913 thoughts on “Thursday 31 October: Voters are angry with Members of Parliament, so don’t expect them to elect the same candidates”

  1. Good morning, Gentlefolk – for the second night I find I’m unable to return to sleep, so I’m delighted to find that Geoff has opened up the page for today’s offerings. Let start with a giggle:

    An elderly couple, both of whom had had spouses that died and had been going out with each other for a long time. Urged on by their friends, they decided it was finally time to get married. Before the wedding, they had a long conversation regarding how their marriage might work. They discussed finances, living
    arrangements and so on.

    Finally, the gentleman decided it was time to broach the subject of their physical relationship.

    ‘How do you feel about sex?’ he asked, rather tentatively.

    ‘I would like it infrequently’ she replied.

    He sat quietly for a moment, leaned over towards her and whispered –

    ‘Is that one word or two?’

  2. Brexit Party could help Tories in general election by not fighting hundreds of seats

    The Brexit Party is considering withdrawing hundreds of its general election candidates in what would be a major boost to Boris Johnson’s hopes of
    winning a majority.

    Splits have emerged in Nigel Farage’s party over its election strategy, with several senior figures backing the “sensible” option of focusing its resources on a small number of Leave-voting Labour seats that it stands a realistic chance of winning.

    One senior Brexit Party MEP suggested the party could field as few as 20 candidates, while other sources suggested the figure would be nearer 100.

    Would that they could shew the sort of sense that has been lacking in UKIP and its squabbling NEC.

    Whether Boris backs it or not, at least it would ensure a Brexit win in the General Election and I’m sure Farage would set a fizzer up Boris’ bum if he tries to get his ‘Deal’ through Parliament. Nothing less than ‘No Deal’ will satisfy Farage and, I’m sure, the majority of the Leave Electorate.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/30/brexit-party-could-help-tories-general-election-not-fighting/

    1. Backing Boris is not a “Brexit win”.

      His agreement with the EU is every bit as bad as May’s agreement. In fact 95% of it IS May’s agreement.

      Remaining is a better option for the UK than the Boris deal and I say that as someone who has supported Brexit since the Major administration.

          2. Lol.

            Good show.

            Stay away from football scores this year, we’re having a pretty dire year so far. Normal service has resumed at Spurs.

          4. Maybe. I’m sure Jim if he were here would also be optimistic for next year. It’s a shared trait amongst Spurs supporters. The good thing is that we’ve learned to deal with disappointment brilliantly.

      2. If you read my post, you might have noticed that the BP would not allow the Boris Deal through.

        As for remaining, I prefer a government that I can vote out if they try to be as dictatorial as the EU’s little junta but if that’s what you want, why not move there and bask in their tyranny.

        1. I don’t want that.

          I also do not want to soft leave, if that’s going to be the case then remaining is preferable.

          Soft leave is damaging to the UK and doesn’t bring enough benefits. So remain or no deal, and i’d rather not remain.

      3. How on earth can you say that “Remaining in is a better option for the UK”, Thayaric? Remaining in is total capitulation to the EU. Leaving with Boris’s deal at least enables us to move forward, and perhaps find a way of shaking off the (many, granted) “bad bits” of Boris’ deal. Isn’t it an often quoted fact that no government can tie the hands of its successor?

          1. También tengo un problema con mi ordenador/computadora. Pero hize un “re-boot” y voy a ver mis emails en un minutito.

        2. “Leaving with Boris’s deal at least enables us to move forward, and perhaps find a way of shaking off the (many, granted) “bad bits” of Boris’ deal”
          That, I am afraid is completely not true. Currently, as a member we have every right to walk away. As per Article 50. Full stop.no negotiations, no nothing. We just say “that’s it, we are out”.
          After signing up to the WA we cannot do that. We will, by signing up to the WA, have committed ourselves to deferring to the EU in all legal matters, including the severing of all connections, including leaving. They will not let us leave, ever. That is the whole point, indeed the only real point of the WA. All the stuff about NI, fish, government support, blah, blah is just obfuscation.
          If we sign the WA, the EU can do with us whatever they like.

          1. And how would Boris have been able to exercise his right to walk away, when his every attempt to move on was being stymied by a Parliament which was determined to see him fail?

          2. That is a problem, sure enough. Throwing the entire UK into slavery is not the solution.

          3. HP,
            Taking the UK out of slavery was the object of the UKIP exercise when they designed and activated the
            referendum / brexit, prior to having to watch it being totally balls up.

          4. The Nigel Farage led UKIP harried the Cameron led Tories into designing and activating the referendum / Brexit.
            PS Farage built UKIP’s image, hence UKIP’s image is pretty much non existent since his departure.

          7. On his own ? he was a UKIP mouthpiece, UKIP built his image
            & gave him a working platform.
            I done enough mileage helping via leafleting and his gratitude
            still shows by the rhetorical knife wound in the back suffered by
            30000 more also.
            Contact Catherine Blaiklock founder / leader of the Brexit group
            get her take on nige.
            Brexit group good, farage needs watching, closely.

          9. I thought the WA was put “on ice” until after the General Election. If Boris is returned with a reasonable majority he can do as you suggest; had he tried to do that with this present Parliament and his negative “majority”, he hadn’t a cat in hell’s chance of doing that without Remainers blocking him.

      4. Except that if we withdraw article 50 we will NEVER be given another chance to get out.

        We’ll have to wait until the EU implodes.

        I agree that being in is better than what is on offer in the immediate term, but if the “negotiations” are in bad faith at least we can abrogate the treaty and walk away with no deal.

    2. I doubt the Conservatives will reciprocate and give any help to the Brexit party. I suspect that they will not stand down in these unwinnable Conservative seats. They fear the Brexit Party.

      1. Morning C,
        It is my honest belief that the morph process will come into play the process has already started.

    3. Good “middle of the night still” NTN. What a bu..er waking up and not being able to get back to sleep. ?tot of whisky may help – before Bed I mean!

      Spot on with your last sentence, What I want is No Deal. We didn’t vote For A deal we just wanted out. But I’m afraid BoJo is not to be trusted, he’s still pushing the appalling WA. I have never understood why we need an “agreement” at all. We just want to leave!

    4. Why? Why? Why? Very few will vote Tory after the repellent, shambolic, contrary, stitch-up of the last three years. Labour? Who knows what their policies will be, from one week to another? Lib/Dem? Ah, now we are on sure ground. Lib/Dem will garner all the votes for Remain. They may win and treason thus will prosper.
      Only the Brexit Party is clear about leaving. The Brexit Party does not seem to exist. My phone call yesterday to HQ was not answered. No reply to my email of 2 days ago. Perhaps my email to Louis Stedman-Bryce will elicit a reply.

      1. “Very few will vote Tory after the repellent, shambolic, contrary, stitch-up of the last three years.” I credit the great British public with more sense. They are well aware that May was in charge for most of those three years, but the past 100 days with Boris in charge has changed matters immensely.

        1. “Changed matters”? The only change has been a lurch towards accepting the unacceptable.

          1. Not true. “We will not negotiate any more” was changed by Boris. “We will not grant any further extensions” was changed by Boris. “The backstop cannot be removed” was changed by Boris. All three were statements by the EU. And here’s another: “We are stuffed” [the great British Public] was changed by Boris to “There is hope for us yet”.

    5. Morning NtN,
      “Would they could show the sort of sense that has been lacking in UKIP and it’s squabbling NEC”
      Are you intentionally spreading misinformation ? when it is well known that certain members of the NEC are running an orchestrated anti Gerard Batten / Braine campaign.
      Sample from NEC, Gerard Batten is not of good standing
      within the party thereby cannot stand in the leadership elections.
      IMHO misguided faragist.
      The nige by his rant that showed his appreciation for the
      UKIP members & party.

    6. ‘Morning, Nanners. Nigel is nothing if not a realist, so I wonder whether the prospect of a lot of lost deposits has struck a note of caution? I know nothing about TBP funds, but that could be a problem. I do think the suggestion of taking on campaigns in a small number of seats makes very good sense; after all, the party does not have a lot of experienced people to canvass all over the country, and from the few they have the gaffs would probably come thick and fast, as they did for UKIP. A hostile media won’t help, either. Just a thought…

  3. It’s been a long time since I set a quiz type teaser for the channel.

    So here goes, some trivia, the subject is Movies…

    1) An actress won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role playing another Oscar winning actress.
    Who won the best supporting actress Oscar?
    Who did she play in the film?
    What was the movie?

    2) An action star appeared in a small role sending up his usual role in a comedy film of the past decade.
    In his comic role his surname was a make of car.
    Who is the action star?
    What is the movie?
    Who directed the movie?

    3) God is a woman, Jesus was black, there were actually 13 apostles, and two prophets appeared.
    What is the movie?
    Who is the 13th apostle?
    Who are the prophets?

    4) Lone Star and Dark Helmet use the Schwartz in a battle between good and evil.
    What is the movie?
    Who provided the voice of the female robot?
    What was the robot’s name?

    5) Davis kept an open mind. McCardle was number nine.
    What is the movie?
    Who directed the movie?
    Who portrayed number five?

    6) Columbo read a story to Kevin Arnold that detailed the kidnapping and recouping of a Buttercup and true love.
    What is the movie?
    What is the name of Buttercup’s true love?
    Who portrayed the albino?

    7) Max Zorin was The Man With A Plan. Terry Benedict was The Saint. Cockeye was Franchise. Mr Pink was Mr Shhh.
    What is the movie?
    Who portrayed Pieces?
    What was the name of the method of execution ordered?

    8) Mace Windu was Big Don. Joe Black was Floyd. Dracula was Drexl and Denny was Dickie.
    What is the movie?
    Who portrayed Cliff?
    Who wrote the screenplay?

      2. I’m good Paul, just tired. Got 4 days off now. Been working 60-72 hour weeks for £7 per hour and mistakes being taken from my wages as we can’t have the drivers being out of pocket. I lost £30 this week for taking a payment on a stolen credit card. How was i supposed to know, everything matched, the payment was authorised, but three weeks later there was a charge-back and so my wages got docked.
        Still on the plus side I’m contributing more to the household financially and slowly clearing my overdraft so things are looking up.
        I’m in decent health, can’t complain.
        Got one joint left of some nice weed too. Might just roll it up before bed. 🙂

    2. And I thought I knew just about everything about films, Thayaric. But the only tiny bits of information I can provide are:

      Q1: I haven’t seen the film but I think it might have been someone like the actress whose voice was used for Jessica Rabbit (also she co-starred with Michael Douglas in “Romancing The Stone”) playing Oscar-winner Katherine Hepburn in a bio-pic about Jane Russell’s paramour whose name was …..? Was the film I am thinking of called “The Aviator”?

      Q4: “Spaceballs” by Mel Brooks.

      Q6: “The Princess Diaries”?

      PS – I haven’t seen any of the three films listed above, hence my ignorance, but will later Google to try and expand my knowledge – and jog my memory!

      PPS – (Without looking anything up, I just remembered two of the names I was seeking for Q1 – Kathleen [Jessica Rabbit] Turner, and Howard [The Aviator] Hughes.)

        1. I think we agree on No. 6, Stormy [Princess, not Prince’s]. But in “Mommy Dearest” [No. 1] if the actress won an Oscar it would have been for Best Actress and not Best Supporting Actress.

      4. 1) is indeed the Aviator, and the actress portrayed was Katherine Hepburn. It was not however Kathleen Turner that portrayed her.
        Spaceballs is so obviously correct. But who was the robot and what was the robots name?

        1. Not having seen the film, I have not the slightest idea, my friend. Kate Winslet perhaps? Or do I mean Cate Blanchet? I get those two confused.

      5. Well not really much interest in movie trivia here. It’s probably all googleable, hell what isn’t these days…

        1) The film was the Aviator, Cate Blanchett portrayed Katherine Hepburn and won the best supporting actress Oscar for the role.

        2) The film is Spy. The director Paul Feig. The action star was Jason Statham playing the ever comical Rick Ford.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfInGEdTz18&list=PLBFpIN_d-hs3xENYAemZX3wswhANiD7b0

        3) The film is Dogma. The 13th Apostle was Rufus ( Chris Tucker ), and the prophets were Jay and Silent Bob.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20CRw3XdETA

        4) The film is Spaceballs. The robot is Dot Matrix. The voice provided by Joan Rivers.

        5) That’s obviously Twelve Angry Men. Number 5 was Jack Klugman and the director was Sidney Lumet.

        6) The film is the Princess Bride. Buttercup’s true love was named Wesley, and the albino was Mel Smith.

        7) The trickiest one I think. The film is Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead. Pieces was portrayed by Christoper Lloyd. The execution method was Buckwheats (being shot in the anus, a slow agonising death).
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mKcjzY47L0

        8) An easy one. The film is True Romance. The screenplay was written by Quentin Tarantino. Cliff was played by Dennis Hopper.

    1. Are we leaving the EU?

      Morning Bob. In a word. NO! Though a win for the tories will be interpreted as a vote in favour of BRINO!

      1. And a majority of 1 MP will be deemed sufficient to sell us out. However, a majority of > 1,000,000 plebs is ignored. I knows my place guv!

      2. As I have asked before, “how will we know when we have left”. There are no papers to sign, no hands to shake. There was only the triggering of Article 50. We did that two years ago and more.

    3. We are leaving the old EU and tomorrow Ursula will taking over the Commission with a new team:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a1b1cd7d3e7518c89ac43933718fcaa95c323460e3da5d9832e57141051aaa5.gif

      “….This team will now have to gain the (EU) Parliament’s confidence. My Commission will be a geopolitical Commission committed to sustainable policies. And I want the European Union to be the guardian of multilateralism. Because we know that we are stronger by doing together what we cannot do alone.”

      https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_19_5542

  7. Arron Banks

    @Arron_banks

    I’m content with my modest contribution to making the Conservative Party 🎉 Conservative again & creating the largest viral reach of any political campaign in Europe. Today the swamp drained itself rather than face the voters. Patriotic alliance coming together nicely …

  9. Sebastian Payne

    @SebastianEPayne

    Longtime ally @Arron_banks has urged Farage to take a “strategic view” about running candidates in every constituency: “If Nigel takes a tactical, pragmatic approach on where to run to help deliver Brexit he’ll be rewarded by voters.”

  10. Morning all

    SIR – There is no doubting the anger felt by the electorate towards the whole of Parliament, including the Speaker. Of concern is how this anger will manifest itself at the election.

    Many people I speak to say that, in protest, they will not vote, since “they don’t do what they promise, do they?” This is true, and hard to argue with.

    Another concern was reflected by the Brecon and Radnor by-election, where it was seen fit to offer the disgraced previous member as a candidate. If we are not offered fresh faces in place of the current members, local voters may well switch party, as at Brecon, with an unpredictable outcome at the national level.

