811 thoughts on “Friday 23 August: Britain must not cave in to EU bullying over the Irish backstop”

  1. RAF’s new drone to battle terrorists: killing machine which can be entirely operated from UK. 21 AUGUST 2019 • 2:16PM.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b84e0e88d2052912a04ec3b4907c334bf969f3d3b828ec355126809a3266e5c4.jpg

    The RAF’s future drone has been unveiled for the first time to the crews that will fly it .

    Britain’s new armed surveillance drones, called Protector, will be able to fly for up to 40 hours, over double the time of the current Reaper aircraft, and strike terrorists with precision missiles and laser-guided bombs.

    The Protector programme, thought to cost in the region of £1 billion, is two years late as the MoD has had to reorganise and stretch the spending, due to sterling weakening against the dollar.

    Morning everyone. You have to ask yourself why would anyone spend £1 billion on a system that will be used rarely if at all? No terrorist is going to invade the UK or seriously interdict our lines of communication and those who are capable of such acts would be invulnerable to this aircraft. What we have here is an expensive arcade machine and as much use! What we should be spending our money on is ships for the Royal Navy and kit of almost every kind for the Army!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/21/rafs-new-drone-battle-against-terrorists-automated-killing-machine/

    1. Morning Minty

      Perhaps they know something that we don’t . Perhaps they want to save London , after all it is open to all , as is Luton and the rest!

      1. Or perhaps Boris plans to use it on Hammond, May, Grieve and all other ne’er-do-wells?

    3. I disagree – it’s the predator US version.

      Fully armed it’s basically a small fighter.

      However, I do take your point that our current theatres don’t deal with large armies which we can shoot from the sky, but small bands of civilian disguised terrorists but as an alternative to putting a person at risk these are invaluable, let alone mapping and target sighting.

      However, what use piloting them remotely will be when the terrorists are actively endorsed and feted by the council of Luton and Rochdale?

    4. The real tragedy is that this is just a big model aeroplane. Yet we had to buy it from the US.

      1. As we have had to ever since Wilson had to dismantle the blueprint etc. of TSR2 – on the orders of the USA. Some friend, eh?

        1. Indeed. It is a strange relationship. They are mainly very much like us. They give every appearance of liking us.
          However, their world view and their foreign policy is very much about ensuring that we are always second fiddle and subservient. Suez and the Falklands are example of this.
          As you say, our world leading aircraft industry was given to them, free, over and over again.
          They are still using Harriers.

    5. What is the point of trashing Bradford or Leicester or large parts of East London just to clear out British jihadis, and their takeaways feeding on sheepmeat poached from the countryside by gangs in white vans? Don’t we have a less destructive weapon?

        1. Big dogs with sharp teeth.

          I don’t really know why Muslims don’t like dogs – it must be because when they evolved there were no forests and thus no wolves, so unlike us, the wolf was a threat to them rather than a boon as they were to us.

          Maybe setting a pack of Giant Malamutes or English Mastiff’s would sort them out. Mongo is 72 kg and he’s almost normal amongst his doggy day care pack.

    6. Perhaps they could patrol the English Channel and dispose of the traffickers before they jettison their payload.

      1. Dispose of the traffickers well before they have left French (or wherever’) waters. Or perhaps we can use them to stop EU fishing in British waters after Brexit…

        1. The ingenuity of NoTTLers knows no bounds. Once we’ve tried them out on a few smaller things we can look for larger targets like the HQ in Strasbourg and then the largest on 31st October.

    7. ‘Morning, Minty. In the main we are talking about terrorists overseas, and the strength of the Reaper (and now Protector) is in its ability to conduct lengthy periods of surveillance. Predator’s endurance of around 14 hours will be greatly improved upon by Protector. The ability to observe and listen undetected (as well as attack) from a distance is a very powerful tool and should not be underestimated.

      1. In the main we are talking about terrorists overseas…

        Morning Hugh. That is exactly my point. We are buying a system that simply enables us to suck up to the Americans in a theatre that has no relevance to the safety of the UK and moreover one in which they will always be superior and hold the authorisation and motive. Even without this, the actual numbers killed by this system will be miniscule. It is a political toy!

  2. Good morning, all. Busy day ahead. Chums coming for lunch.

    I wonder whether the Cambridges had to take their shoes off at Narridge Airport – and if they had to pay the iniquitous £10 “Development Charge”.

    1. Funny that he did that for literally a few seconds yet that’s the photo the press took to use.

    2. One of the annoying things about reposting videos from Twitter is that my scriptblocker will not show them. Instead we have a bloke in the foreground about to irrigate that Yvette Cooper lookalike with the camera using whatever hose-like device he can lay his hands on.

      In the background, some blond bloke is saying “it has been ten minutes since my last confession”.

      1. It’s the embedding. I’ll try to dig out the URL for the video source to unblock that but block all the other tripe spewed out by twitter and what not.

  4. Court clears man over video of Grenfell Tower model being burned. Thu 22 Aug 2019

    England’s chief magistrate, Emma Arbuthnott, called the handling of the case against 47-year-old Paul Bussetti “appalling” after evidence was disclosed to the defence just as she was retiring to consider her verdict on Thursday.

    More than 70 people died in the tragedy in west London in 2017, one of the UK’s worst peacetime disasters. Bussetti was accused of sending “grossly offensive” video footage, which was taken in his friend’s garden at a bonfire party in 2018.

    The prosecution argued that the video, which showed the model of the tower with some black and brown cardboard figures of people inside as it burned, was racist in nature. While the court heard he had used racial epithets in private chats, Bussetti denied holding racist views.

    They quite clearly tried to fit this guy up, not for burning a model, but for his views. The similarity to former trials like Salem or the French Revolutionary Popular Tribunals or even the Soviet show trials of the thirties is striking. Witnesses are called not to give evidence on your supposed crimes but on what you think and believe! It is for these that you are convicted. Not your actions!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/22/paul-bussetti-court-effigy-grenfell-tower-bonfire-joke-about-own-friend-group-video

    2. Maybe someone in the CPS saw the fitup and sabotaged the trial so he would not be convicted? Just a thought…

        2. Erm, not according to out of work conversations I have had with a couple. One of them said to me that he wanted to join the CPS so that he could get home earlier. (On second thoughts, that was not stupid…but the rest of him was.)

    3. It would have been inaccurate for there to be white people in the building, wouldn’t it? That’s as much a unicorn as putting the original welfare tenant in there.

      Notice how appalling is quoted, as if having the attempt to fit up the man thrown out was somehow unfair.

      And yes, this is what the Left want. If people are kept sufficiently scared of the state and cowed by the thought police they’ll obey and do as they’re told.

    4. From now on, always include a white figure in your towering inferno models.
      BTW; what is an England’s Chief Magistrate?

      2. It is evidently a title that sounds grand but has been made up by the cretins who publish The Guardian for the benefit of the vacuous who read it.

          2. Maybe she is like the former Head of a local primary school. After complaining for years how much work there was for the staff to do to keep up with legislation etc. suddenly we saw JP painted after her name on the school notice board. That lasted for a while, during which she was not seen in her office.

            Eventually the parents cottoned onto the fact that she was using time that she was paid to be a headteacher, to act as as magistrate. This was typical of her attitude – the children didn’t matter as long as the money (or preferably personal status) flowed in.

            I eventually got myself onto the governors, to try to see what she was up to. But she had the local authority governors in her pocket, and the other parent governors were not the sharpest knives in the drawer. The practices I discovered were, while not illegal, pretty bad. But having no support, I had to bite my tongue. I was glad when my children left that school.

    5. What is so wrong with mocking the deaths of dozens of people that it is a crime? It is certainly very bad taste, but so is quite a lot of humour.
      No jokes about the Titanic? Or the Great Fire of London?

        1. Florettes’s what? Not her big nose, or skin colour surely? Or what she did to that stalker?

          2. I know, dear. It was headline news on Reporting Scotland couple of days ago. Now the mentally deranged are claiming it mocks the mentally deranged. But what else are the mentally deranged good for?

  6. Morning all

    SIR – The Irish “backstop” is a colossal red herring and does not merit the attention it is being given.

    Ireland is the only net EU importer of British goods, at some £25 billion, and has an insignificant capacity to export direct to Europe or elsewhere via air or sea. Most of its exports use the land bridge across Britain the UK to reach European destinations and nothing could replace this in the short term.

    There is, however, considerable mutual trade and movement of goods across the border with Norther Ireland with Ulster. Let trade continue as it is, with agreement that constant review will identify any truly relevant level of “smuggling” and/or breach of EU standards.

    That is most unlikely, given the requirements of customers within the EU and the amount of data attached to goods as a matter of necessary business procedure.

    The Irish government must wake up to the fact that it is being made Brussels’ puppet to its ultimate disadvantage. We should also remind Europe that it is in its best interest to ensure that its goods move freely into Britain and that their lorries can return unhindered to the continent.

    David O’Brien
    Hove, East Sussex

    SIR – Neither the British nor the Irish governments want a hard border in Ireland, and multiple experts have confirmed that a soft border for goods can be maintained without Britain belonging to an EU customs union.

    The EU was able to bully Theresa May’s administration into swallowing the backstop, but now that we have a Government that believes in Brexit the EU should reconsider its position. If it won’t, it is the EU that will be responsible for any economic fallout that may result from a no-deal.

    Gregory Shenkman
    London W8

    1. Gosh, we are not alone. If we, and they, understand the obvious, why does the British Government not understand it? I feel sure that the the Irish and the EU bureaucrats all understand it very well, and are just playing us.
      I suggest that we establish a hard and permanently closed border with Eire, including closing off access to UK ports. Problem solved.
      (For reasons unknown access to the UK and hence Europe via UK ports is never discussed. What is the difference?)

      1. Boris Johnson may achieve a WTO Brexit but it will be by accident.

        He should not be trusted one inch.

    2. Johnson will give in. No doubt about that. We are doomed to a watered down WA passed off as a “triumph”.

      1. Morning Bill,
        I have no doubt he would if left to his own devices, but I wonder if Dominic Cummings would consider a watered down WA to be an acceptable Brexit.
        There was a fanfare when Cummings was appointed and started to impose his agenda, but it has gone deathly quite now. I cannot see Cummings doing a “Corbyn”, a full flip flop, we are not seeing the full picture I feel.

        1. I try hard to convince myself that there IS a plan to leave with no deal of any sort.

          But it is daily becoming harder to believe.

          1. Console yourself with the knowledge that Boris has a deep burning desire to stay PM. He must surely know that to betray Brexit is to destroy him forever and his party for a generation.
            Few things in life is a given, but the ego and ambition of a politician is one of them.

          4. I do wish that the continuation of a Tory Government/Tory party was not considered more important than the independence of the UK.

          5. It may not be depending on Boris and his willingness to see a clean full Brexit through. How to overcome tribal voting is the problem.
            On a personal note, my MP voted in support of May’s WA each and every time. He will never get my vote again, and he has been told such.

  8. Morning again

    SIR – Historic England understands the trauma and cost of metal theft to local communities (Letters, August 22). We appreciate that places of worship are managed and funded by volunteers, and that dealing with the aftermath of theft can be very frustrating.

    We advise that lead is the most appropriate roof covering. However, where it has been stolen from church buildings and like-for-like replacement would risk further criminal activity, we support the use of long-lasting alternative materials.

    The preferred option is usually terne-coated stainless steel, since it is unattractive to thieves and, if fitted to the correct specification by skilled craftspeople, will enable the continued use of the building for decades. Our priority is the long-term health of the building and the ability of those who are responsible for it to maintain it with as little extra cost as possible.

    Duncan McCallum
    Strategy and Listing Director
    Historic England
    London EC4

    1. SIR – Peter Butterfield (Letters, August 22) asks who buys stolen lead, as dealers are “meant to be controlled”.

      The problem is the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013: dealers have to record transactions but not ascertain the source. Less scrupulous dealers are able to turn a blind eye.

