761 thoughts on “Tuesday 3 September: Boris Johnson could still have to hold an election if he wants to save Brexit – and soon”

  1. The justice system is rewarding false accusers. Spiked. 2 September 2019.

    Vast sums of taxpayers’ cash are being handed out to people who claim to have been the victims of sexual assault. The government’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) pays up almost automatically when it comes to allegations of rape – often before a conviction has been secured. Last year alone, the CICA paid out a staggering £71million, an increase of 30 per cent compared to the previous year.

    Morning everyone. This is one of those informative articles that used to be the norm in the MSM many years ago but have now been abandoned in the cause of propaganda. It is also a lesson in what happens when compassionate and sensible ideas are turned over to Government and inevitably morph into bureaucratic and expensive nightmares far removed from their original intention. Well worth a read!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/09/02/the-justice-system-is-rewarding-false-accusers/

  3. Rats!
    Day off work to take garden rubbish to tip & finish chiselling the path, and despite good weather forecast, it’s raining biblical-style!
    Now I’m REALLY FRUSTRATED! Just can’t get it finished!
    😭

      1. Rain stopped, gotta have a break.
        Teenaged road drill is very heavy indeed, and I’m not fit at all. So – knackered now, breather needed. But progress, any road.

    2. I un-stalled my large shed project yesterday and plan getting more done today.
      Hopefully I will be able to get SaH The Elder out of bed to assist!

      1. ‘Morning, BoB, when I was in the Royal Air Force in the 1960s, SaH was an abbreviation for ‘Sick at Home’.

  4. SIR – I am a fool. For 13 years I lived under a Labour government for which I never voted, and for eight of those years I served loyally as an impartial employee of a democratic Parliament. I did so because other people had voted for it in greater numbers than they had for my preferred party, and I thought that mattered.

    I now realise that the people who voted Labour had been misled and misinformed; that, even if they thought they hadn’t been, this left Labour with no mandate for what its supporters voted for. So I should simply have refused to accept the results, demonstrated noisily, demanded a new vote, and used my professional position to leak and undermine from within.

    Anyway, lesson learnt. If Brexit is overturned or a Labour or Lib-Lab government is elected next, I simply won’t accept it, and shall use the courts, the Speaker and others in opposition until I get my way.

    Or I might just riot. Why the hell not?

    Victor Launert
    Matlock Bath, Derbyshire

    Let us agree that should it become necessary to join a riot, the NoTTLer chapter will not show up with any effete picnic rug, chilled Mersault, hummus & olives or somesuch: we will sit on the ground with a case of ale and pork pies etc. Solidarity with the nation’s ‘deplorables’.

    4. Quite right. If parliament won’t do as we tell it, why should we do as it tells us?

      It’s purpose is to serve, not to rule. It must be reminded of that fact.

  5. SIR – Reading Ross Clark’s article (August 31) about “smart” motorways was timely for me, having just experienced a high-speed blow-out at the London end of the M4, which is being prepared for such an “upgrade”. I was fortunate that I was able to get in between some cones, where they have not yet completed the work.

    Sitting there with a shredded tyre watching three lanes of heavy traffic thunder past was truly terrifying. I dread to think what might have happened if I had not been able to get off the carriageway. Two miles further on I would have been at the mercy of a solid barrier at the edge of the inside lane.

    I invite the civil servants, advisers and politicians who devised this policy to stop where I did and see how safe they feel.

    No doubt there is no single person who will take responsibility, but the people involved already have blood on their hands. Sadly they will have more until someone sees sense.

    Malcolm Gardner
    London W13

    And…

    SIR – I was a roads policing sergeant in Derbyshire. I attended serious collisions for over 17 years, many on the M1 near the site where Jason Mercer died (report, September 1).

    When the Department for Transport decided to make the M1 “smart” in the north of the county, the constabulary was consulted, but in reality all the decisions had already been made. Serious concerns were raised with what was then the Highways Agency. Tragically, those concerns have been realised.

    I am appalled by the conduct of Highways England. Problems accessing blocked motorways in emergencies are being left for the police to handle.

    Previously a flat tyre could be replaced on the hard shoulder, relatively safely and with little inconvenience to other drivers. Now, an obstruction in any lane requires the closure of that lane and potentially the adjoining lanes. Closing three lanes for a breakdown doesn’t increase traffic flows.

    Ian Windmill
    Sandbach, Cheshire

    Daft, innit. Too many people in this country and the stupidest ones always seem to be in charge,

    2. No one is ever asked their opinion until the government has decided what it will do.

      Road accident agencies protested. Accident groups protested. The police asked them not to do it, as did ambulances and fire crews.

      The Highways Agency wanted a cheap way to get more capacity. ‘Smart motorways’ were it. Those making the decisions never face the consequences of their actions because they don’t encounter them. They all live in London, squatting on thousands of buses, chauffeur driven cars and a tube network.

  6. With Labour threatening to abstain on any No Confidence vote, Boris/Cummings may be regretting not taking the Tilbrook option (although it would have caused much huffing and puffing by the Momentum great unwashed and others)

    1. It was rumoured a week or so ago that he was about to trigger the Tilbrook option but that never happened. Perhaps Tilbrook is just a fantasy or is Boris keeping it up his sleeve as the nuclear option.
      If Theresa May and parliament misused the application of the law and the Article 50 extension was granted by malpractice then we should have left the EU on March 29. Boris should trigger the Tilbrook option now.

      1. I am moist with anticipation at the thought of Miller (and little Major, the 5-star, gold-plated hypocrite) losing the latest attempt to stuff the 17.4m. Even more delicious will be the invoices for costs of their action thudding onto doormats afterwards.

        ‘Morning, Haitch P.

      2. Rejected 19th August 2019.

        From Robin Tilbrook’s blog (https://robintilbrook.blogspot.com/)…

        “The Right Honourable Lord Justice Hickinbottom has dismissed our Application to Appeal to the Court of Appeal and has used the device of “Totally without Merit” to prevent us from demanding a hearing of our Application.

        Given that this is a case that very many lawyers, both distinguished and retired members of the judiciary, QCs, barristers and solicitors think has strong legal credibility, this decision can only be based upon the Judge’s politics.

        In the English and Welsh Jurisdiction these days a Judge’s politics perhaps should not be a surprise, given the blatant bias in the appointments system introduced under Blair by his last proper Lord Chancellor, Lord Derry Irvine, who created the Judicial Appointments Commission publicly boasting that he had created a system which would not allow the appointment of any Judges who had “Reactionary Views”.

        The Judicial Appointments Commission requires all Judges to prove that they have “a life-time’s commitment to Equality and Diversity”. Lord Justice Hickinbottom has this in spades, as it says on his biography published on the Judicial website which says he is:- “the former Senior Liaison Judge for Diversity”.

        Also Lord Justice Hickinbottom is a Fellow of the European Law Institute. The first among ELI’s core objections is:- “To evaluate and stimulate the development of EU law, legal policy, and practice, and in particular make proposals for the further development of the acquis and for the enhancement of EU law implementation by the Member States.”

        So it is perhaps not a surprise that a Judge with such views would be more a Europhile Left-wing political activist than someone who would judge simply according to law.

        Such is my explanation of why we have had this decision go against us.”

        2. Surely you mean “The first among ELI’s core objectives” rather than “objections”?

  7. I’d be interested to find out from the opinion polls how Tory Remainers and Labour Leavers will vote at the next General Election.

    My own MP, a Remainer in a Leaver seat pretty well in proportion to the national average, is sitting on a Tory majority of 20,000+ over Labour. In the past, before they became a single issue party, the Lib Dems came pretty close. Last night, they snatched a soundbite from her. She sounded pretty frightened, and hoped that there would be a Deal before crunch time, but as a habitual loyalist, she will not be rebelling.

  8. Morning, Campers.
    Typing on the invalid laptop, which currently awaiting collection by our Happy Apple Chappy. I have harvested some email addresses and will send an email from creaky desk top to keep somehow in the loop.
    Do you think if I pour Complan over the keyboard, this thing might perk up?

      1. I’ll have to trundle down to Colchester with a couple of bottles of my home made cider then!

  9. Morning all

    SIR – The Prime Minister really has no option but to propose an early general election if he loses the vote in the Commons introducing a Bill to delay Brexit.

    If he delays calling an election until October, the usual rules of “purdah” will apply throughout the election campaign, which would make the planning for a no-deal or even a deal pretty well impossible by October 31.

    The rules of purdah for the 2017 election were as follows: “Decisions on matters of policy on which a new government might be expected to want the opportunity to take a different view from the present government should be postponed until after the election, provided that such postponement would not be detrimental to the national interest or wasteful of public money.”

    As the Liberal Democrats will, in the election, be opposing Brexit and the Brexit Party will be wanting a no-deal exit by October 31, it would seem inconceivable that the current Government could proceed with plans for any kind of exit during an October campaign.

    I am sure this must be the advice coming from the civil service chiefs. No doubt some would argue that it would be detrimental to the national interest not to leave by October 31, but I suspect this might be stretching the discretion of executive a bit far.

    However, an election completed by early October is another matter. Hopefully a decisive election result in one direction or another might restore some sanity.

    David Robertson
    Wokingham, Berkshire

    1. As the Government under the previous PM seem to have ignored a few votes, why would Mr Johnson pay any attention? It may be tradition that a Government which loses a no confidence vote then goes to the polls, but is it compulsory?

      1. There is a way around it for Boris. If they were to vote to extend Brexit it can just go into the list of things to do with a low priority

      2. One of the Labour lot lost a no confidence vote (Callaghan? Wilson?) and delayed it for some time. Bojo could do the same.

    2. Quite simple.

      Boris Johnson makes pact with Nigel Farages Brexit Party and wins election.

      Boris Johnson does not make pact with Brexit Party and loses election and we get a Labour/LibDem government.

      Does Boris Johnson understand this?
      .

      1. Slightly less than half the electorate voted to remain. Their number has been swelled by young people who have reached voting age. The number has also been swelled by people for whom the downside of Brexit (and few are claiming that there won’t be some short term disadvantages) is becoming more apparent. Johnson and Farage are marmite and will appeal largely to Brexit purists.

        Simple:

        If Johnson achieves Brexit before a GE, there would be no need for a pact with Farage/Brexit Party as the Brexit Party’s raison d’etre has disappeared. A Conservative government might just win.

        If there is GE before Brexit is achieved and Johnson makes a pact with Farage/Brexit Party, then:

        This delights hard-line Brexiteers – maybe less than 20% of the electorate but appalls most.
        A Lab/Lib/Green/SNP pact will see a coalition government comprised of Remain parties; the Conservative Party will be wiped out and the coalition with a huge majority will ensure that Brexit never happens.

        Be careful of what you wish for. Johnson’s best chance is to continue fighting for Brexit on 31 October and forget about any pacts. He made a good speech yesterday and I think will be able to persuade many “rebel” MPs to back him. I think that it was a mistake to prorogue parliament because no-one believes that it is for anything other than to stop any opposition to Brexit and has done nothing but alienate large chunks of the electorate. He should have brazened things out.

        1. Agree. Prorougueing was a mistake. It gives ammunition to the opposition – see the wailing that resulted.

        3. There have, however, been remainers who have changed their minds and now want Brexit (I have spoken to a few) and some remainers have, to my knowledge, died. We voted to leave, we need to leave or democracy is dead.

          1. I am sure that voters on both sides of the argument have changed their minds but most polls suggest that the numbers are very small. I really do fear that a GE soon will result in a government with Corbyn at its head (until, in traditional left-wing pattern, he is deposed by someone even more extreme).

          2. I can only say I don’t know of any leavers who have changed their minds, but I definitely know of some remainers.

          3. Your posts over quite a long time suggest that you are a fervent leaver and other leavers who may have changed their minds may be reluctant to say so. Sadly, both sides of the argument have become intolerant of anyone expressing a view that they do not support. Every opinion poll indicates that most people are in the middle of the bell curve of opinion and it would be highly unlikely that at least some of them slightly to one side of the curve didn’t change their minds.

          5. The problem is that democracy means different things to different people. For example, many in the countries of the world hold that a referendum result is not democratic unless the turnout is at least 60% of the electorate and if it is to change the status quo, the margin in favour should be 5% and maybe higher. Such thinking would argue that our EU referendum did not achieve a democratic result. Others would say that it is not democratic for about a third of the electorate to force a major change that two thirds did not vote for. You will not agree with this, I am sure, and it is your democratic right to hold your view, just as others hold a contrary one.

  10. Morning again

    SIR – We visited Framsden church in Suffolk and were astounded to find that it was in use despite the pews being covered in bat faeces.

    A man tending the churchyard told us the bats were protected and could not be removed, taking precedence over human beings. In our age of health and safety, how can this be allowed to continue?

    Stephanie Cobbold
    Norwich

        1. Garlic might work if they are English bats. Wooden stakes are a bit out of date, and gas barbecues are not quite suitable. Unless you are suggesting bat kebabs, and I don’t want to think about that.

    2. This is what we have after years of leftie brainwashing. We need to fight back. They could always leave bright lights on overnight for a few weeks.Over protection is not a good thing.

    3. The absurdity of some wildlife protection law is that we now know so much more about the habits and requirements of many of the once threatened species that we can quite cheaply create their preferred habitats. There have been many cases where attempts to restore old buildings or improve existing ones have been either refused or permitted only with costly changes to plans.

      It’s time this legislation was revisited.

    4. That’s tough (bat) shit, Steph. Get a fucking scrubbing brush and use some elbow grease you whingeing ninny!

      Whilst I sympathise with her plight, I am also enraged by the smug assumption, by people like Steph Cobbold, that people are far more important than other species of plant and animal.

