923 thoughts on “Thursday 15 August: MPs who seek to reverse Brexit commit an act of democratic betrayal”

  2. Good morning all. The 15th August. I am making no “assumptions” but it is a bank holiday in yer France and most of (Christian) western Eurp (sic).

    Yer France, being a stridently lay country, cashes in on all the religious holidays!. Funny that….

    1. Morning Bill,
      The Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
      I’m not at work today but booked leave because I went to the late night Prom yesterday.
      Lots of lovely Bach sung by vocal group Solomon’s Knot. I’d heard them perform the St John Passion at the Wigmore and knew it would be a good concert.

      1. Good morning, Our Susan. How lucky you were. We missed it. In a rush last Tuesday in London, we managed to buy not THIS week’s Radio Times – but the previous week’s!

          1. Indeed it does – and costs an effing bomb. I remember when it was 3d.

            We only buy it when coming to Laure as the congtinental Sunday Grimes Clutter section no longer prints radio/tv listings. Instead it invites you pay £5 a month…..

          2. Go to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tv/tv-guide/

            The days of the week and the time slots are across the top of the page. Scroll down..and down…and down..and you will get to the Radio stations. On any given evening, BBC Radio3 will show ‘Proms’. Left click on that box and all will be revealed.

            It’s tiresome to use but saves you a fiver.

          4. Oops – Sorrry – #metoo

            Log in to the telegraph and click on ‘culture’ from the list
            NEWS POLITICS SPORT TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS MONEY OPINION LIFESTYLE CULTURE TRAVEL

            Then click on ‘TV’

            Then click on ”TV guide’

            Follow as above

          5. I have to do all that just to find the TV guide? That’s a total waste of my time (I don’t own a TV!) But, seriously, thanks Citroen, I will try it out and see if I can find the radio listings.

    2. Assomption, I take it? It is also “the Hardest Day” – 15th August 1940. when we lost a great number of RAF pilots.

  3. Good morning all.

    Bright & sunny, but breezy.

    A good day for spouting German & enjoying tuna carpaccio.

  4. Jeremy Corbyn wants to win a Vote of no confidence in Boris Johnnston and then to form a temporary government to delay Brexit. He is not getting much support from the Lib/Dems. Sarah Woollaston has joined and been welcomed as a Lib/Dem. [BBC Radio 4 News.[

    1. Sarah Wollaston has suggested Ken Clarke or Hilary Benn to lead the Caretaker No Brexit Government.

      It seems to me that they are building a strong-and-stable edifice in three weeks using a square brick balanced on a triangular brick perched over a round brick, with a solid glass foundation.

    2. He is saying “Trust me, it will only be temporary”. Oh yes?

      [I realise that this assertion runs contrary to my view of trusting Boris until November the 1st.]

  5. Morning all, Sunny with a promise of worse to come for the next few days. Mrs VVOF is back today from holidays with grandchildren, best make the place tidy I suppose.

    2. Surprisingly, today has proved to be better than the forecast. I only hope the weekend weather lives up to what is forecast (good weather).

  6. I see that daft doctor bint Wollaston has charged parties AGAIN. She is now (this week, anyway) an Illiberal Undemocrat.

    I wonder what her constituents feel about it.

    2. Are yes we need to take your right arm off. Oh sorry I made a mistake it should have been you left leg,. Never mind just one of those things

      In my view that woman I a total waste of space

    3. ‘Morning, Bill, since I’m not interested in these illiberal undemocratic tw@ts, I can only wonder if that leaves the Soubry high and dry as the only person in her changeable party? Is she crying moping and gnashing her teeth that “,…they’ve all left me alone to bear this burden.” Sitting in the garden, eating worms…

    4. ‘Morning, Bill. I’m hoping that her time as an MP is now very limited, bearing in mind that the good folk of Totnes voted nearly 54% Leave, 46% Remain. After all, she always maintained that she was not going to be a career politician as she had a real job (GP) to go to. When the time comes her majority of 13.5k could be overturned by the Leavers, who will see her defection to the Yellow Bellies as a gross betrayal.

      Incidentally, I note that her predecessor was Stephen Dorrell who, if my memory serves me correctly, was one of Major’s ‘bastards’. Must be something in the water down there…

    5. I’d imagine they’re thinking ‘why can I not sack this waster?’

      Frankly, as soon as an MP decides not to represent their constituents they must be removed, immediately.

      This Wollaston creature needs to be reminded who her masters are and that no, she does not get a choice in how she votes. She is a representative. Her opinion is not wanted or welcome.

  7. Nora Quoirin autopsy in Malaysia finds she probably died of starvation and stress. Thu 15 Aug 2019 06.58 BST.

    The autopsy of Nora Quoirin, the 15-year-old who went missing in the Malaysian jungle, has concluded that she likely died of starvation and stress after spending seven days in the jungle.

    Speaking outside the police headquarters in Seremban, police chief Mohammad Mat Yusop said Nora had died “two to three days ago” from a “ruptured ulcer in her intestine, possibly caused by prolonged starvation or stress”.

    Morning everyone. This poor girl probably got lost, a traumatic experience even to experienced walkers who at least know how to proceed when it occurs!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/15/nora-quoirin-autopsy-in-malaysia-finds-she-died-of-starvation-and-stress

    1. H’mmm. The autopsy was done in a country that doesn’t want to damage its tourist industry.
      Can’t suggest there are any bad people, can we?

  9. God granted him two wishes:
    He asked for the best drink & the best woman ever.
    Next moment he got mineral water & Mother Teresa.
    *************************************************
    There are 3 kinds of men in this world.
    Some remain single and make wonders happen.
    Some have girlfriends and see wonders happen.
    Rest get married and wonder what happened!
    *************************************************
    Wives are magicians.
    They can change anything into an argument.
    *************************************************
    Why do women live a Better, Longer & Peaceful Life, as compared to men?
    A very INTELLIGENT student replied: “Because Women don’t have a wife!”
    *************************************************
    “Honey,” said this husband to his wife, “I invited a friend home for supper.”
    “What? Are you crazy? The house is a mess, I haven’t been shopping, all the dishes are dirty, and I don’t feel like cooking a fancy meal!”
    “I know all that,” he said.
    “Then why did you invite a friend for supper?”
    “Because the poor fool’s thinking about getting married”
    *************************************************
    COOL MESSAGE BY A WIFE
    Dear Mother-in-law, Don’t teach me how to handle my children.
    I am living with one of yours and he needs a lot of improvement!?
    *************************************************
    I WILL THINK ABOUT IT:
    When a married man says, I’ll think about it –
    what he really means is that he doesn’t know his wife’s opinion yet.
    *************************************************
    TALKING IN SLEEP:
    A lady says to her doctor: “My husband has a habit of talking in his sleep!
    What should I give him to cure it?”
    The doctor replies: “Give him an opportunity to speak when he’s awake!

    1. “A very INTELLIGENT student “replied: “Because Women don’t have a wife!” These days, we are supposed to believe that they do!

      1. The contents will be recycled. Placed in a plastic bag to be disposed of thoughtfully. Displayed in a museum, perhaps….

      3. I hope to goodness the Brat Broadcasting Corporation can resist the urge to film it.

        ‘Morning, Peddy.

    2. Morning Angie.

      That reminds me of a chap at work many years ago whose wife used the new plastic bucket to empty the ashes. Fortunately, the hearth rug took the strain.

      2. He’s walking under the yacht, those aren’t bubbles it’s Greffluent from the Thunderbucket, being collected to prevent it turning into coprolites on the sea bed.

  12. Morning all

    SIR – Philip Hammond has never understood Brexit. He says that “leaving the EU without a deal would be just as much a betrayal of the referendum result as not leaving at all.” He further asserts that the British people did not vote to leave the European Union without a deal.

    In fact, and in law, the vote to leave, which was by a significant majority, was implemented by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The statutory law of the land is that this repeals the European Communities Act 1972 on October 31 2019.

    He, and every other Conservative Member of Parliament, voted for this Act of Parliament. He also voted for the Referendum Act and the Notification of Withdrawal Act. The statutory law of the land is also that if there is no Withdrawal Agreement within two years or an agreed extension of time, then we leave without a deal.

    To seek to reverse these Acts of Parliament is the real democratic betrayal – not only of the referendum, but also of Mr Hammond’s own votes in Parliament, which he very clearly cast on behalf of his own constituents.

    Indeed, this week’s ComRes Poll shows that 62 per cent of people who expressed a view think Boris Johnson is more in tune with the British public than Parliament.

    Sir Bill Cash MP (Con)
    London SW1

    1. I wish that all these Leavers would point out the fact that anyone who did not vote in Referendum (and for that matter any election) implied that they would accept the result whichever way it went.

      Thus 30+ Million voters accepted that we would leave and well over half of that 30 million actively voted to do so.

    2. There was no mention on the referendum ballot of a deal. In fact, the explicit statement was that if nothing was offered we would leave on WTO rules.

    3. I voted to leave, lock, stock and barrel. I did not vote for a “Soft Brexit”, which is, in fact, no Brexit at all. I want out and as soon as possible.

  13. Morning again

    SIR – Dr Ken Pollock (Letters, August 13) highlights the problems with wind farms unable to cope with very high winds. Conversely, during some of the coldest periods of winter when the country is subject to high pressure, there is no wind – so wind farms will not be contributing to the high demand for electric heating.

    What provision is being made for this shortfall?

    Richard Acland
    Chepstow, Monmouthshire

      1. But the Heath reorganisation of local authorities only affected the authority boundaries, the traditional geographical boundaries were unchanged.
        Or so the blurb claimed at the time. I still try to differentiate between Cumberland and Westmorland and still think Barrow in Furness should still be part of Lancashire.

        1. Yes and No. Gwent no longer exists other than as a Ceremonial county

          It gets even more confusing in London as when London expanded the old Post address were kept so you Get Barnet Herts but Barnet is in London and you get Enfield Middlesex but Middlesex no longer exists and Enfield is no in London

          Another oddity that existed until 2000 was that parts of the home counties were covered by the Metropolitan police this went back about 200 years and revolved around the London Coal Act

        2. God had to create the Malvern Hills to separate the lawless inbred barbarian march folk of Herefordshire from the the decent law-abiding civilised veg growers of faithful Saxon Worcestershire.

          They tried to run it as one county for a while, but gave up in the end. Herefordshire is now its own unitary county again, and the Witch of the Wyche stands guard over the hills, lest there be another forced integration.

      2. No Gwent does not exist other than as a Ceremonial County. Monmouth Council still exists.

    3. Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha! Oh dear life, do they not know?

      The first option is a carpark sized space full of diesel generators in container lorries. The second part is nothing. There will be rolling blackouts and brown outs. The state has pursued the lie of green and will not be stopped.

  14. A-level grade boundaries 2019: School and college leaders ‘extremely disappointed’ over leaked information

    Yes I bet they are disappointed as it exposes just how much exam grades have been dumbed down.

    1. Just over half for an A?

      No wonder children are functionally illiterate.

      I’ve one apprentice who is just illiterate. He has no idea how to write, cannot string a sentence together at all. He sees nothing wrong with this illiteracy. He thinks it’s ok to use cant and wont. He doens’t capitalise proper nouns. He greets customers with gibberish such as ‘I hope you are doing good’. I asked ‘Who is Good, and what would he be doing to them?’

      I despair. The ignorance and stupidity, with training could be bashed out. The arrogance that he isn’t utterly wrong, that grammar doesn’t matter is terrifying. He’s a moron.

      1. Given many papers are multiple choice and with a bit of general knowledge you are odds on to pass any exam now even if you have not studied the sylabus

        1. I can testify to that; when I used to invigilate A Level papers, I could answer a lot of the questions just by general knowledge.

        1. Morning Belle.

          I do genuinely despair of the literacy of kids. We’re losing beautiful words. They don’t understand why you capitalise pronouns. They are simply uneducated imbeciles.

