704 thoughts on “Saturday 4 January: The culture of the civil service must evolve to foster long-term planning”

      2. I bought a copy this morning. Its not been the same since page 3 went . I find it very odd with it going from page 2 to page 4

  2. How Iran will strike back after the killing of Qasem Soleimani. David Patrikarakos. 3 January 2020.

    Soleimani was the literal face of Iran in the wider Middle East; can the world’s primary Shia power really do nothing while the Sunni Arab world looks on, and retain a credible posture of deterrence?

    The answer is no. And with such a sophisticated network of proxies throughout the region it is likely that Tehran will use them to retaliate, as it always does. Asymmetric warfare is how Iran fights. Especially since it knows it cannot take the United States on in a conventional battle. In the past it has struck targets as far afield as Germany and even Argentina. Its reach is long.

    Morning everyone. I of course have no more idea what the Mullahs will actually do than anyone else but an appreciation of their situation allows one to glimpse possibilities. The first thing is that the second most powerful man in the Iranian government has been assassinated in another country and thus by logical extension no one in the hierarchy wherever he is or whatever his position or function can be assured of survival. Literally all have become targets in a free fire zone that encompasses the whole Middle East.

    No government of any description can function under such conditions without responding since to do otherwise is a de facto surrender. They must therefore either act or go under. The author of the above quote suggests this response will be asymmetric; but would this be of any use in a situation which the United States no longer sees a limit to its operations? Any strike of whatever nature would simply be a tit for the inevitable tat and which would eventually blur into continuous operations anyway. Asymmetry has neither a place nor offers a solution in such a scenario except as delaying mechanism.

    Whatever path the Iranian Government does choose would seem to lead to inevitable war! It seems unlikely that this conflict will be restricted to the two main protagonists since Iran has powerful allies that would not wish to see it removed from the Middle East equation! A wider war involving the whole region would therefore appear to be inescapable!

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/01/how-iran-will-strike-back-after-the-killing-of-qasem-soleimani/

    1. If Iran wants to mount a tit-for-tat, like-for-like eye-for-an-eye assassination on a key American ally in the region, the logical target would be Rav Aluv Aviv Kochavi.

      I imagine he is better protected than his deceased Iranian counterpart.

    2. Morning AS,
      Thanks to the PC / Appeasement followers and the three monkey brigade is the call of the muezzin also
      a danger of putting our internal “guest’s
      on a mass active service footing ?

  3. Pan Sexual

    The definition is somewhat vague and seems to vary a bit. The impression I get is most Pan Sexuals are Lesbians but dont want to admit that . It is mostsly woman that describe themselves as Pan Sexual

    4. Even if they self-identify as a woman? I.e. are biologically male? or is that why you say “Most”?

    2. I hope you canned plenty of trombetti when you were harvesting your crop last summer, Bill.

  5. ‘Outdated’ IT leaves NHS staff with 15 different computer logins

    It systems should be driven by NHS England but as with most of the NHS it is inconsistent with some control of IT systems at NHS England level and some at the NHS trust level. They dont even seem to have a standard desk top machine and OS

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-50972123

    1. 15? I have over thirty.
      I’m NHS but not an IT person and spend half my week trying to sort out my or other people’s IT problems.
      I have a different logins for each of the following, each with a different user name and password. It’s beyond a joke.

      Computer security
      Log in
      Recruitment tracking
      Sickness management
      Vacancy advertisement
      Procurement
      PHE report uploads
      Roster management
      My personal roster account
      Expenses authorising
      My personal expenses claims
      Purchase order tracking
      Incident reporting
      Staff training records
      My personal training record
      Commissioning income reports
      Department’s patient database
      Trust’s patient database
      Two archived patient databases
      Letter production system
      Patient database system management
      Prisons healthcare database
      Safeguarding referrals reports
      Risk database
      Mortality and morbidity reporting
      SMS messaging service
      IT fault reporting
      Estates fault reporting
      VPN connection
      Agency admin staffing
      Locum doctors staffing

      and that’s just of the top of my head. All of these I have to use daily or weekly. There are more that I need on a less frequent basis.

      Edit:
      also
      Website management
      Google analytics
      Dept Twitter account
      Dept Facebook account

      1. Why don’t you use lastpass, or such?

        What’s interesting from that list is the lack of suitable software to amalgamate these elements.

        Admittedly I’ve 30 odd logins myself but those are for different customers. Comically when I look at my traffic before I fire up the vpns it’s a mass of cruft, then suddenly all goes silent as the lot becomes encrypted.

      1. Trouble with that is most of the appointment dodgers will claim the money from the taxpayer.
        ‘Think of the children’ cries the single mother smothered with tattoos and festering ironware during her moment of glory on Look East.

  7. Stowaways who caused havoc on container ship in Thames Estuary jailed

    Why are we jailing them. They should have simply been deported

    He praised the “fortitude and good sense” of the ship’s Italian captain, Antonio Raggi, in the face of violence and possible death.
    During the trial, prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC had told how the men had secretly boarded the Grimaldi Group ship in Lagos, Nigeria, before it set off on its trading route to Tilbury in Essex.
    The immigration status of all four men is being reviewed by the UK Border Agency

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-50988253

      1. Our Border Force is grossly understaffed and lacks sufficient equipment to control our borders properly. They are working under government / Home Office direction. The Government has been turning a blind eye to uncontrolled immigration since 2010 much to the cost of the UK taxpayers. It is the Government that is totally responsible for this dangerous and negligent situation.

        1. Morning C,
          I see no kick back from the tax payer in regards to mass uncontrolled immigration / evil consequences, via the polling booth, the fact is by supporting mass uncontrolled immigration party policies / evil consequences
          you condone them, this mode of voting is not a one off, it has been going on for decades.

        2. If the tint of those I encounter heading back to the UK from France is anything to go by, they have more in common with the incomers than they do with the indigenous natives.

    2. How do violent stowaways have any form of immigration status other than ‘send them back to where they came from’? They are criminals, why would we want them here? The statement that the UK only wants the brightest and best to come here is hollow politicking.

      1. “…send them back to where they came from..”

        Problem is proving where they came from.

      1. Why were they not shot? Seems the only rational way to solve the problem. If you’re going to illegally board a ship, you’re going to get killed.

        1. That would certainly concentrate minds. But the uproar from the MSM and others (vide Donald Trump and his recent drone killing) would generate a lot of flak.

  8. ‘Morning All

    Funny old world,drop a fag butt £65 fine,don’t pay the fine for not paying the telly tax?? off to chokey you go………….

    “Paltry

    fines of as little as £50 for fly-tipping are failing to deter criminals

    from dumping waste, an investigation by the Local Government

    Association (LGA) has found.

    Only five per cent of court-imposed fines for fly-tipping in the past

    six years were above £1,000 despite courts being able to impose

    penalties of up to £50,000 and/or a five year jail sentence.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/01/04/paltry-fines-little-50-fly-tipping-fail-deter-criminals-warn/

    “Repeat offenders spared jail despite up to 60 previous offences, figures reveal amid call for tougher sentences”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/01/03/repeat-offenders-spared-jail-despite-60-previous-offences-figures/
    Our “Justice” system is broken,badly

    1. It is a myth that people get jailed for not paying their TV licences. The TVL may send out documents threatening to jail people but it does not happen. The only people that get jailed for not paying are those that simply refuse to pay. THey will be given he chance to pay in installments etc but a tiny few will just refuse to pay

        1. If they simple say that they are not going to pay Yes. What else would you expect. A little old lady that was struggling to pay would be allowed to pay it by small installments and would not be thrown into jail

      2. You can be jailed for not paying a magistrate’s fine for evasion. ‘Failing to pay’ is not a crime in itself. I don’t have a TV licence but I’m in no danger of a fine or jail because I’m not breaking the law.

        I don’t Receive or record live broadcasts or access iPlayer so I am legally licence free.

    2. Morning Rik,
      Thanks to the keep in / keep out sod the consequences mode of voting, the whole country is battered, badly bruised & broken, and we are bloody lucky to even be in the devious, dodgy
      position we find ourselves in today.

    3. A second offence should lead to a harsher sentence. A third offence lock them up and throw away the key. They are never going to obey society’s laws.

      1. There is a problem with this.

        In a democracy the laws should only be those that enjoy majority support, can be invariably detected when broken and effectively enforced.

        A good many laws in this country fail the very first test. Looked at critically they are nothing more than a stealth tax.

        Now take speeding as an example. Today speeding is easily detected and enforced i.e. fine levied in the usual “pay now or it doubles in 14 days” type. But why is speeding an offence? is there something magical about the 50mph speed limit?

        The original reason had to do with road safety but proving dangerous driving or driving without due care is far more difficult to prove and prosecute and speeding becomes the substitute because it is easy to detect and prosecute. But the real element of what is dangerous or not no company called “Ethical parking”…. I’ll say no more but I have never been back to Brighton since.longer has any relevance because there is no discretion.

        To pretend that driving at 50mph in a 50mph zone is safe under all conditions is just as false as is the idea that driving at 55 in a 50mph is always dangerous.

        I am minded of the story of that comedian who was given 5 speeding fines because he was caught speeding on the M25 by five different speed cameras. His argument that he was only guilty of one speeding offence was rejected…. its like getting a life sentence for murder because there were five witnesses…..

