640 thoughts on “Thursday 26 December: Once free of the EU, we can reform the NHS to suit our national needs”

    3. Weirdo extraordinaire, will fit in perfectly at the Bug*ered Broadcasting Corporation…high fives and bonuses all round! If Toady has become a broadcasting no-go area, how much more so with this kind of rubbish editor.

      ‘Morning, Citroen.

      1. Just wait for the Swedish muppet lecturing you….

        I never listen to any beeboid news/politics etc etc

  2. Good Morning, Nottlers – a gorgeous red sky in Laure – though a touch chilly. Will be a lovely Boxing Day,

    Christmas with the Dutch was a treat (!). Lovely company; three perfectly behaved children who knew when to appear and help and when to push off. Pre-meal drinks outside in the 18ºC sunshine – then a leisurely meal lasting five hours… And – believe it or not (and I can scarcely do so myself) I drank just TWO glasses of wine…..

    Home at 9 pm to see Sleb UC and see the relentlessly cheerful chap from R3 do badly (another bonus). And so to bed.

    Loopy Friend and her daughter coming to lunch. More than 2 glasses of wine required for your correspondent!!

      1. Good Lord no – far from it – they never stopped. Ten bottles for 8 adults – so you can imagine what the other seven drank!

      2. Good Lord no – far from it – they never stopped. Ten bottles for 8 adults – so you can imagine what the other seven drank!

    2. Lucky old you, Bill, make the most of it – in yer Sussex we are promised 8 hours of heavy rain today, so taking that Boxing Day dip may not involve a trip to the coast!

  4. SIR – I used to supply emergency medical equipment to hospitals. The calamitous state of A&E departments is largely down to Tony Blair’s decision to close local and community hospital A&Es in favour of larger regional ones. The reasoning was that local hospitals did not have the equipment or personnel to treat severe trauma and acute heart and brain conditions effectively .

    However, most people needing emergency care don’t fall into these categories and would be far better off being treated swiftly at a local hospital rather than enduring long journeys to overloaded specialist ones.

    Angus Long
    Newcastle upon Tyne

    Bet Blair doesn’t use the NHS

      2. Vomit, vomit vomit all over the place.

        Please,

        Even a picture of Anna Sourpus would be preferable or even the Abbotopotamus….but the Wicked Witch? Really? Are you trying to ruin Xmas for us all? And no advance warnings? “The surgeon General has determined that pictures such as this are not for the faint hearted or sensitive. Serious phsychological damage can result.” No wonder Bliar is as mad as a march hare and as eveil as they come waking up each morning to see that face in the flesh. I bet he’d even bite off his wallet if he had to to get out unscathed.

  6. Top letter:

    “Let us hope that, as we prepare to leave the European Union, we seize the opportunity to devise plans that suit our unique national requirements (including those of our various geographical regions) rather than those of the EU bureaucracy.”

    I thought that was the key reason for leaving, rather than being a hope.

    1. It is; but there is a whole tranche of civil servants and other public employees to be dealt with.

      1. Morning Anne, hope you had a good one.

        A giant brush is the order of the day.

        Along similar lines, I did a spot of polishing when I came in last night – polished off what was left of my Christmas dinner (which I enjoyed so much that I might have another one later).

        1. And the left over booze one assumes, if there was any which there should have been had the logistics been properly handled.

          1. Not so, I don’t drink in the house.

            A pub I go in was one of only two or three in town which was open last night and so, in lieu of staying in Christmas Eve, I whizzed down there. They were still serving at midnight when I left.

          2. Ah yes, Still serving at midnight. I remember those days of the “lock-in” when the landlord woulds clear the toruists and casual drinkers, close and bolt the doors and turn off some lights and then a hard core of regulars could drink the night away without plod banging on the door to see what was going on.

            Oh happy days….
            this was before the hard times of the massive pub takeovers to be come part of a chain and renamed with fancy Fig and Firkin type names and remodelled to look like the inside of a barn or something, the days when our landlord was himself an ex policeman (they seemed to make the best landlords for some reason).

          3. The pub I mentioned usually stops serving at 10pm, as it did tonight. As such, it doesn’t have to pay for bouncers at weekends and doesn’t get the yobs during the week. Also, because it’s a free house run by a family, it doesn’t charge the earth for its drinks. Tonight, I was paying 40p per pint less than I was paying 12 years ago.

            My last pint in Wetherspoon’s cost me just 9p more than I was paying 12 years ago.

            I couldn’t agree more with your point about the brewery chains, who, along with greedy government taxation, have killed the goose which laid the golden eggs.

      2. And probably many people in positions of influence who will do their damnedest to cause problems just so that they can say:
        “We told you so”.

          1. Don’t forget Lord Ovaltine or whatever he prefers to be called these days, Major Bliar and a few others and those with some kind of honour can jolly well hand it back.

        2. A few pikkies of granny expiring on an A&E floor and the odd ankle biter covered in unspeakable rashes should bring home to the Leave voting troglodytes what a terrible choice they made.

        3. Probably one of the reasons the Community Charge failed.
          There were certainly allegations of similar sabotage attempted by Civil Servants for more than a few Government measures during the ’80s.

      3. The electronic system for calling waiting patients to whoever they are due to see at the local surgery was buggered when I went for my blood test on Monday and it got me chatting to the nurse about the NHS problems and we agreed on every point!

  8. Morning all

    SIR – Many of the ills currently afflicting the NHS can be traced to the implementation of the European Working Time Directive.

    Systems that have developed independently over many years are rarely served well by such diktats. In this case, the deleterious effects can be seen widely in service delivery, staff training and morale, continuity of patient care and innovation.

    Let us hope that, as we prepare to leave the European Union, we seize the opportunity to devise plans that suit our unique national requirements (including those of our various geographical regions) rather than those of the EU bureaucracy.

    It should not be beyond the abilities of our leaders to recreate a truly national health system of which we can all be genuinely proud.

    –– ADVERTISEMENT ––

    Paul Wordsworth

    Emeritus Professor of Rheumatology University of Oxford

    1. Doesn’t say much for management if they cannot implement a legal requirement thats been around for about 20 years.

  9. Morning again

    SIR – Shortly after taking a flat in Edinburgh nearly 12 years ago, my wife and I started receiving threatening letters from TV Licensing like those that Charles Moore describes (Notebook, December 17).

    I replied that we had not and never would have a television, and that, owing to the tone of the correspondence, I would not reply in future. They now seem to believe we have a second flat in our loft, and we receive two letters each month: I have a collection exceeding 240.

    My irritation at this abuse is tempered somewhat by amusement at their increasing postage bill.

    Graham Blackbourn

    Linlithgow, West Lothian

    SIR – A decade ago I had a very old television, but it wasn’t digitally enabled and couldn’t pick up a signal, so a licence was not required.

    After polite exchanges (at my end at least), the licensing authorities sent an inspector round at a horrible time on a cold weekend morning, no doubt hoping to catch a malefactor unawares. I invited him in for tea.

    I still treasure the memory of his look and the “Ohhh” he uttered once he saw my museum piece.

    Ross Mackenzie

    Chester

    1. “My irritation at this abuse is tempered somewhat by amusement at their increasing postage bill.”

      I suspect it’s ‘our’ postage bill, Mr Blackbourn.

      Morning Epi.

    2. I hope you didn’t let the sod out. TV licencing threatened to have Mongo killed.

      Sodding scum. They ring the bell five or six times then try to knock the door down by thumping it.

      Last time I practically kicked the scum down the stairs. He’d certainly have fallen if I hadn’t hold of his shirt. Rotting filth, barging in when they’ve no right, sending out abusive, threatning letters.

      They’ve had my right of access document. £20,000 to come in, theey’ll be searched, all property confiscated without return on exit, £10,000 per room. Absolute silence at all times, no questions to be asked.

      I sent it electronically through their complaints system. I took a screenshot and everything. Of course, their complaints submit button is a circular error and doesn’t work – which I have also screenshotted and evidenced so if they complain well, it’s their fault.

      The comedy? I don’t own a single TV. Haven’t for a decade. I told them once, they were told never to contact me again, they refused.

    3. Mr Blackbourne should consider pursuing the matter under the The Protection from Harassment Act 1997. After all, he has plenty of evidence.

  10. SIR – As an optometrist, I see at least one patient a day who complains to me that they dislike night driving because of the new type of bright car headlights (Letters, December 20). These are invariably fitted to SUVs, and as they are high vehicles, they tend to direct light into oncoming drivers’ eyes even when dipped.

    Rural driving is also more dangerous than in the past as most of my local country roads do not have functioning cat’s eyes and the central painted lines have largely worn away.

    Paul Hutchence

    Lancaster

    1. Paul Hutchence from Lancaster probably never drove on the A140 Ipswich to Norwich road back in the 1980s. Hardly a local country road, the markings were abysmal back then: poor marking on roads is not a recent occurrence and sadly the phenomenon of the persistent pot-hole infested road is heading the same way.

      1. Aaarrgghhhh …… we were on that only last week.
        I still think the A14 is the real abomination. Both MB and I can feel our shoulders tensing as we drive through its horrible dark patches; darkness that is highlighted by the s0dding LED headlights on some cars.

    2. I don’t know about functioning cats’ eyes, our roads have had the cats’ eyes (and the white lines) removed altogether. As the roads are unlit and winding, it makes for a nail-biting journey in poor weather.

  11. SIR – Perhaps Vice-Admiral Sir Donald Gosling’s £50 million bequest to the Royal family in order to replace the Royal Yacht Britannia might be best served through the foundation of a trust fund to which willing members of the public can contribute.

    Michael Young

    Dover, Kent

    1. I would chip in.
      What shrivelled souls are Major and Blair – plus their supporters who are equally culpable.

        1. Amazing how a small country like Denmark can afford a royal yacht, but Blighty with at least 12x the population cannot.

          4. Have he and the four Fatimas invoiced the government for all their time and money spent filling in postal vote slips?

          5. He has a cunning plan. Each wife claims to be a single mother and demands accommodation and benefits for herself and her eight children.

