435 thoughts on “Tuesday 26 November: Every other manifesto pledge depends on achieving Brexit freedom”

  1. Ot, but I love it that the ads on this page are location specific… I don’t read Finnish, so they are meaningless. The well-built lass is cute, though. Beauty needs no translation!
    Morning, all.

  2. I would like to nominate Andrew Neill for a Peerage – his complete destruction of Nicola Sturgeon & thecase for Independence.

    I appreciate that 90% of the population in the UK are not really interested in the machinations of the SNP & their quest for Independence.

    BUT you will be hugely impressed by Andrew Neill – 100% for his preparation & knowledge of the issues and 100% for his skills as a journalist.

    Car crash interview of 2019 – this knocks Prince Andrew’s interview out of the water.
    Nicola had no answers to the holes in her policies, her failures in NHS, her lack of understanding on Finance & Currency & lack of knowledge of the hurdles / timescales needed to join the EU.

    It’s on YouTube, it’s on BBC i-player

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGio8wx-O2g

    1. Had to give up after 1minute 15 seconds in, her grating voice this early in the morning on top of a slight hangover was just too much to bear

      2. I was prepared to accept the pain, thanks to the pleasure of watching Brillo rip her to pieces. A most enjoyable 30 mins of political telly – and it’s not often you can say that.

    2. Once politicians start claiming that something “is a matter of principle” you know that their argument is weak and largely BS.

      She is an annoying cow, isn’t she.

    3. There is only one good thing to say about Ms Sturgeon in this interview – she does have quite pretty legs.

      I would really like to see Andrew Neil giving Boris Johnson a proper inquisition over his Brexit sell out. Johnson has been given far too easy a ride by both the MSM and the other political parties.

      1. I spotted that. It keeps the attention away from what lies above her neck, which doesn’t bear close observation.

    4. Ms S. “…treated with contempt, disinterest, all along the way…” (at 8 min). Ignoring the fact that “disinterest” really means “neutral”, Ms Sturgeon is not very smart. Had she offered the Conservatives the support of the SNP for a clean, quick departure from the EU, we would have been out, done and dusted, long ago. The condition would, of course, have been a second Indieref. This would by now have taken place and the SNP could be looking at a second Brexit referendum in Scotland about rejoining. (If she is going to be consistent about second referenda and such.). On the other hand, having endured some bad times with Ms Sturgeon in charge, Scotland might opt for continued union. Ms Sturgeon does not seem to have grasped that if you do not accept the results of a referendum, you cannot expect to hold a referendum and expect others to accept the result, just because you want them to.

  4. Mother and daughter threesome

    I ended up with an older woman at a club last night. She looked OK for a 61 year-old.

    In fact, she wasn’t too bad at all, and I found myself thinking that she probably had a really hot daughter.

    We drank a bit, and had a bit of a cuddle and then she asked if I’d ever had a Sportsman’s Double.

    ‘What’s that?’ I asked.

    ‘It’s a mother and daughter threesome,’ she said.

    I said, ‘No,’ – excitedly.

    We drank a bit more, then she said that tonight was ‘My lucky night’.

    We went back to her place.

    She put on the hall light and shouted upstairs: ‘Mum, you still awake?

    1. SIR – Why not offer the student protesters in Hong Kong work permits to live here in Britain? They are highly intelligent, speak excellent English and support democracy – just the right people to lead a post-Brexit economy.

      Martin Keay
      Ashmead, Gloucestershire

      Morning Minty

      1. …speak excellent English and support democracy…

        They are not going to allow anyone like that in!

      2. Why not?
        Because we don’t have the housing or infrastructure to cope with yet more immigrants, wherever they come from. Because we don’t want the UK to become as overcrowded as HK currently is.

  6. Good Morning, all

    SIR – Anyone who spends their time ironing sheets (Letters, November 25) should get out more – or do they get the staff to do it?

    Alan Thomas
    Great Sankey, Cheshire

    Say it ain’t so.!! This couldn’t be an errant cousin of our Bill who prides himself on doing all the ironing?

  7. “MPs to vote on Brexit deal before Christmas if Boris Johnson wins majority at election”. From what I’ve read it seems they will be voting for a Turkey and that we are the ones about to be stuffed. Bah Humbug!

  9. Good morning all

    At the risk of sounding boring and gurning on about George the poet

    George the Poet has said he turned down an MBE because of the ‘pure evil’ of the British Empire.

    The spoken word artist, whose real name is George Mpanga, said he was prevented from accepting the title of Member of the British Empire because of ‘the colonial trauma inflicted on the children of Africa, entrenched across our geo-political and macro-economic realities’.

    Mpanga, who was born in Harlesden in London and is of Ugandan heritage, added that he turned down the gong in May 2019, continuing: ‘Although much of my podcast is fiction, this is a fact.

    ‘I’d like to apologise to the friend who recommended me on my assurance that I’d accept, I didn’t know I would feel this way.

    ‘I see myself as student, admirer and friend of Britain, however the colonial trauma inflicted on the children of Africa, entrenched across our geo-political and macro-economic realities prevents me from accepting the title Member of the British Empire.

    ‘The gesture is deeply appreciated, the wording is not. It will remain unacceptable to me until Britain takes institutional measures to address the intergenerational disruption brought to millions as a result of her colonial exploits.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7725523/George-Poet-said-turned-MBE-beecause-pure-evil-British-Empire.html

    So, his parents haven’t reminded him about the evil rule of Idi Amin .. I wonder which tribe George’s antecedents batted for .. Were they the ones responsible for terrible genocide .. and the expelling of hard working Ugandan Asians who kept the fractious country together before Amin’s destructive wickedness?

    1. the colonial trauma inflicted on the children of Africa, entrenched across our geo-political and macro-economic realities

      He’s been reading the crib sheet for bullshit bingo.

          1. I would be deeply insulted if I were offered a gong or title.
            The offer would imply that I’m an unprincipled chancer.

          2. Be fair, Annie – for so many recipients it is the recognition of some superb brown-nosing. Let’s face it, the sky’s the limit when you can be elevated to a Knighthood or Damehood for simply running or pedalling fast.

          1. Morning Hopon

            Interesting to see the BBC are promoting George the poet on their adverts.. it is becoming annoying.. and I am sick and tired of this cultural trashing of all things white!

        4. BBC….differently coloured…programme trails at any price…wot better reasons?

          ‘Morning, Belle.

          2. Not just your voice or facial features TB – don’t you realise old people like us have no stake in the future?

          4. You are not alone Belle, if that is any comfort. My late father used to say: “I feel like a stranger in my own country.” I shudder to think what he would say now, bearing in mind we are nearly ten years further down the road of ‘diversity’.

          5. Dad died in the 1990’s .. I remember his last trip to Britain was a sentimental one .. but as he said , he assumed he would be welcomed back , as he used to be by smiling faces in a happy Britain .. the returning voyager expat .. instead in his words.. he saw surly faces, a Britain that was becoming unrecognisable from the one he knew.

            He never learnt his lesson .. he emigrated to SA with the rest of the family in 1967.

            Christmas 1956 was another story , when over 400 expat men including
            my father were released from internment in Egypt after spending a couple of months or so courtesy of President Nasser ( my mother and I and my sister had been evacuated from Egypt prior to the men who were working for the British government were rounded up and captured )

            UK Ministry men , the UN and the British Army were there on hand to sort the paper work and make the passage back home to the UK easy .

            I do not need to be lectured by any politician about diversity or bonhomie.

            I experienced too much in my young life overseas to really convince me.. that History has been ignored , and the open door that Britain has has ruined the security of living here on the British Isles .

            Politicians are traitors to history , they have selfishly allowed our birthright to be ruined forever , and we are all now living in uncertainty .

      2. Morning, Aeneas.

        He’s not the only one. Last night Ian Payne (LBC) debated some initiative the Labour Party are starting that looks at the impact of the British Empire and other historic events have had i.e. a hit job on Britain and who knows, maybe lots of moolah in reparations for those affected.
        Jake from Derby, surely a case for treatment, went on a rant – so many people of colour rant and do not debate – at one time claiming that we, the indigenous, are mistaken in thinking that these islands were peopled solely by white people, blacks were here from long ago. At times he appeared incoherent and yet Payne allowed him to continue.
        My reaction was along the lines of, why is Jake living in Derby if the white British are the beneficiaries of the actions of such awful predecessors and why is he so happy to receive those benefits as well? Sadly, I imagine that Payne and Co are not permitted to ask those questions on pain of losing their jobs.

          6. Must be away. Oswestry Mens Shed calls.
            A last thought: is the collective noun for a mix of anonymous cheeses a ‘kraft’?

    2. Uganda’s entire history is one of blood soaked violence except for a short seventy year period under British Rule.

      2. Killing one another??

        Perhaps dear George should read this:
        https://www.lusakatimes.com/2014/10/20/500-years-colonization-50-years-independence/

        The first white people to land in Southern Africa were the Portuguese. In August 1487 Bartolomeo Diaz landed at Mossel Bay, near Cape Town, on his way to India. Ten years later Vasco da Gama landed at St. Helena Bay and sailed round the tip of Africa. Many other Europeans would follow and some would settle in present day South Africa and eventually make headways north into what is known as Zambia.

        Yes, it would have been over 500 years of colonization in Southern Africa if the trend would have continued to present day. What would have Africa become of if we would have continued with this? Or to bring it home, what would have Zambia become like if we stayed colonized by the British? Can we really say we are better off with 50 years of independence as opposed to 500 years of colonization?

        Many argue that colonization brought about slavery (although slavery existed among ourselves), economic and social inequality as well as political domination. Quite the contrary, colonization brought a lot of good to Africa. There is no doubt that Africa would have been a better continent had we remained a territory of the British, French or Portuguese Empires. Here is why.