          What’s worse, they don’t think they’re doing anything wrong and have a go at me for correcting them.

          1. They do not like having their faults pointed out. I had a word with a woman this morning. She had parked her car on a pavement by a junction. She was sitting there, with the engine running, applying mascara. I greeted her then told her that she was blocking the view from the junction (a few yards from where she had parked). She told me she was visiting the house outside which she had parked. I said she was causing an obstruction (it wouldn’t have hurt her to walk a few yards, she was a rather large woman) whereupon she wound up her window.

  15. SIR – I was interested to read that the RAF is to allow its personnel to grow beards (Letters, August 13).

    My uncle, Flt Lt Arthur Weller DFC, served alongside officers in 80 and 274 Squadrons in the Western Desert in 1940-41. One such officer was the bearded Ernest Mason (above), who served with great distinction in Egypt and Malta, was awarded a DFC and was later killed leading 94 Squadron on its first operation with Kittyhawks. The RAF press officer George Houghton described him as “the most fearless, colourful pilot in the desert”.

    Mason was celebrated for being the only bearded officer in the RAF at the time, but I also have a photo of a bearded Flt Lt Dudley Honor DFC, also of 274 Squadron, in the Western Desert in 1941.

    I understand that both men’s beards were against the RAF’s regulations, but of course their commanding officers had far more pressing matters on their minds.

    Peter Holloway
    Tarporley, Cheshire

    1. Mason was nicknamed ‘imshi’ which I believe is Arabic for clear off which nicely illustrates his opinion of the locals.

    2. Now it is to encourage “diversity” because, while the general rule is for “closely trimmed and neat beards”, for “religious purposes” they can be longer and bushier. Sorry, but in my view, it’s the same rule for all.

  16. UK could unilaterally exit EU in next 10 days, senior Tory MP says

    A senior Conservative MP has raised the idea that Boris Johnson could unilaterally withdraw the UK from the European Union in the next 10 days to try to avoid attempts by parliament to block a no-deal Brexit.

    Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee, put forward a possible chronology of a unilateral withdrawal by 24 August followed by an immediate general election, with the Irish border issue then solved by a Northern Ireland-only backstop.

    1. Not another blasted election.

      We’re all sick of politics. If there’s one in two years it’s still too soon. Get out of the EU, sack all the treacherous liar and thieves and go away for 2 long, blissful years.

    1. How Philip Hammond used his time as chancellor to block No Deal preparation at every turn

      Camilla Tominey, associate editor – 14 AUGUST 2019 • 10:00PM

      Philip Hammond discussed seeking advice from the Electoral Commission to help the government prepare for a second referendum while he was Chancellor, a senior cabinet source has claimed.

      The former Treasury chief was on Wednesday night accused of failing to prepare Britain for no deal as claims emerged he canvassed opinion on overturning the referendum result last September. The Electoral Commission is the body that regulates party and election finance and sets standards for how elections should be run.

      Six months later, during a cabinet meeting on April 2, Mr Hammond suggested that the government should make a ‘big offer’ of a second referendum to Labour in a bid to push through Theresa May’s beleaguered Withdrawal Agreement.

      A senior cabinet source told The Telegraph: “When Philip discussed this he was already making the case for delaying the exit date to other cabinet ministers. He didn’t make this plain at cabinet but behind the scenes he was telling ministers that he was looking into the option of a second referendum very seriously.”

      On Wednesday night, it emerged that when he was foreign secretary Boris Johnson co-wrote a letter with Michael Gove which was hand-delivered to Theresa May’s chief of staff Gavin Barwell – and seen by the former Chancellor – expressing concern about the lack of no deal preparations back in October 2017.

      The letter, seen by The Telegraph, warned: “If we do not put in place the mechanisms to deal with such an outcome, our negotiating position will be fatally undermined. If the EU believe we cannot in fact manage a “no deal” scenario, our end date will not be credible and everyone would believe we would have to accept a further extension of the implementation period.

      “Stakeholders may also come to believe that we are not negotiating seriously for any outcome other than a UK-EU relationship in which there is practically no divergence from Single Market and other EU rules.”

      The revelation came as former Brexit Secretary David Davis last night hit back at Mr Hammond after the former Chancellor doubled down on his claim that Mr Johnson would be ‘betraying the public’ by leaving the EU without a deal.

      Mr Davis said: “It’s a bit rich for Mr Hammond to talk about betrayal when the UK took a decision which his department during his tenure did next to nothing to deliver.”

      Citing the example from March 2018 of the Treasury blocking a move that would have given small and medium sized businesses a one-year notice period to prepare for no deal, Mr Davis added: “Mr Hammond argued that you couldn’t put no deal preparations for small businesses into the public domain because it would knock business confidence – but what he meant by that was big businesses and the CBI.

      “The Treasury’s insistence in March last year not to notify SMEs created the most difficult decision the country faces and still does now. Big businesses will be okay but small business might not.”

      Business minister Kwasi Kwertang yesterday hit out at Mr Hammond saying: “The fact that we’re in the situation we’re in, the fact that we missed the deadline, shows that Mr Hammond wasn’t very effective at preparing us for no deal”.

      Dubbed ‘Fiscal Phil’ for his vice-like grip on the public purse strings, Mr Hammond has long been accused of withholding the £4.2 billion the Treasury had set aside for ‘Brexit contingency planning’.

      In one furious cabinet clash last December, the MP for Runnymede and Weybridge allegedly attacked his colleagues for failing to spend the money he had allocated, only to be told the Treasury had refused to sign off a number of individual preparation projects.

      One Cabinet Minister said at the time: “The one Government department doing the most to stop no deal is the Treasury, so it is incredible for them to now criticise anyone else. Hammond has never wanted us to prepare for no deal because he thinks it’s more likely to never happen if we don’t. All the delays in getting money come directly from him.”

      At the end of last year, he was once again accused of dragging his feet about releasing the money, with one exasperated source telling The Telegraph: “The Treasury is not releasing the money.”

      Mr Hammond also often found himself at loggerheads with Number 10, after falling out with Mrs May following the disastrous 2017 election when she refused to confirm she had confidence in him as Chancellor during an excruciating press conference in Canary Wharf. It followed months of tensions between Number 11 and Mrs May’s former joint chiefs of staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill.

      Before last October’s budget he blindsided Number 10 by sending a letter to Nicky Morgan, chair of the treasury select committee, suggesting no deal would cost £80 billion a year until 2033.

      Then he angered Brexiteer cabinet colleagues by seizing on a prediction by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the UK would face a “significantly worse” outlook under a no-deal Brexit.

      Having been heavily lobbied to set aside billions more for no deal planning having initially pledged £3.7 billion, he only upped the spending by £500 million in last October’s budget.

      Then, within days of unveiling his package of financial measures, he warned that a no deal Brexit would prompt a new emergency budget signalling a return to austerity.

      Following the December cabinet clashes, Mr Hammond prompted further outrage a month later when, the day after the government lost the first meaningful vote on the Withdrawal Agreement by a record 230 votes, he told business leaders no deal could be taken off the table and Article 50 rescinded.

      The Telegraph obtained a leaked recording of a conference call in which Mr Hammond said the Government would stop spending money on no-deal preparations “as soon as we know we are not going there”.

      By March, Mr Hammond was openly touting the idea of a second referendum , describing a fresh vote as a “coherent position”, despite Mrs May repeatedly ruling it out.

      He stepped up his rhetoric as the prospect of Mr Johnson becoming the Prime Minister became a reality in July.

      Vowing to “do everything I can” to stop “the new government driving the UK over a cliff-edge called no-deal Brexit”, he orchestrated a coup against the Government in the hope of tying Mr Johnson’s hands by attempting to deny the UK the option of leaving on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms.

      After talking up the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) stark no deal warnings during his final foreign visit as Chancellor to France, he then refused to deny he would back a motion of no-confidence in the government, saying he could “not exclude anything”.

      Reports then followed his resignation that Mr Hammond had met with shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer to create a no deal blocking Commons cabal.

      On Wednesday night, Hammond’s spokesman declined to comment on his dealings with the Electoral Commission and would only say he regularly held meetings with “like-minded” colleagues.

  19. ASA to Ban all ads as they might cause serious harm or offence to someone (Well that’s about what they are saying in effect)

    Will the ASA be banning ads that feature woman not wearing Burkas as it may cause offence to some ?

    Will the ASA be banning ads for feminine hygiene products that only feature woman as hat could upset the LGBT brigade who will claim some men have periods

    1. I’m offended by depictions of mixed race marriages/partnerships. Where do I get my compensation?

    2. I have heard more and more people making exactly this point over the past 6 months, as realisation finally dawns that parts of the Conservative party have been taken over by pro-eu Liberals. It took them years to replace the real Conservatives and it is past time that they were removed back to the Remainer parties where they belong.

  22. Surge in electric car sales could crash the National Grid by 2040, energy expert warns… just days after outage caused chaos

    They could well cause localized blackouts well before 2040

    Another problem is a homes electricity supply is not designed o charge electric cars and can only cope with the slow charging of one car even with that if half a street was charging their cars at the same time it would probably black out all the homes on that sub station

    A spike in demand for electricity to power the growing network of plug-in cars could cripple the National Grid by 2040, an energy expert has warned today.
    Mark Sait, chief executive of SaveMoneyCutCarbon believes that if UK electric car sales rise at the same rate as they have across the rest of Europe, it could result in blackouts and the grid crashing due to insufficient power supplies, similar to those experienced last week.
    He warned: ‘A rapid upsurge in hybrid and full electric vehicles could create real concerns.’

    1. We’ve been talking about the illogicality of electric cars since their first inception, starting with range, charging time, battery weight, power to weight ratio and now the effect on a ‘single-phase’ street when everyone’s home and charging overnight (only it won’t).

  23. Sir – Before Top of the Pops, we knew what chart acts looked like by reading New Musical Express (NME) and Melody Maker.

    Ian Metcalfe
    Perth

    Taking the weekly NME was a rite of passage for me, and my chums, in my late teens and twenties. We also preferred to listen Radio Luxembourg, Radio 270 (pirate ship off Scarborough) and to Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman’s superlative Pick of the Pops, firstly on The Light Programme then on the early Radio 1.

    We did not need to know what “pop stars” looked like; we were only interested in listening to their music.

    1. “…we knew what chart acts looked like…”

      Not so, Mr Metcalfe.

      BBC4 has done some superb music documentaries and, for me, shown who’s who on the American scene in days gone by.

      For example, I now know that a Vandella isn’t a car. I used to wonder why Martha had several when most people only had one.

      Morning Grizzly.

      1. Morning, Eddy.

        I have enjoyed listening to Steppenwolf’s superb “Born to be Wild” since 1969, but it’s only two years ago that I saw what they looked like back then. John Kay looked nothing like I had imagined him to look.

        1. We forget that life moves on and that the artists we’ve not heard of for yonks are now old wrinklies or getting near it. Even Cliff’s looking his age.

          I saw a picture of two of the Strolling Bones the other day and it’s not hard to see they’re pushing 80.

          3. I meant that I recently saw a film of Steppenwolf playing back in 1969. Their song was played quite often on the radio but they never appeared as a band on television back then. What they looked like in 1969 remained a mystery until a couple of years ago.

      1. I’d heard that there was sex around at the time but I couldn’t get any!

        I was a bit shy!

          1. Yo, Tryers.

            Coal in t’bathtub and spuds in t’washing machine, guarded by t’whippets, like.

            Wheer else? ;•)

          2. whooops Grizz,

            You have put down where they were stored, after delivery, not ‘wot they come in’

          5. Just like the Dyslexic Yorkshireman wearing a cat flap!

            ‘Morning, George. Sorry about that, it just amused the hell out of me. {:¬)

          9. Arr, lass. We ‘ad a copper an’ all. But it weren’t long before us mother got a brand spanking new Ewbank washer wi’ a reight good mangle.

