Sheila McKenzie Welsh Cybernat @Welsh_Cyber_Nat·
So @WelshLabour have been quiet after Keith confirmed Labour is the party of middle England. What about Wales? Comments indy folk!
18. Also, I’m wondering where that leaves Scots… I know when Sir Starmer uses the term “Middle England”, he means the average person in Britain. It’s an understandable error based on the mindset of the average English person (and I’ve lived there, so I know first hand) that England and Britain are the same place. People talk about “The Queen of England” and “Anglo American” agreements… and show business people talk about the success they had with a film or song in “England” when they mean the UK. But politicians, knowing this is a dodgy subject need to be a bit more switched on to the “minor nations” of the UK.
Thanks to Brenda and TM.
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
LikeLiked by 5 people
LikeLiked by 4 people
Wow!
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike
The acrobatics are a full blown, wow.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Munguin and I are looking for some volunteers to do that with us. He’s a sprightly wee thing…
LikeLike
Not volunteering but I, and others, would pay to see that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Munguin wants to know, how much…. As well as being sprightly, he’s also a bit on the avaricious side!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I should’ve known. No chance of everybody pays what they can afford then. Instead, whatever can be extracted.
Still, the wee chap has standards to maintain and servant gruel to buy, this festive season.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m told there may even be a small gift… maybe?
LikeLike
Tris, caution, nothing quite like the thud of disappointment that can follow expectation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know… I’m prepared for it, Alan.
T’s the story of the life of a lowly factotum.
😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
No. 12 reminds me of the joke about an Irish air ace from WWII being interviewed on This is Your Life by Eamonn Andrews and being asked how he got the DFC.
He replied that he had been flying along when he spotted a group of Fockers at which point he got behind the first Focker and shot him down and then manoevered behind the next Focker…..
At which point Eamonn interrupted him and said,for the benefit of the audience,the Focker was a German fighter plane made by the Focke-Wulf company.
The air ace replied,no no these Fockers were Messerschmitts.
LikeLiked by 4 people
LOL LOL LOL…
Belter!
LikeLike
This week brought reviews of the White House Christmas decorations.
Some people do seem to take the holiday decorations ….and their so-called “theme”….. seriously, so the world press from the New York Times and Washington Post to the Guardian and Daily Mail weighed in. It’s the Biden’s first White House Christmas, and Jill Biden’s conventional (but somewhat dull) decorating style was contrasted with Melania Trump’s “terrifying” vision which went before. 🙂
Melania and the blood trees:
Jill Biden with children in the State Dining Room:
(The children of White House staffers can always be depended on to put aside their video games, sit still, be quiet, and act interested, when the President or First Lady feel the urge to read to them (for the cameras) about something or other. The Obamas did the reading to children shtick a lot. 🙂 )
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/dec/02/how-does-jill-biden-christmas-decor-compare-past-white-houses
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/gallery/2021/nov/30/white-house-christmas-decorations-pictures-gallery
I enjoyed the mildly snarky approach of “Slate”:
“Melania Trump’s Reign of Christmas Terror Is Over. [But] Jill Biden’s White House Display Might Make You Miss Her.”
“Overall, Jill Biden completed the assignment: She decorated the president’s home for Christmas in a NON-TERRIFYING way [“editor’s” emphasis.] That’s not to say she nailed it. The Melania years conditioned us to see these decoration reveals as entertainment, so, dumb as it is, it’s a little disappointing to go back to not caring about them. It goes without saying that I am so glad Melania and her husband are out of the White House, but first ice lady [Melania] made such a great seasonal villain! I guess you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/melania-trump-s-reign-of-christmas-terror-is-over-jill-biden-s-white-house-display-might-make-you-miss-her/ar-AARiiBr?ocid=hmlogout
LikeLiked by 4 people
Ha ha…
Not being a fan of Christmas decorations, I can’t say I like any of them.
Christmas and all its attachments has been starting earlier and earlier here for a long time and I can’t imagine having the Towers looking like Las Vegas for well over a month.
