Monday 17 February: High-speed rail on the Continent is built quickly and efficiently

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be blacklisted.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/02/17/letters-high-speed-rail-continent-built-quickly-efficiently/

726 thoughts on “Monday 17 February: High-speed rail on the Continent is built quickly and efficiently”

    1. The lucky tax-payers of the EU. Ask any railway operator how much they cost and enjoy the silence.

  4. Picture yourself sitting in a court room listening to a lawyer questioning a witness sitting in the witness chair.

    If you can avoid laughing while reading these, — you’re getting old!

    HOW DO COURT REPORTERS KEEP STRAIGHT FACES!

    These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and published by Court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while the exchanges were taking place.

    ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
    WITNESS: He said, ‘Where am I, Cathy?’
    ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
    WITNESS: My name is Susan!
    _______________________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
    WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
    ______________________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
    WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
    _____________________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
    WITNESS: July 18th.
    ATTORNEY: What year?
    WITNESS: Every year.
    _____________________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you?
    WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can’t remember which.
    ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you?
    WITNESS: Forty-five years.
    __________________________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
    WITNESS: Yes.
    ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
    WITNESS: I forget…
    ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
    _________________________________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep,
    he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
    WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
    ____________________________________

    ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
    WITNESS: He’s 20, much like your IQ.
    ___________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
    WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
    _________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
    WITNESS: Yes.
    ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
    WITNESS: Getting laid
    ____________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
    WITNESS: Yes.
    ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
    WITNESS: None.
    ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
    WITNESS: Your Honour, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
    ____________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
    WITNESS: By death..
    ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
    WITNESS: Take a guess.
    ___________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
    WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
    ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
    WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I’m going with male.
    _____________________________________

    ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
    WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
    ______________________________________

    ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
    WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
    _________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
    WITNESS: Oral…
    _________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
    WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
    ATTORNEY: And Mr Denton was dead at the time?
    WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
    ____________________________________________

    ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
    WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
    ______________________________________

    And last:

    ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
    WITNESS: No.
    ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
    WITNESS: No.
    ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
    WITNESS: No..
    ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
    WITNESS: No.
    ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
    WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
    ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
    WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

  6. ‘I Have White Advantage, Male Advantage, Straight Advantage’ – Woke Archbishop Brands Own Church ‘Racist’. 17 February 2020.

    “I get loads of lists to approve. I get shortlists and longlists and lists of panels for interviews. We’ve just about got past the point in the last two or three years where they’re not all male. But they very, very seldom have minority ethnic people on them – either in applications for lay or clergy posts, senior clergy posts,” Welby said.

    Morning everyone. There is of course a huge backlog of Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists etc. who are looking for pastoral jobs with the Church of England.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/16/i-have-white-advantage-male-advantage-straight-advantage-woke-archbishop-brands-own-church-institutionally-racist/

    2. Why has the COE not had a Jewish or Muslim or Catholic archbishop ? This will have to be put right !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    4. The man is obviously a bloody fool, a virtue-signaller of the worst kind, inasmuch that he lambasts we pale pink persons for having advantage over those who, willingly, left their own countries in order to batten on our good-will. He says we should apologise for being what and where we are born.

      Rot in hell you devil’s spawn.

  7. Rail franchising model set to be scrapped in coming weeks

    Boris Johnson is set to dramatically overhaul the nation’s rail network by scrapping the rail franchise model and capping profits by private providers.
    Former British Airways boss Keith Williams was drafted to conduct a review of Britain’s railways last year, with the report set to be released in the coming weeks.
    It’s now expected that it will recommend replacing the rail franchising model with a new system of awarding contracts, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
    The new system would see franchises receive a set fee, with revenues collected by the government.
    Under the current model, revenues are collected by franchisees with a cut given to the

      1. Wasn’t Major only ‘following orders’?
        (Ponders on the result the Nuremberg trials.)
        Morning, JBF.

        1. Myth. No other EU member has adopted the UK model of implementing EC 91/440. The civil servants offered three models for privatisation (not in itself a n EU requirement) and Major chose the worst one. Likewise Margaret Becket’s choice of the most bureaucratic way of implementing the EU’s agricultural support regime.

          1. Ta ever so.
            I remember farmers being reduced to tears by MB’s system.
            Maybe she was looking to free up land for more caravan parks.

          2. ‘Morning, Anne, I now understand why you refer to your husband as MB – you are married to Margaret Becket!

            Who’d a thunk it?

      2. The proposed system seems far more sensible. It is still a franchising model but removes the pretense that the TOC’s are competing with each other. Doing that also removes many of the problems. It means the government can set the fares. It can also mean you could uses any train company with your ticket rather than have to use a particular TOC’s service. IT means the services can be operated as an integrated service rather than as a collection of competing companies

        The competition is still there but is only at the contract award level

        1. Looks like the scheme implemented in Norway, and just kicking off. Details of how service improvements are to be rewarded are missing. The jury is out at the moment.

          1. Service improvement will be the responsibility of the government or more probably who it sets up to oversea the railways. The may bring an incentive scheme for the TOC’s to try to drive up passengers numbers

    1. Morning Rik,
      There was an air of expectation after the December GE result that things were going to change for the better.
      Reports of continued pussyfooting around ecoterrorists such as XR, the reports of a threatened rebellion by Tory MPs against much needed change at the BBC does not give me much hope.

      We still have MPs who seem incapable of being in tune with the electorate.
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/16/peoples-government-should-not-attacking-broadcaster-people-love/

      1. Surely legal action could be taken against the Cambridgeshire police for dereliction of their duty or whatever the legal charge would be

        2. I think you miss the point, it should not be necessary to even consider legal action against the police on whatever charge is considered appropriate.
          They should be doing what they are there for, not pussyfooting around the likes of XR
          Perhaps 20 or 30 of us should turn up in our cars and block another road in Cambridge, I can guess how we would be treated!!!

          Edited for spellcheck.

          2. Announce that those cars will be strategically placed to block all access to Cambridge Central Mosque before Friday prayers, every Friday for two months and see what happens.

      2. If the police do not arrest and move on these protestors immediately then it’s blatantly obvious that nothing has, or will change. It’s time these wretched sewage were dragged away by their hair and any resistance a baton to the face and charged with resisting arrest.

        The law is clear. The police are breaking it.

  10. Amazon: Suspect child car seats found for sale on its store again

    Whilst this clearly should not happen anyone who thinks they can get a child safety seat for £3. 99 needs their head examining

    Four obscure brands were involved in the latest case.

    One listing described the product as being an “Infant Safe Seat” capable of preventing injury to a baby if a car urgently braked. It was on sale for just £3.99
    All the products lacked safety labeling.

  12. Morning again

    SIR – To scrap the licence fee would be crass folly. For the cost of one cigarette a day we have all the services, drama, news, sport and programmes broadcast from the national and regional television and radio stations 24 hours a day. If these services ever became subscriber channels, we would be paying twice or even thrice the current licence fee.

    Gerard Needham

    Ferndown, Dorset

    SIR – The BBC now runs adverts for its own products between most programmes, so we are now quite used to seeing adverts on its channels. Surely if it sold this valuable advertising space for commercial interests it could pay for the service.

    Tom Boyd-Smith

    Norton, County Durham

      1. The BBC is out of control and at very least needs to be scaled back significantly to say 1 UK TV station and one UK radio station. Channel 4 , should go fully commercial and responsiblity for funding S4C should go to Wales & for Alba to Scotland

        1. The bbc have set them selves up as an alternative political party. Using licience fee money to further their adgenda.
          They wanted to increase the fee probably because the EU mafia have called in repayment of the huge loans.

      1. For me it’s over 50 years and it was never a habit.
        Think of the savings.
        More than a million pa Mr Line acre ain’t gonna like it. And there are plenty more like him on the box.

        1. Giving up smoking was easy – I did it dozens of times.
          1987 and for the first 10 years a packet of Benson & Hedges always appealed.

        2. I smoked a pipe. I was never 100% hooked on the nicotine. It was 25% dummy/comforter effect. Then in the late 80s a bad cold and difficult cash flow coincided and I didn’t pick it up again.
          I have considered trying it once more, but Three Nuns is not the same. It is missing the exotic Perique tobacco.

      2. I pipped you by just one year.

        At 09:30 hrs, Saturday 31 December, 1983, I smoked my last Player’s No 6 tipped.
        At 09:45 hrs that day I had an appointment with a hypnotist. I haven’t had the desire to smoke since.

        [I did go from 10 stone to 13 stone in three years, thereafter, as I rediscovered the exquisite flavour of food!]

          1. Morning Bob – I’ve never smoked in the 80 years of my life. Dry and windy here but I understand there are some flooded roads nearby.

          2. Heyup!
            Bright & sunny here. I’ve been using my chopsaw to cut some smaller bits (<4") of firewood so far and it's been quite pleasant up in the shed!

            Going to have a walk to Cromford & back for the paper and will lug a couple more lumps of tree home with me.
            I'm already pretty close to having enough wood for next winter!

          1. Morning, Spikey.

            It is willpower alone that is now keeping me from eating carbohydrates of any kind. I eat one meal (*dinner, at 1:00 p.m. each day) of meat, eggs, cheese, nuts and salads, then nothing more for 24 hours. I am not feeling hungry, I am fit and alert, and the weight is dropping off.

            [*It was only after people moved dinner (the main meal of the day) from its traditional place of 1:00 p.m. to the end of the day that weight problems started for people.]

          2. I was going through 27 on weekdays and 40 at weekends. I went through the mill stopping; aches, bright lights. Hated it so much that I swore I wouldn’t be stopping smoking again, so I didn’t. Once was plenty.

          3. I could never manage more than 10 a day. I used to get a sore throat. Then I got a cold, and bought a packet of the worst ones I could find, Park Drive. Never smoked again.

        1. Morning all.
          Not to mentioned, also being constantly and relentlessly being subjected to a huge over dose of totally out of proportion ‘diversity’.

      1. ‘Morning, Citroen, I contribute to this forum for intelligent posting, debate and even argument but please, don’t wish such a crass eejit as Gerard Needham on me.

        Were he ever to contact me about the BBC, Licence Fee, et al, I would politely suggest he takes up sex and travel.

    7. I thought everyone was supposed to give up smoking as it’s bad for your health. An uncomfortable analogy.

    8. For the amount of Beeb TV I watch (I avoid it like the plague) if it were subscription I would be quids in.

  13. London bloodbath: City painted red as multiple people stabbed over course of weekend

    It had looked as if knife crime in London was decline a bit this year but it seems not. It was just a bit of a lull

    MULTIPLE people across London are fighting for their lives after a stabbing frenzy descended on the city over the weekend.

    Two men and a teenager are fighting for their lives.
    The exact locations of the stabbings are as follows: Brooke Road, Hackney, New North Road, Ilford, Sandringham Road, Barking, and Porters Avenue, Dagenham.

    All men effected were rushed to hospital on Sunday afternoon.

  15. Good morning from a Saxon Queen .

    My verification email for Terpischore’ s account is still stuck
    It’s present in my emails. I press on it and nothing happens.
    This isn’t the right way to treat a daughter of Zeus, says the daughter
    of Alfred of Wessex. Maybe this happens when you upgrade from
    monarchy to divinity .

