Monday
It is quite pleasant here in London this morning, no frost for the first time in ages, and some sunny periods. I heard Lee Anderson on the radio this morning. I think it was a clip from one of the Reform Regional Conferences, where he told the audience that there are 6,000 villages in England, and if the village idiot from each was gathered up and moved to Tottenham, Lammy would still be the biggest idiot! It brought the house down.
Robber Reeves is on her way back from China with a pittance of Chinese money in her back pocket. Apparently, she was begging them to invest in Red Ed’s net zero schemes by making some of its wind turbines in the UK. Well, it seems she has got a promised investment of £600 million, but it is to be spread over five years! That’s 50 times less than the Chinese investment in Hungary and 60 times less than in Indonesia. Could it be that China has no real interest in investing in the UK, as this was clearly a ‘go away and stop bothering us’ message?
An interesting tale reaches me from the Russo-Ukraine war, where the Russians have had to shoot down one of their unmanned Su-70 drones when it went out of control in a test flight over the battlefront. The Su-70 is supposed to be a ‘stealth drone’ that will fly as a ‘loyal wingman’ to the Su-57. The drone crashed into Ukrainian territory and was quickly found, with important parts salvaged by the Ukrainians, as proved by photos and videos. But the Russians clearly weren’t happy and destroyed the wreckage by firing a ballistic missile at it!
Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell have announced that their marriage has ended, and they are to divorce. I can’t say I’m surprised, as there have been rumours about Wee Krankie’s sexual preferences for years. The couple at the centre of the missing SNP funds have been said to have been in a marriage of convenience for many years. But what I want to know is: who gets custody of the infamous camper van?
The South Korean press reports that North Korean troops have been suffering badly in the fighting with Ukrainian forces. The reports say that, so far, 300 North Koreans have been killed and 2,700 injured. This is fairly close to the Ukrainians’ claim of 4,000 North Korean casualties. How close to the truth these numbers are is impossible to know, as both North Korea and Russia refuse to give any numbers. The South Korean press says the North Korean troops are poorly trained and being used as cannon fodder, but they would say that, wouldn’t they?

North Korea – Army and women soldiers (5015260495),
Roman Harak – Licence CC BY-SA 2.0
The Limp Dump-run Sutton Council has issued its staff with a booklet telling them what words they should avoid when talking to the public. Of course, the booklet is ‘woke’, telling staff not to ask for someone’s ‘Christian name’, as it may upset them. Instead, they should ask for a first name or a forename. Other banned words are ‘youngster’ and ‘pensioner’, which it says are ageist. I wonder how much it has cost Sutton Council to come up with this crap.
Another day and another announcement from Legohead. This time, he wants the UK to become an AI powerhouse. But he doesn’t seem to have any idea how this is going to work, apart from setting up another investigation group comprised of Liebore bigwigs. But the problem with AI is that it needs an enormous amount of computer power, which means massive new computer centres and, consequently, huge demands for uninterrupted electricity. Now, what are we short of in the UK at the moment due to Red Ed and his mad net zero policy? Now, what sane AI company would develop AI in the UK, where we are short of power, and it costs five times as much as in the USA? I really do wonder if Legohead is capable of straight thinking.
Tuesday
Good morning, my friends, and it is another better morning in London. It’s not too cold, and the sun is out. Yet another opinion poll is out this morning, putting Reform ahead of the Tories and only one per cent behind Liebore. What I find fascinating about the polls is not the numbers for individual polls but the direction of travel. When you look at the numbers, Liebore seem to hold steady in the mid-twenties, Reform seem to be edging up, and the Tories are slipping down. The next few months are going to be interesting, especially if we get a few by-elections.
In a question-and-answer session after Legohead’s awful AI speech yesterday, a journalist asked if Robber Reeves would still be the Chancellor of the Exchequer come the next general election. Legohead hummed and hawed for a minute before giving a non-committal answer about not changing the economic direction. Late yesterday, a government spokesman said that Robber Reeves had the full confidence of the PM. Now, when a football team says that about its manager, you can expect them to be sacked shortly. I wonder how long Reeves has.
The Football Association seem to have shot itself in the foot over a recent rule change. The problem is that, in trying to cut down the number of matches some top clubs play, they have decided to do away with replays of games that are a draw at the end of 90 minutes’ play. Matches now have 30 minutes of extra time, and if the score is still a tie, it is settled by a penalty shootout. This is exciting for the TV viewer but can rob small clubs of a lucrative payday. If a small club, like Tamworth last weekend, were drawing after 90 minutes’ play, previously there would have been a replay at the other team’s ground—in this case, Tottenham Hotspur. In the FA Cup, teams share the matchday income 50/50 after expenses. This includes everything, including catering, programmes, and broadcast fees. Tottenham are said to bring in just short of £6 million per home game. So, the new rule denied £3 million to Tamworth, something that could be a lifesaver for a small club. The draw for the next round of the Cup has now been made, and some clubs drawn at home against top Premier League teams are reported to have asked for the tie to be reversed. They know they can’t win, but they could at least get a big payday!
