Monday
Good morning, Puffins, and welcome to Trump Day. It all kicks off at 5 p.m. GMT when he is inaugurated, and this cat can’t wait. The news is that he has over 200 presidential orders ready to sign, which will unwind loads of the rubbish introduced by Sniffer Joe. I had a little chuckle when I read the list of British guests who are in Washington, D.C., for the ceremony, all from the right of our politics. I will love seeing Legohead sitting in his office with his head in his hands.
This week is not looking promising for Legohead. News emerged at the weekend that the Ginger Growler is in trouble for breaking the Ministerial Code by getting people in her department to clean her new ministerial residence in Admiralty Arch and then having them move her furniture. Then his Attorney General, Baron Hermer, is in double trouble, having represented Gerry Adams and now being outed as having done a one-off special deal to get five Sri Lankan refugees who landed on Chagos into Britain. Next, it is Liebore MP John McDonnell and his old mate Steptoe, who deliberately pushed through police lines on Saturday’s Islamic march in London, being investigated by the police. Then it looks like Trump is not going to accept the Lord of Darkness as the next ambassador. Trump is going to kill Legohead’s Chagos deal. Robber Reeve’s budget is falling to pieces, with 10,600-dollar millionaires leaving the country last year rather than paying UK tax on earnings made outside the UK. Oh yes, I nearly forgot: Sad Dick is in trouble for calling Trump “Hitler” and for taking free Taylor Swift tickets from a company that has contracts with the Greater London Authority.
The trial of 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana, the person accused of stabbing to death three little girls at a dance class in Southport, starts today at Liverpool Crown Court. He is charged with three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder, making the deadly poison ricin, having an al-Qaida manual, and having a bladed weapon. I understand he is pleading not guilty. This is going to be an interesting court case, as it certainly appears that there was some government interference in it. I somehow doubt that exactly what happened after the attack will come out in the trial, but I would love to know when the government knew about his background and just why they said there were no security implications when he had ricin and a terrorist training manual.
The scenes coming out of Gaza yesterday were terrible, with three young women hostages handed back to the Israelis in exchange for 90 terrorists. The crowds on the streets were jeering these three young women, whose only crime was being Jewish. I see the terrorists have found their Hamas uniforms now they are no longer fighting the IDF. By not wearing uniforms, Hamas was able to claim the IDF were killing civilians. Someone filmed terrorists changing out of press corps gear and putting on Hamas uniforms, then put it on YouTube. No wonder Hamas was forever reporting members of the press being killed. I wonder if this ceasefire would have happened if the Kamel had won the election.
I read this morning that Legohead hopes to revive the trade talks with the US that were put on hold when Sniffer Joe came to power. Legohead is going to have to tread very carefully on this one, and I’m not sure he has the diplomatic ability to do so. He instinctively wants to align with the EU, and if he does, they will not allow him to do a deal with the US. I suspect Trump may be willing to do a deal, and personally, I think we would be better off hitching our caravan to the US and the rest of the world, which is growing fast and will now grow quicker, rather than the EU, which is dying.
I see that Brompton, the famous folding bicycle maker, has finally received planning permission for a new state-of-the-art factory in Ashford, Kent. Not so long ago, Brompton moved out of their factory on Brompton Road and into a purpose-built factory in Greenford. Only a few years back, they increased their production area by building a huge mezzanine floor over a large part of the production area so they could move all their offices up onto it and expand the production area below. I understand the current factory can produce 100,000 bicycles a year. The new factory will be big enough to double annual production and create up to 4,000 jobs. The only problem is that it is going to be two years before it happens.

Folded Brompton bicycle, Bristol and Bath Science Park (cropped),
Rwendland – Licence CC BY-SA 4.0
The British vs. EU case over our banning of EU vessels catching sand eel in British fishing waters is due to start on 28 January. We banned catching sand eels because they are the main diet of much marine life, especially puffins. The EU catches most of the sand eels and turns them into fertiliser—they don’t use them for food—and have taken the case to court. The EU is taking us to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, claiming we are breaching the post-Brexit trade deal. It will be interesting to see who wins in this three-day hearing.
