798 thoughts on “Monday 6 January: HS2 is out of control and unnecessary: invest in clean energy instead”

  1. HARPER: IRAQ PARLIAMENT ACTION STARTS A LONGER UNCERTAIN PROCESS. Harper. SST 6 January 2019.

    Under the 2014 agreement in which American troops were invited to return to Iraq to help in the fight against the Islamic State, a foreign troop withdrawal begins after one-year notice. If the letter of the agreement is maintained, US troops will remain in Iraq for the foreseeable future. But that is the legal status, not the reality on the ground, which is yet to be determined. There are currently more than 5,200 US troops in Iraq.

    There is no Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the United States and Iraq–just the invitation from 2014. The US and Iraq have been in talks this year on reaching a SOFA, but there is no legal agreement in place. When President Trump announced the withdrawal of US forces from northeast Syria in late 2019, Iraq gave the US four weeks to allow US forces to be in Iraq in transit. The Iraq government rejected the idea of the US using Iraq as a staging area or intelligence hub for operations into Syria.

    Morning everyone. Just a technical update to explain the realities of the Iraqi Parliament vote yesterday.

    https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/

    1. ‘Morning, Minty, my first thought on hearing of Iraq’s decision to expel the US troops was, “There goes your shield you stupid nincompoops; don’t be surprised when Iran walks in and takes over.”

  2. Just curious.

    What’s the UK’s quarrel with Iran and is it similar to our quarrel with Iraq in 2003 when we invaded that country?

    1. These countries and most of the Middle East are very unstable countries. Religion & Government are the same thing in most of these countries and the Relgion(s) are very extreme and very intolerant in fact so intolerant they cannot even really accept the existence of other regions. How you change these who knows. No one seems to have a solution to it

        1. Well we dont have a quarrel as such with Iran. We just want to try to keep the peace. WE have very little direct involvement i Iran at present. Technically at present we tow the EU’s line with Iran

          2. It’s toe the line, not tow the line.

            What does the phrase towing the line mean?
            The idiom is toe the line, not tow the line. The phrase derives from track-and-field events in which athletes are required to place a foot on a starting line and wait for the signal to go.
            How to Use Toe the line Correctly – Grammarist
            https://grammarist.com › usage › toe-the-line

          4. Of a pale yellow colour, like that of flax.
            Presumably a reference to what rope was made of before sisal arrived in the west.

          6. Ah! I thought it related to bare knuckle boxing where the opponents would stand up to a line on the ground between them before commencing to trade blows.

          11. Anatomically a horse’s hoof is its toenail on a single toe. Cows, sheep, goats, et al have cloven hoofs which are, effectively, two toenails on two toes.

          12. Well, it should be changed to “shoe the line” as athletes are now compelled to wear shoes. That was not the case previously. I seem to remember that Allan Wells competed barefoot until the rules were changed.

          15. Actually, Peddy, and Good morning, my understanding was that it came from the early days of bare-knuckle boxing, when the opponents first met up, they were face-to-face with a scratch-mark between them. It also coined the phrase of, ‘coming up to scratch.’

      2. There is also so the Labours two faced approach. on the one hand they say we should not interfere and on the other hand when mass killings ooccur they say we should be involved

    2. The UK has no quarrel with Iran except through our relationship with the United States. We did at one time have our own Middle Eastern policy but Tony Blair junked it when he agreed to the Iraq fiasco. The same dynamics apply to the present situation.

  3. SIR – If the proposals to reform the Whitehall bureaucracy are successful they should undoubtedly be extended to other organisations and quangos (Leading Article, January 3).

    Additional prime candidates include HMRC, Network Rail and the department that operates the universal credit system.

    Many parliamentarians, ministers and even special advisers have followed a career path that differs little from that of the typical Whitehall civil servant. There is little evidence that they have the broad and well-informed experience necessary in today’s climate.

    Reforming our parliamentarians is, therefore, an equally important and urgent priority.

    J R Ball
    Hale, Cheshire

    1. SIR – Rachel Wolf (Comment, January 2) points out that “just 17 per cent of fast streamers – the cream of civil servant entrants – have science-related degrees.”

      The actual situation is worse. Scientific civil servants are separated from administrative positions and promotions. When I left some years ago, it was impossible for scientists to move into administrative grades. Even the government’s chief scientist was routinely recruited from outside the service.

      Could this be why so many government projects fail, for the lack of scientists and engineers in the right positions?

      Dr Stephen P Mann
      Ixworth, Suffolk

      1. It certainly would explain the absence of scientific rigour when trillions are voted to support absurd schemes based on politically driven parties in the UN and other organisations desperate for tax payers money. What does the average MP know of the physics of CO2. Just finished the chapter in my book about the South Sea Company and the disgraceful behaviour of the Commons and Lords.

    2. Yo zx

      Can we not just get rid of any and all connections to Soros Inc, under any guise that it may appear

      EU
      PC
      MSM
      BBC : C4 Toady QT

      1. Good morning, OLT.

        Can we not just get rid of any and all connections to Soros Inc…

        If, as alleged, Soros has his hands on the ‘bung/brown envelope’ taps that will be very difficult to achieve in trougher heaven. In addition, the move to ‘no platform’ Pretty Polly’s main source of comment material will cause his/her/their comment count to tumble dramatically. 😎

    1. How did Sam (Soleimani) Mendez receive a Golden Globe for a movie that is still on at the Cinema?

      1. Minty, in the case of Oscars they are only awarded once the films have opened in the cinemas and the films do not have to have closed, e.g. many Oscar-winnning films are still being shown during the awards ceremony. The same, I imagine (not totally sure) is the case with Golden Globes. Or did you mean to write “for a movie [1917] which has not yet opened in the cinema? 1917 opens at the end of this week, but has probably already been screened in the US.

        1. Morning Elsie. I am curious as to the selection procedure. How can people vote on a movie that they have not seen?

          1. If the film has been released in the US where the Golden Globes ceremony is held that is not a problem. But these days, film studios send copies of their “entries” to the judges in advance to ensure that the judges are aware of what they are voting on. It is surprising that 1917 won a Golden Globe for best director but THE IRISHMAN did not. It’s probably because the latter film was made by Netflix which the film industry sees as a threat to the cinema industry. In point of fact, a friend of mine in Australia tells me that the film has been denied a cinema screening in Australia to date for that very reason.

          2. The judges used to be sent a tape of each movie. They probably invite them to a private screening now. Prior to public release.

      2. It’s all just a love-fest for luvvies to see and be seen and to round it all up by, “Look how clever I am.”

        Golden-globs, O Scars and Bloody Awful Furkin Tw@t Awards, leave me cold. There is no real interest for we lay-men.

      1. Most excellent, thanks. I haven’t laughed that hard and long in ages. I kept missing the jokes and had to keep pausing it.

  7. SIR – It is suggested that shortening Test matches (Leading Article, January 2) will reduce the pressure on players who are currently required to play too much cricket.

    As things stand, if a five-day Test is completed in four days, which we are told happens in more than 50 per cent of cases, the players get a day off. But if the match is scheduled for only four days, the authorities will be able to use what would have been the fifth day to schedule a T20 or one-day match. Given the big money involved, will they be able to resist the temptation?

    The cynical interpretation of the proposal to reduce the length of Tests to four days is that it is all about money and that, if implemented, it would inevitably increase the pressure on players still further.

    Professor Tim Cornell
    Manchester

    It is the entirely realistic interpretation. The men in blazers are killing the game.

    1. Let us go one step further

      Put Corbyn in power and each and every business, organisation, manufacture etc in the whole country will be working a four day week.

  8. Yo All

    and Good Morning from Spain

    It is now 0830 here and the OAT is 0 Degree C

    It was as low as Minus 1.2 overnight

      1. Peddy, it depicts a couple of men who used to work on the Thames in the mid-1870s who were photographed. The photos have recently been “colourised” to give them more impact for today’s audiences. Since at the time all photos had time exposure problems and the subjects were told to remain still until the photographic plate had been exposed I suspect that the barge was moving through the water, hence the blurred background.

          3. Yes, when I was young and beautiful and walking out with my beau Olaf Bloodaxe. (May his soul rest in peace in Valhalla.)

        2. Around that time tintypes were the most used process. Inexpensive, easy and quick to make they allowed for photography outside of a studio (they were used in the American Civil war) .They could be developed and fixed and handed to the customer minutes (exposure times were only a few seconds) after the picture had been taken. They were also responsibly “sharp”.
          The bluring of the background is possible due to the aperture of the camera f6.5 was the average, which will not give the depth of field required to keep the whole image in focus.

  10. Good morning, all. Grey start and chilly.

    The relentless attacks on Trump and Johnson are just soooo boring.

  13. As bushfires rage, Australia’s coal addiction proves hard to break

    For decades, coal mining has been a cornerstone of the Australian economy: it is an industry worth $70bn (£53.6bn) that employs tens of thousands

    of people.

    But as devastating bushfires – some of the worst in the country’s history – have destroyed large swathes of countryside and left at least 15 people dead, Australia’s coal industry has come under increasing scrutiny.

    Experts say the severity of the fires are being exacerbated by climate change – a phenomenon which already disproportionately affects Australia. Coal is the most environmentally damaging fossil fuel, producing about a third more carbon dioxide than oil.

    To pinch a bit from Basil Fawlty:

    Don’t mention the husbandry of the forests has been stopped by the very people shouting about the severity of the fires now.

    Fuel for the fires, fallen branches etc used to be regularly removed, but the Ecologists ie Global warmiists said the forests are sacrosant and nothing must be done to them. Even Fire Breaks and Fire Lanes could not be maintained.

    The Law of Unintended Consequences stike again

    This is enlightening

    https://thebfd.co.nz/2020/01/put-foresters-back-in-the-forests/

    Then we entered the Green Era. Foresters and timber-getters were demonised by urban greens, their tame bureaucrats and academics, and their ABC mates. State forests were converted to National Parks and Wilderness Areas and John Howard created the hated Kyoto Protocol Forests on private land. Timber imports rose.

    1. What has the coal industry got to do with it?
      Are the arsonist’s lighting up cosy little coal fires in the outback?

      1. Yo anne

        What has the coal industry got to do with it?

        Nowt

        It is a BBClike idea, TC (Total Crap)

    3. Morning OLT,
      The greens approach to forest husbandry is on par with the wretch
      camerons approach to animal husbandry.

      1. Quite inappropriate but that brings to mind Tom Lehrer’s line, “he majored in animal husbandry – till they caught him at it”.

        1. Like the Eskimo [sorry: “Inuit”] who was on a motoring holiday in New Zealand when his car broke down. When a breakdown lorry attended the mechanic looked under the car’s bonnet before declaring, “It looks like you’ve blown a seal.”

          The irate Eskimo shot back in anger, “So what? You shag sheep!”

        2. Morning SE,
          Comparisons will be made, and being a lover of pork I do take porkies side, as from the pigs view ie, is he who approaches really to be of PM material ?

  14. To believe there’ll be world war three is to swallow US propaganda. Nesrine Malik. 6 January 2019.

    It will not be a new world war – that kind of talk only shows how effective the American propaganda machine has been in manufacturing the impression that there is an annihilating threat from Tehran. Suleimani’s killing has been justified as a defensive measure against possible attacks on US embassies, consulates and military in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. The plotting was “clear and unambiguous” according to General Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. But a US official told the New York Times that the “new” intelligence merely pointed to “a normal Monday in the Middle East”.

    So far as I am aware there has been no American propaganda suggesting a Third World War though this not to say that there is no possibility of such. The Iranians are shortly going to strike back in response to the assassination of Soleimani and the Americans are going to respond. If it were limited to this there would be no great difficulty but it won’t. Iran’s capabilities are not confined to their homeland; they have proxies throughout the Middle East and will activate them as the pressure increases at home. It will spread like a plague. The Saudi oilfields will come under attack and the US will probably have to invade Iran to secure the Straits of Hormuz and the Wests oil supplies. This will almost certainly draw in Russian support for Iran because they will not countenance an American presence directly on their borders as Ukraine well illustrates. All this and without the possibility of Rogue players like Turkey, Egypt or Pakistan deciding that this is their moment to gain a little ground!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/06/world-war-three-propaganda-iran-us-qassem-suleiman

    1. Nobody asks WHY Soleimani and a huge entourage were in Baghdad, rather than Tehran.
      Maybe the MSM’s grasp of geography is so poor that they conflate all ME capital cities.