        And the BBC fees? It is only when enough people rebel and refuse to pay that things will change. Many years back there would have been approval of such a system because most people where happy to pay and resented that some people were “getting away” without paying. Today, such is the disgust at the BBC that finally (though perhaps for reasons of its own) the Government is to take a new look at the BBC funding. What has changed is that we are approaching that tipping poi8nt where a compulsory licence fee no longer enjoys majority support.

        Often the only recourse we have in some instances is to pay up.

        I was wheel clamped in Brighton some years back because of the very deceitful way they had used signage in an off road car park. What added insult to injury was that it was not the council or its “local Government enforcement officers (Traffic wardens) who were enforcing this but a private company called “Ethical parking”. I though that was taking the pi**.

  9. First London murder probe of 2020 launched in Finsbury Park after man stabbed to death

    Police and paramedics scrambled to Charteris Road at around 6.50pm on Friday to reports of a man suffering stab injuries.

    The victim, a man in his 30s, died at the scene at 7.42pm. There have been no arrests and enquiries continue.

  10. Encouraging for the Wail to publish figures showing that the number of slammers is growing apace. Three million….

    1. So in very few years they have gone from almost zero to 5% of the UK population. After several decades the UK black population has not reached 5%

  11. Morning all

    SIR – The reforms to the civil service proposed by the Prime Minister’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings (Leading Article, January 3), are long overdue.

    When I was a member of the Home Office’s advisory council on the misuse of drugs, I attended meetings for 15 years. In that time there was the usual high turnover of senior officials. It was remarkable how often suggestions from officials for council business would be greeted with the response from members: “We looked at that several years ago.”

    There are, as you report (January 2), many problems with the rapid rotation of staff – including, I would add, the loss of long-term memory.

    Leslie A King

    Basingstoke, Hampshire

    1. SIR – I recognised the experiences of Dr Neil J Young (Letters, January 3), then realised that the letter was written by my eldest son.

      Our second son also joined the civil service via the “fast stream”. The Government paid for him to undertake a Master’s degree in an approved subject as part of his training. Poor pay and no prospect of applying his newfound knowledge quickly dampened his enthusiasm. This, coupled with the struggle to live in London on a stagnant pay structure, led to his leaving the civil service for a better paid job with brighter prospects.

      We are truly wasting money and talent in this country.

      Gail Young

      Dundee

      SIR – Boris Johnson’s team may force civil servants to sit regular exams to prove their competence, and end the “merry-go-round” of officials changing jobs every 18 months (report, January 2). Will Mr Johnson subject his ministers to similar tests and abandon the concept of Cabinet reshuffles?

      Throughout my scientific career I found most of the civil servants I encountered to be highly competent – less so, some of the politicians.

      Dr Richard Harrington

      Ivinghoe Aston, Buckinghamshire

      SIR – I think Dominic Cummings’s proposal to recruit “weirdos and misfits” to Whitehall (report, January 3) is a splendid idea. I suggest that he sets them up in Bletchley Park – they have five years to win the war.

      John Hudson

      Nottingham

      1. Civil servants are very good at wasting time. There is no urgency in anything they do. It takes as long as it takes tends to be the attitude. I think this is wht Cummings want to shake up. He wants the civil service to be smaller and more business like

        1. But it has no product. It faces no risks. It has no need to be efficient or effective.

          I joined fast stream. We spent a year being blasted around embassies and reading papers. It was sold as glamourous and access to the higher roles of the CS but it turned out to be doing a lot of reading and simplification for politicians getting whisked from one location to another. It wasn’t so much work as just trying to make sure you were in the right place for the next cab to another office.

  12. Brendan O’Neil

    The

    Labour party has lost the plot. That is the only explanation for the

    bizarre, self-destructive antics it has been engaged in since its

    drubbing in the December election. It has learnt nothing. It is

    blissfully and stupidly carrying on down the path of Remainerism and/ or

    Corbynism that lost it the election.

    Instead of taking a breather and asking why working-class

    voters rejected it en masse last month, Labour is doubling down on its

    unpopular nonsense.

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/01/labours-leadership-race-shows-the-party-has-truly-lost-the-plot/
    C’mon Brendan,in a world where the Al-Beeb fails woefully in the comedy area we have to get our laffs somewhere and this leadership contest is comedy gold
    I’m rooting for the dream ticket
    Lammy and Abbott

    1. I am not surprised though as the Labour Party is in the control of Corbynites and Momentum. They see Corbyns policies as the right policies and that Corbyn was the problem. Replace him with another momentum type and they think all will be well

    2. Rik,
      Is there any of the current political regime to be trusted with the governance of these Isles ?
      The present leader in many peoples eyes is in the hope department, ie hope he does the right thing, and thereby hangs the fate of this nation
      “hope” not certainty, a tad tenuous is it not ?

    3. Somehow I don’t see Starmer succeeding all the while that Monentum’s thugs rule the roost. They are in many of the influential Labour jobs now and are not going to go quietly. Besides, they are still in denial over the greatest thrashing in decades. Whilst a poll puts him well ahead, life is nothing like as straightforward as that.

      ‘Morning, Rik.

      1. I don’t mind which of the current crop of candidates wins, not one of them seems to have a grasp on what went wrong or the gravitas/presence/charisma/appeal to rally support for a revitalised Labour Party. Long may they flounder.

        ‘Morning Huge.

      2. Here’s the opening lines of a rap song I would write if I felt more motivated to do so.

        There’s no karma
        With Starmer
        He’s a harmer
        Like Obama
        Not a charmer
        Let’s be calmer
        Even a llama
        Or the Lama
        Or a farmer’s
        Better drama
        Than that Starmer.

        (I must confess that Rap is not a literary or musical style in which I feel comfortable).

  13. SIR – A few years ago Australia’s Greens successfully encouraged state governments to declare an abundance of national parks where no human activity was allowed.

    This led to a build-up of dense undergrowth, even across fire trails designed to ensure firefighters could access fires and safely contain them. The weather has thus wreaked havoc.

    Dr Laurie Le Claire

    Sydney, Australia

    1. The Greens have murdered thousands and intend to murder more as they seek a population reduction that will herald utopia.

      1. I recall when they first came on the scene in the UK one of the planks in their platform was to reduce the population of the UK from 54 million to 27 million.

        They didn’t explain how. Now one begins to see…………..

        1. Climate change seem to be used to deflect from the fact that it is population growth that is the problem. The Greens now try too imply people are fleeing Africa because of climate change when it is down to over population. Most African countries are only marginally viable for producing food so cannot support a growing population. The Charities make it worse by producing food for them which just encourages them to breeds even more. Africa as well is overdue for another famine which no doubt be blamed on climate change

          1. The African continent isn’t overpopulated to the same degree as the Asian continent. Heck, I’m sure even Europe probably has a high people per square mile ratio.
            What African countries need is better land management.

          2. Space Africa is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space Africa.

          4. I was struck by how long (several hours) it took me to fly across it to Adelaide once we’d made landfall on the north-west coast.

        2. Morning, Willum.
          Since Blighty is cold and damp, presumably they want us to die of cold and starvation.

        3. It is completely nuts, Billy, that is the key.

          Remove the nuts from young boys at birth and the problem is self-solving.

      2. You cannot herald a Green utopia by murdering thousands of people. These can be replaced in minutes by Third World breeding. Murdering about 5 billion is nearer to the mark.

        Not completely sure how well such a policy would go down in any election campaign though.

        1. Not completely sure how well such a policy would go down in any election campaign though.

          How about doing away with elections or, as the EU is proposing by moving to a federal state, make any election meaningless?
          Once the state of electoral meaninglessness is achieved it wouldn’t be too difficult for someone with the mindset of an Austrian corporal to usurp power and ergo, freedom of action.

          1. How many trained crocodiles needed to reverently dispose of 5 billion superfluous humans?

      3. Doing so is easy to achieve: scrap welfare, cut taxes.

        The people you want to be having children are having one, at most 2. The ones you don’t want to are having 5 or 6.

        Reducing the population is simple – stop paying people to breed.

  14. Morning again

    SIR – If one listens to Donald Trump, it is very easy to forget that, since 9/11, it has been the Kurds and the Shi’ite Islamic Republic of Iran that have been the most effective bulwark against Saudi-financed, Sunni 
al-Qaeda and Isil terrorism.

    Consequently, Mr Trump’s recent treacherous withdrawal of support from the Kurds (who were always America’s most loyal ally in the region) and the latest US air attacks on Shi’ite militias in Iraq, culminating in the assassination of the Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani, are in fact dangerous acts of self-harm that will only strengthen our real enemies.

    Stephen Porter

    London NW6

    2. Indeed. Diplomatically, this attack has made Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon like cherries on a tree to the Russians, giving them a friendly route to the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.

      The EU must read the writing on the wall when it comes to US influence in the Region, increasingly limited to Israel and Saudi Arabia (with Turkey as an appeased enemy) and Sunni militants such as Islamic State and Al Qaeda, and reconsider whether ongoing membership of NATO is such a good idea.

      It is the UK which is the final arbiter in this unfolding of this new alignment. It is significant that the Americans informed Israel on its intention to assassinate Soleimani, but did not inform the British allies, who have forces in the firing line, citizens being held to ransom in Iran, and who did once consider using the SAS to conduct the assassination a generation ago when David Miliband was Foreign Secretary. Clearly under Boris and Raab, the British can no longer be trusted!