    1. ‘Morning, Rik.

      If you cup your fingers over a vey bright torch in the darkness, you can see your finger bones.

    3. If Laurence Fox had gone to Blundell’s ir Sherborne rather than Harrow he might have resisted the temptation to have those repulsive tattoos etched into the skin of his forearms.

      I do hope he is seriously thinking of having them removed if it is possible.

    4. Morning Rik,
      316421+up✔s,
      “not all mayors are yet virtual signaling dangerous muppets”
      It is work in progress though.

  21. Morning Each,
    316421+up✔s,
    “Britain & the eu will rip each other apart in a trade war says french foreign minister”
    Yet another war we should keep the nations nose out of, all we have to do is have a celebratory period for leaving, a month would IMO be enough, then replace the receiver to take incoming calls from brussels.
    Personally I do believe the “deal / deals” have already been done & dusted these talks are the cosmetic touch.
    I am still looking for a reason to trust any governance party, to me currently they are running a damage limitation campaign.

    1. You can bet your sweet boots that very soon driving a UK registered car in France will be subjected to close scrutiny by the gendarmerie.

        1. No chance they would never be bothered to do that. I don’t believe the Brits are that vindictive to visitors.
          Our neighbours and my sister and B in law have all been clocked ‘speeding’ in France recently.
          Both parties say they were not driving as fast as others on the same roads.
          Next…….your steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car ?

          1. RE,
            316421+up✔s,
            I am not doubting you, what I am saying is the way police are currently acting foreigners would be immune it would be the UK indigenous who would receive the
            allo, allo,allo,treatment.

          2. The post i put up of the police stopping someone who’s number plate may have been on a watch list. Was controversial, but it happened. And Two police patrol cars and a lot of time involved !
            All we see of the police where we live is an email once a week. It means that we live in a fairly safe area. But crimes are still committed from time to time.

          2. I don’t need it now we have a built in SN. But I had a piece of paper typed up in our old car explaining in three European languages that when using the old Sat Nav it pinged (apparently the warning was illegal) on the approach of a speed camera and that I needed the Sat Nav to get to get to where every I was going. Having said that I was never stopped.
            The only time I had a speeding fine was in South Australia I was 2 kph over the limit that had suddenly changed on a down hill section (a set up) from 110 to 80, the bastards were hiding in the bushes on the central reservation. My mate in Adelaide explained that the SA government had effed up the state budget and were 40 million dollars out of pocket. So they had given the order for the police to nick every one they possibly could. 200 dollar fine !!!

    2. Ignore it. Such comments are made by French ministers for domestic consumption, to give the impression of being in control and on top of the brief.

      1. Morning HK,
        316421+up✔s,
        We should have ignored the “deal” business when it was first
        mentioned, total severance, interval, then they call us in a polite, asking manner.

  22. Good morning all.

    Just turned on BBC for the weather updates..

    Grief fest for the young woman who was a celeb.

    In this area there have been many suicides in the past year.. a few PTSD related and and others just random acts of self harm .. the farming community have many bereaved families as well, good people gone.

    NO ONE knows who is vulnerable , do they.

    The BBC grief fest is feeding the media .

        2. Even though it is part of a chain, the food is consistently very, very good, as is the service.

          2. When we have been it has been a chilly winter’s blowy day (similar today) and on all three occasions it has been inviting, welcoming and warm….. a combination somewhat foreign to Cambridge! – with a lively but not overwhelming ambience. We must go again… I can feel a visit coming on. Lovely lunch time venue. We haven’t gone out for an evening meal for years, now. Go for it – I hope your Dorchester branch is as good as Cambridge. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

        3. There are quite a few Cotes scattered across the country. There’s one in Bournemouth on the corner of Westover Road, where Austin Reed used to be.

    2. One wonders whether all the coverage might even encourage vulnerable people to see suicide as the best way out.

        1. It seems to me that the british media are almost promoting the strange and rather sudden significance ‘mental health issues’.
          The rise in this sort of almost self declared, almost inflicted ailment, seems to have increased out of all proportion in the recent years.

          3. Possibly related to the rise of illegal drugs as part of social interaction amongst particular groups. It’s no longer a ‘couple of spliffs’.

          4. Something’s not quite right is it JS ?
            It wouldn’t surprise me in the least, it’s been suggested that the ‘middle and above classes’ are responsible for most of the increases in drug use in the UK but that leads directly onto another daily topic, all the gang warfare and stabbings.

      3. Like film fans after Rudolph Valentino’s death?
        I know he died of a burst appendix, but I gather the mass hysteria was well up to our standards.

      4. Just like those horrible tattoos. Once it becomes acceptable to daub your body with graffiti injected into your skin the amount of people with tattoos grows and grows.
        Once the luvvy class and slebs start getting tattoos the practice skyrockets. Even Laurence Fox – a man with sensible opinions – has defaced his arms with these vulgar doodles.

        Remember the song from MASH?

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gO7uemm6Yo

    3. Celebrities seek publicity but when they get publicity they dont like they are unhappy. In my view they cannot have it both ways. If they want to seek publicity on twister and facebook to gain followers than they will get some adverse comments

      The BBC are as bad going on about face book and twitter yet all their staff post on it and the BBc is give wall to wall publicity and giving its own views

    4. Morning all.
      I feel sorry that this woman felt she had to take her own life but have to admit I had never heard of her. There does seem an inordinate amount of copy about it.

  23. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/823bff05e1ad712493d96d3c88a713b92fe509fb27fec14fb3b9ea8ad428bddb.png With reference to the painting depicted on this morning’s letters’ page, Samuel Palmer’s The Magic Apple Tree, I visited the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, back in the early 1980s with an artist friend who wanted to view the item but he was disappointed to find it not on display.

    After making an enquiry in the main gallery we were taken down into the catacombs by a white-gloved assistant, who revealed the unmounted painting from a drawer. After he removed the paper wrappings we were given private access to this wonderful watercolour for as long as we wished to view it.

    The assistant explained that since Palmer had experimented with a gold hue of a delicate, fugitive, nature that was not light-fast, it was necessary to store it in a light-free, temperature-controlled environment. This 13¾” x 10¾” work is utterly exquisite.

    A few years later I viewed another work by Palmer in Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. A Church with a Bridge and a Boat, painted in sepia ink with
    brush, is a monochrome masterclass.

    Wonderful artist.

    2. I wonder why the gallery doesn’t display a copy of the original instead, people who veiw it would understand if an explanation was attached.

      1. They had posters of it hung up and numerous postcards for sale (one of which I bought) but they didn’t compare to the dazzling beauty of the original item. Anyone who wished to view it was permitted access under supervision.

        2. Morning G

          When you eventually got home back to your man cave studio , were you influenced by the golds, vermillions and azures you had been impressed by , and paint brushed your mindset into a frenzy?

          1. I wish, Maggie.

            At that time I hadn’t painted anything for over five years (my last being an acrylic landscape of a cricket match at Queen’s Park, Chesterfield). Since I was busy at work I didn’t pick up a paint brush again, in earnest, until I retired.

            With hindsight, that is something I shall always regret.

        3. Do you have to book in advance? And are there many hidden treasures you can view at the same time?

          1. I don’t know what the story would be today, Nursey, bearing in mind this was around 38 years ago. On our visit we just made an enquiry when we arrived at the museum and they accommodated us without question. The staff were very helpful.

            There were dozens of old oak drawers in the underground hold, so I would imagine there are many more similar delicate works of art stored there.

            The Ashmolean were similarly accommodating to me when I viewed Palmer’s sepia work.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b136920e68f79d552938a2a78f1d56d3aa6ae3c56ebce519ccb51f7fbe203213.jpg

        4. How must it be like to have that kind of talent? I went to many watercolour classes, but never got past dulux.
          :-((

  24. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/17/shamima-begum-says-whole-world-fell-apart-losing-citizenship/

    Shamima Begum says ‘whole world fell apart’ after losing citizenship appeal

    As you would expect no comments are allowed under this article.

    Is the DT trying to drum up sympathy for this evil woman who was very happy to support the brutal and savage murder of those with whom he religion disagreed?.

    The DT should think more about those who have been mercilessly butchered by these barbarians.

    3. As many of us know and is blindingly obvious, there is an establishment cover up of muslim crimes. The police and judiciary have been instructed to suppress as much information as they can. TR knows the truth and we know what happened to him.

    1. More of the grief-fest about this supposed celeb with mental-health problems, Holden is reported as saying:

      “In an emotional Instagram post, the Britain’s Got Talent judge asked why Flack “was not shown the same level of protection, warmth and importance” as other TV stars “who have struggled recently.”

      If she had such mental-health problems, why was she in the job anyway? It appears that the whole show is designed to mess with people’s heads and give them some spurious idea of their own importance.

      Woman’s Hour on Radio 4, opened with the same grief-fest – I turned it OFF.

      1. Nicked,’Nuff Said

        The CPS and Police have “murdered” a C level “celebrity” that 99% of the population have been heard to exclaim “Who!???”.

        The
        hounding of a woman found bloodied and threatening to kill her
        boyfriend, captured on police-cam, is to go over the top on a simple
        domestic violence case played out every day in celebrity C level and
        below situations. How dare the police charge a “celebrity” with
        anything.

        And the relentless bullying in soshul meeja and
        newspapers. Was she not told how to turn these off? Was she not advised
        to delete or suspend her soshul meeja accounts?

        A tragedy that
        this woman’s self-inflicted problems have caused her to commit suicide
        but it was in her own hands to get out of this mess. She courted
        publicity by alerting the photographers where she would be. Don’t blame
        media interest in her bloodied attack

      2. Cos its a woman innit. If it was she who had appeared with bruises in the morning, the boyfriend would have been guilty with no trial needed. The CPS must have had pretty strong grounds for pressing charges and I’m glad to see that they are not backing down. There are too many cases of mental health being used as a defence for awful/violent behaviour.

      3. BBC Breakfast this morning – an interview with people no-one has heard of, speaking about Caroline Flack and the ‘issues’. It went on for 10 minutes with a lot of talking, but nobody actually said anything.

          1. I was hoping it was all going to be over in a few minutes, as I was waiting for the Weather Forecast. Ten minutes later, I was still waiting. And there was a separate interview with an ex-CPS head about the decision to prosecute Caroline Flack. Why does the meeja go overboard in their coverage of such events, which are of little interest to most people?

          2. They have to fill their programmes somehow. Remember a couple of weeks ago – the death of some American sportsperson we’d never heard of?

          3. I do, unfortunately. Sky ‘News’ – “It is impossible to overstate the importance of this event” but they managed it, and with remarkable ease!

          4. Death of a media type is very closte to home for these sensitive souls, and as they can, they broadcast it.
            That’s why you never hear of ordinary folk who struggle and lose, they don’t have broadcasty friends to be upset.

          5. Luvvies can’t resist stories about luvvies? It just shows how out of touch programme editors are.

          6. The media need to remind the public just how very important those people are who present these mindless debasing forms of “entertainment.” They never know when one of them will drop off of the perch, and they want to ensure the reports of their own importance are amplified as much as possible when they do go. It is also a very cheap way to fill up the airtime, and they can save the more expensive outside location broadcasts to use later.

