746 thoughts on “Saturday 17 August: The Speaker must be impartial for Parliament to function properly”

  2. Good Morning Folks

    Bright start although their is a damp mist on the outside of the double glazed windows for some reason.

  3. Good morning all.
    Up and getting ready for the drive to Whitby for the Folk Week.
    A repeat of a post in the small hours:-

    Now there is a surprise and, perhaps, this exposes the follhy of treating “Travellers” as a protected species:-

    Revealed: Police raided council-run travellers’ campsite after Pc Andrew Harper was dragged to his death

    The call came through on Pc Andrew Harper’s police radio just before midnight. Suspected burglars had been spotted breaking into a nearby farm. Minutes later, Pc Harper was dead; his body dragged down a country lane and left abandoned in a ditch.

    Thames Valley detectives are still piecing together the events that led to their 28-year-old colleague’s death. It is understood that Pc Harper was with a colleague in a marked vehicle when the report came through around 11.30pm on Thursday. The two officers went to the scene, and met a suspicious car travelling down Admoor Lane, near the village of Bradfield.

    Pc Harper was an experienced policeman who had performed hundreds of traffic stops. He got out of his car, approached the vehicle and challenged those inside. But something went wrong. The suspect car shot off, dragging Pc Harper behind. One source said the policeman may have been attempting to grab the driver’s keys. In a desperate effort to escape, the driver refused to stop even as Pc Harper was dragged for hundreds of yards along the tarmac. Behind, his colleague pursued in their vehicle.

    It was only when the suspect car reached the crossroads and swerved across the A4 that the officer was finally released. He was then hit by another car, it is understood. The suspects fled.

    One of Pc Harper’s colleagues shouted “stay with me, stay with me. Keep breathing”, according to a witness quote by The Daily Mail.

    The witness added: “Those Brutal words will stay with me. He was crouched over the officer’s body, which was lying on the lane.

    “Ambulances and more police cars arrived – it was like the Blackpool illuminations. I went out into the lane to see if the police needed any help and an officer turned to me and said: “Leave the area – this is a crime scene.”

    Within an hour, officers descended on Four Houses Corner, a council-run travellers’ site around three miles away. “Everyone was ordered out of the caravans, including the women and children,” one source said.

    Ten males aged from 13 to 30 were arrested, some at the travellers’ site, and led away to different police stations across the country.

    One source claimed the fire service was then called to douse a burning car, possibly torched to destroy evidence.

    By that time, Pc Harper had already been declared dead after a team of paramedics failed to revive him.

    As morning broke, a long trail of blood could be seen on the country lane and on to the A4 road. Forensics officers marked out the trail, while others examined a grey BMW at the scene.

    The campsite was deserted, while forensic officers were seen examining a blue car. About a dozen caravans could be seen on the small plot of land, while a yellow child’s play-car sat just outside the main entrance gates. Clothes pegged to a washing line had been left out, soaked by the rain.

    Locals said that the site had been the source of frequent clashes in recent years. Many of its residents have lived there for nearly 50 years, sources said.

    The Daily Telegraph spoke to a friend of one of the traveller families who once lived at the site. “We’re still trying to work out what’s going on, but I don’t understand why so many people had to be arrested,” the woman said. “They can’t all be guilty. It’s like the police just think we’re travellers, so, of course, we did it.”

    Two years ago, a number of residents of Four Houses Corner complained that they were asked to live in houses while the council carried out taxpayer-funded refurbishment work to their caravans.

    “The council wants to regenerate it all and put in new bathrooms. They want to make it all nice,” one resident complained at the time. “I have never lived in a house my whole life. They are taking us out of our community.” Other sources said rural crime had worsened, with many blaming the travelling community.

    “There are frequent issues of theft – sometimes the police have pursued people back to Four Houses Corner,” one senior source said.

    “There are issues related to hare coursing and other wildlife crime that stem from this and other traveller sites in the area.

    “Serious problems for farmers, low-level thefts of machinery, vandalism and hare coursing.”

    Graham Bridgman, a Conservative councillor for the area, said it was important that the investigation was allowed to take its course.

    “We must all remember Pc Harper for his bravery and his sacrifice,” he said. “It’s important to wait for the facts. We can’t be blaming anyone yet. This tragedy cannot be allowed to cause a rift in our community.”

    Chief Constable John Campbell, of Thames Valley Police, said that Pc Harper was a “highly regarded and popular” member of the force.

    He said: “It’s a terrible day for Thames Valley Police, but doesn’t touch on the anguish that Andrew’s friends and family are feeling.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/16/revealed-police-raided-council-run-travellers-campsite-pc-andrew/

    1. Funny how the virtue signalling tolerance brigade are never around when the fruits of their labour come to fruition.

    2. See you later commentator. Drive carefully. You are bringing some good weather. bye for now.

      1. Apparently when the police arrived at the site there was a car on fire.
        I wonder why?

        1. Lurking at the back of my mind are the words bast and raffia in conjunction.
          Maybe in Blighty it refers to a particular type.

        2. Ich weiss! (Another pun, which I invented when I brushed my coat against a white-washed wall on a school exchange and my German pal – in his best English – pointed this out to me.)

    4. These feral communities are causing havoc wherever they live or travel to for their summer harvest of stolen goods .

      They pitch up on cricket grounds, public parks and anywhere else they think fit.

      WHY have they got protected status .. They all seem to carry a criminal gene?

      Councils spend a fortune trying to clear up the mess these freeloaders leave behind .

  5. Good morning, all. Another sunny start to what is going to be a very warm day. Hope the rain has stopped in the UK.

        1. Morning, Ann

          I would say down there at the bottom of the barrel.
          Btw, up & down got a bit controversial yesterday.

        2. I used to enjoy the Billy Cotton Band Show as a lad and was quite upset when he died!

          3. ‘Morning, Johnny

            When he came on we knew it was time for a sherry before Sunday lunch. (of course, the radio went off.)

          5. I always have dinner at dinner time, although I prefer to call it supper. But the BCBS was always on at lunchtime.

          6. When I was at school we had our dinner served by dinner ladies. When i got home after school we tea.

          8. 🤣🤣

            We will be having dinner today and after our bowls match, this afternoon, we will have tea.

          9. We will shall be having dinner today and after our bowls match, this afternoon, we will shall have tea.

            Otherwise you may not get them. 😉

          11. Nah! Grumps is right. When Two-Way Family Favourites was on at 12:00 noon (from London and Osnabrück), it was a cue for me to chop the mint for the mint sauce or make the mustard. DINNER was then served just as Billy Cotton uttered his raucous call.

            The midday meal was always, throughout history, called Dinner. It was the main meal of the day and served in the middle of the day. This was the same in Sweden when it was called Middag (mid day).

            When working practices changed in the late 19th/early 20th century, it became more and more convenient to serve the main meal later in the day, in the early evening. Many people—but not all—transferred the name for that main meal (Dinner) to the later time slot.

            This left a gap (for those people) in the middle of the day for a lighter meal, which became ‘luncheon’, from an older word and abbreviated to ‘lunch’.

            In Sweden, the main meal also migrated and that is why the evening meal here is called (incongruously) ‘middag’.

            I stick with tradition: breakfast, dinner, tea and supper. ‘Lunch’ is for wimps.

          12. We have the word ‘elevenses’ – a snack taken mid- to late morning.

            Stangely enough the Chileans have onzes, which literally translates to elevenses, but is taken as an early evening light supper. I don’t know if the expression is used in other Spanish-speaking countries.

          16. When friends invite you to dinner are they surprised when you turn up seven hours early?

            Morning, Grizz.

          17. Morning, Phil.

            Not at all. We invite each other for supper (or just “come over for a bite”.)

          18. ‘Morning, George, yes traditionally ‘dinner’ was served at 10 o’clock to 12 midday or sometime in between up to and through the 16th and 17th century but the transition back to dinner, from the late 19th and early 20th century ‘Luncheon’, was the start of the universal educational dumbing down of the proles. They’ve accepted it with gusto.

          19. I think there is sufficient evidence available, Tom, on a daily basis that clearly shows that this “universal dumbing down” is no longer limited to the “proles”.

            The antics of those in power (worldwide) and those in influence is a clear demonstration of how the species is getting more and more stupid by the day. Americanisms (and American slang) are now used routinely in everyday discourse and even in once-vaunted broadsheets, such as the Daily Telegraph and The Times.

            Even this morning, in the latter of those two papers, I read an article by a new-wave ‘journalist’ that started, “The train line…”

            Humans are much stupider than they were yesterday, but less stupid than they will be tomorrow!

          22. Lunch finished and still the dreaded homework hovering over me.
            (Waits for organised NOTTLers to tell me that they always did their homework on Friday evening.)
            p.s. Morning, Johnny.

          25. Indeed. He also raced ERAs pre WWII, so he was not all bad. But his son made good too, became boss of the old BBC in the pre PC era.

  8. Is the worm turning? Love the weaselly excuse ‘The initial council ruling was based on the assumption that the cakes were coming from one or two bakers regularly’; in other words, the ‘expert’ desk pilots couldn’t be @rsed to talk to people.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7364995/Ban-baking-cakes-home-unless-kitchens-approved-health-inspectors-lifted.html

    “Controversial ban blocking WI members from baking cakes at home unless their kitchens are approved by health and safety inspectors is lifted

    A controversial ban on Women Institute (WI) members baking cakes for a hospice over health and safety rules has been lifted.

    Loros hospice, in Leicestershire, stopped accepting home-baked cakes in May because council rules said food had to come from a registered kitchen.

    The ban began after Leicester City Council food safety experts inspected the kitchen of the Loros hospice in Leicester in February and told staff about the regulations.

    Women’s Institute members had been stopped from baking cakes for Loros Hospice in Leicestershire due to health and safety rules

    Loros could only accept cakes and pastries from people who had baked them in registered kitchens which had received a council food safety rating

    John Knight, from the charity which cares for terminally ill people, said there had been ‘confusion’ over minor details that had now been resolved.

    The initial council ruling was based on the assumption that the cakes were coming from one or two bakers regularly, which would mean their kitchens would need to be inspected and registered for complying with health and safety rules.

    However, Leicestershire City Council has now learnt that many WI members who baked cakes for the charity did so infrequently and therefore had no need for a hygiene certificate.

    The ban has since been overturned meaning volunteers are free to send their baked marvels in to be enjoyed by members of the hospice

    Mr Knight said: ‘There was some confusion as to the minor details surrounding the WI regularly baking for us but thankfully, after investigation the initial decision was overturned.’

    The ban had upset WI members in Leicestershire, many of whom bake cakes for the charity. Following the decision, the hospice has launched a campaign encouraging people to raise money for the charity by baking.

    Janet Kirk, chairwoman of Leicestershire and Rutland WI, said: ‘Our members are delighted to resume baking for Loros, a special place in so many of our members’ lives.’

    The Loros hospice was first registered in 1977. The hospice is one of the biggest charities of its kind in the UK. Each year it cares for 2,500 people across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.”

    2. When our children were very small, we would set off from home very early, just as dawn was breaking, for the long drive to Cornwall. We stopped at a village hall (can’t remember where, possibly Somerset) where the local WI ladies cooked and served a most delicious breakfast. All cooked in the very dated kitchen area, no elf’n’safety needed. No doubt that was banned at some point.

      2. And, strangely enough, we’re still here.
        Much to the annoyance of young ‘uns who want our houses.
        Amazing how we survived all these hazards that exercise the desk pilots into banning them.

    3. No record of anyone being poisoned, or suffering from a dose of the trots, as a result of the WI cake-baking, then? Thought not.

      ‘Morning, Anne.

  9. First larf of the day – from The Grimes: (I know this was on yesterday’s blog – but it is nice to have something to larf about when everything else is so ghastly).

    “Greta Thunberg’s yacht trip to New York not as green as it may seem

    Greta Thunberg’s decision to cross the Atlantic in a “zero-carbon yacht” may generate more emissions than it saves because of flights taken by the crew.

    The 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist, who left Plymouth aboard Malizia II on Wednesday on a two-week voyage to New York, where she will speak at a UN climate change meeting, had vowed not to fly to cut her carbon footprint and set an example.

    However, Team Malizia, which operates the 60ft yacht, said two of her crew would be flying to New York to bring the yacht back to Europe.

    In addition, the two sailors travelling across the Atlantic with Greta and her father, Svante, an actor, may fly home, a spokeswoman said.

    Boris Herrmann, the skipper, and Pierre Casiraghi, the nephew of Prince Albert of Monaco and grandson of the late Prince Ranier III of Monaco and Princess Grace, have yet to book flights home but the likelihood is that they may fly, the spokeswoman said.

    “We added the trip to New York City at very short notice, and as a result two people will need to fly over to the US in order to bring the boat back,” she said.

    “All Team Malizia flights are offset. We recognise this is an imperfect solution. But, in addition to our ocean science programme, we are inspired by Greta and we wanted to help her on this journey. The world has not yet found a way to make it possible to cross an ocean without a carbon footprint.”

    Speaking before departing, Mr Herrmann said: “We would like to motivate everyone to look for alternative forms of transport other than the ones based on kerosene, diesel and heavy oil.”

    Miss Thunberg’s team had gone to great lengths to ensure that her trip would be seen as zero emission, with electric-powered rigid inflatable boats taken to Plymouth to ferry her to the yacht. In December Miss Thunberg will travel to a UN meeting in Chile by train and bus.

    Bob Ward, policy director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics, said: “What we need is zero-carbon aviation and I hope that will result from her drawing attention to the fact that the only way to travel long distances with zero emissions at the moment is by arduous, long journeys such as on a yacht.”

    Looking forward to joining you all on Ryanyot.

