Wednesday 18 December: The Chancellor’s tax grabs are already backfiring on the Treasury

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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575 thoughts on “Wednesday 18 December: The Chancellor’s tax grabs are already backfiring on the Treasury”

  1. Good morning Geoff, regulars and Smut Lovers. First again?
    Today's Tales

    A little girl was telling Santa what she wanted for Christmas and as she listed one thing after another she said, . "and I want a G.I. Joe and Barbie, and …”
    “But Honey," Santa interrupted, “you mean you want a Ken and Barbie?"
    “No, Santa!" she said. “I want a G.I. Joe and Barbie!” “But Barbie comes with Ken!” Santa insisted.
    “No!” the little girl exclaimed. “Barbie comes with G.I. Joe! She only fakes it with Ken.”

    An eskimo was riding his snowmobile when it broke down. He got off, and noticed a petrol station nearby. He went over, got the mechanic and brought him over to the machine. The mechanic bent down, fiddled with the motor, looked back up and said to the eskimo, “I think you just blew a seal.”
    “No," said the eskimo, “that’s just frost on my moustache."

  2. Good morning Geoff, regulars and Smut Lovers. First again?
    Today's Tales

    A little girl was telling Santa what she wanted for Christmas and as she listed one thing after another she said, . "and I want a G.I. Joe and Barbie, and …”
    “But Honey," Santa interrupted, “you mean you want a Ken and Barbie?"
    “No, Santa!" she said. “I want a G.I. Joe and Barbie!” “But Barbie comes with Ken!” Santa insisted.
    “No!” the little girl exclaimed. “Barbie comes with G.I. Joe! She only fakes it with Ken.”

    An eskimo was riding his snowmobile when it broke down. He got off, and noticed a petrol station nearby. He went over, got the mechanic and brought him over to the machine. The mechanic bent down, fiddled with the motor, looked back up and said to the eskimo, “I think you just blew a seal.”
    “No," said the eskimo, “that’s just frost on my moustache."

    1. I was,speaking to our number three son in Dubai Monday afternoon, early evening there. He said it was feeling a bit chilly at only 25 degs C.
      Too much air-con.

    1. Drat and double drat, Citroen 1. (Good morning, btw.) At first I thought it was Commissioner Gordon summoning Batman to come and rescue us from our present government. Lol.

  10. The Chancellor’s tax grabs are already backfiring on the Treasury

    Now who could have possible predicted that?

    2. Most people with even one functioning brain cell, I would have thought. Naturally, that lets out Labour and their supporters. People will either leave (see the '70s brain drain for precedence) or minimise their tax liabilities (anybody with a good accountant), work less so they aren't dragged into a higher tax band (a friend of mine refused promotion because he would have ended up worse off) or just spend less/not move house.

  14. I am going to be contrpversial here.

    There is a big fuss this morning about how Starmer's Government typically decided in Government to do the opposite of what they pledged in Opposition, and this is sold to the public as "CHANGE". Vote Labour, get Tory.

    I have little sympathy for the Waspi women though. They are my contemporaries and quite a few are my friends. However, Equal Opportunities insisting on equality for women in the workplace has existed all my and their working life. Women have long dominated administration and teaching; they now dominate the professions too, leaving manual labour and the boardroom still the province of men for now.

    It was feminists of my age that persuaded my wife to discard someone deemed by her women's group as inadequate, and to set up with a better provider, whilst still persuing a successful career of her own, ending up as a senior education adviser with a large departmental budget and staffed almost entirely by women. I had to leave the family home, and was completely estranged from my daughter and son and remain so today. They felt my place was in a grim bedsit, not in my own home.

    It was feminists of my age who pushed me out of the workplace, and on several occasions insisting that permanent appointments were for women, in order to satisfy "Equality" targets, whilst the best men like me could hope for was maternity cover. I gave up on my career in my fifties and do not look back to those horrid times of relentless futility. I could not get a pension at 60; because I was a man, and for no other reason, I was expected to wait until 66.

    Feminists of my age bankrupted Birmingham (and their lawyers are right now going for another hit) by insisting that dinnerladies be paid as well as dustmen, despite the latter doing a tough physical job in all weathers, and the former suffering at worst cheek from children.

    The trade unions were exposed by Thatcher as much greedy self-serving opportunists as any bonus boss or city yuppie. She harnessed this dark side of human nature to her own political ends, and who can blame her? It gave her three terms in office.

    The problem with Corbyn's pledge of generosity to the Waspis is who is going to have to pay for it, which is the reason Liz Kendal turned her back on her old core vote.

    1. Morning Jeremy. the problem here is the Labour should never have promised to reimburse the Waspi's. It was not merely cynical but a bare-faced lie since they never had any intention of doing so.

    2. Indeed. The whole wimmin's equality has been blown out of the water in the last five years.. by Jordan Peterson, Pearl Davis.. even Joey Barton. The watershed moment was that Cathy Newman spat.

      1. May be the other moment was that umpa lumpa DEI hire secret service agent struggling to holster her gun.

    3. Good morning Jeremy

      You seem to have suffered painfully financially and domestically .

      I was a full time mother , serviceman husband away from home for many months ..
      I gained nothing .. financial restraints through the years .. family came first .. not my stamp ..
      Sadly now , my state pension is £90 per week .

      I feel sorry for the Waspis women ..

      Odd that the government thinks fit to reward rich countries with aid or throw money away to doubtful new regimes in the middle east ..

      Odd isn't it that the hotel bill for migrants runs into millions of £millions.. odd that Starmer is a bolter .

      Strange that those in public service including train drivers receive dream salaries and pensions!

      1. Women of working age before the Equal Opportunities Act are still hard done by when it comes to pension provision. Scant credit was given to their time supporting their husbands domestically, emotionally and by raising a family, and perhaps it is they that deserve more than those able to compete equally with men all their working lives?

    4. These women should have paid heed to the change in retirement age that was notified many years previously. I got my pension at 60 but it's permanently lower than theirs is now.

  16. Good day everyone.

    Following on from yesterday’s article on District Council reorganisation , it seems that the Labour tyranny is set to rush through ill-considered plans to reform local government, for which they have no mandate, and have ordered councils to submit ‘restructuring plans’ by mid-January. The governing cabal will then decide which councils will be gerrymandered (to keep Reform out?) by mid to late February and there will be no elections in those areas till 2026 or 27! Our response should be ‘no taxation without representation’.

    Today FSB has a piece on the Hierarchy of Human Rights and Islam’s place in that hierarchy, with Clive Matelas arguing that its very presence causes incompatibilities and tensions. Please read the article, comment and vote in the poll at the end.

    Christmas is getting closer and today we have a nostalgic short story on a childhood Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas .

    As always, your input is very much appreciated. We need your support.

    freespeechbacklash.com

    1. Thanks for that, Tom Armstrong, a beautiful story and a lovely carol. (Good morning, btw.)

  17. Lord Rothschild hosted alleged Chinese spy’s firm at event in his mansion

    The late Lord Rothschild hosted an alleged Chinese spy’s company at a climate change event in his 19th-century mansion.

    Hampton Group International, a firm run by suspected agent Yang Tengbo, claimed it was invited to the Responsible Energy Forum 2021 at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire.

    They keep waffling on about this guy. Here it’s not even him but a firm run by him. I think the problem here is that we are required to be opposed to China because of our affiliations with the US, but there is actually no real reason, so they’ve made up this dog’s breakfast.

    In my view the Chinese are being quite reasonable. They could sanction us, which in the present state of things, would probably collapse the economy.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2024/12/17/lord-rothschild-chinese-spy-firm-mansion-event-yang-tengbo/

    1. I'm afraid Xi Jinping is another crazy despot who has put in writing he wants to take over the whole world.

      However, all the Chinese south of Boundary Street including those in Thailand Philippines Indonesia just want to trade and make money for their family which is why they loved the Brits.

    2. It all seems to be lumped on Prince Andrew with little mention that this guy was hosted by Cameron, Treason May and others.

    1. I hope the water tested, ogga and possibly identify the culprit/s. We have a cheap camera set up to record wildlife esp hedgehogs, that might catch any future culprit/s.

    1. In the bleak midwinter
      Eeyore made moan
      Reeves stood hard as iron
      Lammy like a stone
      Rain had fallen
      Rain on rain, no snow
      In the bleak midwinter, not so long ago….

      Morning folks….

          1. We'll all freeze to death due to either Winter Fuel Allowance being scrapped or the inevitable power cuts during Winter caused by mad Ed Miliband.

          2. Every winter, some pensioners do die whatever cause…hope the MSM makes hay with the numbers (unless Phillipson ban on such reporting).

          6. I was just thinking (dangerous, I know!) as I watched that video that I am glad I don't rely on electricity to heat my home (apart from running the pump to circulate the water and fire up the oil boiler). At today's prices I wouldn't want to switch it on. At least I can see how much oil and anthracite I've got left and I've already paid for it.

  21. Good morning all.
    A damp miserable start with a light rain that's too heavy to be termed "drizzle".
    Still mild though with 11.8°C on the New Yard Thermometer. Yesterday was a maximum of 12.3° and minimum of 7.1.

        1. No 😀 teenspeak, still remembered and now part of family conversations :-)) Although, yes – that would be good x

  24. Good morning, chums. Late on parade today. I seem to struggle to fall asleep once in bed as I feel the cold, but once the central heating clicks on at 7 am it gets so cosy and warm that I fall into a deep slumber and don't hear the alarm, waking naturally at around 8 am. Anyhow, thanks to Geoff as usual for today's new NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,278 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. I'm afraid I have too much on my plate to do, Querida. And "Feliz Navidad y Un Prospero Anio Nuevo a ti". Don't forget to dance a tango for me on Saturday. (Rastus will tell you why on Friday night.)

        1. Ah, got you. Good luck with it all.

          I shall dance under the stars on Saturday and think of you!

          Happy Christmas x

    2. I struggle to fall asleep but not because I'm cold. Usually I have so much going on I can't switch off. By the time I've fallen asleep Kadi decides he needs to go out then I can't go back to sleep.

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    Grey and wet not very inspiring.
    The longer time goes on the more damage will be carried out by this horrible government.
    Some how we, the British public, have to be able to get rid of them.
    Surely by now all this continuous Chinese spy stuff must be some form of cover up for some other type of nonsense. The MSM seems to be making a mountain out of a mole hill.

    1. Urgghhhh…as if any of us are going to believe any words out of his mouth. 'I resign immediately' might just do it.

    2. I assume he's not suggesting we should all be confined to 15 min cities?

      My children grew up in a flat 60 storeys up in the clouds, crammed in with all the other families with two floors of clubhouse facilities & pools. The sea was in view within walking distance with masses of untouched jungle everywhere. Concrete city.. and jungle side by side. They loved it.
      I despair when I see another green field bulldozed, kerbed, signposted and filled with red brick Barrett Homes with an Aldi.. separated by a field or two then another dollop of Barratt Homes.

  27. Good morning from me .

    Restless very warm night , my goodness a real old nameless gale was blowing , stronger than previous gales , it howled ..
    Now , patches of blue sky , are we in the eye of the storm or has it run through .

    Moh was optimistic , and drove off in his old car , ( thankfully passed its MOT yesterday ), to play golf , half an hour ago .

    The outside temperature is 14c… yes and the wind is warm ! An Azorean high , maybe .