    Mike Penberth
    Soham, Cambridgeshire

    SIR – On the campaign trail for this election, custom should be changed. This time, it is the voter who must ask the candidate: “Can I rely on your vote?”

    Charles Mozley
    Budapest, Hungary

    SIR – The recent convulsions in Parliament have resulted in greatly extended television coverage. As a consequence, unintended I imagine, we observe MPs as they really are.

    We have always known that Parliament can be raucous and divided, but any preconceptions we may have harboured about members putting aside petty self-interest to serve the country are now shown to be a joke.

    You may say I am naive but I have been shocked to observe such a depressingly large proportion of shallow, self-serving (as opposed to being of service), mendacious individuals.

    They plainly cannot see themselves as we see them. I sincerely hope that this is a temporary phenomenon and that a general election will sweep away the current detritus.

    Alisdair Low
    Richmond, Surrey

    1. SIR – I am sure it would be beneficial to many readers were you to publish a list of those MPs who represent Brexit constituencies and have consistently voted since the referendum for Brexit; those MPs who represent Brexit constituencies but have since voted Remain; and vice-versa for MPs representing Remain constituencies.

      In other words, who are the MPs whose voting record in the Commons has reflected, over the past three years, the views of the majority of their constituents?

      Jeremy Nicholas
      Great Bardfield, Essex

        1. I think my man, Owen Paterson MP | Member of Parliament for North Shropshire

          will be on the short list

      2. ‘Cos it’s premium, here you go:

        The list | 57 MPs are standing down
        (The Smellygraph doesn’t identify which party – there are several there I’m happy to see the back of but no Soubry or May)

        Alan Duncan

        Nicholas Soames

        Ian C. Lucas

        Alastair Burt

        Nick Hurd

        Jim Cunningham

        Amber Rudd

        Peter Heaton-Jones

        Jim Fitzpatrick

        Bill Grant

        Richard Benyon

        John Mann

        Caroline Spelman

        Richard Harrington

        Kate Hoey – the only one who’ll be missed

        Claire Perry

        Sarah Newton

        Kevin Barron

        John Bercow

        Seema Kennedy

        Louise Ellman

        David Lidington

        Guto Bebb

        Owen Smith

        David Tredinnick

        Justine Greening

        Paul Farrelly

        Glyn Davies

        Kenneth Clarke

        Roberta Blackman-Woods

        Hugo Swire

        Nick Boles

        Ronnie Campbell

        Jeremy Lefroy

        Oliver Letwin

        Stephen Pound

        Jo Johnson

        Rory Stewart

        Stephen Twigg

        Keith Simpson

        Adrian Bailey

        Teresa Pearce

        Mark Field

        Albert Owen

        Joan Ryan

        Mark Prisk

        Ann Clwyd

        Heidi Allen

        Michael Fallon

        Geoffrey Robinson

        Norman Lamb

        Mims Davies

        Gloria De Piero

        Vince Cable

        Helen Jones

        Patrick McLoughlin

        Nicky Morgan

    2. Have we been looking through rose-tinted glasses at the state of the UK and do politicians reflect the reality?

      Politically, Hobson’s choice seems to be the order of the day for many of us.

      Morning Epi.

    3. Morning Epi

      The whimpering weeping female MP’s who say they fear for their safety and fear for their lives and their own families , have completely forgotten about the terrorist threats and search procedures we all have to undergo when checking in at an airport ..

      Have they also forgotten the families who have been disregarded and ignored re the stabby stabby epidemic brought on by ethnic in fighting ..

      Have these women forgotten about the constituencies that they purport to represent that have ongoing predatory Muslim men and others defiling the innocence of young white and coloured girls .. or the continuing disgrace of murders, FGM and other cultural horrors that migrants have brought into this country?

      Female MP’s , well most of them, because a few are an exception are still wracked with timidity and fear .. and I am appalled that they of all people should be screeching foul .. well good riddance ladies .. good riddance ..

      1. The ideal candidate for stamping out terrorism in UK is Assistant Commisioner White Feather.

        Yo know that where he is will be the safest, terrorist free, quickly (br)exitable location on earth.

        Pol(l)ynesia is the obvius choice

      2. Morning, Mags.

        Sad to see that Kate Hoey is standing down. The only sensible, thinking Labour Member, she was probably set upon by the other Harridans and Harpies.

  11. SIR – While watching the news recently with a friend, who is head of department at a comprehensive school, she asked me what VJ stood for (Letters, October 29).

    I explained that it commemorates the Allies’ victory over Japan at the end of the Second World War.

    She replied: “How racist is that?”

    Simon Pike
    Watlington, Oxfordshire

  12. The Tory party is now the Brexit party: Leavers must unite or let a Remainer into No 10. 31 OCTOBER 2019 • 7:00AM.

    BELOW THE LINE

    Paul Davey 31 Oct 2019 7:29AM.

    Let’s put the headline right.

    “The Tory party is now the BRINO party
    ”.
    If you want a clean break Brexit there is only one party – TBP.

    Amen to that Paul Davey. This General Election is actually a second referendum where you have a choice between REMAIN and BRINO!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/31/tory-party-now-brexit-party-leavers-must-unite-let-remainer/

    1. Everything must be done to bring it to the electorate’s attention that the only way to get a proper Brexit will be if the Conservatives are incapable of forming a government without the Brexit Party’s support and the unnegotiable price that the Brexit Party will insist upon is a completely clean Brexit.

      I despair that so few people seem to be aware that Boris Johnson is offering a fraudulent deal.

  13. SIR – In the official report into the Grenfell Tower fire, Dany Cotton, the Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said no training could have prepared the fire crews, as: “I wouldn’t develop a training package for a space shuttle to land in front of the Shard”.

    I am no expert on fire fighting or rocket science, but this seems to be an extraordinary comparison. We are talking about a fire in an average urban tower block, caused by a simple electrical fault and made worse by a cladding system known to have caused similar conflagrations in other countries.

    What happened at Grenfell Tower was neither unprecedented nor inconceivable. Hollywood even came up with a similar scenario for the 1974 film The Towering Inferno.

    The fire brigade should have been trained for this. The commissioner’s excuse is laughable, but, if true, then we are entitled to ask what else the fire brigade is not trained for.

    Iwan Price-Evans
    Croydon, Surrey

    1. Ignoring that if warnings and whistle-blowers were heeded there’d be no jobs for the boys and girls who participate in the inevitable (and expensive) public inquiries, what about the fact that Dany Cotton will be retiring at 50 on a fair old pension?

      How many people, I wonder, spend as many years on a public pension as they worked?

        1. Morning OLT.

          We live in a mad world where box-ticking and ‘procedure’ trump experience, common sense and the ability to do the job.

          Strand by strand, what we can do or say in our lives is being restricted by this lunacy.

          2. Whatever it’s called, Anne, it’s depressing.

            I’ve just been reading this – Brexit and impeachment are blinding us to the bigger picture – and our global competitors must be laughing all the way to the future at the way we’re being dumbed down and emasculated (my PC manual’s a week old – are we still allowed to say that?).

            That said, I still subscribe to the British-wedding theory whereby it takes an hour for everyone to stand still, listen to the photographer and look towards the camera for a few milliseconds. I think most of us are rebels at heart and that whipping us into goose-steppers won’t succeed.

      3. At a council pension seminar 20 years ago I was told that a huge proportion of council tax went towards paying the pensions of the retired workers who were living longer and longer. I don’t know how that was presented in their accounts. At work we have a monthly newsletter that lets us know when a retired colleague has died. Most of them retired before 1990, so had been receiving their pension for at least 30 years. I would have to last out to 107 for that to happen to me.

        1. Here, retirement is aged 70. My family history suggests I might live, BTGoG, to 72. That should save someone some money!

          1. I think that is the plan. TPTB will be hoping the vast majority of us either pop our clogs before we get our state pensions, or very shortly after. Company pensions have different rules, but mine pays a small lump sum to a nominated person and then that’s it.

        2. Not just public pensions but company pensions also.

          Regarding public pension commitments, I seem to remember reading that they didn’t show up in the figures for our national debt, despite being a massive liability in the future.

        3. Off the top of my head:
          The council tax you pay accounts for 25% of council spending. The other 75% comes from central government.
          The 25% that you shell out just about covers your council’s pension liabilities.
          There are slight local variables, but those figures are rule of thumb.

    2. In exercising her over-active imagination, Cotton seems to have overlooked the very real possibility of a serious fire affecting any of the many high-risk blocks in her part of the country. These did not exactly arrive overnight, many dating back to the 50s and 60s, and her staff were conducting risk surveys on a regular basis. Why was there no evacuation training and planning? How basic is that? And cladding fires were not exactly a new pheonomenon, either. If ever the head of such an important emergency organisation has fouled up, it is she.

      ‘Morning, Epi.

      1. When these tower blocks were designed in the 50s and 60s, they were designed so that a flat could be burnt out, but would not affect the rest of the building. Concrete is quite an effective fire retardant. This was the presumption made by the Fire Service – that they were built as designed in the 50s and 60s.

        The difference was that the old Building Regs and Fire Regs dating back to 1666 were deregulated to enable the use of cheaper and more profitable building materials. The use of flammable cladding, while a stylish and exciting upgrade to tired out brutalist blocks, was tested in Lakanal, in France, in Dubai, and probably a few other vertical bonfires that some folk call home.

        Government’s response to Lakanal was to delay the Report for four years and when it came out to suppress it. The Government Minister responsible was promoted, and is currently in the Home Office responsible for providing a solution to excess migration.

        There is no excuse for the Fire Service Chief, who should really have been updated on Government policy on fire safety and prepared accordingly.

      2. Even without the cladding part of the scenario, the rest remains credible, with a significant probability, based on historical events.

  14. SIR – VE Day always reminds me of my mother-in-law. She told me that after celebrations at the local pub, they had to drive home, as nobody could walk.

    John Langley
    Alderley, Shropshire

    1. Quite right.
      In my pub years, I oft remarked that I was driving home because I was far too drunk to walk.
      Those were the days when we’d drive from pub to pub, village to village on Sunday lunchtimes without a care in the world. I suppose I should be grateful that the collective view these days is that drink driving is unacceptable but, Oh, it was so much more fun back in the day when we all turned a blind eye.

      1. The days when the word ‘humbug’ meant a large minty flavoured sweet, not an excuse for Labour harpies to throw a wobbler.

      2. The days when there wasn’t much traffic on the roads, either; so, not too much to bump into.

      3. …the collective view these days is that drink driving is unacceptable…
        I think that’s more accurate, Stormy.
        Good morning, BTW!
        :-))

      4. I remember one evening, on my way home from work, passing a local hostelry and I saw some 20 or so cars parked up on the verge with the drivers sitting at the wheel. I saw a policeman and stopped, thinking there might be problems on the road up ahead. Not at all, I was assured. They’d caught these drivers leaving the pub and had breathalysed them. If they failed, they were parked up on the side with their keys taken away. After three hours they had to blow again and if they passed, they were free to go.

    2. Reminds me of a bloke I know who capsized his van one evening, on a T-junction outside a well known local hostelry about 40 years ago.
      The merrymakers kindly helped him to push it upright, and wished him well, knowing that he was drunker than they were.

  15. Morning, Campers.
    Sent to me by a chum on what should have been Freedom Day.

    “To the distress of everyone who supporting England in the World Cup yesterday, New Zealand have requested another game to be played as the result was too close to call and they had players waiting to play who weren’t quite old enough so now the World Cup needs to be put on hold for the foreseeable future until a new date can be arranged for a rematch. A minimum 90 day delay has been requested..

    It has been suggested that shipments of New Zealand lamb could be affected by the result leading to serious lamb shortages on the shelves in the UK. This should make us think again about accepting this unfair result. No one knew this before the game concluded and it could have altered the result.

    Furthermore, it has been suggested that the England team were offered large financial inducements, in the form of win bonuses, if they were to reach the final. There have been calls to have these fully investigated to establish the source of the inducements while the delay is in place.

    In other news: some of the other teams have now objected to the terms of the final and have insisted that the final is delayed until NO WIN is taken off the table. Opponents of NO WIN have rejected calls that this should be put to a formal vote of any kind before their demands are ratified!”

          3. One of mine, geography in 2nd year, “out of his depth and swimming feebly”. Story of my ‘academic’ life.

          4. Imagine all the hurt feelings if modern children had our school reports.
            Long faces would fill acres of newsprint in the Daily Mail and the local rags at the end of every term.
            Local telly, Victoria Derbyshire and Radio Chavwich would be able to run interminable programmes on mental health in which fat, tattooed laydees could endlessly pontificate about ‘self esteem’.

          5. We are of an age when we just got on with it.
            Today it’s driven by adults for whose benefit I know not. It I evident from our experience with our grandchildren that they know who the bright ones are in each subject and are also aware when they are the bright ones. It takes adults to really screw with their brains.

          6. Not Waving but Drowning by Stevie Smith

            Nobody heard him, the dead man,
            But still he lay moaning:
            I was much further out than you thought
            And not waving but drowning.

            Poor chap, he always loved larking
            And now he’s dead
            It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
            They said.

            Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
            (Still the dead one lay moaning)
            I was much too far out all my life
            And not waving but drowning.

        2. I was just a simple “could do better” unlike my tedious B-in-L whose report from his 5th form year was ” Jonathon should earn his laurels before he rests on them” , an observation that still rings true 54 years later.

          1. Now that Richard’s handwriting has improved we can clearly see how very little he actually knows.

    3. I’m not too worried about shortages of NZ lamb. We stopped buying it the we discovered that all NZ lamb is halal.

      3. I try to aboid halal, but all animals slaughtered in NZ are pre-stunned so I have no problem with it:

        “It is compulsory for all animals to be stunned before commercial

        slaughter in New Zealand. Stunning ensures an immediate loss of

        consciousness to prevent animals from feeling any pain during the

        slaughter process. The requirement for animals to be stunned prior to

        slaughter is contained in the Animal Welfare (Commercial Slaughter) Code of Welfare 2010, which is available on the Ministry for Primary Industries website.

        What about exemptions for halal slaughter?

        In

        New Zealand there is no exemption to the requirement for pre-slaughter

        stunning, unlike in some other countries. Halal slaughter requires that

        the animal dies from the “halal cut” to the throat, i.e. that the

        pre-slaughter stun is not powerful enough to kill the animal. In

        premises that undertake halal slaughter in New Zealand, reversible

        electrical stunning is used to ensure that animals are rendered

        unconscious instantaneously and remain unconscious at the time of

        slaughter, thus complying with both animal welfare and halal

        requirements.”

        https://www.mia.co.nz/what-we-do/trade/hala

        So, if pre-stunning is good enough for NZ’s halal markets, why can’t it be used here? No prizes for guessing why.

