620 thoughts on “Saturday 10 August: Recent history shows that royal powers could stop an anti-Brexit bill”

          3. Preparations for father-in-laws birthday ongoing. Not even time for a toilet break…

  3. Hiroshima: remembering the White Man’s bomb. Spiked 10 August 2019.

    Why did the US government drop atomic bombs on the Japanesecities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945? Throughout the past 74 years, the official Anglo-American line has remained more or less the same: that the bombings were justified because they ended the war early, and so saved countless American and Japanese lives that could have been lost if Allied forces had been forced to launch a costly invasion of Japan.

    Morning everyone. This is a Marxist rehashing of the old Meme that the Japanese were just about to surrender when the wicked Americans dropped a couple of nukes on them. It includes all the old accusations, “that US intelligence knew top Japanese army officers were willing to surrender more than three months before the Hiroshima bomb was dropped” that “Having developed the Bomb, the US administration was always going to use it.”. That “The A-Bomb attacks were needed not so much against Japan – already on the brink of surrender and no longer capable of mounting an effective counter-offensive – as to establish clearly America’s postwar international position and strategic supremacy in the anticipated Cold War setting”. and here that it was motivated by racist yearnings to establish White Supremacy.

    All these accusations founder on a simple observation; that if Japan was so close to surrender then why hadn’t it already done so and why did its leaders (the views of subordinates are irrelevant) continue to resist even after the bombs were dropped? It was only with the greatest difficulty and the direct intervention of the Emperor (he and the Prime Minister had to hide from assassins afterwards) that they agreed to accept the Potsdam offer. It is true that just before the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima that the Americans knew that Japan was defeated; that is that their ability to wage war beyond their islands had been obliterated and that the Russians had agreed to take care of the Japanese army in China. This didn’t however mean that they could simply cruise around the coasts waiting for it to collapse. Quite apart from Public Opinion at home how would such a cessation of hostilities encourage surrender? It would simply embolden the belief on the part of the Japanese government that the allies were unwilling (with good reason) to make the sacrifices necessary to invade the Islands. As to the bombings being carried out to impress the Russians, this was never within the Americans ability to arrange. The bombs were used as soon as they became available and it was thus a logistical and military not political decision. Had Japan surrendered prior to August no reason would have existed for their use.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/08/09/hiroshima-remembering-the-white-mans-bomb/

    1. ‘Morning Minty

      100,000 casualties from the Tokyo firebombings with conventional munitions not a sign of surrender,the Allied forces learnt a bitter lesson about Japanese fanatacism from the invasion of Okinawa

      “The Battle of Okinawa was the deadliest fight of the Pacific island

      campaign. The Japanese knew they could not win. Their purpose was simply

      to make the battle as costly as possible to the Americans and to hold

      them off as long as possible, allowing Japan to prepare for the defense

      of their home islands. Thus, Japanese commanders considered all their

      forces and the residents of Okinawa totally expendable.

      Americans incurred almost 50,000 casualties on Okinawa, including

      over 12,000 dead. Those killed included the American commander, Lt.

      Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, who was killed by enemy artillery fire just

      four days before the battle ended, making him the highest-ranking U.S.

      officer killed during the entire war.”

      https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/73-years-ago-today-the-battle-okinawa-began-it-was-hell-25171
      If the existence of the bombs had become known and because of their non-use massive Allied casualties had occured Truman would have been lynched on the White House lawn

      1. The Japanese plan was to delay the end of the war for as long as possible and cause so many casualties that the Allies would have ended up offering an armistice with Japan retaining some of its gains, particularly in China.

        1. ‘Morning, Bob, that’s real political thinking – far too complex for those who decry everything White, Western and Wise.

    2. Somewhere I have the little 127 sized prints of the photos my father took when he visited there shortly after the bomb.

    3. Articles on the Spectator have gone from ones where the commenters btl largely agree with the contributor and just add comments or supporting viewpoints and evidence of their own, to mostly complete scorn and tearing the articles apart.

  5. “Boris

    Johnson is planning to make more Facebook live broadcasts to the nation

    in a bid to become the first ‘social media Prime Minister’.

    Following the success of his recent ‘live from my Downing Street

    desk’ public address, Number 10 is looking at ‘new innovative ways’ to

    connect with the public – including holding online question and answer

    sessions dubbed ‘People’s PMQs’”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/09/boris-johnson-plans-facebook-live-broadcasts-bid-first-social/
    Good,Boris has learned from Trump,bypass the tainted MSM as much as possible

    1. Thus voiding the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and SKY spin and bias, sounds like a good idea.
      Why doesn’t he just tweet like Trump?

  6. “Britain was

    hit by an unprecedented power outage, with ­hospitals, airports, rail

    and road ­networks – as well as towns and cities across England and

    Wales – left ­without electricity”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/09/major-power-cut-across-country-london-goes-dark-national-grid/

    Oh Dear,one of the point failures was a North Sea wind farm,so much for reliable renewables,I also loved

    “Harriet Jackson, 26, described an “apocalyptic” scene after walking
    from Clapham Junction in south-west London and seeing traffic lights on a
    cross roads in Battersea go dead at the peak of rush hour at 5pm.

    “I realised that nothing was open, and there was hardly any phone signal,” she said.

    “All the traffic lights were down, but there were no police present,
    which meant it was dangerous to cross. Cars weren’t stopping either.

    “No one knew what was going on, and, given it’s a Friday afternoon,
    it’s the last thing you want to encounter. It was like witnessing
    something out of an apocalyptic film.”
    Welcome to your “Green” future luv

    1. “Even though these events are outside of our control, we have plans in place to respond and the system operated as planned by disconnecting an isolated portion of electricity demand.

      “We appreciate the inconvenience caused, but this action allows the system to protect itself … allowing for power to be quickly restored.”

      The PTB must realise that the grid was looking after itself and decided to disconnect some predetermined customers who could be quickly isolated. This is the age of smart artificially intelligent control which enables people who can’t manage overcomplicated networks to stand back and watch things sort themselves out.

      It’s the way smart meters work on a more local scale.

    2. They did this experiment once – I think it was in Bristol, or was it Coventry, where they switched off the traffic lights at a busy city junction, and abolished all traffic control mechanisms such as pelican crossings, give way signs, and created a laissez-faire free for all, where pedestrians and conflicting traffic just fought it out.

      Very quickly, nobody dared speed through this system, and there was a cagey mellee where everyone was too terrified to do much than to proceed with extreme caution.

      The idea is that it actually made the roads a lot safer, and everyone far more considerate if they valued their lives.

    3. Report on LBC that two generators failed. Is that statement true but nevertheless hiding what those ‘generators’ were?
      The report also had an interviewee bemoaning the fact that there was no backup supply, she asked why 5 or 6 power plants weren’t idling and ready to cover any losses. She must have been living under a rock for the last decade or so as the PTB have closed down any surplus capacity and bragged about how “Green” their credentials are for doing so. Yesterday’s fiasco should be a warning to the Government that the route they have embarked on will eventually lead to a major disaster. A country claiming First World status cannot run its power needs with little or no backup to cover failures that are bound to happen.

      1. I heard on the radio this morning that the first fault was a gas fired generator near Bedford, the second shortly thereafter was an offshore wind farm.
        Root cause, IMHO, complete lask of decision making and general incompetence from the PTB for the last 25 years or so…

      3. ‘Morning, Korky. Yes, the days of ‘spinning reserve’ are largely over. There is an almost instantaneous supply from pumped storage such as Dinorwig in Wales, which can be brought online in about 90 seconds, but the chances are that, on a weekday at around 5pm, this was already supplying the grid anyway. With the reported loss of a gas-powered station and a wind farm within minutes of each other, the load on the grid exceeded ready availability by about 5%, so disconnections to balance the frequency of supply were inevitable. I suppose we should be grateful that this did not happen mid-winter, when demand would have been significantly higher and therefore more widespread disconnections would have been neccessary.

        This is what happens when our spare generating capacity has been reduced to around 1%, down from nearer 20% a couple of decades ago.

        Edit: So far no one is saying whether the ‘diesel farm’ emergency generators were fired up to cover the shortfall. Much will depend on where they are sited – and whether they all worked if called upon. It is also interesting to note that the emergency generators at a hospital that lost its supply did not all work. There can be no excuse for this as regular use, and maintenance, is absolutely essential. Our local hospital regularly fails the supply to the whole site at 9am most Mondays, just to ensure that it will run when required. I note, too, that a much larger diesel tank has recently been installed. Perhaps they know something we don’t…

    4. It seems a little strange that the stations appeared to have no emergency lighting. I though it was a legal requirment

    6. I should have thought that, if the traffic lights were out, the traffic would have been flowing more smoothly; one just has to take care at intersections.

  7. Kashmir: Fury and frustration in Islamabad as thousands turn out to protest. Sky News. 10 August 2019.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d9abf58f7980958e67d1cade871a7c997b5334dc60f64ff083d3aa83b9309dbe.jpg

    There is real anger in Pakistan over Kashmir and it will be a momentous task keeping the calm over an issue which has fuelled passions here for so many decades.

    An estimated 8,000 demonstrators came out onto the streets of the country’s capital despite a torrential downpour. That speaks volumes.