If I had to go for one, I’d have chosen the more traditional approach.
Red Christmas trees? Like everything else about that couple. YUK
LikeLiked by 2 people
Tris……I agree! I’m thinking that the Christmas decorations haven’t yet gone up at the Towers. 🙂
I did enjoy the many descriptions of Melania’s aesthetic vision of holiday decoration as being “terrifying,” and the Guardian’s description: “never has the phrase “DECK THE HALLS!” sounded so threatening as when Melania Trump become chief of staff of interior Christmas decorating. Blood trees (Twitter never forgets), ivory white sticks that resembled witches fingers and enough Christmas lights that suggested a special cut-price deal with the power grid.”
That said……and with the danger that I’ll be labeled a curmudgeonly old Scrooge, I was saddened to see the political “reading to children” aesthetic on full display with Jill Biden. I hoped we had left that in the past with the Obamas. Therefore, being forever suspicious of the motives of politicians regardless of their political stripe, I can say one good thing about Trumpy. He never once succumbed to the overwhelming political urge to read to children. 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
Can he read?
LikeLiked by 3 people
LOL……Good question! No sign of it I’d say! 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
MY thoughts exactly, Bringiton.
Can you imagine him reading a who;e story without an interjection of some sort about how brilliant he is.
Oh and imagine Johnson… Jeez…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Um, yeah, Danny, but possibly that had more to do with his ability (or otherwise) to read coherently, rather that any possible indicator of taste.
And, no, the Towers has no Christmas decorations as of yet… or, in fact as of ever…
🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
🙂
LikeLike
I hate to say this…I normally detest anything the Trumps do…but in this case, Melania was at least trying for something interesting. Sure, she tried for something interesting and landed straight in the flaming jaws of Hades…but at least she tried. The Biden decorations are just run-of-the-mill kitsch. But I guess if they don’t frighten people, then Christmas objective achieved!
LikeLiked by 2 people
eurobrat………You have a point. The media certainly did pick up on the “not terrifying” theme in describing the Biden decorations. No doubt Melania’s cranberry-covered, blood red Christmas trees from hell were an easy target. 😉 Truth is, on balance, looking at some side-by-side comparison pictures of the other historic rooms, I couldn’t really see that much actual difference between this year and previous years. I was amused at the “Slate” article, and the mention that each year has a “theme”…….as if “Christmas” is not enough of a theme in itself. Biden 2021 theme: “Gifts from the heart.” Previous Obama theme: “The gift of the holidays.” WOW! This White House Christmas theme stuff is serious business! 🙂
From 2018 (the red Christmas tree year):
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6488449/Melanias-red-Christmas-trees-attracting-thieves.html
So the red trees obviously did enjoy some popularity. One view might have been that the unusual bright red trees contrasted nicely with the green carpet in the East Wing colonnade, and were a great artistic success, however controversial. But this year, the bright red gift box motif surrounding the East Wing entrance was almost universally panned by the critics. So maybe the message is that the combination of the color red and the White House East Wing is problematic and should be avoided. 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
How much does all that cost and who is paying?
Some ordinary families can barely afford all the tra la la that goes with Christmas, and I have in my work, come across people who have put themselves in debt for a whole year just to give their family a “good Christmas”.
I can’t help wishing the people at the top would stop wasting taxpayers’ money on stuff like this and think about folk who won;t be able to afford a proper lunch.
But hey, my middle name is Scrooge!
