Friday 24 November: How can a Conservative government have so little grip on migration?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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549 thoughts on “Friday 24 November: How can a Conservative government have so little grip on migration?”

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    Winning The Lottery
    Babbette finds herself in dire straits. Her business has gone bust and she’s in serious financial trouble. She’s so desperate that she decides to ask God for help. She begins to pray…
    “God, please help me. I’ve lost my business and if I don’t get some money, I’m going to lose my house as well. Please let me win the lottery.”
    Lottery night comes and somebody else wins it. Babbette again prays…
    “God, please let me win the lottery! I’ve lost my business; my house and I’m going to lose my car as well.”
    Lottery night comes and still Babbette has no luck. Once again, she prays…
    “My God, why have you forsaken me? I’ve lost my business, my house, and my car. My children are starving. I don’t often ask you for help and I have always been a good servant to you. PLEASE just let me win the lottery this one time so I can get my life back in order.”
    Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light as the heavens open and Babbette is confronted by the voice of God Himself.
    “Babbette, you gotta meet me halfway on this… Buy a friggin’ ticket!”

    1. A good one, Sir Jasper. PS – Good morning, btw. PPS – So that’s why I never win the Lottery.

    2. However hard the caricaturists and cartoonists try they still fail to make Hunt’s face look as nasty as it actually is.

  5. How can a Conservative government have so little grip on migration?

    Err maybe because they are no longer Conservatives.

  6. 379026+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Friday 24 November: How can a Conservative government have so little grip on migration?

    Two glaring answers

    First,

    Tis no way a Conservative government in power it’s a WEF construct.

    Second,
    Ruthless planning with RESET firmly in mind and with tribal voting assured we are currently where we are, in deep shite

  10. Good morning, all. Bad night. Sunnyish this morning with north wind – so, prolly, bonfire.

  11. Good morning everybody.
    “Gardai have ruled out a terrorism motive in relation to the activities
    of the Algerian national who had been living at various addresses in
    Dublin over the past number of years.”
    The Irish have plenty of experience in these matters, so move along now.

  12. Good morning all,

    Cloudy over Castle McPhee, sunny periods later, wind in the Nor’-West goimg North, 7℃ but falling after midday to 5℃ by mid afternoon.

    So many letters on migration today, none of which call it what it is – invasion, colonisation and the build up of an army-in-waiting. I don’t believe the editor of the fallen DT hasn’t had many letters calling it what it is so there must a policy to ignore them.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc51389f7b94b543e0bb041ca8b141dcb5e9f5735b4ed932017993d2c1170c9e.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/91a4fa729baddf7e4126d7b42a14b7d6d9bfb60e807bc3ccb08975226e0ed750.png

    Well, Steve, “taking back control” clearly didn’t mean turning off the tap did it? That’s what you, I, and 17.4 million others assumed but it’s an ambiguous phrase, is it not? We were conned. That’s what politicians do. They lie. That answers James’s question too. It is deliberate.

    1. The reason that borders were not taken back under control is not the fault of those who voted for Brexit – it is the fault of those who did not want to take back control who deliberately wanted to destroy Brexit.

      As things are going in France, Holland, Italy, Austria and other countries shackled in the monstrous EU there is a very strong wind of change blowing. The EU is becoming more and more loathed and resented but most of our anti-Brexit politicians are incapable of seeing it. By the time the Remoaners get us back into the EU many other countries will have left it!

    2. The problem we had was that thanks to Blair, the levers of control were all held by left wing remainers, and they refused to pull them unless they were confident the Brexit train would trundle down into a siding or up to a stop sign.
      Unfortunately those levers are still in the same hands.

    3. The current 745,000 immigration figure is shocking .. that is roughly the population off Dorset .

      Since 2021, Britain’s population has grown by 1.8% – that’s 1.2 million people.

      We cannot go on adding new Birminghams to the UK every two years.

  13. Good morning all,

    Cloudy over Castle McPhee, sunny periods later, wind in the Nor’-West goimg North, 7℃ but falling after midday to 5℃ by mid afternoon.

    So many letters on migration today, none of which call it what it is – invasion, colonisation and the build up of an army-in-waiting. I don’t believe the editor of the fallen DT hasn’t had many letters calling it what it is so there must a policy to ignore them.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc51389f7b94b543e0bb041ca8b141dcb5e9f5735b4ed932017993d2c1170c9e.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/91a4fa729baddf7e4126d7b42a14b7d6d9bfb60e807bc3ccb08975226e0ed750.png

    Well, Steve, “taking back control” clearly didn’t mean turning off the tap did it? That’s what you, I, and 17.4 million others assumed but it’s an ambiguous phrase, is it not? We were conned. That’s what politicians do. They lie. That answers James’s question too. It is deliberate.

  14. The two tier policing, law enforcement, justice and mass media coverage agenda when it comes to random Islamic attacks on innocent people appears exactly the same in Ireland and in most of Europe as we have it here in England, so at least it isn’t just us that are being gaslit and made second class citizens in our our countries, it’s happening all over.

    1. Just as with the response to the pandemic. It has all been agreed beforehand on how they will deal with these situations. Orders from above.

    2. Irish citizen, born overseas, mental health issues, psychotic episode.

      Let’s guess.
      A prophet spoke to him in a dream?

  15. Dublin
    erupts after schoolgirl stabbing horror: Thugs clash with police and
    rioting and looting breaks out as fury over ‘migrants’ grips the city
    after three children and a woman are stabbed

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12786503/dublin-thugs-clash-police-rioting-looting-three-children-woman-stabbed-migrants-blamed.html

    It was only ever a matter of time. I am also sure many more ordinary folk were driven to fury by being called right wing extremists.

    1. And the mail doesn’t seem to understand what has caused this. It tells us everything else but who the known culprits are. Holiday Inn Hotel on fire, well there’s a clue. Perhaps this and other serious incidents may wake our own government up and start getting rid of all the problems they are causing, Today.
      Right wing extremist don’t actually exist. These people have every ‘right’ to protect their ‘rights’ from rising implanted terrorism.

      1. The alleged perp was confirmed as an Irish national who had lived there for 20 years. So born in Algeria then..

        1. Are all the people from Algeria who go to Ireland Islamists and if so are many of them “sleepers” who will wake up and commit atrocities some years after their arrival?

          1. Between approximately 1992 and 2002 there was an insurgency in Algeria, not quite a civil war, in which at least 40,000 people were killed. Many of the killings in villages were brutal and islamic, ie in the Palestinian style. Any teenager or young adult who fled Algeria near the end of the conflict could have been one of the perpetrators. The Irish knifeman fits the profile.

          3. Between approximately 1992 and 2002 there was an insurgency in Algeria, not quite a civil war, in which at least 40,000 people were killed. Many of the killings in villages were brutal and islamic, ie in the Palestinian style. Any teenager or young adult who fled Algeria near the end of the conflict could have been one of the perpetrators. The Irish knifeman fits the profile.

          4. I can’t quite put my finger on islam, but an ideology that proscribes most things that humans enjoy must make its followers pretty miserable.

          6. Must be where the mental isuoos come from. Not to mention 4 wives, they must be martyrs, oh hang on…

    2. “The Irish Independent reports that he is an Irish citizen who, while not
      born in the country      , had lived there for a number of years. Detectives
      are said to be following a line of inquiry that he may have suffered a
      ‘psychotic episode’ prior to the attack.”

          1. A useful tool to disguise these atrocities performed by members of the same cult. An Irish citizen indeed.

          2. Not wishing to appear cynical, but violence against civilians is almost a qualification. As the BBC reported a year or two pre-covid, the head of the Provisional IRA lives in Dublin. The current head.

      2. He took himself out of Algeria but he failed to take Algeria out of himself.

        The fact that he had lived in Ireland for some years makes matters worse – it shows that far from being civilised and integrated by the move he became more and more bitter and twisted.

        The Irish have decided that they have had enough.

        1. The irony is, Rastus, that he would never have dared to have “psychotic episode” and stab children in Algeria. If someone had killed him on the spot, I doubt the justice system there would have punished them.

    1. If they opened in the South of England Waitrose would be history and Sainsbury’s and Tesco severely pruned.

  18. There’s a little clutch of letters about the winter fuel payment of which this is the pearl.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/44179d130e5f916c1b3f9d0a8cb59632713f1efc9c9ce34564c1d3c8d8099c39.png

    Susan Dale doesn’t seem to be aware that many of the charities she gives her winter fuel payment to may be using it to finance executive salaries and pensions. The causes they are supposed to support see little of it. It’s blatant virtue-signalling anyway. We keep ours as we view it as a tax-rebate which goes a very small way to offsetting the gross over-taxation we have endured these last 34 years, and still endure in retirement, because we were a single-income houshold.

    3. The Government doesn’t give very much to those who have worked to make themselves self sufficient. I suggest Sue be thankful for small mercies and enjoy the bonus while it lasts.

      1. It doesn’t give anything to those forced to pay *for* everything. It is socialism writ large. If you work, you’re mugged to pay for those who don’t.

    4. The Government doesn’t give very much to those who have worked to make themselves self sufficient. I suggest Sue be thankful for small mercies and enjoy the bonus while it lasts.

      1. As I said the other day I gave mine to Alzheimers Scotland to whom I donate regularly because they were so much help during my late wifes Alzheimers. Their staff aren’t paid that much and I know from personal experience the good work they do and I know the money goes to the local area. It’s the only charity I donate to

    6. I give only to a very few charities, certainly not any with well-remunerated CEOs and boards. None for Africa, they had so much over the last decades and it made no difference, so no good money after bad.

