576 thoughts on “Saturday 31 August: Sir John Major’s challenge would destroy the Tories and let in Corbyn”

    1. Congratulations, Phizee. I must be last because (at 7 pm) I have only just logged on. It’s amazing how much can be accomplished in one’s life if one reverses the normal “Internet then Day’s Jobs” routine. I must try this more often.

      1. This is why I’m always late on parade, Elsie. I have to do the domestic chores first before I am free to log on.

      3. Good advice Elsie. But i’m bedridden at the moment with a high temperature. The jobs can wait.

  3. Blair should not be standing looking to the heavens, he should be on his knees praying for forgiveness.

    It is said that a slight upward look to the right is a sign of lying. Pehaps he knows his presence there is all a lie.

  4. Looking at the photo – How do these useless anti British creeps always end up at the top?

    1. ….and if one is going to be naff enough to wear a plastic poppy with a leaf, said leaf should be pointing at 11 o’clock, not at the various afternoon times that these creeps have chosen. Sniff, sniff, sniff.

    2. I like the idea of Rees-Mogg taking a new Jeeves book as a present for HM, but being seen reading it en route.

  7. Good morning, all. Packing today for two weeks holidays. It will be nice to take our minds off everything except swimming, being lazy, visiting Italy etc etc.

        1. Ditto.
          And sadly, because of the changes to pension ages for women, has another 7y before she can even think of knocking it on the head.

          3. Turn the music up (rather than facing it)? Some extended weeding in the far reaches of Beagle Towers? A trip darn ve pub? Turn the hearing aid(s) off?

            ‘Morning, Bill.

          8. We shall be updating our website on Tuesday after we have first worked our way through the long list of people who have already expressed an interest in our courses next year.

            There is always quite a scramble for places and one of the weeks will probably fill up almost immediately.

            A little tout: if any Nottlers have grandchildren who are studying French at A level, IB or Pre-U level and need a boost to get the grade they need then tell them not to delay but to contact us immediately before it is too late to get a place with us. http://www.tracey-frenchcourses.com/

          9. I am sure you will have a series of full courses next year – well done to Caroline and yourself! I would have sent you my idiot son Young Olaf but he is an idiot. Do you do discounts for elderly widows? If so, and if you also do courses in other foreign languages I may well apply as I very often can’t understand a word he exchanges with various other NoTTLers. :-))

          10. “…because of the changes to pension ages for women…”

            ‘Morning, BoB. It sounds as though Mrs BoB and Mrs HJ are in the same boat: they are WASPIs (https://www.waspi.co.uk).

            They, and thousands more, have the idiot Osborne to thank for this situation. Very fortunately, my better half was able to retire when she had planned, without the state pension she had been led to believe would start soon after.

            Since Boris is currently splashing the cash, he would do well to right the wrong of not one but two age revisions to the WASPI generation.

          11. Bob, careful research should be done into NI pensions.

            You (she?) might be pleasantly surprised

          12. Well, you can hardly blame the government if you insist on marrying a much younger woman, you cradle-snatcher you! (Just joking BoB!)

          13. MOH hits 75 next year, so I should be due a reduction on the TV tax (if only for one month). Could I register that fact? Chance would be a fine thing! No way to do it online, so I rang up – I went round and round and all I could do was pay the full amount. I am going to have to transfer the licence from my name (historically, I held the TV licence before we met) but can only do it by snail mail. I want my discount! Actually, I don’t want us to have to pay the TV tax at all. If they didn’t pay idiots like Lineker a fortune, there would be no need. I whole-heartedly agree with UKIP’s policy of scrapping the TV tax altogether!

        2. Caroline teaches and does most of the work. Without her we would not have a business at all.

          I do most of the office admin, drive the minibus, prepare the lunch, do the shopping, scandalise the students with my politically incorrect opinions and tout for business.

          The partnership works pretty well.

          2. I started my career as an apprentice tea lad.

            I have now been promoted, 52 years later, to chief tea lad.

          3. I started my career as an apprentice tea lad.

            I have now been promoted, 52 years later, to chief tea lad.

  9. We watched a good (recorded) prog on the way China treats its slammers. BBC I think. The most satisfying part was bleating, shrieking western ‘Uman Roits advocates whinging that China is breaking all the rules. They even had Jeremy Rhyming and Gideon on to say that they always brought up ‘Uman Roits when trying to do trade deals – but just the once, as otherwise yer Chinese would walk out of the room. Another part follows.

    1. I think the EU is looking toward China as a bit of a role model in how to control it’s populace, but it will not be used to keep our recent arrivals in order, it will be used to control and silence us.

  10. Assam bulks up security forces as Indian state prepares to make millions stateless. 30 AUGUST 2019 • 3:12PM.

    A huge influx of Indian security forces was ordered into the north-eastern state of Assam ahead of a national register of citizens that could leave millions stateless as the government defines who has the right to stay in the country.

    The National Register of Citizens policy aims to separate what the Narendra Modi administration deems as “genuine” Indian citizens, as opposed to “foreigners”, based on documents that prove people were resident in the state after the 1971 war with Pakistan that led to the creation of neighbouring Bangladesh.

    Yes they are really keen on immigration and diversity in India!

    Ditto everywhere else except the UK!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/30/assam-bulks-security-forces-indian-state-prepares-make-people/

    1. The destruction of the social and cultural identity of Britain has been completely deliberate.

      Short of civil war is there any solution?

  11. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/opinion/2019/08/30/TELEMMGLPICT000207827782_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqUPD6wbqT_ktvLP4HWmR1gv9E2n3SV4_lHWsZK-ixdk4.jpeg?imwidth=1240
    William IV in 1831, hurrying to prorogue in person, by C L Doughty for Look and Learn

    SIR – The last time that prorogation had a dramatic influence on the nation’s affairs was in April 1831. The Tories introduced a motion in the Lords to try to stop Parliament being dissolved by the Whigs after their great Reform Bill had been defeated in the Commons.

    William IV declared that he was prepared to go down to Westminster by hackney cab if necessary for an immediate prorogation ceremony. Arriving in a hastily summoned carriage, he put the crown on his head in the royal robing room to the accompaniment of deafening noise. The Lord Chancellor explained: “It is only the Lords debating.”

    Will there by similar discord this time?

    Lord Lexden
    London SW1

    Perhaps Her Maj could nip down from Balmoral and descend on the Houses of Parliament much as she arrived at the 2012 London Olympics. If Daniel Craig is not available to accompany Her, she could be escorted by a NoTTLer and distinguished former member of 3Para who lives up the road..

  13. Morning all

    SIR – Would someone please explain to Sir John Major that, if we do not swiftly leave the EU, the Conservative Party will be finished, as thousands of people will vote for the Brexit Party at the next general election, splitting the vote, and ushering in a Marxist government.

    The people of this country voted to leave the EU in 2016. For the past three years the House of Commons has done its best not to implement that vote. Now we have a Prime Minister who is upholding the democratic will of the people. Brexit must happen, and needs to happen quickly. Does Sir John not understand this?

    Miranda Gudenian
    Honiton, Devon

    SIR – I can accept that some luvvies get so intoxicated by their own self-importance that they forget that, outside their field of expertise, their opinion is just as good or bad as anyone else’s. Who really cares what they think?

    Sir John Major, however, is a different kettle of fish. Why does he think he knows better than the Government? I assume he will be tearing up his Conservative Party membership card forthwith.

    Graham Mitchell
    Haslemere, Surrey

    1. Quite so, Mr Mitchell. If Major had any honour at all his membership would have been in the shredder before he clambered aboard Miller’s going-nowhere (and very expensive) bandwagon. As it is, he is one of the leading Yesterday’s Men, blessed with great wisdom and foresight – neither of which was in evidence when he had his ‘go’.

      Heseltine, Bliar, Major…all a waste of space now.

  14. Morning again

    SIR – For three years Remainer MPs who do not accept the referendum result have tried every trick in the book to reverse it. Now that they are getting a taste of their own medicine, they whinge about a “constitutional outrage”.

    In fact, the only reason we are due to leave the EU, with or without a deal, on October 31 is that MPs voted by more than three to one in 2017 to trigger Article 50 unconditionally, so they have only themselves to blame.

    Parliament has debated Brexit to death and nothing that is said in the debates alters even a single MP’s vote. Remainers are upset by prorogation because it limits their time to implement cynical schemes for further delay and obstruction. This is the overdue ending of a parliamentary session and we should welcome it wholeheartedly.