LikeLiked by 2 people
LOL Tris…….The scale of the White House Christmas celebration is probably no more outlandish (in scale) than your average American Christmas, but of course that’s saying quite a LOT. 😉
Actually, like in the average American home, the basic decorations are reused year over year, and the labor of organizing and maintaining them (traditionally according to the First Lady’s wishes) is a job of the paid White House staff. The labor of installing them is supplied by unpaid volunteers who apply for the privilege of doing it. The old ceremonial White House….the one on picture postcards that’s not hidden behind trees (such as the West Wing where the working offices, including the Oval Office are)……. is a public museum, with one or more curators keeping track of the art and the historic furniture and what not. (I’ve been there a couple of times myself, so how exclusive can it really BE. 😉 ) Finally, the White House buildings and grounds are effectively a national park….called President’s Park. So there’s a lot of ongoing budgeted expenses for service staff and household management during Christmas that aren’t a lot different from other times of the year.
I see that the National Park Service webpage is now showing the “National Christmas Tree.” This is the one that apparently cost the National Park Service (and therefore the taxpayer) something like $139,000 this year. It’s the big tree that’s installed on The Ellipse……a park area between the White House and the Washington Monument. Each State and territory also gets a (smaller) tree there, along the “Pathway of Peace.”
https://www.nps.gov/whho/planyourvisit/national-christmas-tree.htm
The National Christmas Tree on The Ellipse must not be confused with any of the Christmas trees installed inside the residence (often numbering 30 or more), and in particular THE OFFICIAL “White House Christmas Tree”, which is the one installed in the Blue Room (one of the three oval-shaped rooms in the old historic White House.) The Blue Room Christmas tree traditionally has decorations which display the names of all the States. The White House Christmas tree is donated free of charge by the National Christmas Tree Association.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Christmas_tree
An article about the White House Christmas and cost thereof: (Some of the holiday open houses, receptions, and other social events of the season that involve political friends and donors are paid for by the national committees of the two political parties.)
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-big-white-house-christmas-pays/story?id=51893455
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can’t say I like the National tree much, Danny, although the path of peace is more agreeable to look at.
https://www.nps.gov/whho/planyourvisit/images/WHHO_NCTL2019_20191206_LM_43.jpg?maxwidth=650&autorotate=false&quality=78&format=webp
Administration officials would not reveal the cost of the Trumps’ first White House Christmas or discuss how it compares with other administrations’, but Grisham said the “Christmas decor is budgeted.”
And while the style is unique, the amount of Christmas decoration in the Trump White House appears consistent with their predecessors’.
Well, as Miss Jean Brodie said: For those that like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tris……I suppose the point of “budgeted” is meant to point out that the White House staff would be there doing something anyway, so they might as well be doing Christmasy things at Christmas…..LOL. The unique decorating expenses seems to involve mostly volunteer labor. 😉
I agree with your comment about the National Christmas Tree this year. Not my taste in Christmas tree decoration at all!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It doesn’t look like a tree, more like a triangle or cone.
But I don’t like any of them, so what do I know?
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLike
LOL! Right now, when it comes to American culture, I prefer “blue” to “red” anyways 😉
And I agree about the themes…and they’re such nondescript, generic themes, too. No excitement there. (Although I guess Melania’s theme was Game of Thrones, or something like that.)
LikeLiked by 2 people
LOL eurobrat…….I prefer “blue” too! 🙂
I wonder if the political and cultural references to “red state” and “blue state,” which are now so common in the US, have penetrated to the UK and Europe. It might be confusing in the UK for example, where the meaning of blue and red in terms of politics are reversed for the right wing blue Tories and left wing red Labour.
Yes, a Game of Thrones theme would work. 🙂
Another idea that showed up was a “Handmaid’s Tale” meme. Didn’t mean much to me though, since I’d never seen the TV series. The little girls from “The Shining” showed up too. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Looks a bit like the high street of the Vatican City!
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve watched the Handmaid’s Tale and would not recommend it. It’s one of my favorite novels. The show is good, but it’s brutal and depressing, and I don’t know that we need any more of that in our lives right now.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I agree!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, she tried. It was ghastly, but their taste in everything seems to be horrific. I mean, I know he’s rich, but look who she chose for a husband!
I think it’s all ghastly, but people seem to think that they nee to have these traditional things at Christmas.
