968 thoughts on “Friday 16 August: By siding with the EU, Remainers scupper Britain’s chances of a deal”

      1. ‘Morning, Bill, I think it’s meant to be Auntie Jo Swine who has refused to join Corbyn’s GNU.

        1. Good morning all

          National joke day today… please groan

          What happened when the dog visited the flea circus?

          He stole the show..

          Boom boom!

          1. ‘Morning, Mags, if you must…

            If you buy stuff on line, check out the seller carefully. Be careful what you purchase on eBay.

            A friend has just spent £100 on a penis enlarger. Bastards sent him a magnifying glass. The only instructions said,
            “Do not use in the sunlight.”

          3. “A steel engraving of His Majesty King George V for only 10/-” A penny stamp arrived…

            Morning, Tom.

      3. Swinson….look closely at the saddle for a hint….ask the MR if you are still baffled.{:^))

    2. Morning Z,
      Im not sure I understand what part of the news this is a comment on and what it means.

      1. Everyone has jumped at the idea of Corbyn leading a temp govt. to defeat a no-deal Brexit, in case Boris succumbs to a vote of no confidence, but the Lib-Dems have rejected the idea surprisingly.

  2. SIR – A very astute and much-loved uncle once said: “You do realise that Proust is an anagram of stupor.”

    Enough read.

    Judith Ellis
    Burton-in-Kendal, Cumbria

    Yawn

  3. SIR – Back in the mid-Fifties, Lincoln College Oxford offered me an unconditional place. As a working-class grammar-school boy from east London it was a mark of honour, indicating that the college believed it had recognised exceptional potential.

    Today it seems an unconditional offer has become a mark of shame, not for the applicants but for money-grubbing, Mickey Mouse universities, which are greedy for the profits that relate directly to the number of bums on seats in lecture halls. Previous governments created this mess. I hope this Government will clean it up.

    John Torode
    London W1

    The Grimes is reporting that Mickey Mousse ‘universities’ are offering £4,500 cash to prospective students just to get them to sign up. Shut them down and send their staff to re-education camps so that they can do something useful for society. That’ll learn ’em.

      1. I hope you put some vaseline on those teeth. Don’t want it getting stuck, do we.

  6. Have you ever been guilty of looking at others your own age and thinking, surely, I can’t look that old? well…

    My name is Alice Smith and I was sitting in the waiting room for my first appointment with a new dentist. I noticed his dental diploma, which bore his full name.

    Suddenly, I remembered a tall, handsome, dark haired boy with the same name had been in my secondary school class some 30-odd years ago.

    Could he be the same guy that I had a secret crush on, way back then?

    Upon seeing him, however, I quickly discarded any such thought.

    This balding, grey haired man with the deeply lined face was far too old to have been my classmate. After he examined my teeth, I asked him if he had attended Morgan park secondary school.

    ‘Yes, yes I did. I’m a Morganner!’ he beamed with pride.

    ‘When did you leave to go to college?’ I asked.

    He answered, ‘In 1965. why do you ask?’

    ‘You were in my class!’ I exclaimed.

    He looked at me closely.

    then the ugly,

    old,

    bald,

    wrinkled,

    fat ärsed,

    grey haired,

    decrepit,

    bastard asked…

    ‘What did you teach?’

    1. I think I look about my age which is 73.

      However my wife, 57, looks at least ten years younger than her age and many people on meeting us think we are father and daughter rather than husband and wife.

  7. ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four is now a policing manual’. Spiked. 16 August 2019.

    The police had 30 tweets of mine. I asked the officer, ‘What’s the worst one you’ve got? Which one comes closest to the edge of being dangerously criminal?’ He said, ‘Well, there is this limerick’. I replied to say that I hadn’t written any limericks. He said, ‘No, but you have retweeted a limerick’. He read it to me, and I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’. It wasn’t even a limerick. It was a lyric from a feminist song. He told me I had to stop doing this. I asked again if I had done anything wrong. And that is when he said the immortal line: ‘I need to check your thinking.’

    Morning everyone. Well worth reading for the insights about “Hate Speech” enforcement or what happens when Constable Plod is required to become an expert on half-witted philosophies far beyond his ken!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/08/16/nineteen-eighty-four-is-now-a-policing-manual/

  8. SIR – If the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn in charge isn’t enough to persuade MPs to defeat a no-confidence motion, I don’t know what is.

    David Pound
    Daventry, Northamptonshire

    Mr £; Soros’s $billions have a certain, how can I put it, attraction? There are many Tory MPs who hate Boris; there are plenty of Labour/LibDem/SNP MPs who hate Tories; most of all, there are lots of MPs who are dumb.Let’s hope they can’t get their act together.

  10. Lawyer murdered by a gang of 17 and unders, so they cannot be named as usual.
    Picking on lawyers might at least see something done about it, I suppose.

    1. I first read that as a gang of 17 members, but you mean all under age. Terrible business.

      2. 52 year old lawyer at Old Eldon Square in the middle of Newcastle. He uttered the wrong words or something and they murdered him for it in the middle of the day.

  11. Good morning, all. Cool night – slept badly. Cramp. Now bright and sunny – and the weather’s good, too.

      2. I’m not comfortable with this strange use of the word ‘worth’ that the media applies to rain these days.

          1. That’s fine, because it relates to value rather than quantity. It just seems not quite right when relating to a month in the manner used.

          2. Au contraire, it does indeed indicate quantity, i.e. how many chips you can expect for a shilling.

          3. Hejsan, min vän

            You are missing Bass’s point. Yes you can have X number of chips for a shilling and that is money’s ‘worth’.

            However, there is no money’s ‘worth’ in the amount of rain that falls in either a day or a month. ‘Worth’ is an expression of value and there is no value in rainfall.

          4. Tjena! jag få inte säga mera på svenska

            I see it as an adaptation. How much rain can you expect in an average month (quantity).

    2. Autumn here in Norway – cool & wet. Finally got to bed about 02:00 last night. Retrieved cats from the Cat Hotel st 09:00, looking forward to extensive napping in the sofa.

  12. Message for Our Susan.

    Can you and your chums not do something about the idiots who applaud every time the music pauses? Drove me mad in the Elgar last evening…. Grrr

    Good morning to you in the Land of Beeb.

    2. Drives us all mad, Bill! There’s a pattern to it. If a movement ends quietly, the conductor can control them but anything that ends with a bang, the idiots applaud.

      Morning!

      1. I have a chum who sang professionally. It drove him bonkers when, for example, he was singing a Schubert song cycle.

        In the end, he would say at the start – “Please don’t clap until I have finished – and I’ll tell you when that happens!”

        1. At the Wigmore Hall the house manager will often go on stage before a recital and announce that the artists have requested that you reserve your applause until the end of the performance. It works well there but generally the Wigmore has a much better informed and more discerning audience.

      2. Good morning, Sue.

        This begs the question: If so many people attending these concerts are unaware of the ethos and customs surrounding the performance of classical music, what are their reasons for being there?

        Perhaps these are the same dangerous clowns who think it appropriate to wave EU flags (which should be confiscated at the door!) during the playing of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D or the National Anthem.

        1. However, it would be quite appropriate to wave the German tricolour when performing ‘Nimrod’ – Elgar’s tribute to August Jaeger.

        2. Morning Grzz,

          The BBC courts the ill-informed oiks very deliberately at the Proms. Come and enjoy the Proms experience for just £6! We season pass folk often have day trippers in the gallery asking us what time does the concert start, who’s playing and what are they playing. Don’t even get me started on their appalling manners. Talking and playing with their phones during the music etc…

          1. Heyup Sue!
            In the past the BBC did a superb job with the Proms.
            Sadly, those days died a LONG time ago.
            One of my regrets is that when I had the chance of getting to the Proms in the early ’70s, during my time at 36 Engineer Regiment in Maidstone, I never took it.

          3. Indeed, Sue,

            I’m afraid the deplorable general standards of public behaviour can be traced back to the post-war rise in permissiveness, which saw an exponential rise in a lack of discipline. bad manners, poor etiquette and selfishness. All this was promoted and promulgated by sub-standard parenting and abysmal teaching (aided and abetted by socialist governments), which are also jointly responsible for the plummeting decline in general educational standards.

            Thick humans breed thicker offspring. The thickest are yet to come.

    3. I went to a concert a couple of years ago in Austria, when the audience applauded (and with standing ovations) after every movement except one. Yet, I would defend it in this case. It was a double world premiere of a completed violin concerto and a new piano concerto by the same composer, who was also the soloist for both works.

      The second and third movements of the violin concerto had been around for a while, but the first was never quite good enough for a public airing, and so was missing for a couple of years whenever it was performed. At last, it was done, and we could hear the whole concerto complete. The first movement, an adaptation of an old viola sonata, was a triumph of the composer’s own development and had various novelties thrown in, such as a fugue passage, a primary motif developed from the bass line buried deep in the opening, and virtuoso playing from the soloist (who was the composer). We could only offer up our feelings about the completion of this troublesome movement, despite it not normal to applause after a first movement.

      After the interval, there was polite, but unenthusiastic applause for one symphonic movement from a lesser composer, which led the conductor to announce that the composer of the violin concerto would be back soon to do a piano concerto. This was a Mozart symphony, and this was Austria.

      The ending of the first movement of the new piano concerto was a piece of mischief that even surpassed the wicked humour of Haydn. There was a huge run-up to a grand climax to close the movement, only for the soloist to embellish an interrupted cadence with a flourish of grand arpeggios to such a bigger finish that a dozen of the audience were moved to applause… except it didn’t end there, and the orchestra finished the run of arpeggios on the supertonic and a pause. Then repeated it, before finally we got the big tonic resolution. The video of the event shows the composer at the piano chuckling to herself that she pulled off her trick on the audience. Another standing ovation.

      The next movement, by contrast, was met by stunned silence from the audience. Written to lament the death of a beloved grandmother, an Israeli concert pianist, about five minutes in we all got sucked in to the beauty of the thing. It ended on a simple bottom B flat, the second-lowest note on the piano, and nobody in a noisy Austrian audience stirred for 15 seconds. They could have been there all night in silence. The only person fit to break the silence was the composer/soloist, who struck up the final movement. The place to sit in silence for long periods is a church, not a concert hall! A piano arrangement of this movement was later used by then-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz for a Holocaust Remembrance Commemoration, in much the same spirit that we use Nimrod at the Cenotaph. He asked the composer to perform it.

      This remarkable concert is being repeated at the Carnegie Hall, New York on 12th December, except there will be a different symphonic overture, and the Mozart is being replaced by orchestral excerpts from the composer’s second opera, which the conductor Jane Glover conducted during a run of performances of it in 2017). All 2800 tickets are already sold out.

      The BBC Proms will not touch this composer. They say she is inappropriate.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os8fFmEmRZE&feature=youtu.be
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWlAgksUQyo&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2aun0kl-0q7xeKPdhXCNQ1oOq5sNuh3kznEez51e497_wOlYGT3H9aCco

        1. Not strictly Jewish, since while her father most certainly is, her mother is English, of Irish extraction. Jewishness passes down the female line, I believe.

          2. You are right – but it can be rather like gender – you can decide whether or not you are Jewish. A friend if ours has a white English mother and a white Jewish father. She is an atheist but thinks of herself as a Jew.

          3. I have a nephew and a niece with an English mother and an Ashkenazi Jewish father. The family celebrates both sets of festivals

  13. The EU’s latest assault on internet freedom. Spiked 16th August 2019.

    These proposals are worrying for several reasons. For one thing, you can’t have rules for the compulsory removal of illegal hate speech unless you have rules defining hate speech. At present, there is healthy political argument about what hate speech is, how to balance free speech and offence, and indeed if there should be any prohibition on hate speech at all. Yet the logic of the EU proposal is to take this vital debate out of the national democratic process entirely, and instead entrust it to unelected EU technocrats.

    I don’t like the way things are going here so I’m not enthralled by the idea of the EU taking over! The sooner we are out of this 21st Century version of the Soviet Union the better!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/08/16/the-eus-latest-assault-on-internet-freedom/

    1. But the definition of “Hate Speech” is simple.
      Hate Speech is what the person making the complaint says it is.
      Unless that person is an extreme Right Wing Fascist of course.

  14. One can always count on these 2 MP’s to come out with daft comment. Chicken boxes with a printed knife crime message on them are apparently racist

    Chicken boxes featuring warnings about the dangers of carrying a knife have been sent to takeaways in England and Wales as part of a government campaign.
    More than 321,000 boxes will replace standard packaging at outlets including Chicken Cottage, Dixy Chicken and Morley’s, the Home Office said.
    Real life stories of young people who chose positive activities over carrying a weapon are printed inside the boxes.
    Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said the plan was “crude” and “offensive”.