    7. If the payment were abolished, I would be £500 worse off Susan. I need mine to help pay my oil heating bills.

  19. Morning all 🙂😊
    Grey getting colder by the hour.
    10 hours sleep will have me fighting fit to discuss my health problems with my GP later.
    The britsh government are not the government of our country, they are pathetic pawns of NWO WHO and all the other global destroyers who hide behind letters.

    3. Every now and then I think that someone in that bunch might have something useful to bring to the table – her views on gender and race seemed quite sensible.
      And then they say something incredibly stupid, like this.

      I am close to retirement. I might get involved in politics. I seriously considered Reform and started helping them (canvassing in Old Bexley) and met Tice a few times. Seems like an affable chap.
      I was even accepted by them to stand for parlaiment.

      But I would have had to leave my job and I knew that the chance of election was slim to none.
      Then their position or Russia was as craven as everyone else’s, Tice is all about his electric cars, he knew about ivermectine but did very little about this jab rubbish.
      More recently I wondered whether joining the Tories and working to change it from within might be more effective, finding allies among the few conservatives who might remain within – like Kemi, so I thought.

      I don’t think I’d last five minutes.

      1. I understand this thought process! I don’t think I can control my facial expressions well enough to last more than five minutes in the Conservative Party these days! I can only admire those who are trying to change things from within, especially Braverman, who did the best she could against the Home office and the Prime Minister as we now know.

      2. You wouldn’t – you’re too nice and wouldn’t compromise your beliefs to further your career.

        1. That is nice if you Jules.
          But I’m not so nice, though I can be rather autistic when I challenge something I think is stupid or dishonest – as I’m sure you realise.
          So, you’re right. I’ll stay away from that snakepit.

    4. Every now and then I think that someone in that bunch might have something useful to bring to the table – her views on gender and race seemed quite sensible.
      And then they say something incredibly stupid, like this.

      I am close to retirement. I might get involved in politics. I seriously considered Reform and started helping them (canvassing in Old Bexley) and met Tice a few times. Seems like an affable chap.
      I was even accepted by them to stand for parlaiment.

      But I would have had to leave my job and I knew that the chance of election was slim to none.
      Then their position or Russia was as craven as everyone else’s, Tice is all about his electric cars, he knew about ivermectine but did very little about this jab rubbish.
      More recently I wondered whether joining the Tories and working to change it from within might be more effective, finding allies among the few conservatives who might remain within – like Kemi, so I thought.

      I don’t think I’d last five minutes.

    6. The vaccine damage and huge rise in excess deaths, especially of younger people is no conspiracy theory.

    7. Does Badenoch understand that what she calls a conspiracy theory is in fact, truth driven by a lack of honesty from government?

  21. Good morning dear people.

    Brrr weather this morning , 8c is better than -8c I guess.

    Bird feeders have attracted sparrows , starlings and collared doves , and blue tits.

    Moh playing golf now , another competition and meal later.

    After nearly 3 weeks silence , son and Moh greeted each other nicely this morning with a “Good morning son” and the response was “Good morning Dad “.. 3 little words has made a huge difference to my day.

      1. Thank you Sue , it has been rather stressful , early days .

        I do hope Moh plays well in his competition today, he had a brilliant day on Wednesday, so he has been in a good mood recently .

    2. Did they come round on their own, or had you had words with them?

      The silent aggression is unpleasant to live with, and there was plenty of it in my first marriage. We both spoke to the kids but not to each other. It’s very wearing. Three weeks was about the limit.

  22. 379026+ up ticks,

    Will Britain soon get its own Geert Wilders?
    The big haired Dutch politician has won over millions of reasonable people, fed up with mass migration

    In 2016 UKIP had 4 million votes and the key to the door to freedom
    In 2014 Gerard Batten penned “The road to freedom”

    In 2018 Gerard Batten was constructing a party that in one year had NO equal financially in the black
    membership rising daily.

    He was judged by the tory (ino)
    in-plants within the UKIP NEC as not of good standing when he went to stand in the new leadership election this NEC verdict was also backed by farage.

    We had a Geert Wilder long before Holland only to have it, the party , treacherously abused by those supporting parties that were / are taking Great Britain DOWN, big time.

    1. Wilders is a response to a Left wing state. I doubt he will make real headway. The edifice of government will fight his every change and exhaust him and his government over the term and thus ensure the people see that he has done nothing they wanted.

      Everywhere officialdom deliberately hinders genuine change and progress in favour of it’s own egotistical, statist arrogance.

      1. Will Wilders even form a government?

        He might have most MPs but will other parties work with him or form a coalition with left leaning views?

  23. Bonjour a tous.
    To the title: TCW did a piece a few days ago on Soame’s interest in housing the migrants.
    We don’t have a conservative government. We have a Tory government.

    Tory : from from Irish toruighe – “plunderer,”
    Sometimes we need to read the label on the tin and take it at face value.

    2. Perhaps these people do not feel as if their freedoms are being threatened and therefore disregard the warnings or they do not much value their freedoms and think them not worth fighting for. It appears you and those like you are too few in number to make a difference.

      1. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it though. I bought into the covid BS at the start, but once I realised it was all propaganda, there was no going back.

        1. Yes, I bought into the covid bs at the start, although there were already things that were making me think – the WHO downgrading covid to ‘no longer being a threat to public health’ two days before Johnson’s speech winding up the public into a state of fearful frenzy ‘you must return to your homes, some of you are going to lose loved ones, some of you are going to die’ and I wondered why he was doing this, why was he ramping up the fear instead of calming down a fearful nation. The ‘vaccine’ I suspected from the start, as soon as it was mentioned in early April 2020 when Johnson declared ‘we will have a vaccine by Christmas’. When have they ever been able to say that a vaccine will be produced by a certain time? A vaccine is something that one takes on trust, and I did not trust Johnson’s family background in eugenics, and I certainly didn’t trust Gates’s involvement. I won’t get started on Hancock. The whole thing stank. As you say, there is no going back.

          1. As soon as the government indemnified big pharma we decided we would not have any injections.
            I then did some research and found that the animals used to test Pfizer’s injection ( they are not vaccines) all died.

        2. The body count on the Diamond Princess convinced me there was nothing to worry about. Then we went to Kenya in February 2020 and all was well. On our last evening there in early March the telly in the restaurant was wailing about a stockmarket crash….. Then we arrived home and our telly was full on panic stations. My phoned died on that trip so I had no access to any news while we were in the bush.

          1. They went very quiet about the Diamond Princess. Almost as though it wasn’t relevant! 🙄

          2. I never did hear if the chap they spoke to most of the time was eventually one of the victims or if he survived.

          3. Was that David Abel, and his wife? They survived and came home from Japan after a huge amount of hassle. They said they’d been conned!

          4. I think his name was David – yes. well, it’s good to know they survived. I wonder if it put them off cruising? It’s never appealed to me in the slightest, but then others might not like being out in the wilds of Africa. Each to his own.

          5. Indeed, Jules! My husband and I spent our honeymoon on a DFDS mini cruise from Newcastle to Sweden! We had a lovely cabin with bunk beds! It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a absolute joy!

          6. Done that the other way, Sue, Goteborg to Newcastle, complete with car and via Christiansand.

          7. Was that David Abel, and his wife? They survived and came home from Japan after a huge amount of hassle. They said they’d been conned!

          9. I knew someone would pick up on that before I had time to amend it! And yes, if my phone’s in my pocket it’s there when I go for a wee.

          10. The Diamond Princess was my lightbulb moment too! I remember confidently waiting for the emergency to be declared over, now that we knew it wasn’t so dangerous.
            Imagine, I was that naive only four years ago!

        3. The body count on the Diamond Princess convinced me there was nothing to worry about. Then we went to Kenya in February 2020 and all was well. On our last evening there in early March the telly in the restaurant was wailing about a stockmarket crash….. Then we arrived home and our telly was full on panic stations. My phoned died on that trip so I had no access to any news while we were in the bush.

    3. Back in March 2020 I tried to argue with people on Facebook that frightened people are simply more malleable and easier to manipulate but I was routinely dismissed as “a crank” so I gave up. On my daily walks along the river from Hammersmith to Chiswick during lockdown I saw lots of happy smiling families with their kids and dogs. That just isn’t how a plague looks. Added to that, I never saw Charing Cross Hospital look so deserted. It didn’t add up. But I’m just a crank.

      1. Our younger son had twice cause to be sent to hospital during the first lockdown – he had an inflamed appendix which was treated with antibiotics at the hospital. He said the Lister (Stevenage) on both occasions was like a ghost town, deserted, there was no-one there – he was the only person on the ward. On both occasions he was sent home after an overnight stay.

      4. I was in and out of hospital throughout covid. The only busy wards were oncology. Most of the rest in darkness.

        1. We had quite a few hospital visits in 2021 & 2 but not in 2020. Cheltenham hospital car park is always rammed and not fit for purpose and the hospital interior is very gloomy, but did not appear to be overwhelmed.

  25. Some one said the boat migrants are unable to read and write and even speak English.

    So the way I see it is , the migrants who FLY here legally are the ones who sustain the illegals , ie the Imans , doctors , political stirrers, cutters , bloodletters , organ donors , traders , halal slaughterers etc.

    Does the government have figures for those migrants who are flying to Britain and those with legal papers , so why do the boat people destroy their papers and what are the trying to hide?

    1. The ones interviewed on BBC Breakfast this morning in Calais all spoke good English. But that was obviously because the BBC only interviewed those who could speak English.

  26. Two thoughts about the violence in Dublin.

    When angered about immigration, do you ever feel inclined to burn buses, smash windows and loot stores? Nothing calms rage better than a pair of trainers stolen from Footlocker.

    The man who stopped the knifeman’s attack was a Brazilian Deliveroo driver, an immigrant. Oh, the irony.

      1. True, he’s almost certainly not, but were the disturbances triggered by Muslim immigration in particular or immigration in general?