I wish they wouldn’t cut down trees to do it.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Exactly. I was walking past a Xmas tree shop other day those temp ones they set up, and a family going towards it, kids all excited, ‘yeah trees which one should we buy!’ I just thought it sad, when these kids will need a planet to live, which needs trees to survive, and here we are chopping trees down to put inside living rooms!
Never had a tree for Xmas even plastic ones are planet destroying and unecessary. We have a wee ceramic tree I might drag it out this year, but just nice wee candles are my preferred option, and they help keep the living room warm, safety considered of course.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yep. Agreed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
On the other hand…….(as I’m fond of saying. 😉 ) It’s one thing to cut down old growth forests, and (IMHO) quite another for the lumber (or Christmas tree) industry to own land on which to plant and harvest fast-growing commercial trees in an environmentally sustainable way. So in a country that needs lumber to build houses for example, I’m also OK with growing and harvesting small evergreen trees for Christmas. I doubt that very much old growth forest is cut down for Christmas trees these days.
However, the really BIG trees that are used for public display (such as the giant Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York City or maybe the National Christmas tree on the Ellipse in Washington…….maybe even the big Blue Room tree in the White House…….might (due to their size) be rare exceptions to the plant and harvest Christmas tree idea.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I just can’t understadndwhy we need to have a Christmas tree.
I think I read someone that it was a German tradition brought to England by Albert when he married Victoria.
If Munguin ever felt inclined to decorate a tree, there are plenty in the grounds he could get on with, although he’s quite small, so I’m not sure how he’d get on with a star at the top.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL…..I think I’ve read about it being a German tradition myself. I’m glad that all the trees on the Munguin Tower grounds are safe at Christmas.
As for height, I wondered why the Blue Room tree at the White House almost looks too tall (with a strange circle in the ceiling surrounding the top.) Then I read that the circle in the ceiling is where the chandelier is usually mounted. The tree is so tall that the chandelier has to be removed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And the carpet too!!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL……it needs the blue carpet to remind you that you’re in the Blue Room. There was a time that the walls were blue. After the Nixon and Clinton refurbishments, the walls were a lot brighter, but not blue anymore. So now it’s done with blue upholstery, draperies, and carpeting. The unadorned, minimally furnished, blue-walled Blue Room looked pretty ghastly even by circa 1800 White House standards. 😉
BTW…..the Red Room: (Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse 😉 )
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jeez, the red room looks like its a waiting room in an expensive brothel… not that I’ve ever been in an expensive brothel…
… or for that matter, a cheap one.
But I’ve seen films.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL……I love your description. 🙂
Fortunately the White House staff are good at rearranging the period antique furniture and multi-purposing the old State Parlors on the State Floor of the building. In particular, the large oval Blue Room can hold a modestly sized official dinner.
Blue Room set for dinner:
Obama hosts dinner with the Bush families in the Red Room:
LikeLiked by 1 person
That was a nice gathering across the table with the Obamas and both set of Bushes.
Who is the bloke at the left hand side of the table. His face looks familiar.
The blue room looks a bit better there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tris……I don’t know who that is at the left end of the table with the Bushes. He does look familiar though.
Always an interesting picture when president and past presidents get together!
Reagan, Carter, Ford, and Nixon with cocktails in the Blue Room. (Rosalynn Carter in background behind Nixon.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jimmy having a good laugh at Old Reagan…
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLike
Tris…..I just saw the caption for the picture of Obama and the Bushes. (Click to bring up full size.) It’s the extended Bush family with spouses, and the man at the left is Marvin Bush, son of H.W., younger brother of Dubya.
Caption: United States President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host a lunch for members of the Bush family in the Red Room of the White House on 31 May 2012. Seated clockwise from the President are: former First Lady Barbara Bush, Bucky Bush, Doro Bush Koch, Jenna Bush Hager, Marvin Bush, Jody Bush, former President George W. Bush, Mrs. Obama, former President George H. W. Bush, Patty Bush, Bobby Koch, Barbara Bush, Margaret Bush, Jonathan Bush, and former First Lady Laura Bush.