    2. Good morning Del
      It was warmer than this in Portugal. We had a great tour playing four matches. We only won one of them, against Swanage. We might do it again in 2021. Have a good day.

  17. I see that The Grimes refers to Morgan as a “moderate tory” – as in “Morgan in exodus of moderate Tories”.

    Clearly, “moderate tory” is code for a turncoat remainiac.

          2. I’m awaiting proof reading by the resident Germanic expert before it goes to the printers.

    1. Some of the expense claims are “at Olympian levels” too! And as for “gets involved to make life better for people” – the only people many of them are concerned about are themselves!!

    2. That’s quite funny, Mr Lidington. On the other hand it does expose you to well-founded accusations of insanity.

    4. A very true observation from Julia Hartley-Brewer from this thread:

      “Your helpful reminder that when journalists refer to an MP who is standing down as a “moderate”, what they actually mean is that the MP is a “Remainer”.

      Because the MPs who believe in respecting a democratic referendum vote are, of course, the “extremists” now.”

      A very worrying comment in this thread from Aaron Banks is that the MSM and the Conservative Party will do their very best to keep Nigel Farage off our television screens and will make sure they do not allow him to engage in proper debates because he is so very much more lucid and honest than his political opponents..

      The way Nigel Farage is sidelined is a disgrace and an affront to the whole democratic process. Who would have thought that he leads the British political party with the greatest number of seats in the European parliament? If anything this should give him rather more media attention than the runner up in the Little-Muddlecombe-in-the-Slush tiddly winks championships.

      1. A great many people think that Brexit is the only weapon that Farage possesses in his armoury. I listen frequently to his LBC programme and he has a good grasp on many domestic issues. Truly, they are running scared of him.
        If the Brexit Party have some success and it helps Johnson to hold off Corbyn I doubt Farage and his Party will receive much recognition. It will all be about Brilliant Boris.

        1. As my friends here are aware I think that Boris’s ‘deal’ is worse than staying in the EU.

          If The Conservatives win outright we are lost.

          If the Lib/Lab/SNP alliance wins we can postpone and eventually beat being a vassal state with no powers whatsoever – and we shall be fully out of the EU more quickly than if Johnson’s Conservatives win.

          The only acceptable result is for Nigel Farage to win enough seats to insist that Britain leaves the EU completely and cleanly and then sets to work on getting good trade deals.

          Everything must be done to make sure that as many of the voting public as possible are aware that Boris is offering surrender and complete capitulation.

          1. I was convinced that May’s greatest desire was to punish the electorate for voting Leave. After being trapped and beaten down for years in her backstop it would have been an easy step to force us back in to the EU on whatever terms they would demand.
            If Johnson is aiming for that same scenario then he might be in for a shock, more people are aware of what the EU is and what it wants to become. If he is attempting to place us in the same position that May wished to he could be the PM that finally kills off the Tories. How he deals with our fishing grounds will be the bellwether of his intentions.

    2. Bill – that is down 7,828 since the 22nd October. It looks as if it will happen to everyone who believes in free speech. It is happening to all of those accounts that I have been looking at, bar one, and his keeps going up and down a bit.

      They only don’t target people like me because either our vote count is too low to register yet, or, more likely, they blocked my account the old fashioned way a year ago by 100+ fake spam reports. I could possibly make 2 or 3 comments on Breitbart before I was blocked again, so they don’t bother with mine yet.

      I am sure that the time will come for the rest of us once the “bigger scores” all drop down to 0.

  21. Sherelle Jacobs cooking on gas – again. At this rate, she’ll single handedly save the Tellygraff.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/31/voters-will-relish-pulling-plug-parliament-vapid-virtue-signallers/

    “Voters will relish pulling the plug on this Parliament of vapid virtue-signallers

    These were the MPs who turned victimhood politics into performance art

    As we bid good riddance to this Parliament, it is worth remembering that anti-Brexit delirium has not been its only affliction. It was also bewitched by a new age “victimhood” spiritualism. Over the past three years, the hardy British public has looked on in despair as MPs reduced British politics to a weeping kumbaya of grief-stricken virtue signalling.

    The move by more than 70 female MPs to send an open letter to the Duchess of Sussex this week is a reminder of how exasperatingly glum the whole business has become.

    Naturally, they expressed their disdain towards the apparently “outdated, colonial undertones” of the Duchess’s press coverage. But the concluding paragraph gives the game away, articulating as it does the politicians’ VIP-ish feelings of affinity with the scandalous burden of being a public figure. The MPs write of how they “share an understanding” of the criticism which is now so often used “as a means of disparaging women in public office from getting on with our very important work”. (Such as sabotaging Brexit, for example?)

    Impassioned open letters feel very 2019. This Parliament has turned performative protest into an art prétentieux worthy of the Tate. Let us not forget the MPs who waved “Silenced” placards and snapped selfies among the empty benches during prorogation, exhorting against their “marginalisation” (ah, what a drably self-important politician of a word, “marginalisation”).

    All credible victims need a compelling predator. That is why, apart from the scary beast that was “no deal”, this House of Commons intake has been so determined to turn innocuous British common sense into an alt-Right bogeyman.

    Things have got so absurd that a balanced (if jocular) article arguing against a public ban on the niqab, written by the now-Prime Minister for this newspaper, can let rip a scandalous stink about “dog-whistle” Islamophobia. Things have got so ridiculous that a routine state visit by the leader of our most important ally can prompt mainstream calls for us to cut off ties with the United States – chorused with the usual buy-one-get-three-free ballad of abuse from David Lammy MP. (Mr Trump being “deluded, dishonest, xenophobic, narcissistic”.)

    Looking back, one can’t but feel that we have been subjected to the parliamentary version of a three-year spittling English drizzle – having our wet politicians constantly itching at our patience with their irritating prattle-prattle. Perhaps we reached peak tediousness with the recent histrionics over Boris Johnson’s use of language – namely his predilection for the underwhelmingly accurate terms “Surrender Act” and “betrayal”.

    What a load of responsibility-shirking piffle. Perhaps MPs think it is the mark of a shrewd politician to be gravely offended by the fact that the people are offended by their actions. Or perhaps – as I personally suspect – they also genuinely see the whole world through the prism of victimhood.

    It is as if they view Britain as some despicable, retired, colonial patriarch riddled with special needs. Thus, the neglected, bigoted extremities must be dissuaded from succumbing to Brexit fever. And the criminals who operate within its hardened, murderous underbelly must be treated as an issue of “public health”.

    Britannia is on the brink of dropping dead from climate change catastrophe, so we are told. In true Freudian fashion, those of us who question the logic of crashing the economy by cutting all carbon emissions by 2025 are also victims within victims – not only propelling the world towards disaster but suffering from deep pathological denial about the Armageddon we are self-inflicting.

    All this sorrily reflects how far politics has moved to the Left. It also strikes at the heart of why this House of Commons was never going carry out Brexit – embodying independence, optimism and proactivity, Brexit is victimhood politics’ ideological enemy.

    This election will be such a shocker for the establishment because MPs cannot grasp how out of sync they are with the country. They are currently locked in a vicious circle, whereby the more their attitudes jar with the country’s zeitgeist, the more offended they feel, and the more they alienate themselves further from the public by being calculating and contrived.

    But people are fed up with being gaslighted by their representatives – who have defiled our democracy, insulted our intelligence and are now seeking to psychologically manipulate us all into seeing them as the ones who have been wronged. Their implication that the British public, which has patiently and peacefully endured three years of their nonsense, are loathsome bullies, is fooling nobody.

    In six weeks, voters will, in an orderly British fashion, pass their final judgment. Our much-beleaguered democracy is a civilised, patient force, but it takes no prisoners.”

  22. Shocking moment ‘drunken’ British couple throw punches in a horrifying fight on an Alicante airport shuttle bus after ‘guzzling alcohol on a Ryanair flight from Birmingham’. Mail. 31 October 2019

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f6a64ef7e5dfd46a5aa30c44b3633533910b49705d0dd12d69f5f041aaa41999.jpg

    A ‘drunken’ couple were filmed throwing punches during a vicious brawl on an airport shuttle bus after reportedly guzzling alcohol on a flight to Alicante.

    Shocking footage shows the pair pummeling each other, rolling around on the floor and screaming in front of horrified holidaymakers following the Ryanair flight from Birmingham.

    The woman and man – alleged to be a new couple – take turns to throw a barrage of punches as fellow passengers try to separate them on the bus to Alicante’s arrivals terminal at around 10pm local time.

    This is a cardinal error. You should never try to stop anyone fighting because you then become a protagonist and may well end up either injured or on charges yourself. If you suffer from an irresistible urge to meddle in the affairs of the inebriated or mentally retarded you should wait until the fight is over and administer first aid if necessary and then leave before the Police appear!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7627427/Shocking-moment-drunken-British-couple-throw-punches-horrifying-fight.html

    1. Driver should just open the door and do a swift turn.
      Problem solved.
      Why were the other tourists horrified? The words Ryanair and Alicante are a broad clue as to what to expect.

      3. Oi anne

        I am in Alicante (region) at the moment.

        The only people, that most of us here would hit are Remoaners and Berk O

        1. Knowing Ryanair’s loose connection with geographical precision, maybe they had landed in London Alicante.

          3. I used to take the boys down to Paguera twice a year from Düsseldorf. Sometimes we would take the bus to Palma & when we went through Magaluf it was like going through a Safari Park.

    4. “The woman and man – alleged to be a new couple” were on a Ryanair flight. If only they had stuck to their private jet and got Sir Elton John to pay for it! Oh, wait a minute, maybe I am mistaken. I haven’t heard any news of the husband shaving his head.

      :-))

    5. I am so pleased I experienced the era of decent air travel .. in the year dot .

      People like that should have their passports removed , and should be banned from travelling on any form of transport for ever.. GROUNDED!

      1. So much money has been made out of ferrying chavs to Spanish holiday resorts, that if you made them all behave themselves they would not go any more and our economy would suffer.

    6. That is the advice the police follow. If they turn up to a brawl outside a pub they wait until it is over, then arrest all concerned.

    2. One of my best friends when I was young was a homosexual. He was very good looking, always immaculately dressed, highly civilised, artistic and musical. He was one of the most charming people I knew. Sadly he was sexually promiscuous and he died from AIDS before the medical profession knew how to treat it.

      Has anyone noticed that many of the homosexuals in politics have absolutely no charm at all- indeed they have most unpleasant personalities?

      1. “Has anyone noticed that many in politics have absolutely no charm at all- indeed they have most unpleasant personalities?”
        There, fixed it for you.

      2. That’s because they are no good at any other job.
        Would you want Duncan as a your nurse or even as a design consultant?
        (But I’m not one for stereotypes.)

    1. Just heard on LBC that Corbyn’s first election speech today will address the problem of tax evaders and dodgy landlords… I’m certain that Corbyn’s policy will address these problems on an equal opportunity basis across all of society, including those owners of 3 bedroom houses with 20 people living in them.😜😜

      2. “Tax evaders and dodgy landlords.”

        Is he giving a speech on the members of the European Union commission?

        They are treating the people living in their countries very badly. Taking the rent and letting the properties fall to ruin.

        1. Well spotted, Anne.
          In addition, if there exists as many illegals as some people think, upwards of two million, that is one hell of a black economy. Being illegal they will not be paying NI, Income Tax nor Council Tax. Corbyn could fund some of his magic money tree spending plans by digging into that racket. For some reason I cannot quite put my finger on, I do not think that he will look into that area.

      1. “No one who has lived in this country during the last five years can fail to be aware of how the balance of our society has been increasingly tilted in favour of the State at the expense of individual freedom… This election may be the last chance we have to reverse that process, to restore the balance of power in favour of the people.”

        Margaret Thatcher (1979 Conservative Party General Election Manifesto.)

        Fine words. Towards the end she saw the EU for what it was and where it wanted to go, which is possibly why they decided to get rid of her using the poll tax debacle as the excuse.

        40 years later we are much further down the road and we have a vastly increased number of “visitors” who are pulling our country apart. We really do not need another 5 – 10 years of open borders to let them try to finish the job.

        1. Even I can understand that one.
          Now if my Maffs teacher had written that on the board I’d not have been chucked out of the ‘O’ level class.

  28. Dear Lord above, Barry O’Barmy has said something sensible. I’m going back to bed.

  29. Morning Each,
    Please release me let me go, boris doing his Tom Jones in front of the eu.
    Take these chains from my heart is very apt also but very reminiscent of having left today ogga1 espied a large white ball approaching.

  30. One thing we shouldn’t forget is that it is but a few day since the Blair Monster was in TV studios getting lots of airtime to urge Corbyn to avoid the “Elephant Trap” of a general election. Add in the People’s Vote meltdown and I welcome the election, if only for giving Blair a really bad week …. I do however see that there are severe obstacles to the Conservatives (hopefully with more Brexiters) securing a majority.

    1. The greatest obstacle that the Conservatives face is the fact that Boris’s sell out is not Brexit it is BRINO. However there is a remedy: Vote Brexit Party.

  31. Vocabularies are changing/shrinking:

    New archaisms
    Sir: Charles Moore’s sales assistant didn’t know what a blotter was (The Spectator’s Notes, 26 October). In the men’s clothing department of John Lewis in Southampton, I told the young salesman I was looking for a pair of grey flannels. I was directed to ‘bathroom towels’ on the floor below.
    Bruce Parker
    Appleshaw, Hants

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/11/letters-what-would-be-the-point-of-a-second-referendum/

  32. Homeowners who refuse to install a smart meter will face a huge hike in energy bills, minister warns
    Officials want 85 per cent of all homes to be fitted with a smart meter by 2024
    The roll out of the new meters has been plagued by continuing delays
    The cost of performing manual readings will be prohibitive as figures decrease
    Lord Duncan said energy companies failing to hit targets would face the law

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7632657/Homeowners-refuse-install-smart-meter-face-huge-hike-energy-bills.html

      1. Remote control smart meters fit in with the green agenda – electricity for a few hours once a week.

        1. When I’m cold I want to turn on/up my heating.
          Not be governed by some poncy green agenda which can switch it off at the press of a button.

          5. I’d imagine they can do that by default anyway just with less targetting.

            Personally I’m all for these Tesla power wall ‘home battery’ ideas so you’ve solar panels and those charge a battery, a sort of uninterruptible power supply.

            However with the rolling brown outs we’re going to suffer nuntil the green nonsense is thrown away nothing will change. We need rational sources of energy production, not windmills and solar.

          6. The ability to turn off is not really the aim. The real aim is an extension of the ‘white meter’ game, but to all households and with an ability to vary the charge rates at any time of the day or night because the meter will tell them how much you are using, continuously.

          7. I prefer to control my own heating thank you…

            It wasn’t easy to find a supplier without a having a smart meter. Funny enough the Green Company
            is one of the few…

          8. Warming is so yesterday……..

            ……..please get with the hypothermic anti warming programme !

