Wednesday 11 December: The Government must step back if the public sector is to be overhauled

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.

504 thoughts on “Wednesday 11 December: The Government must step back if the public sector is to be overhauled”

    1. Recent revelations on the internet show that previous trials have shown that this contaminant is retained in

      the dairy cow's muscle, thus cull cows must not enter the food chain, and will have to be destroyed on the farm.

      Unless, of course, farmers lie about whether they have fed this or any other contaminant to their cows.

      2. And how would Arla know if the farmers were just to tell them that they've used the Bofart rather than having actually fed it to the cows?

        Let me guess, they can test the milk and see residues/changes.

    1. Lozza saying BLM, trans and DEI racism are dying.

      I hope he is right, and Mark Twain is wrong.

        1. “The reports of my death are highly exaggerated” I believe is what he said, Grizzly.

  8. Bridget Phillipson knows Michaela is working – and she can’t stand it

    Clearly, the Education Secretary would rather combust than utter a word in praise of Katharine Birbalsingh’s high-performing state school

    Madeline Grant
    10 December 2024 6:20pm GMT

    A few MPs have perfected the art of the well-timed parliamentary question. One is Reform’s Rupert Lowe, whose canny inquiries about migration make him a constant irritant to the Home Office. There is is SNP leader Stephen Flynn who, despite his party’s depleted numbers, routinely slices cabinet ministers as if they were haggis.

    Another is Suffolk MP Nick Timothy, also a columnist for this newspaper. This week, Timothy asked Bridget Phillipson to praise the head of a top-performing UK state school. A pretty simple task you’d think. Wrong.

    Phillipson steamed like a recently boiled kettle and with barely-disguised fury read out an unrelated quote from the 2017 Tory manifesto, co-authored by Timothy. Presumably intended as some sort of “gotcha”, this merely confirmed how rattled she was.

    Clearly, the Education Secretary would rather spontaneously combust than utter a word in praise of this school. Why? Perhaps because the headmistress in question is Katharine Birbalsingh, founder of Michaela Community School, which favours traditional teaching methods and a knowledge-rich curriculum. By rights, Left-wingers ought to admire Michaela; a non-selective state secondary located in a deprived area of London which nevertheless outperforms many of the UK’s top fee-paying schools. Instead the very mention of it seems triggering. What better evidence that achievement always comes second to ideology? Ms Phillipson would probably rather lavish praise on Eton.

    *****************************
    CSI NCL
    7 min ago
    I'm a teacher and I agree with everything that Katherine Birbalsingh stands for and everything that she's implemented. When I used to teach in the UK I was surrounded by complete idiots who didn't like people like Birbilsingh. This is because she makes people work hard and use their brains – both anathema to left wing thinking.
    I left the UK in 2012 for Singapore, and now I live and work in Dubai. I have no intention of returning to England, unless it undergoes a great Reformation and a new government start to export all that natural gas and oil that lies literally beneath their feet. It would fund the country for generations out of its multiple crises. Successive governments have been too stupid, or too cowardly to do so.
    I'm awaiting a Great Reformation in the UK (across all sectors) so I can return

    Peter Dunlop
    11 hrs ago
    The great Katharine. I wish, I wish we were in a world where she was Education secretary rather than the dim and corrupt (free birthday party anyone) Phillipson.
    Mrs D

    Gareth Challingsworth
    8 hrs ago
    Reply to Peter Dunlop – view message
    This is probably why Ms Phillipson is loath to give credit to Ms Birbalsingh. She knows she would be a far better Education Secretary than she is.

  9. Good Morning Geoff and Nottlers All
    Todays Tales: More Wrinklies Wit & Wisdom
    Why do the medical profession still keep writing on prescription bottles in a size that only a 20-year-old can read? You were standing there with the medicine bottle in your hand and you died because you couldn’t read the directions.
    Bill Cosby

    Casey came home from seeing the doctor looking very worried. His wife said, ‘What’s the problem?’ He said, ‘The doctor told me I have to take a pill every day for the rest of my life.’ She said, ‘So what, lots of people have to take a pill every day for the rest of their lives.’ He said, ‘I know, but he only gave me four.’
    Hal Roach

    The good Lord never gives you more than you can handle. Unless you die of something.
    Steve Martin

    The doctor said, ‘I have good news and bad news. The good news is: you’re not a hypochondriac.’
    Bob Monkhouse

    The doctor said to me, ‘You’re going to live till you’re 60.’ I said, ‘I am 60.’ He said, ‘What did I tell you?’
    Henny Youngman

    Always keep tubes of haemorrhoid ointment and Deep Heat rub well separated in your bathroom cabinet.
    P. Turner, Top Tip, Viz

    I’m at an age where my back goes out more than I do.
    Phyllis Diller


  10. Taking Syrian refugees nearly destroyed Europe. We cannot withstand another wave

    The Continent has changed since 2015: the need for a complete reform of the international asylum system continues to grow

    Guy Dampier

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

    Thoroughly Debunked
    19 hrs ago
    'By July 2023 only 30 per cent of migrants from these countries had jobs.'
    Just take a moment to let that sink in. This is worse than invasion; it is national suicide.

    Mr Sensible
    18 hrs ago
    According to a report by Tower Hamlets council nearly 80 % of Somalians are benefit dependent.
    Just about all Somalians in the UK were originally asylum seekers , yet flights from UK airports to Somalia are full of former asylum seekers going home on holiday while fresh Somali asylum seekers arrive.
    Similarly Kabul had 10,000’s Afghans with British residency / passports in August 2021 , many of whome were found to have gone home on extended holiday with their UK benefits being paid into their bank accounts and council housing sublet.
    We are blatantly and openly being taken for mugs and our politicians won’t do anything about it !!!

  11. Nasty looking piece of work

    Britain is dangerously divided – but don’t blame the Right
    If we are to start with an honest analysis of the real and damaging divisions within our society, we cannot simply point the finger

    Tom Harris

    09 December 2024 2:06pm GMT

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/12/09/TELEMMGLPICT000371873081_17337530977620_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=960
    Dame Sara Khan, Britain's first Counter-Extremism Commissioner

    There is something distinctly odd about media reports of Dame Sara Khan’s report concluding that Britain is the most socially divided country of the 28 surveyed, apart from the United States.

    The government’s former counter-extremism tsar warns that a decline in democratic resilience is creating a “permissive environment” for extremists to exploit. Forty-five per cent of those questioned said they almost never trusted the government to put the nation’s interests first, regardless of the party in power. This was up from 23 per cent in 2020. Only 41 per cent of people trusted their neighbours.

    The study is published by Crest Insights, an independent think tank, and is based on research by the Policy Institute at King’s College London that interrogated the public’s confidence in institutions. Significantly, evidence of growing hateful attitudes in the UK was based on surveys commissioned by Hope Not Hate (HNH), an organisation that describes itself as anti-racist and anti-fascist.

    HNH has form here. It is fond of issuing dire warnings about the rise of the far-Right. In 2021, for example, it identified 52 local authority areas in England and Wales as being ripe for exploitation by the far-Right. This seems to have been based on the revelation that people in some of the country’s deindustrialised areas held views on immigration that were “less liberal than average” attitudes to multiculturalism and migration.

    Well, if that isn’t a precursor to holding a Nuremberg Rally in Stockport, I don’t know what is.

    Hope Not Hate’s annual State of Hate report for 2024 is replete with photographs of all the favourite Right-wing threats to the nation, including, inevitably, Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Elon Musk. There is, admittedly, a large section of the report devoted to analysing the Middle East conflict and the consequent rise in both Islamophobic and anti-Semitic attacks in Britain. But the editorial direction is clearly signalled in a piece attacking journalist Douglas Murray, who is seen as a threat because he “lost no time in linking the actions of Hamas [on October 7, 2023] to a wider threat posed by Islamism and Muslim immigration into Europe more generally.”

    Well, yes, because Islamism is a form of fascism that would have had Goebbels reaching for the lever marked “Steady on chaps!”. And isn’t fascism what HNH are supposed to be against?

    Another area covered by the HNH’s State of Hate report focuses Drag Queen Story Hour, with those who oppose such events dismissed, inevitably, as “far-Right” and “transphobes”. It’s hard to imagine why any parent would object to primary aged children being read a story by an over-sexualised female impersonator called Flo Job (geddit?), unless they’re a fully paid-up member of the British Union of Fascists, isn’t it?

    I mention these statements by HNH simply to provide context for anyone who is interested in reading Dame Sara’s report, because it is relevant to point out where some of the research on which she has relied is coming from.

    Her conclusion that Britain is bitterly divided is undoubtedly correct, and the rise of social media, including Musk’s X, has to take a lot of responsibility for that. It is a perfect platform to share demented conspiracy theories about World Governments, damaging and irresponsible misinformation about immigrants and asylum seekers, and scepticism about the spherical shape of the earth and how Stanley Kubrick faked the film of the Apollo moon landings.

    But her conclusions, drawn in part from a very partial political analysis by HNH, an organisation with a very specific political agenda, undermines her own work. The mistrust of institutions, including the government and the BBC, mistrust of our own neighbours (only 41 per cent of us do so – frankly I’m surprised it’s that high) all point to a weakening social cohesion and a decline in democratic resilience, she states.

