889 thoughts on “Friday 13 December: The shameful weaponisation of the NHS during the election campaign”

    2. Good grief, Minty, do you really think with a new Speaker and a government with a much healthier majority we will still have the chaos in Parliament of the last four months?

    3. Oi Minty

      Please speak Inglish: we should be our own country again soon, if Boris has the Ballz to do Brexit

  2. “Don’t Cry For GB Angela”

    It won’t be easy, you’ll think it strange
    When I try to explain how we feel
    That we don’t need the EU after all that you’ve done

    You won’t believe the signs
    All you will see is the UK you once knew
    Although debt distressed up to the nines
    At sixes and sevens with EU

    Brexit had to happen, we had to change
    Can’t live our lives under the EU heel
    Looking out of the window, staying out of the sun

    So we choose freedom
    Running around, trying everything new
    Not that that impresses you at all
    We never expected it to

    [Chorus:]

    Don’t cry for GB Angela
    The truth is we never liked t’EU
    Even through the Blair days
    And Brown existence
    (keeping the Sterling promise)
    We kept our distance

    And as for fortune, and as for fame
    We shall invite them in
    (Though the Remainers think they will be denied)

    The EU’s an illusion
    Its not the solution they promised it to be
    The answer was here all the time
    We leave EU and it frees GB

    Don’t cry for GB Angela

    [chorus]

    Have I said too much?
    There’s nothing more I can think of to say to EU.
    But all you have to do is look at GB to know
    That every word is true

  3. Well, that looks like it turned out OK – so far.

    Bye, bye, Magic Santa. Nobody believed you… (correction: No normal person believed you).
    Morning, Nottlers. Hope y’all are a bit happier now. Yer Weegie press seem down, can’t think why.
    :-D)

  5. Yo all

    What I posted earlier

    The carpenter, who was on standby to reinforce the seating in the Cabinet Office has been stood down, as the Abbotopotamus will not be using two of the chairs, in the near future.

    Jewemy demands reruns of GE, until Liebore win (well can at least form a coalition with any other party, regardless of views)

  7. Thousands of ‘penis fish’ appear on California beach. Fri 13 Dec 2019.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a35274b4c32cc4f5f525f4cc5b3fe367be0ff7a540aab9ac08f479fecf92439.png

    Following a bout of winter storms in northern California, “thousands” of pink, throbbing, phallic creatures wound up pulsating along a beach about 50 miles north of San Francisco, Bay Nature reported.

    What a load of c@ck!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/12/penis-fish-fat-inkeeper-worms-california-beach

        1. 😉

          My German group are having their Christmas lunch after class today. I’m looking forward to a huge bowl of mussels.

    1. Morning T-B hats off to the pollsters- they got it right again. I feel great today. What a difference 24 hours makes.The people rallied to honour the referendum result.

      1. Me too, Clyde. Last night the electorate pulled the chain and flushed away the betrayers and traitors from the House of Clowns. And now let’s see what Miller, Bliar, Waste-of-Time, Major, Grieve, Swansong, Berk-O, Hammond, Chukkas Yermoney and all the rest of yesterday’s people are going to do to stop Brexit. The thought of that lot foaming at the mouth this morning is extremely sweet.

  11. Perhaps we can bring some kindness back into politics and less of the vitriol . The country is divided sadly , everywhere has issues . I just want politicians to behave with dignity .. there are many dignified politicians who speak sense and clearly work hard . We need some balance now . I pray that the results are the right one , decisions made with good thoughts for this wonderful hard working country of ours

  12. The fall of Labour’s ‘Red Wall’ is a moment to celebrate

    Brendan O’Neill

    The ‘red wall’ has fallen. Brick by brick. Almost every bit of it. Seats held by Labour for decades have been seized by the Tories. To me, this is the most exciting thing in this extraordinary election. It feels almost revolutionary. Working people have smashed years and years of tradition and laid to waste the nauseating, paternalistic idea that they would vote for a donkey so long as it was wearing a red rosette.

    The ‘red wall’ results are staggering. In Bolsover, held by Dennis Skinner since 1970, the Tories now have a 5,000+ majority. Former mining towns like Bishop Auckland and Sedgefield — Tony Blair’s old seat — fell to the Tories.

    Caroline Flint lost Don Valley — a shame, given Flint was one of very few Labour MPs who sensed that the party’s betrayal of its working-class, Brexit-voting communities would cost it dear.

    Blyth Valley has a Tory MP for the first time in its 69-year history. Dehenna Davison, a Sheffield-born, Hull-educated 25-year-old, is Bishop Auckland’s first Tory MP in its 134-year history. She has a majority of nearly 8,000.

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/12/the-fall-of-labours-red-wall-is-a-moment-to-celebrate/

    And on it goes. Stockton South, Darlington, Wrexham. Seat after seat that Labour bigwigs presumed for decades would naturally vote Labour — because that’s what working-class people do, right? — have turned blue. Get this: former Welsh miners and the northern working classes trust an Eton-educated bumbling eccentric more than they do the Labour party.

    It’s worth letting that sink in. The plummy culture warriors of Momentum and the Corbyn-loving sections of the Twitterati constantly played up what a toff Boris is. Eton! Bullingdon! That voice! He is utterly out of touch with normal people, they said. And yet now we know those normal people felt far more distant from the performative bourgeois radicalism of Labour’s new woke set than they did from a Boris-led Tory party that at least said to them: ‘Listen — we will respect that important, meaningful vote for Brexit that you cast in 2016.’

    That’s the thing. For all the naff, sixth-former ‘eat the rich’ posturing of the Corbyn cling-ons, most voters don’t really care what accent or background a politician has. They care what he or she says. And Boris, in his posh, bumbling tones that will sound so alien to the people of Blackpool South and the Vale of Clwyd — more new Tory seats — said he would uphold Brexit. That’s what millions wanted to hear.

    Did the ‘red wall’ crumble because of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership or because of Labour’s betrayal of Brexit? This debate has started in earnest and it will rage for weeks. It is likely to have been a combination of both. Surely one incredibly important lesson the political class will learn from this is that if you disrespect people’s democratic votes — as Labour did with its promise to cancel Brexit and hold a second referendum — then people will punish you. Denigrate democracy and democracy will have its payback.

    The insults of the ‘red wall’ inhabitants will fly thick and fast. The over-educated middle classes who make up the membership base of Corbyn’s Labour party will say these people were hoodwinked by tabloids or brainwashed by Bozzer.

    Class contempt of Victorian proportions is already being visited upon these good people, in fact. Enraged Corbynista Paul Mason is describing the election result as a ‘victory of the old over the young, racists over people of colour, selfishness over the planet’. These people seem blissfully unaware that it is such seething contempt for ordinary voters that turned so many people off the newly woke, post-working-class Labour party.

    Key Corbynista Ash Sarkar wrote in the Guardian a couple of days ago:

    ‘It is a myth that Labour has lost the working class.’

    That hasn’t aged well. Across the country the working classes have abandoned Labour, because Labour abandoned them. It sneered at their vote for Brexit; it looked down its nose at their cultural values; it called them racist and xenophobic for being critical of the European Union and concerned about mass immigration.

    Labour embraced an agenda of identity politics over community values, EU neoliberalism over British patriotism and radical virtue-signalling over the ideals of family, work and togetherness. And its working-class base said no, no, no.

    This is a warning to the entire political class. Do not take voters for granted. Do not insult them. Do not demean their democratic voice. Because, whatever you might say to the contrary, they have minds of their own, and they will soon make up their mind that you are a patronising git who may no longer represent their community.

    Nobody should mourn the collapse of the red wall — it is one of the best things to happen in the political life of this country for decades.

    1. ” Did the ‘red wall’ crumble because of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership or because of Labour’s betrayal of Brexit ”
      But it was the Conservatives who betrayed Brexit.

      1. It was the whole stinking pile of them that betrayed Democracy by effectively annulling the referendum. Now, they hear the same message again.

    1. Indeed. Soon the Treaty of Vassalage will be signed and we enter into a ‘transition period’ where we are non-voting members of the EU. Will we emerge with a decent free-trade agreement, or spend year after year wrangling with the EU? Will we give up our fisheries and defence, be unable to diverge from EU rules, or properly be free? Time will tell, but with no effective opposition or Brexit Party MPs to keep the Tories honest, my hopes aren’t high.

        1. He has a stonking majority, all the hardcore Remainers have gone (including Bercow) so in theory he has a very strong negotiating hand and should either get a Canada-style deal or take us out on WTO terms. But I suspect that the Tories have no intention of delivering a meaningful Brexit.

          Let’s judge Johnson on his record and give him a chance. But my trust in the Tories is wearing extremely thin.

          3. I don’t believe that Boris is “ruled by the Tories”, although Theresa may have been. After all, once he took over from her he purged the Cabinet (in the main) of Remainers, then withdrew the whip from those 21 who continued to oppose him. He is a much stronger person and unlikely to be “bounced” by the party. If indeed his Brexit turns out to be no more than a Brino, the result will be entirely down to him.

    1. As I’ve mentioned in a reply to TheoldBoot below there are people already advocating a softer Brexit. No detail but it doesn’t sound good to those who want out.
      Johnson will consolidate or destroy his new support by his decision on the WA/PD. Tie us in to any type of alignment with or control by the EU and he will be seen as a fraud. A good line last night was, the Red areas lent their vote to Johnson. These Red areas will just as quickly reject the Tories as they rejected Corbyn’s Labour yesterday, if they are betrayed.

      1. That will be all too late. We are at the mercy of the EU lovers and will soon be in the hands of the EU. Unless, of course Boris was bluffing, Unlikely as that seems, as it would have been leaked for sure. No, Boris is not about to tell the EU to stick the WA where the monkey sticks his nuts, more’s the pity.

    2. Not at all. A big Tory majority is a mandate for them do do what they please. Keep in mind that the reasons for the win are invented after the win. They really have no idea. The most likely reason for the Tory victory is not that anyone enthusiastically supports any of their policies (whatever they are) but just that they were the least bad of the dreadful options. No politician is going to say that out loud. “We are the least bad of the truly dismal, and disastrous options available to voters”, is not something that Mr Johnson is going to say when he addresses the microphones this morning.

    1. Lib-Dems only lost a single seat from 2017 and actually went up to vote share of 11.5%. That’s a serious shift, but where from? My guess is that voters shifted from Labour to Lib-Dems, which contributed to Labour’s overall collapse.

  17. Morning Each,
    Good news & a timely much needed warning, what has been building up over the decades needed tearing down.
    The voting pattern of keep in / keep out was clearly the fault & has also allowed foreign elements to build within these Isles, another issue which will come to a head in the not to distance future.
    Will lessons be learnt ?

    2. Not wasted, Polly – they lost four seats including that of their leader. A pretty good return, I would say.

  19. Bad news. The pound has soared. That will make our goods more expensive to sell overseas. Maybe we should stay in the EU after all ?

    1. I take it that is sarcasm…. A higher value £ makes it cheaper to import raw materials and energy which, ceteris paribus, should lower the cost of producing the finished articles giving exporters the chance to offer a lower competitive price perhaps….

      1. (Polite cough.) No, the proportion of the price which is value added in the UK will rise.

  20. Morning, all.

    Keeping abreast of the election results in Scotland, I see it’s all gone tits-up for Jo Swinson and she’s lost her seat in Dunbartonshire East.

    Clearly, she made too many boobs in her election campaign.

  22. England has gone Conservative

    Labors stronghold is London which is a big turnaround. The Conservatives now have widespread representation across England and Wales the Labour heartlands of the Midlands and North have crumbled and fallen. . It means to Conservative party will have to be come a lost less London & south east centric
    There are strong feelings that HS2 will be scrapped with a lot of the money going to wards infrastructure projects in the North

    Labour seem to have learnt nothing and seem to be determined to carry on with Corbyn type policies. Labour is now seen as a London parts which does not represent the rest of the UK. Whilst some of the key extreme left wingers go the boot a lot are still left and there seem to be no sign of them changing direction

  23. The LIb-Dems like Labour seem to have learnt nothing in spite of making no ground at all. In the early days of the campaign they were talking of a 100 seats now they are down to 12 seats

      1. But the really important news that we need to hear is whether the EU will continue to give “grants” to that nice Mr Swinson’s business.

