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Following my post on 21st December, this morning we had maybe a dozen redwings on and about the fire thorn, perhaps blown in by yesterday's stormy weather. Active birds this morning with much fluttering, much movement to and from the fire thorn.

Then took a look at yesterday's 'Evening Standard' over breakfast, from which I share various snippets.

The pussy martyrs to Putinism in Russia apparently sang a song with obscene words in Moscow's main cathedral. I wonder what we would do if a bunch of Punk Rockers did the same sort of thing in St. Paul's Cathedral or Westminster Abbey, perhaps during the run up to some important event in the church, not to say the national, calendar? I think there would be a lot of people who would be unhappy with the answer 'nothing'. And then, what about the very grand Washington (DC) Cathedral? I imagine that the people there would be even more stuffy than we are about such things.

Westminster Council is berated for officiously applying the letter of the parking law to crank up its parking receipts a bit. Clearly awful if a council does this sort of thing, while entirely OK if our banks do much the same. I suppose the difference is partly that anything goes in the hunt for profit and partly that the banks spent a lot of money going to law to prove that it is all OK. Although I believe that the trying to take off Metro Bank (https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk/) is trying to make a virtue of having a more sensible fare structure. I shall visit their soon to open Epsom Branch shortly to check out the offer, said to include one of those machines for converting the contents of one's piggy bank into money that can be spent. But it will take a lot to dig me out of the bank - presently called HSBC - that I have been with for maybe 45 years now.

The Metropolitan Police have put a team onto the Ngella business (see 19th December). Is there a case for the prosecution? First thought was what a waste of resources, but I suppose they have to be seen to be upholding the important rule - or at least ideal - that we are all equal before the law, even silly ones. A major innovation of relatively recent origin.

And turning from white powders to brown fibres, I read that there is no rest for the Tobacco Police. Not content with getting 90% of the population clear of the weed, they continue the increasingly strident hunt for the remaining 10% with warnings - if not pictures of dead and dying lungs - to be printed on each and every fag. Strangely, Professor Google fails to find the HQ of the Tobacco Police. Surely there is some committee, a council or even a quango on the case? With Mrs. Blair as patron?