871 thoughts on “Sunday 25 August: Brexit can play a vital role in strengthening democracy across the world”

    2. That will be me on the bus on Battle of Britain Sunday! It isn’t just a city thing; it’s starting to happen even here, in the sticks.

  4. SIR – World For Brexit (W4B) was launched in Washington, DC, and New York in July, and in Sydney this month, with plans to add Canada, New Zealand, India, African countries and others in the near future. It will be launched in Britain on August 27.

    It was created to show support for Brexit and encourage friendly nations to embrace the opportunities it offers. As board members, we believe it is of international importance that Brexit succeeds, for the following reasons.

    First, against a background of growing threats, nations with shared values need to build closer ties. Brexit means that Britain will be free to expand its relationships with countries including the US, Australia, India, Kenya, Canada and New Zealand.

    Secondly, the EU is the slowest-growing part of the world economically because it is sclerotic, corrupt and riddled with in-fighting. Membership has stopped Britain from making trade deals with friendly parts of the world, so Brexit represents a great business opportunity. For example, the US is Britain’s largest trading partner, even though we don’t currently have a trade deal. Imagine the trade possibilities once we do.

    Thirdly, Britain has championed democracy all over the world. The vote to leave the EU was the largest democratic vote in British history. Implementation has already been delayed for three years – it must happen now or there will be incalculable damage to the future of global freedom and democracy.

    Fourthly, the EU has a parliament that has little authority. The real power lies with the Commission, which is appointed, not elected. This acquiescence to authority must be opposed by anyone who believes in the right to self-governance and the sovereignty of nation states.

    Finally, the EU has been the model for those – in the US and elsewhere – who believe that independent nations should surrender their sovereignty to an international body whose elites wield power without accountability. Brexit marks a turning point in this process – it must succeed.

    W4B believes that a successful Brexit will not end on October 31, even if Britain leaves the EU as promised. A network of supporters is being created to ensure that Britain is immediately welcomed back into the wider international community. Strong relationships with like-minded nations will ensure swift trade deals, bringing economic opportunity and global benefit. We will champion the beliefs that inspired Brexit, encouraging countries that share them to work together so that free and democratic nations continue to thrive and prosper.

    Peggy Grande
    Chairman, World For Brexit

    Phil Bryant
    Governor of Mississippi

    Martha Boneta
    Founder and President, Victory Coalition Strategies LLC

    David Berens
    Executive Director, World For Brexit

    Jon Dobinson
    CEO, Untrodden Path Ltd

    Jeff Webb
    Founder, Varsity Brands

    Scott Randall Bough
    Former chairman, Orange County Republican Party

    George Argyros Jr
    Chief Executive Officer, Elite Financial Group LLC, Leveraged Life Inc and the Argyros Group

    Steve Hyde
    Co-founder, Push Group

    Good to see some uplifting, positive cheering from the yanks. Peggy Grande was a Ronnie Reagan groupie. Not much news about W4B on the Beeb.

    1. Donald has always been keen for Brits to dump the EU, Dolly, but they have to dump it properly, no half measures.

    2. ‘Morning, Citroen. Thanks for putting this up – I was hoping to see the complete letter and W4B deserves every success. At long last; some positivity about Brexit. And now we hear that BoJo is attacking the £39bn ransom, something for which many of us have waited for three years to see.

      1. Still going to hand over £9bn for eff all, though. They should be giving us money; our share of the assets we’ve contributed to over 43* years.

        *We weren’t a net contributor in 1975 – strange, that.

        1. And we should offset the £1bn+ we ‘invested’ in the Galileo GPS system, from which we shall soon be completely excluded as a third country – although it has been rumoured that we still hold some of the codes, assuming of course that the useless May didn’t hand them over.

  5. Far-right activist posted to serve on Trident submarine. Sat 24 Aug 2019.

    An undercover informant, who infiltrated the UK branch of the pan-European Identitarian Movement and had access to thousands of internal messages, met a Royal Navy sailor who revealed that he was about to take up a posting on a submarine armed with Trident nuclear missiles.

    Last night the identities of the naval recruit and another GI member serving at the same base were sent to the MoD, which issued a statement saying: “Any extremist ideology is completely at odds with our values.”

    The infiltration, coordinated by Hope not Hate, was abruptly terminated after the group’s alleged links to Britain’s nuclear submarine fleet were discovered. “When we realised far-right activists from a group whose stated goal is the ethnic cleansing of Europe were in the navy, we decided to sound the alarm,” said the informant, who has shared the entire cache of internal messages and planning documents of the identitarian group.

    Morning everyone. Yes let’s destroy someone’s life because they said something in confidence that we don’t agree with! Hate not Hope the new self-appointed Inquisition. Witch-finders for the cause of Cultural Marxism.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/24/far-right-groups-infiltrated-uk-nuclear-submarine-crew

    1. I would have expected the security services to be well aware of the backgrounds and attitudes of all its Trident crews, long before they were posted to the boats…

      Surely?

      2. The “extreme right activist” probably campaigned for and voted to leave. That would be enough these days! If, he/she/it also dared to mention anything vaguely patriotic, that would mean the chop!

  6. “Against the backdrop of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arriving

    for the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, EU President Donald Tusk holds a

    press conference to announce the EU will work to block Britains’ exit

    from the collective, and will not accept terms.

    The hubris and arrogance within this declaration, in advance of

    Johnson’s arrival, is exhibit ‘A’ for exactly the reason British

    citizens want out of this nonsense.”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/08/24/the-unmitigated-arrogance-of-eu-president-donald-tusk-toward-brexit/
    Thank You Tusk,there cannot be a single true Brit who listens to the vid without visceral loathing,best advert for Brexit ever

    1. Who runs the EU ?

      Who has spent £millions to stop Brexit ?

      Surely nobody thinks he’s going to fold now ?

    2. Ah Donald Tusk, the gift that keeps on giving. Please don’t stop, Brexit supporters appreciate your support albeit unknowingly by you.

      1. What’s he doing at the G7 anyway? The EU, despite its delusions of grandeur, is NOT a country.

    3. Was chatting over coffee after church this morning. One of the congregation said she’d voted to remain, but she would now vote to leave if she were asked again, largely because of the EU’s attitude. She mentioned that another of her friends, who had been a remainer, had also changed her mind. Given that one of my neighbours who had been a staunch remainer has recently died, it looks as though the tide might be turning in our favour!

  7. Destroying everything we used to hold dear. Whatever would noddy have said?

    Royal

    Mint BLOCKS Enid Blyton commemorative coin because bosses think she is a

    ‘racist, sexist and a homophobe’ and fear backlash

    Enid

    Blyton was denied the honour of a commemorative coin after Royal Mint

    bosses branded the creator of the Famous Five and Secret Seven novels a

    ‘racist homophobe’, newly-released documents reveal.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7391487/Royal-Mint-blocks-Enid-Blyton-commemorative-coin-bosses-brand-racist-anti-gay.html

    1. The words “racist” and “homophobe” are not merely insults they are vicious weapons. If wishing to live amongst your own kind is “racist” then we are all racist. But this word and the deliberate use of it conflates a desire to be your own kin to lynching* everyone else. The word “homophobe” means hating homosexuals. One does not need to hate homosexuals to believe that their life choice is futile, barren and without future. When dressed up and pranced around the street it is repugnant in the extreme. Oh, and the Royal Mint advisory committee are anonymous?

      *The worst lynching in US history was of Italian immigrants, If I recall correctly.

      1. ‘Morning, Horace, I have to take issue with your translation of ‘homophobe’. I’m no Greek classics scholar but surely ‘phobe’ has it root in ‘phobia’, an irrational fear of…

        Taking that as read, when labelled a homophobe, I always retort that I do not fear them, I find their practices unnatural but let them get on with it, without forcing their views down my throat.

        The other ‘phobe’ bandied about and conflated with ‘racist’, is Islamophobe and there I stand up and say, yes, I’m bluddy scared of them, as they threaten my/our way of life and are not afraid to use violence and thuggery ro achieve their ends.

        Yet the Powers That Be laud the homosexuals, encouraging the police and others in authority to publicly humiliate themselves and their uniforms, while at the same time condoning the racist hatred and criminality emanating from the Mohammedans.

        1. Yes. you are correct it does mean” fear”. However that is not how it is used now, I fear. Anymore than “gay” means happy and bright and colourful.

  9. Morning all

    SIR – As a farmer I am astounded by the calls for people to follow a vegetarian lifestyle in order to help prevent climate change (Letters, August 18).

    Surely it is not possible to farm sustainably without animals because of the fertility they provide. Without them we would be dependent upon artificial fertiliser and chemicals to grow crops.

    The issue is not whether we farm livestock, but rather how we farm those animals.

    James Forsyth
    Alnwick, Northumberland

    SIR – Regarding Derrick G Smith’s letter (August 11) about his happy days spent in Malta, I’m afraid the “small chickens” he mentions were indeed sparrows or finches.

    I’ve never eaten them, but they are considered a delicacy.

    Margaret Clark
    Salisbury, Wiltshire

  10. “Almost half of listed churches have been targeted by criminals, new figures show, as police warn of professional gangs using the latest technology find easy targets and map out escape routes.

    The epidemic of crime is dominated by metal thefts with entire roofs being removed from historic places of worship.

    The crisis threatening the heritage of rural Britain is now so great

    that the heritage body Historic England estimates 40 per cent of listed

    churches have been targeted.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/25/criminal-gangs-strike-almost-half-churches-rural-britain/
    Hello,hello,hello,what’s going on here then?? Now imagine if mosques were being targeted for a crime spree,you’d hear the screaming at the South Pole and special units would be formed overnight

    1. I suspect that if mosques were involved the perpetrators would be given flying lessons and word would soon get around the criminal fraternity.

    2. Morning Rik,
      Could it be that the lead taken from church roofs is equal
      to the lead used in the construction of mosques ?

  11. Morning again

    SIR – Adrian Clark, in his article on “grandad shirts”, says: “The origins of this working-class hero are a bit foggy, but the most likely story is that blue-collar workers would cut the collars off their shirts because ties were forbidden to be worn around heavy factory machinery.”

    In fact, collarless shirts were designed to have a separate collar attached to them by studs – the reason being that the collars got dirtier faster than the actual shirts, so were washed every day, while the shirts were only washed every few days.

    There was never any need for factory workers to cut off their collars, as all they needed to do was to not attach the collar to their shirt.

    Ivo Hesmondhalgh
    London W2

    1. Good morning Epi,
      Just saying that detachable collars were used every day when I was nursing on our dresses, and when Moh was in the RN on his shirts .They were scratchy and uncomfortable due to the starch!

    2. They were a part of our school uniform. The collars were semi stiff and very scratchy. It was a real fiddle to put on with the tie in place so that it stayed there when tightened.

      1. I always used, and still do on the rare occasion I wear a tie, the half Windsor. Very smart and never slipped.

        1. The problem was getting all the edges in place and the tie tucked into the collar; then using the hinged front stud through the four holes to connect the collar while simultaneously trying to prevent the edges of the shirt, that took on a life of their own, from getting inside the collar, where they shouldn’t be. The collars were too stiff to just attach and then fold over the tie.

          The knot was the least of my problems, though I too used the half-Windsor.

    3. i have a tobacco tin full of collar studs that used o belong to my Grandfather.

    4. Pampered Brexit-loving Coffin Dodger 25 Aug 2019 4:21AM
      Ivo Hesmondhaigh:
      When being kitted out for my RAF National Service I, along with everyone else, was issued with 3 collarless shirts and 6 collars. I was the only person in my bunch who had collar studs and therefore the only one who knew how to use them. The rest of the group had to buy their studs.
      Flag2LikeReply

      Terence Courtnadge 25 Aug 2019 5:23AM
      @Pampered Brexit-loving Coffin Dodger

      Oh yes, I remember those ghastly detachable collars ; hard work getting dressed in the morning ; they were got rid of in the late 1960’s.
      Flag2LikeReply

      Robert Spowart 25 Aug 2019 8:26AM
      @Pampered Brexit-loving Coffin Dodger Arriving at Chepstow Army Apprentice College in September ’68, I was not only issued with 2 No.2 Dress Shirts with separate collars, but the collar studs to go with them.

      Absolutely awful things to wear with the front stud digging into my throat, I made my own using two buttons connected by several strands of cotton thread long enough to go through the stud holes on the shirt & collar.

      When the collar attached shirts were issued about ’72 or 73 they were a much needed relief and, being of a decent quality, I would actually wear them for civvie use.

    5. As an ATC cadet I went to week-long summer camps with two shirts and four or five collars. Losing a stud would have dire consequences and would guarantee some extra cleaning duties. And boy, were those collars uncomfortable, particularly in hot and humid weather!

      ‘Morning, Epi.

      1. I was in the ATC in 1960. Old ‘dog collar’ uniforms made from the itchiest material available. I think the were WW2 leftovers. Battle dress uniform came in just before I left in ‘61.

        1. In 1965 BD was the dreaded ‘hairy mary’ – unbearable in hot weather and carefully-pressed trouser creases (using iron on max and very wet pressing cloth) would fall out at the first hint of rain…

    6. More lack of historical knowledge on display (by Adrian Clark). I don’t suppose he’s ever seen a collar stud. I have collarless shirts – so that I can wear my hunting tie (incorrectly called a stock). They came that way; no need to cut anything off.

  12. SIR – Janet Daley makes a good case for Britain’s unwritten constitution – as opposed to America’s, which is set in stone.

    However, the flexibility of the British model may well have facilitated the gradual surrender of our governance to Brussels over the past 45 years. Yet the voices from the top echelons of our legal establishment – which might be expected to deplore the growing democratic deficit – defend the status quo.

    Arguably, a written constitution might have provided some ammunition to counter this undemocratic sabotage.

    Chris Jones
    Croydon, Surrey

    The top echelons of the legal establishment welcome the ‘democratic deficit’ because it allows them scope to make law on the hoof according to their Blairite agenda. A written constitution hasn’t protected other EU member states from undemocratic sabotage.

        1. He is now though.

          Boris voted for the Britain destroying Withdrawal Agreement and he is strongly in favor of all the socialist progressive policies enacted by Tony/Dave/Treasa.

          1. That was just tactics at the time.. He has a global outlook and nothing more.If you can prove otherwise go ahead.

          2. How do you know it was just ”tactics” ?

            In addition to voting for the WA, he’s strongly in favor of all the socialist progressive policies of Tony/Dave/Treasa plus amnesty plus Zero Carbon 2050.

            Maybe you’re looking forward to no electricity ?

            Are you a socialist progressive ?

          3. i have no idea what a socialist progressive is. further more i don’t want to know. i am a common sense northerner who sees Boris as our best bet if we cannot have Farage.
            I will judge Boris on what he does and not what people say about him and would suggest you do the same.

          4. Well if you ”judge Boris on what he does” then things aren’t looking too good.

            He voted for the Withdrawal Agreement.

            I would never have done that.

            He also said removing the backstop was a lot of progress….

            As can be seen at 36 minutes 25 seconds when he answers a question from Danielle Sheridan of the Daily Telegraph in his Manchester speech on July 27…. he is full of equivocation………………

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGYJCJB9AZQ

  16. Good morning from the Saxon daughter of Alfred of Wessex.

    It’s going to be another hot day but autumn is just around the corner.

  17. Trump wants to welcome Russia back into G7. John McCain must be rolling in his grave. CNN. August 24, 2019.

    While Trump may be leaning toward inviting Russia back into the club, little has changed to warrant this. It appears sanctions alone have not been enough to curb illegal Russian activity. The US intelligence community concluded Moscow interfered in the 2016 US elections, and there is scant evidence to suggest that a charm offensive from the international community would lead to better behaviour

    There is a world of difference between Trump’s talk about Russia and his actions. He can and does say all sorts of things; this for example, but one imagines confident in the knowledge that the Europeans will all stand up and start barking like dogs that can hear a bear breaking into the chicken coop. His supposed enthusiasm for Putin hasn’t prevented him applying sanctions or pulling out of the Intermediate Missile Treaty and the agreement with Iran, all important parts of Russian Foreign Policy. One suspects that this attitude on the part of Trump is calculated. It costs him nothing and it certainly fooled Putin at the beginning but unlike the Europeans he has finally worked it out. Look at his response to rejoining the G7; he’s less enthusiastic about it than Boris Johnson! There’s also the military build-up. Russia unlike the EU and UK is now better prepared for war than either!

    https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/24/opinions/g7-primer-bociurkiw/index.html

  18. A female astronaut has been accused of committing a crime in space while on the orbiting space station.

    A spokesman for the victim has said what goes around comes around.