      So too will China and India make a decision where their best interests lie.

  15. Two Old guys comparing notes…

    One said to the other: “My 70th birthday yesterday. Wife gave me an SUV”.

    Other guy: “Wow, that’s amazing! Imagine, an SUV! What a great gift!”

    First guy: “Yup. Socks, Underwear and Viagra!”

    1. Old guys? 70? Huh. I’m not there yet but don’t view 70 as ‘old’ or in viagra territory.

  16. For NoTTLers without Premium… (no comments allowed)

    Mr Trump was right to take on Iran – it has given him power over the situation
    CHARLES MOORE – 3 JANUARY 2020 • 9:30PM

    ‘One type of paradise that men imagine is about streams, beautiful maidens, and lush landscape. But there is another kind of paradise – the battlefield,” once said General Qassim Soleimani, in a speech to fellow veterans of the Iran/Iraq war.

    If you include commanding acts of terrorism as well as taking part in direct combat, Soleimani must have experienced his idea of paradise more often than almost anyone else on Earth. From the beginning of Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution more than 40 years ago, he had been a soldier. Wherever Iran preached and exported its violent, imperial Shi’ism, he was there or thereabouts, undermining local sovereignties, destabilising Lebanon, helping Hizbollah, assisting attacks on Israel, rescuing Assad’s tyranny in Syria, inciting Houthi revolt in Yemen and organising assaults on US and British soldiers in Iraq, where he roamed almost at will.

    Iraq’s direct involvement in murders of our Servicemen tended to be played down by British governments for reasons of state, but it was pervasive.

    It was in Iraq that General Soleimani was killed on Thursday, while he was deploying the menace of the Quds Force, which he commanded, to be the kingmaker there. Almost anywhere in this world, Soleimani planned daring schemes to assist the enemies of his jihad into the next. In this he often used ungodly partners, such as a deal with a Mexican drug cartel to blow up the Saudi ambassador in a Washington restaurant (exposed in time to prevent it).

    The Sunni Arab world – not to mention millions of his fellow Shi’ites who deplore his unceasing violence – has even more reason to rejoice at his death than do the American or the British people. In Iran and its proxies today, there are well-orchestrated scenes of grief; but, as with almost all Muslim terrorists, the greatest proportion of the blood on Soleimani’s hands was Muslim. Most Muslims know that.

    The same part of the world now knows something it previously did not about Donald Trump. In Europe, we tend to think of him as a dangerous bully, but in the Middle East he has had almost the opposite problem. There, the President is widely seen as the latest in a long line of US leaders – most notably Clinton and Obama – who talk bigger than they act.

    Iran will have known that previous US presidents had contemplated killing Soleimani, but decided against it. Probably it will have assumed that Mr Trump was no different. Now that view of him has vanished. To assassinate the military chief of a hostile state is a big act. It has bold political significance. A few days ago, almost no Middle East government or expert would have predicted that Mr Trump would sanction such an attack. Now that he has done so, he has used his unpredictability to gain new power over the situation.

    Even Mr Trump will not have done it on a whim. He has made a rational calculation, of course, about what will assist his re-election next year. It is based on an assessment of Iran’s current weakness, within and without.

    Within, because the type of internal popular protests that President Obama failed to back in 2008 are happening once more, as citizens blame their government for oppression and poverty, and US sanctions bite. Without, because the threat of Iranian aggression, so ably prosecuted by Soleimani, has helped make unlikely bedfellows of Israel, Saudi Arabia and most Gulf states. The story that the great obstacle to Middle East peace is the Israel/Palestine problem has been displaced by a more accurate narrative – that the greatest problem is Iran.

    While Iran swears revenge, therefore, it is not as well-placed as it once was to fulfil its terrible oath. Mr Trump’s tweet yesterday that “Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!” hints at this, combining threat and inducement. Hit back, and you lose: calm down, and we’ll talk. This does not mean that the situation is fully controllable: some revolting retaliation is likely. But the President is working on the assumption that the Iranian government, for all its fanaticism, is not completely irrational. The man charged with executing its policy of near-global violence has just been executed himself. America’s message is: “How about trying another policy?”

    It was disappointing yesterday that the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, could issue no more than a feeble statement about the need for “de‑escalation”. He seemed almost to be accepting Jeremy Corbyn’s version of events in which the killing of Soleimani becomes “a dangerous escalation”, rather than a response to murderous threat. We must sympathise with Mr Raab – and with the former foreign secretary who is now Prime Minister. They are exhausted after the election and still preoccupied with getting the promise of Brexit turned at last into legal fact at the end of this month. But is this really the moment for taking a stand of false moral equivalence which implies that both the United States and Iran need to cool down?

    Throughout the period of Brexit stasis, our Government has been more compliant than ever in pursuing a common foreign policy with the European Union. With a positively Oxonian love of lost causes (Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Mr Raab all attended Oxford University), it has limpeted itself on to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal with Iran long after America’s repudiation killed it in its present form. For about 15 years, we have effectively delegated our Iran policy to the EU and the UN.

    Surely, if the Foreign Office had proper lines out to the US government, Mr Raab would have been informed earlier by the Americans about what was going on, and could have coordinated a good follow-up. He could have wholeheartedly supported the killing of Soleimani, but added a little about what the Trump tweet might imply. We would all welcome a deal with Iran, he should have said, but not the JCPOA in its present form. Instead, the deal should be genuinely comprehensive. It should cover all three “baskets” – not only the nuclear issue, but also the problems of Iran’s proxies and its missiles.

    Boris Johnson may well feel uneasy on everything surrounding this issue. His worst moment as foreign secretary was when he was accused of handling carelessly the case of Nazanin Zaghari‑Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman wrongfully imprisoned in Iran since 2016. He will be anxious about saying anything that might seem to put her at further risk. This concern is wholly understandable, but a lack of firmness only plays the Iranian game, vindicating the potency of their ruthless 40-year-old policy of taking innocent people hostage. The truth, which the Americans seem to understand better than we, is that the Iranian regime does not know what the word “humanitarian” means. There is no point in appealing to its better nature.

    I read in the Guardian yesterday that Iran’s “half-million-strong armed services are the most potent military force the US has faced since confronting the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army more than 60 years ago in Korea”. I don’t think so. That was a conflict in which perhaps 2.5 million people lost their lives. What the West is dealing with here is a hostile regional power that has literally got away with murder and never reciprocated any goodwill we have shown. We have let it run rogue for too long. Mr Trump won’t thank me for saying it, but he has just struck a blow for the rules-based international order.

    2. I wouldn’t want to be in Raab’s shoes. Whilst we would normally expect to support America, there must surely be the very real prospect of a disaster over the continued imprisonment of Zaghari-Ratcliffe. In the past Johnson has been much vilified over his slip of the tongue about the purpose of her visit, and political careers have been lost over such matters. Nevertheless, the release of Z-R must now be a long way off after this, and she will doubtless be used as an even bigger bargaining chip by her captors. I suspect that no amount of deft diplomacy will see her released now, if ever.

      1. I’m really not too sure over the ZR case.
        I understand she is dual nationality, so was she unwise to return to Iran, even to visit parents? She presented the authorities with a God Allah given opportunity to take a hostage.
        There are reports that she was doing rather more than visiting relatives. If so, that could be a praiseworthy activity; but, if caught, then surely that is an understood risk when taking such action.

    3. All very well killing a military target but Iran already has ‘soldiers’ here at home. It’s got plenty of Loo and a Snack bar followers just itching to kill innocent people. Why? Disaffection, egotism, dogma, genuine mental illness (brain washing after all does reduce your capacity for logical thought) and all keeping Iran’s seeming ‘hands free’.

  17. Trump takes out the Iranian version of Reinhard Heydrich and opinion is split, as one would expect.
    Late last night RT (ex Russia Today) had one Brian Becker giving his opinion: Becker, judging by his over-long diatribe, is obviously virulently anti-Trump and still thinks Obama is a god. This, of course, fitted RT’s agenda. Switching to CNN and the story was much the same.
    However, listening to LBC the support from ex-pat Iranians and Iraqis is mostly supportive of Trump’s action to eradicate a mass murderer. Democrat Obama supporting bien pensants see Trump’s action as unsupportable but people at the sharp end who have been affected by this evil man’s actions support Trump wholeheartedly. Time will tell whether Trump’s action was the right thing to do and we have to just wait and see.

    1. Outside the obvious drama that attends his death and funeral – I wonder what the real Iranian opinion of this man?
      Including among the head honchos?

      1. If he was anything like Heydrich then fear and loathing in equal measures. People like these are tolerated by the head honchos because the latter are probably too squeamish to do they own dirty work. Himmler was allegedly throwing up when he saw the SS slaughtering some of their victims.

  18. SIR – The solution to the problem of pupils and university students turning to essay mills in order to cheat in their coursework is not to try to ban them (Judith Woods, December 27). Such a move would be almost impossible in any case as many of these mills are probably located outside the country.

    Instead, schools and universities should revert to the previous system under which coursework essays do not count towards a final mark, being merely exam practice pieces.

    A final degree should consist of nine or more three-hour papers, sat at the end of the third year, the questions being unknown to the student. This would restore academic integrity and prevent any form of cheating.

