.

    Game Show
    On the morning show at WBAM FM in Chicago, IL they play a game for prizes, usually vacations and such, called “Mate Match.”

    The DJ’s ring someone at work and ask if they are married or in a serious relationship. If yes, then this person is asked 3 very personal
    questions that vary from couple to couple and asked for their significant others name and work phone number. If the significant
    other answers correctly then they are winners.

    This particular day (12-9-98) it got interesting:
    DJ HEY! This is Edgar on WBAM. Do you know “Mate Match”?
    Contestant (laughing) Yes I do.
    DJ What is your name? First only please.
    Contestant Brian
    DJ Are you married or what Brian?
    Brian Yes.
    DJ “Yes”? Does this mean you are married or what? Brian?
    Brian (laughing nervously) Yes, I am married.
    DJ Thank you, Brian. OK, now, what is your wife’s name?
    First only please, Brian.
    Brian Sara.
    DJ Is Sara at work Brian?
    Brian She is gonna kill me.
    DJ Stay with me here Brian! Is she at work?
    Brian (laughing) Yes, she is.
    DJ All right then, first question: When was the last time you had sex?
    Brian She is gonna kill me.
    DJ BRIAN! Stay with me here man.
    Brian About 8 O’clock this morning.
    DJ Atta boy.
    Brian (laughing sheepishly) Well…
    DJ Number 2, How long did it last?
    Brian About 10 minutes.
    DJ Wow! You really want that trip huh? No one would ever have said that
    if it there weren’t a trip at stake.
    Brian Yeah, it would be really nice.
    DJ OK. Final question, where was it that you had sex at 8 this morning?
    Brian (laughing hard) I ummmmm.
    DJ This sounds good Brian, where was it?
    Brian Not that it was all that great just that her mom is staying with us for a
    couple of weeks and she was taking a shower at the time.
    DJ Ooooooh, sneaky boy!
    Brian On the kitchen table.
    DJ “Not that great”? That is more adventurous than the last hundred times
    I have done it. Anyway, (to audience) I will put Brian on hold, get his
    wife’s work number and call her up. You listen to this.
    (Advertisements)
    DJ (to audience) Let’s call Sara, shall we?
    (Touch tones, ringing*)
    Clerk Kinko’s.
    DJ Hey, is Sara around there somewhere?
    Clerk This is she.
    DJ Sara, this is Edgar with WBAM. I have been speaking with Brian for a
    couple of hours now*
    Sara (laughing) A couple of hours?
    DJ Well, a while anyway. He is also on the line with us. Brian knows not to
    give away any answers or you lose do you know the rules of “Mate
    Match”?
    Sara No, I don’t
    DJ Good.
    Brian (laughing)
    Sara (laughing) Brian, what the hell are you up to?
    Brian (laughing) Just answer his questions honestly OK?
    Sara Oh, Brian
    DJ Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sara I will now ask you 3 questions and if you answer
    exactly what Brian has said then the 2 of you are off to Orlando, Florida
    at our expense. This does include tickets to Disney World, Sea World
    and tickets to see the Orlando Magic play. Get it Sara? SARA! GET IT
    Orlando Magic, they are on strike Sara, helloooooo anyone home?!?!
    Sara (laughing hard) YES, yes.
    Brian (laughing)
    DJ All right, when did you have sex last Sara?
    Sara Oh God, Brian… this morning before Brian went to work.
    DJ What time?
    Sara About 8 I think.
    (Sound effect) DING DING DING
    DJ Very good. Next question, how long did it last?
    Sara 12 to 15 minutes maybe.
    DJ hhmmmmm
    Background voice in studio That’s close enough. I’m sure she is trying not to harm his manhood.
    DJ Well, we will give you that one. Last question, where did you do it?
    Sara OH MY GOD, BRIAN! You didn’t tell them, did you?!?!
    Brian Just tell him honey.
    DJ What is bothering you so much Sara?
    Sara Well, it’s just, just that my mom is vacationing with us and….
    DJ SHE SAW?!?!
    Sara BRIAN?!?!
    Brian NO, no I didn’t.
    DJ Ease up there sister. Just messin’ with your head. Your answer?
    Sara Dear Lord.. I cannot believe you told them this.
    Brian Come on honey it’s for a trip to Florida.
    DJ Let’s go Sara we ain’t got all day. Where did you do it?
    Sara In the ass.
    (Long pause)
    DJ We will be right back.
    (Advertisements)
    DJ I am sorry for that ladies and gentlemen. This is live radio and these
    things do happen. Anyway, Brian and Sara are off to lovely Orlando,
    Florida.

  5. Toothless Tories have broken Brexit promises on immigration control

    What promises if any have they kept, exactly

    I note Boris always said get Brexit done and we have been done

  6. Only Donald Trump can save the free world now. Con Coughlin. 3 December 2023.

    The prospect of Trump returning to the White House has prompted paroxysms among political elites on both sides of the Atlantic,who are still licking their wounds from the bruising encounters they suffered during his previous term in office.

    Trump is no Churchill: the billionaire businessman is too vain and erratic to stand comparison with Britain’s great wartime statesman. Nevertheless, it is just possible that, given Trump’s track record in handling several important security challenges, a political comeback by the former president might just succeed in galvanising the West into adopting a more robust stance against aggressors like Russia and Iran.

    Lol! Con’s had an epiphany!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/13/only-donald-trump-can-save-the-free-world-now/

      2. He was destined, or should that be selected, to be a disaster. You don’t pick a person with Biden’s long track record of under-achievement and his onset of medical problems if you want improvement – I started to write success but of course his ‘success’ is disaster, as planned by those who selected him – in the USA’s performance.

    3. Aggressors like Russia, Minty? I would agree with his view of Iran, though. (Good morning, btw.)

    4. Coughlin is spreading nonsense as usual.

      NOBODY is going to come and save us. If Trump looks like doing that, he will be rubbished and derided by the likes of Coughlin. The only people who can save us are ourselves. Stop complying with the creeping marxist takeover. Make yourself as independent as possible. Don’t obediently line up for every mark of the beast that the beast wants to stamp on you.

  7. Good morning all.
    0°C on the yard thermometer and a misty drizzle outside.
    Still dark though!

    An excellent BTL Comment:-

    Trevor Anderson
    4 HRS AGO
    Mark Dunn: “Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, says that multiculturalism has failed.”
    His list of foreign imports were here long before our current situation and is irrelevant and a boneheaded, muddled criticism of what Braverman meant. What we have are large communities of immigrants who live parallel lives, separated by religion, culture, language and disregard for British values and norms. (We British may have problems with some of these, but at least they are ours).
    This is especially so with many Islamic communities where religion dominates their lives and everyone else is an Infidel; and they are not inclined or in some instances are banned from communing. As far as I’m concerned, anyone can believe in whatever god they wish, but the practice of it should not affect the lives of others negatively. Islam is an anachronism where misogyny is rife, and women are chattels.
    The steady influx through mass immigration into large communities in some areas of the country and public institutions has brought an imbalance of islamic politicians and influential roles; as demonstrated by advisors to The Met.
    If a muslim stands for election in local or national government in areas where there are large communities of the same, they will be voted for, regardless.
    It’s been said often on these pages, but as things stand, it is only a matter of time before the UK becomes an Islamic state. What price multiculturism then, Mr Dunn?

    1. And the letter that inspired it:-

      SIR – Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, says that multiculturalism has failed (Interview, December 10). What, then, are we to replace it with?

      The only option would appear to be that we are forced to live in a monocultural society. And what would Mrs Braverman permit in such a society? Would we be allowed to eat Indian, Mexican or Italian food? Or is roast beef, washed down with ale, the only order of the day? Can we listen to reggae music, dance salsa or play the ukulele? Would French films, Greek philosophy or Russian literature be acceptable? Is the wearing of headscarves, Levi’s jeans and ponchos to be banned? Will yoga classes, meditation retreats and acupuncture treatments be cancelled?

      If variety is the spice of life, how good will it taste once we are all forced to conform to Mrs Braverman’s vision of a single culture?

      Mark Dunn
      Bristol

      1. When I did my equality and diversity training, I was asked to list the advantages of multi-culturalism, but strangely not the disadvantages.

      2. Well, Mr. Dunn, you just wait until Britain does become a monocultural society, when Islam takes over. I don’t think you’ll like it so much when that happens.

        1. He’ll have to grow a beard, wear a nightdress and a lacy cap and shut his wife and daughters up. Where’s the diversity there?

      3. What a silly, ignorant letter. Multi-culturalism isn’t to do with what you choose to eat for supper, it is about whether the native culture is protected and allowed to flourish as the dominant culture in its own land, or whether it’s forced to be treated on a par with every migrant’s home culture.

        A particularly cringe-worthy example: Oxford University (who else?) is sending out emails with “Happy Christmas to those who celebrate it” written on them.
        It’s Britain. You don’t have to apologise for sending out Christmas greetings. This vile kowtowing is even worse than Winterval greetings if possible.

        1. Very true. We have had waves and waves of immigration and get to enjoy their food and culture while the majority integrate. The same cannot be said for Islam.

    2. The koran tells them not to befriend the kuffar (although they can pretend to do it to further the cause of islam).

    2. As with deep fried Mars Bars, not something to have frequently, but ok as a VERY occasional treat.

      1. When it became a ‘thing’ i tried it at home. Using the mini Mars and Tempura batter. As you say…only very occasionally but they worked a treat.

          1. Depends which bit of Wales. You can reach Offa’s dyke at the normal speed.
            Well, from an easterly direction.

          2. I can get to Wales in less than a day – I only live 2 miles on the English side of the border 🙂

  11. Britain to build next generation fighter jets under historic deal. 14 December 2023.

    Britain is to spearhead a new fighter jet project for the first time under a treaty to be signed with Japan and Italy on Thursday.

    The agreement reveals that the UK will host the headquarters of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), where all major decisions about the project will be made.

    Britain, Japan and Italy have joined forces to develop the next generation of fighter jets. The aim of the project, announced last December and previously known as Tempest, is to create a supersonic aircraft that takes to the skies by 2035.

    Of course I knew the headline was fake but I had to read the article to find out the truth.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/14/britain-supersonic-fighter-jets-deal-japan-italy/

      1. Morning Oberst. I’m rather sceptical about the whole thing. I suspect that it will collapse and Japan will build the plane alone!

      1. What a disgusting racist, sexist woman, to use her kind of language.
        Mine would be stupid and mean.

      2. Distinct similarity to the NatWest’s Rose woman.
        Is there a Chinese factory churning them out?

  15. Good morning, chums. I got up at 6 am today, but have been doing various odd jobs until now (turned 8 am) so Sos is mistaken when he says that my later appearances on here show that I am a secret drinker in the evening and that I am late on here because I have a hangover. Anyhow, today I am off to my monthly Curry Club meal with which I shall have a large glass of Merlot. Otherwise, I only drink a single glass of wine at home on Saturday nights with my weekly Spaghetti Bolognese. Having said that, one of my early jobs this morning was to read Martin Lewis’ Christmas tips which suggested I could save 25% by buying six bottles of wine at Tesco. I may well do this when I go shopping today, but six bottles should last me several months – six glasses per bottle times six bottles equals 36 weekly drinks; work it out yourself, Sos. Lol.

          3. I do use all remnants for cooking. I time it that way so when the recipe calls for wine i don’t have to open a new bottle.

          4. As there is only me to drink it, I use vacuum wine saver to keep the bottle fresh. It takes me a while to get through a bottle and it saves wasting it.

  16. 379509+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 14 December: Toothless Tories have broken Brexit promises on immigration control

    Reality,
    Thursday 14 December: Toothless Tories have broken Brexit promises on immigration control again,again,again,again & again from the 24/6/2016 ongoing.

    The lord haw haw wretch cameron, tories (ino) calling, for all
    returnees to come to the aid of the party regarding returning to the protective arms of brussels.

    Then the leadership farce with all the ingredients of a very cheaply produced stage play, wanna be PM leadsome
    (just kidding) the assassin govy, the victim johnson, the audience shouting ” make him PM, he makes us laugh” all laying down, following the placement script putting arsewipe may, in the driving seat.

    Arsewipe , an eu asset if ever, done more unrepairable damage to this nation than adolf.

    In short, these political treacherous cretins were followed now openly by the WEF / NWO brigade with royal seal ALL given a
    large HURRUH, plus a tribal kiss X at the polling station.

    1. I don’t wish to be rude, ogga1, but I have no idea what you are trying to say. (Good morning, btw.)

      1. 379509+ up ticks,

        Morning EB,
        Say what you mean and mean what you say.

        IMHO tis your prerogative, being rude that is, at times it relieves tension.

        In short, the tory (ino) party has proved treacherous since the referendum result, with a majority voter following.

    3. If there were no other reason to think that Sunak has no judgement whatsoever the fact that he decided to bring back Cameron, a politician deeply loathed and deeply incompetent, should be enough for Sunak to be driven out of Downing Street and placed in an institution for mental defectives.

      2. 379509+ up ticks,

        R,
        Unless, we have a massive criminal lunatic asylum build, currently we are FULL UP with imported foreign elements.