    The picture tells you why there is going to be war between India and Pakistan. If Imran Khan is unwilling to make the necessary moves he will be either removed or assassinated and someone who is, will be installed in his place. The best that can be hoped for is that it will be contained within the Indian sub-continent though this is unlikely. Too many points of contention exist in the world and the opportunity to decide them while the world is distracted (it should never be forgotten that China annexed Tibet while the West was occupied with Korea) will probably prove irresistible.

    https://news.sky.com/story/kashmir-fury-and-frustration-in-islamabad-as-thousands-turn-out-to-protest-11781478

    1. Morning, Araminta.

      Are you expecting confrontations in the UK? I saw some news reports last night and the outrage being whipped up in Pakistan was disturbing. I can see that whipping up similar reactions here could be used to try and force the Government to support a certain line. We do not need any distractions from the important Brexit moves and if any reaction is forthcoming over the Kashmir situation then the authorities must come down hard, however, I suspect that the very opposite would happen.

      1. I’m not sure who has the best argument here, but I would be dreadfully upset if Pakistan got wiped off the face of the earth.
        I have already bought a bucket to cry into.

        1. I would advise anyone thinking of travelling to Pakistan to think again.
          Nothing to do with terrorism or war, just that’s it’s a complete dump.

        2. Unfortunately that would mean we’d be unable to send any of our lawbreaking illegal migrant Pakistanis back there.

          Or could we….??😅

    1. ‘Morning, Sire. Yesterday’s wind speeds, although high, were below those normally set to shutdown turbines in order to protect them. It is more likely that a there was a hiccup at the switching station.

    1. Somewhat misleading. In practice, most of us oldies get a much higher state pension than that.

          1. The self-employed all get b-all.That is why the financial services crooks made so much money out of selling endowments, pensions and bonds made of tap water.

      2. Many pensioners have on just the State Pension also receive
        100% Rent relief
        100% Council Tax rebated
        Heating allowance
        £30-£40 weekly low income supplement

        The pensioners I am sorry for are the ones who saved something for retirement, have a small employers pension
        and as such cannot claim a penny in benefits. If instead they had blown the lot on fags, booze & cruises they
        would not be any worse off.

        1. Many pensioners have on just the State Pension also receive
          100% Rent relief
          100% Council Tax rebated
          Heating allowance
          £30-£40 weekly low income supplement
          TV licence

  11. SIR – Those calling for the Queen to sack a recalcitrant Prime Minister after a no-confidence vote should remember that her prerogative power to dismiss the Government can only be used to seek the will of the nation through a general election.

    Since statute overrides the royal prerogative and the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011 prevents a general election except in accordance with its terms, the Queen no longer has the power that Dominic Grieve 
et al would seek to force her to use. Accordingly, Mr Grieve’s proposal is both unconstitutional and unlawful.

    Will the punctilious Gina Miller seek to restrain this proposed outrage, I wonder?

    Oliver Iliffe
    Marlborough, Wiltshire

    A Grieve vs Miller ding-dong in the High Court? Popcorn time!!

    1. See the article on post brexit breakfasts in the Telegraph. I’m so glad I ceased subscribing, it really is trashy now.

  13. SIR – Beside advising the Queen to withhold assent to a bill which has passed all stages in the Houses of Commons and Lords, as mentioned by Andrew Roberts (Comment, August 8), the Prime Minister can advise the Queen to withhold her consent to a bill proceeding beyond second reading where it touches on any of the 14 royal prerogative powers, which include the making of international treaties and declarations of war.

    Such consent has been withheld three times in the United Kingdom during the present Queen’s reign, the most recent being in 1999, on the advice of Tony Blair.

    This was in respect of a bill introduced by the late Sir Tam Dalyell, intended to make military action against Iraq contingent on approval by a majority vote in the House of Commons. Second reading was postponed and the bill fell because the Queen’s consent for it to be debated was withheld.

    There are, therefore, recent precedents for stopping an anti-Brexit bill in its tracks between September 3 and October 31, so long as the Prime Minister tenders the relevant advice to the Queen.

    Professor Stephen Bush
    Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

    The aspect I don’t like is that Sir Mark Sedwill is the link between No10 and Buck Ho.

  15. SIR – As a member of a steam locomotive group, I could hardly believe what I was reading (report, August 8) about the proposed government crackdown on steam locomotive emissions.

    Steam locomotives cause an infinitesimal 0.2 per cent of total UK emissions. This needs to be balanced against the contribution by the heritage railway sector of billions to the economy, attracting 13 million visitors each year. It provides over 4,000 jobs (being the largest employer in some deprived areas) as well as education, training and apprenticeships for young people. The climate change zealots’ onslaught on heritage steam railways is nonsense.

    Brian Curd
    St Ives, Dorset

    Whey-hey, Brian.

    1. If we are to get common law and common sense back after 1st November, then we should only deal with the steam engine pollution “menace” when it becomes a serious public nuisance and not before.

      This might be if smelly diesels and unreliable electrics are replaced on the network by a large fleet of steam locomotives. At this point, pressure should be brought to make the things more efficient and less dirty.

      In the meantime I can think of better things to worry about.

        1. A lot of it is down to a lazy Welsh scrap merchant, who never got round to cutting up the engines while there were piles of redundant coal wagons from the pits in the valleys to keep him going.

          This image shows well the main grumble about steam engines – that anyone or anything near the things ended up filthy. Hanging out your washing near a railway line was a lost cause.

          However, the basic technology – heating up water to drive a piston – is easily tweaked by modern technology to use anything that burns as a fuel, and with heat and byproduct scavenging, could be made far more efficient that these beasts of the past, and also just as beautiful to have around, Why use heavy steel, when carbon fibre is stronger and lighter? Electricity from solar panels on the roof or generated when braking can be used to pre-heat the water, so you need less fuel to turn it into steam.

          Is this sacrilegious? Again that picture gives a clue – the Victorians never streamlined that locomotive in the way the 1930s train builders did.

          1. The smoke occurs when the fireman is topping up the fire with fresh coal from the tender. It very quickly gets up to proper burning temperature and the black smoke vanishes. For most of the time the exhaust is clear, apart from in cold or humid conditions when the exhausted steam blown out through the chimney from the cylinders condenses to form a white plume. Then when the fireman is shovelling the exhaust looks white with grey streaks.

            Tornado was working hard when I took this photo back in June, accelerating, but the fireman wasn’t shovelling, because the there was more than enough steam, illustrated by the fact that the safety valve is blowing off surplus pressure. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a42e5d9a8e5f0abc77c08215e274f1c1cf4b470b4ac6d99a32ce49d6460daca2.jpg

      2. The steam trains that we do have are the technology of the 1930s. I would suggest that we could now make steam locomotives that are cleaner and more efficient.
        (Vehicles that are independently powered contribute to the security of the country.)

    2. I do not believe 0.2% of our emissions on anything come from steam locomotives. That is a significant amount and seems much too high. Please ask Ms Abbott to check her figures.

        1. When they were scrapping them you could get the whole loco for about £4,250. I don’t know how much a Merchant Navy would have been exactly, but that was how much they paid for an A4, so it wouldn’t have been too far from that.

          Once you’ve got it, the real spending starts.

          Like having a boat or a horse, but a lot more expensive.

          2. Alan Pegler paid £3,000 for the whole shebang when he bought it in 1963. At first nameplates went to the scrapyard along with everything else, but once BR realised there was a market for them they took all the nameplates off while the locos were still running and replaced them with painted-on substitutes from around 1966. Plates like MNs and West Countries that were mounted on the boiler were just taken off without a painted replacement.

            I remember seeing classified ads in the magazines selling A4 and other Pacific plates for £100. At the time I’d have loved one, but a hundred quid was more than my dad made down the pit in an entire month.

          3. I was wrong about the MN plate; two went for £42K and £40K. It was a WC (Dorchester) that sold for £38K but that was a full set i.e. plate, town arms and scroll. Battle of Britain sets have gone for more than £40K.

        2. Princess Elizabeth is hauling that train today, but given the weather forecast for the area I’ll be giving it a miss.

    4. I don’t believe that 0.2% for a moment. It’s way too high. I think Brian struggles with decimal points.

      There are only about 50 steam locos registered to run on main lines. Of these about half are out of certificate (ie in bits, being overhauled) at any one time. Those in certficate only work very occasionally. There are only limited occasions each year when steam specials run on the main line, less than one per day on average, 311 scheduled for the whole of 2019. The coal they burn is a drop in the ocean. Say about 5 tonnes per trip, that’s a total usage of only 1,500 tonnes per year, plus a bit more for positioning moves from their home depot (a third of that?), say 2,000 tonnes per year total. Peanuts.

      In addition to this there are probably a couple of hundred or so locos preserved on ‘Heritage Railways’, where only one to maybe four are in use at ant one time – the rest are lying about the yards in bits and various states of repair. Those that are working trundle up and down a few miles of track at a maximum permitted speed of 25mph – not exacly eating the coal for locos, some of which when in service would have been running at motorway speeds, but most of which are smaller tender or tank engines.

      The emissions from these wouldn’t come to anywhere near one five-hundreth of total UK emissions. I doubt if they amout to even that fraction of our total coal-burning emissions, a totally different animal altogether.

    2. They conveniently don’t show her interviewer.

      Could it be someone who’d make anyone’s hair stand on end?

    4. Methinks she takes her holidays on a Greek island called Le…Les…dammit, the name will come to me in a minute.

  17. Morning all

    SIR – Not only roads are plagued by cyclists (Letters, August 8).

    Over the past few years the Canal & River Trust has been improving towpaths and encouraging more people to enjoy the peace and relaxation of the waterways. Sadly, towpaths are now taken for speedways by cyclists in Lycra who rush along shouting loudly to each other.

    They have no regard for families walking along the towpath, anglers peacefully fishing, nor boaters sitting out enjoying a drink. I have seen joggers and normal paced cyclists forced into the undergrowth and one elderly lady reduced to tears because she and her dog were both deaf and were now too frightened by fast bicycles to walk there any more.

