Happy Christmas to you and yours!

A time of peace and goodwill, of generosity, family and happiness, sharing joy, counting one's blessings. Whether you believe in God or not. If we didn't have Christmas, we'd probably have to invent it/Him like some kind of erm Pagan festival of celebration.

When you boil it down, it's about the celebration of a birth, a renewal, without which we'd die out as a species and, along with that extinction, would die out the many good and great things we - humanity - have/has achieved.

A baby or a child. A tiny human being. The magic of nature in producing a newborn. A small collection of recognisable cells, legs, arms; have you ever felt the feet of a newborn baby? Like precious velvet. Uncorrupted. Vulnerable. Totally dependent.

A blank canvass. Genetically programmed to survive, to take on food, to grow, to live.

To smile: Babies smile when they recognise you. Their natural instinct is to smile. To be friendly.

To like other people. And to be liked. A social animal that relates to and is friendly towards other people from a very early age. A survival mechanism of course, but also an innate, internally hard-wired instinct that I think runs alongside a natural instinct about recognising fairness, caring for others and by being unquestionably loyal and loving, being treasured and loved themselves.

As I say it's a survival mechanism and a fantastic one - who could in all conscience want to harm a naive, innocent child? What could that innocent child possibly have done to incite you to harm them? Dogs have a similar instinct and have got 'being cute and loving' down to a fine art too these days, having thrown off their wolf-like instincts for a much more comfortable life on the sofa. But sadly for them (the wolf) they don't have opposable thumbs and so they're pets rather than capable adversaries of us humans.

Survival must be high amongst our achievements: against the odds really. Many animals are more ruthless and accomplished killers as individual beings. Sharks, snakes, bacteria, wolves, crocodiles would all kick the shit out of us in a straight fight but we have bigger brains and, therefore, a successful, intelligent and collective approach to dealing with our enemies.

So, unlike them, we've come up with the wheel, the plough; we've moved on from being hunter gatherers to farmers, we've built great cities, roads and bridges, societies, communities, lifestyles. Prosperity; the arts, great music, great literature, massive symbols of our power from Canary Wharf to the Pyramids.

We've visited other planets, heck we've landed a washing machine on a comet for goodness' sake. The Clangers now have clean underwear.

And if we can do that we might just be able to survive as a species when we have to depart this planet at some time in the future when the Sun (probably our major 'God' if one thinks about it) fizzles out in about 12 billion years. (Some students might have paid off their loans by then). Al Gore thinks this will happen next Tuesday week by the way. But he's a moron, we've inevitably created (more than) a few along the way.

And yet, and yet.

Re-read the above and what do you think? How far have we come?

We're not content with securing control over our natural adversaries; the sharks or crocodiles or wolves. It seems some of us need to secure control over each other and are willing to kill other people (including children) in order to achieve that control.

Animals (and new-born babies) are not 'intelligent', 'experienced' or 'corrupted' enough to be completely stupid. They are always acting on their innate instinct for survival.

It seems to me that only humans have the capacity to be so totally stupid that they will justify the killing of children and other humans so that they can gain some kind of advantage over their fellow humans.

Often, sad to say, in the name of God.

So well done, we have the wheel and the plow and the city and the bridges, but we seem currently to be making a right f*ck up of this world in which we all live.

It started so well - this piece and this peace.

Anyway I hope you have a happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year, and that we can stop the idiots amongst us from carrying on their idiocy. Sometime soon would be just great.

Love and peace to you and yours. Have a lovely Christmas.

My images of the year:

We rightly respect and remember our heroes

Floods

Election coming next May

Still at large

You seem to having trouble getting off the ground this morning wing commander

Proof?

Rush hour in Yellowstone

Osprey diving

Gimme five

Don't want to worry you but..

A trophy at last

A vote to stay in the Union

The Woodland Pytchley at Dingley Dell

Our (gay) wedding of the year

Great visit to the old homestead (Conwy Castle)

And the smallest house in Britain

Mad as a Hatter

Jeeves welcomes our new arrival

And a new addition to the family - Rupert.

Happy Christmas one and all!

It's getting increasingly difficult to give followers of Islam the benefit of the doubt

You have probably heard the phrase that not all Muslims are terrorists, but virtually all terrorists are Muslims.

It's been kicking about for a while on social media and is pretty difficult to argue with.

I tend to try to concentrate on the first half of the phrase, usually in the (increasingly forlorn) hope that something or someone will give some substance to that belief.