Liebore-run Medway Council in Kent have come up with a new ploy to raise money. They have decided to charge people who move into a previously empty house a penalty charge. If the house has been empty for more than two years, this can be as much as two hundred per cent of the council tax. It seems that there is a little-known clause in the council tax legislation that allows councils to charge council tax on a house that has been empty for more than two years in an attempt to stop owners from keeping houses empty. But the ridiculous part is that, in this case, the people being charged are the new owners, not the previous owners. I fail to see the fairness in this. It’s not the fault of the new owners that the previous owners kept the house empty for over two years.

Medway Council, Gun Wharf – geograph.org.uk – 1148203,
Nigel Chadwick – Licence CC BY-SA 2.0
I see that 368 illegal immigrants came over the English Channel yesterday in five small boats. Following the first small boat crossing with 61 people on 4th January, nearly 700 have arrived so far this year. So much for ‘smashing the gangs’. Legohead is not doing very well with that promise.
I hear noises that the Saudi Arabian budget airline Flyadeal is on the verge of ordering 10 Airbus A330neo wide-body aircraft. Flyadeal have been busy running an evaluation of the A330-900 vs the slightly larger Boeing 787-9, and I hear the A330 has won. These will be Flyadeal’s first venture into wide-body aircraft and are expected to be delivered in 2027, which could have been a major factor in the choice of aircraft, as Boeing’s production rates are still restricted by the FAA on safety grounds.
When I read there was a blockage at Nottingham railway station, I immediately thought that the tracks through the station had been blocked by a derailment. But I was wrong—what is blocked is the toilets, and it has been going on for over a month. Both the Ladies and Gents are suffering from a ‘major blockage’ across six platforms, and the station operator, East Midlands Trains, say they need to bring in ‘specialist heavy equipment’ to clear the blockage. I hate to think what the blockage actually is. It is hardly likely to be a fatberg, as is often seen in domestic sewers, but I wouldn’t rule out wet wipes.
Wednesday
Hi folks, a bit misty first thing this morning, but at least the forecast says it’s not going to last and is going to get up to 10°C today. I was delighted to hear that Princess Catherine, our future Queen, has announced that her cancer is in remission. I think that she is one of the few members of the Royal Family who would be missed if we lost her. She seems to have the knack of getting on and doing things in a quiet and proper way. I can only think of a few other royals who have that ability. She recently made a visit to the Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital to thank them for treating her and didn’t call the press beforehand. She appeared to be genuinely grateful, hugging doctors and nurses, with only a single photographer to record events. Compare this to the Ginge and Whinge visit to the site of the Los Angeles fire, which was painful to watch and seemed to be for their publicity rather than to help the victims.
So, Tulip Siddiq has finally gone. The report on the report by the Prime Minister’s standards adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, was damning in faint words. He couldn’t be more forthright because of a lack of hard evidence. She is said to have told the investigator that she couldn’t remember the source of her home, and the investigator couldn’t find where it came from. Surely it is a matter of public record at the Land Registry as to who owned the property before it was gifted to her. If its ownership has not been registered, then someone has committed an offence.

Official portrait of Tulip Siddiq,
Chris McAndrew – Licence CC BY-SA 3.0
Robber Reeves must be mighty relieved this morning to have heard that the inflation rate fell a tiny bit last month instead of increasing, as all the ‘experts’ predicted. OK, the rate only went down from 2.6% to 2.5%, but at least it went down. However, I understand the only reason it went down was that the previous year’s December increase in tobacco prices has worked its way out of the calculation, and petrol prices dropped a bit. I don’t think the Robber can be so lucky next month.
Over in Italy, the football team Lazio have sacked the handler of their falcon mascot. The falconer, Juan Bernabe, was fired for sharing graphic photos of his penile implant on social media. Apparently, he got the implant ‘to increase sexual performance’ and is delighted with the results. The fans of Lazio are not so happy, as it means that flights of their falcon mascot have been cancelled for the foreseeable future.
