Our friend in the North

A very late update on the latest flag removal technology from friends in Brighton www.instagram.com/p/DReqHBAjKY.... We used 3 of these recently and took down 67 flags in under 2 hours. I love the smell of fash tears in the morning.

Last one I did was a 500 piece with some cats on it. Avoid ones that have large areas of similar colour such as sky. The jigsaw vibe is cosy Sunday in front of the fire whilst it's raining outside.

When did you last do a jigsaw? Jigsaws are very chill.

Peace and love and all that but I don't like Last Christmas and telling me that my taste in music is wrong will only make me like what I like all the more

Title panel: CHRISTMAS… AT THE BBC. The Traitors Christmas Special: Who in the BBC Boardroom is trying to bring down the gaff from within? [Image: The Traitors scene with Claudia Winkleman looking like “ooh-er” while the BBC board sit at a table looking suspiciously at each other] Apologising To The People Who Want To Destroy Us At Christmas: A festive extravaganza of self-flagellation before our enemies [Image: A cozy fireside scene with Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch standing, while at their feet lots of BBC employees are kneeling before them and begging for forgiveness]. Donald's Big Distraction: Heartwarming Julia Donaldson animation in which a dragon sues the BBC to draw his friends' attention onto something else [Image: Julia Donaldson’s ‘Zog’ with a Donald Trump wig, holding up a lawyer’s letter to show his dragon friends while trying to block their view of a pile of box files and computer drives some with ‘Epstein’ written on them]. The King's Speech: We let Nigel Farage tell you the BBC is left wing as if that's some kind of fact [Image: Nigel Farage as the King delivering his Christmas speech to camera]. A Ghost Story for Christmas: A venerable British institution is haunted by Boris Johnson's appointees [Image: A BBC studio with a window, outside in the dark snowy night a spectral apparition in the form of Robbie Gibb taps at the window and wails “I want to destroooy you”] Christmas Labour Inertia-Time: Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy present four hours of total silence from under their desks [Image: Show them both under their desks holding up glasses of sherry] Rightward Drift Christmas Special: A bonanza of trust-corrosion with confected immigration panic and Reform coverage [Image: A computer and a smartphone in a cute snowy scene, both displaying the BBC News website with multiple headlines and LIVE feeds and and BREAKING NEWS stories headlined: “IMMIGRANTS? IMMIGRANTS? IMMIGRANTS? IMMIGRANTS!”] [Ends]

Christmas at the BBC

There you go. 200?

My feelings on this too. I discussed this with my Mum yesterday, who was initially nonplussed about the 2 child limit. But then remembered how much child benefit was an essential lifeline for my parents when they were raising me and my 3 siblings.

No lollygagging?

Don't let it bring you down. It feels like we're winning here. There are more of us than them, we're more intelligent and much better looking.

I'm glad that all worked out well for you, and hope that it continues that way. I'm off to pull some flags down from lampposts now. Good evening to you!

No worries, it was a poor attempt at levity on my part, sorry for raising tension further. Agree about the riskiness. Getting some good financial advice is the best mitigation imho. And if you invest for 5+ years, you can ride out volatility.

True. I have one and have never worn red trousers. The point I was really trying to make is that the £20k limit on S&S ISAs remains in place for us under 65.

Stocks and shares ISA though? Pop some red trousers on, while you are at it.

Hello @antonyhook.bsky.social. I witnessed a violent incident last night between the Faversham flaggers and deflaggers. I've just made a related complaint to KCC. I'd be happy to discuss with you if it's of interest.

Tunng at Where Else in Margate

Tunng in Margate last night with support from William Doyle. Both amazing. My 12th and possibly last gig of the year. I left every one of them with that great gig feeling. Thank you 2025.

Yeah it was my first NY gig too, having been a fan of his since around 1992. Pretty sure there is also a version of When I Hold You in My Arms too - aka Gateway of Love. I've seen him about a dozen times, and this is still the one.

Interesting. I don't remember the gig all that well. But have clearer memories of his previous visit to London at the Fleadh, where he played Crazy Horse versions of Are You Passionate tunes. Some of those resurfaced recently on Toast. And I can still hear Cortez from that day.

Brixton Academy, was it? I was there too.

YouTube video by PHS.44 Jam Doctor.

There was a Chris Morris sketch about this 25 years ago m.youtube.com/watch?v=2bz9...

What the perpetrators of this tawdry vandalism fail to understand is that the only people not welcome in our towns is them

Yes. We're also stronger, more intelligent and much better looking.

Glad you're safe. There are many more of us than them.

Love from Faversham. Are you able to DM me?

I think @gileshallam.bsky.social needs to know about this

For a long while I used to tell people that Jimmy Page was in the Firm. Which was true, but misleading.

Dum-de-dum-de-doo

I would rather live next door to someone who speaks another language than live next door to someone who doesn’t want to live near people who speak other languages. I know nothing about Person A but I know person B is a shitbird.

Slightly embarrassingly, I have discovered that this is actually a quote from the Hobbit films and not Tolkien. Point stands though. Aragorn was a man of Gondor, and Tommy Robinson is an orc.

"Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love." - J.R.R. Tolkien

BBC News article with headline “'I was fined £100 for a poo my dog didn't do'”. Below it a photo of a woman and her dog in a park next to a poo bin and normal litter bin.

Close up of the dog from the last pic, poker-faced.

Virgin Ron, who may or may not have purchased PPV pornography.

You keep telling yourself that.