          1. Along with reports of the assailant being an immigrant. The only confirmation I’ve seen thus far is of a man in his fifties having been detained and that nobody else is being sought. Comments here have said he’s an Irish citizen of Algerian origin, but I don’t know where that came from.

        2. The Brazillian has made attempts to fit in and has a job. I don’t think anyone would look twice at him. Groups of muslim men hanging around on street corners will annoy people.

    1. There is some truth in the trope about Muslim mayors as all those cities and towns either have or did have them, but it’s no longer correct and they weren’t all in office at the same time, although a casual reader might easily make that assumption.

      1. Good morning David , whether my assumption is right or wrong , I am appalled that people off a particular religion use their power to project and protect their beliefs , and are seemingly in control of councils that are virtually bankrupt.

        1. And Scotland/SNP! Humza Useless aka Scooter, gave quite a large amount of taxpayer dosh to Hamas to get his parents-in-law back here. They’d been on holiday!

        2. Time to drastically reduce the number of councils in the UK – all leaching money from us to pay their Chiefs an exorbitant amount.

    2. I should think the number of muslim men, particularly the younger ones, that work is pretty small

      1. Khan defended terrorists.

        Rahman a convicted criminal for fraud.
        Fiaz accused of bullying with 63 senior members signed off with gagging clauses.
        Oh what a lovely bunch of coconuts!

      3. Of England’s 23 ceremonial Lord Mayors, Yasmine Dar of Manchester, Lubna Arshad of Oxford and Majid Khan of Stoke-on-Trent (2nd term) are Muslims.

        1. I can’t remember a limerick about the Bishop of Coventry – not a good name for those who, like Benedick, were not born under a rhyming planet.

          There once was a vicar from Coventry
          Whose antics were lazy and slovenly
          His life was a mess
          As he had to confess
          And his kitchen was freezer and oven free.

          Not very good – but it scans and rhymes a bit.

      2. A sikh joke!

        I know nothing about the Mayor of Birmingham but according to limerick legend the Bishop of Birmingham was notoriously priapic.

        If you are likely to take offence please do not remove the spoiler!


        Three cheers for the Bishop of Birmingham
        Who had all the girls while confirming ’em
        Midst roars of applause
        He pulled down their drawers
        And pumped his episcopal sperm in ’em

      1. I have long argued that we should allow no more mosques in Britain, a constitutionally Christian country with an Established Church, than there are churches in Islamic countries.

        The very root of the problems we have stored up for ourselves is the fact that we have tolerated the intolerable who are intolerant.

    7. Strange how there were no muslim officials during the time of Richard, coeur de lion.

      None during the reigns of Edward I or Elizabeth I either.

      Just saying!

        1. TBF to Good Queen Bess, she herself was pretty relaxed over Papists.
          “I would not open windows into men’s souls.”

      1. Blair wanted a voting block. He wanted a guaranteed group who would always vote for more welfare, more benefits. He wanted to destroy this country.

        Now they’re here, demanding a massive state machine – security, social services, benefits, policing, you name it, muslim adds to the cost.

    1. I would not have been in the least surprised if James Cleverly had made a similar pledge were he still in that office, nor numerous Foreign Secretaries before him or those who will one day succeed David Cameron. It’s in the terms and conditions of being Foreign Secretary.

        1. Indeed. You will not be appointed as Foreign Secretary without a willingness to be Lord or Lady Bountiful with taxpayers’ enforced beneficence.

          1. Cameron is on record as virtue-signalling about it though. He really is in the wrong party – his heart belongs in Islington. He just does not understand the petty, racist concerns of ordinary citizens trying to get to the end of the month without going into the red.

          2. Any politician with a reputation for wanting to tighten the taps of international aid largesse is most unlikely to appointed to the position. He got the job precisely because of his virtue signalling.

    2. If Cameron wants to give away money surely he should find sources other than the overtaxed taxpayer.

      Maybe he should start with his own money and then take the revenue from his father-in-law’s rent from the Wind turbines on his land?

    5. I believe his personal fortune is around £30 million – not sure whether that’s before or after Greensill.
      Maybe he’s donating all his money to them
      (Gosh, nurse, time for pills already?)

      1. I wonder what happened to mine, too. Probably my mother threw it away (such was the fate of a lot of my possessions).

  30. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6cf8a2e331df79870e64968c4ebcf9a766a172a6840b12bdc48e9f374b7b187f.png

    Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas
    (Happy is he who is able to understand the cause of things!)
    [Virgil]

    No comments allowed under this article in the DT – maybe too many people do understand the cause. The Irish have had enough of immigration just as growing numbers of people in Europe have.

    Just as the state of Israel was created for Jews maybe we need a special state for Islamists and all Muslims who do not want to integrate in the societies to which they have gone – but such a state must be as far as possible away from Europe and Israel.

      1. Are you suggesting they are Protestants from Norn protesting about the IRA (which hasn’t gone away…)??

      7. It’s difficult to tell. But they obviously knew were they were going when they dressed for the evening.

      8. There are three in the forefront on the left who do not look like indigenous Irish… they give an appearance such that their genes may have developed for more southerly climatic conditions.

        2. There is a particular mindet that cannot help itself and takes every opportunity to destroy property.

          This isn’t protest, it’s just a bunch of scum.

      1. Saudis arse so generous…..not.
        They have never taken in any refugees, although they have room for around one million for their annual hajj.

    3. I thought there was already a very hot place under our feet especially designed for the peaceful people.

    4. You couldn’t keep them all in one place – they turn everywhere they live into hellholes. That’s why Muslim refugees don’t want to go to other Muslim countries. Trouble is, they go to non-Muslim countries and bring their attitudes with them, thus eventually turning the country they have migrated to into a hellhole itself.

      1. They don’t want to go to other muslim countries because they are already muslim. This is a conquer and dominate exercise for islam.

  31. Got the bonfire started in the strong wind – then the sudden, unforecast heavy shower arrived. Such fun.

    Have I missed much?

  32. Another good Dalrymple

    Although I know one or two people who have made a considerable sum of money from it, I have never really understood cryptocurrency and have not dared to dip my toes into its turbulent waters. I have always suspected that if it was not actually fraudulent in itself, it would promote fraud, and in my ignorance of its workings, I would be one of the defrauded.
    Cryptocurrency is no doubt a response to the fraud that makes the world’s financial system go round. Curiously enough, it is the mutual assured rottenness of all currencies that keeps the system afloat (if one can go round and keep afloat at the same time). The American dollar is rotten to the core, but so are all the other currencies with which it “competes”; and if by chance a sound currency were to emerge, it would soon have to be debauched by whoever emitted it, if the market mechanism did not do so automatically, for the effects of a very valuable currency are not altogether favorable to the economy that uses it. The only time I was in Afghanistan, I was told that the Afghan currency, the Afghani, was the strongest in the region and much sought after. This was because there was practically no economic activity in the country other than subsistence, and the supply of Afghanis remained constant, though whether this was a cause or effect of the strength of the currency, or a dialectical relationship, I cannot say.
    But why are all currencies rotten, albeit that the mutuality of their rottenness gives to the system whatever fragile stability it may have? Why must all governments emit more currency than growth in economic activity necessitates or justifies?

    https://www.takimag.com/article/currency-events/

    1. I bought in and got out with around £15,000 profit. Initial investment of £300. Then bitcoin crashed. All my fault !

        1. I not only didn’t lose my shirt i managed to grab a few others on the way out. I knew from the beginning it would be the greedy people getting caught. Just like any gambling really. Take the money and run.

          I left £100 in just in case on of my cryptos takes off again.

    2. Bear all this in mind when you hear talk of Russia/China/BRICS establishing a gold-based currency. “Lord make me chaste, but not yet” applies.

  33. Good Moaning.

    “Leo Varadkar has condemned the rioters who brought chaos to Dublin city centre on Thursday evening as “criminals” who are “filled with hate”.

    Ireland’s prime minister said the roughly 500 people involved “brought shame on Ireland”

    A police officer was seriously injured in the violence in what police chief Drew Harris called the country’s worst public disorder “for decades”.

    The anti-migrant protesters descended on the streets of the capital after a man stabbed three small schoolchildren and a teacher outside a Dublin primary school.

    “These criminals did not do what they did because they love Ireland. They did not do what they did because they wanted to protect Irish people. They did not do it out of any sense of patriotism, however warped,” Mr Varadkar said in a televised address.”

    “They did so because they’re filled with hate, they love violence, they love chaos and they love causing pain to others.”

    Been busy writing a press release; the words really wrote themselves.
    If reading it aloud, please adopt an Irish accent:

    Lone wolf.
    Mental issues.
    Known to the authorities.
    A* student.
    Always said ‘good morning’.
    Seanmháthair/Maimeó/Móraí’s in bits.

    And don’t forget:
    Lessons will be learned.

    1. Has it occurred to Varadkar that immigration might have sparked the disturbances, following the knifing spree, but that numerous other opportunists took the chance, while police were otherwise engaged, to go on a rampage of criminality which had little or nothing to do with immigration but very much more to do with mindless destruction and looting?

      2. As we know from vast experience Stig, politicians always blame everyone else for their mistakes. Well praticed at it.

        1. Sociopaths and psychopaths are incapable of taking responsibility for their actions unless, of course, it reflects well upon them. The blame is always laid upon someone else.

    2. Has it occurred to Varadkar that immigration might have sparked the disturbances, following the knifing spree, but that numerous other opportunists took the chance, while police were otherwise engaged, to go on a rampage of criminality which had little or nothing to do with immigration but very much more to do with mindless destruction and looting?

    3. “They did so because they’re filled with hate, they love violence, they love chaos and they love causing pain to others.”

      Ah, so they’re Muslims.