  19. One wonders why the police bother with arrests,this nonsense must be completely demoralising

    Criminals are committing as many as 100 offences before being sent to prison for knife crime, official figures have shown.

    There have been 38 “super-prolific” offenders in England and Wales

    since 2008, with more than 100 previous convictions or cautions each,

    according to Ministry of Justice data.

    Last year 98 people who were jailed for the first time for possessing

    a blade each had more than 50 past convictions and cautions. Of these,

    six had more than 100 each.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/24/criminals-committing-100-offences-sent-prison-knife-crime-official1/

    1. And with a crime detection rate in single digits in some forces, the crims quite rightly calculate that the chances of being caught are very low…

      1. On the basis of those %ages some of these crims have probably committed 500 offences
        What a joke

  20. Don’t know if this has already been posted….

    Why should Boris trust Channel 4?
    Broadcasters won’t get the truth out of politicians by calling them liars
    Douglas Murray – 23 AUGUST 2019

    Towards the end of his life, the great Robin Day gave an interview in which he reflected on the impact that his style of interviewing had had on some of his successors. The great interrogator had led the way in the emergence of the new interviewing style, helping to haul Britain out of the era of deference towards politicians and ushering in an era of greater accountability.

    Like all changes, there were some people who regretted them, feeling that Day’s interrogative style went too far. They felt that the relation between interviewer and interviewee could do with taking a step backwards to those deferential times. But it never happened. The move away from deference turned out to be a one-way street – albeit one that Day himself ended up worrying about.

    Latterly, people would blame the interviewing styles of Jeremy Paxman, John Humphries and others on Day. Where he had led they had merely followed. But the man himself clearly felt unhappy about this.

    In that late interview, he explained his problem with that style. It was, specifically, when broadcasters would accuse their interviewee of lying. If you believe that your subject is lying, Day said, then your job is to show that they are lying. It is not simply a matter of saying to them, to their face, “You are lying”.

    As she delivered the annual MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh television festival this week, the head of Channel 4 News demonstrated that major figures in the television industry certainly no longer see things that way. In her remarks, Dorothy Byrne said that television producers should be more willing to directly accuse politicians. “If we continue to be so polite, how will our viewers know that politicians are lying,” she asked.

    There is quite a minefield of presumptions in that one question. First, it assumes that politicians regularly lie – a presumption that we may allow to pass for now. Byrne also assumes that the viewer is unable to notice when a politician lies and cannot (without the intermediary of Channel 4 or others) understand what politicians are and are not saying. But thirdly – and perhaps most problematically – Byrne assumes that it is the job of the interviewer or journalist to be ‘impolite’ and to point out that the politician is lying. Is that such a good idea?

    There is a whole conference of problems there. For instance, Byrne presumes that the interviewer is in a position to identify what is true and what is not. Yet in the transparent age in which we live, few journalists are granted – or, perhaps, deserve – the right to be the arbiters of what is true or what is not.

    For instance, let’s look at the stable of campaigning journalists who make up the regular presenting team on Channel 4 News. Plucking only a couple of examples, these include Cathy Newman, who four years ago made headlines when she claimed that she had been ushered out of a mosque. The claim stirred up various people online. And only after CCTV footage was released was it clear that Newman’s version of events was completely at odds with what had actually happened.

    Worshippers at that mosque, along with the wider public who were told a fib by Cathy Newman, may well wonder whether she is the right person to decide whether various politicians are liars or not.

    Likewise, Jon Snow, the grand old man of the Channel 4 newsroom. He may not be regarded by everybody as the most impartial, balanced person able to go around making judgements about politicians and the truthfulness of their claims. He has, in the very recent past, been accused of being nakedly partisan in his views on members of the Conservative party and has by no means demonstrated impartiality when it has come to certain foreign disputes.

    This media and social media environment is one in which everybody can have their flaws exposed; it’s hard for any journalist to look so pure that the public will simply take it on trust when they accuse a politician of lying.

    There’s a larger problem, however, at the heart of Byrne’s argument. In her speech she criticised Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn for avoiding interviews on the main news programmes. In criticising the Prime Minister’s recent reliance on social media videos as his way to speak directly to the public, Byrne said that this reminded her of someone. She was thinking specifically of Vladimir Putin, who she said “also likes to talk directly to the nation”.

    Boris Johnson may or may not be correct in choosing to avoid being interviewed by Cathy Newman or Jon Snow on a regular basis. But he is certainly right if he presumes that such an interview would not be conducted in good faith. It would be conducted by an interviewer who is known to have particular political biases. And he might now add to that the fact that it would be conducted on a channel whose news head has compared him to Vladimir Putin. Not exactly the way to mend trust between the politicians and the media, is it?

    Avoiding the conventional media is one of the signature techniques of successful politicians today. Donald Trump’s successful race to the White House would most likely never have been possible had he not been able to speak directly to his voters and potential voters (while deranging those who did not support him) using Twitter.

    Likewise, Matteo Salvini has managed to double his potential share of the vote in Italy in under a year and a half partly through his regular, relaxed and freewheeling social media streamed videos beamed straight to the nation. Boris Johnson’s decision to address the public through videos is not so different from Theresa May’s regular video updates. His are simply more interesting, enjoyable and clear to watch.

    Perhaps it is inevitable that broadcasters watch this move away from their platforms and regard it as an aberration – including an ethical aberration which deserves the comparison with Vladimir Putin. But at least some of the responsibility for that exodus must be shouldered by the broadcasters themselves.

    Consider this thought experiment. If Boris Johnson were to agree to an interview with Jon Snow, what would the interviewer and the head of news consider a victory? Would Byrne and Snow consider it a victory if Johnson used his considerable erudition, knowledge and charm to persuade the British public that a no-deal Brexit is no problem? Would they consider it a victory if, over the course of the interview, the Prime Minister had an opportunity to lay-out his vision for a post-Brexit Britain?

    I do not think that anyone would be presuming to be a mind-reader if they concluded that, no, neither Byrne nor Snow would chalk that up as their idea of a ‘successful’ interview. It is almost certainly fair to say that ‘holding Boris Johnson to account’ would consist of haranguing him constantly, rarely allowing him to get more than a sentence out uninterrupted, accusing him of terrible things to his face, trying to embarrass him and – dream of dreams – getting him to say something embarrassing or wrong which could subsequently be reported across the world’s press as ‘Boris Johnson exposed as liar in Channel 4 News interview’. That is the story they want, and there is ever-less effort at Channel 4 and other channels to disguise that fact.

    A president or prime minister’s unwillingness to face regular questioning from mainstream broadcasters is something that could cause many problems – including untruths – to foment in the years ahead. But broadcasters such as Channel 4 should not be surprised at this turn of events. The politicians have been driven away by a media which has forgotten some of the basic rules. Including that golden rule that Robin Day knew: show, don’t tell. And certainly don’t harangue.

        1. Good day, gg,

          Well, we tell each other. I wonder how much do others, more influential than we are, see of our little gems of sanity.

          1. If politicos had any sense (yes, I know!), they would have their SPADs trawling the Internet sites like these for the opinions expressed and take note of them.

    2. And today, Heidi Allen MP is calling on Tory MPs to become remainers, or risk having their seat swamped by Remain-backed candidates etc. if the PM should call a quick GE.

      Now there’s a case for justified lying – “Of course, Heidi Dear. Yes, I’ll join your Remainers group. Don’t want to risk losing my seat ha ha. Phew. Thanks a lot, Heidi.”

      Post GE. “ Pyss off Heidi. Here comes Brexit.!”

      _______________

      Heidi Allen tells Tories to join Remain alliance or face electoral challenge over Brexit
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/23/heidi-allen-has-told-tories-join-remain-alliance-face-electoral/?WT.mc_id=tmgliveapp_iosshare_As8lschywrTD

      ( Edit:Link to DT bit about the cunning fox, Heidi Allen…. )

      1. Many Remain candidates = split / fragmented vote & better chance of re-election. What’s not to like?

      2. If this is the best the Remainiacs can manage then we have little to fear come a GE.

    3. Flick back around 100 years. If politicians wanted to be elected they visited their constituencies and addressed the voters in person in meetings in halls and hotels. The newspapers would report what they said, generally refraining from criticising or cherry-picking to put their own version of what was said.
      As simple honest reporting can no longer be relied on from the MSM, it makes sense to address voters directly. Social media offers that facility and voters can make up their own minds.

      1. Rather like Radio 3 news reports before that channel was ‘woked up’. And The Home Service news in earlier days still.

  21. Why does Boris strongly support all the socialist progressive policies of Tony/Dave/Treasa and Davos plus Zero 50 plus amnesty ?

    He doesn’t seem to have one original policy of his own.

      1. It all looks very common purpose to me..

        It’s almost as if the Western world is being run by one person.

        1. Rather craftily they have made him look like he is different from the others and not the preferred candidate.

  22. Good morning, all. Very late on parade. Just couldn’t be arsed to get out of bed.

    I see Johnson is upsetting everybody….as he prepares to sell us down the Swanee.

      1. There’s pretty strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that Britain was sold out in the early 1990s.

  24. Why the big leftist fuss about Boris Johnson placing
    his foot on the table when meeting with Macron,
    disrespectful they cry. It might be that Boris Johnson has
    longer legs then the Frenchman. I don’t care two figs for
    diplomatic pleasantries, the gloves are off.

    1. They showed the full clip on Sky News that night, and it was a joke from Boris after Macron said to do it. The photo was taken at a “single moment” and in the clip Boris barely brushes the table, and his foot is in contact with it for less than 1/2 a second. He is not resting it there as the picture appears.

      But the left are not too concerned about the truth as we know. They cannot speak openly about what their politics really means because no-one who is not wet behind the ears would ever vote for them again.

    2. Macron invited him to do it after Boris’s “office” picture.

      It was a joke, which as usual was used by the Press to try to make Boris look bad

  25. Prehistoric plants reproduced in UK. Phoebe Weston – The Independent – 24 August 2019.

    A prehistoric palm living on the Isle of Wight has produced male and female cones for the first time in 60 million years, botanists say.
    The exotic palm – which dominated the planet 280 million years ago – is believed to be thriving on the cliffs of Ventnor Botanic Gardens because of climate change.

    Right watch out for those Dinosaurs galloping round Hyde Park.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-prehistoric-plants-primitive-palm-botanic-gardens-isle-of-wight-a9077546.html

    1. It is of course a load of old cobblers. You can buy cycad seeds for 20p or so each from Ebay sellers and they regularly fruit in all the subtropical countries. I know of plants outside in Cornwall that have been around for years.

  26. As an antidote to old misery boots Bill

    August 25 2019, 12:01am, The Sunday Times
    Boris’s 30-day reprieve to foil the plotters
    Dominic Lawson

    Merkel has suggested a month of negotiations. It is a godsend for the PM

    Well, that’s a surprise. I could have sworn I saw the prime minister on television last week meeting the German chancellor and the French president. Yet a few days after he arrived in No 10, Boris Johnson declared he would not meet any EU leaders until they changed their stance on the Irish backstop.

    Not only did Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron give no such undertaking before Johnson set off for Berlin and Paris; they didn’t after those meetings, either. Yet the PM was snapped raising his arms in triumph when he returned to Downing Street; and much of the well-briefed media here have hailed a “breakthrough” in persuading Merkel that the EU should reopen the withdrawal agreement.

    I can’t see it — and not just because colleagues in the German press tell me they have been briefed by their own government officials that “nothing has changed”. The Anglophile head of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, Norbert Röttgen — whom I had the pleasure of meeting at an EU/UK colloquium at Ditchley Park — observed that in Mrs Merkel’s talks with Johnson, she “did not move a millimetre. At no point did she suggest Germany is ready to abandon the backstop.”

    Bear in mind that Johnson promised Conservative Party members during the leadership election not merely that he would renegotiate the terms of the backstop — which threatens to keep the UK permanently part of the EU’s customs union to avoid a so-called “hard border” on the island of Ireland — but that the entire provision would be excised.

    Merkel’s apparently emollient words to Johnson — “It was said we will probably find a solution in two years. But we could also find one in the next 30 days. Why not?” — were not even about the withdrawal agreement, but the attached political declaration, which is no more than a collection of pious aspirations about the future relationship between the UK and the EU.

    She added the caveat that it was the (eternally dogmatic) European Commission and not Berlin that would judge the acceptability of whatever the British suggested as a solution “in the next 30 days”. Doubtless Merkel felt the need to remind Johnson of this because his predecessors consistently placed excessive trust in her ability (or even willingness) to put London’s desires ahead of those of Brussels and, notably, Paris.

    David Cameron imagined he had Merkel’s essential support in his attempt to block the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker to the presidency of the European Commission; and, later, that he had successfully applied his English gentleman’s charm to persuade her to address British concerns about “freedom of movement” in the UK-EU renegotiations before the 2016 referendum. As Cameron’s main political adviser on these matters, Daniel Korski, ruefully recorded: “We were over-reliant on Angela Merkel, even after she showed us that she wasn’t as dependable as we might have wished.”

    The fact that Merkel smiled repeatedly at Johnson and seemed visibly to enjoy his company may have given British television viewers — even including pundits and politicians — the impression that the chancellor has been won over by the lethal Boris charm. That would be a howling error, just as it was for Cameron to set so much store by the fact that Merkel had invited not just him but also his wife and children to stay at her favourite German holiday retreat. Under that gemütlich exterior, Merkel is a cold political calculator: indeed, she could hardly have survived for so long at the top of the tree without being so, or indeed have got there in the first place.

    The same, in fact, might well be said of Boris Johnson: the incisive brutality with which he formed his first cabinet certainly refuted my own prior belief that he was insufficiently prepared to make enemies. And this multilingual former Brussels correspondent has more understanding of the politics of the EU than any previous novice PM.

    So why did he look so happy when he got back to No 10 and why are spirits lifted there? Well, what he at least got from Merkel and Macron were statements of willingness to listen to whatever Downing Street now puts forward as a change to Mrs May’s deal (which was rejected three times by parliament). Merkel and Macron did not insist that the withdrawal agreement signed by the EU — and by what, technically, is the same British government, now led by Johnson — represents a pristine marble block that cannot be touched. Even Macron, while telling Johnson bluntly that the existing Irish backstop is “indispensable”, allowed that “we should all together be able to find something smart within 30 days if there is goodwill on both sides”.

    This intimation — however insincere — that a new deal might be struck “within 30 days” is a godsend for Johnson, and explains why the PM seized on the phrase with alacrity when it was originally uttered by Merkel. The point is, the 30-day period will take us beyond the fortnight during which parliament will next be sitting, before breaking again for the party conferences. This makes it much more difficult during that vital session for Labour (and indeed other sworn opponents of a so-called “no-deal” Brexit) to organise, let alone win, a no-confidence vote. For the government can now argue it has a genuine chance of negotiating a new Brexit deal with the EU, with the endorsement of the Franco-German axis that actually runs the system — and isn’t that what the opponents of no-deal should support?

    For what it’s worth, I think it’s overwhelmingly against the odds that agreement will be reached on a new deal in any way materially different from May’s dead-and-buried one. I also think Johnson is of the same opinion, for all his stagy optimism (admittedly a natural emanation of his character).

    Yes, Germany’s economy is teetering on the edge of recession, and could well be pushed into one if no-deal plays further havoc with its exporters. But the idea that Berlin would risk — as it sees it — the integrity of the single market via an open border between post-Brexit Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: well, that’s not on. This was made clear when the former German MEP Elmar Brok tactlessly pointed out that the integrity of the single market was more important to Berlin than peace in Northern Ireland.

