776 thoughts on “Sunday 27 October: The mendacity of MPs who demand yet more time to deliver Brexit”

  1. ‘Morning All

    Start with a Laff

    An Engineer dies and goes to Hell. Dissatisfied with the level of comfort,
    he starts designing and building improvements. After a while, Hell has
    air conditioning, flush toilets and escalators.

    The engineer is a pretty popular guy.

    One day God calls and asks Satan, “So, how’s it going down there?”

    Satan says, “Hey things are going great! We’ve got air conditioning and flush
    toilets and escalators, and there’s no telling what this engineer is
    going to come up with next.”

    God is horrified. “What? You’ve got
    an engineer? That’s a mistake – he should never have gone down there!
    You know all engineers go to Heaven. Send him up here! ”

    Satan says, “No way. I like having an engineer on the staff. I’m keeping him.”

    God says, “Send him back up here or I’ll sue!”

    “Yeah, right,” Satan laughs, “and where are you going to get a lawyer?”

  4. Trump must be looking at Europe and the UK and thinking if only they adopted my border policies all those people on the lorry would still be alive and the criminal gang traffickers would be out of a job.

  5. Stand bye for retaliatry attacks. BBC Radio News reporting that the USA has done serious damage to ISIS in Syria with a successful special forces attack on the ISIS command including the killing of the ISIS leader. [again]

      1. Ahh, but ISIS is a more professional outfit than the Green Party….and will do less damage to the UK than the Greens….

        1. When you look at it like that ….
          Yup, you’re right.
          Just off to knit today’s yoghurt supply.

    2. Same here, Peddy. After my (mistaken) claim last night that we would have an hour less today (in fact it is one hour more – thanks for the correction, Stig), I have decided to do penance by – instead of making today my day of rest – taking advantage of the sun and light breeze to have a marathon day of washing. Good morning all – enjoy the first day of GMT.

      2. ‘Morning, Elsie, I trust you’ve reset your Roman clock.

        I’m more looking forward to enjoying the first EU-free day.

  7. Migrant deaths: Britain faces exclusion from elite EU policing unit. 27 October 2019.

    The anti-trafficking unit involved in the case, the European Migrant Smuggling Centre, is part of the EU’s law enforcement agency, Europol, and has been at the heart of a global inquiry into the tragedy. A Europol source said investigators at the centre were “working around the clock trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle”.

    The unit is regarded as the most sophisticated organisation of its kind in Europe, with unrivalled ability to track cross-border crime and a huge database of smuggling networks.

    Well since it is obviously useless (witness the present debacle) it will be no loss!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/26/britain-faces-axe-europe-elite-policing-unit

    1. Just another element of Project Fear from the Illiberal AntiDemocrat cabal that calls itself a newspaper.

      ‘Morning, Minty…and a happy GMT to everyone!

      1. On the plus (?) side, approx. 60 illegals are still alive.
        Let’s hear it for the rigorous elite EU migrant tracking service.

    3. Umm….the Guardian getting it totally wrong…the UK can remain a member of EUROPOL simply by continuing to pay the fees and if other EUROPOL members are happy to accept the fees….the UK will of course remain a full member of INTERPOL….

      ….more utter bollocks from the Graun’…..

  8. Morning, Campers.
    O.K. Today will be strewn with health hazards.
    According to the DT, the clock change means I will be having a stroke, a heart attack and a stonking car crash.
    Apparently, this will make me depressed.
    I’m not sure whether all this will occur before, or after, I’ve put my back out by turning the sun dial the wrong way.
    It’s being so cheerful wot keeps me going.

      1. I really can’t be bothered to fiddle with the car clock.
        Trouble is, I lost interest half way through twiddling the knobs about two years ago, and I can’t remember if it’s 35 minutes fast or slow. And at what time of year.

        1. I don’t touch mine – it’s on permanent summer time.

          Not so the oven clock which was 40 minutes slow. Now I’m not sure where it stands. It’ll take about a week to sink in.

          1. My cooker clock is on a manual setting.
            Every so often, it gets moved when MB decides to clean the fascia; he then gets totally discombobulated by the buzzing noise.

      2. I keep my car clocks on GMT, likewise my (oil) central heating clock and timers for economy 7.

    2. Waking up at 07:00 to full daylight with the bonus of a bright clear morning has made me feel a lot happier.

      2. Me too. I hate having to live an hour ahead of my body clock. I find it hard enough to wake up and get going in a morning at the best of times; when getting up at 7 really means I’m getting up at 6, I am totally banjaxed.

  10. Morning all

    SIR – Some MPs may have genuinely felt that they did not have enough time to scrutinise Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Bill earlier this week. But for others, of course, it was simply another means of delaying and ultimately stopping Brexit.

    Throughout the Brexit process, MPs have failed to be straightforward about their motives – whether for claiming that the EU would never reopen negotiations or voting to block leaving without a deal. This is why the electorate no longer has any trust in politicians.

    MPs have had over three years to deliver Brexit. The current situation is of their own making – and they should be ashamed of themselves.

    Julian Gall
    Godalming, Surrey

    SIR – When we stayed with friends, their lively six-year-old granddaughter could not find my husband to say goodbye when it was time for her to go to school.

    She wrote him a quick note: “Dear Jim, Goodbye. I’m off. Love Emma.” Should we put her in charge of Brexit?

    Julia Forbes-Leith
    Cranage, Cheshire

  11. Morning again

    SIR – Smart motorways were first introduced in Germany, and it is to be hoped that the German experience will be taken into account in the forthcoming review of their safety.

    These motorways allow increasing volumes of traffic to move safely and efficiently. Compared with other road types, our existing motorways are the safest roads we use.

    The problem is the absence of smart drivers. Driving tests do not include a motorway section, and it was only last year that instructors were allowed to take pupils on to these roads. In addition, skills such as anticipation, observation and lane discipline are not properly tested. I regularly encounter drivers hogging the middle lane while texting at the wheel.

    Jeremy M J Havard
    Chichester, West Sussex

    1. These motorways terrify me. It is unlikely that my fears will be considered on the report, which is tailored for PR purposes and should be treated, as with most such reports, with contempt.

      It is invariable that at some time a vehicle will need to pull over in a hurry. Not just a breakdown, or even running out of fuel, but it could be a distraction inside the car that makes it essential that the driver stops the vehicle and sorts it out before proceeding. Even a rogue wasp inside a car can cause mayhem.

      While there is the hard shoulder, this is no real problem. The likelihood of being shunted in the rear by another driver doing likewise is remote, and as long as getting out of the vehicle on the driver’s side is done with great care, it is reasonably safe. Not so, when such vehicles are forced to stop on the carriageway, and any attempts to get off the road onto the safety of the verge are blocked by crash barriers. There is a much greater chance of a rear end shunt from an inattentive driver, often a sleepy lorry driver, in the ‘slow’ lane, or being mown down when trying to get out of the vehicle by someone preoccupied with swerving into the middle lane in order to avoid a collision.

      I refer to “smart motorways” as “death traps”. Yet I am still being charged through the nose to pay for them, so that the contractor directors can get their bonus.

      1. A situation that I faced only three days ago.
        A flat tyre in p!ssing rain that obscured vision. Fortunately, in this case, on a B road.

      2. If you want more capacity, you either tweak the existing network e.g smart motorways or you build more roads….best of luck with that…

        …a classic example…Salisbury needs a bypass….the rich villagers (mostly coffin dodgers) on the outskirts of the town have made it clear that they want no roads cutting through ‘their’ green space….

        …they’ve only been arguing about it since the 2000s…..

        2. A compromise might be to reposition the crash barriers two metres back with a verge, so that at a pinch a vehicle could pull off onto soft ground in an emergency and be off the carriageway. This would be ok for cars; lorries might need to take their chances on the carriageway, but they are more visible at a distance and also less vulnerable to a rear end shunt.

    2. Without wishing to invoke Godwin’s Law … oh, all right, if you insist …. the Germans attitude to unnecessary death has been somewhat at odds with Britain’s.

      1. If you must bring in Godwin, then may I respectfully suggest that these deaths were considered necessary at the time?

    3. Can’t help thinking that Jeremy’s* last paragraph contradicts his 2nd.

      I avoid motorways in this country like the plague.

      *Edit – Jeremy, the letter-writer.

  12. ‘Banditry’: Russia slams US as troops move back into Syria. 26 October 2019.

    Russia’s defense ministry on Saturday harshly criticized the US decision to send armored vehicles and combat troops into eastern Syria to protect oil fields, calling it “banditry”.

    The US defense secretary, Mark Esper, has said the move is aimed at keeping the fields from potentially falling into the hands of Islamic State. The decision was the latest sign that extracting the US military from Syria is more uncertain and complicated than Donald Trump has made it out to be.

    There’s no doubt that the Russians are correct in their portrayal of the American moves. The oilfields are in no danger from ISIS for a whole range of reasons not the least being that they are out of the game at the moment and even if they [ISIS] held them they would be indefensible. This seizure of someone else’s property by the US is an attempt to deprive the Syrian Government of their benefits and revenues.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/26/russia-us-troops-syria-oil-isis

    1. These oil fields had been won the hard way by the Kurds, albeit with modest support from the Americans in the form of air cover and keeping Erdogan off their backs. Trump, when deciding that America could not even afford this, has relinquished all moral claim to the region, and is now acting as opportunistic bandits when making a bid militarily for the oilfields.

      Putin is correct.

    2. The Grauniad does American spelling?
      I thought hatred of Uncle Sam was its sole reason for existing.

      1. ‘Morning, Anne, it’s not American spelling – the language is American and is an obvious cut ‘n’ paste.

  13. SIR – You report (October 20) that the Labour MP Chris Bryant described last Saturday’s sitting in Parliament as “very inconvenient for people with families” and suggested that “financial provisions” should be made to cover the cost of childcare.

    Is it any wonder some of our MPs are so against a general election, knowing that their ride on the gravy train will be over a few hours after voting has started?

    Scott Charleston
    Dunfermline, Fife

    1. The whole point of the Fixed Term Parliament Act was to enable incompetent or dishonourable MPs to enjoy their full terms safe in the knowledge that they are immune from any form of electoral scrutiny. There is no need for them to honour any manifesto pledge upon which they were elected, can make it up as they go along, and indeed can become unrecognisable from anything they were when campaigning as soon as their bums touch the green benches. That is called “representative democracy”.

      We’re stuck with this zombie parliament until 2022 because they know very well they are on to a good thing. A bit of skilful PR and cancelling any public scrutiny through the hustings, and the Safe Seat system could keep this up indefinitely.

      This is the real source of the Remainers’ ‘Project Fear’. The Remainers themselves know what they intend to inflict on the country unsupervised.

    2. I’ve worked with young mothers whose income went on child care costs.
      But then they were little people and not puffed up self important MPs.

    1. ‘Morning, Rik. They can’t even manage to lie convincingly. All traitorous to55ers, every one of them, and particularly the Adonis idiot.

      1. Adonis has flourished the victim card.
        He is a gay man with two children by a woman; years of secret torment.
        He is now untouchable and if we criticise him, we are guilty of hate crime.

        1. That accounts for the splintering noise from my front door…

          ‘Morning, Annie. I may be away some time.

          1. I’m doing some baking today.
            Should I sterilise the file before I incorporate it into the cake mixture?

        2. Victim?? He is here because his immigrant parents were allowed to come here, and the state (our taxes) here gave them health care, schooling, a university for him.

          He can take his victimhood and flounce off.

