827 thoughts on “Friday 8 November: The moving sight of a former Labour MP compelled on principle to reject Corbyn as PM”

  1. Melbourne International Airport

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d4b5c3ca2ab33c364ad3f250c29a268f0134486eb919a76bb5cf3de3c53ddf9.jpg

    You gotta love this one even if you’ve never lived in Melbourne.

    Some of you (pilots…) will enjoy this more than others…. Victorians can be so polite!

    Melbourne Tower: “Saudi Air 511 — You are cleared to land on runway 9R.”

    Saudi Air: “Thank you Melbourne. Acknowledge cleared to land on infidel’s runway 9R Allah be Praised.”

    Melbourne Tower: ” Iran Air 711 – You are cleared to land on runway 27L.”

    Iran Air: “Thank you Melbourne. We are cleared to land on infidel’s runway 27L. – Allah is Great.”

    Pause….

    Saudi Air: ” MELBOURNE TOWER – MELBOURNE TOWER!”

    Melbourne Tower: “Go ahead Saudi Air 511…”

    Saudi Air: “YOU HAVE CLEARED BOTH OUR AIRCRAFT FOR THE SAME RUNWAY GOING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS. WE ARE ON A COLLISION COURSE … ….
    … .. … INSTRUCTIONS, PLEASE!”

    Melbourne Tower: “Proceed to your destination and tell Allah we said “Hi”

  3. Surely it’s time to lay to rest the empty, vainglorious memorialising of war. Thu 7 Nov 2019 16.42 GMT.

    Giving a talk this week, the contemporary historian Anthony Seldon said too much remembrance was holding us back. Look how losing wars had forced Germany and Japan to rethink their identity and their past to create for themselves a new future, while Britain, the victor, wallowed in its old triumphs, forever pulled backwards. Dreams of lost empire were enmeshed in those victories: too little is taught of the dark side of colonialism, of slavery and the wealth built from it – instead there is harping on about the anti-slave abolitionists.

    Morning everyone. I see. We are to stop wallowing in old military triumphs and indulge in a little anti-Colonialism and Slave Trading self-flagellation! Of course we can miss out the abolitionists; after all who wants to hear anything good about the UK? Polly and the rest of her pals in Labour must live lives of unutterable misery. Everything they see, and read, and hear tells them some story of UK depravity. It must be closely akin to living in hell. A hell they cannot escape except for an eternal confession to the rest of the world of Mea Culpa.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/07/memorialising-war-first-world-war-remember

    1. ‘Morning, Minty, has no-one told them that to ignore history is to repeat the same mistakes again?

      Oh, yeah, wait a minute…

    2. Morning to you

      What about this then?

      Irish academic calls for the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’ to be DROPPED from modern speech because it has ‘links with white supremacists’
      Academic says ‘Anglo-Saxon’ is used by white supremacists and calls for a ban
      Mary Rambaran-Olm said people in early England did not use term themselves
      She says that previous objections to the term Dark Ages sets a precedent

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7663127/Academic-says-Anglo-Saxon-dropped-links-white-supremacy.html

      1. ‘Morning, Mags, bluddy Celts, looks like we Ango-Saxons are gonna hafta give ’em another pasting so that they know their place.

        At the moment that’s the far West, Western Isles, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall and Britanny.

          1. The Canadian Branch, apparently. Mary R-O says that when she leaves school she wants to live on a crannog.

      2. People in early England also used to speak funny. They didn’t have words for “smartphone”, “Computer”, “car/automobile”, “bicycle”, “electricity” and the like. Why not revert to that, too?

      3. Yo T_B

        If Korbynski ‘wins’ the GE, the New Dark Ages will start

        Whether we will be taken there by Jewemy or MuckDonnel is another matter

    3. It helps to forget such things when the losing side, who started it all, is let off the financial hook by Uncle Sam.

      1. We got the biggest lump of Marshall Aid cash….assorted versions of HMG pi55ed it away pretending that we could still afford to maintain an Empire.

          4. “On 31 December 2006, Britain made a final payment of about $83m (£45.5m) and thereby discharged the last of its war loans from the US.”

          5. Ah yes, the US…made sure we had to shell out….and a few years later they stopped Suez…

    4. Or rather not everything about the Empire was excellent…a charge that can be made against every empire in history. Such is life, so to speak.

    5. Yo Minty

      Shirley are not anti-slave abolitionists. in favour of slavery….

      Just arskin’

    6. Seldon is an extremely vain and arrogant man. When he was master of Wellington College he demanded sycophantic adulation from his staff and dissidents in the Masters’ Common Room were treated with contempt. During his ‘reign’ it cannot have been very pleasant school in which to teach.

      1. In Germany a BMW is known as das Werkstattauto – the repair-shop car, because they spend so much time being repaired.

    2. So long as your air intake & electrics are above water level, it’s surprising how deep a flood you can get through so long as you take it easy and do not go too fast.
      1st gear and a trundle through at engine tickover to prevent wash flooding the engine.

      The worst thing is when some Charlie Uniform in a 4wd comes ploughing through the flood not giving a shonet about other drivers or even pedestrians.
      Some years back, when the Derwent flooded Matlock Bath, a Unimog driver washed a couple of firemen off their feet!

      1. Newer BMWs tend to have the air intake low down in the wheelarch, I believe. Poor design for wading.

      2. I wonder ;
        Q1. What is an air intake?
        Q2. Where is the air intake located? (Clue: somewhere on your vehicle.)

        1. Q1 The bit that allows the engine to take in air so it can work.

          Q2 Since typing that I’ve realised that on many modern cars the air intake is actually at quite a low level at the very front of the engine, perhaps the worst possible location for driving in shallow flood water!

          1. The question was intended for female drivers aged under 25. But your answers are acceptable.

          3. Which is why serious offroaders have a schnorkel, with the air intake above the windscreen.

    3. Did he really think he could drive through water that deep? I’m not sure that the jump leads will help.

      (PS. This man may be a voter!)

        1. They must have the genes of Cnut. Quite common. Plenty of choice up here too; Cramond Island, Lindesfarne.

          1. Tut. It wasn’t Canute: it was his fawning courtiers.
            He took the action to expose their stupidity.

          2. Well, of course I knew that. However, a recent poll of Lib/Dem voters revealed that 99% of them thought that Canute really tried to hold back the tide. (That’s the story we were told in primary school. Of course it was emphasised then that Canute was Anglo-Saxon, or as we call it now a Sassenach.)

          3. Canute was a Viking. He married Emma of Normandy, relict of Æthelread the Unready.
            I’ve always thought Emma, after to being married to man who appears to have been weak and spiteful, must have been dead chuffed to bag herself a Viking toy boy.
            Sadly he popped his clogs at about the age of 37.

          5. “Unrede” if I remember rightly; meaning, as you say, ill-advised.
            But it’s up to the top banana to make the final decision; Æthelread wasn’t up to the job.

  5. ‘Best of British’ TV streaming service attracts complaints as it emerges some classic shows are missing. 7 NOVEMBER 2019.

    But anyone hoping to re-watch Till Death Us Do Part or Love Thy Neighbour will not find them on Britbox. Their politically incorrect subject matter has been deemed inappropriate for modern audiences.

    Reemah Sakaan, the ITV executive responsible for launching the subscription service, was asked yesterday about the omission of the two programmes from the comedy archive.

    She said “changing tastes” had been taken into account. While some shows will carry “bespoke warnings” about potentially offensive content, the two sitcoms in question were deemed too offensive for inclusion at all.

    Though we are now used to censorship along with its corollaries; False Flags, Fake News, Propaganda etc. this is a precursor to a true Orwellian scenario; the extinguishing of the past. Book Burning for the Digital Age!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/07/best-british-tv-streaming-service-attracts-complaints-emerges/

    1. I’m left wondering if the too offensive programmes were deemed as such by a knowledgeable and unbiased committee or by the “executive” whose background and values , judging by the name, may not be entirely in line with the bulk of the populace . I never much cared for the programmes originally and if they were repeated I wouldn’t waste my remaining years on this planet watching them and that’s my choice but I wouldn’t be arrogant enough to consider myself an arbiter of taste and deny others the pleasure.

      1. Same here uncle. I always thought Garnett a loud mouthed moron. I’ve met too many real ones! The other was amateurish puerile pabulum. That said I am opposed to all forms of censorship and think those who wish to watch them should be allowed to do so!

  7. The main problem for politicians with Corbyn it seems to me is not his 1970’s socialism, his Stalinism, his support for terrorist organisations in the past and present.
    No it is the fact that he is not a participating globalist world government activist like the rest of them.
    That is the worrying part.

    1. Morning Bob. I think that might be due to a little Globalist miscalculation. The Labour Party is supposed to be Blairite not Marxist. This means if Labour should win the economy will collapse even faster than normal. Lol!

    3. Morning B3
      Not coming up to the high standards of
      political sh!te the peoples have come to expect.

  8. The liblabcon plan for this election appears to be shaping up as we are not really leaving the EU here have some money instead

      1. Morning, Korky.

        We’re supposed to get a lotta rain this morning; it will prolly come when I’m waiting for the bus, like yesterday.

        1. Just checked the weather radar and there’s a band of rain stretching from the Wash to Northampton and sinking towards you. Take your brolly.

  10. In the past week I have twice seen an advert for Starling Bank which states it has been voted Britain’s favourite bank.
    Well I’ve never heard of it. I’m thinking of writing a FOI request to ask ‘by whom?’.

    2. Starling was founded by Anne Boden, who had previously held the positions of COO for Allied Irish Banks, Head of EMEA (Global Transaction Banking) for RBS, Executive Vice President for ABN AMRO, and Vice President for UBS. Boden began working on Starling in 2014. In 2016, they announced the largest Fintech funding round of the year, raising £48 million. Wikipedia.

      A little hyperbole there Stormy. I don’t think I will be joining it!

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

    5. I’ve a Starling account. We use it for our immediate monthly spending.

      We were getting fed up with our usual bank not showing up our outgoings immediately so divided the accounts up into shares ISA, cash iSA, savings and current account – a fall back fund kept low – and the Starling account which we share. It’s great, as you go to Tesco and the spend comes off the account immediately, not three days later so you know you’ve got 500 in there instead of 600.

      Yes, some accounts show a ‘real balance’ but that’s daft. Take my money when I give it to you. Don’t wait around and even if you do, don’t tell me.

    6. I think it’s one of these new so-called internet-based challenger banks along with Monzo, Metro and Revolut.

    1. Morning, Belle.

      Frosty, snap. Porridge, snap. Not very traditional porridge here, a few raisins and a dollop of home-made blackberry and apple jam to sweeten it.

        1. That’s what was confusing me! Colour, or political leaning, never thought of that meaning of green. :-((

      3. Good morning. Maintenance work on the bowls green through the winter in preparation for next year.

    2. Morning DB

      Frosty grass here .. clear morning , may be come windy by midday, and then perhaps rain .. Garden is quite soggy after previous rainy days !

  13. Morning all

    SIR – I was brought to tears by the interview with Ian Austin, the former Labour MP for Dudley, on Breakfast with Kay Burley on Sky News yesterday.

    His announcement that he will not be standing for re-election because he believes that Jeremy Corbyn is unfit to be Prime Minister is to be applauded.

    How refreshing to see a man of principle put his country before personal ambition – though it is sad that good people feel they have to stand down.

    Amanda Malas
    Hartley, Kent

    SIR – This election is no longer about Brexit. It is about keeping communism out.

    Ken Simpson
    Northampton

    SIR – I am fed up of hearing Labour’s proposed spending being described as “investment”.

    The majority of the plans give no financial return and fail to cover the cost of borrowing, which is bound to rise with the election of a Labour government.

    Spending on health, education, housing and the police produces no compensation for the costs of borrowing, however desirable it may be. But it is too much to expect an honest description of this during a “spend, spend, spend” election, in which votes are being bought from those who don’t expect to foot the bill.

    Alan Finlay
    London NW4

    SIR – Allister Heath correctly draws attention to the nightmare of Mr Corbyn’s plans for confiscation by nationalisation.

    I hope the spotlight will now turn to the damage that would be done to pensions. All private pension schemes – including many whose members might consider themselves natural supporters of Labour – are dependent upon successful investment.

    The value of a large part of their assets would be severely impaired at the moment a Corbyn government came into power, while the rest, invested in his target industries, would simply be confiscated.

    Gordon Brown
    Grassington, North Yorkshire

    SIR – If the Labour Party secures power, will its economic policies reduce unemployment from the current level of 3.8 per cent?

    Simon McIlroy
    Croydon, Surrey

    SIR – I seem to recall a time when those fighting an election would boast about what they could and would do if they were fortunate enough to win our backing. Today I can only find pages of hatred directed at opponents.

    Clive Pilley
    Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex

    2. Both sets of spending plans rely on punitive rates of interest for savers.

      Soon there won’t be any real money left. Doesn’t this create a cash flow problem?

      1. Labours, Lib-Dem’s and the Greens spending plans are totally unrealistic and are not deliverable in fact the level of debt it would incur would break EU debt limits so they would not be able to do it

        They try to claim it is an investment but an investment gives a real return there spending would not

        1. We have not even begun to reflect on personal debt – the incessant habit of maxing out on the credit card that seems to be a substitute for wages these days.

          If we are to have a representative democracy, then it is fair to assume that our public sector ministries would mirror the spending habits of the people.

          1. There’s a difference though. If I borrow too much and can’t pay it back, it’s harder for me to borrow in future.

            If government borrows too much and doesn’t pay it back, it passes that consequence on to me by destroying my buying power, meaning I have to borrow more to keep going or reduce my own outgoings, slowing the economy.

            The public sector, by contrast does two things: it reduces front line services under the wailing claim of ‘austerity’ to demand more taxes – which go into the pockets of troughers (as the public immdeiately look at fat cat pay and ask what they’re getting for it, the statae deliberately reduces services as punishment then pockets the increased taxes to keep the fat cats in clover).

            The back end group then gets vastly more cash and the overall state expands hugely but in entirely the wrong area.

    3. It’s been like that since at least 2015. The then Labour candidate (who is standing again in North Shropshire) spent all his time denigrating his opponents. Someone who knew him in a personal capacity said she couldn’t believe how nasty he had been.

  14. Morning again

    SIR – I was shocked to read that an Extinction Rebellion defendant was found not guilty of criminal damage because she had a “very strong and honestly held belief that we are facing a climate emergency”.

    I fail to see how this “belief” can justify spray-painting a council building. The magistrates seem to have allowed personal opinions to outweigh their judicial oath to act “without fear or favour, affection or ill-will”. Any mitigating factors should have been taken into account in the sentence, not the verdict.

    Angela Graham-Leigh
    Westbury, Wiltshire

    SIR – I take it that any money awarded to Extinction Rebellion activists will be forwarded to the businesses and workers who were unable to go about their daily business due to the protests, and towards the cost of extra policing that we, the taxpayers, have 
to meet.

    Anne Macfarlane Dunn
    West Moors, Dorset

    1. The decision of that magistrate should be challenged, It is irrelevant of what the view of the person that did the criminal damage are. It is an offence

    2. Hang on – they were let off an offence of criminal damage because they had a belief?

      Well that explains Muslim bombers.

      3. The magistrate is wrong and his or her decision should be challenged. They have some discretion over sentencing but not on deciding they are not guilty because of a belief. That’s total nonsense ., Lets take something totally daft say I have a belief in making human sacrifices to my god. Would I be found not guilty ?

        1. “Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.”
          General Napier.

          2. That’s colonialism for you! Those were the days, when our boys sorted them out. Gave the rajahs, maharajahs, nabobs and the like, rich gifts praise and honours, and took away their power. Introduced justice, courts of law, democracy, schools and cricket. (Stone me! What kind of all-conquering, slave-driving, colonial, imperialists introduces sport to the oppressed masses?)

  15. SIR – In 2015, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved the use of collagenase injections for patients with Dupuytren’s contracture of the hand, a treatment that is quicker and cheaper than surgery.

    On Wednesday, the manufacturer announced that collagenase was being withdrawn from sale in Europe, though it will still be sold in America, at a much higher price.

    To introduce a new and effective treatment, requiring training of staff, and then withdraw it within five years for commercial reasons, seems to me to be unethical.

    Frank Sibly FRCS
    Ledbury, Herefordshire

  16. Climate Change Could Make Russia Great Again. Haaaretz. Nov 08, 2019.

    One study examined an extreme scenario – Arctic maritime routes operative year round. It predicted that about two-thirds of the trade that passes through the Suez Canal would be diverted to the new shipping routes. In any event, the melting of Arctic icebergs will increasingly open up commercial routes from Russia’s northern shores to East Asia, with vast implications for global trade. It’s easy to envision a large proportion of Chinese exports to Europe being shipped by way of Russia. This would also make it easier for Russia to ship its own goods, giving Moscow an advantage over Western competitors.