    Just as Brexiteers have always argued that national sovereignty is more important than the profits of big business, exactly the same view is held in Paris and Berlin about the paramountcy of EU institutions. It is, after all, a political and not an economic project. Boris Johnson knows that as well as anyone.

  27. To “lighten up” – we watched Balshazzar’s Feast on the box last night, recorded at the porms. Brilliant. I can’t bear Rattle – who is only 64 but acts as if he was 90. But with a vast chorus and an excellent band – plus a delightful Gerald Finlay as the soloist – he made a fantastic 40 minutes.

    It is not an easy piece to sing. I did it once about 15 years ago – and was unable to piece it all together – despite 12 practice sessions. But on performance day – with full rehearsal and the band in the morning – it all clicked. The actual “do” went like greased lightning!

  28. Look to be quite honest , we have been pooed on well and truly by government policy .. It has extended itself right into the heart of village life .

    The recently harvested fields I can see from my bedroom windows may be the last time they are harvested .. the low resonance of the combine harvester is reassuring, the pattern of farming has always been the same , we don’t need to calendar watch .. the countryside has it’s own pattern, timing , it has a rhythm .

    There are too many changes in store for this village now ..

    https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/17857793.wool-expanded-plan-nearly-500-homes/

    1. It’s Cameron’s claimed policy of ‘localism’, which was in fact the exact opposite, coming home to roost. All developers have to do when the local council rejects their development is go to the next level up who will pass it because it’s in line with the regional structure plan.

    2. Morning T_B,

      And we all know the underlying reasons for said government policy. Sadly too few people are prepared to publicly say that never ending population growth in the UK by immigration and prolific breeding is unsustainable. They may well start to see things in a different light when new builds have reached a point where it is on their own doorstep, but it will be too late as you say.

    3. If we do not regain control of our borders and start completely blocking every single boat with “refugees” in them and returning them to France, then our country is going to change into something that is no longer “British” at all.

      At the moment many of us can still enjoy the peaceful quiet of an English morning in the garden or an afternoon looking out over the green landscape with only the the sound of the wind in the trees breaking the tranquillity.

      Once the mosques have been built all over the land we will have that satanic wail sounding out FIVE times a day to call the new arrivals to prayer. Here is an outline of the times we will hear it:

      “Fajr: This prayer starts off the day with the remembrance of God; it is performed before sunrise.

      Dhuhr: After the day’s work has begun, one breaks shortly after noon to again remember God and seek His guidance.

      ‘Asr: In the late afternoon, people take a few minutes to remember God and the greater meaning of their lives.

      Maghrib: Just after the sun goes down, Muslims remember God again as the day begins to come to a close.

      ‘Isha: Before retiring for the night, Muslims again take the time to remember God’s presence, guidance, mercy, and forgiveness.”

      In countries that are not yet taken over by islam, this wailing call to prayer is a statement of dominance over those natives living around them. It invades our lives reminding us of who has the power. So this must be stopped from happening. We still have time. The globalists would not be panicking and in such a hurry to speed up the invasion if they thought they had enough numbers to win.

      The sound of Church Bells ringing in the distance is far more fitting to this land of ours.

        1. Tony – Rubbish. (No offence. 🙂 It is easy to be depressed with what we see on the media who want us to think that we have lost already, but the media lie. No surprise there. The new arrivals have some of the cities, much good it will do them, they do not have the countryside yet. Where I live in Cornwall the last census revealed the population here to be 99.7% white British. This is similar in many other areas.

          If we choose to remove islam from our country then they are going. We massively outnumber them at the moment. So do not give up hope yet. I would rather be facing 100 muslim invaders than 10 British men or woman fighting for their homeland. We can be calm in a crisis.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d14f83cccf8284f6877225bbcf5f1446966cde08328e34745e4b441eb8e3ffa4.jpg

          1. I hate to sound a note of gloom, but they are working on taking the countryside. We need to put a stop to it sharpish.

      2. Morning, MM.

        The globalists would not be panicking and in such a hurry to speed up the invasion if they thought they had enough numbers to win.

        I think that you are correct: everything appears to have moved forward more rapidly starting with Merkel’s call to the islamists to increase their numbers in 2015. She clearly decided that Europe had to be opened up to a vast army of undesirables, smaller invasions into France, Italy, Spain and here have also happened. Add in the very sudden ‘Trans/LBQTXXXX’ explosion and ‘Pride’ public exhibitions, both of which are small blows aimed at chipping away and eroding the settled lifestyle of the mass of the people. The sudden rise of support for these changes within our public service and Government circles is a sure sign that they are being driven from the top.
        Two other incidents that have spooked the globalists are Brexit and the rise of Trump. The paymasters have been spending and working very hard along with their fifth column to defeat both. If Johnson lets us down we will know that the Tory Party has sold its soul and must be destroyed along with Labour and the LibDums.

        1. “Destroying the Conservative party” might be a tad harsh. 🙂

          There are still some very good men and women in it who are trying to do the right thing, but there are also many of them who are clearly working for the eu and not us. I am all for removing those “Pretend-Conservatives” and our country will be much better off with them gone.

          To me, a Brexit Party member who would free us from the eu tomorrow is infinitely preferable to a “Liberal Conservative” who wants to keep us under the eu’s control.

          2. The Tories have been infiltrated by the (IL)Liberal Left/Blairites and the question is: how deep does that infiltration go? Redwood, Ids, Steve Baker et al. make up around 30%(?) of the Tory MPs at best, that’s a lot of faux Conservatives to get shot of.and a huge job in trying to rebuild trust in that organisation. Better to destroy it and start again with real Conservatives.
            I agree wholeheartedly with your final paragraph.

        1. Don’t be depressed, be quietly angry and stern of vision. This is still Great Britain and, despite the best efforts of the left-wing system, we are not yet a weak nation of snowflakes who panic at the sound of a balloon popping. We are British. These scampering sand-dwellers will not take our country from us until the last of us is gone. When they force us to stop smiling they will not be able to run fast enough.

          1. Morning, Meredith. I know it has been posted here many times, but Kipling still reminds us who we are:

            The Beginnings

            It was not part of their blood,
            It came to them very late
            With long arrears to make good,
            When the English began to hate.

            They were not easily moved,
            They were icy-willing to wait
            Till every count should be proved,
            Ere the English began to hate.

            Their voices were even and low,
            Their eyes were level and straight.
            There was neither sign nor show,
            When the English began to hate.

            It was not preached to the crowd,
            It was not taught by the State.
            No man spoke it aloud,
            When the English began to hate.

            It was not suddenly bred,
            It will not swiftly abate,
            Through the chill years ahead,
            When Time shall count from the date
            That the English began to hate.

        2. Don’t be. Worse things have happened in the past – the Zeppelins and Gothas caused wide-spread alarm, but not, contrary to expectation, despondency in 1914-18, then there was the Blitz and threat of invasion in 1940. We weathered it all.

      4. Ref “If we do not regain control of our borders etc”, slightly over one half of all immigration comes from countries that are not in the EU and it is this half that creates the most concern. We have always had border control over this half but have never had the will nor courage to exercise it properly. I fear that Brexit will not change this.

        Edit to correct typos.

        1. There is no point in having border controls if those in power ignore them and wave through anyone with wild eyes and a beard, or who is wearing a head-to-toe discrimination sheet. So the question is – How long do people keep ignoring the realities of life and keep voting for “Remainers” who will never protect this country, because they do not believe that Nation States should exist at all?

          If you have a Redwood or Rees-Mogg, or any other Real Conservative – then keep voting for them, but if you have a Grieve, Hammond or May then vote for the Brexit party. Labour have no chance anymore, so don’t do what the media want you to do and “vote to keep Labour out (HA!)” and vote instead for this countries future, free from the eu.

          Unless Boris surprises those of us with our eyes open and leaves the eu with a WTO Brexit of course, but that is looking increasingly unlikely with his now constant references to the Backstop as if that is the only problem. The Withdrawal Agreement itself is the trap, not the backstop.

          1. I agree with your first sentence as that was the essence of my post. However, none of what you call “Real Conservatives” has shown much evidence that they would change things and they have all been in positions where they could have exerted pressure. By the way, it is a mistake to assume that all Remainers are not as concerned as you about immigration – many are very concerned about it but happen to think that there are different ways of dealing with it. As I indicated, the real problem is immigration from the Third World and this has little to do with the EU, Brexit or Remain. It will be there after Brexit.

          2. I don’t wish to alarm you Enri but here’s a little story…

            A Border Force Cutter stops four Muslims in a rubber boat rowing towards England. The Captain gets on the loud-hailer and shouts, “Ahoy, small craft. Where are you headed?”

            One of the Muslims puts down his oar, stands up, and shouts, “We are invading the United Kingdom!”

            The entire crew of the cutter double over in laughter. When the Captain is finally able to catch his breath, he gets back on the loud-hailer and asks, “Just the four of you?”

            The same Muslim stands up again and shouts, “No, we’re the last four. The first 20 million are already there!”

          3. Thanks for a good laugh! However, it reminds me of somethings I read yesterday (perhaps in this forum!) – humour is just the truth exaggerated.

          5. I understand what you are saying, but I think that the EU and those controlling them have a very great deal to do with the immigration problem that we face. Those leaving France to cross the Channel have already passed through several eu countries who have done nothing to stop them on their travels.

            One Mr Soros (who is just an office boy, not a mastermind. He takes orders, he does not make decisions) has worked with a number of charities to provide money and transport to masses across Africa and the Middle-East to get them into Europe. They then pass on to our countries.

            Once a “new arrival” is processed and given an EU passport then they can glide into our country on a train with there being nothing that we can do to stop them, so Brexit is quite important in order to stop this happening.

            The Real Conservatives have tried to “exert pressure” but they are outnumbered by the fake ones. It has taken years to replace real Conservative MP’s with eu-administrators, and there are those in Conservative Central Office, who did this on purpose, who will also need to be removed from their positions.

            Your question covered a number of areas that are quite complex, but now it is time to break for lunch. Have a nice meal yourself, wherever you are having it. 🙂

          6. Until they get citizenship of an EU country (not quite as quick and easy as you suggest), they are still subject to border controls (if we apply them rigorously). Yes, the issue is a complex one but we must not assume that Brexit on its own will solve it.

            Enjoy your lunch, mine is Roast beef and all the trimmings, in the company of good friends.

          7. Heh heh, yes it is complex. I did not say it was easy, but with the little Scottish lady already suggesting that newly arriving migrants should be given the vote as soon as possible, without that silly 5 year wait, then events can change very quickly. Far more quickly than some people seem to realise.

            As for Brexit – it will not solve everything overnight, but any student of recent history and the spread of islam though countries, will be able to tell you why not having a full Brexit will mean the continuing erosion of our moral and cultural norms. Leading inevitably to the end of democracy and Western culture itself, which is to be replaced by a system far darker and more pleasing to those who are organising this invasion. This is clear. You do not need years of study to know this. There are many learned academics who have been sounding this warning for years, although the media do not report it of course.

            It is costing them a fortune in our tax payers money to move so many people with an alien mindset into our countries. They do not spend sums like that for no reason. Having control of our borders again will give us a chance to turn the tide. Without it there is none. Btw – any Remainer who thinks that they can control immigration while staying inside the eu needs to look at the punishments being dealt out to those countries who are trying to. 🙂

          8. I do not disagree in general with you and Brexit might give us an opportunity to deal decisively with the problem. My fear is that we will no longer have the courage to do it and that the metaphoric “Gates of Vienna” will not be closed.

          9. Yes, it is a concern that those we elect will not have the will to do what is necessary in the face of the evil that we are facing. Which is peacefully (if possible) removing the threat before the inevitable happens, as it always does with a violent cult such as islam.

            You do get the impression that some people will only wake up to reality when they see a mob of 30 followers of islam dragging their neighbours out of their houses to kneel in the street with the words “convert or die” ringing out.

            If we allow their numbers to rise to the level when they start doing that, then the cuddly concepts of “law” that many hold now will be gone, and survival will kick in. There will be no police force or legal system left by that point.

            So it will be much better if islam is removed before then. If they can start to deal with the threat in Myanmar. then we can do it here and in the eu (if they wake up in time as well.)

          10. I have no wish to offend anyone on this forum but almost all religions all have one aspect in common – that is control. Control over the population by usually an unelected minority. Inciting the population to oppose, forcibly convert or otherwise subjugate minorities of another religion are part and parcel of control. The “convert or die” scenario is not that much different from events a few hundred years ago in our own country. Once people become educated and have the tools to question dogma, that control loosens and, in this country, is now almost non-existent as far as Christianity is concerned.

            My view, which perhaps is not shared by you, is that many Muslims in this country are able to think for themselves and adapt to the moral and ethical values we have. Of course, there are passages in the Koran that are incompatible with Western values, just as there are in the Bible, but the vast majority of Christians and what I think is a growing number of Muslims can view these tracts as advice rather than absolute dictats. Watch TV documentaries about, say, hospital A&E services, state of the art surgery or ambulance services and you will see plenty of Muslims making superb contributions to the whole community.

            That is one side of the coin, though, and many Muslims who are poorly educated and from cultures markedly different from ours undoubtedly find it hard to assimilate and wish to recreate the culture they have left. There are also educated Muslims brought up in this country who are proselytised by radical preachers and other malign figures.

            We must somehow cut out the cancer of those who wish us harm whilst accepting those who do not. That will not be an easy task but I do not wish to see this country descend into ethnic cleansing – we are better than that.

          11. Your comment is very balanced, and the position that I held around 4 or 5 years ago when I thought that islam was just another religion that could be assimilated / enlightened. But then I did some research and discovered that was the way I had been trained to think and that integration is not possible in this situation.

            There are academics who were raised under islam and who have now escaped. They are very eloquent and obviously know the religion from the inside out. They highlight why there is no time to change the people who are coming here because they are coming in far too quickly and have no desire whatsoever to listen to the words of “reasonable people” who they see as morally corrupt.

            There was one example last year in this country a “nice muslim” newsagent sent a message saying “I wish a wonderful Christmas to my beautiful Christian friends.” He was then murdered by another muslim because he was “the wrong type of muslim.”

            Individual followers of islam can be saved if they are spoken to one to one, but that takes time and resources. With 200,000 – 300,000 arriving each year with a VERY literal belief in islam, you will not get the words “lets talk” out of your mouth before you are silenced.

            Our way of life is haram or forbidden to these new arrivals. They have come to make this country islamic, as they are doing across Europe. This is a quite deliberate action from those in the eu who want to end democracy because it gets in their way.

            But assimilating the reality of this situation takes time and some reading of the history of islam. It is not easy, and the pictures you will find online are horrific. But being forewarned is being forearmed. Once you realise that these new islamic arrivals cannot be dissuaded from their beliefs, then our situation becomes clearer.

            It is not just uneducated follower either – those islamic men who tried to carry out that attack in Scotland were Doctors. This belief system is not just for “stupid people.” But that is enough for one day. I will try to find the online lecture that was given by a very well informed lady in America who warns why this type of islam cannot be reasoned with.

          12. The crux of the matter is numbers. We can assimilate relatively small numbers of just about any form of life but, as you say, we are being overwhelmed by too many, too quickly.

          16. I guess one looks at “old” American families who (cough) financed both sides in WWII…allegedly, of course.

          17. Hertslass – Soros, The Roth’s, Merkel, May, Macron, Blair , Cameron, and so many others are just 3rd tier. They follow orders, even the Roths are nothing special, just the accountants. Does your accountant tell you what to do or do you tell them. 🙂

            What a complex web they have weaved to deceive those who realise that something is wrong but do not know what. The people who are tier 1 are not part of any racial group, they don’t care who you are as long as you can be corrupted. They are not 6 foot tall aliens either, sorry that fraction who think we are run by people from another world.

            The people who are behind the New World Order are just people. They put their trousers on one leg at a time just like us. They are evil bas’ards though, unlike us. They would see billions die and not care. Which is why they love islam so much. The muslims are a useful tool to get rid of those of us who are moral and like the idea of democracy. But they are not strong enough to win yet. We keep beating them every 60 years whenever they try to take over the world. But they are being sneaky this time.