            [T’Servis twin tub came much later.]

      1. Not for me. I was a proper sixties dude (1963 -1969).

        I couldn’t get off on any of that 1950s (or 1960-62) stuff that was all Teddy Boys refusing to stop greasing their idiotic quiffs.

        1. It’s said that if you remember the 60s, you weren’t there.

          Born in 1944, I can of course remember when it all kicked off with Bill Haley and the Comets, quickly followed by Elvis and all from 1954.

          I also remember, as a paper boy, delivering the papers with the news of the deaths of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and (I think) Richie Valens.

          1. I liked Elvis but I couldn’t get off on all the wannabe “Elvises” that failed to copy him. Buddy Holly was liked by my elder cousins but he did nothing for me.

            I didn’t get into pop music until 1963 when all the blues-influenced bands emerged and Brylcreem had been consigned to the dustbin of history.

          2. A comment from a decade or so ago.

            “There are now at least 85,000 Elvis’s around the world, compared to only 170 in 1977 when Elvis died. At this rate of growth, experts predict that by 2019 Elvis impersonators will make up a third of the world population.”Apr 22, 2008

      3. The moment that I heard that I was reminded of cowboy films from my youth, but I could not pin down which one it was. The internet comes to the rescue once again. This one was not from a specific film, but its “sound” was said to have inspired Ennio Morricone’s ‘Spaghetti’ Western guitar music. It was a common style of playing back then for that genre, I have just read.

        It is not good to feel like “saddling up” and riding the plains, or the coastal paths of Cornwall, at 10 o’clock in the morning. The lack of a horse also presents a challenge.

    6. …and then there were the words.

      A chap at work was forever singing Dan Tan (where all the lights are low).

    7. Well we could see the black and white minstrels on the television. Somehow seeing what they were like did not help the show survive.

  25. I am feeling smug.

    I have watered the garden; completed the weeding; cleaned up next door’s dogshyte (and slathered the area in Jeyes Fluid – which they hate); bought a loaf; hung the washing out – and it still isn’t 10 o’clock.

    Time for the crossword.

  27. Morning, Campers.
    And big thank you to the genius who got NOTTL on track again.
    (Did you consult my grandson?)

    1. Yo anne

      Our library has a section where pensioners can take out 4-5 year olds to sort out your ‘puter and phone stuff

      The loan period is for three hours max, cus after that you would have killed the little B’stard

  28. What is the ‘salmon cannon’ and how do the fish feel about it? Thu 15 Aug 2019 06.00 BST.

    So, how does the Whooshh Passage Portal work?

    The Whooshh Passage Portal is a system that you put into a river that automates the entire process of getting a fish over a dam. In those early videos five years ago you would see people hand-feeding the fish in; today the fish swim into the system on their own. Inside the tubes is a kind of an airlock where we make a small pressure differential to create a force so the fish moves through the tube. And that tube is irrigated, it’s misted on the inside, so the fish is able to breathe, and it’s a frictionless environment.

    From the fishes perspective it’s a completely smooth ride and it actually feels to them like they’re in the water. And that’s why when they come out the exit they just swim away. They swim in, they slide, they glide, and they swim off. There’s no shock to their system.

    Just a short technical guide to yesterday’s post for those who like myself wondered if it was genuine!

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/15/salmon-cannon-fish-dam

    2. An improvement of the salmon ladder. It always amazed me how they gripped the rungs with their little fins

    4. I vaguely remember being taken to the big city and seeing a shop assistant putting money in a container, putting it in a tube and it whooshing away and coming back from somewhere. To my tiny brain, it all seemed fishy.

      “Eel understand it when his brain grows,” I remember hearing at the time.

      Morning Araminta.

      1. They still exist Eddy though minus the whooshing noise. There is one in my local Morrisons!

      2. God made the wicked Grocer
        For a mystery and a sign,
        That men might shun the awful shops
        And go to inns to dine;
        Where the bacon’s on the rafter
        And the wine is in the wood,
        And God that made good laughter
        Has seen that they are good.

        The evil-hearted Grocer
        Would call his mother “Ma’am,”
        And bow at her and bob at her,
        Her aged soul to damn,
        And rub his horrid hands and ask
        What article was next,
        Though =mortis in articulo=
        Should be her proper text.

        His props are not his children,
        But pert lads underpaid,
        Who call out “Cash!” and bang about
        To work his wicked trade;
        He keeps a lady in a cage
        Most cruelly all day,
        And makes her count and calls her “Miss”
        Until she fades away.

        The righteous minds of innkeepers
        Induce them now and then
        To crack a bottle with a friend
        Or treat unmoneyed men,
        But who hath seen the Grocer
        Treat housemaids to his teas
        Or crack a bottle of fish-sauce
        Or stand a man a cheese?

        He sells us sands of Araby
        As sugar for cash down;
        He sweeps his shop and sells the dust
        The purest salt in town,
        He crams with cans of poisoned meat
        Poor subjects of the King,
        And when they die by thousands
        Why, he laughs like anything.

        The wicked Grocer groces
        In spirits and in wine,
        Not frankly and in fellowship
        As men in inns do dine;
        But packed with soap and sardines
        And carried off by grooms,
        For to be snatched by Duchesses
        And drunk in dressing-rooms.

        The hell-instructed Grocer
        Has a temple made of tin,
        And the ruin of good innkeepers
        Is loudly urged therein;
        But now the sands are running out
        From sugar of a sort,
        The Grocer trembles; for his time,
        Just like his weight, is short.

        1. …and please don’t sit your child on the bacon slicer as we’re getting behind in our orders.

          Morning Bill.

        1. Thanks Bill.

          It makes London Underground look simple in comparison.

          P.S. I bet Zubes were in abundance.

  29. Daily Telegraph reporting that top grades in the A-levels are at the lowest for a decade

    2. The UK’s average IQ is at its lowest for a decade due to an ever increasing percentage of the population being 3rd world ethnic by origin . No matter how much free education you give certain ethnic communities you cannot alter their genetically inherited IQ . This is also the reason why crime, poverty & terror are growing in the UK, EU & USA etc as the native Caucasian populations birth rate declines & failed Socialist multicultural immigration policies since the end off WW2 bring in millions upon millions of undesirable Low IQ savages – the lowering of the average IQ of the population as a whole is inevitable no matter what deceptive policies are in place to reduce educational standards such as exam level grades

      1. Shirley some mishtake, Hatman. The welcome newcomers are all brain surgeons, architects, pilots, bomb-makers….

        Good day to you in Tel Aviv.

        1. Good Moaning Bill!
          The welcome newcomers are all brain surgeons, architects, pilots, bomb-makers….
          The welcome newcomers are all unqualified brain surgeons,failed architects, suicide pilots, bomb-makers….
          There that’s fixed for you Bill.

      2. “The UK’s average IQ is at its lowest for a decade.”

        Happy Thursday, Pud.

        The world human population’s IQ is far lower than it was in 1900. Technology is advanced and that takes brains to invent and make it; however, the downside is that humans rely more and more on technology and the accumulative effect is that their brains are becoming more and more addled. Personal standards of literacy and numeracy are dwindling, fast!

        The evidence is clearly apparent everywhere you look and it is getting worse by the day.

    3. I heard this morning that a score in maths of 50% qualifies for an ‘A’ grade. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to fail now.

  30. Good Morning Advertisers? Why do we now have the adverts that infest the newspaper pages?

      2. You’ve got me. Rik says “Heinlein”. Is that Robert A Heinlein? Or some other I wot not off?

          3. Ah! Thank you. There is no such thing as a free lunch*, but I am pleased that you did not say, “I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you”.

            * I researched it. I am beginning to wonder if I have been blocked by several Nottlers.

    4. Because it’s the only way they can stay financially viable as the number of papers they sell continues to decline, and online readers won’t/don’t pay for their content.
      Unfortunately for the newspapers, the ads make their online content unreadable.

      1. In the mind of this “excuse for a man” he would get to his heaven if he murdered innocent people and was then killed. It is what his demon commands him to do. An example of real islam.

      1. That’s not true. He wants more black deaths because it gives him a platform, the mendacious bastard.

        And why chicken boxes? Because Edith and Neville shopping in Waitrose don’t blasted well go about trying to stab black kids. Black kids stab other black kids. Accept it, understand it, do something about it, Lammy you miserable, spiteful whelp!

  35. Gloom descends. Sale fallen through. Delightful buyer cannot get enough for her house. Booger.

    3. Cheer up. It took us a straight twelve months when we ” down-sized ” a couple of years ago. We had to sell first. That was when the market was busy. First buyer backed out after two months. Second buyer messed us around for four. Third buyer turned up, offered us a much better price than the others anc could wait until we found somewhere to move to. Great except it had to be a bungalow. The number of disabled people who needed a bungalow was infinite. We gave the buyers a completion date to avoid losing them………Planning to sleep in a field if we didn’t find anywhere.
      Bingo !! Three weeks before completion date,we found one. We got it (we could complete immediately) – if we had searched another ten years we would not have found anywhere better. (Shortly after, the market collapsed. No buyers, no sellers. Dead, So just in time.
      My then secretary kept telling me that moving house came next only to a bereavement for stress.
      Memo: Never try to sell your house to a Pakistani. Give it him, yes, but then set it on fire with him inside it.

      1. I know, I know. I was stupid. I assumed that she would be able to raise the dosh.

        Having done conveyancing for 40 years+ I should of (sic) known better.

      2. Could be worse.

        We listed the house with an estate agent on Saturday
        Viewings were on Monday
        Offers received on Wednesday and an unconditional offer at above list price was accepted. The only issue was that they wanted possession in about a month.

        Thursday. Booger, builder of our new house called to say that he was over committed and could not build for us.

        Canadian real estate sales contracts are made up front, so unless a suitable condition is in the contract there is no backing out if you change your mind. We went from home owning to on the street in less than a week.

          1. We managed to find a six month rental but it was a small apartment..
            Then a builder that we knew volunteered to skip his winter break and stayed in town to build our home. It took him almost six months but we have ended up with a well built home – his price was good and we became friends out of the experience.

      3. Agree re the sub-continentals. When we were in Bradford we had several look around and then offer derisory amounts. One even brought a suitcase full of cash to try to tempt us for a quick sale at 35% off the asking price.
        Barstewards the lot of them.

        1. Any “local” viewing is quite likely merely to want to have a good nose around out of idle curiousity..

          We had a plague of rubber-neckers who were just nosey.

          1. Nah – this lady was 100% genuine. Her problem appears to have been that she has discovered that she paid too much for her very nice but small house – and three different agents have valued it at less than she bought it for., Hence the shortfall.

          2. Ouch!
            It’s always the fear here.

            We look in some agent windows and think we made an error and in others where we think we got a bargain.

            Thank goodnes the ratio is roughly 2:1 on the bargain front, particularly when one takes the location into account.

            When we were looking, the house details from the agent “read” and looked excellent. When we arrived it was next to some rundown old factory or abutting a main road or a goose farm or some such.

            I hope that when it starts to get too much for us we’ll have enough to buy something in the UK.

      1. It is my own fault. I should have remained in my traditional pessimistic, cynical mode – instead of being carried away…

  36. A levels,could be worse,imagine if you will some poor modern history student in 40 years time trying to describe the Brexit lunacy that has afflicted the remoaners on 4 sheets of A4

      1. The Remainers will. The rest of us will be pleased to see how strong we have become since leaving.

    2. I heard on the news yesterday that an A grade for A level maths could be awarded for a 50% mark – talk about dumbing down! Even I would have passed O level maths on that score!

          3. Why was he knighted? Was it because he dressed to the left (as it were) and to cock a snook (again as it were) at those more talented but odious public-school boys?