        Africa would be the largest economy in the world today.
        Going by the abundance of natural resources, Africa was the richest continent 500 years ago. Sadly, it is still the richest continent endowed with natural resources. It is estimated that in the year 1500, United States’ GDP was about $800 million while Africa’s GDP was an impressive 20 billion dollars. Today, the United States’ GDP is over $16 trillion while Africa’s GDP is only $2 trillion. What happened exactly? If our resources were managed by the Europeans, Africa would be a continent the rest of the world would hold in high esteem. The truth is Africans cannot plan, Africans are not economic managers and Africans lack the patience that comes with building wealth. Instead Africans leaders prefer to put in place policies that benefit them individually as opposed to policies that benefit the masses. ….

        By Wesley Ngwenya

        1. Most African countries, rather than managing themselves since post-colonial times, have sold out to China.

    5. Do we send any money to Uganda in the form of Foreign Aid??
      Should we completely remove any Ugandan infrastructure built during colonial times?
      If George Mpanga feels so strongly about it, perhaps he can emigrate to Uganda to help his fellow countrymen there…

    6. He should closer at the history of slavery and realise that it was the British who put an end to it, and the primary sellers and traffickers of people for slavery were the Arabs and Africans.

      1. The truth doesn’t get close to Lefty ears. If it did there would be an almighty explosion brought on by cognitive dissonance, as reality conflicted with their own ego.

        They just can’t cope with it.

    7. If Britain is so awful, how hypocritical to stay. Why not move to Kampala right away? Oh, yes: Remember not to be gay. It’s a serious criminal offence.
      What an asswipe.

  10. SIR – If we are going to force all electric cars to make a noise audible to pedestrians, are we also going to force all pedestrians to remove their earphones so that they can hear it?

    David Leech
    Balcombe, West Sussex

    What?

          1. So sorry, Plum and I’m surprised that Peddy has kept schtum, Serviettes are paper – Napkins are linen.

          2. Peddy probaly realised that Mr Betjeman was being ‘ironic’ and his tongue was in his cheek when he penned those lines.

        3. How To Get On In Society by John Betjeman

          Phone for the fish knives, Norman
          As cook is a little unnerved;
          You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes
          And I must have things daintily served.

          Are the requisites all in the toilet?
          The frills round the cutlets can wait
          Till the girl has replenished the cruets
          And switched on the logs in the grate.

          It’s ever so close in the lounge dear,
          But the vestibule’s comfy for tea
          And Howard is riding on horseback
          So do come and take some with me

          Now here is a fork for your pastries
          And do use the couch for your feet;
          I know that I wanted to ask you-
          Is trifle sufficient for sweet?

          Milk and then just as it comes dear?
          I’m afraid the preserve’s full of stones;
          Beg pardon, I’m soiling the doileys
          With afternoon tea-cakes and scones.

    3. Our local bus drivers tend to drive “vigorously” at the best of times so I always hang on with at least one hand so when the airhead woman staring at her phone marched straight out in front of us I suffered only a mildly wrenched shoulder when he was forced to slam on the brakes
      Luckily I was the only passenger at the time,the route is used by many elderly and infirm on their way to the shops,at another time the bloody woman would have caused carnage

  11. November 26 2019, 12:01am, The Times
    Trump has been proved right about Iran
    Melanie Phillips

    Uprising against the regime shows sanctions are working and we should stop appeasing evil

    In Iran, a revolt has erupted in up to 100 towns and cities. Triggered by a fuel price increase of 50 per cent, it is a protest aimed at the removal of the regime itself. The uprising is considered so serious that the regime shut down the internet for five days. Yet somehow the protesters have been getting information out to the rest of the world.

    It is estimated that about 250 people have been killed, 3,700 injured and up to 4,000 arrested. The protesters want an end to internal repression, international terrorism and regional adventurism. A few weeks ago similar protests began in Lebanon and Iraq against Iranian domination there.

    Eyewitnesses report astonishing scenes of Iraqi women tearing off their veils and dancing with men to electronic music, under the noses of clerics being shouted at to take off their turbans.

    On Sunday night protesters in Beirut demonstrating against the Iran-backed Shia groups Hezbollah and Amal and shouting “Revolution, revolution!” were attacked with rods and stones.

    Given the brutality of the Iranian regime, the protesters’ courage and determination is outstanding. Of course, such a revolt was previously attempted in the 2009 “Green Revolution”, and this one similarly might be stamped out. Yet this could just be the moment for which so many have hoped, that the people of Iran would themselves bring down the Islamic Republic.

    For Iran is the most lethal terrorist state in the world. The regime declared war against the West as soon as it came to power in 1979 and has been behind countless attacks on western interests. It threatens to wipe Israel off the map. It is trying to develop a nuclear weapons programme which the International Atomic Energy Agency recently said it had gone to elaborate lengths to conceal. Iran is trying to develop ballistic missiles capable of hitting Europe and the US. And it is run by a Shia Muslim sect which believes that provoking the apocalypse will bring to Earth the Shia messiah, the “Twelfth Imam”.

    Successive American presidents from Jimmy Carter onwards have nevertheless blown hot and cold towards Iran. Despite its fingerprints being on repeated attacks against the US, including hostage-taking, bombings and hundreds of deaths, the strategic risks of military action against the regime were considered far too great.

    Following the botched aftermath of the war in Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein, Iran slipped into the vacuum. A recent leak of documents from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence revealed Tehran’s vast influence in Iraq, detailing its infiltration into every aspect of Iraqi political, economic and religious life.

    After the Iraq debacle came the Obama-brokered 2015 nuclear deal. This merely postponed the regime’s ability to develop nuclear weapons and lifted sanctions, enabling money to pour into Iran and empower its nefarious activities.

    So one might think the uprising would be eagerly greeted by the West. This has been true of the US, which has publicly supported the protesters and blacklisted Iran’s minister of information and communications technology, Mohammad Jahromi, for his apparent role in shutting down the internet.

    From Britain and Europe, however, there has been only the most lukewarm response. There are two reasons for this. The first is a refusal to accept that Iran poses the threat that it does. Partly this is because, rightly or wrongly, people still feel taken for a ride over the Iraq war. And partly it’s because the most immediate threat posed by Iran is to Israel and people either don’t care about Israel’s fate or assume it will take care of Iran by itself.

    Many have also been fooled by the urbane face of Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Zarif, or its president, Hassan Rouhani. Yet the only person who matters is the implacable religious fanatic who controls Iran, the supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

    So Britain has looked the other way, even when its soldiers were being killed in Iraq by Iranian roadside bombs. When President Trump took the US out of the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions, Britain along with the EU tried every ruse to undermine sanctions and continue to trade with Tehran.

    Which leads to the second reason for the indifferent response to this revolt. It has been provoked by the damage done to Iran by the reimposed sanctions. And among the legions of Trump-haters there is absolutely nothing this president could ever do for which he would be given any credit.

    The great risk though is that if the regime feels cornered it may lash out still farther, following its shooting down of the American drone in June and its strike on Saudi oil processing facilities in September.

    This month it resumed low-grade uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow nuclear plant to 60 per cent of fissile purity, approaching the 90 per cent level required for nuclear bomb fuel.

    The grave threat it poses has caused the West to turn the other way. But the choice has never been between peace or war with Iran. It is between defeating the regime or suffering war on its terms.

    One way or another Iran needs to be stopped in its tracks. Britain should sign up to the American sanctions and instead of appeasing evil should display its unequivocal support for the brave Iranian people in their fight for themselves and the world.

    1. A work friend of mine who came from Iran said back in 2009 that the revolution had to happen, as the [theocratic state] in Iran could not continue, the people wanted their freedom. They failed then, and failed again a couple of years ago. The EU and UK are more interested in sucking up to those in charge.
      The ayatollahs have been in charge for forty years. It’s should serve as a warning to everyone in the UK who doesn’t want this country to go down the same route, but there are far too many refusing to take heed.

    2. Muslims in Iran are rebelling against the oppressive nature of Islam and Muslim women are showing great bravery in shedding their burkas and other restrictive dress which so nastily symbolises the autocratic power some Muslim men expect to wield over their womenfolk.

      Instead of accusing everyone of Islamophobia would it not be better If Baroness Warsi showed that she really cared about the lot of her sister Muslims by encouraging them to throw off the oppression of the dress code Muslim men and imams use to subdue and control their women?

  12. SIR – I was looking forward to election night on December 12, watching the results with a good bottle of malt.

    The choice of bottle has been easy compared with the selection of a channel – the Left-leaning BBC, excruciating Christmas advertisements on ITV or John Bercow as one of the Sky News team presenters.

    Advice would be appreciated.

    Nigel Algar
    Bottesford, Nottinghamshire

    Drink the bottle of whisky and go to bed instead of staying up all night.

  13. Morning all

    SIR – One hears many voters placing individual policies above the question of Brexit.

    Surely it is not possible to establish any detailed proposals until it is known under which set of rules and regulations any future programmes will operate. Are these laws and regulations to be set by a sovereign United Kingdom or by a mixed bag of countries via Brussels?

    Brexit first, then discuss the possibilities, free of EU restraints.

    David Parrott

    Stroud, Gloucestershire

    SIR – If Boris Johnson (as prime minister again after the election) wishes to have more doctors and nurses he should remove tuition fees for undergraduates taking degrees in these professions in exchange for a legally binding obligation to work in the NHS (in a salaried position) for a set term (perhaps five years) after graduation.

    John M Allistone

    Poole, Dorset

    1. SIR – Over and above the huge cost of its manifesto promises, Labour is now offering £58 billion of public money to compensate those represented by Women Against State Pension Inequality.

      Apparently, this vast sum will be funded from “the government contingency reserve”. Surely such reserves exist to be used in national emergencies, not to attract opportunistic votes.