  30. And an agonising five year wait for long needed knee surgery. But not for the wealthy or 'self-important'.

  31. Доброе утро, товарищи,

    Cloudy and windy at McPhee Towers, wind South-West, 12-13℃ all day, rain tonight.

    The latest interview from Richard Vobes is a cracker, possibly the best he has done. He speaks to tech entrepreneur Richard Jeffs about Stakeholder Capitalism which is what the whole Agenda 21/Great Reset shit-show is all about. As a potted overview of why we are where we are it is really very good. Richard Jeffs may have proposed the way of stopping this because Stakehoder Capitalism is hiding in plain sight on WEF and corporation websites and in the MSM. Most people will have heard of it and many if not most will be its unwitting agents. Once it is explained to them what it is about, it may create the tsunami of opinion and outrage that sweeps it away, climate change, pandemics, Great Reset and all.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QspdOcEwa3s

    1. Everything is now about “the public interest”. The Financial Reporting Council enforces it. The ICAEW too. Ditto the Institute of Internal Auditors. All of them. S172 Companies Act 2006. Once again Bliar’s sticky fingers all over it. And the Useful Idiots gurning and clapping along.

    2. Excellent – thank you. A welcome glimmer of optimism (I hope more.pessimistic Nottlers will watch it).

      i shall go and have a look at Yellow dot org when I have a moment. 🙂

    3. As he said today in the HOC on the U turn to not give WASPI women compensation:

      “They knew of the changes taking place (eg: they are guilty because they knew about it, and then they didn’t act to put it right.) — And we can’t afford it.”

      Like Saytanists and others,

      They knew. — But didn’t do anything to stop it; or enough to stop us.

      PS: And BTW govt. cant afford it.

  34. She can't even cut her fringe straight, let alone keep anything else straight n narrow. When their mouths are moving.

  35. Yesterday’s shocking “Secret Prisoner”. No wonder Peter Lynch killer himself. No wonder they put “formerly known as Yexley Lennon” in a Cat A rather than a Cat C. We all know why. The current “thing” is State Rage, and we are suffering from a surfeit of it.

    “In my time inside I have been aware of violence around me, and I’ve been punched once, but until last week I had never encountered a really serious attack on a prisoner.

    Over the last three weeks there has been a gradual shift in the vibe of our section – a jitteriness arising from the greater frequency of prisoner-on-prisoner beatings being dished out, with more injured prisoners disappearing (some taken off the wing for their own safety), and so more new arrivals who you may not know or trust. There has been an influx of youngsters on the twos (the second floor of our three-floor wing) and the consensus is that there are a few bad apples in there.

    The prison seems to have been taking in a number of younger prisoners, aged about 18-20. As you would expect, there is a category of young adult prisoner for whom dispensations are made: not infrequently they are given single cells, or get padded up with each other. Officially they are deemed more vulnerable than older adults but, the irony is that they are much more readily disposed to violence, and ultra-violence at that.

    We are afraid of them. We call them YOs because they have been steeped in the culture of young offender institutions like Feltham, or teenage street gangs, often both. As any psychologist will explain, the adolescent brain is less risk averse and more impulsive. Some of these kids will go to great lengths to create a weapon, melting blades from our feeble Bic razors into toothbrush handles, for example, to create a pocket slasher.

    We old lags just want an easy time inside. But the youngsters want respect, glory, the thrill of the chase. They think it’s a movie. They play loud gangsta rap (speakers and music systems can be ordered by catalogue), and the phrase I have heard pounding through my foam ear plugs is “gonna make ya leak” – gangsta speak for bleed.
    And it’s being said there are also “shanks” – large metal blades – on the wing. You may wonder how it’s possible to make a metal weapon in a prison, but it appears to be very easy. The beds are metal. The flat metal strips that support mattresses can be stressed repeatedly until broken off. They are then anglefolded back and forth, shearing in two to create a pair of shanks.

    Three separate witnesses, all prisoners, have told me a serious assault happened last month. It took place during meal time, when cells are left empty as prisoners queue to collect food from the servery. All prisoners come down the stairs to exit so it’s the place to lie in wait for a passer-by. The alleged assailants, two young black lads wearing “do rags” (black head coverings favoured by, but by no means unique to, black and or Asian Muslims) pulled their victim, also young and black, into a cell on the first floor – importantly, not the cell of either the victim or his assailants.
    It felt very close: it was the cell opposite the one I share with my current padmate. Once in a cell you can only be seen by someone passing your door. Hearing the commotion, my padmate happened to look in. The victim, held down on the bottom bunk, was repeatedly stabbed in the stomach with a blade in what my padmate described as “attempted murder”.

    This attack was not a punishment: if you are debted up they smack you about but the objective is to get you to pay, not to kill you. Experienced inmates described this as more likely a “post code” vendetta related to gangs on the outside. The kids in here seem prepared to kill someone from a rival housing estate.

    I did not see the attack – I was getting my dinner – but I did see the bucket used to mop up the mess. The victim was taken to hospital. We do not know, as yet, whether he survived. If the victim did survive, he will have lifechanging injuries.
    The most disturbing feature was how it was handled. A prison officer was close enough to have known something was going on. It seems there was not much doubt about who the two culprits were. Yet they’re still on our section – you’d expect them to be in solitary on the segregation wing. It’s not clear whether they have been charged. Again, if there were cameras on the wing, they could have been definitively identified, and I remain amazed that there aren’t.

    Most surprisingly, when I asked the senior wing officer a week later about the consequences of the attack, she denied any knowledge of the event. For myself, I have made an application to return to the safer “Enhanced Spur”. I want less gangsta rap and less leaking.”

    2. Is prison a punishment within a punishment , with a holiday camp laxness

      It sounds as if blacks and Asians do what they want to do ..

      Shave their heads , dress them in prison kit , more metal detecting machines are needed and give them tough treatment ..

      Surely our prison services are too soft , the South American / Middle East/ Far East prison officers would sort a few problems out .

      Goody goody prisoners should serve their time usefully and education is key , but the other thugs should be treated harshly , soft treatment for deranged minds is a hiding to nothing .

        1. Strange how our media, who are usually into everything, didn't seem to spend much time discussing this terribly tradegy with the little girl's mother.

          2. What a terrible experience to have to learn from.
            In cases such as this i’m afraid I do not believe much our media tell us.
            I’ll bet as far as they could, they would be trying to protect the bitter elements of the more aggressive religious practices.

    3. 'Spare the rod spoil the child' springs to mind….

      Perhaps a good flogging witnessed by the inmates would quell any desire to step out of line?

        1. Something like that, I think 🙂 Seems like some countries have their rules, and stand by them….seems good to me.

  36. 387994+ up ticks,

    Be very wary of politico's bearing gifts, I truly believe farage has came in from the cold in regards to the tory (ino) party,on reflection having been a tory covert coxswain from the outset,
    steering UKIPs course in his early years.

    The future change could see us with a new governing party with some old political apples fermenting in the barrel politic.

    What peoples must try to remember is there are very,very, few good politico's,if any as with alligators they Don't make good pets.

    Dt,

    Musk ready to bankroll Farage with ‘biggest donation in British political history’
    US billionaire endorses Reform UK leader after Mar-a-Lago meeting with party treasurer Nick Candy

      1. 398994+ up ticks,

        Morning N,
        Agreed BUT, this time after decades of close shop party change and tribal family tree voting, we want beneficial change
        not just change.

    2. Did you hear that Suella Braverman's husband has joined Reform? I assume she will not be far behind.

  38. Just been out to empty the ash from the woodburner. Blowing a hooley but mild as muck. (The weather, that is).

    1. Gentle Hooley, muck and mild? I think you've got the carol's words all mixed up, Bill. LoL. (Good morning, btw.)

    3. Strong mild southerly, 12⁰C here. Gone by 1pm I'd expect. Main thing is it's not a "named storm" which means, a) it doesn't exist, b) it's perfectly safe … even if it did. Chattering classes haven't seen it.

    4. I've recently noticed that on the bbc prog Escape to the Country, in all but the most recent episodes, prospective owners always showed much delight at the site of a log/wood burner in a property. But the much-loved warming method now seems quite deliberately not mentioned any more.

  39. "Yesterday Mr Justic Cavanagh jailed Sara’s 43-year-old father Urfan Sharif for a minimum of 40 years and her stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, for 33 years for the ten-year-old’s murder. Sharif’s brother Faisal Malik, 29, who was found guilty of causing or allowing Sara’s death was sentenced to 16 years."
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/why-was-saras-sadistic-murderous-father-not-stopped-we-all-know-why/

    The Death Penalty for murder in the UK was suspended in 1966 and abolished in 1969.

    We were assured that a life sentence was not a specified minimum term but a sentence for life.

    This has proved to be empty verbiage just as Mrs May's statements that "Brexit means Brexit" and "No deal is better than a bad deal" was mendacious empty verbiage.

    1. Starmer was listening closely to what she said, though. He always thought BREXIT means BRINO.

        1. I always remember the old cartoon when people say that. A little birds nest gets built on it by a blue bird and don’t some eggs hatch before babies fly away. Yep, Pinocchio is fooling no one frankly.

          2. I user the natural light in the garden, so only get a limited time in deepest December. Finished now for the day.

          3. It’s much the best – I have a daylight lamp which is fine on red and blue bands..but yellow glares too much…

      2. As far as he's concerned, Starmer thinks a vote to leave was only a temporary aberration which he must remedy by re-entry.

        1. Absolutely so. His tiny little world governed by petty-fogging laws that he makes up and the children take looked like it was slipping away.

  40. Morning all. Very windy and very dark. A not very inviting day at all. Thought I might post this for the benefit of those who don't have a sub to the Telegraph

    Annabel Denham
    America is about to expose how authoritarian Britain really is
    The cost of our free speech crackdown be immense. Yet our blancmange, impotent political class is pressing ahead regardless

    Britain is on a dangerous path. On almost every metric, we seem to be going backwards. GDP has flatlined, productivity is stagnating, public spending has soared. Government is struggling to perform even its most basic functions, and we’ve not built anything since Duran Duran were topping the charts.

    But it’s the downgrading of freedom as a value that is most troubling. Britain was once the citadel of free speech, where opinions that were obviously crazy, and which some would find offensive, were accommodated.

    We believed not in silencing those with whom we disagreed, but civilised debate and the principle that free speech is the best defence against “bad” speech. Now, politicians seem to search out ways to neuter open discussion under the guise of public protection.

    Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Online Safety Act (OSA), which received Royal Assent a year ago. Few will have heard of it, fewer still will oppose it given the Act is ostensibly designed to protect children from exploitation and harm online. The thinking behind the OSA is that, because words are dangerous and can lead people to do bad things, tech companies have a duty to police human interactions on their digital public space. Thus the state is mandating digital platforms rapidly remove anything that they reasonably infer could be illegal, on an industrial scale using automated systems. Those which fail face hefty fines.

    It is right that we outlaw incitement to violence or support for terrorist organisations. But the OSA goes beyond this, and is so broadly drawn that it will encourage platforms to remove any content on controversial issues.

    The Tories were warned about the unintended consequences. They were informed of the costs to business, the difficulty smaller firms in particular would have with compliance, and the corresponding effect on competition. They were told that firms, struggling to navigate the minefield of online speech moderation, would resort to censorship.