            Or is that being slightly cynical? With interest in the Oscars fading, and the “stars” being laughed at for their woke political nonsense, those on the news are keen to do their part to pretend that these people matter more than they do. Meanwhile, in the real world, people are getting on with their lives.

    1. It was raining hard here a few minutes ago but we have had some bright intervals.

      Big clap of thunder yesterday evening.

    2. It was clear sun here, felt warm, started off on a walk with one less layer of clothes. Then it started clouding over and it was damned cold, so I turned round and came back.

  30. Trump, Turkey call on Russia to stop backing Syrian ‘atrocities’. 17 February 2020.

    Russia must halt its support for the Syrian government’s “atrocities”, US President Donald Trump said, as fighting rages in the country’s dwindling rebel-held areas.

    Strange I don’t recall any one calling for a stop when Mosul was being destroyed by NATO in pursuit of the same enemy!

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/trump-turkey-call-russia-stop-backing-syrian-atrocities-200217062210086.html

    1. The hypocrisy is breathtaking. Erdogan can lecture nobody on warmongering, nor can it lecture anyone on dealing effectively with Islamist militants.

      Erdogan abandoned any pretence at safeguarding the Turkish ethnics in Idlib, by concentrating his fire on Kurds in Afrin and the Northern Corridor annexation, when the Kurds were a pacifying force especially when it came to the Islamist militants.

      By pulling out the strategic garrison at the worst possible time, Trump too has abandoned any credibility when he laments his decision (against the advice of his generals) to hand power and influence over to Assad, the Russians and the Shias backed by Iran.

      Nobody will shed a tear much for the Al Qaeda affiliates around Idlib, but there are many civilians, refugees from other parts of Syria and Western-sympathetic liberals (which did include the Kurds) who are unjustly caught up in this, except crocodile tears.

  31. 316421+up✔s,
    These floods will only get worse whenever the occasion & the tide rises, unless these governance parties can come up with an absorbent concrete.
    The current voting tendency is for more of the same, with the peoples continuing to support / vote for mass uncontrolled immigration governance.
    More incomers = more housing = more concrete = more flooding, no ?

    .

    1. All new houses should be built with the bottom floor well above any flood risk. My home in which I grew up had a cellar with an earthen floor and an Anderson shelter put in by my dad before he went off to war in 1941. There was a trapdoor into the lounge and my brother and I used the cellar for our playground. As far as I know the area has never had a flood.

      1. Our house is built into the hillside so the sitting room is below ground level on one side but not the other. We’ve never had a flood here except through the ceiling when the frozen pipes thawed out – aftermath of the Beast from the East.

    1. “Most people don’t really know what socialism means…”

      I first heard that statement more than 30 years ago from a young left-wing student who followed it with the gem: “real Communism has never been tried yet.” This is repeated year after year in the face of the concrete real-world examples of exactly what the effects of socialism and communism are. 100 million deaths over the past century are not enough to break through the wall of denial that these people have built up in their minds.

      They come out of school believing in nothing that is real, so they latch on to a sales pitch that says: “left wing politics treats everyone as equal and makes a fairer world for all.” Then it can take years for them to realise that the far left crush anyone who disagrees with them and builds education / death camps to enforce their “fairness.” All the while those at the top of the party take some well-earned perks for themselves that the masses can only dream of.

      2. Thing is, MM, to these left-wing fanatics, Communism is a religion.

        And when their disastrous experiments in social restructuring do not bring “Utopia”, well of course, it couldn’t have been “Real Communism” so they need another crack at it.

        “Excelsior!”

    3. Shows she knows nothing about socialism.

      It’s all about the worker owning the means of production. Everyone getting the same: to each his needs. Yet… who sets his needs?

      Let’s now ask – you’ve an hour long commute, you work 9 hours a day writing software you’ve a Masters degree in. You’ve 20 years of experience. Now along comes Long Bailey and says ‘you’ll get the same as Jo Soap, who empties the bins.

      Feck off, Lefty. The only economic system that raise speople up is capitalism. Socialism is a political effort. Not an economic one.

  35. Laura Ashley appeals for funding as sales fall 10%

    The brand has not worked for decades. In my view it would be throwing good money at bad money

    Laura Ashley shares have slumped 41% after it said it was in talks with its lender about accessing sufficient money to allow it to continue trading.
    The fashion and home retailer said if it could not get the “requisite level of funding” then it would need to “consider all appropriate options”.
    Trading continued to be “challenging”, with sales falling by nearly 11% in the second half of 2019, it said.
    “Market headwinds” and weaker consumer spending were to blame, it said.
    This had led to a decline in sales of larger, more expensive items, according to the retailer, whose majority shareholder is the Malaysian group MUI.
    The poor performance has put pressure on the company’s share price and customer deposit levels have shrunk. This in turn has triggered a restriction on how much it can draw from the loan facility it has with the US bank Wells Fargo.
    In a stock market announcement on Monday, Laura Ashley welcomed the talks on funding between MUI and Wells Fargo, and said it was issuing a statement in “response to press speculation”.

    1. Laura Ashley deteriorated once Laura herself died.
      Nobody since then seems to have had a clue what the brand is about.

  36. Shoe Zone: Retailer warns 100 shops could close

    Shoe Zone has warned that it could be forced to close a fifth of its stores if business rates do not change.
    The retailer will close 100 of its UK stores unless the property tax is overhauled.
    Boss Anthony Smith told the BBC: “If people want vibrant High Streets, they really do need retailers like us to keep our shops open in smaller towns.”
    Retailers have called on HM Treasury to reform business rates in the Budget scheduled for next month.
    Business rates are similar to council tax for business properties. They are paid by businesses, or landlords if a property is empty.

  37. Great Western Railway boss to be sentenced for fraud

    It must have been one heck of a team building event.
    Mark Heffernan, a former deputy operations director for Great Western Railway, claimed unauthorised expenses on booze, hotels and travel – in the name of team building.
    It was not clear, however, if the “team” were invited to the hotel rooms that Mr Heffernan booked with his wife, which were also among the expenses claimed, reports the Bristol Post.
    He is due to be sentenced today and has admitted four charges of fraud totalling £10,530.

  39. Something on the main topic.

    http://stophs2.org/news/19112-employee-fired-hs2-hide-true-costs-speaks-out-managers-accused-fraud

    This report on ITV, on 26th January, includes an 8.21 min video of the Lt.Col (rt’d) who reveals how he was dismissed, before he had a chance to reveal the cover up of the true cost!

    There is also an article dated 4th Feb, giving a breakdown of the true costs – around £237 billion!

    http://stophs2.org/news/19131-hs2-work-properely-cost-237bn-maths

    Not million – BILLION! All for 15 mins on a journey? Seems a bit extravagant – and it won’t really benefit anybody én route, either.

    Also – it doesn’t go to central B’ham – nor to central London.

      2. AS,
        Going into the far distant future regarding political lifestyles, the same as the
        eu scam, windmill scam, all troughers creating a problem, then taking sides
        arguing about it.
        A form of wrestling and as genuine as the TV showings
        and twice as phony.

    2. That’s similar to the cost of drilling, engineering, fabricating, installing & commissioning about 120 large offshore oil & gas platforms. So, about the cost of developing ALL OVER AGAIN the UK sector of the North Sea!
      Now, that’s money.

    3. RE,
      316421+up✔s,
      The electorate must surely know by now unless they ARE as thick as a lignum log is strong, that this is a
      showing of power to two different parties for two different reasons.
      Number one is showing the electorate just who has the shout,& number two showing brussels that we are still very politically pro eu
      orientated.

    4. The project should shave been abandoned no matter how much had already been spent. It is the biggest white elephant ever in the U.K.

  41. What if a witness identifies a suspect as a male and the suspect complains to the court he was misgendered. Will the witness be charged? Knowing our daft couirts I suspect th answer is yes

    2. Bill, I think the following answers your question. However, getting a person’s gender wrong is such a heinous crime it’s possible a change to ages old immunity laws may be enacted after the first witness makes the mistake.

      Witness Immunity

      The principle

      Witness immunity is the privilege enjoyed by a witness and protects them from any form of civil proceedings in respect of evidence given by them in legal proceedings. In addition, the immunity covers things said or done in the course of preparing evidence for such proceedings. The rationale behind this is rooted in public policy witnesses should not be deterred from giving evidence by fear of having to defend actions against them in relation to what they said in court. In order to shield honest witnesses, the courts have decided to grant absolute immunity even though this could result in the shield protecting a malicious and dishonest witness (Darker v Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police [2001] 1 AC 435, [2000] All ER (D) 1075). Immunity is not lost even if a witness deliberately and maliciously makes false statements but does not apply to the fabrication of documentary evidence.

      1. I would think not. As I understand it, once you’ve passed 75 you were still supposed to have the piece of paper, you just don’t have to pay for it. But then the BBC have even reneged on that agreement…

          1. I’ve said this many times, if people like him who seem to hate British white majority culture so much. The door is always open.
            Go forth and multiply ! He probably wouldn’t get a job that would support his needs anywhere else.

    2. He’s a race-baiter. It’s all he has. He’s playing to his non-white constituents. According to the 2011 census (now well out of date) only 22% were white British.

      1. I wonder whta his white wife and his mixed race children think of their oafish offensive and racist father?

  44. Morning

    SIR – I have working in construction and engineering all my life, and fail to see how the HS2 project can cost so much and take so long to complete.

    In France, there is a high-speed link from Rennes to Paris that was first discussed in 2005, tendered in 2008, commenced construction in 2012 and opened in 2017. The new line is a twin track, 113 miles long and cost in the region of 2.5 billion euros. That included the upgrade of a further 20 miles of tack, purchase of land and all the infrastructure required to do so. Not only that, but the line cuts a small channel through the country side.

    I appreciate we need to have substantial tunnelling for HS2, but I would ask who is responsible for the cost control and why has no value engineering taken place.

    David Lister

    Abingdon, Oxford

    SIR – Why is it the British disease to oppose every attempt to improve our infrastructure?

    Advertisement

    The HS2 naysayers might wish to reflect that given its size, population and economy, Great Britain is the worst-connected country in Europe. High-speed rail continues to be built in Spain, France, Germany and Italy, where these improved connections are welcomed.

    Had today’s attitudes prevailed in the days of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, we would still be moving freight by canal, people and past by horse drawn stage coach.

    The benefits of the ever-improving fast movement of goods, people and information whether by road, rail, sea, air or cyberspace are intangible. We need to think of the future.

    Simon Bathurst Brown

    Camberley, Surrey

    3. Perhaps the poster has not considers the UK is a small densely populated country ill suited to HS rail. Current lines can support speed of up to 150-175 miles per hour more than fast enough for the UK. Remember as well large cities and towns are quite close together so unless the trains do not stop they never achieve these speeds for any distance. The other consideration i track capacity. The faster the trains go the fewer trains you can run

  46. Censored: The Report, Ein Al-Assad, an unending nightmare for the US. 16 February 2020.

    But the IRGC’s missile strike against Ein al-Assad in Iraq was a part of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s harsh revenge from the US for the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani. The development is still one of the top headlines of the world media after 40 days due to the American officials’ lies about the number of the dead and wounded soldiers in the attack; the US officials still continue to increase the number of casualties every week.

