658 thoughts on “Thursday 19 September: Showdown with the Supreme Court highlights the growing political power of the judiciary”

  1. Morning everyone. I note that it is no longer possible to access the comments on the Spectator this morning or the old Nottl archives.

      1. Morning Bob. There seems little doubt that the ultimate intention is to shut down all online comment by the peasants!

    2. Good morning

      I’ve got a problem, I cannot get to this site or view
      any of the comments as a whole.
      I can only get here via responding to a post
      made by others.
      If I press on show discussion it’s blank, I
      cannot see anything.

      1. I posted in the small hours this morning that the old style site appears to have been blocked.
        A bit of a bugger.

      2. Good morning, Ethel. The ‘front door’ of the new site is simply nttl.blog – a link to the latest page will always be at the top of the list. If you can’t see the Disqus comments, then it is likely that you have some sort of ad-blocker in operation, in which case you would need to modify its settings to allow Disqus through.

        1. It I press view discussion on this page, it doesn’t allow me to
          do so, it says ‘ go to the top of the page ‘ it doesn’t allow
          me to view anything. I shall check out add blockers,
          I am on the Samsung Tablet and not good with
          technical things.

        2. I’ve been told that the disqus forum of comments is broken
          so you cannot view comments that way until they fix it.

        3. Hello again,and thank You, I’ve just been told that the
          Disqus forum view of comments is broken
          It’s the Disqus blue links access to sites .
          If you press the ‘ view in discussion button ‘ next to the
          reply button.
          You can get to other sites via their new homepages
          but not via disqus forum view of comments,
          maybe they’ll fix it soon.

      3. Morning A. Have you tried googling Not the Telegraph Letters? If you do so you will find a list. Do not click on the top two which is the old Channel Nottl but the third down which will produce this Blog. Then copy the Nttl address in the top panel…

        https://nttl.blog/

        …and paste it onto a Microsoft Word document and save it. You can then place your mouse cursor on this and press ENTER which should bring up the Nottl menu!

        1. After pasting the address given by Araminta into the address line of your browser, save to “Bookmarks”. That brings you to the top of all the NTTL pages, with the latest at the top.

          1. Morning Oberst. I keep a Microsoft Word page with all my contacts on it so I can call up anyone and any site very quickly!

          2. Morning, Minty.
            I use a Cloud app called Evernote for useful links and passwords (encrypted) and this is available synchronisedon my phone, pad & PC. Makes life a tad easier.

  3. Bill Cash has a good letter in the DT this morning. I would be grateful if someone could post it here.

    1. Here you go Clyde. If you are able to read (i.e. are a Premium subscriber), I simply don’t understand how you are unable to copy and post it???

      SIR – Philip Johnston, in his piece “Ultimate sovereign authority lies with the people, not Parliament” (Comment, September 18), correctly says “there must be a source for that sovereignty”. That source is MPs convened in Parliament and democratically elected in a general election in constituencies by secret ballot on the basis of their party’s manifesto.

      Parliament is currently disgracefully refusing to have a general election to determine the question of “who governs and how”, which is the only way through the current impasse.

      Parliament specifically and deliberately decided in a sovereign Act of Parliament to leave the decision on the question of our membership of the European Union to the voters and not to MPs. This is where the constitutional mischief lies, because they are trying to reverse this. MPs then passed the Notification of Withdrawal Act by 494-122. Every Conservative MP, including Ken Clarke, then voted for the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which Parliament also passed. This enacts that the European Communities Act 1972 is repealed on October 31. This is the law of the land, based on the sovereignty authority of Parliament and the people.

      Thus, by not having a general election, Parliament is not only preventing the implementation of the majority decision in a referendum – it is also undermining its own sovereignty as expressed in those Acts of Parliament. To achieve this, it is also tearing up conventions including Standing Order 14, which gives precedence to government business over Private Members’ business. That Standing Order rests on the unchallengeable assumption, established over generations, that our constitutional system is based on parliamentary government, not government by Parliament. The current constitutional chaos derives from the rejection of this principle.

      Sir Bill Cash MP (Con)
      London SW1

      Please explain

      1. And this explains why MPs are desperate to postpone a general election for as long as possible even if it means the betrayal of everything that they claim to stand for.

        MPs are Billy Bunters armed with the keys to the sweet shop or Charles Kennedys or Georgie Bests armed with the keys to all off-licences in the land. They are power-crazed and completely irresponsible

        Has there ever been such a treacherous and dishonest composition of Parliament? This is the sort of thing that fosters serious revolution.

    2. I don’t know whether I agree with you or not, citroen, because I have not seen the Times cartoon. Can anyone on here post it so that I can compare the two?

        1. Thank you, clydesider (I think – the Times cartoon is revolting). I will now upvote citroen’s post.

  6. Euphoric Remainer snobbery has become a fanatical religion
    SHERELLE JACOBS – 18 SEPTEMBER 2019 • 9:04PM

    The question is, why have ‘sensible centrists’ become so radical?

    If Brexit blew up the old world order, a new species of snob has been forged in its fuming embers. For evidence, look no further than the growing tribe of Lib Dem-defecting arch-Remainers. A few years ago, many were self-proclaimed sensible Blairite centrists, judiciously uninspired by politics and possessing no view whatsoever on the EU. But in the space of three years, their anti-Brexit beliefs have become radically spiritual. From their ecstasy in the exaltation that “people didn’t know what they voted for”, to their terrified delight in inhaling the smoky incense of an imminent no-deal “Armageddon”, hating Brexit – and Brexiteers – has become a religion.

    Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson is determined to stamp her authority as the spiritual guru of this burgeoning new sect. Her party’s communications department has sought to not so much capture as carpet-bomb headlines in recent days, with Ms Swinson declaring at their party conference that Brexiteers are “insular, closed and selfish”. Given her disdain for Leave voters, it is no wonder she felt comfortable pledging to bypass the burdensome conventions of democracy by revoking Article 50.

    Some Lib Dems are unsettled that this garish new brand of primary colours politics is thriving in a movement traditionally dedicated to capturing none-of-the-above votes. Grandees, like Sir Norman Lamb have described the direction as “dangerous”. Even the anti-Brexit mainstream media dry-retched a little at the idea of scrapping the bogus but necessary ritual of a second referendum, and ran editorials on whether Ms Swinson may be the Nigel Farage of Remain.

    But Ms Swinson is tellingly confident. A new wave of liberal populism is ripping through Remainia, and she has decided that her party should ride it.

    The wider public may bristle. Ms Swinson comes across as the radiantly sneering face of stuck-up liberal Britain. Her authoritarian rhetoric that rises and falls with plastic, patronising innocence is as perturbing as it is grating. But it is perfectly pitched to appeal to self-regarding metropolitans. Even her motto, “Bollocks to Brexit”, is a stroke of genius. Cackling defiance has become a snotty liberal affectation, similar to way “like” punctuates every other word in their sentences.

    But there is something even more chilling underlying all this. The Lib Dems are expertly tapping into a virulent psychological need among some Remainers to feel superior.

    Fuelled by social insecurity, despising Brexiteers has become a mark of status. Those who lambast Leavers for suggesting that Britain is overcrowded do so out of the frantic belief that the middle classes are themselves overcrowded.

    They are discombobulated by the fact that those who make £30,000 a year selling double glazing technically belong to the same sect as those who make £30,000 editing poetry books; and that Oxford graduates are theoretically condemned to the same social strata as those brandishing a degree from Oxford Brookes. Just maybe, some militant Remainiacs have deduced that the best way to stand out in a crowded field is to distinguish themselves tribally from the provincial masses who want to leave the EU.

    There are parallels with the cramped insecurity that fuelled the middle-class’s fascinated disdain for “chavs” in the Nineties; a struggling, cosmopolitan bourgeoisie was anxious to elevate itself above the flash Burberry-clad new money financially overtaking them.

    But Brexit has shone a light on a new dimension to metropolitan snobbery. “Respectability” used to be the most important marker of superiority. Now it is “rationality”. Perhaps this is partly down to the increased specialisation of middle-class professionals. Their sense of status derives from deep technical knowledge and command of esoteric managerial language. Thus, the desire to regain British sovereignty is eye-wateringly offensive in its “purist” simplicity, and thus the “implications” of Brexit are too “complicated” for the plebs to understand. It also explains the sickly admiration for slick professionals adept at preaching from the pulpit of constitutional pedantry – including Gina Miller (who is not even a lawyer).

    Perhaps the most ironic strand to the new Remainer snobbery is the idea that the provincial “underclass” has been “deceived” with the promise of an unobtainable Brexit dream. This is little more than a projection of the bourgeois centrists’ fears about their own gullibility. They were utterly duped by the breathy promise of Blairism, and watched in horror as it disintegrated into a slime of warmongering, lies and spin. (It is also only fitting that arch-Remainer celebrity Alastair Campbell should seek to wash away his political sins in the weeping bog of bourgeois cynicism that he created, with his incessant attacks on “lying” Brexiteers.)

    There is, then, a segment of the urban middle class that, bereft of any positive vision of the future, defines itself politically by its superiority to others. Until these people find new reason to hope, the star-stitched Brussels beret will confer the same symbolic significance as the Daily Mirror man’s flat cap a generation ago. The mines have long shut, but class hatred is an ever-burning charcoal in the British psyche.

    3. That is what is going on here – the Fabian’s always hated the lower classes.

      One great thing about Brexit – it’s finally forced these toe rags into the open.

      Now we know who has been inflicting this sulphorous dogma on us for the past few decades.

      I know what they really fear about Brexit.

      The payback that is coming.

    5. If they want “lying”, Cameron’s propaganda leaflet statement that “this is your decision, the government will implement what you decide” should be front and centre.

    1. On Conservative Woman, Paul Weston commented that he doesn’t think Western civilization will last 25 years.

    2. When the chance of being caught is very low and the chance of actually being convicted is small and the chance of being imprisoned is becoming vanishingly small, it is hardly surprising that more people are deciding that crime pays. And it often pays a lot better than working honestly for a living.

      1. Especially when you take into account that if you have worked hard, bought your own house, even managed to save a bit of cash, you are severely punished to pay for those who have not bothered, not worked and p1$$ed their benefits up the wall.

  9. Dear fellow NoTTLers

    Sometime today I am due to be blessed by a visitation from the ‘heavies’ of BBC licence enforcement. (i.e. Civitas.) trying to take me away in shackles. for non-payment of the BBC’s tithe. They have been harassing me for more than nine months with threatening letters etc. What they don’t know is that my most excellent landlady is a distinguished J.P. of many years standing. Will report later.

    4. These bBC/Crapita ‘heavies’ are nothing more than commissioned salesmen. Hence their willingness to visit as many of the ‘low hanging fruit’ as possible. I cancelled my bBC TV tax 14 months ago and, after a short correspondence, informed ‘Jackie Garswood’ – who signed off on my ‘No Licence Needed’ confirmation letter AND the next (and last, so far) gentle reminder that my address showed as paying no bBC TV tax – that if she sent any Crapita commissioned goons to my address, she had better have informed them of my legal position of not viewing ‘livestream broadcasting or bBC catch-up services’. The ‘No Licence Needed’ confirmation runs for 2 years, at which time it will be extended. Having; given up on the bBC Newz and current affairs many years ago (too much fact-checking required), no interest in ‘reality’ shows (are they ALL fixed?); no interest in soaps (although Carla in Coronation St had me wobbling), I found I was only watching the occasional film – which I now do, at a time that suits me, on my Amazon Firestick. I keep seeing figures for how many viewers have cancelled their licence but wonder where these figures come from. It’s not as if bBC/Crapita are going to boast about falling sales. As an aside, in today’s digital age, it must be possible to show on a map where licence coverage and licence non-payment are. It would be interesting to compare the two with the ‘non-existent’ ghettos and no-go areas in our towns and cities. Right, that’s enough from me. Time to put the kettle on…aaaaannnnddd relax.

    5. Nothing will happen. I’ve been getting those letters for years (lost count how long). The envelopes go straight in the recycling bin unopened. I have yet to see anything resembling a BBC ‘heavy’. You will have a disappointing day, I’m afraid.

    6. What fun,I received a bright red envelope this morning containing the ominous warning “An investigation has been opened”
      Good Luck matey,your investigation may be open,my door will not

    7. I’ve been ignoring their threatograms for 14 years and the last visit I had was about 6/7 years ago when I started filiming the Capita goon. They haven’t been back since, so I think I’m on an ‘avoid’ list.

  10. Consumers’ credit card spending ‘overtakes cash’

    We are rapidly moving to a cashless society

    Debit Cards £215.4B
    Credit Cards £81.9B
    Cash £77B
    Other £5B

    Consumers spent more money on credit cards with UK retailers last year than they did in cash, a retailers’ trade body has said.

    Debit cards were the most popular, but falling cash use pushed notes and coins down to third place, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said.

    Cash accounted for just over £1 in every £5 spent with UK shops.
    The BRC argued that rising costs faced by retailers to process card payments could push up prices.

      1. All the better to keep an eye on you!

        As well as giving a government bent on total control and acquisition of the people’s property – Corbyn/McDonnell and EU – easy access to do so.

          1. After 22 years sleeping on what had become a lumpy mattress, I spent my money on a new one (and a new one). The effect is… Zzzzz!

            :-))

      2. Minty, you are the wolf disguised as Little Red Riding Hood’s grandma and I claim my five bob postal order!

        :-))

    2. The banks are increasing the levels of “security” being applied to online purchasing. Now.
      To do no more than check my account balance online, I have to use my “online name”, my”password” and my “secret number code”. Then I have to put my card in the card-reader supplied by the bank. This gives me a “code number” I have to enter onto the bank website. The bank then send a message to my mobile phone. The message is a single use “very secret code”that I enter onto the bank website. Then and only then, I can go to the account page and I see how much money we have.

      I have now decided that I will revert as far as possible to using only cash, for shops, garage, petrol etc.
      I suppose that many others may do the same. Is there enough paper money in circulation to cope?

      1. That sounds as if you are with the Co-Operative Bank, who have just unrolled the same procedures for me. I joined them in the innocence of youth after a TV campaign saying that they would not invest in companies that made land mines etc. I don’t even know where my nearest co-op branch is these days, as I do everything online.