  25. Pound and shares surge

    The pound and shares have surged after the Conservatives won a clear majority in the UK general election.
    Sterling gained 2.1% to $1.34 – its highest level since May last year – on hopes that the big majority would remove uncertainty over Brexit.
    The pound also jumped to a three-and-a-half-year high against the euro.
    On the stock market, the FTSE 100 share index rose 0.8%, while the FTSE 250 – which includes more UK-focused shares – leapt 5% in early trade.

  26. Sorry about this, but a sensible question

    How much did Corbyn’s history with and support of Marxism Terrorist Groups IRA, HAMAS etc influence the outcome of the GE

    Sensibly, I cannot see how any Serviceman/Veteran, or their families, voting for a PM, who has repeatedly supported our enemies

    Good on ya Corbyn

    2. And a supplementary, OLT:
      How much did the glaring anti-Semitism of the Labour Party disgust their many decent voters, so that they couldn’t vote for them, even holding their noses?

    4. It wouldn’t have helped, for sure, but it’s also a rejection of Labour’s far-left policies overall. It was similar to the rejection of Michael Foot.

    5. The Colchester Labour candidate is married to a soldier.
      She is a keen follower of Corbyn.
      People, huh!

  28. Doesn’t look like a mandate for Scottish independence because…

    @Duncs_ZA

    Replying to @LewisDocherty @britainelects @ELINTNews

    53.2% of Scottish voters voted Conservative, Labour or Libdem.

  29. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c4ddeef642807950a59651fc0bfb794ae495798038b6f339b1268a9ddbccdd1.jpg

    “Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget;
    For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet.”

    “The Saxon is not like us Normans. His manners are not so polite.
    But he never means anything serious till he talks about justice and right.
    When he stands like an ox in the furrow – with his sullen set eyes on your own,
    And grumbles, ‘This isn’t fair dealing,’ my son, leave the Saxon alone.”

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

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

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

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

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

  30. Britain Elects

    @britainelects

    The Britain Elects poll tracker (vs. the GB election result): CON: 43.1% (44.7) LAB: 33.9% (33.1) LDEM: 11.9% (11.8) BREX: 3.3% (2.1) GRN: 2.6% (2.8)

  33. Morning all, a good night then, I had an uninterrupted nights sleep after seeing the first 3 results announced. Woke up to the news that the likes of Grieve, Swinson, Soubry, Gauke etc all rejected by the electorate.
    We have had weeks of promises from Corbyn and Johnson, Corbyn’s promises can be ignored as he is in no position to deliver but Johnson now has no excuse not to deliver with such a majority.
    To all those (myself included) who are feeling pleased and relieved that Johnson has won through and we do not have to suffer a Marxist led government, I hope he does not disappoint but I am expecting he will.
    There are already mutterings being reported of a soft Brexit being on the cards and time will tell just what fortitude Johnson shows the EU.

    1. Hi old boy – Johnson acknowledged in his speech this morning that many who voted for the conservatives were lending the party their votes to get Brexit done. He is now in a powerful position and cannot afford to sign up to a soft Brexit. The people voted in 2016 for the clean break they were promised by Cameron and many others. The 27 EU members have the final say on any agreement. The EU want to control access to our fishing grounds and that is a red line. Boris cannot concede that as he has consistently said he will regain control of our fishing grounds. He has the power but perhaps not the courage to walk away from the negotiations. He would be a hero if he did and a coward if he caved in to the EU bullys.

      1. We have control but will concede unfettered access.
        He won’t need to do that if we go with the WA. The WA gives the EU complete control of all our fishing grounds for an indefinite (long) period. The EU will turn them into the Grand Banks…

      2. Regarding your last sentence I know which way I expect him to act, but I am more than willing to eat humble pie if he surprises me with a show of honesty and integrity.
        Now with such a free reign at his disposal I fear for the country however.

  35. May one ask,being a long term UKIP member so 100%
    exitbrexit I hear an awful lot of crowing regarding the overthrow of many of the enemas but,can I hear shades of 24/6/2016 ” victory, job done, leave it to the tories”?

        1. Morning ogga1, and a sincere thank you for posting that tweet from Mr. Gerard Batten. I happen to believe Boris will be a thorn in the backsides of Labour from now on.

          Remember my prediction: ‘May did all the wrong things for all the right reasons, while Boris will do all the right things for all the wrong reasons’ (or at least that’s what the MSM will tell us about Boris).

          1. Afternoon A,
            He receives no trust from me in any shape or form as in, I would not swim across a river with him on my back his payment would be to much to suffer.
            I could be wrong but nothing of his past shows me I am.

          2. I hope you are mistaken, ogga. Just be prepared for the MSM to tell you all the horrible things BJ is doing by pushing through a clean Brexit.

    3. Its at least a result we can go forward with. I do not believe we will have a good break from the Empire, but the alternatives were much worse.

      1. Afternoon KP,
        We can ALL go forward with, & with confidence in the party leaders, tread wary the fat brexitexit lady has yet to sing the total severance song of freedom.
        Ask yourself who & what put us in the odious position of having to face such alternatives ?

    1. T_May was very gracious on the BBC, as the overwhelming results were announced for BJ. She’s redeemed herself a bit (in my book).

      (Greetings, PT).

      1. Morning to you, perhaps she can afford to be gracious as she is expecting the same from Johnson as she tried to deliver herself.

        1. I think not. I believe she’s of the mind that Boris will be free to push through a clean Brexit without having to endure the same ridiculous spectre of a Second Referendum. Goodbye, Second Referendum!!

          Which brings up a second point: With this election hasn’t Labour’s underlying sexism against a female Tory PM been laid bare? No one in this forum believed Remoaners had the electoral support they claimed to have. Yet it seemed perfectly acceptable for Labour to undermine Brexit when a female PM held power. Strange, that.

          1. Thanks for your reply, I tend to be less generous in my thoughts of May, I considered her when elected and up to her resignation a remainer with no desire to deliver the referendum result, a Cameron in heels so to speak.
            Your second point you raised is one I have not considered, but one I will now think about.

      3. After three years of the odious May I had difficulty voting Tory ever again.

        I voted for democracy.

        Greetings agnostic.

  38. Jo Swinson elected as leader on 22nd July 2019, resigned on 13th December 2019.
    Is this a record for the shortest leadership I wonder.

  40. Still catching up with the news.

    Disheartened that the Brexit Party got no seats but heartened that Corbyn got the drubbing he deserved.

  41. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Late on parade, and just a brief visit this morning. What a night! Exit poll at 10pm, a glass or two at 10:05, turned in at 00:30, up again at 05:00…

    I wonder if Swansong has a better understanding of the phrase ‘democratic mandate’ now?

  43. Newport West

    Labour held it by less than a 1000 seats, If the Brexit Party had not been standing it would have almost certainly gone Conservative

  44. I haven’t seen anything about Farage and the Brexit Party written here or on the BBC. Their input and tactics caused this result in great parts, robbing Labour of thousands of votes in those Labour dominated leave areas. The swing to the Conservatives would not have happened without them, just look at the numbers they took in the lost Labour constituencies. Will Johnson acknowledge this, I doubt it.

      1. The Brexit Party didn’t win a seat–still, they garnered 642,323 votes (2.0% share). But it looks like all those votes were stolen from UKIP, who garnered 594,068 votes in 2017 (1.8% share) but only 22,817 votes yesterday (0.1% share).

        It’s more likely that Labour’s losses were due to defections to Lib-Dems, who yesterday garnered 3,675,342 votes (11 seats and 11.5% share), as compared to 2,371,861 votes in 2017 (12 seats and 7.4% share).

        That’s a 54% increase in Lib-Dem votes over a (short) two-year-five-month period.

        https://www.bbc.com/news/election/2019/results
        https://www.bbc.com/news/election/2017/results

    3. Gove studiously avoided giving any credit to Mr Farage when pressed by Beeb reporters as the exit polls were being reported.

    5. Andrew Neil interviewed Nigel last night and gleaned that Nigel could be heading westward to the USA to act as warm up man for Donald Trump in his Presidential campaign next year.

  45. The local jihadi had decided a big bang would help his career prospects and what better day than Christmas Day?

    He ordered the device and arranged for it to be delivered wrapped up as a present to avoid suspicion.

    Christmas Day arrived and after breakfast and watching Alastair Sim as Scrooge on the telly, unwrapped his parcel in anticipation of the dirty deed.

    “The bastards, there’s no batteries.”

  46. Now we need the Brexit Party to move foreword. It was always silly to just focus on Brexit. It had no real organisation behind it neither and little in the way of Polices

    I am not keen on calling it the Reform Party lots of parties have used that in their name. Can anyone think of a better name?

    I think they need to push for an English Parliament. I would see this as a small part time affair with most things devolved to the English Regions. Using the 9 current recognized regions would be sensible. It could be that some regional assembly members would have a dual role serving both on the English parliament and the Regional assembly. That provided for a direct link between the two

    The regions could then have control of police, Education, Emergency service and NHS so you could have a North East England Fires Service, NHS etc

    The Refom party also need to push for PR

    1. I am an Englishman. One thing that distinguishes us from Scots, the Welsh or the Irish is that the English identify themselves by their counties, not by region. I was born in Middlesex, grew up in Surrey and now live in Worcestershire. Heaven help me if I went up north and suggested that Burnley was in Yorkshire and Barnsley was in Lancashire!

      A distinction also needs to be made between town and country – a revival of the old urban and rural district councils, along with towns, boroughs and cities. These were lost in the 1970s and England lost its way as a result.

      Although I am technically now a Midlander, I feel little affinity between the fruit-growing village where I now live and a bunch of Coventry lesbians serving the local mosque. Does regionalising us together force me to submit to their greater political power?

      1. I’m Glawster born & Glawster bred – strong in the arm & thick in the ‘ead.
        I certainly don’t identify with any of nine regions. That’s what the EU tried to enforce and regional assemblies were roundly thrown out. NUTS, anyone?

      3. I’m Glawster born & Glawster bred – strong in the arm & thick in the ‘ead.
        I certainly don’t identify with any of nine regions. That’s what the EU tried to enforce and regional assemblies were roundly thrown out. NUTS, anyone?

    2. You could divide up the English regions following the pattern given by the EU… then delete Westminster government and have the EU rule everything… Oops, that’s what people are trying to prevent by leaving the EU!

      1. It has nothing to do with the EU. Most large countries in the world have regional government.,, Spain. Germany, France . US , Canada are just a
        few

        WE already have a degree of Regional government with the NI. Scottish & Welsh Assemblies

  47. A piece of advice Mr Johnson.

    Do not, under any circumstances, allow any of the arch-remainers who have lost their seats to be “elevated” to the House of Lords.

    1. And do not, under any circumstances, allow any arch-remainers who have held their seats into the cabinet

  48. Relief and Disappointment.

    Relief that we do not have a Corbyn government; disappointment that we shall get BRINO rather than Brexit

  50. Paddy and Mick go into this pine forest to get a Xmas tree.
    After 2 hours Mick says “Feck this, if we don’t find one soon I’ll just saw one down and decorate it myself”

  51. Labour and the Lib-Dems in part lost out as they both wanted to defy a democratic vote and most people found that unacceptable

  54. In the interests of alliteration I would have liked Gove to have lost his seat along with Gauke and Grieve.

    2. “I’m afraid the working classes have always been a big disappointment for Jon and his cult”
      Superb. My dear; the noise; the people …..

  58. “Remainers have spent years claiming all the leave voters are dead

    Tonight they found out we’re all still very much alive”

    1. Based on reports of what her spouse ‘earns’ she’s not exactly going to join the dole queue. In any case from what I’ve seen of her she is unemployable.

  60. When do our MEPs quite Brussels?
    I thought Jeremy Vine’s bouncy contribution last night on BBC was ridiculous, difficult to follow and past its sell by date.

      1. It was the blue suit and brown shoes. Clearly one of those who has to buy their own furniture. Speaking of which, Hezzer had a fine night, didn’t he!

