Thursday 9 January: Child protection should be at the forefront of any government’s agenda

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

676 thoughts on “Thursday 9 January: Child protection should be at the forefront of any government’s agenda”

    1. Morning Minty, vw here. Looked at the clock and it was 4.51, been awake since. I claim 2nd place – 1st time ever! Probably last, too.

      1. Went to Hollywood Boulevard this morning, seemed pretty safe. This evening it was being evacuated. It's getting scarier and scarier.

          1. Mainly because it’s been so windy Many streets have been blocked with fallen trees and wooden posts.

          1. It’s OK here. It was dreadful in Indonesia last year. Just waiting for our CFO to finish his prayers as I want to talk to him. They all have their prayer mats here.

          2. Im off to Sumatra in June with Mrs Pea, I am to be dragged to the kampung to live in less than ideal conditions. I dont mind the wailing in their own countries but when I was in hospital in Jeddah, the noise on the breeze was repeated from the nurse’s station. It made for a very long day in bed.

  2. Keir Starmer is about to get a taste of his own bitter medicine. 9 January 2025.

    The Prime Minister was caught by surprise by the verbal onslaught unleashed by Elon Musk over the grooming gangs abomination, but that is nothing compared to what will happen when Trump takes office on 20 January. Starmer’s inflexibility means the special relationship is unlikely to survive: its demise, catastrophic for UK interests, would serve as the epitaph of his failed premiership.

    We need not weep for the loss of the “Special Relationship” which has been a Foreign Office fantasy for as long as I can remember. The rest of Heath’s forecast is probably true as well. Trump has not forgotten the last four years and what was done to him by the Democrats. He seeks revenge; not just to rule. He’s going to change the world and the UK will be just a part of that. Starmer and his Government will almost certainly be destroyed since it is inimical to Trump’s personal vision. It might also mean the end of the UK. You should stock up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/08/starmers-britain-is-about-to-become-an-international-pariah/

    1. But they never face up to their responsibilities. And get away with it, that's why they take the chances.

  7. Good morning, chums. And thank you, Geoff, for this morning's new NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,300 4/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      For today's word, that's an excellent score! The curse of many possibilities struck again today for me…
      Wordle 1,300 X/6

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  8. Excellent 10/10 Bullseye

    What the Left says about the grooming gangs – and what it really means

    Their arguments are nakedly dishonest, cowardly, or hypocritical – this is how to cut through to the truth

    Michael Deacon
    Columnist & Assistant Editor
    08 January 2025 7:00pm GMT

    You can almost smell the panic. Every Left-wing activist and pundit is frantically trying to defend Labour’s refusal to hold a full national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal.

    The trouble is, their arguments are nakedly dishonest, cowardly, or hypocritical. Here’s a handy guide to what the Left say about grooming gangs – and what they really mean…

    What the Left say: “Elon Musk shouldn’t be interfering in British politics.”

    What they mean: “It was much easier to sweep uncomfortable facts under the carpet before he barged in.”

    What the Left say: “Musk is a hateful demagogue who is poisoning our discourse.”

    What they mean: “It may seem as if we’re angrier about Musk’s tweets than we are about child abuse. But we aren’t really angry about his tweets. We’re just using them to change the narrative from ‘Pakistani men raping white children’ to ‘social media row’.”

    What the Left say: “The Right must stop smearing innocent MPs as paedophile apologists.”

    What they mean: “Obviously it was different when Labour ran an ad in 2023 which read, ‘Do you think adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison? RISHI SUNAK DOESN’T.’”

    What the Left say: “It’s disgusting to see this issue being cynically weaponised for political gain.”

    What they mean: “People should reserve their fury for real scandals, like the colour of Boris Johnson’s wallpaper, or Dominic Raab throwing a tomato into a bag.”

    What the Left say: “Focusing on the gangs’ ethnicity is Islamophobic.”

    What they mean: “Please ignore the fact that this is exactly the attitude which enabled this scandal to happen in the first place.”

    What the Left say: “Actually there’s already been a national inquiry, which concluded in 2022.”

    What they mean: “Please don’t read that inquiry’s final report, or you’ll notice that it wasn’t specifically dedicated to these particular gangs. In 459 pages it mentions Rotherham only once (and Telford not at all).”

    What the Left say: “Tories are suddenly calling for a full national inquiry, yet they never held one when they were in power.”

    What they mean: “Our opponents did nothing, so it’s fine for us to do nothing, too. As the old saying goes: ‘Better never than late.’”

    What the Left say: “Now is the time for action, not more words.”

    What they mean: “Especially not words like ‘Why is Labour so desperate to stop this being properly investigated?’ and ‘None of this would have happened if people hadn’t been scared into silence by the culture of political correctness the Left have enforced for the past 30 years.”

    What the Left say: “An inquiry is unnecessary. The gangs have already been jailed.”

    What they mean: “Of course, there have never been even the mildest consequences for anyone in authority who turned a blind eye. But for some reason we’d rather not look into that.”

    What the Left say: “Anyone demanding a full inquiry is just jumping on a Right-wing bandwagon.”

    What they mean: “Hang on. This implies that only Right-wing people are angry about the mass rape of British children – while Left-wing people like us aren’t bothered. Oh God, we really haven’t thought this through, have we?”

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

    Fastand Louche
    11 hrs ago
    Pakistani men raped vulnerable, young, white working-class children. Our PM doesn't want anyone to dig any deeper, and everyone who wants justice is "far right". Welcome to England 2025.

    Rosemary Birks
    11 hrs ago
    Reply to Fastand Louche
    Absolutely despicable. Resist, resist. Don't let Starmer and his gang brush this under the carpet again. Our country faces ruin. Musk is right. This must end. Truth must out and penalties must be handed out to all who allowed and covered up this dusgusting abuse.

    Clive Dudley
    10 hrs ago
    Reply to Fastand Louche
    Starmer is complicit. So are the rest of his evil crew.

    Miss Scarlet
    8 hrs ago
    Reply to Fastand Louche – view message
    He certainly doesn't want anyone joining the dots … and working out who was DPP in 2011 when the Times broke the story

    When the powers that be decided it was racist to prosecute

    And the children who were raped – underage children, don't forget this – were basically white scum who deserved it

    He is beyond contempt

    N Tobin
    8 hrs ago
    Reply to Fastand Louche
    He doesn’t want anyone to dig deeper as he is implicated in the cover up

  9. Good morning all.
    Dry, still air and dark, but bloody cold! The thermometer has -4.9°C on the digital display, the minimum for the past day, with yesterdays maximum of 1.8°C.

    BTL Comment:-

    R. Spowart
    1 min ago
    Message Actions
    Now there's a surprise!

    Did anyone REALLY expect a Labour Government to support an enquiry into the problem with the Rape Gangs when the problem was caused by a previous Labour Government ignoring the gangs in the first place?

    1. That is the reason it needs to be properly and further investigated.
      And all the offenders brought to justice. They can't be allowed to get away with this.

  11. Kemi skewers the PM, roasts him for 18 minutes, and finally pulls him apart

    Over 18 stifling minutes at PMQs the Tory leader draws out the Prime Minister’s contradictions ahead of a vote on holding national inquiry

    Tim Stanley
    08 January 2025 9:01pm GMT

    The Speaker opened PMQs by welcoming a parliamentary delegation from India – who then had to sit through 40 minutes of argument about Asian sex gangs. Feelings are raw on both sides of the chamber. Labour doesn’t like being accused of covering for paedos, and the Tories don’t care for being called fascists.

    The PM looked well after taking a holiday from his foreign travels – Madeira, we believe – and tried to open on high ground by asserting that “reasonable people can agree or disagree” on the need for a specific inquiry into Pakistani-heritage grooming, but we should not make politics of the issue. He reminds one of a vicar – in the sense that he never mentions God, lecturing society on its ills and emphasising his own virtue.

    Kemi was having none of it. A new inquiry is necessary, she said, because “no one has joined the dots” and it is “almost certainly still going on”. Critics have bashed her deliberate style, but on this occasion it worked, drawing out Starmer’s contradictions over 18 stifling minutes as if roasting a pig on a spit.

    On the Government side: mounting fury. An inquiry would take forever, said Keir; if you care about kids, back our Bill. Instead, the Tories peddle “lies” and “misinformation”, “slinging mud” and “jumping on a bandwagon”. (I’ve never ridden a far-Right bandwagon but it sounds fun; I’m seeing Donald Trump and the Road Runner speed off a cliff in a hillbilly jalopy.)

    Nearby sat, or squirmed, Jess Phillips, straight from a media round that couldn’t have been softer had it been conducted in mild green Fairy liquid. She accompanied the debate like a hand-signer for the deaf. Exaggerated shrug. Finger pointing. Flabbergasted palms. A “zero” for Tory inaction. Even when silent she dominates conversation – and perhaps the only compromise that could satisfy both sides would be to hold an inquiry into Jess Phillips, a chance for this wallflower finally to tell us what she thinks.

    Kemi to the PM: “This is not about you … be a leader, not a lawyer.” Listing the socialist constituencies where crimes have been reported, she said the Government does not want “questions asked of Labour politicians who might be complicit” – triggering a chorus of “SHAME!” and indicating that her A-bomb had struck an open wound.

    Many voters see this as a specifically Labour issue. They think that in order to boost multiculturalism, Labour imported people who turned out to be racist – “white slags” they called their victims – and Left-wing officials then obfuscated the phenomenon to prevent a racist backlash. Starmer ridiculed Kemi for spending time on social media. He should read it. He’d find his reputation is tattering, fast.

    The SNP endorsed the PM’s remarks as did Ed Davey of the Lib Dems, who accused Elon Musk of trying to buy our politics. Ed forgets that his own party once received £2.4 million from a convicted businessman.

    The Indian dignitaries need take no offence. This PMQs proved that our politics can be as shady as anything you’ll find in Asia.

    1. SNP and LibDems bought the woke crap, possible more than Liebour. They are all complicit. I bet my MP (the horse) voted against the enquiry. Or worse, abstained, like normal. I will try and check later.

    2. We've been here afore. Let's hope this is the last time, or near to it. General Election, see what the mighty GB public think – and how that demographic broken down into various levels of support.

    3. I suspect that Ed Davey [ex Post Office Minister] could be a strong contender for the title of "Most hypocritical member of the Commons" although the competition is very close!

      1. Now that he no longer has competition from Boris Johnson he is also hoping to win the title of the greatest buffoon in the House of Commons.

  12. 399851+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    What the current leader, the S(tool), of the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled / government controlled, paedophile umbrella
    coalition party is trying to construct is a similar replica of "strength through joy" for the troops in waiting.

    Surely the first order of the day MUST be the decent folk of whatever hue encircle the children against the actions of the political SATANICAL BEAST..

    Thursday 9 January: Child protection should be at the forefront of any government’s agenda

    This, to the Country's shame has been in the NFA needed department for decades.

  13. 399851+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    What the current leader, the S(tool), of the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled / government controlled, paedophile umbrella
    coalition party is trying to construct is a similar replica of "strength through joy" for the troops in waiting.

    Surely the first order of the day MUST be the decent folk of whatever hue encircle the children against the actions of the political SATANICAL BEAST..

    Thursday 9 January: Child protection should be at the forefront of any government’s agenda

    This, to the Country's shame has been in the NFA needed department for decades.

  14. What real justice would look like for grooming gang victims
    Douglas Murray

    It is always interesting to watch a dam burst. In the past week, as Elon Musk and other prominent Americans discovered the British ‘grooming gang’ scandal, British politics has suddenly had to face up to something it has spent a quarter of a century trying to ignore. One would hope that the claim that thousands of underage girls had been gang-raped by thousands of men in cities across the country would be a subject of profound concern for our politicians. Who did this? Why? How can we help the victims and prevent any reoccurrence?

    But no society asks questions to which it does not want an answer. The language used about this mass crime has been coyly euphemistic. Take ‘grooming’. Can you say that the girl in Oxford who was repeatedly drugged and raped by men who threatened to kill her and branded her buttocks with ‘M’ for ‘Mohammed’ was merely ‘groomed’?

    And what of ‘Asian’? Did these towns see an outbreak of Japanese men prowling our cities for what former home secretary Jack Straw described as the ‘easy meat’ of white working-class girls? No such culprits have come to light. These obfuscating phrases were designed to cover up the fact that the perpetrators were almost all Muslim men of Pakistani origin and their victims almost all white working-class girls selected by their abusers because of their race.

    A few brave politicians, such as Ann Cryer, the former Labour MP for Keighley, have spent years trying to bring attention to this scandal. She was rewarded with insults, opprobrium (‘Islamophobe’, ‘racist’) and even needed police protection. When Sarah Champion, shadow minister for women and equalities under Jeremy Corbyn, spoke out for victims in her constituency, ‘anti-racism’ charities claimed that in doing so she had caused an ‘increase in verbal and physical racist abuse’. In the end she had to resign from the shadow cabinet.

    Andrew Norfolk of the Times spent years chasing the story and interviewing victims, as did some other journalists. But by and large the scandal was too grim for most of the media to pursue, mainly because it exposed an even deeper challenge. During decades in which our national credo was ‘diversity is our strength’, the rapist gangs suggested that diversity is in fact a mixed bag. It may bring some advantages, but it also brings people who have a 7th-century view of women and are willing to act on it.

    Now, very late in the day, our impotent political and media classes have been bounced into responding, though they have done so in their usual way – firstly, by trying to shoot the messengers. From Keir Starmer suggesting that the outrage over the scandal is really about the ‘far right’, to MPs attacking Elon Musk, or columnists claiming that because Tommy Robinson campaigned on this issue he made it impossible for anyone else to mention it, these are the excuses public figures offer in the hope they will be excused for their pathetic response.

    The second distraction technique is to demand a full public inquiry. Reform and Conservative MPs are competing with each other to lead the charge. The tougher type of newspaper columnist has joined them. ‘I’m for a full public inquiry – why aren’t you?’ Such courage. Such leadership.