    The big operations codenamed ‘Martyr Qassem Soleimani’ against Ein al-Assad – which was conducted at 01:20am (local time) of January 8, the same hour when the vehicle carrying General Soleimani came under attack on January 3 and and just a few hours before his funeral ceremony – left 120 American soldiers dead and over 200 others wounded.

    Who to believe here is the problem. It is certainly true that the number of casualties admitted by the United States has increased on an almost daily basis since the attack and their seriousness has also been uprated. I’ve commented on it myself. On balance the Iranians probably have it not only because of these evasions but also because it is inconceivable that there should be injuries of such a magnitude without fatalities!

    https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/02/16/censored-the-report-ein-al-assad-an-unending-nightmare-for-the-us-what-you-werent-allowed-to-know/

    1. Araminta – The story was eye-opening, if true, but reading the comments beneath from website regulars, they were 100% anti-American foreign policy and anti-Israel. Including this line: “Our military is a communist dictatorship, serving a population of Capitalists.” Which does call into question what sort of website it is. I checked the name of it in a normal search engine and it came up with this Wikipedia entry:

      “Veterans Today is a pro-Kremlin and antisemitic conspiracy theory and fake news website. It describes itself as a “military veterans and foreign affairs journal”, but the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) had said “the anti-Israel bent on VT can slide pretty quickly into overt anti-Semitism.”

      “History: Veterans Today was founded in 2003 “in opposition to the invasion of Iraq.” According to Politico, the site “soon began publishing wild conspiracy theories” and, according to Politico, “has consistently published articles that push the Kremlin party line”. It has ties with the Iranian state-backed Press TV, and has had ties with Russia’s New Eastern Outlook website since 2013, though according to The Daily Beast, the latter connection ended in 2018.

      “According to University of Washington professor Kate Starbird, Veterans Today is a fake news site actively pushing the Kremlin party line. Its editorial board includes a former head of Pakistan’s intelligence services.”

      So, on balance, the reports of American casualties may be true, and certainly cannot be hidden forever if they are, but I would choose a website with a more credible pedigree before trusting them. A good story to make people think though. 🙂

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Today

      1. Meredith. That someone makes a comment about an article on a website, however you may disapprove of it, does not reflect on the site itself any more than praises would. They are independent of each other just as my comment here is from yours.

        As to the Wikipedia entry these are notoriously unreliable being subject to hostile alterations, just as is your Politico quote; a publication that was itself accused of antisemitism only last year where it produced an article in April 2017 purporting to show long-term links between U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Jewish outreach organization Chabad-Lubavitch. These accusations are par for the course in the United States and are just as reliable as are racism charges in the UK.

        Kate Starbird is a computer geek and her views on the Kremlin party line would be of the same value as anyone else if there were such a thing. Links, as a term used in the MSM is essentially meaningless because they do not tell us whether there is any exchange of information or direction between the parties.

        The only thing to do in this maze of claim and disinformation is to compare different accounts as I have done here and see if they match up and if they do not, seek out who may be lying.

        1. You are quite correct. Although I have never claimed that Wikipedia was a reliable source of information. It is however a useful place to start when looking for information about something that you have questions about. 🙂

          However, when you see that the comments section on that “Veterans Today” site is that 100% biased, and clearly the website could remove them if they wished, that does strongly suggest that the site is not neutral and is promoting an agenda. I was merely making people aware that that particular site is more suspect than an average one.

          When a site blames the Jews for all of the worlds woes then that must raise an eyebrow.

    1. It’s obviously got to the stage where if you claim to believe in some strange idea and you get the some of the elite to support your idea, proof or none, then you are licensed to become a vandal/criminal and escape sanction. We see it with the so-called antifascist groups; the lewd behaviour of some at the ‘pride’ marches that a few years ago would have been banned; moslem rape and underage child trafficking gangs that operated for years before the scandal became too large to ignore, and now this shower. Johnson and Patel have to get a grip on this turning a blind eye to law breaking to retain any semblance of being able to claim the Tories are the party of law and order.

    3. Arrest the lot of them and find a charge that will stick and result in them having a criminal record.

      Life then becomes difficult for them in their likely fields of potential employment where police record checks will mean that given the choice, potential employers will go for other candiates.

        1. Nope, I disagree with the first point.

          I want them to be hit with something that will make their lives difficult for the rest of their lives.

          Look around, such lefties/ecoloons are trawling ancient social media posts to destroy their enemies; they should be paying 20 years from now in the same way that they are producing posts from 20 years ago.

          I totally agree re the second point.

  49. Good afternoon all.

    The Valet.

    A retired Four-Star General ran into his former orderly, also retired, in a Manhattan bar and spent the rest of the evening persuading him to
    come to work for him as his valet.
    “Your duties will be exactly the same as they were in the army,” the General said. “Nothing to it — you’ll catch on again fast..”

    The former orderly agreed to become the General’s valet.

    The next morning, promptly at eight o’clock, the ex-orderly entered the ex-General’s bedroom, pulled open the drapes, gave the General a gentle
    shake, strode around the other side of the bed, spanked his employer’s wife on her bottom and said, “OK, sweetheart, it’s back to the village
    for you..

    1. I’m embarrassed to admit that our youngest granddaughter goes to the same school as this daft bint once attended.

  51. Holiday Inn Heathrow Ariel hotel closed on Saturday. The Independent has been told the Hotel has been block booked as a potential quarantine zone for international visitors to the UK who develop Corona virus or Britons evacuated to the UK from overseas.

    1. “If you have what you say you have, I will make you rich. If you don’t, I’ll make you into shoes.” :o)

    2. Our rector really is rushed off his feet; he has charge of three parishes and people come from far and wide to be married in the main church. Funerals are pretty regular, too. Then he’s on the school board of governors, involved with the ATC, the Parochial council, the Friends of the Church …

  53. Seperated by just a few days the demented MSM have managed to pay endless tribute to an alleged
    homosexual sexual predator of young men and an alleged violent domestic abuser

    The moral compass is spinning.
    Last Days Of Rome spring to mind

    1. Don’t be so dismal. The ever-increasing pushback on woke & similar bullpoo gives great optimism for the future!

    2. Hence a certain tension between religion and society marks the higher stages of every civilization. Religion begins by offering magical aid to harassed and bewildered men; it culminates by giving to a people that unity of morals and belief which seems so favorable to statesmanship and art; it ends by fighting suicidally in the lost cause of the past. For as knowledge grows or alters continually, it clashes with mythology and theology, which change with geological leisureliness. Priestly control of arts and letters is then felt as a galling shackle or hateful barrier, and intellectual history takes on the character of a “conflict between science and religion”. Institutions which were at first in the hands of the clergy, like law and punishment, education and morals, marriage and divorce, tend to escape from ecclesiastical control, and become secular, perhaps profane. The intellectual classes abandon the ancient theology and—after some hesitation—the moral code allied with it; literature and philosophy become anticlerical. The movement of liberation rises to an exuberant worship of reason, and falls to a paralyzing disillusionment with every dogma and every idea. Conduct, deprived of its religious supports, deteriorates into epicurean chaos; and life itself, shorn of consoling faith, becomes a burden alike to conscious poverty and to weary wealth. In the end a society and its religion tend to fall together, like body and soul, in a harmonious death. Meanwhile among the oppressed another myth arises, gives new form to human hope, new courage to human effort, and after centuries of chaos builds another civilization.

      Will Durant,

          1. HSBC pushing a global agenda. Sorry to say, but a second ad with the same multi culti actor has been produced with the same message.

          2. Well, if you bank with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, I suppose you must expect that kind of ‘woke’ rubbish…

          3. Another organisation whose message is designed to appeal across the spectrum, but I suspect actually offends far more people than it attracts

          4. Hi Rastus, I seeth everytime the HSBC advert comes on. It is a perfect example of a PC, Liberal, Luvvy, preaching down to us plebs.

          6. Well, yes, that’s obvious. It’s called trade. Global trade. A wonderful thing.

            However, we are ALSO British. With customs, language, ideology, outlooko unique to us.

            Well. We used to be. These days our entire society is being eroded by wasters, wafflers and fools.

    4. Taki not mincing his words:

      Thomas Hylland Eriksen is an Oslo-based anthropologist, and if you know anything about the cult of personality that surrounded Franz Boas, you’d realize that “anthropologist” is simply another way of saying “Cultural Marxist.” His stated aim was to “deconstruct the majority…and do it thoroughly, so that it can never be called the majority any longer.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn said that “ To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.” This Scandinavian Airlines ad even recalls the admonition in Exodus to “break their altars, destroy their images, and cut down their groves.”

      This is the same tired refrain we’ve heard for generations now about how there is no such thing as white European culture. The same people, apparently born oblivious, will insist that there is a genuine and meaningful culture in, say, Papua New Guinea, even though that’s a place that has truly invented nothing beyond different ways to shove bones through your nose.

      Beyond inventing the blow torch and the ball bearing and dynamite and the modern refrigerator and modern telecommunications, Danes and Swedes and Norsemen invented plenty, thank you very much, I’m not even sure why this is an issue—that is, unless someone’s attempting to distort history in the service of utterly demoralizing indigenous Scandinavians.

      And what are these precious migrants bringing to Scandinavia besides livestreamed three-hour rapes of Swedish girls? Honest question. I don’t know the answer.

      2. “The same people, apparently born oblivious, will insist that there is a genuine and meaningful culture in, say, Papua New Guinea, even though that’s a place that has truly invented nothing beyond different ways to shove bones through your nose.”
        Now that IS unfair. I distinctly remember a telly programme where even that weird Bruce chap couldn’t take it when the Papua New Guineans tried the tribal practice of turning his todger inside out. So that’s two things they invented.

      3. Isn’t it time that these creatures were deported, the government arrested and shot for forcing this massive uncontrolled immigration on the citizens?

        For goodness sake. They’ve brought nothing but misery to this continent. Send the swine away and return them home – from 10,000 ft.

    1. Afternoon Aoe,
      316421+up✔s,
      Be a bloody sight scarcer now someone has just nicked a lorry load in China.

      1. Some armed criminals in Hong Kong certainly understand the roll of toilet tissue in personal hygiene!

        Afternoon ogga1.

  56. Another fine example of ‘nothing succeeds as well as failure’ in our once fair land. It is of course Queen Cressida’s Yard doing the honours, yet again.

    Daily Mail – Fury at Cressida Dick as Detective Promoted During Misconduct Investigation

    Sadly, there doesn’t appear to be a decent and honest investigative journalist around to look under the rock that harbours the nasty groups in our society that are responsible for this state of affairs.

    1. I fully expect the investigation will conclude that all officers acted with integrity and in good faith.

      Drinks all round. Job done. Next.

    2. Afternoon Ktk,
      316421+up ✔s,
      Take a multitude of journalist to cover the lab/lib/con coalition party & supporters.

    4. It’s an absolute disgrace that Dick, Head of the Yard, remains in post given the part she played setting up “Operation Midland”.

