725 thoughts on “Thursday 22 August: The sin of mending the church roof secretly when lead thieves strike”

  1. The West is sitting on its hands as Assad destroys Idlib – and we will come to regret our cowardice. DAVID NOTT AND HAMISH DE BRETTON-GORDON. 21 AUGUST 2019.

    Idlib, in north-west Syria, is being subjected to a scorched earth assault reminiscent of the medieval era, with Syrian and Russian forces incinerating and killing everything in their path. This week they captured the town of Khan Sheikhoun from the rebels. They have even been prepared to attack the forces of a Nato member, Turkey, in their pursuit of total victory. How has it come to this?

    Morning everyone. Here’s our old pal Hamish from MI6 masquerading as a humanitarian and straining the bounds of both hyperbole and truth in the process. There’s a similar piece by Sara Firth in the Guardian which tells us that there have been 500 casualties since May. Even if this is true it hardly adds up to a scorched earth operation, medieval or otherwise. One can understand B-G’s frustration. He’s done his part and tried his best to bring about a Jihadist victory in Syria for his bosses and failed completely thanks to Vlad. The rest of us, those who would like to see this war end and the Syrians who have been forced to flee their homes return safely, can only be thankful that it is drawing to a close.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/21/west-sitting-hands-assad-destroys-idlib-will-come-regret-cowardice/

    1. Wars between the religious are pursued with certainty of divine victory and its often best to encourage each protagonist in his lethal intent for any truce or treaty is meaningless. The only way to get rid of Isil is to get rid of it. Wipe it out.

      2. ‘Morning, Epi, “The only way to get rid of Isil is to get rid of it. Wipe it out.”

        That is precisely what Assad, Putin and the Kurds are trying to do before the Daeshe rabble dissipate into other Jihadi-ridden infestations and spread their particular brand of Muslim evil to other gullible idiots.

      1. Morning Korky.

        That’s the secret – they’re empty.

        A leaked government document says that to make it more palatable to the public, we’re to be told that the fresh air they contain will be used to ease pollution in city centres.

      1. ….once they’ve fixed the leaks.

        Seems no one told the designers it had to go in water.

        1. ….once they’ve fixed the leaks…

          …and obtained a few aeroplanes.

          ‘Morning, Eddy.

        1. Putting up curtains would 1/2 the internal space. No wonder they moan.

          ‘Morning, Eddy.

  3. Good morning, all. Chilly start – warmer later.

    Apparently, the Frau Doktor is given Johnson ultimatums. I had hoped he would tell her to hop it. Disappointed…again.

  4. Morning all

    SIR – I have a sin to confess. Here goes. Some 10 years ago when I was the incumbent in a two-church parish, thieves stole lead from one church, 1,000 years old and of course listed.

    It was the night before our autumn fair and as I stood at the stall I was manning in the church, I looked up and could see extensive views of the sky. Luckily it was not raining.

    The lead taken was from a narrow valley-gutter, out of view unless one was airborne. Its value was probably £30 but repairs to the roof, using lead, would cost nigh on £900.

    My lovely church architect (sadly gone to glory) and I in less than a week replaced the lead with can’t-tell-the-difference plastic, for a fraction of the cost. No further damage to that beautiful church occurred.

    To wait months while bureaucracy ground exceeding slow was not something I was going to consider. We saved the parish a lot of money and avoided endless committees.

    I have to admit that in similar circumstances I’d do the same again. Diocesan advisory committees must, I am afraid, be much more flexible in their solutions to hard-pressed congregations in dire straits.

    I await a knock on the door.

    Rev Simon Douglas Lane
    Hampton, Middlesex

    1. SIR – Our village church suffered the loss of its lead roof but now, after protracted negotiation, has a new synthetic roof.

      However, we are still concerned that the gangs will return because the assumption will be that the lead has been replaced.

      The blame lies with the failure of police in detecting crimes and the realisation by criminals that it is highly unlikely they will be caught.

      Dr Michael A Fopp
      Soulbury, Buckinghamshire

      SIR – Where does this stolen lead end up? All scrap metal dealers are meant to be controlled, so who is buying it?

      Peter Butterfield
      Hitchin, Hertfordshire

      2. The profits trickle down and will end up eventually in taxes to fund HS2 and bonuses for corporate directors. The police are being cut back for “austerity”, so no chance of catching the gangs.

        1. According to yes’day’s News, there’s a good chance that HS2 is being scrapped.

          2. They don’t care. It will make it easier to build the houses needed for all the boat people escaping from war-torn France.

          3. ‘Morning, Peddy. I do hope so. The eye-watering cost is increasing in leaps and bounds and is already unaffordable. All we seem to have so far for our £7bn is an excavator sitting on a pile of rubble, the most expensive archaeological dig in history and a lot of obscene salaries. Anyway, expect a lot more noise from Burnham, bearing in mind that he will no doubt be standing for re-election in May next year.

          4. ‘Morning, Hugh.

            Burnham was squeaking about this on the news item, but I didn’t pay attention. Cost so far about £7b & they’ve hardly started, so GOK where they would end up.

          5. GOK? Good grief, Peddy, you are really one of the Beach Boys and I claim my five bob postal order. (Good morning, btw, and goodbye for now to all NoTTLers as I am off to church – with our Wrinklies Church Visits group I hasten to add.)

      3. Mr Fopp is right. He also knows if they are caught, the courts won’t bother punishing them.

        1. Cultural practice. Mustn’t be judgemental and impose our white, middle class standards on them.

        1. Who knows where that might lead?

          Plumbing the depths of Nottler puns? I know, I’m trying.

    4. Yo Epi

      he could have prayed to the heavens for the ‘music’ world to help

      Lead Zepplin would have been there in a flash and no ladders required

  5. SIR – As Donald Trump is in the market for “real estate” (report, August 17), might we offer a mutually beneficial alternative to Greenland?

    If he were to buy Ireland instead, it would solve the backstop problem and give him plenty of golf courses on which to play. We might even get a second state visit.

    Roger Little
    Tisbury, Wiltshire

          1. Wo’cha mi’e’.

            It’s reely good (line-caugh’, y’see). I had it a for’ni’e ago.

          2. If you had it a fortnight ago, it might well have gone orff by now.

            ‘Morning, Peddy, and I’ve seen your post about the joys of Turkish Barbering. I still wouldn’t go for it but each to his own.

  7. All the old certainties gone. Remember “It’s just not cricket”?

    It is now.

    SIR – As an American who, rather unusually, loves the game of 
cricket, I came away from Lord’s on Sunday feeling rather sad and, yes, 
ashamed. This was not only because parts of the crowd were baying 
for blood, but also because I do 
not see any honour in winning 
(or even drawing) when it has 
come from bowling that is wilfully aimed at a batsman’s head, knocking him apparently unconscious and putting his life at risk.

    Jofra Archer bowled 44 overs and struck Australian batsmen 11 times, putting Steve Smith in hospital and unable to play at Headingley. Without Smith, a victory there can only be judged a hollow one for England. What glory is there in that? It is not cricket.

    I began following the game in 1974, during the winter Test series, when Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson were bowling bouncers. Then, in contrast to today, the British media decried their actions. In 
the Seventies one could at least claim that it was an Australian response to the “bodyline” series and somehow justified. Now, however, there can be no justification for such a tactic.

    In the past 45 years there have been two developments that make this kind of bowling unacceptable. First, since 1974 medical research has proved that head injuries can leave permanent brain damage; and secondly, we have seen frightening injuries, andthe death of Philip Hughes. There is nothing sporting about a player being killed by a deliberate action. It is not even manslaughter, since there was malice aforethought; it is murder.

    It is not the fault of the bowlers that this danger exists, and I do not blame Archer. It is the game’s authorities who are at fault. They need to act immediately before this scourge causes more injuries or even another death.

    The answer is a prohibition against bowling any ball above chest level to a batsman. A violation of this should result in the award of six runs to the batting team. Were it repeated, the umpire should remove the bowler from the attack.

    Dr David D Hebb
    London N1

    1. Morning, Epi. Are you able to publish Matthew Biddlecombe’s BTL brilliant response to this letter?

      1. Matthew Biddlecombe 22 Aug 2019 7:47AM
        Re letter:- Dr. David D. Hebb.

        There are several points in Dr. Hebbs’ letter that need addressing.

        Firstly, his point re “Then, in contrast to today, the British media decried their actions.” I think the doctor maybe thinking that the media in those days reported the feelings of the public and, possibly, the players. Most cricket lovers I knew in the 1970s had no problem with the way Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thompson bowled, and the England players certainly didn’t. The same was true in the 1980s when the West Indies had bowlers such as Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Malcolm Marshall at their disposal. As with todays cricket reporting, many of the articles written by the media then were written by journalists rather than cricket correspondents; journalists who simply didn’t understand the game.

        Secondly:- “It is not even manslaughter, since there was malice aforethought; it is murder.” What utter nonsense. If Dr. Hebb thinks being killed by a cricket ball is murder, what on earth does he think of those who have died in boxing rings? Everyone of the Australian team knew what Jofra Archer is capable of, yet they still chose to play.

        Thirdly:- The death of Philip Hughes. His death was a tragedy; of that there is no doubt. However, from his death came added protection with two extra plastic protectors fitted under the rear of the helmet to protect precisely the area of the head/neck where Hughes was hit. England’s Joss Buttler was wearing these, but Steve Smith took the choice to not have them fitted. In a post-match interview, Australian coach Justin Langer openly admitted that Smith had opted not to wear them as he found them uncomfortable. He knew the risk he was taking when he went out to bat without the extra protectors and he, on this occasion, lost.

        Finally, the game has been played for several centuries; I’ve been a follower of the game since the late 1960s, and I can remember fast bowlers such as the aforementioned Australian and West Indies men, along with the like of Peter Pollock and Mike Proctor (South Africa), John Snow and Bob Willis (England), Brett Lee (Australia) and Patrick Patterson, Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose (West Indies). If one goes further back, there were England’s Fred Trueman and Frank Tyson, Australia’s Keith Miller and the West Indies Charlie Hall and Wes Griffiths.

        The beauty of Test cricket is its many facets. One gets as much pleasure watching an express pace bowler as one does watching a swing or spin bowler. The Australian batsmen have to adjust from the raw pace of Archer to the in-swingers and out-swingers of Chris Woakes and the wiles of Jack Leach; to remove or ban fast bowling would remove an aspect of the game that’s been around since its inception. If Dr. Hebb is that ashamed of the game, maybe he should think of looking around for a sport that’s safer. Maybe there’s a tiddlywinks club nearby!

          2. ‘ere, vee ro’weiler will be scolding yer fer ri’in’ filf wen ‘e sees va’.

  8. Far-right violence is on the rise. Where is the outrage? Owen Jones. Thu 22 Aug 2019 06.00 BST.

    I was on the receiving end of an attack in the early hours of last Saturday: my friends were punched defending me and I suffered very minor injuries. But as a white man with a media platform, what happened to me garnered far more interest than the racist murders or serious hate crimes that have far worse consequences than bumped heads and bruises. The far right is emboldened, legitimised and ever more violent, and hate crimes are surging. When we discuss Islamist fundamentalist terrorists, we ask: who are the hate preachers radicalising them in mosques or the internet? We have yet to engage seriously in a similar debate about far-right terrorism for a simple reason: the hate preachers are mainstream politicians, commentators and media outlets.

    Yes one wonders where are these attackers and how does Mr Jones know that they were “far-right”? In the first reports of the incident he was quoted as saying that they didn’t say anything, a statement that was subsequently deleted. So what is it? Telepathy? Precognition? As to the “mainstream politicians, commentators and media outlets” propagating far-right memes and policies what can one say to such unutterable tosh? All the examples given in this article are of individuals acting out their private beliefs. There is no far-right movement of any significance whatsoever that parallels Anti-fa or Hate not Hope in funding or organising attacks on those opposed to their beliefs.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/22/far-right-violence-on-rise-where-is-outrage

    1. Owen Jones has never discussed Islamic terror for to do so would expose him to a more rigorous assault on his frail person than the attentions of a few drunks. The fascists are antifa and their vicious blackshirts.

    2. Morning Araminta.

      Mr Jones needs to ask whether the people of whom he talks are a symptom or a cause.

      Force-feed someone a diet of what they don’t like for long enough and chances are you’ll get an unpleasant reaction.

      1. Morning Eddy. I have this suspicion that this endless talk of the mythical far-right will eventually make them a reality!