    The government has been accused of racial stereotyping. David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, wrote on Twitter: “Is this some kind of joke?! Why have you chosen chicken shops? What’s next, #KnifeFree watermelons?”

    Ms Abbott tweeted: “Instead of investing in a public health approach to violent crime, the Home Office have opted for yet another crude, offensive and probably expensive campaign.
    “They would do better to invest in our communities not demonise them.”

    1. Another Abbot tw@t tweet, “They would do better to invest in our communities not demonise them.”

      The demons in our communities have demonised themselves and useless idiots like Khan, Lammy and Abbot, just want to stroke their poor little heads and say, “There, there.”

    2. Morning BJ

      The twerp is actually stereotyping himself re the chicken shop comment ..

      Decades ago whilst overseas in Nigeria , we were all (Brit expats) invited to a brilliant get together organised by top Nigerian company bods (Oil) and some government officials.. A cocktail party of sorts!!!!

      The nibbles consisted of rather tasty cooked chicken bits ( the American way ) and maize , all finger food and guess who tossed their finished chicken bones and maize husks to the floor .. well, it wasn’t us ..

      1. They like to portray black people as victims. They are only victims of there own behavior. Look at many of the African countries and you see similar values and behavior there

        What I find strange is first generation s from the West Indies and Jamaica adopted British values and worked hard and were good parents and law abiding . The later generations seem to have reverted back and now in general are not hardworking nor are they law abiding. Why I don’t know. Possible some of the politicians may be part of the problem . Mp’s such as Abbot & Lammy

        1. I think the schools and community activists played a large part in that reversal of standards.
          They pandered to their own view of what was ‘culturally appropriate’ for their charges. In a twisted version of post-colonial guilt they thought they were imposing alien (white) standards.
          All the hard work and dignity that the previous generations had put in to escaping the fatalism of their ancestors was trashed in a few yers.

  15. Morning all

    SIR – John Bercow and his like are the principal impediment to us achieving a deal with the EU.

    Why should the EU’s negotiators agree to one when these people are supporting them in the face of our referendum result? Every time they speak out they are undermining us.

    Glen Pyne
    Camberley, Surrey

    2. SIR – Sir William Cash (Letters, August 15) exposes of Philip Hammond and the double standards he and others are using to stop Brexit.
      As Sir William points out, the leaving date is set in law because Parliament voted by a huge majority – which included those currently trying to sabotage the democratic process – to invoke Article 50. The choice in the referendum was clear: stay or leave. Leave won the day. There was no mention of a deal on the ballot paper.

      R G Hopgood
      Kirby-le-Soken, Essex

  16. SIR – The idea of Jeremy Corbyn being installed as temporary Prime Minister (report, August 15) is ludicrous.

    What does he not understand about the words democracy, minority and monarchy? He denounces Boris Johnson as an unelected prime minister, yet he would be the same thing. Labour won 68 fewer seats than the Tories at the 2017 general election; the reigning monarch is politically neutral.

    British voters do not want a Marxist republic. Mr Corbyn should resign before he is thrown out by his own party – or voters at the next election.

    Anthony Fernau
    Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex

    1. If Labour can assemble a bigger Coalition than the Tories can, then he’s in. With the Balance of Power currently held by the DUP, how likely is it that Corbyn can win them over? If, however, the Balance of Power is held by Caroline Lucas, he may be in with a chance.

      1. ‘Morning, Jeremy, I don’t think that’s quite true as, in the event of a lost ‘No Confidence’ vote the PM has 14 days to either call for a further ‘Confidence’ vote, or call a General Election. In the the event of a lost ‘No Confidence’ vote, I’m sure that Boris will call for a General Election, to be held on or after November 1st, as is his right.

  17. Right, folks, that’s me off now. I plan to work for 3 hours weeding the side garden (last major gardening job, with just a brief mid-morning inspection and tidy of the garden from now on until the onset of winter), then back indoors to await the arrival of The British Heart Foundation to pick up my old single bed and mattress, the new one having been delivered two days ago. At 2 pm my neighbour comes round with sandwiches and beer for one of our occasional chats in the garden, putting the world to rights. Then indoors at 3 pm when the heavens are due to pour down a deluge of rain for the rest of the day which will save me the bother of getting out the garden hose.

    And a sunny Saturday and Sunday to look forward to – ain’t life grand!

    1. Get Young Olaf and Grizz to do the hard gardening whilst you just sit with a bokkle (or two) of chilled white wine and supervise

          1. Now look here, OLT, I can’t be in two places at once. Either I stay on here all day and neglect the garden or I go outside to garden and miss your post! :-))

    2. Morning Elsie

      Happy gardening eh?

      We have a pile of stuff to take to the tip, non compostable hedge cuttings and branches , brambles etc.

      Hedge needed cutting 3 times already this year ..8ft high.. moh had to invest in a new hedge cutter , his petrol driven one packed in and pulling the cord to start it became an absolute chore .

      1. Our tip is no longer accepting the stones that proliferate whenever you stick or fork or spade into the ground. I’ve been told I have to take them to one of two other tips (none closer than 10 miles) and pay £2-50 for the equivalent of a small compost bag full for the privilege.

        No wonder people fly tip. I’m sorely tempted.

        1. Ours charges as well.

          We just don’t know what to do .. There are things that charity shops don’t accept anymore and there’s stuff that the tip won’t take .. How do people get by when they are sorting stuff out to dumb down .. Why don’t tips have a large paper shredder for getting rid of old paper work?

  18. SIR – You report (August 14) on the rise in second-hand wedding dresses.

    Unfortunately, my mother made my wedding dress into lampshades.

    Pauline Black
    Woking, Surrey

  19. Morning again

    SIR – The Labour Party claims the reason for its attack on the activities of grouse-moor owners and gamekeepers (Letters, August 13) is that it wants to protect the environment from the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of such activities.

    Logically, then, it must also be opposed to the erection of any more wind turbines in Scotland.

    A single turbine requires a vast hole to be dug to accommodate a base of reinforced concrete, delivered to the area by huge numbers of lorries along a hardcore road that is often several miles long and has been carved out of the hillside. The amount of carbon dioxide released in this process – let alone that of constructing and transporting the giant turbines – is incalculable.

    The Marquess of Aberdeen
    Methlick, Aberdeenshire

  20. What a relief.

    The chap who slashed a Home Office worker was just an aggrieved animal lover (he had his ferret with him) and not a slammer.

    So, just another far-right, extremist, deranged person of no religion. Makes you sleep easier, doesn’t it?

    1. Thank God he didn’t deploy the ferret, the police who arrested him had a lucky escape,

      A ferret down the leg of your combat trousers is no laughing matter ……

      (Bonjour, BTW)

        1. I wonder where our friend stands in the Scottish social hierarchy? Is he, for example, a laird or rather higher up the scale?

          (Apparently in the Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranks below a baron and above a gentleman.)

    4. This attack will of course be added to the burgeoning list of right-wing extremist actions and set against the ‘other’ list that we know exists but which must not be advertised.

  21. Boris Johnson is the EU’s nemesis. But could he be Europe’s saviour?
    Matthew Leeming – Coffee House – 16 August – 8:25am

    It is a curious and rather moving experience to see someone you have known for thirty-five years standing in front of that famous black door in Downing Street. The idea that Boris is a buffoon is ridiculous to anyone who knows him. He is funny because he has a fundamentally comic vision of the human condition, like many clever people. You spend most of a lunch with him laughing. But he is one of the cleverest people I have ever met. His staff at the FCO said he actually read what they had written and asked for more. So I appeared on Sky News a few days ago bigging him up:

    ‘Don’t mistake his comedic ability for incompetence. Yes, he can’t see a joke without making it (an attractive failing) but he is extremely intelligent. He can wrong-foot you in an argument very quickly. He will be a leader who articulates a vision and a strategy to get there and then hires and motivates very good people to do it. I think he succeeded in doing that at City Hall.’

    I have found that appearance gave me a lot of street cred at my local Wetherspoons, where I am now treated as a person of national importance. The same can’t be said for my status at an Oxford high table, where my connection to Boris has made me a pariah. Dons felt the same way about Mrs Thatcher, of course.

    I do not live in London but, like an anthropologist, make field trips into the capital, sometimes prolonged and dangerous, and talk to people – members of the elite – who don’t realise just how different their worldview is from that of people who live and work in the provinces. Out here, Boris’s views on the EU find a ready echo in ordinary people.

    The Establishment might better consider how their opinions have got so out of kilter from the rest of the country. Rather than blaming Boris and Leave for appealing to the worst aspects of human nature, they might better try to understand how and why their views differ from a large chunk of society. Hillary Clinton’s comments, that Trump’s supporters were ‘a basket of deplorables’, catches this failure perfectly. In a democracy, this has electoral consequences for politicians, as Clinton now knows.

    Boris’s populism (for that is how it is going to be spun by some) has taken on two arguments, on which he may very well be proved right. First, that the nation state is the primary (perhaps the only) object of an individual’s loyalty to a larger whole. Second, that Brexit is a huge economic opportunity.

    Nationalism is condemned by some as an outdated concept. It certainly can be used for harm and is a necessary condition of most wars. But what if Boris is right and there is no equally effective substitute for the nation state? Perhaps, like religion, it can show people at their worst, but it may, too, bring out their best. Perhaps human nature and the love that many people have for their country cannot be easily overwritten by loyalty to a twenty-seven member semi-democratic club.

    Those of us who remember the rapidity of the collapse of another undemocratic, economically illiberal and unpopular multi-state coalition in 1991 would not be surprised if the EU disappeared equally quickly. I am not suggesting that the EU is anything like the Soviet Union but it does share at least those three characteristics with it. All history tells us that multi-state coalitions are fragile things. And the Soviet Union was also the subject of quasi-religious veneration by some lefties.

    By standing up to the EU, Boris may show it to be the paper tiger that sceptics have always suspected it to be. For the EU, Brexit presents an existential crisis – if Britain leaves and make a success of it, it is the beginning of the end for it. Others will surely follow, as squeaking rats scurry over the side of a sinking ship. For that reason, they were never going to make it easy for us to leave and May should have been prepared for a battle to the death – which means leaving without a deal.

    If Boris can get us out and then call to that basic, decent patriotism across Europe – to countries, rather than Brussels – he could be a figure of the same international weight as his heroes Churchill and Thatcher, both politicians with a visceral connection to the nation state.

    We know that Boris has prepared for being PM by studying the greatest of all his predecessors – what better preparation could there be than studying Churchill? – and perhaps what he says, and does now, could lead all Europe into broad, sunlit uplands. I wonder if we are now in one of those tides-in-the-affairs-of-men moments? Perhaps these are great days not just for him but for all of us.

    The second argument that has taken him to power is his articulation of a vision of Brexit as a huge opportunity, a giant Singapore, a free trade superpower off the coast of Europe, with a free trade deal with America and a free trade with Europe. Remain did not have such a powerful idea – all those who want Britain to stay in the EU can say is that it’s not possible to leave or that bad things would happen if we did.

    I spent a year living in Poland with a fairly prominent continental pro-EU politician and all the arguments I heard from him were: ‘It’s too difficult for you to leave’, rather than any concrete advantages to Britain. Other arguments were silly: ‘When you reapply we will make you drive on the right’. But these suggested that Leave had disrespected something sacred.

    Boris started that lese-majeste with comic Daily Telegraph stories on the Eurocrats’ anathema towards wrongly-shaped bananas or their supposed attempts to axe the much-loved figure of the Oxford college chaplain. But if there are concrete benefits to membership of the EU to counterbalance its costs (and there are some) let’s hear them.

    Theresa May conducted a masterclass in how not to negotiate. In future, business school students (and I used to be one) will be taught her EU negotiation strategy in order to avoid it. The textbooks of negotiation tell you that you need a BATNA: the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. In this case, leaving without a deal. But while May said no deal was better than a bad deal, she showed no sign of being prepared for this and it seems that Sir Humphrey and the Establishment had told her that it would be disastrous.

    How successful a PM is is often out of his or her hands. If the Falklands had not been invaded, then Mrs Thatcher would probably not have won the 1983 election. She would have been a female Edward Heath without the laugh. Instead, she became a great figure.

    So let’s see whether events will fall favourably for Boris. But Boris does have the personal qualities that could make him into a great PM. He has what Aristotle called greatness of soul – generosity of spirit, a desire to believe the best of people, a lack of pettiness and envy which is rather uncommon – so I do not think that the greatness of the office will find him out. It will come down to events and that means luck.

    Does Boris have luck, the quality Napoleon looked for in his generals? Well, so far, yes. He bet everything on the EU referendum and, against the odds, won. He has the great good luck of facing someone as spectacularly unelectable as Jeremy Corbyn, just as Mrs Thatcher did with the much more intellectually serious figure of Michael Foot; both of whom espouse a political philosophy that, for most people, was proven wrong long before its final collapse in 1991.