    Dr Julian Lewis MP (Con)
    London SW1

    1. If you analyse what has happened. they ruled out staying in the single market, ruled out staying in the customs union. and they ruled out removing the option of leaving without a deal so by default unless they agree a deal between now and the end of October we leave as that is what the Country and the MP’s voted for

      This blatant anti democratic approach of trying to claim democracy does not stand still is just that. Follow there logic and nothing would ever be agreed and on that basis we should be given the chance to boot out MP’s that have switched parties and or are defying the manifestos

  15. Inaction over Kashmir will lead to direct military confrontation. August 31, 2019.

    Khan has written an opinion article for The New York Times on Friday where he said that the world cannot ignore Kashmir.

    “If the world does nothing to stop the Indian assault on Kashmir and its people, two nuclear-armed states will get ever closer to a direct military confrontation,” Imran Khan wrote.

    Imran Khan has been critising the Narendra Modi-led government ever since the Indian government scrapped Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

    Well they are probably waiting for the end of the Monsoon Season to begin military operations. I don’t think Khan is exaggerating the situation. They are going to fight! Whether it will go Nuclear is anyone’s guess!

    https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/inaction-over-kashmir-will-lead-to-direct-military-confrontation-pakistan-pm-imran-khan-1593745-2019-08-31

  16. SIR – The arch-Remainer Jolyon Maugham QC has said a general strike could prevent a no-deal Brexit. Who does he see taking part in this strike – university lecturers, Guardian journalists, fellow QCs?

    The problem for him is that most real workers voted Leave. The cosy London elite has never understood this. Ordinary people have had enough of the EU and endless attempts to undermine democracy by Remainers.

    Martyn Thomas
    London SE27

    1. That’s why the remainers find it so hard to accept the result. How dare those oiks get the better of them?

  17. SIR – Margaret Bowman makes a good point about views from hospital beds.

    Unfortunately, our local hospital in Sutton Coldfield (interestingly named Good Hope) overlooks the council graveyard.

    To add to the splendour of the vista, Birmingham city council keeps the hedges and trees well trimmed so as not to obstruct one’s potential discharge destination.

    Clive Rostill
    Birmingham

    1. A residential home for the elderly in my town overlooks the back entrance to a Funeral Director’s establishment where the bodies are delivered and after preparation are placed in the Hearse for the funeral.

      1. I know of one Local Authority home for elderly dementia sufferers which was at first going to be called “Walnut Grange”. Being sensitive to the possible connotations it was named instead “Plantation View” – and yes in the distance was a local cemetery….

      2. Some years ago now the appointment card handed to me by a GP receptionist included a few paid-for adverts on the back, one of which was for a local funeral director. I laughed out loud, as did my (then) GP when I saw her the following week.

        ‘Morning, Clyde.

  18. Sir
    Jeremy Corbyn backs calls “to shut down the streets”.He should come to Dartford. The M25 Dartford crossing manages to do that at least five times a week.
    M H Stubbs
    Dartford Kent

    1. Laughed so much I neatly snorted coffee over the keyboard.
      MB, who was incommoded by some sort of demonstration in the Great Wen yesterday, was not so amused. Unlike the police who were, apparently laughing and chatting in the sunshine.

  19. A very restrained and gentlemanly assessment by Matthew Lynn…..spot on in my view, although he didn’t have sufficient space to list all Chrissy’s sins and incompetencies. Anyone could see that the Euro was a crap-awful idea since it was first mooted in the late 80’s but the DT’s (i.e. Jeremy Warner & AEP) intermittent stance of predicting its imminent demise always struck me as being too optimistic. I look forward to acceleration of the process as Lagarde takes over from Draghi at the ECB.

    Argentina is Christine Lagarde’s latest disaster – next up Europe
    MATTHEW LYNN – 30 AUGUST 2019 • 6:00PM

    Just how many economies does Christine Lagarde have to ruin before the penny finally drops? The woman who bequeathed to France a ruinous budget deficit, and who presided over the policies that inflicted the worst recession ever recorded on Greece, now looks set to rack up the worst losses in the history of the International Monetary Fund. The bailout of Argentina was meant to be the crowning achievement of her career, but instead the country has plunged into chaos, and will almost certainly have to default on the billions the fund has lent it.

    In truth, “Catastrophe Christine” as she should probably be known, glides elegantly from one financial disaster to another. That is hardly a co-incidence. A lawyer, with no understanding of economics, she is trapped within a conventional wisdom that continually doubles down on failed policies. In itself, that might not matter very much: the losses in Argentina will be painful, but the Fund will survive. But Lagarde is now set to take over the European Central Bank (ECB). At a moment when Germany is heading into a recession, and Italy is threatening a financial crisis, Lagarde’s blinkered ineptitude may finally finish off the single currency.

    If you are running the IMF, the file on Argentina should come with the financial equivalent of those warnings they put on cigarette packets. It can damage your health, or at least your wallet, big time. The country has been through more bail-outs and rescue packages than most of us can keep count of (it’s nine so far, in case you want a precise figure).

    That, however, didn’t stop Lagarde presiding over yet another one. Over the course of 2018, she put together a $57bn (£47bn) loan package for the country, the largest bail-out in the history of the Fund. It included, as you might expect, some typical Lagarde touches, such as targets for gender diversity and inclusiveness. But most of all it came with a lot of demands for austerity and budget cuts.

    How’s it working out? Not very well as it happens. This month, the Argentine peso has collapsed, inflation has soared above 50pc, interest rates are above 60pc, foreign investors have bailed out, the economy has ground to a halt, and the country now looks set for the largest default in the history of the Fund.

    It is hard to see how Lagarde can walk away unscathed from that. Her fingerprints are all over the package that was agreed only a year ago, despite plenty of nervousness about the loans and the conditions attached to them at the time the money was handed over. “Steadfast implementation of the plan will stabilize the economy, help lower inflation, improve confidence and lay the foundation for sustainable inclusive growth,” she said confidently in July last year as the rescue was put in place. It would be hard to be more wrong.

    It is hardly the first disaster Lagarde has presided over. As finance minister of France, she racked up huge debts, and squandered the opportunity for reform, laying the groundwork for the defeat of her mentor Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential election. At the IMF, she colluded with the ECB over a shamefully punitive package for Greece that prioritised keeping the euro intact over the survival of the Greek economy.

    The net result? An almost 30pc plunge in output, worse even than the Great Depression, which will take another couple of generations at least to claw back. Everywhere Lagarde goes, she leaves a trail of wrecked economies in her wake.

    That is hardly a coincidence. Lagarde is a fantastic networker who charms the Davos circuit with platitudes about climate change and inclusiveness. She switches from mentor to mentor with consummate ease. She is brilliant at gently persuading people to buy into an agreed solution to an issue. The problem is this, however. She doesn’t know anything about economics, and shows no interest in finding anything out. The consensus she charms everyone into is invariably the wrong one. Anyone could have seen that Greece was heading for disaster. Likewise, few people could have seriously believed Argentina could survive an IMF-imposed austerity package. But Lagarde sticks cravenly to the conventional wisdom even as it clearly heads for disaster.

    It remains to be seen what happens in Argentina. The IMF will probably find some way of restructuring its loans, and even ten or twenty billion dollars of losses won’t be critical once shared between its 189 members (although it will be fascinating to see how the US under President Donald Trump, on the hook for 17pc of the money, reacts to the Fund’s latest disaster). The trouble is, Lagarde is likely to prove even worse at the European Central Bank when she takes over at the beginning of November.

    Her Italian predecessor Mario Draghi may have had his flaws, but there is no question that he has been a brilliant central banker who just about single-handedly kept the euro alive over the last eight years of his tenure. He manipulated the rules, beat the bond markets into submission, and outwitted national governments to keep a fundamentally dysfunctional currency afloat. He was innovative and determined, and often took people by surprise – and it worked.

    In contrast, as the Argentina debacle has proved all over again, Lagarde is a one-woman catastrophe who stumbles from one disaster to another. She cares only about compromises, shows no sign of economic or financial creativity, and is completely blind to disasters even when they are staring her straight in the face.

    The eurozone faces a whole series of fresh challenges: with Germany heading into recession, it will need to find new ways of reflating its economy, and rescuing its banks, if it is to even paper over the cracks in its construction. The chances that Lagarde will be able to deal with that? Zero. Still, at least no one who has followed her career can’t say they weren’t warned.