            Now it really is time for lunch. Have a good afternoon. 🙂

          18. Good day, Enri,

            Tony Blair is responsible for much of our present trouble in the form of his disgusting Human Rights Act, which gives criminals, immigrants and ne’er-do-wells “human rights” at the expense of normal law-abiding citizens, whose corresponding rights are destroyed. That Act was not necessary in this country, and has facilitated increasing encroachment of our common law liberties.

            Blair built upon the foundation of misguided feelings of “responsibility” for our former colonies, which has been taken full advantage of by the people of those countries, especially in Asia and Africa.

            One of the first things a new government should do is to get rid of this pernicious piece of legislation.

          19. Good day Hertslass. You are absolutely correct. Human Rights has become a banner for every excess imaginable and I would have no qualms about legislation being amended. I say “amended” because simply getting rid of it will cause furore amongst those who refuse to acknowledge its flaws and, particularly, those who make a good living from it. A more cunning approach would be to advertise that it is being “strengthened” to give “better HR protection” blah, blah, blah whilst making sure that it actually provides US with better protection. I am sure that smart lawyers and politicians can come up with words that say one thing but mean another – after all, they do this all the time.

      5. The irony is, the G7 lot have had all access cut off because if they don’t know who is coming in, they can’t be secure! Do as I say, indeed!

      1. Here’s hoping….
        Shirley Temple and the good ship Lollipop will disappear forever….glug,glug,glug…

  30. Multiply this by several thousand that we never get the details on………………..

    Twelve years of criminal trials, prison costs and immigration cases
    involving Somalian rapist Yaqub Ahmed have saddled the taxpayer with an
    estimated bill of £330,000.

    The 30-year-old has been involved in
    three separate criminal cases and at least five asylum tribunal
    hearings, all funded by Legal Aid.

    He has also spent nine years in
    prison or immigration detention centres. The five years that he spent
    behind bars for rape and conspiracy to rape would have cost at least
    £150,000.

    The cost of detaining him since an attempt to deport him
    failed last October is estimated to be more than £29,000, equivalent to
    £100 per day.

    The bill for housing and monitoring him after his release on bail for a month earlier this year is not yet known.

    He was detained again in April after attempting to escape to Ireland.

    Meanwhile,
    new figures obtained by The Mail on Sunday show more than £37,000 has
    been paid in legal aid to solicitors and barristers who have represented
    Ahmed between August 2007, when he committed the rape, and this April. A
    total of £28,893 was paid for his legal team during the 2008 rape trial
    – £16,515 to his solicitors and £11,379 to his barrister.

    His latest lawyers got £4,300 for making a further asylum application.

    Additional
    costs will include this month’s bail application and costs of
    investigating his claims that he now has a mental illness and is a
    victim of modern slavery.
    Meanwhile my sister spent a quarter of her life savings on a private operation rather than endure another 18 months of agony
    Our Criminal and justice(HAH) system is not fit for purpose
    (except Common Purpose)

    1. My poor beautiful Britain, where once upon a time, we could chat to anyone anywhere we went, but in conversation wherever in Britain we were, find a common connection, a smile , a joke, , a similar response, a wry remark, and usually a cheery sense of can do will do.

      I feel so p####ed off to see we have given over our golden chalice , heritage and tax payers money to a horde of heathens .

      1. Land built on will never be available to grow food to feed all the excess mouths. Imports come with huge CO2 bill attached. Where’s the joined-up thinking?

    2. Meanwhile, back on planet Common Sense his sentences would have been:

      1. Birch.
      2. Cat.
      3. Cat.
      4. Cat.
      5. Rope.

      Savings to the exchequer: Priceless.

  32. Norway Refuses to Take Migrants Ferried to Europe by ‘Rescue’ NGO

    Are they rescue organizations or People Smugglers ?

    These boats lurk just outside of territorial waters waiting to pick up migrants in boats that are in no danger at all. These boats then try to ferry them to Europe rather than take them to the nearest safe port

    The Norwegian government has confirmed it will not be taking in any migrants rescued by NGO Proactiva Open Arms in the Mediterranean, despite a French request.

    Norwegian Justice and Immigration Minister Jøran Kallmyr confirmed that the government rejected the French offer, saying that Norway would also reject taking any migrants from the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) vessel the Ocean Viking

    The countries they are coming from are no longer war torn neither so they should be taken back to the country they departed from

      1. Because our leaders are frit/part of the conspiracy to dumb down the general indigenous people.

      2. It can, same as we didn’t have to take the 6 million immigrants from Asia over the last 20 years.

        The government has chosen that we will take them to ‘rub the Right’s nose in diversity’.

  33. I made a curry the other night and sat down to eat it. On the telly there was an advert for Oxfam. They
    showed a starving Paki boy who was covered in flies and dying.

    With a lump in my throat and tears streaming down my face I thought,

    “Wow, this curry’s hot!”

    1. I wonder how that post sounds to someone who is just browsing NTTL, perhaps for the first and last time ?

        1. Oh well.. for prize garbage, sosy, there’s always yours………..

          ‘Tanks were next to useless in WW1’

          ‘Tanks played a large role in the allied success in the Battle of Amiens’.

          Hahaha.

          2. Tanks can’t have been ”next to useless” in WW1 if they played a large role in one of WW1’s major allied successes, sosy.

            ”But then you’re far too stupid to realize that”.

          4. I understood everything you said at the time as you tried unsuccessfully to wriggle out of your blunder.

            Just accept it. That’s debating and why I like to keep discussions going as long as possible. Eventually the other side blows up.

          5. Not a blunder.
            Because they were rushed into battle with neither an idea of how they could be used nor proper planning, tanks were VERY ineffective in early engagements.
            By the time of Amiens, lessons had really been learnt and they contributed to the success of the battle.
            So both statements are true.

          6. Always amusing to watch core Nottlers grouping behind the wagons !

            That is not how the argument was presented.

            Tanks were said to be ”next to useless in WW1”.

            But they weren’t. Thanks to sosy, I researched ”Amiens” and it’s pretty obvious that without tanks at all, this major success leading to the end of WW1 would not have happened, or would have been far more difficult to achieve perhaps very sadly with enormous losses.

            So it isn’t true to say that tanks were ”next to useless” in WW1.

          7. LOL – I am not a “Core Nottler” – I didn’t know anybody here existed 2 weeks ago before Disqus ran up the red flag and decided to shut down the boards (apart from a couple of names from another channel.) I have however loved military history and reading books / watching documentaries.

            It “is” simply true that they did not know how successful tanks would be at the beginning because they did not know how many would break down or how many Germans would run away at the sight of them. Tank tactics developed as their strengths and limitations became clearer. That only comes from using them “in the field.”

          8. True, but it means that overall tanks were not ”next to useless” in WW1, not least because ”Amiens”, a key success, looks virtually impossible without them.

          9. I am currently reading Churchill and His Airmen. It is illuminating how near we came to losing WW1 because we didn’t grasp the potential of the air arm. Poor appointments (nothing new, is there?) and people who lacked the imagination to see the potential … We are going through it again with Brexit.

          11. Hmm.
            Polly’s not usually this argumentative. She usually contributes something cryptic, and moves on…
            This is more JenniferSP’s style.

          12. Well, just look at you, Wibby….

            Chiming in to reply to so many of my posts is ”argumentative”.

          13. Umm… tanks *were* next to useless. Doesn’t mean to say they were not critical.

            As a tank could be claustrophobic, undergunned, slow, that does not mean it wasn’t the right tool for the job in protecting troops.

      2. I think that NTN was making the point that we are now being overloaded with horrific images to the extent that it is diminishing our sensitive human response to such horrors.

        People will not be surprised that Shakespeare understood the fact that if you overload us with horrors we shall try just to shrug them off:

        Blood and destruction shall be so in use
        And dreadful objects so familiar
        That mothers shall but smile when they behold
        Their infants quarter’d with the hands of war;
        All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:

        (Mark Antony in Julius Caesar)

        1. Most of us did Shakespeare at school or college when we were young. It is good to be reminded now of his brilliance.
          There should be refresher courses available free on the NHS for older people who would understand better these long forgotten quotes.
          Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow ………

          1. I totally agree. Many of us simply aren’t ready for Shakespeare, when he is taught at school. Some casualties don’t ever return to his works, which is a great pity.

          2. Mostly it may be because English teachers teach Shakespeare as a serious business. Shakespeare wrote plays aka entertainment;
            blood, slaughter, love, laughter, it’s all there.
            I remember saying something in the English class in response to a question. There was a real hush and shocked heads turned in my direction. The teacher started to laugh. I had understood it. (Hell’s Bells, the character is called Bottom and has an arse for a head – don’t laugh, this Shakespeare stuff is serious business.)

          3. I don’t normally approve of leftie luvvies who tend to inhabit the rebuilt Globe, Sam Wanamaker’s life’s work. But I have an excellent live DVD of their performance of a Midsummer Night’s Dream which I think captures the spirit of the time they were written in:

            https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shakespeares-Globe-Screen-Midsummer-Nights/dp/B00M552PHY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Y9FKEOQZ6ZI5&keywords=globe+midsummer+nights+dream&qid=1566728100&s=gateway&sprefix=globe+midsu%2Caps%2C163&sr=8-1

          5. Shakespeare wrote for hoi polloi. The toffs sat on the apron and were often included in the action. It’s a completely different world, yet somehow it’s still universal.

          6. One thing that really brought Shakespeare alive for me was a (grammar) school visit to Stratford and a trip backstage at the Shakespeare Theatre before the performance of Henry V.

          7. I did not fully appreciate Shakespeare’s brilliance – and the memorable way he expressed himself – until I started to teach his works at “A” level.

            I am always delighted when I meet one of my former students and we start discussing the plays, poetry and novels we studied together many years ago.

            On one occasion I met a former member of my Sixth Form English set who is now a prominent QC; we discussed an old debate triggered by Hamlet’s description of Claudius as being: that incestuous, that adulterate beast. Claudius’s marriage to his brother’s widow was at one time illegal, and thus, in spite of the lack of blood relationship, it could be described as ‘incestuous’ . The word ‘adulterate’ implies that Gertrude had a sexual relationship with her husband’s brother before her first husband’s death which would suggest that Gertrude was complicit in her first husband’s murder.

            Some productions of the play try to paint Gertrude as innocent; others present her as as guilty as Hamlet’s step-father. I am sure that his study of Shakespeare helped make my former pupil into the brilliantly successful barrister he now is.

      3. Then they’d either be deeply offended and a Lefty, or they’d have a bit of a laugh and understand the spirit it is meant in, also understanding that the UK did an incredible amount for Pakistan that the Pakistani’s have subsequently thrown away.

      4. 26 comments and 12 upvotes only.
        We all know Polly has been making comments on Disqus for a very long time, certainly more than 26 comments in total. New account, by any chance ??

          1. I’m just curious as to why you see to have a number of very new accounts, with no more than a few comments associated with each?
            I’m also a little sceptical that you’re the same Polly that we’ve come to know, and that I usually give an upvote to…

          2. Surely the reason for new accounts is obvious ?

            I am the same Polly.

            I don’t like sick ”humor”.

      5. ” so, the 15 year old Toyota taxi finally broke down in the middle of the main street. As I got out my senses were assaulted by the sounds of foreign languages and the unfamiliar smells of spices. My wife was wearing a perfectly respectable summer dress but silent, sullen men in foreign dress shot her disapproving glances. To be honest the situation appeared to becoming quite threatening and I desperately scanned the area for a way out of this. Then I remembered that Finsbury Park has a tube station and within minutes we were back into first world civilisation…..”

        1. What about the apparent complete indifference to suffering and death as displayed above, and apparently supported now by 6 Nottlers ?

          1. Polly, I am one of the six, and I gave NtN an upvote because it was a very funny joke.

          2. So what is your opinion of the suffering and death aspect of the supposed ”joke” ?

            Do you feel sorry and deplore it ?

          3. I thought you were talking tongue-in-cheek.

            That joke is NOT new.
            I read every posting here. Those who seem to be a bunch of racists are just expressing the desperation that most of us feel at the destruction of the society that we were brought up in.

          6. Please stop sniping, both of you. Right or wrong, it looks bad. Anyone casually passing by would be appalled.

          7. A little bit of sniping doesn’t hurt. As long as it’s little – shows we have people with different views on things, which is surely healthy? It’s if it gets to big sniping that we get cheesed off.

            Morning, Tony.

          8. Doesn’t help though. Suffering is endemic around the world.

            It seems Polly wants a fight.

          10. I seem to get a fair number of up-votes and comments that my jokes amuse other NoTTLers. Whereas you often get a lot of abuse. Shall we have a shoot-out at dawn?

          12. If I get abuse for not liking sick ”humor”, that’s fine by me.

            Keep on going if you like, I’m perfectly capable of dealing with it.

          13. Polly, I understand and accept that you do not like black humour, but you fail to recognise that it has its uses.

            However, one day you may be in a situation where such humour may give you a jolt that allows you to carry on and get through it. Then you might understand it.

          14. If you read again the original post which started this discussion, there isn’t really any humor at all. It’s more a kind of indifference, almost vindictive in nature, to the suffering of someone who has done nothing to the author.

          15. Jolly good, Polly.

            PS – What is “humor”? Is it anything similar to our “humour”?

          16. Suffering and death are normal and a part of life. Only snowflakes find it difficult to cope. Black humour is a way of coping in the armed forces.

          17. Your first sentence is true, but what appears to be a cold, calculated indifference to the suffering of others isn’t in accordance with Christianity, humanity and our civilization.

          18. It is not indifference. How about “grave” humour, and the fact that someone might have lost a loved one recently? Black humour (or is it humour of colour?) is just a particular nuance of playing with words. It does not mean indifference to suffering.

          20. Oh well, it didn’t to me. It may not be in the best taste, but that is a different question.

          21. ‘Morning, Lass, 10 years in the Royal Air Force, cultivates a form of black humour that civvies might not understand. For example, stationed at RAF Linton-on-Ouse in the sixties, training Navy pilots, one of then crashed into a hillside and was killed.

            One Jimmy Fegan, a dour Scot, walked into the line-hut and said, “I hear Beamish failed his Navex.” (Navigation Exercise)

          22. In the early ’70s 60 Field Squadron, part of 36 Engineer Regiment, was in Kenya on a plant exercise combining building roads in the Military Training Area with projects helping the Africans in nearby villages when a Scandinavian Airlines plane came down.
            The Squadron was immediately tasked with helping the Kenyan Military with picking up the bits.
            Some of the lads were getting VERY choked up and emotional on the job when one of the longer served Sappers, a fairly typical “Hairy Arsed” plant operator, picked up the top half of one of the stewardesses and made a VERY bad taste obscene joke.
            Bad taste perhaps, but, when the Squadron returned to Maidstone, several of the lads commented how it had broken the spell and allowed them to continue doing the job.

          23. I went into work one morning in Sqn HQ (R. Sigs) and the pay guy and a clerk were joking about Lcpl B’s Next Of Kin card being out of date. I asked why and was told they had heard from a relative that his dad had died that morning. I decided to go to the MT office where he worked and offer my condolences.

            Lcpl B was chatting on the phone and seemed quite unaffected so I went back to the orderly room and said: “He seems to be taking it very well…”

            “We haven’t told him yet!!!”

          25. Frankly, Hl, I have got to the stage where I am indifferent to suffering. We’ve been pouring money into foreign aid (both by govt and privately through Oxfam and the like) and where have we got? Precisely nowhere. People can revile me as much as they like; I’m done with PC virtue signalling.

          31. I voted up because I thought it a good comment on how the continual guilt mongering of Globalist charity shills is beginning to have a serious negative effect on peoples’ opinions.
            AKA Guilt or Compassion Fatigue.

          32. Not forgetting the ‘stock’ photos that charities use for this advertising. All been exposed for what they are, a cynical way to raise money from gullible people so they can overpay their execs. They never tackle the root cause of all this ‘suffering’ – if they can’t feed the kids – don’t have them.