    Well it is an ill wind that blows no one any good. Russia is of course already a great power though shackled by internal difficulties and hostile foreign political forces. These are already weakening and a partnership with China looks to be in the offing. The long term future even aside from Climatic change looks bright if compared to Europe, a continent in terminal Social and Economic decline .

    https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-climate-change-could-make-russia-great-again-1.8094614

  17. Latest Freebies from Corbyn. Increasing paid maternity leave from 9 months to one year and another one is being able to choose your own working hours. How an earth that can work you will have to ask Corbyn

    Dianna Abbot has come out with Labours migration policy. Basically every one is welcome it is an open door

    1. The French are reported ro be tightening up on their immigration controls. Thousands of immigrants are being moved from their camps by buses for processing as to fitness to remain or be deported, Many are not entering the buses and many could be on their way to Calais and Dunkirk for a chance to reach the UK. {BBC Radio 4 News this morning}

      1. The favourite excuse of the Left is we need more people to fill vacancies but there is no real evidence to support that claim. In a few cases we do need more people in the short term such as nursing

        One problem we have is a significant number of people who do not want to work but the solution is not to keep bring in more migrants

        1. BJ,
          Keep up the usual voting pattern and we will always need more everything to keep pace
          with the products of the usual voting pattern.

        2. How about governments put in place schemes to improve productivity instead of just mouthing platitudes to that effect? We’re hearing the same crap again re productivity and at the same time demands for more immigrants to work here. The UK needs a moratorium on mass immigration: exceptions for critical areas e.g. top quality doctors and engineers. Instead of talking about improving education actually do something about it; NB that does not include dumbing down to continue the myth of improvement.

          1. Well Labour & Khan wanted to reduce the £30K pay level to £20K which would take it down to minimum pay. In general if someone cannot earn £30K in the UK we don’t need them here. There are exception such as for nurses who might start on less than £30K

            Why should we bring in migrants so employers can have cheap Labour and the tax payers subsidise them

          2. Yet the reason we need more healthcare workers is because there are too many people in this country.

        3. Or rather it is too risky to lose a benefit eg HB, if the alternative is an unstable ZHC job. Want to lower the welfare bill….build more social housing, stop immigration, get HMG to create jobs in the left behind areas because for decades the market has not.

          1. Yet theose zero hours contracts exist because of the minimum wage.

            We have them because the min wage priced regular employees out of the market for jobs. I do often wonder if the absolute basics of supply and demand are lost on the Left.

          2. “the min wage priced regular employees out of the market for jobs” – as was predicted at the time.

          3. And Zero hours was enacted to give those people a chance at work.

            The idiot Left them clamour that zero hours are unfair and the minimum wage should go up to £30 an hour.

            It’s almost as if they think there’s a magic money tree that businesses can just take from to give people more cash and job security. Truly, economics escapes them.

          4. There is nothing wrong with the idea of a minimum wage but couple it with unlimited immigration (as Blues and Reds have done) and you’ve got a right ‘cluster-f67k’ as our US chums might say.

        4. The Left want more immigrants to create a voting bloc. In reality, we need far fewer people, tighter welfare controls. That would icnrease wages and do away with the need for zero hours contracts as finding employees would be much harder, necessitating higher wages.

    2. The French are reported ro be tightening up on their immigration controls. Thousands of immigrants are being moved from their camps by buses for processing as to fitness to remain or be deported, Many are not entering the buses and many could be on their way to Calais and Dunkirk for a chance to reach the UK. {BBC Radio 4 News this morning}

    3. I’d imagine not only an open door but the door removed, the hinges taken off, and the wall demolished.

  18. Police Numbers

    Labour and the Lib-Dems claim there has been a massive fall in police numbers but the facts do not really back this claim up. To quite an extent as well it depends on the period you measure. If say you take the year 2000 and compare it with 2018. the numbers have hardly changed but if you take 2010 and compare it with 2018 there was bout a 20,000 drop in numbers but to get a more complete picture you also need to look at PCSO numbers and civilian staff numbers. Another complication is that some police functions have been transferred to local councils mainly car parking and traffic warden type functions
    There is also the impact of new technology so radios , CCTV, Computers and databases etc

    The overall indication is numbers have fallen somewhere between 5000 and 10,000 . What does seem to be more worrying is police do not seem to be being used effectively or efficiently

    A female presenter on LBC was trying to demolish Boris claim of 20.000 more police officers she seemed to think they would all appear suddenly. The recruitment has started and it is planned to recruit them over 3 years ie about 9000 a year. Her next tack was to try to claim it was only actually 2000 a year as about 7000 a year leave the force. That one was totally false. Yes police leave all the time but those posts are already funded and should be replaced. Whether they are or not is down to the local police forces

    https://fullfact.org/crime/police-numbers/

    1. We also need to think about the standard and training of the new police officers.
      Will an ability to accurately paint on rainbow nail varnish take priority over apprehending a knife wielding ‘traveller’?

  19. I will admit that I’m watching the apparent implosion of Labour with interest and am looking forward to having a natter with my ex-GP chum who is also secretary of the local Labour Party, lives in a £1.2m detached victorian villa and has a £350,000 holiday home in Devon. hmmmmmm

        1. Ask him that if he were paid minimum wage would he have bothered with all that training and hassle.

          I suspect no, but it’s interesting from a doctor’s perspective for whom it must be a hope to help people rather than just trough.

  20. I will admit that I’m watching the apparent implosion of Labour with interest and am looking forward to having a natter with my ex-GP chum who is also secretary of the local Labour Party, lives in a £1.2m detached victorian villa and has a £350,000 holiday home in Devon. hmmmmmm

  21. Anyone Know why the London Underground sticks to the two rail electrification system ie Live & Return rail. Most systems that are around just have a Live rail with the return being through one of the running rails

    1. To prevent stray eddy currents from eroding steel and cast iron structures in the vicinity of the railway.
      On the mainline 3rd rail system such structures are electrically bonded to the running rail to prevent this, something often not possible with underground systems.

      1. The only real metalwork in the Underground deep level lines would be the signals and in many cases the tunnel lining. I would not be difficult to earth bond it. The newer deep level lines use concrete lining. The cut and cover lines it is brickwork

        1. Cast Iron sewer, water & gas pipes adjacent to the lines are particularly vulnerable to damage, as is steel piling for buildings.

          2. Gas pipes are not allowed o the underground for safety reasons, Mainline also has pile driving etc

          6. Indeed.
            I used at one time to work with corrosion protection of buried and also submarine steel pipelines. Stray currents are a total nightmare, as they are so unpredictable.

        2. There is a huge amount of buried iron & steelwork.
          Piles (tubular & sheet), water mains, gas mains, the tunnel liners themselves, just to give a few.

          1. That occurs anywhere and if buried should not be an issue. The mainline railway use the third rail system and in some cases also have 25KV overhead near by. The LU is as well DC which makes eddy currents less of an issue

            There are no gas pipes on LU that would be a massive safety risk

          3. Does not seem to be. They pick up the live with the pantagraph and it is returned through one of the running rails. The Croydon tram system use 750V dc but I think this is pretty much the standard for tram systems. The London Underground uses 630V dc. An exception will be Crossrail when it opens which uses the standard 25KV overhead wires system

          4. Another oddity was the Liverpool Street to Shenfield and Southend Lines. THey originally used a 1500V dc Overhead system

          5. Another oddity was the Liverpool Street to Shenfield and Southend Lines. THey originally used a 1500V dc Overhead system

          6. I seem to remember an illustration of ‘force lines’ surrounding tram tracks, however as that was in a radio/popular mechanics type book, I suspect it was concerned with RF interference rather than electrolytic effects.
            Power supply connections to moored boats is an interesting side of the subject.

          7. I seem to remember an illustration of ‘force lines’ surrounding tram tracks, however as that was in a radio/popular mechanics type book, I suspect it was concerned with RF interference rather than electrolytic effects.
            Power supply connections to moored boats is an interesting side of the subject.

          9. There is an old Youtube clip shewing an Indian train with a peasant walking along the carriage roof. He then reached up and grabbed the OLE. Not pretty, so I will not be putting the link up on here.

          11. Oh, boy, is buried steelwork an issue! AC is less hassle than DC, which can be a real pain. It attracts stray currents, and accelerates corrosion of other protected, buried steelwork.

            Are yuo sure there are no iron gas pipes in London, near LU tracks? Bearing in mind that water is still delivered in pipes made from hollowed-out logs, I wouldb’t be so sanguine. Also, much of London is standing on steel piles.

            BTW, Eddy currents are magnetic fields induced in a material by the presence of electric fields, not something that is the cause of corrosion, nor corrosion protection. Nor are they “eddying” currents.

            Also, anywhere isn’t applicable – you need a source of currents, and buried steelwork.

          12. I have worked in corrosion engineering (Cathodic Protection) for over 20 years and you are spot on. AC interference can be mitigated but stray DC is a real pain.

  22. Boris ready to destroy Brexit Party by delivering huge referendum vow.
    BORIS JOHNSON will unveil plans to create a new visa to attract doctors and nurses to the NHS as the Prime Minister continues his election campaign.Mr Johnson will create a points-based immigration system similar to that of Australia in order to tackle skill shortages facing the NHS.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1201701/General-election-2019-news-latest-Boris-Johnson-Jeremy-Corbyn-next-pm-nhs-visa

    I don’t think it will be allowed Boris……

    1. I don’t know much about the Australian points based
      Immigration system but many are many enthusiastic
      about it. If anyone is unfortunate to need medical
      care at the weekend they might find themselves at the
      mercy of a locum shipped in by the EU who might
      not even speak English. We need more doctors not only
      from this country but should encourage those from
      Australia, Canada and New Zealand to work here.

      1. How about training doctors & nurses in the UK, rather than plundering foreign health services? Just a thought.

        1. We will be able to do that as soon as we leave the EU.
          We have been obeying their laws in regards to an
          ‘accepted ‘ quota of overseas employees.

          1. The one exception to that is The Philippines which trains far more nurses than it need in the expectation that the surplus will decamp to foreign climes to work and send home a portion of their salaries for the upkeep of their families.

          2. The one exception to that is The Philippines which trains far more nurses than it need in the expectation that the surplus will decamp to foreign climes to work and send home a portion of their salaries for the upkeep of their families.

          3. We used to have many commonwealth doctors working
            here before we became members of the EU and
            had to obey their laws. Also many English doctors
            eventually go into private practice or work abroad.

          4. The brother of one of my ex-neighbours is a doctor – in NZ. He said he gets a much better life out there than ever he got when he was working over here.

        3. Because we already had to drop the standards for admission into our medical schools because school leavers are no longer reaching the old levels of academic excellence needed for acceptance.

        5. The NHS has pretty much exhausted the supply of nurse abroad. The other problem is with migrant Labour you always get quite a high percentage return home. The further away their home country the higher the attrition rate

      2. Morning A,
        Was it a doctor from Germany some time ago who flew in OD
        a chap fatally then flew out.

          3. A plastic surgeon. Wasn’t even used to dealing with the mundane aches and pains of Blighty.
            Had flown in for a locum shift for the weekend.

      3. SWMBO works, and myself in the past, for the local out of hours service and it’s become a regular occurrence that the service is shut down overnight due to the lack of Doctors, They’ve had to resort to German, Nigerian and “Sub-Continent” doctors whose English is not even their 3rd language.

    2. The shortage of doctors in the NHS is not that high. It is mainly nurse the NHS is short of

      1. I dated a Latvian for a while who was here to train to be a nurse. While she *did* looked really good in the uniform, I rather think ‘there are people unemployed who could be doing this’.

    3. I’d rather that they opened half a dozen new medical schools for white British people.

    4. Morning PT,
      I know there are a multitude of fools in the electorate it is proved on a regular basis, but surely none that are stupid enough to believe a tory vow, promise or pledge, are there ?
      How about something entirely new, wait for it, WE TRAIN OUR OWN ?
      His idea for immigration will never work
      the people smugglers using the unwritten PC / Appeasement rulings will never allow it.

        1. PT,
          As I have posted before there should be a holding clause of a certain duration to
          remedy / cure that, notice, medical terms.
          Or pay top dollar to keep them, deducted from
          exiting overseas payments.

          2. PT,
            35 K a year, lost more running for a bus,
            Compared to paying despots in many cases via overseas aid, cheap at double the price.
            Leave it to the lab/lib/con coalition party & supporting fools, & you will have the governance 3 month training schemes.
            Scrimp on training finance and get ducks, sorry, QUACKS.

        1. It is fairly clear that Boris is not shy of lying outright to get people to go along with him. The words “Excellent new deal with the EU” are about the biggest falsehood that you can get. He will no doubt keep repeating it, even though he knows that it is a point-blank lie.

          1. His exhortations on “his deal” are aimed at the gullible who will not take the time to even look at some of the, fairly easy to read and comprehend appraisals, that show it up for the crock that it is. It is a new treaty under the control of the ECJ and not merely an agreement for partners to work together for the collective good. Johnson, like May before him, wanted the people to believe it was a partnership deal when if fact it means serfdom.

    6. I really think that there would be nobody more delighted than Nigel Farage if Johnson were to scrap his ‘My Mk2 Surrender to EU Deal’ altogether and give the country what they voted for – a proper Brexit.

      But many if us have no more faith in Johnson than we had in Mrs May. I am sure that Nigel Farage would be delighted to withdraw from the fray if only Johnson could be trusted.

      1. I am sure Boris Johnson would be utterly delighted to
        have the blessings of the hallowed Nigel Farage.

        1. But how can Johnson get Farage’s blessing while he wants Britain to remain a vassal state for the foreseeable future.

          Why does the MSM not concentrate on showing exactly how the Johnson ‘deal’ is the same as the May WA pointing out all its very nasty implications?

          1. R,
            Being pro eu why would they.
            Same as I asked yesterday why would any self interest,mercenary, Mp & others want to vacate the eu to start with

          2. Maybe Nigel Farage requires to learn the art of modesty
            and diplomacy, does anyone listen to another person
            who issues threats and bullies. Maybe Nigel Farage has
            spent too much time with Donald Trump and has
            forgotten that isn’t the English way.

      2. Farage should campaign based on a WTO Brexit only ASAP, not trying to be a fully-fledged political party just yet. Then follow up by another GE once BREXIT is done, so that the wider spectrum of issues can be addressed.

    7. Aye. It’s a lie. Boris can’t do that.

      Of course, we *could* enact a points based system but not for EU citizens – even if he gets his treaty passed.

  23. ‘I pawned my nan’s jewellery for a dating scammer’

    There is not a lot you can do to stop the stupid being conned

    Dating apps should do more to verify users to help prevent romance fraud, the Victims’ Commissioner has said. The BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme spoke to victims of a man who was jailed for conning 19 women out of £24,000.

    “He started to say he was at my house. ‘You better call me quick, I’m here, nice house, nice steps. When that money is paid we’ll be out of each other’s lives. If not, things will get nasty.'”

    Chloe – not her real name – met Ivan Nkazi through a dating app where he posed using the fake name Lancel.
    He conned her using a well-practised tactic before they even met – saying he was stuck at a petrol station and had an issue with payment for his fuel. He then claimed the petrol station staff were racist and police were attending. In just one day, Chloe gave him almost £600 – but he wanted more.

    “I said, ‘No, I have no more. I can’t, I’m a single mother of two children on my own,'” she says. “He became malicious, hurtful, quite personal.”
    Nkazi, 31, from Liverpool, ran his scams like a business for almost four years via dating sites like Tinder and Plenty of Fish. He used a detailed index system to keep track of the stories he told women to ensure he never made a mistake.

    1. There is no cure for stupidity.
      A thought our politicians with their knee-jerk, ever more prescriptive laws, would do well to remember.
      “The poor ye will have always with you.” And that doesn’t just refer to the financially straitened.

      1. There are people who just cannot manage money and no matter how much money they have will always be skint. Ir is amazing how many big lottery winners have withing a few years blown the lot and are now living on benefits

        1. Sadly most people are not very bright. Their response to having money is to spend it because stuff = wealth.

    2. There is a big scam doing the rounds in Canada at the moment. Phone calls from the tax department claiming back payments.
      OK they are faking phone numbers and supposedly appear quite genuine, but when they demand payment in bitcoin surely alarm bells should sound!

      But no common sense, we hear of another gullible almost every day.

      1. In the UK the tax man never phones you unless you have requested a call back and they never offer tax rebates over the phone

        1. They send a letter. Then to claim your refund you have to jump through a load of hoops to get to the page online.

        2. If the tax office phoned me I’d be absolutely stunned. They take months to reply to a letter, so the idea of them bothering to ring me would be comical.

    3. There is a big scam doing the rounds in Canada at the moment. Phone calls from the tax department claiming back payments.
      OK they are faking phone numbers and supposedly appear quite genuine, but when they demand payment in bitcoin surely alarm bells should sound!

      But no common sense, we hear of another gullible almost every day.

      1. You could remotely believe the first story but you have to be daft to give him £600 in just one day, Gullible to the extreme to do that

        1. It sounds silly but to bring the spending under control the pets have a ‘bank account’. It’s the card we use for their stuff.

          However, the other day I have to say the dog did pay for the shopping so did I steal from him?

  24. Crossrail

    They are dropping hints of even more delay
    I cannot see as well how they can sign of the safety until they have signed off the signalling

    Signing off all the safety aspects of the Crossrail project before handing over to Transport to London is taking longer than expected.
    It is also taking more time to test the signalling software on the line.
    The stations are nearly complete, with the exception of Bond Street and Whitechapel.
    The hope is that most will be finished early next year, with Whitechapel completed later but Bond Street at risk of not being ready for when the line opens.
    The cost of the project is likely to rise by between £400 and £650m, taking it to a possible £18.45bn.