    *****************************************************************************

    BTL:

    Tim Long 30 Aug 2019 10:17PM
    Swap the name Theresa May for Lagarde and it still rings true:

    ‘May is a one-woman catastrophe who stumbles from one disaster to another. She cares only about compromises, shows no sign of economic or financial creativity, and is completely blind to disasters even when they are staring her straight in the face.’

    1. That’ll be the Lagarde who assisted the police with their enquiries into a massive “loan” to her pal Tapie…

      Found “negligent” by yer French courts but her pals, the judges, let her off.. Funny that.

      1. Bernard Tapie, the ex-con football club owner? That Tapie? (Smiling rhetorically.)

      2. How many people in politics, the IMF and the EU are not actually criminals? Very few, I should imagine.

    2. Good morning.
      It is the economics of the Left. Redistribute the wealth of the West even if it is wasted.

      1. ‘ afternoon, Phizzee. I think the object of the redistribution is to spitefully deprive the West, rather than to sensibly redistribute.

    3. Surely it ought to be well nigh impossible to wreck the economy of Argentina? Large, fertile country with a European population.

  21. How incompetent can our civil servants be….or were they fellow slammers?

    Isil executioner who conned thousands of pounds in UK housing benefits is captured
    *
    *
    According to British court papers he left Birmingham for Syria in September 2014. Despite his landlord telling Birmingham City Council he had left his property, neither the local authority or Department of Work and Pensions halted payments.

    The pair were paid around £10,000 in state handouts, all of which was handed to Isil supporters
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/30/isil-executioner-conned-thousands-pounds-uk-housing-benefits/

    1. It’s a cunning plan, old boy – re-distribution of whiteys’ wealth to yer slammers.

      1. …and our passports, no questions asked. I knew someone about 20 years ago who worked in the NI part of things. According to her, many employees in the Harrow NI (which gave out NI numbers) were black. And guess what, anyone with an African-sounding name got a number – no problem, no questions.

        Good morning, Bill.

    2. Given how lax and incompetent in my view they are with handing out benefits are you surprised

  22. Another normal day in London

    Tottenham stabbing: Boy, 15, fighting for life after attack

    Three people have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a 15-year-old boy was stabbed.
    The victim remains in a critical condition in hospital following the attack in Tottenham, north London, on Friday.
    He was found with multiple stab wounds on Willan Road, in the Broadwater Farm estate, at around 11:15 BST.
    Scotland Yard said three males were detained in connection with the incident on Friday evening.
    Officers believe the boy was involved in an altercation shortly before he was stabbed, possibly by a suspect riding a bicycle.

    1. Morning DB

      Hope you have a great day , several bods who I know are also great bowls competitors. The weather looks as if it will behave .

  24. Government of National Unity

    Is it not time the Remainers stopped lying by referring to a Government of National Unity. It would be no such thing. It would be an alliance of Remainer parties plotting to overthrow Brexit and Democracy

    The Lib-Dems have already said that they will not accept the UK leaving the EU and Corbyn is no longer really in charge of Labor

  25. t is amazing how fast courts can work when it suits them. When it does not it takes them years. Look at the peroge case in Scotland then Look at the Nigel Farage case. Our courts seem to be making political decisions rather than legal decisions

  26. SIR – Would someone please explain to Sir John Major that, if we do not swiftly leave the EU, the Conservative Party will be finished, as thousands of people will vote for the Brexit Party at the next general election, splitting the vote, and ushering in a Marxist government.

    The people of this country voted to leave the EU in 2016. For the past three years the House of Commons has done its best not to implement that vote. Now we have a Prime Minister who is upholding the democratic will of the people. Brexit must happen, and needs to happen quickly. Does Sir John not understand this?

    Miranda Gudenian
    Honiton, Devon

    John Major, and his ilk, do not care for political parties, the country, nor you and me. They are in politics for nothing more than their own personal gain. They are terrified of losing a cash cow that will see them rolling in clover for little or no effort. If you don’t believe me, ask the Kinnocks, who have contributed nothing over the past 30 years yet continue to reap millions for themselves.

    1. Morning G

      I will add celebrities to your list , especially pop stars. The last time I bought any individual pop music was a Carpenters LP.

      Besides, in early days we had 17% interest rates on mortgages to worry about.

      I have refused to finance pension pots and multi marriages and the offspring lifestyles of pop stars, and regard the obscene wealth and wastefulness accumulated by many as a contributory factor to the ruination of the planet.

      1. We keep hearing that houses are unaffordable for the young but if you take our London which has always been expensive it is not the case. Yes house prices have gone up buy so has pay and you can now in effect borrow money for free as the interest rate you pay on it can be below the inflation rate. There are also now endless help to buy schemes and no stamp duty

        The media as usual paints a false picture by using Average house prices. First time buyers will not be paying an Average price. They buy starter homes which will be in a much lower price bracket

        1. ” houses are unaffordable for the young” just means ” we must give the immigrants a step up the ladder “

    2. It would appear that the new class of political mega-troughers do not see the previous sinecure of becoming non-executive directors of numerous companies as sufficiently rewarding. However, for the most notorious the globe trotting public speaking circuit has been designed as a very efficient method of paying rewards.

      1. The speaking is just a cover for the money those failed politicians are being given for their inside info./contacts list. They have nothing to say that is worth listening to, let alone paying for. Erm Official Secrets Act or Data Protection Act, anyone? Or probably something worse…

        ‘Morning Korky!

        1. Morning, HL.
          They think that we’re too stupid to see through their ruses to accumulate undeserved wealth.

          1. It’s a bit like children. Sometimes they think they are being very clever, but we still see through their little attempted manipulations – because we have been around for longer, and can see through them.

            Politicians seem to be on the same mental level. Or maybe they know we can see through them but think they’ll still get away with it?

  28. Slightly off topic.

    Much as I dislike Peter Mandelson I think there is something sinister happening when “journalists” are trawling through old pictures looking for anyone who happened to be in the same room as Epstein at any time.
    These people move in similar circles and it is almost inevitable that their paths will have crossed.
    This is becoming a “guilt by association” witch hunt, and if they can get Donald Trump in the picture so much the better.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7412517/Peter-Mandelson-Jeffrey-Epstein-Ex-Labour-minister-shopping-depraved-financier-2005.html

      1. I’ve certainly attended receptions, hosted by a billionaire, where I had no idea who else might be there and wuld not have been introduced to anyone “important”.

        Fortunately I’m not as rich as you, so the risk is lower.

    2. ‘Morning, sos

      Indeed, and it’s funny how difficult it is to find any of the old Epstein/B&H Clinton pictures that used to be on internet sites given all Bill C’s accumulated Frequent Flyer miles on the Lolita Express.

      1. The threat of Arkansacide concentrates the mind, as Samuel Johnson didn’t quite say.

  29. Well it will all kick off in the Commons on Tuesday. I am pretty certain that Boris will be one step ahead of the anti democrat’s. We will find out on Tuesday what tricks they will be trying to try to block Brexit

    1. As has been noted elsewhere, Bercow’s opening remarks insisting on the need for brevity given the precious little parliamentary time available to debate the Constitutional Crisis brought about by HMG’s outrageous!! prorogation of Parliament should take up the first hour or two.

  30. UK councils call for powers to tackle lorries causing ‘havoc’ by crashing into bridges and houses

    That’s not a council role but a police matter and driver who blindly follow Sat Navs and ignore low bridges and narrow streets should be prosecuted

    There is no real reason that I can see why lorries and bus should not be fitted with electronics to tell the driver if they are approaching a bridge that is to low or if a junction is to tight or a road to narrow to get through. It could as well if the driver ignores the warning gently apply the breaks

    1. Or bells strung across the road at a stopping distance from the bridges. We do not need rocket science.

    2. Even the cheapest satnav on ebay has the facility to dial in the dimensions of your vehicle so it can determine the route which will avoid compromising the vehicle

      1. I have one of those for my campervan. It was not cheap! My cheapo satnav does not have that facility and it led to some tight squeezes even in the smaller van than the one I have now!

    2. Hej upp, min vän.

      Another very warm (26ºC) and cloudless day, in over a fortnight now, with just a couple of ephemeral thunderstorms quickly punctuating the bliss.