    Just because cycling is healthy, cyclists do not have rights above everyone else. And I would point out that anglers pay for a rod licence and boat owners pay for a cruising licence.

    Anne Woods
    Beckenham, Kent

    1. Oh, sorry, officer, I automatically put my arms up to protect myself and forgot that I had a walking-stick in one hand.

    2. “shouting loudly to each other”. Indeed so, the narrow road outside my house is on what the cyclists appear to consider a ‘pretty route’. Much loud mouthed and frequently four letter word punctuated conversations go on at the tops of their lycra clad voices as they pass…

      2. ‘Morning, Jodie, a sudden need to water the front garden hedge might be useful in making the route prettier.

    3. Tow paths are not the place for cycling and nor are seaside promenades yet these places are infested with this dangerous louts

    4. ‘Morning, Epi, if Anne Woods accidentally caused a few to go into the canal, it might just dampen their high spirits and cause others to proceed more cautiously.

      A walking stick that hit a spoke would do the trick.

      1. Front wheel preferably. If front wheel stops suddenly the rider may continue in a temporarily airborne kind of way.

  18. SIR – The term “British Muslim” does little to inform the public of the breadth of British Muslim beliefs and cultural practices.

    Take music as a basic example. There is a huge variance in tolerance of music within the Muslim community of Britain, with some music that contains Islamic content that some herald and others condemn. For instance, Harris J (a pop musician who uses Islamic references in his singing) does not perform music that every British Muslim or imam would promote.

    The British Islamic “community” (if there really is such a group) is not united in an ideology that is concrete and singular. Neither do all British Muslims feel “separation” from the majority, or a need to compromise in order to integrate.

    Therefore I feel that the discussion around minorities needs to be more nuanced and intelligent. People by their nature are divergent in their habits, lifestyles and practices, no matter what background or religion, and we would do better as a society to recognise this.

    James Roriston
    Selsey, West Sussex

    1. It seems James rather misses the point. Of course there are various ways one copes with having been born into a Muslim culture but those ways reflect the distance one has moved from the fundamentals of the faith. What we see rarely is an admission that Islam is fundamentally and incorrigibly opposed to us and our culture.

      1. If we look at the pictures of a Catholic country, we see women dressed in brightly coloured clothes, while the men look rather dull by comparison. Smiling faces, dancing, music, fun.
        Now look at pictures from muslim countries. Hmm, not so colourful, not so much fun.

    4. They all believe the koran is the literal word of allah. As that tells them never to befriend the kuffar (who is lower than cattle) and they are to behead him and lie to further the cause of islam, I think we all need to be aware of the threat the ideology poses to the Western way of life.

  19. Morning again

    SIR – Once again a police officer has been seriously injured in carrying out his ordinary duties. How much longer will the Home Secretary and the police commanders allow this to continue? They know well that a man armed with a knife or machete has no fear of an officer with a stick and spray can.

    The time is long overdue for all police to be armed like those in Europe.

    G T Inwood
    Shrewsbury, Shropshire

    1. Or has the time come for mass deportation of those sections of society that attack us and our police?

      1. Sharia law is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth isn’t it ?

        If they are foreign give them a good beating, the sort of punishment they would have in the country of their grandparents birth !

      1. You don’t get “a lot of shot police officers” in the rest of Europe. What would you do then? How would you police the country?

        I get sick to the tìts of all the armchair experts on this forum who know more about law enforcement than those trained and paid to do it.

    3. Won’t change our way of life at all, will it, GT? How about getting rid of the perpetrators and so we can continue with unarmed police and the rule of law (not sharia).

    2. ‘Morning, Rik, we could do with a couple of those in Brussels to stir up the dozy EU.

  22. Sounds good…..I wonder if it will have any effect?

    Boris Johnson tells every civil servant in the country: Make no deal Brexit preparations your top priority

    Boris Johnson has written to every civil servant in the country telling them to be “in no doubt” that Britain is leaving the EU on October 31 “whatever the circumstances”.

    In an unprecedented move, the Prime Minister sent a letter to the UK’s estimated 400,000 civil servants instructing them to make preparations for a no deal Brexit “the top priority”.

    It came as Downing Street cancelled all leave for Government advisers in the run up to Britain’s withdrawal from the EU on Halloween.

    Calling for an end to “the division and uncertainty” in the country, Mr Johnson wrote: “My approach to Brexit is simple, and I want you to be in no doubt about it.

    “We must restore trust in our democracy, and fulfil the repeated promises of Parliament to the people, by coming out of the European Union on 31 October. We will be leaving on this date, whatever the circumstances.”

    He insisted that he would “very much prefer to leave with a deal, one that must abolish the anti-democratic Irish backstop, which has unacceptable consequences for our country.

    “But I recognise this may not happen,” he added. “That is why preparing urgently and rapidly for the possibility of an exit without a deal will be my top priority, and it will be the top priority for the Civil Service too.”

    The 646-word letter came as Chancellor Sajid Javid insisted he “isn’t frightened” of no deal.

    Responding to news the economy had shrunk for the first time since 2012 he said: “I am confident that if that is what it comes to, we will not just get through it, the UK will end up stronger and more resilient. It is something that we can deal with.”

    Earlier transport minister George Freeman broke rank by saying a no-deal Brexit would be an “absolute disaster” and proroguing Parliament would be a “huge mistake”.

    Theresa May’s former policy chief said the UK will need to sign a trade deal with the EU because a long period on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules would keep the Tories “out of office for two decades”.

    Mr Freeman added: “For me, what the Prime Minister has said he wants to do is get a sensible deal. Bear in mind we were very close to getting this deal through – a tweak to the backstop would do it.”

    Downing Street was furious about the intervention amid a massive effort to present a united front against Brussels. All ministers had been told they must commit to No Deal at Halloween in order to get jobs.

    A chastened Mr Freeman later fell back in line, saying in a statement: “The PM has repeatedly set out his desire for a deal and our willingness to negotiate with all energy, but if the Commission is unwilling to negotiate, then we will still leave on October 31. I firmly support the Prime Minister and his approach.”

    The broadside followed reports that David Frost, Mr Johnson’s EU sherpa, has told EU leaders removing the backstop would not be enough for a deal to pass through the Commons

    Visiting the Irish border on Friday, Michael Gove insisted that links with Dublin remain “very good” despite Mr Johnson having not yet taken up an invitation for talks with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

    Responding to mounting speculation a general election will be called within days of Brexit, Mr Gove added: “I don’t want a general election because I believe it is important that we get on with delivering Brexit and also ensure that the other opportunities that the Prime Minister has made clear that he wants the United Kingdom to enjoy can be provided.”

    It came after Downing Street rejected the Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster’s suggestion that there could be a bank holiday on November 1 to mitigate the fallout from no-deal.

    Number 10 staff will not be able to take any holiday before then after Mr Johnson’s chief of staff Sir Eddie Lister told them: “There is serious work to be done between now and October 31 and we should be focused on the job.”

    1. Z,
      Still there though innit, he would prefer to leave WITH a
      deal, AKA a latch lifter, a door ajar sort of arrangement.
      It will take a very long time for the spots to fade out
      regarding this batch of political leopards.

    2. Johnson should have immediately sacked Freeman as an example of his, Johnson’s, determination to follow the stated line on Brexit, no ifs, no buts.

    4. If I remember rightly, we need the Retired Shark’s opinion on George Freeman as his Norfolk des.res. is in Freeman’s constituency.

    5. Sad to see you in that field so I thought I’d ask Dad if he’d get you fixed and made all new again….

      Would you like to be Polly’s Dolly, Dolly.. ?

    6. I hope Freeman is now an ex-minister. What worries me is that if the backstop is removed, as Freeman implies, May’s deal may become the deal and then it’s no Brexit. If we’re having a Bank Holiday in November, we might as well make it the 5th.

  23. An English view…

    On a train from London to Manchester, an Australian was berating the Englishman sitting across from him in the compartment. “You English are too stuffy. You set yourselves apart too much. You think your stiff upper lip puts you above the rest of us. Look at me – I’m me! I have Italian blood, Greek blood, a little Irish blood, and some Aborigine blood. What do you say to that?”

    The Englishman replied, “Awfully sporting of your mother, old chap!”

    1. I wonder what that Ocker would say about me with my Ancient Briton blood, Celtic blood, Roman blood, Jute Blood, Angle blood, Saxon blood, Viking Blood, Norman blood …?

    2. An old joke. It’s a long time since compartment stock was used on London to Manchester services…

  24. Sir – Once again (report, August 9), a police officer has been seriously injured in carrying out his ordinary duties. How much longer will the Home Secretary and the police commanders allow this to continue? They know well that a man armed with a knife or machete has no fear of an officer with a stick and spray can.

    The time is long overdue for all police to be armed like those in Europe.

    G T Inwood
    Shrewsbury

    When I was a serving police officer in the 1970s and 1980s I resisted all moves to routinely arm the British police. That was then.

    I would not dream of serving in this day and age without being fully firearms trained. Having said that, I would not dream of serving in this day and age.

    1. The time is long overdue for all police to be armed like those in Europe.

      Of course European policeman are never killed on duty!

        3. G,
          Remove a good % of the felons, deportation could place them in a vicinity
          where the police do have guns.

        1. Well what a silly question G

          We have had 3 examples of extreme rage in the past 10 days from strangers .. One re suggesting a dog should be on a lead on high dodgy cliff walk .
          Two others were road rage re some one wanting to park their big butch wagon into a vacant promenade parking space , but abusively yelling at us to reverse our car whilst a string of traffic , cars and coaches were jammed behind us , it was awful ..