    1. In it’s defence, some of the money has been private enterprise funding.

      OK, that might simply be a tax fiddle. I care not. It’s simply money being put in to the service by private companies who’ve also provided project management expertise. Comically, you think that private enterprise is often better but judging from my own projects it’s often far worse, making unreasonable demands of people to meet arbitrary demands because not enough information has been gathered up front and admitting that bruises egos.

      1. That though is down to TfL who placed the contract and should be managing it. If the DRS is crap that’s down to TfL

  25. Nigel has reduced his requirement from Boris. He just wants the extension till 2022 reworded and he has issues about the close alignment with EU regulations

    If that refers to alignment to EU standards for goods it make sense for us to stay in close alignment in fact of course we use those standards at present and there is no real reason to deviate from them and invent our own standards.

        1. An American aquaintance of mine who has a relative working in
          US politics who had no idea who Nigel Farage is ,asked who
          the English man was who always likes his photo taken with
          Donald Trump .Apparently the very same man managed
          to persuade Donald Trumps people ( begged them almost )
          to allow him to attend a dinner party that Donald Trump
          attended. He sneaked a camera into the dinner party
          and then a few days later in the press this man
          was showing pictures of himself at Donald Trumps
          gathering saying he got a personal invite which
          of course he didn’t. Just sums up Nigel Farage.

          1. Sounds like a Democrat’s story, Ethel, especially since Trump has personally endorsed Farage as helping him get elected. Hardly a gate-crasher at a dinner-party.

          2. NoToNanny – I agree. President Trump appears to remember Nigel Farage enough to take the time to call in to his radio program, giving them a much needed boost when the media was trying hard to pretend that the Brexit Party did not exist at all. The President also said how great it would be for this country if Boris and Nigel could do a deal and they would be unstoppable together.

            Nigel offered him the deal, which would drop this EU Withdrawal Agreement and guarantee our freedom from them in months. Boris has chosen to turn it down. It is not that hard to see which is the British Patriot in my view.

          4. NoToNanny – you do sometimes get the feeling that certain people would prefer to see the United Kingdom burn to the ground under EU occupation forces before admitting that Nigel Farage has offered us a way out of their trap.

            I want my country to be free again. The path to achieving it is there for the taking.

          5. NoToNanny – I agree. President Trump appears to remember Nigel Farage enough to take the time to call in to his radio program, giving them a much needed boost when the media was trying hard to pretend that the Brexit Party did not exist at all. The President also said how great it would be for this country if Boris and Nigel could do a deal and they would be unstoppable together.

            Nigel offered him the deal, which would drop this EU Withdrawal Agreement and guarantee our freedom from them in months. Boris has chosen to turn it down. It is not that hard to see which is the British Patriot in my view.

          6. Nigel Farage will always be the man who ruthlessly
            stabbed UKIP in the back calling them racists for
            standing up to Islam. His old friends and colleagues.
            Brèxit isn’t his own little reality tv show because he failed
            to make it in the US and decided to return to England

          8. I thought that there was some “add-on” that let you see the names of those who were down-voting people. Not that I have ever bothered getting into Disqus at that level, but I thought that I heard someone mention it.

            I have only ever down-voted one person on this system and that was by accident. I was reading a “one new comment below” and as I was about to upvote it the comment shifted to the left and I hit the other one. Swiftly corrected of course.

          9. I think No to Nanny found a way of seeing the down voters but as mods we can’t see who does it.

          10. What interests me and what, I am sure, interests Nigel Farage is that Britain effects a clean and proper Brexit and I am sure that if this is ever achieved Farage will be more than happy to leave the political stage and get on with the rest of his life.

            On the other hand Boris Johnson will want to go on in politics even when Brexit is ended – either in victory (no deal) or in disaster (the May/Johnson surrender).

            Nigel Farage tried before to leave the scene and get on with the rest of his life after the referendum. He thought his job was done. He only returned to the fray because he could see that the referendum result had been betrayed and there was nobody with the testicular strength to spearhead resistance again the remain traitors in all the parties represented in our completely disgraceful Parliament.

          11. If you say is Correct then why did Nigel Farage not have
            the wisdom to stick around and see things out,
            he in fact left the UK political stage before the referendum
            result was announced.

            He didn’t leave politics, he immediately left the UK to
            help Donald Trump with the US political campaign,
            he was as also hoping for a job as Fox News political
            correspondent but that never worked out so therefore
            he came back to the UK .

            Nigel Farage very often resigns and returns, those
            with UKIP remained whilst Nigel Farage saw his
            chance in the US with Donald Trump.
            Nigel could easily have slotted back and worked with
            UKIP if he was that concerned but instead he decided
            to verbally destroy UKIP and start up a new party with
            his own separate loyalists, more about Nigel Farage
            then Brèxit.

            Nigel Farage sees himself as a Guru figure who makes
            remarks and throws stones whilst having no actual
            responsibility as always. He believes he still has
            some kind of star quality, he’s not a president,
            Brexit isn’t about him .

          12. Morning NtN,
            Would that be the same n farage that maligned
            Gerard Batten in a letter to the nec prior to GB taking the leadership ?
            Could it be the same
            n farage that castigated the GB / Tommy R link
            on account of it being anti pc /Appeasement ?
            It is surely not the same one that carried out a mass back stabbing exercise of 30000 peoples that built his image & gave him a speaking platform ?

          14. That didn’t and doesn’t cut any mustard with English
            voters. I am sure Donald Trump is very engaging with
            lots of people . Aaron Banks was also in that photo
            and he supports the Boris Johnson deal.

          15. I’m not sure where your anger is.

            Do you dislike Farage for attacking UKIP and rendering them impotent? Well, he’s a politician. It’s what they do.

            Do you rail against Trump? I don’t get it. At least I’m uncomplicated: I despise all of them.

  26. NHS

    One of the problems with the NHS is it fragmented structure and no top level management of the NHS. To be precise we have 4 totally separate NHS’s and then these are sub divided into Health trust etc the terminology changing frequently. It means for example we have no real idea of how many staff shortages the NHS has what data there is , is complied in a number of different ways and is not really accurate, They use vacancies post but the same vacancy can be posted several times. There are some suggestion that the NHS has a staff shortage of a 100,000 but is not verified and that figure seems to be highly unlikely

    Full Fact which is probably more accurate than any other source shows that Nurse numbers have not actually falling in 2010 the NHS has 25,000 nurses and in 2018 30,000 nurses. Without checking population growth over that period I dont know whether another 5,000 nurses would be enough. Other factors may also account for needing more such as obesity , drug and alcohol addiction etc

    There does seem a general problem of inefficiency in the NHS some of that i probably down to the NHS working at over a 100% capacity but a lot of it is the NHS system and process and procurement is not good

    A shortage of real accurate factual data does not help

    https://fullfact.org/health/have-200000-nurses-quit-nhs/

    1. BJ,
      Face facts & stop ALL immigration for at least 5 years, mandatory sentence for people smugglers 10 year no if’s, but’s or remission.
      Illegals, day of finding deportation, any appeal to be made from nearest country outside of our borders.
      Only Total severance will achieve this.

  28. Redefining Poverty

    The current definition is simply daft. Anyone on less than 60% of Median income is described as i poverty. That figures as well does not include benefit in kind people might get.. These could be things like free prescriptions free travel to school for their children etc ans some benefits

    Median income included all incomes including that of fat cats so is artistically high. IT also take no account of where you leave . 60% of median income in London may not be a lot but in parts of the North East it would be quite a health income

    A more sensible basis would be to establish the minimum essential costs you need to live and do that by Region

    1. There will always be relative poverty. Those described now as “living in poverty” are doubtless far better off than most of us were in the post-war years.

        4. Which makes it a stark comparator for the obscene differentials between the mega rich 1% and the rest of us.

        5. But that’s the intent.

          Is owning a games console and a big screen TV poverty? Or is poverty not being able to eat out once a week? Or is poverty genuine living in rags hungry type poverty?

          There has to be some definition but yes, it is too high. Else wise I am in poverty compared to the dog.

    3. The problem is poverty is defined as relative.

      Thing is, relative to who? I’m poor compared to the wife. Shes poor compared to her boss.

      The ‘what you can have’ list is artificial.

  29. From the Leeds Yorkshire Evening Post –

    ” Food alerts have also been issued for Wyke Beck, Meanwood Beck and Wortley Beck ”

    This whether is getting me down.

    1. Do many animals congregate at these Yorkshire waterholes? …. will they survive the dry season?

    1. A politician speaking from the heart. More power to him. Respect.

      Burley just had to throw in that out of context nonsense about the letterbox just to have a jibe at Boris, even though the interview had nothing to do with that.

      1. But if Boris wants to look like a buffoon then he should be allowed to do so. As we all know Boris Johnson’s letter box comment was about Muslim women having the right to dress as they like which is not the case in some other EU countries.

        Ms Burley is mentally deficient as well as totally biased if she cannot see this.

      2. The main problem with Ian Austin is that he is a hard-core Remainer. He was one of only three Labour MP’s to vote for Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement at one point. Austin’s problem with Corbyn is that he is not pro-EU enough. He thinks that Boris IS more pro-EU than Corbyn and will get this deal passed if he has a majority.

        If Austin were saying these things because he wants the UK to be free, then he would deserve some respect (just as Kate Hoey does.) But Austin is saying “Vote Boris” because he wants us to be trapped in the EU’s web for years, and he knows what this W/A will do to us.

        Still, it does look bad for Labour, so every cloud has a silver lining.

        1. I am still hoping against hope that as soon as the election is over the ERG will force Johnson to go for a ‘no surrender to the EU Brexit’ and drop May Mk2.

          I am not alone in wondering how Johnson managed to corrupt Baker and Francois who must surely be capable of seeing that The Johnson fantastic deal’ is a complete betrayal of Brexit and leaves us enslaved to the EU for the foreseeable future. Was it blackmail or bribery or was there some other ‘quid pro quo’ that managed to secure their treachery?

        2. I am still hoping against hope that as soon as the election is over the ERG will force Johnson to go for a ‘no surrender to the EU Brexit’ and drop May Mk2.

          I am not alone in wondering how Johnson managed to corrupt Baker and Francois who must surely be capable of seeing that The Johnson fantastic deal’ is a complete betrayal of Brexit and leaves us enslaved to the EU for the foreseeable future. Was it blackmail or bribery or was there some other ‘quid pro quo’ that managed to secure their treachery?

          1. I cannot understand it either. I’ve been a Conservative all of my life and the party that I voted for would never countenance handing over control of our country to a foreign power who deliberately wants to do us harm as a nation.

            But they have stood by as more and more of our Sovereignty was handed to the EU with barely a squeak. So there are fewer “real Conservatives” than I thought there were as MP’s.

            I know that some now have ministerial jobs, so the convention is to vote with the government whether you agree with them or not, but that should go out of the window when your country itself is threatened.

    3. “Only 6% of Jews would consider voting Labour”

      I wonder what the % of Muslims would consider voting Conservative.
      Pretty similar I suspect.

    4. I know nothing about Kay Burley but, my goodness, what a completely foul person she seems to be.

        1. This is just petty and pathetic. If there was a timetabling mix up, the professional thing to do when a guest doesn’t arrive is to simply say ‘we’ll hopefully address these questions to them at another time’ and move on.

          Kay Burley was an absolute oaf and behaved appallingly.

    6. So he’s never had a real job either, then. With no useful skills or qualifications beyond putting in his expenses what will he be able to productively do?

    1. If the argument is correct, why be a smartarris and publicise it in good time to allow the opposition to respond?

      1. sosraboc – there are so many things wrong with that article and its misconceptions that it is hard to know which piece to pick apart first. It is quite touching to find that some people still trust that Boris will do the right thing for the country. Even though he has the chance to do the right thing in front of him as we speak and he rejects it. Time for a break after reading that. Anyone would need a cup of tea to recover.

        1. Nigel Farage wants a proper Brexit. A true Brexit is the thing that is really important to him and he is more than happy to make a pact with Johnson and sacrifice his new political party in order to secure a clean and proper Brexit for the good of his country.

          By contrast Boris Johnson is not really interested in a good outcome for his country with a true Brexit. However, like Farage, he is quite prepared to destroy his own party – but not for the good of the country but for his own puffed-up arrogance and hubris.

      2. Ah, I think I see. The sum of the scribes with hypotheses is equal to the zero sum of the scribes from the other two sides

          1. No not really. I thought I was being a cute individual, rather than a grave serious one on this occasion….:-)

    3. As I have said several times I really cannot understand the treachery of Baker and Francois.

      Is it a Baldrick type of ‘cunning plan’ or have they really sold out and booked their places in Hell?

        1. Juncker and Tusk said there was a special place in hell for Brexiteers. In my view that place is reserved for traitors such as Baker and Francois if they really have betrayed Brexit and if there is no genuine plan afoot to get a proper Brexit done by stealth as suggested in your link above.

    4. I would like to think this is correct but there is an element of rose tinted glasses in this article.

      I have now accepted TORY = EU. I am afraid the Conservatives are reverting to type, Cameron, May, Johnson, nothing to choose between them.

          1. VVOF,
            Don’t try and curry favour with him he was a major player in the downfall of Blighty.

    6. Fantasyland I think. I did hope it might just happen on the 3!st October, but I don’t think it will now.

  33. Crossrail Delay: Line will not open until 2021 as costs increase

    Ah well that did not take long. Now officially pushed out till 2021

  34. Ten Days to Seal a Deal: Farage Calls on Boris to Drop Treaty Clauses that Trap UK in EU

    Mr Farage said: “We will be passing a treaty that makes it very clear in Article 184 that we will be bound by the terms of the Political Declaration. And what I am saying is this: Boris Johnson needs to make it clear that he will fundamentally change the Political Declaration in two ways.

    “Firstly, to get rid of the clause that allows an extension to go on until at least 2022. We need to have the clause in the Political Declaration removed so we have a hard deadline.”

    “And the second point is we simply cannot, absolutely cannot, bind ourselves to a trade deal that gives us regulatory alignment [with the EU] that will prevent us from doing trade deals with the rest of the world and mean we’re not making our own laws.”

  35. Off topic

    Monday am requested a non-urgent Dr appointment.

    Dr appointment yesterday morning.
    Told to get blood and urine tested.
    Arranged appointment for tests yesterday pm.

    Appointment offered: 9:10 this morning, results sent by e-mail 3:05 this afternoon.

    The French system is very good. I wonder how long that would have taken in the UK.

        1. JN – mine was a tongue in cheek exaggeration. I know from experience last year that to get an appointment by phone you have to be incredibly lucky with the speed dial at 08:00 precisely otherwise its a question of queuing and losing the will to live whilst the receptionists deal with all the folk trying to get through on the phone!!!

          2. Receptionist suggested I rock up at 8:30 and stand outside waiting with the other ill people.

            I’ve broken my back. I cannot stand for many minutes. The entitlement is ludicrous.

      1. Thanks, as far as I can tell everything is either in range or very slightly outside.

        All the nasty ones are well within range.

      2. Thanks, as far as I can tell everything is either in range or very slightly outside.

        All the nasty ones are well within range.

    3. Similar to here. We have ordinary appointments and “sick” appointments, which In our experience are same day. An ordinary appointment is a day or so wait. Same Dr. every time, BTW. Our regular (every 4 months or so) appointments always involve blood work, which we do at the local lab – Dr’s office sends them a work order when we make the appointment, and it’s a walk in service.

      Just went through it this week. Turned up at the lab yesterday a.m. Results to both the Dr. and myself yesterday p.m. via email. Dr. appointment this a.m. Next appointment in 4 months as usual. Got home to find the confirming email waiting for me.

    4. It wouldn’t where I live. If you want an appointment (non-urgent or otherwise) you have to phone in the morning at 8.30. If you are very lucky you don’t get the engaged tone and can get appointment that day. Otherwise try tomorrow.
      I had a prescription review about six weeks ago and the doctor told me he would like to see me again in a month. On leaving I tried to arrange this with reception but was told to phone on the morning I wanted to see the doctor. I did (and managed to get through!) and they said they would phone back within the hour. They did, at 8.40 and told me my appointment was at 09.00.
      I really haven’t got my head round the logic of this system yet.

        1. Yep. You know those kidnap films where the hero has to keep running from phone box to phone box so the kidnapper can make sure he isn’t being followed? It’s a bit like that where I live. They make you phone on the day then when you get through give you no notice at all.

          I expect it’s so they can be sure I’m not being followed to the surgery.

    5. Our health system has contracted out blood tests to evil private enterprise.
      When you get the test requisition you just wander into the clinic and they will normally manage to fit you in within about fifteen minutes. The system is not as quick as yours though, results are not normally available until the following morning.

      1. I’m not sure, but I think the clinic is a private sector enterprise.

        However, it is certainly linked into the French “carte vitale” network

    6. I gave my last blood tests at 09.10 am. Results available from 14.10 same day. Our local hospital results are within 1 hour.