        1. I opened an account with the SCWS Bankers in 1972. Transactions were written by hand in ledgers. It was taken over by the CWS a few years later when the smarties at SCWS gambled all the cash on grain futures and lost it. Without the takeover there would have been a bank crash and that might have knocked over a few dominoes.
          The branch was in Edinburgh and it closed in late 80s. They opened a new Edinburgh branch in the early 2000s but did not tell me. My Sort Code is still Co-op Edinburgh. They are dolts.
          The new Edinburgh branch was closed after a couple of years, still without ever sending me an email to say, “Hey, we have opened a branch nearer to you than the Moon”.
          My two nearest Co-op Bank branches are Glasgow and Newcastle. Either way a round trip of over 100 miles. Don’t you just love ethical banking!

      2. I thought my HSBC bank was bad enough with having to put a code in to activate the gizmo that produces the number I have to type in to access my bank account on line.

    3. I noticed, when fund-raising for the Wings Appeal, that many shoppers said they had no cash – did we not have a card machine?

  11. Two little kids are in a hospital, lying on beds next to each other, waiting outside the Operating Theatre.

    The first kid leans over and asks, ‘What are you in here for?’

    The second kid says, ‘I’m in here to get my tonsils out and I’m a little nervous.’

    The first kid says, ‘You’ve got nothing to worry about. I had that done when I was four. They put you to sleep, and when you wake up, they give you lots of
    jelly and ice cream. It’s a breeze.’

    The second kid then asks, ‘What are you in here for?

    The first kid says, ‘A circumcision.’

    The second kid says, ‘Whoa, good luck with that one, buddy! I had that done when I was BORN…& couldn’t walk for a year.

  12. Morning all

    SIR – Anyone who followed Lord Sumption’s Reith Lectures earlier this year will be aware that an unspoken issue is at play in the current Supreme Court hearing relating to Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogue Parliament (report, September 18). It concerns the creeping accretion of power by the judiciary, a phenomenon apparent across the Western world.

    Lord Sumption said in his fifth lecture: “I am sceptical about claims that our system of government can be improved by injecting a larger legal element into it” – an opinion not universally shared in the profession.

    Neville Teller
    London N13

    SIR – In 1748, Montesquieu, the French jurist, said everything would come to an end if the legislative, executive and judicial powers of government were to be exercised by the same person or authority. We should keep the courts out of politics.

    Mark Solon
    London E1

    SIR – The current situation raises a number of questions for all of us.

    For how long is a democratic decision valid? Is it still valid if circumstances change? What if new information comes to light?

    Can a democratic decision be modified to suit new circumstances or to do something wise – such as to avoid causing unnecessary suffering to a group of people? Does a referendum result always override a vote in Parliament? Could a referendum result or a demonstration of popular will – say, a petition receiving the support of 50.1 per cent of the electorate – overrule an Act of Parliament that has received Royal Assent?

    Lastly, what happens if there is an expression of the people’s will, but no one knows exactly what the result implies? Who does the interpreting?

    We should not see such questions in terms of Leave or Remain – but we do need solutions if any of the arguments are to be settled one way or the other.

    Nick Inman
    Larreule, Hautes-Pyrénées, France

    1. ” What if new information comes to light?” – such as the aim for “ever closer political union”, or the formation of an EU army? Be careful what you wish for, Nick, it works both ways.

        1. Everyone seriously interested in what is happening in the world should be aware of politico best friends.

    2. I remember the days when Rainbow Warrior was a ship scuttled in New Zealand by French special agents because it objected to France nuking the Pacific.

      Now it seems rainbow warriors are only concerned about Canadians historically using makeup inappropriately. I expect all those surviving veterans who appeared in the Black and White Minstrels Show to be rounded up and brought to justice. That is what police resources are for, and why my Council Tax levy is nearly £200 this year.

      I am very afraid, and expect the dawn knock at any time. Several years ago, I played the Turkish Knight in a mummers play, and was the King of Egypt last year.

      1. I would be very surprised if there is anyone who doesn’t have a skeleton in the closet from when they were young.

        At the basic level I think those skeletons should be left there; with the exception of those cases, like Trudeau, who are constantly shouting their political correctness and wokeness to the world.

  14. Morning again

    SIR – The significance of the drone attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities last weekend (report, September 17) must not be lost on the Government or the pressure groups that promote wholesale changes to our energy supplies.

    Britain is becoming ever more dependent on supplies of natural gas imported from the Middle East, which exposes us to serious strategic risks. Coal may cause greater emissions, but it has an advantage over gas in that substantial quantities can be stored for months with little degradation.

    The short-term collapse of electricity supplies that would result if gas were to become unavailable must surely be given greater consideration than long-term climate issues.

    Paul Spare
    Davenham, Cheshire

    1. Gerraway, Paul darling!
      Anyone with half a brain knows this. Now, about our politicians, the people who make these decisions for reasons which are not related to fuel and electricity security for this country, are irrelevant to current and future price pressures, including the lives of those whose living expense options are warmth OR food. Decisions that do not consider possible world events, political and military, that may occur at the source of imported fuels either now or at any time in the next 100 years.
      Maybe not even half a brain…

    1. There are 16 million Remainer votes up for grabs, and all the competition either supporting Brexit or fudging. No other principle or vision necessary.

  16. Good article from Brexit Central on what Johnson should be looking to achieve in his “deal” and the dangers to him and the Tories if he tries to dupe the people in a similar fashion to May.
    The author, Christopher Howarth a senior researcher working in the House of Commons, holds the view that the self interest of politicians will play a major part in what Johnson tries to accomplish.

    Secondly, any delay to the UK leaving or the resuscitation of the May deal would be a disaster for the Conservative Party at the hands of the Brexit Party. The Conservatives have already lost pro-Remain voters to the Liberal Democrats, it cannot afford the symmetry of losing pro-Leave votes. This fact will no doubt not be lost on the office holders in Downing Street. They may care little for the finer legal points of the agreements or have less than polite things to say about Northern Ireland but they do care about retaining their jobs into 2020 – which means winning a general election based largely on securing the support of former Leave voters.

    Boris Johnson may have won the leadership, but he should remember he was on the losing side last time the deal was voted on. That tends to be fatal for Prime Ministers.

    Brexit Central – Beware Resuscitating the Dead May Deal

  17. SIR – Thirteen years ago, my police career was ended by a back injury. I was prescribed opioid painkillers and have since taken them in ever -increasing doses.

    I suffer from innumerable side-effects and scary withdrawal symptoms. Reports of the long-term harm of opioid consumption have led me to try to reduce my intake – a difficult task for which no external help seems to be available.

    I put the blame firmly at the door of the medical profession. Exercise plans and talking therapies are no good to me now, as, over the years, countless GPs have increased my dosage, turning me into an addict.

    If they had been trained as Mr O’Toole suggests (Letters, September 18), then my life might not have been blighted by these horrible drugs.

    Gary Read
    Portishead, Somerset

  19. SIR – In 2017, the already small Liberal Democrat vote was squeezed mercilessly. In seats the party had previously held, it became irrelevant.

    Now the Lib Dems are presenting themselves as purist Remainers (report, September 18). In doing so, they are abandoning the traditional Liberal vote, particularly in the Leave-voting South West and Wales.

    They are also forfeiting the right to call themselves democrats by ignoring the 2016 majority and denying further votes on the subject.

    Jacques Arnold
    West Malling, Kent

    1. …ignoring the 2016 majority and denying further votes on the subject – ironic, really, as it was them who pushed for the original 2016 vote!

  20. I had a rather alarming email from the Treasurer of the Elgar Chorale, a Worcester choir I have sung with for the last eleven years. It came the day before the AGM:

    “Dear Members,

    In common with most organisations, we have a commitment to protect the children, young people and vulnerable adults whom we come into contact with
    The Elgar Chorale Committee recently developed a Safeguarding Policy. This policy is now active and if anyone has any matters which they are anxious about, concerning singers or audience and feel that they need investigating during our Workshop Day, the first point of contact, is V***. At all our events from now on, you will always be advised of the name of the first point of contact in case any issues arise.
    The full details of our policy will be available to read from our website shortly.
    Sep 2019”

    This policy was drawn up in June and made live without any consultation with the choir, and presented as a fait accompli. I had told the Musical Director, the Chairman and the Choir’s Administrator that I am considering my position as one of their tenors. After reflection, I have decided that if I feel personally threatened by the implementation of this policy at any time, then I shall walk out immediately, even during a concert if it happens then, and not return. I did this when my church took a similar line over “Safeguarding”. I will look at my long term membership when the subs are due next summer.

    It seems that a long-standing booking for a workshop at the Royal Grammar School, Worcester changed its conditions, and insisted that all those booking the school hall, even out of school hours, must have a Safeguarding Policy in place. The Choir’s committee, in their wisdom, felt it unnecessary to consult the choir, and just went ahead with the Surveillance and Reporting Programme. The definition of “abuse” is very loose, and could incriminate someone looking the wrong way.

    The average age of the choir is about 60, it has never in all the time I have been there done anything that might even remotely be called abuse, and had been a happy group of people that didn’t feel obliged to spy on one another and on the audience. This Safeguarding Policy has its roots in the Blair years, an American-advized (sic) knee jerk response to some idiot school in Cambridgeshire that didn’t follow up the references of someone they employed as a caretaker,

    1. I am always appalled at how easily people roll over for this kind of thing, Jeremy. You see yourself, the result of “expediency” – and what a sad day if you give up something you enjoy because of stupid actions.
      A pity the committee didn’t think to involve the choir members, or even just find a new venue.

      1. Indeed. I had an email from the Chairman yesterday explaining the situation with the Royal Grammar School booking, which is this weekend. The email to the choir went out on Tuesday. Far too late now to find a new venue.

    2. When my Mother was fit enough to be in a position to act as a volunteer driver, taking people to hospital and dental appointments and the like, she was required to have a CRB check (or whatever it’s called now). She was insulted and appalled at the presumption of guilt, and stopped volunteering.
      Now, nobody in that part of Wales does the volunteer driving. She now needs a lift to her dental appointments, but instead has to take a taxi.
      Hooray for the Block Warden!

      1. I tried to volunteer to be a “visitor” for those older people who were getting a bit too frail to get out by themselves anymore. You would go to spend some time with them, get their shopping, or go out with them as they did their own shopping, just in case they ran into difficulties. They also had the criminal record checks but I had no concerns about those as some of the jobs that I have had in the past brought me into contact with University students and we all had to have them multiple times.

        The thing that stopped me in my tracks was the ton of paperwork that they wanted me to fill out giving them more information about my life than I would give a government. Pages and pages of questions asking things that you would only tell good friends after getting to know and trust them. Questions that had nothing at all to do with making someones life a bit more interesting than it would otherwise be. So I didn’t join them in the end.

        This was 4 years or so ago and I cannot remember which group it was. I did mention it at the time to someone online and he just said “Oh don’t bother with that lot. It’s full of Captain Mainwaring’s.”

  21. SIR – The Daily Telegraph had many uses in post-war Britain, apart from as loo paper (Letters, September 17).

    My mother, a primary school teacher, used to whitewash its pages and lay them out to dry on the classroom floor, so her pupils had something to paint on.

    Angela Lawrence
    Woodbridge, Suffolk

  22. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fbc39001dc24a7bf24f23a6e2a4d119457631b52ae64f99aa7c6cc1538502c64.jpg Greetings from a sunny Salzburg (yesterday)…berthed in Passau this morning, which was to have been our penultimate stop had the water levels not been so low. So instead it’s by road to Regensburg today. Play nicely, as Bill would say.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1374458fc2a95314050959be415453ab6e44bd52bab46515b7f37dc7b1059b68.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2fc1775fd3c7be1b01ba0169ac861533d84d21a2985a8e85d73bb168bfcca850.jpg

    1. Glad you survived that, Delboy. I’m on that road Friday next week, with me Mam, on the way to Wrexham (via Manchester) for a wedding. Not looking forward to it.

      2. Morning Ob. I was dangerously cut up from the left three times by vehicles that didn’t indicate. They missed me by a few feet at motorway speeds.

    2. The M54 has been blocked by a three-car pile up this afternoon – be glad you missed it. All I suffered on Monday was the usual car park on the M25, followed by the crawl on the M6 and the A41 being closed by a serious accident. A three-hour journey turned into a five-hour one.

    1. Reading through the above article it seems that Mrs. Blair acted like a typical Remainer in that she was unable to handle the thought of ANYONE having different opinions on the EU to herself.

  25. Imagine the uproar in the Commons and media if we bought out a paper for the White British Population

    The Voice, the UK’s only newspaper aimed at the black community, is going monthly after 37 years as a weekly title.

    1. …UK’s only newspaper aimed at the black community, is going monthly tits-up after 37 years

    4. Here you go, BA:

      I before E except after C
      And, if you please,
      That little word seize.

      There are many other words besides seize but my brain’s now seized up. Oh, weight, height, freight, etc.

    5. That whizzes be back to a pub many years ago where a local English teacher was a regular.

      The barmaid had her friends who would get served within seconds of walking in the place and the teacher, waiting to be served, would often remark “It was I before ‘e”.

      2. 0:52 “Two really big things come out of this morning” (Nigel Farage, with hand movements)

    2. Nigel Farage as brilliant as ever.

      There is nobody in Parliament with his stature or eloquence.

      1. The others have their heads well screwed on and Rupert Lowe, in particular, gave a tremendous explanation of how we could proceed with Brexit were the politics taken out of the equation.

    1. It’s what MPs like Tom Watson rely upon when they make statements in Parliament that would find them sued if they made the same comment in the street outside.

        1. If the Supreme Court does overturn the proroguing of Parliament, I sincerely hope that the next individual to be maligned, slandered or libelled in the House by a malignant MP sues them and uses this action as the precedent. It would be wonderful if they were successful to the tune of huge damages and all the costs being awarded against the MP..

          The Leftwaffe Lawfare should have been nipped in bud at the outset, I suspect it will cause untold damage longer term..