      They are not!

      It is precisely this atrophied mindset, aided an abetted (and promulgated) by the twin evils of religion and politics, that is seeing this planet’s essential biodiversity trashed, the mass extinction of countless plant and animal species, and the runaway torrent of humanity that will soon become a monoculture before killing itself off.

      No, Steph. Nothing “takes precedence” over human beings and, by the same token, human beings should not “take precedence” over anything else.

      I’ll not hold my breath though; the ‘hard of understanding’ will still rail against this and declare themselves to be more important than any other species of life. They are the problem but they are simply just too dim to realise it.

  11. It is raining heavily this morning. The house martins seem to have departed. This is a fortnight earlier than usual, and is not good sign. I suspect we may have a bad winter ahead of us.

    2. Never mind. We have closed all our coal powered lekky stations. Few gas ones left. Nukes ditto. We do have kiln dried wood from Oregon to keep one station going.
      But, we have fields covered in solar panels and turbines that are a bit choosey over suitable wind speeds.
      What could possibly go wrong?
      p.s. And the heating Nasties will be seizing your wood burners. Do Not dream of using gas hobs to heat up your cuppa soup.

        1. ‘Morning, Hugh, I presume ‘All Gone’ refers to the coal-fired power stations and not the 300 years of coal lying unused under them.

          1. Quite so, Nanners – and good morning. Such a waste of a natural resource…a bit like fracking, or the almost total absence of…

    3. I hope it was geese in the distance, but I thought I heard some grue (cranes) flying on Sunday. It is very early for them to be leaving.

      1. A practice lap in advance of leaving, perhaps? Or just the native crane clocking up some air miles?

        ‘Morning, sos.

    4. I was only musing this morning, when I walked the dog, that I haven’t seen any swallows, swifts or martins this summer at all. That’s unusual. I haven’t heard a cuckoo for years, either.

  13. Before I disappear into the cyber oubliette:
    Today is a significant 80th. Anniversary.
    Rather ironic in the circumstances.

  16. On this Day:

    In 1658 Richard Cromwell (the third son of Oliver Cromwell) became Lord Protector of England.

    ooh err…

    3. Ahem…minor point of order…Richard Cromwell was the second Lord Protector, following the death of his father Oliver who was the first. (As I recall, Richard’s term of office lasted less than a year.) They obviously like to keep things in the family.

      ‘Morning, RP.

        1. No, you missed the point I was making, probably because I didn’t word it very well. My reading of RP’s post suggested to me that he regarded Richard as THE one and only Lord Protector, whereas in fact he was one of two – the first being his father, Oliver.

          3. I am a bit of a Tudor buff. That era and the Battle of Britain are my specialities. As neither appeared on the syllabus for my history A Level, I only managed an O Level pass 🙂

          5. Went to a talk on the Battle of Barking Creek on Monday – okay, it was before the BoB, but interesting, nonetheless. I hadn’t realised that Roger Bushell (Big X) had defended John Freeborn and Paddy Byrne.

  17. An explanation not about a possible ‘Irish Backstop’, more about the current situation.

    Ireland is an island to the west of Britain but Northern Ireland is just off the mainland – not the Irish mainland, but the British mainland.

    The capital of Ireland is Dublin. It has a population of a million people, all of whom will be shopping in Newry this afternoon. They travel to Newry because
    it is in Northern Ireland, which is not part of Ireland, but they will pay in Euros in a country which uses U.K. Pounds Sterling as its currency.

    Under the Irish constitution, the North used to be in Ireland, but a very successful 30-year campaign of violence for Irish unity ensured that it is now most definitely in the UK. Had the campaign lasted any longer, the North might now be in France.

    Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland. It has a population of half a million, half of whom own houses in Donegal. Donegal is in the north of Ireland but not in Northern Ireland. It is in the South. No, not the south, but the South of Ireland.

    There are two parliaments in Ireland. The Dublin parliament is called the Dail, (pronounced “Doyle”), an Irish word meaning a place where banks receive taxpayers’ money. The one in Belfast is called Stormont, an Anglo-Saxon word meaning ‘placebo’, or deliberately ineffective drug. Their respective
    jurisdictions are defined by the border, an imaginary line on the map to show fuel launderers where to dump their chemical waste and bi-products.

    Protestants are in favour of the border, which generates millions of pounds in smuggling for Catholics, who are actually totally opposed to it.

    Travel between the two states is complicated because Ireland is the only country in the world with two M1 motorways. The one in the North goes West to
    avoid the south of Ireland and the one in the South goes north to avoid the high price of drink in the South!

    We have two types of democracy in Ireland. Dublin democracy works by holding a referendum and then allowing the government to judge the result when they don’t like it. If the government thinks the result is wrong, they will hold the referendum again until the people get it right. Twice in recent years the government decided the people’s choice was wrong and ordered a new referendum. Belfast democracy works differently. It has a parliament with no
    opposition, so the government is always right. This system generates envy in many world capitals, especially in Dublin.

    Ireland has three economies – northern, southern and black. Only the black economy is actually in the black. The other two are in the red.

    All versions of the IRA claim to be the real IRA but only one of them is the Real IRA. The North’s biggest industry is the production of IRAs. Consequently, we now have the Provisional, 32 county, Continuity and Real IRA. The Real IRA is by far the most popular among young graffiti writers simply because it is
    the easiest to spell.

    Incidentally, the Real IRA is not the real IRA – The Provisional IRA are the real IRA!

    I trust this simple explanation clarifies things and has answered many previously unanswered questions for you.

  20. Shami Chakrabarti has just said that Boris answers only to Parliament.
    Funny, I thought it was to the electorate, but then what do I know about Democracy.

    1. Her idea of democracy is one where the demos have no kratos and all decisions are made by an unaccountable elite who do what they want.

  21. Justine Greening set to quit at next election amid concerns the Tory party

    She will not be missed and was probably going to be booted out of the party in any case

    1. 18,000+ majority. The runner-up was Labour.
      As an extra irony, his constituency contains Runnymede in its name.

      1. Quite apart from Magna Carta (did she die in vain?), Runnymede has the memorial to those airmen who have no known grave. It doesn’t deserve Hammond, that’s for sure.

    2. Yes he seems to operate along the lines of the EU where all the power is with a pretty much un-elected executive

      Could be a seat for the Brexit Party to challenge. Unfortunately though with that seat he has a massive majority

    3. If he is stripped of the Conservative Whip, and the Leaver local activists refuse to work with him, might the Electoral Commission have a point when challenging his description on the ballot paper as a “Conservative”?

      If not, perhaps I can exploit the Conservative 20,000 majority by standing myself as one? I don’t have the support of the Conservative Party nationally, nor are many Tory activists prepared to leaflet or canvass for me (there is one gullible soul who gave me a pen when she stood for the council, who might be persuaded), but hey, does that matter?

  23. They insist that schools will remain shut until the government agrees to negotiations to create the state of Ambizonia – something that it has so far refused to do, thinking it can defeat those whom it calls “terrorists”.

    With no major international effort to end the conflict, both sides have become more belligerent.

    Last month, a military court sentenced the self-proclaimed leader of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, and nine of his colleagues to life in prison, following their arrest and deportation from neighbouring Nigeria.

    1. Who are ‘They’ Bill, and what is the soon-to-be Ambizonia (Ambazonia) currently known as?

  25. Why is the EU suddenly trying to make a big thing about unapproved goods getting into the EU ? It id dead easy to do so now as the EU approval system is full of holes and relies om self declaration. There is no real way of verifying if goods in the EU are approved as there is no central register

    As for the claim EY standards are high that’s largely rubbish. WE had to change legislation in the UK to ensure children’s costumes meet flammability standards. THe EU has no such requirement

    1. I agree. Not all leavers are laissez-faire Thatcherites, eager to hand everything over to the Americans, with American values.

      Some of us Leavers actually believe we can improve on the standards of both the EU and the Americans, dispensing ruthlessly with regulation that makes no sense and is often quite harmful, but not being afraid either to imposing strict regulation where it does benefit public welfare.

      1. On the whole the Americian standards are pretty good in fact UL is pretty much the Gold standard on flammability testing and ratings

        Look at the mess we had with insulated cladding panels for high rise buildings. irt was just a mess

        1. What impressed me most about American standards was the quality of their plumbing. A joy to behold!

          Every township has a water tower, impressive and beautiful landmarks. There are the friendly little hydrants with frilly helmets like little firemen with outstretched arms. The plastic in the drainpipes are a heavier gauge than anything we can get at Wickes. Everything is geared around personal hygiene.

          1. We have ours set in the pavement and nowadays with pavement parking they frequently end up being obstructed so it might be better to change to the US style hydrants. Quicker for the Fire Brigade as well

  26. If Johnson is forced into an election he claims he doesn’t want, how will he address his Leave plan? Currently he claims he wants a deal with much talk about the Backstop being the stumbling block: that leads many people to speculate that “his deal” will be May’s WA with its most controversial clause, the Backstop, either removed or cosmetically amended.
    Stating, “I want a deal,” but in no way being clear what that deal involves except that the Backstop will not be included, simply will not do in an election campaign. Is the reason why Johnson doesn’t want an election before his “Brexit”, and doesn’t want anything to do with the Brexit Party, is because he is planning to sell the UK out by agreeing to May’s “deal” with a smudge of lipstick here and there?
    During the run up to an election Johnson will come under scrutiny from opponents and the media to explain his strategy. Any whiff of May’s deal will be jumped on and expose Johnson to being no better than May, even Corbyn could attack that strategy with some credibility as he and his party opposed that deal three times and led to the demise of Theresa May.

    There are times, and this is one of those times, when I feel that I am between a very large rock and a very hard place thanks to our cheating and untrustworthy politicians.

    Raab on LBC now, “We are making great progress on a deal.”

    1. Timing is everything. It depends on when he declares an election and dissolves parliament as at that point all legislation that has not been implemented is frozen so if it goes past the 31st we would leave in any case

    2. Surely, and it needs clarification, if there is a General Election called on October 14th, the actual voting cannot/will not take place for some four weeks, during which time, Parliament being prorogued again, cannot vote and we leave the EU on October 31st as a fait accomplis or by default.

      1. The talk this morning is that the election will be held on Monday 14th October, the first time for many decades that an election will be held on a Monday.

        1. ‘Morning, Korky, lapse of manners in the previous post.

          If he calls a GE for October 14th, he is suicidal. Unless there is a secret pact already with Farage – which would have been a good idea to have set up during the recession.

          3. If Johnson’s idea of “Leaving” is May’s deal minus the Backstop then Farage won’t touch him with a barge-pole. I doubt very much that Johnson would win an early GE with a working majority although he may have the largest number of seats. A non-aggression pact with Farage makes sense, even more so if there is a Labour/Libdum compact. My constituency could go to Labour or LibDum if those two parties work together and that’s with a Tory majority of >15,000.

    3. Morning Korky Hammond on BBC Radio 4 Today programme ” there are no negotiations taking place”

      1. Whom should we believe or doubt? They’re all politicians and therefore in the dubious category.

    4. Without clarity on this point then Farage will not make an electoral pact and his Brexit Party will contest all the seats on the HoC and
      destroy the Conservative Party and Boris Johnson.

      But if, as many suspect, Boris is a secret Remainer then this might well be a good result for him.

  27. Just pinged into my mailbox. I feel like James Bond dealing with a nuclear device with its clocking counting down. If I disappear, it’s because the patient has succumbed.

    “Dear Mrs Allan,

    Last night I spoke from the steps of 10 Downing Street about how we are going to deliver Brexit on October 31st.

    Click here to WATCH and SHARE a highlight of my speech.
    Click here to listen to Boris Johnson’s speech     (I’m not pushing my luck!)

    As we come to that deadline I am encouraged by the progress we are making.

    The one thing that will stop us from delivering Brexit is that MPs may find some way to cancel the referendum, or vote – with Jeremy Corbyn – for yet another pointless delay.

    To show our friends in Brussels that we are united in our purpose, MPs should vote with the Government against more talk, more delay and more indecision.

    Another extension means extinction for the Conservative Party.

    I want everybody to know – there are no circumstances in which I will ask Brussels to delay. We are leaving on October 31st, no ifs or buts.

    We will not accept any attempt to further delay Brexit.

    In the meantime we must let our negotiators get on with their work without an election, which I don’t want and you don’t want.

    Let us get on with the people’s agenda – fighting crime, improving the NHS, boosting schools, cutting the cost of living, and unlocking talent and opportunity across the entire United Kingdom with infrastructure, education and technology.
    It is a massive agenda. Let’s come together and get it done – and let’s get Brexit done by October 31st.

    Yours sincerely,

    Boris Johnson
    Prime Minister”

    1. Morning Anne,
      In point of fact all he had to say is ” seriously folks” we
      are going to rectify ALL the issues ie Education, medication, accommodation, incarceration, we have
      screwed up over the decades via the pro eu rubber stamp.

    1. Hammond was one of the major architects in planning for the destruction of the United Kingdom as a Nation State. If his plans had succeeded we would be under the control of the EU for years until the country was overrun with islamic visitors and all non-muslim political parties were removed. How many “Western Conservative Parties” do you find in those countries where islam has taken over?

      This man wants to end the existence of our country and he has been re-selected as a Conservative MP… The rot now runs deep in the party that I voted for all of my life. There are a few real Conservatives left, and they stand out as beacons in the night, but we really must get rid of the fake ones now.

