The dilemma for those Reform/Advance/Rupert inclined at the ballot box

First a bit of housekeeping. Both Julia and I, though close, are still independent to the point we run separate full-on blogs, which do take work, plus we both have a daily presence on X, exchanging banter all day. Grandpa I was in touch with recently and he's more or less retired, the moreso after what the NHS did to his late wife.

I'm not happy that comments of yours can be hours before approving and a few times I've been caught out myself, being tied up in Unherdables biz. I do come into Orphans a few times over the day as it has its own regular reader/commenter base but of course there's also overlap. We try.

...

And so to this thorny topic ... whom to vote for, assuming we'll still be voting next time, given the Fabian, WEFer, EU notion that we're now post-democracy and the blackshirts and white robes are gathering in every town and village to go door to door to slaughter, while the weaponised constabulary go door to door, even through upstairs windows, to arrest and incarcerate.

Having said that, we antiWoke, antiUniparty folk who still pay taxes do have dilemmas regarding voting, should there still be this thing called voting.

In my case, within walking distance of the polling station, there is now extant danger ... gangs of marauding cultists gathered to attack "whites" or "infidels".  They are real, I've seen them, they are marauding, we hear the horror stories as well. Govt answer? Postal vote, after doing the digital ID bit. No way for me ... never have, never will.

Let's imagine I do get to the polling station on an uncancelled polling day and have a ballot paper in my hand, knowing that whatever box I put an X in, this is is/was a solidly red rosette area. To whom should be given the single, solitary X (leaving aside all the fraud, inc. the Electoral Commission?

Well, it depends, does it not, on just who the candidates are. After skipping over any Uniparty LibLabConGreenSocialist names, we're left with the others. One or two are independent, sometimes regulars on the paper but largely unknown to me.  Then come the crucial names ... Reform, Advance, whatever Rupert's one is called. Were there a Jess Gill Women's Safety Initiative lady there, by chance, I'd certainly look at that name to vote for.

Why even turn up?  Well I feel I should, esp. given Starmer in power with 20% of the vote, everything a lie.  The dilemma is summed up by this lady, a very middle middle class taxpayer, in middle England:

Against that is that chap:

Trying to put Rupert in prison by lying and us not liking that, not trusting the cabal at the head of Reform is "smallmindedness", is it?  Just that?  Given this:

Then we need to consider other aspects, inc. Tice and bird in Qatar.

We really do have a dilemma ... and that's before the Tommy factor.

If Someone Doesn't Record A Song Called 'Pink Platypus' To The Tune Of 'Pink Pony Club'

....then I've lost my faith in humanity.

Cody Stylianou thought he saw a huge trout. But, skimming just below the surface, it was moving differently than a fish would. The creature surfaced and, amazed, the Victorian fisher reached for his phone. Swimming in front of him was a pink platypus.

Here come the scientists to cast cold water on a charming concept, though: 

After Stylinaou shared footage of the monotreme, commenters online speculated that it could have been a rare albino platypus. But the biologist Jeff Williams says it is just lighter in colour than what most would expect. “Platypus do vary a lot in colour,” the director of the Australian Platypus Conservancy says. “And this one’s at the extreme end of the light ones. It’s not one that we consider should be added to the list of albino and leucistic ones.”

Oh Jeff, where's your soul...? 

Street scenes in different countries

Greetings on New Year, readers ... Julia spoke for both of us last evening.

We tend at Orphans to run mainly Britcentric fayre but do mention events in other places. Thinking what to put up this morning, what crystallised in the blurry NYD brain was why not post just a few street scenes, including those in Iran, which is the main news coming out at 7:30 a.m. GMT.

Going to post some Brit, one Amsterdam and one Tehran scene below. At Unherdables, I'll expand the Iran situation as a separate post.

Our isles over the past few days

Amsterdam overnight:

Tehran last few days:

Have a wonderful New Year, dear readers ... you are much appreciated.

New Year’s Greetings

Well, we are now into 2026, albeit only just, and James and I extend our warmest wishes for a happy New Year to all our readers, and surely, it must be a better one than 2025 turned out? 

Take it away, Carol Ann Duffy: 

I drop the dying year behind me like a shawl
and let it fall. The urgent fireworks fling themselves
against the night, flowers of desire, love’s fervency.
Out of the space around me, standing here, I shape
your absent body against mine. You touch me as the giving air.

Most far, most near, your arms are darkness, holding me,
so I lean back, lip-read the heavens talking on in light,
syllabic stars. I see, at last, they pray at us. Your breath
is midnight’s, living, on my skin, across the miles between us,
fields and motorways and towns, the million lit-up little homes.

This love we have, grief in reverse, full rhyme, wrong place,
wrong time, sweet work for hands, the heart’s vocation, flares
to guide the new year in, the days and nights far out upon the sky’s
dark sea. Your mouth is snow now on my lips, cool, intimate, first kiss,
a vow. Time falls and falls through endless space, to when we are.

Too Little, And Far, Far Too Late...

