635 thoughts on “Monday 18 November: The last thing Queen and country need is the Duke of York’s imbroglio”

  1. TWO NEW LAWS

    For those who haven’t heard, Washington State just passed two new laws – gay marriage and legalized marijuana.

    The fact that gay marriage and marijuana were legalised on the same day makes perfect biblical sense because Leviticus 20:13 says ……

    “If a man lies with another man, they should be stoned.”

    We just hadn’t interpreted it correctly.

    3. Yes but in the UK some university body said any one can self declare themselves another gender or to be black or even to be disabled. This madness is spreading fast

  2. Private zoo owner in Crimea pleads for public to take 30 of his bears so he won’t have to euthanise them. 17 NOVEMBER 2019.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9e5265846a897122b6253b682588ea2b8396d87bd63668246b4786b875c96b66.jpg

    Oleg Zubkov, the owner of the Taigan Lion Park near Simferopol, said he is seeking new homes for the animals because he can no longer afford to feed them.

    Morning everyone. I’ll take two!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/17/private-zoo-owner-crimea-pleads-public-take-30-bears-wont-have/

    1. ‘Morning, Minty, those two that you’ll take – would you consider letting them loose in the Commons? It is, after all, an absolute bear-garden.

    2. Do they stay small, cute and fuzzy, or grow into something the size of a small car, with more teeth and claws than a bitey rippy thing?

      1. I was on a visit to China and one of the party was fluent in Mandarin. When he got quite agitated at a restaurant we wanted to know what the problem was.
        He explained that he was telling them that under no cicumstances did we want bear paw as one of the courses.

        1. In a very flash restaurant in HK I politely explained to equally flash host there was no point in ordering civet cat as if he did he would no longer have the teeth to eat it
          I wasn’t invited back…………..

          1. There was an “Alex” cartoon many years ago with four bankers being asked how they would like the meat.

            “rare, rare, very rare, endangered”

          3. I had sliced bear once, in the former Yugoslavia. It was served on a farm, where those in the know came for a huge spread, a kind of smorgasbord, with bread, cheese, sliced meats and lots of wine.

            Bear was one of the sliced cold meats – it tasted like a cross between pork and beef. I didn’t actually know it was bear at the time I was eating it…it was unmemorable, except for the fact that it was bear.

    1. Morning Maggie

      SIR – Press release from the Supreme Leader, Comrade McDonnell.

      Citizens will be delighted to know that today marks the launch of Loogle and Lacebook, which remove the reactionary capitalist content that has debased our national life for too long. This follows the successful rollout of free broadband to all and computers to every household last year.

      As you know, it is vital to state security for webcams and Lexa terminals to be active 24/7 in every room from tomorrow, so they must never be disabled or tampered with.

      A few citizens have queried the need for this, and Enforcement and Re-Education Branch has helped them to understand why it is essential.

      I hope all Comrades will agree that this makes sense, but anyone who is unclear can of course raise their concerns via the Ministry of Truth.

      Alan Burke
      Hastings, East Sussex

    2. Hmmm. I wonder how much they know of Hitler and the Holocaust. The reason for Israel emerging. The New Testament as opposed to the Quran.

      This was just up on Ar$ebook from Australia:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f35dbd32d8a5d9621acd42020b6dcf6c05f5f49236deb3d5e26356b9ad4fe19c.jpg

      and I felt compelled to answer:

      That’s all part of the reason, I agree but, have we looked at the way the latest generations are being brought up?

      They think they are entitled to be cosseted at all times, that no-one disciplines them when they overstep the mark and have been thoroughly brain-washed into this attitude by schools, colleges and universities and by lazy parents.

      In the UK thinking people are concerned at the infiltration of ‘Common Purpose’ into all walks of administrative life. The Education System, The Police, The Judiciary and, above all – politics.

      2. The demanning of low-grade (and soon high-grade) jobs is a worry. If there are no jobs takijg orders in McDonalds, or driving a taxi, what are all the uneducated people going to do? Norway has imported hordes of gimmegrants who need employment, and many cannot read or write. Now the low grade jobs are vanishing, we’ll all be left with a heaving mass of resentful unemployables who won’t hesitate to take what they see as their share by violence.
        It’s not well thought through, is it?

        1. Go’morgen, Oberst,

          Ah, but it was well thought through – just not for our benefit. Create chaos, enforce a police state “for our own protection” and eventually when we either work or starve, we work. Or starve – it doesn’t matter much either way. Meanwhile the globalists at the top get richer and richer.

    3. At least Comrade Steptoe is ensuring that their education about Marx is making progress in leaps and bounds..

      ‘Morning, Belle.

  4. Apropos the Duke of York – is there a possibility of a recall vote, and elect a new Duke in his place?
    Morning, all! Dark as the inside of a Cabinet minister here, raining too, going over to snow… Bleagh.

  6. SIR – The only sex education lesson (Letters, November 16) at my girls’ grammar school in the Sixties was taken by an older teacher. She asked us to write our questions down and put them in a box. She then picked them out, one by one, and said to each: “I’m not answering that.”

    Her only advice was: “Don’t let them get below the neck.”

    Susan Birkett
    Southwell, Nottinghamshire

    1. Lol!

      We had the black and white film “A Brother For Susan” which induced near-terminal sniggering fits.

      ‘Morning, Citroen.

      1. When we left Blundell’s we were told by the headmaster never to disgrace the fine old school’s reputation and that if we ever visited a brothel we should not wear the Old Blundellian tie. We were also told that only the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury could get VD from a lavatory seat.

    1. Hasn’t got the sense he was born with. What did he expect, on that interview? Unicorn kisses? Man’s an idiot, as are advisers who let him do it.
      Pizza Express! My arris.

  9. The dismal choice at this election is between disaster and catastrophe. 17 NOVEMBER 2019

    What a miserable choice awaits voters on Dec 12. On the one hand we have the unrealistic flag-waving optimism of Boris Johnson, determined to take us out of Europe on a wing and a prayer, and on the other the reckless socialism of Comrade Corbyn. Hovering in the middle is the ineffectual liberalism of what’s her name; other than revoking article 50, nobody’s got a clue what she stands for.

    A not inaccurate appraisal! I’ve almost made up my mind. I’m not going to bother!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/11/17/dismal-choice-election-disaster-catastrophe/

      1. Hints yesterday from Raab that the level playing field is on the substitutes’ bench and has just this minute been told by the head coach to start warming up. Only last week it was reported that Farage stood down 317 candidates on a promise of ‘no political alignment and a 13 months transition period’. A week in politics…
        Drip, drip, drip of backing off so that when the inevitable happens they hope it will not be seen as a shocking betrayal.

        1. Why did anyone think that Boris was anything other than what he is: a bonking, bumptious, bumbling, betraying buffoon with no patriotism, no integrity and no judgement. He won the party leadership by deceiving people into thinking he would take Britain out of the EU with ‘no surrender deal’. It was a lie then and is still a lie now.

          He is intellectually and morally dishonest and he is not even funny any more.

        2. Why is a transition period needed? What have they been doing since midsummer 2016? Picking their noses?? Arschloch to them all.

    3. I do not see it as a miserable choice but no choice at all. Labour, LibDum, Green or a Tory who claimed he was a Leaver. The latter informed me in a letter that he would only vote for May’s capitulation if substantial changes were forthcoming, that never happened after any of May’s ‘re-negotiations’ but he promptly voted for it the second time it was presented to the House. I was hoping for an independent after TBP stood down but it is now NOTA.

      1. Good morning Dandy Front Pager

        I believe that Grease-Slime and Johnson voted for the surrender deal the third time it was presented and, as we know (but are not properly told), the Boris Johnson ‘deal’ is May’s Surrender WA rehashed.

        But then we used to have hope in people like Mark Francois and Steve Baker but they too have now betrayed us.

        All NOTA votes should be counted and in cases where votes for NOTA added to abstentions beat the other candidates no one should be returned to Parliament.

        ,

    4. Swansong tells us, repeatedly, that she is our next Prime Minister, and this morning they tell us that they are ‘the natural party of business’. My drivel meter is in flames and my bullshit meter has just exploded.

      If that isn’t an inducement to vote anything but Limp Dumb then I don’t know what is.

      1. Her voice, let alone her appearance, is an inducement to vote anything but LibDem.
        She’s even shriller than the Fishwife.

    5. Mea culpa non est

      I suppose that at last I am being rewarded for having been disenfranchised: I cannot be blamed for not having voted because I have had my vote stolen by Mr Blair and who ever ‘wins’ the election it will not be my fault for either voting for one of the repulsive parties or abstaining.

    6. I’m considering writing on my voting paper:

      “My vote was stolen in 2016. How can I possibly vote for any of you?”

      1. Far too polite, Stephen. If you are going to spoil your ballot paper then at least make it worthwhile, bearing in mind that the returning officer invites the candidates to read them.

  12. SIR – My wife and I went to the Leaping Hare at Wyken for dinner on Saturday. The food was excellent. However, the outstanding point for us was that no one came to our table to ask if we were enjoying whatever it was we were eating.

    They merely said when they brought the bill that they hoped we had enjoyed our meal. It is such a refreshing change, and when we commented on it we were told that it was the policy that there should be no check-backs.

    We wish that more restaurants would adopt this policy so that meals could proceed uninterrupted by formulaic and hollow-sounding inquiries.

    Stephen Snelling
    Stowmarket, Suffolk

    1. Quite so, Mr Snelling. They should also ditch the hollow, Fawlty-sounding “Bon appetit” nonsense too.

      ‘Morning, Epi.

      1. “Bon Appetit” translates into Norwegian as “Håper det smaker” (Hope that it tastes) – to which we answer “So do I” (Jeg og)

  13. Good morning thinkers,

    It was a clear cold starry night, yet this morning , yet unlike previous mornings, is clear of frost.. blue sky .. and Moh off once more to play golf .