      Brian Pegnall

      Falmouth, Cornwall

      1. How about all those years when women got their pension years before men? Where’s the compo for that?

        2. …and particularly when bearing in mind the mortality tables showed very clearly that men usually predeceased women by a considerable margin. That’s two lots of compo we are owed, ta muchly.

          ‘Morning, Herr Oberst.

      2. But … but …. women spent years ‘fighting’ for equality with men.
        What are they complaining about? (innocent face)

    2. Mr Allistone is saying in part what I have been saying on this site for several years, See my post above.

  14. Morning again

    SIR – If Lindsay Jones (Letters, November 25) doesn’t need his winter fuel allowance, he can always return it. The Government will cash his cheque.

    James B Sinclair

    St Helier, Jersey

    SIR – May I suggest Lindsay Jones donate his winter fuel allowance to a homelessness charity under the gift-aid scheme, ensuring his donation is worth more than the £200 he and his wife receive from the Government?

    Diana Beveridge

    Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

  15. Lecturers on strike

    SIR – My grandson is in his second year at university, reading journalism.

    Apart from being required to attend lectures for only nine hours per week (even less than in his first year), he now has an enforced absence of eight days due to the lecturers’ strike (report, November 24), while paying exorbitant fees for the privilege.

    How can this possibly be right?

    Rita Courtney

    Hampton Wick, Middlesex

      1. Last night, BBC Look East interviewed an astoundingly inarticulate lecturer, followed by vox pops amongst the students. A pleasing number were demanding their money back.
        The lecturer rather did herself out of a job by claiming that their action would have no effect on the students’ eduction. In which case, her job would seemingly appear to be superfluous.

          3. Popular opinion as represented by informal comments from members of the public, especially when broadcast or published.

          4. ‘Morning, Anne, a time and space filler for otherwise vacuuos news-reporting.

            Yes, I too saw/heard that inarticulate lecturer on Look East last evening, Best Beloved was trying to get me to reduce my blood-pressure and not hurl something at the TV. For once Stewart White did a useful knife-job on her.

          5. – or in the case of the TV MSM – comments from a random selection of MoPs selected and edited to carry the narrative desired by the editor or producer of the piece – cynical ? Moi?

          10. Probably Triers – wish I’d kept mine and my Hofner Galaxie bought new for £25 now going for £800 plus on Ebay

          11. Yo OLT

            Vox populi (/ˌvɒks ˈpɒpjuːli, -laɪ/ VOKS POP-yoo-lee, -⁠lye) is a Latin phrase that literally means “voice of the people”. It is used in English in the meaning “the opinion of the majority of the people”. In journalism, vox pop or person on the street refers to short interviews with members of the public.
            Vox populi – Wikipedia
            https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Vox_populi

          12. ‘Morning, Tryers. It involves thrusting a microphone under the noses of people in the street (a diverse selection, naturally) and asking them what they think about sumfink. It rarely brings forth any articulate views because its sole purpose is to fill the long hours of rolling news telly at next to no cost.

          13. Vox populi (/ˌvɒks ˈpɒpjuːli, -laɪ/ VOKS POP-yoo-lee,
            -⁠lye) is a Latin phrase that literally means “voice of the people”. It
            is used in English in the meaning “the opinion of the majority of the
            people”. In journalism, vox pop or person on the street refers to short interviews with members of the public.

            I just asked the bloke on the Bus.

          14. Short for vox populi.
            It was used as part of an early 18th Century political tract “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” by an anonymous Whig author.

            The most cited section of the revised (1710) version of the pamphlet read:

            “There being no natural or divine Law for any Form of Government, or that one Person rather than another should have the sovereign Administration of Affairs, or have Power over many thousand different Families, who are by Nature all equal, being of the same Rank, promiscuously born to the same Advantages of Nature, and to the Use of the same common Faculties; therefore Mankind is at Liberty to choose what Form of Government they like best.”

    2. My grandson is in his second year at university, reading journalism.

      Your answer is there Madam. It no longer requires even a minimum of study to become a journalist in the MSM. Only limitless supplies of hypocrisy and lies with the finer qualities of self-deception!

    3. We are not personally affected by the vexed issue of student loans as both Caroline and I left university debt free and we made sure we financed our two sons through university so they could do so too.

      I do not object to student loans per se and I believe that students should pay off their debts.

      But I object most vehemently to the fact that 80% + of those who take student loans will be enslaved by debt for 30 years because of the usurious rate of interest – nearly ten times the BoE base rate – which effectively makes the loans unrepayable. This is barbaric and uncivilised.

      The problem could be resolved: i) By making student loans interest free (as they are in many civilised countries); ii) By not applying income tax to the income students use to pay off their debts; iii) By giving tax breaks to companies enabling them to contribute to paying off their employees’ student loans, and iv) Writing off the student loans of teachers, doctors and nurses working in state schools or the NHS after, say, 8 years of service to encourage them to stay in their jobs.

  16. SIR – The debate on home visiting reveals the nature of the approach to general practice that has been adopted for the last 50 years. The argument inevitably runs as follows. 
1. We are overworked. 
2. A particular activity is either not efficient or a waste of time. 
3. If you pay us more money, though, we will do it.

    Sad, but predictable.

    Dr Robert Walker

    Workington, Cumbria

  18. Morning, Campers.
    Today I’m kicking off with a subject that is somewhat unpleasant. Celia Walden’s article in the DT allows no comments, but here is an excerpt.
    Possibly I’m showing my age, but the word ‘stupidity’ sprang to mind.

    “Female victim-blaming in sex crimes is a time-honoured tradition that plays into the long-propagated narrative that women should be punished for being ‘promiscuous’ or ‘deviant.’ Only today Grace would neither be considered more promiscuous than your average 21-year-old, nor deviant. In fact the “Fifty Shades defence” is probably the 2019 version of the preposterous “short skirt defence.”
    Because although older generations may balk at the kind of language being exchanged online by women and men far younger than Grace, with even mainstream dating websites like Tinder allowing BDSM tendencies and an enjoyment of ‘rough sex’ to be stated in users’ profiles alongside their hobbies, we have to accept that this is now commonplace.”

    1. Coercive control incidents double in a year, as campaigners warn domestic abuse “remains at epidemic levels” 26 November 2019

      Coercive control reports to police have doubled within a year, new figures reveal, as campaigners warn that the true extent of the crime is only just starting to be recognised.

      Morning Anne. There are large amounts of neurosis and persecution mania in Feminism! The attempt to control human relationships by means of the Law can lead only to their dissolution and State Control!

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/25/coercive-control-incidents-double-year-campaigners-warndomestic/

      1. Good morning Minty

        Dare I suggest that this..”Coercive control reports to police have doubled within a year, new figures reveal, as campaigners warn that the true extent of the crime is only just starting to be recognised.” is the result of many years of unchallenged issues with regard to other cultures who are now prolific in the UK?

        2. You don’t have to belong to other cultures to be guilty. I’m pretty sure my younger sister is in such a relationship. When my elder sister tried to raise it both with her younger sibling and the parents of my younger sister’s partner, she was shown the door so fast it wasn’t true. I no longer have any contact with my younger sister who has cut herself adrift from her family entirely. Whether or not this was her idea or not is impossible to gauge. It still makes me livid though.

          1. My ex-husband would be in jail nowadays for the way he treated me. I guess this kind of behaviour has always been there but nowadays it has a label. My neighbour has been “gaslighted” – I hadn’t heard that expression until recently. All nice middle-class people.

  19. Sophisticated Russian trolls are luring Twitter users to their accounts with heartwarming posts – then spreading disinformation to build distrust ahead of the 2020 election. 26 November 2019.

    Russian internet trolls are setting up Twitter accounts that share uplifting or heartwarming messages to build a massive following, before spewing tweets that plant distrust in the White House ahead of the 2020 election.

    Russia’s 2020 disinformation operations have been revealed in a new bombshell Rolling Stone report by Clemson University professors Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren, who study Russian social media trolling.

    No doubt they have discovered this by precognition: Crystal Ball, Tea Leaves, Whatever.

    It’s a winner though. If the Democrats lose it will be because of Russian Trolls and if they win it will be because they have overcome these evil entities who can seemingly overcome domestic saturation coverage and vast campaign expenditure with a few words on Twitter. Perhaps the Democrats should try the same!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7724925/Russian-trolls-share-Trojan-horse-uplifting-tweets-planting-distrust-ahead-2020-election.html

    2. Good (?) morning all!
      Not pouring, but a cold and bloody annoying heavy drizzle in Derbyshire.

  21. ‘Morning All

    Just when you thought the CPS couldn’t look more incompetent……………

    “Tesefay,

    who came to the UK illegally as an asylum seeker from Eritrea five

    years ago, was subsequently charged with attempting to cause grievous

    bodily harm (GBH) with intent and was due to stand trial last month. But

    the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was prepared to accept a guilty

    plea to assault causing actual bodily harm (ABH) due to insufficient

    medical evidence.

    Doctors had suspected that Tesefay had given DC Randall a hairline

    fracture to her eye socket, but it was not deemed strong enough by the

    CPS to support a more serious charge.

    As a result, Tesefay was allowed to vacate the guilty plea he had

    entered at an earlier stage in proceedings to inflicting GBH and was

    sentenced on Friday at Maidstone Crown Court, Kent, for two years for

    the lesser offence.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/25/police-officer-attacked-suspect-has-completely-let-justice-system/
    Yup,the thug has already pleaded guilty to GBH (guilty gets you a discount on sentence) but let’s discount the charge anyway
    Sheesh………..

  22. Just FOAD

    Nine more

    Army veterans could be charged with murder and attempted murder on

    Bloody Sunday almost 50 years ago after prosecutors in Northern Ireland

    announced a case review.