Two people have been arrested after allegedly shouting slogans calling for “intifada” during a protest by pro-Palestinian demonstrators in London, police said. Five people in total were detained outside the Ministry of Justice in Westminster on Wednesday evening, with further arrests for obstruction and public order offences.

It came after a change in approach from the Met and Greater Manchester police, who announced earlier on Wednesday they would arrest anyone chanting the words “globalise the intifada” or holding a placard with the phrase on it.

And all it took for the police to finally act was the slaughter of innocent Jewish citizens in another country. 

The chiefs of both forces said attacks against Jewish people in Manchester, where two died, and in Sydney, Australia, where 16 died, including one of the alleged killers, meant new rules now applied. In a joint statement, the Met commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, and GMP chief constable, Sir Stephen Watson, said: “The words and chants used, especially in protests, matter and have real-world consequences. 

“We have consistently been advised by the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] that many of the phrases causing fear in Jewish communities don’t meet prosecution thresholds. Now, in the escalating threat context, we will recalibrate to be more assertive. 

Sure, blame the CPS. Despite the fact you're well aware that the process itself can be the punishment, when you want to use it that way.

“We know communities are concerned about placards and chants such as ‘globalise the intifada’ and those using them at future protests or in a targeted way should expect the Met and GMP to take action. 

We'll see if this holds up longer than the headlines it's garnered you... 

The smart money's on 'No!'

“Violent acts have taken place, the context has changed – words have meaning and consequence. We will act decisively and make arrests.”

'Sorry about that, but we're raring to do our job now, just watch us' - I've never been so ashamed of the UK police in my life.

Somaliland

The most visible issue in Britain would be this Egyptian but truly, it's been done to death, while one is developing in Minnesota ... also highly publicised ... but less publicised is Somaliland.  You wot?

And so:

Interesting, eh?

Sounds About Right For This Government..

Crayfish, weevils and fungi are being released into the environment in order to tackle invasive species across Britain.

What? Which idiot is doing this? Didn't they learn what a bad idea it is? 

Scientists working for the government have been breeding species in labs to set them loose into the wild to take on Japanese knotweed, signal crayfish and Himalayan balsam, and other species that choke out native plants and wildlife.

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, then, it dseems whrn you are a scientist who works for the government, the paycheck is everything... 

They are doing this, in part, to meet tough targets set by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in its recently announced environmental improvement plan. Ministers have directed the Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha) to reduce the establishment of invasive species by 50% by 2030.

And they immediately said: 'Cool! Let's import and release some more!' That's the calibre of 'scientist' we are talking about here.

The biosecurity minister and Labour peer Sue Hayman said: “With a changing climate we are constantly assessing for new risks and threats, including from invasive plants and animals, as well as managing the impacts of species already in this country. Invasive non-native species cost Britain’s economy nearly £2bn a year, and our environmental improvement plan sets out plans to reduce their establishment to protect native wildlife and farmers’ livelihoods.”

The idea that this wretched government cares about farmer's livelihoods is the most insane thing about this news item! 

This creep being brought back to the UK

This post is in three parts, in three places on the net ... below is a list of MPs who called for him to be brought back from an Egyptian prison ... over at Unherdables are some comments on it ... X has the creep's utterances many times over.

These signatories were attached to the request to Starmer last year to bring the terrorist back.

Post Christmas, pre New Year

This is our first feeble attempt to reconnect with the Orphans "community", such as you good folk are. Hope Christmas and Boxing were good ... they were with me and I believe so with Julia too.

Orphans is an interesting concept, the admins both having their own main sites and yet Orphans itself has its own history and life, its own readers. There are posts I'd not put up here, the more "out there" type. I'm thinking Julia has some affection for the site as well for which she's numero uno admin.

So, thinking it was time to reopen for business, suddenly there was this by Lucy C:

The "I will never throw these away" bit ... well yes. I've heard and read many a caustic comment about "online friends not being friends" ... yeah?  There are very real friends I have, e.g. in the US, Canada, Russia, the antipodes ... very real, more real than in this area and yet my immediate neighbours and I just exchanged gifts ... so that can be real too.

The obvious difficulty for us online is if Them pull the plug.  There are ways around it but most don't know them ... it involves servers etc. and requires a certain knowledge base.

And it is worth it ... much good can be done.  For example, there is an onliner originally from here, married a NZer who had a medical horror ... people from all over are praying for her ... and him:

It takes not a lot on our part to try to help sustain someone and online is peculiarly suited to such a thing. (By the way, that moniker is a reference to a fine northern ale from this fair land.)

Merry Christmas all you orphans of liberty

 

Julia and I would like to wish all readers a resoundingly good Christmas ... there does seem a resurgence and many who are not particularly religious are joining in this year. We know the issues we all face, the very survival of western nations and this is one of the first rallying cries ... there seems to be some sort of groundswell.

It just remains to wish you all a safe, illness-free Christmas Day, with lots of cheer and bonhomie. There may or may not be a short hiatus in posting ... depends how out of it we get.