893 thoughts on “Saturday 11 January: The Duke of Sussex seeks to stay in the public eye with financial support but minimal effort”

    1. They were there very early this morning, as I made comments in Best Beloved’s name – she pays for the bluddy rag and also e-mailed to telegraphenquiries@telegraph.co.uk asking:
      Why have the comments on this morning’s letters suddenly disappeared and no comments allowed?

      Has something been said that doesn’t fit with today’s thinking?

      Other’s might like to try using that e-mail – NOT the DT Letters one.

    2. After not permitting comments on Ginge and Cringe articles, everyone made them on the letters page instead. So maybe we have all been put on the naughty step.

    3. Read the first letter, hunted for missing comments, followed a link from the letters page, and on pressing “back”, all the letters were revealed to me!
      Is this a new way in?

      1. Hmm – I tried that too, and it did show me the whole of the letters page, but sadly only for about 20 seconds – then it reverted to the normal view! Pity!

  2. Good Morning Folks

    Looks cloudy out again.
    I can’t get worked up about the Royals, the less said the better all round

    1. The downvoting died away late last night, looking back. Further evidence it’s done by people with multiple ID, in UK or European timezones, that went to bed.

      1. Morning Oberst. It could be anyone. Government agency should not be discounted. I came across a couple of lads from 77 Brigade over Christmas and they are better off spending their time downvoting than arguing of which they had no clue!

        1. Not wishing to offend the good folk of this community but I rather feel that the “dark forces” would have very little interest in the opinions of what they would see as a dozen or so grumpy old malcontents , yet.

          1. It’s not just “this community”, it’s lots of other users on Disqus who are also complaining of having thousands of upvotes removed.
            It’s US election year, and the social media companies will do anything they can get away with to stop Trump being elected, as they believe social media was so important for him winning the last election. They’ve publicly vowed to prevent that happening again.
            It may be coincidence and some people with too much time on their hands, but it probably isn’t.
            Conservatives are being targeted. They get thrown off social media platforms for saying things far less egregious than the “progressives.” Their YouTube channels are demonetised, and background algorithms make sure their content isn’t seen by subscribers or casual viewers. As far as the Left are concerned, we’re evil, and they’re in a war to stop us, by any means necessary, including demoralizing us.

          2. I didn’t realise it was so widespread, somebody/organisation is probably using the same mechanism/script/bot that managed to ramp up votes to 1000s an hour on a couple of anti-brexit petitions recently

          3. The cable-news group in Canada is having similar issues with the upvote counts zooming down to zero.

            I am not sure if it is just right leaning contributors or if the lefties are included in the zero club.

          4. Being called ‘evil’ by the Left is roughly the equivalent of being savaged by a dead sheep. [©Denis Healey]

          5. True.
            It’s been said elsewhere that those on the centre/right think the far left are severely misguided, but they in turn think we’re plain evil, so should be confronted by any means necessary. There’s not much common ground to be found with that attitude.

      3. I’ve lost another 2500 since yesterday., 10,000+ so far in total. That’s not individuals doing it, and it’s not just us.

        1. There is a Disqus bot stripping out the upvotes, and human downvoter trolls. Two separate issues.

      1. My comment earlier: I expect that the battery commander and the vehicle crew have already been liquidated for the loss of face caused.

        1. They’ve only just admitted it – on Thursday they were still denying and wiffling about awaiting the outcome of an enquiry.

          I think we all knew that they were guilty when the bulldozers moved in, thus preventing any forensic inquiry using the wreck.

          1. Living in a country that faked an entire Chemical Attack I’m not going to berate the Iranians for denying a mistake!

  4. Good Morning, all

    SIR – What a wonderful diversion while waiting for Independence Day.

    Eric Howarth
    Bourne, Lincolnshire

  5. Letter from a Squaddie!

    To: Dear Mum & Dad,

    I am very well; I hope you are too. Tell big brothers Sean, Tommy and Mick that the Army is better than working on the farm; tell them to get into the Army quick before the jobs are all gone.

    I was a bit slow settling down at first because you don’t get out of bed until 6am, but I got used to it and I like sleeping in now. All you do before breakfast is make your bed, shine your boots, a quick shit and clean your uniform. No cows to milk, no calves to feed, no feed to stack, nothing.

    Men must shave, but it’s not too bad because there’s hot water and a light to see what you’re doing. For breakfast there’s cereal, fruit and eggs but there’s no fillet steaks or sausages. You don’t get fed again until noon, and by that time all the city boys are buggered because we’ve been on a ‘route march’, which is just like walking to the well in the meadow.

    This will kill Sean and Tommy with laughter but I keep getting medals for shooting!! I don’t know why because the bull’s-eye is as big as a bloody bull’s head and it doesn’t move and it’s not firing back at you like the Murphys did when our bull got their cow in calf before the prize show.

    All you have to do is make yourself comfortable and hit the target – piece of piss. You don’t even load your own cartridges – they come in boxes and you don’t have to steady yourself against the roll bar of the tractor when you reload. Sometimes we wrestle with the city boys and I have to be very careful because they break easy – it’s not like fighting with Sean, Tommy, Mick and all the other local fellas all at once like we do.

    Turns out I’m not a bad boxer either; it looks like I’m the best the platoon’s got. I’ve only been beaten once by this guy from Scotland – he’s 6 foot 8 and 120 kilos so he’s a good bit bigger than me but I fought to the end.

    I can’t complain about the Army – tell the boys to get in quick before word gets out how good it is.

    Your loving daughter,
    Susan.

    2. Great piece, but I wonder when it was written. Folk have not named their daughters ‘Susan’ for sixty years now, and not their sons since the time of Johnny Cash.

          2. Guten Morgon, Elsie. No, I listed the male variants of those names.

            [BTW: curiously, there are far more female ‘Leslies’ listed as actresses than there are ‘Lesleys’.]

          5. Re the maxim: “Lesley” for females; “Leslie” for males; I can name just five actresses called Lesley, but 33 named Leslie! Calling a female “Leslie” must be an American thing.

            Lesley? I can name: Lesley Ann Warren, Lesley Paterson, Lesley S Taylor, Lesley-Ann Brandt and Lesley Anne Down.

            Leslie? I can name: Leslie Ackerman, Leslie Ann Philips, Leslie Azzouli, Leslie Bega, Leslie Bevis, Leslie Bibb, Leslie Brocket, Leslie Caples, Leslie Caron, Leslie Culton, Leslie Danon, Leslie Easterbrook, Leslie Foldvary, Leslie Graves, Leslie Grossman, Leslie Harter, Leslie Hope, Leslie Horan, Leslie Hunt, Leslie Leah, Leslie Lopez, Leslie Mann, Leslie Olivan, Leslie Owen, Leslie Redden, Leslie Ryan, Leslie Sacho, Leslie Scarborough, Leslie Shaw, Leslie Soule, Leslie Stefanson, Leslie Stevens and Leslie Wing.

          6. Re the maxim: “Lesley” for females; “Leslie” for males; I can name just five actresses called Lesley, but 33 named Leslie! Calling a female “Leslie” must be an American thing.

            Lesley? I can name: Lesley Ann Warren, Lesley Paterson, Lesley S Taylor, Lesley-Ann Brandt and Lesley Anne Down.

            Leslie? I can name: Leslie Ackerman, Leslie Ann Philips, Leslie Azzouli, Leslie Bega, Leslie Bevis, Leslie Bibb, Leslie Brocket, Leslie Caples, Leslie Caron, Leslie Culton, Leslie Danon, Leslie Easterbrook, Leslie Foldvary, Leslie Graves, Leslie Grossman, Leslie Harter, Leslie Hope, Leslie Horan, Leslie Hunt, Leslie Leah, Leslie Lopez, Leslie Mann, Leslie Olivan, Leslie Owen, Leslie Redden, Leslie Ryan, Leslie Sacho, Leslie Scarborough, Leslie Shaw, Leslie Soule, Leslie Stefanson, Leslie Stevens and Leslie Wing.

        2. I must admit I was very pissed off when I discovered that people used Tracey as a girl’s name

          2. I meant to say “How very insulting Mr Grizzly, Sir!” but made a simple mistake, which Mr Grizzly has kindly corrected for me. I planned to correct it myself, but could only do so by adding a “Reply” to my original post. Does this have something to do with these “bots” and Up- and Down-votes and Trolls and things which everyone is posting about at present? I understand it as much as I do cricket, and frankly would rather all NoTTLers reverted to the “Brash & Trash” discussion. Or maybe I will sign off and go and watch paint dry. (Exits smartly.)

      2. Einigermaßen gut, aber gestern nacht konnte ich nicht schlafen (Vollmondeffekt), so hab’ ich ein ganzes Buch durchgelesen u heut’ bin ich soooo müde. Ich geh’ jetzt u lege mich eine Weile aufs Ohr.

  7. SIR – The Pritchard sisters (Letters, January 9) should have been advised to purchase their home “jointly and severally” in order to escape inheritance tax. It is still possible to change their ownership, thereby reducing their tax, and if they both live for another seven years the property will escape inheritance tax entirely.

    Murray Inglis

    Bilsham, West Sussex

  8. Quick Q for any lawyers, accountants who may be reading.

    My mother’s house is mortgage free. Could she sell it to me for £10?

    1. Yes is the simple answer but if you think you can avoid tax by doing that the answer is no

    2. When my mothers flat was put up for sale, the lawyer advised us that the tax people would charge us a penalty if the property was sold below market value.

      Actually it might not have been the tax office, the penalty would have been applied when the estate went to probate.

  9. COFFEE HOUSE – Why people who hate Brexit love Megxit
    Brendan O’Neill – 11 January 2020 – 6:00 AM

    It is actually fitting that Harry and Meghan’s decision to leave the UK is being referred to as Megxit. Because this royal temper tantrum, this flouncing out of the UK by the most painfully PC couple in monarchical history, has much in common with Brexit.

    Like Brexit, it has exposed the vast moral divide that now separates the new elite, of which H&M are key figureheads, from ordinary people.

    Like Brexit, it has confirmed that this nation is now split, in David Goodhart’s words, between ‘Anywhere’ people and ‘Somewhere’ people. ‘Anywheres’ are post-national, geographically mobile and often sniffy about those old, apparently outdated values of community life and familial loyalty. And ‘Somewheres’ view nation, place, family and belonging as incredibly important.

    And now we know where Harry and Meghan stand. If she gets her way, Meghan will still be known as the Duchess of Sussex, sure. But really she will be the Duchess of Anywhere. She’ll be a globe-trotting Queen of Wokeness, a truly post-national, post-constitutional royal personage.

    The dramatically different responses to Harry and Meghan’s abandonment of their royal duties shows what a massive clash of values we are living through.

    The PC elites and Meghan-loving Twiteratti are lapping it up. ‘Slay, Queen!’, they cry, cheering Meghan for sticking it to Harry’s family and the entire creaking edifice of British monarchy.

    Many ordinary people, on the other hand, are shocked. They’re shocked at what they view as Harry and Meghan’s betrayal of their family, their nation and their duties.

    The non-media people I know are all saying the same thing about their right-on highnesses: how could they do this to their family?

    My mum, like many others, is shocked at how they have treated Harry’s gran. Reports that the Queen is alarmed and pained by the couple’s decision to bugger off to Canada has irritated huge numbers of people.

    And not because it looks like an affront to the God-ordained ruler of the nation that is Queen Elizabeth II. It isn’t as political as that. Rather, people are shocked that these two woke royals have hurt a grandmother.

    You don’t treat family like this, right? You don’t make huge plans that will shake your family to its core without a proper chat beforehand.

    Harry and Meghan reportedly sent their Instagram announcement about their unprecedented move to Charles and William just ten minutes before making it go live. I’ve given family members longer than that to okay the Instagramming of a photo of us on a night out. Harry and Meghan seem to many people to be scarily cavalier about family responsibility.

    What’s more, they’re reneging on what were once considered to be lifelong constitutional duties: the responsibility of members of the royal family to serve and protect the Crown.

    It seems that Harry and Meghan want to keep the perks of royal life — including their titles and the HRH thing — without having to submit to any of the graft of royal life.

    Across the web, people are joking about what would happen if they tried something similar in their workplaces. ‘Can I keep my job title but stop doing my job?’ These swipes show that people just don’t understand how H&M can walk away from their public role, their social duty, their work.