          2. Well, not all those who wear brown suits are farmers. Black shoes must not be worn with brown suits.
            Brown shoes with blue suits and with grey suits are very common, suggesting poor upbringing or complete lack of sartorial nous. There are books available to give guidance.
            Esquire’s “What Every Young Man Should Know” comes highly recommended, by me. It dates from the early 60s and is American, but very sound.

    2. A likkle fiddle with your post

      I thought Jeremy Vine’s bouncy contribution last night on BBC was ridiculous, difficult to follow and past its his sell by date

    3. The BBC work on the basis of why use a couple of people when you can use 20

      It is quite clear to me that the BBC employ more people than they know what to do with. You could easily cut the BBC headcount by 25%

  61. My anxiety is that I hope they manage to get some proper work done , you know proper work, and no distractions . We must hope that many contentious issues are now addressed .. I really hope the manifesto promises start from day one !

    1. “I really hope the manifesto promises start from day one !”
      Sinatra’s ‘High Hopes’ comes to mind.

  62. I’ve just read that we can no longer stick a stamp on letters or cards to the EU, we have to take them to the post Office to be dealt with. I have my doubts. Can anyone shine light on this?

          1. The Post Office charged me £47 to post a parcel abroad using Parcel Force as the initial carrier. If i had gone to Parcel Force directly they would have charged me £20, plus they would pick it up.

            They obviously have a deathwish. I won’t be using them again, ever.

      2. It is size and weight. You can look it up on the Royal Mail Web site to work out the Postage. You need some accurate scales as if a letter you are talking about 10grms

        1. But it can be made simpler by putting the letter in a parcel with a brick in it. You may then weight it on kitchen scales.

    3. We are in the EU – what’s your point ? Brexit is still a chimaera wrapped in an intention wrapped in a possibility.
      Or is there a shortage of glue for the back of the stamps ?

  63. Morning all…

    Just to put a slight twist on the EUphoria this morning, take a look at what the Tories have done to the National Debt since coming to power…

    I used to criticise Labour for the way they “used” the economy, but this little gem has gone unnoticed by the mainstream, I think.

    Once Brexit is done and dusted, Boris needs to get cracking on dealing with this.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1eb15e4c4bb46178140502ccaffcac8ff23425971cef8811d6a0aca8dc0807a1.png

    2. They are only numbers. You want a change ? Any of the Big Six auditors can make it smaller for you for a fee.

        1. Not enough of it! The £20bn of extra spending announced recently will be spread over five years.

  64. Am I alone in thinkinng that the swelling ranks of “lib Dems” in the Commons (swelled by Remainer defectors from their parties such as Chuckka Umunna and Sarah Wollaston and a few others whose names are already forgotten by me) went to Jo Swinson’s head and made her far too ready to initiate a General Election.

    Anyway thanks Jo. I wonder if she’d welcome a nice Thank You card?

  65. Hamlys have a vacancy for next year it might suite Corybn only for November and December though. Uniform will be provided and must like children

  67. My late mother would have had a helluva boost last night to see that it was in her Blyth Valley constituency where the first major blow was struck against Labour’s Red Wall. That result came as a shock …. and I suppose the Labour candidate replacing the long-serving, but retiring, Ronnie Campbell, imagined many years in Parliament ahead of her.

  68. It would be interesting to record the geographical centre of gravity of the Tory MPs of 1987 and 2019. I reckon it’s probably moved 30-50 miles in a northerly direction.

  69. Now, God, how about giving the new Tory government and all of us some nice dry crisp sunny weather for the next few months?

  70. Now, if Boris is really up to it, perhaps he can turn his attention to getting immigration under CONTROL once he has sorted out the EU.

    I recall Cameron pledging to get immigration down to the tens of thousands a year just before he came to power (or was it all a dream?).

    Well, in over the last almost-decade since the Tories came into office these shores have absorbed over 2.5 million more adults from overseas. Goodness only knows where they are all living, as we haven’t built nearly enough additional housing for that many people let alone for all the newly forming UK households who now have little hope of being able to afford a home of their own without significant parental assistance.

      1. Any organisation that has “administrative expenses” of £52m needs to be investigated for money laundering activity!

        1. The extraordinary thing is, by random coincidence, the same organization had 72 top level meetings with the European Commission in 2018……………….

          https://lobbyfacts.eu/representative/1742c4e55b744063a6c757ce939ef91c

          I wonder what they talked about ?

          As EU policy looks pretty well identical to OS policy, I don’t think it’s difficult to guess.

          I wonder why the European Commission throws open the doors so often to a multi billionaire and his team ?

          Allegedly, the multi billionaire had some interesting ”dealings” in 2009 with the former President of the United States, please scroll down…………….

          https://politicalarena.org/2012/01/14/democrats-sugar-daddy-george-soros-helped-craft-stimulus-then-invested-in-companies-benefiting/

          If Peter Schweizer’s research is correct and true, could it be that the presumably vast profits of the 2009 operation were recycled to influence the policies of governments, including maybe even the British ?

          Also, if the research is true, does it indicate a pattern of behavior of dealing at the top, and, if it does, can one think of any other time in history in particular when much the same might have happened ?

        2. The “administrative expenses” are of course de facto salaries / payments to operatives & suppliers of services such as spying, sabotage and fake news / propaganda

    2. Amongst the number of commentators exclaiming that Johnson will go for a softer Brexit – softer than what, one may ask? – one claimed that Johnson remains a keen advocate of immigration. This is yet another area that Johnson pronounced on in a favourable manner i.e. skilled people who would bolster the UK rather than be a financial drag only need apply. He has promised much, maybe too much and will disappoint many people if he begins to renege on promises made.

      1. They talk the talk but do nothing. I still remember Cameron bragging about how many new jobs (about 2.9 million) the Conservatives had “created” in the UK since they took over. What they didn’t mention was the fact that two thirds of those jobs had gone to people who were not born in the UK.

        I wonder how many of those newly created jobs paid earnings in the top two income quintiles (which is where you apparently have to be to be a net contributor to the UK economy)?

        1. This is very odd – I keep getting a message telling me that I must be logged in to upload an image, but I AM logged in!

          I hate tech that doesn’t work! 🙁

  71. Corbyn: I will not be leading the party into the next General Election.

    You won’t be leading it into the next month, mate.

    1. I reckon that privately he is relieved that he lost. He never wanted to be the Labour Party leader, and can’t have enjoyed pretending that he loved the EU.

      1. I sincerely hope Labour will stand down Dianne Abbott in the very near future. Propping her up to stand for this election was cruelty in the extreme, the poor woman is not, and probably never has been, up to the job.

    2. Yo Peddy

      If Liebore had won, he was not going to be ‘leading the Party.’

      He would have been a titular PM, until MuckDonnel decide he wanted to move into 10 Downing Street himself

      1. ‘Morning, Tryers. I hope MuckDonell still has designs on No 10, as it should ensure that Liebour remains out of office for at least two terms.

    1. It will be written on the paper to hand.

      That used to be perforated sheets, each one marked ‘Government Property’

      I have now doubt SATAN emptied the store cupboards of such paper, when he and the Wich departed from N0 10

      1. “… perforated sheets, each one marked ‘Government Property'” and shiny, to spread it all around.

  75. It didn’t take the EU very long to redraw their line in the sand. LBC reports that Charles Michel, new leader of the EU Council, has stated that there will be no FTA without alignment i.e. the UK must not be able to set many of its own parameters and become competitive. This will be the real test of Johnson’s direction of travel. If he caves in to this then all his rhetoric leading up to the election was so much hot air. May was prepared to accept anything the EU threw at her and she collapsed the Tory vote and brought ridicule on the UK. Is Johnson made of sterner stuff or is he prepared to kowtow to the apparatchiks?

    1. That is not a question. It is written implying that you don’t trust him and know the answer.
      The answer must be that he is limited by the extent of the opposition he receives from the Remainers who are still around but are biding their time.

      1. Read what you will into the post.
        If, as you claim, the Remainers could limit the actions of a PM who has a strong mandate from the electorate, then surely that PM’s ability to govern as the electorate demands should be questioned. Do you not agree?

        1. The number of Labour and other voters who switched to Conservative implies that there there were other motivations for voting Conservative then just Brexit. I agree with what you say, but troublemakers can still cause trouble……It will be interesting to see how things work out. Boris has no competition anyway, he can only do his best.

  78. Afternoon All
    So far,so good,utter disaster has been avoided,now we shall see if we are to be betrayed anyway…………
    The globalist MSM haven’t changed their spots,as soon as the result became clear the likes of Marr were saying “now we can get the softest of Brexit through”
    The vote yesterday made it plain the people want a meaningful exit from the EU
    We shall see………………….

    1. Sky News found it difficult to stop themselves leaping down the pro-EU soft-Brexit path this morning. One of their reporters has already come out with “A one year time frame for the transition period is unrealistic” paving the way for Barnier’s “three years at least” position.

      Here is a thought. Boris has the seats to do whatever he wants to now. Let’s just Leave the EU without a deal. That thing that we voted for. But I don’t think that Boris will allow that to happen, even though the opposition could not stop him.

      2. A nicked comment sums it up

        “Boris is a wet, Libertarian/Libertine/Liberal, open borders, amnesty granting, lazy bumbling fuckwit.
        Prepare to be bitterly disappointed, probably on seeing his next PC selection
        for cabinet positions, quotas for wimmin, effnics, trannies etc”
        Exactly my fears

    1. As any future employer might remark: “It’s not the lack of ambition, it’s your lack of ability that worries us….”

  81. Swinson giving some sort of departure speech, she is howling out her usual guff and calling TR the UK’s biggest racist, just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the issue. I guess that Tesco needs staff at this time of year and will keep her off the streets

  83. Oi laffed

    … and the outcome is clear. With a new Conservative government led by
    Boris Johnson poised for office, the Guardian’s independent, measured,
    authoritative reporting has never been so vital.”

    “”

  85. Qantas picks Airbus over Boeing for longest flights

    Qantas has picked Airbus jets to fly its ultra long haul routes, dealing a blow to rival plane maker Boeing.
    The airline selected the A350-1000 for its planned non-stop Sydney to London service, which would be the world’s longest commercial flight.

    2. I don’t think I will be flying on that if I ever go to Oz again. The thought of a 22-hour flight with no breaks would have me wanting to jump out halfway there.

  86. Sorry to pour cold water over the celebrations.

    Another Scottish independence referendum will be requested, swiftly followed by more legal challenges to Brexit.

    I will feel better if Johnson quotes the once in a generation line back to Sturgeon and tells her NO!, in no uncertain terms.
    Giving her another referendum after the last one was lost will only energise the people’s vote cretins over Brexit.

    1. Will, you know who, write off his losses in the UK and look for more profitable areas to exploit with his globalist aims or has another opportunity opened up here now that the political scene looks to be settled for the next few years?

      1. That will depend upon whether Johnson pushes through the WA & PD and they turn out to be as bad as many on here fear.

        That in turn depends on how the EU reacts once they have the documents signed. I really cannot see Barnier & Co being any more cooperative than they have to date. Less so is my guess, much less so.

    2. He gave her the bad news quite recently. Besides, a poll conducted in Scotland a few weeks ago established that only 43% are in favour of independence.

      1. She’s claiming that the results in Scotland give her the mandate to put in the formal request, so let’s hope he sticks to his guns.

        1. She will have her work cut out, especially if BoJo insists that she can have her referendum on the basis of, say, a majority of two thirds is required. Besides, I think that financial reality will dawn upon many Scottish voters as they see our departure from the EUSSR coming down the track, and the loss of English financial support after we divorce. The EU rules require, amongst other things, a debt to GDP ratio of 3%, whereas it is currently 9% in Scotland. All told, I think it unlikely that she will achieve even a 50% threshold.

          1. I think the whole exercise is a waste of time for Scotland.
            The only thing that might come out of it that would be good is a resounding defeat, swiftly followed by her expulsion from Scottish politics.

            I would be extremely careful about setting a very high bar, such as two thirds, because it sets a precedent that might come back to bite. If Cameron had done that we would be in the EU until it implodes.

            I could see the EU making a special dispensation for Scotland, if only to spite the rUK and get access to the fishing.

          2. After the fiasco that followed Greece’s entry with their economy well outside the rules, I suspect that they will not wish to repeat the exercise.

