To cheer everyone up, here is the result of a lot of gardening work last summer.

I'm between the submarines at Barrow and Sellafield.

On the plus side, our seagoing canoe for 2 is in good working order and we're only a mile away from the Atlantic.

The Greens are an utter disgrace.

They do not simply tolerate anti-semites. They welcome them in.
x.com/faantisemiti...

The left plans to abolish necessary liberties with no consultation or mandate, introduce something akin to a blasphemy law for 1 religion only, ignores a Supreme Court judgment, instructing its lawyers to argue against it in court while claiming to agree with it in Parliament.

Frying pan & fires.

Then factor in the policies on rates, planning, rents etc which make it unviable for all those small shops we'd like to have to exist. I've lived in cities where this is viable - eg Naples - but how that came about is a world away from our left hand not knowing what the right is doing policies.

Very few people - let alone families - live in the City. Try being a working mother of 3 young children who on a typical weekend has sports dos, parties, shopping & visits to Grandma etc to fit in (as well as her own life) - all more than 15 minutes away & impossible to do on a bike or by walking.

Thank you.

A cousin and an uncle died very recently (the last of my parents' generation) so this dreadful year has ended as badly as it started & continued.

Retreating for a bit to try & avoid whatever other bad karma whoever's in charge has in store for me.

Enjoy your Christmas xx

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood is a wonderful read.

Short but packed with so much: beautifully detailed characters and a wonderful sense of place and nature. Poetic, resonant & hopeful.

Also on Audible read by the author.

I have lost 3 stone this year. How? Cancer.

Somehow I feel this will not be the makings of a best selling diet book.

But well done!

Bluesky is not letting me. My email is at info@cyclefree.co.uk.

I'd love to do this if you still need someone.

The Pressdram v Arkle response would be the appropriate response.

I wrote this in 2020 the last time something similar on jury trials was proposed. Every word is valid now. cyclefree.co.uk/12-good-men/. It is a disgraceful proposal for which the government has no mandate.
From the article

The more time I spend with them the less patience I have with men's tiresome behaviour or with their endless excuses for it.

I am not in favour I think of such measures. But I understand and feel the frustration. I have spent a lot of time in the last few years in all female groups and it is so refreshing not to have to worry about either assault or being patronised or ignored.

Are women-only carriages a good idea? France is fiercely split Thousands signed a petition in favour of segregation after a Brazilian woman was attacked on a Paris commuter train — but opponents say it is gender apartheid

"We don’t want to be separated — we want to be protected,”..“Our petition is just a wake-up call, the proof that there is a real problem… but if there are no efficient solutions, we should perhaps consider separate carriages, an extreme, desperate and wild measure.”

www.thetimes.com/world/europe...

☺️

Thank you

Anyway nice chatting with you again. Have missed it.

Hope all is well with you. 2025 has been an annus horribilis for me. But am surviving which is something.

As I say - not much of an improvement.

If I had to point to the one vice which makes scandals so much worse than they might otherwise be, I'd pick cowardice.

Courage is the quality we need in our leaders. That and judgment. Rarer than I would like, rarer than we need.

Hmm - I'm not sure Starmer is a big improvement in the ethical standards department frankly.

You're right that we are not as divided. But the abysmal way in which the grooming gangs issue is being deal with reflects badly on us.

And the bad treatment of women by men is an issue for us too.

He is vile. But behaviour which should see him shunned by decent people is largely ignored or excused.

So maybe there are not many decent people around or, deep down, our society does not really think this behaviour vile or particularly wrong. Or very probably both.

I know.

The key question in so many of these scandals.

See Alistair Meeks article on Medium which he has shared on here and my replies.

It was an abuse of power. Not simply an affair.

Trump is vile. How he could get voted on after that revolting "grabbing pussies" remark beats me. But that attitude is very widespread among men and indifference to it even more widespread among those who could make a difference.

Agreed. It would be good to have such conduct take down a powerful man. I am not holding my breath.

The question remains what it was in 1973 for those around him - "What did you know? And when did you know it?"

How quickly the US and US commentators have forgotten Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, a President lying & the abuse of power plus all those who excused him because .... well he was Clinton. Trump is not a one-off.

If this just becomes an issue about Trump then it will miss two very important aspects: the abuse of women & girls by men who think themselves unchallengeable and the way that those who know are silent & silence those who do speak up.

These are lessons far beyond Trump & are acutely pertinent here.

If they knew or suspected at the time and said nothing, they covered up.

Lots of people in politics and finance knew. Lots. Very very few spoke up when it might have made a difference.

Also we don't know that he hasn't already used information as leverage.

I would be very surprised indeed if Epstein had not involved senior people across the political divide. I know (for professional reasons) some of the people he was acquainted with. Power & money are what interested him. Not political views.