          The recent one was us being squeezed nearly into a ditch by a very persistent wagon who seemed to own the road .. are we too soft or what ..

          I don’t know how to handle things like that ..

          1. Not a silly question in the least, M. I can’t read your mind.

            I thought it was common knowledge among intelligent residents that the possession of offensive weapons by members of the public is prohibited. Ignorance of the law is no defence in a criminal trial.

            If you had possessed any of the items you mention and had used them in the stressful situations you mention then you would be rightly prosecuted and would face the possibility of a long time in gaol, depending on the degree of the injuries you inflicted.

            Google the Offences Against the Person Act, 1861 and the Prevention of Crimes Act, 1953 and you will see what I mean.

          3. You’ve not been “put in your place”.

            It is not always clear if someone is being “conversational” or not. I asked a valid to question to ascertain why you were asking what you did and your response was “What a silly question.”

            I have every sympathy fo you when confronted by cretins on the road (and elsewhere) but unless I am in such a situation and am able to read it, then It is difficult for someone remote to comment on what action to take.

            It is certainly clear that selfish twattishness and aggression is on the increase.

      2. I don’t think we are. They’re classified as offensive weapons, I believe.
        We’re supposed to remain defenceless and in fear. Easier to control that way.

    3. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/23/us/nypd-water-buckets-outrage/index.html

      It’s a general contempt of the police now in the West. Over in the U.S., apart from the six police shot after Obama gave a speech about police brutality against black Americans (not backed up by any statistics), they’re now having buckets of water thrown over them and mocked. So much for black Americans living in fear of the police.
      Over here, it’s gone massively downhill since PC Blakelock was murdered by a mob, and not by English youths.

      2. Everyone charged with PC Blakelock’s murder was born in England. They were by definition English youths.

        Downhill? The metropolitan police of the seventies and eighties had a real problem with racism. This was still evident right into the noughties.

        1. Being born in England doesn’t make them English, any more than if they had been born in a stable, they would have been horses.

    4. Morning Grizzly.

      Some of us are old enough to remember bobbies wearing short-sleeved shirts in summer.

      Talking to one in town the other day, it seems they now have to wear the body-armour vest whatever the weather. Fortunately for him, the location didn’t warrant a Hi-Viz vest on top of that.

    1. Non too bright, this one. ‘We need to keep the human race going but without men.’ How does that work? Cloning? From base material like her?

      1. Morning KtK,
        I do not believe she has quite thought it through as of yet, as with many issues of late
        if it has been seen to work for years screw it up.

    2. Let’s be clear. This woman is a cock and does not speak for women.
      Incidentally, this “we” she talks about, saying “we need to kill all men”; I’d like to see (not really) her buy a gun and shoot the first ten men she sees tomorrow to emphasise her point.

          1. Afternoon Siadc,
            Are you saying that that Neglection cannot be used as in my post, as in past tense ?
            Or there is little truth in the post ?
            Or that if I am in the wrong and that the paraphrasing of the post is of more importance than the than the contents ?

          3. Afternoon SIADC,
            But that does not make it that it is wrong in the context it was used, does it ?
            I would add that a great many words are misused especially in political circles & others
            such as honesty,integrity, and as for “honorable” well…….

      2. Stormy let me ask you a question that was raised today on the racing programme. Do you think it would be a good idea to give women riders a weight allowance (ie less weight than their male counterparts) just because they are women? The argument is that it would “level the playing field” because women riders aren’t getting as many mounts as the men and it would make putting up a woman much more attractive. My instinct is that it would be demeaning and imply that they weren’t as good as the men. I think that a good woman jockey will make it because she’s good but it will take time for attitudes to change. Things are already much better for women riders in my opinion. What are your views?

    4. It isn’t the fault of any man that dear old mother nature done a 50 / 50 toss up to make her female, neither is it the fault of any man that dear old mother nature made her so unattractive to be useful as anything other than a ‘baby making machine’.

      PS And her ugliness has a far greater depth than her thin skin.

  27. Reduced GDP equals reduced stuff bought equals reduced stuff dumped in the street (round here at least).

    Reduced GDP equals less CO2 emissions equals quieter Greens.

    What’s not to like?

    1. = lower exchange rate = more expensive imports = more sale of home produced stuff = less transport CO2 + better empioyment.

      1. a tiny 0.2% was expect as companies stocked for the March 31st Brexit and Car firms all bought their shutdown periods forward. The economy is likely to recover in the next quarter. Most of the EU’s economies shrank. Germanies went down by 0.2%

        1. 0.2%? That’s the amount that steam locomotives emit, allegedly. A shocking coincidence?

      2. “= more sale of home produced stuff”

        That assumes we produce it in the first place. More often than not we don’t.

  28. Why on earth are the yellow welly brigade whining on about today’s sailing being cancelled in Cowes .
    The weather is appalling .. Do the grotty yachties want to come back to the mainland in body bags?

      1. Morning Issy , yes that was an appalling tragedy .

        There is a real old gale blowing here, no rain though, trees down due to the weight of the leaves , bad time for a storm!

        1. Gusty wind and some rain here – we were supposed to be taking our gazebo and stall to an event today but we decided to have a day off! Not worth getting our stock wet and the gazebo blown away. Besides, we are all over 70!

    3. You must not take risks. The state know better. You must not be allowed to decide for yourself as you may hurst yourself or worse. Lets have another fag.

      1. Within reason..

        People do what they want to do.. they cannot expect a safety net to come to their rescue after making daft decisions !

    4. Good morning, Maggiebelle

      I was sailing from St Mawes to Keyhaven in my Hurley 22 footer when the storm broke which sank one of Heath’s Morning Clouds, killing his godson.

      It was pretty terrifying but finally we managed to get to Anvil Point where we edged north to be under the lee of the land. We then struggled into Poole and tied up alongside other boats on the quay.

      On another occasion, I was sailing from Fowey to St Mawes – this time single-handed – when I came across a large racing boat which had lost its keel the previous day during the Fastnet race and had turned turtle. It was Simon Le Bon’s ‘state of the art’ racing boat, Drum

      1. As you know Moh’s final flying years were spent at Portland flying the S61 coastguard helicopter from Portland until he retired years ago .. He has seen it all!

      3. Was it the 1969 Round Britain yacht race that was so disastrous?
        Just seen issyagain’s posting. He is rite.

  29. UK army combat units 40% below strength as recruitment plummets. Fri 9 Aug 2019 17.14 BST.

    Data released by the Ministry of Defence under freedom of information laws shows the number of soldiers in the British army’s infantry regiments has declined steadily over the past five years. There are more than 2,500 fewer personnel in frontline units than 2015, and all 16 regular regiments have shortfalls.

    Why would anyone join a military organisation with all the risks inherent in such a situation where your leaders despise you and post service prosecutions are the norm? This is aside from the relentless indoctrination into Cultural Marxism, something outside all the traditions and history of the British Army that has never been a political animal since Cromwell first set out its recruiting philosophy with the words, “The State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions; if they be willing faithfully to serve it – that satisfies.” This laissez faire attitude to the political affiliations of the ranks has served the UK well and is largely responsible for the lack of coups and military takeovers in the UK.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/09/uk-army-combat-units-40-below-strength-as-recruitment-plummets

    2. Plus the state feeding you Larium, because it’s cheaper than alternative anti-malarials.
      How many of the ex-Army personnel who develop psychoses have been taking Larium when in Afgaff etc….

  30. Living in the country means we sometimes see things that are charming and amusing and less likely to be seen in suburbia.
    Yesterday while washing the dishes, I saw a stoat moving along the fence line. Easy to see as the fence line is only ten feet from the kitchen window. It was quite small so probably a young one. It bobbed in and out of the willow herb on the other side of the fence and was in no hurry, stopping, looking around, going back and forth, taking several minutes to travel the length of the garden.
    Later, I heard a rumbling noise. There are lots of rumbling noises and one learns to tell them apart, delivery lorries, vans, tractors, very big tractors, combines, low loaders and so on. This was different, it was a multiple rumbling. Looking out of the window I saw a large motorhome drive past, then another.
    I moved to another window where I could see down the hill. A convoy of motorhomes with Italian number plates. One after the other they growled up the hill.
    I counted fourteen and probably missed a few before I started counting. Wonderful! It would be pure undiluted joy for any car driver coming behind. Top speed 40 mph and impossible to pass as they left no space between their vehicles.

    1. Just think – they must have driven like that all the way from Italy!

      Lovely to see a stoat in the garden.

      1. When we lived in the boondocks, I watched a stoat for about half an hour.
        First she streaked past the window like lightening. She caught a rabbit and was determined to take it home (this is why I think the stoat was female). She pulled it. She pushed it. She rolled it over and tried one angle after another to shunt the corpse home to her nest.
        And she finally managed it. One very determined and intelligent little animal.

          1. I have always loved mustelids and I love them even more when I see them killing filth such as coneys!

    2. “Top speed 40 mph and impossible to pass as they left no space between their vehicles.”

      Be fair. If Italian motor-homes are made in the same way as their tanks, they will only have one forward gear, but five reverse gears.

    3. It’s always a surprise and a pleasure to see a stoat or weasel. We also seem to have a thriving population of ferret-polecat crosses, although I’ve not seen a live one.

      1. What do you eat when fresh ones are not available? The chemical muck in cans?

        Frozen peas are a must-have store necessity in the freezer. They are frozen in the field to keep the sugars turning to starch. Most “fresh” peas already have their sugar turned to starch and you can taste it. I would never be without frozen peas, despite the attached “report” of one man on one occasion!

