922 thoughts on “Monday 28 October: Labour’s avoidance of a general election is an admission it fears defeat”

        1. Good morning 1642again (and indeed all other NoTTLers). It looks like the phantom downvoter has taken a dislike to you today.

    1. Good morning, Peddy. It looks like the phantom downvoted has turned his attention from you to 1642again today.

        1. Yo no lo se, así que tendrás que confiar en mí este Viernes. (Buenos días, btw pes***.)

          ***: pes = Por El Sendero.

          :-))

          1. No, it’s yer actual Spanish, a few pages on from “Sangria para dos, por favor”.

          5. On my Iron Age England course, not only was I surprised
            at how civilised and industrious we were before the Romans ,
            arrived. We even had our own monetary system and buried
            coins so that the Romans wouldn’t find them. We even built
            roads hundreds of years before the Romans even arrived
            and they took the glory for something they didn’t create.
            But what surprised me really was learning of the first Britons
            being the Old Welsh Celts and the long and we’ll travelled
            history of those people. There was I thinking of
            lava bread and Swansea but there is more to them then that .

    1. I see some Blues are now talking up another Blue to be speaker… 🙂 Perhaps the Speaker ought to be picked at random from the GBE….do a month as Speaker and then the next member of the GBE gets picked and so on…..

      1. Morning Gunner,
        Parliament is a close shop, a political circus all in-house, all
        defence / attack a mockery, and the same political circus animals supported and fed on a regular basis.
        Politicians mindset is lifestyles MUST be protected, then family, party, country, ongoing.

  4. Good Morning Folks,

    It got light early today but putting the clocks back has caused climate change, cold and a touch of frost here.

  5. Morning to all.

    SIR – Labour’s condition for agreeing to an election is that no-deal be ruled out by law (report, October 26).

    If they want this, why not agree to an election, put it in their manifesto and see whether or not they get elected. If a different party – one that does not have the removal of no-deal in its manifesto – wins power, then that party can continue the negotiations with the European Union accordingly.

    That is how democracy works, and the electorate will have settled the question. By seeking to make this a precondition for agreeing to an election, Labour MPs are, in effect, admitting that they will not win.

    Andy Bebbington
    Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire

    SIR – Perhaps Boris Johnson would have more luck getting a general election if he called it a “People’s Vote”.

    Tim Leach
    London SW19

    1. SIR – In Hull we voted emphatically to leave. All three of Hull’s Labour MPs are implacable Remainers, and all three constituencies are considered safe seats. But are they?

      At the last local elections here, only around 22 per cent of electors voted. The vote was split between Labour and the Lib Dems, with Labour retaining control of the city council. People claim that Hull is staunch Labour, but can we be sure of this with such low turnout?

      If the Conservatives or the Brexit Party want to win in places like Hull, they need to put forward high-calibre candidates and campaign on the ground in big numbers. I have lived in the same house for 31 years and have never met a Conservative canvasser.

      Will Wright
      Hull, East Yorkshire

        1. Of course. Owen told me he didn’t need to go to a hustings in Oswestry because it wasn’t worth the effort. It’s blue rosette on a donkey territory here.

      2. Well said, Will Wright. People of Hull – do your duty and dump your Remainiac MPs…you know it makes sense.

      3. Shame Austin Mitchell retired.
        He is a member of an endangered species; a Labour politician who actually feels loyalty to his own country.

      4. And the BP has to pick the sort of Red Leaning Leaver that Labour voters will go for….putting up re-tread Tory Boys and Tory Girls won’t work in those Red Leave areas….UKIP tested that plan to destruction when Nigel F. was Purple One.

    3. No government is bound by decisions made by its predecessor. Therefore, if no-deal were to be ruled out by law, if the Conservatives won the GE they could just repeal the law and put no-deal back on the table. So Labour’s proposal is just hot air.

  6. SIR – I find it somewhat ironic when I hear politicians proclaiming that they “do not trust Boris Johnson”.

    Have they really not yet worked out that the rest of us don’t trust any of them?

    Rowland Aarons
    London N3

  7. Morning again

    SIR – I read with interest your report (October 24) on the “student pods” offered by the University of the West of England to undergraduates, who describe them as “not fit for humans”.

    I wonder how they would have reacted to the accommodation given to merchant seafarers. I was lucky and served my cadetship with a progressive company, where the cadets had their own cabins, which were roughly six by eight feet, with a basin. Showers and toilets were down the corridor, which were shared between a maximum of six of us.

    We thought it was excellent, given that other companies expected their cadets to share a similar-sized cabin, sometimes with up to four others.

    Jack Hutchings
    Hull, East Yorkshire

    1. Ahh, but those undergrads are shelling out some serious cash for their accommodation….rightly, in terms of accommodation, they consider themselves to be customers not just ‘users’….

      1. I agree – the ‘en suite’ shower in my son’s first year accommodation at UEA was set in a cramped and nasty plastic pod. He would have been far better off had proper communal washing facilities been provided in the corridor. He had far better and cheaper accommodation when he and his friends rented a house together.

    2. Yo Epi

      Lucky sods.

      He should have tried a crew cruise on the Grey Funnel Line (RN when we had some ships)

      2. ‘Morning, Tryers. Did you watch yesterday evening the first prog in a series about the QE aircraft carrier? If so did you, like me, marvel at the fuss over the first landing of an F35 on its brand new deck? It was as if this was the riskiest task ever performed by the RN, not to mention the worried faces about what the jet blast might do to the nice, new, shiny surface? This was the RN’s Chief Test Pilot, FFS, and previously a distinguished Harrier pilot! The chances of him messing it up and wrecking his machine must have been in a minus quantity. As for destroying the deck…it’s a modern vessel designed and built to take this very aircraft! The ‘false worry’ really got on my nerves.

        2. Yo Hugh

          I was on Ark Royal R06, with the 892 NAS Phantoms, back in 1969
          That was interesting

          1. Ah, the F4…okay if it was leaking, worrying if not because that meant it was empty. Well, that applied to the RAF fleet, anyway.

  8. SIR – Philip Avery (Letters, October 25) admits cheerfully that the normal motorway cruise speed of his electric car is nearer to 60 than 70mph.

    Perhaps, rather than tinkering with the colour of number plates, the Government should be banning electric cars from motorways until the technology allows them to be driven at safe speeds.

    Jeremy Christian-Brookes
    Stourbridge, Worcestershire

    1. SIR – As long as Britain is heavily dependent on fossil fuels for reliable electricity generation, electric cars will simply transfer their pollution and carbon dioxide emissions to the power stations.

      Unless we have significant nuclear power capacity, electric cars will offer little environmental benefit and we would be better off concentrating on the proven advantages of efficient hybrid vehicles.

      Electric cars also have the significant drawback of having to carry all of their fuel with them, stored in very heavy batteries.

      The internal combustion engine obtains over three quarters of its fuel weight from the air around it, with only the hydrocarbon content carried in the fuel tank.

      Ian Statham
      Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

  9. Morning, everyone. Frost on the grass but the Sun is rising.

    My reply to John Redwood this morning.

    ‘What we want instead is an election to try to change the personnel of Parliament.’

    Are we to suppose that the major parties have bevies of new PPCs waiting in the wings and that the majority are of the Leave persuasion? The only party offering a range of new PPCs with a fresh look is the Brexit Party. Are you advocating that the Johnson/Cummings axis sees sense and embraces a pact to put Corbyn, Swinson et al. back in their respective boxes?

    1. Did you read Jamaica Inn ?

      Do you remember the line….

      “You can trust me, I am the Vicar of Altarnun” ?

        1. The vicar said he could be trusted… and the goodies believed him….

          ….but……………..

          1. Cripes! Don’t tell me, let me guess, was he deceiving the goodies? I’ve never read a du Maurier book, in fact I’m not very well read when it comes to novels, Shakespeare, etc. preferring history, science, astronomy etc.

          2. That’s the trouble with Polly, Korky, she’s always telling you the end of the story without writing Spoiler at the beginning of her post.

          4. …but “he” was really a “she” who self-declared herself as male long before women were admitted to the ministry by the C of E, i.e. she was really Rosa Klebb?

      2. So you’re saying (© Cathy Newman) that the Vicar of Altarnun is the Reverend George Soros, Polly?

      3. He was hideously white!

        (I seem to remember he was an albino! Daphne du Maurier was an inverted racist!)

    2. The issue with a Blue-BP pact is that Red Leave voters will melt away as they will not vote for the ‘Blues in Disguise’ – that is why the BP has selected Red Leaning Leave candidates for Red Leave seats…..

  10. SIR – The notion that GPs should conduct appointments standing up, as suggested by the Royal College of General Practitioners, is absurd.

    Visiting a doctor can be a worrying experience. Patients need to be relaxed, not made to feel they are being admonished by a regimental sergeant major.

    Andrew Hughes
    Durham

  11. The precondition set by this Parliament is that it is not lawful for the electorate to vote for any policy that does not receive approval of the present MPs, and if the electorate exceeds its remit to vote as directed by Parliament, then the election will be declared null and void and the present MPs resume their seats.

    This is democracy inni’?

    1. The logical consequences of the active cancellation of the Brexit referendum result.

    2. ‘Morning, Jeremy, this is partly the reason it has earned the title of The Contemptible Parliament.

  12. Tragic Vietnamese migrant ‘was kicked out of Britain’ before dying in Essex lorry

    Seems highly unlikely at least with the timescales given, The police do not deport people neither they would be handed over to the border force and then most likely put into detention for at least a few days. THe parents are claimed to ha to live in one of the poorest areas of the country but had a mortgage?

    A Vietnamese woman believed to have been among the 39 migrants who died in the back of a lorry is said to have reached Britain days earlier from France but was deported.
    Pham Thi Tra My ’s brother has claimed the 26-year-old was picked up by police after she arrived.
    He said in an interview: “She was arrested a few days ago and they returned her to France. Now we heard she might have died.

    ”Thi Tra My had sent her parents a heartbreaking message late on Tuesday night from the truck telling her she was “dying because she could not breathe”.
    Her distraught dad Pham Van Thin told how they tried to stop her making the dangerous trip from their home in Nghen, one of Vietnam’s poorest towns.
    He reportedly remortgaged the modest house to pay people-smugglers £30,000 for her passage to a better life in the UK.

    1. Shades of Grenfell Towers

      Soon, everybody in Asia will have had a relative in the lorry.

      The total will rapidly approach the number of Frenchies who were in the Resistance, after 10 June 1944

          2. Morning AS,
            Has a policeman’s helmet more rights than Katie hat one may
            ask ?
            The culprit would have been hunted down and on a porridge diet pronto.

          3. Katie Hopkins is considerably braver and has far more integrity than any member of our pathetic government.

          4. Morning R,
            She has very good taste also being a good friend of Gerard Batten, Tommy Robinson,& UKIP.
            She was also ahead or a head less on the decapitating list, Katies canister was to be presented as a wedding present, don’t know whether before or after the soup, no imfo.
            The canister removers are now on a regular diet of porridge.

        2. But surely they will want it 3 days later as people previously to young to vote will be able to vote

    3. He remortgaged his house to raise £30k for her trip? He had a very strange way of trying to stop her…

    4. Very unfortunate, but she (or her father) chose to enter the UK this risky and very expensive way, they bear the consequences.
      If she had stayed in France, not (yet) known for being a war zone, then it wouldn’t have happened.
      Tough titty, really.

  13. Is the a Catch in the Lib-Dem/SNP deal of offering a General Election?

    They want to move it 3 days forward but way is not clear. Are they going to attach any strings?

    One reason for moving it forward is they claim they want no deal off the table., I dont really see what moving it 3 days does for that. It could be they really want to kill of Boris’s deal

    In theory as what the Lib-Lab/SP proposes is a change in law then to get a General Election it needs a simply majority which should in theory be easily possible

    A potential risk is that they will try to attach conditions to the General Election vote

    3. More chance of double voting students being in their university towns.
      They can then either nip back home for a second bite of the cherry or Mummy and Daddy have already sorted their postal/proxy vote.

      1. Seems unlikely most would make there way home straight away and not hang about to vote

  14. DUP conference: Johnson ‘should seek Brexit deal changes’

    How? She seems to want the impossible. When we leave the EU we will need to apply tariffs on goods going to and coming from the EU. That will have to be done somewhere.In practice it is just a notional tax point it does not involve handing cash over at the border

    A similar thing goes on at present with VAT and that is whilst we are in the EU

    Boris Johnson should again seek to re-negotiate the Brexit deal if he wants DUP support, Arlene Foster has said.
    The DUP leader told the party’s conference that the DUP had sent the PM to the “naughty step in Parliament” twice in the last week.
    The DUP has twice voted against the government on crucial Brexit votes recently, because of its opposition to Mr Johnson’s Brexit strategy.
    The party said it would not support the NI arrangements negotiated by the PM.
    This is because it “creates a border in the Irish Sea”.