    1. You never wil,l as the media were given lots of our money by the EU and they liked it.

        2. Remember that the EU has no money – it’s our money less their cut. We could fund it ourselves much more cheaply!

  33. The people voted.Brexit won. Just leave as per the result. The people trying to stop it are traitors to democracy.

    2. One might say that the people voted twice.
      1 Referendum. They voted for Brexit by a substantial margin.
      2 GE. Overwhelmingly for candidates for Parliament standing with unconditional support for Brexit clear in their manifestos.

      1. …not forgetting 3. the EU elections in May, where TBP finished up with 29 seats, thus thrashing all the other parties…

  35. For everyone who kindly responded to my question yesterday about not being able to upload pictures (too many to reply individually unfortunately) the solution turned out to be using a browser other than Safari.

    Thanks for all the suggestions.

  38. Daily Brexit Betrayal

    It’s a madhouse out there, I tell you! Between the politics

    of Groundhog Day and the rise of the Undead we also have the howls of

    feminists about the sacking of one female SpAd (special adviser) – or

    three or four. So what is that all about then?

    Firstly, the demos planned for today

    by the Momentum Hard Left – or rather, the ‘popular uprising’ by the

    people who are suddenly all experts in parliamentary procedures and

    ‘democracy’ and know all about prorogation. Hands up who didn’t have to

    look that word up when it first cropped up a few weeks ago? Yes, me also

    …

    We read this morning that the organiser, a Mr Chessum, is a ‘professional demo organiser” (here), and:

    “was also found by

    the Electoral Commission to have broken the law over a failure to report

    a union donation of £10,000 to Momentum, the far-left group that

    supports Jeremy Corbyn, for three years.” (paywalled link)

    Odd that this piece of information never made headlines, unlike the court case against Mr Grimes (here) of the Leave campaign …

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-saturday-31st-august-2019/

    1. We hardly need reminding. We are all aware by now of what is going on. As there seems nowhere in the media to hear the Leavers’ point of view, we might as well just sit back and wait for the explosion.

    1. An ‘irish Unity’ march held in Govan, the location of Rangers FC ground, sparks ‘disorder’. I’m sure it did and I’m sure the march organisers knew exactly what they were doing when they choose the location for this farce. It’s nothing more than provocation. I hope the authorities bill the organisers for any damages caused by this willful inducement to violence.

  43. Now why has no one picked up on this ?

    We have the interesting situation where Remoaners are protesting about Parliament being perogued for 4 days whilst at the same time wanting Brexit perogued for several months ?

      1. And so was Tony Benn.

        Why is Hilary Benn such a total pillock? Did he never pay any attention to his father? His father may not always have been right but, unlike most people in today’s Labour Party, he had some integrity.

        1. Anthony Wedgwood-Benn (as he was really called – though he preferred “Call me Tony”) may have had integrity – but his favorite person was, er, Anthony Wedgwood-Benn…

        2. I remember Anthony Wedgwood Benn from his time as a Labour minister. Also a pillock, IMO, and given to expounding on things he knew nothing about – not too different from other politicians there, I grant you. But as a minister, he presided over Concorde, ICL and British Leyland; a perfect match for a Marxist with a PPE degree. And 2 out of 3 were far from success stories.

          Interestingly, he started off as a Liberal and gravitated Left over time.

  47. Morning, Campers.
    Laptop would appear to need more than V. Strict Talking To.
    I can work round it it, but on Monday morning, my nicely mad Apple nerd will be getting an hysterical girlie phone call.

    4. How much RAM do you have? I have 16GB in home built desktop, Disqus behaving until about 6 to 7 hundreds comments loaded, start jumping around when clicking on ‘show new replies’.

  49. I wonder how Parliament would function the Government did not take their seats? It no Tories and no DUP put in an appearance for say, three weeks, could the Opposition put forward motions and pass laws? If only the Opposition benches were occupied would there be a legitimate Parliamentary sitting?

  50. Met Commissioner says diplomatic leaks in Sir Kim Darroch case ‘point to serious crime’. 30 AUGUST 2019.

    “We’re taking a careful and proportionate approach and I’m content that we’re in the right place,” she told the Evening Standard.
    “We have prima facie evidence of a very serious crime.”

    Morning everyone. Well there was a serious crime committed we know that already. The leaking of secret diplomatic emails. Her job is to solve it; something akin in difficulty, one imagines, to working out what day it is. That said there is an oddity to this report in that the Evening Standard article says nothing at all about Darroch. The Daily Mail performs a similar trick quoting the Evening Standard report about a “three strikes” policy which does not appear either. We are left with the question here of: was there actually any interview at all?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/30/met-commissioner-says-diplomatic-leaks-sir-kim-darroch-case/

  52. SIR – It is a bit rich that a Belgian MEP, Guy Verhofstadt, should say that the prorogation of the British Parliament for a month is sinister – this from a man whose country had no parliament at all for 541 days and who is a member of a parliament which has its executive imposed in the most undemocratic manner.

    Caroline Brocklehurst
    Abthorpe, Northamptonshire

    Point taken but not strictly true. Belgium was without a government for 541 days but still had lots of squabbling members of parliament. To Bercow, this would be his idea of Heaven. He would be in charge of chaos and could rule by edict.

    2. Chaos umpire sits,
      And by decision more embroils the fray
      By which he reigns:

      [John Milton: Paradise Lost]

    3. Gosh, he’s looking old, I can only just see that it is him. It is something about the little piggy eyes that gives the game away. They must wheel out an approved ‘stock image’ to accompany any news item in which he is mentioned.

  55. Last week the Left was making a big fuss about the cuts in police numbers and budgets making them more vulnerable to attacks on the streets.

    This week they are encouraging people to hold mass protests blocking bridge and roads, who will be hurt the most by this, the police trying to keep law and order.

    1. I suggest it would be the ordinary law-abiding bods (who probably voted to leave), who would be inconvenienced getting to work to put food on the table and pay the rent/mortgage.

  56. Morning all,
    Slightly off topic,
    The judge yesterday on summing up the paedophile case in rotherham
    proved to have a full set under his scarlet robes in saying, that the 16 plus year cover up of paedophilia in rotherham (Jay report) the establishment had for the last decade been in three monkey mode, or words to that effect.
    I take it that the “establishment” = councillors, social workers, police, etc,etc.
    Are these people still in power, who appoints them ?
    How are establishment hierarchy given positions of power ?
    Can it really be via “the best of the worst” , surely not.

    1. Perhaps it’s time the Queen appointed a Royal Commission into the cover-up.

      1. Afternoon AA,
        Est, 1400 between 1997 / 2014 sexually abused, Jay report.
        Even the most heinous of animals if able to use a tool would draw the line at nailing a tongue to a table prior to further abuse.
        One leaves oneself open to the PC / Appeasement brigade in mentioning a Queens RC into the odious issue, but in my case it matters not as a UKIP member I am
        immune to threats from the PC / Appeasement rear exits.

  57. Up much of the night, I am still trying to archive what I can of the old site. At the moment, I am limiting myself to my own comments, which are easier to get at, but have only got back to April 2019 so far. My laptop charger is playing up, so it’s touch and go how far I can go with this.

    Replies to my comments have appeared in the email notifications, but I still cannot get at those comments I have replied to easily,

    Disqus (on the one surviving Channel ‘Discuss Disqus’) is being less than helpful. Their moderator CaliCheeseSucks closed down my discussion telling me that I can only copy comments manually and will not help in any other way. I have had my run-in with this abusive moderator before and blocked her, and had to unblock her temporarily to see what she was up to. Has anyone else had more luck?

    One very good reason why we should be very wary about doing business with the Americans, or trusting our creativity to their Cloud.

    2. I still have the majority of the comments I have made over the past nine years. Each time I post a comment (or write a letter to the DT), I copy and paste it into a blank Pages (Apple’s version of Word) document. I started with a document entitled Grizzly’s Musings and when it reached around 900 pages I commenced on a second document. That second document also reached 900 pages earlier this year and I am now a little way into Grizzly’s Musings 3.

      It is wistfully amusing to look up old posts and see some replies from much-missed former colleagues like Toots, Wuffothewonderdog, GrumpyOldFool, JohnnyDuke, PeteGreen, Norfolkandchance and dozens of others whose interesting and educated thoughts made the day.

        2. Never heard of those two. They certainly were not DT letters’ forum regulars in the continuous nine years since 2010 that I have been contributing.

          2. They were , so was Norto.. I have also been commenting longer than you . Have a look at my avatar and see who I was following 179 and who was following me !!