    But never underestimate the MP saviour complex. Under pressure from children’s groups, they pressed ahead. “We get this all the time,” Matthew Lesh of the Institute of Economic Affairs tells me. “Politicians behave as though we can eliminate ‘bad’ outcomes with no negative effects, then leave it to the regulator to turn poorly-drafted legislation into workable and enforcable rules.”

    And we’re now at this point with the OSA, with Ofcom – a quango with a questionable history of upholding free speech – this week publishing its first-edition codes of practice and guidance. The first thing to note is that Ofcom states, ominously, that “this is only the beginning”, with more consultations to follow.

    The second is that, within hours, a little-known but much-loved cycling forum – LFGSS – announced it would be shutting down on the day before the OSA is enforced next March. Its founder, Dee Kitchen, is convinced there hasn’t been a single instance on the forum of any of the behaviours the Act was created to prevent. However, they explain, the personal risk is too high. “We’re done… I have no way to dodge it. [The Act] simply does not care that this site and platform is run… to reduce loneliness, reduce suicide rates, help build meaningful communities,” they posted on Monday.

    LFGSS might have been the first to act, but they won’t be the last. Did the Tories consider the immense risks these forums would face operating in the UK? Did they question how, by shuttering down these places for discussion and debate, they would narrow the field of acceptable speech? Did they ask whether the internet could ever truly be safe?

    A great irony is that this legislation, which is a gift to woke Lefties who tend to believe in “free speech for me but not for thee”, was enshrined by a supposedly conservative government. Consumers will now lose out as a result, small firms will close. At a time when investment into the country is under threat and the number of firms set up by foreign-born founders is dropping, we are sending a powerful message that Britain is no longer “open for business”.

    And we are wilfully damaging our own reputation. As our snivelling, nannying politicians continue to restrict our room for manoeuvre, the US is about to usher in a new, pro-free speech era. Trump promised, if re-elected, to sign an executive order “banning any federal employee from colluding to limit speech” and to “fire any federal bureaucrat who engaged in domestic censorship under the Harris regime”. We could be about to see what the freedom we so casually discarded really looks like.

    The costs will be incalculable. Which is probably why our increasingly blancmange, impotent political class voted for it.

    1. Thanks Jonathan, most enlightening. The Torygraph it appears has noticed that there might be economic consequences to a suppression of free speech. I cannot help thinking that they're just a tad behind the curve over this one.

      "because words are dangerous and can lead people to do bad things"

      ..is the most observant point that they made.

      While true that the suppression of dialogue and disagreement leads to an intellectual and concomitant financial wasteland the more important point is that once government realises free speech has been successfully forced out of the public square then they'll be waking up to the realisation that even more free speech is nevertheless being carried on beyond their hearing. They won't like that. They'll be incensed in fact and I bet the Torygraph will awaken to that one as Johnny comes latelys too.

      It'd be great to get some genuinely good journalism back.

      1. I'm already old and cranky, James – doubting now I'll see it before I croak. Aside from that, Good Morning :-))

        1. Good morning indeed, well good afternoon now. Phone charging so I retreated to my summer house to continue painting a picture I'm working on. Apart from the direction of the wind I doubt much has changed in the world since I was gone 😏

          1. Oh my, music to my ears….will you say your medium/subject. No probs if not, James. Currently wrestling with gouache….you’re right, we’re in the doldrums…

          3. Some say gwash…let’s call the calling off off…😂😂 the soluble version is easier than the acrylic version. The original is the one illustrators used before they used software as they do now.

          6. I thought you might be…the old-fashioned one, not the modern water soluble ones 🙂 Landscape artist?

          7. Most often, yes. If you remember a photo I put up a few months ago of a visit to a railway I made in the summer, on this occasion I’m doing that to keep me occupied. It’ll take a while as it’s intricate; not to mention I’ve never painted a train before!

          8. Sorry, don’t recall that one, James – look forward to the new one tho 🙂 I noticed when I was first starting to learn – men often seemed to draw/paint anything with straight lines or angles – trains, planes, automobiles, buildings, using oils….women more flowers, gardens, babies, that sort of thing, using (mostly) watercolours. That’s changed I think, with the advent of acrylics.

          9. One of my first some 35 yrs ago was a mill, (straight lines). I soon went on to landscapes.

          12. Don't admit that in public! 🙂 I'm acrylics and watercolours myself, but I do occasionally dabble in oils.

        2. Good morning indeed, well good afternoon now. Phone charging so I retreated to my summer house to continue painting a picture I'm working on. Apart from the direction of the wind I doubt much has changed in the world since I was gone 😏

      2. The problem is, letting problems fester without lancing the boil and shutting down talking about it doesn't make it go away, it just makes it toxic. It's like shaking a pop bottle and keeping the top firmly screwed on. Something will eventually give.

        1. Yep, always my view. Best get it all out in the open where you can attack it if its bad.

    2. There were very few Tories in the last government. The great majority were LibDems who joined the Conservative party because it offered their only chance of getting in power.

      1. Now that the Lib/Dems won over 70 seats to Reform's 5 with far fewer votes in the last election Davy seems to have lost all his enthusiasm for Proportional Representation.

  41. Reposted from late last night

    Labour’s socialist attack on private schools is born out of pure spite
    Unlike Ebenezer, Scrooge Starmer has no conscience and his moronic policy will force 35,000 students to leave their schools this Christmas.
    Allison Pearson : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/17/labours-socialist-attack-on-private-schools-is-spiteful/

    BTL

    Bringing in the VAT raid on private schools in the middle of the school year is an act of SHEER EVIL

    The lives of both the children in private schools who have to leave school in mid-year and the lives of those in some state schools which have suddenly become even more overcrowded will be very upset.

    I think that Bridget Phillipson is a sadist and she is very much enjoying the misery she is causing.

    1. Apparently one of the consequences is that children are having to be transported out of the county they live in because there is no room in their home counties schools for them. Socialism, isn't it wonderful. Ruin the lives of old people and children, vote Labour!

    2. Lord Pannick to take on government over VAT decision on private schools
      https://www.cityam.com/lord-pannick-to-take-on-government-over-vat-decision-on-private-schools/

      But by the time this comes to court and a judgement is made the damage will have already been done to young people's lives and many excellent private schools will have been forced to close for ever.

      I hope the angels of Hell: Beelzebub, Mammon, Belial and Moloch keep stoking the fires of Hell so they are burning brightly when Satan welcomes Bridget Phillipson to his domain.

    3. Just take a deep breath, and remind everyone.. it has to be this way. It's the best way.
      Starmer has to get worse. Be really really bad.. consistently bad across the board, every sector.

      Then, the good people of UK will rip the plaster off in rage & rid themselves of;
      Labour. Woke. DEI. CRT. migrant invasion. ESG. BBC tax. Lammy. Farmer-harm. Khan. Islam. Net-Zero. ECHR. EU. Equalities Act. Supreme Court. Ofcom. OBR. Jaguar.

      Remember. If Starmer had Blair's flair.. he'd be in for 10 years or more. Then replaced by a soggy wet Tory.

  42. "We don't have inflation because the people are living too well. We have inflation because the government is living too well." Ronald Reagan

    1. Always spot on. Love his jokes…chicken with three legs etc…or a chap on your doorstep 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'….

      1. Good morning Katie (If I may so address you?)

        Starmer could never match Regan's charm, humour and wisdom. Reagan was self-confident but most of our politicians seem to be constantly looking over their shoulders and worrying if their position is secure.

        1. Of course..some people find my first name a tongue-twister (my grandmother for one) so it’s a good way around that :-)) Reagan had a lot of experience as Governor of California, he knew economy was key, and how to get people on his side. Starmer a pigmy by comparison – and I’d be interested to see demographic of who exactly voted for him/Labour…young people mostly I think, wonder if they found their info via f/b…

        3. That's because they operate in an atmosphere of dog eat dog and are always expecting a knife between the shoulder blades.

    2. Always spot on. Love his jokes…chicken with three legs etc…or a chap on your doorstep 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'….

    3. Borrowed for use on some Canadian sites.

      The saying goes well with some of the exorbitant expenses that Trudeau has incurred.

    4. I remember my fellow students (lefties to a man and a woman) were suicidal when Reagan got elected.

      1. There is no flouride indicator on these water quality test strips.
        Flouride testing seems to require a test tube and qualitative reagents.

  44. Ben Habib tells the unpalatable truth. He is the man. His falling out with Farage and leaving Reform is a tragedy.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XOpI4aMCOk&t=1485s
    Who is responsible for the mess? Every Prime Minister following Major. They are all traitors save Truss. She's the only one who gets a pass because she was in office for so short a time. However, you could argue that, as a holder of other cabinet posts, she did know.

    1. The trouble with Farage is that he is jealous of anyone near him becoming too popular.

      Farage, Habib and Lowe would be an unbeatable team but is Farage capable of holding a team together and is he capable of seeing that he must be more than just a one man band.

      1. Nah.. imho.. I believe it's the other way around. I reckon it's like that Robert Kilroy-Silk kerfuffle in 2005.

        "He wanted to lead it for goodness sake. Failed to make it as an MP twice in 2024.. and now starts throwing mud at us now seems a little strange."

        1. Bombshell new poll predicts Labour are doomed as Reform surges ahead..

          Nigel. Why is it all going so wrong?

        2. Those of us who were heavily involved in UKIP know very well that the problem and danger is Farage. His ego will not tolerate anyone becoming as popular as him. As long as he's top dog, he's fine. Any serious threat then he will throw a spanner in the works. He deliberately torpedoed UKIP, by slander, because he did not like the way things were going when he resigned as 'leader'.

          1. UKIP is now campaigning on line. I understand it's going well (the approach adopted by MAGA and the Donald). As I am not on the usual social media channels I don't know how big it's become.

          2. The latest incarnation of UKIP is not the UKIP I joined. I’m not that interested in them or the antics of their present leader, Nick something or other.

        3. I certainly prefer Reform to any of the alternatives and I do hope that Farage does prove capable of working with other prominent and successful members of his party.

          Neither too much vanity on the one hand nor too much humility on the other are good for a leader' s career in politics.

      2. I can't believe Farage is not capable of holding a team together or of seeing the need to build one in the first place. If he doesn't, and soon, then we'll know he's no more than a pied piper.

        1. Well, he wasn't capable of doing it in UKIP so why should now be any different? He wasn't a team player then and didn't build a team to take over when he threw his toys out of the pram and walked.

    2. There is no doubt in the minds of anyone with any common sense that this government is Viciously vindictive and absolutely useless. The previous government has also lot to blame for the state of the nation.

    3. Either he's British or he's a Pakistani. Man cannot serve two masters. I agree islam is THE threat. I had some blurb through from the association of local councils about "ending violence towards women and girls". Nowhere did it mention the rop.

  45. Going home later today but have to come back on the 23rd for yet more blood tests, to check that the meds are not having a negative effect. There’ll be four in all. Ramipril has just been added. The name is familiar?

    1. That's one of the ones OH takes – can't remember what for but it may be a blood thinner. Must go out now and get his next batch of meds! Back later.

    2. About Ramipril.

      Ramipril is a medicine widely used to treat high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart failure. It’s also prescribed after a heart attack.

      Ramipril helps prevent future strokes, heart attacks and kidney problems. It also improves your survival if you’re taking it for heart failure or after a heart attack.

      It works by widening your blood vessels and making it easier for your heart to pump blood around your body.

      Morning Sue. I am now on Ramipril. Though it doesn't seem to be doing much.