      3. They still might. If Johnson does go to the country before we have actually left the EU, then he will be confirmed, I fear, as a poseur. His new majority would allow him with the help of the remainer HoC party to push through a cosmetically modified BRINO based closely on the Robbins/May document.
        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/09/02/conservative-donors-plan-tip-millions-106-target-seats-win-snap/
        “Conservative donors plan to tip millions into 106 target seats to win a snap election for Boris Johnson ”
        These are of course the global corporatists, who are all remainers.

        1. That is the underlying fear, given Boris’s past history as being far more pro-eu than Theresa May ever was. If there is an early General Election to try to undermine the Brexit Party vote, and Boris wins a workable majority, then he reveals himself as a Remainer who wants to keep us tied to the EU. He could then delay us leaving for another 5 years and the United Kingdom’s Treasury will be drained dry as the EU falls apart.

          There are so many cards in the air and confusion as to what Boris really intends to do. If there is an early election then the perfect result would be that most of the Labour and Conservative Remain MP’s are kicked out and replaced by Brexit Party ones. That way we would have real Conservatives and real Brexiteers in the majority and it would be difficult to stop us leaving the EU. We will know what is in Boris’s mind shortly.

    2. Get a good Brexit candidate to stand against the obsequious Hammond, not Nigel Farage as the conservative machine will ensure that Nigel doesn’t get into the HoC

      1. With any luck he will have the whip permanently removed and will be unable to stand as a Conservative candidate.

    4. How very undemocratic of them

      Unfortunately I don’t think the local membership can get rid of him. They can have a vote of no confidence in him but the local party executive can just ignore it

  29. Fun and games have started; the patient has developed a temperature and is playing silly bu88ers. Toodle pip for the day.

  30. I for one don’t want an election. People are royally sick of politicians. Their arrogance, ignorance, pomposity, spite and stupidity.

    What Boris should be doing is providing information on how to recall MPs not representing their constituents.

    Hearing Sham Chakrabalti on R4 this morning she wailed that it was a parliamentary democracy. I assume she means ‘keep the public out of it and let us, their masters decide’. Then she waffled on about how MPs should make the decision. The presenter didn’t ask why she was fighting Brexit, as she is not an MP but merely a quangocrat trougher – one paid by the EU.

    Oh she spouted her usual Lefty bilge about helping the poor and ‘food banks’ but neglected to say that these were the obvious result of EU policy. It seems that fascism can never be stamped out until the last power crazed authoritarian, anti democratic worm infesting the state is dealt with.

    2. I was a blood donor for 35 years before my haemoglobin level dropped to just under the minimum level permitted for male donations (but still within the normal range).

      Everyone who can give blood should do so.

  32. Morning all. Should be an exciting week for politics junkies as the kamikaze Remainers make their final stand! Will we see a General Election announcement this week?

  33. As I pushed back the lid of my coffin this morning and looked around at the grey overcast skies, I turned on the TV and there was Sky News at 6 O’clock broadcasting from outside Westminster. They like to do that because of all of the EU flags that are waving in the breeze, put up by mindless drones who want to pretend that their minority views are popular.

    A smile crossed my face as I saw that on this important day the Brexiteers had gotten up early and all you could see was a line of UKIP flags fluttering behind the reporter. She did not look too happy. Not an EU flag of oppression in sight. It could only have been improved if they were Brexit Party flags. 🙂

    An hour later the EU rags were there, but for that early moment there was no sign of them. A good start to the day.

  34. Personally speaking, I would much sooner see Boris Johnson mount an armed putsch and have the army round up the Tory rebels, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and The Scottish Nationalist Party and place them all before a firing squad; rather than risk losing Brexit by having a government controlled by Corb Jong-yn and his Communist sympathisers.

    It would be no different from a doctor giving strong medication or a surgeon operating to get rid of a disease.

    Sometimes a civil war is the lesser of two evils.

  35. The Ministry of Defence has banned soldiers from referring to sewing kits as a ‘housewife’.

    Good God are we still issuing them with needles, they might hurt themselves with those.

  36. Hello, good morning,

    I just saw this –

    “Strong words from Justine Greening who announced on @BBCr4today she is standing down
    She said afterwards Brexit has become “ the political version of Ebola.”

    Where on earth do they get this imagery from ? I am waiting for them to name the deselection
    of Remainer MP’s as the ” new Holocaust ”

    These MP’s are too full of their own self-importance.

      1. But they have several of them.

        Indeed if homosexuals in the general population are no more that 5% then they are over-represented in Parliament.

        1. How about LGTB people, feminists and followers of a certain cult? Those are all minorities, but our supposed national broadcaster and our governments give more support to the minorities at the expense of the rest of us. In the meantime our allowed way of thinking, our laws and our language are transmogrified to accommodate these minorities’ increasing demands.

          Of course it is fair to have representatives of minority groups, and for them to have the same ability to speak out as the rest of the population.. But it is not acceptable to turn our language, laws and society upside down in order not only to endorse and encourage these particular beliefs, but to give them priority and favouritism over the rest of the population.;.

    4. The disconnect betwwen them and their electorate grows ever wider. It is all about the MP and not the electorate

  37. Duke of Sussex takes commercial flight to Amsterdam to announce new project to ‘transform travel industry’. 3 SEPTEMBER 2019.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/adc66b926364f5951b2faacf73536409f2e0d6f3e38b70f6481e20550e1b5605.jpg

    The event, which the Duke flew to commercially, is the culmination of several years of work and is intended to be a major new campaign. It comes just weeks after the Duke faced accusations of hypocrisy for a string of overseas trips by private jet.

    I see the press were called out to witness this act of self-abnegation!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2019/09/03/prince-harry-takes-commercial-flight-amsterdam-announce-new/

    3. I presume that the Press all arrived by bike (seeing there are several in the picture) to keep down their carbon footprint?

    4. Transform the travel industry?

      That suggests yet more taxes to price people out of the market.

    1. The comment below suggests there are roughly a million vegans in Britain.

      I very much doubt that.

        1. Anyone who considers that a pressure group is being caved in to out of all proportion to its numbers.
          I care because I’m sick and tired of tiny tails wagging the dog.

    1. It appear relationships between Larry and Dilyn have become difficult as Larry is a REmainer and Dilyn a Leaver

      1. Some misunderstanding there. Larry is a Remainer at No. 10 and Dilyn wants to leave No. 10, which is fine by me.

  41. Vegan woman sues neighbours in bid to stop them barbecuing

    An Australian vegan woman sued her neighbours to court to stop them barbecuing.
    Vegan Cilla Carden from Perth, Western Australia, claims her neighbours breached residential laws by barbecuing, smoking and having noisy children.
    She sought legal orders to prevent the alleged nuisances, but a tribunal and the state’s highest court rejected the claims as unreasonable and lacking in evidence.

    But speaking to The West Australian, Ms Carden committed to continuing the legal fight.

        1. It is when it’s done badly and especially when you live in small houses with small gardens. The reek of white spirit and burning fat is not one of summer’s great pleasures.

          1. I can agree with that aspect, but when done properly there will be no white spirit present (I light my charcoal barbecue with paper in a “chimney”), and if used properly no smell of burning fat should be present.

            The problem is that many barbecues are operated by knobheads who are utterly clueless and serve food burnt on the outside and raw in the middle.

            Good quality food properly prepared and cooked with care on a barbecue is one of life’s great pleasures.

          2. I don’t know what some of them are trying to do. Why don’t they just grill the food in the kitchen and take it outside to eat?! Many of them use the wrong foods anyway i.e fatty meats – sausages, chops, steaks – all of which drop fat on to the fuel (and few of them use charcoal – many use gas burners).

            Some years ago we had a Polish family renting a house behind us. The man of the house had a unique style. He set up a metal table in the back garden, piled wood onto it, set it alight and covered the neighbourhood with thick grey smoke for half an hour. He then put a metal grid on legs on the table and cooked on that the most revolting smelling sausages. I was reminded of cheap dog food of the 1960s.

            Someone eventually had a word with him…

          3. I sympathise with you, re the neighbour, but to address your point about cooking in the kitchen: wherever you cook your meat you are going to get cooking smells that you cannot escape from, and that includes the occasional burning of fat on the kitchen grill.

          4. The occasional spit on the flame or element is to be expected but is minimal and is kept largely indoors. Grills have grill pans to collect the fat but with a barbecue and the heat underneath the meat there’s a constant drip of fat onto the fuel. It really is anti-social but it’s avoidable.

            The people who do this are not the type to go to the trouble of preparing small pieces of lean meat and skewering and kebabbing them, which is far more civilised.

          5. I barbecued some bass and fresh corn on the cob last week. Very tasty, and the corn needed no salt or butter, its natural sugars caramelised deliciously.
            Edited it’s to its, silly Billy.

          9. I find you get the best results by part cooking inside and finishing them off on the barbecue. That way you avoid then being burn on the outside and raw on the inside

    3. I would file a counter-suit against her claiming that the stench of her over-boiled cabbage was upsetting my system.

  44. HUNDREDS of people congregated in Colchester to welcome Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party to north Essex.

    The Eurosceptic group launched its conference tour of the UK at Colchester United’s Jobserve Community Stadium last night on Monday evening.
    Nigel Farage was joined on stage by other keynote speakers, including party chairman and eastern region MEP Richard Tice.

    Jonathan David Woods was also introduced to the party’s supporters as the parliamentary candidate for Colchester.

    Protestors demonstrated outside the stadium before the conference started.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7502fb199c31d03943f80b84b7f5a23ab1026d8c9357526c81b0b272e2da80a9.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e2b859b459d8f2e36ad411028c5298801b30e8f52e2affe0aec079d13c347a16.jpg

    1. HUNDREDS of people will butter no parsnips nor win any election.

      It is MILLIONS of votes that are required.

  45. The silence surrounding grooming gangs
    Brendan O’Neill – Coffee House – 3 September 2019 – 7:03 AM

    Who is allowed to be part of the #MeToo movement? I ask because on Friday five men were found guilty of horrific sexual crimes against eight girls and yet the case hasn’t trended on Twitter. There have been no hashtags. The girls’ suffering hasn’t been widely talked about. There have been very few declarations of solidarity from feminists. There’s pretty much been silence.

    It isn’t hard to see why. The problem for the mostly middle-class, well-connected feminists who make up the #MeToo movement is that this case involved both the wrong kind of victim and the wrong kind of perpetrator.

    The victims were working-class girls, under the age of 16, some of them quite troubled — a far cry from the actresses, businesswomen and lobby journalists whose experiences of harassment have dominated the #MeToo narrative so far.

    And the perpetrators were Muslim men. They were Muslim men who the judge described as ‘cunning and determined’ sexual predators. And surely no one wants to risk stirring up Islamophobic sentiment by drawing attention to a Muslim gang engaged in incredibly abusive behaviour?

    So let’s brush it aside. Let’s hope it fades away. We can’t have inconvenient working-class victims of a Muslim grooming gang disturbing the #MeToo narrative or the multicultural script.

    This is the story of the latest convictions secured in Operation Stovewood, the huge investigation into the sexual exploitation and abuse of girls and young women in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

    The five men found guilty on Friday had committed various horrendous crimes: rape, indecent assault, and child abduction. They had plied the girls with drink and drugs and used them as ‘sexual objects’, in the words of Judge Michael Slater who oversaw the case at Sheffield Crown Court. The girls had been horribly dehumanised. ‘They took my childhood away’, one of the victims said.

    Strikingly, the judge didn’t only condemn the men – he also criticised the authorities in Rotherham. He said they had at best been ‘totally ineffectual’ and at worst ‘wholly indifferent’ to the abuse of girls by Muslim gangs. He said he was ‘quite satisfied’ that the ‘relevant authorities’ in Rotherham knew girls were being targeted for sexual exploitation. And their failure to do anything about it is a ‘lamentable state of affairs’.

    This ought to be a huge talking point. There have been similar scandals in other parts of the country, in Telford, Rochdale, Oxfordshire and elsewhere. In each case gangs of men from largely Muslim backgrounds abused and exploited young women from mostly white working-class backgrounds. And often there is evidence that the authorities were conscious of what was happening but took little action against it. They were worried about being seen to demonise Muslims and possibly contributing to what they view as a culture of Islamophobia.

    Boiled down, this really means that they considered it more important to protect Muslims from criticism than to protect working-class girls from sexual abuse. So concerned were some officials with preserving the ideology of multiculturalism, with batting aside any difficult discussion about a growing sense of separatism and even hostility between certain communities in the UK, that they did not take strong action against the widespread exploitation of young women.

    Even now, discussion about Muslim grooming gangs is shushed. Anyone who raises it will be branded an Islamophobe, a racist and maybe even a fascist. Look what happened to the Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, when she wrote about the problem of largely Pakistani gangs abusing white girls. She was demonised by Corbynistas. She was forced out of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet. The message was clear: talk about this issue and you will be punished.

    This is such a censorious and dim-witted approach to a very serious problem. First, it neglects the girls who suffered, turning them essentially into second-class victims whose abuse is an embarrassment, something best forgotten.

    And secondly, it plays into the hands of hard-right elements who politicise the issue of Muslim grooming gangs. It actually empowers these troublesome political groups who will say: ‘Only we are brave enough to talk about this problem.’ And of course they talk about it for very cynical reasons — in order to promote a view of all Muslim men as predatory, and all Muslims as a problem.

    What strange times we live in. A politician placing his hand on a middle-class journalist’s knee can dominate the news for weeks, while a gang of predatory men abducting and raping working-class girls gets a tiny write-up on page ten of your newspaper. This says something so disturbing to the victims in Rotherham and elsewhere: ‘You don’t matter. Preventing difficult discussion about cultural tensions in 21st-century Britain is far more important than your experiences of abuse.’