      1. Morning Anne. We do know why Soleimani was in Baghdad. He was there to meet with various leaders of the Shia community.

        1. He needed to send a message that even the high hiedyins are not safe from Uncle Sam.
          I think that they got that…

          1. Typical Yanks go in all guns blazing….

            I hope Boris will steer clear of the special relationship but It’s dropped us in the sh!t when we leave the EU and negotiate trade deals with America.

    2. Morning AS,
      There will be a little ground gained by many alright, in the dead centre of a great many hamlets,towns,cities, we have seen it before and it has been building to return.
      The political treachery merchants & tribal supporting / voting nutters have been given carte blanche to continue along the odious path of death, rape / abuse / high density mental damage etc, etc.
      The only fight back tool is HOPE, we hope this politico is better than the last.
      IMO hope is a tenuous material to depend on in regards to the welfare of a nation.

    1. Good morning, Peddy. I am shortly off to do my daily chores, but if you or any NoTTLers) happen to spot the appearance of Lady of the Lake, could you please point her to this post:

      M’Lady (for I think it was you) last December (2018) you referred me to two books which you said you read every December as Christmas approached. I decided then to follow your example and enjoyed both books. I would like to re-read them shortly but for the life of me I can’t remember their titles. Could you (or any other NoTTLer) please remind me of their titles?

  16. Morning, Campers.
    Last night, MB accidentally clicked on a run of “‘Allo, ‘Allo”.
    Enough material there to send Snowflakes and # Me Tooers into absolute meltdown.
    We laughed, but then we are incorrigible, ignorant oldies not looking for excuses to take offence.

    1. Morning Anne, I have the boxed set of this series, this and Rab Nesbitt, Alf Garnet, Jim Davidson and a few others from that era are brilliant.

      1. I suspect that, if this nonsense goes on for much longer, we will need to stock up on those DVDs before they are banned. We can assume that they won’t be publicly burnt because it would upset the Greeniacs.

        1. I bought a box set of “It ain’t half hot, Mum” for that very reason, Annie. (Good morning, btw.)

          2. The only boxed set I have is the full series of Flowery Twats [sorry: “Fawlty Towers”].

    2. Rising Damp with [?] Rossiter is an example to immigrants of how to deal with non PC comments . The African tenant manages to deal relentlessly with his non PC landlord’s jibes.. I am well stocked up with the classic DVDs. Dad’s Army is my favourite set.

      1. The black guy was Don Warrington. The joke as I recall was that his character had a plummy English accent and was much more cultured than Rigsby the landlord? He also took part in the Grumpy Old Men series – born in 1952 so the right generation.

        1. Don Warrington is a contemporary of mine in more than one way. I was born in 1951 and my first name is the same as his character in Rising Damp, Alan.

          1. Erratum: Don Warrington was Philip (the name of one of my brothers). Alan was played by the late (far too early) Richard Beckinsale.

        2. He is also the commissioner of Police in Murder in Paradise. The trouble with not being allowed to laugh at people is that we cannot laugh with them any more.

  17. Greater Anglia rail franchise clause at centre of dispute involving Abellio

    A row between rail officials in Holland and Britain has spilled over into 2020, after train operator Abellio continued to take heavy losses from a clause in one of its UK government contracts.

    Pre-tax profit for Greater Anglia fell more than 70 per cent last year to £1.7m.
    This comes despite sales rising eight per cent to £701m.
    Last year, Dutch officials threatened sue over a clause linking payments from Abellio to the Department for Transport (DfT) to London employment figures.

    1. They should have read & understood the contract terms with more care. What they expected was likely Brexit shyte of terrible unemployment, instead it went the other way.
      Oh dear, what a shame, too bad, never mind.

  18. ‘Morning All

    “We must be mad,literally mad”

    Two sisters and their brother who were jailed for helping the July 21 2005 London bombers have been awarded £4.5 million in legal aid.

    They used part of the public funds to fight off attempts to deport them to Ethiopia where they were born.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7854319/Siblings-jailed-helping-failed-21-7-London-Tube-bombers-given-4-5MILLION-legal-aid.html

    Meanwhile in London

    The Islamic Centre of England in Maida Vale, Kilburn, London, has held a

    mass memorial for slain Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general Qasem

    Soleimani.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/01/05/khans-london-islamic-centre-holds-rowdy-memorial-slain-iran-general/

    One very sound comment

    Right Angle • 7 hours ago
    Where in the annals of democracy are we
    required to house and protect people who hate us, hate our nations, hate
    our beliefs, and who undermine us from within our very own home? This
    situation is insane. Democracy is not a suicide pact. We
    do not agree to be so open that we will let our enemies slit our throats
    in the name of open-ness. Britain must deport everyone who was at this crazy memorial service.

    1. Morning Rik,
      If that question was brought before the house’s of both commons & lords the sound of silence would be clamorous.

    2. Unless we, our politicians and police ‘service’ soon accept and wake up to the reality of the threat of Islam and its desire to impose sharia law and a worldwide caliphate over the whole world our society, based of Judeo-Christian values, will be eliminated completely.

      The fact that an Iranian terrorist murderer is being both mourned and lauded is not a healthy sign and augers very badly.

      1. Its grotesque but the caliphate is doomed. The West has immeasurable advantages over societies ruled by vicious clerics. Look what Trump has done. Take out the Mullahs one by one.

  19. Good Morning all, so dull and dreary here.

    Looking

    Two guys, one old and one young, are pushing their carts around Home Depot when they collide.
    The old guy says to the young guy, “Sorry about that. I’m looking for my wife, and I guess I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”
    The young guy says, “That’s OK. It’s a coincidence. I’m looking for my wife, too. I can’t find her, and I’m getting a little desperate.”
    The old guy says, “Well, maybe we can help each other. What does your wife look like?
    The young guy says, “Well, she is 27 yrs old, tall, with long red hair, blue eyes, long legs, big boobs, no bra, and she’s wearing tight white
    shorts. What does your wife look like?”

    The old guy says, “Doesn’t matter. Let’s look for yours.”

      1. SE,
        The boris rhetorically speaking
        will tell you he has, but when it comes to actions ……….

    2. If only Boris Johnson really were like Enoch Powell in terms of intellect, integrity, foresight and conviction

      1. Morning R,
        If only is right enough.
        We have peoples who have been calling out for
        controlled immigration for years & also pointing out in rhetorical & book form since 2005 the NOW imminent dangers of islamic ideology.
        These very same people / party have been / are
        suppressed and most definitely not allowed a
        voice in parliament.
        PC / Appeasement kills & maims.

      2. R,
        Far to late for “if only’s” as for the future dependence on HOPE another very worrying factor, nothing at all in the political shape up or ship OUT department TOLD in no uncertain
        manner to the SERVANTS of the peoples.
        Those currently ousted from the tory party will
        themselves admit, the party comes first in all respects, before all else.
        IMO the reshuffle of the old deck of cads hides
        their real intentions.

  21. Gervais had a few more not in the intro

    “Loved his joke “Harvey Weinstein, destroyed reputation and totally unemployable. He now has a job with Rotherham council”

    “Our next presenter starred in Netflix’s Bird Box, a movie where people
    survive by acting like they don’t see a thing…sort of like all of you
    who worked with Harvey Weinstein.”

          4. ‘Morning, P-T (and Johnny) I have covered mine with the cross of St George. I’m English, first, then British.

        2. When I bought my campervan, I was offered plain numberplates and I jumped at the chance (I had previously covered the sphincter of stars with a St George’s flag). I stood beside the chap while he ordered them plain, but when they arrived, they had the sphincter of stars on them! They were rejected.

      2. You had to have one to drive in Europe, or a GB sticker. They so didn’t know where the car came from without the visual aid.

    2. I’ve bought some little Swedish flag stickers to cover up the circle of stars on my car’s number plates here in Sweden.

        1. ALL number plates in Sweden have the EU flag on them. Under the old system there was a space in the middle of the plate—between the three letters and the three numbers—where the vehicle excise license was attached, but, since that tax was done away with, all new numbers plates have the EU and country of origin (‘S’ for Sweden) incorporated down the left hand side.

      1. My car dealer has never fitted them. He has the right ideas, he’s currently High Sheriff of Cheshire.

  24. Labour STITCH-UP

    MODERATE Labour MPs fear Jeremy Corbyn loyalists could sway the leadership contest in favour of a left-wing candidate when the rules are announced later today.

    Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) will meet today to officially outline the timetable for the contest to succeed Mr Corbyn. Members of the NEC who could influence the regulations for the contest include Jon Lansman, the founder of the hard-left group Momentum. Mr Lansman is a known supporter of Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey.

    During the 2016 Labour leadership contest, when Mr Corbyn was riding a wave of support, membership of the party increased to £25.

    Members were also given just 48-hours to sign up and the left-wing leader stormed to victory against centralist candidate Owen Smith.
    Further rule changes were made at the 2018 Labour conference.
    To get on the ballot paper each candidate must received the support of 21 MPs.
    They also need the backing of five percent of local parties, or three affiliates – including two trade unions – representing at least 5 percent of affiliated members.

  25. The masked singer

    Who an earth thought that pile of Karaoke Cr*p was worthy of prime time TV. It would be embarrassing as a children’s program

      1. What’s your problem? Over the Christmas period the most interesting show on Canadian TV was “Holiday Gingerbread Bake off”. Everything else was a rerun of an already rerun idiot show.

        No we did not watch it.

  26. Tuesday 07 January 2020

    Tomorrow is when the EU withdrawal Bill committee stage kicks off 8 hours has been set aside for it

    2. ” Hold on, this is waiting to be approved by Not the Telegraph Letters.”
      The censors are out for me.

  31. Afternoon all.

    Can you credit it! DT front page Headline : … named as Britain’s “worst ever rapist”! Is there a “best” ever? !!! The headline just beggars belief.

    Apologies if this has already been discussed – have been out all morning.

    1. And what is n Indonesian national doing here? He ceased to be a student when he was locked up for the first trial. I think it would be a good use of public funds to pay Indonesia to imprison him there. I’m sure conditions in their jails are a bit less comfortable.

      1. Great idea. I think any foreign born criminal convicted in the U.K. should be deported instead of being sent to jail and be declared persona non grata. Why should we pay for their board and lodging.

        1. There should be something very uncomfortable for them before they go.
          S odomi sed with a pineapple, fronds end first, comes to mind.

          1. A few years ago a prisoner pushed his head through the railings on his landing to complain about the noise below. He got stuck. You might guess what happened next.
            When they took him to hospital later, because the male was complaining of severe pain, A&E located and removed a tomato ketchup bottle.
            NB I have not checked this story on Snopes.

      2. Homosexual acts are forbidden in Indonesia; his yuman rites would prevent him being returned to a country where Catholicism is not the main player.

        1. According to the Beeb, he targeted men who were not homesexual, which tends to suggest his aim was power, rather than a need.

          1. Power and control, what every rapist, serial killer & politician desires above all else.

            From his photograph he isn’t a bad looking chap and wouldn’t have had a problem on one of the gay dating sites.

            I agree with your assessment.

    2. I don’t have a problem with that terminology. Even the Bbc calls him the ‘the most prolific rapist ever in British legal history’.

      1. I would imagine any victim of rape would have a problem with that phrase. Again I imagine that the person who raped them was the worst ever rapist.
        He may be the most prolific.

    3. Is there a team event as well as an individual one? If so then there are several competitive teams in some of the culturally enriched parts of England.

  32. Good Morning, all

    SIR – Will 2020 bring about the Dissolution of the Ministries?

    Philip Hinchcliffe
    Wraysbury, Berkshire

    And if the spoils are distributed to Trinity, Cambridge, so much the better.

    [EDIT: Henry VIII ‘donated’ vast tracts of lands confiscated from the monasteries towards the establishment of Trinity College, Cambridge, which is why it is the most stonkingly rich Oxbridge college. More recently, Trinity have done equally well out of establishing the container port at Felixstowe.]