    There have in fact already been plenty of public inquiries. If you want to read about police failure in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, you can read the report on Operation Linden, published in 2022. If you want to learn about the hundreds of girls in Oxfordshire who were raped between 2005 and 2012 while local police, council and social services turned a blind eye, you can read the Serious Case Review published in 2015. If you would like to get an idea of how the fear of being labelled ‘racist’ or ‘Islamophobic’ or harming ‘community cohesion’ stopped every arm of the British state from doing anything for years, you can read Louise Casey’s Report of Inspection of Rotherham Council (2015) or her ‘Review into Opportunity and Integration’ (2016). If you really want to fill your boots, the works of Alexis Jay are also to hand.

    Personally, I have had quite enough of government by review and inquiry. If any government or political party wants to do something about the scandal, they will need to stop reviewing and start acting.

    Where to begin? One good starting point would be to work out why Pakistani rapists in Britain seem to have more rights than their victims. Between 2008 and 2010, a nine-member gang of men in Rochdale abused 47 vulnerable girls as young as 13. On that occasion, the perpetrators were sentenced to between four and 19 years in prison. Five years later, only two of them were still in prison. The Home Secretary tried to remove British citizenship from four of the men who had dual citizenship. But Abdul Aziz (a taxi driver known as ‘the Master’) and other gang members used the excruciatingly slow justice and immigration review system to renounce their Pakistani citizenship. In 2018, the Home Office told Aziz he could stay in the UK.

    Other convicted rapists such as Adil Khan and Qari Rauf served a few years in prison and were then released on licence. Rauf was a religious studies teacher at a local mosque, and a father of five. He trafficked one girl between ten and 20 times, mainly after using his taxi to drive the victim to a flat in Rochdale where the victim was gang-raped by him and his friends. Rauf was sentenced to six years in prison, served two and a half, and appealed against his deportation. So did Khan, arguing that he was innocent, had not committed ‘that big a crime’ and wanted to be a ‘role model’ for his son to whom he wanted to teach ‘right from wrong’.

    Khan and Rauf lost their appeals against being stripped of their British citizenship, but they remained in the UK anyway. The men could only be sent back to Pakistan if Pakistan agreed to take them, and funnily enough Pakistan didn’t want them, so we get to keep them here. To date these men have appeared before more than 12 judges at three crown courts, immigration tribunals and the Court of Appeal. The British taxpayer has given them more than £550,000 to fund their challenges, though that is only part of the £2 million we have given to various members of the Rochdale rape gangs in their appeals against deportation.

    One of Khan’s victims, who was a child when he raped her, happened to see him again in Asda in 2020. ‘I’ve never been so scared in all my life,’ she said. ‘I feel like my heart just stopped beating.’ Another victim described how, when she spotted one of her rapists in the local town centre, she wet herself in fear. Yet last September a judge at Sheffield Crown Court actually ordered a Rotherham rape-gang survivor to remove from her courtroom victim impact statement a demand for her abusers to be deported. Some reports say that to date there are no known cases of any of these offenders being deported from the UK, though others suggest three may have been.

    How about some opprobrium or prosecutions of the people who oversaw all this, or at least some accountability? While leader of Telford council in 2016, Shaun Davies signed a letter to the then home secretary saying that ‘we do not feel at this time that a further inquiry is necessary’ into rape gangs in his town. He is now the Labour MP for Telford. Shaun Wright, the Rotherham councillor responsible for children’s services from 2005 to 2010, went on to become South Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner.

    In 2012, Helen Brayley claimed that ‘the current obsession with “Asian sex gangs” focuses too narrowly on one dimension to this crime, making the emergent profile of the “Pakistani groomer” misleading’. Her job title is now Deputy Director, Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children Operational Delivery, in the Home Office.

    As for the police, in 2018 the West Mercia superintendent Tom Harding insisted that the figure of 1,000 girls abused in Telford was ‘sensationalised’. The independent review later found it plausible. He is now Director of Operational Standards at the College of Policing. The Telford inquiry heard that police ‘dropped cases like a hot potato’ in order to avoid being labelled racist.

    Some MPs and journalists will doubtless start wittering on about how we can’t deport the perpetrators as long as Britain is a member of the European Convention on Human Rights. This too is pure diversion. Italy and France are signatories to the same unworkable convention, but when they need to act they just do so. In 2023, the French government deported the 39-year-old Uzbek national Mukhsinjon Akhmedov, regardless of an ECHR ruling prohibiting his deportation. Last year it swiftly deported a Tunisian imam who had been in the country for 38 years. The French interior minister Gérald Darmanin said the ‘radical’ imam had made ‘unacceptable remarks’ and ‘firmness is the rule’. The Italian government expels people each year whom it regards as being not conducive to the public good.

    Britain could remain a eunuch. Or our politicians could finally imprison, punish, deport and expel. If we did, we might just stop being the laughing stock of America. More importantly, it might bring some long-overdue justice for thousands of brutalised victims who have been ignored for too long.

    2. I actually feel physically sick, reading that. The enormity of it becomes crystal clear with Douglas’s calm clear writing.

    3. I didn't think a description of real justice for the criminals would be printed in the Telegraph – and it wasn't.

    4. This article is in the Spectator
      https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-real-justice-would-look-like-for-grooming-gang-victims/
      and here's a BTL Comment:-

      Bob of Bonsall
      35 minutes ago edited
      As much as he is to be commended for his 2011 Times exposé of the Pakistani Rape Gangs, Andrew Norfolk still has to be called to account for his remaining silent on the matter during the 8 years following his initial reporting of Anne Cryer's comments on the problem in Keighley in 2003.
      He and Anne Cryer then, effectively, allowed themselves to be silenced on the matter so as not to give political ammunition to the so-called "Fascists" on the Far Right.
      Ironically, it was the "Far Right" BNP taking up the cause in Rotherham and increasingly bringing the matter to public attention that forced his hand in an effort to spike their guns and even then his supposed colleagues in the Press disgracefully rounded on him for stirring up "ISLAMOPHOBIA!!!" and "RACISM!!!"
      A double irony, which perhaps Ed Davey might be able to explain, is that the BNP involvement largely came about when a brave lady, the late Marlene Guest, a member of the Liberal Democrat Party and former Rotherham Council candidate, became frustrated by the failure of the LibDems to take up on the issue and defected to the BNP!!

    5. There's a video on Spectator TV of DM talking to Freddy Grey. Anyone in public life saying they're unaware of this situation either been living under a rock or lying.

    6. They haven't been trying to "ignore" it, they've been trying to keep it hidden. Ignoring it implies lack of knowledge. They knew and covered it up.

  16. Starmer argues that Conservative injustices at a time when he himself was DPP lets him off the hook as regards identifying the true cause of this scandal.

    So that's all right then.

    Nobody mentions an even more serious and widespread victim of all this – a society where the prevailing culture be one of love and care and joyousness in one another's company rather than this relentless prooccupation with abuse, self-righteousness and relentless and ruthless self-gratification.

    2. There is no way on God's earth he didn't know…as DPP he defended around 50 cases of accused Muslim males. Early 2000s I think.

  17. No cats in the porch this morning, despite the radiator. They came in – when called – from far away. It must be good hunting weather fo cats. Pickles gulped his breakfast and went out again. Gus is pondering. I suspect a warm chair by the fire will win.

    Off to t'market now. Play nicely.

    2. But we need a super high-powered Dyson machine to suck up the detritus and get rid of it.

  20. Good Morning!

    After the shameful refusal to give the British public the inquiry it wants into the mass rape of underage white girls by mainly Pakistani Muslims, FSB makes no apologies for running another article on the subject, this time outlining the State’s responsibility for it. Please read Rape gangs – Blame the State and let us know what you think – where does the blame lie?

    Energy watch 07.50: Demand: 43.403GW. Supply: Hydrocarbons 47.4%; Wind 24.14%; Imports 7.1%, Biomass 5.8% and Nuclear 11.4%

    Demand is high this morning for obvious reasons, and we are very lucky that there is some wind somewhere, And that is all it is, luck. If the wind stops, blackouts are certain, as there is little spare capacity to be imported. Net Zero is a killer.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  21. And another.. DEI hire making an epic fail..

    LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley is being hailed as the first female and LGBTQ fire chief in Los Angeles. She says her priority is DEI.

    Unfortunately,
    “We have well over 5,000 acres that have burned and the fire is growing. We have no percentage of containment. We have an estimated 1,000 structures destroyed.”

    2. Native American tribes knew this, and lit fire breaks accordingly. Long history. They didn't build cute log cabins in known fire areas, and if they had they would have cleared the immediate area in favour of 'living in the woodland, with nature'.

      1. Australia has the same problem with Greeniacs stopping any normal control practices.
        Ditto Defra and dredging.

  23. Please no more shouts of shame towards Jess Phillips concerning the cover-up of industrial scale grape by Pakistani men on her patch in return for their votes.
    She says the abuse has "rocked her world".

        1. Aaaaargh! Send for the Man in Black with the flashy thing* – or some other form of mind bleach!

          Note: Yes, I do know it's an electro bio-mechanical neural transmitting zero synapse re-positioner, more commonly known as the Neuralyzer!!

    4. The left always use deflection to evade the issue.

      During the last abysmal Conservative government at least there were conservatives who were prepared to criticise Conservative government's actions. Leftists are incapable of criticising the current government no matter how repulsive its policies are

      On GB News, for example, they have a series of ghastly lefties such as Tessa Dunlop, Nina Myscow and Benjamin Butterworth who would defend the Labour Party no matter how monstrous it is. These sort of people would defend Pakistani rapists even if they raped their mothers, wives, sisters, girlfriemds or daughters.

      1. I think that GBN, apart from preferring a mix of opinions to stimulate debate, are also sticking up two fingers at OfCom, who are desperate to close it down on the grounds of the station being biassed.

    5. Oh dear.
      Rocked as much as girls deliberately handed back to their abusers by police and care home staff?
      Rocked as much as those giving birth to the result of continuous rape?
      Rocked as much as that of a 13 year anally raped by a succession of men?

  25. G'day all,

    Crisp and even if not deep at Castle McPhee, sunny with the wind in the Nor'-West, -2℃ to +3℃ today.

    If, like me, you know the assertion that oil and gas are 'fossil fuels' is a load of BS, that hydro-carbons are found throughout the universe, and that we are not about to run out of oil any time in the next few millenia, you'll appreciate this little video explaining why the public were conned. It's all about the money. Of course it is.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSff0pwc1Xc
    Col. Prouty spent 9 of his 23-year military career in the Pentagon (1955-1964): 2 years with the Secretary of Defense, 2 years with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and 5 years with Headquarters, U.S. Air Force. In 1955 he was appointed the first "Focal Point" officer between the CIA and the Air Force for Clandestine Operations per National Security Council Directive 5412. He was Briefing Officer for the Secretary of Defense (1960-1961), and for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

    You can start by searching the words "abiotic oil." This will lead you to an enormous amount of literature and other materials on the subject.

    To cut to the chase, you can do a search for the two books written by Jerome Corsi ("Black Gold Stranglehold" and "The Great Oil Conspiracy"), and the book by Thomas Gold "The Deep Hot Biosphere."

    A couple of videos on the subject are:
    • Freeman Dyson on Tommy Gold, hearing …
    https://vimeo.com/392130946

    But I suggest that you do the long research for yourself by searching "abiotic oil."

  26. Morning all 🙂😊.
    A dusting of snow to keep the weather wavers happy. Minus 2 but bright.
    Foggy Friday so they say, smoke from California ?
    And of course any government has the duty to protect our children, but it depends on the adgenda and mindset of the officials.
    As we can see by current events.
    I am so fed up with seeing photographs of Starmer and the like on my screens.

  31. I'm shocked, truly shocked.
    Add religion into the equation and what do you see?
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14259337/map-immigrants-contribute-economy-dutch-study.html

    CONTRIBUTION/COST OF MIGRANTS TO THE NETHERLANDS By country
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/html_modules/2025/01_JAN/250107_immigration_map/250107_immigration_map-large.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1b485a431400125600e4e41085daab13994a47d04bc04a73d72006fafadd5ed8.png Access the article to see what the colours indicate.

    2. And this is the country which has just renewed a two-year ban on entry on David Icke, a ban which covers the whole of the Schengen area so Icke cannot go to Europe for at least another two years. All because his presence and any speech he might be invited to make (which is what started it) might offend a certain demographic.

      Geert Wilders should know better than let his judiciary do this.

    3. For those who can't/don't access the DM
      On the top map the bluer the colour the more they contribute, the redder the colour the more they cost.
      The range is +210,000 to -330,000 Euros

      The lower picture gives by age and reason
      Blue, labour (workers not politics), orange study, grey other, yellow unknown, blue family and green asylum
      The lines are 100,000 intervals, darker line is base 0.

    1. She makes Liz Truss look like a financial wizard.

      But the UK establishment and the MSM and BoE all ganged up on Truss.

      Now at last they are ganging up on Rachel from Accounts but it is too late.

      The pound has fallen by a greater percentage against the euro in the last couple of days than it fell throughout Truss's tenure of office.

      1. Rachel Reeves, the economist who ought to be fully credited with, in her words the new paradigm known as "Securenomics". Funnily enough this coincidentally closely resembles "Bidenomics" and Rachel from accounts seems to have come to her earth shattering revelation on reading the works of Janet Yellen.

        Seems that dull Rachel has been copying her neighbour's work in class.

        1. She has form on plagiarism.

          To borrow and slightly adapt the great Tom Lehrer:

          In one word he told me secret of success in economics
          Plagiarize
          Plagiarize
          Let no one else's work evade your eyes
          Remember why the good Lord made your eyes
          So don't shade your eyes
          But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize
          Only be sure always to call it please "Research"

      2. Quote from Caxton:

        Eyes turn to UK as Pound collapses against peers to reach lowest level against Dollar for 13 months

        UK borrowing costs balloon to multi decade highs as growth and credit fears pick up

    2. There are more noses like that in Wastemonster and W(S)hitehall than anywhere else on earth.

    1. Has anyone heard from thayaric recently?

      I seem to remember he was troubled by the fact that he was finding it difficult to find sustainable employment.