    Dr Richard Ormrod
    Burwash, East Sussex

    The granting of degrees, many at inflated levels, has become a complete money-grubbing racket.

      1. If you don’t want to mention it, delete my phrase ‘many at inflated levels’

        ‘Morning, Hugh. {:^))

          1. …as a means to sustain the Vice Chancellors’ remuneration and attract a sufficient number of ‘students’ willing to incur crippling debts in pursuit of worthless degrees from institutions that should be shut down.

          4. It is absurd that so many young people should be crippled by student debt for most if their working lives.

            BUT

            STUDENT DEBT SHOULD BE REPAID

            BUT ALSO

            Student loans should be interest free as they are in more civilised countries than ours. Imposing loans at ten times the BoE base rate is usury or theft. Both employers and employess should be able to charge their repayment of loan principal against their tax bill.

            (Sorry, Peddy – you might complain that I have said this before)

          6. Or, reduce the number of courses, raise the entry requirement standards and return to free university education for the 5%of the population who actually need it.

          8. Or, if interest must be charged, set it at 2% at the inception of the loan, leaving a fixed amount to be repaid rather than an ever increasing one.

          9. But Rastus, I have already given my blessing for you to repeat that as often as you like.

    2. One of my sons is doing an M.Sc externally in computer technology at York University while he is earning his living writing computer software programmes.

      He is is doing very well and his work is assessed on both his ‘course work’ and in regular exams. So far he has scored over 90% in all his coursework but he has also scored over 75% – a first class grade – in all his exams.

    3. Yo agin zx

      wots rung wiv gerring a fird klass digry in ve isstry uv ‘Corunashun streat’

      It gives me toppik to chat up the lidies wiv innit

      Fanks

      Jezzer Pacman

  19. Overnight New Zealand took 7 Australian wickets for 171 runs and scored 63-0 in their reply. A good day’s work. Compare and contrast with England’s performance in Cape Town. It’s simply not football.

  21. Good Moaning.
    A Spekkie read.

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/01/labours-leadership-race-shows-the-party-has-truly-lost-the-plot/

    “Labour’s leadership race shows the party has truly lost the plot | Coffee House

    The Labour party has lost the plot. That is the only explanation for the bizarre, self-destructive antics it has been engaged in since its drubbing in the December election. It has learnt nothing. It is blissfully and stupidly carrying on down the path of Remainerism and/ or Corbynism that lost it the election.

    Instead of taking a breather and asking why working-class voters rejected it en masse last month, Labour is doubling down on its unpopular nonsense. Pretty much every door-stepping canvasser and opinion pollster said the same thing about Labour’s historically awful showing in working-class ‘red wall’ constituencies: it was down to the party’s betrayal of Brexit or to its embrace of eccentric Corbynista blather — or both.

    And yet now Labour is pursuing both, still, with a vengeance. It plans to carry on betraying Brexit, when even some of the most hardcore Remainers have thrown in the towel. And the leadership is pushing a Corbynista stalwart — Rebecca Long-Bailey — as its favourite leadership candidate. You couldn’t make it up.

    On Brexit, Labour is still fighting what already, less than a month after the election, feels like an exhausted, archaic battle. It wants to delay our exit from the EU to make sure we don’t leave without a deal. Oh, change the record. That is so last decade. Literally. How do they not die of boredom just repeating these knackered, undemocratic lines?

    Corbyn has tabled an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill, which MPs will discuss next week, to put off Brexit by two years if a deal is not reached by June. Labour thinks that in such circumstances we should stay in the EU until 2023, by which time a Labour-approved deal might have been reached. 2023 — that would be a full seven years after the British people voted to leave.

    Of course, Labour’s amendment has a snowflake’s chance in hell of being passed, given that — because of Labour’s own daft policies and naff campaigning — Boris Johnson’s government enjoys an enviable majority of 80. And yet it is still striking that Corbyn has proposed this amendment, for it suggests that he and his coterie have taken not a single lesson from the working-class revolt against them just three weeks ago.

    That Corbyn is seriously proposing another delay to the Brexit process is staggering. It is positively delusional. It speaks to a chasm-sized disconnect between the machinery of the Labour party and its traditional working-class voters. The latter have made clear, time and again, that they expect Brexit to be upheld; and yet the party leadership continues to demonise, mock and frustrate Brexit. The tone-deafness, the self-destruction, is almost epic.

    And then, of course, there’s the leadership race. This is where things really go off the rails. The candidates are a mix of the two things that working-class Labourites so thoroughly rejected not even a month ago — Remainer ultraism and continuity Corbynism.

    So there’s Keir Starmer, the architect of Labour’s disastrous Brexit policy, who is currently the favourite among Labour members. (Labour members, of course, are far more middle-class, metropolitan and pro-EU than Labour’s red-wall heartland voters.)

    Also on the Brussels-loving side, there’s Jess Phillips, the Member of Parliament for Jess Phillips, whose only known policy beyond bigging herself up on Twitter is having a pop at Brexit. This despite the fact that all four wards in her constituency of Birmingham Yardley voted to leave, two of them by more than 60 per cent.

    Putting Jess, or Keir, in charge of the Labour party would be a roundabout way of saying to working-class Labour voters: ‘Hey. This party isn’t for you anymore. Sorry. It’s for middle-class Remainers like us. Stay in Boris’s arms where you belong.’

    Rebecca Long-Bailey, meanwhile, is more famous for being a Corbynista than a Remainer (though she’s a Remainer too, natch). Apparently the public-school types who still run Labour even following its historic routing by the working classes — Seumas Milne, Andrew Murray — see RBL as the continuity candidate. What a death knell.

    Working-class voters don’t want Corbynism. That came through loud and clear in December. They don’t want its wokeness, its student-style activism, its worship of the cult of youth, its preening, academic pretend-Marxism. If RBL were to go into red-wall areas wearing a leadership crown handed down from Corbyn, she’d have doors slammed in her face.

    It is surreal how much Labour has failed to appreciate the depth, the seriousness and the historic nature of its defeat last month. The people the party was founded to represent rebelled against it in an unprecedented way. To respond to that by clinging harder to the things that turned off these voters, whether Europhilia or Corbyn idiocy, is suicidal. Maybe Labour has resigned itself to being a middle-class party. From a mass working-class party to a minority middle-class one — what a sinking trajectory.”

    1. ‘Morning, Anne, “Of course, Labour’s amendment has a snowflake’s chance in hell of being passed,…”

      Keep those amendments coming, Labour and I eagerly await those from the illiberals, Plaid Cymru and the Green, all of which will delay the bill from receiving Royal Assent before January 31st.

      We can then be sure to be out with NO deal and might then ask the EU if their spokesman would like to come to London, at their expense, to talk about future trade relations as an amendment to WTO rules.

    2. Jeremy Corbyn led Labour to its worst defeat since 1935. Seats which had been Labour for 100 years turned blue. Any leader with an ounce of integrity would have resigned immediately. But no, we get this childish refusal to take any responsibility for the disaster. Blame the media, blame Brexit, blame the voters, blame the weather. Anything to avoid facing the simple fact – nobody wanted this rancid, Britain-hating, terrorist-loving, anti-semitic Marxist or his fellow travellers anywhere near Number 10.

      Labour shows every sign of ‘doubling-down’ on their mistakes. No doubt they will elect another Corbyn-alike and try extra hard to convince the electorate that a good, solid dose of Marxism is what they need. Their current strategy has handed the Conservatives an 80-seat majorty.

      Keep it up comrades!

      1. Jeremy Corbyn has held staunchly to the same beliefs of socialism and state control for over 50 years. He’s seen it fail in every single place it has been tried. He’s witnessed the utterly misery it has caused and he hasn’t changed his mind.

        This isn’t a thinking adult It’s a small school boy still thinking the reason he gets an F for his work is because the curriculum is wrong.

        1. Absolutely. He is an overgrown student protester who never grew up. Even his message about “leading the resistance” to the Conservatives betrays his mindset. The struggle is the point comrades!

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAJlmnv3KKM

          How such an individual ever came close to the levers of power in this country is a question for future historians to ponder!

  22. And now one from TCW; click on the link for the video.
    Straight from the cobber’s mouth.

    https://conservativewoman.co.uk/the-real-reason-australia-is-ablaze/?utm_source=TCW+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=fe5f03e763-Mailchimp+Daily+Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a63cca1cc5-fe5f03e763-559682581

    The real reason Australia is ablaze
    January 3, 2020

    This is a must watch – an Australian ‘bushie’, Chris Dynon, calls for action against lethal green policies which are the real reason for the fires. It is republished here with kind permission of the Australian publication Quadrant where it first appeared on December 31st.

    THEY’RE good at it, our political class, when it comes to acknowledging tragedy while adroitly sidestepping the obvious explanation.

    Up and down the east coast, fires are raging and people are dying. Our alleged leaders are blaming coal, climate change, anything but the real reason. I explain it here:

    Look out tomorrow for another article from Quadrant’s ‘Doomed Planet’ series on the history of bush fires in Australia and how there is no link whatever with climate change.”

    2. Given the sheer scale and devastation over such a vast area, will the Australian government reform land management and bush control policies?

    3. Morning Anne,
      Why are our current leaders of the same ilk as the last batch, who was much alike to the ones prior to them, them, them & them ?
      Surely the electorate notice do
      they not ?
      I notice that no serious change is noticeable, just before , shortly we hit hard rock bottom, will the seriously needed noticeable change ever be
      noticed ?