        1. We tend only to hear of problems, We have never had any real problems with the NHS both here in Sussex and the over 10 years we lived in Norfolk.

          1. Where we have really noticed the difference here is in the referrals up the line.

            Usually, if one is referred to a specialist, it takes about a week to get an appointment, sometimes sooner occasionally longer, particularly if it is to go to one of the bigger more specialist centres.

            In the UK, in our experience it was usually months when we had to see a consultant and then months for the operations. We may have been unlucky but frends had similar experiences. We were East Sussex/Kent area.

            When we left, 10 years ago, getting a GP appointment was difficult, generally a week or more.

          2. My OH paid for his initial consultation with the orthpaedic surgeon – who told him to get the GP to refer him via NHS for priority op. GP did that the next morning. He had the surgery on 1st October, now waiting for the physio to start in 10 days’ time. No complaints from us. It might have taken a lot longer to see the surgeon if he’d not jumped the queue.

          3. How long might it have taken to get the initial consulation if he had not paid, and how long did it take when paying?

            Even going privately in the UK it took quite a while to get the appointment, I recall it was weeks and thence weeks more for the operation. Possibly because we wanted a particular orthopod. Physio started immediately in hospital. I am very lucky in that my wife is a physio, so I was properly pepared before the op and thus made a very rapid recovery post-op.

          4. I expect it would have taken a lot longer. He was given exercises by the physios in the hospital but he asked to be referred to our local hospital for the follow up physio treatment. He’s been doing the gentle exercises prescribed on the day of the op.

          5. Encourage him to keep at them, however tedious they might seem. It will pay off in the long run, many times over.

    7. Yo sos

      We are tintenting in Spain

      Yesterday afternoon (Elderly) friend needed to see doctor. I took him to the local health centre, which we then found was only open

      0830 t0 1100 Monday Wednesday and Friday

      Back again there at 0915 this morning: in he and his wife went. I parked about 50yds down the road

      In less than 10 minutes they were out saying place was packed, but with an appointment for 0900 on 13th
      With the proviso he could visit any ‘full time facility’ if things got worserer.

      Fantastic service.

      When I visit our Local Health Centre in UK, I always get there on time, and it is always 10 – 15 minutes late when I see the Doc

      1. We were in the surgery on time but the chap in front of us was in for well over half an hour, probably 45 minutes, for what should have been a 15 minute consultation.

        The doctor apologised profusely for keeping us waiting but at no point did we feel we were being rushed out, quite the opposite. I don’t mind waiting if I know that I’ll still get the time that is needed and that the peson in front’s needs are greater than mine.

      2. during the 70s and 80s, you could wait for hours in the outpatients’ department for your appointment to be called.
        It was a regular occurrence; in fact, you could guarantee it.

  36. General Election latest: Jeremy Corbyn hit by a series of blows as Labour candidates axed in hate row

    Three candidates forced to quit in 24 hours

      1. There was a Jewish girl in my class when we ‘did’ The Merchant of Venice.
        Our greatest problem was accepting the English teacher’s claim that Lancelot Gobbo was funny.

        1. Young Gobbo was a nasty character who was beastly to his old blind father. Mind you, Jessica was pretty foul stealing the ring that her mother had given her father and then using the money to buy a monkey with it. Her dad wouldn’t have swapped that ring for a wilderness of monkeys.

          1. Even as a teenager, I felt sorry for Shylock.
            His fellow merchants treated him like shiite – his speech about his treatment made me tearful – Bassanio was hawking himself about for money (he manipulated both Antonio’s and Portia’s lust for him) and Shylock’s daughter betrayed him.
            I don’t know whether Shakespeare intended it, but the Christians come out of that play very badly.

          2. I do not think that Shakespeare was racist. He certainly makes the black Othello a very much better and nobler human being than the white Iago, Roderigo and Cassio.

        2. With an anti-semitic English teacher, nobody in our class really understood what the problem was.

    2. Yay! Good stuff. I dreamed the other night that I’d gone back to wearing contact lenses but in reality varifocal contacts don’t work well and our eyes become drier with age too, so conventional lenses with frames are best – as long as you don’t tread or sit on them and I’ve been there done that!

      1. I wore lenses for more than 30 years but I gave up when my eyes became dry & sore a few years ago. It was also quite annoying to have to wear reading glasses as well. Now I just take my specs off to read.

        1. I have Ortho-K lenses; put them in at night, take them out in the morning and hey presto! Excellent vision during the day.

      2. Yo Sue

        Thanks for your support

        I just cannot be bothered to do this anymore

        Notters is now like a 2019 Political Party, Huddles and votes

        Thanks again

        Bern

      3. Yo Sue

        Thanks for your support

        I just cannot be bothered to do this anymore

        Notters is now like a 2019 Political Party, Huddles and votes

        Thanks again

        Bern

    3. Sadly, the Conservative gymnastics are the same as the Lib Dems. The WA is simply toxic and will force us into subservience to the EU. Maybe that’s why they’re so keen on it?

  39. Five ‘marched out’ over fraud claims at Wandsworth and Richmond councils

    Five members of staff have been suspended by Wandsworth and Richmond councils over allegations of fraud, the Standard has learned.
    They are accused of having “inappropriate” relationships with contractors connected to tendering for building services. Sources said the team, which includes a manager and is part of the housing and regeneration directorate, was “marched” from offices last month.

    A source said: “Five people have been suspended pending an investigation. They are within the facilities team, managed by the director of housing and regeneration.

    1. If this is true then Steve Baker should be lynched, put in the stocks and pelted with rotten tomatoes.

      He certainly deserves to lose his seat in Parliament – Nigel Farage should put a very strong and genuine Brexiteer up against him.

      3. Evening R,
        Along with mogg they were all complicit in the
        attack / defend may, right to the wire, erring more on defence.
        When it comes to deceit / lying current MPs will tell a dozen lies, baker will always go one more.

        1. He hates Batten.
          Farage is completely behind the NEC and destruction of UKIP.
          Hamilton and Walker are almost certainly his front men.
          So we lost a few members when Gerard supported Tommy – but gained thousands more.
          We lost far more when Farage brought in brown envelope man – and never regained them.

    2. Why should their be banned and yet the communist cheats on the Left doing the same thing to deny the voter a say be allowed to?

      Hang on. Didn’t read it right.

      Yes, Baker should be shot. No Deal is the only deal.

    2. And, you have not included politicians.

      Their egoes and heads tower over the biggy building and things

    3. Brutalism. It’s infected art and music as well as architecture. It parades as realism and utility but our reality doesn’t have to be ugly to function.

  42. Lufthansa cancels flights

    Germany’s largest airline has cancelled hundreds of flights on the second day of a strike by German cabin crew.
    Staff have held noisy protests calling for better pay and conditions.
    Lufthansa initially said the stoppage would force it to scrap 1,300 flights over the two days. But on Friday afternoon it said the number of cancellations had climbed to 1,500 — affecting 200,000 passengers.
    There are meetings between management and unions set for the weekend.

  43. An old piece but worth a read while waiting for something more interesting to show up…

    Attic Bug – Saturday, 14 September 2019

    The real origins of Brexit

    It’s not that long ago we seemed to be cruising serenely towards a particular future. The pieces were in place, the scene was set, even if a little fine-tuning was needed. The arrangement seems obvious now to those not too invested to notice: we were, and still are, in the grip of a professional elite who expect a decisive say in how the country is run, and in how its people should think, behave and be treated, without ever having their own sovereignty or supremacy challenged, and despite bringing very little to the table in terms of talent or achievement. At one point we seemed destined for more of the same, but Brexit was a vote for a change of direction.

    What’s curious is how all this came to pass on the watch of supposedly egalitarian governments, in an evermore progressive culture. What were the ideological underpinnings of a development that saw well-heeled nonentities accumulating ever more wealth and prestige, while contributing precious little to the national good?

    It can, in fact, be traced to the socio-political assumptions of the post-Thatcherite 1990s, when a new, more compassionate form of liberal-left politics took hold. The basic set-up was thus: the working classes were cast in the role of childlike victims, providing feel-good fodder for members of the educated middle class, whose social concern and support for state remedies established their moral superiority, and provided them with plentiful jobs dedicated to the care and tutelage of the helpless masses – jobs that ordained them as society’s rightful leaders, while being sufficiently free of accountability to satisfy their sense of entitlement.

    Even those not in cushy public sector jobs benefited from the culture that blossomed around them – one in which credentialed people were well-rewarded and insulated against the whim of their inferiors, even (or especially) if they didn’t create anything of value. Whereas blue collar trades were increasingly seen as gauche and retrograde, professions that utilised certified planners and pontificators assumed an air of sophistication. Before long, even businesses were overloaded with backroom meddlers cooking up problems to solve, enforcing government regulations and mimicking its paternalistic attitudes. The country was soon awash with ambitious mediocrities, enforcing compliance, ensuring diversity, drawing up guidelines, and doing other such ‘work’ that added sweet F.A. to the bottom line.

    The creative sector benefited, too, from the notion that the brightest and the best shouldn’t be subject to the vagaries of the free market or the vulgarity of popular demand. If an artist considered his work worthy of an audience, then funding would be provided whether that audience existed or not. It was a similar story for experts in any field ostensibly concerned with the disadvantaged. Money and power would be transferred their way, without the consent of the paying public.

    This wasn’t just the most agreeable arrangement for the benign dictatorship of technocrats, intellectuals and luvvies, it was the righteous and proper one. The work they did was, in their eyes, the only means of serving the greater good, making their success and their immunity to interference something as virtuous as it was necessary. They were not, as they appeared to outsiders, a new aristocracy full of arrogant self-regard, but latter-day saints making the country a better place. They were like the man with a hammer who sees every problem as a nail, and considered their own interests indivisible from those of the country as a whole. They deserved to waft through comfortable lives, largely unaffected by the policies they supported, disconnected from the people they patronised, because they held the right credentials and the proper opinions.

    They claimed a belief in left-wing politics, of course – not so much the power-to-the-people stuff, but the idea of a ruling class, managing society with the help of favoured groups, whether in the public sector or the higher echelons of business. They attached themselves to any cause, from environmentalism to fighting obesity, for which more government could be recommended as a cure – for these causes highlighted the danger of too much freedom among the rabble, advanced the case for more power to the elite, and helped burnish their halos. The policies they recommended rarely queered their own pitch, so they could afford to overlook their consequences, and demand support of them as a basic requirement of human decency – knowing, perhaps, that the less privileged would fall short of their lofty standards.

    Anyone who identified with the ruling class and parroted its beliefs could feel a part of it. They could enjoy a vicarious sense of power each time it upbraided the little people, and feel generous whenever it bestowed a gift on them at the taxpayer’s expense. Each time they guffawed at on-message comedians and approved of establishment-friendly art (oh so edgy and rebellious), they congratulated themselves for having escaped the herd and its reactionary ways, even if this didn’t put them among our brave new world’s philosopher-kings.

    It’s no surprise that this phenomenon coincided with a sharp increase in the number of people going to university. After the Blair government sold a degree – any degree – as a golden pass to a better life, the number of graduates skyrocketed, and many emerged from university believing themselves members of an exclusive club, who should be exempt from the cut, thrust and toil endured by mere mortals. Such people were naturally receptive to a social structure that mirrored this assumption, and found a debt-fuelled economy and a bloated public sector on-hand offering all the makework jobs their egos could hope for.

    This entire, rotten state of affairs was underwritten by the productive members of society – those maligned and supposedly obsolescent folk who still made a living by meeting people’s freely-expressed needs. No one on the gravy train particularly cared that the spread of their own kind would eventually kill their golden goose. Nor did they imagine the productive would one day revolt against the people sucking them dry and telling them how to live. But that’s what happened.

    It turned out the working classes were not content to play the victim. They didn’t want to be cared for, or instructed how to act and think; they wanted to shift for themselves. Nor did they see their designated enemies – the lower middle-class and traditional conservatives – as the greatest threat to their wellbeing. Their allegiance to old-fashioned institutions like family and nation, and their lack of fealty to the ruling elite, irked the latter, so they turned on them. If these ingrates refused to be grist to the elitist mill, they had no value. Worse, they were traitors to the revolution.

    With the grounds for their faux compassion removed, the ruling classes learned to despise their treacherous countrymen, whose values and loyalties represented a social order that disrespected their right to rule. British culture and identity became tainted in their eyes, as a rejection of their own sense of entitlement and their monopoly on wisdom and virtue. By extension, the exotic, the foreign, the ‘other’ were romanticised simply for sitting apart from the traditional social order, and because fear of all things different was a characteristic of the Little Englander straw-man our self-styled betters liked to define themselves against.

    Through all this, two lumbering, socialistic behemoths served as lodestars for the ruling class. The first was the NHS, an institution for which the argument in favour of top-down control seemed to have been settled, in which accountability was all but nonexistent, which embodied the elite’s something-for-nothing entitlement, and stood as proof of their munificence and righteousness. The second was the EU, the enforcement of whose rules offered them influence and jobs, which existed as a monument to undemocratic power, and represented a cosmopolitan otherness that distinguished its supporters from those benighted Brits back home.

    As the disloyalty of the masses and the petit-bourgeoisie became evident, the ruling classes took Bertolt Brecht’s advice and decided to appoint a new people – one sufficiently alien to their own culture that its very presence would undermine it and blunt its stubborn attachment to self-determination. One, too, whose estrangement from the mainstream could be repurposed into a state of perpetual victimhood that could only be remedied by the intervention of the anointed and the suppression of the lower classes.

    In fact, it wasn’t just one people that was chosen, but a coalition of marginalised groups, defined by their race, religion, gender and sexuality. Immigrants were shipped in wholesale and encouraged to cling to the beliefs of their homelands – all the better to cause friction, create grounds for their victim status, and dilute our own hated culture. All minorities, whether foreign-born or homegrown, were told dark tales about a bigoted population hellbent on oppressing them. Women, meanwhile, were fed the story of the patriarchy: a misogynist plot that conspires to keep them down. In every case, the plight of the victim was presented as proof of the evil men do when they are left to their own devices.

    During the years leading up to this change of tack, the ruling class had completed its march through the institutions, ensuring that whenever anyone turned on a TV, opened a newspaper or interacted with a public body, they would find a favourable impression of the establishment and its narrative, and a dim view of naysayers. Given this, and because establishment types had little meaningful contact with regular folk, they truly believed their opinions and their preeminence were the stuff of common sense – an assumption that only made their eventual rejection that much more shocking.

    When the EU referendum took place, members of the ruling class knew this wasn’t just a vote for or against membership, but for or against their own supremacy. They were convinced of a Remain victory, because everyone they knew wanted to preserve things as they were, and understood that the alternative would turn back the clock to a time when status and success were awarded via the whim of less refined people: an unthinkable prospect.

    When defeat came, the elitists struggled to conceal what they thought of the traitorous masses. By hindering their prospects of a gilded existence, the proles had also rejected the elitists’ holier-and-smarter-than-thou self-image. It followed, then, that these Brexiters were ignorant bigots, making their victory a blow against decency and good sense. Even their best attempts to avoid such accusations portrayed the electorate as idiots, who’d been duped into voting against their own interests. Condescension abounded.

    In attempting to foil Brexit, the ruling class has been trying to get its hegemony back on track. Its increasing ‘wokeness’ is its way of delegitimising public opinion. Intersectionality – the cornerstone of progressive dogma – places more value on the wishes of designated victims than on those of the majority, and the leaders of progressive culture reserve the right to define victimhood as they see fit, perpetuating a narrative that identifies themselves as our only hope of a better tomorrow.

    Because mainstream media is now the PR wing of the establishment, it decides which stories to publish and which to sit on (when it’s not simply lying, that is) thereby preserving the narrative and encouraging people to its way of thinking. MPs, being predominantly Remainer elitists, reframe their attempts to spoil Brexit as a blow against tyranny. Anyone who questions their motives or policies is portrayed as a bigot, a xenophobe, a fascist. Free speech has been reinterpreted as a licence for hate. Democracy itself has been recast as the right of politicians to follow their own consciences rather than the instructions of the electorate.

    Make no mistake, the roots of this situation run deeper than the 2016 referendum, but its causes will never be addressed unless we get the Brexit we demanded and deserve.

    Posted by Russell Taylor at 00:15

      1. It’s worth reading but the summary – an appalling one – “arrogant elitist class got together and formed a gestalt which excluded the ordinary voter through a change in language and state infiltration and Brexit was the eventual, singular opportunity to reject that monstrosity that ‘governed without remit’. ”

        However. Do read it.

      2. “It be the musings of someone who has an above-average level of education, but ee is missing the point somewhat. He had a damn good run at it though. He reckons thaa all our problems that we are a-seeing of now stems from other slightly educated people thinking they are doing good and expecting to be worshipped and obeyed for it. They don’t like it when the lower castes choose to reject their orders on how to live their lives.”

        I cannot type in an accent at the moment, it takes too much effort. He says the causes of this split between the liberal rulers and the real people started:

        “It can, in fact, be traced to the socio-political assumptions of the post-Thatcherite 1990s.”