    1. Why can’t the same crew sail the darn thing back?
      Why do the words ‘virtue signalling’ hover in the air?
      Morning, Willum.

        1. Of course. Silly me expecting such important people to waste too much of their time with an autistic muppet.
          After all, they have a planet to save.
          (Slaps own wrist.)

        2. You are all cynics !
          I brought a new car – a hybrid – with a 2.5 litre engine !! to charge the battery? In the summer if it is hot I get 40mpg. In the winter when it is cold I get under 30mpg but only if I drive at 20 mph. On the motorway at 70mph I am lucky to get 37mpg.
          If I had brought a Merc A120 diesel I would get 70mpg if I kept to 70 on a motorway and in town better than 45mpg.
          I don’t wish to advertise but it is a Toyota RAV 4 – the worst car I have ever owned.
          So much for saving the planet!
          Electric cars are not carbon neutral – the emissions are just moved from the road to the power station.
          Maybe the young Swede will learn as she gets older.

    2. Morning, Biull.

      I read & precied the German version in Taz yesterday. To the above points that the rubbernecks who came from all over the place to see her off from Plymouth caused a carbon footprint by their travelling there. Also the yacht is bound to need carbon-expensive repairs when it reaches NY> These boats are not just expensive to buy, they are also high maintenance because they are rough-sailed, i.e. to the limit.

        2. Morning Anne

          Mine is an 06 plate and very very fuel efficient still, also copes with the potholes and deep fissures in our infrastructure.

          Carbon footprint … pah to all of them , they are all absolute hypocrites.

          1. Morning, Belle.
            We would create a far larger plant food footprint if we bought a new car.

        3. Yo anne

          When the Monster raving Loony Party rools, you will be able to drive to the US, via the Chunnel, which will have been re-routed

    3. Greta’s writing about her carbon free sea voyage and is dedicating it to the person who has to dress her each morning (she does have Aspergers). Titled “How green was my valet”.

      1. The daftest thing about the whole business is that the planes are flying anyway, whether full or not – usually room for 2 more.

  10. New evidence shows why Steele, the Ohrs and TSA workers never should have become DOJ sources. 15 August 2019.

    One of the inevitable outcomes of the Russia case will be that the Department of Justice (DOJ) almost certainly will need internal reforms.

    The first reform is the most obvious, given the unraveling of the Russia collusion narrative: a new set of rules governing when the FBI can investigate or spy on a First Amendment-protected political campaign during an election.

    The FBI never should have been allowed to sustain a counterintelligence investigation into Donald Trump’s campaign based on hearsay from Australian diplomat Alexander Downer, who helped to arrange a $25 million Australian government donation to the Clinton Foundation, and on a “minimally” verified dossier written by British spy Christopher Steele, who was working on the Hillary Clinton opposition-research team.

    Morning everyone. It’s the titbits that come out in these scandals that are so often more revealing than the whole. This is an Australian donation but I don’t have the slightest doubt that aside from the Steele Dossier the UK also donated generously to the Clinton Campaign out of the Foreign Aid slush fund.

    https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/457628-new-evidence-shows-why-steele-the-ohrs-and-tsa-workers-never-should-have

    1. ‘Morning, Minty, I understand that this piece is written in American and in the first sentence I have identified who ‘Steele’ is. Any clues on ‘Ohrs’ and ‘TSA’?

      TLAs and FLAs are so testing this early in the morning.

      2. The Unraveling of the Failed Trump Coup by Larry C Johnson. 15 August 2019.,

        Thanks to Judicial Watch we have a new dump of Bruce Ohr emails, which include several from his wife, Nellie. There are 330 pages to wade thru (you can see them here). There is one item in particular I encourage you to look at:

        On December 5, 2016, Bruce Ohr emailed himself an Excel spreadsheet, seemingly from his wife Nellie Ohr, titled “WhosWho19Sept2016.” The spreadsheet purports to show relationship descriptions and “linkages” between Donald Trump, his family and criminal figures, many of whom were Russians. This list of individuals allegedly “linked to Trump” include: a Russian involved in a “gangland killing;” an Uzbek mafia don; a former KGB officer suspected in the murder of Paul Tatum; a Russian who reportedly “buys up banks and pumps them dry”; a Russian money launderer for Sergei Magnitsky; a Turk accused of shipping oil for ISIS; a couple who lent their name to the Trump Institute, promoting its “get-rich-quick schemes”; a man who poured him a drink; and others.

        The spreadsheet starts on page 301. If you search the document for the name Felix Sater, he will pop up. Now here is the curious and, I suppose, reassuring thing about this document–Nellie Ohr did not have a clue that Felix Sater was an active FBI informant. We can at least give the FBI credit for protecting Sater’s identity from Nellie Ohr and, more importantly, her husband, DOJ official Bruce Ohr.

        Morning Nan. Bruce Ohr was a co-conspirator in the attempt to oust Trump from office!

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

      3. Nellie Ohr, and her husband, Bruce Ohr.

        She worked for Fusion GPS, the company who commissioned the Steele dossier, and Bruce Ohr worked on the DOJ. They passed information from one to the other.

        I watch Tucker Carlson most days, which is how I know, without having to look it up. U.S. politics is as poisonous as ours has become, perpetrated by the same lefties and electoral losers who refuse to accept the result.

        1. Thank you Ims, though Minty’s later article identified that Ohr was a person rather than a time.

          2. ‘Evening, Conway, I was thinking more of that time that, in military parlance, doesn’t exist; between 23:59 and 00:01.

  11. Morning again

    SIR – Since the Victorian era, it has been the function of the Speaker and deputy Speakers to be impartial. How else could Parliament – both government and opposition – have any confidence in the chair, particularly with regard to controversial legislation?

    I have experience of this, because, as Michael Morris, I had the task as deputy Speaker to chair the controversial stages of the Maastricht Bill for 23 long days, which involved three all-night sittings and rulings on over 600 amendments.

    When Parliament meets on September 3, all MPs – including the Speaker and deputies – would do well to reflect on history, remember the people who elected them and think hard about the future of all British citizens.

    Lord Naseby (Con)
    London SW1

  12. Morning

    SIR – Parliamentarians and observers alike remember with affection previous Speakers: Thomas, Weatherill, Boothroyd. They had respect for Parliament, its history, its rules, its quirks. Above all, they were universally admired for that sine qua non of the job: impartiality.

    Must we watch helplessly while the office is tarnished by the current incumbent?

    Tony Jones
    London SW7

      1. It’s not Mr Bercow’s fault that he is vertically challenged, nor even of great importance.
        On the other hand, behaving like an twerp is voluntary.

  13. SIR – In August 1971, Superintendent Gerry Richardson tackled a robber armed with a gun at a jeweller’s shop. As they grappled, he was shot in the stomach. He was posthumously awarded the George Cross.

    There was a great public outcry. My father felt the only penalty that fitted the crime was hanging and wrote to the prime minister, Edward Heath. But it was only 18 months since Parliament had voted to abolish hanging, supported by all the party leaders.

    With another brave policeman losing his life and many more being attacked, isn’t it time we brought back a penalty to make thugs think twice before endangering the lives of those trying to protect us?

    Margaret Wilson
    Ferndown, Dorset

    1. Nearly 50 years after Supt Richardson was killed I can still feel the shock of hearing about his death, and how he chased and cornered, with others, the lowlife who subsequently shot him. Contrast his heroic actions with those of another senior police officer more recently in the grounds of the Palace of Westminster who declined to get involved when a knife-wielding terrorist set about killing a fellow police officer, PC Keith Palmer. His reaction, in telling his driver to get away pronto, shocked me almost as much as Richardson’s awful death.

      ‘Morning, Epi.

      1. There are moments when there is a physical reaction immediately on seeing something so embarrassing, so shameful, so depressing. For me one such recently was a video of uniformed police dancing in rows at a gay pride march. I could hardly bear to watch it.

    2. After the war, the British army had to do road block duuties in
      Palestine. I met a sergeant who told me that they had to deal with an
      open truck full of people who refused to get down and be searched.
      Impasse, then one of the soldiers carefully lobbed a hand grenade into the back.
      The vehicle was empty within seconds.

      If Thames Valley won’t allow small limpet mines, remotely controlled,
      there should at least be some form of car taser made available.

  14. SIR – The decline of students studying English A-level (report, August 14) has almost certainly got nothing to do with tougher GCSEs, which in any case are now harder across the board.

    In my experience, English is now considered an extremely feminine subject. In a “taster” session at my school, “Was Shakespeare a feminist?” (groans from the four boys in the class of 30) was an hour-long test of endurance when comments such as “Juliet’s red outfit symbolises blood and the oppression of women” elicited a sleepy nod from the teacher, but “Juliet’s angel outfit [from a photo – yes, photo – at the ball] symbolises how free she is compared to Romeo, trapped in a knight’s armour” provoked serious outrage from the teacher, especially when coupled with “the historical context of Bloody Mary killing thousands of male priests.”

    Think I’ll stick with history.

    Daniel Dieppe
    Barnet, Hertfordshire

    1. ‘Morning, Epi, I hope they have enough English comprehension in order to understand the exam questions.

      Discuss.

      1. We had it constantly drummed into us at school: read the question! Some people never learn; it happens on here all the time.

          1. ‘Morning, Anne, 1st or 4th Collect in Advent? Akshully ‘learn’ is in there somewhere, I think.

    3. So everything, even Shakespeare, has to be viewed through the SJW, feminist lens.
      No wonder this country is getting its rear end kicked in the international education league tables.

  15. Distinction between Guts and Balls

    To those of you who are nit-pickers about the meaning of words: there is a medical distinction between Guts and Balls. We’ve all heard about people having Guts or Balls, but do you really know the difference between them?

    In an effort to keep you informed, here are the definitions:

    GUTS – is arriving home late, after a night out with the guys, being met by your wife with a broom, and having the Guts to ask, “Are you still cleaning, or are you flying somewhere?”

    BALLS – is coming home late after a night out with the guys, smelling of perfume and beer, with lipstick on your collar, and slapping your wife on the butt and having the Balls to say, “You’re next, Chubby.”

    I hope this clears up any confusion on the definitions.

    Medically speaking, there is no difference in the outcome.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/24217632e43919e4b70a1cb38d6944516e1fd8aa1d84f95726fca6d1d3b65dea.gif

  16. Stop Press:

    Following the sighting of a fleet of Brexits off the south coast, a national emergency has been declared and a Government of National Unity (GNU) formed.

    The GNU leader, Ken Wildebeest, has said that due to a lack of concentration camps, buildings across the land will be requisitioned and used as detention centres for the Brexits living here.

    When told that many Brexits had ancestry going back hundreds of years, Mr Wildebeest said that detention was only a temporary measure to preserve democracy.

    Air forces across the EU are on standby to drop food parcels to the areas across Britain most affected by Brexit stockpiling.

    For ongoing news, keep your wireless tuned to the Brexit Bias Corporation’s hourly bulletins.

    1. Hundreds of years? According to DNA analysis, thousands is nearer the mark.

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_dotSUejWQQ

      “80% of the genetic characteristics of most white Britons have been passed down from a few thousand Ice Age hunters, i.e. from 10-12,000 years ago.”

      Which makes all the above even more criminal.
      Sorry, but I’m having a sense of humour failure this morning. I can’t find this attempted coup by the Remainers in the least bit amusing. In years past, they’d have found themselves on the wrong end of a hangman’s noose, if they were lucky.

  17. Thought I’d click on the local newspaper’s website to find out what’s happening – awful site whether ads on or blocked.

    1) Third property – just down the road from me – searched in guns and ammunition investigation. Support from Army Bomb Disposal team required.
    2) Property in nearby village requires emergency service assistance to flush out chemicals suspected of being used in illegal drug production.
    3) Police car pursuit in residential area results in many vehicles being damaged.

    That’s just in one edition. Looks as though Colchester is in need of a few of Boris’s new recruits, and soon.

    The good news? WD40 – 30 useful tips you didn’t know for using this product.

      1. If it moves and shouldn’t – use duct tape
        If it doesn’t move and should – use WD40

        1. You didn’t have to dig. 🙂
          Merely shift a couple of clapped out cars in a St. Osyth breaker’s year!

    3. When we first moved to Braintree, back in 2000, the worst crime was theft of bicycles from unlocked sheds. The saleswoman scoffed when we asked if our new home would be fitted with a burglar alarm. “This isn’t London” she said.
      By the time we left, in 2017, crime was rife. Drug-taking was rife. Gangs were having fights in Broomfield hospital A&E. Our house was burgled 3 years after we moved in.
      There was new-build, over-crowded housing everywhere, on any spare space of land. The roads became gridlocked.

      Back before we moved, in 1999-2000, John Prescott made some speech about having to build 2 million new homes. I commented to MOH, who are all these houses for? Eastern Europe? That was shortly before Labour proudly announced that the UK was joining up to the free movement within the EU, and opened up the UK to the new EU members to move here. So, unfortunately, my guess was right.
      In turn, that meant that a lot of people from East London and the suburbs moved out, into Essex and Suffolk, and unfortunately some took their culture with them. Drug-taking and crime has become rife everywhere.

    1. SIR – It is not possible to have a “national unity government” if it is made up solely of Remainers and some soft Brexiteers.

      Tim Reid
      Dunblane, Perthshire

        1. Morning, Eddy.

          Not a drop of rain fell during Wimbers fortnight, so it’s clear which sport He prefers.

      2. So much more wood to watch while it warps.

        ‘Morning, Peddy.

        Incidentally, my forays into the German language (considering I’ve never had a lesson) are, I find, sufficient for Germans to understand what I’m saying. That’ll do me since, at age 75, I ain’t taking GCSE German any time soon.