      1. I do remember him Rastus. But no, not aware of any activity from him. Hope he is OK.

  35. A couple of videos. And good morning to all!
    First is the Dalai Lama making observations that we can all relate to about immigration while he is being interviewed by a BBC wretch who, of course, is a long time native of these here isles.

    And the second. A father of a Rape Gang victim. We do not hear much from the parents.

    Dalai Lama Laughs In Host’s Face at Her Ignorant Question
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE52Z3Smk6Q&list=TLPQMDkwMTIwMjWyuf5Z1b3NMQ&index=2
    Father Of Muslim Grooming Gang Victim Reveals Police Cover Up
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVYTPbdajLU&list=TLPQMDkwMTIwMjWyuf5Z1b3NMQ&index=1

    1. Yes, that interviewer was all about Indians' rights to move to the UK. How about British people's rights not to be replaced? How would Indians feel if India was swamped by sub-Sarahan Africans?

      1. Well that’s what the Dalai Lama says, I think: “What if it’s 80% Indian?” The trouble is that we are very naive about other cultures. Arnold Toynbee, the historian thought it was because we had not been conquered for over 1000 years. So we had nothing to measure against in terms of who we were. A lack of civilizational self consciousness, as it were. Now we’re learning and we have left it a bit late.

        1. I do think the 1,000 yers point is a good one.
          Countries with a recent history of invasion and occupation tend to be rather more antsy.

        2. Grandfather of Polly. Careful what you wish for. Philip a self-righteous prick Fabian, too.

          1. I’m aware that he is the grandfather of the idiot Polly. But he was interesting because he tried to see history from a non parochial view the example that I quoted being an example, as such, he had some interesting and valuable observations that other historians did not because they were more interested in beating the drum of the West.

  36. Morning all.

    Labour gearing up on their long awaited final push to pass a blasphemy law, I see.

    Racism (n):
    "-The belief that each race has distinct and intrinsic attributes.
    -The belief that one race is superior to all others.
    -Prejudice or discrimination based upon race"

    Labour definition: Racism to be redefined legally as, "Islamophobia", (portmanteau word without definition or commonly accepted meaning)

    "Anyone who links crime to the religion of Islam", (not an actual race).

      1. Yes quite so, but I tend to steer clear of the theological problems.

        Mind you, I often observe that even the standard dictionary definition I gave there is somewhat flawed on point one. How is it possible to say, for example, that it's racist to believe that a "race" has an intrinsic aspect distinct from other "races"? Unless there is something distinct about it how can you identify that it is indeed a race? Underpinning the definition there lies an assumption that there is something distinct about a race – bit racist.. I think the conceit is really that it's wrong to point out any distinction, therefore.

      2. It's a belief system dictating everything from the relationship between men and women to what you can eat and your choice of entertainment.

          1. It's an ideology, much like national socialism with which it shares more than a few beliefs.

    2. On the first statement, yes, genetics has proven that to be the case. Caucasian and Negroid peoples share 99.5% of their DNA and that 0.5% is significant. (Humans share 97% with mice.) There are real biological differences. But then this "all the same under the skin" nonsense comes from people who believe that wearing a dress changes a man into a woman.

      As for the superior race, in terms of innate intelligence that distinction (whether we like it or not) is shared between the Ashkenazi Jews and the Chinese.

  38. If the UK becomes a monocultural Christian society based on Christian laws and ethics we shall have a chance of succeeding in the future; if we remain a multicultural society with a variety of different courts, laws and ethics we are doomed.

    Does anyone here disagree?

    Does anyone have an answer?

    1. It doesn't need to be mono-cultural; the Jews, the Hindus and the Buddhists – to refer to just the biggies – are not a problem. No doubt there are Shintoists and even the sect that worships Prince Philip living in Blighty, but they don't make a noise.
      It is moslems, and particularly the evil sub-sets that mainly originate from Pakistan and Somalia that are the problem. And the only reason they have such a hold is because we have had 30 years of subservient, spineless governments, many of them containing people who despise and hate our culture.

      1. Apply the rules about dhimmis to them, no government aid of any sort. They would start leaving double quick.

    2. Well. For a start we should ban all Islamic dress in public.
      We should aggressively proselytize against them, show them the shortcomings of Islam and do everything in our power to covert them. But that requires Christian conviction and the church has been so lazy about that and, I would say, so poor in explaining what Christianity is that it has forfeited its role in teaching. You would have to embark on a mass education of the so called, Christian population, who are so bloody ignorant that they are giving it up as easily as last years fad. They don't understand that without Christianity, their comfy lives are numbered and that they will end up under the boot of Islam. so duel programme, educating people on both Christianity and Islam and spelling out the consequences of the course we are on now.

      In fact it is a subject that I have a lot to say about having spent my childhood under Islam and thus an enduring interest long before it became relevant to the West save as another religion. But being an Orthodox Christian have also learn the consequences of not fighting against this disease and disease it is, against all civilizations, Christian or otherwise. Islam is a mind virus and a deadly one at that.

  39. I don't disagree but it may be too late for some areas. Others, like the countryside, are still fairly normal but being despoiled by Nut Zero projects.

        1. They aren't from Telford; they've been bused in to local hotels/disused care homes. Part of the "sharing out" of unwanteds.

  40. Bluss – it was chilly at t'market – but, to my delight, I finished by 9.10. Then brief visit to Morrisons and home to a proper coffee and a crumpet by the fire. Glorious sunshine – an added boost.

          1. There are 200,000 in Birmingham. I wonder how many child rapes are committed every single day.

    2. Exactly.
      Sleeves rolled up.. arms leaning on lectern.. said through irritating nasal whine, "Nobody has done more to prevent snuggle-struggle crime in our communities. It was me that tackled grooming gangs 'head on' as chief prosecutor..It is now settled. Let's move on."

  43. Come on, Stoma.
    Is Dan Hodges Far Right, Extreme Right or Hard Right? The nation needs to know.

    DAN HODGES: The rape of working-class white girls is one of the biggest abuses of children in modern British history… when will Starmer finally get it?

    19:49, 8 January 2025
    LISTEN: Former detective and whistleblower Maggie Oliver on how she helped bring down the Rochdale grooming gangs. Listen to ‘Everything I Know About Me’ wherever you get your podcasts now
    By DAN HODGES, MAIL ON SUNDAY

    Published: 12:22, 8 January 2025 |

    "What will it take before Keir Starmer finally gets it? Or for any of his MPs and ministers, who are preparing to dutifully traipse through the lobbies to block a full public inquiry into the rape and abuse of thousands of working-class British girls, to get it?

    On Monday he drew himself up to his full, righteous height and denounced those politicians and activists he said were fuelling extremism. By calling for a judge-led investigation into the so-called grooming gangs they were ‘amplifying what the far-Right is saying’, he raged. And ‘jumping on a far-Right bandwagon’.

    He was wrong. So wrong I’m starting to wonder whether Starmer has even the most basic understanding of the nation he purports to lead.

    It’s not incarcerated football thugs like Tommy Robinson, or unhinged social-media loudmouths like Elon Musk, or political opportunists such as Robert Jenrick who are ‘amplifying’ the extremists. But the Prime Minister himself.

    What is the narrative currently being constructed by the far-Right about the rape gangs? It is that the comprehensively documented, systematic abuse of predominately white girls by mainly Muslim Pakistani heritage men was perpetuated, and is still being perpetuated, thanks to a cover-up by the mainstream political establishment.

    And what has the Government just done? Refused an inquiry, denied the victims the justice they are seeking, reinforced the perception the Establishment has something to hide, and handed the racist agitators a propaganda coup without parallel.

    Jumping on the bandwagon? It’s Keir Starmer who’s just dragged the bandwagon out of the barn, hitched up the horses and given it a new lick of paint.

    The Prime Minister now needs to stop and step back. And ask himself some simple, fundamental questions.

    First, is the nature of the abuse of such a scale it warrants a full, national, public inquiry? The answer to that question is self-evidently yes.

    Hundreds of men have been convicted of tens of thousands of offences involving thousands of victims. Rape and torture and were perpetrated on an industrial and national scale – and there were even reports of murders. The case for an inquiry is unanswerable.

    Secondly, have we had such an inquiry to date? The answer is no.

    We have had a handful of inquiries into localised assaults. The Jay Inquiry was a sprawling, unwieldy investigation into all forms of child abuse, of which the rape gangs only formed a relatively small component. To the extent that whilst Alexis Jay’s inquiry was ongoing, a number of victims’ groups announced they would be withdrawing cooperation because they felt the voice of victims were being marginalised.

    Thirdly, would acting on the Jay recommendations be sufficient to expose and resolve this national scandal, and ensure it can never be repeated? Again, the answer is clearly no.

    Jay and her supporters have been making great play of the need to implement the 20 key recommendations of her national investigation. But hardly any of them relate to the specific issue of the rape gangs.

    Three deal with the general issue of victims’ financial compensation. Seven relate to children in care. Two relate to the retention of data. Others include such ephemera as ‘a public awareness campaign on child sexual abuse’ and ‘the creation of a Cabinet-level minister for children’.

    But if people genuinely think the solution to the worst systemic abuse of children in modern British history is a public awareness campaign, fine. Let’s have one.

    Keir Starmer's war of words with Elon Musk over grooming scandal

    It’s not incarcerated football thugs like Tommy Robinson, left, or unhinged social-media loudmouths like Elon Musk who are ‘amplifying’ the extremists

    There’s no rational reason that should preclude a proper, judge-led investigation into how that abuse was allowed to continue unchecked for decades.

    The reality is that the sudden zeal of Keir Starmer to implement the Jay recommendations is a smoke-screen. If he genuinely believed they held the key to protecting our children, he could have appointed ‘a Cabinet-level minister for children’ on day one of his administration.

    But he didn’t. And the reason he didn’t is that the Prime Minister simply doesn’t understand the festering public anger of the British people at this appalling injustice.

    Or worse, he doesn’t trust them enough. He thinks that if he announces a full public inquiry it will send Britain rushing into the arms of the English Defence League.

    Yet the opposite is true. The voters can see Tommy Robinson for what he is. They can see the online rabble-rousing of Musk. And the cynical opportunism of Tory shadow ministers who had 14 years to hold an inquiry, and did nothing.

    But they have seen something else. They have seen Starmer and his Labour colleagues demanding public inquiries and transparency and justice into just about every conceivable public and political issue.

    Into the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Hillsborough. Phone-hacking. The banking crisis. In the election they even saw Labour pledge that if they secured power they would hold a full public inquiry into the Battle of Orgreave during the miners’ strike.

    So when they suddenly see Starmer and his ministers fall silent, and those cries for justice and transparency die on their lips, where precisely are they supposed to turn? Who are they supposed to seek political leadership from? Who speaks for them? Who speaks for the victims of the rape gangs?

    This is what really ‘amplifies the far-Right’. The craven silence of our mainstream politicians. By whipping his MPs to vote against a public inquiry into the grooming gangs, Keir Starmer could not have done more for the extremists if he’d picked up an EDL flag and marched down Whitehall alongside their thugs.

    And ultimately, it will prove to be an exercise not just in political stupidity, but futility. Because eventually, a full public inquiry into the rape gangs is going to be held.

    One day, maybe in the not too distant future, Keir Starmer’s government is going to be replaced. Possibly by a rebuilt Tory party. Possibly by a resurgent Reform. Conceivably by some form of alliance of the two. And a pledge to hold that inquiry will have formed a central plank of that victorious new government’s manifesto.

    There is no way this can be avoided now. The bandwagon is rolling. There is no stopping it.

    Starmer and Labour can try to stand in its way. But if they do, it will crush them."

  45. Good morning all

    Bright sunny golden but very cold morning , no breeze , no frost except on the car. 1c .

    No breeze but the four huge turbines mounted in a quarry near here , blades are rotating , the power of diesel ?

      1. Extreme far-right racist bigot, I’ve heard. And probably a thug to boot.

        Lol.

    3. You mean watch how Rupert Lowe shocked an empty House of Parliament.
      The Labours aren't listening and they don't care.

    6. How come the people on his side of the house are shaking their heads or trying to interrupt??

  48. Why the French state fears Elon Musk. 9 January 2024.

    Make no mistake – this isn’t about interference or democracy. It’s about control. The French government is panicking. It’s losing the information war, and it knows it. Musk and his platform threaten the state’s ability to dictate the narrative. President Macron and his government can see all too well the tussle in Britain between Starmer and Musk, and they’re horrified. France has been leading Europe’s charge for censorship for years, building mechanisms like the Loi Avia against hateful content, and pushing for the Digital Services Act (DSA), which exports its control-obsessed model to the entire EU. Now, faced with a platform it can’t dominate, France sees this as a last stand.

    This is world-wide n’est ce pas? The Globalist narrative is collapsing and Trump is coming to give it the coup de grâce. Biden has gone. Trudeau has quit. Macron is on his knees. The German government is on its way out. Yesterday’s vote in the Commons may look like a victory for the Globalists but it will turn to sand. It has demonstrated that the Political Elites can neither police the borders of the UK nor protect its most vulnerable people. Its days are numbered.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-the-french-state-fears-elon-musk/

    1. I can't believe it has taken reasonably commenting, thinking people to discover the truth.

  53. You may or may not agree, anne…but I think a number of issues can be traced back to Women’s Lib. Fair enough to campaign for equality in many areas, but what happens when those goals are reached or at least within sight…why, move onto something else, politics for example – always something to protest at there with various issues. Interesting to note a good number of young women on Gaza marches in London recently. Doubtless winding each other on social media. This post should probably self-destruct in a few minutes…….(btw, speaking as a woman here or was last time I checked…all the best, Kate x)

    1. Actually I do agree,
      Western society has become over-feminized and that is partly why it has lost its oomph.

      1. Thanks anne…just been watching Zuckerberg do an about turn…quite amusing, but good to see and hear. Kate x

  54. Ah…Black Adder, those were the days, prior to BBC in current form which my husband refers to as ‘Bint Broadcasting Company’. I agree with him.