  17. For 10 minutes there was a fantastically colourful sunrise. All gone, now – just grey and dull.

      1. I love Alex’s cartoons but these ones could have been improved by having one of the board room nutters wearing a mask.

      2. All well and good, but avoids talking about the biggest thing that stops anyone from wanting to go to the office these days – there’s no ruddy parking!!!

        1. The depletion of workspace parking started years ago. Of course the big American companies here chose to ignore it. Still, it was a partial success…nurses have to pay.

  21. Western civilisation is being destroyed from within by forces we can’t control. 14 December 2023.

    For years now, those of us who warned of the devastating threat posed by the takeover of our institutions by woke ideologues were relentlessly attacked and ridiculed. There is no such thing as “woke”, we were assured by patronising Left-wingers, just “kind” people who “care” about others and who believe in “social justice”, fighting “prejudice”, “clarifying” history, embracing sexual “self-realisation”, “saving the planet” and promoting the fundamental “equality” of all human beings.

    We were right, it turns out, and the centrist dads were spectacularly wrong. Voters now widely understand that the rise of extreme trans advocacy has led to the mutilation of many children and the erosion of women’s rights. Yet this is only one small part of the destructive ideological tsunami unleashed by woke fanatics. Our warnings, if anything, understated the scale of the problem, and in particular the authoritarian, even fascistic, nature of “critical race theory” and “postcolonial theory”, other key components of this demented way of thinking.

    We? Who is this We? As I remember this understanding was restricted to Conspiracy Theorists, Nottlers and their ilk! The MSM’s part was the support of the Elites.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/13/civilisation-destroyed-by-monster-that-cannot-be-controlled/

    1. Yes indeed – the collective amnesia is enormous!
      Still, it’s an advance of some sort if this kind of thing is being printed in the corporate media.

      1. It took several bombs to breach the dam, but once the crack appeared, the end result was spectacular.

  22. Good morning all,

    Dreich and cold again at the McPhee’s. Wind South-West, 3℃≫7℃.

    The only thing new in this ‘news’ is that the headquarters of the international consortium to build the jet will be in the UK.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4501379a44f5a6b10604c918607614bb56eb7fbff21e75c48428a1d977ecae7c.png

    Three countries with small air forces combine to develop a sixth-generation stealthy combat jet. Given the number of airframes which each is likely to order the production run should amount to, oh, 400-500 or so. To make it viable they desperately need to get others on board and take the total number ordered to at least twice that.

    Danielle Sheridan’s reporting is inaccurate as always: “The last time the UK designed and built an aircraft was the Harrier”. She hasn’t heard of the Hawk, then, a 100% British fast-jet trainer/light combat aircraft, successfully exported to the USA and used by the USN to train its fighter pilots?

    ‘One senior defence source described basing the headquarters in the UK as ‘a coup’ “.

    When you consider that it is essentially Bae Systems’ Tempest project it would be astonishing if the HQ were NOT in Britain.

          2. The Yanks are flying Fortresses at 40,000 feet
            With a ton of ammunition
            and a teeny, weeney bomb.
            The RAF are flying Lancasters at zero, zero feet
            With no ammunition
            And a fucking great bomb..

            WWII Song.

          3. To be fair to them, they did try to do pinpoint bombing for which good visibility was necessary. It was not an easy job flying over Germany in daylight.

    2. Ain’t that gonna be an awful lot of second hand cooking oil that’s required for fuelling them, Maverick?

    3. BAE shares fell sharply today; munitions must be profitable, but with jet fighter manufacture you are up against both the USA and France. Those Rafales might not be the best, but they are at least in production. (I know nothing)

  23. ‘Morning All

    Bob Moran tells how it was………

    https://twitter.com/A1an_M/status/1734872199696179486?s=20

    Rest of the medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6eb7be9ab3ad328b337c74a43aa92fb0d27e58bf1139d45122567ccb594e78a8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f30f807176520e5e54eb44369db1842bc94c0eb35e79dbce667dec10642cb00f.jpg

    See gimmegrants for more details

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bc9f2e0865ee8f68fcb3e780cc833eeb0a8cbf872c052bb50e6da98153948683.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c06cfa4afd485b99af968cb4e21db57d6450cb737285e9c4f35bb487ee92f527.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/53e52b43f25f7b6ad1e957ebf7b93bd1d246dee138f3e524bad03c04757e7474.png

    If only they’d let me………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2641a556cd222662f14d95ca127ffc5cb5676b0ca5f6d35eb1dda3b602ac4c5f.jpg

    2. All accurate and to the point.. our wonderful pithy British humour , perfectly anatomised by our RIK .

      Are we the only nation who can laugh outwardly and inwardly?

    3. When Rumpole was a little Boxer puppy, our cat, Chaucer, asserted his authority in the way of the cat in the clip in Rik’s post in the above clip. Consequently Poor Rumpole went around with a permanently blooded nose. Fortunately Rumpole was a masochist and he absolutely adored Chaucer – so much so that when Chaucer died Rumpole was so heart-broken that he lost a third of his body weight and had to be treated with canine Prozac.

  24. On the lighter side………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9aedbf0bd0685e35f3b43365984066b1ce7502a07ee10ee4a6fcabeb6bffd4a9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/395927a5ac9aa188ff4b3ea9810461a659794c804b40938db723365b03149bc9.png

    https://starecat.com/content/wp-content/uploads/found-this-in-my-cellar-i-think-my-grandpa-was-an-electrician-ss-nazi.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dff8eece92cf612536fb4250e676f346a4e8aa4d8e23f45c74500177154efe62.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/42696369b3f7c6029c8e4393785456d9baf3f450bf06c756fc102eda7ef6a0f1.jpg

    Been there,done that……..

    https://i0.wp.com/uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa80b4b6968907a2dcd9f3bbe435e43416ce6c70cb4f7712d611b60b05ba00c9.gif

  25. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9e6e03d1fb7439b561a3ec4fd8a08899e7f4168f6da47548a7da78b24aceecbb.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/13/civilisation-destroyed-by-monster-that-cannot-be-controlled/

    This BTL comment sums up how many people think:

    I cannot understand how defending yourself and retaliating against genocide, as the Jews do, is called genocide by the woke left while actually practising it, as the Hamas supporting Muslims do, is not.

    1. 379509+ up ticks,

      Morning R,

      A very destructive campaign is being successfully waged by the lab/lib/con/current ukip coalition party and is so very plain to observe.
      .

  26. Sir – Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, says that multiculturalism has failed (Interview, December 10). What, then, are we to replace it with?

    The only option would appear to be that we are forced to live in a monocultural society. And what would Mrs Braverman permit in such a society? Would we be allowed to eat Indian, Mexican or Italian food? Or is roast beef, washed down with ale, the only order of the day? Can we listen to reggae music, dance salsa or play the ukulele? Would French films, Greek philosophy or Russian literature be acceptable? Is the wearing of headscarves, Levi’s jeans and ponchos to be banned? Will yoga classes, meditation retreats and acupuncture treatments be cancelled?

    If variety is the spice of life, how good will it taste once we are all forced to conform to Mrs Braverman’s vision of a single culture?

    Mark Dunn
    Bristol

    The problem is, Marky, the overuse of the idiotic nonsense word “culture”; this is something that you — and millions of others — fail to assimilate. It is not “multiculturalism” that is causing the problems in most European countries, it is multireligionism. The wholesale result of permitting all manner of arcane religions to proliferate, replete with their venomous rituals, is what is causing all the problems. Saudi Arabia, for all their faults, realise this and only permit one religion within the boundaries of their state. If all other countries had followed this ideal then problems caused with people who have conflicting ideas with us — over what is permissible behaviour, and what is not — would never have arisen. If every country was compelled to have just one “national” religion then peace would be the norm everywhere. Anyone not agreeing with this could then be deported to a country that fulfilled all their theological requirements and desires.

    1. Apartheid in Britain keeping Muslims apart from everybody else in a system far more rigid than the South African model?

      1. But it’s their wish to NOT integrate, so kick ’em all out and only allow those that are fluent in English, and have converted to Christianity, to remain..

    2. Their culture is part of their religion, and vice versa. Muticulturalism cannot exist. It is akin to suggesting we have multiple legal systems. There must be one, single overruling culture that dictates laws, mores, ethics and values.

      Lefties don’t like this as it creates a nation. A nation that says ‘this is wrong, that is right.’ If you can erode the national ethic, you destroy the nation. Without anything to anchor ‘what you are, stand for, believe in’ someone else can slither in and tell you what you *should* think.

    3. What a prat. Multiculturalism might have worked if it had insisted on common norms, such as speaking the language for a start. I’ve lived in other countries; I’m doing so now. I wouldn’t dream of not aiming for basic competence in the native language, although of course I’d still speak English at home.

      People from other lands can offer interesting cuisines or other superficial cultural attributes, and indeed different points of view, if they are willing to be good neighbours. Argentina is a case in point; most people I’ve met here are proud of their mixed cultural heritage. But the bureaucracy works in Spanish, and you don’t mock the Church, and, importantly, immigrants here have always had to earn their keep.

      1. The language is key; it encapsulates the culture and the Weltanschauung of the nation. We could save billions if we didn’t translate everything – it isn’t as though English isn’t a world language, after all. You need an interpreter? Pay for one yourself.

    4. Personally, as I don’t eat Indian, Mexican or Italian food, I’d be very happy with roast beef, washed down with ale. Nor do I listen to reggae crap. Women wore headscarves (have you not seen photos of her late Majesty riding in the ’50s?) before we were flooded with aliens who hate our culture. As for the ukelele, maybe George Formby was before his time.

      1. There are few foods, from numerous cuisines, that I won’t eat. My palate is always on the look out for new taste experiences. As for playing a ukelele-banjo and leaning on lamp-posts at the corner of the street (especially when I’m cleaning windows), I leave that to the cheery chappie from Wigan.😉

  27. 379509+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Britain to build next generation fighter jets under historic deal
    The Global Combat Air Programme project will be based in the UK and aims to create next-generation aircraft to take to the skies by 2035

    Priorities, priorities,

    It’s good news week
    Someone’s dropped a bomb somewhere
    Contaminating atmosphere
    And blackening the sky

    May one ask, would it not be more beneficial that instead of
    the few employed in the arms industry enriching the arms dealers we benefit the masses via a common sense restructure of the NHS

    1. Sounds good ogga.

      However Britain needs to export to be able to buy food from abroad.

      You will recall that the EU did a lot to run down Britain’s food and fishing capabilities, and yet

      since 2016 the Government and Civil Service have done very little to reverse this.

      We need a common sense restructure of the farming industry.

    1. I thought it was obvious that the princely president of Cop28 was never going along with the ‘Phase out Fossil Fuels’ tripe.

        1. If we sat here today, with the government saying ‘ righty chaps, we’re going to start our 20th fusion reactor. Electricity is now free. We’d like folk to consider turning off their gas central heating, but understand if you still want it in favour of an alternative.’ would any of us really object to ‘going green’? I doubt it.

          The problem is, it isn’t green. EVs just move the pollution to the power stations. The idea of course was to use every electric car as a battery for the grid, to use and re-use as the state wanted. Because government is infested with morons it forgot about flats and people who park on the road.

          Heat pumps just don’t work. People are already suggesting a more efficient method is underfloor hot water heating. Not using electric currents, but hot water in pipes. However this requires space for a thermals mass – a tank, more plumbing and in many homes designed for the annorexic midgets house builders design for there simply isn’t the room.

          At every turn, the attitude of big government is to force people to behave in a way the state approves of. never to give people the freedom to choose how to live.

  29. Putin gives first major press conference since war began – watch live. 14 December 2023.

    Vladimir Putin is giving his first major press conference since the war in Ukraine began.

    Mr Putin is holding a three-hour end-of-year combined press conference and public phone-in in the Kremlin from 9am GMT (12pm local time) where journalists and members of the public will ask him questions.

    The annual call-in marathon was cancelled last year but has returned ahead of presidential elections in March 2024.

    Vlad is now confident that he has won this War. The defeat of the Ukie counter–attack means that they can now never recover Crimea and the Donbass. The expansion of the Russian forces will eventually make this explicit. There will be further fighting of course until either the Will of the West’s politicians or the Morale of the Ukrainian troops collapses.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/12/14/ukraine-russia-war-news-latest-moscow-drones-putin-address/

  30. Putin gives first major press conference since war began – watch live. 14 December 2023.

    Vladimir Putin is giving his first major press conference since the war in Ukraine began.

    Mr Putin is holding a three-hour end-of-year combined press conference and public phone-in in the Kremlin from 9am GMT (12pm local time) where journalists and members of the public will ask him questions.

    The annual call-in marathon was cancelled last year but has returned ahead of presidential elections in March 2024.

    Vlad is now confident that he has won this War. The defeat of the Ukie counter–attack means that they can now never recover Crimea and the Donbass. The expansion of the Russian forces will eventually make this explicit. There will be further fighting of course until either the Will of the West’s politicians or the Morale of the Ukrainian troops collapses.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/12/14/ukraine-russia-war-news-latest-moscow-drones-putin-address/

  31. From last year.. Have things changes?

    The government has cleared Royal Mail’s biggest shareholder, an investment vehicle part-owned by a Czech billionaire with links to Russia, to increase its stake in the company.

