135 days ago
There seems no end to the lunacy of those who seek to rewrite history. Over in Cambridge, a minor, provincial university somewhere near East Anglia, carol singers are told that when singing the First Noel they must replace the line “Born is the King of Israel” with something about being born in Bethlehem. It is not how the carol was written, it does not rhyme but at least it might not offend some snowflake undergraduates. That the vast majority of us find this sort of thing intensely irritating is ignored. And then there is Jesus whose birthday we will celebrate in less than two weeks: apparently he was a Palestinian. I kid you not.
378 days ago
I wish you all Happy Easter as Love Hemp (LIFE), not Jesus, rises from the dead. I then offer a few bearish thoughts.
378 days ago
Whether you believe or not I wish you a Happy Easter tomorrow. It is because of the death and resurrection of Jesus we all get a four day break. FACT. So Happy Easter. Then I explain why I would not touch Parkmead (PMG) with a bargebole – I speak as as a vindicated critic – then discuss gold and gold juniors and why, on this matter, I question the faith of Nigel Somerville.
512 days ago
There is much wailing as the results of the 2021 Census are published and so that for the first time in almost two thousand years the majority of folks in England and Wales do not identify as Christian. Well sort of, many of the supposed godless are just like Cambridge University bisexuals. They will see the light sooner or later. Let me explain on this day before Advent.
809 days ago
I start with KPMG and another scandal but the real scandal is the way it deals with its employees who are fraud enablers by act or by omission or both. Then onto the Methodists and why its stance on Rio Tinto (RIO) is, I suggest, not what Jesus would have advocated. Moreover it highlights how ESG driven investing has created valuation anomalies on both the long and short side. Finally, THG (THG) and PE bid speculation.
913 days ago
When you are up against the whole roster at Radio 1 it really is almost impossible to be Britain’s dumbest radio presenter but I wonder if Mike Graham of Talk Radio is a shock contender for the title. As you can see below he managed to make a chap from Insulate Britain look smart today and that is some achievment.
1117 days ago
I am glad when politicians of any party say Happy Easter or Merry Christmas rather than, not wishing to cause offence to those of other faiths who will not be offended anyway, saying “Happy Egg day” or “Happy Holidays.” I really do dislike that phrase Happy Holidays when it is wheeled out for the days folks get off work ONLY because that is the time of year Jesus was born. Okay he probably was not born then for reasons I have discussed before but you know what I mean. However, this year, Tory MP after Tory MP has taken to Twitter to politicise, to appropriate, Easter and Good Friday, for themselves. I bring you one such tweet from Edward Timpson MP.
1123 days ago
I sometimes find myself searching my emails for something or other and stumble on something completely unexpected. Tonight I stumble on the raw text of what my uncle, the late Christopher Booker, submitted to the Sunday Telegraph for January 16 2015 after the Charlie Hebdo massacre. I am not sure if the Torygraph tweaked it but here is the original and in exposing the pious hypocrisy of the great and good back then, we might all reflect on matters such as the drowning silence of the left in defence of free speech in Bradford today. But also, as Chris notes, on why certain sections of the Moslem community do feel so justifiably angry and that can vent in various ways. I commend to you a great piece of journalism.
1127 days ago
A teacher at Batley Grammar school in Bradford showed students in a religious studies class a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed. Over in France, such actions can see you getting your head chopped off and what happened next is just so predictable. A mob gathered outside the school. Had that mob included James Delingpole, Piers Corbyn, Toby Young and Laurence Fox and the protest been about lockdown, the Police would have waded in, made arrests and broken it up.
1160 days ago
When the plague swept through this part of the world, the doors of the Church in this village stayed open at all times. Folks sought comfort and the pews were packed. Three vicars died of that plague, for it was one where the survival rate was not anywhere near 99%, but the Church stood by its flock. Wind forward to 2021.
1207 days ago
In the run-up to Christmas, the loathsome BBC ran a show “Heart and Soul” which contained a segment “Black Jesus” which asked us to see the great man as a “darker skinned Palestinian.”