      2. Yo nd

        In my day, when we used quills and abacii, the examiners had a projected ratio of for the grades.

        The best would get A’s, average C scape thro at D, then failure (of which there was a set %

        When all the marks were in, the ratio was applied and results published.

        Perhaps 50% was an A then, but because of poor teaching standards, the examiners could see how the difficult the exam was Exmamining Boardwise results adjusted accordingly

        Now of course, all must pass

        1. That was only one particular exam board which set a very very difficult paper this year. The exam was described as ‘completely unreasonable’.

          2. True, but I thought that one had to use all the numbers.

            There are easier ones still, if you don’t have to use all the numbers.
            (5+1)x25=300

          4. 10/10.

            I wondered whether anyone would notice. People take the answer on trust.

            As I said, it’s easier if you don’t use all the numbers.

          6. In which case your earlier (7+5) x25 is the easiest.

            One lives and learns. I’ve always worked on the basis that all the numbers was part of the game. No wonder I didn’t get it “right” very often when I watched the show!

      2. Well instead of her usual 12 meals and snacks a day occasional she has to manage on 11

  38. The Antidemocrats’

    Sara Wooleston must take the biscuit as being one of the most anti-democratic woman around. She refuses to accept the Democratic vote to Leave the EU and has jumped from one party to another to another but she refuses to face her electorate in a bye election. . This jumping about from party to party by MP’s has to be stopped in my view. I would also include in this MP’s that jump from a party to being an Independent.

    If you stand on a party ticket you should have to remain with that party or resign as from the Party and resign as an MP

    Looking on the bright side her options of parties to switch to are now limited unless she decides to repeat her round of switching parties

    1. I can’t recall a Limp Dumb ever winning Totnes, so a general election should soon see her gone.

      “Losing here”.

    2. She was chosen by the only constituency wide ballot; these ballots are reckoned to cost £40,000 each.
      Money well spent by CCHQ. (New spelling of the word NUMPTY.)

  39. Millennial investor Q&A: the young person’s guide to investing in a pension. 15 AUGUST 2019 • 7:00AM.

    Q. What’s the difference between a private and a state pension, and can you have both?

    A. Yes you can, and most of us will have both.

    Minty’s Advice. Yes you can and you will be shafted on both. The State Pension is a Ponzi Scheme and a Private Pension will eventually go bust. Inflation destroys all modest investments!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/pensions-retirement/financial-planning/millennial-investor-qa-young-persons-guide-investing-pension/

    1. Some definitions:

      A private pension: A pot of money the state wants you to invest in that will be robbed regularly by the chancellor leaving it worthless. Should it not be stolen directly the government will crush the economy until there’s nothing left.

      A public, state pension: a pot you’re paying a fortune into that the state has already spent ten times over and increasingly moves further and further away from you and that someone who hasn’t paid a penny into will receive without having worked a year in their life.

  40. The Guardian write-up on A-Levels has a nice write up on a clever Abanian immigrant. Good luck to the lad.
    The header photo is below. The Equality Act seems to have been thrown out of the window. Not a male or a white face in sight.
    I have nothing against the individuals that are shown.But the Monarchy would surely collapse if Diane Abbott became Queen.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ea8e48c56b67a86f3b76d16a932f1287d010463c4150d3775b7c5dd0d5202fb3.jpg

    1. Well, if the Monarchy didn’t collapse under the Abbopotamus, the throne certainly would.

    2. The Monarchy has already collapsed – Charles Prince of Global Warming , Wills Prince of Baldness & Feel Good, Harry Prince of Celebrity Trash & Andy Prince of Fantasy Island of St. Epsteins are sure signs that the Monarchy is doomed!

          1. You’ve fallen for the media’s anti-Diana propaganda. She was the first Royal that the plebs could feel an affinity with.

          3. All women are gold diggers. A woman born in poverty will always prefer a man with two dirty shirts to a man with only one but clean one.

    3. The BBC can be subtle as well as crass.
      Yesterday a photo of two people Boris and Mr Hammond. Hammond in front and Boris to the side, a couple of feet behind.
      Yesterday a photo of two school pupils looking at a notice board. A non-white girl is pointing something out, a blonde girl is looking.
      In both photos the BBC preferred person is in the dominant role. The best propaganda is stuff you don’t even recognise.
      Of course the BBC is not always subtle.

      I cannot upload a photo as I am not logged in. So obviously I did not post this.

  43. Good morning!

    Last night Mr. Corbyn wrote a letter attempting to build a cross-party coalition to force Boris Johnson from office, delay Brexit and campaign for a second referendum. The report in the DT already has over 1,700 comments but I saw one that will be lost among all the others. I thought it was worth repeating here:

    Anne Dearden 15 Aug 2019 7:28AM

    I have realised the remoaners have been right all along when they say I did not know all the true facts before voting to leave, so I decided to do a little research. I just voted to leave because I thought our sovereignty was being compromised by foreign unelected masters, and that we were compelled to have unlimited uncontrolled immigration, our laws and export agreements dictated by Brussels bureaucrats, and had to pay eye-watering amounts for the privilege.

    I did not know more than 10,000 EU officials get paid more than our prime minister.
    I did not know that unlike the UK, 18 countries get more back from the EU than they put in.
    I did not know that the EU occupies over 45 buildings 2 of which were purpose built monuments of grandeur and are the largest buildings in Europe.
    I did not know that the EU parliament spends 150million Euros a year moving to Strasbourg every month for 4 days committee meetings, any attempt to stop this stupidity is vetoed by France.
    I did not know that the EU has had a huge luxury shopping Mall built in Brussels for the exclusive use of EU employees.
    I did not know that every day queues of chauffeur driven cars with their engines running, wait outside EU establishments while their occupants go in, sign in for their attendance allowance and expenses, then come straight back out and are driven away.
    I did not know that many of them (like the Kinnocks) end up as millionaires as a reward for looking the other way.
    I did not know that Clegg was lying when he mocked Nigel Farage for saying that an EU army was being planned.
    I did not know that the EU had been financing the mass movement of industries from UK to mainland Europe.
    I could go on and on but suffice it to say that I have never for a moment doubted the correctness of my decision, I am so glad that the remoaners prompted me to look deeper into the bureaucratic absurdity of being in the EU.Apart from all that, everything’s fine! The 17.4 Million

    1. If they did not know… were they asleep? These things are common knowledge and publicised on europa.troughers website regularly.

      What the Leave campaign did badly was not publicise them. Hell, there’s an old film of a reporter basically getting attacked by an MEP – a bunch fo MEPs – some our own – signing in and sodding off. Then security turf them out for reporting the truth.

      The EU is a poisonous, toxic midden full of liars, thieves and fools. It’ isn’t a government, it’s nothing more than a urinal where we’re the cakes.

      1. ‘Morning, Wibbles, is there a link to that ‘old film’? You tube has plenty on attacks on reporters in the US, Australia and Bongo Bongo Land but I cannot find the one to which you allude.

        2. The bottom one clearly shows them at their most disgusting.

          Personally the best they could have done is sat down and explained what they do and, if they are leaving, why.

          1. Thank you, Wibbles, I’ve only just got back but I see what you mean. The gravy train still runs with little or no effort on the part of supposed MEPs.

  44. Douglas Murray

    “A few months ago Jacob Rees-Mogg was criticised for having shared a

    speech given in the Bundestag by a politician from the Alternative for

    Germany party (AfD). The Labour MP David Lammy has also compared the

    European Research Group of Tory MPs to the Nazis. Given an opportunity

    to withdraw that comment he declined, insisting that the comparison

    ‘wasn’t strong enough’. Perhaps Lammy can provide evidence that Jacob

    Rees-Mogg has killed more than six million Jews?

    Such terms are naturally thrown around by people who like to

    grandstand. But beneath them lies a well of confusion which urgently

    needs addressing. Terms such as ‘fascist’, ‘far right’ and ‘white

    supremacist’ are serious. Such sinister forces certainly exist, here in

    Britain and on the continent. But in recent years — especially since the

    Brexit and Trump votes — there has been an acceleration in claimed

    sightings and a blurring of the definitions. This is wrong not just

    because it means that perfectly decent people are maligned, but also

    because distinctly dangerous groups are confused with harmless ones”

    .https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/08/right-from-wrong-a-guide-to-the-new-european-politics/

    1. I don’t really understand why people think the Nazi’s were right wing. They clearly were not.

      Lammy needs to be kicked, sharply and repeatedly. He’s a nasty, racist little twerp.

      1. We had a brave lecturer in one of the subjects that we had who also taught politics. He went on a ramble on this topic and explained that Hitler was labelled as Right Wing by academia in a desperate attempt to conceal the fact that far-left governments had a massive tendency towards re-education / death camps and crushing all of those who opposed them. They pretended Hitler was Right Wing to make it appear there was some balance.

        He pointed out that in the real world, those on the “right wing” believe in minimal interference in peoples lives and smaller governments that provide the basics such as security and emergency services. It was the left who wanted total state control of as much of our lives as possible, from education to the grave, to make us all “better people.” He pointed out just how much state control those who followed Hitler tried to impose.

        I do not know how long that the man kept his position, as such views back then were not supposed to be spoken. Even less so now of course, where just being born white makes you guilty of something by association.

        2. People forget that he was an authoritarian socialist fascist.

          All actions of the Left.

          1. So according to you the Singapore government is very left-wing??

            Hitler actually hated socialism, and was a highly authoritarian centrist dictator.

          2. Odd that he created a party called the national socialists then, isn’t it?

            And set about owning industry under state control. Instituted a huge pile of socialist controls such as restricting money.

            Yes, he was a socialist. An authoritarian centrist dictator. All socialist governments are. I appreciate you’re a bit left leaning yourself, Thayaric, but Hitler was a Lefty.

          3. You need to read much more about German history. A lot more. Just because the party had socialism in its name didn’t make it socialist.
            I’m not left-leaning either, I fully believe in a market economy but see a place for a small amount of socialism in areas such as healthcare. For instance I support free at the point of care national health service in principle.
            https://www.britannica.com/story/were-the-nazis-socialists
            https://www.vox.com/2019/3/27/18283879/nazism-socialism-hitler-gop-brooks-gohmert
            Read much more and see Hitler’s disdain for socialists and socialism to the point that they were interred in concentration camps. Hitler hated socialists almost as much as he hated jews.

        3. “He pointed out that in the real world, those on the “right wing” believe in minimal interference in peoples lives”

          Not true at all. The left-wing/right-wing thing only describes the economic position. Right-wing describes extreme liberalism. This can be libertarian flavoured which is actually what your sentence describes or authoritarian flavoured which most governments actually tend to be.

          Libertarianism occurs on both wings and is not something ‘of the right’. Authoritarianism also occurs on both wings.

          1. “Not true at all” tends to be an unwise statement when speaking of generalities, but each to his own.

            The rest of your comment is so obvious and missing the point, that I cannot tell if you are joking or being serious. 🙂

            I will assume the former as it is late. Have a good night. 🙂

      2. We all have our own definitions of what is right and what is left wing.

        I would describe myself as right wing because, according to my definition, right wing implies as much freedom for the individual as possible and small government with a lack of interference from the state in people’s lives.

        1. I’m not sure that is Right wing. I’d assume it’s just how everyone really want to be.

          1. It is by most general assumptions.

            Right-wing: individual freedom, self-sufficiency, private enterprise, low taxation, hard-working ethos.

            Left-wing: collectivism, state-control in all aspects of your life, public ownership, high taxation, working to rule.

      3. Just posted this on the Spectator:-

        Bob of Bonsall • 5 minutes ago
        Both Fascism in Italy and the NSDAP in Germany sprang from the Socialist movement and sharing many characteristics with Marxist Socialism, authoritarian collectivism for example, could be viewed as a non-Marxist Socialist creed.
        Fascism’s depiction as “Right Wing” is almost entirely due to Stalin’s propaganda machine from the period when the Bolshevist inspired Spartakusbund was battling the NSDAP for the control of Berlin and Germany.