    Daniel Křetínský’s Vesa Equity already owns 22% of Royal Mail’s parent, International Distributions Services. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said in August, when Kwasi Kwarteng was secretary of state, that it was conducting a national security review amid signs that Vesa was preparing to build its stake in the UK’s main postal service past 25%, sparking speculation that a full takeover could follow.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/business/royal-mail-strikes-vesa-equity-czech-billionaire-west-ham-investor-daniel-kretinsky-royal-mail-kwasi-kwarteng-grant-shapps-b1036395.html#:~:text=The%20government%20has%20cleared%20Royal,Mail's%20parent%2C%20International%20Distributions%20Services.

  32. Western civilisation is being destroyed from within by forces we can’t control

    The horrifying truth about woke ideology has finally been revealed. It gives open support to genocide

    ALLISTER HEATH
    13 December 2023 • 6:53pm

    For years now, those of us who warned of the devastating threat posed by the takeover of our institutions by woke ideologues were relentlessly attacked and ridiculed. There is no such thing as “woke”, we were assured by patronising Left-wingers, just “kind” people who “care” about others and who believe in “social justice”, fighting “prejudice”, “clarifying” history, embracing sexual “self-realisation”, “saving the planet” and promoting the fundamental “equality” of all human beings.

    We were right, it turns out, and the centrist dads were spectacularly wrong. Voters now widely understand that the rise of extreme trans advocacy has led to the mutilation of many children and the erosion of women’s rights. Yet this is only one small part of the destructive ideological tsunami unleashed by woke fanatics. Our warnings, if anything, understated the scale of the problem, and in particular the authoritarian, even fascistic, nature of “critical race theory” and “postcolonial theory”, other key components of this demented way of thinking.

    Take the West’s best universities, home of what used to be called political correctness. When questioned by a US Congressional committee, the heads of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology all but refused to confirm that calling for the genocide of Jews would violate the universities’ code of conduct. It would “depend on the context”, they argued.

    Remember, these are paranoid places obsessed with “microagressions”, where “truth” is subjective, where strict speech codes are imposed to prevent “offence”, where academics or students can be hounded out for “misgendering” somebody, and where conservative views are often equated with racism. But when it comes to Jew-hate – and only then – they pretend to believe in free speech. Racism is banned, but not if it is directed at Jews, or white people, or members of any group not deemed worthy of protection.

    The double-standards are shocking, but they are not accidental, and they have also corrupted British universities. The woke ideology divides the world into oppressors and oppressed. Jewish people are classified as “white” or “white adjacent”, and therefore oppressors, and this supposedly gives protesters a green light to chant slogans any objective observer should deem to be supportive of genocide.

    In the Middle East, “Intifada revolution” and “from the river to the sea” are unambiguously seen as calls for terrorism and the wiping of Israel from the map, so why do ordinarily ultra-cautious institutions suddenly claim that there might be a more benign meaning? And why have universities in Britain and America, always so ready to enter the public debate, been so quiet about the horrific rapes of Israeli women? Is it because they are the “wrong kind” of victims? It’s a disgusting betrayal, a normalisation of racism with a whiff of the 1930s about it. Universities’ net impact on society is increasingly negative. The woke mind virus has turned once great centres of learning into indoctrination camps, vehicles to “manufacture consent” for nihilistic ideas and a new obscurantism.

    Their absurd hierarchy of victimhood is also why many intelligent people still look up to the morally bankrupt United Nations. Iran’s envoy has been chairing a UN human rights council meeting, even though the Islamic Republic is a leading human rights violator. Never mind, the woke extremists argue: it’s a member of the “global south”, fighting against “imperialism”.

    Or take the UNRWA for Palestine Refugees: it’s turned its charges into a perpetual refugee class, robbing them of agency and labelling their towns as permanent “refugee camps”. Palestinians are the only people for whom refugee status is automatically passed down through the generations, ensuring that their grievances can never be resolved and the UN bureaucracy can keep its gravy train on the road. This is a tragedy for the Palestinians and makes peace almost impossible.

    It is not just the universities that are spreading woke ideas. Greta Thunberg’s environmentalism now appears to be a mere plank of a broader revolutionary movement. Among other attacks on Israel, she was filmed chanting “crush Zionism” at a rally in Stockholm in November, and has since co-authored an op/ed for The Guardian claiming Israel has committed “war crimes” and “genocide”, a classic case of moral inversion and victim blaming.

    Zionism is the principle that Jews should have their own independent nation state; in practice, those who oppose Zionism today would bring about the violent end of Jewish life in the Middle East. In just 50 years during the 20th century, almost a million Jews, whose communities stretched back 3,000 years, were ethnically cleansed from nine Arab countries and Iran; far more Jews were expelled than Arabs.

    What has Thunberg’s Israelophobia got to do with tackling a technical problem such as global warming? The answer is everything and nothing: the more extreme green zealots are woke authoritarians who want to wage war on meritocracy, individualism, rationality, capitalism and even modern democracy. Climate change is just a pretext to foment a broader upheaval. This is why so many hardcore greens aren’t interested in technological solutions to decarbonisation.

    Israel is successful and pro-America: it is thus a “colonialist”, an “oppressor” state that must be destroyed. Hamas, despite being misogynists, racists, homophobes and murderers, are seen by many woke useful idiots as belonging to the “oppressed” coalition and thus not to be criticised.

    Thunberg’s allies believe that “there is no climate justice without human rights”. Thus “climate justice” is not about reducing the growth in average temperatures: it is about destroying Israel, fighting against the American dream, eliminating free speech and so on. “Climate justice” is neither really about climate nor about justice, just as “social justice” is anti-social and unjust.

    It can be no coincidence that the rise of wokeism has gone hand in hand with rampant Holocaust denialism among America’s youth. A YouGov poll reveals that a fifth of young Americans aged 18-29 believe the Holocaust to be a myth, more than twice the number aged 30-44 who suffer from the same delusion. In the 18-29 demographic, an additional 30 per cent said they did not know if the Holocaust really happened.

    Terrifying doesn’t begin to describe it: the woke stormtroopers have unleashed a monster they cannot control.

    ******************************

    Nick Smith
    14 HRS AGO
    You have to chuckle.
    Woke attacks Western capitalism for being ‘Institutionally racist, sexist, and homophobic’ while defending a Middle Eastern religion that could not be more institutionally racist, sexist, and homophobic if it tried.

    Carina Angel
    13 HRS AGO
    How have you just woken up to this?
    I’ve watched horrified over the last 10 years as DT journalists have offered only the mildest rebukes to PC and Wokism, as though it was a little naughtiness that would soon go away.
    No, Wokism began like the rise of Naziism in Germany in the 1920s, gradually bullying the centrists until everyone was afraid of it. Then it took over. We said Naziism would never happen again after WWII but it has happened again, in exactly the same way as before.
    Wokism is a vicious new religion and it’s coming to a corporation and a school and a neighbourhood near you. It accuses Jews today, it will accuse you tomorrow. It’s come about because too many people abandoned Christianity and left a massive vacuum that had to be filled by something. If you’re an atheist or agnostic, you helped prepare the path for Wokism. And you won’t beat Wokism by reason or logic. The time for that has gone.

    1. Wokers don’t support muslim because they like it. Much like any thing, they support it because it gives them a victim to weaponise against normal people.

      The Left wing mind is really strange, as I’m convinced they see themselves as some sort of virtuous angel types and everyone else as barbed lash wielding daemons – especially white men, who they hate so much because they think those people have power whereas, as a white man it is very clear that the psychotic, insane nutjob Lefties hold the power. More, I think the Left fear *losing* that power to the one threat they cannot fight forever – truth, fact and logic – which white folk have presented throughout history.

  33. Morning, all Y’all.
    Late today, had a sleep-in and a day off work. Boy, did I need those zeds. Now on second coffee, snuggled up to a nicely warm and fuzzy Little Cat. Some shopping a bit later, then more zedding in the sofa is the plan for the day.

    1. Do you think you could get used to being a househusband?

      Don’t forget to put the laundry on ! Do the dishes, make the beds, mop the floors.

      2. I already have to try and do all that by myself, Philip.

        Fortunately we have free Laundry and tumble-drying.

        I shall have to utilise that later today. Takes about 90 minutes so take

        the Kindle.

      3. Folk forget how much there is to do in running a house. If you’re the primary person at home then you are doing everything. If you’re also working it gets even worse.

        With me being knocked for six by this cold all sorts of things aren’t being done – the washing isn’t drying due to the weather, so that’s hanging about. There’s another lot that needs to go in, but we’re out of tablets. The dishwasher needs to run as it’s nigh full but no one else knows how to start it – it also needs salt added.

        The hoover battery is flat and I can’t find the charger as it’s ‘buried’ somewhere in the charger draw.

        The beds all need changing and that’ll mean just leaving it to the tumbler as there’s no bally way anything will dry in this weather.

        1. Don’t change the beds before the rest of the laundry is dry. Use white vinegar and baking soda instead of laundry tablets. Do you have a dehumidifier?

          1. No dehumidifier, although I do look at getting one. Problem is… its difficult to do.

            If the three of us are going through a set of clothes a day, say underwear and a shirt, + gym stuff that’s a wash load almost every day.

            It doesn’t dry fast enough before the next lot has to hang out.

        2. Tell me about it! I never seem to get everything I need to do completed. Washing, running the dishwasher, mopping up the kitchen floor after two dogs have paddled mud in, cooking, cleaning the surfaces, getting rid of leaves (see dogs earlier), putting out the recycling, winding the clock … the list is endless.

          2. A discrete doggy bag to purse. It’s what i do. Obvs not a purse…more a rucksack. Ahem..
            I’m reminded of the film ‘the kindness of strangers’.

          3. A purse? Do you mean a HANDbag? Purse is so American. I put my doggies’ titbits in a plastic bag and slip that into my pocket. So discreet.

          4. Yes but when you search your pockets the following day how do you know which is which !
            Purse is also a southern term.

          5. I always take the titbits out of my pocket when I get home. The dogs know I’ve got something for them and won’t let me forget.

    3. Talk about lèse-majesté’. Me, wot never gets a cold, has been felled by some evil little orgasm organism. Strepsils R Us.
      Thank goodness for a dull wet day where I can veg with a clear conscience.
      On the plus side, after TLC (and some unfestive language) from Pet ‘Pooter Nerd and Moi, my printer is grudgingly working; it grumbled and moaned its way through printing a few more cards. Reminded me of a teenager told to tidy up its bedroom.
      My New Year’s resolution is to treat myself to something more whizzy. PPN has already sent me details.

      2. I think I’ve also sent you how to use a PowerPoint. template, make your own cards and e-mail them.

        Cheap as chips and you don’t have to leave the house or pay postage.

      3. I’ve treated myself to a new laptop for Christmas and the two sons will (hopefully) set it all up for me in return for board and lodging over Christmas.

        1. Just imagine if that supposedly crazy scientist is correct and the fossil fuels are actually the Earth itself absorbing it and converting it into natural gas, oil etc and that the best thing that could be done for the planet is to burn as much as possible to prevent mass extinctions.

          1. I don#t believe that oil is a fossil fuel any more. Never made sense really that it should be. Coal is different, it’s obviously fossilised trees.

    3. Perhaps we could have Lefties hold their breath ‘to save the planet’?

      The fundamental issue is correct – there are far, far too many people. What’s comical is that government continues to pay people to breed and forcibly brings in endless hordes of criminal foreigners, further putting demand on our economy, supply lines, infrastructure. It’s policies are destructive and contradictory.

      1. Yet during the last long economic cycle, with all the population on the planet, there was less %-wise poverty than ever before. It’s almost as though the planet IS capable of supporting the current population!

        The all-powerful getting paranoid and wanting to cull the peasants (they are TERRIFIED of us, make no mistake) is as old as time. Think Moses in Egypt, King Herod etc.

        1. It is… but only because the technologically advanced west has made it so. There huge poverty in parts of the world that are now utterly aid dependent because we keep them poor.

          We are in a stupid situation of enforcing poverty but in also having our useless officialdom desperately trying to shut down our advanced economy.

          1. Even with all the aid (which I agree is terrible, and mostly about money laundering), there’s less poverty. One of the few things that has improved over my lifetime is the economic and technical resurgence of India, some African countries and even China, though the latter has had a malign effect on the rest of the world. Yes, they have a long way to go, but they’ve already improved a lot since the 70s.

    4. Well, here is the headline that I have thought might come in to the light. Too many humans breathing is bad. What an excuse for de-population measures: now what was that about ‘killing grandma’ if you visited her? Talk about mixed messaging!

