754 thoughts on “Friday 9 August: Remainers could put Labour in power if they support a no-confidence vote”

  2. More virtue signalling on the news about racism in football, nobody appears to be bothered that there are no longer any white home grown players at the top level.

  3. The Home Office is launching a new fast track visa route for scientists, engineers, technologists etc but alas all we appear to get is far too many machetematicians.

    3. ……she hasn’t been heard from since 11 July, not since the appearance at the Lion King premiere. It may seem like it though as her PR stuff is always in the media. Her maternity leave is up shortly.

  8. Morning all

    SIR – John McDonnell’s latest pronouncements should give Tory Remainers pause for thought.

    If the likes of Dominic Grieve and Philip Hammond support a Labour motion of no confidence in Boris Johnson’s Government, they could be paving the way for Jeremy Corbyn to become prime minister and Mr McDonnell to become chancellor.

    Mr McDonnell is a republican and a communist who would bring in a radical, anti-capitalist economic and political agenda. His statement that he “would be sending Jeremy Corbyn in a cab to Buckingham Palace to say we’re taking over” clearly shows who is running the Labour Party.

    Moreover, he is prepared to risk the integrity of the United Kingdom by allowing a referendum on Scottish independence, for the sake of getting SNP support in the Commons.

    No doubt Mr Grieve, Mr Hammond and others are sincere in their wish to remain in the EU, but the laws of unintended consequences could wreak far greater economic damage on our country than Brexit, with or without a deal.

    David Kidd
    Petersfield, Hampshire

    SIR – The terms of the referendum were quite clear: Leave or Remain. At the last election, both major parties stated that they would comply with the people’s democratic decision. That some Conservative MPs elected under a Leave manifesto could now even consider voting to bring down the Government is beyond belief. I sincerely hope that, prior to the next election, constituency parties deselect any who do.

    Captain Gareth Peaston MN
    Ferndown, Dorset

    1. “Unintended consequences”? Nope. They are not really stupid. They know what may happen. They surely accept the possibility, and that may be what they wish for.

    2. Those Conservative MPs have already been sacked by their constituents. They refuse to obey that decision as well.

      We’re not dealing with rational people but fanatics.

    3. ‘Morning, Epi

      Con permiso…

      … they could be paving the way for Jeremy Corbyn to become prime minister Straw Man and Mr McDonnell to become chancellor. Dictator.

    4. Hammond, Grieve and others are only interested in keeping their future sinecure prospects viable and protecting their own interests. That’s as far as their sincerity goes.

  9. SIR – Dominic Grieve insists that Boris Johnson must accept the result if he loses a vote of no confidence. Yet Mr Grieve has still not accepted the result of the referendum three years ago.

    Christopher Mann
    Bristol

    1. Well you have to understand there are results and there are results and you choose the results you want to accept

      Will Grieves be saying we should have another no confidence vote if he wins as MP’s may have changed their mind and were not properly informed

    2. Grieve didn’t accept the result of no confidence from his constituency party. The man is a typical Lefty hypocrite.

  10. Morning again

    SIR – In your report “Muslims need not assimilate, says top officer”, Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu says that Muslims should be free to practise their religion openly rather than having to hide away. I fully agree.

    I am Jewish. I practise my religion openly and don’t hide away. I have a job in a secular company. I use the London Underground and write letters to national newspapers.

    But I think we need to emphasise the difference between assimilation and integration far more. It is perfectly possible to practise one’s religion openly and still integrate.

    Alistair Halpern
    London NW11

    1. Should Muslims practice their religion they would by definition fail to integrate for their faith is destined so they believe to triumph over us.

      1. Quite why we allow the covering the face by Muslim woman I do not know. It is potential security risk and in the UK and most European countries facial contact is important in fact it is seen as a sigh of rudeness to not look at a person who is speaking to you. In fact one could say it is an important part of the British culture and customs but apparently I the PC world British values count for nothing and are trumped by the culture of others

        1. It’s a political statement, Bill. It’s saying “up yours! We reject your standards.”

        1. Geoff has done an outstanding job,yes he saw the writing on the wall and planned accordingly

          1. He has. A wise Boss. My fear is that such commenting platforms will go the way of Twitter etc and impose censorship next.

  12. The Brexit Bashing Corporation. Spiked. Brendan O’Neill 8 August 2019.

    Since Boris Johnson became PM, Brexit Derangement Syndrome has worsened across the country. Well, not the entire country – primarily in the Westminster bubble and the commentariat cocoon where the middle-class malady of BDS is most potent. No sooner had Boris crossed the threshold of Downing Street than these people were ramping up their guff about Brexit being the harbinger of unprecedented national doom and the causer of a Cormac McCarthy-style dystopia in which Brits have will have no food, no Pinot Gris, and no drugs to treat the super-gonorrhoea that will of course explode across the land if we leave without a deal. Plagues and pestilence! They have genuinely taken leave of their senses.

    I’m not certain that they have taken leave of their senses since it appears to me to be persistent and organised which would imply rationality. The BBC is as much a servant of the State as ever was Tass or Izvestia. Of course my view is somewhat coloured by my receiving a reminder by email yesterday.

    Dear Minty.

    Thanks for renewing your TV Licence by Direct Debit.

    You’re now covered up to the end of August 2020*.

    The words Direct Debit are in fact a lie. I signed up to pay one year and found myself locked into an arrangement that I can neither cancel nor get out of short of closing my account and moving elsewhere. By such methods does this corrupt entity exist.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/08/08/the-brexit-bashing-corporation/

    1. Closed my last UK account 2 days ago, because they (Barclays) would not do as I requested. They seemed surprised. It was legal, too, the request.

      1. One of the problems is that HMRC now demands that banks do their job for them in trying to find miscreants.

        One of our friends who used to be a senior manager at HSBC found that he was being persecuted and bothered about how certain funds regularly found their way into his account. It took him some expenditure of wrath and time to show them that this money was being paid in by HSBC – it was his pension.

      2. Banks in my view have got up to all sorts of scams. The most recent one that has come to light was PPI misspelling. They have also been pulled up by the FCAS over the black art of overdraft charging where they just seem to make up a figure. I have yet to meet anyone that understood they overdraft charging system

    2. Never pay by DD on a credit card because you can only cancel it by getting rid of the card. I got rooked by Homeserve that way.

      1. That is not so much a DD as a continuous payment authority. I don’t use DD and I like to tell insurance companies that I will not automatically renew on whatever card I used last time.

    4. They have genuinely taken leave of their senses.

      The US Democrats have done the same, going into hysterical TDS since the mass shootings, not that they were particularly reasonable and sane before. According to one ex-FBI agent, Trump was signalling to his N@zi supporters by raising the U.S. flag.after it had been at half-mast for three days, because the day it was raised was the 8th of August, i.e. 8/8, and H is the 8th letter of the alphabet, and 88 = HH = “Heil *itler
      This guy was completely serious.
      At which point you know the Democrats have completely lost the plot.

      1. He’d use a grey, smelly mop in grey smelly water; first the loos and then the kitchen.

        1. You jest but are not far from the truth, in my experience. Many years ago at St Osyth exchange the cleaner, a rather scruffy old man, was caught boiling the toilet cleaning cloths in the kettle used for making tea. I always took my own kettle in with me after hearing that.

          1. Even in the 18th century, the servants had different cloths (in different weaves/weights/colours) for different jobs. The slop cloths were distinctive so they were not used for anything else.

          2. Conway, you’ve reminded me of something one of my team told me. He was qualified to train people on sailing ships and to keep things clean and easy to remember it went along the lines of, “Blue for the loo, pink for the sink…”

  14. Geoff’s usual cheerful morning greeting did not appear as the newest comment on yesterday’s blog with the link to today’s blog. Any ideas why might that be?

      1. “I wondered lonely as a cloud…..”

        Anyway, we got here. Quite how I now can’t remember. I was using Opera but am now on Firefox.

    2. It has become superfluous, as the new day’s page has a link at the top of the old day’s if you reboot in the morning.

  15. BBC Breakfast

    Felicity Stannah the Cancelled Events organiser has recommended that in the current weather climate taking an umbrella and finding something to do indoors would be just the ticket.

  16. SIR – Mr Basu suggests that Muslim immigrants should not be forced to assimilate into our society. “Forcing” is perhaps the wrong word, but they should be strongly encouraged to assimilate into our way of life.

    Many immigrants come from areas where religion is so extreme that if you don’t conform you are likely to face persecution. At the same time, there is so little respect for human rights that working conditions are dreadful and, if you have the wrong politics, you may face violence. This type of society is generally unsuccessful, impoverished by bribery and effective dictatorship.

    Most immigrants come here because they see our society as better. If they bring their own beliefs and social organisation with them, they are losing the basic advantage of their move. In extreme cases, they are seen as trying to impose their society on us.

    If there are too many who are unassimilated we will no longer be a socially inclusive society.

    A V Parke
    Ilfracombe, Devon

    A V Parke hits the nail very firmly on the head.

      1. If you take London it now consist of several areas that are isolated ghettos and that have little in common with the rest of London let alone the UK
        Policing of these areas is almost non existent and crime and disorder is endemic

    2. Good morning

      I have noticed that there is virtually no eye contact with Muslim families , they are not smiley nor are they exuberant , there seems to be no joy in their faces.

      We have noticed detachment and indifference on so many occasions, compared to Italians or Spaniards or Greeks or even the French who chatter smile and embrace , or even the general politeness of Polish and some Germans , what on earth have we done .. by excluding the ones who have a natural willingness to please and mingle , yet we are now overwhelmed with a silent resentful mass of people who cover their faces who don’t embrace the freedom the West offers them ?

      1. ‘We’ haven’t done anything.
        Except trust our politicians; the result of a thousand years without invasion or occupation. We have become too trusting and tolerant.

      2. Such people are a total negation of the life force.

        Mind you we have some very affable Muslim friends in Turkey who not only laugh and smile – they even enjoy a drink. One of my Muslim friends with a sailing boat often goes to Symi (a Greek island near the Turkish coast) to buy pork roasts and bacon which he loves.

        I refer to such people as CofE Muslims; many of us in Britain who are not particularly religious say that our religion is CofE.

      3. It seems to be spreading, T_B. I like people watching and it was noticeable today, while manning the RAFA stall, that so many people walking past looked very miserable, despite the fact they’d paid a fair amount for their ticket and it wasn’t raining. The supreme irony was a pretty girl wearing a T shirt with the writing “Be happy” across her breasts. She looked as miserable as sin!

    3. What we are saying is that Islamic led societies are pretty vile places to live, but its ok to come here and set up an Islamic clique which holds the same values and policed by unelected ‘community’ and religious leaders.

    4. Yet it’s the one they want. Rather what they really want is our society’s money, but with their own culture and values.

      In short, they’re spongers, whingers and deliberately intolerant.

    6. ‘A V Parke hits the nail very firmly on the head.’