            Nice little earner.

          6. What? They’ve forgotten the sisters and the cousins and their aunts?
            Plus uncles needing treatment for diabetes and all those grandparents in need of false teeth and diuretics?

          8. Funnily enough, I am actually seeing a branch of it today.
            Hey ho for merry trip to the Suffolk boondocks. (And one that doesn’t involve the blasted A14.)

          9. And the accommodation will then be illegally sub-let to make it an even nicer little earner.

          11. Blair did away with both Britannia the yacht and Britannia the country. He hoped that one way or another the money would flow into his own personal coffers instead.

      2. Me too Anne. I fear though that even if the amount were raised to commission a new yacht, it would be refused because of running costs, although the RF could foot that bill itself I suppose.

        1. The RF could pay running costs when using it for a holiday?
          Most of the time, the Britannia was earning her keep representing Great Britain.

          7. I fear the poor sod is going to be taken to the cleaners.

            As his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh so wisely advised, if you are a member of the royal family then remember actresses are for ‘going about with’ but not for marrying.

          8. Nah. he was a prat long before Meghan “Spice Girl” got her hooks into him. He has always been an accident waiting to happen, or a Royal Embarrassment pending….

    2. Nice idea but at this rate I fear it won’t be ready in time for Her Maj…

      ‘Morning, Epi.

      2. Maybe they can get one second hand from some Russian Oligaarch or whoever…. there are some very sleek modern yachts around…. with crews of 100 and running costs in the stratosphere…just right for Meghans shopping trips to New York …

    3. Just don’t let Meghan get her hands on it or anywhere near it….. if she had anything to do with it she’d bling it out like that idiot Posh Spice did with a Range Rover and if they do get a new Royal Yacht, bet she books it by the year….the Queen and Dof E may not get a look in…

  12. SIR – Last year I received a much-desired washing machine with a special port for adding errant socks to the ongoing wash. This hatch has never been needed.

    What other Christmas gifts have proved useless?

    Sue McFadzean

    Swansea

          2. Who is our oldest regular Nottler and who is our youngest? Our good friend Dellboy36 is 83 – but do we have any nonagenarians?

          4. Used to be danielfg, but no idea if he’s still with us. He hasn’t been here for some time.

      1. I wondered about electrocution. Apparently the pool is unheated in Winter, so they may have developed cramp. Strange for all 3 to go at once, though.

        1. A lot of pools have underwater lights as well as filters driven electrically.

          I would have expected circuit breakers to kick in.

          It appears that the child got into difficulties and two adults jumped in. so something strange certainly happened. Sudden immersion very cold water can certainly cause a shock to the body, but two heart attacks from trying to rescue a drowning child seems very unlikely.

          1. It’s obviously the Russians again, Like the Salisbury thing. If electrocution, probably Novishock.

          4. I agree, but even when the water is mid 20’s I still find it a bit of a shock to jump straight in, particularly if I have been sitting in the sunshine.

        2. That suggests someone got caught up in the filtration system, possibly at the bottom of the pool, the pumps themselves would be outside the pool and certainly it is very unlikely they would be under the water inside the pool.

          It is possible that the pool filtration system was being cleaned and backwashed and if the child had long hair it might have been sucked in, but again very unlikely.

  16. Morning, Campers.
    Have reached the Marmite sandwich stage. How on earth did our ancestors manage to hoover down so much rich stuff?

    1. There must have been days when the hunters returned empty handed…

      Good morning, gentle one.

    2. Good morning all.
      My bloody weight’s gone up 3 pounds compared with yesterday morning!

      1. I actually didn’t enjoy a piece of Christmas cake. Normally that reaction sets in around New Year.

        1. I dodged the original Christmas pudding & sampled each of 3 other delicious puds. Some of them came home in a doggie-bag.

          2. We’ve got two bought cheap just after last Christmas that need a couple more years of maturing.

          3. Every lustrum (!) my paternal grandmother used to make five Christmas puddings.
            Apparently the fifth one nearly blew your head off.

          5. Do you remember the butter papers that our mothers kept in a kitchen drawer for greasing cake tins?
            They were not always used in strict rotation, so smell alone could guide you to the storage place.

          7. I just melt a bit of unsalted butter in the microwave and brush it around the tins – and baking parchment if I suspect the cake is extra clingy.

          9. When I moved house in 1977, I found a Christmas pudding which I had made in 1968 at the back of a cupboard.

            It was delicious!

          10. Who in their right mind would crawl into the back of a cupboard to make a Christmas pudding, Uncle Bill? You must have been having an overdose of anaesthetic in 1968! :-))

            PS – Happy Boxing Day to you and all NoTTLers.

    3. ‘Morning, Ann.

      After yes’day’s feast I’ve postponed the maiale a latte, planned for today, until tomorrow. Light, simple fare today.

  17. Merry Christmas one and all. (I had to work yesterday so am having a 24hr delay. Looking forward to roast duck and pressies)

    1. Have a lovely day.
      Unbelievably, as we walked Spartie yesterday, a couple ran past us all togged up with the gear that nowadays seems necessary for more than a light stroll.
      Maybe they were avoiding the washing up.

  18. The gorgeous day wot start has turned grey and gale-ridden. Dagnabbit.

    Good drying day, though…

  19. Did anyone notice in Brenda’s message yesterday that in the close up she had two pictures – one of her father and one of William and family. Was this a deliberate snub to Brian or a subtle hint that the crown may be due to slip a generation?

    Conspiracy theorists – carry on.

          3. Oi, and less of the ‘young’ matey boy, though I should be flattered. I may be below the average on here but ‘young’ would be stretching the meaning of the word beyond its tolerance limits.

          9. Hence the deadly alliance of grandparents and grandchildren against the boring in-between generation.

          10. My mother told me when she was well into her eighties that she was still a twelve year old inside but then, she said, “I look in the mirror and there’s this old woman staring back at me”.

            Morning!

          11. Good morning, Our Susan. How is York today?

            I know EXACTLY what your mother was talking about. This hideous old face that I see when I shave.

          15. Morning Bill!

            York is cloudy and cold but as yet dry. I’ve got an eighth floor hotel room and can see Holgate Windmill, which I used to have as my avatar.

            Spent yesterday with three generations of my family plus dog but today will be quieter with just middle brother (I have three, all older) and his wife.

          23. When I look in the saving mirror, I still see my youthful face. It’s when that old man follows me around the shops, always going where I go so that I see his horrible old face reflected in the windows, that I worry… Well, I don’t worry, I’m past worrying.

          27. I did, thank you 😄. A day late but very pleasant. In fact, I’ve just finished lunch (4.55pm).
            Sister and nieces coming round presently for pressies and mince pies.

    2. “UK set for gloomy Boxing Day with heavy reign across all regions”
      Still a tough year for the lass.

  21. ” Post-Brexit UK always welcome back in EU, says Timmermans”

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/26/post-brexit-uk-always-welcome-back-in-eu-says-timmermans

    “Britain has been unnecessarily damaged by Brexit and “more will follow”, the vice-president of the European commission has written in a “love letter” to the British people in which he promises a warm welcome back should attitudes change.”

    Look, eff off, mate, you cheeky bugger, we’re out and we are not coming back. Get it ?

    1. Timmermans, isn’t he the lunatic who wants to invite the World, or is it just Africa, into Europe? His EU would need our money to fund his lunacy and have somewhere to dump his new Europeans. Timmermans promises a ‘warm welcome back’: a return to the hell of Brussels’ control after we’ve escaped? He is a lunatic.

  22. The Palestinians still busy firing rockets at the Holy Land. No break even at Christmas.
    ”
    A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip at a southern Israeli city as it hosted a campaign rally prompted the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to take shelter briefly before resuming the event, Israeli TV stations have reported.

    The Israeli military confirmed the launch on Wednesday against
    Ashkelon, which is 12km (7.5 miles) from the coastal Palestinian
    enclave, and said the rocket was shot down by an Iron Dome air defence
    interceptor.”

    1. Let’s just call them Arabs, Tony. They may self-identify as Philistines but they’re not Philistines.

      Morning!

      1. Morning, Sue.

        Good point. But some Arabs are worse than others. The ” Palestinians ” as they call themselves are the worst of the worst.

          1. I remember seeing bulls’ testicles on the menu in a Yemeni restaurant in Tel Aviv. I never did find out if they were kosher, but my wife would not let me try them anyway.

          2. They are Kosher , tried them once at a Moroccan restaurant in Ramle on the old road to Jerusalem & yes the taste is disgusting – left it after one bite & felt nauseated .

    3. Now that Corbyn’s version of Labour has been so thoroughly rejected by the British people will the BBC change its tone about Israel and stop supporting those who attack the one haven of democracy on the Middle East?

      (As many of my friends have noticed, what I write is often full of typos. I have amended “Muddle East” to “Middle East”. Maybe I should have let the typo stand.)

      1. The BBC will not change its tone. It consists of people who are convinced that they are right (as in correct) and that the scrofulous peasantry don’t know what’s good for them.
        Only a change in funding arrangements will alter its attitude to the GBP who are forced to finance it.

        1. cf – how they bang on about the Liebour party leadership and NOT about us leaving the EU etc etc

  23. Talking of Christmas, we asked the Danish couple who have bought (at twice its true value) a house in the village what the traditional Christmas dessert might be.

    Rice Pudding.

    Never knew that there were paddy fields in yer Denmark…

    1. Rice pudding with a whole almond buried in it. Whoever gets the almond wins a small present.
      D-in-L serves it with a scrummy cherry sauce. Strangely enough, the children always seem to win.
      It’s like Odense producing the best almond paste. I can only think it’s because Denmark was at the end of the trade routes from the Med.
      Let’s hear it (again) for the Jarlsvikings.

      2. Is it a baked rice pud with a grated nutmeg topping? Loved that spicy ‘skin’ that formed on the top.

          1. Yes one of my favourites (and standing in as temporary pedant for Peddy – con leche). My real favourite Spanish dessert is cuajada.