      One other thought prompted by this nonsense: The graph shows a dangerous declining trend of CO2 without the emissions from humans. Now, if the sociopathic/psychopathic scientific illiterates running this nonsense get their way in reducing CO2 by de-population and disposing of much of manufacturing then the trend of falling CO2 levels could continue and eventually drop sufficiently to kill the Planet. Buggering around with Nature is fraught with problems especially when science is parked and scientific illiterates with more money than sense and worse, harbouring a God complex, are buying stupid people to do their bidding.

      1. I think we should just live, and not worry about how much CO2 is going to be in the air in 1000 years from now.

        1. Quite so. Sadly, we have a problem, the nutters who want to re-make the Planet in their image do not want us to ‘just live’.

    1. The eminent historian called Starkey,
      Has warned ‘gainst affairs with a darky
      Saying these sorts of sins
      Beget triplets, not twins
      Some black, some white and some khaki.

  37. Mr Dunn with his we must live in a multicultural society is deliberately missing the point. The main culture has adopted those things into it out of choice. There are not two cultures, with differing values, judgements, laws, attitudes, dress code, ideology.

    Frankly Mr Dunn is typical of the modern Left as his argument deliberately avoids the basic, fundamental problem.

  38. Child killer Jon Venables ‘lost the plot’ and ‘went mad shouting and screaming’ after losing his parole bid, it has been claimed.

    The Parole Board agreed on Tuesday that Venables, who tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger, remained a danger to children and could not be trusted outside of jail.

    James’s mother Denise Fergus hailed the decision and said her child’s killer should never ‘see the light of day again’ following the news he will be kept behind bars.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12861189/James-Bulgers-mother-says-Jon-Venables-never-light-day-murderers-parole-bid-denied.html

    2. If that is true, then it shows he doesn’t understand why he was retained and has not accepted his guilt. Where is his remorse? Hs awareness of how wrong his actions were?

  39. No White Christmas.

    As we go through the rest of this week the jet stream will shift further north allowing high pressure to build.

    This heralds a spell of drier, milder weather for
    many, although conditions will turn much wetter across western Scotland
    which has seen a relatively dry month so far.

  41. Wordle 908 4/6
    Slightly better results today.

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

  42. Quentin Letts
    48 ways the Tories could win

    From magazine issue: 16 December 2023

    Conservative strategists gawp at their end-of-year opinion-poll ratings like European space officials watching another Ariane rocket plop into the ocean off French Guiana. Fret not! To misquote Emperor Hirohito, electoral fortunes may have developed not necessarily to their advantage, but extinction could yet be averted by adopting the following measures:

    Be more cheerful and stop Rishi doing his ‘your cat just died’ voice.

    Scrap the government car service and tell ministers to take National Express coaches or hitchhike. Give National Express coach drivers a small pourboire as compensation for having to accept these difficult new passengers.

    Short, sharp Bill to remove the last hereditary peers from the Lords. Bishops to be given the heave-ho, too. Tell them to concentrate on their empty churches.

    If Justin Welby retires, replace him with the Revd Marcus Walker, Rector of Great St Bart’s, possibly the last rightie in the Church of England.

    No more knighthoods for mandarins.

    But a damehood to Nadine Dorries. For services to fiction. She won’t get the joke.

    Abandon this new custom of the Prime Minister’s New Year message. Nobody listens to them. Instead say ‘you hear enough from politicians the rest of the year, so we’re leaving you in peace for once’. Immediate poll bounce.

    Grade II* listing for Dame Margaret Beckett.

    Met Office to stop naming every storm that sweeps in from the Atlantic or North Sea. This has only added to media hysteria about the weather. Met instead to give numbers to these storms. This can be done in the name of Rishi’s boring numeracy drive.

    Sponsored swearing match between James Cleverly and the Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan. A soap firm to sponsor it. Proceeds to HM Treasury.

    Ask Penny ‘Brunhilde’ Mordaunt, in one of her bracing speeches, to attack the VAR system that’s ruining football and rugby.

    Turn Parliament Square into a cricket pitch for evening fixtures in summer months.

    Invite the new President of Argentina, Benny Hill-lookalike Señor Milei, to London for a state visit. He looks a blast. Might chase Lady Hussey round the Buckingham Palace gardens.

    Next time Just Stop Oil protestors climb an M25 gantry, leave them there for days.

    Drop any talk of banning protest marches/dog breeds/vaping/unhealthy foods etc. Bans are for socialists and Reform partypoujadists. Tories should live and let live.

    When replacing police cars, let them be Sunderland-built Nissan Micras, not top-range BMWs.

    Repeal the ridiculous ban on household coal.

    Release schools from the requirement to give sex education classes. Instead teach pupils cooking/manners/whistling/all three verses of the national anthem.

    Any future training weekends for the judiciary to be held in Rwanda.

    Andrew Mitchell to have a haircut.

    In a commendable surrender of patronage, the next BBC chairman to be chosen not by Downing Street but by an X-Factor-style TV show.

    Instead of former RAF bases in Lincolnshire, send asylum-seekers to Canary Wharf, which has lots of empty space. Horrible place, yes. But isn’t that the point?

    Sell the office space abandoned by WFH civil servants.

    Turn the Woolsack into a Whoopee Cushion, so that it makes a sound every time that goose the Lord Speaker sits down.

    Decent tailor to measure the PM for some spacious Oxford bags rather than those budgie-crunchers.

    Arrange dinner date between Michael Gove and Italian PM Giorgia Meloni. A little bilateral come sta tuo padre? might cheer them both up and boost Anglo-Italian trade.

    Theresa May to become minister for fun.

    In an intriguing test case for equalities law, offer Harriet Harman a baronetcy.

    Rename the London Underground’s Circle line the Whitehall line – it just goes round and round, incredibly slowly.

    Cut taxes with one exception: a new levy on supermarket self-checkouts.

    Tell British Transport Police every time they play ‘See It, Say it, Sorted’ on Tannoys, £1,000 will be removed from their budget.

    Legalise heckling in the Supreme Court.

    Organise point-to-points in London’s Hyde Park, complete with bookies and a beer tent.

    Abandon focus groups. Strategy advisers instead to sit in barber shops and nail bars, listening to punters.

    When civil servants offer statistics in kilometres, instruct them to use miles.

    An hour’s free parking daily in market towns and at hospitals.

    Place solar panels all over the National Theatre building.

    Replace Whitehall lawn-mowers with goats.

    Seek refund from Lord Foster for his wonky Millennium Bridge.

    Enough Honorary Colonel nonsense. Princess Anne to be made an Honorary Sergeant-Major and encouraged to grow a moustache.

    No more ‘tsars’.

    Job swap for Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, and Nigel Phillips, governor of St Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.

    Plough up parkland at Chequers, Chevening and Dorneywood for use as public allotments.

    Send the Elgin Marbles to the Turks.

    Encourage every Whitehall department to adopt a cat.

    Departing MPs and ministers no longer to receive payoffs.

    Abandon resignation honours.

    Pass a statutory instrument saying the next Poet Laureate must be able to do rhymes.

    **********************************************

    Harry Flashman
    4 hours ago edited
    49. Every time anybody says’ lessons have been learned’ they must blow a raspberry.

    50. The Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser to be on the reading list on all schools

    1. I was going to say “nothing can save the Tories” but actually, that’s a great list! I’d re-join the party in a flash. When can we start?

      My only quibble is that I’d remove most of the life peers and put all the hereditaries back. They can’t be more decadent and corrupt, and they would be considerably less annoying.

      1. My main objection to the list is that the nouveau, politician-created peers are considerably worse than the hereditary ones and they should be the first to be removed.

          1. I am still eager to know how Frost was nobbled and would have more respect for him if he told the whole story. I suspect dark forces were at work.

            People will remember that until the very last moment Frost was vehemently insisting that the UK would not, on any account, give in on either Northern Ireland or UK fishing waters.

            And on the eve of the signing both Johnson and Gove arrived in Brussels and mysteriously the UK had surrendered on both Northern Ireland and fishing.

            What did Gove and Johnson do to persuade Frost to capitulate?

          2. The EU instructed them on what they would get and Boris, desperate for political capital and uninterested in the detail, gave in. His civil servants, all as desperate to remain chained promoted the worst possible case options and pushed to remain chained and lo, the public were screwed over by a frantically europhile civil service and a weak PM.

            Here ogga is right – the public are stupid and don’t know how things work, so expect everything to be easy.

          3. TBF – most people have jobs and family duties which can be tiring and time consuming.
            When the boys were children and I was working full time, I had little time or energy for deep analysis of the state of Britain.
            I knew something, but not in the detail that I can absorb nowadays.

          6. You may well be right but I had hoped he was better than that. Mind you any pieces of silver given by Johnson would have pretty dodgy hall marks!

            The google search engine gave me this:

            Q. Is David Frost a good negotiator?

            A. Frost was a bellicose negotiator who lacked the cunning, tact or subtlety for the job, reneging on the Northern Ireland protocol in his own deal: his value was slavish obedience to Boris Johnson, who plucked him from obscurity at the Scotch Whisky Association, after he had left a career at the Foreign Office.

            I don’t know who wrote this blurb but whoever did write it was rather biased and was not very objective!

          8. You may well be right but I had hoped he was better than that. Mind you any pieces of silver given by Johnson would have pretty dodgy hall marks!

            The google search engine gave me this:

            Q. Is David Frost a good negotiator?

            A. Frost was a bellicose negotiator who lacked the cunning, tact or subtlety for the job, reneging on the Northern Ireland protocol in his own deal: his value was slavish obedience to Boris Johnson, who plucked him from obscurity at the Scotch Whisky Association, after he had left a career at the Foreign Office.

            I don’t know who wrote this blurb but whoever did write it was rather biased and was not very objective!

    2. One disagreement: “Short, sharp Bill to remove the last hereditary peers from the Lords.”
      Au contraire. Chuck out all the place persons who are either clapped out pols or greasers and restore 100% hereditaries; they have a long term interest in this country that go far beyond the next general election. And they are frequently well educated and have professional or business experience.

      1. Entirely agree with your sentiment…(but if you knew some of the hereditaries I know, …. a collection of dipsomaniacs and drug dealers). Many of the ‘ clapped out pols or greasers’ that I have met are amongst the most appalling snobs one could never wish to meet.

        1. The nobility have their failed products, but largely the ones who can be bothered to sit in the Lords aren’t the druggies and dipsos (I don’t think the Hervey’s, for example, were/are keen on carrying out their role as guardians of the nation).

      2. My thoughts exactly. Bring back the hereditaries and chuck out the placemen. At least the hereditaries, having estates to run in the main, have some idea of what works and have an eye to the future.

  43. Unfortunately I must diguise the details.

    Some young children in foster care.
    Acceptable health & behaviour.

    They will all be coming up for adoption soon, and will be split up until adulthood, or forever. A judge will make the decision, but there is pressure because each child is costing the local authority in excess of £500 per week.

    Why adoption? Because one parent is unavailable and the other is incapacitated; however, the incapacitated parent may well recover, given time (eg six months plus), so this is about money, rather than the best interests of the children. You wonder if other family members might be willing to step in? I do not know, what with data protection, yuman rights etc.
    Edit: I hope that the only clue to identity is the fact that there is more than one child, so probably not a breach of rope.

    1. The daughter of a very old friend of mine adopted two children some years ago. They were brother and sister, aged about two and four at the time. Their mother was an alcoholic and both children were damaged by foetal alcohol syndrome. The boy reached the age of 18, and in spite of all the love and care he’d been given by his adoptive parents, had been a huge trouble all his life. He left home and they don’t know where he is or what he’s doing as he broke off all contact. He does keep in touch with his sister, though, who has turned out to be a much nicer person.

      These two were given every chance by their adoptive parents, which they would not have had otherwise, but life has not been an easy ride for them.

      1. When I was about 8 my parents took me to see a child psychiatrist. I still remember the name of the man. Apparently I was ‘uncontrollable’. Not that my mother ever bothered, she much preferred to just hit me.

        This stopped when my Dad said to her ‘they’ll take him away, you know.’ and they stopped taking me. I didn’t realise then that it wasn’t me. How could I? I was 8! My mother wasn’t capable of providing any affection. I was just an extension of her. She wanted me to suit her and if she lost me, she would lose that power over me and the attention she demanded I give her.

        This is why when she dies, I will not care.

        In many ways it’s a wonder I’m not a serial killer.

        1. Much of what you say could apply to me except I was never hit. It was words. My mother used words to wound. Frequently. She wasn’t capable of providing affection either. The rest of your paragraph also applies.

      2. I know of a similar case. It’s broken the marriage of the people adopting the children.

      3. I have a second cousin with the same problem.
        She and her husband adopted brother and sister produced by a ‘working girl’.
        The boy was all right as a youngster, but is now as bad as his sister has always been.

        1. One of my cousins and her husband could not have children of their own so they adopted a boy and a girl and the adoption was a great success. When each one reached 18 the boy, who was the more insecure of the pair, was very eager to find his birth parents. His sister said: “I don’t want to meet the people who dumped me as a baby; the parents who adopted me, loved me and brought me up are my real parents.”

          I have no idea what I would have wanted to do if I had been adopted.

      1. Costing the local authority a lot of money. Fostering is a short term solution these days, but an excellent career choice; it is not classed as employment and the income is subject to a low level of taxation.