    3. And that the Barnett formula is outdated and will be dropped, now that Scotland thinks it can handle its own affairs.

  87. Apparently the twitter leftards are in meltdown,many blaming the “Far Right BBC” for their defeat,many saying they will cancel their licence fees
    Finally a topic on which we can unite the whole country
    Dancing on the grave of the Al-Beeb

    1. Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University Glasgow has got it down to a fine art. I thought he was biting off more than he could chew last night but he rose to the occasion and was even tweaking the figures as the night progressed. He has a team of workers dealing with the info as it is collected during the election day. The Professor is a genius and like a good Scot, modest but steady.

      1. Yes, but how do they get the result so quickly is the question. Probably stop asking people how they voted an hour before the polls close, gives them time to do the riffmatik

    3. There’s always been a concern with exit polling that early returns may cause people who planned on voting later in the day to stay home, thus subverting the election itself.

      (Greetings TB).

  90. Jess Phillips, – remembering your behaviou in the Commons and hectoring parents who objected to LGBT+ teaching to primary school kids – I feel your pain, and it feels good.

    2. Allowing total strangers to teach primary school children about adult sexual behaviours normalizes “sex-talk” between children and non-parental adults thus leaving the children vulnerable to adult predators and paedophiles.

      (Greetings, LD).

  91. There is certain whiff of euphoria, as well there may be. The Tories have turned things round as far as control in Parliament is concerned. We are now in the position where a Tory Government, already committed and signed up to a ruinous, legally-binding and irrevocable agreement with the EU can drive this iniquitous enslavement of the British people through Parliament in a very few weeks, in the absence of any opposition.
    Yet as, of now, we have never seen any detail of what is in this “new “Withdrawal Agreement” other than being told it is better than the previous one*, and that it drives a union destroying wedge between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

    * Mr Bull, the patient, “So, doctor, I really do not have TB after all? What a relief!”
    Dr Johnson, the doctor, ” That is so, Mr Bull, you do not have TB. Unfortunately you have terminal cancer”.

    1. There is no “new Withdrawal Agreement”.
      The Tories agreed with the EU in the Extension Agreement last March that there would be no change to the May agreement.

      (12) This extension excludes any re-opening of the Withdrawal Agreement.

      Any unilateral commitment, statement or other act by the United
      Kingdom should be compatible with the letter and the spirit of the
      Withdrawal Agreement,and must not hamper its implementation.

      Such an extension cannot be used to start negotiations on the future relationship.

  94. From Russia With Loo-ve: Vladimir Putin is accompanied by SIX bodyguards while going to the BATHROOM during Ukraine peace talks at the Elysee Palace. 13 December 2019.

    Vladimir Putin was spotted going to the toilet with six bodyguards while at a Ukraine summit in Paris.

    The Russian leader, 67, was filmed leaving the bathroom after five bodyguards made sure his surroundings were safe.

    Another bodyguard walked behind him as he left the toilet in Paris’s Elysee Palace.

    They were making sure that Macron wasn’t hiding in there! Lol!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7788831/Vladimir-Putin-accompanied-SIX-bodyguards-going-BATHROOM.html

        1. The ones who got locked in the lavatory?

          The first lady’s name was Old Mrs Humphry
          She sat herself down and made herself comfy
          Alas and Alack she could not get her bun free
          And nobody knew she was there.

    2. That’s nothing at all.
      A couple of weeks ago the Prince of Wales visited the Scottish Borders. Streets were closed, dustbins searched, roof tiles removed and drains probed.
      I spoke to a shopkeeper in Hawick whose shop was visited. His shop was completely turned over by security in advance. When the Prince actually turned up he had nine bodyguards with him.

  96. It seems like one of the down voter things is going physical after showing such a sweet nature, still many a nasty reptile have becoming colours.

  97. Some old and some new (to me) to continue the light-heartedness of this morning:

    Son: “Dad, we’re learning about prisms at school. They’re fascinating.”

    Dad: “That’s good son, because as a dyslexic black boy, you’re bound to end up in one.”

    ———————————————–

    Paddy decides to take up boxing and goes for the required medical. A few days later the doctor

    ‘phones and says “Paddy, you realise you’ve got sugar diabetes.”

    Paddy says, “Nice one, when do I fight him?”

    ————————————————

    It was hard getting over my addiction to the Hokey Cokey. But I’ve turned myself around and that’s what it’s all about.

    ———————————-

    Paddy caught his Wife having an affair and decided to kill her and himself. He puts the gun to his head, looks at his Wife and says “Don’t laugh, you’re next!!”

    ————————————————

    Little boy gets home from school and says “Dad, I’ve got a part in the school play as a man who’s been married for 25 years.”

    His Dad replies “Never mind Son. Maybe next time you’ll get a speaking part!!”

    ————————————————-

    Two Irishmen looking through a mail order catalogue.

    Paddy says “Look at these gorgeous women! The prices are reasonable too.”

    Mick agrees “I’m ordering one right now”

    3 weeks later Paddy says to Mick “Has your woman turned up yet?”

    “No” said Mick “but it shouldn’t be long now though. Her clothes arrived yesterday!!

    ————————————————–

    A dwarf goes to a very good but very busy doctor and asks “I know you are busy but do you treat dwarves?”

    The doctor replies “Yes, but you will have to be a little patient”.

    —————————————————

    In hindsight I should have posted my Facebook status as: “I’ve blown the head gasket on my 1997 XR3i” rather than “I’ve just buggered a 14 year old

    escort”.

    The police still haven’t seen the funny side, my lap top’s been confiscated, and the wife has gone off to her mother.

    —————————————————

    A Yorkshire man takes his cat to the vet.

    Yorkshireman: “Ayup, lad, I need to talk to thee about me cat.”

    Vet: “Is it a tom?”

    Yorkshireman: “Nay, I’ve browt it with us.”
    —————————————————

    A Yorkshireman’s dog dies and as it was a favourite pet, he decides to have a gold statue made by a jeweller to remember the dog by.

    Yorkshireman: “Can tha mek us a gold statue of yon dog?”

    Jeweller: “Do you want it 18 carat?”

    Yorkshireman: “No I want it chewin’ a bone yer daft bugger!”

    —————————————————

    The last is always best

    Bloke from Barnsley with piles asks chemist “Nah then lad, does tha sell arse cream?”

    Chemist replies “Aye, Magnum or Cornetto?”

  98. This election will necessitate some reinterpretation of the history of the Tory Party and, hopefully, many asking whhat the hell were Major and Heseltine everr doing as leader and deputy leaader. And also alll those traitors to democracy such as Grieve, Gauke, Hammonnd, Soubry, Rudd … and why were so mmany in the dull geographer’s cabinet?

    1. Let us hope that Johnson has the common sense not to let any of the Conservative Party remainers who have held their seats into his government.

  99. Looking at the London results, I hope we don’t have a long hot summer of discontent in the capital. It seems totally out of step with the rest of the country and ripe for rioting and anarchy.

  100. Disappointed but not surprised at the election results in my constituency (Inverness, Badenoch, Nairn and Strathspey) where the SNP held the seat. The Conservatives, who had lifted themselves from fourth place to second in 2017, still came second but their share of the vote fell. After the three years of lies and betrayal by the Maybot, it was inevitable.

    Knowing that a vote for the Conservatives would be a wasted vote, I thought I may as well waste my vote on the Brexit Party’s Les Durance, who, I’m sad to say, garnered only 1,078 votes from a turnout of over 70%.

    But the struggle continues, in the words of Marcus Tullius Cicero, “Noli nothis permittere te terere.”

    I am having a car-sticker printed saying:

    SECOND ELECTION NOW! – WE ARE THE 2%

    1. With FPTP it is a struggle to gain seats as you need to break the 20% barrier to do so which is almost impossible

      The SNP got a foot hold due to devolution and with the devolved government using PR that enabled them to get established.

      If you look at the UK picture the SNP is vastly over represented for the percentage of votes it gets

    2. For the last 25 years I’ve voted for the Referendum Party and then UKIP. This time I voted Tory to keep Blackford out – you know Blackford the SNP mouthpiece who slags everything the Tories do but has half a dozen other jobs one of which is sitting on the board of one of Michael Gove’s companies – so he’s really a Tory when it suits him financially

      3. David Lammy, the man who epitomises the expression “too clever by half”, but in his case a missing half not an extra one…

  103. Very pleasing that the left has totaly failed. Boris will be underated for some time and then it will kick in on just how god he is.

      1. Oh, he will get it done, the question is what form of Brexit.
        I know I am in the minority here when I say the type Brexit he plans is a t^rd of a Brexit.

  104. Why oh why is BBC1 giving that superannuated windbag Ken Clarke lots of airtime?
    I thought he had retired as an MP.

  105. I give up. I am still unable to post an image even though I have logged out and back in, and am logged in on Disqus.

    Catch you later, maybe.

    1. Since my ipad updated (and caused me all sorts of problems) I have not been able to upload to Disqus. It says I am not logged on, when I am. Also difficulties with looking at notifications. You are not alone!

      1. It’s still malfunctioning. It’s odd, because when I first came in it worked.

  106. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Late on parade, and just a brief visit this morning. What a night! Exit poll at 10pm, a glass or two at 10:05, turned in at 00:30, up again at 05:00…

    I wonder if Swansong has a better understanding of the phrase ‘democratic mandate’ now?

  110. Sad that Nigel Dodds’ sensible voice will no longer be heard in the Commons. One reason for the delay in revision of electoral boundaries was that it would cause a problem for the DUP. But that no longer applies, it’s time to revise the unequal distribution across the UK and implement the changes to remove the current Labour bias.

    1. Dennis Skinner requires a thank you for his support of Brexit. It was time he retired but the electorate made the decision for him.

      1. I think he’s rather pleased over how it turned out. He had no intention of retiring voluntarily, and yet really he did not want to become Father of the House. The solution was to be voted out.

  111. One to treasure from Michael Deacon:
    …. “John McDonnell sounded like Eeyore discovering that Tigger has trampled the thistles he was saving for his birthday.”

  112. “It’s curtains for the Corbyn clown show… and on TV the pundits are reeling

    “Quickly they agreed the line to take. Simply: that Labour’s crushing defeat was all down to Brexit. Not anything else. Or anyone else. Just to make that clear.”

    “Quickly they agreed the line to take. Simply: that Labour’s crushing defeat was all down to Brexit. Not anything else. Or anyone else. Just to make that clear.”

    On TV, everyone looked stunned. Not just Labour. Everyone. From every party. On every channel. Motionless, pallid, blank. Like shocked shop dummies. Such was the Tory onslaught, even the swingometer was struggling to cope. “They’ve virtually broken it,” whimpered Jeremy Vine.

    Supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, however, had to snap out of their stupor. Quickly they agreed the line to take. Simply: that Labour’s crushing defeat was all down to Brexit. Not anything else. Or anyone else. Just to make that clear.

    On BBC One, John McDonnell sounded like Eeyore discovering that Tigger has trampled the thistles he was saving for his birthday. “I think voters did just want to get Brexit done,” groaned the Shadow Chancellor. You know a slogan is snappy when even your opponents can’t help using it.

    On ITV, however, Alan Johnson – a Labour centrist who served under Tony Blair – took a slightly different view. In his eyes, there was possibly another reason for Labour’s catastrophe. In extraordinary scenes on ITV, he tore into Jon Lansman, co-founder of Momentum – the official Jeremy Corbyn fan club (join today and get a free signed poster and badge).

    “Everybody knew [Mr Corbyn] couldn’t lead the working class out of a paper bag,” snarled Mr Johnson. “Go back to your student politics.”

    “I don’t think we should rush into these things,” protested Mr Lansman, feebly. He added that Mr Corbyn “had achieved a great deal”. Well, quite. Mr Corbyn promised “real change”, and he delivered it. Burnley, Redcar and Wrexham turning Tory. That’s change more radical than even he could have dreamt.

    As the election results rolled in, events only seemed to grow more unreal. On TV most guests and pundits, even those on the winning side, looked as if they’d just stumbled weakly from the world’s fastest fairground ride, and were now staggering off in search of a bucket. This was mad. Mad. The Tories were spreading everywhere. Where would they take next? Normandy?