      Nicholas Bramall’s anger at the Metropolitan Police is totally justified. The way they treated his father is beneath contempt and no mealy mouthed “apology” is good enough. They ruined the Field Marshal’s last years and may have been a contributing factor that hastened Lady Bramall’s death, just ten days after the Bramall residence was searched.

      Only the sacking of the officers, who lied to a judge to obtain the search warrant – swiftly followed by prosecutions for perjury – would have even come close to making amends.

    1. What a complete tosser he is.
      No wonder churches are falling apart, struggling to fill pews and christianity is on it’s own demise.

      1. I think “complete tosser” is probably rather too polite and kind – the man is a complete embarrassment!

      2. Eton produces the very best and the very worst in their fields – Welby and Cameron are in the second category, Douglas Murray is in the first.

        I wonder where our friend ogga would place the current leader of UKIP, Richard Braine, who is an Old Etonian?

          3. Can’t be many members left to be leader now. But ogga would have to overthrow the current NEC of the party.

    1. What you expect the police to enforce the law? Whatever next. THey will probably regard you post as a hate crime so will be after you

    3. We have a similar problem in Canada at the moment. A group of Mohawk discontents have blocked the main railway line in protest against the building of an oil pipeline in Western Canada. The blockade is close to us in Ontario, several thousand miles from the pipeline site.

      As a result, rail traffic is at a complete stop, there is no alternate route so we have no passenger trains and no freight trains running.

      This has been going on for eleven days now. The rail company have a court order to have the blockade removed but the police are just sitting there, doing nothing. Federal politicians have visited the site and made great soundbite speeches about settling the dispute through negotiation.

      Hypocrites that they are, the Mohawks run many petrol stations on the reserve, selling discount fuel to all and sundry – yet here they are holding the country to ransom because they object to oil.

      At least you have Boris, our pretendy PM Trudeau has been of on a world tour pleading for votes in his bid for a UN Security Council seat.

      Rant over for now, good morning all.

      1. Shit to be found everywhere, Richard. Unfortunately.
        Good morning, btw. Maybe the rest of Canada should boycott the Mohawk gas stations, and block their resupply? Just a thought.

      2. “A group of Mohawk discontents………”

        Where’s “La Longue Carabine” when you need him?

        1. Legal for Indians (sorry, first nations), it would take years of police checks to get that kind of weapon round here.

      1. ‘Afternoon, Johnny, it’s not even a service it is the New Marxist Police Farce.

        Or it would be, if it were remotely funny.

    5. So anyone can blockade a road and the police will stand ideally by and watch. . I have not been to Cambridge for quite a few year but when I did it was very congested in spite of lots of people cycling . Goodness knows what it is like with these two main roads blockaded

    6. I completely agree with the sentiment, but wouldn’t have added that last word.
      Even if it is true.

    7. Can’t say rearranging the replies have been in any way sympathetic to the police or ER.
      Clearly the general public have had enough.

  62. Hints that Boris Johnson wants next month’s Budget to mount a tax raid on Middle England.

    Council tax is a tax overdue for total reform. It is a very unfair tax and has no bearing at all on the ability yo pay nor on the vast difference in house prices across the UK. In London £1M might get you a 2 bed flat where as in the North East it really would buy you a Mansion

    Professionals and homeowners in London and the South East could be in the firing line following hints at a the creation of new council tax bands for expensive homes.. Another problem is HMO’s in many cases one one lot of council ta is payable although 15 people can be living in the house. It can be the same with families there may be serve earners living in the houses but only one lot of council tax is payable

    May be a local Income tax is better alternative after all every one living in a property uses the local services. Another option would be to base the council tax on a percentage of the households total income but that is not that much different to a local income tax

    At the moment say two people on minimum pay could be paying 10% of their income as council tax whilst a Millionaire will pay less than 1% so in my view a fairer system is needed

          1. But they’re best we could get, though we are deporting the most revolting, albeit too slowly.

        1. Really low earners are probably under the personal allowance of £12,500 so probably pay no income tax at all.

          1. My personal opinion is that anyone earning less than £20,000 a year shouldn’t be paying income tax at all. The upside being it might spur the sofa dwellers to get a job.

          2. I doubt it. Getting £20K a year without having to lift a finger will be an attractive option for them

          4. I’m a sofa dweller these days! Busy nottling…… but I still pay income tax, though not as much as I used to. I do think most people should pay something, as we all have a stake in the country.

      1. A local income tax would be a lot fairer although one might need something else for overseas owners and empty homes etc

      2. ‘Afternoon, Paul, far better for councils to rely upon a local sales tax. They would have to think carefully about what they fund (including their salaries) as raising the tax too high will just result in people travelling to a neighbouring Borough – with a lower tax – to do their shopping.

        It is a tax paid by EVERYONE who shops – including the benefit recipients. No avoidance.

        It would also shew up the profligates against the efficient ones.

        1. There are complications with that. To really work nowadays the shop would need you post code as the tax would need to be levied on the final delivery address otherwise council with an Amazon Warehouses would be getting lots of money whilst others would not

          A local income tax should be simple s HMRC have your post code and the system pretty much exists to levy it

          1. Bill, If I go to the supermarket, the shoe shop or even the house of ill-repute in the next borough, NO delivery is required.

            Online shopping may be dealt with by the area that the shop is in, where you place your order. All online stores MUST display the sales tax that your purchase attracts.

            Paying VAT doesn’t require your post-code for later taxation.

          4. They don’t do house calls ! Shame on them. After all, it is a Pubic service.

            Afternoon Nanny.

          5. Most on line shopping comes fro huge warehouse hubs. Insurance and energy bills come from a central office

          6. Provided they identify the Sales Tax Rate at that site, you have the option to go elsewhere.

            If the business starts losing custom because of high Sales Tax, they’ll soon complain – or move.

    4. Pre Thatcher’s “poll tax”, local authorities leveled “rates”, based on an estimation of the “rentable value” of your home, commercial buildings or land. At the time, it was fair – except that council house tenants had essentially a free ride, with “nominal” rates being part of the subsidised rent.

      Still done that way in many/most areas in the US. Our local county’s bills (except road construction) are met this way – and it means the balance between property tax levels and what the county spends its money on are resolved at the local ballot box, not by edict from on high.

      Last jurisdiction we lived in operated the same way, plus had a local income tax. Trouble was they spent disproportionate amounts of it on services needed by immigrant families. Where we live now does not offer all those “services”, so not many immigrants come here.

      1. Local council services are disproportionately used by the “poor” who are likely to not be paying very much towards them. We pay council tax and the only “service” we make use of is the rubbish collection and the streetlamp.

    5. The only answer is land value taxation. A tax on the site value of land with all buildings and improvements disregarded.

      1. Does anyone know if any of the petitions on the government website have ever made any difference or changed government action?

          2. Yes I but has the government ever taken on board what the petition has requested and enacted any piece of legislation as a result. I get the feeling they are a complete waste of time.

          3. I don’t think so.
            Though possibly the ivory ban (which is still subject to appeal by the antiques trade) and the proposed ban on trophy hunting imports (consultation extended till next week) may have been brought forth by the numerous petitions and protests/demos over the last few years.

      2. It used to be on prescription on the geriatric wards.
        An amazing number of crumblies were diagnosed with anaemia during the autumn.
        The ward sister’s office became a Guiness warehouse as part of the Christmas preparations.

        1. Being able to have a glass or two of Guinness would have cheered them up. We all know that helps in recovery.

    2. Don’t black lives matter?

      I have tried to find this story in the British online MSM but cannot find it anywhere. I wonder why? Have the MSM been instructed not to tell any stories about the Religion of Peace when It is not behaving very peacefully?

      2. “Have the MSM been instructed not to tell any stories about the Religion of Peace when It is not behaving very peacefully?”. When would that not be?

    4. ‘Afternoon, Caroline, I’ve sent to Welby as follows:

      Good afternoon, your Grace, the following link, unfortunately in French, details the massacre of Christians in Burkino Fasa. https://fr.aleteia.org/2020/02/17/week-end-sanglant-pour-les-chretiens-du-burkina-faso/

      It translates as follows:
      Yesterday, a jihadi terrorist attack on a Protestant church in Burkina Faso left 24 dead and 18 injured. Several people have been kidnapped. All this only a week after the kidnapping and murder of a deacon, and a pastor and his family in the same province, also by jihadis.

      Since the media makes no mention of it, I rather think you should take it to the Muslim Council and see if they have any will or wish to intercede?

      I received the following auto-reply:

      Thank you for your message. The Archbishop values the correspondence he receives and his team aim to acknowledge or reply within 2 weeks. At busier times, however, we may not be able to respond, for which we apologise.

      I await the outcome.

      Thank you – and Richard – for bringing it to our attention.

  66. We are using emergency powers to close two city centre roads,” said a spokesman for Cambridgeshire Police

    So the police are saying you can illegally block highways and they will do nothing

    “An organisation known as Extinction Rebellion Cambridge have begun a weeklong protest and set up a base at the roundabout on Trumpington Road intersecting with The Fen Causeway.”

    The spokesman said they had been working with Cambridge City Council, Cambridge County Council, Highways and local transport links on ways to mitigate any disruption.

    “In order to ensure Cambridge city remains open for business, police are using emergency powers to close Fen Causeway and Trumpington Road,” said the spokesman.
    “Alternative routes have been put in place for vehicles and buses and the police, city and county council are urging people to consider different ways of travelling for the week.
    “Pedestrians and cyclists will not be affected.”

    For Fen Causeway diversions are in place along Newnham Road, Silver Street and Trumpington Street (Highways are lifting the restrictions on Silver Street for the week).

    City centre businesses, colleges and other organisations close to the blockade have been advised so they can plan appropriate contingency measures.

    Anyone who commutes into the city or is planning to visit Cambridge should follow @CambridgeCops on Twitter and @Cambridgecity.police on Facebook and http://www.cambs.police.uk for the latest updates. You can also follow @Cambs_Traffic

    Speaking about the policing response to the protest, Superintendent James Sutherland said: “We review all reports of protest both spontaneous and planned.
    “We have to strike a balance between the need to allow peaceful protest within the city and the disruption that the protest itself causes.

    “Whilst the protests are likely to cause disruption, we are working with our partners to mitigate this and the level of disruption caused by the protests will be constantly reviewed throughout the week.”

    Extinction Rebellion issued a statement saying they planned to bring the city to a halt with a week-long roadblock “if the institutions of Cambridge do not meet our three local demands on climate and social justice”.

    XR Cambridge and XR Youth Cambridge listed their demands as: ur three local demands on climate and social justice.
    The Demands:
    –

    1. So the Police give way & recommend alternative routes for traffic, so next time ER blocks those routes too.

      If ever there were a case for water cannon…

      1. The police seem to be trying to hide behind a false claim that they cannot do anything which is no correct. Deliberately obstructing a public highway is an arrestable offence

    2. “What it’s like to live just a stone’s throw from protesters
      Ellie Jackson, 63, lives on Brookside, not far from Ellie Jackson, 63, lives on Brookside, not far from Extinction Rebellion’s blockade on Trumpington Road and The Fen Causeway.”
      Start throwing stones, love.