    Some of that breakdown in trust is down to the Right-wing. Some of it is down to the Left, which tends to present policies as a fait accompli, founded on a fictional social consensus (Drag Queen Story Hour is a good example) and then accuses anyone who objects of indulging in a culture war. Mistrust of the BBC, for example, is entirely rational if you’re a sex realist and recognise the biological fact of the sex binary: why would you trust an organisation so entirely captured by the LGBTQI+ lobby to provide you with impartial reports on that subject?

    Of course, blame games don’t get us very far. But if we are to start with an honest and fair analysis of the real and damaging divisions within our society, we cannot simply point the finger at anyone who happens to disagree with us. That way lies only more division.

    *************************
    Peter Benson
    1 day ago
    There are 10 million people living here who were not born here. Of course we are divided. We are seeing our nation taken away from us. Visit many cities and you might as well be in Africa or Pakistan and not in a nice way.

    Harry Stocracy
    1 day ago
    I would point readers to the campaign of harassment and intimidation waged by Hope Not Hate against businesses who advertise on GB News. Contacting firms and making threats against them are not the actions of a respectable, law-abiding organisation. On the contrary, they are illegal and should be investigated by the police.

    Stuffed Shirt
    1 day ago
    Reply to Harry Stocracy – view message
    They are all about closing down debate and forcing their views onto people, or else!
    They are in my opinion an organisation motivated by malice.

    1. Don't blame her at all. They're just consolidating their grip.
      None of this could ever happen without a progressive liberal executive, progressive liberal mandate, a progressive liberal political Will.

  15. Good morning, chums. And thanks to Geoff, for today's NoTTLe site.

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      Not so bright here…
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    1. Made my comment yesterday. But then realised that he is a "human rights"lawyer, or was. Same as starmer, who would have guessed!!!.

    3. I was going to mention the excrement that is Shiner walking free – he obviously did get the "right judge"! Two years in prison, suspended for 2 years – so effectively he has got away with claiming £3M from false accusations! Hopefully he might make some mention on FB that is considered "bad" and get the prison sentence he so richly deserves!!

  17. Good morning all.
    Still dark but a dry start with a chilly 5°C on the New Yard Thermometer.

  18. Free Speech has two short articles new today, one by Graham Cunningham on Egalitarianism and how pushing it never works, and another by yours truly on culture, the lowest possible culture . Please read and leave a comment – FSB really wants and needs your involvement.

    Elsewhere, GBNews is under attack in a report by the Muslim Council of Great Britain, and many on the Left are piling in, urging the politically-bias censorship quango Offcom to ‘investigate’, meaning shut it down. This needs to be discussed and opposed.

  19. Why don’t we have enough teachers in critical subjects? 11 ecember 2024.

    A sobering reminder of the challenges facing Britain’s education system is the persistent failure to recruit enough teachers in critical subjects. Each year, the Department for Education publishes its targets for teacher training alongside the actual recruitment figures – and this year’s report showed an ongoing tale of two disciplines.

    Who in their right mind would want to teach in the modern UK? Your job would be essentially indoctrinating your students into Woke ideology and the acceptance of racial extinction.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-dont-we-have-enough-teachers-in-critical-subjects/

    1. Answer: because in reality, how the system works, those are not the critical subjects. The critical subjects are climate change, critical race theory and transgenderism.

    2. WTF? How is that even possible?
      The real villains are hiding behind Lisa Nandy and are in line for big fat civil service pensions after their career spent ruining Britain.

    3. Apparently it enhances the Government's public image to go for designer brands, rather than identical versions from Office World. Celebrity culture gets public approval more than boring old thrift, and of course creates jobs and improves growth.

    4. We bought our folk laptops and use a sorting system. Those devices are now five years old and coming in for replacement.

    5. Clucking bell! That's taking the 'gold-plating' so beloved of our snivel serpents to new heights.

  24. TCW

    Marvel at Trump’s resurgent America, weep for Starmer’s desolate Britain
    By David Craig

    December 9, 2024

    WE are about to witness a unique political experiment. We have two English-speaking countries which have just held elections and now both are about to implement completely opposing sets of policies. We’ll be able to see which of these two countries has the right policies for the wellbeing of its citizens and which is driving its citizens into a dystopian hell of impoverishment, political oppression and unstoppable decline.

    OK, not much suspense there. I imagine you all know the answer. But let’s still take a moment to compare the political decisions of the US and UK. Here a few of the key policy areas:

    Climate change

    Trump’s America realises that there is no climate crisis and that ridiculous ideas such as Net Zero impoverish the countries implementing them while making others such as China and India, which know that the theory of man-made climate change is complete nonsense, an awful lot richer. Moreover, Trump’s America will probably withdraw from all international agreements on reducing CO2 emissions.
    Starmer and his sidekick, Ed Miliband, want Britain to be a world leader in becoming ‘a clean energy superpower’ and to win a race to complete the ‘energy transition’ – a race in which no other country is stupid enough to compete. In addition, Britain will contribute tens of billions (which it hasn’t got and so will have to borrow at ever-increasing interest rates) to help the world’s most corrupt countries supposedly ‘fight the climate crisis’ when, of course, there is no climate crisis.

    Energy

    Trump’s America will encourage the use of fossil fuels and other cheap forms of energy to bring down costs for households and businesses, making the US more competitive and wealthier.
    Starmer’s Britain will restrict the use of cheap reliable fossil fuels while increasing the use of expensive, unreliable and intermittent supposed ‘renewables’ making energy so expensive that households and businesses will be compelled to self-ration to stay afloat. Plus, in the near future, the government may be forced to impose energy rationing using rolling blackouts when energy demand exceeds supply. The ‘expensive energy’ policy will bankrupt households and businesses.

    Immigration

    Trump’s America will clamp down on illegal immigration and start deporting the ‘worst of the worst’ criminals who have entered illegally and are running riot in the mostly Democrat-run, crime-ridden cities. In addition, Trump has threatened to put massive tariffs on all products made in Mexico if the Mexican government doesn’t clamp down on the illegal migrant flood.
    Starmer’s Britain is encouraging illegal migration by massively increasing the percentage of illegals who are allowed to remain in the UK and by increasing the amount of free legal aid available to illegal migrants to help them fight to stay in Britain in the extremely unlikely event of their asylum claims actually being rejected. Illegal migrants committing crimes in Britain will not be deported. Moreover, Starmer will keep on handing hundreds of millions to France to do nothing at all to stop the illegal migrant flood.

    Taxation and public spending

    Trump’s America intends to slash public-sector jobs, freeing money for lower taxes on households and businesses to encourage economic growth because Trump’s team understands that a country can survive and thrive only with a healthy private sector.
    Starmer’s Britain intends constantly to increase the number of people employed by the already bloated, inefficient and incompetent public sector and increase their salaries and pensions. To fund this, taxes on households and businesses will be massively increased leading to a reduction in private-sector activity, bankruptcies, impoverishment and economic decline.

    Free speech

    Under Trump, the right to free speech will be vigorously defended as a vital component of a functioning democracy.
    Under lawyer Starmer, ever more restrictions on free speech will be introduced and the police will continue their move from policing crime to policing ‘wrong-thought’. More real criminals will be released from prison early to make room for people being imprisoned for ‘thought crimes’ and ‘wrong-speech’.

    Health

    In Trump’s America there will be an urgent investigation into the safety or otherwise of the mRNA vaccine technology particularly focused on its possible role in causing heart inflammation problems and boosting cancer.
    In Starmer’s Britain every effort will be made to avoid questioning the mRNA technology as Starmer’s party was one of the main cheerleaders in demanding mass vaccinations even for groups which were never at risk from the Chinese lab-leaked plague.

    These are just a few of the main differences between Trump’s America and Starmer’s Britain which I can quickly think of. No doubt there will be many others I haven’t mentioned.

    But perhaps the greatest tragedy is that, due to the Labour Party’s oft-expressed loathing for Trump, Starmer will work to alienate Trump’s revived and successful America, giving him an excuse to take Britain closer to the failing, over-regulated, high-energy-cost, free-speech-suppressing European Union.

    I’m no political expert. But I think we can all see how the next few years will evolve for Trump’s resurgent America and Starmer’s declining and increasingly desolate Britain.

    1. Trump's acid test for free speech may well be his capacity for tolerance for those who say rude things about him.

      Although he has a reputation for being thin-skinned and sacking anyone who argues too much, I suspect that secretly Trump, like Reagan before him, is thrilled when opponents have a go. As he once said, with every law suit against him, his poll rating goes up five percent.

      The one thing all politicians dread is being ignored.

    1. That'll wipe out two key demographics.. Chinese families & our Golden-Bell-End friends buy a minimum of two gallons per week.

        1. We still do, but please don't tell the Health Police. The Christmas Day roast spuds are always the better for it.

        2. We still do, but please don't tell the Health Police. The Christmas Day roast spuds are always the better for it.

  26. Good morning Nottlers, it's currently-1°C on a dark yet clear, becalmed Costa Clyde. Before the joy of Tesco Irvine, I'm popping up to Ayr hospital for a scan of my aorta. AFAIAA there's nothing wrong with it, but the NHSS have begun to offer a scan to all those who reach 65. Car scraping and the morning rush await!

