COUNCIL BY-ELECTIONS 04.12.25

Five seats were being contested on Thursday, following Tuesday's by-election in Derbyshire.  The Derbyshire vacancy arose through the resignation of one of last May's crop of Reform councillors.  Reform held the seat by a wafer thin majority of 23, with the second placed Tories having significantly closed the gap.

Reform took advantage of an even slimmer margin to take a Lib Dem seat in Middlesbrough, pipping the incumbents by just 13 votes.  Labour finished last here and the best they could muster on Thursday was a couple of fourth places.

Labour were on a proxy defence in Nottinghamshire, where the incumbent was elected as a Labour councillor before he left for the local independent group last January.  He passed away in August, sparking a by-election.  The Broxtowe Alliance to which he belonged easily held the seat, which was technically a gain from Labour.  Labour slumped from first to fourth.

We still await any solid evidence of the Green surge, who only managed to contest four of the six seats and couldn't achieve anything better than Labour's fourth place.  Still, that's better than anything achieved by the Fruit and Nuts of Sultana and Corbyn...

Stapleford South East, Broxtowe Borough Council

Ind: 388 (34.6%) New

Ref: 245 (21.9%) New

LDm: 149 (13.3%) -8.2%

Lab: 128 (11.4%) -14.7%

Con: 108 (9.6%) -9.5%

Ind: 102 (9.2%) New

Ind GAIN from Lab

Exmouth Halsdon, East Devon District Council

LDm: 551 (35.9%) -4.0%

Ref: 438 (28.5%) New

Con: 393 (25.6%) -4.1%

Grn: 153 (10.0%) New

LDm HOLD

Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough Borough Council

Ref: 563 (35.8%) New

LDm: 550 (35.0%) -1.3%

Con: 328 (20.9%) -14.2%

Grn: 79 (5.0%) New

Lab: 53 (3.3%) -6.7%

Ref GAIN from LDm

Winkleigh, Torridge District Council

LDm: 325 (42.3%) +8.7%

Ref: 252 (32.8%) New

Con: 191 (24.9%) -23.7%

LDm GAIN from Con

Tudor, Watford Borough Council

LDm: 821 (52.6%) +4.3%

Ref: 433 (27.2%) +17.8%

Con: 148 (9.3%) -10.5%

Lab: 111 (7.0%) -16.4%

Grn: 77 (4.8%) New

LDm HOLD

Long Eaton North, Derbyshire County Council

(held on Tuesday)

Ref: 745 (28.1%) -7.7%

Con: 722 (27.2%) +4.2%

Lab: 579 (21.8%) -2.7%

Grn: 314 (11.8%) +4.5%

LDm: 154 (5.8%) -3.6%

Ind: 141 (5.3%) New

Ref HOLD

WOKE WEDNESDAYS #50

The very deliberate act of social engineering that is the deChristianization of the West is plain to see during our most prominent festivals.  Over many decades Easter has largely been reduced to children pining for chocolate eggs, while Christmas has become a light show that culminates in vulgar displays of expensive gifts having their wrapping paper torn away in animalistic fashion.

Attempts to remove Christ from both festivals dates back many years.  References to Easter have increasingly been airbrushed from the obligatory eggs, which have been rebranded 'chocolate eggs' or 'gesture eggs'.  In 2017 the National Trust renamed its Easter Egg Trail as the 'Great British Egg Hunt'.

The name Christmas has been under attack for much longer, for obvious reasons - it contains the Lord's name.  The oldest and most commonly airbrushed alternative is Xmas, but there are plenty of others such as Crimbo, Yuletide, Noël, the festive season, the generic 'holidays' and who can forget Birmingham City Council's infamous rebrand - 'Winterval'.