        Who knows what other foods have not been contaminated by the actions of idiots?

        1. We eat other things! I just don’t buy any frozen veg or anything except French fries.

          Plenty of other veggies when fresh peas are off. I like to keep my veggies fresh and seasonal. I don’t buy tinned stuff either, apart from tomatoes.

          1. When you say “French fries” do you mean chips? ;•)

            I buy all my veg fresh (including spuds) except for frozen peas. I also buy dried peas from which I make my unbeatable mushy peas.

          2. Mushy peas – yeucht – another Northern abomination. Next thing is you’ll be telling us that tripe is the nectar of the gods.

            Sorry you beat yourself up with yer mushy peas, I shall decline.

          3. Mushy peas, Thomas, old flower, were introduced to the UK by Norwegian Vikings as ärtsoppa (pea soup). It has remained, mainly, in the north since that is where the Danelaw was and, in any case, most southerners are too soft to enjoy it.

            My home-made mushy peas tastes a million times better than the canned filth that is served up by most chip shops and restaurants.

          4. While working for SJ (Statens Järnväger) at Hagalund, just outside Stockholm, I always gave the canteen a miss at lunchtime (what you call dinner) on a Thursday because, as in the Swedish Military, Thursday lunch is always Pea Soup and Ham, a disgusting concoction, far removed from English pea soup.

            I suggest George (in order to keep the North-South divide going) that Southern Palates have become more adventurous since pease-pudding hot, pease-pudding cold, pease-pudding in the pot, nine days old.

          5. “I suggest, George (in order to keep the North-South divide going)…”

            I’ll raise a glass to that, Tom! :•)

  32. I checked gridwatch yesterday following the power cuts and noticed that for the first time in ages, some of our electricity was coming from coal-fired plant, albeit only a small amount.

    Does that reinforce the saying that there’s no fuel like an old fuel?

      2. The answer to that question is unclear (or is it nuclear?).

        Regarding gridwatch, it’s a very good site and should be compulsive viewing for the Eco-Loons, especially as electricity is only a relatively small amount of the overall power we use.

        I wonder how those protesting about the companies which supply our oil and gas would feel were one of their loved ones on the operating table in a power cut and the backup generators ran out of diesel.

    2. That is the stuff of nightmares.
      I would die of fright long before rescuers reached me.

  34. SIR – Once again a police officer has been seriously injured in carrying out his ordinary duties. How much longer will the Home Secretary and the police commanders allow this to continue? They know well that a man armed with a knife or machete has no fear of an officer with a stick and spray can. The time is long overdue for all police to be armed like those in Europe.
    G T Inwood

    Oh my good God, No. No. No.

    1. Why the hysterical reaction? Would you sooner see police officers getting shot, slabbed and hacked with machetes without any means to defend themselves? An occurrence that is happening more and more.

      And don’t talk about tasers, they are as much use as a fücking peashooter!

      1. In todays world all police should be armed. We should also allow people to carry arms to protect themselves. Until this happens the people protecting the politicians should only be allowed a tasser, no firearms.

      2. No, I want to address the cause, not the symptom.
        More police, more prisons, harsher sentences for the guilty.

        1. More population, more police, more prisons,
          More population, more police, more prisons,
          More population, more police, more prisons …

          When do we go to Plan B?

          1. Stop letting more in and no payments for producing more than two, Grizz. If they are foreign and criminal, deport them and don’t let them back in.

    2. In the USA “friendly fire” accounts for about 40% of police gunshot wounds! (IIRC)

    3. The DT reports: “Mr (sic) Rodwan, from Luton (sic), appeared in handcuffs at Thames Magistrates’ Court in east London wearing a grey prison-issue tracksuit.

      “He spoke only to confirm his name, age, address and British nationality (sic) before he was remanded in custody.”

      Who gave ‘Mr’ Redwan a British passport? Shouldn’t it be withdrawn, given the seriousness of his crime?

  35. Morning all.
    A walk into Cromford for the paper, 20 min to wait for bus to Matlock so walked to the New Bath Hotel.
    Did shopping & bill paying and home on the 1st Bonsall bus that I would normally catch on its return run back to Matlock, so effectively I’ve saved a couple of hours!
    Also arrived back home just as the rain started, so not a bad start to the day!
    Now to see how far I get through today’s posts before I need to reload.

      1. Mothballed.
        SaH The Younger has taken over too much of the yard with his bikes for me to have space to get it ready for the MOT.
        Besides, my bus pass is valid before 09:30 at weekends!

      1. No that would be the sort of thing Mrs Engelson would do. Our queen moves with the times. Besides, Boris is one of ours.

      2. I think it depends on the circumstances.
        She wears gloves to protect her hands if she is shaking hands with a long line-up or crowds of people.
        This is a single handshake with her Prime Minister.

  37. Disabled man, 61, is handed £130 parking ticket for leaving his mobility scooter in a hospital foyer after travelling more than three miles for appointment

    Well it is not a mobility scooter it is a 3 wheel powered vehicle. He wife went there afterwards and said there’s no notices saying not to park there,’ she added
    eh its a building why would you expect to see no parking signs inside a hospital building?

  38. For those who went early to bed last night.

    In exhorting us not to eat meat, green preachers place morality over reason

    CHARLES MOORE

    Food-guilt is becoming the eco-zealots’ weapon of choice

    The headlines said things like “Eat less meat to save the earth, urges UN”. So naturally the public will believe this is what the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is saying in its latest report.

    But is it, really? The report’s wording is guarded, preferring to speak about how “diversification in the food system”, including things like “coarse grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds”, might help, rather than telling people to drop meat. Indeed, the title of the report is Climate Change and Land, with no mention of meat. If you google it under its correct name, up it comes, and no headlines about the eco-wickedness of meat appear. If you google it under variants of “IPCC report on meat”, you get headlines such as that above.

    Why this difference? I think it is because of the power of those who set themselves up as interpreters of what they over-confidently call “the science”. The most powerful of these in Britain is Roger Harrabin. He is called the BBC’s Environment Analyst, but really he is their in-house evangelical preacher. Each day, the Reverend Roger announces the environmental news, turning it into a covert sermon. He is the even more slanted green equivalent of the BBC’s “reality check” correspondent on Brexit, Chris Morris, whose real job is to explain why the Leave side is wrong.

    On Thursday morning, at six o’clock on Radio 4, the BBC news led with the IPCC story. Having quickly mentioned that the report was about land use, Harrabin then explained that because the panel is made up of “scientists and government representatives” and has a “need for UN consensus”, it “delivers messages in a lowest common denominator”.

    The Reverend Roger, as keeper of the sacred mysteries, then explained what the boffins really meant: “Privately, some of the scientists say over-consumption of meat and dairy products in the West can’t go on.” Thus can some careful, rather colourless words by scientists about issues like “greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems” be turned into something we can all have an argument about. Farmers are disgusting! saith the preacher, Stop eating beef and sheep! We Westerners are much too fat!

    In the Guardian, the green George Monbiot, who is not constrained by the thin veil of objectivity which Harrabin is forced to wear, was furious with the IPCC. It had been “nobbled”, he shouted. Its report was “pathetic”. He wanted us to know that “one kilo of beef protein has a carbon opportunity cost of 1,250 kg: that, incredibly, is roughly equal to driving a new car for a year.” “Incredibly” sounds the right word to me.

    I do not know the inner workings of the IPCC. I cannot say whether the Reverend Mr Harrabin is giving an authentic account of its true thoughts, or whether he is preaching a more personal message, trying to shove the IPCC (and BBC licence-fee payers) in the direction which he favours. Are he and Mr Monbiot a soft-cop/hard-cop act, in which Mr Harrabin floats Monbiotic ideas in sanitised form and Mr Monbiot is freer to rave? I am not sure. But what is visible here is how climate-change stories are constructed.

    It goes roughly like this. On rolls the vast bureaucracy of the IPCC, predicting, ever since its first report in 1990, that the end of the world is nigh, or nigh-ish. With that comes the super-bureaucracy of the Kyoto/Copenhagen/Paris etc accords which purport – but fail – to control the amount of CO2 the world produces. Running beside them always is a stream of stories – exhortations rather – about what we must be stopped from doing to avert the catastrophe which we are promised in a century, or 12 years’ time, or – if you want to be the greenest – in 18 months.

    The essential theme of these stories is that it is axiomatically right for government to intervene to prevent people doing whatever is considered bad – driving, flying, burning coal, lighting fires, using plastic straws and now, eating meat and dairy.

    Perhaps because there is some consumer-resistance, these interventions are not yet, except on the margins, outright bans. They take the form of punitive taxes, subsidies to make otherwise uneconomic forms of energy look viable, recycling obligations, codes of practice in industry, in schools and in the public services. Sometimes they cause environmental problems of their own, such as the pollution produced by the switch to diesel cars or the strain on scarce land from the growing of biofuels (an issue discussed in the IPCC report). The green evangelicals slide past these contradictions. The morality play must go on.

    It is almost useless to raise objections to the narrative of doom, such as the fact that, according to a study in Nature last year, global tree cover has increased by seven per cent since 1982. Useless, too, to point out that the efforts of green activists to turn countries like Britain vegan will, even if successful, make almost no difference to the future of the planet because world meat production will, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation believes, have doubled by 2050.

    Once-poor countries where poor people could only dream of eating meat are catching up with us fast and naturally want the pleasures (and health benefits) which we long ago secured for ourselves. Such wider considerations are irrelevant to the mission in which one must be seen to want to love the planet and hate the West.