        I would disagree and say that the plans for what is happening across the world have been in action for a lot longer than that. Many of those who think that they are doing right because they think that they are smarter than us, might fall into this “we know best” category. But those at the top are under no illusions that they are trying to “help” the lesser people in our society.

        Those people such as Blair, Soros, Juncker, Merkel etc, know that what they are doing by importing islam into our countries will cause mass death and destruction. Its purpose is to pull down Western Democracy itself and allow them to build their dream society where the gun and fist rule us all. They do not think they are helping people, they know they are killing them.

        So, before my comment gets longer than the first one, those trying to rule us want to wipe out our democracy and “fair society” and are not trying to make it better, would be my assertion.

      3. “It be the musings of someone who has an above-average level of education, but ee is missing the point somewhat. He had a damn good run at it though. He reckons thaa all our problems that we are a-seeing of now stems from other slightly educated people thinking they are doing good and expecting to be worshipped and obeyed for it. They don’t like it when the lower castes choose to reject their orders on how to live their lives.”

        I cannot type in an accent at the moment, it takes too much effort. He says the causes of this split between the liberal rulers and the real people started:

        “It can, in fact, be traced to the socio-political assumptions of the post-Thatcherite 1990s.”

        I would disagree and say that the plans for what is happening across the world have been in action for a lot longer than that. Many of those who think that they are doing right because they think that they are smarter than us, might fall into this “we know best” category. But those at the top are under no illusions that they are trying to “help” the lesser people in our society.

        Those people such as Blair, Soros, Juncker, Merkel etc, know that what they are doing by importing islam into our countries will cause mass death and destruction. Its purpose is to pull down Western Democracy itself and allow them to build their dream society where the gun and fist rule us all. They do not think they are helping people, they know they are killing them.

        So, before my comment gets longer than the first one, those trying to rule us want to wipe out our democracy and “fair society” and are not trying to make it better, would be my assertion.

  44. – Breaking news – The Alzheimers association have said that the recent floods up t’north are the worst in living memory

    1. That’s not funny. I know people with Alzheimers… or I thought I did.

      Sorry, couldn’t stop laughing, good one!

  45. ”

    Tories have ‘ongoing relationship with Russian money,’ says Labour” (Guardian).
    Labour have been asking the Democrats for help.

  46. Apologies if this has already been posted but our local BBC news reports “Rescuers have saved 70 hedgehogs from a flooded sanctuary in north Nottinghamshire. The RSPCA were called to 7th Heaven Hedgehog Rescue, in Retford, this morning to help evacuate the animals. Five of the hedgehogs were hibernating in one of the hutches but were thankfully taken to safety.“

    1. They were not told by Mx Senior Fireperson of LFB to stay put then

      Mr JRM must have had a hand in advising that they were moved

      2. Two former Labour MPs urge voters to back Boris Johnson
        Ian Austin and John Woodcock both say Jeremy Corbyn is not fit to become prime minister

        1. They’ve said Jeremy Corbyn is a disgrace to the Labour
          Party and a disgrace to this country. I’d add a disgrace to
          humanity too. What type of person shares a platform with
          terrorists and what type of party choses that person
          as leader of the Queens opposition.
          Oh I cannot remember where I read it but one of his
          hard left trots said ” Jeremy wasn’t in the KGB ‘
          hmm.. I remember when Guido Fawkes recently dug up
          stuff on that and was silenced. Amongst everything else
          Jeremy Corbyn is a threat to national security.

          2. I do believe Jeremy Corbyn himself to be
            a very dangerous man. I’m not being over
            the top and it’s not because he’s Labour.
            They might all have bonkers policies but
            Jeremy Corbyn is dictatorial, intolerant, and extreme
            In the true senses of those words that are used
            quite a lot online but in his case they are true.

    2. “The last time I did that, I got Brexit means Brexit means remain”

      “Yes dear, what did you expect?”

  48. It is a mad, mad world in which Liebore live

    Employees will be able to dictate to their bosses the hours they work under a Labour government, in a move branded “ineffective and unaffordable” by

    business leaders.

    Dawn Butler, the shadow equalities minister, on Thursday promised to deliver a “workplace revolution” by ushering in sweeping reforms that

    would see the standard nine-to-five working day replaced with flexible roles.

    Workers already have a legal right to request that their hours be changed to better suit their needs. But Labour’s plans would see the law flipped on its head, with the onus shifted on to firms to set out why roles are not suitable for flexible working.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/11/07/employees-able-dictate-bosses-hours-work-labours-plans-workplace/

    We’re glad you’re enjoying The Telegraph (sic(K))

        1. Well for example, our department is open from 8.30 am until 7.30 pm. If everyone wanted to work 9-5 we wouldn’t be able to provide the service we are commissioned and contracted to run.

          1. SIADC,
            Night shift refinery shutdown ( construction)
            7×12 hour shifts in the winter week after week.
            Up a tower ( testing) 1 am that focuses the attention.

            We lost one lad who drowned in his soup after
            falling asleep at tea break.

    2. Sure, why not?
      Oh, by the way, the hourly rate for the hours between 9 and 5 is 100% of normal; hours not worked will not be paid; hours worked outside of 9 and 5, unless requested by management, will be paid at 40% of normal.
      Timeclocks will be installed, and productivity measured using computer metrics. Reduction in productivity will also lead to reduced pay.

      I think that should solve it.

  49. Sebastion Gorka deleted from Youtube for telling the truth about the democrats and deep state.

  50. Morning, Campers:
    Personally, I think Watson and his elves had a torrid time on West Bromwich doorsteps last weekend. Canvass returns merely confirmed their worst fears.

    Richard Littlejohn, being, in the circumstances, rather restrained.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7662919/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-Good-riddance-Nonce-Finder-General-Tom-Watson.html

    RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Good riddance to the Nonce Finder General Tom Watson

    “This column has never done honeymoon periods. It doesn’t do bogus political obituaries, either. So forgive me for not joining in the national day of mourning for Tom Watson.

    Reading, watching and listening to some of the coverage of his decision to stand down as an MP and Labour deputy leader, you might have formed the impression that the nation was losing a valiant, selfless public servant, a voice of moderation, the like of whom we may never see again.

    That so many people have been fooled into looking upon him as some kind of guardian of the decent soul of Labour says as much about their own shallow gullibility as it does about the man himself.

    I’ve never bought into the ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’ view of the world. Just because Watson is hated by the Corbynistas, it doesn’t absolve him of his multitude of sins.

    He can’t be allowed to shed his wicked past, like one of those Weight Watchers of the Year posing alongside a cardboard cut-out of his Nonce Finder General former self.

    The truth is he’s one of the most malevolent, malignant individuals ever to soil British politics, a self-serving, self-pitying, self-righteous enemy of free speech and persecutor of innocent men and their families.

    His resignation has largely been refracted, understandably, through the prism of the current General Election. It is undoubtedly a body blow to Labour’s campaign.

    But if Watson intended it to cause maximum embarrassment to the Momentum clique running the party, why wait until now?

    He could have detonated his suicide belt on the day of Labour’s launch, instead of sitting in the front row applauding Corbyn’s speech.

    If he genuinely believes that the Labour leader is unfit to be Prime Minister and poses a clear and present danger to this country’s safety and prosperity, he could have joined his ex-colleagues Ian Austin and John Woodcock and urged people to vote Tory.

    Instead, he made it all about him — burbling about having been on a ‘health journey’ and wanting to move on with his life. Sweet.

    He didn’t mention that the only reason he had been on his health journey, shedding eight stone in the process, is because he had been eating and drinking himself into an early grave, much of the time on his parliamentary expenses.

    In fact, he spent so much taxpayers’ money at Marks & Sparks, they gave him a free pizza wheel.

    I wonder if he ever spares a thought for those who can’t move on with their lives, like the families of the blameless men he falsely accused of child molesting and worse.

    Watson abused Parliamentary privilege to incite the hysterical Paedos In High Places witch-hunt against senior Tories, smearing them as rapists and murderers.

    He used Prime Minister’s Questions to claim that there was a ‘powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10’ during the Thatcher years.

    It’s what led me to dub him, in 2012, the Nonce Finder General. I had visions of him leading a torch-lit procession down Whitehall, seeking out imaginary Tory kiddie-fiddlers to be burned at the stake.

    He compared former Home Secretary Leon Brittan to the serial sex fiend Jimmy Savile, writing that he was ‘as close to evil’ as any man could get.

    Brittan died before he could be exonerated, but only belatedly did Watson issue a grudging statement of regret.

    He put pressure on the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to pursue a vendetta against blameless individuals such as the then 91-year-old war hero Lord Bramall.

    Watson helped to ensure that reputations were dragged through the mud, that homes were ransacked, that families were terrorised, that lives were ruined — and all on the word of a known fantasist, Carl Beech, aka Nick, currently serving 18 years for perverting the course of justice.

    I’ve always maintained that if there really was any justice, Watson would have been in the dock beside Beech and should now be sharing a cell with him.

    Then there was his bromance with Max Mosley, son of the wartime fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, from whom he accepted a donation of more than half a million pounds. Watson shares with Mosley a hatred of the popular Press and has made several attempts to bring newspapers under state control.

    Even after Max Mosley himself was exposed by this newspaper as having a revolting, racist past, Watson still refused to return the money.

    He claims to be a lifelong Labour loyalist, but just a few months after Tony Blair gave him a job as a junior minister he was plotting to replace Blair with Gordon Brown.

    Watson was also accused of being up to his neck in a vote-rigging scandal in Falkirk, Scotland, orchestrated by the Unite trades union, although he was later cleared by an internal inquiry.

    He has since fallen out with Unite leader Len McCluskey, with whom he once shared a flat, over the union’s staunch support for Corbyn.

    One theory currently doing the rounds is that Watson is leaving Parliament because he fancies his chances of succeeding McCluskey, if and when he ever retires.

    That’s if Unite don’t have McCluskey stuffed and propped up on the podium at the TUC, like those old Soviet dictators.

    Certainly, Watson’s explanation that he is standing down to campaign on ‘health issues’ and ‘Press intrusion’ rings hollow. Surely the best place to do that would be from inside Parliament.

    So why is he going? Maybe he fears losing his seat next month. Despite representing a heavily Leave constituency, Watson is a fanatical Remainer, agitating for a second referendum.

    Perhaps, with Momentum now firmly in charge of Labour, he realises he’s got no future. Obviously, if Corbyn did win, there was no chance of Watson ever becoming Deputy Prime Minister, or even being given a Cabinet job.

    Which, come to think of it, is a small mercy. Corbyn would only ruin the country. Watson has a track record of helping to ruin people’s lives.

    He may pose as a ‘moderate’ but can you imagine Britain run by the Nonce Finder General?

    Our increasingly politicised police and prosecution service would take their marching orders directly from Downing Street.

    This column has never done honeymoon periods. It doesn’t do bogus political obituaries, either. So forgive me for not joining in the national day of mourning for Tom Watson

    We’d have a permanent judge-led inquisition into allegations of paedophilia, rape and murder by Tory politicians and Establishment figures. (Hang on, we’ve got that already.)

    The newspapers would have to print only what the politicians told them to, otherwise they’d be put out of business. Fearless editors and uppity columnists like me would have our collars felt in dawn raids and be thrown into jail.

    Yet, incredibly, you won’t be told any of this in the glowing tributes to Watson on the BBC and elsewhere.

    They are all prepared to overlook, or forget altogether, his past transgressions. As far as they are concerned, he is the greatest Prime Minister We Never Had.

    Sorry, but I’m not buying any of it. Public life is well rid of the Nonce Finder General.

    I’m sticking with my verdict that Watson — to adapt the outrageous smear he directed at Leon Brittan — is as close to evil as any politician can get.

    Or, as a headline on this column put it last year: ‘A muck-slinging zealot utterly unfit for high office.’”

    1. Just because you don’t like Watson, that’s no reason to decry racists. (If I were a loud-mouthed columnist I’d keep quiet about Watson. He may be retiring for health reasons. I feel that there is something a bit mean about insulting sick people, even if they deserve it.)

      1. Morning HP,
        One would not have the chance
        of insulting Hannibal Lecter at dinner say, but one could very well make him sick.

      2. I imagine everybody on this forum has health issues of one kind or another, and him being sick is really beside the point if he has done something despicable.

        2. Please turn on humourometer, if applicable. (Watson has received a sound kicking from all directions.)

        3. Please turn on humourometer, if applicable. (Watson has received a sound kicking from all directions.)

      3. I imagine everybody on this forum has health issues of one kind or another, and him being sick is really beside the point if he has done something despicable.

    2. On a more mundane level, I hope that LBC do not offer him a presenting job. He has covered one or absent presenters and his style was at best, coma inducing.

      1. Yes. Ultimately, it is one way of getting some idea of how things are going. Nowadays, it’s not the only way, but it does physically introduce the candidates to their voters.
        (And, as a canvassing old sweat, it helps to know your canvassers, as they range from Eeyores to the bright eyed optimists.
        Fresh Faced Political Nerd: “But he was an ‘undecided’; we should go back and ask him again.”
        Old Sweat; “Believe me, Sunshine. That’s English for ‘Fŭck off”.)

        1. The Labour people came knocking once – as I’ve written to my MP a couple of times and, credit to him he was decent and gracious in his replies. I said ‘Could your man stand as a conservative and then I’ll vote for him – but not until he realises we must leave the EU.

          They really didn’t know what to say.

      1. He won’t get anything for simply resigning (other than his generous pension). If he had stood and been defeated, on the other hand, he’d have picked up a cool £22k.

  51. Evening, all. We are in for an interesting election; Labour is infighting (and has removed a strong candidate in Shrewsbury days before the campaign began); the Cons have selected a remainer in Eddisbury who, like the now LD MP, signed up to campaign for remain but professes to be dedicated to getting us out. Well that worked well last time, didn’t it? The LDs are busy proving themselves neither Liberal nor Democratic with their pact to field only one remain candidate – why not be honest and label themselves the remain party?

    1. To be fair to the LibDems, I think that that is exactly what they have done, I can’t believe anyone could think otherwise.

  52. Evening, all. We are in for an interesting election; Labour is infighting (and has removed a strong candidate in Shrewsbury days before the campaign began); the Cons have selected a remainer in Eddisbury who, like the now LD MP, signed up to campaign for remain but professes to be dedicated to getting us out. Well that worked well last time, didn’t it? The LDs are busy proving themselves neither Liberal nor Democratic with their pact to field only one remain candidate – why not be honest and label themselves the remain party?

    1. That must be a deep muddy hole: I have counted 3451 men diving into it
      3452
      3693
      3716

      Says the Abbotopotamus

    2. That must be a deep muddy hole: I have counted 3451 men diving into it
      3452
      3693
      3716

      Says the Abbotopotamus

  54. I’ve just had a rude Gaia worshipping Greta fan biting my
    ankles elsewhere because I don’t believe 100 scientists who
    say we are wrecking the planet. Nasty little things these Greta
    leeches, I might need some insecticide.

    1. Ask them what they think that a 0.0001% change to that big red thing in the sky might cause.

      “According to an IEA estimate, we humans produced and used 5.67 × 1020 joules of energy in 2013, equivalent to about 18.0 terawatt-hour (TWh). One TWh is equivalent to 5 billion barrels of oil per year or 1 billion tons of coal per year, it also used to be the globe’s entire energy consumption in 1890.”

      Each hour 430 quintillion Joules of energy from the sun hits the Earth. That’s 430 with 18 zeroes after it! In comparison, the total amount of energy that all humans use in a year is 410 quintillion Joules.

      2. The Rebellion thickoes think you are talking about Jules and Joules, the ‘Happy’ lads who ‘loive together in Gayfair

      3. But that’s science and maths. We don’t believe in that…..

        (as it seems to deny our beliefs…..)

      4. Someone was going on about climate change after a talk on the THUMS flights. I asked why nobody ever mentions the Maunder Minimum or the Sun Spot Cycle – no answer.

        1. Science is inconvenient.
          Back to Feynman:
          “I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.”

      1. Should have aimed the longbow at the deluded fool.
        A middle aged man with very long hair who calls
        himself ‘ Sky Hunter ” probably a mong bean eating,
        paper shoe wearing vegan who sits by rotting wind farms
        all day praying to mother nature .

  55. Flooding
    Oh yeah let’s build tens of thousands more ticky-tacky boxes on flood plains
    What could possibly go wrong??

    1. And remove lots of trees from fields.
      Medieval farmers had smaller fields and knew that trees soaked
      up excess water .

      2. More Stop Press

        Noah has abandoned his Animal Ark project, as he is arrested for Hate Crime, everytime to troes to find the Gender/sex of his passengers

    3. One of the last “unbuilt” plots in our small enclave was recently sold. When the buyer went to get a construction loan, he had to prove that it was not in a flood plain or no mortgage, as the lender (quite rightly) did not want their money at risk.

    1. What’s that about?
      As a regular player of the various solitaire games I’ve never seen such a thing.

        1. Oh I’m absolutely rubbish. I am cheating as I’m just a bit of an old duffer.

          I just like build two dozen space ships and blowing things up.

    1. Morning Bob,
      This is not just a lab problem equal blame should fall on ALL importers ie
      mass uncontrolled immigration parties.
      The question should be why are the
      coalition still importing these mass odious problems & why are these parties still finding support for their policies ?