      2. Yet….Clarke has been elected time after time by his voters even though his pro-EU stance is well known….are his supporters traitors to? What about the millions who voted Remain….are they all traitors too?

        Strange that Powell, a true parliamentary giant, didn’t think those who voted to keep the UK in Europe were traitors…..

  15. The narrative on mainstream media for those that come here illegally on lorries is that they are doing the right thing, trying to make a better life for themselves.
    But doesn’t everyone want that? we voted to leave the EU to make a better life for ourselves, yet that is seen as a bed thing by the MSM.

    2. Morning B,
      We had a better life for ourselves prior to the big scam
      and to cut to the quick peoples taking to the
      keep in / keep out party before country mode of voting.
      All the time mass alien forces were building.
      The skyline in some towns / cities look to be from
      Arabian nights.
      All the time the voting pattern kept those we want out,in
      and those we want in out, & so it continues.
      80k plus exes with the eu golden trough awaiting is in no way to be jeopardised by GEs.

    3. ‘Morning, B3. Don’t suppose you heard R4’s Any Answers yesterday? I use it to bore me into a brief nap, but before that happened I heard the usual ‘how terribly tragic, we are all deeply shocked’ caller – quickly followed by a chap who made the obvious point that these were people who had paid a lot of money to enter our country illegally. Before him was a former Home Office employee who referred to them as ‘assylum seekers’ and ‘victims’ with little attempt to correct her. Par for the course, I suppose. Besides, the trafficking gangs only exist because there are people willing to pay vast sums for illegal entry.

      1. How many nail technicians and pot growers does Britain require ?

        We rescued the boat people years ago.. surely life in Vietnam is much improved now?

        Why don’t we start repatriating people in order to stop people trying to join their long lost cousins over here?

        1. I wonder how many pot heads will accept that their hobby is causing death and suffering to many of the world’s poorest?

          1. The greengrocer in Great Malvern High Street was turned into a nail bar a couple of years ago.

          4. I do wonder.
            Occasionally, they will be dry cleaners that also do alterations and key cutting.

        2. If we let a stack of drown in the Channel…they’d soon stop using that route.

          Likewise, immediately deporting them at gunpoint would soon send a message with any immigrants dissenting shot on the spot.

          Anything else is garbage….the illegals will not stop coming until the risk of death outweighs the chance of getting through….

          …or the major powers go back into Africa and the Middle East, and act like the powers of old…massive ruthless suppression for decades…if need be turning sand into glass and turning the aid tap off.

          Again, anything else is like using a sticking plaster on a wound that is spraying contaminated blood everywhere.

          Even some Africans are talking about the damage aid is doing (and bare in mind this is in the Guardian)….

          https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/feb/19/dambisa-moyo-dead-aid-africa

      2. The trafficking gangs exist because the west has a death wish.
        Our spineless politicians and a vast array of do-gooders have blood on their hands.

      3. …willing to pay vast sums for illegal entry.

        How about “traffickers willing to pay vast sums to corrupt officials”?

      4. Add to your final sentence “… knowing that they won’t be sent back, but will get benefits without having contributed to the system”.

    4. Personally, I don’t see why they shouldn’t stay at home and work to make a better life for themselves and their fellow countrymen. They are certainly not making life better for me.

  16. Good morning all

    Overcast morning but dry , thank goodness.

    Why is the British government going all out to repatriate Jihadi brides and their children from Syria … Why why why .. They are not our problem … let the sand fly rot their evil intent.

    Am I hard hearted .. they abandoned this country .. They will become a drain on society , and another worry .. and will lauded by the hidden monsters that lurk , plot and plan revenge over here!

    1. TB, the really important point is that “relatives” of the Jihadi brides and children will then have the right to enter the UK, and live off the Welfare State.

      1. They counted on the gullible British underwriting their adventures in the cradle of civilisation.

  18. One poll, repeat, one poll puts Johnson on 40%, a full 16 points ahead of Corbyn. Should Johnson get his GE and these figures hold up it’s very likely that he will have a working majority. What then?
    Does he follow the will of the people and repeal the Benn Act and take us out of the EU immediately on WTO terms or does he adhere to his “great deal” with “our partners and friends in the EU”? With a working majority he will have no excuse for tying us to the EU with his “deal” as he will have complete freedom of action.
    In this scenario Johnson would be on the cusp of a momentous decision with huge consequences for him, his party and most importantly the UK. He could effectively destroy all three or become a national hero.

    1. Obviously he’s going to do the ‘friends and partners’ stay in WA Uncle George approved.

    2. Morning KtK,
      As Wilfred Pickles would say ” whats in the kitty Mabel”
      ( eu slush fund).
      A big enough offer dissolves any thoughts of peoples or parties & countries, political souls are for selling.

      1. Are you hinting at greased palms? Why not an ideological desire to be a plaything of an unelected federalist horror show?

        1. KtK,
          I do hope you are not accusing me of “hinting” perish the thought.
          But yes, he is open to offers as many others have been seen
          to accept.

        1. Morning NtN,
          I distinctly remember him saying
          “whats in the kitty Mabel” as well, no question of it.
          Anyway we the herd have had quite enough of what is / what is not on tables.

          2. Morning Anne,
            I do agree with NtN, but tried to soften the rhetoric as mentioning anything on tables upsets a great many peoples
            currently, peoples never blurry listen at times & must learn to read between the lines, nothing is as it seems Alice, sorry, Anne.

    4. Boris Johnson has always been open about using Brexit as a bargaining tool to get a better arrangement from the EU, with the added bonus of long-overdue constitutional reform. I don’t think he was ever part of the pull-up-the-drawbridge approach that Farage advocated, and which contrasted the Vote Leave campaign from the UKIP-led LeaveEU one.

      There are merits in both approaches, but the Electoral Commission decreed in their wisdom only to allow one Brexit campaign during the Referendum.

      1. I must not out pedant Peddy.
        I must not out pedant Peddy.
        I must not ……
        Oh, s0d it! ‘added bonus’?

    5. Saxon Queen points longbow and says Boris Johnson
      with his blonde mop of Hellenistic curls wishes to be popular
      and a hero. He wants be like Odysseus ( he is Odysseus ).
      he wants to rescue England from the clutches of the EU and
      sail away with her across the seven seas finding trading deals .

      Boris Johnson would certainly win a majority which is why
      Labour will vote against that thought tomorrow,
      but thankfully the SNP and Lib Dems would also love an election
      so therefore will vote for it.

      1. The Lib Dems may well do well in London, and they and the SNP would probably relish a friendly scrap in Scotland, keeping the SNP on their toes with the Lib Dems poised to take advantage there of any nationalist slacking. Elsewhere, except perhaps in university towns, the Lib Dems are on a hiding to nothing.

        Labour has nothing to gain from an election before 2022 unless they can sort out the Brexit split in Momentum between the students and the traditionalist provincial socialists. The threat from the Blairites has largely been dealt with by dumping them on the Lib Dems, redefining that party as Major/Blair Mk III.

        Under the Fixed Term Parliament Act, nothing can be done unless Labour positively votes for it. Abstaining is not enough to honour the electorate’s wish for a say in the process.

      2. The LibDums are believed to be agitating for an election but on Monday December the 9th. Cynics are of the opinion that this move will allow students to vote twice. How could they possibly believe that?😎

        Your accented ‘e’ has disappeared, have you girded your Saxon loins and moved to your new PC?

        2. Students have been cheating for awhile and have
          been voting in their home towns and university cities,
          quite illegal but voting is dodgy in this country now anyway.

          No, my longbow is still pointing at the Samsung tablet
          but I must get started on the laptop at some point.

          Do behave.

        3. Students have been cheating for awhile and have
          been voting in their home towns and university cities,
          quite illegal but voting is dodgy in this country now anyway.

          No, my longbow is still pointing at the Samsung tablet
          but I must get started on the laptop at some point.

          Do behave.

    7. I would like a result which only gives the Conservatives enough seats to form an effective government with TBP’s support – say Conservatives with 250 seats and TBP with 100. This could ensure a WTO Brexit.

      Do pigs have wings – and do they actually fly if you put lipstick on them?

    1. Pah!!!! A slight disagreement.
      The poster never experienced the school bus from Colchester to Halstead during the 1950s.
      p.s. the Grammar School boys were the worst!

      1. Or from Bushey to Rickmansworth. The Catholic school thugs made my son prefer walk the 2 miles to school, and back.

    2. Morning TB,
      And still doing for us all the while the mass uncontrolled immigration parties find support.
      Dunkirk in reverse is the name of the game with the theme tune backing “close the doors they are coming through the windows” border controls my bum.

    6. So you’ve never ever been on a bus when trouble has broken out…..guess there was no crime at all ever in the olden days either……

      2. I have led a sheltered life..

        However, when I was a child, my family and many others had to hide under beds when black rioters caused major havoc with pangas , machetes; and spears as they ran through the neighbourhood .. the fear is like no other .(Sudan pre independence)

  20. Those Common Purpose drones don’t work cheap you know………….

    Health chiefs have authorised a doubling in pay for those running hospital trusts.

    NHS leaders said the significant pay hikes were needed, in order to ensure the right calibre of appointment.

    But patients’ groups said it was “depressing” to see so much money

    being diverted from the front line, at a time of staff shortages and the

    longest waiting lists on record.

    The NHS guidance, seen by the Telegraph, says chairmen of trusts, who

    are expected to work a three day week, will see minimum pay rise from

    around £18,000 to £40,000, and at least £63,000 for those at the largest

    organisations.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/27/health-chiefs-authorise-doubling-pay-hospital-chairmen/

    1. Morning Rik,
      The regular voting pattern that has been in place for years tells me that all these issues complained about
      are in the main accepted, the ballot booth proves that.

      1. Yep…Blue Sheeple voting automatically for the Blue Mob and Red Drones automatically voting Red Mob….

        …then the supporters whining nothing ever changes and that they are ignored by their respective parties….

        1. Morning Gunner,
          Old Bert Einstein had it pegged right.
          The current mob shoot themselves in the foot regular then the time it heals they pull the trigger again.
          The lab/lib/con politico’s count on it.

        2. The belief that ‘tribal voting’ is much more prevalent than it is in reality is but one of the indoctrination’s being used to ‘smokescreen’ the fact that we don’t live in a democracy.

          2. Are you sure that tribal voting hasn’t been hyped up to provide a ‘smokescreen’ for ‘safe seats’?

    2. I’m off for the rest of today, Rik. Posts like yours totally fail to make my day a cheerful one. Good night (well in advance) to all NoTTLers.

    3. Like we pay £75K + exp for our politicians – to get the “calibre” ……………….. of complete rubbish. Rubbish should cost far less than they do.

    4. I’ve been convinced for years, that our NHS is being deliberately set up ( groomed ) to justify [sic] the continuing march towards full privatisation.

  21. The Observer view on Boris Johnson undermining British politics. Editorial. 27 October 2019.

    Johnson is openly undermining parliament in order to avoid democratic scrutiny for his actions. He cancelled his appearance in front of select committee chairs at the House of Commons liaison committee for a third time in a row last week. When MPs voted for more time to scrutinise the withdrawal agreement bill, he accused them of acting in bad faith to scupper his plans. And on Thursday his spokesperson made a childish threat that the government would go “on strike” and withhold all legislation if MPs did not back his call for a general election, only to withdraw it hours later. He has threatened to table an election motion every day that parliament sits until MPs accede, even though this would not be allowed under parliamentary conventions. The prime minister is making a petulant joke of our democratic institutions. Instead of answering to parliament, he makes announcements in short media clips that offer little opportunity for grilling him on the inconsistencies in what he says.