          3. You joined Disqus (which ran the DT forum) on 5 July 2010, so I have been commenting on this forum for five days longer than you have (I joined 30 June that year).

            You might have been commenting on Twitter and other fora for longer but I still have a sharp memory (and documentation) that tells me I have never heard of Snotcricket, Darksheid or Norto. They were probably from some other forum but I’ve never come across them on the Daily Telegraph letters’ page.

      2. I did that for a while when I was contributing to Yahoo! Answers. Then I started to get quite badly depressed and couldn’t keep it up. It was a distraction to whatever conversation I was engaged with at the time, and like the housework or the weeding, got behind so much that the only reassurance is “it’s in there somewhere, and I’ll find it one day”.

        This is what makes the wholesale destruction of Disqus Channels so very upsetting. It’s like the demolition of ancient Worcester or the clearance of the Amazon.

  59. I have remarked before that The Grimes is rapidly remainiac – both in its policy and the way it encourages BTL comments.

    A few days ago there was an article about the proposal for mobs to demonstrate at the private houses of Mogg and others. I posted BTL, “What vile people”.

    I had two replies calling me (in effect) a brexit retard. BUT, I had 78 thumbs from unknown people who, clearly, think as I do. Quite encouraging.

    1. Con permiso…

      I have remarked before that The Grimes is rapidly rabidly remainiac –

      Fixed it for you.;)

  60. HMS Queen Elizabeth: £3bn warship floods ‘weekly’, admits captain

    The commanding officer of Britain’s HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier has estimated it suffers “weekly” floods.
    The £3bn warship had to be recalled from sea trials in July after 200 tonnes of water spilled from a burst pipe.
    Three people were at risk of drowning as the torrent buckled stairwells, bent bulkheads and flooded three decks

    2. But I’m sure those responsible for ticking the Quality Control boxes got their market-led bonuses this year.

    1. A man who, if he got his way, would create a socialist dystopia where it would be:
      one man
      one vote
      once.

        1. And he’s exactly the type of useful idiot who would discover that would be his fate, if he achieved his dream.

          1. How true. One thing I liked about a book I read far too many years ago – When the Kissing Had to Stop – was that all the “useful idiots” ended up in the gulag. Those that were not flattened by tanks, that is.

        1. Isn’t it odd how such places still hold elections, so that the people can “elect” the only party

    2. For someone apparently so keen on democracy he seems to have a real problem with understanding the concept! 17.4 million people voted to Leave, more than those who voted to Remain – democracy means that we Leave!

  64. A bit of a riot in Govan, Glasgow, yestreen. Sectarian violence it was, apparently. A traditional republican type march provoked attacks by counter demonstrators resulting in a right stramash with riot police and so on.

    Our Justice Secretary:
    “Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf, whose Glasgow Pollok constituency was where the march started, tweeted praise for the Police Scotland response and said it was “utterly depressing to see this divisive thuggery on our streets”.”

    Compare and contrast;

    Last month I wrote to Mr Yousaf asking what response the police had made in respect of the closing off of public streets by Extinction protesters, what arrests had been made and if not, why not?

    Here is the reply – Final Response – that was sent to me by an underling;
    “The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 stipulates that the Chief Constable of Police Scotland is responsible for the policing of Scotland, and is accountable to the Scottish Police Authority for this, rather than to Scottish Ministers directly. These arrangements are in place to ensure public confidence that the police act independently, free from unwarranted Ministerial interference. I hope you will understand it would therefore be inappropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on the police handling of any individual case or day to day operational decisions”.

    Ho hum. Spot the difference.

  65. Tory MPs who vote for the extension legislation will be barred from standing for the party at the next election
    James Forsyth – Coffee House – 31 August 2019 – 10:34 AM

    Parliament returns on Tuesday and it is expected that anti no-deal MPs will–with John Bercow’s help–quickly seize control of the order paper. They will then try and rush through a bill designed to stop the UK from leaving the EU without a deal. I report in The Sun this morning that Number 10 will treat these votes as they would a confidence vote with anyone who doesn’t back the government being immediately disqualified from standing for the Tories again. They hope that this will keep some waverers in the government lobby next week.

    It would mean that if former Cabinet Ministers such as Philip Hammond voted for the legislation, as they intend to, they would be barred from standing for the party again; ending their time as Tory MPs. It is hard to think of a precedent for so many Tories going from being Cabinet Ministers to being ineligible to stand for the party in a matter of weeks.

    This upping of the stakes will certainly have an effect on some Tory MPs. There will be those who are reluctant to end their careers in the party over this issue.

    There will undoubtedly be protests over this decision. Boris Johnson will be accused of purging the Tory party of those opposed to no deal. But the tactics are not dissimilar to those used by John Major to get the Maastricht treaty through in 1993 in the face of opposition from Tory Eurosceptics.

    This approach is not without risk, though. There is a danger that MPs will still rebel and then decide that they have nothing left to lose; increasing not only the chances of them voting down the government in a no confidence vote but also backing an alternative Prime Minister.

    ********************************************************

    BTL:

    The Meissen Bison • 2 hours ago
    A sensible and shrewd move – a Conservative party shorn of its remainers will have significantly improved prospects at the next general election.

    Paul Sutton • an hour ago
    Taxi back last night – driver (a Pakistani) asks: “What do you think of Brexit?”

    I confirmed my fervour for it. He explained that his previous customers, some Spaniards, had been furious it was occurring.

    He’d offered to take them to Heathrow – having asked them whether they’d been kidnapped, and forced to come here, to work?

    He’d then lectured them, on liking it – or lumping it. Either accept how we voted, or get out.

    What a legend. Clearly these Spaniards assumed my driver would confirm their claptrap, being thoroughly prejudiced themselves, since he wasn’t a white Brit.

    1. “Will be” or “Should be”??

      Just asking – knowing what two-faced turncoats all MPs are…

    2. Not before time. The restoration of proper party discipline is long overdue, particularly after the Maybot’s pretendy Leave efforts. This will also save the Conservative Associations with traitorous MPs the trouble of booting them out.

      1. Afternoon E,
        Tea for two & two for tea you mean, no thanks E, the creature is so abusively negative, school
        prefect material methinks.

    1. I have the sudden desire to see if my Dinner Jacket still fits. But I’d need to go to the back of the wardrobe and blow the dust off of its cover first. It is nice to get “dressed up” at times. Most days I just wear a t-shirt and trousers.

      1. Mine was bought in 1965. The jacket still fits – but the trousers appear to have shrunk…{:¬))

        1. I bought mine in 1988 and the tailor asked if I would like an English made one or an imported one. I obviously chose the English one along with my friend who was also getting kitted out at the time. Both of our inside buttons came off the first time we wore them. In those days men were men, and able to cope with anything that life threw at us. so out came the needle and thread and we sewed them back on again.

  69. ‘Huge drugs bust’ at Gatwick turns out to be vegan cake mix. Fri 30 Aug 2019.

    A “huge drugs bust” at Gatwick airport has turned out to be part of a cake.

    A member of staff from Purezza vegan pizzeria was transporting the ingredients in a suitcase when they were stopped by police.
    The white powder, which was divided into blue bags, was tested before officers accepted it was legal.

    Filthy stuff! They should have been hung for smuggling it into the country!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/30/drugs-bust-gatwick-airport-vegan-cake-mix

    2. Even if they put put 5 of them in together, that is another 10 houses gone that will be provided by the council. 10 fewer houses available for working families who pay tax and are trying to find a home of their own.

      Along with benefits, health care and checkups, translators, pointless legal proceedings to assess their claim charged at a hefty rate, a paid guide to show them where their nearest mosque is, and so on, that is quite an expensive day for the United Kingdom and its resources. That was just in 24 hours.

      At least they have not started patting them on the back when they land, and handing them an assault rifle and ammunition as they wave them into the country. They still need to pick those items up from their friends who are already here.

        1. ???? I have run that comment through several translation programs but they have all come up blank. Unless you have missed a word. 🙂

          As for these new arrivals, if they are followers and true believers of islam then they have no place in any civilised country. They are commanded by their cult to forcefully bring down all non-islamic countries and make them bend the knee to that man they love so much. Islam must go. This conclusion is absolutely inevitable to anyone who even glances at the real world of the cult. Unless you are left-wing and think you can “work with them” – that has not had a great deal of success in the past as history shows us.

          1. Er, I was being ironic – about handing them rifles etc. Sorry. I find humour of colour helps me through the day (that and glasses of anaesthetic).