          33. People like that don’t think that far ahead. Or if the women do, the men don’t care anyway. They will have what they want. Imagine the pain for those women who had gone through FGM…

          34. No one is ignoring the suffering but there is nothing that can be done about it.

            The fault is not our own.

          36. It would be seven only I couldn’t be bothered to give it an up-tick. Africa’s problem is overpopulation. One fewer is good news. India has a space programme (and money in aid from us). It’s their problem, not ours.

          3. Put it in context please, Polly. The context is that most commercial TV channels are overloaded with begging messages. These messages are carefully contrived to play on the emotions of the susceptible. They have elements in common. These include heart-rending images, and dismal life stories, whether about children or animals. The message is that only You can make things better.
            Now the perhaps less obvious things that they have in common, are that the narrative is loose in time and space. When was this? Where was this? That information is missing. How much is this charity receiving from our government? What percentage of income is is spent on admin, including these TV commercials? How much is the CEO paid?

            If these people are serious about relieving some kind of suffering, why are they sending out cuddly toys? I do not want a cuddly toy. I have one. He is quite old. He is called Panda (after the Zulu chief of course).
            I want my money to be spent doing good.
            Ah, well now, please tell me exactly, precisely and specifically, how is that child in that advert going to be helped?
            How will my £3 a month prevent snow leopards becoming rarer still?
            Oh, on a final throwaway line, did you know that you can buy snow leopard cubs online?
            So please, Polly, do not be so hard on any realists around here.

          5. Fair enough, it’s obvious that you’ve never been in a real life situation where you have to deal with something so unimaginably horrible that, in order to protect its self, the brain switches over to humour to help you get through it.
            Many on here have either been in such a situation or been close to someone who has and we recognise such bad taste as the defence mechanism it is.

          6. I don’t think that is a realistic assessment at all of the circumstances pertaining to the statement.

          7. A story from the Falklands that was actually reported in the press at the time.
            An Argie shell had just injured a Para and he was lying screaming, “My leg, I’ve lost my leg.”
            One of his mates crawled over and told him, “No you haven’t mate, it’s over there,” pointing to where the limb was lying.
            The casualty himself said that his own response to the comment was enough to shake him out of his panic and assist with his own first aid and eventual casevac.

          9. Fair enough,however I think that means you don’t understand us at all,I would lay a bloody long bet most if not all noTTLers are a damn sight more charitable in their quiet private way than most
            All too many of us in those activities have had experiences that have led to us despising “Big Charity”
            In a real desperate situation I would far rather rely on a bunch of NoTTLer types than the abusive big boys

          10. ”Big charity” is open to question, but what about the attitude towards the suffering individual ?

            That looks like being complete indifference.

          11. See, that’s the difference. You feel bad for the child yet… you’re not doing anything to help him.

            Nor is our own government.

            So who are you really feeling bad for? Yourself, or the boy, in a situation because his own government chooses to allow it? The poverty and carnage in Pakistan is not our fault. It has been left to rot by generation so of military junta.

          12. What would you suggest I do, Wibby ?

            The point about this discussion is the apparent indifference in the original post.

    2. That’s funny, Tom, but it reminds me of the best (most delicious) curry I ever had.

      It was brought to my hospital bed by the mother of a young Paki boy who was in the bed opposite me.
      It was her way of thanking me for being the only patient who had engaged her son in conversation. It
      was beyond delicious.

      1. Nothing beats the proper Asian home-made ones. I’ve had a couple, and restaurants don’t come near.

        Go’morgen, Grizzly.

        1. When we visited my first MiL in Bombay her cook came up with some amazing curries.

      2. ‘Morning, George, thanks for the accolade.

        In about four hours (it’s now 4 minutes to midday) I’m going to gently heat the basic curry I made yesterday and will then add pre-cooked chicken and sliced red peppers, to warm through for about 30 minutes before serving. I find that currying chicken from the start is a failure as it shreds easily – as does fish. Add late and pre-cooked and don’t gallop the heat.

        1. ‘Afternoon, Tom,

          I have to agree with what you say. I’m not, though, a great fan of chicken (or fish) in my curries. I much prefer lamb, but it’s horses for courses.

          I had an exquisitely delicious mud crab curry in Sydney cooked by my brother’s Sri Lankan grandmother-in-law. Together with her gorgeous pan rolls (pancakes filed with curried mince then rolled up and fried) it was an outstanding dish.

  34. A little belated, but congratulations on the new website nottlers. Well done Geoff, I hope you won’t mind if I pop in now and again.

  35. There’s a programme on the TV at the moment, Saturday Kitchen, best bites< featuring Trombetti!

      1. It’s Sunday, so I am taking it easy as usual and a trip to Korky’s to sample his trombetti is far too much effort. Instead my gastronomic treat for today will be a half kilo of prime rump steak with chips and fried tomatoes, washed down with a glass or two of red anaesthetic a la Bill.

        1. Elsie, if you want to have the joy of sampling a trombetti just say the word. I have several still growing well in this hot weather but I fear they will slow down/stop if it gets cool.

          1. Thanks, Korky, I may well give you a ring in a couple of days and come around for an inspection and a sample. Incidentally, I am very much enjoying the jam you kindly gave me at my BBQ at the end of June.

      2. Indeed.

        It’s one of those “compendium” programmes that seems to spin-off the orginal show.

      3. That’s Brussel’s Broadcasting for you…..you’re meant to think it’s Sunday…

    1. organisations that plant trees or do similar things.

      I must be ‘anti Carbon’

      I have had six trees cut down, in my garden, since I moved here eight years ago

      I can now see the sky and do not have to worry about being impaled by branches when the wind blows.

      I can even get into my shed now that the doorway is clear.

      I have lots of fuel for my wood burner as well.

      1. Morning OLT

        Trees can be a nuisance in the wrong place. My neighbour had problems with his old drains , the roots of several trees caused an almighty mess..Tiny roots worked their way into the sewerage pipes that ran down the length of his driveway . It is incredible to see how a fine mesh of of very tiny filaments can cause so much expensive damage.

          3. I used to let everyone else do the worrying, then I suddenly grew up because no one seemed to care about anything .

            Then I woke up.

            People are usually wrapped up with their own narcissistic desires, like nice haircuts, restaurants, holidays , what they wear.. cricket , football, golf scores.. Get the picture?

            I like to be in the know , and create little waves!

    2. It’s a scam which has the added bonus of virtue signalling for the virtuous rsouls who donate to the ‘offsetting’.

    2. Good morning Mr Viking, it’s going to be very hot today.
      Hmm, the same friends you were going to tell you had
      become a vegan at the last moment, might have
      also tricked you with non alcoholic wine.
      So maybe the ‘ slight hangover ‘ is your subconscious
      playing tricks on you .

      1. Good morning, Ethel.

        We had slow-roasted shoulder of lamb, which was really delish. I pulled the vegan gag & had them worried for a few moments.

        1. Yummy, that sounds delicious, slow roasted shoulder
          of lamb melts in the mouth. They could’ve told you they’d
          just mown the lawn if you wanted to become a
          vegan and eat grass trimmings 🙂

        2. Better than slow roasted me. I’ve come in from the garden which is too warm even in the shade. Currently ensconced in front of a big fan to cool down.

          I prefer slow roasted lamb (and pork) rather than having it undercooked and slightly pink. It’s lovely with a dash of red wine in the bottom of the pan, with herbs, onion and garlic…

          1. Last night’s shoulder had been marinated in white wine, herbs, garlic & olive oil. I much prefer slow roasts too. I used to do a 24-hour roast pork.

  38. Good morning, friends

    DT Headline: Carrie Symonds’ young eco warriors seek help to buy rainforest

    This woman is clearly modelling herself on the Duchess of Sussex by exploiting the fact that she is sexually linked to a prominent man in order to draw attention to herself.

    I find this a sort of metaphorical prostitution which is most distasteful and patronising. This is probably because I am just a silly old fuddy duddy but I suspect there may be some others like me amongst the Nottlers.

    .

    1. ” I’ve got an idea. Will you pay for it for me ? You provide the cash; I get the credit.

      1. That is how capitalism works. On a local level I have often wondered how some pretty daft incompetents persuaded someone to fund their businesses.

        2. That’s fine. I don’t care about that. I have a choice whether to fund the loony or not.

          Unlike taxation, which has the same bonkers prinnicples but takes the money by force.

    2. Rastus, you may be a silly old fuddy duddy ( a gentle but kindly put-down) but at least you’re not a Silly Sausage (my strongest term of abuse). Furthermore, I fear you are right.

    3. I don’t think everything green activists do is wrong.

      Protecting the rain forest and the environment in general surely has to be right.

      The problem is the link between alleged man made global warming and the potential vast profits and global control of certain promoters of climate legislation. This makes the alleged warming issue look suspicious or exaggerated.

      1. The problem with the green fanatics is they don’t really care about the rainforests or the evnironment.

        All too often it’s slowly about them and their attitudes.

        As you are right – deforestation – not simply regrowing the trees but destroying the habitat is a huge issue. As is recycling, re-use and energy supply but the left aren’t interested in these things. Most never see the eyesore of windmills at sea because they live in London. They don’t care about avian wildlife or the 200 tons of concrete sunk into the ground. That’s someone else’s problem as nothing exists outside of the M25 as far as they’re concerned.

        2. Yet they will tell owners of multi-million pound “yachts” not to drop anchor “because of the damage that does to the sea bed…”

    4. I forget her name now but the one- legged girl who married Paul McCartney did the same. The marriage didn’t last.

      Edit: Heather Mills?

      1. Can a betting man give me the odds on which woman will walk out first – Carrie Symonds or Meghan Markle.

        1. Can a betting man give me the odds on which woman will be thrown out first – Carrie Symonds or Meghan Markle.

          1. Mind you I did not give the Beckhams more than a couple of years and yet they are still together in spite of his repulsive tattoos.

          3. I call it body graffitti – and just as graffiti is usually found it pretty down-beat or slummy places like subways and high rise blocks of council flats so tattoos are generally found on sub standard, slummy downbeat people.

            I was not entirely surprised when the likes of David Dimbleby and Judy Dench thought they would gear up their ‘street cred’ by having tattoo ink injected into their flabby old skin.

  39. Morning all. A bank holiday weekend thought …

    A lady walked into a pharmacy and spoke to the pharmacist. She asked: “Do you have Viagra?” “Yes,” he answered. She asked, “Does it work?” “Yes,”
    he answered. “Can you get it over the counter?” she asked.
    “I can if I take two,” he answered.

  40. When our pals were here on Friday, (Clive was Head of Opera for BBC Radio 3) we discussed the ever faster decline of Radio 3.

    Clive explained that it was all part of a plan – to make the programme unlistenable – so that audience figures plummet. Then LordOrl can say that it would be uneconomic to keep it going – and – bingo – R3 is no more…

    2. Radio 3 is certainly on a mission to alienate its core audience. Whether the intention is to kill the institution or those driving the change seriously think that there’s a new audience in waiting is more difficult to discern.
      On the classical music front, the Wigmore Hall remains strong while also dallying with change by understanding that there’s a balance to be struck. Not least because the core audience provides most of the funding.
      Back to the Beeb, I saw my old department, Programme Acquisition, dwindle from 60+ people to less than a dozen by a very deliberate policy of putting homegrown product in prime slots and scheduling acquired programmes for the midnight graveyard slots, irrespective of quality. That worked exactly as you describe.

      1. Thanks, Our Susan. All fits well with the plan. Perhaps they are looking to the day (soon we hope) when the BBC will be free-standing subscription only…

        Were you at the Walton? It really was stunning to see on catch up.

        Generally – Carolyn and I have just agreed that we are glad to be old!

        1. Yes, the Walton Belshazzar’s Feast was superb but I live in hope of seeing the writing on the wall. The RAH would be such a good venue for that hand to appear…

          I was born in 1955 and I’m very grateful for a good life. I don’t envy the young.

          1. The young don’t realise that life used to be different and so they think they are having the good times now.

  41. I hope someone has explained to the England XI that they have two whole days in which to score the runs….and that having a swipe and getting out for 20 isn’t going to help…

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          1. It’s interesting that I have lived with that picture all my life but never thought about them being muslim until the last few years. Time and experience change one’s perspectives.

      1. TB,
        A free life jacket goes with the, in many cases, a
        free life style, courtesy of the mass uncontrolled immigration policy parties who’s
        membership they will boost until such times shortly they will demand……………

      3. “Did she just call us in?”

        ” I think so.”

        “Time to run off then, that always makes her cross!”

          2. One of life’s great pleasures is watching well trained dogs being put through their paces.

  46. The Observer view on Syria and the west’s shameful failure to act. Observer editorial. Sun 25 Aug 2019.

    Despite repeated appeals for help by the UN, aid agencies and local organisations such as the White Helmets, the slaughter and mayhem are intensifying following last week’s fall to Bashar al-Assad’s troops of the southern Idlib town of Khan Sheikhoun. The plight of the fleeing population is compounded by Turkey’s reluctance to accept more refugees and its determination to force many among 3.6 million Syrians already in Turkey out of the big cities and back across the border.

    This editorial is riddled with wilful misinformation and deliberate errors. The war has only continued because the West wished it to do so and Turkey was a willing partner in it. Witness only last week an ammunition supply convoy to the Jihadists was prevented reaching them by the Russian Air Force. The much vaunted White Helmets are financed and run by the UK Foreign Office and have perpetrated some of the worst acts of deliberate murder of civilians while faking Chemical attacks attributed to the Assad Government!

    The whole thing may indeed get out of hand with a war with Iran but that will not be the fault of Syria or Russia!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/25/observer-view-on-syria-the-wests-shameful-failure-to-act

    1. Morning Minty

      I am just so puzzled as to why the Gulf States can’t accommodate fleeing Syrian /Iranian/Iraqi refugees..

      Why are these people ending up on our shores .

      I have just been watching a travel show about Dubai and it’s Miracle garden , 50 million flowers sustained by reused water. These wealthy oil states live in absolute opulence..

      2. It’s a form of apartheid, Belle. The Gulf Arabs do not want what they consider the low-life tribal Arabs to mingle with the Gulf elite and bring their squabbles with them – look at how the latter literally enslave ‘fellow’ moslems from Pakistan and elsewhere to do the heavy work in that area.
        Minty is also correct, by not looking after their fellow Arabs/moslems the latter are being forced to emigrate and extend the ummah into infidel lands for the glory of islam. All these wars in the MENA are a double-edged sword organised by the globalists: the globalists extend their influence into new lands and force an alien culture to emigrate and spread disruption into the once settled West. Evil isn’t a strong enough word for these people.

      3. Morning Belle and everyone. According to our daughter, who lives in Dubai, their immigration laws are extremely strict. You have to have a job to live in Dubai if you’re an expat and should it come to an end, for whatever reason, you have to leave. They allow Pakistanis, Filipinos and Indians into the country to do all the menial tasks. They actually keep a check on arrivals and departures!

          1. Expats go there because they’re being paid handsomely and it’s a totally different lifestyle. If a good job is on offer out there younger people would be mad not to take advantage. Our SIL’s job is extremely well paid and they all love the lifestyle out there – can’t blame them for going at all.

      4. I am just so puzzled as to why the Gulf States can’t accommodate fleeing Syrian /Iranian/Iraqi refugees.

        Morning Belle. Well they’ve helped create them and they certainly don’t want them in their own backyard. Better that they go to Europe where they can do the most damage!

    2. Is there anything in the Guardian about the fourteen year old Israeli girl who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist last week. or the work the IDF had done to destroy Iranian munitions in Iraq, and in Syria ? Thought not.
      Subcontracting defence to the Israelis then looking the other way so as not to blamed for anything that may go wrong is very clever.
      War with Iran ? It’s Israel’s fault. I can see it coming.

  47. The had the G7 wives photographed outside a bakery
    Melina Trump and the wife of the Canadian prime minister looked
    both beautiful unlike awful plastic looking Mrs Màcron with her
    overly done fake tan, not quite France elegance.

    1. A quote from the Evening standard live commentary:

      “It’s the hope that kills you, isn’t it?

