845 thoughts on “Monday 19 August: There can be no national unity if the referendum result is not honoured”

  1. The far right say they love free speech – but the attack on Owen Jones shows they hate a critical press. Indy 12 Hours ago.

    Tommy Robinson is a particular master of this ploy, revamping his image from racist thug to populist free speech martyr, and receiving fawning press attention. In reality, it’s nothing but a cynical bait-and-switch ploy to paint their opponents as reactionaries, demand bigger platforms, and declare themselves exempt from critique or consequence.

    Many (otherwise liberal) outlets take the bait, offering up their airtime and column inches to a frothing band of reactionaries with precisely zero interest in the protecting freedoms they are attempting to exploit.

    Enter Owen Jones. As the far right have slithered their way into the media and political mainstream, left wing and critical voices have come under harsh fire from yammering bands of far-right fanboys and their milquetoast non-opposition, who bombard them with harassment and threats.

    Morning everyone “Fawning press” for Tommy Robinson? That I would like to see! The “far right have slithered their way into the media and political mainstream”. They have? Lol! That’s just two examples, the rest of the article provides more that is their equal for sheer moronic mendacity.

    There’s also a pretty good post by PastorNiemoller Below the Line.

    I’m commenting mainly because we haven’t had anything approaching a “Critical Press” for a long time. The UK press resembles “Pravda” of Soviet times and has done for a long time. A good recent example is their silence on the “Assad gasses kids” nonsense that the OPCW has debunked. We bombed a country on the back of that. The parroting of Corbyn is an antisemite. The Skrypal (Sic) nonsense that has more holes than solid. The lack of support for journalism when it comes to Assange. We have a “official narrative” press. The lack of coverage of 40+ weeks of protest in France, the list goes on and on. The writer presents the “Far right” as anyone who isn’t “Woke”. I think Trump’s a establishment placeman, but he doesn’t suppress the US press. He bypasses it by using Twitter etc.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/owen-jones-far-right-assault-free-speech-a9064636.html

    1. Morning Minty

      Interesting little snippet here

      RUTH SUNDERLAND: Why is your child voting for Corbyn’s socialist vision? Because political fears stalk markets

      They are mystified that their young adult offspring are acolytes of the Labour leader and can’t see the Corbynist socialist brew as the recipe for ruin it most certainly would be, if he ever gained power.

      Of course, the young have always been more inclined towards radicalism than their staid and conventional elders. It’s part of the job description, after all.

      Alarmingly, though, investment group Waverton, formerly JO Hambro, has found a penchant for Corbyn continuing deep into middle age.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/comment/article-7369669/RUTH-SUNDERLAND-Political-fears-stalk-markets.html

      When I read the article , I had to stifle a snigger because the writer is naive and narrow visioned , and obviously hasn’t had a look around at the disruptions old socialists have thrust on society .. it goes beyond the pink yacht brigade and Momentum.

      Highgate cemetery holds the answer!

      1. Nothing to do with fear stalking the market and everything to do with indoctrination at school and university.

    2. “We bombed a country on the back of that.”. Should that not be, “We bombed more of their children on the back of that.”?

    3. “the far right have slithered their way into the media and political mainstream” – Oh yes? Ha Ha Ha!

    4. Fawning press attention??? What planet if this writer on?? Can he point to a single MSM article or interview that’s fawning?

  3. Morning, all.
    Hell’s teeth! Another gigantic picture of another asshole politician! If it wasn’t enough with Bercrap with his mouth open, now we get Kenneth Clerk.
    AAARRGGHH!

    4. ‘Morning, Oberst. I can’t have been the only one to spot that those whom, it was suggested recently, should be the leaders of our ‘government of national unity’ – Clarke and Harperson – are both raving Remainiacs? That would not have ended well.

      Just another pathetic attempt to overturn the will of the majority, I suppose. Meanwhile, it was good to see that, on Friday, the government signed into law the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972. Another step along the painful road to our freedom…

  4. Good morning to all NoTTLers. I’m fourth today. Obviously I need to get up earlier!

        1. ;-))
          At Firstborn’s farm, there is a mouse problem in the autumn, with mice in the house. We have some technotraps that break the mouse’s neck – and Firstborn has watched the silly blighters queueing up to get their necks broken… snap! snap! snap! Bizarre…

          1. We have a cat.
            We don’t have mice in the house.

            Though to be honest, if there was a mouse in the house, I have the distinct feeling she’d just ignore it. She doesn’t take the slightest interest in any of the birds in our garden. They can walk right past her and she just ignores them.

          2. We have two cats, and regularly have mice, frogs, bats and birds in the house. Often, but not always, dead…

          3. We have a musicidal chihuahua. We have never been so clear of mice. He is far better than any cat I’ve known.

          4. I have a terrierist. We have neither cats, mice nor birds in our garden. Actually, the birds bit is not strictly true; as soon as he spots a pigeon he sees it off. They do come, but they don’t stay long 🙂

          5. Sounds like me & my girlfriends 50 years ago. As soon as I ditched one, the next popped up.

      2. Talking of which; Spartacus came bounding up the stairs with a ‘treasure’ he had found in the garden. He refused to let us check it. (Note; it is easier to part a rottweiler from its bone than to take an ‘objet trouve’ from a chihuahua.) After spot of bribery and corruption, we finally retrieved the beloved object: it was a very dead baby pigeon.

    2. Buenos dias, Elsie. I’ve been up since 05.45, but will soon go back to bed for a nap.

      1. Good grief, Peddy, that’s exactly how my day has started (5.30 am and off for another 40 winks shortly). Perhaps we should each claim we are identical twins and demand a five bob postal order from each other. :-))

    3. I couldn’t get today’s Letters on the DT nor on here at 6.30 am. The DT boys/ girls must have been having a lie in.

    1. What were hoping to read about, Bill? Saint Greta’s ship hitting an iceberg? :-))

    2. As I sit here in August wearing a jumper in the evenings, the beeboids keep bleating about the hot summer. I must enquire as to what country they are broadcasting from.

  6. Morning all

    SIR – How is any “national unity” government going to explain to 17.4 million people that in fact “national unity” means ditching the majority and imposing the minority view?

    Is this not how revolutions start?

    Alastair Muir
    Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire

    2. SIR – Ken Clarke was the only Conservative MP to vote against Article 50, but a few months later he was allowed to stand in the general election by his Rushcliffe Conservative Association.

      He should surely have stood as an independent and made way for a Conservative candidate who supported the party’s manifesto. Conservative Brexiteers would have voted against him and he might not have been elected.

      In 1832, the Great Reform Act eliminated rotten boroughs. The antics of MPs such as Mr Clarke, Dominic Grieve and Philip Hammond suggest another act is needed to prevent MPs who are not Conservatives from being allowed to masquerade as such.

      Peter Mostyn
      Loughborough, Leicestershire

        1. She looks like the village idiot. She has the sort of face that I imagine Lennie in Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men to have had: vacant, wide-eyed and mindless.

  7. Prince Andrew hosted billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein with a young model at Balmoral ‘while Queen was in residence’ – as royal brands it ‘abhorrent to suggest he would condone or participate in’ any illegal behaviour. Mail. 19 August 2019.

    In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: ‘The Duke of York has been appalled by the recent reports of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged crimes.
    ‘His Royal Highness deplores the exploitation of any human being and the suggestion he would condone, participate in or encourage any such behaviour is abhorrent.’

    It’s not untruthful though?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7369849/Duke-York-appalled-Epstein-sex-scandal-claims.html

    3. Randy Andy has inherited the louche Hanoverian gene.
      He’s also not terribly bright.
      Throw in a bit of Mummy’s rumoured fave boy and you have a deadly combination.

          1. Try researching Lucid Dreaming. It suggests that there are ways of taking control of your dreams.

      3. I thought Marty Feldman died a long tome ago. He has clearly been reincarnated as Jeremy Corbyn.

      2. The red stamp is on another card from ‘wherever’ someone is having their ‘staycation’.

        The meejah does make up some bloody awful words.

      1. Latterly is how you pronounce “ridiculous” in yer Weegie…
        I’ll get me thesaurus.

    2. Were we all told at school the misfortunes of our lives, the queue at Beachy Head would stretch along the south coast and beyond.

      How many great generals tell their troops they’re going to lose the battle?

      Morning zx.

  11. As I’m sure all NoTTLers need to know, the yellowhammer is the state bird of Alabama and is known as the yellow-shafted flicker……..does anyone here suffer from that condition?

  12. Where did all the cod go? Fishing crisis in the North Sea. Sun 18 Aug 2019 11.10 BST.

    And indeed we have. North Sea cod stocks were once plentiful but plummeted – and came perilously close to collapse – between the early 1970s and 2006. A “cod recovery plan” sought to restore stocks to sustainable levels by limiting fishing days, decommissioning boats, banning catches in nursery areas and putting larger holes in nets to allow young cod to escape.

    There is, tellingly (it’s the Guardian), no mention of European fishing in this article. In fact you would be quite sensible to assume from its content that the North Sea is an enclosed saltwater UK lake that exists solely for the benefit of its owners. The opposite is true of course. If we should leave the EU the first thing to be done should be to ban all fishing there for the next five or ten years, something that is at present impossible but that we could do if we were the sole users and enforcers of such a measure.

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/18/where-did-all-the-cod-go-fish-chips-north-sea-sustainable-stocks

    4. ‘Morning Minty,the extermination of species such as sand eels at the bottom of the food chain and the use of acoustic trawling can’t be doing stocks many favours

      But hey ho our Danish neighbours can feed their mink farms

      “The Danes control 94% of the quota for UK sand eels and last year

      persuaded the EU to let them increase their annual take from 82,000 to

      458,000 tons a year.

      Most of the catch, taken around Dogger Bank

      in the North Sea, was crushed into fishmeal for Denmark’s intensive

      salmon, mink and livestock farms.”

      A fivefold increase,what could possibly go wrong

      https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/puffins-starve-as-danes-grab-uk-sand-eels-srwrfgdrs

  13. From Charles Moore’s column

    Can Colman pull it off?
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/on-demand/2019/08/13/TELEMMGLPICT000206012106_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqA7N2CxnJWnYI3tCbVBgu9WVLDaeaWzlxIQpTU2T6YjQ.jpeg?imwidth=1240
    Olivia Colman plays the latest iteration of Her Majesty

    Speculation builds about how well Olivia Colman will succeed Claire Foy as the Queen in the coming third series of The Crown. Ms Colman herself has expressed anxiety on this score. There is no doubt that she is one of the best actresses of the age, but I have a doubt, too. She has a distinctly Left-wing face. This is hard to describe, but easy to recognise.

    It is something to do with looking slightly resentful and ironic at the idea of having to play a public role which satisfies the demands of others. The real live Queen has no such face – allowing almost no difference discernible in public between the role and the person.

    I hasten to add that I have no idea what Olivia Colman’s political views are. I just have a hunch, which I hope will be proved wrong.

    2. For me, Olivia Colman only ever plays Olivia Colman but The Crown isn’t on Freeview anyway, is it? So I won’t see it.

      1. Yo Sue

        I think I must be the only person in the Civilised world who

        has never heard of her until just now
        does not know what she has ‘been in’
        does not want to know about her.