        1. But in a case like this one, why don’t the foster parents get any say in the matter?
          There was a case a few days ago where well over a million pounds was spent on a special needs child, which looked to be incurable. If we can spend this amount on a hopeless case why can’t they look out for the potential reunification with the real parent?

    3. Horrific that one can lose one’s children so easily these days.
      How is the incapacitated parent supposed to recover if he or she is trying to deal with having his or her children taken away?
      And I suppose the children will be snapped up for adoption if they don’t come from addict parents!

  44. Unfortunately I must diguise the details.

    Some young children in foster care.
    Acceptable health & behaviour.

    They will all be coming up for adoption soon, and will be split up until adulthood, or forever. A judge will make the decision, but there is pressure because each child is costing the local authority in excess of £500 per week.

    Why adoption? Because one parent is unavailable and the other is incapacitated; however, the incapacitated parent may well recover, given time (eg six months plus), so this is about money, rather than the best interests of the children. You wonder if other family members might be willing to step in? I do not know, what with data protection, yuman rights etc.
    Edit: I hope that the only clue to identity is the fact that there is more than one child, so probably not a breach of rope.

  45. Unfortunately I must diguise the details.

    Some young children in foster care.
    Acceptable health & behaviour.

    They will all be coming up for adoption soon, and will be split up until adulthood, or forever. A judge will make the decision, but there is pressure because each child is costing the local authority in excess of £500 per week.

    Why adoption? Because one parent is unavailable and the other is incapacitated; however, the incapacitated parent may well recover, given time (eg six months plus), so this is about money, rather than the best interests of the children. You wonder if other family members might be willing to step in? I do not know, what with data protection, yuman rights etc.
    Edit: I hope that the only clue to identity is the fact that there is more than one child, so probably not a breach of rope.

  46. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6a6fe9dfca52af6785fa03c17626643583cc1f1b9cb006fbe096a4a8471fe2d4.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/13/airport-security-manhandled-staff/

    In Holland passports are issued to women with their maiden names and with the married name printed underneath.

    Caroline, who is Dutch, booked our tickets under her married name and we went to Manchester Airport to check in a couple of hours before our flight’s departure. Unfortunately we were confronted by a spectacularly unpleasant woman at the luggage check in who tried to claim that the name on Caroline’s passport did not match our ticket and demanded a supplement of £100.

    We patiently explained that Caroline’s married name was printed on her passport under her maiden name and she produced her driving licence with her photo on it and issued under her married name as additional proof of her identity. The harpy still said we would have to pay £100. I became extremely angry and straight away a manager was called and we were threatened with the police to which I said: “Bring them on, then!”

    Finally Thomas Cook (the airline) agreed to let us onto their flight without giving in to their blackmail but we later discovered that several other passengers were very distressed at having been challenged for no proper reason and had paid £100 to avoid missing their flight. The whole thing was a scam.

    2. I’ve heard about this sort of thing before. They also charge you daft money to correct a spelling mistake in a name. A licence to print money. Isn’t Thomas Cook the one that went bust a few years back? Were they bought by private equity, by any chance?

  47. Rod Liddle
    Good riddance to neoliberalism

    From magazine issue: 16 December 2023

    I listened to a fascinating debate on the BBC’s The World This Weekend about the ideological origins of that thing, populism. The agreeably thuggish Javier Milei had just taken the reins of Argentina and, perhaps a little late in the day, the TW2 (as it is known in BBC circles) production team had noticed that almost every election held anywhere these days – except perhaps Australia and here – tends to result in a win for a party which is either overtly populist, as in Argentina, or is called populist by its opponents and the BBC. What the hell is going on, they wondered, only ten years too late.

    Who did they choose to ‘debate’ the issue? Prince Harry and Wolf from Gladiators? The suave game-show presenter Ben Shephard and Herbie the Skateboarding Duck? Both would have offered greater illumination than the two people actually roped together – a left-wing professor from the University of Cardiff and the hunky left-wing Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis.

    And so we heard what populism actually was, according to them and the programme’s presenter, Jonny Dymond. Here is a list of some of the phrases I heard during this admirably consensual debate: far right-wing, neo-fascist, xenophobic, racist, anti-Islamist, Goebbels, global financial collapse, rise of Hitler, hatred of foreigners. All were agreed that populism was the redoubt of the far right, despite the fact many of those elected have been Social Democrats (Slovakia), libertarians (Argentina) or Thatcherites (Italy).

    I wondered, listening to Varoufakis’s self-serving Keynesian drivel, if that production team might have thought, at any point, of perhaps engaging the services of someone who represented one of these newish and supposedly populist victors, rather than just shove together two clowns who wished only to call them fascists. I’m sure Geert Wilders, from the Netherlands, would have been up for it. But then the thought occurred that they couldn’t possibly do that. What they call populism is a dagger in the heart of many things, not least institutions such as the BBC which embodies that rapidly evaporating and discredited creed, neoliberalism.

    The governments elected under a heading imposed by their opponents as populist may indeed differ on many issues. They may be technically left-wing or right-wing or even centrist. But one thing they have in common is that they all dislike the BBC, which they see, quite rightly, as the voice of a middle-class establishment which has a dog in the fight and therefore will never take seriously the aims of such governments and the aspirations of the people who elected them.

    Crudely, these beliefs are: patriotism, a respect for the nation state, a yearning for strong borders, a disaffection with the middle-class liberal elite which previously ran them, usually a hefty genuflection towards religious faith, a mistrust of supranational organisations such as the EU and the UN, a further distrust of untrammelled capitalism and an adherence to the traditional cultural values of people like them, which they see – rightly – as being under threat.

    They do not wish to establish a thousand-year Reich or invade Poland or goose-step in unison, and still less to victimise impoverished incomers. The aversion is to globalisation and mass immigration, not immigrants per se – excepting those who wish to change the character and nature of the country in which they have latterly arrived and make it resemble more the violence, stupidity and tribal chaos of the countries they have left behind.

    You can pick your own date as to when neoliberalism and its blithely absolutist evangelism was at its global peak and therefore about to decline. Perhaps when Francis Fukuyama published The End of History and the Last Man, in 1992. Or ten years later when Tony Blair and George W. Bush were assuring us that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction which might obliterate us all in 45 minutes. Or Blair, again, loosening the borders so we might all benefit from untrammelled mass immigration and thus rid us of our woeful xenophobia. Whatever, the past two decades have seen neoliberalism in retreat on every front.

    The counter-revolution has been, in historical terms, rather swift – and 2023 has been the year when the neoliberals suddenly roused themselves from their torpor, looking quite aghast, wondering what was happening: your end-time, is what. Hell, when even Switzerland gets in on the act, as it did in its federal elections in October when the ‘populist’ Swiss People’s party topped the poll, you know that something is afoot.

    Lowered income as a consequence of cheap overseas labour, the incompetence and arrogance of the banks, the migration into western countries of people who hate us, the promulgation by unelected elites of cultural programmes antithetical not only to the population but also to logic – all of these are somewhere in the mix when we talk about populism. But the main unifying factor is an epic weariness with that most illiberal of dogmas, neoliberalism.

    All ideologies end up grotesquely overreaching and thus sowing the seeds of their downfall. I campaigned against racism in the 1970s because I thought it was morally foul to discriminate against an individual because of the colour of his or her skin. I did not campaign in favour of inculcating a corrosive victimhood culture among non-white people, nor to take upon myself the mantle of chief oppressor, as critical race theory insists I should. I campaigned against the discrimination faced by homosexuals, but did not sign up to giving kids puberty blockers, blokes running in women’s sprint races or, for that matter, gay marriage. I was in favour of equality between the sexes but never bought into the idea that the two genders had identical goals and aspirations and talents. All of that was overreach, the shrill signal that an ideology is devouring itself. Long may it continue – bring on 2024.

    ************************************************

    mmac1968
    5 hours ago
    I couldn’t believe my nations history is being rewritten before my eyes, or that prior to Windrush the UK was just a pile of bricks waiting for someone else to build it. I couldn’t believe that the British only cancelled slavery because we uniquely had invented it. Who knew that men are actually women if they say they are. I was flabbergasted to find that undocumented, uninvited, unqualified migrants are more valuable than qualified, honest visa’d migrants. Who knew that accepting someone’s gayness meant accepting perverts dressed as women gyrating in front of 4 year olds. Luckily for me, my shop accepts white privilege tokens handed down to me by my historically poor, working class ancestors, or i would have starved.

    1. For the Left it is all about labelling. They have to have an enemy, someone to hate, someone to deride. You are ‘populist’ (they don’t like using the term democratic as while the words have the same meaning populism can be a boo word), you are ‘far right’ – it is never ‘we are hard Left’. It is always you who are wrong. You who must change to suit their agenda.

      They squawk and squeal about all the evils of Hitler and Goebbels while ignoring that they’re practicing the very thing both those men pushed: control over the media, marketing, the manipulation of language, the repetition of lies, the huge state machine… I suppose you can do that when you think you’re righteous – as Hitler did.

      It is the egotism and sanctimony that the Left simply do not understand comes only from them. They genuinely believe they are better than everyone else. That alternative choices must be ignored and suppressed. They forget that they’ve behaved this way throughout history, causing endless misery. They just do not seem to understand – they’re the problem.

    2. Well Liddle, you were a bit thick not to see where it was going in the 80s weren’t you. People like you are part of the problem, because you’ve supported, nourished and voted for this carp from the moment it first appeared, and now you’re trying to pretend that you played no part in the current situation.

        1. Whether he repents or not is between him and God. He and his ilk have been actively hurting Britain all my life.

    3. How can Demos Kratos, by definition, be anything other than populist? Any system of rule that isn’t populist is a dictatorship. Democracy is majority rule. She says, to the choir.

      1. I’d say the ‘demos’ runs deeper than a simple majority. If a nation may be defined as a people united by ancestry, history, language and culture and occupying a particular territory then the people – the demos – are the nation. The greater the level of unabsorbed immigration, the lesser the nation but it’s about more than numbers.

      1. Or “turn on each other, and your pets” is how I saw it. In the great climate scam game, it is always someone else’s fault.

        1. Well, we saw how people turned on each other during the great covid scam. That was a practice run.

      1. Greeniacs aren’t interested in science, so don’t confuse them. Just have them hold their breath. Tell them it’s for the planet.

        When they refuse to, and start breathing again, call them a hypocrite.

          1. Nahh, telling a Lefty they’re a hypocrite cuts them to the core. They have to believe their virtuous, above others. If you kick them verbally off their perch they become all flustered and frightened.

            Then they get angry, as shame isn’t something hypocrites can do. *Then* beat them up.

          2. I was just going to put them out of their misery but if you insist on torture first who am i to say otherwise.

            and it’s ‘they’re :@)

    3. Something I pointed out to some net zero fanatics (Green and Lib Dem candidates). They couldn’t get their heads around the concept.

  49. Just had a packet with a Christmas 2.20 stamp on it. I note that ALL the three kings are now black, whereas traditionally in Britain they were white, middle eastern and African. White people have been erased.
    Barstewards.

    2. The Magi were Persian Zoroastrians of course, therefore Indo-European. But then I heard a supposedly well educated colleague the other day complain that the David Lean movie Lawrence of Arabia featured white actors playing brown men. Again, the Arabs are Caucasian. Tanned Caucasians maybe. There’s a lot of sunshine in the Middle East. Still Caucasian.

  50. “Statkraft’s solar farm in Devon will produce 22 gigawatts per year – enough energy to power around 8,000 homes every year.”

    Where to begin?

        1. Back to reading by torchlight under the bedclothes in the dorm while listening to Radio Luxemburg on a transistor radio.

          1. How will you power those devices? In the short term, yeah, power will come back. Longer term though…. it won’t. There simply won’t be the capacity. Real systems will fail, utterly. First civilian, such as telecoms, then administrative, finally emergency.

            When MPs find a mob outside their door and they can’t ring plod for help… then they might realise just how stupid they were.

          2. Exactly this. We need to be a little independent from electricity, until the current madness is past.

      2. Which, in the UK is equivalent to 88 days. Which means, for 88 days of the year (not nights, obviously), 8000 homes will get energy. When they need it least.

  51. Well – back from t’market. Busy. Tesco hd their 25% off booze – and, natch, the stuff we wanted was already sold out…. Then to Morrisons -BEWARE. They claim to have 25% off “selected” (but unmarked) wine. The MR checked with an obese servant that the two types we wanted WERE in the offer. Got to till. All went through full price. £72 for 12 bottles. No discount of £18. After interminable wait a Customer “Service” – same obese servant spent ten minutes fiddling with a cash machine – and kept on saying she couldn’t understand why the discount wasn’t coming up…. Then finally made it all work and gave us £28….in cash. So they are down a tenner….!

    They also have three different “offers at the same time. No wonder the cashiers are confused….and the computer.

    1. Failure to test it properly. B&Q had a similar problem once which meant if you knew you could go in, put 3 tins of paint on the belt and have them give you £18.

      Happy days.