  27. 398575+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    We really are fighting with both hands tied behind the collective back.

    We have our own anti Brit politico's teaching the world the finer aspects of treachery and how it should be done, while on the home front we will shortly be literally fighting on our own doorsteps protecting any hard earned assets we have, inclusive of daughters, sons, and spare bedrooms, compulsory snatch laws in regards to invading troop comforts, and accommodation
    will be passed.

    Dt,

    Northern Ireland to remain subject to EU rules as assembly votes to extend post-Brexit arrangements
    Framework ‘botched by Boris’ pushed through in first consent vote despite every Unionist voting against it

  29. Sir John Thomas
    16h
    Italian car production is down by over 40% year on year… all Brexit’s fault of course.

    Hunt a PM
    Sir John Thomas
    16h
    Even my local Italian has closed down after the chef pasta way.

    1. More to do with emissions targets, the enforced fines for over production of high spec engines.

      The prices for such cars have doubled, they're deliberately making fewer. Fractionally profits, fewer jobs. Don'tchajusluv command economies?

  31. Apparently there’s another farmers’ protest today in London. Does anyone have details? If i could pop along at lunchtime i will.

    1. Peanuts. When the pound was worth three times what it is today, the British Government handed £11 MILLION (sic the hyping-up capitals) to Tarmac corporation to take the old Ministry of Works (latterly the Property Service Agency) off its hands.

      Considering the budgets of your typical single Grand Designs project, I imaging it would cost far more than that just to rebuild what was smashed up by Assad during his madness.

      As for hyping up the Al Qaeda roots of the current regime, then who precisely would the author of this article have with the power to rid Syria of Assad and the authority to govern the place. badly traumatised by many years of war?

      1. 398575+ up ticks,

        Morning JM,

        I suppose the “tool” could be asked if the lab/lib/con coalition would be interested in a take-over
        governing the place, badly traumatised by many years of internal war seems to be their speciality as seen on the home front.

      1. Yo Janet,

        Well done

        I was trying to think of a way of saying that.
        Like the IRA in the good old days

      1. Meter diversity,…. diversion.

        On Monday I saw an article regarding the worse and most dangerous place to live in London.
        I think there were about 16 altogether. Every area had a photograph of street life, all looking normal except the diversity of each area. As far as I could tell there was only one none white person in all of the photographs and she looked like an Indian dressed lady who are usually very well behaved and polite. I wonder what went wrong that more of the wonderful diversity wasn't thought to have been included.

        1. They're dirty, grimy, unpleasant places. Gabbling away in foreign, utter enclaves of filth.

          They simply don't share the same values and norms. Being welfare dependent they've no consideration of value so just ruin everywhere they go.

      2. My thoughts entirely. Folk can't afford the bills so bypass the safeties.

        Ironically the Dark Comedy 'House of Cards' had this exact same thing happening. There it was under a Tory government. Perhaps the Left will acknowledge that they are the true evil for deliberately making energy so expensive?

      5. Knowing what a shit-hole Ilford has turned into I have little doubt of the reasons why the house exploded and who was involved.

    1. Aye up Revelation 13.15
      all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
      16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,
      17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

      18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[e] That number is 666.

      Note: the mullet always there to hide the mark.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/625628b81e544092b464a0d65d4400c5d5b271b15de8ecc6fa14a381bf268d91.png

      1. 'to return'? I think he never went away. Edit: How odd, I thought I made reference to his Tony Blair Institute. The one influencing younger generation. Seems to have not posted.

    2. Aye up Revelation 13.15
      all who refused to worship the image to be killed.
      16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,
      17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

      18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[e] That number is 666.

      Note: the mullet always there to hide the mark.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/625628b81e544092b464a0d65d4400c5d5b271b15de8ecc6fa14a381bf268d91.png

    3. Blair realising, if he hasn't already, that older population majority no longer believe his bull****. He's targeting younger population through TBI, the ones in favour of Net Zero, marches against Israel etc..

    4. They're being rolled out in the EU at the moment under the guise of digital health insurance cards.

  36. Morning all 🙂😊
    A new weather outlook today dry and very little wind. I expect all the arm waving weather experts are frustrated with the fact that we didn't get 8 inches of snow as forecast two weeks ago.
    It appears that nearly 2.500 people have been removed from the council house waiting list in Stevenage Herts. Because of 'rule changes'. It doesn't actually say where the removed will be sent to or where they actually are now.
    And predictably the current government is making even more mess and creating more problems than usual.

          1. Probably innocent enough – although those cut-outs are more usually centrally-placed – but you're right, it will give them a lot more coverage than they might have expected!

  39. Santa is a Scouser
    Of this I'm fairly sure.
    I heard him tiptoe in my room
    At roughly Ten to four.
    "I hope yer fast asleep" he said
    "Or you'll get nowt my lad".
    Santa smelled of Hi Karate
    He pinched it from me dad.
    Just down stairs I'd left a treat
    Santa loves a beer.
    He loves pork pies and single malt
    That was Dad's idea.
    When I woke next morning
    I ran down stairs to see
    If Santa had been kind enough
    To leave gifts by the tree.
    He got our mam a Nightie
    And a pair of china pigs.
    Our dad got socks and undies
    And 200 park Drive cigs.
    My sister got a Barbie
    Sat on a plastic horse.
    And a K-Tel top hits album
    Which she played and played of course.
    When I unwrapped my parcels
    My little heart did sing.
    Each gift that Santa gave me
    Was a truly wondrous thing.
    A catapult and some ollies
    And a vest of finest string.
    An album from The Beatles
    Each gift fit for a king.
    So thank you Santa, thank you
    You surely are a tyke.
    But can you please remember
    Next year… I'd like a fuckin' bike!

    1. What did they do with the stolen goods they recovered?

      Did they out it back on the shelves? I cannot believe other customers would have been keen to pay for the stuff she had concealed under her skirts!

      1. Ach, they wouldn't know, Rastus, just wipe off the pavement grit and stick on a 'reduced' label, and back on the shelf……..

          2. Probably much higher than that. Recorded for insurance purposes only. Here's yer crime number, now be off, peasant!

          3. Absolutely. I’ve never been (physically) mugged, must be dreadful experience. Walking round looking like a bag lady possibly helps.

    3. Fun fact: Large lot from the city Arad in Rumania..
      Often asked, why do all the men there wear large droopy walrus moustaches?
      .. to be like their mothers.

    4. Fun fact: Large lot from the city Arad in Rumania..
      Often asked, why do all the men there wear large droopy walrus moustaches?
      .. to be like their mothers.

    5. Hmm… seems to me that instead of taxing farmers Harmer Starmer would get more out of the populace by investment in an ankle manacle scheme in which anyone in a long skirt can be required by law to be manacled, hung upside down by a cherry picker and shaken until the pavement rattles.

    6. 'Don't come back again'?! what's the deterrent other than being caught out…probably just went to next nearest supermarket.

      1. Isn't there a minimum value of goods that has to be passed before the police will prosecute, £200 or £300?

  42. Good guess. Didn't think it would be the answer though.
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    1. Simply another in Harmer Starmer's long list of mistruths. Apparently making "the hard decisions" is what he must do. I think there's one decision he finds dead easy to make and that's to tell people what he's going to do without having any intention to stick to it.

      His utterances are worthless. His actions are harmful. Vandals make no "hard decisions".

    2. Simply another in Harmer Starmer's long list of mistruths. Apparently making "the hard decisions" is what he must do. I think there's one decision he finds dead easy to make and that's to tell people what he's going to do without having any intention to stick to it.

      His utterances are worthless. His actions are harmful. Vandals make no "hard decisions".

  46. As Reform unveils another defector donor, a Tory MP targets Muslims with a cousin-marriage ban aping Farage’s party
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/10/nigel-farage-has-a-new-political-bride-not-his-cousin/

    BTL

    In Turkey where the majority of people are Muslim you have to have a DNA test before you are allowed to get married. This is a pragmatic solution to the fact that marriage between blood relations is so high that far too many children are born deformed.

    Some English friends of ours well into their 60s who were residing in Turkey decided to get married; when they went for their DNA tests they were told that in their special circumstances the tests could be waived!

    This discussion of who should marry whom reminds me of the Lance Percival calypso song; Shame and Scandal in the Family.

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

  47. I perhaps should have done better.

    Wordle 1,271 4/6

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

  48. I perhaps should have done better.

    Wordle 1,271 4/6

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

      1. ‘Will no-one rid us of this dangerous fool’………can’t believe they’ll be re-elected, but they have a lot of support younger generation. Uff..

      1. Watched PMQs for a few minutes, Starmer still batting Kemi away…’last government, yadda yadda, cleaning up the mess etc..’ Onto Farmers’ Protest, looks quitge jolly, won’t achieve anything imo.

        1. Both Starmer and Badenoch see the causes of everything politically in much the same vein unfortunately. She's hamstrung by the fact that she's open to the same criticisms that she throws at Starmer. Starmer is correct in that all these things happened under the Tories. The fact that he's going to make it much worse isn't going to wash if it comes from her.