      Time for a bit of perspective then – England are still 144 runs short, and I’m not sure I would have fancied them to chase that with ten wickets after watching the first innings nightmare.”

          1. Batted for a day. Next morning, took a fresh guard and prepared to bat the whole of the next day…

            No one (playing for England) these days comes within ten miles.

      2. “It’s the hope that kills you…”

        Well known sporting cliché – with, as in the case of many clichés – a great deal of truth. Just ask any Spurs fan….

  49. https://hedgerowsurvey.ptes.org/

    The Great British Hedgerow Survey
    Hedgerows criss-cross our countryside providing vital habitat for our wildlife as well as acting as corridors for dispersal. But how healthy are our hedgerows? This survey provides a health check for our hedges, and gives tailored management advice to help ensure this precious habitat can thrive in the future. We are looking for land owners and volunteers to help us build a national picture of hedgerows in the UK, so please take part in the Great British Hedgerow Survey today.

        1. We’re preparing for the yearly upsticks to Zug. First counselling rather brought the ‘I want out’ to a head, as it were.

          She spent most of Saturday asleep, came to and took the horse out for a hack. Instead of just vanishing though she took Gerry and junior along – in this weather Mongo would suffer keeping up. I think she got to be a mum for a bit again.

          The counsellor suggested that we actually do things together again – obvious but we tried to remember when we’d last holidayed and how stressful it was with a toddler about and the sheer difficulty it is to escape from the world.

          The real unhappiness still exists, mother in law has almost moved in – which is quite nice as she’s a barmy old soak but there’s talk of staying up in London 4 nights a week to reduce the commute or living there which I’d hate beyond measure but if it is what she wants maybe it’ll help.

          There’s been no more talk of parting or formal process, we’re just taking each day at a time.

          2. I hope it does – hte problem is when she commutes she starts working almost immediately, gets to the office and then dresses, same on the reverse trip. it means she’s working from about half 6 until 7, usually 8 at night.

            One thing we did do, Belle, on the control front was look at our assets, our costs, income, pension levels and spending together. This was quite nice to do as I try to keep up with it and available and we’re doing ok, but we’ve a lot going out – most of it on the animals, so we’ve made plans to reduce those and put more into investments, sell bits of the business to the staff and try to get to December 2020 and stop, completely.

            Best laid plans and all that.

          3. A friend of the family commutes every day from the Sussex coast to London , up at 5.30 , train after 6 am.. long walk to work.. hard day , then back home by 7.30.. train delays , overcrowded trains , heat, nonsense on the way to work , pressures at work , dadidah , are exhausting for him. Salary dictates, but the season ticket is a terrible cost for poor service.. standing room only sometimes!

            Thousands are in the same situation.

            Keep battling on.. She sounds so strong, but crumbling which is just not only a woman thing , Wibbling . We are all under pressure in one way or other.

          4. Perhaps the reduction in commuting will help; it’s a hefty strain. I did it when I was studying for an Advanced Diploma; I stayed by college Monday night to Thursday and came home for the weekends. We’re still together.

    2. Not enough hedgerows around here. Too many prairie-style fields with little to no hedgerow boundaries.

      1. We are lucky to have a hedgerow right opposite us in our narrow lane. It’s magnificent this year as it escaped its yearly trim, so in the spring there was masses of blossom and now it’s full of hawthorn berries and blackberries.

    3. Have had a look at this. I reckon it could be quite a time consuming survey, assuming one surveys a whole farm or estate. There seems little point in doing the odd hedge as as far as I can judge the intention is to give management advice – so there is only any point in doing it if the owners/tenants want management advice. It’s not clear whether the information might contribute to other research and might have a wider use than for immediate management purposes.

  50. OT – beer fans will know that I have neither taste nor knowledge about yer beer.

    Last year, a family from Lille bought a house down the street for a holiday home. I was able to tell them about a bar they didn’t know in Lille called, “La Capsule” – which has a dozen or so draught beers (plus plenty of others in bottles). Very nice too.

    Anyway, when they came down two weeks ago, they bought us specially a bottle of “Les 3 Monts”. Had it with lunch today.. Delicious.

    Wasn’t that kind of them?

        1. I drank 3 bottles of this before I looked at the label. The brewery is very ordinary in an ordinary French village but the beer is one of the worlds greats.

          1. ‘Afternoon, Johnny, as is Affligem – a Belgian beer. So good I’ve bought a beer machine (called a Sub) and can put in a 2 litre canister (called a torpe) from the fridge into it for lovely, strong, cold beer – and despite Grizzly’s moaning, it has real taste, as has most Belgian and German Weissbrau.

  51. “England within shout of winning run race…”

    Yeah right….only 203 runs needed….

    1. BTL@Speccie

      MaxSceptic • 2 hours ago
      Trump: Once again Yanks and Brits together in France …. How many times must we save the a$$es of these cheese-eating surrender monkeys?

  54. There is an article in today’s DT about single women having the right to IVF treatment on the NHS. Looking at the comments under the article it would seem that old fogeys do not support this suggestion.

    I posted a comment which was deleted so I had to post it again deleting the word for a female dog even though it was used entirely appropriately. As I have already said this morning I am without doubt an old fogey but I am happy here in the company of many other old fogeys. Anyway, this is my response to being deleted:

    What an absurdity!

    I have just had a comment deleted because I used the term for a female dog when making the point that we can use the term ‘man’ to cover both male and females of the human species. In general I talk about cows and ducks when referring to these creatures without indicating what sex they are.

    Feminist susceptibility has gone mad when you have to euphemise in this way about female dogs! My initial point was that nature ordered things so that both a man and a woman (without man’s interference) were required to produce a baby and it is man’s responsibility (i.e. the responsibility of both men and women) to nature to look after the child.

    1. Robert Spowart 25 Aug 2019 1:28PM
      Whilst I can sympathise with women, married or single, who wish to have children but can not conceive by natural means, I feel that, beyond medical investigation to determine the cause, the NHS should have other priorities for spending the taxpayer’s money.
      Perhaps those supporting the provision of in vitro conception could organise and help to fund a charity to assist?

      1. Yo boB

        If Noel Edmunds restarted swap Shop again, all would be solved

        A 13 year old with an (unwanred) child could go on the show and swap it for a puppy, put up by a middleaged Feminist who wanted a baby.

        1. I often think that when I see the sign: “Baby Changing Room”.

          Take a baby in and come out with a crisp tenner…{:¬))

    2. It has just been established that marriage of any kind is illegal in accordance with th Lotteries Act 1963.

    3. Frightening to think that unknown conditions can be passed on genetically .

      Families seemed to know instinctively whether there was a dodgy gene in the family , and steered clear of reproducing . Anyway in the old days it was the way of the world , how strange now that everyone has a right to produce no matter what the genetic conditions .

      1. One of the chief reasons I don’t have children; my brother’s sons have a genetic defect. I didn’t want to pass it on to my offspring.

  56. The wires are melting and the internet is running very slow. It’s 29 centigrade here – 84 Farenheit. Suppose it is even hotter where you are.
    We were fooled years ago, but nobody remembers it. We were made to use centigrade , because the numbers were smaller and it hid the oncoming of Global Warming.

      1. There were plenty of hot days when I were younger and
        no one made a fuss about it. We had a couple of hot days
        during Wimbledon this year, when Boris became PM
        and now. I’d be quite happy with a couple of months of it
        being 23c with a breeze instead of very wet and windy and
        then a few days of 30c. Anyway, August is the end of summer
        and beautiful Autumn begins in a couple of weeks .

        1. Anyway, August is the end of summer and beautiful Autumn begins in a couple of weeks .

          ‘Afternoon, Ethel, I refuse to let the Met office define the seasons’ dates for me and much prefer those set by the Sun, the equinoxes and the solstices.

          For me, Autumn begins on September 21st, Winter will start on December 21st, Spring again on March 21st and Summer on June 21st – ’twas ever so and for me will be so for evermore.

          1. “Summer on June 21st”….. and Midsummer’s Day on June 24th…… summers must have been shorter in days gone by.

          2. Good afternoon .I dont take any notice of what others deem summer to
            be, the fact that August is seen to be ‘ summer ‘ is mainly
            due to school holidays. Most of nature is drying up at
            this time and the most beautiful days of summer are late
            June early July. I do think of autumn as mid September
            which is the time I start wanting to eat warming comfort
            foods like mashed potatoes instead of salads, my body
            clock changes at that period.

          5. i don’t agree, NtN. For me winter is Dec + Jan + Feb, spring is March + April + May, summer is June + July + August, and autumn is Sep + Oct + Nov. Try going out for a bracing autumn walk from December 1 to 21 and you may agree with me.

        2. Signs of Autumn are already showing here in West Virginia. A few leaves are coming down, with yellows and browns beginning to show on some trees.

      2. Compartiviely last year was much hotter for far longer. Days of infernal heat that lead to nights you could cook on.

        Hideous.

        1. This summer has been quite an average one – lots of rain, a few hot days but no sustained heat wave.

          1. I know, I just don’t like heat of any sort. it always feels like my skin is covered with ants. After we get past that level, it’s bubbling and searing and cracking skin, constant sweating and then it’s an ice bath before itching and great red welts rise up.

      1. Dear Belle.

        You live in a beautiful part of England………enjoy it,
        but don’t deny its glories to others!!

        1. Garlands

          The traffic was backed up all the way down to Lulworth cove from Lulworth camp ,(4 miles from here) the message came out the car parks are jammed at Durdle Door as well. The Sandbanks ferry is out of action so Swanage traffic is going through Wareham to the coast . Weymouth the beaches are full , as are the carparks there . the great Dorset Steam Rally is under way, more traffic from Blandford onwards.. We have 2 major attractions .. The Tank museum and Monkey World down the road .. again the traffic from Bere Regis to here is hectic… and wait for it, we have a level crossing , 4 trains pass through an hour .. woe betide if the blues and twos have an emergency .

          You can imagine why we feel a bit trapped .. any way , Moh is watching the creeeeeekit, and I am on here , the fan is on and nice and cool. Time for a cuppa !

          1. When I lived ‘in digs’ in Weymouth, we used to go ‘floppy watching’ on the beach

            Much more fun tha hearing the first cuckoo

          4. He had a ‘Greenie’ SMR then

            The first Leander cost £4,630,000

            The (27th) final one £6,576,000

            Money well spent

          6. A good day to stay at home.

            There was a lot of traffic yesterday morning on the M5 and A38 – it took a lot longer to get to the event than it did to get home afterwards.

          9. Not quite as old as mine then! 57 plate – Peugeot 206 workhorse. We use mine for events as there’s far more boot space than in J’s hybrid Toyota – plus it has a lot more poke.

          11. Same here – 58 plate. It replaced a T reg! I do still own a V reg, although I don’t have it on the road at the moment (it’s a “next year in Jerusalem” project).

          12. My previous one was an M and the before it was an A – but the Peugeot I still have was only time I bought a new car.

          13. I don’t buy new cars; as soon as you drive them off the forecourt you have lost a lot in depreciation! I take my cue from the late Gerald Westminster who insisted on buying second-hand helicopters, partly for that reason and also because by the time they were three years old, the problems had been sorted out! He was no fool, the old Duke.

          14. Frightening when that happened in outside lane of the M11 stretch between Harlow and M25. My old BMW threatened to overheat, warning lights on, slow stuttering traffic. The viscous bearing to the fan needed replacement.

            Got to Snaresbrook station car park and managed to top up radiator with bottled mineral water that evening and got back to Wallis’s at Barton Road, Cambridge more by luck than judgement.

      2. A saying in these parts is that the main roads are busy with tourists and the back roads are dusty with locals.

        Just under two weeks until the rug rats go back to school and we will finally be able to drive on main street again. Oh wait, road works have been on hold during peak tourist times.

      3. Just about to have a dark chocolate magnum Ice cream
        In the garden:) far too hot, I shall sit beneath the honeysuckle bush.

          3. He appeared a series of stories based on books. He is Jesse Stone, police chief in Paradise ( somewhere on East coast of USA )
            He has never been better. The character is 35 in the books, but Tom Selleck was in late 60s when he made the films, I think.

          8. TB,
            I do believe they should be standard issue to ALL indigenous adults that do NOT currently support lab/lib/con.
            Make my day.

          1. Rum and raisin ice cream from a local Jersey herd served generously in a local restaurant does it for me.

      4. My cousin also lives in Dorset, they don’t go far until the tourists have
        gone. My husband’s aunt and mother live in beautiful Bath and
        they hardly ever visit the city during the holiday season.. too busy
        and just a headache with so many tourists. We tend to visit them
        out of season and although it might be cold, it’s peaceful and
        you can move around without being squashed .

    3. Man and dog are sat with curtains drawn and air con on.

      Woman is not. Woman is drinking pimms outside.

      1. As you’ve replied, Wibby, let’s see if you’re up to speed by answering the questions……..

  58. Eight migrant cases with 118 people including a baby off Kent, Sussex and France

    There have been a staggering eight migrant incidents in 36 hours on both sides of the Channel.
    Updated details from French and British authorities show these instances involved a total 118 people including a baby.
    There were seven incidents within 12 hours yesterday, six on the British side and one in French waters.

    These are the latest incident in detail to date:

    1. The first of yesterday’s alerts on the British side of the Channel was at 2.30am and involved nine people, eight men and a woman who said they were Iranian.

    2. The next was at about 5am and involved 11 people, nine men and two boys, who presented themselves as being from Iran, Guinea, Kuwait and the Ivory Coast.

    3. The third alert was at 7am and six men, who said they were Iranian, were picked up.

    4. The next call out was at 11.30am and there were 11 people including four claimed minors. They presented themselves as Iranian nationals.

    5. Another call out was at about 11.30am after reports of people seen on the beach at Winchelsea, East Sussex.

    6. The sixth alert yesterday was at noon when a small boat was seen crossing the Channel towards the UK coast. The boat was escorted to Dungeness by Hastings RNLI and 16 people were taken to Rye Police Station.

    7. Another incident yesterday was a double, when French authorities found two fishing boats 48km (30 miles) west of Le Touquet.
    This was first reported at 11.50am (10.50am BST). One boat had 14 migrants, eight men, two women and four children.
    The other had 16, five men, four women, six children and a baby. They were taken ashore to France and handed to border police.

    8. The last known incident was at 2.30am (1.30am BST) today when a semi-rigid boat was seen 4km (2.5 miles) north of Dunkirk.
    The vessel had 24 migrants including seven children and a woman.

    Again a helicopter pinpointed their location and by 4.30am (3.30am BST) they were put onto a rescue vessel, brought back to French soil and dealt with by border police.

    Border Force coastal patrol vessel. Library image

    These cases are the latest in a trend over the last year of migrants trying to reach the UK by crossing the Channel in small vessels.

    1. This business started with Syria, where you can understand the natives wanting to get out. Sad that only the affluent could afford the fare.
      Then, partly thanks to Angela Merkel and also to the Human Rights Brigade ( the human rights of the recipient countries didn’t count ),
      half of the rest of Asia and of Africa jumped on the bandwagon.Tell me again what the massive benefits to the U.K..are, and how we depend on them for nurses, carers and taxi-drivers ?

      1. I looked at the data for the NHS as best I could and whilst it is true that the number of migrants working I it as a percentage is slightly higher than for UK nationals a lot of them are in non medical roles such as cleaners and porters
        When you look at medical staff it is indeed a bit higher but that is nearly all as a result of specific NHS recruiting drives abroad and not down to mass migration so mass migration has a negative impact on the NHS made more so as many of the migrants are in poor health and many do not speak English

        1. We announced we wouldn’t deport any Iranian asylum seekers
          Lo and behold,instant paperless Iranians……………………

      3. Sad that only the affluent could afford the fare.

        As many are now coming via the sea perhaps effluent would be a better choice of word.

        I’m amazed that so many Third World people have the money to pay the extortionate costs the traffickers charge to get here. Are the illegals selling themselves, and perhaps their children, into a form of slavery for decades to come? What do the NGOs assisting this traffic really know? Why does our government connive in the traffic by not taking steps to discourage the illegals and to take out the traffickers? With the number of rubber boats being launched from France increasing, gathering intelligence on who is doing the purchasing cannot be too difficult a task.