        1. It would be interesting to know if there’s a similarity between the increase in so-called ‘populism’ and the rise of that Austrian bloke with the ‘tache.

      2. Spot on. it’s deliberate divisive language. There’s them, and us. We are the good and righteous. They are evil. They must be destroyed.

        The Left have done this throughout history. The last bloke was an Austrian fellow with dodgy facial hair.

        1. I reckon most of us are like elastic bands and can stretch a bit. Unfortunately, those doing the stretching don’t realise that even elastic bands can break.

    4. Ah simple any attacks on the left are by default committed by the far right and this must be excepted as a fact. No evidence is required. They are guilty unless they can prove they are innocent

    5. Ah, so what he’s demanding is censorship where only he gets a platform.

      Because anyone who doens’t share is values is being told to attack other people.

      The sad thing is, once you read it and actually understand what he’s saying, it’s very simple: I’ve a pltform, I am young, gay and a man and thus you have to listen to me because I am good, right and decent. Other people who are not me must be ignored and scorned because until you are like me, you are evil.

      Dear life. He’s a miseralbe, tired, tedious whelp.

      1. He wasn’t attacked.

      2. He wanted publicity
      3. If anyone had a go, it was his fault

  9. HS2 cost is now over £1000 for every man, woman and child in the UK. Think of it as a bargain – one year’s Council Tax for me, and all going on job-creating bonuses for contractors and their renumeration committees. No wonder they are pushing ahead with it.

    With such a prestige statement on the railways, they can put up fares because there is a premium on high style.

    1. And if the train runs nearly empty, it won’t need as much electricity, thus saving the planet.
      Win, win.

          2. I can understand, “For the want of a nail…” but for the want of a capital letter. No, I’m never going to master German and will happily plod on with me sort of understanding them and can put up with the occasional outbursts of laughter at my attempts but at least “He tries”.

            Quite apart from which Best Beloved finds the thought of Germany anathema and we will settle for France once the house is sold. Peut-etre, mon français c’est aussi très mauvais but I improve it every day I spend there.

          3. I’m sure after a year or two you’ll become fluent in French. I used to be (thanks to my father), but I lost it when I went to live in Germany & German took over. I can still handle it, but t’s an effort.

  10. Good morning from Saxon Queen with Longbow and Viking axe.
    Sunny morning in East Anglia, breakfast and then off to John Lewis
    with the husband to purchase the laptop for Æthelfled.

    I see Angela Merkel has awoken from her pit and is rattling away about
    ‘ Brexit just not cause disruptions in Europe ‘ yes I suppose losing
    their biggest piggy bank will cause disruptions in Europe.

    1. ‘Morning, Ethel.

      Fancy a trip to the Bundestag? I’m sure your weaponry could be put to good use when you meet Angular Murky. After that a trip to Paris must be on the cards to sort out the diminutive Micron. We Nottlrs would be happy to have a whip-round for the fare on Eurostar (first class if you insist).

      Happy hunting!

      1. Good morning Hugh.
        A very good idea, the longbow could do with some European
        usage. I am sure Angular Murky couldn’t run faster
        then flying arrows. I might travel by boat across the English
        channel instead. Longbow hidden in handbag,
        as an Anglo Saxon woman not wearing a Burka isn’t allowed
        to carry medieval weaponry.

  11. Black women earn $1m less than white men over lifetime, study finds. Indy. Maya Oppenheim. 10 hours ago.

    Black women in the US earn almost $1m (£820,000) less on average than a white man over a 40-year career, according to a new report.

    In further breaking news dwarfs earn less than stockbrokers in their early twenties and Brahmins make far more than Dalits in their teens.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/black-women-wage-pay-gap-gender-racism-a9073601.html

    1. I wonder what the figures are for women in general, Hispanic women, Japan/other oriental and how those figures compare with their menfolk and how the BF vs BM equate. and WF vs BM and WF vs other males.

      I suspect that study hides far more than it discloses, and probably deliberately.

      1. Comparisons of the earnings of disparate groups (Black/White : Male/Female ) tells us nothing. We might as well compare Nottlers pensions with Zimbabwean tribesman!

  13. They should making the stealing of lead from church roofs a religious hate crime and treat it with the same seriousness as they do if someone vandalises a mosque.

    1. Morning, Bob3.

      Are you as optimistic when you tee off as you appear to be in your comment above?😎

  14. Speaking of lead and of time passing by with a vengeance, I red the other day that Robert Plant turned 71.

      1. Doesn’t look like it Bob.

        However, like the rest of us he’s on that escalator to …….

  16. BTL to Michael Deacon’s article in today’s DT. Can’t read the article as it’s Premium.

    Paul Parmenter 22 Aug 2019 7:27AM

    Just abolish the EU and go back to a Europe of proud, independent, self-governing and yes nationalistic countries that are quite happy to be grumpy and disdainful of their neighbours as they always have been, but who still conduct the serious business of trade, international co-operation and cultural exchanges with goodwill and respect for each other. But this time with the lessons of history well and truly learned: that is, no belligerence; no war, either military or economic; and no place for greedy, self-promoting, jumped up, two-bit politicians with inflated egos trying to make themselves latter-day emperors of the entire continent and crushing everyone else into their nightmare version of a conformist utopia. We don’t need any more of that garbage.

  17. This article is a blow to Extinction Rebellion and its zealous objectives. Let us hope they are even now planning excursions on high tech racing yachts (as Saint Greta) to cross the Atlantic to Brazil. There they can be ready to lay down in the path of the fires to bring everything to a standstill, it is their MO after all!

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1168296/amazon-fires-map-satellite-images-pictures-brazil-amazon-rainforest-fires-from-space

    2. I suspect the Brazilian police are not terribly chummy when you block the main roads of Brazilia.

      1. I was hoping for them to go out in the forest and lay down in the path of the flames!

    3. ‘Morning, VVOF, on that note, I sent an e-mail to BBC Look East after their wiffling on last week about climate change and now they are bigging up Ed Sherran’s concert, the Cromer Carnival and Ipswich Town’s supporting crowds. I said:

      Dear Sir or Madam,
      BBC Look East spent all last week banging on about the dangers of climate change or, as it has now morphed into ‘Climate Emergency’.

      This week, you are highlighting the 4 day Ed Sheeran concert (40,000 people per day) the Cromer Carnival (another 40,000 people) Ipswich Town Football Matches, (19,000 people per match) and I wonder how one calculates 219, 000 people’s carbon footprint.

      Isn’t it time we banished all football, rugby and other sporting events, concerts, recitals and carnivals, indeed anything that requires people to make unnecessary journeys in their carbon emitting vehicles. Work only being permitted, providing that their work produces a carbon-free output?

      Or is it possible that the science around ‘Climate Change’ is at best a little fuzzy and at worst, a complete sham, when viewed in the light of NASA’s findings:
      According to NASA, the gases in Earth’s atmosphere include:
      Nitrogen — 78 percent.
      Oxygen — 21 percent.
      Argon — 0.93 percent.
      Carbon dioxide — 0.04 percent.
      Trace amounts of neon, helium, methane, krypton and hydrogen, as well as water vapour.

      Where is the carbon that pseudo scientist are banging on about?
      Regards

      1. And some (all) fell on deaf ears, bluddy hypocrites following set agenda. The BBC would be high on my list to sort out, I suspect Boris & Co are not concerned at all though.

  18. Good morning all
    Fine sunny day here , should have watered the garden last night .

    The reality here nearer to home , meaning in the arable fields alongside us here is that we have been warned that an EIA will take place soon , the threat of 470 new homes being built grows closer .. the sky larks are soaring and singing already , and the family of buzzards will be up there soaring in the thermals later this morning .

    When is this madness going to stop?

        1. Well, it’s a thinly-sliced carpaccio of charred tuna with black olives, & a delicious dressing, washed down with a glass of Bergerac SB.
          Then grilled hake with a piperade, followed by lemon & raspberry sorbet & a flat white.

    2. Unusually I watched the BBC News last night and was somewhat nonplussed when an article admitting that the net migration figures over the last few years had been woefully underestimated by 10’s of thousands was followed by some female Somali (Muslim by garb) gimmigrant whining about being forced to live in a shipping container ( which seemed quite nicely appointed for what it was ) . do the bloXdy math as they say. I left the room

      1. Morning UB

        What utter fools we are in this country . These uninvited migrants need to pay a visit to the countryside and coastline of Britain to view the tin cans that cover every beauty spot in Britain , people pay huge sums to holiday in them or even buy them .

        They need a sharp reminder to stop breeding , and be grateful they have some sanctuary .

        When homeless single ex service men have nowhere to live, I think this country has got its priorities and values up the creek .
        Ship the migrants back to where they came from.

        1. There was a time when I would have been horrified to think that I hold the views I do now, reports like this just feed my anger. In that particular case there was no father in evidence and at least two of the children had significant cognitive and development “issues” a further unneeded burden on the taxpayer. We can breed enough of our own unproductive dependents without importing more. ho hum, time for coffee and cake and a calm down.

    3. Forgive my denseness but EIA?

      Got it – Environmental Impact Assessment – sorry.

  19. Richard Braine in trouble already. Ukip Email this morning tells us that:
    “The Guardian is about to publish excerpts from a private conversation in which I allegedly said intemperate things about Muslims.”

      1. The latest reincarnation of the leader. Another one who has spoken the truth about the ideology that dare not be critically examined.

  20. Decks cleared to limit flow of river water into Pakistan: Indian Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

    New Delhi: The abrogation of Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, has cleared the decks for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to stop the flow of excess river water into Pakistan.

    It looks as though Modi having failed to provoke the Pakistani’s into a war with the seizure of Jammu and Kashmir is now turning the screw with the threat of cutting off their water supply. This is probably time related. It is the Monsoon season in the subcontinent and any offensive action would be hampered by the conditions; something that the Indians must have considered in their initial moves and of course the Indian Army must have prepared for such a response. In my view the Pakistani’s must either eventually fight or be destroyed. Since they cannot prevail against a much more powerful adversary without recourse to Nuclear Weapons the future looks bleak!

    https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/decks-cleared-to-limit-flow-of-river-water-into-pakistan-indian-minister-gajendra-singh-shekhawat-1.1566398863947

      1. No thought for Bradford, Anne? Other towns and cities are available for a growing indifference to their fate.

    1. And all MPs will be provided with a Dacha and they will have special lanes on motorways and, no doubt, be the only ones allowed to use HS 2expensive.

    2. In spite of the Extinction crowd’s insistence that we follow the science it is very far from clear that carbon does any damage to the environment at all. Indeed, I have heard it lucidly argued that we need more rather than less CO2 emissions.

    3. Zither lanes are the answer. For the BMW s of those and such as those, who would not ever be seen dead in a Zil.

    4. “But they complained that its chair, Lord Deben, should have declared the
      interest of his consultancy firm in Drax power station, the largest
      recipient of renewable energy subsidies in the country, and Johnson
      Matthey, which is about to make a huge investment in electric vehicles.”

  22. On a more cheerful note ..

    The boys on here and perhaps a girl or two may enjoy this?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/21/steam-driver-shortage-britains-heritage-railways-call-goes-new/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw

    Britain’s heritage railways are in danger of running out of steam unless younger drivers can be replace aging ones as bosses revealed a pressing need for “new blood”.

    British heritage lines have called for younger volunteers to replace aging drivers on the brink of retirement.

    The Swanage Railway in Dorset – one of the biggest heritage lines in the country – needs to find 40 drivers over the next five years to fill the gap.

    The attraction has 42 drivers but the majority are aged 60 or above and are likely to step down in the coming years.

    While the retirements will be phased, the railway must act now as training a new steam driver can take at least five years.

    David Rawsthorn, of the Swanage Railway, said: “We have 42 drivers, the youngest is 27-years-old, and the oldest, still fit as a fiddle, is 79.

    “We need seven or eight new drivers every year for the next five to ten years to cope with drivers retiring.

    3. Unfortunately, Belle, youngsters going through our current educational system probably believe that the fossil fuels creating the steam power are wicked and are causing our planet’s death. All hail Greta!

    4. “…as training a new steam driver can take at least five years”. Inconceivable!

  23. Morning, Campers.
    A DM article to kick off the day:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7381133/MELISSA-KITE-HS2-destroyed-parents.html

    MELISSA KITE: HS2 destroyed my parents

    “As we closed the door on my childhood home for the last time in March this year, I put my arm around my Mum and steered my Dad past the removal vans on the driveway.