    4. When I stayed with a friend in Norway many years ago for Christmas, the Christmas dessert was rice pudding – an extremely good one with lots of cream, and that took about 4 or 5 hours to make I seem to recall.

  24. Morning Each,
    Britain’s economic growth to take off in 2020 once final brexit deal is complete.
    I have no doubts it will, to be sure, but to who’s benefit ?
    Why are we in a situation where the main man fighting the UK corner is no way fully trusted ? how did we arrive at this point in time ?
    What is truly encapsulated in this string attached “deal”
    could our Appeasement / submission weekly brussels stipend be about to increase ?
    After the treacherous capers cut by the pro eu toxic trio
    coming to light clearly over recent years, nothing would, on Gods green earth, surprise me when the FULL extent of the “deal” is revealed.

    1. Whatever we get, even if not enough, is better than what we are getting rid of. Boris is heading the right way. Don’t kick a man when he is up.

      1. T,
        I belong to the party that has fought for 27 plus years to exit the eu whilst the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition has spent the same years trying to entrench us further in.
        Your reply is totally unacceptable to me.

          1. M,
            They have been more of a benefit to these Isles over the last decade than the
            lab/lib/con coalition party, that is for sure.

        3. Greetings ogga,

          Are you not encouraged at all by Boris’ performance thus far?
          Could the recent election cleared much of Parliament of Tory-Remainiacs?
          How efficiently has Boris surrounded himself with pro-Leave advisors?

          1. Afternoon A,
            I hope you & family are enjoying Christmas & New Year cheer, and it is reinforced in the near future by total severance from the mafia.

            Ans 1 not in the least, highly suss.
            Ans 2 if the recent election cleared the political remainer’s within it would be an echo chamber
            Ans 3 We have the same treachery dealers & crew, proven over the years to be top flight
            rubber stampers, that have over indulged in
            lies,deceit & treason, got the wind up, and to protect lifestyles will concede to the people’s
            wishes …. up to a point, to the full extent ?
            I don’t think so boo,boo.
            Believe me I want johnson to make me wrong.

    2. Boris Johnson very cleverly succeeded in hiding whatever horrors lie in his May rehash WA before the general election. I think that he realised that Andrew Neil was determined to extract the truth about the full shabbiness of his ‘brilliant deal’ which is why he evaded the interview.

      We shall see. I am trying to kid myself into thinking that we shall get a decent break from the EU but my worry is that far too many people have been carried away by an ill-placed euphoria.

      1. Morning R,
        You can certainly hum that tune again, to my mind there are far to many straw clutchers
        counting on johnson “doing the right thing” why I ask, is that being questioned ? this should have been sorted long ago, and the result being the country had a 100 % fully trusted PM.
        Party first, keep in / keep out / three monkey mode of voting have brought us here awaiting
        the final result, the final result that should have been assured long ago.

      2. I tihnk you’re right Rastus and it’s likely to be awful, but at the moment… well, I suppose the EU could continue to fight us but that’d push us toward WTO which would be great!

    1. Blinkin’ ‘eck. A British PM promoting Christianity. I didn’t think I see it again.

      As a fervent atheist even I’m impressed.

      1. #metoo as a non-Christian, glad to see it back. After nice words to the Jewish community I wondered whether he had done one for, err..that lot ?

      1. MHMCMB,
        Christmas greetings M / family,
        She has three, as many as that, I know it is the season for giving but in this instance
        methinks you are far to
        generous.

    2. Lily Allen is a spoiled, selfish little girl who, having grown up in abject luxury and incredible wealth has enjoyed a lucrative career that has given her significant personal wealth.

      Of course then, she can’t imagine how well off she is. She’s too selfish to understand that she is amongst the richest in the world – and not just because she has running water, but that it is clean. Like most thick, arrogant rich people she assumes everyone is like her.

      Thus she devotes her time – and limited intellectual capacity – to complaining about things that just don’t matter. She could, for example use her income to help the homeless. She could start a fund for those in genuiine poverty – not just the lazy welfare waster.

      Hell, my father bought a dozen homes and asked a peppercorn rent for those in our little town who genuinely needed it. One to a disabled fellow, another too a young couple who’s own house buying was gazumped and they lost their deposit because the solicitors basically nicked it. Lily Allen does none of these simple things. She’s just a selfish, pathetic, ignorant, arrogant waster.

      2. Clearly as these Luvies are all into climate change they should stop touring abroad no chance of that though although you may get a few whose careers have died claiming they have giving up touring which will be sort of true. They gave up because k no one would turn up to see them

      1. T,
        The lab/lib/con coalition party are riddled with her type the
        mass uncontrolled immigration /paedophile
        umbrella coalition party find them a great boon in their quest of total UK destruction.

    4. BEST COUNTRIES FOR WOMEN (2019):

      Sweden — #1 in Women Rankings

      Denmark — #2 in Women Rankings

      Canada — #3 in Women Rankings

      Norway — #4 in Women Rankings

      Netherlands — #5 in Women Rankings

      Finland — #6 in Women Rankings

      Switzerland — #7 in Women Rankings

      Australia — #8 in Women Rankings

      New Zealand — #9 in Women Rankings

      Germany — #10 in Women Rankings

      https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/best-women

      2. UK No 13. South Africa the top performer on that continent at No 50.

        Maybe Lily shoulld head south to do her preaching.

        1. Thank you, bassetedge. And Merry Christmas to you and yours. Amazing what you can find online: here is a graphic of countries with “State Religions”. Blue is Christianity, and I’ve added what I can garner from Wikipedia regarding State Religions:

          https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Map_of_state_religions.svg/1024px-Map_of_state_religions.svg.png
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religion#Christianity

          BEST COUNTRIES FOR WOMEN (2019) WITH WIKIPEDIA INFO ON STATE RELIGIONS:

          Sweden — (#1 in Women Rankings): “The Church of Sweden was until 2000 the official state church of Sweden, and Lutheranism was, therefore, the state religion of Sweden. In spite of the separation between the state and the church in 2000, the Church of Sweden still has a special status in Sweden.” [subheading: Lutheranism].

          Denmark — (#2 in Women Rankings): “Section 4 of the Constitution of Denmark confirms the Church of Denmark as the established church.” [subheading: Lutheranism].

          Canada — (#3 in Women Rankings): “Canada West = Church of England [until 1854]. [The] Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867, [and] Canada West was what became of the former colony of Upper Canada after being united into the Province of Canada. It became the province of Ontario after Confederation.”

          Norway — (#4 in Women Rankings): “As of 2012 Norway does not have a public religion, [however] A bill passed in 2016 and effective as of 1 January 2017 created the Church of Norway as an independent legal entity. The Constitution of Norway Article 16 stipulates that “The Church of Norway, an Evangelical-Lutheran church, will remain the Established Church of Norway and will as such be supported by the State.” [subheading: Lutheranism].

          Netherlands — (#5 in Women Rankings): “The Dutch Reformed Church was the State Religion until 1795. Article 133 of the 1814 Constitution stipulated the Sovereign Prince should be a member of the Reformed Church; this provision was dropped in the 1815 Constitution. The 1815 Constitution also provided for a state salary and pension for the priesthood of established religions at the time (Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism). This settlement, nicknamed de zilveren koorde (the silver cord), was abolished in 1983.”

          Finland — (#6 in Women Rankings): 1. “The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has a special relationship with the Finnish state, its internal structure being described in a special law, the Church Act. The Church Act can be amended only by a decision of the synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and subsequent ratification by the Parliament of Finland. The Church Act is protected by the Constitution of Finland and the state can not change the Church Act without changing the constitution.” [subheading: Lutheranism].
          2. “Finnish Orthodox Church has a special relationship with the state, along with Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. These two churches are established as ”national churches” ‘ [subheading: Eastern Orthodoxy].

          Switzerland — (#7 in Women Rankings): ” Switzerland [had] separate Cantonal Churches («Landeskirchen») during the 20th century. [Zwinglianism & Calvinism or Catholic ]. Switzerland is officially secular at the federal level but 24 of the 26 cantons support either the Swiss Reformed Church or the Roman Catholic Church.”

          Australia — (#8 in Women Rankings): [No State Religion listed].

          New Zealand — (#9 in Women Rankings): [No State Religion listed].

          Germany — (#10 in Women Rankings): [No State Religion listed, but long discussion here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Germany%5D. “Christianity is the largest religion in Germany, and was introduced to the area of modern Germany with the conversion of the first Germanic tribes in the 4th century. The area became fully Christianized by the time of Charlemagne in the 8th and 9th centuries. After the reformation started by Martin Luther during the 16th century, a significant part of the population had a schism with the Catholic Church and became Protestant, mainly Lutherans and Calvinists. Nowadays around 60% of the population identifies as Christian… .”

          https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/best-women
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religion

          [edited: especially section on #10 Germany]

  27. Germany on the brink

    Angela Merkel, who is due to step down as Chancellor in 2021, will be faced with the prospect of weak forecasts as she heads into the New Year. A recent survey by Reuters showed representatives of major businesses expect next year to be another weak year for the economy. Dieter Kempf, president of BDI (Federation of German Industries) has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of the government and has urged politicians to wake up to the economic realities at and and quit their “slumbering”. In comments carried by cash.ch, Mr Kempf said: “We have become a slumbering country because we were really well-off for ten years.

    Touching on the industries sector’s downturn, Mr Kempf admitted: “No bottoming is in sight yet. Exports are also stagnating.”
    His frustration with the country’s grand coalition between the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SDU) is shared by many industry leaders.

    Criticism of Ms Merkel and her government is no longer only expressed in background talks but talked about in the open.

    He said: “An important signal would be an internationally competitive corporate tax rate of 25 percent.
    “Abolishing the solidarity surcharge for all companies is more than overdue.”

      3. I’m not so happy about the forty years in the wilderness. I hope Boris can do something about that.

        1. The UK has been in the independent sovereign nation wilderness since the United Kingdom’s membership of the EC come into effect on 1 January 1973
          May the vile homosexual-pedophile traitor Edward Heath rot in hell!