  20. Theresa May and her cohorts are responsible for the appalling state of law and order in Britain.

    How far can we sink, and why on earth have traveller communities got protected status , and why are we allowing other types of communities immunity to the law because of our perceived Colonial guilt?

  21. Brixton stabbing: Teenager knifed to death ‘after fist bump with killer who he fell out with over £10 debt’

    Solomon Small, 18, was knifed in Brixton yesterday afternoon
    The killing marks the 91st murder investigation launched in the capital so far this year
    Witnesses said the killer gave him a ‘fist bump’ before slashing him in neck and chest

    2. Since nobody is stopping the knifings (mostly of black kids), it’s clear that black lives don’t matter.
      }:-((

  22. Just back from (ugh) shopping. Local supermarket – 30 people waiting to pay. Five tills – two open…..

    Pyrenees looking a treat. Bought my leeks for planting out this evening.

    1. 30 people waiting to pay. Five tills – two open…..

      So it happens there too. That’s some comfort.

      1. It is a ghastly place – but the only shop where one can buy fresh milk -without having to drive a 30 mile round trip.

        1. ‘ere, shood yer be sayin’ va’ sor’a fing while yer tryin’ a sell yor ‘ouse?

    2. Yo Mr T

      30 people waiting to pay. Five tills – two open…

      Lucksurery, sheer Lucksurery.

      At our Sainsbury’s they try to send me to the ‘self service’ checkouts

      I refuse unless they:

      let me use the staff canteen
      give me a staff discount
      invite me to the staff Chrimbo Party
      give me a uniform
      let me use staff parking

      Sose I wait

      1. I went to a Sainsburys on Thursday. Haven’t been to one since my Richmond days when I used to go to the one in Kingston. I was delighted to find they stock Maggi Wurze, something my brother and I discovered while on holiday in Austria in our teens. I gather they sell it because the Polish immigrants like it.

        The Sainsburys is in a more downmarket area than my own. I was really mooching about while my car had a new set of tyres fitted.

          1. Morning Peddy. Maggi Seasoning is great on chips (second only to mayo), also Macaroni cheese and cheese on toast

          2. ‘Morning, Spikey.

            Maybe so, but that doesn’t answer my question. I hate MSG as much as I hate chorizo – if I’m unfortunate enough to consume it at breakfast, I can still taste it at suppertime.

          5. So what you’re saying is (© Cathy Newman) that our Maggi is fit enough to eat.

          7. LOTS, that’s why it’s so brilliant. My brother had previously found me some Polish look alike stuff at a Tesco in Chester, but it didn’t have the bite that the real stuff has. I bought 4 bottles,

      2. Morning OLT

        I also refuse to self checkout, I also have mixed feelings about tapping dirty touch screens .

        The shopping experience is getting even more stressful than it used to be. I just want human contact and idle chatter .

        1. One reason for not using self-checkouts: is there provision for multi purchases? e.g. if I buy 3 identical bottles of fruit juice, I place one on the band, but leave the other 2 in the trolley, having declared them to the cashier. As I often make multiple purchases of special offers, this spares my arthritic joints a lot.

        2. It’s not the dirty screens that bother me.
          It’s the sheer underhanded way that supermarkets try to get us to do more of their work.
          I get great satisfaction from seeing one, often two assistants, assigned to sorting out the ‘self service’ muddles.
          They could, of course, be on the tills, genuinely helping customers.

        3. I dont mind using the self service tills but it does concern me that they contribute to the loss of jobs for staff.
          Tapping touch screens though is no different from picking up a basket or pushing a trolley, or, indeed, picking up tins off the shelf.

        5. Morning

          I use self checkouts ocassionally with my helpless female act asking the attendant to do it for me.
          Some are helpful while others are downright rude.
          I often feel like filling a trolley and dumping it behind a long queue.

          1. Morning PT, I did that last week. I did my shopping late in the evening at Tescos took the trolley to the checkout and was told that you had to use the self-checkout after 10.30pm – it was 10.31 so told the woman what I thought of that in 2 words and left the very full trolley at the checkout and left.

          3. It’s all very well making these gestures (I’ve done it too) but it’s rather like cutting off your nose to spite your face, when you consider all the time you have spent filling the trolley.

          6. Good morning P-T

            I know the feeling.

            Incidentally did you see the blurb about Penzance in yesterday’s DT?

            Is this faded Cornish town really Britain’s next holiday hotspot?
             by Jacob Little

            Sitting at the end of the train line and acting as the gateway to the ‘wild west’ of Cornwall, Penzance has seen its share of changing times over the years. But the town is modernising at a pace, with the recent announcement that it will be receiving a share of the Government’s £655 million high street fund to help regeneration.

            As a local who now lives outside Penzance, it’s heartening news – and a boon for visitors too.

            Yes, the pasties and the pirates are still here, but chat to anyone on the street and you’ll find that there’s also an intensely loyal community and a strong sense of pride which is starting to shine through once more.

            I arrive in town on a gentle summer’s evening, spying sailing boats gently pacing across Mounts Bay, and head straight to Chapel House – the glamorous townhouse hotel that will be my base for the weekend. The house sits at the bottom of Chapel Street in Penzance’s prosperous Georgian centre, and everything here is bright, light and airy.

            Among local business owners, it’s the ‘in it together’ attitude that stands out, ensuring that everyone keeps pushing the town to improve and try new things. On my first evening, I savour some delightfully simple yet delicious food at Shore Restaurant (theshorerestaurant.uk) at the top of town, including fresh mackerel sashimi with beetroot and wasabi sorbet.

            Jubilee Pool
            The recently reopened Jubilee Pool CREDIT: GETTY
            “I love serving sustainable, quality local food that supports local businesses and fishermen,” says Shore’s owner, operator and chef, Bruce Rennie. “It’s about simplicity and efficiency. I grow most of the food in my own garden and at the local community farm. I love seeing the people of Penzance feeling optimistic about their town again.”

            This sense of regeneration is perhaps best exemplified in the reopening of the Jubilee Pool (jubileepool.co.uk), a gloriously designed art deco seawater lido that feels like a little sanctuary within Penzance’s harbourside. Having recently undergone an extensive bar and cafe refurbishment, the area feels fresh – and the swimming pool sparkles in the sunshine. I tuck into breakfast with fanciful images in my mind of early 20th-century community bathers gathering here for an early-morning gossip.

            “We were here until 9pm last night,” the pool’s manager Abbie tells me. “It has been a true community effort and to re-open this pool and giving back to the people of Penzance is a wonderful feeling.”

            St Michael’s Mount
            Nearby St Michael’s Mount is a popular spot CREDIT: GETTY
            “Such a diverse mix of people use this pool,” she continues. “There are some very rural communities and some struggling communities nearby, so it’s so important that we’re here for everyone.”

            I swim lazily and enjoy listening to the babble of the families coming and going. It feels inclusive and care-free. There’s more afoot here and, in October, the pool will open its geothermal project – becoming the first lido in the country to be heated through ‘hot rocks’ underground.

            It was not so long ago that Penzance’s street felt tired, but locals are beginning to trust in their town again. An evening spent down Chapel Street at the Cornish Barn (thecornishbarn.co.uk) confirms this: people are out again, eating, drinking and chatting. The atmosphere is relaxed, with an almost Mediterranean vibe.

            Meanwhile, the Polgoon Vineyard (polgoon.com) now produces fantastic lunches and vineyard tours for visitors – and thousands of bottles of locally-grown wine and cider are under order.

            I end my trip with a visit to St Michael’s Mount (stmichaelsmount.co.uk) and the ever popular Godolphin Arms (godolphinarms.co.uk) for lunch and a pint, before popping into the fascinating Tremenheere Sculpture Garden (tremenheere.co.uk). For art lovers, this place is a must with its sub-tropical planting, interesting vistas and sculptures by the likes of Richard Long and Tom Leaper. It’s also a great place to escape the crowds.

            Penzance has the feel of a vibrant, new town – albeit with quaint cobbled streets. The gardens are bright and colourful, the streets are clean, and the people are out enjoying the nightlife again. It’s great news for visitors – but even better news for locals.

          7. I have abandoned trolleys, when there is no coins deposit. Where there is a coin deposit I take the trolley to an unmanned checkout and empty the contents on to the belt.

          8. Better to fill a large trolley & abandon it in the narrow checkout lane when you reach the head of the queue.

          9. I would probably be caught on security camera and banned for ever with a police record!

          10. Well if you insist on being confused with Twiggy, no wonder you’re easily recognised.

          11. Good morning P-T

            I know the feeling.

            Incidentally did you see the blurb about Penzance in yesterday’s DT?

            Is this faded Cornish town really Britain’s next holiday hotspot?
             by Jacob Little

            Sitting at the end of the train line and acting as the gateway to the ‘wild west’ of Cornwall, Penzance has seen its share of changing times over the years. But the town is modernising at a pace, with the recent announcement that it will be receiving a share of the Government’s £655 million high street fund to help regeneration.

            As a local who now lives outside Penzance, it’s heartening news – and a boon for visitors too.

            Yes, the pasties and the pirates are still here, but chat to anyone on the street and you’ll find that there’s also an intensely loyal community and a strong sense of pride which is starting to shine through once more.

            I arrive in town on a gentle summer’s evening, spying sailing boats gently pacing across Mounts Bay, and head straight to Chapel House – the glamorous townhouse hotel that will be my base for the weekend. The house sits at the bottom of Chapel Street in Penzance’s prosperous Georgian centre, and everything here is bright, light and airy.

            Among local business owners, it’s the ‘in it together’ attitude that stands out, ensuring that everyone keeps pushing the town to improve and try new things. On my first evening, I savour some delightfully simple yet delicious food at Shore Restaurant (theshorerestaurant.uk) at the top of town, including fresh mackerel sashimi with beetroot and wasabi sorbet.

            Jubilee Pool
            The recently reopened Jubilee Pool CREDIT: GETTY
            “I love serving sustainable, quality local food that supports local businesses and fishermen,” says Shore’s owner, operator and chef, Bruce Rennie. “It’s about simplicity and efficiency. I grow most of the food in my own garden and at the local community farm. I love seeing the people of Penzance feeling optimistic about their town again.”

            This sense of regeneration is perhaps best exemplified in the reopening of the Jubilee Pool (jubileepool.co.uk), a gloriously designed art deco seawater lido that feels like a little sanctuary within Penzance’s harbourside. Having recently undergone an extensive bar and cafe refurbishment, the area feels fresh – and the swimming pool sparkles in the sunshine. I tuck into breakfast with fanciful images in my mind of early 20th-century community bathers gathering here for an early-morning gossip.

            “We were here until 9pm last night,” the pool’s manager Abbie tells me. “It has been a true community effort and to re-open this pool and giving back to the people of Penzance is a wonderful feeling.”

            St Michael’s Mount
            Nearby St Michael’s Mount is a popular spot CREDIT: GETTY
            “Such a diverse mix of people use this pool,” she continues. “There are some very rural communities and some struggling communities nearby, so it’s so important that we’re here for everyone.”

            I swim lazily and enjoy listening to the babble of the families coming and going. It feels inclusive and care-free. There’s more afoot here and, in October, the pool will open its geothermal project – becoming the first lido in the country to be heated through ‘hot rocks’ underground.

            It was not so long ago that Penzance’s street felt tired, but locals are beginning to trust in their town again. An evening spent down Chapel Street at the Cornish Barn (thecornishbarn.co.uk) confirms this: people are out again, eating, drinking and chatting. The atmosphere is relaxed, with an almost Mediterranean vibe.

            Meanwhile, the Polgoon Vineyard (polgoon.com) now produces fantastic lunches and vineyard tours for visitors – and thousands of bottles of locally-grown wine and cider are under order.

            I end my trip with a visit to St Michael’s Mount (stmichaelsmount.co.uk) and the ever popular Godolphin Arms (godolphinarms.co.uk) for lunch and a pint, before popping into the fascinating Tremenheere Sculpture Garden (tremenheere.co.uk). For art lovers, this place is a must with its sub-tropical planting, interesting vistas and sculptures by the likes of Richard Long and Tom Leaper. It’s also a great place to escape the crowds.

            Penzance has the feel of a vibrant, new town – albeit with quaint cobbled streets. The gardens are bright and colourful, the streets are clean, and the people are out enjoying the nightlife again. It’s great news for visitors – but even better news for locals.

          12. Morning Rasty.
            Thanks for posting.

            The Jubilee Pool is the gem of PZ and I’m not an art deco fan. I will certainly give the hot pool a go in the winter….
            Like many towns it’s feeling the pinch as shops close and become empty but this is slowly changing.
            I love the feel of PZ , meeting lots of smiley people….no idea who they are but they appear to be happy!It is without doubt the friendliest place I have lived. Of course it’s p!ss poor which is probably why!
            I cannot imagine living anywhere else, I feel at home here considering my roots are stuck somewhere in the Big Smoke….

            Thanks again.

          13. When did ‘railway’ become a forbidden word?

            I stopped reading half a dozen words in.

  23. Now call me an old cynic if you will,St Greta departed Plymouth in a blare of publicity 3 days ago and there are masses of you tube videos of the event
    Since then?? Nothing,Nada,Zip apart from one dubious photo,yet we know cameras are on board.No daily video dairies??
    What campaigner would fail to use video media to keep her cause firmly in view??
    Are you really telling me they don’t have a sat-phone on board??
    C’mon Greta show yourself,if you’re really on board that is…………………

    1. Hopefully it’s be cause the weather is foul so she’s violently seasick all the time and doesn’t want to be on camera!!

      1. I’d have thought that showing the world that you are prepared to suffer for your cause would be a good thing?

  24. Column by South Dorset MP Richard Drax

    For far too long criminals have been having the last laugh.