    The soldiers, who all served in the parachute regiment, were informed

    seven months ago that they would not be prosecuted over the deaths of

    13 civil rights marchers in Londonderry on January 30 1972.

    But lawyers acting for the relatives of those killed and wounded have

    handed a 149-page dossier to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in

    Northern Ireland demanding it overturns its earlier decision.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/25/bloody-sunday-soldiers-face-fresh-threat-murder-charges-families/

    1. Will Boris Johnson have the testicular strength to tell the lawyers to go and fornicate elsewhere?

      2. The PPS should overturn its decision on the same day the “Comfort Letters” are overturned and the IRA names the Birmingham bombers…..

  23. Report links Russian agents with 2015 poisoning in Bulgaria. 25 Nov 2019.

    Investigative watchdog Bellingcat said in a report over the weekend at least eight Russian intelligence agents traveled to Bulgaria in 2015, around the time arms dealer Emilian Gebrev was sickened by poison. Gebrev survived the attempt.

    The report is titled “The Dreadful Eight” and says all eight members belonged to the Russian GRU intelligence agency. Bellingcat said it partnered with media outlets Der Spiegel and The Insider in its investigation.

    Mr Gebrev collapsed at a wedding reception in April of 2015 so were these eight gentleman guests all present at the same time? The problem with Bellingcat is that since it became a part of Integrity (there’s Orwellian for you) Initiative it has had to produce to order. This has led to its Russian claims becoming ever more ridiculous. The Dreadful Eight? Give me a break! No factual link or area of mutual interest has ever been established between the FSB and Mr Gebrev. Who says so? Well Mr Gebrev actually. Do people die when others are present? Yes of course they do. The last cruise liner I was on four people died and two were lost overboard never to be seen again! And before you ask. I am completely innocent!

    https://www.breitbart.com/news/report-links-russian-agents-with-2015-poisoning-in-bulgaria/

    1. “And before you ask. I am completely innocent!”
      Dammit,there’s me thinking I’d finally found a hitman for hire
      So many targets,so little time….
      ‘Morning Minty

    2. The fact that the two ‘lost overboard’ were annoying little gits at the dinner table is neither here nor there.

    1. Much hysteria being broadcast by the warmists. They don’t offer any evidence and are spouting ever more wild claims. Having brainwashed the young, whatever they say is taken as gospel. Strewth.

    2. Putting global warming/climate change into perspective? Siberian Traps led to the Great Dying when around 90% of species died out.

      [Wikipedia] The massive eruptive event that formed the traps is one of the largest known volcanic events in the last 500 million years. The eruptions continued for roughly two million years and spanned the P–T boundary, or the Permian–Triassic boundary, which occurred between 251 to 250 million years ago.

      [livescience] …a pile of lava and other volcanic rocks about 720,000 cubic miles (3 million cubic kilometers) in volume.

      One might ask, “How much carbon dioxide and other noxious gases were released during this time.”

      Industrial Revolution around 300 to 400 years duration?

    2. BBC this morning concentating on climate change and the outlook for the planet is starting to look apocalyptic -particlarly if we follow the advice of refraining from eating meat.

      Most of these animals are part of other animals’ food chain except perhaps for rats and the Government has given up trying to control them at Westminster. The only thing on the menu for a post-apocaptic snack could therefore be rat:

      https://io9.gizmodo.com/recipes-for-the-post-apocalypse-how-and-why-to-eat-rat-5931901

    4. Where’s the ban on some heretic wittering his prayers over an animal with it’s throat cut bleeding to death?

  26. Further to my comment re the massive house building taking place around my home town. A photograph of one of the blighted areas, about 4 miles from where I live. The houses pictured are built on a worked out sand pit. Out of shot to the upper left is another mass of housing and retail units proceeding at a frightening pace. Again, out of shot to the lower right is another large development and further to the East of that another 500 are planned.
    The West Tey Garden Village site with thousands of homes planned is off to the mid left of the photograph and about 4 miles away. It’s conceivable that the area pictured and West Tey will merge over time to form one huge blot on the N Essex landscape.
    The nine aerial pictures in the article show the extent of development going on, calling Stanway a village is a nonsense. When I was a child it was a pleasant bicycle ride or walk to Stanway and Five Ways down what was then a country lane. The whole area has been developed and is now nothing more than a suburb of Greater Colchester.

    A selection from BTL.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/15c34baea85603f102914f211260a65793a0dcce8bc220b1c2f4b12c51fefc74.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/361e89f94ecec9320e7a8a67eeefabb24031b59815a1efe61e47d60f89e573c3.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/864ebd7f41f32318bbbbcdd1f6c32433faaa15fb5f2e916c15543783ce4fb5a4.png

    The Gazette – Changing Face of Stanway

    1. Morning Ktk,
      The lab/lib/con coalitions conversion
      program is hamlets to villages to towns to cities, built by, in the main foreign labour for foreign settlement.
      The electorate seem to find it acceptable via the polling booth.

      1. We’re not being given a choice.
        As Conservative Woman had it, it’s a choice between Left, Left, and Left…

        1. Afternoon Ims,
          If that is a persons choice then that person must accept the consequences.
          My choice personally is UKIP or the
          independent closest to my line of thinking.

          1. No UKIP or BXP candidate in my area, but at least my Tory MP voted against Teresa’s WA on all three occasions. I don’t know how he voted regarding Boris’s version. I’d like to not vote Tory, as I don’t trust them, but I don’t have much option. Not voting is not the right strategy for me, as it will achieve nothing.

      1. The easiest way to explain ‘chutzpah’, is for a son to murder his parents, then throw himself at the mercy of the Court, cus he is an Orphan

    4. It does show the modern leap in the ability to recycle materials. What was once floating high in the sky to hinder the flight paths of German bombers, has now been transformed into a dress.

  31. In 2015 ISIS militants destroyed many historical monuments in the Syrian
    city of Palmyra,just as symbols of Buddhism were smashed in Afghanistan This is a common feature of conquest, the attempt to
    eradicate history and reset the clock.

    The cultural Marxists are
    attempting to do exactly the same here. They might be slightly more
    subtle, but their intentions are the same. Instead of using
    sledgehammers they have infiltrated the places where opinions can be
    changed, the media and places of education.

    So we now have such self loathing about our history that it needs to be reset. No different to what ISIS wanted in Syria.

    If George the Poet thinks the history of the British Empire is ‘pure evil’ he can fluck off.

  32. I read this with interest (and I hope some humility and modesty) in a hard copy of ‘The Telegraph’:

    If you had been in St Margaret’s, Westminster, on Thursday, you’d have seen what looked like a quintessentially Establishment rite. The ancient church was full of Conservative MPs pausing their election campaigns to attend a memorial service for Lord Spicer. The drum corps from Spicer’s old school, Wellington, rapped out a sombre salute. His grandson sounded the Last Post. This, you’d have thought, is what it looks like when the Tory tribe masses to honour one of its chieftains.

    On paper, Michael Spicer was the most traditional of Conservatives: public school, Cambridge, a minister, Chairman of the 1922 Committee, a knight, a Privy Counsellor and a peer of the realm. But the bare facts of a man’s CV can be misleading. Under those well-cut grey suits breathed a fierce radical, a serial disrupter.
When he was at Wellington, Spicer took so strongly against one of his headmaster’s decisions that he organised a prefects’ strike, forcing the man to back down.

    At Cambridge, he founded Pressure for Economic and Social Toryism (Pest), which stood for what were then considered highly liberal positions on social policy, though they are nowadays pretty mainstream. He went on to create the world’s first economics modelling consultancy. Always the innovator, he was the only Conservative MP whose ministerial career began when Margaret Thatcher became prime minister and ended on the day she left office.

    As much as anyone, Spicer made Brexit happen. He led the Eurosceptic movement from the early Nineties until the 2005 general election, founding the European Research Group in 1993. You didn’t know that? I’m not surprised. The characteristic of his career was an almost unbelievable modesty.

    Ronald Reagan, the former US president, had a sign on his desk: “There is no limit to what a man can achieve in politics, provided he is indifferent as to who takes the credit”. Spicer took that dictum further than any politician I know. He wasn’t just indifferent as to who took the credit. He actively thrust the credit at others, knowing that it was the best way to bind them to his agenda.

    I worked for him during the slow collapse of the Major government, and was forever getting requests for him to appear on Newsnight, the Today programme and so on. He would almost always say, “Let’s give this one to so-and-so. Once he has gone on air and defended our position, he’ll think of it as his position”. That humility allowed him to rebuild the anti-EU movement from the ruins of the Maastricht rebellion and turn it into the force that eventually won the referendum.

    If you’ve ever wondered why the European Research Group has such a bland name, the answer tells us a great deal about Spicer’s approach to politics. When we were about to launch – he was the first chairman, I the first employee – I kept suggesting suitably stirring titles, involving words like “independence”, “democracy” and “freedom”.

    “Daniel”, he told me, with a patient smile, “if you’re setting up a campaign to take over the world, you don’t call it The Campaign to Take Over the World. You give it a dull, generic name like, I don’t know… European… Research Group.”

    He was a walking lesson in how to get things done in politics. He grasped how valuable it is, in a world full of blabbermouths and serial leakers, to be known to be discreet.

    He understood that, in order to convince the Tory party, it helped to fit in, at least superficially. “You have to dress like them,” he told me not long before he died. “You have to talk like them. You have to tell funny stories about when you played rugby against them at school. If you want to do anything radical, for heaven’s sake don’t look like a radical.”

    Above all, Michael knew that you had to pick your battles. “I have a very simple rule,” he explained to me at the height of the Maastricht rebellion. “Only go over the top if you have some chance of success. If it’s just a futile gesture, everyone will say how tough you are, but you’ll have weakened yourself for the next time – and that’s when it might really have mattered.”