1222 days ago
Before I start, I must confess that I stand guilty of gross hypocrisy. My preference, as long-term readers know, is for Christmas cards to be somehow related to why we are all having a holiday on December 25 even if we are not celebrating Christmas. That is to say the birth of Jesus. But this year the card I sent out was of a snowman. My excuse was that it was designed by Joshua at his nursery. Last year, I failed almost as badly with the card being of a tree. It too was designed by Joshua but at his playgroup in Wales so the message was very much Nadolig Llawen. Okay, so I am a hypocrite. Next up: a confession of very minor sexism.
1225 days ago
This will be our second Christmas without my Godfather and Uncle, Christopher Booker. Every other Christmas in my life, Chris sent first my parents, then my father, then my father and myself a cheese from Cheddar: a real organic product from the county in which he lived and loved, Somerset. Last year, much to my surprise, a cheese arrived as normal. Knowing that he was dying he had, two years ago, placed orders for both 2018 and 2019. But this year I was rather resigned to that tradition ending. This morning a large box arrived at the Welsh Hovel.
1225 days ago
I start with Joshua’s Advent caldendar and with some right wing harridan on twitter who reckons suggesting Jesus was a refugee is anti Jewish left wing fake news. Then it is onto Falanx (FLX) en passant, Online Blockchain (OBC) and to Remote Monitoring Systems (RMS) both of which have disgraced themselves yet again today.
1235 days ago
Whether godless liberals accept it or not, the reason they get a holiday this month is because the rest of us are celebrating the birth of Jesus. But in corrupt Michigan, the state Attorney General thinks it is fine to say Happy Holidays as that does not denigrate Christians but merely recognises “the diversity of the nation.” However, if one looks at her Twitter feed in May during Eid…
1371 days ago
The survey below is from the USA but the same applies here. Most folks feel that they can say what they want as long, as they are on the centre left. If you express views on the desirability of patriotism or of a smaller Government; on women not having penises or that abortion at 34 weeks is murder; on the desirability of criminals having long sentences in miserable prisons or that the NHS doesn’t work properly; that Christmas is what we celebrate on December 25 and it has everything to do with Jesus or that no statues should be ripped down, you may have a problem. Being a communist is viewed as trendy.
1395 days ago
As you can see below, the pathetic Church of England is facing demands to pull down a quite modern statue of Emperor Constantine from outside York Minister. Amazingly, the wretched CofE has now shown that it does have a spine and that this statue is safe, although it is looking at many others in light of the Black Lives Matter movement and issues surrounding slavery. And, apparently, it will also be seeking guidance from Justin Trudeau as to how to make statues of Jesus look less white.
1493 days ago
Yesterday I discussed what my late Uncle Christopher Booker, the author of two very relevant works you really should read during the lockdown, , Scared to Death (available here) and GroupThink (available here) would have macde of the pandemic. I am not sure that my Uncle’s long term collaborator Richard North appreciates the irony of his response to that podcast which I discuss here.
1571 days ago
I found this in Pickering in the far North of England. I am sure Titania McGrath would not visit a place like this as it is horribly white and full of Brexit supporting racists. But there does appear a voice of sanity in this sea of fascism. Meet poet Howard Owen Griffiths.
1579 days ago
My sister N is funny, kind, intelligent and thoroughly laudable. Except that like the rest of my family, with the honourable exception of step sister F, she is on matters political utterly deluded. She works for the State, reads the Guardian and her husband, who works for the State, goes on stop Brexit marches, well he did up until recently. I guess after “the people’s vote” on December 12 he might now accept that we smelly thick plebs get to have our way after all. A few years ago, N gave him membership of the Labour party for Christmas. You get my drift…
1586 days ago
Young Joshua has got the story of the birth of Jesus pretty much nailed and knows that we will be celebrating baby Jesus’ birthday soon. Anyhow here is my son in his costume when playing a critical role in nis Nursery’s nativity concert from earlier this month.
1624 days ago
As is always the case it is almost impossible to find in the local shops an Advent calendar that does not contain chocolate and which has even a fleeting reference to what the word Advent actually means, viz “the coming” of Jesus.