  15. The best one yet from the Left

    Apparently Boris is sexist as he referred to manpower. He must be horsiest as well as he also refereed to Horse power

  17. The Remainers get Even more desperate

    One of the latest is to say we should have a referendum & General Election on the same day.. Quite how that works who knows. Well it does not work

    1. The eleven surviving children are a bit of a worry.
      While I think the man showed extra vileness in deliberately killing three of his offspring, we do have to remember that those eleven represent potential trouble for the future.

  20. Should people who have pets get a proxy vote for their Pet. If you can have votes for 16 years old s why not ?. I am sure the Lib-Dem’s will be calling for votes for 14 year old’s next

    If anything the voting age should be increased to 18 as you now cannot leave education until then

    1. I put the case below for a 14-year-old to have a much greater say in the destiny of humanity.

      1. That must be the case which is full of holes, all the papers falling out, and the handle coming off..

      1. She only posted it, Peddy, because she feared you would correct a word which she feared she might have mis-spelt!

        :-))

  22. Morning Each,
    Regarding the General Election issue AKA the reshuffle of the usual I do
    believe that a General Strike would, at this point in time be more effective.
    People power withdrawn labour, not wishing to finance the man over there
    via the political men over here is an option to cut through the current sh!te
    being dished up by an out of control parliament.
    The way I see it is a reshuffle will just give the country, if lucky, a milder form of treachery, but treachery all the same.

    1. “The way I see it is a reshuffle will just give the country, if lucky, a milder form of treachery, but treachery all the same.”

      Pretty much.

  23. Lib-Dems considering removing the vote from people once they reach the state retirement age. There logic for this is they are far less likely to vote Lib-Dim

    They are also looking at weighted voting so the younger you are the greater your vote. The older you are the less your vote as an example the Average UK age is about 40 so that would give you 1 vote if you were 20 you would get 2 voters if you were 60 you would get 0.5 vote

    1. Next step, euthanise the retired, as they are clearly useless mouth and house-blockers.

      1. Other than older politicians of course, who can give us their great wisdom from experience.

  24. Thinking a thought this nippy morning:

    How many of the Extinction protesters are doing their bit for the planet and leaving their heating off to reduce CO2 emissions?

    1. Well we are now getting into winter most ER types will remain wrapped up in bed., They dont venture out in cold weather

    2. Or back in the real world, “Council Insurers Don’t Want Poppies Hung From Public Structures In Case One Falls Off And A Scum Chancer And Their Ambulance Chasing Lawyer Sue For Compensation”.

      ….admittedly that is quite a long head line….

  29. Political row over tragic migrant deaths as Labour’s Diane Abbott says the UK must make it EASIER for people to come to Britain and Tory minister says ‘more attention’ would have been given to tackling people trafficking if politicians had ‘got on’ with Brexit

    Shadow minister said those with a ‘legal claim’ to live in the UK should be aided

    Some 39 people were found dead in a lorry container last Wednesday in Essex
    Nicky Morgan linked deaths to lack of anti- trafficking action because of Brexit
    Culture Sec said it would get more ‘attention’ ‘if we had just got on’ with leaving

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7618737/Political-row-migrant-deaths-Labour-says-UK-make-EASIER-people-enter.html

    Utter lunacy once more !

    1. When I returned to the UK from Argentina as a child with my father I most certainly had a “legal claim” to live in the UK. The difference, in my case, is that my father chose for us to travel to the UK in a Royal Mail Lines ship and not in a sealed container.

  34. It appears that our EU Overlords have graciously allowed us to remain within their wonderful organisation for another three months, in order that our ‘betters’ can have more time to cancel the decision made by the proles. All hail the EU!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/28/brexit-news-latest-vote-election-lib-dem-boris-johnson-extension/

    Sorry, I’m ok now…

    Hopefully we will now get our long overdue General Election, where we can finally express our opinion both of our treacherous, lying ‘representatives’ and the Johnson/May Surrender Treaty. Bring on the Brexit Party!

      1. Pretty Polly posted a tweet from Donald Tusk confirming the date. Might be a few official dots and t’s to be crossed in Brussels, but it was hardly in doubt. If they’d said no, it would have been WTO a-go-go on Thursday. They’re not letting us go that easily!

        1. It though is not Tusk’s decision. The 27 countries have to all vote for it and I dont think the vote has taken place yet Mind you as the UK is the Cash cow keeping the EU afloat I expect they will vote. The flexi bit is probably to keep France happy

    3. The decision took a while coz George was probably away for the weekend.

      By the way, I don’t think normal peeps want an election on a cold, dark, probably wet December day.

      For forcing them out into the cold, Boris could easily be punished.

      1. The feeling of anger and helplessness is now so strong in the country, Polly, that most people (Leavers for sure) will come out to vote, regardless of the weather.

        1. Chilly morning this morning .. I hope and pray that December is kind and generous with accompanying gentle weather ..

          Good morning Elsie

          Are you wearing your thermal undies today?

          1. What an impertinent question, T_B! (Don’t tell anyone on this site, it’s none of their business, but yes I am.)

      2. I reckon millenial snowflakes are less likely to tear themselves away from their keyboards to venture out in the cold. Middle-aged/older voters tend to be conservative (wisdom of experience and all that). Personally, I would crawl over broken glass if I could do my bit to stop my country becoming a vassal state.

  35. EU agrees Brexit extension up to 31 January

    Seems to be the BBC reporting the story the Guardian come up with. WE know the EU will give an extension but for how lomg who knows. The flex ectension seems the most likely but this is still unofficial and not confirmed

    The EU has agreed to extend Brexit until 31 January 2020, according to a tweet from the European Council president.
    Donald Tusk said the bloc would allow for a so-called “flextension” – meaning the UK could leave before the deadline if a deal was approved by Parliament.
    It comes as MPs prepare to vote on proposals by Boris Johnson for an early general election on 12 December.
    The SNP and Lib Dems have also proposed an election on 9 December.

    1. According to John Ward:

      “In order to obtain the extension, the UK will be asked to accept officially that no further renegotiation of the Withdrawal Agreement will be possible”

      In other words, we have to accept the ‘Boris sellout’ since the ‘no deal’ fire exit has been firmly locked by our MPs.

      Election this day.

        1. As are our fifth column, Bill, hence the term ‘no deal’.

          In reality, ‘no deal’ means a rejection of what the EU wants to impose on us. There will have to be a deal, but on terms which benefit the UK.

  37. Daily Brexit Betrayal

    The Brexit Betrayal is gathering pace.

    Today the HoC will vote on an early GE which may even come to pass,

    thanks to a crafty ‘Plan’ by the LibDems, supported by the SNP. The EU

    will decide on granting an extension until January 31st which may turn

    out to be some ‘flexitension’. Yes, Macron has caved, as expected. We

    did warn that it would be futile to put one’s hopes of getting Out on

    Halloween on a foreign leader!

    While this GE looks to be inevitable now,

    Labour MPs are plotting against their leader Corbyn and his

    henchpersons. When even Lord Mandelson raises a warning about

    McDonnell’s policies, writing in the paywalled Times, all is not well in

    the ‘Red’ corner. There’s another warning: the election result in the

    German province Thuringia. More on that below.

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-monday-28th-october-2019/

  39. Am I alone in thinking that quite a lot of younger people, even those working as journalists for the FT and ‘Economist’ (discussing Bwexit) and speaking rather plummily actually sound rather infantile?

    Is it just my Northern ear which weacts in this way against high-pitched, fevewish voices, who keep saying pwevious and wequired? (I admit I used to have this pwoblem with Cawol Thatcher).

    1. The majority of people are in favour of Brexit but Corbyn & Khans very focal London make a lot of noise about remaining and the London Centric Media amplify that noise

  40. Presenter Samira Ahmed to face the BBC in court

    Well if the go down that road all presenters pay should be the same give or take say plus or minus 20% for qualifications and experience etc
    Even £400 an episode is excessive

    Presenter Samira Ahmed is facing the BBC in court this week, arguing she was paid “a sixth” of what Jeremy Vine earned in “a very similar job”.
    Ahmed says she was paid £440 per episode on audience feedback show Newswatch, while Vine received £3,000 per episode for Points of View.
    The BBC’s legal team will argue the two presenters were not doing similar work.
    Journalists’ union the NUJ described the BBC’s gender pay gap as “monumental”.

    1. Don’t like the terms of the job, quit and work elsewhere. They are BOUND to pay you what you are worth .

  41. Here is the BBC’s UK weather forecast:

    1. Weather man/woman smiling = Bright and sunny in South/Home Counties; Gloomy and Wet in North (“Enjoy the rest of the day”)

    2. Weather man/woman sorry and apologetic = Gloomy and Wet in South; Bright and Sunny in North (“watch out for bad road conditions”)

  42. The impotence of the EU to the UK is massively overstated. Less than 12% of our total trade is with the EU. Significant but not that important. Currency swings can move more than that. WE will as well still trade with the EU

        1. You can accuse BJ of many things but you cannot accuse him of making witty plays on words.

  43. DOG FOR SALE

    A guy is driving around the back woods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken-down shanty-style house: “Talking Dog for Sale” He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there.

    “You talk?” he asks.

    “Yep,” the Lab replies.

    After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says “So, what’s your story?”

    The Lab looks up and says, “Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so… I told the CIA. In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running”…

    “But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn’t getting any younger, so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals. I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I’m just retired.”

    The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog. “Ten dollars”, the guy says.

    “Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?”

    “Because he’s a Bullshitter. He’s never been out of the yard.”

      1. Funnily enough I mentioned this story about Tobermory the talking cat in a post last week.

        I think that ‘The Unrest Cure’ is an entertaining if macabre story though it is much more politically incorrect now than when it was written. I also loved ‘The Reticence of Lady Anne’. As I suspect you do too I have the complete collection of Saki’s stories.

        “She was a good cook and as cooks go she went.” Who can place this quotation?

    1. I am doing a similar job to an MP sounding off and doing a lot of waffling on this forum I think I should have equality of pay with an mP after all the jobs are similar I all have to reply to messages from this forums constituents and occasionally I may be threatened by a constituent or call racist

  45. Latest Brexit scare story. Pretty much fake of course probably a ploy to try to push up prices. They claim unemployment is low in rural areas but endless other reports say it is high

    Still I am sure people are quite capable of wrapping their own pigs in blankets

    Christmas meal treats ‘under threat’

    Pigs in blankets and other festive meal treats might be in short supply this Christmas, the British Meat Processors Association has warned.
    It says 60% of the labour force in UK meat plants comes from other countries and the industry is not attracting enough seasonal EU workers.
    Its chief executive, Nick Allen, told the BBC that wrapping cocktail sausages in bacon was done by hand.
    He said the job was “fiddly and hard to mechanise”.
    The plants themselves tended to be in rural areas where there was low unemployment, he added.

      1. Steady on, old chap.
        It takes years of training to curl streaky bacon round a small sausage.
        🙂

        2. But the mandatory blue plastic gloves are almost unobtainable. (There is a rumour that the NHS is hoarding them.)

          2. Jokes, eh? No need for explanation, oh, wait, must try harder…

            “Well, but, I know where my hands have been.”
            OR
            “I don’t like the feel of raw sausages, not since the incident…”

    3. I hear Tesco is planning a special offer to celebrate Boris’s Brexit treaty. Comes with a free lipstick.

  47. A useful reminder about the Leader of The LABOUR Party … and ambiguity problem?:

    The biggest international news of the weekend was undoubtedly the killing of ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, however the Labour Party seemed surprising quiet over the news, without a single press release or Tweet from Jeremy Corbyn or Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry. Labour strangely silent on this…

    The reason for the radio silence may be Jeremy Corbyn”s ambiguity on whether he would authorise a strike on the ISIS leader if he became PM.

    Interviewing Corbyn in 2017, Andrew Marr posited:

    “the gentlemen in suits walk in and say ‘Prime Minister Corbyn, we’ve got good news for you: al-Baghdadi the leader of ISIS, we know where he is, we can take him out with a drone strike – can we have your permission?’ What do you tell them?”.