      Actually, Parke misses by a country mile. Basu is not paid to make political speeches. He is paid to enforce the law without fear nor favour. Meanwhile, and it is no coincidence either, news today of one of Basu’s colleagues narrowly avoiding decapitation at the hands of a man (allegedly) who certainly appears to share Basu’s thoughts on not being forced to assimilate even as far as the Road Traffic Act.

      1. A V Parke uses Basu’s suggestion to introduce his own point about the non-assimilation of some Muslim immigrants. What his view on policemen making political speeches is not clear, but is completely irrelevant to his main argument.

    7. There is a certain section which not only brings its own beliefs and social organisation along, it is actively constantly imposing them on us.

      1. …and instantly crying ‘Islamophobia’ whenever a story with even a hint of negativity about the religion appears. Thus all criticism is silenced.

  17. Good morning thinkers

    Moh and I visited Worthing yesterday to visit no 2 son and his partner .. we had a truly glorious day . The car journey to get there was overwhelming and anxiety provoking. We are used to bumbling along on our own rural roads .. The volume of traffic en route was daunting , lots of road works on the M27 and speed restrictions etc, so we were able though to absorb some of the sights we were travelling through . House building everywhere.. and not a single bird to be seen !

    No kestrels hovering over embankments , no flocks of crows , no housemartins , no swallows flying over reed beds … and yet the noise on the roads was deafening . Britain is certainly on the move 24 hours a day. there are no lulls in traffic any longer , we have noticed that here where we live over the past few years.

    I reckon that we are just about coping re our infrastructure , everyone is on the move, Britain is so overcrowded, and driving standards are appalling . We are full up!

    1. There is plenty of room, there are all those roundabouts on the A27 they can build tower blocks on.

    2. The M27 is just an overflow carpark for Southampton. If you’re on it at 7am, you get off off the junction, brake, put handbrake on and stop.

  18. Good morning, my friends

    Ideologically many of the people who claim to be remainers have chosen the wrong side – they have chosen large corporations and vested interests ahead of the basic sentiments of ordinary people.

    Here is a comment under a DT article which expresses an opinion I have held for some time.

    Jenny White 8 Aug 2019 11:49PM
    How does it feel Remoaners to be on the same side as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, ExxonMobil and Lockheed Martin.

    Righteous people of Remain ?

    Just a bunch of neo-Liberal rodeo clowns, who if you ever became MPs yourself, would be bought and paid for by the banks and defence contractors.

    You lot are worse than Blair, at least he doesn’t try to hide it.

    1. Some of my most ardent Remainer friends (yes, I am able to be friends with Remainers!) consider themselves to be socialists. It is greatly ironic that they are on the same side as the big banks and corporations, who boost their profits by exploiting cheap labour and regulating smaller competitors out of business.

      The Leave vote was a revolt by ordinary people against the instructions of their ‘betters’ and one would think that all Left-wingers would support it. Instead, they are supporting an attempt by the elite to ‘take back control’ after the biggest expression of popular democracy in our history. For shame.

        1. I find that talking to Remainers face to face is much better than doing it online. Many of them have never sat down with a Brexiteer and enquired why we voted as we did. I think politics would have been a lot less ‘divisive’ in the last three years if we could have had a cup of tea and a chat about it.

          Oh well, too late now!

        2. In my experience remainers are very much ruder and autocratic than leavers. It is always difficult to remain calm and sensible when one is subjected to mindless abuse and refusal to discuss issues rather than personalities.

          1. We have so many other things to talk about that we don’t waste time on Brexit. We agreed to differ & moved on, which is what adults do.

          2. One of the problems with the Left is their overtly emotional response to criticism where they seem unable to take a step back from their opinions and analyse what they have heard.

    2. Most remoaners don’t have the faintest clue what the EU means. They argue that big companies support it and thus it’s a good thing for trade.

      They ignore that big multinationals love it because they buy legislation through brown envelopes and expensive dinners and ‘gifts’.

      The remoaners are supporting and endorsing corruption. They’re just too arrogant to admit it.

  21. London council loses appeal to keep publishing £500,000-a-year fortnightly freesheet

    A London council has lost a final appeal to continue publishing its freesheet on a fortnightly basis in rivalry with two local newspapers.

    In 2011, the Government brought in a code of recommended practice on local authority publicity recommending councils should publish newsletters or newspapers no more than four times a year.
    But Hackney Council said it continued to publish its fortnightly paper after deciding it was the “most cost-effective way of getting information out to residents and reached the most people”.

    1. Colchester, thank goodness, has given up on that nonsense.
      As we no longer have a parrot whose cage needs lining, we manage perfectly well without it.

  22. Jack Wills store reopens hours after bailiffs change locks

    Strange goings on in Rural Southwold

    A seaside town’s Jack Wills store has reopened, hours after bailiffs were seen changing locks and warning staff away.

    At around 6.30am today (Thursday, August 8), The Sheriffs Office served the fashion retailer’s Southwold branch with a Forfeiture of Lease notice.

    Witnesses described hearing the High Street store’s alarm system ringing out during the early hours and the locks being changed.
    The notice, which has been placed in the shop’s window, stated: “Under the terms and conditions of your lease we as authorised agents on behalf of the landlord have this day re-entered these premises and the lease is hereby determined.

    “Any attempt by you or your agents to enter the demised premises will result in criminal/civil proceedings being taken against you.”
    However, the store was open as usual by 4.30pm.

      1. Many would call themselves Persian, not Iranian, and do not support the Iranian regime.
        This Persian is literally one to watch:
        https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=mahyar+tousi

        He is an ardent Leaver, and produces regular videos on the subject of the EU. He’s been in Brussels for a week or so, talking to lots of people there about the EU and getting information from the horse’s mouth, as it were. He never mentions religion.

    3. Well it is already easy for them to come. If they are from the EU they can currently just turn up and if from outside the EU would be high up on the points system

  24. Horrifying moment heroic policeman is ‘scalped’ with a machete before leaping up and fighting off knifeman with his Taser as he shouts to colleagues ‘Help, I’ve been stabbed’
    Passers-by filmed rushing to aid of police officer after he is stabbed and they attempt the stop flow of blood
    Officer, 28, stabbed after attempting to stop a van in the Leyton area of London and used Taser on attacker
    Huddle of officers can be seen next to their fallen comrade, desperately trying to stop him bleeding to death
    Chief Superintendent Richard Tucker, said the attack was ‘a symptom of people having less fear of the police’

    Today 56-year-old Muhammed Rodwan of Luton will appear in London court charged with attempted murder
    Did you see the attack? Call Terri-Ann Williams on 02036151762 or email Terri-Ann.Williams@mailonline.co.uk

    1. How can that be? We are constantly told it is the religion of peace. I am sure though that he will claim he is an innocent Halal butcher

    2. Modern “justice” is failing these scum. It is time we went back to mediæval methods.

      After all, those are the methods they invariably use.

      2. I watched bit of the film about the Great Train Robbers. They got 30 years.
        In the UK today you can rape 200 small children, blow up a theatre and run over a couple of dozen people in the street and get a shorter sentence.

        1. Financial crimes always were punished more harshly. Apparently because they debased the currency.

          1. Why isn’t Brown in gaol then?

            Heck, why are Labour not forbidden access to public funds entirely?

        2. Stealing actual gold hurts those who want to control our lives. On the other hand, the population of this country are just expendable and “acceptable losses” to these same people.

          Which is why financial crimes are harshly punished and “cultural differences” are given a slap on the wrist.

          1. Those affected were white.

            The abusers are brown. When the social workers spoken to, the police the crime reported to and the MP – Naz Shah all say they should be raped in the name of diversity, what hope is there?

            I can tell you this – if a Muslim goes near my nieces I’ll shave his head, cut out his tongue, rip off his limbs and drags the remains behind me by the neck. Then I’ll kick him to death.

            And that’s me being nice.

    4. Bloke call Mohammed, obviously out for a loo and a snack bar carries a machete.

      Will the police now take Muslim nutters seriously? What possible use is there even for a tradesman to have a machete?

      It’s time for a tougher criminal code. Don’t jail this creature, just flog him. No, not a light tapping with a stick, flay him alive. He came here to kill us.

  25. SIR – If they no longer mint copper coins, how will one spend a penny?

    Georgie Helyer
    Hanging Langford, Wiltshire

    Don’t tell me that you’ve never squatted behind a bush, Georgina, darling, because I do not believe you.

        2. Apparently both George II and Elvis Presley (amongst many) died while ‘at stool’ but in neither case was a big cat involved.

          1. Trying to hard to squeeze out a constipated turd and popping a weak blood vessel presumably.

          2. There was no excuse for Elvis since he failed to employ a “Groom of the ‘King’s’ stool!”

    2. She has obviously never used the loos at Liverpool Street Station.
      30 p – as in the ‘new penny’.

        1. Have they?
          Mind you, the LS bogs have never been the same since the station was revamped.
          The graffiti in the women’s loos was … um … educational.

          1. And of course there was the dirty stinking pi**house to the north of Waterloo,
            With another one for ladies further down.

    3. Morning Grizz,

      Sorry to lower the tone but that reminds me of…

      Here I sat, broken hearted
      Paid a penny and only farted.

      2. Good morning, Sue.

        And yes, haven’t we all been there? :•)

        I am reminded of the very funny cartoon series that featured in the Daily Telegraph Saturday magazine in the 1990s. It was written by Victoria Mather and wonderfully illustrated by Sue Macartney-Snape and entitled “The Appalling Guests: Social Stereotypes”. It featured upper-class twits in a series of lifestyle situations and how they very funnily dealt with them.

        One was called The Emergency Pee and it showed an upper-class couple, clad in evening wear, who had just emerged from a society “do”. The husband was standing on the pavement holding his wife’s handbag whilst she was squatting behind a hedge—just her embarrassed-looking face in view—as the result of over-indulging on the champers.

        I have the book on the subject and it shows a good selection of those very funny cartoons.

    1. If a government has to bring in laws to stop people even mentioning how bad ishlam really is, then you know there is a problem with it.

  27. British Steel: Turkish pension fund likely to be preferred bidder

    What a dire state we are in when we have to sell a key British Industry to a politically unstable country that even the EU will not admit at present

    The government is close to entering exclusive talks with a Turkish military pension fund about the sale of British Steel, raising hopes that more than 4,000 jobs and the Scunthorpe steelworks can be saved.

    Three bidders remain in the running to buy the stricken steelmaker but a source who took part in a conference call with Andrea Leadsom, the business secretary, on Thursday morning believed that two were likely to be excluded imminently.
    Several sources said that the frontrunner is Ataer Holdings, owned by the Turkish military pension fund Oyak, which is also the largest shareholder in the Turkish steelmaker Erdemir. The Guardian has approached Oyak for comment.
    The government’s official receiver, David Chapman, and the accountancy firm EY, who are managing the sale, are likely to name Ataer as the preferred bidder within days.

    1. Turkey is one of the last countries I’d be cosying up to.

      https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14624/turkey-threatens-migrant-crisis

      Turkey Threatens to Reignite European Migrant Crisis
      “”We are facing the biggest wave of migration in history. If we open the floodgates, no European government will be able to survive for more than six months. We advise them not to try our patience.” — Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

      “Turkey is fully committed to the objective of EU membership… The finalization of the Visa Liberalization Dialogue process which will allow our citizens to travel to the Schengen area without a visa, is our first priority.” — Statement released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, May 9, 2019.”