1772 days ago
And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And this brings us to Big David Lenigas
1957 days ago
I have never seen our local church in this unfashionable bit of Bristol look this way. That is to say full. But it was packed with more than a hundred souls last night for carols by candlelight. It was all rather touching. As I belted out some of the old favourites in my own tone deaf way and as Joshua ran around misbehaving it felt like Christmas had actually begun. The story almost came to life. I did feel a sort of bond with my fellow worshippers – ordinary folk, shepherds not kings.
1994 days ago
The main item on the shopping list yesterday as Joshua and I headed into Clifton was a new Jeremy Corbyn, Strong & Stable, mug for the Mrs to replace the one Joshua had smashed, in an early sign of his sound gut political instinct. That mission was accomplished. Jeremy Corbyn is already making me poorer and the Sinn Fein/IRA loving old bastard is not even in power yet.
2058 days ago
I cover Conroy (CGNR) elsewhere but its the sort of seedy waste of space nonsense that makes me despair of AIM. And so i turn to a follower of JC, Archbishop Justin Welby. The JC I refer to is of course Jezza not Jesus. Welby's comments yesterday are so utterly wide of the mark, no wonder he leads a failing organisation.
2160 days ago
I forget where in the bible it says "blessed are those who don't pay staff, who put lingerie on expenses, who are wanted by the Police on criminal charges, have not paid taxes in three countries or numerous suppliers. Blessed are those who, rather than turning the other cheek to legitimate criticism harass journalists and whistleblowers with lawyers letters, online blogs and other methods." Which Gospel is that in? Perhaps Julie Meyer knows - this weekend she retweets the Pope, explains how she forgives and talks about meeting Jesus for the first time. Enjoy...
2160 days ago
Once again, this weekend, there is no hand waving video from the flat Julie Meyer shares with her sex toys claimed on expenses and books about following Tony Blair and Jesus. Why not I wonder? Instead she has spammed her 100% non GDPR compliant list ( I got two) with the following which strikes me as A grade MBA gibberish. It is all about creating value, something hundreds of unpaid staff, suppliers and tax men know Julie is so good at. Can any reader explain to a simpleton like me what the following is all about?
2170 days ago
There was I hoping for one of those hand waving videos filmed inside the rented flat where Julie Meyer lives with her sex toys and books praising Jesus and Tony Blair. Perhaps Julie would care to explain why she did not shoot a video this week to put all those nasty rumours to bed. Over to you sister... But as you can see below she has spammed her wholly non GDPR compliant mailing list with a letter which is quite simply bonkers and also defamatory.
2270 days ago
My twitter feed is set up to track what is trending in New York. I used to live there and feel as much affinity with that City as I do with any other City, i.e. almost none. And so this morning I find out that what is trending among the the snowflakes of the Big Apple is #ReplaceLovewithAnal. Cue a series of tweets God is Anal, Jesus anals you #Replacelovewithanal etc etc etc.
2318 days ago
16 year old daughter Olaf believes in Santa Claus as the patron saint of consumerism but like the rest of the metropolitan elite thinks that those of us who think Christmas has anything to do with Jesus are clinging to the "old ways" and are fair game for year round ridicule.
2342 days ago
A LinkedIn group for writers to which I belong is agonising about what to say to folks this year as we approach December 25. Being a bunch of wretched and godless liberals there are endless variations of Happy Holidays but until I chipped in only one chap explaining why he wished people a Merry Christmas.
2507 days ago
Tim Farron was a pretty hopeless leader of the Lib Dems. His weasel words and demands for a second vote on Brexit were laughable and the way that he kept on insisting that he was the only working class ( pronounced with no r) was just plain cringe worthy. But the reason that he has quit as Lib Dem leader is that in modern Britain being a Christian is not acceptable, at least to the fake news wolf packs of the liberal metropolitan media.
3396 days ago
Naturally I am shocked over the massacre of journalists at Charlie Hebdo in Paris by Islamofascist gunmen. It is an assault on free speech, it is sickening and it must be deplored but watching C4 coverage of the event last night the cowardice and duplicity of the Western Media was there for all to see.