    Corbyn then spent a minute skirting round the answer, refusing to say he would. At least he didn’t copy the Washington Post’s editorial line and revere Baghdadi as an “austere religious scholar”…

    https://order-order.com/2019/10/28/pm-corbyn-refuse-authorise-killing-al-baghdadi/

    1. Top BTL comment:

      Kentish Taff • an hour ago
      One doing the rounds..

      ‘President Trump announces death of Al Baghdadi.
      Our thoughts are with Jeremy Corbyn at this difficult time.’

      36
      •Reply•Share ›

    2. Well, Hamas and Hezbollah are his friends; no big deal. President Obama and that Mogherini lass from the EU were best friends of the Iranian Mullahs.

  52. An article heading from the BBC, why do I need an interpreter? “Why do gay apps struggle to stop catfish?”

  53. Good morning from ordinary Saxon Queen .

    Cloudy and dull day

    Only just able to log on Disqus doesn’t like me much.

    Labour would certainly lose .

    1. Morning A,
      Truth be told and sanity had returned there would be no winners in the reshuffle of the toxic trio.

  56. Row breaks out in People’s Vote campaign

    A public row has broken out at the top of the People’s Vote campaign for another EU referendum.
    Media chief Tom Baldwin has accused chairman Roland Rudd of putting “a wrecking ball” through the campaign.
    Mr Baldwin said he had been fired by Mr Rudd – but would be going in to work as normal.
    Mr Rudd denied firing Mr Baldwin, saying he “he has an opportunity for a different type of role” and denied there were strategic differences.
    The campaign is supported by five groups – the European Movement UK, the Joint Media Unit, Our Future Our Choice, For our Future’s Sake and Wales for Europe and Open Britain – of which Mr Rudd is chair.

    2. Hmmmm – Our Future Our Choice– providing, apparently, that it’s not the choice that the majority who voted made?

  57. Carlisle chimney: Man stuck at top of 290ft structure

    Perhaps Father Christmas on a test run that went wrong ?

    A rescue operation is under way to free a man who has become trapped at the top of a 290ft tall former mill chimney.
    Emergency services were called to Dixons Chimney in Carlisle at about 02:20 GMT and a helicopter is hovering near the top of the structure.
    Footage from the scene appears to show a figure, upside down with his legs in the air, at the top of the chimney.
    Roads around the prominent local landmark, which was built in 1836, have been closed.
    Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service has appealed for “anyone who has a cherry picker in excess of 90 metres within Cumbria” to contact them.
    “This is a very complex and difficult process given the obvious dangers to the man and the extreme difficulty in gaining access to him in a way which will keep him and emergency services safe,” a spokesperson said.
    “I can assure the public that the emergency services are working tirelessly and effectively together to resolve this issues safely for all and that the protection of life is our first priority.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a1ccaa976f9d30ebf898e4c9cc81286dbd78f1bbdc2e5704beabe244f687b56.jpg

      1. A Good job it has warmed up but it must be pretty cold at the top. No easy way to access him. Specialist Steeple jacks are the best bet but they could take days to Erector a ladder to the top.

  58. Good morning, all. Late on parade having had to deal with AGA man, clear all the post, do the crossword…. Oh, and trying to persuade builder, who said he’d do some work while we were away, to bloody well come and do it. What is it with small tradesmen who just don’t keep promises? Grrr.

    Jolly chilly start to the day. House slowly warming up.

          1. Because the chap was warmly recommended by a neighbour for whom he had done lot of work very competently.

    2. It is the same in Brittany. We have been waiting two years for the man to come and fix the pump on our central heating system.

    2. Mt Rashid has the contract for selling tickets for this event

      Normal contact details via Mr T

  60. Votes for 16-year-olds is a completely undemocratic idea. Spiked. Brendan O’Neill 28 October 2019.

    Have you ever noticed that everyone who thinks 16-year-olds should have the right to vote is about 48? You never see actual 16-year-olds agitating for the vote. No teen is leaping in front of the queen’s horse in protest at their disenfranchisement (thank God – don’t do that, kids). There are no Chartist-style gatherings of tens of thousands of pimply youths demanding a democratic voice. St Peter’s Square in Manchester hasn’t been swarmed, 1819 style, by legions of Fortnite fans and Billie Eilish devotees who want ballot-box power..

    Morning everyone. Brendan makes a good fist of rubbishing the 16 year old vote here and though he’s right that it is simply a cynical manoeuvre to dilute the older sensible vote it does feel oddly unjust and undemocratic somehow. Needless to say Labour and the Libdumps will play on this. That said this will probably come in before the next important Referendum cum GE. The dismantling and denigration of the UK’s democracy is pretty well unstoppable after the failure to implement Brexit and we will probably have a Committee of Public Safety and an EU Gauleiter within 5 years.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/10/28/votes-for-16-year-olds-is-a-completely-undemocratic-idea/https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/10/28/votes-for-16-year-olds-is-a-completely-undemocratic-idea/

    1. If 16-year-olds are representative of the trio that were listening to the repetitive crude (c)rap “music” next door to me last week, then we could be in trouble. The “music” appears designed, amongst other less savoury things, to induce a form of trance whereby control could be induced.
      The son is a polite lad but his choice of entertainment is disturbing. Hopefully, he will grow out of it.

      1. How much of this chanting of hate verse is to a goosestep march beat?

        The Establishment hates Alma Deutscher’s waltzes and refuses to admit them to the Proms. Alma Deutscher is not 16.

      3. “The son is a polite lad but his choice of entertainment is disturbing. Hopefully, he will grow out of it.” I think ‘Oldsters’ said the same about those teens listening to Elvis….. 🙂

    2. If 16-year-olds are considered old enough to vote, why then did Parliament raise the legal minimum age to purchase tobacco from 16 to 18 in 2007?

        1. Because it helps keep the youth unemployment figures down….incidentally, there is more choice than just being in school….

      2. And why was the age to be legally involved in the sex industry similarly raised to 18?

        2. My youngest pointed out when he was 16 (two years ago), that now he was legally allowed to have sex, but not watch… I assume, then, that all 16 & 17 year olds hump with the lights switched off.

      3. I believe that Harriet Harman thinks the voting age should be lowered to 12 along with the age of sexual consent. However certain communities should be granted an exemption and allowed to reduce the age of sexual consent to 9.

    3. Why is it undemocratic? You need to have some experience to be able to vote, otherwise you could apply the reductio ad absurdum logic of having 10 year-olds vote (isn’t that the cut off for criminal responsibility?. Indeed, why stop at ten?

  61. Yo All

    England could face fine following their response to New Zealand’s haka

    Mako Vunipola admitted that “we knew it would rile them up” while the captain, Owen Farrell, who could be seen smirking during the
    dance, said: “We wanted not to just stand there and let them come at us.”

    Aaron Smith, the New Zealand scrum-half, said afterwards that Farrell was winking at him while the haka was being performed.

    Never mind ABs, you can do your dance for Wales

    The above is from the Garudian, who seem to end all their articles with a trite statement saying they will keep on trying to save the world and

    We hope you will consider supporting the Guardian’s open, independent reporting today. Every contribution from our readers, however big or
    small, is so valuable. Support us from as little as €1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/oct/27/england-could-face-fine-following-their-response-to-new-zealands-haka

    2. We hope you will consider supporting the Guardian’s open, independent reporting today.

      It’s about as independent as Vichy France!

  63. Brexit delayed until 2020, = very impaired vision.

    Definition of a parliamentary politician, a pin striped sack of treacherous sh!te

  66. Makes me angry that a so-called “Conservative” government has allowed this to happen. Definitely “heirs to Blair”:

    War in Syria has reignited. Once again refugees fill its roads in need of our compassion. Yet those from the “wrong faith” won’t find it from the British Government. The UK’s resettlement of 16,000 refugees from the earlier conflict saw hardly any from the most brutalised minorities reach safety in our land. Of the refugees who came here in 2015 under the Vulnerable Persons Scheme, only 1.6 per cent were Christians. That’s despite this group being 10 per cent of the Syrian population.

    The situation for Christians seeking asylum has worsened. In 2016 only 0.4 per cent were Christians. In 2017, 0.2 per cent. And in the early part of last year none of the 1,112 refugees we took in were Christians. The Yazidi and Druze minorities have been treated just as unfairly.

    Our officials claim that selection was guided only by suffering. Yet in their supposed blindness to religion they allowed the process of choosing refugees to be dominated by workers for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in refugee camps. Sunni Muslims – 74 per cent of Syria’s population – have made up 99 per cent of the refugees we admit. UK officials eventually conceded the obvious: Christian refugees are “reluctant” to enter the camps. It is a reluctance that stems from the fact that they have faced persecution even inside them.

    That fear shouldn’t have been so difficult to grasp given the bombing of churches and incessant murder and mayhem Christians face in the Middle East. This oppression has prompted an extraordinary exodus: Syria’s Christian population plunged from 1.7 million in 2011 to just 450,000 last year. In neighbouring Iraq, Christians have all but disappeared – down from 1.5 million in 2003 to 120,000.

    The effective bar on persecuted Christians coming to the UK is the choice of Whitehall. By contrast, Australia recognises the deadly risks facing religious minorities when it decides who to allow in. It has welcomed thousands of Christians.

    UK officials say they prioritise refugees who are young, disabled or at risk due to their sexual orientation or gender. For persecuted Christians they merely pretend that they “may well meet one of the other vulnerability criteria set out by UNHCR”. Last year none of them did because they dared not enter the camps.

    Does this mean that we should discriminate against children, the disabled and sexual minorities? Of course not. We should acknowledge as one of our criteria the reality of how awful the persecution of religious minorities in the Middle East is.

    Over the years, UK diplomats have shaped the tangled boundaries of hatreds and fears we call the Middle East. Now they stand by during a slaughter of the innocent – the genocide of our time. And “genocide” is the word used by the House of Commons, the European Parliament and the US State Department to describe the treatment of Christians and Yazidis.

    Speaking of his bloodied nation, Iraq’s Archbishop Warda said that as a result of our diplomats’ “fundamentally flawed assessments… hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died. An entire country has been ripped apart and left to the jackals.” Yet our officials continue to add insult to fatalities: UK aid going to Iraq is also funnelled through the UN. “Not one single penny” has reached the schools or hospital in Warda’s diocese.

    To be fair, the Foreign Office has taken some small steps forward. It has commissioned a report by the Bishop of Truro which speaks of Christianity being “wiped-out in parts of the Middle East”. But this report only addresses the Foreign Office, not the Home Office which has power over the fate of asylum seekers.

    The failings of officials are not isolated aberrations but a window into the soul of our civil service which just as readily discriminates against Christians already here. A Home Office official dismissed an Iranian woman’s application for asylum by writing: “you affirmed … that Jesus is your saviour, but then claimed that He would not be able to save you from the Iranian regime… Your belief in Jesus is half-hearted.” Such views do not come out of a vacuum.

    Some call it political correctness. I call it discrimination that offends every meaningful ethical system. It is a decaying absence of a moral code at the heart of government which has led to the neglect of religious minorities. Woe betide the minorities of the UK – Christians, Muslims and Sikhs who do not fit in with the bien pensant views of our civil servants.

    We need a culture change. To that end I have decided to expose the mindset which allows discrimination to persist. I am launching a judicial review of the Home Office’s action over Syrian refugees. It will be an expensive action which will stretch the purses of friends who have contributed – all of whom are deeply committed to defending minorities.

    My hope is that, instead of defending the indefensible, the Government will respond by making amends with the final stages of its current programme of Syrian refugee settlement here in the UK. It is never too late to show compassion.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/26/politically-correct-discrimination-against-christian-refugees/

    1. “Some call it political correctness. I call it discrimination that
      offends every meaningful ethical system. It is a decaying absence of a
      moral code at the heart of government which has led to the neglect of
      religious minorities. Woe betide the minorities of the UK – Christians,
      Muslims and Sikhs who do not fit in with the bien pensant views of our
      civil servants.”

      We all know who the majority of Home Office Civil servants are. And they’re not Christians.

    2. It was the Kurds who are the only faction in the region to treat Christians and Yazidis in a manner that they were not in fear of their lives, and we all know what the ever-so-Christian America and their Western allies think of Kurds. Given a choice between Kurds and money-spinning oil wells, guess what gets priority.

      We are making even Putin look moral.

      I asked my MP to ask Raab to cut off diplomatic relations with Turkey the moment they crossed the Syrian border and started laying into Kurds. I have still not had a response. Still, I’m hardly expecting one – she’s sitting on a 20,000+ majority and hardly needs to.