  30. EU at breaking point? Brussels under threat as poll shows Italians do not trust trade bloc

    UK leaving Spain, Hunger & now Italy very unhappy with the EU. It could be time to set UP a new European trading block those four countries would create a releasable size block and considerably weaken the remaining EU. Switzerland and The EEA countries could also join the new block. Even France is not really happy with the EU

    THE EU has been dealt another blow as a recent survey of Italians has stated under 40 percent trust the trade bloc.

    n a survey released on December 20 showed only 38 percent of those asked trusted the EU while 52 percent stated they do. The poll by Europbarometer put Italy near the bottom of the countries who have any faith in the trade bloc.

    Only the UK (29 percent), France (32 percent), and Greece (34 percent) are lower than Italy.
    Moreover, the average for the trade bloc across its 28 members states is just 43 percent in terms of satisfaction with policies emanating from Brussels.
    The news of Italy’s falling trust comes at a time of increasing pressure on the trade bloc.

    1. This is slightly potty.

      Italy is kept going by German money. If it doesn’t like it, it could leave the EU. It chooses not to. Doing so would allow for a devaluation and to trade its way out of the EU.

    1. Ah yes, Christina Figueres – “She travelled to England for a year of A Level studies before entering Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. As part of her studies in anthropology, she lived in Bribri, Talamanca, a remote indigenous village in the Southeastern plateau of Costa Rica for one year, designing a culturally-sensitive literacy program which was used by the Ministry of Education for several years. Figueres joined botanist Dr. Russell Seibert to improve nutritional conditions in Western Samoa using highly nutritious plants. She then went to the London School of Economics for a master’s degree in social anthropology and graduated in 1981.” Obviously more qualified than the 500+ “top climate scientists” who keep telling the UN that there is no climate emergency!!

  32. I don’t understand the NHS thing. We could change any part of it at any time.

    What we haven’t done is insist on citizenship to pay for it.

      1. Yet we so easily could.

        The NHS is easily solved: pay it after it does the work. Give it a float to carry the work over for about a year – so yes, it would at some point be hugely over funded, that’s fine – but after that, instead of paying it a lump of cash it would get paid in the same way as anyone else – after the product is purchased. Same money from same place – the treasury, but let each hospital run itself as it wants to.

        Try it with one small one to start with. It will work. The only thing stopping this efficiency is the massive logistical inertia and control freakery of the state. With the majority Boris has there is nothing Labour – who use the NHS as a whipping stick – can do about it.

        1. Most of the Health Service that are held up as example of the best in the world have both state and private involvement as well as having small at he point of use charges. Sweden that is often held up as a good socialist example has much of its Health services outsourced and has point of use charges

          If we had a modest charge to see a GP I would expect the numbers of people going to a GP would drop. If say they had to pay £10 many would decide to see a pharmacist instead or just nuy an over the counter medicine

          1. I don’t mind keeping it entirely state funded. The ‘best in the world’ (that no one else has copied) problem the NHS has is it doesn’t know what it needs and thus is given a massive lump sum and from there manages it badly.

            I like the idea of having a charge to visit but my only issue there is people *already* pay to use the NHS. Do we scrap that tax? As that’s moving to a full blown insurance model (which is what the rest of the world uses).

          2. Most country’s in Europe pay for their health service through a state tax or insurance scheme but also has to pay a small charge at the point of use. The charges are very small and would not fund the NHS. They main reason for them is to stop abuse and it means those that use the service most pay a bit more

          3. If I recall correctly, the fee to see my doctor is about £26 for a 20 mins timeslot. Fee to be paid even if you don’t turn up on time.

          4. THat another problem in the UK. AS ikt is totally free many book appointments but dont bother to turn up the percentage that just dont bother to turn up is about 6.5%

          5. It’s usually around 3% at our local surgery. They flash the month’s figures up in lights in the waiting room as you sit.

          6. If you don’t turn up at ours, they send you a foul letter warning you will be thrown out if you do it again.
            They scowl at you if you turn up for a second appointment. Or if you are two minutes late for one.

          7. Scowling at customers, would that be typical behaviour in the North? Sounds like the receptionist might have trained as a midwife.

          8. No, it’s the practice nurses. You are allowed fifteen minutes with the harridans. If you are five minutes late it messes up their schedule.

          9. The 6.5% appears to be a UK average clearly it will vary from surgery to surgery and some are more proactive than other to try to reduce it y sending out reminders

          10. If we had a modest charge to see a GP I would expect numbers of people now going to a GP would drop dead.

      2. Happy Boxing Day.
        The continental EU system(s) of health insurance (contributory) is more prudent than the UK’s free for all.
        People don’t appreciate stuff that is free.

        1. True – though about 50% of us DO pay – through tax. The blecks and illegals don’t, of course.

    1. The idea I think was it was similar to Hire Purchase where you leased or rented the house until the final payment was made and then it was transferred to your ownership so this was Stamp Duty Free. In the end they pay interest it is one of the many religious cheats where they pretend no interest is involved but that would only be the case if the amount they paid was the amount they bought the house for but that is not the case

      It should be simple to close this loop hole off

          2. ‘Twas the reason she lost, me-thinks. Undecided voters suddenly became ‘decided’ against her.

          3. Sadly the Beast of Bolsover has gone this election, which speaks volumes…. but he was once reprimanded for rclaiming that half the Tory front bench were crooks. Made to appologise he did so saying “I apologise. Half the tory front bench are not crooks.”

  35. Our Failing Railways

    In spite of what many people think our railways are still state owned and state managed. The only bit that is really outsourced are the train operating companies which operate a serves as demanded by the government contract

    The issues I see with the railways (In no particular order)

    1) Strikes
    2) Unreliable signalling systems
    5) Inadequate rolling stock
    6) Poor management
    7) Inadequate investment
    8) Overcrowded
    9) Poor communications
    10 Fragment Confused and disjointed

    Only about 8% of the population use rail and of those almost 60% are short commuter journeys which makes the investment of huge sums of money in HS2 nonsensical. In general speed is not a problem. People would prefer more frequent trains to much faster ones. As it is HS2 will mop up most of the money for rail investment for over a decade and it is likely it will always orate at a huge loss

    With devolution the mainland UK railways probably need to be split into Scottish Rail. English Rail and Welsh Rail. Cross boarder trains being operated by the country in which most of the service operated

    WE need to drop the pretense of competition on the rail service as there are only a few cases where there is any real competition. The competition should only be for the tenders. This also helps resolve the complex ticketing and means you would also be able to use any direct train that takes you to where you want to go

    The investment in the railways needs to be focused on the commuter services this is where the growth in traffic is and it is these services that are the most overcrowded. In the North there needs to be a Northern Metro developed not high speed lines. If you take Leeds it is a similar distance from Manchester as the length of the Central line is. Developing a Northern Metro service would have real value. HS2 does not it may as well never get beyond Birmingham given the delays and cost escalation of of the first section of HS2

          2. If you “orate at a huge loss”, doesn’t that mean you’ve lost the debate?

            (Greetings, Peddy).

          3. Prolly, but you never know with BJ.

            Greetings, Aggy. Raining steadily here & already quite dark.

  36. It’s time to consign the word ‘Brexit’ to the history books, and get on with self-government
    NORMAN TEBBIT – 26 DECEMBER 2019 • 10:45AM

    Writing my column just a fortnight ago, I hardly dared to express my optimism that Boris Johnson would emerge on Friday 13 with a solid majority of something like 35 to 40 seats. The scale of his victory is a tribute not only to Johnson but to the perception and patriotism of voters, particularly traditionally Labour voters, who did what would have been unthinkable a decade or so ago by turning out to put him back into No 10 and keep Corbyn out.

    Johnson is absolutely right to emphasise that the question of Brexit can and must now be resolved in the next few weeks. Once that has been done we can consign the very word into the history text books and get on with governing a Kingdom that is independent and self governing. In recent years under the confused and weak administrations of Cameron and Mrs May and the malign, egotistic speakership of Mr Bercow, the 2017 Parliament had simply become dysfunctional.

    As ever, weakness in one part of the machinery invited other powerful players to intervene, and in recent times the judiciary has done so. The doctrine of judicial review of actions by an authority, minister or the like, allowed an individual to seek a ruling that an action by an authority or individual had been taken without lawful authority, or was so bizarre that no reasonable minded person could have taken it.

    In recent years it has come to be granted on no better grounds than the view of a judge that a different decision would have been a better one. In doing that, judges have come closer and closer to making their judgments on political, rather than judicial, grounds.

    I hope Johnson will put that right without edging towards making the judiciary into part of a government department responsible to ministers.

    Last week I attended the Lords on Wednesday both to obey my writ of attendance and be sworn in and then to be present for the State Opening and the Queen’s Speech, setting out the plans of the Government for the new session.

    There were not a lot of great surprises although I wonder to what extent Lib Dem and Remain Labour peers will try to obstruct the Brexit legislation in some hopeless last stand against the outcome of the General Election and the referendum.

    The talk among most Labour peers seemed to be more about how quickly they could get rid of Corbyn and whether they could rescue their party from the grip of Momentum. At present most thought it all too likely that Momentum will foist another neo-Marxist leader on to the Labour Party.

    If that proves to be the case, perhaps we may see a new democratic Left of centre group embracing the more sensible Lib Dems. A party in which Jo Grimond, Clement Attlee and Ernie Bevin would all have felt comfortable.

    We will no more be short of political interest over the next five years than we were when, as Margaret Thatcher’s party Chairman, I presented her with her third consecutive election victory and a majority of 101.

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

    Peter Scott 26 Dec 2019 11:16AM

    Well said.

    What is so sad nowadays is the apparent inability of anyone in high office to say ‘let us just return to where things worked’.

    Until the Arch-Vandal Tony Blair set about our constitution with his characteristic wrecking-ball, we had no Supreme Court other than the High Court of Parliament.

    That worked for centuries. It did not second-guess national legislation in favour of the prejudices of individual lawyers.