    2. If you dare make a fuss you will be banged up in Belmarsh and continually hounded until your soul is broken. You will pay for your own defence, and prosecution, unlike the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber who has been granted legal aid. Nice.

    3. Such is the hypocrisy of the Left.

      They protect their voting block and deliberately use the state to protect them. Of course, the real issue is why are those authorities not now being villified and facing the sack?

    4. “And of course they talk about it for very cynical reasons — in order to promote a view of all Muslim men as predatory, and all Muslims as a problem.” Heaven forfend that they should, in fact, talk about it because it is abhorrent (and the koran excuses muslims who take kuffar women as slaves to use for their pleasure).

  46. Is there a Times subscriber who can post the article by David Gauke in today’s paper please? Thanks!

    1. I am not a subscriber. One can register with them (email address + password) which costs nothing and entitles one to download two articles per week.

    2. Here you go

      I’ll vote against the party whip to put national interest first
      September 3 2019, 12:01am,
      David Gauke

      Today I will vote against my party’s whip for the first time in over 14 years as a member of parliament. If the media reports are correct, it might also be the last time on the basis that I might not have a party whip to follow.

      I won’t be the first Conservative MP to vote against a three-line whip on European matters, although in the past such behaviour didn’t usually lead to the whip being withdrawn. Indeed, if that had been the practice there wouldn’t be many Conservative MPs left. After all, eight of the current cabinet have done so at least twice this year.

      The stakes are high. I have been a member of the Conservative Party for 29 years, I represent a constituency I love and have a good relationship with the vast majority of my constituency party. Only a couple of months ago, an attempted deselection led by a newly joined member was comfortably seen off.

      Why would I put that at risk? In the end, the national interest must come first. Leaving the EU without a deal on October 31 would damage our prosperity, security and risk the integrity of the United Kingdom. It would also trash the Conservative Party’s reputation for competence.

      The overwhelming likelihood is that without this action we will be heading over a cliff and crash out of the EU. The government has not set out any new proposals for how to replace the backstop. Without workable proposals, negotiations will get nowhere.

      Claims that the key to progress is the threat of no deal miss the point entirely. If there are practical alternatives, the EU will engage. If we do not have practical alternatives, there is no prospect of a changed deal however much we threaten to crash out (which will in fact hurt us more than it will hurt them).

      Even if we got a deal, we have to get it through parliament in a meaningful vote. I am one of those who would likely support such a deal but it is not certain that all my colleagues would.

      Let us assume the prime minister gets the numbers. He now needs to take through a very extensive withdrawal agreement bill. One would expect this to take about eight weeks, but he will have left himself eight days.

      Boris Johnson says he wants to leave with a deal and he wants to leave on October 31. In truth, he could do one or the other but not both. There simply is not the time.

      Given the extended suspension of parliament, the only opportunity for MPs to maintain control of this process is now. The proposed bill enables parliament to step in but only after the European Council meeting on October 17 and 18.

      At that point, if we have not got a deal, parliament can agree to leave without a deal or instruct the government to seek an extension to January 31. It avoids an autumn crash out and time to reach a practical resolution.

      It is a simple and, in some respects, modest bill. But without it, the consequences for the country are likely to be calamitous. However painful, I must support it.

      David Gauke is a Conservative MP and served as a minister 2010-19

      2. “It would also trash the Conservative Party’s reputation for competence.”
        I think that horse bolted some time ago.

      3. These MP’s want to get elected using the party label bu once elected want to ignore its rules and manifestos

        MP’s that defies the whip or defies the party manifesto should be booted out of the party and should have to resign as MP’s and not be allowed to crawl into another party or become an Independent

        If they want to do their own thing they should stand as an Independent

      4. David Gauke is a Conservative MP who has never held a proper job. He clearly does not understand the idea of “trade”, which is really all that we should be talking to the EU about. We should not be talking about laws, or quotas or subsidies, or anything else. No “very extensive withdrawal agreement bill” is needed. In fact no document of more than two paragraphs is required. Far better to have no documents at all.
        the only people who benefit from ontracts, agreements etc are lawyers…

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gauke

        1. David Gauke is a Conservative MP who can no longer be considered a Conservative. That statement alone explains all his other failings you correctly laid out in your comment.

          The sooner people like Gauke display some honour and integrity and seek re-election for a political party more akin to their beliefs the better.

          Yes I do know it is a somewhat forlorn hope such principles are displayed, better then that Boris carries out his threat and kick them all out of the party.

  47. GB car sticker ‘needed for UK drivers in Ireland’ after Brexit

    UK-registered cars will need to display a GB sticker in the Republic of Ireland after Brexit, the government has said.
    New government advice said the sticker must be displayed in any EU country.
    Motorists from the UK driving in the Republic are currently advised to display the sticker, but the rule is not widely enforced.
    The advice applies to cars registered in all parts of the UK, including Northern Ireland.

    1. Nothing is widely enforced in Ireland, North or South, and that includes the border.

      (PS Why is it only the land border that is mentioned? Will we have soft land border, and hard sea borders in Liverpool or Cairnryan…?)

  49. RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Project Fear latest – NHS doctor cries ‘Bring out your dead’… but this scaremongering is a comedy skit to rival Peter Cook

    Woke up this morning, as the theme song from The Sopranos goes. The clock said eight-something, but for a moment I thought I’d been transported back in time.

    Thirty-odd years ago, the late, great comedian Peter Cook used regularly to ring up the Clive Bull overnight show on LBC Radio — more often than not, after drink had been taken — pretending to be a Norwegian fisherman called Sven, who for some unknown reason had settled in land-locked Swiss Cottage, London NW3.

    Cookie would engage Clive in long, rambling conversations about tench and carp. Clive, to his eternal credit, always played along, even though he knew it was a wind-up.

    On one occasion, Cook tried to persuade LBC to devote a programme every week to the topic of fish. In the most surreal phone-in I’ve ever heard — and I’ve done a few myself — the two of them get into a bizarre discussion about the Jewish delicacy, gefilte fish.

    ‘In Norway, we have a whole Gefilte Hour in the afternoon,’ says Cook. ‘It’s a children’s programme. We have quizzes and games: like — what is an anagram of gefilte?’

    ‘What’s gefilte in Norwegian, anyway?’ asks Clive. ‘In Norwegian, gefilte is gefilte,’ Cook replies.

    ‘Oh, it’s the same, is it? There’s a lucky break,’ says Clive. How he kept a straight face, I’ll never know. I defy you to listen to it without cracking up. You can find it on the internet.

    It’s right up there with the spectacularly filthy Derek and Clive, Live! — Pete and Dud’s alter egos — without the swearing.

    Why am I telling you this, apart from the fact that it’s one of the funniest things you’ll ever hear?

    Well, yesterday morning, the Nick Ferrari breakfast show on LBC featured a phone-in with Jacob Rees-Mogg, the new Leader of the House of Commons.

    At some ungodly minute past eight — don’t ask me exactly when, I was still sleeping off Spurs surrendering a two-goal lead at Highbury — they took a call from someone claiming to be a Dr David Nicholl.

    Until then, I hadn’t been paying much attention. Frankly, I’m as bored with the Brexit shenanigans as most of you, which is why I haven’t bothered to write much about it over the summer.

    My ears pricked up when I heard Dr Nicholl ask Rees-Mogg what level of ‘mortality rate’ the Government was prepared to accept in the event of a No Deal Brexit. Eh?

    Doctor Death then went on to explain that he was one of the authors of the ‘report’ published by Operation Yellowhammer, the Project Fear Apocalypse Now scenario wheeled out recently.

    And he had concluded that in the event of Britain leaving the EU, we are all going to DIE!!!!!! I’m not sure precisely why we’re all going to die, because I was convulsed with laughter.

    It was as if Peter Cook had risen from his grave and decided to have a giggle over Brexit.

    Then I remembered a piece I had written in March 2016, in the run-up to the EU referendum. It was based on a spoof article from the satirical magazine Private Eye, owned primarily by Cook, and published shortly before the 1975 European referendum.

    It warned that in the event of our voting to leave the Common Market, as it was then called, Britain would be invaded by giant snakes — many of them millions of miles long — which would creep into our homes at the dead of night and eat our children in their beds.

    I remarked that Project Fear 2.0 had obviously taken its cue from Private Eye’s 40-year-old fantasy.

    There was even a story around at the time about toxic caterpillars heading here from Holland once EU arboreal safety checks were abandoned, which seemed to be lifted almost wholesale from the million-mile-long-snakes sketch.

    So, when I heard Doctor Death on the Ferrari show, it was a case of Deja Vu All Over Again, in the words of the great John Fogerty — front-man of swamp-rockers Creedence Clearwater Revival.

    Dr Nicholl had clearly seen a Bad Moon Rising, post-Brexit.

    Even the normally unflappable Ferrari raised a Roger Moore- style eyebrow.

    Was the good doctor really suggesting that people were going to DIE because Boris had prolonged the parliamentary recess for four or five days more than usual?

    Not many, Uncle, as they say down the Winchester Club. We’ll be dropping like flies, according to Nicholl, who is described as a consultant neurologist.

    The moment Boris raises the drawbridge — which he won’t — we’ll immediately run out of drugs to treat everything from schizophrenia to athlete’s wossname.

    Bring out your dead! Whatever you think of the Moggster, you can never accuse him of discourtesy.

    He positively hoses people down with genteel flattery — even managing to reduce the BBC’s outgoing rottweiler John Humphrys to a swooning spinster last week.

    But Mogg the Jakey went berserk, by his own standards, when accused of genocide by Doctor Death. He fumed that Nicholl was a ‘Remoaner’ who was ‘fear-mongering’ on public radio.

    You could hear the whale-bone buttons popping on his double-breasted, pin-striped waistcoat, as he told Doctor Death he should be ashamed of himself.

    To be fair, he had a point. How did a pro-EU fanatic like David Nicholl ever get put in charge of producing an ‘impartial’ report on post-Brexit Britain?

    Answers on a carte postale to the artiste formerly known as Spread Fear Phil, c/o Le Berlaymont Building, Brussels.

    How we could do with Peter Cook on top of his game right now.

    Apart from Sven and E.L. Wisty, he is best remembered for his brilliant send-up of pompous Establishment figures, such as the judge in the Jeremy Thorpe trial — a skit written by the late Chris Booker, occasionally of this parish. ‘You will now retire to consider your vote of Not Guilty.’

    Think what fun he could have had with Little Jean-Claude Bercow and his Disciples of Death.‘You will now hold a second referendum to vote Remain.’

    I suppose the Norway option is out of the question?

    You’re listening to Nick Ferrari and Jacob Rees-Mogg on LBC. After the break, we’ll be asking what Brexit has got to do with the price of gefilte fish.

    Sven, on line one, it’s over to you . . .

    ************************************************************************************
    The Ministry of Defence has banned soldiers from referring to sewing kits as a ‘housewife’.

    It follows complaints from both Labour and Lib Dem army spokesmen (can you still say spokesmen?) that the term is ‘sexist’ and ‘embarrassing’.

    I’ve since heard from ex-squaddies who tell me that there’s nothing sexist about it.

    ‘Housewife’ is simply a play on ‘hussif’, the traditional military name for a sewing kit, dating back to the 18th century. Look it up, if you don’t believe me.

    It’s a pity the knee-jerk professional offence-takers didn’t bother checking before they threw another depressing, faux-outraged hissy fit.

    Neither did anyone at the MoD, in their desperation to appease the ‘diversity’ warriors.

    Still, it’s all part of the ritual castration of the Armed Forces, along with every other, predominantly male institution from the Old Bill to the fire brigade.

    Heaven help us if we’re ever called upon to fight another proper war.

    *********************************************************************************
    Boris clearly feels the force is with him or he wouldn’t risk a snap election. Still, the battle over Brexit increasingly resembles something from a science fiction movie.

    The Government has adopted a Brexit ‘dashboard’, whatever that is, based on the Apollo space programme.

    And the hardline No Brexit brigade have taken to branding themselves the Remain Alliance, like the rebels in Star Wars. There’s Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow . . .

    Meanwhile, continuing the Hollywood theme, pipsqueak Bercow is setting himself up as The Joker — a mentally ill, nihilistic, stand-up comedian — hell-bent on stopping Batman Boris saving the day. Beam me up, Scotty.

    *************************************************************************
    Well done all of you who spotted the stupid mistake in Friday’s column. I managed to get my Maddies and Maggies in full Chubby Checker mode.

    It was, of course, Blue Mink’s Madeline Bell who sang on Melting Pot, not Scottish rock goddess Maggie Bell.

    And, yes, I did know that. Apologies to both great ladies.

    The only pathetic excuse I can think of is that I’d watched an old episode of Taggart the night before and Maggie’s powerful rendition of the theme tune, No Mean City, was still rattling round my head.

    Stone The Crows!

    1. This claim of shortages of medicines is pretty near a 100% project fear. Now we always have some s temporary shortages of medicines so you can be sure they will find something that is short. WE have a shortage of HRT drugs and we are in the EU at present

      A lot of the problem is the poor NHS forecasting of needs and their poor and fragmented supply chain. With the spending power of the NHS you would at least in any normal business receive preferential treatment from suppliers who would do there very best to meet the demand

        2. There is a worldwide shortage of epipens, nothing to do with the UK.

          Epipens have been unavailable in Canada for extended periods this year and I suspect that the US has been the same.

          Why not just use one of the EpiPen trainers and hope for the placebo effect.