    Now, with a new Prime Minister and Home Secretary, the tide will turn.

    Urgent, and much-needed, changes are under way.

    Priti Patel’s announcement on Sunday, that police officers in all 43 police forces across England and Wales will now use enhanced stop-and-search powers, was backed by 74 per cent of respondents in a YouGov poll.

    It followed an almost daily litany of stabbings and violent crime which, along with two attempted murders of police officers this week, have added to the sense of a failing justice system.

    It’s time. Ms Patel says, for the perpetrators and not their victims to “literally feel terror”.

    In a series of announcements this week, Boris Johnson has added his muscle.

    https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/17840381.column-south-dorset-mp-richard-drax/

    2. Morning Belle. Without wishing to cast a cloud of gloom over your post can I say that I doubt that any of this will come to pass. This is merely Boris indulging in Pre-Election propaganda!

  25. India and Pakistan must look beyond Kashmir. GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS AND LORD GADHIA17 AUGUST 2019 • 8:00AM.

    It’s not often that either of us would agree with the Russian assessment of a major geopolitical issue. But on India and Pakistan’s rekindled dispute over Kashmir, we believe the Kremlin has it right: the changes made by India last week to the status of Jammu and Kashmir have been made within the framework of India’s constitution and the long-standing territorial dispute should be resolved bilaterally by Pakistan and India in accordance with relevant UN resolutions.

    BELOW THE LINE

    John Burwood 17 Aug 2019 8:25AM.

    “In the period since India and Pakistan gained independence in 1947, India has outperformed Pakistan on virtually every economic and social indicator”.
    I wonder why?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/17/india-pakistan-must-look-beyond-kashmir/

  26. Daily Brexit Betrayal

    “Well! If Germany is prepared for a No Deal Brexit

    I assume so are the other EU countries – only we never hear about that

    because it doesn’t fit the ‘narrative’ of our Remain establishment and

    Remain MSM.

    Clinging to their Project Fear scenarios Remainers are

    like prisoners who prefer to stay in jail because they feel they can’t

    cope with real life outside. ‘Institutionalised’ is the description for

    that mindset.

    One other ‘event’ has engaged our MSM.

    In the wake of the Corbyn Letter and his proposition for a GNU, we read

    that one candidate has come forward to lead such GNU because Corbyn

    shouldn’t.

    It’s none other that Mr Kenneth Clarke MP, and a more distinguished Remain MP surely is unimaginable! Reports are here, paywalled ones are here and here. Mr Clarke obviously thinks that his hour has come:

    “Ken Clarke has said

    he is willing to lead a government of national unity to stop a no-deal

    as he compared the Brexit impasse to the Second World War. […] Mr

    Clarke, 79, who was chancellor under John Major, said that he had

    returned from a two-week holiday to discover he was being talked up as a

    potential prime minister. “If it was the only way in which the plain

    majority of the Commons, which is opposed to no-deal could find a way

    forward, I wouldn’t object to it,” he told BBC Radio 4’s PM. […] Mr

    Clarke said he favoured a joint effort by Tory Remainers with Labour,

    the Liberal Democrats and the SNP to stop no-deal by forcing Mr Johnson

    to secure an Article 50 extension. “If that fails then, as in 1931, you

    need a government of national unity. It is not a senseless suggestion.

    The present crisis is as bad as it was in 1931 or even 1940.” (link, paywalled)

    Breathtaking, isn’t it: Remainers comparing Brexit

    to the situation before WWII! If Clarke sees himself as a modern-day

    Churchill then, I’m afraid, his delusions of grandeur have become truly

    dangerous, especially in view of the lurking Corbyn.”

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-saturday-17th-august-2019/
    Ken Clarke,oh my gawd,I love the smell of desperation in the morning………………..

    1. ‘Morning, Rik, “…Remainers comparing Brexit to the situation before WWII! ”

      Yep, once again Germany has ambitions to conquer Europe, only this time by stealth and with the help of the fifth-column Remainers.

      1. Morning, Tom.

        Yeah – when people very similar to remainiacs were still busy appeasing Herr Hilter.

    3. “I wouldn’t object to it,” he said
      NSS – he’s joined the leadership race more often than I’ve had lobster

      Tell you what tho’, I’d bl**dy object to it.

    4. Why did not the pathetic Mr Hague expel both Clarke and Heseltine from the Coinservative Party many years ago when they joined Blair on an anti-Conservative, and pro-euro platform?

      This pair have been a cancer to British public life and have done much to destroy the Conservative Party.

      Let us hope that Boris has more testicular strength than the puny Mr Hague; he must not only cut out the old cancer but cut out the latest manifestation of this malignant disease in Grieve, Gauke, Hammond, Boles and Bercow.

  27. Medical examiner says Jeffrey Epstein’s death was a suicide. Fri 16 Aug 2019 22.39 BST

    Jeffrey Epstein’s death in prison was a suicide, the medical examiner said on Friday.

    Since the billionaire’s death, serious questions have arisen about conditions at the Manhattan jail where he was held, and there was widespread speculation about the circumstances of his death.

    Of course it was and the Skripals were Novichocked and the Darroch leaks were just a rumour!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/16/jeffrey-epstein-cause-of-death-coroner-report

          2. Apparently, he’s gone on the ‘lam’ with his ex, hoping to put as many air-miles as possible between himself and the gathering Epstein shitestorm.

            (Good morning, BTW)

          3. Good day to you, young Laird of Lochinvar.

            I wonder what his flash nephew and his trash bint think of all the CO2 being wasted (or saved – I can never remember which).

    2. Yo Minty

      The cheque is in the post
      Course I luvs ya
      Maddonna is a virgin
      Treason May will get us out of EU
      I trust Korbynski

      Well, you started it

  29. Musical question. Why do modern composers (of music that is unlistenable) give their pieces damned fool names?

    “The Frame is part of the Picture”
    “Over the rim of the moon”

    etc etc

  30. Are our politicians and police more incompetent at sorting out the problems caused by g*psies travellers or more incompetent at taking on the threats posed by radical Islam?

    If the murder of the poor young policeman is found to have been committed by the g*psies then what, if anything, will be done to reduce the chances of such things happening again and again?

    3. I have extensive experience of dealing with errant gypsies. One Saturday night back in the late 1970s I was on duty when I received a call for assistance to attend a fracas at a local night club. Upon my arrival there were two young men lying on the pavement, badly injured, and another group of around ten running from the scene. Two of my colleagues were giving assistance to the injured men pending the arrival of an ambulance. I called across from my patrol car for another foot officer to join me and we set off in pursuit. Three of the attackers turned down a cul-de-sac (one with no avenue of escape) and they then turned around aggressively to face my colleague and me.

      Instinctively I shouted, “Get the dogs out of the car!” upon which all three men immediately lay face down in the road. I didn’t have access to any dogs so my bluff held good whilst I handcuffed and arrested the men, who all turned out to be gypsies from a local council site. The other seven were soon rounded up by colleagues and taken to the police station. That is when the fun began.

      The incident had started off inside the nightclub. Ten drunken gypsies were celebrating the pending marriage of one of their number. They started some trouble with a couple of off-duty squaddies. Now, normally these squaddies would have more than held their own, but against ten they were heavily outnumbered so they decided to leave. Unfortunately the gypsies followed them out onto the street and gave them a good kicking to such an extent that one of them was in intensive care for a fortnight. The eldest of the gypsies was a man who had a large chunk missing from his nose (it was bitten off in a previous fight with one of his contemporaries), this rendered him unmistakeable. Descriptions taken from witnesses were very vague, except for the bitten-nose guy.

      At the police station the interviews were very frustrating as they all answered every question with a painfully similar “I don’t know, boss.” Identity parades were held but the solicitor representing “bitten nose” rejected every potential candidate brought in (he expected us to find at least six other men with their noses bitten off). It was a wholly frustrating time. We eventually charged them all with GBH and they were released on bail.

      A few weeks later we had a bit of a breakthrough. I (as the senior reporting officer) together with a detective sergeant and a detective constable who were assisting in the enquiry, were summoned to attend the chambers of a leading Nottingham QC who had been sent the file by the CPS for consideration. In consultation with this QC he told us that he considered that we had accrued more than sufficient evidence for a prima facie case of affray against all ten gypsies. This was on top of the charges of GBH with intent (S.18 Offences Against the Person Act, 1861).

      At Crown Court, each of the defendants had a separate barrister and when I was cross examined it was ten times over. (This was the occasion when I made one barrister look a fool and the judge admonished him, telling him that, “it is clear to me that the officer has your measure.”)

      All ten were found guilty of all charges and were sentenced to an average of seven years each in prison.

      That was in the late 1970s. I would not wish to go through all that again in this day and age with all the hurdles that are now placed against the police.

      1. John, a friend of our in France, had an abomination of gypsies arrive and set up their encampment in the field next to his house. He had many things stolen and eventually he went to the SPA and asked for a ‘rescue dog’ which was on death row and about to be put down.

        This dog, a Great Dane Doberman cross, was truly brutal and the gypsies were terrified of coming near him.. The gypsies have now gone but the dog, called Jericho, is a reformed character – indeed he is one of the most affectionate dogs I know . However he adores and worships John and would certainly tear apart anyone who menaced his master.

        1. If I were there I would bring Jericho a large juicy bone (preferably one from a vegan’s thigh!) :•)

  33. I have been trying to find a comprehensive analysis of the consequences of a ‘no deal’ Brexit.

    The most detailed seems to be Wikipedia ‘No-deal Brexit’. But even that I have to regard with some skepticism because of the numbers of sources referenced:

    Guardian 24
    BBC 13
    Independent 4
    Telegraph 1

    It is certainly complicated and I wonder how many of those with strong opinions could give a reasonable analysis of the consequences, at home and abroad, including some of our vapid MPs such as Swinson!

  34. As it’s a long, and somewhat technical ConHome article, I will just post the link and the headlines.

    https://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2019/08/john-strafford-the-grieve-case-raises-a-question-do-local-associations-have-the-power-not-to-reselect-their-conservative-mp.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Saturday%2017th%20August%202019&utm_content=Saturday%2017th%20August%202019+CID_6bab519ea53f8cb68e61d59528444464&utm_source=Daily%20Email&utm_term=The%20Grieve%20case%20raises%20a%20question%20Do%20local%20Associations%20have%20the%20power%20not%20to%20reselect%20their%20Conservative%20MP

    John Strafford: The Grieve case raises a question. Do local Associations have the power not to reselect their Conservative MP?

    1. I suppose they could alway choose an “independent” Conservative candidate and cock a snook at Central Office. They could support a candidate who is “True Blue”. I imagine that Central Office would have to concede, and stand aside.

      1. At one time, any local candidate was automatically included in the final line-up.
        But that wouldn’t do for the metro-CCHQ. Can’t have red-necked locals representing the area they know and love. Good grief, they might put their constituency, rather than their career, first.

    2. Having let her blue bucket fall over sideways on to the deck, I hope that the crew make her clean up her own mess.

  36. Our anti-capitalist, anti-Western universities no longer care about excellence

    DOUGLAS MURRAY

    I always took some persuading to believe that Goldsmiths, University of London, actually existed. For years I had assumed it to be a fictional creation, possibly of Peter Simple’s invention. It seemed fired into being solely as a means by which to highlight the great comedy of British public life.

    The institution’s announcement this week that it plans to ban beefburgers in order to tackle climate change only served to bolster this long-held prejudice. And yet, with some regularity, people claiming to be from Goldsmiths appear in public, insisting that they are real.

    Last year this occurred when The Guardian published a letter purporting to come from “40 senior academics”. Naturally it was in support of Jeremy Corbyn. Specifically it was an effort to “Stop Jeremy Corbyn’s trial by media over anti-Semitism”. There are some things so embarrassingly dim-witted that only a group of academics would pin their names to it. Such an occasion was this. And every aspect of the letter, when excavated, magnified the horror.

    For instance, it transpired that among the academics busy trying to absolve the dear leader of accusations of anti-Semitism, few were “senior” and many were hardly academics. They included a saxophone teacher, someone whose professed discipline was “zombie studies” and another whose academic focus is on the pop group One Direction.

    But among the list of third-rate publicly-funded institutions from which these signatories hailed, by far the most numerous were people claiming that they were at Goldsmiths. Indeed, the whole thing had been compiled and organised by Goldsmiths academics, including a former colleague of Corbyn’s consigliere, Seumas Milne.

    Most of them were – it ought to be noted – professors of “journalism”. Which is evidence that Goldsmiths has few, if any, scruples. For of all the ways in which young people can be invited to pile up financial debt, the most dishonest is to persuade them to do so by being supervised in a non-discipline, in a struggling industry, delivered by otherwise unemployable Corbynites.

    Eighteen months ago, Goldsmiths once again tried to prove it was real when its LGBTQ+ society made national headlines. The cause on that occasion was that the society’s Twitter account got into a row about “Trans-exclusionary radical feminists” (naturally) and speculated on the possibility of re-educating such people.

    The Twitter account then diverted itself by dwelling on the nature of the gulag in Soviet Russia, specifically by attempting to absolve the Soviet camp system of its often negative connotations. Far from being the cause of death of millions upon millions of people, the Gulag was apparently a harmless system, primarily dedicated to peacefully correcting the wrong-thoughts of subversive elements in the Soviet Union.

    That the denizens of the Goldsmiths LGBTQ+ group might have been thought subversive in such an era did not detain them. But what the long (and eventually deleted) thread did reveal was that the students of Goldsmiths were either criminally ignorant or wicked beyond words.

    Recent events once again split the vote on this question. For twice in the past week this training institution for the soon-to-be unemployed made national headlines. The first cause was comedic, the second tragic. The comic was the announcement that Goldsmiths had a new plan to lead the way in stopping climate change.