    Likewise we had a thing usually all but impossible to attain around the world: a second parliamentary chamber dedicated to revising legislation (not least in the mode of pointing out self-contradictions or simple blunders therein) which was not elected – and therefore not ultra-party-politicised.

    It was made up mostly of hereditary peers, who were Somewhere, not Anywhere, people. Their prestige depended on that of this country from which their titles derived.

    To them were added, pre-Blair, people deemed to be high experts in their fields and sent to the Lords as life peers, able to contribute special expertise as each domain of the national life came to be debated.

    In a very flawed imperfect world, this was like our concept and practice of Democracy: not perfect (by a long way; for a perfect Democracy you have to have a morally perfect people) but the least bad option actually available to humankind hitherto.

    Can no one in Parliament say simply ‘Let’s go back to where we were’, in this and several other matters?

    1. “Johnson is absolutely right to emphasise that the question of Brexit can and must now be resolved in the next few weeks.”

      If Baron Tebbit were still at the centre of power then you can imagine our future with the EU being resolved in those few weeks, with a polite note informing them that we will not be signing that Withdrawal Agreement and will simply be leaving at the end of January. This would let us get on with life without giving the EU a financial open goal to shoot at for the next 12 months.

      Those were the days of really strong leadership.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/274c2d6804be11e920074e2690fc8f8426f38d42543e07b93ae2b6a65adaee04.jpg

    2. The problem with Momentum is that it learned the lessons of the past and secured the leadership. Militant tendency failed to secure the leadership and Kinnock was able to rescue the party.
      hence the need by momentum to get that double barrelled bimbo into the leadership role. (Er what’s her name, Kyle Long Shaw? No? Well , something silly).

  38. Happy Boxing Day! Is it time to revisit the question of the BBC? The first petition below closed early (on 6 November 2019) due to a General Election. At least two petitions have reached over 100,000 signatures and have been debated in Parliament. Others have not fared so well:

    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/268734
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/235653
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/234797
    https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/159140
    https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/104367

    What can NoTTLers do petition-wise to further address the question of fair reporting by the BBC?

    1. They swallow the spin of these battery powered car companies that exaggerate grossly their capabilities

      1. I don’t think they do. It’s all about looking as if they care – ‘doing their bit for the rainbows and the environment’.

        1. Well it dos not do that as they end up having to buy more cars to make up for the deficiencies of the once they purchased

          Surely as well you would carried out extensive trials of the vehicle you intend to purchase to ensure it is suitable for the use it will be put to but clearly they did not

          No doubt Khan well be blaming the government when the Met runs out of money

          2. He quickly removed this photograph from all official sites when members of staff started taking the piss about him holding his “purple helmet”.

            But not before I had taken a screenshot of it.

          8. I loved the bit in the very small print at the bottom:

            ” Great to see the Chief Constable holding his purple helmet.”

            I suspect somebody might have enjoyed a meeting without coffee over that one.

    3. There are recruitment ads all over the Tube in London stating that policing is not just about fighting crime (tempting to omit “just” but it’s there), it’s about being “a force for good in your community”. The agenda is very transparent.

      1. Greetings Sue, you mean an unauthorized force harassing unwary, law-abiding citizens into following laws not yet written or passed into law?

        (Now where have I heard of THAT before…. .)

      2. Make them part of social servises. When they became the Police Service and not the Police Force you knew what they were about. i just hope our new home sec will sort it out.

        1. Police have been sorting out my Mothrr’s difficulties at home, as the Sociak wankers are completely unable to.
          Since when was it the Constabulary’s duty for that, one asks oneself.

    6. I would be surprised if they wanted the cars to actually catch criminals these days. The people that they go after now are more and more often “online right-wing hate filled racists” also known as the British public that have their eyes open. They know where they live and can glide up to their houses in a milkfloat if they wanted to.

      When they do stumble across a real criminal gang, doing unspeakable things to the young, they almost feel embarrassed to be disturbing them. They will go out of their way to ignore/avoid confrontation with the guilty and to slander the victims. If it ever gets to trial and conviction then the sentences passed are almost an apology for interrupting their cultural pursuits.

      This will be the biggest test of Boris now that he has this majority. Will he take action to stop these things happening, or will the Channel Border Force taxi service keep running? A “points based system” is nice for legal migrants who are highly qualified. It does not deal with the ones that are the problem.

      1. They protect us from evil powers. I saw a police car the other day. They were going for the Sand Witches.

      2. As I have said many times before.

        If you can’t catch the criminals, criminalise those you can catch.

    7. I said elsewhere that i suspected Cressida Dickhead must fancy Saint Greta…… she probably will get her to bless the fleet when she is next in the UK…..

    8. One would assume so as about £20K each would be nearer the mark probably more with the customization the police forces would want

  41. Heavy rain to strike as flood warnings issued for Boxing Day washout

    They go over board every time we get a wet spell. T has been a wet spell but nothing abnormal and you always get some minor flooding in wet spells mad worse by not maintaining rivers and streams and drains

    2. Nothing abnormal but they want us to think that it is, there is an unspoken ‘climate change/global warming’ hanging heavily in the air around these warnings and manipulating our perceptions to make it seem worse than it actually is, and more importantly, that we will remember it being far worse than ever it was.

  43. A question for those steeped in matters of the realm:

    If, during the periods when we have a Queen regnant—as in the past 67 years—and “King’s Counsels” (KCs) are referred to as “Queen’s Counsels” (QCs); why don’t we live in the United Queendom”?

    1. Happy Holidays, Meredith. I’ve seen this one captioned as “Americans’ perception of Europe”.

          1. The Russians tend not to make as much of Christmas as they do the New Year, so the usual greeting is s novem godem (I don’t have cyrillic script on this pc).

          4. You’re hoping the EU outlaws Christianity next year, Stormy?

            (Given the current political situation… ).

  45. Anti Brexit lawyer Jolyon Maugham announced on Twitter he clubbed a fox to death on Boxing Day morning, while wearing his wife’s satin kimono and nursing a hangover.

    How’s your Boxing Day going?

  46. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    For all train buffs…yesterday evening watched the Jacobite chuffing the trip from Fort William to Mallaig. No voice-over, no music…no reference to Hogwarts (oops)…sheer bliss. We did that trip in 2008 and it was worth every penny.

    1. Morning, HJ.
      MB was watching that. It was incredibly restful.
      We then rounded off the evening with ‘Carry On Up The Khyber’- the supreme Carry On film.
      Then watched Dolly Parton; no snowflake she. Just a hard grafter and good egg.

      1. Good morning, Anne

        David, one of our best friends and the godfather of our second son, Henry, wrote a biography of Bruce Montgomery who wrote quite a lot of the music for the Carry On films. Montgomery also wrote detection fiction under the nom de plume of Edmund Crispin.

        Montgomery was a great friend of Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis whom David, a very gifted organist, interviewed while doing research for his book and he had great fun with this project and was often invited to lecture on the topic of the importance of music in detective fiction

        https://books.google.fr/books?id=ETArDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA152&lpg=PA152&dq=montgomery+carry+on&source=bl&ots=Y-qgmVnFKg&sig=ACfU3U1mfVQjQDD_C27PxdaXiJ2eEkg6nA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjDlI7AhdPmAhWGiFwKHX0QBFUQ6AEwCXoECCIQAQ#v=onepage&q=montgomery%20carry%20on&f=false

      2. ‘Morning, Annie. Ditto ‘Khyber’- a riot of innuendo and strictly un-pc fun. One for the permanently offended!

    2. Good morning all, and a peaceful Boxing Day to one and all.
      Did that route several times with the test trains. A lovely run and the job that made “Concrete” Bob McAlpine’s name & fortune.
      Apparently one of the viaducts, not Glenfinnan, has a horse entombed within it.

  47. Sky has named the family who drowned in the Spanish swimming pool:

    https://news.sky.com/story/family-who-died-in-costa-del-sol-pool-tragedy-named-11895210

    “The father has been named as Gabriel Diya, 52, and his children Praise Emmanuel, 16, and Comfort, nine.”
    Mr Diya’s Facebook account describes him as a manager of Open Heavens
    London, a branch of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, based in
    Charlton.He is listed in his introduction as a “Pioneer, Life coach,
    Entrepreneur, Student, Property Manager, Businessman & PAL Leader”.
    The church was not contactable on Boxing Day.”

    All abroad on hols no doubt. There’s money in quasi-religions…

  48. At least 15 migrants in small boats are rescued off Kent coast after making perilous overnight Channel crossing

    There is no way at all that this are making their way across the channel from Calais in small boats especially at this time of year at night. They are being dropped off near our coast from larger boats

    At least 15 migrants crammed into small boats have been intercepted making the perilous journey to British shores this morning.
    In the early hours of Boxing Day, UK Border Force officers detained the migrants and brought them into the Port of Dover.
    The treacherous overnight Channel crossing would have been bitterly cold, and the mostly male migrants were seen walking up the gangway wrapped in thermal survival blankets.

    1. Number has now increase to 60

      Can we deport the charity workers to France as well?. The number of illegals entering the UK via Dover is escalating out of all control and the numbers will continue to grow whilst nothing is done about it

      Forty-nine people in four boats were met by Border Force and brought to England, while a further two boats were dealt with by French authorities.
      The Home Office said it would try to return anyone who arrived in the UK illegally back to mainland Europe.

      Charity workers said the government’s “tough talk” was “extremely irresponsible”.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-50916544

      2. BJ,
        Who’s overall responsibility is it
        to protect the indigenous peoples of England / GB ?
        these illegals have been incoming for years.

          1. It was 1948, the same year as you know what; they were Commonwealth citizens and much more right to be here than the bloody Pakistanis and Somalis.

      3. ‘Charity workers’ aren’t in charge of the nation’s borders, or its security, so it’s got absolutely nothing to do with them.

        At least we can be thankful for that, even if the government hasn’t seemed to be either.