    He’d retained a Blitz spirit as the contents of his home of 50 years were loaded up, joking that when the agent from HS2 came to collect the keys, he’d be crouched behind the door with a shotgun.

    In reality, the fight had long gone out of him.

    This was the final act in a battle lasting nearly a decade, from the first we heard of the new high-speed railway to be sited next to my parents’ house, to the moment we won our fight to be bought out by the Government.

    Mum and Dad were moving to a new property where they would try to re-start their lives and salvage something of their retirement years. But the sadness of leaving their beloved home under such stressful circumstances is something I don’t think they will ever get over.

    And, at an age when they should be putting their feet up, they still must work part time because HS2 lawyers nailed them down so hard on price.

    So to hear yesterday that our new Prime Minister has now ordered a review of HS2, raising the possibility that it may never be built, raises such mixed feelings in me that I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. My father’s reaction was: ‘If it’s true, I’m livid.’

    My parents had lived their entire married life in a neat, three-bedroomed pebble-dashed semi, with honeysuckle around the door and roses beneath the leaded windows, near Coventry.

    A cherry tree my mother planted when I was born in 1972 had grown tall in the front garden – it had to be left behind, along with so many other memories. On the morning they moved out, I walked my two dogs for the last time in the fields behind the house – once my playground – where diggers had already carved a terrible scar through the farmland bordering our garden. Trees had been cut down and signs nailed up claiming that nesting birds had been re-located – if you believe that.

    Tears welling in my eyes, I couldn’t bear it. The desecration of the Warwickshire countryside was something I’d tried for so many years to stop, and now I was giving up. If HS2 is cancelled, then the terrible waste of so many years of struggle, not just for my family but for all the hundreds of people whose lives have been blighted by HS2, many of them elderly, truly feels like too much to bear.

    I believe this hideous project, dreamed up by Labour’s former transport secretary Andrew Adonis, should never have got off the fantasy drawing board. The spiralling cost – put at £56billion in 2015 – could now be double that. But the idea kept rolling, driven by political hubris of the worst kind and the prevarication of prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May who ignored those begging them to think again. If I had the funds, I would bring an injury suit against Lord Adonis for what he has done to my family and others with his vainglorious idea.

    HS2 is yesterday’s solution to a problem that no longer exists. A Japanese-style bullet train might have been a good idea 20 years ago. Now, with digital technology, conference calls and cheap flights, few people or businesses would pay up to £200 for a ticket to travel at high speed 120 miles for meetings. And in any case, Phase One of HS2 would shave only 20 minutes off the journey time of the existing Virgin service from London to Birmingham. I believe ministers in successive governments have known for years that this project is so over-budget and so unnecessary that it will have to be cancelled. Yet they let the misery continue for thousands.

    Particularly pernicious has been the effect on pensioners, who cannot sell up and retire on the equity in their homes as planned because HS2 has made their properties worthless. But they are by no means the only ones to suffer. A neighbour of my parents ended up living away during the week from his wife and children for years because they couldn’t sell to move nearer his new job.

    The only option for anyone outside the arbitrary compensation zone – by which you’d be bought out if the line bisected your property or came within a few metres of it – was to launch a legal fight against the Department for Transport.

    People moan about lawyers, but I have nothing but gratitude for those who represented us. Despite my parents winning their fight to be bought out under the Need To Sell scheme, HS2 lawyers then tied us up in mind-boggling bureaucracy and waited until the very last moment, when everyone in the chain was packed up and ready to move, to suddenly drop their offer by thousands.

    In an email they even had the cheek to tell me that this was in order to get the best deal for the British taxpayer. I sent an email back pointing out that my parents are the British taxpayer. Six months later, my Mum and Dad are just about settled in their new home, although they are still traumatised by their experience.

    Perhaps this review will end in cancellation, or perhaps Boris Johnson will approve a more limited version of HS2, but surely someone needs to be held to account for what has happened, the people, businesses and the landscapes damaged, and the grotesque overspend. Today my childhood home stands empty, the once well-tended garden overgrown. But the roses we replanted are thriving in their new home. I only hope my parents can thrive again too.”

    Melissa Kite is a columnist for The Spectator.

    1. What a mess that project is.

      Phase one would connect one place in the bottom one quarter of Britain to another place in the bottom one quarter of Britain at a cost we can’t afford, all to make a trip from a place near Birmingham to a place near London 20 minutes shorter. I put it that way because no bugger will be travelling from London to Birmingham anyway. It’s not what London does.

      And the lying, geographically-challenged scoundrels at Westminster describe it as a link to ‘The North’.

      Not from this place it isn’t. It’s a link between two southern towns in the far distance.

      1. And, I understand, HS2 is 20 minutes away from the current main Birmingham station. Net gain = sweet bugger all.

        1. gg, an amendment; I hope you do not object?

          Net gain for travellers = sweet bugger all. Net gain for cronies = £Billions.

          2. Spot on. The same people who will benefit from us staying in the EU. A curse on all their houses.

      2. If they’re 56bn to spend why not use it to run fibre optic around the country and speed up video conferencing and collaboration tools?

        Why travel at all? It’s a backward anachronism.

    2. What we must never forget is that little people do not matter. Only the wealthy and and the multi-national companies do.

      One of the great advantages of a clean Brexit is that Britain will be in charge of her own affairs again. But with the offensive, self-serving politicians we have such as Grieve, Boles, May, Clarke etc. I am not at all sure that this will be very much better.

      1. Morning R,
        But it is “little people” that ultimately have the big
        power via the ballot booth.
        The current state of this nation has been brought about by alternating governments over decades,
        and the continuing people power input , today’s odious issues are not something that have just cropped up they have been in place & kept in place for decades by little people / little people power.

    3. Morning Anne,
      Many have sated their self interest and, realise they must call it a day, it was good while it lasted.
      Yet another UKIP long running policy being brought to the fore.

    4. HS2 was part of TENS, or TEN T, wasn’t it?

      It’s unnecessary, however the communists do love their train sets.

      1. All totalitarian regimes love their train sets.
        Remember Lenin’s train in Dr. Zhivago? And I don’t need to go all Godwin’s Law on you and mention German efficiency with tracked transport systems.

    5. Silly last sentence. There is no comeback. There is no retribution. The Great Ones always get away with it. The Great Lord Adonis, the DemiGod, is not merely untouched , but is placed in an honoured and lauded company. But what about the underlings, the gophers, those who executed these plans? Name them?

    6. A foul and shocking (perhaps not that much of a shock) indictment on our present and past governments.

      1. How long has it been rumbling along? 5 years? 10? It was an EU project from the outset. Like many things government based, it’s rooted in the idea of physical structures, of great works of ‘doing’ often that the state looks at as a success story rather than the utility of the end result.

        The border with Ireland, for example. The EU and UK govt both impose a giant border of pen pushing bureaucrats with massive buildings and huge infrastructure when 95% of it could be handed through efficient technology. But the state cannot point at that and say how great it is.

        1. Or the border could just be ignored as it has been for most of one hundred years.

    3. I cannot understand all the fuss about a lead substitute. Mediaeval builders used lead because it was available for the job.
      I am sure there are modern substitutes that took right and do the same job just as efficiently.

  25. Comment: This chaotic global era will be a golden age for an independent Brexit Britain
    SHERELLE JACOBS
    PREMIUM

    Anyone like to share this ?

    1. This chaotic global era will be a golden age for an independent Brexit Britain
      SHERELLE JACOBS
      ASSISTANT COMMENT EDITOR
      Follow
      22 AUGUST 2019 • 6:00AM

      Donald Trump and XI Jinping
      Big powers are in decline, along with it big business, big diplomacy, and big militaries

      “I tend not to think about our next match or who we are playing against.”
      Sponsored
      Brexit is not the storm; it is the journey through the storm. Our island may be convulsing from the slow-drip torture of leaving the EU, but it is also shuddering through a global tempest. In particular, across the world, ‘‘big”, which has been the basic formula for accumulating power since the industrial revolution, is in decline. And despite the premonitions of my most optimistic fellow Brexiteers, just over the horizon is a mercurial era of “freefall” rather than a golden era of free trade.

      But here’s the twist: such chaos throws up phenomenal opportunities for smaller, dynamic, independent nations. It could even spark a British resurgence, which in its own way captures the wind-whipping self-confidence and astute ambition of the gold-rushing, swashbuckling 1840s – an era one can’t help associating with the term “global Britain”.

      Everywhere the withering winds of change are blasting holes in “big power”. As G7 heavyweights travel to Biarritz this weekend to rake glumly over the mildewed corpse of multilateralism, it couldn’t be more clear that “big diplomacy” is dead. So is “big military” – which makes it rather fitting that Iran is top of Saturday’s agenda. As the world’s heftiest armies nervously stroke historic scars from the asymmetric battlefield, the tinpot state is being allowed to revel with impunity in piratic mischief-making.

      Away from the drama of the global stage, “big business” is also quietly spluttering. On Monday one of the planet’s most powerful business groups, which includes Amazon and JP Morgan – firms tetchy about a possible consumer boycott over “corporate greed” – discreetly abandoned the principle that companies are there to serve shareholders, which has for decades defined capitalism. Now corporations will focus on “improving society”.

      The assertion that “big” is on the ebb may seem strange in a world of prowling Asian tigers and shadowy tech behemoths. And if the Remainer mindset is anything to go by, the Weberian idea that modern, civilised power is derived from large institutions is deeply entrenched. Such an attitude, originally germed in the expansive, straight-rulered minds of Enlightenment thinkers, flourished in the civil service-swollen age of imperialism.

      Perhaps big was also genuinely better in more recent decades, giddily fuelled by mass consumerism and grimly framed by the world wars. But as giants such as China and the US (and various leading multinationals) buckle under the gravitational pull of the 21st century – weighed down by surging populism, middle-class desires and the dense complexities of globalism – the rules of the game have clearly changed.

      This throws up a huge chance for Britain, if it can only tap into its true energetic and opportunistic zeitgeist, currently suffocating under the depressed flab of bourgeois-branded socialism and metropolitan McManageralism. Few countries have more suitable DNA for rising to the challenges of the present day than ours, inherited from miners, factory owners, rag-and-scavengers, speculators and buccaneers. Britain is defined by its stiff upper lip, but it was built on lock-jawed determination.

      Boris Johnson
      Can Boris unlock Britain’s buccaneering spirit? CREDIT: KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/ AP POOL
      First, as “big diplomacy” falters, we must become a trail-blazer for minilateralism. The focus should be on security and free trade. Why not lead on a defence technology deal with select allies from India to Israel? Or help broker the pan-African free trade zone that has proved elusive for decades, constricting the growth of British firms across the fastest-growing continent?

      Second, as the US comes to resemble Ouroboros, the mythical snake that eats its own tail, bankrupting itself with a vast army and spending 10,000 times more than its inferior opponents, Britain must revolutionise its military. In defiance of the EU’s bizarre Tolstoyan wet dream of a huge anti-Russian land army, we should become the leader in counter-cyberterrorism, intelligence gathering and clandestine missions.

      Third, the bland response of “big business” to the increasingly ethically conscious tastes of the global middle class is a potentially massive moment for savvy British entrepreneurs. 
What better time to tap rising demand for craft beer in China, or fight for a slice of the rocketing sustainable beauty market in Brazil? Does 
Mexican taco firm Gruma’s talent for adapting to local tastes – swapping cornflour for wheat in India, and marketing its bread as ideal for stuffing with Peking duck in China – offer food for thought for niche British companies that punch below their weight abroad? Could our top building materials firms glean something from Nigeria’s leading company, which, perhaps surprisingly for an oil nation, produces cement to ship across Africa and Asia?

      The ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu said: “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” As we finally prepare to leave the EU after three years of hysterical bungling, those who remain committed to Brexit should know. The next task will be to prove that lesson to the world.

    2. Here you go PT.

      Brexit is not the storm; it is the journey through the storm. Our island may be convulsing from the slow-drip torture of leaving the EU, but it is also shuddering through a global tempest. In particular, across the world, ‘‘big”, which has been the basic formula for accumulating power since the industrial revolution, is in decline. And despite the premonitions of my most optimistic fellow Brexiteers, just over the horizon is a mercurial era of “freefall” rather than a golden era of free trade.

      But here’s the twist: such chaos throws up phenomenal opportunities for smaller, dynamic, independent nations. It could even spark a British resurgence, which in its own way captures the wind-whipping self-confidence and astute ambition of the gold-rushing, swashbuckling 1840s – an era one can’t help associating with the term “global Britain”.