    1. Morning, Belle.
      You a “Golf Widow”?
      BTW, one of the dullest games around, golf. especially in bad weather. I’d rather watch grass grow.

      1. Moh is type A personality .. very competitive.. plays 3 times a week , enjoys his competitions, and has done so forever ! ( He also has aches and pains in his toes and elbows) complains about the cold at home, but NEVER whilst playing .. !!! Funny that.

        I used to play years and years ago, don’t have the interest anymore .

      2. If you are as bad at it as I am, it does seem to grow;

        Certainly as I am searching for the ball that has vanished into the rough.

        1. The last time I tried golf, I bought a box of six nice, new balls. Played on a tiny course near Pease Pottage. Lost all six beautiful new balls (several after only one stroke), and about 20-odd that I picked up as I went round. That was it, never again.

    2. And it’s lovely in Derbyshire too!
      When I took the empty milk bottle out when making my early morning cuppa, there was a lovely moon and the stars were very prominent,

  14. Morning again

    SIR – Charles Moore is right to argue that Nigel Farage must, in the upcoming general election, deploy the resources of his party in ways that do not frustrate the delivery of Brexit.

    Should he fail to do so, he will take on a tragic appearance reminiscent of Alec Guinness’s misguided Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai. For he, like Nicholson, will be left contemplating the question: “What have I done?”

    Professor Richard Mullender
    Newcastle Law School
    Newcastle upon Tyne

    1. Boris Johnson will be in the same position as NF if they, as seems likely, don’t cooperate.
      Boris is doing exactly the same as Theresa May – trying to bully us into accepting Withdrawal Deal Mark 2.

      1. Boris does not deserve to succeed – but it is tragic that he will bring down Britain with him.

      4. Morning C,
        Could it be it is NOT in their personal interest to come out
        in a total severance manner ?

      5. Morning all,

        The saddest part of this Johnson t^rd on offer at this GE is the sheer numbers who cannot or will not see it for what it is.
        Then we have the Tory Boys (and girls) who defend it as if their lives depended on it.
        I got news for them, the life of this country really does depend on it being rejected.

        P.S. I have done my normal downvote to save our mystery downvoter the possibility of RSI.

        1. Why has the MSM completely failed to give a clear and coherent analysis of the disastrous Johnson/May surrender WA?

          1. The MSM and the Conservative Party are intertwined in the fabric of the Establishment, and it suits both to gloss over those inconvenient details of what a awful deal it really is.

    2. Morning E,
      While continuing his brussels career
      he might add in future years “I have done very well” prof.

  15. SIR – The Conservatives aim to plant 30 million trees a year and the Lib Dems 60 million. Has any politician done the maths?

    Planting 30 million trees a year is just short of 82,192 trees a day, or 3,424 trees every hour of every day.

    Adrian Danby
    Tunbridge Wells, Kent

    3. What with free broadband, does this mean that Labour’s bark is worse than their byte?

      Morning Epi.

    4. Meanwhile, Abbotapotamus is scurrying around counting fingers and toes to come up with Labour’s tree target.

    5. We know that politicians are both stupid and desperate. They do not think. If they did, they would be doing useful, productive work instead of hindering those who do.

    6. The same government is providing a company with huge subsidies to burn 2 million tonnes (dry weight) per annum of American forests at a small (420 MW) power station a few miles down the road from me and many times that amount at Drax in Yorkshire.

      They just haven’t got a clue.

      EDIT. That 2 million tonnes dry works out at something like half a million mature trees per year burnt.

    7. Where will the trees come from? Where will they get planted? Will they import even more gimmegrants to do the planting?
      On average, one Norwegian student can plant a tree a minute for 10 hours a day. That’s up to 900 trees a day, with breaks for lunch etc.It’s back-breaking work, though.

      1. I’m not sure Britain can even grown enough saplings to cover such schemes.
        Isn’t the importation of trees or wood the reason why Dutch Elm disease, Horse Chestnut cancer and Ash Dieback have become such a problem?
        Wide boys cashing in on such a government funded bonanza would smuggle in plants that hadn’t passed the health checks.

          1. Can you send some of the die-back infected material over here? Our garden is separated by a driveway from a hedge that has recently become home to a number of self-sown ash trees that are growing at an alarming rate, rapidly spreading upwards and outwards to our house.. The garden on the other side of the hedge, once a very large, well cultivated plot, is now more of an overgrown jungle.

          5. It’s really sad. Ash are lovely trees, and make excellent firewood, burning hot, even, and leaving just a small pile of dust.

          6. I always though that if I had a wood burning stove and sufficient land I would plant trees – The wood would, of course, be known as “Fire Wood”. Alas I fear I’ve left it too late!

        3. I don’t know why anyone wa even importing ash to reate the problem in the first place – ash seems to have now problem seeding itself round our. The die back hasn’t reach us yet, but sadly I’m sure it will eventually. Being an island you’d really think TPTB would learn and limit the import of plants & such like. They need to be stricter like Australia.

          1. I’ve noted a number of bare ash tops up here, including several around the millpond.
            It’ll be interesting to see how far it’s progressed in the spring.

      2. Some folk are able to make strategic decisions. In 1977 I met an elderly lady, the owner of a small nursery who told me she had been collecting Elm Tree seeds. If you recall Dutch Elm disease was at its height. Her aim was to grow saplings with a view to offering these once the worst of the disease was over….

        1. Heyup Stephen!
          We get a LOT of self seeded elm up the Via Gellia which get to between 5″ and 12″ diameter before the Dutch Elm gets to them.
          One, that was growing out of a wall, had to be dropped down the road recently and I managed to get a lump of it back home. Going by the rings, about 25y of growth and a decent 10″ diameter.

          My home is that those that set seed will be concentrating the disease resistant genes for an elm resurgence.

        1. I get so fed up with all this political grandstanding. making promises without any idea of how to fulfil them. It’s not difficult to think up an idea, ask a few people who know something about it, and bin it or go further – as a screening process – with some idea of what questions need answered. Then ask a few specialists, which also includes blue-collar as well as white collar folk.
          Firstborn is a tree-herd – he has about 400 acres of the things, growing on the mountains around his farm. He knows this stuff. Maybe Boris should give him a call? also, as a crop, it’s kind of long-term investment. The trees planted this summer will be ready for felling by Firstborns grandchildren, when they are middle-aged – and they ain’t born yet twice over. Not a get-rich-quick investment.

          1. A long time ago when the programme “Farming Today” was worth listening to they had a chap on who had (with a Forestry Commission Grant) just planted a crop of Spanish Walnut trees. He explained that most of the walnut trees in Britain had been cut down during WWI to make rifle butts. He recognised that the crop would take at least a 100 years to mature. But walnut was a highly prized wood fetching (if memory serves) around £3000 per cubic metre – and that was over 25 years ago….

          2. Fairly recently, a farmer wrote to the King of Sweden: “Your Majesty, the oaks planted for construction of your Navy are now ready for felling”.
            They had been planted in the year 16-something.
            Even the pine we have here is pretty heavy, due to slow growth rates. My pine dining table has to be dismantled to move, and takes two blokes to carry just the top.

          4. Too many rented houses & flats came with wobbly tables. God, how I hate wobbly tables – you lean a little on it, and the top tilts… GAAH!
            My table would make the house rock first. That’s why we chose it.

          10. Two stories:
            1 in France it was traditional for a farmer to plant a type of poplar that was used in basket weaving and other lathe-work whenever a daughter was born. They reckoned the crop would be ready at about the time he needed to pay for the wedding.
            2 one of the Oxbridge colleges needed to replace the roof of a great hall. The forester was called in by the dons and asked if there was any suitable wood. He replied that he was expecting their call, the oaks trees planted a few hundred years ago, to be ready specifically for that job, were reaching the point of perfection.

    8. It’s an underestimate. The best time of year to plant deciduous trees is on a rainy day in November, about now. Such trees planted in the height of summer are unlikely to survive, and those planted in Spring should have about three years of intensive care and careful watering to prevent disturbed roots drying out while there are leaves to feed.

      Evergreens should not be planted at any time there is a risk of frost.

      1. In France tradition states that the best day of the year to plant trees is St Catherine’s Day, 25th November

    9. The numbers for finding the available land and digging the holes are a cause for concern, worse, where are all these saplings of oak, ash, sycamore etc? In addition will we need to import highly skilled tree planters from around the World?

      2. We are back to the reliable British standby – the old bloke emerging from his shed with a spade.

        As soon as I have shaken off this cold, I have some self-sown saplings in my garden to move out to waste ground. Last year, a gippo took away a pile of scrap barbed wire, so I took the chance to cut back the brambles and put it a few dozen stray saplings – hazel, elm, plum, quickthorn, ash and sycamore where I live – where they can take their chances with the brambles.

        There is this plum tree I planted in the 1990s from a BTCV catalogue that found something in my soil and is enormous now, as big as an oak, It blossoms in February, feeding any waking bees around then, even though its fruit is rather insipid. It is now producing its babies all around, and I put one or two of them in the bramble patch.

        1. I have a squirrel that every year plants dozens of walnuts and acorns across my garden and in my flower tubs. I did plant one of the walnut saplings at the top of my garden some years ago. I was amazed at just how quickly it grew and started to takeover the area that I had to remove it. The sycamores across the road are also a menace as their seeds drift and pop up everywhere in the front garden.

        2. A couple of years ago, we picked up a sequoia cutting in California which we potted on our return. It;’s now looking very healthy, about 2′ tall and needs repotting. We’ll have to talk to the nearest National Trust property in a few years time to re-home it if it carries on at this rate.

      3. Who mentioned broadleaf trees?
        In Norway, planting pines is done by students, with a satchel of saplings. You poke a hole in the ground with a long-handled dibber, drop the sapling in roots-first, and compress the soil by a stamped foot either side. Move 2 metres along, and repeat. Back-breaking work, but not skilled.