    I wrote to Boris a few days ago to congratulate him. I finished by saying: ‘Remember, Caesar, you are mortal and all political careers end in failure’. But you have a hinterland, a life of the mind and, like Cincinnatus, can retire when the battle is done to the cool and solitude of a library in Oxford and write more books, although you won’t be popular with the dons.

    1. Boris is even more progressive than Tony, Dave and Treasa so don’t get all excited.

      1. I’m not.
        I’m in a wait and see more. I thought Dave might sort things out after years of Labour, and was sorely disappointed. I didn’t trust May any further that I could spit at her. Boris: we shall see, but I’m not too hopeful. He’s too flaky and pro-immigration, as opposed to a majority of the population who want immigration reduced.

    2. “For that reason, they were never going to make it easy for us to leave
      and May should have been prepared for a battle to the death…” What bit of “May never intended us to leave” can you not get your head round?

  22. Mid evening yesterday I listened to the interview of Dr Patrick Moore put up on this blog earlier in the day. A very interesting 15 minutes that revealed some of the very woolly thinking by both scientific and unscientific people who are driving the Climate Change agenda. Later on I caught a few minutes of Tom Swarbrick’s programme on LBC: he was discussing the Thunberg girl and what I heard from the two women gushing about this phenomenon, for that is what Thunberg is if these women are to be believed, was disturbing.
    One of the women was convinced that she, Thunberg,”Really knows her stuff,” and this got me recalling something Dr Moore said in the earlier interview. It concerned scientific achievement, qualifications and peer reviewed work: what scientific qualifications does Ms Thunberg hold and if any, in what discipline? In addition, how many peer reviewed works has she on her CV? If she has no rigorous grounding in Ecology/Climate science then it would appear that she is merely repeating other people’s findings/opinions; that is not, “Knowing her stuff,” anyone is capable of doing that (I know Ohm’s law and I am capable of demonstrating that it is correct but that is not my stuff, it belongs to Ohm). Now, coming up with an original insight by following the scientific method would be something worthy of praise.
    Another disturbing point from Dr Moore’s interview was his statement that climate ‘scientists’ are those that believe change is happening due, in some part, to human interference and scientists that do not believe that are not recognised as scientists but as ‘deniers’. This is very reminiscent of the Church’s, especially the Church of Rome’s, attitude towards science and the growth of knowledge in the Middle Ages and later. A very dangerous path to set foot on.

    2. Hopefully they won’t be able to burn us due to large deposits of post immolation carbon.

    3. I don’t think even Greta Thunberg claims she is either proficient at the scientific detail, nor has the knowledge or experience to be able to come up with a solution. She is a campaigner, a politician, no more.

      3. If true, then why is she garnering massive support and publicity? She is a tool being used (abused?) by people who should know better.

        1. Because the climate change sect will use anyone and anything to get their way, and for now, she’s useful.

          1. Need to be careful of that. The sect may decide you are more useful in getting support as someone who was assassinated by their opposition.
            Ref Saint Jo.

      4. Of course Thomas Chatterton succeeded, at the age of 17, in deceiving the literary world of the eighteenth century that his writings were genuine medieval texts. Peter Ackroyd’s book about him is well worth reading.

        1. Ah well, Chatterton killed himself at the age of seventeen when he was exposed as a fake ……..

          Keep your fingers crossed …. less than twelve months to go …..
          ;¬)

      5. She has been quoted as saying (paraphrasing) that the adults don’t know anything about climate change, and they should listen to the children.

    5. One point I took away from that interview was Moore’s assertion that we are actually in a CO2 deficit, after 150 million years of falling CO2 levels in the atmosphere, and that we’re restoring some of that by using fossil fuels.
      Clearly no-one on the “climate emergency” side of the debate understands organic chemistry at all. The real emergency would be not having enough CO2 in the atmosphere, which would inhibit plant growth, and therefore everything else in the food chain, i.e. all organic life.

    6. Who wanted the Climate Change Act and Zero 50 ?

      Is it the individual who has a billion dollars invested in renewable energy, and who is also allegedly sponsoring Greta ?

    1. ‘Morning, Sean,Talking of dates, I wonder how many people realise that, when Parliament returns from the Summer Recess, it will be on the date that exactly 80 years ago, war broke out.

      I think we might get a re-run.

  24. Interesting to see that Boris Johnson’s government is going ahead with Treasa’s internet regulation.

    So Boris probably means bye bye NTTL and might even make comment providers withdraw from Britain.

  25. £13m written off the value of public stake in BiFab

    The value of the taxpayers’ stake in the mothballed BiFab fabrication yards has been slashed by £13m.
    BiFab’s yards in Methil and Burntisland are currently mothballed as they battle to secure work on a £2bn offshore wind farm off Fife.
    Figures have emerged showing the Scottish government loaned BiFab £19m in 2017-18 and then converted this into shares in the loss-making business.
    But Audit Scotland has ruled this equity stake is now only worth £6m.
    Details of the loans to BiFab only go up to the end of March last year and the Scottish government declined a request from BBC Scotland to clarify the total amount invested in BiFab to date.
    The Scottish government pointed out the loans were used to try and secure the yards’ future when hundreds of jobs were at stake.
    A spokeswoman said: “The Scottish government provided a loan facility to BiFab to allow completion of the works on the Beatrice contracts.
    “It was agreed that these funds would be converted to a minority equity stake in

    1. Successive Scottish Governments have shown themselves to be clowns, totally profligate with public money. There is no guarantee that BiFab will get the contract against the foreign favourites. The Scottish Government should have whispered to the competition that they won’t ever get planning permission, that they will be impeded in every way, and to clear off.
      Can anyone imagine that the contract for a wind farm off Brittany would go anywhere other than a French company?

    2. Used to be called Highlands Fabricators, alias Hifab.
      Oil & gas fabrication is a fickle business that comes and goes. McDermott’s yard at Ardersier has been totally dismantled and all is gone. Consorzio ItalOffshore in Sicily is like it never existed.
      Who would take long-term investment (as oppoded to project-based) in so fickle a business?

  26. Tory rebels ‘welcome’ plan to install Jeremy Corbyn as caretaker

    He would head up the cleaning team at no 10

  29. ♪♫♬ Yes, we have no bananas♪♫♬ ♪♫♬

    Colombia has declared a national emergency after a destructive fungus was found across nearly 180 hectares of soil used to grow bananas in the northeastern province of La Guajira. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7358481/Fears-world-banana-shortage-Colombia-declares-national-emergency-destructive-fungus.html
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e65b0159062b93560c9dda71098338ddacdcd468ecc965dfb2d968a36884fd24.jpg

  34. You want the truth about Greta Thunberg, as told in a book by her own family? Here it is:

    Self-Harm Versus the Greater Good: Greta Thunberg and Child Activism Paulina Neuding

    Greta is eleven years old and has gone two months without eating. Her heart rate and blood pressure show clear signs of starvation. She has stopped speaking to anyone but her parents and younger sister, Beata.

    After years of depression, eating disorders, and anxiety attacks, she finally receives a medical diagnosis: Asperger’s syndrome, high-functioning autism, and OCD. She also suffers from selective mutism—which explains why she sometimes can’t speak to anyone outside her closest family. When she wants to tell a climate researcher that she plans a school strike on behalf of the environment, she speaks through her father.

    The book Scenes from the Heart (“Scener från Hjärtat,” 2018) recounts these medical difficulties and the events that led to Greta Thunberg’s now-famous “school strike for climate,” in which hundreds of thousands of children have refused to attend school to protest about government inaction over climate change. Greta herself strikes every Friday and spent three weeks sitting outside the Swedish Parliament at the beginning of the school year. Written by her family—mother, father, Beata and Greta—the story is told in the voice of Greta’s mother, the opera soprano Malena Ernman, who was a celebrity in Europe long before her daughter’s fame. Although the book is only available in Swedish for the time being, it is already being translated into numerous languages—a development that reflects the global fascination with Thunberg’s campaign.

    We are offered a story of “a family in crisis and a planet in crisis”—two phenomena that are presented as inextricably linked. The book posits that oppression of women, minorities, and people with disabilities stem from the same overarching root problem as climate change: an unsustainable way of life. The family’s private crisis and the global climate crisis, the authors argue, are simply symptoms of the same systemic disorder.

    Greta is not alone in her mental suffering, according to the book. Her sister Beata, who was 12 when the book was written, lives with ADHD, Asperger’s syndrome, and OCD. She is prone to sudden outbursts of anger, during which she screams obscenities at her mother. What would normally be a 10-minute walk to dance class takes almost an hour because Beata insists on walking with her left foot in front, refuses to step on certain parts of the sidewalk, and demands that her mother walk the same way. She also insists that her mother wait outside during class—she isn’t allowed to move, even to go to the bathroom. The child still ends up weeping in her mother’s arms.

    Like many parents of children with similar diagnoses, Greta and Beata’s parents fight hard for their daughters to receive the right care and assistance in school. When Greta refuses to eat they do everything they can to save her from starving herself. Her father begs their doctor to save Beata from whatever it is that plagues her. To read the story is heart-wrenching, many times over.

    And yet as someone who does not share the family’s political views—that the girls’ problems are inextricable from the climate crisis, and that the cure is to “change the system”—I wonder whether the world needs to know the intimate details about the lives of these two anguished young girls.

    Which brings me to us—editors, journalists, prize juries, teachers, onlookers.

    It has been less than a year since Scenes from the Heart was published and, during that time, Greta has become a global celebrity. This week, she was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time Magazine. She has briefly met the Pope, who encouraged her to “Keep doing what you’re doing.” She has received numerous awards, including, most recently, the German Golden Camera award. She has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She has been featured and interviewed in most of the world’s leading media. She has appeared on a panel with the UN Secretary General António Guterres, addressed the European Parliament, and lunched with the Financial Times.

    “Is Greta the new Che Guevara?” asked the German TV-anchor Maybrit Ilner recently during a TV debate about the striking school children.

    In defense of the excellent Ms. Ilner, she probably meant to refer to Che Guevara as a global political symbol. But the question is telling: Greta is turning into a revolutionary icon.

    Given what we know about Greta’s problems and challenges, is this an appropriate adult response to Greta’s school strike?

    It is easy to exoticize. It is easy to look at pictures of the girl with pigtails and see someone out of the ordinary. Someone—or simply something—foreign. German media have dubbed Greta the “Pippi Longstocking of climate change,” with reference to another Swedish girl-rebel with a similar hairdo. They don’t seem to appreciate that the girl with pigtails comes from a country where her peers look more like the stars of the Norwegian television series SKAM than Pippi Longstocking—or that the girl is clearly marked by years of self-starvation. Instead they choose to portray the child as a dated cultural stereotype, based on her looks.

    A workplace strike shows company owners and management that workers are able to harm them economically. A school strike, on the other hand, constitutes a form of self-harm, undertaken to attract adult attention. And the global school strike for climate is led by a girl with a long and tragic history of self-harm to her own body.

    In Scenes from the Heart, when Greta eventually starts eating again, she only allows herself certain foods. Her mother has to prepare the same food every day for Greta to bring to school and keep in the school refrigerator: pancakes filled with rice. Greta will eat them only if there is no sticker with her name on the container: stickers, paper and newspapers trigger Greta’s OCD against eating.

    “I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day,” Greta said when she addressed the world’s leaders in Davos. Given the child’s history of precisely that—fear and panic—the adult response should perhaps not be “You go, girl” (the words of Madeleine Albright when she was asked what she thinks of Greta’s school strike), but something considerably more cautious.

    Greta does not skip classes from just any school, but one for children with special needs. Many other Swedish families fight hard to get their children into such schools, because places are rare. According to the family’s book, however, resources will be ample for such families once we change the system—including, according to Ernman, “patriarchal structures” that she claims favor boys with neuropsychiatric disorders over girls.

    I do not wish to suggest that Greta is too young to understand the consequences of her actions, nor that the challenges she faces make her unsuitable to take a stand on political issues, or even to lead a global movement. No one who has heard her address world leaders in impeccable English can doubt that she is very intelligent. Ernman also stresses that her daughter has never felt better than during her campaign for the climate. Greta herself has said that realizing that she could do something about climate change has helped her recover.

    I am also not questioning Greta’s role as a public speaker, nor the power of hundreds of thousands of protesting schoolchildren, nor that climate change is an existential threat to humankind. But adults have a moral obligation to remain adults in relation to children and not be carried away by emotions, icons, selfies, images of mass protests, or messianic or revolutionary dreams.

    Greta was recently named ”Woman of the Year” by a Swedish newspaper. But she is not a woman, she is a child. It is time we stopped to ask if we are using her, failing her, and even sacrificing her, for what we perceive to be a greater good.