    And haven’t they betrayed the nation, too? They’re British royals. They’re part of British history. They are tied to the past and the soil of this nation. And now they’re going to live in a mansion in Canada or a fancy pad in LA? It feels so wrong.

    Harry and Meghan seem determined to free themselves of all constraints. The constraint of family, the constraint of duty, the constraint of nation. All so that they might become free agents who can earn lots of money and do loads of woke agitation on a more global scale.

    They want to be global actors, not ‘mere’ national figures or family members. No wonder they are being cheered by those sections of liberal elite that loathe the nation, think the nuclear family is ‘problematic’, and see all forms of tradition as stupid and archaic.

    The people who hate Brexit love Megxit. Why? Because Megxit involves two super-virtuous, eco-aware, post-traditional aspiring globalists breaking free of the pesky nation in order to become international dispensers of PC blather — like the EU, the UN, and all the other global bodies the new elites love.

    To the rest of us, though, it’s just wrong. It’s a retreat from responsibility and a snub to the nation.

    Right now, despite being a republican, I feel like I have more in common with old-style monarchists than I do with the woke, business-like, global royalism of Harry and Meghan.

    Sure, republicans and monarchists disagree profoundly over how the nation should be governed. But we both believe in the nation.

    To Harry, Meghan and their hip, privileged cheerleaders in media and celebrity circles, on the other hand, even the nation is little more than an ugly barrier to the greatest goal in the woke era: the celebration and promotion of the self.

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

    Next stop: Klondike

    That’s where all the gold diggers used to go when they visited Canada

        1. I do come here now and then but don’t leave comments. I will try to come more often. I saw that there were no comments over at the DT. I am surprised that just because the letters are about those preening lovebirds the facility has been dropped.

          1. Perhaps their mods couldn’t keep up with all the negative feedback – but at least we can say whet we think here. I haven’t been able to get past the DT’s homepage for several months now. We do buy the paper copy on Saturdays though.

            I hope you will give us the benefit of your thoughts sometimes – I always ennjoyed your posts.

    1. I will applaud Johnson if we get a proper Brexit; I shall condemn him completely if he keeps us tied indefinitely to the EU in a BRINO.

      (Do his May boots imply that he is a wild leopard, dangerous in attack or do they imply that he is just a scaredy copy cat?)

    2. I don’t think that Ursula (unlike Jean-Claude) is a drunk, nor do I think that Boris is an appeaser like Theresa was. This simply suggests to me that cartoonist Adams is rather a nasty stirring-it character, and probably a Remainer.

        1. Nor am I, Rastus, but what the phrase means is that you won’t make up your mind until the eggs are hatched. Whereas what you are constantly saying on this site is that you know that the eggs won’t hatch, without giving the poor old hen (Boris) the chance to sit on the eggs long enough. Whereas what I constantly say is not “Boris CAN be trusted” but rather “Wait and see”. Therein lies the difference between us.

    3. I will applaud Johnson if we get a proper Brexit; I shall condemn him completely if he keeps us tied indefinitely to the EU in a BRINO.

      (Do his May boots imply that he is a wild leopard, dangerous in attack or do they imply that he is just a scaredy copy cat?)

      1. Warning – Proceed with caution methinks.

        It’s down to Boris …is he a Churchill or a Chamberlain?

          1. I’m keeping my fingers crossed .We have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

            if he blows it he’s finished and so are we…

          2. I’m keeping my fingers crossed .We have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

            if he blows it he’s finished and so are we…

      2. Adams went over to the (idiotic) dark side when he left the Telegraph. The man is a charlatan and a mercenary, just making the right noises for his payday.

    1. I can see all the letters, though I’m not logged in there. Can everyone else see them?
      Maybe they’re exchanging printed letters for comments.

    3. ‘Morning PT, if you check my earlier post, you will find an e-mail address which you may use to send a complaint. Comments were there very early this morning but they’ve now disappeared.

    4. Comments not really required, all that needs to be said about the pair is expressed in the letters.

  13. Thousands of independence supporters to join march in Glasgow

    Thousands of independence supporters are expected the march through the streets of Glasgow, despite a rally that was planned to conclude the event being cancelled after Met Office warnings of high winds.

    The march on Saturday is the first of eight planned for 2020 by the grassroots organisation All Under One Banner in what is likely be a crucial year for the Scottish independence movement.

  15. US to work ‘day and night’ to secure trade deal with UK, confirms Trump envoy

    The US is ready to work “day and night” with Britain to negotiate a trade deal, US Ambassador Woody Johnson has said – while predicting the harder both sides work, the more pressure it will put on the EU in similar talks.

    1. Stop women (worldwide) getting pregnant in the first place then. And stop men making them pregnant.

      I fully agree with the message, but the way it is being said by this pair is beyond weird.

    3. “That’s true.” No, that’s bloody weird and scary, that there are nutters like that allowed to roam amongst us. Fewer births great, hopefully fewer loonies too.

  18. Scotland’s deficit seven times higher than UK as a whole last year

    If we take Scotland’d deficit out of the UK’s then we have a very small budget deficit £11B but that’s over a population of almost 60M

    I think we should move the UK to a proper Federal system. Scotland would then raise its own taxes and spend its own taxes. They would have to pay a federal tax for centrally run things such as Defense and International affairs and probably the state pension. A proportion of the UK debt as well would be transfered to Scotland, As a result of this Barnett funding would go

    The latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) figures showed there was a record gap of nearly £2,000 per person between how much was spent on public services and debt repayment, and total tax revenues for 2018-19.

    Scotland’s notional deficit stood at £12.6bn or 7% of GDP, including North Sea oil revenues, compared with the UK’s total £23.5bn deficit, which includes Scotland’s figure. The UK deficit is equivalent to 1.1% of its GDP.

    Total state spending in Scotland was £1,661 higher per person than the UK average at £75.3bn, while tax receipts were £307 less per head than the UK average, at £62.7bn. Excluding oil revenues, the deficit exceeded £14bn, equal to 22.5% of tax revenues.

        1. Scotland’s traditional cultural sports may not appeal to the Chinese either. You cannot see that many Chinese people prepared to undergo the rigours of mounting horses and drawing swords to pursue the ever-elusive Haggis in the early morning mists from the Loch’s.

        3. Scotland’s real deficit is even higher as Westminster subsidizes all their wind turbines and the huge number of defense jobs Scotland has as well as all the civil servants that have been moved to Scotland

    1. There, I managed to upvote the post today, yesterdays version was downvoted into oblivion.

      Just like Woody in Toy Story – to oblivion and beyond!

      1. If you are referring to the phrase “To infinity and beyond” it was the catch-phrase of Buzz Lightyear and not Woody, richard_

    2. I have sent Bill Thomas an e-mail containing this picture in the hope that he will find that he misses our friendship and wants to come back.

      1. Excellent. It was, I am sure, no coincidence that his departure from our motley crew happened at the same time as his leaving behind the house in France that he had known for 28 years.

    4. If you are looking in Bill there will be plenty of upticks for this but may not show. Please come back. We like you.

  20. Hello Hello,what’s all this about

    Stephanie4Trump RobM1981 Mercysdad.com Purple john OldSilk Number One GI 🇺🇸 Gary Ritzman RaisinEyeBrows topernic Deplorable Patriot Gross Prophet T G Quinn stormykitteh No-Name Mierscourt Jim Johnson Dork Anubis Rainbow 13 AntiBanshee

    molamola Hertslass Bleausard Rik My Name is Wishinobody

    https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/2020/01/268-exhalations-detected-at-mexicos.html
    Not a follower of mine,is he one of yours Hatman??

    2. That looked very odd, and as if some troll had put his list of targets on the wrong webpage. But he is getting upvotes for his comments under the story, so he might just be being helpful and drawing people that he likes to the story.

        1. Hi Ims2 – its an unused Mod account of hers, created as a back up in case they banned her channel owning Sarita ID , it never made a post on channels & so should be unaffected by the Bot program.

    2. I lost ‘interest’ in the EU referendum blog when Dr North, who I don’t doubt is an expert in his field and should have been consulted seemed to grow increasingly angry at the genuine sentiment to treat the EU as a hostile entity.

      Then of course a host of remainers leapt on the blog, repeatedly posting positive ‘collaboration’ ideals – more generally giving away what we’d voted for.

  22. SIR – Professor Sir Bryan Thwaites’s offer to leading private schools to support poor white boys (report, December 31), which received Dr Tony Sewell’s backing (Comment, January 7), raises an issue that has been ignored for a long time.

    When teaching in the Eighties, I saw that poor white pupils were hugely disadvantaged. They came from homes where parents could not obtain work because they needed to be able to communicate formally and think in different ways.

    In my class I had many white children with higher-level language and thinking problems who had to wait at least 18 months to get appointments with speech and language experts. Immigrant children, with Home Office funding, had help daily, and so made much more rapid progress in their studies.

    I set up groups to help children left behind – Communication Opportunity Group Schemes – which had a dramatic effect on progress.

    Britain does not prioritise language ability, unlike other nations that score highly in academic tables. We must understand the reasons why poor white boys need consideration. They are a forgotten group.

    Professor Rosemary Sage
    West Haddon, Northamptonshire

    Ergo the Home Office is waycist.

      1. Good morning Minty

        Children with hearing and speech problems , some boys have stutters which they eventually grow out of , but help is very difficult to access , so are hearing specialists, or even a simple problem like tonsils and adenoids can really mess around with learning issues . Life can be very miserable fo some in their early years..

        1. Morning Belle. If you are White you are at the bottom of any list and not infrequntly removed from it entirely!

    2. If Prof Thwaite had pledged a grant to help black boys, I doubt there’d have been even a murmur.

    3. “We must understand the reasons why poor white boys need consideration.”

      Could it be that the welfare state has removed much of the incentive from the indigenous population to get an education and a job? In the past, these were seen as a ladder out of poverty.

      I should think that many immigrants have come from economic backgrounds resembling ours of years ago and have the ‘escape’ mentality that we once had.

      Morning zx.

      1. Can’t get an education if no one will teach you. White boys are “privileged” and “oppressors” therefore literally go to the back of the class. They get told that they’re racist a should be ashamed of “their” history, as if they were personally responsible for the Atlantic slave trade.

  23. Sick’ of ‘woke’ claim Harry and Meghan coverage is racist as papers react to royal split

    What a load of rubbish from them, Yes they get media attention but that goes with the job, Has that media attention been racist No unless you count mentioning she is mixed race

  24. Here’s the daily dose of Harry and his Meghan….

    SIR – The Duke of Sussex seeks independence, including financial independence – sort of. Will he repay the cost of renovating Frogmore Cottage and return it to the Crown? It can hardly be left unused when he prefers to be in North America.

    The Duke sees himself as a victim. He wants to be in the public eye with financial support but minimal effort on his part. Life is not like that. You are either part of the Firm or you are not; it is duty or not. Other members of the Royal family do their bit.

    He cannot keep the dressing-up box and put in an appearance simply when it suits him. Celebrity friends may be a comfort in the short term, but he may find he is not in such demand when his status and influence are diminished.

    Graham Lilley
    Edge, Gloucestershire

    –– ADVERTISEMENT ––

    SIR – Are the intentions of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex an example of progressive royalty?

    Simon McIlroy
    Croydon, Surrey

    Duke and Duchess of Sussex to ‘step back’ from royal life
    h

    SIR – It is hard to see why the United Kingdom should wish to be represented at home or abroad by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who so obviously do not wish to be committed wholly to the country or the sovereign.

    Their criticism of the country that has showered them with wealth, titles and privileges sits uneasily alongside the most needy in these islands who do not complain but look up to them.

    Few organisations would welcome major players suddenly announcing their intention to live abroad for six months of the year while insisting on being paid for cherrypicking engagements to attend.

    The illogicality of retaining titles and income from taxpayers they have abandoned does not seem to have occurred to them. If this were allowed, public anger would spill over against the institution of monarchy. Would people really wish to stand in the rain and wave a flag for them?

    Andrew Harding
    Haywards Heath, West Sussex

    SIR – Your photo (Letters, January 10) of the Duke of Windsor luxuriating in the warmth of Miami in 1941 while bombs fell on Britain reminded me just what a stinker he was. If the Duke of Sussex isn’t rapidly restored to reality he could follow in the footsteps of his narcissistic, petulant forebear and disgrace the House of Windsor and the land of his birth.