    6. I always find it funny that instead of engaging with the public and acknowledging the massive harm immigration does to a country – every job suddenly has more applicants – the big state solution is to squeal and shout and blame the public for their frustration.

  34. From a review of the Covid enquiry by HART. It might be as well to remember these words next time a terrifying threat is relentlessly reported day in day out in the media.

    “The notorious SPI-B minutes of the 22nd of March 2020 stated:

    ‘A substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened’

    ‘The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging’.

    During his interview with the inquiry, Rubin revealed that Professor Susan Michie – a member of the SPI-B, SAGE and the communist party – had the lead role in compiling these minutes. ”

    Susan Michie now works for the WHO, which if the Pandemic treaty goes through, will have the power to close us down or lock us up for any imagined “emergency” that might conceivably affect our health. So her devotion to lying is of concern to us all.

    Full article at https://www.hartgroup.org/covid-inquiry-updates/

      1. Just thought a reminder would be good! This “hard-hitting emotional messaging” has never stopped, merely changed its focus.

        And now our saviour Tony Blair has suggested the solution to the problem of illegal migration, which he had nothing to do with causing…..Id cards!!
        GFY Bliar!

        1. All aliging with EU policy.

          You have to wonder if the attitude of the state is : we want X result. We now need to engineer Y to force people to want it. That’s the same attitude as held by every fascist dictatorship going – even the fictional ones!

          1. I thought the attitude of the state nowadays was “You can take a horse to water, and when you can’t make it drink, you b***y well hold its head down until it drowns.”

          2. Wasn’t that the Frankfurt School take on communism. Make The West so corrupt it stinks and the people will accept communism as a better alternative. The people of the USSR fought against it because they were still Christians who believed in God-given reasoning, self-determination and the sanctity of the individual.

        2. Bills old friend Mr Rashid stands ready to print enough ID cards for the entire immigrant army as well as ballot slips for any upcoming elections.

          They have it all wrong. Implant illegals with an rfid chip that must be scanned before receiving services, set the scanners to spray an indelible ink marker if a counterfeit chip is detected.

    2. While the WHO’s pandemic treaty has the potential to be draconian, it still requires the complicity of elected governments and the machinery of state to enforce it. What would the WHO do about a signatory which refuses to impose the measures which is demanded of it? In that sense the WHO has virtually no power to close us down or lock us up. National governments will do any enforcing at the behest of and in agreement with the WHO.

      1. That’s a rather disingenuous argument. You’re basically saying that we can safely put our heads into the noose, because it requires the complicity of elected governments and the machinery of the state to tighten it.

        If our government did not intend to enforce WHO regulations, why are they allowing them to become UK law?
        The “machinery of state” includes the likes of Susan Michie – hardly trustworthy.

        1. All I’m saying is that the WHO does not have the power to enforce its own agreements, treaties, conventions or whatever you want to call them. It trusts that its signatories will act in “good faith”. It cannot invade, launch missiles, blockade or whatever other means powerful nation states have to bring recalcitrant others to heel.

          How much authority could an accord have over signatory countries? Will it be legally binding? Will it take sovereignty away from signatory countries?

          The Zero Draft presented by the INB Bureau based on progress achieved and input received at the third meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) refers to a number of potential guiding principles and rights for the new accord, including the importance of national sovereign rights and full respect for the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons.

          As with all international instruments, any new accord, if and when agreed by Member States, would be determined by governments themselves, who would take any action while considering their own national laws and regulations.

          Member States will decide the terms of the accord, including whether any of its provisions will be legally binding on Member States as a matter of international law.

          It is expected that such an accord would aim to help prevent future disease outbreaks from impinging on people’s freedom to travel, work, seek education and, above all, lead a healthy life free of avoidable disease, as called for by another global accord, the WHO Constitution.

          What could happen if countries that join or participate in any new accord do not meet their obligations?

          It would be up to Member States to decide if and what compliance mechanisms would be included in the new accord on pandemic preparedness and response. It is a general principle of international law that once an international law instrument is in force, it would be binding on the parties to it, and would have to be performed by those parties in “good faith.”

          https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/pandemic-prevention–preparedness-and-response-accord

          Yes, it’s bloody annoying when our government does things we disagree with. Other than complain and vote for parties which promise to repudiate what went before or infiltrate those which need to be taught the error of their ways, there’s not much, other than becoming a terrorist, which we can do about it. The problem is that there are nowhere near enough people willing to join you in your endeavours, either out of apathy, resigned acceptance, a lack of concern or even enthusiastic support. There are plenty of people in this country who will welcome whatever restrictions are placed on the liberty of themselves and others.

          1. Of course those putting a system of tyranny into place will deny that it is tyranny.
            And of course, it will fail in the end because of people power.
            But that doesn’t mean that it’s either safe or morally justifiable to walk blindly into tyranny.

    3. Which threat are we talking about here? Was it the threat from the virus or from measures being enacted or considered to contain its spread? Remember that far less was known about this virus in March 2020 when the government paper, Options for increasing adherence to social distancing measures, was published.

      Persuasion
      2. Perceived threat: A substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened; it
      could be that they are reassured by the low death rate in their demographic group (8), although levels of
      concern may be rising (9). Having a good understanding of the risk has been found to be positively
      associated with adoption of COVID-19 social distancing measures in Hong Kong (10). The perceived level
      of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting
      emotional messaging. To be effective this must also empower people by making clear the actions they
      can take to reduce the threat (11).

      9. Atchison C, Bowman L, Eaton J, Imai N, Redd R, Pristera P, et al. Report 10: Public Response to UK
      Government Recommendations on COVID-19: Population Survey, 17-18 March 202
      https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-CollegeCOVID19-Population-Survey-20-03-2020.pdf. 2020.
      10. Dowd J. Demographic science aids in understanding the spread and fatality rates of COVID-19
      https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.15.20036293v1. Preprint. 2020.
      11. Peters GJ, Ruiter RA, Kok G. Threatening communication: a critical re-analysis and a revised metaanalytic test of fear appeal theory. Health psychology review. 2013;7(Suppl 1):S8-s31.

      https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5ecd084586650c76acac37e0/25-options-for-increasing-adherence-to-social-distancing-measures-22032020.pdf

      1. David, that is irrelevant. Even had covid been the black death, it was never the government’s job to deliberately scare people. People are responsible for their own fate – the government is not our nanny.

    4. I don’t understand how someone can promote their membership of the communist party. Communism, like socialism does not, never has and will never work. Those holding that ideology are morons.

    3. It’s the 80% of the Conservative party membership that are struggling to vote Conservative at the next election.

    4. 379026+ up ticks,

      Afternoon GQ,

      UKIP under Gerard Batten / Richard Braine leadership were known to be “so far right” if that’s any help.

    5. Thee and me, lad. (Making an assumption there but feel free to substitute “lass” if appropriate!)

    7. Is it people who have certain long established moral values and can’t stand the self appreciating political classes, many with finacial interst out side of Parliament. Who habitually lie and steal our money to carry out continuous fraudulent activities. Including their over whelming and massive take home expenses ?
      And just want a life with out constant worry and harassment.

    8. The Canadian conservative party is frequently called far right and they are middle of the road when they dare to suggest that the government deficit needs attention.

  36. 379026+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    Politics latest news: Net migration levels not sustainable, admits Sunak

    I believe what has brought this about is ex vets
    on their way to their chosen viaduct stumbling over foreign bodies, sunak realises that even his / parties hard core supporting fools are starting to notice & are saying this, “must cease at least until post General Election.”

    1. 379026+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      May one ask,

      This no dole monies after six months unemployed does this apply to ALL or just the already well hammered indigenous workers ?

      1. You have to ask?

        New York are talking about cutting social programs as well as police funding to pay for the influx of invaders, why would UK residents be treated differently?

          1. But your government marches to the same WEF beat as politicians over here. As one goes, they all go.

  38. From Twitter:

    “Leo Varadkar an EU mouth piece. On TV minutes ago, no mention of the 3 children and teacher attacked and stabbed by an asylum seeker and no expression of regret, just a tirade against those Irish citizens who see Dublin becoming another Londonistan. Lost to hoards of refugees.”

    This is disgraceful. Varadkar’s Ceaucescu’s moment must be fast approaching. You can only ignore a population for so long.

    1. I believe 25 years is the UK record in my lifetime. It’s ironic that half of my life has been ruined by the political class deliberately making self serving, arrogant and fundamentally stupid decisions even the thickest person could see were the wrong ones.

  39. From Twitter:

    “Leo Varadkar an EU mouth piece. On TV minutes ago, no mention of the 3 children and teacher attacked and stabbed by an asylum seeker and no expression of regret, just a tirade against those Irish citizens who see Dublin becoming another Londonistan. Lost to hoards of refugees.”

    This is disgraceful. Varadkar’s Ceaucescu’s moment must be fast approaching. You can only ignore a population for so long.

  40. Trudeau just hosted a meeting with some EU bigwigs to announce a new Canada EU research project and naturally no cost was mentioned. It is only a week since numbnuts talked about how his government is fiscally responsible and just two days since the fiscal update announced that the country is broke / skint.

    Isn’t it time that the UK rejoined the EU, taking the focus away from us poor colonials.

    1. I am convinced that the intent is to do so much damage to the UK that we’re forced to the IMF and they then proxy force us back in to the hated EU. I doubt it will even be mentioned.

      Yet what staggers me is that remoaners are getting everything they want and still complain.

      1. Focus on the small stuff such as phone roaming charges or delays at French immigration and the great European dream is being thwarted.

        Some will not be happy until the pound is replaced by the euro and the UK parliament becomes a regional government that reports up to the EU gods.

        1. I don’t think that’ll be enough for the remoaners. To them it is not the economic issues, the political fascism, the corruption, the arrogance of wanting to remain chained.