    Yet, no matter how awful their night grew, Corbynites were still struggling to grasp what had gone wrong. On the BBC, Andrew Neil attempted to talk sense into Richard Burgon, the Father Dougal of the Labour party. Mr Burgon looked like a dog trying to follow a lecture on differential calculus.

    “Yet, no matter how awful their night grew, Corbynites were still struggling to grasp what had gone wrong”

    “Yet, no matter how awful their night grew, Corbynites were still struggling to grasp what had gone wrong” Credit: Toby Melville/REUTERS

    Jeremy Corbyn, for his part, gave a narked and graceless speech, scrupulously void of humility or self-criticism, but thick with mutterings about “the way the media behaved towards me”. He did at least promise to resign, but not immediately – first he would lead the party in “a process of reflection”. Which he and his followers will presumably use to work out who else to blame.

    What a night, though. Astonishing. Flabbergasting. At his count in Uxbridge, shortly before 4am, a dazed Boris Johnson thanked his constituents, his fellow candidates, and the public in general. Disappointingly, however, he forgot to thank the people who made his great triumph possible.

    The membership of the Labour party.”

    1. It’s not about Corbyn it woz brexit wot dun it. Yeah yeah. Tell that to the Jewish people and see if they believe it.

  113. Britain needs its own Mueller report on Russian ‘interference’. 12 Dec 2019

    The British political system has become thoroughly compromised by Russian influence. It’s high time its institutions – including the media – woke up to that fact. In 2016, both the United Kingdom and the United States were the targets of Russian efforts to swing their votes. The aim was to weaken the alliances that had constrained Vladimir Putin’s ambitions, such as the European Union and Nato.

    It woz Vlad wot dun it!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/12/britain-mueller-report-russian-media-uk-us

    1. I’m not sure the EU has ever “constrained” Putin, although they did nearly manage to start WWIII!

    2. How about an investigation into Hungarian interference, specifically one well-know wealthy individual?

    3. I think the Electoral Commission are in the pay of the Russians and the Supreme Court. How about that for a conspiracy theory.

    4. They do realize that the Mueller report showed no collusion between Russia and Trump, but there was between Russia and the Democrats.

  114. Prof Sir John Curtice:
    “The second thing that’s perfectly clear is that, irrespective of whether people wanted to Remain or Leave, to have a second referendum or not, it was clear that lots of Remain voters had doubts about Jeremy Corbyn’s ability to handle Brexit and indeed, more broadly, Jeremy Corbyn’s ability to handle anything.”

  116. Apologies for not posting.

    I’m utterly bladdered on the plonk of victory. Smash the Left. Crush them. All done.

  117. Non Political :-

    Being full of joy and happiness t’missus and I decided to go to the matinee performance of “Knives Out” at our local flea pit. It proved to be a hoot of a film and a respectful homage to Agatha Christie , best thing I’ve seen in ages even allowing for my ebullient mood.

    1. It IS a good film, Uncle Beastly. But “oh!” that Southern Accent by Daniel Craig! To me it seemed like a Brit’s revenge on Dick van Dyke’s Cockney accent.

    1. They blame it on not having a PR voting system.

      Odd that in the European Parliamentary elections – which use a PR system – the British party which got the biggest vote was the Brexit Party.

      But Odder still, of course Remainers do not think that the EU parliament is of any importance at all.

    4. WHAT??? These people are certifiably insane.

      OK, here are some counter-statistics for them.

      1) Remove UKIP, the Brexit Party and the DUP from the non-Conservative votes as they are clearly pro-Brexit parties, and all the remaining votes cast in the General Election are fewer than the number who voted for Brexit in the referendum.

      2) Add up the Conservative, UKIP, BXP and DUP votes in the General Election, and they are about 3 million fewer than votes cast for Brexit in the Referendum. so a goodly chunk of voters who voted for other parties in the General Election probably actually voted to leave the EU in the referendum

      So, whichever way you want to try and cut and dice it, the MAJORITY of voters have voted to leave the EU.

      Get over it, remoaners!

      2. They are like the scroungers who used to be allowed to self-certify illnesses to collect benefits.

    5. A simple quiz question for these idiots and their answers would be on a par with the above

      Ther have been six Kings of England named George, the last being King George VI, name the previous 5

      Using their logic (as it was not a referendum vote)

      1. Queen Elizabeth I

      2 Charles II

      3 Richard III

      4 Henry IV

      5 Edward V

    2. Yep, she is definitely miffed. Now how many rats said they would leave if Boris won, Lineker hasn’t gone yet unfortunately. I guess the bloated teat of the BBC would not stretch to foreign shores.

    5. Well – she’s right about Corbyn. “He can never tell a lie: pretending to watch the Queen’s Christmas
      message in the morning showed he’s not used to fibbing. He is a man
      without any qualities required of a leader, mental agility, articulacy,
      strategy, good humour or charisma.”

      A bit late to tell us that now, though!

      1. ‘ morning all. Long time no see.

        One wonders how she would describe her own “qualities” as displayed in this somewhat hilarious article?

          1. Yes, apart from a niggling cold that I have contracted.

            I now spend two days a week volunteering up at the Country Park. It’s fun.

      1. As far as I’m concerned today I’m mostly considering her disposition to be a blend of Pinot Noir/Shiraz/Cognitive Dissonance/ extreme Dunning Krugerism and a large dash of fookwittery ( and to be generous the effects of fighting the menopause symptoms or PMT)

  121. Boris Johnson should immediately appoint Julia Hartley-Brewer as his chief intermediary with the EU.

    I heard her put forward her preferred modus operandi most lucidly on the radio a month or two ago:

    Go to Brussels and say:

    i) Britain is leaving the EU. End of;
    ii) We shall not pay you anything to do so;
    iii) We offer you a tariff-free trade deal. This is better for you than for us as we buy more from you than you buy from us;
    iv) If you impose tariffs on us we shall reciprocate with the same tariffs on you;
    v) That’s it;
    vi) Take it or leave it.

      1. I think one just went over…

        oh no, it’s a Chinook.

        But I live in hope! 🙂

        (Morning PT)

    3. He should also employ Katie Hopkins as an advisor. He could also ask Polly Toynebee to be a SPAD. Just so he knows exactly what not to do.

    1. It has been confirmed by the hospital that they never placed the child on the floor

      There is also a big £500M expansion of LGI due to start soon. The planning permission has been granted. It included expanded children ward etc

        1. Note to Southerners, especially M.P.’s. –
          Leeds is a big city. It is up North, but not in Scotland. Lots of people live there.
          We know you have never heard of it, but you can read it up on Wikipedia.
          But not Leeds Castle. That’s down South. Sorry to confuse you.

          2. I think it is an ICU as well and probably serves Bradford, Wakefield and Harroggate amounts other places

      1. Northern Powerhouse Minister welcomes plans for two new hospitals in Leeds

        Northern Powerhouse Minister welcomes plans for two new hospitals in Leeds
        7 October 2019

        Minister for the Northern Powerhouse and Local Growth Rt Hon Jake Berry MP visited Leeds General Infirmary to hear first-hand about plans to build two new hospitals and transform the city centre.
        Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is one of six trusts to receive a share of £2.7 billion funding to build new hospitals by 2025.
        In Leeds, a state-of-the- art adults’ hospital will have new operating theatres for day case procedures and added critical care facilities.
        The new children’s hospital next door will bring together services for children and young people in a purpose-built centre.
        These new hospitals will also release land and buildings to support the development of an Innovation District for Leeds, putting this Northern Powerhouse city at the cutting edge of health-tech innovation.

        Minister for the Northern Powerhouse and Local Growth, Rt Hon Jake Berry MP said: “Not only will our investment create two world-class hospitals, it will also help deliver better care for patients across Leeds and Yorkshire. This investment also paves the way for the city’s Innovation District which will attract more investment, create high value jobs and put the Northern Powerhouse at the cutting-edge of innovation in health-tech.
        “Leeds is benefitting from the biggest hospital building programme in a generation. We’re building on significant government support for the area including multi-million pound town deals and over £695 million in Growth Deal funding to level up every place in the UK.”
        Chief Executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Julian Hartley said: “This investment is an historic development in the future of patient care in Leeds and the wider region.
        “It will enable the Trust to take a huge leap forward in how it delivers care for patients from Leeds and beyond. The benefits of this funding will be far-reaching as Leeds is a renowned centre for specialist services, providing treatment and care for patients from across the region, the North of England in in some instances, the rest of the UK. We will be able to develop healthcare based on advanced medical and digital technologies, innovation and research.

  124. Anger after blue badge holder parks on double yellow lines and gridlocks town

    It is about time they changed the regulations. Blue Badge holders should not be able to park on double yellow lines. The lines are there for reason and it is crazy they can park on them. Look s if it is parked pretty much on the corner as well

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5c41b837dba17f7956a5224ee99065c5cf16e96cbfd26d589bb5909ee4e55ef2.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/af32aaa1368670892ad16edc66534b2507fe0419e154736e7f4405526d500057.jpg

    1. It’s not just on double yellows, even if the lines hadn’t been there it was committing an offence by parking too close to a corner or junction.

    2. Although they have the right to park on d/yellows, nobody has the right to obstruct the road. The offending car should have been carted off to the pound.

      1. Most roads in rural area are narrow and parking on double yellow limes causes serious obstruction to reach a property due to parked cars obstructing the road

        Most towns in rural area have double yellow lines on corners and one side of the road s they are just to narrow for parking on both sides. Frequently building get damaged due to such parking when Lorry’s and buses try to get around corners

        The regulations should be changed to not allow them to park on double yellow lines

      2. A bloody big truck like that should not be allowed in tiny roads like that. They are a danger to everybody and everything, including the structure of the buildings.

        1. It was, of course, the nasty EU that pushed us into taking bigger lorries on the road. Is there no end of things we can blame it for! Don’t answer that..

  125. The revenge of democracy. Spiked. 13 December 2019.

    So now we know. Now we know what happens when you declare war on democracy. Now we know the consequences of demeaning the largest democratic vote in a nation’s history. Now we know what becomes of a political class that sneers at voters, silences their democratic voice, and libels them as racist, xenophobic know-nothings who cannot be trusted with stewardship of the nation. You get punished. You get rebelled against. You get replaced. Last night, in those extraordinary election results, we witnessed the revenge of democracy.

    Here’s our Brendan in exultant mood. If you set it to music it would be a paean of victory.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/12/13/the-revenge-of-democracy/

    1. But will Boris deliver a proper Brexit or a minor diluted version of Theresa May’s Wretched Agreement.

      I hope for the first but fear the second.

          2. No mention of us still being tied to EU laws, the ECJ and paying £billions for them to continue to enjoy a £90 billion trade surplus with us.
            Still a Wretched Agreement as I have just written to our MP.

      1. For all his faults Boris was a much better Mayor of London than Dear (as in Effing Expensive) Leader Ken-Il Livingston or Sidekick Khan…

    2. Good morning all too.

      It feels like Spring here in Swanage – the sun is out, the air is fresh, and spirits are high.

      1. Good morning

        When we were in Swanage a couple of days ago , there were lots of Lib/ dem and Labour placards, and it appeared as if my area was the only place to have Drax placards , though some had been defaced.

        1. Morning Belle

          Yes, I had also noticed the sudden appearance of litter all over the place.

          I was so incensed by the Lib Dem leaflet that was pushed through my door that I contacted Nick Ireland and told him what I thought about it. I told him he wasn’t any kind of democrat if he was ignoring the referendum result.

          He actually said that if the Lib Dems got a majority with their “Stop Brexit” campaign, it would be “Democracy In Action”.

          I think he has learned a lesson this morning! tee hee.

        2. The West Country used to be pretty much the only place the Liberals had seats but that was a while ago and the West country is now pretty much a Lib-Dem free zone

          Wales has gone one better . It is a Lib-Dem Free country

        3. I saw no Tory posters round here, but the silent majority came out and the new Tory woman was elected with a 2,000+ majority.

    1. She said that if there were to be a second referendum and the vote were to leave, she would not accept the result. Does this mean that she will not accept the result of the election in her constituency yesterday? Perhaps she will call for a “People’s Vote” in her constituency.