        1. I’ve seen a number of comments re this promise and all were in favour of planting deciduous and not evergreen trees. England certainly was not home to massive natural tracts of evergreens. If the politicians really are concerned with replanting England’s forests then it has to be deciduous trees.

          2. In our garden we regularly have rabbits, deer, foxes, badgers. moles, wild boar and squirrels not to mention stoats, weasels, rats, voles and mice.

          3. In our garden we regularly have rabbits, deer, foxes, badgers. moles, wild boar and squirrels not to mention stoats, weasels, rats, voles and mice.

          4. Our garden mice live in the house, generously rescued from the bad weather by the cats – and then eaten later, at leisure. Ugh. :-((

          5. Spartie is a brilliant mouser. Fortunately, being a dog, he kills and dumps (sometimes in his bed); he’s not interested in eating them.

          6. That’s not like politicians. Plant something that won’t show owt much for a hundred years or so. Surely they want a full-grown Amazon forest by next March?

          7. Sweet Chestnut Blight has decimated deciduous forests around the world,and now has made its way to the UK: “UK plant health authorities — the Forestry Commission and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) — are imposing a prohibition on the movement of sweet chestnut material including plants, logs, branches, foliage and firewood out of, or within, six zones. Five of these zones are in Devon and one is in Dorset… .”

            It’s a shame–Chestnut tree fruit supports so much animal life. I do hope the disease can be stopped in the UK, and resistant strains of Chestnut become available for replanting.

            https://www.trees.org.uk/News-Blog/News/Update-Sweet-chestnut-blight
            https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/pest-and-disease-resources/sweet-chestnut-blight-cryphonectria-parasitica/
            https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/Profile?pid=780
            https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/tree-pests-and-diseases/key-tree-pests-and-diseases/sweet-chestnut-blight/
            https://www.norfolk-trees.co.uk/chestnut-blight/
            https://planthealthportal.defra.gov.uk/latest-news/sweet-chestnut-blight/
            https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/178/made

        2. OB, perhaps I should have placed the reference to skilled tree planters within tags to make my intention clear.

    10. Where are they going to plant the trees , on brown field sites, or fluvial plains ( Willows and black poplars, green belt, AONB, new housing estates .. teee heee .. more motorway planting .

      Landowners no longer coppice their broadleaf woods , hurdle makers are now quite rare people, most of the hurdles (fences are imported from Europe)
      Broadleaf woodlands are not managed properly and are full of dense bramble and choked with bracken .. Woods around here that used to be full of bluebells and wood anemones are now just dense thickets .

      Ash dieback and other diseases that have affected Chestnut and Oaks are creating quite a few hazards by virtue of the fact they overhang rural roads ..

      1. Heyup Maggie!
        Exactly what’s happened along the Via Gellia. Even in the 28y we’ve been here the density of the woodland between Cromford and Grangemill has increased greatly.
        Incursion by the trees overhanging the road has not only noticeably reduced the carriageway, but is costing haulage firms a bloody fortune in smashed wing mirrors.

          3. What is it about these people – do theyt look nasty because they are nasty inside, or do we think they are nasty, therefore to us they look nasty…?

    13. They will have to chop down several wind generators and remove fields of solar panels in order to make room for the trees.

  16. The Brexit Party blinked. Spiked. 18 November 2019.

    The decision to pull back and fight fewer seats is a practical response to less favourable polling numbers. But the decision not to contest the Conservative Party effectively means that there is no national option to vote for a ‘clean-break Brexit’. The case against the new Withdrawal Agreement – the difference between the Conservatives and the Brexit Party – is no longer clearly expressed in the election.

    The decision has caused some heartache among Brexit Party supporters and candidates who were called upon to stand down. It has also led many to gloat at the Brexit Party’s retreat. Those blaming Nigel Farage are not really taking into account his more than 20 years fighting for Britain to leave the EU.

    I agree with most of this but the problem is that Nigel’s decision to let the Tories off the hook has sucked the life out of the Brexit Party; one half of it has been told to stand down and those people who might have voted for it have been stranded without recourse to anyone at all! This will look after the election as though half the country now supports BRINO and it will certainly be sold like that! It would have been better to have contested every seat and let Boris worry about the result.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/11/18/the-brexit-party-blinked/

    1. Morning AS,
      I see this as no surprise as ALL involved have a vested interest in staying in & not coming OUT.
      This is not sour grapes but fact, the “nige” has form and in my book on reflection over the UKIP leadership years was as a coxswain steering the UKIP party along a tory course.
      He walked at a crucial period, his use of the party was via a revolving door
      then he tried to destroy the very party that through its membership worked its bollocks off to help him succeed, &
      he finds praise ?
      The one who came out of the farage
      anti UKIP sh!te storm a true leader & winner was Gerard Batten a UKIP founder member 28 years unbroken service, and he is castigated ?

        4. Morning JBF,
          I see UKIP as a party with party infrastructure, & as worthwhile as it is Brexit as a group.

        5. The DUP must wonder what the word ‘Unionist’ stands for, as in ‘Conservative and Unionist Party’.

    2. As I said yesterday, every seat contested by a europhile candidate should have been contested by TBP. I admire Nigel Farage but his judgement on this has been completely wrong.

    2. What is the old saying? Something along the lines of: “A rolling stone gathers no moss ad……

      2. I wonder if she has been dispatched by the same hand that dispatched Epstein? I suspect that The Duke of York is the tip of a very large iceberg and several people will need to be silenced.

        1. I doubt the DoY is the tip of anything. He is a bored, rather dim patsy.
          Like all too many of his forbears, he dances with the devil.
          But yes, I wouldn’t surprised if the corrupt Ghislane is no longer drawing consecutive breaths. She may become the Lord Lucan de nos jours.

  18. Morning, Campers.
    I would imagine all NOTTLers with children that are allegedly now adult, must be feeling for the Queen at the moment.
    Soldiering along on her own since hubby has retired and all too many of her descendants behaving like blithering idiots.

    1. Say what you like about Handy Andy, but he didn’t have much of a reputation to lose in the first place.

      1. When ever I think of Andy I think of that scam where his ex wife was caught soliciting vast sums of cash on his behalf with the assurance that he had nothing to do with it!

      2. I met him years ago when the the airbase at RNAS Portland or HMS Osprey was decommissioned.

        Dare I say.. he seemed to be a bit of a lad .. glint in his eye, that sort of thing!

          4. She wants him in California as a tax exile ..

            I wonder if she is a plotter .. Will she use him to climb to presidential heights.. and any way she wants to be away from Britain when Trump visits HM before Christmas

          6. Speaking personally – bad boy with wit and humour.
            Not a puffed up dimbo, both of whose brain cells are in the end of his d!kk.

        3. Prince Andrew and Sarah, his wife, came to open a new sports hall in 1988 at Allhallows School near Lyme Regis, a school where Caroline and I used to teach. The Allhallows headmaster used to teach at Gordonstoun and had been Prince Andrew’s housemaster.

          One of the mischievous pupils put an alternative schedule on the school noticeboard. One of the things on the programme was: ARRIVAL OF KOO STARK. They never did find out the identity of the pupil but I suspect he or she was in one of my English sets.

          Caroline and I left Allhallows in 1989 and moved to France to set up our own business which is still flourishing. Allhallows on the other hand had to close ten years after we left as it had not been very well run. It was very sad – it was a lovely place and the school’s foundation went back almost 500 years.

          1. Koo Stark, whatever her youthful mistakes, has behaved in a discreet fashion ever since.
            Shame Andie didn’t marry her.
            The Windsor boys seem fated to settle for second best.

          2. I think Edward did far better in the matrimonial stakes than either of his brothers. Sophie Wessex is a good egg.
            Poor Charles should have married Camilla before he lost her to Parker Bowles but she has proved very much more satisfactory than his first wife who was a disaster.

          4. Ferguson was just breeding stock straight off the farm. Stark appears to have been the better choice but was sunk by the media!

      3. When ever I think of Andy I think of that scam where his ex wife was caught soliciting vast sums of cash on his behalf with the assurance that he had nothing to do with it!

          1. A few months back, a writer in the Oldie pointed out that grannie was unshockable: among other things, she had probably had sex in a sleeping bag at the Isle of Wight festival c. 1970.

          2. 1970 – a mere spring-chicken.
            At age 17 in 1959, I was seduced by a 28-year-old. An interesting introduction into sex.
            You kind of remember these things.

          5. I was younger than that, in 1957 I was seduced by a 40 yo who worked in the local grocers where I had a part time job. I still have this thing about redheads with glasses – she has a lot to answer for.

      2. Apart from Anne all her children were duds and even Anne did not have a happy first marriage.

          3. When the wind stops blowing and we’re all in darkness, it’ll be comforting to know that many Annes make light work.

            Morning Anne.

  19. Labour types always say…..

    “I’ll wait for Survation….”

    Britain Elects @britainelects

    Westminster voting intention: CON: 42% LAB: 28% LDEM: 13% BREX: 5% GRN: 3% via @Survation, 14 – 16 Nov ft. new voting prompt: twitter.com/Survation/stat…

    1. The bit that bothers me…

      Parliament has deliberately fought against our instruction to leave the EU for it’s own greed.One entire party has the hubris in it’s determination and hypocrisy in it’s very name to destroy and render null the vote of an overwhelming majority of the people, for goodness sake.

      Parliament now demands an election to fight over who gets to pretend they hold the legitimate right to control this country in our name – but those same people have refused our instruction before, fiddling and faffing about like illegitimate – as they are not ours in representatives of the crown and public due to their disobedience and treachery children.

      What possible legitimacy does parliament have when it has proven itself to be little more than a tiresome waffle shop determined to fill it’s boots at the expense of the tax payer?