          They want the referendum overturned and refused. They cannot permit ‘other people’ to have a say. It terrifies them that democracy doesn’t always go their way.

          2. It isn’t as though the EU apparatchiks don’t have previous, is it? France, the Netherlands, Ireland …

      2. Eventually, one of the big parties, probably Labour, will include re-joining in a manifesto with success in the subsequent election regarded as a sufficient mandate without the need for a referendum.

  41. EMPLOYERS:
    Avoid hiring unlucky people by immediately tossing half the CVs into the bin.

        1. If I couldn’t read or understand the first paragraph of the application, in the bin it went!

    2. We put out a job for an installer project manager once and among the usual dross was one kid, massively underqualified who’d made the most of talk about his job in Tesco’s stock room from 16-18.

      We hired him. He left us 4 years ago to set up his own installer company and we contract almost exclusively with him, only going elsewhere when he’s busy. Unlike all the others waffling on about accreditations and such twaddle, he’d talked about real life improvements such as narrower shelves, neater layouts to improve storage efficiency.

      Damn did that fellow work.

    3. Tut tut – you might inadvertently throw away a bame person’s application. Then they will sue you for discrimination. I kid you not.

  42. If you find the number of jet trails increasing next week, its that climate jamboree once again, COP 28, so the great and the good will be packing their glad rags and a Sunday best for 2 weeks in Dubai. A city best known for its ostentatious consumption and Russian err, ladies, will be telling us to live in caves and eat insects. Our newest lord is bound to pop up after showering Zelenskyy and Gaza with British cash, no doubt upping the anti to £Billions instead of a few paltry £Millions. Cameron will need a good rest after all his travels and will return having strutted on the world stage to the miserable citizens of Britain. Put it all on the tab Rishie, I’m not going to be around when final reckoning eventually arrives.

    1. Cue 5 days of not a lot of sleep, no agreements, an 11th hour deal hashed out long in advance and forced on the public without consent or mandate.

      1. John Kerry will give a speech saying that governments must be allowed to grab people’s land to deal with the “emergency.”

  43. More evidence that Royal Mail is not meeting its own standards.

    I went online last Friday to renew my Senior Railcard. I received a confirmation email the following day to say that the new railcard had been despatched. The email was timed at 14:09 which leaves uncertainty as to whether it was collected by Royal Mail that day. The card arrived about a half hour ago, six calendar days and either four or five working days later. The envelope doesn’t indicate which class of postage was used, but it’s slow even by 2nd class mail standards.

    2. If the canadian post office delivered a package in thattime, there would also be letters in the paper – congratulating them on such wonderful service.

    3. I took in a parcel for our neighbours today. I always have a chat with our elderly postie good old boy. He’s got a painful knee problem and more than half of the staff he works with within his age group have injuries related to the job. It’s quite clear, youngsters in the UK don’t like his sort of job.

  44. “Man threatening to kill himself with gun is shot dead by police” – DT. I guess he will get a life insurance payout as the Met’s finest did the job for him. No reports of rioting, so must be a local.

  45. 379026+ up ticks,

    PM Rishi Sunak Has no New Border Control Ideas Amid Record Migration Figures Scandal

    With this cartel of political carpetbaggers was there any old border controls used ?
    tis not on the WEF program going forward.

    What we are suffering currently will continue until the “illegal” numbers equal the indigenous numbers , plus one.

    1. Oh Sunak knows what needs to be done, he’s just not going to do it. Primarily because his masters have forbade the necessary changes.

  46. Kind Hearts and Coronets

    Film 4 at 4.35 this afternoon

    (Channel 300 on Freesat at 4.35 GMT and at 5.35 GMT on Channel 301 Freesat)

    If you haven’t seen it you must watch it live or video it.

  47. Refugees turfed out onto Hounslow streets by Home Office after being granted asylum as homeless epidemic grips London
    Story by Rory Bennett •
    2h

    There is a quiet chaos that inhabits the lobby of Hounslow House late on a Friday afternoon. Officers and support workers run back and forth while people and their possessions lie strewn across the cavernous waiting area.

    The group is made up of those there for routine appointments, homeless people looking to speak to the housing department and recently evicted refugees with nowhere else to go. Having been granted asylum by the Home Office those fleeing their countries from political, religious and military persecution appear to have been left to their own devices.

    The timeframe of the leave they are given to stay in the UK and when they are evicted from a hotel or in some cases a barge, military base or asylum centre, seems to vary. The Home Office says they are given at least 28 days’ notice while refugees and campaigners say this is often much lower.
    READ MORE: West London estate ‘no longer fit for purpose’ to double in size with an extra 200 homes

    Margarita in a cafe… Picture
    Margarita Fuentes was given less than a month to find a home, get a job, apply for Universal Credit, fill out relevant paperwork and begin rebuilding her life before she was kicked out of her Home Office supplied accommodation. That’s how she found herself sitting in the Hounslow Council offices on a cold Friday evening (November 17), the same day as a letter informing her of her eviction time is dated.

    She is a political refugee from El Salvador in South America, forced to flee a high-profile job as a photographer due to threats by the country’s increasingly authoritarian regime, leaving her son behind. In her old role, it was her responsibility to photograph the country’s presidents – three in total – before the rise of Nayib Bukele who is currently leading a crackdown which includes silencing critics, arbitrary arrests and state violence.

    Margarita does not speak English, but through a translator, she explained how the UK presented the best option for her survival, far away from the threats she received after speaking up against the government. She arrived in Britain with very little and described how she never thought she would ever have to leave her home.

    Margarita walking the streets at night
    Margarita walking the streets at night
    © Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon
    Making an official asylum application, Margarita would find herself in stasis for a year and a half as the Home Office assessed her case. She says she was grateful that she was given asylum, and that the government housed and fed her during the long and uncertain 18 months she spent waiting for her status as a refugee to be confirmed.

    However, she expressed repeatedly to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) how long it took, and how crippling a year and a half without being able to work, without being able to plan ahead, was for her and her fellow asylum seekers. Margarita informed LDRS that she was given £8 a week as an allowance by the Home Office, an amount even with every penny saved for a year and a half that would still be unlikely to cover even the most basic housing deposit.

    With the Home Office confirming her refugee status is set to expire five years from now, the process would rapidly accelerate for Margarita. Now she had to find a job, a home, a community, a GP, all without having a strong grasp of English.

    Margarita crossing a road at night with her suitcase
    Margarita crossing a road at night with her suitcase
    © Facundo Arrizabalaga/MyLondon
    The result was, perhaps, fairly predictable. Margarita came to the local authority for help, as many in her situation do, looking for emergency assistance to keep her off the streets. She was not the only one.

    After hours of sitting in the council offices, no offer for a bed came and Margarita and other recent refugees were once again turfed out, their second eviction of the day. One of the people flowing out onto the street was Neetu Kaur and her family who stood huddled around several suitcases at a nearby bus stop.

    The 20-year-old is the only one in her family who can speak English. She explains that they are waiting for the council’s emergency phone line to open at 7:30pm, a full two hours after the council shuts its doors to the public.

    Neetu said: “[The council] said there was limited accommodation and that we would have to wait until Monday. They told us if we have nowhere to stay until Monday we need to contact the emergency services.”

    This is the same uneasy wait Margarita is having to make down the high street in a nearby café. As a family, Neetu, her brother and elderly parents are a bigger priority for housing than Margarita who was informed that she would not be considered at the front of the queue for emergency housing.

    Living in a church
    While it is unclear what happened to Neetu and her family, Margarita is now enjoying the hospitality of a local church, which is giving her a place to stay until she can find more permanent shelter. As an unemployed refugee on Universal Credit with limited language skills, she really struggled. LDRS has since been informed that Margarita was helped by Hounslow Council to find a room and has now moved out of her place to the church.

    Lara Parizotto, an Independent councillor for Hounslow and co-director of the Migrant Democracy Project, says that not enough is being done to support refugees, especially in the crucial period when they move from asylum seeker to gaining the right to stay in the UK.

    She said: “When people finally get their refugee status it should be a day of celebration. Instead, the Home Office’s eviction policy means people face immediate homelessness and destitution.”

    Cllr Parizotto says she has seen people evicted after seven days, well before the 28 days the Home Office has said people are supposed to be given. Even if they are given a longer grace period the councillor says many still feel it is not enough.

    “A lot of organisations have been saying that 28 days are not enough and that it should be 56 days.” If a person were to apply for Universal Credit the same day they get their refugee status, they would still be waiting to receive their first payment by the time they are evicted, even if they ask for a prepayment.

    This was the situation Margarita found herself in having a four-day period between when she left the Home Office hotel and when she received her first payment. The result for her and for others like her is they are left by the Home Office without money or a place to stay.

    A national crisis of homeless refugees
    Indeed, Cllr Parizotto says that this is not an issue reserved for Hounslow Council but for councils across the UK. In a recent report by the Guardian, Liverpool is currently experiencing a huge spike in homeless refugees.

    The Merseyside Refugee Support Network told the paper that two or three refugees a year would ask the charity for help because they were homeless; since August, there have been about 150. Cllr Parizotto says this is only going to get worse as time goes on and the responsibility for housing refugees is unceremoniously thrust onto charities and councils.

    A Home Office spokesperson said: “Once someone is informed that their asylum claim has been granted, they get at least 28 days notice to move on from their asylum accommodation. Support is offered to newly recognised refugees by Migrant Help and their partners, which includes advice on how to access the Universal Credit, the labour market and where to get assistance with housing. We work with local authorities to help communities manage the impact of asylum decisions.”

    However, Councillor Tom Bruce, Hounslow Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Development, says in a statement that the Home Office’s top-down approach is making local authorities and refugees’ lives harder. He said: “We are facing an unprecedented housing crisis and amidst that the lack of permanent accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers is critical. Local authorities are having to work with the failings of a broken system and no additional funding to support an already vulnerable group of people.