      Peter Saunders
      Salisbury, Wiltshire

      1. ” Less scrupulous” scrap dealers?? You mean there are “scrupulous” ones? First larf of the day.

    2. If you believe that, Mr McCallum, you’ll believe anything. You have obviously never had to deal with your ghastly outfit as an outsider.

    3. It’s the same issue with telling us we have to lock our doors and bar our windows, fit better locks and so on.

      The problem shouldn’t be lumbered on the innocent. The criminal should be detered by threat of swift and vicious punishment.

      1. Please see my recent post on Scotland banning jail sentences of less than 12 months.

    4. Fancy locating the HQ of “Historic England” in a place where England’s history has been deliberately weakened and sidelined.

  9. SIR – The report on overmedicating the elderly (August 22) suggests that those taking multiple pills died younger than those who took none or few. Is that not stating the blooming obvious?

    GPs do not prescribe for the sake of it and “deprescribing” is increasingly undertaken at patients’ regular medication reviews. Why do these patients do less well? I would say it is because they have more wrong with them – hence the medications.

    Dr Peter Swinyard
    Chairman, Family Doctor Association
    Heywood, Lancashire

      1. Ditto. I take one – for HBP.

        At one stage, while under the French health service, I had 15 different tablets to take each day. One morning, I decided to throw the whole lot away (apart from the HBP one). Ten years on – still here…just!

          1. The natives tell me that they feel hard done by if the GP doesn’t prescribe a range of medication.

            The beautiful Virginie at the village pharmacie provides a tasteful woven sack in which to take your medicine away. Some people need a wheeled basket!!

  10. SIR – I am amazed by the negative attitudes towards the converted shipping containers being used to shelter homeless families (report, August 21).

    In the footage on television they looked small but well appointed. I think a lot of people would be very pleased to be offered a space of their own that is probably larger than a caravan and almost as big as a post-war prefab.

    Rona Taylor
    Bristol

    SIR – After the Second World War, hundreds of prefabs were built to house families whose homes had been destroyed by enemy action.

    They were meant to last 10 years but families were still happily living in them 50 years later. Couldn’t this type of building be used again?

    Vera Burrell
    Sudbury, Suffolk

    1. The prefabs took up a lot of space compared with the containers & could not be stacked.

      The containers must get jolly hot inside in this weather;they are after all only tin cans.

      1. These aren’t Norweigians coming in. They’re North Africans and A loo and a snack bar Pakistanis.

        Let’s consider it a taste of home but with running water.

      3. Good morning Peddy

        They are no different to an aircraft delayed and sitting on the tarmac for hours waiting for a slot to take off, as I remember years ago when SA Airways used to have to fly via Cape Verde islands , or stuck in Kano, Nairobi, or anywhere else you care to mention, or even an airless terminal in the middle of nowhere..

        I gather those tin tents are insulated and quite suitable for human habitation as is every mobile home and caravan scattered like white maggots across the beautiful south coast .

          1. Indeed , bleak sandy, so hot and very unfriendly and full of Russian aircraft from what I can remember.. as we had to sit in the aircraft in the stifling heat for over four hours !

          2. I did that trip once with SAA – never again. I switched to Luxavia which, while it still stopped to refuel (in the Congo), at least had overflying rights over Africa cutting the duration of the flight considerably..

          3. Funny how things changed once Mandela was released . I have flown with many airlines, but quite honestly now, even though I have a brother and 2 sisters and numerous other relatives over there , I never ever want to visit Africa again.

            No desire for travel, and the fuss and bother involved .. Air travel has changed , check in procedure is ghastly , and the people who travel these days are appalling .

          4. Brats were encroaching into the front cabin when I stopped flying & as for their behaviour in VIP lounges, oh my Dear, the stories I could tell!

          5. I have flown Club class as well as cattle class, and have had some memorable experiences .. and have witnessed a terrible case of air rage !

      4. Not necessarily peddy.
        Mr J worked in Jeddah for many years and tells me there was a large number of houses made out of well insulated shipping containers.

        1. When I returned from Sweden, I worked for 6 months in portacabins – it was baking in summer & freezing in winter.

          1. Poor insulation and inadequate heating – sounds quite British to me – together with, “You big soft Jessie.”

      5. They like the heat. A lady of African persuasion has had the radiator on at work all through summer.

    2. I remember when those container homes were touted as a solution to London’s housing crisis, artfully arranged in neat and fancy Escher esque designs.

      Suddenly they’re not good enough because they’re being used ot house gimmigrants.

      What will the Guardian and BBC be happy with? A 14 room regency villa per gimmigrant? Five en suite bathrooms, each housing it’s own tennis court? Send them back. Close the door. They’re not asylum seekers. They’re not highly skilled workers – happy to take either of those groups. No. These are unskilled wasters, nothing more than an immigrant army of future rapists, jihadis and welfare troughers.

      1. Migrants only want the very best. Perfectly good accommodation is simoly not good enough for them it has to be 5 star

        1. Oh, that’s easily solved. We’ll make up a stencil and spray the outside with 5 stars.

        2. Off topic, but I remember seeing a report which stated “Satisfactory is not good enough”. 🙂

        3. Not only want the very best. They complain like mad if they don’t get it. It’s enough to make you want to boot them back where they came from. Literally.

          Morning BJ.

        1. “their”?? I am surprised at you.

          ” Who last her head?”
          “Who lost his head?”
          “Who lost their heads?”

          1. Macron is a man, (I use that word loosely), dressed as a woman. Thus it is two people, but one head.

  14. Critically-ill British citizen ‘stuck in Oman’

    Reading between the lines it appears he did not have proper medical insurance. He and has family misunderstand the role of the British Embassy They provide help nd support but they are not there to provide free repatriation

    1. I’ve not the foggiest why any British citizen ( English? )
      would want to either live in the Middle East or visit it
      for winter breaks which I know are popular.
      I cannot think of a worse place to visit, especially these days,
      during another previous decade I would’ve have loved to
      have seen the pyramids of Egypt and visited Iraq when it
      had beautiful beaches but not now, those times have passed,
      risking freedom and life just isn’t worth it .

    2. I see many people travelling with some fairly serious conditions. It is most unlikely they have travel/medical insurance because of the cost associated with any pre existing medical diagnosis. Too many people just take the risk.

    3. Sadly, most of those cases are cases of ignorance or just taking pot luck.
      Years ago, I dunted my knee a few weeks before going to the USA. MB checked with our travel insurance, paid the extra £32 and we didn’t have to worry.
      The knee was fine, but the peace of mind was even better.

  16. Oh dear…..wotta surprise

    Investors in Kevin McCloud’s projects told they face huge losses
    Many feel they have been fobbed off by Grand Designs presenter’s promised returns

    Small investors who sank millions of pounds into the TV property guru Kevin McCloud’s eco-friendly housing ventures have been told they could face losing up to 97% of their money.

    For 20 years the star of Channel 4’s Grand Designs has lectured the nation about how to create their dream home – but his own property empire has turned into a nightmare. Between 2013 and 2017, McCloud wooed investors with a string of fundraising schemes that promised returns of up to 9% a year from his Happiness Architecture Beauty (HAB) homes businesses.

    But it now emerges that small investors who put £2.4m into one of the bonds are on course to lose between 74% and 97% of their money in a worst-case scenario.

    Another set of investors, who sank £1.9m in one of the HAB companies in 2013 and were told to expect dividends of at least 5% by the end of 2016, say they have not received a penny and have been “fobbed off”.
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/aug/22/investors-kevin-mccloud-property-schemes-huge-losses

    1. The signs were there long ago. Some of the first ones he came up with were plagued with problems such as roofs that leaked heating systems that did not work etc

    3. Latest accounts are interesting
      There are a number of things that would concern me with those account . In 2017 turnover is given as £45,625 that’s about 10% of one house then in the next year you get a huge leap to £336,284 that probably equated to 1 house
      Even stranger is Cost of sales goes dramatically down

      Even more concerning is then Administrative expenses which come I at over £1M or about 10 times the average turn over. How an earth can you have administrative costs that high?

      In my view this company is simply not viable. Based on companies house info though it is still actively trading

      If it does fold there is in my view little chance of anyone getting any money back

      2017 Turnover £45,625
      2018 Turnover £336,284

      2017 Cost of Sales £87,384
      2018 Cost of Sales £4,683

      2017 (Gross Profit/Loss) (£41,759)
      2018 (Gross Profit/Loss) £331, 631

      2017 Administrative Expenses £1,276,915
      2018 Administrative Expenses £950,447

      2017 Operating loss £1,337,447
      2018 Operating Loss £618,446

  17. Good morning from the Saxon daughter of Alfred of Wessex.
    A bright and sunny start to the day.

    The EU are nothing but bullying a succubus who are only
    out for themselves as always, the Irish border is an excuse
    for a spot of gerrymandering by them and nothing productive.

  18. Phew. Morning, Campers.
    Thought my laptop was about to keel over; and on a Bank Holiday weekend, too.
    However, the problem appears to be a dodgy cookie, so I’ve cleared the pests and here I am.
    (Note to self; on Tuesday, contact computer whizz.)

      2. Don” yer mean Imodium? Lomotil is a tranquiliser available only on presripshun.

    3. ‘Morning. Anne, download and run free Ccleaner. It deletes all that crud in your Internet and Browser cache.

      It’s called Ccleaner from its original name of Cräp Cleaner but political correctness forced a change of name.

  19. Sir – At Sainsbury’s recently, my wife and I were speaking to a pleasant young chap manning the checkout.

    When he came to a packet of loose tea he asked us what it was. We had to explain the traditional way of making tea twice, but finally the light of understanding shone from his face. “Oh, I see,” he said. “You have to put the leaves in the little bags yourself.”

    Peter Pascall
    Manchester

    Every single day I am presented with more and more clear evidence of the rapidly increasing stupidity of the human species. The reasons for this are manifold but the main culprits are:

    Substandard parents.
    Execrable teachers.
    Pìss-poor politicians.

    The politicians are only part of this since the main responsibility for teaching about life, general knowledge, good grace, good manners, proper etiquette, intrinsic decency and good behaviour should come from one’s parents. If the parents are substandard then it follows that the offspring surely will be too.

    Teachers come second since they are primarily responsible for teaching literacy, numeracy and giving their pupils a sound grounding in many basic subjects, and it is clear that most are failing in this fundamental raison d’être.

    Governments, especially those that sold off school playing fields are complicit but come well down the list after parents and teachers.

    Do I see any signs that matters will improve in the future? You bet the hell I don’t. People will continue to get thicker and more stupid as their insane urge to overpopulate the planet increases. The morons are taking over, and fast!

    1. You are, it seems, assuming that Mr Pascall’s story is true. I don’t believe a word of it.

      1. You must live an insulated life. I believe it because I’ve seen the evidence myself.

        I once bought a green pepper (capsicum) from a supermarket and the girl on the checkout picked it up, gave it a puzzled look, and asked me, “What is this?” When I told her what it was she then asked, “What do you do with it?” to which I replied, “Well you may do whatever you wish with it but I tend to eat it.”

        1. Forty years ago, I nursed an old lady who had seen grapefruit, but never eaten one and wasn’t sure how to go about it.
          I worked with a colleague who didn’t know you had to grate nutmeg.
          This form of ignorance about food is nothing new.

          2. Many of us have stories of this nature. I gave a recipe to a friend that required two cloves of garlic; she didn’t like the outcome as the garlic taste was too strong. I did tell her two cloves, not two bulbs.

          3. My first wife & I were invited to supper chez her best friend, who gave us spag bog (from a recipe, & she’d been a student!). She used a whole clove of garlic instead of a clove, but then, she was a tax inspector, so what can you expect?

            Actually, it tasted rather good.