  56. Hello. Back from my knee op. It was delayed by 2 hours. I was weak from lack of food and dehydrated. Didn't get home until 10.30 pm Tuesday. I drank gallons before I was set free – three pots of tea, two jugs of water, a glass of apple juice. Also provided – a chicken sandwich, a yoghurt, a fruit salad with hard, chunky pieces of fruit (no doubt a test) and on no account could I leave until I had produced an appropriate tiddle. All the liquid I had been drinking post operatively had to visit every single cell in my dehydrated body before dripping into my personal reservoir system. It took some time. Yesterday – I was as high as a kite post GA. I was out de-icing the bird bath at the crack of dawn, the poor things were trying to get water from round the sides of the ice. Felt fine all day, I was even congratulating myself on my recovery! Today I have plumbed the depths of the duvet, I am still there. Sod the PT exercises. Sod the world.

    Knee – is comfortable, no pain, just a mild discomfort. I was sent on my way with a bag of pain killers – which I haven't required so far – three types varying in strength from paracetamol to morphine. I was told the cartilage was badly torn with lots of debris. I can't believe I have been walking/hobbling around with a badly torn cartilage for 15 months.

    I find I have now been booked in for PT with a person named Moe. I am paying for this, it is Spire private, it's not nhs. Anyway, I can't do it. I simply cannot have a person named Moe attending to my knee. As a now 78 year old woman I don't want a man attending to my knee. I don't want a muslim man attending to my knee. I am 78, a far-right bigoted 'islamophobe' (with justification). Some of us have got to have principles. I wear them as a badge of honour. I won't be a hypocrite. I have to be true to myself. I am now returning to the duvet depths to mull things over. Over and out.

      1. Thank you Sue. We have LPG heating, and LP gas fire so we are quite cosy. None of that heat pump stuff here, no siree, thank you very much!

      1. Yes, I will. I am going to email them – I will keep it simple. I dislike confrontation, especially in this febrile political atmosphere!

    3. Good for you! You are paying, you choose. (Alas the same should apply a bit more to our so-called services provided via the State machine, but it doesn't).

      Now, to work out the best way to refuse the services of Moe. Are you sure it's a m-man/trannie? A person is unlikely to be both, and the slammer Mo is normally spelled without an "e".

      1. There is Moe whats’is name, the runner. I think it best to ask if Moe is a man, and refuse on that basis, and if the reply is negative ask he is someone who identifies as a woman?

        1. Sounds pretty reasonable. I believe that Moe is sometimes used as a diminuitive for Maureen, so it might be a woman.

    4. Wow, and good morning pm,

      Excellent summary and very amusing , so glad all went well for you , and so far so good..

      I could have written your final paragraph , I feel comforted to know we think alike .. and am glad you are true to yourself .

      Sleep is good for you , relax and then flex those muscles a bit , wiggle your toes etc.

      Widdle , widdle those liquids out , and keep up the fluid levels !

      Tah rah for now .

      1. The thing was, all the nursing staff who attended me were Asian, fortunately all female, but they were difficult to understand and they got frustrated and one could sense the annoyance underlying when one asked them to repeat something. See my reply to BB2, Belle. All were from different Asian countries, too, so different accents. The relief when speaking to theatre staff who were all English mother-tongue.

        1. It is an insult that we have to feel apologetic that we can't understand foreigners' accents! I get that when I'm on the phone to various customer service departments – sometimes they are almost incomprehensible – I chicken out by referring to my deafness and asking them to repeat slowly and loudly!

      1. No, that cartoon is a blind, designed to fox the unwary. Obvs there must be many called Moe practising PT, it must be a muslim thing so it has been turned on its head as a joke. I have never had much faith in PT. I have used the services previously, but the pain was returning by the time I had walked to my car on each occasion. Younger son didn’t have much luck with it either with a back problem.

        1. Tens machine and yoga for the back problem. That combo worked for my collapsed disc in my neck.

          1. Thank you, Phizzee. I wasn’t nottling back then. Always ask Nottlers first! I must get up now, and face the day.

    7. Well done you. Don't take the morphine if you don't have to. Save it for the future.

      I find youtube is helpful in situations like yours. It will give you the dos and don'ts regarding aftercare from your procedure.

      Best wishes to you. Keep on snuggling.

      2. Thank you, good advice. I read that at first as ‘keep on struggling!’ Yes, we will keep all the pain killers for the future.

    8. I was wondering how it all went! Glad you're in one piece, even if that piece is currently refusing to shift from under the duvet. (Standard post-anaesthetic ups and downs, in my experience.)

      I reckon you should be OK just saying you'd like a female physio, please. Good luck!

      K x

      PS My own knee is feeling a lot better. Being rather coddled here in the countryside so haven't made it back to Buenos Aires yet. 🤣

      2. I am delighted you are feeling better. Rest, elevation and gentle movement is the key. Lucky you being pampered (?) out in the country. Yes, thank you, I’ll send an email requesting a female physio. I am a reserved sort of person and dislike confrontation…. even over the phone… my instinct is to smooth ruffled feathers and troubled waters.

    9. If you skip the physio and exercises, your new falsie will not work properly.

      Didn't they give you a written crib sheet for exercising the knee.

      1. Yes. I will do the exercises of course. I am not stupid. I am just in a flouncy mood and I don’t want to be attended upon by a man I cannot understand fobbed off on me. I haven’t got a falsie. I have have got a repair.

    10. A woman named Maureen?
      Ask for a woman physio, it's very understandable that you aren't up to dealing with a strange man.

      1. Thank you, BB2. I did wonder about a woman named Maureen, we have one in the village, then I decided it probably wasn’t and I’d fallen into the trap after I put the phone down. I’m at an age where I don’t really want anyone I do not know touching me. The private system seems to run on people from all over Asia. The front of house staff were all white, at Reception; the nursing staff who were in attendance were all Asian and I found it very difficult to understand them at times, poppiesdad who was with me said it was impossible for him. And it was important information I was being given, when to take medication, how often, dosages (fortunately so far not required), when bandages should be removed, dressings removed – one’s head starts to spin, there is so much to take in. And they get frustrated when you ask them to repeat information, sometimes several times. I must have had at least 4 Asian nurses in attendance, all with different accents. The theatre staff were nearly all white, instant communication and understanding is of the essence. I felt like a wilting flower, every body cell perked up when I was in contact with an English voice and countenance. It aided recovery.

        1. It’s very hard when you can’t understand what people are saying. In my recent hospital experience, there were a lot of really good nurses from India/Bangladesh and the Philippines, who spoke excellent English. Funnily enough, the only person I’ve had trouble understanding recently is an African minister who takes services at our church sometimes! He is very nice and his sermons are good – he’s still working on his English though!

        2. Recording Medical Instructions
          PoppiesMum,

          I too often have difficulty in either understanding thick accents and/or remembering important but rapid-fire instructions.

          I've just turned 84 (yesterday), but for many years I have, either covertly or warning the other party, recorded both sides of our conversation on my mobile phone, saying that (a) I am slightly deaf and at my great age my memory is too fragile to remember that information or (b) in the case of Medical information, all of the discussion is the Patient's property and therefore he/she should be able to record it (see link below). Of course, you can always ask for a printed briefing document so you can remember it better.

          As it is less trouble when you get used to doing it, I mostly make my recordings covertly, taking a thin A4-sized fabric document bag with me into the Consulting room and turning on my iPhone to record just before I go in. Most recently I have even said to the professional "I'm just turning off my mobile so we won't be interrupted" before pressing Voice Recording and slipping it into my bag, which is lying half open near us. That was with a specialist lawyer at £270 an hour (£4.50 a minute). On reflection, he would probably have agreed to me recording openly.

          The quality of these recordings is staggeringly good and the recorded speech is now able to be turned pretty accurately (and automatically) into a text transcription if you need it.

          I have only once in many years been refused by a jobsworth (and yes, differently-toned) Health Assistant who came to assess me for some therapy or other for my increasingly demented wife. I told her clearly that the BMA have published instructions on this sort of recording. Here's the relevant link:

          https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/ethics/confidentiality-and-health-records/patients-recording-consultations

          If the Consultant doesn't agree, either find a different Consultant or (easier) just do it covertly. Sneaky, but it works.

          EDIT: IMPORTANT: if a recording is made covertly it cannot be used in any court proceedings (unless a Judge permits it, in rare cases).

          1. Thank you for your helpful and detailed information, RC. I regret that I was unprepared for the barrage of information I received when someone entered my cell. I am not technically-minded so it didn’t occur to me to record information, I have just a simple phone which I use for texts and occasional calls. We have to use the landline as the signal is virtually non-existent but will just support a text. I will save for future reference.

    11. The male physio is unlikely to be a Muslim, it's possible, but the e addition is rare as a Mohamhead diminutive.
      Many male physios are slightly more sympathetic too.
      Give it a go, it can't really do much harm and might do a lot of good. At the very least you should get the gist of the exercises and some helpful guidance.
      Your lack of need for painkillers may be due to the effects of the GA not having worn off; I know from having endured numerous knee ops under GA that the effects can remain good for quite a while and then the pain can kick in surpisingly firmly.
      Good luck.

      1. There is Moe whatsisname, the ‘British’ muslim runner. I am just tired and cranky, not much sleep, just very wakeful, not pain.

          1. I’ve seen it spelled with an ‘e’. It did make me think about it at the time. Who knows.

          4. Quite right too!
            I only found out when I checked Moe as opposed to Mo.
            Hope the knee is recovering and that you’ll soon be kicking butts.

    12. Oh dear 'mum…sorry to read this. Try to put out of your mind it will be a man attending to you, my experience they are better physios. Word of warning…I know someone wouldn't get going after knee op, that's a mistake I think, still hobbling around using a stick months later. My husband had a replacement hip op a few years ago, despite the discomfort he followed the recommended exercises, back to driving tractor within weeks. So..advice…try to keep moving, try the exercises… don't give up, you can do it x

      1. I am just tired and cranky, KJ. I didn’t sleep until 3.30 am Tues/Wed, I was awake until 1.30 am this morning and awake again onwards from 4.30 am. I don’t need crutches nor a stick, I can walk on it normally with only mild discomfort, the huge bandage is my biggest impediment to flexibility, it comes off this evening. Yes I will do the exercises, I have done already, 3 blasted pages of them,😩 it took me an hour (using your front thigh muscle, lift….) so it’s ‘is this my front thigh muscle? Oh no, I’m lifting it with something else, what is it? Oh yes, it is my front thigh muscle after all.’ Repeat 10 times. So on and so forth over three pages of A4 😳 I’ve had to abandon the last two exercises as they involve stairs, crutches and a bannister. We have steep cottage stairs with a twist at the bottom between walls, no bannister rail. 😊

    13. Glad you survived, PM!
      What you can maybe try is to find out what kind of exercise you need to do, then do it (alone or with company) off your own bat – such as walking everywhere (don't skid on ice!), and making a point of it, not bottling out 'cos you is tired. Good for the determination, and the rest of the body, too.

        1. Many of the exercises standing at a rail reminded me of the unsuccessful attempt to take ballet lessons.
          I pointed out that I'd not stood bopping and swaying at an exercise bar for nigh on 70 years.

        2. Know the feeling.
          After reading yesterday about all the child grooming, I was absolutely beside myelf – what happened to the British, that this is OK, FFS? Shit, there was a world war to stop that kind of thing, within living memory, that the UK was part of starting – yet, the bastard politicians are OK with folk raping tiny children without comeback? I was so upset reading that yesterday, I could barely speak. That’s not the English way. Glad I don’t live there and can pass for another nationality, it would be too humiliating to be identified as English.
          I’m really upset.

          1. Me too. I have known about it for years, see Jack Straw’s comments about ‘easy meat’ and Gordon Brown’s ‘lifestyle choice’ and ‘little slags’ and this was before 2010 so we are going back more than 15 years. I was incensed at the time (I still am) and I couldn’t understand why nothing was being done, why no outcry; I couldn’t understand the attitude – that it was all being used as a weapon against us, break the morale of the fathers who tried to rescue their children…. break the nation’s men folk by not coming to their assistance…. once you show that the men cannot rescue their own daughters they are destroyed. ’Pa-/ki-bashing’ was never about race per se, it was about warning Pakistani men not to mess with the nation’s women. Thus it became ‘racist’. And it wasn’t just the young girls, it was young boys too, the story of Glaswegian Kriss Donald is horrific. They have finally succeeded in their ambition of making us ashamed of being English.

          2. I am not ashamed of being English. These were un-English things being done by foreigners. The cover up makes me angry, but I expect no less from Communists (who have no connection with England and its people, owing allegiance to internationalism).

          3. Yes, I agree… they want us ashamed and broken. I won’t be, it certainly isn’t remotely who I am. I do not recognise these people who cover these things up and inflict these cultures on a decent, once high-trust, homogeneous society.

        3. Take it easy; another Martini, madam?
          All of us need a bit of time off now abd again – even you!

    14. After my hip operation, I was given a 'poached egg' to help me slide my heel across the sheets when I wished to get in or out of bed.
      It was a yellow plastic "egg cup" with a self-adhesive round foam insert that gave your heel some purchase as you swung your leg round (I was amazed how much resistance there is in a bed sheet for a couple of weeks after the operation).

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/11a7a90a1fe300ea1db35b8825d4aaacb322b4572b0e9e037ad8ae7f0848ab5e.png

        1. Very simples and very effective.
          Just rested your heel in the "egg" bit of the egg cup and you could glide your foot across with little effort.

    15. After my hip operation, I was given a 'poached egg' to help me slide my heel across the sheets when I wished to get in or out of bed.
      It was a yellow plastic "egg cup" with a self-adhesive round foam insert that gave your heel some purchase as you swung your leg round (I was amazed how much resistance there is in a bed sheet for a couple of weeks after the operation).