    “To highlight the extent of this, for the month of October 2023, we received 49 applications for housing assistance from those who have recently been granted refugee status which represents 20% of the total demand for housing assistance in the month.

    “The Home Office need to work with local authorities and the voluntary sector to ensure people can access adequate and timely support. The current top down approach is not sustainable and is leaving an already traumatised group of people having to face displacement once again. We have a proud history of supporting refugees and asylum seekers, and we always try to ensure they are treated with dignity and respect, and will continue to support them as best as we can.”

    Margarita a political refugee from El Salvador
    AKA, she did a runner because she probably slandered the government. And now she wants us to house her ……really ???

    1. Didn’t the Argentinians elect a new president this week? Her past persecution could make her welcome back at home.

    2. Hang on. She’s walked through dozens of countries, got here and now expects us to provide for her every need? Oh look! There are 5 million unemployed. Oh look, most immigrants are net welfare takers.

      They give us nothing, we should give them nothing. She could have stopped in any one of those nations. She chose to come here. She’s got to learn there’s no free lunch.

    3. Why did Margarita not learn English in the 18 months she was waiting? She could have used a library or online sources. Or claim asylum in a Spanish speaking country.

          1. I didn’t wanna suggest that.
            Shed probably make the right rich person very happy..
            🎶City girls just seem to find out early, how to open doors with just a smile, a rich old man and she wont have worry she’ll dress all in lace and go in style 🎶

    4. “Increasingly authoritarian regime…silencing critics, arbitrary arrests and state violence”. All written without a hint of irony.

      1. She wouldn’t have been able to get everything for nothing.
        How was she able to get into our country. She must have entered through an airport.

    7. Doesn’t speak English – how then is she to get a job? That interpreter will have been paid for by us, the tax-payer. Why was she given asylum in the first place?

      1. If I try to post the link Bob it contains advertising. And I get moaned at. That’s why I copy and paste.
        That garden (Carpenters) centre where you bought me a coffee all those years ago. Is absolutely brilliant now. Its difficult to find a parking space.
        Next time…..

  48. Brrr. Time to put the CH on, sunny but 5C out side, my knees are feeling cold. We might have to take out a loan. 😉
    Strange how what was once known as ‘global warming’. Has now become ‘climate change’. Just for convenience I suspect.
    From a phone call earlier it’s 39 C in Perth….not Scotland.

          1. Oddly enough, I tend to use the words of my parents’ generation and the words of my children’s generation, but avoid words that appeared between about 1960 and 2010.
            Not sure what that says about me…

    3. I thought that perhaps there was a way of using a hammer known to Sunak but not to me. I do like to give the benefit of the doubt. However, Sunak is demonstrating that he’s no handyman. It’s not my forte either but I do know enough about hammers not to use them that way.

      Cheek

      The sides of the head of a hammer, its purpose is to encapsulate the wedged end of the handle and connect the two striking surfaces. They are not intended to be used for striking as they are not positioned for balance, and is susceptible to damage or fracturing.

      https://www.gbcpando.com/hammer

      1. If I had held (and wielded) a hammer improperly when I was an apprentice, my foreman-instructor would have “advised” me in no uncertain terms. I also hate those clowns who hold the hammer’s shaft halfway along it. Holding the shaft at the end furthest from the head is the ONLY way to use it.

          3. I don’t think so. First rule of politics – don’t take part in photoshots if you aren’t sure what to do. 999 people out of a thousand would not have used a hammer that way.

            I thought Milliband got a far more unfair deal – nobody appreciated that as a Jewish man he was making a huge statement by eating a bacon sandwich – they just focused on how awkward he was.

          4. Miliband wasn’t instructed to eat the sandwich that way, Sunak was told to use the hammer thus.

            It may have been a stitch up, but he was doing it as shown/instructed.

  51. BBC R4 news:

    “Lord Cameron has said ‘Israel will never be secure unless there is long-term safety and stability for the Palestinian people.’ During a visit to the West Bank, he also described settler violence there as ‘completely unacceptable’.”

    He won’t be getting a Christmas card from Jerusalem…

  52. BBC R4 news:

    “Lord Cameron has said ‘Israel will never be secure unless there is long-term safety and stability for the Palestinian people.’ During a visit to the West Bank, he also described settler violence there as ‘completely unacceptable’.”

    He won’t be getting a Christmas card from Jerusalem…

    2. It seems that the Far Left are deliberately and constitutionaly deaf and have only one eye between them all, both organs on a head in a dark place.

    3. That ghastly up-himself little man deserves everything coming to him. Smug, obnoxious and deluded.

  55. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/546b87a43f43aabe7d8976ba9e9acdcc674cb33fc0a6696f59a43f98bebb7977.png

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12786811/Islamic-eco-groups-say-fear-Netherlands-future-Geert-Wilders-begins-trying-build-coalition-shock-election-success-potential-partners-say-Nexit-table.html

    A BTL comment under this DM made the point I made yesterday:

    The last time the Dutch had a referendum was in 2005 on the EU Constitution, they voted no by 62% to 38%, perhaps that’s why today’s politicians are scared of one. (and the French voted against it by 55% to 45%)

    The people in the Netherlands are just as Eurosceptic as we are in both France and Britain.

    It is the politicians who want to impose the EU on us all regardless of whether we want it or not. As the DM article says: “But eurosceptic Wilders, who is an advocate for so-called ‘Nexit’, has already been told by other party leaders that Dutch membership of the European Union is ‘non-negotiable’.” He must stand firm and insist on a binding referendum on the Netherlands’ continued membership of the EU.

    How much more evidence do remainers in Britain need to have before they can see that those in favour of the EU are self-serving tyrants. Let us hope that Europe is waking up and the British see whom we should choose as political allies in the EU.

    1. ‘How much more evidence do remainers in Britain need to have before they
      can see that those in favour of the EU are self-serving tyrants.’

      None. You’ve made the mistake of believing that the Remainers aren’t self-serving tyrants. For them it was never about arguments in favour/against, facts, figures, anything of that sort. They don’t care about that and never will. They’re self-interested and see themselves as a cut above the plebs. The true-born leaders and intellectuals. It’s a waste of time trying to debate with such people. They think we’re dirt.

      1. There was a tv interview with Schwab just before the Brexit referendum where he said that of course Jo Cox was “one of ours” but her death was good because the masses don’t think, they just follow their emotions and this will ensure a win for Remain. I tried variations on, “So you think the Kalergi plan is a good idea?” with Remainers and just one understood the question and answered that she didn’t think that would actually happen.

        1. There seems to be a misunderstanding on the right of what and who left-wingers actually are and believe. There seems to be a general belief that they’re just like us, but they believe different things. In my experience, that’s not the case at all. Left-wingers see the world in terms of tribes. You’re either a part of their tribe, or you’re the enemy and they hate you (and I do mean hate). Their beliefs aren’t based on rational thought or debate, but on dogma. They will never be convinced otherwise. Debating with them is a waste of energy.

          It’s no surprise that the most murderous and destructive ideologies have come from the left: Communism, Marxism, Fascism. All based on identity and group-thought, and total control of society and people. All other tribes are to be eliminated.

          The EU is a vehicle for their fascism. It’s their club. They’ll never give up on it. They’re the Master Race and they will rule Europe, by hook or by crook.

          We might as well be separate species!

      2. Don’t worry about me! I have very few illusions about the remainers. Those remainers in politics are – and always have been – self-serving tyrants and those remainers outside politics are gullible, arrogant and irrational.

        1. Sorry, it wasn’t meant to be personal so much as a general point about the situation. I’m sure your political antennae are all facing in the right direction!

    2. The PVV ( Partij voor de Vrijheid – Party for Freedom) secured 23.6% of the vote. The one other Dutch party I can find with a hard eurosceptic stance is the FvD (Forum voor Democratie – Forum for Democracy) which attracted 2.2% of the vote. If the combined vote of 25.8% is representative of Dutch support for leaving the EU, it’s a long way short of a majority. However, votes for parties can only approximate to support for their policies. Of those who vote for a party, far fewer are in favour of absolutely everything the party stands for. Some other parties are softly Eurosceptic but fall short of wanting to leave the EU.

    3. That headline should read “these groups fear that the Netherlands will be a roaring success once they ditch the islamic and green shackles”. I’m sure the British remainiacs realise that the EU has its flaws – it’s just that they are happy with them.

    1. Why would France join BRICS? It runs counter to their EU empire. BRICS in any case is a bit of a basket case. South Africa is a failed country, Russia isn’t half the nation it was, Brasil is the country of the future (and always will be)… that leaves China and India. Of those, China is more advanced at present but could go into reverse as a result of its demographic issues and a tilt away from China as a souce of trade. That leaves India. A puzzling country. Has the democratic institutions we left it, but spent half a century cuddling up to the Soviet Union and allowing its infrastructure to wither. Now has a Hindu nationlist in charge and a strange on/off relationship with capitalism and international trade.

      1. China is thought to have 25 000 tonnes of gold, which would trump the dollar any day they decide to play the gold card.

        1. Possibly. No-one knows how much gold the US does (or doesn’t) have. Nothing in the world of finance makes sense, though. The US is up to its eyeballs in debt. In any real sense it couldn’t be described as a wealthy nation; rather, a broke one. And yet it’s still the US dollar that dominates and continues to hold value around the world. It makes no sense.

          1. The US claims to have about 8 1/2 thousand tonnes, but they have not been audited since the 50s, and they have done a lot of jiggery pokery with leased out gold. Also, we do not know how much they have pinched from other countries. It is unclear how much gold has more than one party claiming to be its owner.
            Germany requested their gold back from the US some years ago, and I believe they did get it in the end, but it took a long time.