Coffins in readiness for the 132 kids killed today in Pakistan by the Taliban. A coffin-maker in Peschwar is 'enjoying' boom times for his business. Sadly. Tragically.

I don't think that all Muslims are terrorists but one would have to say that far too high a number or percentage of them are terrorists and far too many are either complicit in this hideous activity or by not condemning it, are ignoring an ever increasing problem.

And by not condemning it, they are making it increasingly difficult to give them the benefit of the doubt. It should also be said that having to give them the benefit of the doubt is nowhere near a satisfactory situation. There should be absolutely no doubt involved: If you don't utterly condemn what is being perpetrated in the name of Islam, without question, without hesitation, then one would have to question your humanity.

I have blogged about the need for us in the UK to ask a couple of simple questions of ordinary people within our growing Muslim community - a question along the lines of: 'Are you British first? Do you believe in our values and will you abide by our laws? Or do your religious beliefs, as written in the Quran, supersede your Britishness?'

Effectively the question is: 'Are you on our side or not?' If the answer is 'not' then we all have a problem. Us because we cannot rely on you to abide by our laws and values (when we all do in the main). You because if you follow a doctrine that is increasingly abhorrent to us and involves the commitment or, equally worrying, the condoning of acts of terrorism, you should not be able to enjoy the same law-based freedoms that we do.

And if the Quran, rather than UK law, dictates your behaviours, how can we trust you? How can we be safe in our beds?

And when a terrorist atrocity does happen on our shores (as is almost inevitable now) you won't be safe in your beds either. Because as sure as eggs are eggs, there will be a major backlash against Muslims in the UK.

And when that happens, if there hasn't been some clear announcement of opposition from significant numbers of members of our Muslim community, I would find it very difficult to condemn that backlash.

It's up to you in our Muslim communities and time is running out for you to avert what could well be mayhem on the streets of Britain.

There are two final points to make here:

One is that the Quran does advocate the mistreatment of non-believers (and in the most hideous of ways). That is a fact. If you follow the teachings of Mohammad to the letter (which is what the Quran insists upon - and that is a fact too), then you are a de facto enemy of non Muslims - like the majority of people in the UK. Effectively if the Quran shapes your life, as it seems to do for so many in the Muslim community, you are our enemy. That is not a healthy situation when we are living cheek by jowl on this small island.

And this is particularly difficult since we have been generous to you, have welcomed you, protected, educated and provided health care to you and your family, given you opportunities that are not afforded to many people in the traditional Muslim world. If you now shove our generosity back in our faces and use it to facilitate the undermining of our society through violence, then frankly you have made your beds and if you don't deserve the coming backlash, it's a pretty close-run thing.

The second is how we deal with this situation as a civilised society. An enemy within - if we get to that. I don't think we can allow the devastating situation that is unfolding in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Canada and Australia, to gain traction in the UK. And if we don't act quickly and decisively we could face the situation where Muslims grow as percentage of our population from the current 5% to almost 50% by 2050 (ONS statistics).

That is a terrifying prospect. Particularly if one looks at the wreckage that Islam is visiting on its home countries - essentially taking them back to the Middle Ages if not yet the Dark Ages.

And many UK Muslims have been here for a couple of generations so it's not an easy thing to 'send them home' - this is their home.

My argument would be that if this is your home you should treat it as such; abide by our laws, share our values and eschew the archaic and often barbaric teachings of the Quran. If you cannot do that then we have to conclude that you're not 'one of us' and in that case, difficult though it might be, we cannot any longer be your hosts. Sorry but if you are not part of the UK but are in fact a threat to us, then we'd be mad not to address the problem.

I say this with a heavy heart, but it's not my behaviour that has led to this, it's yours: we should send you away. And frankly I don't really care where that might be, so long as you are no longer a threat to our way of life.

And this is not just about terrorism if you think about it. It's about electoral corruption in Bradford and Tower Hamlets: About your kids going to Syria to fight for ISIS against us; About forced illegal marriages and female genital mutilation in the UK; about Muslim gangs grooming 'white trash' girls in cities across our land. You're not exactly an asset to us at the moment are you?

As I say it's up to you 'moderate' Muslims. But make no mistake, time is rapidly running out for you. And please, don't ever again insult our intelligence by telling us that Islam is the 'Religion of Peace'. It clearly is not in any way at all. Your call.

Thanks for reading.

Students, the last line of defense for free speech? God help us.