      2. Not sure why OH is on it then – he's never had high blood pressure. I thought it was a thinner.

    3. I hope you're feeling okay it's all a bit of a worry.

      I've been taking Ramipril for a couple of years our Susan, 5mg I don't seem to have any obvious side effects, but I do get very tired, it could be the combination.
      I'm still waiting to hear from my doctor i drop my BP/pulse chart in Monday morning, and filled in an online questionnaire i expected to be called in for an ECG. He's probably too busy in the private sector for NHS patients.

    5. Husband had that for a while, high bp. He's had a carnivore diet now for several months, off all his meds, has lost weight, all bloods etc good, says he feels better than he has for a long time. He damaged his foot a while ago, had to take him to hospital where doctor commented on his swollen ankles and said caused by one of his meds and he should come off it. When we got home, he took all his meds out of a cupboard, there were several different ones, I think 13 tabs in all. This is what drs seem to do now, rely on meds. Good luck, Sue – hope you have a champion on your side, a relative perhaps? Kate xx

      2. They prescribe a medicine and that has side effects, so they prescribe another to offset the side effects … ad infinitum.

    6. Wonderful news Sue. I expect you will be happy to be home and in a decent bed, at last!

    8. I take Ramipril 10mg for blood pressure control. Been taking it for years. Effective and no side effects for me.

    9. I was prescribed an ace inhibitor, it was so effective at reducing my blood pressure that I was told to stop taking it.

      Be wary of dizzy spells.

    11. Ramipril widens the arteries and reduces blood pressure. I should take it as I get stressed and thus high blood pressure but I put it off.

  46. This is what the MAGA people had to say about Badenoch when she wanted to come to their gala. It just confirms my point that she is not a good choice, as leader, for the Conservative Party of the UK.
    The New York Young Republicans snubbed Kemi Badenoch and the Tories from their famous annual gala because they don’t want to host “globalist losers”. https://x.com/StevenEdginton/status/1866230075257172435/photo/1 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4478f665d1c889766f0dce88ef4ba8d536a1ebca9961df95779c13f6682cce30.png

  47. It’s not that complex, grandmother was the one found it so. Will keep it to myself, for now, and hope that’s OK with you – Kate will do fine :-))

    2. Do you remember Stephano, the drunken butler in The Tempest?

      When this play was one of our set books a very lovely girl in my class was called Kate. The other pupils on the class ragged her when Stephano's song came up:

      The master, the swabber, the boatswain, and I,
      The gunner and his mate,
      Loved Mall, Meg, and Marian, and Margery,
      But none of us cared for Kate.
      For she had a tongue with a tang,
      Would cry to a sailor “Go hang!”
      She loved not the savor of tar nor of pitch,
      Yet a tailor might scratch her where’er she did itch.
      Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang!

      In fact another Kate was renowned for her sharp tongue in The Taming of the Shrew.

      But Catherine of Valois, the Kate wooed by Henry Vth after Agincourt, is portrayed as more gentle!

      1. Don’t quite know how to respond, Rastus, but thanks for your contribution x I know I can be a bit awkward. Perhaps I should get me coat 🤣🤣🤣

        1. I always enjoy reading your posts on this forum!

          One of my favourite musicals is Kiss Me Kate.

          3. I loved those programmes. Mind, I had a rescue border collie at the time, like herding cats but still very lovable. Buried in my garden now, along with others.

  48. Elon Musk believes Britain is in very deep trouble. Nigel Farage. 18 December 2024.

    There is little doubt that Musk’s contribution to the scale of the Trump victory is not to be underestimated. I have come home with copious notes of how they increased the turnout, voter registration and so much more, and all of this I intend to implement as part of the professionalisation of our party.

    It is also heartening to listen to Elon speak about UK politics with such deep care. He regards the mother country of the English-speaking world as being in very deep trouble.

    He described the Labour and Conservative parties as the uniparty, and left us in no doubt that he is right behind us.

    I have little doubt from his public utterances that Musk understands the UK’s problems. We are already a Police State and to turn this around will require not only Reform but outside help.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/12/17/elon-musk-believes-britain-is-in-very-deep-trouble/

    1. He's not alone. I've been preaching the gospel for years, but a prophet is without honour in his own country.

  49. The BBC has just won another prestigious award – The Joseph Goebbels Gold Cup for anti-Semitic propaganda.

    A 30 minute programme on Radio 4 this morning had more Jew hating rhetoric than a Nuremburg Rally. Purportedly it was a story about the problems children in Gaza are suffering learning music amid the rubble and disturbance of the conflict but filled with accusations of mass murder of civilians, medical staff, children and aid workers in a deliberate attempt at genocide by the Jewish murderers running the country and their wilful supporters in the USA and UK>

    I must admit, I have always suspected the BBC of anti-Semitism but this was beyond belief. They certainly earned the Goebbels prize – Hamas must be proud of them.

  50. That took some doing!
    Wordle 1,278 5/6

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

    1. They're a bit like locusts this lot, or maybe those scavenging aliens off Independence Day movie.

    2. As a BTLiner under the article in the DT which showed a video clip of this woman she looks as if she has been crying. Things are perhaps finally getting through to her?

      Perhaps she has decided she has failed so badly that she will have to resign?

      (In my dreams!)

  52. Mass migration brought the German government to its knees – the rest of Europe will follow

    Leaving the ECHR is the only option for countries who wish to regain sovereignty over their borders

    Guy Dampier
    17 December 2024 3:00pm GMT

    Could Germany leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) before Britain? That was the possibility raised by Jens Spahn, a senior member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), predicted to be the largest party after the next German election.

    A former minister under Angela Merkel, Spahn is widely expected to return to the cabinet in the next German government. His statement demonstrates the huge change which has taken place in the CDU since it was led by Merkel, who infamously invited Syrian refugees to come to Germany in 2015, sparking a European migrant crisis which has never really ended.

    Her opening of Germany's borders ended in disaster. Within the year 1.3 million people had come to Europe to claim asylum, trailing across the countryside in winding columns. That led some European governments, like Hungary, to start building walls.

    Despite claims that these refugees might rescue an ageing continent, as of 2021 only 54 per cent of the 890,000 who arrived in 2015 have jobs. Although Syrian refugees have made contributions in some areas, such as the 10,000 who work in German hospitals, they also feature regularly in newspapers as the perpetrators of horrific crimes, like the terror attack this year in Solingen, in which a Syrian Islamist with a knife murdered three people.

    With over one million Ukrainian refugees also having arrived in recent years, Germany has seen spending on refugees, welfare payments to foreigners, and housing costs soar. That has made immigration the number two issue in polls just below the economy and contributed to a series of state-level election victories for Alternative for Germany (AfD), the hard-Right party who have made opposition to mass immigration a key part of their platform.

    Nor is the crisis ending. Germany received 236,400 asylum applications this year alone and 71,000 illegal border crossings. In many areas the refugee centres set up in 2015 have been reopened for new arrivals. As the German economy sputters under the cost of high energy prices and the number of layoffs increases, with Bosch being the latest to cut nearly 10,000 jobs, the voters have had enough.

    Desperate to win votes away from the AfD, leader of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, has called for a national emergency to be declared so that asylum seekers can be turned back at the border. The current, deeply unpopular, coalition government led by the left-wing Social Democratic Party (SPD) has tried to head off the issue, by reimposing border controls. But when investigative journalists from the online outlet NIUS went to investigate, they found nobody guarding the borders.

    Over the years, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where ECHR cases are heard, has expanded the definition of asylum to the point where it makes controlling borders an impossibility. Many asylum seekers can rely on Article 3, which prohibits degrading treatment, to stay in Germany, arguing that they will face poor treatment at home. Those who stay long enough can rely on Article 8, which means that even criminals can avoid deportation if they can argue that it would hurt their family. That's one reason why less than a third of migrants who are ordered to leave the EU actually do so.

    The ECHR, which was drawn up in the aftermath of the Second World War, was made for a world which no longer exists, before our current world of easy travel and mass migration. That has been worsened by judges in Strasbourg, who have consciously increased the scope of the law, most recently seeking to overturn a referendum in Switzerland on climate change. European politicians, confronted by a never-ending asylum crisis and voters angry about it, are realising that their power to stop it has been usurped by these international judges. [Ah, the ECHR as 'the living instrument'.]

    That's why there is an appetite for tackling the ECHR, with Poland, Denmark, Italy, and Austria all expressing deep frustration with it. Reforming the ECHR means amending the text however, which requires the agreement of all 46 members and will be near-impossible to get. Britain attempted a renegotiation in 2012 but achieved little. As Germany is a member of the EU, a similar danger is presented by the EU's current attempt to accede to the ECHR, so that the ECHR will apply to its decisions as well as to those of member states. After years of negotiation, a provisional agreement was reached in 2023. If it does happen, it will make it even harder to reform or leave.

    Nonetheless, the fact that German politicians, in the country which previously had the most liberal asylum policies in Europe, are saying this, shows how far the debate has shifted. Whether the next German government really will do this or only wants to block off the threat of the AfD before the election, the option is on the table and the genie is out of the bottle. Any failure to control asylum will make it an ever more pressing argument.

    In Britain, the Government have recommitted to supporting the ECHR, leaving them at the mercy of the courts and frustrating their efforts to end the small boats crisis. All eyes will therefore turn to the opposition, to see if they are willing to commit to the measures necessary to restore Britain's borders. As Brexit showed, democracy requires national sovereignty. So long as foreign judges have the final say on control of our borders, the problem won't go away – and if we don't lead the way, others in Europe are preparing to.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/17/mass-migration-brought-the-german-government-to-its-knees

  53. Britain ‘can’t afford Labour’ as inflation jumps
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/12/18/ftse-100-markets-latest-news-uk-inflation-cpi-budget-tax/

    There was once a minister of education in Blair's Labour government, Estelle Morris, who had the honesty and humility to resign saying that she realised that she was not up to the job. She deserves respect for her frank self-awareness and to be fair to her, her replacement, the Bruiser Charles Clark, was no better.

    It is time for Rachel Reeves, Keir Starmer, Yvette Cooper and David Lammy to put thie hands up and say; "We have failed. We are not up to the job. We resign. We shall call another general election immediately."

    Sadly this will not happen!

    But remember that Julius Caesar dismissed the Soothsayer as 'a dreamer'

    Soothsayer. Beware the ides of March.
    Caesar. He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.

    And yet the Soothsayer told a pretty good sooth!

    BTL

    Look at her eyes they are puffy and unhappy. Rachel Reeves looks as if she has been crying in the video.

    One cannot approve of the devastation her financial decisions are causing in so many different fields: the private sector, farming, business, taxes, private schools, pensioners etc.

    But I do not enjoy watching her obvious distress – I wish she would just resign from politics altogether.

      1. Dontcha just lurve him, James, dontcha just want to smush his likkle face. Notice he doesn't seem to have made any comment on the smashed solar panels. If Norway cuts us off, we could have a very bad winter season. (I thought you were painting?)

          1. Great photo, OLT – just my kind of place, thanks. If the link cut, a difficult winter ahead, obviously. Steyn on good form today, mentions the Nord Stream. And the drones. Usual suspects.

    2. It's not going well for them, Rastus. Starmer a deer in headlights, Reeves sleepless nights. The days of cheering the Budget long past. Will they change direction? Will there be a vote of no confidence? (perhaps in '25)…..Farage watching, planning….