    Of course, there are arguments about what any individual might do to help look after our environment. For most of us, it is a matter of balance between conserving our environment and preserving human life in a recognisable and enjoyable form but, of course, the denizens of Goldsmiths have decided to throw themselves in at the most extreme, anti-capitalist and indeed anti-human end of the climate debate.

    Explaining the rationale behind the great beefburger cull of 2019, the new Warden of Goldsmiths – one Prof Frances Corner – pronounced that “Declaring a climate emergency cannot be empty words. I truly believe we face a defining moment in global history and Goldsmiths now stands shoulder to shoulder with other organisations willing to call the alarm and take urgent action to cut carbon use”.

    Perhaps in the future, when the “climate emergency” has passed and the moss and the trees are enjoying themselves unencumbered by the human race, they will raise a glass to the memory of Goldsmiths for this crucial turn of the tide.

    More likely the actions of Professor Corner and co are merely the latest demonstration of an especially cynical form of “woke” capitalism. For if you are engaged in the form of student larceny that Goldsmiths is engaged in, what better disguise for that action than trying to cover your tracks by pretending that the primary aim of your academic Ponzi scheme is in fact no less an ambition than saving the planet?

    But tragedy always follows close on comedy’s heels, and as this paper reported yesterday, a tragedy can also be glimpsed on the Goldsmiths campus. For Goldsmiths is hosting a summer school involving a series of lectures organised by the Communist Party of Great Britain.

    The lecturers include Tony Greenstein, the founding member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who last year achieved the almost unachievable when he was expelled from Labour for using terms like “Zionist scum” and accusing “Zionists” of “collaborating with the Nazis”. Also lecturing at the Communist summer camp is an activist called Graham Bash who will be addressing students on the subject of “How can we transform the Labour Party into a vehicle of socialism?” A lecture whose aims might be said to already have been achieved.

    In this episode, as in all the episodes above, Goldsmiths is in many ways performing a public service. For it reminds us of a hard edge, which exists across our university system in a softer – albeit equally insidious – form. Earlier this year I wrote here for the Telegraph about the University of Cambridge and its descent into “woke” politics. Of course, Cambridge is – or has been – very much a first-rate institution.

    But under a new Canadian vice-chancellor called Stephen Toope it has descended into a form of Left-wing signalling that has become one of the great menaces of our time. An inquiry into the university’s role in the slave trade is just one of the demonstrations of this fad. Others include the repeated defenestration of academics on the demand of “social justice” mobs.

    But it is important to see these and other such actions for what they really are: which is an only slightly watered-down version of the full-throated communism so encouraged at an institution like Goldsmiths. As Anthony Kronman (formerly of Yale Law School) recently explained in his book The Assault on American Excellence, a great tide has swept across the university system in America as in Britain.

    It is a culture war waged with tools such as “de-platforming”, claims for “safe spaces” and more. Most of all it exists in the Academy’s fetishisation of “diversity”. In each and every example of this (with whole departments set up to enforce it) the aim is to lambast the idea of academic excellence in favour of other ambitions – in particular promoting “diversity” of everything other than opinion as the supreme goal of the university.

    It is in itself a form of watered-down Marxism, which has sucked up presumption after presumption of that disastrous ideology. It is a wave that is at its root anti-capitalist, anti-academic, anti-reason and anti-Western. By hosting a communist summer school Goldsmiths could certainly be said to have embarrassed themselves.

    But they have also performed – perhaps for the first time – a signal public service. For they have reminded us not just that they are real, but that there are people throughout our university system who believe that one of the two disastrous ideologies of the 20th century hasn’t really been tried yet. [WS I assume that the one that has been tried is multiculturalism.]

    Some of them are trying this in the softer version. Some in the harder strength versions. All should be equally strongly opposed by anyone with any knowledge of history or any desire to avoid repeating it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/17/anti-capitalist-anti-western-universities-no-longer-care-excellence/

      1. There is some high-grade, Leftist sneering in the comments. Here’s one:

        Bill Pilgrim 17 Aug 2019 10:24AM

        Good to see the loony right churning out their greatest hits…The worst thing for far-right ideologies such as Brexit is an educated population. Keep them thick, keep them compliant. They’ll vote against their own interests if you wrap it in a union jack. Education makes this less possible.”

    2. “I truly believe we face a defining moment in global history…”
      Actually every single moment, every fraction of time is a defining moment. There’s no going back.

      1. Yo Elsie

        look carefully, you will see the Coal Shute.

        She will be ejected into the skip in the back garden and be swamped by trobetti droppings

  38. There doesn’t seem to be much in the news about Mutti Hìtler Merkel these days. Has she succumbed to the jitters?

  40. I have a cunning plan to restore the family fortunes,a range of ready meals for those that wish to signal their virtue as Vegans without the inconvenience of giving up meat,taste,texture and flavour.
    I shall call the range Megan Meals,now if I can just get a “Sparkling” sleb endorsement riches are mine once more………………….

  42. Russian satellites may soon become INVISIBLE from Earth. 17 Aug, 2019 07:58

    Roscosmos has invented top-notch technology which involves covering satellites with a unique air-bubble wrap that scatters light, Russian media reported. The method is said to reduce the satellite’s visibility by 10 times or more when observed by telescopes from Earth.

    The agency says the technology – which seems to be of dual use – could be employed to ‘hide’ satellites travelling at 10,000km to 20,000km above Earth’s surface.

    One assumes that when they come down they suffer no damage either!

    https://www.rt.com/news/466702-russia-satellite-stealth-invisible/

      1. The Rovers, and particularly the extended lifespan of Opportunity were a magnificent achievement.

    4. We will know where the satellite has landed.
      The pop popping noise as it jumps around after landing will alert us.
      It might giggle as well.

    1. Dark & raining here. Lights on at lunchtime! And the heated bathroom floors came on yesterday :-((

        1. Sign of civilisation. Warm, and dry bathroom.
          Brit bathrooms are always damp and effin’ freezing.
          💩

          1. Only because you forgot to switch on the one-bar electric heater high up on the wall four hours before you wanted a bath!

          2. :-D)
            Or the heated towel rail that is always hotter than the sun, but so well insulated, the room is colder than a witches.

          1. So did I. Our purchaser couldn’t get enough for her existing house to make up the difference. A blow. She is mortified.

    2. In that case, George, worth repeating:

      A policeman spots a black guy dancing on the roof of a car.
      He radios for backup, saying… “I’ve got a darkie dancing on a Volkswagen.”
      “You can’t say that over the radio.” replies the operator “You have to use politically correct terminology.”
      “OK” he says” Zulu… Tango… Golf…”

  45. ‘Morning All

    I think this chap’s been watching Blade Runner too often………..

    “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.”

    https://twitter.com/XRLondon/status/1162265282355712000
    Look at his expression………..
    “Curse you St Greta,if I was just a few years younger I too could be a child prophet and make squillions out of the Greenscam”
    “It’s sooooooooooo unfair”

    1. Smug bar steward, get a flucking hair cut, smarten up and join the real world.

      Teaching carbon literacy indeed.

  46. Something strange happened last night.
    About 10pm someone knocked on the door loudly
    with a touch glaring through the front door window
    ( we don’t have street lights ) the husband answered, some
    woman was going on about a parcel she believed was left
    at our address from the delivery people. My husband spent
    10 minutes telling her that parcel was not left at this address,
    she was rattling on about her child’s party and it was the child’s present
    ( not our concern nor was her parcel). I ended up going to
    the door telling her firmly that we didn’t have her parcel, she
    looked at me like I was lying and I closed the door .
    I thought how weird and she didn’t even apologise for knocking
    so late. I don’t ever take in parcels for people it’s the responsibility
    of delivery drivers and the customer to make alternative dropping
    off points if they are out and not go around badgering others at 10pm .
    If a person says they don’t have a parcel then they don’t have it unless
    she thought we were in the habit of stealing parcels.
    It was very strange and unnerving, I am glad I wasn’t home alone
    and checked all the windows and doors before going to sleep,
    It was quite scary to be honest.

    1. While you were engaged at the front door, her other half was breaking in at the back…..

      1. I thought my husband was too polite listening to her
        for 10 minutes. I would’ve said instantly that we didn’t
        Have her parcel and don’t have the time to take in parcels
        for neighbours and that she could contact the delivery people.
        You need to be short, straight to the point and end such a conversation.
        my husband was feeling sorry for her rattling away about her
        child’s party, I didn’t give a toss.

        2. Just say ” Yes I got the parcel. But it wasn’t for me so I threw it away “.
          The truth never hurts.

    2. Some one came knocking
      At my wee, small door;
      Someone came knocking;
      I’m sure-sure-sure;
      I listened, I opened,
      I looked to left and right,
      But nought there was a stirring
      In the still dark night;
      Only the busy beetle
      Tap-tapping in the wall,
      Only from the forest
      The screech-owl’s call,
      Only the cricket whistling
      While the dewdrops fall,
      So I know not who came knocking,
      At all, at all, at all.

      Walter de la Mare

          5. I don’t have, or cant be bothered to set up, a continental keyboard.
            So my French accents are invisible..

          13. If you are on a Microsoft driven computer, search for charmap.exe.

            Loads of alternatives as well as music ♪♫, copyright © and all the accented letters your heart could desire…

          14. That’s really useful – I was trying to find a ç for another post but gave up – I’ll have go and edit it, unless Peddy has already done so.

    3. What on earth have we come to when we live in a state of distrust and fear.

      What have they done to us , and why has our innocence been so besmirched, if that is the right word?

        1. When parcels are not left at the correct address the delivery man either leaves a note or an addition to “track your parcel” appears on your delivery email. She waited for the optimum time when you would both be home. She kept your husband talking so that you would eventually appear to see what was going on.

          1. Yes it was all very weird, who knocks at 10pm,
            most would wait until the morning.
            If I was the one who initially spoke to her then
            I would have been short, straight to the point and
            firmly telling her to contact the delivery company .
            My husband was feeling sorry for her ‘ plight ‘
            I thought it none Of our business . I would
            place a smalp notice on the door saying we don’t take in
            parcels not for this address to make a point that we dont
            do that anyway. Odd , very odd.

          2. The guy who came to see me posed as a manager for Virgin coming to see if I had any internet problems. (A particularly ludicrous story as Virgin couldn’t give a rat’s a$$ what your problems are). He knew nothing of the complaints I’d filed or even recognised a Virgin Hub when I steamrollered him inside to complain!

          3. Good grief ! Lucky you were on to it.
            You have to be so on the ball with things
            these days. My husband might be a little bit too
            trusting.

    6. ‘Afternoon, Ethel, you should have told her to check the upstairs bedroom as the delivery driver might have been the one, or another, who was practising his/her basketball/netball technique.

      Other ball games are available.

    7. Sadly there is some rain to shed on this current idea that delivery drivers are still honest and will leave a note where your parcel has been left. There is a company who shares a name with a Greek god, who’s standards have been dropping off of a cliff for years now. I will no longer use any company that uses them anymore.

      The complaints against them for items being stolen, and a host of other problems, are moving them into the “this is a racket not a service” category. From my own experience, the last 6 boxes delivered by them were all massively wrapped in white “fragile” tape and I thought that they were just incompetent. Then I noticed that the boxes were undamaged and all of the tape was around the central folds. They had all clearly been opened en-route and when only books were found they were sealed up again.

      I checked online and found many hundreds of similar complaints, with some having a parcel with 6 items in it opened, the electronic items removed, then it is taped back up and sent on its way with only 4 items left in it. This is from across the country, not just one bad area. Others did not receive their items at all and were told that it had been damaged at the depot and the company had decided to destroy the item. A refund was available. This is clearly code for “someone has taken it.”

      One chap had a rare signed and framed photo from a photographer who is now deceased. He sent it with the highest level of insurance, tracked, and very well packaged. It was “damaged and destroyed” in the depot. This is beyond words.

      I finally stopped using them when a tracked package did not arrive and my signature was forged to say that it had. I say a signature, it was a squiggle. This is also very common with other people. One man was on a flight from Belfast to Birmingham when they have a record of him personally signing for his parcel at his house.

      So, this lady may have just been told that her parcel was delivered to your address when it is sitting in the home of the courier. There was once, since the day that my parcel was stolen, that a retailer also used them without my knowledge. It arrived after being left with someone else, but there was the same faked signature saying that I had received it personally.

      I would have taken legal action obviously, but after reading how they respond to that online, and having 5 minutes spare time per day at that point, I just make sure they never come to my house again.

      1. So, this lady may have just been told that her parcel was delivered to your address when it is sitting in the home of the courier.

        Nevertheless she could have picked a more civilised time to call.

        1. I understand what you are saying, and I would have waited, however – if she is genuinely trying to find this parcel, who knows how many houses she has been to already? Alone at night?

          “…she was rattling on about her child’s party and it was the child’s present…”

          This would make it heavily time-sensitive. I am merely pointing out that the only thieves who have come to my house in the past years have been employees of that courier company.

        1. I have never had a problem with Yodel, but we always have neighbours around who can take packages in if no-one is here. It was actually Hermes that have opened and waylaid my items.

          More than once they have claimed to have attempted deliveries and no-one was in, when I am sat looking out of the window and you need to walk towards me to get to the door. 🙂

          Never again with them. When they say that you have signed for something that was never delivered, that is the same as calling you a liar to your face. Them’s fighting words where I grew up. But she is female. So I just don’t use anyone who uses them.

    3. ‘Afternoon, Jodie, and the Welsh word ‘cawl’ means soup, so it looks like they wish to mix and make their own.

      There’s lovely, isn’t it?