    1. From the description of the children, it sounds as if there is something genetically wrong with the parents.

    2. Good morning G

      That is an interesting article , but what else did we expect. Most of us knew something was wrong .

      I visualise poor Greta as the chief lemming .. leading all the young over the cliff .. muddled thinking and mass suicide .

      I wonder if Edward Lear had met characters like her when he penned some of his famous poems ?

      The Jumblies
      BY EDWARD LEAR
      I

      They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
      In a Sieve they went to sea:
      In spite of all their friends could say,
      On a winter’s morn, on a stormy day,
      In a Sieve they went to sea!
      And when the Sieve turned round and round,
      And every one cried, ‘You’ll all be drowned!’
      They called aloud, ‘Our Sieve ain’t big,
      But we don’t care a button! we don’t care a fig!
      In a Sieve we’ll go to sea!’
      Far and few, far and few,
      Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
      Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
      And they went to sea in a Sieve.

      II

      They sailed away in a Sieve, they did,
      In a Sieve they sailed so fast,
      With only a beautiful pea-green veil
      Tied with a riband by way of a sail,
      To a small tobacco-pipe mast;
      And every one said, who saw them go,
      ‘O won’t they be soon upset, you know!
      For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long,
      And happen what may, it’s extremely wrong
      In a Sieve to sail so fast!’
      Far and few, far and few,
      Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
      Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
      And they went to sea in a Sieve.

      III

      The water it soon came in, it did,
      The water it soon came in;
      So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
      In a pinky paper all folded neat,
      And they fastened it down with a pin.
      And they passed the night in a crockery-jar,
      And each of them said, ‘How wise we are!
      Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,
      Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,
      While round in our Sieve we spin!’
      Far and few, far and few,
      Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
      Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
      And they went to sea in a Sieve.

      IV

      And all night long they sailed away;
      And when the sun went down,
      They whistled and warbled a moony song
      To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,
      In the shade of the mountains brown.
      ‘O Timballo! How happy we are,
      When we live in a sieve and a crockery-jar,
      And all night long in the moonlight pale,
      We sail away with a pea-green sail,
      In the shade of the mountains brown!’
      Far and few, far and few,
      Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
      Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
      And they went to sea in a Sieve.

      V

      They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
      To a land all covered with trees,
      And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
      And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
      And a hive of silvery Bees.
      And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,
      And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
      And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
      And no end of Stilton Cheese.
      Far and few, far and few,
      Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
      Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
      And they went to sea in a Sieve.

      VI

      And in twenty years they all came back,
      In twenty years or more,
      And every one said, ‘How tall they’ve grown!’
      For they’ve been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
      And the hills of the Chankly Bore;
      And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
      Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
      And everyone said, ‘If we only live,
      We too will go to sea in a Sieve,—
      To the hills of the Chankly Bore!’
      Far and few, far and few,
      Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
      Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
      And they went to sea in a Sieve.

      1. Good morning, M.

        I love Lear and that is one of my favourites.

        [I wonder if that is because I, too, have a green head (pea-green: Lear’s favourite colour) and blue hands?]

    3. You’d think they would be more concerned about protecting the muppet, rather than exposing her – often alone – to the “great and the good” (sarc)…

      1. I would imagine, even in the socialist paradise of Sweden, there are additional financial burdens on the parents of two autistic children.

          1. Since Scandis seem quite happy to hand over 50+ of their earnings, I assume the family would be lucky to get £400,000.

    4. A well balanced family.
      What must the atmosphere be like at home?
      This case is like the mediaeval worshipping of saints, many of whom were stark staring mad.
      p.s. I’m no expert in the matter, but I understand the you do not ‘recover’ from Asperger’s; you and those around you learn to manage it.

    5. I initially thought that Miss Thunberg should be placed in an institution.
      Having read the above, and assuming that is true, I now think that she should be put in an institution for mad people.
      But that is not the real worry. From the date given it is clear that this information about her insanity has been in the public domain for year. Does no one do any checking of anything? No investigation? Did our politicians sit down to give their rapt attention to a wunderkind without doing a single background check?
      Are there any sane, sensible people left in the positions of power, other than our enemies?

      PS Do those the yacht know about all this? Can they cope?

      1. God only help the crew who will have to be with her for however long the timescale is. Those who survive will no doubt be given lots of money to state to the press a) how lovely Greta was, and/or b) how they have been converted to her way of thinking.

        I would lay a bet on this with anyone who is interested (as you know I never collect won bets, I just have the satisfaction of knowing that I was right!)

    6. “Woman of the Year”? Brat of the decade, more like. Those politicians who fell for her ridiculous nonsense look even more stupid than usual, and that takes some doing.

      ‘Morning, Grizz. We live in very strange times.

    7. I suspect that the climate change lobby see her as a type of Joan of Arc, leading them to a green victory over capitalism.

      When her use finishes after she self-destructs, she will be cast aside in the same way, and sacrificed on a bonfire of the vanities, to become a martyr and eventual saint.

      2. She reminds me a bit of Ruth Lawrence, the Maths “prodigy” who was manipulated by her father and ended up teaching in an Israeli University.

        1. Although not an individual, pe se, she reminds me of the apocalyptic secrets of our lady of Fatima

          1. These “religious” hysterical children – always female – were exploited by the church for its own ends.

            “Visions and voice” my foot! Just needed to be told to pull themselves together and get on with milking the cows.

        2. But Ruth Lawrence was actually intelligent enough to kick back against the manipulation.

    8. Look forward to boy Trudeau making a fool if himself with Saint Greta.

      Boy PM is in trouble this week after the ethics commissioner slammed his behaviour in the SNC Lavelin case that resulted un two ministers resigning. A nice PR shor with that Midwich cuckoo lookalike will go down well with his fawning followers.

      Oh the shame.

  35. So let me get this right – Remain ultras in Parliament want to form a Government of National Unity without any representatives of the 17.4 million people that voted to leave the EU?

    Maybe it’s just me…?

    1. If these “Conservatives” had even an ounce of honour, they would resign the Tory Whip – and their seats and cause by-elections.

      They are beyond contempt.

    2. Not just the 17.4 who bothered to vote but also the 13+ million who by not voting acknowledged that they would accept that result.

    3. And it was I who was chucked out of the ‘O’ level Maths class.
      Maybe we should add a few MPs to the list.

    2. What these appalling towelheads don’t realise is that, if they had attempted this sort of malarkey in the countries from which they derive, the PTB would have opened fire.

      1. Tsk, tsk, Bill, ‘towelheads indeed. I have it on good authority that the Muslim headdress rather than being a towel or a rag, is indeed a little sheet.

        As our American cousins would say, “Go figure.”

    4. Giving in makes it worse when finally something needs to be done. That goes for a suppurating toe to a rogue state – viz Germany in the 1930s.

      1. That rogue state hasn’t changed its rogue spots.The sooner we get out of its orbit, the better.

      1. Morning Bill

        Turkish army pension fund to buy British Steel

        Turkey’s military pension fund has reached a tentative deal to take over British Steel.

        The Turkish Armed Forces Assistance Fund (known as Oyak) said it planned to take control of British Steel by the end of the year.

        Accountants at its investment arm, Ataer, have exclusive rights to the insolvent firm’s books, so that they can examine the state of its finances.

        British Steel was put into compulsory liquidation in May.

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49368217

        1. “Cast iron”, Mags…think about it…. {:¬))

          I’ll get me Bessemer Converter…..

    2. Why would they be any better running it than the previous lot? China has overcapavity, pushing prices down. How can they strip a significant chunk of their costs out if operating in the UK?

  38. The other day, a ‘Professor’ called Frances Corner, had banned beef from Goldsmith’s college to ‘fight climate change and save the planet’.

    Last night the DT reported that the college is to host a series of lectures organised by the Communist Party of Great Britain.

    The DT article had a photo of the college. It has the architectural merit of a housing block in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and there is a sort of barbed wire confusion on its roof, symbolic of the need to impoverish and forcefully subdue the proletariat.

    People are allowed their opinions but when it comes to infecting the minds of young people with failed, brutal ideologies, I think that the line needs to be drawn!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/34c68f609cbe30cda254fb084159cf7e271a20afce9adfc204dfed56e3f1820a.jpg

  39. Is anyone else experiencing ‘white-outs’? That is to say that large chunks of text within posts just disappears leaving great white chunks within the post.

    With me, it invariably happens when more than 200 posts are open.

    As Wogan used to say, “Is it me?”

        1. I do, but it’s intentional since I have all the twitterati sites blocked. Same with facebook.

  40. We are going to have to confront the people that are tryng to destroy our democracy. Why can they not be charged with Treason, because that is what it is.

    1. Well, if they gave advance notice they might find the machines won’t give them any money, but just take their cards. Electronic controls, innit?

    3. Didn’t the Yellow Vests try the same stunt only to find the state severely restricting the amount that could be drawn which caused huge problems for everybody else esp. pensioners?

  43. The bad weather has just arrived .. raining now

    I expect the cricket will be cancelled .

    Thank goodness we got to the tip in time ..6 miles to Wareham.. everyone else had had the same idea .

      1. It was nice yesterday – Wednesday was wet but Monday and Tuesday were fine. It’s raining today.

        1. It was warm and lovely weather yesterday. We drove to York where my beloved found a John Lewis. ( I checked our on-line bankiing when I got home). She explained to the assistant that we came to Monks Cross (outside York) because the new store in Leeds was virtually inaccessable and you had to park on the roof.
          Why they keep building big stores in city centres is beyond me.
          It’s raining today. Where are the long hot summers of yester-year ? Greta is right. It’s Global Freezing.

    2. Morning Belle!

      Our tip is chaotic – opening hours reduced from 10am – 4pm, and closed on Wednesdays. consequently there are traffic jams and long waits. Anyone trying to get by without going to the tip just has to wait. It’s about the same distance for us as well.

      1. Morning J

        How is your invalid, is he coping with the pain .. and have you got a date for the op?

        ( I am not a bit surprised that people fly tip their garden rubbish ) We got to the tip early to avoid putting wet rubble bags in the car, pile the car up high , arrived when it opened , and the queue .. yep , bods had the same idea as us. Hedge cuttings do not rot down easily and we have long hedges to maintain !

        1. He’s a bit grumpy……… he’s now got a referral from the GP so he can have the surgery done by the consultant we saw on Tuesday, but he has to have another chat with the surgeon first, this time under the NHS. Then he can have the op – so no date yet, but sooner rather than later.

    3. Ditto up here.
      After a dry start the rain set in an hour & a half ago, though the worst of the rain appears to being falling before it gets over the hills between here & the Ashbourne/Leek area.

    1. How is it possible to have a ”Government of National Union” when the majority of peeps are certain not to want it ?

      2. Same way we can have a LibDem party and a Conservative party, neither of which lives up to or represents its name. As for Labour – possibly Benefits Party would be more appropriate.

    2. …and I quote:

      Meanwhile, the indispensable Sir John Redwood writes in his Diary today:

      “Parliament’s choice this September is simple. Does it at last want to do the right thing, honour the verdict of the referendum and allow us to leave the EU on October 31 as the government plans? Or does it have a narrow majority of MPs who want to bring on an early election, going back to the people and telling them this Parliament is not fit for purpose, can’t make up its mind and needs to be thrown out? Were it to choose the latter it will be a difficult task for all those Labour MPs who stood on a Manifesto of leaving the EU to explain their about turn. It would mean any Conservative who had helped bring about such an election was unlikely to run again as a Conservative candidate. It means the near certain end to the Parliamentary work of those MPs who defected from their original parties and are now in Change UK in order to try to keep the UK in the EU.” (link)

      The laughingly called Independent then asks, “Just so! But will his colleagues in the HC heed his words? Will the constituency associations of the establishment parties heed them?”

      Maybe his HoC Colleagues and the Constituency Associations may pay no heed but the voters will.

  47. Hmm St Greta seems to have lousy PR men,where are the hourly video releases of her commanding the waves,bravely showing her salt stained oilskins(sorry did I say oil) as she risks all to save the planet
    So is she just throwing up in her blue plastic bucket(darn plastic,awkward) confined to her bunk?? Did they forget safety lines so she can’t go on deck??
    It’s a mystery isn’t it………………………..

      1. But “good” (sarc) plastic, Corim….. Otherwise the muppet would have eschewed it!!

    2. Morning Sue

      I heard Stephen Hough on the radio this morning whilst we were on the way to the tip ..He played some Chopin.. He was also discussing Beethoven’s piano .. which weighed tons apparently .. How on earth did Beethoven compose , heaven only knows .

      I used to love Stephen’s column in the old DT on line format . We could comment and he would put some excellent examples up for us to listen to .

      The DT has shot itself in the foot.

      1. I heard him on “In tune” on Wednesday afternoon while I was driving home from Gloucester. Very civilised and a lovely pianist.

        1. He is very charming isn’t he , and brings in a different dimension to music, it was so pleasant listening to him this morning on the Today prog.. I wish he had been given more air time .