      1. Probably not.

        The ‘inconvenient truth’ is that Gore’s inconvenient truth was a lie – but that has not stopped politicians treating is as a very convenient ‘untruth’ for extorting taxes and bossing us about.

        1. ‘Morning, Rastus.

          I bet you can’t repeat that 1/2 a dozen times without looking.

        2. ‘Climate change’ was only ever an excuse to hike taxes. It’s all government does.

          There are very obvious problems but the entire thing has been hijacked by the left to enforce some sort of nonsense over social control.

  23. Why do not shops just tell us what few days a year they will not be having a sale ?

  24. Speaker says he will not Object to Big Ben being rung out on January the 31st if the commons proposes it

  25. I know I’m up a bit late but have you noticed the date for this blog is Saturday 4 December?

    2. I know time passes quickly these days, but I can’t believe I’ve overslept by 11 months.

    3. I’ve only just realised after getting back from town buying Christmas presents.

      I don’t know whether to take them back or keep them till Christmas.

    5. I hope for the kid’s sake he doesn’t grow up to look like is grandfather (not great uncle) Charles.

      Note that Wills has been made to stand back so he doesn’t tower over his father, which he normally does.

  27. A BTL comment to treasure.
    I’m not commenting on the accuracy of the opinion, merely the analogy.

    “The US will go through Iran quicker than a dodgy kipper through a seagull.”

  28. Good morning ,

    Australia is on fire .. , nightmare scenes., some of them unwatchable.

    Where are the popstars and Save the world freaks, will Europe support and allow indigenous Europeans to return here, back home to the birthplace of their great great grandparents.

    My cynical self says , that unless one is of another colour , there won’t be much soul searching for the welfare of Australians who have lost their homes and communities. What happens when life becomes unsustainable.

    Why is Africa dumping itself on us , why is South East Asia presuming their right to pitch up here as well..

    1. You don’t know traditional Aussies, Belle. They don’t run away from their obligations just because it’s difficult. So, they won’t want to run away to the UK, whatever the problem.

  29. RIP Nipper

    Another casualty hits the tracks due to internet shopping.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41d9cfba5699320f0833891c5d48191b688e59086bbd37670e5abe8121914339.jpg

    High street music and entertainment store HMV is quietly closing at least 10 stores after putting up ‘closing down signs’ over the festive period. Signs suggesting they would be shutting up shop were spotted across the country in outlets including Leeds, Coventry, Reading, Plymouth, Worcester and Birmingham.

    1. HMV has been in trouble for years. Any time I went in, it was little more than a junk shop.

      1. Iremember our town’s main music shop “Twentieth Century Records” because it was one of those places where you could browse the records (45s and 33s) and the staff would play them for you in sound booths. This was a really great experience and often an experience shared with friends. Had they continued I have no doubt the experience would have been enhanced by being able to have coffee in store and some of the other ideas that made buying an experience, an event and not a chore”.

        The passing of such experiences into history is regretable. But are they completely right to suggest that buying and owning CDs is something that has passed? I suspect not. Books have not fallen completely to Kindle or talking books…. there is something far more pleasurable in the owning and reading a book.

        1. Your reminiscences ring a very warm and welcome bell about those halcyon times of half a century ago. I think our generation had a much wider experience of growing up than the one-dimensional technology-obsessed youth of today has.

          Hudson’s in Chesterfield had a record stall in the town’s market hall as well as two musical instrument shops elsewhere in the town. The record stall was a rendezvous place for all of us as kids to buy the latest 44rpm single (or EP), or 33 rpm LP if we got a record voucher for Christmas.

          The over-reliance on electronic technology will have many people regretting getting rid of their vinyl, tape or CD collections (or diminishing their libraries), when some glitch erases all their music and literature.

          1. We had an independent record shop called The Left Bank, run by two brothers. You could listen to a whole side of an album and still not buy it!

          2. CDs have been touted as a permanent form of storage but I have to say that I have numerous older data CDs which simply won’t open in modern machines and a good few music CDs that seem to get stuck in an infinite loop of a few notes and you have to skip a track to get to a playable one.

            As for DVDs…. some simply won’t play and it grates that my PC only allows a limited number of region selection changes… of course, I also have considerable troubles in whatever PC it is and whatever OS with the CD/DVD player….the message I hate is when I insert a CD and the message pops up saying “No Disk Please insert a disc to continue”…….. this modern technology is not always all it is cracked up to be.

    2. Why do you think that commentators on this forum would share your gormless fascination with the tabloid gutter press?

      1. Ooh, look. I’ve got a downvote. I’ll wear it as a badge of honour.

        [To the miserable, gutless, anonymous poofter awarding it: thanks.]

    5. Put a sign around her neck asking men to form a neat orderly queue.
      Who gives a f***………wait a minute.

    2. Have the vacuous dopes who publish the Daily Mail become as illiterate as the idiotic muppets publishing the Daily Telegraph? Are they unable to find any decent proof-readers or sub-editors?

      I’ve never heard of any religion called “Budhists”.

      Trevlig helg, Maggie! :•)

      2. Yo Mr Grizzle

        The practitioners of

        “Buddhists”are called Buddhisms

        As for no decent proof-readers or sub-editors:

        Thay ar imployed ass Telly Subbies

    3. No, but you do need those things to demontrate your hatred of the country that homes and looks after you.

    5. TB,
      Which political party introduced these types to these Isles, who in their right minds put their children’s / countries welfare in jeopardy supporting / voting
      keeping, these mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophilia ridden / PC / Appeasement / killing / maiming parties in power ?
      Join the dots of the islamic ideology
      peoples in power nationwide, make it illegal for monkeys to vote by proxy in the UK.

    6. It’s not necessarily the number but the intrusion that gets to me. The constant pandering. The demands that we change to accommodate them. Fit in or flip off, follks.

      Now, how many of those 3 million are welfare dependent? How many are in prison? How productive is the demographic?

      1. Morning OLT,
        Suffering currently from the
        treachery / actions of the NEc
        who if given carte blanche will be setting a precedent for all
        decent peoples being denied a
        say, anywhere, any time.

          1. OLT,
            That nec will be the centre piece showing the
            islamic ideology followers going into bike park mode when take over is complete.

            The UKIP nec of which I post and its blatant
            anti party treachery is a threat to ALL decent peoples inside / outside the party.

          2. ‘Afternoon, Ogga.

            Your UKIP NEC is the main reason many (including me) have given up on UKIP and consider it an in-fighting spent force.

          3. NtN,
            I truthfully cannot fathom why peoples must be inclusive of others when they take a personal decision.
            The odious actions of the UKIP NEc have to be fought, as with a great many issues , not run from, as the state of these Isles plainly show.

      1. Cover the kipper with a sheet of kitchen roll, then 2 minutes in the microwave. Perfect.

      5. I fry fish and chips, around once a month, in my deep-fat fryer, and my house doesn’t stink.

        My fryer is situated in my workshop adjacent the large double doors. That way the stink goes out and doesn’t affect the workshop too much. It also ensures that no stinks enter the kitchen (or the rest of the house). My gas barbeque unit is also similarly situated.

        1. But one wouldn’t deep fry a kipper. I used to grill them but haven’t had them for donkey’s.

          1. A lot of them now come in plastic bags which you dunk in a pan of boiling water. Not the same as grilled but, hey ho.

          2. I bring a large pan of water to the boil, turn the gas off, drop the bag with kippers unpierced into the hot water, lid on & leave for 5 minutes while I make he toast. When the time is up, I fish out the bag, cut one end open & slide the kippers on to a waiting plate. The smell is minimised.

          3. That is a similar technique (without the plastic bag) that I use to cook liver. I first fry the bacon until crisp and set it aside. Next I fry the onions and then make the gravy in the onion pan. When the gravy is cooked (and the other accompaniments are ready) I lay the thinly-cut slices of raw liver in the gravy and leave them there for a few minutes to cook through until tender. I then add the bacon and serve up.

        1. I have never eaten a kipper in my life, but if they taste that good than I might pick one up the next time that I am in a supermarket. I have been aware of that “fishy” part of the store, but it tends to be a section that I walk past to get to the beef.

          1. JohnWest kippers. No mess and no smell. Just put them on hot buttered toast and pop back under the grill to warm up.

          2. Freak kippers grilled are best. Some add a squeeze of lemon or a drop of vinegar when they’re cooked.
            Be prepared the downsides – lots of bones and a smelly house, but the taste is delicious.

  33. My 2020 diary
    01 Jan. Happy New Year. Off to a fresh start. New decade appears to be ticking along nicely.
    02 Jan. Australia on fire
    03 Jan WW3 declared

    (Stolen)

  34. Talk about four seasons in one day.

    I awoke to high winds and driving rain.

    The rain abated and the sun came out.

    It is now sleeting!

          1. I’ve not tasted ‘Daft Bass’ for years, Harry, and cask-conditioned ale doesn’t affect me adversely.

            I had a bottle of Shepherd Neame’s ‘Christmas Ale’ (at 7·0º ABV) at the New Year and it was sensationally delicious, with no after effects.