      1. Wiki:
        “The port is operated by the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company which was set up under an Act of Parliament, the Felixstowe Railway and Pier Act 1875 and so, is one of the few limited companies in the UK that do not have the word “Limited” in their name.[5] Much of the land on which it sits is owned by Trinity College, Cambridge which in the 1930s bought some land near Felixstowe which included a dock which was too small to be included in the National Dock Labour Scheme. In 1967, it set up Britain’s first container terminal for £3.5m in a deal with Sea-Land Service.[6] Because container shipping is much more economically efficient in bulk, this early start led to it becoming the UK’s largest container port, despite its previous insignificance to the shipping market.”

        Trinity make a fortune out of that modest £3.5 million original deal arranged by Bidwells.

        And….

        “TRINITY COLLEGE – TRIMLEY ESTATE
        Today, the Trimley Estate covers 3,400 acres – a major part of the Felixstowe peninsula. Besides the Port of Felixstowe, the UK’s leading container port, and Trinity Distribution Park, with its commercial support facilities, Trimley Estate encompasses a large and varied rural acreage.

        Bidwells has acted for the College at Felixstowe for over 50 years, being fully involved in the significant changes which have occurred in the transformation of a fairly run-down agricultural estate into today’s multifaceted estate where farming, housing, port, commercial estate, leisure pursuits and nature conservation all thrive side-by-side in relative harmony.”

        1. Given our current dissatisfaction with the left wing use of our education system to indoctrinate the youth it might be better to dissolve the universities and start again…. after asset stripping them, of course… and what better motive than a government which has to at least appear to honour the Viv Richardson style spending splurge they promised in the referendum….

        2. Thank you.
          Bidwells have done rather well! More profitable than helping to flog 3-bed semis.

  34. COFFEE HOUSE – Ricky Gervais has given Hollywood the thrashing it richly deserves
    Brendan O’Neill – 6 January 2020 – 1:11 PM

    Finally, Hollywood has received the thrashing it so richly deserves. The self-satisfied movie elites have been called out — to use their own PC parlance — over their hypocritical moral preening and hollow woke posturing. Courtesy of our very own Ricky Gervais, Hollywood’s right-on bubble has been burst, and what a brilliant sight it was.

    Gervais’s one-man war on Hollywood cant took place at last night’s Golden Globes. He was presenting (‘for the last time’, he said, no doubt rightly). He spared no one. He mocked individuals over everything from their dating habits (Leonardo DiCaprio) to their height (Martin Scorsese). And he mocked all of them, the entire industry, over their vacuous moral pretensions.

    In his opening monologue he set the tone early on. He paved the way for his takedown of Hollywood hypocrisy by reminding us of the less-than-perfect moral habits of the assembled luvvies and their filthy-rich industry. ‘I came here in a limo tonight and the license plate was made by Felicity Huffman’, he said, alluding to actress Huffman’s brief stint in the slammer over the college-admissions scandal. Tom Hanks looked visibly shocked.

    Next up was the luvvies’ sexual behaviour. Making fun of the length of Scorsese’s new film The Irishman, he said: ‘Leonardo DiCaprio attended the premiere and by the end his date was too old for him.’ Cue awkward laughs. But Gervais wasn’t done. ‘Even Prince Andrew’s like, “Come on, Leo, mate. You’re nearly 50, son.”’

    He mocked the Hollywood tendency to cover up for and hang out with some pretty nasty people. Mentioning the nominated film Bird Box, he said it was about people who claim they cannot see things — ‘sort of like working for Harvey Weinstein’. When his quip about Jeffrey Epstein having not really committed suicide elicited a few jeers, he said: ‘Shut up. I know he’s your friend, but I don’t care.’

    He mocked them all for claiming to be woke and yet happily working with new streaming services owned by morally questionable corporations like Disney and Apple, with its ‘sweatshops in China’. ‘If Isis started a streaming service, you’d call your agent’, he said.

    Then came the crescendo, the detonation of the whole woke agenda. All this hypocrisy makes you the worst people in the world to lecture the rest of us about morality or pretty much anything, Gervais suggested. He socked it to them:

    ‘If you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. If you win, thank your agent, thank your god, and fuck off.’

    So many people must have cheered that. People who are sick of being lectured about their carbon footprint by alarmingly rich celebs who fly about in private jets.

    People who’ve had enough of being instructed on the importance of feminism by an industry saturated with sexual madness.

    People who don’t take kindly to being told to use PC language and the correct pronouns by people who make movies containing graphic violence and ceaseless expletives (which is fine, by the way).

    People who are just tired of the idea that we must bow and scrape to right-on celebs and other do-gooders who always assume they know better than us.

    Gervais spoke for us all. Let’s hope this is a turning point in woke nonsense. Let’s hope people who are famous will now think twice before using their platform to pontificate to the masses about things they have no right whatsoever to pontificate on.

    1. I always thought Gervais was a pr*ck, but I have to revise my opinion totally.
      Excellent!

      1. I’m not keen on the progs he is in but i do like his patter.

        The audience probably consoled themselves with…it’s just Ricky being Ricky. The joke is on them. He did mean every word.

  37. Musing on the depressingly low calibre of modern politicians and diplomats – particular those with responsibility for foreign policy – last night, I came across this:

    “….believed that successful diplomacy required the pursuit of clear principles derived from a careful study of history. When seeking to resolve a problem, his method was to immerse himself in the records and to develop an understanding of the historical context. He would then produce a detail position paper.”

    The subject? Metternich. Where (apart from Mr Putin) do we find such people today?

    1. A successful diplomat is a person that can lie to your face and then you thank them for it.

  38. Hmmm.

    I think I need help.
    Either I have entered the twilight zone or something very dangerous is about to happen.
    It began this morning when the significant other called up the stairs to me to say “We forgot our wedding anniversary.”
    We? WE?
    Since when has any sig other ever accepted a share of the blame for anything? Isn’t this why they get married, so they can blame everything on the husband?
    So you see my dilemma.

    How seriously am I at risk?
    Should i pack and run or just run?

    3. I didn’t forget. I was told not to make a fuss over it.
      Bloody silly me acted accordingly
      .
      .

      .

      I’ll send you some bandages.

      1. Er, bandages? You think I’ll get off that lightly?
        I was wondering if i needed to hire some ex SAS bodyguards….but that might just result in collateral damage…. ‘er indoors is not to be trifled with when angry….. somewhere in Surrey there is a Range Rover driver who made the mistake of blowing his horn at her because he thought she should yield right of way to him. It would be nice to find him and see if the missing diamond from her ring is still embedded in his nose….and he got off lightly…. much traveled as she is, there is, according to her best friend who traveled the Middle east with her, a kalashnikov wielding Afghan near Kabul who is probably still receiving treatment for PTSD.

        1. That reminds me of the story of a workaholic tycoon with the usual trophy wife.
          Still in the office late in the day his secretary stuck her head round the door and said”You did remember today is your wife’s birthday, didn’t you.. I sent you several reminders.”
          He turned white, looked at his watch dropped everything and raced out. Speeding homeward he realised all the shops were shut but fortunately there was an open garage in which he was able to buy some chocolates, some Champagne and most of their remaining stock of flowers.
          He gets home nerves himself for the fray, puts on a big smile and opens the front door.

          The wife is standing in the hallway, foot tapping arms folded and a not very happy look on her face. “Darling!” he starts, “Happy birthday. I’ve just brought you a few of the usual things but my real present for you is for you to go out tomorrow and get whatever you want, money no object.”
          She glares at him.
          “I want a divorce.” she says coldly.
          He is shocked.
          “Oh,” he says ” I didn’t mean anything that expensive.”

          1. I think ” she starts ” is a typo for ” he starts ” ?
            It was the last eight times I heard it.

          3. Life imitates art…
            I just popped out to buy some bubbly, choc, flowers etc. but this is Greece. Rhodes to be precise and it would seem it is another of those bloody days when either it is some religious day of significance, celebrating the independence from some country or other or simply a day of rest…. on a monday and everything closed. So I arrived home empty handed.

            Google says it is epiphany…… well I’m not Greek orthodox, so should i ring Sher Khans hate crime number? Should I be offended?

      3. Should she also own up & make up with something he’d like – in the spirit of equality, don’cha know?

    5. We forgot ours way back in July.. .. never mind .. we took the dogs out for a walk , then sat and ate a crab sandwich each and shared a pot of tea .. glorying at the sight of a beautiful sparkling blue sea .. and thought … my goodness , forever is a long long time .. Marriage is an alliance .. a treaty ..

      Just stop feeling anxious !

        1. Ah but i did remember that, the whole world celebrates i on Dec 31st…..but does it make up for forgetting an anniversary?

        3. Caroline’s birthday is on 26th March and our wedding anniversary is one week later on 2nd April. This is during our Easter courses season so for the past 30 years we have had students staying with us with us on both occasions. This year, as usual we shall have students with us for our anniversary (32nd) but we shall celebrate Caroline’s birthday in style on our own as Course 1 does not begin until 29th March.

          2. Getting married on 2nd April was a challenge – although it did not rain, it was blowing a hoolie in Lyme Regis and my veil kept on trying to escape! We have plenty of photos of guests hanging on to their hats.

          2. Yes that’s nice , it is the little things ..

            Moh’s father died on my birthday years ago … We were out for a meal.. when the news broke!

    6. UPDATE:
      Sig other just re-appeared and all of a sudden she is talking about how “I” forgot our wedding anniversary.

      Run now?

  39. I listened to the Jeremy Vine radio talk show whilst out in the car..

    George Galloway was on there .. now scoff all you want.. but he likened the Iraq situation with our 400 highly trained troops in situ .. as something akin to Rorkes Drift… Have any of you seen Zulu… of course you all have … So the Iranians and all the factions that are disrupting and complicating life out there will create mayhem … and as George Galloway suggested .. it could be a disaster .. We should pull everyone out .

    There are some nasty people , lots of them , millions of them . Arab/Asia minor revenge is hideous … They hate us all… and no matter how many of their own sort they punish and murder cruelly , they will cut our Western throats for sixpence

    1. Iraq doesn’t want foreign troops in their country. Their democratically elected parliament just unanimously voted for the US to leave and in response Trump said he would sanction Iraq if it forces the US out.

          1. I’m sorry. We are a bit biased on this board. If you suffer from the Anti-Ameriican disease, please go away and read the Guardian.

          3. Soleimani may have been a bad guy, but he was nonetheless a senior military figure of another country assassinated by the US – the first time such a thing has happened apparently since WWII.

            It is a serious and dangerous precedent that has been set.

          5. The leading lights of Hamas and Hezbollah are next on the list. They are currently quaking in their shoes.

          8. Making the assassination senior military figures in peacetime fair game makes the world a more dangerous and unstable place.

            Would Iran be justified in killing a senior American military figure in retaliation for instance?

          9. But we are not in peacetime but in undeclared long running wars and Shiite Iran in particular has been at war with everybody including other Muslim peoples for 1400 years . You cannot fight Islam with one hand tied behind your back by the human rights brigade, the Geneva Convention does not cover Islamo-Fascist Jihad.

          10. He was not assassinated, which would be illegal. Time will tell if Mr Trump was wise or not but don’t prejudge the case when you, nor any of us, do not have all the facts (unless you are the Director of the CIA whiling away the time).

          12. Popular Mobilisation Units. A Shia militia formed to fight ISIS. An Iraqi faction of Hezbollah forms part of it I believe.

          14. Well Iraq has a majority Shia population and as a result now has a lot of Iranian influence over it due to the 2003 US invasion.

          17. Also according to the Iraqi PM he was on an Iraqi brokered peace mission to reduce tensions with Saudi Arabia.

      2. How could it “unanimously” vote when all the Sunni and Kurd representatives (deliberately) did not show up.

        1. Sunnis wouldn’t be anymore sympathetic to continuing US presence in their country.

    3. If the colour is the light blue that they appeared to have chosen – I don’t think I want one, but mine doesn’t run out till 2026.