    2. Been the same for me, Belle, also can’t post until I’m logged in, but I AM logged in!
      GRR!
      Morning, BTW.

  32. Moh is still riding motor bike on L plates , and after 2 years will be retaking his CBT today, fingers crossed .. He just uses his bike as a fine day hobby to get out and about when the roads are quiet , and when he is not playing golf every other day.

    Today is a fine lovely autumn day . No breeze A pair of squirrels are making a real old din somewhere in the trees . and…. We can also hear lemurs and monkeys calling in the distance from Monkey world which is not too far from us .. NOT a nuisance factor .. lovely sounds .. I think we are lucky.

    There will be a huge military exercise next week, all the local villages have had prior warning , especially so re helicopter activity .. the really big stuff ..Chinooks , Ospreys and Merlins .. we have been warned !!!

    1. Morning Belle. A Chinook flew over here yesterday afternoon. A very rare occurence. Going north though, not toward you!

      1. Morning Issy

        We are preparing ourselves because we are so close to the ranges nd low flying zones.. We don’t mind really , but if it is dry the dust will be noticeable .. We can see Bovington from up here .. and the clouds of dust are quite noticeable .. as they are on the Lulworth ranges

    2. The only time that I have ever been in a helicopter it was a Chinook taking us from Oxford to Salisbury plain. They kept the back door down and we could look out and see the ground far below. That was highly enjoyable, even when the pilot decided to bank heavily just before coming in to land and the horizon out the back was at 45 degrees. 🙂

      2. Morning MM,
        Not to be recommended is rig hopping, North Sea, when the bloke next to you unzips his
        survival suit after last nights beer / curry.

      3. Helicopters are the Devil’s work. Horrible things. Crash all the time. Never willingly fly on one, now I’m not visiting the North Sea.

          1. Mostly Super Pumas as a passenger, me. Like the one that crashed just outside Bergen a couple or so years ago, killing all aboard – including two colleagues.
            My first trip to the North Sea, West Sole field in 1980, two choppers crashed, one in our field. Never liked them after that.

        2. Our RQMS was called “Spider Taylor” and he was an excellent man full of stories of his younger Army days. He was the one who gave us young cadets the sage advice about eating some cheese before going to bed after a drinking session. 30 years later and I have only ever had a hangover since then when I have not done so.

          He had a special agreement that he would never get into a helicopter again, and would drive to anywhere that he needed to get to. This was after walking away / surviving THREE crashes in them. I don’t blame him after that. 🙂

      2. Black, transgender, disabled female. But will it be a real female – or a deluded, mentally ill male that identifies as female?

  34. DT Story

    Jacob Rees-Mogg urges Brexit Party supporters to return to Tory fold

    Without TBP support Brexit is dead and so is the Conservative Party.

    If only Nigel Farage had been a government minister we might have got somewhere.

    As many of us predicted we shall end up with May’s Surrender WA without the Irish Bumstop or no Brexit at all. In fact No Brexit at all could be a better answer.

    2. Morning R,
      “If only farage was a government minster”
      His treatment of UKIP members, the very ones who
      supported and helped build his image would say he has
      odious qualifications for a current government post.
      Much to the dismay of many subscribers the brexit group will morph into the tory party, it was set up to do just that.

      1. ogga1 – Many of those who joined UKIP when Nigel Farage was trying to run it were “traditional Conservatives” who could no longer go along with the way that their party was being hijacked by pro-eu Liberals. This may come as a shock to you, but there is nothing wrong with being a “real Conservative” and most of UKIP’s policies would be considered to be from their view of the world.

        If UKIP do cease to exist as a party in the next 2 months, and if you have been receiving the emails then you will know why this is a distinct possibility, then I have one request. I IMPLORE you: Do not join The Brexit Party and start typing endless messages in support of them online as you have done with UKIP.

        1. It’s sad watching the internecine strife going on in UKIP. I think for me it may mean yet another choice on the ballot paper eliminated.

        2. MM,
          To my mind the brexit group is made up in the main from peoples who for years have been
          supporting voting for the very parties that led us & kept us in our current odious mess.
          Right up until the birth of the tory party subsidiary group.
          They will merge.
          It is really time you took stock of the “real conservatives” in governance, they have not just popped up, they have, many of them been supported via the ballot box for years.

          1. ogga1 – I am fully aware of who is behind what is being done to our country, and what they are trying to do to many countries now. Blaming a few hundred corrupt MP’s here does not account for the attacks on democracies across the world. Blaming the voters for their past actions does not help us now either. We are where we are. Your personal dislike of Farage is blinding you to what matters.

            Right wing or “Conservative” views will prepare this country, and others, for the fight ahead. Left wing socialist views will tear countries down. Do not confuse real Conservative-ism with what is happening inside the party now. There are still some very good people who are trying to do what is right against overwhelming odds.

            The goal now must to be to get free of the European Union. The Brexit Party is by far the most committed to that, and they have Ann Widdecome whom I have always liked. If I had a John Redwood as local MP then I would vote for him without hesitation, but I have a sad sack of a “pretend Conservative” as my MP, so I will vote for The Brexit Party.

          2. MM,
            The farage showed his true colours with his
            anti UKIP membership rant, all on record.
            “Blaming a few hundred MPs” you come across as very forgiving seeing as this has be ongoing since the mid 70s.
            The political sh!te we are wallowing through currently has arrived via the ballot booth & the
            voting pattern over the years.
            Check my post history nothing anti brexit group will be found, quite the reverse.
            My mistrust of farage is proven by farage and his odious views on UKIP membership.

          3. It is curiously noticeable that you always deflect attention away from the Globalist complicity in creating the current global political situation by victim blaming the UK electorate.

          4. Do you mean those you describe as the regular brainwashed electorate ?
            The post was pointing out the farage odious take on UKIP membership.

          8. I trust you have seen this Brexit MEP, Ogga.
            One of Nige’s chosen.
            Clearly Nige does not oppose mass immigration – as we suspected of course, – we know he doesn’t oppose islam.
            Robin Tilbrook brought this MEP to our attention.
            Good bloke.
            If this is an example of nige’s own no wonder Boris has refused to have 90 in the House of Commons.
            https://twitter.com/brexithenrik/status/1173866052704452608

        3. I shan’t be joining the Brexit Party – Nigel’s slagging off of people who had worked hard for him lost my vote.

          1. You do not need to join them, I haven’t. You just need to vote for them to get us out of the European Union if your other choices are a Remainer Conservative (Liberal) or a UKIP candidate who is on 2% of the vote.

            That is if UKIP still exists at all when the next election happens. The NEC seems to have a mission to destroy the party. They have been doing their best to achieve this for a long time. Some people are easily bought it would seem.

          2. I agree that the NEC seems to be a large part of the problem. My MP has come out for Leave (he didn’t vote for May’s WA) after making all the right noises. If our UKIP candidate stands I shall vote for her. It’s my belief that UKIP should put a candidate on the ballot paper to allow people a choice of voting for him/her. Owen’s majority is so great it wouldn’t matter who I voted for, to be honest. I live in donkey with a blue rosette territory. The county voted Leave 60/40.

    3. “We are all Londoners”?!?!? Well, then, maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner, that I hate Mayor Khan. (With apologies to whoever wrote the original song.)

      1. He has hijacked London for his own benefit . He has tarnished a great city that once had manners , a thriving economy, class and tradition .. It is a stinking mess now and a very scary jungle of a place .

      2. I was born and bred in London, and lived there until I was 26. Seeing the state it’s in now, I would never go back there to live.

      3. I am not, and never will be, a Londoner – I loathe the place. I also loathe Khan, not least because of his idiotic 20mph speed limits which make driving in the suburbs even more tedious than usual.

  36. John Humphrys, on his last day as presenter on BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, had a lengthy interview with Blair shortly before 8am and another lengthy one with Cameron just after 8.10 am. It all seemed fairly soft questioning and attempts of self justification on both parts with Cameron stumbling a bit in places as he tried to spread the blame for failing to get the Brexit result he expected.

  37. This RED site keeps logging me out and refuses to permit me to upload.

    Sod it. I’m out of here to do something more interesting and less time-wasting.

    Hej då!

    1. Sorry to hear that, Grizzly. I too will be off for most of the day (but not for technical problems). I have lawns to mow and an arbour to prime/undercoat!

    3. I think it’s your computer Griz, rather than the site.
      Disqus does have some glitches sometimes but the rest of us seem to manage to post pictures etc without too much trouble.

  39. Apart from being dreadful Prime Ministers, Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, and May all think we should remain in the EU.
    What better evidence does one need that we should leave?

    1. They should have tried giving people reasons to vote remain then, not just blather on about why leaving was bad.

        1. I don’t think “I’m looking forward to a well-paid sinecure in Brussels” would have gone down well as a reason to stay in and give up control of our taxation rates.

    2. I wonder why their policies are substantially the same… and coincidentally substantially the same as EU policies which coincidentally are substantially the same as the policies of the billionaire guy who last year had open door access to the European Commission on 68 occasions ?

      As well, of course, as being substantially the same as Obama’s policies who knew the billionaire guy extremely well who of course, by coincidence, was best friend of the Clintons.

      But these are only coincidences.

  44. Apparently Ian Fleming said…………….

    “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action” !

  45. ‘Morning All
    Yet again the whining “It was only advisory” reaches new peaks
    They are quite right it was advisory,UNTIL thanks to Gina Miller a vote took place to trigger Art 50
    498/114,That made it law
    Thanks Gina and all the other would be saboteurs,like Wiley Coyote every stick of dynamite has blown up in your own faces

        1. It was more than a normal manifesto pledge, which the public already knows gets cynically ditched as soon as convenient.
          This was more than that. It was an explicit political promise, made by all parties, to honour the result of the referendum, no matter what the result or how small the margin. Of course, it was made in the expectation that Remain would win. Nevertheless, to break this particular promise is to break our democracy, such as it is, completely and irrevocably, along with any last iota of trust in the politicians and political process.

    1. As they’re now neither liberal nor democrats, they’re shirley in need of a new name. I’d suggest the Kalergi Babes but they wouldn’t understand.

  47. “WHO’s MY FATHER? WHY CAN’T I MEET HIM?”
    Extremists again:

    ONDEMNED as shameful and as threatening the fabric of our society, protests have resumed outside Birmingham schools against their LGBT teaching and promotion of gay and transgender lifestyles.

    Gay rights activists claiming the moral high ground have protested in turn their belief ‘in love and harmony and everyone getting along and being equal’. Love conquers hate, they chant, with the implication that anyone opposing their agenda is intolerant and driven by hate. Sara Khan, the Government’s Commissioner for Countering Extremism, previously likened the Birmingham protesters to a mob while they are portrayed elsewhere in the media as uniquely Muslim and illiberal.

    Yet Muslims are far from the only parents or commentators to be concerned about the ‘No Outsiders’ programme that remains integral to these schools’ teaching ethos. Christians, Jews and those of no faith have also expressed their deep discomfort and concern.

    The truth is that on this issue the real extremists are not the parents but the teachers and lobbyists who want to change our society. This they’ve revealed in their publications on the topic:

    ‘In a nutshell, we are asking teachers to change, and not simply mirror our society’, two of these revolutionaries have declared. They believe ‘the next phase is for teachers to take their work out into the community, spread the good practice’, by demonstrating the positive impact of institutional change and by turning it into ‘societal change’.

    Andrew Moffat, the assistant head teacher at one of the schools involved, has argued, speciously, that the beauty of living in the UK is ‘that people can hold different views yet still show each other respect and live alongside each other’ yet still outlines a programme whereby children are used to convert their parents into accepting his LGBT-centric views.

    It was after Mr Moffat’s resignation from a previous job – resulting from parents’ complaints about his LGBT agenda – that he ‘learned from that situation’ and rewrote his LGBT advocacy as ‘No Outsiders’ deliberately to include all ‘equalities’, not just LGBT.

    The media may have fallen for this ‘cover’, that schools are simply and virtuously ‘promoting equality’ and ‘tackling homophobia’, but Moffat has yet to convince the parents at his new school, Parklands. Little wonder – you hardly need to scratch below the surface to discover that the equality agenda is being used to sugarcoat the LGBT pill. Parents are not unreasonably asking whether ‘equalities’ teaching material like this counts as education or LGBT indoctrination?

    Tackling homophobia turns out to be ‘a discourse we all tend to appropriate when we communicate with government bodies or with the general public through the popular media‘. So say the project members who advocate this approach. Furthermore they explain: ‘We have also discovered that the stances we take and the discourses we draw upon depend not only on the context and audience but also on our own fundamental understandings of what it means to go “beyond tolerance” of LGBT people.’

    Going ‘beyond tolerance’ quite explicitly means one thing. It means ‘challenging heteronormativity’, for which half a million pounds has been awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council to help achieve this goal.

    For those of you who might be wondering what is meant by ‘heteronormativity’, it refers to the existing Western Judeao-Christian social and cultural norms, legal traditions and institutions that shape our society but that some LGBT people claim makes them feel they don’t fit in. It includes the fundamental belief and knowledge that we are all male and female, that though the world can be divided into homo and heterosexual people, marriage is between a man and a woman, monogamous, and that it is only men and women who together can reproduce. All of this comes under what these revolutionary theorists call the heteronormative umbrella.

    And the goal is to smash it as this YouTube presentation makes clear.

    Smashing heteronormativity means destroying the traditional family. The ‘two mummies’ or ‘two daddies’ myth or make-believe – the sop which they repeat ad nauseam – is central to it.

    Just as our children are taught to deny there are two sexes – male and female – the next lie they are made to believe, that some children have two mummies or two daddies, is born of an ideology intent on severing the association between parenthood, reproduction and sex.

    There has of course always been some ‘parenting’ flexibility, even in the Bible where Hagar helps out Abraham and Sarah, but it is as a response to a problem not held up as either an ideal or an equally valid alternative. That pater and mater are our genitor and genitrix is a pretty much universal cross-cultural fact since history began.

    Of course some children may have to be adopted, or cared for by step-parents, men or women, but being in loco parentis does not and cannot change the basic biological and social reality. No matter how objectionable our parents, we know that if it weren’t for them we wouldn’t be here.