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/11a7a90a1fe300ea1db35b8825d4aaacb322b4572b0e9e037ad8ae7f0848ab5e.png

      1. Thank you. I’m somewhat overwhelmed by all the pages of instruction, and all the information that, in every instance, has arrived the day after appts and admittance, and then repeated a week later!!

  57. Keep your eye on this piece of work.. CJ Werleman, an Australian "journalist" who portrays himself as a progressive defender of Muslims against their enemies in the West.

    He specialises in the Joseph Goebbels technique "Accuse the other of that you are guilty.” No matter what the Islamic crime he'll be there with a deflection wrapped up in a Goebbels.

    Here's his latest.. (won't bother posting, you'll get the gist from the title).
    And he's got Settled Science statistics to back it up.. it's actually White Grooming Gangs. ffs.

    Israel’s Hidden Hand Behind Elon Musk’s “Muslim" Grooming Gang Conspiracy
    .
     https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1c75752f94e5ce50671cb85b5a28238f6f08d915c1daec7f291fe21b6268ff37.jpg

    2. Ah. Of course. It's all Israel's fault that muslim men raped, tortured and murdered white girls in the UK. Silly me for not realising that earlier.

      1. I think we all fell into the trap of not realising it’s all Israel’s fault. And the far-right fascist extremist bigots etc.

    3. This mindset is quite prevalent on XTwitter. They have it that Mossad and the IDF formed and armed Hamas and put them up to killing Israelis in order to blame the Moslems and sow discord. Every evil in the world can be traced to them Joos. A medieval forgery claiming to be the Talmud is cited as proof of this. I know there are some bad eggs (hell, there's Soros) but the majority of the New World Order elite are not Jewish.

  58. They know it's somewhere beyond the Irish Sea,….starting at Holyhead when you get off the ferry.

  59. This is why some say Down Under Australia & New Zealand are in a far worse progressive state than UK.

    1. I saw a short film made in Australia just before covid about a traveller who comes home to an authoritarian country where people have to hide in the bathroom to escape Big Brother. At the time I was bewildered. Since covid, I understand what the makers were trying to warn the world about.

  60. I expect they think it is next to Israel – you know, that strip of desert between Israel and the Med.

    1. PM? Nah. Remove Labour from power. YES.
      Prefer to keep Starmer as leader.. the more extreme.. the bigger the outrage.. the more people may finally wake up.

    2. PM? Nah. Remove Labour from power. YES.
      Prefer to keep Starmer as leader.. the more extreme.. the bigger the outrage.. the more people may finally wake up.

    3. I do not approve.
      We've seen the results of political lawfare in the USA, we don't want more here.

  67. Another good run. Wish it was the same with the Lotto:
    Wordle 1,300 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  70. Turn on your Heating

    When a previous Health Secretary (Hand Cock?) mandated everyone to "keep distancing, save the NHS" we had to comply or risk arrest.

    Now that Wet Stressing has told us Pensioners in public: "Turn on (or turn up, depending on who is reporting) your heating", we must surely do that or risk sanctions.

    So it follows that to comply with our Health leader's mandate I must legitimately be able to (a) ignore the increased fuel bill or (b) send the bill to the Dept of Health (or whatever it's called now).

    Does any NoTTLer disagree?

  71. Turn on your Heating

    When a previous Health Secretary (Hand Cock?) mandated everyone to "keep distancing, save the NHS" we had to comply or risk arrest.

    Now that Wet Stressing has told us Pensioners in public: "Turn on (or turn up, depending on who is reporting) your heating", we must surely do that or risk sanctions.

    So it follows that to comply with our Health leader's mandate I must legitimately be able to (a) ignore the increased fuel bill or (b) send the bill to the Dept of Health (or whatever it's called now).

    Does any NoTTLer disagree?

    1. Good idea to put them in quarantine after visiting Scotland.

      Will this become a general policy for visitors to Scotland?

      1. Noting an unpopular tourist surcharge of 5% was introduced earlier this month in Edinburgh

    2. Funny how easy it is to catch & deal with an invasive species that could have a detrimental impact on indigenous animals & local livestock.

      1. They've been raised here then released when too hard to control (i.e. after killing pet dog). As PetaJ would say…'some people are really stupid'….

    3. Funny how easy it is to catch & deal with an invasive species that could have a detrimental impact on indigenous animals & local livestock.

    4. I'd show you the YT clip.. however, it is persistently being flagged & removed. LOL. Anyhow..

      A harmless National Geographic nature clip where two young students on a remote island in Scotland discuss an invasive species..
      "either the rat dies, or the unique spicies dies, says one.
      "Unfortunately, yeah. I've got a lot of respect for them. They're great creatures in their own right. But unfortunately they just can't coexist with our own native species."

      RED LIGHT FLASHING.. KLAXON SOUNDS.. CALL FOR IMMEDIATE LEFTIE ACTIVIST SUPPORT.. ALL HANDS ON DECK ALERT..

    5. I'd show you the YT clip.. however, it is persistently being flagged & removed. LOL. Anyhow..

      A harmless National Geographic nature clip where two young students on a remote island in Scotland discuss an invasive species..
      "either the rat dies, or the unique spicies dies, says one.
      "Unfortunately, yeah. I've got a lot of respect for them. They're great creatures in their own right. But unfortunately they just can't coexist with our own native species."

      RED LIGHT FLASHING.. KLAXON SOUNDS.. CALL FOR IMMEDIATE LEFTIE ACTIVIST SUPPORT.. ALL HANDS ON DECK ALERT..

    6. This has happened before, either imported illegally or bred illegally UK initially very cute kits…surprisingly they grow up and do what lynx do ..sheep, pet dogs ..you get the picture.

      1. Some ignorant turd in the Highlands has plans to release them in the wilderness of the Highlands, I'm guessing this is where these came from. Same guy that wanted to release bears and wolves – that's been knocked on the head thankfully Kate

    9. Why bother them, why not release more of them? They would help keeping the deer population down.

    1. And there is unlikely to be any reason so to do, except to make a point re Islamic takeover.
      If a similarly large group of Christians did the same in the courtyard of the Cambridge mosque, for example, they would be given very short shrift by the Muslims.

      1. Do to mosques what they do to churches in much of the Islamic world – BAN THEM and demolish the ones that are already here.

    4. Remember Eric Williams, The Wooden Horse, WWII ?
      My advice would be to carefully count them in and out, or ban them.
      (apart from starting a tunnel, it would be easy to bury an explos ive device)

        1. A can of Deep Heat on permanent stand-by would be more effective. I am surprised it hasn't been banned.

      1. It is a display of their intentions – eventual domination and conquest. And, we do nothing.

    1. Chinese Crested, bred to look cute (at enormous cost to the dogs) but with various defects. Madder than MadMadMcMad.

      1. Poppie was a Maltese cross Chinese Crested Powderpuff. She was joyous, jaunty, patient, calm and peaceful.

    2. It is a Chinese Crested Powderpuff, a naturally almost hairless dog, with crest and boots. One can find crested but hairless and the powderpuffs complete with hair in the same litter. Delightful dogs.

    3. There used to be one living near Allan Towers.
      He was actually a dear little chap, but very timid.
      Apparently Spartie was the only dog with whom he was comfortable.

  77. This California brushfire event.
    How is it that the USA is wealthy and powerful, but no one seems to be able trim some undergrowth?
    The cost of a few watchtowers, satellite and ground heat sensors, along with shepherds, sheep, goats, pigs, excavators, tractors, chainsaws etc vs $52,000,000,000 damage and several fatalities.
    Too many numpties end up being employed in local councils & the dependent sector, wherever they happen to be. (vide the Governmentium article posted yesterday)
    Edit: https://www.dryad.net/wildfiresensor

    1. The answer is budget cuts by a very stupid left wing mayor. All of which you speak of is done already and has been for years. The mayor of LA cut $17.6 million when the fire brigade actually needed more. This is the Soros effect in action. The mayor then installed a gay female fire chief who's main priority was to have all firemen attend lessons in equity, diversity, and inclusion and, of course, encourage more minorities to join. You see before you, the results of such stupidity.

    2. Been known for years, log cabins built in the line/s of fire, nature lovers letting the brush linger because whatever, not clearing it up, not building/lighting fire barriers. They knew what to do but didn't learn the NA Indian lessons…that might be waaaacistt…

    1. I need to sit down and see if it is possible for me to assimilate this information.

      Labour are actively and consistently trashing the country and its economy … yet they are still neck-and-neck leaders in an opinion poll for the public's voting intentions?

      Have I read that correctly? Or am I having a daytime nightmare?

      1. Hello Grizz, it's only a poll, and Conservatives are useless, if there are any with any gumption they'd move to Reform. NF/KB jointly 36%…others jointly 19%. Possibly more news re 2TK as DPP (Including when he defended ~50 minimum Muslim Pakistanis. Might shift the numbers.

    3. And yet, despite EVERYTHING that’s happened in the last 6 months,25% of people will STILL vote for the communist nonces that are the Liebour party. What is with these people?

  80. Jones: Freefalling Gilt Markets Functioning in ‘Orderly Way’

    Lindsay Hoyle granted an Urgent Question in the Commons to Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride on the current bond market turmoil. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones hurriedly spoke on behalf of Reeves and claimed gilt markets “continue to function in an orderly way” in addition to “underlying demand for UK debt” remaining strong. For reference:

    30-year gilt yields are at their highest level since 1998.
    10-year gilt yields have jumped to their highest since 2008.
    The pound has suffered the biggest three-day drop in almost two years.
    In what is effectively a market intervention from a Treasury minister Jones is on the defence:

    “Borrowing costs are determined by a wide range of internationa and domestic factors. It is normal for the price of yields and gilts to vary when there are wider movements in global financial markets including in response to economic data. In recent months moves in financial markets have been largely driven by data and global geopolitical events which is to be expected as markets adjust to new information.”

    He says that the government won’t pre-empt the OBR’s 26 March forecast on the effects of this freefall on the public finances. Reeves is jetting off to China on a jolly in the meantime…

    Jones finished by rattling off old lines about the Tories crashing the economy. Pots and kettles, eh…

    UPDATE: Wendy Morton has asked Jones if he will “stand by the chancellor’s comment that she won’t come back with more tax increases,” to which the response was a blunt yes. Spending cuts looking likely as City market watchers tell Guido the finger is being pointed at public sector pay increases for the moves…

    January 9 2025 @ 11:04

    1. Always Discreet
      2h
      This is what happens when you put a lying fraud in charge of the economy. She may have been ok keeping the printers topped up with paper and emptying the ashtrays at the BoE but that's the limit of her skill set.

      Beebsplaining
      2h
      Normally it takes labour 4 years to wreck the economy, this lot has done that in 6 months🤔
      https://image.vuukle.com/57ba9488-702a-44ad-9252-d278b08e1edc-247ce68c-3a4e-47f7-8781-6446eebea956

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/15fdd65251ee12c9a178b149a16d59a8fbbf0028422ac7c77fe94241a6ddc3a8.png

      1. The woman is – and always has been – completely out of her depth. If she had even a tenth of a brain, she'd resign – as Estelle Morris did years ago when she realised that being Education Minister was beyond her.

        1. She claimed to have had a job offer from Goldman Sachs – another lie – Goldman already had a very good tea-lady.

          3. But without water wings most of the new intake of MPs into the HoC would be drowning!

          4. She was probably the most honest person in Blair's government. The other good one was Kate Hoey.

            My parents thought it would be a good idea for me to become a chartered accountant.

            After a week in an accountants' office I decided that whatever it takes to be a chartered accountant I didn't have it.

        3. She was the local MP at the time and although> did not vote for her, I sent her a message of support for her stance.,

    2. Gilts, eh…minds of their own, have they not heard/read Reeves various statements, admired the various pant suits. Disgraceful.

        5. Not a bad looking woman one must admit.
          She'd be very popular on the Grannie Porn Channels.

    1. I never knew it was an option. I thought they were legally bound to hold elections every ?? years.

    2. Have they given any reason, Korky (other than the one they're mostly likely to lose their seats, having been more useless than chocolate teapots)?

  83. Cold Snap and No Wind Push UK Closest to Blackout in Over a Decade

    The UK’s electricity grid came worryingly close to blackouts yesterday – just 580 MW shy of the lights going out – in what independent energy consultant Kathryn Porter described as the “tightest day since 2011 or before”. National Grid ESO had to issue its first Electricity Market Notice of the winter, along with a third Capacity Market Notice, though the latter was quickly binned. No surprise that cold weather means more heating and energy…

    A sharp drop in wind output combined with limited electricity imports from Europe left the grid scrambling to keep the lights on. Yet Red Ed is still pushing to fast-track planning permission for a wave of new wind farms — despite the inconvenient truth that these turbines have to be switched off when there’s too much wind and the grid can’t handle it. Meanwhile Labour is ploughing ahead with their plan to make wind and solar the backbone of our energy system to hit 95% renewable energy by 2030. Never mind that they’re effectively useless when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine…

    9 January 2025 @ 11:36

  85. Ten years ago this day I noted the appearance of this welcome visitor. It is sunny at present, with light fluffy clouds in a cluster hanging on the breeze . . .but still cold.
    No sign of small Tortoiseshells but I caught sight of a very small moth fluttering vigorously in the bright sunlight at the rear of the house.
    https://scontent-cdg4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/472554570_10162906259499954_1287717828358891666_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=9eae26&_nc_ohc=FDzrHIW5omwQ7kNvgGZcGkV&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-2.xx&_nc_gid=AhUdl5jMIu27RnzScbi3QN0&oh=00_AYAHZ74qAo5AZkLboNWnTK9FT6OFPFzQAjGiYmDI9vBcSA&oe=6785A87D
    https://scontent-cdg4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/472554570_10162906259499954_1287717828358891666_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s640x640_tt6&_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=9eae26&_nc_ohc=FDzrHIW5omwQ7kNvgGZcGkV&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-2.xx&_nc_gid=AhUdl5jMIu27RnzScbi3QN0&oh=00_AYAHZ74qAo5AZkLboNWnTK9FT6OFPFzQAjGiYmDI9vBcSA&oe=6785A87D

    2. I used to get a lot of peacock butterflies on an old Buddleia in the back garden. Haven't seen one for years. Even cabbage whites are noticeable when they appear because even they are becoming uncommon.