    3. Stephen Hough was being interviewed on R3’s breakfast programme, live from The Albert Hall, earlier and played on it for the programme.

    2. When Jeffrey thought this was bliss
      Hillary blew a death kiss
      You’ll soon regret this
      My husband will crow
      “I’m Bill don’tcha know?”
      Hyoidi kaputi, ho, ho!

  51. Climate Change

    These climate change fanatics the modern equivalent of the Sandwich board men that walked up and down proclaim the world will end tomorrow

    When you push them on answers as to how they will get zero carbon when our planet is based around carbon they have no answers so their claim of zero carbon by 2025 is total nonsense

    The other one they like is to claim sea levels are rising but there is little evidence to show that it is . There might be tiny increases in seal levels I some parts of the world but that is more likely down to population growth which causes trees to be chopped down and house build. If you build a house the rain is no longer get absorbed into the ground but comes off of the rook. Households also use a lot of water which has to go somewhere

    2. More likely to be land that’s sinking slightly than seas rising. In some places the sea level is either unchanged or is falling slightly as the land rises. It’s all a load of old cobblers.

      1. I’ve made a scientific test about this. I jumped into the swimming pool this morning and the water came up to my neck.
        Just the same as last week (and the year before).

      2. The UK is tilting a little every year. The North rises and the South sinks. In 653,000 years Kent will be beneath the sea, while Ben Nevis will become the highest mountain in Europe. Scientists are calling it the “Tectonic See-Saw Crisis Event” and are asking for £100bn a year to research ways of reversing the process.

        2. I believe Northern Britain is still rebounding upwards after the glaciers melted only a few millennia ago.

  52. Ted Baker dumps Debenhams for Next

    it is another blow for struggling Debenhams

    Ted Baker has dumped Debenhams for high street rival Next as its fashion partner for selling its children’s range of clothing and accessories.
    Bosses at the fashion chain revealed its Baker range will be designed in collaboration with Next, with the first collection hitting shelves next spring.
    The decision to leave Debenhams comes less than a week after the department store unveiled its new chief executive, Stefaan Vansteenkiste, who will start his attempt to turn around the retailer after it went bust earlier in the year.

    1. Why on earth would anyone waste their money on Ted Baker stuff for an infant to puke and carp over?

    3. BBC radio 4 Newa reporting that a 13 year old boy was among the 10 arrests. There is also a suggestion that the PC was run over by a car and dragged for a distance along the road.

  54. New Look becomes first fashion retailer to launch vegan range

    Just marketing gimmick really as few cloths nowadays contain animal products

      1. Lovely. Lots of sweaty nylon and polyester from oil.
        Or viscose/rayon from dead trees.

    2. Are those the ones who, when their eggs are taken, complain “It isn’t fair!” then say “I’ll kill myself!”

  56. Sports Direct closes 8 Jack Wills stores

    jack Wills operates from roughly 98 stores. The store closures are in Marlborough, Derby, Reigate, Rock, Tunbridge Wells, Durham, Kingston and St Albans.

  57. Mothercare in talks to offload UK stores as sales drop

    Sounds like desperation. The most worrying thing is the big drop in Online Sales. The store sales at least kept up with inflation

    Mothercare has said its extensive store closure programme has affected its total sales in the UK as numbers dropped 23.2 per cent for the 15 weeks to July 13.
    Like-for-like sales improved by 3.2 per cent, while online sales dropped 12.1 per cent.
    However, the maternity and babywear retailer is now reportedly in talks to sell, franchise or separate its UK store estate, months after striking a CVA deal with creditors that secured its survival.

    2. Unless Mothercare sell black nappies, black Babygros and black mini-burquas what else would they expect?

  59. Interesting. The muppet’s eco-friendly yacht does NOT come up on Marine Traffic….

    Perhaps it is all lies….

    1. As I said Bill
      “it’s a mystery”
      Transponder turned off,no hourly broadcasts from St Greta,I’d laff my socks off if they get caught faking it

        1. Oh Gawd not the first “Climate Martyr” please,not only the Nobel,canonisation awaits
          (It should be cannonisation see British Empire for detals)

          9. The 1935 version with Charles Laughton and Clark Gable was the best version, followed by the 1984 version with Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson.

            Th 1962 version with Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando was good but was shaded by the other two.

          1. Oh how sad…

            If I was sailing the Atlantic (a very, very unlikely event) I would make bloody sure all the stuff was switched on and working properly so as not to be run into by any of the hundreds of ships of all sizes playing their way hither and yon.

        3. What battery? Come on, man – this is a green enviro-friendly yacht. Battery?? That would mean CO2 (or suffin).

  60. Amid the first world problem of “Avo-toast” the ever sneery Guardian includes this

    “This is The Apprentice view of personal finance. The belief that “anyone

    under 35 unwilling to work 18-hour days seven days a week doesn’t

    deserve to buy a house” is more psychological disorder than reasoned

    argument. Millennials are no more self-indulgent than any post-boomer

    generation and as the prospect of saving for big things, such as houses,

    becomes ever more distant, why bother? Bring on the bottomless brunch!”

    https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/aug/16/how-to-eat-avocado-toast?CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium=&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1565949910
    Self indulgent twats

    1. Outside of London and a few other hot spots houses are perfectly affordable if they are will to make sacrifices to save up for a deposit,.. Most are unwilling to do so though

      In most of the UK you can get starter homes for under £200K. So 10% deposit is £20K . Mortgages with 5% deposits are available as well. That leaves a £180K mortgage. A couple say on £20K each a year could get a £300K mortgage

  61. What will become of the Tory Remainers?
    TELEGRAPH VIEW
    BTL:

    Carpe Jugulum 16 Aug 2019 7:23AM
    The behaviour of MPs and political parties over Brexit has been nothing short of obscene. The posturing and utterly puerile sophistry of the intellectually stunted Grieve, the cynical grasping for power of Corbyn, the calamitous ineptitude of Hammond and the destructive ‘points scoring’ between parties has established one absolute fact beyond all doubt, the MAJORITY of MPs are self-absorbed, none too bright pondlife. How else do you explain the abject idiocy of sending negotiators to the table and the other side KNOWING they cannot just walk away?

    The party selection committees must have scoured the gutters and then sifted out any traces of patriotism to come up with this shower. Out of 650 MPs, in a nation that relies on innovation, we have 120 lawyers and 26 scientist/engineers! Did any of these selection committees think, for a few seconds even, of National Interest?! Or is posturing arrogance the only requirement?

    It really is time for a clear out and Tory Remainers should be in the first bag.

    Finn MacCamlin 16 Aug 2019 7:20AM
    The Tory Remainers speak as if they represent majority opinion in the party. Hammond’s remarks yesterday regarding Boris Johnston were a complete disgrace. Johnston was overwhelming selected by the party to lead them – MPs and members had their say. The Europhiles in the party need to realise that they are the minority, they are the rebels. The PM was right to rid the government of them; now it’s up to their constituency parties to rid the party of them.

    2. Over 500 MMP’s voted for article 50 and what than meant was very clear. It meant we left the EU. It was not as many of the MP’s now try to claim conditional on a deal. WE would try to reach a deal but if a deal was not achieved we would leave

  64. The 3 Duds

    Having rejected Corbyn’s idea of him becoming PM they have come up with an ideas for the 3 Duds to form a government

    Senior Tory Ken Clarke and former deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman ^ Jo Swinson are prepared to lead an emergency government to avoid a no-deal Brexit,

    4. A few more points from the article:

      The skipper will fly back from NY.

      The yacht will need carbon-expensive repairs after its arrival in NY.

      Her return journey may be on a cargo ship – that is under consideration.

      The big send-off in Plymouth caused a big carbon footprint, what with all the monkeys’ travelling there.

  66. Fresh from sensationally revealing that Conservative Party adverts “were highly partisan”, Sky News Technology Correspondent Rowland Manthorpe has compiled a report on young people and political adverts. Strangely the only two people interviewed in Manthorpe’s ‘focus group’ are political activists for the Second Referendum campaign…

    Matilda Allan (titled by Sky as “Teenager”) set up an organisation called “New Generation for a People’s Vote”.
    Athian Akec (titled by Sky as “Student”) is an anti-Brexit ‘Our Future Our Choice’ activist and (naturally) a Member of the Youth Parliament.
    The other two members of Sky’s ‘focus group’ were cut out of the report. Presumably what they had to say didn’t fit the narrative…

    https://order-order.com/2019/08/16/sky-news-focus-group-stuffed-full-remain-activists/

  67. “We

    can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them

    for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the

    Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” Golda Meir

    they

    were brainwashed to hate since birth and now their families will be

    paid for the rest of their lives with foreign aid money / “pay for

    slay”.

    https://twitter.com/AustralianJA/status/1162154053532413952?s=19

    1. Reminds of a little while back. Forget the exact details, but a Palestinian terrorist shot or knifed two Israelis, and an Israeli cop shot the terrorist.
      The BBC reported it under the headline – ” Israelis kill Palestinian ” (or something similar).
      If the Palestinian terrorists had not been supported by the West from the start ( they still are, Trump’s just shut them up) maybe there would have been peace .

    3. Superb..

      Thank you for the link.
      I enjoy listening to BJ, but husband says it is like listening to the interlocutor who used to host a variety show , where everyone dressed up in Edwardian clothes , BBC Prog broadcast years ago from Leeds.. Leonard Sachs was the host!

      1. I do not deny that he was an attractive young man before he violated his body with those repulsive tattoos.

  70. I take it that on this Yacht going across the Atlantic all the human waste and food waste will be stored and disposed of in a proper manner and not just thrown overboard? . I take it the diesel generator will not be used as well

    2. Most yachts are fitted with holding tanks – indeed in some countries it is obligatory – Mianda has to have one.

      A holding tank stores human waste until it can be emptied either into the sea when the boat has sailed three miles away from the shore or in port at a special pump-out facility. In Turkey it is illegal to pump out holding tanks in any Turkish waters although the skippers of gullets (charter boats) invariably do so.

      Like many environmental measures the efficacy of this is very debatable: effluent that has been allowed to fester and brew in a holding tank for some days is far more toxic than new, fresh urine and faeces and anyway I very much doubt if the contents of Greta’s little plastic bucket will be funnelled into the yacht’s holding tank. Also it is widely reported that some marinas in the Eastern Mediterranean charge for a holding tank to be pumped out and then pump the contents straight into the sea.

      People are beginning to wake up to the fact that much that is done for the benefit of ‘the environment’ is a scam.

  71. More on the discussiin earlier this week about moving to Windows 10.

    Windows 10 decided to update itself on my no longer beloved PC. It started the update on Tuesday evening, it has been whirring away since then. I killed the update this morning then set the delay updates flag as far into the future as allowed.

    Updates have been nothing but trouble on my PC since I upgraded from Win 7 to Win 10. After this latest update fiasco, I wouldn’t recommend going through the upgrade until absolutely necessary.

    1. Having read what an intrusive resource hog Win10 is I stuck to Win7 when I bought my refurbished laptop

      1. Has anyone suggested a Chromebook? It’s not for me, but lots of folk looking for a straightforward device find them acceptable.

    4. Thanks Richard.

      I’m happy with W7 but my laptop is appx 6 years old so i may have to replace it soon…….where to begin!
      Any help much appreciated ….not a techy geek…

      1. HP. Stylish, pretty colors and everything one could want for £600 or maybe even less.

          1. That isn’t true. I’ve had an HP for about 4 years and it’s been great. No probs at all.

          2. I’ve dismantled more HP laptops than any other make. They are extremely poorly made. They often won’t even last 3 years. The fans need replacing often. The hinge brackets break. The hinges themselves snap. The motherboards fail at an alarming rate. There is no comparison between anything HP make and a decent business class Dell or Lenovo laptop. The difference in build quality is startling. You’ve been lucky. I could never recommend HP for laptops although they do make reasonable printers.

          3. Mine has had none of those problems and I know lots of peeps who have HPs too, all of whom seem very happy.

            It’s really solid and all the keys still work fine despite intensive use.

            So I don’t think your opinion is worth a bean.

          4. Up to you. I was an IT technician and have seen a lot of laptops inside and out. Still i guess you know more than I do as you’ve had a reasonable experience with one or two laptops.

          5. My HP has not just been ”reasonable”, it’s been great, and it was cheap too.

        2. Aye, they’re nice ot look at but the problem with HP is support.

          Being honest, these days a Chromebook has enough power to do anythinng most people want.

      5. Buy a business class Dell laptop or a Lenovo Thinkpad.

        There’s good deals on reconditioned laptops available. Businesses often junk nearly new stuff for no apparent reason at all.