Tuesday
Good morning, my friends, and it is another intriguing day in Number 10. Legohead woke me up pottering around very early. It seems he has scheduled a press conference on the Southport murders for 08:15. Why so early? That’s normally my breakfast time! Is it because he thinks the reporters will still be in bed? So, Legohead says he couldn’t say anything before now for fear of prejudicing the court case. But it was OK to say that the summer rioters were far right. It was amazing that he admitted knowing things and not telling the public. Then who was it that decided to release a photo of Rudakubana as a schoolboy rather than his mugshot? I still think there is a lot yet to come out.
The Bank of England has told the Chancellor, Robber Reeve, how to get some growth into the economy. It is, of course, very simple—they say you cut back on the Net Zero obligation, or as the Donald says, “Cut the green crap.” It is about to happen in the USA—they have already withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement, which is estimated to save them $1 trillion. I wonder how much we could save by doing the same thing. But Liebore won’t cut back because it is embedded in their ideology.
I crept into the office yesterday to watch the Trump inauguration on the TV. I just knew that they would have it on to annoy Legohead. It was interesting to compare it with the coronation. The USA has a lot to learn—it was as dull as ditchwater. It dragged on so long I wondered if Sniffer Joe was going to survive until the end. The Kamel and Killery looked mighty pissed off, and the only time Sniffer woke up was when Vance’s little children arrived on the scene. Someone seemed to have turned off the band’s microphone, so some girl had to sing unaccompanied. Then Trump’s speech went on a bit, but he did threaten to take back the Panama Canal. I will be keeping an eye out for all the lefties losing it as his 200 presidential decrees come into law.
So, Axel Rudakubana decided to plead guilty to all sixteen charges, including murder and attempted murder of those little girls in Southport. Of course, there is only one sentence available for murder, and that is life imprisonment. But we all know life doesn’t mean life, and the judge normally recommends a minimum sentence to be served before the prisoner can be released on probation. The judge is due to pass sentence on Thursday, and it will be intriguing to see what he gets. Being a cynical old cat, I wonder how hard Rudakubana was lent on to plead guilty and if attempts to conceal what had really happened are being presented in open court. I now hear that Rudakubana’s home was searched on the day he was arrested. So, did Legohead know about the terrorist aspect of the case and deliberately lie about it when he told everyone that terrorism wasn’t involved?
In the USA, the 804 MW Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm has a little bit of a problem. The offshore Massachusetts wind farm has had a couple of its GE Vernova Advance turbine blades failing. The blades are made in two factories, one in Gaspé, Canada, and one in Cherbourg, France, and it is the Canadian ones that have been failing. The regulator has insisted that all Canadian blades are removed and replaced by French-made ones once the manufacturer has proved they are made to specification.

Barrow Offshore wind turbines NR,
Andy Dingley – Licence CC BY-SA 3.0
I hear that for a couple of days from tomorrow, there is going to be a period of virtually no wind, so there will be very little power generation from wind turbines. This coincides with similar wind conditions in Europe, which will make it difficult to top up our grid via the interconnectors. This means we will have to rely on our ageing fleet of gas turbine and nuclear power stations and pray that we don’t get a cold snap at the same time. The clear folly of closing our coal-fired power stations is now obvious for all to see. My answer to the problem would be to instantly commission a couple of 1,000 MW coal-fired power plants, even if we had to buy coal from Australia or America. These are being built in 36 months in India and China and would be coming online far quicker than any intermittent green crap.