First up were the range of voices singing the praises of the publication for daring to challenge cultural norms, standing up to religious intolerance and to racism for fighting for free speech and calling for the Front Nationale to be banned. Er…hang on a sec…
Personally I do not find some of the crude jibes made at all religions by this publication very clever, funny or brave. Let’s face it Jews and Christians are not going to react by hacking heads off in protest, that sort of behaviour is the preserve of the Islamofascists. However, amongst the trendy liberal elite it is deemed clever and almost the norm to mock those of any faith (but especially the Christian faith) as if they were some relic of a former age, like those who support fox hunting, hanging or who believe in a flat earth. I admire those with faith. I cannot believe but almost wish I did. I find the principles of Christianity as far more appealing than those of the chattering classes.
As such while I regard much of what Charlie Hebdo lampooned about the faith I’d like to have offensive, crude and not very clever. Sure, attack the Church where it fails (like in child abuse) but to attack folks just for having faith or the faith itself in a sneering manner – how very Islington.
But I defend its right to publish this bollocks because I believe in free speech. And that is why I am perplexed by how the liberal elite think that Charlie Hebdo trying to get the Front Nationale banned is worthy of praise. Okay it fits in with the modern liberal agenda but it is hardly in the Mill or Gladstone tradition of supporting free speech is it?
That I loathe and despise everything that the party of Le Pen stands for is a given. But
3403 days ago
For some reason I dozed off between the end of Skyfall and the tome to go to midnight mass. As such when waking up on Christmas day the stockings of myself, the Mrs and the cats were opened in something of a rush. Santa clearly thought that we had all behaved well in 2014. Clearly he does not know about how Oakley, the three legged cat, likes weeing on the inside doormat. And thus we were all well rewarded and after a splendid breakfast cooked by yours truly we wandered off to St Cuthbert’s Brislington.
Built in 1933 this church could easily hold 350. As it was with the Mrs and I in attendance there were 15 in the congregation plus vicar and organist. It is not as if midnight mass at Brislington is packed – there cannot have been more than 35 in attendance in 2013. One fears that a couple of cold winters could see just the mrs, the Vicar and I attending Christmas day 2018. We were the youngest in the congregation by a long chalk: what is happening to the C of E?
It is just that Christmas has become one great big godless consumerfest celebrated across the world by folks of whatever background. My 13 year old daughter Olivia – deprived of the alternate Christmases promised by her mother Big Nose 10 years ago, has never once attended Church on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. That I rather regret.
The Mrs and I do not take communion as I am very much lapsed in my faith and the Mrs has grave doubts. But we try to think of what Christmas is about and it is not as the Radio DJs insist on saying “all about family and friends”. However much the PC brigade insist otherwise Christmas is about Jesus. The fact we celebrate this festival and the traditions involved are down to Jesus. We give each other presents because we are celebrating God giving us his only son, whether we regard that as fact, belief or fantasy. To deny the involvement of Jesus in Christmas seems fatuous to me.
The sermon was bland enough but at least this C of E vicar managed to resist the urge to pray for peace in Palestine, the C of E codewords for “all power to Hamas”. And with that
3756 days ago
Global Warming is a feminist issue driving women to prostitution – moron liberal of the month Barbara Lee
It is good to see that moron liberals reside on both sides of the Atlantic and January’s moron liberal of the month is California Congresswoman Barbara Lee with a claim so ludicrous it is hard to know where to start.
This imbecile has just authored a new resolution put to Congress which seeks to demonstrate that climate change (or global warming as nutters like Lee used to call it before the Planet started getting a lot colder), is an issue that effects women more than men and so forces them to become prostitutes so they get Aids and die and thus the US Government (heading for bankruptcy, last seen) needs to do something.
To quote this total nutter, as a result of global warming, oops I meant climate change:
“Food insecure women with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage that put them at risk for HIV, STIs, unplanned pregnancy, and poor reproductive health.”
Oh noooooooo.
It gets worse.
3776 days ago
I am bashed by a reader for standing up to the bitch with the baby on the Bristol Train in Sunday in refusing to give up my seat for her top of the range fucking buggy. Apparently I am picking on someone who is “vulnerable.” Bollocks.