      4. ” The Home Office said it would try to return anyone who arrived in the UK illegally back to mainland Europe.”
        Prison ships should transport them back to the African coast & land them on an unguarded beach

          3. We built a fence along the Egyptian border, the fence is patrolled 24/7 by the army , armed drones & CCTV . It cut the illegal entry of African migrants to Zero also in part to there being conflict between the Egyptian army & Islamic terror groups in the Sinai . The 30,000 or so in the country before building the fence are a problem, some are in a low security detention camp down south but most have been allowed to work & reside either in Eilat where they work in the hotel industry or in South Tel Aviv where those that are not working are into petty crime . A few hundred have been deported & a few hundred others voluntary repatriated back to their countries of origin, none will ever get welfare or citizenship which if the UK made it a policy would be a major disincentive to illegals coming to the UK

        1. A further clue that they are being dropped off from larger boats id they typically arrive in clusters of 3 or 3 dinghy s

          1. You mean ships. The definition of a boat according to my RN friends is ‘boats are carried by ships’ not the other way round.

            Also, though your theory may have some truth, how do you account for the fact that every ship in the English channel is tracked?

    2. Instead of armed drones patrolling over the shipping lanes and opening fire are they see boats of migrants being off loaded from ships at see the useless UK Border Force has become a glorified shuttle service for the invasion force !

        1. What ethnicity is Jesus (Hey Zeus) this time round?
          Seems the falling interest rates are not just affecting homeowners as the BoE tells us…..or maybe it is all down to Climate Change…. weather so hot mothers are giving birth in the open air….

      2. Plenty of wise men around though.
        She could have chosen Newnham if she wanted wise women in attendance.

    4. Eight more homelessness stories under that one – take your pick! It’s all the fault of far-right people who voted to Leave.

  50. Afternoon dear Nottlers

    Last night was fraught with anxiety ..the re charge thing for my laptop snapped .. oh yes , and worse , the little power adapter pointy thing broke off inside my HP.. I wondered why the laptop wasn’t recharging properly.. . ( Son recovered the pointy bit by extracting it , I don’t know how)

    I sat and fidgetted and fretted last night .. and viewed quite a bit of TV .

    This morning after the storm during the night , wet and soggy outside , I rang up Curry’s PC World .. and somehow got put through to a trouble shooter in Sheffield .. who sounded like the narrator on Gogglebox … quite calm and pleasant and reassuring, who kindly told me not to worry .. because there was a gadget called a Universal recharging adaptor… If I could hot foot it to Dorchester branch they would supply me with one ..

    So after 9am this morning I turned up at Curry’s PC World .. and bought the universal adaptor.. set me back about £35.. but there is a selection of pins for most laptops included.

    So here I am .. I hope your morning has been pleasant .. wretched weather .. miserable , wet wet wet!

    1. Surprised they were open this morning or available l;ast night for a fireside chat….. here in Rhodes this morning dawned cold and everything shut up tight. Not just the usual winter ghost towns but everywhere…. except our minimarket which was shut yesterday…. I suppose one day a year is OK, so long as they do not make a habit of it. All these years and shopping here still confuses me; the closing from 2pm till 5 pm of most small shops or really everything bar the supermarkets and the fact that every other week there seems to some celbration or other commemorating their freedom from the Italians, the ottomans, the Germans, the British (?) Darth Vader and then the name days seem to wreak random havoc on shopping.

      2. Everyone is open these days. Only on Christmas Day and Easter Day are large shops required to be shut.

        La vie moderne…..

        1. Funny because round here (in the sticks, admittedly) all the major supermarkets were closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day (people were shopping on Christmas Eve as though the shops would be closed for a fortnight!).

          1. Our local mini co-op is/was open Christmas morning. Their shelves weren’t empty. Obviously no last minute in search of a reduction panic buyers where i live. The quality is excellent too.

            Sleep well.

      4. There is talk of them building another colossus.

        We don’t sail over to Rhodes very often from Marmaris even though it is just a 4 – 5 hour sail away. The new marina has had rather a lot of problems and there have been gangs of aquatic gypsies who steal from boats; the old harbour is very overcrowded and not very friendly. (This photo is from when we were achored in the old harbour a few years ago when it was more pleasant).

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/adc21c859b309b2112de27f7425553cd03bccaa3bb7b6dfa1fcd053040e35aee.jpg

    2. It’s about time chargers were standardised across all makes. In fact, many are, except for Apple products.

    3. Those universal adapters tend to be rubbish and don’t last long. You could have bought a new PSU off amazon with next day delivery for about £20.

    4. It’s been a good day, thank you, apart from the weather which was dull, wet and windy. Went to the local meet (on foot, of course – I’m not cleared to ride until NYE), met up with friends, had some valuable “me” time and a superb lunch. Then I came back and successfully cooked for MOH, followed by miraculously watching the racing, which I initially thought had failed to record. Success all round.

  51. This morning, half way through her first jug of Tequila the mother in law told the warqueen she was fat and ugly.

    Said warqueen, a woman who addresses rooms full of people to tell them how to spend their money (and does it well), who has worked damned hard in her business is now hiding in the bathroom. She’s been in there a good hour now.

    As it’s vile outside, Mongo can’t take Junior outside to play, so Junior is now wondering where Mummy is.

    Usually the old soak is fine. At the moment I could throttle her so I am hiding with the laptop outside the bedbog whinging about it all to you folks.

    3. We played truth or dare and spin the bottle yesterday. Didn’t take long for me to lose all my clothes.

      Just another normal day.

    4. Is that the mother to her own daughter? You should ask her to leave, having first suggested that any defects in the daughter have first come from the ,mother.

    5. As those who know what matters in life realise, real ugliness is on the inside. I cannot imagine ever saying something like that to anyone.

      Someone who can say those words should be ignored. I would ask them to leave, never to return unless she can keep a civil tongue in her head.

      1. Some older people lose their ‘filters’, ie inhibition, and are capable of making unacceptable remarks.

        2. One of the perks of getting old. When I can use that excuse when I go to football matches to make monkey noises?

          Is it better to beat the chest when doing so, or scratch the armpits with both hands?

          With a bit of dedication, it should be possible to get all clubs banned from the Football League by Easter.

  53. COFFEE HOUSE – CULTURE HOUSE DAILY

    BBC’s A Christmas Carol was the victim of tub-thumping lefty politics
    James Delingpole – 26 December 2019 – 4:19 PM

    ‘Spoke to someone at The BBC yesterday, this person told me they are SHITTING themselves right now, as viewing figures have plummeted since the election. I mean, REALLY plummeted

    They now realise their propaganda bullshit has undone them, they fear there’s no way back. There isn’t.’

    I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the claims made in this comment I read on social media over Christmas. But, I do know that the sentiment behind it was hugely popular. No fewer than 14,000 people liked it, which suggests to me that the BBC has a problem which no quantity of whitewash inquiries by the Beeb’s director general Tony Hall will easily erase.

    ‘People trust us,’ claimed Lord Hall, recently. But like a lot of what you hear from the BBC these days I’m not sure that that is strictly accurate. The BBC’s shamelessly biased news coverage over Brexit was bad enough but what has really started in sticking in viewers’ craws is the way its relentlessly woke politics have now infected pretty much the entirety of its entertainment output. There is almost no escape from the BBC’s finger-wagging lectures, not even when it’s Christmas and you’re desperately trying to have fun.

    As exhibit A, allow me to present A Christmas Carol. ‘Charles Dickens, Christmas and the BBC: what could possibly go wrong?’, you might have thought. To which the BBC replied: ‘Hold my beer!’ with a version which might have been written by the White Witch from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe with the express purpose of sucking every last bit of joy from the season.

    Actually it was written by Steven Knight, the creator of Peaky Blinders, with his characteristic sledgehammer nuance. Scrooge, we learned from this adult re-imagining, was the way he is because he had been sexually abused by his housemaster at school; and also because the one nice Christmas present he had ever had – a pet mouse – had been decapitated by his drunken father.

    In Dickens, Scrooge is merely a grouch and a miser. But according to Knight’s account, he is in fact the Embodiment of the Evils of the Capitalist System. Scrooge makes his money – as of course everyone did in the early Victorian era – by cutting corners and asset stripping. One of his coal mines collapses because he refused to invest in sufficient wooden props; then he buys up a cotton mill at a knock down price because the owner is crippled with his father’s gambling debts, before selling it off at ten times the price the next day by breaking it up, sacking the workers and flogging all the equipment. It felt like being bludgeoned all over again with the crude, anti-Industrial-Revolution politics of Danny Boyle’s London Olympics ceremony.

    Even #MeToo got a look-in. Scrooge hints to Mary Crachitt that he will only give her the money for Tiny Tim’s medical bills in return for her sexual favours. When she appears at his home and offers herself, he turns her down: it was the abject submission he was after, it seems, not the actual sex. As she leaves, she mutters bitterly about a woman’s power to call up vengeful spirits, or some such. I’m still not at all sure why this subplot was included, other than to signal that the author is totally onboard with feminism – just like he was with Peaky Blinders where he promoted women to positions of boardroom influence they would never have had in the period delineated.

    On the upside, it was well-acted by a first-rate cast (led by Guy Pearce as Scrooge) and atmospherically directed by Nick Murphy, with all manner of spookily disturbing special effects and arresting imagery. I loved the Christmas-tree-land purgatory amid which the shade of Jacob Marley is doomed to wander until Scrooge repents; the Ali-Baba character who takes Scrooge on a camel ride through a snowy landscape to his old school; the scene where Scrooge sees in his ceiling Tiny Tim falling through the ice and drowning…

    But all this only served to remind you just how captivating this production might have been if only the BBC hadn’t insisted on ruining it with all the tub-thumping lefty politics and the unnecessary swearing and gratuitous grisliness. Part of me almost admires the BBC’s cussed resistance to criticism, its determination to carry on insulting to the bitter end that large portion of its audience which doesn’t share its politically correct outlook. If I didn’t have to review the BBC’s output as part of my job, though, I think I would have given up paying my licence fee long ago.

    1. BTL:

      Imam Oborne • an hour ago • edited
      The BBC has just heard Boris the barman calling time in the Last Chance Saloon and realises that it is over. I note it has made no mention of the Maugham/Fox story. Can you imagine whether that would be the case if Arron Banks or Toby Young had made such a similar claim on Twitter?