I see Heathrow Airport is back in talks with the Government about a third runway. This is after record numbers used the airport over Christmas, building on the busiest ever year for the airport in 2024. Some 83.9 million people travelled through Heathrow in 2024, up 3 million on its previous busiest year of 2019. Since then, numbers were badly affected by Covid and are only now recovering. Only last month, Heathrow announced plans to redevelop infrastructure, spending £2.3 billion in doing so, but a new runway would take spending even higher. The airport says bookings for this year are looking good, and they expect to handle 84.5 million passengers in 2025.
I’m told that the Cadbury Creme Egg has a new rival this year. With Easter products appearing in the shops, I hear that this year some shops are offering a Terry’s Orange Cream Egg. The new egg will have a chocolate shell and an orange-flavoured creamy filling. Unlike a real egg, it looks like it is all yolk and no white. I wonder if, at 70p each, these will catch on.
I read some interesting things coming out of the Rolls-Royce camp on its proposed Small Modular Reactor (SMR) proposal. With the cost of Hinkley Point ‘C’ now up to £54 billion and Sizewell ‘C’ now predicted to cost £38 billion, it makes the cost of 3 x Rolls SMR power stations look cheap at £10 billion. Not only is the SMR made in modules in a factory, where it can be easily quality assured, it can be erected under cover as the site size is so much smaller than a full-sized pressurised water reactor like Sizewell. But one of the most important things is the cost of the power they generate. The cost of power from an SMR is currently between £50 and £60 per megawatt hour. That is virtually the same as the last round of offshore wind and half the predicted price of Hinkley Point ‘C’. What I can’t understand is why we have not already placed an order or two.
Thursday
Good morning, happy readers, to this damp and grey morning. I see that the economy grew by 0.1% last month, slower than the experts expected but at least a bit better than the previous month when it was -0.1%. So, on average, that is no growth over the period. This is not what Legohead promised. Talking of Legohead, he has gone to Kyiv, where he says he is going to sign a 100-year agreement to support Ukraine. No one is saying what this agreement says or means, or what it commits us to. Is he going to pay them money for the next 100 years? Shouldn’t we be told?
I am delighted to hear that Legohead has backed down on a couple of his more stupid plans. Firstly, he has decided that it would be wrong to repeal the Legacy Act in Northern Ireland without putting in place legislation that stops Gerry Adams from being able to sue for wrongful arrest, something the Act currently prevents. Then he has decided not to pursue a Chagos Island deal before The Donald becomes President. I suspect the deal will be quietly dropped. Oh, I nearly forgot—Legohead has not been invited to the Presidential inauguration, but Talk Radio’s right-of-centre presenter Alex Phillips has and will be in the good seats.
It is now a year since work started on the Sizewell ‘C’ Power Station, but I doubt that very many people will have noticed much happening on-site. Apparently, there are already 1,000 workers employed on the project, and it is currently gearing up to double that number. Of course, some local businesses are already benefiting. Ipswich-based Jackson Civil Engineering has just signed a £19 million contract to build access roads, and Royal British Legion Industries has been handed a two-year licence to run the Sizewell C site coffee shop! Among the works carried out in the first year have been archaeology and earthworks at the main site, as well as preparatory work for a concrete batching plant and a temporary desalination plant. Why does a project like this take so bloody long?
I read that a Birmingham doctor, 58 years old, Mohammad Siddiqui, who was struck off for running a mobile circumcision business, has been in court in Southwark. It seems he ignored the medical authorities and carried on running the business, visiting patients’ homes and carrying out the procedures. This week Siddiqui pleaded guilty to 25 charges against him, including assault occasioning actual bodily harm and cruelty to a person under 16. The CPS said, ‘he practised these circumcising acts in an unsafe and unsanitary environment and so meted out painful cruelty to children, leaving them with emotional and physical scars.’ Apparently, he travelled around the UK performing non-therapeutic male circumcisions—where there is no clinical reason for the procedure—on patients up to the age of 14. He has been sentenced to 5 years 7 months in prison, which doesn’t seem long enough to me.
A year ago, BT announced a scheme to put 60,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations on the streets of the UK. The idea was to reuse the green street cabinets currently used to deliver telephone and internet services over copper wires. With the introduction of Fibre to the Premises, the cabinets were redundant, so BT decided to reuse them as EV charging stations. But a year later, having converted just one cabinet, in East Lothian, they have dropped the scheme completely. BT has said that they will switch the funding to providing Wi-Fi to EVs. They will also be closing down the single charger in Scotland.