          2. It’s all based on horse manure, isn’t it? Everyone’s broke, everyone’s lying and everyone’s pretending not to know.

          4. Possession is nine points of the law?
            How much gold is held in America is the pertinent question.

          5. I read that some of it was leased out to the big banks, who promptly sold it and bought US treasuries which paid more than what they were paying to lease the gold. What will happen if the Federal Reserve wants the gold back?

          7. You could be right, but do the people who ‘bought’ it actually own it, if a court rules that the banks were not allowed to sell it? Egon von Greyerz raised this point, and he is a Swiss gold dealer, so has a lot of overview about what is passing through Switzerland.

          10. Of course. The U.S expected to be paid somehow for all the oil and gas they sent to nazi Germany. Not a lot of difference to what is happening now.

          11. War is profitable. Which is why they keep doing it.When the Ukraine/Israel brouhaha dies down it will start somewhere else as if by magic. Lots of bushfires and proxy wars in Africa at the moment but Taiwan will come soon too if nothing else is working for them.

      2. Perhaps Macron is very concerned the Marina le Penn might equal Geert Wilders recent achievement.

        1. Surely he’d cling even closer still to the EU, in that case? EU fanatics only travel in one direction: towards the EU and ever greater integration.

  59. That’s me for this dull, cold and disappointing day. Bonfire sort of worked. Could never get a really hot enough base to enable the mass of foliage/weeds etc to be burned. Better than nothing, I suppose.

    Looks like we are in for a cold snap. What a real surprise at this time of year…!

    Have a nice evening

    A demain.

    2. That’s climate change for you.

      Time for the rich swine to jet off to somewhere warm and criticise our carbon wasting ways.

    3. That’s climate change for you.

      Time for the rich swine to jet off to somewhere warm and criticise our carbon wasting ways.

  60. I hope to goodness that those hostages still being held are unaware that others are being released.
    It would be cruel beyond belief to have them hoping and having their hopes dashed.

      1. I’m a cynic.

        You might well have guessed that already!

        The release of the Thai workers shows that Hamas is delighted to lose them, but to keep Jews.
        The Thais swapped in exchange for more potential foot soldiers was a freebie.

        From the Israeli perspective they can potentially use this later when the whole agreement falls apart.
        Essentially Hamas has released “accidental captures” rather than Israelis. I very much doubt that the terrorists had a clue what they were gathering up when they took them hostage.

        1. I had no idea that Thais were were working in Israel. I wonder what their pay per hour rate was……………………………………………………………

    2. Twice as much fun for me

      Wordle 888 4/6

      ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Well done! Par for me.

      Wordle 888 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
      🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    5. You should tell us all on the hour, every hour, just in case anyone misses it.
      And start again tomorrow to remind us!

    6. I made a schoolboy error on line 3 with a poor outcome.

      Wordle 888 5/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  62. 379026+ up ticks

    Post
    See new posts
    Conversation
    Wide Awake Media
    @wideawake_media
    “You need to know who’s been vaccinated.”

    Speaking at the WEF in January 2023, former UK PM and touted successor to Klaus Schwab, Tony Blair, asserts the necessity of a “digital infrastructure” for monitoring everybody’s vaccination status in the event of a future “pandemic”.

    “Some of the vaccines that will come on down the line will be multiple, there’ll be multiple shots. So you’ve got to have―for reasons to do with the healthcare more generally, but certainly for a pandemic―you’ve got to have a proper digital infrastructure.”

    This thing ( the cottaging bog man) still has a shout in politics
    even an asp was heard to hiss ” don;t let it hold me it might bite.”

    https://x.com/miss_anthrop75/status/1728110905697751076?s=20

    https://x.com/miss_anthrop75/status/1728110905697751076?s=20

      1. I don’t think he was into sucking random penises in public lavatories behind the Old Bailey was he?

        1. It was suggested that his daughter tried to commit suicide while he was in downing Street. Maybe the name of the Street had too much influence on his life.
          Who knows.
          He issued lots of D Notices..

    3. can’t we go back to the old days and hang a bell round the necks of anyone that is infected and demand that they stumble rond shoutingg Unclean mat anyone who comes near?

      Oh I forgot, ou can have the killer lurgy and how no symptoms’ so maybe everyone needs a bell

    1. Service on the Russian convoys must have been some of the most dangerous and unpleasant assignments of WW2.
      Those that did so never really got the credit that they deserved, in my opinion.

        1. At the time, no.
          Years later, no.
          But eventually they did get recognised, but not to the extent that they should have, again in my opinion.

          3. And continuing.

            Our heir apparent to government removing his poppy for a video to support his attempt to get the muslim UK vote back after saying something on camera about hamas terrorists he really didn’t want to say and then. Then his SPADS saying it was an accident. In November !
            To be honest most of us were safer when the IRA were setting off bombs.

          1. Amazed they didn’t get the blame for bombing civilians, hospitals and schools.
            Oh! Wait…

          2. As a youngster, I avoided all of that conflict. A short one hour flight in a Lancaster let me see how much respect the crews deserved. The bomber might have been the bees knees in those days but so noisy and uncomfortable that just one return trip to ermany would have been too much for most of us nowadays – and that’s before you add in the fact that the opposition as trying to kill you.

            Much respect.

          3. Possibly the worst position was the rear gunner – isolated at the back (at least the navigator and radio operator were near each other, like the flight engineer and pilot), the first to be taken out by fighters, cramped and extremely cold – they often removed some of the perspex to improve their vision.

      4. Convoy PQ17 – horrendous losses. They never heard anybody’s gratitude, those lads and lasses.

      5. We have an Arctic Convoy museum in our village on Loch Ewe where parts of the convoy sailed from. They say that you could walk across the ships to get to thee other side of the Loch there was so many of them – among them was my dad – yes he survived

      1. I went on the Plymouth, and that is pretty much the long and the short of it. All the foreign runs ashore had a pay back.

          2. Indeed, but the comment had an underlay.

            Two of the early ships arriving with Plymouth were Brilliant and Endurance.

          1. I would say so, but then I was just a kid and it was 40 years ago. My greatest achievement was humping 4.5″ bullets and carrying the Chief’s tool bag.

        1. Of course. It’s just that one wonders how we (you and me if you like) would have behaved during the 2 world wars. I’m just glad they did it for us and deserve our utmost respect.

          1. Unfortunately we may learn how todays generation behaves.

            Wait we need a health and Safety evaluation, have gender requirements been studied?
            Sorry, my battery powered tank is empty, can we wait for a sunlit day before continuing?

          2. I’d like to think I’d have been in the Y Service – radio ham, linguist and crossword/codeword enthusiast.

          3. My father, born in 1895, volunteered in 1914, was wounded and commissioned in the field.

            He also served in WWII as a Provost Marshal with the RMP branch of the Suffolk Regiment.

            He died on the operating table while having a cancerous lung removed in 1955.

            An honourable man.

          4. Certainly so. My father invalided out of the RAF in ’36, thank gawd for me perhaps. Mother’s granddad born 1866 volunteered in ’14 at 48 yo, received MC in ’17 and volunteered again in ’39 but turned down.

        3. I knew two who served on them. Ernest Quarrie, a near neighbour of my parental home in Carlisle (I used to date his daughter) commanded a Corvette. Late in life, he started to attend convoy reunions. Feeling sorry for him, being outnumbered by a wife and three daughters, I used to have a pint or two with him in the White Ox (now closed) most Fridays. Always good company, whilst acknowledging that he had been there, he never went into detail. Subsequently, I learned that my old headmaster, Joe Rawlings, had also served in the convoys. Bloody heroes, both of them.

  64. Evening, all. How can the lead letter writer not realise that the govt (it’s hardly Conservative) has no grip on immigration because that’s the way it wants it? Anyway, it isn’t “migration” as that includes people emigrating. Apart from their taking their skills and earning capacity away, that affects us in much smaller measure than the gimme-gimme tribes being brought in by Border Force and the RNLI.

    1. Those brought across in dinghies are dwarfed in number by those who arrive with official government stamps of approval.

  65. we just saw the christmas holiday tree that our local council have put up. The angel at the top of the tree has been replaced by a big imitation white owl.

    another stupid woke change to avoid upsetting some perpetually offended invader.

    2. There are recipes available to cure this disease. Milk bottle. Alcohol. Straw. Makes a wonderful cocktail.

    3. Did I hear that correctly? Did you write that your local council has put an imitation white towel on the Christmas tree? A towelhead, slightly risque.

  66. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/24/st-andrews-university-rector-israel-genocide-palestine/
    St Andrews University rector accuses Israel of ‘genocide’ as students call for her resignation
    Her message – sent to students and branded as anti-Semitic – detailed the ‘genocidal attacks by the Israeli government against Gaza’

    How can a 20 or so year-old be Rector of a University? Hopefully, she gets a good kicking. Comments aren’t complimentary…

  68. Goodnight, all. I’m off to bed early as I have to get up before first light to start the preparation for my colonoscopy on Saturday. Having had to do it before, I am NOT looking forward to it. In this instance, ignorance is bliss!

    1. I don’t understand why you have had such a problem. Assume the position and hold your breath !!!
      :@)

      1. It was not the best experience I’ve had! I had to start taking moviprep at 0600 and I didn’t get off the loo until just before noon! When I got to the hospital I didn’t go for my procedure until 1700 despite my appointment being for 14.45. When I was in the recovery room they wouldn’t let me go because my blood pressure was low – then they twigged that I hadn’t had anything to eat since 15.00 yesterday and nothing to drink since noon today. Then they plied me with drinks and a sandwich – lo! my BP returned to normal and stabilised so I could get home at about 19.00. I had to clean up after Oscar because I’d had to leave them so long. Then I had to relight the Rayburn because I’d allowed it to go out thinking I wouldn’t be able to stoke it while chained to the loo. The oil can’t cope when the temperature drops into single figures. It was 2 degrees C tonight.