      Everywhere the withering winds of change are blasting holes in “big power”. As G7 heavyweights travel to Biarritz this weekend to rake glumly over the mildewed corpse of multilateralism, it couldn’t be more clear that “big diplomacy” is dead. So is “big military” – which makes it rather fitting that Iran is top of Saturday’s agenda. As the world’s heftiest armies nervously stroke historic scars from the asymmetric battlefield, the tinpot state is being allowed to revel with impunity in piratic mischief-making.

      Away from the drama of the global stage, “big business” is also quietly spluttering. On Monday one of the planet’s most powerful business groups, which includes Amazon and JP Morgan – firms tetchy about a possible consumer boycott over “corporate greed” – discreetly abandoned the principle that companies are there to serve shareholders, which has for decades defined capitalism. Now corporations will focus on “improving society”.

      The assertion that “big” is on the ebb may seem strange in a world of prowling Asian tigers and shadowy tech behemoths. And if the Remainer mindset is anything to go by, the Weberian idea that modern, civilised power is derived from large institutions is deeply entrenched. Such an attitude, originally germed in the expansive, straight-rulered minds of Enlightenment thinkers, flourished in the civil service-swollen age of imperialism.

      Perhaps big was also genuinely better in more recent decades, giddily fuelled by mass consumerism and grimly framed by the world wars. But as giants such as China and the US (and various leading multinationals) buckle under the gravitational pull of the 21st century – weighed down by surging populism, middle-class desires and the dense complexities of globalism – the rules of the game have clearly changed.

      This throws up a huge chance for Britain, if it can only tap into its true energetic and opportunistic zeitgeist, currently suffocating under the depressed flab of bourgeois-branded socialism and metropolitan McManageralism. Few countries have more suitable DNA for rising to the challenges of the present day than ours, inherited from miners, factory owners, rag-and-scavengers, speculators and buccaneers. Britain is defined by its stiff upper lip, but it was built on lock-jawed determination.

      First, as “big diplomacy” falters, we must become a trail-blazer for minilateralism. The focus should be on security and free trade. Why not lead on a defence technology deal with select allies from India to Israel? Or help broker the pan-African free trade zone that has proved elusive for decades, constricting the growth of British firms across the fastest-growing continent?

      Second, as the US comes to resemble Ouroboros, the mythical snake that eats its own tail, bankrupting itself with a vast army and spending 10,000 times more than its inferior opponents, Britain must revolutionise its military. In defiance of the EU’s bizarre Tolstoyan wet dream of a huge anti-Russian land army, we should become the leader in counter-cyberterrorism, intelligence gathering and clandestine missions.

      Third, the bland response of “big business” to the increasingly ethically conscious tastes of the global middle class is a potentially massive moment for savvy British entrepreneurs. 
What better time to tap rising demand for craft beer in China, or fight for a slice of the rocketing sustainable beauty market in Brazil? Does 
Mexican taco firm Gruma’s talent for adapting to local tastes – swapping cornflour for wheat in India, and marketing its bread as ideal for stuffing with Peking duck in China – offer food for thought for niche British companies that punch below their weight abroad? Could our top building materials firms glean something from Nigeria’s leading company, which, perhaps surprisingly for an oil nation, produces cement to ship across Africa and Asia?

      The ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu said: “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” As we finally prepare to leave the EU after three years of hysterical bungling, those who remain committed to Brexit should know. The next task will be to prove that lesson to the world.

  26. What. The BBC biased? Never whatever next !!!!!!

    I think basically at least in my view the BBC was caught lying

    BBC’s EU election graphic showing win for anti-Brexit parties was ‘lapse of editorial standards’

    The BBC reported in May that the Liberal Democracts, Green Party, SNP, Change UK and Plaid Cymru, which all oppose Brexit, had won 40.4 per cent of the vote, while pro-Brexit parties took a 34.9 per cent share.

    But its tally of pro-Brexit parties (pictured) only included the Brexit Party and UKIP, excluding the Conservative Party despite the fact it was pushing forward with taking the UK out of the European Union.

    Had it included the Tories as a pro-Brexit party in its tally, Brexiteers would have outperformed anti-Brexit parties by more than three per cent. Labour were similarly not counted for either side.

    A complaint was twice “rebuffed” by the BBC’s complaints unit, according to Guido Fawkes, before the corporation eventually upheld it.

    The BBC has now removed the graph and published a correction note in its story.

  27. An Australian guy is travelling around the Greek Islands. He walks into a bar and, by chance, is served by an Australian barmaid. As she takes his order, a Fosters, she notices his accent. Over the course of the evening they get chatting. At the end of her shift he asks if she wants to come back to his place.

    Although she is attracted to him, she says no. He then offers to pay her $200 to sleep with him.

    As she is travelling around the world, and is short of funds, she agrees.

    The next night the guy turns up again. Again, he orders Fosters and after showing her plenty of attention, asks if she will sleep with him again for $200. She remembers the payout from night before and is only too happy to agree.

    This goes on for 5 nights. On the 6th night the guy comes in again, orders Fosters but goes and sits in the corner. The barmaid thinks that if she pays him more attention then, maybe she can shake some more cash out of him. So she goes over and sits next to him.

    She asks him where he’s from in Australia.
    “Melbourne”, he tells her.
    “So am I. What suburb?” she enquires.
    “Glen Iris” he replies.
    “That’s amazing,” she says excitedly, “so am I – what street?”
    “Cameo Street” he replies.
    “This is unbelievable!” she says, her voice quavering; “What number?”
    “Number 20”, he replies.
    She is totally astonished. “You are NOT going to believe this,” she screams, “but I’m from number 22! My parents still live there!”
    “I know…” he says, “Your Dad gave me $1,000 to give to you”!

    HE WHO DRINKS AUSTRALIAN, THINKS AUSTRALIAN

    2. Ah, Fosters. The amber effluent that no self-respecting Australian would ever drink. Coopers, yes. VB (Victoria Bitter), maybe. But Foster’s, never!

      If it looks like pìss and tastes like pìss then, by process of elimination, it must be pìss!

      1. It’s in the joke and was probably a puff for Fosters like their ‘phone-line advice’

        I, for one who was brought up on Stewart and Pattersons’ Mild at 13 years-old and moved on to bitter, having spent many years out of Blighty, find that English ales quickly weigh heavily on my gut and, for that reason, in the beer department, I have moved to Belgian beers and was delighted to find a shipper of Affligem at 9% which has a great taste. I am slowly working my way through their offerings at:

        https://www.beerwulf.com/en-gb/c/beers

        Maybe worth a look.

        1. Not all English ales are heavy, Tom lad. There is such a variety out there these days and every type is catered for: light, medium and heavy.

  28. ‘Morning, Tom (wherever he may be).

    To continue our discussion of yesterday about The North, The Midlands and The South, you entered a long post about “centroid” points late last night.

    OK?

    Re: Near Cwmystwyth (#7), Devil’s Bridge, Ceredigion (52°19′48.791″N 3°45′59.072″W; grid reference SN7972871704) [9]

    I have to say that I am familiar with that area via my old birdwatching trips in the 1980s and 1990s and, in my opinion, there is not a more beautiful road triangle in the whole of the UK that beats the drive between the three points of Cwmystwyth, Devil’s Bridge and Pont-rhyd-y-groes. Utterly stunning and bewitching.

    1. ‘Morning, George, Tom is here, albeit late on parade. I was up late last night (early hours of this morning) putting together a lathund (lazy dog, idiot’s guide) for my brother as to how restore one’s ‘pooter to an earlier time to overcome a viral glitch. Poor old boy, he’s rising 79 and while not totally ‘pooter illiterate, he struggles with the technical parts. He also mistakenly thinks that, as I spend all my time on the ‘pooter, I must be a whizz-bang genius – I’m not and I don’t.

      Apropos centroid points, I thought I could at least put to bed the debates as to where does South end and North begin. A debate as riveting as counting the number of angels currently dancing on a pin-head.

      Right, more tea required.

      1. “A debate as riveting as counting the number of angels currently dancing on a pin-head.”

        Therefore par for the course for this forum then? :•)

        1. Take your pick, whatever turns you on, even sitting on the pin yourself.

          Good morning, Richard.

    2. Come to the NW Highlands then Grizz and do the North Coast 500 trip around where I live, you might change your mind

      1. I doubt it, Spikey. I have travelled extensively in Great Britain and it is a country of the most intense beauty wherever you go and deciding which is the “most beautiful” is highly subjective and very personal.

        I am bewitched by most of Scotland, most of Wales, The North York Moors, Exmoor, The North Norfolk Coast and countless other points in this delightful country of ours.

        However, I was utterly entranced by the woodland valley scenery in that road triangle I mentioned in mid-Wales.

        1. Go with eyes open and there is beauty everywhere. It is a shame that some people just don’t see it.

  29. Trump wanting to buy Greenland is yet another sign of Putin’s puppetry. Richard Wolffe. Wed 21 Aug 2019.

    Greenland doesn’t just bubble into Trump’s mind randomly, unless Fox News is airing obscure weekend segments on arctic politics. But it is very much on Russia’s radar. Earlier this year, Russia revamped its arctic circle military base on the tiny Kotelny Island, which sits close to the shipping routes that are opening up as the polar region warms catastrophically.

    There are unknown quantities of oil, gas and rare earth metals in the arctic, and the region’s powers – Denmark among them – can either green light a global free-for-all or restrain the usual human plunder of one of the last pristine frontiers on the planet. You can guess where Russia sits on this spectrum of environmental concerns in the middle of our climate crisis.

    It is one of the sickest Trump jokes that his half-baked idea of buying Greenland should be seen as American machismo when it is yet another sign of Putin’s puppet American presidency at work.

    This is babble of the worst kind. The first thing is that there is nothing half-baked about the US buying Greenland. They bought Alaska and the Gadsden Purchase, why not an island that would give them a strategic foothold in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans? Secondly why would Putin encourage such a move on the part of a competitor? The US unlike Denmark has the ablity to exploit Greenland’s resources. Instead of dealing with a weak European power he would find himself nose to nose with the worlds most powerful polity! It makes no sense unless you are a journalist on the Guardian paid to spout half-witted and discredited stories about Putin and Trump as a double act.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/21/trump-wanting-to-buy-greenland-is-yet-another-sign-of-putins-puppetry

    1. Earlier this year, Russia revamped its arctic circle military base on
      the tiny Kotelny Island, which sits close to the shipping routes that
      are opening up as the polar region warms catastrophically.

      A give away, that it is a spoof/lie/5hit stirring post

      1. I heard they are building an open air swimming pool in a new water park and they have placed an order for 25,000 beach brollies.

        1. I think that they may have some work to do to clear the seals off the beaches.

      1. Phew, I knew someone would have a link. I saw something about the 1867 attempt but couldn’t find it. Trump derangement syndrome is harder to remove from our media than Japanese knotwood.

    4. From what my D-i-L says, and my own observations in Esbjerg, Greenland seems to be a source of problems for Denmark.
      In its favour, it did vote to leave the EU whereas the mother country eventually caved in.

    5. Trump isn’t the first American president to offer to buy Greenland, yet no objection has been made about previous offers. I wonder why?

  30. Hi Nottlers. This may be of interest to you or you very probably know already. Freeview has a movie section under the 300 heading. The numbers 306 (TPTV) and 307 (Retro Movies) are devoted to Movies from that unhappy period when we were not diverse and incapable of managing our affairs without the assistance of the LGBTQ community. I record the ones that interest me and then just sit there and wallow in depraved nostalgia of a lost world!

    1. Thanks for the tip, Minty, but our Heathfield transmitter doesn’t carry those Freeview channels. I feel deprived…

  31. Morning Each,
    Will granny be on the menu ? check out breitbart / cannibalism.
    Soylent Green a reality ? will they label it in the supermarkets ?
    Will it be in any party manifesto’s ?
    Will the green party be in prime position vote wise to take advantage ?
    As for paedophilia, politico’s were conversing with PIE & was not the age of consent ie 12 discussed ?
    Those MPs are still active.

  34. SIR – As an American who, rather unusually, loves the game of cricket, I came away from Lord’s on Sunday feeling rather sad and, yes, ashamed. This was not only because parts of the crowd were baying for blood, but also because I do not see any honour in winning

    (or even drawing) when it has come from bowling that is wilfully aimed at a batsman’s head, knocking him apparently unconscious and putting his life at risk.