      2. Yet the Germans decided not to bother. (The Italians,characteristically well-organised, installed meters that were “smart” from the off.)

        1. Clever people the Germans…don’t know how they lost two world wars……..oh, hang on a minute!

      3. These people are control freaks – they want to know everything about our lives. On the most basic level – When does the power drop? That means they have gone out. When does usage go up again? So they have come back. Is there a pattern? Yes – so we know what they are doing with their lives. Regular as clockwork. Sudden sustained increase in usage? Who is staying with them?

        On a more serious level – let us cut off their power at the touch of a button as a punishment. We will call it an accidental shortage. That will make them suffer for a while and make them feel literally powerless. Let us see you use the internet to exercise free speech with no electricity. Oh – we have also made all cars electric-powered as well, so you are going nowhere except on foot.

        If they are an “enemy of the state” cut off their power completely and lets see how they do now we have banned other forms of non-electrical heating. Want to stay in a hotel to shelter from the cold or buy emergency food? Sorry – we now have a cashless society and your card has been blocked, so you are not buying anything.

        What a world they are trying to create for us.

        2. Electronics has improved our lives in many ways but the downside is that the control freak element of the political and economic worlds have usurped its flexibility to their own ends and to the people’s detriment. The N@zis used electro-mechanical Hollerith card machines to control their world and the Holocaust but modern electronics gives the PTB control beyond anything the N@zis envisaged.

    2. Prohibitively expensive? I read my meters and use the telephone keypad to send the readings to the energy supplier. Takes minutes, costs less than installing an expensive and unreliable “smart” meter.

      1. I do the same for my gas meter as well as the electric meter. I get no incentive for doing it other than to keep an eye on my energy consumption. My water meter is “smart” but it involves a meter reader coming out to read the meter with a gadget without needing to open up the meter lid. Not so smart and I notice estimated water readings are quite common now so I get down on my hands and knees to check the reading myself. The target to stop gas supplies to houses seems madness to me.The politicians are goading us into rebellion with their antics.

    3. I don’t trust any of them. Asking around, lots of people have decided to leave it. Reading the meter and submitting online takes a few minutes.
      If there is a cock-up at their end it takes a few years to put right.

    4. I’ve got one as part of on going maintenance. At least most of the time, the display resets itself to show the weekly power useage. At midnight to 6am ish, it’s blank. Sometimes it just shows 9999.99999999 as my energy costs. Occassionally it shows me having used over £8 of energy in a day. It’s just wrong most of the time. I’m sure someone spent a lot of time testing it but after that I’d imagine they said ‘here’s a list of problems’ and everyone ignored them.

  34. STEPHEN GLOVER: How cynical of MPs to claim sisterly solidarity with Meghan Markle in a bid to stifle a free Press

    What’s this? On Tuesday, a group of 72 female MPs, the great majority of them Labour, issued an open letter of solidarity with a leading member of the Royal Family.

    In normal circumstances, no one would be more delighted than me, since the signatories include hard-Left Labour frontbenchers such as Diane Abbott and Angela Rayner. Not the sort of people you would expect to have a picture of the Queen hanging on their wall.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7632649/STEPHEN-GLOVER-cynical-MPs-claim-sisterly-solidarity-Meghan-Markle.html

  35. If you care to glance at Geena Miller’s latest wheeze, tactical.vote, in the vast majority of constituencies she recommends that the People should vote Labour. Occasionally she gets confused and makes no recommendations.

    I thought that Labour wanted to Leave the EU.

    1. In constituencies where the peas people dominate, I think Labour should offer a white female or trannie candidate and TBP should field a straight male moslem.

        1. Morning Bill!

          I’ve lost 700+ up-votes in the last week. I guess that’s the Disqus take on equality.

  36. Gang of thugs hurl acid in a Guardsman’s face and slash him with a blade while he was out running near his barracks in west London
    Police are hunting for three men who cornered the Irish Guardsman in Hounslow
    He had to strip off in the street and be hosed down by firefighters to wash away
    Victim also slashed across his arm and stomach for his Apple watch and phone

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7634231/Gang-thugs-hurl-acid-Guardsmans-face-slash-blade.html

      1. Largely Indian asian but a lot of muslims. I worked there from 98-00.
        Indian, Sikh and Hindu, generally hard working, muslims not so.

          1. Maybe more muslims. The Indians had little time for them. The staff where I worked were either white English or Sikh. But that was then.

          2. I’ve just looked at the wiki page for Hounslow and it is a wall of different racial types. The basic differences between the 2001 and 2011 census are:

            White British – down from 58% to 38%
            Asian (various types) – up from 26% to 34%

            So it is the general trend that we see in cities and in some towns now. Although, if it was “very new arrivals” fresh from the Middle East or North Africa, they must feel as if they have hit the jackpot. Lots of unarmed white people, Jews and military people everywhere you look.

            They are the only ones that they have met before in their lives who are unable to defend themselves by shooting back.

    3. Nearly £2000 a day though.. Bonkers.

      This is the problem when the state is just given money. If the entire model of the NHS were inverted, such wouldn’t be necessary. They’d know where there was waste and would reduce it accordingly.

      The money doesn’t have to come from anywhere else. This isn’t private healthcare with the citizen paying *directly* bt the model is the same. The reason the NHS is inefficient is simply because it can afford to be.

  38. If you do one thing this election, stop your kids voting. Rod Liddle. 2 November 2019

    It was principally the student vote that won Canterbury for the sobbing and oppressed Rosie ‘#MeToo’ Duffield. Please don’t let that happen again. My own choice of election date would be a day when universities are closed and Muslims are forbidden to do anything on pain of hell, or something. There must be at least one day like that in the Muslim calendar, surely? That would deliver at least 40 seats to the Tories, I reckon.

    Morning everyone. I’m pretty sure that’s Politically Incorrect, Islamophobic and Racist. Lol!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/11/if-you-do-one-thing-this-election-stop-your-kids-voting/

    1. The question that isn’t answered is why would we want another 40 Tories?

      They haven’t exactly been any good in power for the previous nine years. I guess Rod keeps his brains stored in his micropenis.

      1. I guess Rod forgot he wasn’t in the Tory Party and probably wrote the article because he thought a Movie Quiz would fail to engage his readers!

        1. He was always a Labour supporter. Isn’t he limpdumb now?

          Yeah i know it’s early for a quiz but i’ll be going to bed shortly. I just finished 4 night shifts in a row.

          2. I think he ‘supports’ the SDP, the remnants of which still lurk in odd corners.
            Actually, I think he really supports the “”S0d The Lot Of Them Party”.

      2. Probably because of bad leadership but at least we get to vote them out – occasionally.

        Think on – Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron/Clegg, Cameron, May.

        A recipe for the disasters that have occurred. There is now a hope that Johnson, with Farage keeping an eye on him, might get us out with No Deal.

        1. Yes since I suppose Douglas-Home or thereabouts we have certainly been afflicted with a terrible calibre of politician. There are only two that merit any respect in that era, those being Callaghan and Thatcher. Callaghan gets a bad rap generally on here because it was under him we took the IMF loan and he did cause the Winter of Discontent, yet I still support the decision that caused it, but he wasn’t half as bad as many think. The IMF loan was a culmination of problems that started 10 years previously and were exacerbated stupidly by Heath. Thatcher was a real mixed bag. I hate what she did to the country overall, for me there was more bad than good, yet the woman certainly deserves some respect. Hard as iron, resolute, visionary, internationally respected, but economically misguided by the Church of Neoliberalism. At least she wasn’t someone that just tinkered with the status quo.

          I disagree with Johnson being a ‘hope’. You will only ever get a soft Brexit from him. He just wants this over as quick as possible. He wants to be the man who delivered Brexit, the legend. Trouble is he’ll take anything that secures that legacy. Parliament is getting tired of this issue. It’s a drag on everyone. Sooner or later some form of a BRINO deal will make it through parliament. Johnson will become a legend for many tired of this sh1t, and the UK will suffer for it. Boris really only cares about Boris.

          We need an Attlee, or a Churchill, and we have no one like that any more. We currently have Coco the clown in charge.

          Farage won’t be keeping an eye on anyone. TBP will not make any major impact. It’ll be Tory, or it’ll be Labour or it’ll be a labour/limpdumb coalition. Such is the nature of the UK electoral system.

          We have two hopes now of a no deal exit. Bob and none.

          1. It will be the legacy of Benedict Arnold. General Arnold was also on the right side from time to time.

      3. Probably because of bad leadership but at least we get to vote them out – occasionally.

        Think on – Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron/Clegg, Cameron, May.

        A recipe for the disasters that have occurred. There is now a hope that Johnson, with Farage keeping an eye on him, might get us out with No Deal.

    2. What to look out for in some areas is an exponential increase in RSI referrals, especially in the right wrist and upper arm.😎

    4. The Boundaries Commission would (it is said) benefit the Conservatives by about 30 seats. A bit late now but if BoJo makes it back to No 10 someone needs to put the skids under that lot and adopt the changes in time for the next GE.

      ‘Morning, Minty.

  39. Is the Brexit Party real? I’ve made three attempts to make contact in the last three days. No reply.
    Perhaps the Brexit Party is a stalking horse for the EU? Set up to deflect votes from the Tories who would be assumed to be the main proponents of Leave.
    Splitting the vote to allow another party to win. Well, if so, the Brexit Party is not needed any more. The Tories are shattered, Labour don’t have any coherent policy whether in or out. Only the Lib/Dems are coherent and united as the supporters of Remain. Look forward to a Lib/Dem victory and Jo Swinson as Gauleiter of these islands

    1. Many a true word said in jest. Speak to the resident UKIP representative and he will confirm your suspicions are probably true.

    2. From a couple of reports seen in the last 24 hours it appears that those at the top of The Brexit Party are deciding which way to approach the election and which seats to target. One report said that they would reveal their intentions tomorrow. I hope that they don’t just restrict themselves to Labour seats.

      There are several Conservative’s who are working for Brussels against the UK and we would be better off if they were gone. My region voted to Leave the EU and yet we have a 2 Liberal Remainers here, one of which is wearing a Conservative rosette, but he is fooling nobody.

      I want to have the option of rejecting both Remainers and voting for a Brexit Party Leaver.

      1. Wasn’t it yesterday that somebody posted on this site an article by the Nigel Farage of the Brexit Party explaining just why Boris Johnson’s ‘great new deal’ is not only not new, not great and not a deal but worst of all it is not Brexit it is BRINO.

        I know that I am not alone amongst avid Brexiteers in thinking that the Johnson surrender sell out will leave us worse off than actually staying in the EU. A clean and total break from the EU is what the country desperately needs and the Conservatives will not offer this unless they are forced into a pact with the Brexit Party.

      1. Cheers! Think it through.
        One has to be wary. The enemy are smart, well funded and prepared to do anything, anything at all.

        1. It always comes back to Vladimir Ilyitch’s words – If we are to control the opposition we must run it ourselves.

          1. “The voters decide nothing. Those that count the votes decide everything.”
            J Stalin, I believe, but open to correction.

          2. Anthony Leovitch Blair could have said it too. It’s one of those quotations that who knows if he said it, but it’s true. I prefer the simplistic version, It’s not who votes that counts, but who counts the votes – UK 1973-2019.

  40. Good morning from Saxon Queen with cleaned axe and longbow

    The issue with general elections, is the fact that you vote for your
    local MP on the ballot box. So regardless of being angry with
    the uselessness of parliament, people think of issues that affect
    their communities and how effective their MP happens to
    be. No one cuts their nose off to spite their face in elections
    But of course their are now lots of local MPs that have behaving
    not remotely democratic so we’ll have to see how that fairs
    against how that MP behaves generally within their constituency.

    1. Good morning to you!

      I think people are more likely to vote for the Party manifesto in a national election than the local candidate. This is not about local bins and libraries, it’s about Brexit, tax, defence, policing, the NHS etc. Even a good local Tory is part of an increasingly left-liberal, pro-EU party which only delivered a referendum because they were forced to.

      Only two years ago we had a Brexit election where both the main parties promised to respect the referendum. Why should we trust that a vote for Labour or Tories will count now, any more than it did in 2017?

      1. It is just about Brexit. Only Brexit. Any candidate who mentions ” tax, defence, policing, the NHS etc” is simply deflecting from reality. It is displacement activity that we will see a lot of from sitting MPs who voted for the WA and other anti-Brexit motions. Such miserable and pathetic types don’t want us to recall the extent of their betrayal. Almost all of them are in that situation.
        If there is no Brexit, it will not be our MPs who make decisions on “tax, defence, policing, the NHS etc” it will be our overlords in Brussels.

      2. I agree about the tory party being too left -liberal.Perhaps we should join

        and try to change it.It isn’t being defeatist to maintain a sense of reality.The reality is a big vote for the Brexit party is Corbyn’s one chance of power. Or are you deluded enough to believe Farage will be the next PM .He isn’t even standing

        1. No I don’t think Farage will be PM, but if he had 40-50 MPs in Parliament he could encourage/force Johnson to ditch the WA and go for a proper Brexit. For fifty years we have heard ‘vote red team to keep out the blue team/vote blue team to keep out the red team.’ Newsflash – they’re both the same team! Unless we try and change things, things will never change. The Tory party is europhile and liberal to it’s fingertips. Nothing will change under the Tories.

  41. Electricity for six hours a week means a greener and cooler world….. so you won’t even need a fridge………

    What’s not to like ?

    Order your smart meter now !

  43. Lots of coverage in the Guardian and BBC today of our next Prime Minister –

    ”

    After a decade when real wages have fallen, for too many people, what
    they see is the community they love being run down through years of
    deliberate neglect. The evidence of a decade of economic vandalism is
    all around them.

    It’s there in the boarded up shops. In the closed library and
    swimming pool. In youth centres that have closed their doors. The high
    street like a ghost town. The elderly couple who are scared to walk down
    their road because violent crime has doubled. The army veteran sleeping
    under blankets in a doorway. People struggling to make ends meet. The
    mother and her children eating from a food bank because they’ve been
    forced onto universal credit.

    That’s the evidence of Conservative cuts. Well I say, no more.”

    2. For the record, I know a youngish mother from Venezuela; she sends to her parents’ home monthly parcels of basic stuff, and it costs a fortune. They use Fedex etc, because postal parcels get stolen, but as yet the Fedex type delivery services have not been infiltrated by Corbynistas.

    3. Written by an idiot.

      The high street has been killed by out-of-town shopping and then the internet. Low wages, high crime rates and homelessness are the consequences of Brown’s credit boom and Blair’s immigrant invasion. None of this, however, excuses Tory incompetence in failing to fix the problems.

      2. Doing so would cause political damage – lost votes.

        The economy was sacrificed to their power play.