  50. October 14th Election

    It will actually be quite difficult to do as under the fixed term parliament act 2/3rds of MP’s need to vote for it and that may not be possible. There are confusing messages from both Labour & Lib-Dems over how they would vote

    The other option is he could all for a vote of no confidence i his own government that needs a simply majority but there is no guarantee that would get enough support

    1. Morning – his cartoons are very detailed and well constructed as you can see from the one above. He appears regularly now and has contributed more recently. I find his cartoons relevant and amusing.

      2. Don’t know about Girl Guides, Annie, but Boy Scouts certainly do. The thinking is that when Red Indians approached The White Man they raised their right hand to show they were carrying no weapons and hence that they came in peace. This is apparently the equivalent of our current habit of shaking with the right hand (which cannot be done if carrying a weapon in that hand). However, since a Scout is “a brother to all other Scouts” it follows that their is no need to show (or shake hands with) one’s right hand, so it is fine (and also a sign of trust) to shake hands with the left.

  52. Half of Chiquito restaurants under threat

    The real problem is we have far to many food outlets. Go to any small town and there are dozens of them. They cannot all be making money

    Half of Chiquito restaurants are under threat following a review by their owners, the Restaurant Group.
    In March, it identified 76 Frankie & Benny’s restaurants in what it now considers to be unfavourable locations and it has now highlighted 42 more sites, which are mainly Chiquitos.
    Restaurant Group reported a loss for the first half of the year.
    It was caused by it writing down the value of restaurant sites seen as being “structurally unattractive”.

    1. Writing down a value to cause a loss arises from earlier escalation in value contrived to show a profit.

  53. Empty building fear for luxury Cardiff student flats

    A common problem across the UK is the over provision of student accommodation. Cardiffs claim of they still need more is very suspect. Many students will share accommodation for starters and other will stay in rented rooms

    Cardiff could be left with a skyline of empty buildings after an “oversaturation” of luxury student flats, a leading architect has said.
    Plans to create about 7,400 new student rooms have been approved in the city in the past five years.
    But a number of schemes have since been let to professionals and tourists after a struggle to fill rooms.
    Jonathan Adams, who designed the Wales Millennium Centre, said the buildings may have to be demolished.
    Cardiff council said despite a number of applications for new student blocks, the number of beds remained fewer than the student population.

      1. There seems to be a bit of a wheeze where it is easier to get planning for student accommodation and you dont need to have affordable student accommodation and standards for minimum minimum space seem to be more relaxed so you build as student accommodation and then say there is no demand so you can then let as normal housing

  54. US to start Afghan withdrawal with 5,000 troops out in 20 weeks. 2 SEPTEMBER 2019.

    Sources briefed on talks stressed the US troop withdrawal would be “conditions-based”, with an insistence by Washington that the Taliban violence reduced significantly and almost immediately. The Taliban have so far refused a complete ceasefire.

    After the first tranche of 5,000 of America’s 14,000-odd troops had left, the rest would gradually leave the country over 15 months or more. If the Taliban failed to meet the conditions then America would “stop the clock” on the withdrawal however.

    The real winners from this are the families of American service personnel who won’t be seeing their loved ones come home in body bags for absolutely no purpose whatsoever!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/02/us-start-afghan-withdrawal-5000-troops-20-weeks/

    1. Hear hear.
      The AfGaffs have been slaughtering each other and those around them for eons.
      Nothing will change them.

  55. Corbyn and MaoDonnell are working on their election manifesto

    “Socialism as the final concept of duty, the ethical duty of work, not

    just for oneself but also for one’s fellow man’s sake, and above all the

    principle: Common good before own good, a struggle against all

    parasitism and especially against easy and unearned income”

    “To put it quite clearly: we have an economic programme. Point No. 13 in
    that programme demands the nationalisation of all public companies, in
    other words socialisation, or what is known here as socialism.
    … the basic principle of my Party’s economic programme should be made
    perfectly clear and that is the principle of authority… the good of the
    community takes priority over that of the individual. But the State
    should retain control; every owner should feel himself to be an agent of
    the State; it is his duty not to misuse his possessions to the
    detriment of the State or the interests of his fellow countrymen. That
    is the overriding point.”
    These are of course quotes from Adolf Hitler but listening to MaoDonnell on private ;landlords…………………………..

  56. On this day in 2019, Eddy kept his head down and his hopes up, wondering why leaving a club should be so bloody complicated (and still trying to figure out what Her Majesty’s opposition’s policy is).

    1. P.S. Despite Brexit being but a few weeks away, there’s water in the tap, tea in the caddy, sugar in the wotsit and milk in the fridge.

      So what’s the problem?

      1. How dare you mention reality! It’s a catastrophe!, we’ll all starve! The sky will fall in and everyone will lose their job (except remainer MPs, of course).

    2. On this day, 80 years ago, Britain once again entered a war on behalf of other countries; which led to a fight for her own existence.
      Did our forefathers die in vain?

      1. I don’t think so, Anne, but do wonder what they’d think of where we are today.

        Incidentally, there was an interesting programme on telly last night – Rise of the Nazzis – which filled a lot of gaps in my understanding of how things got started in pre-war Germany. Two more episodes to come.

        2. ‘Morning, Eddy, since it is a BBC production, I’m not so sure that it isn’t aimed to conflate the Näzis with the ‘Far Right’ Brexiteers as a sub-text, despite Hilter and his gang being National-Socialists.

          1. Morning NTN.

            Too deep, even for the BBC I suspect (although one of the contributors did mention today’s situation across Europe).

          2. He is, however, an MEP and the EU is where he voted for the last extension. Clearly you didn’t get the allusion.

          3. EuroParl couldn’t decide whether or not Westminster applied for an extension.
            You’d have to be pro EU to believe the commission would have allowed them to block it anyway.
            Also, you need to get your head around the correct meaning of allusion.

          4. I was alluding to (noun allusion) Nigel’s vote in the EU (not, incidentally in the EU parliament, but in a back room) for the last extension. You missed that and thought it was the UK Parliament. I am definitely not pro-EU.

          5. I didn’t miss anything, you obviously and incorrectly believed that non HoC ministers could vote on whether or not the UK Government could vote for an extension. You still need to learn the correct meaning of allusion.

        2. Only HoC ministers could vote ‘for’ the extension, you’d have to be pro EU to believe that the EU commission would have allowed MEP’s to block the extension.

    2. A BLT comment from the letters page:-

      Robert Spowart 3 Sep 2019 10:15AM
      @Peter Cardwell Peter, have you ever examined the rise of the Fascist movement and how the delusion that it is somehow Right Wing arose?

      Giovanni Gentile was an Italian Socialist who, in the coincident aftermath of Italian unification into a single state, the Risorgimento, and the rise of Marxism as the primary version of Socialist theology, realised that Marx’s ideas of Class Conflict would seriously damage the newly united Italian state.

      To counter this he formed his own ideas of Socialism where the classes would work together and cooperate for the good of the country.

      Fast forward to Germany in the immediate aftermath of The Great War.
      Here we have a Fascist inspired party, the NSDAP, battling against the Bolshevist inspired and USSR supported Spartakusbund for control of the country. Effectively two versions of socialism at each others’ throats.

      Because Marxist theology had, by then, become the accepted Left Wing Socialist Gospel, any heterodox opinions must then, de facto, become Right Wing, so thus the NSDAP and, by association, the Italian Fascist Movement, became so labelled.

  61. Brussels baffled by Boris Johnson’s Brexit progress claims

    Tactics I suspect the EU dont want it to be known they are prepared to give ground particularly whilst Labour are trying to extend Brexit

  62. HS2 railway to be delayed by up to five years

    Well so they are now admitting to £80B but it is almost certainly more and the act of delaying it will further increase costs. Far better to scrape it

    It has spent several billion but much of that is recoverable as it was for purchasing land and properties which could be sold

          1. At this stage difficult to say I normally reckon o going 3 times over budget at least but HS2 has pretty much achieved that and the project has hardly started

    1. Typical of a political scumbag like Hammond to use Parliament as his defence against his selling the UK out to the EU.

  64. M&S expected to be kicked out of the FTSE100

    Can M&S be turned around? I doubt it. Several have tried and they have all failed and they now have further bad news in that their food sales are starting to fall. They seem to be pining their hopes on the Orcado deal working but I doubt it will M&S & Orcado ‘ costs are to high and the market is now very price sensitive

      3. Why do people insist on following the marketing cretins and calling Marks & Sparks by just its initials? You’ll never catch me doing that.

        The same goes for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

        1. Which you call Ken Fri Chix?

          As opposed to calling Marks and Spencer Marks and Sparks? Just wondering, min ven… :o)

          2. As an aside, I was on a overseas work trip with an Algerian colleague who had lived in Quebec and had also lived in France. We were discussing French attitudes to so many English words being used in France.
            He told me that the Quebecois were much more chauvinistic then the French in that they insisted that KFC become PFK (Poule Frite Kentucky).

            “Even the French use KFC!”
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cdfe6e993e3f79099d10f954239347566e8a85d17a94c49c51ce7c98b8503f12.jpg

        2. Yes, and if you could have bottled the smells, you’d have made a fortune.

          We had two hardware shops round the corner from where I grew up and they thrived. One, which would be shut down by ‘Elf ‘n’ Safety’ were it still there, sold paraffin and had a giant drum of the stuff in the back room.

          One careless spark and the shop owner would have beaten the Yanks to the moon by several years.

          Coincidentally, I passed where those shops used to be today and all has changed. There used to be chemists, newspapers, fish, a chippy, pork, bakers, shoes, bicycles, an optician, milk bar, grocers and greengrocers, butchers, radio repairs and, of course, the hardware shops.

          Here’s a link, Angie.

    1. Fish is preety healthy and you can use oven chips and have the fish in breadcrumbs rather than batter and cook in the oven

      1. It isn’t junk food, peddy.

        People eat potatoes, people eat fish and people have a modicum of fat in their diet.

        The issue, as reported earlier by the BBC, is that the individual concerned lacked other important nutrients in his diet. I.e., the issue was what he didn’t eat, not what he ate.

          1. And you’re still batting, Grizzly.

            Both of us know that eating the same stuff for every meal every day without any exercise isn’t the best recipe for life.

            Unfortunately, our young people are brainwashed into thinking such stuff is ‘unhealthy’ to the point of being poisonous.

            Anyhow, I’m off. A long walk, calling at Aldi on my way back for a pile of ‘unhealthy’ stuff and a cuppa in town with (keep it quiet) a bit of sugar in it.

          2. Just had half a tin of lukewarm baked beans, followed by a cup of lukewarm cappuccino.

            Nothing hot or hard today after my molar implant job yesterday! :•(

          3. Fish & chips popular in Norway, Grizz. You can even buy ready-made, just slam in the oven.
            Nothing of the above resembles f&c as I knew it.
            :-((

          7. All that needs is a splash of curry sauce & a buttered slice off a decent granary loaf.
            With, of course, a pint mug of tea to wash it down!

          9. Do you double-fry your chips? When I used to fry chips (I now cook them in an air oven) I would wait until the oil is really nice and hot, and then dip the chip basket in the oil for about 30 seconds. The take them out, turn the heat for the oil down a little, and finally put the chips back to cook. I loved them light brown and crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, and it always seemed to work.

            Ah, beef dripping to fry in makes me drool!

          10. Hi, Lass.

            I soak the chips in cold water for about half an hour to remove a lot of the starch. I then put them into a saucepan with some fresh, slightly salted water, then bring them to the boil. I only let them boil for one minute before straining them and allowing them to cool.

            I heat the dripping in the deep-fat fryer to 140ºC and then blanch the chips in that for seven minutes before removing them and draining them. I then raise the temperature to 180ºC and fry the battered cod for seven minutes. Finally I add the chips back to the fat (still at 180ºC) and brown them for two minutes before serving.

            Another beauty of using beef dripping (instead of oil) is that the fish and chips are never greasy. In the case of battered fish, the heat of the oil quickly seals the batter on the outside preventing seepage by the fat. This means that the fish effectively steams in its own juices within its batter cocoon. The fat quickly drains away when you remove the food from the fryer and you the enjoy a clean, dry, and exceptionally tasty and nutritious meal.

            I buy raw beef tallow from my butcher (who kindly minces it for me) and I then render it down in the oven at 140ºC to obtain the precious dripping.

    3. Is that the one about the lad who ate nothing but potato products and eventually went blind and deaf?

      1. Was he related to the dude who put jelly in one ear and custard in the other and became a trifle deaf?

      1. Follow any chav around a supermarket and look at the shite they pack into their trolley.

        You will finsd no flour, no eggs, no fresh meat, no fresh fish, no fresh fruit or veg, in fact no fresh ingredients at all.

        The trolley will be full of ready-made food in foil packets, along with cakes and all-manner of fat-and-sugar laden crap.

        THAT is junk food. Eaten by junk people.

      1. He will now be added to the list of MP’s to potentially be thrown out of the party should they actually rebel

  68. I reckon Boris will add a vote of no confidence amendment to the Remainer’s bill, like Major did to force Maastrict through.

    1. It ensures he can kick them out of the party. Voting against the government on a vote of confidence is the biggest crime

      Why did he stand as a Conservative MP if he disagrees with one of its key policies? I guess he will try to use the excuse a No deal was not on the table but that’s a blatant lie as Article 50 made it clear no deal was a possibility

      1. There was nothing at all on the table, until Mrs May turned up with a huge bag of irrelevance and an enormous EU shopping list.

  70. If Dan is right, it looks like today’s bill might have been written by the same person who decided the terms of the WA…

    (((Dan Hodges)))

    @DPJHodges

    I’ve never said it was an imposition. I’ve never argued the EU seized the power to unilaterally decide the length of the extension. I’ve said this bill hands it to them.

    If the above is true.. what does it say about the rebels ?