          2. Draught Bass isn’t what it used to be, it’s now brewed under licence by Marston’s and has lost its distinctive character. I quite like strong bottled ‘Christmas’ ales – good fireside beers on a cold night! Haven’t tried Shep’s though.

          3. I’ve not tasted ‘Daft Bass’ for years, Harry, and cask-conditioned ale doesn’t affect me adversely.

            I had a bottle of Shepherd Neame’s ‘Christmas Ale’ (at 7·0º ABV) at the New Year and it was sensationally delicious, with no after effects.

          1. Sorted! :•)

            [I sometimes add a touch of honey and a splash of Balsamic vinegar for a change]

  35. 50 million polymer (they mean plastic) five and ten pound notes have had to be replaced since their introduction, according to R4 news. OK, but is that better or worse than would have been expected of old-style notes?

    2. Estimate of the UK working population is 30M so we have about 11% unemployed and the true figure is probably even higher

      1. You have to remember that work is pretty much optional now. Some make the lifestyle choice that they dont wish to work/ A lot of Extinction Rebellion protesters fall into that category

      2. Yep, let’s all live on bennies for the rest of our lives – it’ll pay for our fags, drugs, booze, 42″ TVs and the next new iPhone. And all at the chump tax-payers’ cost.

        Why would you want to work – mug’s game?

    4. I would say we probably have about 20% of the working age population economically inactive….

    5. Hmm,tell me again what is the unemployment rate of our burgeoning Moslem population especially the women

    6. The biggest outrage that comes from this is the fact that I (along with millions of other hard-working folk) was obliged to graft for 40 years, paying a NI stamp the whole time, in order to “qualify” for a state pension.

      These bone-idle scum have done no work, yet will continue for the rest of their life to live, comfortably, off money stolen from me and all other grafters.

      When I take power the rule of law will be: No work: no money (and no breeding).

      1. I had to work for 44 years and vw for 39 years for full pension. vw missed her’s by a year or two as she took responsibility for being there for our children. Taking them to school and being home when school had finished.

        Probably called being social divisive these days as she would be doing a child minder out of a job!

  37. Still in bed after working the night shift last night and there’s a lot of noise in the flat above me. Sounds like new neighbours are moving in. I didn’t even know the others had moved out.
    I’ve only heard their voices but I’ve a ready taken a dislike to them. Very chavvy.

    1. Start the relationship off the right way with a small housewarming gift. A pot plant perhaps. They might be chavvy but it will be easier for all of you if you get it right.

      1. I tried that once when a noisy person moved in to the flat above. She snatched the plant and slammed the door. Now I respond to banging and crashing on my ceiling by yelling abuse. It has no effect whatsoever on the noisy neighbours but it makes me feel better.

        1. I was in the process of moving into a bungalow on a street with a steepish incline. The furniture van had no option but to block the driveway of my (new) neighbour’s bungalow to present its rear doors adjacent with my drive (and to prevent the contents spilling out onto the street). Halfway through the procedure my retired neighbours arrived home and immediately demanded that the furniture van be moved. I introduced myself to them as their new neighbour, apologised for the inconvenience but assured them we would hurry to empty the van as quickly as was possible. I explained that the van could not be moved as to do so would probably damage my furniture and effects, but to no avail! In any case, there was plenty of space on the street for them to temporarily park their car.

          Unfortunately I didn’t win them over and they continued to be utter arsehole neighbours for the rest of my four years living there. On one occasion, the man was in hospital and his wife (who had never shopped on her own!) was fretting. I offered to do her shopping and, instead of thanking me, she just told me, “You can get me this, and that!”, barking it as an order before handing me some cash. On my return she took the groceries and I handed her the change, again without a “thank you”.

          Later the same day, I was in the garden erecting a shed, when she came out and demanded to know, “How much longer are you going to be making that noise?” I informed her that nails cannot hammer themselves in quietly, before she left in a huff.

          That is only a couple of episodes of their intrinsic hostility (I could write a book on the rest). Some neighbours are simply impossible to get on with.

          1. Two of my neighbours opposite are at war with each other. It has escalated. He sprayed her fig tree with glycophosphate. They called the police who had a quiet word.

            New years day dawns and they find all four tyres slashed on their car. £200 to replace them. It will end in murder.

        1. Most of us are dopeheads.

          [I start each day with an aspirin and an allopurinol, and I finish the day with a simvastatin.]

  38. The delivery driver stabbed to death in Finsbury Park last night –

    “One delivery driver said the victim was a 30-year-old Algerian known as “Taki”, although he was unsure of the English spelling.”

    Poor guy.He would have been safer in Algeria.

    1. 5·6% of the current English population (se Maggie’s pie-chart, below) would be safer in Algeria.

          2. The resident cowardly underpant-sniffer appears to have given you a downvote for that photo, Pud.

  40. Phew!
    That’s a load of mango chutney on the Rayburn!
    Over the past year or so I’ve been picking up packs of short shelf life sliced mango at less than half price and freezing them with the intention of making my own chutney from them.
    This week I decided to clear the whole lot (2¼kg) out and after letting them defrost for a couple of days, got to work this morning.
    The liquid tastes rather nice!

    1. Sounds good. My problem with commercial mango chutneys is the amount of sugar they contain. I like to liven up chutney with sliced chillies,

      1. Because the DT can not eat chilies, I left them out but added more cardamoms and other spiced.

    2. Today’s Rap and Hip-Hop “singers” could do worse than listen to this man’s exquisite voice.

  42. Who here *doesn’t* think the civil service makes long term plans?

    The problem is, those long term plans are usually ‘Do nothing’. Governments arrive, give the CS lots of instructions and the civil service spends the next four years foot dragging to achieve absolutely none of them at immense cost.

    Some of this is a good thing as most government instruction is born of incompetence and ineptitude but the things that affect the CS, such as cutting back or writing efficient processes to save time are always delayed.

    Lady T couldn’t unravel the civil service and she had three terms and the same majority – and fewer civil servants. Boris faces a monolithic wall tens fo thousands of feet high and millions deep thanks to Labour’s entrenchment. I doubt he’ll make a dent – and that’s very sad.

    2. I don’t think anybody in ‘authority’ has twigged the fact that the primary responsibility of bureaucrats is to create more bureaucrats.
      Lesson are never learned.

        1. Picture not shewing – and yours ain’t the only one.

          I can see many others though.

  43. Just to let you know, the bloke who killed a man and badly injured several others in Villejuif yesterday, was “known to have psychiatric problems”.

    Though he shouted “Allo Snackbar” – the killing was not connected to any terrorist activity.

    Don’t you all feel so reassured?

    3. Not reassured at all, Bill, especially since the assailant is/was a Mohammedan in ‘Jew Town’ and the French authorities really do believe in cracking down on these people wherever they turn up – Calais, Paris, Marseille etc.

    4. Oh Bill

      That is yesterdays news

      Paris stabbing: One dead and two in critical condition after knife attack in Villejuif

      Police shot dead the assailant, who has not been identified.

      Anti-terrorist prosecutors have gone to the scene to assess whether the motive was terrorism.

      Witnesses told Le Parisien newspaper that the attacker shouted “Allahu Akhbar” as he lunged at passers-by.

      Police used a robot to examine his body for explosives but none werefound. The assailant, who has not been named, was psychologically troubled, according to local sources.

      No problems then

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

  44. Restaurants and Cafes and Takeaways

    I guess now they will have to supply special meals for the following

    a) Those with allergies
    b) Vegetarians
    c) Ethical Vegetarians
    d)Vegans
    e) Ethical Vegans
    f) Halal
    g) Kosher
    h) Organic Vegetarians
    i) Organic Vegans

    2. There are very few kosher restaurants in the UK and the Jewish community has never demanded special treatment as the psychotic Muslims have for almost 2 decades & now the myriad of hard left front groups like the vegans are doing the same in imposing their beliefs on the public via the UK’s left wing dominated courts!

      1. That is always what occurs to me whenever this halal cr@p is raised.
        I don’t remember school caters being compelled to use kosher meat.

        1. Hi Bill, I have eaten in the past at Reubens & can recommend it for aficionados of the classic salt beef sandwich – naturally they are expensive but the portion I had there last time was huge – enough f or two!

    3. As long as those in the kitchen aren’t pan sexual (although the waitress who served me the last time I ate out was quite a dish).

    4. Funny you should mention that, I recently visited a recovering chum in a Somerset hospital where the food options were presented in a substantial booklet missing only the ethical subsets of the above but adding Afro-Caribbean options, all of these in several languages and scripts. Life was made a bit easier for him as he was nil by mouth at the time having had his lower giblets re-arranged.

    3. My niece, who is also a cellist, has played in a string orchestra with Sheku Kanneh-Mason. She was quite surprised to see him pop up at a royal wedding.

      Elgar’s Cello Concerto is one of my favourite works. It was composed 100 years ago, and the last major work he composed before his wife died, although he did start a symphony and an opera just before he died in 1934, neither of which were finished.

      I have mentioned this many times before about a new generation of classical musicians, but my first impression on hearing ‘The Dance of the Solent Mermaids’ a symphonic overture composed by the English teenager (now living in Vienna) Alma Deutscher in 2014 was that it was of a similar standard to what Elgar was doing as bandmaster of Powick Lunatic Asylum in the 1880s. What was remarkable was that she was producing at 9 what the great man was doing at 30. Where would this talent take her?