          1. Not only that, but Giovanni Gentile, the Italian originator of Fascist theory came from a solidly Socialist background.

  45. Gay marriage cake: customer takes case to European court

    I wonder who is funding this ?

    Lawyers representing a man from Northern Ireland who sued a bakery for refusing to make a cake with pro-gay marriage message are going to Europe to challenge a supreme court ruling that its evangelical Christian owners had a right to refuse to bake it.
    Belfast human rights law firm Phoenix Law confirmed on Thursday it had been instructed by Gareth Lee to take his case to the European court of human rights (ECHR).

    1. Of course, they’ll side with the homosexual. All very ‘progressive’.

      That Christian values have kept the nation going for centuries, all undermined by a spoiled, deeply unjust set of judges who ignore our law.

      1. Remember it is not just Christian values. Find me any faith anywhere in the world, even ” that lot “, where their good book does not condemn homosexuality. There is a big difference between reluctantly accepting something, and making that acceptance and its approval compulsory.

      2. The shops argument and it was upheld by the Supreme court was they would have refused to sell as cake with that text on to anyone as no doubt they would if someone wanted “F**** Off on a cake

    2. If someone asks you to do something that you do not want to do, just say no. Do not, on any account, give an explanation. Do not answer any questions.
      As a shopkeeper people, prospective customers, will come in and “offer to treat”. As a shopkeeper you can refuse anyone. You do not need a reason. The law is on your side Mr Shopkeeper, until you start talking. See what happens when you start talking!

      1. That used to be the case but if you fall into one of the protected characteristic it seems not to be

        1. No Bill. You do not have to explain. If you say “I am not going to make that cake” and leave it at that, you give no one any handle to use to accuse. What anyone may infer, impute, guess, or project is not a basis for legal action.

          1. What if the request is to make a wedding cake and the requester doesn’t define the wording. They later come back and say ‘to the two poofs’ and then you want to say no?

          2. Good question. However, one needs to be careful when accepting orders. Especially true in the made-to-order world.
            In your scenario, I would say, too late. Should have said it when placing the order.

  46. “Boris Johnson’s pledge to fund an extra 20,000 police officers was a

    serious sign of intent, a game-changing moment for policing and a huge

    boost for law and order on Britain’s streets. But how can these new

    officers quickly reverse the spike in knife and violent crime that has

    plagued Britain?

    There are six pressing challenges that the new Home Secretary Priti Patel needs to address if she is to

    succeed in her strategy to crack down on crime: increasing crime

    levels, greater demands and reduced budgets for police; decline in

    neighbourhood officers; new national security threats; a disempowered

    police workforce and a policing model outpaced by technology.

    It is clear that neighbourhood policing is where the vast bulk of the

    new resources need to be focused. People are worried about levels of

    crime on their streets and about a general decline in law and order. Yet

    cutbacks have resulted in police reverting to a reactive ‘emergency

    response’ based model. This means that officers now ‘respond, react and

    retreat’, often without resolving the underlying drivers of criminality.”

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/08/how-police-can-take-back-control-of-britains-streets/
    What!! You mean free packaging for Chicken shops isn’t the answer??

    1. Hmm. How about deporting foreign criminals? How about deporting all foreigners who have no entitlement to be here (note to Police – that would be all Albanians)?

      1. And animals. There was a cat outside our house yesterday. While I was watching, it stole a way.

  47. Awkward

    “If Dan Snow, Caitlin Moran etc think Greta is historically an adult and
    should be leading the world at 16, why do they call teenagers like the
    ISIS brides ‘children’, and say they didn’t know what they were doing?”

  48. Orwellian health policies could drive our favourite treats off the shelves

    The food we eat everyday – whether it be bought from supermarket shelves or high street cafes – is being silently changed by an Orwellian public health policy called “reformulation”.

    The government, through Public Health England, is setting targets for the salt, sugar, and calories contained in everyday food items. For most items, sugar and calories must be reduced by 20 per cent.

    Big Bruvver is alive and well and living in UK

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/15/orwellian-health-policies-could-drive-favourite-treats-shelves/

          1. Founded in England in 1932, the company holds a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II. In 2012 the company was bought by the Chinese Government through the state-run Bright Food, and the equity firm Baring Private Equity Asia, with Bright Food having the controlling interest.[1][2] In July 2017, the American company Post Holdings bought the company for £1.4 billion.[3]

      2. I never liked them – but I have to buy them for OH. He will only eat Weetabix or Shreddies for cereals. He smothers them in sugar, too. Yuk!

  49. Completely off topic but far more interesting than Jill Backson.

    I came across a spice recently that i had never heard of before. When i say spice you can also say herb. Ajwain. It smells like thyme and tastes of oregano and anise. Weird yes? Weirder still, when i made up the spice mix it had the aroma of burnt rubber tyres. After toasting and grinding i then added coconut milk. Passed it through a fine sieve and lo and behold……. a most unusual but delicious curry sauce.

    Ajwain has been used for three thousand years in Ayurvedic medicine and is good for indigestion and other stomach upsets.

    http://dinningmenu.blogspot.com/2010/10/ajwain-chicken-curry.html

    1. I suspect you have all the modern gizmos in your kitchen Gizzee.

      A fussy eater who is also a Type2 diabetic resides in the household .. my culinary desires and experiments are now confined to a pile of lovely old collectable cookery books stored in a cardboard box.

      I enjoy a nice curry .. and will do stuff for a curry Sunday .. sometimes.

      Waitrose have a nice deli counter where they have a lovely selection of delicacies .. my favourite marinated herring is delicious.. I will buy a very small pot of them , and consume them in the car ! Marinated anchovy is another favourite..

      Curried cauliflower .. with a Thai style sauce is a light delicious easy curry .. Perhaps I have become fussier as well . More fish and vege orientated I think .

      1. Hi Belle. I don’t possess a breadmaker !

        Those anchovies are delicious. We do tend to become more discerning as we get older. Nowt wrong with that. Your food regime sounds healthy. Hope there are cream buns in your life too. :o)

  50. What is happening to the people of Hong Kong at the moment has similarities with us and Brexit, the people don’t want to be dictated too by a communist unelected superstate, their politicians are subservient to their Chinese masters and they are about to beat them into submission. The rest of the world looks on, the EU with envy at Chinese state control.

    3. We’re not that far off it.

      Remember the fuel riots when Brown whacked taxes on fuel up? He deployed the army to force the tankers to move. Our vaunted democracy meant nothing then either.

      Simply put, for all our pretence of being an advanced society, we’re no better. The Brexit debacle with MPs fiddling, lying and cheating left right and centre utterly ignoring the will of the people has shown they don’t care any more than the Chinese.

    2. Thing is, armoured vehicles are pretty useless in a city. They’re very intimidating, but for actually quelling rebellion you need a mobile infantry force.

  53. SIR – I cannot believe Gerard O’Donovan thinks Poldark is “TV’s most swoonsomely swashbuckling show” (weekend on television, August 12). If he wants real swashbuckling, may I suggest he watches the BBC’S The Musketeers?

    Pam Holden
    Seething, Norfolk

    The modern version of Poldark is ruined by poor acting, pìss-poor actors, risible storylines and deplorable scriptwriting.

    It is inferior in every way to the original 1975 production starring Robin Ellis, Ralph Bates, Clive Francis, the beautiful Jill Townsend and the delightful Angharad Rees.

    2. The scenery is good though, and the scenes at Trenwith were filmed at a house near here where I worked many times doing weddings, etc.

  54. Any news of the Thunberg brat ……has she fallen off the Good Ship Lollipop yet….?

    2. And as she enters the Hudson Trump sings:

      ♫”I hear you honkin’, but you can’t come in”♬

      1. It would be wonderful if the vessel was turned away. But I fear that Yankee eco-freaks have squared it.

  55. BBC Radio 4 News reporting this morning that a Turkish company, related to the Turkish military, is interested in some UK steel works. Why doesn’t our government encourage UK business men to buy into the UK steel industry which could have the secure future our country desperately needs?

    1. What are the Turks planning ( considering they have the largest army in the world ) We must hang onto our own assets.. no more selling the family jewels .

      Good morning to you .

      1. Morning T-B – I agree, there are not many family jewels left in this country. We need steel for our own requirements and to produce our own is not actually adding to the global CO2 pollution whatever the Greens and our politicians think.

    2. It’s the company that runs the pension scheme of the Turkish military. You couldn’t make it up…..

      3. Saint Greta may well have a rude awakening if they encounter storms. There is NOTHING worse than suffering mal de met on a yacht although by day 3 sufferers can start to feel human again.

      1. It’s just a big swell – all will be revealed in due course.
        “Left hand down a bit skipper!”

        1. We used to do that to the gin palaces anchored in Studland Bay by carving in & out on a Shearwater cat. Used to scare the shit out of them.

    1. Greta has used the bucket, but nobody told her which way up to use it.
      She was last seen sliding overboard.

  59. Following the popular music theme:
    The Beatles represent the indisputable high-watermark of popular culture in the 20th century, they were way ahead of their time.

    Can you name 10 Beatles songs (from memory)!

          1. Yes, in CATS, when she took over from Judi Dench who had to pull out before the show opened because of a sprained ankle. The movie version of CATS open at Christmas. Dame Judi stars in it and, I believe, finally gets to sing “Memories” as originally planned.

      1. It won’t be long until I get back because I want to hold you hand. Don’t let me down,

    5. I can name at least 50 from memory (I have many of their albums) but my time is needed elsewhere.

      By the way, Rubber Soul was their best album. No arguments.

          2. Time was that a Gideon’s Bible was in every hotel room. Now it’s a TV set fixed on to the wall. From The Sermon On The Mount to Love Island!

        2. What part of “no arguments” are you failing to assimilate, Joe? :•)

          1. Rubber Soul
          2. Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
          3. The Beatles (“white album”)
          4. Help
          5. Abbey Road.
          6. A Hard Day’s Night
          7. Revolver.
          8. Please Please me.
          9. Beatles For Sale.
          10. With The Beatles

          10. Rubber Soul was the album that blew Brian Wilson’s mind and urged him to create the Beach Boys’ peerless Pet Sounds; which, in turn, blew them minds of John Lennon and Paul McCartney and gave them the impetus to create Revolver and Sergeant Pepper’s.

          12. In my case it’s purely down to preference of the tracks.

            I prefer more from Pepper than I do from Soul.

            My own playlist of Beatles “greatest” numbers would change according to my mood, but there would certainly be tracks from both albums.

          13. Really? I have a vinyl copy and all the original inserts, posters etc. Make me an offer!

      3. Good morning Grizzly

        Does your being so firm, strong, uncompromising and unyielding win you the adulation of the women?

        (I used to try this approach but achieved very mixed results! Now I am mere putty in Caroline’s hands.)

        1. Good afternoon, Rastus.

          “Firm, strong, uncompromising and unyielding?”

          Nearly right but you’ve not read my avatar: “Incorrigible rogue and argumentative sod.” :•)

    7. Never were my favourite band but I know a lot of their songs and lyrics. I know a Scandinavian who has all of their records so that Norwegian would know them all.

      1. molamola – After my 3 decades online I have discovered that there are some sentences that you can say that are more controversial than others. Telling a “Hunger Games” fan that it is a poor copy of the film “Battle Royale” sends them into “triggered overdrive” and can be amusing to watch, but not take part in.

        Saying to a room full of “Twilight” film fans: “The Vampire and the Werewolf are clearly in love with each other, and the women should get out of the way and leave them to be gay together” does not go down well.

        But one of the best to cause offence is the comment: “The Beatles were very popular for their time, in fact they were The Spice Girls of their day. Although the Spice Girls obviously have far more modern cultural importance, as can be seen across social media.”