      Funny how Remainers say that this is all in our imagination.

      1. It is worth recalling David Cameron’s words to the Turkish parliament in Ankara in 2010:

        “I am here to make the case for Turkey’s membership of the European Union and to fight for it”.
        “I will remain your strongest possible advocate for EU membership and for greater influence at the top table of European diplomacy. This is something I feel very strongly and very passionately about. Together I want us to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels.”

    3. Here’s a novel idea. How about GB keeping steel production in house? It’s a harsh and uncertain world out there.
      (Ditto ship building.)

      1. We cannot nationalise it – EU rules as applied in UK.
        Of course, we could delay the sale by referring it to whatever the Monopolies Commission is now called and tip them the wink to take their time, until say, November at the earliest.
        However, there is a lot of money to be be made by banks, brokers, middle men and so on, so bye-bye British Steel.

      2. If BS and the current owners can’t get it to make money, why do the Turks reckon they can?

        1. We can set tariffs on steel imports after Brexit. We can also define “strategic industries” for protection, such as shipyards (per AA) and vehicles,
          Our Army has 10,000 German lorries.

          4. We’re all friends now.
            Although I was wondering the other day, if we’d have been better sending the 1st Paratroop division to Warsaw rather than Arnhem. The arrival of the British and Polish paratroops to bolster the Warsaw Uprising might have encouraged a swifter German withdrawal from Poland and have stopped the Russians moving West.

  28. Good morning all.

    Cloudy, mild we’re supposed to be having thunderstorms right now, but we ain’t.

    Bit of a lie-in after the fun & games last night.

        1. Did you mean the Shakespearean parlour game?
          I thought you might have done something exciting…..

          1. Yes, It may not seem so n the cold light of day, but at the time it was very exciting, coupled with the fact that Tony & I were doing our best to scratch each other’s eyes out.

    2. The idea is to make you feel how difficult it is to climb the stairway to St Peter and then having discovered that there are in fact no pearly gates at the top to experience one hell of a ride back to earth.

  31. Excellent set of aspirations from Katherine Burbal Singh:-

    A world-class education system is well within Britain’s grasp
    KATHARINE BIRBALSINGH
    With phonics in all our primaries, the Department for Education’s emphasis on the importance of pupil behaviour, the tightening of the GCSE curriculum, and the innovation coming from many free schools, academies and community schools, Britain has never been closer to having a world-class education system. But there is still much to do. So how do we ensure that all children receive an excellent education?

    First, it may sound obvious, but good quality textbooks are badly needed across the country. The education minister Nick Gibb has argued this for some time – pointing out in 2017, for instance, that only 
10 per cent of teachers then used maths textbooks as the basis of their teaching, compared to 70 per cent in Singapore. Too many teachers spend far too much time having to create their own resources. Often school culture dictates that they should. This leaves precious little time for lesson planning, marking and relationship-building with the children.

    If we had good quality textbooks in all of our classrooms, we would at least be guaranteed that similar levels of knowledge were being accessed by every child. Worryingly, this is not the case. A child’s experience in the classroom in terms of what he or she can learn, and the knowledge he or she is exposed to, varies wildly, from excellent analysis to being taught stuff that is incorrect because the teacher isn’t knowledgeable enough. Government could fund groups of schools to create nationwide textbooks and really change things in our classrooms.

    Second, teacher training in England is problematic. You are in luck if, as a trainee teacher, you so happen to be given an excellent mentor in your placement school. If, on the other hand, you don’t, you could end up teaching yourself how to teach, or worse, being told all the wrong things.

    At Michaela, our free school in Brent, we retrain every teacher who comes to teach with us. It takes weeks for us to undo what we would call the bad habits instilled by teacher training institutions.

    Teachers can often play a game of “guess what’s in my head” with pupils, expecting them to answer questions about topics they haven’t covered. This happens because unfortunately there is still a romantic expectation in teacher training colleges that the teacher only needs to facilitate or draw out the genius within each child. In fact, we know from modern cognitive science that children need stuff put in – asking them questions they can never know the answer to is unfair. Instead, we need to give them the knowledge they need and then ask them about it.

    Third, for schools and pupils to be held accountable, testing is required. Testing is a great tool to inform teachers and pupils of individual, class and cohort progress. It also provides feedback to the teacher on the quality of their teaching as well as the quality of their pupils’ work.

    However, testing can bring its problems. No doubt these issues might explain Labour’s recent call to abolish Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) for primary school children. But we must not allow this to happen. The Government should address some of the problems with SATs in order to ensure we keep our schools accountable, no matter which government is in power.

    The biggest problem is that teachers think that preparing pupils for a reading comprehension test means doing lots of random reading comprehensions. They mistakenly think they are teaching the “skill of reading”, when in fact to make pupils better at reading, they ought to teach them content from topics on the national curriculum. What we need is a shift in SAT focus from general reading to primary schools being told that the reading comprehension will be on history, geography or science.

    That way, primary school teachers can spend their time teaching the content of these subjects instead of wasting their time teaching a meaningless generic skill. This could transform the experience of year six schooling for countless children and stop the madness of teaching to the test.

    Finally, families are told they have a choice of school, but they don’t know what the schools are offering. To ensure full accountability across the system, the Government should insist that all schools are open to the public at all times. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Too many schools do not allow families in to view the school during the day, and if they do, they won’t allow visitors to see certain corridors, let alone enter any classroom. At Michaela, you can visit us any time and see any lesson you want. This should be the case in every school across the country.

    If the Government were to make accountability and consistency their focus, we could have a school system that would rival the very best in the world. I wish them luck.

    Katharine Birbalsingh is the headmistress and founder of 
Michaela Community School

    Robert Spowart 9 Aug 2019 9:26AM
    Excellent aspirations Katherine, but there are several aspects where the Educational Blob will actively work towards preventing your ideas.
    The item you fail to mention, the need for improved discipline in so many of our schools, will never happen as this not only will require teachers to be “judgemental” but will need both pupils & parents to accept responsibility for their misconduct.
    The current grip the Left Wing has on the system needs to be broken and the current Common Purpose ideas in the upper echelons of the system swept away.
    Sadly there are far too many within those upper echelons with a vested interest in keeping the third rate system we currently have.

    1. On a slightly different tangent, I hope she doesn’t get the Ray Honeyford treatment.

    2. Textbooks? We had textbooks. Everything was based on textbooks. “A Study of Standard English”, “Kennedy’s”, and a host of others which I never opened. None of them were written by the teachers. The teachers had time to teach and the textbooks were the foundation.

        2. We always get the children to face us when we do talks. For some reason some groups like to have their speaker in the middle of a circle.

      3. A lot, but I don’t remember maths text books. Logs of course, but I don’t remember ever having text books with maths examples. Everything was chalked on the blackboard and you had to copy into your exercise book.

      4. We had one called ‘A First Aid in English’ in the junior school. A blue soft binding in that cloth material they used for such things in the 50s.

        I was quite taken aback the first time I opened mine and discovered there wasn’t a single word about cuts, grazes, sticking plasters or bandages; all things that featured high on our day-to-day life in those days.

        1. Yes, I remember those books, it was followed by A New First Aid in English. I was reading mine as a small child in the doctor’s surgery, waiting for an appt with my mum. When we were called the doc asked to see what I was reading. It was duly handed over and he was astonished at its content, not only because it was not what he was expecting but because he was amazed at the level expected for my age (I was probably about eight years). His own daughter attended a private school some twenty miles away.

          I remember the blue cover with its black lettering – the book went everywhere with me and I was always dipping into it.

    3. A lot of good common sense from Katherine.

      We visit lot of primary schools to talk to the children about hedgehogs, and wildlife in general, and invariably some of the children are more knowledgeable than others, but on the whole, we are usually impressed by the range of knowledge and enthusiasm shown by the children.

    5. Ask Andy Crosland if he’s interested in improving academic standards and see how far you get (and yes, I know he’s dead).

      The Left see schools as an extension of the state. They’re there to control the students and to tell them what to think, not how to, not to learn, to indoctrinate and control. Teaching has nothing to do with the child. It’s all about the machinery of state.

    1. Couple of mates work there as maintenance planners for water supply. Apparently, no more war-torn than Sweden.

    2. ” “In our culture, everyone buys very sweet things to give to their guests when they are visiting their homes,” he says.”
      Older custom : -” Would you like to borrow my daughter ? “

    3. And the BBC doesn’t even know the difference between “confectionery” and “confectionAry”.

  34. I see Michael Gove is proposing a bank holiday on November the 1st to mitigate Brexit problems.

    Why not November the 5th to highlight the democratic disaster that could have occurred had the parliamentary remainers had their way?

  35. Corbyn claims No deal would be undemocratic. Well no it is not. There was a clear vote to leave the EU. It was not conditional on a deal

    Is not Corbyn being undemocratic? Labour stood for election on Leaving the EU. Now without consulting the electorate it has turned into a Remain party

  36. ‘Morning All,

    How do you get a job as Dep chief Constable, crash you car whilst making a phone call and escape a driving ban….

    Kerrin Wilson, the assistant chief constable of Lincs Police, strayed
    onto the wrong side of the road moments after leaving the force’s
    headquarters and hit a Hyundai i30 travelling in the opposite direction,
    a court was told.Nottingham Magistrates’ Court heard her husband – Phil
    Wilson, the Labour MP for Sedgefield – had only collected it from a
    garage around a week earlier.

    2. Good morning m’dear! Hope you are keeping well.
      I’d like a link to that for possible future use, please.

  37. ‘Kashmiris will erupt’: fear grips region as Indian crackdown bites. Fri 9 Aug 2019 05.00 BST.

    Under the changes, Kashmir’s constitution and flag will disappear. Rules that have prevented people from outside Kashmir buying land in the territory, India’s only Muslim-majority state, are also scrapped. Many Kashmiris fear the demography of the state, and their way of life, could be altered.

    Pakistan responded angrily, with the prime minister, Imran Khan, suggesting India could carry out ethnic cleansing, while China called the decision “unacceptable”.

    Morning everyone. There’s going to be war here between India and Pakistan. There is no way that Imran Khans government can let this stand and survive! The present hiatus is to give Pakistan time to plan and prepare while checking that its alliance with China will ensure its survival if it goes badly! That both are nuclear armed states with powerful religious motivations should give some insight into the possibilities.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/09/kashmiris-will-erupt-fear-grips-region-as-indian-crackdown-bites

    1. I’m crossing fingers that their war is totally contained in their own countries. As it should be.

      1. Morning Herts – I think there is a probability of a nuclear attack in this region. I hope I am wrong.

        2. “This” being ours or “this” being theirs?

          Edit: sorry, my bad manners – Morning Clydesider.