    Jofra Archer bowled 44 overs and struck Australian batsmen 11 times, putting Steve Smith in hospital and unable to play at Headingley. Without Smith, a victory there can only be judged a hollow one for England. What glory is there in that? It is not cricket.

    I began following the game in 1974, during the winter Test series, when Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson were bowling bouncers. Then, in contrast to today, the British media decried their actions. In the Seventies one could at least claim that it was an Australian response to the “bodyline” series and somehow justified. Now, however, there can be no justification for such a tactic.

    In the past 45 years there have been two developments that make this kind of bowling unacceptable. First, since 1974 medical research has proved that head injuries can leave permanent brain damage; and secondly, we have seen frightening injuries, and the death of Philip Hughes. There is nothing sporting about a player being killed by a deliberate action. It is not even manslaughter, since there was malice aforethought; it is murder.

    It is not the fault of the bowlers that this danger exists, and I do not blame Archer. It is the game’s authorities who are at fault. They need to act immediately before this scourge causes more injuries or even another death.

    The answer is a prohibition against bowling any ball above chest level to a batsman. A violation of this should result in the award of six runs to the batting team. Were it repeated, the umpire should remove the bowler from the attack.

    Dr David D Hebb
    London N1

    In general, Doc Hebb, that was a reasonable discourse though heavily flawed and, at times, over-excitable. Full marks for being a Yank who understands and enjoys cricket—the national sport of The Commonwealth—but null points for your description of death by deliberate short-pitched bowling being “murder”.

    There is no “malice aforethought” in any bowler’s mind as he tries to win the game for his side. To have that there has to be an irrebuttable mens rea (guilty knowledge) of a determined attempt to kill. Murder is only murder if the sole intention is to kill. To imply that was the case with Jofra Archer is outrageous.

    You mention the hostile bowling attack of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson in the mid-1970s coming in for a degree of criticism, yet you fail to mention the even more hostile attack of the West Indies’ teams from that time onwards, when they frequently fielded a non-stop barrage of intimidatory fast bowling from four quicks.

    For a number of years they had a conveyor belt of fast bowlers, starting with Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner and Colin Croft, and moving on through Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Ian Bishop, Wayne Daniel, Kenny & Winston Benjamin, Patrick Patterson and a good few others who lived by a creed of constant fast, short-pitched bowling, and no one demurred.

    Fast bowling has always been a feature of cricket, one which makes it an exciting sport (despite the frequent put-downs of those with limited intelligence and even more limited attention spans) and a proper gladiatorial contest of one man against eleven. Steve Smith was injured, primarily because he deliberately and consciously eschewed the use of protective pads at the rear of his helmet. Had he worn them then he would still be playing in today’s test match.

  38. Scotland has a leftist government and its got some familiar failings:

    Scotland’s deficit is the equivalent of more than half the entire UK’s thanks to public spending being £1,600 higher per person, according to official figures that damage Nicola Sturgeon’s independence case.

    The annual Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) showed total public spending in Scotland was £75.3 billion in 2018/19 but the country only raised £62.7 billion in revenues.

    The 2018/19 report showed the £12.6 billion deficit was the equivalent of more than half the £23.5 billion recorded for the entire UK, despite Scotland having only 8.3 per cent of the population.

    It is equivalent to seven per cent of Scotland’s GDP, a slight improvement on the previous year but more than six times higher than the UK-wide figure of only 1.1 per cent.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/21/scotlands-deficit-half-uk-total-blow-nicola-sturgeon-independence/

    5. You’re obviously a fan of Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’.

    1. Which reminds me. Justin King said recently that if we have a no deal Brexit then Sainsburys will run out of food within a week.

      We’ve started shopping elsewhere.

      1. Morning Minty, Geoff’s blog and your comment first appeared on Geoff’s original Disqus page.

        Confused of Norf Zummerzet signing off 🤔

  42. Morning again

    SIR – The sub judice rule does not inhibit us from thinking about and discussing the powers Parliament has vested in the police.

    In order to arrest 10 people, the police need a reasonable belief that each is guilty of the stated arrestable offence. (It is vanishingly unlikely 
that all 10 will be guilty even if peripheral offences are added in.) The power of arrest certainly does not extend to a pool from which offenders might emerge.

    There is no power – however much the police would like one – to arrest those among whom there may be prosecution witnesses.

    Finally, our justice system takes fierce pride in extending the full protection of the law to travellers.

    Peter R Douglas-Jones
    Swansea

    1. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but our Justice system patently doesn’t apply the full enforcement powers to the illegal activities of the Traveller communities. Nothing to be proud or smug about it Douglas-Jones.

      1. Quite. And I wonder how many ‘peripheral offences’ came to light when the so-called travellers were turned over – and how many of those the police are prepared to pursue?

        ‘Morning, Clyde.

    2. “Vanishing unlikely that all 10 will be guilty…”

      Bollux, matey. They could be guilty of Affray.

  44. Thought from the Bath
    I was under the impression that buying online was pretty safe. We have been told all about the secure encryption of our transactions. We have three layers of security to go through when signing in to an online bank account.
    Yet the Banks have told us we need more and they are going to impose it, willy-nilly.
    If this is required it suggests to me that the banks have not done enough to catch the fraudsters and scammers. Do they employ computer experts to electronically track fraudsters? Do they employ their own in house detectives to physically track them down? Do they employ mercenaries to effect citizens arrests?
    Or are they set against allowing their customers to access their own money?

  45. Seen at a golf course yesterday
    h
    //uploads.disquscdn.com/images/68870d3d9e67230333baaab59ad4eee8f97eb247778f8f0dea4d83ed2da0764c.jpg

    It seems that the ground staff are fans.

        1. The gardener was using a chain saw to trim some of the hedgerows. He should be able to fix everything up to your liking, even though it will take several years to fill in the accidental erasures.

          1. Well for sure I won’t be touching any chain saw, or other insanely dangerous tool. The scars from my three years-old attempts at chopping wood with an axe are still visible.

          1. I believe she doesn’t need one. The surface of the sea will do from what I hear on the telly.

    2. Hopefully she doesn’t have a visa and the Americans won’t let her in. Otherwise I can see the Trudeau boy rushing down to the UN to have a fawning PR photo shoot with her.

        1. You really should feel sorry for his kids after they were put through that don’t you.

          There are other equally repellent photos of our glorious leader doing cultural appropriation. His gay pride costumes qualify him for a spot in the Village People lineup.

          2. Apparently the Village People were all heterosexual, I have read in several places. Who knows? Who cares?

      1. When the Davos set gather each year I always think, where’s an avalanche when you need one. Wishing for a natural disaster feels so much less sinful than mass murder.

    4. Dear Greta, The days are the light periods in between the spells of darkness.
      If you look upwards during the darkness you will see many spots of light. One of these spots of light will be a lot brighter than the others. Point the boat that way and keep going.

    5. In this picture we can clearly see the effects of climate change.
      The sea on the left of the picture is far higher than that on the right.
      Assuming the boat is travelling towards the USA (from Europe) we can infer that the Northern ice cap is melting and the sea is rushing in the fill the gap it leaves.

      .A Climate Change expert. C/O BBC Londun.

      1. Don’t be silly. The sea appears to be on a slope as HMS Greta has sailed to the south where the earth gets much steeper than we are used to in our northern location. P.S. Don’t pay any heed to any flat-earthers who may be lurking around this site.

    7. It does bother me how happy and healthy she looks compared with the usual photos of her.
      I seriously wonder about life at home.

    8. Great Maker… Are we going to have a picture of that brainwashed face looking at us every day? Imagine being so lacking in understanding that you are young and believe every word that she says… That will take some extended periods of re-education to fix.

      I could have happily lived my entire life without knowing that this tool of misinformation ever existed.

          2. I cannot get enough of her image really. Her visage saves me from needing to punish myself for not being pure enough. I have not needed to use that barbed wire vest since her face hoved into view on the worlds stage. 🙂

          1. Wot makes me doubt that is Al G, who he was friends with, how much loot is floating around… and who backs her with a vast profit making opportunity thrown in of trillions of dollars if it all goes right.

            I think this is about money and control, not climate.

      2. She is “inspirational”……I am inspired to think of yet more ways of making sure she falls flat on her face…

  48. Idris Elba’s wife Sabrina Dhowre defends friend Meghan Markle and Prince Harry over private jet habit suggesting flying First Class risks fans trying to take ‘selfies’ at airports
    Harry and Meghan faced criticism for four private jet flights in just 11 days
    Comes despite the couple’s awareness-raising on pollution and environment
    Sabrina says that airports can be ‘absolutely ridiculous’ for famous flyers

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7382527/Idris-Elbas-wife-Sabrina-Dhowre-defends-friend-Meghan-Markle-Prince-Harry-private-jet.html?ico=pushly-notifcation-small

    I will boldly suggest that the Markle woman and Grace Mugabe share many similarities.. and I don’t mean colour either.

    1. I thought that the VIP lounge was supposed to keep the great and good away from the stares and the attentions of us folk?

          5. It’s something that Colchester folk lick the windows of (but only when the queues to lick the windows at Kwik-Save are too deep).

            [I love living on the edge!] :•)

          1. Most airports have special arrangements/facilities for real VIPs. When we lived in Germany, the boys & I used to fly 1st class to Mallorca for the Herbstferien (Autumn 1/2 term). Imagine my horror the first time when we discovered that there was no 1st class lounge at Mallorca airport for the return flight!

          2. Gosh yes, how utterly awful! Almost like travelling by train and finding the your connecting branch line train to Little Wallop didn’t have a First Class compartment.

    2. Maybe they could just holiday at home then. They could travel to a nice Butlins on the coast.

      None of this road closures and police escorts. Like politicians they should be made to deal with traffic jams and delays, let them see what the peasants have to put up with.

      1. “They could travel to a nice Butlin’s …”

        Just like you do, Richard, when you go to Butlin’s, Saskatoon? :•)

      2. When the Cambridge’s visit the Proms, the traffic on Kensington Road is brought to a standstill and a police escort is provided for them even though it’s just a short walk from the Royal Albert Hall to Kensington Palace.

        Quite a contrast to [with?] the Duke of Kent and Prince & Princess Michael who often attend recitals at the Wigmore Hall without any fuss at all. Of course it might be argued that they’re not in direct line to the throne.

      3. A friend’s wife was a dental hygenist, and once treated Idi Amin. She always said that she was one of the luckiest people on earth – to have had her hand inside Amin’s mouth and to have lived to tell the tale.

    5. “Sabrina says that airports can be ‘absolutely ridiculous’ for famous flyers”

      I’m sure they can. They are no less ridiculous for hoi polloi.

      1. By the way. What exactly is she famous for, other than being somebody’s wife?

        Never heard of her.

      2. Sabrina can soon choose to be not famous. Stay in the house, keep her gob shut and don’t be married to a camera-hogging bigmouth actor should do for a start.

        Then she can have fun eating cake along with the rest of us.

    7. The mail also reports that the Will, Kate and offspring took FlyBe out of Norwich on their way to Balmoral.

  49. For some bizarre reason my husband needs 4 towels for
    his morning ablutìons (one for different areas of his personage).
    I’ve told him that the environmentalist greeny police will knock
    upon our door one day about washing all his towels using too
    much water and being bad for the environment. I only use two towels .

    1. I suspect that he also uses only 2 towels a day (please note correct word order), but hid yes’day’s towels in a dark corner.

      1. 4 towels a day during his morning ablutìons,
        that sounds better, Mr Viking . 4 towels he uses daily,
        they are all upon the towel rail in the bathroom.

        2. If they’re on the towel rail & not on the floor, it means he is prepared to use them again.

    2. Moh is fussing around at the moment before he clears off to play in a golf competition in another county. He has been gathering clothes together for the meal afterwards , and grabbing towels for his post match shower..

      I don’t think the showers are communal , but I often wonder if places like that are breeding grounds for Legionnaires and Verruca.. , any way back to the towels, yes 2 are being taken.. which will be returned back here, soggy !

      1. I’ve always wondered about the situation with veruucas
        too . Always the magic washing fairies wash and dry them .

        There as a lady at the local RSPB group who likes
        communal showers, enjoys them very much,
        she’s in her 60s at a guess and always goes camping
        In the UK, Europe and as far as India..
        not sure about the hygiene of India .

          1. I’ve just finished rereading a book about my school, prior to the reunion lunch in a couple of weeks’ time – it reminded me of the old gym……..a relic of the Victorian era,,,,,,, and the new gym – built while I was there in the 60s. There were communal showers, and it was rumoured that they would be compulsory. I was quite surprised to find it was not compulsory and I managed to escape them.