    Stephen Webbe
    East Molesey, Surrey


    SIR – Given that the Duke of Sussex has been a tireless champion of mental health, doing a great deal to bring this issue out of the darkness, isn’t it now unkind to make such heavy weather of his decision to put that of himself and his family at the top of his priorities?

    He served his country in Afghanistan. Other servicemen who have returned from active duty and have developed problems would have our respect. Why not him?

    Mike Summers
    Totnes, Devon

    SIR – It is no surprise that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex wish to step back from public duty. How that plays out over the coming years remains to be seen. History has shown that royal privilege and commerce are incompatible bedfellows.

    Lynne M Collins
    Hadleigh, Essex

    SIR – You can combine royal duties with a civilian job. Princess Margaret’s husband was a photographer. Princess Anne’s first husband ran an equestrian business, and Prince Charles started an organic food company. Only Prince Andrew’s business affairs have brought the practice into question.

    The Duchess of Sussex could afford to buy a ranch or vineyard in British Columbia and set up as a farmer or wine producer. How is that different from the Duchy estate?

    Jane O’Nions
    Sevenoaks, Kent

    SIR – The grass that today looks greener may turn out to be AstroTurf.

    Neale Edwards
    Chaffcombe, Somerset

    SIR – I hope Sir Elton John is sharpening his spade. He will have a lot of trees to plant to offset the carbon emissions generated by the Sussexes as they fly to and from North America.

    Shaun Whyte
    Alnmouth, Northumberland

    SIR – One wonders how Canada feels about a self-appointed Royal family of its own. Pride? Embarrassment? Either is unlikely to last long. The Sussexes will probably relocate to La La Land.

    M E Chappell
    Saltash, Cornwall

    SIR – Surely Christine Whild (Letters, January 10) meant: thank God for Charles, William, George and Charlotte. Succession is now based on birth order not gender.

    Nicky Lawson
    Long Melford, Suffolk

    1. Good to see Jane O’Nions again.

      Has she forgotten that the Countess of Wessex had to give up her PR business?

    2. As she appears to be departing our shores is there any chance that some of our other permanent visitors might follow her example ?

  25. Morning all

    Rotten radio

    SIR – I agree with Ben Lawrence (Arts, January 8) that BBC Radio 4 has gone downhill, thanks to the leaching of talent, dire comedy programming and collapse of The Archers.

    On the bright side, although we all missed Eddie Mair when he left, Evan Davis is even better at presenting PM, and Chris Mason is a breath of fresh air on Any Questions?.

    What is the problem with BBC Sounds? It is pleasant to use. I love it.

    Orlando Murrin

    Heavitree, Devon

    1. Eddie Mair is over on LBC, though not right now. Matt Frei is on, so I’m listening to Radio Caroline instead.

      2. Good morning Lovely Truth

        “Jo Hemmings said the Duchess of Sussex has convinced him to ‘relinquish his close relationships, his family ties and take a leap of faith into a new life with her’.”

        This is exactly how cults like the Moonies work. They separate their ‘converts’ from their money and get them to stop all contact with their families. The son of a person of my acquaintance joined Hare Krishna and was completely brainwashed. The family had to ‘kidnap’ him to get him back and he needed medical help to cope with the psychological and psychiatric damage that had been inflicted upon him.

        I shudder to think what this sad and stupid man, Harry, will be like in five years time. I fear he will be a gibbering wreck.

        1. That very thought occurred to me as well, Richard. Cults are dangerous things.. I guess the stupid boy has been radicalised by a half caste American minor celebrity .

  27. Morning all.

    In days of yore,a double barrelled name indicated mariage.
    The younger doubled folk these days are more often offspring of parents who are not married.

  28. Famous voices silenced in Radio 5 Live’s relentless pursuit of the under 35s

    More putrid krap from the BBC

    The departure this week from BBC Radio 5 Live of Mark Pougatch, one of its most famous voices, attracted the kind of social media chatter that would – in other circumstances – have delighted the station’s managers.

    This time, however, it was not the content of the nation’s leading radio sports station that was generating the interest but questions over why a much-admired multi-sport broadcaster had left, and what that said about the future of a station that is a national treasure. Pougatch tweeted that it had not been his choice to leave. In doing so, he appeared to hint at the cull of traditional presenters and reporters who do not fit with the “Under-35s” policy pursued with a fervour by

    the BBC’s director of radio, James Purnell, a former Labour government minister.

    A BTL comment

    Do they know little about sport? A good start.

    Do they a strong regional/ethnic accent? Getting better.

    Are they female? Getting even better.

    Are they LGBT++? Getting seriously good.

    Are they BAME? Jackpot.

    Hire them at all costs, not forgetting that, even if no one has heard of them, they are doing the same job as Gary Lineker and should paid the same £2 Million a year

    (especially after the equal pay saga that has just finished

    If you are fired at 35, what is the latest age of person to be employed?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2020/01/10/famous-voices-silenced-radio-5-lives-relentless-pursuit-35s/

      1. Well the BBC may have a problem now. The tribunal decision implies every one should get a similar pay rate for a similar job but that’s not how media pay rates have worked

        If we take Linker the logic now is all sport presenters/ hosts./pundits or whatever they want to call themselves should be broadly paid the same. Maybe we will now see pay rates at the BBC fall to sensible levels

    2. Pougatch out and the awful screeching shouty Juliette Ferrington still employed? Ferrington’s faux excitement when reporting is set at a db level that is a threat to one’s hearing and is the perfect reason, along with LBC’s O’Brien’s, I’m right and you’re an idiot tone, to quickly reach for the off switch.

    3. ‘Morning, Tryers. Surely this (remarkably accurate, I reckon) BTL comment applies to so many presenter jobs on both radio and TV?

    4. COFFEE HOUSE – In defence of the Today programme
      Charles Moore – 11 January 2020 – 7:16 AM

      There is anxiety at the BBC, where the Cummings effect is thought to threaten the Today programme. If ministers are told not to appear on it, people ask how it can survive. Although a supporter of the Cummings frost towards the BBC, I feel it would be perverse if Today were the victim. It is well-edited, with a much wider range of subjects and attitudes than are displayed on PM, Woman’s Hour, Newsnight, virtually all comedy shows and arts programmes, and many more. Woke BBC persons regard it as scarcely better than the Daily Mail.

      Today is in the eye of the storm because it is the BBC’s main political programme, not because it is the worst. The problem with the BBC goes wider and deeper. First, there is an astonishing lack of editorial leadership by the bosses. Second, filling that vacuum, is journalistic triumphalism. It was revealing during the election campaign that Nick Robinson complained of the Tories misinforming ‘some very high-profile journalists’. Obviously, they should not misinform anyone, but it is not a good thing that a public service broadcaster committed to impartiality should have ‘very high-profile journalists’. The most respected journalist on Today is the sports supremo Gary Richardson, because he knows a lot but no one knows what he thinks. If there were more Garys, perhaps government and BBC could sign an armistice.

      It was my great pleasure, when guest-editing Today after Christmas, to get a hunting horn blown on air by the composer and huntsman-Master Andrew Sallis. I quickly had complaints, however, from friends in three different stables that morning. As they were tacking up, they told me, and Today was playing on their radios, the sound of ‘Gone away’ was too exciting for their horses and near-pandemonium ensued. Anyone wishing to sue for damage should please contact the BBC director-general, Lord Hall of Birkenhead.

      This article is an extract Charles Moore’s Spectator Notes, available in this week’s magazine.

    5. Yo, Tryers. Alan Weeks, Barry Davies, Peter O’Sullevan, Harry Carpenter, Bill McLaren, Richie Benaud, David Vine, David Colemen, Jim Laker, John Arlott, Brian Johnston, Ron Pickering, Stuart Storey, Peter Dimmock, Kenneth Wolstenholme, Christopher Martin-Jenkins, John Snagge, Peter Alliss, Henry Longhurst, Hamilton Bland, Peter Montague-Evans, John Hanmer, Julian Wilson, Dorian Williams, Dan Maskell, Eamonn Andrews, Raymond Baxter, Nigel Starmer-Smith, Eddie Waring, and a dozen-or-more-or-so authoritative and rich voices of character and timbre—all of whom are far superior to any of the bland anodyne clones of today—were never replaced.

        2. You tell me if you can: I’m not sure of your capabilities.

          However, you may add them if you so wish, but I’ve never heard either of them commentate on sports, which is the prima facie reason for my list.

          Two notable omissions (for which I apologise) are the West Indian cricket commentators—one woman, one man—who had superlative voices and a command of their favoured sport. I refer to Donna Simmons and Tony Crozier.

          1. OK , They’re not sports presenters but Moira Stuart was a BBC TV news reader/presenter with a beautiful , unaccented , clear and mellifluous voice who was kicked out for being over 60 in 2007 in spite of being an afro-caribbean female, Charlotte Green was a continuity announcer and host on R4 with the same quality of diction ,dismissed for the same reason even though she’s female and gay ( perhaps being white didn’t help). Both were snapped up by Classic FM where they continue today.

          2. I cannot disagree with your description of their wonderful voices. BBC Radio Sheffield once had a newsreader with a devastatingly sexy voice called Lynn Mullen. Every Monday morning, when I was radio-room (communications) officer at Chesterfield police station back in the late 1970s/early 1980s, Lynn would ring to ask if any newsworthy major incidents had taken place over the weekend. She was very friendly and we often had banter. I looked forward, each week, just to listen to her voice.

          4. Like .. er … WOW Dean, man! Word round the campfire is you’re quite a stranger to these wampum fora these days, Dude.

            Greetings to the ultimate annus of this decade, brother.

          5. Hey, Dude, I visit but my woodcraft means I leave no tracks, hombre and I don’t powwow around the communal campfire. All this new decade crapola just reminds us, not that it is necessary, Dude, that folk are completely dopey as a decade begins on a one and ends on a zero! All these total zeros like their decades and centuries and millenniums to start on a big fat zero. It’s no wonder they believe in this big fat climate emergency cooked up by the media and bent politicians, man.

          8. The zeroes have taken over, man. Be afraid.

            The Babyboomers begat zeroes. Those zeroes begat minuses. The minuses are now busily begetting hordes of offspring whose collective IQ is measured in quantum particles. Mankind will soon disappear up its own Higg’s Boson, Dude!

          9. Hey, Beatnik, we are zeroing in on a woke wimpo-snowflake society where we all sit around and emote and blubber like babies. How cool is that, Dude?

          10. Not even past, tepid, Man. I’ve just started reading The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth (on recommendation by some Dude on this very chatline).

            It’s only 39 pages and heavy dialogue, man, but the message of how a few generations of exponentially more and more dimwittedness will eventually implode is nightmarish, Dude.

            I’m happy to remain a washed-out remnant of the Swinging Sixties, Brother.

          13. Moira Stuart is also a very nice lady who used to join the queue at the Tea Bar with the rest of us and chat to everyone. I don’t expect to meet Samira Ahmed in the staff kitchen hub.

          14. I met a number of BBC Look East presenters and reporters when I worked at Norwich Airport. Susie Fowler-Watt was invariably friendly and charming and would always have a chat. One reporter, though, Andrew Sinclair, was so far up himself he couldn’t bring himself to speak to the riff-raff. I used to love to search him, just to wind him up, whenever the miserable sod came through screening.

          15. Sinclair is still there and I’m always surprised that he spends so much time in Westminster. It’s perfectly reasonable to sit in the Norwich studio and report on the shenanigans in the HoC rather than incur the cost of travelling to the scene of the crime.

      2. Yo Mr Grizzle

        Regetably, some of those dead

        You missed

        Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobley

        2. This reminds me of Dominic Frisby’s song about Brexit which had a melody based on this tune.

      3. Wonderful memories of listening to and watching sport enhanced by these knowledgeable and entertaining people. ‘Rain stopped play’ was never a problem when Brian Johnston was on the air. Allis too was brilliant and good as the Sky technical coverage of golf is, the commentators are bland when compared to PA.

        1. The problem is most now no little about the sport they are commenting on and rely on auto cues and I pads The past presenters specialized in a sport and new that Sport inside out and could recite a vast array of facts from memo and were never stuck for words. They also new when to talk and when to stay quite unlike today’s commentators who thing they are more impotent than the sport. They also have to resort to spouting waffle as the know so little about the sport

          1. Bill, you say that “most now (k)no(w) little about the sport they are commenting on”. Methinks there is now a well-paid job for me as a new BBC cricket commentator.

            :-))

        2. Three BBC commentators I didn’t include (because their voices irritated me) are: John Motson, Ted Lowe and Murray Walker. I know these chaps have their fans but I’m not among them.