        I do like the Mustard her family makes though

          3. ‘Morning, Peddy, Liquid Crystal Diodes are so yesterday, nowadays it’s all yer Light Emitting Diodes that are in.

  14. A woman arrived at the Gates of Heaven. While she was waiting for Saint Peter to greet her, she peeked through the gates. She saw a beautiful banquet table. Sitting all around were her parents and all the other people she had loved and who had died before her.
    They saw her and began calling greetings to her.
    “Hello – How are you!
    We’ve been waiting for you!
    Good to see you.”

    When Saint Peter came by, the woman said to him, “This is such a wonderful place! How do I get in?”
    “You have to spell a word,” Saint Peter told her.
    “Which word?” the woman asked.
    “Love.”
    The woman correctly spelled ‘Love’, and Saint Peter welcomed her into Heaven.

    About a year later, Saint Peter came to the woman and asked her to watch the Gates of Heaven for him that day.
    While the woman was guarding the Gates of Heaven, her husband arrived.
    I’m surprised to see you,” the woman said.. “How have you been?”
    “Oh, I’ve been doing pretty well since you died,” her husband told her.
    “I married the beautiful young nurse who took care of you while you were ill.
    And then I won the multi-state lottery.
    I sold the little house you and I lived in and bought a huge mansion. And my wife and I travelled all around the world. We were on vacation in Cancun and I went water skiing today. I fell and hit my head, and here I am. What a bummer! How do I get in?”
    “You have to spell a word,” the woman told him.
    “Which word?” her husband asked.
    “Czechoslovakia.”
    Moral of the story: Never make a woman angry…
    …There will be Hell to pay later!

  15. UK to end freedom of movement for EU citizens on day one of Brexit, under new government plan

    It is total nonsense to say there is no system in place as there is. They have to register for settled status . The process has been in place for many months. You may remember the Lib-Dumb’s complaining that they had to pay a few pound to register

    Free movement for EU citizens will end on day one of a no-deal Brexit, under new Home Office plans – despite warnings of chaos and of people trapped in legal limbo.
    Priti Patel, the new hardline home secretary, is pressing for border restrictions to be imposed immediately on 31 October, even though no replacement system is ready, The Independent has been told.

    2. So far, I like Priti Patel. She questioned the amount of money being distributed by Foreign Aid, and who it’s being sent to. Which is presumably why May torpedoed her position.

  16. Enough, already!

    Why are ‘they’ still banging on about shortages of this and that post-Brexit (BBC last night)?

    As with the climate change debate, no amount of rabbiting is going to change the basics, so why not accept the inevitable and mitigate its problems?

    The government needs to accept a no-deal scenario and tell us, warts and all, what to expect. It also needs to tell the 17.4 million how they, as individuals can help. No-deal should be the default position and anything else, the icing on the cake.

    Step up to the plate Boris and start banging the drum.

          1. Appalling. Let’s hope that isn’t shown to youngsters.

            One silver lining on the cloud, though, is that those now living on the coast will have to cough up to the Inland Revenue.

    2. They never put things in context. A “journalist” learns about Duty Paid Delivered and thinks that it is news because he has never heard of it. It wasn’t news any time in the last century or so.
      A “journalist” discovers we only have six weeks supply of food. Except that we only have a few days supply of food if you include milk. The milk we drink this weekend has not yet been produced by the cow. The fish are still in the sea and the potatoes in the ground. The roast beef we will enjoy eating in six weeks will be running around the fields for at least another week. Six months supply of New Zealand apples is safely in cold store.
      Enough, already, for sure!

      1. I once worked at a place which made crisps and was shown inside a massive warehouse. No lighting, temperature and humidity controlled, the place was stacked floor to very high ceiling with spuds – millions if not billions.

        1. There is a packing station in Berwickshire which packs locally grown potatoes for supermarkets.
          It is huge.
          These stories gain ground because they are continually pushed by journalists who know next to nothing, to people who know less than nothing about how food is produced, processed, packed, stored and delivered to the shelves.

      2. Goodness knows where they get the fuel shortages from as most fuel is sourced from outside the EU

    3. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
      However, so far, Bozza is playing it right.
      Side stepping the Brussels Broadcasting Corp. Keeping shtum and watching the Remoaners’ heads explode.
      But … he does need to advise his girlfriend to pick her photo ops more carefully.

  17. ‘Morning All
    A conversation
    Agent Sorry Owen the TV appearance money is drying up and even the Guardian will only pay so much for your drivel,we may have to drop you
    Jones Wait!! I have a cunning plan
    Agent Do tell
    Jones I know this rough gay pub,if I mouth off in there there will be a punch up
    Agent This helps how??
    Jones We blame it on the Far-Right
    Agent But wont the CCTV show you up as a lying lefty twat….again
    Jones Maybe but by then we’ll have coined it and the news cycle will have moved on
    Agent Make it good,there must be blood and bruises
    Jones Oh I say,don’t take a cunning plan too far,how about some gravel burns from the last rough sex bout??
    Agent Yeah we can work with that…………………………………………………

    2. A dickie bird told me that come November, the seas around the UK will be empty and the film studios will be using fish fingers as extras.

      Morning Rik.

    1. Those elves always were a bit Teutonic looking. I’ve always been surprised that Middle Earth hasn’t already come under some sort of racism charge.

  21. Sir – We are descendants of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton (Letters, August 8) who led the Slave Emancipation Act of August 1833, which abolished slavery and gave freedom to all slaves in the British Empire. His achievement is rightly commemorated by the Buxton Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens.

    We deplore the design, scale and location in the gardens of the planned Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre. It will destroy the peace of the park and the special symbolism of its existing statuary. There are more appropriate sites for a memorial, such as the Imperial War Museum.

    The project needs fresh thinking. We trust that ministers will heed the many objections to the present plans.

    Joe Buxton, London SW3
    Lord Noel Buxton, London SW3
    Sir Crispin Buxton, North Walsham, Norfolk
    Henry Buxton, Wareside, Hertfordshire

    This is simply more grist-to-the-mill evidence for my potential book on the exponential (and unstoppable) rise in stupidity in the human species since 1900.

    London, in particular, seems gripped with this stupidity fever, since it is systematically trashing the landscape of the place apace. Not content with modern architectural abominations such as the “Shard”, “Mobile Phone” (or whatever the hell they call it), “Gherkin”, “Ferris Wheel” and other unsightly travesties that besmirch the once-famous London visage; more atrocities, it seems, are being planned to compete the project.

    Watching the recent Test match from Lord’s, I was again reminded how that grossly ugly carbuncle at the Nursery End, labelled the “Media Centre”, fits into this surreptitious destruction of all London landmarks. It has converted the Lordly Lord’s into Disneyland!

    The architects responsible (and the idiotic politicians paying them their exorbitant fees) have wreaked more destruction on our capital city than Göring ever achieved.

    2. ‘Morning George, is that the Göring Gap or are we all Goering mad? I see you have taken up the newspell part of newspeak, as published by wiki..

      Ever since 1944 and growing up, fat Herman was always referred to as Herman Goering in everything I read. Were umlauts rationed until Microsoft set them free?.

      1. Nay, Tom. I was giving him the correct German spelling of his name, not the Anglicized bastardization of it.

        The German football coach, Joachim Löw, frequently has his name misspelt as “Low” ( or “Loew”) in English newspapers. I deplore that practice.

        1. Loew is acceptable in the absence of an Umlaut. The 2 dots are a bit like an apostrophe & indicate a missing ‘e’.

          1. “Low” is pronounced “Low”. Löw is pronounced “Lurv”. The newspapers are oblivious to this.

            “Goering” is pronounced “Go-er-ing”. Göring is pronounced “Gur-ring”. It does make a difference.

          2. …& Loew is pronounced “Lurv” in German. Stop trying to tell your granny to suck eggs. 😉

          8. Morning Bill
            Many years ago all the dogs went to a concert and like we hang our coats up the dogs were required to hang their arses up when the went into the theatre.
            Unfortunately there was a fire and the theatre had to be evacuated. All the dogs rushed out and grabbed an arse from the cloakroom – they didn’t always grab the right one and from that time they have always sniffed each others arse to see if it is theirs

          11. Isn’t there a story or a verse in a song which explains that at creation the anal orifices of dogs were wrongly distributed which is why each dog has a sniff at other dogs in the hope of finding his own?

          13. As you will be aware Dogs have very sensitive noses. They also have anal glands. I think they use it to identify other dogs.

          17. I once watched un ancien Frog tackling a boiled egg. He tapped & peeled back the shell at the top & took out a couple of spoonfuls of white. Then he raised the egg to his lips & Zut!, with a noise like a loo flushing on a plane the entire contents of the shell were gone. I was a teenager at the time, but I’ve never forgotten it.

          18. Two three-minute eggs are de rigueur for me after I have freshly baked a loaf. I don’t mind that some of the white is unset since it guarantees a soft yolk. Buttered “soldiers” and a bit of salt? Heaven!

          19. Depends on the size of the eggs. I have to give my large Bessie Braddock’s 5 minutes & still have a runny yolk.

    3. Spot on Grizz. The ghastly Lords’ Media Centre is known colloquially as ‘Cherie Blair’s Mouth’. It is as good as useless functionally as it removes the commentary team from the action. I believe they were granted a single opening window (along with officious threats) to placate the objectors.

      The skyline of the City of London and Westminster was for so long dominated by St Paul’s Cathedral and the City of London churches. Now as you note it is wrecked by the silly Observation Wheel, Gherkin, Shard, Cheesegrater and profoundly ugly Walkie Talkie. The Nat West Tower by Seifert started the rot and continues to blight the area.

    1. Has she used a skin lightener in the picture and if so is it the same one The Duchess of Sussex uses?

  23. I tried to apply on-lIne for my routine medication on Friday and got a reply saying I was applying too soon and could not apply unt il today. The first time I have had that refusal. They must have calculater from my last application which I had made very late and only just got the medication on the day I had run out and needed it. I am not too worried as I reckon I could manage without my medication for a week or more but there are some people, such as insulin users who require medication every day without fail. Perhaps this is a preparation for Brexit but it could endanger lives..

    1. I get three months tabs at a time – and can’t re-order until four weeks before renewal.

      However, because of NHS inefficiency, the last time I re-ordered – they gave me nine months supply – instead of three. So much less worry!

    2. ‘Morning, Clydesider, I too have had this and am told it’s the computer wot told me so. it seems the NHS has only now discovered ‘Just In Time’ (JIT) in order to save money on unused inventory. It’s a pity they haven’t told their suppliers, as I’m told that I can only have one month’s supply of Entresto, due to ‘Production Problems’.

      I rather suspect that rather than running JIT, they are running HARP and OSWO. (Half-Arsëd Requirements Planning and Oh Shït, We’re Out).

    3. Do you use SystemOnline to order your meds?? I’ve ordered meds a but nearly, but only been refused because the practice wanted to do a review. SystemOnline allows non-routine meds to be ordered and also allows comments. I’d also complain to the practice,and get them to change the parameter for re-ordering.