    Removing reproduction from the parental relationship destroys the meanings of mother and father, fragmenting motherhood into genetic contribution, surrogacy and caring. But the whole is infinitely greater than the sum of its parts. Mothers are born when women give birth. The fundamental role of the father after conception is to provide for the mother-and-child unit, and despite every attempt to stop him he knits the child into the outside world.

    But how can the institution of fatherhood exist without a mother and child to care for? When gays and lesbians become mothers and/or fathers, their families can, for a while, ‘piggyback’ on the structures created by the heterosexual family. But those who would challenge ‘heteronormativity’ see it as something which ultimately needs to be overcome:

    ‘This essentialism, however strategic, runs the risk of reifying categories that a queer project seeks to disrupt – for example, by reinforcing the perceived superiority of the particular type of monogamous, child-centred family relationship embodied by the penguins’.

    You may find it hard to believe but such balderdash is published and taken seriously. But if we allow this pretence – that the biological relationship is irrelevant, that it makes no difference whether a child has one mother or two dads, that monogamy and marriage are unimportant – the family has no chance of surviving.***

    It is this that the Birmingham protesters are up against – people who are wilfully wrecking the foundations of our society, ideologues who have woven their way into the heart of the educational establishment and have its backing. They need support not condemnation. Christians, Muslims, Jews and atheists alike need to work together to nurture a society based on truth and a civilisation fit to care for the children of our children.

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/parents-in-lgbt-protest-arent-the-real-extremists-teachers-are/

    ***And I note that we are following this pretence in “trumps” in the case of Miss Ruth Davidson, Leader of the Scottish Conservatives, stepping down because she now has a child. BTW, Ruth, almost every child will, when they grow up and also see their friends, begin to, and never stop asking, “WHO’s MY FATHER? WHY CAN’T I MEET HIM?”

    1. The Washington Times published a very interesting article about this.

      Do you remember it.. and what it said ?

    2. The American experience, as they’ve had all this nonsense for a little longer, is that children raised by “two dads” often leave their adopted home in their teens and go in search of their birth mothers. The Wall Street Journal has published some interesting articles on this topic but they’ve recently and I guess hardly surprisingly gone behind a paywall.

    3. All these children who will not know what their genes carry , dread diseases etc and of course half coloureds who carry the Sickle Cell anaemia gene and who need transfusions right left and centre and who need our blood , because we do not carry the sickle cell gene!

      All children need to know their history , hence the popularity of programmes we view on TV about Who do you think you are .. etc

      2. The BBC should run an alternative series “Who the Hell Am I?” for these unfortunates. Fiona Bruce and the ‘Fake or Fortune’ Team could provide the research backup.

      3. Transfusions: over the majority of my life I have been a blood donor. I have given 72 times and on only two occasions have I seen a single differently-toned person in the queue to donate. Interesting, because on the form that all donors have to fill in and sign at every session, one is required to tick which ethnic grouping you belong to. In my city, with two universities and 30,000 sudents from all nations, I would have expected the donors not to be exclusively and horrendously white. Maybe it’s different in Newham (though I doubt it).

        1. I have donated over 45 times , and have had similar experiences to you . I then became a helper , and made soothed the first timers and helped with the teas and cold drinks and tasty treats as thank yous , and again , all white .. funny that, isn’t it .

          I guess all the newly stabbed receive blood from one source as well.. I expect there are no acknowledgements and thanks from the likes of Lammy or Abbott or anyone else like Khan?

    4. …people who are wilfully wrecking the foundations of our society, ideologues who have woven their way into the heart of the educational establishment and have its backing.

      If the LGBT et al. just got on quietly with their lives as the law now permits this problem would not have arisen. However, disrupting society by promoting minority sexual and lifestyle choices is one of the Frankfurt School’s tenets and is evident in some of the so-called “Pride” displays of public salacious behaviour that in the not so distant past would have resulted in arrest. The advocates of inculcating minority lifestyles on young minds have brought all this trouble on themselves and deserve no sympathy.

    5. Time to go back to the times when schoolteachers were siingle women and forbidden to get married.

      In those days if the woman teacher got married, they had to give up their job. Nowadays it would probably be that if a teacher married someone of the opposite sex, they would be fired for not following the party line.

    6. Hetero normality actually being just, well, normal.

      It is NOT normal to stick your bits up a bottom – male or female. They’re not designed for there.

      There are two genders. Male and female. No inbetweens. Yes, only women (in the human species) can have children. A ‘man’ who has given birth is a woman taking drugs. Parents of a child are the male and female of the species who, for the best outcome for that child, should be married.

      People can choose to live how they want to. What they can’t do is blame me, society or others for their maladies. They have to accept that their choices are their own, and that they will be considered unnatural by wider society – because they flipping well are.

      If you go to your doctor and tellhim you’re a goat, and want to be changed into a goat surgically, he’ll prescribe therapy and count you as mentally ill. If you tell him, as a man that you think you’re a woman, hilariously he suggests free NHS surgery.

      1. There are two genders.

        No, there are two SEXES.
        The use of the word “Gender” to mean “Sex” originated with a quack sex change doctor in America to obfuscate the treatments he was giving.

        1. I thought there were three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter – certainly the case in Latin and Greek. I wonder if there are any languages with more than three.

  48. So say all of us

    Our democracy has (or should have) basic rules. The government holds

    office only for so long as it enjoys the confidence of the Commons.

    Should it lose that confidence, a general election needs to be called.

    Ministers are, quite rightly, subject to political criticism and

    contestation, but the courts should not be another forum for political

    attack. If lawyers seek to change the law, they should run for

    parliament.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/09/judgment-day-the-danger-of-courts-taking-over-politics/

    1. I wonder if the current situation the House of Commons (or something like it) was ever considered when drawing up the Fixed Term Parliaments Act. I suppose the loss of a majority would have been assumed to result in a No-confidence vote, resulting in a General Election.

      At the very least, the FTPA needs to be amended to cater for a loss of majority without a No-confidence vote or a two-thirds majority to accept a GE. That a government cannot govern or even call a General Election to break the impasse is completely unacceptable.

      1. There was one reason and one reason only why Clegg insisted on the Fixed Parliament Act.

        He knew full well that after betraying the students he would lose virtually all his Lib/Dem seats in Parliament if Cameron called another election and his time in power would have lasted less than one year.

        So we are lumbered with this miserable mess owing to Cleggs’ pathetic lust for power and the sheer nastiness of the Lib/Dems.

    2. Lawyers do run for Parliament, and get elected. They’re the trouble, e.g. Blair, Dominic Grieve, etc.

      It’s the courts and judges getting involved in political matters that’s the problem.
      If judges are going to rule on political matters, then, as David Starkey says, they should be electable,so we can unelectable them and kick them off the benches.

      1. Does he receive a large pension from the Palindrome or a crate of anagrammatic Italian red wine each week?

        1. It’s obviously only a coincidence.. but who got a mega job in Washington DC where Palindrome was the star client ?

          Small world.

  49. After the ambush by the Labour activist castigating BoJo for not having fully fixed the NHS in the whole 57 days he has been in office it is way beyond time to fight back
    You can either have a Welfare State and an NHS or you can have mass migration of non contributing immigrants
    You can’t have both

  51. BAD news , Moh fell off his bike during motorbike test !

    Today will be a bad day . I am expecting him home shortly . Son has driven car to pick up the motor bike .. Moh will drive home .. hope he can.. no word as yet .At 73 years of age when does a toy become a liability?

    Raymond , elderly friend still rides … he is 85!

    1. Motorcyclists = organ donors.
      Not that I really dislike bikes. I used to go on motorbike rallies in my younger days, but they are inherently more dangerous than cars.

      3. The scar on my leg with the pin in the knee agrees with you, still miss motorbikes though even at my age. I console myself with the fact I am able to walk, I was very lucky!

        1. Oops… Glad it turned out OK.
          A very beautiful lady I once worked with never wore short skirts nor shorts, as she had crashed her bike a number of times, and (she said, no independent corroboration here) that her legs now looked like tree roots in a mangrove swamp, they had been so pinned and operated…

          1. Only the once for me, riding pillion at the time and we clipped a curve going down a hill and round a corner. PC plod’s report mentioned wet leaves.
            I fell off, bounced on the road and came down a second time with my knee landing on the edge of the kerb.
            One operation later, 10 days in traction and 3 months on crutches never diminished my love of motorcycle riding but good sense and the appreciation of the odds pointed me towards 4 wheels, still I wish I still had my BSA A10 today.

          3. We are still just boys at heart, still yearning for the good old days.
            Regarding your broken bones, one might suspect you had a secret crush for the A&E nurses, you kept revisiting them LOL.

          4. You say that in jest but there was an red-headed Irish nurse called Jessica in my ward whom I fell for in a big way. Alas, she wouldn’t give me her phone number 🙁

        2. The worst scrape I had was somewhere on the Holloway Road, having to take a dive off the back of the bike, which was on a tight bend but going slowly, and lost balance when one of the riders in front lost control of his bike. I wasn’t hurt at all. I was too padded out in leathers and a bright orange waterproof oversuit, so that I looked like the Michelin man.

        3. Two broken legs, six broken ribs, one broken collarbone and one broken ankle was my score after riding for 25 years before I packed it in and got a car.

        4. Similar story with one of my friends who used to ride a motorbike; he had to struggle to convince the surgeon not to amputate. He still has both his legs, but severe arthritis in his knee.

        1. Whew, only enough damage for him to learn to be careful in the future! Same thing happened to Firstborn with his monstrous 2.3 litre Triumph, a minor topple, but it learned him well that the bike needs treated with respect and care.

    4. SaH the Elder did the same on his CBT t’other month. He didn’t pass.
      The Younger has a couple of bikes cluttering up the yard which have been stopping me from getting my couple of bikes sorted out.
      One of the reasons I building the large shed up in the garden is to make space in the yard so I can get them done.
      It’ll also be used as a workshop to rebuild a couple of spare engines I’ve got. Nothing big, just a couple of Honda 125 twins.

  53. The separation of powers is vitally important; the failure to make a proper distinctions between the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Executive is becoming a cancer in our system of government.

    Here is a microcosm of this.

    One of the reasons that I left teaching in schools was that with the introduction of GCSE I was expected to judge my pupils’ work for their public examination. This presented me with a very clear conflict of interest. As a teacher I wanted my pupils to get the very best results; as a judge I had to be objective. Some teachers erred on the side of assessing their own examination candidates too harshly; others erred on the side of marking them too generously.

    I would always want to err on the side of the pupils whom I liked and for whom I wanted the best rather than on the side of a faceless and often stupid educational establishment.

    My job was to do my best for my pupils and to allow a disinterested marker to make the assessment of how good their work was.

    (It is disturbing how many people cannot understand the difference in meaning between ‘disinterested’ and ‘uninterested’.}

    .

    1. There is no law involved proroguing parliament it is purely a political decision if the judges find otherwise they are in my view dabbling in politics and not the law. Exactly what law would they claim is broken?

      1. A ploy the PM has in his back pocket. The Benn Act explains what they PM must do but since it cannot point to a crime if he fails to follow it means it is meaningless.

        Parliament cannot invent crimes – this is why the Benn act has no sanction if it is not followed. It can only say it is legal but can not explain why not following is illegal.

  54. Live Supreme Court hearing Sir John Major to compare Boris Johnson to a dishonest estate agent

    I hope Boris responds by describing Major as the

    Tucked-in Underpants Lothario with Currie on his face!

    2. Is this a supreme court with learned judges and barristers talking points of law? It sounds more like old timers whingeing over a cup if tea.

    3. and, of course, the man who prorogued Parliament to save himself from the embarrassment of a sleaze enquiry!! (Ooops – sorry Bill T, didn’t scroll down)

  55. My latest contribution to John Redwood’s Diary.
    I am of the opinion that being regularly ignored would disqualify anyone/anything from being described as a big player.

    Tory in Cumbria
    Posted September 19, 2019 at 5:22 am | Permalink

    The point is that it is all about power. The EU is big and has lots of it. The UK was a big player in the EU, and was regarded as powerful accordingly. Now the UK has decided to scuttle away, and it is treated accordingly – humiliated in the last week alone by the PMs of Ireland and Luxembourg. Mrs Thatcher didn’t LIKE the EU, but my god she knew about power and so she signed up to the Single European Act. Brexiters, by contrast, want to run away, sticking their fingers in their ears and their heads in their sand

    RAF
    Posted September 19, 2019 at 7:16 am | Permalink

    “The point is that it is all about power. The EU is big and has lots of it.

    The UK was a big player payer in the EU…”

    Fixed it for you.

    1. It does show the lack of intelligence / imagination of those trolls on the left of politics. Calling themselves “Tory in Cumbria” as if that proves they are right wing. Ahh, these children…

      We had one who was using many different accounts on one site in an attempt to make his views seem more widespread. Alas, he was also not very bright and kept forgetting which account he was using at the time. He had one called “BlueRinseConservative” and made 3 highly questionable comments whilst claiming to be pro-Brexit through and through. Later he typed a comment in haste using the same name, proclaiming that only Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party could save Britain.

      These people are as dumb as rocks.

    2. TiC misses out that we’ve never been regarded as powerful in the EU; all they’ve wanted us for was our money. Every time we’ve tried to do anything to reform it, we’ve been defeated. Our share of influence has dwindled from 1/8th to 1/27th.

    1. “I am acutely aware that my comments in the recent Radio 4 interview caused offence, and I reiterate my sincere apologies. Whilst I have had many very good interviews, on this occasion I totally lost the thread of what I was saying, which was interpreted in ways that I certainly did not intend or believe about the people of North Devon.”

      -Kirsten Johnson, the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for North Devon.

      She means that she said exactly what she believed and real people find her views repellent. She is a Liberal Democrat so she will be accustomed to that. The problem for her was that it was for an interview and was recorded. Welcome to the real world outside of your Westminster playpen.

  57. Note the constant drip, drip ‘Boris is a liar in the Supreme Court.

    Classic NLP – keep putting people up reciting the same phrase ‘Boris is a liar’ after two days of it even the best of us are subtly influenced by what is in effect a brainwashing method.