  72. It would be unforgivable to allow Abu Dhabi to nationalise the Telegraph and Spectator

    Rishi Sunak might fear upsetting Arab friends, but these are great British institutions whose future is now in doubt

    CHARLES MOORE • 24 November 2023 • 7:00pm

    I joined this newspaper in 1979 and have subsequently edited all the three titles in its stable – The Spectator, The Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Telegraph. I remain on the staff. I have therefore reached that stage in life when kind younger people, trying to make conversation, say, “You must have seen a few changes, then!”

    I have. They include the defeat of the print unions in the 1980s, the consequent new technology and business success, the rise of the internet and the conquest of print by digital. This has involved frequent meetings with triumph and disaster of the sort Kipling recognised in his famous poem.

    As the editor at most of these junctures, I have also seen changes of ownership. I am familiar with the process by which one commanding and successful owner gets into difficulties and finds that he (it has always been men) must cede control to another.

    This has happened with the ownership of the Telegraph Group by the Barclay family. From the editorial point of view, they were good proprietors, in that they did not tell their editors what to write.

    They also did not tell their editors, however, that they had put up their titles as collateral against big debts. This summer, in a controversial move, Lloyds Bank, angry that the Barclays’ debt to them was not being repaid, put the papers (which are profitable) into receivership. That was a change I had not seen before.

    To get some of its money back, Lloyds announced an auction of the titles. The list of companies bidding is impressive. The process looked orderly. Lloyds was expected to seek the largest credible bid compatible with monopoly regulations and the Government’s duty to safeguard the freedom of the press.

    Last week, that changed. In a move which reopened uncertainty and stalled the auction, it was announced that the Barclays would, after all, pay back their whole colossal debt of nearly £1.2 billion. Not surprisingly, Lloyds was pleased.

    But it is no easy matter to repay such a monstrous amount. The Barclays had failed before. How, suddenly, can they do it now?

    The answer is that the repayment is, at least in part, a sale. The Barclays return Lloyds’s money only because they will get it from people who want some of their assets in return. The assets, valued at £600 million, will be The Telegraph and The Spectator. Barclay properties such as Very, the online retailer, will be used as security against the rest of the loan.

    The repayers/buyers are RedBird IMI, which is fronted by Jeff Zucker, a media executive under whose watch CNN became an aggressively Left-wing news network. Theirs is a joint venture between RedBird Capital, an American private equity firm, and IMI (International Media Investments). IMI is controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and puts up the great bulk of the money.

    Sheikh Mansour is a prominent member of the family that rules Abu Dhabi, the leading component of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE being a Gulf princedom, it is not really possible to distinguish between the family, its businesses and the state.

    Which is a long-winded way of saying that, if the repayment/sale goes through, this newspaper (and The Spectator) would be controlled by a foreign state. That, too, is a change I have not seen before, and never expected to see.

    What should we think of it?

    It might help to look at it this way. Imagine that The Telegraph (or any other British national newspaper, Left, Right or centre) were nationalised by the British government. There would, to put it mildly, be a stink. It would be seen as an unprecedented power grab by the state against the freedom of the press. Luckily – though the freedom of the press is never completely secure even here in Britain – newspaper nationalisation is seen as beyond the pale.

    Yet now, perhaps the week after next, the nationalisation of a British national newspaper seems possible. It would be nationalisation by a country which does not have press freedom. The UAE may be one of the better governed Arab states and is traditionally friendly to Britain, but its best friends would not pretend that it is a democracy, or that it has institutionalised the rights and liberties of the Western world.

    Those same friends do argue, however, that Abu Dhabi would be a “passive investor”. RedBird IMI promises the retention of the existing editorial teams and guarantees of editorial independence.

    I would not say that these promises are insincere. I merely observe that they are always made in controversial media takeovers and end up making little difference to the structure of real power.

    We are not talking about a private owner here. The UAE is a state. Like all states, particularly authoritarian ones, it will sacrifice the interests of others if it thinks its own interests are threatened. Increasingly, the Gulf states are getting close to China. There is a reason why they do not go big on press freedom: they fear freedom in all its forms and close it down if it causes trouble. They could do that to a newspaper.

    But actually the greater risk of the paper being owned by the UAE is probably not one of day-to-day interference. It is simply the perception of Emirati control in the minds of the British public.

    Readers would ask: “How can we know that what you write – or suppress – about Israel/Palestine, or Islam, or the state of the oil market, or even Manchester City [which Sheikh Mansour owns], is not influenced by your ownership?” Their suspicions might, in individual circumstances, be unjustified. But how could editors allay them? Rival media would understandably make hay with this potential thraldom.

    What should the Government do? On Wednesday, the Culture Secretary, Lucy Frazer, said she was “minded” to issue a Public Interest Intervention Notice (PIIN) under which she would look into the repayment/sale.

    It later emerged, however, that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office had intervened to soften the wording of her letter. Britain, after all, is courting the UAE for investment. Former Foreign Office officials lobby in the UAE’s account. Later next week, the King and the Prime Minister are both set to be in Dubai for the COP 28 climate conference.

    On Monday, the Global Investment Summit will be held at Hampton Court, with Jeremy Hunt attending. The Treasury wishes to emphasise that the chief executive of Lloyds (the sponsor) will not be sitting next to the Chancellor. A top representative of Abu Dhabi will also be present and Rishi Sunak is expected too. Mr Sunak will wish to avoid any unpleasantness.

    At this point, the Sunak Government is also under great pressure from the Barclays and Lloyds. They say the PIIN should not investigate the terms of the repayment: the Government should issue a PIIN, studying whether RedBird IMI are suitable owners of a national newspaper, only once the debt is discharged. It is not for governments to impede the rights of debtors to repay their creditors.

    This sounds quite good as an argument of principle, but it makes me suspicious. Why is it so important not to investigate the loan repayment, and why must the ownership of the titles be transferred by such a device?

    We journalists can sound pompous and self-serving when we talk up our trade. But it is little more than a statement of fact to say that The Telegraph and The Spectator are great British institutions. They should not be controlled by a foreign power.

    After more than 40 years’ friendly acquaintance with the readers of all our titles, I feel quite confident in predicting that they would not forgive any government which let them go.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/24/abu-dhabi-telegraph-spectator-newspaper-sale/

    2. It was bad enough when they brought in the new editor from the Times a few years ago. That was enough o stop me subscribing. We don’t need another Grauniad.

    1. Sorry, William, but I’m utterly bereft of anything worth saying. It would be as futile as demanding that the wind changes direction.

      1. I had a vision of a spiv caught at an awkward moment, reaching for his cheque book to make a problem go away…

    2. He wrong-footed us there – we thought he was looking and feeling a right tit when it was a left one!

    3. I am just about to draw my gun and shoot the person that took this picture. Then i am am going to summon my Deliveroo Bentley driver to take me to the bastard that told me i looked good in this suit. On the way back they can pick up any of my children i left behind. With strict instructions that if any of them look like Boris to be shot on sight…

  74. 379026+up ticks

    As expected the failed wretch is making his play,

    David Cameron says Britain needs closer ties with EU
    Comments bring backlash from some Tory MPs, who warn Foreign Secretary not to ‘reignite’ debate around Brexit.

    An ermine encapsulated TWAT.

    1. There are millions of people in this country who would agree with him and I no longer believe they are in the minority.

      1. David Cameron did as much to insure that people voted for Brexit as Nigel Farage. By failing to get even the smallest of sensible response to his appeals he showed us what a despotic, petty and mean-spirited organisation the EU really is. He asked for so little and they gave him nothing at all!

        He then, silly mendacious twerp, said that people should choose to stay in a reformed EU when it was completely clear that the EU had not reformed and had absolutely no intention of doing so.

        The man is an odious and slimy oaf.

        1. What you say might well be true, although I cannot summon the anger to describe him in such disparaging terms. Were I to do so it would be pure artifice. Nonetheless, the churn in the electorate over seven and a half years, the changes in its composition, are such that I now believe I’m in the minority.

        2. The EU was kept moreorless stable by Merkel but stagnant economically. Since Merkel’s departure the wretched EU regime has become rudderless.

          The EU under Von der Leyen has foolishly followed the US and with sanctions alienated its principal energy supplier viz. Russia. The EU has stupidly supported the mad neo-con Biden administration in fighting a proxy war in Ukraine, a conflict intended to effect regime change in Russia and which has spectacularly backfired.

          The influence of NATO and its desire to extend its membership to countries neighbouring Russia has also contributed greatly to the ensuing disaster on the battlefields of Ukraine.

          It is likely that the Biden administration will now desert Ukraine and rapidly defund its promotion of that war leaving the EU to fund the reconstruction of what will be left of Ukraine after a Russian victory.

          I suspect that NATO will lose funding in a similar way and with the withdrawal of previous US levels of funding the EU will be left to foot the bill.

          Of course the problem remains that Germany is in deep recession and there is no money left to meet the obligations outlined.

          We might expect WWIII if the US persists with allowing Biden to remain making massive geopolitical mistakes and seeking conflict and wars all over the world.

      2. There are millions of people in this country who are politically innocent, having no competence in measuring the disadvantages of membership of the EU. Many others see the advantages accruing from withdrawal if such withdrawal is properly instituted.

        I still believe the majority of the populace are intelligent and outnumber those to whom you wish to infer are in favour of the EU.

      3. 379041+ up ticks,

        Morning DW
        I do beg to differ, could it be wishful thinking on your behalf perhaps ?

        ” And I no longer believe they are in the minority”

        If so that could account for mental health issues being on the rise.

Comments are closed.