            Apropos cloves, another hostess must have used a tbsp of clove powder instead of a sprinkling in a stew. After a day spent working in the dental hospital that really was too much.

          4. “She used a whole clove of garlic instead of a clove.”

            She sounds utterly confused, mistaking a clove for a clove! ;•)

          8. I did learn to my cost that clove powder can dominate any spice mix if a little too much is used.

          9. I first came a cross the spice ‘clove’ Syzygium aromaticum at school as part of a display of foreign food ingredients. I was utterly enrapt with its smell and I picked up the dish for a sniff on countless occasions.

            As you say, less is more, but it is invaluable in a home-made five-spice powder and an essential in Swedish pepparkakor (similar to our ginger nuts), which are ubiquitous over here at Christmas.

          13. Are pepparkakor the small biscuits sold with a spiced wine around early December? I came across that custom when I spent a few weeks training at Ericsson’s in Stockholm in December ’86. Blöödy cold those weeks, I’ve never felt anything like it, before or since.

          14. That’s right, Korky. The hot spiced wine is called Glögg [pron: “glugg”] and is served with almonds and raisins in it.

            I have experienced the biting cold wind in Stockholm in December twice. The second time I wrapped up far better than the first!

          15. I arrived on December the first to at least a foot of snow and around -8 and it went downhill, except for a day or two when it got just above freezing, from then on. The clear bitter nights are something I’ll never forget.

          16. After several weeks of -15C or so, -8C is distinctly uncomfortable. During my first winter in Sweden we had -25C at lunch time on Christmas day, so we went for a 10km walk after the meal.

          17. When it got down to -15ºC up in Abisko last Christmas (quite mild for that area) it didn’t feel cold at all. This is because it is so dry.

            The -5ºC of Stockholm felt much colder since it was wetter.

          18. Likewise 40+C didn’t seem very hot in the Atacama because of the dryness. Never had my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth before or since, though.

          19. Glogg aslo contains cloves, George, which I hate with a passion.

            Appropos the Stockholm cold, I was working in Hagalund, the SJ major rail depot, and arrived at work one January morning when the temperature was -20°C and in the 25m walk from the taxi to the security my moustache froze. That same day in the North, the temperature was -54°C. -20 is cold enough, -54 just doesn’t compute, in fact the thought of it makes my brain hurt.

          21. If you ask for grapes in a Swedish greengrocer’s shop they will give you a grapefruit.

            What we call grapes are vindruvor (winefruit).

          22. As a teenager I had to deal repeatedly with waiters sur le continong who brought me grapefruit juice instead of grape juice.

          24. I hate it when people add lemon juice to lime (it completely destroys the intrinsic tang of the lime) but I don’t mind adding a little lime juice to grapefruit juice when I make a sorbet, which is delicious.

          27. I’m always inwardly amused by customers (nearly all) in Côte, who use cutlery to eat mussels. I go in with both hands, then use a spoon for the sauce in the bottom of the bowl.

          28. I thought one used a shell to pick up the mussels (not that I eat mussels, they dislike me intensely).

          29. Sorry to say this Anne, but my late mother in law, fifty years ago , had no idea how to prepare a grapefruit to eat.

            Moh’s parents had routine simple easy menus , as regular as clockwork , such as things were in many households post war and during the 1960’s.

          30. Mother-in-law still cooks as if it’s 1962. Boiled food, no colour or flavour, b-all freshness as well. She also thinks that one bean of ground coffee in the cafetiere is more than enough… hot, wet and pale brown is the result, no flavour there either. One struggles to find something polite to say when asked “how was dinner?”

          1. They of course ripen from green to yellow from
            yellow to orange and from orange to red .
            Which reminds me, I must buy a couple for tomorrow night .

          3. I feel the same way about aubergines; foul “food” that is inedible no matter how you ‘prepare’ it.

          5. Squashes, aubergines – all repulsive.
            Aubergine goes a hideous khaki colour when cooked… Ukk!

          9. I would rather eat peppers than courgettes (including your much vaunted ‘trombones’).

            I roast peppers in olive oil alongside brown mushrooms, onions, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes . This is delicious warm as a ‘Mediterranean roast salad’ or cold on a piece of ciabatta (or pain de campagne) with some prosciutto.

          10. A ring of red pepper on a sliver of brown cheese on sourdough bread – best breakfast ever (apart from porridge with salt).

          13. Not roasted in olive oil with other Mediterranean vegetables
            and fresh rosemary and thyme.

          14. No matter what you do with them, I loathe them with a deep loathing. Especially the way they are chopped up and put everywhere in “salads”….

            The MR likes them.

          15. I agree they are horrible raw and in salads which seems
            popular but they are nice roasted with baby tomatoes,
            red onions, corgetes, and aubergines in the summer.
            But tastes change with the seasons, it’s soon be carrots,
            green beans, red cabbage , peas and my favourite, broccoli very soon .

    2. Wasn’t it Freud who said “there are no problem children only problem parents”. However the big problem is that this children ‘grow up’ and become parents.
      On the bright side I have 3 wonderful teenage grandchildren who do not believe in the ‘choose your gender’ rubbish as they have very sensible parents and, it would appear, very good teachers.

          3. They wanted to tell us in France but we decided to wait and see.

            At the time of their birth both Christo and Henry had willies (they still do!) so we came to the conclusion that they were boys and brought them up as boys.

          4. I understand they are already banned from telling the parents the sex of the baby unless it has health implications.

          5. They would NOT (edited)tell us when I was having twins. 29 years ago…

            Morning, Anne. Good for the boost on the DT Letters – they need it up ’em!

          6. Is that v recent? I know that the parents of two recent births had been told the sex in advance.

          7. Quite possibly, as if it’s a girl, they may well rush off and murder abort it.

    3. Please don’t always blame the parents – I was having a discussion last night with #2 son (aged 29) about Charlie Chaplin and how he’d been caught up in McCarthy’s witch hunt in Hollywood. I used the phrase ‘went through like a dose of salts’ and ‘better dead than red’ at some stage and got a blank look – ‘Who was McCarthy?’ and ‘What’s a dose of salts?’. I consider my two boys to be reasonably well-spoken and informed but alas, it seems not to be the case.

      1. Parents have a prime responsibility for educating their offspring. If parents spent more time showing them the world and explaining things to them then they wouldn’t be as thick as they are today.

        I could tell the time at two, tie my shoelaces at four, and was bought an 8-volume encyclopædia at age five. If you give a young enquiring mind the answers they crave they will not grow up to be unknowledgeable (or thick).

        The biggest problem with modern-day parents is their inability to take fully warranted criticism for their own failings.

        1. During Firstborn’s first year many patients used to ask after him. I would sometimes reply, “He’s doing well, thank you, but he does struggle a bit with his irregular French verbs”.

        3. We homeschooled our bilingual boys as we sailed around the Mediterranean exploring the classical world.

          Not only do they now have good degrees and very good jobs but they are also very well read and civilised young men.

          We are proud of them.

          1. The world would be a far better place if there were more parents like you and Caroline, Rastus.

    4. Every day you can see parents let their children run riot and do nothing at all about it. This happens in cinemas, shops, restaurants , planes etc

      I suspect this plays a part in the rapid rise in knife crime as these children have been given no boundary’s so in later life if they do not get their own way they just lash out

    5. That’s the idea, we all get more and more stupid, and our indigenous colour changes to a uniform shade of brown. Perfect slave material.

      Go’morgen, Grizzly.

  20. Some professor of colour bleating on R4 about addressing the consequences of slavery. Well, a few hundred one way flights to Africa should do the trick, but I expect what he really wants is, money.

        2. Gosh – when I add the three marriages, it is even longer – 53 years. (Seems much, much more…{:¬))…..)

    2. Maybe those who are related to slaves should make a financial contribution to the host country for giving them the opportunity not to live in shitholeistan, and get rich, become Professor, live in a nice house, have cars, no awful diseases, as opposed to those who were not enslaved, still live in shithileistan.
      Just a thought.
      We all get taxed to death on any benefit, why shouldn’t they?

      1. Yes, people come here and don’t need to buy in. They make no contribution to the infrastructure and everything else our previous generations have paid for in money, sweat, and blood

    4. The main consequences of slavery is that there are a lot of black people who now live in civilised societies and no longer risk being taken as slaves themselves by their own ilk. Perhaps they should pay us.

      Morning, Kaypea.

  21. A man who knows his math

    I was riding to work yesterday when I observed a female driver, who cut right in front of a pickup truck, causing the driver to drive onto the shoulder to avoid hitting her.
    This evidently angered the driver enough that he hung his arm out his window and gave the woman the finger.
    ‘Man, that guy is stupid,’ I thought to myself. I ALWAYS smile nicely and wave in a sheepish manner whenever a female does anything to me in traffic, and here’s why:

    I drive 48 miles each way every day to work.
    That’s 96 miles each day.
    Of these, 16 miles each way is bumper-to-bumper
    Most of the bumper-to-bumper is on an 8 lane highway.
    There are 7 cars every 40 feet for 32 miles.
    That works out to 982 cars every mile, or 31,424 cars.
    Even though the rest of the 32 miles is not bumper-to-bumper, I figure I pass at least another 4,000 cars.
    That brings the number to something like 36,000 cars that I pass every day.
    Statistically, females drive half of these.
    That’s 18,000 women drivers!
    In any given group of females, 1 in 28 has PMS.
    That’s 642.
    According to Cosmopolitan, 70% describe their love life as dissatisfying or unrewarding.
    That’s 449.
    According to the National Institute of Health, 22% of all females have seriously considered suicide or homicide.
    That’s 98.
    And 34% describe men as their biggest problem.
    That’s 33.
    According to the National Rifle Association, 5% of all females carry weapons and this number is increasing.
    That means that EVERY SINGLE DAY, I drive past at least one female that has a lousy love life, thinks men are her biggest problem, has seriously considered suicide or homicide, has PMS, and is armed.

    Give her the finger?

    I don’t think so.

      1. ‘Morning, Tony, I was useless with a gun, though I found the Bren gun easiest to manage.

        Crack shot with a catapult when young

        1. My one & only shot with a 12-bore brought down a wood pigeon. My host was most surprised.

          That same evening I showed him how to win 7 Diamonds redoubled against.

  22. Interesting

    Boris is a much better communicator and people person than May. You can see with Boris he can at least communicate with the EU and others in fact in the photographs you can see a very different body language . With May the body language was very different in fact she tended in the photographs be standing alone in a very stiff pose at the from with the rest of the group at the back not looking very happy

    It does of course not mean we will get an agreement but at least they are seriously talking

    There was an interesting comment from Sturgeon. She was asked about May and said well she has left now but when pushed said she was a very difficult woman when asked about Boris she said she could work with him. That does not of course mean she agrees with him but there is now a much better relationship with May there was no real relationship

    1. Quite apart from being evil Mrs May was socially dyslexic.

      Her lack of empathy was responsible for the fact that most people instinctively kept away from her. She had absolutely no warmth whatsoever which made her deficient as a human being.

      1. Replying to myself, a sure sign of madness. I did take a look at Theresa May’s formal EU photographs and she does often look cold and distant, as if she is playing a role rather than being honest. Who would have thought that of her? When the cameras are “off” she looks different. Have you seen her smile like this with any of our Brexit politicians?

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/217fc7c0a31b46ca55e49ca3c67f55d7a1be62c0451bf54d3dd29f37c4ae272f.jpg

      2. “But what more oft in Nations grown corrupt,
        And by ther vices brought to servitude,
        Than to love Bondage more than Liberty,
        Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty;”

        ― John Milton, Samson Agonistes

        (Mrs May was possibly both sterile and sexually frigid but she did like a bit of bondage!)

    1. Morning Plum

      There will be innards and flies everywhere .. or some frustrated pervert will enjoy free sex , what utter stupidity , ignorance to expose sheep to even more danger than the halal end !