        Surprisingly this is one of those times when it is some of the British people who suffer a sense of humour failure at this comment. We are otherwise a robust nation that can deal with the slings and arrows that fate throws at us. Some do have strong feelings for the Beatles. I like a few of their songs (and none of the Spice Girls ones) but I would need to be in the right mood to want to listen to them.

        It is highly probably an “age bracket” thing. Many of us go through a period when the music we listen to has far greater effect on us than those songs that we hear 20 years later.

        (That post was tongue in cheek.)

    10. Can you name a Beatles song that was recorded by both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones?

    11. It’s only yesterday when he sang ” I Wanna Hold Your Hand ” and was locked up for sexual harrassment.

    12. Good morning P-T

      Yes, and I can probably play quite a lot of them on my guitar.

      Incidentally, your clip of Joe Brown the other day should have opened people’s eyes to the fact that Joe is an outstanding player of virtually all the stringed instruments he plays – and especially the guitar and the mandolin.

      1. ,,,,and thoroughly nice bloke.

        Too many NoTTlers get bogged down with the B word, politics, stabbings etc.
        A little light relief is always welcome from the ‘news’.

        Good morning Rastus.

  60. Drug-related deaths hit record level of 4,359 with biggest annual increase ever

    Drug-related deaths last year hit their highest level since records began, according to the Office for National Statistics.
    4,359 people died from drug poisoning in England and Wales in 2018, the highest since data collection began in 1993.

    Last year also saw the highest annual increase since records began, up 16 per cent (603 deaths) from 2017.

    Deaths involving cocaine doubled over the three years to 2018, reaching their highest ever level.

  61. A chewy, but interesting read, from Unherd.
    Based on the US, but at least some is relevant to Blighty.

    “How the Right lost faith in capitalism
    Giles Fraser

    “In the US, the Left are no longer the most vocal challengers of market forces

    Last Friday, the National Grid shut down power to various parts of the South-East as two of its generators failed. As the power cut began, my family and I were on a train coming back to London after a day trip to have lunch with my parents. Facing unspecified delays, and with a small baby and a two-year-old in tow, we made an early and executive decision to call the local taxi firm and order a ride back to South London. It cost us £120, which given the circumstances we were happy to pay.

    Fortunately, we made an early call. Many who made a similar decision later on found themselves at the mercy of Uber, facing huge price hikes. Apparently, the Uber algorithm, more sensitive than the local cab company to the fluctuations of supply and demand, sent prices through the roof. A similar power cut in March 2018 meant that stranded commuters were faced with Uber price surges of up to 500%.

    Amongst the most disturbing lessons that my father attempted to teach me as a child was that something is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. There is no such thing as intrinsic value, he maintained. Value is a simply function of supply and demand.

    Well, I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now. For the kindly Muslim taxi driver that took us home, the algorithm was pretty simple: the job was worth his time plus his costs plus a reasonable profit. Our misfortune was not something to be exploited by a profit-maximising algorithm. And I thank him for that.

    Now it may have been entirely incidental that our cab driver was a person of faith. And I absolutely do not put his behaviour down to the fact that, as a believer, he was a better person than those greedy, pagan executives over at Uber. But what I did wonder, as we trundled down the M1, was whether we had been the beneficiaries of a world-view in which things do, in fact, have intrinsic value.

    The Uber algorithms, perfectly embodying the spirit of market forces, make all value beholden to fluctuations of supply and demand. Here, nothing is fixed. Everything is relative. It’s a metaphysics, of sorts. Or perhaps – because it’s so wholeheartedly materialist – an anti-metaphysics. Capitalism represents the triumph of the immanent – that there is nothing to human value except the ebb and flow of human behaviour. Value is not rooted in anything transcendent, beyond the continual drift of human desire.

    This is why, at a philosophical level at least, capitalism and religious belief are fundamentally enemies. The former is inherently relativistic and free-floating, the latter rooted in a view of the world where there are immutable and stable values.

    I mention this little story only because it sits neatly alongside a movement that seems to be gathering force, especially in the US, in which conservatives – and often religious conservatives – are ousting socialists as some of the most thoughtful critics of capitalism. Last year Peter Kolozi, an academic at the City University of New York, published a timely historical survey of the long tradition of anti-capitalism within US conservatism. To those who have become used to conservatives being capitalism’s most high-profile cheerleaders, this notion may seem odd. But there is no necessary connection between conservatism and capitalism: indeed, there is a strong case that they are antithetical. And that case is re-emerging.

    For instance, as Kolozi points out, conservatism in the post-Bellum American South looked suspiciously upon capitalism as a northern phenomenon that threatened the traditional structures of community life. This was a version of conservatism that sought to maintain a form of life built upon racial privilege. And most of us are glad it was destroyed.

    But the South’s experience of capital’s power to destroy traditional community structures – for good or ill – formed an important part of the traditional conservative tradition (often known as paleo-conservatism) and its attitude towards capitalism.

    As Kolizi explains, this tradition came to be obscured by the Cold War. Given the threat posed by communism, anti-capitalist conservatives threw in their lot with free-market conservatives, united against a common enemy. But the end of the Cold War, the 2008 financial crash, worries about globalisation, and the collapse of faith in the market’s ability to sustain community life – often code for church and family – has exposed old divisions within the conservative family. Thus people like Fox news presenter and Trump supporter Tucker Carlson are beginning to say things like this: “Market capitalism is not a religion. Any economic system that weakens and destroys families isn’t worth having.” Damning the “mercenaries” of the capitalist class, Carlson called for:
    “a fair country. A decent country. A cohesive country. A country whose leaders don’t accelerate the forces of change purely for their own profit and amusement.”

    This could almost have been Bernie Sanders.

    The conservative case against capitalism is built on three basic differences between the two ideologies.

    First, the obvious point. Conservatives like to conserve. By contrast, capitalism is the most powerful change-agent the world has ever seen. Karl Marx had it right when he explained capitalism in the opening chapter of The Communist Manifesto:

    “All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned.

    To those who are capitalism’s most vigorous moral proponents, this is its virtue: creative destruction. When what is being destroyed is a society of racial superiority, as with the American South, that is a good thing. But when what is being destroyed is a whole infrastructure of mutual care and support – family, unions, church, stable communities – then we might think very differently.

    The second difference is the one alluded to in my taxi story: capitalism’s anti-metaphysics – or, to use Marx’s expression, the profanation of the holy. It is not incidental that religion has played an important role within the conservative tradition. For religious belief locates value beyond the to-ing and fro-ing of human desire, beyond human subjectivity. God is the fixed point around which human value turns.

    But hang on, weren’t the religious right of the Reagan era, for instance, capitalism’s biggest fans? Yes, but this was more to do with their pathological hatred of Soviet Communism and its programmatic atheism. During the Cold war, the Christian Right imagined that their enemies’ enemy – capitalism – to be their friend. The new style anti-capitalist conservative of the Carlson variety believes this alliance to have been short-sighted.

    Third, anti-capitalist conservatives maintain that the moral life is a communal and necessarily rooted activity. They put particular value on loyalty to place and kin as necessary constituents of moral formation and of human flourishing.

    In this regard, they have begun to whisper to each other that the global reach of multi-national capitalism is undermining the very basis of moral existence and human happiness. Capitalism severs people from their roots, treating human labour as just another commodity to be moved around the world at the service of supply and demand.

    These new-look conservatives have a totally different feel to the ones that progressives have been used to dealing with. Take someone like Kentucky farmer and contemporary poet Wendell Berry. Radically committed to the environment, a lyricist of human rootedness, implacably hostile to technology, broadly Christian, in many ways he feels more Left than Right, yet his moral vision fits more comfortably within the old tradition of Southern Agrarians than it does within that of the progressives.

    Or take American writer Rod Dreher, more obviously on the Right, yet whose Benedict Option advises a withdrawal from the values of capitalism:
    “what has been missing from capitalism for a long time is any sense of morality, care for neighbor and community, and love for the “other” that Christianity absolutely demands, but that this current iteration of capitalism says is foolish.”

    The US TV Series American Gods is premised upon the idea of a war between the old Gods of religion and the new gods of technology and celebrity and finance. This is the war that a new generation of American Conservatives have now joined. J. D. Vance, for example, the Conservative author of Hillbilly Elegy, was baptised a Catholic last week. Agreeing with Carlson, he has asked: “What happens when the companies that drive the market economy — and all of its benefits — don’t care about the American nation’s social fabric?”

    Even Vance, a venture capitalist, is wobbling in his faith in the redemptive potential of corporate finance. I suspect that is why he has chosen the old gods over the new.

    Ironically, it is progressives – the Clintons, for example – who continue to look to the gods of finance to drive us all towards the sunny uplands of a bright new world. Historically, it is liberalism that was formed alongside capitalism, and liberalism – especially classical liberalism – that shares the same basic assumptions about the freedom of the individual. That is why, for instance, woke liberalism and Silicon Valley capitalism sit so neatly together. And why, to the bafflement of many on the traditional Left, the case against capitalism is now being made more forcibly from the Right.”

    1. It all about supply and demand. You will never change it, many have tried and all have failed in the end.

    2. Looks like there’s an error there, surely it should read…………………….

      ”the Clintons, for example – who continue to look to the gods of finance to drive themselves towards the sunny uplands of a bright new world.”

    3. Christianity is unrelated to Capitalism.

      The problem is that people think capitalism is solely getting rich. it isn’t. It’s fundamentally about the ownership of property. The right to say ‘this is mine, not yours’.

      Now, markets are a natural addition to capital as this ensures a system of exchange, of ‘I have beans, you have carrots. I want carrots, you want beans, let’s swap’. Heck, a child learns about markets when they offer to exchange a roast potato for a sprout.

      Christianity – in the moral sense – teaches that we shouldn’t covet and we should be charitable. You can only do that if you have enough. ‘Plenty’ comes from markets and capital. It is surplus that allows us to give things away. To be charitable.

      Capitalism is also the primary measure of providing jobs, which are – despite the Left’s insistence – good for people. How better to lift people out of poverty than to give them the pride of earning their way out? Where we go wrong – and where I’m told trickle down economics fails is that the money doesn’t flow down to the lower paid. I’d argue that’s because markets and capital are not allowed to work.

  62. Good morning, all. From today’s DT Letters:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/715a5bec8f4927969f374cf6d8401d8223ab4981b36c6901124aead954a8914d.png

    The first general election in which I voted was that of 1964 when, much to my chagrin, the Labour Party, led by that slippery turd Harold Wilson, came to power by a slim majority. Since those dim and distant days, I have watched with despair as successive Labour governments have trashed our country with the politics of envy.

    Remembering the ‘Hunting with Dogs Act 2004’, rammed through by T. Bliar against the wishes of rural communities, can anybody be foolish enough to believe that a review on grouse shooting conducted by the Labour Party will be good for the industry? I cannot remember one single piece of legislation enacted by a Labour Government that was not motivated by class prejudice and/or ‘popular misconceptions’.

    1. Good morning, Duncan. Well, for a start, the Corbynliner mob would not wish to have anything to do with a review led by a peer…..

      1. Good morning, Bill

        Who was it in the old joke about someone being found dead under a peer at Brighton?

        1. ‘Morning, Richard there was a story about Lord Montagu of Bealieu (He of the Motor Museum) being rescued from drowning in the Solent, where he had been found clinging to the bottom of a buoy.

  63. Ex-Tory MP Sarah Wollaston joins Lib Dems in battle against Brexit
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/15/ex-tory-mp-sarah-wollaston-joins-lib-dems-battle-against-brexit/

    There is an article about the treacherous Ms Woolaston in today’s Daily Telegraph. Most articles of this sort give a brief profile but this does not answer the relevant questions: In each DT article the brief MP Profile should give the following information in order to help us identify the out and out hypocrites:

    i) How he/she voted in the referendum;

    ii) How his/her constituents voted in the referendum;

    iii) Did he/she present him/herself for election on a commitment to see Brexit through properly|?

    iv) Would he/she prefer Britain to stay in the EU or to leave on WTO terms?