  59. Message to Headingley – you do NOT need to run each other out You still have four whole sessions.

  61. Why we don’t trust the news anymore. Spiked. 23rd August 2019.

    Surely objectivity is the bread-and-butter of news. So why is there so much fuss about it today? In part, it’s because the media see the political shocks of the past few years – Brexit, Trump, European populism – as products of an ill-informed and bigoted populace. Channel 4, which has the nation’s poshest newsroom, with just nine per cent of its journalists coming from a working-class background, is incredibly vulnerable to this prejudice. Many journalists today believe it is their job to ‘correct’ the views of the voters with ‘facts’ and ‘truth’.

    ‘Forget the idea that the public can judge what is true’, said Dorothy Byrne in her lecture. This role as the gatekeepers of the truth informs their skewed coverage of events like Brexit because what they often mean by truth and facts, are simply middle-class, establishment opinion. And it puts them on a collision course with broader public sentiment.

    This is the sort of staggering arrogance that has led to the decline in belief in the MSM narrative.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/08/23/why-we-dont-trust-the-news-anymore/

    1. A small nit-picky correction. Channel 4 don’t produce any programmes, news or otherwise. They’re purely commissioner/publishers. ITN produce Channel 4 News.

    3. We’ve all grown up with the non-stop biased stuff that just won’t go away – America good, Russia bad; Palestinian terrorists good, Israel bad; Immigrants good. criticism of immigrants bad; Jamaicans good, Enoch Powell bad; Fifty per cent right, perhaps, but you do get fed up of having what they want to you to think rammed down your throat every day, now with an advert for sodomy on the wall.

      1. T,
        Is that advert on the wall next to the one pushing for cannibalism ?
        Pick up a nice leg of granny for the weekend in your local supermarket.

  62. I’ve just been watching the washing machine
    washing clothes. Yesterday when washing my husband’s 4 towels
    there was a foamy leak, I may have overloaded the machine.
    life was earlier when smashing clothes against rocks I am sure .

    1. Could be too much detergent. Modern machines are smart and memorise cycles. You need only a tiny amount of detergent. You need also to run an occasional empty wash at 95 degrees to keep the drum and waste system clean.

      Never use Calgon because it is acidic and eats metal.

      1. It might have been that or the fact it was too full,
        thanks for the tip in regards to the empty wash,
        I’ll do that. It’s a South Korean washing machine ,
        always plays a nice tune when finishing even if my
        husband thinks the tune has a military sound about it.

    2. All very obvious, but towels soak up masses of water, geet heavy and when spun will hammer the inside of the machine. Due to the weight they’ll almost certainly expose tiny gaps – and water’s a nasty bugger, it’ll get through anything.

      If it was just soap suds then you’re probably ok. if it was a full blown spray, check the seals, give them a clean and run a low water rinse or something to see what happens.

      1. That too, earlier and easier unless you were
        the one bashing clothes against the rock 🙂

          1. The last time I asked my late husband Olaf (now resting in the great Valhalla in the sky) to do it underarm we both ended up in a right tangle and only the local fire brigade could pull us apart – the end result was my idiot son young Olaf!

    2. I have the same problem with my washing most weeks: 18 pairs washed with one spare sock left! :-))

      1. That’s the sock sacrifice.

        The washer demands one sock, at random. No one knows where it goes. Quite obviously though, there’s a portal at the back of the machine and somewhere a planet covered with very clean socks lorded over by the domineering presence of ‘Zuesussi’, grand lord of the machine gods.

  64. 32c here in the garden, not nice and one of the
    neighbours has a very dramatic child who is screaming ” oh my God ”
    constantly atm as they did last time they were in their garden.
    This morning it was lawn mowers and now ” oh my God” from a
    screaming child, I so prefer late June for so many reasons.

    1. Can’t you shout out SNAKE .. OMG loudly .. and make a fuss , then say adder , , hell no there are 2 adders, start yelling and make a real noise ..

    2. Afternoon, Ethul. Try shouting back: “Who is your God? Is it Jehovah, Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, Lord Buddha, Mohammed, or what? I really would like to know!” That should should them up – for a while at least.

  66. Calm down everyone. Oz only need to draw the series to retain The Ashes and Steve Smith will be back for the next match.

    1. England have won back some respect today. They can fight back. Excellent result for the team and the series.

      2. He used to stonewall when it wasn’t necessary and people cheered when he was out but his stonewalling saved England on occasion.

        1. I haven’t read any of his posts since I blocked him, Elsie, & 1/2 hour ago I blocked another trite & banal pest.

          1. Otherwise Bailey was known as ‘barnacle’. In reality of course his achievements as an international cricketer were immense.

            I enjoyed his commentary as a pundit which became more animated after a few bottles of the good stuff. The great John Arlott had the same gift of a suitably lubricated delivery.

    1. My brother, who resided in Sydney from 2000 to 2017 (he now lives in Hong Kong but will return to Sydney in due course) has been getting grief all weekend from his Aussie chums.

      They’ve now, curiously, gone quiet!

      2. My oppo at work is an Aussie. Snide comments all last week. Monday is payback day! 😈

  71. Afternoon all,

    that was one hell of a cricket match!

    My fingernails have suffered.

    Well done England and in particular Ben Stokes.

        1. Archie Leach scored one goal? I thought Cary Grant had passed away some years ago!?!?!?!

          2. Uncle Bill, you are Captain Mainwaring and I claim my five bob postal order! :-))

    1. Posted for no particular reason other than that Safari will no longer upload saved pics from my phone, so I was experimenting. 😀

  74. Have lying and cooling off in the paddling pool in the garden listening to the cricket, how good is that?

  75. That’s me for the day. Off for a glass of anaesthetic with which to celebrate.

    A demain.

  76. HAPPY HOUR – Social media and its pitfalls.

    Prepare for the tantrums the tears and the bullying if you interact with each other by
    sharing information on the webb….. It’s akin to the school playground.
    You get the fat kid, the poor kid, the rich kid, the know-all, the specky and the bully……. they’re all here.

    Fess up Nottlers you know who you are….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6361d73b082ffa6d412e950282b3169ceb51dd3f7f1f4da06092de9f4b08c6ab.jpg

    3. Hmm just looked at temperature by month records it was a lot hotter in 1944 in August and September oops should have said May

      1. Social engineering still continues .. look at this …

        Britain’s ‘most eligible bachelor’ the Duke of Westminster, 28, is accused of ‘social cleansing’ over plans to evict 40 families from their council homes to make way for luxury flats
        Hugh Grosvenor, 28, the Duke of Westminster, owns more land than the Queen
        His property group Grosvenor plans to demolish Walden House in Belgravia
        London residents have started a petition to stop ‘break up of our community’

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7392315/Duke-Westminster-accused-social-cleansing-plans-evict-40-families-council-homes.html

        1. That’s capitalism.

          Are they suggesting that he should get married and stop building flats?

        1. It’s a very pleasant 25C in my living room. Just took the trash out & it was like entering an oven out there.

          1. Best stay indoors in a shady room if possible,
            our floors are wooden down stairs so a little cooler.

        3. 34.5 in the shade just a little further south from you, perhaps slightly more inland.

          1. I’ve no idea how people cope when living in tropical
            climates. I utterly loath the cold but at least you can
            wear a jumper, but with such heat that is constant then
            you are stuffed. 23 c with a breeze in the summer isn’t
            too much to ask. We’ve been having around 18c
            throughout the summer ( roughly ) with a few days or
            May be a week of this ludicrous heat. 34c in the shade
            sounds God awful.

          2. It depends on whether your climate is moist or not. Dry heat and dry cold is bearable. Humid heat and humid cold is dreadful.

          3. I guess that people who live in such climates are used to
            It, they only know that most of the time. We are more used
            to a moderate climate and don’t handle extremes well.

      1. Aethelfled is just a few miles further north than me. I am as far s. cambs as it is almost possible to be – 34.5 C this afternoon in the shade, a reasonable 25 C inside – walls 18 inches thick. They don’t build them like that now.

          1. No….. there’s our Scottish contingent; our man in north Wales, ……. north Yorkshire, Northumberland – and I’m born, bred and educated in Leeds; I somehow found myself in Cambridgeshire 23 years later.

  81. Lovely day here – high 70’s F, low humidity and a nice breeze. Took the Corvette out for a run to enjoy it.

          2. Reminds me of a T shirt slogan I saw recently – “Inside every old man is a teenage boy wondering what the f*** happened”. Along with the classic “I thought getting old would take longer”.

          1. Hard to believe I’ve had it for 22 years now. Still goes like the proverbial though – 350 hp, low drag and light weight will do that.

          1. Red Corvettes are for posers and old guys’ blonde teenage girlfriends. Besides Silver is the perfect colour for any car – when it gets dirty, it just turns a grayer shade of pale…

            p.s. Never owned a beret in my life, not being a frog.

          4. Having just, for the first time in my life, acquired a silver car, I was surprised to find that you’re right about the dirt! 🙂

          5. Mine gets cleaned once a year when it gets serviced. The rain does the job the rest of the time.

          6. Occasionally, the son of one of my friends will clean mine – I think he’s ashamed to let his parents be seen in it 🙂

    2. A pal of mine has just bought a ’59 Corvette. It’s beautiful. Are you in the north or south jack?

        1. Ah. So you won’t be a member of the Surrey Corvette Club in the UK then! That looks like a nice car – one of my in-laws in Brisbane has that model. Nice…..

  82. Oh dear, the Bbc have just linked the hottest August Bank Holiday on record to climate change…

    2. ‘Twas only to be expected that they would do that. Just a bit of weather, actually, in reality.

      1. It often rains on bank holiday but that wouldn’t fit the narrative so they ignore that.

    3. They usually say ” the hottest day ever ” of course nothing
      is worth mentioning since records began in the 1700s,
      before that shan’t even get a whisper.
      I am also sure there were similar times during the halycon days
      of one’s youth.

        1. Æthelfled might be 1000 years old but she can’t remember
          the weather during the dark ages either.

      2. Seem to remember it was a tad hot in 1976, for about 6 weeks. But that was June/July.

        1. That was 1975. It snowed on June 2 that year (snowing off a cricket match at Buxton) and the heat wave started after that.

          In 1976 it was hot from April to September.

          In 1977 it rained all summer!

          3. We got back to England in August ’76 to find cracked foundations due to the clay subsoil drying out. Lots of neighbours had the same issue. Lovely.

          4. Those were the days when insurance companies discovered “heave” instead of subsidence, to avoid paying out.

      3. ‘Halcyon’ (kingfisher) is my second favourite word in the world after ‘meadow’.

        1. I am a huge fan of beautiful old forgotten English words
          some just grow out of fashion like yclept,
          meadow is a beautiful word indeed .

          1. Strolling through a wild flower meadow in the halcyon days of summer. What could be better?

          2. Is that some strange behaviour between Tintin and Haddock, involving Snowy?

            I certainly hope not.

          6. How come the French, Belgians etc. can’t describe animal noises? Ouah, ouah is the sound a baby makes, not a dog. And they say cot cot cot for cluck cluck cluck of hens. Etc.

      4. I recall the long hot summer of 1959 oop north when we were entertaining the possibility of ‘stand pipes’ in the streets from which to collect our water. Fortunately the weather broke mid September and that was the end of that for another sixteen years or so.

  85. Message for Bill Thomas

    O ye of little faith!

    I said yesterday that we could do it and we did.

    We beat the Australians and the ashes are not yet lost.

    Stokes may be a yob. He may be covered in horrible tattoos – but he was magnificent – 135 no.

    I would even forgive Boris Johnson getting a tattoo or two if it meant that he could get us out of the EU
    without any part of Evil May’s disgusting surrender WA.

    2. After Woakes surrendered his wicket I went off to Tesco to take advantage of their 25 percent reduction on wine sales given this is a Bank Holiday. I had then thought all hope was lost.

      You might imagine my surprise on arriving back that Stokes was on 125 runs and Leach (a good Old Somerset stalwart) was still there on 0.

      I listened to the end of the match on my iPhone, sitting in the garden with a glass of white burgundy. Nervous as ever I was astounded that Stokes had rescued the innings singlehandedly but ultimately with the assistance of the lovely unassuming Leach. Both deserve medals.

      I just hope that his team mates, Roy, Woakes and Broad clue up sharpish and put their heads down next time out.

  86. Don’t know if anyone posted this – if so, apologies if I duplicate:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7391487/Royal-Mint-blocks-Enid-Blyton-commemorative-coin-bosses-brand-racist-anti-gay.html

    Blyton has been labelled racist, sexist and homophobic. Since no-one making that assertion ever met her, it’s hard to fathom the logic – except of course that her books were not full of differently hued children and rainbow people.

    As an afterthought, I. like many others posting here, would have been taught RI at school. In effect, we started at Genesis and ended up with Revelations. Including obviously (much to the delight of young boys) Leviticus, with it’s do’s and dont’s.

    So, if I have ended up biased against certain practices, it’s not my fault, it’s what I was taught by the English education system.

    1. I saw that , and thought how ridiculous .

      I dare say the bods who banned Noddy and the terrifying golliwogs , and Mr Plod have had something to do with this , and of course her wonderful stories we all loved about proper families and adventures everywhere were too middle class!

      1. Jill and I were talking about Mrs Dale’s diary the other day and laughed that the good doctor and his wife were nicely spoken whereas the housekeeper, Mrs Maggs had a local working class accent.

        The BBC has always delivered a message – it’s just that today’s message is anti traditional values, sadly.

      2. I don’t think that EB ever stated explicitly in any of her books that the Famous Five or the Secret Seven were white. It’s up to the reader to infer, therefore why ca t yer non-white children read the books imagining the characters to be black?

    3. Going back to our schooldays, the books we read were reflective of society as it was then. In other words, they reflected the strong class distinction that pervaded everything in life. Workers didn’t write books; they were lucky if they could read them.

      ” racist, sexist and homophobic” are 21st Century words.

      2. Nahh, they’re not 21st century ones. They’re Left wing insults which are shorthand for ‘I’m scared that logic and information are going to make me look a fool, so I’m going to label you to shut you up.’

        2. “A spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills said: ‘Last year 99 per cent of all 15-year-olds in schools who took GCSE English passed it and have the equivalent of functional literacy or above.'”

          “The reading and writing skills of Britain’s young people are worse than they were before the First World War, according to research released yesterday.Despite the Government’s efforts to improve the nation’s literacy skills, the study found that 15 per cent of people aged 15 to 21 are ‘functionally illiterate’. In 1912, school inspectors reported that only 2 per cent of young people were unable to read or write.”

          One of these was correct, and I’d guess it wasn’t the DoE Spokeswoman…

          1. My grandparents had what would be considered today a very rudimentary education (left school at 14), but they were literate, could quote from the classics and correct their grandchildren’s speech and grammar – and mental arithmetic.

          2. What defines functional literacy?

            As the kids I deal with are illiterate. They are an embarrassment.

          3. When I look at the letters sent home from the trenches in WW1, I am always struck by how good the handwriting is and how few mistakes (spelling or grammar) there are. We have not improved!

    5. In the 70s, libraries banned Biggles books; too patriotic and far too concerned with doing the right thing.

    6. I think you are slightly mistaken, Jack. In the 1950s many British libraries banned Little Noddy books because they were full of differently hued children: black golliwogs who were very, very naughty. So much so that nowadays the fabulous drawings by Beek have been “corrected” to portray pixies as the naughty, naughty ones and Blyton’s script amended accordingly. Where are the “Unfair to Pixies” demonstrators?

      2. “Look for the golly, the golly on the jar”.

        In the 1950’s, we were encouraged by Robertson’s to collect Gollies from jars of jam. If you collected enough, you could get a gift.

        From the Beeb: Golly hit the headlines in the 1980s when it was condemned as a racist symbol.