  86. Dr Who
    47m
    Windmills were good, until we found something better….steam.

    Rogerborg ⬛🟧
    2h
    And the lights only stayed on because we paid £12m to predatory foreign owned companies in order to turn on two small gas plants for a few hours. They named their own price of 50 times the market rate, and it got added right onto our bills without a quibble. LOOK.

    It doesnt add up
    Rogerborg ⬛🟧
    18m
    We also paid the Danes to delay maintenance on 700MW of their interconnector and to import more power to supply it.
    The real problem is that we lack sufficient dispatchable capacity. Closing RATS really didn't help. More capacity means more competition in supply offers. Miliband is desperately trying to avoid building more CCGT.

    philip
    Rogerborg ⬛🟧
    1h
    And they wish to add more to demand with heat pumps and EVs.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3a9f013f117a73ef963fbaa34ef37729a04dae0942c8b26b136c320dc3586b5b.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e71ea34e2d4be434704038beddbe29e26eaf99b2532d01bfd38d27b38689e7d6.png

    2. Now how many have seen the Monoblot meme and actually thought it was a real Guardian article and not a Gruniad spoof?

    2. Wait for it, Grizz….someone seems to think they've got a hold of Maxwell's famous catalogue…..

    3. Having said that, I don’t approve of the Republican group’s tactics. You don’t go straight to the police, unless you are a Leftards looking to cause trouble.

          2. I have noticed even Nottler ladies swear a lot more now. Not that i blame them. Though you don't really want to hear it at lunch ! Not that they have.

  91. 399851+up ticks,

    All lib /dems abstained EN MASSE from the vote, probably with big cyrils approval issued from, I would say the ultimate in boiler houses.

    They are really showing a 100% commitment with the HOC
    paedophilia department.

    1. That is shocking, ogga, but we all know it would have been a whitewash over 3 – 5 years. And those who voted 'aye' knew they were quite safe to do so.

  93. There is a medical distinction between "Guts" and "Balls", according to the British military.
    We've heard colleagues referring to people with "Guts", or with "Balls".
    Do they, however, know the difference between them?
    Here's the official distinction; straight from the British Medical Journal: Volume 323; page 295.
    GUTS – Is arriving home late, after a night out with the lads, being met by your wife with a broom, and having the "Guts" to ask: "Are you still cleaning, or are you flying somewhere?"
    BALLS – Is coming home late after a night out with the lads, smelling of perfume and beer, lipstick on your collar, slapping your wife on the bum and having the "Balls" to say: 'You're next, Chubby.'
    I trust this clears up any confusion.
    Medically speaking, there is no difference in outcome; both are fatal.

  96. Wordle No. 1,300 3/6

    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 9 Jan 2025

    Bickies for Birdie Three!

    1. Too many options today.

      Wordle 1,300 5/6

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

    3. Disappointing after a good start (like yours!). But with so many options eventually relieved to get away with a bogey!!

      Wordle 1,300 5/6

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

    4. Too many options today.

      Wordle 1,300 5/6

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

    6. I can have two bickies then, maybe even a nice bourbon cream.

      Wordle 1,300 6/6

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

    1. Weymouth was one of the places my family went on holiday when I was a child. I chiefly remember how shallow the beach was – you could go out a long way and still be in shallow water. Sandy, too.

  99. I haven’t been able to see comments below Guido articles for what seems like a while now. Does anyone know why? Anyway the site has another story about Phillips Sands and Mauritius and I would be Interested to know what the Below-the-Liners are saying about this conflict of interest.

    Oh wow. I have just seen a squir…

    Excuse me…

  100. I also meant to add this https://www.camsecure.co.uk/Camsecure2/Weymouth_Seafront_Webcam.html

    The barge will be going soon , maybe next week. I have been told by one of the supermarket staff, as she was checking my shopping out, that she lived on Portland , and loads of people are pleased the barge is going . (Bibby Stockholm )

    The assistant informed me that there had been trouble with foreign males hanging around local schools , and there had been assaults in the town etc . When some of the inmates were cautioned , they then skipped off and melted into communities elsewhere .

    She said that things had been happening that didn't reach the press , because the inmates had the freedom of movement , free bus travel etc .

    She said they were only coming to Britain because of the liberal attitude to sex , and how easy it was to get girls .

    Are we shocked , blimey a quiet seaside town like Weymouth , but ruined Bournemouth and Poole have lost their innocence .

    Our idiot young new Labour MP abstained re the vote yesterday.

    1. Why aren't the police making exclusion zones around schools like they did with the abortion clinics?

      If those men don't have children in the school they should be charged with loitering with intent.

    4. Weymouth? ho hum. I worked nearby in the 90s, a certain kind of local girl used to regard Saturday night as a failure if it didn't end up with a shag on the beach.
      They are their own worst enemies, and we all get judged like that by foreigners.

      1. I took my family to Weymouth once – all I remember is the Penny Slot Machines…. 🙂

        1. We holidayed at my grandmother's house each year in my childhood. She owned a four storey house in Great George St. One street back from the seafront. She ran it as a B&B.

          I remember the glorious food. My first experience of unpasteurised fresh cooked and picked crab served in a large crystal bowl. I can still see and smell it.

          My brother hated it because he had to wash, comb his hair and watch his manners.

      2. I had a couple of stints at the training camps at Chickerell and Wyke Regis and remember in '69 someone riding round the town on a chopper motorbike based on a scooter that he'd named "Lamb Chop".
        Used to like Devenish Mild when I was there.

      3. Asking for it, were they, those little girls? Have you read what was done to them, including the ones that were killed?

        1. Eh? I’m not talking about the rape gangs.
          Just common or garden consensual bad behaviour in English seaside towns.

      1. Fortunately, my in-house staff are more patient than I and persevered with the edge. It was a really jolly good puzzle – took a week.

    4. Wow , you are both jigsaw wizards , patience of saints , and how long did it take you to do put it together?

      Looks a very large one, 2,000 pieces perhaps?

  102. I’m not expecting a reply – she didn’t bother last time i emailed her on two-tier policing, but it’s possibly because she is a horse – but here is an email to my MP on her decision to abstain on yesterday’s vote:

    “Dear Ms Xxccc

    Regarding yesterday’s amendment to hold a national inquiry into the “grooming gangs”, which was rejected by MPs, I notice you abstained from voting (and not for the first time on important bills in this current Parliament).

    Please can you urgently advise me why you did not vote for this amendment, and your views, if indeed you have any, on the nationally important matter of “Asian grooming gangs”.

    my name

    1. It is difficult to respect a female MP* who is paid about £75,000 per annum under a five year fixed contract but who is undecided as to whether she should vote 'aye' or 'no'.
      Most constituency MPs are now either superfluous or useless, so the least that your local rep could do is support her Party.
      (* because generally the children were female, so much for the concept of sisterhood)

    2. Nice. I have written similarly to the female LibDum MP who thinks she represents our constituency.

      edit – add "female"

        1. We've got one of them as well. Don't know how she voted but my 93-yr-old ex-copper pal is going to ask her to find out.

    3. I'd have also asked her opinion on what should happen to those who facilitated the abuse by refusing to take action against the rapists.

    1. I am tempted to use this cartoon as part of our attempt to find new students for our French courses – some might be amused – others offended!

      1. I wouldn't. It's a sore subject for many.

        Have you considered increasing your class sizes and reducing the charges? To keep going.

        1. Richard will correct me if I'm wrong but I think the students have full board as well as their tuition so that wouldn't really work?

  104. As Jimmy Carter has just died there have been numerous retrospective articles about his life and political career. I remember the general opinion soon after the end of his presidency that he had been a pretty hopeless one, and have read that in the years since then he had done good things in society.

    I've just read a couple of articles that have made me revise my views on his actions – he was an appeaser of Hamas and naive supporter of them. These are the articles:
    https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2024/12/30/jimmy-carters-decades-of-promoting-hamas-and-undermining-israel-n4935522
    which includes a link to:
    https://israeled.org/jimmy-carters-hamas-decade-of-embrace/

  105. A lovely comeback at Trudeau from Elon Musk:

    Girl, you’re not the governor of Canada anymore, so doesn’t matter what you say

    Over 3 million views of the twittering so far.

      1. The fact he so easily rattles this excuse for a government makes him the good guy in my book. We shall see.

  106. Funny story – but true. Having spent half an hour fighting the GP online appointment system (with eventual success) at the "Finish" was an option to respond to a questionnaire. "Our new service has been running for a year – we'd love to know your view: please click on the attached form".

    I did.

    "We are not taking answers at this time……"

    Yeah, right. You have had thousands telling you what a shyte system it is – you don't want any more….

    2. I have the same problem Bill as has been said many times "they can't handle the truth".
      It's worse when they send messages on your mobile phone. And if you can actually open them, you can't read or understand WTF it's all about !
      They have probably worked out I don't read them and after six years of waiting they have found a way to take me off the waiting list for my knee problem. FOAD in action.

  108. Starmer’s Chagos Lawyer Best Mate: Brits ‘Celebrate’ Me Defeating UK in International Courts

    Co-conspirators will remember when Guido revealed that Starmer’s close mate Philippe Sands KC is Mauritus’ chief legal adviser and represented the country in its campaign to secure sovereignty of the Chagos Islands. That explains the surrender deal…

    During a talk in Cambridge last year Sands spoke of how great it was that he could be celebrated for defeating and ‘humiliating’ the UK in the UN’s courts:

    “It’s a really fantastic thing about Britain that I think it’s probably the only country in the world where when you’ve been to an international court against your own country, won, and humiliated them completely, they still celebrate you and that is special.”

    Sands who says Starmer is a “great friend,” has acted as counsel of Mauritius since 2010 and acted against Britain at three tribunals including the widely cited 2017 ICJ tribunal which was initiated by the UN General Assembly. All are advisory and non-binding. As Guido revealed yesterday the deal agreed by the UK government could prevent nuclear weapons from being stationed on Diego Garcia all while Trump’s team rages at its terms. It’s become Starmer and Sands against the rest…

    9 January 2025 @ 15:30

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

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c9732086f8578c8d8f888749944a14021a865a0be3aa706b2120ef4dc4104c9.png

    Truth Hurts
    49m
    It's getting more difficult to find out the lowest form of scvum on this earth. Lawyers and MPs are neck and neck!

    It’s only Me
    Truth Hurts
    47m
    what about a lawyer who is an MP and the PM…..all three….He must be the winner.

    1. I don't celebrate him. He richly deserves a good kick in the pants.
      Perhaps he should have said "my UK-hating mates celebrate me"

  109. That's me for today. Chilly but 150% better because the Sun shone all day. Venus doing her thing. Tomorrow still cold but also sunny.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

    1. I am hoping Musk continues his attacks on these woke globalists to the point they are looking over their shoulder in fear. They deserve what is coming.

      1. I am hoping that he is not one of them, not a double bluff, if you like. I no longer have faith in anyone political.

    2. Chefofsinners
      2h
      I'm beginning to warm to this Elon guy. He's made the biggest fortune ever by selling electric cars to liberals, then he's using the money to spread conservative values across the world. It's a beautiful thing.

  111. Had a Greek lunch out today with two old schoolfriends….. good to see them and have a catch-up. Got home just before dark too – definitely lighter for longer and a bright but cold day.

    2. What did you choose to eat , J?

      We had Moussaka, courtesy of Sainsbury , and very delicious it was too, with a light salad, well planned because I didn't have to pfaff around cooking when I got back from Weymouth .

      Son was asking for a quick meal when he got home from work , because he was off out for a team running practise .. so I provided a a reasonable looking Korean dish of vegetables rice and chicken , courtesy of Sainsbury , I don't feel the slightest bit guilty either!

      1. My innate immaturity always kicks in when I read about Greek food and I'm taken back to the timeless exchange between Les Dawson and Roy Barraclough as Cissie and Ada discussing the former's visit to Greece :-

        'Did you have the shish kebabs?'
        'From the minute I got there….'

        'Did you see the Acropolis?'
        'See it? I was never off it!'…….

        Well, I found it funny…..

      2. See my reply to Phizzee – stuffed vine leaves to start and then chicken souvlaki. All very good. with a wine spritzer (not much spritzer so it went to to my head) and I finished up with a double espresso to clear it. By the time we'd walked to the bus stop and waited for the bus back to Jane's I was ok for the drive home.

        1. I saw your F/B pics , glad you had a great time , where were you , town I mean .
          The weather has been kind , although seasonably cold.

          1. Gloucester Docks – quite a lot of restaurants there of various sorts. It used to be an area of warehouses but after it had been well knocked about in the sixties and seventies the city fathers suddenly realised it could be a great asset to the town. They have a Tall Ships festival in the summer. The Onedin Line used it as a backdrop.

  112. Morning all 🙂😊.
    A dusting of snow to keep the weather wavers happy. Minus 2 but bright.
    Foggy Friday so they say, smoke from California ?
    And of course any government has the duty to protect our children, but it depends on the adgenda and mindset of the officials.
    As we can see by current events.
    I am so fed up with seeing photographs of Starmer and the like on my screens.

    1. Not sure how that has been stuck on the top of the pile.
      Not intention but strange occurrence.

        1. I thought it was on display earlier.
          Never mind eh.
          I like Greek food what did you have ?

          1. Started with stuffed vineleaves….Dol…..? and then chicken Souvlaki. Didn't need any pudding.

          2. Dolmas. Or their proper name of Dolmadakia.

            I worked in a Taverna. Had also to teach Zorba pissed up customers on Friday and Saturday nights. It was fun though.

  113. I've been quit busy, four loaves and just waiting for the chicken and vegetable oven bake to meet requirements. 15 minutes.