          No, won't make much difference. You'll know he's worried when we start hearing him trying to sound like Reform and nick their policies, like the Tories have just woken up to. We're still at the yah-boo-sucks that's easy for a party to say that's never been in government and has no responsibilities stage.

  50. Kier Starmer visits Saudi Arabia to strengthen economic ties between the Arab state and the UK

    "Despite this man's appalling human rights record, his vile treatment towards vulnerable people and the utter disdain for his obligations under international law by cosying up to violent oppressors, we're willing to give this deal a chance. I'm also acutely aware how this affects my nation's reputation worldwide" , added Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman

  51. My Teacher in School told me not to worry about spelling because in the future there will be autocorrect…

    For which I am eternally grapefruit.

  52. I was asked to dance last night by a nice Italian (well, Venetian, which doesn't really count. Interestingly, he was a strawberry blond with turquoise eyes).

    Between tangos, I was explaining to him that I used to speak Italian but that my mind had blocked it when I started to learn Spanish because it was too similar.

    He burst out laughing and told me I'd said all that in Italian. 🙄🤣

    Very pleased I am getting one of my favourite languages back, even at the cost of coming across as a complete wally! 🤣🤣

  55. How about this, it's true.
    When i had just started school probably aged a little under
    Five, I found it difficult to write the figure 8 it seemed too 'twisty and turny'.
    so being inventive I put one circle on top of another. Miss Bishop didn't like that, she took me to the front of the class and slapped the backs of my legs with her ruler.

    1. Absolute cow. I had such a one, made you hold out your hands palm up to be cracked by a ruler. I went from top of class to bottom in short order. One day I refused to go to school, my mother asked why and I told her. She went straight to school, no more cracking after that.

      1. It got worse as i moved up to the junior school next door my elder sister had already moved on the grammar school.
        My next teacher a horrible ugly old spinster Miss Williams (lived till she was over 90) must have taught her because she use to punch me in the back because I couldn't quite understand long division and long multiplication. She use to keep me in and give me chocolate in her attempts to rectify her bullying. There were some very nice teachers at Dollis Primary and Junior all the same.

        1. Bullies – all shapes, sizes, professions. I was around six years old, memory as clear as day, can see my hands outstretched wearing the sweater my mother made me. Really sorry you had such a lousy experience, Eddy, it’s nothing less than child abuse.

    2. We do seem to remember trauma events. I have a few of my own i would like to block.

      Just be glad Miss Bishop is long dead and can't hurt any more children.

      1. At junior school we were often sent to stand in (and face) the corner. All except for Frank Marples, that is.

        He was a sensitive child, perpetually lachrymose. Whenever he burst out crying (which was often) the teacher instructed a fellow pupil to place a bowl of hyacinths on his desk so that Frank could "water them". He never got over the humiliation.

        1. There was a boy in my primary school class who was always wetting himself. Teacher kept a mop and bucket handy.
          At playtime he would run up behind people and push them over. He did it to me once on the playing field and ripped my shirt (which i got into trouble over ! )
          He was visiting a neighbour in my street and he left his chopper bike outside. I bashed it several times with a sledge but it didn't really do any damage so i let his tyres down and stole the knob from the gear stick.
          Did i mention he was the son of the local Bobby? :@)

    3. I also had a Miss Bishop! She taught History, and my Dad quite fancied her! Blonde hair pleated at the back of her head, and immaculate suits!

    4. I misspelt a word in some written task, rather than just quietly correcting me he made me spell the word out loud in front of the class. I got it wrong, he shouted at me and made me repeat the spelling – rinse and repeat, him getting louder and angrier, me more and more confused.

      The headmaster kept an umbrella stand in his office, the sadistic swine stored his cane's in it.

    5. I also do my 8s like you do yours.

      When I was a draughtsman, my "twisty-turny" eights were rejected by the chief draughtsman.

    6. Do that as well because I'm left handed. It's impossible for me to do it the right way.

      1. Strangley enough I am slightly ambidextrous and my father was more so. And I have noticed two of our grandchildren do a lot of simple things left handely.

        1. The way left handed children were treated is appalling. I can't think why it would be considered an impediment to be able to use both hands for different purposes.

    7. I was caned on the hand on two occasions for untidy handwriting. The teacher separated our exercise books into two piles – the sheep and the goats. I was always a goat, despite having a good grasp of English and spelling. I was six years old.

  60. Mahmood Unveils Plans to Build “Not Enough” Prison Places

    Shabana Mahmood is today unveiling the government’s plans for more prison-building – pledging to introduce 14,000 new places by 2031 costing £10.1 billion. Mahmood is coming out straight away to say prisons are likely going to overrun again despite the building plans…

    6,000 places will come from four newly built prisons in York, Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire, and Cheshire. Under new rules the MoJ will be allowed to bypass councils to seek planning permission for new prisons from Rayner’s MHCLG. Mahmood had no figure on Sky News for what the actual net increase in prison places would be as a result of the policy thanks to many being taken out of circulation. Labour is relying on David Gauke’s sentencing review, set for release in spring, to alleviate pressure on prison places as Mahmood promises: “I am not going to do any more emergency releases.” See if that one holds…

    December 11 2024 @ 08:17

    1. AncientPopeye
      3h
      Stop jailing Political Prisoners and deport all foreign prisoners, problem solved.

      Massey Ferguson
      3h
      What she meant to say was that places will only be required for the natives and not the new peaceful ideologists.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf94af0629f8e50653d4be4896435752e62510f476507265a2368cbf0efb9513.png
      crosscop
      Massey Ferguson
      1h
      How did we end up having a Justice Minister who believes in an ideology that teaches that wife-beating is OK, along with sanctioning punishments such as crucifixion, flogging and cutting off hands and feet for "causing mischief"? Has anyone thought to ask her about this? Anyone? I mean, having these views and being our Justice Minister should be a wee bit controversial, shouldn't it?

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e7fdb832e738297c8452e1469997ec7f5c05edd121e26f7c323e28eae8a1610.png

    2. Funny that. The "prisons crisis" is all down to the Conservatives and so who do they get to review…

  61. Lammy's decision to suspend 30 arms export licenses to Israel in September appears not to have dented that state's resolve to defend the free world from evil by sensibly destroying both Syria's navy and air force before the new Al Quaeda / Isis government gets a grip of the chaos.

    There, sometimes the job of Foreign Secretary is so easy and yet they refuse to pay me the big bucks.

    And he still hasn't thanked them.

    1. Yes, amazing what raising taxes until the pips squeak and squeezing Argentine beef farmers until they have to sell up can do for growth. He's probably just following Harmer Starmer's lead.

      Get ready for growth brothers! Up the workers!

  68. I have a pudding problem. All the family will be coming to visit in the New Year. What to serve for pudding?

    1. Daughter-in-law is expecting baby late January so anything containing raw egg eg chocolate mousse, must be disregarded.
    2. Her husband, our younger son, has been dairy intolerant since The Jab.
    3. Our other daughter-in-law has many allergies (she carries an epi-pen) which include uncooked fruit especially red fruits and oranges. Apples are fine if cooked. Surprisingly lemon is fine if in small amounts eg sliced in G&T. On top of this she doesn't like anything coffee flavoured. No dairy allergy though.

    Any ideas?

    4. Apple turnovers?

      there is something I haven't had in a long time but I'm sure you can find a recipe. It's baked apples and cinnamon. Core out the apples, slide in cinnamon stick and slow bake, occasionally baste with honey. I think it's Greek or Turkish.

      1. Thank you, opopanax. It will be something on that theme and the dairy intolerant one can have coconut ice’cream’ to go with it. I’ll also make a vanilla icecream for the rest of us. I just seemed unable to clear my mind, I kept going round and round in circles ‘circles of my mind’.

        1. That sounds delish! I also get in a state about how to accommodate all the food fascists in my family. Like you, I love cooking and am good at it – BUT!!!!!

  69. This is something of a surprise. Would never have guessed.

    According to World's Top Exports, the UK's top export in 2023 – somewhat surprisingly – was precious metals and gemstones.

    (It's worth noting this doesn't correlate with official data from the UK government, which claims cars took the top spot between February 2023 and February 2024.)

    The data from World's Top Exports suggest that precious metals and gemstones accounted for 16.7% of the UK's total exports last year, bringing in $86.6 billion (£69bn).

      1. Yes, my immediate thought was my first cousin who works in Hatton Garden. If he’s still alive. Enormously fat and haven’t seen him in years.

        1. When my gold crowns had to be replaced i sold them to a shop in Hatton Garden. I have no complaints about the price offered or their service.

          Can you imagine a third party woke hearing about me selling gold teeth to Jews? You would never hear the end of it. (Thinking about the scenes in Schindlers List).

          2. Better than that. :@)

            As the gold crowns were fitted under company insurance i didn't pay anything but the jeweller gave me £150.

        2. I use to know a very nice man and his wife from Hendon NW4, he was a diamond merchant in Hatton Garden. I believe that he was rescued by Shindler.

    3. Yes there's a diamond mine behind my house. Whenever I go out for a walk across the muddy fields first thing I have to do when I get home is to knock the bleddy things off my boots. What a pain.

        1. No, they probably really have. Actually I’ve inadvertently stumbled across where they are going in Britain to avoid Londonistan, but I’m not saying before the journos themselves notice.