    Most of us have far more respect for those who have never supported Brexit, whose voters did not support Brexit and who have never pledged themselves to see Brexit through than we have for those who lied about supporting Brexit and have tried to destroy it.

    What we want now is consistency and honesty from our pollticians.

    2. I was a Conservative for all of my voting years, until I saw the party being taken over by pro-eu globalists. The information you asked for should be made available to the voters. I did vote for my local Conservative the last time as he seemed to be pro-Brexit, but since then the picture has become clearer.

      He voted for the trap of the Withdrawal Agreement more than once (not just on the final try) and he voted in favour of a 2nd Referendum “to clarify the will of the people.” That last point was enough for me. Unless he is replaced by a real Conservative who wants to leave on WTO terms then it will be the Brexit Party for me the next time.

      Unless Boris and Cummings get us fully out of the eu. Although I still would not vote for a “pretend Conservative” who thinks a 2nd Referendum is an acceptable way forward.

    3. She was chosen by the cuddly inclusive method of asking ALL the constituency to vote for the Conservative candidate they felt was the best.
      Of course, all the non-Conservative supporters were honourable enough not to vote for the absolute clunker.
      Thank goodness the exercise was too expensive to be pursued in 600 + constituencies.

      1. I thought that was how she came to be selected!
        A pre-election Primary open to ALL constituents. I thought at the time what a wonderful idea, that will work well.

        NOT!

    4. Nicked comment,oi laffed

      “Hello. I’m Dr Sarah Wollaston, and I’m afraid you have brain cancer.”

      “ what? I thought it was a broken arm!”

      “ hmmm…listening to your explanation, I’ve now changed my mind. You actually are suffering from the common cold.”

      “It’s a broken arm, you dim witted harridan. Look ..it points the wrong way.”

      “I’ve
      changed my mind again. Now I have all the facts. Facts I’ve just made
      up. And I can confirm that you definitely, definitely have remoaner
      dementia.
      This is a disease where the patient loses all memory of what they have previously said.

      For instance, the person might have forgotten that they stood for
      election on a leave the EU platform. Or that they championed a bill that
      called for any MP changing parties to hold an immediate by election.

      Or they might forget they have already joined another political party
      just a few weeks ago. It’s a terrible condition. Hypocrite-senatoris
      A lot of wet Tories suffer from it.”

      “ I’d like a second opinion.”

      “ Ha! You see! I’m right! People do want a second opinion on Brexit! I knew it!”

    6. What we want now is the damned woman sacked.

      She stood on a Conservative ticket. People voted Conservative. She then betrayed them and prevented a by election – because democracy is not her thing.

      Then she did the same damned thing again.

  64. Just had a flash message on my I pad. A man has been stabbed at the Home Office. I was too late to get the details. It will waken the Home Office up if true.

      1. Korky must have a better one. He posted the news further down My one is second hand Samsung gifted to me by my younger son who keeps up with all technical developments.

        1. I have neither pad nor tablet. I have a 10 year old mobile phone on which I can make and receive calls – and send texts (apparently – the keys are so tiny and require several prods to get most letters – that I usually give up). A ten year old PC….

          1. I use my fingernails Bill. My son tells me my 5 year old computer needs replacing. My 2 sons are wealthy, the elder more so than his younger brother.

          2. I know what you mean about wealthy children.

            When I discussed replacing my Kangoo, my elder son recommended a car which was, he said, “very reasonably priced” at £38,000

      2. The Home Office is now cordonned off by armed police..The wound is life-threatening. I wonder where the Speaker is today

          1. I notice my recent message from the Independent was timed an hour ago. My i-pad is not as uptodate as I thought.

          2. Well, remember that all messages have to pass through GCHQ (keep up the good work, lads) before it gets to you…

  66. Joke Time, courtesy of my NTJP channel co-founder @nicetomeetyou2:disqus

    LEMON PICKERS NEEDED IN FLORIDA. ONLY U.S. CITIZENS OR LEGAL IMMIGRANTS NEED APPLY

    “Lemon Pickers Needed” read the ad in the newspaper.

    Ms. Sally Mulligan of Coral Springs, Florida, read it, and decided to apply for one of the jobs that most Americans are not willing to do.

    She submitted her application for a job in a Florida lemon grove, but seemed to be overqualified for the job.

    She has a liberal arts degree from the University of Michigan, and a masters degree from Michigan State.

    For a number of years, she had worked as a social worker, and as a school teacher.

    The foreman studied her application, frowned and said, “I see that you are well educated, and have an impressive resume. However, I have to ask you, have you had any actual experience in picking lemons?”

    “Well, as a matter of fact, I have,” she said. “I’ve been divorced three times, owned two Chryslers, and voted for Obama”.

    He said “You’re hired!”

  67. Man stabbed outside Home Office in central London

    A man has been stabbed outside the Home Office building in central London.
    The victim’s injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, the Metropolitan Police said.
    Officers were called to the building in Marsham Street, near the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, at 13:06 BST. A man was arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.
    The wounded man went into the building to seek assistance. The building is now in lockdown.
    Eyewitness Gareth Milner said he was outside the Home Office when “a number of armed police officers arrived on scene and entered the building”.

    2. Follow this closely, NoTTLers,

      Naggers and I spoke to Robin Tilbrook when we attended his ‘event’ near Ealing Broadway.

      He confirmed that he had spoken to Boris’s team suggesting that Boris should give a consent order withdrawing HMG’s defence against Tilbrook’s private action in the High Court. Thus Tilbrook prevails, nobody can appeal other than HMG/Boris and Tilbrook, and hey presto, UK exited the EU on March 29th.!!!

      We were sworn to secrecy then ….. but it seems to have leaked out.

      1. I know you are glued to the “action” at Lord’s – but could you explain this? (For once I am serious – and I really don’t understand your comment).

          1. Thank you.

            I cannot see HMG (through its remainiac snivel servants and the totally laughable “lord chancellor” giving in for a second.

          2. It’s up to Boris as 1st Respondent. Agree about snivil serpents etc but I can just see Boris/Cummmings having the flair to go for it, circumventing the lot of them. Remoaners would go into meltdown.

          5. I wish I could share your optimism.

            It is (for me) a shocking thing to say, but I have lost faith in the whole political system. I trust none of the politicians or snivel servants. Any or all of them (including Johnson) can turn their coats at the drop of a Soros penny.

          6. I agree. It is not a question of left or right anymore, it is moralist or globalist. If you are a globalist then you will betray citizen, party and country because you do not believe in them anyway. You want a bland grey world with no nation states or democracy. If you are a moralist then you won’t be promoted or hired to be an MP in the first place these days.

            Only those men and woman who are moralists, and who have been here a long time and not been removed yet, are on the side of the United Kingdom and our people. I hope those leading the Conservative Party are on our side and not the eu’s. We will know soon enough.

          10. When I raised the possibility with Robin T, Cummings had not been appointed but I presume was very much in touch with Boris. Obviously this leak has occurred after Cummings’ appointment.

  69. WTF is the matter with this page?

    I have to log in every time I come on this forum (I did when it first started last week but I sorted that out).

    Now, after I’ve logged in (and my avatar is showing) it will not permit me to upload a photograph stating”You cannot upload whilst not logged in!”.

    I AM fücking logged in you cretinous piece of software!

  70. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/794b5a0624366652f7fd93c81917c451a0e7f77ad95b01878199c41344abc671.jpg No, it’s not Easter and these are not Hot Cross Buns.

    Just baked a small batch of pretzel rolls (recipe from YouTube) to use for some small “slider” hamburgers I’m making tonight. I shall form some seasoned beef mince into small patties and fry them in bacon fat. The bacon fat will be that what renders from a few rashers of my own smoked bacon, which will also go into the sliders. Some caramelised onion, a slice of cheese (toasted), and a few slices of pickled dill gherkin will complete the snacks. Tomato and lettuce salad on the side.

          1. I didn’t use a camera. I used me Mooble Fun (as the locals like to call them in Narfück!).

          2. I see. Next time throw a big black cloth over yourself and don’t expose the plates too early.

    1. It’s terrorism when it happens to them but just a minor incident when it happens to us.

    2. Far-right extremist – pissed off with having to wait six months for yer perlice to come round and deal with his burglary, I expect.

    1. Looks like a serious elfin safety hazard. Hope you taped the area off and called for the “emergency services”….

      1. To get there, I had to trace the steps I took as a wee lad on my way to work. Many years ago though, businesses expanded and the path was blocked. Circumstances have changed and it’s now a through route, although I suspect many people are unaware of it. A ramble through the brambles at the moment.

        As for the emergency services, it was so quiet I could hear the grass grow (until the fire brigade turned up).

  74. Second officer was poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury incident, police reveal. 15 AUGUST 2019 • 4:16PM.

    Counter Terrorism Detectives, who are investigating the nerve agent attack in 2018, have confirmed that traces of Novichok have been found in a blood sample which was taken at the time from a second police officer.

    The officer from Wiltshire Police, who does not wish to be identified, was involved in the response to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

    The Telegraph understands the male officer displayed signs at the time of the incident that indicated exposure to a very small amount of Novichok.

    Really? 18 months later? What does exposure to a very small amount of Novichok look like I wonder? Is it falling down foaming at the mouth or a slight cough?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/15/second-officer-poisoned-novichok-salisbury-incident-police-reveal/

      1. NICE Guidelines
        A therapeutic dose of Novichock may result in an adverse reaction identifiable as chronic rigor mortis which may last up to two years.

    3. I thought Novichok was supposed to be extremely lethal, hence all the hazmat suits and panicking by authorities. Don’t tell me they’ve been exaggerating….

      1. I must admit i did snigger a bit at their efforts. A picture showing people in hazmat suits and when you pan out you see lots of others who clearly don’t value their lives. We are so very lucky for that Police caution tape that sez do not cross.

    4. BREAKING NEWS

      Wiltshire Police have confirmed they will be carrying out random breathalyser tests to discover if there are further cases of contamination by ‘Novichok’.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2ec728faeab638b4466350456be99d51a055a8e987f7555b18b9690fba610b33.jpg

      Edit: Drivers are reminded that driving or attempting to drive while above the legal limit – in England, 80 milligrammes of Novichok per 100 millilitres of blood – is a serious offence. Upon conviction, a driver could get 6 months’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine or a driving ban for at least 1 year (3 years if convicted twice in 10 years).

  75. 6 pm. Time for my medicine. Cheers.

    I am glad to see that my eeyore persona has returned. Within two minutes of finding the creekit scorecard, a wicket fell…

    1. Amazing. No comments allowed on the far-left Illib Undem Grauniad. Why on earth don’t they want to hear from their fans???

  78. That’s me gone for what turned out to be False Assumption Day.

    A demain – if I am spared.

  79. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JYQ6eZDXXRE

    Digital Exclusive: Dr. Patrick Moore TEARS APART The Green New Deal | Huckabee

    Patrick Moore was a founder member of Greenpeace, which he says is no longer very green or peaceful.
    In particular watch what he says at around 9 mins in, i.e. that we’re actually in a CO2/carbon deficit, and we’re doing the globe a favour by releasing some of the carbon locked up in oil and coal. Plants require CO2 to grow. If CO2 gets too low in the atmosphere, everything dies.

      1. 1680 ballistic nylon denier in fact.

        The type anneallan wears when you’re around.

        };-O

  80. Just went out to give the ducks some cucumber as a treat and looked up to see 50 or 60 house martins flitting around. More than our local birds. I hope they’re not getting ready to migrate just yet.