            I’ll get me gallabhia.

          2. I normally like that type of humour, it was just that your sentence structure was a form of the English language that I have not previously encountered. The meaning of those words used in that order was, and remains, obscure to me. 🙂

          3. I’ll translate into Engerlish.

            If there were to be (subjunctive) slammers off-loaded on to English beaches, you would want them to wait until they had been fully trained with rifles etc before they started killing us…

            You had suggested that they had not – yet – been handed rifles.

            I’ll go and have a lie down.

            Until tomorrow. Briefly.

          4. Wow – that was some miscommunication. Of course these men have been trained. They are handed weapons from early childhood and made to slaughter animals to get them used to the sight of blood flowing. Killing those sheep in that way has multiple uses for training the young islamic boy. It is not just a source of food.

            I was pointing out that our leaders and their common purpose minions are now so clearly trying to erase this counties culture, and replace it with a death cult that allows them to touch children, that they might as well openly arm them when they get off the boats. I was deploying subtle sarcasm. 🙂

    1. Give them a taste of gentian violet. Then they can all be identified and picked up later. Then give them a good kicking in private.

  74. The BBC is desperately trying to claim huge numbers of protesters are out on the streets but failing miserably to find them. Some small protests in London but that’s all

  76. When I switched on the TV earlier there was a Sky News women really going to town with the exaggeration of events statements. She was pushing the bounds of reality, as well as the English language, in her attempts to make the protests seem to be more impressive.

    From an overhead shot looking down she said “You can see that tens of thousands have turned out to express their anger with Boris Johnson.” Unfortunately for her narrative the camera moved, and you could see the edges of the crowd and the empty roads around them. There were a thousand people at best. Undaunted she continued with “Across the length and breadth of the country demonstrations are happening against the closure of Parliament.”

    You were almost waiting for a camera in Scunthorpe to zoom in on a man eating a cheese roll, oblivious to the world around him, and seeing a reporter rushing up to him to enquire about his opinion on the legal state of British Democracy.

    The media and Remainers appear to be sliding into madness in their wild attempts to keep us slaves to the European Union. We know that they left “the truth” behind long ago.

      1. Oh yes. But now they are losing the ability to even pretend that they have a rational reason for their actions. They are almost foaming at the mouth with their wild statements and lies. The more obvious they are becoming, the more people are starting to question this wall of disinformation that is being presented as reality.

        1. Very true. That is why I do not listen to or watch any news/politics/current affairs progs on any broadcaster. So much easier on the heart.

          1. An increasing number of Fake ex leavers pop up on LBC. The voices are the same and the script is standard ie I was a Leaver but now I can see what it means I have changed my mind”

            Strange that as nothing has happened as the economy is doing well unlike Greece, France & Germany

      2. There was a female presenter on LBC going hypo over it. She also falsely claimed that Boris lied with the bus. Unfortunately for her that was taken to court and the case dismised so it was her lying and not Boris

  77. In these heady days of diversity and inclusivity and the breeding of a generation of people who are utterly confused about their sexuality, I find myself ruminating more and more on life.

    Television adverts, for example, are becoming more protective of peoples’s sensitivities and are increasingly more politically correct. Warnings about use-by and sell-by dates are now de rigueur, as are warnings about ingredients and how to safely use certain products to minimise loss or injury.

    It then follows (in my mind, that is) that the advertisers of feminine hygiene products (which take up an increasingly large amount of time on our screens these days) are missing a PC trick.

    Surely these items should be clearly labelled—in the manner that cigarette packets are obliged to warm of the potentiality of death—to warn off the sexually misguided or “trans” people who may be attracted to buying and using them.

    WARNING: NOT TO BE USED BY PEOPLE WITH TESTICLES/BOLLOCKS might be a good starting point, since inadvertent castration (or worse) by people “identifying” as women might bring a string of possible prosecutions.

    1. We will not be buying another 3 piece suite, since obviously no retailer wants the custom of a white heterosexual married couple.

        1. Good day, Hugh,

          Their loss. There are enough others, it’s up to us to choose – like I don’t buy anything from the EU if I can help it (including wine, foodstuffs, car). We just had to replace our car because it had finally conked out – we bought a Mitsubishi – not just because of the EU protest either. There are a lot of products out there as good as, if not better than EU-produced. After we have left, they will be cheaper – what’s not to like?

    2. “Television adverts, for example, are becoming more protective of peoples’s sensitivities…”
      Not of my all white, homogeneous, heterosexual, good taste Christian sensitivities, they are not.

  78. What is and what is not proper parliamentary procedure is very much in the news at the moment.

    Please would someone enlighten me about the following points:

    i) Can the PM automatically have MPs deselected at will and have the whip removed or does he have to go through the MPs’ constituencies in order to get rid of them? If I were prime minister Gauke, Hammond, Bercow, Grieve, Clarke and several others would be deselected and have the whip removed without further delay.

    ii) Can anyone in the party of government who votes against the government in a vote of no confidence be automatically sacked and deselected?

    The composition of this parliament will continue to do all it can to thwart Brexit. We must have a House of Commons with a very different membership so, if Brexit is the most important thing on the agenda, then I can see no alternative to mass deselections and an electoral pact between the Conservative and Brexit parties.

    1. The PM can remove the whip, which means the MP in question is no longer counted as representing that party.
      The local association can deselect – or rather – refuse to endorse that person’s candidature for the constituency.
      The LA is then free to choose another candidate. If the deselected MP thinks he or she has enough local support, they can can stand as an independent or join another party. They are then in danger of splitting the vote and allowing in a candidate from a party with which they have no affiliation.

      1. It takes the LA to deselect, though. Or the candidate to call a by-election or join another party.

        While none of these happens, I believe the MP can still go merrily on, voting, being paid, causing trouble.

    2. On a vote of no confidence they can be expelled from the party meaning they are automatically deselected

    3. We must have a House of Commons with a very different membership…

      Not only the Commons, the Upper House requires a severe pruning and restocking.
      What would really make a difference is a Parliament that actually has a majority of incumbents who believe in UK plc and its people.

      1. ‘Morning, Korky, which is why the Upper Chamber must be restocked with hereditaries only – they have a vested interest in the well-being of the country.

        At the same time remove the devolved Assemblies and the Wee Pretendy Parliament and bring back power to Westminster. It will save huge amounts of currently wasted money and allow the rule of law to be better observed.

        1. Some things. once given (devolved assemblies etc, re-instatement of capital punishment etc.) are very hard to withdraw. Our independence, having been given to the EU, is proving hard enough!

          ‘Morning, Nanners!

  79. The hypocrisy of the Remoaners. Going to court over proroguing of parliament for 4 days whilst at the same time wanting to proroguing Brexit for several months

  80. Do these swivel-eyed, foam-flecked, far-left, militants believe that Mr Johnson is going to say, “Gosh, I must think again and see what I can do to keep us in the EUSSR for ever”…??

      1. Oh, definitely later in the year. Ideally in the first couple of weeks in November.

          14. Ah, but that was his cleverest plan. He seemed to disappear and lose – but, 75 years on HE and his ILK are the great winners.

          16. Well, the dorks were out in very small numbers today.

            Hope they enjoyed their protest – and found there were neither buses nor trains to take them home. And that their gas-guzzling cars had been torched by their favourite people.

          19. I had a couple of very enjoyable sailing trips on the Royal Engineers Sailing Association Yacht, Petard.
            And another trip on the Ravelin from Marchwood to Lulworth & back.

  82. Strange thing – it is raining – well drizzling, while thunder crashes about. Temp fallen from 36º to an agreeable 24º – in half an hour.

    2. Thunder, rain and a sudden drop in temperature. Diane Abbott is not passing through is she?

  84. Hong Kong – People are demonstrating against a despotic super state that is trying to take their freedoms away.

    UK – People are demonstrating to give their freedoms away to a despotic tin pot super state wannabe

      1. Thanks, I’m not on twitter, got kicked off, for making those sorts of comments, I suppose.

    4. And yet the Globalist lackey MSM gives far more air time to the HK protests than it does to the much longer running ( 40 weeks+ ) French Gilets Jaunes protests?! But the Chinese regime is showing far more restraint than the totalitarian EU is with the Gilets Jaunes protests, which limits the EU’s duplicitous opportunity to label China as a police state. So they falsify the narrative by hiding what’s happening in their own backyard and focusing attention on less extreme reactions to protests elsewhere.