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

      Jolyon Maugham QC and the dead fox
      Steerpike – 26 December 2019 – 2:05 PM

      In previous years, Boxing Day has proved an occasion in which high profile Tories can find themselves in the firing line for taking part in various fox hunts across the country. However, this Boxing Day, it’s another political figure making headlines for their interactions with a fox. Step forward Jolyon Maugham QC.

      The Remain-supporting lawyer and campaigner took to social media this morning to share his thoughts for the day. Only it wasn’t a message that related to the UK’s impending departure from the EU. Instead, Maugham announced that he had kicked off Boxing Day by killing ‘a fox with a baseball bat’ after it tried to get inside his hen house and became trapped in the process:

      Jo Maugham QC
      ✔
      @JolyonMaugham
      Already this morning I have killed a fox with a baseball bat. How’s your Boxing Day going?

      1,483
      8:10 AM – Dec 26, 2019
      Twitter Ads info and privacy
      7,087 people are talking about this

      Siobhan Hoffmann Sø
      @SiobhanHoffmann
      · 9h
      Replying to @JolyonMaugham
      Christ. That’s maudlin.

      Jo Maugham QC
      ✔
      @JolyonMaugham
      Wasn’t a great deal of fun. Got caught up in the protective netting around the chickens and I wasn’t sure what else to do. Not looking forward to untangling it…

      64
      8:13 AM – Dec 26, 2019
      Twitter Ads info and privacy
      118 people are talking about this
      Maugham went on to explain that the act had been carried out in a kimono:

      Matt Houlbrook
      @TricksterPrince
      · 9h
      Replying to @JolyonMaugham
      Much better for the belly laugh this just prompted. Merry Christmas! x

      Jo Maugham QC
      ✔
      @JolyonMaugham
      Imagine me, slightly post-Xmas in Claire’s kimono, wielding bat in urban garden.

      59
      8:27 AM – Dec 26, 2019
      Twitter Ads info and privacy
      65 people are talking about this

      After cries of outrage on social media, Maugham has clarified that he has got in touch with the RSPCA should they have any questions regarding the incident.

      Well, with 2020 looking to be a bad year on paper for the ‘Stop Brexit’ brigade, at least Maugham should have the time to deal with any issues that arise from the incident…

    2. I have given up watching the Bbc. I wish I didn’t have to pay the TV tax, but it’s about all that keeps MOH going, so I have to bite the bullet. Get woke, go broke in my view.

    3. Can you remember the programme adverts on BBC a few years ago which were bouncing heads.. they were hideous .. At that particular time there was the ghastly business of regular beheadings by Isil and the grotesque tortures we were hearing about..

      Many people petitioned the BBC begging them to with draw the bouncing head advert , it was giving children nightmares and was in very bad taste..

      Did the BBC listen… nah, of course not . They were insensitive to the cries from their viewers and licence payers .

      https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/jul/21/broadcasting.bbc

      1. I don’t recall any such programme ads, Maggie – but I seldom watch anything on the Beeb unless it has strong recommendations from NoTTLers. I do listen to their steam radio output but that can be trying, other than TMS. Everything has to be so insufferably ‘edgy’ it turns me and the wireless simultaneously orff.

        4. The BBC governors have criticised the corporation’s management for failing to apologise for broadcasting its much-criticised “Faces” digital TV promotional trail before the watershed.

          Shown on BBC1 and BBC2 in November and December last year, the promo, which featured hundreds of human heads coming together to form one large face before breaking up again, attracted more than 1,000 complaints from viewers.

          The governors’ programme complaints committee ruled that the trail was unsuitable for pre-watershed broadcast around shows such as EastEnders, Neighbours and Strictly Come Dancing, which have a sizeable children’s audience.

          Moreover, the committee, which considers appeals from viewers and listeners who have already been through BBC management’s complaints process, concluded that the “Faces” trail was “potentially distasteful to any section of the audience” and likely to attract significant numbers of complaints wherever it was scheduled.

          The governors also criticised BBC executives for giving the impression the trail had been taken off air mainly because it had achieved its marketing goal – rather than because of the number of complaints – and for failing to apologise.

          “The trails were scheduled next to programmes including EastEnders, Neighbours and Strictly Come Dancing, when there would be significant numbers of children watching. As such, the committee felt the trail was unsuitable for broadcast pre-watershed,” the governors ruled.

          “The committee agreed that the trail itself was potentially distasteful to any section of the audience and, as such, that broadcasting it at any time was likely to provoke complaints from significant numbers of the audience.

          “However, it did not feel that it breached the guidelines for after the watershed. They felt the scheduling of the trail at that time was appropriate as the audience had a greater expectation of being challenged by programme content.

          “The committee also commented on the BBC’s explanation for the trail coming off air. It gave the impression that the trail had been withdrawn primarily because the marketing job had been done. It should have properly acknowledged the role of audience complaints in the decision to withdraw and apologised for the offence.”

          https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/jul/21/broadcasting.bbc

        5. I don’t watch the BBC either apart from specific series, so I could not remember the advert. But a few seconds on youtube found it. I had never seen it before and it gives me the creeps after watching it just once. I can see why children really didn’t like it. In the video description it says:

          “This promo ran across the BBC during Christmas 2005 promoting the 6 BBC channels available by converting to Freeview.(Digital Terrestrial TV) The advert drew complaints from viewers because of the imagery of floating heads in a landscape and was taken off air.”

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9yZxZSBeM8

    4. This perversion of channels and drama’s into political propaganda tracts is very widespread now. Many of those in the “entertainment industry” have weak characters and just say the right things to keep in with the crowd. Not all of them though. When one does stand up and tell the snowflakes how nazi-like they are being in suppressing free speech, it is a pleasure to watch.

      There is a US police drama series called “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” that was very good for the first 12 or 13 series and had some riveting storylines. It was about that special police unit and was based in New York City. It is not for everyone as it deals with the nastier side of police work on the sexual assault / murder / child abuse side of crime. But the characters were strong and they were well played, showing the extra stress’s that come from having to work in that area. It was also nice when one of them “snapped” and beat the carp out of a child trafficker.

      Then the main male lead character left and the main female lead became an executive producer. Which means that she was putting her own money into the show and so could have influence on the direction of the stories. I do not know if it was her that did it, but they started to become very “woke” and politically on the side of the Democrats. Nearly all of the stories started to lean that way.

      I stopped watching during the last series when it became too much. White men were bad, gun ownership was worse, white men who owned guns and taught their boys to shoot were satan on Earth, and it turned them into killers. All migrants are refugees fleeing for their lives (with scenes from the Mexican border with children in holding cages, weeping…) Anyone who is a Christian is a foaming religious maniac and all muslims are sad victims put upon by evil men. So I turned the series off.

      They have just started showing series 21 here in the UK and I thought I would see if it had improved. The first story was about a film producer who pressured actress’s into doing sexual things to get parts. In the first minutes of the first episode they mentioned the metoo movement, Harvey Weinstein, and then talked about a UK film producer and said:

      “Sir Tobias, he was the head of netsight, he moved to New York ahead of Brexit.”

      This is a New York police special victims unit and they are suggesting that people are leaving the UK because Brexit is so bad… This level of snowflakery must hit the credibility and viewing figures at some point. Some of those “woke” films made recently have not done well because people just don’t want to see them. It would be nice if the BBC was forced to become a subscription-only service. That would cut their output and staffing levels to the bone.

      The occasional good TV series from the BBC does not make up for the normal 24 hour a day brainwashing output.

  54. Rowan Williams has poked his head out of the crypt to tell us that global warming is the greatest challenge facing mankind, it’s everybody’s problem and cannot be solved by legislation alone.

    I don’t think prayer works, RW.

    1. Has he been spending his time reading ‘Fascinating Facts’ in his comics, or doing some scientific research using his 1975 philosophy degree?

    3. The Lord looked down at the world that he had created, and was appalled. He spoke unto his wife and said: ” I made a terrible mistake. What should I do ? ” And the good woman replied: ” Send unto them a prophetess that shall be called Greta. She will blame your mistake on Climate Change and they will listen to her and destroy all sources of energy in the world. And the world will become waste and void and darkness will be on the face of the deep”.

    1. Bill – forty-odd comments were in ‘pending’. The page had been put in ‘pre-moderation’ – accidentally, I assume. Now restored to normal, and pending comments approved…

  56. That’s me for Boxing Day. Loopy Friend just left….

    Settling down with a glass in hand. Have a lovely evening.

    See you on the anniversary of the Flushing Remonstrance.

    A demain.

    2. It is almost as if those at the top of the EU do not think that we are really going to be leaving, and that this next year is just a necessary “cooling off” period to calm people down, before the steps continue to take the United Kingdom back into the EU as full members. They and their backers have a lot of money and we know that they don’t care a fig about democracy and the will of the people. So it all comes down to Boris now. Is he one of us or one of them?

      If he is one of us then he will take us out, if he is one of them then he won’t care about political damage to himself or the party and our struggle for freedom will continue. Our enemy won’t give up easily. (Just for clarity, I am hoping that Boris is one of us.)

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/261ba65ab36c7c2af5cba54ece97c4197fd5dea66e6460100c5dbd8c66019167.jpg

        1. Evening PT,
          Bit late in the day to be asking that surely.
          What have the party membership been doing to judge his character for soundness before accepting him
          as leader ?

          1. The party membership cast their votes after enduring one of the longest leadership elections run-up in a very long time, ogga1.

          2. Evening EB,
            Seasonal greetings, IMO the party has not had a great deal of success with leaders since Margret Thatcher was done away with.
            And to have the peoples not sure of the final outcome on brexit at this late stage is not a good position to be in.

          3. It’s a better state to be in than it was prior to December the 12th, just a fortnight ago.

          4. EB,
            Hard to see, all that has happened is the same deck of cads has been cut a few times.
            Remember this is the same deck of cads that
            have ruled for some years, quite happily rubber stamping.
            Many peoples will bring the three monkeys into play but it is a fact that must be faced.
            Peoples can only HOPE johnson comes across with the goods.