        Here’s one such company… https://www.laptopoutlet.co.uk/

        Something like this Thinkpad https://www.laptopoutlet.co.uk/lenovo-thinkpad-t480-14-full-hd-laptop-intel-core-i5-8250u-8gb-ram-256gb-ssd-backlit-keys-fp-windows-10-pro.html?___SID=U although that has an 8th generation processor which is why it’s pretty expensive, but it should do five years or more although you might need to change the storage during its lifetime as both hard disks and SSDs deteriorate over time.

        here’s a cheaper reconditioned thinkpad with a 6th generation processor…. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-Thinkpad-T460-Core-i5-6200U-6th-Gen-8GB-Ram-256GB-SSD-HDMI-Webcam-Laptop/153444513162?hash=item

        If I were you I’d look for a laptop with a 6th or 7th generation Intel i5 processor, a 256GB-512GB SSD, 8GB-16GB of RAM, 14″ to 15.6″ full HD screen. Stay away from Compaqs and HP. Acers vary from cheap and nasty to very good. Most Lenovo laptops are decent and their business class laptops are superb. Dell business class laptops also tend to be superb. Stay away from Toshiba, they make great hard disks but lousy laptops.

          1. They are a solidly built business class laptop capable of doing most things. The keyboards could be a little better but you can say that about almost any laptop. If need be they are quick and easy to replace. They do tend to last well.

          1. My mondeo died last year after 18 and a half years of trusty service. I haven’t had a vehicle now for 18 months. I really miss the freedom of having my own car. Public transport is awful.

      7. What are you looking for?

        I’d recommend a Macbook air. It’s a lovely machine. A fantastic, easy to use OS.

        1. I prefer the macbook pro personally but they are both lovely machines until something goes wrong. A new keyboard is a 2 hour job. a new screen will set you back the best part of £500. Fixing motherboard issues is very difficult unless you are an electronic engineer. I don’t like MacOS although that’s just a matter of taste. The magnetic power supply is great, that’s a lovely touch, but a new charger is 3x more expensive than most other makes. MacOS also forces you to upgrade pretty much after the laptop is 5 years old, it just won’t support newer operating systems. Overall too expensive but does look rather stylish.

          1. I know what you mean. They can be problematic. I’ve USB C ones and there you’re constantly dongled, so another issue.

            On the chargers, peripherals and so on, yes, expensive. AppleCare is available though and yes, my HDD for my old iMac was £250 when drives were £30. Even factoring in £100 of tech time to repalce it (say an hour) that’s still offensively pricey.

            But, for build quality they’re really quite something.

            On the OS upgrades… my iMac did well enough up until the last but one and, really, unless there’s something you’re really looking for you don’t *need to*. I’d say it’s closer to 8 years and upgrades are free.

            Cost is the biggest issue but you do get a rather lovely device.

        1. The E6430 was a workhorse in it’s day but that day was many years ago. It generally only has a hard disk rather than a solid state drive, it’s a chunky beast, doesn’t have a HD screen which is important for watching shows and films on a laptop which many people do. It only has a 3rd generation CPU which are really quite old now and pretty slow compared to anything 6th generation and up which are common in a similar price bracket. It also has only 4Gb of RAM which isn’t enough for when the inevitable upgrade to windows 10 happens. Windows 7 will only get security updates for another 5 months.

      9. My first advice would be to go to PC World and have a look at a Chromebook. £200 odd and it *might* be enough.

        With a laptop, these days especially, use the keyboard, trackpad and what not. Is the screen big enough? Is text rendered well?

        Performance is rarely an issue but the UI bits are vital.

      10. Actually plum, go into your nearest John Lewis and try the machines out. Move the mouse about, bash on the keys.

        Visit here and say hi!

    5. Which update got stuck?

      You probably had multiple feature updates to do. They can cause issues like this when left.

      The remedy is usually to download the latest version, put it on a bootable pendrive and install it in 45 mins tops. It’s best to do this as a fresh install, repartitioning the drive rather than an over the top install. You’ll need to keep your data safe, it won’t survive a repartioning and formatting of the drive.

    6. Windows 10 made the mistake of existing.

      It’s a mess, as if someone took a cannon, filled it up with UI element and blasted it at a wall. It’s a complete mismash of designs.

      I gave up on it when it asked me about advertising personalisation. I asked myself why, when I’ve paid for the product am I being sent adverts. Disabling the endless telemetry is exhausting and means digging into the registry.

      Microsoft have forgotten the role of an operating system is to run programs and manage the system. Windows 10 is rubbish at even that. Try this: copy a file. Now just straight afterward, try to copy another, or open another window. It’ll stall, no matter how much power you throw at it.

      As regards updates (and not ranting) download it and install it manually. Windows often can’t stop the right processes to complete the work. Yes, it’s that crap.

      2. “It’s a mess, as if someone took a cannon, filled it up with UI element and blasted it at a wall. It’s a complete mismash of designs.”

        In what way? It looks a lot like any other version of windows although the start menu could be better, and I preferred the old control panel to the new settings app. There are options if you want further customisation than windows itself allows. There’s a whole host of 3rd party options.

        “I gave up on it when it asked me about advertising personalisation. I asked myself why, when I’ve paid for the product am I being sent adverts. Disabling the endless telemetry is exhausting and means digging into the registry.”

        Took five seconds at install time. No digging into the registry. No constant bombardments about preferences. Did you really pay for windows 10?? Lol!

        “Microsoft have forgotten the role of an operating system is to run programs and manage the system. Windows 10 is rubbish at even that. Try this: copy a file. Now just straight afterward, try to copy another, or open another window. It’ll stall, no matter how much power you throw at it.”

        That’s somewhat of an issue in any version of windows. Explorer has always been a very basic file manager. Install Teracopy or something else for better functionality. The role of the operating system is to present a standardised interface to applications and to manage hardware access.

        Windows is a general purpose operating system designed to run on thousands of hardware configurations. At that it does the job pretty well. Windows 10 is the most stable version of windows ever. It’s so stable it’s absolutely killed jobs in the fix your computer problems industry. And to top it all off after taking millions of dollars to develop most users got it for free.

      1. sos – I just checked on-line. You are correct – it is snot Smith is still in and has nine runs. However Australia are 4 wickets down. I thoght he was among the players out but the asterisks must mean the current batsmen.

    2. You’ll be castigated for giving away what’s happening by those who will watch the highlights later.

      1. I have given the wrong info as Smith is still in. I have the same problem with the F1 grand prix but actually I am not so bothered if I hear the result and can relax and watch the race [ procession] unfold especially when I know Lewis Hamilton is going to win.

        2. Hey Rik.

          Dolly is completely doolally. We go over the park and i throw away balls and sticks while she runs in the opposite direction.

    1. Chi Chi Izundu has just reported that there is a pile of something in the road – more to follow!

      1. Wire, copper especially useful. There are rules intended to prevent scrap dealers resetting such material but they probably don’t work

        1. Of course they don’t bloody work!
          All the pikeys do is load the scrap into containers and ship it abroad to be weighted in.

        2. When I live din the Suez Canal Zone – the natives were always taking miles of copper phone cable – the used a lot of it to make patterns on copper ashtrays (and other items) to sell to the, er, occupying forces.

  76. Delingpole

    To appreciate just how irrational it all is, consider, by way of a

    thought experiment, if a 16-year-old autistic kid with pigtails just as

    fetching as St Greta’s were to organise a global school walkout in

    protest at mass immigration; or the oppression of women in the Middle

    East; or the destruction of rainforest to grow palm oil to make

    biofuels; or the devastation caused by wind energy to birds and bats; or

    China’s abuse of Hong Kong.

    How many politicians do you think would be giving that child an

    audience? How many millionaire yacht owners would be offering her free

    trips across the Atlantic? How many newspapers and TV channels would be

    giving her coverage of any kind?

    The answer is none.

    That’s because unlike the fake cause being championed by St Greta,

    those problems are serious and real and intractable and contentious and

    not easily soluble by sound bites and vacuous, virtue-signalling

    gestures.

    They don’t suit the mainstream media’s feel-bad-in-order-to-feel-good

    fashionable handwringing narrative about the “climate emergency”.

    So any child — pigtailed or otherwise — who protested against these

    problems would quickly be crushed by the system. They would be told by

    their teachers — quite rightly, I think — that these were matters for

    grown-ups and politicians, not schoolchildren.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/08/16/delingpole-greta-thunberg-patron-saint-of-the-age-of-stupidity/

    1. Everything depends on the individual who decides UN policy. We know what he promotes and what he doesn’t. All events therefore fall neatly into place.

    2. “the destruction of rainforest to grow palm oil to make biscuits more cheaply and hence more profitable…”

      1. I made some biscuits today. Shortbread actually.

        I didn’t use palm oil, just bugger, [corn]flour and sugar.
        Oh, and chocolate drops of three types, honeycomb and some melted chocolate and caramel as the war queen likes caramel shortbread.

        2. That’s the way to do it! Recipe from the “Last Tango In Paris Cookbook”?

      1. You can now, apparently, experience the Dambusters’ raid in Virtual Reality at the RAF Museum, Hendon.

    3. Why are all these foreigners so interested ? Don’t they realise it’s nothing to do with Brexit or the backstop at all, but just about a self-aggrandisement exercise by British politicians ?

    4. Good. The sooner it comes around to realising it’s supporting Greece, Italy, Spain and France’s agricultural industry on it’s own, the better it’ll bring the EU down.

    5. But watch out for the WA to be dissected and re-wrapped and popped into some trade deal after ‘no deal’. We cannot afford to let down our guard after we think we have won. That is when they will be at their most dangerous. That is what happened after WWll – we thought it was all over and in fact only a battle had been won. Their plans continued, with the aid of our own government, in stealth.

    1. If you needed an advert to cure homosexuality and “scare people straight” that one would do it.

      1. How exactly does diversity – a derivative of ‘division’ remotely ‘unite’ us?

        I have nothing – not a thing – in common with a man in a wig and a dress with a moustache.

        It’s sodding obscene. I feel the need to wash. With a sandblaster.

        2. “Diversity” is one of those nice words that they use that really means “Ending Western Civilisation by stealth.”

          1. How do they get to ‘diversity is our strength’ when the essence of the word means to divide. Where is there strength in division? What a twisted world we live in.

          2. They don’t. It’s just a mantra they repeat that sort of sounds nice, which no one ever questions, and they never, ever explain.
            Diversity is our strength.
            Slavery is freedom.
            Etc…

          3. The other side of the “diversity” coin is to welcome and celebrate the LGBT etc. It’s ironic that one side of the coin would wipe out the other, given half a chance.

      1. Even the Lego model of that was sexy.

        I require 3. And some flying goggles and a leather hat.

      2. Blimey. I’d never get into ALDI’s car park.
        And there’s not much room for the shopping.

  79. I just wonder what all these politicians that are conspiring to keep us locked into EU think will happen afterwards if they succeed in getting their way.

    4. Their plans are to speed up the continual rise in the numbers of “visitors” to our shores, until their numbers are large enough that they openly attack and end democracy and impose islam. The MP’s allowing this to happen will have “converted” by then, just like that Blair female, so that they will not be attacked.

      Then we will have the demolition of churches and all other religion’s places of worship as they are replaced by buildings with a speaker on the top that emits a satanic wail 5 times a day to call people for their “daily hate” sessions.

      Finally there will be the destruction of our ancient heritage sites such as Stonehenge, Glastonbury Tor and the Avebury stones so that there are no reminders of what existed before islam. Just as they did to those Buddist statues and the buildings in Palmyra.

      Darkness falls and they dance on the backs of their new slaves. Democracy and our civilisation will be gone, but they will have the power over life and death that they crave so badly.

      Now here’s Tom with the weather.

      (That is what they want. They will not achieve it.)

  80. Brexit Party Candidates

    Brexit Party MEP and television personality Dr David Bull has been selected by his party to challenge sitting Conservative MP Dr Dan Poulter in the Central Suffolk and North Ipswich constituency at the next general election.

    The Brexit Party’s Nicola Thomas will be trying to win Ipswich

    1. I got to know Dan Poulter ten years ago. I was impressed. Is he really a wrong ‘un?

  81. May I recommend a very interesting and well-informed article from Brexit Party MEP Rupert Lowe. I am impressed by the calibre of candidates which Farage has assembled, a far-cry from the Lib-dems in drag of the current Conservative Parliament. The key phrase for me:

    “This is where Brexit is so positive for Europe. A country’s prosperity does not depend on the EU. That is why we in Britain must make a success of Brexit: To show the nations of Europe how they can save themselves.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/16/triumphant-brexit-can-spell-end-eu-showing-europe-save/

    Once again this nation has the opportunity to set an example of freedom and courage for the people of Europe to follow.

    2. “Once again this nation has the opportunity to set an example of freedom and courage for the people of Europe to follow.“ hate us for.
      I think that is more likely.