    This editorial goes so far beyond Distortion and barefaced Lies that it is almost an alternate reality that it portrays! I don’t particularly care for Boris but that he is undermining British Politics in the face of Parliamentary rectitude is a patent absurdity. He has no power to do anything! Parliament has effectively neutered him! He is to all intents and purposes a Brexit Eunuch devoid both of Ways and Means!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/27/the-observer-view-on-boris-johnson

    2. From their refusal to accept that we voted to Leave, and their running scared of an election while at the same time calling for the “peoples voice” to be heard in another referendum, the actions of our MP’s are disgusting. They are not worthy to clean the sewers, let alone decide our fate.

      But if they can delay this terrible, terrible Withdrawal Agreement from being passed before an election, then at least our cell door is still ajar. In May’s Bill, which is 95% the same as Boris’s, the European Court of Justice would still have authority over the United Kingdom for 8 years after the end of any “transition period.” Barnier himself estimates that this transition period should take 3 years.

      So that will mean it is 11 YEARS from now before we regain control of our legal system, and who knows what additional restrictions the EU will impose in that time. There is no way on Earth that this can be called “Leaving the EU” and it is an insult when Boris calls it “an excellent deal” as he did yesterday.

      1. Boris is the sort of Globalist who thinks mass uncontrolled immigration is a good thing…..of course he’s happy with BRINO…..

        1. The choice is whether or not to keep hold of your testicles.

          But the worry is that even the ERG has not rumbled the fact that Boris is a mendacious fraud and his deal is very much the same as May’s deal and we would be better off staying in the EU. We can then start Brexit again and do it thoroughly, quickly and cleanly.

          The Boris/May surrender castrates us and binds us into a place very much worse than staying in the odious EU.

          1. “The Boris/May surrender castrates us and binds us into a place very much worse than staying in the odious EU.”

            Spot on.

    3. Well Minty I’ve heard testicles referred to as many things but never before as “Ways & Means” 😉

    4. Boris would have been perfectly within his rights to ask HM not to sign the Benn Surrender Act, citing it was contrary to the clearly expressed will of the majority and thus not in the best interests of the country. HM would have had to take his advice and the Act would not have come into force. Why didn’t he? Why did he want his hands tied? I don’t believe that he had no power to prevent the situation in which he now conveniently finds himself – pretending to be a leaver while keeping us in the EU.

      1. “I don’t believe that he had no power to prevent the situation in which he now conveniently finds himself – pretending to be a leaver while keeping us in the EU.” Yup….Boris is for BRINO.

  22. This is a p!ss-take. Isn’t it?
    If it is, I cede my self-appointed task of satirising PC Britain to the Grandmaster of P. Takers. If it’s genuine, I need to watch my blood pressure.

    Change.org

    Hi Anne —

    The month of October is important to me. It’s Black History Month – when the country takes a moment to recognise and celebrate the powerful contributions of black people to the past, present and future of the UK.

    While we celebrate the beauty and strength of being black and British – we must also shine a light on the work still to be done for representation and equality.

    That’s why, this Black History Month – we’re shouting about just some of the unsung heroes fighting for action on Change.org. These people powered movements – big and small, are building brighter and fairer futures for all of us.

    Please take a moment to support and shout about these brilliant campaigns today.

    Zina grew up being told that her braided hair was not ‘appropriate’ for the classroom.

    Like many people of colour – hair has affected her life in the UK in both subtle and life-changing ways. Many people have reported being targeted on the street, fired from their jobs or punished by teachers for their natural hairstyles.

    Now, Zina is fighting to ban hair discrimination across the UK – like they have in New York and California. Her petition has over 62,000 signatures – can you add your name to help her have a better chance of winning?

    Sign Zina’s petition to ban hair discrimination

    There is currently no major memorial in England to commemorate the victims of the slave trade. For over a decade Oku has been campaigning for a memorial in London.
    Thanks to years of campaigning, planning permission was secured, but time is running out as it expires on the 7th November.

    The Government needs to commit to funding the memorial before this time. Will you sign Oku’s campaign to make this memorial possible?
    Sign Oku’s petition to build a slavery memorial

    How to mark Black History Month from across the country;

    #1 – Brush up on forgotten black British history and help make history more inclusive with the BBC series Black to Life or Gal Dem’s channel 4 series

    #2 – Have a listen to the Black Britain Spotify playlist – sounds made, influenced and inspired by the Windrush generation

    #3 – Check out this interview with Girl Guides who share the black women that inspire them

    #4 – 100 Great Black Britons is looking for nominations to recognise unsung heroes who have shaped UK culture. Nominate someone today!

    I’m so proud of these amazing people using Change.org to build movements by and for their black communities.

    Thanks for taking the time to celebrate them!

    Pascale Frazer-Carroll,
    Campaigns Director – Change.org UK.

    2. Good morning Anne

      They have added colour to the running track .. play football , drive posh Audis, wear bling eat lots of chicken , sweetpotato .. and have many issues with knives!

      2. How about Black Adder?

        And if Caligula could make his horse a consul how about Black Beauty?

    4. That is why I refuse to participate in any of the apparently unconnected ‘change.org’ petitions that people link to. That outfit is a PC, American company whose main purpose is to harvest information from their dim petition signers.

    5. Black history eh. Let’s start by looking at Africa and see what there is to celebrate and who to recognise as an achiever. List on a postage stamp to Change.org…

    6. #4 – Oruç Reis – Barbary pirate.
      For over 300 years, the coastlines of the south west of England were at the mercy of Barbary pirates (corsairs) from the coast of North Africa, based mainly in the ports of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. Their aim was to capture slaves for the Arab slave markets in North Africa.

    7. Please identify for us thick ignorant slaver whites all the heroic actions of the black people all down history.

      We already know that all the great inventions in the world were made in sub-Saharan Africa and the slave trade put a stop to all that.

    8. I seem to remember that back in the 70s the walls of London Tube stations were lined with adverts showing smiling darkies who were recommending skin whitening potions and hair straightening lotions.

    9. Suggestions for the inscription on a slavery monument?
      Here is mine:
      “Slavery
      It Gave Us Brixton”

    10. Plenty of pupils have been told that their latest barrier isn’t suitable for school, and none of them have been black.

  24. The clock in my car and chariot will stay on summertime as
    an act of rebellion against fools who think clocks should be changed .
    No idea how the Incas, Druids, Celts etc survived without the sun being
    moved about in the sky.

    2. They weren’t likely to be docked pay for being five minutes late to the winter solstice.
      I’m currently still on summertime, but I don’t have to get up at any particular time in the morning. When I had to get up at 6am in the pitch dark I loathed it with a passion. Having to do it for even longer by staying on BST would have much worse. As for having lighter evenings, I wasn’t getting home until it was getting dark during late September, October anyway. The Druids, Celts, and Incas probably weren’t doing a 90 minute commute each way on top of a full day’s work. They would work according to sunrise and sunset, whenever that might be…

    5. They stayed on GMT all year, Ethel. We only started messing with the clocks after the Germans started it in 1916.

      1. But why can we not stop that now with the
        modern age and our advances, keep to one
        or the other. It’s ludicrous to keep changing it.

        1. As long as we keep to GMT (the natural, geographical time) I would have no problem. It plays havoc with my biorhythms to have to spend six months or so living an hour ahead of myself.

          1. But your not, time and the universe with its natural
            ability to determine lenghts of night and day have been doing
            so since the beginning of time. It doesn’t alter one
            single element of that just because of a few men changing
            clocks.

      2. Meant to ask , why the Germans and if for the reasons I
        might wrongly think then why didn’t we ever change it back.

        1. It was during WW1. Presumably they thought it would aid war production and we followed suit.

  25. Brexit election: Lib Dems and SNP plan to force earlier poll

    I dont see that a few days earlier makes any odds. I suspect the 12th was chosen as it is a Thursday whcih is the traditional day to hold elections

    The Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party have joined forces in a bid to trigger a 9 December election.
    And they have asked EU Council President Donald Tusk to grant a three-month extension of the date for Brexit.
    The parties say they reject Boris Johnson’s later election date, which they believe would include time for him to “ram through” his Brexit Bill.
    But Mr Johnson has said that MPs “cannot hold the country hostage” over Brexit and it was time to “move on”.
    The prime minister proposed a slightly later date of 12 December for an election, when he made his offer on Thursday.
    He said if MPs support his vote in the Commons to call an election, he will use the remaining time before Parliament is dissolved on 6 November to try to pass the legislation for his Brexit deal.

    1. The earlier it is the more likely uni students in uni towns will stick around to vote anti Tory, before heading off for vacation.

      2. Everyone should only be able to vote sat their registered home address. Automated checks should be run to ensure no one has registered at 2 addresses

  26. Wales vs SA.
    Boring, boring. desperately dull.
    Kick chase, crash bang, kick chase, crash bang. Rinse and repeat; ad nauseam.

  28. What a super day! Not only is the sun shining, but something even more seismic has happened.
    I checked the hedgehog house today ….. and the food’s gone.
    It has taken over a month for this to happen.
    I can also see new dips under the nearby fence where they have created a tunnel.

    1. Brilliant news re your hedgehogs .

      I fear that a badger here has taken to some exotic snacks .. the prickly shells of the little creatures are evidence .

      1. Brock is NOT a kind cuddly creature. He is a small bear. (Dare I say mini Grizzly?)
        I learnt this when I went on a school field trip. The house where we stayed kept a couple of young orphan badgers in a old kitchen; the damage they had inflicted on doors, skirting boards etc… was sobering.

        2. They are mustelids and very strong. Did you see the film about weasels on Friday evening? They missed out badgers on that one.

          3. Indeed, but there are also a lot of similarites.

            I suspect most watchers would have made a badger connection.

          6. No, I didn’t.
            I always remember watching a very determined stoat dragging a rabbit to her home/hole/nest?
            It took the best part of half an hour to drag her prize home.

      2. They do predate hedgehogs when food eg worms, beetles etc becomes scarce. It’s not a pretty sight when they leave the prickly shells.

    2. We don’t appear to have any hedgehogs here, but we do have at least one squirrel that’s busily burying walnuts everywhere. Plus a mole. I’d rather have a few hedgehogs…

      1. I’ve a mole up the “garden”. Noticed it digging one of the surface runs in the spring and still see molehills on occasion.

  29. A geopolitical earthquake has shaken US leadership in the world — Russia and China stand to benefit. SAT, OCT 26 2019.

    From Syria to Ukraine, and from Afghanistan to Africa, the tectonic plates are shifting in a manner that threatens not only the credibility and durability of US global leadership but also the democratic values, the Western institutions and the alliance structures that it has inspired for the past seventy years and since World War II.

    Morning everyone. I don’t personally doubt this is happening and worse I think it’s unstoppable. The reasons for it are not obvious, it is not for example due to the Gilet jaunes or its like, Lebanon, Chile etc.; Trump or Brexit, they are symptoms not causes. Neither is it due to Geo-political power play since the rules that govern the game are still largely obeyed. Rather I think it stems from a lack of confidence in the system, particularly in the West, which is no longer a Christian Civilisation.