    3. It is probably a police get out to stop them being prosecuted for taking mo action. They can claim now they are blocking the road and not ER

    5. Every generation has its groups of innocent ‘student’ fools wishing to protest against something or other.

      I remember the CND marches led by lefties, the ‘women’ of Greenham Common (most arrived on Friday evening in hubby’s Volvo and left Sunday evening). Later it was animal rights protesters sending both real and imitation letter bombs to Huntingdon Life Sciences and The Babraham Institute.

      I remember the massive disruption to roadworks between Redbridge and Leytonstone requiring thousands of ‘site security’ men in yellow jackets. The same at Twyford Down when I was working at Osborn House and had to get from Suffolk to Southampton for the Red Jet for morning meetings.

      I have a theory that groups such as XR are intrinsically attractive to rebellious youth and those spotty young men hoping to impress and pull a bird. The girls are equally attracted to the scruffy and aggressive street urchins.

      1. Yes they have been protest in the past. The difference was they were not allowed to deliberately cause an obstruction

    3. ‘Morning, Mags, what a load of self-congratulatory tosh. A very good example of the insidious brain-washing of young, impressionable school-children

    4. Further thought – he makes no mention of the fact that if air-pollution doesn’t kill you, a young black with a knife almost certainly will.

  68. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/17/shamima-begum-says-whole-world-fell-apart-losing-citizenship/

    Shamima Begum says ‘whole world fell apart’ after losing citizenship appeal

    As you would expect no comments are allowed under this article.

    Is the DT trying to drum up sympathy for this evil woman who was very happy to support the brutal and savage murder of those with whom her religion disagreed?.

    The DT should think more about those who have been mercilessly butchered by these barbarians.

    1. Not only those, “Who have been mercilessly butchered by these barbarians,” but those who will be butchered as our supine government wraps itself in a cloak of islamic appeasement.

    2. Clock the strategically placed Union Jack cushion.
      My hearts bleeds; all this PR must be costing her a fortune.

    3. Plenty of people world fell apart in the UK from terrorists attacks. They are a higher priority in my view. She made herr bed now sh can lay in it. She choose to go there

      1. I would imagine that attendees at the Ariane Grande concert have fallen apart. Twenty two of them literally.

        2. At least one them (the third one) died from malnutrition, but the mother doesn’t seem to be underfed – not by a long way.

    1. “Here, Ni88er, here boy.”
      (Splinter, crash, tinkle….)
      “Ah, Constable, technical problems solved, then.”

        1. The switchboard operators can’t handle the deluge of complaints so they have retreated to their safe space and put their earmuffs on.

      1. If the weather were nicer, I could pop out and block the A12.
        I’ve a couple of books to help me while away the hours.

    2. https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/the-police-are-in-thrall-to-extinction-rebellion-in-cambridge/

      The police are in thrall to Extinction Rebellion in Cambridge

      Ross Clark

      When I read that police were invoking emergency powers at an Extinction Rebellion protest in Cambridge I thought: about time, too. It meant, I presumed, that they were not going to make the same mistake as the Met Police last April, when they were too slow to stop this bunch of anarchists closing down public thoroughfares.

      But one should underestimate the plods at one’s peril. The ‘emergency powers’ being used by Cambridgeshire Police instead allow them to close the roads without giving any notice. Yes, they are actively facilitating the protest. They turned up in their yellow vests and closed a local road on the activists’ behalf. It will remain shut all week, affecting bus routes and requiring ambulances to make a detour. It isn’t the only way in which the police are indulging the group’s activities in Cambridge. Officers have turned a blind eye to criminal damage being undertaken by the group in digging up the lawn in front of Trinity College.

      What is it about Extinction Rebellion that has public authorities pathetically in thrall to it? The group gives the outward impression of being anti-establishment, yet it seems to have deep tentacles inside the establishment which has allowed it privileges not enjoyed by other groups of protesters. Needless to say, like spoiled children (well, many of them are spoiled children) once indulged they merely come back demanding more, pushing boundaries further. They blocked Oxford Circus last year demanding the government declare a ‘climate emergency’ and set up a ‘citizens’ assembly’, and Theresa May’s administration duly obliged. Now, the Cambridge bunch is demanding that the university and colleges divest from fossil fuels and that the county and city councils set up their own citizens’ assemblies.

      As a Cambridgeshire resident and a member of Cambridge University, I say to the police, council, university and college authorities this: Everyone from now on is going to take it for granted that we have the police’s permission to close down any street, for any reason, any time we like. Does anyone in Cambridge think council tax is too high? Okay, let’s go and close down the M11. Think police are not doing their job in tackling crime? Let’s seize the A14. Just try and stop us, when you have granted that right to Extinction Rebellion. You can forget, too, trying to collect your £60 fines for straying into bus lanes – you have given the green light for a group to obstruct buses for a whole week and you cannot try to deny that right to others. To the university and colleges I say: don’t give into this bullying by Extinction Rebellion and divest from oil companies. If you cave, then you can do without donations from those of us who do not share Extinction Rebellion’s collectivist aims – you can sing for your supper.

      Police recently grovelled before Extinction Rebellion for putting them on a list of extremist organisations. Given that they are blockading streets and causing criminal damage, that was hardly an unreasonable thing to do. The price of indulging this group will be to make it far harder to enforce public order in future. If police lose control, they will have only themselves to blame.

      1. The first thing ALL colleges and faculties should do is turn off ALL power, internet, central heating, kitchens etc.

        Then stand back and watch the students deal with the protesters.

      3. I wonder if anything would change if one of their establishment supporters was in an ambulance that had to take a detour?

      5. We have a new system it’s the ‘Justice is a Joke’ system. We now have favoured sections of the population who are not subject to ‘all equal under the law’ system. Perhaps we should ask how we get on to that list.

        1. Perhaps justice is going through some crisis of self-confidence – it can’t make up its mind whether or not to self-identify as a “Justice is a Joke” system or a “Justice is a Woke” system.

      6. The last time i was in London that circus had come to town. The disruption to me meant extended journey times across the capital and £50 more in slow moving taxis.

        This would have affected tens of thousands of people including medical emergencies.

        Many businesses would have been disrupted and not got the deliveries they required and lost money and custom because of these selfish spoilt brats.

        The response from the Police is pitiful and pathetic. ***”our phones are experiencing technical difficulties. Please use our website instead”. Effing liars !

        1. These idiot campaigners should be dragged into the crowd, smacked about a bit and then spat out the other side.

          If they persist in disrupting other people’s lives then they keep getting a beating until they realise that actually, other people’s wishes are more important than their own. If the state continues to support these groups then we’re just seeing the same attitude as they showed with Muslim rape gangs. If some laws don’t matter to some groups, then no law matters to any group.

      7. I wonder if anything would change if one of their establishment supporters was in an ambulance that had to take a detour?

    3. I must read more carefully – I thought it said “filth column” … however, on reflection?

  71. Students who complain about abuse on campus are being ‘wokesmeared’. Nesrine Malik. 17 February 2020.

    Little is said of what is arguably more prevalent and more effective: what I call wokesmearing – the stigmatising and shaming of someone for crimes of extreme political correctness. Wokesmearing has a more powerful engine than worthy students. The rightwing press and tabloid media will fix on any incident that looks like it may be an example of progressive values overstepping the mark. If none or few of these incidents are found, they are made up. Scant details are tortured into solid stories, and before those stories can be challenged or even corrected, they have passed into the mainstream narrative.

    Oh I see! The Woke aren’t really Woke but Worthy and then being accused of being Woke! Lol! The injustice of it all!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/16/students-abuse-campus-woke-political-correctness-sexual-racial-bullying

      1. But she claims she can barely walk and suffers from a 101 ailments. The main one probably being she is workshy

  73. ‘They yelled Coronavirus’ – East Asian attack victim speaks of fear. 17 February 2020.

    Neither of the teenagers initially ran away but instead laughed at Silawattakun, he said. “It didn’t feel like a robbery at that point, it felt like bullying, a bit of messing around.”

    Things quickly escalated when he gave chase. “After about 50 metres, they ran across the road and I ran after [one of them] shouting: ‘Why are you doing this?’ When I reached the traffic island he turned round and punched me to the ground. There was blood everywhere.”

    Silawattakun says he shouted out to bystanders but “no one seemed to care or pay attention initially”. Eventually he was helped by two people and got an Uber to hospital. His attackers didn’t bother leaving the scene, so Silawattakun took pictures of them to pass to the police.

    It’s difficult to know where to begin with this litany of errors! The first thing is that thieves are not stunts of epidemiology and probably couldn’t even spell coronavirus. No one should chase after them, least of all the victim, because they have already established themselves as inferiors and phones are replaceable plus the fact that you are also exposing yourself to the risk of escalated violence. The bystanders were correct and kept their noses out of something in which they could gain nothing and lose a great deal. No one likes any of this but it is now the way of life in the UK!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/16/they-yelled-coronavirus-first-british-attack-victim-east-asian-man

    1. AS,
      “It is, and has been for many a year the chosen way of life” via the ballot booth.
      Only fools would deny that.

      1. His attackers didn’t bother leaving the scene…

        Why would they? They have nothing to fear!

      2. WTF are they doing?

        I’ve fond memories of my time at Keble and the one thing drummed home was the (often snide and abused) power of the porters.

        You did NOT mess with those blokes. As for their chanting, clear off. You don’t own the place. Send them a bill for the repair or expel these wasters.

    2. Afternoon TB,
      316421+up✔s,
      It does smack of special dispensation
      granted by any section of the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition party & covered by the submissive, PC, Appeasement, unwritten, well practised
      rulings.

    4. It would seem that a spot of pest control would sort this problem in no time.

      Apparently the use of AK47s (followed by a couple of JCBs) is very effective for this type of pest control. Quick and efficient.

    1. I was dumped at Brynmawr Roundabout there one afternoon in 1969 to await the arrival of another Apprentice Tradesman who would pass a package on to me.
      I then had to get to Llangattock to pass the package on to another A/T and then make my own way back to Chepstow.

    2. Yet more clear evidence of the exponential rise in the stupidity of the human species. The planners are clueless, the overseers are hapless, the workers are gormless and the politicians are clueless.

      In the Victorian era, engineers like Brindley and Brunel would have got this sorted, quickly and efficiently, and at minimum cost, little fuss and within budget.

      The decline in human intelligence levels since that time is utterly staggering.

    3. Be fair, it’s better to be putting in Spaghetti Junction 2 before they’ve built Birmingham 2.

  79. Woman chokes to death at cake-eating contest in Russia after stuffing three Choco Pies into her mouth. Mail. 17 Febrary 2020.

    A trained paramedic choked to death after forcing three Choco Pies into her mouth during a cake-eating contest in Russia.

    Alexandra Yudina started choking after emptying her plate at a Moscow bar in a race with two other contestants.

    The 23-year-old gasped for breath and collapsed to the floor with her mouth apparently still full of cake.

    This is what happens when you attempt to have your cake AND eat it!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/russia/index.html

    1. Times have changed in Russia. 50 years ago it would have been a potato eating contest. When they had some potatoes that is.