      Frankly, the crimes of treason, malfeasance in public office must be applied to any and all MPs who sought to undermine this nation over our leaving the EU with unlimited penalties bother personal and financial. I want to see Soubry, Grieve and their ilk arrested at dawn, dragged out of their homes and jailed, permanently and their property siezed, liquidated and given to Help for Heroes.

      1. Morning one and all.
        We the public are in a catch 22 situation now or, at least, those who voted to leave are. nobody really “represents “ us, the limpdumbs blatantly support revoking article 50 and labour – well I’m not sure what they are for or against. Voting is pointless but, if we don’t vote, we’re stuffed anyway. It’s a conundrum. TBP will disappear into oblivion because of NF’s decision to stand down so many candidates. I wish he’d gone ahead with all candidates because if, as seems to be expected, the Cons win the GE, the Cons will take that as approval of the disgraceful WA and that will be that – in hock to the EU forever and a day, paying mightily for the privilege too. The WA is unspeakably bad for the U.K., it would be better to stay in the EU under current terms.

        1. Not a choice, I’m afraid. If we stay in we are subject to whatever direction the EU pulls in. Which is – adoption of the euro, closer union, more and more power to Brussels (Berlin)…etc.

          It’s the choice between a rock and a very hard place.

        2. The MSM has been blatantly irresponsible for not giving an accurate account of the serious drawbacks in the ‘Surrender to the EU deal’ that will be foisted upon us.

          I would be far better off if Britain remained in the EU as I run a business in France, am married to a Dutch woman and our sons live and work in England so we shall get the worst of both worlds with Britain not properly in nor properly out of the EU.

          I think a clean Brexit is the best thing for Britain – but as far as I am concerned BRINO is even worse than staying in the EU and the getting out properly when we do finally leave as we surely must do.

          1. May I ask why you think you’d be better off if GB remained in the EU Rastus if that’s not too personal a question? Presumably if you live and work in France, with only the occasional visit back here, BRINO/Brexit will not affect you really?

      2. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who will bring them to justice? Who will judge them as the judges will be among those arrested?

      3. Thing is, the Sorosians have captured the EU in the cleverest, most daring, bloodless, secret coup in the history of the world…..

        Much stems from that coup.

  20. Whites can be black if they wish, says lecturers’ union

    The University and College Union (UCU), which represents more than 100,000 university lecturers and staff, set out its position on whether people should be able to self-identify as different races or genders.

    In the paper “UCU Position on Trans Inclusion”, it stated: “The UCU has a long history of enabling members to self-identify, whether that is being black, disabled, LGBT or women.”

    Roit, I’m just off to get Blue (Disabled) Badge for the car

    ttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/18/whites-can-black-wish-says-lecturers-union/

    1. Morning OLT – you’ve just beaten me to it:

      Having read that white people can identify as black and that self-identification is the new old, I’m not waiting for the New Year for ‘in with the new’.

      The chap I’ve just seen in the mirror is no longer the 25 year old I now am. Replete with thick black hair, a trim waist and a million squids in my back pocket, I’ll be imposing myself on the world as soon as I’ve had my usual pots of tea.

      It’s a bit nippy to be born again but beggars can’t be choosers.

    2. Whites have been black for years. Anybody in public life who can find an African anywhere in their family tree, no matter how far back, boasts endlessly about their blackness.

      Obama was as white as he was black, but they don’t want to talk about that.

    3. But do Blacks self-identify as white, to get at all of that while priviledge we keep hearing whines about? No? Wonder why?

    4. As I’ve broken the back I asked if I could appply – temporarily – for a blue badge, just to make parking a bit easier for the necessaries, such as the shop.

      The council, in their delightful intelligence asked me to prove it. In person. To wit I replied – I can’t walk. There is no parking near the town hall. As the war queen is away in Zug it’s tricky to get to and from. It is… a bizarre catch 22 that only government could come up with.

    5. Whites have been black for years. Anybody in public life who can find an African anywhere in their family tree, no matter how far back, boasts endlessly about their blackness.

      Obama was as white as he was black, but they don’t want to talk about that.

      1. I believe that a woman who has recently married into the royal family claims to be ‘of colour’ rather than white. What is the percentage of each?

        1. Just the way Sparkle Markle owes so much to her father.. We don’t hear too much about her mother’s family do we.

          Has that baby really got a black nanny , and was it wet nursed?

          2. Morning Richard

            Babies are usually pink and rosy looking .. I don’t suppose we will see many photos.

            I would just love to know what the couple are like with the rest of the Royal family .

            I feel that Sparkle Markle is very controlling .. huge divisions have occurred since they married .

    6. It used to be bad enough when it was the Association of University Teachers, and confined to Real University staff: even then only the lefties joined. But since Major, Blair and Brown’s destruction of the HE sector, and vast numbers of FE teachers becoming eligible to join, it’s become a total joke.

    2. The criticism is that holding ewe like that is cruel to the animal.
      Would it have been better if the sheep had been kneeling?

        1. My observation is that a sheep in the hands of an experienced shearer appears to relax until released.

    3. It is strange the things that you notice. I looked at that picture and thought “There are 7 of you. Do NONE of you own a razor?”

      There is nothing wrong with having a beard. Gandalf and many others have worn them well. But when facial hair saturation among the youth reaches 100% as it has here, then there are more than one type of sheep in that image.

      (Although, looking again, it might just be shadows on 3 and 4.)

      1. Apparently Exeter University did a study on the social significance of beards throughout history. I wonder what they came up with…

        1. People with beards have something to hide except the Royal Navy.so my late mother used to say. Never trust a man with a beard was another.

          1. Often I’ve found that men I knew with beards, who have shaved them off, have rather weak-looking mouths. Whether that is due to years of beard, or whether they grew the beard because of their mouths, who knows?

          2. A beard can give a better impression of strong chin. It does not have to be a long beard, just enough to add an inch or so.
            some men have even grown into their beard, their chins have elongated to meet them.

            E.g Jimmy Hill. But, thanks to the vagaries of Disqus, I cannot upload a lovely image.

    4. Not to everyone’s taste………but those young men have good bodies! I think the protesters are just being prudish.

    1. The interview was a bit of a car crash. He had a meal in a Pizza place so he claims. I am sure if he did the staff would remember nd if he paid by card there would be an audit trail. Mind you senior Royals never go anywhere without a protection officer

    2. Hyperbole in overdrive:

      Even some who closely follow the Royal Family, such as the editor of the Royal Central website, offered more shock than sympathy.

      Charlie Proctor wrote on Twitter:
      “I expected a train wreck. That was a plane crashing into an oil tanker, causing a tsunami, triggering a nuclear
      explosion-level bad.”

    3. I don’t give a damn. I remember how all the red tops were full of almost naked nubile 16 year olds. It’s only since some parts of society became censorious, and the old media started picking their stories up for clickbait, because that determines their advertising revenue, that this stuff has risen to its temporary prominence.

      1. I don’t give a damn either however I’ve changed my opinion of Andy.

        Anyone who offers to be interrogated by the BBC with Rottweiler Maitlis for an hour is a brave man….

          5. Ultimately – who can stop him?
            We’ve all had our ‘grown up’ children do things that cause us to despair.
            And our parents would say the same thing.

        2. I think Maitlis was trying to recover her tattered reputation after the Conservative leadership hustings rooster up.

  25. House Prices

    I think I can see why house prices are so high. The cost of subsidising social housing and local infrastructure seems to have been pushed on to the housebuilders and these costs are incredibly high, It also seems to result in long drawn out battles between the councils and the housebuilders and in many cases the house builders simply walk away because the costs the council demand are so high the schemes become non viable. It is a crazy system commercial house builders in my view should have no responsibility for social housing and local infrastructure other than that required for an estate ie roads and street lighting

    Here is an example

    A medium sized Essex builder want to build 72 homes in Mistily Essex and the council wants £807,000 in section 106 money plus it want the builder to give them 5 houses for social houses so the builder turned around and said they could not do that as they would make a lose so are threatening to pull out. The system is just crazy. Councils can pretty much demand what they want, you then get long drawn out an expensive battles to try to reach a compromises which delays building nd pushes up costs and in a good percentage of schemes the builders pull out

    2. Quite a few very large houses are being built in Lawford or is that in Mistley, or maybe even in Manningtree? Where one starts and the others end has always been a bit of a mysterly to me.

    3. The lost profits from houses “given” to councils or sold at “affordable” prices need to be added to the remaining houses for sale at commercial rates, thus making them more expensive. Endless planning and legal arguments are costly, and that needs recovered, too. Thus, even higher prices for newbuilds.
      Who’d a thunk it? The money has to come from somewhere.

      2. And now the parties are trying to outdo for how many trees they will plant. Highest bid so far is 60 Million. Quite where they will find the land to build them is another thing and meanwhile builders are clearing trees from land so they can build more houses and at the same time are increasing our population each year by at least 750,000

        1. Having accepted houses with grass roofs, I don’t see any objections to planting trees on the rooftops.

          2. Maybe we could have coffee plantation instead? The trees are smaller and lighter than oaks, and the coffee could be drunk so that we were all alive to the possibility of someone from far away on left field making silly jokes? Maybe. (Sorry, Sir.)

  27. ‘Morning All

    “We must be mad,literally mad”

    “Revealed: Ethiopia-born ex-model jailed for helping 21/7 bomber was

    handed £1.4million in legal aid – dwarfing the amounts victims got in

    compensation

    Mulu Girma, 35, was jailed for ten years in 2008 for helping the 21/7 bombers

    She also helped the her brother-in-law tend his wounds after a failed explosion

    Girma helped hide Hussein Osman who tried to blow up a train in West London”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7696291/Mulu-Girma-35-got-1-4m-legal-aid.html
    Reduced to 5 on appeal,oh well at least she was deported after she served her sentence,right??
    Nope,still here,still hating us,Human Rights you understand……………..