          ITV are not counted since their risible sports coverage has always been vastly inferior the BBC’s. Brian Moore (ex-BBC, football) and Reg Gutteridge (boxing) might just qualify, but then rest you can forget.

          2. Oh, there are still a few commentators of note around, but my point was about those wonderful, much missed, voices of yesteryear. The wonderfully clear diction of all-rounder, Alan Weeks (who had an encyclopædic knowledge of many sports), being my personal favourite; closely followed by Peter O’Sullevan, Bill McLaren, Richie Benaud, Barry Davies and David Vine.

          4. I was at school with David Hemery. His big sister was in my class.
            At Sports Day, the gun would go off; David would be breasting the tape while the rest were taking their first few steps.

      4. The BBC used to employer people who new about a sport and were interested in sport and it did not pay them a fortune. Now it employs people who no almost nothing about sport and have even less interest in Sport and pays them a fortune to read off of an auto-cue

        Interestingly in spite of huge falls in the BBC viewing figures the pay rates have rocketed

  29. Britain will go from strength to strength after Brexit.
    Specsavers have just been appointed official suppliers to the Iranian Air Force.

  30. Nigel Farage: I’m not sure I can face another uphill battle against our corrupt Establishment. 11 JANUARY 2020.

    With just 20 days to go until the UK leaves the European Union, some might say Nigel Farage ought to be in high spirits. The bill allowing the UK to leave the EU passed its third reading in the House of Commons this week, with a 99 majority. Instead, for the Brexit Party MEP, it feels like an aptly bumpy end to a turbulent chapter. As a British MEP of more than 20 years’ standing, his Brussels contract will officially expire in February. And his mainstream political career will end as it began in the 1990s – with him as a defiant and undecorated outsider.

    Nigel is of course the one bright political spot that has illuminated the last twenty years. The rest are as rotten and corrupt gang of liars, thieves and perverts as might be found in any decadent polity.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/01/11/nigel-farage-not-sure-can-face-another-uphill-battle-against1/

      1. I’m not certain he would appreciate that Hatman. They are the usual rewards for corrupt service!

    2. I wouldn’t blame the man for taking a well-earned break from politics, and if he makes a fortune on the US media/speaking circuit then good luck to him. The most influential politician of the 21st century, he changed the destiny of this nation without ever being elected to Westminster.

    1. And how self-assured. We were all bowled over by her appearance when I was at boarding school

    3. Yes, she was definitely a looker. The “other” 14 year old who was very impressive, but in a totally different field, was Helen Shapiro – a much “older” voice and a very poised performer.

    1. As someone said over on letters, nothing to stop the pair of them buying a farm and making money. Their father has plenty of commercial enterprises.

      1. Morning PT,
        Precisely, for my money it is receiving to much media attention, then again maybe that has a reason, balls with no eyes on them can have
        serious anti welfare consequences.

    2. I had the uneasy thought this AM that if Phil the Greek finally slipped his moorings in the next two or three weeks ( and he doesn’t look at all well) would herself stand down or remove herself for a period of mourning and thus delay Brexit for lack of the Royal Assent?

      1. D,
        Personally I would hope not
        seeing as they do not deserve
        this latest hand they have been dealt.
        As for delaying brexitexit the
        lab/lib/con pro eu rubber stamping coalition party need NO assistance in that department.

    3. Both my sons have left home. They both have good jobs and are financially independent. They have grown up.

      As Kris Kristofferson sang:

      Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose

      If Harry and Meghan want freedom they should accept that they will receive nothing more from the British taxpayer or the royal family.

      2. Afternoon R,
        Sad to say we are not living through an era of
        knocking back regular state given freebies.
        The quicker we get back to no child benefit for the first child, & when that child gets to working age, be given a gap week off then get your arse to work.
        For a generation we will lose a great many owing to mental stress,but worth it.
        Next the welfare state will only support, after great scrutiny, a ONE wife type unit, any more than that is not natural within the coastline of these Isles, it should only be allowed if the male has four sets of ear holes.

    3. Rich Hall (American comedian with a dry British sense of humour and who is often quite funny) has said in one of his songs that he has a PHD, which stands for Pizza Hut Delivery man.

      The Doctor in the article above would need a drivers licence for that, so they might not even be qualified for that position.

  36. BBC News Channel

    2012 25M viewers
    2014 22M
    2016 21M
    2017 20M
    2018 17M
    2019 18M

    THe above defines REACH which in my view is not that meaningful. IT does give a big number. REACH is defined as someone watching for at leasts 5 minutes

    Cost to deliver BBC TV services to individual users per user hour in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2015/16 to 2018/19, by channel

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1f214325ce5bb60a89242443f522c1c613b77be2f32efb973ec8bbc9dfd6e623.png

    1. I now have only 1,800 left, down from 5,800 at start of day. Soon to join the ZERO club. Yippee.

      1. That’s the ticket GG….the zero club sets you free……yay!!! I can’t wait. Lol.

    2. My count is steadily decreasing, just one or two at a time. It went up by one vote a minute ago, then dropped again, and is still going down. Ah, well.

    3. FFS! How many times do I have to repeat this? No-one is ‘stealing’ our upvotes – it’s a known issue at Disqus. Same thing happened a few months ago – when it was fixed, they were reinstated. Downvotes are another matter entirely.

      2. OK. I was wrong. It’s clear from following Pud’s link below that a bot is eating our upvotes. Although I’ve been displayed as zero for a few days now, my actual ‘likes’ now number minus 47,000 – and I’m ‘gaining’ a negative upvote roughly every six seconds. Ultimately, Disqus’ platform is at fault here. It shouldn’t be possible for a bot to award negative votes. Thanks, Disqus.

        1. You are being hit by about 600 Negative up votes an hour right now , at that rate you will be getting in excess of 14K a day, that is a lot and its complete overkill.

      3. There is a up vote muncher, Disqus or whatever.
        Peoples upvotes are going down. if it doesn’t really matter and there are no
        consequences then that’s fine. But if after – 0 whatever you
        cannot post anywhere and get sent to pending then it matters.
        Can those with 0 upvotes and less still post where ever they like.
        then it doesn’t matter. Hopefully they’ll return when disqus pulls it’s socks up.

        Belated Happy New Year btw, excuse my manners.

        1. It has be a Disqus problem, as a votebot cannot remove upvotes. The issue is why it affects some posters more than others.

          1. Okay thank you, that is a relief to know, the thought
            of something dileberateky removing upvotes for some
            sinister reason was quite worrying because You’d
            not know what they’d do after removing your upvotes
            or whether You’d still be able to post if a member of the 0 club.
            Errors can be fixed, hopefully.

          2. I have a subscription, and there’s no problem at the moment. If things turn pear-shaped I may do so. Or cancel my subscription and get part of my life back…

          4. Vuppe Mod • 2 days ago
            This is a known issue that’s being investigated. Thanks for your patience.

            But first they are looking for Jack the Ripper before they look for Jack the Up Vote Ripper !

      1. That is OK

        It p155es us all off, after a time, when we have to reiterate an iteration’

        I have benn popping in and out and have not read (or understood) all the posts

    5. I think it’s something going on at Disqus. They’re aware of it, having been told plenty of times, and are “investigating” but I’ve not seen any explanation.

      1. Afternoon I,
        Could it have input from the ersatz tory party ?
        Similar pattern, rhetoric no action.

          1. Afternoon I,
            Global treachery has no borders, the name change ie, ersatz democrat, ersatz tory is a party name to protect the individual guilty
            politico.
            Political sh!te is riding on a crest of a wave
            currently, with the only opposition being peoples “hoping” things will come right.
            1st Feb will tell us more.

    1. You don’t, there is only a tally on an individual post. Unlike the upvotes, there is no total.

  40. Morning all.

    I believe that H and Megs have taken all of our upvotes.

    They are going to sell them to the highest bidders.

    Part of the plan to be financially independent

      1. I’m down 10,000+ overall, 2,500 since yesterday, 5,000 in the last 2 days. I will be down to zero by next week. Someone definitely doesn’t want us around on Disqus…

          1. I was going to say that I have not been affected but on checking I find I have lost 3000 upvotes.

          6. Don’t give up Jules, the two mods on DD have had all theirs returned. One almost 1/3 million up since yesterday so it can be done.

          9. From someone at Disqus: “Nah, it’s going to be red. More Trump & Co. Sucks, but people are stupid.”
            Another user queried the use of anonymous downvotes and this person thanked them for their ceedback, so I assume he/she works at Disqus.

          10. The mods are voluntary at Discuss as far as I know – but this latest vote return to them looks more like a smokescreen. It is all a bit fishy to me. I stay clear of the place with regards to posting but I do read it from time to time to keep updated on things.

          13. No. There have been plenty of complaints but so far I’ve not seen a response from Disqus. There may be one, but I haven’t yet found it.

          14. They have said Disqus is aware of the problem and working on it. Doesn’t explain how their two mods got all their votes back. I thought it was fixed but apparently not. Everyone else still losing votes. Oh well, such is lfe.

          15. How odd! But I don’t really care any more, so long as I can still post here and on TR’s page. I do very occasionally venture elsewhere, but hardly ever Breitbart these days.

    4. Stig nicked all mine for his ever-growing collection. I can’t work out if he’s a jackdaw, a squirrel, or Philip Green.

  41. My heart bleeds for Samira Ahmed, who was paid ‘only’ £440 per episode when Jeremy Vine was paid £3,000:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/01/10/bbc-caught/

    It is patently ridiculous to compare jobs in the entertainment industry with real work. Footballers are not paid so much because of how well they play or for how long, but because what they do generates millions in sponsorship and advertising. The likes of Arnold Schwarzennger and Tom Cruise were not paid millions because they were the best actors in the world, but because their names guaranteed big box office.

    When as many people will tune in to see Samira Ahmed as will Jeremy Vine, then she deserves to be paid the same. Until then, be grateful for the ‘nice work if you can get it.’

      2. Good afternoon, VW.

        I completely agree with you,
        he is nothing more than a self -interested plonker!

    3. £400 for 15 minutes reading of an auto-cue is a crazy rate. If we allow say 45 minutes preparation and make up etc. That’s 400 an hour

  42. FCK me I ‘ve just logged on and NoTTlers are still crapping on about votes….get over it. I’m off tto get a life….!
    I may be gone some time…

    5. One hundred up-votes, Plum. First it was Brexit and the Bercow Parliament, then the Duke & Duchess of Suffolk, and now the Upvotes/Downvotes. At this rate I shall follow Bill Thomas into exile.

      And, since there seems to be no sign of Rik’s comical cats just those of pretty-pretty ones, I think I’ll climb the stairs and go to bed. Night night, all!

  43. Lewis Hamilton donates $500,000 to charity to help fight Australian bushfires after more than one billion animals killed

    Six-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has donated $500,000 (£382,000) towards the relief efforts fighting the Australian bushfires, and has urged his fans to “think about the impact we are having on our planet”.

    The Mercedes driver has more than 14 million followers on Instagram and 5.6 million on Twitter, and has repeatedly called for his fans to consider going vegan in an effort to help protect the world and have a positive impact on global warming.

    Somewhat hypocritical. He races cars that belch out fumes like no tomorrow and is constantly flying around the globe.

  44. My grandfather’s whole family were murdered – but he found a way to forgive the killers. Sat 11 Jan 2020

    After 12 of his relatives were killed in a single night, where was his anger and pain? And what does his refusal to permit himself these feelings mean for me?

    This is a quite interesting and moving account of a great personal tragedy all the more telling for it following none of the expected tropes or cliché’s!

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jan/11/my-grandfathers-whole-family-murdered-but-he-forgave-killers

    1. That was a long and harrowing article and I wondered why the Guardian of all papers would print that. Then right at the end they went to a Freudian Psychologist in a futile attempt to explain away this mans immense spiritual strength in non-religious ways.

      “I travel to Hamburg to meet the psychologist Sandra Konrad and ask her about what Sigmund Freud referred to as “emotional inheritance”. One of Konrad’s specialist areas is the way trauma is passed down through multiple generations.”

      People such as this will always be grasping for a light in the dark. Attempting to understand a beach by counting the grains of sand. This individual who lost his family was a great man.

      1. It was a harrowing story and I can see the writer’s need to find out what happened and try to understand how her grandfather was able to forgive the people who carried out this terrible crime. But “trauma passed on through generations”? Surely that’s just psycho-babble mumbo jumbo?