    The Harrabin classes have brilliantly grasped that climate change is the best means since the decline of religion to make people feel that they are bad or good. People who ask questions about the accuracy of climate-change predictions, or who raise doubts about whether government control, rather than technological development, is the best answer, are not people to be engaged with. They are bad people, often associated with bad organisations like “Big Oil”, “Big Pharma” and “Big Agro”. They must be stigmatised by good people, who recycle everything and never eat steaks.

    Food will soon become the biggest development in the crusade to purify the West from its prosperity and its pleasures. It is a good subject to choose because, as religious fanatics have always understood, people can easily be made to feel guilty about food. Greens will be increasingly able to dictate their equivalents of the Muslim distinction between what is halal (permissible) and haram (forbidden).

    They will do this through a culture war. Steakhouses will be picketed. Planning permission for shops selling meat will be objected to. School-children from carnivore homes will be re-educated. The Church Commissioners, the National Trust and Oxbridge colleges will gradually agree to stop dairy, beef and sheep-farming on all their land holdings. No one will be allowed to sit on rural public bodies such as Natural England, unless he or she is untainted by a connection with red meat. Jesus will no longer be the Good Shepherd, since the phrase will be seen as contradiction in terms. Who knows, it could even be that Margaret Thatcher, “milk-snatcher”, will now be hailed as a proto-green for taking planet-destroying milk out of the mouths of schoolchildren.

    The planet will derive no benefit, of course, but the Revd Roger Harrabin and his flock (no, no – sorry, wrong word) will feel righteous, and most of the rest of us will feel dirty. Which is the purpose of the exercise.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/09/exhorting-us-not-eat-meat-green-preachers-place-morality-reason/

    1. “carbon opportunity cost”?
      I know what opportunity costs are. It’s when the NHS opens its doors to foreigners who receive treatment ahead of UK citizens. The use of NHS facilities puts us further down the long queue.
      But, “carbon opportunity cost” is incomprehensible. What does it mean? What is displaced?

      1. A carbon madness has taken over. Every human activity must be measured in this way. The worth of any idea is no longer its usefulness but its carbon footprint.

          1. That’s what is so fascinating though ultimately worrying. The greatest instance of man hysteria, groupthink or cult like religion to afflict mankind.There is no experimental evidence that CO2 produced by man causes the atmosphere to warm up although there is evidence of a theoretical, unmeasurable because it would be too small, effect. We have wasted and continue to waste trillions of pounds on this imaginary threat which has grown men and women talking nonsense every day. Astonishing.

          2. Yes. In the past this kind of insanity was limited to one locality. The Dutch had Tulipomania and we had the South Sea Bubble. Now everyone has this, except maybe the odd really remote tribe in Papua New Guinea

          3. It’s the new religion. Unfortunately unlike Christianity it has so far failed to produce any great art, architecture or music. But I suppose it’s early days for the religion.

    2. ‘Morning, William, “…Revd Roger Harrabin and his flock (no, no – sorry, wrong word)…”

      Maybe ‘reeds’ bending in the prevailing wind.

      3. Do people here remember when Peter Sellers was going about with Britt Ekland and we all wanted to meet a Swedish lass because the whole nation was filled with tanned blonde stunners with great cheekbones? The belief was reinforced by other Scandinavian actresses of the time, such as Julie Ege, or at least ones that we took to be from that region at first sight.

        I’ve been watching a fair few Scandi TV dramas in recent times.

        They all look like Greta.

        We wus conned.

          1. Was never a fan of Abba and I could never see the attraction in the blonde one. The SS daughter looked better.

        2. I will hold my promise, one day, to photograph the residents of my local town, Tomelilla. Without joking, they make Hillbillies look like Vogue models. I have never seen so many inbred, scruffy, unwashed, snaggletoothed and thick individuals in any one place in my entire life. Anyone still labouring under the delusion that all Swedish people, especially the women, are gorgeous blondes, then they will think again after seeing this menagerie.

          As for the local dialect they speak, Skånska; the many holidaying, second-homer noll åttas (Stockholmers), who visit are as perplexed with their grunting as I am.

      2. Good idea, the golf club has a roast beef buffet tomorrow night.

        Double whammy there, meat and just think of all of that fertilizer and weed killer used in keeping the grass green.

    5. Charles is just waking up to the horrendous fraud that has been staring us in the face for many years. The collusion of corrupt science and calculating politicians to wreck our economies and facilitate some never to be realised socialist haven for those left after starvation and disease has reduced global populations. He writes for the DT got goodness sake where every issue contains at least one alarmist scare or absurd science report from their “science” reporter.

  40. Just received this:

    “Update on Help me fight the biased Electoral Commission

    After keeping everyone guessing for weeks about whether they were going to blow even more taxpayers’ money on trying to appeal against their comprehensive defeat in the Darren Grimes case, the Electoral Commission have finally decided that they will not be appealing. Today was the deadline for them to appeal, they have confirmed to Guido that they aren’t.

    It finally draws a line under three years of their vindictive pursuit of one young Brexit campaigner, with the Electoral Commission resorting to trying to string Grimes up on a technicality after failing to find anything substantive over the course of multiple investigations. Without the generous support of Guido readers, Brexit hero Darren would never have been to challenge their perversion of justice in the first place. Grimes can now rest easy, meanwhile the pressure on the Electoral Commission is continuing to mount…”

    1. Yes, excellent news.
      The Electoral Commission suffers from the same foul cancer of Common Purpose that the rest of the British Establishment is riddled with.
      Common Purpose needs to be rooted out of Public Service before its globalist policies destroy the country.

      1. As Boris Johnson tells us……..

        “I know previous Common Purpose Ventures have delivered some creative, innovative solutions to different problems and I can’t wait to see the ideas that are produced this time.”

  41. Interesting.
    If one clicks on the little speech bubble beside your name on the right side at the top of the comments section of the page, a popup of your notifications appears.
    If you then click on the text of a comment in the popup, you go to the old style Disqusting comments page in a new tab.
    It appear to cure my leaping screen problem.

    1. Having lived in Bavaria for 4 years, I can see that stupid idea going down really well with the locals!!

      1. Keep an alpaca in the garden. Set up a street co-operative for wool, dung, quinoa, coca. Make enough money to buy a decent steak.

      3. As I actually care about the environment and food sustainability for Peruvian peasants as opposed to signalling my virtue I have never let Quinoa pass my lips

      4. I’ve eaten quinoa in the Andes – in the Alto Plano to be exact. It was offered as an alternative to rice.

        1. Are you ever going to stop showing off about your effing travels, Paddy ? People are beginning to think that you were on the run.

    4. It is this weeks green horror show isn’t it?

      This week has seen countless “news” articles on the Canadian news channel about the horrors of farming and meat eating. With no attempt to provide balance or question the proposals we are being told to eat less meat, stop using fertiliser on farms and generally go back to the dark ages.

      Even when they interviewed a farmer who was showing how modern methods reduce waste and help improve soil quality, the commentary is still about how much CO2 is being generated.

      You would honestly think it is the beeb coverage of Brexit.

    6. I try and avoid Hazarika and her lefty bleatings – she was on LBC last evening instead of Andrew Pierce – however, the last time I saw her she didn’t look as though she was going short of food.

    2. Surrey Police Farce? That organisation is the latest to embrace the Pride nonsense with a rainbow wrapped Jaguar thrown in gratis. They received a real pasting on Twitter yesterday.

      1. How would it be if someone who was assaulted, robbed, or had their car vandalised decided to sue the police form not being on duty to respond to crime reports? Would a court decide that the nonsense portrayed in this photo was being “on duty”?

        1. “…our force really values the differences that people bring.”
          OK, then, where are the muslim participants?

    3. If you look closely at the cop second from left, he has his trousers on back to front.
      No fly.

      1. I’m not zooming in to look at any male crotch, especially when he’s done up like that.

    4. This innovative police knife avoidance harness gives the wearer vital seconds as the balloon explodes prior to being stabbed in the back.

    7. I wonder what action my Chief Constable would have taken against me for flatly refusing to make a tìt of myself like that?

      [Rhetorical question. Sir Walter Stansfield would never have permitted his officers to partake in such a load of undignified bollocks!]

    8. I wonder how may of us Nottlers have tattoos? Who dares admit to having them?.

      (I do not have any in spite of my enthusiasm for the sea.)

      1. It’s a personal opinion, but I don’t like tattoos, even on men. On women, they are awful.

      2. Horrible things.

        People who think there’s something wrong with how they look paying good money to make themselves look worse.

      3. I don’t have any. Never saw the point. I’m gorgeous just as i am. No need to gild the lily. :o)

      5. I don’t have a tattoo. I personally don’t like them at all. I wouldn’t be surprised if the modern fashion for coloured tattoos ended up causing skin problems for those indulging in them.

    2. It does have the ring of “test run” about it. Just to make sure everything works. In a different time they might have done that in a deserted part of the country, but some of these people who are here to enrich our cultures are getting very bold now.

  46. The BBC tells us that ‘Amazon Echo devices made by Chinese teens ‘working through night”

    The BBC also tells us that ‘Real pay cut for millions since 2010, TUC study suggests’

    I suspect a primary-school child would be able to join the dots.

    2. Signed, but they need a proof reader. “National petition to stop English schoolgirls being COERSED into wearing Hijabs for World Hijab Day…”

    4. Soon it will become compulsory for English women and girls to wear the Hijab.

      The argument is not helped by making ridiculous statements like this.

  50. From the BBC;
    “There is “a lot of uncertainty” about the UK’s capacity to patrol fishing waters after a no-deal Brexit, a memo from a government department mistakenly emailed to the BBC says.”
    Government department? BBC? No mistake there.