      2. Morning HL,
        Unintended consequences means nuclear fallout
        leaves land in many respects uninhabitable, which in turn means more seeking refuge with of course. the best welfare & conditions on offer.
        Priority building program takes hold of UK the indigenous peoples of the UK MUST understand the plight of others, even those with a weakness or two in some departments.

      3. If it is confined between the two nations then, hopefully, it might wake the rest of the world up to the dangers of allowing nuclear proliferation.

        1. But could it be contained to just that area? Do you not remember the BBCtv documentary of several decades ago when the effects of a Nuclear War included global “Nuclear Winter”? And when Chernobil blew up, the toxic waste was spread as far away as Scotland, making eating Scottish lamb a risky thing to do for the next several years. (Not that it got much coverage in the London-based MSM at the time.)

          1. But we saved a lot of money on electricity bills, being able to read the paper by the light of our own glow.

      4. My concern is that I have recently bought a “Kashmir arbour” for my garden. If either country sends nuclear warheads to my garden will it affect my nearby rhubarb and other fruit plants? I might not be able to make any more crumbles from my fruit plot.

        (Seriously, though, with the realisation that Nuclear Warfare would destroy the planet, I very much doubt that either India or Pakistan would escalate the confrontation to Armageddon levels. Mind you, I was someone who originally trusted one Theresa May.)

    2. Neither side held back at the Partition. Around 200,000 dead, or maybe 1 million (nobody counted accurately) at the time. So same again might be acceptable?
      Is this purely a religious, ie muslim thing? Unlike Afghanistan there is no inkling that Kashmir has any valuable natural resources. Can this be correct?
      Across the border in Afghanistan they have lot of oil, gas and rare earths. China is working on it.

      1. Morning Horace. I watched an interview with Modi yesterday on Al Jazeerah. He appeared to me to be an unhinged Hindu Nationalist. As to resources most of the water that supplies Pakistan flows through Kashmir which means that India would have its boot on Pakistans throat for the foreseeable future. If it is not War now, it is War soon!

        1. Naturally we, or the US will need to intervene. So will China as they claim part of Kashmir as theirs.

    3. Hah! The irony of the Guardian bleating about Muslims losing their culture and way of life when they’re so desperate to destroy ours!

  38. Thoughts from the washing up.
    Businesses and companies even 50 years ago were known by the name of a person, very often. “Clague Licensed Victualler, “Andrew Ovens Stationers”, “Crawford’s Bakery” and the like.
    Now they are not. Is this really so?

        1. Didn’t realise that Mr Rees-Mogg Esq., had a business of his own to supplement his Government and MP pay.

    2. When I was very young and just starting to read I was very envious of the “Bros” family,they seemed to own everything
      Johns Bros
      Evans Bros
      etc etc

      1. I had a similar thought – I wanted to live in the place called “Not in Service” because so many buses seemed to go there!

        1. You mean you actually have a bus service, Outside of London & the large cities and towns they are a rarity

          1. On the subject of pronunciation, when I was about 6 I overheard my dad complaining about ‘all those taxes’.

            Shortly afterwards I was at Ashington bus station with my mother and I saw an advertising poster stuck onto the wall of the Wallaw cinema. I already knew what one of the words was – Pegswood – I’d seen it on bus headboards, but the other one was a new one on me. I’d heard it before, but had never seen it written. I couldn’t understand why anybody would be wanting to advertise something as obviously objectionable as Taxes. Also, why would they be advertising taxes that applied to Pegswood in Ashington?

            It was some time later that I discovered that the word ‘taxes’ is spelt with an ‘e’ as the penultimate letter rather that the ‘i’ used on the poster.

  39. Sky sources saying 55 [illegal} immigrants “rescued” off the Kent Coast today. When will the government stop this invasion.

    1. You want them to push them off a cliff, watch them drown, and put the video on You Tube ?

      ????Yes???- Not all at once please.

      1. Not at all Tony. They should legally be returned to the first safe country they entered and if that is France that is where they should go.

    3. They should be compulsorily volunteered into crewing empty British flagged oil tankers which will be hijacked by the Iranians in the Strait of Hormuz and returned to Bandar Abbas.

      Job done!

    4. HM Coastguard must start recruiting extra officers as a matter of urgency. Interviews for the job could be quite simple and need take up little time. Something along the lines of:

      HMC: “How do you save an immigrant from drowning?”

      Applicant: “I don’t know.”

      HMC: “Good! When can you start?”

  40. Brexit panic not justified, says ex-Trump adviser Stephen Vaughn

    A big difference between the EU and US is the US wants to do a trade deal

    A former top trade adviser to US President Trump has told the BBC “there is a level of panic” around Brexit “that is not justified”.

    Stephen Vaughn, who served as acting trade representative before becoming general counsel on trade, stressed the UK has “enormous leverage” in a potential trade deal with the US.
    On a deal’s likelihood, he said the Trump administration is “ready to go”.

    1. ”
      Office’s lenders are being advised by Deloitte, the big four accountancy firm.”-

      ” We always advise our clients that if they have too much to hide, a C.V.A. is not
      the best thing. It is too open to scrutiny “.

    1. It is strange that many of those in the media do not draw attention to the very real economic meltdown that is about to happen in the eu, with even Germany skirting the edge of a recession. There were some economists who said that it was only “creative bookkeeping” that stopped Germany being in recession already, but that the slowdown cannot be hidden for much longer.

      If we are still tied to the eu when their collapse happens, then there is the idea of “debt-sharing” across the countries involved in a futile attempt to bail out the economies of Greece, Italy, Spain and so on, which could see the United Kingdom hit with a bill of £194 billion, which makes the £39 billion they are pretending that we owe them look like pocket money. Even France is in trouble with their government spending higher than allowed and their own natives are getting restless and have been for many months.

      It is more vital than ever that Boris is not just faffing about with Brexit-heavy language, we really need to leave with no-deal and cut those economic ties they have over us, and would still have with a multi-year “transition” period. Just Leave.

    1. Whenever you hear anyone – anyone at all – using that tone of voice that they believe is persuasive you know instinctively that they are lying through their teeth and using hand movements to emphasise words while they do it proves their sophistry.

      They would probably use similar tactics to encourage cattle to enter the slaughtering shed.

      Blairs Babes went in for it a lot, with down-sloped eyebrows, wrinkled brow and ernest tones to emphasis their fakeness.

    3. Mr Watson, if he is the same Mr Watson, he has lost weight. He looks much better for it.
      I love Europe. Mr Watson is conflating Europe and the EU. Every word was a lie, unless they have all been given new meaning when I was having a nap. For example, cities filled with “diversity”, means “our cities overrun by foreigners, alien to us, who hate us and kill us and rape our children”, kind of thing?

  44. Racism harms black people most. It’s time to recognise ‘anti-blackness. Ahmed Olayinka Sule. Fri 9 Aug 2019 11.52 BST

    A one-size-fits-all approach to discrimination fails to grasp its impact on different minorities. Anti-black racism should be classified separately.

    You couldn’t make it up! Are we to have Anti-offwhite racism or Anti-light tan prejudice?

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/09/black-people-racism-anti-blackness-discrimination-minorities

    3. Well he did mention in passing…..”even sometimes anti-white racism” just to be fair!

    4. Did you see the report about a vapid Hollywood actress a couple of days ago called Rosanna Arquette?

      Naturally she is a Democrat, hates President Trump and refuses to stand for the US flag.

      But what got many people’s attention was that she said: ““I’m sorry I was born white and privileged. It disgusts me. And I feel so much shame.”

      What on earth is the matter with these people?

      3. And I commented that, if it’s so awful, why does she not kill herself? Eejit.

      4. “What on earth is the matter with these people?”

        The Demonrats (Demotwats) realised, early in their existence, that people with no—or very little brains—are easily moulded to their way of thinking. That is why they clamoured (and went to war) for slaves. It’s all to do with their morbid desire for the domination of a large number of brainwashed people.

      5. Oh dear Rosanna, is the career flagging a bit? I wonder if you’ve given away most of your money if you are so ashamed of being privileged??

        1. She’ll explain that her richness is a burden she is forced against her will to bear and that she could never inflict such suffering on anyone even worse off than she is.

    6. “He [Ahmed etc] is an Alumnus of the University of Arts London, where he obtained a Certificate in Photojournalism.“

      1. Try onions with sage very slowly cooked with salt and peper and little flour low heat for at least an hour in butter and good olive oil.. Goes with pork a treat.

  46. Debbie visited a psychic of some local repute. In a dark and gloomy room, gazing at the tarot cards laid out before her, the tarot reader delivered the bad news:
    “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just be blunt – prepare yourself to be a widow. Your husband will die a violent and horrible death this year.”
    Visibly shaken,Debbie stared at the woman’s lined face, then at the single flickering candle, then down at her hands. She took a few deep breaths to compose herself.
    She simply had to know. She met the tarot reader’s gaze, steadied her voice, and asked:
    “Will I get away with it?”

  47. Well Aziz,we need to cross the Channel,one of the busiest most dangerous water crossings in the world
    Don’t worry Hamed,we have a cunning plan,we shall set off in a fleet of canoes from France,what could possibly go wrong
    So we’re leaving from the beach,not getting dropped off by a mothership??
    That’s right,what did you expect for 2000Euros?,now if you want to upgrade to the deluxe mothership crossing that’s another five grand
    Mass canoes from France,these people take us for idjits

    1. WE have seen about a 1000 come across this year , Given the quite strong currents and variable weather and the huge amounts of shipping it I almost impossible that they have come across the channel in dinghy’s. They would not even have the navigational skills in any case. They are almost certainly being dropped off from larger boats close to shore

      1. I have sailed a eight berth yacht from Lymington to Cherbourg, the same busy shipping channel they are supposed to be navigating. Crossing in dinghy’s, no way without a heavy loss of life.

  48. Inside the UK’s food bank crisis – as charities fear three million children will go hungry during this year’s summer holidays

    Total and complete nonsense and scaremongering. 3M is almost a third of children. Do they seriously expect us to believe that bunk. It is even dafter when then charities also claim that most children are overweight. How exactly do we get overweight starving children?

    I am sure we have some children that don’t get sufficient food but in almost all cases it is down to poor and feckless parents

      1. The only way for them to be weaned from their dependence on free school meals would be the cold turkey route.

          1. You’re showing your age now, Pud. I remember that song too.

            And Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellen Bogen By The Sea. :•)

    3. Count the number of tattoos and piercings sported by the mothers (sometimes a ‘partner’ will also appearing in shot.)
      Bonus points if they are also smoking.

  49. Morning, Campers. Over slept and, in my mental fog, actually read Jan Moir.
    Because I am totally without heart, this made Oi larf. Particularly the cookery note at the end.

    “And just this week doctors in Canada had to treat a woman for painful burns after she overcooked herself following the Paltrow-approved process of vaginal steaming (this ancient practice involves women crouching over a pot of bubbling water enriched with herbs for about 30 minutes — roughly the time it takes to steam a small fruit pudding).”

    1. OMG

      I am just as heartless , I caught my breath, and spluttered with laughter.. I reminds me of the disasters women subjected themselves to by burning their delicate pink pieces by applying Veeto to their nether regions to give themselves DIY Brazilians ..