      2. I do hope that that is not a Tower Hamlets tower joke referring to impromptu barbecues in the living room of all-electric flats?

    6. There will be complaints re racial bias if they have a few black sheep , or brown sheep or black faced sheep or moorland shaggy sheep ..

    7. It will bring a new meaning to cottaging, perhaps they can update the meaning of shepherding.

  24. Home Secretary Priti Patel to hold talks after dozens of migrants, including six children, try to cross Channel

    In four separate events on the south coast on Thursday, the Border Force dealt with a total of 37 people who tried to reach England in small boats.

    And a fifth incident off the Sussex coast reportedly involved more than 20 others, although the Home Office has not confirmed details.

    At 5am, a Border Force cutter intercepted another small boat and a group of 11 males were taken to Dover.

    The group, including two who said they were children, presented themselves as nationals of Iran, Guinea, Kuwait, and the Ivory Coast.
    Two hours later six men, who said they were Iranian nationals, were spotted on a small boat and taken to Dover.
    And at 11.30am, the Border Force was deployed to a vessel with a group of 11 people, including four who said they were children, who all claimed to be Iranian nationals.

    2. This is an example of the way the English language is being abused. These members of the invasion force were not “intercepted” they were picked up and safely ferried to port to begin their stay in this new land of plenty.

    3. I’d be happy for some of the foreign aid budget to be used to buy 20,000 signs saying “Do not attempt to sail across tbe English Channe,. You will not be allowed into Britain without a passport. You have been warned” in twenty languages and stuck unto the ground every ten metres along the north France coast.

  25. Watch out folks. That A Allan chap has got his dander up BTL@DTletters

    A Allan 23 Aug 2019 7:40AM
    This should be the last time before 31st. October that a British Prime Minister travels to Brussels, Paris or Berlin. Or any other European capital.

    If they want to talk to us, they can darn well come here.

    We had quite enough of May buzzing around like a demented blue bottle only to cringe and exchange kisses with people who do not wish this country well.

    NO MORE!!!!

    2. Boris has already gone back on his statements – what about the: no talks until they have already taken the backstop off the table. Not no talks about the backstop, which is what it is starting to look like.

      What about: if they want to talk they come here. Not scuttling round the EU like the Maybot did. I can’t believe that Boris is stupid enough to do a May2. Unfortunately I believe he could be bought. The onus is on him to produce, now. Not on us to believe.

      Edit: morning, CV3!

      1. Remember old Brabantio’s words of warning about his daughter, Desdemona.

        “Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see,
        She has deceived her father, and may thee.”

        Boris Johnson has repeatedly shown himself untrustworthy as far as his own personal, intimate relationships are concerned so why should we expect him to keep his word to ignorant plebs like us?

        Anything short of a WTO Brexit will be a deception and a betrayal – but don’t bank on Boris not trying to get away with it.

  26. GCSE exams: Should paper and pens be a thing of the past?

    Paper and pens should be things of the past in school exams to reflect “the world we live in”, according to a teacher who helps others with technology.
    Guto Aaron said handwritten tests go against how pupils now revise, learn and live their lives.
    The Welsh exam board WJEC is “committed to expanding our digital assessment offering”, a spokesman said.
    A consultation also takes place later this year on how exams work.
    “We will have to move with this in future,” said Mr Aaron, who is also a technology teacher in Llansannan, Conwy county.
    “It’s not going to be an easy task or something that can be done next year, but it’s fair to ask now why we are asking children to sit down for three hours with a pen and paper

    2. Well, we are going to need uneducated and barely employable people to change beds in the Premier Inn once all the Eubods have fled.

    3. The Rousseau romance. The peasants were so much easier to control when they couldn’t read or write. Pictures and audio recognition worked so well in the Middle Ages. Then it was stained glass and sermons. Now it’s electronic soshul medya. Wots not to luv.

    5. I don’t see why kids should even waste time learning how to read when there are ‘audio books’. The exams could also just be aurally based. What’s not to like?

      1. REding and writing is essential as is being able to do arithmetic in your head or with pen and paper. Calculators etc are all well and good but you need to be able to do a sanity check on the results

          7. First the meal: the tuna carpaccio was really good with a glass of chilled Bergerac SB. The hake was just a jot overcooked, but I didn’t complain; instead I got 2 flat whites on the house. I had a choc. fondant with vanilla ice cream for pud. Next Thursday I shall have the tuna followed by a huge bowl of mussels.

            The Turkish experience was good as always; a really vigorous massage & 2 glasses of excellent tea.

  28. A fellow NoTTLer’s stirring message to Boris…(BTL@DTletters)

    Max Bonamy 23 Aug 2019 4:08AM
    Correspondents focus on the abomination that is every appalling clause of the WA, but the Political Declaration is every bit as bad, if not worse.

    John Redwood:

    “… the EU has insisted on the same architecture for enforcing the Partnership Treaty [aka the Political Declaration] as for the Withdrawal Agreement. They require a joint committee, where any matter raising EU law will be determined by the European Court of Justice!”

    He continues:

    “That’s no Brexit. That is continued subservience to the EU and its powerful court. I did not vote leave to end up in 2 EU Treaties that recreate many of the features of our membership. The EU sees the Partnership treaty as a kind of EU Association Treaty. These are the devices they sign with countries like Turkey to gradually to bring them in line with the EU as a prelude to possible membership. That is not what Leave means.”

    Amen to that.

    A regular on the DT threads, Richard Jessop, warns that even if we leave with ‘No Deal’, Boris, having neutralised the Brexit Party, could sweeten a subsequent trade deal with EU by yet agreeing to several aspects of the WA and Political Declaration bundled together with an FTA.

    While I appreciate Boris may be playing to several galleries to buy time and bamboozle opponents, until such time he unequivocally and categorically states no part of the WA or the PD will see the light of day we 17.4m should remain deeply suspicious of his true intentions.

    I will take my counsel from Nigel. I assume his judgement in this matter will be governed by ‘once bitten, twice shy’.

    Nick Timothy:

    “We will be given a choice between two different – yet equally demeaning – forms of colonial status. That this is the EU’s intention is clear from the Political Declaration that accompanies the Withdrawal Agreement… as the Eurosceptic QC, Martin Howe, points out in a new pamphlet, it is “utterly wrong” to believe the Political Declaration is not legally binding… surprise surprise, the Declaration seeks to tie the UK to European laws – and the rulings of the European Court of Justice – in perpetuity.”

    More at:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/11/shelving-backstop-will-not-enough-must-also-avoid-fatal-trap/

    Huzzah!

    1. Who set the terms of the WA, Dolly ?

      Is it likely to have been that guy who tells the EU wot to do and who met with them 80 times last year ?

    2. If they make the political declaration legally binding there might be scope to reach an agreement but at present it is just a meaningless piece of paper

    1. What makes you think Brits are going to break their wedding vows ?

      The words of the guy who broke his… twice ?

  31. Ignore the anti-military propagandists. There are few better opportunities for the young than the Army. 22 AUGUST 2019 • 7:04PM.

    GCSE results day is a time of celebration or sorrow for thousands of teenagers. It is also a day exploited by various NGOs and activists to have a go at the Army, who they accuse of luring disappointed 16-year-olds to sign up. True to form, this year it was the turn of Child Rights International Network to publish their report on results day.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    D Walker 22 Aug 2019 7:54PM.

    For several decades, the Government has broken the unwritten Covenant with the Armed Services.

    In recent years, former Army personnel have been hounded by the Defence Dept. and so-called Human-Rights lawyers over events which may, or may not, have taken place decades previously.

    Soldiers sent off to fight in Blair’s wars came back to the UK and were basically abandoned by the MoD.

    I’m not surprised there’s a recruitment problem. The Government is reaping what it has sown.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/22/ignore-anti-military-propagandists-better-opportunities-young/

  32. Boy, six, caught with knife at north London school as report says more than 1,000 youngsters took blades to class last year

    You have to wonder about how these children are being raised. Even more incredible is he was not the youngets . The youngest was just 4

    A six-year-old north London boy was among 1,000 youngsters caught taking knives into school last year, a new report has revealed.
    Hundreds of children were caught taking blades onto school premises, figures show, with the youngest aged just four.

    Weapons seized by police included machetes, hunting knives, a samurai sword and even a highlighter pen which had its nib changed to a blade.

    Figures obtained by 5 News under Freedom of Information laws show a total of 1,144 knife possession offences in schools, where the suspect was a child, were recorded in England, Scotland and Wales last year.

    The number of offences more than doubled over the past five years, among the 36 forces in England and Wales that provided comparable data, soaring from 372 in 2014 to 968 last year.

    1. Emission free? Does she think those materials grow on trees? Appear magically?

      Why doesn’t dear old Greta wander over to Mongolia/China border where she can see the huge open cast mine her ‘green’ things come from.

    1. Negotiations with the EU are like Donald Trump negotiating with North Korea and coming away and saying Kim-Jong-Un is my friend, or putting your hand through a letter box and being bitten by a dog and saying, his bark is worse than his bite.

      1. Your second analogy is true.. but Donald did achieve a lot with N Korea which I explained a while back.. and which explains why there have been no major launches and no more hot rhetoric. In brief, Kim was a prisoner of the former ruling elite, but he isn’t any longer thanks to Donald.

          1. I think they all know by now which side their bread is buttered on.
            The media predicted World War Three never turned up.

          4. Maybe because Moon wants to keep going with the joint US exercises which Donald wants to reign in now.

          6. That was probably because Moon wants to keep going with the joint US exercises.

            No exercises = No rockets.

    2. An anti-fraud investigator claims he was sacked by a council because he is white and the subjects of his inquiries were Asian.

      Mark Edmunds, 54, is suing for £529,000 in a race and sex discrimination case against the scandal-hit London borough of Tower Hamlets.

      The council has been plagued by problems of corruption and alleged mismanagement.

      He joined the council in January 2010 and helped successfully host the Olympics before moving into fraud investigation.

      Britain’s first Muslim mayor, Lutfur Rahman, had won control of Tower Hamlets in October 2010 but was removed by a court for rigging his 2014 re-election.

      Britain’s first Muslim mayor, Lutfur Rahman, had won control of Tower Hamlets in October 2010 but was removed by a court for rigging his 2014 re-election +2
      Britain’s first Muslim mayor, Lutfur Rahman, had won control of Tower Hamlets in October 2010 but was removed by a court for rigging his 2014 re-election

      When a BBC Panorama investigation raised serious concerns about fraud in the borough, Mr Edmunds worked on a review of the youth service, according to The Times. The review found that Mr Rahman had used youth grants to bribe voters.

      Twelve senior Asian employees were dismissed as a result of Mr Edmunds’ investigations.

      He claims that following his review, he was threatened and harassed and followed by a car.

      Mr Edmunds says he was removed from his £63,000-a-year job last year because he was ‘a white man investigating a service predominantly staffed by Bangladeshi employees where the allegations of corruption were predominantly against Bangladeshi employees’.

      ‘The threats and intimidation were very real and serious given the history of many of those I was investigating (ie ex-gang members and drug dealers), his witness statement says.

      ‘Additionally, while conducting investigations I was regularly accused of being a racist and a bully, when all I was doing was my job, in an attempt to intimidate me and derail the investigation process.’

      Tower Hamlets removed Mr Edmunds from the case. He claims they did so without investigating the ‘false and defamatory allegation’ of racism against him because of the colour of his skin.

      A union official, in an email seen by The Times, said it would be discriminatory for Mr Edmunds as a ‘white male’ to get a senior role rather than more experienced ethnic minority employees.

      The investigator cites this as evidence of discrimination against him.

      Counsel for Tower Hamlets challenged the accuracy of his allegations and interpretation of events.

      The hearing continues.