  48. ” Sajid Javid refuses to rule out stamp duty reversal so seller pays”
    Why not just let both buyer and sell pay. That way both will end up poorer.
    I think his rationale for what he – and apparently Boris also -is suggesting, is fallacious.
    The only real motivation is to get more money off people who can’t do anything about it.

      1. Splutter ! What? Do away with a tax? Watch yourself. They’ll be coming to take you away…haha.

        1. Nope. Drop to 12.5%.
          Cut spending. Halve the civil service. Stop hs2. Sort out the tax system so it only takes 10 minutes to check your tax return.

          1. You really don’t live in the real world, do you?……{:¬))

            Such things as you propose would be completely unthinkable in the modern UK

  49. I met Bob of Bonsall this morning at Sutton Bank. He got there before me and unfortunately there were 2 white bearded men in the Visitor centre. There was one candidate in the outside cafeteria at the centre photographing the bird feeder but a tall chap with long black hair was standing with him. I discounted him for that reason and went back to my car. Then the good weather disappeared and there was torrential rain for about 10 minutes trapping me in my car. I went back to the visitor centre as soon as the rain stopped but didn’t see him. I bought a coffee and a scone in the visitor centre and took up a seat where I could watch the foyer. Just as I sat down I saw the previous white bearded man outside in the foyer. I went out and it was like 2 spies meeting . I said are you Bob, Bob of Bonsall ? He said you’ll be Clydesider after I had blurted out my real name. Perhaps we Nottlers need a secret handshake or a password. Bob struck me as a very talented man. At the Viewpoint for the” Finest view in England”, he spontaneously sang a song for a toddler which turned her scowl into a beaming smile.He has a grand singing voice It was a very pleasant meeting. He and his family were travelling on to the Rosedale Show.

    1. Weren’t the rolled up umbrella, red carnation in the button hole and copy of last week’s Pravda good enough for Sutton Bank?

    3. It’s great fun meeting Nottlers. Glad you had a good time. I never have trouble being recognised. I always have a beautiful blonde with me. :o)

    4. ‘Afternoon, Clydesider, I’ve suggested it before that we might get some badges made (there seem to be plenty of Badge-makers about). My first effort wasn’t a hit because of the connotation with old farts but here’s that original with another design as well.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf66554a0179013be1519762d170bcf59106c497029c447eb2f334c536fc9aa1.jpg
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6fad227540b29d3f9d0df9b59a7bd64c8ab7269b5b0793af2dc9c155c377496c.jpg

      Any other ideas, NoTTLers?

        1. ‘Afternoon, J, ‘Twas the only bit of ‘clip-art’ I came across that signified ‘push-off.’

          Feel free to have a go at designing a sex-free one.

  50. So what is the best option for the country that will cause the least disruption to business and democracy.

    1 – Leave the EU without a deal on the 31st October, there might be a bit of business disruption for a few months, we get disruption all the time with strikes and power cuts in any case, but at least we keep the countries faith in democracy, parliament and politicians.

    2) – Have a political coup whereby remainer politicians take control of Parliament and keep us locked in the EU for decades to come, we will still get disruption to business, business will continue to leave the UK if it suits them to but the countries faith in Parliament, democracy and politicians will be lost forever. The issue for leaving the EU will still not have gone away.

      1. Exacto (© Peddy) Paul. I’m afraid that with every bit of ‘diversification’, ignoring the wrong-doings of certain cults (both from the Middle East and Ireland) and general leftard, libtard manifestations of a hatred of democracy, I am becoming more and more ‘far-right extreme’ as time goes on and these ills increase. I just wish I were younger and have the ability to actually do something productive.

    2. I wonder how much all this delay and confusion has cost the country? Businesses are unable to plan or invest, because they still don’t know if we will be in or out of the EU on 31st October, or on what terms. To say nothing of us paying another six month of membership fees, to achieve what should have happened on 29th March.

      The best way to end ‘Brexit Uncertainty’ is to just bloody leave on 31st October, deal with any short-term disruption and get on with our lives,

      1. ‘Afternoon, JK, if we have paid anything for the time after 29th March, we must be mad. If we have, then I would deduct it from the 39 Billion I’m not going to pay.

  52. Let’s assume climate change is primarily anthropogenic.

    Then this piece from the Guardian makes sense and Greta should be sailing to the Third World and promoting condoms:

    The biggest driver of climate change and every other global headache you care to name — species extinction, deforestation, desertification, ocean acidification, pollution, fresh water scarcity, oceanic plastic, soil erosion, ‘irregular’ migration — is people. Too many of them, and born too fast.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/17/greta-thunberg-brexit-culture-war-nigel-farage

    1. I don’t think it is people from the third world that the climate changists want to get rid of.

  53. BTL from John Redwood’s short article on the horrific murder of PC Andrew Harper. Everhopeful points to an extreme example but how, when one looks at the calibre of the MPs that ignored serious sexual grooming, rape, sex trafficking and goodness knows what else for decades to protect one particular community, could that despicable group be trusted to oversee the death penalty with impartiality?

    Gordon Nottingham
    Posted August 17, 2019 at 5:30 am | Permalink.

    I am sure we all agree with your comments regarding the tragic death of PC Andrew Harper,
    but I think it is time the DEATH PENALTY was reintroduced, especially in the cases of Police Murder. Give us a vote NOW.

    Reply
    Everhopeful
    Posted August 17, 2019 at 6:46 am | Permalink

    Hand that sort of power to the madness of Westminster?
    They’d be hanging people for wrong speak.

    John Redwood’s Diary – Tragic Death of PC Andrew Harper

    1. I am sure we all agree with your comments regarding the tragic death of PC Andrew Harper,
      but I think it is time the DEATH PENALTY was reintroduced, especially in the cases of Police Murder.

      It is largely the Police who are responsible for the abolition of the death penalty with their false accusations and hysterical response when an officer is murdered!

      1. I don’t support the death penalty – it’s difficult to reverse if wrong. But sentences should be long where appropriate, and not ended half way through.
        I’ve said this before. Maybe things have changed siince, but when I was a kid the crime of rape was rare, primarily because the sentence was fourteen years, no ifs and buts.
        I think the legal profession wants sorting out. And human rights should no longer be a valid defence.

        1. Agreed 100%.

          It is not so much the legal “profession” that needs sorting but the useless, virtue-signalling politicians who constantly interfere by making more and more changes to the way the courts are supposed to work; and judges who allow their political views to influence their sentencing. eg: letting migrants off “because they didn’t understand that rape/murder/theft etc was a naughty thing in their new country”.

          2. How does a person who makes such a judgement escape being sacked and if not sacked lynched.?

          4. The judges receive directions from the politicians as to the tariffs to apply. One of the major factors is space in prisons. To pack the animals in eight to a cell would breach their human rights. None of the UK Governments is prepared to spend the huge sums that would be required to treble prison capacity.

          6. And you could have three shifts and then rotate them around the cells and at a stroke increase prison capacity.

        2. There are always unanswerable questions:

          If the death penalty could be proved to save a hundred innocent lives each year but each year one innocent person is executed then would this justify having it?

          Pragmatically 100 saved against 1 executed in error would sound pretty good and a general sending his men into conflict would welcome such odds. But…….

          1. If the death penalty could be proved to save a hundred innocent lives each year but each year one innocent person is executed then would this justify having it?

            My answer to your question is, NO. Every incorrect judicial killing demeans the law and justice. Our politicians, lying to us again, said life would mean life after the abolition of capital punishment but they reneged on that promise. If life really did mean life then the call for the death penalty to be brought back would, in my opinion, be diminished.

          2. Too many stitch-ups and miscarriages of justice for the State to be allowed to kill people in cold blood.

          4. Especially if the one innocent killed is your son, daughter, husband, wife, mother or father. What a thing to live with, saying goodbye to your innocent relative knowing that these employees of the state are going to kill them. If you are young and hug your daddy goodbye, that is going to foster some long-term hatred.

            If there is no doubt, such as these visitors wearing their fake bombs, waving knives around and shouting about Alan’s Snackbar – no contest. Shoot them on the spot and then shoot them again to make sure they cannot blow themselves up after they go down.

            As was said in another article elsewhere, we know how immoral the Remainer MP’s are now, as they try to bring about the destruction of the United Kingdom. Their actions by helping the invasion of our country have already led to the mass rape and sexual assaults of our school children. Who knows how many men and women who are found drowned in canals after “falling in drunk” have been killed by these people as well?

            Imagine if the Remainers had direct access to the death penalty. People like us might find ourselves pulled over and interesting evidence presented against us, just because we won’t roll over and let them do what they want.

        3. In Scotland the tariff for violent rape is a maximum of life imprisonment. What actually happens is that the sentence may be seven years, for a really horrific crime. The rapist is out of prison in three years and then repeats. There is currently a rapist in prison for the third time., that is, crime – prison – release, crime – prison – release, crime – prison – soon to be out to do it again.
          I can’t think of any reason why the death penalty should not be applied to such people.

      2. “It is largely the Police who are responsible for the abolition of the death penalty with their false accusations and hysterical response when an officer is murdered!”

        BOLLOCKS!

        It was the Labour (what else?) MP Sydney Silverman who successfully had the abolition of capital punishment enacted and it was nothing, whatsoever, to do with “police false accusations” or their “hysterical response”.

        Are you aware that more than 1,600 police officers have been unlawfully killed whilst on duty? During that time, absolutely not a single desk-jockey has been unlawfully killed whilst sitting on their fat arses, pushing their pens (or tip-tapping on their keyboards), whilst whingeing and moaning about the police.

        You get the police that you deserve and most of you do not deserve them.

        1. My reply to Korky refers to the Death Penalty in reference to the murder of Police Officers during the execution of their duties. The List of Police Officers killed in the Line of Duty since 1900 totals 253. These were not all murders but a combination of accidents, misadventures and homicides which are in the minority. Anyone who doubts the charge of hysteria need only look at today’s MSM where the murder of one Police Officer has generated more emotion than all the dozens of people that have been knifed to death on Britain’s Streets in the last six months. This is an ongoing event. I must have seen something like it a dozen times during my lifetime. As to false accusations one has only to look at the hanging of Derek Bentley which was an act of vengeful Judicial Murder. How different things are when the Police kill a member of the public! Then it is all excuses. Blair Peach. Jean Carles de Menenzes. etc. etc. The number of people who have died in Police Custody since 1990 totals 1717 of which there have been only a handful of convictions.

    2. Its not permitted by our unelected lords and dictators. Indeed, even discussion of the subject in Parliament is prohibited, I believe.

  54. India and Pakistan must look beyond Kashmir. GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS AND LORD GADHIA17 AUGUST 2019 • 8:00AM.

    It’s not often that either of us would agree with the Russian assessment of a major geopolitical issue. But on India and Pakistan’s rekindled dispute over Kashmir, we believe the Kremlin has it right: the changes made by India last week to the status of Jammu and Kashmir have been made within the framework of India’s constitution and the long-standing territorial dispute should be resolved bilaterally by Pakistan and India in accordance with relevant UN resolutions.

    BELOW THE LINE

    John Burwood 17 Aug 2019 8:25AM.

    “In the period since India and Pakistan gained independence in 1947, India has outperformed Pakistan on virtually every economic and social indicator”.
    I wonder why?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/17/india-pakistan-must-look-beyond-kashmir/

    2. Do you know, Polly, I do not give a toss about some
      Swedish misfit!
      What I really care about is the wanton murder of an
      English Policeman!

      May God forgive these murderers,………… I cannot!

      1. Shocking about the policeman.

        Strangely enough, I think the two are, in a sense, linked.

        Who really wanted HR ?

        Who really wanted the Climate Change Act and Zero 50 ?

        Who regards himself as a god and wants to change, or even destroy, our civilization ?

        I think both go back to the same source.

    3. There is something very wrong with the fact that the Speaker seems to be able to get away with flagrant abuse of the rules prescribed for his office.

      1. I think the HoC and all it’s inhabitants seem to be a law unto themselves, and quite happy to to do things that anywhere else would lead to instant dismissal and/or imprisonment. They know we know, we know they know we know but they don’t give a whelks pizzle anyway

  57. Just logging in after a few hours away. Before I read down, is the rugger score mentioned anywhere? I’m watching it later so want to avoid it.

  58. Yuk. Just been down picking tomatoes and back in the house felt something crawling around my head. Turned out to be big slimey slug… Remembering that when I have closely inspected slugs they seem to have little white mites crawling over them, I have had to wash my hair…

      2. If you are referring to my thick crop of pure white hair, then you are wrong. Like that fellow Wirralian, Lord Hallhall I still, thank goodness am well endowed in that and other directions. I think it must be something in the water. Though fortunately, I do not share Lord Hallhall’s luvviedom or political attitudes.

    2. I’m sure that French translation can’t have been approved by the Académie Francçaise. (sorry Peddy you’ll have to supply the c with a sedilla yourself).
      Edit: BT has kindly provided ç

  61. Planted out the leeks. I prepared the area with a drench of the special product supplied by TP, which certainly worked a treat on the French beans.

    I was (as you would expect) sceptical – but the results have won me over.

    Then a haircut and a lovely tepid shower. Now a glass of medicine brought by Cook – who is giving me steak for supper.

    Incidentally – to show what class he has, Harry K was in Fortnum & Mason this morning and spotted TROMBETTI for sale – at £20 a kilo…

    1. I’m having bavette steak with a jacket potato à la Elsie & thoroughly cooked green beans tonight.

          3. I had good curries in Sri Lanka.

            While others in the tour party were ploughing through “International Hotel Food” (chicken & chips at every meal), I collared the local guide & asked him to order for me whatever he was eating. He was delighted & I had some fabulous local food.