    1. As one of the audibly challenged, I find that dead funny. Many a true word spoken in jest.

  44. A belated Good Morning, happy NoTTLers, as Anne said earlier, more humour to drive the leftards and snowflakes crazy. It might amuse we old white people.

    Now on sale at IKEA – ‘lesbian’ beds: no nuts or screwing involved, it’s all tongue and groove…

    A Muslim has been shot in the head with a starting pistol; police say it’s definitely race related…

    Due to a water shortage in Ireland, Dublin swimming baths have announced they are closing lanes 7 and 8….

    I got a letter from Screw Fix Direct thanking me for my interest, but explaining they were not a dating agency…

    Paddy thought his new girlfriend might be the one but, after looking through her knicker drawer and finding a nurse’s outfit, a French maid’s outfit, and police woman’s uniform, he decided if she can’t hold down a job, she’s not for him.

    I got sacked from my job as a bingo caller the other day apparently, ’A meal for two with a terrible view’ isn’t the best way to announce number 69.

    After 100 years lying on the sea bed, Irish divers were amazed to find that the Titanic’s swimming pool was still full.

    1. Now on sale at IKEA – ‘lesbian’ beds: no nuts or screwing involved, it’s all tongue and groove….😉.

    2. First consult with comrades Putin, Xi Jinping, Castro, Maduro , Kim Jung-Un , Cyril Ramaphosa and of course the Muslim Brotherhood, visit Karl Marx’s grave for luck, then have the TUC & Momentum decide on the winner, next start the official election process, decide on how many votes were cast for the winner & next install the comrade as the great new leader & savior of the working class!

    1. Welcome Dave,looks like you really pissed off the vote stealing bot,either that or nobody loves you {:^))

      2. Hi Rik, Dave is a longtime poster first on my channels & now on my Blogs, whose upvotes have been wiped out by the Bot program, could you please Whitelist him on here.

    2. To be really 2020 the ‘oldies’ on the bench should be:

      Same sex
      Vegans
      Remoners
      Pro BBC
      Handicapped ( I see the sticks)
      etc

      1. They don’t care about the year and all that other crap, they’re just getting on with it.😮

  50. Phew – our buyers have just been for the 4th time – and handed over the cash for the few items they want. I really think the sale is ON….

    The relief is tangible…

    3. Congrats. I remember when I was selling my house next to a field and some lads had just decided to start using it for motor bike scramble practice. A very nerve racking time…

      1. Someone’s dropped a bomb somewhere

        Contaminating atmosphere

        And blackening the sky?

        By he whose name shall not be spoken.

          2. She Who Must Be Obeyed was Horace Rumpole’s wife. This explains why this particular lawyer often looked Haggard.

            (The author of King Solomon’s Mines regularly used to appear in crossword puzzles. )

    1. Thanks for that, PT. I have been suffering from sciatica since I broke my ankle back in September caused, I think, by the height differentials between the fracture boot and my ‘normal’ leg and hobbling around more than I should have been. The sciatica is oh-so-gradually starting to settle down, but I fear we (the sciatica and I) will be having an on-off lifetime relationship.

      I have just ordered two toppers.

  52. Labour Leadership Election

    The full timetable is as follows:

    Tuesday 7 January: Nominations open from MPs and MEPs.

    Monday 13 January: Nominations from MPs and MEPs closes at 2.30pm.

    Tuesday 14 January: Registered supporters applications open at 5pm.

    Thursday 16 January: Registered supporters applications close at 5pm.

    Wednesday 15 January: Second stage of nominations from Constituency Labour Parties and affiliates opens.

    Monday 20 January: Freeze date for eligibility for new members and affiliated supporters, closes at 5pm.

    Friday 14 February: Close of CLP and affiliate nominations.

    Friday 21 February: Ballot opens.

    Thursday 2 April: Ballot closes at 12pm.

    Saturday 4 April: Special conference to announce results.

    1. BJ,
      Sunday 5th April an all member occult meeting,inclusive of a black mass with lib dems / tory coalition guest members welcome.

    3. He was very good looking when he was younger, I’m told, but being over 30 and going bald is a double death sentence to your sex life in the youthful gay world, unless you are Patrick Stewart. Some manage to pull off the good looking shaved head look, such as Timothy Olyphant in the “Hitman” film, but not this guy.

      The judge said that this rapist showed no remorse and appeared to be enjoying the trial. A soulless bas’ard that you don’t want to bump into in real life. Even if I were “the worse for wear” after a night out, I would not go into someones flat and accept a drink from them. You would not see me for dust.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/80606983650c75c8a9ef3587523bee4043832743be63f57e4b8180c5d0cd319f.jpg

  54. Further to Brendan O’Neill’s article about the Golden Globes posted about three hours ago, there is some additional material included here…

    Delingpole: Ricky Gervais Deserves a Medal for Roasting the Wankerati at the Golden Globes
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/01/06/gervais-deserves-a-medal-for-roasting-the-golden-globes-wankerati/

    Ed Power (who he?) of the DT completely off beam and being eviscerated BTL

    Go home, David Brent: Ricky Gervais’s limp Golden Globes jokes were satire with the safety catch on
    Ed Power – 6 JANUARY 2020 • 1:07PM

    1. There was a link put up last night to the whole 7 minutes of Ricky Gervais’s speech, and it was excellent. I don’t like his different series, but when he does stand-up on stage then he can be very good. In that audience you could hear people clapping from the back, so there are obviously Americans who “get” our sense of humour. Just not many of the irritating celebrities who really are not worth a bucket of manure.

      You can see many examples from “real” Americans online whose humour can be just as dry as ours:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8eae117e2d2e948196e8d9d0c4aa62d020b7237b0137e653e40e9a7e1b79e233.jpg

  55. If it comes to it, Britain must be prepared to use military force. 6 JANUARY 2020.

    Leaving aside the legality, morality or the timing of the US assassination of Iranian general Qassim Soleimani, the UK government needs to be fully prepared for the consequences. The regime in Tehran cannot afford not to retaliate, or risk losing status in the eyes of its various proxies around the Middle East.

    BELOW THE LINE.

    Richard Brady 6 Jan 2020 10:21AM.

    Cameron, May, Blair, and Brown all deprived the UK military of the finance and support needed to protect UK interests. (I believe that Brown was the worst offender amongst them).

    Their betrayal of the British people has now come home to roost: 5th columnist terror cells in our cities, thanks to unimpeded mass immigration. Undermanned Police forces too weak to deal with the threat and too busy stopping twitter hate-crime to know how to react. Lack of military equipment and resources to allow our bravest young men and women to properly defend themselves when they will eventually be asked to clear up this mess.

    Our MP’s resent being called ‘useless parasites’ – I can’t think of any other term that accurately describes their performance over the last 20 years.

    Amen to that Richard Brady!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/01/06/comes-britain-must-prepared-use-military-force/

    1. “Britain must be prepared to use military force”

      …and should send the bill to?

      I doubt if we’ve finished paying the financial cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, let alone the human cost.

      Britain is boracic and is having to pay more money on its debt interest than it spends on defence.

    2. AS,
      The standing army of enemas held a meeting of remorse WITHIN these Isles, who in their right mind were, via the ballot booth the latch lifters giving them, & continuing to give them access to this country, and WHY ?

    3. “If it comes to it, Britain must be prepared to use military force,” – against the slammers in our midst.

  57. So this chap can preach murder and terror IN LONDON – and get away with it; while we would be done for hate crime. Odd or what?

  58. Thank you all for your kind remarks about our sale. As my elder son has just mailed – “that does justify a small sweet sherry”!!

    Signing off now until tomorrow. Have a jolly evening.

    2. At the risk of upsetting Peddy I shall repeat the sentiments I expressed here this morning and in my view these sentiments should be repeated over and over again until our politicians do something positive about the hatred directed towards the British whose country it used to be and show that they are not completely ready to surrender:

      Unless we, our politicians and police ‘service’ soon accept and wake up to the reality of the threat of Islam and its desire to impose sharia law and a worldwide caliphate over the whole world our society, based of Judeo-Christian values, will be eliminated completely.

      The fact that an Iranian terrorist murderer is being both mourned and lauded is not a healthy sign and augers very badly.for the future.:

      1. Politicians are tunnel visioned .. they have no idea how to cope with this growing menace .

        I object to liberal minded types saying that this is a democratic country where free speech is welcome .

        We should round up all traitors and either intern them or kick them out across to their Sharia loving cousins … no excuses ifs or buts.

        1. There was never any hesitation from our rulers in the past when presented with a clear and present danger to the realm.

      1. It is now 46 years since I last wielded one of those “I’m done talking” type of tools in earnest.

          3. You’ve just reminded me of a very funny story about “safe-breaking”.

            I was once called to a building site on a Monday morning where the site foreman showed me his safe, which had been attacked by some potential thieves over the past weekend. The safe was of a substantial steel construction but had a back made of three-inch thick lead (which is a very heavy but quite soft metal). These amateur safe-breakers had spent (he estimated) several hours over the weekend chopping a hole in the lead at the back of the safe with a pickaxe.

            After their very strenuous and long exertions they had discovered that the safe was, indeed, empty. The foreman told me that the safe only contained cash for a couple of hours on a Friday afternoon before it was paid out to the workers on site. He also told me that he would give a job to the culprits, if caught, since it was evident that a spot of prolonged graft was no problem to them.

          4. Way back in the late 1970’s the offices where I worked had on the first floor, a 4 ft high steel safe which once a week held the weekly wages of a couple hundred staff normally paid out on a Thursday. However, during a Bank Holiday week, thieves broke in and somehow manhandled the safe weighing several hundred weight down the flight of stairs one Wednesday night. When the Detective assigned to investigate the theft asked how much the safe contained I told him less than £10 in petty cash and a few stamps. Whereupon he fell on the floor laughing for several minutes. I asked him what was so funny and he replied “it would have taken them hours using a cold chisel to hammer the back off the safe -I only wish I could have been there to see their faces when they found the safe was empty”

          5. I said pretty much the same thing to the building site foreman.

            And just to think, most thieves steal because they reckon it is an easy way of making money!

          8. Don’t laugh, when we were eating at a rather nice restaurant not that far from Angers about 10 years ago, we ordered crème brûlées. When I went for a needed visit, I passed Madame glazing them – with a big old fashioned blowlamp. I remember my grandfather having them (both paraffin and petrol versions) that he used for lead plumbing repairs, when he was in the war damage repair business.

      1. I think the point here is that “wrench” is also a verb. Have you ever spannered something from someone’s hands?

        1. No, but that is a non sequiteur. You don’t use a spanner to remove an object from someone’s grip. And the dude in the cartoon isn’t using the word “wrench” as a verb.

          I just rail at the incremental rise in the use of vapid Americanisms at the expense of proper English.

          1. Can’t win that one Grizz. Too many of them (us). Then there are the big English speaking countries like India, who have really redefined the language usage. Mostly logical, but different – like “preponing” meetings. And to my perpetual amusement while there – the use of I am being, as in, “Hello, I am being the office manager”

            Just be glad that it was English and not Esperanto that won the world wide language battle. I could have taken Esperanto as an extra language at school, but 3 languages was more than enough for a budding engineer.

          2. I know I’ll never win it, Jack, but that won’t stop me trying, even though it’s like pissing in the wind.

            Standards, old chap.

      2. We have long had pipe wrenches and, although the term is not used much these days, monkey wrenches.

  61. SIR – Railway history shows that building new or improved lines with faster, more frequent and reliable trains and greater network capacity is the only way to meet the requirements of passengers.

    Tinkering with the existing 
network will not suffice for a 21st-century rail system, given that most of the bridges, viaducts, tunnels and embankments have been in place for more than 150 years.

    Delaying the project until after the regeneration of railways in other parts of the country (so far not yet planned or costed in detail) would be absurd. Can we really afford to wait until 2050 for the completion of HS2?

    Simon Hope
    Norwich

    ————————————

    BTL comment:
    There is a Simon Hope who works for Alstrom Transport Ltd, as part of its Rail Transport division. I’m sure he must be a different Simon Hope than the one who wrote today’s letter in support of the 100bn plus HS2 project.