      1. Let us hope and pray that he wins and that the chicanery and corruption are exposed and plastered over the press.

        Bet the Grauniad is quiet about it…

        1. Owen Jones could be sent on some foot patrols and sniff around – he might come upon some chaps who’ll point him in the right direction.

      2. “More experienced ethnic minority employees.”

        First, I doubt very much that ethnic employees are a minority in Tower Hamlets. They may be a minority of people actually in work, but not in the population of TH.

        Second, what experience is this, then?

        Morning, LD!

    1. ‘Morning (just) P-T, I trust that your lyrical artwork will be exhibited at the Tate and The National Gallery.

  42. The Law Society has recommended to its members that one percent of the fees they earn following Brexit be donated to a fund to pay for the renovation of the House of Commons. This may be more than enough to pay for it, and any surplus will be donated to Greta Thunberg to enable her to buy her own yacht.

    1. The Law Society already fleeces its members – the less well-off are fleeced the most, proportionately. It says a lot about where it thinks lawyers get their money – if politicians actually knew what they were enacting when they were debating etc. perhaps there would not be so many cases having to decide what the MPs actually meant.

      Morning, Tony.

        1. What about all those film investments that were advised by accountants and that HMRC are cracking down on? Anyway, it is often pretty obvious if a lawyer doesn’t get the right answer, sometimes not so much when the client thinks that his accountant has saved him money, not realising that if his accountant had got it right, he might have saved even more…

      2. One of the reasons I stopped practicing was because the cost of practicing certificate, compulsory insurance and effing “continuous training” costs were about 60% of my income before tax.

          3. FCAs are not expected to be available to the extent that sole practitioners in the legal profession were/are.

    1. That’s not sexual harrassment. It’s getting your come-uppance.
      It’s the Fringe. Arse longer, vita brevis.

        1. No skirta, Willum, just the knickers and bra. It wouldn’t have been harassment if she had the stockings and ‘spenders as well.

          Oh, well, just thoughts of a dirty old 75 year old. ( I do miss the courting in the sixties).

    3. “Ross decided not to flyer again after the incident”. Not much point spending time “flyering” with only one single performance left.

      1. Wellll, he could come and comment on here with ideas like those. However, I would consider changing the ‘all infidel’ bit to ‘leftie infidels’.

        1. I have spoken to one or two of the “real followers” of islam online but they don’t do it very often. They tend to go batsh*t crazy at the first comment about their Dear Leader. It is the ones who manage to mask their hate that are a greater danger. You do see them on TV now and then but they are easily spotted. Whatever the words that they speak, when you look into their eyes there is nothing there. Dead inside. Which is what real islam does to you.

          Many of those who have survived their murderous attacks have mentioned those same empty eyes. Soulless is another word, which you would need to be to drive a vehicle into a crowd of innocent men, women and children. Still, this will not last forever. More and more can see the threat now and that is the first step to making our country safe again.

          1. “It is the ones who manage to mask their hate that are a greater danger.”

            “We smile in their faces as we curse them in our hearts.”

          3. I think that has been photoshopped. That isn’t to say though that this may not be a perfectly normal scene in yer sandy places.

    1. So you’re saying (© Cathy Newman) that Arthur Lucan was the first man ever to self-identify as a woman? :-))

      1. Wasn’t thinking of the sex thing. Just of her/him helping Boris to scrub the back stop/step………….

        1. Yes, Tony, I did get it. Didn’t you spot the ” :-)) ” at the end of my post?

          EDIT: I just re-read my post, and it might well be interpreted as sarcasm. In fact, it was merely explaining that I understood your original post. No offence intended.

  46. The mass destruction of the Earth’s great forests is the most grievous crime of all – far far worse than genocide that only affects one species. I would submit that Braziian president to a very long and painful death, fingernail by fingernail and his screams broadcast on every loggers’ and poachers’ mobile phone in the Amazon.

    Certainly Brazil should become a pariah state, starting with ejection from world sport, starting with football. Then we work on Russia, Indonesia, China and possibly even the United States – the bully boys who do what they do because they can to the peril of us all.

    I do not like the BBC’s political correctness over gender, and Macron’s chauvinism over Brexit is notorious. Yet both are spot on over the very great danger we are in if we wreck our planet. Yes, we might be safely tucked up in our graves by the time the Earth becomes Mars for a million years (but not even we will be spared the consequences of mass migrations of people escaping failed harvests and squabbling over what’s left), but those born in this century are not so lucky. I despair at the nasty comments directed at “That Swedish Brat”, but within the limits of her own experience and intellect, I do believe she has something valid to tell her elders and “betters”.

    1. But don’t forget that it is our demand for stuff that creates that demand. I agree ith you, weare destroying our ecology.

      For me, the most heinous crime is that the fanatical pursuit of the massive redistribution of private wealth through tax has steam rollered the actual and genuine damage that we are causing.

      As always, the demented communists in ivory towers, living fat off expenses and private limos deliberately ignore the real carnage because it doesn’t suit them.

      Frankly, I’d find every poacher, every yank killer and flay them alive, remove their organs and hang them in banana bags while keeping them alive and screaming then photograph them, posting those to the next generation of psychotic murderers as an example of what happens tothose who would destroy needlessly in the name of trophy or ignorance.

    2. The problem is not the President or even the mass of the population of Brazil. It is the rich countries. It is the multinationals. Even us.
      (The Japanese happily import mahogany and other hardwoods from Brazil while their own forests are ruthlessly protected.).
      Logging, legal and illegal and clearance of forests for cattle or crops is rampant. Visit your local supermarket and go along the biscuit products. Find a product that does not contain palm oil. Now reflect that 40 years ago you could not find a product with it. It is used because it is the cheapest oil there is. There is no such thing as sustainable palm oil.
      Forget the Gerda nonsense. The reality is big business needs cheap stuff to sell to the proles who want quantity over quality.

    3. I don’t for one second believe that the corporate Globalists ultimately responsible for the rain forest decimation are in any way removed from the corporate Globalists ultimately responsible for the ‘climate alarmism’ scam.

      1. Personally, I don’t think they are related. The entrepreneurs exploiting the current concern about climate alarm are simply doing what they do – spotting an opening in the market and profiting from it before their competitors catch on. In time, they will be bought up by the global corporates, but I don’t think they are currently involved – more on the other side – Big Oil, fracking, logging and mineral exploitation, real estate, as well as the usual casino extortion from inside, denying blatant corrupt practice with efficient politics, public bullying and bluster. They have the money and will deny it to anyone causing a fuss.

        I do think the corporate Globalists are responsible for the distraction with gender politics, and with hate/thought crime, such as “Islamophobia”, “Antisemitism”, “Homophobia” and of course that reliable crowd whipper-up, paedophilia. The rainbow, which in the past was the happy marriage of sun and rain with a pot of gold at the end, has now become, by order, the emblem of homosexuality to be worn by the National Trust and Great Malvern town centre in a perversion of the word “pride”.

        A generation ago, they set out to undermine Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth and similar serious environmental conservation institutions with “New Age” crystal gazing, which is not serious science, and feminism, which is quite fascist in its intent.

        1. I think it is all related and they already have enough ( not full ) control of all sides of all the arguments to manipulate the outcome.

          1. Why then are they so hostile to true environmentalists if (as you suggest) they have them under their control?

          2. Who is actually implementing the hostility? The Globalists themselves just manipulate situations where we all fight amongst ourselves, Divide & Rule.

  48. The tributes from public and the police for the family of murdered PC Andrew Harper are poignant and respectful .

    No matter how many eulogies are offered and tears weeped , and sombre words are uttered.. the criminal always wins ..

    Our laws means nothing , and even with the prospect of an eventual Brexit , our judiciary will still be liberal, wet and pathetic

    1. Afternoon, M.

      The biggest scandal is that your excellent post has neither supportive comments nor any upticks.

      This is a direct reflection of the abysmal standard of commentator these days!

    1. “You seriously think that those people put some abstract idea of sovereignty before their own employment and their own children?”

      This should be printed in 20′ tall letters on banners displayed around the country to remind the people of the madness of the Remain camp.

      1. It is the same as saying “The people would accept slavery as long as you give them food and a roof.”

        The sad thing is, mad bat’s like her do not see what is wrong with the way they think. She is a Remainer so she knows best. No-one who voted to Leave can possibly understand the situation as well as she does, so therefore they are wrong.

        Whenever I see her on the press previews I hit the fast-forward button.

        1. I have often commended slavery as being the best possible outcome for those unfortunate darkies who were sold by their relatives to Arab traders and then passed on to the Americas. Healthy physical work in the open air, food, clothing and shelter provided. Even opportunities for promotion.
          The American slave owners were less fortunate. The slaves came from a culture where men did no work at all. A huge culture shock for both sides. The plantation owners had a strong work ethic and the frustration with the unskilled, illiterate, unwilling, but extremely expensive slaves was no doubt overpowering at times.

      2. Well, my relatives died for it. As did others.
        It is almost impossible to comprehend fully the devastation WW1 caused to Great Britain. Our brightest and best were wiped out. Great houses throughout the land fell into disrepair and ruin because the heirs were buried on the Somme.

      3. Abstract idea… dear life. Do as you’re told, we know better, shut up, stop complaining Winston.

        “Why should one feel it to be intolerable unless one had some kind of
        ancestral memory that things had once been different?”

        She is an Orwellian lunatic. I wonder if she even knows the frenzied insanity of which she proposes.

    2. Well said, that youngster. I hope she becomes a person of influence in the not too distant future.

    3. This is the best quotation I have to describe remainers.

      ( The great poets have a way of putting things rather well so I do not apologise for posting this a second time today)

      “But what more oft in Nations grown corrupt,
      And by ther vices brought to servitude,
      Than to love Bondage more than Liberty,
      Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty;”

      ― John Milton, Samson Agonistes

      1. Perfect , you always find the appropriate words from a far off time.

        How did John Milton know the difference especially when those times were always tumultuous with anger?

      2. “Is the prisoner a prisoner because he lives in a cage or because he knows that he lives in a cage?”
        ― Michael Moorcock, The Dancers at the End of Time

      3. ….. . and in a similar vein …..

        “My very chains and I grew friends,
        So much a long communion tends
        To make us what we are:—even I
        Regain’d my freedom with a sigh.”
        — Lord Byron (The Prisoner of Chillon)

    4. Golly, smart, good-looking, articulate, concise, confident and right on the button. Big mistake picking on her for an opinion, eh my sweet loonie snowflakes of the MSM?

  50. Two wind turbines standing in a field .
    One says to the other “what kind of music are you into ?”
    “I’m a huge metal fan”
    I’ll get me coat……………….

    1. Talking of which we have already lost three wickets for just 20 runs. Root gets another duck.

    1. He is in property, isn’t he? Much to lose from Brexit on that front alone, let alone heck knows what else his other incentives might be.

      G’day, Rik!

    2. If the EU had any class as a political entity it would have told all the British plotters to take a hike and then stated categorically that it would only deal with the UK’s elected head of government or that person’s nominated representatives. The EU’s stance shows it up as an organisation that cannot be trusted when high level discussions are taking place. However, the EU’s performance doesn’t absolve the likes of Hammond, Blair et al. from blame but by receiving encouragement from the EU it emboldened them to continue to defy the British electorate.

  53. Leaked emails show Ukip leader comparing Muslims to Nazis. Thu 22 Aug 2019 14.04 BST

    Matthew McGregor from the anti-fascist campaign group Hope Not Hate said Ukip was now “the party of Tommy Robinson and anti-Muslim prejudice”.

    “Despite all the chaos around Brexit, the party is mired at 1% in the polls. They’re seeking to stoke tension in communities in the desperate hope of regaining relevancy. It’s time for them to join previous failed far-right parties in the dustbin of history,” he said.