  130. While trawling the depths of the Labour underworld last night I came across this. It’s from a Englishman who has lived in Scotland since the 70s. Encapsulated in fewer than 80 words is the moral and intellectual conceit of the Left.

    Yes [to Scottish independence], it’s no longer just the desire to be responsible for our own decisions but that Scotland and its English masters are so very different politically.

    Scotland is social democratic, progressive, welcoming to EU citizens and immigrants from the rest of the world, able to see through the lies of Johnson.

    England is reactionary, right-wing, hostile to EU citizens and other immigrants, in awe of Johnson and fooled by its media.

  132. Greetings one and all.
    Several times during the night I woke up in a cold sweat, convinced the Marxist had won the election. What a nightmare!
    Headline in the Mail: “EU reluctantly welcomes Boris Johnson’s victory and admits ‘Brexit is now inevitable’ as Czech PM says ‘this is bad news for Europe’ ” – of course it’s bad news for the eu, they can’t carry on as they are without our money!
    One paragraph: “According to the latest draft, seen by AFP, the 27 other EU leaders will call for ‘as close as possible a future relationship with the UK’ while warning that it ‘will have to be based on a balance of rights and obligations and ensure a level playing field’.” – WHY? We should be prioritising the rights of the UK. There should be no further strings attached, no customs union or restrictions and no control by the ECJ.
    Further down:
    “Leaders said the EU was ready to negotiate a free-trade agreement but called on London to work in good faith, underlining EU fears that Britain might try to reinvent itself as a low-regulation rival.” Why shouldn’t we become a low-regulation nation? We should be doing everything we can to strengthen our economic position, regardless of what the eu thinks. If that harms them then they need to adjust accordingly.
    EDIT “These would keep the UK tied to Brussels rules for workers’ rights, state aid and environmental and consumer protection.” NO, NO, NO! If OUR government wishes to aid a British industry in order to save jobs (assuming said industry just needs some short-term support but isn’t a basket case), then we should be free to do so. Sounds like an admission that their own rules are too protectionist and hamper much business.

    2. “”EU reluctantly welcomes Boris Johnson’s victory and admits ‘Brexit is now inevitable’ as Czech PM says ‘this is bad news for Europe'”

      One thing that should be clear by now is that if the EU makes a public statement then it will be a lie. The opposite will be true. The EU are very happy indeed that Boris has this majority because it means that he is going nowhere for the next 5 years and there is no-one to stop their hand-written Withdrawal Agreement going through now. Most of the media have big smiles on their faces at this result, which should set alarm bells ringing.

      But I don’t want to rain on the parade. There are clearly a lot of people who think that this result is a good thing. People should be allowed to feel happiness as there is so little of it around these days. 🙂

  134. Second referendum off table, concede campaigners

    The People’s Vote campaign has conceded that a second Brexit referendum is no longer on the cards after Boris Johnson secured a significant Conservative majority.

    The campaign group said it would “rebrand” in the new year to focus on pushing for a “fair deal for Britain” in the Brexit negotiations.
    “The People’s Vote will now refocus its campaign to concentrate on vital social issues that this Government must urgently prioritise in its Brexit negotiations,” it said in a statement.

    “We urge the government to avoid a hard Brexit that will be a disaster for our country and instead work with our European partners to get the fair deal that British people deserve.

    “The poorest and most vulnerable will be further marginalised if Boris Johnson’s Government crashes us out of the EU with no deal.
    “Early next year the People’s Vote campaign will rebrand and reorganise to campaign for a fair deal for Britain.”

  136. Pregnant women died after fears Tory crackdown on ‘health tourism’ would bankrupt them, report delayed until after election reveals

    When you read the canticle you find the claim is rubbish. Almost no other country in the world offer free health care to visitor and in any case the article states that they were entitled to free care

    How much you have to pay
    You’ll have to pay:
    £300 per year for a student or Tier 5 (Youth Mobility Scheme) visa, for example £600 for a 2-year visa
    £400 per year for all other visa and immigration applications, for example £2,000 for a 5-year visa
    Dependants usually need to pay the same amount as you.
    The exact amount you have to pay depends on how much leave you’re granted. Calculate how much you’ll have to pay before you apply.
    You’ll pay half of the yearly amount if your application includes part of a year that is less than 6 months.
    You’ll pay for a whole year if your application includes part of a year that is more than 6 months.
    You’ll automatically get a partial refund if you paid the healthcare surcharge for more years than you were granted leave.
    When you must pay
    If you apply for a visa online, you pay the surcharge as part of the application.
    If you apply for a visa by post, you must pay the surcharge online before you send your application. You’ll need to include your IHS reference number

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/nhs-report-delayed-until-after-election-reveals-pregnant-women-died-because-of-mistaken-fears-they-a9245966.html

    1. The above charges seem cheap. I have a figure of someone in the UK earning £25K a year paying £1000 a year toward the NHS

      In addition a lot of student accommodation is excempt from council tax so overseas students should be required to pay it. Why should we subsidies overseas students

    2. But perhaps you would also like to know what is costs the NHS to provide these services – we can find this out from what they generally charge people who are not entitled to free healthcare, i.e. visitors to the UK:

      Antenatal care £1590-£4233,

      Birth £2244-£3282 (plus additional payments if you need a long stay in hospital),

      Postnatal care £355.50-£1207.50

  137. Idle curiosity from a none of the above voter.

    Does anyone here know many spoilt and NOTA votes were cast?

          1. BBC lists 294,588 votes cast for “Other Parties”, i.e. parties other that the 25 parties enumerated in their election returns.

            That’s a vote share percentage of 0.9%, but shockingly a vote share change of +0.8% (since 2017, presumably).

            So I do believe there is a story here on ‘spoilt papers’.

            https://www.bbc.com/news/election/2019/results

            @disqus_RWpY7pYgyi:disqus
            @sosraboc:disqus

          2. I suspect that there were a lot of people who were expressing a protest vote but refused to vote for raving loonies and the like.

          3. It’s an interesting question how they tally spoilt papers. Presumably ‘election turnout’ should count voters who submitted spoilt papers, because, well–they “turned out”–didn’t they?

            Almost 300k votes for “other parties” (presumably spoilt papers) is about half as many votes as The Brexit Party garnered. The percentage of disgust expressed by ‘Tory-disaficionados’ or ‘Labour-disaficionados’ will be the source of much speculation in coming months.

          4. I doubt whether spoilt ballots are counted as “other parties”. More likely to be the such as the “Peace Party” candidate in the Guildford example above.

          5. But Geoff, 300k? BBC lists 25 parties down to the 351 votes cast for “Advance Together” candidates.

            BTW, Monster Raving Loony Party garnered 9,739 votes. What times we live in !!

          6. Fair point, but – taking the Guildford example above – where is the Peace Party on the BBC report? What about ex-tory independents? Anne Milton received 4,356 (wasted) votes. I don’t see her on the BBC site. Ditto Grieveous and the others.

            I’d have voted Loony if they’d had a candidate here. The only sane choice…

          7. Correct: no Peace Party on the BBC report. Still have to account for a +0.8% change in votes for “Other Parties” since 2017. (There were 25 major parties listed by the BBC in 2019, compared to 23 major parties listed by the BBC in 2017).

            1. Votes for quasi-independent candidates (those withdrawn by TBP, for instance)?
            2. Votes cast for ‘regional parties’ like the Peace Party?
            3. Spoilt or NOTA ballots cast?

            https://www.bbc.com/news/election/2019/results
            https://www.bbc.com/news/election/2017/results

          8. 1 and 2, certainly. I’m pretty sure that spoilt ballots aren’t counted as ‘other’. If I see the Returning Officer in church on Sunday, I’ll ask her…

          9. When I can’t find something simple, I assume that for some reason they do not want me to find it.

    2. There seemed to be more than usual but the BBC cut off the declarations just as the spoilt papers were being detailed. Could be because of the number of youngsters making errors.

      1. Thank you.
        That suggests that the “official” way of spoiling has not been used there, or that nun of de spoilers dun it proper-loike.

        1. I suspect that “Brexit Party”, “None of the above”, and other comments would go into item (d). 139 seems much higher than I recall from previous elections. I’ll prolly see the RO in church on Sunday. I could ask her…

      2. Are people so thick as to sign/write their name on the paper?

        It’s not complicated. It says put one X on the paper. Just the one. Can people not read?

        1. Evidently they are. And they can’t. Incidentally, I’ve just looked up the last two GEs in Guildford.
          ‘Being unmarked or wholly void for uncertainty’ is actually rather consistent. 2015: 133; 2017: 118; 2019: 139.
          Perhaps it’s the same voters each time…

      1. I did.
        and as I wrote below:
        Thank you.
        That suggests that the “official” way of spoiling has not been used there, or that nun of de spoilers dun it proper-loike.

      2. Greetings from the constituency next door. Your 145 void total is not dissimilar to Guildford, with 139. Extrapolate that around 650 constituencies, would give around 91,000 votes for NOTA. Slightly fewer than the Ulster Unionist Party, and four times as many as UKIP…

        1. So, under proportional representation I get over £100k a year plus a great pension as the NOTA candidate?

          Great! Where do I sign…

    1. BJ: “Thanks DT, please may we order a gazillion tons of salt to rub into the remainer’s wounds?”

    2. Most of it will complement each country rather than compete/ The ideas the US will flood the UK with chlorinated chickens is daft. Chicken is not that cheap in the US compared to the UK and then add on shipping it half way around the worked and it makes little

    3. I rather hope that Boris made the first call to President Trump. He should have apologised for giving him the cold shoulder at the NATO summit, recently held in London, and for the frankly disgraceful behaviour of the current Mayor of London and his Corbyn supporting acolytes both then and on his previous visit.

      We need the closest ties to the USA with the growing threat of China and Russia. Both are eyeing the Arctic with its known mineral and oil resources. We therefore must keep our Trident and missile systems and our submarine base at Faslane.

      I just watched the repulsive Glaswegian sprite on Sky News pumping her small fists at the announcement of the poll verdict on Jo Swinson. We are all glad that Swinson lost her seat but such an outward histrionic display is surely unacceptable in a supposedly mature politician.

      Coincidentally we have just entertained a lovely Scottish neighbour whose family owned a shipping line in Glasgow between the Wars (Orient Line). She recounted that the Sturgeons of the time lived in tenements and would spread a slice of stale bread with jam and throw it out of a window to the street below where their children would pick it up from the road for their supper.

      Our friend told us that on the occasion that the children from the tenements were treated to a Christmas dinner that they ate nothing but put their plated meal in the drawers below the table tops. They did not eat it for the reason that they did not recognise turkey, roast potatos and greens as food.

      Our friend recognised Sturgeon as being a typical English hating Glaswegian. She is 87 years of age and bright as a button.

      1. That’s an interesting story.

        I discovered recently that she has been meeting George S reps.

        I’m sure it’s just a random coincidence that her policies are virtually identical to his socialist progressive policies.

        G S seems to have ways of getting politicos to do exactly what he wants.

        I would guess that her drive for Scottish independence comes from him as it would fracture the UK.

  139. Lammy may run for Labour leadership

    He may be an option for the London bubble but in the rest of the UK he would be a disaster. Still I dont mind it will keep Labour out for another decade

    Labour MP David Lammy, who was re-elected in Tottenham last night, has said he is “thinking about” running for the Labour leadership.
    He told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Emma Barnett: “Of course I’m thinking about it, because people like me that have been in the party for 20 years have got now to do a lot of heavy lifting to get us into the right place.

    1. Great! I’ll support him running for leader. Let’s hope he wins. He’ll repel as many voters as Corbyn.

    2. Well, I suppose he thinks that he wouldn’t have much to do, so many people claiming the Labour manifesto was very popular on the doorstep. Sadly for the Labour Party but great news for the rest of us, the doorstep was where it remained along with the rest of the recycling.