    When the time came, he went over the top – dutifully and discreetly, but with deadly effectiveness. The public at large might not have known it, but the MPs who piled into that church were well aware that the vote for Brexit would not have happened without him.

    Thank you, Michael. Flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

    I felt I’d learnt something from this read.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/11/24/without-unbelievable-modesty-one-man-brexit-would-have-impossible/

    1. “Under those well-cut grey suits breathed a fierce radical, a serial disrupter.”

      By jove, do we need more such people.

      Here at a local level, those with any say or influence all sing from the same hymn sheet with no one wanting to step out of line or rock the boat.

      In our increasingly PC World, we’re in desperate need of individuals.

    2. Maastricht……..

      One of the mysteries of the 1990s………..

      ……or is it ?

      Has everyone been looking in the right place ?

  33. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IKbLBif9H7Y

    Tucker Carlson Tonight show from last night, includes the impeachment proceedings which are not going well for the Democrats; Michelle Obama (not) running for president; the last segment is on the Douma gas attack last year, which is now claimed to be a hoax, which is worth watching.
    If you do want to watch this show, you’ll need to do it early, before it gets wiped, as most of Tucker’s shows now are. They get reduced down to 2 seconds.

  34. Tony Blair gave a speech on the state of British politics… and he sounded close to despair. Michael Deacon. 25 NOVEMBER 2019

    Tony Blair isn’t happy. You can see it in his smile. Gone is the Cheshire Cat grin of old: the grin of triumph, and of invincible conviction. Now it’s barely a smile at all. It’s more a grimace, or a wince: pained, pleading, weary, the eyes darting about anxiously, as if hunting for the emergency exit.

    Morning everyone. Judging by the accompanying video clip none of this is true. He gives the speech in clipped tones reading it awkwardly from a paper on the dais in front of him. He looks as confident, tanned and suave as always though there’s that marked divergence of expression between the right and left sides of his face which betrays the divide between his public bonhomie and the evil that resides within. If he has anxieties they are well hidden and one would have thought they would be more concerned with the EU project going astray. His description of both Labour and the Tories being Populists would support this. Perhaps he knows something that the rest of us don’t? Whatever, anything that discomfits Blair has to be a bonus for both the British people and humanity in general.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/11/25/tony-blair-gave-speech-state-british-politics-sounded-close/

    1. The problem for Blair was that he made PM far too young and now has to live through all the consequences of those mad years he was in office and face the ridicule while pretending that he is a statesman.

  35. Uber & TfL

    TfL’s decision not to issue a licence to Uber appears to be political. . The licensing and regulatory authority for taxis nd Private high in London lies with TfL. They have to ensure drivers are licences and insured etc. Ubers only requirement is to ensure the drivers are licenced by TfL

  36. China can shut off the Philippines power grid at will, report warns – highlighting concerns over allowing Beijing to invest in foreign nuclear plants
    Chinese engineers could shut down the Philippine power network, it is feared
    National security is ‘completely compromised’ by China’s role, a report warned
    China is helping to build a UK nuclear power plant and faces sanctions in the US

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7726421/China-shut-Philippines-power-grid-report-warns.html

    1. Is that the China which is putting members of a particular minority into concentration camps? Great people to do business with!

    2. No worries. They are friends of ours. We can sit down, share a pipe or two, and talk it over.

  37. So that’s Scotland sorted then ?

    ”Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) … Founded in 2010 under the sponsorship of financier, philanthropist, and left-wing activist billionaire George Soros, the organization promotes an expansion of left-wing economics education in a search for a new statist economic policy consensus.”

    https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/institute-for-new-economic-thinking/

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/17db290403333188688d3943dfc16c0d11e2c385a105fcf33e65fb48c9ef5fcb.jpg

  38. Latest on the spat between me and the planners over the demolition of the old community hospital in Great Malvern being pushed through, but my far more modest application for a house extension in the middle of nowhere is refused because it is incongruous with the “street scene”.

    Dear Cllr Rouse

    You may remember in the Spring how my own modest planning application for an extension was turned down on appeal on the grounds that it was out of keeping with an undefined local vernacular, and was incongruous with the existing building.

    I notice in the news today that the old community hospital in Great Malvern Conservation Area is being demolished to make way for redevelopment.

    Is this not an example of one rule for developers and another rule for householders? No wonder the public holds the planning process and its officers in contempt!

    Best regards

    Jeremy Morfey

    ——

    Jeremy

    Thank you for your email.

    The Planning Inspector in Bristol decided to refuse your application. So that would be a government official not an MHDC planner.Perhaps one for our 4 prospective MP candidates .

    The design approved for the old hospital site went through many iterations. Was refused at least once. Possibly twice . It was decided by a committee of 22 Cllrs eventually. So it was elected Cllrs not planning officers who made the decision .

    So whilst I understand you are aggrieved the decisions you point at were not ultimately made by planners but Cllrs and inspectors .

    Sarah

    ———

    Sarah

    Thank you for your response.

    My judgement considers the planning process in its entirety, rather than breaking it down into constituent parts, which lays open then the prospect of scapegoating and buck passing.

    For a redevelopment of a sound and historic building in a Conservation Area such as Great Malvern to be refused twice on good grounds, and then pushed through a third time rather sneakily, suggests that there is something amiss with the process. That it was done by 22 councillors after an election, where there is little public recourse to such a decision until long after the event, is particularly lamentable.

    This is not the point I was making though, but rather that one outcome applies when initiated by a commercial property interest, and a quite different one applies when initiated by a householder lacking such political clout.

    It will not be forgotten. I have not forgiven the destruction of medieval Worcester over fifty years ago.

    Best regards
    Jeremy

    ——-

    Jeremy

    For clarification the decision on the hospital was made prior to the election in May . The final design was entirely different from those that were refused and reflected the previous reasons for refusal . The final design reflects and mirrors the houses already in Landsdowne Crescent . Which are beautiful . So the refusals shaped what was approved . It was not forced through. A committee of Councillors debated it and approved it .

    Sarah

    2. “...a householder lacking such political and financial clout.…”

      I used to believe that elected representatives and public officials were honest, pragmatic, and looked for the best outcome for the area and society.
      I no longer believe that. I have seen endemic corruption.

    3. I welcome discussion on this.

      It seems that the merits of the old building were discounted when assessing the merits of the new. I have seen the design of the new care home, and indeed a certain amount of trouble was made to reflect the design of the other buildings in the crescent. This seems to be the preoccupation of the planners, more so than the preservation of what is already there.

      In my case, they were more concerned with matching the brickwork of the existing cottage pedantically than with preserving history.

      Politically, the district council changed over in May 2019 from Conservative to a Coalition of ten Independents, nine Liberal Democrats and five Greens. Cllr Rouse is the Leader of the Independent Group.

      1. Among other complications (primarily greed) you have fallen victim to the ABC Party – Anyone But Conservatives.
        We have seen applications rejected in Colchester because the applicant was a known Conservative supporter. If a project of any kind was originally supported or mooted by Conservative councillors, it will automatically be kiboshed by an ABC administration.

        1. Not what’s happened here though. I would have liked to have seen the old hospital converted into a care home, rather than demolished.

          It breaks my heart to think of all those landmarks I once knew but are gone now, and of those I might have known, but are also gone. A scorched earth policy where all we have left is a desert of our own making. I often dream about them, as if their spirits enter my subconscious. Places are far more important about who we are than we realise. If we destroy these places, then we kill a part of ourselves. On a national scale, the destruction of much of Syria’s heritage, or the National Museum in Brazil or the National Library in Bucharest, must have been devastating to the national identity of these places to the extent that they lose their self-worth. Churchill understood the importance of saving St Paul’s from the blitz at all costs.

          Malvern has been to-and-froing between the Tories and the ABC. The Tories picked up after the Waitrose debacle, where the supermarket dictated to the Council how to develop the market and main car park site, and also when the Lib Dems closed the public toilets, which the Tories preserved and re-opened.

          In amid this is the Civil Society, which just wants to safeguard as much of Malvern’s heritage as it can from the developers.

          There was one site though which didn’t bother me. Edith Walk, in the town centre has a large development planned, but is mostly over a private car park, with only one building of real interest.

          This is a former Victorian public convenience, which was converted into a theatre. It’s in the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest commercial theatre in the world, and seats 12. It’s used mostly for puppet shows and poetry readings. I wrote to the developer, who agreed that it is a tremendous asset and will add value to what is being planned there, so they have no intention to knock it down.

      1. Afternoon AS,
        Seems like some odious trend is the order of the day as in anyone
        supporting / voting for the lab/lib/con coalition can foresee the odious
        future, never heeding the odious recent past.

    2. Gerard is a great man.
      What the British people did to this man of decency, honour and principle – and great courage should never be forgiven.
      It was a brutal, ignorant and vile rejection of one of the finest politicians we have.
      On the scale of the treatment meted out to Enoch.

  40. JK Rowling is talking about the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter.
    I don’t think anyone has milked a small wizard this much since Debbie Magee

    1. Mrs Merton (Caroline Aherne) famously asked Debbie McGee, “So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?”

  41. As the First Minister for Scotland has apparently had at least one meeting with a George Soros sponsored organization…. should Brits be asking if UK Prime Ministers have as well, and, if so, what was the outcome of the meetings ?

  43. Why won’t the EU and Britain sign up to US sanctions on Iran ?

    Is the reason connected to the 1.5 billion dollars cash sent by Obama to Tehran as a ”sweetener”. Of which allegedly a significant slice was paid by Iran to certain European and American politicos and diplomats as ”arrangement and facilitation” fees for the deal” as a whole ?

    Judging by the extremely worried demeanour of some well known Obama era politicians when Donald cancelled ”the deal”, I think that looks very likely !

  44. ‘Morning Peeps.