    1. First we had railways overland,

      Then we had underground railways.
      Time to have overhead railways. No ground support needed. We could call them aeroplanes.

    3. A bit of a contradiction. The faster the trains the fewer stops they make and the less trains you can run. What bridges and viaducts have to do with it who knows

      If we do build new line they should look at the gauge standard gauge is not particularly sensible. The other issue we have in the UK is about a dozen different loading gauges which restricts where rolling stock can be used

      1. The space between the platform and the step varies from one place to another – not easy for many people especially those with minor disablement. I hope they remember to fix that one – if they can.

        1. Slowly being sorted. The new trains on Greater Anglia lines have step-less level access only trouble they have is the new trains are not working properly with the current signalling systems

  62. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4f4fd1f25a2537465f6c4405a99052268b7087e999f4bf7747012b9bceb3651a.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/50e6e114f05394759763ea71bfbb07f277a900947be2eb2b0585bff5201e9b1f.png
    Bravo the voters of Heywood and Middleton constituency.

    They voted this vinegar-titted bitch in at the 2017 general election, then safely disposed of the cow at the 2019 election after her dismal failure to bow to the electorate’s wishes.

    She should be flogged at the pillory for (a) treason and (b) daring to appear in public looking like that!

      1. I can actually feel the milk from my morning shredded wheat curdling in my stomach as I look at it, Pud.

        1. Thank goodness she isn’t posing nude for a charity calendar, the idea of her & Dianne Abbot doing such a shoot could cause a rise in alcohol consumption & prescriptions for anti-depressants among male readers of NTTL

  63. Help Please, Mods, two innocuous replies to OLT have been held up by:

    “Hold on, this is waiting to be approved by Not the Telegraph Letters.”

    2. The blog had been put into pre moderation mode somehow. I released about a dozen comments but Geoff must have noticed because I could find no way to reset the beast.

      2. I have an idea that it may be some sort of Auto-bot that has infiltrated disqus’ poor security and is set by some NTTL hating troll to target certain vociferous commentators.

  64. Trump Derangement Syndrome skyrockets (BBC certainly in full orbit):

    Remember “politics stops at the water’s edge”?

    In the Trump era, that patriotic phrase isn’t only dead, it’s decomposed.

    And ironically so, since the latest manifestation of this decomposition is over the termination of Qassem Soleimani, the terror mastermind who was, on analysis, even more dangerous to the United States and the world than Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, monumentally evil as they were.

    Neither bin Laden nor al-Baghdadi ever had remotely the power at their disposals—even when the latter controlled his caliphate—that Soleimani did as the military leader of by far the greatest state sponsor of terrorism. They weren’t even close to the man who was head of Iran’s Quds force and the second most powerful person in that country of 80-plus million, with all its attendant weaponry and technology and ties to China and Russia.Besides the thousands of Americans who either died or were maimed for life because of Soleimani, hundreds of thousands across the Middle East have met their fates at least in part through this man’s ministrations.

    The once-shining state of Lebanon is practically decimated through the rise of his Hezbollah, a fate he was replicating in Iraq. And then there’s Yemen and his Houthi and their simultaneous war against Saudi Arabia and their own people. And, of course, Israel, where he kept the Jewish state in a crossfire between his clients Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and, again Hezbollah (when Hezbollah wasn’t busy exporting drugs into the United States).

    It’s worth remembering that Soleimani was in charge of all these operations at once, a veritable superstar of terror.

    On top of all that, he had as much influence as anyone in keeping the Syrian Civil War alive. Current death (under)count: 400,000. Number of refugees: 5.7 million. He may have changed Europe as we knew it forever.

    And let’s not forget Iran itself, where only in the past few weeks, Soleimani’s footprints were all over the deaths of thousands of peaceful anti-regime demonstrators. Nobody knows how many. And torture as well—something that the Islamic Republic has made a specialty since 1979. Only the other day, they again executed a man for homosexuality.

    Yet the supposedly liberal and progressive Democrats are all in a dither about the assassination of Soleimani. After all, Trump did it. It has to be wrong.

    Not only would these same Democrats obviously have applauded the action if it had been done by one of their own, equally obviously, many of them would have attacked Trump even if had he assassinated Hitler in 1940, blaming the president for escalating the conflict.

    It’s that simple—and nauseating—and every honest person in America knows it, especially the vets, almost all of whom have friends incinerated by one of Soleimani’s roadside bombs, if they aren’t themselves walking around on prosthetic devices.

    And this leaves aside whatever Soleimani’s plans were that constituted the proximate cause of the assassination. If past performance is any indication, he had many.

    Meanwhile, the Democratic candidates are demonstrating uniform cowardice in the face of the action. Is there one of them you would want to have beside you in a foxhole?

    It would seem to have been impossible, but as bad as it’s been for the past three years, Trump Derangement Syndrome has reached unforeseen levels.

    But a deeper cause of this increased derangement may stem from events that began Sept. 11, 2012—the Obama administration’s behavior in the aftermath of the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya.

    As most will recall, the administration sent Susan Rice to inform the nation that the lethal terror attack occurred because of a spontaneous emotional reaction to an amateur anti-Islamic video that barely anyone had ever watched. It wasn’t a planned attack by a terror group, Rice said. That was a despicable lie.

    Kenneth Timmerman wrote in the New York Post in June 2014, “My sources, meanwhile, say Suleymani [sic] was involved in an even more direct attack on the U.S.—the killing of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, Libya.”

    Timmerman goes on to detail a complicated and clever plot behind Benghazi worthy of the evil mastermind Soleimani. (Read it here.)

    If this is true—and it seems vastly more likely than Rice’s “explanation”—then what just occurred at Baghdad Airport is a prime, and highly justified, example of that old saw: what goes around comes around.

    Epoch Times senior political analyst Roger L. Simon’s new novel “The GOAT” is available on Amazon.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-derangement-syndrome-skyrockets-over-soleimani_3193863.html

    1. …and how many lives is Milliband responsible for, by refusing the SAS to take him out in 2007?

  65. Hi Mods NtN seems to have incurred the automatic wrath of the disqus auto bot – please help.

    2. They are out in force today. I tried to reply to Lewis Duckworth’s postings – reply under moderation.
      They must be watching crisis-related keywords

  67. Just read the Headlines from hard copy of Daily Wail

    After Trump assassinates military chief

    Strange that the murderers of Private Rigby were never labelled Assassins

    Nor have any other of the Snack Bar men who have killed anyone in UK’

    We will just have to wait and see if anything changes

  68. The progressive, escalating and terminal decline of the Labour Party as the champions of workers.

    True old-school socialists such as Michael Foot, Peter Shore, Dennis Skinner, Tony Benn—and dozens more—were always rabidly and vociferously against the concept of the Common Market and its successors. They campaigned long and loud and always kept, first and foremost, the needs and requirements of their working-class power base at the forefront of their politics.

    Then along came ‘New Labour’; the smokescreen developed—by the new breed of globalist pseudo-socialists headed by the likes of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband—to divert eyes (and minds) away from policies that had nothing whatsoever to do with sustaining the needs of their working class power base.

    After that came Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, two quasi-communists who preached a return to true socialism, but in reality continued to move the party well away from the requirements of its traditional support, the working class.

    The next chapter is about to open and already an assembled cast of well-to-do (and well off) intellectuals, weaned on Frankfurt School ideology and Common Purpose conditioning, are crowding around the muster station.

    Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Emily Thornberry, Jess Phillips, Lisa Nandy and Clive Lewis, remainers to a man (or woman, or whatever), none of them sons- (or daughters-) of-toil, and who—in the main—have displayed an overt disdain for the working classes, are jostling for the votes of the very people they openly despise.

    In the 19th century there were two main political parties in the UK: the Tories (forerunner of the Conservative Party) and the Whigs (precursor of the Liberal Party). The former being of the conservative (small ‘c’) wing and the latter of the liberal (small ‘l’) wing. Neither had a good track record of looking after working class rights, working conditions, or living standards.

    In 1900, another Keir (presumably no relation), formed the infant Labour Party from, initially, a rag-tag coalition of trades unions, an “Independent Labour Party”, the “Scottish Labour Party”, the “Social Democratic Federation”, and the Fabian Society. When all this coalesced into what we now know as the Labour Party, it quickly started to displace the Liberal Party as the voice of the people. The progressive decline of the latter party can be traced back directly to this time period.

    Whilst this revolution in politics was needed, at that time, to look after the interests of millions of working people in the UK, its decline as a voice of the people in recent decades has become exponential. In fact its progressive move away from its natural power base has now become so complete that surely the time is ripe for the entire party to be consigned to the dustbin of history, along with the cartel of champagne socialists who have hijacked it.

    In the early decades of a new century, never has there been a more urgent need for a strong party of opposition to give a reasonable voice to working people, in the manner that the Labour Party of Ramsay MacDonald and Clement Attlee did in the first part of last century. Unfortunately I cannot see candidates of sufficient calibre anywhere in the country at the moment. Reasonable candidates such as Kate Hoey and Frank Field are past their sell-by dates. Unless others of that ilk are discovered, and in fairly rapid time, then the status quo of decline in the traditional Centre-Left sector of UK politics will continue to perpetuate and fester further.

    1. Read that as “The progressive, escalating and terminal decline of the Labour Party as the champions of workers wankers“.
      Maybe I’d better get me to specsavers… :-((

    2. Read that as “The progressive, escalating and terminal decline of the Labour Party as the champions of workers wankers“.
      Maybe I’d better get me to specsavers… :-((

    3. Good afternoon Grizz, I am surprised that Sadiq Khan has not thrown his turban hat in the ring as he is Labours most successful Muslim Brotherhood politician having successfully turned London into the most dangerous knife crime, mugging & no go area city in the Western world ! The sign that he is ready to take over the Labour leadership will be when he decides again to stand as an MP when a suitable Muslim dominated Labour seat becomes available.

      3. Greetings, Pud. Since the Labour Party are still (historically) held close to the heart of most British workers; I doubt that you will see, at any time in the near future, anyone from that persuasion being voted for by the massed ranks of British sons-of-toil.

        Londoners might have been conned into voting for the current Mayor, but Londoners are not typical of the rest of Britain (thank goodness) who vote with their heads.

    4. G,
      Look first for a party that are
      currently anti PC / Appeasement,and have never been proved to be anything but pro English / GB.

      1. If, by that response, you are alluding to any of the minority fringe parties in the manner of: The Liberal Democrats, the Referendum Party, The Green Party, People Before Profit, The British People’s Party, The National Front; The Workers’ Revolutionary Party, The British National Party, The Brexit Party, The Official Monster Raving Loony Party, The United Kingdom Independence Party, or any other of the 180-and-counting rag-tag alliances of wannabe parties for the power-crazed; then don’t look to me for an answer.

        1. G,
          I do not believe the post was specifically
          made with you in mind, but on an open discussion board.
          However there is one party among the rag tags that has won an election & with top support / votes.
          Plus never can be
          accused of treachery against Country or people.

          1. “G, Look first for a party that are…”

            Well, if the ‘G’ in your direct response (above) wasn’t specifically made with me in mind, who the hell was it made to?

          2. G,
            “Was not made specifically with you in mind”
            But posted on an open discussion board, you inclusive, if you wish.
            Do you have a problem with understanding English ?

    5. And don’t forget that Blair actually campaigned to take Britain out of the EC in the general election that Kinnock lost to Major in1992.

      And then look at Kinnock and his family: the chief suckers at the EU teat.!

  69. Ah Pointless, the only show where the host says everything 1/2 a dozen times & the contestants applaud everything including themselves.

    2. Yo peddy

      Pointless by name. Pointless by Nature

      A good point, if you are a telly addict, you can use its’ air time to

      Do the Four Essses (Sh*t, shave, shampoo, shower)
      Make evening meal
      Walk Dog/Cat/Horse/Lion/Sig Other etc
      Clean Car
      Vacuum (Hoover is a Trade Name)
      etc

      Long Live Pointless ( I do not mean it)
      Armstrong is a waste of Space, Victuals, Oxygen, Hearing Aid Battery etc: Hang on The Liebore New Leader

      1. Third most tedious quiz on tv.
        No 2 is Eggheads
        No 1 is Tenable

        Although I saw another midday quiz during the hols where contestants have to carry a little suitcase around with them. It was terrible.