        1. Reminds me of a news report today. A man was crushed to death by a bear falling from a tree after other hunters had shot it.

          I'm not sorry to say i burst out laughing.

    3. Reeves spent 10+ minutes blithering on about her being a woman chancellor. Turns out she was an incompetent help desk operator with all the economics experience of a brick. The next ten she wasted waffling about 'black holes' despite not being a physicist and knowing Labour had created it by giving away 11bn to unions and another 11bn to foreigners for 'climate' something – but again, that's paying off donors through fraud.

      Reeves had her parliamentary credit card refused. She lied about her qualifications. She's a political hack with no ability or competence.

      Take the phrase 'We're raising the salaries of working people.' No, they've further rigged the price of labour. That just passes higher costs on to employers and garners the revenue more tax from that forced increase.

      If – IF – she had cut taxes and raised the tax allowances now that would truly have helped people. But she didn't. She knew what she was doing and specifically wanted to hike taxes knowing she could blame business later on, because Labour will say 'we didn't make you redundant. We didn't keep your wages down. We gave you more money. It's your evil wich bosses who are to blame'.

      And you know what? People, especially Labour voters are thick and will fall for these lies.

  55. No matter what I do with our kids, the wife is always finding fault with me. I bought our two-year-old daughter her first jigsaw for Christmas but, typically, the wife went mental.

    Some bollocks about "…too young for power tools."

    1. Jigsaws are a very good exercise for young children, problem solving and the warm glow of achievement when they get it right. Oh…you were kidding, right? power tools! :-DDD

    1. Once I read that in a tribal society (Africa? North America? Inuits?) their name for 'wildlife' is the same word as that used for 'meat'.

      1. In "The Bafut Beagles" by Gerald Durrell, wildlife in the tribal society he wrote about was called "beef" if I remember correctly (it was a long time ago that I read the book).

  59. Canadas liberal screw ups continue.

    Apparently Trudeau asked Mark Carney to become Finance Minister then went ahead and fired incumbent Freeland, telling her that Carney would be taking over. After the firing, Carney turned round and refused the offer. OOPS!

    Unfortunately it looks like Trudeau is going to batten down the hatches and try to ride this out. Parliament is in recess until the end of January, then he could well prorogue parliament.

    1. Poilievre gave a good speech yesterday evening…can he scent blood? I think JS resigned from coalition, so a fall seems inevitable.

    3. Most of us enjoy doing a job when we do it well. We do not enjoy making a mess of things and we would resign if we realised we were incompetent.

      Trudeau and Starmer must realise that their male poultry have shot above the stratosphere and they should become capons and resign.

      1. In their tiny narcissistic minds, it's the rest of us who just don't appreciate their colossal talents. Nothing wrong with them or their talents.

  61. Just had an interesting msg from GBN…crime report by Jenrick…further developments there? we'll see 🙂

  63. Just in from an hour spent gathering kindling. Quite nice out in a grey, bleak way. Not too chilly. That awaits us tomorrow….

  64. The Warqueen has a fan website with pictures of her 20's self in various states of undress.

    I think if they saw her now, wrapped up in a fluffy cardigan with huge buttons wearing glasses thick enough to be binoculars and, of all things, knitting (at speed, I hasten to add) they'd be quite surprised.

    2. Goodness me , was she a Redtop centrefold model?

      We were all young once .. with great bodies .

      Many nurses including me , in the late 1960's, used to sunbathe naked on the nurses quarters roof , RNH Bighi, Malta . The RAF used to fly over us from Luqa airport .. the aircraft they had then were reconnaissance etc..

      We found out they were photographing us .. and our photos were found in their crew room!

      Matron was not happy with us , we could only smile innocently !

      1. No, but she's been in Lad's Mags and other stuff. She tailed off with 'suggestive' lingerie modelling.

          1. Son lives in East Cowes with his partner , they frequently flutter over to Southsea / Portsmouth ..

            We haven't been over since July , time rushes by but the IOW is delightful .. They have a lovely flat overlooking the water .. rents are far cheaper there than where they lived before in Worthing .

      3. On a personal level, I would dispute your statement that we were all young once with great bodies. We were all young once, true, but the great body never applied to me 🙁

      5. We were all young once .. with great bodies .
        Nope. I've always looked like a sack of potatoes, before someone knocked the soil off. Maybe explains my lack of success with the distaff side… 🙁

  65. (Edited as I sent by mistake before finishing)

    It seems that Axel Rudakubana has refused to answer any question put to him at the preliminary hearing today, which was supposed to have started at 10.30 am but actually started a 2 pm due to technical difficulties. Thus he has been treated as pleading not guilty to all charges, which of course allows him further legal aid.

    He appears to be represented by a rather senior barrister: Stanley Reiz, KC.

    Are we really paying taxes so that this country can pay for top notch barristers to be paid to represent people like Rudakubana on Legal Aid? While the people who were imprisoned for tweets etc. after the Southport killings just had the services of the duty solicitor at the police station (many of whom appear to have simply advised their "client" to plead guilty. I do not comment on their competence or otherwise).

    https://www.lancs.live/news…

      1. I see – we get the run of the mill lawyers and NHS, while others get senior KCs and private health cover. Paid for by us, natch.

      2. I see – we get the run of the mill lawyers and NHS, while others get senior KCs and private health cover. Paid for by us, natch.

    1. I just watched the repeat of PMQs (YouTube), Reeves looks crackered (and not the Christmas kind)…lot of noise behind Badenoch, they're willing her on more, consequently did better this week than last (or so I thought, anyway). Dianne Abbott asked a genuine question re WASPI women, Starmer brushed her away quite rudely. If he thinks they're all Tory women, might just be mistaken.

      2. Moh and I have just finished watching the repeat of PMQs.

        He doesn't answer the question, ever. He won't admit he is wrong.

        I am sure Dianne Abbott dislikes him .. she was forthright and genuine .. Starmer was noticeably rude to her .

        Badenoch is crystal clear , but Starmer ignores her, the other witches sitting alongside him were tight lipped sour termagants!

        1. Backbenchers didn’t seem quite as enthusiastic today, I thought? possibly getting flack from LCPs..good.! He can’t blame the black hole, £22b for ever – why doesn’t Badenoch knock him back on that – it’s not true? or is it?

          1. Even if there was a black hole, it doesn't justify the £billions Labour immediately spaffed on abroad and unions. Some "difficult decisions" those were, weren't they?

        2. Rayner and Reeves just sit behind him when he is speaking, nodding like demented dogs in the car insurance advert.

          2. She is where she has always belonged. Quietly working away and away from the limelight.
            She was, apparently, quite good as a councillor, but being thrust into the public's eye as the first black woman MP was too much for her.

      3. Are PMQs any more than an exercise in sound bites nowadays?

        We have the same with both leaders blathering away, ignoring questions and answers in an effort to score a point that will be shown on the national TV news.

  68. A dear old friend has just brought me home and she’s gone to Westfield to buy me some groceries. Today would have been my late mother’s birthday and I’m a little bit tearful as the last time I had a stay in hospital, mum and dad were still there to take me home.

    2. Glad you're home, Sue. Tell us, after you've settled down and got the hospital out of your system, how you are later.

    3. Friend sounds a keeper, Sue, hope she wipes your tears away. So sorry to read about your mum and dad, I think of my mum every day, she died late 80s. Dad lived another couple decades on his own.

      1. My father died in 1984 and my mother died in 2001.

        I met Caroline in 1986 and we married in 1988. I am saddened that Caroline and our two boys (b 1993 and 1995) never met my father – they would have loved him and he would have loved them.

    4. Oh dear, "absent friends" never gets easier, does it? Glad you're back home now, I hope you are going to be able to rest (and hopefully relax) over Christmas.

      It's good to have friends who rally round. xx

    5. I suspect you will be feeling vulnerable health wise .. and very much alone .

      Try not to be fearful , that feeling will pass once you settle back into your own space and start feeling more secure .

      Your little engine has had a blip, many of us have had that feeling .

      D/fib stuff is a worry, but you have proved to yourself how strong you are .

      Settle down to a tasty munch , and listen to some music or watch a film .

      Well done Sue .

      You have been through a bit of an ordeal .

      Hugs from me .. and your late M and D will be somewhere in the room with you.

      When I am in the garden , I feel my late father most .. I am sure he flutters by , or is the mole that surfaces in the garden ..

          1. Speaking for myself. You know i'm just one great big show off and a personality like mine requires an audience. :@)

          5. The fact that I lock your and Phizzee’s doors at night does not make us fellow inmates.
            };-O

          6. You do realise jailers who have a conscience develop feelings for those they imprison. Unless they are sadists of course.

            Which one are you? :@)

      2. Do not stand at my grave and weep
        I am not there. I do not sleep.
        I am a thousand winds that blow.
        I am the diamond glints on snow.
        I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
        I am the gentle autumn rain.
        When you awaken in the morning's hush
        I am the swift uplifting rush
        Of quiet birds in circled flight.
        I am the soft stars that shine at night.
        Do not stand at my grave and cry;
        I am not there. I did not die.

        Mary Elizabeth Frye

    6. That's understandable, particularly as you've just undergone a worrying time. Just be thankful you have a dear old friend and make the most of being home again.

    7. So glad you are home, Sue. Back where you belong. What a lovely friend you have. Onward and upward now.

    8. Glad your home and that you've a helpful neighbour, though it sounds like you're in need of a hug!

  69. Ordered my turkey this morning from a local butcher , a small one , hen bird , 4kgs.. That will do us for a while .. there will only be 3 of us here .

    I hope the oven works .. haven't used my Neff double oven since last Christmas .. air fryer and hob were the best re savings on the bills .

    3. Cook it the American way, plunge the raw beastie into a big pot of boiling cooking oil (subject to Grizzlys approval of course) and hope that nothing catches fire.

  70. Turkish crime boss jailed for heroin offences allowed to remain in UK on human rights grounds

    Drug dealer’s claim backed by UN Refugee Agency despite Home Office saying he poses ‘danger to community’

    Charles Hymas, Home Affairs Editor

    18 December 2024 2:40pm GMT

    A Turkish crime boss said to be one of Britain’s biggest drug dealers has won his human rights battle against deportation.

    The man, who was jailed for 16 years for plotting to supply heroin across the UK, won the right to remain in the UK on the basis that it would breach his human right to a family life, even though he had an extra-marital affair with a woman in Turkey who he married to “preserve her honour”.

    The 70-year-old drug dealer, who was granted anonymity, also claimed that as an Alevi Kurd he would be persecuted if he was deported to Turkey.
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/12/18/turkish-crime-boss-jailed-heroin-offences-allowed-to-stay/

    Kevin Wells
    1 hr ago
    What a pathetic Country we have become when we allow a bigamist drug kingpin whose illegal activities affect and ruin so many lives and families is not deported.
    Can’t wait for the political pendulum to swing to Reform, maybe then we could have a government that put it’s citizens first.

    David Spencer
    1 hr ago
    Reply to Kevin Wells – view message
    Common fact , The Turkish have always Ruled the Heroin Trade
    from London On a violent Scale.
    This decision is Absolute Joke.
    What a S…T Show this Country has become..

    Todays Opinion
    1 hr ago
    Reply to Kevin Wells
    Clearly an ECHR claim is the 'get out of jail free' card. Trumps all reasonable counter claim. Madness from the judges again. Will they say the same if a child of theirs becomes an addict?

