Happy New Year All!

And here's to 2019! May it be all we wish it to be...

Normal service will resume on Wednesday.

Absent Friends....

As we begin the countdown to say a fond farewell to 2018 and welcome in a new year full of promise, please raise a glass with me to those we have lost:

Captain Ranty (Blog now sadly gone dark)

Unenlightened Commentary

Anna Raccoon

Dracunculus

Bystander, a sad loss to the world of profession-blogging.

Peter Risdon

Gone, but not forgotten.

Tweet Of The Month

LOL!

Post Title Of The Month

Second month running for Longrider, on the subject of the Gatwick Flap:

Quote Of The Month

Bucko on the modern day human shield effect:

"It seems like Blackburn have the problem licked. It won't stay licked if it causes an influx of homeless from other boroughs

Cllr Julie Gunn added: “As an authority we need to try and protect these vulnerable people because at the bottom of it all is a real person with real needs.”

This is how we created an entire generation of underclass chavs; by agreeing to pay benefits for every child they have, because it's 'not the child's fault'. Now is the time to get tough with the homeless policy. It peoples own councils won't or are unable to help, we should not start making them our problem"

And DumbJon on the reaction to the Gatwick Flap:

"A vote of thanks too for the Umanrites industry. Yes, it *is* true that it's perfectly legal for police officers to destroy the lives of innocent citizens without even basic due diligence, and that just about sums it up how useful the Human Rights Act is for real people.

Come to think of it, this point applies to pretty much the whole left. Innocent citizens have been subject to a home invasion, abducted and had their property trashed, and the left claims this shows how we need to clamp down on the people *reporting* on this. To put it at its mildest: overpaid thugs in blue victimising the innocent is not a convincing case against a free press."

Post Of The Month

Tim Newman on the new tradition of Christmas Markets - getting murdered by an Islamaloon....

"Alexa, Show Me Something That Defines 'Fatal Naivety'...!"

'Sunday Times' writer on a plane, realising there's a detainee being deported:

I did not stage a passenger revolt. Earlier this year holidaymakers had stopped a plane taking off with a Somali on board, only to discover he was a gang rapist. I had no interest in halting the deportation of a criminal, but I was determined to hear his story.

And 'story' is rather more accurate than she intended:

His name was Adnan Hashi, he said, and he had turned 20 just a few weeks previously. He claimed he was being deported for “weed”; after I scoffed, he admitted it was for selling class-A drugs.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice....

Hashi said he had been living in Britain since the age of six. He insisted he had no relatives in Somalia and no connections there.

Yeah, he's deffo telling the truth this time, love!

He had a strong south London accent and was plainly terrified.

And that means he shouldn't be deported?

...my sympathy was tempered by the knowledge that Hashi had broken the law. How many lives had been ruined by the drugs he sold?

Hurrah! Is the light finally dawning? Well, no. Because she got a fellow hack to do some digging.

The full facts disturbed me. It emerged that Hashi was only 17, a minor, when he was arrested. For as long as he can remember, he has felt British and knows no other way of life. His right to appeal appears to have been bungled by the Home Office (no surprise to those who are familiar with its immigration service). In my view Hashi has not been deported. He has been transported to an alien, conflict-ridden land from which he cannot return.

If only that were true! But the UKBF hasn't exactly proven competent at this in the past...

Hashi was old enough to know that drug-dealing was wrong. But, at 17, did he understand that the consequences for a refugee would be so severe? I would be interested to hear readers’ views.

I wonder if the highest-scoring ones have changed your mind?

If you're wondering if they are all supportive of deportation, then the answer's no. But look at the scores the similarly-naive get:

So, have I become a 'Sunday Times' reader, or did this come to my attention because one of my fellow red-in-tooth-and-claw heartless 'right wingers' brought it to my attention? 

Well...

Modern 'Conservatism'. It's a mental disease. And it's spreading from the US.

There, Their, 'Daily Mail' Writer...

...it's not your fault, they just sound the same.

H/T: Stephen Brown via email

Millions Of Japanese And Welsh Can't Be Wrong!

Ah, Christmas, the time when every public sector website feels the need to give helpful advice on drinking.

Oh. Well, that's new. I wonder if they sell it it Waitrose?

H/T: Robert Hale via email

Sunday Funnies....

Ah, it's that time when everyone starts making predictions. And you had me at 'Liam Neeson plays Vengeful Snow Plow Driver'...