      2. Yes It is System on- line that my doctors use. Any complaints have to be referred to the Practice.

      3. Common sense needs to be stamped out in all institutions which claim to foster academic excellence!

    2. I’m afraid I only got as far as seeing an American baring her saleswoman teeth at me to wonder if she is better off addressing her home culture, rather than presuming that we are all Americans, with the same cultural setup the world over.

      I googled her instead, to see if I could find anything in writing, rather than watching the pictures. The argument falls the moment it becomes a white vs. black issue, similar to the cowboys and indians of my childhood – another American device that sits uncomfortably here.

      I once met a family of Aborigines in a park in Adelaide, South Australia. They stared at me, which is their way of saying hello and not at all threatening. What struck me, as an Englishman born, bred and still living in England, was that despite our vastly different appearances, we have one thing in common – we are both indigenes. This is what defeats any American take on the subject, which dwells instead on the rights of one group of settlers over another, and simply does not recognise the concept of being indigenous people.

      Now my brother raised in the same household I was, is now a long-settled citizen of Australia. Despite having a great deal in common culturally, he and I are opposites in that I am an indigene, and he is a settler. How does that work in any discussion on diversity?

      1. I’m afraid I only got as far as seeing an American baring her saleswoman teeth at me to wonder if she is better off addressing her home culture, rather than presuming that we are all Americans, with the same cultural setup the world over.”

        I take that point and I agree that Americans generally only take the American (blinkered) perspective on things and can come across as stilted as a result.

        However, I accept her general message as one I agree with. The Liberal/Left takeover of all places of higher education needs to be addressed. And quickly!

        1. Except that ‘Liberal’ means something quite different here (at least with my generation) than it does in America, and in Australia ‘Liberal’ means Conservative.

          I regard current developments in our education system as anything but liberal, and their brand of selective supremacism pandering to the Davos rich, anything but Left Wing.

          1. And Australians have adopted the curious method of spelling Labour as “Labor”, probably to gain succour with the Yanks. (In a similar way as they did when they ditched the pound for the dollar).

          2. I was last in Australia in 2011, so it might have changed since then, but there was always one big difference between the Aussies and the Yanks, and that is over their attitude to failure.

            To be a “loser” in America is to end up subhuman trailer trash, dismissed from all involvement from polite hardworking God-fearing society, a sort of despised untermensch, where ruin is expected as one’s just desserts, with eternal damnation to follow. You should shoot yourself, but if you cannot do that, at least go into a school or shopping mall and shoot everyone in sight before the cops take you out of your misery.

            To be a “loser” in Australia is someone who has tried to do something they are quite unsuited for, made a complete hash of it, and left a disaster mess of bodge behind them. Down under, the instinct is for mates to gather round with “you’ll be right, mate”, cobble together a workround and then go off for a beer and a barbie to celebrate. There’s nothing more entertaining for an Aussie than to see someone try and fail catastrophically at something. The big sin there is not trying.

            I once saw a French-style mansion house built in an Adelaide suburb using nothing but corrugated iron and stained 4×2. Clearly, whoever had made it had spent too long in the sun, and had Captain Haddock had any architectural sense of propriety, he would be issuing expletives that could be heard by the penguins. When it went up for sale, crowds gathered round from miles and miles to witness this extravaganza, and eventually it was the local MP who snapped it up.

  26. The weaponisation of information is mutating at alarming speed. Mon 19 Aug 2019 09.00 BST.

    While initially countries that were seasoned propagandists, such as Russia and North Korea, were identified as the main culprits, the list of states employing disinformation is growing. China is apparently using disinformation to portray Hong Kong protesters as proxies of nefarious western powers and violent rioters, potentially to prepare the ground for more violent intervention to suppress the movement. India has been the host of constant disinformation campaigns, either ahead of the most recent elections or during the current standoff with Pakistan over Kashmir. Lobbying and PR firms have now professionalised online disinformation, as the cases of Sir Lynton Crosby’s CTF Partners in the UK and the troll farms in the Philippines indicate.

    The UK is undoubtedly (and unusually) the world leader bar none in this activity. From the Steele Dossier (designed to overthrow the elected leader of the United States) to the False Flag Skripal scam and fake Syrian gas attacks, we are the masters of disinformation incompetence. The domestic mainstream media is similarly compromised; no shred of truth illumines the news reports of the BBC or the pages of the newspapers. We have out Orwelled Orwell!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/19/weaponisation-of-information-mutating-privacy

    2. And none are so effective as Google, who determines what news outlets appear in searches, who can make news it doesn’t approve of disappear, or appear so far down search results to be all but vanished.

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T5aOePmsC8E
      The CONSPIRACY to SILENCE the MASSES (Black Pigeon Speaks)

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=abORAPMM4lY
      Google: The Ministry of Truth (Dave Cullen -Computing Forever)

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2quCgvqeZrY
      Tucker Carlson: Google wants to hack the 2020 election

  27. An observation from the DT comments with which I agree:

    “Every day we get yet another Remoaner given publicity. If the BBC had been pro Germany during WW2, Churchill would have closed it down. Time for firm action to be taken against the BBC and the Remoaner leaders in Parliament.”

    1. Now that Remoaning has become so grotesquely over the top, I suspect that allowing the Beeb to keep pumping the trash is a good move. They destroy their own credibility that way, and make it easier for the government to sell it off / make it subscription only, after 1 November. To attack the Beeb before that date would suggest the government have something to hide vis a vis Brexit. Afterwards – well, who cares?

      1. I’m sorry, Anne, I thought he was, that’s why I don’t listen to the BBC at all.

        Good morning.

        1. #metoo, Tom. No news, current affairs, politics, “discussions”, “comedy…

          Just Radio 3 – and that gets turned off often enough when they drag Brexit into it…

  28. Well, they have all buggered orf. Nice way to spend an hour away from the office, I guess.

    1. Not everyone occupies an ‘office’, sitting on their fat arses behind a ‘desk’ during the working day.

      Millions of people actually WORK for a living making those desk jockey’s lives more comfortable than ever!

    2. But did they leave with beaming faces at the thought of the spondulicks from the sale?

      1. One of them was gushing so much that another said, “It is for sale, you know…”

    2. A No 10 source told the BBC it was leaked to the Sunday Times by a disgruntled ex-minister in an attempt to influence discussions with EU leaders.

      At least they haven’t bothered calling the cops in! A pointless exercise!

      1. Not so sure about that Sos,loadsa money in all these causes
        Providing you have the “correct” views of course

    3. ‘Morning, Rik, if it ain’t black and white or controlled by lights, it ain’t legal.

      1. It looks to be controlled by buttons (I’ve been trained to spot these things in photos, by Pavlov’s “I’m not a robot” although I’ve been captchad a few times…)

  31. How to deal with a Snotty Receptionist.

    Yesterday I had an appointment to see the doctor for a prostate
    examination.

    Of course I was a bit on edge because all my friends have
    either gone under the knife or had similar treatments.

    The waiting room was filled with patients.

    As I approached the receptionist’s desk, I noticed that she was a
    large unfriendly woman who looked like a Sumo wrestler.

    I gave her my name, and in a very loud voice, she said,

    “YES, I HAVE YOUR NAME HERE. YOU WANT TO SEE THE
    DOCTOR ABOUT IMPOTENCE, RIGHT?

    All the patients in the waiting room snapped their heads around to
    look at me, a now very embarrassed man. But as usual, I recovered
    quickly, and in an equally loud voice replied,

    “NO, I’VE COME TO INQUIRE ABOUT A SEX CHANGE
    OPERATION, BUT I DON’T WANT THE SAME DOCTOR
    THAT DID YOURS.”

    The room erupted in applause!

    DON’T MESS WITH OLD RETIRED MEN.

  32. How to deal with a Snotty Receptionist.

    Yesterday I had an appointment to see the doctor for a prostate
    examination.

    Of course I was a bit on edge because all my friends have
    either gone under the knife or had similar treatments.

    The waiting room was filled with patients.

    As I approached the receptionist’s desk, I noticed that she was a
    large unfriendly woman who looked like a Sumo wrestler.

    I gave her my name, and in a very loud voice, she said,

    “YES, I HAVE YOUR NAME HERE. YOU WANT TO SEE THE
    DOCTOR ABOUT IMPOTENCE, RIGHT?

    All the patients in the waiting room snapped their heads around to
    look at me, a now very embarrassed man. But as usual, I recovered
    quickly, and in an equally loud voice replied,

    “NO, I’VE COME TO INQUIRE ABOUT A SEX CHANGE
    OPERATION, BUT I DON’T WANT THE SAME DOCTOR
    THAT DID YOURS.”

    The room erupted in applause!

    DON’T MESS WITH OLD RETIRED MEN.

  34. Daily Brexit Betrayal

    Thoroughly debunks Project Yellowhammer/Fear

    “Boris Johnson

    accused a group of Remain-supporting ex-ministers led by Philip Hammond

    of attempting to undermine his bid to negotiate a new Brexit deal from

    the EU. The Prime Minister’s team accused the group of “deliberately

    leaking” details of Government no deal planning ahead of crucial talks

    this week with Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel. The war of words

    escalated as Mr Hammond denied he or his allies had leaked the

    “Operation Yellowhammer” document and accused Mr Johnson of having “no

    negotiating strategy and no serious plan for a no-deal”. […] However,

    Mr Johnson’s team said the plans – warning of medicine and food

    shortages and the risk of riots – were drawn up by Theresa May’s

    government and the leak was purposefully timed to frustrate Mr Johnson’s

    efforts to secure a new deal to exit on Oct 31.” (paywalled link)

    Of course Mr Hammond denies the leak – he would, wouldn’t he,

    and anyway, it wasn’t him who left a ‘stash of papers’ in a pub, was

    it! That’s called ‘plausible deniability’ in government parlance.

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-monday-19th-august-2019/

    1. Yes, children, it’s a tape. People used to record politicians on tape and sell the tapes to the News of the World.
      The politicians used to destroy the tapes, like in the photograph, if they found them first.

    4. You can almost see the sense of relief in the postures of the German Generals that they have survived the war and are sitting at a table doing this with the British, and not in chains in a Russian camp.

  40. BBC Propaganda News. No-Deal Brexit will result in clothing shortages due to restricted imports.

    Jeremy Corbyn has suggested a return to CC41 standard clothing. Suits for men and boys and women’s and girls’ dresses and accessories (hosiery and underwear) will be made to a standard pattern from ‘standard cloth’ produced in re-opened mills in t’north.
    All items will have a fixed price and only available on the high Street (Not the Internet) from Burton’s and the
    All clothing will be a standard grey colour to prevent discrimination.
    A scheme allowing “swapping” of clothing will be trialled in Oxofam stores and overseen by Dianne Abbott.
    All clothing will be the property of the State upon the death of the owner.

      1. Only two years ago our dining chairs went to the place of final rest. Utility furniture used for over half a century.

      3. Utility clothing restricted the amount of fabric that could be used. The abaya uses far too much and there certainly wouldn’t be enough left to add a hijab and niqab to complete the outfit.