In the past few weeks students or student bodies have protested in order to stifle debate. Mr Farage was prevented from making his perfectly legitimate case by Cambridge students. A debate on abortion at the Oxford union was cancelled for security reasons. Essex university has debated banning UKIP from its premises this evening. I don't know, but I'm guessing that the motion was passed.

Students, people who are supposedly in the knowledge business, stifling legitimate debate, ideas, views and thinking. Not allowing that to take place.

The fascists did this.

Call yourself students?

If you cannot accept other people's views, if you cannot make your own views clear because you're scared of the outcome? You're not students in any sane sense of that title, you're controlled idiots. I hope you're happy, but you're idiots.

And we're in deep shit.

Thanks for reading.  

Brilliant day at Chatsworth

Do you ever set off on a journey and get the feeling that the traffic is being co-ordinated in way that's designed to stop you getting anywhere?

'OK positions everybody, here they come - it's the grey Citroen as per the briefing. Agent one your breakdown on the roundabout in Kibworth is backing the traffic up nicely, a good start..

'He's turning back as we thought he would, going through the village and the lanes towards Countesthorpe. Rubbish truck pull out... NOW! Outstanding you've got him behind you, learner driver pull in front of the truck now. Excellent.

'Road sweeper what are you doing? You're going the wrong way, they've passed you now. Idiot.

'OK plan B everybody, milk float, we're counting on you... excellent work.

'Ah he's passed you on the dual carriageway, low loader do your stuff, yes that's it, perfect, across two lanes...'

Had a lovely day at Chatsworth House on Friday visiting the fantastic grounds and Christmas themed interior displays - it was she who must be obeyed's birthday and our 240th wedding anniversary to boot. What?

 Got to the middle of the maze...

As you can see

And enjoyed seeing the outdoor sculpture around the fantastic grounds (I'm into that stuff)

Then a tour of the house, this year's theme is Alice in Wonderland and it's really great.

One of the mad hatters looks decidedly dodgy to me.

Alice was very life-like though.

Anyway a lovely day, £20 a throw but really good.

Thanks for reading.

It's not that poor people can't cook, it's that if you can't cook you'll spend much more on feeding your family

If Baroness Jenkin had said 'people who cannot cook will inevitably be paying much more for their food' she'd have been spot on.

Further, if she'd said 'people who can't cook will tend to have a much less healthy, processed food-based diet', she'd also have been correct.

Two distinctly related problems that must be having a significant effect on poverty and our obesity epidemic - very serious issues that seem now to have been submerged in the class war bollocks that everyone is now looking out for following the recent Thornberry white van man gaff.

Her comments were stupid and clumsy and I do not support them at face value, but if you can manage to look beyond the stupidity of her choice of words, she does have a point.

I blogged a couple of years back about how I could - and often do - feed three people healthily and well for £53 a week. That's not £53 each, but £53 for all three people for a week. You can find that blog here - with recipes. Give them a try, you'll feel better and be much better off after just one week. I'll be doing some more shortly just if you're interested.

Time marches on and we're now down to just the two of us at home (with kids at University) and we are now 'surviving' on between £40 and £55 a week for the two of us. Last week, for example, the weekly food shopping bill was £41 - and that included £10 on wine. So £31 for all meals for two people for a week and all healthy, fresh stuff - heavy on veggies but including a chicken dinner with the mother-in-law too.

If we were to spend £106 on a week's grocery shopping (two times £53) we would be drinking wine with every meal and having fillet steak at least once if not two or three times. £53 a week is a very generous food allowance (the government figure worked out after housing, council tax, heating etc has been deducted from welfare payments). It is easily liveable and it does not mean eating 'crap food' in any way. So long as you can cook.

In fact, in many ways, £53 a week should be encouraging people to buy fresh vegetables and eating in a healthy way. The missing factor is education - teaching young people of both sexes to cook - teaching them at school so that they can live healthy and economical lives.

Shopping at Aldi or Lidl also helps - you'll save around 25% on a weekly shop and their produce - fresh and canned - is every bit as good as you'll get at the 'major' supermarkets - better than most in my experience.

If you can read you can cook. Most of what I cook is 'single pan' stuff, hearty soups or curries, chillies, pasta, risotto and they take about 20 minutes to prepare and cook - probably less time than it takes to amble down to the take-away shop, queue and wait for your food. 

But not if you can't cook.

Maybe, just maybe we should be teaching our kids to cook at school. Maybe teaching them about healthy eating? Instead of lamenting the obesity problem and the poverty issue while doing nothing about it?

Thanks for reading.