        1. It is pricey for her since it’s the same price she wants for rooted cuttings and these are apparently seeds.

          1. Reminds me of a new variety of Tomato that I am trying. Happy Days. £2 a packet – of EIGHT seeds….. I call that ‘avin’ a larf.

            The only good thing (and they are growing OK here in Laure) is that they are supposed to be blight resistant – which most Franch (sic) varieties are NOT.

    1. Yes, my bloody foster-sister used to hum it all the time, even when told to give it a rest.

      1. Lovely, generous bloke. He was working in the Paint Shop at Eastleigh when I was in the Lift Shop.

        1. Crippled by motor neurone disease, Heinz died in 2000, aged 57 following a stroke.[2][9] He was cremated at Eastleigh Crematorium in Hampshire.

          Another victim of the bluddy disease.

    3. The first record bought for me, when I was 7. I still have it. Vinyl single in its original stripy orange Decca cover.

      1. Our Susan – that may have a value on e-bay!

        My first 78 was Britannia Rag by Winifred Atwell!

    4. Golly gosh. I remember setting up the telly to watch the very first, live Telstar TV transmission via Goonhilly Down from the US of A.

      To be stunned and amazed – as I was with the first LIVE transmission on Panorama with the sensible Dimblebody (father) from CALAIS. And then a year or so later, from Tokyo where it was THE NEXT DAY.

      Kids today….

      1. As I recall, the first Telstar transmission was a lousy picture but we were stunned and amazed that it could be done at all!

        1. Indeed it was – you are far too young. There was a lot of noise and “scribble” on the screen – and then a face slowly appeared and one could hear and see someone talking – it lasted for about ten mins before the picture began to break up and then evaporate into scribble etc – and one had to wait another 75 minutes for the next “showing”.

          Happy, innocent, days – though we expected to be blown to smithereens at any minute.

          1. I watched the same thing, Telstar was the first, Early Bird was the second one a short while later.

    5. Then an undergraduate student, my principal memory of 1962 is the Cuban Crisis – and the prospect of nuclear war …

      2. Met MB during that week.
        Our first date was to see ‘Spartacus’.
        A stroppy Roman slave is book-ending our life together.

        1. We met October 6th, 1962. Dr. No was our first actual date, when it went into general release. Wedding anniversary coming up shortly.

  63. Well, after half an hour’s trip down memory lane with Our Susan – and several much older NoTTLers, I am signing off until tomorrow.

    Have a bright, jolly evening being nice to one another.

    A demain.

    4. Good grief. Does she think she looks sexy like that? OK male Nottlers what do you think? I think she looks really ugly and hard. Probably should confess I never liked her anyway!

    2. The first time that I read AC Graylings musings on life I thought that he was a stupid little boy. Now he has turned out to be a democracy-hating traitorous little guttersnipe as well. It shows how far academics have fallen into the slime when someone with his views and lack of intelligence has acquired that many titles and awards.

      Professor JRR Tolkien – Oxford Don and Professor of Languages. Fought at the Somme. Intellectual, patriot and moralist. One hundred times the man that Grayling could ever hope to be.

  66. Film BBC2 just started – ‘ A Song for Marion’

    It’s about a grouchy old man…. NoTTlers take note!

  67. Last post. We talk a lot about the UK’s political shenanigans.

    Well, in yer France, Toy Boy – who is doing really badly – is planning
    talks with Sarkozy (who is under investigation for fraud).

    They are all raving mad – no matter which country.

    TTFN

      1. I know I sound worse than usual – but England just seem to give up when faced with strong opposition.

        Where are the Ken Barringstons de nos jours?

        1. The batting of both teams is fragile but Oz has the freak show that is Steve Smith. They also have a better bowling attack but England might have got them out earlier. You could almost hear the grinding of teeth in the TMS box as another one went past the bat. “Pitch it up, for Christ’s sake!” was the message.

          1. I venture that Root as captain is the principal problem. We have had some great captains who were moderately good batsmen. I recall Mike Denness and Mike Brearley.

            Root has no background in captaincy, cannot set a field for a batsman and has no imagination. He prefers the wrong bowling attack at the wrong times. His ignorance of Woakes, a true all rounder, when conditions suited Woakes at the start of the Australian innings was intensely annoying.

        2. I remember when we had John
          Edrich opening followed by the likes of Luckhurst, Graveney and Cowdrey. Then and later we had Boycott, Randall, Colin Milburn, Keith Fletcher, and the ever dependable wicketkeeper Alan Knott.

          Our fast bowlers were Statham, Truman and oddballs like Fred Rumsey. Medium pacers were Derek Underwood and we had spinners like Fred Titmus.

          These names came back to me when sorting old possessions for the intended move, viz. my old autographed match programmes and score cards.

    2. We never seem to play well at Lords although, to be fair, other similar venues are available. :-))

    1. Good evening Issy

      Princess Christina of the Netherlands must have been a very talented lady. She looked comfortable and approachable and had the sort of cultured finesse that our own Royal family don’t seem to possess.

      The European Royals seem more well rounded and balanced than our own , sorry to sound critical .

      What a charming voice she had .. and to suffer such a dreadful disease so bravely for years takes a special sort of stoicness.

  70. Owen Jones attacked in London

    The attack took place near the Lexington Pub in Pentonville road Islington
    He claims the attack was by far right activists

    3. Owen Jones does have form for reporting utter lies as being the truth. There was one clip which they ran split screen with him on one side and what was actually happening on the other side. Every single word out of his mouth was a lie.

      I do have some friends who are gay, but they just want to quietly get on with their lives and not make a song and dance about it. They said that people such as Owen are suffering from “Old Queen Syndrome” which is what they call it when your looks start to fade and you cannot deal with it. They get really bitchy and want to be the centre of attention all of the time.

      That sums up Owen Jones at this fading time of his life.

        1. He’s 35(!) Still acting like a teenage socialist rebel. Most people who are not mentally arrested grow out of socialism by their 20’s or when they start working for a living. People such as him are stuck with it for life because no-one else will be their friends now.

          A lifetime stuck with the socialists that you met at University as friends… Death would lose it’s sting pretty quickly.

  71. Moh and son no 1 went to Southampton by train to watch them play Liverpool this afternoon .

    The weather has been lovely here , and the dogs and I had a lovely walk nr Arne ..The heather is blossoming , different pinks and purples , and smelt delicious , but where were the bees .. I heard a few Stonechats and Dartford warblers, saw no swallows or martins .. Have they all flown back to where they came from?

    Saints 1 Liverpool 2. Moh and son had to stand all the way back home on the train from Southampton . How bad is that.. Cattle truck class , where is the joy in travelling by train ?

    2. Last time I came home from London by train it was full of Welsh footie fans – well behaved and plenty of drink but they were accompanied by Transport Police!

      2. I hope they can find sufficient insects to rear them with.. sorry to sound negative , but locals here are alarmed at the lack of flies, moths , beetles even flying ants ,, and I am feeling really anxious because even when it was warm in the evenings I haven’t seen a bat !
        Last year we had 2 varieties of bat in the garden .. nothing this year!

        1. I noticed and mentioned a distinct lack of bats over our village in June. The shortage of insects is a worry. Corn buntings were common here only 20 or 30 years ago. Now they are functionally extinct in Northumberland. Although they are looked on as seed-eaters, they and other buntings, along with finches need insects to feed their chicks in the nest. Modern farmland is a green desert.

          1. I have raised these concerns many times.

            We are surrounded by modern farming .. Yet those who live on green belt , meadows or common ground and some heathland say they are okay, but I was down near Arne this afternoon , the heather smelt beautiful, warm but cloudy , some sunshine.. Where were the bees?

          2. Stratford park in Stroud. A mixture of woodland, grass, a lake. A nice park but not large. Also the museum where some roost and the 70s leisure centre.

          3. So that sounds as if there has been no interference with insecticide.
            I am certain the oilseed rape spraying around here has messed everything up.

    4. It is a mystery to me why anyone should pay good money to watch a group of hirelings ponce about on a field wearing the colours of a town they never lived in.

      1. Evening Richard ,

        Moh is a Southhampton born and bred chap .. I had no idea he was so besotted with football until after we got married . He has followed the team ever since he was a young lad .

        Our big conversation prior to marriage had several omissions!

  73. I am now finding it hard to get to NoTTL without being diverted to the Telegraph Letters. I will go through that rigmarole in the future if needs be. I don’t really care, as long as I know hoe to do it.

    Now to the reason for my post. At the moment I have very little time to come online, and I tend to catch up on conversations about 15 hours after they were posted.

    So apologies if you have already seen this, but I felt fit to post: a decent man (who many of us already know) entering politics of behalf of the BP (and IMHO, therefore us):

    https://moraymint.com/2019/08/14/brexit-im-entering-politics/

    Don’t know how longer I can be online – important things to do. XXX to you all, dear NoTTLers!

      1. Still here, sweetheart, just so busy doing thing outside NoTTl. Thank you so much for asking xxx

        1. Ndovu – I am signed into disqus and just followed that link and it came up with:

          “This site is marked private by its owner. If you would like to view it, you’ll need two things:

          A WordPress.com account. Don’t have an account? All you need is an email address and password — register here!
          Permission from the site owner. Once you’ve created an account, log in and revisit this screen to request an invite.
          If you already have both of these, great!”

          I tried to log in and it asked me for my email address. Hmm.

          1. Yes – just tried it – use the email address you use for this site rather than your primary one, if you have more than one.

          2. Ahh well, if he is joining the Brexit Party then I’d vote for him before I’d vote for my local Conservative member who thinks that a 2nd Referendum is a good idea. D’oh. He belongs in the Liberal party. 🙂

          3. That’s what I thought, MM. Can anyone tell us who is the Brexit Party candidate that Hertslass is attempting to tell us about?

          1. Jambo – that is because people have been getting on our list and for that reason I make my identity hidden. As I am not doing that with anyone at the moment, I will make it open again. But if someone wants to be added to the list, I will make it closed again. I hope you understand. As you can see, still on here for tonight…

          2. Can you tell me who she is referring to, Ndovu? I clicked on her link and the link takes me nowhere.

    3. You should be able to get to the discussion either from Geoff’s daily early morning link on the previous day’s page; or by clicking the link under the picture.

      Hope all’s well with you xxx

      1. It is well, thank you. I’m sorry, I was misleading in what I wrote. I just meant that I do suddenly disappear in the middle of conversations. It is not meant to be rudeness on my part – just I suddenly become overwhelmed by sleepiness and have to lie down. Then I wake up[ hours later and try to catch up on conversations.

        I have found that trying to get back on Geoff’s early morning didn ‘t work, and I went back to a link I previously used, for the new forum, which didn’t work either. Never mind, I’ve found my way back!

        2. Evening, Lass. I would like to add my email address to your list but don’t know how to do it securely.

          1. Go back to a page from a week ago, which everyone has stopped looking at, find a post by HL, reply to it with your email address. She will get the email notification & tell you so you can remove your details from the page. Not 100% safe, but as safe as you can get.

  74. Came across this while noodling through ConHome:

    https://order-order.com/2019/08/16/sarah-wollaston-may-not-lib-dem-candidate-next-election/

    “Sarah Wollaston May Not Be Lib Dem Candidate At Next Election

    The Liberal Democrat PPC for Sarah Wollaston’s Totnes constituency has made a less than helpful intervention on local radio, claiming no decision has been made over who will stand for the seat in an upcoming general election. Awkward…

    Caroline Voaden, the understandably miffed original candidate, is currently a Lib Dem MEP for the South West. She told BBC Radio Devon that “things are very fluid” and “when the election will be… may have some colouring on who stands.”

    “We can only have one candidate for Totnes. At some point a decision will be made about whether I fight the seat for Totnes or whether Sarah does, and that is a decision that the party will make, and it has not been made yet.”

    Who knows, by that point Wollaston might have defected to yet another different party…”

  75. Turned off film, ‘Song for Marion’ far too cheesy and with that ghastly Redgrave woman.

    Watched cricket highlights, I never realised it was so violent!…and women commentators need to butt out.

  76. – Has anyone notice that the climate change scam only appeared after John Major closed all the mental institutions.

  77. Was I wrong about Boris Johnson?
    Bruce Anderson – Coffee House – 17 August 2019 7:00 AM

    The Conservative commentariat does not march in step. Myself, along with Matthew Parris, Max Hastings and Simon Heffer are proud, stiff-necked characters who would never make concessions to secure consensus and who certainly do not write to be wrong. Yet in recent months, there has been agreement, at least on one crucial point: we have vied with each other to pour boiling oil on Boris. We all insisted that a Johnson administration would quickly disintegrate into risibility and chaos, exposing the country to manifold perils. Well, that has not happened. It may be that we were all wrong.

    I had assumed that although Boris wanted the self-aggrandisement of power, he would not move beyond ‘to be’, because he would have no idea what to do. That turned out to be nonsense. He had prepared for office. From the first moment, he displayed Montgomery’s favourite attribute: grip (which the Field Marshal pronounced ‘gwip’). When Churchill became prime minister, one observer said that the new regime was definitely having an impact: a permanent secretary had been seen running down a corridor. Although senior civil servants may not be bringing trainers and tracksuit bottoms to the office, Whitehall has been galvanised and many officials are cautiously enjoying the process. Good civil servants enjoy a sense of purpose and after the drift and hopelessness of the May years, that has returned.

    There might be an explanation for the new focused Boris. In public schools over the years, the authorities have had to cope with incorrigible boys, impervious to threats or punishment. Headmaster and housemaster have a crisis meeting. Is it time for a washing of hands, and expulsion? Instead, they decide on a gamble: make the brat a prefect. It often works. Responsibility can have transformative consequences. Who would have thought it – certainly not this writer – but that could be true of the new head prefect.