        1. Interesting. A bit of overkill by Norwegian police. Funny thing, though, it was the authorities that crucified the Son of God. Now they are keen on saving the holy book of the opposition. Ah, yes, of course…

          1. It’s not the burning of a religious book that’s worrying them. It’s the reaction to the event by those of the religion concerned.

            They know that Christians would be very upset at the burning of a Bible, but it doesn’t worry them, because they know the Christians would not then spend several days rioting, even in locations dozens or hundreds of miles away.

            They know that death threats wouldn’t be made with the intention of them being carried out against the people responsible and anyone else nearby.

            They know that upset Christians would not unsheath blades with the intent of using them on those who they blame for the insult.

            They know that it’s extremely unlikely that a Christian would get into a car or truck and drive it over crowds of people in retaliation.

            But they insist we won’t give in to terrorism.

            Mobs rule, whether they’ll admit it or not.

          2. So, if the Mohammedans get upset and start demonstrating to the point of breaking the law, subject them, each and every one to that part of Sharia they hold sacrosanct. 100 lashes each.

    3. Morning Rik,
      The moggie was suss from the outset
      with running the attack / defend may
      right to the wire, the whole campaign erring much more to the defence side.

    4. While driving from place to place I heard bits and pieces of Johnson’s speech to the CBI. “Lets get Brexit done,” has pride of place in the number of times I heard it quoted and the rest of the waffle on health, education, crime etc was as expected.
      The words that really annoy me are those where he maintains that we can release the potential of the country through innovation, science, manufacturing etc. once his Brexit is done; none of that will be possible if he, as was hinted at yesterday, sells us into a level playing field with the EU and especially so if tax harmonisation is part of his sellout. The EU would not be happy with an innovative, technology driven tax friendly competitor sitting 20 miles off of their coastline. The WA and PD were put together to further EU control over the UK and they will do everything to try and stop the UK forging ahead economically.
      On the subject of tax, Johnson announced that the projected CGT reduction will not now take place. His reason being that the £6 billion will be spent on more urgent matters e.g. the NHS. Being ever so cynical in these days darkened by treason, is this change to tax planning really to do with what he thinks will help his negotiating position with the Brussels’ cabal? Weathering a mild storm now by not cutting looks better than having to raise the level again on the orders of Barnier & Co?

    5. It was Judas Grease Slime who first coined the phrase ‘Vassal State’ for the May WA.

      Now this unctuous piece of slippery filth is quite happy to turn Britain into a vassal state after all. He makes me want to vomit all over his poncy clothes.

      What a shame he is not still at Eton where he could be debagged and bog washed by fellow greasers like Cameron, Stewart, the Johnson brothers and Letwin.

  29. Daily Brexit Betrayal

    This GE is becoming more odd as time goes on. It’s

    not about Brexit, even though the DM is now labelling it the ‘Brexmas

    election’, ho ho ho. The MSM reports show that they are already tired of

    having to churn out daily stuff on domestic ‘GE policies’ which nobody

    seems to be interested in while the polling organisations are in similar

    desperate straits: their daily dose of measuring ‘the mood of the

    nation’ has turned into a breathless, continuous screech which nobody

    takes seriously any longer.

    In the good old days in a country long ago,

    a GE was the time when wannabe MPs were touring their constituency,

    speaking in church halls and schools to their electorate. This was

    called ‘hustings’ and was of local interest only. They had to kiss

    babies in the local markets and they actually went canvassing

    door-to-door. Photos appeared only in the local rag – yes, children,

    there were local newspapers in those days – but the nation generally was

    spared such inanities.

    Now, normal people with normal lives to lead are switching off, suffering already from political overload. So what if Johnson said triumphantly (e.g. here)

    that all his PPCs have pledged to back his BRINO! Big deal! It was only

    a few months ago, after all, not a couple of years, when his fabulous

    cabinet MPs all ‘pledged’ to back Brexit and then didn’t, even unto

    leaving cabinet and Party. Amber Rudd ring any bells?

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-monday-18th-november-2019-24-days-to-polling-day/

    1. I would always have the news rumbling away in the background, just in case something interesting turned up. Or you caught a politician saying something particularly stupid. Now I have the TV turned off, I fast forward the evening news in 5 minutes, and I don’t even bother watching the “Press Preview” at night when they have two Remainers on it.

      Or if they have Owen Jones on it, as Sky News has done twice recently. I just delete any program with him in it from the main menu.

    2. I doubt there are 1,100 scientists who know the subject well enough to pontificate on it in a meaningful way.

      1. From YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtDE9zrx4To
        Fake news 11,000 scientists warns of untold suffering from climate change

        • It is not a big report only 4.5 short pages with a few graphics, it is not scientific research or a study , it is a OP-ED (Opinion Editorial) a view point, a rant, a Political report, it is a press release pretending to be a study.
        • The Alliance of World Scientist is NOT a real organization, it is just a one page home made website, a Blog set up by some Forestry guy at Oregon University. They write a editorial and they invite people (scientists) to sign it using a “LIKE” button, to register as “SCIENTISTS”, if they like it.
        • Created by The Alliance of World Scientists web page as a Editorial.
        • The 11,000 scientists signatories are NOT scientists at all, most are just people signing a petition who supports the climate change emergency agenda. The are also many JOKESTERS on the list with Fake / Funny names.
        • One only needs to check the names of the people who signed this Editorial and you will find very few people who are climate scientists, the rest of the signatures are just people who drink the climate change emergency koolaid and JOKESTERS.
        • Take all the names on this list and check who are real climate change scientists. It will be a very, very small list. IT IS FAKE NEWS and Unethical Journalism.

  33. The truth used to be an absolute defence,no longer it seems……………..

    The dossier reveals that Cllr Griffiths posted an article on Facebook in 2017 claiming German Muslims had campaigned to end the Oktoberfest beer festival, because it was “un-Islamic”.

    Cllr

    Griffiths then liked a comment posted on the post which said: “They can

    go back to where they came from. Try going to a Muslim country and ask

    them to stop Muslim traditions because it offends incoming Christians.

    How outrageous is sharia behaviour.”

    In another offensive post in

    2017, Cllr Griffiths used a quote which suggested inbreeding is

    disproportionately high amongst the Muslim population.

    https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/tory-councillor-local-party-chair-17252829

    1. Rik,
      How can the absolute truth be sworn to via an oath when you have a
      Koran & bible in parliamentary use ?

  35. Just for info, the land occupied by 60 million freshly-planted saplings is about 15.000 acres.
    Just to put it into perspective.

      3. Talking of which; years ago I rode through a Sitka spruce plantation in Wales.
        Talk about the dead zone. It was a really creepy experience.

        1. Ex-hubby and I once went on holiday to Northumberland. One of the places was prettily called Allandale – it was tiny, and the hotel was in the middle of ash – silver-grey ash, as far as the eye could see. There had been a conifer forest, it had been chopped down and then burnt, by the look of it. It looked like you imagine the land would be after a nuclear holocaust. We cancelled and went to somewhere else.

          I never forget, just down the road from Allandale was a tiny hamlet called Dirtpot. Says it all.

          1. Conifers are grown as a crop and when they are harvested the area does look bad for a couple of years until it’s either replanted or nature covers over the scars.

          2. Nightjars use the clear-felled areas as substitutes for heathland in the summer. Hard to come by in these parts if not for clear fell.

      1. I was surprised.
        Of course, it depends on the planting density. Here, they start with 1 metre separation, and spend the next 30+ years thinning out the weedy ones, leaving only the strong & straight trees to grow.

        1. I did the same calculation as you did, earlier this morning, on what I took to be a very generous 600 trees per acre, there are so many figure offered it was hard to get a reasonable estimate, and the area was still not all that big in the total land required.

          1. I’ve watched a particular landowner ’round these parts for almost a decade now. When I first observed his/her property, there were large thickets of shrubbery, with some small trees interspersed. Clumped brambles were often at the edge of these thickets extending the overall area, in particular, near a small stream on the property. A perfect habitat for deer–and berries for us in the Fall.

            Now, it’s mostly gone. He/she has ruthlessly sawn into these thickets, explaining, “I must let the light it”. The moist soil dries as hard as a rock due to sun/wind exposure. The brambles are gone, and both the shrubbery and trees are unhealthy.

            So I wouldn’t be surprised if the recommended 1 metre separation you read about is true. It would seem that the saplings need mutual support as they grow–(in effect) creating their own moist, shaded micro-climate. But it certainly seems wasteful: planting trees further apart and interspersing them with (hopefully less expensive) shrubbery might give the same result after 20 years or so.

            @Oberstleutnant:disqus

          2. Probably difficult to plant two or more types of tree & bush, and who knows which ones will grow successfully? Anyhow, when you plant many acres at a time, a few misplants would be ok.

          3. But if one species will eventually tower over the other, isn’t it obvious? And bushes could be chosen which are known to be sensitive to shade, or known to have a short lifespan.

            I’m actually thinking this might be a commercially-viable endeavour, as there would be a market for mature shubbery… .

          4. I leave major parts of our land fairly wild and am rewarded with flora and fauna. One has to cut back parts periodically to lessen the fire risk and brambles are a nuisance. The saplings grow like mad when they have to compete, less so if they are too far apart.

      1. 1metre separation, as baby saplings. Subsequently thinned out over the next 30 years or so.
        Edit: It’s called “Ungskogpleie” – caring for the young forest, and the costs are tax deductible.

      1. Not that many. You couldn’t have mature trees, particularly decidous ones, 5m apart. The crown diameter on a mature deciduous tree would be 15m or more.

        1. True, a lot of coniferous woods around here where the trees are more densely packed addled my wits.

          1. We have a little copse of trees with almost no room between the trunks.
            About fifteen years ago I planted some very small saplings into a nursery area, just a couple of feet apart.
            Needless to say we did not get around to the planned transplanting so now the trees are still just a few feet apart with trunks that are about six inches in diameter.