    1. More work for our own shipyards and the navy then as additional fishery protection vesssels are commissioned, paid for from the fees we require from foreign factory fleets.

      1. We are about to lose a Clyde shipyard. Ferguson’s have got into trouble building a couple of ferries. The ferry company will not pay for the work they demanded that was additional to the original contract. The Scottish Government is refusing to help out.
        The Scottish Government owns the ferry company. Work that one out if you can.

        1. Nicola Sturgeon’s chance to do a Titanic Pose on the bow of the Glen Sannox at the fitting out bay in Port Glasgow.

          She normally never misses a photo opportunity to spout her Indy rants

          1. I loathe their hypocrisy. Ms Sturgeon says, “we are doing all we can to save the yard”.
            Paying your invoices would help.

          2. There’s a Ferry Company run out of Scrabster – has twin hulled ferries built for £13m. Runs without any subsidies.
            Clyde Ferries link Gourock to Dunoon etc – again privately owned car ferry – no subsidies.
            Meanwhile £200m for 2 ferries in a boatyard still incomplete – the problem ? Incomplete designs on day 1 & Hybrid engines – Diesel/Battery combination.

            Caledonian MacBrayne – subsidy junkies with a geriatric fleet averaging over 20+ years – wrong boats, ageing, prone to breakdown.

    2. Some of the patrol boats are manned by students, rather than proper Jack Tars. Just looking at numbers of boats overestimates the actual availability, strength, and usefulness of our ships

    3. But the comedy is it’s *after a no deal Brexit’.

      That we haven’t sufficient vessels now is comfortably ignored.

      I imagine the civil service is leaking not so much like a sieve but a firehose to spread FUD to the ever happy to publish-regardless-of-the-truth BBC.

    4. No problem.

      I read that most of the fish around the UK will have packed their bags and gone somewhere else come November and sea level will rise to dangerous levels when all the sponges in our seas decamp.

      1. Grieves has told us all the fish will be departing from the UK waters to EU waters

        1. The fish will be there – unfortunately we have very few boatyards to build new boats & a lack of skilled fishermen.
          The boats were sold off / scrapped when we were only allowed a small fraction of the catches inn the North Sea & West Coast fisheries.
          This decimated communities all round the costs of the UK.

          2. 60 years ago I could name 6/7 yards with 60/70 miles of my home town – there is 1 yard on the Moray Firth & I think that is the sum total of fishboat building in Scotland.
            I bet there are dozens of boatyards in France & Spain paid for with fish from UK waters.

          3. Macduff are quite busy I think. I worked for Coastal Marine and Macduff asked us to quote for building a scallop boat.

          5. Macduff looks healthy. Modern sheds and boats on the slip. Looks as if they are working on pleasure craft, small ferries, scientific boats, kind of thing.
            I was up there a few months ago and did the “Coastal route” a wee bit. I wanted to see if Buckie was as bad as I thought. I also wanted to see the fishing boats in Lossiemouth and there are none. I spoke to the men in the fisheries museum there and they said that there were no landings at all on the Moray coast. Only one or two wee shrimpers.
            Thanks EU.

    5. Tell me again, what are those fast, Swedish-built cutters, complete with gun mounted on the foredeck?

      We need to order at least 100 and deploy them all around the British Isles, with a remit to turn back illegal boats and destroy the nets of illegal fishers in our waters.

  51. So the latest Donald news is that Kim JU is up for another round of negotiations….

    …and Don’s apparently planning an executive order which would give the Federal Communications Commission a major role in determining what gets censored on big tech platforms.

    Rejoice.. Twitter will love ❤ it !

  52. Still no explanation from the Nation grid as to why the failure of a modest size gas powered station and the part failure of what is currently as small wind farm

    There is no way that at this time of year the loss o a small amount of capacity should have caused widespread power cuts. The grid should have had more than enough capacity. It just shows how vulnerable our powers supplies are now

    In Ipswich it was compounded as one of the emergency generators failed living parts of the hospital with no power at all other than the emergency battery back which fortunately did not fail

    1. Why has nobody blamed the Russians or the Chinese yet ? It can’t all be Boris’s fault, surely.

    2. I understand that the reduced output from the small wind farm was due to a baked bean crop failure which was then compounded by the insufficient gas supply for the albeit modest power station.

  53. Billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, 66, kills himself in his Manhattan jail cell, 24 hours after files in his case were unsealed and two weeks after he was placed on suicide watch ahead of his sex trafficking trial
    Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead inside his New York City jail cell
    His body was found early Saturday morning, with three law enforcement officials telling ABC that the cause of death was suicide
    Epstein was arrested last month of charges of conspiracy and sex trafficking, and was being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center without bail

      1. They were maybe watching to make sure he succeeded, whether he wanted to or not.

        There will be some big names worrying.

        3. They’ll be worrying if they haven’t taken his videos, tapes and documents to the furnace room.

        4. Yes. Including the FBI and Mossad. But they have ways of dealing with an inconvenient truth.

    2. Mr Epstein died of natural causes. He knew stuff about people who don’t like people knowing stuff about them.

      1. Not sure where I read it, maybe here, but someone was adamant that Epstein would die before he had the chance to name names. Two shots to the back of head suicide was mentioned: it’s happened before, I believe. In some circles two shots to the back of the head is natural causes.

        1. On Friday morning, a federal appeals court made public explosive documents pertaining to a 2015 lawsuit that Virginia Roberts Giuffre had filed against Epstein’s associate, socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. (IS she the daughter of the disgraced late Robert Maxwell )

          Giuffre claimed Epstein and Maxwell kept her as a ‘sex slave’ in the early 2000s, whilst she was underage.

        2. You may well have read it here, there are a number of people posting here who would have expressed similar.

      1. One thing to bear in mind is that “Nick” turned out to be a fantacist, but here I strongly suspect that there will be numerous witnesses/victims coming forward.

        They will be looking for compensation/damages from his estate, assuming he genuinely was a billionaire.

    2. It says that she had travelled a lot with them to Europe and Asia before.
      Expense is an irrelevancy. Travel is wonderful for broadening the mind and increasing self-confidence.
      She’s only fifteen, though, so hopefully they kept a good eye on her.
      It’s the McCann case again – out through the window and vanished. Strange.

    3. MB wonders if the family were over protective and, at 15, she thought she might try going out on her own.

    3. There’s a lot of brinkmanship going on. Normal form with the EU is to pull a rabbit from the hat at the last possible moment to facilitate a ‘deal’. I just hope Boris and co. have the cojones not to blink first.

      Instead of being confrontational and obstructive, wouldn’t it be cheering if the EU sought to achieve a ‘win/win’ solution instead of wanting to ensure we are the ‘big losers’. It might even change my view of them. But not by much.

      Edit:sp

      1. Could be the EU is showing that it wishes to punish the UK for leaving pour encourager les autres.

      2. Just hope that Boris shoots the rabbit when it is pulled from the hat to much wailing from the Remoaners.

  56. Good afternoon all – I’m reduced to using my phone now as we’ve had a power cut since late this morning. I’ve read the main section of the D T but no comments on the paper copy.

    1. Rinkeby Sweden.

      Demographics

      Rinkeby is inhabited by a diverse array of immigrants. As of 2011, most were from Iraq (3,155), Iran (2,909), Somalia (2,878), Turkey (1,819), Finland (1,090), Eritrea (1,026), Ethiopia (914), Greece (768), Poland (757), Chile (711), Syria (631), China (589), Bosnia-Herzegovina (468), Pakistan (456), India (414), Bangladesh (414), Morocco (344), Yugoslavia (328), and Lebanon (289).[6]

      In the 2011-13 period, about 53% of the population originated outside the EU and the Nordic Countries.[7]
      Social unrest

      According to the Swedish Defence University, since the 1970s, a number of residents of Rinkeby and other local areas have been implicated in providing logistical and financial support to or joining various foreign-based transnational militant groups. Among these organizations are Hezbollah, Hamas, the PKK, the GIA, the Abu Nidal Organization, the Japanese Red Army, the Red Army Faction, Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, Al-Shabaab, Ansar al-Sunna and Ansar al-Islam.[8]

      In June 2010 and again in 2014, the Rinkeby police station was attacked by rioting local youth; in 2014, it was shut down.[9][failed verification]

      In 2016, an Australian news team from 60 Minutes along with Jan Sjunnesson, an editor of the Swedish right-wing publication Avpixlat (who has since changed their name to Samhällsnytt), had their camera man hit by a car when the team arrived at Rinkeby. After making journalistic contact with inhabitants, “the team gets surrounded by young, ill-tempered men. The police is present but disappear for unclear reasons immediately prior to the attack” that followed, which included hits and kicks.[10] In May of the same year, an interview team of the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK along with Swedish police and economist Tino Sanandaji were attacked.[11][12][13][14]

      Riots also broke out among immigrant youth in Rinkeby in 2010, 2013 and 2017.[15] In 2017, fires were started by rioters, and at least seven cars were burned. Rioters threw rocks at police, who responded with warning shots, and later with “shots for effect” intended to hit their target.[16][17]

      In 2017, the construction of a new more robust police station in the area was delayed due to construction companies being unwilling to tender for the contract over security concerns over attacks on equipment or threats towards employees.[9] Due to the threat level and that people in the area were resisting the building of a police station, the construction site received security guards.[18] In August 2018 the construction site for the new police station was attacked by unidentified assailants. They used a car to force the gate and threw rocks and bangers at security guards. The vehicle used to forced the gate was set afire by the assailants.[18]
      Twinnings

      Egypt Giza, Egypt

      From Wiki.