  140. Good morning my fellow Nottlers ! Happy Friday 13th – ’twas a famous victory yesterday & a sweet morrow today! I personally am in great spirits at the defeat of Labour but I hope that Corbyn remains its leader for life as this will ensure Tory rule for the next 5 elections & should lead to Labour splitting up into the “Red Labour ” Momentum/ TUC / Muslim Brotherhood / Pan-African Alliance and a new shrunken Blairite Labour party.
    I correctly predicted that the Brexit party would not win a single seat but they did cause the Tories to lose at least 10 seats that are now still in Labour’s bloody hands by siphoning off thousands of pro-Leave votes! Hopefully both the Brexit & UKIP parties will dissolve once the UK actually leaves the EUSSR Gulag !

        1. Thank you!
          I hope you and yours have a peaceful time. Will you be taking time for Christmas?

    2. Indeed, their work is now done, I hope.

      But we have a lot to thank Nigel Farage for, let’s not forget that.

          2. Thanks. I’m just recuperating from a misery of a cold, so I am not out and about as I normally would be in this glorious sunny weather.

            I’m quite busy these days. But I might drop in for a chat later if I have some time.

    1. So not many were put off by those spending promises, that doesn’t say much for the voters.

      Is there by any chance a survey on why they voted labour? How many did so because of the magical money promises?

  142. Tuned in to LBC earlier, just to hear James O’Brien squealing and squirming over the election result.

    There was a caller, John from Birmingham, who said he’d voted Tory because he was unhappy with Corbyn’s support for the PIRA, that carried out the Birmingham pub bombing atrocities in which twenty-one people died.

    But despite voting Tory, John said he was ‘gutted’ when he heard the Tories had won the election. O’Brien thought this was a ‘brilliant’ call and commended it to his listeners, indeed so ‘brilliant’ was it that he kept bringing it up, ad nauseam.

    Colour me thick but I don’t quite get WTF John was bleating about.

  143. None of the eleven defectors was prepared to submit himself or herself to a by election and each one of the eleven lost his or her seat in the general election..

    People should bear in mind that the previous defectors who were honourable enough to stand down – Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless – did submit themselves to a by-election and they retained their seats.

    Mrs Soubry and her fellow defectors might consider the moral of this: integrity is not always the wrong answer.

  144. In the six months following the Wells Terrace closure, the station had to be closed or partially closed 83 times, though TfL denied it was due to the closure.
    London Underground’s managing director Andy Lord said: “The completion of the upgrade and opening of the new entrance means that journeys will be easier and quicker through the station, while the new lifts have already made Finsbury Park more accessible for the tens of thousands of customers who use the station every day.”

    I can only assume the lifts wil go fro the mainline station to the underground platforms. The underground platform at Finsbury park are almost on the surface with only a very short flight of steps to the platform

  146. Unsurprisingly, the media has been talking of a ‘soft’ Brexit, saying that Johnson can ignore the hard-liners in the ERG. Not so fast. Does anyone know what the new intake thinks of the deal? There are more than 100 new Tory MPs. We must hope that the ERG can get enough of them onside to hold Johnson to account. They (the new members) will also tell him that they might be in for only one term if the UK’s leaving is fudged.

    Some of the new members have actually worked for a living: Paul Howell, Sedgefield, retired accountant; Jo Gideon, Stoke-on-Trent Central, import/export; Sara Britcliffe, Hyndburn, just 24 but with her own business, a small bakery in Oswaldtwistle. Makes a change from the usual PPE ponces.

  147. Comparison of Health Care System (2013/2014 figures)

    The UK spends about 0.5% less on Health. WE have a similar number of GP’s to the other countries but get a far worse service. IT is unclear why. Do people abuse the system. Are the GP’s not giving us value for money ?

    WE clearly need more hospital beds, WE only have about half the number as in other countries

    WE need more nurses and midwifes having typically a 30% lower number of them

    There are thouggh as well more fundamental issues with how the NHS works. IT is not as efficient as the services in the other countries

    Health spending as share of GDP

    Belgium 10.4%
    France 10.9%
    Germany 10.9%
    UK 9.9%

    No of GP’s per 1000 of population

    Belgium 3.0
    France 3.1
    Germany 4.1
    UK 2.8

    No of Hospital Beds per 1000 of population

    Belgium 6.5
    France 6.1
    Germany 6.2
    UK 2.9

    Nurses and midwives per 1000 population

    Belgium 10.7
    France 9.65
    Germany 11.1
    UK 6.67

    1. The gap on GPs and nurses per 1000 is much greater than one would expect based on the %GDP spend figures. How do we do on Health Managers and DiversityLiaisonOfficers per 1000 pop. and doctor’s and nurses pay (and managers spend)?

    2. Your numbers appear a bit off.

      Number of GPs per 1000 population: The US, the UK, and Japan had relatively low numbers of doctors per thousand populace (2.3-to-2.8 per 1000). By comparison, a whole slew of countries have approximately 50% more doctors per thousand populace:

      Monaco, Greece, San Marino, Austria, Georgia, Norway, Lithuania, ​Portugal, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Italy, Belarus, and Cuba.

      https://databank.worldbank.org/reports.aspx?source=2&series=SH.MED.PHYS.ZS&country=

    3. There’s significant differences in how their health systems are funded though.

      In the majority – well, no, all of them except ours are insurance based. You pay for your care personally. Some have caps, others the government offers alongside private contractors.

      The problem the NHS has is it is.. what’s the word…. overstaffed. It can afford to be. If a hospital were paid after it completed the work it would know what it needed. Instead, it is simply given a lump of cash. If someone gave us our salary for a year upfront, we wouldn’t have a clue what to do with it. We’d roughly know our costs but what if we need a new car? What if there’s a leak in the bathroom?

      Hospitals have the same problem, so they have huge health bodies to oversee their spending. Great groups of people to manage all that money for them. Now. Why do they exist? Because the system is overmanned yet understaffed because it doesn’t know what it needs.

      Invert the funding model. Pay it when it does the work – as all other systems do.

    1. I looked at this thread and thought that her poster must contain a typo.

      It turns out, much to my surpise, that the typo is yours!..

      What an unfortunate, but apt, name for the lady!

      1. Well her partner, a Mr Bedenham, is going to be sleeping on the couch, for at least the next month, whilst the situation is reviewed.

    2. That was a close call. We might have ended up with a majority under-35 female Government like Finishedland.

  151. It was George Orwell who first tried to explain to his metropolitan Labour readers how the working class were above all patriotic; in 1930s he had witnessed a Royal Jubilee celebration in one of London’s slums. People had chalked ‘God Save the King’ and then, only then, ‘Down with the Landlord’ in the road when celebrating with a street party. Corbyn and his activists loath this country. Yesterday they were treated to a lesson in real politics rather than the fantasy they have wrapped around themselves for years, in Corbyn’s case since ever. People are tribal by instinct, though today that leeway is never granted to the white wage earners. Their views have been policed in recent decades (under Tory governments no less) with a rigour and determination unseen in this country other than wartime since the seventeenth century. Speaking about one’s own experience as a member of the white British tribe would end careers and cost you your job. Silence was mistaken for agreement or, at least, silence. Yesterday huge numbers of wage earners voted for their country before self interest. This extraordinary phenomenon will go unremarked however. The media has sold itself to the cult of multiculturalism and has nothing left to invest. Like Orwell they ought to leave their comfortable leftist environment, put on stout boots and this time really ‘Listen to Britain’. But I suspect they know what they would learn and that would make their lives unbearable. You see, in the end it comes down to a plain fact. People want their own culture not one imposed upon them by what most, in private, stubbornly still call ‘foreigners’.

  152. I was at the house of a woman in her 60s yesterday afternoon when her phone rang. Apparently a call from the Lib-Dems asking if she’s voted and could they have her vote. Now she’s not known for her reticence, but her reply rocked me.

    “I’ve voted Labour all my life, but this time I’m voting Conservative for the first time and I’m certainly not voting for the ‘Tits and Teeth Party’ who are promising to ignore 17.4 million peoples’ votes, so you and the Tits and Teeth Party can just Fck OFF!”

    End of conversation.

    2. Wow, she made a concise, accurate, succinct and controlled reply

      Good job they did not upset her

      1. I mean a big one, a proper argy-bargy. It can be taken for granted that a few Momentum psychos will pop up here and there.

  154. Off topic, but Christmassy.

    Every other card we receive has tales of woe: deaths, cancer, divorces, dementia etc.

    Season of good cheer? Bah Humbug…

        2. Think about it like reverse-courting. 😉
          You can go back to just dating your Ex, if you’re so inclined.

          😉

        3. Who says you have to remarry? Some of my best friends are divorced, single and very happy.

          1. Of course , you see , I suspect now they have their freedom , they are at liberty to be cheeky and flirty with lady shoppers like me … for example .. a delightful chap asked me about a particular cut of meat just as I was buying some chops .. (my Moh had wandered off elsewhere , to another aisle).. Stranger said it was difficult buying stuff for one … so I sympathised… then lo and behold , he then said if he bought a larger amount , I might care to share it with him … he will cook.. .. My reaction… well I blushed , said wow .. do you cook like Rick Stein.. he said he used to enjoy cooking , but for one was rather lonely ..

            Now , I said …” look, go for that fillet steak and enjoy it .. ” at which point Moh happened to appear back in the aisle with the cornflakes , eggs other bits and pieces .. he had taken his time as well ;0)

            3 minutes of banter and smiles .. compressed lives!

          4. How very dare you !!!. Me ! a lad !. Damn and blast woman. When we do finally meet for lunch………..You are paying !

            :o)

          8. But I get fed up with hanging around the meat counter. Tesco’s threw me out last week – I offered to share my meat with a lady and she misunderstood…..

    2. Ditto..

      Season of good cheer has been livened up by the Boris factor .. His sunny persona is quite refreshing no matter whether he is a bad lad or not .

    4. Yes we know the feeling. We heard yesterday that MIL has pancreatic cancer. With perfect timing she was given the diagnosis on the same date as FIL died over twenty years ago.

      5. For some reason this year has been particularly bad for deaths etc. in the younger generation. Parents should not outlive their children, let alone their grandchildren.

  155. I see one more empty rhetorical comment has been added to the long list of the self confessed down voter clog, he now condemns learning by rote.

  158. Well boris what will be the first business of the day ?
    “Well, we are going to kick off with a nine month delay”……………….

  159. Caroline Flack arrested and charged with assault after incident in north London

    The presenter, 40, was involved in an incident in north London in the early hours of this morning, according to the Metropolitan Police.
    Police were called to the scene in Islington at 5.25am after reports of a man, no further details, was assaulted. He was not seriously injured.
    She was arrested and since been charged with assault by beating.

    A spokesman for the Met added: “She will appear on bail at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on Monday, December 23.”
    No further details have been given about the incident.

    Flack is due to fly out to South Africa in a few weeks for the launch of Winter Love Island

    1. He used FIVE frowny faces. That will change the world. He must be very angry and wants everyone to know it.

    1. The next election for the Scottish assembly is in 2021. That might tell us more. In the mean time, the government should soften them up without resorting to out-and-out bribery.

      1. We should stop giving them money from English tax payers and see how bloomin’ long their Independence movement lasts.

        No disrespect intended to our Scottish friends on here.

      2. Er, let’s back up here a little. When the ScotNats were defeated in the 2014 Independence Referendum, they were told that there wouldn’t be another for a generation, i.e., 25 years.

        No further Independence referendum due until (2014 + 25) = 2039.

        Now, fishwife, just STFU.

    2. November 2024

      Downing Street spokesperson says Prime Minister Boris Johnson has spoken
      to SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon and has made clear for the sixteenth time, that he remains
      opposed to yet another Scottish independence referendum.

  164. Brexit news latest: More than two thirds of Labour would reject Brexit deal without second referendum, warns Sir Keir Starmer

    Well Labour seem to have learnt nothing and Starmer is tipped to be Labours next leader. Sounds as if they are going to out of power for a very long time and If the Reform party gets its act together they could replace Labour, well except in London

      1. The Labour Party is like an incurable disease. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to be catching any more.

      2. After Brexit is done, and the Democrats have impeached Trump, we will be the only ones left to blame. Better get our bags packed after all.

    3. Well, a chap named Boris has just taken over the government, there can’t possibly be any links, surely. Oh cripes, we all missed a white Russian sneaking in..

    2. Surely he IS Old White Stock. Also, Hello magazine this week has pics of him posing with the Duchess of Cambridge and other Royals. His objections are selective.