    6. Just over 23 square miles.

      4,000 to the acre is just over one square yard each. You might be able to plant saplings at that density, but you couldn’t grow them.

    1. There’s a world-wide shortage of many medicines. Nowt to do with the Brexit-that-hasn’t-happened, we have the same problems in Norway. Graun is just getting hysterical again.

    1. He was particularly foolish in appearing on TV to be interviewed.
      If he’d said “Yes, I shagged a 17 yo whooer, what of it?” there would have been a chorus of tutting, then it would have blown over. But he had to go and give such a ridiculous-sounding alibi to try to avoid it all that the shitstorm will never end.

      2. Alan Clark the former Tory Minister and author once noted that it is the denial that creates the scandal. If you admit the offence it dies on the spot. He was once cornered by a South African woman and her two daughters who imagined fame and fortune coming from their experience with the old roué but he cheerfully admitted to it and sank them without trace.

        1. So if his accuser had claimed that the earth moved during their encounter he could also have blamed it on an earthquake.

          1. I’ve seen many variations on that one.

            The one I was initially taught was never apologise, never explain.

            I’ve just looked up the expression and a similar one that seems particularly apposite today is attributed to King Charles the First.:

            King Charles I of England is quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations as writing “Never make a defence or apology before you be accused”

    2. I’ll bet he once said eeny meeny miny moe in the nursery too. These people really are pathetic and of course he shouldn’t have engaged with them in the first place.

      1. The Duke of Edinburgh warned Andrew never to discuss anything in front of wogs but he didn’t listen.

        1. He also warned the young British man he met in China many years ago, not to stay too long or he would get slitty eyes.

      2. Happy memories, Sue !
        Eeny meeny miny moe
        Catch a nigger by the toe
        When he screams, let him go….:-)

        1. My grandad taught me to say “hollers”, not “screams”.

          Anyway, “Catch a member of a designated ethnic group by his or her toe” just does not have the same ring to it…

          1. Hollers is the American version. ( Deep South slavery ). Screams is the more benevolent British Colonial version.
            The less pleasant version was – ” when it screams “.

      3. I would put very good money on there being “racist” expressions in every country and language in the world where the natives have had contact with different people/tribes/skin colours and nationalities. And I would put good money on there being racist expressions used every day in every country in the world.

        It’s a funny thing, the more Westernised/civilised the country the greater the offence that gets taken by incomers and the greater the Twitter snowstorm that supports them in crucifying the utterer.

        1. I have a chum who is of Indian background via Nyasaland.
          The stories she tells me of her relatives’ attitude to slight variations in skin tone would send Hampstead and Islington into conniptions.

          2. In Japan also. Hence the white faces in the plays. The labouring lower classes worked next to naked in the rice paddies and became rather dark of skin. The upper classes were much paler.

          3. I used to enjoy reading the “Matrimonials” in the small ads section of the Indian Sunday Times when I spent time there – a very different world. Skin colour was definitely an asset – or the opposite. The “prized” brides would be described as “wheat”, meaning very pale, and the ad would typically include the requirement that the suitor also be light coloured. The man’s wealth, education and career were also very much part of the “barter”.

          4. I worked with nurse who had spent years in Moroccan hospitals.
            The girl babies would be deliberately kept out of the sun so their skin was lighter; thereby improving their marriage prospects.

        2. Of course there are. The Mexican Gringo gets a free pass in movies but it’s in the way it is said!

    3. A rather dopey,sleazy Royal is centre stage in the news in the middle of an election campaign
      How convenient a circus to distract the mob is this???
      Combine that with untold billions on offer (the bread) and it all starts to look like a page from some corrupt Roman emperor’s playbook

    4. Oh dear……..using a well-known phrase which is now unacceptable…………shock, horror – send him for reeducation in the gulag! A local councillor here (now sadly, late) used that word about herself and was sent on a reeducation course at her own expense.

      1. I wish a few people in the spotlight would say:
        “It’s none of your business how I choose to express myself and if you don’t like it, don’t communicate with me.”

    5. That would be a reference to black slaves escaping from states south of the Mason Dixon line?

    6. It’s only another well-known (among the educated) phrase and/or saying to denote – using the example of Southern American Slaves escaping – that unexpected things might upset the course of negotiations.

      There are currently, a whole heap of many colours, in the Brexit Negotiations. The sooner we set fire to that woodpile, the better.

      But then certain idiots make it a habit of being offended, despite there being no Sri Lankans, Tamils or Singhalese in any woodpile.

    7. Watching an episode of Father Brown on BBC1 this afternoon, I could swear that the lead character said “Golly’s watching over us.”

    8. “Rohan Silva, who was David Cameron’s key aide on the tech economy, claims that the “offensive” incident took place in 2012 during a discussion about trade policy.”

      He was so shocked that it sent him into a coma for 7 years, which is why he could say nothing about it before now. How lucky for him that he has managed to come out of it just in time to make some money by giving interviews.

          2. There used to be a US fast food chain (1,000+ outlets) called Sambo’s, a play on the founders’ names. The name did them in in the early ’80’s and the chain is no more.

          3. We had a lovely black cat called Sam (now sadly departed) and I very often called him Sambo. I got criticised for that by a lefty friend years ago.

          5. We called our black Lab Kalu, which can mean N….r in Hindi, depending on circs. Anyway, t means black.

            The yellow Lab was Pila, which means yellow.

          7. I have a 45 record with the song of Black Sambo on it.
            Should I report for re-education?

      2. “Mr Silva, 38, now a co-working space entrepreneur and an Evening Standard columnist”
        Fly boy on the make, now reduced to George Osborne’s free rag. How are the mighty fallen. Of course it was Cameron who encouraged and endorsed the Batmanjingle woman too. He had a knack for picking wrong ‘uns.

  39. The anti brexitexit ratchet clicks on as the eye is taken of off any odious action being taken concerning the brexitexit balls up, by the riveting attention being paid to
    the alleged action being taken by Andy’s balls, little wonder these Isles are a pushover for political treachery artists.

  40. Funny Old World

    A few short years ago I laughed this sort of thing to scorn,the views of tin-foiled Stormfront nutters

    Today,not so much……………………..

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJp8vv8WkAAf9ld.jpg
    Simple jobs will vanish because of automation
    Flood countries with unskilled low IQ migrants
    Promote abortion in Western Europe
    Pay for vast immigrant families

        1. I wouldn’t mind betting there’s an EU fund to support such publications. Note Archant recently reported a significant loss in its 2018 accounts…..

      1. Working the scythe is a bugger, until the technique kicks in. Same with throwing hay bales. Poking cattle. And most other farm work.

        1. My future grandmother-in-law was not too impressed with the soft city Southerner her granddaughter brought to stay. That was until he set the old two-handed scythe, which he had discovered hanging up in the barn; sharpened it with a hand whetstone and then proceded to mow the two acres of orchard.

          After that we got on like a house on fire.

  43. Morning Nottlers!

    I received the email content shown in italics below, from ecd. He in turn had received this from a well informed trusted friend.
    Of course in the present political climate it’s quite possible it’s fake news. But either way he felt it was seriously worrying all the same, and wanted it to be given to Nottlers.

    While his intention was also to give it a rest until at least the New Year he felt that this was such an important possible revelation it needs to be made as public as possible:

    “I’ve just heard that an ‘Immunity Treason’ clause has been written into the new treaty and asked Melanie Phillips if she knows if this is true or not.
    This would only be true if Boris is lying to us and going to commit said crime … doesn’t that constitute treason?

    Also Brussels have said that they have not made amendments to May’s disastrous deal, so what the hell is going?

    Are we going to be stitched up yet again by a Tory – was Nigel a fool to stand down? I say yes to both sadly.

    SATURDAY COMMENT

    16/11/19
    What might have been!

    Nigel Paul Farage’s career and reputation now hangs in the balance, over a seemingly inexplicable decision to meekly concede his strong position to political opponents intent on settling for a B.R.I.N.O. that Janis Varoufarkis has described as something : ‘only a defeated nation would accept.’

    Shakespeare wrote :

    SOME ARE BORN GREAT – SOME ACHIEVE GREATNESS – SOME HAVE GREATNESS THRUST UPON THEM

    SOME SADLY [not the Bards words] LET GREATNESS SLIP THROUGH THEIR FINGERS ! !

    An epitaph now perhaps for this charismatic, controversial, opinion dividing figure, who came to the nation’s attention in the mid 1990’s and who has ever since, consistently punched above his weight as a political orator and drawn the support of millions to his life’s mission, i.e. freeing us from the corrupt European Union.

    IN FACT he is the only individual to dare to question its might, its origins, its true objective and our association with it,

    Nigel has since 1999, been an MEP [having left the Tories in 1992 over Maastricht] and has been for all that time, a major thorn in the side of the EU Commission and several notable visitors to the European Parliament, including Angela Merkel, Tony Blair and Prince Charles.

    But what of his decision this week to field Brexit Party candidates in less than half of the Parliamentary constituencies – will it go down as the premier political blunder of the last three centuries?

    Political discourse tends to occur mainly at weekends and as this one is 16th/17th is one of only four remaining before we go to the polls, this decision will certainly be a major topic for discussion and Brexiteers will be watching more closely than most.

    This particular General Election, apart from descending into little more than a race to see who can promise the most ‘goodies‘ without admitting that they will all go on the National Debt, has been marked by the media’s insistence on portraying it as just another good natured British political knockabout, with everyone having their say and everyone respecting the others point of view, knowing full well that it is so much more than that !

    We need Nigel’s CLEAN BREAK BREXIT but who will deliver it NOW ?

    Bromsgrovia.”