    Christianity went far beyond the teachings in the New Testament. Aside from its personal aspects it supplied all the moral answers to the Wests political problems and how it should behave; it didn’t matter that they were not always obeyed, because that was how you knew the good guys from the bad. This certainty has vanished. The EU is for example, corrupt both in its conception and its existence; it has no Democratic legitimacy at all. It is a creation of the Euro Elect; partly it must be said to answer the problems I’ve just outlined, but mostly to serve the Globalist agenda. The UK which is just a small part of the problem is being guided down the path of Cultural Marxism, which the Elites here follow as a replacement for Christian ethics. How successful this has been can be seen in that the political and social systems, Police, Judiciary, Parliament etc, are collapsing under its guidance. Since there are no Parties or good guys in play who believe in Freedom or Democracy of any kind, the most probable outcome for both the EU and the UK is Tyranny, it may be sugar coated, even chaotic, and more resembling the Third World than any Soviet model but it will still be Tyranny with all its trappings of the Police State and control of both word and deed. The one thing you can be certain of is that your vote will be worthless!

    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/26/russia-and-china-are-challenging-us-global-leadership-under-trump.html

    1. One of the most significant contributors to this downwards trend is the loss of the British Empire. The Empire resembled previous previous empires in name only. It existed not because of relentless military conquest but as a result of often peaceful if rumbustious colonisation. Colonies were raised to civilised standards. The relinquishing of these colonies under the duress of the UN and the USA resulted in many of the colonial territories and countries collapsing into savagery.
      The empire was governed by men who followed the Christian moral code. Not all of them, and a few were responsible for the blemishes on our imperial past. The faults were less faults of the “system”, but were caused by the deficiencies of individuals.
      Those who rant about how bad we were and are, wilfully ignore India, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, Canada and the United States as well as smaller places such as Belize, Guyana and Pacific islands. These countries have now got something beneficial that they would not have had without us.
      Nor do those who decry colonialism show signs of having learned what one might have supposed is the obvious lesson. That lesson is of the danger to the indigenous peoples, in terms of ownership, disease, and loss of culture and tradition. They do not regard the influx of millions of muslims, and others, to the UK as colonisation, with the inherent risk of those same catastrophes that they bewail having been caused by us elsewhere. No, this invasion of the UK is touted as beneficial, as if the destruction of white Christian Western civilisation could be beneficial to white Christian people of the West.
      After the US became independent the number of immigrants moving to the US was around 6000 a year. That figure started to grow after 1850, running at about 170,000 a year.
      Here in the UK, we are accepting around 250,000 immigrants a year. More in a year in a tiny country (when compared to the North American continent) than went to the USA in its years of expansion.
      I don’t know what happened to native Americans.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_the_United_States

          1. I thought that that was a trick of the camera angle.

            The camera angles this morning were very poor, there were several I initially thought were forward but the replays allowed one to see the “grass cut” and they were not forward after all.

            I’ll watch out again on the highlights. I’m assuming you mean the Welsh try.

          2. I’ve looked again on the highlights and I still think it’s tight, but ok. The camera angles were as I recalled, very misleading.
            I wonder whether the “feed” is from those “floating” cameras?

          3. Are those floating cameras also used at the Boat Race? – they always give misleading angles.

          4. Indeed! And a free “ho! ho!” uptick.

            I think the boat race ones are different from the cameras on wires that one sees “floating” across the stadia. I don’t know whether the Thames sets are drones/helicopter/boat or on cars. But as you note they give very misleading angles.

  32. The great hate crime HOAX: Britain is one of the most tolerant places on Earth. Douglas Murray. 28 October 2019.

    Figures compiled by the Home Office claim that there were 103,379 hate crimes committed last year. A record number, and up ten per cent on the year before. Various campaign groups disguised as charities insist that this is merely ‘the tip of the iceberg’.

    To which one might say simply: ‘Of course they do.’ For if you are sane and reasonable you will realise that all of this is nonsense – nonsense, in fact, of the purest, most disgraceful kind: professional nonsense, cooked up to serve a political purpose.

    Here is Douglas in fine form demolishing a major part of the Cultural Marxist program. There’s a good case for making him an honorary member of Nottl!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7617669/The-great-hate-crime-HOAX.html

    1. ‘Morning Minty
      A rare moment of disagreement,I have committed significantly more than a 10% increase in my hate crimes,in fact I’m sure they’re up at least 500%
      Not aimed at effnics or trannies but by all the gods and none I hate many of our politicians
      I have never called for arrests trials and hangings as much as I have in the last 12 months

      1. BBC Radio 4 reporting on a website asking for funds to assassinate Gina Miller. She is not amused. I hope it is a spoof site and gets taken down.

      3. I reminded my MP that November 5th was approaching and people would be considering why we were celebrating it. I haven’t had a reply other than a standard automated one.

  33. Five Albanian migrants detained at Chatham Docks

    The illegals have now switched from Calais Port to using smalls and also t the smaller freight only ports where checks are minimal

    Officials have detained five migrants at a Kent port. Immigration Enforcement was contacted by police at 3.15pm today, after officers attended an incident at Chatham Docks.

    In all, five men identifying themselves as Albanian nationals were apprehended and handed over to the Home Office.
    They will now be interviewed and their cases dealt with under immigration rules.

    Nine suspected migrants were also found in the back of a lorry on the M20, leading to a four-hour closure of sections of the motorway on Wednesday.

      1. It is well know that hundreds are getting in a week from the smaller UK ports. You can see illegals coming off the back of lorries and being loaded into small vans in the middle of the night

        Probably the lorry with the 39 in was taking them to a point where they would be put into small vans

          2. BJ,
            “Few border staff” I believe it would be better to have NO border staff but a well maintained & run BOUNTY office making ALL indigenous home guards.
            Substantial bounties for every illegal
            ( in good health, unmarked) brought in.

          3. A citizens’ army to deal with invasive species. Already been reported in the Guardian:

            “A citizen army is needed to help tackle invasive species that
            threaten the natural environment and in some cases human health, MPs
            have said.
            The cost to the economy of non-native species taking hold in the UK
            is estimated to be …..

            Among their recommendations, they call for an army of 1.3 million
            volunteers to be trained across the country to identify and respond to
            the threat from non-native species, in a scheme modelled on one
            developed in New Zealand.
            The report says urgent action is needed to slow the rate of arrival
            of invasive species and prevent them from becoming established..”

          7. Afternoon T,
            Sad to say they are already established in our society via
            mass uncontrolled immigration courtesy of the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition and a regular supporting cast of fools.
            Those indigenous outside the cast of supporting fools are the ones being prevented from protecting their own, even rhetorically so, try telling a paedophile to piss off,should only be done if you like porridge.
            Deputise all new born indigenous babies at birth, those with family tree roots at least 20 decades.
            Give the illegals a sporting chance ALL bounty seekers must wear a red jacket.
            Bounties will be paid in cash in a brown envelope immediately the illegal unit is captured, what is good enough for the politico will suffice for the bounty brigade.
            All captured MUST be in good stead.
            Also no ego seekers need apply to the bounty brigade as in, none possessing belts with pro mass uncontrolled immigration
            politico’s tongues, ears, & scalps will not be tolerated.

  34. Suspect stories with regard to the 39 in Lorry.

    Some reports claim that mobile phone messages were received from the back of the Lorry. This is highly unlikely to be true as these trailers are metal bodied and a signal would not penetrate it

          1. Marmite is the food of the Gods.
            I particularly treasure the time our Danish D-in-L’s father dolloped it onto his toast in a rather generous measure. British revenge on a Jarlsviking.
            And this was a man who had a tot of Gammel Dansk for breakfast.

          5. 🙂 The worrying thing is that MB and I enjoyed the substitute for orange juice.
            Day 1 – bleh…
            Day 2 – h’mmm….
            Day 3 – where’s the Gammel Dansk?

          8. Had to look it up.
            I can now add that to my extensive Danish vocabulary.
            The one that contains ‘pindsvin’, ‘tak for mel’ and … er … um …

          9. I think the second one is tak for mad (pronounced math) which means ” Thank you for food” and you say it after a meal, to the host. (Usually said mostly in a family context,a bit like choldren saying “may I get down” or “may I leave the table” here).

            Pindsvin = hedghog – try “skilpadde” = tortoise. I remember our friends, who had a Danish au pair and the family joke became their funny attempts to pronounce that – their version was “skiddle paddle”…

          2. When I have toast for breakfast I will usually have Marmite with peanut butter, cottage cheese or humus. The two latter topped with sliced tomato.

          3. This ma is a mite more restrained.
            She’s not demolishing half of the Peak District’s woodland.

          4. OI! It’s very rare that I actually fell a tree, most of the time they’ve already dropped themselves and most of those I do fell are usually Elms that have already been killed by Dutch Elm.

          6. Yet up here there are areas that, compared to photographs of 100y ago, are much more heavily wooded.

  36. The Saxon Queen is a military general and believès
    Plato was Quite right with his Ship of Fools in his Republic,
    speaking firmly of the collapse of democracy.
    If only her father Alfred of Wessex were around to march to parliament.

        2. We had that comment about the wrong poles the last time a polar pear was pictured with penguins, and it was pointed out that the penguin was on holiday. In this case, the bear has indeed swam a long way. 🙂

      2. Bears in the North, Penguins in the South.
        Which lot are on holiday and how did they get there?

        1. They hitched a lift in the boat that took the Sainted Greta across the Atlantic and forced the Captain to change course from South to North.

    3. I like to live dangerously. I will tell Emma Thomson that we’ve seen butterflies and bees in our garden.

      2. I have been concerned about this and other things connected to the countryside for the last fifty years at least. Where has she been all this time? Oh, horrors, it couldn’t be anything to do with err, a fading actress and publicity…. could it?

        Having said the above, I do not think ER are the answer to this problem, I would not be seen dead (hopefully) within a 100 miles of this group of hate-mongers.

    4. Morning Hugh

      Longbow polished and blooded axe ready for dark ages rebellion
      against fat polar bears sitting on foxes glacier mints in BBC studios.

        2. I’ve an Axe and Longbow and a sheepskin to
          throw over their eyes.
          The Saxon warrior Queen will beat the polar bear.

  38. The media wil have to stop castigating Trump over Syria for a few minutes
    .Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is reported dead again. Like a cat with nine lives,
    he has been around a while, and hopefully this time the news is correct.

  39. On the one hand the Remainers think the general public are too ignorant to vote – on the other they want 16 year olds who know very little and are even more ignorant to have the vote because they think they can be easily influenced for their political advantage.

    Do they think we cannot see through their sheer shabbiness or do they know we see through them and don’t give a toss?

        1. #MeToo.

          I joined the RAF at 15½ as a BOY Entrant and didn’t enter MAN service until 17½ and, yes, I was taxed with no vote until 21 in those days. There is a case for raising the voting age to 25.

        1. I get infuriated when certain elements try to equate the controlled and regulated Junior Entry sections of the British Forces with the child soldiers we’ve seen in so many African conflicts.

        2. Not in the frontline…but they are still deemed mature enough to join up….so why no let ’em vote….?

          1. ‘ cos at that age they’re immature, full of raging hormones and idealistic as hell until they experience real life and start to think for themselves. Even 18 is too young and the voting age should be upped to 25.

          3. Since you only have specious arguments and illogical reasoning, there is little point in continuing this dialogue.

          4. I think the Americans went to war with us over the issue of having to pay taxes but not having a vote on how those taxes were used…..

          2. Yet you were deemed mature enough to be allowed to join up i.e mature enough to consider the consequences of your action.