        1. Tell that to the lovely old waitress who served me when I celebrated my 21st birthday in the Beaujolais region with coq au vin.

    3. I agree. As one of the congregation said to the vicarette after she’d been negative about Brexit, “we’ve saved Europe twice by force of arms, now we’ve saved it a third time, by example”.

  82. Radio 4’s ‘World At One’ spent a great deal of time on the Irish border. Unsurprisingly, the presenter and other interviewers failed properly to challenge the speakers on why calamity is likely to follow when the UK leaves the EU. Too many of these speakers talked (or at least hinted) of the return of violence. Perhaps I missed the moment when they explained quite why that will happen. The final contributor at least spoke of special arrangements, an acknowledgement that while there will be changes, there will not be ditches, fences of barbed wire, gun towers and 2-hour delays to cross the border.

    And yet…’World At One’ was followed by part 5 of ‘Breakdown’, a series of short programmes on the how ‘The Troubles’ began in 1969 and what followed. The narrator told us that even after all this time, Protestants still get preference for social housing and schools are still segregated. We know there is still a low-level of paramilitary activity. Is Blair’s wonderful Good Friday Surrender Agreement little more than a prolonged armistice?

    1. Nothing that Blair put in train was for the long term good of Britain or its peoples, does that answer your question?

        1. You do realise that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction pointing directly at us ?

          1. Ready to fire at 45 minutes notice. Gosh, we were lucky that Bliar and Campball (sic) were so switched on….

        2. His spin-doctors created a good headline from every bad policy.
          Blair was a snake that sold its own oil.

    2. It was a one-sided amnesty for some of the most despicable crimes.

      Your point about interviewers failing to challenge why, precisely, a no-deal would be “catastrophic” Is well made. In fact, I have yet to hear such a challenge made by any broadcaster. Very convenient…let them make extreme statements and trust that the message will sink in.

  83. Latest studies show that the greatest driver of man made climate change is UN climate science grants and book deal fiscal flow…….

    The faster the financial flow, the faster temperatures rise.. so it does look as though the solution to climate change is to close down the UN altogether.

    2. With so much poverty there’s got to be a pattern.

      With such massive division of wealth, opportunity and outcome, there’s got to be a reason.

      I’d bet those reasons are… a Democrat administration.

      1. Camden, New Jersey (where this photo was taken) has been a dump since the days of Chairman Mao. Anyone with a decent job or income left a very long time ago.

      3. t’Lad & SaH the Younger are members of The Numbskulls Motorcycle Club hosting their first ever Motorbike Rally this weekend.
        Not a good one so far.

        1. My father forced me to join the junior school camping club – I hated it.

          But later on in my 20s I enjoyed holidays in Europe with a tent.

  86. Ten people have been arrested following the death of a police officer who was dragged some distance by a car involved in a reported burglary in Berkshire.

    Pc Andrew Harper, a traffic officer, and a fellow policeman had been called to the burglary on Thursday night before the “serious incident” about 11.30pm near the A4, Bath Road, between Reading and Newbury.

    Pc Harper was struck by the car and then dragged by the vehicle for some distance before being hit by another car.

    Thames Valley Police said 10 boys and men aged between 13 and 30 have been arrested on suspicion of murder and remain in custody at various police stations in the force area.

    Give me a loaded Kalashnikov and put me in a locked room with the bastards.

    2. Meanwhile the 2 17-yos suspected of stabbing 52-yo solicitor with a screwdriver have been retained in custody but the other gang members have allowed to go free without charge.

    3. Time to throw away the nice-guy methods and introduce harsh punishments for crimes like this, Pour encourager les autres, as Paddy would probably say.

    4. Thames Valley Police “please don’t speculate on the offenders”
      aaaaaaaaand it’s Pikeys

    5. Report today that the Swedish habit of blowing the place up is now established in Copenhagen.
      It’s what happens if there is no effective consequences applied to the perps. More and more join in, and it gets worse and worse.
      My condolences to Constable Harper’s family and colleagues. What a waste.
      Edit: just read he was newly wed. That’s awful.

  87. s this a joke?

    Apparently in a Maths exam a 35% mark can get you a B grade. In my day that would have been an abysmal FAIL

      2. Will she still be promoting paedophilia with PIE and be reopening her plan to reduce the age of sexual consent to 10? Will Patricia Hewitt be called in to help with the campaign?

    1. Any chance of seeing it on prime-time BBC ( like we used to see May’s lying face every five minutes ? ).

    2. Probably because the novelty of giving your money to the government for an indeterminate period more or less interest free with a million to one chance of winning ten quid, has gone away.

      1. It’s a nice litttle earner for the government and you get your stake money back. Better than the lottery…

        1. Forty-odd years ago everyone rich or poor used to buy a fiver’s worth of bonds in the name of the new born baby.
          At the last count 0.00737 per cent of the recipients were aware of their existence, and the fivers have long since been spent on M.P.’s expenses and other necessities.

      2. If you have the full whack of £50000 bonds you will get several prizes of at least £25/annum and a chance to win £1million.The Prize pool is related to the Interest Rate . AS far as I know the money is safe and you can withdraw it and have it in your bank account within a few days.

          2. A mistress is what comes between a mister and a mattress.

            She offered her honour,
            He honoured her offer,
            For the rest of the night,
            He was honour and offer!

          4. Match an oldie with another oldie:

            Adolescence is the time between childhood and adultery.

          10. No joke. At one time, all the cash traders with ” undeclared cash ” used to invest their untaxed funds in Premium Bonds because there was no interest to be declared on their tax returns, and in the absence of computer technology, there was no way the Revenue could catch them.

        2. Introduced as one for the masses; now for the ones with the cash. As Jeremy Corbyn would say, great Tory thinking.
          Seriously though, it was and is just another political swindle designed to extract cash from the gambling instinct that most of us have to one degree or another.

        4. I have had only one losing month this year. It was £25 this month. Better than bank interest rates.

  94. Postboxes sealed up over ‘security fears’ after postman loses keys

    The 10 boxes on Canvey Island, in Essex, have been taken out of use following concerns that the original keys could be used to gain access

    to public mail.

    A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said new keys were “on order” and apologised for any inconvenience caused while the firm awaits replacements.

    The Telesubbie who cleared this article has not noticed his disease has spread to the Post Office

    The boxes need NEW LOCKS

    I despair

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/16/postboxes-sealed-security-fears-postman-loses-keys/

  95. Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis , and Arnold Schwarzenegger are making a movie about classical composers.
    Sylvester Stallone said, “I’ll be Mozart ”

    Bruce Willis , “So.. I’ll be Beethoven.”

    Schwarzenegger announced , “in that case.. I’ll be Bach .”🎶#NationalTellajokeday

  96. Rather like the way the colour drains from Bercow’s face in today’s picture when I place mouse pointer over it. Can’t wait for when it happens for real!

    1. Next frame is where the bluebottle flies straight through that open mouth, and he chokes ………

      2. They should stop selling chicken and ice-creams to fat kids and do what the Liverpool ice-cream vans do and sell them drugs instead.

  98. Doesn’t look as though there will be any more creekit today.

    To rub your noses – have just returned from the potager where I watered the trombetti.

    33ºC. Almost no breeze, Glass of anaesthetic urgently needed!

    1. Beeboid magic.

      Now, dear, tell us old men exactly what you did. Very slowly…{:¬)))

      1. A Conservative Woman article about A levels, grade inflation and universities lowering standards. I began reading but got distracted by the stuff I’m actually paid to do…

        1. Put a comment on the new site.
          Wait until someone upticks it or responds.
          Go to the top of the comments bit of the page
          on the right side is your ID with a speech bubble next to it
          Click on the speech bubble and your notifications appear
          Go to one of your comments, click in the comment text and the “blue page” should appear.

          Works for me!

  100. Greetings from a very wet Milford on Sea, where I’m having to shelter from the horizontal rain in a micropub called ‘The Wash House’. Good job it was here. I might have to wait until the rain desists, sampling the local ales on offer. What a bummer.

    2. What I you doing in Milford-on-Sea? Ar4e you local?

      My parents lived for many years in the Lymore Valley and had a cottage in Agarton Lane; we kept out boats on a mooring in the Keyhaven River.

      1. Have been visiting my mother today. No, I’m not local. Been sorting out a few things and needed (a) a beer or two and (b) to get out of the rain. I used to go in ‘The Gun’ at Keyhaven but this is better.

          1. I had it in my sights for some time. I’m not sure what triggered it, but I took stock of the situation and bit the bullet. It’s your round!

    3. 33ºC in Laure. Rain? What’s rain??

      Nice 5 bedroom house for sale for the price of a shed in Dordogneshire……

      Just saying…

        1. Ignore him. He’s being rude about where I live because it’s a better part of France. Think Warrington v. Windsor.

          2. 31C tomorrow at home, although I will have to return to a chilly 30C on Sunday. It’s 18C here right now, good beer drinking weather. And don’t call me a Little Englander.

          3. Truth hurts, eh? I expect you are pals with Dominant Grievous…!!

            (Only joking)….

        2. Laure Minervois

          An hour from the sea; 1½ hours from some of the finest wine producers in Catalunya.

          Five beds; four reception; two kitchens; one bath; two showers; 4 loos. Extensive terraces; CH. Well. 35 mega broadband.
          GP; pharmacie; brilliant primary school; excellent butcher – fabulous cheese expert; grocery; garage,. Largest wine co-op in the south of France and two independent wine makers – all within walking distance.

          At the knock down price of €170,000. Your call is important to us…

          3. I was on the verge of putting in an offer until you told me that a KFC exists in France.

    7. It hammered down the day before yesterday so I took shelter in a bookshop – BIG mistake! 🙂


  102. Cyclist blames driver for crash

    Well of course it is the motorist fault he should have anticipated it !!!

    A reckless cyclist blamed a driver for a crash after he tried to undertake him through a narrow gap between his car and a lorry while performing a wheelie.
    In an angry road rage clash, the cyclist is seen trying to weave his bike through the small space in busy traffic.

    One of the youths can be heard shouting “what the f*** are you doing?” at the driver.

    As he emerges from his vehicle, the group repeatedly shout at him to move his car out of the way.

    1. The cyclist always wins. One of that breed tried to overtake my wife on the left while she was turning a corner ( and signalling ).
      He ( predictably ) fell off his bike. Guess whose fault it was.

      I hate cyclists. They are an abomination unto the Lord and should be banned. Cycle lanes could be converted for herding sheep.

  103. Is there any way of getting rid of the ghastly photo that appears at the top of the forum each morning?

    Seeing Bercough so large and brash makes me feel ill.

          1. When you have done all the things I have done today, out and about, being indoors with a glass of red medicine is just a treat. And to get out of the sun, of course. The muppet appears to have stopped sunshine in yer England.

    2. Try clicking on ‘Not the Telegraph Letters’ at the top of the Disqus section, and if there is a subwindow, click on it again. You should then get the Bercow-free Disqus version.

          1. You are right to point that out. Doppelgängerin is the female form, but in this case I didn’t want to confuse the issue, but perhaps that’s just what I’ve done.

            Du kannst mir weiterhin vertrauen.

          3. I have no idea what “weiterhin vertrauen” means, but if you must engage in strange practices with corimmobile, kindly do it in private behind the bike sheds and don’t lower the tone here in NoTTL-land. :-))

    4. You’re not the only one, Plum-Tart. I too am her spitting image – apart from the waistline, that is. :-))

  105. Boris may be faced to expel Tory rebels from the party

    It will be a last resort with a razor thin majority but it may come to that

      1. With yet more sherry?

        Do you always drink the same sort – or do you have a preferred range?

        Can’t remember the last time I had sherry – must have been before 1988.

          1. Sherry had a brief revival a few years ago but Prosecco took over and gin is now the ‘in’ drink.

        2. Liddle’s finest full cream over ice …..

          Wine is fatal, often tempting to finish off the bottle……not a good look…

      2. Snap also but with chicken, assorted veg and sliced trombetti with a drizzle of sesame oil. It is yummy.

    1. Remember, it’s not what it is. It’s what it is used for. New version Ponzi scheme for investors to get caught out in.

      1. Catching falling knives can be quite profitable with the right timing. Of course you have to work at it.

      2. For something to be a currency. It has to have stability n it has to be widely accepted and it has to be safe. Bitcoin fails on all three of those test

        In my view it is a variant of Pyramid selling

          1. Very similar. A Pyramid scheme tends to be a selling scam where each person recruited has to sell and recruit more people and so on

            So other than a Pyramid scheme being more a sales based and more structured there is not a great deal of difference as the result is pretty much the same

        2. It’s safe – but I fully accept the term is mutable depending on intent. It uses blockchain.

          interestingly, this was the very technology that Maersk presented to the treasury and customs to manage the border issues the EU was trying to present. Government, because it is staffed with morons who like inefficiency, ignored the proposal in favour of a physical border and paper. Again, because they like inefficiency and are morons.