    3. Jeremy will close down Burtons ( Montagu Burton ) for obvious reasons.
      For the many not the ………….oops !!

    1. That is probably also the place where the moronic breed of pseudo-journalists that are nowadays employed by the Daily Telegraph get their words from.

      Already, in the past two days, I have read articles, in that rag, containing the words “train line”, “train station”, “seagulls” and a reference to “rare breeding terns” without any mention of which of the seventeen species of tern that have appeared in the British Isles they were!

      The standard of reporting in the DT, these days, is beyond lamentable.

  42. Infrastructure update. After the Sultana’s journey from hell by bus from Edinburgh to Elgin, there is now another chapter. Our eldest travelled by train from Glasgow to Inverness last Friday. The train arrived an hour and a half late. The standard time taken to cover the 170 miles is three and a half hours per timetable. That standard time is an average of about 48 mph. Actual average speed was around 34 mph. About the same speed as a professional racing cyclist. This seems to be about normal, unless we have been exceptionally unlucky.
    Why do we accept all this stuff? Endless excuses from the politicians who approve the contracts for these services being given out to foreign companies who see it as a chance to get money for nothing. The only changes made when a rail franchise changes from one group to another involves half a dozen executives. The drivers and other staff are all the same. There is a huge expense in repainting the train sets, which the franchisees will get back, and then it reverts to how it was before.

    2. That is even slower than a Canadian train! Ottawa to Toronto takes just over four hours and that is about 250 miles.

        1. But you have steep hills on that Bergen to Oslo run, the Ottawa route is flat.

          So why do they go for hs2 when the normal journey is so much slower

          .

  43. He’s just bl**dy done it.
    Corbyn has announced he will make it compulsory for Local Councils to offer a community level youth training scheme to give children moral character standards.

    Sky News 11:30am.

    Seig Heil

    1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1d3222f4904395b084e767c838e0fcc907b2f041bee014d86c782f801d345a72.jpg

      Those on the far left do like to grab them young and mould them into thinking the “correct” way. I wonder if the lessons on civic responsibility will include the vital importance of never allowing Marxist / Communists to gain power in a country?

      They could highlight the 100 million innocent civilians who have died under their rule in the past century.

      1. “Give me a child until he is seven years old and he is mine for life.”

        This is what the Jesuits rather than Hitler said

        1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d812b167b42f856d72b34311f4b7dac192132ed33366c883f8542ab7d5eb515.jpg

          It goes back a lot further than that. Those in power have always known how important it can be to shape a child’s mind. Which for basic morality, such as don’t kill random people, treat others with respect, etc. is fine. But recent political ideology that kills and enslaves millions – no. Communism – hell no.

          (Aristotle 384–322 BC. I had to look it up to get the dates right.)

      2. We need some form of National Service to get our military up to scratch. Regulars are leaving faster than recruits are replacing them.

          1. I think you and I know the reason. However we need the military for our protection and if I were an unemployed youth with no prospects I would consider a career in the military. It’s better to sign on than to be called up I assume. Ex military types on this site are usually proud of their service to the country and on Armistice day at the Cenotaph our old soldiers, airmen and sailors march with their heads held high. I can’t do that because I was never in the military.

          2. I have to say I turned down the chance to don khaki for two years (along with a three month trip up to South West Africa and Angola every year for ten years) as it would have meant fighting for the maintenance of apartheid and that didn’t sit well with me.

          3. While I’m glad apartheid was consigned to history, what do you think of the current situation in South Africa? Murder rate even worse than Londonistan, and elderly white farmers sitting targets for horrific attacks and murders. It seems to be following the example of Zimbabwe.

          4. I had really hoped that once the Nats fell from power in ’94 that the country might be run on truly non-racial lines. Alas, it was not to be. If anything, the country (along with the rest of the world) has become obsessed by race and victimhood. Add that to a kleptomaniacal ruling class and I’m afraid it points to being a failed state in the not-too-distant future. I still have friends and family living there and they say that the national infrastructure is in the process of collapse. It really angers me as I consider myself to be an African – I was born in Southern Rhodesia and have sent more than half my life in southern Africa.

            There’s a poem by Rhodesian Michelle Frost that sums up my feelings on this subject:

            Homeland

            Within my soul, within my mind,
            There lies a place I cannot find.
            Home of my heart. Land of my birth.
            Smoke-coloured stone and flame-coloured earth.
            Electric skies. Shivering heat.
            Blood-red clay beneath my feet.

            At night when finally alone,
            I close my eyes – and I am home.
            I kneel and touch the blood-warm sand
            And feel the pulse beneath my hand
            Of an ancient life too old to name,
            In an ancient land too wild to tame.

            How can I show you what I feel?
            How can I make this essence real?
            I search for words in dumb frustration
            To try and form some explanation,
            But how can heart and soul be caught
            In one-dimensional written thought?

            If love and longing are a “fire”
            And man “consumed” by his desire,
            Then this love is no simple flame
            That mortal thought can hold or tame.
            As deep within the earth’s own core
            The love of home burns evermore.

            But what is home? I hear them say,
            This never was yours anyway.
            You have no birthright to this place,
            Descendant from another race.
            An immigrant? A pioneer?
            You are no longer welcome here.

            Whoever said that love made sense?
            “I love” is an “imperfect” tense.
            To love in vain has been man’s fate
            From history to present date.
            I have no grounds for dispensation,
            I know I have no home or nation.

            For just one moment in the night
            I am complete, my soul takes flight.
            For just one moment…. then it’s gone
            and I am once again undone.
            Never complete. Never whole.
            White Skin and an African soul.

          5. That’s beautiful! And of course the land was pretty empty when the Dutch settlers moved in. The natives were the nomadic San people and the black tribes moved in later.
            We spent three weeks in South Africa a few years ago, in a game reserve in the north, tracking & monitoring a small group of rhino. Sadly, one was killed by poachers while we were there.
            The country was beautiful – the red earth, the mountains, the wildlife……… but nobody seems to value the wild animals except as a commodity to be exploited. Lion farms in particular are an abomination. I don’t think I’ll be going back there.

          6. I badly miss the bush and the fauna. I adore the wide horizons and I love the stars in the southern hemisphere. I saw the Southern Cross again earlier this year when I was in Brazil and it lifted my heart.

            Whilst I agree with you i.r.o. the commercial attitude to the animals, I think it is the only way to (hopefully) guarantee t.heir long-term survival. Unless you give the indigenes a reason to preserve the wildlife, they’ll either poach it out of existence or flog it off to the Chinese, as they’re doing with the rest of their natural resources.

            A story about lion farms from some years ago: a friend knew a chap who worked at the Lion Park near Broederstroom north west of Jo’burg. The Entrance office was repeatedly burgled overnight by people looking for the day’s takings. Apparently it was getting beyond a joke (the police were useless) so the owner installed an alarm that was connected to his house which abutted the park. Sure enough a couple of weeks later, the alarm was triggered and the owner hotfooted it over to the office , disturbing the two burglars when he arrived. They fled but their mistake was to climb the fence INTO the park. The owner locked up the office and the park gates and left it to nature to resolve the problem.

            The lions weren’t very hungry the next day apparently. Oh, and the police still weren’t interested in either the burglary or the scraps of clothing that were found not far from the fence.

            I am not taking a moral position on this story but it highlights the differing attitudes and positions that arise when public services (in this case, policing) collapse.

          7. I prefer the Kenyan model – no trophy hunting and the conservancies have shown that community engagement is the way forward.
            I’m not saying it’s perfect but in spite of all the problems and the usual african corruption in high places, wildlife in the conservancies seems to be well protected and thriving.

          10. A couple of years ago, I marched in a Remembrance Sunday parade behind my MP. He shuffled and had no idea about marching. How hard can it be? I didn’t do much (not much call for it in a hole underground), but even so I manage.

    3. Presumably ”moral character” is defined as communism, also known as Labour Party policy..

  45. Wales’ first electric bus will start work on the roads of Newport this week.

    Newport Transport has bought a former demonstration bus which will be the first in Wales to be used on a permanent basis.

    Newport’s first electric bus is three years old and cost £250,000 compared with the £340,000 cost of buying the vehicles new.
    The buses’ batteries need to be replaced every six years and cost £150,000

    1. My heart bleeds.
      If I liked popcorn I’d sit back and enjoy the unfolding spectacle.

  47. Another reason to panic……for the Remoaners

    EU EXPORTS DOWN STRONGLY, UK EXPORTS UP STRONGLY

    Remainers pointing to soft economic numbers in the UK should note that trade between euro-zone member states fell by 6.6% in June compared to the same period last year. That was the fastest such contraction since 2013. Exports from the eurozone to the rest of the world also dropped by 4.7%, the fastest rate since 2016. The EU can’t blame the fall in intra-bloc trade on China…

    This is massively under-performing compared to exports of goods and services from the UK which grew 4.5% in June, the most since October 2016. Shipments of goods in particular surged 7.6%, driven by machinery & transport equipment. The euro looks over-valued…

    https://order-order.com/2019/08/19/eu-exports-strongly-uk-exports-strongly/

    1. Another effect, customarily overlooked by the commentariat, is that Mercedes-Benz are indifferent if they sell a car to a UK buyer or to a Club Med buyer because, via the TARGET2 account at the Bundesbank, Merc get the correct amount of Euros credited to their account, Alas, the UK sale results in real money (£sterling) at the Bundesbank whereas the sale to Club Med adds to the TARGET2 balance (currently roughly Euro 1 trillion) festering at the Bundesbank, in effect a hunk of unconvertible currency worth about as much as the equivalent in Zambian kwacha.

    2. There has been much international instability recently, for many reasons. Britain is no worse than anywhere else. Last time I looked, the pound had gone up again. It suits the media to make every move look bad ( it’s gone up again ? But look how much bigger it was three years ago ). If a cat sneezes, it’s because of Brexit. Close your eyes and ignore the media.

    1. Surely every remainer in Clarke’s national unity team should be paired with a leaver or else the term ‘national unity’ is about as big a lie as the title of the Ms Swinson’s party which actually takes pride in being neither liberal nor democratic?

      1. Morning R,
        Might be some difficulty in finding enough leavers within the politico fraternity.
        I have always maintained that the lib/dems have been the most honest among the political wretches in so far as always being pro eu, no pretence.
        Where as the lab/tory have always been fifth column over the eu ruling decades.

  49. Transgender cricketer reignites row over who should be allowed to play women’s sports after becoming a star for her Kent team

    So another genetic male playing as a woman is winning hands down. Well that’s not a surprise it is not a level playing field

    This nonsense will ruin woman’s sport. I think though this club is most likely to end up being thrown out of the league for daring to question this

    Maxine Blythin, who is more than 6ft tall, has a batting average of 124 and has hit four centuries.
    But her success as Kent’s first transgender woman cricketer – playing in the Women’s Cricket Southern League – has upset campaign group Fair Play For Women.

    Fair Play For Women said the policy was unfair at a time when the game is improving opportunities for female players.
    Dr Nicola Williams, director of the group, said: ‘Female-only teams are vital to uphold fair competition for women in cricket.
    ‘Opening up the women’s game to cross-dressing males who do nothing more than ‘identify as a woman’ shows utter contempt for the women’s game.