    The Judges should have stamped down on it and told them to either provide evidence he lied to the Queen or shut the f**k up.

    2. Bet the Court(room) is stuffed with people for whom the most important principle is their Principal.

    3. Even suggesting that the Queen might be gullible enough to believe a lie told to her by her own PM is disrespectful / treasonous.

        1. Do excuse me I’ve seen your comment on disqus
          about the commenting problems . I’m having
          them too. The disqus forum view to comments
          seems to be broken. If you try and get to sites
          via the disqus forums ( blue links ) you cannot
          If you press view in discussion it’s blank.
          You can only get to sites via home pages .
          You cannot even edit posts via the disqus homepage.
          But it’s not a problem for everyone which I don’t understand.

          1. I thought it might be “updating” their website to exclude dinosaurs like me who will use decent operating systems such as XP and Snow Leopard and the last browsers that support them.

            I had the same problem (blank screen after clicking on a link) with online banking, and for a couple of weeks, I have had the same automated platitudes coming from the bank’s customer service unit somewhere in India, with the same message signed each time by a different Indian, advising me to use their telephone helpline at standard network rates and spend 40 minutes listening to platitudes until giving up.

            The online banking did work on Firefox 52 on XP, but for obvious reasons I didn’t hang about until some hacker probed my laptop. It won’t work on Firefox 45 on Snow Leopard. Google won’t even let me download a version of Chrome that works.

            Trying Disqus through FF52/XP, I still got the blank screen, so I think it is rather more serious. Probably incompetent coding from web developers more knowledgeable about style and what’s trending than they are any good at coding. It could be Disqus deliberately discouraging people from approaching their servers direct, since they have a policy of closing down channels and passing all responsibility for content over to the third party sites.

        2. Yes, and he probably did lie to the Queen, nobody publicly accused him of it though, not that I recall anyway

    4. Boris is a liar??
      What does that make all the Remainer MPs who voted for the referendum, party manifesto article 50, etc, and then have done everything in their power to stop Brexit??

      1. And Cameron who not only said (in the Chatham House speech), but wrote in the propaganda leaflet that it was our decision (not Parliament’s, not MPs, he added in CH) and the government would implement what we decided.

      2. And Cameron who not only said (in the Chatham House speech), but wrote in the propaganda leaflet that it was our decision (not Parliament’s, not MPs, he added in CH) and the government would implement what we decided.

  58. God it has gone mad over here. Pictures of boy PM blacked up for a fancy dress do have
    been the only topic on the news channel since the first picture was published.

    All of the other hypocritical leaders are falling over each other calling Trudeau a hypocrite. The NDP leader (imagine a Sikh Corbyn) was sobbing during his condemnation of the boy PM, calling for youth who were upset by the images to not give up on Canada. There are now serious calls for his resignation.

    I guess that is what you get when you are into virtue sind have your lackeys plumb the backgrounds of opponents to find past actions that breach todays PC snowflake standards. I hope that all of the future politicians are learning from this shīť§tóřm and are living by the social conventions of 2040 with everything they do today

    And Boris thinks that he has problems?

      2. He is not called Mr Dressup for nothing.

        Trouble is that the Tories elected the least charismatic leader possible, we are very limited on choice.

    2. It’s about time a few of these wazzocks had the courage to state that what they were doing at the time was “normal” for the time. In tis case it was merely a fancy dress party. However, I must admit I get a great deal of pleasure seeing them called out

      When the penny finally drops about “gender” and the dystopian Rikard O’Tetes and Sinead Vaginofaeces have been proven to have done irreparable harm to far too many children, will all those Politicians who promoted and supported the new wave be persecuted by trolls hunting back through decades of social media? (I do hope so)

        1. Quite.
          If only there were a few with the courage to say:
          “It’s in the past, if you’ve got a problem with that, go to wherever it is you are complaining about and sort out today’s problems.

    3. What is the difference between a very dark face for fancy dress party and a deep tan that everyone seems to desire?

      WHY do people want to tan their bodies to such a horrible colours?

      Is having a tan a sign of affluence, but to be shades darker a sign of poverty , i just don’t get it.

      2. Good afternoon Lovely Verity

        We do hope hubby is OK after motor bike incident. Our older boy, Christo, kept having accidents on his bikes but now he gets his adrenelin rushes from hang-gliding.

        Jetemy Taylor’s best known S, African song was Ag Pleez Deddy but you you remember his Black-White Calypso? Here are the lyrics:

        The other day reading Drum magazine
        I’ll tell you some of the things I seen
        The other day reading Drum magazine
        I’ll tell you some of the things I seen
        Advertisements for special cream in every section
        Give you a soft and pale complexion
        Make your black skin lighter creamier and whiter
        But when I look in the Star what do I find
        But advertisements of a different kind
        Because it seems that the white people have a notion
        To make them selves black with the Sun Tan Lotion

        Tell me, tell me, tell me why I want to know the fact
        Why all the black people want to go white
        And the white people want to go black.

        Turning the pages of Zonk I see
        A special tonic, which guarantee
        Turning the pages of Zonk I see
        A special tonic, which guarantee
        To make your curly hair straight
        And bring you success on every date
        Misfortune in love is attributed there
        To having such coal black curly hair
        But when I pass by the Rosebank Beauty Parlour
        I see the women sitting there hour after hour
        With a great big thing on their head
        trying to make their straight hair curly instead
        Ain’t it ridiculous!

        Tell me, tell me, tell me why I want to know the fact
        Why all the black people want to go white
        And and the white people want to go black.

        Now the other day the native girl she say to me
        Au! Master, your madam she is very skinny
        She say she also is much too thin
        She must have some fattening vitamin
        She say that it’s a fact that
        All the men like her bottom to be fat
        But in the northern suburbs the women are used
        To living on lettuce and orange juice
        To be slim is their preoccupation
        My god, what a crazy nation – this is so

        Tell me, tell me, tell me why I want to know the fact
        Why all the black people want to go white
        And the white people want to go black.

        I have a simple remedy
        For all this frustrated energy
        I have a simple remedy
        For all this frustrated energy
        If you blacks have too much of this pigment stuff
        And the white people say you’ve not got enough
        Don’t waste your time buying creams and jellies
        Trying to change the colour of your bellies
        but follow the example of my brother
        He married a black girl, they love each other
        And she gives him a little bit of black in the night
        And he gives her a little bit of white
        That’s the solution!

        Now I, now I, I know why I can tell you the fact
        Why all the black people want to go white
        And the white people want to go black.

        1. Good afternoon Richard

          Moh is aching a bit , but will thankfully be able to swing a golf club tomorrow.

          Boys toys eh?

          Your amusing songs / ditties are light relief and a nice distraction . Thank you .

      3. Having a deep tan means you have the means and the leisure to go to hot climes and laze around. In the days when the lower orders toiled in the fields (and thus were deeply tanned), having a milk-white complexion was the desirable condition.

  59. Brexit – a brief history (most popular BTL comment on Strasbourg-BXP article):

    ALTO SAX 18 Sep 2019 5:17PM
    Good on them & all power to their elbow!

    If a fully, informed & honest account of – How the British Nation was Robbed of it’s 2016 Referendum & thereby Nation Statehood & Sovereignty! – It would come as little surprise to many!

    The FACTS of what Parliament has Perpetrated upon us:-

    * Voted 6 to 1 to give us a referendum – Assuring us the result would be enacted!

    * We voted to LEAVE, in the biggest vote in British history!

    * In the 2017 general election some 83% (Labour & Tory) MP’s were returned on manifestos stating they would honour the result of that referendum.

    Both Leave & Remain camps told us in the run up to the referendum meant LEAVING – The Customs Union – The Single Market – The Jurisdiction of the EU Courts, etc. ect. etc.!

    * Voted 77% to trigger Article 50!

    The ensuing Pantomime we have been subjected to, over the last three years – The Spin, Weasel-Words, Revisionism & Lies – Has no justification whatsoever!

    * This was followed by the resignation of Cameron to be replaced by the remainer May!

    * She decided to hold a general election – Where she went into a huddle with two advisor’s to produce a manifesto including the reinstatement of ‘Fox-Hunting’, was that of any significance at such a critical time?

    * Her performance in the election was so abysmal she turned a 24% poll advantage to a loss.

    * She then committed one of the greatest subterfuge’s ever perpetrated in modern political history.

    * Because while she was stating firm leave absolutes to the Public eg. – ‘Leave means Leave’ – ‘Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed’ – ‘No Deal is better than a Bad Deal’ – ‘We will be leaving on the 29/3/2019’, etc. etc.etc!

    * She was in fact capitulating to all of the EU’s demands!

    * This subterfuge was carried out over an inordinately protracted time period – Where not only the public but the cabinet claimed to know little if anything that was really going on. Why didn’t the cabinet especially the Foreign Minister Johnson & Brexit Minister Davis, make it their business to know what May was up to?

    * Having completed her capitulation, May spent months & months playing out time, with the express reason, she wanted to leave it to the last possible moment to present her ridiculous treaty, knowing just how unpalatable this WA would be!

    * Throughout these 2/2.5 years the forces of Anti-Brexit were give more than enough time to mount their ‘Destruction of the referendum vote’. All the opposition parties & many Tories have now been proven to be totally against our leaving the EU! Their assault were multifaceted including :-

    * Throughout the supposed negotiations with May – We saw the opposition leaders popping over to pay court at Barniers feet, at regular intervals, for what we can never be sure!

    * Numerous characters got themselves involved with this destruction :-

    * Multiple $Billionaire Soros, sponsored Blair & Miller who were all involved with ‘Best for Britain’!

    * Many former politicians, the majority failures – Blair, Brown, Mandelson, Kinnock, Campbell, Major, Heseltine, Clarke. Many of these characters are directly involved with Globalist Organisations, such as the Bilderberg, Fabian’s & unknown!

    * The political bias intervention of the Speaker!

    * The publicly funded newscaster The BBC – Have spent the last three years almost entirely dedicated to trawling every negative aspect of us leaving the EU & propagandising ‘Projects Fear Mk 1 to n’!

    * The entire UK Establishment, doing much the same – Politicians, Commons & Lords, Civil Service, Judiciary & the majority of the TV & MSM!

    * And of course the EU Elite & entrails. There are many rumours about the conclusion between all the above, to confound, confuse & deprive the British Public of their record Referendum!

    One day we will undoubtedly hear the full truth behind the Gross Skulduggery surrounding this whole secretive & shameful episode – As ruthlessly intriguing as a John le Carré novel – BUT TRUE!

    1. I think the basic truth behind the ”Gross Skulldugery” is already out with just a few gaps to fill in as time evolves.

      1. The truth doesn’t get many uncovered (or unaccompanied) outings with our RemainStream Broadcasters.

        1. ‘Is there any other point to which you wish to draw my attention, Mr Holmes ?’
          ‘To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, Inspector Gregory.’
          ‘The dog did nothing in the night-time, Mr Holmes’
          ‘That, Inspector Gregory, is the curious incident.’

    2. Afternoon LD,
      To my mind moggie has always been playing a may
      attack / defence part erring mainly defence, right to the wire.
      As for the 22 committee they stood and applauded her on one of her returns.
      On the 25 / 6 / 2016 the cries of victory is ours, job done,
      leave it to the tories now rings very hollow.
      It was not as if we were not forewarned after 6 years of the cameron ( the wretch) & may combo.

  60. The latest from the BBC –

    ” Brexit: UK shares confidential documents with EU”

    “Technical talks are taking place ” – namely-

    “The technical discussions were on some aspects of rules relating to

    customs and manufactured goods, as well as sanitary rules and

    phytosanitary rules – which relate to the health of plants ”

    Progress is being made !! More important than the illusory backstop, the health of plants is being looked after.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49753413

    1. Tony, May promised the Brussels’ cabal the UK on a plate for them to do with it whatever their black hearts desired. Is the EU, with the UK almost within their grasp, going to just let the Backstop and the many other controls ceded to them by May fall away? I think that is very unlikely and any “deal” they offer will remain full of traps and expense for the UK taxpayers. Johnson is desperate to get a “deal” and he will likely, as May did, try and sell the electorate another pup.
      He is currently doing the rounds trying to sell his hard man image to bolster his ratings before he reveals his true intent: will it be lipstick on May’s WA, a completely revamped “deal” without all the traps or a WTO Brexit. Only the last option will guarantee him a decent legacy and the first will likely destroy him and his party.

      1. He could well make a deal of any kind that they will, as before, vote down from sheer bloody mindedness.

      2. And Boris was the one who started off with the: they are going to have to come here to negotiate, stance. That didn’t last long…

  61. I linked Nigel Farage’s European Parliament speech to John Redwood and the list of 226 ”reliable allies”.

    I have the impression that he hadn’t seen these before.

    1. With her attitudes she should join the LibDems she’d fit right in there…

      Ah, I see her problem….

    1. I’m minded of Groucho Marx’s famous quip: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”

  65. I see Mogg is telling people to abandon The Brexit Party and vote Conservative at the next election.

    Despite his giant brane, he seems not to have noticed that we were urged to do this in 2016 – and virtually all Tory MPs reneged on their own promises, their party’s manifesto – and then changed sides to vote against the wishes of their constituents. Several left the party but did not have the decency to invoke a by-election.

    Mr Mogg – they will do the same thing again.

    That is why I will never vote Conservative again.

    1. “In string theory and related theories such as supergravity theories, a brane is a physical object that generalizes the notion of a point particle to higher dimensions. Branes are dynamical objects which can propagate through spacetime according to the rules of quantum mechanics.”

      2. I’m finding the choices are decreasing rapidly. I decided to never vote Lib-Lab-Con after the expenses scandal. I would no longer consider voting green, though did so once many years ago. More recently I’ve voted UKIP, but in view of the internal chaos of that party I don’t feel happy considering them even as a protest vote. I feel v suspicious of the Brexit Party, though seeing what UKIP is doing to itself now, maybe Farage was justified in abandoning it. That doesn’t leave much choice – I might now be limited to independents and Monster Raving Loony Party (policy
        B. BRITAIN will exit Europe and join the Duchy of Cornwall to benefit from tax exemptions), which is at least pro-Brexit and better than the Chief Druid, who has been the independent in our constituency in previous elections but is too left wing & remain to consider. Whatever I end up voting, I know it will be nothing more than a protest vote that is in effect saying ‘none of the above’.