  81. Off topic, but the thought was triggered by an earlier thread.

    The “bell curve”.

    Have you noticed that everything that is at the highest end is to the right of the centre and everything that is at the lowest end is to the left of the centre.
    Intelligence, poverty, qualifications, education, etc etc

    That explains a lot…

    1. As you well know, numbers are always displayed on graphs from lower on the left to higher on the right (X axis). Or lower toward the bottom of the graph and higher toward the top (Y axis).

      What’s funny here of course is that the trendy lefty Liberal strongholds are areas with high numbers of well educated people, while the uber Trump supporters come from the rural and poorly educated parts of the country, so left is right and right is left.

      1. It’s also unsurprising that Liberal strongholds are often oases of great privilege in areas of deprivation, generally well protected within gated communities where the lefties can gaze out with great satisfaction over the idiots that vote for them.

  82. This afternoon we watched On Golden Pond recorded from a Paramount Network last weekend. What a fabulous film with true star actors, Henry Fond and Katherine Hepburn. A soft and gentle love film in a beautiful setting.
    I first saw this, 1981 film, in September 1982 on a BA flight from LHR to San Francisco. When we went on holiday to New England in 1992 we stumbled across Squam Lake in New Hampshire and hired a pontoon boat and explored the lake. The Lunes were magical, diving and reappearing 100 yards away.
    Happy memories.

          1. You be careful, the “old one two” he’ll get one and as he slumps you’ll get the other!

          2. I just remembered how big he and his sons are. You being a gentleman will sort them out for us shortarses i’m sure.

        1. Prostrated by Unflu*, so feeling rather delicate.
          * All the symptoms of flu, without the runny nose or cough. Add total mental exhaustion, to the point of not really being able to read, and you get the idea.
          Acc to doc, “it’s going around”.
          :-((

    2. I enjoy watching that film too. How nice that you were able to visit. Fine acting but one has to ignore their political stance.

      I think Katherine Hepburn was awarded four Oscars. She never went to receive them. What a woman !

      1. Yes. Quite eerie as their call echoes across the lake. When we hired the pontoon boat they gave us a map of where the rocks are, many of them submerged.
        It was also a visit if coincidence. When we drove into the lake car park there was only one other car. I wet to see if there was a timetable for lake tours. They weren’t until much later in the day. Anyway my wife rushed across to say the people in the other car were from village we lived in and she knew the woman. The four of us hired the boat. Great adventure.

          2. We are almost the same age.

            When “swinging, groovy, dodgy” etc were in the vernacular I hadn’t a clue what people were talking about!
            Talk about deprived childhood.

      1. There are no proper film stars any more, Belle. They’re all shouty, shouty me too. I suppose a ‘celebrity’ is a wannabe star but none step up to the mark.

          3. Didn’t realise he was so prolific or been around so long. Looks as though his career started in Shoestring. Quite a rise since those days.

          5. He was good in The Last of the Mohicans, as Hawkeye or La Longue Carabine (which name Duncan came up with earlier).

          7. One film where the soundtrack added greatly to my enjoyment. One of my favourites of all time.

          10. One of the best films ever made – a great story, superb music, dramatic scenery and some memorable actors such as Wes Studi, Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Jodhi May, Russel Means and many others.

        2. Evening Atg,
          316421+✔s,
          Catherine Hepburn,
          was it her that said
          Don’t trust anyone who don’t have dirt under their fingernails ?

      2. Henry Fonda died in 1982 aged 77. Katherine Hepburn died in 2003 aged 96. Both in their mid/late 70s when the film was made.

    5. Hi, Grumps. The ‘Common Loon’ Gavia immer is the strange name that Americans give to the bird which we call the Great Northern Diver.

        1. Not really; however, there are:

          White-billed Diver Gavia adamsii ‘Yellow-billed Loon’,
          Black-throated Diver G. arctica ‘Arctic Loon’,
          Pacific Diver G. pacifica ‘Pacific Loon’, and
          Red-throated Diver G. stellata ‘Red-throated Loon’.

        1. When I looked at that picture I thought I saw a tiny penguin playing a violin. I could almost hear the words “Nearer my God to Thee.”

  83. DT Article

    Revealed: The ‘daylight robbery’ of school holiday price increases

    Why does the DT perpetuate this stale old lie?

    Whoever wrote this article has absolutely no idea about running a seasonal business.

    The school holiday price for holidays is not an elevated price – it is the standard price. Out of season prices are prices reduced in order to enable those running their businesses to tick over without making any profit in order not to have to lay off all their staff.

    If such businesses tried to survive offering low season prices all year round they would not stay in business for long!

    1. I know that your business is much bigger than ours, but we charge exactly the same fee for all the weeks that we let the cottage

      We did the figures, and came to the conclusion that the costs for out of season (extra heating/laundry/wood etc), made the effort vs the profit not worth it, charging an out of season fee.

      We are very slightly high in the off season, but low in the high season. What we have found is that high season guests have shifted their stays to be on the edge of the season, precisely because they have stayed, enjoyed it, and gone for the quieter weeks.

    1. Apart from habitually moaning, all I can remember about Lammy is he scored about 9 points on zedlebrighty master mind.
      Including his specialist subject.

      1. Anybody watch MM tonight? The (ahem) somewhat lanky (with Adam’s apple and poor dress sense) female contender managed a score of ONE in the GK round!

  85. Well, for once I’m learning something from the telly.
    I’d never heard of Canfranc Station. What a bizarre place.

    1. I’ve been past it many times on the way up to Candanchu on the French border, most recently last year.

      South end of the Somport Tunnel.

      1. It looks quite spooky.
        Reminiscent of Prora.
        Not surprising, I suppose, given the mindset behind both developments.

        1. Excellent. An up-tick even though you’re a few thousand miles and a compass bearing out.😎

        1. Driving along the valley from Jaca to the border and also westwards from Jaca the pilgrims walking alongside the road are a frequent sight. It’s a beautiful area.

          1. Yes I thought it a beautiful area and was really glad I started there and did the stretch through Aragon rather than starting at Roncevalles. That stretch was a lot less crowded compared to the main route. It’s 15 years since I walked it and I’m glad I did it then. I get the impression that the main Camino Real now gets very busy.

    2. A Briton standing up for Britain I hope he survives the course.
      Against my better judgement this gives me hope. Let’s hope it’s not a false hope.

      1. Atg,
        316421+up ✔s,
        This has been the problem all along, too much depending on hope, hope outranking certainty
        on many an issue for the last near four years.

        1. The world has never been a ‘certain’ place. You must be aware there are only two certainties in life. Death and Taxes.

          1. Atg,
            316421+up✔s,
            There are more tory party members is my belief, that HOPE
            johnson Pm does the right thing this has been the feelings of many since he took the leadership.
            Hoping at this stage of the proceedings is not acceptable, too many peoples futures are depending on the final outcome.
            There is nothing in the governance parties CVs that earns trust
            as has been witnessed.
            Certainty surely must be the order of the day.

          2. I will certainly die and will continue to pax tax until that happens.
            Utopia is fictional.

          3. Atg,
            316421+up✔s,
            Utopia is what you make it, and most certainly NOT what the lab/lib/con coalition make it.

          4. At least, with the help of a good accountant and some fancy-footwork one can minimise taxes.

            Death, on the other hand……………….

      2. If we actually leave the control of the EU at the end of this year with a No-Deal Brexit, then that is when I will have a drink to celebrate. Quite a few of them I suspect. Some of the words that we have heard recently are sounding nice, but the actions actually taken since the election are going in the opposite direction of the interests of this country at the moment. Deals with China being a higher priority than relations with our cousins in the USA – what are they thinking?

        Even if the transition period ends tomorrow, the European Court of Justice is the final authority in the United Kingdom over the rights of EU citizens here for the next 8 years. They are the final court of appeal above any of our courts, and we agreed to this by signing that Withdrawal Agreement that so many MP’s resisted and which cost Theresa May her job.

        There is little that we can do now aside from watching what the government actually does and not what it says. That idea of cancelling the BBC licence fee was quickly talked down as not being actual policy after it made people happy for a day. We should also be getting in a few bottles of wine and some yellow vests by the end of the year. We will be needing one or the other by then. I’m hoping that it is the wine. 🙂

  88. Evening all. I am posting from my sick bed, using the laptop, so expect lots of typos. I really need a proper keyboard.

      1. The result of being soaked through and chilled to the bone hanging around on railway platforms on Saturday.

      1. Thank you. It’s settled on my chest. Apart from the coughing, you can hear me wheezing at fifty paces 🙁

        2. Oof “Enjoyed” similar recently,you cherish yourself mate and take it easy,I trust you have a course of antibiotics,a viral infection often turns to a bacterial chest infection that needs them

          1. This is only the second full day. if it doesn’t start getting better soon it will mean a trip to the docs.

          2. I am really sorry for you , poor you , what a dreadful time you have had with your drains and the weather .

            Please do not delay seeing the doctor , better to be safe than sorry , and for you to go to bed , you must be feeling really bad.

            Drink lots of warm drinks , and prop yourself up . I hope you haven’t got a fever.

            Doctor tomorrow, no ifs , no buts!

          3. Er, yes, ma’am! i’ve no TV either as the winds turned the aerial 90 degrees and the chap is busy and can’t come to fix it for a few days’

          5. No. i don’t feel feverish. I am just tucked up in bed, keeping warm. My throat is slightly sore. I did take the dog out for a walk yesterday, but he’s been CB today, like me. We both of us have cabin fever.

          6. If your TV ariel has died but you still have internet, then here is a list of 110 or so science fiction short stories “from yesteryear” and they are long and short, depending on the time that you have. It is very easy to drift off to some of these. I have barely scratched the surface of this particular list and there are hundreds of other book lists on many subjects. 🙂

            The second book on the list is “Deathworld” which some of us were speaking of recently, and you can skip through the list using the menu bar at the bottom.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPjAniEcb6s&list=PL_FVJ7kWYJDi9BUybeV8tpkN_hIQ_5u4O

            (Edit: That did not display the way that I thought that it would, here is another attempt to show listings of books in a clearer way:)
            https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=list+of+scince+fiction+audiobooks

          8. I don’t watch TV. It’s MOH who feels the lack. I have loads of books which need reading 🙂

          9. TB is right
            Conners, I’m not a doc or a medic but if you leave a suspected chest infection it will only become worse. Make an appointment first thing and get a chest X ray.
            You can’t take chances.
            A few years ago i had similar symptoms and it was found to be pneumonia. Not a good place to be. Please sort it ASAP.

          13. Absolutely. I self diagnosed with pneumonia and a bilateral pulmonary embolism. A week
            or so in Addenbrookes saved my life.

            I self diagnosed because I had previously experienced a suspected pulmonary embolism with DVT. I connected the dots the second time around.

          14. I was due to be working at the home of the senior radiologist at St Albans hospital. We have known him for many years. I rang him to tell him I wouldn’t be able to make it for a few days as I felt like shonet.
            He told me to get to the surgery as I did. The doc sent me straight to the hospital for the X Ray.
            My phone rang at 8 am next morning it was D.G. He said no wonder you feel like shonet, you’ve got pneumonia get back to the surgery. 7 days of amoxcillin did the trick.