    3. Has the Arch Bish of C…..bury (blast this spell checker) pronounced on the matter?
      Or have the Christians and Yazidis used hurty words and therefore deserve to die?

    4. About a year ago the then Vicar of Fulham stomped up and down the aisle demanding that the congregation stump up £9k per annum to, “house a Syrian refugee family”. At the end of the service one woman asked him, will they be a Christian family? He laughed in her face and later boasted about belittling her. He’s since been promoted and is now Dean of St Edmundsbury.

  68. Oi Laffed

    A man in London walked into the produce section of his local Tesco’s supermarket and asked to buy half a head of lettuce.
    The boy working in that department told him that they only sold whole heads of lettuce.
    The man was insistent that the boy ask the manager about the matter.
    Walking
    into the back room, the boy said to the manager, “Some old bastard
    wants to buy a half a head of lettuce.”As he finished his sentence, he
    turned around to find that the man was standing right
    behind him, so he quickly added, “and this gentleman kindly offered to buy the other half.”
    The manager approved the deal and the man went on his way.
    Later,
    the manager said to the boy,” I was impressed with the way you got
    yourself out of that situation earlier, we like people who can think on
    their feet here, where are you from son?”
    “New Zealand, sir,” the boy replied.
    “Why did you leave New Zealand?” the manager asked.
    The boy said, “Sir, there’s nothing but prostitutes and rugby players there.”
    “Is that right?” replied the manager, “My wife is from New Zealand!”
    “Really?” replied the boy, “Who did she play for…?

    1. Johnson is getting all the flak for something that he has been prevented from doing by the traitors in Parliament, the courts and Brussels.

        3. Parliament still would not have allowed us out on 31st October and the only alternative is illegal.

      2. Then he shouldn’t of raised our expectations and should have filibustered the Surrender bill
        Don’t promise what you can’t deliver,AGAIN

        5. He didn’t raise my expectations. I read almost all of his old DT articles. I knew right from the start what he was up to.

      3. The only way he can redeem himself is to ditch (an appropriate word!) his pathetic May Mk.II Surrender WA, join forces with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, brutally deselect Conservative Remainer candidates and go for a completely clean Brexit.

        But is there any real testicular strength behind his bluster?

        1. He has a very weak hand of Cards. Like it or not his options are limited and can be at any time wrecked by the opposition parties

          1. What is to stop him abandoning his pathetic May Mk 2 surrender and promising a proper Brexit with TBP support when he does his electioneering?

            If that went to plan he would have the necessary Parliamentary support to give the people who voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum what they voted for,

          2. Boris J could do as you say, but then effectively he’d be calling for the election of Red Leave Leaning MPs from Red Leave Seats (as a Blue would be unlikely to be elected – see UKIP in the past) whilst at the same time demanding that the BP not attack Blue seats…

            …something Nigel F. could never do if he wants to keep the Red Wing of the BP…

      4. You think Johnson isn’t in on it? You must now live in a dream world in the Haute Sierras. All 650 are traitors.

        1. Johnson wanted us out on 31st and he was prepared to push his ghastly WA/PD and even that was denied to him.

          My current betting is that he’ll be forced by Parliament either to hold a rigged referendum or withdraw article 50.

          Even a general election, unless TBP held a large part of the balance of power will only result in more fannying around or acceptance of his BRINO deal.

          We’ve blown it.

          1. You truly believe his BS? He was a plant on Vote Leave. We then had a rigged Tory Party election farce where he got stabbed in the back by his mate, Gove. It’s all BS. He wrote two letters then he chose Vote Leave on a whim. Watch his victory speech, it’s totally passionless. He did a shifty look when he refers to Farage, similar to his not joining up with TBP.
            I’ve posted a video where he gets thrashed by a 17 year old on the last day of polling. He’s an establishment stooge just like all of them.
            May played a blinder in delaying Brexit at all costs for three years, Johnson is just a poor substitute.
            We haven’t blown anything. They are all traitors so this is all part of their plan.

          3. It’s better than going around and around in ever decreasing circles navel gazing. But you’re now going anti-clockwise, how’d you manage that?

          5. At least you look likely to benefit from at least one good EU decision to stop this changing the clocks farce.

          6. I’m not entirely sure that he’s really a remainer.
            I have a book by Bernard Connolly, The Rotten Heart of Europe, the edition published 2012, with a quote from Boris on the front:
            “On reading sections of Mr Connolly’s new book, one wanted to stand on the desk and cheer.”
            It’s not a huge piece of evidence, but his scepticism doesn’t appear to be that new.
            Having said that, I won’t put much faith in him until it’s all finalised. His so-called Withdrawal Agreement is little better than TM’s, and those supporting it seem to be doing so more out of Brexit fatigue than anything, or because they haven’t read it.

          7. I am 100% certain he’s an establishment backed Remainer, Cameron was more of a Leaver than Johnson.
            They played a clip of Johnson getting heckled by a 17 year old snowflake on the local news on the last day of polling. Johnson was clueless on how to respond because he had no conviction nor passion for leaving. Same as his passionless “victory” speech. I haven’t bothered watching or reading anything since he became PM because it’s all smoke and mirrors. He’s not as convincing a liar as May.
            If we were leaving Cameron would have remained as PM and signed Article 50 on the 24th June 2016.Not one MP has stood up and said that the government has no intention of taking us out of the EU which to me was obvious at around 9.15am on 24th June 2016.

          8. The Boris deal is not significantly different from the May deal except it treats Northern Ireland even worse than May tried to.

            Boris was never the Brexit hero you seem to think he is. He’s a remainer actually who decided to support Brexit for personal political ambition, and to be fair it has worked, he is now the PM. Yet another idiot leading us nowhere.

          9. Hold on a second, I most certainly do NOT think Johnson is a Brexit hero, very far from it. He is nothing other than a charlatan, who is trying to pass off Brino as Brexit.

          10. If he had wanted us out, he would have advised HM not to sign the Benn Surrender Act and gone for no deal. His “deal” is 95% May’s surrender treaty.

          11. I would have been happy, but I think it would have set in train a constitutional crisis.
            Agree re the ST.

            surrender treaty, not sanitary towel.

          12. We have a constitutional crisis. We have never, to my knowledge, had a majority vote which has been disregarded like this. Blair started ditching the constitution and now May et al have completed its overthrow.

        2. Johnson wanted us out on 31st and he was prepared to push his ghastly WA/PD and even that was denied to him.

          My current betting is that he’ll be forced by Parliament either to hold a rigged referendum or withdraw article 50.

          Even a general election, unless TBP held a large part of the balance of power will only result in more fannying around or acceptance of his BRINO deal.

          We’ve blown it.

      1. Unfortunately Bill the last ditch attempt is 90% May’s deal which ties us in forever. It’s a Hotel California deal, we can check out but never leave.

    2. IIRC, that artwork was done some years ago by a USAF pilot – who was suspended from duty under an unspecified charge, but later reinstalled. Try doing that today and he would be facing numerous charges under transphobic laws…

    2. You’re mistaken, Janet, this is false news. There are no terrorist bombs in Sweden. It was just Grizzly re-heating his Christmas pudding in the microwave having forgotten that he had already filled the pudding with sixpenny pieces! The resultant explosion was a culinary oversight.

      :-))

      1. Not even from the butcher’s? Guido obviously is not a fan of bangers and mash, then.

    4. I think it was Mark Steyn (or was it Douglas Murray?) who opined that Sweden was now lost. It has gone beyond repair and will probably have a Muslim government in less than 25 years.

  72. A man stranded at the top of Carlisle’s Dixon’s Chimney is thought to be still alive, say police.
    One helicopter rescue attempt earlier today failed but emergency crews – including specialist mountain rescue and an urban rescue outfit from Blackpool – are currently drawing plans to tackle what they say will be a highly challenging operation.
    One senior officer described the situation as “extremely dangerous”, for both the man involved and for the rescuers attempting to save him.
    The alarm was raised at 2.22am, said Superintendent Matt Kennerley, of Cumbria Police.

    The emergency crews involved say they are treating the current situation as a rescue operation, though one that is highly challenging. In a statement within the last few minutes, the officer confirmed that police, who have used a drone to observe the man, have spoken to the man.

      1. What I dont get is there is clearly a ladder attached to the chimney. I would have though Steel jacks could use this to get to the top. Might be a problem near the top as it appears the guys leg is trapped between the ladder and the brickwork

          1. My late father inadvertently called him Master Baiter – instead of Master Blaster.

          2. The problem is access. I would have thought a call to specialist Steeplejack company is what is needed

          5. 12:52

            BreakingCherry picker on way to stranded man

            Not sure how that helps when it is almost 300 M high

            Cumbria Police says an industrial scale 90-metre cherry picker is on its way to Carlisle to help reach the man who’s been trapped at the top of Dixon’s Chimney since the early hours, in the hope of bringing the “challenging rescue to a safe conclusion for all”.

    1. I hear he’s going to circumvent the FTPA with a one-line Bill that will require a simple majority, not the two-thirds required under the FTPA.

      1. Yes and if the Lib-Dems and SNP back it without trying to add on catches it should get through easilly

      2. Labour will try to amend it to include 16-17 year-olds voting, and I can’t see the LD or SNP turning that down.

        1. Except the Electoral Commission have said they won’t be registered in time as it would take a minimum of six months to do the admin.

    2. A cattle prod in the rear at the right moment would definitely make sure one put the most into it, I suppose.

  75. Gang which used cattle prods to protect brothels empire jailed for 39 years

    A gang which raked in £1 million a year exploiting women in brothels across London has been jailed for a total of 39 years.
    Ringleader Renato Dimitrov Sacchi, 43, his wife Flavia Xavier-Sacchi, 23, and brother Raul Sacchi, 49, ran a sophisticated network selling cocaine and controlling prostitutes.

    They spent the proceeds on holidays, cars and jewellery, Harrow crown court heard.
    Security guards armed with Tasers, pepper spray, cattle prods and baseball bats protected brothels in Kensington High Street, Cricklewood, Queen’s Park, Kingsbury and Hanger Lane.

      1. Many a true word said in jest. Rich guys like you should try Travel Girls or Seeking Arrangements.

          1. Then, comfortably wealthy guys like you should try Travel Girls or Seeking Arrangements.

          2. Reputation only – we don’t use listening devices.

            I guess it might be an electrifying experience, if one had that “bent”. Or was that bent.

        2. At a party at a neighbours house i instructed their Alexa to set the alarm for 3.am with horror movie sounds. The host overheard me and cancelled the request. I told someone in the kitchen what i had done. The Alexa in the dining room picked up my conversation. At 3.am their alarm went off. :o)

  77. A Pill Box hat is fine but dont dare mention a certain type of headgear has a slit in it that resembles the slot in a letterbox

  78. “I will go seek some ditch wherin to die
    The foul’st best fits my latter part of life.”

    ( Enobarbus in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra when the shame of having betrayed Antony hits him. These words would make a very apt epitaph for Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party who have betrayed the British electorate)

    1. Which reminds me … Antony and Cleopatra is not a funny play. If Shakespeare had meant it to be funny, he would have put a joke in it. There is no joke in Antony and Cleopatra, you’d know that if you’d read it, wouldn’t you, Babcock? Pest!
      What play of Shakespeare’s does have a joke in it? Anyone? The Comedy of Errors, for God’s sake! The Comedy of Errors has the joke of two people looking like each other. Twice. It’s not that funny, German. And the other Shakespearean joke is? Nibble? NIBBLE! Leave Orifice alone! What a lot.
      Right, for the rest of this period you will write about Enobarbus. Undermanager, just try to write Enobarbus.

      1. In fact Shakespeare included many bawdy jokes for the goundlings – the vulgar people in the audience who had to sit on the ground as they could not afford seats.

        For example:

        CHARMIAN: Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, where would you choose it?
        IRAS : Not in my husband’s nose!

        (Antony and Cleopatra)

        CLOWN: Are these, I pray you, wind instruments?
        MUSICIAN: Ay, marry, are they, sir.
        CLOWN: Oh, thereby hangs a tail.
        MUSICIAN: Whereby hangs a tale, sir?
        CLOWN: Marry sir, by many a wind instrument that I know.

        (Othello)

        And remember the dispiriting effects upon the libido, commented upon by Macbeth’s Porter, that drinking too much has:

        MACDUFF: What three things does drink especially provoke?

        PORTER: Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes
        away the performance: therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets
        him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him
        in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.