I am a bit confused. OK, I am a cat, so I don’t have a super brain, but how is it that, on the one hand, the Government is telling us that we need to fly a lot less to save the environment, and then, on the other hand, the Chancellor says she is backing an additional runway at Heathrow? Mad Red Ed Millipede, the climate change zealot, has been pushing his agenda extremely hard and says that one return holiday flight a year is just about acceptable. Well, I have news for him—very few holiday charter flights operate out of Heathrow. Most of the flights operating out of Heathrow are scheduled flights, and the passengers are businessmen, which is why Robber Reeve is in favour of a third runway there. She thinks it will be good for business, which might help the economy grow. Why am I being told different things at the same time?
Wednesday
Hi folks, a bit damp first thing this morning and colder again—not the nicest of mornings. You’ve got to love the Donald. Reports say that within two hours of getting behind the President’s desk in the Oval Office, he had reinstated the bust of Winston Churchill, which had been removed by Sniffer Joe. Contrast that with Legohead, who removed the painting of Margaret Thatcher from the Thatcher Room here in Number 10.
More signs that Robber Reeve’s running of the economy is a disaster this morning. It was announced that last month we borrowed £17.8 billion to balance income over spending. This was up by £10.1 billion on the previous December and took the financial year’s borrowing to £4 billion more than in the whole of the previous financial year, with a quarter of the year to go.
The Army has started to receive the first of its 623 British-built Boxer Armoured Fighting Vehicles and displayed them at the International Armoured Vehicle Conference in Farnborough in an attempt to sell them internationally. The Boxer family of armoured vehicles was designed by Rheinmetall in Germany, and the British version is made by a joint venture company, Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land, in Telford. I understand we have ordered ten different versions, ranging from ambulances to command vehicles via armoured personnel carriers. In addition, I understand we have ordered the RCH version, which is a 155mm mobile gun on the Boxer chassis.
I can’t say I like grey squirrels—they are too much like rats for my liking. If I see one in the garden, I always give chase. But red squirrels are different—they are nice, and they are native to the UK, not foreign invaders. So, I was delighted to read about a new colony of red squirrels in the Yorkshire Dales. There are still a few colonies in England, mainly along the south coast, on Brownsea Island, and in parts of the north of England. The biggest population is in Scotland. There are some colonies in the Yorkshire Dales, but this is a new one in a plantation of Sitka pine in the western part of the Dales. When found, the colony was thought to consist of just four animals, but the count is now up to 20.

Red squirrel [explored],
hedera.baltica – Licence CC BY-SA 2.0
C2C, the railway that runs services from London’s Liverpool Street Station to Southend and Tilbury, has decided to repaint its entire fleet of 74 Class 357 trains. There is no mention of cost in the announcement I read, but it can’t be cheap as each four-carriage train will take 20 days and the whole fleet 24 months. I understand that the trains are on lease from various leasing companies for several years to come and are beginning to look a little tired. Of course, a fresh coat of paint will not only make them look better but will help them last longer. But I wish I knew how much it was costing.
Manchester United have just had to back down in a row over a fan suffering from dementia. The club, like many others, uses a digital season ticket for most supporters, but in this man’s case, he was still using paper tickets as he couldn’t use the digital one on his mobile phone. However, the club has a rule whereby they reserve the right to remove the season ticket from anyone who doesn’t attend five matches in a season. Despite having been to every home game, the club wrote to this man saying that as he had missed five home games, his ticket was withdrawn, and they were refunding the remaining portion of his season ticket. It seems that their systems were incapable of recording that his attendance was by using a paper ticket. I am happy to say that his ticket has been reinstated, but not until the media got on the case.
A new skyscraper has got planning permission to be erected in the City of London. 1 Undershaft, at 74 storeys, will be the tallest building in the City of London, but still not as tall as the Shard, which is not in the City. Floors 72 and 73 will be open to the public and will be developed in conjunction with the Museum of London. They are going to offer an ‘educational’ experience for children. Dubbed a ‘classroom in the sky’, these levels should offer excellent views over the city. Levels 10 to 12 are also designed to form a communal garden and are intended to be a ‘space for relaxation.’ The design offers over 1.25 million square feet of office space and is expected to take five years to construct.