  70. Hywel Dda cancels operations after ‘critical pressures’

    A health board has cancelled inpatient operations at four of its hospitals “in the interest of patient safety”.
    Hywel Dda University Health Board made the decision after “an extraordinary weekend” of “critical pressures”.
    On Monday, operations were cancelled at Bronglais, Glangwili, Prince Philip and Withybush hospitals in mid and west Wales.
    The health board said it had contacted the patients affected and outpatient appointments continued as normal.
    No decisions have been taken yet to cancel operations on Tuesday, it added.
    Dr Philip Kloer, the health board’s medical director, said the weekend saw hospitals “at a level of escalation not seen before”.
    “It is in the interest of patient safety that we have postponed planned operations today,” he added.

  71. BoJo May Scrap Unelected House of Lords

    It does not make a lot of sense. The Lords is just a chamber basically for per reviewing Commons legislation also it plays no part in NI, Scottish or Welsh legislation

    The Lords does need reform though and is currently far to big., It needs to be cut by at least 50%

    Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s administration is looking into scrapping the unelected Lords and handing the upper chamber over to an assembly of nations and regions.

    If followed through, the plans would end the domination of London-centric politics in parliament, with elected representatives given a voice in the halls of power to working-class, Leave-supporting regions of the country.

  72. How do we reform the railways so that they actually run a good service ?

    Nationalizing them is very much a red herring as the are already State owned and state controlled

    1. Nationali(s)ing them is very much a red herring as the(y) are already (not) State owned and state controlled(.)

      Lust sitting in for Poddy as he his g0ven op. :o(

          5. As he clearly got on so many people’s tits I wouldn’t be surprised if he was Arkancided…..

          4. You’ve just upset the very last remnant of the very last vestiges of his feelings…..

        3. I like BJ. His comments are rarely mean, often off topic, & provoke plenty discussion.

      2. Notwork Rail is state owned, as is the East Coast Main Line passenger franchise. But there is no excuse for American spelling.

        PS. State owned TfL is heavily into railways in the London area.

        2. The government owns most of the rail infrastructure such as stations, track, signalling depots etc. I think only the rolling stock is in general privately owned

    2. Get the Canadians to run them.
      It will not improve service but after a few weeks you will be yearning for the old times.

      1. The railways are about the only once nationalized industry that sill makes a loss and still provides terrible services

      2. Wrong on so many levels.

        1. They are railway lines not “train lines”
        2. Adding to the colossal number of road vehicles is crazy.
        3. Railways should be increased, not decreased, an an infrastructure created for the sensible movement of freight by rail.

        1. How? Rail i only really useful for bulk point to point freight and there is not a lot of that

          2. As you are an expert on logistics and supply chain please explain how you propose rail freight will work for non bulk point to point traffic ?

          3. Wrong. I spent a few days in a hotel in Newcastle upon Tyne Adjacent to the Tyne Bridge a few years ago. From my elevated position on the fourth floor, gazing across the Tyne, I could see the constant movement of very long freight trains. This went on all day and all night.

            The principal reason for the shift from rail freight to road transport has been the unreliability of the railways.

            It is more sensible to utilise railways for bulk transport with distribution by smaller road vehicles from established rail side depots. This works perfectly well provided that the rail freight services are punctual and able to be relied upon.

          5. Absolutely right. It’s the principle useD by airlines and shipping lines, unless BJ reckons that he has seen jumbojets landing at regional airports or container ships sailing up the Severn or Avon.

          6. Container traffic has a lot of point to point traffic so is a mixture of Rail and road. A major problem is a lot of the line is single track which is somewhat limiting for rail

          7. Precisely. I was recently studying the history of Rippers Joinery once based at Sible Hedingham. They were one of the largest joinery outfits in the country, making everything from windows and doors to prefabricated buildings.

            All of their stuff was loaded onto freight trains from their site and despatched all over the country. Their basic timber raw materials were similarly offloaded from their sidings.

            Obviously the destruction of branch lines by the wretch Beeching put paid to this and many other intrinsic efficiencies.

          8. Try and work out the logistics of that. IT would be hopelessly inefficient and expensive and slow

          9. Dr Beeching was deeply hurt and upset by the criticism directed at him. He believed that his closures were inevitable, due to the growth in road transport and ownership of private cars.
            (Some friends used to know Dr B’s secretary after she retired.)

    1. Chinese dis-information campaign. How else are they going to get their aerospace industry ‘off the ground’?

  77. Brexit seems to have been forgotten, although D-Day is only a few weks away.
    I’ve been watching the way many of the supermarkets are dealing with food re-stocking after the Christmas-New Year period.
    Would any of you like to take a bet on the stock shortages and prices increases that will hit us in the face, being blamed on Brexit, as soon as we leave ?
    (The price of petrol will of course go up, being blamed on Iran, and the expected reductions in domestic fuel prices will not happen either).

      1. You may be right. Signs of it already, especially with Sainsbury’s, who are due to catch a very big cold.

    2. Not forgotten

      It all went on hold due to the General Election. Tomorrow is the fist day of the Committee stage of the Brexit Bill . With the Lib-Dem’s and Labour having already scheduled amendments . Currently 3 days have been set aside for this. There will probably be a lot of delaying waffle but given the Conservatives majority it should go through the commons with out problem and the Lords will rubber stamp it

    3. If anything they should be discounting as they claimed to have stock pilled for the previous leaving date that never happened. Dont you remember the stories of warehouses busting at the seems with stock. The pound has also been increasing in value making imports cheaper

      1. Most of the veg i bought in December went off before i got it home.

        Not just Sterling Bill. The Dollar has done great also. My investments have rocketted. I’m quite looking forward to WW3

  78. Cultural Enrichment Corner
    Immigrant paedophile, 38, tried to meet ’14-year-old’ for sex weeks after he arrived in UK due to his ‘distorted attitude towards British girls’, court hears as he is jailed for 18 months.
    Abdul Aziz contacted what he thought was a 14-year-old called Ruby in August
    Once the ‘teenager’ confirmed her ‘age’ he tried to meet up with her in Burndale
    He was snared by two paedophile hunter groups and jailed for 18 months
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7856381/Abdul-Aziz-tried-meet-14-year-old-girl-Burndale-snared-paedophile-hunters-jailed.html

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/01/06/11/23051180-7856381-image-m-3_1578308693156.jpg

    2. I’m absolutely sure that his less than 6 month prison term will teach him the error of his ways. Yep,..totally.

      1. Amazingly that is what they do in Mussie land. We give them counseling and a three bedroomed house for some reason.

        2. Police constable, 35, and 15 other Halifax men committed sex offences against three girls aged between 13 and 16, court hears
          Amjad Ditta is a member of West Yorkshire Police but has been suspended
          Accused of one count of sexual touching in March 2009 while he was an officer
          Fifteen other men are also charged with offences between 2006 and 2009

          More dirty rats… just look at the list … deport them after cutting their balls off

          https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7856301/Bradford.html

  79. Lord Tebbit’s latest. He leaves the best to last.

    The Conservative Party has always been the real reforming force in British politics
    NORMAN TEBBIT – t6 JANUARY 2020 • 1:33PM

    The Cabinet which will oversee the transformative process of leaving the EU is one of the youngest and most ethnically diverse in British history.

    There is now less than a month to go until our departure from the EU and a new beginning to our history as an independent, self-governing state. A couple of weeks ago I wrote that I was looking forward to seeing the word “Brexit” leaving the world of current political discourse and entering the pages of history, so that Boris Johnson and his colleagues can get on with meeting the challenges of 2020 and beyond.

    At its best the Conservative Party has been a party of change, daring to do what self-styled progressives and reformists would never attempt. The great reformer Disraeli was our first Jewish Prime Minister, Thatcher was our first woman Prime Minister and today the Cabinet which will oversee the transformative process of leaving the EU is one of the youngest and most ethnically diverse in British history.

    Consider the holders of the Four Great Offices of State. The father of the Chancellor of The Exchequer was a Pakistani immigrant. The Foreign Secretary’s paternal family arrived as Jewish refugees from the Czech Republic. The Home Secretary is of Ugandan Asian heritage. There is even Turkish blood in the veins of Boris Johnson.

    UK Opposition parties bang on about the need to integrate our various factions, often ignoring explicit anti-semitism within the Labour Party. What they miss is that the Conservatives, or “the Nasty Party”, as Theresa May foolishly referred to her own colleagues, simply open the way to men and women of talent who have integrated into the British way of life.

    Coming as I do from a family of immigrants who arrived here in about 1080 AD, I sometimes feel unsettled about the sheer pace and volume of more recent waves of migration, and I worry that some arrivals seem to prefer colonising to integrating. In doing so, however, they would merely recreate the failings of the societies from which they came.

    An elephant in the room called overpopulation
    As we enter a new decade, another long-running story continues to dominate the headlines; the threat posed by rising levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. Climate change activists enjoy blaming today’s industry, agriculture and lifestyles for carbon emissions and are emphatic that we all must change our ways.

    However it seems to me that they often ignore the real cause of the threat which they perceive. That of course is the dramatic increase in the human population of the world.

    The figures paint a vivid picture. Today some 7,800,800,000 people live on the planet, compared to 6,145,000,000 in 2000, about 1,600,000,000 in 1900. In 1800 this figure stood at 1,000,000.000. In 1500 around 450,000,000. At the same time that we are producing more carbon dioxide per head than ever, the world has seen a population explosion.

    The real problem, ignored by many eco-warriors, is that there are simply too many of us on this planet.

    V for V-Class
    Lastly, I wonder how many of my readers have seen the latest advertisement from Mercedes-Benz in Germany, publicising their new V-Class range.

    I am afraid I remember all too well the last “V” range they sent us just over 75 years ago, the V-1 and the V-2. I did not like them.

    *****************************************************************************

    Ian Watkins 6 Jan 2020 1:48PM

    “I worry that some arrivals seem to prefer colonising to integrating. In doing so, however, they would merely recreate the failings of the societies from which they came. ”

    Beautifully put.

    anonymous man 6 Jan 2020 2:16PM

    @Ian Watkins If lesser mortals uttered these phrases – we could be liable for prosecution as a ‘hate crime’.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/05/police-forces-record-thousands-hate-incidents-year-even-though/

    1. Taken to it’s conclusion the climate change agenda has to finish up with a population cull, the activists seem to be able to convince enough people to follow them and do whatever they say.
      I’ve got a bad feeling about who will be going first

    2. Evening Z,
      Nice rhetoric if only the follow through
      actions were a certainty instead of being far from it.
      The whole issue & future of these Isles teeters on “hope” & as for these of the cabinet ilk who were not so long ago willing rubber stampers until they were made to reset their mindset,IMO still a party first cartel.

  81. An article about Hydra in the DT today.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/greece/articles/hydra-perfect-greek-island-for-family-holiday/

    We spent our honeymoon sailing on a boat we had chartered around the Poros, Hydra and Spetses part of Greece so it has a particularly fond place in our memories. Before deciding to take our children out of school to sail around the Mediterranean we once again chartered a boat in this area in order to see if the boys would take to life afloat . We then bought Mianda in the Baltic and sailed her to he current marina berth in SW Turkey via England, France, Portugal, Spain, the Balearics, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2cd6647a17985fc217b3ffceb4ea1abec3053eeee57cffb051a541ba60d67f10.jpg and Greece.

    Hydra is a beautiful harbour but it gets far too crowded in the summer when boats are moored stern to the harbour wall and three boats deep. The time to visit Hydra is in the winter when it is still very pleasant and you can have the harbour to yourself. However Hydra is not a safe place in Northerly gales and we ince had to leave harbour in a force 9 in the middle of the night as it was far safer outside in the open sea.

    This is Mianda in Hydra in November 2005 when we were the only cruising boat in the harbour.