      News has come in this week that Salzburg State Theatre has commissioned Alma to compose her third opera ‘The Emperor’s New Waltz’ for 2022, and a new production of her second ‘Cinderella’ has been booked for the Christmas season this year. This was on the strength of a remarkable work where the ugly sounds of modern city traffic is transformed into a series of Viennese waltzes. (‘Siren Sounds’ (2019))

  46. An interesting comment by EPW deserves a wider audience

    The Dem’s across the pond, and Labour in the UK, are in political

    disarray. And yet the media onslaught on Trump (and Boris) is not only

    unabated but intensified, and shows the usual signs of unity in its

    aproach.

    I have always assumed it was the political left that had infiltrated media ownership and orientation – that the lugenpresse

    were politically their creature. I am unsure now – here in the UK the

    BBC, Ch 4 and many of the print media are shielding and shepherding the

    left through an existential crisis that would see them off without a

    solid wall of messaging which maintains a narrative grip which is

    completely undiminished in the face of overwhelming popular political

    defeat and the prospect of parliamentary irrelevance. And over in the

    US, there is a similar wall of deception, misrepresentation and

    manipulation that is as solid now as it was before the collapse of the

    impeachment-front to deligitimise and demonise Trump.

    The conclusion

    I’m reaching is that the boot is now on the other foot – the political

    parties of the left are now themselves the creatures of the media, and

    whatever is driving them. They are deeply involved in shaping both the

    leadership contest of the labour party and the presidential

    candidacy-race for the democrats.

    If this is correct – and I think

    the current parallel and strengthening media drives for

    climate-extremism and intersectionalism is collateral evidence for media

    being largely in the driving seat now – then it is probably irrelevant

    to concentrate on opposing those constitutional political organisations

    (extra-democratic fronts like Antifa and Momentum are a different kettle

    of fish). The key players now are the media themselves, and they are a

    more direct route to the fundamental forces driving the agenda against

    the true popular interest.

    If they can drive politicians of all hues

    into corners, direct them to perform or react in unaccountable ways,

    then the media are no longer the Fourth Estate. They are becoming at

    least the Third Estate, displacing the common people of the original

    definition, and vying to move further up the running order, displacing

    the authenticity of visible politics.

    And a response

    A good
    case in point was Charlie Stayt’s interview this morning with a
    “professor” (i.e. Iranian state mouthpiece) from Tehran University. At
    no point did Stayt contradict or question the professor’s anti-American
    rantings. It was almost as if he had purposefully been chosen by the BBC
    to mouth anti-Trump propaganda.

    Imagine a UK journalist
    interviewing an SS general after the assassination of Heydrich and
    allowing a free rein for anti-British invective to be broadcast across
    the nation. That’s how bad it has got.

    1. To know who EPW is would help somewhat in putting this article into some sort of MSM origin.

  47. I see the Bbc have a new game show, ‘First and Last’, in which the objective is to not win or lose. Dreamt up by a bunch of PC teachers, presumably.

    2. I wonder how long this one will last. The moronic “Wall” didn’t last long.

      1. Should the perpetrators be found – a 30 year sentence might deter other greeniacs.

        2. 30 years of 3 meals a day and a clean bed? Kick them into the fire with a bucket and spade.

          4. Mais oui!

            Yvette Carte-Blanche: the cause of many a sleepless night with much tossing and turning [Well, perhaps not so much turning! ;•) ]

      2. I remember the old BBC Home Service or Light Programme in the ’60s serialising a novel/set of stories of the French Resistance narrated by the then Maigret star, Rupert Davis.
        If my memory serves me correctly, one of the Resistance members was a Robert Tumois (sp)
        If anyone can advise me of the name of the series so I can trace the book, I’d be delighted.

        1. Not having seen the series, I have only been able to go from the data that you have provided, and have come up dry. Any further information might narrow the search down, such as was it a TV series or a Radio-only adaptation? Did it go on for weeks, or was it 2 or 3 programs? I did find this information that I did not know about Rupert Davis:

          “Served as a Sub-Lieutenant (Observer) in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II. In 1940 the ‘Swordfish’ in which he was flying ditched in the sea off the Dutch Coast. Davies was captured and sent to Stalag Luft 3, the camp made famous through The Great Escape (1963). It was in Stalag Luft III that he developed a serious interest in theatre, through entertaining his fellow prisoners. He also made three escape attempts, all of which failed. Amongst his fellow prisoners in Stalag Luft 3 were Donald Pleasance, Peter Butterworth and Talbot Rothwell (screenwriter of Carry on films).”

          Here are the listings for the actor on the 2 main websites that I go to as a first attempt to find information about a film or actor, just in case one of the program titles he was in from back then jogs a memory. I find that the first IMDB one is far more comprehensive as a rule:

          https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0203959/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

          http://www.tv.com/people/rupert-davies-1/

          1. It was a Radio drama series, hence the reference to either The Home Service, now Radio 4 and The Light Programme, now Radio 2.
            During the ’60s The Light Programme had some superb drama series.

        1. It looks as if Disqus has found a new way to play up. I closed all, tried Firefox, same problem. so logged out of everything, ran Ccleaner and restarted. Problem still there

      1. Yes. Apparently some of the older generals were confused and their orders were forty years out of date.

        1. Their General Canrobert was renamed Can’trobert, as he continually refused to commit his men. And we wonder where the French get their cheese-eating, surrender monkey syndrome from.

    5. France has always been able to recruit misfits for their Foreign Legion, a part of the French Army, which was formed to fight for the preservation of French colonies. As such the French Foreign Legion has seen action worldwide and its recruits are required only to swear allegiance to their Legion. Furthermore after three years service recruits can become French citizens.

      Ursula von der Leyen is likely to see the creation of an EU Army Foreign Legion as an appropriate way of bolstering recruitment for an EU force.

      https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/germany-generals-seek-foreign-legion-to-solve-recruitment-crisis-p380l9ctb

    6. At least France has stopped short of actively supporting Iran against the United States. But with the EU’s ambitions to expand their empire into North Africa, it can only be a matter of time. If the EU don’t actually drop dead from a terminal case of cash-shortage before then.

    7. Let us remind ourselves of our proud (arrogant) French allies:

      ‘France has neither winter, nor summer, nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country. France has usually been governed by prostitutes.’ [Mark Twain]

      ‘I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me.’ [General George S. Patton]

      ‘Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion.’ [General Norman Schwarzkopf] My personal favourite.

      ‘We can stand here like the French, or we can do something about it.’ [Marge Simpson]

      ‘As far as I’m concerned, war always means failure.’ [Jacques Chirac, President of France]

      ‘The only time France wants us to go to war is when the German Army is sitting in Paris sipping coffee.’ [Regis Philbin]

      ‘You know, the French remind me a little bit of an aging actress of the 1940s who was still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn’t have the face for it.’ [John McCain, U.S. Senator from Arizona]

      ‘The last time the French asked for ‘more proof’ it came marching into Paris under a German flag.’ [David Letterman]

      ‘Only thing worse than a Frenchman is a Frenchman who lives in Canada’ [Ted Nugent]

      ‘War without France would be like World War II.’ [Unknown]

      ‘The favourite bumper sticker in Washington D.C. right now is one that says ‘First Iraq, then France.” [Tom Brokaw]

      ‘What do you expect from a culture and a nation that exerted more of its national will fighting against Disney World and Big Macs than the Nazis?’ [Dennis Miller]

      ‘It is important to remember that the French have always been there when they needed us.’ [Alan Kent]

      ‘They’ve taken their own precautions against al-Qaeda. To prepare for an attack, each Frenchman is urged to keep duct tape, a white flag, and a three-day supply of mistresses in the house.’ [Argus Hamilton]

      ‘Somebody was telling me about the French Army rifle that was being advertised on eBay the other day –the description was, ‘Never shot. Dropped once.” [Rep. Roy Blunt, MO]

      ‘The French will only agree to go to war when we’ve proven we’ve found truffles in Iraq ‘ [Dennis Miller]

      ‘Do you know how many Frenchmen it takes to defend Paris? It’s not known, it’s never been tried.’ [Rep. R. Blount, MO]

      Do you know it only took Germany three days to conquer France in WWII? And that’s because it was raining.’ [John Xereas, Manager, DC Improv]

      French Ban Fireworks at Euro Disney: – (AP), Paris, March 5, 2003…
      The French Government announced today that it is imposing a ban on the use of fireworks at Euro Disney. The decision comes the day after a nightly firework display at the park located just 30 miles outside of Paris which caused the soldiers at a nearby French Army garrison to surrender to a group of Czech tourists.

      2. I like Tintin, and Gilou, and Laure.

        [Clock’s ticking for the pennies to start dropping!]

        4. That received a blank look from me as I had not watched the series “Spiral” nor was I even aware that it existed. Search engine to the rescue.

          1. For my money, Engrenages is unmissable. The best cop show ever!

            Seven series (and counting) and it never gives a poor script nor bad acting. I love it.