      1. Last figures I saw were hundreds of gilets jaunes injured and 22 blinded by rubber bullets.

      2. Did you see my comment early this morning about a beeboid telly prog on the way yer Chinese treat their slammers?

        Check it out – esp the vacuous ‘Uman Roits mob who whined about the way yer Chinese ignore all “the laws”….

        Made me smile.

  85. BBC Radio 4 News at 5pm, commenting on a mere 100 ‘Stop the Coup’ protestors in Belfast, tried to make the best of a bad situation by saying “Their numbers are small, but their concerns are great”.

    I’m looking forward to BBC asking any of these people what the definition of a coup is and, therefore, how they propose stopping something that hasn’t happened..

  86. That is me for the day. And what a day. Virtually pre-packed. A drop of rain to lower the temp for our supper outdoors.

    Tomorrow to Cap d’Ail for two weeks of swimming, being idle (well, not the MR – who has three skype meetings); trips to Italy; the Monaco Classic Week. And being forced to wake up every sodding day to this view:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/39c1c14cf1fa7b5c3ca9ea7a3e80dbd84aaf7e7dd597811932ff546b5c637cb5.jpg

    A bientôt, chers amis.

    1. ‘HAPPY HOUR.’

      Good afternoon, Plum.
      You must try harder!! :-))

      For the life of me I cannot find anything to be happy about,
      [apart from the uplifting and very amusing comments posted
      on this Channel!]

      Thank goodness for Geoff and Stig……long may they reign!!

    1. Late Saxon skull. Report it to yer plod. That’ll give them something vital to do for the next three weeks.

          2. So what you’re saying (© Cathy Newman) is that you can kill a wasp only once.

          1. In Sweden in the clinic we used to suck them into the aspirator. They would disappear with a satisfactory plop.

      2. The twerp is furious at losing the opportunity to ‘star’ in four days prime time parliamentary TV….

        1. Yes, often find them this time of year.
          Not too bad sliced & fried in bacon fat.

          1. They can be delish. I also like parasol mushrooms, shaggy inkcaps, chanterelles & Jew’s ears.

          2. Are you anti-Semitic, Peddy? Why do you chop off Jews’ ears and eat them?

            PS – Are you sure it was ears you were eating?

          3. They are a jelly-like fungus which grows on twigs of bushes & trees. They look like an ear pinna.

        1. I noticed the older one a while back.
          I used to cook them, but as I’m likely to be the only one to eat them now, I just left it alone to spore.

  91. New – from The Times, so it must be true …..

    The government is expected to publish a “watered-down” version of its
    plans for a no-deal Brexit this week, prompting fury among MPs who are
    calling for greater transparency about the predicted impact of the UK
    crashing out of the EU.

    Sources familiar with the Operation Yellowhammer document — which was compiled by the Cabinet Office — described the version being prepared for release as “soft soap” and “neutralised”.

      3. So you’re saying (© Cathy Newman) that Gert Frobe, who was Auric Goldfinger in GOLDFINGER is still alive and well even after falling out of the de-pressurised plane when fighting with Sean Connery?

  94. Good grief! Flash! Bang! Wallop! What a photograph! Dumb, dumber and dumbest – and all of them nasty as well. Evening, all.

  95. Essential reading for the likes of Miller, Corbyn et al who do not understand to whom our Parliament belongs.

    The Establishment’s legalistic rage over Brexit harks back to Britain’s pre-democratic era

    ROBERT TOMBS

    The Remainers’ inflated notion of parliamentary sovereignty can be traced back in history

    We have entered the realm of fantasy politics, as if Lewis Carroll had written the script. “When I use a word”, Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more not less.” Absolutist. Totalitarian. Dictatorial. Fascist.

    Do those flinging these words about know what they mean? Are they careless of how they demean those who really suffered these horrors? “Off with his head”, cries the Red Queen – or is it Philip Pullman? The nastiness and verbal violence that die-hard Remainers have wallowed in since 2016 have reached new depths. Oh, but we don’t mean it literally, they say, as if that makes is less deplorable. I recall Albert Camus, who knew what he was talking about: “I abhor comfortable violence. I abhor those whose words go further than their deeds.”

    This verbal incontinence is contemptible, and also rather comical. It is a sickness of our present political culture, but in Marx’s phrase, an infantile disorder. Infantile tantrums of those with identikit opinions who want their own way: the Violet Elisabeth Bott tendency – “I’ll thcream and thcream till I’m thick”. Senile tantrums of the ageing League of EU Loyalists, apoplectic as their old certainties dissolve. Let us hope that they are, in Burke’s words, like half a dozen grasshoppers who make the field ring with their importunate chink. Let us hope too that their verbal extremism is not taken literally by people less dainty than themselves.

    One expects more measured language in a court of law, perhaps especially a Scottish one. And yet a QC, no less, exhorted the Court of Sessions to stand against “arbitrary despotic power” exercised by “evil and wicked councillors”. Perhaps this was a ponderous legal joke, and indeed it is hard to imagine even its exponent taking it seriously. The court duly threw it out. But it is nevertheless significant. It was a reference to the 1689 Claim of Right. It shows that Remainers are willing to use the most arcane and archaic arguments, and even try to divert the royal prerogative if they think it can serve their purpose.

    This is more than merely a lack of consistency and principle on the part of people who think of themselves as modern and progressive. They are obliged to use legal and political arguments dating from a pre-democratic age in order to combat modern democracy. The most important of these arguments is that of “the sovereignty of parliament”, now with ominous allusions to the 17th century. The Civil War, we are told, resulted from parliament’s heroic resistance to the ‘tyranny’ of Charles I, which is supposed to inspire their successors to resist the tyranny of Boris I.

    If we are to dabble in history, let us dabble properly. Charles had his faults but, as one of the leading historians of the period puts it, his parliamentary opponents were more bloodthirsty, far more bigoted, and vastly more paranoid in their vision of the world. The parliamentary side in the Civil War had at its core a sort of Christian Taliban, backed for their own reasons by a major element of the Establishment – the parliament side included much of the old aristocracy. Such a mixture of ideological extremism and Establishment self-interest may for some readers evoke our present toils: I could not possible comment.

    Charles I always had more popular support, which is why he had to be executed. We then enjoyed a parliamentary government whose aspirations included torturing witches, closing the theatres, hanging unmarried mothers, removing Catholic children from their parents, and abolishing Christmas because of its “carnal and sensual delights”. Not surprisingly, the restoration of the monarchy was met with popular rejoicing.

    But Charles II and James II showed a risky penchant for Catholicism, because Charles thought “no other creed matches so well the absolute dignity of kings.” Worse still, they clung to a special relationship with Louis XIV’s France, which was busy trying to establish a European hegemony and persecuting Protestants. A powerful Continental bureaucracy with no sympathy for populism, one might say. Hence the Glorious Revolution of 1688 – undeniably an illegal and unconstitutional act, but from which the 1689 Claim of Right stems, along with many of our parliamentary rights and privileges.

    But what gave it legitimacy were not the tortured arguments of lawyers and constitutional experts (who tried to show that there hadn’t really been a revolution at all), but the action of the people, and their subsequent consent. Whatever legal and constitutional theory has said throughout the ages – often in a desperate attempt to catch up with events – it is popular consent that has always conferred legitimacy, whether symbolically (as in the acclamation of monarchs at their coronation), or really, as in the landmark upheavals in our history.

    So I would urge Remainers to continue to draw lessons from history, even though those lessons may not be what they wish.

    History also helps us to understand and assess our present turmoil. Is it confected candy floss, or something real? I would say a bit of both. To talk of this as one of the gravest crises of our history, as some do, betrays very limited knowledge and not much imagination. We have had much posturing but, so far at least, no real violence or bloodshed. No armed riots, no general strikes, no terrorism, no mass arrests. Nothing comparable with Peterloo or the Suffragettes, earlier occasions on which the Establishment tried to close its ears. So if one were to draw up a league table of domestic political crises (not to mention international conflicts), our present travails would be very far down the ranking.

    And yet there is something real and serious too in this crisis, one fact that, however absurd many of its manifestations, cannot just be laughed off. This is the first time since the advent of full democracy after the First World War that a significant part of the Establishment (the political class, the media, the intelligentsia) has deliberately tried to resist a legal democratic vote.