  79. Flexstention has a nasty elasticated ring about it, out of the “how long is a piece of string department”.

  80. ‘The Post’s obituaries department, to general derision from the

    Internet, marked the Caliph’s unexpected self-detonation with the

    headline “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of

    Islamic State, dies at 48”.

    Which, aside from anything else, must

    have baffled those readers who had been assured by media bien pensants

    for years that what the BBC insists on referring to as “the so-called

    Islamic State” has nothing to do with Islam. And now we find out it’s

    “helmed” (as they say in Variety) by an “austere Islamic scholar…” ‘

    https://www.steynonline.com/9819/baghdadi-bagged

    Orange man bad………………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6c8fca5cc419cd1c7fe2a970318291090c66ef4df9a3882a1924068779561834.jpg
    Edit
    My favorite bit of witty derision came from David Burge (Iowahawk):
    “Adolf Hitler, Austrian vegan activist and landscape painter, dies at 56”

    1. Nicked

      The Vaz report is rock solid comedy gold.

      At various times he has claimed that (a) the media
      report bore no relation to what actually happened, (b) he has no recollection of what
      actually happened, (c) the meeting was set up to discuss interior decoration and
      no sexual activity took place, (d) a spiked drink was administered to him (with the
      implication that this affected his conversation and behaviour), and (e) even if sexual
      activity had taken place it would have been part of his private and personal life and
      therefore not subject to the Code of Conduct. It is difficult, to put it mildly, to see how
      all these separate defences could simultaneously be true.

      Mr Vaz attributes his claimed amnesia to either stress arising from the events of
      27 August, or a drink administered to him at the meeting (he stated, “the last thing I
      remember was being given a glass of water to drink”).35 One expert concluded that the
      amnesia symptoms reported would be more consistent with a spiked drink than with a
      stress-related condition; however, other than possible sounds on the audio-recording that
      might be a drinks can being opened, there is no evidence for Mr Vaz being given a spiked
      drink (his claim in any case was that he had been given a glass of water not a canned
      drink). The Commissioner comments that:
      despite his claim to have ingested a spiked drink, Mr Vaz can be heard
      participating in the conversation, and the activities taking place, throughout
      the whole of the recording. He is not incapacitated. The spiking of a drink
      would not explain Mr Vaz’s knowledge of the two men, which is evident
      throughout the recording. Mr Vaz has offered no explanation for that foreknowledge,
      denying having knowingly met them on any other occasion.

      3. The important question still hasn’t been answered.
        Does he now have wallpaper that matches his duvet covers?

    2. “Mr Vaz had shown “disrespect for the House’s standards system” and caused “significant damage” to the reputation and integrity of the Commons as a whole.”
      At least the writer has a sense of humour. My bold (sailor)

    6. Is procuring Class A drugs not some kind of crime, as for example, if the man on the Clapham omnibus did it?

  83. So it appears that the choreography with Brexit goes like this –

    Boris sets a date when we are leaving no matter what.
    Parliament does it’s best to thwart that, partly to prevent Brexit but also they think they can change public opinion if he breaks his promise, it becomes their number one goal
    Then they move the leaving date another three months and so the cycle continues.
    In all the time nothing at all happens

      1. Over the last three years they have changed the position around to staying in the EU or having a very soft Brexit, leaving has been outlawed, in another three years it will be remaining or remaining and joining the Euro and the EU army and giving away our veto

        1. It will be a lot faster than 3 years. The EU is falling apart economically and “unrest” is spreading. I have lost count of how many weeks the Yellow Vest protests have been going on now. Catalan is not happy and Poland is resisting the demands to open their borders and surrender their country to migrants. World trade is slowing and a massive “Financial Upset” is on the horizon. So the EU will go into warp drive in an attempt to consolidate their control while they still have it.

          Handing them the keys to our Treasury and stepping back to allow them to make our laws for the next few years is a very bad idea at this point.

          2. World trade is slowing and a massive “Financial Upset” is on the horizon

            This as much as anything, is why we need to leave, pronto, or we will be bailing out the EU, probably bankrupting ourselves in the process.

          3. We will be bankrupted, or as close makes no difference, but we will not be responsible. It will be the treasonous morons in the HoC and their EU masters who will clean us out to keep the project alive.
            I hope Johnson enjoys his term as PM; it’s downhill all the way for him if he keeps us in after 2020. No amount of waffling that an FTA is important will cover his betrayal of the ERG. As the Country is pillaged watch the Libdums/SNP/Labour all bleat, “It wasn’t me guv,” as they try to absolve themselves of any responsibility.

          4. Yes, but we’ll be the last country to leave and they’ll have dumped all the debt on to out traitorous government.

        2. I hope I’m around when all the remain snowflakes get conscripted into the EU army and march off to face the Russians or Chinese, in their trainers, after first guaranteeing they have safe spaces on the frontline.

    2. It’s pretty clear now. We are not leaving the EU, except possibly BRINO, with a worthless piece of paper.
      Four cheers for Theresa May for all her hard work ensuring it.
      No wonder she is laughing.

      1. It is a hollow victory, what do they think will be the consequences over time? the country still wants to leave, unless they outlaw elections they are all finished.

        1. In our minds and eyes they are finished, Bob, but they won’t leave peacefully or easily.

          1. They are not really politicians in our sense of the word, they are agents and activists working for their own establishment agenda, the way they all keep re-emerging and getting air time.
            Just this Sunday Hammond was Sophie Ridge, why was he on? laying down the law, he is no longer in government or even representing the Conservative, just who was he representing?

          2. Not too apathetic to be the first to vote against the globalists by a majority. There are a few Eastern European countries that are against the globalists but they still take the money. Something will happen and it will kick off all around the country, just needs a spark and sites like this GP, and Guido need to stop taking in the BS that the government produces and then endlessly discusses it. I only see the word traitors regularly used on Breitbart and in the DM comments.

    3. When we have the chance we must vote for the brexit party. we cannot trust any of the others. Its the only way we can leave.

        1. Herr Oberst – The news are enforcing a media blackout on the party. They have just had 10 Conferences around the country that were events where the rafters were raised. Not a word spoken on the news. They occasionally let Nigel Farage on, but for every 1 minute of him they have 30 hours of ex-Conservative Remainers, and other pond life.

          The Brexit Party are alive and well and their videos are being shared on social media now, unless they are censored. There is plenty of information and support out there, but the media are terrified of them so they don’t mention them at all.

          The only time that you will see their name on screen is in the hysterically made-up polling numbers that are desperate to pretend their support is only around 10 or 11%. It remains to be seen how many people will fall for this masquerade and keep voting for MP’s who will block our leaving the EU.

          If The Brexit Party do not get a sizeable number of seats (even in spite of the postal vote rigging and other scams) then this country will not be leaving the EU at all. None of the other main parties will allow us to leave. Boris’s “deal” is Theresa May’s trap all over again. Which should be obvious by now.

    4. Not strictly true. In all the time the EU passes more laws to destroy our competitiveness and we keep paying billions for the privilege.

  84. ” EU leaders have agreed in principle to extend Brexit until 31 January
    2020 – meaning the UK will not leave as planned on Thursday.”
    They have invented a new word ” flextension “,

    1. Nice BTL comment on the BBC’s report of this extension – The (non)Liberal (un)Democrats will be very pleased. And their alliance with the SNP looks ever more likely, both parties with a proven history of not accepting the result of any referendums. But at least they have a stance, unlike dear old Labour, who have more positions than the Kamasutra.

      1. Works for any age over 19, I think and as Rik says, you must have had this year’s birthday.
        Edit, any age at all.

      2. I think it is something to do with numerical complements. It’s the way that computers add in order to minus eg try 69 – 44. We know that the answer is 25 but a computer would work it out by adding to 44 until it reached the base, in this case 100. So it would have added 56 to 44 to reach 100. 56 is the complement of 44. Add 56 to 69 (our original example sum) and it comes to 125. Remove the base of 100 and you have your answer.

        For the 79 beers thing, basically you’re adding the year of your birth to your current age plus the number of years in this century. Go back to the start of this century. If I was born in ’52 I would be 48 in 2000. 48 is the complement of 52. So to make it work for 2019, add your age to the year you were born then add 19. It will be out by one if your birthday is in the next couple of months btw.

        Edited to put my woefully bad mental arithmetic right, courtesy of Sos.

        2. Good evening, Stig. Could you put your first paragraph in English? … {:¬))

          Edit: My apologies, Mr Walker. Dementia creeps in…again!

    5. I think it depends on whether or not you’ve had a birthday this year. If not, it’s one out.

  86. `Discussing the possible GE, the Sultana asked me if a newly elected Government could take us straight back into the EU without a referendum?
    The answer is “yes”.
    So when considering how to vote in a GE the vote surely needs to be cast with a degree of certainty over the likely future actions of elected MPs during the life of the new Parliament.
    There are only two parties of whom we may be fairly sure, the Lib/Dems and the Brexit Party. The others are fluid, viscous, treacherous and untrustworthy.
    So the GE will come down to Remainers voting for the Lib/Dems , and Leavers voting for the Brexit Party.

    1. Morning HP,
      Recent history has shown that there is only one credible
      political party that is worthy of trust and has been for the 27 plus years of its existence.
      Trusting lab/lib/con is on par with making a bed partner
      of a crocodile, my belief is the croc is a better option.

      1. I agree with much of what you say – indeed both you and I agree that a totally clean Brewxit is the only answer.

        However we must be pragmatic.

        A vote for UKIP will achieve virtually nothing under today’s circumstances.

        Being totally free of the EU is more important than any political party.

        1. Afternoon R,
          Being pragmatic up to now has cost us 3 plus years, ongoing.
          The opposition on the home front have made sure UKIP has no say and it has been like that since the outset.
          As soon as I heard the cry back in June 16 “Victory is ours leave it to the tories” I knew the stupidity bug was one again operating.
          The wretch cameron told the peoples what was best for the UK
          in a leaflet and charged them for it, and they still had trust.
          I started calling for a membership build on UKIP I believe on the 25 / 6 / 2016 I was wanting 17.4 million membership as an anti treachery safeguard, check my back post.
          The peoples energy was going into diverse issues, on one hand
          you had the ballot box buffoons, party first keep in / keep out, nose holding, best of the worst brigade, on the other hand was the mosque builders.
          Total severance has been the UKIP call forever, Gerard Batten
          foretold in 2014 what the dangers were and got the starry,starry night treatment.
          I agree Brexit is prime issue BUT by the same token you reclaim the country the lab/lib/con politicians / members / voters have
          given away only to find you must attend the mosque five times a day.
          The people must surely know by now they are reshuffling the old deck of treacherous politico’s / parties expecting a result as in beneficial to the innocent peoples / country, AINT GONNA HAPPEN.

    2. A completely clean break is the only answer. Staying in the EU is probably better than leaving the EU under the Johnson/May surrender WA.

      VOTE BREXIT PARTY

      ONLY VOTE CONSERVATIVE IF A CLEAN BREAK PACT HAS BEEN MADE WITH THE BREXIT PARTY.

      1. You old guys and your election pacts.

        When will you get it? The Tories have only made everything worse! Perhaps you are insulated from the worst of it by living in France but really they haven’t changed anything much for the better for people in general since 2010. It’s been the same old crap as usual. Destroy the welfare state. Pick services apart and underfund them, then try get tax cuts through for the maybe 1m workers who earn the sort of money who would really benefit from tax cuts. The only statistic in their favour is the level of unemployment which is just one huge fudge anyway.

        How could anyone trust anything the Tories say? They don’t keep their word. They don’t keep to manifesto promises. They don’t understand the global economics of fiat money. Their ideology is all wrong for a modern state. If you were Farage would you trust them? Would you allow yet another Tory PM to screw up Brexit knowing you enabled it?

  87. Various

    UK media have been crawling all over the hints and leaks from a

    Brussels “keen to make clear its neutrality” this morning. It is looking

    increasingly like a 3-month extension. BUT the clauses in it that I saw

    last night made brutally clear to anyone who’s awake that the EC is

    being anything but neutral.