      3. I would look at that as the equivalent of an apprenticeship. You don’t qualify until you’ve passed the tests and finished the training.

        1. But we still allow it….so if it is fine for 16 year old to sign up, why is not fine for a 16 year old to vote?

          2. That is a completely specious argument. The services is a job. Any 16 year old can get a job, what is the difference between the Sevices and a carpenter apprenticeship?

          3. “…what is the difference between the Sevices and a carpenter apprenticeship?”

            If you can’t spot the difference..

          4. It’s still just another job that appeals to a different individual.
            I wouldn’t do it, but I accept that each to their own.

            As to 16 year olds voting I would go the other way and raise the voting age.
            And while about it I would be tempted to strike people with dementia off the register, along with people with more than three criminal convictions.

          7. The first thing to say here is that I think the system may already be FUBAR.

            I’m torn between 25 and 30.
            Certainly old enough to have seen at least one turn of the economic and parliamentary cycle so that the voter is more inclined to recognise what the results of the parties’policies actually result in, beyond the election promises.

          9. On income tax why not?

            On consumption taxes pay as now.
            Or are you suggesting that ALL under 18’s should pay no tax because they don’t get a vote?

          10. We don’t allow a 16 yo to vote, we don’t allow a 16 year old to fight, but there is nothing to prevent them taking up employment / training in either of those professions.

          11. I didn’t say there was anything stopping them….it just seems illogical to me to say that a 16 year old who wishes to join HM Forces is said to be so mature at 16 that they can fully appreciate the consequences of the choices they make but the same 16 year old isn’t mature enough to be allowed to vote…..

          12. Then you should also possess the intellect to recognise the hypocrisy of complaining about that when a 16 year old who isn’t allowed to vote in a political election is free to undertake employment / training in politics.

    1. I noticed amongst the candidates standing for the NEC a lot of ‘incestuous’ proposing, seconding etc, apart from those openly supporting Batten who each had different sets of supporting names. It did rather suggest a little clique all wanting to control the NEC, even without having any inside knowledge.

      1. C,
        There are those that wish to follow the “nige”route as in
        PC / Appeasement and are in reality as anti UKIP as farage.
        As for incestuous they are definitely that towards the party.
        Gerard Batten has proved his worth without doubt towards the party that is why the nec judged him to be “not of good standing” and took him off the leadership candidates election list.
        All members are informed as to what is taking place and will be given a say.
        Richard Braine / Gerard Batten IMHO are men for all reasons and the way forward.

  42. Has the EU made fhe final decision regarding not changing the clocks?

    I believe that EU nations will be given the option to have either summer time or winter time all year round but no option to change once the decision is made.

    The UK will have to follow suit during the transition period and keep summer or winter time.

    Let’s hope London opt for whatever makes life most difficult for the Scots, just so that the Nationalists can see another of the benefits of being controlled by the EU a little more clearly.

    Also, presumably we could have Belgium and Holland or France and Spain in different “time zones”, not to mention Eire and NI..

          2. UK has provisionally decided should it go ahead on BST all year round. It keeps us closer to the time zones in Europe

          3. And if they do it will be a bloody mistake.
            It didn’t work in the late ’60s and won’t work now.

          4. Well it did work the study found the accident rate did fall and health improved slightly as most people body clocks are dictated by daylight

    2. Has everyone but me forgotten the appalling British Standard Time experiment in the late ’50s/early ’70s? Because most of Britain is to the West of the Greenwich Meridian, we had the situation of daylight being delayed until well into the morning.
      The UK’s “natural” time zone is GMT and that is what we should use all year round.

        1. If it happen UK has decided on BST all year round. It also keeps us close to EU timezones

        1. Not Double Summer Time, but the clocks being kept one hour ahead of Greenwich all year round.
          It was bloody awful!

          1. I remember it well, it started in 1968 and was abandoned in 1971. It was awful going to work in the dark, sliding over the frozen ground oop north to catch the ‘bus to the hospital (Jimmy’s, if anyone is interested).

          2. I only heard about it from aunts who worked in aircraft repair during WWII. Not old enough to remember it personally.

          4. 1916 Defence Of The Realm Act.
            Introduced Licencing Hours, imposing the compulsory pub closure in the afternoon to persuade munitions workers to go back to work.
            Also introduced the nationalisation of the breweries and associated pubs in Carlisle.
            A further measure, in order to conserve stocks of grain, restricted the brewing of stouts and porters in England, Scotland and Wales. But NOT Ireland which led to the emergence of Guinness as the leading stout in the UK.

          5. Indeed. We followed the Germans who introduced it in 1916. Hitherto it had been sensibly rejected.

      3. Worst Airlines in the World

        1) Brussels Airlines

        On-time performance: 7.7
        Quality of service: 6.3
        Claim processing: 8.1
        TOTAL: 7.33 (out of 10)

        2) Tarom 2 of 25

        On-time performance: 7.8
        Quality of service: 6.3
        Claim processing: 7.9
        TOTAL: 7.31

        3) Saudi Arabian Airlines

        On-time performance: 8.1
        Quality of service: 7.8
        Claim processing: 6.0
        TOTAL: 7.29

        4). Thomas Cook Airlines (Now defunct)

        On-time performance: 8.0
        Quality of service: 6.3
        Claim processing: 7.4
        TOTAL: 7.23

        5). Adria Airways

        On-time performance: 7.9
        Quality of service: 6.0
        Claim processing: 7.8
        TOTAL: 7.23

        6). Avianca

        On-time performance: 7.4
        Quality of service: 6.5
        Claim processing: 7.8
        TOTAL: 7.22

        7). Vueling Airlines

        On-time performance: 8.8
        Quality of service: 6.0
        Claim processing: 6.5
        TOTAL: 7.09 (out of 10)

        8). Aeroflot Russian Airlines

        On-time performance: 7.9
        Quality of service: 8.0
        Claim processing: 5.0
        TOTAL: 6.97 (out of 10)

        9). Czech Airlines

        On-time performance: 7.4
        Quality of service: 6.0
        Claim processing: 7.1
        TOTAL: 6.81 (out of 10)

        10). Kuwait Airways

        On-time performance: 7.6
        Quality of service: 6.0
        Claim processing: 6.4
        TOTAL: 6.66 (out of 10)

        11). Air India

        On-time performance: 5.8
        Quality of service: 6.3
        Claim processing: 7.8
        TOTAL: 6.61 (out of 10)

        12). Asiana Airlines

        On-time performance: 5.7
        Quality of service: 9.5
        Claim processing: 4.0
        TOTAL: 6.41 (out of 10)

        13). Tap Portugal

        On-time performance: 6.9
        Quality of service: 6.3
        Claim processing: 6.1
        TOTAL: 6.4 (out of 10)

        13). Jet2.com

        On-time performance: 8.5
        Quality of service: 6.8
        Claim processing: 3.8
        TOTAL: 6.37 (out of 10)

        14) Thai Airways

        On-time performance: 6.9
        Quality of service: 8.0
        Claim processing: 4.2
        TOTAL: 6.36 (out of 10)

        15). Jet Airways

        On-time performance: 6.5
        Quality of service: 6.5
        Claim processing: 5.6
        TOTAL: 6.2 (out of 10)

        16). Aerolineas Argentinas

        On-time performance: 8.5
        Quality of service: 6.5
        Claim processing: 3.6
        TOTAL: 6.2

        17) . Iberia

        On-time performance: 8.4
        Quality of service: 7.8
        Claim processing: 2.3
        TOTAL: 6.13

        18). Korean Air

        On-time performance: 6.4
        Quality of service: 8.3
        Claim processing: 3.7
        TOTAL: 6.13

        19) Ryanair

        On-time performance: 8.6
        Quality of service: 6.3
        Claim processing: 3.3
        TOTAL: 6.03

        20). Air Mauritius

        On-time performance: 6.9
        Quality of service: 7.8
        Claim processing: 3.3
        TOTAL: 5.99

        22). Easyjet

        On-time performance: 7.8
        Quality of service: 7.8
        Claim processing: 1.3
        TOTAL: 5.66

        . 23) Pakistan International Airlines

        On-time performance: 6.1
        Quality of service: 6.0
        Claim processing: 4.2
        TOTAL: 5.43

        24). Royal Jordanian Airlines

        On-time performance: 8.3
        Quality of service: 6.3
        Claim processing: 0.8
        TOTAL: 5.13

        25 ) WOW Air ( Now Defunct )

        On-time performance: 7.5
        Quality of service: 6.0
        Claim processing: 1.7
        TOTAL: 5.04

      4. Still fresh in my memory Bob and I remind the world of it every year when somebody trots out that tired old cliche (which they always do) about the experiment being ended to ‘suit the Scottish farmers’.

        1968 to 1971. Almost everyone north-west of Kent hated it. It was voted out by a large majority in Parliament. I was surveying on sites at the time as a junior and in the winter it was sometimes ten o’clock before we could get out and do the morning surveys. The sun didn’t rise in these parts (of England!) until 09.30 in December and on cloudy mornings, of which there were plenty it was dark for much longer. It was depressing.

        That was the time when schoolkids for the first time ever were kitted out with reflective armbands to go to school on the dark mornings so that tired drivers on roads where the frost had less time to melt could see them.

        And we still came home in the dark.

    3. The European Union law-makers can take a running jump at themselves. They suffer from a severe sense of their own importance.

      1. No, Tony, we (pretend that’s in italics, for some reason my iPad won’t change when I press the icon) we suffer from a severe sense of their own importance!

      2. Of course they do. They’re a bunch of failed incompetent idiots. The EU is simply a retirement home for failed ex communists.

    4. Let’s hope London opt for whatever makes life easiest for the English. If Scotland want to do something different then let them get on with it.

        1. And there, Sos, is the crux of the matter. The EU ‘won’t permit it’. What the flying f.uck has it got to do with a bunch of overpaid bureaucrats in Belgium?
          Short answer – nothing.

          1. Agreed.

            One advantage the UK has is its time-zone for international markets, particularly financial markets.
            We are open simultaneously during “business hours” at some point for every major financial centre, even if it’s only a short window. I am sure that if they could get away with it the EU would try to stymie that marginal advantage.

          2. I worked in a company that did most of its business with the Continent. We kept the same office hours as France.

          3. No reason why not, yer French knock off early.

            That must have given you shorter than UK days at work.

      2. Simple if Scotlnd does not like it it can have its own time zone or perhaps simpler it to change working hours in scoitand so instead of say 8am to 5pm they work 9am to 6pm

  44. How Long before we see some National Newspapers Closures ?

    Circulations are falling fast and on line revenues are not making up for that. Increasingly the National papers are under common ownership and are already merging news teems. I cannot see them keeping all the titles going for long although perhaps they might keep them separate on line

    Reach owns the following. Many of them targeting a similar market

    Daily Express
    Sunday Express
    Daily Mirror
    Sunday Mirror
    Sunday People
    Daily Star
    Daily Star Sunday

    1. This is a very good and disturbing question, and is not just related to the rubbish market.Looking forward to a world where there is no paper, is rather frightening. When did you last see someone reading a newspaper over breakfast in the local caff ? When you did, it was probably me.
      You do see people with square eyes and thin square boxes tapping a monitor like you do, with older people pushing the screen to make the words bigger, but as with the disappearence of books in libraries, that is a poor way to browse and learn. And it comes at a cost. When did kids last earn a few quid from delivering newspapers ?
      On the bright side, the disappearance of the Guardian would be a huge benefit to us all.