    3. I shop at two different supermarkets – in one, the cashiers never make a mistake, but in the other one, they do almost every time, so I always check the receipt. Mostly it is stuff that should be reduced going through for the full price as you describe.
      Mind you, my student daughter worked in the attached bakery last year, and she said the morale is rock bottom among the under paid staff…

      1. Shop work is pretty rubbish and badly paid. Everyone should do it as a reminder to treat staff with respect and realise they’re humans too.

        Apart from the girl who uses an entire bottle of perfume to hide her medical condition. Lass, you need medicine, not the nasal equivalent of a deflector shield.

  52. On GB News yesterday evening there was much discussion of how to deal with illegal immigration.

    As usual the point was made that part of the problem was the extreme slowness of the administrative procedures which has resulted in a backlog of tens of thousands of unprocessed applications for asylum.

    What is absurd is that the number of illegal immigrants arriving each day far outnumbers the number of processed applications that are completed each day. It is the same with building new housing for 500,000 people each year when the population grows by much more than that number as a result of those who newly arrive each year.

    If we cannot stop the boats by turning them back to France without letting anyone step foot in UK then would it not be acceptable to place all illegal immigrants in the sort of accommodation supplied in other parts of the world until the backlog has been cleared and there is enough permanent accommodation there to meet the demands for it?

    If the UK could offer the same sort of accommodation as is offered elsewhere the desire to come to the UK might be reduced?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/499ac5952dd00057f71e8d94cd98ca40dcc0269e99e163ad8e68c7220143e1ae.png

      2. Who cares? I find it moronic that we’re just expected to take them all. Of course, we’re not, but the state machine wants to poke us in the eye for disobeying it.

  53. On GB News yesterday evening there was much discussion of how to deal with illegal immigration.

    As usual the point was made that part of the problem was the extreme slowness of the administrative procedures which has resulted in a backlog of tens of thousand of unprocessed applications for asylum.

    What is absurd is that the number of illegal immigrants arriving each day far outnumbers the number of processed applications that are completed each day. It is the same with building new housing for 500,00 people each year when more than that number arrive each year.

    If we cannot stop the boats by turning them back to France without letting anyone step foot in UK then would it not be acceptable to place all illegal immigrants in the sort of accommodation supplied in other parts of the world until the backlog has been cleared and there is enough permanent accommodation is there to meet the demands for it?

    If the UK could offer the same sort of accommodation as is offered elsewhere the desire to come to the UK might be reduced?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/499ac5952dd00057f71e8d94cd98ca40dcc0269e99e163ad8e68c7220143e1ae.png

      1. Sadly, I do have to agree.
        These vacuous tokenistic bints undermine a couple of centuries of feminism.

        1. I remember when the Warqueen first got into the bosses area. Lots of accusations of who she’d slept with to get there, lots of sniping from the women. The blokes – the normal ones at least – didn’t really care as she was making a fortune and a peer. Yes, some were a bit leery but she’s charming and disarming enough to manipulate them into getting what she wants anyway.

          It’s always the women who snipe at wanting the leg up without earning it.

      2. I disagree. There are plenty of badly run organisations run by, forgive me, I don’t know the equivalent male term for ‘bints’.

    3. Did anyone in said parliamentary committee make any comment on this statement? I’ll bet they didn’t. And why not? It’s blatant discrimination.

      1. It’s difficult to get Christmas things everyone will like to do, so the solution is to not force it, but if you can ‘be’ together.

        Junior can build his Lego, the Warqueen can … I don’t really know and I’ll happily fiddle on my ipad or more likely be eating chocolate doing the tidying up.

          6. Palomar Products is a global leader in highly reliable secure intercommunications systems for airborne and naval military applications to the world’s armed …

        2. It was very disappointing last Chritsmas Day when late afternoon, early evening I looked around the living room and sister. BiL, nieces, mother, niece’s boyfriend, niece’s boyfriend’s father and niece’s boyfriend’s sister were all looking at their ‘phones.

    2. We don’t play monopoly here. We tried once, but it was during the financial crisis and that caused an almighty argument between the mother in law and the Warqueen. All the men left the table very quickly.

      The best thing to come out of it was ‘complex financial instruments are just that – a fiddle’.

      2. I refuse to play Monopoly because I never landed on any property that was for sale! I only ever had to pay rent or charges/tax 🙁

      1. …It was late, not quite what i was expecting and i think i could have got it cheaper elsewhere.

  58. Hungary sets £25 billion price tag to back EU support package for Ukraine. 14 December 2023.

    Hungary has set a €30 billion (£25.8 billion) price tag for backing a fresh round of EU support for Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelensky challenged Budapest to drop its opposition to the plans.

    Viktor Orban, Hungarian prime minister, has threatened to block a €50 billion (£43 billion) package of support for Kyiv’s war ahead of a crunch summit in Brussels on Thursday.

    EU leaders are also set to discuss Ukraine’s EU membership, which Hungary is also threatening to derail as it attempts to squeeze its own concessions from the bloc.

    Orban has got them over a barrel here. Lol. The EU has refused to pay Hungary it’s dues because it is insufficiently Woke. Now they need his vote and are squealing about it because he won’t come across. More power to his elbow.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/12/13/hungary-viktor-orban-european-union-ukraine-funding-package/

    1. Strange isn’t it. It is safer to walk around Budapest at any time of day or night even if you are a woman than it is for any European city. Can’t imagine why.

      1. Probably based on this, where Putin was thought to have criticised the WEF
        https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/27/russias-putin-warns-of-a-fight-of-all-against-all-at-wef.html

        I know you love to burst the balloon, but my method of finding news is that if something turns up a lot on twitter and isn’t repudiated there, then there’s a reasonable likelihood that it will be based on truth. Certainly more so than the calculated propaganda that appears in the corporate media, which incidentally is not covered by any “fact checker.”
        As we have no reliable sources of news any more, this is a reasonable algorithm for finding what’s happening. It delivers more often than not, but of course it won’t deliver 100% of the time.
        I think it delivers a higher % of what is actually happening than relying solely on the corporate media though.

  60. The internal jihad against the French Republic. Spiked. 14 December 2023.

    Normally teachers go on strike for better pay or fairer working conditions. In France they’ve gone on strike because they fear being decapitated.

    Teachers at a school near Paris have staged a walkout after some Muslims pupils and their parents complained about a classroom display of a Renaissance painting featuring busty nude women. The revolting teachers say they don’t want to suffer the same fate as Samuel Paty, the secondary-school teacher who was stabbed to death and beheaded by a radical Islamist in 2020 for the sin of showing caricatures of Muhammad in a class discussion on free speech. ‘Our colleagues feel threatened and in danger’, said the head of the SNES teaching union this week.

    And you thought Batley Man was bad?

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/12/13/the-internal-jihad-against-the-french-republic/

      2. The ideology of the Permanently Offended. It’s only masquerading as a religion to take advantages of the protection a religion gets.

  62. Google this lady – and be (not) surprised:

    A former Facebook diversity and inclusion tsar has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $4m (£3.1m) from the tech giant to fund her lavish lifestyle.

    Barbara Furlow-Smiles, a global diversity executive at Facebook between 2017 and 2021, syphoned off cash through an “elaborate scheme” involving fake suppliers and cash kickbacks, US prosecutors said.

    1. She misread the job description – she thought ‘diversity’ meant diverting funds from the company to her bank account.

    1. I am wary of mentioning General de Gaulle in these pages, if for no other reason than remembering Auberon Waugh many years ago arguing against a statue of the leader of the Free French being erected in London. Waugh’s objections were based firstly on the fact that statues only worked with togas because statuary did not favour the trouser leg. His second objection was that this country had fought a long and costly war to get General de Gaulle and his friends out of London.

      That notwithstanding, I dare to mention de Gaulle here because he has been on my mind. Or at least one aspect of him has been on my mind. That is that glorious appeal he made to ‘La France profonde’. Anyone who has spent time in France – especially rural France – will know exactly what he was talking about.

      The pheasants flew high, lost in the mist. Lost in this magical kingdom that had been like this for centuries

      It has seemed to me, especially on recent visits back to the UK from a range of foreign climes, that we could do with a similar phrase in the English language: ‘deep England’ or ‘deep Britain’ might do.

      It was on my mind just before Christmas when I made a fleeting visit to the UK from the Middle East, and before that from the US. On arrival in the centre of London I had a feeling of horrible disassociation. It came flooding over me while walking through Berkeley Square in the evening. There certainly wasn’t a nightingale in sight or sound. Instead – thanks largely to the mercantile hooliganism of Richard Caring – it had become one of the ugliest global playgrounds I have ever seen. And I’ve seen some things.

      Between the appalling new Annabel’s on one side and the grotesque Sexy Fish on the other, the square was rammed full of people who looked either like pimps or prostitutes. There was almost no one in between. In particular – and not to deliberately sound too Taki-ish, much as I love him – it seemed to have become the playground solely of Gulf Arabs, Saudis and the like, all wafting perfume (men more than the women) and paying by the wads to get through the VIP red ropes to be charged through the nose to eat glitzy, overpriced mush.

      I used not to mind this overmuch. At least these people all bring money into the country, I thought. None of them is among the millions of natives and non-natives who spend their time living off what remains of the state. But it still seemed just a bit much. I never used to be in the centre of London and have the urge to get out.

      Partly this was because this little enclave of obscene wealth was – I knew – so deeply unlike the rest of the country. I went to bed that night with a slight sense of sickness, as though I had indulged in too many of the overpriced cakes Mr Caring and co use to lure people to their emporia.

      Fortunately, over the next couple of days I had a chance to experience that deep Britain which lies outside of London. Visiting friends in a couple of different English counties, I had the good fortune to catch the first real frost of the winter. In the counties to the east of London it had frozen onto the trees. It was a magnificent scene. A Christmas display of nature’s own invention. I had to stop the car, watch and just breathe it in deeply for a while.

      The friends I saw gave me a similar deep nutrition. We talked by the fireside of all the authors we loved and were reading, or whom their children were reading for the first time. The children practised music that I had played myself at their age. A trip to the local church was a must, and as mustily enjoyable and en-deepening as ever, these being the true museums of our past – albeit sometimes on life support. There were conversations about schools, of course. Mainly about how to try to make sure that a child being brought up in Britain today can get any connection to the Britain of our past. As always, we agreed that the only way to do this is to put the education of every child in the land into the hands of Katharine Birbalsingh. But that is another matter.

      Soon I was off to Wiltshire. And there, during a magnificent day’s shooting, I came across a different jewel of the English countryside. The deep valleys were covered in a great morning fog, and as we traipsed through the slight drizzle I remembered again – as I did in Scotland in my youth – that there is nothing better than a landscape you have to sometimes make a conscious effort to enter. This wasn’t Soho Farmhouse England (the countryside for people who don’t like mud). The pheasants flew high, lost in the mist. Lost in this magical kingdom that had been like this for centuries, and with a little luck and a lot of hard work could be like this for centuries more.

      Wherever I am in these islands, I always try to seek out these places. But often the places seek out you. It is at such times that you find our deep country: the connection with the land; the remembrance that all is not lost. Because this is the real country. It is in these places that the people are mercifully untouched – or less touched – by the horrors of the cities. These are places where you can throw out a name and people will know who you are talking about. Where a historical question can be asked and someone will know the answer. ‘Who endowed this almshouse?’ ‘When was the church built?’ ‘Who used to live here?’

      It is at such moments, in moments of answer as well as question, in moments – I might say – of connection (not least connection of the past to the present), that you sense that all is not entirely lost.

      I wonder whether we could extend this realisation to our politics, as de Gaulle did, without poisoning it or cheapening it?

      In any case, it is there. There is a deep England – a deep Britain – which not only breathes but breathes deeply. And it should know that it can speak of itself deeply too. Deservedly so.

      2. “a magnificent day’s shooting”

        Although familiar with the history and traditions of field sports, and the economics, I am not enthusiastic about organised pheasant shooting. Kill vermin by all means (except baseball bats) but pheasants are harmless.

        1. You can’t distinguish good or bad killing on that basis. The animal suffers and/or dies either way. Be it a rat or a pheasant, it is just existing. It does not have any sense of whether it is or isn’t harmless.

      4. London is a foreign city and somewhere I no longer want to go. Even here, in le Shropshire profond, the tinted have been forced on us. There was a report of a teenager denying two allegations of rape in Shrewsbury – a “Wolverhampton man” who couldn’t be named for legal reasons, but it will be odds on he’s a Mo.

    2. Rishi Sunak will never stop the boats, just as Giorgia Meloni won’t nor Emmanuel Macron, not that the president of France seems inclined to do so.

      No president or prime minister will be able to take back control of their borders until, as O’Flynn states in today’s Coffee House, they leave the European Court of Human Rights. The Court, aided and abetted by its allies in individual countries, is now wilfully interfering with government policy. And in the process it is endangering the lives of Europeans.

      You may remember an article written in these pages a week ago by Andrew Tettenborn, professor of law at Swansea Law School. It was titled ‘If France can ignore the ECHR, why can’t we?’