  72. I can now see why Nicola wants more migrants. She has spent over 5 years looking for one and has not managed to find one to take in

  73. Prince Harry defends use of private jets: ‘It’s to keep my family safe’

    Translated it means Megan has said she does not want to travel with the rife rafe

    2. I wonder how Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall manage? Silly me, they don’t have titles (other than Mr and Mrs).

  74. Says of Hammond: “He explicitly mentioned EU legal services and their
    advice on this bill. The very clear implication from his comments was
    that his involvement in drafting the bill had been done in conjunction
    with the Commission”
    Conspiring with foreign powers
    Arrest him and throw him in the Tower

    1. According to Flight Radar, it apparently took off from somewhere in Switzerland near Grenchen.

          1. It is like looking at a Limoges porcelain plate just before it is dropped on hard floor.

      1. I first flew to the States in a Freddie Laker’s Skytrain (in 1980) in the very first DC10 series 30.

        The earlier series 10 had to refuel at Boston but the series 30 flew non-stop from Prestwick to LAX.

      2. You say that but I remember a pilot explaining to me that McDonnell Douglas passenger aircraft were much more technologically advanced than anything made by Boeing; that was in the early 1990s.

    4. Just being pedantic ( sorry! ), but the C47 is the Skytrain, the Dakota is the DC3, the DC3 being the civil version, the C47 with a cargo floor & door, the military version. Many DC3’s were converted to C47 config. Some DC3’s were used militarily as VIP transports. The USAAF operated both the DC3 Dakota & the C47 Skytrain in their ‘as built’ configuration & roles.

      1. C47 Skytrain in the USAAF and the DC3 Dakota in the RAF/RAAF etc.
        Otherwise not a lot of difference.

        1. Hi Bob. In 1963 flew from RAAF Richmond to RAN Nowra in a DC3. Inward facing canvas seats down the sides, presumably for parachutists.

  77. The rebel MPs don’t know what they want
    Ross Clark – Coffee House – 3 September 2019 – 1:56 PM

    Was there ever such a principled stand over a such a feeble cause? If today’s Tory rebels were intent on overturning the 2016 referendum result because, in all their conscience, they could support a policy of leaving the EU, I would not agree with what they were doing, but I would have some grudging respect for it.

    Instead, what is the great issue at stake in today’s vote? Another extension of Article 50 to 31 January. Yep, another three whole months in the EU. But to what purpose? The rebels can’t come up with a more specific demand because they do not know or cannot agree on what they want. Some want to remain, others think we should leave but do not know how. So they coalesce around a compromise cause which makes no sense at all – which instead seeks merely to prolong the agony, create more drift, makes the space for yet more hours of Parliamentary debate in which they can agree on absolutely nothing.

    This is exactly what happened last time that MPs seized control of the Commons order paper, in March. Rebellious MPs had their moment to wield their authority, stamp their mark on the nation’s future – and they ended up supporting nothing. They could agree on what they didn’t want, but not on what they did. They voted down a second referendum, various brands of Norway-style arrangement, as well as Theresa May’s deal and cancelling Article 50. They want to abolish the default position – no deal – yet without any replacement default, nor any idea of what they would want it to be the default position from.

    Few have the balls to defy the electorate and say we’re not going to take any notice of the referendum result – in spite of a great number of them repeatedly trying to make the point that it was only advisory. Go on, if that’s what you believe – dare to cancel the whole thing. But they can’t. Instead they just keep on postponing, voting down every firm proposal for Brexit. They pose as some great united front against Boris’s government, yet they have no real sense of purpose at all. If today’s motion is passed it will be by 300 rebels with 300 causes.

    That’s why Boris has been such a breath of fresh air at Number 10 – not because he has come up with any ground-breaking idea, nor because his negotiating skills are working wonders on the EU (there is scant sign of that), but because he does at least have a credible plan of action with some kind of closure at the end of it. The rebels, on the other hand, claim high principles – yet they can offer no vision other than fog. If we do have a general election, rebels are going to be punished for that. After three years of drift, the mood in the country is to get some firm conclusion – and quickly. Can-kickers are not going to be treated kindly.

    1. Ironic that Remainers constantly accused – and still do – Leavers of not knowing what they voted for, yet they can’t elucidate what ‘deal’ would be acceptable – especially given how most of them voted against May’s WA. There is one obvious explanation, which is they want Brexit cancelled, but know that would mean losing their seats.

    2. Oh dearie me. I first read your (Ross Clark’s) last sentence as “cami-knickers”!!!

    3. The MP’s have in effect voted for us leaving with No deal as they turned down the only deal on the table. Well it is the WA and not a trade deal I dont think most MP’s understand that. If it has taken 3 years and we have still not agreed a WA . How long would it take to reach a Trade Deal % years? 10 Years who knows

    4. They do know what they want, they just don’t want to be open about it; they want to stop us leaving the EU.

      1. Real men never dunk. It’s a disgusting habit. Biscuit are meant to be crisp.

        Soft, pappy, soggy biscuits are only eaten by soft, pappy, soggy people.

        The only people who dunk are babies who are not yet weaned.

  79. Botching Brexit would be an epic defeat

    Australia stands ready to sign a trade deal with the UK, returning to our days of unrestricted commerce

    The Brexit debate has been one of the least civil and most seismic disagreements in history. Nevertheless, it is in the best interests of the wider world that Britain be strong; and Britain can’t reach its full strength without also being free to set its own course and chart its own future.

    Given Europe’s bloodstained history, there are obvious grounds for a close alliance between one-time foes. But this idea of 28 countries, large and small, relatively rich and poor, all with different languages, histories, ancient attachments and antagonisms, all needing to act in unison and heed the same faceless Brussels bureaucrats – well, if this nostrum were proposed in an Australian pub, the response would be to “tell ’em they’re dreaming”, and that would be the polite version.

    As a free-trade zone, promoting mutual prosperity between neighbours, the European Economic Community made sense. Yet its evolution by stealth was always planned by those at its heart to create a new entity commanding more loyalty than its member states. The conservative instinct is not to change without good reason, but when change must happen – because the people want it – it’s not reform so much as restoration that’s needed; in this case, restoring the loose trading bloc that Britain thought it had joined back in 1973.

    Theresa May was right at the outset, when she insisted that Brexit means Brexit. Instead, a determined campaign has raged to stop Brexit happening at all; or to ensure that nothing changes in practice, since Britain will be locked into the system for years – possibly forever – unable to change the rules, or do any trade deals of its own.

    Remainers may concede that Britain will leave the political union, but all insist it must stay in the economic one, because, deep down, they fear Britain can’t cope on its own. Yet this is the country that has seen off the Spanish Armada, the French Emperor and the German Kaiser. Against Louis XIV, Napoleon, Wilhelm II and Hitler, this country saved Europe. This is the home of the mother of parliaments, the industrial revolution and the world’s common language. No country should be more capable of standing on its own two feet. We must remember this, amid the declinism and defeatism, because if Brexit fails, Britain fails.

    Deciding to leave the EU, but failing to carry it through, wouldn’t just be a normal political failure like failing to build HS2 or extend Heathrow. It would be an epic defeat, hardly matched since the Norman invasion; a national humiliation to echo down the ages, shattering to all who look to this country for inspiration.

    Not for nothing is the British flag again seen on the streets of Hong Kong, 22 years after its people last truly knew freedom under the law. If they believed Britain would be lost in Europe, as they fear being lost in China, they’d hardly be carrying your flag. For them, it’s a symbol of freedom; and for you, surely, a source of pride in all you have done and all you can still do.

    Let me reassure anyone in Britain anxious about the prospect of no deal, that Australia does one hundred billion dollars’ worth of trade with the EU every single year, on this very basis. True, we have some trade facilitation arrangements, but these arise from the mutual self-interest that exists between any two entities who wish to do business with each other – not a political union.

    A full economic partnership between Britain and Australia – restoring the almost completely unrestricted commerce that we enjoyed for 150 years, and allowing Britons and Australians, once again, to experience each other’s wonderful countries and lives – would be about the best 2019 Christmas present either of us could have.

    Frankly, had our negotiators not been so timidly respectful of EU rules, it could have been ready to sign and commence from October 31. There should be no easier deal to do than one between Britain and Australia – and with a new team pushing hard, it should be signed, sealed and delivered this year.

    Tony Abbott is the former prime minister of Australia, and gave this speech at the think tank, Policy Exchange.

    1. The big problem we have at present is the EU are trying to block us setting up trade deal even when we have left as if we sign up to their WA we cannot talk of implement trade deals during the so called transition period. All the transition period is we stay in the EU in effect for another 2 years

      1. You commenced to write that reply within seconds of me posting the OP. There is no way that you could have read it and assimilated its meaning before you replied to it.

    2. “…[failing to leave the EU] wouldn’t just be a normal political failure like failing to build HS2 or extend Heathrow.”

      Many would applaud the failure of the H-projects (to which you can add Hinkley).

  80. Probably due to getting up 4-6 hours later than most of you lot, I (finally) do see that all my comments on the “old” nottlers are still in Disqus’s records, and can still be viewed in “discussion”. Along with my Disqus comments on other sites. Don’t know how long that will last, of course.

  81. Germany elections: AfD surge in Saxony and Brandenburg
    . Note the reportt is from the BBC hence they refer to the Far Right
    They did very well but failed to take Brandenburg

    Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party surged in elections in two eastern states, but not enough to oust the ruling coalitions there.
    The centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) of Chancellor Angela Merkel lost votes in Saxony but still came top with 32%, ahead of AfD’s 27.5%.
    In Brandenburg, the state surrounding Berlin, the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) won with 26.2%, while AfD got 23.5%.

  83. ” In the chamber for Foreign Office questions – interesting to see Theresa May sat on the backbenches”
    Hard as nails she is.

  84. US Vice President urges EU to ‘negotiate in good faith’

    Speaking during a news conference, US Vice President Mike Pence says his government supports Brexit, but will “continue to encourage” the UK and Ireland to ensure any deal respects the Good Friday Agreement.

    “As the deadline for Brexit approaches we urge Ireland, and the EU as well, to negotiate in good faith with Prime Minister Johnson and work to reach an agreement that respects the UK’s sovereignty and minimises disruption to commerce,” he says

    The Good Friday deal pretty much does not mention the border other than saying there should not be a military border which no one is suggesting.In reality a soft border already exist. You are required to carry a passport or if an EU national a passport or acceptable ID when travelling between NI and the mainland UK. On flights this is normally enforced by ship it is normally just random checks. There are also different VAT rates , And Corporation tax rates and different speed limits. Random checks either side of the border are quite common

    1. One can just about get away with the Union flag but the English flag is a big No no although strangely the Scottish & Welsh flags are ok

  87. Nicola Sturgeon to outline plans to combat climate change

    In Scotland it looks as if you will have to walk or cycle everywhere and not heat your home and not farm

    She added that a “big focus” would be on reducing emissions from transport, while consideration would also be given to areas including heating, agriculture and land use.

    Is she sure about the lst one? THat will mean controlling migration

      1. WE ought to move to BST all year around and double summer time . It makes the best use of daylight. If Scotland does not like it they can just change their working hours

        1. No, No and again NO!
          We tried keeping BST in the late ’60s/Early ’70s and it was bloody awful in the winter and do you REALLY want daylight until midnight?
          How about we just keep to our natural time zone, GMT, the whole year round?

          1. Daylight until Midnight in the Summer. Yes it would be great. It was also proved to reduce accidents

          2. I’m with you all the way on that, Bob. Midday is 12 noon, NOT 1300hrs!

            The time—like the weather and the seasons—is a natural phenomenon, NOT a political one.

            This is why we have three more weeks to go before it is autumn, despite what the meteorologists say to the contrary. The first three weeks of September will always be summer.

          3. No. I like the change to BST in the spring. It reminds one sunnier days are to come and the long evenings start. And at the other end of the year, it’s all down hill anyway.

        3. I sometimes think that you make your routine daily silly utterances (in the same manner as those other two fools: Polly and Ogga) for no other reason than to get a reaction.

          What a sad and empty life you must all have.

          1. You can always lay in if you are not a morning person. Daylight i far more useful in the evening than in the morning

      2. Ben Nevis must be a lonely mountain. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th highest peaks in the UK (Ben Macdui, Braeriach, Cairn Toul, Carn na Criche, Sgòr an Lochain Uaine and Cairngorm) are all a good distance away in the Cairngorms.

    1. You do NOT represent (nor have ever represented) any “public”, you lying twat.

      You have only, ever (in common with most of your ilk), represented your pathetic little self!

      I want to meet you and thrash you, you c•nt. I really do!

    2. His constituency Bracknell voted leave in the referendum. I don’t fancy his chances in a GE. Mind you, the LibDem party is the natural home of oddballs and wankers.

    3. You are NOT representing your counties view nor that of co your Constituents. You have no mandate from your constituents to join the Lib_Dems and you have in my view betrayed them

  90. Just off for the second swim. Air temp 32C – water a mere 25C…..

    I am signing off until tomorrow – which will be a “day of leisure at resort”…

    Have a jolly evening being nice an funny.

    BTW – thanks to all who recommended the beeboid docu about the Genoa bridge. Fascinating, though slightly macabre. I thought the most interesting missing word – never once mentioned – was MAFIA….

    TTFN

  91. If the swamp creatures keep us in the EU against the will of the people then we really will be a nation living under subjugation.

  92. Fascinating

    Multiply this example of conniving theft by thousands, tens of thousands, of times.

    “Money
    launderer who claimed he had won lottery 123 times forced to pay back
    £470,000 Kashaf Ali Khan, 45, of Prospect Lane, Solihull, bought a house
    in the town with money he claimed he had won in the Pakistan
    lottery.The convicted criminal said he bought the £412,000 house with
    cash he earned from winning tickets.