King’s Avenue telecoms cabinet, Radyr, Cardiff,
Jaggery – Licence CC BY-SA 2.0
I hear that yet another US fast-food chain is opening in Britain, which they see as a fertile market. Of course, we have had the likes of McDonald’s, KFC, Taco Bell, Burger King, and Subway for a long time now. More recently, they have been joined by Popeyes and Wendy’s, who have rejoined the market after giving up over here some years ago but now have 40 outlets. The latest to open is going to be California-based Carl’s Jr., which is about to open in Cardiff, followed by Chuck E. Cheese, who are planning an initial 6 branches, while Chick-fil-A is planning 5 branches. I also hear that Dave’s Hot Chicken, who have just opened a single trial outlet on London’s Shaftesbury Avenue, are talking about 60 outlets by the end of 2026. At this rate, we will only have American fast-food outlets on our high streets soon.
This is a bit of a complicated story, but I think it is good news for the UK. Dutch energy consultant ULC-Energy BV has signed a Letter of Intent with Chiltern Vital Group to collaborate on delivering innovative clean energy solutions for CVG’s business park properties. Now, Chiltern Vital Group (CVG) own the Berkeley Science and Technology Park, next to Berkeley Nuclear Power Station in Gloucestershire, and the Yorkshire Energy Park, and have plans to expand energy parks across the UK and Europe. ULC-Energy BV has an agreement with Rolls-Royce SMR to supply its power, and the aim is to build a Rolls-Royce SMR to supply an expanded Berkeley Technology Park. Hopefully, this could be the lead Rolls-Royce SMR powering energy parks across Europe.
Friday
Quite dull and grey again this morning, but not too chilly. 215 illegal immigrants on four small boats arrived on Wednesday. Gosh, this is getting ridiculous. Legohead is not doing a thing to ‘smash the gangs’, and they are still coming over in droves. He claimed the Tories had no ideas, but he threw away the only deterrent we had, which was obviously keeping the numbers down, and things are now much worse.
Mike Amesbury, the suspended Labour MP for Runcorn and Helsby, appeared in court yesterday and pleaded guilty to assault by beating after punching a man to the ground in the early hours of the morning. It was obvious that he had committed the assault as there was a video of him hitting, then punching the man on the ground and kicking him while the man had his hands in his pockets. Amesbury was suspended by the Labour Party but has continued to sit as an independent MP. If he doesn’t now do the proper thing and resign, the guilty plea will not automatically trigger a recall petition. However, a prison sentence, even a suspended one, would, giving constituents a chance to hold a by-election to replace the MP. Amesbury had a majority of over 14,000 at the General Election, with Reform coming second. Could Reform pull off a remarkable by-election win?

Official portrait of Mike Amesbury crop 2,
Chris McAndrew – Licence CC BY-SA 3.0
I was amazed to read that there are 138 named airlines that are banned from landing in the UK or even flying in UK airspace. Many of these bans are due to the local certification authority not meeting the standards expected by most countries or for political reasons. Every Russian airline is banned because of the war with Ukraine. But I was a little surprised to read that all Pakistani airlines are banned for their poor technical standards, as are airlines from many countries, including Nepal, Libya, Angola, and Armenia. North Korea is an odd case; all airlines and aircraft are banned, excluding TU-204 aircraft with registration P-632 or P-633, which are operated by the state airline Air Koryo.
In the Muswell Hill area of North London, 3,000 households and buildings are suffering from having their gas supply cut off. It seems that last Sunday, a water main burst and flooded several gas mains. The water main has filled the gas mains, and they have to be pumped out before the gas system can be refilled. However, this involves visiting every premises and bleeding the air out of the system. The gas supply is not expected to be fully restored before the weekend. In the meantime, many residents are without hot water and heating. Helpfully, Barnet Council says residents can use the showers at Finchley Lido. The only problem is that this facility is only available during its normal opening times, and it is several miles away.
At long last, the two brothers who were seen on video fighting with police at Manchester Airport back in July last year have appeared in the Magistrates’ Court, accused of assaulting police officers. The brothers were named as Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, and Muhammed Amaad, 25, both from Rochdale. Amaaz is charged with causing actual bodily harm to a male and a female PC. He is also alleged to have assaulted another female officer by beating and is facing a common assault count against a member of the public, Abdulkareem Ismael, at the airport on the same date. Amaad is charged with causing actual bodily harm to a male police officer. Neither entered a plea, and both were remanded on bail to appear at Liverpool Crown Court on 13 February.
The Holyhead ferry terminal reopened yesterday after damage caused by December’s storms. Holyhead is the UK’s second-busiest ferry port and serves the crossing to the Republic of Ireland. The port normally handles about 600 lorries a day, and many of those have had to temporarily transfer to other longer routes. I find it interesting that companies moan about how hard it is to export to the EU, but 600 lorries a day are doing that through Holyhead.