    Apart from brief mentions, I have yet to see any newspaper or TV

    channel highlighting this hugely disturbing form of words….as

    distributed to EU leaders over the weekend:

    “In

    order to obtain the extension, the UK will be asked to accept

    officially that no further renegotiation of the Withdrawal Agreement

    will be possible”

    This is a clear attempt to spike the guns of The Brexit Party at the

    next election. It bears a closer resemblance to a dirty neutron bomb

    than it does to neutrality. It is also a solid confirmation of what

    those of even minimal discernment have learned from more than three

    years of “negotiations”: whatever Brussels says, assume the opposite intention.

    https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2019/10/28/revealed-the-hidden-bomb-in-the-eus-extension-offer/
    Yet another trap

    2. But that’s precisely what they did when giving us the extension to October 31st … In this world there’s “rules and principles” and “EU rules and principles”.

    1. POSSIBLE NEW REFERENDUM CHOICES

      1. a) Stay in EU
      or b) Leave with Boris’s Brexit ‘Deal’

      2. a) Stay in the EU
      or b) Leave the EU completely on WTO terms

      3. a) Leave the EU completely on WTO terms
      or b) Leave the EU with Boris’s deal.

      My answers would be:
      1.(a)
      2.(b)
      3.(a)

      How would you vote?

      (I very much suspect that if they do manage to impose another referendum then No 1 would be the only choice offered)

      1. Sorry, too much opportunity to get the wrong answer. There have to be at least three questions to spread the leave vote around –

        – Leave with no deal
        – leave on wto terms
        – accept the Boris deal
        – renegotiate the Boris deal
        – revoke a50

        Yes I know the first two are the same, but you have to be sure.

      2. WTO terms?

        Leaving and trade are two separate issues.

        It’s a divorce negotiation. We’re splitting the house and deciding living arrangements, not planning the shopping trips.

  90. NHS manager allowed to work from Marbella on rates of £2,000 a day

    It is alright for some

    Under the deal agreed by the Labour-run Welsh NHS, management consultant Philip Burns will earn more than £360,000 for a nine-month contract

    which allows him to work a day a week from his Spanish home.

    Plaid Cymru Assembly Member Llyr Gruffydd. said he was “extremely concerned” at the “astronomical” sums being paid and the arrangement which allowed Mr Burns to work from Marbella.

    He highlighted proposals by the trust to cut nurses’ earnings, by insisting they were unpaid for breaks during twelve-and-a-half hour shifts.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/28/nhs-manager-allowed-work-marbella-rates-2000-day/

    1. If he is self-employed and working on a regular basis in Spain, he will need to have a quiet word with Hacienda and a local ‘gestor’.

    2. Are these sums correct? One day a week over 9 months equates to 36 days. That would be 360,000/36 = £10,000 per day or £2000 per hour.
      (Or does he work a full week with four days in Wales and three in Marbella, with two of the days being the weekend when he goes out on his yacht?)

        1. I am sure that you are right. However, it must involve quite a bit of tiring travel, even if the days on the yacht are relaxing.
          Consultants have to be careful about working on site. Working on site all the time and using the NHS mainframe for generating sports will come close to tipping one into being an employee, per HMRC guidelines.

          1. I’m not sure he is regarded as self-employed, it isn’t clear.

            He looks to be an interim manager on a short term contract, employed by the profligatry

            Nice work if you can get it

      2. Not necessarily. It’s the Telegraph. They are not what they once were. In fact I saw a story that the Barclays have given up and put the paper up for sale.

        1. Don’t under-rate yourself. You’re worth more than that ! What is it you do exactly? :o)

        2. No. Last time we consulted a lawyer the rate was over £400 per hour. I know of a case ten years ago when the NHS paid a nurse £2000 for one day’s work.

  91. It would be interesting to use the reaction of each individual to President Trump’s “he died like a dog” speech yesterday to measure either the intensity of their snowflakiness or the depth of their TrumpDerangementSyndrome. Presumably, as with the Lie Detector Test, it’ll require some electrical equipment and some wiring up.

    1. One does suspect that President Trump was deliberately pouring scorn on this sad excuse for a human being, as muslims do not like dogs, and more than a few see them as dirty and fear them. I did read someone saying that this was because their olde worlde mass murderer was bitten on the bottom by a black dog.

      Which makes me feel sorry for the dog.

      Still, real followers of islam are going to try to kill all non-believers at some point in their empty lives, so one fewer will not make a lot of difference. At least now he joins all of the others who have discovered that islam is a waste of time and there was no heaven waiting for him.

      1. Dogs are haram like pigs, but they can be used for hunting or guarding. God said so, and so it was written in the book, therefore it must be true. (Also indicates that god must be a cat person).

        1. Indeed so, the word was used on purpose to place the dead man at the level of pigs. It will be understood in the middle east.

      2. “One fewer will not make a lot of difference”

        Shocking, but realistic, thought for the day:

        “One MILLION fewer will not make a lot of difference”

  92. Has anyone else watched this video? :

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy2c58dvS-o
    Melanie Phillips: The Elite’s Anti-Brexit Coup & Left’s Anti-Semitism Prove I was Right to go Right

    Premiered on 26 Oct 2019
    Melanie Phillips is one of Britain’s leading political journalists and cultural commentators, and as a champion of traditional Judeo-Christian culture and values, she is famed across the Anglosphere for her trenchant views.
    The first person to ever address the New Culture Forum upon its foundation in 2006, Ms. Phillips has written at various times for The Mail, The Guardian, The Spectator, The Times, The Jerusalem Post and The Jewish Chronicle.

    She is familiar to many in the UK from her appearances on BBC’s “Moral Maze”, “Question Time” and “Politics Live” and in the wider world as the author of numerous best-selling books, including “Londonistan” and most recently “Guardian Angel”.

    In this interview with Peter Whittle she explains how Brexit has seen Parliament attempt a coup against the people. She comments on the defeatisim and lack of resolve in the west, which for too long has failed to stand up for itself. Brexit and some of the more palatable forms of populism she believes are a backlash against that.

    Never a member of any political party — she has only subscribed to two “isms”, journalism and Judaism — Melanie explains in her recently published personal and political memoir “GUARDIAN ANGEL”, why she moved from left to right — and to Israel. Anti-semitism played an important part in this and Melanie Phillips comments on the disturbing rise of anti-semitism on the left (as in Corbyn’s Labour Party)

    For Ms. Phillips, the horror of the second world war and the holocaust occurring in a cultured continent, did something terrible to the Western / European idea of progress, civilisation and believes the nation state unfairly got the blame for this. Herein lie the roots of so much of the loathing for the nation state among many members of the modern liberal elite.

    2. Sorry for replying to an old message, but I don’t know how often I’ll be online today. I am no longer active in UKIP (as with many Conservatives I joined back before the referendum when Farage was trying to run it, and there were no other parties that were serious about leaving the EU.) I took out a 5 year membership back then and so I still have a vote for the current NEC elections.

      Along with most other members down here, and the actual local party staff, I will be voting for the Brexit Party this time as the current message of UKIP is too strong for the public. But with a few more years under the EU chains that might change. Short version: Do you know who Gerard Batten and the new leader want members to vote for? I am quite happy to remove this current lot of NEC members who have done so much damage.

      I do not know which names are “the good guys” and which are those who have been wrecking the party. As my final act for them I would like to leave UKIP in a better position than they are now, just in case they are needed in the future. The treachery of this NEC must see them removed.

      1. From Gerard Batten:
        “My personal advice is vote for the Batten Brigade three and non one else.

        They are:

        Nicole Bushill
        Mike Shaw
        Roger Arthur “

        1. Clearly, you suffer from bi-polar syndrome, mon vieux, but don’t worry. These days, help is available.

    4. I would sayt the vast majority of the electorate would say that he is unfit to remain an MP. but with standards in the commons down at sewer level no doubt he will be allowed to stay

    5. Ah he is claiming insanity

      Mr Vaz would not comment on his future but said he was receiving treatment for a serious mental health condition.

      2. Mental health condition seems to be the get out of jail free card. Of course being a lying thieving cheating cocksucking bastard does suggest an abnormality.

  94. Priti Pathetic Patel wittering on about “migrants” and “victims”
    No luv,they were illegal immigrants and when you look in the mirror realise YOU and your fellow feckless politicians murdered them by your failure to adopt “Aussie Rules” and stop the illegal flow stone dead.
    Your faux compassion disgusts me,nearly as much as the rancid racism and political point scoring of Abbott

    1. We’ve a project on at the moment. Devs say 8 weeks. Scrum master says 12. I say 24 and present findings.

      The business sells 3 sprints – 6 weeks. The reasoning is it shows us as an agile, dynamic organisation that can ‘deliver’.

      We’re currently in week 21 and due to finish mid November. Thankfully, the customer didn’t use it as a ‘teaching’ exercise (where we do 24 weeks work and get paid for 6).

  97. The good news is that Bob the Builder DID come round – if only to tell me that he would definitely do the work in November.

    I set the MR on to him – hence his appearance. I warned him that if he wasn’t true to his word – she’d be after him….

        1. Pfft… You’ll be saying next that there are no such things as fairies. Tinkerbell is disappointed in you.

      2. I’m certainly not surprised he’s dead. Been hanging upside down from a, probably horribly swollen, ankle for more than 12 hours. It’s the how and why he got up there. An Extinction Rebellion protester perhaps, or just a drunken bet after chucking out time last night? I hope it was the first if it comes to that.

        1. Yes, being hung upside by your ankle is a method of torture meeted out by undesirable régimes. A pretty unpleasant way to go.

  99. Running late on the votes. It seems an election on the 12th is the first option. If that fails it goes to the Lib-Dem option of the 9th

  103. That’s me for the day.

    Book tip – “In the Shadow of Vesuvius” by Daisy Dunn. A life of Pliny the Younger. We had the audibook in the car for the journey north. Brilliant stuff.

    A demain.

  104. The debate on holding an election shows just how bad our politicians are . The best Corbyn can come up with is a fake claim that an election on the 2 will disenfranchise students and many voters will not venture out in the dark forgetting that their are postal votes and polling stations open from 7am

  105. Washing machine sales may temporarily be affected doe to an incident with the salesman

      1. He will come out whiter than White as the new improved Vas washing powder removers all stains

  107. It’s interesting that Corbyn is effectively telling the country that it is OK for students, who won’t be in the university constituency for most of an electoral cycle, to foist a Labour MP on that constituency, even if the majority of the “real” people there prefer a Lumpy Dim or a Contory.

    1. The current situation with students is wrong. They can register to vote at Uni or at home butt can just choose where so many will look at the 2017 results and the polls to decide where to vote to best effect and of course many also vote twice

          1. From listening to the debates the standard on average of our MP’s is at gutter level

  109. Is the Commons still fit to govern the UK

    In my view listing to the so called debate the answer is a cler no. A female Labour MP even managed to throw the F word into the debate

    1. The debate is irrelevant. Most MPs will be taking back handers and bribes in back rooms to decide this country’s future and demolition of democracy.

          3. EU Army storms ashore at Luxembourg? © D Abbott

            I know that that wasn’t totally correct and was manipulated but WTH

          4. I was thinking more along the lines of those soldiers being the British who, after fumbling the easy democratic route of leaving the EU, are forced to join the Resistance to free us from the evil Empire. A few more years of the EU shipping in our replacements and the Yellow Vest protests will be looked at as the “good old days,” as the overlords in Brussels really tighten their grip on the countries of Europe.

            We know that the EU really does not like democracy, so that won’t be around for much longer. It is looking very shaky already.

          6. I have been turning my thoughts of late as to how I can fight back clandestinely. I need to read more books about the Resistance.

  111. Interestingly the Chamber is pretty empty for this debate. No doubt they will all file in from the bars when the vote is called

  113. What this debate tells me is it is long overdue that England was treated the same as the rest of the nations and had its own parliament

    1. Don’t be more of a fool than usual.

      What possible good would an English Parliament do with respect to Brexit?

      We are the UK, the UK parliament, for better or worse is in Westminster. A separate English parliament would add precisely nothing to this debate.

    6. Oh well, if we’re going down that road, here’s a new development:

      Apple Computer announced today that it has developed a computer chip that can store and play high fidelity music in women’s breast implants.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3046543ca9cb23c486be35feaf50012daf18dd15840dc8c25f614d9090342921.jpg

      The iTit will cost between $499.00 and $699.00 depending on speaker size.

      This is considered to be a major breakthrough because women have always complained about men staring at their tits

      And not listening to them.

        1. Hmm. That is a good question. This is an adult forum, so the same objection might be levelled at the majority of the jokes and humour being posted as too juvenile even for minors. Photographs of the human form vary from graphically biological, to very rude, to artistic, and to beautiful. Some will be found offensive by some. I dislike some of the cartoons and some of the occasional (but well deserved) bad language.
          The real question, to my mind, is whether a picture is appropriate. We will all tend to have our own views on this.