    1. Morning HL,
      Did he in all honesty leave the tories in 1992 ?
      In my eyes since the 17th Feb 2018 &
      the leadership of UKIP going over to Gerard Batten triggered farage on the
      hate / smear anti UKIP / membership campaign, all on record.
      Catherine Blaiklock the founder leader of the brexit group currently sums him up imo correctly, he has form.

    2. “But what of his [Farage’s] decision this week to field Brexit Party candidates in less than half of the Parliamentary constituencies – will it go down as the premier political blunder of the last three centuries?”

      That seems rather harsh. But I do like the rest of the comment. 🙂

      I would have preferred Nigel Farage to have stood candidates in those Conservative seats where the old MP was a Remainer, such as mine, to give us a chance to vote for someone who will actually let us Leave the EU. I would also like him to stand candidates in the seats of these “new Remainers” that CCHQ are trying to place into constituencies. But if we have learnt anything from the last 3 years of our MP’s trying to keep us under EU control, we don’t get what we want from those people.

      At least by standing in the seats that he is, Farage is targeting those needed by Boris to get a majority so that he is able to force Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement through. Along with many others, I think that this is the worst possible thing that could happen to our country. We would lose our MEP’s which, while toothless, could be seen at times to point out just how anti-democratic and misguided the “European Project” is.

      It would also give the EU more control over the United Kingdom than they have over any other EU country. We have seen the economic damage the EU has done to them. They would do the same to us but with nothing at all to stop them. I never thought that I would say that a hung Parliament is the only thing that can save this country from EU domination, but it appears to be the only hope that we have of retaining a shred of control over our lives.

      It would give us a lifeboat, a breathing space, while the EU collapses under economic and social pressures.

  44. How the SNP could win 50 seats and push for Scottish Independence

    How the SNP could win 50 seats and push for Scottish Independence

    Let us Little Englanders vote in the Referendum,

    We would be voting for a clean break

    A hard Border

    No MoD/government money spent on projects/businesses in Scotland

    Mr Barnett’ bus would stop at the border

    Scots would have to apply to live here, like what the EU does

    Goods can only move iaw TIR rules

    No can be MPs for any of the remainibg UK parties

    Mrs Krankie must learn English

    etc

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/0/snp-scottish-national-party-sturgeon/

    2. Most Scottish voters voted against independence in the referendum in 2014. Unfortunately, it is the SNP and its supporters who shout the loudest, thus giving an unfavourable impression of Scots to English people. The silent majority’s voice is largely unheard.

      1. Good afternoon, Aeneas.

        I agree with you, it is the detractors who shout the loudest, if
        only to drown out the voices of the Just. The detractors simply
        do not get it…….let us see in the early hours of Dec. 13th.

  45. Ms Swinson has just been speaking to the CBI. She has said that average wages are now some £700 less, in real terms, than they were a few years ago.
    That’s why we have to stay in the EU? Because wages have fallen during our membership? Some salesman, her!

    1. One of the reasons against remaining in the EU is the argument that the influx of European immigrants has increased competition for available jobs in the UK, thus leading to lower wages. If this is the case, Swinson has shot herself in the foot.

    2. I remember that dish from my days working in South Kensington. The best version was served in The Barino, a small restaurant opposite Dino’s. Dino’s was a rival Italian adjacent to South Kensington Arcade and Underground.

        1. Not sure. It is years since I was last there. The Barino was visible along with the Arcade and the Nat West Bank with its revolving door from my office on the first floor of Alfred House. There was a Lyons on the ground floor facing the Arcade which is now some night club where they charge Pol Roger prices for Prosecco to stupid rich kids like our younger Royals.

          The Partners of Whitfield Partners would often take me upstairs for lunch when about to ask me to do something extraordinary involving working through the night to meet some deadline. The other architectural practice whose partners frequented the Barino was Casson Conder, Sir Hugh Casson’s firm, whose office was around the corner also on Alfred Place.

    1. I suppose anyone who was upset by this and punched the one with the match would be arrested?

      In the USA mistreating the flag is an actual crime, I think?

        1. Just best not to do it in front of normal people, otherwise they might express severe annoyance.

          2. I don’t consider Antifa to be that normal. About as normal as Momentum – same kind of left wing totalitarian thinking, mixed with the rent-a-mob crowd and a few idealists, and labelling everyone they don’t agree with as Fascists. Antifa come out of the woodwork in a big way when there are major economic meetings going on. There’s a move here to declare them a terrorist organization which would allow law enforcement to take a harder line with them, but it’s running into multiple legal issues.

    2. Brilliant; and for me a particularly noteworthy aspect (possibly down to editing) is that when he speaks, he is not constantly being interrupted by other parties to the debate and the journalists and adjudicator. Very refreshing, it should be adopted here.

  50. International Criminal Court may investigate UK military for the first time over ‘war crimes cover-up’

    Another Corbynski inspired Army recruiting scheme

    Now lwt us get the IRA, HAMAS, ISIL and their leasders into courthttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/18/international-criminal-court-may-investigate-uk-military-first/

  53. Oh Dear,about that Tal Y Banny………………….

    Guido can reveal that far more recently, Al-Faifi has made deeply troubling comments. In 2016, the activist wrote of alleged Al-Queda member Moazzam Begg that “one

    cannot but laud Begg for his an inimitable courage in his cause, to

    have a more answerable government and hold MI5 and MI6 to account.”

    In the wake of the 2017 London Bridge terror attack, she wrote a social media post entitled “London Bridge attack, who is to blame?” In it, she placed blame not on the Jihadi terrorists, but “pro-Zionists pro-war individuals such as Robert Rosenkranz, Lord Ashcroft and Lord Kalms the owner of Dixons”

    https://order-order.com/2019/11/18/plaids-taffy-jihadi-blamed-lord-ashcroft-london-terror-attack/
    I’m shocked,shocked I tell you

  54. Bloody Nora!
    Sun’s dropped below the valley top and the temperature has PLUMMETED!
    It was just below 1°C a short while ago, then 25min later it was only just above 0°.

    Fire is laid ready for lighting and the firelogs brought in for the night.

    2. Temperature has dropped here as well, fire crackling in the grate ..I have to attend a meeting later , brrrr.

      Nothing like a good old fashioned coal fire , the only thing is cleaning the grate and getting rid of the ash before lighting a fresh one .

      I can remember the noisy gas poker that my grandparents used to start the fire .. a large bulbous fire wand .. which hissed and scared us children to bits . Can any one else remember gas pokers?

      I can remember reading about them being hidden killers .. the smell of the old smelly gas was horrible .. Grandma had an old large black stove ( oven )in the kitchen … Fires in the grate remind me of all sorts of things .. chestnuts, toast, singeing woollen knee socks …left on the big fireguard for too long , and strangely .. loading the pianola with music, Grandpa hanging game and bacon sides in the coal house and everlasting games of monopoly etc.

        1. Moh has just mentioned that his dad melted lead in a crucible on the fire , and when it was melted , poured it into moulds to make toy soldiers .. and spend dark evenings painting them .

      5. evening T-B “fireside tartan” was a common condition as we had to sit close to the fire to keep warm. No insulated houses in the 1940s.

    3. I’ve just come in and what a splendiferous day it’s been. After sogginess on steroids for the past week or so, we’ve had a blue sky all day.

      I’m not a wall-to-wall sunshine in summer man but at this time of year it’s a welcome bonus.

      1. It’s been glorious up here too. Quite a boost to one’s spirits & morale!
        Temperature outside is now 0°C and the fire is lit.

        1. “Quite a boost to one’s spirits & morale!”

          Exactly. I’ve had several smiles and hellos from strangers on my travels today.

      2. Have you been attending some hustings where Boris, Jo and Jeremy have been promising the sun the moon and the stars?

        };-))

        spendiferous

    4. Picking up on Bob’s comment, I wonder if prehistoric man thought the golden ball that dropped behind the hill every night was a different one.

        1. You can see why they celebrated when the days got longer. I always wonder how they measured that with 2-3 days precision? The difference isn’t so much, just a minute or two.

          6. Picture the scene, Stonehenge has just been completed and the builders are admiring their handiwork and some smart arse rocks up and says, “See this stick…” Could have been a Monty Python sketch.😎

        2. Like the dog which barks and barks thinking its owner has gone forever, it wouldn’t surprise me if they did worry.

  55. Good morning, all.

    Highland Council poised to test ‘plastic roads’ in north trial

    Highland Council’s vice convener Allan Henderson said: “To me it’s very interesting, because one of the biggest problems in this world today is plastic, so if we could take that out, it reduces a huge volume and gives it an end value as well.

    “Officers still have quite a lot of reservations about it because they don’t want to be charging on and then find out you’ve got it breaking up, you could get the nurdles, or whatever you want to call them, ending up in the watercourses and whatnot.“

    (The Press & Journal)

    Not happy about this. I’ve written today to Highland Council to warn them that if I find any nurdles in my whatnot, I shall sue.

    1. I saw an article about the product a few months ago. It looks at first face to be an excellent use for plastic waste.

      That, almost by definition, makes it a disaster in waiting.

    2. It’s ok, it’s their Vice convenor, so if you don’t participate in their porn sessions, you’ll be OK.

  57. This afternoon listening to the kitchen cabinet whilst working in the garage, when it was announced something to the effect of, next week we are in rotherham asking “whats cooking in rotherham” ? PIE
    I shouted before I realised I had answered.

    2. HG reckons I’ve got a better body than any of those guys and I’m nearly 70!

      I think she should have gone to specsavers.

    3. Excuse me being rude but why not show a lot of pr*cks and say they’re vegan? At least they couldn’t argue with that.

    5. With those sheep in a surrender pose with their arms in the air one would think that a weapon was being held against each animal’s head.

      2. “I knew that second session at the cat nip was a bad idea.”