          2. There was precisely one shower in the girls’ changing room at my school. Presumably the number wasn’t much greater in the boys’ section.
            We always knew if there was a visiting rugby team because it was the only time hot water was provided for the ‘facilities’.

      2. In Germany nobody would dream of setting foot in a changing room or communal shower (which are the norm) without protecting their feet with flip-flops or similar.

  50. TV bosses must resist ditching “pale, male and stale” presenters, the head of Channel 4 News has said, as she praised the work of older reporters.

    Dorothy Byrne gave a withering assessment of the current state of British television at the Edinburgh TV Festival, where she delivered the prestigious MacTaggart Lecture.

    The veteran news chief said she no longer saw “big ideas” from the country’s broadcasters and lamented the lack of progress in improving ethnic diversity on screen, which she claimed was “the most disappointing failure during my career”.

    (Where the hell does she think she is living , South Africa?)

    But she also sought to temper the reported appetite among television executives to rid their schedules of older, white men who have long dominated the profession.

    Ms Byrne, who has been head of news and current affairs at Channel 4 since 2003, said: “We also need to resist the idea that we don’t need older white men anymore and that they should be crushed out of the way.

    “I hate the term, ‘Pale, male and stale.’ As someone who sticks up for the rights of old ladies, I need to stick up for old gents too.

    “They are still over-represented, but their voices are vital for our society.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/21/tv-bosses-must-resist-ditching-pale-male-stale-presenters-says/

    1. Now get a man to give the same speech and change ‘men/male’ to ‘women/female’. I guarantee that he won’t even get off the stage before he is dismembered.

    1. Mind you, they’re going to be staying in a castle. She’s a good ‘un, that Kate.

      1. If they have not used such budget flights before, it may well be considered virtue signalling. If however this type of flight has been undertaken by them previously, I cannot see how it could be considered as such. The advantage would be a not too subtle kick up the rear aimed at certain family members.

        Edit: Manners, good afternoon Bill.

        1. I suspect it was the latter. They have certainly used Easyjet in the past; as, indeed, did Brash before Trash came along.

    3. Prince William has always been a regular passenger from Norwich; I met him a few times when I worked there and he was commuting between Sandringham and St Andrew’s where he was reading for his degree. He was always an exceptionally pleasant and good mannered man who never failed to thank the staff.

    3. When we took A levels, an A was a real achievement.
      B grades in maths and physics was seen as good. Even my C in chemistry was taken as an achievement after the school famously failed to prepare us by teaching the wrong syllabus.

    4. Why they had to reverse the order of the grades I don’t know – in my day 1 was top and 9 was the lowest of the low.

      Well done grandson!

      3. I never had to endure that as I left aged 15. Did the 11+ next exam I took aged 36 and the last aged 50.

    5. A, A* and A*+ shows how discredited the exam system has become. Might as well have 11 grades…

      (That should, of course, read in the past tense.)

  56. Setting aside my silly jokes for the moment.
    Boris will attempt to push the WA through Parliament. It is clear that the EU hard line on renegotiation was, of course, a ploy. The Withdrawal Agreement will not change except in respect of the meaningless Irish backstop nonsense. In most negotiations, both sides will have points of negotiation that were set out initially. At least one will be on table for the sole purpose of being conceded. It may be defended long and hard to enhance its apparent value, but will be conceded. This gives the other side a good feeling as they may think that they have gained ground and won something.
    So when the EU gives up the backstop, be aware that it was never meant to be a real thing. Too preposterous. But it has done its job. It will result in acceptance of the WA and our permanent subservience to the EU.
    Keep in mind also that there was never any need for Withdrawal Agreement. It has no basis in any existing treaty.

    1. If they reopen the WA, and if it comes again before Parliament, there will be many voices reiterating the other horrors it contains. Hopefully if it comes to a vote, the ERG will make sure it is defeated.

      At a subequent election, Boris and the Tories will be toast. I think he’s playing a game and the WA will not be reopened before Halloween.

      1. The WA will not change, except for the Irish backstop. The backstop has been talked up as the major obstacle to a smooth departure, smiles all round. The BBC and the MSM have made no attempt to look at what the backstop is. The fears about the Good Friday Agreement are more spurious ,malicious lies. The GFA has no reference to the management of the border. I have been banging on about this for years. That view is confirmed by Boris in his letter to Tusk. (No one ever seems to point out that the GFA was the alternative to American troops in Northern Ireland.)
        The BBC has analysed nothing in any depth and only promoted the bad news elements, even though these, if any, would only be short term.
        The ERG don’t count for much.
        The huge sense of relief that will run through the entire country when the backstop is dropped will generate a tidal wave of optimistic stupidity promoted by the MSM. The emotional wave will allow the WA to pass, supported by the Remainers. We have, after all, endlessly emphasised that accepting the WA is tantamount to remaining.

        1. Except that accepting the WA means we pay £39B, we are still under EU law for an indefinite period, can ratify no trade deals, our fish will still be trawled by Spain and France, and we will have no EU representation.
          If the “turd” goes back to Parliament, all this will be pointed out by those who have actually read it.

          1. That is what I said. The WA is Remain with all the consequences you point out, and more. These have already been pointed out. Most MPs employ researchers to cut articles from newspapers.
            MPs have no need to read anything. If they did they would all have voted for no deal.

          3. Well, that would be all of them, except those who get airsick. The political career path is University, intern, research assistant/PA. local councillor, MP, MEP. Becoming a MEP is a real prize. The very model of a modern major sinecure. David Martin MEP is the paradigm. MEP from 1984 until 2019. Yes indeedy, 35 years on the unlimited gravy express train. Have you even heard of him? Has anyone? I bet you could conduct a survey for a mile around his house and still get a figure of less than 10% awareness.

      2. Reading many comments here and elsewhere two main lines of thought appear.

        1) Johnson is pursuing May’s deal with the Backstop removed and will attempt to push it through Parliament as revamped and acceptable. Those who comment in this manner think he’s May v2 and will destroy the Tories in his pursuit of what is BRINO.

        2) The other train of thought is that he is ‘playing’ both the Remainer majority in Parliament and the EU. His advisor, Cummings, is recognised as being very smart and devious and all this negotiation with Merkel et al. is a smoke screen and a time waster.

        IMHO I think he would be out of his mind to follow May’s path, as that way leads to failure and ignominy. He’s surely too smart to do that, but you never know.
        I would like to believe that he is ‘playing’ the opposition to No Deal, appearing active in pursuing a ‘deal’ and by doing so trying to hold off the No Deal majority in the House. He is not guaranteed to win a no confidence motion and he needs to keep Tory Remainers onside until time becomes too short for a GE to be held before 31/10/2019.
        Time will tell.

        1. I would hope that it is the second. Of course, Boris cannot announce that for obvious reasons. However, there are some in the Cabinet who would leak such a ploy.

    1. He does not believe in independence for a country ? I doubt if the former Soviet Union satellites would agree.

    2. He is not even correct. After October the 31st they can still come to the UK but would need a visa or a temporary work permit which allows them to live and work in the UK for up tp 3 years

  59. MODS:
    What happened to the Sherrelle Jacobs article posted by Stormy (and again by someone else): “This comment was marked as spam.”
    Do we have a troll on board?

  60. Just lifted the long-keeping onions. Not a bad crop but the onions are smaller than usual. The great heat in July, I suspect.

  64. Quick quiz. Test yourself.

    Look at the slide show of GCSE results on this Guardian page-

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk

    1. How many white kids can you see ?
    2. How many Afro-Caribbean kids can you see ?
    3. How many Asian origin kids can you see ?

    ( and don’t say ” white ” say ” Hovis “.)

    1. Yep, it’s depressingly widespread now. Mrs J and I play a game with news reports and adverts (although we record to skip most of the latter). The game is called ‘spot whitey’ and we try our darnedest to find any semblance of balance. So far we fail miserably most of the time.

    2. At least two……….possibly three white girls…… but it is Birmingham. Brown people are the majority there.

  65. I think BJ is about to fall for the EU plan. He thinks he has a good chance, but no agreement can be agreed before 31 October and Macron is adamant the backstop must stay. Boris is focussed on the Backstop but people like Grady and David Davis on Radio 4 today have been hinting that the WA could be tweaked. Boris must explain to the UK people what he is playing at and is he still leaving on 31October 2019 and not preparing to fall into the EU trap of extending Article 50 even for a few hours. The EU cannot be trusted. Should we trust Boris?

    5. Nigel Farage must come to the fore now. We will not get a proper Brexit unless a bomb is put under the Bonking Buffoon.

      When the chips are down Boris will be found wanting.

      Who thinks Boris – without prodding from Nigel Farage – is up to the job? I don’t.

      Without Nigel Farage to stiffen his resolve the Bonker will just prove too limp to perform properly and will not be able to rise to the occasion.

  66. Well done. This lass has taken some serious shiite to achieve these results.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/22/britains-strictest-schools-first-gcse-results-four-times-better/

    “Britain’s strictest school’s first GCSE results are four times better than national average
    Helena Horton

    Britain’s strictest school has received its first ever GCSE results after opening five years ago – and they are four times better than the national average.

    At Michaela school in Brent, North London, 18 per cent of exams were graded a 9, compared to 4.5 per cent nationwide. 54 per cent of all exams were graded a 7-9, which is an A or A* under the old system.

    Headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh has come under criticism in the past for her “strict” methods at the free school, which aim to instill private school-esque order in state school children.

    The school has a number of unusual rules, including silence in the corridor and it has a strict “no excuses” policy where pupils are given detention for coming to school one minute late.

    They are also penalised for not completing homework or if the work is scruffy, for not having the correct stationery , or for tutting, rolling eyes, or “persistently turning around in class”.

    Its policy is based on “tough love”, and the school rules state: “We expect every pupil to move swiftly and in single file lines between lessons, so that children are hardly ever late to lessons. We expect every pupil to greet teachers and guests with eye contact and a polite, cheerful, ‘morning, sir!’ ‘afternoon, miss!’

    “If a school is too permissive, allowing too many exceptions, it risks creating helplessness, selfishness or dependence in its pupils rather than responsibility, consideration and agency. If a school reduces its standards for poorer pupils because of their poverty or difficult home life, it does them a disservice; frankly, it doesn’t believe in them enough. ”

    She said after getting her school’s first set of results: “Michaela was my old-school colleague for many years. She believed in rigour, old-fashioned values, in kids being allowed to be kids abd in adults leading the way.

    “Sadly she died of cancer in 2011. She would have been so proud of our school and what we have achieved.”

    She posted a video on Twitter of herself celebrating with parents, writing: “Nothing nicer than parents saying, ‘We trusted you and we you did it!’ ‘TOGETHER! I say! We did it TOGETHER!’ Parents matter!!”

    Suella Braverman MP said: “Huge congratulations to all staff & pupils for AMAZING GCSE results today. We need more schools like Michaela Community School & more teachers like Ms Birbalsingh. Very proud of all you today. We can create more free schools.”

    Tom Bennett, the founder of researchED, added: “I’ve been to this school several times and I’m not surprised by this. It’s a beacon of routine, consistency and professionalism- but what many people don’t see is its commitment to kindness, manners and altruism. There’s a lot to be gained by reflecting on their example”

    Daniel Hannan MEP, who has supported her free school since its inception, said: “Take a moment to think of what Katharine Birbalsingh has achieved.

    “She fought the bureaucracy to establish a free school. Many of her intake came from disadvantaged backgrounds. She put her trust in old-fashioned teaching methods. Now, five years on, this is the result.”

    The headteacher had previously vowed never to teach in the state sector again and said at the Conservative Party Conference in 2010 that working in the state sector had turned her into a conservative.

    She said at the time: “In schools and in society, we need high expectations, of everyone, even if you’re black, or live on a council estate – Why can’t they sit exams at the end of the year?

    “We need to rid the classrooms of chaos by unshackling heads and setting our schools free.

    2. They’ll never get out of jail with a single file, especially if they are rolling their eyes.

  67. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have appointed a leading media executive as the first trustee of their Sussex Royal Foundation.

    Karen Blackett was listed as a director of the couple’s new charitable body at Companies House on Thursday, and joins a team who will plan and deliver the Sussex’s public charitable work.

    Understood to be taking a role as trustee, she will join Natalie Campbell, who moves with the Sussexes from their shared Royal Foundation with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to help set up the new charity framework.

    The Sussexes set up their own foundation earlier this year after splitting from their joint charity with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

    She was named number one in the 2015 Powerlist of the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the UK.