      1. O2O,
        Seems like the resident self confessed down voters want paedophilia
        to remain covered, maybe for them it is a case of out of sight out of mind.

        1. Only for a few weeks, scared the literal out of me. Waited until I could afford four wheels and a bit more stability before I became motorised again.

  60. Railways

    The Greens want to electrify every railway line in the UK and build new lines. Quite how they will fund that who knows. Look at the cost of GWR electrification and look at the cost of HS2

    Most lines in the UK it makes sense to electrify have already been electrified. It makes no sense to electrify a minor branch line with a train every one or two hows
    What is being done is bi mode trains are being purchased this can use electric where it is available and otherwise diesel and possibly later Hydrogen

    1. None of these promises have to be fulfilled! They are like cake for the canaille or a “country fit for heroes to live in”, they are lies! This very election is a political manoeuvre to finish off the largest democratic vote in UK history.

      1. Well they are also going to abolish homelessness, poverty., unemployment and NHS waiting lists and tuition fees. Even Clegg had to back down on Tuition fees as he found when he gained some power that it was not affordable

          4. That could be hi next freebie. HE is going to do away with food banks by giving everyone Free food

    2. Caught a bit of mayor Khan being questioned yesterday about the problems with the new Woolwich ferries,they appear totally useless and unfit for purpose, he admitted they only got rid of the old ones because they were diesel and cause air pollution.

        2. Flushing down the drain was not an option, unfortunately. They had already sold the water cannons for a song.

    4. …and build new lines

      Where are all those electrically powered bulldozers, dumper trucks and cranes coming from? Not to mention the zero carbon steel rails, cement, bricks etc. I have no problem with green dreamers until they start vying for control over my life.

    5. Much of the extra costs on the GWR Electrification was due to the minimum distance between electrified components and other structures being unnecessarily doubled by EU diktat after the start of the project.

      1. True but electrification of minor branch lines makes no economic sense. Using Bi-modes is the best option. The cost of electrifying a line with 21 train an hour and the cost of maintaining the overhead lines would not justify it

        If we were not in the EU we would not have needed to increase the clearance,. AS far as I know there have been no issues wit the clearance we have used in the UK

      1. Sherlock was misheard and misquoted when he said (or did not say): “Alimentary, my dear Watson” when he was describing some excrement.

        1. “Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!”

  62. Morning from a Saxon Queen with longbow and axe .

    Still can’t log off this account and many other issues,
    I shall set up the second back up disqus thing at the weekend
    just in case this one goes to pot, it’ll still be the Saxon Queen
    but with a longbow ( unless disqus see Anglo Saxon weaponry as a hate crime )
    I’ll set up it up on the laptop This is my main one
    and I don’t want to bugg€r up this account completely.

    2. Bring back the quill pen. And a handy scriptorium with a full complement of monks to do the hard grind.
      (I’ll just stick to drawing the pretty pictures in the margins.)
      Morning, Your Ladyship.

      1. I use a fountain pen… it’s the only way my handwriting can be vaguely legible! :-((

      2. Good morning – those busy scribes who mopped their sweaty brows
        over the Anglo Saxon Chronicles.
        Could pop The Venerable Bede back .

        1. “Good morning – those busy scribes who mopped their sweaty brows over the Anglo Saxon Chronicles.
          Could pop The Venerable Bede back.”

          Sorted for you. Please see below.

      3. Those monks can get things wrong you know:

        The young monk’s first day.

        He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the abbot to question this, pointing out that
        if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

        The abbot says, ‘We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son.’

        He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn’t been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot. So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing. “We missed the R! We missed the R! We missed the f**king R!”

        His forehead is all bruised and he is crying uncontrollably. The young monk asks the old abbot, ‘What’s wrong, father?’

        With a choking voice, the old abbot replies, “The word was…

        CELEB R ATE”

    4. My account went phut about a month ago and now I have two accounts with the same details; the one I post comments on depends on which device I’m using

      1. Yes i remember you telling me this last Saturday,
        which gave me the encouragement to deal with Disqus.
        I want to use all the same details in terms of passwords
        and email address too. I might have my longbow, blo0dy axe
        or a Yellow Dragon of Wessex flag but want to keep everything
        else the same. It’ll be on my Laptop whereas this is on the Samsung
        tablet and I am having so many issues with it now that
        it seems sensible to have a spare one.

        1. You’ll probably need a different email address and you should never use the same password twice.

          1. I was concerned about that. Mind you I need another
            email for another hosting site of which the History and
            Philosophy channels went ( they are not with disqus anymore )
            My American moderator friend has said the new hosting
            site isn’t as secure as Disqus which worries me slightly.
            Oh I hate passwords and tend to recycle them everywhere
            which annoys my husband.

          3. But what do you do when you are somewhere else on another computer that doesn’t have access to the gobbledegook?

          4. Well that could be a problem but my son gets round that one by having them all on a flashdrive on his keyring.

          5. Where it gets annoying is a company preventing password managers by using weird basic auth pop ups or obscured javscript forms that don’t really exist.

          6. Most password managers have an ‘app’ or are browser extensions.

            I have the same home ones on my work laptop – in a different bowser for checking the bank account and utilities.

  63. UKIP

    Has anyone seen anything about how many candidates they might field? I suspect it ill be a pretty small number

    1. BJ,
      Join for a month, & ask the office.
      Personally I hope none for one reason the nec is at odds with the membership.
      The nec wish to follow the
      PC / Appeasement route as with lab/lib/con whereas the Batten brigade are for gearing up for the problems to come shortly.

  65. Words Fail Me

    ‘Aggressive’ animal rights activists target blind

    man, 30, for keeping a guide dog that they claim should be ‘running free

    in the fields’

    Jonathan Attenborough, 30, from Fife, relies on his highly trained labrador Sam

    People claiming to be animal rights activists said he shouldn’t have a guide dog

    Claimed he was told ‘dogs should be running free in fields, not sitting in cafes’

    In second incident at a Portsmouth bar an ‘aggressive’ woman called him ‘cruel’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7659653/Blind-man-30-targeted-aggressive-animal-rights-activists-keeping-guide-dog.html

    1. Two possible responses:

      1. “You try being blind for even one day”

      2. We will have to put all animals down because they will starve, die of diseases or attack humans.

    2. Best he trains the dog to bite animal rights fascists on his command.
      Perhaps he could use the magic words.

      Seig heil

        1. Indeed, but I was thinking more of the pug man who trained his girlfriend’s dog to salute.

          It shows how careful one needs to be with one’s allusions.

        1. Not at all on this particular one.

          I double checked it before posting that, because somehow it just looked wrong.

          I wish I had gone with my instincts. I suspect that so many people have made the same mistake that I did that it appears happily when searching.

          };-))

          1. Golden rule…

            In German ‘ie’ is pronounced ‘ee’,*

            ‘ei’ is pronounced ‘eye’.

            * there are some exceptions when it is pronounced ‘ee-ay’.

    3. Dogs runningmfree in fields usually get shot for sheep worrying – I wonder if she knows that. And even more of a dilemma for her would she side with the dog or the sheep?

    4. Dogs runningmfree in fields usually get shot for sheep worrying – I wonder if she knows that. And even more of a dilemma for her would she side with the dog or the sheep?

    5. Stop Press

      Animal Rights/freedom to Roam activists demand that dogs are kept under control and not allowed to run wild and scare Ramblers )who are invading someones private property to prove another point)

        1. I see that the boy is wearing the new school uniform that they will try to bring in shortly. To allow him “freedom to be himself” and give the sick psychos teaching him something to leer at.

    6. Straight to comments

      Best

      We’ve let aggressive minorities take over this country. Sadly the result is self entitled fanatics running around trying to impose their dogma on the rest of us. It needs to be stopped. 5792/50

      Worst

      DM….he is NOT aggressive…….he is right!!! 39/1205

      2nd Worst

      Oh I never thought about it like that. I suppose he is right, a dog shouldn’t be forced to work and have a miserable life 32/770

      Interesting Comment

      During the events of 9-11 there was guide dog who was separated from his owner, and despite people trying to lead it away and save it and despite it being trampled upon by panicking people, it fought it’s was back to find its owner and get him out. These dogs are full of more love and compassion than 90% of humans 150/4

      The lunatics are… lunatics.

  66. As an antidote to a BJ. I will regale you with what i cooked for supper.

    Queen scallop, king prawn, smoked haddock and cod Gratin in a bechamel and white wine sauce. (Rick Stein’s new prog)

    Followed by Crêpes Suzette. Topped with a quenelle of clotted cream and some amazing sugar work.

    ***I’m available as a private chef. Just book the private jet and i’ll be with you in a trice.

      1. Four. It was supposed to be five, but when i said i was considering inviting you they all declined. :o(

        1. Very good!)))) Because I was going to say you should have invited me. But I bought some scallops for the first time ever two weeks ago, Yuck!!!!!

          1. What did you do to them?

            Take off the roe and use for stock.

            In a non-stick pan add a soupçon of groundnut oil. Heat to medium hot. Arrange the scallops in the pan in a clockwise rotation. When you have finished putting the last one in turn the first one over. Then add butter and nappe.

            They are not strong tasting or fishy.

          2. Just didn’t like the taste nor the texture. I’ll stick with Aldi’s sea bream, thanks.

    4. I had cream of smoked haddock and asparagas chowder for lunch, absolutetly delicious.

      I don’t deserve her; HG is a glutton’s wet dream.

      1. She seems to see something in you if she is happy to cook such nice food for you.

        Real smoked haddock is divine.

          2. As much as I used to love Finnie Haddock, this is a lot to go through just to add to the rest of your dish, as marvelous as it sounds!!

          3. Something that could be accomplished is at any time you were at a loose end. Lasts for several days.

          4. My middle son swears by his home smoker, it produces wonderful fish and can be used for meats and cheeses

        2. Agreed.
          On both counts.

          I’m a lucky so-and-so, she loves cooking and is very good at it. On my side of the equation, I’m more than happy to eat the new, experimental dishes.

          If there was any justice in the world I would weigh 30 stone. But I suspect that she prepares the meals with that in mind.

          2. You’re certainly right on that score.

            I wonder what awful things she did in a previous incarnation to be saddled with me in this one.

    6. If the mixture/dish wasn’t too liquid I suspect that that combination would have been excellent served within a pancake slightly thicker than a crepe.

      I always enjoyed the Rick Stein programmes, particularly his long weekend series.

        1. We say to the people who rent our cottage, one has to be very unlucky to find a very poor restaurant around here.
          There is something good within almost everyone’s price range.

      2. As i was making Crêpes for the cannelloni (instead of pasta) that decided the dessert.

        Rick is doing ‘ Secret France’ this time. Not touristy at all. I looked at some of the places he visited on-line and what cheered me was that there was no translation on the menu’s and most didn’t have a website.

        1. I much prefer cannelloni in crepe, even if it isn’t totally “correct”

          Our French is OK… it’s not good, but we always request the French menu when offered the English version because the French is much better at describing what one is going to get. We apologise for our accents and laugh about les Anglais.

          It also has the advantage that the staff immediately become more helpful and friendly.

          1. There is no sin in that. Sometimes you need a quick shot of flavour that does not take hours to prepare. It can be quite disappointing to follow a complex recipe and find the end results are as bland as a water lolly-pop. Even more so when you repeat it in case you made an error, and it comes out just the same.

            There are moments in life when you need to throw caution and your arteries to the winds, and just cook some chips in hot beef dripping, laced with a shot of salt on the plate. Served with some beans that have every curry spice / paste that you have on the shelf poured into them.

          2. I like your style. Beef dripping chips and curry sauce beans. Not everyday though !!

            There are a lot of recipes and books out there that have never been tested. To try them one is doomed to failure.

      3. Oh dear. I bet you made it wrong as well. :o(

        I minced my own pork and beef for Cannelloni for supper tomorrow. Mince through mushrooms and onions after the meat. (clears the grinder).

        When you fry the meat the difference is very noticeable from shop bought beef, hoof and donkey.

        I did extend an invite to you at one time. See what ya missin’ !

        2. Dad used to collect those huge field mushrooms and prepare beautiful dark creamy mushroom on crisp fried bread .. oh I can remember the dish well , a memory for this time of the year .. another lovely dish he prepared .. was Kidneys tobago .. He wasn’t a cook , but he knew how to prepare some favourites .. another one was unspeakable … I shudder to describe it!!

          1. Creamy mushrooms on fried bread. !!! Don’t tell me he did kidneys tobago on fried bread also??? Food to die for.

            Absolutely love it.

          4. Oh you have bought back memories, wrapped in a brick. Dad used to collect mushrooms, field, puff ball, penny buns etc.
            Fried in butter with crusty bread for the juices.
            Simple pleasures that can never return.

    8. I watched GB Bake off.. and was fascinated by the twice cooked souffles .. which looked like cake in the end ..

      I have only ever been successful with making souffles half a dozen times .. there has to be a knack .. the bain marie?

      Moh can be fussy, so I keep things simple now.

      1. I’ve been watching Masterchef the Professionals this week
        which seems to have been shortened. I am amazed at
        how much undercooked meat they serve and how much
        they seem to struggle with the basics. Especially
        considering how expressive restaurant food happens to be.

        1. Masterchef .. the kit in their kitchen is different to my old Neff double oven .. and all the wastage of food during preparation is really a shame ..

          2. Maybe the camera crew etc .. eat the leftovers .
            I don’t like their obsession with using Water baths .
            And one of the food critics that I liked has been replaced
            by a politically correct livvue.

      2. I’m not keen on twice baked Soufflé. They are approaching Yorkshire puds. Nowt wrong with them though.

        There is no mystery to a decent Soufflé. The mix must be light and the oven at the correct temperature.

        Timing is key.

        1. No one wants to eat Mola mola, it’s a cross between cotton wool and barbed wire. Culinary wise I’m more fishy than I used to be. Haddock is by far my favourite, I wouldn’t tell the family, but I’ve released more bass than I take home.

          1. On two occasions i landed Bass at Chesil beach. Much to the annoyance of my brother ! 3 lb 6 and 4 lb 2. I gave away all my kit after that on Freecycle.

          3. I don’t have a problem with butchery of meat or stripping out a fish. What made me sad was seeing Gurnard that had feet and toes.

          4. I don’t have a problem with butchery of meat or stripping out a fish. What made me sad was seeing Gurnard that had feet and toes.

          5. Gurnard is delicious, but as you say, they are weird and wonderful fish. Strange boxy body shape and fins developed for walking on the bottom. In the USA they are regarded as ‘trash’ fish and almost no one eats them.

  67. Wanted to order duvet winter quilts from Amazon today
    but might not have the one I want-
    It’s a choice between Littens duck and feather 15 tog king size that they
    do have and the far more expensive Starry Night duck feather 15 tog king size
    that is down proof that I did want but they don’t have.
    I also would prefer an even larger duvet cover as I always spend the
    night pulling it back on myself as I get cold.
    Well anyway – just getting ready for winter, it’ll be
    Shetland jumpers and wool trousers next and not forgetting
    hot chocolate in bed with a dash of rum .

      1. I just get so very cold during the winter and want to buy
        the 15 tog winter duck feather duvet, thinking the feathers
        Will be warmer then the normal hollow fibre ones .

        Do you chose not to have upstairs heating ?
        some prefer it cooler upstairs.

          1. I don’t like it hot, preferring warm but I hate waking up
            In the night during winter feeling very cold. I hate the cold.

        2. When we bought the house , there was no heating upstairs .. during the summer warm , winter quite chilly , we do use one of those plug in portable oil heaters ..reasonable size house , but I wanted to extend the heating , but Moh preferred not.

      2. I bought these to wrap around the legs of a dear friend in a wheelchair when we were out roaming the byways. They are ridiculously warm and come in different colours and sizes. They are so light that I started using them instead of a duvet. A single one is enough for most times of the year, but if it does drop to freezing then 2 of them almost leave you feeling hot, and that is with no heating either. I have been using them for years now.

        (Edit – I should point out that these are 100% Polyester, which may not be to everyone’s tastes. But I have been down the “which type of duck feather shall we have?” path, and I go for comfort and warmth as a priority. 🙂 (I do still have feather pillows however, so some duck’s last squawk was not in vain .)

        https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00LX7F53Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6846eb7a7e46870b7c237997f22e5737d5e8ec07bacf0b5da946c958dd17591f.jpg

    2. I’m still sleeping semi-naked without coverings. .In the early hours I sometimes pull the duvet over me to stop Missy poking me in awkward places.

        1. Indeed I do, Belle. But I also have the windows on the landing & in the en-suite slightly open unless it’s blowing a gale.

      2. I feel the cold very much, even with warm duvets and
        central heating, sleeping in two layers of brushed cotton
        but That’ll increase to three layers when it’s colder.

        It sounds very cosy where you are , Mr Viking .