The war on Christianity by corporate quasi-communistic elements continues this year with an early example being a viral image of a packaged decorative tree in Tesco.  However, there is no reference to Christmas on the packaging as it has now been rebranded an 'Evergreen Tree'.  To Karl's surprise, when he visited a Tesco store last week he found a further five examples of decorative trees with the reference to Christmas replaced.  His photos from that visit are featured in this week's meme.  Five of the six products are under Tesco's own brand, while the sixth is from a London-based company called Bayswood.  Did they also have to remove the word Christmas in order to get their product stocked in Tesco?

Corporate interests see Christmas as a cash cow that can be repackaged as a non-religious festival that appeals to everyone and therefore maximises their profits.  University educated Marxists would prefer the religious aspect to be removed and rebranded for 'inclusivity' purposes, while globalists require this troublesome custom to be stamped out altogether along with every other localised custom that fosters regional, cultural or national identity.

Last week's pansexual Anne Frank meme generated 20 comments and six shares on Facebook.

This current edition of Woke Wednesday will be the last of 2025, but the feature will return in the new year.

TOON TUESDAY #83

We begin of course with the Budget (for the final week, hopefully).  We have a trio of horror-themed efforts, which gives way to leaks and consequences.  The final pair of cartoons focuses on the increasingly hapless Fruit and Nut Party, the still nameless party which remains locked in bitter infighting.  As their conference descends into absurdity, Zack Polanski's Greens wait in the wings to mop up the remains of Corbyn and Sultana's total car crash...

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

David Simonds for The Big Issue

Guy Venables for Metro

Ben Jennings for The Guardian

Graeme Bandeira for The Northern Agenda

Matt Pritchett for The Daily Telegraph

Morten Morland for The Times

Peter Brookes for The Times

Andy Davey for The Daily Telegraph

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Dave Brown for The Independent

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Matt Pritchett for The Daily Telegraph

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Ella Baron for The Guardian

Morten Morland for The Sunday Times

MEME MONDAY #63

A very sparse week as Karl's absence looks set to continue for a wee while.  Toon Tuesday and Woke Wednesday will proceed this week, after which the latter will go on leave until the new year.

Mon 24 Nov - 21 shares

Wed 26 Nov - 358 shares

Thu 27 Nov - 11 shares

Thu 27 Nov - 99 shares

Sat 29 Nov - 59 shares

BOATWATCH #38

For the second week in a row, zero boat crossings were detected.  This particularly sharp Autumn lull means that 2025 will be some way off the previous record year of 2022, although it has already beaten the annual totals for all other years of the small boat invasion.

COUNCIL BY-ELECTIONS 27.11.25

A trio of seats were up for grabs on Thursday, including a Labour defence in what would normally be considered solid Labour territory in Sunderland.  We saw this as a likely gain for the returning independent, who finished second last time around.  Instead, Reform surged from a distant third to easily take the seat from Labour with a huge swing from the defending party.  Labour crashed to third with more than half the votes received by the Reform candidate.

Reform also picked up an independent seat in Norfolk and finished runners-up in Lancashire.  Labour, meanwhile, finished last in both elections.

Hunstanton, Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk

Ref: 368 (29.2%) New

LDm: 322 (25.6%) New

Ind: 229 (18.2%) ‑11.0%

Con: 224 (17.8%) ‑23.0%

Ind:77 (6.1%) New

Lab: 40 (3.2%) ‑21.0%

Ref GAIN from Ind

Barnoldswick, Pendle Borough Council

LDm: 1,008 (59.8%) +1.5%

Ref: 441 (26.2%) New

Con: 170 (10.1%) -11.7%

Lab: 66 (3.9%) -11.1%

LDm HOLD

Hetton, Sunderland City Council

Ref: 1,270 (46.3%) +35.4%

Ind: 689 (25.1%) -4.0%

Lab: 611 (22.3%) -24.4%

LDm: 113 (4.1%) +1.6%

Con: 61 (2.2%) -3.6%

Ref GAIN from Lab

WOKE WEDNESDAYS #49

As if we didn't already know from two summers of weekly protests, the left despise the state of Israel.  And sharing a trait with some elements of the far right, it's not enough to simply voice opposition to a state that routinely attacks and occupies neighbouring territories.  All too often, the left take out their frustrations on ordinary Jews, who they perceive to be linked to a hive mind that makes them equally to blame for the criminal actions of Netanyahu.