      1. Crikey, are you serious? I've not heard that before, but maybe Kill Bill is investing in such evil in pursuit of his population reduction plans.

    4. In areas with 'a booming population', some sort of sterilisation chemicals should be added to their water supplies. Problem solved, though not sure how this could be applied to certain neighbourhoods/towns in this country.

        1. I used to play golf with a copper pilot. His nick name was Biggles. He went off to work in Africa.
          A nice bloke with a good sense of humour.

  72. Here's an interesting comment posted by 'Adam Gross' BTL on an article yesterday in the Speccie. I'm sure that we're all aware that the Biased Broadcasting Corporation misleads and deceives by omission – well, this is a well-documented example of it.

    "Here's a recent piece by David Collier, UK investigative journalist, that needs to be amplified – 'The BBC is openly deceiving its Public':

    Collier writes: "Make no mistake – BBC News is openly deceiving its audience. It is happening day after day, and article after article. Sometimes we can put the problem down to laziness, ineptitude, or an 'agency problem'…But often, the problem is clearly more sinister than mere incompetence."

    Collier then provides two examples.

    I wish to note the first because it has been widely circulated: 'She Fled Israeli Bombing Four Times. It Still Found Her.'

    Collier observes, the BBC depicts "the story of a poor, innocent Lebanese family, who paid a devastating price during the conflict. Having already moved several times to get away from the fighting, the woman in the image – Rihab Faour – eventually lost both her children and her husband to a massive IDF strike. A devastating story with a crushing headline…so of course, the article went viral."

    To cut a long story short, and it is worth reading in full (you can look it up via Google), based on the most basic of fact verification investigations, here is Collier's conclusion:

    "Whatever the truth, the death of the two children is a tragedy. But it is not the whole story. While the article is a one-sided demonization piece full of unverifiable tales, five vitally important and easily checked facts were completely missing:

    1. The family initially lived in a Hezbollah stronghold

    2. The family then moved to another Hezbollah stronghold

    3. The family then moved again – and again it was to a place used by Hezbollah leadership

    4. Shia from the south overwhelmingly support Hezbollah

    5. The husband had publicly signalled support for Hezbollah and willingness to be a terrorist

    These things certainly change the entire tone of the story – and they clearly do raise questions (that the journo never bothered to ask, like why did they take their children to Hezbollah strongholds when they knew Israel is bombing them?) They are also five crucial facts that the BBC did not want its audience to know." "

    Source: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/irans-axis-is-dying/

    1. I thought I'd dip into a YouTube clip of the BBC reporting the Israeli strikes in Syria yesterday. They had BBC "Verify" trying so very hard to not tell us what was happening because the Beeboids most probably didn't like to acknowledge any of it that they ended up making absolutely no sense at all. They omitted so much it sounded like a jumble of random words.

  73. How did we get here?

    School asks pupils to ‘fast’ for Gaza
    George Green’s School in Tower Hamlets are planning to ‘come together in a collective fast’ in support of the people of Palestine
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/10/school-asks-pupils-to-fast-for-gaza

    Sara Sharif’s father guilty of her murder as it emerges he exploited EU rules to stay in UK
    The 42-year-old arranged a ‘sham marriage’ that would permit him to remain in Britain when his visa expired
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/11/sara-sharif-urfan-murder-old-bailey-verdict-sham-marriage

    Allison Pearson investigation was ‘ethical’, insists Essex Police chief constable
    BJ Harrington says force followed all reasonable lines of inquiry before concluding no offence had been committed by Telegraph journalist
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/11/allison-pearson-essex-police-investigation-harrington-chief

  74. I am not very often reduced to tears but the report on the Sharif case managed it. 70 injuries and 25 old fractures found on the body of the 10 year old. Another immigrant who had overstayed his student visa and played the system. More arriving daily, so its not going to stop.

    2. That poor, poor child. Those people truly are sub-human savages, and any found to have committed such unimaginable torture, especially against their own child/relative's child, should be deported with no right of appeal.

      1. It seems after her polish mother had quit the scene her father and stepmother were trying to achieve full Islamic dedication from her.
        It's hard to imagine how horrible it must have been for that lovely little girl. Those people who so violently killed her should be exterminated.

      2. I don't agree with you, MumIsBusy. Ready Eddy (below) has the correct solution. Don't deport the sub-human savages, exterminate them.

        1. If only we could. But deportation and a lifelong ban on returning is probably the next best option.

      3. You will notice, Mum, that no order for deportation to their home country was

        made by the Court.

  75. I am not very often reduced to tears but the report on the Sharif case managed it. 70 injuries and 25 old fractures found on the body of the 10 year old. Another immigrant who had overstayed his student visa and played the system. More arriving daily, so its not going to stop.

  76. Minister hints jury trials WILL be scrapped for some Crown Court cases to help deal with massive backlog

    And so it begins.
    Do they have juries under Sharia?
    Rhetorical question.

    1. They do. They are all old men with beards. If you find yourself in front of them then naturally you are guilty.

      2. Especially if you are a woman or any sort of 'infidel.' That sort of apology-for-men are a malignant cancer on civilisation.

  77. The BBC has at least twice today broadcast a reply to a question about Ukraine and Donald Trump. I think it was the Minister for the Armed Forces, Luke Pollard. He said that, because of Trumps intention to stop funding Zelenskyy and his mates, the UK, France and Germany should jointly warn the Russians about reinforcing their control of the areas they presently occupy and that the three countries should deploy British and EU servicemen in Ukraine. I am too old to dig a nuclear bunker so I shall just increase my stock of necessary fluids. The lights may be going out all over the world – again.

    1. Buy water purifying and iodine tablets. WHILE STOCKS LAST ! If you survive the blast you will need them.

    2. Trump will likely pull the plug on NATO funding leaving the wretched EU and our useless Labour government out on their ear.

      Defunding Ukraine and NATO cannot come quickly enough for me. The western world would become a better place especially as the EU will come crashing down.

      1. Probably, but to be honest I would much rather he pulled the plug on the UN and all its sinecures.

  78. Taxpayers to foot £1bn pensions boost for civil servants
    Latest 2.8pc public sector pay rise will add to rocketing ‘gold-plated’ pensions bill
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/taxpayers-foot-1bn-pension-boost-civil-servants/

    Raquel Welch was renowned for her desirable figure.

    But our chancellor, Rachel Welsh, has Welshed on all her promises and her mendacious fiscal figures are totally undesirable.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/79da88271719377b111297ef7e3f3ef056a290a1451a227ec0e58aa5400b3ab1.png

    1. I enjoyed the historical accuracy displayed in One Million Years BC – I think she wore a fur bikini in that one to keep David Attenborough happy (?)

      1. I also enjoyed the historical accuracy of the dinosaurs, great big lizard things that just happened to have become extinct a mere 65 million years before the emergence of mankind. Not to menton the well-coiffeured hair and make-up worn by the palaeolithic Miss Welch.🤣

      2. I also enjoyed the historical accuracy of the dinosaurs, great big lizard things that just happened to have become extinct a mere 65 million years before the emergence of mankind. Not to menton the well-coiffeured hair and make-up worn by the palaeolithic Miss Welch.🤣

  79. Former Tory party chairman Lord Saatchi ‘finds love again’ 13 years after being widowed
    Advertising guru in relationship with philanthropist Lynn Forester de Rothschild, with whom he launched bid for The Telegraph
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/11/lord-saatchi-in-relationship-lynn-forester-de-rothschild/

    BTL

    Lord Saatchi said the couple ….. refused to discuss politics together, as “she will always be a Democrat; I will always be a Conservative”.

    I was a Conservative voter for most of my life but Cameron and May made me waver and Johnson and Sunak changed my mind completely and made me see that The Conservative Party had completely lost its way.

    I find it very frustrating that Jacob Rees-Mogg has a similar mindset to Lord Saatchi. He is sensible and intelligent but he is mule-like in his stubbornness and refusal to see that he will have far more to contribute to Britain as a member of the Reform Party – whose policies are far more in line with his own ideas – than as a member of the dodo Conservative Party.

    Is the dodo behaving more like an ostrich and burying his head in the sand?'

  81. Liberals are in denial over the devastating cultural impact of mass migration

    Trying to ban cousin marriage is a distraction from far graver issues in our society

    Annabel Denham

    There are few activities modern-day politicians relish more than imposing bans on the rest of us, and this week it’s first-cousin marriage on the chopping block. Former Tory chairman Richard Holden – a man so principled he staged a chicken run just before the July election – has tabled a proposal to outlaw these unions on the grounds they increase the risk of birth defects and “control women”.

    Does he have a point? Scandinavian countries are moving towards a clampdown, with Norway adopting a ban earlier this year. The risk to offspring of consanguineous couples is certainly greater – by one to two percentage points according to some estimates – but is still very low; roughly the same as it is for mothers over 40. But we don’t ban sex among quadragenarians. And I doubt those opposed to cousin unions would accept them among the over 60s.
    Advertisement

    Throughout Western history attitudes towards cousin unions have fluctuated. Eleanor of Aquitaine’s marriage to Louis VII was annulled on the grounds of consanguinity; she then married Henry, Duke of Normandy, to whom she was more closely related. Queen Victoria wed her first cousin, as did Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. Rudy Giuliani annulled his marriage to a second cousin once removed on the grounds they hadn’t received dispensation from the Catholic Church, which prohibited the practice in the early Middle Ages.