    There will be problems, some of them arising from the personality of Dominic Cummings. Cummings is a highly-talented fellow. But he has the defects of his qualities. A bull who always carries a china shop around with him, he regards patience and tolerance as among the worst of the deadly virtues. This has positive aspects. He helped Michael Gove shake up education. Emollience would have been little use in that battle. Equally, Churchill and Thatcher were not inclined to patience or tolerance. Neither of them was in the habit of giving a sympathetic hearing to excuses for failure. Before anyone laughs at mentioning Boris in the same paragraph as those world-historical titans, it must be remembered that he has set himself an awesomely radical agenda. Dominic Cummings could help him to fight his way through, as long as he takes note of three points.

    First, government is difficult. It is not like zipping around a small harbour in a nippy little speedboat. It is more a matter of steering a 100,000 ton cargo vessel through narrow waters beset by rocks. The bridge has to give the engine room twenty miles’ notice of a change of course.

    Second, government is stressful, especially in Downing Street. You need powerful personalities with first-class intellects, which usually means that they will have large egos. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as everything is harnessed to a common purpose. But gratuitous displays of egotism and temper just fray nerves which are already under pressure. Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s nearest approximation to Dominic Cummings, became less and less effective as time went on, because he could not adjust to the disciplines of high advisorship.

    Third, the advisors should stay behind the arras. There was a great man who did just that: Michael Fraser, later Sir Michael and ultimately Lord Fraser of Kilmorack, was described by Rab Butler as the Tory party’s finest civil servant. (Chris Patten later ran him close, but had a much shorter innings.) There was a Fraser dictum: ‘The back-room boys should stay in the back room’. That is wise advice.

    Various hacks have rearranged their summer plans and are taking a camping holiday, pitching their tents outside the Cummings’ household. He will face incessant door-stepping. There are only two sensible ways to respond. The first is silence. The second, if he is feeling uncontrollably voluble: ‘no comment.’ The Government’s enemies have identified Dominic Cummings as a source of vulnerability. He must prove them wrong.

    Quite rightly, the new PM is conveying the impression that he is in control of events. That is not how they see matters in Brussels. At present, Britain’s relationship with the EU has an ornithological quality. Two savage birds are squaring up to each other. So will this end in a fight to the death, or is it a mating ritual? The outcome may not be clear for some weeks.

    There is one basic difficulty. In August, much of European high officialdom goes on holiday. It was always said that if you could find anyone to talk to in Paris during August, they were not worth talking to. But there is another factor. From the way some British Remainers talk, one might think that the Euro-nomenklatura had just stepped out of Raphael’s School of Athens, that serene masterpiece, the Platonic idea of classical civilisation. In reality, the EU has recently been involved in weeks of horse-trading, corruption and chicanery. Raphael? It was more like a nineteenth century Punch cartoon of an Irish country fair, and it is not over yet. The newly-elected Parliament has still not exhausted its trouble-making resources.

    There are two further factors. The first is Ireland. Hibernia has had a great time twisting Albion’s tail. But there comes a moment for realism. The British Government has no wish to impose a hard border on Ireland. If that were to happen, it would be the EU’s decision; the EU’s fault. Until recently, a lot of people in Dublin thought that Brexit would just go away. Now, they know better. This may help to encourage wisdom.

    The second is the economy. Our recent economic figures reflect Brexit uncertainties. But the continent is full of economic doubts. It may be that the long-awaited Italian banking crisis is at last imminent. That said, the Italian banks’ problems have been insoluble for years, without ever becoming serious. Dolce far niente is not how Italian bankers spend August. It is a permanent cast of mind. As with the euro itself, it seems possible to kick the can down the road indefinitely and never encounter a T-junction. All the same, the idea that 27 EU nations are all in a position to laugh at the UK’s self-inflicted difficulties is a Remainers’ fantasy.

    Apropos Remainers, I detect a subtle shift in Boris’s favour. More and more Tory MPs now realise that there is no turning back. We are going to leave the EU. Although there is still unhappiness at the thought of no deal, there is even more unhappiness at the thought of a Corbyn government.

    Dominic Grieve is an exception, but he is not just a Remainer; he is a Remaniac. He is as favourably disposed to the Government as Samson, eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves, was to the Philistines.

    There remain plenty of uncertainties. Yet Boris seems determined to maintain his momentum. A few weeks ago, some commentator – it may even have been me, or perhaps someone else of the same name – likened him to a circus clown. He has now changed roles and become a tight-rope artist, or funambulist, as they are also known. That seems appropriate for Boris.

    As he inches his way across, there is no safety-net below him: only a pool of piranhas. But he might make it. With Boris, there were always going to be surprises and shocks. This could be the biggest shock of all. He succeeds.

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

    N.B.

    zxcv3 Pretty Polly • 2 days ago • edited
    Follow this closely, NoTTLers,

    Naggers and I spoke to Robin Tilbrook when we attended his ‘event’ near Ealing Broadway.

    He confirmed that he had spoken to Boris’s team suggesting that Boris should give a consent order withdrawing HMG’s defence against Tilbrook’s private action in the High Court. Thus Tilbrook prevails, nobody can appeal other than HMG/Boris and Tilbrook, and hey presto, UK exited the EU on March 29th.!!!

    We were sworn to secrecy then ….. but it seems to have leaked out.

    2. How Boris’s Roman predecessors took back control
      Peter Jones – 17 August 2019 – 9:00 AM

      The Tories, allegedly a ‘one-nation’ party, are currently imposing Brexit on a divided nation. As a result, some Tory MPs will vote against Brexit, effectively abandoning the party. This raises the question of political values – the question being, what happens after Brexit? Romans faced the same problem when the republic collapsed (27 bc) and Augustus became emperor.

      The Roman historian Tacitus, looking back at those events some 140 years later, summarised how Augustus achieved supreme power: he charmed the army with bonuses, the people with cheap corn, and everyone with the beguiling pleasures of peace. He then gradually took over the functions of the senate, the magistratus (officers of state such as consuls and praetors) and the legislature, all nullo adversante (‘with no opposition’). So ‘in this altered world there was no more of the fine old Roman way of doing things. Political equality was a thing of the past. Everyone waited on imperial orders’.

      But republican commitment to ancestral values did not disappear overnight. An emperor who did not want the reputation of tyrant had to be accommodating. He would be wise to nod to republican values such as openness to consultation, accessibility, liberality but self-restraint, respect for gods and fellow citizens, temperance, traditional attire, modesty, justice, and so on. Nero (however fruitlessly) was given Seneca as an adviser, the epitome of the old Roman Stoic; Trajan’s reign was praised by Pliny the Younger for demonstrating ‘the republic still exists’.

      However tyrannically the PM exerts pro-Brexit control over every aspect of government, he does so because he respects the will of the people. But with Britain out, the PM, no longer needing to play the tyrant, can go back to being the wishy-washy liberal he is. This brave new world will require brave new one-nation thinking (and a brave new post-Brexit cabinet?) and the Tory values of capitalism, private property, private enterprise, lower taxes, sound money, the free market, choice and rolling back the state — all consistent with liberal provision of public services — will be needed more than ever. The PM will rise to that challenge. And what values will the stranded Tory rebels espouse then?

      1. No he is dealing with the winning result of the referendum as promised by the party.

    3. Shows just what rubbish the journos are.If you have read anything about Boris you just know he would be ready for it. What he is doing and saying now matches what he said in his early books than none of them can have read. If you read about his time at the Spectator you see a very hard headed man. You have to read about the facts not peoples opinions.

    1. What happened to the run of Beatles songs, Plum-Tart? Don’t you have a clip of Lady Madonna?

      2. There’s around 250 Beatles tracks feel free to post your favourites.
        I’m not a Madonna fan but she did knock out a few good numbers…

        1. Ah, yes, but I don’t know/recall (I think someone on here once told me how to) post anything, let alone my favourite Beatles songs.

          1. Go to You tube – choose your music- copy the link at top of page and paste in comments.

          4. Thanks for that, vvof. It’s one of my absolute favourite tracks because I lived in Liverpool (just off Penny Lane in fact) from 1964 to 1973. I also liked the collage of clips, and could identify most of the people in the middle section, except for the guy with a moustache (just after Mal Evans). And was the guy getting out of the car Pete Best? I’m not sure. Can you – or anyone else on here – help?

    2. Madonna may be a crazy, deluded piece of baggage these days, but she did make some passably good songs in her time.

      She was quite snippy and rude to Sir Ian McKellen on TV the other night. He was the perfect gentleman in response, although you could tell she was becoming very trying by the end. It must have really bitten her deeply to be sitting next to a man with such a long acting career who was more famous than she was. He was Gandalf the Grey after all.

    1. Great stuff Tony
      I noted your comment yesterday.

      (Quote) The music comments and links tonight have been very interesting and enjoyable. Can we have more of these as a change from Brexit and Global Warming ?(ends)

      Agree totally, it’s quite depressing here at times.

      2. Music can be a good cure for depression. Even something that is not your usual cup of tea, if it is something good and performed properly.
        When I’m driving I like to have the radio on and listen to the dribble music on Classic FM, or the unspeakably boring squeaky old English music on BBC3. I like opera, but I seem to be in a minority of one everywhere with that…..

        2. Some music is too emotional and I cannot listen to it.
          Stary, Starry Night hits a raw nerve. The lyrics are too painful but beautiful and bring me to tears.

      4. ‘It’s all over now’ (Strolling Bones) got my feet tapping in town tonight, as did a bit of old (pre 1960) Elvis in the Tattooed Arms.

        Time to ditch the C-Rap rubbish.

  80. Creekit. Seems that the old maxim, “If you can’t bowl ’em out, knock ’em out” is alive and well at Lord’s.

    Great start by England….{:¬(((

    Incidentally, what is the point of the “strike rate” for each batsman?

    Edited to make sense (I hope)

    1. Wot?

      “Píss off you little náncy boy and man up
      Clench your buttocks and bite the bullet?”

        1. Is that because he’s the winky-wanky man?

          When he wanks he winks and when he winks he wanks.

          His foreskin is sewn to his eyelid!

    1. I can remember bouncing around fields in long wheel base ones of those. 🙂

      It was a bit sleep-inducing driving 400 miles in them on a motorway with everyone else zzz’ing away though.

      (Edit – That was nice to watch. I could almost feel the steering wheel shaking in my hand at 14:40.)

  84. Evening, all. Late on parade tonight; it’s been a busy day. As the weather has had a complete turnaround from yesterday, I’ve spent most of the day in the garden catching up on all the things I should have done, but haven’t because I either haven’t had time or the weather has been foul. The lawns are cut and the beds weeded.

    2. Ditto, Conners, but it took me a full three hours to finish what I had hoped to finish in three hours’ work yesterday. Ah well, a good night’s sleep is approaching and Sundays are my days of rest. Good night to all NoTTLers!

  85. New ASA Ruling

    All adverts must feature a man & a woman and a gay couple and a disabled person and a Muslim and a back person and a Welshman. Englishman Irish man and Scotsman

    1. The opera isn’t over until the fat lady sings. The remainers won’t take this lying down.

      1. I can take her not doing sums
        Being a racist to wASPs
        Bonking Korbynski even

        But, if the Abbotopotamus sings, I will squeam and squeam and squeam,

    4. For the first time, after so many years of lies and betrayal, it feels as if there is actually a chance of leaving the eu and being free again. No 3 – 7 year transit period rubbish. Boris had better mean this now. To be led this far towards the light, only to be pulled back at the last moment, will result in even “good guys” such as myself saying:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/236aff92110325764d68b6fb28b400be850c93eba31bc258903f1e09a1224db6.jpg

      1. Ain’t Necessarily So
        Song by Bronski Beat

        Da ra da am de ra am de
        Ba ra ba am dee da am doo
        Ba ra am de ba ra am de
        Da ra doo dee
        It ain’t necessarily so
        It ain’t necessarily so
        The things that you’re liable
        To read in the Bible
        It ain’t necessarily so
        David was small but oh my
        David was small but oh my
        He shot Goliath
        Who lay down and dieth
        Little David was small but oh my
        Da ra da am de ra am de
        Ba ra ba am dee da am doo
        Ba ra am de ba ra am de
        Da ra doo dee
        Jonah he lived in a whale
        Jonah he lived in a whale
        He made his home in that fishes abdomen
        Jonah he lived in a whale
        Moses was found on a stream
        Moses was found on a stream
        Floated on water old Pharaoh’s daughter
        Fished him she says from that stream
        It ain’t necessarily so
        It ain’t necessarily so
        They tell all your children
        The devil he’s a villain
        It ain’t necessarily so
        Da ra da am de ra am de
        Ba ra ba am dee da am doo
        Ba ra am de ba ra am de
        Da ra doo dee
        It ain’t necessarily so
        It ain’t necessarily so
        Things that you’re liable
        To read in that Bible
        It ain’t necessarily so
        It ain’t necessarily
        It ain’t necessarily
        It ain’t necessarily
        It ain’t necessarily
        It ain’t necessarily
        It ain’t necessarily
        It ain’t necessarily so, sweetie ! … x

        1. An absolutely brilliant lyricist was George’s brother Ira. Just consider those wonderful words: “Da ra da am de ra am de, Ba ra ba am dee da am doo, Ba ra am de ba ra am de, Da ra doo dee.” Pure genius!

    2. MOH is away for the weekend. I’ve managed four laps of the house, counted the stripes on the wall paper.
      Pondered why the cardboard tube in a toilet roll needs to be as large as it is? If you made it smaller could you get more in a artic. trailer and save fuel?
      Do you sell more cornflakes if you put them in a box taller than those used by your competitors?
      Why are electric plugs so big?

    3. When the wedding photo of you and the man to whom you have just made promises …until death do us part is on the front page of the Daily Telegraph ….

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