Thursday
Good morning, happy readers! Guess what? It’s wet, grey and cold again. Robber Reeves is on her way back from the meeting of the ‘elite’ in Davos. She says she has drawn a line under 14 years of Tory economic disaster. What she didn’t say was that she also borrowed Crayon’s crayons to add a house, a mummy and a daddy, herself as a child, a big yellow sun and some flowers.
Rolls-Royce Submarines announced a while back that the increase in demand for the number of PWRs required to support both the faster production of Dreadnought-class and SSN-AUKUS attack submarines meant that they would have to expand their factory at Raynesway in Derby. Rolls-Royce Submarines announced yesterday that they had contracted with Atkins Realis and Mott MacDonald to double the size of the current facility. Rolls-Royce Submarines already employs over 5,000 people in the design, manufacturing, installation, commissioning and maintenance of all the PWRs used by the Royal Navy. This expansion is going to be good news for the people of Derby, as the enlarged facility is projected to need 1,170 additional skilled people.
Today, I hear that Boeing has yet another problem with the certification of the two remaining uncertified Boeing 737 Max models—the Max 7 and the Max 10. Boeing says that because of changes in the certification process, they have not been able to demonstrate that the stall-management yaw damper (SMYD) system meets the requirements. Therefore, they have requested an ‘exemption’ to this requirement that would allow the plane to be certified. That rather worries me. I wouldn’t want to fly on a plane on which systems had not been fully tested and approved, just because the manufacturer needs to sell the planes.

N27752 Boeing 737-MAX 10 demonstrator STN 081222,
kitmasterbloke – Licence CC BY-SA 2.0
The AA has done a survey of appeals to the London Tribunals’ traffic adjudicators and found that 56% of people who appealed against being fined for entering a bus lane had their appeals upheld, while 36% of those fined for stopping in a box junction won appeals. The vast majority of cases were won because the local authorities couldn’t show that the cameras covering the bus lane or box junction had up-to-date certification. In Southwark, the borough’s most lucrative bus lane—where 4,478 fines worth a total of more than half a million pounds were issued last year—had cameras without a valid TMO certificate. The AA speculated that thousands of people paid the fine early to get a 50% reduction and could have successfully appealed.
I understand that Virgin Trains could be making a comeback to services in the UK. Apparently, they are likely to apply to run a service from the UK to the continent via the Channel Tunnel. The initial services would be in competition with Eurostar from London to Paris but are likely to be expanded to other European cities, including some in Germany. I understand that the Virgin Group has made £500 million available to Virgin Trains to purchase 12 high-speed trains. Virgin has asked train manufacturers for information. What is interesting is that 12 trains for £500 million equates to £41.666 million per train. Now, going by the price paid recently for high-speed trains, this is very high. Recent HST trains for use in France have cost around £30 million, but these trains would have to be capable of running in both France and the UK, adding, say, £5 million to the cost of a train. So why the other £6 million? The speculation is that it is to make them capable of running on British, French and German systems.
My cat story this week is about Mittens, who is a Maine Coon. Mittens was booked to fly with her family from Christchurch, New Zealand, to their new home in Melbourne, Australia. Her owner waited hours to pick her up in the cargo area of Melbourne before it was realised that her cage had not been unloaded. In fact, she was forgotten and left in the hold when the plane flew back to Christchurch. The Air New Zealand pilot was told of the extra passenger during the return flight and turned on the heat in the hold to keep Mittens alive. The plane was met by the pet moving company that had originally organised Mittens’ flight. They collected her and looked after her before she was once again flown to Melbourne, where it is reported she leapt into her human’s arms.