          1. Art is one thing. My rule of thumb is “Would you walk up to a stranger and show them an image?” If I would not do it in real life, then I would not do it online.

        1. Yes – so much for tipsters. May I remind you of yours a couple of weeks back?……….

          So you can say you read it here first (as is often the case with NoTTL).
          England lose to Australia
          Japan beats S Efrica
          Final = Japan v NZ (and – for the first time EVER) there will be a ref who does not yield to the constant cheating and bullying that is the hallmark of the AB.)

          2. Yes. yes….but were you not surprised? Flabbergasted???

            And I would have loved to see the Japs taking on NZ (and their ridiculous “haka”. High time that was stopped. Primitive bollux.

            Anyway I never suggested betting!

  118. BBC R4 introduced its 5pm wafflefest with suppressed glee at Johnson’s submission to the extension. Said the presenter in a measured tone: “He’s failed – or has he?” Thankfully he has – failed to get May’s Surrender Treaty (Mk 4) through – but for the BBC it was a personal and political failure, with a dash of dishonesty thrown in. The problem is that I’m almost in agreement with them…

  119. At last Now going to the vote. Given how few are in the Chamber this should not tale long unless they all file into the voting lobby direct from the bars

  120. Evening all. Just back from a military funeral (ex-Lancaster pilot, sole survivor of his crew) where the singing was a joy to behold, particularly God Is My Strength and Refuge, which (as I am sure you all know) is sung to the tune of the Dambusters March.

      1. No, although the last time I went to a knees up in the Mess at Shawbury, they had a Labrador there. Albeit it wasn’t a black one.

  121. Vote lost not a surprise

    Short bill to be introduced for an election on the 12th December

  122. Johnson saying No Deal is off the table. Whatever comes next, unless we crash out on Halloween, no more voting for them, ever.

    1. Frankly if Johnson does not make an electoral pact with Nigel Farage the Conservative Party will not win the general election.

      The good thing about this is that the May/Johnson Surrender WA will die and we shall stay in the EU unto such tome as we can go for a clean break.

      Good luck to Nigel Farage and The Brexit Party – he is our only hope.

    2. But, in the absence of Revoke, it’ll be back on the table in 2020 – possibly with increasing intensity as the year proceeds.

  123. Just been to Westfield shopping mall looking for a sympathy card to send to an old friend who woke on Sunday morning to find her husband had died during the night. The cards on sale are all very shallow and sentimental and there’s not a cross in sight. I’ll try and find some suitable art online and print it out but I realise I have to send her a hand written letter with genuine personal recollections. The ready made tat simply won’t do.

    1. À handwritten communication (letter or a tasteful blank card with suitable floral image on the front) is so much better than a ‘Hallmark horror’.

    3. In my view a plain, hand written, letter carries far more weight than a card with a note against a “motto/aphorism/platitude”.

      My father woke up to discover my mother had died in the night and the letters were the ones he treasured.

        1. Not really, they were together until the end.

          My enduring memory is watching as the undertakers took the corpse away and he said “Goodbye hapeth”. It was his pet name for her: half penny worth. It was the only time I ever saw him weep.

          2. In life, it seems to me, there’s no treasure half as precious as “treasured memories”.

          3. Having (what I thought) was pulled my IT band quite badly, and hobbling about – when I could walk, clutching door frame to door frame, leaning on the broom I find that the things we take for granted are vast and monstrous.

            With three days of not sleeping due to pain it brings home how bally lucky I am.

          4. I agree. When I trapped a nerve in my leg I never appreciated the ability to bend over and pull my trousers on so much as when I lost the capabllity!

          5. There is a great deal to be said for dying at home in your sleep. Infinitely preferable to a distant hospital ward, surrounded by strangers. My father died at home with us. There was a track of the sound of waves playing that he liked to listen to and when we found him he had a half-smile on his face. 🙂

            A bad few days followed obviously, but I would not have had him go in any other way.

          7. Excellent way to go.
            My Dad died alone in a hospice. My mother couldn’t bear to be with him at that last moment and I was flying over from Norway, to be too late.
            It still breaks me up to think of it.

          8. I was similarly placed.

            I touched down and the call came through that my mother had died, I was a couple of hours too late, but got back in time to say a final farewell to the body..

          9. Me too. Neither my mother nor brother could do it, but I did.
            He didn’t half look pissed off. He wasn’t ready to die.

          11. My worry about going into a hospital, late in life would be the bed clearing Liverpool Pathway

            liverpool-care-pathway-a-national-sc.blogspot.com

            The Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP) was a care pathway in the United Kingdom (excluding Wales) covering palliative careoptions for patients in the final days or hours of life. … Hospitals were also provided cash incentives to achieve targets for the number ofpatients placed on the LCP.

        1. I have always said I’d like to go, snuffed out in an instant, while galloping across country. I doubt I’ll get my wish.

          2. Trouble is, the sniper would have to find me. These days, galloping across country is rarer than hens’ teeth 🙂

          3. If things get really bad, I will exit with a bottle of good rum in Barbados or Dominica

          6. I’m not wishing my life away. I believe I have an allotted span and when my number is up, it’s up. It’s just I’d like a say in the way I go when my time comes.

        2. Certainly for me. But if I’m honest I would prefer me to wake up to HG rather than the other way around, for her sake.

          I’m planning on it being close to our 100th wedding anniversary!

        3. I hope I keel over on the tennis courts. I’ve left instructions…. Do Not Revive!

          “Don’t worry”, they said. ” we won’t…”

          3. You are a serious tennis player , aren’t you PT.

            Have you played in tournaments, I expect you are a fantastic player .. you must have a lot of fun and boundless energy .

          4. More fun now than serious play. I gave up tournaments this year as my partner was a good player and I felt
            I was letting him down.
            Sometimes it’s hard a but I feel great afterwards. it doesn’t matter if I win or lose as long as I play well….

          5. Same with me in shooting competitions, PT. Do my best, can’t ask more than that.
            Still come last, though.
            :-((

          6. HG caught me unawares.

            She gave me a tattoo on my chest and another on my back.
            Front: “Do not resuscitate”
            Back: “PTO, and if you don’t follow the request, I’ll sue”

    4. Evening Sue

      October has been a bad month for goodbyes. I have also had a problem finding suitable sympathy cards.

      We have a super florist shop in our small local town , and I have overcome the problem by ordering a small basket arrangement of flowers and a few handwritten tender words on a plain card to the widow / widower.

      Sad times are always so difficult to address, aren’t they .

      1. I have had a raft of funerals of late; they have bookended my weekends and now I have another one tomorrow afternoon.

        1. Lord, how I hate funerals.
          Was never any good at goodbyes, and funerals are the final one.

          1. Some funerals are miserable. Today’s was a celebration of a life well lived. A humorous, generous man who gave a lot for his country. His son (a retired vicar) took the service and it’s obvious that humour (as well as a full head of hair) was in the genes. Being a military funeral (guard of honour, standards, RAFA flag draped on the coffin), the singing was full-blooded and vigorous. I can’t abide wishy washy singing. Still less can I cope with “humanist” ceremonies. They don’t bring any sense of closure at all. It was noticeable that the vicar said “if you feel you can respond with ‘Lord hear our prayer’ please do”. Since when has prayer been diffident and objectionable? Needless to say, the responses were resounding.

          2. My Dad hated religion, as he was pressured to sign as a Friend when he was young, so his funeral was “humanist” exactly as you describe.
            What bollocks it was.
            My brother & I sorted it afterwards with whisky, and Wales’ biggest bonfire.

          4. Conners – doing what I do for a living, I’ve probably been to more funerals (and weddings) than anyone else here. Very few have been miserable. There was one a few years ago when the deceased had topped himself, yet it was still upbeat: the coffin came in to the strains of the theme from Star Wars. It works well on organ; the only thing is, the bearers should have been dressed as Imperial Stormtroopers. Conversely, there was one a couple of weeks ago, where the deceased had lived into her early nineties, yet the eulogies etc fell apart because the family members reading them broke down in uncontrollable tears.

            I’m prolly a hard b***ard; I stayed unmoved even at my own Mum’s funeral (where I played the organ).

            What I find interesting is that – in this part of the world at least -, one learns much about those who have shuffled off this mortal coil. One hears of the achievements of the most self-effacing, unassuming people. Perhaps it’s a Surrey thing. Suffice to say, that when my turn comes, the churchyard shed will suffice as a venue…

          5. This one started with the Skye Boat Song (he was a Scot) and ended with Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye. The miserable ones I’ve attended have tended to be the humanist ones.

          6. The tricky ones end with “Always look on the bright side of life”. The line “Life’s a piece of shit” seems somewhat out off place as the mourners file out of the building…

          7. Not a hard b’stard. You become acclimated. My mother died in a car crash which was her fault, two years younger than the age i have reached. My Mother-in -law had a triple bypass and lived to 78. She worked in the cotton mills. Shamefully for me i miss her more than my own mum. :o(

          8. I was five when my Dad was killed in a car crash. Wasn’t allowed to go to the funeral, but my God, I’ve made up for it since. Mum made it to 89, when a secondary cancer caught up with her and left her virtually paralysed. “Do we treat it aggressively, or make her comfortable?”, asked the consultant. She was practically blind, could hardly walk, and her mind had somewhat deserted her. The response was a no-brainer. It was all over within a fortnight…

          10. MOH complains that I am attending so many funerals. I reply, “falling leaves”. It’s that time of year and the age of my friends.

          11. You sound like my mother, at 93 she was complaining that she had no friends left.

            Well they all died didn’t they.

          12. Appearance is the important thing. Words are shallow, but the bereaved notices who turns up and who doesn’t.

    5. I agree. Ready Made Tat is precisely that. I have found black cards with a beautiful picture give quite enough space to write words that are not too curt, but there isn’t the space to go over the top.
      Now that so few of us have any real Christian belief, writing that sort of letter is much more difficult.
      But they are more treasured by the recipient.

    6. Susan, it is what you write and the thought behind it that will count, not the means of transmission. x

    7. Just sympathy cards, you are lucky.

      None of the commercial tat over here is suitable.

      Birthday cards are obscene jokes for sloppy kissy kissy.
      We want Christmas cards not happy holidays.
      Sympathy cards rare and overly religious

      I guess that and Thanksgiving cards are OK, they are not even looked at.

  124. I reproduce for NoTTLers’ pleasure reading:

    Civil war has broken out on the Remain mothership: news that campaigners must be dearly hoping they can bury amid the noise around Boris Johnson being forced to accept the EU-approved three-month Brexit delay.

    There has been a stink caused at the so-called People’s Vote campaign by the turfing out of two senior – and popular – officials. It began with tough talk of deactivated passes and warnings that security would bundle out the two personae non gratae if they tried to trespass. As staff began to walk out in protest, with threats of legal action flying around the circumstances of their removal, the new chief executive ended up having to save face by announcing that everyone had the day off.

    The acrimony has been the culmination of a festering row among the “People’s Vote” movement over how outwardly Remainer they should be. Given that the People’s Vote umbrella covers a variety of overtly pro-EU campaigns, including Open Britain, the European Movement UK and Wales For Europe, it is clear what side of the Brexit fence they sit on.

    Nevertheless, some campaigners argued that it was best to argue for another referendum in as neutral a tone as possible in order to avoid alienating voters with their pro-EU zeal. Hence the talk from the anti-Brexit side of procedures like a “People’s Vote” – as if the people had not already voted in 2016 – or alternatively a “confirmatory referendum” or a “final say”: a term geared to reassure voters that they are not being invited to constantly respond to the same question until they give the answer the political class wants.

    Let’s leave aside the fact that the politicians telling the people they need to double check their intentions on Brexit are those who tried desperately to persuade them to reject it in the first place. However they dress up the referendum, these politicians cannot hide the fact they merely see a ploy to get the outcome they want of reversing Brexit. For example, Jo Swinson recently declared that “it is so crucial that we have the Final Say, because what we know about Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal is terrifying”. Yet the Liberal Democrat leader has made clear that she will not accept the result if the British people vote again for Brexit. So much for their say being “final” then.

    Roland Rudd, one of those who felt the campaign should wear its heart on its sleeve, is credited with ousting his two People’s Voters who wanted to rein in any pro-Remain pitch. But in doing so, he has taken the brewing civil war among Remain campaigners out into the open. Mr Rudd was publicly dismissed as the PR man “best known for talking about Brexit from Davos” by Will Straw, whose last claim to fame was heading the Remain campaign in 2016.