    In October 2009 the NCA
    caught Khan handing over a holdall to someone which contained £74,830 in
    cash. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs have no records of him working,
    and despite Khan having no recorded legitimate income, he paid off the
    £175,000 in cash within 12 months.

    Winners of the Pakistan state
    lottery have to wait several weeks to collect their winnings. Because of
    that, some are willing to take a loss and sell their winning ticket to
    an agent for a lesser amount which they get immediately.

    The
    black-market agents then sell on the winning tickets – for more than
    they are worth – to criminals like Khan, needing to clean their criminal
    money who can then get prize organisers to issue payment in their name.”
    It’s amazing how on programmes like the Sheriffs and Cant Pay how so many of our tinged brethren suddenly produce thousands or even tens of thousands in cash,I hope HMRC are watching,loads of targets for investigation

  93. Philip Hammond: ‘I am going to Betray my party’

    What is this idiot on about ” I am going to defend my party against entryists and incomers

    So he does not want any new members to join or vote Conservative ? I guess incomers could mean he does not want migrants joining the party

    Philip Hammond says he is prepared for the “fight of a lifetime” in order to stand as a Conservative in the next election.

    The former chancellor told Today “I am going to defend my party against incomers, entryists…people who are at the heart of this government who care nothing about the future of the Conservative party.”

  95. Doctor challenges Rees-Mogg over no-deal Brexit plan

    Another doctor scaremongering I doubt he knows anything much about supply chains and supply contracts

    A tense exchange has taken place between cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, and a doctor who was involved in planning for a no-deal Brexit earlier this year, over concerns over supplies of medicines.
    Dr David Nicholl, a consultant neurologist with Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, called in to LBC and asked the leader of the House of Commons what mortality rate he would accept if the UK were to leave the EU without a deal.
    Mr Rees-Mogg said this was “the worst excess of Project Fear” and the doctor should be “quite ashamed”.

  96. Brexit: All-Ireland food zone considered as backstop solution

    It is a non problem really. WE already import food from outside the EU and re export it to the EU

    All you need to do is something similar to that of goods that come under the CE marking directives. The food would come with a Declaration of Conformity that it meets the relevant EU standards. These suppliers would be licenced and if they are caught supplying non complient goods they lose their licence to export to the EU

    The prime minister has suggested he is open to an all-Ireland food standards zone as part of a solution to replace the Brexit backstop.

    Food standards are one of the most difficult border issues.

    That is due to strict EU rules that say products from a non-member state must be checked at the point of entry.

    If Northern Ireland was to align with the Republic of Ireland, it would effectively continue to follow EU rules.

  98. What has happened to the Brexit Party publicity machine? Almost zero coverage of their Colchester Conference

  99. “Berce mon coeur d’une langueur monotone”.

    We certainly need a reponse to the likes of Hammond and Lee.

  100. I intend to stand as an MP. I reserve the right to switch to any of these Parties. Conservatives, Labour, Li-Dem. CHUK. The Greens, Brexit Party, UKIP Plaid, SNP. and any others I have not thought of

  101. What we are seeing in the commons is a bunch of incompetent , self serving egoistic and useless MP’s . It shows just how low standards have fallen and thy were not high in the first place

  102. Letter to my boss:

    I have enjoyed working here these past several years.

    You have paid me very well and given me benefits beyond belief.

    I have 3-4 months off per year and a pension plan that will pay my salary till the day I die and

    then pay my estate one year’s salary death bonus and then continue to pay my spouse

    my salary with increases until she or he dies along with a health plan that most people can only

    dream of having.

    Despite this, I plan to take the next 12-18 months to find a new position.

    During this time, I will show up for work when it is convenient for me.

    In addition, I fully expect to draw my full salary and all the other perks associated with my current job.

    Oh yes, if my search for this new job proves fruitless, I will be coming back with no loss in pay or status.

    Before you say anything, remember that you have no choice in this matter.

    I can, and I will do this.

    Sincerely,

    Can anyone in the REAL WORLD beat this set up

    Every Member of Parliament running for re-election

    1. These people deserve nothing but complete contempt.

      Incidentally would it not prove popular with the electorate if every MP who changed sides had to submit himself/herself to a by-election? Maybe this could become part of Boris’s manifesto?

      2. That would be the decent way to go. Similarly, those who stood on the mandate of the British people and wish to confound the result of the referendum need to stand down.

        1. How do we achieve that – it would be so good for the people of this country and for democracy. Two reasons why it won’t happen.

  103. Why do M.P.s address one another as ” the honourable gentleman ” when none of them fit that description ?

  104. General secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Frances O’Grady has
    written to all MPs in a desperate plea to stop a “disastrous” no-deal that could lead to “civil unrest”.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/tuc-secretary-frances-ogrady-writes-to-all-mps-warning-of-civil-unrest-from-nodeal-brexit-a4227721.html

    If we leave with no deal and the sky doesn’t fall in, in the way the fear-mongers have suggested all of them should be banished to Brussels.

    Molenbeek Brussels.

    1. The reality is that staying in the EU has advantages and disadvantages as does leaving. In my vie the advantages of Leaving the EU outweigh any benefits of Remaining

      The idea that the roof will fall in and we will starve and potentially dies as we will not be able to get medicines is complete and total nonsense >just a simple sanity check will tell you that. Only 12% of our trade is with the EU. If we lost all that it would cause some problems but that is never going to happen at worst we might loose a few percent of that trade

      1. On 23rd June I was half undecided until I arrived at the Polling Station and a complete stranger asked me my intention. She replied, “Go on, they will never give you another (expletive deleted ) chance.”

        Part of the problem with the EU is boiling frog syndrome, the endless ratchet of acquis communautaire.

      4. The Entitlement Sneer in spades.
        The one that says, “I’m taking the piss and you know it and you can do sod all about it.”

  108. Watching Gove on Parliament Channel. By God he has total command of his brief, is both witty and self deprecating. Boris made a good choice in appointing Gove. They should make a winning team in the long run.

        1. Glove repent? Never – the ultimate turncoat, schemer, self-promoter – not remotely interested in anything except his own advancement – aided by that fat cow, his “journaliist” (= scribbler) wife.

    2. It seems that the media have managed to do a good job in twisting the truth about what happened between Gove and Boris back on that fateful day. “What! The media tell untruths you say? Surely not…” But it has happened and here we are. Gove was very supportive of Theresa May in the past two years, but she was already in place and there was nothing he could do about it. Que the “History Flashback” harps:

      Back in those days Gove had been very keen on fully leaving the EU, and had been for years. He wanted us out. In the leadership race he was backing Boris Johnson, but Boris was doing the same thing back then that he has been doing just recently. Saying different things to different people about what he would do. So Gove had a meeting with him to pin him down on what his vision of Brexit would really be. At that meeting Gove discovered that Boris wanted to keep us inside the Customs Union and he knew what that meant with regard to the EU keeping us under their control.

      This was NOT Brexit in Gove’s eyes, or most of our eye’s either, and so he could not back Boris after discovering what he intended to do. This led to one of the few times recently that you heard a politician tell the truth on camera when Gove said “I really did not see myself standing.” He was backing Boris until he found out what his plans were.

      Someone with the “agenda setting” powers in the media took one look at Michael Gove and realised that if he won then there would be a real Brexit and not a fake one. This meant that Gove had to be stopped at all costs, just like Brexit itself. So the word went out and within 15 minutes you could not look at any station without hearing the word “Backstabber” or “Judas” or “Betrayal” repeated over and over again. Then we had the sleight-of-hand card-trick in the leadership race that removed Gove from the running (he would have easily beaten Theresa May if the grassroots Conservatives had been allowed to vote between them.)

      This gave us Theresa May as leader after Leadsom dropped out. Which has delayed Brexit for 3 years so far. Thus endeth the recent history reminder.

      The long and short of it is, the media were very keen indeed to brand Gove as a backstabber. When it comes to Brexit, anyone that the media hates that much is probably not one of the bad guys.

  109. Last post. Nice. Firemen – live in a dedicated block of flats.

    Families subjected to abuse, attacks and violence – while they are pout dealing with fires, accidents, terror attacks.

    Guess who is doing the abusing, stone throwing etc… I’ll give you a clue. Begins with sla………

    I’m off. A demain (again)

  112. Why is it that few if any of the MPs who desert their party ever say they are now Independents?

    They all seem to need the comfort blanket of a party and no doubt hope that the party machine will get them re-elected.

  113. Just a small diversion:

    September 3, 1752: This day and the next 10 never happen in Great Britain as the kingdom adopts the Gregorian Calendar (developed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582) to replace the inaccurate calendar created by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C.

    Riots break out as Brits argue the government just stole 11 days from their lives.

    Or so a Facebook posting mentioned this morning.

  114. These are the laws, rules and regulations we would end up with in the years to come if we had stayed in the EU. I lived and worked in Gemany for over two years, i could never live there due to its narrow rules and regulations. i can go on at length about them if you disagree.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ttW7gC8AkU

  115. Johnson in the Commons:

    “Britain is on the verge of taking back control of our trade policy, and we could achieve even more in our trade with the United States by using the powers we will regain to do a comprehensive free trade deal.”

    If he means this then he cannot be going to resurrect May’s WA as being trapped within its provisions the UK would not be able to conclude trade deals with other countries – BrexitCentral – Without Backstop WA Must Still be Rejected
    Today he also mentioned that the Political Declaration is dead. He is obviously playing games to keep the Remainers confused as to his real intentions: the problem is that it is confusing everyone else, including Farage.

    1. The EU will not change its stance by 31 January 2020. Corbyn will not get a change. Theresa May’s agreement seems to be carved in stone. Boris needs to get us out cleanly by 31 October then have the election. No other outcome will save his skin and the Conservative Party.

      1. Why would they change tack when they have an efficient, although now clearly exposed, fifth column working for them in Parliament and the Civil Service.

  116. Tony Blair has at least 2 institutes. The Institute for Global Change and the Institute for Government. At least one is a charitable organisation. A lady from the Institute for Government was on Politics Live today. I wonder how much the BBC paid for her appearance on the show. She was quite sensible and uncontroversial. Blair seems to have high ambitions.

    1. President of the EU, if we are forced to remain, or Secretary General of the UN would be my guesses.

  117. I see the Runt of the House has again allowed the anti-democrats to take over and attempt to pass another of their instant make-it-up-as-you-go-along bills to delay our leaving. Do they really think that their actions are good for the country? Their claims that they are trying to prevent ‘the chaos of no-deal’ looks hollow. Has any single one of them ever been challenged by the media on the damage that they are doing by wasting so much time?

  122. Evening, all. What a day of betrayal, remainer tears and shenanigans. I had the misfortune to hear the MP for nearby constituency, Eddisbury, on the radio when I was at the stables. Project fear on steroids! She claimed that the vote in her constituency was 50/50 when leave won a majority! I presume she had her fingers crossed (as it was radio, I couldn’t see her, fortunately). The interviewer did point out it was a majority for leave (although she countered, “it wasn’t 70%” – no, love 1 vote is all it takes in a democracy), but he left all the other wailing about job losses, no food, etc, etc unquestioned. It was a good job it wasn’t my radio or it would have been booted into next week!

      1. Blackguard! A wonderful rarely used word, as is mountebank. Sums up Lee perfectly but beware of the naughty step for using bl*ck.

          1. Not only are they trying to kill free speech and thought they’re trying to kill language.

    3. What total and complete drivel he is spouting. I find it totally unacceptable that he claims lives will be at threat that just an outright lie and scaremongering

      Do the Honorable thing and resign and then lets see if your electorate support you. I will guarantee you will not resign and will spout all sorts of rubbish to try to justify that

  124. Allegedly, according to the Daily Express in June 2018…………………….

    ”Best For Britain claimed it had been in contact with the Bracknell MP before he resigned (as a minister in 2018) and made a speech calling for a second EU referendum.”

    ”Best For Britain, funded by billionaire Hungarian financier George Soros, said it had been “working tirelessly” to secure a second referendum and was targeting ministers and opposition MPs it believes are sympathetic to its cause.”

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/973529/brexit-news-best-for-britain-tory-ministers-second-referendum-phillip-lee-george-soros

  125. In a letter excusing himself for leaving the Tories just hours before an important vote Phillip Lee MP says this;
    “…Perhaps most disappointingly, it (the Tory Party) has increasingly become infected with the twin diseases of populism and English nationalism.”
    Blimey, it has taken him over 20 years to discover that the Tory Party is not exclusive, but popular and pro-England!
    Either he is a few sandwiches short of a loaf, or his bank balance has suddenly leapt upwards. (Or both.)

    1. The conservatives are the Unionist Party. In the 2017 Election Lee had a big majority in his Bracknell constituency. The Lib’Dems were a poor 3rd. The Brexit Party should have their eye on this constituency.

      1. They also voted to LEAVE the EU

        I am always suspicious of medical doctors i the Conservative party as they naturally are left wingers

    2. He has no mandate from his electorate . He should do the honorable thing and resign but you bet like most MP’s he will show utter contempt for his electorate as it is all about him

      It is long over due that changes should be made so that any MP that switches parties or becomes an independent has to stand down and face an election. I would say at least 70% of the electorate would agree with this. You would then find almost none would switch parties

      Disgraceful behavior by this MP

    3. Good gracious, an English Conservative MP who cares nothing for Englishness. Why did this person stand for election to the British Parliament if it wasn’t to protect and further the aims of Britain, including England and its unique way of life? Brexit is certainly shaking the political tree and causing the rotten and worm infested fruit to fall off. How many more are lurking in the leafy shadows who think like Lee and would want our Country to lose its identity?