    2. Bill, sweetheart, cricket is almost always played on a level playing field, often referred to as a “pitch”.

          3. Reminds me of the old joke – when Southern Railways announced delays caused by a bridge failure at Two Bridges…

    3. The first thought that springs to mind is: “If you were a real man, would you want to win a trophy for beating women?”

      Those pushing this agenda are attempting to corrupt society with their madness. They would be slapped on the legs, told to stop being so silly, and sent to bed with no supper in the real world.

    4. Fair Play For Women said the policy was unfair at a time when the game is improving opportunities for female players.

      My heart bleeds for you! Tell your feminist pals!

  51. Do we have to have this picture of the repulsive, treacherous unphotogenic Mr Clarke at the top of our comments today? Can he not be edited out by a sensitive censor?

    1. I said to the Parisian waiter, “Do you have frogs legs?”
      He said, “Mais, bien sur.”
      So I told him to hop into the kitchen and make me a sandwich, but he was just too slow.

        2. We know the real reason… From Wiki.

          It has a large African population, mostly from Sub-Saharan countries (Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast and many others) and East Asian countries, such as China, Vietnam and Cambodia. The city also includes significant, but less numerous, communities from Portugal and North African countries like Morocco and Algeria. Recently, the department, and the Parisian suburbs in general, has seen a new wave of immigration coming from Eastern Europe. Noisy-le-Grand now has communities from former Eastern Bloc countries like Romania, Bulgaria and Russia.

          As of 1998 there were 2,700 East Asians in Noisy le Grand, making
          up about 5-6% of the city; many of them lived in the same complexes
          occupied by Africans and other foreigners, and Asians were widely
          distributed around the commune.[3]

          Noisy-Le-Grand has recently seen an increasing number of noted
          high crime levels in the area, notably drug-dealing and public
          drunkenness. A customer shot a waiter dead at an eatery on the outskirts
          of Paris, apparently enraged at being made to wait for a sandwich. [4]

    1. I wonder how the Belgians in Brussels will treat the EU Quislings, with their “special malls” and luxury accommodations, when the great experiment eventually implodes.

      The Molenbeeks will be in flames too.

    2. I thought for one glorious second that the opening frames showed the destruction of Berlaymont…..and the end of the EUSSR.

  54. Afternoon thinkers

    I was up and about and organised quite early for a hospital appointment . sun was shining , breezy , managed to park and was seen on time.

    Moh and I did shopped for a few odds and ends in town afterwards , Rare experience for Moh, we went into M+S, they have a sale .. and lots of discounts . He bought a nice red pair of light weight chino trousers for half price, under £20 .. I suspect he will play golf in them .

    Our M+S will be closing in February .. A petition is screaming don’t close it .. I was 26 years old when we moved to this area of Dorset .. Dorchester M+S was part of the social meet up / friendly shopping experience, small store with a nice foodhall. There are a lot of empty shops now, local people are really shocked .

    The rumour is that in order to expand the shopping experience of M+S to accommodate the nearly new huge expansion of POUNDBURY , everyone thought it would be a wonderful idea to relocate the store to Poundbury .. to larger premises , and a better selection of stock and a more satisfying retail experience.

    I have been told that the miserable mean minded Prince of Wales refused permission for an M+S relocation .

    That man has been killing off trade in old Dorchester by virtue of dismissing household names , but accepting quite snobby emporiums that only attract London type full wallets.. bespoke is the word.. that locals cannot afford . Shop rents are just too high for many to cope with .

    Places like Orvis succeed, but M+S will be snatched away … just like that!

    So to groan and moan , I think that M+S have had a knee jerk reaction , and are just abandoning the County town whereas the little Weymouth branch battles on , only accessible if you can find a parking space anywhere in the town .

    People still have money to spend , but how and where is a different matter!

      1. Sainsburys win the prize here for self-destruction. In a great catchment area with a busy store, they began by reducing staffing, then not re-stocking, mostly with things that were most wanted. They put up the prices of things that everyone wanted, so most people just moved elsewhere. This is a fairly affluent area, but rich people don’t like being ripped off any more than poor ones do.I suppose they fiddle their accounts like all the other stores do, to disguise bad management.

        1. On my visit to Kwikfit, I went to the Sainsbury’s next door and bought some strawberries as well as my Maggi Wurze. Strawberries very disappointing. Sell by/Use by date today, but they were going mushy on Saturday and I had to throw some away.

          1. You go to Kwikfit ? I went once and asked for a quote. When they gave it me, I had a quick fit.

        2. They thought they would be sold to Walmart ( Asda) but it was blocked. So they had run the business down for nothing. Sainsbury big doners and supporters of labour.

    2. M&S are too pricey on most things. When money is tight for families as it has been now for over ten years then fancy shopping is soon knocked on the head to be replaced by shopping in places like Iceland, Aldi and Lidl which are all doing really well.
      Rather well off pensioners may still have money to spend but the average family doesn’t. Wages are still lower in real terms than in the run up to the global financial crisis. Private unsecured debt is at crisis levels. House prices have stopped rising but haven’t fallen much and rents are still rising. The cost of having young children keeps increasing.

        1. Flat on market now, still unsold but it’s only been three weeks.

          I have 38 hours work this week at a massive £3.50 per hour.

          On successful completion of that I should move up to 48 hour weeks at £7 per hour.

          The amount of employers that flout NMW legislation is astounding.

          1. How on earth do they get away with paying that?

            Well at least things are finally moving in the right direction for you. Good luck.

          2. Well it’s cash in hand, working as a controller in a cab firm. Yet I told you before even ‘legal’ jobs pay under the NMW because it isn’t policed very well. When I worked in Potter’s Bar I found out that virtually all staff working in franchises and independent stores were denied NMW. Only shops like Boots, Sainsbury’s and McDonalds paid a legal wage. The boys in the pizza shop next door were paid a straight £5 per hour and had to work incredibly long hours to earn enough to pay their rents and bills.
            I’m sure many people have no idea of the scale of this going on. The ONS says about half a million people don’t earn NMW and they say that’s probably an overestimation. I think they’ve undershot by a long way.

          3. We do what we must.

            Do you know what area you will be moving to and can you get some decent paid work lined up. No need for specifics.

      2. I used to work with someone who was at Gordonstoun with him. Always swore he was a decent guy, who put up with a lot while there, but definitely “average” academically.

        1. I don’t think he would claim to be a superbrain – but he believes in what he does and has taken over a lot of the Queen’s role.

    5. Are there any locals in Poundbury? Or are they all wealthy incomers?

      I don’t very often do shopping (apart from the weekly food shop) but I think the M&S in Gloucester closed a while ago. BHS premises still empty after a couple of years and the city centre is much quieter than it used to be. Most of the regenerated docks area is taken up with places to eat.

      1. Not many locals in Poundbury, no one can afford the prices , I liken it to Highgate cemetery.. a mausoleum of wealth and indifference .. the living dead, retirees from the home counties and Kent.. lots of wealth producers/ finance offices, swanky cars , bespoke butchers , curtain shops, wedding dress shops , outstandingly beautiful and expensive florists, , some coffee table type arty farty dust collecting ornament shops etc etc all the stuff you see in glossy high end magazines .

      2. To tell you the truth , some of the Tu clothing is excellent .. Nicely made ..

        I wear lots of jeans and chunky jumpers, and I have orange, blue, red , green pink jeans , I love them and what a great price they are .

        Do you really have a flamingo suit.. it is very dashing and bold , bet it looks good on you .

        1. I haven’t picked it up yet but i have paid for it. Soon to collect. I have a party coming up soon and then a wedding reception so i will post some pics of me in the suit looking daft. :o)

  55. Good afternoon! How I’ve missed all of you. I’ve been away over the weekend to Bury St E. staying with a cousin. I could access everything on my iPad except nttl.blog; the little round whirly timer thingy (apologies for the technical jargon) just kept on going round….. and round…. and round, eventually throwing me out to claim there had been too many re-directs. I have no idea what this means in internet terms. I am delighted to be back home (it feels as if I have been away ages) and back online with the nottle gang once more. I feel as though I have been living in a different dimension for several days, a dimension with a left wing bias. It is a completely disorientating, different world.

    2. Good afternoon.

      I have cousins who live just outside BSE at Risby. Clearly it is the place to have cousins! They are very kind and drive us to Stansted Airport and look after our car when we are in Turkey aboard Mianda. We manage to connect with the Nottlers site and so can keep in touch as we sail around in the Eastern Mediterranean. Off there for a couple of weeks in September and then more French courses in October..

      1. If you are still doing your French courses when my grandson is of an age, I will send him off to you and Caroline, parents permitting. I hope sincerely that French is included in his studies (heaven forbid Mandarin; some strange Arab language; Punjabese etc). Our two boys ‘did’ German at school and got really good grades* but they later realised that French would have been more useful to them. I really wanted them to learn a foreign language beyond the lip-service that comprehensive education pays to this part of a child’s education as I feel the learning thereof enables the brain to make connections into areas of thought (unconnected with actual language) that otherwise would not occur.

        How about French courses for those of us who would love to improve our long ago school French for vacation (and longer stay)purposes?

        *thanks to a truly admirable tutor who, during the course of conversation, I discovered had gone to the same school as myself ‘oop north’ in the 1950s. And here we were, in adjacent Cambridgeshire villages.

    3. Welcome back PM,

      I think Nottler replaces the Archers , I used to miss it like mad if I couldn’t listen to it , but now I really don’t bother .. here is the best , feels nice.

    5. ….. “the little round whirly timer thingy” …..
      What Bozza described as the ‘pizza wheel of doom’.

    2. Corbynliner tweets:

      “Congratulations to our friends in the Irish republican independence struggle”

    3. If it should kick off again, the security forces know that in 2070 they might be prosecuted, so they should just send in the SAS to assassinate the leaders.

  57. We were promised change – but corruption and brutality still rule in Zimbabwe. Mon 19 Aug 2019.

    Mnangagwa has failed at the most basic political reform. The mask has fallen away leaving in its stead a man more brutal and devoid of character than his predecessor. In the wake of his stewardship lies a country where individuals cannot afford a decent life and are punished for trying to register their growing discontent. It is time for the UK and Europe, who backed Mnangagwa, to stand with democratic forces and innocent, brutalised citizens – not a corrupt authoritarian regime incapable of reforming politically and economically.

    Nonsense. It’s a black paradise. It was only those white colonialists holding it back!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/19/corruption-brutality-zimbabwe-emmerson-mnangagwa-protesters

    1. Let Lammy go and use his powers of persuasion to sort the place out

      He will come back and say it is the White Colonialists fault

      The selfish boggers allowed themselves to be murdered

    2. You would think that all the prominent black politicians of the West would be flocking to sort the place out.

      Obama for Pres, plus all those loud-mouthed Democrats; add in Lammy, Abbott and other Afro-politicians from around the world.

      Hell’s teeth it is one of the richest countries in Africa in terms of resourses. The Westerners can show the world just what could be done.