      1. I prefer the broadsheet Daily Telegraph but it is not easy to read on a crowded train or on a plane.

          2. It was a breakthrough in its time . Until a decade or so ago it was still a retirement for shipping. Almost never used though just for use in emergencies when Morse might get through. Satellites though have pretty much removed any real need for it

          4. When I took my Morse test (for my amateur radio licence) the other chap being tested at the same time was a merchant seaman. We are talking late 1970s.

        2. I often get egg on my shirt when reading the Times over breakfast. I still prefer the paper version.

  46. GoFundMe page for Gina Miller hitman probed by police

    Police are investigating a crowdfunding page which advocated killing anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller.
    The page, which had been on the GoFundMe website since April, sought to generate £10,000 for a hitman to kill Ms Miller, but did not raise any money before it was taken down.

    A Met Police spokesman said: “Officers from the Met’s south west CID team are currently investigating a report of threats to kill that was reported to them on Wednesday, October 23.

    “Enquiries remain ongoing and the victim, a female aged in her 50s, has been regularly updated.”

  47. Hounslow stabbing: Man fighting for life after sustaining ‘multiple injuries’ in high street

    Hounslow seems to be a hotspot for knife crime

    A man is in a life-threatening condition after being stabbed multiple times in a west London high street. Paramedics called police to Hounslow High Street just before 5am on Sunday. The 30-year-old victim had sustained multiple stab injuries and was taken to hospital. Police said in a statement just before 10am that his injuries are life-threatening. There have been no arrests, with officers appealing for information.

    Anyone who can assist is asked to call police on 101, quoting reference CAD 1854 of October 27.. If you have the patience to wait for ever and dont mind being charged for the call

  49. The UK Government has announced that diesel-only trains will be phased out by 2040. Currently, 29% of the UK’s fleet is diesel

    Seerm’s highly unlikely to happen. Many minor branch lines will never be electrified the costs cannot be justified and in any case new bi mode trains are only now being delivered

    With freight it will never go a 100% electric as many freight-lines are not electrified and also in sidings and freight depots it would not be sensible to have 25KV overhead lines

    My guess is bi modes will still be allowed although at present I don think they have any powerful bi mode locomotives that would be need for freight

      1. Parts of the London Underground limped on with steam. The last two serves to go cease stem operation was the Epping to Onger section of the Central line. It carried on using steam provided by BR for some years. Later on they electrified it on the cheap and that did not really work as ias only one 4 car train could operate on that section of the line at any one time. THey did beef it up a bit but it was never a success and that section of the Central Ine closed

        The final steam service on the Underground was the Rickmansworth to Aylesbury Station Hotels section of the Metropolitan line. It finally got part electrified I think in the 1960’s but only as far as Amersham. The section beyond there was given up

    3. Some of those clocks look quite elaborate and might need keys to change the time, but being generous and saying 20 seconds per clock, to alter 5,000 of them would take 1,667 minutes, or almost 28 hours.

      Some people have too much time on their hands.

        1. Indeed, John, thank you. I know you prolly don’t go to Calais much any more since your beloved stopped tunnelling – but we found a smashing win bar/resto last night in Calais:

          Du vignoble a verre – in the Place d’Armes. Brilliant. Midday – in the week and Sat evening only.

          3. I always prefer Boulogne much nice but more difficult to get to since the Ferry services ended

            The city is divided into several parts :

            City centre : groups historic and administrative buildings, and also accommodations, stores, banks, churches, pedestrian streets and places.

            Fortified town : old-town where are a lot of historic monuments (the castle-museum, the basilica, the belfry, the imperial palace) and also the city hall and the courthouse. it is surrounded by 13th-century ramparts very appreciated today by walkers.

            Gambetta-Sainte-Beuve : tourist area situated in the northwest of the city, on the edge of the beach and the recreational harbour
            .
            Capécure : economic and industrial area, situated in the west of the city, around the harbour.

            Saint-Pierre (Saint Peter) : former neighborhood of the fishermen, destroyed during World War II and reconstructed after.
            Chemin Vert (Green path) : zone created in the 1950s, knowing today poverty and unemployment. it is the neighborhood of Franck Ribéry.

            Dernier Sou (Last penny) : residential area situated in the east of the city.

            Beaurepaire (Beautiful hideout) : residential area situated in the north of the city.

            Bréquerecque : residential area situated in the south of the city.

    16. Ironically, the church clock went back with no trouble, but my watch and the Kitchen wall clock, both of which are radio controlled, resolutely refused to switch to GMT. Go figure…

  52. Apols if already posted.
    The Hefferlump giving it to the Poison Dwarf with both barrels.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/27/parliament-needs-honest-self-effacing-speaker-repair-damage/

    Parliament needs an honest, self-effacing Speaker to repair the damage wrought by Bercow

    “Unless he, like Brexit, is delayed, John Bercow leaves the Chair at the House of Commons next Thursday. He has demeaned the office even more than his predecessor, Michael Martin, did. That he endured for 10 years and was three times re-elected might suggest he was a success. In fact, it indicates the complicity of Labour in Mr Bercow’s epic of vanity and exhibitionism, because they were the main beneficiaries of his warped interpretation of his impartiality.

    He made some helpful innovations; that nursing mothers could take babies through the division lobbies, for example, or in allowing more urgent questions to increase the accountability of government. But it became obvious during his tenure that his boast about improving the rights of backbenchers was merely a means to an end, the end being the projection of the celebrity of Mr Bercow.

    More than any Speaker in recent times he liked the sound of his own voice. As with many half-educated people who have read a dictionary, he enjoyed showing off the latest words he had discovered, deepening his air of preening pomposity. He developed his brand as a comedy act, soiling the dignity of his office. But then previous speakers had a sense of seriousness about the institution they served, a lightness of touch and a scrupulous sense of fairness; that could never be said of Mr Bercow.

    Nor has the Commons satisfactorily held him to account for numerous accusations of harassment and bullying, which he denies. Mr Bercow, accused of hiding behind the protection of the chair and of those opposition MPs to whom he has been a useful idiot, has sometimes graphically insulted MPs who have either questioned his integrity or with whom he has simply disagreed. One might dismiss such conduct as an emanation of small-man syndrome, but that does nothing to help the institution he has damaged by his odious behaviour.

    Nothing became him in his role like the leaving of it. In the lead-up to his departure he routinely took the part of MPs committed to ignore and violate the democratic wishes of the British people over Brexit. He became overtly political in his determination to hinder a government seeking to implement those wishes. This turn as a politically-toxic Norman Wisdom may have amused the Government’s opponents, but it has set a dangerous precedent; opposition MPs would not relish it so much were a speaker to take against them as Mr Bercow has unashamedly taken against the Tories; and it would knock the last nails into the coffin of parliament’s already diseased reputation.

    MPs should now elect an honourable, competent, honest and self-effacing Speaker, such as Lindsay Hoyle or Eleanor Laing. They should empower a select committee to summon the Speaker, if necessary, and to hold him or her to account. And a term limit, perhaps of seven years, should be imposed. Mr Bercow went out of control while sensible people watched, aghast. The Commons cannot allow that again. And the establishment should repay his institutional abuse by ensuring parliament has seen the last of him, by forbidding him to take his toxicity to the House of Lords.”

        2. Norman Wisdom is a hero in Albania. Every square is named after him as is every other street, all public buildings, theatres and cinemas. Most cinemas show all his films at least once a week. The Central Bank of Albania already has plans in place to print their version of the Euro notes with a portrait of Norman Wisdom in scenes from his films. (Some might have proposed either King Zog or Enver Hoxha, but these really were non-starters.)

          1. Must be difficult visiting Albania and asking a local for directions to Norman Wisdom Street. Incidentally, and I may have already reported this on this site, a couple of weeks ago I went to Deal for the day and the bus I was on stopped outside a Weatherspoons called “The Sir Norman Wisdom”.

    2. “He has demeaned the office even more than his predecessor, Michael Martin, did.”

      Wow, that takes real skill!

      Thanks for posting, Anne. The Heff is spot on. I would like to think that the Poison Dwarf has read this, and other articles – but if so they just seem to spur him on to new depths…

    3. There is no doubt in my view that Bercow has bought the commons into even more disrepute. What it does show is there are no effective controls of politicians

      1. His behaviour has certainly highlighted the need for the Speaker to operate within very strict parameters.
        We can no longer rely on convention or commonly understood norms of British behaviour.

  53. Good evening, each and all.

    Back in Blighty. Good trip. Not stopping here – red medicine required. I gather England surprised the rugby world yesterday. Hoping to be able to find it on catch-up.

    A demain.

      1. Very chilly an hour ago this evening when taking the dog for a walk. 7.00 pm (now) 4.6C, clear skies. Wrap up folks.

  54. It has been a beautiful day, muddy walk with dogs and a nice Sunday lunch in a pub in Wareham .

    The temperature has dropped like a stone , heating has come on .. normally put it on at 1900hrs … do we have a coal fire as well.. Glad we have a choice .. Yes, we have a choice … With all these green issues , choice is being taken away from lots of people .

    Is that fair .. just electricity is expensive .. Gas central heating is almost instant .. not too sure about electric .. I know people who have storage heaters and are not too happy. at least with my radiators I can put stuff on them to dry , and also erect the clothes horse to air stuff through .. Yep , I have a clothes dryer if the heating is on easy to use radiators . .

    WE have no heating upstairs … that is one of the quirky things about the property .. Heat is meant to rise .. er, not quite! That is another story .

    1. Wind and rain this a.m. Now a very pleasant 24°C and calm. Leaves are finally beginning to turn, though we do not get the spectacular colours seen in New England – not many Sugar Maples in this neck of the woods.

        1. It’s been so long that it’s difficult. “My” UK is the one that used to exist 40 years ago. Local pubs are still things that really don’t exist in our area. We have local bars in the towns but no real local equivalent to a country pub. Some really nice bars in the big city centres, but they tend to be a bit pricey – best visited on expenses!

          On the other hand, most things here are cheaper than Britain – especially houses, land, cars and definitely petrol – we pay the equivalent of about 50p/litre as an example, and our house prices are more comparable to the far north of Scotland, while physically being in commute distance from Washington DC. I dread to think what our current place would be worth the same distance from London.

          2. Devon and Cornwall too, Monmouthshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Northumberland…. (would someone like to continue the list?).

          1. My one grandmother had a beautiful polished copper one. A few sweeps through the bed with the hot embers inside, a “china” bottle and it did not matter that there was ice on the inside of the windows!

          2. Never mind the outside of the windows, we had ice on the inside of the windows in the 1950s.

          3. Yes, before the days of central heating .. when there were winter curtains and summer curtains .. draught excluders , gas pokers to start a fire off , frozen windows , lots of blankets , no fitted carpets , but large rugs and carpets .. draughts that came up through the floor boards …. and a potty under the bed! Grandma’s house as I remember it .

          4. When I was away at school, we had to have the dorm windows open all year round. Vividly remember waking up with snow on my bed once, as I slept next to the window. I feel cold just thinking about it!

        2. Oh gosh, I remember those, and hauling it up the bed with my feet for it to give me a warming cuddle!

        3. Gladstone used to pour hot tea into his water bottle.
          In the morning, he drank the cold tea.
          After that snippet of information, his ‘saving ‘ of fallen women seems quite normal.

          1. My brother’s a slum missionary,
            Saving young women from sin.
            He’ll save you a blonde for a shilling,
            Lord how the money rolls in.