      I remember instances like that from old nursing days .

      1. I knew chap that decided that shaving with a razor was not for him so he used depilatory cream as purchased by females for female use. On the bright side, his face healed up without scars.

      2. I worked with a ward sister whose panacea for all ills was Vick gel.
        The ward SEN rashly took her advice for clearing pruritus.
        On the plus side, it did take her mind off the itching.

      3. yup, I remember two young ladies who were sunbathing topless and who fell asleep. Lobsters in Heaven would laugh.

    2. In anticipation of steamy sex? They walk among us. Or in her case, crawl among us.

      1. Depends on the size.
        Maybe JM was thinking of one those individual puds in a small plastic bowl.
        You can often get them in sets of four.
        (I’m not sure this conversation is going in the right direction.)

          1. “Our Xmas pudding is steamed for 10 hours.”

            Time to buy a pressure-cooker then and cut the steaming down to one hour. You will have a steam-free kitchen, save on nine hours’ worth of electricity/gas/oil, and still have a properly cooked pudding.

          2. Nooooo. Ordinary steaming is dangerous enough, as is vacuum coffee percolator, but a pressure bomb? Noooo.
            I’m frightened, G.

          3. Don’t be frightened, H. Modern pressure cookers have no fewer than three safety valves to release pressure.

            I shall be using mine tomorrow to cook some beef short ribs in a Korean marinade. It will take 35 minutes and they will be meltingly tender. I shall serve them with stir-fried egg noodles, mushrooms, spring onions, beansprouts, bamboo shoots and pak-choi, which I shall cook in my 40-year old seasoned carbon-steel wok on my gas barbecue.

          4. The modern ones are more like a slow cooker in appearance but they cook fast. You can buy cheap cuts of meat and they can be cooked and tender in no time. Best to keep the meat totally covered in Gravy though to keep the meat moist.

          5. Mine is a modern one and it looks exactly like the old-fashioned sort. Since they are a “pressure” cooker, and cook with super-heated steam, there is absolutely no need, whatsoever, to “keep meat covered in gravy to keep it moist”.

            Where the hell did you read that ridiculous concept? In the Guardian? The Mail? The Beezer? Steam is, by its very nature, moist!

    6. Why would anyone do that? Apart from the danger if overboiled clam, what purpose does it serve?
      (I think I’ll regret asking that:-(( )

      1. No details on which herbs to use. Do you just wander round the garden and pluck (I said, PLUCK) a handful or does it involve a trip to Waitrose for something more esoteric?

        2. Then she should pick her ‘partners’ more carefully.
          Or douse them in benzyl benzoate.

    8. There was a young lady from Hitchen
      Who steamed herself in the kitchen
      Her mother said “Rose,
      VD I suppose?”
      “No mama, my nethers are itchin’ “

  51. Halal abattoir workers who were filming hacking at sheep’s throats repeatedly have been prosecuted following an undercover investigation.

    Workers from the Malik Food Group slaughterhouse in Burnley, Lancashire have been sentenced after secret cameras were placed on the premise back in 2017.

    On three occasions a stockman was caught on camera deliberately picking sheep up by their fleeces and physically throwing the animals, in addition to roughly handling others.

    “We are hugely disappointed with the sentencing, which consisted of a mixture of fines, one suspended sentence and community service,” it said in a statement.

    “Perhaps, worst of all we were horrified to learn that none of the workers has been banned from working with animals.

    “We hope that the new sentencing bill, currently passing through Parliament, will provide opportunities in future for greater justice.”

    https://www.farminguk.com/news/halal-abattoir-workers-sentenced-after-welfare-incidents_53648.html?fbclid=IwAR3fTQ3dW1gO4vGv2vL4E9P7OpUw8txJkfpalTgufhUOVl6bc7H9zdilRTY

      1. Hello J,

        The b##### are now slaughtering lambs in back yards and fields where the poor things feed. Sheep dogs are being stolen so that they can round sheep up to be captured and poor lambs illegally slaughtered .

          2. Has been now for decades, especially in cinemas whilst you are trying to catch the dialogue when the big film starts!

            :-))

          3. Morning N,
            How long has it taken to build into being a “BIG business” ?
            Who’s watch was it on, along with other odious issues ie, FGM, sharia courts, child abuse, etc,etc,etc, where does the
            political buck stop, or does it ?
            Do the peoples in the main agree ?

  52. Rosanna Arquette and the problem with white privilege. Jeremy Havardi. 9 August 2019.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ddc70f17f4e59e302c47fad390c747ce84114c5f0ae69bdf0107ec41194c3fb3.png

    There are so many levels of absurdity to the philosophy of white privilege, that it’s hard to know where to start with this tweet. For starters, the idea that you should feel guilty for an accident of birth, a mere matter of genetic predisposition and family history, is intellectually baseless. It’s a bit like apologising for being male or tall or blond. It destroys the whole notion of guilt, which revolves around personal responsibility, individual choice and autonomy. Guilt normally stems from the belief that your standards of conduct have gone awry and violated deeply held moral convictions. But what conviction does being white betray? How is whiteness a matter of personal responsibility?

    It’s surprising how rarely sheer stupidity is cited as a reason for these outlandish views!

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/08/rosanna-arquette-and-the-problem-with-white-privilege/

  54. Germany’s Auto Woes Could Point to a Recession

    It seems that Germany is now paying the price for opening its does to mass migration. The once all powerful German economy is now struggling

    The woes of a small equipment manufacturer in southern Germany have become a symbol of the headwinds facing the German car industry, as global trade tensions, fears of a hard Brexit and the cooling of the Chinese car market take their toll.
    Last week, Eisenmann, which produces paint lines for car plants, said it was filing for insolvency. The company, which employs more than 3,000 people, blamed problems with a series of big projects carried out in 2018: Costs had been miscalculated and milestones missed, and there had been difficulties with suppliers — resulting in a “big annual loss.”
    “We had to act quickly and resolutely,” says Michael Keppel, Eisenmann’s chief restructuring officer.
    The news is the latest sign of trouble in a sector that is one of the main pillars of the country’s export success, and comes amid increasing signs that Germany is facing a broader downturn. While the economy is still largely healthy, with unemployment near record post-reunification lows, business confidence has become negative across all sectors except for construction. The Bundesbank said recently that gross domestic product probably contracted in the second quarter, with “no sign yet of a recovery in exports and industry.”

    1. GDP contracted in 2nd Quarter in Germany? Sounds like the UK. But the big difference must be that the German MSM/broadcasters will not all be GLOATING about it.

  55. Brexit-ready freight forwarder sees ‘massive’ rise in European trade

    An Ipswich freight firm which organises the transportation of goods to and from Europe has seen a significant uplift in sales – despite Brexit uncertainty.

    Freight forwarder Morrison Freight is celebrating 27% growth over the last 12 months.
    The business, based at Great Blakenham and recently named International Business of the Year at the East of England Federation of Small Business (FSB) Awards, has seen a surge in new customers and has now started a recruitment drive as the company expands.

    1. “This Week” was the only program that I regularly watched on the BBC. Now that it is gone they might produce 1 documentary series a year that will interest me.

      I say “watch” but I mean record, so that I can fast-forward some of the guests. There is a complete prat called Owen Jones who just makes you reach for the remote control. He identifies himself as a gay celibate, but that is being economical with the truth when your character is so repulsive that no-one will tough you.

      There was one episode where he was followed by some mad woman talking about channelling “good energy” to remove the negativity in politics. I managed to get through that whole episode in 10 minutes, with just the opening discussion and the one in the middle.

    2. I remember once arriving in Almaty, Kazakhstan in the late 90s, and laying my hands on the latest issue of ‘The Economist’. Plastered over its front page (and given monster analysis inside):

      WHY OIL WILL NEVER AGAIN RISE ABOVE $10 A BARREL

      The Economist is very (fanatically) pro-Remain.

      Note: Within 6 years oil was over $100 a barrel, peaking eventually at $180 a barrel.

  57. Picked up this from another forum (I wonder how lefty/liberal were the actors who first spouted the bard). I presume nobody involved was ashamed of being white.:

    Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
    Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
    To the last syllable of recorded time;
    And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
    The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
    Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
    That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
    And then is heard no more. It is a tale
    Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
    Signifying nothing.

      1. Amazing when you notice how many Shakespearean phrases have been immortalized as titles of novels or films.

      1. I’ve cleared up, touch wood, my problems on Firefox and Opera by allowing third party cookies, yesterday someone mentioned that Disqus is now a third party in this set-up. Opera’s built in ad blocker doesn’t seem to have an impact as I’ve had it active and non-active today with no difference in performance. On Firefox I clear all my browsing records when closing the browser and in Opera I’ve set nttl.blog to clear site data and cookies on closure – I’ll add many of my regular sites to that list over the next few days.

    1. ” COERSED ”
      What the blue blazes is that ? If they can’t even spell in English, why should I take them seriously ?

        2. Round here we would call that “Ivo English”, St Ivo being the main secondary school n St Ives.

      3. I would have changed it if I could, do not shoot the messenger – the message is real and frightening enough. One finds appalling spelling in all walks of life these days. Blame the educationalists and their left wing politics rather than the recipients of this education. Perhaps their spell-check is American. Mine occasionally shows an American spelling.

        Edit: Oops – there to their…. it all zoomed off into cyberspace before I had re-read.

          1. I did amend, Peddy, unfortunately my finger caught the ‘Post’ button accidentally before I had checked it; I saw it straight away as it flew off! I do understand the difference and such things grate with me as they do with others on here. Not so much as a slip of the tongue as a slip of the finger.

          2. One property, good or bad, of this page is that it has a hair-trigger, Venus fly-trap-like response to postings & later corrections are seen only on re-booting, which I rarely do unless strictly necessary.

        2. If I make a typo or a mis-spell, I feel guilty about it. If other people ( not you ) don’t care a bugger if it is right, I don’t want to know them. Genuine typos and errors are OK of course, but if someone who should know better doesn’t care, well if you can’t speak the language, keep out of the party.

          1. I agree the spelling is deplorable – but we have to realise (sadly) that we are living in different times from the ones we have previously experienced and in which we were brought up. We have to realise that change always, throughout history, comes from the lowest in society and works its way up. If we share those values for change it is up to us to support them, otherwise we will sink into the morass (the islamic takeover) without a voice. From one Leedsonian to another……

          2. My family came south from Guiseley, Shipley & Otley, now swallowed up by Leeds, I believe.

          3. I know Guiseley and Otley well; Shipley not at all. I am born and bred Beeston (terrorist country!), Leeds, although I left the area more years ago than I care to think about (fifty, actually). I no longer have any relatives remaining in the area, and only one school friend now. The last time I was there I couldn’t believe how the demographics had changed.

      1. The only time I took a Viagra it stuck in my throat and I had a stiff neck all day!

    6. I’s not unusual for soft tissues to show up on abdominal x-rays, especially if there has been a slight under-exposure. Sometimes you can see the outline of the intestine.