          1. Sadly it’s what I saw.

            Cameron tried, by reducing welfare and gradually cutting back on state generosity and pushing universal credit, despite the ranting wails from the Left but in reality he wanted to stay in office and so handed over conservative prinicples to keep his job.

            We wouldn’t be in this mess if he had done what needed to be done.

    4. There have been no cuts.

      There have been reductions in spending largesse.

      The elderly couple are afraid to cross the road because a bunch of fascist Lefties stand there screaming at them. The high streets are boarded up because of high taxes – taxes the EU forces on us. Labour are the ones who went after the soldier. We struggle to make ends meet because of high taxes because Labour spending sky rocketed and left us all lumbered with debt.

      It might be a rallying cry, but the reality is – it’s all Labour’s fault.

    5. If only we had Conservatives deciding and implementing policies, things may have been better. The truth is since Thatcher we have had Liberal Democrat’s masquerading as Conservatives PM’s.
      Sadly the trend is still continuing today.

  44. Three British Christian charity bosses killed in car crash in South Africa. 31 OCTOBER 2019 • 10:51AM.

    Three of the four Britons were highly respected Christian charity bosses and the other was a senior teacher at elite £17,000-a-year Christ Church Cathedral School in Oxford, Oxon.

    The charity has an income of £5m a year from government grants, trust funds, donations and churches and calls itself an “international network of environmental organisations with a Christian ethos”

    Among their many projects are the Captive Elephant Welfare Programme in India, the Atewa Forest Project in Ghana, the Kenya Bird Map Project and helping tackle the fires in the Amazon.

    Unfortunately my now cynical nature prompts me to wonder how much the “Charity” was paying them!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/31/three-british-christian-charity-bosses-killed-car-crash-south/

      1. They have 15 paid staff – one paid over £60,000 but less than £70,000.

        They paid out more than they received last year.

    2. Risk management – limit the consequences.
      Don’t all travel in the same vehicle. One crash, all lost, as here.

    3. Thing is, when it’s ‘car crash in South Africa’ that could be they were rammed, robbed and shot.

      But the media won’t say that for fear of telling the truth.

    1. That is the foul harridan Kay Burley who is so anti-Brexit and biased that she makes the BBC look balanced at times. Her greatest failure was in an interview with John Redwood where she kept interrupting him constantly with stupid questions to try to derail him. He stayed calm and answered her multiple attempts to trip him up, by telling the truth.

      At one point she said “Do you really think that leaving with a no-deal will not massively harm our country?” To which he replied:

      “We already have lots of deals! We have freight deals, transaction deals, air transport deals and many others. As they have said in Calais – we are quite ready to handle a no-deal Brexit situation.”

      She was getting increasingly obnoxious as she was unable to catch him out, until at the end of the interview she was clearly not listening to him. But she suddenly looked up and spat at him: “Did you just say you were going to build a border in Northern Ireland!” The look of triumph on her face was sickening.

      Redwood just looked at her for a second before repeating what he had in fact just said: “We want open trade with Ireland and we don’t see any need to build a border.” She quickly ended the interview with a sarcastic look on her face.

      She is a nasty piece of work – very biased towards the EU.

          1. Thanks Phizzee but I’m just about to jump in my legs and whizz off into the real world for some fresh air and a Brexit-brain declutter.

          3. What was her point? Why did she say those things? It made her look silly. She had to defend herself and got no where apart form looking like an appalling journalist.

            She could have said ‘I’m aware you are now detached from Leave.EU, however, I would ask your opinion, as an MEP serving Britain, if you think this is helpful.’?

            Aye, even as I write that I realise it’s pointless. She wanted a scalp, he refused the fight. She couldn’t win because she didn’t think the thing through and assumed she’d win. Cripes I’m cynical.

        2. Julia Hartley-Brewer, Sherelle Jacobs, Melanie Philips and Allison Pearson are all very decent people and very fair-minded journalists!

        3. Caroline told me not to be stupid when I asked her but can you tell me if the feminine form of the word you use is wanqueuse?

          4. It can make peeing, menstruation & intercourse problematic.

            I recommend the book “Cut: FGM in Britain Today ” by Hibo Wardere, herself a victim.

  46. BBC Live Website appears to be having orgasms over the Labour leader and the prospect of implementing policies that you and I are “hungry for”…..The truly sad thing is that the Conservative party and in particular their MPs have totally blown Brexit and a significant proportion of the population will never trust them again. So there is a possibility that JC of Islington will get elected as PM and attempt to Nationalise everything in sight. The only good news is that to achieve that we cannot be a part of the EU (Unless of course he cancels Brexit on condition that he is allowed to nationalise the train set…..) Ho hum….

    2. After catching parts of Corbyn’s question and answer session I thought that he should:

      Book weddings where he will change water to wine
      Create a magic show where he will walk on water and follow that with feeding the audience from a basket containing five small loaves and two sardines.
      For his encore he will resurrect Marx, “Just like that!”

      Whistling and clapping on cue to his every answer. And people still fall for it if the calls Barnett on Al-Beeb is receiving are anything to go by. This ‘show’ was of course in the Battersea area of the Metropolis and it’s expected he will do well there. How well it will go down in the Midlands and the North is another question – invited audiences may give a false impression of course.
      As for paying for the promises? One sympathetic MP promised that the mighty conglomerates and the millionaire taxpayers will cough up, “A little more.” Six more weeks of this: the Tories and LibDums haven’t yet set out on the road.

  47. Morning all.

    Any podcast listeners here? Does anyone listen to “Fortunately”? A bit lefty, but amusing when they stay away from political, comment.
    Fi Glover (aka the fig lover) Jane Garvey in waffly, meandering conversation, I’d recommend it.
    Podcast player or the dreaded BBC Sounds.

    1. You can tell those who’ve lived through a Labour government in the past, funny that…

      1. This prospective Labour Government is something that even us 70 year olds haven’t experienced.

    2. It’s called growing up and learning how the world works.

      anyone who was not a liberal at 20 years of age had no heart, while anyone who was still a liberal at 40 had no head.

      1. In that case, I’ve never had a heart.
        All I had to do in my youth was look across at the USSR and China to see the logical outcome of socialism.

  49. “Voters are angry at members of parliament so don’t expect them to elect the same candidates”
    Why has that statement got an echoing hollow ring about it ?
    Simply because it has never stopped them before.
    These very same peoples / parties that have brought these Isles to the current point of destruction.
    These very same peoples / parties that via castigation / hate / smear have
    kept decency integrity out of parliament, especially since the Thatcher era.
    These very same peoples have supported / voted, putting party first condoning an eu agenda for many a year.
    These very same peoples condemn PC / Appeasement / mass uncontrolled immigration yet continue to support / vote for
    pro PC / Appeasement / mass uncontrolled immigration parties.
    I personally was bloody angry when the first in-house terrorist bomb went
    of, when the first pakistani rape / abuse activist activated, when finding out that these paedophile actions were covered up for 16 plus years by
    OUR OWN KIND on the odious alter of PC / Appeasement still in vogue
    today as unwritten rulings via the lab/lib/con/brussels coalition party.
    An electorate of decency would treat the political contents of the biggest
    political sh!tehouse on the planet the same way the now defunct Brexit coins are being treated, melt them down.
    …………. Don’t hold your breath for change.

    1. What are you going to do about this state of affairs ogga1? My vote counts for nothing , just as yours does. No point moaning about it, if you’re going to do nothing to change things. The UK is not heading for destruction.

      2. Afternoon C,
        Moaning ? I am not moaning, tis you, sad to say at fault in not accepting reality.
        I am doing what I have been doing for a great deal of time that
        is supporting the party UKIP in their quest regarding extraction from the eu.
        Sad thing is this proven totally loyal to England / GB is seemingly fighting on four fronts ie, lab/lib/con/brussels and all
        current members / voters of that coalition.
        The lab/lib/con coalition have mastered the art of alchemy proven by changing a country of decency where in the main the peoples had self respect into an Isle of sh!te.
        Want change then change the voting pattern to a party that puts country first.

        1. Good afternoon, ogga

          I certainly agree with many of UKIP’s ideas and policies but do you seriously believe UKIP can actually achieve anything any more?

          If we live in the real world then we have to be pragmatic.

          I am not overoptimistic but it seems there is an outside possibility that The Brexit Party could hold the balance and force the Conservatives to bring in a proper Brexit. We must go for it as it is the only hope we have.

          Do you want a proper Brexit or do you want to spend the rest of your life grumbling about the shocking way that UKIP has been treated and pouring scorn on Nigel Farage who, however much you dislike him, offers a far better hope for a real Brexit than either UKIP or Boris Johnson?

          1. Afternoon R,
            In the nicest possible way I have watched you rhetorically sing the praises of, then
            realise their true worth of the political tripe.
            The farage is a one member party person
            not to be trusted.
            IE, contact Catherine Blaiklock founder
            leader of the group, for facts.
            A ludicrous question do I want out,I answered you yesterday on that.
            The farage walked in real time when he could have been a genuine winner.
            To many people are clutching at the next
            plastic hero along mogg,bojo, farage, Me,never wavered, but watched the
            referendum result used & abused by
            fools putting , every time, party before country, I can understand the politico’s
            treachery ( money / power ) but not the supporter / voters .
            of these parties.

    2. None of us get what we vote for, the electorates of all westernised democracies are tricked into voting for Globalist controlled politicians, the cruellest part of the trick being that the elections are already heavily rigged in favour of the Globalist politicians, voting just provides the illusion of democracy. Your victim blaming of the electorates again & again & again is directly equivalent to Einstein’s definition for insanity
      Wake up to the fact that it is the Globalists who are doggedly enacting an agenda against 99% of humanity.

      PS FYI I voted Tory from ’79 to ’87, out of disgust, missed voting in ’92 then ’97 til the emergence of tBP exclusively UKIP.

          1. I’ve got no problem down voting and telling people when I’ve done it, unlike the rest of the “phantom” NTTL downvoters.

    2. I’ve been up to Chesterfield for a checkup this morning.
      Tried to do a bit of shopping on the way back.

    3. Brexit even more stalled, so nothing much to discuss. Might have to revert to discussing Telegraph letters.

  51. How I was ambushed by Nick Robinson. Douglas Murray. 31 October 2019.

    But one final reflection. In recent years, a lot of people from the BBC have approached me to ask what has gone wrong with their own programmes. I’m also fairly often approached by people from the corporation asking me to help them get on various prominent guests who they are having trouble booking and who they wish me to help persuade.

    In recent years these asks have increased because a growing number of people no longer need the BBC and regard it as an ever-less attractive or necessary platform to appear on. There are a number of reasons for that. One is that in the age of long-form podcasts listened to by millions it is unclear why anyone would want to go on a programme where you are in a four-minute ding-dong, most of the airtime in which is taken up trying to correct the presenter’s mischaracterisations of you.

    Well Douglas this is one of the penalties of telling the Truth in the modern UK. The BBC will see you as an enemy. Still it’s nice to know that their guest list is diminishing in size. We must look forward to the day when no one wants to appear on this latter day Pravda!

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/how-i-was-ambushed-by-nick-robinson/

    1. “unclear why anyone would want to go on a programme where you are in a four-minute ding-dong”

      I saw a snip of Andrew Marr questioning Corbyn last Sunday and found myself taking Corbyn’s side. Matters of national security aren’t for sound-bite telly to make clowns like Marr look good.

    2. I suppose we should feel sorry for Nick Robinson who has cancer of the throat and for Andrew Marr who suffered a stroke – but it would be far easier to do so if they were not such horribly unpleasant people.

  52. From the DT:
    “Russian submarines have ‘nowhere to hide’ says RAF chief, as UK gets first new maritime patrol plane”
    “The Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA)” is based on the Boing 737-800 series…. I’m sure that will provide Maximum comfort of the crews…..

    2. Yo Stephen

      I have an email containing lotsa strange headlines such as

      China using sea to hide its submarines

      Federal Agents raid gunshop: find weapons

      Man kills himself and runs away

      Diana was alive hours before she died

      Statistics show teenage pregnancy drops off significantly after age 25

      Breathing Oxygen linked to staying alive

      ‘We hate Math’ say 4 in 10 ——- a majority of Americans

      Homicide vistims rarely talk to police

      Survry shows fewer deer after hunt

      State population to double by 2040: babies to blame

      Rooms with broken Air Conditioners are hot

      Bugs flying round with wings are Flying Bugs

      World Bank says poor need more money

      A nuclear explosion would be a disaster

      Man found dead in graveyard

      Prisoner facing 2,000 year sentence could face more time

      Yellow object spotted in sky

      Scientists kill ducks, to see why thet are dying

      Miracle cure Kills Fifth patient

      Most earthquake damage is caused by shaking

      Greenland Meteorite may be from Space

      I have these, together with the accompanying text, on an email, which I just cannaot get to load on Disgust

  54. TWO NUNS

    There were two nuns…

    One of them was known as Sister Mathematical (SM), and the other one was known as Sister Logical (SL). It is getting
    dark and they are still far away from the convent.

    SM: Have you noticed that a man has been following us for the past thirty-eight and a half minutes? I wonder what he wants.

    SL: It’s logical . He wants to rape us.

    SM: Oh, no! At this rate he will reach us in 15 minutes at the most! What can we do?

    SL: The only logical thing to do of course is to walk faster.

    SM: It’s not working.

    SL: Of course it’s not working. The man did the only logical thing. He started to walk faster, too.

    SM : So, what shall we do? At this rate he will reach us in one minute.

    SL: The only logical thing we can do is split. You go that way and I’ll go this way. He cannot follow us both.

    So the man decided to follow Sister Logical.

    Sister Mathematical arrives at the convent and is worried about what has happened to Sister Logical .

    Then Sister Logical arrives.

    SM: Sister Logical ! Thank God you are here! Tell me what happened!

    SL : The only logical thing happened. The man couldn’t follow us both, so he followed me

    SM : Yes, yes! But what happened then?

    SL : The only logical thing happened. I started to run as fast as I could and he started to run as fast as he could.

    SM : And?

    SL : The only logical thing happened. He reached me

    SM : Oh, dear! What did you do?

    SL : The only logical thing to do. I lifted my dress up.

    SM : Oh, Sister! What did the man do?

    SL : The only logical thing to do. He pulled down his pants.

    SM: Oh, no! What happened then?

    SL : Isn’t it logical, Sister? A nun with her dress up can run faster than a man with his pants down.

    And for those of you who thought it would get dirty, I’ll pray for you!

  55. 1 speaker and over 50 of the current crop of MPs not standing for re-election, our aim should be to encourage our fellow voters of all persuasions to issue P45s to the 495 or so standing/lying for re-election….