The Government has told the companies building offshore wind farms that they must avoid ‘noisy’ explosions of old munitions on the seabed. I read that there are still more than 300,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance from the First and Second World Wars dotted around UK waters, and these must be disposed of before offshore wind farms can be built. Apparently, large explosive blasts can kill off whales, dolphins and other sea creatures, and the noise can disrupt their behaviour, so they must be avoided. So, what do construction companies do when they find a WW2 1,000lb bomb in the middle of the Dogger Bank? How can they dispose of it quietly? More rubbish from the Legohead Government.
Friday
Welcome to a windy and wet morning in Downing Street, where I struggled to walk down the garden and was blown back. My fur was all over the place when I got back—I looked like that Southport killer. Talking of whom, I see that the reason Legohead rushed home from placing a wreath in memory of the dead girls was that he had a fundraising party to attend. And he was the one who moaned about Bozzie’s so-called ‘parties’.
Recently, Rolls-Royce has been losing market position on sales of the Boeing 787 engines because of the reliability of its Trent 1000 aero engine. Rolls recognised the problem and has been making a series of improvements, including a redesign of the high-speed turbine, reducing the operating temperature by 45°, increasing cooling airflow by 40%, adding additional cooling holes, and increasing the size of the passageways that carry the cooling air to the blade. They have been testing the new design on a Boeing test 787-8 and have just announced that the redesign has passed all its ‘Durability Enhancement’ testing. They will now seek certification of the revised design.

Trent 1000 GoodwinHall VirginiaTech,
Mdlustig18 – Licence CC BY-SA 4.0
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) says it has been reviewing its main dining room menus and, as a result, has decided to cut them by about one-third. They say they have been monitoring what is ordered and that most people order from the top two-thirds of the menu. Now, I have seen cruise line menus, and that bottom third is usually where you find all the vegetarian and vegan options. So, are they saying that these options are not very popular with cruisers? Or is it simply a case of a shorter menu being cheaper and those vegetarian and vegan choices will still be there, while ordinary diners will be the ones who get fewer options?
Storm Èowyn has helped a British Airways flight from Las Vegas to Heathrow cut an hour off its flight time today. The strong tailwind at high levels allowed the plane to reach 814 mph over the ground, just short of the record speed of 835 mph. I bet the passengers were delighted not to have been stuck in their seats for as long as expected, but I wonder if the very strong jet stream made for a bumpy flight.
Axel Rudakubana, the man who murdered three little girls and attempted to murder eight other girls and two adults, was in court yesterday for sentencing. The young man, who has chosen to appear at all previous hearings in a face mask and not to speak, suddenly found his voice today. Twice he disrupted proceedings by shouting that he was unwell, and twice he was removed from court and seen by medics, who confirmed that he was fit for proceedings to continue. The judge confirmed he was not going to stop the hearing and listened to all the details, including that Rudakubana said how happy he was that three girls were dead and how one girl was stabbed 122 times. I was delighted that he was sentenced to life for the three murders with a minimum term of 52 years because of his age. He also got 175 days off the minimum term for time served. I doubt we will ever see him out of prison.
Ever since the inauguration of George Bush, Coca-Cola has presented the incoming President with special commemorative cans and bottles of Coca-Cola, and this time round there has been no exception. But last time the Donald was elected President, Coca-Cola made a mistake and presented him with full-fat Coke. However, the Donald is addicted to Diet Coke and, during his first term, drank up to 15 cans a day. So this time he was presented with a special commemorative issue of Diet Coke. I wonder if the Donald bought those 15 cans a day himself.
I read that Germany has become the third nation to order the RCH 155 Howitzer. The RCH (Remote Controlled Howitzer) is based on the Boxer Armoured Fighting Vehicle. The first orders were for 18 from Ukraine, which has been repeated twice and is now for 56, the first of which is due to be delivered any day now. The second order came from our MoD and is for an initial 116, all of which are to be delivered by 2030. However, it looks likely that number will be doubled. The German order is for 168, taking total orders up to 340. The RCH 155 seems to be a favourite to replace old Howitzers, with several other countries—including Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands—all tipped to place orders, making it common equipment in Europe.