        2. Looks Nigerian ? They are the experts.
          By the way, I’m in a bit of temporary trouble. You have my bank details – can you mail me 300,00 dollars to tide me over for a few weeks ?

    2. Kick him from here to kingdom come .

      I suspect his woman knew everything ..Nigeria has a matriarchal society .. their women are the business power houses !

          2. Questionmaster : Did you know Michael Miles was dead?
            Contestant : No.
            Questionmaster; Bong .. you’re out.:

        2. I attended a speed awareness class and arrived about five minutes after it started. Probably a mistake to say on arriving “I’m sorry I’m late. I had to drive like the clappers to get here”

    3. I wonder how many of those actually make one a better or safer driver. if anything there are far too many different types of sign/crossing/instruction/prohibition etc.etc, all of which distract the driver from driving safely and avoiding collisions.

      1. Even worse in Wales where they require them in Welsh and English creating even more sign and confusion. You get to some roundabout and there are a forest of signs and know one can possibly take them all in. You get similar around retail parks. There needs to be a major cull of signage much of it is unnecessary

        Do we need all the tourist attraction signs clutter when most of it is on sat navs

        Traffic signs should be reduced to ESSENTIAL signs only

        1. Don’t blame the messenger. They are sample questions from the actual theory test.

    3. They’re just following UN guidelines.

      Don’t you like Goldfinger sponsored UN directed global control ?

    1. So it begins, never mind – close more power stations , up the population by another 250k a year, year on year what could possibly go wrong ( I’ve been a bit ott about this for a couple of years and I’ve a dual fuel 3kw generator on changeover, ok as long as lpg and petrol are available.

    2. There are endless major problems with battery powered cars one is how will the grid cope and the real answer is it cannot another big problem is the Household supply typically this is rated between 60A & a 100A nd this is not really adequate for charging an battery powered car. IT will probably just about cope with a standard charge for one car but will certainly not cope with more than one nor will it cope with a fast charge

      If you live in a block of flats what happens? It appear you are stuffed. The same applies if you have no driveway

      The grid barely copes now at peaks and in addition now has to cope with the vagaries of wind and sunlight

      One small bus depot Guilford has several battery powered buses. The local grid could not cope so they had to buy an expensive battery storage unit so they can spread the load so if the grid cannot cope with a handful of buses imagine if it has to cope with entire bus fleets and all the cars on the road

      2. I’m sure arrogant twat Gove has all the answers to these problems. He must have before he banned petrol cars. Twenty years to treble our capacity above what population increase demands and uprate every household in the country to well over a 200A supply. Surely that can be done 🙂

        1. I don’t know what the cost of running an electric car would be, but I am sure I would be overcharged.

        2. There is no 3 Phase supply in the vicinity of my village. Even properties in local towns such as Sudbury and Bury St Edmunds have to have 3 Phase supply laid on with all that entails, digging up roads and pavements etc.,

          1. A bit of a different issue. For example, houses in the US these days typically have a 240V 200A single phase supply, though it’s +120/-120, with an earthed “zero”, so what comes into the house are 3 wires, two “hot” wires, and one ground or earth. The domestic 120 v circuits are taken from one “leg” or the other, but heavy stuff – like clothes dryers, ovens, aircon/heatpump units (and electric car chargers), get the full 240v.

            Typical home chargers here draw about 30 amps at 240V.

            Your problem locally is more likely that there is just not enough power coming into your area to be able to deliver 200A (say) to every house.

    3. Good luck if you get stuck on the Motorway in the middle of winter and the batteries run flat from having the heater on or the constant stop start as the traffic inches along

      1. We need Anne and some of her namesakes.

        According to my book of proverbs, many Annes make light work.

        2. Whilst we’re on Proverbs here’s one for aspiring trolls here:

          31 From the mouth of the righteous comes the fruit of wisdom,
          but a perverse tongue will be silenced.

      2. Our kids used to play with their GI Joe dolls, these budding explosive carriers must have missed out on their Jihadi Moes.

  69. One of us has polluted the air

    Fart forces county lawmakers to suspend debate in Kenya

    A potent smell stirred a lot of hot air during a debate at Kenya’s Homa Bay County Assembly on Wednesday, forcing the speaker to suspend the session temporarily while air fresheners were brought in.
    While those attending the debate may be used to hearing calls of “Order!,” the session became much more odor focused as members accused one another of being behind the foul stench.
    “Honorable speaker, one of us has polluted the air, and I know who it is,” Julius Gaya declared, the BBC reported, citing local media.
    “I am not the one. I cannot do such a thing in front of my colleagues,” the accused member replied, defending his honor.

  70. The teenage girl who died after being pulled from the sea has been named by police as Malika Shamas.

    The 14-year-old, from Luton, died yesterday afternoon.

    Her 18-year-old relative remains in a critical condition in hospital while police say another girl, aged 15, is set to make a full recovery.

    Police said all three are related to each other, and their family is being supported.

      1. I don’t understand it. I know that stretch of coast well and that beach well. It is about as safe as you can get , The weather was good and you don’t get strong currents and the sea is shallow and the tide was out

        You could get into trouble if you went under the pier at high tide but it was low tide so it would be sand under the pier until a good way out and even then the sea would note be much more than waist high but the report seem to indicate they were not under the pier. Clacton West beach is not a beach where you are likely to be swept out to sea. The only thing I can think is they were poor swimmers and went out to far and started to struggle

        1. I just cannot understand it, in salty sea water the body just floats without any effort

          5. I used to sink like a stone, but sadly not any longer, I found after venturing forth in a French swimming pool after many years of avoiding such places. (I quite simply don’t like getting wet, getting water on my face or in my ears. I don’t like being in water that has, and has had, other bodies of unknown provenance within it. Ugh!)

  71. UK economy suffers shock 0.2% pre-Brexit contraction in second quarter, first since 2012

    More nonsensical headlines, The expectation was there would be zero growth or a small decline in GDP for that quarter and that’s what we got. Germany also had a 0.2% decline

    It may well bounce back in the next quarter as the car shut downs for what was going to be Brexit has dropped out and the stockpiles they had for Brexit will have been consumed

    hort of something unexpected coming along I would expect at worst GDP to be static

  72. The average cost of moving home has rocketed to £9,331 in the past year, figures show, with legal fees and stamp duty unsurprisingly the largest part of that.

    Estate agent, surveyor, land registry and EPC costs will set the typical house buyer back £7,641 – but there’s an additional £1,690 eaten up by unexpected fees that could force many into the red.

    A report by Barclays bank looked at the upfront – and not so obvious – costs of moving home across the country.

    It found Liverpool residents can expect to pay an average of just £2,787 to move home, compared to £22,417 in London.

    Estate agent fees are among the most expensive, with the average seller in Oxford paying £5,783 compared to £1,780 in Glasgow.

    1. London and Oxford compared with Liverpool ? When did an average stop being an average ?

  73. HMRC successfully appeal case

    We have today been informed that HMRC have won their appeal. We’re very disappointed in this outcome but reluctantly accept the ruling.

    Since 6 April 2013, we’ve deducted 20% from loyalty bonuses, which is equivalent to the basic rate of income tax – to pay to HMRC. The reason we did this was to avoid creating large and unexpected tax bills in the future should the legal challenge prove unsuccessful, as it has done.

    Because of this very little has changed for you, we’ll continue paying loyalty bonuses with the 20% tax deduction and you should still include loyalty bonuses as income on your tax return. If you’re a basic rate taxpayer there will be no further tax charge, while anyone who pays a higher rate of tax could be liable to further tax at their marginal rate.

    Remember no tax is due on loyalty bonuses if paid into an ISA or SIPP.

    1. What’s wrong with that ? It’s income therefore it is taxable. And what about the N.I.C. ?

      1. What if the loyalty bonuses push the recipients into a higher tax band? Should the company put aside more than 20%?

  74. According to the DT, ‘Stem cells could be used to grow back teeth, scientists believe’

    What about those at the front?

      2. The wit, the good manners (so lacking elsewhere) and the perspicacity displayed on this site is what makes it so worthwhile!

  76. Oh the lights have just come on.
    Are they trying to soften us up for October 31st?

    1. You are missing the point, dearie. “We would get…” means “being given”. That means that someone else decides what we are to be given.
      Brexit means we decide what to give ourselves . We decide for ourselves how we wish to control our borders and then we just do it. We will not need any one else’s by-your-leave. We won’t have to ask, we won’t have to wait on someone else deciding for us. No one will be able to tell us what to do. No one will be able to tell us what not to do. Do you see the difference? No? Well, never mind, dearie, neither do half of our MPs.

      1. I’m afraid a lot of that isn’t true.

        The UN is taking over control of Britain from where the EU left off, but without the democracy.

        1. We could leave the UN too. We should. the UN is dominated by a membership that is mostly countries that are completely uncivilised.

    2. How about we return to common law which allows you to do anything unless there’s a law to stop it, unlike corpus juris which won’t let you do anything unless the state allows you by passing a law? Of course, those “old people”, whom you seem to think have spoiled your future by voting for freedom, understand this because it’s what they’ve been used to. They also had a decent education (albeit not one where 50% burdened themselves with debt to get a degree to stack shelves) which taught them critical thinking.

      1. And the US experience has turbine life spans at about 14-15 years – rather less than many of the cost assumptions were based on.

      2. Just wait until they all try charging their oh-so-green electric cars. At least a brown-out, if not a complete black-out.

  79. Evening, all. Have not long got back from manning the RAFA trailer at the Flower Show. Good day. We haven’t counted up the takings yet, but people seemed to have been generous. At least the heavy rain kept off until about 16.00, when there was a thunderstorm.

  80. Huge power cut hits Britain: One million people affected as blackouts hit homes, airports, traffic lights and trains across the country after ‘failure of the National Grid’
    Blackouts reported in London and South East, as well as Midlands and North East
    Victoria Line was plunged into darkness this afternoon as result of the outage
    Trains in and out of London, including Thameslink and Gatwick Express affected
    Other cities including Cambridge, Peterborough and Dover were also affected
    Outage was due to a failure on National Grid’s network and is under investigation
    **Are you affected by the outage? Email james.wood@mailonline.co.uk**

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7342081/Major-power-cuts-UK-hit-airports-traffic-lights-trains.html

    Shades of things to come .. we are being reduced to 3rd world status quite quickly , don’t you agree?

    1. Belle, thanks to our completely out of touch and ignorant politicians the Third World beckons. Green nonsense will see this country slither down the international tables for competing, manufacturing, technology etc unless new people with a sense of purpose take over. It could all have been so different but too many of the people in authority have been easily seduced into believing that virtue signalling is more important than keeping the lights on.

      1. Too true , we know the incompetent green idiots have as you say climbed on the bandwagon .

        When the power goes off , the sewerage systems stop , no filtration , no pumping , no fuel, it could happens so quickly , in the blink of an eye .

        1. How many of those responsible for voting and deciding on the infrastructure, especially power, have the first idea of just how much a First World country depends on a reliable power generation and distribution system? If they can look beyond lighting to cooking they will be doing well.