  56. Croydon tram crash driver Alfred Dorris will not be prosecuted

    How? He must at the very least be guilty of the railway equivalent of careless or dangerous driviing as he took the bend at a very excessive speed and there was a speed limit on that bend

    Dropping the corporate manslaughter charge against TfL is probably correct though

    The driver of a tram that crashed in Croydon and killed seven people will not face prosecution for manslaughter.
    More than 50 people were injured when the tram derailed near Sandilands tram stop in south London in November 2016.
    Driver Alfred Dorris will not face action due to a lack of evidence, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
    Corporate manslaughter charges will also not be brought against Transport for London (TfL) or the operator Tram Operations Ltd.
    Prosecutors said the available evidence “does not support a prosecution”..

  57. BREXIT Party is to organise Rally’s across the UK

    Dates and Venues should be available within a few days

  58. I note that Labour are trying to prove, for the umpteenth time, that you can tax the country into prosperity.
    It has never worked anywhere and it just goes to show that some people live and learn and Labour supporters just live.

    2. Labour paint the massive borrowing and spending as an investment. They somehow claim that for every £12 they borrow it will generate £5 of revenues. If only life were that simple. Ask people who have racked up several thousand pound of debt if they now have £25K in the bank

      1. Sounds about right. Borrow $12, generate $5. (No pound sign on phone, sorry) leaving you with a net $7 owing. Lucky interest rates are so low.

  60. Hidden cameras discovered in children’s toilet at Upper Holloway primary school

    THe story as report sounds a little strange. How if the school new nothing about them would they know the camera was fitted in 3014. How would they know they were deleted every month ?

    Police are investigating after staff at Duncombe Primary School discovered there had been hidden cameras in the children’s toilets for five years.
    Parents and carers were this morning sent a letter informing them that concealed cameras facing the washbasin in the kids toilets at the Sussex Way school had been found, and had been there since April 2014.
    Helen Ryan, who took over as headteacher of the Upper Holloway school at the end of last year, reported the devices to police who removed the cameras the next day and launched a criminal investigation.
    The letter, signed by chair of governors Douglas Cowie on behalf of the school, says the images were deleted at the end of every month and police “concluded there was no evidence of criminal activity”. The Met Police has been approached for comment.

  61. Charity shops too expensive

    Universal Credit claimants in Islington Council have accumulated nearly four times the rent arrears as people on Housing Benefit.

    It appears in my view down to the fact that Housing benefit in general is paid directly to the Landlord but Universal benefit goes to the tenement. The idea was to get them used to managing a budget but most appear to be unable to do so.

    Universal Credit claimants in Islington Council have accumulated nearly four times the rent arrears as people on Housing Benefit.

    “We have now got to the point people are saying to me even going to charity shops is too expensive.”
    The council has referred more than 2,800 people to Islington Food Bank since June. The food bank only allows people to be referred 12 times a year – and there are at least 14 people known to the council who have already exceeded this.
    Cllr Gallagher has urged people to donate what food and clothes they can to distribution points across the borough in the run up to Christmas.

    2. It’s quite well known that freeloaders prefer to spend their free money on themselves not on their responsibilities. Then they moan when they are evicted – often at great cost to the landlord. Rents should surely always be paid directly to landlords.

      1. They know that if they dont pay the rent the council or a charity will pay it and even worst case if they get evicted which can take 6 months to a year the council will rehouse them

        1. If they have children, the councils have to find them emergency accommodation. It would be better if those unfortunate children were taken into care. I know that costs money, but at least the appallingly irresponsible parents would suffer and many might be more careful in the future.

  62. How are Labour being allowed to keep claiming the NHS is being sols off. It is a different lie. Maybe a complaint to the ASA although I suspect there will be a get out for politicians

  63. QT tonight…

    Fiona Bruce presents the topical debate from Birmingham. The panellists are Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party Paul Scully, Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth, Liberal Democrat Education and Culture spokesperson Layla Moran, first Vice-President of the European Parliament Mairead McGuinness and journalist Isabel Oakeshott.

    1. I would ask Paul Scully what is the difference between the current WA and T May’s WA? If he says the new one is much better, I would ask him then why did he vote for hers as well.

  65. Last few days of Nigel on LBC for several weeks

    The Election Purdah period starts 6 weeks before the 12th December so Nigel will have to come off of the LBC for that period

  66. UK Car jobs to Go ?

    Given there is an excess of manufacturing capacity and the EU is subsidise the setting upp and extending of car plants in low cost ex Eastern block countries the UK plant has to be at risk

    Fiat Chrysler is to merge with Vauxhall’s owner PSA to create the world’s fourth largest car company.
    The two sides say they have yet to finalise all the details, but the 50-50 merger is expected to provide significant cost savings.
    That has raised concerns at Vauxhall, which employs 3,000 people in the UK, as it could be vulnerable to any restructuring.
    Unions called for talks with France’s PSA, which owns Peugeot and Citroen.

        1. You will be sorry to learn that the noted historian is retiring…

          Known – apparently – for his “drolleries…” (yawns and drops off.

          3. No doubt you will be supplied with a replacement who will find it hard to live up to his skills…..

          5. I daresay you will be there waving him good bye and no doubt you’ll be waving with at least a couple of fingers on each hand….

      1. Trump should have learned from Obama’s attempt to interfere with the 2016 referendum and keep his opinions on the 2019 General Election to himself. The British people do not take kindly to foreigners sticking their noses into UK politics.

    1. No fats, no tats, and no diverse carnival.
      Even the bikini’d boobs look normal, sans silicone.

      What have we done to our country in only 50 years??

      1. We’ve let it slip through our fingers….failing to recognise that prosperity and freedom is hard won…

          1. Funny you should say that.
            I do have family photos going back over a century.
            My late ma-in-law worked in North Berwick and used to take a daily swim in the Firth of Forth.
            I have a picture of her (in a less elaborate outfit) rising from the grey waters like an athletic Venus.

          2. They were very hardy in those days. My godmother and her mother swam off Hove beach all year round.

          14. “All I wanted in the end,
            Was world domination and a whole lot of money to spend.
            Everything I touch, everything I see. Fame and fortune, immortality.”

            “Great Expectations” by New Model Army.

      3. Their average age would be about seventy.
        Darn sight slimmer than most girls of their age now.

      1. Long gone now, but I once knew a very old gentleman who had stayed at Melton Constable in Edwardian times.

        (main filming location of The Go-Between, in 1970)

  71. Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has dismissed as “idle speculation” reports his party is considering withdrawing candidates in hundreds of General Election constituencies in order to concentrate resources on a small number of Labour-held seats.
    Mr Farage told the PA news agency: “This is idle speculation.
    “I have not spoken to anyone of any seniority in the party (about this).”

  72. Following the House of Commons’ vote in favour of an early UK Parliamentary general election on 12 December, Bob Posner, Chief Executive at the Electoral Commission, said:

    “The House of Commons has voted in favour of an early UK Parliamentary general election. Subject to votes in the House of Lords and Royal Assent, this will take place on 12 December. The electoral community is preparing to deliver the poll.
    “In order to maintain voter confidence, it is important that all parties and campaigners comply with the rules and campaign responsibly. Ahead of final confirmation, we will shortly publish updated guidance for candidates, political parties and non-party campaigners to help them comply, and we will monitor compliance throughout. As in every election, we will share donation reports during the campaign and spending reports after the campaign, so voters can see how parties and campaigners are funded and how they spend their money.
    “Anyone not yet registered to vote should apply at http://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
    (Opens in new window)
    before the registration deadline on 26 November. It only takes a few minutes to complete the application. Those who aren’t able to get to their polling station on 12 December can arrange either a postal or proxy vote.”

    1. And when the complaints about Miller et al come in, the commission will be ignoring them and focussing on the BP.

  74. Could electric roads spark a green transport revolution?

    Looking at the picture they seem to have two paragraphs. Presumably one for the Live and return. It would increase the costs and make it more unsightly. Having a return path as a metal strip in the road might be better. Laser guidance could keep the truck on the mental strip

    You would probably not need the overhead lines all the way as they could run on batteries where overhead lines would not be suitable

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-50223895/could-electric-roads-spark-a-green-transport-revolution

      1. Dont think they have managed to scale it up to the sort of power needs and losses are high

  75. I just received another email from the Cons, this time from James Cleverly. My response is similar to the one I sent in reply to the begging letter with the following addition:
    Dear Mr Cleverly,

    DO I KNOW YOU? HAVE WE
    MET? Answer to both is NO. So please show some respect and address me correctly as Mrs ….

    You state, ‘Parliament
    isn’t working. Instead of getting on with the country’s priorities, MPs have
    spent all their time arguing about Brexit.’
    You may be surprised
    to hear this (showing just how out of touch the party is with ordinary people
    outside of the London bubble) but THERE IS NO GREATER PRIORITY THAN SECURING A
    FULL, TOTAL BREXIT with no further control over us by the EU.

    1. Dear Mr C

      FOAD, very slowly and very painfully.

      Yours sincerely,
      A Voter.

      ps strong letter to follow.

  77. Parting shot from the “noted historian” who is the MP for Broadland:

    “But Keith Simpson, a Conservative MP since 1997 who announced this year he would stand down, warned that the party was damaging its chances of winning a majority. He tweeted: “So many good colleagues from One Nation standing down with Liders [Sir David Lidington], Sir Patrick [McLoughlin], Alan Duncan and now Nicky Morgan. Boris may get back some Brexiteer Tory and Labour voters but he is losing the Liberal Conservatives. How not to get a majority.”

    He told The Times: “What we’ve seen in the last ten years is growing within the Conservative Party an ideological group, which successive leaders have tried to buy off. My fear is that they may very well get back Conservatives who voted Brexit, and they may very well get some Labour leavers to hold their nose and vote Boris Johnson, but I am not convinced at all that this is going to give the Conservative Party the real majority in the Commons.””

    (From the Grimes today)

    3. A Conservative party that is full of Liberals is not the Conservative party. I hope the door DOES hit them on the ass on the way out. The cheek of trying to take over a party that is ideologically light years ahead of the Lib Dems.

    1. It is in fact a serious problem. I am talking about quality not quantity.
      Mass emigration of the Jewish community would be a bad thing for this country.

      1. I could not agree more on that point.

        But Corbyn’s policies will drive out almost any high achiever who can get out.

        Even the hypocritical lefties who adore him, in “clotchure, meejja and sprot”

        1. Exactly what happened under previous “socialist ” governments. Helped of course in the Wilson era by much easier immigration into the US, Canada and the Antipodes. The US Government used to hold exams at the embassy for doctors who wanted to work in the US. Got all the lefties ticked off (a doctor “passed” and promptly got a Green Card) and talking about banning graduates from emigrating.

          Then the “brain drain” came back in the Callaghan era. Marketable hard working people don’t want their lives regularly upended by the “strike of the day” syndrome. I remember importing sugar from NL when the British sugar lot went on strike; I was lucky enough to be making regular trips at the time. Kept us in single malts and decent gin as I recall – and our neighbours got sugar for their tea and coffee.

      2. Don’t worry Tony you will like Tel Aviv – 8 months of summer, 1 of spring, 1 of autumn , 2 of winter, plentiful good places to eat , great beaches, night life, good looking girls , reliable bus service, low pollution & low crime rate!

    1. Any polling results on the monster raving loony party? I mean the real one not the Labour monster raving loony party, Lib-Dem monster raving loony party, Green & SNP absolute monster raving loony parties !

      1. Was in the Sun , It is based on a YouGov Poll the full poll will probably have all the parties

          1. A friend of mine and his wife, in their 70’s, were in a pub in East Sussex enjoying lunch when a “bevy of voluptuous beasties” arrived. (yes beasties is not a typo for beauties)

            It turned out that it was a lunch for page three girls. My friend and his wife both said how lovely they were, how much fun was had at the lunch and that they were extremely well behaved.

            A real pleasure to be with.

            They were very surprised, to say the least.

          2. Helped launch the careers of Linda Lusardi, Sam Fox and many others. Might have been a bit low brow but it got them legitimate work.

          8. Oh well, i expect she didn’t want to limit her choices.

            posted in wrong place. Was supposed to go to OLT.

          12. Yo Mr Coat

            When we came back to UK, three things ensured life here went on unchanged

            A sale on at MFI
            One lane closed on the (old) Severn Bridge
            Boobs on Page 3 of the Sun

            All gone now

          14. Not sure if they are still around but MFI did come back as an Online store. Whether that still going I dont know

          15. In the (19) eighties I met a couple of Page 3 ladies at a restaurant opening. They were petite. Well tiny.

          16. Their star attraction turned out to be lesbian.
            Which came first? Her orientation or her experiences.

          19. A line from a 1980s comedy show about a tabloid paper, “Hot Metal” has two characters discussing page 3:-
            “Remember, tits sell newspapers.”
            “Luckily for us, they also buy them.”

  81. I think that Eton runs special mendacity classes for those who want to enter the world of politics.

    Before the referendum Cameron told us that the choice was between leaving the EU or staying in a reformed EU. As we know full well Cameron did not achieve a single reform when he went on his pre-referendum visit to the EU.

    It was a blatant lie that a reformed EU was a referendum choice.

    And now Boris is again claiming that his negotiations have led to his ‘great new deal‘ with the EU being on offer when all he has got is a rehash of May’s Surrender WA which is not Brexit but BRINO.

    It is another blatant lie that Boris has got ‘a great new deal.’

    When you put Rory Stewart, Oliver Letwin and Judas Rees-Mogg into the mix you can see that the Head of the Mendacity Department at Eton is certainly earning his or her salary.

  82. An evening read:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/31/exodus-mps-entirely-predictable-not-without-precedent/

    This “exodus” of MPs is entirely predictable and not without precedent

    Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan announced her departure from the House of Commons yesterday

    “Are women really being “hounded” out of politics?

    They seem to be dropping like flies.

    Since the announcement of our first December general election in 100 years, MP after MP has come forward to announce they will not be standing again. No campaigning in the snow for them, no signing hundreds of cards for ungrateful constituents; all the time in the world, finally, for Christmas shopping and carol concerts and jolly drinks parties. All it takes is a solemnly-regretful letter of resignation to the local party chairman, tweeted out between the 6 O’Clock News and Newsnight, and – poof – they’re gone in a puff of smoke, like the villain at the end of a festive pantomime.

    The flurry of departures – and, more precisely, the identity of those who have called time on their tenure on the green benches – has alarmed some. From former Tory Cabinet ministers Justine Greening and Amber Rudd to Corbyn-allergic Labour and ex-Labour MPs Louise Ellman and Owen Smith to the Europhiles Jo Johnson and Ken Clarke, there seems to be a theme: they are “moderates”, Remainers, and often female.

    “Well done everyone,” tweeted the Evening Standard columnist Ayesha Hazarika after the announcement of the departures of Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan and Labour-turned-Independent Group MP Ann Coffey on Wednesday night. “Decent women leaving politics in droves.”