        1. I don’t care what the Brexit Party are or aren’t, as long as they, or their influence, get us OUT of the EU. No WA, no conditions, just clean out.

          We can always vote them out later if we want, but getting out of the EU without any strings is our first priority.

          1. If I thought the Brexit Party had any hope of ousting the Conservative from his safe seat I’d certainly consider voting for them but I think it’s very unlikely to happen.

            What I don’t understand is why people are willing to support Nigel Farage leading the Brexit Party but not leading UKIP. What is the significant difference that has allowed people to change their voting habits?

          2. UKIP got too close to one of the real causes of Britain’s continuing plummet to the bottom, Islam. Nigel Farage realises that this is a sacred cow too far and just goes for the ‘purist’ Brexit.

          3. Nigel, for all his pretence of being a radical, is too wedded to the conventional wisdom (criticism of islam = racism). UKIP should be lauded for having the courage to stick its head above the parapet and name the problem. We changed the debate on immigration, we ought to change the debate on islam.

        2. In my view, cynarch, what is happening to UKIP currently has its roots in Nigel’s running of it. He is not a team player and he is a notoriously bad judge of character. That led to poor choices in terms of leadership successors (he backed Bolton, for instance) and failure to nurture a team at the top.

  66. I’ve never found Laura K quite as irksome or biased as some on here, although that facial tic is rather distracting, but it’s good to see the tolerant Left revealing its true nature. And Lammy is always good for laugh.

    The Left’s bitter attack on Laura Kuenssberg for doing her job is baffling

    CHARLOTTE GILL

    In spite of their ongoing clashes over Brexit, one thing many Leavers and Remainers have in common is an appreciation of the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg. With her unfailing ability to keep on track of complicated developments, dynamism and courageous questioning, she has become something of a national treasure. But all that changed yesterday when she reported…the news.

    Specifically, Kuenssberg had been covering Boris Johnson’s trip to a hospital. While he was there he’d been confronted by a man who’d been looking after his seven-day old daughter. Clearly in the midst of a terrible family crisis, he launched into the Prime Minister, suggesting the NHS had “been destroyed”. Johnson appeared flummoxed as to how to respond. Later it was revealed that this individual, Omar Salem, was a Labour activist, who’d Tweeted about the event, saying he gave Johnson “a piece of [his] mind”.

    Kuenssberg Retweeted this, writing “This is him here”, and mentioned his political affiliations on a thread. Fairly uncontroversial stuff, you might think. But almost immediately she was met with an avalanche of criticism from Twitter users, many of whom appeared to share Left-wing views.

    They were angry at her for identifying the man – even though he had identified himself. At the time of writing, over eleven thousand Twitter users had commented on her post, and #sacklaurakuenssberg was trending.

    The thread is full of disgusting Tweets. One user describes Kuenssberg’s behaviour as “unacceptable”. How exactly? Another writes “You should be sacked, but instead you’ll be promoted as a fascist government propaganda mouth piece.” A Labour councillor suggests her “behaviour on social media… has been appalling”. But Kuenssberg has done nothing wrong, and the man’s political activism matters to the story.

    Many said her Tweet was a “dogwhistle”, yet they’re the ones trying to intimidate her into silence. Some of the attacks simply look sexist; when Paul Brand of ITV Tweeted about Salem’s politics, there were not mass calls for him to be sacked.

    It’s not the first time this week that Kuenssberg’s journalism has been called into question. Labour MP David Lammy denounced her when she reported on Boris Johnson’s failed press conference in Luxembourg, saying “it would have been total pandemonium if it had gone ahead”, due to the noise. “Is it the job of the BBC Political Editor to play apologist to Boris Johnson?” Lammy wrote, as if she was biased simply for saying Luxembourg was loud, as anyone watching the television could hear.

    The reaction to Kuenssberg shows nothing other than the current toxicity of the Labour Party. Plagued with anti-semitism and deranged Marxists who never grew up from their student days, it has become a collective of dangerous children. The seriousness of its problems was obvious in 2017 when Kuenssberg had to be accompanied by bodyguards to the Labour Party Conference.

    Through either desperation for votes or cowardice, Corbyn has never cleaned up Labour’s act, allowing it to become a demonic cult, culminating in press attacks. Too often the Right is blamed for eroding trust in the media, but what of these deranged activists on Twitter? Their feelings don’t care about news reporters’ facts.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/09/19/lefts-bitter-attack-laura-kuenssberg-job-baffling/

    https://twitter.com/Rachael_Swindon/status/1174594167273639936
    https://twitter.com/ace_love/status/1174345345406574595
    https://twitter.com/JohnEdwards33/status/1174449663447113728
    https://twitter.com/DavidLammy/status/1173646862894735360

    1. I don’t care for Laura K much, but she is courageous and it appears she upsets people from both sides, so I guess she’s fair.

    2. The Left Wing clearly have a rabid aversion to “realfacts” instead of “goodfacts” being reported. On the bright side, the more that they react in this way the easier it is to see the bitter hatred that fills their lives.

  67. The Lib Dems have revealed the extreme side of modern liberalism, Rod Liddle. 21 September 2019.

    One of those slack-jawed halfwits is Kirsten Johnson, the Lib Dem candidate for North Devon. Asked on the BBC’s The World This Weekend to explain why such a large proportion of her constituency voted Leave, she reeled off the rote-learned liberal shibboleths: ‘Demographically it’s 98 per cent white. We don’t have a lot of ethnic minorities living in North Devon. People aren’t exposed to people from other countries. They don’t travela lot…’ She then directly linked voting Leave with ‘the rise of hate crimes’.

    This interview has since been described as a car crash because Johnson seemed so magnificently thick, like a block of Davidstow cheddar cheese with a perpetually yapping mouth. But she was only voicing the opinion that lies behind the extremist Remain agenda: Leave voters are xenophobic, racist and unworldly. A rather more robust approach to the Leavers was taken by another Lib Dem candidate, Galen Milne, who was standing in Banff and Buchan. Galen suggested that prominent Leavers, including the Prime Minister, should be ‘hung, drawn and quartered’ and then have their divided cadavers flown to the four corners of the UK, where they would be burned. The Lib Dems have since sacked the bloke. And yet in those two comments, from Galen and Johnson, you saw the true face of modern liberalism: an utter contempt for those who disagree with them, a hatred and complete intolerance for those who have different views. And those different views can be explained by a series of lies (they never go abroad), racism (they’re all white) and non sequiturs.

    She’s not the only one! Andrew Neil had another one on his show last night by the name of Layla Moran whose grasp of reality was tenuous at best. Arguing with these people would be useless since reason and logic is no longer in their repertoire. The nutters have taken over the asylum or at least the LibDems!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/09/the-lib-dems-have-revealed-the-extreme-side-of-modern-liberalism/

  68. I’ve found the EU’s Achilles Heel: straightforward questions about Brexit. BEN HABIB. 19 SEPTEMBER 2019.

    I stood for election as an MEP for one reason – to use that position, as best I can, to give effect to Brexit. A three-hour debate in the EU Parliament on the subject should have been an ideal opportunity for me to make my case. But things are anything but normal in the European Parliament (EP).

    Those familiar with EP proceedings would know that there is no such thing as a genuine debate. Their format involves a series of speeches, most no more than a minute long, with close to no cross-examination and no free-flowing debate.

    Any debate would be pointless as the EU Parliament has no power to change anything! That is the prerogative of the Executive. It is merely a rubber stamp for decisions made elsewhere!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/09/19/found-eus-achilles-heel-straightforward-questions-brexit/

  69. Brexit = Cheaper Beer at Wetherspoon’s AND Cheaper clothes/household furnishings at Next:

    he boss of Next has insisted the retailer will cut prices by about 2pc if the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal as he unveiled higher half-year profits.

    Chief executive Lord Wolfson – an outspoken Brexiteer – said the Government’s temporary tariff regime meant a no-deal Brexit would be likely to reduce the fashion and home furnishing chain’s import duty costs by about £25m, which it would pass on to customers.

    He revealed these cuts would probably be seen in shops from January onwards if the UK left in a cliff-edge withdrawal on October 31, although he stressed he would rather a deal was secured.

    He said: “Britain is in a much better place today than it was in the run-up to the March deadline.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/09/19/next-boss-lord-wolfson-says-retailer-will-cut-prices-no-deal/

      2. Blame the Telegraph. The half year report says “In the event of a no-deal Brexit the UK’s
        tariffs on clothing will fall under the Government’s new temporary
        tariff regime…” The phrase “crashes out” is nowhere to be seen, same with “cliff-edge”.

  71. Air raid sirens tested across Saudi capital as country prepares for conflict escalation with Iran. 19 SEPTEMBER 2019.

    Air raid sirens were tested across the Saudi Arabian capital for the first time on Thursday as the country prepared for a possible escalation with Iran after a weekend attack on its oil fields raised the stakes in the conflict.

    So they’ve decided on War? Time to stock up the pantry and fridge!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/19/air-raid-sirens-tested-across-saudi-capital-country-prepares/

    1. The only problem with the Saudis and Iranians having a go at one another (oil supplies aside) is that even if they use nukes, there’ll be survivors heading for Europe.

      1. They can go back, then. And hopefully we can reopen our coal mines and start fracking. (Wonder what the Greens will say when they have no power?)

  72. The disqus view of comments seems to be still
    broken, you can get to sites via new homepages but
    not the blue disqus view of comments.
    If you press any buttons it’s muddled codes and blank spaces,
    but it’s not affecting everyone which is somewhat odd.

    1. I am being let in but if I try to reply to a comment I’m told I have to verify sender and email – although I am given no way of doing that, so I have to close down and reopen, which means I have lost my reply (if I’ve made one) or uptick. Frustrating.

      1. That happened a few days ago to me, it’s very much a
        Disqus problem.
        To prove a point, i just typed in The Conservative Woman disqus
        and i pressed view discussion and it was blank.
        But if I pressed their other method ( their homepage then I can
        get there ) it’s very annoying.

      2. I’ve had that happen a couple of times – just click on the x at the end of the message – it goes away and you can carry on. Hasn’t happened for quite a time.

        Like Rik, I’ve been using Firefox since we’ve been on this site; it works OK and I keep Chrome for everything else.

    2. Faked.
      Anderson, John (November 8, 2012). “‘Lunch Atop a Skyscraper’ Uncovered”. The New York Times.

    3. I don’t know if everyone else does this, but if I find a picture that I like online then I save it to my hard-drive and when I want to include it in a message I click the “picture” icon next to the GIF one and just drag the picture from my hard-drive into the comments box. I have experienced no problems doing it that way and assumed that was how it was meant to be done.

      Unless it is a music file, then I just copy the youtube address from the top bar and paste it into the comment box.

    4. Friday’s Fish and Chips again.(Amended version).
      Only thing wrong is one of the guys appears to be smoking. Against advertising standards rules.

  74. In Bournville – for the first time in many years – I cannot recall seeing a single swallow this summer.

    Yesterday, sitting on the terrace here in south-central Poland, several yards above our large lawn and the fields beyond (also our land) in the late afternoon, we were suddenly “subjected to”, but this was no imposition, a succession of swirling and swooping swallows. They were flying low over the lawns and several times came within a few feet of my head. I presume they are gathering pre-migration and I’m not sure if those in Poland also go to Africa. Anyway, it was great to witness here as autumn begins to show its first cold mitts here.

  75. I am deeply encouraged by ads

    “Prepare for Brexit on 31st October”
    Running on ITV
    Make it so……….

  76. The ugly truth about the new South Africa. Spiked . Moses Dube. 19th September 2019.

    Most people will not know that over the past few weeks, in two of the three metropolitan areas of Gauteng (Tshwane and Johannesburg), Africans from countries outside of South Africa have been violently assaulted. Their businesses and possessions have been looted. Many have been displaced from their homes. Foreign truck drivers have been attacked and their trucks set alight. This is part of a campaign by the All Truck Drivers Foundation to ‘get rid of foreign truck drivers’ and ensure that only South Africans are employed.

    Nonsense. Black Africa is the home of Diversity and Tolerance. It’s only White men who are racist, anti-immigrant thugs!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/09/19/the-ugly-truth-about-the-new-south-africa/

    1. How strange,in this entire rant there is not a single mention of the atrocities against White Farmers
      But then they aren’t Blacks so they deserve everything they get
      Just another partial racist Black writer

    2. Let the blacks get on with it. As long as they target each other. (Which it appears they have spent most of the past centuries doing anyway.)

      Edit: they will soon know what nasty imperialism is once the Chinese have taken over in Africa. And nobody – but nobody – from Africa who claims slavery should be able to come here. Ever.

  77. That’s me for the day. Another couple “viewing” tomorrow… English. I wonder what their excuse for not buying the house they will describe as wonderful will be.

    TTFN A demain.

      1. The last lot said that. I wasn’t here – otherwise I would have asked them why they were wasting my time and the agents’.

          1. Not always.
            People don’t like to be rude and say they don’t like your decor, or whatever. It simply may not meet some people’s specific requirements.
            And some people are just very, very hard to please.

          2. I am a member of a number of architectural history groups. On visits to historic houses with Suffolk Historic Buildings Group I notice that a number of the party are simply looking for design ideas by gaining access to other people’s properties.

            They have no particular interest in the subject of oak framing or for that matter the development of the English House, the primary purpose of such visits.

            When putting any house on the market you will find inquisitive people masquerading as potential buyers but with no intention of making an offer.

        2. Happily, although you are inside the rigid Eurozone, where one (exchange) rate must apply to all, you still have available some flexibility to attract a final buyer.

          1. My gut feeling is that we’ll sell – at a much lower price – to the French lady who lives 200 yards away (and is dying to have the place) – next summer.