      2. We're not humans. Get a criminal career or hail from elsewhere and the purse (with our hard earned money in) miraculously opens and you will access the Rule of Lawlessness which is the ECHR reinforced by the UN.

    2. The law is there so that civil society can function for the benefit of the group. If individual rights are put above those of the group then that society is not working for the majority as it should. It would seem that in this case the immigration judges have gone rogue and should be removed alongside their judgement because they have put the individual rights above those of society. There must be a process where judges can be held to account and deeply flawed rulings questioned. I find the story deeply unsettling insofar that almost every aspect of the case shows that the subject has committed serious criminal acts and is not under any credible threat in Turkey. And yet, our weak system rules in favour of a criminal and against the laws of the country. The justice system is already overloaded and sees thousands of potential criminals arrive on our shores each month. It will only get worse, and I can only scream, as no one in authority takes any notice as we continue to import the world's criminals who then act with impunity whilst protected by our legal aid system.

      1. What a novel idea! More likely he'll be given a bigger council house and his benefits will be increased.

    5. “However, the immigration tribunal was told that he had returned to his homeland eight times since he came to Britain without facing any persecution”.

      There is no logic to this decision, it really is outrageous. I wonder what the make up was of the tribunal? It’s a bloody disgrace.

      1. It would be good to see a photo and political details of the members of the tribunal. I have a feeling I can guess what they would be.

  71. Miliband’s net zero grid upgrade means household charges will almost double

    Consumers to pay for massive power network upgrade ahead of net zero deadline

    1. Good luck with that Millib****** ….if there's a hard winter, pensioners get ill or even die due to WFA stopping, plus more solar panels being destroyed by wind…turbines having to be stopped turning due to high winds…let's hope the Norway link holds up. I suppose that's one way of reducing electric bills as there would be little to no supply…

    2. Today my outside (solar powered) lights have barely raised a glimmer; it's been dull, drizzly and generally miserable. When there's no real generation, only unreliables – sorry, renewables – that's what our electricity supply will be like.

    5. He should be grilled in a live interview. Just watching the watery fat dripping into the grill pan would cheer me up.

    1. Well I eventually got there
      Wordle 1,278 5/6

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

      2. I'm with you, richardl,

        Wordle 1,278 5/6

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

    2. Par here too.

      Wordle 1,278 4/6

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

    3. #MeToo – after 3 guesses I could see only one possible answer, so a relatively straightforward par……

      Wordle 1,278 4/6

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

    4. But, but, but… I told how to do this yesterday, lacoste. Please click on my avatar and scroll down through all my posts. Good luck.

        2. As opposed to having the last four rows with just one letter missing, and each time the guess is wrong… :o)

      2. Well done.
        Wordle 1,278 4/6

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

  74. Evening, all. Having a well deserved rest today. Managed to sleep in eventually (up at 04.30, 08.30 and eventually managed to resist Kadi's siren calls to deliver his breakfast until 10.40). Since then have only had a potter around and a long soak in the tub reading a trashy historical novel.

    Anybody with a shred of fiscal nous would have foreseen what would happen. Of course, Labour governments don't have any, hence Attlee, Wilson, Callaghan, Blair, Brown and now Starmer have all been useless.

        1. If i had the time i could teach you how to be more selfish…but i don't. I'm busy pampering myself.

  77. That's me for today. It will rain ovenight and then the temperature drop considerably. It is said that tomorrow will be sunny. I hope so. t makes cold weather less awful.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

  81. The controversial judge who freed Farage’s milkshake attacker

    Judge Tan Ikram is facing renewed criticism over his decision not to jail Victoria Thomas Bowen, amid claims of a ‘two-tier’ justice system

    George Chesterton

    18 December 2024 4:48pm GMT

    Whichever judge had been asked to decide the fate of the woman who assaulted Nigel Farage, amid repeated claims that Britain suffers from a “two tier” justice system, might have considered themselves on a sticky wicket.

    For Tan Ikram, the country’s deputy chief magistrate, the task was particularly unenviable. For Ikram, who turns 60 next year, has arguably become Britain’s most controversial judge in recent years.

    From “liking” a post on social media that described Israel as a “terrorist” state, to deciding not to jail three pro-Palestine protesters he found guilty of brandishing images of Hamas paragliders, and finding a transgender activist who told a crowd to “punch a terf” not guilty of intentionally encouraging the commission of an offence, Ikram’s actions have repeatedly drawn public criticism.

    Ikram’s past controversies might help to explain the level of feeling among some of those who criticised his decision to give Victoria Thomas Bowen, who threw a milkshake at Farage on June 4, a suspended sentence and unpaid work, rather than a custodial sentence, for assault by beating and criminal damage. Thomas Bowen, a 25-year-old Only Fans model, had pleaded guilty and prosecutors said she had said “she did not regret her actions”. Ikram said her probation officer claimed that she showed “genuine remorse”, but he added: “The facts suggest otherwise.”

    Responding to the sentencing, Farage said: “We now live in a country where you can assault a Member of Parliament and not go to prison. The latest example of two-tier justice.”

    Farage and many other prominent Right-wing figures have railed against what they see as an overbearing approach by authorities towards those on the Right, while failing to deal sufficiently harshly with, for example, anti-Semitic incidents on pro-Palestine marches.

    “This is a clear case of two-tier justice,” says Suella Braverman, the former home secretary and attorney general, of the Thomas Bowen ruling. “No ifs or buts, anyone who threatens or attacks any candidate for public office should go to prison. Lenient sentences like this damage the reputation of the judiciary and put the public in danger.”

    In isolation the sentence might not have been noteworthy, in that the decision to not send a young woman into our overcrowded prison system is hardly uncommon. Ikram himself said in his sentencing remarks that while attacking politicians “is a dangerous trend and one which we must all do our part to counter… I am required to consider whether I can suspend a sentence in every case, especially short prison sentences. I have reflected carefully on the necessity of an immediate sentence with the current prison populations. I have just about been persuaded to suspend the sentence I will impose.”

    However the decision to allow Thomas Bowen to avoid prison is stoking concern about how the controversies involving Ikram are affecting public perceptions of the judiciary.

    “The critical point of any justice system is that it has to maintain public confidence and anything that might undermine confidence is extremely concerning,” says Lord Wolfson KC, the shadow attorney general, who previously spoke out over Ikram’s public comments about his jailing of a police officer in 2022.

    The Judicial Office pointed out that judges cannot comment on individual cases. Ikram did not respond to a request for comment on the criticisms of him and broader issues raised by the examples given in this article.

    Ikram describes himself on an online profile as “not a stereotypical judge”, coming from “a very ordinary background”. His mother was a factory worker and his father was a postman and he worked as a mobile phone salesman before becoming a solicitor in Slough, where he grew up. Ikram is the country’s deputy lead “diversity and community relations judge” and in 2022 was awarded a CBE for services to judicial diversity.

    In February Ikram presided over the trial of Heba Alhayek and Pauline Ankunda after they had attached images of paragliders to their backs, and Noimutu Olayinka, who had attached another to a sign, during a pro-Palestinian march. The “paraglider girls” had been found guilty under the Terrorism Act of appearing to show support for a terrorist group, since paragliders had been one of the ways Hamas had launched its attack on Israel on Oct 7 2023. Ikram said he had “decided not to punish” the women and issued a 12-month conditional discharge. “You crossed the line,” he said, “but it would have been fair to say that emotions ran very high on this issue.” He also said, “I want to be clear, there’s no evidence that any of these defendants are supporters of Hamas, or were seeking to show support for them.”

    In the eyes of Ikram’s critics, “emotions” were a debatable reason for mitigation. Shortly after this, it was revealed that he had been disciplined by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) for allowing a “perception of bias” in the judiciary. He had liked an anti-Israel post on LinkedIn, which he said he had tapped twice inadvertently, an explanation accepted by the investigation.

    In June, Dame Sue Carr, the Lady Chief Justice, upgraded an initial recommendation to issue Ikram with advice on his contact, to issue the judge with a formal warning.

    “After careful consideration, the Lord Chancellor and the Lady Chief Justice were not satisfied that a sanction of formal advice was sufficient in this case,” a statement from the JCIO said. “In reaching their decision, they took into consideration that, in addition to having breached the guidance on social media use, the judge’s actions caused significant reputational damage to the judiciary, as evidenced by the extraordinary number of complaints made to the JCIO.”

    Two years earlier, in 2022, Ikram jailed PC James Watts for 20 weeks for sharing jokes on WhatsApp making fun of the murdered George Floyd, whose death in Minneapolis in 2020 led to the Black Lives Matter protests. In a diversity presentation to students at the College of DuPage in Illinois, Ikram discussed his sentencing in the context of institutional racism saying, “We’ve still got a lot of work to do” and “I gave him a long prison sentence. The police were horrified by that.”

    “The tradition that judges don’t discuss their cases was there for a reason,” says Wolfson, who criticised Ikram in March, when details of his remarks about the case became public. “It wasn’t to keep justice secret, but it was because that’s just not how a sensible justice system works. If you discuss it the case never ends – the judge gives a sentence then gives a talk about it and answers questions about it. We don’t want to get to a place where judges are recognised on the street – not because of their safety but because justice is not a branch of entertainment. Judges need to be careful about what they say.”

    Ikram separately faced accusations of leniency in August 2023 when ruling on the case of Sarah Jane Baker, a trans woman who had told a crowd at a pride event to “punch a terf [a slur against gender-critical women]”. Addressing activists at the march, in July 2023, Baker said: “If you see a terf, punch them in the f—ing face.”

    Baker had been released from prison three years earlier after serving 30 years for the kidnapping and attempted murder of a relative, and for attempting to kill another prisoner while incarcerated.

    But Ikram cleared her of “intentionally encouraging the commission of an offence” at the march in July 2023, remarking: “I think it’s also possible you’re just, as you say, an idiot who was trying to get attention to your cause, that you didn’t intend for people to do it, but you said it because you wanted the publicity.”

    In a further case, in May 2024, Ikram found Met Police officer PC Perry Lathwood guilty of assault for handcuffing a black woman who was refusing to show her bus ticket at an inspection. While conceding that “it was not through bad faith”, he said Lathwood had “crossed the line and got it wrong” and fined him £1,500. Four months later this was overturned at appeal. Rick Prior, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, described Ikram’s decision as “erroneous and perverse”.

    At the very least, suggests Wolfson, the controversies involving Ikram highlight the need for judges to fully explain their actions to a concerned public.

    “Judges need to give clear reasons for the decisions they make in every case, including the sentence, so that the public understands clearly.”

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

    Hugo Z Hackenbush
    22 min ago
    Ikram is an ignorant moron, he and his colleague Paul Goldspring have long track records of letting criminals whose activities might be judged as 'favoured by the left' walk free, while harshly punishing anyone on the opposing political side of the divide. They should be removed from the bench. We are indeed as many have said for months, living in a two tier state. edited

    Rainy Day
    1 hr ago
    These are not 'claims' of two tier justice.
    It is observed reality.

    Peter Hamilton
    23 min ago
    That Palestinian badge that the defendant was wearing certainly didn’t damage her cause!

    Scipio Britannicus
    1 hr ago
    So why is he still a judge.