    Let’s explore these concerns in turn – first the apparently high number. So far 59 MPs have announced their departure, a figure which feels high given the last election was as recent as June 2017. Back then, 31 MPs quit the Commons, which gives us 90 departures in four- and-a-half-years, about the average length of a parliament prior to the Fixed Term Parliament Act.

    At the election before last, 2015, there were 90 retirees. Exactly the same number. Between 1979 and 2015, the average figure for MPs standing down at election time was 86, down only a little on our current rate. We are nowhere close to the highest ever number of departures, 149, in 2010, when 23 per cent of the Commons stood down, fuelled by shamed MPs who could not bear to face their constituents following The Telegraph’s exposes in the Expenses Scandal of the year before, and Labour MPs cognisant that their party’s long reign was drawing to a close.

    We are also some way off the 117 who departed in 1945, although this admittedly followed a decade without a general election while Britain fought the existential threat from Nazism. So the numbers are high, but not excessively so; partly it feels like a lot because of the uncertainty surrounding the election date. Usually, MPs have four or five years to make up their minds about their futures and often give their local party months, if not years, to bed-in a successor.

    This time around there was a last-minute scramble, with many realising only this week they could not bear another five years in office. And what are the reasons for that ambivalence?

    Is Ayesha Hazarika right to suggest women in particular are being hounded out of politics? There are 19 women among the 59 MPs who have announced their departure, making up 32 per cent of the total. As 32 per cent of the outgoing Parliament is female, this looks like perfect equality.

    But as ever, it’s not that simple. With some of the more surprising resignees being women apparently in the prime of their careers, many commentators have argued that while male grandees are hanging up their spurs as they approach their dotage, many of the departing women might have been expected to serve for many years to come.

    This claim would appear to have some truth to it – but only some. Of those elected for the Labour Party in 2017 (so including those who later defected) the average age of women who are now standing down is 67, compared to 65 for the men. They have served an average of 21 years as an MP compared to 23 for their male counterparts, and make up just six per cent of the total number of female Labour MPs compared to one in 10 men.

    For the Tories, however, the claim may be more justified. 20 of the Conservative men elected in 2017 are standing down in 2019, eight per cent of the male MPs in their party. They have an average age of 64 and served an average of 20 years. The contrast to their female counterparts is stark: the nine women who will not be standing at the general election make up 13 per cent of female Tory MPs; their average age is 51 and they served only a decade in Parliament, half the tenure of the men. They include two, Mims Davies and Seema Kennedy, who were MPs for only four years; four are in their forties.

    So there does seem to be an issue with female Conservative MPs – one which party grandees, not least Theresa May, who worked so hard over the last 15 years to boost the number of women in the Parliamentary party, will be discouraged by.

    It is perhaps no coincidence that the problem is at its worst in the party most riven over the great political issue of our era – Brexit – the one in which, as the party of government, those fissures have played out publicly.

    Women, and many men, in all political parties have – regrettably; unacceptably – become inured to a degree of unpleasantness and abuse; it has become the price they pay for the honour of public service. Most refuse to be driven out by cowards who tweet death threats under the cover of anonymity, or shout abuse at their children in the street. Those who do not want to put themselves and their families through such harassment cannot be blamed for their decision.

    But the toxic nature of our public discourse is not the only reason why so many Tory women – and the other departing MPs – have had enough. Since David Cameron took the fateful decision to call the 2016 EU Referendum, the question of Britain’s relationship with the rest of Europe has been a binary one: are you with the 52-per-cent? You win. A 48-per-center? You lose.

    For all the shenanigans of the last Parliament, the delays and obstructions, Remain MPs know that while they may have won a few battles, they ultimately lost the war three years ago. Just as Blairite Labour MPs have come to the realisation that Corbynism will not die with Jeremy Corbyn, that their brand of moderate politics is over, so Remainer Tory MPs, many of whom happen to be women (just as female voters are broadly more pro-European than men) have come to see that their time has drawn to a close.

    The departures at the general election of December 2019 are the logical conclusion of events which took place in 2015 and 2016. Rightly or wrongly, the Parliament of 2020 will be a very different place.”

      2. Most of these female MP’s complaining are the ones that defied their parties manifesto and who have flitted from party to party so it is not surprising their electorate are not happy with them

    2. The vast majority of those leaving have something in common with women.

      And those that aren’t títs are

      Fundamental female orifices, both front and rear bottom.

          2. Johnson is neither a jot nor a tittle different from May – except that he can tell jokes.

          5. Got rid of a lot of well entrenched shrubs at our last house the easy way – rope round the plant tied to the tow hook on my ubiquitous pick up truck. Put it in 4WD Low and go. Pops them neatly out of the ground.

      2. Like the equivalent Canadian Rhino party. They were polling so high in some constituencies that they had to split their vote by fielding a second candidate.

        They were sadly missed in the last election, they couldn’t out dumb some of the official manifesto promises.

  84. Trump Confirms categorically that they have no interest at all in getting involved with the UK NHS so Corbyn is just lying

  85. Back giving me gyp. So I am off to take lots of anaesthesia.

    I’ll join you tomorrow, prolly, depending on how the infinitive splits.

    Have a jolly evening choosing your local candidates.

  87. Tell me how this General Election is going to pan out with a great many
    swearing they would rather kill their grannies than vote for a lab/lib/con
    party candidate, or on ballot booth night how many will declare a great love of granny and firmly grip their nasal canals.
    Lie sheets being worked on as we type, regular staple diet for fools.
    The manifesto’s are worked out between the toxic trio, all finely balanced
    to allow the electorate to think which is the better for their benefit when the truth is, none are ever going to be fulfilled, then again the people know that.
    So the keep in / keep out, nasal canal gripping, best of the worst, party
    first, sod the consequences will be ,as usual, the order of the day.

    1. None of us get what we vote for, the electorates of all westernised democracies are tricked into voting for Globalist controlled politicians, the cruellest part of the trick being that the elections are already heavily rigged in favour of the Globalist politicians, voting just provides the illusion of democracy. Your victim blaming of the electorates again & again & again is directly equivalent to Einstein’s definition for insanity
      Wake up to the fact that it is the Globalists who are doggedly enacting an agenda against 99% of humanity.
      FYI I voted Tory from ’79 to ’87, out of disgust I missed voting in ’92, then ’97 til the emergence of tBP exclusively UKIP.

  88. Write Labour allow Keith Vas to stand as a candidate ?

    Technically he is supposed to be suspended for 6 months but the legislation is not clear as to what happens i when parliament is dissolved the current think seems to be the suspension lapses

      1. We left again, in 1945, when de Galle and the victorious French Resistance had the gall to drive us back across the Channel, after they had rescued the non Narsty German Army from the belligerent Russians, who had invaded the Franco Prussian Empire

        EUro history 2018

      1. They would then act for the Egyptians suing the descendants of Moses for compensation caused by the flood after the parting of the Red Sea.

          1. And …. and ….. no warnings about over-exposure to the sun, let alone providing us with sun screen.
            Elf ‘n’ safety, mate.

  92. There is now a very short window for the Conservatives and Brexit Party to come to an informal arrangement as nominations will start going in for the seats
    I am assuming that if anyone withdraws after putting in a nomination that the £500 deposit is forfeited at least I assume it would be forfeited

    1. You can tell it’s a “real” protest because the signage is amateur, there are very few signs, and there are no celebrity morons at the front

    1. I had forgotten it was Halloween. All I have are some Japanese Kit-Kats… Someone is going to get an exotic treat if they knock on the door (not in the Keith Vaz way, which would be more of an unpleasant trick.)

      At least it has now started raining heavily in Cornwall, so that might keep the numbers down.

        3. P-T comes from Penzance.

          I was a boy in St Mawes, my parents met each other in Fowey,

          Where do you come from?

          1. Richmond-upon-Thames, but I now live in east Cornwall. I was responding to Mr Mckay though, as we all know that Plum lives at Penzance Tennis Club.

      5. Remember when you get the dreaded knock on the door followed by “Trick or Treat” Answer Treat, take a sweet say thank you and close the door….

        1. Harsh but fair. A valuable life-lesson learnt for knocking on peoples doors. Especially if you are a politician these days.

        3. It reminds me of a Punch cartoon from many years ago.

          Urchin: “Penny for the guy Guv?”

          City slicker: “Excellent value, I’ll take it.”

    1. Obviously you are insufficiently offensive unto yon Lefties.
      I should be down 20,000 this time tomorrow.

      1. The axe is faster at close range.

        Altrnatively ask them in & offer them chocolate-coated jalapeños.

        1. A,
          Horror of horrors I didn’t mean loaded, well, maybe only a little bit, unless the trick/treaters are MPs then full charge.

      1. The way things are going, peddy, today’s tots will be drawing their pension before we get our release.

      1. I only asked how the election was going and if Uncle George had chosen the winner yet..

  105. For many of us who work there, the BBC now stands for the ‘B—–d Boyfriend Club’

    Our Susan is excluded from this

    You won’t know my name or my face. I’m one of thousands of women working for the BBC, delivering high-quality programmes.

    Truly woke wimmen, especially the one with the set (beard)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/10/28/TELEMMGLPICT000214395948_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqvWdfq-a34Yz0x6lFPidU73BN7wquremafcWvM6jFD-I.jpeg?imwidth=1400

    Samira Ahmed has arrived at her employment tribunal against the BBC flanked by supportive women each day this week

    1. It’s not that the women are underpaid it’s the blokes that are grossly overpaid – time to end this quango.

  106. Tell me, does D, abbot work for disqus because the new twist is any up ticks awarded are not being added to the total tally.

    3. That is wonderful. One to save to be brought out at the appropriate moment. Thanks, Belle! It’s brilliant.

    5. Oh very good. That should be shown on every social media platform. Although, with the maze of utter contradictions that exists in the minds of the left wing follower, would they notice one more creaking staircase of insanity leading to the sentence “It is not the same thing”?

  109. Pardon me if it’s already been discussed here but what could stop a Tory government just taking us out? Suppose BJ promises a WTO exit (or a GATT24 interim), wins a decent majority and says to the EU “We’re off.”

    What in law could stop it? No parliament may bind its successor so all the Grieve and Benn nonsense could be repealed. One difficulty might be back-benchers, though if any of them stood on such a manifesto and then voted against their own government some local fire brigades might get a few call-outs to remote rural properties.

    Over to you.

      3. And the Conservative frontbenchers are stopping us “just leaving” as well. They are not going to allow a WTO Brexit made up as they are with Boris as leader at the moment. He has said in the past that a no-deal Brexit was “a million to one” and he was not lying in his mind. Which is why our future is on a knife edge.

        We want enough real Brexit MP’s in the Conservatives and the Brexit Party to be elected to be able to take us cleanly out of the EU. But not so many Remainer MP’s left in the Conservative party that they can force this appalling Withdrawal Agreement through, against the wishes of almost everyone who understands it.

        That election night will be very tense and the wine will be flowing here.

    3. The LibDems are campaigning to Remain in the EU. To do this, if they form the next government they will revoke Article 50. No referendum in this case – they will just revoke Article 50 and stay in the EU.

      1. So the 52 /48 majority does not matter if the gain power . Clearly it is most unlikely they would gain power but lets say they do it would be say on no more than 30% of the vote so 70 do not want to stay but 30% do and the Lib-Dems say thats fine

        1. A majority in the House of Commons means the government can pass any law it likes. This also means that if the Conservatives obtain a majority, they could repeal the Benn Act and just leave the EU immediately.

          3. I think the part of it that specifies that the PM must accept an extension is still in force. The extension can be cancelled by passing an Act to leave the EU immediately.

    4. The Benn act only applies to the 31st January. As regard the deal it was never passed into law so there is nothing to stop us leaving on the 1st February. this assumes a Conservative government with a workable majority

      1. He could bash it through before Christmas. That would be a great present. And the ribbon around it could be a one-line bill to abolish the Supreme Court.

        Just imagine what Christmas would be like in BBC and Guardianista World…

        2. And the name ‘Boris Johnson’ would be as highly regarded throughout all history, down through the corridors of time as ‘Winston Churchill’. What an epitaph that would be. Instead…. just one of many that have tried to sink this lovely, beautiful country of ours and our ancestors.

    5. Absolutely nothing could stop it, as I understand it. And the 1972 (?) Act which took us into the eu could equally be repealed pretty sharpish. All this is about kicking the can further down the road until the 2016 Referendum becomes irrelevant. I am sure we could write a letter at this moment saying ‘Good-bye, Au revoir, Auf Weidersehn, Arriverderci, whatever, et bonne chance mes amies, we’re off. And Toodlepip.” Unfortunately there isn’t the political will to do this as they are all being paid to, guess what, keep their schnozzles in the trough.

        1. They would impose a massive fine on us before throwing us out & our politicos would be daft enough to pay it.

        2. They may well send in their ‘technocrats’ to take over our varied financial mechanisms, and give us all a 10% ‘haircut’ on our properties, investments and savings à la Cyprus of a few years ago. We no longer have sovereignty. They can do what they like. We were signed up to this. We are occupied but without present forces. And our own people did this to us.

    6. That’s what I thought, William. Boris is a very clever man, and not just the buffoon many paint him as.

      1. If he did that I would take back all the nasty things I have said about him.

        However I very much doubt if he will – but how good it would be if I were wrong.

  110. After all of the discussion of summer time this past weekend, it is good to know that the British Columbia government has heard your concerns and is talking about ending summer time. Not this year, that would be too quick for politicians but maybe next year – or maybe not.

  111. No Trick or Treat tonight. No ringa da bell. The kiddies have all been warned to stay inside for fear of meeting the evil wizard Jeremy Corbyn.
    Lots of loud fireworks going off, though. Or maybe gunfire. Depends where you live.

  112. Yesterday, I received a begging letter from Isaac Levido, campaign director at the Cons (I have deliberately used the more appropriate abbreviation of the party name!). That he used my Christian name was enough to annoy me! I just feel so angry and betrayed by the whole fiasco. At least here, I can read sense from fellow Nottlers! It may not be the most articulate reply, but here it is (though since sending it, I have thought of many more comments …..):

    Mr Levido,

    NO, we have never met – therefore, please
    show respect by NOT using my Christian name. To strangers, I am MRS

    As for who will be getting my vote at the
    upcoming general election, it will not be the Conservatives as the Prime
    Minister’s deal is NOT a true Brexit. It is little better than Mrs May’s
    surrender deal. As far as I am concerned, only a NO DEAL Brexit is acceptable.

    We KNEW what we were voting for in June
    2016 and it was NOT ANY DEAL that would keep us tied in any way
    to the EU, BUT COMPLETE EXIT. We were promised by the then PM, Mr Cameron, that
    the referendum result would be respected. Instead, we have spent the last three
    and a half years being lied to, betrayed and deceived as more and more is
    offered to the insatiable EU. IF we were to fully exit the EU, of course
    the Germans and French and others will want to continue to trade unhindered
    with this once great nation. Their car manufacturers, for starters, will
    undoubtedly apply pressure to their governments to ensure trade
    continues.