Someone who lives in a big house in Bristol who can afford not only to have a baby but to buy a top of the range fucking buggy is not vulnerable. Someone who can afford to take baby & buggy up to London for a spot of Christmas shopping is not vulnerable. Yes this woman has a baby but that is her choice. It is not my choice but my obligation to pay taxes to give this pampered cow child benefit but I just have to do it.
The point is that this woman and her partner have wealth and income (as she told the whole damn train). She has choices in life. So just because he has opted to pass her bossy and selfish genes onto the next generation that does not make her vulnerable.
Those who are vulnerable are folks who cannot afford housing at all. Those, such as immigrants, made ever less welcome and more marginalised in British Society. Those who are diseased or dying. Those who have just lost their jobs and are seeking new work not welfare dependency. Those who work long hours for low wages and yet have the taxman claw too much of that back to subside women like the bitch with the baby via child benefit.
Those who are vulnerable include
3784 days ago
The BBC is already starting its annual process of celebrating Christmas without mentioning Jesus, the nativity and all that religious crap too much. It is all so terribly 19th Century. Let’s talk about multicultural issues, get as many Imams as possible to speak of brotherly love, look forward to the Eastenders special and talk about getting pissed. Just do not mention the Jesus word.
But in another context, it was a BBC reporter who first compared the late Nelson Mandela to er….Jesus. In another age that might have been consider blasphemous.
In this age it should just be considered ridiculous. I am in no position to cast judgement on the fact that Mandela was serially unfaithful to two of his wives. Heck, from what I have read I rather admire the stamina of the old goat in his younger days. But it is also clear that Mandela as a younger man was a bully and a wife beater. Not quite following in the footsteps of Jesus.
The great thing about Mandela
3784 days ago
We still have not seen the Chilcot enquiry into Iraq. It is still being suppressed as the folks in power work out how to spare the blushes of many, principally the man who led us into this war, Tony Blair.
Blair’s excuse for war was that Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction which needed to be destroyed. That was, of course, a lie. And Blair knew that it was a lie yet he repeated that lie to the House of Commons and to his people to get away with starting an illegal war. For that he deserves to be put on trial for war crimes. If only to deter future British PMs from making the same cardinal blunder but also because justice demands that Blair stands trial.
Those folks who seek to defend Blair will these days say “The WMD issue is blurred but Blair is justified at least in moral terms because he got rid of an evil regime.”
The WMD issue is not blurred it is clear cut. Blair lied and that makes the war illegal. But was it moral?
The late Saddam Hussein was a wicked man. There is evidence that he tortured and killed his own people but on a relatively minor scale. More seriously he clearly did use chemical weapons against the Kurds. His genocide against the Marsh Arabs in the early 1980s was obscene but the West never mentions that one because Saddam was on our side then (against Iran) and we gave him the weapons and turned a very obvious blind eye.
So Saddam will not be sitting at the right hand of Nelson Mandela, ooops I meant Jesus, as of now. But what have we replaced the Saddamites with?
4127 days ago
Wandering around the Co-op on the 11th day of Christmas I noticed that the store was selling Hot Cross Buns (a simple bun with a cross on its front). Frankly the Co-op can sell what it wants and I gather that it sells this item all year round not just at….er…Christmas. But there is something not quite right about this.
When I was a boy my mum used to make Hot Cross Buns as a special treat for Good Friday. That was when, historically, we in Britain ate them. The cross signifies the cross on which Jesus met his end on Good Friday. The buns taste great so if folks want to eat them all year round that is their call. I just wonder how many kids growing up today actually realise how this dish came into being and what its significance is. I have a sneaking suspicion that if you polled 100 eleven year olds in Britain today very few of them could actually tell you the day of the year when we celebrate the crucifixion of Jesus.
I wonder how many could tell you what Advent means and why they have an Advent calendar. What Easter Sunday represents and why they have a chocolate egg on that day? Or indeed why we give each other presents at Christmas. I wonder if any at all could explain why they get even more chocolates at Halloween?
Though I am not a believer (I struggle to be one but just do not have faith), I do find the idea that the Christian festivals are now blurred into one great mish-mash of chocolate and consumerism as rather sad. That kids today have no idea why they celebrate as long as they can celebrate is all rather depressing. If it’s Christmas/Easter/Halloween all year round, the actual days themselves become less and less special.