Saturday
Good Morning everyone and it’s sunny here in London! It had obviously been raining overnight but had stopped by the time I went out for my constitutional, and the sun was trying to come out. I see Robber Reeves has been saying that what we need is someone like Trump to say positive things about the British economy. Well, wasn’t it her and Legohead who were talking down the economy when they came to power in July?
A bit more Rolls-Royce news this morning. It’s no wonder they announced a big expansion of their submarine reactor factory in Derby, as they have a new £9 billion, eight-year contract with the Government. According to the announcement, this will guarantee 4,000 existing jobs and lead to another 1,000 skilled workers being employed. About 18 months ago, Rolls opened a new state-of-the-art Nuclear Skills Academy in Derby with the idea of training 200 apprentices a year.
The council in Hertsmere has granted planning permission for a new data centre to be built in Elstree, close to the M25 and a major electrical substation. When built, the data centre will be the largest in Europe and will cost £3.75 billion to construct. The site is going to occupy 85 acres of what is currently agricultural land in the Green Belt, although the council is to reclassify the land as Grey Belt. I read that the plan is for 54% of the site to be maintained as green space. According to the council, the new building will produce £21.4 million annually in business rates and employ 200 people permanently. What I don’t read is how much power it will consume and whether the grid is capable of providing it.
I hear that some councils have decided not to give pensioners cash grants from the Household Support Fund. Instead, they are using their share of the fund to bulk-buy money-saving gadgets and give them to pensioners instead. For example, North Lincolnshire Council has purchased 5,000 air fryers, 1,300 slow cookers, and 400 one-cup kettles, which have been given free to pensioners in receipt of council tax support. In North Yorkshire, the funds have been used to buy white goods (fridges, washing machines, and microwaves) for those who lost the Winter Fuel Allowance. Even OVO Energy is dishing out 20,000 electric blankets to pensioner customers. But none of this would have been necessary if the Government hadn’t removed the WFA.

Air Fryer 5458,
Ashley Pomeroy – Licence CC BY-SA 4.0
Robber Reeves, aka Rachel from Accounts, is expected to announce the Government backing a third runway at Heathrow next week, but it is also possible she could announce that Gatwick can turn its emergency runway into a full-time second runway and that Luton can expand. This is very much against the party’s green ideals and old policy of cutting air travel. The bad news is that Mad Red Ed Millipede, who is about as green as you can get and solidly against airport expansion, has said he will not resign over the announcement. What a pity.
I read that people in Burnley are not very happy with the local council, as local people say they are being fined for driving in a bus lane after leaving football matches at Burnley’s Turf Moor ground. The problem is that the bus lane only appears for 90 minutes following matches at the ground, but the council has erected large signs telling football traffic to use the bus lane. The council is rejecting all appeals against the fines, which drivers are convinced are part of a council scam.
A Boeing 727, abandoned at El Paso Airport in 2015 when its owner died, has just been sold for $10,132, the highest of 54 bids. The plane had been accruing parking fees of $45 a day, but this has been waived if the plane is moved before 3rd February. I understand the plane has all three engines, but all the seats, including the pilot and co-pilots’ seats, have been removed. I can’t see how this plane could possibly be flown out without a huge amount of work being done. I guess the new owner, whoever it might be, will have to move the plane by road—something that will probably cost a lot more than the plane itself.
That’s me done again for the week. It’s not been a very good week for Legohead and his crew, especially as I have just seen an opinion poll on national voting intentions that puts Reform on 26%, the Tories on 24%, and Liebore on 23%. This has really upset the atmosphere in the office, and you could have cut it with a knife amongst ministers in here this morning. It’s a bit warmer and sunny this afternoon, but I’m still not going to the windowsill. I’m going to curl up on a chair in the entrance hall again this week. Chat to you all next week!
© WorthingGooner 2025