          15. Get down there and get the antibiotics,don’t delay you aren’t shaking this off if it’s the one doing the rounds.just prolonging it

        3. Rik is right Conway. The antibiotics i got last week have really eased my problem. Still coughing and wheezing but the mucous is almost gone.

    1. You’re right, but he should have stuck it out.

      What is needed is for more people to say “So what? That was years ago and I’ve learned, have you?”

    1. “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad”. The Labour party doesn’t need any help from the gods.

    2. I recommend warfarin. It will go a long way towards exterminating all vermin, such as rats and pinkoes.

  93. 316421+up✔s,
    .The Irish have came up with a novel idea, wait for it, they want new builds housing to go to the Irish peoples first.
    Surely this is flying in the face of submission,PCism,Appeasement, would the lab/lib/con
    coalition allow this to take place in England / GB ?

  94. 316421+up✔s,
    .The Irish have came up with a novel idea, wait for it, they want new builds housing to go to the Irish peoples first.
    Surely this is flying in the face of submission,PCism,Appeasement, would the lab/lib/con
    coalition allow this to take place in England / GB ?

  95. Well folks I have to wonder why amid all what has been happening in China, why the bbc (bucket broadcasting company) news has suddenly been bringing the ‘plight’ of Chinese muslims into the equation.
    Perhaps someone in the news room has been reading I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. Just sayin.

    1. Funny that. I was just thinking last night of China, their muslims and the coronavirus. Just wondering, no particular conclusion, set to one side for future reference.

        1. No, but poppiesdad has read it. It is sitting on one of our shelves, I must have a look at it. My thoughts were along the lines of ‘What if? Wouldn’t that be amazing?’ Especially as I read the virus is most likely to attack Asians and males in particular. God may well work in mysterious (and inscrutable) ways his wonders to perform, despite the politicians best efforts to thwart the natural order of life.

          Edit: 5 x more likely to attack Asians, actually. I did wonder how they’d managed to assess that so quickly unless they already knew with what they were dealing before the virus went rampant. The article was pulled fairly quickly, I could not find it again.

    2. Is that the same as the ‘plight’ of the Tibetans? The ‘plight’ of the HongKongers? The ‘plight’ of the Taiwanese?

      China seems beset by ‘plights’.

  96. Well folks I have to wonder why amid all what has been happening in China, why the bbc (bucket broadcasting company) news has suddenly been bringing the ‘plight’ of Chinese muslims into the equation.
    Perhaps someone in the news room has been reading I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes. Just sayin.

  98. From this evening’s BBC East Midlands news:

    Following the flooding, Cllr Barry Lewis (Con), leader of Derbyshire County Council, says he doesn’t want to declare a ‘climate change emergency’ because it would mean committing to decarbonising 20 years ahead of the government’s target of 2050. “It’s a phrase that doesn’t mean much. What we have to do is make sure our actions speak louder than words and that we do something about it.” So Mr Lewis is tacitly subscribing to the mad idea.

    Others are urging the authority to declare that emergency, like Amber Valley Borough Council. Cllr Emma Monkman said: “It would help because it would make a statement. The Derbyshire Climate Coalition is pushing for it as well.”

    Right. ‘Decarbonising’ local authorities will stop the floods.

    ******s, the lot of ’em.

    1. Didn’t labour PM daft vader, aka Gordon Brown, steal money from flood defence priorities. I seem to remember him interfering once again.

      1. Get back to dredging the rivers. It’s the EU/Environment agency’s responsibility. Let ’em know that we know.

      2. Brown was fined heavily by the EU for some environmental transgression or other and as a result the budget for Defra was slashed in order to pay the fine.

        Another reason to give the EU the finger and to never again vote in a Labour government.

        2. Brown is the reason so much rubbish is being dumped along side or roads and country lanes.
          He slapped a tax on skips and open rubbish sites.

      1. You should simply thank goodness that Derbyshire County Council is still not run by David Bookbinder (Lab), he of the “Derbyshire Supports Nuclear-Free Zones” written everywhere, including on all road signs and printed on all stationery, including salary slips!

        1. Someone I occasionally climbed with had a “Nuclear Free zone” sticker on his motor bike – I used to giggle at the idea of someone in the Kremlin keeping tabs on his bike so they could avoid targetting him! Fat chance!!

    3. Our local council followed the masses and declared a climate emergency.
      It didn’t get them far when they took their petition to regional government where they were asking for water levels in lake Ontario to be lowered. A very direct no! It is or Montreal that gets flooded.

    4. Flooding has nothing whatsoever to do with imagined climate change. It has everything to do with poor water and river management, the reluctance (for spurious EU formulated environmental reasons) to dredge our rivers and clear plant obstructions and the relentless planning practice of allowing housing development building on our historic water meadows and flood plains.

    1. Yes, Eddy, we were and thanking God that we jettisoned Alexa and gave her to one of Best Beloved’s Grandsons to act as an alarm clock.

      I’m wondering how many Amazon orders he’s placed since. BB swears he doesn’t shop online to which I go – Hmmm

    1. Well done, Dawn Butler, you’ve just identified what a thick-shit you are and should NEVER, EVER, be put in a position that requires constructive thought.

    2. “A child is born without sex at the beginning… .” Did she really say that with a straight face?!?

  104. Just back from a parish meeting. I’m told that there won’t be any handshaking for the Peace or chalice at Communion in Fulham Parish Church on Sunday. The vicar has announced that there is coronavirus in the parish. No further detail though.

    1. I didn’t go to church yesterday because I didn’t fancy passing on the lurgy during the Peace (which I dislike).

  106. A professional tennis player accused of taking an illegal blank-firing pistol to a gun showroom in St James’s has been remanded in custody after refusing to speak in court.

    Constantin Christ, 27, allegedly had a Zoraki M906 and ammunition at the Beretta Gallery last Wednesday during a visit to London, Westminster magistrates court heard.

    He refused to speak to police after his arrest and, when appearing at Westminster magistrates court, Christ stayed silent and held up a note reading: “I have no law against me.”

        1. Hi Sue !! Well, it is five past six at the moment so it should be evening. Of course those who self-declare themselves morning will be morning, and they must us a morning toilet and not an evening one.
          We are just back from a long weekend in Londonistan, and are just getting used to hearing spoken English again.
          We went down to the big city to attend a bat chayil of a niece of my wife. A terrific experience in a very modern Reform synagogue. Very impressive.
          The service was designed to make people enjoy it, rather than the Orthodox self-flagellation version that we are used to.
          It rained cats and dogs throughout, but here at any rated it has now stopped. It is all because of the Climate Change crisis. Our train there was 30 minutes late, which was also a result of global warming.

    1. A British MP has been refused entry to India after she voiced
      criticism of the Indian government’s policies in the disputed Kashmir
      region.Debbie Abrahams, the Labour MP for Oldham and chair of a parliamentary committee on Kashmir”
      Stupid Labour bitch. You don’t go to another country and interfere in their politics. Unless you want to be locked up.
      They were too kind to her.

      1. I’m reminded of Princess Anne’s reaction when Mike Tyndall was though to be ‘playing away’ in Australia.

    2. Sorry about your car, Jenny. :-((
      That really sucks. There are some mean folk out there.

  112. Q: Can you think of a major difference between a wide range of BBC output and Sky Live Football?

    A: Yes, on Sky Live Football they apologise to viewers if they (over)hear some “Industrial Language”

    1. Excellent point. But the cricket caused some swearing problems during the SA England cricket on Sky.

  113. Where is the fairness in this?? Car parked outside local store and when we came out – someone had left us with two 9 inch dents down to the bare metal. Accidents happen but why is it – costing us £100 excess….just like setting light to money we could really do with at this time. Grrrrrrrrrr

    1. That’s happened to me a few times recently, and it is really annoying to return to your car to find it damaged like that. The last one cost me £600, the one before that £450.

      And the odd thing is, and I am sure this is just coincidence, it always seems to be a Morrisons car park…

      1. On both occasions I have witnessed damage to my vehicle it was children deliberately repeatedly kicking open the doors of their parent’s cars, once in a service station on the M40 and once in TKMaxx in Newmarket. On both occasions the parent argued in defence of the fruit of their stinking loins and the child was not admonished.

        1. My daughter has had her car ‘keyed’ twice…..many years apart but still hefty bill to put it right. I’d love to be behind the little monsters. Police told her the secondary kids were most likely the culprits and they visited the local schools and gave a talk about it.

      2. That happened to us about 2nweeks after we bought our car some years ago. In a Marks and Sparks car park in Camberley. Scraped all along the driver’s door and rear door. Some people are horrible.

      3. Ours was M and S…..something is not right when innocent folks have to give money away like that. That would have bought us several tins of paint we need at this time. I feel it is money wasted…..just thrown away. Over £1000 is total madness and so unfair.

          1. It is wicked Tony. We really didn’t need a bill for something like that…no one does. Legalised theft.

    3. Same thing happened to me a few years back – and I had left tons of room between me and the adjacent cars.

      1. I just hate wasting money. If it is our fault…fair enough. No one should have to pay for the carelessness of others.

    4. I just paid about £200 to have a dent removed from my car. Some careless soul had just opened their truck door and slammed it into my car door, leaving a very visible dent.

      The mechanic used a technique called paintless dent repair and somehow managed to correct the bodywork with nothing more than big round headed screwdrivers.

      You can tell the truck that did the damage, there is a size 8 impression of one of my crocs in their door.

      1. It is so annoying when we have to pay for the carelessness of others. I don’t know how this car managed to hit us…there is a very wide space on each side of the disabled parking bay. Our dents are really severe and need a full respray to the wing, dents down to the bare metal.

        1. What is really maddening over here is that so many drive big honking trucks that tower over my little car.

          There are lots of safety features on my car but these trucks can do a lot of damage to the surface.

          Everything us so expensive nowadays as well. The windshield /windscreen (I am never sure what to call it nowadays) had a big stone crack. It was replaced by the insurance company but then I was supposed to pay $500 to have the cruise control sensors recalibrated.

          1. Windscreen……always the ‘small print’. Hate those huge trucks…they come so close to the white lines – really scares me! So – really looking forward to seeing all the traffic on Earth plugging into the national grids when we go fuel free…..lol.

      1. Jeez – forgot about that. We just got our pet plan renewed too…another extra £10 month for 2 young cats only 4 years old and no health problems or claims. Can’t live without it and they prey on that.

      1. Of course…even though we were parked right outside the door….in disabled space….M and S told us that their camera is only pointed at the door entrance itself.

        1. I got the same response from the supermarket, which does have cameras to clock whether you overstayed the (permitted) hour.

          1. I suspect they just don’t want to get involved in personal disputes. Their camera must have picked it up.

    7. Supermarket car parks are the worst places! I especially hate the Waitrose one near here, but I usually go to Morrisons. One time it was my fault – I hit a huge 4×4 as I was pulling out. I paid for the damage – it cost me about £800. It’s one of the reasons I seldom do my shopping till quite late in the day when the car park is less full.

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