    Joe Masapoes
    35 min ago
    Reply to Scipio Britannicus
    Because he’s of Pakistani origin – DEI rules the roost

  82. From the Church to the Museums, institutions are betraying our trust

    Reparations and returns are faddish Leftist causes that those running public bodies have no business pursuing

    Robert Tombs
    18 December 2024 3:36pm GMT

    How is it that major institutions do things that are against their own interests, immune from public scrutiny, and damaging to the nation generally? An obvious answer is that “woke” or “radical progressive” shibboleths have become pervasive. Espousing them gives career and publicity advantages. Or at least so it is hoped: the recent Jaguar rebranding fiasco shows that this may not always be so.

    Public institutions should be different. Most people, I imagine, suppose that they have effective checks and balances, and legally or morally binding rules. Capture by a self-promoting clique – as in the Royal Society of Literature, exposed in an excoriating essay in the Left-of-centre monthly Prospect – could surely not happen to great public institutions.

    Or so we might think. Yet strange things are happening. Two of our greatest – the British Museum and the Church of England – have been behaving in ways that are indeed against their own interests, immune from public scrutiny, and damaging to the nation.

    The British Museum, through its chair of trustees George Osborne, is seemingly trying to give away one of its greatest treasures, the Elgin Marbles. This plan temporarily ground to a halt only because the Greek government refused to go along with Osborne’s wheeze of making the handover theoretically a loan in order to get round British law. Instead, Athens demanded outright transfer of ownership.

    It is now apparently being claimed that there is a “moral obligation” that overrides the law. I shall not discuss the pros and cons of a transfer. Suffice it to say that there might be an argument on cultural grounds for returning the marbles to the special museum in Athens, just as there is an argument for keeping them in London.

    But such arguments are rarely explained or seriously discussed by those in power in Bloomsbury or Athens. Instead, dogmatic assertions are made as if they were self-evidently true. The Greek refrain is that Lord Elgin looted the marbles and therefore the British Museum is a receiver of stolen goods. Such accusations, and hence the idea of a “moral obligation”, have been demolished in a report by the historian Sir Noel Malcolm, published by Policy Exchange.

    Every curator and trustee in the museum should have digested this pamphlet. Have they? Their plain duty is to protect both the museum and the national interest. They should not acquiesce in Osborne’s private diplomacy, never publicly justified.

    What is its aim? To boost Greek tourist revenues and flatter national vanity at Britain’s expense. We owe no such duty to the Greek government. If the issue is a grave diplomatic embarrassment, parliament should have the courage to act openly and change the law. Athens could then offer to buy the marbles: £300 million as an opening bid?

    The Church of England, represented by the Church Commissioners who control its endowment, has pledged £100 million in reparations for supposed involvement in slavery.

    Again, I shall not discuss the details of this decision, which is no stronger (to put it mildly) than in the case of the Elgin Marbles. In a nutshell, the commissioners stated that they possessed a historical fund of “tainted” wealth derived from the slave trade which it was morally obliged to use in the cause of “healing, repair and justice”. This tainted wealth, however, was shown by acknowledged experts not to exist.

    This made no difference: the commissioners had already appointed an activist “Oversight Group” committed to reparations. This group made numerous “recommendations”, all obediently accepted in advance by the commission. A global online consultation was carried out, involving a tiny number of unknown participants. It predictably demanded more cash, and the commissioners docilely agreed to try to raise £1 billion.

    What is so shocking in both cases is not only the policies themselves – which in my view show an inconceivable degree of irresponsibility – but the arrogant refusal to consult widely, the unconcealed disdain for opposing views, the unprincipled secrecy of processes, and the blatant indifference to at least the spirit of the law in the case of the museum, and in the case of the Church to the principles of governance required by the Charity Commission.

    Those responsible for the policies of these institutions are their trustees. In many countries, major institutions would be directly administered by the State. Here we have long preferred to place trust in civil society. But trustees of too many institutions have shown recently that they cannot, in fact, be trusted; they act as if they were dealing with their private property – though I doubt they would be so open-handed if it were, indeed, their own.

    Trusteeships in major institutions are prestigious positions, dominated by the metropolitan elite. In the case of the museum, a remarkable number are overseas business people – perhaps Osborne’s choice? The Church Commissioners, chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, are mostly senior clergy, with some lay people drawn mainly from business. Neither body is in the slightest degree representative of the wider society whose support sustains them.

    The British Museum Act (1963) makes it the duty of trustees to ensure that its possessions “shall not be disposed of”. The legal duty of the Church Commissioners is to provide for “the cure of souls in parishes where such [financial] assistance is most required”. Are trustees insufficiently committed to their institutions’ purposes to stand up to activists, too afraid of being called old-fashioned or worse? If unwilling to fulfil their legal duties, they should have the decency to resign.

    In theory, final responsibility goes back to parliament and to ministers, who – also in theory – choose many of the trustees, though in practice they are largely nominated by the chair.

    Some institutions, including the museum, are required to report to parliament, but this has become an empty ritual. Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister (who recently rejected financial reparations), and Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, are ex officio Church Commissioners – another empty tradition. When nationally important institutions go off the rails, it appears that no one is responsible.

    1. The proposed acts are surely ultra-vires and therefore illegal? Aren’t the Trustees worried about being sued for breach of trust???

        2. Couldn't the representatives of a significant donor eg. of a substantial property put pressure on the Charity Commission?

          2. I don't know what their standing would be to claim themselves, but there might be something. There must have been decided cases concerning charities that went outside the remit of their charitable purposes and public benefit requirements.

          4. Indeed. Anyway, our legal system and the judiciary have been nobbled. It doesn't really matter what the law actually is any more, it is almost impossible to enforce it.

  83. When you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow…

    Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has warned of financial turmoil and emphasized the urgent need to maintain Russian NatGas flows through Ukraine, as a NatGas transit agreement with Moscow is set to expire in the coming weeks.
    Fico was quoted by Bloomberg on Wednseday, warning about the end of $525 million in transit fees per year it earns if Russian NatGas through Ukraine stops flowing. He said these fees are critical for state coffers.

    "Are we just going to let that pipeline dry up?" Fico said, adding, "In the name of what? Because you don't like the Russians? Fine, I like them."

    On Tuesday, Slovakia's state-owned energy company SPP, the country's largest energy supplier, and its partners in Hungary, Italy, and Austria urged the continuation of Russian NatGas flows through Ukraine.
    "The declaration that we have prepared at SPP is intended to support the continuation of gas transportation through the territory of Ukraine and the preservation of its gas infrastructure, because it is the most advantageous solution not only for gas consumers in Europe, but also for Ukraine itself," said Vojtech Ferencz, Chairman of the Board and CEO of SPP.
    CEO Ferencz warned:
    "The document is an important voice of business directly responsible for the energy security and economy of the region, which may suffer significant economic damage in the near future. We will submit the declaration to the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen so that she has first-hand information about the threat to energy and economic security in our region."

    "Using the example of the Slovak Republic, we can calculate that if gas from the east flows to our territory only partially or stops flowing completely, any other alternative will be significantly more expensive," SPP said.
    Ferencz added:
    "If SPP, which has approximately a 65% share of our market, were to lose gas supplies from the east and we were to purchase the entire required volume from another source and physically transport it to Slovakia, it would cost us an additional 150 million euros. In the case of the entire Slovak market, it would be more than 220 million euros. The difference is mainly caused by transit fees, which will probably increase by next year, while their final amount is still unknown. At the same time, the interruption of natural gas supplies through Ukraine will naturally also result in an increase in its prices on wholesale markets. In addition, if a cold winter comes, this situation may cause a shortage of gas and problems with its supplies throughout Europe."

    SPP presented the document to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen so the Brussels bureaucrats would understand that their moves to shift entire European countries off cheap Russia NatGas would have severe economic consequences.
    We previously noted in early October that Russian NatGas transits to the EU via Ukrainian pipelines are set to expire on Dec. 31.

    Hey ho I'm glad I signed up to a fixed gas tariff a couple of months ago….

    1. The desperation these fools go to to perpetuate a tax scam is absurd. The 'climate change' farce needs to be abandoned, permanently.

  85. B eating their Kurds away….?

    The Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) announced the start of an operation against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northern Syrian town of Kobani (Ayn al-Arab) on December 17.

    The announcement came in the midst of a build-up of Turkish troops on the Syrian border in preparation for a possible invasion alongside its proxies in the SNA.
    Via AFP
    Al Mayadeen's correspondent stated that "Turkiye wants a security belt 30 kilometers wide on the border with Syria," stressing that it "is close to achieving its goal."

    The Turkish military has built a concrete barrier between Kobani and the Turkey border, while Turkish warplanes can be seen flying above the city.
    US media has also reported that Turkey is building up its forces along the border in preparation for a possible invasion. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that according to one US official, "A Turkish cross-border operation could be imminent."

    1. Hypocrisy runs through the Left wing mind as the default. That's why they're such sodding fascists.

  89. Nothing to see here, you conspiracy theorist
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/34ec9536b4bb657176d5ed13dd73b54d8c0c77a5463a3a139753cd2b11656a36.jpg
    "On July 1, 1974 an article was published in The National Tattler that claimed David Rockefeller had been sold US gold reserves held in Fort Knox, one of three principal US gold repositories, and that the gold had been removed to Holland.

    The alleged source of the story was Mrs. Boyer (Rockefeller ex PA) who two days later had a bad fall – right out of her 10th floor apartment window."

    https://jensendavid.substack.com/p/as-currency-debasement-squeezes-the

  90. – So Starmer might be having a very hard time at the moment, inflicting hard times on the bottom tier, but he can at least take heart that his Christmas record has made the number one spot in the charts over the seasonal festive period.

    2. To the NHS, from a donor;

      Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
      But the very next day, you gave it away
      to a wealthy Saudi prince's son apparently.

    1. No one posting a message is committing a crime. No one is being hurt. Actions are crimes. Hurty feelings are just that. Someone's opinion and those are like bum holes. Someone is going to take offence to everything – simply because they hate you (or your attitude, ideology, perspective). Their hatred and bigotry is infinite. That's the real problem.

      1. I think recent harsh judgements have been based on the difference of opinion over whether a comment is opinion or incitement. Its a very fine line and it would seem that the establishment is left leaning.

  92. Back to the BBC adaptation of the sixth 'Strike' novel that I featured yesterday. The immediate reaction of many of you might have been "Typical BBC!" but it didn't write the script; it merely has the TV rights to the book. Here's part of the Guardian's review:

    The novel The Ink Black Heart presented the regular Strike screenwriter Tom Edge with his toughest challenge yet. Criticisms of the book coalesced around two observations: at more than 1,000 pages, it was far too long; and its exploration of online fandom and comment culture, often rendered as long transcripts of chat threads and social media conversations, was self-indulgent and impenetrable. Edge has done a decent job of planing that doorstopper into four hours of telly, although his quest to extract a strong narrative from the verbiage was an impossible one.

    https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/dec/16/strike-the-ink-black-heart-holliday-grainger-tom-burke-review-bbc

    And the Telegraph:

    This is also the most overtly political of Rowling's books, and one that constantly brings you back to the author's personal experiences with trolls, social media critics, and the problematic "fandom" who have sought to cut her out of the Harry Potter legacy since she started airing her views on trans issues (remember the bookbinder who produced new covers of the Potter stories with Rowling's name removed, in order to create "a safe space" for fans to enjoy the books?). In episode three, an Ink Black Heart fan gushes: "Stories end up belonging to the people who love them just as much as the person who wrote them," and the clear message is that this fan is a moron.