        And yes, oh ye pedants, cat nip was deliberate, I know it’s really catnip

      3. Lets hope she doesn’t get stuck halfway when that big randy black tom comes prowling tonight.

          2. It’s a relatively cheap toy, and it brings my Nest Thermostat, Ring Video Doorbell, Amazon Fire TV Stick and various smart light switches under control in one place. It’s rather spoiled by the fact that the Bullshit Broadcasting Corporation has withdrawn support, because it doesn’t provide them with their all-important ‘data’. Ironically, none of it works at the moment, as my broadband has just gone down, so I’m using the phone as a wireless hotspot. Hopefully…

        2. By the way (h/t Anne Allan), if you have one of these infernal devices, do ask it to translate “Jeremy Corbyn Carrots 100” into Welsh. Apart from the result, it’s worth it for the accent…

    1. I must read posts muchester more carefullierestere. I thought it said

      The Lib Dem leader demanded that Corbyn and Johnson debase her

      Shades of Abbotopotamus and anything in skirts (excludes Scottish Regiments

  64. 2 birds with one stone, which could solve a few problems…

    We send Pr Andrew to the States for questioning under oath, etc. In return they send us that American housewife who killed that young motorcyclist & then absconded.

    Brainwave or not?

    3. A friend and colleague of mine, a chap called Gabor Marek, whose Hungarian father came to England after 1956, was involved in a head on collision with a vehicle driven by a USA airman. The American went back to the USA pronto.

      I found Gabor and his girlfriend in Addenbrookes Hospital after a tip off by one of his late father’s colleagues. Gabor’s father had worked for the architectural practice BDP in Preston throughout the sixties and I had acquaintances in that firm through wider professional connections.

      Gabor’s sister, living in Manchester, tried to seize his house and possessions in Hammersmith while he was in a six month coma. His girlfriend, the daughter of a Kenyan and with a German mother, whisked her back to Kenya as soon as she had recovered sufficiently. I ferried the parents to the hospital at least once a week in the evening after returning from my work in London. I lived in the centre of Cambridge at the time.

      I managed to stop Gabor’s sister in her tracks by arguing, after he recovered some speech and mobility, that he was capable with assistance of managing his own affairs. Gabor was damaged permanently but retained a good grasp of his condition and tried to return to architecture. Unfortunately he developed epilepsy and with brain damage which meant that he could never function in his former role.

      I thought at the time that it was a great injustice that American servicemen could be so protected as to be sent home without prosecution in the UK for their misdemeanours and other crimes.

      This recent case merely reminds me of the great injustice done by the USA policy.

        1. In the case of the American spook’s wife, it was HMG’s decision that the Americans and their families based there got immunity. They were duly stuffed on a private jet and whisked out of the country.

      2. During the Gulf War, when ‘our’ planes were shot down, blue on blue’ the Merickans refused the request of the Coroners for those involved to attend the Coroner’s Inquest

  69. Night All

    https://twitter.com/Ffs_OMG/status/1196186006418067456

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8b0b45551fdcf3e58cf855024f9d469fb4a03e51816983b23b233c0a7fa1b395.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff23b9c0991982a279c9be264249d2ee7cce502818de0537084854ce282acea7.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/638323fb0fbdb0e6cf5885ea9776fd26e7fd3460647f188141cb2e272489e967.gif

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-538JilBMYm0/Xa32t07FxmI/AAAAAAACB-k/wKL1or5YXoMyzgijrAVV5w8C26ANlZJKQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/I-forgot-how-to-dog.gif

  70. DT Live – Current headline
    General Election 2019: Boris Johnson cancels planned corporation tax cut to fund NHS – latest news

    He is quite determined to lose the election. He’s thrashing around like a harpooned whale. Does he have a clue about what he is doing? He buggers up his Brexit promise, he buggers up his tax plans – in fact he buggers up everything he touches. He is not just a bumbling buffoon – he is a clumsy clown wearing a mop for a wig who moonlights as the Village Idiot.

    A vulgar postscript. Please don’t look if you are easily offended.

    Typo edited.

    (I expect he even buggers up his mistresses when he tries to f*ck them up.)

      1. That’s why they are hidden by a spoiler and issued with a warning for those who are offeneded and those who are offended.

        (Thanks for pointing out the typo which has been amended.)

      3. Crudités often appear as a starter on a menu in a humble French restaurant. They are raw vegetables,

    4. Afternoon R.
      Many not so long back were saying make bojo Pm, he makes us laugh, along with the many who said make
      cameron ( the wretch) Pm, he looks like Pm material.
      Little wonder as a nation we are in the sh!te.

    6. The tragedy is that this is the bright new dawn many of us were hoping for. Warmed up leftovers and the same old, same old by the look of it..

    7. I suspect the intent to cut corporation tax was genuien but he’s been reminded that the EU prevents us from doing that.

      Thus hopefully he will reduce employer NI and as a consequence cut taxes and increase employment and, in small companies like mine let us return that money to the workers as investment in tooling or tech.

      However, will Boris prove himself as having a spine and actualy say ‘stuff it, we’re leaving the EU and cut corporation tax or will he go for employer NI by a tiny fraction or, if the dream or corporate enterprise will he do bothm, and radically cut taxes on companies?

      My guess is the middle, as it’s easy. It’ll help Tesco and the low wage high employment companies but it won’t really help the small growing tech company.

    1. Not quite true. Boris is postponing the cut in Corporation Tax, not the Business Rates. They are quite different things – Corporation Tax affects the business profits of global finance, whereas Business Rates affect those who have premises in the UK, and is particularly hard on the High Street retailers, since this tax is levied regardless of profit made.

      It is the equivalent of postponing a cut in Income Tax in order to finance a cut in Council Tax – something that should have been done long ago.

  77. HAPPY HOUR – WTF Another Greta Thunberg wannabe…..

    Student slams classic Disney films for being ‘horrendously outdated and offensive’ and claims the Jungle Book character King Louie is racist.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/52027b9c1d19863c8da7fcab0d882e36e892d76322b1b8766a94cecc11afbc16.jpg
    The student claimed that the Jungle Book character King Louie (pictured above) is racist
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0d460adb9ed428d8314d26686b5d454041cb5e0f9547bcdf1ef8f6474be5f43.jpg
    She also highlighted the the crow scene in Dumbo (above) and said it was used to ‘mock black men’
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7697557/Student-slams-classic-Disney-films-horrendously-outdated-offensive.html

    2. And there was me thinking King Louie was: “The King of the swingers” – Is that too hetero?

    3. Somebody should point out to the silly girl that students are there to be taught, and to be lectured to, not vice versa.

      That way she might actually learn something, rather than broadcasting her stupidy to the whole world.

        1. Bob, she’s mild compared to Tom Hanks. Hanks is a raving looney–he has the nerve to call American GIs ‘racists’ while making millions off war films like ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘The Pacific’. Happy Remembrance Day, Tom?

          https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/outrage-as-tom-hanks-brands-war-veterans-racist-after-filming-the-pacific/news-story/f8c2cfb2a2202a10d4cb69ab84ecc8fd
          https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tom-hanks-wwii-comments-spark-controversy/

        2. I seem to recall from my childhood that Disney villains appear to have RP English accents. Racist!

    5. Some of Miss Robertson’s harshest criticism was reserved for the original version of Aladdin, which she explains ‘everything’ is ‘problematic’.

      She said it was another film that Disney remade in order to ‘cover up the blatantly problematic original’.

      ‘Right smack bang in the middle of the opening song, Agrabah (Arab-land) is described to be ‘barbaric, but hey, it’s home.’

      https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/11/18/12/21153576-7697557-image-m-10_1574079971253.jpg
      Obviously Miss Robertson has been to Paris but one wonders if she will ever make it to Agrabah.

      2. Looking at the photo you will be pleased to know at the age of 13 I got to the deuxieme etage….

          1. That reminds me I wonder what became of Fabiane from Perpignan and Brigetta from Dusseldorf?

          5. I took one look and I said “I don’t think so.” A sentiment that was reinforced by the fact that they expect you to pay!
            One gets a good view of Paris from the Sacre Coeur. The attendant there asked me for money, but I told him I was there to pray, so I would not be paying him anything, and did he wish me to spell out the nature of simony? I prayed quite hard, as Scotland were meeting France at the Parc des Princes that afternoon. I did not pray hard enough.

          6. “Pecunia tua tecum sit in perditionem quoniam donum Dei existimasti pecunia possideri”
            — Actus. 8:20

  79. Just before I turn in for the night – I’ll reveal my guilty secret. Twice in my life (or possibly three times – I’ve lost count) I have dined at Pizza Express, Woking. It wan’t by choice – it was the office Christmas lunch, but nevertheless… The Guildford branch, I could understand; it even has a grand piano. But Woking? It would be less embarrassing to admit to shagging a 17 year-old Yank hooker, who – let’s face it – is marginally more attractive than a Fiorentina in GU21…

  81. Another recent poll

    Con 42.5% 361 seats
    Lab 29.6% 201 seats
    Lib 14% 19 seats
    Brexit 5.7% 0 seats
    Green 3% 1 seat
    SNP 3.8% 46 seats
    DUP 8 seats
    SF 7 seats
    Alliance 3 seats

  82. Greetings, I missed much of the earlier conversation on tree disease(s). Here’s an excellent video on the American Chestnut devastation, caused by a fungus carried on Asian chestnut trees imported to the United States. Sweet Chestnut Blight in the UK is the same disease that killed upwards of 4 billion trees covering 200 million acres of the Eastern United States:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xgbedXnbfw

    “There were once almost 4 billion American chestnuts and they were among the largest, tallest, and fastest-growing trees in the eastern forest. The wood was long-lasting, straight-grained, and suitable for furniture, fencing, and building. The nuts fed billions of birds and animals. It was almost a perfect tree – that is, until it was killed by a blight a century ago. That blight has been called the greatest ecological disaster to strike the world’s forests in all of history. A tree that had survived all adversaries for 40 million years had disappeared within 40.”

    https://www.acf.org/the-american-chestnut/

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