      Coming to a town near you. Soon.

    2. I remember a discussion that was had on another site 2 or 3 years ago about what was going to happen to Sweden and how. Whether there would be a sudden “night of the long knives” where the mosques burst open, their sirens wailed, and the final conversion of Sweden into an islamic republic was enforced overnight.

      Would there be Swede’s running through the snow at night, to cross the borders into Norway or Finland? Would the border guards of those countries take up defensive positions as their fellow Nordic men and women streamed past them to safety? As the sounds of gunfire in the night drew closer, would those mindless socialists who have almost killed their country FINALLY get the message that islam is not “alright” and is not just another way of life?

      Good luck to all of the non-followers of the cult over there as the darkness grows stronger. We are all going to need to be very strong for what comes next if islam is not outlawed and the necessary mass-deportations begin. I am sure we can pick a sunny place for them to continue their way of life. Even if that country does not want them back.

  58. No, of course Brexit won’t damage British science

    ANGUS DALGLEISH

    Europhile dogma has captured the scientific community

    Boris Johnson has pledged to make it easier for scientists to settle in Britain after we leave the EU. You’d assume that a fast-tracked visa system would be welcomed by Britain’s scientific community. Wrong. Establishment figures queued up to criticise the proposal.

    Nobel laureate Professor Sir Andre Geim accused the PM of “taking scientists for fools”, adding that his long-time collaborator Konstantin Novoselov had already left the UK to work in Singapore. “I think that tells you everything you need to know.” But why would Novoselov decide to move to the Far East, rather than, say, France or Germany, if the EU were such a centre of enlightened thought? Singapore has gone to great lengths to attract the best and brightest – an approach Mr Johnson and his team are thankfully aping.

    Geim’s defeatism perfectly embodies the Europhile dogma that has captured the scientific community. Such is their Stockholm Syndrome-level commitment to the Project that they cannot bring themselves to praise even something clearly in their interests, simply because it emanates from a pro-Brexit government.

    Practitioners of the scientific method analyse the facts before arriving at judgments. Yet many of my fellow scientists seem woefully unable to apply this process to the EU debate. They downplay Britain’s illustrious scientific record and conflate a bloated bureaucracy with the principle of collaborating with colleagues around the world. At the start of my career, long before the advent of Lisbon and Maastricht, every laboratory I worked in was at least 50 per cent non-British. And EU membership is no precursor to collaboration with EU scientists; just ask Israel and even Tunisia.

    We have much to gain from shaking off the EU’s anti-innovative precautionary approach, which more often serves the interests of lobbyists than consumers. Not only do we put far more into the EU coffers than we receive, much of what we “invest” in EU scientific schemes is channelled towards questionable non-scientific projects. It’s no coincidence that few great inventions come out of these programmes.

    True, many Europhile academics are beneficiaries, but this blinds them to the politicised allocation of funding. I have seen first-hand how this process operates, having spent time in Brussels reviewing grants, supposedly on scientific merit. Our true role soon became clear – rubber-stamping pre-approved decisions to give a veneer of accountability. (I complained that this was unfair peer-review and have not been invited back since!)

    Operating independently of this turgid setup is one of the prizes of Brexit. And the pro-EU idiot-savants are living proof of Richard Feynman’s maxim: “even great scientists working outside their own speciality can be just as dumb as the next guy.”

    Angus Dalgleish is Professor of Oncology at the University of London

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/09/no-course-brexit-wont-damage-british-science/

  59. U.S. overtakes Germany as UK’s biggest source of imports – UK trade department

    Imports from the United States increased by 14% to 78.27 billion pounds in the year to April, the Department for Trade said, while imports from Germany fell by 0.1% to 78.26 billion pounds.
    While Germany has long been Britain’s biggest source of imports, the United States was already Britain’s largest export market, with exports reaching a record high of 121.6 billion pounds in the last financial year.
    “Now that the US is our largest market for both exports and imports, there has never been a better time for us to make the most of this golden opportunity and deliver a free trade agreement with the US,” Truss said in a statement.

  60. Old Boot is blocked on my display although I have not intentionally blocked him. Can anyone tell me how to unblock him? Thanks.

    1. To block a user, go to their profile and select “Block User” from the dropdown.(or unblock.)

        1. Click on your own profile. Go to edit profile and the blocking tab appears. Select who you wish to unblock.

  61. They have invented another new one

    President Macron’s gender equality minister, 36, is mocked in France for claiming to be ‘sapiosexual’ who is turned on by intelligent men

    1. … ‘sapiosexual’ who is turned on by intelligent men

      An oxymoron? (I thought I’d get that one in first before any of our lady NOTTLers)

    3. As in SAP? There’s a joke in there somewhere. Most people I know who have to use SAP agree it saps your will to live.

  62. Boot sale tomorrow morning at Stonham Barns. Must go and help Best Beloved load the car for an early start.

    Mostly products of the garage clear-out.

    Play nicely and come out tomorrow and buy.

    1. Only ever called into the pub once somewhere close to a dozen years ago, but I’m pleased to see the Highwayman is still open!

  63. Epstein,how fortunate for all those on the flight logs to peado island

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EBngE6SX4AIr3Jo.jpg

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EBnhGiMWsAA4lx1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a54c71cfc82958c630443c443515905a0ec7358f3175203aae93e02a485599a0.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/420e9c0099569b39d71a65f8c86d633d0a0605b5ef9d4945e1b6df6f77649c98.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae21f9dd54a836c9d5cee36c9c29f032bd0747f98cd11a8ca3de1a10f34016ba.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8390712e4bba036bc3369eb82eae030719e7a4132ca0d3273967316cc2936ff1.jpg

    2. Billary’s English grammar is appalling.
      … “to Bill and I”. Tut and double tut.

      1. I had an American friend in Düsseldorf who taught English at the International School, where parents paid good money to have their kids educated.

        He insisted that “the difference between you & I” was correct.

    3. Brian Cates

      @drawandstrike

      “Now they do not have a shot at successfully challenging the search warrant executed on Epstein’s mansion. ANYTHING FOUND IN THAT MANSION IN NOW ADMISSABLE IN COURT. Because…Epstein is dead. Years & YEARS of litigation just went POOF!”

  64. If you wanna read about Epstein and all the implications, check out Brian Cates on Twitter.

  66. Bill Mitchell

    “I wish I could tell you guys half the stuff I know. The world is going to be shocked and the Trump base amazed (in a good way) over the next six months! Hold on tight folks, this is gonna be fun. Hint: Dems are SCREWED.”

    8:13 AM – 10 Aug 2019

    2. Just heard on the news that Epstein has been suicided before he could dish the dirt on Clinton.

    3. Farm subsidies have been paid to farmers in a variety ways since before 1973 and will no doubt be paid after we leave the EU. Once free our government can decide where the money should be distributed. The money given to the Cummings farm over the years is not a lot in the scheme of things. The Church of England and Tate and Lyle and other large land owners were receiving eye watering sums of money some years ago and may still be getting such payments. The Guardian is making a mountain out of a molehill.

    4. ‘ British farmers are reliant on EU money that would evaporate if the UK leaves.’

      The dopes at the Guardian just don’t get it do they? It’s as if the big red bus never existed.

      PS. Is there a farm in the country that hasn’t had an ‘EU subsidy’? I doubt it.

      1. They will be paid direct from the British government only we can say how they spend it and what coints for a subsidy.

        We should end the set aside at once.

      2. The EU doesn’t have any money; it only has what it takes from contributors like us, so it’s OUR money, less the EU’s cut.

      3. I read a whinge from a poultry farmer about how leaving the EU would threaten his livelihood. There are many remain farmers who have the same mindset.

        The trouble is that although we expect the Government to replace the equivalent of the existing subsidies, we can’t trust any government to get it right – they are all useless. I guess the farmers think that an existing EU subsidy in the hand is worth two subsidies from UK government in the bush.

  75. Off topic but about tax.
    The highest rate taxpayers pay the majority of income tax.
    Well, who’ld-a-thunk-it.

    “But if Mr Corbyn came to power, the infamous brain drain of the mid-Seventies, when a top income tax rate of 83 per cent drove celebrities such as David Bowie, Michael Caine and the Rolling Stones abroad, would look like a mere trickle by comparison.”

    Brain drain? oh my aching sides.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7343187/DOMINIC-SANDBROOK-warns-risk-deeply-divided-Britain-income-tax.html

    1. A few celebs didn’t matter. It was the scientists, doctors, engineers, teachers, etc., leaving that “hurt”. The US embassy set up medical board exams in London – you passed, you got paperwork to go.

      1. Same with Canada, medical exams were arranged by the High Commission and they were not that strict.

        The doctor asked if I suffered from fainting fits; No I said as he took a blood sample, then I promptly fell over at his feet. The same doctor also tested my wife’s reflexes. I am sure that he now remembers to move away before clonking someone on the knee. Fit for export he declared.

      2. I know.
        My point was that the newspaper chose “celebs” as the “brains” rather than the people you describe.

  79. Evening, all. Been a busy day here, but I can’t actually say I’ve achieved anything! I’ve had several visitors and tried to help them with Internet queries, without a great deal of success, but it’s passed the time.

      1. You are the first one to notice it, I think. She has a fixed and evil expression her face, poor kid.

        1. She looks like she has no real concept of right and wrong, and could therefore do very wrong without thinking about it.

        1. For someone who doesn’t show stuff out of modesty (or whatever excuse they give) she sure shows a lot of shape in that tight top…

      1. Me too.

        This one’s much worse. Politicos listen to her instead of turning out the army.

Comments are closed.