    2. It started with a dam – then the lights went out – then we left the EU and everybody cheered….

    4. Bl**dy chaos. No warning.
      No traffic lights, no ATM’s (no cash), no shopping (no tills)..no fuel.
      How to stop a Country instantly.
      Grandchildren had ham sandwiches for supper.

        1. Still some daylight left, despite the heavy rain.

          Somewhere we have a load of Tilly lamps, The sort that you pump up (like a primus stove). Must check you can still buy mantels.

      1. Until the next time Peddy.

        We remember Africa..when not even the generators kicked in .

        No fuel no nothing .. if the power goes down . Keep your cars topped up folks .

        During the 1987 big storm we had no power for five days .. shops ran out of candles , paraffin , matches batteries , the lot ..

        1. I, being an old-fashioned sort, have a good stock of candles, tea lights and paraffin lamps. I also have wind-up torches and a wind-up lamp. I have camping gaz stoves, too, which came in handy when my electric cooker stopped working and I didn’t want to light the Rayburn. The thing I would miss the most would be the Internet.

          1. Jack being an engineer, insisted on a backup generator when we built the house, so we have a 16kw generator powered from our 1,000 gallon propane tank. All we need are the tin hats…

        2. In the early 2000’s the Central Line was down for several months. (The generators had failed and folk were too scared to touch the ancient trackside cabling).

          This involved me in driving from Suffolk, parking up at Snaresbrook, walking up to Wanstead and taking a bus to East Ham, then the District Line to Aldgate East and then Hammersmith and City to Farringdon. I worked in Warner Street usually reached via Chancery Lane and a walk down through Leather Lane Market.

          This tortuous journey worked just about in the early morning but there were no buses at night to connect East Ham to Wanstead. I spent a small fortune on taxis to get home.

          I will take no shit from those who have not experienced the vicissitudes of commuting to London. I commuted for thirty odd years and could write volumes about the inadequacy of our transport systems.

        3. This may sound sad but I have partly and mostly (with 2″ – 3″ remaining) used candles from long ago Christmasses, saved in a polythene bag. Just in case. As a just-after-the-war baby, I find it hard to throw anything out, I remember ration books.

          1. …and funny little Identity Cards. Easily forged today – maybe even then with a John Bull Printing Set.

    9. Evening, Mags, Best Beloved has posited the thought that someone has hacked the National Grid and is playing pop all around.

      It just demonstrates how vulnerable we are, with our lack of any joined up method of defence.

    10. In more normal times we had a grid which could readily switch to ‘back-up’ via a combination of nuclear, coal and gas with massive diesel generators as back up to the London Underground and other vital services.

      The writing has been on the wall for decades. The drive to supposed renewables has left us prone. Wind power is useless when there is no wind and useless when there is too much wind. Someone needs to connect the dots.

      This is all part of the dereliction of their duty afforded us by our politicians with their idiotic policies designed it seems, cumulatively, to take us back to the Dark Ages.

      2. They weren’t developed commercially because thy didn’t produce Plutonium for bombs.

  82. Just look at the chaos across the Channel and it’s blindingly obvious we are right to leave the EU
    DOUGLAS MURRAY – 9 AUGUST 2019 • 8:00PM

    The Remainer myth that Europe is a safe bet has become untenable

    For all the warning and carping that goes on about the internet there is one gift that always gives. I refer of course to YouTube. True, much of the site is tweeny “vloggers” updating their millions of followers about what they ate for breakfast [remind you of anyone? Ed]. But it is also reliably, addictively informing.

    Perhaps its finest attribute is the frequency with which historic videos are “recommended” at just the right moment. Users will be aware of the YouTube holes you can fall down for hours after one such video is pushed on you. And this week I happily fell into one of these vortexes when some videos of Margaret Thatcher speaking about the EU were once again being promoted on the channel. If anyone worries about the dumbing down of our time they should witness the millions of views such videos get.

    Why would it be that videos of Margaret Thatcher “totally destroying the EU” keep going “viral”? Simply because they are the greatest possible reminder that this country’s present struggle to get out of the EU is just the latest phase of a struggle we have gone through for the duration of some of our lifetimes.

    Naturally there are some people who bemoan this, complaining about the waste of energy and focus that this “obsession with Europe” betrays. But as Mrs Thatcher saw – and a new generation can see her arguing over on YouTube – surely the question of who controls your fiscal policy, how you are governed and who you are governed by are questions of some import?

    Of course there have been plenty of opportunities over the last three years to lose heart. During the May years even the most ardent Brexiteer will have had moments when they wondered whether the incompetence and rancour couldn’t have been most painlessly dodged by swallowing the status quo.

    Throughout those three years I always found – as I still do – that the surest way to avoid that train of thought was to look across the continent and survey the situation from there.

    As it happens, my endless tour of Europe has given me the clearest view I could have had of just how many internal contradictions continue to simmer under that entity Remainers present as the safest imaginable berth for our nation.

    In Eastern and central Europe I find a constantly growing anger and resentment against the EU. Not just because Berlin and Brussels have spent recent years attempting to force migrant quotas on these countries. But because time and again the Western European countries treat their fellow member states to the East like the slow kids in the class. MEPs from countries like the Netherlands berate their Eastern European colleagues, treating them as though they are backwards and bigoted. They lecture them as though the West is best and that until such a time as it grows up the East needs to sit in the corner and write lines. But the east-west divide is not the only one in Europe.

    Across Northern Europe – and nowhere more so than Germany – there is an ever-simmering resentment about the marriage they have found themselves stuck in. After bailing out the Mediterranean countries, northern Europe does not feel any closer to Athens or Rome. There is simply a deepened, engrained awareness that the south of the continent is another country where they do things differently.

    And of course it is not as though southern Europe lacks sources of resentment towards northern Europe. Greek and Italian politicians do not look north and see their saviours. They look north and see unnecessary punishers at best and slave-masters at worst. In reality, both north and south are at fault. But the point is less over who is to blame than the fact that everybody thinks everyone else is.

    As this country was preparing to vote on our membership of the EU there were occasional emollient noises from the continent towards Britain. I heard some myself first-hand from lawmakers and others. The Eastern Europeans begged us not to leave them alone with the Germans. The Germans and others in Western Europe asked us not to leave them alone with the East. Northern Europeans kindly requested us not to leave them alone with the south and the south begged that we shouldn’t leave them in the hands of the north.

    It is an exceptionally confident – not to say self-important – British Remainer who can imagine that these problems could ever have been solved by Britain staying in the EU. In reality all that was happening then was that we were receiving a certain amount of flattery from our partners because they had finally begun to realise that we were serious about leaving them. The facts around Britain’s (indeed any country’s) inability to affect the EU’s direction of travel had been established years before for anyone who wanted to see them.

    “But we should have kept on trying” say some of those who remain certain that we are better off inside the EU tent than out. They forget that we spent decades inside the tent, shouting to little avail. Because the problems remain today just as Mrs Thatcher saw them to be over a quarter of a century ago. Perhaps the algorithm keeps recommending her words because they remain so relevant. The last 24 hours bring another two stark reminders of the facts.

    The first is the latest news of the economic downturn in Germany. Figures released on Friday showed that German exports slowed in the first half of this year and fell sharply in June. All of which suggests that the continent’s single most important market – one that is heavily reliant on exports – could be heading into recession. The effects this will have on the rest of Europe are obvious, but the most likely domestic political response will be an upsurge in the already frequently heard call in Germany for the German government to be focusing on looking after the German people first.

    Meanwhile, Italy looks as though it may be heading into elections again. Matteo Salvini’s Lega has been in coalition with the Five Star movement for the last year and a half. In that time the Italian government has – among other things – got into a furious diplomatic spat with the French and repeatedly protested Brussels’s attempts to impose economic strait-jacketing on the country. Salvini is the figure who has been most prominent in taking on Brussels. And it has paid off domestically. For while the Five Star vote has slumped, the share of the vote now available to the Lega has doubled since the Italian election last year. Meaning that if they do go to an election Salvini could be the undisputed leader of Italy.

    If that happens we already know what the response will be. The headlines will predict a “rocky time” for the EU. But the response of the EU leaders will be what it always is: “This is why we need more EU”.

    Just this week Guy Verhofstadt was on Twitter celebrating a new “poll”. It claimed that a majority of people in Europe “consider themselves to be citizens of the EU”. A finding which ought to be a statement of fact was greeted by Verhofstadt as “great news”. And what did he conclude? “It’s high time we set up a real pan-European democracy with transnational lists… we owe it to them!”

    More than a quarter of a century ago Mrs Thatcher saw this direction of travel, and saw that it was one that Britain did not want to be on. Her words come back to us now because the truth she spoke to has not gone away.

    And if the history books of the future end up relating that Britain spent the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries enmeshed in this question, then what would be wrong with that? There is no shame in having spent these years attempting to ensure that we remain a sovereign, self-governing nation, with a Parliament elected by and accountable to the people. Indeed, what question should better occupy a nation?

    1. “a Parliament elected by and accountable to the people.”

      That sounds so sweet.

      Shame it doesn’t work.

  83. Funny how Corbyn and McDonell remind me of Maynard and O’Malley in When the Kissing Had to Stop. One naive and foolish, one a calculating hardliner.

  84. Night All

    https://twitter.com/helpsainsburys4/status/1159561826700529664

    https://twistedsifter.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/smarch-madness-3.gif

    https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/67821014_2376163895795600_6921244981805973504_n.png?_nc_cat=108&_nc_oc=AQmh8aZZvZkZ-g7X1s0WEMERJX93RFmdwCoXaKSNHly5VYGDMeKA-GGgQyjDAX74yg8&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.xx&oh=afed868f70f078d513095180b140c49b&oe=5DE2DDCA

    https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/67514679_2376180152460641_3826832847331655680_n.png?_nc_cat=1&_nc_oc=AQks2QqzhksxiAilMMES4CBNISoftGC0TJtKWUDOy8AhM1SsJh84dKbEpZKGKAp-RD0&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.xx&oh=d98a8a291c02a3cfb4ee14ef2dedb063&oe=5DD5FE2C

    2. When Missy was a kitten, she used to love sliding around on the polished floors in the Swedish apartment.

  89. All those signing off – wish I could, too. Waiting at Brizzl airport to collect Firstborn, who is now delayed to 23:45. 2 hours drive after that. Urgh. :-((

    2. I was led on the sofa, had a thought and said, “That’s a good ideal.”

      Pure Brizzle. Enjoy your imminent escape, Paul.

  90. I see several comments about Islam, including about the dreaded Mayor of London.

    However, a different perspective, with British overtones, can be found in Tunisia at the moment. Due to the recent death of the President, there is to be a presidential election on September 16th. Today was the last day for submission of applications to stand in the election. Among the approximately 70 budding candidates are a belly dancer and someone who is openly ‘gay’.