  114. Child protection should be at the forefront of any government’s agenda

    I can see no reason for new child protection laws, but to just uphold the laws we already had when we had first world morals and decency.
    No laws are adequate when public services are instructed to ignore gang rapes of children.

  115. Rapepologist. Definition: a Member of Parliament who puts his or her party's interests ahead of safeguarding children.
    Might not be the best word available, so does anyone else have a suitable bon mot for Labour MPs after yesterday's vote?

      1. "Mudslide majority"?

        I will resist openly comparing the appalling damage caused to children years ago, although a disaster too.

  116. “foreign rapists”.

    Rotherham MP Sarah Champion said she was “disgusted by what the honourable gentleman has just said. Can you imagine if you are a victim or survivor listening to that?” she said.

    How about
    250,000 underage girls folded up like deck chairs across 30 cities.. a 12 yr old girl being snuggle struggled upstairs at a kebab shop while 20 cousins down stairs wait for their turn.

    1. Is she saying that it's disgusting that they aren't foreigners at all, but true blue British rapists and should be lauded as such?

    2. In 2915 in opposition Sarah Champion was appointed chair of investigating child abuse, in not only her constituency but the country.
      And has failed miserably. 'king useless. As usual.

        1. Probably. Our whole political system needs an absolute overhaul.
          It’s rotten to the core.

          2. Our massively untapped natural resources? Maybe Trump will swap us for Greenland – and throw in Ed Milliband (famous brother of David and Steve)….

    1. Red Leader
      2h
      MSM journalists fawning over the Dear Leader last July saying "power suits Starmer" could not have been more wrong.
      He has proved he and his Cabinet are entirely unsuited to power and nearly all the ensuing carnage of the last six months flows from that simple fact.

      It has nothing to do with Musk.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/531b92fd2f9bea2b670ab29a2865082d69dc7f865c99b58b5d5f71e94eb0ff20.png

      Andrew Smith
      39m
      Wilson always claimed his sterling crisis was down to "Gnomes in Zurich".
      It is never the fault of the left, however bad things get.

      sirhumphrey
      Andrew Smith
      36m
      They fundamentally do not understand how markets and the economy work because they have never had to manage any risk or had any skin in the game at any time in their career.

      2. Talk about a stage photo and we are paying for that shit. Tomorrow with paid £70,000 personal photographer we will see Jess Phillips taking confession ! What a chancer.

        Your days are numbered Jess. As a Brummie you can't fucking see it. Take a good look around you. It's not your city any more you stupid bitch.

  118. sitting in a hotel in Riyadh watching my husband drive through Bodmin on his way to Cornwall. Technology can be amazing.

    The tea boy in our office here is from the Philippines, which is 4,800 miles away from here. London is 3,000.

      2. Work. I used to have to come out annually, but due to regulatory changes I’ve got it down to every 18 months. It’s the first time I’ve not been in their summer. I’ve been every year since 2015 (excepting 2020 and 2021).

        Otherwise this year my work trip is Dublin.🙁

        1. By all accounts given reported levels of immigration in Dublin you won't notice much difference to Riyadh apart from the weather of course….

          1. Yes. We employ 10 people there, and half are “foreign” and the other half “native”. The “foreigners” are from South Africa, Nigeria and Eastern Europe. No surprises there really.

        1. I’ve ‘bugged’ my current wife for the last 44 years and doesn’t she let me know.

      1. Weird, isn't it Phizzee. They are so anti-gay (let's throw them off high buildings) yet so into raping little boys. Even their horrendously banal "heaven", on top of the 72 virgins, provides innumerable "beautiful dancing boys". Everything – everything – in their philosophy seems to revolve around their inability to control their animalistic urges. Those poor goats, too.

  120. The ultimate immigration taboo has just been broken

    Time to admit that, indeed, not all cultures are equally valid
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2025/01/09/TELEMMGLPICT000363662776_17364244849650_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqUa2thMnvKQadTDM5oFKzfP10lxr3z29rmW271ytTCYo.jpeg?imwidth=680 Adil Khan (L) and Qari Abdul Rauf (R) were jailed for being members of a rape gang in Rochdale. They have long since been released from prison and now live alongside their victims, with attempts to deport them to Pakistan so far unsuccessful

    Guy Dampier
    09 January 2025 12:21pm GMT

    Should Britain, as has been suggested by shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, block immigrants coming from countries with “backward, frankly mediaeval attitudes to women”? He’s been backed by leader of the Conservatives Kemi Badenoch, who has previously said that not all cultures are “equally valid” and that immigrants need to “love this country”.

    These comments have been driven by the recent furore in Parliament over the rape gangs. Jenrick, among others, has argued that these crimes happened in part because many of the perpetrators came from “alien cultures”, which have very different attitudes to women – to say the least.

    Take this quote from Badrul Hussain, a member of the Newcastle rape gang. When caught travelling on public transport without a ticket, he told the female ticket inspector, “All white women are only good for one thing. For men like me to … use like trash. That’s all women like you are worth”. Other testimony from victims details how frequently they were referred to as “white slags” or “white whores”.

    Some have argued that this is due to general misogyny rather than any specific culture – but this is an over-abstraction. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown revealed how the wives of rape gang members sometimes blamed the victims as well, with one describing white girls as “filthy” because of the way they dressed. The wives themselves explained how hard the life of Pakistani women in Britain could be, with joyless sex provided on demand and domestic servitude.

    Although this isn’t the life of all British-Pakistani women, it mirrors what the Casey report into integration found. It criticised the community pressure for women to accept arranged marriages, to only travel away from home with a chaperone, and not to learn English. In extreme cases, it involved honour killings and female genital mutilation.

    Underpinning this insular culture is ubiquitous cousin marriage, which has led to an increase in genetic disorders and other medical issues. In a study by the University of Bedfordshire, British Pakistanis were interviewed about the high rate of stillbirths in their community. Many only poorly understood genetics and instead blamed black magic, the sexual position in which the child was conceived, and even washing after intercourse.

    All of this is a far cry from mediaeval England, when women like Julian of Norwich were held in great esteem. Already by the seventh century AD, abbesses attended the Anglo-Saxon Witan. Crucially, the Catholic Church banned cousin marriage. By shifting society away from kin-based networks, it minimised tribalism and encouraged the growth of co-operation and fairness with strangers. That radical social shift was one of the foundations of the success of our Western Civilisation.

    So, the argument that Britain should be selective about the cultural merits of immigrants is valid. Not only is there a clash of cultures but also a hierarchy, with some cultures producing better results than others. If we value our prosperity and cohesion, we need to protect the shared culture which underpins them.

    In many ways this is the breaking of a taboo. Selecting immigrants based on skills or income is in many ways more morally neutral. As Annabel Denham has argued however, such skills based immigration has always failed as the barriers are lowered. Moreover, cultural issues affect even those who are skilled and well-paid, such as the Indian immigrants in Silicon Valley, some of whom have been accused of recreating their caste system from back home.

    One way to do this is to measure cultural distance and to favour immigration from countries who are more like us. This already has popular support, with many polls showing greater support for EU than non-EU immigration. There are limitations however, not least because almost every Western country now has second or third generation immigrant populations.

    Perhaps the best way therefore is to rely on the market, rather than bureaucracy. We could require everyone who comes to Britain to purchase a visa insurance. This would mean that any negative externalities – such as accidents, crime, or urgent health needs – would see the costs covered by the insurer rather than the taxpayer. Insurers are very good at judging the behaviour of customers and could refuse, or increase the price of, insurance to those they think are risky. That would help us select for well-behaved immigrants who will fit in, without any need for a ponderous bureaucracy.

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

    Richard Owen
    4 hrs ago
    pinned
    Immigrants need to do a lot more than 'love this country'.

    They need to bring a compelling mix of skills, attitude and capital, and be in good health. They need to be a really positive asset to our nation.

    British citizenship must be a hard-earned prize for the lucky few, not a cheap bauble available to anyone on the planet. edited

    Megan Roberts
    3 hrs ago
    pinned
    We can talk all we want about the pros and cons of immigration, but no decent person believes it acceptable that people who have been issued with a deportation order are able to get it set aside because of their right to a family life or whatever. Until this issue is addressed, nothing will change. The rights of the victim have to have legal precedence over those of the convicted. In no circumstances should someone who has been served a deportation order be eligible for legal aid to challenge it. In no circumstances should someone who has acted to overturn a deportation order be eligible for any state benefits whatsoever including accessing the NHS.

    Tony Clarkson
    6 hrs ago
    In a similar vein we have imported a massive gang culture and associated knife crime from certain African and Caribbean nations. Our politicians of all persuasions have done their very best to destroy our ‘Britishness’ over the past 25 years.

        1. Yes indeed, KJ, if it was anybody related to me involved there would be some serious retribution – but then again, I would probably be arrested as many of the fathers of the girls involved were. What a shithouse country we have become…..

          1. There will likely be incidents, G4, in the dark winter nights. For now, everyone keeping their powder dry, waiting to see what happens – just my guess. I would only disagree with your last sentence…we have been for a very long time, a few exceptions proving the rule.

  121. She's in China now:

    "Good evening, Jings Dong Pongs, I'm Rachel from complaints.
    We've arranged for you to have the Chagos Islands, but can we interest you in Gibraltar, or perhaps the Falklands?
    If you wanted them both, we could throw in a submarine base in Scotland on a give away two, get one free basis.
    Sorry, meant bases"

  122. I can't help thinking that that is a remarkably clean cut having been cause by an anchor dragging.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14267883/Finland-parades-enormous-anchor-used-oil-tanker-Russian-shadow-fleet-snap-critical-undersea-cables-Baltic-Sea-bed.html

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a95b3f85f1eb50f3891253aa80a7409187fe88947092caf53dabab720da0ad4.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1bbf963f0f2699d2a186b8c7754ad8634cb699efd0edb5986cab37d566e49c47.png

    1. To be fair Sos I read the article and, in true DM style, they showed the picture of the cable but made no claim to a connection with the anchor dragging – typical DM shit stirring…….

      1. I must have read it differently.

        Finland has paraded the enormous anchor allegedly used by an oil tanker belonging to Russia's shadow fleet to snap several critical undersea cables on the bed of the Baltic Sea.

        The anchor, presumed to belong to the Eagle S oil tanker, is being held by Finnish investigators after it was recovered from the Baltic Sea.

        1. I meant that the picture of the anchor seems legitimate enough but there's no way, as you said earlier, that a dragging anchor could have severed a cable like that!! DM is a sack of shite……

          1. I don't think it's the DM that's saying they did, it's the anti Russian people claiming the Ruskies did it.

          2. Yes, but the juxtaposition of the anchor with the severed cable is clearly designed to make one think that the two are connected – I absolutely dont think that the pisspoor DM has a political position on anything apart from encouraging clicks.

          4. Yes, I know you did that, but the two pictures appeared in the same article and were intended to generate conclusions.

            PS Of course I didnt read the whole article – it was the effing Daily Mail!

          5. That is what the DM does best.

            The cable…if that is the cable in question has been cut with tools…not an anchor. But how are we to know?

          6. Yes, I know you did that, but the two pictures appeared in the same article and were intended to generate conclusions.

            PS Of course I didnt read the whole article – it was the effing Daily Mail!

    2. That's not the effect of an anchor – that's been cut. No cables have been pulled out, te whole thing hasn't been bent, it's been cut like a circular saw cuts.

      1. If this really is the cable in question, might the authorities have created a clean cut to facilitate repairs?

    2. A good sense of humour…

      Trump is a business man. Go in with a stupidly high offer and negotiate down the position you actually wanted.

      1. Most people just do not 'get' Trump. I started watching him when he first came into politics. I found him interesting, repetative and I liked his honesty.

        1. #metoo Johnny. Honesty, vulgarity and sheer authenticity. That's what "THEY" cannot bear.

    4. Would it mean that we could get decent Danish bacon instead of the water infused fattier than streaky stuff the Americans call bacon?

      Life us getting better, we have been offered lower taxes, freedom from Trudeau and now maybe real bacon.

  125. Guy Dampier
    The ultimate immigration taboo has just been broken
    Time to admit that, indeed, not all cultures are equally valid

    Should Britain, as has been suggested by shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, block immigrants coming from countries with “backward, frankly mediaeval attitudes to women”? He’s been backed by leader of the Conservatives Kemi Badenoch, who has previously said that not all cultures are “equally valid” and that immigrants need to “love this country”.

    These comments have been driven by the recent furore in Parliament over the rape gangs. Jenrick, among others, has argued that these crimes happened in part because many of the perpetrators came from “alien cultures”, which have very different attitudes to women – to say the least.

    Take this quote from Badrul Hussain, a member of the Newcastle rape gang. When caught travelling on public transport without a ticket, he told the female ticket inspector, “All white women are only good for one thing. For men like me to … use like trash. That’s all women like you are worth”. Other testimony from victims details how frequently they were referred to as “white slags” or “white whores”.

    Some have argued that this is due to general misogyny rather than any specific culture – but this is an over-abstraction. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown revealed how the wives of rape gang members sometimes blamed the victims as well, with one describing white girls as “filthy” because of the way they dressed. The wives themselves explained how hard the life of Pakistani women in Britain could be, with joyless sex provided on demand and domestic servitude.

    Although this isn’t the life of all British-Pakistani women, it mirrors what the Casey report into integration found. It criticised the community pressure for women to accept arranged marriages, to only travel away from home with a chaperone, and not to learn English. In extreme cases, it involved honour killings and female genital mutilation.

    Underpinning this insular culture is ubiquitous cousin marriage, which has led to an increase in genetic disorders and other medical issues. In a study by the University of Bedfordshire, British Pakistanis were interviewed about the high rate of stillbirths in their community. Many only poorly understood genetics and instead blamed black magic, the sexual position in which the child was conceived, and even washing after intercourse.

    All of this is a far cry from mediaeval England, when women like Julian of Norwich were held in great esteem. Already by the seventh century AD, abbesses attended the Anglo-Saxon Witan. Crucially, the Catholic Church banned cousin marriage. By shifting society away from kin-based networks, it minimised tribalism and encouraged the growth of co-operation and fairness with strangers. That radical social shift was one of the foundations of the success of our Western Civilisation.