    1. We’ve got at least one nest with babies still in it. I’m guessing it’s a second brood, but they’ll all be off soon, there’s not many around, so they’re cutting it a bit fine to get them out of the nest and ready to migrate.

    2. Where we live, it’s nearly time for migration.
      Edit: within the next two weeks.

        1. We’re in Gatwick departures lounge. Can’t wait to get home. Been an enlightening & miserable 2 weeks.

          3. Endlessly moaning relatives. Billions of people all trying to stand on my feet. Endless rain & wind. Broken hire car. Rudeness and aggression everywhere. Showers that drizzle, not wet. Houses with very limited hot water. Too many people at in-laws, nowhere but the floor to sit.
            Sigh…

        2. I think the choice of blue is deliberate.
          Possibly to remind BC of what Epstein had on him.

      1. I fear a swathe of unexplained deaths and some organic additives to concrete bridge supports.

      1. That is precisely what is happening to the human species: we are in retrograde evolution.

  83. Last post.

    Yer Porms tonight – a decent programme apart from a piece by a black woman of colour called “This Frame Is Part of the Painting” – which definitely means that it will never be heard again.

    Yawns – and returns to anaesthetic.

  85. There was a young lady named Greta,
    That thought that a bucket was better,
    No need for a seat,
    And just for a treat,
    She would wipe with her cashmere sweater.

    1. There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Bob, dear Bob.
      With what will I fix it?

      1. With what shall i fix it dear Sir Richard of Th Middle Park with what shall I fix it dear Sir Richard of Th Middle Park with what

  86. Just had a pleasant afternoon in my atelier getting used to my new studio easel which I only received two days ago. I have already customised it to suit my style [I’ve added three 1-metre long bars that I cut from a 10mm piece of beech to facilitate my patent maul-stick (hand rest) system].

    Once I’ve got a few more portraits finished for my portfolio I shall start taking commissions. The three on display in the first picture are still at the underpainting stage.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/99389500f3d153795ca878e0b2dae71ff0569957edb951deffebd38b19ea2733.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/37eab20046514ace5326eb9f361580239086d6246df340cbea8c4ba63ed7c313.jpg

          3. Thanks Plum.

            I’ve just entered my kitchen in next year’s event, although I’ll need to tidy it up a bit before the judges arrive.

      2. Nice. Do you have to worry about the colour temperature of the artificial light or is there sufficient daylight to not bother?
        (Sorry, technical nosy question)

        1. He lives in Sweden, posts on Nottle during the summer and then retreats for the winter.
          What do you suspect?

          3. I prefer to use natural light and reflect it. One of a dying breed. The effect is a much “softer” image that you cannot get with flash:

            uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b34db647987be5f612cfcefd3e79372d273b5e736f86f320a4da40394822ba3f.jpg

        3. I’ve just nipped down to the studio to check the rating of the bulbs. Technical spec: AIRAM LED Daylight GU10, 6W (effectively 50W) each, 980 candela, 6,500K, bias towards blue.

          4. The windows are south-facing but not very deep. I have lined both sills with mirror tiles. The sun’s rays (when out) hits them then bounces up onto the white ceiling which illuminates the whole studio.

            I’ve lost count of the times I’ve walked back in there thinking that I’ve left a light on!

          5. “I’ve walked back in their there thinking that I’ve left a light on!”

            Whoops-a-daisy!

          10. The windows in my studio are north-facing, Grizz. That way, the light tends to be more stable.

          11. The only time those south-facing windows present me with a problem is in winter when the sun is low in the sky and it can be directly in my eyes. The windows are old and manky (the studio has been a cobbler’s shop, a blacksmith’s forge and a cowshed in the past). When I get around to replacing them I’ll affix some blinds.

          1. Don’t let Grizzly know that, he has a bias towards the blue. (see below)

            I thought he was still a Brit, perhaps he’s now a swede after all that painting.

      1. I shall inform my niece that’s what you said. Be afraid, she doesn’t take prisoners.

    1. I remember standing on the roof of the south tower back in 1983. No one told me to look out for aircraft.

      1. I used to go up to the roof every time I was in NY. The view from the glass floor below the open bit always gave me the collywobbles.

        I was once entertained in the restaurant, it was grossly over-rated.

        But the killing of the workers and the wanton destruction is unforgiveable.

          1. I disagree.
            Get away from the big centres and I suspect you might feel completely at home.
            The American people are very generous, welcoming and interested in newcomers.
            I’ve worked in NY, Boston Miami and Washington and travelled fairly extensively around America, and my take on it is that middle America is as similar to NY etc as Norfolk or Yorkshire, the West Country or the Fells are to London.

          3. I’ve not seen all of the US, but there are some awesome places, like Yosemite, and most of the people are very nice.

          4. It’s a long way from the left side to the right side, though.
            And from top to bottom too, although not sure if anyone goes that way.

          5. My daughter in law and grand daughter plus dog are currently driving from Southern Texas to Detroit for grand daughter’s final term at college. 1300miles. 3 days it is taking.

          6. Lots of places very different from Britain – the Grand Canyon, Texas high country, Nevada/Arizona/Utah in general, Northern California with its redwoods, and so on. Some really nice beaches on the Atlantic coast, some with miles of sands and relatively few people even in high summer. Where we are the scenery is more like Scotland – but we don’t get Scottish weather, thank goodness.

          8. As we always say, New York is like any other foreign country…

            The really nice things about the state we live in are (a) spectacular scenery, (b) really nice people, and (c) a very low population to area ratio.

        3. Our company had an office in Two World Trade. Nice bar up round 78/80 as I recall. We sometimes used to end our meetings there.

          Had a friend who was consulting for a company in One. He was not feeling well that day, so did not go in. It did not register with me until the next day and then I plucked up the nerve to call him, not quite sure if I would get him or the weeping widow.. He was OK, but shaken to the core – as one would be. The good news was that the people he worked with got out that day.

          1. Horrible day. I suspect there were people at Cantor’s who I will have dealt with but I had not met.

    2. There was a comment from a guy who did renovation work for a council in one of those areas in the United Kingdom that is now “heavily diverse.” They were installing something and in almost every single muslim council house they went into, they found a picture or a poster of the Two Towers collapsing on the wall. They find it to have been a great event.

      Well… In islam a man is considered defiled and disgraced and cannot get to heaven if he is killed by a woman. They are so backwards… But since they do think that way, then they can look at this image and froth at the mouth for a while:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/732c06871f6b20256c30fcede3541c54c6d311534ea6c1f3c90b7cb78b4f0b41.jpg

      1. The enemy within, and never ever think that the crazies would not do the same in every country they inhabit, given half a chance.

        1. The reality is that the “nice muslims” are those who do not take islam seriously. They include a newsagent who sent the text message “I wish a wonderful Christmas to all of my beautiful Christian friends!” Only for him then to be killed by another muslim because he was the “wrong type of muslim.” The nice ones will be killed by the real ones. As for us, we inhabit lands that their little god has demanded they take for themselves.

          But when the British are attacked in our own lands, and we see clearly who the enemy is, that is when the other side of our character comes out. It is not the tea-drinking side either.

          1. I have commented many times about that issue.

            The loons in London assume that every “nice, middle class, highly educated, boozing, bacon eating” Muslim in their social circle is representative of the corps of Islam.

            They aren’t.

          3. As so many others are already on the sauce tonight, I’m off for a glass or 3 myself. 🙂

            Islam is a depressing topic, but despite the best efforts of the globalists, we have spotted what they are trying to do now. So they will lose and we will win. It will get nasty, probably, but there will be Bluebirds over those White Cliffs again. Our Parents / Grandparents had to struggle, now it is our turn that is all.

            Have a good night. 🙂

  89. I’m watching Animal Rescue Channel 4.
    Why do presenters talk down to us as if we are 6 years olds. it’s like watching Blue Peter FFS.

      1. I did.
        Idiot people buying a puppy online, sadly the puppy died.

        Vet said it could happen to anyone ! No it couldn’t it only happens to thickos…..who buy online.

          5. I did too. Her sire is Crufts best puppy 2006. Kennel club name Veejim Deltaforce at Taradonna. They call him Archie. :o)

          6. Nelson was Honeybears Special Brew bred by Carol Stuckey and sired by Crufts Newfoundland breed champion Honeybears Love’s a Risky Business called Risky.

    2. That’s the “O” level standard.

      The “A” level standard is called:

      Slaughterhouse Five.

    2. ♬Please please tell me now,
      Is there something I should know …      ♬

      Like … er …where am I? How did I get here?

  91. Good evening, Nottlers. Been a busy day here; Aircrew lunch followed by fund raising for RAFA. Have imbibed some fizz thanks to the second win by one of my (shared) horses in a couple of days. May fall asleep in the middle of a post … 🙂

    1. A win in a couple of days?

      Can we all have the name and the race, so we can put some money on it?
      };-O

  92. Just found this. They are related to me and they never considered themselves to be slaves….but they were..

    3. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, these people will be seen as the traitors they are to our country.

      1. Apologies for the scare, Bill. Spoiler doesn’t seem to be working correctly but sufficiently well to allow people to make a choice.

  97. Goodnight all. Just got back from a Curry Night with five other Wrinklies friends. Excellent food, lots of it, and only £49.95 for four people. (The other two ordered a la carte.)

      1. Exceptionally (for me) I just couldn’t do my usual trick of second helpings from what the others left. But the surplus food was not wasted. One of our number (not me) asked for and was given a doggy bag and plans to have the leftovers for his breakfast.

          2. Nah. My first wife & I (she was born & brought up in Bombay) always cooked too much curry so there were leftovers for breakfast.

      2. It always works out to £ 35 ahead round my way no matter what you eat or drink for some reason.

      3. Not sure what happened, Bob3, but I must admit that for the past 10 days or so I have been tucking into home-made rhubarb and blackcurrant crumble alternating with home-made German Apple Cake, both with lashing of fresh cream. So maybe my stomach could take it no longer!

      1. Nothing.

        May I ask you a question ?

        Why did he, through his reps, meet with the European Commission approx eighty times in 2018, and what is it in particular that they value so highly in him ?

          1. Why are the policies of the European Commission virtually identical to his policies ?

          5. ”I know previous Common Purpose Ventures have delivered some creative, innovative solutions to different problems and I can’t wait to see the ideas that are produced this time.”

          6. We’ve seen it so many times, the younger generations will not recognise it. But every politician that rises to the top is only allowed to because they are fully signed up to common purpose.

          10. After 40 odd years of voting in elections, always vote for the person that the mainstream media hates the most, not that they will be properly counted but that is all we have,

    2. To be honest, I prefer him in an adversarial role against some Remainer twit questioner than talking with 3 sycophantic pundits.

          1. I do too, but I’m slightly wary that the Nottle site might get had up for copyright infringement.

          3. I don’t know.
            I suspect that the cartoonists might be happy for all the exposure they get, but whether the newspaper is quite the same I don’t know.

            The cost of signed prints is somewhat high in my view.

  104. Not much been happening today, so I had a look at the media – the BBC, the Guardian, and the others that Google throws up.

    Well, in the States, there are two female Democrats -Ilhan Omara and Rashida Tlaib. One of these was a bit upset recently – she comes from Sudan and Donald Trump told her if she didn’t like the States she should go back home. You are not supposed to say sensible things like that.
    Well, these two, who have spent lots of their valuable time slagging off Trump, and also the State of Israel, decided to go to Israel and see how their BDS and venom were working, and do a bit more damage there.

    Unsurpringly, Mr. Nethanyahu has refused to let them in. The BBC and the Guardian and the rest are filling pages with support for the ladies,on the grounds that Israel is a free country and they should be free to destroy the place if they feel like it. It’s a funny world.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2fbe6a4543ec12aa87b615b00b7ecb17495a3da3e2b2ecba95da871bc9e9828e.jpg

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