    Aside from their content which I would regard as eminently sensible these are private emails between individuals and could not stoke tension with anyone. A more fruitful line of enquiry might be to discover who “leaked” them and how they came into the possession of the Guardian.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/aug/22/leaked-emails-show-ukip-leader-richard-braine-comparing-muslims-nazis

    1. Remind me again,what’s the Moslem genocides totals against Christians,Hindus,Buddhists etc etc etc
      Islam makes the Nazis look like pikers

      1. Remind me of the policies and actions of so-called Hope not Hate, and the White Helmets (the other of St. Jo’s preferred “charities”).

      2. Come on Rik, be fair, the RoP has had 1,400 years of practice. The other lot put in a good effort over 12 or so years, so don’t be too harsh on them.🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

  54. Went down to the garden last evening to check the tomatoes. There were two super ones which the MR said would be ideal for her lunch starter today.

    Just back – and they had GONE!! My co-potagiste does eco-food boxes. That’s where they must be! Never mind – it is all in the “esprit de co-potagisme”….

    Edited to correct typo.

      1. Good morning, dear heart.

        No, serve as a “tricolore” with delicious local mozzarella.

    1. 10% of the police force diverted to this one small area! How many other crimes will be neglected to stop our ‘multi-cultural’ friends stabbing each other? Withdraw from the warzone and let them get on with it I say.

        1. Well if 10% of the police ‘service’ of the UK are otherwise engaged, then I suppose so. And as roughly 50% are ‘policing’ hurty words on Twitter then pretty much anytime is a good time to commit a crime in the UK.

    2. Only intelligent people can learn from mistakes.

      Wotcher, Maggie! How are things with you?

  58. Afternoon all. May I recommend an excellent article from Melanie Phillips. The Backstop is only one of the many horrors in the Awful Surrender Document. It must not pass.

    https://www.melaniephillips.com/glad-confident-morning-britains-battling-brexiteers/?fbclid=IwAR36y0QYRh7exnUB79tdC9GjMRSJD6PMeTF1LM5c8TvAg6-NIucaMBsPz0E

    PS – can we stop referring to the PM as Boris? He is not our friend, he is a politician who, perhaps more than any in recent history needs to actually do what he promised to do. If not, his will be the shortest premiership in history.

          2. Sorry Lass, but May was totally out of her depth, outmanoeuvred and useless. She couldn’t negotiate her way out of a paper bag. In many ways she is responsible for the mess that Boris (yes, I’ll call him Boris) is working to resolve to our advantage.

          3. Do you happen to know why Boris’ policies, other than on the EU, are the same as Tony/Dave/Treasa’s… and why he is an admirer of Common Purpose ?

          4. He’s an opportunist. I don’t think that is very much in doubt, whatever side of the fence he is on Brexit.

          5. Which is why, having got to where he wanted to be, he wants to stay as PM. He has employed a good stategist.

          7. He will resolve it to his advantage – he knows he’ll be toast if he sells us out this time – and he wants to stay as PM.

          8. May seemed to think she could get away with it. I hope you’re right, J.

            Good afternoon – hope things are going better for you.

          9. Thanks – yes J has a date for his surgery – 1st October in Bristol.
            At the moment I’m struggling to make sense of Gift Aid…….
            May was deluded – or she thought everyone else was!

          10. Wishing J the very best.

            May was deluded, not least (but not exclusively) in thinking that everyone else was. Children and unintelligent adult people often can’t imagine that others can’t see further than their own lies.

          11. I think she struggled to see the difference between truth and lies. She started off with the reasonable statement ” No deal is better than a bad deal” and then proceded to produce the worst deal possible. By the end I think she couldn’t tell one from the other, or thought we couldn’t.

          12. If so, he’ll be toast with a nice pension. Then there’s the memoirs and the after dinner speech circuit. What else can I add… Oh. I know. “Please make me toast on the same terms”.

          13. Are you sure that May wanted to be a negotiator – not just to look like one? She was following orders, from her husband at least, who stands to make a lot of money out of her policy. Probably ( she is quite thick) from others, through him?

        2. Yes. Everything.

          Johnson should not have gone to Paris or Berlin. They are neither crucial, nor friends of this country, and truth be said, never have been.

          1. I think there’ll only be a ”deal” if the guy who has spent many millions to stop Brexit approves it, which means it can only be a slightly adjusted WA dressed up as something else.

        1. If he doesn’t, what will Nigel and the country have to untangle that we might have been legally caught in?

          1. It’s a legally binding treaty with no exit clause: Martin Howe QC expressed surprise that such a mechanism had been proposed, yet alone accepted, by an equal partner in a peacetime negotiation. May did really well to try and tie us to her masters in Brussels.
            Untangling the UK from such a treaty would, it appears, be very difficult. I can’t believe Johnson would be so stupid as to try and put the UK in such a bad position when there is no reason to agree to the condition when we have a clear alternative, WTO terms and a clean break.

      3. I don’t know – he might still be bought, or arrogant enough to think he can get away with a ( or several) lies. Look how many lies May got away with before she was dumped –

        Yes Mrs. May, you were dumped. For being nothing, useless, incompetent, arrogant , a sociopath, dense, – all to the point of illness – and being a traitor. And worse, except that there is not enough room here.

        I will trust a Conservative politician only when after he or she delivers. Not before.

    2. His friends refer to him as Al. A shortened form of Alexander. One of his given names!

          1. Better than when I saw them in Hyde Park in the early-ish 2000s. They were at opposite ends of the stage and repelled each other’s approach like two magnets of the same pole.

    3. It doesn’t seem right to call him ‘Mr Johnson’ or even Johnson.

      Thus he is Boris.

      It isn’t any reference of respect for the man, just same as I don’t call Arnie… his surname. He’s Arnie and, in his own words ‘someday people will know me by my first name.’

      1. Mr Johnson is not an actor or a pop star, he’s not there to entertain us, but to act in the best interests of this nation. My children don’t call their teachers by their Christian names, why should we do so for the Prime Minister, as if he was a personal friend of ours ?

  59. Notre maison est en feu!

    Macron attempts to subvert Greta’s role as eco-world leader by saying it in French.

    2. As the traditional French song for eco-savvy kiddies goes:

      ♫ “Au temps de la crise climatique,
      Le président, Micron,
      Dit, prête-moi ton tuyau
      Plutôt rapidement
      Notre maison est en feu,
      Je n’ai plus d’eau.
      Donne-moi un coup de main
      Pour l’amour de Dieu” ♫

        2. …and then you woke up.

          Edit: acksherly, GS may work out that it might be worth getting some brownie points to spend (what is for him) a pittance to combat the fires. No doubt it will be tax-deductible too, so win-win, he’ll think. Except that many people will have worked that little ploy out first.

          2. Wow, better get on the line to S – hang on, he has probably just bought up all the shareholding…

          6. Oh don’t, Angie – some are stupid enough to set fire to their own places just to do that! Well, at least we can be sure that they don’t read NoTTL!

            Or maybe we shouldn’t knock it – Darwinism in action. I wish it would act a bit more, that’s all.

          8. There are some pretty stupid reasons for using a CO2 extinguisher in the first place.

          10. Starting a little fire to put it out, and circle in a chair at the same time. Well you have to have had an excuse to use the extinguisher in the first place or your mother would be mad at you.

          16. OK clever clogs – we can’t all do that easily with our laptops etc. and you know what we mean. You are the first to come out when someone is being pedantic…din skvat! :o)

          21. I didn’t say there was. I was replying to Angie, who wrote “you must be pretty stupid to put out a Co2 fire with a Co2 extinguisher”. I didn’t envisage any fire other than a usual fire.

          23. Almost anything burns in pure oxygen (O2) so with all that O2 in CO2 it must be the oxygen bit of CO2 that is causing the CO2 fire in the Amazon.

            It looks as though the photosynthesis reaction of CO2 to O2 in the trees is faster than the consumptiom of oxygen by the fire.

            believe in the science as Greta says.

          25. Weeeeeell yes, but oxygen atoms usually go around in pairs, resulting the O2 molecule. It’s all to do with valency.

          26. I guess, except in deep space or whatever. However, you do get things like carbon monoxide. I suppose the monoxide is an indicator that oxygen normally goes in multiples – but then what about nitrous oxide?

          27. Oxygen, O, refers to an atomic element.
            In nature, ‘Dioxygen’, O2, is called a diatomic molecule i.e. a molecule made from two bonded atoms of the same type. When both O2 atoms are bonded to a further atom of a different element e.g. Carbon, C, it turns that atomic element into a dioxide of that element which is then known as a compound molecule – in this case carbon dioxide.

            So Hertslass, you thought right.

          29. You didn’t do O-level chemistry, did you? O2 cannot be released from CO2, except by a very roundabout route.

            The O2 released by plants is the product of metabolising sugars in the presence of Chlorophyl & sunlight.

  60. Apropos my grandson’s magnificent set of GCSE results I posted yesterday I think he should be send to Headingly as he is far better at tests than the current lot up there. 🙂

      2. I’m sure you’ll agree every US President is a winner.
        You didn’t take any exams then.

          1. Dunno about GCSEs, Polly, but many US Presidents have taken a dope test and passed with flying colours.

          4. That wasn’t what i asked you. However I’m not aware any US president had any education but I like Duncan’s reply to you.

          5. What did you ask ?

            I see no question marks, so it looks like you failed your basic English exam.

          6. I thought you, being very intelligent, would forgive a poor mortal who didn’t take any GCSEs.
            However.
            You didn’t take any exams then?

          8. On the matter of basic punctuation, a question mark should not have a space between it and the final word, should it?

    2. In fairness, I believe this is the finest and fittest pace attack I’ve seen from Australia. It’s like having 3 Glenn McGrath’s coming at you on a responsive pitch and with the ball swinging.

  61. ‘Morning All

    “We know there is simply no basis for climate alarm. All “scientific”

    predictions have failed, life has survived happily with much higher CO2

    in the past, the medieval warming period a thousand years ago was much

    warmer than today, the small temperature variations of the 20th century

    are easily explained by natural causes, and the IPCC reports confirm

    that there is no increase in extreme weather events and no economic harm

    from CO2.

    And yet the hysteria is increasing by the day. The “remedies” being

    suggested are becoming more extreme: it is no longer just about making

    energy so expensive that the poor can’t afford it, it is now about

    removing meat from their diet as well.

    So how is such an irrational project going so strong? Because it is a

    clever way to disguise the deep hatred so many of the elites have of

    the poor. After the Hitler debacle talking about eugenics is no longer

    welcome in polite company. Climate alarm provides a perfect cloak. It

    achieves the same goal while signalling virtue. Climate hysteria is

    driven by an amalgamation of the ideologies of Malthus, Marx, Hitler and

    social Darwinism.

    That this is not about the environment becomes clear when we note

    that these people do not care about market-based remedies to save

    wildlife, remove waste and reduce chemical pollution. These people also

    viciously attack nuclear energy. If they cared about CO2 they would be

    desperate for nuclear energy, but their goals are obviously quite

    different.”

    https://www.thegwpf.com/sanjeev-sabhlok-looking-behind-the-scenes-of-the-well-orchestrated-climate-hysteria/

    1. … it is now about

      removing meat from their diet as well.

      Vegetarians traditionally drive 2CVs & tend to be less aggressive. “Sheep may safely graze…”

  62. Wot I wrote last night…

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

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

    1. Is it time to drop the cannibalism taboo? Psychologists say eating members of the same species is natural and we could ‘adapt to human flesh if need be’
      For humans, aversion to cannibalism is so strong that ethics count for little
      Even in worst situations, eating another human’s flesh is beyond contemplation
      But, other mammals including bears, lions, and chimpanzees cannibalize others

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7383903/How-cannibalism-taboo-sets-humans-apart-rest-animal-kingdom.html

      1. It might, however, have the same long term effect as bonking one’s “too close” relatives – long term drops in intelligence, plus the odd deformity, both have which are evident today among certain tribes and groups.