    There are some good and popular candidates but opinion polls are not allowed within two months of an election. The danger comes from a candidate from the Ennahdha Islamic party (its deputy leader) that the Left wing media persist in calling moderate – it only pretends to be moderate but it has a sinister agenda, partly because its leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, is the head of the Muslim Brotherhood for Tunisia. The MB is very clever at manipulating elections and bribing the electorate with various techniques, even including outright cash payments.

    If the Islamist wins and Tunisia gradually goes down the tubes, whom to blame? I’m sorry to say that successive British governments are the culprits!

    This is because Ghannouchi, a terrorist who was sentenced to death in the late 80s, eventually ended up in Sudan in the early 90s along with a group of the world’s most evil terrorists including Osama Ben Laden, members of the PLO, leaders of the MB and even Carlos the Jackal. Sudan came under such pressure to get rid of these people that they were eventually disbanded. Ben Laden ended up in Pakistan and Afghanistan but Ghannouchi was offered asylum in the UK, to its great shame. He bided his time and saw his opportunity to return to Tunisia 20 years later, following the so-called Arab Spring.

    I know a lot about his surreptitious activities before and since his return. Perhaps Boris will have the courage to put a stop to the MB’s malevolent activities in the UK and endure the howls of outrage from the traitorous Guardian which, for example, allows Ghannouchi and his daughter to write the most self-indulgent and disingenuous articles imaginable.

  91. In exhorting us not to eat meat, green preachers place morality over reason

    CHARLES MOORE

    Food-guilt is becoming the eco-zealots’ weapon of choice

    The headlines said things like “Eat less meat to save the earth, urges UN”. So naturally the public will believe this is what the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is saying in its latest report.

    But is it, really? The report’s wording is guarded, preferring to speak about how “diversification in the food system”, including things like “coarse grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds”, might help, rather than telling people to drop meat. Indeed, the title of the report is Climate Change and Land, with no mention of meat. If you google it under its correct name, up it comes, and no headlines about the eco-wickedness of meat appear. If you google it under variants of “IPCC report on meat”, you get headlines such as that above.

    Why this difference? I think it is because of the power of those who set themselves up as interpreters of what they over-confidently call “the science”. The most powerful of these in Britain is Roger Harrabin. He is called the BBC’s Environment Analyst, but really he is their in-house evangelical preacher. Each day, the Reverend Roger announces the environmental news, turning it into a covert sermon. He is the even more slanted green equivalent of the BBC’s “reality check” correspondent on Brexit, Chris Morris, whose real job is to explain why the Leave side is wrong.

    On Thursday morning, at six o’clock on Radio 4, the BBC news led with the IPCC story. Having quickly mentioned that the report was about land use, Harrabin then explained that because the panel is made up of “scientists and government representatives” and has a “need for UN consensus”, it “delivers messages in a lowest common denominator”.

    The Reverend Roger, as keeper of the sacred mysteries, then explained what the boffins really meant: “Privately, some of the scientists say over-consumption of meat and dairy products in the West can’t go on.” Thus can some careful, rather colourless words by scientists about issues like “greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems” be turned into something we can all have an argument about. Farmers are disgusting! saith the preacher, Stop eating beef and sheep! We Westerners are much too fat!

    In the Guardian, the green George Monbiot, who is not constrained by the thin veil of objectivity which Harrabin is forced to wear, was furious with the IPCC. It had been “nobbled”, he shouted. Its report was “pathetic”. He wanted us to know that “one kilo of beef protein has a carbon opportunity cost of 1,250 kg: that, incredibly, is roughly equal to driving a new car for a year.” “Incredibly” sounds the right word to me.

    I do not know the inner workings of the IPCC. I cannot say whether the Reverend Mr Harrabin is giving an authentic account of its true thoughts, or whether he is preaching a more personal message, trying to shove the IPCC (and BBC licence-fee payers) in the direction which he favours. Are he and Mr Monbiot a soft-cop/hard-cop act, in which Mr Harrabin floats Monbiotic ideas in sanitised form and Mr Monbiot is freer to rave? I am not sure. But what is visible here is how climate-change stories are constructed.

    It goes roughly like this. On rolls the vast bureaucracy of the IPCC, predicting, ever since its first report in 1990, that the end of the world is nigh, or nigh-ish. With that comes the super-bureaucracy of the Kyoto/Copenhagen/Paris etc accords which purport – but fail – to control the amount of CO2 the world produces. Running beside them always is a stream of stories – exhortations rather – about what we must be stopped from doing to avert the catastrophe which we are promised in a century, or 12 years’ time, or – if you want to be the greenest – in 18 months.

    The essential theme of these stories is that it is axiomatically right for government to intervene to prevent people doing whatever is considered bad – driving, flying, burning coal, lighting fires, using plastic straws and now, eating meat and dairy.

    Perhaps because there is some consumer-resistance, these interventions are not yet, except on the margins, outright bans. They take the form of punitive taxes, subsidies to make otherwise uneconomic forms of energy look viable, recycling obligations, codes of practice in industry, in schools and in the public services. Sometimes they cause environmental problems of their own, such as the pollution produced by the switch to diesel cars or the strain on scarce land from the growing of biofuels (an issue discussed in the IPCC report). The green evangelicals slide past these contradictions. The morality play must go on.

    It is almost useless to raise objections to the narrative of doom, such as the fact that, according to a study in Nature last year, global tree cover has increased by seven per cent since 1982. Useless, too, to point out that the efforts of green activists to turn countries like Britain vegan will, even if successful, make almost no difference to the future of the planet because world meat production will, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation believes, have doubled by 2050.

    Once-poor countries where poor people could only dream of eating meat are catching up with us fast and naturally want the pleasures (and health benefits) which we long ago secured for ourselves. Such wider considerations are irrelevant to the mission in which one must be seen to want to love the planet and hate the West.

    The Harrabin classes have brilliantly grasped that climate change is the best means since the decline of religion to make people feel that they are bad or good. People who ask questions about the accuracy of climate-change predictions, or who raise doubts about whether government control, rather than technological development, is the best answer, are not people to be engaged with. They are bad people, often associated with bad organisations like “Big Oil”, “Big Pharma” and “Big Agro”. They must be stigmatised by good people, who recycle everything and never eat steaks.

    Food will soon become the biggest development in the crusade to purify the West from its prosperity and its pleasures. It is a good subject to choose because, as religious fanatics have always understood, people can easily be made to feel guilty about food. Greens will be increasingly able to dictate their equivalents of the Muslim distinction between what is halal (permissible) and haram (forbidden).

    They will do this through a culture war. Steakhouses will be picketed. Planning permission for shops selling meat will be objected to. School-children from carnivore homes will be re-educated. The Church Commissioners, the National Trust and Oxbridge colleges will gradually agree to stop dairy, beef and sheep-farming on all their land holdings. No one will be allowed to sit on rural public bodies such as Natural England, unless he or she is untainted by a connection with red meat. Jesus will no longer be the Good Shepherd, since the phrase will be seen as contradiction in terms. Who knows, it could even be that Margaret Thatcher, “milk-snatcher”, will now be hailed as a proto-green for taking planet-destroying milk out of the mouths of schoolchildren.

    The planet will derive no benefit, of course, but the Revd Roger Harrabin and his flock (no, no – sorry, wrong word) will feel righteous, and most of the rest of us will feel dirty. Which is the purpose of the exercise.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/09/exhorting-us-not-eat-meat-green-preachers-place-morality-reason/

  92. I just checked the pound-dollar rate – now a dollar twenty. A cent drop. Presumably from climate change – donner und blitzen here earlier.
    I can’t wait to see the Grauniad and the BBC comments.

    1. And it’s approaching one for one with the Euro – it’s currently € 1.07.

      When we moved here permanently many moons ago, the pound was $2.30, IIRC.

        1. The chavs all believe that after Brexit they won’t be allowed to go to Mallorca.

          1. Brexit won’t happen then. Too many Remainers if you are right.
            Chavs spell it with “j”. And prounce it that way too.

          2. The pronunciation of ‘ll’ in Spanish varies from region to region, sometimes even from word to word..

          4. My 2nd spouse was Chilean, so I went from Castilian to Latin American, which I preferred. All that lisping used to get on my nerves.

          7. Generally ‘ly’, with very little emphsasis on the ‘l’.

            In South America it’s ‘j’.

            What pi55es me off is ‘Eye-beetha’. I never ever heard it pronounced that way until I accidentally encountered it while my wife was watching an episode of Eastenders about 20-odd years ago. Now it’s all over the meeja.

            As long as I can remember, going back to the 70s, the British pronunciation of it was ‘i (not eye) -beetha’. Then when I visited the Balearics several times in the 90s I discovered that the locals called it Eivissa, with the emphasis on the first ‘E’ rather than the ‘i’.

            In any event, the popular chavy Eye-beetha sounds like neither.

            Strange that the same radio & TV presenters don’t talk about ‘Eye-taly’. Or would that have too many memories of the way the inhabitants of Italy were called in the 40s/50s and thereafter?

          8. But the Americans luv I Rack and I Ran.

            The easiest way with the Spanish double- l is to think of chicken (pollo) is pronounced poyo.

            Good-night Basset.

          9. In Argentina chicken (pollo) is pronounced “pozho” with the ZH sounding like the ZH in Dr Zhivago

          10. Nope. ‘polyo’ ,with just the slightest hint of ‘l’. You can barely hear it, but it’s there.

          11. ‘Eye-beetha’ is as bad as ‘Eye-kee-ah (for IKEA). It is ‘Ick-ay-ah’. Another grate is ‘Tight-ay-nium’ (for titanium). Aaaarrgghh!!!

          12. My big irritation is kil – o – met – ers. It’s kilo – metres. Like kilogrammes, kilotonnes …..

    2. Donner und Blitzen? Has Christmas come early this year? Or did they eat too many mince pies last December and are only now trying to catch up with Rudolph?

      :-))

  93. Unless there is an accommodation – or a gentleman’s agreement – between Boris and Nigel, I fear that we will have a Trotskyist Government in No 10, total destruction of the Conservative Party – a constitutional crisis – and our Royal dynasty in jeopardy …

    Edit: constitutional crisis

    1. Not if Boris delivers genuine Brexit on Oct 31.

      Then presumably the Brexit Party won’t stand.

      1. Without the Brexit Party in my view the Conservatives will not win an election. You can bet the Lib-Dems, Greens, SNP, Plaid , CHUK and Lib-Dems will do a deal and that would make it all but impossible for the Conservatives to secure a majority well unless things change significantly in the next couple of months and there are no signs of that

        1. I keep saying, never in a million years will the Conservatives win an election. Boris is an interim PM who will be discarded as soon as we are out.

        2. There won’t be a Brexit Party at the next election if Boris does Brexit right.

          So I don’t think you’re right.

    2. There cannot be an agreement between the Conservatives and the Brexit Party, the two parties are not compatible, unfortunately.

      1. Nigel was a one-horse jockey. Having won the race, he has walked round the back and disappeared.

  94. Good morning all – there’s a new page here.

    Incidentally, this version of Disqus doesn’t have the facility to “invite most active users”, if anyone is wondering what happened to invitations…

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