        1. As I remember it, if you collected enough paper gollies you could get a brass golly lapel badge.

          1. I remember as a child in the ’50’s visiting family in Southampton, and we saw a black man walk up the road, presumably from the docks – certainly none lived anywhere near. Curtains twitching everywhere. Older relatives had of course seen black GI’s in WWII, but for us kids it was a “first”. I remember clearly primary school geography books with pictures of African kraals and “natives”, including one of the “chief” with his top hat and umbrella which apparently were his symbols of office.

            So, no I don’t believe for a second Gollies were considered racist back then.

      3. Was that as long ago as the 50s, Elsie? I would have thought it was a bit later, more like 70s.

        1. Not that I would disagree with Elsie, but I think it was the 70s. I remember my daughter enjoying all the Noddy books and she is now 50. and not any problems with them being banned.

        3. I returned to the UK from South America in January 1958. So if it wasn’t the late 1950s it was definitely the early 1960s because I was still at school when the ban was in all the papers and I went off to University in 1964 so that the 1970s is far too late.

          1. Well I suppose by 1964 I was well past reading the “Famous Five” and the rest, so perhaps PC had already kicked in by then.

    1. Dolly certainly looks as though she’s got her knife and fork ready to go for it. It looks like a good day!

      1. She had beef too. There was lots so we shared. I know if people aren’t nearby it would be difficult but i always wanted to go to the Yarbridge Inn since i read about it in The Times. It didn’t disappoint. Superb.

    2. It’s all in the perspective, but why is your winking hand looking so over-developed?

          4. I never take much notice in the evenings any more. The oldies have nearly always had far too much cheap French plonk.

          5. I, as a dedicated oldie, have given up on French (and, indeed, any EU) plonk. I’ve been quaffing Sarf Effrikan tonight.

          9. We have Wroxeter and Halfpenny Green (my old aircraft spotting stamping ground as a child) in this area.

          10. #metoo. Given up on all overpriced EU stuff (well overpriced when you think how much being in the single market costs us).

          14. With smut being the standard of you young guns i should brush up on your repartee if i were you.

          23. I’ll admit to being imbiblical.

            Onan: Genesis 38:9

            I’m assuming that Conway was guessing the spelling should have been Onanist, rather than Organist

          25. Aha!!

            You can tie a knot in yours.

            The old adage about hands and feet might be correct.
            };-O

      1. Oh… How did that happen? No, today honest. You can tell by the fact Dolly still looks young and i look so fat. The tickets were a Christmas present. Was supposed to go last week but it was peeing down. Went today instead and they threw in a Steam Fair free of charge. :o)

      1. Erm…Why thanks…. :o) battery change on that camera and you have to reset the date manually. It’s going in the bin coz i carnt be arsed.

      1. I blame the camera. My excuses are further down the thread. Happy bank holiday monday !

      1. Sorry Mr Viking , an American chum showed me
        how to do that and I thought I’d have a little practice on you.

        Edited.. It’s a way of inviting people to discussions,
        I noticed a few doing that last week elsewhere and asked my
        useful chum how it’s done.

    1. In my experience with cats (other people’s, I have a dog), it’s not “bite them”, it’s “claw them”!

        1. When I stayed with my Canadian friend who owned a cat, said cat, for no apparent reason, sprinted across the room and ripped my thigh open! I hadn’t done anything to antagonise it!

    2. That dog looks a handful (Note – too lively a companion for most 90-year olds …. unless, you’re trying to hurry them on to the exit door).

    1. I hate to be the one to break this to you, but that’s your smart meter and it’s about to turn off all your power.

          1. Smart thinking , eh?
            …and I’ve even got three more spare!
            Can you match that?

            😉

  94. I’m going to retire to the bed chamber now ( so to speak 😉
    good night, it seems somewhat cooler at least.

  95. Donald Trump thinks that Russia should be brought in from the cold.
    This is the Guardian report. Trump, who I contine to think is not stupid, is on his own in Europe and here with this.
    Worth a read.

    1. Let’s see; a significant power that is keen to preserve traditional values and resist the scourge of islam – obviously the PTB in the West will make it a pariah.

  96. The writer does go on a bit but then he is Australian.

    We can all die happy now – cricket doesn’t get any better than this

    Greg Baum for the Sydney Morning Herald

    Call off Test cricket now. In fact, call off all cricket. Not because it could never get any worse than this, but because how could it ever be better, surely? That’s talking as a cricket fan and connoisseur of the incomparable drama of sports, not as an Australian partisan. Let’s all die happy now, or only a little bit sad, and permanently awe-struck.

    The World Cup? A distant memory. Put it this way: it is now only Ben Stokes’ second-greatest exploit. The performance of a lifetime stood for six weeks, exactly. The IPL, the BBL? Pardon me. The so-called Vitality Blast? Pop. Ashes ’48, ’81, ’89, ’05? Overtures, preliminaries. Yes, this is getting carried away by the moment. We ought, need, to recognise and cherish moments and be transported by them. Bask if it’s ours, salute if it’s theirs. Tim Paine did. Otherwise, we’ve left with process.

    The Australians are in a world of pain right now. At match’s end, they stood rooted to their fielding positions, upright but stone dead. If a passing cameraman had poked Nathan Lyon in the chest, he would have crumbled into the turf.

    But in time, they will appreciate that they were part of and witness to something truly astonishing, unlikely to be repeated in their cricketing lifetimes. Dimly, Paine divined this. Ricky Ponting said Stokes’ innings was the best he had seen in Tests, and that covers a few. In time, they will get mileage out of their fall guy roles. The boys of ’81 have. But, hopefully, it will not transpire that any of them made a killing!

    Reflexively, Australia will tip-toe around Stokes for a while. But they’re still in the Ashes, and for Manchester, they get Steve Smith back. If it ever was going to be a dead rubber, you daren’t put your hand on it now, for fear of electrocution. This is how it goes in Ashes cricket.

    Did the Australians make mistakes here? Of course they did. Some mishandling, a dropped catch, a crucial fumble. A second review frittered with five runs to get, thinking it would be their last expiring half-chance, which left them helpless to go to DRS to overturn the non-lbw decision against Stokes that would have won them the match by a run. They were forced mistakes, as in tennis. They’re human. They will have to live with them for, oh, the rest of their lives. Or not. Victory at Old Trafford in a fortnight would begin to ameliorate the hurt immediately. Cricket’s like that.

    If any one ball of dozens on the last day or even the last over had played out differently, we might have been eulogising Paine’s mastery instead of mounting an inquiry. There was, for instance, his decision to bring back Lyon with eight needed. Stokes himself thought it brilliant; Lyon was the last bowler he wanted to face then. It so nearly worked. It did work, but for umpire Joel Wilson’s blurry eye, and, ahem, DRS.

    Human England, fallible England, flighty England also made mistakes, plenty of them. Ginger-haired, ruddy-complexioned Stokes saved a lot of red faces. But they’re forgotten now, of course. There was only one superhuman out there, the one standing with legs akimber, biceps bulging, fists clenched after belting the winning run, a colossus, whooping and hollering. He even did his own sound effects.

    It was impossible not to see the image of Ian Botham, down the detail of the preceding abjection. For Botham, it was a pair and heavy defeat in the previous match. For Stokes, it was a duck in England’s first innings comically meagre 67. Now he stood as a picture of almost mythical invincibility, but like Botham, that belies exquisite skill. Remember the stupidly good succession of sixes – because how will anyone ever forget? – but don’t forget that Stokes made two from 65 balls at the start of his innings, when what was needed most was ballast.

    Remember how he amalgamated all forms of the game into one form at the end, but don’t forget the way he placed and weighted shots into the outfield for two to keep the strike in the denouement, like a soccer midfielder’s pass to a breaking forward, the better to keep the strike. Runs and strike all counted, oh how they did. Don’t forget the unflagging 15-over spell he bowled all the way back on Friday night and Saturday morning, his last ball as energetic as he first, that made England at least think they were back in the match. Stokes never doubted it. (Also, don’t forget Jack Leach’s heroic one not out. Stokes didn’t. England never will).

    The World Cup, the Ashes, vilification in a pub: is there nothing Ben Stokes can’t fix with a lusty swing or two? At this rate, as well as knight him, they will draft him into Westminster or Whitehall, to deal with that pesky backstop (yes, he was born in New Zealand, but they’re not as fussy about that sort of thing as we are).

    Last series in Australia, he was by his involuntary absence England’s greatest presence. He was an outcast then, with an assault charge hanging over him (see vilification, above), a disappointment in his own country, a pariah in every other. Now he is plentifully present, a hulking, blocky manifestation at bowling and popping crease, an ever-growing force with bat and ball, an updated Botham for a new generation. It can only have been accidental, but there something Bothamesque and staged about the way his sixes kept landing in the fiercely partisan western terrace. It was as if he was enlisting the whole of Yorkshire, the whole of England to the cause.

    One peculiarity of this Ashes series is the way each match has been identified with one player. In the first, it was Smith: what to do about him? In the second, it was Jofra Archer: how to handle him? Now it is Stokes. How will anyone trump him?

    That’s for then. This is now. Even before Stokes took the game by the scruff of the neck and set it on his personal mantelpiece, it had been a rollicking good day’s cricket, ebb followed by flow, spurt after stoppage, lurch after lull, after lurch. Briefly, England were favourites, which was remarkable anyway from 358 behind. But the excellence and asceticism of the Australian seamers had reasserted itself, and Lyon was tamping down one end, and at nine down and 73 for England to get, it was all over. To judge from concourse conversation, this was best the doughty Yorkshiremen had hoped for anyway, a gallant fight.

    And then suddenly, it wasn’t over, and it might never be. Already it could be heard in the late after sun bath, echoing up and down the corridors and concourses of Headingley, in that world-famous brogue, accompanied by chuckles and chortles: “We were there.”

    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/we-can-all-die-happy-now-cricket-doesn-t-get-any-better-than-this-20190826-p52knk.html

      1. And two evenings ago, after their abject first innings, the country had written them off. ‘RIP England 2019’ I wrote…

  99. Just had a lovely weekend (Friday to Sunday) entertaining my visiting cousin and his girlfriend. Had some lovely food, drink, lots of laughs, non-stop chatter and finished today with a large umpteen course smörgåsbord Sunday meal at a local restaurant followed by a walk on the beach in glorious 28ºC sunshine. 😊

    After we waved them farewell I switched on the telly to discover that I’d missed the last day of the test match! ☹️

    Ah, well. I’ll catch up later on SKY.

  100. The Europeans always knew we Brits were too swashbuckling for Brussels

    JULIE BURCHILL
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/08/24/TELEMMGLPICT000165144731_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqtXrFC-aeBKh5S3J1gb1Gjonuzj7shLNzqCkzzjLkw64.jpeg?imwidth=1400
    To think that all the unpleasantness could have been avoided if only we’d listened to General de Gaulle!
    CREDIT: ADOC-PHOTOS/CORBIS PREMIUM HISTORICAL
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________

    It was with mixed feelings that I read that thousands of people will be attending a beach party to mark our departure from the European Union on October 31 at a seaside village near Amsterdam. This will involve “sitting in a deck chair with Dutch chips, French wine and German beer, watching Britain as it closes itself off,” according to the organiser, one Mr Toekook, who added spitefully: “It will be a nice goodbye to a good friend who is going on an exciting adventure, but is perhaps not too bright.”

    On the one hand I felt pleased by this, seeing it as proof that Europe is no longer in denial about Brexit. On the other hand, there was the familiar flare of modernist superiority that anyone with an ounce of love for pop culture must have when they regard mainland Europe; not so much “If not for us you’d be saluting the swastika, sonny!” but “If not for us you’d be doing clog dances to oompah bands, mate!”

    I don’t particularly feel proud of my country – it seems foolish to be proud of something one was born with, like having green eyes – but I prefer it to most other countries, especially the European ones whose behaviour throughout the 20th century bears very little examination.

    The way the French subjugated their poor empire long after we changed ours into Commonwealth chums is mind-boggling; did you know that in 1961 the Paris police killed between 100 and 300 pro-independence Algerian demonstrators? (It took them until 1998 to admit to it.) The French empire was outdone in murderousness by that of the Belgians, who were proud of their Human Zoos (living African adults and children exhibited in enclosures) right up to the 1950s. Belgium is now the seat of a new empire, of course – and they have the cheek to accuse us of pining for ours! It’s the EU which is steeped in nostalgia.

    I suppose it’s all to do – as in our individual lives – with the yawning gap between what we think we are and what we really are. Make this a national thing and you have a recipe for misunderstanding which, as in our case, has now built irretrievably to a sundering of the European Union, too many cruel things having been said by both sides.

    For many decades we’ve seen ourselves as mild-mannered and practical – a nation of stuffy shopkeepers, as a Frenchman once told us – while mainland Europe sees us as sex-mad and booze-crazed – a nation of slutty shot-drinkers. Either way they’ve looked down their noses at us and found many willing allies among our number, like the ghastly Emma Thompson and her “cake-filled misery-laden grey old island”.

    To think that all the unpleasantness could have been avoided if only we’d listened to General de Gaulle! OK, so he fled to London to be a radio star rather than stay in his own conquered country and lead the Resistance, but he knew his stuff when it came to European mindsets. All through the 1960s he vetoed our application to join the EEC, warning the fellow friendly members that our joining would lead to the break-up of their union.

    Knowing the British as he did – the only European leader who had lived among us – he knew what a long shot it was that a bunch of swashbuckling mavericks would knuckle down and roll over for the greater good.

    We know that we are small. We don’t have delusions of grandeur. But we also know that we have done impressive things and we do mind that France and Germany – by virtue of being big – were so dumb that they thought they could treat us like Luxembourg.

    As in many relationships, our membership of the EU was a case of mistaken identity; they thought we were finished and we thought they were the future. We were both wrong. Such unions may take years or even decades to unravel, but once they have there’s no putting the cheese strings back in the tube.

    Once we were seen as malleable – now we are seen as mad. I know which I prefer as we leave them behind, not waving us off but drowning on that docile Dutch beach.

    “…they thought we were finished and we thought they were the future.”

    Actually, it was most of the UK political establishment that thought we were finished.

    “…slutty shot-drinkers…

    Plenty of fun to had punning that one.

    3. A tensile Goth. (I was trying to write “sensible”, but the pedestrian toaster knew better.)

      I was talking to a colleague a few years ago, an Englishman, and mentioned that I had been slightly ripped off on eBay by someone from England. (The photos shown did not include the side with the undesired engraving.). I also mentioned that does not happen with sellers in Germany. They photograph deficiencies and add little arrows in the photos to highlight them.
      He said, “What do expect? We are a nation of pirates!”. On reflection, of course that is true. Our victories are so much sweeter for being snatched from the jaws of our competitors.

    5. We have never fitted in. We aren’t continental, it’s as simple as that. We haven’t been invaded successfully since 1066, we’ve had democracy and the rule of (common) law for centuries, we are an island race with a maritime outlook. It was sheer folly to think we’d ever be anything other than a square peg in a round hole.

    6. De Gaulle said we were unsuitable……he was right.

      ‘A bunch swashbuckling mavericks’. ARRRG.

    7. Back in the day of the Iranian revolution, students in London held a counter-demonstration, singing “Go home, yer bums” .
      I’d hold a similar celebration with the theme “Free of the shackles of servitude”.
      That’d wind them up!

    9. De Gaulle (or de Gaulois?)

      A wimp who came here to escape the War in France, and then shat on us. He was right, but for the wrong reasons. We do not like being told what to do, by foreigners. Especially foreigners who we have had to go to war against in the past (their actions, not ours), and beaten.

      While we still have enough indigenous, we should make that clear. F*** what the Europeans think – we have bailed them out enough times – they can paddle their own canoe now.

      1. Toy Boy especially. Incidentally, I learned today that his Maman had had yet another “face lift”…

  104. Evening Standard reporting that bathers are having difficulty breathing at Frinton. Possible fuel spill as a man in a boat said there had been a fuel spill and told bathers to get out of the water. Police are investigating. Breathing eases when they get back on the beach.

        1. My aunt lived quite near Harwich – she liked Frinton, but we used to go to the Pier restaurant at Harwich.

    4. Frinton has always had a thin air quality about it, it starts at the level-crossing. It only got its first pub relatively recently. Awful place.

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