        1. Why do you think there is this desperate political attempt to flood the West with people who traditionally bonk their close relatives?

      2. Hi Belle,

        It’s the human concept of Western ethics that precludes cannibalism. And other things like certain taboos that we have with, for example, incest. But every ethic can be compromised by some in extreme circumstances (I am thinking of people on boats, mountains etc who have been in situations where some have died, and the living eaten the dead to avoid dying themselves).

        Some societies don’t have the same ethics. People that we have imported in their millions e.g. think what we consider to be incest, to be normal (except that the amount of abnormal children born to those people should have shown that to be wrong). But some people don’t think.;

        Only intelligent beings learn from their mistakes. Lower forms of life (e.g. frogs etc.) just keep on propagating in the hope that some will survive. Unfortunately I can’t help thinking that lower intelligence forms of humans do the same.

        I do not say which those people are – they come from both inside and outside our society.

  66. The first Christmas catalogue dropped through the door today,must be time to get the sprouts on

    2. You’re a bit late! Annie, Elsie and I (among many others) have had them on for months already!

      1. ‘Afternoon, Lass, I didn’t know Rik’s other name was Annie!

        Our sprouts were on in April (2018 – half used at Christmas)

        Edit, Oops, missed the exclamation mark – have another doch ‘n’ doris

        As I said to Damask-Rose earlier, proof-reading is all – as is ‘Read the effing post, Moron’

          2. ‘Thanks, Duncan but was fixed hours ago – and without the Gaelic which I don’t profess to speak.

        3. What have you been on, Nanners? There is an exclamation mark between the words late and Annie, not a comma.

  68. Brexit Party unveils candidates for Hendon and Finchley and Golders Green seats

    Yosef David, 32, a social worker who describes himself as “a member of the Orthodox Jewish community,” has been selected as the party’s prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) in Hendon, where Conservative Mathew Offord has been the MP since 2010.

    Julia Pelta, 43, a healthcare and technology adviser, has been unveiled as the PCC in neighbouring Finchley and Golders Green, which is currently represented by Tory MP Mike Freer.

  69. Australian state scraps Chinese-funded Mandarin lessons amid fears over foreign influence. 23 AUGUST 2019 • 1:26PM.

    A New South Wales report issued after a review of the programme said no evidence of “actual political influence” was found but that there was a sense that “the institute is or could be facilitating inappropriate foreign influence.”

    How can you have no evidence and then say that it’s happening anyway? I don’t like the Chinese Government, its policies or its occupation of Tibet but this is a dumb decision. China for good or bad is here and growing increasingly powerful and the more people that speak their language the better.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/23/australian-state-scraps-chinese-funded-mandarin-lessons-amid/

    1. The French Institute in Edinburgh has not been investigated regarding influence. I would not want to be asked to give evidence, but it certainly helped me to learn French and to like and admire the films of the Nouvelle Vague.

  70. Brexit Food Shortages

    A spokesperson warned that we should be on alert for increased cannibalism due to food shortages after Brexit

  71. Nicked Comment,saves the typing

    The BBC seems to be fact-free regarding climate change/global warming.
    Apart
    from stating categorically that the bush fires in Brazil are “the worst
    ever”, although NASA has stated (quietly) that they are below average,
    they also insist that “The Brazilian Rain Forest” provides the planet
    with 70% of its oxygen—well, when I was in Primary School and we did
    “Nature Study” (catching tadpoles and identifying leaves and such) I
    recall that we were told that it was algae and plant plankton
    (phyloplankton) in the oceans that produced most of the oxygen on the
    planet–so I looked it up and, Lo! it is so–marine plants 70%, ALL the
    rainforests in the entire world, not just Brazil’s 28% and the rest of
    the whole planet 2%.

      1. Aside from his saying it, it could be with regret or disappointment, understanding it’s wrong but seeing how the intent has been twisted.

        He could agree with it, could not and simply not want to resign. Who knows?

    1. Not medium sized villages near where the elite live, though. E.g.Cameron’s patch…

      The elite are more and more arrogant – they don’t even attempt to hide it any more. We voted them in – we vote them OUT!

  73. These people are literally insane

    “In the long-term,

    widespread personal vehicle ownership therefore does not appear to be

    compatible with significant decarbonisation. The Government should not

    aim to achieve emissions reductions simply by replacing existing

    vehicles with lower-emissions versions.”

    So that’s all folks no cars,apart from the official cars in the Zil lane obviously

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/08/23/uk-govt-committee-end-all-private-vehicle-ownership-because-climate-change/

    1. Having a car gives you sense of freedom, of possibility. Your horizons are wider than the edge of the valley that you grew up in. It inspires people to lift their eyes from the ground and see the world around them. It also gives you a chance to get away from the powers that be if they decide to come for you.

      They can’t have that. Not if they have a chance to remove it.

      1. It also improves the gene pool as you can meet and marry people from farther away who are less likely to be related to you. One of the advantages of the bicycle when it became generally available.

    2. Given outside of London and the large cities and towns there is nothing much in the way of public transport and you will certainly not have buses on a Sunday or bank holiday or even in the evening so I am not sure how their dreams of no cars will work

      Could start with closing down the commons car park as there is no need to drive in London well except for some of the outer parts

    3. So you get “on your bike” to get to your work. By the time you’ve got to work you have to get on your bike to get home again. Or sleep in a shoebox in a hole until it’s an hour before you go to work again.

    1. All these MSM outlets are now partisan propaganda platforms. The days of News reported as fact is over! I wouldn’t mind so much if Channel 4 and the BBC financed themselves from their programmes!

          1. I think you just might have shown us this clip before!

            Do you have any good links showing just which British politicians have be bought with the Palindrome’s money?

          2. There is no proof (that would be almost impossible to obtain), but there is circumstantial evidence based on behavior which I have linked before, although of course it’s not conclusive proof.

            Why did he have 80 meetings with the EU Commission in 2018, and why is EU policy the same as his policies ?

            Why were the policies of Tony/Dave/Treasa the same as his policies ?

            Why did they want to meet a multi billionaire… and not you ?

            Peter Schweizer did a lot of digging in the US and he came up with this……. please scroll down……

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

            and the interesting cases reviewed on Fox News…. at 39 seconds………..

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIEYR0qFxOw

          3. Proof is possible, at any rate strong circumstantial evidence is. But no one is looking for it. MPs and families are not subject to having their affairs audited in depth. They are trusted to declare their interests. They do not have to declare those of their friends though.

          4. Well, we have known that O’Banana enriched friends. He is not the only one – few of his predecessors will have done less, although the extent of enrichment in those times may have been less.

            IMO the thought was that getting a black President would be a fairer president. Possibly because he was black – which he wasn’t – he was half-black. (Well he sh*t on his mother and her white colour, even though she had him educated and even though his black dad had b*ggered off – as some dads have a tendency to do.)

            They are all hypocrites – and nowadays black people can’t whinge that they are treated any worse by white people. Obama didn’t help them, did he? He considered himself black – despite the fact that he had no support from his black father, and his white mother had given him the opportunity that he had.

    2. …and ITV News called our Prime Minister “a buffoon”

      I await a rude comment from them about Corbyn( but I’m not holding my breath)

  75. Man, I feel like the BBC is getting more and more hysterical by the day, trying to make out that this is the most racist, homophobic, transphobic etc. etc.country in the world. The problem is, people believe this stuff. Soon this hysteria will start to be reflected in the law. It’s gonna get nasty…

    2. Its beginning to be fed into Company ‘values’, and of course, if you do not adhere to those values, I guess you might be hauled up for misconduct and loose your livelihood. This is part of todays missive from our Chief Exec… and who would dare disagree with him. Oh, the male head of HR has a husband, just sayin’.

      “Thomas Cook Airlines has long supported diversity and inclusion among its colleagues and customers and actively recruits diverse talent and skills in its Manchester headquarters. Christoph Debus, CEO of Thomas Cook Airlines said, “Diversity is in our DNA. We fly our customers all over the world and we don’t just want to get them from A to B. We want to connect people regardless of their sexuality, gender or race. We believe in a future where everyone can be who they want to be and travel the world while doing so.”

      I’ll just collect my rainbow flag and leather shorts on my way to pride.

      1. We want to connect people regardless of their sexuality, gender or race

        And when did Thomas Cook not do this? Why do they need to announce it?

        1. I have worked quite happily in this company for 23 years and get on with all my ‘team’. I judge them only on their performance in role. I am not interested in what people get up to after work. What I feel that has happened recently, is that such an emphasis has been put on the acceptance of LBGT, you are likely to be hauled up for gross misconduct if you publicly disagree. We have all been provided with a ‘fly diverse’ badge. Oddly enough, I feel the company conduct to be on the edge of bullying and making you the odd-man-out if you do not wear one. I feel a nasty case of stress coming on and may have to take time off to recover.

    3. The Co-op Bank are supporting a Gay Pride march in Manchester, they tell me in a no-reply email.

  76. HAPPY HOUR – He wears it well….

    Sir Rod Stewart, who has eight children with five different women, showed how close he remains to the mothers of seven of his children.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e97e8261bd00c4d45a1eeb1d556facba4504fc1f4ae8e74c46504ac55c7fe6fc.jpg
    Pictured with Alana Stewart, Penny Lancaster, Kelly Emberg and Rachel Hunter.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-7385267/Rod-Stewart-poses-wife-Penny-Lancaster-THREE-women-hes-fathered-children-with.html

    6. Look as if he is looking to give them a trial run to see if he wants to give any of them a second go

  77. I keep getting thrown out of this site (by Disgust)and my profile is unobtainable

    Can anyone help please

    3. I am having the devils own time with disqus in general this afternoon, with it taking several attempts to access any page and “Notifications” not showing up until hours after they occur. For the first time I am needing to log in again and again, and comments keep being stalled when I try to post them.

      I have seen others complain of this as well in the past 24 hours. The wheels of disqus might be starting to fall off in this final weekend.

    5. In good old Culdrose days in the very early 1970’s when the men were away on detachment flying their Seakings ( on Engadine ) a group of pilots wives including me wanted to go and have a coffee in the Wardroom , we were flung out ..

      When we ( the squadron ) moved up to Prestwick a year later , most bods played golf , I walked into Troon golf club and was thrown out , no ladies allowed .. it was a men only club.

      I was also chucked off the Guardian re a comment I made ..

      You are not alone OLT ..

    7. I’ve had a couple of problems today but it’s been OK up until now. I’m hoping its just Disqus having a wonky day.

  78. MP Arrested for Fraud

    MP Jared O’Mara has been arrested on suspicion of fraud, according to multiple sources.
    The independent MP for Sheffield Hallam was arrested at the same time as his chief of staff Gareth Arnold, the BBC’s Next Episode Podcast found.
    Electronic equipment was confiscated in the South Yorkshire Police inquiry, the BBC also understands.
    Mr O’Mara did not respond to requests for comment while Mr Arnold said he had “no comment”.
    Both have been released under investigation.
    South Yorkshire Police would not confirm details of either man’s arrest.
    The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority said it was a “matter for the police”.

  81. Ten years ago to this day and moment, 5.48 pm, Sunday 23rd August 2009, England won the Ashes at The Oval when Alastair Cook caught Michael Hussey (123) off the bowling of Graeme Swann. At the TMS microphone was Christopher Martin-Jenkins: “It’s all over. England have regained the Ashes…on a golden evening at The Oval.”

    RIP CMJ.

    RIP England 2019.

  82. Eddie Stobart share suspended

    The ace share picker Neil Woodford was a big holder of their shares. He seems to be an expert at picking duds

    1. The costs of opening Carlisle Airport after endless bureaucratically imposed delays may be a factor.

    1. I dare say more likely is

      EXCLUSIVE: Inside the African essay factories that churn out university coursework for 115,000 cheating students at British universities every year

      1. Someone I knew at a Bar school (i.e. for budding barristers) said that some of the Africans could hardly speak English. They may have wanted to go and practise back home (heavens only knows how they could have practised here) but it shows the endemic corruption of our “education” system for foreigners.