    The scholar Jonathan Schulz considers this ban a turning point for Western societies, one which fostered individualism, independence, higher trust of strangers, and lower conformity and nepotism. Until Rome intervened, marriage among cousins was common practice, gelling tribes together and leading to demarcation with other clans. After the change, our societies opened and flourished.

    In the Commons yesterday, Independent MP Iqbal Mohamed – whose speech has been subsequently sneered at, as though only a fool could defend cousin marriage – reminded us how common it remains in parts of the world, noting “an estimated 35 per cent to 50 per cent of all sub-Saharan African populations either prefer or accept cousin marriage”. One academic has put the rate of cousin marriage within Britain’s Pakistani community at between 38 and 59 per cent.

    Even assuming Holden’s objections are legitimate, the challenges of enforcement are being ignored – as is so often the case with knee-jerk prohibitions foisted on us by our illiberal ruling class. Would we jail people for marrying their cousins? Separate children from parents or break up existing unions? Some couples would choose to cohabit rather than tie the knot, some might go overseas to marry. Others would wed their second cousins: what does the government do then?

    No problem would be solved with this legislation, but a few might be created. Given how concentrated consanguineous relationships are in certain communities, a move designed to facilitate integration could have the opposite effect, stoking resentment and ill-feeling. When Roma children were taken into care in July, it sparked days of unrest in Leeds. Then there’s the likelihood that existing couples – and their offspring – would feel stigmatised.

    Press opponents of this practice and you may discover their real discomfort stems not from an arrangement made between two consenting adults, but the failure by successive governments to fully integrate the millions who have flocked to Britain in recent years. UK cities are home to insular communities, where, mentally, some residents are still living in a foreign village.

    There are genuine concerns that cultural norms which are anathema to Western liberal values are being imported and enduring through generations, with certain groups as sequestered from wider society as they were two decades ago. Migration Observatory research indicates some 17 per cent of recent migrants cannot speak English well or at all. Over a fifth of non-EU born residents are living in a household where no people have English as a main language.

    Nowhere is this bifurcation from society and our economy more pronounced than among women, with the worklessness rate for those of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage much higher than among white or Indian women. This flows into other areas: under-fives of Bangladeshi heritage are much less likely to be in formalised childcare, meaning they risk missing out on bonding with peers at an early age. The Left might argue these cultural practices are a welcome by-product of our multi-ethnic society, but they call into question our hard-won progress in areas such as gender equality.

    Banning cousin marriage is unlikely to remedy these issues. It’s yet more displacement activity, a way for politicians to pretend they’re correcting mistakes of the past while achieving nothing. In the West, consanguineous relations might feel “icky”, but the same could be said of fat men in Speedos. Let this sleeping dog lie.

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

  82. Waste Watch: The Chagos Islands deal exposes a worrying world view at No 10

    Every Wednesday, Waste Watch will expose the shocking ways in which taxpayer money is abused
    Waste watch campaign

    Labour’s Chagos Island deal exposes a worrying world view at No 10
    Dia Chakravarty
    11 December 2024 10:06am GMT

    Welcome back to Waste Watch with Dia Chakravarty.

    The increasingly curious case of the Chagos Islands threatens to commit British taxpayers to paying huge sums of money to Mauritius for the next hundred years.

    It is a rare deal where the side which stands to lose territory (and face) is also the side which willingly takes on a long-term obligation to pay an enormous amount in compensation.

    To add to the absurdity of the situation, it is the same losing side which is desperate to consolidate its losses and to get the deal over the line, while the newly-elected Mauritian government demands more time to review the agreement before finalising it.

    The Government has declared it would not disclose the cost of the deal with Mauritius.

    Nobody therefore knows exactly how much money the whole affair is going to cost British taxpayers. But we know for certain that a great deal of money – in the guise of addressing “wrongs of the past” – is expected to be paid out of Treasury coffers. Last year, it was reported that the UK would be looking at a bill of up to £2 billion.

    A “package of financial support” awarded to Mauritius is to “herald a new era of economic, security and environmental partnership”. This would include, but would not be restricted to, “an indexed annual payment for the duration of the agreement”, which is an initial period of 99 years.

    Persistent attempts by the Conservatives – under whom the negotiations were first opened by the Foreign Office back in 2022 but were shut down by Grant Shapps and Lord Cameron – to force the Government to address the issue of costs have failed.

    Not just on the matter of the agreed settlement, any attempt at scrutiny, including through a series of parliamentary questions raised by the Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel – be it on the timeframe of the negotiations, the cost of travels of government officials or details of their meetings – has had little success.

    “This government has been avoiding scrutiny and transparency at every turn”, a Conservative source told me.

    “But the British taxpayer deserves to know what this mad rush to surrender the Chagos Islands will cost them”.

    The Prime Minister’s “mad rush” to have his treaty signed off before Donald Trump becomes US President was reported by this paper amidst Downing Street’s concerns that the new administration in White House might block a deal which had received President Joe Biden’s backing.
    "This government has been avoiding scrutiny and transparency at every turn"

    To understand Downing Street’s urgency one must consider the significance of this treaty to Sir Keir Starmer: it is the embodiment of his political philosophy. The ideologies of the Prime Minister, the Foreign Office and the country’s legal class, all obsessed with their image on “the world stage”, are perfectly aligned in this case, where the deal they have negotiated serves the highest moral purpose imaginable to them: Decolonisation.

    In an article titled The Reset: how Britain can restore its global reputation, Philippe Sands, the King’s Counsel who advised Mauritius on this deal, provides a window into the world view that currently governs this country. I found it most revealing.

    He starts with effusive praise for his fellow King’s Counsel the Prime Minister whose manifesto “repeatedly invoked respect for international law” and who would “once again stand strong on the world stage” convincing its allies that “Britain now wishes to re-engage”.

    To Mr Sands, Britain’s leadership on Ukraine against Russia or on offering citizenship to up to three million Hong Kongers under Boris Johnson does not qualify as this country’s wish to engage with the world.

    Mr Sands goes on to declare that “[m]ore than any other modern British prime minister, Starmer has actual experience of engaging with the world.” In this world view, that means the International Court of Justice.

    Next, mentioning “apartheid in South Africa – along with colonial rule in Hong Kong and elsewhere” in one breath, he chides his younger, simpler self for his past failure to see the double standard of the West, until he “encountered the real world of law and diplomacy” and learnt to recognise Britain’s “air of entitlement and hubris” and its people’s persisting “sense of continuity with a colonial past”.

    Britain’s failure to have a judge elected to the International Court of Justice for the first time since 1922, making way for an Indian judge to be voted to the ICJ, appeared to have hit Mr Sands particularly hard, though that in itself seems to me to be an expression of the “entitlement and hubris” he so despises in his fellow citizens.

    He blames this embarrassing failure of the state on “Iraq, Brexit, Chagos and articles by Boris Johnson that were disrespectful of Black people and Muslims combined” which “crush[ed] British hopes”.

    Is Mr Sands teasing us, or could this hugely intelligent man genuinely believe that the same China which has declared Islam “a Contagious Disease” and put Muslims in concentration camps, and other Asian countries whose own endemic and sometime violent racism towards black people is well documented, would vote against Britain’s place on the ICJ to punish Boris Johnson for writing articles “disrespectful of Black people and Muslims combined”?

    I fear this is the exact same world view which drives our Prime Minister and much of his Cabinet. Britain to them is a country so beyond redemption because of a multitude of sins – Iraq, Brexit, Empire, Boris Johnson – that no amount of harm inflicted on our country and its citizens is too much in the service of attempting to correct those transgressions.

    On this noble crusade it must seem almost vulgar to spend a moment’s thought on how punishing these policies might prove to British taxpayers.

    The question is, how much more flogging can the taxpayer take?

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

    5 hrs ago

    Britain pays the cash to the Islands, a great slice goes into their leaders' Swiss bank accounts and with certainty money will also go into Swiss accounts by those handling the deal from our side. That's how it works and why no disclosure is being made.

    Reply by Anna Rossi.

    4 hrs ago

    And maybe some goes back to 2tk
    Reply by Richard Baker.
    4 hrs ago

    Via Lord Ali?

    Comment by jeremy friend.
    5 hrs ago

    The Chagos Islands debacle is another example of Dumbo Lammy's (and Two Tiers') naivety and stupidity.

    Mauritius never held the islands, it has no title to them, the islands are not even close to Mauritius and to ensure that Mauritius gave up any claim the British government has already paid several million pounds to Mauritius. Despite this Dumbo has agreed to pay billions more to lease back what we already own.

    In addition Mauritius is an ally of China which has already illegally taken over much of the nearby South China Sea and which will presumably want to use the islands for their own base.