    So, the argument that Britain should be selective about the cultural merits of immigrants is valid. Not only is there a clash of cultures but also a hierarchy, with some cultures producing better results than others. If we value our prosperity and cohesion, we need to protect the shared culture which underpins them.

    In many ways this is the breaking of a taboo. Selecting immigrants based on skills or income is in many ways more morally neutral. As Annabel Denham has argued however, such skills based immigration has always failed as the barriers are lowered. Moreover, cultural issues affect even those who are skilled and well-paid, such as the Indian immigrants in Silicon Valley, some of whom have been accused of recreating their caste system from back home.

    One way to do this is to measure cultural distance and to favour immigration from countries who are more like us. This already has popular support, with many polls showing greater support for EU than non-EU immigration. There are limitations however, not least because almost every Western country now has second or third generation immigrant populations.

    Perhaps the best way therefore is to rely on the market, rather than bureaucracy. We could require everyone who comes to Britain to purchase a visa insurance. This would mean that any negative externalities – such as accidents, crime, or urgent health needs – would see the costs covered by the insurer rather than the taxpayer. Insurers are very good at judging the behaviour of customers and could refuse, or increase the price of, insurance to those they think are risky. That would help us select for well-behaved immigrants who will fit in, without any need for a ponderous bureaucracy. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/09/medieval-attitude-culture-immigration/

  126. Guy Dampier
    The ultimate immigration taboo has just been broken
    Time to admit that, indeed, not all cultures are equally valid

    Should Britain, as has been suggested by shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, block immigrants coming from countries with “backward, frankly mediaeval attitudes to women”? He’s been backed by leader of the Conservatives Kemi Badenoch, who has previously said that not all cultures are “equally valid” and that immigrants need to “love this country”.

    These comments have been driven by the recent furore in Parliament over the rape gangs. Jenrick, among others, has argued that these crimes happened in part because many of the perpetrators came from “alien cultures”, which have very different attitudes to women – to say the least.

    Take this quote from Badrul Hussain, a member of the Newcastle rape gang. When caught travelling on public transport without a ticket, he told the female ticket inspector, “All white women are only good for one thing. For men like me to … use like trash. That’s all women like you are worth”. Other testimony from victims details how frequently they were referred to as “white slags” or “white whores”.

    Some have argued that this is due to general misogyny rather than any specific culture – but this is an over-abstraction. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown revealed how the wives of rape gang members sometimes blamed the victims as well, with one describing white girls as “filthy” because of the way they dressed. The wives themselves explained how hard the life of Pakistani women in Britain could be, with joyless sex provided on demand and domestic servitude.

    Although this isn’t the life of all British-Pakistani women, it mirrors what the Casey report into integration found. It criticised the community pressure for women to accept arranged marriages, to only travel away from home with a chaperone, and not to learn English. In extreme cases, it involved honour killings and female genital mutilation.

    Underpinning this insular culture is ubiquitous cousin marriage, which has led to an increase in genetic disorders and other medical issues. In a study by the University of Bedfordshire, British Pakistanis were interviewed about the high rate of stillbirths in their community. Many only poorly understood genetics and instead blamed black magic, the sexual position in which the child was conceived, and even washing after intercourse.

    All of this is a far cry from mediaeval England, when women like Julian of Norwich were held in great esteem. Already by the seventh century AD, abbesses attended the Anglo-Saxon Witan. Crucially, the Catholic Church banned cousin marriage. By shifting society away from kin-based networks, it minimised tribalism and encouraged the growth of co-operation and fairness with strangers. That radical social shift was one of the foundations of the success of our Western Civilisation.

    So, the argument that Britain should be selective about the cultural merits of immigrants is valid. Not only is there a clash of cultures but also a hierarchy, with some cultures producing better results than others. If we value our prosperity and cohesion, we need to protect the shared culture which underpins them.

    In many ways this is the breaking of a taboo. Selecting immigrants based on skills or income is in many ways more morally neutral. As Annabel Denham has argued however, such skills based immigration has always failed as the barriers are lowered. Moreover, cultural issues affect even those who are skilled and well-paid, such as the Indian immigrants in Silicon Valley, some of whom have been accused of recreating their caste system from back home.

    One way to do this is to measure cultural distance and to favour immigration from countries who are more like us. This already has popular support, with many polls showing greater support for EU than non-EU immigration. There are limitations however, not least because almost every Western country now has second or third generation immigrant populations.

    Perhaps the best way therefore is to rely on the market, rather than bureaucracy. We could require everyone who comes to Britain to purchase a visa insurance. This would mean that any negative externalities – such as accidents, crime, or urgent health needs – would see the costs covered by the insurer rather than the taxpayer. Insurers are very good at judging the behaviour of customers and could refuse, or increase the price of, insurance to those they think are risky. That would help us select for well-behaved immigrants who will fit in, without any need for a ponderous bureaucracy. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/09/medieval-attitude-culture-immigration/

      1. Yes , Conway, but digging deep in to some of the quirky history of those places is fascinating , and yes I have been to most of them as well, but reading through those little articles I have a greater insight !

      1. But he was such a lovely lad. He liked singing about women being whores and how much he loved….

  129. Evening, all. Still below zero here, but at least I managed to take Kadi for a walk and only had one ski-joring episode when almost back home.

    Is it me or have we only needed to worry about child protection since we've had an influx of incomers who don't share our values?

  131. Just an observation….

    Did anyone else see those pictures of Trump and Obama laughing and joshing at Jimmy Carter's funeral and think….. Errrm, I thought they were supposed to be mortal enemies – or is that just what we are supposed to think??

    It couldnt possibly be an indication of the Global Elite laughing down their noses at us, could it?

    Careful, I'm coming over a little Pretty Polly there….Soros, Schwab, Gates etc etc etc

    1. If that was the case we'd all be buggered anyway. Let's be cheerful and hope Trumpy's a GGGGood GGGGuy, GGGGaspar.

    2. They've a lot in common. Both have been US presidents. Both very rich. Must have lots of common ground

      1. Yes rob, they have far more in common than they have differences…. makes you think, doesnt it?

    3. I've been a chuch organist for 53 years, so have attended more than a few funerals.

      The most recent being that of the former Chief of the General Staff's Mum, Fiona.

      She was a stalwart Soprano in the choir, for as long as possible. Covid buggered all of this up.

      I once suggested that her 'boy' John might organise a military coup, commencing with tanks in Downing Street.

      I should have argued more persauvisly. Sorry, Blighty…

      1. As long as they dont put it on your headstone, Geoff – 'Just look at what he could have done!'

  132. Popping orff for the day as soon as Digging for Britain prog ends. In South Ronandsay. Very interesting.
    Night all 😴

    1. My rather cynical post yesterday was not entirely inappropriate.

      His mother eulogised him but she may really have thought: "He was a nasty little sod and he got what was coming to him!"

  139. Just watched Master and Commander.

    Given the entry point of this invasion is from the French coast. I think we should invade. Force them all to speak English without their usual sneer.

      1. You know i am. I just think the French government would be improved by them having to put their hands in a box that could tell if they were sincere or not. Sauds seem to be able to deal with liars and thieves.

    2. What a brilliant film! Even though Russell Crowe's accent is sometimes a bit funny (Maarster and Commaander) – the novels by Patrick O'Brian are equally brilliant!

  140. RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Have I got a deal for you, Donald… forget Greenland and buy Britain instead!
    By RICHARD LITTLEJOHN FOR THE DAILY MAIL

    Published: 16:58, 9 January 2025 | Updated: 18:58, 9 January 2025

    1. I've read some stuff on substacks this evening that place the blame firmly on the municipal authorities who didn't prepare for such an eventuality.

  149. Didn't know there was a sequel, Elsie. As for legal drama films, my favourite is Judgement at Nuremburg, with Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Maximilian Schell, Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, and Montgomery Clift.

  150. There are so many hurdles to open a high St business. We now have thousands of them. What we are not hearing are the voices of established barber shops.

  152. I have my hair cut at a Turkish barbers (are there any other sort these days?) called Feyz in Grange-over-Sands.

    He's great and happy to take payment via card, although I always give him cash.

    Even better, his English is so bad we avoid the banal chitchat that can make these occasions so painful.

    'And how would sir like his hair cut today?'
    'In silence….'

    1. Yes, there are other sorts of barbers; I used to go to a well-established English barber until covid did for that. Now I get my hair cut at home (by an Englishwoman).

    2. Where i am i am regularly offered cigarettes. I thought condoms were supposed to be the norm !

  153. Can I bore you with a little story ?

    About 20 years ago I was a guest at a very grand dinner held in a lovely country home on the North Dorset Somerset border .. Moh was also invited , he declined and a couple of friends who had also been invited drove me there .

    The wonderful manor was beautiful, and the area we were entertained before dinner was almost like a film set . A couple of guests were also there to entertain us , a quartet, and a male pianist who played the grand piano , he was so tall, pale blonde delicate looking with the most elegant long fingers that danced off the keyboard.

    He played a piece by Sergei Prokofiev, Chopin and Erik Satie .

    During dinner , he sat next to me , I was in absolute bliss and buzzing inside, he was Russian , he was in his mid forties , had studied the piano since he was 9, attended a conservatoire in Moscow and St Petersburg.

    I have the details somewhere on my invitation, where ever that is, so I cannot remember his name , but I remember him telling me that his grandfather knew Sergei Prokofiev very well … and when Prokofiev died on the 5 March 1953 (age 61 years) , Joseph Stalin died on the same day 5 March 1953 aged 74.

    Apparently Russia was in so much shock , grieving for Stalin , that poor old clever talented Prokofiev's death was overlooked .. and wasn't acknowledged for some weeks .

    The pianist told me that story , and I must say , how he related that fact brought tears to my eyes , I also loved his Russian accent and really admired his very elegant fingers , which were insured for a vast amount of £ millions !

    ( By the way , after coffee , I was invited by the host to accompany him through to the robe room and admire the ermine and other glorious effects, and then afterwards the hostess allowed us to use her very huge warm gorgeous bathroom to spend a penny, the bathroom was a dream , deep arm chairs , chaise thingummy bob , fluffy towels , scent , colour ,incredible wall paper , old fashioned bath and all the trimmings .. and I was just so delighted to have met the quartet and the Russian pianist .

      1. Thank you VW

        Yep it was the mention of Stalin and Starmer earlier on the thread that brought back the sad story of Prokofiev, forgotten whilst the Russians wailed over the death of Stalin !

        1. I bet there were a few musical Russians who found Stalin's Denise a useful cover for their grief!

    2. I hope he played 'Sleigh Ride' (or Troika), which is the only bit of Prokofiev that I know well, particularly as it's Christmas (or thereabouts)….

    3. No wonder you wouldn't meet me for afternoon tea at the Moonfleet. Not posh enough for you !

      1. Rubbish, you know I I would have been in trouble , nothing to do with posh !

        Your heart would break because the Moon fleet has been modernised and all the old Colonial comforting stuff has gone , looks as if some twerp from a trendy London outfit has taken away the lovely atmosphere I loved for years .. could be anywhere now .

        Don't they call places like that ( modernised ) boutique?

        1. Now that is a response i can deal with. I thank you.

          I think they now call it 'Gentrified'.

          Which i feel is the opposite.

          I was so very lucky to meet the director of music and he and his wife played violin Lark Ascending.

          2. I was lucky. I also got all the staff to gather an audience because it wasn’t planned.

    4. Sounds as though you had a wonderful evening …… and if Moh had been there you might not have enjoyed it quite so much! It's good to be let off the leash sometimes! The Russian pianist sounds very charming…..

    7. I think you mean pieces by Prokofiev, Chopin, and Satie, Maggie. The only pieces by 3 men were by Henderson, Brown and De Silva. Lol.

    8. I think you mean pieces by Prokofiev, Chopin, and Satie, Maggie. The only pieces by 3 men were by Henderson, Brown and De Silva. Lol.

  159. Went to the Wigmore this evening to hear a young pianist called Alim Beisembayev who won the Leeds International Piano Competition and is a BBC New Generation Artist. Not impressed I’m afraid. He made a lot of noise but played very little music. All the notes and in the right order, often at breakneck speed but music is about more than that. Melodic shape and line was either missing altogether or lacked finesse.

    1. Sue, who was it who said "the spaces between the notes are as important as the notes themselves"?

      1. It is a similar phenomenon to drawing (or painting) "the spaces between" rather than the objects themselves. It is a left/right brain thing and we are losing this miraculous synthesis to the left brain, which is completely mechanical and conceptual. Ian MacGilchrist describes the processes very much better than I can.

        1. Very well put. I feel it as letting the music breathe. Probably easier to conceptualise as a singer than a pianist…

    2. Glad to see you back on form , Sue! Yes, it is upsetting to see someone technically ultra accomplished but lacking musicality. We live in a strange world where values are being lost.

      1. Strange, that. I too am a wonderful piano player; people have favourably compared me to the great well-known pianist Les Dawson.

        1. Consider yourself booked for my garden party this June. Geoff just didn't have the fire when he banged my piano !

  162. Goodnight, all. Usual chores are done so I'm just going to read a chapter or so of my latest book and I'll be off to bed. Sleep well.

      1. That book was called “A Leap of Faith” – Frankie Dettori’s latest autobiography. I’ve just finished “English Churches Explained” by Trevor Yorke and now I’m about to start “Tudor Children”. One of my New Year Resolutions was to try to reduce the backlog of books to be read!

  163. Just had a thought about the LA fires – do you think there's any chance of the wind turning south and liacking around the suburbs of Montecito?

    2. As most of the A listers mansions are now ashes they have just run out of people to use. Oh dear.

    3. She probably set all those fires herself. You know how tetchy she can be when people don't respect her enough.
      Quite possibly why her father left the country.

  164. Wel, chums, I'm off to bed now. Good night, sleep well, and see you all tomorrow.

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