      1. Same problem as most places on the high street I suspect. Cheaper online for many items.

      2. High business rates, punitive parking charges, expensive public transport, high employer taxes making shelf products expensive.

        Bluntly, Labour’s taxes. So much could be changed simply by scrapping employer NI and business rates. Job done, move along. Ohh, councils will complain. Good. Shred them. Reduce trougher salaries by ten. Starve the wasteful beasts. How will they provide services, people wail. The town hall rich list, I reply.

        Cut, cut and cut again. When you’re still cutting, get a chainsaw out and reduce council tax alongside.

        1. Such misunderstanding.

          Business rates are high because rents are high. That’s the downside to a rent-seeking economy with housing inflation stripped from the inflation figures. Forty years of this will take some unwinding, but neoliberals believe that wealth shouldn’t be taxed and we largely only get neoliberal options at elections. Also they only hit the landowner in reality. A business cares about occupation costs, and a landlord will extract as much of that occupation cost as he is allowed to, which of course will be the limit of your affordability. All studies show BR are capitalised into rents 100% over the short-term.

          The parking charges are down to a general drive towards green outcomes. Central government is forcing people out of their vehicles, and generally trying to improve public transport with improvements as always concentrated in the south-east which again forces rents and house prices up further in those areas.

          Employers NI is paid by the employee in reality over much of the income scale. Again it’s removal would allow companies that can easily afford to give it back to their staff to do just that. The cost to them is zero and the positive effects on staff morale and labour productivity would turn out to be a net gain. This would force up the price of labour and smaller businesses will have to cough up too or lose their staff as unemployment is officially so low.

          You’ve already had nine years of your blessed cuts you so demand, and all that’s happened is a reversal in living standards and a greater concentration of wealth and further dwindling of the middle-classes, and rising violent crime, as anyone with an ounce of understanding predicted. Even the IMF now admits that austerity is usually self-defeating in countries like the UK.

      2. Frank Winfield Woolworth was onto a winner with his shops between their conception and the early 1970s when you could buy anything for a reasonable price. After that the just sold a meagre selection of utter crap. Old Frank would have been gyrating in his grave.

        1. I remember the smell of them oiling the wooden floor. You’re right about the crap, they lost their focus and direction some years before their demise.

          1. Some days I had a sixpence…..if it was my birthday. Oh those threepenny bits…..you could buy loads of things….lol.

          2. I still have some of the silver ones, and some Victoria pennies. I collected them from my change before they went out with decimalisation.
            I put the silver threepences on eBay a year or so ago. I was planning a world tour with the proceeds, but nobody bid. Sad.

          3. I have a few sixpences and also a farthing – I was given it as a gift as my friends call me little wren (Jenny Wren) and of course there is a wren on the farthing. Happy days Tony. Money had value if you know what I mean.

          4. Nobody talks these days about the unpassable line of class distinction, where there were the workers and the bosses and you just accepted your lot. You could vote Labour with a clear conscience then.
            I’d better shut up now before I get thrown out …:-)

          8. The Rich arrived in pairs
            And also in Rolls Royces;
            They talked of their affairs
            In loud and strident voices…

            The Poor arrived in Fords,
            Whose features they resembled;
            They laughed to see so many Lords
            And Ladies all assembled.

            The People in Between
            Looked underdone and harassed,
            And our of place and mean,
            And Horribly embarrassed.

            [Hilaire Belloc: The Garden Party]

          9. Belloc nailed the upper class, the working class and the pretentious class in a nutshell there.

          11. You have shown those Green Shield stamps a dozen times now. Sudden thought. Why don’t our Green Party take them over and give them away with votes ?

          13. Harry Potter……he’ll sort it. Try the shield charm to block physical entities…..Protego!

          15. I still have my slide rule and Black and Decker Workmate, both acquired on Green Shield stamps. One book each!

          20. In America we had S&H Green Stamps. S&H stood for Sperry & Hutchinson.
            Issued as I recall from the local grocery stores around town. And certain discount stores.
            I remember my mother saving them up and redeeming them. At a Sperry & Hutchinson redemption-fulfillment center store. The stores only carried a limited supply of the most popular items, but there was a catalog one could make a request for items not carried. Being a young boy, she often took me with her when she went. I had almost forgotten about that. As the topic rarely ever comes up anymore. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f7f85ba973839579119a62517faf61efa424dd58cacbf1451d45cea994960b3a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c9936f602211cc34dda9afc5b457bbe38f5c118ade0d3cbb8b937f07eed0af22.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/15ddf824391790078e3286bb85e856969e31315415a855a82fc0e9b5e3eb41d8.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f9ecbf6feda0ccc3bf400ae202384f19b74696cfaee3def2de592779ea50ea8a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f995ff42a528a6e5ca22f15d44f112cd7b7b673f17054c21d6b39a83d6be554d.jpg
            Oddly enough. The artist Andy Warhol thought the stamps to be an icon worthy of dedicating a painting of. Like he did with a common can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup, and the ‘Hobble Skirt’ light green tinted bottle of Coca-Cola. So in a way, I guess it was an American icon of the period.

          3. I loved Woolworths. In the 50s, they used to have a big pot where they put all the odd shavings from the sliced bacon. You could buy a delicious savoury bun – I was not a veggie back then…..lol.

          11. Thank you Grizz!!! I couldn’t remember why i loved it but I remember the number……xxxx

          12. Can you remember Wall’s making an iced lollipop called “Top Ten” that was coffee ice cream covered in milk chocolate and chopped nuts? I loved that one. I also like their Lime Split and Raspberry Split, which were much better than the similar Lyon’s Maid Pineapple Mivvi and Strawberry Mivvi.

          13. Jeez yes!!!….and the Mivvi. I love anything ime flavured, always have. I was furious when Cadbury got rid of the lime barrel out of the Milk Tray box.

          14. Me too. Lime, vanilla, raspberry, ginger and passion fruit are my favourites.

            At Christmas I bought a big box of chocolates, all the same. Whole cherries (with a stalk) in kirsch covered in dark chocolate and dipped in dark chocolate vermicelli. Utterly scrumptious.

          15. OMG…I found my soulmate. I too love ginger, lime raspberry, passion fruit etc…and the cherries you mention are to die for!!!!!

      4. We have a Wilkinson (Wilco) which, together with a Poundland opposite, gives pretty well what a good ol’ Woolies would.

          1. Is you memory fading. Woolworth’s service was poor. I have never found much of a problem with Wilco’ service

          2. I had an unhappy experience with Wilco. Woolworths was fine we were kids. None of us could afford anything that cost more than a penny, anyway.

          4. Woolworths failed to adapt to a changing market. Lots of what it did was taken away by specialist stores so DIY & Lighting and Gardening products and CD’s and small electronic products and Greeting cards etc. In the letter years it just floundered round in fact very much like M&S are doing now

      5. I remember Woolworth’s too. With a little diner (luncheonette) close the window front. Toys in the very back, also a tiny pet center. Where I once bought a pet hamster. They had Guinea Pigs, Gerbils, small fish for aquariums, little Parakeets.
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8a9d7acc091e5fbf14ac68cdc46fa1f9135fe8862ed67ce63ab7c150015e8376.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f22c331e4ff7f8096052b6fb05c5073897f43ad4245fb89036c68c69fb672efb.jpg
        Thanks for reminding me how old I am, Pud! … Not!

  47. Heavens above. When you think that sussexomania has peaked along comes an email from the telegraph ” a curated selection of shock Sussex stories”.

    1. Why all this at least in my view invented stories of Racism about her in the media. I have seen none. Someone on the radio claimed it was racist to mention she was mixed race another said it was racist to mention her mother come from a proper part of LA.

    1. “Go fishing or something.”

      Rubbish. They should be made to clean the countryside of rubbish, dredge rivers and canals, shovel snow and a perform million other useful (and mind-numbing) jobs to assist society. It is the least they deserve.

      2. I think that is fair. After all, that is what they would have us doing. Send the thinkers into the fields, sounds familiar for some reason.

      1. A lot of waffle from him about uniting the party when he wants us to Remain in the EU and would largely carry on with Corbyns policies

  49. Putin deserves ‘Great Power Strategist of the Year’ accolade. January 10, 2020.

    Every year, as an entertaining and useful thought experiment, my firm internally awards a “Great Power Strategist of the Year” prize; sort of a mini-Oscars for the geopolitically-minded. It is a disarming way to look at which great power statesman has most improved their country’s geopolitical position by any means (moral or otherwise) over the past 12 months. This year, perpetually under-rated Russian President Vladimir Putin won the award, almost unanimously.

    This is a pretty accurate account of Putin’s abilities and Russia’s real place in the world, most probably because it’s not a Western outlet that requires reams of hostile propaganda. I’m somewhat disappointed that he only got “Strategist of the Year as I would have awarded him the Decade!

    https://www.arabnews.com/node/1611136

  50. Those with Netflix, I can recommend a good series. ‘Designated Survivor,’ Kiether Sutherland as title suggests following a US Presidential assassination. Really enjoying it. Very high winds here this morning, good excuse to wrap up and stay warm indoors.

      1. I am just getting to the end of series one so can’t comment….but enjoying it thus far Bob.

    2. I watched it last year. It starts off good but becomes quite itchy beard after a while.

      1. Thank goodness I have no beard…lol. Thank you S. I am just watching this afternoon, ep 29 series one. Really love it. Perhaps 3 x series was too much and sadly they overdo things. I will see how it goes.

      1. I am absolutely hooked…stayed up one evening until 2am watching it. It is excellent GG.

        1. Two on Netflix I really enjoyed – “The Staircase” and “Manhunt-Unabomber”. Both true crime stories, one a fly on the wall documentary, the other dramatised.

          1. Ooh…I will watch out for those. I am new to Netflix and really love it. Better than the usual channel rubbish.

  52. Samira Ahmed celebrates landmark BBC equal pay win as bosses face another 70 tribunal cases after judge ruled she should be paid same £3,000-an-episode fee as Jeremy Vine

    All this case has done is to show how crazy the BBC pay rates are. So she got £700 for a 15 minute episode and Vine got £3000 for 15 minutes. All that is involved is reading off of an auto-cue. There are no lines to learn and no rehearsals needed. They probably run through the auto cue script before hand so being generous lets call it 2 hours work

    So she gets about a £102,000 a year for about at most 10 weeks work a year and Vine gets £750,000

    What is the real worth I would say about £100 an hour so for 10 Hours work a week about £50,000 a year

    Does it make any real difference who hosts these programmers probably not . The audience will depend mainly on the channel and time slot

  53. Stormont deal: Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill new top NI ministers

    Quite why they are not referred to as joint First Ministers I dont know

    Sinn Féin and the DUP have re-entered devolved government in Northern Ireland after three years of deadlock.
    DUP leader Arlene Foster was appointed as Northern Ireland’s first minister, while Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill is deputy first minister on Saturday.
    The two parties supported a deal to restore Stormont’s political institutions.
    Stormont’s power-sharing coalition, led by the DUP and Sinn Féin, collapsed in January 2017.

    The first minister comes from the largest party in the assembly and deputy first minister is from the second-largest party.
    The positions are known as a “diarchy” which means they are equal and govern together.
    The deputy first minister is not subordinate to the first minister, despite the title.

    The other members of the executive are:

    Minister for the economy: Diane Dodds (DUP)
    Minister for education: Peter Weir (DUP)
    Minister for agriculture, environment and rural affairs: Edwin Poots (DUP)
    Minister for communities: Deirdre Hargey (Sinn Féin)
    Minister for finance: Conor Murphy (Sinn Féin)
    Minister for health: Robin Swann (UUP)
    Minister for infrastructure: Nichola Mallon (SDLP)

    1. If I had a penny for everyone in England who knew anything at all about Northern Ireland…I’d only have a penny.

      1. That applies to politics in general. Who could name more than 1 person in the Boris’s cabinet? or the Lib-Dem MP’s. or Labour’s shadow cabinet in fact although most people will claim to like the Constituency MP approach only about 20% could name their MP

        1. That’s easy BJ:
          For Labour’s Shadow Cabinet, Sir Keir Starmer and the Abbottopotamus.
          The LibDems no longer have a Cabinet, they have a team which includes Sarah Olney and Tim Farron.
          In Boris’s cabinet you will find Johnny Walker and Captain Morgan.