    Sorry, late on parade, so this may have been said already – don’t miss Brillo v Comrade Steptoe BBC1 7.00pm. If he does to him what he did to Queen Nicola yesterday evening then not to be missed!

  45. If Corbyn thinks that quality of bricklaying is acceptable to build a house he’s a bigger prat than even I imagined him to be. What happened to the vertical and horizontal courses?
    I’m 70 yo and never had a lesson in bricklaying but I’m so much better than that – here’s my proof. Laid this summer and the bricks are really difficult to lay: they are concrete and so do not ‘suck’ the mortar dry very quickly and are the very devil to point up; they are uneven in depth and along the face such that the laying line has to be on the back top corner as opposed to being on the front. The sleepers sit pretty well on the top course without the need of a bed of mortar to smooth out any unevenness. I do hope that you Nottlers do not think I’m a braggart but I am pleased with my new patio and brick walls that I worked on all summer.

    https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1199075191525130240

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/73a71d15731261b2c92dc6f98d6b038e6080a071e1b0ac0ee0047f0834bdad13.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eca8dd0d1061dcb06e0230f030e95591cfb976955c719f40baf1efc5a1e1f273.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/857cb5dab9f716d9658cab56a6a92000a2f805184b217d27f4405333c6c53c5b.jpg

    1. Brilliant job , well done.

      Where are the building trades going to get their people from now that people have cleared off back to Europe .

      I can’t imagine new immigrants having a clue about electrics, plumbing or basic building skills.. after all , the Arabs import labour to build their own towering infernos.. and Pyramids!

      1. Some years ago I worked in a contract manager’s office on the new Merville garrison project. Each barrack block was built from factory constructed ‘pods’ that were literally stacked and bolted together. They turned up fully wired and plumbed and only had to be connected to the main feeds within the block’s risers.
        I recollect that all the electricians, carpenters and plumbers were British, the two guys who were given the job of hanging the £500 apiece fire doors were South African – the contracts manager wouldn’t let anyone else touch those doors – and the painters were usually Eastern Europeans. The stories that all the Europeans are good workers doesn’t hold true, some of the work was atrocious and the snagging teams had a field day rejecting much of it.
        If the politicians are going to build all the houses they’ve promised – very unlikely, I know – then factory prefabricated unit building is the way to go. Standards would be set and controlled within the factory, quality assured before being released, kitchens fitted, double or triple glazed windows fitted etc all within the factory. No wet plastering inside on site and any colour and style of brick outer skin could be specified. With a range of standard ‘pods’ and fittings the assembly could be undertaken by semi-skilled people under controlled conditions.

        1. I does me best.

          (& I’ve done my share of garden bricklaying & landscaping in my time.)

    6. Well, if Corbyn wins there’ll be, by a helluva lotta bricks sh*t (past participle, irregular verb) by Christmas.

    7. It is perfectly fine to showcase your talents and to be proud of what you have achieved. (sez a braggart)

      Can i have your Butler sink?

      1. It can be. After leaving BT I was offered the chance of a job at the local Technical College working with youngsters who were being given the chance of learning a trade rather than being in an academic classroom. It sounds a fine idea but as usual the reality is very far removed from theory. For one, in the bricklaying class the mortar is made from lime and is remixed and reused time after time. It is very nasty stuff if it enters the eyes and throwing it around was frowned upon.
        Sadly, as I found out to my cost, a number of these youngsters were one step up from morons and telling them not to do something was taken as an incitement to do it.
        I survived a couple of weeks and left after a 15 yo attacked me with a yard broom that was laden with mortar and I was lucky not to have been severely injured or blinded. This particular specimen, along with the others, had access to builder’s shovels and 3 1/2 pound lump hammers: I still think I got away lightly. Opened my eyes, did that experience.

    10. A friend (yes, I fib) tells me that bricklaying is taught with sand rather than mortar, then all the materials can be used again.
      And another friend, long departed, told me that if you chip away the glaze on a butler’s sink you end up with what appears to be an antique stone trough. I tried and failed, but had no angle grinder in those days.

    1. Would never be allowed on the Brussels Bull5hite Corrupucation

      Shiny shoes
      Suits
      Ties
      Four men of ‘non colour’
      No World’s Greatesterer Expert (Ex has been ;spert Drip Under Pressure) on Climate Change 12yo Road Grttta

    1. Perhaps they’re getting ready to take advantage of the Northwest passage. Some sea journeys will be substantially reduced.

  49. British children orphaned after their family travelled to Syria are back in the UK and ‘as happy as they possibly could be’, judge says. Mail 26 November 2019.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a54ad59116678eab0015686c4622173fe8744900d3a08e27fcf4e33f1b8b2bb3.png

    Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Thursday that British orphans whose parents had died in Syria were being returned to the UK.

    In a statement, Mr Raab said: ‘These innocent, orphaned, children should never have been subjected to the horrors of war.

    ‘We have facilitated their return home, because it was the right thing to do. Now they must be allowed the privacy and given the support to return to a normal life.’

    As can be seen from the saccharine comment in the screenshot everyone agrees with him; 556 downvotes but not one single negative comment! That’s what I call advanced moderation! Lol!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7727047/British-children-orphaned-family-travelled-Syria-UK-relatives.html#comments

  51. Millions of “Voter Registrations”………….
    I wonder how many are asking for postal votes
    I wonder who’s farming those postal votes
    Once boundaries are redrawn and voter ID in imposed nationwide it’s over for the Left,is this the last throw for massive voter fraud??
    Interesting times

        1. Very good.

          I saw Fascinating Aïda live at a London Theatre quite a few years ago with Issy van Randwyck. They did a pisstake of Cabaret. The Germans didn’t come out of it very well. :o)

    3. Just a middle class racist toying with guilt.
      I disrespect* ‘liberals’ who label dark-skinned human beings as ‘black’.
      O Jones appears to be some shade of sickly pink, and he is clearly too feeble to direct an iron at his own shirt collar.

      (Sorry, had to self-moderate my language.)

        1. It looks so like the type of thing he might write, that I had a good check round the googlesphere, just in case it was real.

  53. One to keep the boffins occupied over the Christmas break:

    Scan someone’s head for accurate information about their skull.
    Use a 3D printer to recreate their skull.
    Give the plastic skull to the people who build up old skulls to see how their owners would have looked.
    Compare their efforts to the person who was scanned.

  54. ‘Jeremy Corbyn is not going to be prime minister, there is no way that Jo Swinson is going to be prime minister’: Former Tory Remainer big beast Lord Heseltine defends
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7726367/Ex-Tory-Cabinet-minister-Lord-Heseltine-urges-voters-Liberal-Democrats.html

    …and thankfully it’s not going to be you! The Tory Grandee who engineered the downfall of Margaret Thatcher.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc564fd29d4d8004f829a93bfffc2473b0604bee7e1dc7379eebb0b24097c8a2.jpg

      1. Heseltine rocked up on LBC this morning, my instinctive reaction was to hit the mute button. Now, I agree that education is important and if I think anyone has something to say, including a ranting malcontent son of immigrants, I’ll listen but Heseltine has, in my opinion, played his hand so many times that he has nothing more to add to the argument. A cracked 78 rpm record would sound as sour.

    1. When the vast majority of people who are shelling out brats are the poorest and most irresponsible members of society it is inevitable that this will be the case.

    2. See that weasel word ‘relative’?

      With ‘relative poverty’ you can be sitting in what 90% of the world would consider luxury, yet still be classed as ‘poor’ according to the corrupt and innumerate British media.

      1. Even in the UK 60% of Median income in parts of Wales and the North would be quite a nice income. Relative poverty is just a crazy measure of poverty. WE need a sensible measure of poverty. If you ignore housing costs you can livve a reasonable like on £500 a month. Not say that would allow for luxuries but you woul have no need to visit food banks

        1. My outgoings for a month are £2,457.36. Including luxuries like private health insurance and fags. I couldn’t survive on £500 a month.

      1. Oh yes.many times,love the old girl and the references to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
        Edit
        The filing cabinet has rustily opened Hazel Stone wasn’t it

  57. Katie Price has been declared bankrupt by a London court

    She is a stupid woman in my view. She would have been made aware of the seriousness of not complying with the IVA

    She has not been earning much for years but still carried on as if she still had the income she had several years ago. Her future earnings capacity is not good and how she will cope with having little money to spend who knows

    The former glamour model and businesswoman avoided bankruptcy in December 2018 after taking out an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA), which required her to make monthly payments to her creditors to clear her debts.

    Having failed to comply with this arrangement, Price was declared bankrupt by Judge Jonathan Middleton at a hearing at the Insolvency and Companies Court in London.

    Bankruptcy shows on your credit report for six years after you’ve been declared bankrupt and you’re legally obliged to tell any lenders that you’ve been declared bankrupt if you’re applying for further credit over £500. This could make getting credit difficult in the future.

    After the six year period, you still may be refused credit because you have been bankrupt in the past. Even if a lender does lend you money, it’s likely that the interest rate will be high.

    Once declared bankrupt, you are no longer responsible for your own assets, including money. A trustee will deal with your money and possessions to ensure your creditors get paid. Your possessions such as your home and car will be sold in order to make these repayments.

    Your trustee will also be responsible for repaying your debt using your income. The trustee will decide whether you can make monthly repayments from your spare income. This is called an Income Payments Agreement (IPA) and can last up to three years. If you refuse the IPA the court can order you to co operate.

    The trustee will take into account your costs of living such as grocery costs and utility bills before allocating money to debts.

    Items such as expensive furniture, clothing and bedding may be sold and replaced by cheaper alternatives. If you have a family, you will be given 12 months to find alternative accommodation.

    Your trustee will also be responsible for repaying your debt using your income. The trustee will decide whether you can make monthly repayments from your spare income. This is called an Income Payments Agreement (IPA) and can last up to three years. If you refuse the IPA the court can order you to co operate.