    Despite being a PR smoothie, Mr Rudd exacerbated tensions by touring the media rather than addressing Remain campaigners at People’s Vote HQ this morning. But that did allow him to publicly account for the outbreak of bloodletting in the higher echelons of the Remain movement.

    When asked by Adam Boulton on Sky News about the row among staff about how explicitly pro-Remain the People’s Vote campaign should be, Mr Rudd answered breezily: “Everyone knows where we’re coming from”. His answer was rather revealing, one can only assume unwittingly, as he has nailed why the movement is flagging.

    Everyone can see that People’s Vote, despite its pretence of just caring about democratic propriety, is just a front for the Remain campaign. Every politician who backs it is one who wanted the British people to reject Brexit three years ago and remain in the EU. Every big name that publicly toys with a referendum, such as Philip Hammond and Roland’s sister Amber Rudd, are just more of the same old Remain campaigners.

    It’s no surprise that poll after poll shows the British people back Boris Johnson in his desire to get Brexit done. They have seen through the “People’s Vote” ruse pushed by Remainers for what it is: a thinly-veiled attempt to overturn the last People’s Vote.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/28/no-wonder-peoples-vote-tearing-apart-remain-ruse-isnt-fooling/

    2. Clearly pointless waiting for our poiticians to achieve anything. I’ve concluded that the country at large needs to do something to really annoy the EU so they just chuck us out without more ado. Can’t think what might work though.

  125. There was a lack of citrus fruit when I shopped in one of the few supermarkets within my 12 mile shopping radius .

    I commented about this to a very charming amusing middle aged man who was checking out my goods..

    I asked him whether Brexit might be responsible .. and he cheekily replied no.. it is because all the refrigerated lorries are busy bringing in illegal migrants before the expected Brexit date of 31st Oct.. The queue behind me almost collapsed with laughter!

  127. If what Farage said this evening is accurate then there will not be a Tory/TBP pact fighting the GE. Farage stated that Johnson has decided to fight the election on his May v4.0 WA. This immediately excludes TBP from creating a pact as TBP want a clean break.
    The upside is that his “deal” is going to be exposed to the closest scrutiny of any manifesto promise ever. TBP will take it apart line by line and any sensible person will reject it when they understand the reality of what Johnson is trying to impose on them. Hubris could well be the undoing of Johnson: he obviously believes that ‘his brand’ will sweep him to victory. no matter what he has on offer.
    Tory MPs of the stripe of Redwood, Francois, Paterson et al. will surely find campaigning on this “deal” difficult, especially if they suspect a stitch up being arranged for the end of 2020. Boris, “The WA is dead,” Johnson, has already failed to keep his word on this important issue: who will trust him now?
    As an example, a good Brexit Party showing in Colchester could see the Tory lose and that loss will almost be guaranteed if Labour and the LibDums come to a sensible agreement.

    1. One thing is sadly for sure, the media will not be publicising any of the downsides of this deal. They are owned by globalists and they want this deal very badly, as they took 2 years to fashion it as a legal trap for the United Kingdom. It is no wonder that John Redwood is not in favour of it as he sees it for what it is.

      It is an indication of how far the party has fallen that so many MP’s are prepared to do this to our country. The Conservative Party were supposed to be the good guys, not the betrayers. Which is why I have voted for them all of my life. But not this time.

      1. I know it is costing much money but the longer the Remain faction hold off Johnson’s desire to ensnare us with the EU the more the “deal” gets publicised. Bad publicity for Johnson is a positive for the Country as a whole. The cost is trifling compared to what Johnson and the EU have in store for us.
        Three consecutive untrustworthy, lying Tory PMs prepared to sell our Country out.Talk about a rock and a hard place; what have we done – other than reject the EU’s hegemony – to deserve the charlatans in the HoC?

    2. But will Labour and the LibDems come to a sensible agreement though, Korky? The new Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate is a great improvement on previous PPCs and Jo Swinson is unlikely to step back as she is desperate to increase the number of LibDem MPs across the country. Also, from what I have seen of him, the Brexit Party candidate is not really a top notch man. So, in Colchester at least, I think it will be all to play for.

      1. Even if he had managed to get further down the road there was a low bridge he could not have got under

        It is a growing problem with lorry drivers blindly following their sat navs

          1. I think it went into a ditch as well. Many of these C grade roads are only intended for light traffic even if there is no ditch if the lorry goes on the edge of the rod the surface is like to crumble and the lorry sink into the ground

          1. Boris will be dealing with him –
            From the BBC-

            “Boris said he would table a short Bill on Tuesday “

  131. There was a question here a couple of nights ago about the output of solar farms. By coincidence I came across more information today from a practical source.

    The morning was bright and cloudless, but cold and we took our grand-daughter to a local outdoor attraction a few miles away. As we pulled into the car park I noticed that they had a large array of solar panels, about 100 of them in all, to power the place.

    Shortly after mid-day, still in solid blue skies we went for a snack in the canteen/restaurant/snack bar and as luck would have it the only table available had an LED panel next to it that showed the current output of the solar array. I glanced up as I sat down and noticed that the instantaneous output at that time was 8.8kW.

    While we ate, the first clouds of the day rolled over the sun – not heavy clouds of sort that came later, bringing rain, but fairly light ones that still let enough light through to throw traces of shadows of objects on the ground. It was interesting to watch the output from the array decline as the cloud advanced. After 5-10 minutes the output had fallen to 2.3kW. I photographed the panel with my phone and immediately took another shot through the window to show the amount of shadow on the ground.

    The cloud passed over and once the bright sunshine was back the output quickly rose to 9.1kW, roughly where it had been when we first sat down.

    So some light fluffy cloud had cut the output to only 25% of the full sun output. If the cloud had been thicker it would have been less.

    The proponents of this type of generation aren’t lying when they say that they will still work in cloudy weather. They just aren’t telling the truth either.

    1. Curiously low output from the approx 100 panels at the best of times it seems. I know of someone who has 21 panels and during weather such as that described it gives just over 3kWh.

      1. That’s the instantaneous output ‘Current Power’ (kW) the figure below on the display was the ‘Total Energy’ kWH at 34.9 and 35.6 respectively, presumably the accumulated output to the day so far. I’ve no way of knowing if that was from the full array, but I can’t think why it wouldn’t be.

        The point isn’t the output per se, but the drop-off of that output in light cloud cover.

          1. How much of that solar-generated power is being used to drive the display? 😉

        2. The efficiency of solar in the UK is a joke. They only produce a meaningful amount of energy in the summer when it is not needed. The solar cells also degrade at about 1% a year. Another problem is dirty and muck on the panels . Unless they are regularly cleaned the power they produce declines rapidly

    1. Oh, this is so important. This type of information gave Labour and LibDems many gains in 1997.

    2. Now why don’t Johnson and Farage want to make a pact? Johnson shiftily made reference to it in his passionless “Victory” speech on the 24th June 2016.

  134. The b liar fears next negotiations will end in no deal comes under, give the peoples a glimmer of hope, in the handbook for treacherous bastards.
    Looks like the extension cycle is going to be four a year then.

  135. I see that in four days of NOT posting any comments, my upticks have gone down by 10,000.

    Odd thing.

    1. Good evening Bill
      It’s obviously what you’re not saying, so vociferously, that’s concerning. 😂

    2. It has been mentioned a few times that the least popular posters lose the most votes. Can’t imagine why yours are dropping so fast. :o)

    4. Bill Thomas – I wasn’t going to say anything, but I did notice you had lost 4,000 since the last time I looked. It does clarify one piece of information though. The program is running elsewhere and it does not matter how many or how few comments that you make. Or whether you come online at all.

      So there is no need to hold back in the worry that every comment that you make lowers your total. 🙂

    6. Unlike most other posters, if I hover the cursor over your avatar nothing appears re votes/posts.

      Have you changed your profile/details?

          2. The first time that I bothered to track some people’s numbers to see how fast they were falling was last Monday evening. Back then you had 97,872 and now you have 89,905. So that is down 7,967 in 8 days. This will be offset slightly by the upvotes that you get, but not at the rate that the bot is stripping them.

            Peddytheviking is only down 540 during the same period.
            Ndovu down 2,200.
            lms2 is actually stable, down a bit and up a bit.

            (This is the number cruncher in me coming out. I blame my early fascination with “logic problems.”)

  138. Greeting & good night all Nottlers! Sorry for my lengthy absence on here, did I miss anything such as Brexit ? ( sarcasm ) Poor old Boris, he is doing his best but since the army won’t accept an order to round up the Remainer MP’s & Lords and shoot them, its going to be extremely difficult both to achieve Brexit & have a General Election because the Remainer Turkeys in Parliament will not be voting for a Christmas GE ( puns intended )

    2. Well, exciting days, what with Donald facing impeachment and the media not believing that Big Daddy has been killed again, reckon we both have big problems. Even Iran getting the bomb has become a minor topic, and speaking of minors, our Prince Andrew is still intermittently in the news.

    3. Good evening Hatman

      Whatever problems Boris is having with his very loose definition of what Brexit is that they are nothing to the problems he will get from those who can see that his Surrender Brexit is a complete capitulation.

      His only honest course is to make a pact with Nigel Farage and go for the real thing – a proper Brexit.

      1. Nite nite rastusctastey. Farage can talk the talk but he can’t do the walk! I’ll explain – he talks a lot but can’t get elected for love nor money & his Brexit party is simply a rehash of the unelectable UKIP party ( R.I.P. ) I am no longer in the UK , no longer have a vote but if I was I would still vote for a Tory Brexiter MP & not a Brexit party candidate !

        1. You have been away for a long time. It is good to remake your acquaintance. 🙂

          To get you fully up to speed – There are only a handful of “Brexiteer Conservatives” left in the party, the vast majority are now Remainers who are trying to keep us under EU control. Nigel Farage has had some interesting experiences with the pro-EU establishment who are terrified of him. I assume you are aware of the last time that he stood for our Parliament and some of the boxes “went missing” for hours between the polling station and the count. That election result was announced 6 hours after it normally was when they finally turned up.

          As for being elected – Farage is the leader of the largest political party in the EU Parliament. He wiped the floor with the Conservative and Labour parties at the EU elections by a public that were sick of being lied to by our MP’s. The public are far more angry now. The media are pumping out ridiculous polls that put the dead parrot of the Labour party on 26% and the rising Titan of the Brexit Party on 10%.

          More and more traditional Conservative voters, such as myself, are having the scales fall from our eyes and we see that if the Brexit Party do not do well at the upcoming election, then we will never leave the EU. The main parties will not allow it. Boris’s deal is Theresa Mays trap with the Irish bit fiddled with, that is all. Under Boris’s deal we will be under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice for at least the next 11 years for example. That is not leaving.

          But you will pick all of these things up. Good to see you back. 🙂

      2. You can forget any chance of these mystical election pacts.

        I really do not understand how you think Farage and Johnson could work together to get a full clean Brexit through parliament.

        Really Richard, send me some of whatever green stuff you’ve been filling your pipe with lately.

    4. Yes, Johnson has done his best to keep us in the EU but unfortunately he’s not as convincing a liar as May.

      1. Sorry but I disagree – Johnson does not want the UK in the EU – he is a convert to Leave and has tied his political survival to achieving it! May is an obvious & low skilled EUSSR Globalist liar only fit to work as an assistant cloakroom attendant in a Transgender toilet!

  140. Try this one for size –

    “Syrian Kurds say they managed to place a spy in Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s inner circle
    who stole a pair of the Isis leader’s underpants to prove his identity
    and then helped guide US soldiers to his Syrian hideout.”

  141. I can see a complicated, family and friendship dividing board game, being popular in years to come

    Brexit

      1. My usually very equable daughter had a decisive way with board games going badly – to throw the board and pieces over. Now she’s a mother of three who would scold her children for such behaviour.

        1. I love board games with my grandchildren, particularly chess.
          I have a policy of never letting them beat me at anything unless they have genuinely won.

          To get around the tantrum element, when the game is going badly for them I turn the board around and tell them to take my position.

          It works well, they learn, they remember and they can “win” without either side really losing.

      2. You can buy a Hotel California if you have too many houses (rather like Blair). You will, however, be liable for all their repairs.

    4. The first game takes 3 years before the players realise that it never ends if you follow the rules, and the only way to win is to abandon the game and walk away.

  142. If we Brexit on the 31st (proper), Boris is king. If we don’t, he’s gone. He said it. I’ll stand by his word, even if he doesn’t.

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