  167. Good to see that the Tw@t in the Hat (Steve Bray – the megaphone anti-Brexit protester outside the Houses of Parliament, standing as a LibDem) came sixth out of the seven candidates in the Cynon Valley constituency. He got beaten by both the Conservative and Brexit Party candidates!
    Edit: He also lost his deposit!

    3. They seem to believe the rubbish they utter. Its that Scottish maniac that wants to break up the country.

  169. Not sure it’s a diplodocus – more a Tyranyosaurus wrecks…..

    It’s SuperfidiousfragilisticEUdiplodocus!
    Even though the sound of it
    Is something quite atrocious
    If you say it loud enough
    You’ll always sound precocious
    SuperfidiousfragilisticEUdiplodocus!
    Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
    Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
    Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
    Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
    Because I was afraid to speak
    When I was but a lad
    Ted Heath gave me nose a tweak
    And told me I was bad
    But then one day I learned a word
    That saved the right on prose
    The biggest word you ever heard
    And this is how it goes
    Oh, SuperfidiousfragilisticEUdiplodocus!
    Even though the sound of it
    Is something quite atrocious
    If you say it loud enough
    You’ll always sound precocious
    SuperfidiousfragilisticEUdiplodocus!
    Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I
    Um-dittle-ittl-um-dittle-I…

  171. Hello, kind DT-subscription-Nottlers. Lots of work for you with this weekend’s papers. Here are two to start with:

    The logic of democracy in this country is iron, as is our rejection of extremism

    CHARLES MOORE

    Britain will now be free to govern itself, united by a patriotism that crosses the class and ethnic divides

    Yesterday morning, parents of children at a school in London received an email which began: “Sometimes, things happen in the wider world, in the country … that can be difficult to understand.” It went on to explain that while it was good for children to talk to “trusted adults” about “things that worry us”, it was important that “we won’t talk about negative events to other children”. Although the email did not say so, the “negative event” here referred to was the result of Thursday’s general election.

    What the teachers wanted to keep from their sensitive charges was the fact that democracy…

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/13/logic-democracy-country-iron-rejection-extremism/

    _____________________________________________________

    This massive Tory victory spells the death of the disgraceful People’s Vote movement

    ANDREW LILICO

    The battle to prevent Brexit is over. It failed. It was the most scandalous, anti-democratic, reactionary movement since the opposition to the Great Reform Bill of the 1830s. It trampled on our constitutional traditions. It broke the Conservative Party into pieces. It left over 17 million people with the Establishment openly declaring them mentally and morally deficient, incapable and unworthy of making democratic decisions. It was a disgrace and shamed Britain before the world.

    Also defeated is the movement to neuter Brexit, by keeping us in the EU’s customs union and having us follow the EU’s laws and trade policy. That project of Theresa May, Philip Hammond, many civil servants and much of…

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/13/massive-tory-victory-spells-death-disgraceful-peoples-vote-movement

    2. Good night Rik.

      Dolly did a similar thing when on a Christmas break at Studland Bay. It was the first horse she had ever seen trotting along the beach. I was really worried that things could go wrong.

    1. Odd – it doesn’t recognise me as the author of the post above, so won’t let me edit it from Safari. Disqus seems a bit screwy.

    2. 48% of them are in self-employment. Unemployment figures from today are not directly comparable with figures from the seventies, as the definition of unemployment has changed over 30 times in that period.
      Homelessness is up massively as is rough sleeping. The NHS is falling apart at the seams. There are loads of people that are missing employment rights, including a minimum wage and holiday pay, I am one of them earning £7 per hour as a self-employed disguised employee.
      Were also now going to have a very weak Brexit which will mean VAT for another ten years.
      Still there wasn’t a decent option again at this election. A garden gnome with no policies at all would have beaten Corbyn.

      1. Greetings Thayaric,

        Housing costs have skyrocketed. Too much rent-seeking by rent-seekers seeking to rent.
        Stagnation, lost government revenue, and national decline.

        Cause?

        1. Neoliberalism is the cause. The prevailing economic wind for the past 40 years. Tax incentives to rent-seek. Harder than ever to accumulate capital from nothing. Investment flows away from productivity enhancing technology and new businesses and flows into land instead. Second homes are the new pension savings. This raises prices by raising land values. Immigration adds to demand raising prices even more. We’ve done it to ourselves by believing that’s what’s good for the really wealthy is good for everyone. It isn’t. A rising tide does raise all boats. Making the wealthy even wealthier though is not a rising tide.

          1. I would have said ‘immigration’, but your answer is better. Add to that the concept that rent-seeking induces crests and troughs into that rising tide we all like to imagine. That second home needs cheap upkeep, correct? Low wage jobs are created, that’s all. So investment away from productivity-enhancing technology means a return to the ‘landed gentry’ of old.

          2. Immigration is a mixed bag. It’s healthy as long as it is both mostly skilled and we have plentiful jobs for these skilled people. Trouble is we’ve had mostly unskilled and low skilled immigrants coupled with a lack of spending on public services and job creation.
            The real problem is the fiscal system. When we tax something we essentially say we want less of that. We are taking away purchasing power with taxation and so it follows with less power to purchase there will be fewer sales. Now let’s look at what we actually tax. We tax personal and corporate incomes, with income tax and corporation tax. In essence this says we want fewer or lower incomes, and fewer or lower profits. Does that make economic sense? Our next biggest tax is VAT, a tax on transactions. The presence of VAT says we want fewer transactions. Does that make economic sense? We’d like people in general to have less money to spend and for the things they spend it on to be made artificially more expensive. That is the essence of the neoliberal tax system. Mr Already Wealthy on the other hand buys land cheaply on the edge of town. He sits on his bare land doing nothing with it, not missing the money as it was so cheap. Population grows. New streets are built. New stations. New schools. New bus routes. That cheap land that was never taxed yet withheld from the community (even though land wasn’t made by man) is now worth fortunes because of social progress of which the landowner contributed very little and nothing at all from his ownership of land. Now it’s worth developing or selling to a developer at huge profit which creative accountants can heavily cut tax bills on. Neoliberal fiscal system encourages this behaviour and discourages working for a living. How can it be a good system?

    1. I find it astonishing that one constituency can contain enough thickos to return a candidate like this. And the margin….

      2. Harry, I think she threatened the voters that if they didn’t vote for her she would send her son round to bite them!

        :-))

      5. I find it astonishing that they can vote for a woman who is obviously in the early stages of dementia.

    2. Easy Sue

      36,872 of the votes for the Abbotopotamus came from secret Conservative voters.

      Her being a Labour MP is an assett to Boris and the Conservatives

  178. It’s the Arms of Morpheus for me. And no, that’s not a pub although if it was I’d give it a try. Bon nuit.

  181. Asked if he was the problem, Jeremy Corbyn said: “I’ve done everything I could to lead this party and develop its policies. Since I became leader membership has more than doubled and I’ve received more personal abuse than any other leader has ever received.”

    Try this one Jeremy: 2+2=?

    1. JC: “Pass, may I ask a friend?”
      Host: “Certainly”
      JC “Hello, Dianne, is that you? Good, what’s 2 + 2?”
      DA “Jeremy you silly boy, it’s 22 of course”

    2. THe problem is membership does not reflect the electorate and membership of political party’s is tiny compared to the size of the electorate

  182. I watched a bit of QT before coming t’werk t’night shift. The SNP bleurk on t’ panel kept saying that yer Scots should now be allowed another referendum on independence for Scotland. One of t’other panellists pointed out that the 2014 referendum had been sold as a once in a lifetime vote and the SNP bleurk said that a lot had changed since then.
    FFS, a lifetime is typically 70+ years. Did he think when it was held that there would not be any change in that time?

  183. I rather hope that Boris made the first call to President Trump. He should have apologised for giving him the cold shoulder at the NATO summit, recently held in London, and for the frankly disgraceful behaviour of the current Mayor of London and his Corbyn supporting acolytes both then and on his previous visit.

    We need the closest ties to the USA with the growing threat of China and Russia. Both are eyeing the Arctic with its known mineral and oil resources. We therefore must keep our Trident and missile systems and our submarine base at Faslane.

    I just watched the repulsive Glaswegian sprite on Sky News pumping her small fists at the announcement of the poll verdict on Jo Swinson. We are all glad that Swinson lost her seat but such an outward histrionic display is surely unacceptable in a supposedly mature politician.

    Coincidentally we have just entertained a lovely Scottish neighbour whose family owned a shipping line in Glasgow between the Wars (Orient Line). She recounted that the Sturgeons of the time lived in tenements and would spread a slice of stale bread with jam and throw it out of a window to the street below where their children would pick it up from the road for their supper.

    Our friend told us that on the occasion that the children from the tenements were treated to a Christmas dinner that they ate nothing but put their plated meal in the drawers below the table tops. They did not eat it for the reason that they did not recognise turkey, roast potatos and greens as food.

    Our friend recognised Sturgeon as being a typical English hating Glaswegian. She is 87 years of age and bright as a button.

    1. I am hoping that President Trump and Prime Minister Johnson are playing a close game. The knaives/knives are about.

  184. Goodnight all Nottlers, despite it being Friday the 13th it has been a good day for Brexiteers & we said goodbye to Corbychov as the next PM , ditto for have-a-go Jo whatshername from the Lib-Dumps & a whole raft of Tory turncoats ( Grieve, Soubry et al ) and former Corbynites, Blairites & Luddites !

          1. Reminds me of the story told by a lawyer asked by Social services to defend a young lad who had set fire to his parents’ garage.
            Why did he do it? asked the lawyer?
            Because of his name came the reply.
            What’s his name?
            Dwayne
            What’s wrong with Dwayne?
            His surname’s Pipe

          2. A lad I was at school with was a really good sprinter, but had an unfortunate name:
            Hugh Koch.
            A regular announcement at competitions.
            The winner of the 100 metres:
            Huge Cock, followed by much sniggering.

          4. I was in a pub in the mid-80s and the phone behind the bar rang. The rather attractive barmaid, Caroline, took the call, told the caller to hold on and yelled to the crowded bar ‘Has anybody seen Mike Hunt?’

            Then she froze in horror.

    2. Nope. Officially I can’t watch live TV.

      We’re watching Brooklyn 99 season 6. Much more fun 🙂

    4. Caught a few minutes of it. God, it was full of Boris haters. And that was just the panel.

      1. We were watching QT for the first time in years. It was so anti-Boris. I came to the conclusion that all those offering opinions from the audience have personality disorders, apart from one gentleman who said let’s give Boris a chance. You could feel the waves of antipathy radiating towards him.

        1. I was so tired from staying up last night & having a fantastic day in Cambridge today, I fell asleep in the middle of it.

        2. Question Time and its predecessors lost the plot years ago after Robin Day died.

          Dimbleby held it together for a while but Fiona Bruce has killed it stone dead. What a stupid fatuous woman she is.

          2. I pay well when they do it in their knickers. Apparently that isn’t the done thing anymore. #Prince Andrew. :o(

      2. I used to think I had liberal views. I now realise that what the Lib-dems believe has nothing to do with being liberal.

        I confused ‘liberal’ with ‘libertarian’, which more accurately describes my beliefs that I’ve held since I was a lad. That is ‘I am me. I know who I am. I am an individual, free to do as I please within the law. If I do something that isn’t illegal, it’s got bugger-all to do with anyone else, especially the government, who are there to do my bidding as far as I am able, not the other way round. I belong to no-one’.

        A caveat. If a law is a bad law, the law-makers can do one.

  189. Boris Johnson to begin Scottish charm offensive as Nicola Sturgeon says he now has no right to stop Scottish IndyRef2

    Boris should say Yes to the referendum and state the rules

    All UK citizens can vote
    Scotland cannot use Sterling as its’ currency
    No UK defence contracts will go North of the Hard Border
    Our Armed Forces will evacuate
    Not a penny in tax is given to them
    The Shetlands Islands etc can decide BEFORE the referendum, if they are part of Scotland or UK
    Scots living in the rest of UK will be treated as foreigners and cannot sit in UK Parliament

    and so on

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/13/boris-johnson-begin-scottish-charm-offensive-nicola-sturgeon/

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