    The trustee will take into account your costs of living such as grocery costs and utility bills before allocating money to debts.

    After you’ve been declared bankrupt, you can still get a mortgage. Be warned though, many lenders will refuse you.

    In order to get a mortgage, you must have had your bankruptcy notice removed for six years. You’ll need to shop around and your credit history will also be closely checked.

    2. Destroy our democracy? Perhaps she should consider the absurdity of her claim.

      The article is about possible reforms to the HRA, considerations on the power of judges and the so-called Henry VIII powers in the wihdrawal bills.

      1. If the HRA is reformed to prevent foreign criminals avoiding deportation, only the HR lawyers will complain.
      2. Johnson’s prorogation may have been foolish but it exposed the danger of the Supreme Court’s powers which are anything but democratic.
      3. Given that a vast swathe of EU legislation was written into UK law by diktat, it can be written in the same way.

  59. Latest Electoral Calculus Prediction

    Labour a slight improvement as have the Lib-Dems probably down to the publicity from the Manifestos. Probably will be next week before we see if the Conservative manifesto has made any impact. The Brexit Party slide has continued and interestingly the SNP support is dropping
    . Where the support is going I am unclear
    Con 359 42.7%
    Lab 208 30.1%
    Lib 20 15%
    Brexit 0 3.5%
    Green 1 3.2%
    SNP 41 3.6%
    Plaid 3 0.6%
    UKIP 0 0%
    DUP 8
    SF 7
    Allience 3

    1. BBC highlighting 3.2 million newly registered voters – don’t be surprised if Corby & co do much, much better than forecast!

  60. A joy to watch.

    Watching a documentary last night about Aardman Animation gave me a damp eye – brilliant stuff which was given high praise by their competitors across the pond.

    Although the company had worked with an American studio, they decided to go their own way and to carry on producing stuff which was essentially British. So much so that one comment in the programme was “The Americans think they’re documentaries”.

    What talent.

      1. That is the trouble with islam, it can never be reformed it is the direct word of god. We should ask the slammer what her holy book says about jews. I believe that the chap was not phased by a nutter ranting from religious texts and like many, would just let the guy run out of steam.

    2. Meanwhile the non-moslem that stepped in first and was threatened is rapidly airbrushed from history,briefly mentioned in the Mail and completely edited out of the Al-Beeb footage

  63. Jeremy Corbyn promises children will be taught about evils of British Empire

    and all about the Peace Loving IRA

    and why 99% of the oppressed ex-colonists are trying to get here

    and how we ‘imposed’ law, order, government, peace etc on these countries

    and that the worsesterer living conditions in Africa, is in ex – colonies that have reverted to tribal law/dictatorship ie Ebgum (mugabe)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/11/25/jeremy-corbyn-promises-children-will-taught-evils-british-empire/

    1. Mind you, we didn’t always treat the natives so well. Sometimes we even treated them worse than the EU treat us.

      2. We have this sort of nonsense going on all the time. Empires were normal i the past as was slavery and mild forms of slavery continued in the UK almost into living memory it was known as being in service

        Perhaps Cobyn will start worrying about children being sent down mines and working in factories and sent up chimneys but that not abroad so he will not worry about that

          1. Corbyn is chasing the black/ brown/ snowflake vote..

            Our major cities that migrants inhabit are now lost to us .. Birmingham, Manchester , Bristol, London , dah di dah di dah ..

      4. But that was then and, despite what many think, you can’t change history. Are you saying they have better governance than we gave them?

      5. Brussels and Belgium’s King Leopold II have a bit of form regarding treating colonial vassal states rather poorly.

  64. Brexit Party candidates hounded as masked protesters storm party rally in Plymouth

    Far left in action again and strangely the BBC and other media are pretty quiet

    Prospective MPs standing for the Brexit Party in the area were addressing supporters as part of the party’s General Election Tout in Plymouth’s Duke of Cornwall Hotel. But as the Brexit Party event got underway, a group of masked Antifa protestors assembled outside the hotel to picket the rally. Footage from the scene shows a crowd standing outside the venue holding placards reading “smash fascism and racism” as the crowd chants: “Say it loud, say it clear, migrants are welcome here.”

    1. Ironic isn’t it that “Anti Fascists” use the same tactics of intimidation as the Nasty Party Brownshirts!

      3. It’s a shame that counter protestors don’t film the A F while their own people run through them all, ripping off the face masks.

  65. Heseltine has recommended people to vote for the Lib/Dems.

    Why wasn’t this ridiculous man sacked from the Conservative Party along with Ken Clarke many years ago.

    1. Why do the media beat a path to his door to inflict his insane ramblings upon us? There are plenty of other old fools in the world without them having to concentrate on the same ones all the time.

    2. Because the Conservative Party hasn’t been Conservative for many years. Getting on for 30 years.

  66. Reach closes last newsroom in Cornwall with some staff moved to hub in Devon

    Reach is closing two offices in the South West, including its last newsroom in Cornwall, with journalists to work remotely or hot desk in shared working spaces while others are moved to a hub in Plymouth.

  68. The Brexit Party

    Their campaign in my view has been very poor. They should be pushing against an open door but are failing to make any impact

    There are a good percentage of Conservative voters and a good percentage of Labour voters they would support a party such as the Brexit Party but it really need to get organised and to stop being a one man band. It needs to differentiate itself from the other parties but is failing to do so

    1. BJ,
      Playing the devil’s doodar how about if they were playing for the same team ?
      How can they be anything other than a one man band when I believe there is only
      one member ?

    3. Gather unto me, my Nottlers: we will crowd fund for her ONE WAY ticket to Uganda

      All her dependents will put in a container and sent as ‘follow on’ baggage.

      Now, will someone tell me WTF she is

  72. Especially for Remainer dummies

    The EU is preparing, with little scrutiny, for a great leap forward in further integration
    GUNNAR BECK
    GERMAN ACADEMIC AND MEP
    Follow 26 NOVEMBER 2019 • 12:31PM

    One topic so far ignored during the British electoral campaign is the issue of whether the EU Britain will almost certainly remain a member if the Conservatives fail to win will be anything like the EU that the British people voted to leave in 2016.

    The answer to this is clear: The EU will not stay the same, because Germany and France will press ahead with further integration. This is the message of the incoming EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen who in her first address to the EU Parliament called for a new Convention on the Future of Europe, a kind of quasi-constitutional body ostensibly modelled on the American constitutional convention.

    The EU Convention will be composed not of political thinkers, but delegates from the EU institutions and national parliamentary representatives. Ms von der Leyen is a former German secretary of state, who grew up in Brussels as the daughter of an EU official and has been a fervent integrationist since she left the cradle. Her objectives for the new Convention sound appealing enough: more transparency, more democracy and greater citizen participation in EU decision-making.

    Ms von der Leyen’s objectives, of course, are not new – they are taken almost verbatim from the announcement of the previous Convention on the Future of Europe which met from 2002 to 2004 and in which I followed closely as a legal adviser to the UK national parliamentary delegation. The end result of that Convention was not more democracy but a blueprint for the EU’s first constitution which sought to extend the EU’s powers and strengthened supranational decision-making through majority voting and an erosion of the national veto. The Constitution failed because the French people voted it down by referendum but most of its integrationist provisions eventually found its way into the Lisbon Treaty which was negotiated purely between EU governments.

    There is no doubt that Ms von der Leyen’s true, though unstated, motive is ‘ever closer union.’ She has already promised a new compact for migration which will not immediately affect the UK which is not a member of the common asylum policy. However, many refugees admitted into Italy, Germany or France, will over time find their way into Britain and without Brexit there will be no way to prevent such follow-on migration. In addition, von der Leyen announced a new ‘idealistic’ climate agenda with a new EU climate tax attached to it, which companies will simply pass on to consumers.

    Other key objectives for the EU Commission and EU Parliament will be more treaty-based EU powers over national policy-making, EU enlargement and accession of the Balkans, and the abolition of unanimity in those areas where it still applies, esp. taxation and foreign and defence policy. The EU may not get its way in all respects, but there is no doubt the final product of the Convention will be a blueprint for a ‘great leap forward’ in EU integration which would go beyond even that attempted with the first failed EU Constitution.

    For all German eurosceptics including me, the UK has generally been a voice of reason and successive British government have often infused debates about the future of the EU with a sense of realism and measured restraint. We cannot therefore welcome the UK’s departure from the EU. At the same time, unlike many others in the EU, we respect the democratic vote of the British people and are confident that the UK will make a success of life outside the EU. The forthcoming election will decide whether the UK will leave or not.

    However, as the EU will not stand and move on along the road to ‘ever closer union’, it will also be a vote on whether the UK still wants to be part of that project which, by its nature, is dynamic and not static. It is up to the British people whether, after a referendum decision to leave, they wish to reverse that decision, but it seems to be but fair that they should be allowed to take that second decision fully informed about where the EU is heading.

    When some groups in the EU Parliament tabled a debate about the forthcoming Convention for this week’s plenary session in Strasbourg, that debate was quickly taken off the agenda because it could interfere with the orderly preparation for the Convention. Need I say more, the Convention is aimed at more transparency and more citizen participation, but pray no debate, be it parliamentary or public. And by keeping the issue firmly off the agenda, the media duly anticipated Brussels’ wishes before they were even voiced.

    Gunnar Beck is a German academic, EU lawyer and member of the European Parliament.

    ****************************************************************************************************

    BTL:

    Tiger Chops 26 Nov 2019 5:59PM
    EU ULTIMATUM: Barnier orders UK to accept free movement or face crippling trade barriers.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1209597/Brexit-news-Michel-Barnier-Boris-Johnson-free-movement-trade-deal-latest-update

    BRUSSELS will demand Boris Johnson accepts free movement of people or be forced to stomach tough trade barriers for goods after Brexit, Michel Barnier tonight revealed.