  83. EU Uses Starmer “Reset” to Tell Members to Block UK Access to Energy Markets

    Starmer’s “reset” with the EU is shaping up look like a one-sided sellout. True to form, Brussels is wasting no time exploiting the PM’s eagerness to cosy up to the bloc at Britain’s expense. According to a document obtained by the FT, the European Commission is advising member states to block the UK from gaining deeper access to EU electricity markets. So much for Starmer’s promises on energy security…

    The document setting out policy positions on the upcoming “reset” of EU-UK relations states the EU’s “no cherry-picking” rule remains firmly in place when it comes to the UK and electricity trading:

    “The UK’s decision not to rejoin the single market limits the possibilities for other options to be considered, sectoral participation in the EU energy market would not be in the union’s interest and would be contrary to the European Council guidelines.”

    Using Starmer’s “reset” to give the UK the cold-shoulder…

    As Starmer continues pandering to a bloc that clearly isn’t interested in fair play, his calls for greater “market access” and “trade across the North Sea” are setting off alarm bells for Brexiteers. Meanwhile, since the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement came into force, Britain has been exporting more electricity to the bloc than it imports. Labour’s “businesslike” relationship with the bloc is more give from the UK, and take from EU…
    11 December 2024 @ 14:00

    2. Some one has got to get him out, he's not on the same side of the majority of the people who have worked hard paid taxes for their life in this country.

    2. Oooh, me too, me too! Lucky day today!

      Wordle 1,271 3/6

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    3. Well done. Late on parade. A par here.

      Wordle 1,271 4/6

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  87. Nearly there myself but, once again, had a choice of two for the birdie and chose wrong (story of my life really……) Par!

    Wordle 1,271 4/6

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  88. Par for me.

    Wearing the holter monitor. It comes off at 10.30 am tomorrow, having been attached at 10.30 am today. It'll be difficult to remove certain items of clothing tonight and as I'm forbidden from washing/taking a shower while it's on, I don't intend to try. Will take the monitor back to the clinic in the morning. I have some Chanel No.5.

    Wordle 1,271 4/6

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    2. Chanel No.5 – the only thing that Marylin Monroe admitted to wearing in bed…

      All the best for tomorrow.

  89. Labour is heading for disaster in Wales

    After the next Senedd election, the right could form a government.

    By Ben Walker

    Labour has typically been the dominant political force in Wales. But right now the party is polling in the mid to low-twenties, around 10 points lower than where it usually polls. Meanwhile, the Senedd is expanding to 96 members and shifting to a full system of proportional representation. With these two things, a dramatic change to the makeup of the Welsh parliament could be on the horizon.

    In any PR-adjacent system, or full PR system, individual parties don’t tend to get majorities. Until now Wales has been operating on a kind of halfway house version, but this change to full PR will have dramatic consequences. In a broader campaign to change the voting system countrywide, this will serve as a guinea pig experiment. Opponents argue that PR leads to deadlocked parliaments, where radical parties get disproportionate sway. Reform will see their opportunity here.

    Good news for Reform will be catastrophic news for the Conservatives. Reform were a few thousand votes shy from coming second across Wales in July. If Tory fortunes under Kemi Badenoch fail to improve, then the Welsh right in a few short years will be led by Reform – a position that will only serve to boost its profile elsewhere.

    What PR would mean for the Welsh Parliament

    How the seats would likely split in the new Welsh Senedd of 96 members

    Source: Britain Elects Created with Datawrapper
    New Statesman

    My analysis finds that Labour should expect to come first in the next Senedd election, but with only three in ten to four in ten of the seats. Plaid Cymru could win between a fifth and a quarter of the seats. (One poll even puts them ahead of Labour.) Reform, meanwhile, could win as little as 15 per cent of the seats, or as much as 25 per cent. That's 10-20 seats. There are more polls now putting Reform ahead of the Conservatives than behind. And with the expectation that Labour and Plaid would be forced to hammer out a deal of sorts to govern the country, Reform characterising itself as the “official” opposition feels probable. Though we should remember that voters will primarily be voting for Nigel Farage in the abstract, rather than their local Reform candidate.

    The Conservatives are expected to win at most one-fifth of the seats. But get this: according to the latest YouGov poll, this could put the party in contention to govern Wales – for the first time – in a deal with Reform. All it would take is a small reduction in the already low levels of enthusiasm for Labour to push the Tory-Reform majority over the line.

    The change in the system in Wales will likely give Labour its smallest share of the Senedd since inception. The right across the country is still disjointed, but in a year and a bit we might have a very different situation on our hands.

  90. Didn't start well but then it improved to an OK par
    Wordle 1,271 4/6

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  91. The guilt belongs to Sara Sharif’s twisted killers, but her horrific murder shames us all. 11 December 2014.

    Her body was found on August 10 2023 after Sharif made a call to Surrey Police shortly after they arrived in Islamabad with five children, aged between one and 13. In a recording played in court he said he had beaten her “too much” after she was “naughty” and that “I legally punished her and she died”.

    How chilling his self-serving – entirely alien – use of the word “legally”. Maybe in Pakistan it is a term freely used. But not in this country. Not in our society.

    But it is. This is our society courtesy of the Political Elites. This is what they have gifted us.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/11/horrific-sara-sharif-murder/

    1. And don't you dare cover this story on GBNews..
      Hope Not Hate say far-right extremists 'find a friend in GBNews..

      How do the Lefties look at themselves in the mirror?
      Helen Joyce explains time & time again.. they do and they find it comfy.. deep down they must never confront themselves on the issue. Just like mutilating children in the name of trans-ideology. It's self preservation. The mind could not handle it. The project must go on, it's a fight to the death.

      1. Lefties do not know or comprehend shame. Their brainwaves are so damaged and distorted that they are incapable of understanding normality.

        2. Judging from the youthful looking ones on marches/gluing their faces to the road/flinging paint over artwork, looking like GT, they're still in childhood, having been radicalised by equally radicalised mothers/man-haters.

    2. After a while MB covered his eyes. He just couldn't take any more.
      I ended up in tears – of distress, pure rage and sheer helplessness at what has been done to my country.

    3. I've turned off the radio and television when this has come on as I simply cannot comprehend the horror – it makes me explode with rage.

      Appalling child abuse, however, is not restricted to our wonderfully diverse compatriots – tragically.

      What does seem to be unique to that section of our society, is the underlying culture which appears to be able to 'justify' such atrocities…..

      Hideous Savages…….

    4. They lived in a quiet road,less than1/2 a mile from us. Lovely friendly village. Nowhere is safe from barbaric invasion

    5. Poor wee lass. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment.
      Now, I'm really disturbed, and can't see to type properly as my eyes are brimming.

      1. Me too, it was terrible to listen to the injuries she sustained – those responsible should be dealt with similarly

          4. Not more than a couple of weeks if the cons get their act together.
            If I were a warder, I would be turning a blind eye and a deaf ear.

    6. How on earth can someone talk about such cruelty as being 'legal' or 'illegal'? Where is the humanity? The kindness? The love?.
      This is the kind of creature we've been invaded by.

      May God help us.

      1. Under Sharia it probably is legal
        Justifiable admonishment.
        And if I say I hate them for it, no doubt I'm in the wrong.

  92. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/15c080ee9305890c1b14dda2a683718ca855d15dc9d5c0b5b16b02e59aa415e7.jpg UGNSPANNKAKA ("Oven Pancake").

    Here is a interesting thought: Yorkshire pudding may not have been invented in Yorkshire!

    I have already discovered that pea soup, ärtsoppa, (and mushy peas) were introduced to the Danelaw by the Viking invaders (they have been staples in Scandinavia for centuries).

    Similarly the above-pictured dish has been a similar staple for the same time span. This version of ugnspannkaka is made from a slightly thinner (but very similar) batter to Yorkshire pudding. Four beaten eggs, 200g flour, 400g milk, twist of black pepper. Smoked bacon pieces are fried then put, along with the rendered fat, into a dish. The whisked batter is then poured over and then placed into a 225ºC oven for 30 minutes until it rises and crisps just like a Yorkie. Extra bacon is added and it is served with lingonberry jam.

    Viking Yorkshire pud: who'da thunk it?

    1. Well, the loudmouths from Yorkshire claim a whole lot of stuff (spoken as a Lancastrian) so I wouldnt be surprised if they'd nicked this from someone else as well!
      I do love Yorkshire pud though, and that one looks fabulous!!

    2. Lubbly jubbly, Grizzly. My mum barely whisked her Yorkshires just mixed to combine in a metal bowl, would leave it a good hour or more…raised similarly to yours in the pic. Thanks for the memory 🙂 We're all Vikings btw, my DNA tested, good bit of Scandi.

    1. No joke really, all happening because our political idiots are so fucking (scuz language) stupid.
      I think the vast majority are sick to death of them, all of them.

  94. Does anybody believe this ban on puberty blockers for children will be enforced?
    Many years ago, we were told that a boy from a local primary school would present as a girl at the start of secondary school. The boy was rather 'soft' and averse to any sports, and there were questions as to whether he was 'on the spectrum'. He mostly spent playtimes on his own or with girls. It was unfortunate that his class was known for having some unkind, rough boys, and they had certainly given him a hard time. As he started secondary school, he started taking puberty blockers.
    I often wonder how he/she has turned out, and if he/she has regrets, but presumably the drugs he took have caused irreversible damage/changes. (I think he would be mid-late 20s now.)
    Are children just not allowed to be gentle boys or tomboy girls any more?