      Europe could even throw in all the brain-surgeons, engineers and teachers etc who are flocking to our shores from Sub Saharan Africa, plus the MENA to help them on their way.

      Or perhaps not.

        1. Haven’t they torn this statue down and replaced it with one of Chaka murdering his mother?

          1. Back in 1988 we were in Alice Springs taking the dawn balloon ride. The operators were South African, and they told us that along with many others had decided to bail when it moved to black rule. Looks to me like anyone white still living there should “get out of Dodge” before it is too late – it’s just a matter of time.

          2. My sisters and brother are in denial , as are their friends.. As long as they are having fun and enjoying a lifestyle they wouldn’t have here.. yet the coastal regions are being wrecked , as are business and neighbourhoods .

            They are braving it out .. but things WILL not go full circle ..

      2. The only thing that people like Lammy hate more than white people is black people.

        However it is easier to be seen to hate white people more.

      3. The Westerners did “show the world just what could be done”. Then in a fit of lefty PC, Wilson & co installed Mugabe, who destroyed it all.

        1. White Westerners.

          I would like to see black Westerners putting their skills where their mouths are.

          1. Those that really could do some good all have the good sense to keep themselves and their families far away from such places, as their “reward” would probably be a bullet.

    3. If black lives really do matter then virtually all the black leaders in Africa would be deposed and truly benevolent people would put in their place.

      When I think of my dear, kind, civilised, erudite and wise father who was the governor of the Northern Sudan and then I see the foul tyrants and the destruction and misery they have wreaked and I hear their hateful racist clamours against the whites I can see that the wold has lost its judgement.

      1. It is the hypocritical silence of the Political West that grates on my nerves Richard!

    4. Send David Lammy! After all, he’s always complaining about white people trying to fix Africa.

      1. That is just emergency overflow from the hot chocolate factory around the corner.

        1. I seem to remember about waterfalls in the limestone regions that undercut themselves at the base, so the falls are slowly creeping steadily towards the source.

          2. I think the bedrock there is a blend of sandstones and shales. The softer shales would erode, undercutting the stronger sandstone. Maybe carb-limestone too.

  59. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been urged to lead by example and
    stop using private jets after they apparently flew in them twice in
    less than a week in trips to the south of France and Ibiza.

    The royal couple arrived with their three-month-old son, Archie, in Nice on Wednesday on board a 12-seater Cessna aircraft, The Sun reported.”

    Bloody stupid. I’m not a fan of the pair, but do the media want them to walk everywhere ?

    1. Yes.

      Alone, unguarded.

      Pushing a pram and coping with the Tube, buses and the many diverse and illegal people of whom they claim to be so supportive.

      1. The ordinary people who work hard , commute , pay taxes who also get NO return on their savings , maintain and keep these parasitic people who have no regard for anyone else but themselves .

        1. Nothing wrong with circumcision – so all of my wives tell me (well, to be honest, told me….long ago…{:¬((…)

    3. After Harry’s barefoot preaching to a gathering of celebs about the climate emergency, I would have expected him to book a few rows on easy jet.

    4. Everybody knows that the elites are immune to the affects of the climate change scam, it is a way of controlling the sheep, not the pigs.

  60. Why was a GCSE student disqualified for criticising halal meat?
    Brendan O’Neill – Coffee House – 19 August 2019 – 3:12 PM

    We have to talk about the schoolgirl who was disqualified from a GCSE exam on the grounds that she had made ‘obscene racial comments’ about Islam. This bizarre incident is being chalked up to overzealous wokeness on the part of some GCSE examiners. But it’s more than that. It tells us a bigger story about 21st-century Britain and the creeping criminalisation of any questioning of Islam. Too many institutions now believe it is their role to monitor and even punish anti-Islam ‘blasphemy’.

    The girl — Abigail Ward — is 16 years old and a strict vegetarian. In her GCSE Religious Studies exam she wrote some critical comments about halal meat. She described the butchery involved in the preparation of halal meat as ‘absolutely disgusting’. The exam board OCR accused her of having made ‘obscene racial comments’ and disqualified her exam paper. Her school appealed, and won. OCR apologised for the ‘upset and stress’ it had caused Miss Ward.

    But before we move on and shrug off this incident as the behaviour of an ‘overzealous, over-righteous’ examiner — as Miss Ward’s mother put it — we have to ask some questions. Primarily this one: why on earth was criticism of an Islamic practice presumed to be racist? And not only racist but obscenely racist?

    As Miss Ward’s school pointed out in its appeal, she had only expressed disgust at halal butchers, not at Muslims more broadly, far less at non-white people. Nothing in her exam answers could be construed as racist, the school said in its appeal, and OCR eventually accepted this.

    To demonise a 16-year-old girl as obscenely racist simply because she criticised a religious practice is pretty mad and immoral behaviour. But at the same time it feels familiar. It is in keeping with the broader woke taboo on criticising Islam. Today it is frequently assumed — by sections of the political class, by the educational establishment, by the commentariat — that anyone who feels uncomfortable with Islam and its beliefs and practices must be driven by a racial animus towards Muslims more broadly.

    Consider the media fury that enveloped Boris Johnson when he called the niqab an oppressive and ridiculous garment. He said not a single racist thing in his niqab-questioning newspaper column. In fact he defended the right of women to wear this archaic garment. And yet he was swiftly denounced as a far-right bigot.

    Or consider when Ofsted was denounced by 1,000 educationalists and faith leaders as ‘institutionally racist’ when it suggested its inspectors should raise questions if very young girls, of four or five years of age, are wearing the hijab to school. Again, criticism of an Islamic practice — and entirely legitimate criticism, too, given that covering very young girls in the hijab could have the unwitting effect of sexualising them — was denounced as racial bigotry.

    Or consider the latest report from the Muslim Council of Britain. It criticised Joanna Lumley for saying in a TV documentary that Kyrgyzstan has a ‘less strict Islamic feel’ than other Muslim nations; TV drama The Bodyguard for featuring a character in a hijab who comes across as oppressed and subservient; and the BBC for giving a ‘one-sided view on the hijab’ by interviewing one of the Iranian women who protested against compulsory hijab-wearing. What was the BBC meant to do — ask the theocratic rulers of Iran for their opposing opinion? This is bizarre.

    Again and again, all sorts of perfectly legitimate commentary on Islam is collapsed under the headings ‘prejudice’ or ‘bigotry’ or ‘racism’. And the political class actively stirs up this censorious, chilling approach to all things Islamic.

    The definition of Islamophobia put forward by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Muslims describes this phobia as being ‘rooted in racism’ and says it is ‘a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness’. It has been adopted by Labour, the Lib Dems, City Hall and numerous local councils.

    This is a really worrying definition. It is sufficiently vague that any strong-worded criticism of ‘expressions of Muslimness’ — for example the niqab or certain Koranic beliefs — could be construed as being ‘rooted in racism’. Should we really be surprised that school examiners are denouncing schoolgirls who criticise Islamic practices as obscenely racist when we live under a political elite that seems determined to rebrand questioning of Islam as a ‘type of racism’?

    No one benefits from the demonisation of criticism of Islam. It hurts free speech, it chills public debate, and it’s bad for Muslims too.

    There is unquestionably a problem of anti-Muslim bigotry today. But tackling such bigotry becomes more difficult in the current rush to brand every Islamo-sceptical utterance as an act of racism. We have to distinguish between genuine anti-Muslim bigotry and perfectly legitimate questioning or ridicule of Islam, in order that we might defend freedom speech and confront genuine prejudice against Muslims.

      1. Sorry Johnny, we’re going to have to lock you up for that. What would happen if everyone thought that way?

    2. Worth pointing out (again) that Islam isn’t a race. It isn’t even a religion. It is a fanatical ideology.

      [Waits for knock on door]

    3. “There is unquestionably a problem of anti-Muslim bigotry today.”

      I would say that there is an infinitely greater problem with the tolerance of islam at all.

      1. It’s more than just tolerance – it’s outright positive discrimination in favour of Islam.

        1. I was suggesting that even allowing the cult to be here at all is intolerable, let alone the media and many MP’s full-on support of the destruction of our culture 🙂

          1. MM,
            Mass uncontrolled immigration is in the
            lab/lib/con coalition parties manifesto is it not ? and been there for years.
            the peoples seem to find no fault over the years as the ballot booth proves.

    4. There is unquestionably a problem with anti-Christian bigotry today.

      But that seems to OK by the PTB and AoC. Why?

      2. Slaughtering a few Christians in far-off countries is perfectly fine. Hardly worth a mention. Probably asking for it.

    5. The Muslim Council of Britain is not a reputable organisation. A number of ” ordinary ” Muslims have said to me ” They do not represent me “.
      The reason why Islamophobia is a problem is that Islam has no answer to any of the unacceptable things they are accused of. So discussion is impossible.

      2. They may say that – but they don’t protest in their tens of thousands to say so publicly, do they?

        1. Remember, they are on the defensive. Like everywhere, they have to be careful what they say.

          1. Like most of them saying that blowing up kaffirs is fine – though they wouldn’t do it themselves?

      3. There was a political program about islam back in Tony Blair’s day and they had people from the MCB there. One 25 year old islamic male in the audience said “I have been involved in politics for my whole life. I have never heard of the Muslim Council of Britain.”

        It then came out that this council was created out of thin air by the Labour government to put forward islam as being “presentable” to the public. They picked its members because they would say nice things and not reflect what real islam was. They were a political fig leaf, that is all.

          1. There was a report that was put online years ago from one of the American intelligence agencies that was specifically about how islam takes over a country, and it is all to do with population percentages. This had been seen time and again, and looking back we can see it here as well. Sweden is more far gone than we are at the moment. (I am paraphrasing the words here as it was years ago that it went up.)

            Population <4% Followers stay quiet and keep to themselves in their communities.
            Pop: 4-6% Followers start seeking "victim status" and asking for special rights due to being minority.
            Pop: 6-7% Followers start demanding special rights and treatment. Low level indirect aggression towards non-followers. Increasing numbers of sexual attacks on minors.
            Pop: 7-9% Followers now openly living in enclaves under Sharia Law. Law Enforcement denied access without special permission. Mid levels of attacks and violence on non-followers. Sexual assaults now widespread in areas where islamic males are in large numbers.
            Pop:10% – 15% Open attacks against law enforcement officers and members of the public. No-go areas for non-islamic citizens. Enforcement of Sharia law in all areas under their control, whether citizens are islamic or not. Increasing flight of native members of the country away from areas with high muslim population.

            At some point after that then they just dismiss the idea of democracy and enforce islam on the country. The figures might be out by 1% or 2% in places as it was a long time ago that I read them, but you get the idea. This progression has been known about for a very long time and our "leaders" have known what will happen when islam's numbers increase. But globalists do not care about this and their long-term plans to remove democracy require our countries to fall apart anyway.

            Sweden currently has more car burning's than France does every day, and the same number of grenade attacks each year as Mexico. Sweden is further gone than we are, but it is the same people moving into that begotten country as are moving into ours. It really will be a very good idea to leave the eu as soon as possible, get control of our borders, and stop these people coming into our country who want to force us to submit to barbarism.