      Tettenborn described the case of a man known only as ‘MA’, a 39-year-old Uzbek exile, whom the French intelligence service considered ‘radicalised’ and ‘very dangerous’ on account of his Islamic extremism, which he denies. The man had fled Uzbekistan after facing criminal proceedings in 2015 and ended up in France having been denied refugee status in Estonia.

      France served him with a deportation order, which he contested at the European Court of Human Rights. The Court prevented the Uzbek’s deportation on the grounds that he might face torture in Uzbekistan, despite the fact he had returned voluntarily to his homeland for short periods in 2018 and 2019 without molestation (although this is contested by his lawyer). The French interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, ignored the ECHR ruling, deeming Uzbekistan safe, and the man was deported on November 14 in defiance of the ECHR.

      Expressing his support of Darmanin’s decision, Tettenborn wrote that ‘it’s hard to see why anyone in France should be expected to lift a finger to protect someone subject to the allegations faced by MA.’

      But a finger was lifted. Last Thursday, France’s Council of State ordered the return of the Uzbek and informed Darmanin that he must ‘take all necessary measures as soon as possible’ to achieve this – and ‘at the State’s expense’.

      The man’s lawyer, Lucie Simon, praised the Council of State’s ruling, saying: ‘We can only congratulate ourselves on something normal, namely respect for the rule of law.’ It was, she added, ‘a slap in the face’ for Darmanin.

      It’s not the only proverbial slap suffered of late by the Interior Minister. On Monday Darmanin’s immigration Bill was thrown out of parliament after the left and the right ganged up to defeat the government. The right voted against the Bill because they felt it didn’t go nearly far enough. Darmanin may deep down know this too. In October, speaking after an Islamist had murdered a French schoolteacher, he said: ‘The ECHR must understand that it is judging in a situation of terrorist crisis that did not exist when its rules were devised’. The alleged killer came from Russia’s Ingushetia, in the Caucasus.

      Darmanin also said in the same interview that there ‘will be no taboo when it comes to protecting the French.’ Would that included withdrawing from the ECHR? It’s hard to see Macron wishing to break that taboo.

      But not his people. A poll last month found that 91 per cent of people support measures that would make it easier to deport foreign nationals who pose a serious threat to public order; 78 per cent of those canvassed were in favour of reducing the number of different appeal procedures against deportation decisions.

      In response to the decision ordering the return of the Uzbek, the French conservative magazine Causeur, declared: ‘These courts see themselves as obstacles to the will of the people. In the space of a few decades, judges have carried out a meticulous putsch, distorting the spirit of the Fifth Republic.’

      The same is true of Britain. The will of the people, the majority of whom are opposed to mass and uncontrolled immigration, is being thwarted by the courts.

      Suella Braverman was right when she said Britain should leave the ECHR because it was ‘politicised’, a description that drew a furious response from human rights lawyers. One called such a move ‘extremely dangerous’, which is what the French intelligence services said of the Uzbek exile.

      Most Europeans probably have more faith in the French spooks.

      1. If the human rights laws get uppity over the term politicised, it’s a guarantee that it is. They’re making a lot of money from defying public will. Governemtn clearly supports them as it refuses to do anything necessary to undo the reams of laws it has dumped on us.

    4. Speccie keeps fiddling with it’s javascript blocker. This just makes me more determined to break it.

    5. Here the Douglas Murray:
      “I am wary of mentioning General de Gaulle in these pages, if for no other reason than remembering Auberon Waugh many years ago arguing against a statue of the leader of the Free French being erected in London. Waugh’s objections were based firstly on the fact that statues only worked with togas because statuary did not favour the trouser leg. His second objection was that this country had fought a long and costly war to get General de Gaulle and his friends out of London.

      That notwithstanding, I dare to mention de Gaulle here because he has been on my mind. Or at least one aspect of him has been on my mind. That is that glorious appeal he made to ‘La France profonde’. Anyone who has spent time in France – especially rural France – will know exactly what he was talking about.

      It has seemed to me, especially on recent visits back to the UK from a range of foreign climes, that we could do with a similar phrase in the English language: ‘deep England’ or ‘deep Britain’ might do.

      It was on my mind just before Christmas when I made a fleeting visit to the UK from the Middle East, and before that from the US. On arrival in the centre of London I had a feeling of horrible disassociation. It came flooding over me while walking through Berkeley Square in the evening. There certainly wasn’t a nightingale in sight or sound. Instead – thanks largely to the mercantile hooliganism of Richard Caring – it had become one of the ugliest global playgrounds I have ever seen. And I’ve seen some things.

      Between the appalling new Annabel’s on one side and the grotesque Sexy Fish on the other, the square was rammed full of people who looked either like pimps or prostitutes. There was almost no one in between. In particular – and not to deliberately sound too Taki-ish, much as I love him – it seemed to have become the playground solely of Gulf Arabs, Saudis and the like, all wafting perfume (men more than the women) and paying by the wads to get through the VIP red ropes to be charged through the nose to eat glitzy, overpriced mush.

      I used not to mind this overmuch. At least these people all bring money into the country, I thought. None of them is among the millions of natives and non-natives who spend their time living off what remains of the state. But it still seemed just a bit much. I never used to be in the centre of London and have the urge to get out.

      Partly this was because this little enclave of obscene wealth was – I knew – so deeply unlike the rest of the country. I went to bed that night with a slight sense of sickness, as though I had indulged in too many of the overpriced cakes Mr Caring and co use to lure people to their emporia.

      Fortunately, over the next couple of days I had a chance to experience that deep Britain which lies outside of London. Visiting friends in a couple of different English counties, I had the good fortune to catch the first real frost of the winter. In the counties to the east of London it had frozen onto the trees. It was a magnificent scene. A Christmas display of nature’s own invention. I had to stop the car, watch and just breathe it in deeply for a while.

      The friends I saw gave me a similar deep nutrition. We talked by the fireside of all the authors we loved and were reading, or whom their children were reading for the first time. The children practised music that I had played myself at their age. A trip to the local church was a must, and as mustily enjoyable and en-deepening as ever, these being the true museums of our past – albeit sometimes on life support. There were conversations about schools, of course. Mainly about how to try to make sure that a child being brought up in Britain today can get any connection to the Britain of our past. As always, we agreed that the only way to do this is to put the education of every child in the land into the hands of Katharine Birbalsingh. But that is another matter.

      Soon I was off to Wiltshire. And there, during a magnificent day’s shooting, I came across a different jewel of the English countryside. The deep valleys were covered in a great morning fog, and as we traipsed through the slight drizzle I remembered again – as I did in Scotland in my youth – that there is nothing better than a landscape you have to sometimes make a conscious effort to enter. This wasn’t Soho Farmhouse England (the countryside for people who don’t like mud). The pheasants flew high, lost in the mist. Lost in this magical kingdom that had been like this for centuries, and with a little luck and a lot of hard work could be like this for centuries more.

      Wherever I am in these islands, I always try to seek out these places. But often the places seek out you. It is at such times that you find our deep country: the connection with the land; the remembrance that all is not lost. Because this is the real country. It is in these places that the people are mercifully untouched – or less touched – by the horrors of the cities. These are places where you can throw out a name and people will know who you are talking about. Where a historical question can be asked and someone will know the answer. ‘Who endowed this almshouse?’ ‘When was the church built?’ ‘Who used to live here?’

      It is at such moments, in moments of answer as well as question, in moments – I might say – of connection (not least connection of the past to the present), that you sense that all is not entirely lost.

      I wonder whether we could extend this realisation to our politics, as de Gaulle did, without poisoning it or cheapening it?

      In any case, it is there. There is a deep England – a deep Britain – which not only breathes but breathes deeply. And it should know that it can speak of itself deeply too. Deservedly so.”

    6. Here the Gavin Mortimer:

      “R Rishi Sunak will never stop the boats, just as Giorgia Meloni won’t nor Emmanuel Macron, not that the president of France seems inclined to do so.

      No president or prime minister will be able to take back control of their borders until, as O’Flynn states in today’s Coffee House, they leave the European Court of Human Rights. The Court, aided and abetted by its allies in individual countries, is now wilfully interfering with government policy. And in the process it is endangering the lives of Europeans.

      You may remember an article written in these pages a week ago by Andrew Tettenborn, professor of law at Swansea Law School. It was titled ‘If France can ignore the ECHR, why can’t we?’

      Tettenborn described the case of a man known only as ‘MA’, a 39-year-old Uzbek exile, whom the French intelligence service considered ‘radicalised’ and ‘very dangerous’ on account of his Islamic extremism, which he denies. The man had fled Uzbekistan after facing criminal proceedings in 2015 and ended up in France having been denied refugee status in Estonia.

      France served him with a deportation order, which he contested at the European Court of Human Rights. The Court prevented the Uzbek’s deportation on the grounds that he might face torture in Uzbekistan, despite the fact he had returned voluntarily to his homeland for short periods in 2018 and 2019 without molestation (although this is contested by his lawyer). The French interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, ignored the ECHR ruling, deeming Uzbekistan safe, and the man was deported on November 14 in defiance of the ECHR.

      Expressing his support of Darmanin’s decision, Tettenborn wrote that ‘it’s hard to see why anyone in France should be expected to lift a finger to protect someone subject to the allegations faced by MA.’

      But a finger was lifted. Last Thursday, France’s Council of State ordered the return of the Uzbek and informed Darmanin that he must ‘take all necessary measures as soon as possible’ to achieve this – and ‘at the State’s expense’.

      The man’s lawyer, Lucie Simon, praised the Council of State’s ruling, saying: ‘We can only congratulate ourselves on something normal, namely respect for the rule of law.’ It was, she added, ‘a slap in the face’ for Darmanin.

      It’s not the only proverbial slap suffered of late by the Interior Minister. On Monday Darmanin’s immigration Bill was thrown out of parliament after the left and the right ganged up to defeat the government. The right voted against the Bill because they felt it didn’t go nearly far enough. Darmanin may deep down know this too. In October, speaking after an Islamist had murdered a French schoolteacher, he said: ‘The ECHR must understand that it is judging in a situation of terrorist crisis that did not exist when its rules were devised’. The alleged killer came from Russia’s Ingushetia, in the Caucasus.

      Darmanin also said in the same interview that there ‘will be no taboo when it comes to protecting the French.’ Would that included withdrawing from the ECHR? It’s hard to see Macron wishing to break that taboo.

      But not his people. A poll last month found that 91 per cent of people support measures that would make it easier to deport foreign nationals who pose a serious threat to public order; 78 per cent of those canvassed were in favour of reducing the number of different appeal procedures against deportation decisions.

      In response to the decision ordering the return of the Uzbek, the French conservative magazine Causeur, declared: ‘These courts see themselves as obstacles to the will of the people. In the space of a few decades, judges have carried out a meticulous putsch, distorting the spirit of the Fifth Republic.’

      The same is true of Britain. The will of the people, the majority of whom are opposed to mass and uncontrolled immigration, is being thwarted by the courts.

      Suella Braverman was right when she said Britain should leave the ECHR because it was ‘politicised’, a description that drew a furious response from human rights lawyers. One called such a move ‘extremely dangerous’, which is what the French intelligence services said of the Uzbek exile.

      Most Europeans probably have more faith in the French spooks. “

  64. Ralph Schoellhammer is brilliant. Assistant professor in economics and political science at Webster University Vienna, he talks to Brendan O’Neill about the decadence of COP28, the populist backlash against eco-austerity and the elites’ turn against Western civilisation.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vcBe2dvPi8

    Well worth a listen.

    1. …he talks to Brendan O’Neill about the decadence of COP28, the populist backlash against eco-austerity and the elites’ turn against Western civilisation.

      Why do all these people sound like Nottlers? I remember when we were on our own!

      2. You know what to do Minty. Vote Nottler ! Middle Earth England is ours for the taking. We can destroy the Dark Lord(s).

          1. But i thought all my posts were highlighted and sent to you straight away ! Being so funny and that… :@)

      4. I read a grandstanding missive from Ordnance Survey about COP28, that they went, had great fun, went to all the seminars… but fundamentally it was a taxpayer junket that drives up energy prices.

        The technology is really interesting and some truly amazing people work there doing great work… but… why chain it to a massive, expensive, unecessary tax scam?

        https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/cco-reflections-on-cop28

  65. Nigel Farage and the hysteria of the Remoaners

    The Brexit campaigner’s turn on I’m a Celeb…has both baffled and terrified the elites.

    “…voters must have been furious at him for turning Britain into a ‘Faragist Brexit dystopia’, as one midwit Remoaner (Simon Kelner of The i describes our present state…Kelner himself admitted to briefly being won over by Farage’s ‘blokeish charm’ and forgetting his role in Brexit. ‘I even found myself being manipulated… and felt sick as a result’, Kelner said.

    “Farage’s mere presence was enough to generate spasms of hysteria and dire warnings about our looming descent into a far-right dystopia.”

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/12/11/nigel-farage-and-the-hysteria-of-the-remoaners/

  68. Apparently Switzerland is stopping funding UNRWA. Anything with UN in it is probably bad, I suspect.

    “UNRWA stands for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East” I had to look it up

        1. During the 1948 Palestine War, some 700,000 [fn 1] Palestinian Arabs or 85% of the Palestinian Arab population of territories that became Israel fled or were expelled from their homes. Some 30,000 to 50,000 [citation needed] were alive by 2012.