    2. Heyup Rastus!
      A belated Happy New Year to you.
      A question.
      I believe your beautiful t’other half is an organist and plays in one of your local churches.
      Does she, or even yourself, know of an English organist, possibly now deceased, who was a former soldier, Staff Sergeant RE to be exact, by the name of Frazer?
      He was the Choir Master and organist at St. George’s Chapel at the old Army Apprentices College, Beachley, near Chepstow.

        1. Heyup!
          Not a lot to go on I’m afraid.
          Two daughters, one named Val, married to Mick Parrot, again ex-RE.
          If still alive, will be in his 80s by now.
          Was living in France in the early ’90s when I met Mick & Val by chance in Eastleigh just after I’d moved up here.

          1. Are you sure of the spelling, with the z? And if you have a Christian name for him I might be able to track him down if he is still in France.

            For example, I have found a Paul Frazer who lives in a village in our département – about 80 km from us.

          2. Uncertain of the Z, may be an S.
            Never did know his Christian name, we always called him “Staff.”

  82. Labour has learned the lessons of its election defeat and once again taken the moral high ground ! ( Sarcasm )
    Shamed ex-MP Keith Vaz returns to play role in the Labour leadership battle weeks after quitting the Commons over a cocaine and rent boys scandal
    Mr Vaz stepped down after being suspended for offering to buy Class A drugs
    He posed as salesman ‘Jim’ for a romp with two male sex workers in 2016
    The 63-year-old attended today’s meeting of the party’s ruling NEC
    It is due to decide on the rules and format of the battle to replace Jeremy Corbyn
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7857057/Drugs-rent-boy-shame-ex-MP-Keith-Vaz-returns-play-role-Labour-leadership-battle.html
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/01/06/14/23058066-7857057-image-m-24_1578321726657.jpg

    1. How odd I thought Labour had arranged for a Vazectomy, clearly the procedure isn’t reliable 100% or even 1% of the time…..

        1. Evening MHMCMB,
          All of that & whatever he turns his hand to plus, as jim top washing machine salesman.

    4. There should be mandatory blood testing for all representatives. And in his case…Viagra. Sleazy bastard.

      1. Hi Anne, I hope that Labour will not learn from their mistakes but repeat them. For Labour to be in perpetual opposition is the best thing for the survival of the UK

      2. Hi Anne, I hope that Labour will not learn from their mistakes but repeat them. For Labour to be in perpetual opposition is the best thing for the survival of the UK

    1. Gervais can be quite amusing at times and I agree with a lot of what he says.

      I just can’t stand to listen to his whiny estuary voice, though. I find it quite emetic.

    2. Mostly–I find Ricky Gervais hilarious. But he took a cheap pot-shot at Tim Allen a few years back in an unfair comparison to Tom Hanks. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/04/golden-globes-2020-ricky-gervais-regrets-tim-allen-joke-wont/
      Here’s my take on the comparison:

      Tim Allen–a US fiscal-conservative who has had a TV show cancelled because of his (conservative) political views:

      1. Tim Allen draws criticism for comments on conservatives in Hollywood https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tim-allen-criticism-conservatives-in-hollywood/
      2. Tim Allen thinks conservative politics might be why ‘Last Man Standing’ got canceled https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/09/27/tim-allen-thinks-conservative-politics-might-be-why-last-man-standing-got-canceled/
      3. Tim Allen: There’s “Nothing More Dangerous Than a Likable Conservative Character” https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/09/tim-allen-last-man-standing-dangerous-conservative-character

      Tom Hanks–a typical Hollywood SJW liberal who (hypocritically) calls veterans “racists” while earning millions portraying them on-screen:

      1. Outrage as Tom Hanks brands war veterans ‘racist’ after filming The Pacific https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/outrage-as-tom-hanks-brands-war-veterans-racist-after-filming-the-pacific/news-story/f8c2cfb2a2202a10d4cb69ab84ecc8fd
      2. Tom Hanks’ WWII Comments Spark Controversy https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tom-hanks-wwii-comments-spark-controversy/
      3. Tom Hanks Under Fire https://www.insideedition.com/entertainment/349-tom-hanks-under-fire

    1. Three cheers for the Death of the Iranian General

      If I am moderated, it means Snack bar Men have more freedom of speech than I do

      I was in Iran in 1975, it seemed a nice place

      1. Many British and American expats said Iran was fine before the Mullahs.
        So long as you didn’t end up in one of the Shah’s torture chambers.

      2. Evening OLT,
        By the same token I was in Burnley once, in the tea hut eating hot ham shanks, that was a nice place, once.

  85. Chatting to a chap in the village today who is pro EU. At least I think he is but suspect that he is pro European which is something else.

    He claims that our democracy is at threat because all politicians are in varying degrees corrupt and that there is no difference between the backers of Trump and the backers of Boris Johnson or previously the backers of Obama and those backing Cameron. These folk he claims are the same people simply switching sides for personal gain and to suit revised objectives.

    Apparently the votes of the British public count for nought.

      2. My village friend says he has done a lot of research, posted his theories and has been contacted by both American and British security services.

        He says JF Kennedy was actually shot from a road drainage gully and not from the grassy knoll, that Trump is in the pay of Russians and that Rupert Murdoch remains the key to the election of both Blair and Cameron.

        I confess I remain confused but am possibly prepared to believe anything in these troubled times.

    2. Sounds about right.

      I also heard that with leaving the E.U. we would no longer have access to the Intelligence that we feed them.

  86. Adios – Choir beckons – start of a new term: Beethoven Mass in C and Brahms Love songs

    1. ” Where will you go? Where is our Israel?”
      Somewhere where you are surrounded by vicious enemies on all sides, and castigated by the United Nations for
      living on stolen land, boycotted for your religion, and admired for your technology. Easy.

      1. T,
        I can only think it will be Newton Abbot when
        reclaimed shortly from the treacherous sh!te
        currently in residence, ie the NEc,

    2. Unfortunately for Katie Hopkins apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994, so there goes that refuge for her.

        1. “Where will you go? Where is our Israel?”

          You can only take from that she wants a whites only or Christian only state.

          1. As an English Jew ( now an Israeli ) I was quite OK with the UK being a White Christian country. The Labour party however was unhappy with it & after first importing Afro-Caribbeans in 1947 began under Blair & Brown the mass import of 3rd world low IQ welfare seekers & Jihadists from Pakistan and other Muslim paradises to socially re-engineer the UK as a failed multi-cultural 3rd world state which would see the mass breeding of the sons & daughters of the prophet and having bought their vote with instant citizenship & lifetime welfare benefits would have a built in Labour majority in the inner cities of the UK that would eventually keep Labour in power in perpetuity !

          2. The then British government made use of colonial subjects to fill labour shortages after the Second World War. Most of the immigration under Blair and Brown was from eastern European countries that joined the EU after 2004.

          3. Yes but most Eastern Europeans found a job , rented or bought property & are not know for acts of mass terror, honor killings, mass rape & grooming to say nothing of draining the lifeblood out of the welfare benefits system.

          4. What labour shortages? The country managed fine with millions of men absent during the war, and less then a million did not come home. The factories kept working, as did the transport and everything else.
            “Labour shortages” was a retrospective excuse. They weren’t needed. There wasn’t the housing for them, and they were invited in the expectation that few would take up the offer.

          5. We were desperately short of gangsters, muggers, drug distributors & voodoo practitioners . Take my word for it as a South London boy who grew up in Herne Hill and knew Brixton & Peckham well

          6. In 2010 the DT let the cat out of the bag with this article that is now unfortunately behind a paywall:-
            https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8054403/Britains-coping-classes-at-breaking-point.html
            It confirms that 50% of Muslim men do not work. For the women it is 75%. Of course there are excellent Muslims in professional jobs who identify as British, but their numbers are disproportionately small. Furthermore the followers of the desert ‘prophet’ are over represented by a massive factor in the prison system. In addition to that, filthy criminals like Levi Bellfield have been allowed to convert, probably because the food is better and the treatment more cushy.

          8. I take from that that she doesn’t want Britain to become an Islamic state. I don’t see where she says she wants a whites-only country, or a Christian-only country.
            England is the homeland of the English. The same for Scotland for the Scottish, ditto Wales and Ireland. There is nowhere else for the native people of those countries to go. Why do you think it’s acceptable for them to become minorities in their own countries, and for their lands to become Islamic?
            Look at the fate of Christians currently in places such as Nigeria, and across the Middle East, where Christianity began.

            “Nigeria is experiencing an Islamist war of the extermination of Christians. So far, 900 churches in northern Nigeria have been destroyed by Boko Haram. U.S. President Donald J. Trump was informed that at least 16,000 Christians have been killed there since 2015. In one single Nigerian Catholic diocese, Maiduguri, 5,000 Christians were murdered. ”
            https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15369/christmas-christians-beheaded

            This will is likely to be the fate of the native people of this country in the future. And all you can do is sneer at those who warn about it, and simply that they’re just “racist.”

          9. The Muslim population of the UK is officially around 2.7 million people compared to the population of a whole of 66 million.

            81.9% of the UK population is white.

            There is little risk of the UK becoming a Muslim majority country anytime soon.

          11. I took it as meaning, “Given Muslims will become a majority, I would rather live somewhere else, but where?”

            Incidentally, there are plenty of states in the US that are majority white and majority Christian, if that’s what she wants. Utah for starters, though it’s best to be a Mormon if you plan to live there. Where we live is much the same demographic (except for the LDS bit), whereas the next state over has a lot of Christian immigrants but they tend to speak Spanish.

            But, getting in to DJT’s America ain’t that easy. And it’s too far to row, that’s for sure.

            p.s. and of course we are allowed to be armed to the teeth – very common where I live.

    1. The Manchester Arena bombing was carried out by a Libyan Salafist connected to Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist movement. The Salafists are enemies of the revolutionary Shias allied to Iran, and those in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Both groups are pretty brutal cut-throats and unlike Islamic State and Al Qaeda neither are friendly to Israel either, but sometimes the enemy of our enemy is our friend, and Manchester Arena might not happened if the Iranians had got to him first.

      1. Left to themselves, and with Iranian interference, there wouldn’t be much left of the Iraquis after a week or two.

    2. FAKE NEWS !!

      “Officials in Iraq have stepped back from threats to expel US forces after Donald Trump
      threatened to impose sanctions over the Iraqi parliament’s vote for a
      retaliation for the killing of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani in
      Baghdad by a US drone strike.”

      1. Do you think it is a good thing that a supposed “sovereign” state is bullied into rescinding demands that a foreign power remove its military forces from its country then?

        1. Modern Iraq is not a bona fide state, never ever existed as a sovereign state, it is a creation of British & French division of the Turkish Empire and is made up of different ethnic people who all hate each other & was given as a reward to the miserable Arab bandit leaders whose sole contribution to Allenby’s victory over the Turks was to blow up some Turkish trains behind the lines , rob & massacre the mainly civilian passengers on them & tie up a few Turkish troops in guarding the the Hejaz railway

          2. What do I think of the UN ? In a nut shell :-
            ” If Algeria introduced a resolution that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.” a quote by Israels late & well respected Foreign Minister , Abba Eban

          3. Iran wishes to establish a caliphate ruled from Iran and initially comprising Turkey, Syria, ‘Palestine’, Jordan and Iraq. Thereafter they wish to establish a wider caliphate taking over Europe and the UK.

            The UN is a rotten African organisation. We in the UK should leave this lot to it and no longer fund it. The Arabs are quite capable of wiping each other out given time to themselves. It is what they do, inter-factional fighting over the interpretation of some scruffy text in their Koran.

            From a UK standpoint it must now be obvious to everyone with more than two braincells that we are under threat from imported Muslims. These people plot our downfall and have already demonstrated their lack of allegiance to our country on numerous occasions. Our politicians need to assess the situation and institute corrective measures.

            If these vandals cannot live under our laws they should be identified and deported to their own preferred countries viz. those countries where their women are content to be utterly submissive and dress up as postboxes and their men can carry out child rape at will under the protection of their bent religion.

          4. It’s more that Iran wants to establish itself as a regional superpower with influence and hegemony over Iraq, Syria & Lebanon where there are large Shia populations and as a rival to Saudi Arabia.