          2. We are at the level of around 7%. Although the supermarket figures would suggest higher.

    6. Firstly, opposition to islam is right and proper. That is the case whether such opposition is based on religious, historical or social grounds.
      Secondly, it hardly matters that the exam board revoked the disqualification. Huge damage had already been done to the pupil involved. These exams have been turned into life-changing hurdles even if all goes smoothly.
      Thirdly, this incident has pushed the boundary once more in favour of muslins and their apparently inalienable right not to be criticised. All schools, exam boards, exam setters, teachers and pupils will now stay well clear of anything that might be construed by a frothing at the mouth fanatical muslim as being in any way questioning of any muslim practice no matter how dreadful.

    7. I am a white British male. If I converted to Islam tomorrow, would I suddenly have changed my race as well? What utter nonsense, it should be perfectly possible to criticise Islam (as well as any other belief system) without these ridiculous accusations, which are only meant to shut down free speech.

    8. And many – particularly teenagers still at school – will learn to internalise anything that might be deemed the slightest bit critical of Islam.
      All opposition will be silenced.

    9. “There is unquestionably a problem of anti-Muslim bigotry today.” Not so much bigotry as an increasing realisation of what islam is.

    1. Mum might help you out.. she’d probably never go there but keep it for her US friends when they’re touring around…

      1. She could do a lot worse.

        Easily maintained, convenient for some wonderful tourist attractions and “lock and leave”.

      1. Thanks, Paul. Price of a lock-up garage your way…..

        Show yer Missus – and remember, cats love it here….

    3. How the other half live.

      It looks very comfortable.
      Is it normally so tidy?

      I would have thought it should go quickly.
      Very best of luck.

        1. Keep you in a den does she?

          In that part of the 200 sqm of surface that isn’t habitable?

    1. Ten seconds in which he says he’d vote to stay in the single market. And the rest of it?

      1. No idea..

        But he was asked about how he’d vote in a referendum, and that would be Leave or Remain. So if he wants to vote for the single market, that means voting Remain.

        1. How do you know he didn’t go on to say he’d vote to stay in some bits but not in others?

          1. He could have said anything for all I know. But saying he’d vote for the single market suggests to me he’d vote Remain.

            Your interpretation might be different.

          2. It’s a selective quote of the kind frequently used to misrepresent.

            As for Boris, I’ve said before that I don’t entirely trust him despite the fact that for years he wrote of the nonsensical actions of the EU.

    3. Blair campaigned to leave the EEC when he stood for the Sedgefield constituency.

  63. Business leaders are demanding a government inquiry into the leaked catastrophic no deal paper.

    Surely to goodness business leaders should be the ones who are preparing for every eventuality.

    These toads get paid millions to run their companies and they should already have prepared for a no deal scenario.

    The government should be establishing what preparations the businesses have made, not the other way around.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/operation-yellowhammer-business-leaders-demand-inquiry-into-impact-of-nodeal-brexit-on-uk-after-a4216361.html

    1. And what on earth will an enquiry achieve? Absolutely zilch! They should be “minding their business” and should have been making arrangements 3 years ago.

      1. And how many issues will be discovered that can be addressed before the end of October? Square root of būggėr all I would imagine.

      2. Agreed.

        In fact their lack of preparations should result in their shareholders/trade organisations firing them without compensation, for gross negligence.

      1. I followed a link to a page on the Evening Standard a few months ago, I would not be there by choice otherwise, and saw a headline so striking that I had to cut and paste it:

        “Tommy Robinson’s army of Islamophobic nationalist thugs were out in force last Friday.”

        Followed by a report that was, shall we say, less than balanced. Subtlety would not appear to be their strong point.

        1. They’re describing a majority of the UK population. Two thirds of the UK population don’t believe that Islam is compatible with our values and customs.

          1. Anyone who has the slightest level of intelligence who looks at the reality of islam, comes to the conclusion that it is the death of cultures. It will be the death of Europe as we know it, which is why the globalists are trying to get as many of their followers into our countries as they can, and why they attack anyone that tries to halt their mass invasion plans.

            The “nice muslims” are those who do not take the cult seriously. But then their western-educated children go to the mosques, learn the brainwashing, then they become real muslims and threats to us all. This cult must be outlawed,

          2. And when push comes to shove and the numbers are in their favour, any ‘nice muslims’ will be whipped into shape and carried along by the generally not-so-nice muslims and the extremists. Nice muslims at the moment are probably tolerated by the group as the means to the end, to hoodwink the infidel, as taquiya. Ultimately there will be no room for dissenters, however nice they may be. They will all join together for the conquest; this is what the koran and their culture has taught them.

    3. Now that Priti Patel is determined to stop free movement of EU personnel from 1 November after a No Deal Brexit, what will the ramifications be for UK citizens visiting the EU. Will an EU passport suffice or will they be stopped on arrival. Are Lorry drivers on both sides of the EU and UK borders including the Irish border going to be allowed to cross the borders. Priti seems to have thrown a grenade into the mix.

      2. EU passport? I don’t think so. Each member state issues its OWN passports (or ID cards).

      3. It will most likely be no different from pre EEC days, when there was a very short delay.

        I recall going to and from Europe with no noticeable problems.

  64. Many farmers were left disgruntled with the BBC’s coverage of the IPCC report and the UFU is encouraging its members to lodge a formal complaint.

    “By lodging a compliant about BBC’s coverage of the IPCC, UFU members can assist in ensuring that the public broadcaster makes this right by correcting the information, issuing an apology to the industry and making a commitment to accurately report on agriculture,” the union added.

    “All of which are vital to protect the reputation of Northern Ireland’s and the UK’s red meat sector, and minimise the damage that has been caused by BBC’s skewed reporting.”

    https://www.farminguk.com/news/farming-union-urges-members-to-formally-complain-to-bbc_53715.html?fbclid=IwAR2bux53AbF_knIeow_BO67iz6tfKYVCl7NUbC0CHLpcJX0p9Z_oA_RZMVE

    1. I watched a clip on BBC Reporting Scotland a few days ago. It comprised two segments. The first was of a scientist analysing soil sample for CO2 content. It is long term project. So he was smiling. He will be living somewhere like Skye for the next five summers courtesy of a research grant.
      The second segment was from the Scottish Agricultural University. They have a research centre where cows are being kept individually in enclosed glass cages*. Their vital measurements are being constantly monitored. The feed they get is measured and controlled and the methane output from the cattle is measured. This research is being linked to DNA analysis. The intention is to look at what breeds of animals produce the least harmful gases. Scientists will then look at the possibility of breeding animals fo the least climate-changing output. I don’t think that they care about the taste.

      *Possibly on the verge of illegal cruelty?

  65. Hoorah! You, Citizen, can earn extra money by snitching on your fellow drivers. A whole new career as a vehicle emissions bounty hunter awaits you.
    The shades of Chairman Mao, Herr Schickelgruber, Uncle Joe etc…. will be rejoicing in Hull.
    They won in the end.

  66. That’s me for the day. Rain overnight and tomorrow – will do very nicely for my young leaks.

    A demain.

  67. DT reporting that Elton John has come to the defence of the Duke And Duchess of Sussex. He paid for their private jet flights.

    1. Completely missing the point that the effing plane used the gas anyway – whoever was on board – especially the preachy two.

  68. DM Story

    Elton John reveals HE paid for Harry and Meghan to fly to his mansion in the south of France by private jet and made a ‘carbon neutral’ donation.

    Is it wise for Prince Harry to accept gifts from someone as notorious as Elton John? You could argue that accepting such gifts puts him under an obligation.

      1. “Some people and organisations offset their entire carbon footprint while others aim to neutralise the impact of a specific activity, such as taking a flight. To do this, the holidaymaker or business person visits an offset website, uses the online tools to calculate the emissions of their trip, and then pays the offset company to reduce emissions elsewhere in the world by the same amount – thus making the flight “carbon neutral”.”
        What poppycock.
        https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/sep/16/carbon-offset-projects-carbon-emissions

          1. Just imagine these companies laughing as the money rolls in.
            “Jim, neutralise 50 tons of carbon, bloke who was on the phone just paid his million quid. After that, book me a first class ticket to Vegas.”

    3. The Sussex’s are not short of a bob or two. They appear to be entranced by association with celebrities, including this old poof who lost both his voice and musicality (?) at that dreadful Death of Diana performance, as polluting of Westminster Abbey as those awful glass chandeliers.

      1. She’s now mixing with “media royalty” that her career would never have merited and such a shallow female dog would always be impressed.

      2. They seem indecently keen on slebs picking up the tab for their travels.
        Should royalty really being blagging off high profile riff riff?

        1. In a word no. The Queen has sufficient wealth, thanks to Churchill granting the Royal Family the rents from The Strand, to fund themselves, even without the pin money of the Civil List.

          To accept gifts of free travel from dubious celebrities and an assortment of Hollywood A-Listers is hypocritical, common and wrong.

    4. So it’s more important to Save the Planet than to travel by private jet. However, if someone else foots the bill, then that’s OK?

  69. Trams are very expensive and not really viable. Trolleybuses are another matter though
    With modern Trolley buses and batteries you only really need the overhead lines on the busy central parts of a route which keep cost to the minimum. It also mean they can run in residential areas where over head lines would not be appropriate

    If you can have the return path in the road it simplifies the overhead wiring and makes engaging and disengaging with the overhead line far simpler. Costs of trolleybuses ignoring the overhead lines is lower than a diesel bus. Overhead lines once installed last a very long time and need little maintainance

    1. And perhaps they could be recharging the batteries too, and thus able to leave the town centres.

  70. To ensure equality in the UK all Females in the UK will be self declared Men on Odd Week numbers and on Even week numbers all Men will be self declared female

    1. You do realise, Bill Jackson, that this means that everyone in the UK will be male one week and all will be female the next week, and so on. This means that no more babies will ever be created in the UK in future, and thus as people die off there will be no replacements to fund any legal or illegal immigrants over here to claim benefits! Well, that’s one way to stop immigration to the British Isles.

    1. Sadly, too late for me; does this mean the dreaded thirty minutes of compulsory dust and sweat applies to schools?

    2. I have worked with computers for most of my life and I have just started to learn skills that are very old, and many may already know, but are new to me. One thing that I have discovered is that you do not need a Gym membership if you have a pile of wood to chop. I checked to see how it is done in the real world without taking your foot off or seeing the axe sail away into the distance. Youtube has thousands of uses and axe-handling is one of them. Then bought the axes, then began.

      Ten minutes in I had discovered muscles that I did not know existed, and they were not sitting quietly. I paused and went at it again until I thought it was best to stop. That was not too bad. The next morning however…

      I did do a lot of weight-training in my late teen years, but I have not felt muscle aches like that before. Although I should have realised that going from typing on a computer to wielding an axe, means that you are going to have some drawbacks. But the wood is still there, and I think I’ll ease myself into it until I develop some muscles where I need them. 🙂

      The cup of tea afterwards tasted like heaven.