    3. Bought a duvet from Amazon yesterday. My Sainsburys 13 tog winter quilt was proving to be too heavy. My new Silentnight Airmax 10.5 tog quilt is a vast improvement, after only one night…

      1. I have a goose down one. Light and warm. Mind you, sleeping on a feather bed in a four-poster (I can close the curtains to keep out draughts) helps 🙂

        1. Brilliant. For allergy reasons, I’ve tended to stay with ‘hollowfibre’ and the like. But, on a trip to IKEA a month ago, I bought a couple of feather/down-filled pillows, and I’m very happy with them…

          2. I struggle with pillows and get a neck ache because of
            them very often, I think I sleep at a funny angle.
            Don’t like them too soft, they are natural fibre but
            I am thinking of feather pillows.

          4. Oddly my dermatologist told me to get a down duvet (I have really bad contact allergies) and be careful of hollowfibre due to the chemicals that are used to make the stuff.

        2. I recommend a two set silk pair, the light one for summer, the medium one for spring and autumn and the two together for winter. Even as the pair they are far lighter than the equivalent goose down.
          Best bedding we’ve ever owned.
          The very good news is that the pair are cheaper than the heavier goose down one.

      2. Boss

        We have gone from Dr Kelly being murdered, finding holes in everty PollyTishuns words to a TV advert recommending quilts

        AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHestererer

        Sorry

        2. There used to be a game at school where you would have to get a teacher to say a certain word during a lesson.
          Sometimes I think it is being played out here.

      3. Are either of them warm enough for the winter months,
        the soon purchased 15 tog will be for Dec / March and then
        for most of the year it’s the 10.5 tog until July / Aug and
        then it’s the 4.5 tog.

  68. I had a run out yesterday – ran out of bread and milk.

    So, and with no sign of Lorraine from Spain today, I’m about to jump in my legs and tootle off for a wander, my final destination before home being Aldi.

    Being of the walking class, I’ll leave you with the amusing read below (and having downloaded the e-book Book of Snobs).

    Four little words that reveal all about you

        2. W,
          I do believe that boris as with other politico’s
          is / are on a promise.
          To any real indigenous peoples most of this political class are finished.

  70. Completely and utterly off topic.

    I’m watching the BBC4 Rock and Roll programme at the moment.

    I was trying to recall who presented “The Old Grey Whistle Test” and was staggered to read who had commissioned the programme.

    Have a guess:

    David Attenborough

  71. From the Slog 08/11/19

    “Lynsey McCarthy-Calvert, 45, has been forced to stand down as spokesperson for Doula UK, after a Facebook follower accused her of using ‘absolutely disgusting language’, adding: ‘Also, you seem to be forgetting that not only women birth children.’

    This was Lynsey’s disgusting outburst….which followed some nonsense from Cancer Research UK about its smear tests being available for “everyone with a cervix”:

    ‘I am not a “cervix owner” . . . I am a woman: an adult human female.’ She added: ‘Women birth all the people, make up half the population.’

    Doula should rename itself Doulally.

    An innocent person has lost her job as a useful practititioner in the medical help sector, for pointing out reality. The person guilty of causing that job-loss as a result of her mad assertion of unreality got off scott-free, and has not as yet (so far as I know) been forcibly offered a straitjacket for Christmas.

    The likes of Owen Jones and bonkers trannies are fully implicated in such beliefs. I do not call it denialism, because it is far more serious than that: this is the refusal of an ideologue and other sexual orientation activists to accept a human anatomical fact: men cannot have babies or periods.

    We need a bit of crowd-funding here: to sue Doula UK for wrongful dismissal, and name the Facebook Fluffy involved as an accessory.”

  72. Letters: The moving sight of a former Labour MP compelled on principle to reject Corbyn as PM

    Nowt new, Berk O has been ‘doing down’ the conservatives for years (and will get a peerage for it………. the baustard)

    1. The only way to devalue these Woolworth Peerages is for everyone to start addressing each other as Mi Lord or Mi Lady. For example you may call me Mi Lord Roi!

  77. Mamas & Papas Goes into Administration

    Most Mamas & Papas outlets will continue to trade

    The firm said its unprofitable stores in Aberdeen, Preston, Milton Keynes, Lincoln, Leamington and Fareham closed on Friday.
    It had 27 stores in total plus three concessions. The remaining stores will continue to trade as normal as will online sales and concessions.
    It said the administration comes after it was put under pressure as its shoppers moved online and high street footfall continued to decline.
    It has announced plans to “simplify” operations at its head office in Huddersfield, which could lead to further job losses on top of the 73 already announced.

    1. I appreciate that the bonuses paid are much lower than the actual debt involved, but surely a bonus is for doing positive things for the company?

      How is driving it into administration possibly a good thing that warrants a six figure bonus?

  81. Am I alone? in thinking that the Tory Party and Johnson-Cummings are fighting this election against the RemainStream Broadcasters (“whatever you do, avoid mentioning Brexit”) as well as the Labour//LibDem/SNP and other political parties.

  82. UKIP at the moment in the process of getting rid of it’s remaining moles.
    UKIPs policy has been the one constant in this whole enormous b@lls up total severance.
    The party designed & activated the referendum then was allowed no further input, the experts took over.
    The one constant UKIP received was in the form of castigation/ hate / smear regarding it’s membership etc,etc.
    Now due to the treacherous dealings of the feather pluckers ( experts ) ( ALL inclusive) we are deeper in the sh!te than we were pre referendum.
    Please keep in mind UKIP had no hand after the 24/6/2016, this period is ALL the experts
    ( feather pluckers) own work.

    1. The Nigel Farage led UKIP harried the Cameron led Tories into designing and activating the referendum / Brexit. Farage built UKIP’s image, hence UKIP’s image is pretty much non existent since his departure.

      1. You are still as silly as ever, why do you insist on proving that to all via your comments ?
        Batten proved in a short time to be Superior to
        farage over his couple of times as a leader.

      2. UKIP was built in Nigel Farage’s image, it was about him,
        he wouldn’t allow anyone else to shine, when
        he left UKIP to help Donald Trump with the Republican
        election campaign UKIP were lost. The excellent Steven Woolfe
        popped up and vanished and Paul Nuttal had the charisma
        of a damp squib.. it was all about Nigel Farage.

        Even now with the Brèxit Party of merely 2 months,
        you see pictures of Nigel Farage alone, grinning
        with adoring acolytes surrounding him but not too
        close, as it’s all about him ( as with UKIP).
        Farage could’ve easily worked with Batten who
        Is far better and honest then Farage but that’d not have
        worked because Farage had previously slaughtered
        his old party and is going up against them and besides
        he’d not be leader. Nigel Farage’s gloss has seriously
        worn off since the days of Cameron but Farage is too
        vain to see this. He could’ve tried some modesty
        but that’s just not him .

      3. UKIP was built in Nigel Farage’s image, it was about him,
        he wouldn’t allow anyone else to shine, when
        he left UKIP to help Donald Trump with the Republican
        election campaign UKIP were lost. The excellent Steven Woolfe
        popped up and vanished and Paul Nuttal had the charisma
        of a damp squib.. it was all about Nigel Farage.

        Even now with the Brèxit Party of merely 2 months,
        you see pictures of Nigel Farage alone, grinning
        with adoring acolytes surrounding him but not too
        close, as it’s all about him ( as with UKIP).
        Farage could’ve easily worked with Batten who
        Is far better and honest then Farage but that’d not have
        worked because Farage had previously slaughtered
        his old party and is going up against them and besides
        he’d not be leader. Nigel Farage’s gloss has seriously
        worn off since the days of Cameron but Farage is too
        vain to see this. He could’ve tried some modesty
        but that’s just not him .

        1. UKIP have effectively been ‘Battened down’ by the stance against the Globalists islam control tool which gifted the Globalist MSM the opportunity to as good as ignore UKIP.

          1. It was when Nigel Farage himself accused UKIP
            of racism. Labour are very much Muslim
            loving party unlike the Conservative Party according
            to Mohammed Amìn who resigned from
            the chairman role of Conservative British Muslims
            because of Boris Johnson becoming prime minister
            ‘ No friend of Islam ‘ Mr Amìn said of Mr Johnson
            before he himself joined the Lib Dems.

          2. UKIP under Batten had already been identified as leaning towards racism. Farage sensibly distanced himself from their suicidal stance.

    2. Despite all you say, Ogga, Dez, Aethelfled, I was a UKIP member until the NEC allowed the whole thing to go to hell in a hand-cart and ensured that the Party was no longer viable, thus doing themselves out of a job.

      I am no longer a member. UKIP as a viable party is dead – I feel sorry for Batten, he tried but the odds were/are stacked against any honest leadership.

      1. NtN ,
        The present nec did not allow it, they orchestrated it.
        All is not lost that is for sure, because it it were so then the last vestige of political decency will also be gone.
        For a racing certainty a person must surely be lacking in self respect to continue to support & vote lab/lib/con after witnessing their, as a coalition, past & present actions.
        As for “allowing ” think rotherham etc,etc, all
        governance mass uncontrolled immigration parties, think also what the JAY report had revealed, as in 16 years plus cover up.

        1. “For a racing certainty a person must surely be lacking in self respect to continue to support & vote lab/lib/con after witnessing their, as a coalition, past & present actions.”

          Ogga, please do not even consider impugning my self-respect. I am perfectly capable of identifying for myself the snake-oil salesman from the real McCoy.

          Suffice to say that I will not waste my vote on UKIP, Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Undemocrats or Green things that slide from under stones. Since I’m in England you may also rule out SNP, Plaid Cymru or DUP.

          1. NtN,
            A word in the shell like then, also take note of
            Catherine Blaiklock ex founder / leader of the brexit group & her take.

      2. Good afternoon, Nanners.

        I think the NEC has succeeded in its intentions, it has managed to almost destroy UKIP,
        this at a time when the party is more needed than ever, the only party which believes
        in delivering what the majority voted for in the 2016 Referendum. I have no idea how
        many [if any] UKIP candidates are standing in the GE, no communications are sent to
        those members still active, Branches are not being informed when area meetings are
        taking place with the NEC..etc. The faux UKIP/ex Tory members must be very proud
        of themselves, they have done a magnificent job!

      3. NtN,
        Then you realise also them MEPs that left UKIP
        retained the UKIPs seats in brussels proving their lack of integrity.

  83. All this purging of election candidates that have made comments on social media all seems very sinister to me, is it a warning to people not to participate in free speech because one day your comments will be used against you by the ruling elites.

  85. “UKIP has decided not to field a full list of candidates in the upcoming general election.”according to the latest missive from UKIP. What will poor Ogga do if he doesn’t have a UKIP candidate to vote for.

    I also note in their email that they say “It is not against UKIP rules to help a Brexiteer candidate from another party, provided you have verified there is definitely no UKIP candidate for that seat.” I wonder how they plan to verify if you have broken party rules.

    1. Why not ask him direct ?
      This UKIP members opinion we should stand none, owing to the fact that we are busy once more in cleaning shop
      of the last remaining antikippers.
      Tell me who are you supporting in the farce ?

      1. o1,
        Why not indeed? Could be if they were seen opening a conversation with you they might receive an early morning visit from their enforcer, swooping down from his mountain eyrie. I reckon he’s a Johnsonite. Yes, farce, good name, the Tories have learnt from their first attempt at How to throw an election. When will they announce some anti-Conservative policy to drive more voters to the Remainers? Early December?

      2. I’m thinking of voting Monster Raving Loony P.(not for the first time) if they are standing in our consitutency.
        From the state UKIP is in at the moment I don’t even see it as a useful protest vote.
        From your comments you are confident the NEC will get sorted out – I’m not so sure. As far as I could judge from the recent elections it appeared to me that more of the same were elected (I didn’t make a note of all the candidates and which names were on which side, but as far as I could remember it looked as though the same clique remained, which suggests they have the members support). I don’t anticipate UKIP getting out of their self-inflicted quagmire and becoming a viable party any time soon.

        1. Morning C,
          I don’t do negativity or tac. voting.
          The present state of the party was IMHO orchestrated and must be rectified.
          Too many peoples at a loose end with the choice being treachery or treachery outside of UKIP.
          We have witnessed what UKIP is capable of in the past and was via Gerard Battens leadership
          on the rise again which was not to be tolerated by members of the nec as witnessed.
          A party of decency has to be fought for and does not come easy.

      3. I am voting Tory for the first time in decades.
        Out local MP is a firm ‘leaver’ and is being threatened by the Lib Dems and a remainer.
        With Farage standing a candidate against my MP – just a few hundred Brexit votes means this good leaver is finished – just like the Brecon and Peterborough seats he lost for leave.
        How he can claim to be genuine when he is going to force out more Leave MPs such as mine – beggars belief.

      1. When I drove home from Chester last night I had to ford quite deep floods at Bolesworth. I was in the middle of the road and even so, the water was almost up to the grille. I was relieved to have got to the other side.

          1. Fortunately, I have a little petrol jobbie. I made sure I kept the revs up; I didn’t want water getting into the exhaust (which I have only just had replaced).

        2. Watch your brakes…. this happened to me many years ago. That night temperatures dropped to below freezing. The next day, taking our boys to school ‘over the local hill’ (next stop the Urals) I discovered I had no brakes. Fortunately two thirds of the way down the hill (the only real hill in Cambridgeshire, and the most easterly wing of the Chilterns) friction caused the ice to melt and for the brakes to kick in.

          1. That’s interesting. There always used to be “try your brakes” signs after a flood, but you no longer see them. I assumed it was because disc brakes were less susceptible than drum brakes. I never thought about ice. Mind you, I keep my car in a garage.

        3. Watch your brakes…. this happened to me many years ago. That night temperatures dropped to below freezing. The next day, taking our boys to school ‘over the local hill’ (next stop the Urals) I discovered I had no brakes. Fortunately two thirds of the way down the hill (the only real hill in Cambridgeshire, and the most easterly wing of the Chilterns) friction caused the ice to melt and for the brakes to kick in.

  87. A long article, but well worth the read:-

    ‘Sign into any website these days and almost the first thing you have to do is accept the privacy policy and cookie settings. Like me, I suspect that few of us have every bothered to read the policy or check the settings, we just hit the accept tab and get on with it.

    But some things are just too important to ignore the small print. Boris Johnson’s withdrawal treaty being a case in point.

    I’ve been lucky enough to work with both the Prime Minister when he was Mayor of London and Nigel Farage as Leader of the Brexit Party. Both are the most gifted communicators of our time. Their dispute about what Brexit really means and the best way to deliver it is at the heart of the General Election.

    Boris is banking on the nation’s exhaustion with the Brexit debate and our notoriously short political memories. He’s asking us to trust him to just “get it done”. We’ve forgotten his promises to never put a border down the Irish Sea, not to prorogue Parliament and to leave by 31st October.

    Nigel Farage, on the other hand, has turned into the local bank manager. He’s insisting that the devil is in the detail and we need to understand what we are signing up to. For him, we are either completely out or completely in; there’s no fence to sit on. It’s a binary choice and like Theresa May’s deal, Boris’s is the worst of both worlds.

    It’s complicated, but not as much as you might think. 95 per cent of Boris’s new deal is exactly the same as Theresa May’s failed attempt. It still comprises two elements, the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration, but the new links between those two documents and how they make the aims of the Declaration more binding is where the complexity lies.

    So here are three questions you might ask in trying to decide what way to vote.

    1. Does Boris’s deal allow us to take back control of our sovereignty? No. The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) continues to reign supreme, governing the entire Withdrawal Treaty, binding future British Parliaments and requiring judges to overturn laws passed by the British Parliament if it considers them to be inconsistent with obligations in the Treaty (Articles 4, 87, 89 and 127 of the Withdrawal Treaty). This will also be the case under any Free Trade Deal (as agreed in paragraph 131 of the Political Declaration) and is unlike other trade deals the EU has with countries like Canada (which have independent arbitration).

    Even if the government didn’t extend the Transition Period beyond 2020, the Withdrawal Agreement imposes obligations on the UK which will last much longer. For example, citizens’ rights, European Investment Bank contingent liabilities and immunities from prosecution, control of fishing (paras 72 and 73 of the Political Declaration), all of which will remain subject to ECJ jurisdiction.

    2. Can we create our own trade deals?

    Maybe, but not yet and as President Trump recently stated, probably not at all.

    President Trump just reiterated his concerns that @BorisJohnson’s new EU treaty stops us striking a trade deal with America.

    His deal is not Brexit and it does not get Brexit done.

    Technically the deal allows mainland Britain to leave the Customs Union and Single Market, but in reality, we will end up close to both with no say or influence over them. Although there is no longer any reference in the Political Declaration to “building on the customs territory”, the Government has admitted that businesses in Northern Ireland will need to complete a customs declaration to send goods to the mainland and EU customs officials can be present at border stations in the UK.

    The Political Declaration makes it difficult for the rest of the UK to agree and complete trade deals. Any Free Trade Agreement with the EU must include “ensuring a level playing field for open and fair competition” (para 17) and “deep regulatory cooperation” (para 21).

    Indeed, the UK has accepted that the Free Trade Agreement could take the form of an intimate “Association Agreement” (para 120 of the Political Declaration).