    Let’s face it, the EU needs us only for
    our money and few people believe that Mr Johnson’s appalling surrender deal will
    NOT leave us free from entanglement in the EU tentacles.
    As far as I am concerned, EU citizens who have settled here,
    learned the language and work & pay taxes (and through my work in education
    and as a resident in this area, I know many such families) are welcome to continue
    being a part of this country.

    Unless the government can guarantee that
    we will finally escape the clutches of the EU with absolutely no customs union,
    an immediate end to free movement (and unemployed & criminal EU citizens
    being removed), no further control by the ECJ or any other form of subjection,
    then my vote, and those of virtually everyone we know (mostly lifelong
    Conservative voters) WILL BE GOING TO OUR BREXIT PARTY CANDIDATE.
    s

    Yours sincerely

    1. You should have told him what you really think. They will take a definite no as a probable yes.

      1. The deluded fools probably would! It’s apparently recommended that voters in my constituency (currently the odious, undemocratic Boles, ex-Con) vote for TBP. It is the sort of area that would vote in a donkey if it had a blue rosette.

          2. Odd, was sure I had replied! They picked Gareth Davies (politics at university ….) but I can’t find his views on Brexit. The fact that we are being advised to vote for The Brexit Party, suggests he is not a genuine Leaver. 61% here voted Leave.
            Looked up our TBP candidate – an interesting choice but seems to be genuine and a normal sort of non-political background.
            https://www.granthamjournal.co.uk/news/candidate-for-mp-a-proud-transwoman-9078685/

    2. A very good letter, but because you are in education (?), I Have to dock you one mark for the split infinitive in your 3rd paragraph. 😉

          1. It’s probably the usual widdling little Pajero.

            You should be able to see names if you hover over the up-tick number*, but not over the down-ticks.

            *If you can’t Disqus is playing up, but that’s nothing new; I’m not getting e-mail notifications at the moment.

          5. Yes, I meant pajero. Sometimes I use the word Fotze to describe him.

            My Chilean friends rolled around with laughter when I showed them photos of a 4wd Pajero.

          3. Own goal, Dear.

            If you knew anything about what you’re suggesting, you would know that narcissists don’t see their own faults.

            I put it to you, that your sudden aggression out of the blue is not compatible with your Christian beliefs.

            Oh wait, apropos Christian beliefs, whose wine are you stealing now?

    3. few people believe that Mr Johnson’s appalling surrender deal will
      NOT leave us free”

      A superfluous negative, I think.

    4. Very good. And Fowler says that split infinitives are quite acceptable.

      Do let us know if you receive any reply…

      2. Good to hear! Anyway, split infinitives were good enough for Star Trek ….
        I doubt I will ever hear a reply; I am not agreeing with the duplicitous Cons.

      2. You scratch my back and I may well scratch yours? ‘We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again some sunny day’ sort of thing?

  117. Given Corbyn is so worried about privattisation of the NHS why is he not going to de privatise the GP service ?

  118. Just been eating left over small chocolate sweets from the
    trick and treat packets that the little monsters didn’t get.
    There was a 6 year old peering through the letter box
    saying ‘ I want sweeties ‘ the cheeky little monkey .

  119. MuckDonald’s has apologised for aHalloween marketing campaign which promoted a dessert in Portugal withthe words: “Sundae Bloody Sundae”.

    The term Bloody Sunday is usedto refer to one of the worst days of the Troubles in Northern Ireland,when 13 people were shot dead by the Army.

    The adverts sparked outrage when photos were shared on social media.

    MuckDonald’s said the marketing campaign was not intended to be an “insensitive reference to any historical event”.

    “We sincerely apologise for any offence or distress this may have caused,” a spokeswoman for MuckDonald’s Portugal said.

    She explained the “Bloody” sundae adverts were designed as a Halloween celebration but the promotion has since been cancelled.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-50251779

    1. The IRA initiated the original Bloody Sunday after a mainly botched attempt at assassinating British intelligence officers in the early hours of the 21st November 1920.
      My great grandfather was a target who shot back and lived to fight again. The events later that day were perhaps inevitable, but mainly carried out by Irish ‘Specials’.

    2. Whilst “Bloody Sunday” was indeed one of the worst days of the Troubles in Northern Ireland I thought “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” was a film which starred Peter Finch.

          3. U2 Irish rock group had a hit with that song. U2 an American spy plane, famously shot down by the Russians in 1962-ish, piloted by Gary Powers who was put on a televised show trial by the Soviets and later exchanged for a Russian ne’er do well. The U2 was also known as the Dragon Lady and was built under immense secrecy at the Lockheed plant, also known as The Skunk Works.

          4. I know all about Gary Powers and the U2 incident (it was recently filmed as Bridge of Spies), but had no idea that U2 was an Irish rock group. When you say “that song” to what are you referring? Did U2 record a song called “Bloody Sunday” or “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” or “Gary Powers” or “the Dragon Lady” or what?

      3. Both Bloody Sundays were initiated by the IRA.
        The second was an operation by them to gain a propaganda coup against the Army by firing towards, but not at, the troops monitoring the Civil Rights march in the hope of provoking a response.
        They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams and have milked the aftermath ever since.

    2. Thanks for that, Maggie. Today I went on a Church visit to St Luke’s in Tiptree with my local U3A group. Sitting very close to the church organist as he played us a few pieces I was able to closely observe the foot pedals and discover to my surprise that they were not at all a confusing mixture of wooden pedals as I had always surmised but instead were large wooden keyboards with the smaller raised wooden blocks representing the black notes on the manual keyboards. I also at last realised that a harmonium’s pedals are no more than bellows used by the feet to pump air through the pipes. Such a lot of learning in such a few short minutes. This may be “old hat” to many on this site (especially Geoff) , but for me it was a real eye-opening experience.

      1. Organs are fascinating objects of wonder Elsie..

        Awe inspiring really!

        The scale of the size of the pipes .. well how on earth do they respond the way they do.

      2. When I was a boy chorister or ‘Treble’ the deputy Abbey organist, coincidentally my woodwork master at the Technical School, wore drainpipes and Winkle-pickers. He was an old man probably in his sixties back then.

        Watching him on Bath Abbey organ I realised why he wore the narrow pointy shoes. The drainpipes were a sort of fashion statement.

    2. Depends who dunnit. Good looking male. or butch female. And what your colour scheme is…

        1. Is it me, or do others think that the police and fire service both have an excessive amount of carpet munchers in high positions?

  123. Ding dong……………..

    Why hasn’t Britain left the EU at 23.00 alert…………………….. ?

    https://twitter.com/BrugesGroup/status/1181569492792598531?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1181569492792598531&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefault%26f%3Dnottl%26t_i%3D170%2520https%253A%252F%252Fnttl.blog%252F%253Fp%253D170%26t_u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fnttl.blog%252Ftuesday-8-october-the-supreme-courts-brexit-interventions-are-a-threat-to-democracy%252F%26t_e%3DTuesday%25208%2520October%253A%2520The%2520Supreme%2520Court%25E2%2580%2599s%2520Brexit%2520interventions%2520are%2520a%2520threat%2520to%2520democracy%26t_d%3DTuesday%25208%2520October%253A%2520The%2520Supreme%2520Court%25E2%2580%2599s%2520Brexit%2520interventions%2520are%2520a%2520threat%2520to%2520democracy%26t_t%3DTuesday%25208%2520October%253A%2520The%2520Supreme%2520Court%25E2%2580%2599s%2520Brexit%2520interventions%2520are%2520a%2520threat%2520to%2520democracy%26s_o%3Ddesc%23version%3Df947c59ba844be30eb6f8709d7e03029

          2. Had I teeth like that I would keep my gob shut. That, or use a million of my vast wealth to have my teeth removed and replaced with gold dentures. It was normal in the immediate post war years for folk to gift their partners with the cost of teeth removal and a full set of dentures as a present.

            My late father received such a gift and the sight of his dentures soaking overnight in Steradent has haunted me ever since.

            The sight of Soros smiling, laughing or whatever is discombobulating in the extreme. Why is this Nazi sympathising Hungarian Jew bothering at all? He must be close to death judging by the wrinkles.

            In answer to my own question I reckon the git seeks infamy in much the same way that infamy was a quality desired by most of the despots down the Ages.

    2. He is a true-to-life, come-to-life, Bond villain. Straight from central casting. He should be dealt with accordingly. Sean Connery and the rest, where are you when you’re really needed?

    3. Evening PP,
      Because the lab/lib/con politico’s are eunuch lacking in the ball department,in place to serve a specific function ie brussels rubber stampers.

    1. Wrong link, Peddy. Can you please check and re-post. If you are correct, this is the best news ever!

        1. Peddy, today is not April the 1st, and I have spent the past twenty minutes scouring the news sites looking for confirmation. You are, therefore, a bounder, a reprobate, a scoundrel and – what is worst – a Silly Sausage. Now finish your drink and go to bed!

          1. No, but it is trick or treat.

            Wot drink? I’m about to make a Lemsip toddy before I go to bed.

        1. I just thought you’d found a good brand of weed.

          I’m turning in – Good night Peddy, Good Night fellow NoTTLers and God Bless.

    4. Sadly not. It did occur to me they might just forget to change the date but no such luck – it was done on Wednesday.

  125. What will Cobyn make of the Nigel Farrage Donald Trump interview ? It was a very informal interview more like a chat

  126. All those that are still up, and we are still in how about a quick rendering of
    ……….. the ODE TO JOY ?

  127. A little earlier in the day I asked if anyone had any opinion on fullfact.org as I liked the look of it as an unbiased source of news and data, I now find that one of the financial contributors to this charity is the Open Society Foundation which is headed by Polly’s nemesis the Hungarian war criminal Uncle George – PAH!!!

    1. LOL – I have just looked at their opening page that you linked to above and the leading comment is:

      “Boris Johnson repeats false claim that extending Brexit costs £1 billion a month.”

      That is not at all biased, especially when all of the other costs of staying in the EU factored in, it costs us FAR more than the simple payment we make. There are housing and other benefits for the new arrivals, medical costs to treat them, translators, legal aid to help them stay here. All from our forced open borders.

      The dead give-away though, that they are a propaganda site, is the story lower down which is a classic of misinformation:

      “No evidence that the peoples vote march had over 2 million people.”

      Ha! My sides are aching at such an amateur manipulation. It is sad that some uneducated people might not see through it.

      That is a classic from the “spinning a story in modern politics 101.” It implies that there were 2 million people who were there and not more than that. I remember the news that night saying estimates were in the tens of thousands. Before they quickly read the “inflate the figures” memo and started saying possibly up to a million. I think you are right – that site is not to be taken seriously.

      1. Not sure about your last para.

        If the claim were that the march had over 2 million people, surely the implication must be that there were 2 million people who were there and not even more than that.

        Just checkin’.

        1. Hmm you have misfired on that one. The clear implication to the type of reader who has no critical analysis skills is that the claim it was OVER 2 million is incorrect, but it raises the 2 million number in the mind, which is what lasts.

          Don’t worry. We all make mistakes, and you know it is from the goodness of my heart that I am correcting you and putting you on the right path.

        2. “If the claim were that the march had over 2 million people”
          If the claim was that the march had over 2 million people

          2. I do hope that I have not driven Peddy’s blood-pressure through the roof. I do not tend to correct people’s words, as their meaning is more important to me than if it is “correct.”

            But I have noticed that she tends to excess somewhat in correcting others, so when she directly made a “comprehension error” on one of my comments, it was hard to resist correcting her back. No offence was intended. 🙂

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fe21a80f5cd9235f22af50fa03cf001406757ddf204cd5bfee634baac5087a3a.jpg

          3. No offence taken – I’m not as sensitive as some of the little flowers on here.

            I still think my query was justified.

    1. The reference to a ditch was borrowed from Shakespeare. Boris happens to be highly literate. The notion that Boris does not appreciate the need for a clean Brexit is risible. Donald Trump has confirmed that the WA2 that Boris erroneously sought to flog to the Contemptible Parliament was always a loser.

      I suspect Boris will now conclude a pact with Nigel Farage and wipe the floor with Labour, Lib Dums and miscellaneous Trash at the coming election. We will the exit the EU on WTO terms as originally intended.

      As the President of the United States has stated, we have no prospect of a trade deal with the USA if we are still attached by the spinal chord to the dying and wretched EU, a failed enterprise run by idiots.

  131. 1st November 2019.
    Not happy. Is that 2 or 3 times our Brexit has been thwarted? Off to try to sleep. Not happy.

  132. Trump rule on health insurance leaves immigrants, companies scrambling for answers

    Seems very sensible we should do the same

    Guatemalan-born Mayra Lopez thought she had cleared all the hurdles for her parents to join her in the United States.

    Then on Oct. 4 U.S. President Donald Trump changed the rules she and others had been complying with: Trump signed a proclamation requiring all prospective immigrants to prove they will have U.S. health insurance within 30 days of their arrival or enough money to pay for “reasonably foreseeable medical costs.”

    The new requirement, part of Republican Trump’s hard-line policies on immigration, goes into effect on Nov. 3 and prospective immigrants are scrambling to figure out how to get the necessary coverage, navigating a complex healthcare bureaucracy that has, for the most part, not previously catered to those who are not yet in the country.

    1. A lot of the “legal Immigrants” come in response to job offers, and professional jobs come with employer provided health insurance. Where this will hit is “chain migration”, where someone comes in legally, gets citizenship and then sponsors their relatives, who in turn sponsor their relatives, and so ad infinitum. The majority of these folk are from south of the border and come with no qualifications or skills and get by doing lawn mowing, landscaping and casual labour jobs. Or drug dealing. That group will be hit hard, which I assume is the plan.

      1. very often the children come over and then when their parents reach retirement age they want to bring them to the UK but that is an unbearable cost for the UK we are already struggling to care for our own elderly and they have paid in all their lives. The elderly migrants try to bring over have never paid in a penny

  133. Oh, it’s a long long time
    From May to December
    But the fuses grow short
    When you watch the Chamber
    When the MPs dither
    it Turns Leavers to flame
    One hasn’t got time
    For the waiting game
    Oh, the days drag on down
    Till we leave the EU
    May to December?!!

    And these few precious days
    We’re locked in t’EU
    These precious days
    We’re locked in t’EU

  135. This points out the continuing relevance of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. In the UK the people have spoken and the response of government has been, in effect, to say “we’re not going to do what you want, and you are powerless to force us to do so”. In the US, the possibility of armed revolution, however remote, is still a limiting factor on government.

  136. Oh, just as an update on the continuing pettiness of Disqus, I have had over 32,000 upvotes erased in the past 4 months.

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