      1. And chopping the wood warms you up……….
        again when you stack it……………..and again when you burn it.

        1. I thought that in this increasingly controlled world that we are forced to live in, where owning anything sharp is sternly frowned upon, that it might be a useful future skill to be very familiar with the heft and swing of an axe. It is also for the exercise and to build up muscles in the right places. Not that the English have much history with them. 🙂

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/45378575581b7c327ca94fafd3f4f2b73b22c2033b9b8b5e695c26c9485a0c80.jpg

  74. How the BBC spend our money on these gem-like short videos that appear aimed at the young.

    https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/whats-behind-denialism/p06qtycg?playlist=sustainable-thinking
    Scroll down to see all the right-on, planet saving videos.

    What would happen if all the oceans disappeared?
    What would a world without humans be like?
    Climate change: The problem with the enemy narrative
    Are you suffering from climate change anxiety?
    Can we transform the world in 12 years?
    ‘Climate change need not become the legacy we leave’
    A love letter to trees
    Imagining a world without fossil fuels
    Climate change: The ‘grand challenge’ of our generation
    The problem with plastic: A 10-year-old’s take
    What’s behind denialism?
    ‘There’s a danger of losing our tenure on this planet’
    Opinion: The super-rich are damaging the environment
    How we can save our oceans
    How will we source clean energy for all?

    1. Yet again, appalling.

      I’ve had a look at ‘How will we source clean energy for all?’ and still don’t have an answer to the question.

      Unfortunately, tiny brains seeing the percentages quoted could be easily taken in.

      As an analogy, the chap over there has lost twice as much weight over the past year as in the previous two.

      “Yes,” says the five-year old from the dunce’s corner, “but he’s still a fat bugger”.

    2. The problem with plastics, ad other debris, has been known and ignored for many many years.

      Q:-“What would a world without humans be like? ” A:- ” Full of Muslims “.
      Q:- ” What would the world without the BBC be like ? ” A:- ” Great “.
      A love letter to trees : ” Lending us your branches to swing May and Corbyn from was a far far better thing …..”

    4. I’ve just watched “What’s behind denialism?” and I couldn’t handle the emotional involvement. And I’m still waiting for a reply from the Maple tree I wrote to last week. I am distraught. I may just sail away to Mauritius in a carbon free coconut boat.

    5. ‘Afternoon Mo. Tried looking at what is going out on BBC3 (online and iPlayer)? I did the other day, and I won’t be doing that again. Not for nothing are they known as the British Brainwashing Corporation.

    6. “Enemy narrative” ??? “Enemy narrative.” ??!!!
      Is this how these BBC loons see anyone who questions the climate change propaganda??

      1. Sinister, isn’t it? Slyly, they set up their Student Journalism award – note the word ‘student’ in the title – and their Fact-checking operation, as if the BBC is the final arbiter when it comes to facts, but not their own fake or missing news, of course. They see their survival in brainwashing youngsters, knowing full well that they won’t impress those of us who have been round the block a few times. They really are the enemy within, and a total bluddy disgrace.

  75. Yesterday we were at Rutland for events at the bird fare
    a nice day and a talk by the lovely Simon King .
    Food consisted of stalls of ” healthy ” vegan and vegetarian
    food. Spring water from a recycled can that you had to crunch into
    a cup to get to the water. We had gluten free fish and chips that were
    okay, but I am aware of the militant uncompromising growth of
    veganism that is getting worse. Putting the words ” healthy ” before
    vegan inspired fake food doesn’t make it so.
    I did obtain information about holidays whilst there and a pair of
    shooting socks which was quite naughty considering the event but they
    looked warm, comfortable and were long.

    1. Do vegans realise that if their way of life was taken to the extreme that nobody ate meat at all, would they like the change that would mean for the countryside? No pastures with grazing animals; all would be ploughed up for vegetables. Sheep are the only viable crop on upland areas – no sheep – no hill farmers and the land would revert to scrub.

      Vegans also seem to eat a lot of manufactured stuff made from soya – devastating rainforests for soya production. I don’t understand why they have to have “ersatz” products like “vegan cheese” and “vegan sausages” – who are they kidding?

        1. Soy milk and almond milk are in our local supermarket. Not interested in either, personally. Overly processed to look like real milk.

          1. That’s the weird thing, isn’t it?

            By all means choose a different form of diet – but why then make it look like the very thing you are turning your back on?

          2. I think the burger meat is the weirdest of all. Vegans wanting “meat” than oozes fake blood.

          3. The underlying purpose of the fakery is to try to get non-vegans to try it and discover that it’s edible and become vegan or vegetarian or at a minimum cut down on meat consumption.

            The fact that to most people’s taste it isn’t pleasant doesn’t occur to them.

      3. …or even worse, burgers made with fake meat, which oozes red when someone bites into it, courtesy of beetroot juice. And the synthetic meat is classified as “ultra processed” due to the additives and how it is made. I thought vegans were against such foodstuffs?

        1. I’m all for natural foods, not this chemical rubbish – but vegans also are so militant and sanctimonious.

    2. Nobody needs gluten free food unless they have celiac disease. It’s a fad. And annoying.

      P.S.: didn’t you go among them with your trusty battle axe..??

    1. One paragraph is blatantly self-contradictory;
      “An October no-deal Brexit would come, however, at a time when the UK is particularly dependent on European imports for its fresh food, and when there is little to no excess warehousing space, unlike in March.”
      One does not stockpile fresh food. It moves rapidly through the supply chain. From production to supermarket shelf within about 24 hours, maybe less.

      Pasta is given as an example of something we might run short of. Presumably because the Italians will stop making it?
      Do us a favour? MSM and BBC. Try to make these lies slightly more believable. Because, unless you actually really know something that we do not, the Europeans will continue to sell to us and we will continue to buy. (Until we get sorted with exporters from South America, North America, India, Australasia and Russia.)

    1. The judge should have been able to say to the parents, “Make full restitution, or your vandal offspring are going to be locked up, your choice”.

      1. ” ‘It wouldn’t be right to send you to custody. You all have good futures.”
        How awfully, awfully, nice of him,

    3. Birching, in public, would humiliate them such that they’d never dare anything like it again and it will be a salutary warning to their pals.

  78. Infrastructure update. Our eldest has now returned to Glasgow from the North. The train was an hour late. Our eldest is sanguine. She will now be refunded the full return fare.

          6. There are parallels with George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss. A dispute over water supply in the latter with tragic consequences. In the former a chance for justice and redemption.

    3. Do you feel better now Plum?

      You might be succumbing to a cold.

      The wind is strong again. I didn’t sleep last night , had a busy day and have to attend a PC meeting soon, the battle for the village continues!

    5. Have you watched the follow up Manon des Sources ? if not you must , I can only say I’ve never before or since had the last couple of minutes of a film absolutely floor me.

        1. It may well have been a well-run company but, as a former and long-time member of CAMRA I always found their beers to be sub-standard and often quite undrinkable.

          I have sampled a substantial variety of cask-conditioned ales from all over the UK and those made by Greene King were well down the list.

        1. As long as I don’t have to drink it. BTW does this weird beverage have a name? It is certainly not tea!

  86. Operation Yellow Hammer

    Closure of two oil refineries

    Delays of up to four hours at border crossing between Spain and Gibraltar

    Dog owners forced to replace their pets with goldfish

    A hard Irish border

    Orange-flavoured Smarties to be replaced by coffee-flavoured ones

    Three-month ‘meltdown’ at UK ports

    English breakfast tea to be replaced by decaffeinated Rooibos

    Massive disruption at airports, St Pancras, Eurotunnel

    Movies screened with the first ten minutes and last ten minutes missing to save energy

    Shortages of medicine including insulin for diabetics

    North Wales Police to be put in total charge of UK traffic regulations: instant fines for any motorist who exceeds 15mph

    All British meat to be banned unless it’s halal

    Every child’s favourite toy to be stolen in the night by burglars with masks and stripey tops who have been lurking in the wardrobe/under bed.

    Shortages of fresh food, which will become more expensive

    Women much more likely to cry when they see what their hairdresser has done to hair; men even less likely to notice that they’ve had their hair done

    Love Island to be broadcast 24/7 in four seasonal editions, sandwiched between double bills of Springwatch, Autumnwatch etc with Sir Chris

    Sex to be banned except on February 29th

      1. I forgot the bit about cattle self declaring themselves as lettuces so that they can be carbon neutral

    2. “English breakfast tea to be replaced by decaffeinated Rooibos”
      Step away from my Earl Grey!

  88. Operation Green Hammer

    Financial modelling of Brexit shows

    a) Productivity will increase

    b) Pay will increase by 1% higher than inflation

    c) House prices will remain static

    d) Imports will fall

    e) Non Eu exports will increase by over 5%

    f) EU exports will fall by 1%

    g) Trade deficit will fall

    h) Fishing industry will grow substantially

    I) Ship building will grow due to increased demand for fishing boats

    j) Tightening of tax rules on multinational will increase the tax take

    k Food prices will fall as a result of sourcing from non EU countries

    1. I really hate zoos these days. Insects and lower order type animals, OK, I can handle, but anything further up the ‘food chain’, it ain’t right.

    1. I am afraid you ad above has been banned by the ASA as sexist as the woman have blue mats and the men black mats. They are still considering as to whether it is also racist and have gone off to consult Diana Abbott and David Lammy

    3. Is it alright to play with your food now then? Do you stare into its eyes and say “One day you will be a delicious sandwich.”

      At least they get to run about a bit and get cuddled. Not a bad way to spend your life.

  91. Thought for the evening.

    If somebody asks you:
    “Are you all right?”
    and you reply :
    “Yes”

    Because you thought they were referring to your politics, you’ll make a fine Nottler

  93. It was another boring day for those watching Greene King shares as it drifted around 570p. Then at around 3:40 a “Recommended Cash Offer” from CK (a Hong Kong listed company) of £4.6 billion was announced and the price shot up 50% to 850p (Incidentally, it was over 1000p as recently as 2015).

    The £ is weak, the $ is strong. I expect to see more of this.

      2. Not at all. It shows the sort of people we Brexiteers are up against. On the plus side they are all minnows, a couple of failed Marxists, Micron (Micro Napoleon), Hitler’s granddaughter, spreadsheet Hammond, the hypocrite Grievous and the shrieking idiot leader of the undemocratic ‘Liberals’.

        Edited.

        1. In any century prior to the 20th, we would not be “up against these people”.

          We would have declared war on them and summarily despatched them.

    2. I wondered for a few moments why Dominic Raab was on the wrong side of the table…

      1. I think Boris would rise to the occasion and sort that lot out before he walked away.

      1. Ken Clarke fortunately does not feature. He will never be Prime Minister having forfeited his chance decades ago having become another wretched opportunist Bilderberger.

      1. The Degree Duchess (as she is supposedly referred to in ‘the inner circle’…….over in three years)

    7. The man in the middle – his face says it all:

      “For 30 years I have avoided my presence being recorded anywhere in the archives of the human race. Now, just as victory over these shallow mortals is within my grasp, my image is captured. Where is my bloody gun? I must act before it is sent online and my face is revealed to all.”

      1. Be nice if they reported actual facts, rather than wildly speculating what might or might not happen and calling said guesswork “news”.

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