      2. He will carry on as he is doing to ensure that Brexit means Brexit, then do a Cameron when things get tough.

      3. MM,
        Do you not think it is a tad late in the day to be asking that question ?
        We have suffered near on four years of sh!te and the peoples are still not sure.

      4. I think that Boris is just one of Boris – whatever he does, it will be to further his own interests.

  59. London Bridge Hero’s to get UK’s highest civilian award

    Boris has said the 2 people who went after the London bridge attackers are to be awarded the George ‘cross

    2. Let me get this right.

      The Millwall supporter who attacked the Borough Market terrorist s and was stabbed several times gets SFA because he was a “racist” yet a convicted murderer is up for the highest gallantry award for chasing one?

      By all means give the latest heroes the award but be consistent.

  60. What joy listening to those chipping away at normality. Charles More looks to be there as the Beeb watches its back. From the Telegraffe:

    For the past 16 years, BBC Radio 4’s The Today Programme has handed over the editorial reins to high-profile public figures during the week between Christmas and New Year.
    This year’s line-up includes environmental activist, Greta Thunberg, Turner Award prize winning artist, Grayson Perry, Supreme Court President, Baroness Hale, Spoken word artist and critically acclaimed podcast host, George the Poet and journalist, Charles Moore.

  62. Boxing Day Sales Slump

    Down about 11% probably a mixture of reasons. the Internet, Bad weather & endless pre Christmas sales. If things do not pick up in the January sales some shops may not survive

    2. Boxing Day, which marks the opening of the festive sales season in the UK, had its biggest drop in the number of people visiting shops in almost a decade. Was the rain to blame? (FT).
      Greta blames it on climate change
      The BBC blames it on Brexit
      Corbyn blames it people not voting for him
      The Guardian blames it on Donald Trump
      Funny thing, when people have money to spend, and the quality of stuff on sale is good, sales shoot up.
      Even if it is wet.

  63. Evening, all. Once free of the EU (if we ever get totally free) we can do a lot of things. Whether the govt of the day actually will, is another matter.

    1. Project Fear is back again already – The Times –

      Brussels threat to block City trade unless UK agrees to Europe’s rulesnewBrussels
      will threaten to block the City of London’s access to European markets
      in an opening salvo of post-Brexit trade talks in the new year. EU
      chiefs will also warn Downing Street that they could put up barriers to
      data flows vital to British commerce. In two weeks time, European
      Union…

      1. It never really went away, did it? Even the racing programme was bleating about not having foreign horses running here and whingeing that one third of lads were immigrants. My view was, we did before and we should train our own.

      2. The UK should take the EU to the ECJ, as they would be breach of their own Lisbon Treaty, specifically Article 8.

        1. Do you seriously think the ECJ would find against the EU? Treaties are made for breaking in the EU (we’re the only ones who are stupid enough to obey the rules – and gold plate them in many instances).

    2. Evening C,
      Greetings, then change the government of the day via changing the party, quit the party first mode &
      alternating the same odious political rubbish, until it is rectified.

  64. Brexit Party Lays off most of its staff

    It is at present looking doubtful that the Reform party will happen

  65. Goodnight, all. I am going to have an early night. I haven’t been sleeping very well recently and am suffering for it.

    1. ‘Swat I’ve been saying for years. If white can’t dress up as black, how dare a man like Brendan O’Carroll dress up and ridicule a woman

    1. Sorry, we don’t accept returns. But I can change the date for you if you like. Would 2119 be all right ?

  71. BBC top news item… Gavin & Stacey watched by more people than fucking Strictly! This is news? Give me strength!

    1. The infantilism of the BBC. They need to raise their game and stop pandering to the lowest common denominator. That’s the business of commercial channels.

      1. A combination of the lowest common denominator and the tiniest most extreme minorities – and chasing the non-existent teens and twenties audience. Even in the 60’s and 70’s, without social media and short-form video, I recall not being interested in television. In my day there were youth clubs, discos, cinema and in due course, pubs.

        1. Hi Sue. True. The younger folks have lots of other things to entertain them. My preference is eating out once or twice a month at nice places local to me. As a regular you get to know the Chef/Patrons and i’ve even been invited to their family weddings and other Do’s.

          Much more fulfilling than just sitting night after night watching telly. I do understand though that people with busy lives and jobs just want to slob out.

  77. Mr True_Belle must be a happy chappy – two away wins (Aston Villa and Chelsea) in few days, and this from a team that looked a relegation certainty in mid-autumn.

      1. Good evening, Geoff. I don’t want to be a bother – but about half an hour ago I posted a comment which was immediate “held”. It contained the word “cynic” and I pondered in another post whether that was a banned word. That, too, was held.

        Then I asked Paul to look into the glitch – that TOO was held.

        Things seem to have resolved themselves – though the posts are still missing!

          1. Yep…That’s sure to cheer me up. :o(

            What is the name of your site where you mostly have food talk and recipes?

          3. Thanks. I did visit for a short time but i found i was spending far too much time on chat boards. Plus…i didn’t want to offend people with my superstar Cheffie skills and make them all feel inadequate. :o)

            I’ll give it another go and try not to out-Croquembouche them.

          2. More of a Colchester Christmas, Phizee, since I don’t live in the South of France. But I had a couple of Nice biscuits with my tea today.

          3. A Colchester Christmas? Out on the Razz in a mini-skirt and no coat? Did you bump into AnneAllan? :o)

      1. Greta is a child of indoctrination into a cult. She knows nothing of real Science. I would suggest that she be fired to the moon but i fear for the wellbeing of the Clangers.

      2. But when they got to the moon they discovered that the Saudi’s had built there the largest Mosque in the universe in honor of Allah the renamed pagan moon god of Mecca !

  81. Just found out that the DFS has been trading for 50 years, maybe they should celebrate by having a sale or something !!!

    As it happens i won a competition this month. It was a voucher for DFS worth £500. I looked on their website and couldn’t see anything i wanted or needed. Anyone want to make me an offer?

    1. I remember Direct Furnishing Supplies opening at Darley Dale and I bought two armchairs from them, one a swivel rocker.

      This may account for why I am swivel-eyed and off my rocker!

      1. I have been told i will receive it 22nd January at the latest. I don’t know what the T & C’s are yet. I’m in Hampshire so anywhere within a reasonable radius i would help out in person if needed.

        1. Best wait until you get it..funny thing, other half was in DFS about a week ago looking at armchairs…………..
          (Everybody and everything is down South **!!VX!ӣ$%!!!)

          3. Ah ha. A vibrant restaurant scene and a financial hub.

            I will bear you in mind but these things aren’t normally trans friendly.

            I have to wait and see what the conditions are and if you were still interested i will let you know.

          5. That’s fine too. We have a third party on here in the name of Hertslass and she has a list of people who are happy to be contacted but doesn’t release any info unless both party agree.

            I have met several Nottlers socially and two of them would give me a thumbs up as far as any sort of reference was concerned about being an okay type of guy. :o)

            One is a MOD and the other is Geoff.

      1. Video unavailable
        This video contains content from Channel 4, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

  83. Just watched the news on the BBC. Apparently all the coral in the world will have died out by 2050. This is due to Brexit. Sorry I mean
    racism Right wing activists Trump Global warning.

    Sorry Beeb. You’ve killed the golden goose.

    1. That’s not how I read this piece.

      It seems that the Meddlesome Monkey has devised a way of farming coral, selectively breeding the survivors to save the reefs and with it the fish.

      The problem with the coral lies with stress due to acidification (dissolved carbon dioxide is acidic), increased temperature, and nutrient run-off coming off polluted rivers. Attenborough dwelt too on plastic litter on a vast scale, much of it from Islamist Indonesia and Communist China. The biggest coral reef is just off Australia. The jury’s out on how much the Aussies are architects of their own misfortune, or victims of the callousness of others.

      Nothing to do with racism, right wing activism or Trump this time, but global warming is implicated. In fact, it might even be capitalism and American philanthropy that might save the coral and the fish and confound the doom-mongers, but they do need encouraging or it simply will not happen, and then we are doomed.

        1. Link not working. It’s probably “upgraded” web design.

          I know that killing this alien predator could save a number of vulnerable species from being wiped out, but I need to see the link to follow the connection between rats and coral destruction, and also whether this is enough to save the coral reefs from the effects I describe, which I doubt.

    4. The Maldives are always moaning about climate change. They wouldn’t have been there some millions of years ago and they aren’t going to be there in the future. I don’t go there, so I really am not going to stay awake at night worrying.

      1. If the Maldives were really under threat, the population should be going down as people leave. But they’re not and it isn’t.

        1. Me too. Tired out. And you are two hours in front of me.
          (You can slip out for a kebab. I can’t!)

          1. Its still pouring down heavens hard by me in Tel Aviv, thundering & lightening bolts, most of the day its been coming down like English Summer – the two weeks in August when the rain gets warmer!

    1. Good night Mr Hat.

      It ain’t gonna happen. We have already signed over our Armed Forces and the Lords that complained were strongarmed into being quiet about it.

  86. And now to bed.

    Another round of entertaining.

    St Emillion au Chocolat is now lurking in the fridge. Though i used Nigella’s recipe for Chocolate Salami this time to ensure the damn beast set properly. I also added chopped multi-coloured candied fruits so it looked Christmassey and inclusively diverse. Oh, the Beeb would be proud of me.

    Made in a 2lb loaf tin topped with a Croquembouche. I intend to kill them with chocolate. Then steal all their pressies.

    1. “RSPCA investigates after lawyer Jolyon Maugham kills fox with baseball bat”

      Was it a vampire bat or a mere pipistrelle?

    1. Good morning Geoff

      Wow, , it is still very early , but thank you for this.

      Damp outside, very mild , dogs rushed out , then did what they had to do, then they rushed back in , straight upstairs to bed, Moh yelled like mad.

          1. Oh yes we do! Cat flaps make it all possible without human intervention…
            Morning, Belle.

Comments are closed.