    We all know that a variety of arguments and subterfuges have been used, some open, some disingenuous. But the main argument has necessarily been based, as I suggested earlier, on pre-democratic ideas, above all an inflated notion of parliamentary sovereignty. This dates essentially from the Victorian age, when only a minority of wealthy and educated men had political rights, and when parliament therefore claimed an effective monopoly of political wisdom and economic interest. Hence Parliament, it was claimed, could do anything it wished.

    It is truly astonishing to hear this repeated today. It cannot be too often emphasised: parliament alone – and certainly not the House of Commons or a makeshift coalition within it – has never had such sovereignty, and it has never been legitimate for parliament to overrule the popular will, certainly not when expressed legally and solemnly, as in 2016. Even that parliamentary titan Mr Gladstone accepted this.

    To return to Lewis Carroll, when using and misusing words, what is at stake is “which is to be master, that’s all.” That question has been democratically answered. The only “constitutional outrage” is to try to claim that parliamentary sovereignty overrides it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/31/establishments-legalistic-rage-brexit-harks-back-britains-pre/

  97. Enough, I’m off to my local’s ‘musical evening’, and no, it’s not at the Big Hoose.

      1. Yikes, that WAS a pretty poor performance for someone wearing a uniform. You would expect for them to have had at least some training in how to “walk up and down a bit.” It did look odd seeing those marching in civilian clothes when it was up close as well. But they did look good from a distance as they marched away.

        I have just watched it again, and those in camo gear can be seen still trying to line up as they were marching. So they were not in formation when they passed the camera, which is why it looked “off.” Once they were in-step I imagine it would look a lot better.

        1. Looked like children from the Combined Cadet Force. Nowadays they’re probably scared to use any discipline, in case the little dears are traumatised by big shouty men.

        2. It shows just how true it is that the Army is seriously underfunded. Only about a third of the men have been issued with bowler hats! :-))

    1. Goodnight, Conners. I’m giving the new Danish thriller a try, but I’m rapidly losing interest.

      1. Good night, Peddy. Your “Danish” post has just given me an idea: Bacon (although not Danish), eggs, mushrooms and beans for breakfast tomorrow. It’s a long time since I had a “full English” and I am sure I will enjoy it!

    2. Good night, Conway. Two hours ago I decided to watch THE FRONT PAGE (with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell – I’d never seen it before) and it rounded off a very enjoyable Saturday. Tomorrow is my day of rest when I do exactly what I want, even if that is nothing at all. See all NoTTLers tomorrow – probably.

      1. Good morning Elsie. The trouble with doing nothing is that you never know when you’ve finished!
        Have a good day.

      2. Saturday is my day of rest (no, I am not Jewish) because Sunday morning I get up to drag my sorry body to church. Saturday, I slob around doing things in my own time, rather than meeting deadlines.

  102. Spiked

    “This was not a

    pro-democracy or pro-parliament protest. It was a pro-Brussels

    gathering; a creepy outpouring of love for European bureaucracy; yet

    another public statement by the metropolitan elite of its fealty to

    foreign technocracy over national democracy. To the extent that these

    people were saying ‘Bollocks to Boris’, as some placards did (though far

    fewer, strikingly, than said ‘Bollocks to Brexit), it isn’t because he

    is proroguing parliament – it’s because he backs Brexit. It’s because he

    thinks the 2016 vote should be acted upon. Such was the transparent

    cynicism of this protest: it pretended to rage against Boris because he

    is anti-democratic, but, in truth, these people are furious with Boris

    because he is pro-democratic, pro pushing through the largest

    democratic act in UK history. ‘Don’t destroy democracy!’, they cried at

    Boris, but their real demand was: ‘Don’t respect the democratic will.’

    This cognitive dissonance – to be briefly generous – was summed up in

    the placards being carried by numerous people. The text said: ‘Defend

    democracy… Stop Brexit.’ And there you have it: defend democracy by

    crushing a massive democratic vote; defend democracy by overriding the

    wishes of the demos; defend democracy by killing it. This is an

    Orwellian-level misuse of language, where ‘democracy’ is invoked by

    protesters to the cynical end of stopping democracy in this country.

    They don’t want to stop the coup, as they refer to Boris’s suspension of

    parliament; they want to intensify the liberal elite’s coup against the

    millions of ordinary people who voted to leave”

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/08/28/the-most-dishonest-demo-ive-ever-seen/

  103. Rshole Stewart will vote for Communist Corbyn; whenceforth his status in the erstwhile Conservative Party?

  104. Night All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b829c9e52587d911d229af1e0011e144201b83c2017e1cd61b5e95a660374af6.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/78f5aa9a8a608112f5e5f46da06e07b06036a6e462695cc91189f24ac6a8b916.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/206293a732734647b4d2252855d8ce790b14400ded63fd8d0e8192a0e39b7fef.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/25409966ad9dde1834933e4eebd95f8044b87dd0f072f3094b652f11388d6504.gif

    https://i1.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2019/08/Screen-Shot-2019-08-27-at-1.16.00-PM.png?w=1202&ssl=1

    1. She’s becoming a ‘martyr’ for the climate change cause, without her actually having any knowledge, educationally speaking, of geological climate change.

      1. Not exactly a martyr at the moment. Just a propagandist. She will become a martyr of some kind when the whole thing blows up and she is left lonely on the shelf.

      1. As her parents consider brainwashing a small child to be normal it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that she has been on hormone suppression drugs so she can trans later.

      2. it can be perfectly natural – there were two girls in my year at school, whose busts barely developed while at school. I know a woman in her forties with very little to show. She strikes me as very young for her years – may be just immature physically and emotionally.

  109. Like it or not

    SCHOOLS – 1950s v 2019

    Scenario :
    Johnny and Mark get into a fight after school.

    1950s – Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends.

    2019 – Police called, and they arrest Johnny and Mark & charge them with assault.
    Both expelled even though Johnny started it.
    Both children go to anger management programmes for 3 months.
    School governors hold meeting to implement bullying prevention programmes.

    ————————–

    Scenario :
    Robbie won’t be still in class, disrupts other students.

    1950s – Robbie sent to headmaster and given six of the best.
    Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.

    2019 –
    Robbie given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADHD –
    result deemed to be positive. Robbie’s parents get fortnightly disability payments and school
    gets extra funding from government because Robbie has a disability.

    ————————–

    Scenario :
    Billy breaks a window in a neighbour’s car and his Dad gives him a good hiding

    1950s – Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.

    2019 – Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care; joins a gang; ends up in jail.

    ————————–

    Scenario :
    Mark gets a headache and takes some Aspirin to school.

    1950s – Mark gets glass of water from Principal to take aspirin with, Passes exams & becomes a solicitor.

    2019 – Police called, car searched for drugs and weapons.
    Mark expelled from school for drug taking. Ends up as a drop out.

    ————————–

    Scenario :
    Johnny takes apart leftover fireworks from Guy Fawkes night, puts them in a paint tin & blows up a wasp’s nest.

    1950s – Wasps die.

    2019 – Police
    & Anti-Terrorism Squad called. Johnny charged with domestic
    terrorism, investigate parents, siblings removed from home, computers
    confiscated.
    Johnny’s Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly in an aeroplane again.

    ————————–

    Scenario :
    Johnny falls over while playing football during morning break and scrapes his knee.
    He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. She hugs him to comfort him.

    1950s – In a couple of minutes, Johnny feels better and goes on playing football. No damage done.

    2019 – Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in prison.
    Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy and ends up gay.

    ————————-

    This joke should be sent to every e-mail address you know

    to remind us how stupid we authorities become!

    2. Good evening OLT
      Our friend in America has sent this alternative to Johnny and Mark

      And in America:

      Johnny and Mark get into a fight after school.

      1950s – Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends.

      2019 – Johnny pulls a gun and shoots Mark and 6 bystanders.

  110. It is quite simple. Those who wish to remain in the Tory Party have now to follow their leader. Those who do not need to remove themselves from the Tory Party or else be expunged from it.

    Every political party has to have authority and faith in its leadership. Those that dissent should give up their seats and fight by-elections as independents or else as representatives of other parties. I simply do not buy the argument that the MP is elected as a person and by default on personal merit. Most are elected on a party ticket and thereby absent of any personality whatsoever. Nick Boles is a prime example of a complete non-entity, without party, and there are several others.

    1. “It is quite simple. Those who wish to remain in the Tory Party have now to follow their leader.”
      Cameron, May and now Johnson, the choice ain’t exactly very tempting, is it?

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