    4. Until this moment I had never heard of Philip Lee. All political careers end in failure; this bastard’s political career never started. I gather Lee has frequently voted against his party in government so no surprise there then.

      What I find most distasteful about the Soubrys, Lees and Woolastons in Parliament is the way in which they time their skooting from one party to another to gain maximum publicity for themselves. This is the worst form of amateur dramatics. I trust their constituents will give them the Order of The Boot come the next election.

      Edit: of course it is entirely possible that Lee, like many others, has received financial backing from George Soros.

      1. If any conclusive evidence were found for this it would be marvellous. Sadly politics has become so corrupt that the truth probably emerges very rarely.

        1. Unfortunately the finances of MPs and their families are not subject to ongoing in-depth audits. They should be.

  127. John Ward on fine form:

    “I could do little better than let the small and imperfectly malformed JB speak for himself
    “As I think I have made eminently clear in recent times, I have it within my power to squeeze the Boris Johnson scrotal sac, and naturally this shall be undertaken in a traditionally neutral manner. That is to say, no favour whatsoever will be shown to either his left or right bollock”.

    More here:

    https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2019/09/03/explosive-2nd-world-war-anniversary-marred-by-2nd-civil-war-nursery-yah-boo-sucks/

  128. Mr Corbyn has urged all MPs to do “what is right” for their constituencies and communities.

    Wot, vote in accordance with how their constituents voted in the referendum?

    Ha ha bluddy ha ha.

    Classic MP, we know better than you do what is right for you us

  130. Good to know we have at least one real Brexiteer in Parliament tonight:

    Steve Baker says Tories need to reach arrangement with Brexit party to win General Election before Brexit

    The newly appointed chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPs has said the party would need to reach an arrangement with Nigel Farage’s party to win a general election before Brexit.

    Mr Baker, a former minister, said the Brexit Party would stand candidates “virtually everywhere” if the UK goes to the polls before it has left the EU, which could result in a Liberal Democrat and Labour “Remain coalition”.

    He added that Theresa May’s thrice-defeated Withdrawal Agreement was “irrecoverable”, and warned Boris Johnson it would not be “adequate” if just the controversial Irish backstop was removed.

    3. Peter Bone “I’m concerned for the 17.4 million who voted for Brexit …”

      John Bercow “Brexit? ‘Twon’t happen; I’ve fixed it …”

    6. I think you’ll find that 17.4 million people detest her – perhaps we should apply to the Guiness Book of Records mind you Bercow Letwin et al are all in the running….

    2. Once the magic cloak of democracy and fair play has been blown away by reality, nobody need bother to conform any more and can act as they wish. Will anything happen, I shall not hold my breath as I have work in the morning and there are people expecting to get to Skiathos.

  138. From Twitter

    Government chief whip Mark Spencer has started to call in declared Tory rebels to say: I’m afraid I am going to have to remove the whip from you tonight

  139. We are watching the breakdown of democratic legitimacy.

    JRM is lolling feet up half asleep on his bench, horrible little Ian Blackford droned on , Bernard Jenkin was reasonable, it is all very unreal.. and frightening .

  140. Brexit Extension would cost us £1B a month.BBC claims it would come down to £750 M a month with grants we get but the EU

    1. And how we do not live in a democracy and are powerless to stop the marauding nonsense of treacherous idiots.

        1. To find out that the party that you love is half-full of traitorous bar-stewards who are working as agents of a foreign power must be a blow and very draining. I remember the night that Jacob suddenly realised that Theresa May was not doing her best for the United Kingdom, but was actively working with the EU to bring us down… He looked really shocked at that betrayal.

          It cannot be easy to discover that there are more than 100 of them.

      3. Perhaps he’s just letting their little storm blow out. If anyone knows his way around Erskine May it’s JRM; let’s hope he has something up his sleeve.

      1. The complete and total lies they spout is amazing/ We only do about 12% trade with the EU. Yes we might have the odd food shortage and medicine shortage but that happens all the time currently we have a shortage of HRT drugs amd Sweet potatoes but the idea that people will die is just pure fiction

      2. Antoinette Sandbach was wailing the same thing earlier. It seems they’ve all got the same (erroneous) script.

    2. A bit like the article 50 debate in the Lords . A one sentence bill and they spent days debating it most of it not relevant to article 50 I think they just like the sound of their own voices

  144. From the Mild Mannered Brian ‘Pitbull’ Moore

    Rugby is rightly an inclusive sport but until research disproves safety risk, transgender women should only play non-contact

    Justover a week ago BBC Sport ran an article about Kelly Morgan, who was born Nicholas Gareth Morgan, and after transitioning to a transgender

    female now plays in Wales for Porth Harlequins Ladies. If you doubt thedivisiveness of this issue, witness the debate on social media. It istoxic even for a platform not known for civil discussion. The rugby authorities have to recognise how disruptive this issue could be, and it must be taken seriously, for many reasons.

    yup, the modern day world of UK is stark raving bonkers

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2019/09/02/rugby-rightly-inclusive-sport-research-disproves-safety-risk/

          1. Having shared a bath with a load of naked men, I would say women would be the preferred option.

          2. If I were to get into a bath like that I’d certainly be wanting my full set of wedding tackle!

  145. Kate Hoey;
    “”Labour MP – and Brexit supporter – Kate Hoey says if the bill is passed it would “humiliate this Parliament”.
    She also says it would be “sending a signal to all those people who voted to Leave that we know best, that we are being arrogant”.
    She argues that her own party will face the consequences when there is a general election.”

    2. I heard her speak. Thought my ears needed cleaning out when I realised she was Labour. What’s a nice girl like her doing there with Corbyn ?

      1. Kate Hoey has always been a renegade in Labour.
        As well as being VERY strongly pro-Brexit, she is also pro-Fox Hunting.

  148. DT BTL Comment:

    Boris can veto just an extension. It only takes one country to veto an Article 50 extension and the UK still a voting member of the EU…

  151. OK so I watched the result of that vote and the ensuing rabble statements repeating the same old half truths, not impressed. What a disgrace with Bercow seemingly approving Boris being drowned out by the braying mob then having the audacity to criticize the PM. .

    Do they really believe that an agreement is forthcoming because they tell the government to go to Brussels and ask pretty please to delay the departure date. After three years of May’s incompetence, will three months or even a year make any difference when no one is listening to alternate points of view.

    Can Boris even force the needed election, or is that fixed term parliament going to just make this into a long disaster.

    1. You could miss out “OK” and “So”, and still make your point, without using the jargon of the day.

    2. Remainers could just not support a No Confidence vote to thwart a GE that Boris and leave him in limbo, so we could see a situation where pro-Brexit Tories actually vote No Confidence just to force an election.

    3. I have no idea, Richard, and I wish I did. What exactly is needed under the 5 year Parliamentary terms created by Cameron & Clegg for him to be able to declare a General Election? Can any NoTTLer advise me?

      POSTSCRIPT: Well, nobody came to my rescue yesterday, but I have since discovered that it needs the agreement of two thirds of MPs.

  154. Remainers are posting “Parliament 328, Government 301”.

    That should read “The Enemy 328, The People 301”.

        1. Hello Sir……..

          What is your interpretation of what really happened in parliament this evening ?

      2. With your witless, pointless questions and repetitive postings, you are the enemy of this forum.

        Bugger off and bore someone somewhere else.

          5. I’ll go seventh and just add – PP & CC, two reasons I very rarely comment or visit this blog anymore. When time is limited and so many threads are full of their mindless questions, insults and arguments, it just makes it hard work. Shame as this was always such a happy and informative blog.

          6. So that makes five individuals who don’t seem to have any insight into the possibilities behind recent political events, despite the large amount of evidence of one kind and another in the public domain.

  155. I’ve come to the conclusion that the way members of the Conservative party are behaving (with a couple of notable honourable exceptions) Letwin being the latest Prime example, that the Party is no longer fit to hold office in the United Kingdom. (For the avoidance of doubt the same applies to Labour and the Lib Dems).

  158. I wonder if there’s a party on in Davos tonight ?

    Maybe a bit late to head over and see who is there… and who has the broadest grin.

        1. For a moment I thought you wrote “I was going down backwards”, Peddy. Anyhow, good night to all once and finally!

          1. Then go to the USA if necessary to learn some manners – it’s obvious that subject was missing in any UK education you might have had.

    2. I don’t think it’s a conspiracy theory that there’s a conspiracy. There’s too much circumstantial evidence and too many coincidences, imho.

  160. The evil that men does lives after them
    [Mark Antony: ‘Julius Caesar’]

    Nick Clegg, for his own interests saw to it that the Fixed Term Parliament was introduced when he was Deputy PM. Look at the potential disaster this is now causing the current prime minister.

    Clegg, again for his own interests, reneged on his agreement to amend constituency borders.

    Clegg determined to interfere with the Royal Succession

    Clegg tried (but failed) to get the alternative voting system introduced which, had he succeeded, would very ironically have given UKIP twice the number of Parliamentary seats as the Lib/Dems.

    In spite of seeming like an ineffective little wimp he has proved to be one of the greatest constitutional vandals we have seen.

    To finish the Shakespeare quotation:

    The good is oft interred with their bones

    (A pun suggests itself as what should be interred with Clegg’s bones when he dies)

  161. I wonder where the champagne corks are being popped ?

    Oh…. hark……….. I think the pops are coming from Switzerland……..

  162. Dom Perignon and Krug are expensive but I expect they can be afforded… particularly for a very special occasion……..

  163. Is there ANY justification for legal immunity for Politicians or Civil Servants?

    Ukraine strips MPs of legal immunity in victory for populist president
    Alec Luhn, moscow
    3 SEPTEMBER 2019 • 6:55PM

    Ukraine’s parliament has voted to strip its members of immunity from prosecution in the first major victory for president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s populist reform programme.

    Supported by 373 of 450 MPs, the legislation removes from the constitution a guarantee that the chamber’s members cannot be held criminally liable without a vote by parliament. It will come into effect at the start of 2020.

    The move gives weight to Mr Zelenskiy’s promises to revitalise the reform process and root out entrenched corruption in Ukraine, where voters’ trust in the government had dropped to single digits. Nearly nine out of 10 believe that political parties have been engaged in corruption.

    Critics have said the change could expose MPs to politically motivated cases. But speaking in parliament on Tuesday, Mr Zelenskiy argued that it would instead keep members from abusing their position, promising that they would not be prosecuted for their votes or political decisions.

    “If a deputy hits a person with a car, or covers for (illegal) amber mining or commits any other criminal offence, he should bear responsibility,” he said. “This is parliament, not a lair where you can hide out under the cupola for five years.”

    The pro-Russian Opposition Platform-For Life was the only fraction that didn’t vote for the measure.

    The legislation to remove parliamentary immunity was actually introduced by Mr Zelenskiy’s predecessor Petro Poroshenko last year.

    Although it was ruled legal by the constitutional court, it did not move forward until the new president’s Servant of the People party won Ukraine’s first-ever single-party majority in snap elections in July. As a result, his initiatives stymied by the previous parliament now have a green light.

    The removal of immunity fulfils a central campaign pledge of the former comedian, who played a teacher-turned-president on television before sweeping into the office for real in April.

    He has promised to strip the president and judges of legal immunity and establish procedures for impeachment and nationwide referenda, in addition to business-friendly tax and legal reforms.

    He also said he would involve the United States and UK in new peace talks about the frozen conflict with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

    Negotiations of a prisoner swap with Russia, which began after Mr Zelenskiy called Vladimir Putin last month, have so far failed to bear fruit, despite Ukrainian officials’ promises of an imminent trade in recent weeks.

    Also on Tuesday, parliament voted to send a bill to the constitutional court for review that would allow ordinary people to introduce legislation directly.

    One newspaper columnist said after Tuesday’s vote that parliamentary immunity must also be removed from a law on MPs’ status and from the criminal code to completely strip lawmakers of this protection. But given their parliamentary majority, Mr Zelenskiy’s supporters are well positioned to do this as well.

    While the president has been vocal in his anti-corruption campaign, many have questioned his ties with oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who owns the channel that broadcast Mr Zelenskiy’s shows and has been trying to reverse the nationalisation of his bank.

    Robert Spowart 4 Sep 2019 4:27AM
    A good move.

    Whilst I understand the concerns about Politically motivated cases being brought against MPs, legal immunity for anyone is wrong.

    Perhaps the legal immunities of the EU Hierarchy ought to be looked at next?

  164. Given the likelihood of a general election in a few weeks time, this seems an apposite comment:-

    Robert Spowart 4 Sep 2019 4:44AM
    If there is, as seems increasingly likely, a General Election in the near future, can action be taken against fraudulent voting, both by postal ballots and by paying migrants to register & vote for a particular party, of the sort we saw in the recent Peterborough By Election?

    1. There’s no time for new legislation, and probably no majority for it anyway. Labour has been very resistant to any changes which would compromise their interest.

      So a Marxist government based on electoral cheating is perfectly possible.

  165. The EU seeks power on behalf of the globalist hierarchy and is a form of “mafia” organization. They are not interested in the good of others; they are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will presently understand. They are different from the oligarchies of the past in that they know what they are doing. All the others, even those who resembled them, were cowards and hypocrites. Many dictators have come very close in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. The EU is not like that. They know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of power is domination. The object of domination is control. The object of control is money. Now perhaps you begin to understand me…

    George Orwell and Polly.

    1. On balance, good I think. But it will take some time yet. ‘Morning Geoff, and, as ever, thanks!

Comments are closed.