          :-))

      2. The only things that I know about Irish politics are what others closer to the pulse tell me. They say that demographics are king and that the island will be united in a 100 years time because there won’t be enough people left in the North who want to stop it happening.

        If they have not fallen to the wave of “new arrivals” that are even now making their presence felt in that far-flung corner of the European Empire.

    4. I long to join you Rik. Mine are diminshing incredibly slowly and I would just like it done with then it can be cast into the past so we can get on with commenting. There is this strange magnetic fascination to check on the tally that i wish I could be rid of….lol.

      1. 60+- years ago maybe…well, my hair was like that and I was a bit skinny……lol.

    3. I have no idea what you are talking about (“Is it a bot?”), Tony, but since it seems to mean so much to you I have just given you an upvote.

          2. Ah, at last a bit of information I can understand. I think everyone else would be confused if I started talking about wits without explaining that I meant half-wits.

          2. You ain’t seen nothing yet Geoff – nine figure negative likes – this lady Robin was hit back in April, she abandoned the ID & has a new one which posts with me from time to time, her Negative Rep score & Negative Likes is off the scale & I have heard of posters with Negative likes in the Billions ! The Bot is truly demented !

            Marshal Blue Hall Monitor🎭 • a few seconds ago
            mahatmacoatmabag (1/11/2020 7:41 PM)

            !userinfo @birdbrained2000
            User Robin :
            Realms Link: Robin
            AuthorID: 25286969
            Rep: -35622.990027
            Posts: 12784
            Approved: 12304 (96.25 %)
            Flagged: 9 (0.07 %)
            Spam: 1 (0.01 %)
            Likes: -363,557,942
            BotWarning: This account may be targeted by a downvote bot.
            Joined: Wed, 25-04-2012 02:07
            Power Contributor (AllStar): False
            Closed: False
            Forums With Posts: 190
            Forums Followed: 9
            Followers: 213
            Followings: 186
            Thumbnail

          3. I have seen other account printouts such as this before. You can see why they switched to using this bot instead of the old way of following people around and reporting each comment of theirs as spam as they were made. This way takes almost no effort.

            It’s just a computer program though, it’s not “demented.” 🙂 They put your account on the list and then forget about it. Time will drag your account into a place where you can only comment on those sites where you are already known. I wonder which side of the political spectrum feels the need to silence the voices of their critics because they cannot argue against them?

            What shallow lives the poor things must live, to be so afraid of words.

          4. Marshall Blue is a DoW ( Dogs of War series ) bot that was used on some channels as Moderators to approve new pages, send out invites to frequent channel users ( about 200 rather than the 100 sent out by the Disqus to posters when a new page went up ) , ban trolls & spam adverts & whitelist posters . It was created by Dr. Thomas https://disqus.com/by/DrThomasAquinas/ who is a software developer & former channel owner who set up the Realms websites

          6. That account will not be making any comments on sites where they are not whitelisted. 🙂

            (Or on smaller sites where they have time to check the comment to clear it manually.)

          8. Am I the only NoTTLer who can’t make head nor tail of all this Upvote/Downvote/Bot/Troll/Whitelisted/Blacklisted stuff?

            I am totally baffled.

          9. Good evening Elsie. Basically somebody has created a malicious automated computer program that attacks posters – eliminates all their upvotes then gives them negative upvotes ( like being increasingly overdrawn at the bank to the point of bankruptcy ) till they are unable to post on any website that a mod has not added them as a Truster User ( Whitelisted ) . Being a Trusted User means you can freely post comments without them going automatically into pending & requiring a moderator to approve & manually release each post a person makes

          10. Thank you so much for that, Mahatma. I understand what you all have been going on about for the past few days.

          11. Third attempt to reply to your post, Mahatma, but thank you so much for explaining that to me in simple terms. At last I am able to understand what everyone on this site has been going on about for the past few days.

          13. ‘I haven’t lost any….;

            Dear One, please do not give ideas to the [w…] others on this blog!!

            By the way, you are not unpopular wit……doh!….you are of course teasing!!

            FFS,……… even BT loves you!!!!

          15. He has also given me his seed……………..

            [mumbles, mumbles, thinks, thinks.]

            I don’t think we should take this convo
            any further forward, Dear One, it may well
            lead to nasturtiums being cast!

          18. According to Hatman, only old accounts are targeted in this way, so yours is probably unaffected.

          19. I could have warned people, i suppose. I don’t change my name or account often but in this enviroment it keeps one safer. Just sayin’.

          21. No. Certainly not the details but with all the attacks on freedom of speech i could see it coming to a head. If you are outspoken and prominent on social media you are a target. Just look what they have done to Tommy Robinson.

  61. Now that the Withdrawal Bill has gone to the Lords, what prospect is there of there of someone causing the right kind of trouble and allowing us to leave at the end of the month without the necessity of the transition period? Could it be the EU, attempting to spite us but not realising it’s favouring us?

  62. 11,000 people are set to face a large cut in their state pension in April 2020.

    A new Freedom of Information response to former pensions minister Steve Webb revealed that the total amount lost will be around £33m, with individuals losing up to £70 per week.

    The change involves the final abolition of state pension additions for ‘adult dependents’ – typically spouses under state pension age who are financially dependent on the pension recipient. Under the 2007 Pensions Act these additions were abolished for new claims from 2010 onwards, but anyone already in receipt by April 2010 was allowed to continue to receive the addition for as long as they were entitled. That transitional arrangement comes to an end in April 2020.

      1. Absolutely Johnny but also Blair, it began in 2007 with new claimants stopping in 2010 and all claimants stopping this year.

  64. So it turns out Iran shot down that plane after all. At least they admitted it.

    Now they know how the US felt when they shot down Iran Air 655 in 1988.

    1. Was it an accident though, there could have been someone on board that they needed to eliminate?

      1. Most likely they thought it was a US missile or jet fighter and made a poor decision with disastrous consequences. Why all air traffic wasn’t grounded after the missile attack is a mystery though.

        Continuing with normal commercial flights in a state of heightened military tensions was criminally negligent.

          1. The missile attack on US bases in Iraq was retaliation for the assassination of their general.

            After Trump warned any such attack would lead to a disproportionate response and with reports of US jets taking off from the UAE and B52s in the air, the Iranians were probably on a hair trigger and expected the US to hit them back which is when they shot down that plane.

            That seems the most likely explanation to me anyway.

          4. OT, but did you hear of the twentysomething man who was admitted to intensive care, with a bad case of premature ejaculation?
            For a while, it was touch & come!
            😀😁

          11. They would still have had a twitchy finger though.

            R.I.P those who lost their lives through idiocy.

      2. Just a bunch of Canadians, Ukrainians and Iranians. If you want to strike back at the west, there couldn’t be weaker countries that you could offend.

        Can you see our pretendy PM launching a counter attack? He would need to go and plead with Trump for assistance.

      4. The US seems to think it was a mistake. Trump commented on the day it happened that it seemed to be a tragic mistake. But they did have some video of it on fire in flight, and pictures of the plane’s fuselage with gaping holes.

      1. Tut, tut Tryers!!

        ‘Hit…………….. it wiv an ‘ammer

        Are you going posh with us? :-)))

    2. The old joke: I used not to be able to spell engineer, now I are one.

      I spent about 6 years at Longbridge while getting qualified, and then working as a development engineer, in the glory days when the place was running flat out. The whole factory could have been the model for those old Bill Tidy cartoons. People really did cook food over red hot steel, and molten iron. And there was nothing you could not buy. You just needed to ask around.

      1. Maybe Meghan could forgo her private jet and help the bushfire charities in Oz.

        Environmentalism is certainly among her eco-friendly ethos .

        1. Oh thank you, yes they are my precious ones. They are 4 year old brother and sister from the same litter. The mom was chocolate like Gus and the father was a blue cream colour point. I love them to pieces……xx

          1. Hope you have a good grooming comb, Jenny. Our two need a lot of combing, and we can stuff several pillows a year with spare “cat silk”.

          2. Just posted above…they love to be groomed every day. I find if you do this from birth they are used to it.

          5. Gus sleeps with me every night…..I sleep sitting up on my sofa as I have heart problems….and he is great company for me. Luna sits with me during the day. I couldn’t be without them…..xx

          6. Sofas can be very comfy, Jenny, but heart problems less so. Hope it doesn’t trouble you too much.

          7. The only real problem is fluid…it kills me and builds up around my abdomen. Yuk……I have many good years in me still…lol. Thank you for your kindness….xxx

          9. I just want to hug them too – so LOVELY……..xxxx I try to kiss Gus on his little nose and he immediately puts his two front paws on my mouth so I can’t kiss him…hilarious.

          2. Ha ha ha…….we are getting the decorators in this spring…all new furniture and carpet and replastered walls for them. They are my family and deserve the best.

          4. Ours have an oversize catflap, and the whole world to exercise in… That’s why they aren’t fat at all, just muscle. They have cat biscuits all day, so eat what they want.
            Tend to sleep on the bed by our feet at night, and in the sofa during the day.

          1. I know…my heart melted when I first saw them. We visited them every week while they with Mom until it was time to bring them home so they were used to us.

      1. The mad mullahs say “Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough” and we turn Iran into a lake of molten glass. But that might be the most extreme possible outcome.

        We would need to give some subtle signals for all of the other faiths to get out of the country first.

  70. Nigel Farage: I’m not sure I can face another uphill battle against our corrupt Establishment

    Sherelle Jacobs

    With just 20 days to go until the UK leaves the European Union, some might say Nigel Farage ought to be in high spirits. The bill allowing the UK to leave the EU passed its third reading in the House of Commons this week, with a 99 majority. Instead, for the Brexit Party MEP, it feels like an aptly bumpy end to a turbulent chapter. As a British MEP of more than 20 years’ standing, his Brussels contract will officially expire in February. And his mainstream political career will end as it began in the 1990s – with him as a defiant and undecorated outsider.

    Guffawing in his Westminster office at the Government’s decision not to bestow him with a New Year Honour for his vital role in getting Brexit done, Farage insists that he couldn’t “give a damn about peerages”. He means it. There is Burlesque Nigel Farage the marionnette-smiled political performer. And there is Unvarnished Nigel Farage, who tells you how it is while looking at you jabbingly in the pupils. Today, I am definitely talking more to the latter. As he lists all of the rotten aspects of the peerage system and the many times ministers tried to buy him off with one, his voice is clipped with canny self-reflection rather than contrived defiance….

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/01/11/nigel-farage-not-sure-can-face-another-uphill-battle-against1

    Premium. Could someone post the rest?

    1. Here you go:

      With the Brexit saga entering a new phase, Farage now seems to be in the business of writing his exit scene as one of modern history’s biggest rebels against Westminster – “unless the Government drop the ball again”. Farage has certainly had time to mull things over of late; in recent days, he has been in recovery from a fairly invasive operation. “It was nothing life-threatening,” he chirps, poking his stomach. “Just a bit of carving about. I got very badly hurt in a plane crash in 2010.

      There are big things to do after a thing like that, and there are little things. The fact that I am now dealing with little things hopefully means I’ve reached a moment in my life that a line is being drawn.” Eleven days on from his operation, Farage has lost none of his fire. That his office reeks cheerfully of tobacco somehow doesn’t come as a surprise. “Fitness is back on the agenda,” he insists, however. “Drinking less and exercising more.” And smoking? “A bit less,” he mutters, ferreting in his satchel for a piece of paper beneath a cigarette packet.

      One thing Farage certainly isn’t cutting down on is polemical attacks on his rivals. Today, he is particularly withering of the “late middle-aged stuck-up Tory toffs” of the European Research Group (ERG). He believes some of its members have been telling Tory MPs they should not attend the £100k “Brexit Celebration Party” that Farage is organising for January 31 – a ticketed knees-up in Parliament Square where revellers will be able to raise a glass as Big Ben strikes 11pm, signalling that we have officially left the European Union.

      (Within hours of an official site going live this week, more than 10,000 people had registered.) “What sad little lives they must live,” he booms, adding that, ever since Maastrich, they have been consistently useless as Eurosceptics in defeating the government of the day: “Would I want to stand next to any of them in a muddy field in France under fire? Forget it!”

      On Ursula von der Leyen, the new president of the European Commission, who replaced Jean-Claude Juncker last month, he is no less forgiving: she is “living in an Alice-in-Wonderland PC world”. The EU is now “run by nobodies” and even more “disconnected from European voters” than it was when Farage was elected to it some 20 years ago. He insists he won’t miss Brussels “in the slightest”, and that Boris Johnson’s divorce deal is “dreadful”.