          2. Just a thought.

            Free accommodation for you both for a few weeks a year as part of the deal?
            Might be hard to enforce and she might well be willing to put you up anyway.

    1. With the technology available to us today, what are ” unidentified aircraft ” ?
      Come off it, everybody knows where everybody and everything is, these days.
      Try driving at 34 m.p.h. in a 30 zone.

    2. We must NOT GET INVOLVED. Let them do what comes naturally, but don’t involve us.

      No doubt this is what stopping our own reserves of coal gas etc. has been leading to. The Greens, as usual, simply being “useful idiots”.

  81. Darn it!

    Something went wrong while trying to load this feed. Try again in a little while.

    Please visit Discuss Disqus to learn more.

  82. The new aircraft carrier “the Prince of Wales” has got ready for a sail for the first time, leaving dock in Rosyth today to sit in harbour until trials begin later.
    “The UK government minister for defence procurement, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, said the new carriers gave Britain a “world-leading capability”.
    She said the new aircraft carrier was “effectively a floating airfield…”
    Well, at least someone in the Government knows what’s what!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-49727151

  83. Gosh, Brits behaving like hooligans in Europe again, now the footie’s started:

    They’re smart, the Brexit Party. To the untrained eye, their behaviour in the European Parliament today might have looked boorish and mindless. Personally, though, I’m convinced it was all part of a cunning plan.

    Namely: to make the EU so heartily sick of us that they reject any request to delay Brexit, and just kick us out, instead.

    It might well work, too. Plenty in the EU seem to have already lost patience with Brexit – strikingly few MEPs turned up for today’s four-hour debate on it in Strasbourg. And of those who did turn up, many sounded deeply long-suffering. “We have once more gathered to discuss the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union,” sighed Finland’s Tytti Tuppurainen. The Brexit Party cheered.

    Normally, unlike the House of Commons, the European Parliament is a staid, sedate sort of place. But not when Nigel Farage and co are in town. Throughout today’s debate, they lustily cheered every warning about a no-deal Brexit, and were admonished again and again by the debate’s increasingly weary chair for jeering and catcalling during other people’s speeches. One of them shouted “How’s your wallet?” at a Scottish MEP. Mr Farage let loose a blistering tirade about “the pipsqueak prime minister of Luxembourg”. Martin Daubney, the former lads’ mag editor, likened Belgium’s Guy Verhofstadt to Darth Vader and the European Parliament to the Death Star, before shouting the obligatory reference to the Second World War, and then hooting that absent MEPs “must be in the bar having croissants”. His colleagues roared with glee.

    They, at any rate, seemed to be having the time of their lives. Some of their European counterparts, by contrast, looked thoroughly traumatised. It was as if they’d been confronted by a coach-load of English football fans from the 1980s, hurling plastic chairs through trattoria windows, throwing up in public fountains, and chanting “Two World Wars and one World Cup” with their tops off.

    Jean-Claude Juncker, at least, appeared unfazed. “These are my best friends and groupies,” beamed the president of the European Commission, in response to the Brexit Party’s tireless heckling of him. “Don’t be surprised that they are shouting.”

    Other MEPs, however, were clearly riled. “At the moment, it is not the UK that is leaving the EU, but jobs and business that is leaving the UK!” snapped Germany’s Manfred Weber. Nicola Beer, another German MEP, congratulated “our colleagues in the British Parliament on their determination to put their prime minister in his place”. Guy Verhofstadt, meanwhile, referred to Brexiteers as “euro-septics”, and declared that “the European project” was now “more popular” on the continent, thanks to the mess Britain was making of Brexit.

    You can imagine how well this claim went down with the Brexit Party. To be fair, though, they weren’t the only British MEPs making a scene.

    “My view is simple,” murmured Chris Davies, a demure-looking Lib Dem – before yelling, at the absolute top of his lungs, “B——- TO BREXIT!”

    They’ll miss us when we’re gone.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/09/18/nigel-farage-brexit-party-just-wreaked-havoc-strasbourg-left/

    1. Not true, Manfred – except for those that relocated with the aid of our money in the shape of EU “grants”. They’ll miss our money when we’re gone.

    3. No Prime Minister faced with the options of a clean WTO-deal break from the European Union, or signing us up to that prison sentence of their Withdrawal Agreement, could possibly choose the latter. It leaves us in a worse position with the EU than we are now. Our membership payments would stop but the EU would decide how much we paid each year for “outstanding commitments” and we cannot say no. We will also be subject to any new laws that they pass without being to say no either.

      A clean Brexit on the other hand sets us free to trade with the rest of the world, gives us control of our laws and allows us to get control of our immigration problems again. The choice between the two options is utterly obvious if you want what is best for the United Kingdom.

      Boris knows this and can choose which path to take. So if he does come back with that disastrous W/A then he was working for the EU all along and lying to us all about ever wanting to Leave. Just as Theresa May did. One month from now that EU meeting will be over and we will know. If he is on the “Dark Side” then they can only hold us until 2022 at the most. It will cost our nation a fortune if the Euro collapses during that time and we are still liable for their debts.

      2022 is the limit. I doubt that he will want an early general election with the sound of that prison door slamming shut on this country still ringing in our ears.

  87. Re the problems with Disqus, it’s stopped me posting comments a couple of times, asking me to log in when I already am, but a second click on the “post” link works.
    What is definitely not working is when you going to previous comments and upticks (ok) clicking on “view in discussion” takes me to a new screen but no comments at all.
    Can’t see any comments on the Speccie blog site. Again, a blank screen, no comments.

        2. No; very much Mummy’s boy. He used to accompany his Mum on weekly shopping trips to Manhattan – on the Canadian Government’s Citation II aircraft. I have travelled on the same aircraft to attend meetings in Churchill re mining …

  89. I think Mr Redwood is interested in Nigel Farage’s famous speech…. and the list of 226 ”reliable allies”….. because both my posts are still ”awaiting moderation” and haven’t been deleted which by now they should have been, as they’re not the sort of thing he usually publishes.

  91. Thomas Cook ‘eyes last ditch business sale’ as it tries to stave off collapse

    Thomas Cook is thought to be rushing to organise a last-ditch sale of several of its businesses in a bid to avert its potential imminent collapse.
    The 178-year-old holiday giant has reportedly been holding emergency talks about a deal to hive off its Nordic airline and tour operating business units as it tries to raise cash.

  92. Stephen Barclay, Brexit secretary is reported by the Independent as saying the UK cannot meet the EU deadline for Brexit plan and needs another year , government says. Barclay surely cannot be serious.

    1. I wonder if Abdul will face the same sentnce as Darren Osborne, the Finsbury mosque man, who was also almost certainly mentally ill.

        1. I’ve always thought that that idiot, Osborne, was several bricks short of a load and was completely stitched up by a police force and establishment that was hoping for a “right-wing terrorist ” to give them free reign and to take the spotlight off the Islamic threat.

  94. Nice to see our kids in good hands:-

    ‘At this year’s TUC conference in Brighton, delegates voted to support the Global School Strike on 20 September and for all affiliated unions to show solidarity through a 30-minute work day campaign action to coincide with it.

    The National Education Union (NEU) is proud to be one of the unions that presented the motion. At our own conference this Easter, we passed policy which outlines the huge threat we face from climate change and ecological breakdown.

    Heads and principals will follow usual procedures and Government guidance in responding to any requests to authorise student absence, considering exceptional circumstances and ensuring liaison as necessary with parents/carers.

    While the NEU cannot support or call strike action on 20 September, we recognise that the young people we teach will face the biggest impact of climate change and that they have shown knowledge, courage and leadership in responding to the crisis.

    We know the importance of listening to young people and we ask our members and reps to turn words into action.

    Many members have already had meetings and met with school leadership teams to agree action on 20. These are lots of things that are already planned to coincide with the action. For instance, in Doncaster the council have asked schools to set off alarms to illustrate the climate emergency. Here are some ideas that you can use to organise action in your school:

    Get the whole school to take action for 30 minutes by demonstrating in the playground.

    Drop the curriculum for the day or part of it and teach environmental and ecological issues.

    Take an assembly on the climate emergency.

    Encourage meetings of student eco-committees.

    Organise a live link with protests taking place in city centres.

    Organise your own protest in the playground or at the school gates.

    Send a delegation to the climate change protests.

    Hold inset days with focus on climate and an opportunity for staff to attend protests.

    We ask all our members to support the 30-minute work day campaign action on 20 September’

    2. Here are some suggestions:

      Since all those cars being produced in the UK spew out CO2, why not have words with the Japanese and other foreign owners of UK car plants to see if they’d close them down or at least reduce their output. I’m sure that would go down a bomb with the National Education Union’s TUC colleagues.

      Perhaps they could also remove the passports of all children attending these protests and teachers supporting them to limit their travelling emissions.

      Finally, turn down the heating in all schools by at least one degree.

    3. How about they all volunteer to walk to school and back for a year,won’t they think of the planet!!
      No,thought not…………….
      That’s “different”

      1. They can’t possibly do that Rik. The dear little ones might be exposed to reality. The reality their parents created.

  95. This is the history our children should be taught. Brave men fighting on foreign soil to free foreigners from the very worst oppression. Giving their all for a decent humanitarian cause.
    They could do worse than learn about the likes of General Sir John Hackett, wounded multiple times, including at Arnhem, but always ready for a fight. Not the wishy-washy half-truths of slavery or watching the very worst of Britishness on display at the Lib/Dums conference earlier this week.

    https://twitter.com/BrianDavidHigg1/status/1174399663308443648

    1. Given that General the other day saying the forces should give up on petrol and diesel to encourage more young people to enlist, I dread to think what would happen if they actually had to take up arms in defence of the realm.

    2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/69df0da729f8b710d4084d95b8d11b064d21154709bec383a0c6b6e47bfc8159.jpg

      It is humbling the level of courage that men and women can display especially when their lives are on the line. I had not heard of this Indian Army Junior Officer before two days ago, when I was looking for a different piece of information and came across his death. Here is a cut down version of his actions:

      “Arun Khetarpal was born in Pune, Maharashtra on 14 October 1950. His father Brigadier M. L. Khetarpal was serving in the Indian Army and his family traced a long history of service. In June 1971, Khetarpal was commissioned to the 17 Poona Horse.

      At 0800 hours on 16 December, Pakistani 13 Lancers equipped with the then state of the art US made 50 ton Patton tanks launched the first of a series of attacks under the cover of a smokescreen. The defending squadron commander urgently called for reinforcements. Arun Khetarpal was stationed close by with his Centurion tank troop, and responded with alacrity, as did the rest of his regiment. The first attack was decimated by accurate gunnery.

      13 Lancers desperately launched two more squadron level attacks, but to no avail. Heavily outnumbered against Pakistani armour and infantry, the commander of the “B” Squadron called for urgent reinforcements. This call was taken up by 2nd Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal. He wheeled to meet the Pakistani armour and launched right into the Pakistani attack. With his troop he was able to run over the enemy advance with his tanks and even captured some of the enemy infantry and weapon crews at gunpoint. However, the commander of the second of his tanks was killed in this attack.

      Alone in charge, Khetarpal continued his attack on the enemy strongholds until he had overwhelmed the Pakistani positions. Emboldened by the success he pursued the retreating Pakistani troops and artillery gunning down a Pakistani tank in the process. However Pakistani forces regrouped and counterattacked. In the ensuing tank battle ten enemy tanks were hit and destroyed of which Khetarpal accounted for four.

      The skirmish however took its toll on the Lieutenant as he was hit by enemy fire, but instead of abandoning the tank he fought on destroying one final tank before he was finally overwhelmed by Capt. Khwaja Mohamad Naser. However, his actions had denied a vital breakthrough for Pakistani forces and instead put the Indians in a stronger position in the Shakargarh bulge. His final words over the radio to a superior officer who had ordered him to abandon his burning tank were, “No Sir, I will not abandon my tank. My gun is still working and I will get these bastards.”

      Then he set about destroying the remaining enemy tanks. The last enemy tank, which he shot, was barely 100 metres from his position. At this stage his tank received a second hit and he was mortally injured. The officer met his death denying the Pakistani Army the intended breakthrough. Khetarpal’s tank “Famagusta” was restored and is on display now. For his conspicuous gallantry in the face of the enemy, Khetarpal was honoured with the highest wartime gallantry medal, the Param Vir Chakra, posthumously. He was 21 years old.”

    2. My plan for retirement, Grizz. That, and:
      Leisure
      William Henry Davies, 1911

      What is this life if, full of care,
      We have no time to stand and stare.
      No time to stand beneath the boughs
      And stare as long as sheep or cows.
      No time to see, when woods we pass,
      Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
      No time to see, in broad daylight,
      Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
      No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
      And watch her feet, how they can dance.
      No time to wait till her mouth can
      Enrich that smile her eyes began.
      A poor life this if, full of care,
      We have no time to stand and stare.

      1. There are evenings here when I wander around the garden and my presence stops the insects making their usual racket, It’s just for a short while and then they all kick off again.

        For those few seconds it is so quiet here that one could imagine what it is like to be deaf; absolute silence.
        I love my oasis of calm.

        1. I have worked out where you live and have so far sold 150 tickets to Nottlers. That pays for three coaches. Expect us next Tuesday. Don’t forget to clean the leafs out the pool ! Don’t worry about providing food for us all. We have loads of Trombetti with us for you to Barbeque… :o)

      2. That’s long been a favourite of mine, Paul. It always reminds me of Walter Hagen’s advice when I read it:

        “You’re only here for a short visit, so don’t hurry, don’t worry, and remember to smell the flowers.”

          3. That would be the sting in the tail. Sorry, couldn’t resist.🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

          8. Just don’t fall into water; one drowned in the moat on Monday – he was just too far away for me to rescue and by the time he’d drifted close enough, it was too late.

      1. The bastards who pay my state pension once told me it was a ‘benefit’.

        I gave them both barrels as I explained that I’d paid into that fund for over 40 years!

        1. But it is a benefit.

          It is so low, compared with the rest of Europe’s pension schemes, that it benefits the exchequer.

          1. Other countries must invest it in pensions rather than spanking it away on people who don’t want to work.

            I heard a local food bank is going to have to go down to 3 days a week as it is giving out 8000 food packages a year.