    Mr Barnier, the EU’s Chief Negotiator, is a wily fox. He’s aware that not only is the UK the EU’s largest export market, but also sits just 20 miles offshore. That’s why he has started to refer to “zero tariffs, zero quotas and zero dumping” – the dumping is code for full regulatory alignment and is foreshadowed in paragraph 77 of the Political Declaration:

    “Given the [EU] and UK’s geographical proximity and economic interdependence, the future relationship must ensure a level playing field. The precise nature of commitments should be commensurate with the scope and depth of the future relationship and the economic connectedness of the Parties. These commitments should prevent distortions of trade and unfair competitive advantages. To that end the parties should uphold the common high standards applicable in the [EU] and the UK at the end of the transition period in the areas of state aid, competition, social and employment standards, climate change and relevant tax matters.”

    This makes it very difficult for us be more competitive. It’s one of the reasons why President Trump made public his concerns that the proposed deal will prevent a Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

    Worse still, any attempt to change regulations to encourage business in and with the UK will again be at risk of the European Court of Justice deciding that it was state aid, a distortion of trade and/or an unfair competitive advantage. In essence, no potential trading partner will have confidence that we will be able to keep our side of a trade deal.

    3. Will we stop paying money to the EU?

    Not during the transition period, and for many years after there could be major residual payments.

    If Mr Johnson extends the transition period beyond 2020, a Joint Committee of UK and EU representatives will decide on any additional UK payments to the EU above the estimated £39bn already agreed (Article 132(2) and (3) of the Withdrawal Treaty). This is despite us not having any representation in the EU budget setting process. The estimated figure is at least a further £22bn to 2022, making a total sum north of £60bn. Any disputes about the calculation of this sum will be once again decided by the European Court of Justice.

    Additionally, there could also be billions of Euros fines as a result of state aid or VAT cases that have already started or which start during the transition.

    Congratulations for making it this far

    The Prime Minister is hoping that you couldn’t be bothered to read this much, Mr Farage is relying that you have.

    For me, there’s one more thing you really, really need to know. Under the terms of Boris’s agreement, we have to use our ‘best endeavours’ to agree a deal defined by the Political Declaration, effectively a copper-bottomed commitment to meet the EU and UK’s guidelines. The proposed transition period, the foundation of the idea of an ‘orderly Brexit’, expires at the end of next year. We have to give six months advance notice if we want to extend the Transition Period in July next year. No-one sensible believes it’s enough time to conclude a free trade agreement with the EU fully, not even Mr Barnier who told the European Parliament that it would take at least three more years.

    What that means is that there’s no chance at all that Boris’s deal “gets it done”. Rather, just like getting a temporary filling from the dentist for a really bad toothache, you know the infection is still there, the pain is going to start all over again and you need another appointment soon to sort it out properly.

    That’s why, on balance, I’m with Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party. The devil is in the detail. Any deal is the worst of both worlds. The European Court of Justice continues to rule the roost. Best take that tooth out.’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/11/08/three-reasons-nigel-farage-right-not-convinced-boris-johnsons/

    1. More confirmation, if any was needed, that Johnson is not up to speed with what his “deal” entails (less likely as time moves on) or a lying rogue who is trying to use his alleged popularity to tie us to the EU as tightly as May wanted.
      He could, of course, win the GE and take us out on WTO terms within weeks. Then he would be a hero and all of the doubters, me included, would have to eat humble pie. If he did that I would ask for a second helping with lashings of egg custard to smear on my face.

      2. “He could, of course, win the GE and take us out on WTO terms within weeks.”

        Do not be concerned, your face is safe from the ravages of egg custard. That is not going to happen and it was never going to happen. Looking at who he is, and what he has said over years, show him to be very pro-EU and in favour of us staying snared by them. He has the option of a WTO Brexit with Nigel Farage right now, with an almost unstoppable force to win a majority over the weeping Remainers and their split parties. He will not do it.

        Someone with his history asking to be trusted that he is just giving legal control of the United Kingdom to the European Court of Justice in order to get us a good deal is nonsense. Once the EU has legal authority over our country they will move with lightning speed to cripple us. The EU can act very fast when motivated, and they will never have had this level of power over us.

        How helpful it is for them, that we have just seen an example of our “Supreme Court” overruling the wishes of our Prime Minister. I am sure that was not groundwork for the ECJ coming onto the scene.

      3. “He could, of course, win the GE and take us out on WTO terms within weeks.”

        Do not be concerned, your face is safe from the ravages of egg custard. That is not going to happen and it was never going to happen. Looking at who he is, and what he has said over years, show him to be very pro-EU and in favour of us staying snared by them. He has the option of a WTO Brexit with Nigel Farage right now, with an almost unstoppable force to win a majority over the weeping Remainers and their split parties. He will not do it.

        Someone with his history asking to be trusted that he is just giving legal control of the United Kingdom to the European Court of Justice in order to get us a good deal is nonsense. Once the EU has legal authority over our country they will move with lightning speed to cripple us. The EU can act very fast when motivated, and they will never have had this level of power over us.

        How helpful it is for them, that we have just seen an example of our “Supreme Court” overruling the wishes of our Prime Minister. I am sure that was not groundwork for the ECJ coming onto the scene.

        1. I thought my last paragraph would elicit a response but it is a possibility, albeit a diminishing one. Have you read what I’ve linked to below? It’s another litany of confusion. He is all over the place and how anyone can believe what he says or understands what he means when he says something is a mystery.
          Listening to Andrew Pierce on LBC this evening and the news is all about the other parties forming alliances and Sturgeon trying to come to an accommodation with Corbyn. All we get from Johnson are negative responses to Farage’s advances.

          BTL on Al-Beeb’s web page.

          1451. Posted bymidgeon
          1 hour ago
          He needs to emigrate to counteract the brain-drain.

          https://twitter.com/BrexitHome/status/1192776206019682304

  88. Blow for Jeremy Corbyn as Labour loses support in northern strongholds

    There is still the danger of Conservatives/ Brexit Party splitting the vote. Boris and Nigel need their heads banged together. This need to be sorted

    New polling has delivered a major blow to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, with the party apparently suffering in its traditional strongholds.
    The Conservatives have also endured polling slumps in the new YouGov data, though they are nowhere near as pronounced as Labour’s.

    Ahead of next month’s general election, Mr Corbyn’s troubles are most visible in Labour’s northern heartlands.

    In the north-west, the party scored 30 per cent, down 25 from its 2017 general election result. Boris Johnson’s Tories are polling at 33 per cent.

    There was a similar drop in support in the north-east, where Labour polled at 32 per cent, down 23 from 2017.

    Even in London there was a sizeable drop for Labour, which is down from 55 per cent in 2017 to 39 in the latest data, which was gathered from October 17 up to Monday this week.

    2. I think we reached ‘peak Corbyn’ in 2017. Patriotic Labour voters won’t support a terrorist-loving Marxist, and even the snowflake students have realised he isn’t going to cancel their student debt. He couldn’t win against Theresa May, the worst communicator (and PM) in history. Johnson should make mincemeat of him.

      Saying that, Farage doesn’t need his head banged together with Johnson. He has repeatedly offered a sensible non-aggression pact. One has wonder why Johnson doesn’t want to ally himself with real Leavers?

      1. The only conclusion which one can draw is that Bojo doesn’t want his hands tied (just as he wanted them tied by the Benn surrender act).

        2. Thus he doesn’t want them tied…. so he can re-tie them elsewhere (which you have implied).

        3. Suggest you go watch the Johnson/Gove passionless victory speech on 24th June 2016 where he makes reference to Farage, watch the shifty look. Maybe you can tell me how come Johnson is now PM when in 2016 he had to withdraw his candidacy because his “best” mate stabbed him in the back.

          The conclusion I draw is as always, the same conclusion that I knew in 2016, Johnson is a remainer and he has no intention of taking us out of the EU.

      2. “I think we reached ‘peak Corbyn’ in 2017” . I think Diane Abbott achieved that several decades earlier….

      3. Obvious conclusion. He is not a real leaver. HIs acceptance of what is basically the May WA proves that, I would have thought.

    3. I think we reached ‘peak Corbyn’ in 2017. Patriotic Labour voters won’t support a terrorist-loving Marxist, and even the snowflake students have realised he isn’t going to cancel their student debt. He couldn’t win against Theresa May, the worst communicator (and PM) in history. Johnson should make mincemeat of him.

      Saying that, Farage doesn’t need his head banged together with Johnson. He has repeatedly offered a sensible non-aggression pact. One has wonder why Johnson doesn’t want to ally himself with real Leavers?

  89. Here we are living between 2 military bases .. The Royal Tank Regiment .. Bovington and Lulworth.. People are very very concerned that the result of this election might go the other way.

    Corbyn and co are no friends of the service man .. Labour’s tenure last time was a disaster .. there was no investment in equipment and brave men were sent off to Iraq. There were so many political disastrous blunders .. Heaven help us if Labour win by virtue of their pathetic electioneering. They cannot be trusted .

    We also queried the mess they made out of the Foot and Mouth crisis which was handled so badly .. Have some appalling stories but many of you may also remember the same … and all the while , hordes and hordes of migrants were slipping into the country ..

    Edited

    A reminder ..

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/7728916/New-Labour-Where-did-it-all-go-wrong.html

      2. Anyone might guess that he knew the Clinton’s, but it’s a fact of life, a Blairectomy can happen to the best of folk.

    3. One of the forgotten heroines of Foot&Mouth was a lady called Mary Critchley who ran a sort of early blog on warmwell.com. I used to believe it was named after a hamlet in the Dorchester area called Warmwell, but it was a pun on ‘warm welcome’ !

      2. I just had a glance at Warmwell and saw a link to the Telegraph obituary for Roger Breeze, a British born expert in animal diseases who worked in the US.
        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/09/29/roger-breeze-expert-in-animal-diseases–obituary/

        I was rather taken by this couple of paragraphs:-

        At the same time Breeze worked as a busy practising vet, recalling an occasion when he had just finished delivering a newborn pig that was stuck in its mother’s womb when he got another call about a sick dog: “I go right over, knock on the door, and a bunch of Hell’s Angels answer. They’re all looking at me kind of funny, but I’m too worn out to care. I examine the dog and see right away that it’s too far gone with distemper.

        “So I take the dog out back and shoot it. The bikers pay me my fee, but they’re still staring at me wide-eyed, like I’m some kind of lunatic. It’s not until I’m back in my car looking at myself in the rear-view mirror that I see that my face and hair are all blotched and matted with pig placenta. I looked like the psycho vet from hell.”

  91. I have been busy this evening and so I have not kept up to date with what NoTTLers have been discussing since teatime.

    I apologise if this has already been posted. It gives a fairly coherent account of why the Boris Johnson stitch up is a stitch up and why Boris Johnson does not want the details of his surrender ‘deal’ out in the open

    (But why is Johnson so secretive? What are his motives for wanting to enslave Britain to the EU long into the future? Why is he not being open and honest?)

    Three reasons why Nigel Farage is right not to be convinced by Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal

    by MATTHEW PATTEN : BREXIT PARTY MEP

    Sign into any website these days and almost the first thing you have to do is accept the privacy policy and cookie settings. Like me, I suspect that few of us have every bothered to read the policy or check the settings, we just hit the accept tab and get on with it.

    But some things are just too important to ignore the small print. Boris Johnson’s withdrawal treaty being a case in point.

    I’ve been lucky enough to work with both the Prime Minister when he was Mayor of London and Nigel Farage as Leader of the Brexit Party. Both are the most gifted communicators of our time. Their dispute about what Brexit really means and the best way to deliver it is at the heart of the General Election.

    Boris is banking on the nation’s exhaustion with the Brexit debate and our notoriously short political memories. He’s asking us to trust him to just “get it done”. We’ve forgotten his promises to never put a border down the Irish Sea, not to prorogue Parliament and to leave by 31st October.

    Nigel Farage, on the other hand, has turned into the local bank manager. He’s insisting that the devil is in the detail and we need to understand what we are signing up to. For him, we are either completely out or completely in; there’s no fence to sit on. It’s a binary choice and like Theresa May’s deal, Boris’s is the worst of both worlds.

    It’s complicated, but not as much as you might think. 95 per cent of Boris’s new deal is exactly the same as Theresa May’s failed attempt. It still comprises two elements, the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration, but the new links between those two documents and how they make the aims of the Declaration more binding is where the complexity lies.

    So here are three questions you might ask in trying to decide what way to vote.

    1. Does Boris’s deal allow us to take back control of our sovereignty?
    No. The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) continues to reign supreme, governing the entire Withdrawal Treaty, binding future British Parliaments and requiring judges to overturn laws passed by the British Parliament if it considers them to be inconsistent with obligations in the Treaty (Articles 4, 87, 89 and 127 of the Withdrawal Treaty). This will also be the case under any Free Trade Deal (as agreed in paragraph 131 of the Political Declaration) and is unlike other trade deals the EU has with countries like Canada (which have independent arbitration).

    Even if the government didn’t extend the Transition Period beyond 2020, the Withdrawal Agreement imposes obligations on the UK which will last much longer. For example, citizens’ rights, European Investment Bank contingent liabilities and immunities from prosecution, control of fishing (paras 72 and 73 of the Political Declaration), all of which will remain subject to ECJ jurisdiction.

    2. Can we create our own trade deals?
    Maybe, but not yet and as President Trump recently stated, probably not at all.

    Nigel Farage
    ✔
    @Nigel_Farage
    President Trump just reiterated his concerns that @BorisJohnson’s new EU treaty stops us striking a trade deal with America.

    His deal is not Brexit and it does not get Brexit done.

    Embedded video
    9,609
    22:01 – 3 Nov 2019
    Twitter Ads information and privacy
    5,563 people are talking about this

    Technically the deal allows mainland Britain to leave the Customs Union and Single Market, but in reality, we will end up close to both with no say or influence over them.

    Although there is no longer any reference in the Political Declaration to “building on the customs territory”, the Government has admitted that businesses in Northern Ireland will need to complete a customs declaration to send goods to the mainland and EU customs officials can be present at border stations in the UK.

    The Political Declaration makes it difficult for the rest of the UK to agree and complete trade deals. Any Free Trade Agreement with the EU must include “ensuring a level playing field for open and fair competition” (para 17) and “deep regulatory cooperation” (para 21).

    Indeed, the UK has accepted that the Free Trade Agreement could take the form of an intimate “Association Agreement” (para 120 of the Political Declaration).

    Mr Barnier, the EU’s Chief Negotiator, is a wily fox. He’s aware that not only is the UK the EU’s largest export market, but also sits just 20 miles offshore. That’s why he has started to refer to “zero tariffs, zero quotas and zero dumping” – the dumping is code for full regulatory alignment and is foreshadowed in paragraph 77 of the Political Declaration:

    “Given the [EU] and UK’s geographical proximity and economic interdependence, the future relationship must ensure a level playing field. The precise nature of commitments should be commensurate with the scope and depth of the future relationship and the economic connectedness of the Parties. These commitments should prevent distortions of trade and unfair competitive advantages. To that end the parties should uphold the common high standards applicable in the [EU] and the UK at the end of the transition period in the areas of state aid, competition, social and employment standards, climate change and relevant tax matters.”

    This makes it very difficult for us be more competitive. It’s one of the reasons why President Trump made public his concerns that the proposed deal will prevent a Free Trade Agreement with the United States.

    Worse still, any attempt to change regulations to encourage business in and with the UK will again be at risk of the European Court of Justice deciding that it was state aid, a distortion of trade and/or an unfair competitive advantage. In essence, no potential trading partner will have confidence that we will be able to keep our side of a trade deal.

    3. Will we stop paying money to the EU?
    Not during the transition period, and for many years after there could be major residual payments.

    If Mr Johnson extends the transition period beyond 2020, a Joint Committee of UK and EU representatives will decide on any additional UK payments to the EU above the estimated £39bn already agreed (Article 132(2) and (3) of the Withdrawal Treaty). This is despite us not having any representation in the EU budget setting process. The estimated figure is at least a further £22bn to 2022, making a total sum north of £60bn. Any disputes about the calculation of this sum will be once again decided by the European Court of Justice.

    Additionally, there could also be billions of Euros fines as a result of state aid or VAT cases that have already started or which start during the transition.

    Congratulations for making it this far

    The Prime Minister is hoping that you couldn’t be bothered to read this much, Mr Farage is relying that you have.

    For me, there’s one more thing you really, really need to know. Under the terms of Boris’s agreement, we have to use our ‘best endeavours’ to agree a deal defined by the Political Declaration, effectively a copper-bottomed commitment to meet the EU and UK’s guidelines. The proposed transition period, the foundation of the idea of an ‘orderly Brexit’, expires at the end of next year. We have to give six months advance notice if we want to extend the Transition Period in July next year. No-one sensible believes it’s enough time to conclude a free trade agreement with the EU fully, not even Mr Barnier who told the European Parliament that it would take at least three more years.

    What that means is that there’s no chance at all that Boris’s deal “gets it done”. Rather, just like getting a temporary filling from the dentist for a really bad toothache, you know the infection is still there, the pain is going to start all over again and you need another appointment soon to sort it out properly.

    That’s why, on balance, I’m with Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party. The devil is in the detail. Any deal is the worst of both worlds. The European Court of Justice continues to rule the roost. Best take that tooth out.

    Matthew Patten is a Brexit Party MEP and from 2012-2018 was chief Executive for the Mayor’s Fund for London charity.

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