Most of the things that passengers are banned from taking on board cruise ships make sense. Things like guns, knives, and recreational drugs are obvious. I can understand them banning extension leads and things like irons and single-cup heating elements because of the fire risk. But I hear that Carnival has recently announced a ban on pineapple door stickers. Apparently, an upside-down pineapple on a door indicates that the cabin occupants are members of the swinging community. All the other things that are banned are on the grounds of safety, so what is unsafe about a pineapple-loving couple?
Saturday
Good morning, everyone, and it’s another grey morning in London. More bad news for Robber Reeves this morning: according to reports, thousands of millionaires have left the country. Some of them were British citizens, but most were non-doms. This is said to be a disaster for her tax policies, with it now projected to mean lower tax takes rather than the increase she projected of £2.5 billion. The Robber’s policies are falling apart.
I read of an interesting sale made by the Russian state aircraft industry, which has delivered six Sukhoi Su-30SME fighters to the Myanmar Air Force in exchange for six elephants sent in part exchange. The five female and one male elephant have been delivered to the Moscow State Circus. A Russian minister has been photographed petting the elephants.

PLAAF Sukhoi Su-30 at Lipetsk-2 (modified),
Dmitriy Pichugin – Licence CC BY-SA 4.0
I see that Legohead has promised Ukraine £3 billion a year. Among this year’s gifts, he has promised replacement artillery barrels and Gravehawk Air Defence Systems. I was only reading last week that one of the things our forces were short of is air defence systems, particularly with long- and medium-range missiles. So, rather than equip our own forces, he is going to equip the Ukrainians. As far as I remember, we don’t make long- or medium-range air defence missiles, so we would have to buy them from someone and give them to Ukraine. I understand that Israel does a very effective line in air defence missiles, but we should be sorting out our own needs first.
So, what are Gravehawk Air Defence Systems? After a bit of digging, I have learnt next to nothing. All I have learnt is that it is a joint British-Danish project, it is about the size of a shipping container, it is mobile (but whether wheeled or tracked is unknown), two test systems are in use in Ukraine, and a further 15 systems are to be supplied this year, with another 15 next year. Apparently, it reuses air-to-air missiles, but which ones isn’t revealed, and what sort of range missiles are used is again unknown. Apparently, Ukraine has lots of American air-to-air missiles, but no mention of American assistance was made in the announcement. So, could it be reusing Russian-made missiles like the R27, R60, and R73, which Ukraine is known to have a stock of? Or does it use new European-made missiles like Meteor or AMRAAM?
The government slipped out a little announcement on Wednesday regarding airline passengers transiting through British airports needing ETAs. When the UK followed the EU in applying ETAs to visitors, we included transit passengers, meaning that someone not entering the UK but just changing planes here had to spend £10 on an ETA application, with the possibility of it being refused and them wasting an airfare. It was noticeable that passengers were choosing to transit through Amsterdam, Paris, and Frankfurt, and British Airways and Virgin Airways both objected strongly. So, on Wednesday, the government announced that transit passengers would no longer need to hold an ETA. However, because it was going to cost them money, the cost of an ETA is now going to be £16, even for babies!
I read that Cunard’s Queen Anne hasn’t started its first world cruise very well, being a day late on its maiden arrival into New York after hitting rough weather and strong winds in the North Atlantic. The problem is very simple: the Queen Anne is a pure cruise ship with a top speed of 22 knots. Her flat-bottom design has meant that she has had to cut her speed so the voyage is more comfortable for passengers. Her sister ship, Queen Mary 2, was designed as an ocean liner capable of cutting through rough seas at up to 30 knots. The other two Cunard Queens, Victoria and Elizabeth, although basically cruise ships, had modifications, such as strengthened bows, to allow them to cross the Atlantic more easily. The Queen Anne is a beautiful ship, but she was not designed for the North Atlantic in mid-winter.
Do you remember the Juju Air Boeing 737 that crashed in Thailand last month, killing 179 passengers? The plane, travelling from Bangkok to Muan County in southwestern South Korea, skidded down the runway at Muan into a concrete wall. The preliminary report from the accident inspectors has said that feathers and blood were found in both engines. This was not really a surprise, as four minutes before the crash, Air Traffic Control had warned of major bird activity, and two minutes before the crash, the plane’s captain had reported losing an engine due to a bird strike. The plane is also reported to have lost all electrical power.
That’s me done for the week. I must admit it has been another quiet week in Number 10, with Legohead spending time in Ukraine and Poland. As I have said before, the atmosphere in the office is always much better when he is not here. I enjoyed my snooze last week, so I think I might curl up on a chair in the entrance hall again this week. Chat to you all next week!
© WorthingGooner 2025