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/health/other/ban-on-puberty-blockers-for-under-18s-to-be-indefinite

    1. The strange metaphysical concept of a "gendered soul". Or a cult going after the vulnerable in society.

  95. What are you suggesting! Yorkshire pudding wasn't invented by Yorkshire men?
    You daft bugger ! Who ever invented it was a woman.

    The men were far too busy for culinary tasks. They were off doing men things.

    2. Yes 'Erik the Red and other Icelandic Sagas'. Very long names, for each other and their land and animals – difficult read in parts 🤔😄

  96. That's me for today. Cold and damp – though no actual rain. Same for tomorrow. And the next day…..

    Have a jolly evening – planning your Christmas decorations.

    Market tomorrow. In the cold. Grrr. Penultimate one before the Great Shut Down.

    A demain.

    1. Matt is without doubt the most consistently funny 'political' cartoonist of his generation, yet another corker!!

        2. Yes, he’s quite good but, from my personal perspective, Matt makes me laugh out loud most days!

    1. Well done Trump. Such common sense will never happen here, especially under liebour. Stop the benefits to illegals, and for any legal arrivals who cannot fund themselves (including NHS) for at least 5 years, and the flood would cease virtually overnight.
      I have no problem with those who come LEGALLY here to fill essential jobs, speak decent English, commit no crimes, and who integrate into our country.

      2. Far as I can make out, MiB…legal migration under ECHR (see NI Agreement – parity with Republic) is around 90% of the total, and 10% is illegal. Was told this by a Civil Servant, rightly or wrongly.

          1. Certainly is. Politicians all stripes seem to have no appetite for stopping either legal or illegal. Would help if they told us why.

          2. At least the ‘legal’ ones have, we would hope, had their backgrounds checked before being allowed here and we know where they come from.

  100. It's a bit weird how the Lefties always support the scientific consensus when it comes to issues like climate change, net zero and vaccinations etc.
    But when it comes to cousins having children together they go a bit silent, for some strange reason.

  101. Syrians in Germany worried by some politicians' eagerness for them to go home.

    AfD party Alice Weidel & Jens Spahn told Germany's N-TV: 'For everyone who wants to go back to Syria, we will charter planes for them, they will get a starting fund of 1,000 euros.

    1,000 euros! Barely one weeks boarding for some.
    Offer €10,000 and make it happen.
    Think of the savings on deformed cousin care & supervision, fraudulent benefit claims, translators & fly tipping collection.

    1. Syria no longer exists as a country. Part of it is occupied by Israel and the rest divided between Erdogan backed Jihadis and US backed Kurds.

      The Middle East is in chaos. The Germans are stuck with them just as we are in the UK.

      1. There is not a chance in a firey place that anyone will be returning to Syria unless they feel that they can now settle a few scores from the past and leg it back to the safety of the West.

  102. Strongly suggest putting a hold on dying until 2029..

    Tax on inheritances hiked to 84% in latest Rachel Reeves bombshell..
    Image: Grinning Rachel Reeves.

    2. Suggest that everyone puts pressure on the Tories and Reform to publicly vow

      to cancel this tax if they get back into power.

    1. That’s brilliant! I’m going to send it to my sister, who, after living in Greece, teaching English and speaking Greek for 50 years, has no language to call her own! Some of her English idioms are hilarious! She once mentioned someone who was ‘swinging the leg’!

    9. From left to right they are: John Le Mesurier, Bill Pertwee, Arnold Ridley, Clive Dunn and Arthur Lowe.

  105. I hope that the abominations that tortured that poor girl to death are treated appropriately in prison.
    Boiling sugar might be a good way to greet them.

      2. Lol i wish I shared your confidence! We live in an Alice-in-Wonderland justice system.

    1. 2. Aah! But the ever-thinking Paul did. And it will be much appreciated! Again, thank you, Paul.

  110. I found this in my inbox.

    GB News has a problem. We've become successful. It's not been easy to get here. And it won't be easy to keep it up, particularly when you look at what comes with success.

    Success can spark a range of emotions in those that resent what you've achieved. Bitterness. Fear. Jealousy. Anger. Powerful emotions that can lead people into making strange decisions, saying stupid things, making ridiculous claims.

    We saw that just this week from a group called the Centre for Media Monitoring. Quite a fancy name, and one you may be led to believe carried a bit of weight in the media world. But no. It turns out anyone can give themselves a fancy title. I could call myself the President of the Association of Highly Attentive Husbands, but Mrs Booker would strongly disagree.

    No, the grand title is attached to a project, dreamed up by the Muslim Council of Britain, that this week dropped a 50-odd page report, with the inflammatory title, "GB News – A Snapshot of Anti-Muslim Hate." It went so far as to label some GB News content, that it had 'monitored' for two years, as posing 'a danger to society.' It also, rather dangerously in my view, concluded that "GB News hates Islam and Muslims."

    The defamatory report – which was with littered with inaccuracies – was praised by two underemployed veteran journalists who really should know better and a failed politician. One of them accused us of 'junk journalism' while heaping praise on the report which had been published without the courtesy of approaching GB News for comment. If we'd have done that the same two journalists would have had a fit of the vapours before screaming from the rooftops that GB News needed shutting down.

    The report kicked up a bit of a fuss on social media when it dropped and stirred up some of the usual suspects. But even The Guardian had a look, thought it all sounded a bit potty and left the story out of their print edition.

    For the record GB News does not do hate. We may do debate, but NEVER hate. What we are prepared to do is talk about the societal and political issues that other platforms don't. What we are prepared to do is ask difficult questions. And what we are prepared to do is highlight injustice and wrong-doing wherever we see it.

    As a result of doing that for the past three-and-a-half years we have built a community that grows every day. The people trust us with the stories of their lives and to truthfully tell the everyday story of Britain today. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of all the on and off-air staff, GB News has made huge strides forward in the past 12 months.

    On TV, online and on radio we have gained that loyal trust of the British people in numbers that have increased dramatically. Many in that community had been cast aside and ignored by the establishment news organisations who had forgotten why they exist – to serve the people of this country.

    People now know that, as long as they are respectful and lawful, GB News will let them speak freely without fear of being shouted down or told they are stupid. We are the voice of the people, of every creed and religion. Anyone can join our community. We want Britain to be united, not divided. That is our aim.

    GB News isn't just a media organisation, it's a lifeline to the British people, on call to hear and amplify the people's stories in good times and bad, whenever they need us. Unlike the labelling of the 'Centre for Media Monitoring' we can justifiably call ourselves The People's Channel – because the people are flocking to us.

    We know that free speech comes with a lot of responsibility, and we work hard as an organisation around the clock to make sure we keep up those responsibilities. As we said earlier this week, attacks like this are proof that we need to exist.

    Our critics may not like it but we have achieved a level of success and are resolute in our drive to make sure that it continues. That is a problem. For them, not for us.

    Send us some money** SUPPORT GB NEWS – BECOME A MEMBER NOW **

    Michael Booker
    Editorial Director
    GB News

    1. Hate is an emotional response to certain triggers, and everyone has triggers.
      Hate is normal, and it should not be criminalised.
      If one is so confident of one's own view, one should debate with the haters and persuade them that they are wrong.

    2. In the interests of balance, the Moggster had a couple of Greenies v. Lord Monckton on his programme last night.
      The chap, although deluded, appears measured; the woman was some late middle aged JSO activist. She ranted and raved and shouted "liar" over everyone trying to speak.
      GBN, by providing balance, merely gave the doomsters the chance to expose themselves as tyrannical hysterics. I hope OfCom, which is straining every sinew to get the station closed down, approved of both sides of the argument being given airtime.

  111. Has anyone heard from "Audrey"
    She had her first riding lesson yesterday and I haven't noticed her posting for quite a a while.
    I hope she didn't get hurt.

    edit for typo.

  115. Before President-elect Donald Trump could say "You're Fired!" – FBI Director Christopher Wray has resigned, and will leave his post at the end of President Joe Biden's term.

  116. Headline just now, DM 'Midwives and nurses who specialise in genetic conditions caused by inbreeding have been deployed across the NHS to care for blood-related couples who have children.' Already approx 1.6k comments.

      2. The latest thing to chuck funding/staff at…who wants to do the boring old stuff, bandaging and the like…

    4. We had to learn that during German lessons at school. All these years later I still remember most of it.

  118. Yes, it’s tracking my heart rate for 24 hours. I hope I don’t scratch or try to dislodge the electrodes in my sleep.

  124. I’m not sure how comprehensive those background checks are, documents fairly easy to forge, what d’you reckon? Kate 🙂

    1. Ten years (or so) ago there was a drama on the telly about the couple and the fact that J le M was routinely (and knowingly) cuckolded by HJ throughout their marriage.

  126. Well, chums, my current bedtime of 11 pm approaches. So I will sign off now, and wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and I'll see you all tomorrow.

    1. No, he is coolly introducing a Trotsky style communism in this country during

      upset and confusion amongst his enemies. He's slowly but surely winning.

  129. Evening, or early morning, all. I'm so late because I've not long got back from a quiz. We won! The govt has no intention of reining back the public sector or making it more efficient.

    1. I read it the DT yesterday someone calling the Scotplod ‘investigation’ Operation Brunchform!

Comments are closed.