    The politics isn't limited to gender: the villains are the Far Right, incels and misogynists, including a character who rages online against the MSM and woke values. It's all a bit tiresome, because Rowling has such a winning set-up with Strike and Robin.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2024/12/16/strike-the-ink-black-heart-bbc-one-review

    The pertinent discussion point is 'How did we get here?'. The programme could well have been a dramatised documentary of the modern world – social media, twenty-somethings who are eternal teenagers, screwed-up children, 'incels' (the likes of Andrew Tate). The murderer in Strike invokes Marc Lépine. Look him up. It won't take you long to work out where his attitude to women came from.

    At least the FAR-RIGHT terrorists were excused, even though (I forgot this yesterday) they applauded the Utoya attack. Only RIGHT-WINGERS are evil and murderous (obvs).

    1. I didn't think there was a lot wrong with it. The Guardian obviously can't follow much in detail. The other one from the Telegraph is not too insightful, either. I don't think Rowling was having a go at the "far right" as such. They were just a driver for the plot; a bit dumb in the old skinhead manner lacking substantial ideals, or creative political purpose. Showing women in a particular light was her real goal and when she brought out the misogynistic mindset I think she was drawing a stark division between male and female ways. This was a story about "gender". Without saying so directly I believe she created a space in the narrative into which you could insert the word "trans".

      I quite liked it.

      1. There was an enormous amount wrong with it, not least its stodginess, which both reviews note. The setup of Strike and Robin is fanciful but so are many police/detective/crime series and our enjoyment of them isn't usually spoilt by unlikely partnerships. This one was hard work and left an unpleasant taste because of its crude sterotyping.

        1. You could say that about much TV drama though. As I’ve pointed out before, there isn’t that much good drama on the telly anymore. It won’t set the world alight I grant.

          TV detectives and police procedure was as dreadful in this as any of them, yes. MI5 involvement completely fanciful if not irrelevant. The middle class families were unreal; I cannot think of any that function like that. Reminded me a lot of Morse, in fact. The whole thing’s fanciful, but it wasn’t a documentary. That’s how drama works.

          1. Of course we don't expect realisitic police procedure. That was never my point. It was so poor because it was such a contrast to previous series and too often came across as political commentary. That's what was so jarring.

          2. That it was political drama did jar, precisely because it was out of kilter with the tone of previous stories. But only if you'd seen them.

            I actually think Rowling has been up until now depressingly predictable and a bit boring. I don't rate her much at all but good luck to her. I think Strike was a step up, although very much in that class you might call "cozy crime" drama. She's just having a go at, to use the tired old cliché – really saying something. It'd be a first

            It's not unknown for a writer to have a pop at an oblique target using a sponsor's patronage who definitely would not have given her the platform at all had they known what she was really talking about.

          3. For the first time in Strike, I felt I was being lectured: "Look, look, look, look, look at the bad men".

          4. Well that’s because certain men were. It was almost polemical. I don’t think she was lecturing any men in particular; just the ones who think they can assume rights over women. Another way to look at it is that no one comes out of the drama in a particularly good light.

            I haven’t read the books. I judge this as a one off TV experience. Rowling’s writing style I find stodgy and a bit clunky, or at least the bits I’ve tried to read.

          6. I wouldn’t go that far. She wasn’t to my mind to left or right politically. Her anti women target has been politicised, yes. Both sides politically got a bit of a pasting in that she put what might have been otherwise respectable comments into the mouths of know nothings from both left and right politically.

          8. So where was the politicising? Far right bad, lefties are nice? The only politicising I could see was women are a distinct species from men and some men hate them for it. Hardly a revelation even if the theme has been owned politically by some. The left’s view is that men who hate women are a good thing isn’t it?

          9. “So where was the politicising? Far right bad, lefties are nice?”

            Well done. You got there in the end.

            ‘The Halvening’ was a risible invention.

          10. Hardly “in the end”. I thought that was a given 😆.

            They were always a risible invention not worth a mention, just like the wet DCI, the Comic Con community with its watery lifeless presence, the token eighties-style video game that no real person would ever play masquerading as an online chat group and so on. They weren’t the point, never were. Plot devices all of them and Rowling’s arguably clumsy characterisations in this are of a piece with her other works, you could argue. If people cannot see beyond the mere pieces on the board then they ain’t gonna get it at all are they? They might as well go watch Muffin the Mule instead.

            What was working though was the “foregrounding” of the message and it wasn’t a political one. It said if you like, “the women just won’t wheesht.” And if the viewer knows anything about her recent spats then it’s perfectly clear who this was aimed at.

          11. That Rowling should scatter these crude cut-out characters around shows how weak the story was. It was an exercise in her own political and social prejudice. Some of the previous stories had the odd moment but never battered the viewer over the head quite like this.

          12. Tell me about it. The telly is full of crude cut-outs and many aren’t even politically drawn.

            The bit I liked was the script itself, albeit because of the way scenes were cut and certain things you had to deduce for yourself weren’t made obvious enough it became a bit obscure in places. Not much else was outstanding about it. The problem I had with it was the weakness of the protagonists, antagonists and so on. Their motivations were insufficiently believable. In the end I even found Strike and Ellacott a bit far fetched in what they were doing.

            Crude cut-outs are fine if you invest some careful background reinforcement over their presence. I give you DCi Gene Hunt as just such a character, or Judge Dredd, say. I think Rowling is ok as a writer of scripts but I think she probably bit off too much trying to involve herself in the production as a creative bringing something to the screen.

          13. Weeelllll, I don't watch much terrestrial TV…Netflix on now 'Breaking Bad', have watched previously but still like it….I'll get me coat, again…………

          14. Breaking bad 😞. Get yer coat, yes and don’t let the door slap your arse on the way out!

    2. I've not read it but i do know that something you avoid, desperately, is including 'commentary' in writing UNLESS it's a vehicle for the plot itself. Dangerous Data has a fair bit of exposition as the first person narrative talks the reader through accessing bank accounts and surveillance footage and putting 2 and 2 together to solve the crime. It's 250-300 pages.

      The world Stuart McBride created for Logan McCrae feels lived in and real, from the stink of sweaty chip wrappers left in a squad car, the disgust of poo on a shoe, wanting a washable suit to rain on granite to the bickering of adults in high ranking jobs as a reminder that they're people just like us.

      If Rowling/.Burke is trying to make a point about soshul medja then they need to do more work than simply include it. The reader has got to feel something for the motives, revulsion or empathy for their loneliness. Exposition doesn't work.

  93. Well yes, that view coincides with mine even if I don’t see him in quite the same light. I’d certainly believe he could have stalked off stage left with a cloud of chagrin following him. The personality is there and he did ostensibly retire thereafter. Thing is though, he’s one of those who’ll never be able to retire gracefully. He just can’t let it lie. But a politician with failings? Surely not Conway! I’ve met a few high profile ones myself and I doubt I’ve seen one without a blemish or two.

    1. I know! I was taken in at first though; I genuinely thought he believed in the cause, was patriotic and prepared to do his all to see it through. What I didn't expect was for him to turn on those who had helped him during his campaigns (note to Nigel – I am the same person whose hand you shook to thank me for all my hard work as the "racist bigot" you called me before you flounced off leaving Brexit unfinished). Leaves a bitter taste does that.

  94. One of the other patients gave me a hug. A black girl who looked much younger than her 60 years. She teaches adults taking GCSEs. An old school friend of hers came to visit and kept us both entertained. Before she left, she came over and gave me a hug.

    1. Thankfully, I can just edit my tax return to my accountant with a few number changes. I don't have a large taxable income anymore but it's just a habit so I don't have to deal directly with HMRC .

          2. and I dare say with the amount of fishing you do, you've probably lost your stash of gold coins in a boating accident….. 😉

  96. Good Night all, at last I managed to get an appointment at the GP surgery tomorrow afternoon. Could include an ECG.
    😴

    2. I signed it, Ndovu, but I doubt it will get anywhere, ECHR is embedded in NI Agreement which ensures parity with Republic. Why Sunk and Vonderlyin went to Stormont to visit QE. But I will gladly eat a cake if it works :-))

      1. It won't make any difference but it does send a message if a lot of people sign it like the election one.

        1. I first heard of ECHR on C4 news decades ago, someone was appealing a UK court ruling. Perhaps still be able to do that even if by some miracle we do leave x

    3. Signed, but I think if it gets less than the one regarding a General Election – currently on 2, 986,824 – Starmer will just laugh it off. In the interim, IMO the best thing would be a) to repeal the Human Rights Act, which transposes the E Convention directly into our national law, and b) to stop legal aid being automatically available for certain people to abuse the system and bring cases to the ECHR. Not a chance in h£ll of that happening.

      In fact, immigration cases should not be legally aided, but we all know which human right lawyer spearheaded that particular right for the incomers.

    4. Signed. We need to let them know that we lie in wait beyond the Westminster Bubble, unhappy, disgruntled; many of us angry and raging.

      1. Yes. Who knows what the cause could be? He had three Pheizer jabs and a year later in hospital having a triple by pass.

        1. I lost three good friends during that period just after the jabs. And went into A fib just after the last Pfizer jab.

          1. I think you and he are two more victims then. Four good friends (including our brother in law’s second wife) have died in the last year. Not young, but not particularly old, either. And all female.

  99. Btl on the Daily Sceptic is reporting that Mark Dolan and GB News have parted company. Something to do with him interviewing the Untouchable formerly known as Yaxley -Lennon.

    Now, we know Rommy Tobinson is in prison as a result of State Rage (along with all those jailed post-Southport). And that GB News is being persecuted by the Ofcommunists.

    To quote the immortal Hot Chocolate. “So you win again, you win again…”

    1. Those that live by the sword ……..

      I was shocked by the way that Mark Dolan said nothing about the way GB News treated, Mark Steyn, Dan Wootton, Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson.

      He was behaving rather oddly on GB News at the weekend and I wondered what was up. Perhaps he now is having to suffer what Corporal Jones' Fuzzy Wuzzies don't like!

    2. Those that live by the sword ……..

      I was shocked by the way that Mark Dolan said nothing about the way GB News treated, Mark Steyn, Dan Wootton, Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson.

      He was behaving rather oddly on GB News at the weekend and I wondered what was up. Perhaps he now is having to suffer what Corporal Jones' Fuzzy Wuzzies don't like!

          1. Yo Conners

            Just look at the just gone Archbishop of Canterbury.

            His job was to abolish the C of E. He did well……..

      1. Islamists appear to have assassinated the Russian Military General in Moscow. These were paid assassins evidently funded by Ukraine doubtless with Starmer’s contributions to that evil Ukrainian administration.

        The most shocking thing is that our British Prime Minister has condoned the assassination of a military leader of a foreign power.

        As I repeat Starmer is an intellectual lightweight. He and his flanking wenches are unfit to represent our great country in any position of authority. They are feckless and incompetent.

  102. Evening all. I’d like to ask that, when asking all to sign a petition, some idea is given of its content. Thanks.

  103. There's the smell of freshly baked bread, and there's the smell of freshly baked rye sourdough. Wish I could post the aroma.

  104. Used to sing the Gloria when I was in the choir. On to Purcell now. Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast. Will look for Music for a while before I go to bed.

    1. I’m just digesting Operation Mincemeat, which finished about 15-mins ago. Difficult to tell a story like that and make it interesting but I think it worked. Classic FM burbling away at the moment in the background.

      Tenor or bass, by the way?

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