            I’ve – for a short time – lived on welfare. With your mortgage paid it’s really not remotely difficult to live on the money the tax payer provides. I wanted to work though, so the job centre was pretty unable to help me.

          2. The whole system is out of kilter.

            When we drop “stuff” off at the Red Cross or Sally Ally I am always surprised by how much is there, and also by the people picking through what’s on offer. I’m convinced that a lot of it ends up on stalls in the market and jumble sales.

            If it’s free I’ll take two, seems to be the philosophy.

    5. Sounds ideal. Soon, with the mortgage paid off and a little place to rent out we could live simply and away from it all, working perhaps 3-4 months of the year and earning more than enough to survive.

      Certainly when the house is paid for I’m going to contract.

    6. ‘Evening, George, glad you’ve found your way back through the outrageous slings and arrows of outrageous disqus and WordPress.. Just KBO, old chap, KBO.

    1. When I first heard of this I immediately thought of ‘1984’, in which children snooped on their parents.

    2. “confidential information about a young person could be disclosed to a
      “wide range of public authorities without either the child or young
      person or her parents being aware”
      We are all female now.

  98. The markets are obviously not affected one way or the other by the Brexit shennanigans –

    1GBP =1USD 1.25341

    Some collapse !!

  99. Breaking news suggests that Trudeau is in the mire, deep over his head, wallowing in rainbow coloured shít and being sprayed with tanning lotion and brown boot polish.

    Oh dear, what a shame, couldn’t have happened to a more deserving individual.

    Ha ha ha, deep breath HA HA HA.

  100. Off topic, but following on from an earlier thought.

    Reincarnation;

    What would you like to come back as?

    I’ll start the ball rolling.

    I’d like to be the one who assassinated Tony Blair and gets away with it.

      1. The choice is yours, what or who.
        You might like to come back as a twát, unchanged.
        As to the cat, you’re probably right.

    6. Like you I would want to do some good for the World; perhaps find a method that would cure the urge in certain people to procreate endlessly.

      1. In the 1st world that’s entirely down to welfare generosity. In the third world it’s down to dominance.

    7. ‘Evening, Sos, I’ve been a long-time believer in reincarnation – without being a buddhist – because for me, 3 score year and ten is a very short time in eternity, in which to learn each lesson that each incarnation is supposed to teach you.

      I have no idea what I shall come back as, I can only hope that I learn the necessary lesson, that I can move on without carrying a load of “I’ve been hard done by.” baggage and move onwards and upwards to a better sphere of life.

      There may be a certain amount of schadenfreude in seeing one’s enemies – particularly the Remain MPs – cast into the pit but maybe that is wishful thinking and may impede my upward progression.

      1. Given the growth in the number of humans and assuming the number of “souls” is stable it seems to me that humanity can’t be the top of the tree.

    8. Not sure but I would like to have a debate with Lord Foster on the question of Architecture and what it is there for. My thesis would be that he and the rabble following him are no different to the Germans who exterminated Jews in their various camps. They inflict misery on ordinary folk and erect the most barbaric and alienating insults on the human race for personal cudos and monetary gain.

      A bit extreme you might say but this is a serious business and Foster and his ilk are destroying our heritage with their bombastic buildings. In addition, adherence to their precious Modern Movement philosophy is alienating the folk stumping up for it: that is you and me, the law abiding taxpayers.

      1. Is Lord Foster the idiot that designs glassgreenhouses that leak all over the place? They made him a Lord?

        1. Possibly but there are numerous other contenders including the late iconoclast Sir James Stirling. Go ask the History Faculty at Cambridge University what they think of his “iconic” library building.

          Whilst there go ask the neighbouring librarian of the iconic Foster library building what they think about that glassy mess where it is impossible to work in relative silence because of the lack of acoustic separation between the foyer and the reading space.

          These supposed masters of my profession are anything but. They are arrogant and stupid. They possess the ‘gift of the gab’ however and could talk monkeys down from the trees. There their expertise ends.

          1. I don’t know who designed Essex University campus and library (award-winning, apparently), but practical they most certainly were not. The wind funnelled up the valley so strongly through the squares aligned along it that at times the fountains in Square 1 were horizontal! The windshear between the towers could blow you off your feet and the library, if you hadn’t broken your neck hopping on and off the paternoster lifts with your arms full of books, cooked you above the waist in summer and froze you in winter.

      1. Me Too…….Andrew Neil does persist in the interviewee answering the bloody questions. sweetie x.

    2. Pretty much agree with vw. I like Julia H-B but Andrew Neil is the best political commentator. I do feel sorry for Laura K getting beaten up by the Labour numbskulls on Twitter though.

        1. The difference between then and now is that the politicians being interviewed still had a modicum of integrity and couldn’t tell bare-face lies with a straight face and no shame.

    7. Laura K – not too bad but comes over a bit smug to me
      Julia H-B – excellent but not a political commentator per se
      Robert P – shockingly awful delivery, can’t beat him
      Andrew Neil – excellent interviewer, seems to be impartial
      Katy’s A/Beth R – don’t know them
      Don’t know – don’t know.
      I think Andrew Neil is the best
      Edit,: Robert P – can’t bear him

      1. I find Laura Kuennsberg too aggressive like Emily Maitliss, balsy women trying to outsmart men when they don’t have to…

        1. I didn’t particularly like Paxman, thought he was quite aggressive; in fact I always felt a more gentle approach elicited much more information, people are much more likely to open up. The aggressive approach is so negative.

          1. Perfect spud for just about any way of cooking it. Very best roasties beating that newcomer Maris Piper into a cocked hat.

          3. I’ve steered clear of Desiree since the time I grew some and they were awful, soggy when boiled and not particularly good at roasting. Now, it may be my soil as I have had persistent failures with Home Guard but Eddies have always been brilliant. For baking the best I ever grew were Bonnie; huge spuds that were creamy when baked. No good for anything else, though.

          2. I haven’t, I’ll look out for it.
            Thank you.
            For fairly obvious reasons I wll start off as a sceptic.

          4. I looked them up and recognised it would be a series.

            The last really good history trilogy I read was Shelby Foote’s Civil war series. Heavy going at times but for my taste a superbly written History.

          5. I have that 3 volume series sitting on my shelf and it has been looming over some of the other books for a year now. I suspect that once I start reading them, I will be absorbed and barely come up for air for a few days.

          6. The Foote one?
            If you do start, you will need more than a few days!
            Well worth the effort though.
            I really recommend it.
            You could do a gentle warm up by watching the Civil War TV series and be haunted by Ashokan farewell by Jay Ungar.
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kZASM8OX7s

            This was the music that was played over so many of the letters and readings.

          7. I have bought that American Civil War DVD series to go with the books. I remembered watching it a few years ago on TV and being very impressed with its quality. 🙂

            Yes it is the Shelby Foote book series. Three volumes each as big as the Lord Of The Rings… I can see myself eating “Southern Meals” and fried chicken by the time I get to the end of it. I have some cowboy cookbooks and some chuck wagon “recipes from the trails” from back then. Just to immerse myself more deeply in the tastes of the times. I’ll avoid having a neighbour firing musket balls over my head though. There are limits.

          8. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

            One of my particular favourites is the description of his naval forebear launching high-speed small-boat attacks, working on the physics of the crash being a function of the square of the velocity.

            Wonderful writing.

  104. Evening, everyone. The politicisation of the judiciary, like that of the police, social services, education et al, is the work of Blair.

      1. A dirty great shove! You are right; I’ve just finished reading An English Affair about the Profumo scandal in the early 60s. The police fitted up a fall guy, ignoring evidence and leaning on witnesses, while judges delivered the result the Establishment wanted.

        1. Not entirely unrelated but the Police were told to stop patrolling the lavatories behind the Old Bailey. Of course when Charles Lytton was arrested for importuning it was covered up so well that he became P.M

  106. Nice to see the BBC maintaining its usual impartiality on Question Time.

    It makes you proud to be British.

    2. Not really a surprise. The jungle thrived abundantly before it was turned into coal. Now the loonies want us to not turn it back to CO2 by burning coal so that the jungle can thrive again.

    3. No surprise there; to improve yield in greenhouses increase CO2 (it’s converted to carbohydrate during photosynthesis).

  110. Thanks for reading it for us, Fraser!

    David Cameron has unwittingly written the best ever case for Brexit

    FRASER NELSON

    The former PM expected diplomacy from the EU but found a bureaucratic Death Star incapable of reform

    If you voted for Brexit, your optimism might be wavering right now. I can propose just the remedy: David Cameron’s memoir. It is, unintentionally, the most convincing case for Brexit that you will ever read.

    For The Record was written as political tragedy, a 700-page apology to the nation for the former prime minister’s role in what he regards as a calamity.

    But it’s also a candid account of how he pursued an idea – that the EU can be reformed – and tested it to (his) destruction. We see him making allies, drafting strategies, threatening and begging – but his story ends in failure. He expected diplomacy, but encountered a bureaucratic Death Star whose hunger for power is matched only by its intransigence. From the former Remainer-in-Chief, it’s quite a story.

    Cameron started out a Eurosceptic, but one who thought that the irritations of the EU were a price worth paying for the general aims of solidarity and free trade. In opposition, he mocked politicians who “bang on about Europe” but in No 10 he soon found out why they did.

    Once inside its inner circle, he was exposed to the horrors. The directives, the stitch-ups, the knives always out for the City of London. He found Silvio Berlusconi advising a table of EU leaders to take a mistress in Brussels, because it was the only way to survive the late-night summits. The purpose of these meetings, he discovered, was to grind everyone into submission. Including, eventually, him.

    He found the EU to be “peacenik” on security, unable to respond to threats on its doorstep. He vetoed one of the eurozone bailout packages that threatened to suck in Britain, only to see the rules changed so the UK veto would not count. When the UK tried to go its own way, it “wasn’t simply a disagreement with the others, it was a heresy against the scripture”. He thought Angela Merkel nice, but unreliable. He refers to the “half-life of a Merkel promise”: the time taken between her making one and breaking it. In general, he found “Germany’s unfailing ability to get what it wants in the end.”

    Britain’s ability to get what it wants was, by contrast, pretty minimal. When the federalist Jean-Claude Juncker was put forward as European Commission president, Cameron was shocked to discover that just two of the 28 EU member states’ leaders wanted him.

    There is a touch of Mr Smith Goes to Washington about what happened next: why, he asks then, go along with this stitch-up? He stays up late drinking wine with fellow leaders, and they promise to back him in stopping Juncker. Then Merkel decides it’s not worth the fight, so they all support a massive decision that they all know to be wrong.

    Cameron goes home appalled. But as he was to find out, this is how things work. “‘Anyone who says that the EU is an organisation based on law and not politics has never seen it act under pressure,” he records. “Whenever there was pressure to transfer powers to Brussels, the lawyers always found a way, but when I wanted to take powers back, those same lawyers always opposed it.” It is a formula to trap democracies: use complex laws and regulation to suck powers in, but never give them back.

    So Brexit wasn’t – as is so often argued – about appeasing Tory backbenchers. In fact, Cameron rightly points out that it’s no bad thing. MPs meet constituents every week, and if the public mood changes (for example, more people thinking that EU membership has become intolerable) this gets fed back to the prime minister through the MPs. This is how a parliamentary democracy is supposed to work. His book shows him seeking to explain this, to an often baffled EU. So the renegotiation failed.

    So many of the disputes come from a basic difference in understanding. “Merkel and others just didn’t see free movement as immigration,” he admits. “If you’re from outside the EU, you’re a migrant.” So how was he going to negotiate a solution, if his counterparts could not understand the problem?

    Dealing with their officials, he says, was even worse. “To them, I was a dangerous heretic stamping on their sacred texts.” He records with amazement how the Germans (and others) saw the EU as the fount of democracy, where Brits only ever wanted a forum for economic co-operation.

    Had these been the memoirs of Nigel Farage, we might suspect that the author didn’t try too hard to win others around. But Cameron tried (and gave) everything. He once invited me to a dinner where he was talking tactics with Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, about the urgent need to reform. In the book, he records how even Rutte abandoned him over Juncker’s appointment. But you can see why. Who wants to fight with the mighty EU? Cameron never quite explains why, after so many losses, he thought he might win.

    Or why he backed Remain. There is almost nothing in those 700 pages to explain why EU membership is a good thing. There is not a single example of anything emanating from Brussels that benefits Britain. So why does he start to talk about Britain’s future being in the EU and about it being a fundamental part of who we are as a country?

    He doesn’t offer a proper explanation himself. Perhaps his close friendship with George Osborne, an avid Remainer, swung him – in the way he thinks his friendship with Michael Gove and Boris Johnson ought to have swung them. It’s pretty hard to reconcile the calm, rational, patient author of the first 40 chapters of the book with that of the final seven chapters who talks about Brexiteers as careerists, villains and Islamophobes.

    But the great value of Cameron’s book is its candour. He recorded his thoughts once a month, wrote each chapter from the perspective of what he felt at the time, and has not twisted the facts to suit his final conclusion. He regards Brexit as a disaster, but those who read his book would be tempted to see it as liberation. A great democracy was being squeezed inside an unaccountable bureaucracy, and no one else in Europe wanted to risk their career by challenging it – or giving voters the chance to escape it. But Cameron did. He might, one day, come to see it as the greatest single service he did his country.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/09/19/david-cameron-has-unwittingly-written-best-ever-case-brexit/

    2. [ In general, he found “Germany’s unfailing ability to get what it wants in the end.”]
      No surprise there then…..

  111. ”David Cameron, the notionally conservative former prime minister who lost the EU referendum — and his office with it — has denounced President Donald Trump as “protectionist, xenophobic, misogynistic” in his memoirs, and expressed his bitterness that the Islamic State caliphate which sprung into being during his premiership was crushed on the U.S. leader’s watch.” Jack Montgomery.

    If that’s true, is this ”Dave” guy part of the swamp ? He sounds as though he’s closely aligned to Obama and Hillary Clinton…. and so that might also mean he’s close to Uncle George, especially as his song sounds straight out of the official songbook.

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