  85. Johnson warns against Channel crossings after dozens intercepted

    Boris Johnson has warned those thinking of crossing the Channel illegally that they will be sent back to France after dozens of people, including children, were intercepted on Thursday in several incidents at sea and on the south coast.

    The prime minister’s comments came as the home secretary, Priti Patel, prepared to hold talks with her French counterpart about the crossings, which have sometimes been linked to fairer weather conditions.

    “The point I would just make to people thinking of making this journey: one, it is very hazardous. You may think the weather looks great but it’s a very, very dangerous thing to do.
    “The second thing is: we will send you back. The UK should not be regarded as a place where you could automatically come and break the law by seeking to arrive illegally. If you come illegally, you are an illegal migrant and I’m afraid the law will treat you as such.”

    2. “The second thing is: we will send you back.”

      Yeh, right. How many taxpayer funded appeals will it take before they’re granted leave to remain? We’ll judge you by your success rate, Priti, not your soundbites.

      1. I think it is the legal profesion that needs to be blamed, not Boris or Priti. They have had a good run for too long.

        1. Politicians are to blame, they set the parameters under which the legal profession acts. Johnson and Patel have a chance to ensure that illegals are intercepted and sent back immediately. No benefits, no legal aid and hence no appeals in the UK as OB suggests.

          1. That would be Tony Blair and his government:

            https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/human-rights-act-was-an-invitation-to-make-law-says-britains-most-senior-judge-10013725.html

            “Human Rights Act was an invitation to make law, says Britain’s most senior judge
            Britain’s most senior judge has declared that the Human Rights Act was a “revolutionary” invitation to the judiciary to make law in comments that will raise new debate about the future of the legislation.

            Lord Neuberger, the President of the Supreme Court, told an audience in London that judges had “always been lawmakers” but that their powers had been significantly increased since the Human Rights Act was introduced in 1998.”

          2. Everything that Blair designed was done with malice aforethought, to harm the UK as it then was and to turn the UK into a minor outpost of the EU.

          3. Especially the Human Rights Act, based on which (while still a bill) his fragrant wife created a new set of chambers, Matrix chambers.From which she has made a lot of dosh.

          4. Fingerprints etc should be taken and no chance of being given UK citizenship in the future. There are legal ways of seeking refuge.

          6. If they are intercepted before entering UK waters, why would anyone have the right to appeal etc.

        2. You seem to have a thing about the legal profession…not that I blame you for that at all. But, on the other hand there are many snarls in badly-made laws that the legal profession does not create, but that it has to try to solve.

      2. Change the law. Appeals may only be made once expulsion has occurred. It’s like that in Norway.

    4. The Lib Dems spokeswoman ( spokesperson ? ) has just put you right –

      ”

      It is just plain wrong for Boris Johnson to label refugees crossing the Channel as ‘illegal migrants’.

      Quite apart from the dehumanising language, there is nothing illegal
      about seeking sanctuary in the UK, and it is shameful that we have a
      prime minister who says it is.”

    6. Yawn. Yeah right. Give us six examples, go on, name six illegal immigrants who have actually been permanently removed from the UK. Go on.
      OK, then, just name one, ever.

  86. Just back from a lovely evening sunny walk round the lake.

    Met a local who said what an arse Johnson was and what a STAR May was.

    Yer just can’t win…………….

      1. Grandchildren float (well in fresh water) .Found out this afternoon.

  87. Green Party’s radical plan to scrap London travel zones and replace with flat fare

    Another daft idea from the Greens. London is a very large place. It will mean wither the cost of the pass would rise substantially or the subsidy to TfL will go up substantially, Zone 6 actually extends beyond London

  89. Evening, everyone. It’s been a lovely day here after a dull start. Looking forward to a sunny (and more relaxing) weekend!

    1. Been collecting splinters from the barn roof. It was sunny, cool and painful day.

  93. Donald J. Trump

    @realDonaldTrump

    Our Country has lost, stupidly, Trillions of Dollars with China over many years. They have stolen our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year, & they want to continue. I won’t let that happen! We don’t need China and, frankly, would be far better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA. I will be responding to China’s Tariffs this afternoon. This is a GREAT opportunity for the United States. Also, I am ordering all carriers, including Fed Ex, Amazon, UPS and the Post Office, to SEARCH FOR & REFUSE all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!). Fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year. President Xi said this would stop – it didn’t. Our Economy, because of our gains in the last 2 1/2 years, is MUCH larger than that of China. We will keep it that way!

    1. I have very little admiration (almost none) for Donald Trump but there is much to admire in what he says here. However, am not sure that everything he says is do-able in the real world, at least without causing America and Americans more harm than good.

        2. Fair question so I’ll give you a fair answer. Because of its industrial, economic and military power, the US is the de facto leader of most of the World. It has stood as a beacon of democracy, freedom, generosity, the rule of law and much else that is desirable in the World. It helps neither the US nor the World for the US to be held by much of the latter in contempt, scorn and mockery, and Trump has brought it to this. I stood in line to pay my respects when President Reagan was Lying in State and, whatever one thought of his politics, he was respected as a courteous and principled gentleman, and America grew because of this.

          1. You do realize, don’t you, who now largely runs the Western world through his baleful influence of the EU and UN ?

            Why do those two organizations have identical policies to him ?

            Why did the European Commission meet with him 80 times last year ?

            What is your view about Obama’s involvement with this individual as publicized by Peter Schweitzer ?

            Similarly the Clintons as publicized by Schweitzer ?

            Contrary to what you obviously think, Donald Trump is the good guy working hard to save Western civilization.

      2. If you are on the other side of Trump’s rhetoric do you laugh, or do you take a step back and ask yourself:
        “what if he’s serious”?

        and if you think he might be serious, do you alter your behaviour?

        If you do, he’s won. And if you don’t and he acts as he said he would, you lose.

          1. Whereas at the Westminster School of Advanced Negotiating Techniques, they have no yet got past the bit where they decide which one goes to visit the other.

      3. Be interesting to see what happens next. China is the single biggest international holder of US sovereign debt. The way it works is the US runs up deficits, China buys up the debt and the US imports goods from China. If they get PO’d and decide to dump their holdings, it would get very ugly – not a mere recession but a full on crash.

        The more likely scenario is that this whole statement is a negotiating ploy for when Trump meets Xi. DT has not yet worked out that country to country negotiations between two major powers whose economies are entwined is not a simple, “I win, you lose” proposition. And Xi of course is a whole lot smarter and will always play the long game.

        And of course this kind of rhetoric plays to Trump’s “God and Guns” red neck “base”.

        1. Why?
          The US buys back its own debt from China at well below par. There are still plenty of buyers of new debt out there.
          For the time being.

          1. “for the time being” Yes and no. Having a loose cannon for president is not helpful in these circumstances. Large sovereign investors like a certain certainty in their lives.

            And of course he does not have the authority to order private businesses to do anything – that would require an act of Congress, and even so such an act would probably be thrown out by the courts as unconstitutional.

            Trouble is, he is panicking as the election nears because he knows full well that a recession between now and 2020 is guaranteed to lose him the next election, so all the toys are being thrown out of the pram at the moment.

          3. Well, when you get your next open borders Democrat President don’t be surprised if it all goes down the pan in a blaze. The hate-mongers on the Hill who wish all manner of ill on “White America” will stir up both sides.

    2. We wil now see what Trump is made of. I have taken far more interest in American politics since Trump came onto the scene.

      He has destroyed the Democrats who can only attack him or come out with far left policies. Well we will see.

  94. Stop thinking Merkel will save us, Dominic Cummings warns
    Isabel Hardman – Coffee House – 23 August 2019 – 6:59 PM

    Is Boris Johnson more likely to get a Brexit deal after his meetings with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron? The Prime Minister today tried to dampen hopes, saying that while the ‘mood music’ had been ‘very good’ during his meetings with the two leaders this week, it was still going to be hard to persuade the EU to give way. Speaking during a visit to Devon, Johnson said: ‘This is not going to be a cinch, this is not going to be easy. We will have to work very hard to get this thing done.’

    Much of the week has been spent trying to work out what various comments and bits of body language really mean. Was Johnson celebrating successful talks or just having a stretch when he arrived back in Downing Street after his meetings? Was he snubbing the French when he jokingly placed his foot on a table in the Elysée Palace during his meeting with Emmanuel Macron? Was Angela Merkel leaving the door open for a breakthrough – or was she just being polite?

    That last question is one Downing Street is particularly interested in answering at the moment. Merkel’s comments about there being 30 days for Johnson to come up with a solution to the backstop were interpreted by many in Britain as being a sign that she was planning to come to the Prime Minister’s aid. But I hear that this evening Johnson’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings told special advisers that he wanted to change the narrative about Merkel being the likely saviour of a deal.

    Cummings told the SpAds that David Cameron and Theresa May had both misunderstood Merkel and often relied on her to help them out when there was no realistic possibility that she would. There was no reason to believe that she would be the one to save the Brexit deal this time round, either.

    Cameron’s reliance on his ‘naughty nephew’ relationship with Angela Merkel led to him getting such an unconvincing renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Europe that he had to stop talking about it during the EU referendum campaign. This week, those who understand the German Chancellor argued that she really was just being polite when she appeared to leave the door open to a deal.

    So the chances of no deal haven’t reduced this week, according to Cummings at least. He told the advisers at today’s meeting to enjoy their Bank Holiday and get a good rest, because it would be the last real bit of downtime they’d have between now and the end of October. From Tuesday onwards, all of them must be on call at any time to come in and put in big hours on any problem, even if it has nothing to do with their department. Parliament might not return until the following week, but the government machine will already be running at full tilt by the time MPs are back.

        2. Her face looks more and more like a ventriloquist’s dummy – especially the bottom jaw. Are we sure she is actually alive?

    2. Is Boris Johnson more likely to get a Brexit deal after his meetings with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron? The Prime Minister today tried to dampen hopes, saying that while the ‘mood music’ had been ‘very good’ during his meetings with the two leaders this week, it was still going to be hard to persuade the EU to give way.

      We don’t want a Brexit deal – we have seen what the EU does. Just turn your back and GO, Johnson.

    3. Irish bumstop will be pop out at the last moment releasing an explosion of pent up excrement.

      Then Boris will go full steam ahead to implement May’s disastrous surrender WA.

      Who thinks I am right? Who thinks I am wrong?

      (I hope I am wrong!)

  95. Can’t see any ” notifications”. Either Discurse or GCHQ blocking me.

    Didn’t Engerland do well……………….(not)

    Lunch started at 12.30 just finished…………………………………………gosh I’m tired!!

    1. Well, yes, and although whatever applies to fisheries will also apply to farming, as the EU would have to approve any State Aid that replaces current subsidies. Oh, and the approval of the State Aid requirement will apply universally, shipyards, power generation, factories, railways, that sort of thing.
      But that’s all really, apart from UK conscripts to the EU army.
      That’s not so bad, after all , Yvette Cooper is in favour of it.

    1. They are going to get slaughtered.

      Dancing shoes……….check.

      Stab vest……………….check.

      Rainbow make-up… check.

      Uncharged taser…….check.

      Relief officers from Wales, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Bradford. Officers from Bradford will set up a cut-throat curry pop-up kitchen. Watch your backs. Your fronts and your innards.

  100. 1.22550 mid-market USD -GBP as we are.
    1.20 a few days ago as a sign that GB is finished.
    Sorry to disappoint the media.

    3. ‘Evening, OLT, we’ve had a plague of flying ants. Seems a bit late, as I always thought it a springtime phenomenon; perhaps they have two goes in a year.

      Suffice to say I’ve been splatting them as fast as I can find them.

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