    The first businesswoman to top the list, she was also awarded an OBE for services to the media industry in 2014.

    Ms Blackett, 48, has been at MediaCom for more than 20 years, becoming chief executive in 2011 and chairwoman in 2016.

    She has described being told as a teenager that her only career choices were to be a nurse or a teacher.

    Ms Blackett wrote in The Guardian in 2014 on how role models can help the business world reflect the reality of social diversity, saying: “Young minorities usually have a limited number of role models, and so choose their life paths from a narrow palette of options.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2019/08/22/duke-duchess-sussex-appoint-media-executive-named-influential/

    Looks like her staff are all going to be people of colour.

    Does she really despise her poor father so much?

      1. It is just a gimmick. What is the point of Harry anyway since William has three sprogs in the direct line of succession should Brian kick the bucket. Governor of Bermuda would sit nicely on Brash and Trash.

    1. Last night on the SkyNews Press Preview, Andrew Pierce, who now works for the DM, but previously worked for the DT, was briefly talking about the cartoonist Matt.

      AP said that Matt would bring in about 5 or 6 cartoons for them to choose from. He also said that Matt is a really nice guy.

      I wonder if Matt produces a book of his cartoons?

        1. Thank you Ndovu for your reply.
          My thanks also to Anne & Harry for their replies.

          I shall definitely check out the Telegraph Book shop, because cartoon books are good stocking fillers or makeweight Christmas presents.

          Edited: Because ‘makeweight’ is one word, apparently. Not two separate words as I originally wrote it/them.
          Sorry to deny the few pedants on here the opportunity to correct me on that. No doubt there will be other opportunities for them
          in the future though 🙂

          1. Am I alone in thinking the “Unpublished Letters to The Daily Telegraph make good stocking fillers.
            ‘Imagine my Surprise’, etc the latest published in time for Christmas ‘So That Went Well’ in which i have a letter published!

          2. I’ve never had one published in the DT, but several have made the unpublished letters books.

          3. I’ve had several letters published in the DT . If you keep it brief and to the point they use it as a filler……

          5. I’m assuming that a ‘makeweight present’ is what we used to call a stocking-filler.

      3. Amazon and the Telegraph Book shop stock them.
        Apart from annuals, there are also themed cartoon books.

      2. An enquiry is something you do when you want to shut people up until it is finished ten years later.

  71. We just had a rather nice lunch of Spanish hams, wine ,Anti pasta and
    ciabatta in the garden with the sun brightly shining, very nice .

    I am now about ( for the second time) to read a book by Laurence
    Sterne ( 1713 -1768 ) called ” life and opinions of Tristram Shandy ”
    recommended by a teacher friend of mine eons ago –
    making the most of the end of summer .

    1. Funnily enough, I’m currently listening to a Melvyn Bragg/”In Our Time” podcast about the book. It sounds most unusual.

  72. BBC NEWS Propaganda 6:00pm

    The BBC has found that most immigrants are coming from overseas.

    No sh*t Sherlock.

  73. Here’s one for you: if we are all to eat vegetables only, and not use hydrocarbon fuelled farm vehicles or exploit animals, how are we to till enough land to feed over seven billion mouths?

    2. We shall just have to carry on as we are – till the cows come home!🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐮🐂🐂🐂🐂

    3. I’ve considered the vegan argument and I’ve reached what I hope is a compromise, acceptable to all.

      I will only eat animals that eat vegetables or vegetation.

      1. I have a Muslim friend who is a vegetarian. He can’t wait to to get his seventy-two vegans.

      2. Or as a colleague use to say about salads and the like – food for my food.

        p.s. no bacon, then, pigs being omnivores?

        1. If farmed (captive) pigs are only fed vegetable matter then they will come under Duncan’s remit.

          By the way, free-range chickens eat worms. No chicken on the menu then?

        2. Are fish vegans, vegetarians or cannibals?
          Do fish get tired of seafood?

        3. Duncan does say that he will only eat animals that eat vegetables or vegetation, not animals that eat only vegetables or vegetation, so pigs are on the menu.

    6. No idea but what happens to the animals ?
      they’d still need to be slaughtered I assume.

          4. Dunno, I’m not that technical minded; however, if you take a screenshot of the photograph and then drag it into your computer’s photo file, you can then manipulate (crop and edit) its size before uploading it by dragging it onto your desktop then into the file.

          6. Oh I can resize them easily but could WotdPress not have a little button ie s/m/l?

      3. Once the current generation has been slaughtered, there would be no more. So we would not have to waste our crops feeding animals. Cats and dogs, if they still exist, would be fed vegan diets.

        Green fields would disappear, and the uplands, only used for raising sheep, would return to scrub. Hill farmers would be collateral damage.

          3. An old friend was once advised by a so called nutritionist to adopt a diet of nothing but green vegetables. After a couple of weeks her skin started to turn yellow and fortunately she had enough sense to stop.

          4. Vegans always seem to look sick. It’s not the same for
            vegetarians who at least eat dairy products etc and
            fish, but to eat just vegetables, that isn’t remotely
            normal .

          5. A lot of what they eat isn’t remotely normal – it’s manufactured stuff made from soya – pretend sausages, etc.

          6. At the husband’s vegan cousins party, they had these things
            resembling scotch eggs, they had a deep fried orange
            crumb and a bright pink fake cheese filling, quite awful.
            I’ve no idea why they couldn’t have just provided cocktails
            and nuts, telling people to make their own arrangements
            for food beforehand. Or at least provided a few nice
            cheese and onion quiches or rice salads etc,
            It’s almost as if they wanted to purposely make people
            eat that nasty chemically enchanted plastic food.

          9. Most likely due to lack of vitamin B12:

            Symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency:
            A pale yellow tinge to your skin.

            Vitamin B12 is naturally found in animal products, including fish, meat, poultry, eggs, milk, and milk products. Vitamin B12 is generally not present in plant foods.

            Other symptoms are available.

    1. I hated that song. When I was working in a pub (while studying for a degree, with only a minimum grant of £50) I used to eject it just over half way through if it was on the jukebox. Awful song – like “Let Me Roll it” by Wings around the same time.

      If someone came up and asked (they normally didn’t. they were too drunk by that time) I used to smile and say: Sorry but I really loathe that song. Could you play it when I’m not here – I’ll give you your full money back even though you had half the song.

      They used to laugh and go away.

        1. I like Boris, but I think he’s a terrible sweet talking chancer who knows he can wrap peeps round his little finger with his witty smiling charm.

          2. I think that’s how it’ll end up. Presented without the backstop as a huge victory, and most peeps will probably fall for it.

          4. Boris plays the part of a blonde floppy haired blond
            eccentric buffoon but it’d surmise he’s quite the opposite.

      2. “I know previous Common Purpose Ventures have delivered some creative, innovative solutions to different problems and I can’t wait to see the ideas that are produced this time.” Boris Johnson 2012.

  78. About the grouse shooting and the loonie animal rightists.
    From the Telegraph:
    “Sheriff Peter Paterson ordered 61-year-old Alan Wilson to carry out 225 hours of community service while claiming that official guidance against short term sentences had limited his options and ruled out a jail term.
    Wilson previously pleaded guilty to nine offences on the Longformacus sporting estate in the Scottish Borders.
    Jedburgh Sheriff Court heard last month that the League Against Cruel Sports was tipped off by a member of the public that snares were being operated in Henlaw Wood on the estate.
    A researcher subsequently found a “stink pit” containing a pile of dead animals designed to attract other wildlife.
    Wilson admitted shooting dead two goshawks, three buzzards, three badgers and an otter. He also pleaded guilty to using 23 illegal snares and possession of two bottles of highly toxic carbofuran pesticide.
    Sheriff Paterson told him yesterday that the offences merited a custodial sentence but he was unable to send him to jail as “special circumstances” had to apply to impose a short term sentence of up to a year.”

    From the Daily record, somewhat blunter;
    But I cannot upload the image. (I use Safari on my iMac, so???)

    Today from the BBC we get this report;
    “Warning over prisoner numbers ‘exceeding capacity”
    So we can’t send offenders to prison for periods of less than12 months because the prisons are already overfull.
    So we give them community service…

    By the by, there is no mention of the name of the owner of the estate in any of the articles and comments I have found so far. Interesting.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-49424906

        1. That would never work, lass, because their country’s governments would never accept them. They’re not daft, these foreign governments (unlike ours under previous Prime Ministers).

          1. Elsie – This is where self-preservation must be the over-riding motivator. We tried to be nice, islam does not accept “nice” and sees it as weakness and an invitation to attack. So, in short, it does not matter if their governments want them back or not, they are going back.

            It will require effort and planning to make sure that our soldiers are put at minimal risk, but it has to be done. It will be much easier than the inevitable religious war for survival that will happen otherwise.

          2. Perhaps the solution then is to fly them back to their country/ies and drop them from 10,000 feet. To avoid a backlash from our own countrymen/women we could issue them with a parachute each.

          3. We are too kind for that, although it was considered in some forms. There was a rumour that cats were once parachuted in boxes to an area where there were no landing strips and the boxes sprang open when touched the ground and the wild cats were released. That was on QI years ago, so it might have been true.

            Anyway – the task will be to relocate 3+ million followers of islam without losses to our side. Almost impossible, but precautions can be taken. Sudden arrests and placing in individual holding cells in the newly build rapid deportation blocks, of the top 100,000 high suspect men and imam’s. Emergency curfews, movement bans for anyone that follows islam, and so on.

            During the 6 months when the deportation centres are being constructed, every mosque will be recorded and anyone who goes in or out, unless they are a tradesman, will be automatically leaving first. Those who want nothing to do with the cult and have never been near a mosque in their life will be assessed after the real ones are gone.

            As to delivering them. Straight jackets and heavy sedatives will keep them quiet on the flight over, and Hercules can land and take off in a quite short space, or you could use cargo helicopters to drop them gently back into their countries. More security will be needed once their governments realise what is happening, but ships can be used to drop large numbers just off shore with life-jackets. A reversal of the process of picking them up from Africa and moving them to Europe. We will be helpfully returning them.

            But it is late and this is a long message. It can be done though. It will need to be done at some point. Before they start being openly violent all day and all night. There is hope. 🙂

          4. Just one flaw with your scheme, MM. When large numbers are dropped just off shore with life-jackets they will be picked up by NGO ships which will sail and bring them back whence they came.

          5. There are some places in the eu now that are already refusing these ships entry into their ports, and that is just the beginning. When we get to the necessary stage of mass repatriation, the world will have become aware of the threat of islam and those NGO boats will not be allowed anywhere near the area. If they not impounded altogether.

            This should be the case now of course, but it is taking time for people to realise that islam is not just another religion that will live in peace with the rest of us. It will drive out all other religions and anyone who disagrees with it. But that reality is becoming clearer and clearer.

  81. Off topic:

    Jeffrey Epstein’s will set up trust fund to shield $577m fortune days before death.

    If that is the case and he really committed suicide, how can his will be valid because clearly he was of unsound mind. I hope his victims manage to get their hands on it. (as it were)

    1. Why should a person who commits suicide necessarily be of unsound mind?

      If he DID kill himself (and that is a big if) – then I think he knew exactly what he was doing in order to avoid the trial, lifetime in gaol etc etc.

      1. I would suggest that depends whether he was clinically depressed. Why not wait until the trial has found him guilty?
        Given the vagaries of juries nothing is impossible.

  82. The husband and I have been very bad today,
    Spanish hams, anti- Pasti, bread and a glass of white wine in the
    sunny garden this afternoon and just now have eaten some
    cheeses, crackers, grapes and have consumed a glass of
    red wine. Summer will be gone sooner enough and it was nice .

    2. Gawd. I am on my second bottle of Gamay.

      Trip into Cambridge to take 3 year old Mac Book Pro for battery replacement. They will send it to Czeckoslovakia overland and I might have it returned in three weeks.

      Apparently they are prevented from sending batteries on aircraft or airlines. Thus the three week period because the wretched laptop has therefore to go overland.

      1. LOL.

        Takes 5 mins to replace a Mac battery in a 2015 or 2016 model.

        Three weeks?

        PSA Parts do the batteries with next day UK delivery and it’s 8 screws to take the back casing off. Around 2015 they started gluing the batteries in but some heat and the glue softens.

        1. I am sure the Apple people are overplaying this issue. My Mac Book Pro was a spare so I am comfortable with it being repaired by Apple.