The same people call other white people 'racist' if they dare generalise other ethnic groups with negative stereotypes.  But it's OK for the left to do that with Jews - they are fair game - as are white people (the 'gammon' and the 'Karens').

It's rank hypocrisy, but of course such things do not apply to the high and mighty of the self-righteous left.

They have no problem at all in taking a Jewish folk hero and turning their life into a public display of ridicule, purely as a means to insult as many Jews as possible.  And that's what has happened in New York of all places.  It's probably no coincidence that in order to maximise the insult, they chose a city that is home to the largest Jewish population of any city in the world - that's including Israeli cities.

Yes, woke playwright progressives have taken Anne Frank - the most iconic of all the Nazis' Jewish victims - and turned this innocent teenager into a pansexual Latino girl in a relationship with a 'non-binary' person.  They have also thrown in a 'neurodiverse' family in just for progressive measure.  The fact that Anne Frank was barely 15 years old when she died doesn't seem to matter to these degenerates.

The play, entitled Slam Frank, has drawn staunch criticism from Jewish groups.  Naturally, they perceive it as 'disrespectful', which is clearly the intention of the writer.  You see, the people who preach the most about hate, are the most hateful people of all...

The previous Woke Wednesday (dog free zones) generated 37 comments and 18 shares on Facebook.

TOON TUESDAY #82

This week's edition kicks off with Shabana Mahmood's proposed adoption of a Danish-style approach to illegal migration, which has upset countless open borders enthusiasts on the Labour backbenches.  They may well scupper any such proposal should it face a Commons vote.

The toons inevitably morph into the most briefed about Budget of all time, which by this time tomorrow will finally be set in stone.  Then next week we'll have some more cartoons about the actual Budget!

Special shout out to Christian Adams for his sterling work in The Telegraph...

Peter Brookes for The Times

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Ben Jennings for The Guardian

Morten Morland for The Times

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Morten Morland for The Times

Steve Bright for The Sun

Andy Davey for The Daily Telegraph

Ben Jennings for The Guardian

Christian Adams for The Sunday Telegraph

Peter Brookes for The Times

Chris Riddell for The Observer

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Matt Pritchett for The Sunday Telegraph

Peter Brookes for The Times

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

Christian Adams for The Daily Telegraph

MEME MONDAY #62

It was a quiet week on the meme front, something that looks set to continue while Karl sorts out protracted family business.

Mon 17 Nov - 38 shares.  As far as we're aware, Zarah has still not handed over
the money she unilaterally generated (defrauded?) from Fruit and Nut supporters.
We were at one time quite excited at the prospect of a Corbyn-led party that
could attack Labour from the left, but hopes for this still nameless enterprise
have faded fast, mainly thanks to the petulant Ms Sultana

Tue 18 Nov - 67 shares

Wed 19 Nov - 243 shares

Thu 20 Nov.  The original version of this meme had an unfortunate misplacing
of an apostrophe that could have been taken to imply something about Zack Polanski
directly, when it was actually targeted at Green leadership in general, arising from
the NIMBY attitude of deputy leader Rachel Millward towards boat migrants.
The original meme was deleted and this is a re-edit.

Thu 20 Nov - 10 shares

Fri 21 Nov - 359 shares

Sat 22 Nov - 25 shares

Sun 23 Nov - 171 shares

Sun 23 Nov - 64 shares

One Facebook Story published last week detailed a milestone for this very website - 3 million hits and counting...

If you appreciate Karl (and Richey's) work, you can buy us both a metaphorical pint here.  This helps fund our work and reminds us that we are valued!