      But, still, between the punchlines, I detect that Farage is not so much tired, as resigned. He knows that his days as the EU’s most thunderous opponent are numbered, and decisively predicts that “Brexit will go from front-page news to City page news by the summer”. It seems a shrewd assessment: the Brexit withdrawal bill passed in Parliament this week with little fanfare. “Do I personally want to take on the Establishment again, to which opposition to me is 90 per cent? Do I want to spend the next 15 years fighting an uphill battle? I don’t really know the answer to that,” he says, adding that he sees himself moving away from day-to-day politics to doing more commentary and writing books.

      Top of his list is a controversial tome on political corruption, tackling allegations of voter fraud within ethnic communities in key constituencies, to the “rotten” peerage system. To this end, Farage intends to rebrand his Brexit Party as “the Reform Party” – to campaign for electoral reform, to expose postal-vote fraud and to take on the “retrograde” House of Lords.

      Rather than tearing down the Establishment, he wants to chip away at its crooked foundations. “I’ve thrown up some ideas. I think that voting intimidation, and the whole system of patronage, particularly with respect to the House Lords, needs tackling.” Farage thinks some kind of radical, reforming movement on the Right will be needed to hold the “fuddy-duddy” Government’s feet to the fire.

      He is sceptical about the authenticity of Dominic Cummings’ war on Whitehall: “Is this the same fight that says that the next ambassador to the USA must be a current civil servant?” he snickers. This week, Whitehall announced it was looking for a new man in Washington. Given his warm relationship with Donald Trump, Farage had long been been touted as an ideal person for the job, someone who could lead cordial post-Brexit trade deal negotiations with the United States.

      From Farage, I detect a sliver of bitterness, adeptly slicked over with acid bewilderment. But, as usual, his criticism of the Government is pertinent: “The decision guarantees that nobody in the White House will even speak to whoever gets the job. How can you have Trump and his movers and shakers meeting a career diplomat? They won’t even speak the same language.”

      So does Farage think this is an early warning sign that Boris Johnson is not as quite as committed to forging a glorious new relationship with the United States as many Leavers hope? “Right now, Trump will be astonished that Boris has this week been on the phone to the Iranian president, backing the Iran nuclear deal,” he says, adding that he hopes the Prime Minister’s “timidity doesn’t get in the way”.

      Even if Farage is ambivalent about Johnson’s authenticity, musing that, in Britain, “the Left has more moral courage than the Right”, he still thinks that populism has a powerful global future. He is adamant that Trump will win a second term, even though places such as Pennsylvania may not fall to the Republicans as easily as they did in 2016. Farage’s chemistry with the president is clearly a source of personal pride. A framed picture of that photograph with the pair in a glittering gold apartment lift sits on his windowsill.

      But he is not planning on ditching Britain for the States any time soon, despite the constant swirl of rumours. Instead, he wants to spend time with his family, who have “been neglected massively over the years”. Fame has been “inhibiting” factor when it comes to family day trips, he admits, adding that: “It is difficult to do a lot of normal things.” Farage also has a heap of books on his shelves that he is determined to get through, starting with Sir David Starkey’s history of the Magna Carta, “one of the first flashes of British populism”, when the general public rose up against an unpopular king and revolting barons.

      The crisp winter blue skies might even tempt him back onto the golf course, although pre-existing injuries have affected his swing. But perhaps the hardest thing that he has to do is face that his front-line political career is nearing its end. “Nobody in this country has come closer than me to smashing the system,” he says. “I succeeded in one way, and failed in another. It’s not everything I want – but victory never is.”

      2. Afternoon GG,
        “do I really want the next 15 years fighting an uphill battle I really don’t know the answer to that”
        Funny because he was very adamant back in 2016 saying
        “I want my life back”
        Prior to going into major knife
        play mode.
        These are farage self inflicted
        facts.

          2. Yes, thank you. Been enjoying special black pudding sausages, courtesy of Hertslass. Highly recommended.

      4. One thing I noticed in the article is a no mention of the word ‘democracy’. Instead it’s ‘populism’.

        The Left do not have any moral courage at all. They are just louder and more vicious in their arrogance.

        Throughout it’s ‘Farage is resigned’ – there’s no triumphalism, no ‘Having fought and won a battle against an autocracy for the country he loves’.

        Yes, I’m sure his office stinks. You don’t need to bang on about it to denigrate his habit. Yes, smoking is disgusting, but it’s irrelevant to the work he has done to help this country leave the hated EU.

      1. If we had 10p for every time that you put up that same video clip, we would all be as rich as Croesus. Get a grip on the reality that without this man we would still be LOCKED inside of the European Union and about to forced to adopt the Euro as currency in the next round of EU centralisation.

        If he hadn’t spent 25 years of his life trying to get us out, then you would be worshipping a party that was thin air. Although with your NEC blaming your two current heroes for all of UKIP’s problems, that party won’t be remotely electable even 10 years from now.

        Luckily I now have an engagement, so I can miss your inevitable standard response to this glimmer of truth that has just shone into your life.

        But if you try to accuse me of being part of the “Lib/Lab/Con” conspiracy to keep us inside of the EU, then the laughter will be heard across the land. Have a good afternoon. 🙂

        1. MM,
          Rhetorically you are a very sad case, and it is, I would strongly imagine, you and your ilk that has have landed these Isles into such a state of sh!te.

    3. With
      the Brexit saga entering a new phase, Farage now seems to be in the
      business of writing his exit scene as one of modern history’s biggest
      rebels against Westminster – “unless the Government drop the ball
      again”. Farage has certainly had time to mull things over of late; in
      recent days, he has been in recovery from a fairly invasive operation.
      “It was nothing life-threatening,” he chirps, poking his stomach. “Just a
      bit of carving about. I got very badly hurt in a plane crash in 2010.

      There are big things to do after a thing like that, and there are
      little things. The fact that I am now dealing with little things
      hopefully means I’ve reached a moment in my life that a line is being
      drawn.” Eleven days on from his operation, Farage has lost none of his
      fire. That his office reeks cheerfully of tobacco somehow doesn’t come
      as a surprise. “Fitness is back on the agenda,” he insists, however.
      “Drinking less and exercising more.” And smoking? “A bit less,” he
      mutters, ferreting in his satchel for a piece of paper beneath a
      cigarette packet.

      One thing Farage certainly isn’t cutting down on is polemical attacks
      on his rivals. Today, he is particularly withering of the “late
      middle-aged stuck-up Tory toffs” of the European Research Group (ERG).
      He believes some of its members have been telling Tory MPs they should
      not attend the £100k “Brexit Celebration Party” that Farage is
      organising for January 31 – a ticketed knees-up in Parliament Square
      where revellers will be able to raise a glass as Big Ben strikes 11pm,
      signalling that we have officially left the European Union.

      (Within hours of an official site going live this week, more than
      10,000 people had registered.) “What sad little lives they must live,”
      he booms, adding that, ever since Maastrich, they have been consistently
      useless as Eurosceptics in defeating the government of the day: “Would I
      want to stand next to any of them in a muddy field in France under
      fire? Forget it!”

      On Ursula von der Leyen,
      the new president of the European Commission, who replaced Jean-Claude
      Juncker last month, he is no less forgiving: she is “living in an
      Alice-in-Wonderland PC world”. The EU is now “run by nobodies” and even
      more “disconnected from European voters” than it was when Farage was
      elected to it some 20 years ago. He insists he won’t miss Brussels “in
      the slightest”, and that Boris Johnson’s divorce deal is “dreadful”.

      But,
      still, between the punchlines, I detect that Farage is not so much
      tired, as resigned. He knows that his days as the EU’s most thunderous
      opponent are numbered, and decisively predicts that “Brexit will go from
      front-page news to City page news by the summer”. It seems a shrewd
      assessment: the Brexit withdrawal bill passed in Parliament this week
      with little fanfare. “Do I personally want to take on the Establishment
      again, to which opposition to me is 90 per cent? Do I want to spend the
      next 15 years fighting an uphill battle? I don’t really know the answer
      to that,” he says, adding that he sees himself moving away from
      day-to-day politics to doing more commentary and writing books.

      Top of his list is a controversial tome on political corruption,
      tackling allegations of voter fraud within ethnic communities in key
      constituencies, to the “rotten” peerage system. To this end, Farage
      intends to rebrand his Brexit Party
      as “the Reform Party” – to campaign for electoral reform, to expose
      postal-vote fraud and to take on the “retrograde” House of Lords.

      Rather than tearing down the Establishment, he wants to chip away at
      its crooked foundations. “I’ve thrown up some ideas. I think that voting
      intimidation, and the whole system of patronage, particularly with
      respect to the House Lords, needs tackling.” Farage thinks some kind of
      radical, reforming movement on the Right will be needed to hold the
      “fuddy-duddy” Government’s feet to the fire.

      He is sceptical about the authenticity of Dominic Cummings’ war on
      Whitehall: “Is this the same fight that says that the next ambassador to
      the USA must be a current civil servant?”
      he snickers. This week, Whitehall announced it was looking for a new
      man in Washington. Given his warm relationship with Donald Trump, Farage
      had long been been touted as an ideal person for the job, someone who
      could lead cordial post-Brexit trade deal negotiations with the United
      States.

      From Farage, I detect a sliver of bitterness, adeptly slicked over
      with acid bewilderment. But, as usual, his criticism of the Government
      is pertinent: “The decision guarantees that nobody in the White House
      will even speak to whoever gets the job. How can you have Trump and his
      movers and shakers meeting a career diplomat? They won’t even speak the
      same language.”

      So does Farage think this is an early warning sign that Boris Johnson
      is not as quite as committed to forging a glorious new relationship
      with the United States as many Leavers hope? “Right now, Trump will be
      astonished that Boris has this week been on the phone to the Iranian
      president, backing the Iran nuclear deal,” he says, adding that he hopes
      the Prime Minister’s “timidity doesn’t get in the way”.

      Even if Farage is ambivalent about Johnson’s authenticity, musing
      that, in Britain, “the Left has more moral courage than the Right”, he
      still thinks that populism has a powerful global future. He is adamant
      that Trump will win a second term, even though places such as
      Pennsylvania may not fall to the Republicans as easily as they did in
      2016. Farage’s chemistry with the president is clearly a source of
      personal pride. A framed picture of that photograph with the pair in a
      glittering gold apartment lift sits on his windowsill.

      But he is not planning on ditching Britain for the States any time
      soon, despite the constant swirl of rumours. Instead, he wants to spend
      time with his family, who have “been neglected massively over the
      years”. Fame has been “inhibiting” factor when it comes to family day
      trips, he admits, adding that: “It is difficult to do a lot of normal
      things.” Farage also has a heap of books on his shelves that he is
      determined to get through, starting with Sir David Starkey’s
      history of the Magna Carta, “one of the first flashes of British
      populism”, when the general public rose up against an unpopular king and
      revolting barons.

      The crisp winter blue skies might even tempt him back onto the golf
      course, although pre-existing injuries have affected his swing. But
      perhaps the hardest thing that he has to do is face that his front-line
      political career is nearing its end. “Nobody in this country has come
      closer than me to smashing the system,” he says. “I succeeded in one
      way, and failed in another. It’s not everything I want – but victory
      never is.

    2. I love old pictures such as that. It gives a frame of reference to the different world that we live in now.

  72. “Taiwan is showing the world how much we cherish our free democratic way of life and how much we cherish our nation.”

    Perhaps, then, President Tsai Ing-wen, you could have a word in the shell-like of Boris Johnson before he does his anticipated u-turn and sells us out to the EU.

    1. Leave Boris alone. Miracles you want ? So far, he is making the best of a bad job, and doing fine. Rome..err..Londonistan…wasn’t built in a day.
      The Soviet Union collapsed thirty years ago, but the Russians haven’t found freedom yet.

      1. I’d like to believe you, Tony, but have doubts about whether he can be trusted to give us the clean break we voted for.

        P.S. The only reason Rome wasn’t built in a day is because they spent half a day filling in the EU’s compliance documentation.

        1. I’m not expecting a clean break. That would be too much to expect.But however it is dressed up we must be able to control our destiny ourselves. Which means that anything he agrees to must be reasonable. He has done much better than I thought he would so far, so lets see what happens. After all, we trusted Theresa May for what seemed like a millennium.