LikeLike
Thanks, Danny.
Bucky and Doro… Great names they have.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL!
LikeLike
That is why we’ve got our artificial tree! No need to kill trees just to decorate a little.
LikeLike
Munguin doesn’t have a tree. He thinks that decorating a tree is a little infra-dig.
He tried decorating a human but decided they look even more ridiculous than a tree.
So, he has a piece of tinsel on a picture frame.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL!! I like it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Tories having their version of booster jags.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now, there’s a surprise.
I wonder how much of that there was going bout when they were having their illegal parties at No.10.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Drugs plan aims to help 300,000 problem drug users https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59540781
I didn’t realise there were so many people at Westminster.
LikeLiked by 2 people
All in the toilets, I hear.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Drugs is a UK reserved matter.
Will Scotland get money and the freedom to do something about our undoubted problem?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Number 5
Oh Yes Major Ooops
Being called Brenda Joyce generally meant that I was in deep deep trouble.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL.
Think we’ve all been there.
I doubt I looked as awesome as that little one when they did it to me.
LikeLike
I’m not too late, am I? Following on from a SS discussion…
LikeLiked by 4 people
Ha ha ha ha ha….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
23. Often I wonder about people’s concepts of what words mean. O-micron (not omnicron) is a letter of the Greek alphabet. It means “small O” as opposed to “o-mega”: “big O”. So how has the letter “n” appeared? We don’t write “microscope” as “mnicroscope”. If it is linked in people’s minds to, say, “omnibus” then they must have a completely different concept of what it means. Like thinking that “free rein” something to do with Kings and Queens, rather than horse riding, or “peddling” is connected to riding a bicycle, rather than selling stuff.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Goodness, that’s deep. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Deep but quite fitting for Munguin’s blog.
Explained to me what my band mate (ex lawyer) was tutting about a couple of weeks ago when both versions of the varient were in the press, Omicron and Omnicron. It was the pronunciation of Omicron that excercised him.
I thought the word might have come from Omi(ni) Cron, with something to do with time. All Time virus is scary but a bit more acceptable than Mother F*$#in virus. I never got round to finding out, till now, thanks to Agalianou.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry that now sounds as if Agalianou was responsible for my ignorance.
I take full responsibility for my ignorance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It didn’t, actually. But noted! 🙂
LikeLike
Every day’s a school day, Alan… and you’ve been the teacher a few times too!
LikeLike
No. 24 Karan Menom,
The anger before the satire?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Bang on. In fairness Gordon Brown has been saying the same sort of thing.
LikeLike
Why be fair to G.Brown he shafted Scotland and the consequences are dreadful re Covid and BREXIT. He deserves no praise for anything in my book, a horrible man.
The two biggest money making schemes on the planet, pharma and war. Both are doing quite well it seems. I had the dreadful thought other day, some powerful countries are going to be struggling re Covid and money, so, waging wars will bring in a few quid.
Money really is the root of evil.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Also G. Brown did not scrap VAT on fuel bills, just reduced it to 5%, Thatcher having charged it at 17.5%. far as I know we still pay Vat for this essential basic need.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think someone in government once said that the EU wouldn’t allow governments to scrap VAT on anything that it had been charged on.
I don’t believe that because, as far as I know, the money from VAT didn’t go anywhere except the Treasury, and I can see no reason for the EU to interfere in domestic taxation.
However, if by some remote chance that WERE true, clearly with all this freedom they now have in Global Britain, have they could remove that tax now.
Indeed they could scrap the whole tax and go back to Sales Tax.
Fat chance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting Tris. I think they are more likley to raise VAT on essential things like utility bills than lower it.
Btw no offence meant, you are a far more tolerant person than me, which is not a bad thing really. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are probably right.
I just wondered why they hadn’t lowered them after they “escaped” from the truly evil EU which had had forbidden any kind of decency in these matters.
LikeLike