          The ‘Apple Genius’ told me that the Apple Centre in Grand Arcade Cambridge does not have the specialist equipment necessary to take the laptop apart without damaging its parts.

          It is costing me nothing to have the battery replaced so I decided to leave it with them.

          1. “The ‘Apple Genius’ told me that the Apple Centre in Grand Arcade Cambridge does not have the specialist equipment necessary to take the laptop apart without damaging its parts.”

            They don’t have a screwdriver set, a spatula and a heat gun? Very state of the art equipment.

            I’m surprised the battery is still warranty replaced after three years. I thought Apple only gave a year on the batteries. A replacement battery is £50-100 depending on model size and year. I think I’d rather pay for the battery than be without the laptop for three weeks with god only knows who having access to your data.

          2. Just logged in again to reply to you.

            I received an email notification from Apple to say that the battery in my Mac Book Pro was defective and subject to possible overheating. Accordingly Apple asked me to take the device to an authorised Apple Centre where the battery would be replaced at no charge.

            It so happens that the replacement of the defective battery has to be undertaken overseas in Eastern Europe.

            I agree this seems preposterous but I accept that this lunacy is yet another result of our entirely mistaken membership of the bloody EU.

            Edit: I saved the small amount of data. The laptop was essentially a spare and not used. We had intended to use it as s keyboard for a much more powerful Mac Pro but never got around to this as the current Mac Pro’s are likely to be replaced later this year.

          3. Look on the bright side. At least they didn’t ask you to deliver it in person to the garage in Eastern Europe where the bloke with the right-sized screwdriver works.

            And they take the piss out of Microsoft. 🙂

          4. Ahh yes the expanding batteries. I’ve seen a few of those, they blow up like footballs. Very dangerous as the swelling can break the protective covering exposing lithium metal to the air. Even so you can pay a third party to change the battery and then send Apple the bill for recompense.

    1. Ringo was never a singer, or a writer, and that song was right down at the bottom of the heap with Maxwell’s Silver Bloody Hammer by his surviving pal. His job was to sit there hitting skins with sticks and thinking how lucky he’d been.

      1. Four talented Beatles would be asking too much!
        When they split George came into his own and created great music. ‘Something’ one of the lovliest of love songs ever written.
        I’m glad Ringo finally got his gong….The Beatles wouldn’t have been the same without him.

  85. I have attempted to make comments on other posters remarks on several occasions this evening. On each occasion I have been met with an error notice.

    I really cannot be bothered with this anymore.

    If someone has s solution then let me know.

      1. Sure but there are serious problems with this site. It is also impossible to post relatively small photo files. As I say I really cannot be bothered to go through the silly time consuming processes any more.

        Goodbye to you and all. As I say, let me know if anyone has a fix.

        1. This new site has only been up and running for a couple of weeks thanks to Geoff and we have a FLOUNCE already!

          1. Try not to be cheeky. I am simply stating my most recent experience.

            As I say if anyone can cure this I will be happy to comment further.

            After scrolling down through hundreds of comments to find the intended subject, then typing a comment, only to be told that a problem has occurred, anyone in their right mind would ultimately give up trying.

          9. It’s also interesting how many people bothered to thank Geoff in the first place. Very few. And some of them were downright rude mentionpeddyingnonames.

    3. You are not alone. I have been unable to post pictures, as I “am not logged in”, an obvious self-contradiction as I can post the comment.
      Sometimes it is a more general failure – “please try later” kind of thing.
      I use Safari and iMac. I have no idea what is wrong, but it is dispiriting to type a clever* comment that leads to a picture that you cannot include.

      *By my standards.

  86. Evening, all. Shan’t stay long; I had a bad night last night with broken sleep and an early morning wake up call, so I shall be heading for bed to catch up on ZZZZs shortly.

    1. Sleep well, Conway. I slept well last night, but after a 30 mile round trip this morning to visit a local church with a Wrinklies Church Visit group I got home feeling totally drained (the heat?) so I simply went to bed for 90 minutes. Try it if you can the next time you feel that way.

      1. I am currently time poor (lots to do and very little time to do it in), so while the idea is attractive, it isn’t, unfortunately, practical.

        1. Sorry to hear that, I’ve been there too (lots to do and very little time to do it in) so I can sympathise. It’s not nice.

    2. Good night, I shall be doing the same soon, also had a bad
      nights sleep last night that does make you feel rough the
      whole of the next day, at least when that happens .

  87. I feel sick after just watching a piece on the BBC 10 o’clock news supporting Antifa. Apparently it’s absolutely fine to use violence to intimidate people, as long as those people are the undesirables.

    We are totally back in 1930s Germany.

    1. The chilling part of it was the calmness with which the reporter spoke, never questioning the right of the AF groups to declare others guilty and to define ‘fascism’ entirely on their own terms. The term ‘white supremacist’ was too easily used.

      I shall remember the name Luis Enrique Marquez. I wonder if he’ll be allowed a visit to the UK.

    1. Listen children, just go into the corner and play with your toys while the grown-ups get on with making things work so that you don’t have to starve in the dark.

      1. Wrong of me i know but….until they discover some sort of hardship they will continue to have their tantrums…let them. See how long they can go without their vegan fairtrade quinoa, organic bollux. in the dark.

        1. Nothing at all wrong with that. They’ve lived their lives in comfort unimaginable to the majority of the people of their age elsewhere in the world and they don’t know what it means to go without the benefits of a modern ‘Western’ lifestyle. 50 years ago they would be holding hands and singing Kumbaya and earnestly holding hands, safe in the belief that they alone were preventing nuclear armageddon.

  89. It’s hardly a bundle of fun here I’m off to bed ……going to suck a Fisherman’s friend…

          1. 100,000 for doing almost nothing at all? You are not an immigration lawyer are you? 🙂

          2. I get your point but i never bothered with those shits.This money comes tax free and not paid for by tax payers. I feel a party coming on soon.

        2. No it’s real. I had to phone the site to get it transferred. 4 withdrawals of £25,000 and 1 of £10,000.

          I won’t forget the hoglets. Can you send me the link for the site?

  90. WE have today welcomed some new arrivals Our border force has escorted them to the benefits office and provided a translator

    Migrants rescued from the Channel and taken to Dover

    More suspected migrants were rescued from the Channel earlier and were taken to Dover.
    At least five people were taken into the port at about 2pm.

    They arrived via a Border Force vessel and were escorted by a number of officials and police as they arrived.

    It comes after another boat carrying 11 migrants was found attempting to make the dangerous Channel crossing this morning.

  92. I have just watched quite the most insane episode of the long-running serial ‘Project Fear’ on the BBC’s New at Ten. Apparently, 3 million tons of UK household waste are exported every year to the EU for incineration – the Amsterdam arena is powered by it. In the event of No-Deal, waste will pile up in the streets and supermarket car parks and closed landfill sites will have to be reopened. The south-east will be particularly badly affected because it produces the most cr*p and is least able to cope so if these emergency measures don’t work then its excess will sent on a tour of the north of England looking for a temporary home.

    The report showed us a UK incinerator. “There aren’t enough of these to cope as it is,” we were told. A 10 year-old whose brain hasn’t been infected by the climate emergency meme will be able to come up with the three-word answer to that. He might also wonder why, if the BBC is so concerned with climate change, that the reporter didn’t say “What a great opportunity to reduce shipping movements, even if they are only short distance.” Is No-Deal a greater threat to life on Earth than climate change? Or is the BBC full of brain-dead ******s?

    1. ” What a wonderful opportunity for the construction industry. Britain will be booming after Brexit “.

    2. I’ve just been watching an episode of “Yes we can” in town.

      My last pint was in Wetherspoon’s and most of the staff are youngsters. If those I saw are an example of our young people – which I’m convinced they are – we’ll get over the problems that Brexit will throw up.

      On the subject of throwing up, I’m sick to the back teeth of those using the inevitable problems we’ll face as a reason for not leaving.

    3. I saw that one! Even my gullible and apolitical other half is beginning to realise they are ramping it up.

      1. I’ve posted this on today’s column. Go over there and get the thread going. This was a bit a late for some of the regulars!

    1. Ok I’ll play on my own.

      Snakes and Lads
      Squabble
      Monopoly
      Pin the tail on the Squeaker

        1. Well, had you written “Can you suggest a different name for Brexit Royale or headed your post “Happy Hour competition”, P-T, then I might have understood what you wanted us to do.

          How about “The “Project Fear” game – kill your opponents over a meaningless and false scenario”? Will that do?

          2. Well, immediately before you wrote that you actually named the game. Hence my jokey reply with the name you had already told us.

  94. First article for the DT by Alp Mehmet:

    How can anyone place their faith in a migration system that is divorced from reality?
    Alp Mehmet

    22 AUGUST 2019 • 5:30PM

    ONS failures should not obscure the huge gulf between politicians and the public over immigration

    The public will rightly approach the new immigration figures, which estimate that 226,000 more long-term migrants moved here than departed in the year ending March 2019, with a healthy dose of scepticism. That is only natural in the wake of an admission by the Office for National Statistics that they underestimated net arrivals from the EU by nearly a quarter of a million, while overestimating non-EU net migration by 170,000.

    As Ministers make various announcements, for instance on ending free movement and bringing in an Australian points-based visa system, it is worth remembering that just 17 per cent of the public trust the government to tell them the truth on this issue either all or most of the time. It is in everyone’s interest that the measurement of immigration be accurate, not least to allow for proper planning. For this reason, work by the ONS to use an array of sources (including tax records, NHS data, exit checks and visa records) to gain a more complete picture is very welcome.

    But why is this only being done now? There have been doubts about the methods of capturing data at the border for some time. The latest statistics (now labelled ‘experimental’) underline what the public already know anyway – that mass immigration continues unabated. 226,000 arriving in the space of a year is a figure that would have been considered astonishing prior to Labour’s loosening of immigration controls in the late 1990s.

    It’s equal to the population of Portsmouth arriving in the course of twelve months. It means a continuation of rapid population growth in what has become the most crowded large country in Europe. With net migration at this level, averaging about 250,000 per year over the past decade, the UK population is projected to rise by 7.7 million over the next 20 years. 6.6 million of that growth would be linked to immigration – equivalent to six cities the size of Birmingham. Growth on this scale cannot but add hugely to pressure on housing, GP services, schools and worsen congestion on roads and trains. No wonder large tracts of green countryside are disappearing before our very eyes.

    The ONS’s admission also means that overall net migration seems to have hit an even higher all-time record than was previously thought – 342,000 in 2015 (rather than the original record of 336,000 in the year to June 2016), even if net migration appears to have been slightly lower than originally thought since 2016. Some suggest that the adjustments mean that previous government efforts to tighten the student visa system were made on the basis of inaccurate numbers. That may or may not be true. However, it overlooks the fact that such policies were implemented in the wake of massive abuse of the system by both bogus students and bogus colleges, 1,000 of which were closed down.

    Meanwhile, new visa statistics confirm that highly-skilled non-EU workers continue to come to the UK in significant numbers. However, many people will want to know why the government and other employers have so mishandled and underfunded skills provision that the UK needs to recruit nurses, doctors, scientists and architects in such numbers from abroad, often from countries that need them more than we do.

    The question is: What plans do ministers have to double down on investing in UK talent as the Migration Advisory Committee said they should back in 2016? And why isn’t more being done to encourage employers to raise wages and improve conditions and productivity rather than continuing to rely on hiring (often lower-paid) workers from abroad?

    As these and other debates persist, mass immigration will continue to impact on people’s lives in a large variety of ways. About three in five of the public wish to see immigration levels cut. However, the new government appears (as yet) to have no plan to deliver on its own repeated promises to seriously curtail the level of net arrivals. That has to change soon, or the government will find the electorate very unforgiving if it is let down yet again on promises to reduce migration levels.

    Alp Mehmet is the Chairman of Migration Watch UK

    1. Unfortunately all of this deals with the quantity of immigrants. The real concern is the quality. Continuing to import non English-speaking unemployables, all with their hands out, is a recipe for disaster, regardless of how many of them claim to be doctors, lawyers, scientists etc. Their religious/cultural commitments don’t help, being generally incompatible with the status quo. We have a small island with a finely balanced cultural mix which is being eroded in the name of ‘multicultural inclusivity’. I, for one, have had enough.

    2. Only about a 30% underestimate. I wonder if they will now adjust the UK population upwards to reflect this long term error

      It also means the population forecasts are total out. THe housing planning will be totally out,. Schools, GPs . Road & Rail and NHS as well

Comments are closed.