    2. We leave our CH on 24/7/365. The first year we did that it saved about 20% off our gas bill. We never have a cold home as, regardless of the season, the heating comes on if it’s cold. We set the room stat at 21 from 6am -9pm and 15 for the night.
      As the rooms never get cold they warm quickly otherwise the first 2 hours the heating is on it’s dispelling the condensation that’s built up since it went off. It worked for us, is it worth a try. BTW upstairs is warmer than downstairs.

      1. “We leave our CH on 24/7/365”. Don’t you feel the cold every four years on February the 29th, grumpygrey?

        :-))

        1. Thankfully, Elsie, it doesn’t have a calendar. I know some people use the date to decide when the heating comes on. Ours is quite innovative and uses temperature. 😂

          2. Which is exactly why my own CH is kept on all the year round, gg. You and I are sensible people.

          3. Yes. The fabric of the house never gets cold. When we decided to do this we changed the control box and room stat. Until then the heating and hot water came on together. As the boiler is upstairs the downstairs remained cold until the water was hit. We now have the heating come on at 6am and the water at 8am. It works a treat.

      3. Very clever idea ..

        No need to fiddle around with anything .. i guess you are well insulated and cosy and not too exposed to the elements .. the back of our house is south facing .. light and sunny… and very hot in the summer .. too hot !
        No need for conservatory here .. The wind can drive us mad though .. we have our fair share of gales!

        1. The front of our 1938 home faces northeast and gets both north and east cold winds. I think that because of the way we use our heating the interior bricks act like a storage heater and they don’t get cold. Only my theory but it seems that way. Perhaps one of our architect friends here could explain. BTW we have a gas fire in the sitting room if it gets a bit chilly in the evening l

    3. We have a paraffin heater in our kitchen, which is northward facing. Much of France seems to heat itself with paraffin! If you go into the supermarkets from late September onwards (in France) the entrances are piled high with 20 ltrs containers of paraffin. The modern paraffin heaters are not like the cylindrical, tower paraffin heaters we remember from our childhood – they are now electronic; the slightest joggle and the whole thing cuts out. It is thermostatically controlled, it incorporates a timer and it is, apparently, a highly efficient method of heating the home. Paraffin is almost half the cost in France of buying it in the UK (why should this be, as we are still supposedly in the eu?). You seldom see paraffin heaters for sale here (but they are available on Amazon). It is almost impossible to knock over a modern paraffin heater, I have fallen over ours (we have two), one of which is sited in front of the conservatory doora from the living room, and due to its sturdy rectangular construction it still stands, but the joggle cuts everything out so it is highly unlikely to set the place alight.

      I hope this makes sense, I have just had a (home measure) G&T aperitif. I have read it through, but you never know….

        1. There is a downside to everything, isn’t there? We have a dehumidifier, which we acquired long before we got the paraffin heaters, which we have on for only an hour or so. Even a couple of hours’ ironing can produce 2 pints of water in the dehumidifier. Not to mention cooking, breathing…

      2. I love that you are enjoying your drink ..

        We rarely drink anymore , I sometimes wish though that things were different .

        Late Mother in law had paraffin heaters everywhere .. they made the ceilings yellow! Stoves they had used since wartime!!!

        1. Modern paraffin heaters are just so very different and worth considering. I remember the tower cylindrical heaters my mum used to put in the bathroom and hall, easily knocked over then and thus death traps. The smell of paraffin is so evocative of my childhood, of cosiness and large towels and the owl and the pussycat! I think my mum disposed of the heaters late 1950s.

          Yes, I did enjoy my G&T, I don’t very often indulge in an aperitif these days.

          1. I remember the coal house we had in an earlier property we lived in .. I was terrified .. dark cold and the spiders webs dangled everywhere.

        2. The advantage of the tower paraffin heater was you could boil a kettle on the top and make a pot of tea 🙂

      3. The problem with paraffin is the smell and the large amount of water vapour it gives off

      5. I still have one of those cylindrical tower paraffin heaters, but I no longer use it to heat a room.

      6. When with lived “oop North”when I was a child, we had one of those black Beatrice paraffin heaters in the hall, to keep things from getting too cold overnight. No central heating back then of course.

        1. We had a Valor 12 D when I was a small child. It sat in the Hall, on the basis that some of the heat would go upstairs. When it was really cold, it would be moved to the Bathroom, in the hope it would keep the pipes from freezing. It wasn’t always successful.
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a106746b055761e0c10480c1501f16a37f5c97949264ebd8faeccfc9e92c4107.jpg

          It was replaced in the late 60’s by a Permoid gas convector heater, similar in appearance. Would prolly be illegal now…

    4. Weused to insulate our radiators with damp clothes when we lived in the UK – it was like living in Tent City.
      Now we have a tumbler so no clothes strewn all over the house, but instead nice fluffy towels dried within an hour or so, and put away directly.

      1. We have a tumbler as well .. but it is an expensive method of drying .. This past week has been so wet.. We have had DOG towels drying everywhere.. 2 dogs .. lots of towels to dry!

        1. Good evening, Belle.

          Buy a cheap tumble dryer. Do you have a shed or suchlike? Stick it somewhere out of the way. Give the towels 15 mins to take most of the wet off and then air them.

        2. It takes a certain amount of energy to remove water from clothes. The same if supplied by radiators or tumbler – called Latent heat if evaporation.
          If taken from radiators, it means the rooms are cooler, even forgetting the insulating of the radiators. My tumbler runs wet air through a heat exchanger / condenser, then waste heat exhausted into the house, adding to the heating in the house. Thermostats on the radiators mean less leccy used by radiators to keep us warm.
          Also, I hate wet clothing draped all over. Mess! Ugh.

          1. OB

            Norway has so many brilliant ideas .. why don’t we do the same here.

            My drier is a condenser drier , but the water that accumulates in the plastic tank is cold and wasted when I empty it ..

          2. Us too (the water, that is)
            The hot air warms our basement amd saves the radiators a bit.

        3. How about one of those Lakeland airer-dryers? They come with a cover to keep all the heat in. Our DIL thinks they’re amazing and not very expensive to run. She has almost persuaded me to part with our cash. We are northward facing and from October one can forget about drying clothes – anything – outside.

          Edit: but one has to bear in mind that the water from the clothes has to go somewhere, as with a tumble dryer.

  55. “I don’t want to see on a list of candidates the same mediocre shower who have polished their trouser seats for the last twenty years.”

    And so say most of us.

    The above is an extract from the following article:

    My questions for Boris

    P.S. Unless I’ve time-travelled, I see Disqus is still on BST.

        1. You could move to Saskatchewan, they do not do this summer time business. Don’t parts or Arizona avoid summer time, same benefit and better weather than the frozen northern plains.

          1. Arizona doesn’t do summertime, but some of the Indian Nations there do. And some others don’t.

            Arizona and better weather don’t really go together, IMO. In summer the place gets hotter than the hinges. I used to have to go to Phoenix on business, and coming back to the rental car after a day’s work was a mess. Use handkerchief or similar to undo the car door – to hot to touch. Put the a/c on full, then close up and go back in the office for about 1/2 hour until it cools down enough to touch the controls. Black steering wheels are a special challenge – they get incredibly hot and you literally get burns if you are not careful.

            Not going any further north than we are now – winter is not bad here, compared to areas north. Summer gets hot and humid, but where we are we get any breeze that’s going, plus the river just below our place tends to moderate things a little.

    3. Is Boris Johnson aware of the existence of this site and if he is, does he read, mark, learn and inwardly digest its contents?

      I am beginning to think that the best election result would be a Conservative/Brexit Party victory with enough Brexit Paty seats to ensure that without The Brexit Party’s support the Conservatives would not be able to form a government and this would ensure a proper Brexit.

      The worst possible result would be an outright Conservative victory which would result in the May/Johnson capitulation coming into effect making Britain enslaved to the EU for many more years as a powerless and toothless vassal state.

    1. Splendid.

      Our small local cinema puts on similar from the Paris Opera.
      They tend to be very poorly attended and I fear they will stop streaming the productions.
      A great pity.

      1. The Vue relays from the Met and ROH have been very poorly attended for a long time; very well attended last night. Maybe the punters got stuck in the traffic and decided to go to the Vue because the central heating wasn’t working yet.
        It was an excellent producton/performance – nobody driving round the stage in an electric car, or serving beefburgers from a Big Mac stall.
        Modernised productions, especially from Europe, are an abomination.
        Glad I’m not alone here. The best way to get down-voted anywhere is to mention opera !!

        1. When we used to earn a few bob putting up exchange students in Tunbridge Wells we were once asked by some Germans:
          “Which is the best Opera House in the town?”

          Ho Ho.

          The RTW Opera house closed, it’s a Weatherspoons, I don’t think that there was ever another one.

          Where the Germans came from, a town our size might have had two or possibly three opera houses..

    2. That at least is one piece of good news. Streaming these productions to cinemas. I like to go and watch the Andre Rieux concerts with all the other oldies.

    2. It won’t happen, but I have a theory that the way to deal with the short selling Soros’s is to wait until the markets are closed.
      Then fix the exchange rate at well above the short sellers level and hold it there. Then force them to square their positions at huge losses.

      If they want to play dirty, so should the central banks.

      To Hell with insider dealing in these cases, use the knowledge of the central bank, pre-position and go for the kill.

    4. Gosh – harking back to 1992?
      Now … who was responsible for that debacle?
      Don’t tell me ….. it’ll come to me in a minute …..

    5. “The only winners will be speculators ME!

      Don’t you just love Mr Soros? A nice kind old gentleman looking out for us this way. If only all the foreigners mixed up in Brexit were so considerate and well-disposed towards us.

  58. Evening, all. The remainers don’t want time to scrutinise anything; they just want to kill off Brexit.

      1. It’s a message that needs to be repeated loud and often, Elsie 🙂 Otherwise their narrative is going to be accepted. You know the saying about tell a lie often enough …

        1. OK, then, Conners: THE REMAINERS DON’T WANT TIME TO SCRUTINISE ANYTHING; THEY JUST WANT TO KILL OFF BREXIT.

          1. It is reckoned that a message – even one new word – has to be repeated seven times before it registers in the brain.

          3. I guess you’re right, Annie. I am forever un-masking NoTTLers with their real name, but so far I haven’t received a single five bob postal order!

    3. I have yet t see them scrutinise anything in the commons. You just get MP’s standing up saying why they dont like it an waffling about anything

      THe deabate should be structured break rthe WAB down. It is in 5 sections I think and give the MP’s 2 days to review each section

    4. They cannot afford for the W/A to be publicly scrutinised because if the details of what it really means were to become public, then those who want to sign us up to it will be wiped out. People will arch an eyebrow as they look at the government and say: “Have you read this? Are you sure you are Conservatives? You want to hand control of the United Kingdom to a totalitarian state for HOW MANY years? On your bike.”

      They will look at Labour and say: “You say this surrender deal of Boris’s is not close enough for you? You want us to be tied even CLOSER to the EU? Get on that tandem with the Conservatives over there. Bye bye.”

      As for the Lib Dems, the smiling and banter will fall away as the words: “Revoke Article 50 and ignore us will you? Get the hell out of our country.”

      Then only those who want a real WTO Brexit will be elected and the two corrupted main parties will be down to 100 seats each as The Brexit Party steams into first place. Even those who have been conditioned to think that only the two main parties can win under our old system will be forced to open their eyes to this new reality. Things are not chugging along as they always have been anymore. If you cannot feel change in the air, then you must be bereft of senses.