          1. Some people seem yo think we can totally cut our-self off from the EU but that is not sensible. Remaining in EHIC is sensible as is the Medicines agency etc

          2. Sorry, Tony, but we didn’t trust May. In fact, Boris himself resigned from the cabinet because of her strategy.

            The fact he voted on the third occasion for her deal is why I have my doubts about the man.

          3. That third vote was a put-up job. I never did understand it. They all had a gun pointed at their heads and warned of the consequences if the deal didn’t go through. If they hadn’t been too busy fighting one another, she would have been kicked out ages before.
            We are both on the same side, here, really. I just accept the end result will not be as good as we would like.

          4. Tony – I think we are all on the same side here, it is just that some of don’t think we will get a deal that is “just about okay” we think we will get a deal that leaves us in almost exactly the same “level playing field” position that we are now. Unable to make meaningful trade deals with the rest of the world and with the EU still free to fish in our waters at will. We already know that we are going to paying the EU for years for “outstanding commitments” unless we have a WTO break, and that is not even being planned as an option now.

            So it will depend entirely on whether Boris is a globalist or British. If he is the former then we won’t be leaving in any meaningful way. The words will change but the situation will be almost identical. If he turns out to be British at heart, against some previous indicators, then there is a chance for the United Kingdom. We will know which side he is on as we see what he “gives away” in these trade deal talks.

            You sometimes hear on the news the idea that both sides must compromise, which is another fantasy put forward by Remainers in the media. We don’t need to at all. We could have left at the end of this month and started deals with the rest of the world AND the EU at the same time. This 12 month delay before being free to do what we want is utterly unnecessary, which is one of the things that make people look at Boris with narrowed eyes.

          5. Agreed. Hopefully it will be not as bad as you expect, even if not as good as I wish for.
            (A couple of days ago I was expecting the whole thing to be postponed for the duration of World War Three !!!)

        1. That summed up a 3 paragraph comment of mine just below. I must learn to be more pithy. 🙂

      1. Mir bane kerke chai ka ek burra piala mira pass lau is the approx. noise to make in Hindi.

        1. Google can’t translate a lot of things; I’m always warning my students about that.

          Tusker mojo kwa mimi, tafadhali. = One Tusker for me, please.

          Tusker is/was the most famous beer in Kenya; mojo = one. Actually, the word is moja, but my Swahili is rather rusty. I use to be ale to converse in it.

          I once walked into a crowded Safari Lodge bar with a friend & being tall, I caught the barboy’s eye across the sea of white heads. Spontaneously I called out “Tusker ‘bili, tafadhali!” (“2 Tuskers, please!”) & got served straight away.

    3. Reminds me of the inscription on a piece of Roman pottery dug up by archaeolgists
      Ti sapo topis sinan dago odon etoo

  74. Off to local with a good band tonight. I’ll leave you all counting upvotes, or rather ‘Countdown’.

    1. ” Lessons must be learned. Death to America ! We will wipe Israel off the face of the earth !! Where is Qasem Soleimani when you need him ? “

        1. ‘Twill be put down with brutal force and nary a word in the MSM.

          Thus end all demonstrations against tyrannical rule.

  76. Extinction Rebellion

    The Counter Terrorism Unit had them as an Extremist Group and in my view they certainly are yet the Guardian complains and the police say it was a mistake

    2. I saw the headline in The Times and thought that there must have been a nasty outbreak of common sense. Then I read the article which went on to explain that there had been a grovelling apology by the police and a retraction.

  77. Britain’s ambassador to Iran is ARRESTED after photographing protesters in Tehran clash with riot police as they demand the Ayatollah RESIGNS and call for regime change after Iran finally admits to shooting down jet and killing 176 people

    Protests broke out at four universities in Tehran on Saturday after military admitted fatal blunder
    Angry crowds demanded the Ayatollah’s resignation and full investigation into the disaster
    Regime forces cracked down hard on the demonstrators, firing tear gas into the crowds
    Iranian air defenses shot down civilian passenger plane carrying 176 people, most of them Iranian citizens
    The country was on high alert after targeting US forces with ballistic missiles in bloodless strike
    By WILLIAM COLE FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 20:59, 11 January 2020 | UPDATED: 21:03, 11 January 2020

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7877079/Britains-ambassador-Iran-ARRESTED-photographing-protesters-Tehran-clash.html?ico=pushly-notifcation-small

    1. “He was briefly arrested, told to stop taking photographs for security reasons, then released ”
      The Mail scaremongering again. They got their news off the internet, like we did.

  78. I’m feeling all soppy. I’ve just watched my favourite movie for the hundredth time: You’ve Got Mail. Guaranteed to feel good after!

    1. One of my favourite films is On Golden Pond. Saw it on a flight to LA in 1982. vw dislikes it.

    1. I don’t think he’ll be given the sort of reception Netanyahu gets which is more akin to a speech given by Kim Jong Un in North Korea.

  80. I wasn’t quite sure what everyone was talking about with the upvote/down vote saga so I looked at Disqus this morning and again just now and I have two thousand fewer.

      1. When I first commented with Disqus, I imagined that one day it would be possible to exchange upvotes for Sainsbury’s Nectar points. Obviously the bots are cashing in.

    2. Its utterly bizarre. I don’t know if it’s just another Dissqus issue or
      something more sinister. I think I’d prefer to stay on the side of errors,
      the rest is too weird to contemplate.

      1. ”
        I think I’d prefer to stay on the side of errors,the rest is too weird to contemplate.”
        As the Ayatollah said about the aeroplane.

    1. When you start thinking, there are so many to choose from. Mostly they are silents, black and white, or more than fifty years old.
      Compare the relative elegance and humour of From Russia with Love, with the ear-blasting rubbish called Skyfall.

      1. Totally agreed on Skyfall – modernised newer Bond rubbish.

        One newish non-Bond film I do like is one that was on very late Friday night – Ex Machina. Sci-fi but the effects are brilliantly done and the film gets creepier as it goes on.

    3. My favorite scene is this one
      After all it’s not that awful. You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21h0G_gU9Tw

    4. Absolutely – definitely my favourite for atmosphere – and the zither playing from Anton Karas just completes it.

    2. Good. They need all the help they can get.

      Do we know what the British Government response ans support is for this enviromental catastrophe brought on by Green Policy?

      2. Zac Goldsmith (Environment Minister) is trying to get the Overseas Aid rules changed to allow some of that budget to be sent to Oz.

      1. It’s a collector’s item. The previous record held by the legendary Sir Don Bradman baggy green cap sold for $425,000 in 2003.

  90. Okay I will say goodnight my friends. Thank you for the memories and having me…..I have a movie planned and some left over goodies from Christmas. Have a great evening….xxx

      1. An oldie…..Sherlock Holmes. Basil Rathbone….love them and have seen many times but I like them……we have two to watch tonight. Woman in Green and Terror by Night……

  91. Yeah, ups reduced to zero. Off to join Plum and BT in the unloved corner of the yard. Looks like Ginge is going to get a rollocking with Cringe staying as far away as possible (securing the marriage certificate in a strong vault). Queenie will have to be careful as the race card is always the trump suit at the high rollers table.

    1. P.S. The “unloved corner” has quite a large collection of us in it now, me (and Rik I believe) included among several others.

      2. Hi Hertslass, I haven’t been on this site for quite some time (work/life commitments) but pop in now and then for some enlightenment and to find out what is really going on in the World. I noticed all the comments about upvotes disappearing so watched mine for a week or so without comment or without upvoting anyone’s comments. Everything remained the same until the last day or so.
        Two weeks back I started upvoting as many of those who were losing votes – you know the ‘great unwoke’, the naughty boys & girls of this site who will not go ‘quietly into the night’. Surprise, surprise (not) my upvotes have dropped by a few thousand over the last 24 hours or so.
        Whilst I do not count myself a full deserving member of this illustrious club, it has encouraged me to be more of a reader and participant in the upcoming weeks/months. I have missed the camaraderie and banter so apologise for my absence and will try a lot harder in the future.
        Keep b’ggerin’ on.

        2. Morning Hopon

          Glad to see you are back, even though your visit may be fleeting , just wishing you a belated HNY .

          My upvotes have dropped back hugely over the past few months.

          I wonder whether our avatars are being interfered with , because my comments on the DT columns that we can comment on haven’t had an uptick for years, where as once upon a time sometimes I had huge numbers of upvotes.. just wondered whether I had been blanked out .

          1. Hi TB, difficult to know with comments on the DT; since the Referendum it has become a target of anti-Brexit, anti-Tory, anti-Boris, anti-Trump, anti-common sense, anti-British Trolls. Within no time it’s almost impossible to scroll through and find any reasonable comments worth reading, let alone entering into a discussion. I rarely comment and often just look at the first dozen newest and then the top half dozen.
            Why are the Left and supposed Liberals so “anti” everything and so angry all the time, they must have very miserable lives indeed!

        1. Morning to you both, Harry.

          We’ll be hearing “I too am Zerocus” from all soon. Or is it Sparky-zero?

        2. Morning to you both, Harry.

          We’ll be hearing “I too am Zerocus” from all soon. Or is it Sparky-zero?

    2. P.S. The “unloved corner” has quite a large collection of us in it now, me (and Rik I believe) included among several others.

    3. Possibly Whinge herself will have to be careful as well. She has already miffed Trump, who supports the Queen. Too much “waaaaycist” shouting from her, and she may find herself princess no-mates. The Queen showed nothing but kindness towards her right from the start, breaking some of her former own protocols in the process. I am sure she could effectively have put a big spoke in the works, had she been minded to. HM has shown herself to be anything but racist, and Whinge would be a fool to try and even attempt to insinuate a slander on her in that way.

    4. Meanwhile, Breitbart reports that not all marines are enamoured with Ginge:

      “Prince Harry’s Role as Head of Royal Marines ‘in Doubt’, Hadn’t Been Seen ‘in Months’: Claim

      A military source speaking to The Mirror claims that Prince Harry’s position as head of the Royal Marines is “in doubt” after his announcement that he and his wife Meghan Markle are stepping back as “senior” royals.

      Prince Harry was made Captain General of the Royal Marines in 2019, taking over the position from his 98-year-old grandfather Prince Philip.

      On Wednesday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced via Instagram that they would be stepping back as “senior” royals, reducing their public duties, and splitting their time between North America and the UK as the seek to carve out a financially independent “progressive” new life.

      Prince Harry is a patron of other branches of the British armed services, including being the Honorary Air Commandant of Royal Air Force Honington and Commodore-in-Chief of the Royal Naval Command’s Small Ships and Diving group.

      Prince Harry is a ten-year army veteran and had undertaken two tours duty in Afghanistan. Commissioned as an army officer in the Blues and Royals in 2006 after completing training at the military academy Sandhurst, the following year he served as a forward air controller, coordinating strikes against the Taliban. In 2008, he served in Helmand Province.

      Like his brother Prince William, Prince Harry trained as a military helicopter pilot, qualifying as an Apache aircraft commander. His older brother also had a career in the military, having served for seven years in the army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force where he flew a Sea King as a search-and-rescue pilot.

      There is a strong tradition of military service in the British Royal Family, with the sovereign as head of the armed services. Three of the Queen’s four children served in the military, with Prince Andrew having served in the Falklands War in 1982 as a navy helicopter co-pilot. Prince Philip served in the navy in World War Two, while the then-18-year-old princess Elizabeth served as a driver and mechanic in the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

      In response to The Mirror‘s source casting doubt on whether Prince Harry will continue as the honourary head of the elite group, a senior military source told the newspaper: “The Corps keeps HRH informed on a regular basis of what is going on with the Commando Brigade, but he has not been seen for some months.”

      The appointment in the Royal Marines was supported by top brass, though rank-and-file criticised the move, on the grounds that Prince Harry was merely handed the signature green beret without having worked for it.

      One told The Mirror: “A lot of lads were not impressed that he was just given a beret and his commando badges yet he did nothing for them, not one run, nothing. He won’t be missed.”

      Comparing the way the title was bestowed to Harry compared to when Prince Charles was given command of Britain’s paratroopers, they said: “His Dad, who heads the paras, underwent the jumps [and] the course before the Army would let him wear wings, yet we just gave our beret and badges away.” “

    1. The media of course wants them to behave like the performing seals and do the royal duties and fulfil the role they’re supposed to.

    2. Volltreffer!

      All this whimpering about becoming financially independent when between them they are worth the thick end of £50m.

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