    And so it starts. EU Mafia style.

    1. This is one of several reasons that many people are becoming slightly despondent, to put it mildly. Those who have been watching the “musical chairs” of who gets which job in the EU over the past few months, have seen that they are getting ready for their long-prepared leap into closer integration. Ever-closer union, and the removal of Nation States as anything more than an idea, has been the goal for decades now.

      In this election it is sinking in that we are not going to be allowed to Leave the EU with any of the major parties in office. They have managed to stop the Referendum result being carried out for 3 years already, and are happy for another 5 year delay during the next Parliament.

      Boris’s “deal” now has 2 primary purposes. It allows us no voice to resist the EU’s decisions for our country, especially with regards to the massive debt burden that will be forced onto our shoulders, and it delays our Brexit from actually happening for years. This will give the Remainers time to overturn the Referendum result in any way that they can come up with.

      Many of us now have no “Leaver” to vote for, now that The Brexit Party are not standing in all seats. Much as I dislike this fact, Farage may have made the sad calculation that there are simply too many people in the country who think that Boris’s Withdrawal Agreement is actually leaving the EU. The media are certainly not asking any questions about what it will mean for our place in the EU pecking order.

      So with no real chance of taking the safe Conservative seats, at least he won’t be blamed for splitting any Leave vote.

      With us having no MEP’s and being locked into an unending “transition period” (Boris won’t be leaving after 1 year) we will have less power than any other EU country. We have seen how the EU punishes those nations that dare to question them already. They will be able to do far worse to the United Kingdom, and they are not going to hold back and waste this opportunity that they will have to hurt us.

      So this can cause malaise in many of us, but while there is life there is hope. The one thing that can halt a disastrous term under EU control is another hung Parliament. Boris will not be able to get the EU’s trap passed, and our country gains time for people to realise just how much the EU is falling apart. So we still have a chance. The Remainers would not be wheeling out everyone under the Sun to say “Vote for Boris and get Brexit done” if they thought that they had already won.

      1. MM,
        And so it came to pass that the repeated call for 17.4 million new UKIP members as an anti treachery move in June 16 was not far of the common sense mark.

  74. Just watching the local (Lake District/NW) News.
    The reporter mentioned that a senior Cabinet Minister would be visiting the NW tomorrow. The reporter could not tell us who it would be, or where they would be going, for “security reasons”.
    Is it me? (again). What kind of election campaign is this, being carried out in secret?

      1. The media have not properly reported this. The additional 50,000 nurses ill be achieved by a number of means. 18,500 will be achieved by reducing the attrition rate and by getting nurses that have left the NHS to return, 12,500 will be recruited abroad and 19.000 will be new trainees

    1. Lord Pearson is way too nice and reasonable about this. Whilst the indigenous population tries to be polite and civilised on the subject of Islam we are just going to be trampled underfoot. Having reasonable discussions will take us nowhere. I’ve concluded that the only thing they understand are harsh words backed up by brute force, and as things stand it is clear the West is not going to mete out such a response.

      1. Evening C,
        I do not believe that being nice comes into the equation that is his way on all issues.
        Whereas the lab/lib/con coalition are purveyors of PC / Appeasement & IMO the “nige” is from the same ilk.
        Gerard Batten was warning of islamic ideology
        many moons ago but many find it to upsetting to face head on, many a mindset think it is, when voting, to go into the three monkey mode.

    1. “- factual rebuttals only on a/s (don’t use “smear” or attack rabbi.)”

      It speaks volumes that they needed to include this instruction in the list.

      They might as well say: “Don’t make things up or attack the Jew.”

  80. Tipped off by twitter I broke my own rules and caught most of the AN/JC interview
    OMG that was awful
    We are so flucked if he gets anywhere near the levers of power

    2. I liked it where Neill asked him if he was going on holiday while the new referendum was being run!

  82. I had a pleasant surprise yesterday when my Winter Fuel Allowance arrived. It was for £300. I thought it was an error but on investigation i found that it was because I was born before a date in September 1939.

      1. My 80th birthday was in June this year. There were no celebrations but I got plenty of nice cards. Next target, 90 in 2029.

  83. The media has been reporting on the rush to register to vote. The Independent is playing this up, apparently in the hope that the new voters are all young, sensible and caring enough to vote for that nice old fellow.

    Has anyone seen any proper analysis of this and how it might affect the election?

    1. If it’s mainly the sort who listen to the music of or are influenced by Stormzy (sic) then there’s nothing to worry about. There’s over a fortnight to go. They’ll have forgotten by then.

    2. Momentum will ‘facilitate’ mass registration of the young – and industrial scale abuse of the postal vote.

      We have no protection against Momentum and their unscrupulous methods …

    4. I did send an open email to 2 million supporters of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, with an invitation to visit and instructions on how to register to vote.

      I didn’t think that they would all come.

  84. Spiked on the interview

    That must surely rank as one of the worst political performances of modern times. Jeremy Corbyn

    in his grilling by Andrew Neil came across as listless, disengaged,

    impersonal, irritable, unprincipled and outright bored. Especially when

    asked about Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis and the fact that 80 per cent of Britain’s Jews think he is anti-Semitic. He looked bored.

    And of course he started banging on about Islamophobia. He couldn’t

    believe someone was asking him about those pesky Jews when all he wants

    to talk about is lovely Muslims.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/11/26/jeremy-corbyn-just-gave-the-worst-political-performance-of-modern-times/

    1. If the statistics are right and Labour will take 30 per cent of the vote, the big question is, why ?

  85. BBC today showed an image of the charred remains of tree trunks after a forest fire along with the message that we must all dramatically reduce our carbon emissions if we are ever to keep within the agreed global warming targets.

    Was the message here that uncontrolled global warming is already causing forest fires or that our failure to prevent forest fires is causing global warming?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7bb9fe2317cda82110d68b0950f15848af80510a260f3468d83e2ed3ec953856.gif

    1. Everyone seems to have forgotten that wildfires are a natural and often essential part of nature. Some tree species need to have their seeds exposed to the temperatures of forest fires before they will even germinate. Wildfires thin overgrown forest canopies and let the sun down to the forest floor, enhancing understorey growth.

      They become a real problem when people insist of building wooden towns in woodland areas prone by their nature to wildfires and not keeping clear-fell firebreaks between housing and forest. The problem is worsened by the insistence in many areas of having no forest management, so that when fires do occur their intensity is enhanced by understorey fuel that has been allowed to accumulate beyond the level that it would in a natural forest with more frequent natural fires.

      I’ve seen the impacts of many wildfires in Spain. Pine trees and everything under them blackened, often still smouldering with pink staining on the roads where fire suppressant has been dropped from aircraft. Fast forward one year and it’s greening up. A year or two later and there is verdant growth of grass, bushes and scrub, with only the still-blackened dead tree-trunks to show there was ever a fire. Shortly afterwards the new pines, encouraged by the clearance are already starting to show through to replace their recent ancestors.

      2. After the 1987 hurricane the Forestry Commission planted thousands of trees but they didn’t do as well as those that had self seeded. Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.

    2. “Was the message here that uncontrolled global warming is already causing forest fires or that our failure to prevent forest fires is causing global warming”?

      Ask Gretta …

    3. I do like a nice warm fire. I suppose that makes me a bad person.

      Thank goodness for my diesel powered yacht that takes me round the world to warmer climes.

  86. ‘Inside Porton Down’, BBC4, is providing some light relief from GE political excrescence …

    2. In the 60/70s we used to get regular invites to spend 14 days at Porton Down, to test “Flu Vaccines”

      I never went, or I might be deranged by noooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

  88. May one ask has greeting gretta any idea who will get the curtain franchise for isolating China when the rest of the planet has a zero warming reading, or will she use the nuke option ?

    2. She went off social media after adverse comments the poor lambette. Probably in the same safe space as Cressida.

      I wonder which one has the bigger …………..

  90. Night All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7840e83da9894b92588924df4a59f939bf107fb3e2193d42a143ea817e6e2bb7.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/81f52f5a9f308653c5e1408d6c95f91e114950bb11cfe832780bef80e1a15594.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f45fcdef1535e290090b68489d1d942079fa787537a6aecccb9e0366a83c178.jpg

    https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/77200151_2531685103594294_6573941805853704192_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&_nc_ohc=3uW7jMMFQsoAQnoQ4weN2y9FudkfBjaC812dywaTb2KTyJtX0evZza0Cg&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.xx&oh=44d664e2a4e70ac27cb6093c481d5ec0&oe=5E490E40

    1. He’d have finished up with his liver in Idi’s fridge, if he was lucky. More likely to be croc bait launched from a helicopter over the lake.

      Is it still allowable to call someone and ‘ungrateful wretch’?

      1. Wretch isn’t the word i would use to describe this uppity nigger.

        BTW some of my best friends are wogs and slopes. They don’t think much of him either. …

        oops.

  92. The Game Changers effect: how a star-studded documentary opened people’s eyes to the power of veganism

    I suppose now with the LGBTKJHGFRYJUers rules, you can change your diet name every second now, to conform to the Islington Elite Way

    Arnold Schwarzenegger now follows a mostly vegan diet

    So, is that like being ‘a little bit pregnant’

    You either a vegan OR NOT.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/nutrition/game-changers-effect-star-studded-documentary-has-changed-game/

    1. Why does anyone think that Arnold Schwartzenegger’s dietary habits are of any interest at all to anyone other than Arnold himself and those who have to live in his immediate vicinity?

    2. Evening OLT,
      Excepting when having a helping of rabbit stew he was heard to say
      …………………….” I’ll be back”

    3. I read recently how impressed he was with St Greta. He shipped off to Europe his massively heavy vehicle to have it made greener and then took many flights to see how it was progressing.

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