  108. Newspaper Circulation fall across the board

    One wonders how long some of them will continue to sell printed papers. The economics cannot be that good

    Only 4 have circulations above 1 Million. They are :=

    Metro – 1,424,168
    Sun – 1,265,990
    Daily Mail – 1,164,319
    Sun on Sunday – 1,067,86

    The bottom 4 are :-

    Sunday Mail – 111,909
    Daily Record – 110,415
    Sunday Post – 95,015
    City AM – 76,804

    1. I long for the failure of the Guardian, that wicked paper which promotes lies and forbids debate.

    3. in the U.S., CNN, once respected as a news station, now gets fewer viewers than the Food Network, or Shark Week on Discovery. It’s ratings have tanked after 3 years of Russiagate hysteria.
      Rachel Maddow’s ratings have also tanked since the Mueller report. She was another presenter who endlessly promoted the Russian collusion story.
      It’s good to see the left-wing media disappearing up its own rear end.

  109. Apropos the death of the young policeman – I just hope and pray that the ludicrous CPS doesn’t “down grade” the charges to “causing death by dangerous driving”.

    1. And it used to be a very prosperous African country well until it became Independent

      1. We have a lot in common. Our Unilateral Declaration of Independence comes in on 31st October.

      2. There is no point whatever in our continued interest in Zimbabwe. This is a wealthy country exploited by a cabal of corrupt tribal politicians who care nothing for the people. It was ever so.

        1. At least the White Rhodesians cared for the Black population and tried to educate them to take over ruling the country.
          Sadly, the UN and global cognoscenti had other ideas and pulled the plug 50y early.

    5. “Mr Mnangagwa, 77, came to power with promises of sweeping political and economic reforms.

      But now his government is widely viewed as an extension of Mr Mugabe’s economic mismanagement and even more heavy-handed on security, according to human rights groups.”

      Meet the new boss.
      Same as the old boss.

  111. Climate change activists are among 1,130 people arrested during two weeks of civil disobedience in April, which brought central London to a standstill.
    The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) took the controversial decision to charge those all of those arrested – the majority for suspected breaches of the Public Order Act of 1986.

  114. Ferguson shipyard nationalised by Scottish government

    Well not really. If no buyer is found the Scottish government will buy the yard and they will have to buy it at an economic price of the EU will be after them

    The yard has little real work one the current ships are delivered. Currently they are in dispute with the Scottish government

    1. The problem as ever is that the vessels commissioned by Caledonian McBrayne are costing twice the contract cost. Whether this is because of design changes or whether the result of Union practises is unclear at present.

      The QE2 was a procurement disaster built in Glasgow, walk outs and go slow practises plus poor workmanship. Thereafter the Cunard company bought its ships from St Nazaire in France and Venice.

      1. Changes to specification. Instead of traditional coalfired boilers, CalMac decided on cold fusion turbines, after building was well under way.

        1. Cripes. I had no idea the technology was available and in production. Coal fired boilers have been a thing of the past for decades as you will know. You are presumably attempting some wind up of sorts.

          Edit: The vessels were specified as dual fuel viz. diesel or liquified gas.

          1. Yes, the kevlar sails are used to wind up clockwork mechanisms that manage the fusion processes.

  115. Dominic Grieve: I don’t want to put Jeremy Corbyn into No 10

    Dominic Grieve has said he would not facilitate putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street, saying his intention is to meet the Labour leader to talk only about possible mechanisms to stop no deal.

      1. Or, more likely, “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” along with “what’s in it for me, then?”

        1. Know that feeling.

          Only this morning I reversed out and ended up going down my culdesac rather than out of it.

          3. Makes no difference, it’s still up a cul-de-sac, like up & down trains to & from London.

          4. And just where is that defined?

            It sounds more like an urban myth.

            If anything, because it means bottom of the sack, one should go down them.

    3. I watched that programme when it was first broadcast in 1968. The Royal Border Bridge featured prominently in the trip as water levels dropped. I also remember that day. It was a Wednesday, 1st May.

      Unfortunately I was stuck in school when it went north about three miles away from me. I was spitting.

      There was another run, this time southbound, but not non-stop on Saturday the 4th. I was there for that one. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bc991769d647ae6bb8b1e4e3e44060addc98901b65e8e9b2e64a63a0149c853a.jpg

  119. Evening, all. Been a really miserable day here; wet, cold, dark and depressing. Hope Nottl will be a beacon of light to shine in the darkness 🙂

  120. Is this a wind up ?

    Public toilets in Porthcawl South Wales will include design features to prevent Vandalism, Rough Sleepers & Sexual Activity

    Violent movement would activate water sensors to soak users and open the doors and sound an alarm

    They will also have weigh sensitive floors to ensure only one user at a time

    People would only be able to use them for a set time to deter rough sleepers and dousing equipment would be installed to deter smoking and drug taking

    1. But all they needed to do was lock the toilets and leave a blue bucket outside with legend Poo only please written on it.

      1. All set to record. See you at Yasgur’s Farm don’t forget your kaftan…sweetie..x

    3. Now, where did I put those water cannon, the ones that can spit a dyed stream, so that I can identify the little gits up to six weeks after.

    2. Spiting the Right to gain revenge on their supporters on the Left rather sums up the post-industrial Labour party.

      1. It spited everyone – except big businesses. And rich Labour MPs of course. They are the pits.

    3. I think we’re going to see a lot more of that post-Brexit.

      Who starts it and who finishes it is open to debate.

  126. Germany believes UK will crash out of EU without deal, leaked document reveals

    Germany expects Britain to crash out of the European Union without a deal, a leaked document has reportedly revealed.
    The leaked finance ministry memo said officials believe a disorderly Brexit is now “highly likely”, according to Handelsblatt Today.
    The publication revealed on Thursday that the government believes the UK will crash out without a deal on October 31

    German officials also consider the EU’s preparations for this eventuality to be “largely completed”.

    1. Hong Kong always wanted to have its cake and eat it. It’s lasted longer than everyone thought it would.
      Getting away from colonialism has always brought bad results to the liberated.

        1. Hong Kong was ceded under the Treaty of Nan King 1842 after the Sino-British War (Opium War). Kowloon peninsula was ceded after the Second Sino-British War in 1860. The rest of what is now Hong Kong was leased to 1997.

          The current reporting is like the BBC, very selective.

  130. Corbyn comes up with another brainwave

    He is going to solve the High Street problem. He wants councils to take over empty shops

    The real problem in my view is we have far to many shops and no amount of tinkering around will change that. You cannot turn the clock back

      1. Hey, Tony, you almost managed to get all three tos (twos toos) into the same sentence. Now I have to think about that impossible sentence:

        Because I have to consider the two of us, it becomes too much.

        But it is still impossible to write that there are three tos (twos toos) in the English language.

        1. Yo, Tom. I bet you can’t work a sentence containing:
          paw, poor, pore and pour.

          I’m off to bed now so I’ll check in t’morning’.

          1. .and the amount you are wagering? Payable how, when you lose?

            I had to pore over your request, scratching my head for so long, that my poor paw began to pour blood.

          4. The judge said “I’m going to pour me a drink, pore over the witness statements and see if I can deduce which villain trod on the poor man’s dog’s paw”. Will that do, Grizzly?

      1. It would appear to be an attempt at un coup d’état, certainly. Especially as Parliament now has a fixed term.

    5. There’s around 17 million voters who’d object. It would finish the Tory party if he does not have the whip withdrawn and gets booted out of the party.

      The one good aspect is that all this has forced these traitors to break cover and show themselves for what they really are. No more pretence or illusion.

  132. Well, today didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped, but at least I made some progress. I managed my 3 hours weeding in the side garden, but will need to do another 2 hours-worth to complete the job tomorrow. The rain started a little earlier than expected but my neighbour rang to say he would be calling round an hour earlier and we enjoyed lunch and a chat together. As far as the charity was concerned, they took the bed but “passed” on the mattress – at least I can now stretch out in my front room, and my neighbour (on the other side) has said he will take the mattress away and dispose of it.

    Progress not perfection – that’s good enough for me.

    PS – I’ve just heard the most appalling news, against which Brexit and the Halloween deadline pales into insignificance: Public Health England has announced plans to ban jelly babies – my favourite sweets. How on earth will I survive?!?!?

    2. I see that you’ve just upvoted me, Stig. Do please refresh the site and read my PS.

  133. Now there is a surprise and, perhaps, this exposes gthe follhy of treating “Travellers” as a protected species:-

    Revealed: Police raided council-run travellers’ campsite after Pc Andrew Harper was dragged to his death

    The call came through on Pc Andrew Harper’s police radio just before midnight. Suspected burglars had been spotted breaking into a nearby farm. Minutes later, Pc Harper was dead; his body dragged down a country lane and left abandoned in a ditch.

    Thames Valley detectives are still piecing together the events that led to their 28-year-old colleague’s death. It is understood that Pc Harper was with a colleague in a marked vehicle when the report came through around 11.30pm on Thursday. The two officers went to the scene, and met a suspicious car travelling down Admoor Lane, near the village of Bradfield.

    Pc Harper was an experienced policeman who had performed hundreds of traffic stops. He got out of his car, approached the vehicle and challenged those inside. But something went wrong. The suspect car shot off, dragging Pc Harper behind. One source said the policeman may have been attempting to grab the driver’s keys. In a desperate effort to escape, the driver refused to stop even as Pc Harper was dragged for hundreds of yards along the tarmac. Behind, his colleague pursued in their vehicle.

    It was only when the suspect car reached the crossroads and swerved across the A4 that the officer was finally released. He was then hit by another car, it is understood. The suspects fled.

    One of Pc Harper’s colleagues shouted “stay with me, stay with me. Keep breathing”, according to a witness quote by The Daily Mail.

    The witness added: “Those Brutal words will stay with me. He was crouched over the officer’s body, which was lying on the lane.

    “Ambulances and more police cars arrived – it was like the Blackpool illuminations. I went out into the lane to see if the police needed any help and an officer turned to me and said: “Leave the area – this is a crime scene.”

    Within an hour, officers descended on Four Houses Corner, a council-run travellers’ site around three miles away. “Everyone was ordered out of the caravans, including the women and children,” one source said.

    Ten males aged from 13 to 30 were arrested, some at the travellers’ site, and led away to different police stations across the country.

    One source claimed the fire service was then called to douse a burning car, possibly torched to destroy evidence.

    By that time, Pc Harper had already been declared dead after a team of paramedics failed to revive him.

    As morning broke, a long trail of blood could be seen on the country lane and on to the A4 road. Forensics officers marked out the trail, while others examined a grey BMW at the scene.

    The campsite was deserted, while forensic officers were seen examining a blue car. About a dozen caravans could be seen on the small plot of land, while a yellow child’s play-car sat just outside the main entrance gates. Clothes pegged to a washing line had been left out, soaked by the rain.

    Locals said that the site had been the source of frequent clashes in recent years. Many of its residents have lived there for nearly 50 years, sources said.

    The Daily Telegraph spoke to a friend of one of the traveller families who once lived at the site. “We’re still trying to work out what’s going on, but I don’t understand why so many people had to be arrested,” the woman said. “They can’t all be guilty. It’s like the police just think we’re travellers, so, of course, we did it.”

    Two years ago, a number of residents of Four Houses Corner complained that they were asked to live in houses while the council carried out taxpayer-funded refurbishment work to their caravans.

    “The council wants to regenerate it all and put in new bathrooms. They want to make it all nice,” one resident complained at the time. “I have never lived in a house my whole life. They are taking us out of our community.” Other sources said rural crime had worsened, with many blaming the travelling community.

    “There are frequent issues of theft – sometimes the police have pursued people back to Four Houses Corner,” one senior source said.

    “There are issues related to hare coursing and other wildlife crime that stem from this and other traveller sites in the area.

    “Serious problems for farmers, low-level thefts of machinery, vandalism and hare coursing.”

    Graham Bridgman, a Conservative councillor for the area, said it was important that the investigation was allowed to take its course.

    “We must all remember Pc Harper for his bravery and his sacrifice,” he said. “It’s important to wait for the facts. We can’t be blaming anyone yet. This tragedy cannot be allowed to cause a rift in our community.”

    Chief Constable John Campbell, of Thames Valley Police, said that Pc Harper was a “highly regarded and popular” member of the force.

    He said: “It’s a terrible day for Thames Valley Police, but doesn’t touch on the anguish that Andrew’s friends and family are feeling.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/16/revealed-police-raided-council-run-travellers-campsite-pc-andrew/

    2. ” I don’t understand why so many people had to be arrested,” the woman
      said. “They can’t all be guilty. It’s like the police just think we’re
      travellers, so, of course, we did it.””
      Offending their ‘uman rights, again.

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