          Today there are seven million Palestinian refugees; the majority of whom live within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of Israel’s border. 1.4 million refugees who are registered with UNRWA currently live in 58 official UNRWA refugee camps in the oPt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon (“host countries”).

    2. Don’t worry. Sunak will bung them a few milion – no doubt via the EU, so they can cream a nice wodge off the top.

      1. June Slater’s drafted a resignation letter for him

        June Slater
        @juneslater17
        If I wrote his resignation speech
        Dear Wales
        I’ve fked you good and hard for the last five years. My lacklustre approach to politics makes watching a dishcloth in bleach exciting.
        Yes I’m DDT, dull dim and thick!
        My lockdown measures relied on the fact you were too dumb to realise it was guidance not law.

        I also danced at Asian Festivals agadoo-ing whilst you had weddings cancelled old gits left aline in homes and you all wore the pointless mask.

        Because I hadn’t actually really screwed Wales into the ground I thought I’d fast track your Demise by introducing a 20mph speed limit. Ok it’s inconvenient that your Morrison’s Yogurt has curdled before you get it home after a big shop
        Suck it up suckers ! I’m off !

    2. Remember that the Titans were destructive, dangerous entities who were nobbled by the ‘new gods’.

      1. Remember also that Blair, whose main aim was (and still is) to destroy Britain, insisted that the referendum on the Welsh Assembly still went ahead as planned very soon after the death of the Princess of Wales.

        The turn out of those eligible to vote was only fractionally over 50% and the vote in favour was only just over 50% which means that only just over a quarter of eligible Welsh voters actually voted for it.

    4. Drop the last two letters of ‘Titan’ and it would be closer to the truth.
      Edit: Molamola beat me to it.

  70. Just back a few minutes ago from lunch with old office buddies. Old traditional pub and the food was good too.

  71. The Envy of the World – chapter 274…..

    My cataract thingy. High BP. Eye clinic referred me to GP on 15 Nov. Spoke GP on 27 Nov. GP dictated letter 28 Nov. Typed 13 DEC

    Glad it wasn’t urgent….(sarc)

    1. Is it genuinely high BP, Bill, or high eye pressure? Every time I visit the eye clinic for retinopathy screening, I do the vision test (the right eye doesn’t take long, being fairly useless). Then Nursey takes a pressure reading with a gizmo placed on my forehead, which pokes a fine filament into the surface of the eyeball. And it always gives an alarmingly high reading. I always warn them that this will be the case, since I have unusually thick corneas. They still have to scurry off to a doctor for advice. I liken it to comparing the deflection, pressing on lightly inflated balloon, versus a football.

      Glad to hear they’re treating it with all due haste…

    1. As an illustration of “geopolitical incompetence” he gives the example of sanctions on Russia: “85 per cent of the world’s population live in countries that have not imposed sanctions on Russia. Does this indicate Russian isolation? Or the opposite?” Implying of course that by doing so the West isolated itself from the world, instead of isolating Russia.

      Pretty difficult to argue with that!

      1. By isolating ourselves it gave our government to do all sorts of things as an excuse. Like fuel bills going through the roof. Oh sorry chums…bread has gone up because of Russia blockading wheat…and that sort of bollocks.

      1. Apparently naked walking really is a thing being promoted on tiktok. Seems everything is new to GenZ when they finally manage to leave their bedrooms.

    1. Q: would you take an inhalable dry powder mRNA vaccine to save Granny?

      A: yes
      B: maybe
      C: no
      D: fk no!
      E: shove it up your….

      2. D & E go together rather well. Like a blood clot, in your heart or lungs it can be fatal but in your arris it’s uncomfortable but not life threatening.

    1. 379509+ up ticks,

      BB2,
      Didn’t I read somewhere many owners complained of neck injuries post jab due to trying to lick their bollocks,very embarrassing
      whilst in a tesco check-out queue.

    1. The drop was not because bad news is on the way. The drop is because they announced some bad news (that their revenue expectation for 2024 needed to be lowered).

          5. A couple of weeks ago I overheard a young mother of a boy baby telling her friends that she’d not been warned beforehand about the risk, when changing its nappy, of being given a golden shower.

          1. I’m unsure whether this is about fancy-dress or themed parties, conventions for fans of genres or franchises of/specific films, books, video games, annual dates such as Halloween or day-to-day garb. Probably all of them. I wouldn’t, however, include paid employment such as in Disney theme parks.

            What springs to mind are dressing-up screenings of The Sound of Music or The Rocky Horror Show or conventions for fans of Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.

            I’m sure it’s mostly fairly harmless.

          6. I thought the whole point of dressing up for Halloween was to put frightening characters on the streets; ghosts, ghouls, skeletons, witches, etc.

          7. Yes, but not to terrify the general public. However, dressing up as Freddy Krueger and chasing screaming women or children down dark alleys would be altogether different.

          8. The word is getting a lot of “traction” just now…

            (“traction” – yet another word we could do without – except in relation to road and rail vehicles…)

        2. Oh……you’ve met Lesbians then. I find they don’t make the best dinner guests. Must be the dressing.

          3. Not only in the ‘good food guide’ but also in ‘wiki’. I could be more famous than most of the famous people who drank themselves to death half my age.

      5. It’s a new angle on what’s in vogue, much ado about nothing, merely a sine of the times.

  81. That’ me for tonight. Just been to soldier neighbour to get the book which Amazon told me had been “put through your letterbox”… She said it had arrived ten minutes before – so I asked what had held her up…!! (Before anyone comments, she is a brilliant, thoughtful and generous neighbour for whom we both have the highest regard.)

    Have a spiffing evening. Don’t forget to take a Look at Life again sometime soon…(TPTV)

    A demain.

    1. ITV Studios bought the Rank catalogue some years ago. I don’t know what it cost them but they got 18 of the Carry On movies and all of the Look at Life series. A good buy?

  82. Bit dodgy on Wordle today.

    Wordle 908 5/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Must be wind farms
      There’s enough hot air coming from the Welsh parliament, so their budget is hidden there.

      1. The government document is linked in the tweet. It is the capital funding – there is also revenue funding, though that is much smaller. If you look at the total spend, ‘climate’ dwarfs everything else. I don#t know, perhaps they put the cost of the 20 zones under ‘climate’? stuff like that?

    1. Hate is a very nasty emotion to feel, but I feel it for Blair, with every bit of me. I would swing for him.
      Iraq, Scotland, Wales and every other place where he shoved his horrible ideology.

      3. As I’ve said so often before and will continue to say, Tony Blair, the stinking turd in the shitpan that will just NOT flush away.

    2. Perhaps HMG needs to ask a favour of the Tosser Taoiseach and have thrown him a bone…

    1. Struggled a bit here
      Wordle 908 5/6

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

    2. Me too. Always astonished when I guess right.

      Wordle 908 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. I guessed wrongly, several times.

        Wordle 908 5/6

        ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
        ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
        ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
        ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      2. A Par Four for me.

        Wordle 908 4/6
        ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
        ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
        ⬜🟨🟨🟨🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  89. More than 70 surrendering ‘Hamas operatives’ emerged from a Gaza hospital – some with weapons raised above their heads, video released today by the Israeli military appears to show.

    Israel said its forces were operating in the area of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the coastal strip when the men surrendered. It also found weapons inside the facility, reports said.

    Just imagine if Hamas had found similar in Israel.

    I strongly suspect that all those who surrendered would have been taken away and shot the same day, and Hamas would claim it was because the captives were war criminals.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12864409/Surrendering-Hamas-operatives-emerge-Gaza-hospital.html

    1. Always the same. They are brutal right up until the weather gets cold or they run out of resources and weapons and they go home or superior forces overwhelm and they take off their uniforms. These are the ways of the desert. Those men are children of an ideology.

    2. I was disappointed to see that the begging section doesn’t have a box marked ‘FOAD’ to tick.

          1. Okay. I believe you. Still worth a try. I’ve had cameras up mine twice. Once for the haemorroidectomy and the other to recover crew.

          3. I beg to differ.
            The doctor removed the 2 foot long camera probe from the tray. She removed the plastic covering…(squeak squeak)..as you can tell my ears and other senses were attuned.
            She then said are you allergic to KY?
            I coughed and said no in a very small voice…
            I asked if it would hurt…She looked me in the eye and nodded.
            Then rammed the damn thing up my nostril.

            When i recovered from that she said …We best check the other one….argghhhh.
            To be perfectly honest i would sooner she rammed it up my arse !

          4. She’d have needed a much longer probe to reach your nose though and would you really want something up your nose which had passed through your arse?

    2. Puppet Turdeau is threatening i assume Orban (maybe wrong ) to comply otherwise they will all be exposed and bring the entire house of cards down. One has to wonder where that French queer gets his power. Sorry…backing….No real Frenchman would vote for a such an Aristo .

      1. Have you noticed the thin lips and downturned noses? Reptiles have those features. David Icke right again.

      1. Don’t forget the camera often lies.

        Not forgetting the fact that you should never allow someone to browbeat you and get away with it.

  93. If you’ve ever wondered why the UK’s balance of payments are horrendous, I can tell you that there is one garden centre in Wiltshire that appears to have bought half of China’s exports of Christmas decorations. Here is just one wall of goods there were dozens of walls of baubles in every colour of the rainbow being purchased as if Christmas was going out of fashion. And a team of staff refilling the racks.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4d6180bee3743a031a92a3b288f59ef6b3925d4bf2ffed24580f6e67184db512.jpg

        2. I have the fairy Mum and Dad gave me when I was 7 and we moved into our new house! I have a dark haired one and my sister has a blonde one! 59 years and counting! I also have a house with Father Christmas in the chimney which belonged to my Mum. She was born in 1926, and got it when she was 5.

          1. My mum used to put the decorations up and then tear them down again in a mad fit. Several times each year sometimes.

          2. Remember Agatha Christie saying that she was very lucky to be married to an archaeologist because the older she got, the more he treasured her (truth was that he was a bit of a philanderer).

          7. If you were a gentleman you would have said ‘ageless’ but you once played rugby so we can make an exception for your brain injury.

        1. I love to see places decorated for Christmas. It was getting dark when I took the boys out tonight and I thought the houses with their trees and lights looked magical. I’m a big kid at heart.

    2. I can only take so much of this stuff, after a while I just have to get away from all the tat, it becomes oppressive. Most of our decorations we have had years and years. I collected massive pinecones in France, they are wonderful.

    3. For many years when our children were young MOH always bought a new set of 6 Christmas decorations each year. When our daughters left home she gave each of them two of each set for their own Christmas Trees. She seems to be carrying on this ‘tradition’ for our grandchildren….

    1. A legal immigrant has to have a job and an income and get their own accommodation.
      An illegal gimmegrant gets free housing and an income.
      And people wonder why some choose the illegal route?

      1. And the natives who live here and pay all the taxes have their incomes stolen from them and their jobs put in jeopardy by government regulation.

        What an insane world we’re in.

      2. iirc, so did Dido Harding and Jeremy Hunt, on the MBA course. Or that was what was said at the time.

        1. Spell your name right and pay the fee. If you don’t spell your name right we have people who will correct it for you. Happy Diploma.

          1. That’s more or less what I heard at the time. It’s hard to get into , but quite easy once you are there.

    3. White men? Women are also involved in AI. Back of my mind is an article about a woman who was working on AI, published in the mid 1970s. And let’s not forget Ada Byron, later the Countess of Lovelace.

      2. Thank you! That one is interesting – it has fewer ingredients but a different technique from the one Phizzee posted.

      1. Thank you! It’s beef not veal, but I don’t know what those slices with bones are called otherwise.
        That is what I would call a good, plain casserole apart from the fancy Italian bits sprinkled on the top, which sound nice.
        We get such a lot of stewing beef in our packs from the farm, and I have cooked boeuf en daube very often – not that the family is complaining yet.

  99. BBC website article – strangely no mention of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants many of whom are housed in hotel accommodation…

    “More than 300,000 in England face being homeless at Christmas, charity estimates”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67719970

    This is one of many reasons why I detest the BBC ‘News’

    1. If any of the charities send me requests for money for the homeless they get a strongly worded answer to that effect in their pre-paid envelope

  102. Several people here think of Miriam Margolyes as a farty old bag, but I’ve not long finished seeing a programme she presented about Dickensian Christmases, including some of the man’s descendants, and it was most enjoyable.

    1. Ms Margolyes tends to like to shock with her potty mouth. When you get past all that rubbish and see the woman she ain’t such a bad old stick. A short fat angry stick, but still interesting.
      How you doing David?

      1. I’m fairly well, Phil. I’ve been in Ramsgate the previous 5 nights, arriving home Thursday afternoon. I must have missed your little scare whilst away. What happened?

          1. 7 hours ahead of me then.

            Doing good thanks. Things returned to normal after my little scare.
            I have other news…mundane if you want to chat.

Comments are closed.