      Which is why it is critical for the MP’s that nobody looks too closely at how bad this Remain-Treaty really is. It will be their undoing.

        1. sosraboc – our country lives and is free, or is forced to fight a war for survival and then becomes free. We are the only ones who can make the United Kingdom a nation state again, they won’t let us go by themselves. It only takes a few dedicated people with conviction to change the world, it has always been this way.

          The only people who can trap us in the EU and stop us leaving are those who will vote for the same people who are stopping us leaving now. Don’t let them lie to you and tell you that nothing can change. If they were not so terrified of The Brexit Party then they would not have a media blackout on them.

          Every time Nigel Farage or one of the other Brexit Party MEP’s (who hammered the 2 main parties at the last EU election) speaks, voters can spot someone who will take us out of the EU. The vast majority of the others won’t.

          3. We are British. Sturdy pessimism has served us well over the centuries. Then we are forced to have moments of steely-eyed action, which are followed by much merriment and quaffing of beer.

            Our MP’s want us to give up, but they are not taking the future of our country away from us. We will be dancing on the graves of their political careers yet. 🙂

          5. I am honoured, but not worthy. They can keep the salary and the pension, I’ll rouse rabbles from the sidelines. 🙂

            (Edit – On that note, I am fleeing a bit earlier tonight. I want to see how much the light levels have changed at 06:00am when I like to be on the beach, now the clocks have changed. We have the best season coming up for watching the waves roll in under cold winter skies. When the conditions are right, you have warm sea water under very cold air and the water is streaming as far as the eye can see. Out to the horizon if it is not too thick. I love this time of year. 🙂

      2. This is a warning of what is coming if Johnson gets his “great deal” ratified. Every MP should see this and be worried, very worried. Even though they are under threat now, should this “deal” make it on to the statute the threat will escalate. It could see the end of Johnson and the Tories, possibly forever and the fallout will touch everyone who voted for the destruction of the UK. Barnier’s line about divorce and paying the price is a portent of the EU’s intent. Many on here have expressed their concerns over the EU being in a position to literally asset strip this country, hamstring our industries and ruin our finances as an example to others. This report from Rupert Lowe is timely and worrying.

        https://twitter.com/BrexitHome/status/1188499869167734790

  59. Reform of Polities

    Currently modern politics is no longer fit for purpose . Politicians of all parties have shown no respect to the electorate and feel they can do exactly as they please
    To try to justify this they try to rely on the claim they are representatives and not delegates. That though is only partially true. They are there to represent their electorate and it is the electorate that are ultimately their boss. With Br-exit MP’s had a clear mandate to take us out of the EU yet many MP’s are ignoring that including ones that put taking us out of the EU in their manifestos. All MP’s though regardless of what they put in their manifestos have a DUTY to take us out of the EU as they were given a binding Instruction from the electorate

    We also need to put a stop of MP’s flitting from party to party as takes there fancy

    MP’s that get any prison sentence of 3 months or more should have to resign their seat

    Key items in party manifestos have to be made legally binding . Accepting that things can change over 5 years Key items can be changed but only with the consent of the electorate

    Reform of the role of the Speaker. It has become clear that adequate and effective control of the Speaker are not in place it also clear the Speaker has functions that he or she should not have such as selecting which amendments should go forward to a vote. If there has to be a limit on the amendment then the MP’s should vote on which ones go forward or you just have a draw

  60. Peoples Referendum

    This is a total load of nonsense and is just an attempt to scupper Brexit. None of them can even agree on the question. It would take almost 9 months to organise one and the result would be unlikely to be much different to the previous one. It also resolves nothing as we still have a government that cannot govern so would then need a general election but unless the polls look good for Labour tthey wold continue to block one so we could have a government that canot govern forced to stay in power till 2022

  61. How Long to Scutinize the WAG?

    I would say it should not take any more than a week. Mind you the commons chamber does not scrutinise it any way . They just sound off about how they dont like it

    1. The rugby wags looked classier than the football wags who mostly look like tarts. I could scrutinise the rugby wags all day. Think that would be enough.

          1. Do you know that the meaning I’m putting it in (one who can be amusing), has almost entirely disappeared. I didn’t think it was that old fashioned.

          2. My take, until recently, has been the same as yours.

            My comment was directed at Phizzee’s, on the back of yours.

            It took me a while, when the wives and girfriends meme appeared, to realise it wasn’t about humour but about flash gits.

  63. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7619445/French-police-arrest-two-Romanian-lorry-drivers.html

    French police arrest two Romanian lorry drivers after British border guards in Calais discovered eight Afghan migrants including two young children in a refrigerated truck bound for Britain
    The arrests were made in the port of Calais in France at 5am on Sunday morning
    The Romanian lorry drivers were tonight held in custody after the discovery
    It came after 39 bodies were found in a back of a refrigerated truck in Essex

    1. At least they didn’t get to the UK.

      Remember France is a civilised country.

      Why would anyone want to get to the UK, I wonder?

    1. Interesting who he is thanking.

      Even people who many would think of as America’s enemies

  67. ” A stained, cigarette-burned cardigan unwashed in nearly three decades has sold at auction for $334,000 (£260,000).
    Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain wore the green button-up during the band’s MTV “Unplugged” performance in 1993.
    It has not been cleaned since he last wore it.”
    When the stinking cardigan fetches the same price as his guitar, I am again amazed at the hero-worship of the scum end of pop music.

    1. It is amazing what people will pay for, for things of no real value. You can get your fingers badly burnt though as there is a very limited markets and trends come and go and you can end up losing a lot of money. At one time Stamp collecting was big now not many people are interested in it and the value of old stamps has plummeted

      1. The market in paper collectibles generally has nose-dived. Young people are not interested. And people are simply not interested in history.

    2. It is amazing what people will pay for, for things of no real value. You can get your fingers badly burnt though as there is a very limited markets and trends come and go and you can end up losing a lot of money. At one time Stamp collecting was big now not many people are interested in it and the value of old stamps has plummeted

  68. I am tired of Brèxit defeatists, it’s not dead as some think.
    Its fighting for creation but we need a great leader.
    one with gumption, fire in belly and
    a horse named Black Jack or something similar.
    We will leave the EU, come what may .

    # peeved that it’s dark at 5pm in the afternoon

    1. In theory tomorrow is a critical day as a decision of some sort has to be made but you never no what new twists and turrn’s will turn up

      The one thing that has become ever more clear is MP’s do not serve their electorates

      1. Quite true Bill, and that is what must change. Mps must be brought to heel and, should they start disobeying us, their masters again, we slap them down with ten tons of recall with loss of pension and pay for the year, reclaimed through their own property.

    2. Never mind, hunting was good today. There’s roast pig’s belly, gratin potatoes & steamed small vegetables, followed by stewed plums & kefir.

      2. That sounds very yummy indeed and it’ll rattle grass hogging Vegans .

        Salmon fillet with feta cheese and mint with roast potatoes,
        one of the last fishy things I think now .

          1. Last Friday had roast venison with blood sausage,
            game chips with carrots, greens, fruit compote and gravy
            followed by chocolate cake with blackberries and armiretto
            cream ( know I’ve spelt the cream wrong ).

        1. I’ve gone off chicken, unless it’s poussin. Even then, I give the breast to the cat.

        1. They did say it would be colder. I’ll have to get my plants in this week. Hope they survive the night.

          4. We had frost this morning. I had already moved my tender plants into the greenhouse, fortunately.

          7. MB has moved all his tender plants into the conservatory today.
            (He doesn’t include me in that category.)

          8. I should have done it. Hopefully they’ll still be ok tomorrow. It’s not quite as cold in the west as the east.

      2. Yes it’s horrible when it first becomes dark late afternoon,
        We eventually get used to it and think it cosy when
        eating apple crumble and custard in the evening.
        But not quite yet. Yesterday was awful, the rain doesn’t help .

    4. Afternoon A,
      Very anti PC / Appeasement “Black jack” could get you a 3 month state education stretch.
      Try multi coloured john.
      Keep up the same voting pattern and stock up on
      tar fire brands that will be the answer to the dark, if you can find the matches.

          1. Happening here in Britain … why weren’t they cautioned … where were the police … if we did that in Pakistan we would be shot or beaten with sticks .. These people take an absolute liberty .. Why are they mouthy in soft touch Britain , yes , I know why!

          2. It seems the Brit police make sure they are not around when POC are harassing white folks. At least Katie was old enough (over 12) not to be desired for the odd orgy.

    5. Console yourself with the thought that even if it were pretending to be 6pm, it would still be dark.

    3. It is the Guardian. It is just pure speculation. The vote has not taken place yet and if they stick their original plan they eill not vote on an extension untill the commons have voted on the genera; election

        1. Monday will be interesting. The General Election votes first . Now the EU must be holding back for a reason the implication is the outcome of this vote will affect how the EU play it otherwise why wait. The difficulty for Labor is they have no idea what will hapen nor have I come to that

    4. The EU are playing our politicians for the inveterate fools they are. Our lot never owned the plot in the first instance. The current crop of British politicians are unused to making their own decisions and had become rubber stamping tick box idiots serving their German masters.

      The risk to us is that we might, by accepting or acquiescing in the Withdrawal Agreement, become hindered by yet another EU formulated Treaty. John Major and Gordon Brown furtively signed us up to earlier EU Treaties from which it now appears difficult to escape.

      In addition the demolition of our Law Lords by Blair with supremacy diverted to the purely political appointees of the Supreme Court has stymied effective legal questioning of even the more obvious points of law.

      It will require a politician of considerable political weight and intelligence to enable our release from the deathly embrace of the EU.

        2. ..and those guts require telling ’em, “Thank you for the extension, we don’t want it, we are leaving on Hallowe’en, Good night and Good-bye.”

          Let the Remainers and their supine Supreme Court do its worst. We shall have left. Do you have the guts, Boris? Stick it to them.

  70. The Sad Death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

    The criminal cried, as he dropped him down,

    In a state of wild alarm –

    With a frightful, frantic, fearful frown,

    I bared my big right arm.

    I seized him by his little pig-tail,

    And on his knees fell he,

    As he squirmed and struggled,

    And gurgled and guggled,

    I drew my snickersnee,

    My snickersnee!

    Oh, never shall I

    Forget the cry,

    Or the shriek that shrieked he,

    As I gnashed my teeth,

    When from its sheath

    I drew my snickersnee!

    2. I’d say it was a load of virtue-signalling bollox but that cannot apply. Get yourself some yellow tampons and have some sunny periods.

  73. I have just been out in the garden with the dogs .. pre bedtime wees.. and guess what… our first frost of the Autumn .. Checked the cars in the drive … and their windscreens are frosted up .. so now have put frost protector covers on the windscreens . it has been such a sunny warm day… and now the stars are twinkling frostily.

  74. The IS leader detonated his suicide vest which killed him and his 3 children taken by him into a tunnel which collapsed on top of them.l. According to the DT a DNA test was done on bits of his body extracted from the debris within and within 15 minutes the DNA test confirmed his identity. Seems a bit fast for a DNA result.

    2. Now, if we can just persuade, Drunkner, Tusk, Barnier and co to follow in his footsteps

    3. Damned Nasty Arab test. It is a much quicker process.

      (only sad bit is that three children were killed by their own father)

    1. I have now – and what a bunch of plonkers. Someone has worked for 24 years at the minimum wage and is only now, sounding off about it. Obviously without the sense, qualification or the ability to get qualified and a better job.

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