          5. I think your thesis is what I implied. As far as I am concerned these Muslims should be contained within their own boundaries and simply left to fight it out between themselves. Western involvement has been totally unproductive and has caused the death of hundreds of thousands and deaths and injury to tens of thousands of British and American servicemen.

            These Arabs are in the Stone Age. They should never be allowed access to higher technologies such as nuclear weapons.

          7. Hi agnosic1, for starters the map is wrong . The League of Nations did not create Trans-Jordan in 1920, It only gave a Mandate for the creation of a Jewish state ( on both sides of the Jordan river ) at the 1920 San Remo conference . In 1921 the British as military occupiers created Trans-Jordan as a separate British protectorate without an actual Mandate from the League of Nations, they only advised the League in 1922 of the de facto separation of Trans-Jordan from the territory of the future Jewish state & it remained that way to 1946 when Trans-Jordan was granted independence.

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

          8. Probably worked out for the best for Israel as a smaller state is easier to defend and populate. Also had it been given the entire area of Trans-Jordan it would have more Arabs on its territory it would have to suppress and probably would have had to drive into Iraq and Syria.

            It might have been a greater cause for conflict and instability than already exists in the Middle East.

          9. In 1920 the land was virtually bereft of Arabs, it was only when Jews created electricity, water supplies , factories & large scale modern method agriculture that the Arabs from the surrounding territories moved in in large numbers

            The Land of Israels boundaries are clearly defined in the worlds oldest and most accepted Law Book, The Bible, found in every court & parliament in the civilized world & states in clear terms in Genesis 15:18:-

            ” On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates”

            Thus Israel sits in only a fraction of its rightful territory & the instability is because of British & French imperialism creating the Arab states of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq & Jordan on our land!

        2. The Iraquis are not being bullied. They are being told to see sense. The place would collapse without the Americans around to save them from Iran and from their own internal disputes.
          Trump would love to get out. That is his policy. But the time is not now, if it can be avoided.

          1. The assassination of the Iranian general was carried out on Iraqi soil, and is therefore a violation of Iraqi sovereignty and their right to offer foreign guests safe hospitality. Some may also argue it was itself an act of terrorism, or at the very least an act of aggression. Threatening to destroy 52 heritage sites for threatening reprisals most certainly is a form of terrorism. Just because the President of the United States is a self-confessed terrorist does not somehow make him not one.

            What can Iraq do about it though? The US did offer them protection for a while even though the Marsh Arabs were let down by George H.W. Bush, although their greatest foe right now is not from Iran, but from Sunni insurgents previously loyal to Saddam Hussein, with contacts with Saudi Arabia and probably Israel. The Americans inadvertently supplied them with modern weaponry when the Iraqi Army Sunnis left it in the field when running away from Islamic State. The US offers little protection from anyone backed by Saudi Arabia or Israel, for as long as this President is happy to greenlight offensives as he did Erdogan against the Kurds. It is quite clear that Trump, in refusing to notify his European allies about his plot to assassinate the Iranian general, but did consult Netanyahu, is acting as a proxy for Israel and cannot be relied on to safeguard anyone else’s interests.

            Iraq’s best option therefore in uniting its nation is through the Kurds and an entente between Sunni Arabs not linked to Saddam Hussein or Islamic State, but who simply want a quiet life and the Shia Marsh Arabs, friendly with Iran. Because of Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds to Erdogan’s “Peace Corridor” annexation, they are best served by throwing in their lot with Assad and the Russians, with a pact that they would leave each other alone and chase out the insurgents.

          2. The Shia and Sunni Iraqis have always hated each other. And they both hate the Kurds. That’s not going to change whatever advantages getting along would have for them. Besides, said general was Iran’s “destabilization” chief, why on earth would Iraq invite him in?

    1. I think Donald means that if they try to use the ones they have already, they will get one of his first.

      1. Exhibition at the National Gallery of the famous Renaissance painting ” Greta on a Pyre “.

        1. T,
          Talking sh!te has brought that on, straining to get her
          scamming crap across, is that why you rarely see her sitting ?

      1. Iran has worked on its nuclear bomb & ICBM programmes ( with Pakistan scientists & North Korean help ) for the last 20 years but has had setbacks from intervention by both the Mossad & the CIA over the years including successfully injecting the Stuxnet virus onto their computer network. Once Obama agreed to make a deal permitting them to make the bomb legally & then funded them with $150 Billion in unfrozen assets their programme has gathered pace

      1. Everyone has forgotten about Brexit already. The media have moved on to Iran. In a few weeks’ time something different will happen like a British sporting disaster or paedophilia in the RSPB, and they will move on again to that.

  93. Warburtons respond to anger over halal symbol on bread loaves

    BREAD firm Warburtons found themselves at the centre of a social media storm over a halal label on the bakery’s products.

    Labels on the much-loved loaves state the bread is both halal and kosher.

    The bread has always been halal and has been certified for the last two-and-a-half years.

    But when one customer saw the label he wrote on Twitter: “Warburtons bread is now halal certified – why do 96 per cent of population have to have Islamic halal put onto them in their lives and effectively overriding their own religions just because 4 per cent want it?”

    https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/18139510.warburtons-respond-anger-halal-symbol-bread-loaves/

    The Echo comments may enrage you!

      1. If Warburtons are paying for the halal symbol to appear on their packaging, it’s probably a business decision to sell more of their bread to Muslims. Non-Muslims are free to make their own decision as to whether or not to buy the bread.

    2. If Warburtons had changed the ingredients of their bread to make it halal, then there might have been cause for complaint – but they didn’t. The opposite is true – their bread has been classified as halal because none of the ingredients was forbidden by Islamic dietary requirements.

    1. The US rail companies built the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860’s using manual labour in 6 years. Crossrail is on track (sorry) to take twice as long at least. Progress? Nah.

  96. I am watching UK TV, for the first time in months: there are black familes, yellow families. but No White Ones.

    In every advert or show, we have white/’black’ multicultiness families

    Why

    1. Some conspiracy theory revolving around ‘Common Purpose’, ‘Agenda 21’ or the ‘Coudenhove-Kalergi Conspiracy’ I imagine.

      ….or perhaps companies just want to appeal to as many people as possible to make money and non white people also have money.

    2. And in most of those families, it is a black man and a white woman – virtually never the other way round.

    3. Well, I have to say that if advertising is aimed at multiculti families, then it is not aimed at me and my family so the plastic stays firmly lodged in the wallet. ‘They’ obviously don’t want people like me to buy it. Ditto black/brown/yellow skinny models displaying clothes, how can I know what they will look like on me if it is assumed they belong on other ethnic bodies? So I do not buy.

      1. I feel exactly the same. If it’s aimed at bleks, it isn’t aimed at me, so I shan’t be tempted.

    4. Fear of being sued by the Black, Brown & Yellow Lives Matter brigade outweigh the fear of them being sued for racial discrimination by the hard working taxpaying honest White lives are also important brigade

    5. OLT,
      lab/lib/con coalition, PC/Appeasement
      unwritten rulings, still finding plenty of support / votes by the three monkey
      contingent once in the ballot booth.
      Many outside shout loudly against, once in the booth submit to.

      1. Nooo

        we get UK TV from an aerial on the pitch
        +Mains water
        +Mains Drainage (grey water – not chemical loo aka The Cludge)
        +Electricity
        +Hard wired internet (1 € a day)

        My pitch is 19 x 9 Metres

  97. At least you can see the down votes you get here. Most Disqus sites seem to have it turned off so you can only up vote someone’s comment.

  101. Evening, all. HS2 is an EU white elephant. It should be ditched asap and the money spent investing in improving existing infrastructure and restoring the lost Beeching lines where practicable.

    1. We should put a ‘U’ bend in the line and send the Trains, Boats and Planes back to France

  105. Today is our Lottie’s birthday. In her absence, we all wish her Many Happy Returns. xxx

  108. US allies distance themselves from Trump decision to assassinate Suleimani. 6 January 2019.

    But the response of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was particularly striking, as he has been one of Trump’s staunchest supporters on the world stage.

    He told a meeting of his security cabinet on Monday: “The assassination of Suleimani isn’t an Israeli event but an American event. We were not involved and should not be dragged into it.”

    Hmmmm!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/06/us-allies-trump-suleimani-killing-reaction-response

    1. Sensible to keep out. After all, I’m sure it all came as a complete surprise to him..:-)

      1. Netanyahu was given advance notice as I would expect the Saudis were and possibly the rulers of Gulf States where US forces are stationed . As soon as Mike Pompeo called him Bibi cut short his visit to Greece & returned home.

    2. Sensible to keep out. After all, I’m sure it all came as a complete surprise to him..:-)

    3. Don’t go by the Guardians mischief making & interpreting statements to suit their agenda, in this case to make it look like Netanyahu is criticizing Trump for killing an enemy of Israel.

    4. Don’t go by the Guardians mischief making & interpreting statements to suit their agenda, in this case to make it look like Netanyahu is criticizing Trump for killing an enemy of Israel.

    5. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g9irlgzHmvU

      The Situation With Iran And America Explained, by Mahyar Tousi
      “The Situation With Iran And America Explained. Following the situation with Gassem Suleimani, everyone is afraid of things escalating between the west and Iran but what is the truth behind it? The Iranian people are happy and thank President Trump for helping while the Iranian TV shows something else.”

      1. Spot on. Imagine that you were a free Iranian under the Shah in the seventies. You could live a carefree life as we in the west, dress as you like and love those you like. Since the Iranian Revolution you are now chattels of a repressive religious state, likely to suffer penalties from any infringement whether having your hands chopped off, stoning whilst buried in the earth with just your head above the soil and chastising with leather strops which will break your skin.

        What a barbaric bunch of wankers we have left to rule Iran. Of course the filthy stinking old Mullahs retain the pick of the available women who will become ‘honourable wives’.

        These poor women will have to submit to the attentions of those filthy Mullahs but they will be fattened and their children will be given the best education available and will go on to obtain positions in the Iranian government.

        This is the way the world works in these ‘modern’ times. Back to the Stone Age.

        1. “Imagine that you were a free Iranian under the Shah in the seventies. You could live a carefree life as we in the west”

          …except if you were unlucky enough to be a victim of SAVAK, the shah’s secret police which tortured and executed people.

          Perhaps if France never allowed Khomeini to travel back to Iran it might be a different place.

  109. I have an idea, if anyone ‘challenges’ the beliefs of a Vegan, he/she should be able to do it from the ‘religous’ stance of being an omnivore.

    If Veganism is acceptable as a cult, so must Omnivorrism

    1. Veganism is moral belief like recycling or only buying fair trade.

      It can’t be equated to religious belief.

  110. Now Notters, sit back and enjoy the ‘impartial’ BBC making informed comments about the Heir To Korbynski

    You just know the reporting will be unbiased

    Help Tin Tent struck by thunderbolt: we have to evacuate.

  111. Debt to GDP ratio. If you go above 77% it has a significant adverse impact on growth

    UK 87.7%
    Canada 87.5%
    Zambia 91.6%
    Brazil 91.6%

  112. DT Story

    Jeffrey Epstein left a note complaining of prison conditions as images released of nooses in cell

    Of course we do not know the truth but there is very strong circumstantial evidence to suggest that Jeffrey Epstein did not commit suicide.

    Those who remember R.L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island and even Johnny Depp’s films about Pirates of the Caribbean will also remember the saying: Dead Men Tell No Tales and ask themselves who might find this useful advice on which to act.

  113. Good morning all* – today’s new page is here.

    *I exclude from my greeting the supercilious twats who drove away one of our long-standing posters last night. You must feel really important, chaps, having your mastery of grammar, spelling, and – above all – the placement of apostrophes. Most of us know this stuff, but manage not to feel superior and self-congratulatory about it, and don’t call out others who, for whatever reason, are perhaps challenged in these matters. I hope you’re proud of yourselves.

        1. I was going to ask the same question – who left?

          I don’t know what ECD is short for though.

          1. Good evening, Meredith.

            I apologise for the late response, you have, no doubt
            seen posts today, referring to ‘ehcalmdown.’
            I found his posts to be often very amusing, he had a wry
            sense of humour.
            Our loss….unfortunately!

Comments are closed.