    1. This bloke is committing a hate crime by simply asking the question. Denier..{:¬))

        3. There is only one thing, that I can sau to you

          SSSSShhtttttooooocccckiiiiiiiinnnng Tttttooopppps

    2. Speaking as someone who had worked alongside climate and weather modellers for 20+ years, albeit on the observational side, the main problem I see with with current Global Circulation Models (GCMs), as mentioned in the letter, is that they all – and I mean ALL, rely on similar assumptions about the physical, chemical and biological processes involved in the Earth System, many of which have to be approximated because of the finite resolution of GCMs. Hence it’s not surprising they all come up with more or less the same results. It’s like comparing Cox’s Oranage Pippins with Golden Delicious, which doesn’t stop the climate modellers from thinking they are comparing oranges and apples.

      Another crucial area of uncertainty with GCMs is in the how the radiative effect of atmospheric gases, particularly in the far infra-red, are handled. At the moment, all current models underestimate the amount of IR energy lost from the surface of the Earth to space, and this error is usually fudged to match satellite observations. In fact, satellite observations indicate that the mean global temperature rise as measured by surface observations are over-estimated – mainly because the number of rural stations is decreasing year on year and also because of urban heat island effects. This is why the likes of the UEA have to keep ‘correcting’ their data.

      Basically, the science of climate change – or whatever it is called this week – is far from ‘settled’.

    3. The graph that seems to show a negligible rise in global mean temperature since the 19th century is a well-known statistical trick. By making the scale of the Y axis ridiculous, it covers the 1.5C (about 4F) rise that has been widely documented but a casual or unintelligent observer would dismiss it.

      It is counterproductive if this is supposed to debunk the Climate Change / Global Warming theory. Most of the arguments used are political arguments rather than scientific ones, which readily admit and declare margins for error and significance, rather than 100% verifiable fact. Non-scientists would be taken in by political rhetoric though.

      1. Er it is supported by 500 leading scientists not politics. Did you not read it.? You souund like a brainwashed green.

        1. A polemic published by a group is political, whether the authors are scientists or otherwise.

          I imagine a number of papers based on empirical observation and verifiable experimentation have been published, and are being discussed by their peers as I write. Anything that does not contain some level of doubt is not science, but polemics. Very little knowledge can be verified beyond any doubt, and any scientist worthy of the title must be sceptical and open to the suspicion that the apparatus may introduce errors.

          However, it is hard to refute a number of observations about disappearing glaciers and polar ice cover, and intensification of weather events in recent decades. There must also be consequences down to the near-tripling of the world’s human population in my lifetime, along with a much better standard of living and material aspirations of most of them. The deniers seem commercially most reluctant to address this.

          My own concern is less about CO2 emissions, which are proving impossible to reduce despite the expressed good intentions of the politicians at numerous climate change summits. I am most alarmed by the destruction on a vast scale of the world’s great forests. This will very likely lead to our doom, in the lifetime of a Swedish teenager and possibly in mine. It would take tens of thousands of years and a huge decimation of the world’s human population for nature to sort out.

  53. My 2020 diary
    01 Jan. Happy New Year. Off to a fresh start. New decade appears to be ticking along nicely.
    02 Jan. Australia on fire
    03 Jan WW3 declared

    (Stolen)

    1. Two murders in London.

      Nothing *****ing changes. It might if I woke up and the headline was ‘Sadiq Khan hanged from lamp post by mob sick of kids dying and his smug, sanctimonious arrogance. No charges pressed, crowd lauded for public duty.’

      Followed by

      Greta Thunberg made to live the life of Indian child mucking out mine drain water for 16 hours a day. Thunberg, 16, complained bitterly and endlessly about climate change and then her boots were thrown away and her coat taken from her. After four hours knee deep in water she realised she was a spoiled brat and promised she would shut the **** up about the bloody weather.’

    2. Decisive action taken to remove a terrorist threat.

      However: the victim was a Muslim, not white, had killed British soldiers and civilians, supported an authoritarian, oppressive regime.

      The perpetrator was American, white, rich and Donald Trump.

      Their reaction is obvious. It should also be completely ignored.

      1. The general standard of popular music has progressively deteriorated ever since.

        [Are you listening, Maggie? 😘]

      2. Paul McCartney is 77. Was he just 27 when The Beatles made their last recording? Possible.

        1. Probably. They would have been about 18 when they came to fame and lasted about 10 years at the top

    3. Not quite true. In 1995, Jeff Lynne of the Electric Light Orchestra and the Travelling Wilburys assembled the three surviving Beatles to record a version of ‘Free as a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ songs taken from a demo tape made by John Lennon in 1977.

      Jeff Lynne has maintained his friendship with the group and went on tour last year with Dhani Harrison, George’s son.

  56. May one inquire, seeing as we have a standing, when not taking the bike park stance army, & assuming it is at readiness 24 / 7 now topping 3 million what does the countries, England / GB regular army amount to in numbers ?

    1. The British Army has been a volunteer force since national service ended during the 1960s. Since the creation of the part-time, reserve Territorial Force in 1908 (renamed the Army Reserve in 2014), the full-time British Army has been known as the Regular Army. In January 2018 there were just over 81,500 trained Regulars and 27,000 Army Reservists. WIKIPEDIA

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Army#Modern_army

      1. Evening AS,
        Then even counting the air force / navy / salvation army we are well outnumbered.
        Has any politico’s / supporters of the governance parties spotted this imbalance.
        I am beginning to take on a strong
        Alamo feeling.

      1. OLT,
        If our enemas decide to rise will we also be able to rise to the occasion of protecting the welfare of the indigenous population, because I can see a shortfall of a mill or two & the shortfall is getting bigger every day that passes.

    3. Not many. But over 900 were in Estonia including anti-aircraft artillery to defend against the Russian threat.

      1. RS,
        Then do those in governance consider the number adequate to cover the home grown war when it breaks out ?
        Or are we to rely on PC / Appeasement & a large amount of hope.

          1. RS,
            The war that is never mentioned for fear of infringing on the PC / Appeasement unwritten rulings.
            Three monkeys rule,OK.

  57. 50 million polymer (they mean plastic) five and ten pound notes have had to be replaced since their introduction, according to R4 news. OK, but is that better or worse than would have been expected of old-style notes?

      1. To all Vegans

        I will risk eternal damnation and take all your uneffickle banknotes off you, for a fee of course

      2. It is NOT a “landmark” ruling. It is a daft decision by a bloke running an employment tribunal.

        If the employers have a grain of sense, they will appeal.

        1. I dont think it is a ruling at all it is just the opinion of an employment tribunal. The case was about whether he was unfairly dismissed and they have not decided on that/ Whether he is a vegan or not is pretty much irrelevant. His employers were the League against cruel sports

      3. Trading in animal skins, salt and weapons will be off the menu…

        I could offer my services ( . ) ( . ) …..!

      4. Well this character claimed he would not wear wool or silk or anything that uses animal products ad would not go by bus or car as they kill insects

        Following his logic through he cannot buy any food as that will have been transported by road.. He cannot use electricity as a lot is produced by wind turbines that kill birds

        I am trying to work out as to why he is not dead as there is no way he can live as he claims

        1. What I smell there is… poo.

          Such people would then be forced to wear synthetic fibres… which are made from damaging industrial processes. He just sounds another utterly spoiled Lefty.

          Sometimes I wonder if we need an actual war. A proper, full scale, all men in uniform war. Then these pointless wasters will have to look in the mirror and realise just how damned good things were and that they should stop complaining about their own egotistical drivel.

          1. Plastic is made from oil, which is made from dead fauna. Can you make clothes out of wood?

  58. Morning all. How’re y’all doin? Feel a bit fed up today – don’t know why. Silly isn’t it.

    A propos the awful fires in Ozland, this is when I feel our overseas aid budget should come into play, particularly as it is a Commonwealth country. The 0.7% of GDP should be scrapped and we should revert to what we used to do – I.e., send aid or whatever else is needed to help out in a disaster, (mostly natural but who knows the truth of these fires). I did read somewhere over the last few days that 98 arsonists had been charged with setting fires but can’t provide a link.

    1. We are still sending untold millions to India in “foreign aid” and their government has just announced a third attempt to land a vehicle on the moon!

      When is someone going to possess the gonads to stop this frivolous waste of our money?

      1. Totally agree Grizz. TPTB seem to have no idea most of the time how the public feel – and the MPs are just blithering idiots who pass the most inappropriate laws, I.e., hate crime laws. (The list is too long). And what about this ridiculous ruling that veganism is “protected” as a belief system. Honestly what’s going on in the U.K. is just ridiculous.
        I must buck myself up and go out for a brisk walk. Sorry people to be gloomy. I’ll do better I promise!

        1. Maybe it is not entirely their fault that they are idiots – they were born that way – but they should certainly be stopped from blithering.

        3. If you were into all of that “Conspiracy Theory” realm, then you might say that the politicians are not being idiots and what they are supporting or allowing to happen, is being done to deliberately destabilise our culture and morality. Many of the “normal people” still have common sense and we KNOW that all of these changes are insane. The MP’s are supposed to be more highly educated than us, so why can’t they see the same thing? Unless they are greedy or morally corrupted and are on-board with the long-term goals.

          The same can be said of reason-defying government spending. The globalists use massive debt to help them to control countries. But the United Kingdom has an annoying habit of working hard, paying taxes and being productive. It has been difficult to put us in to the same position as Greece, Italy, Portugal and so on. You can almost feel the frustration of the MP’s who want us under their masters control as they say “What do we do with all of this money? We cannot just give it away…”

          Then up pops a Foreign Aid budget that pours money into a bottomless pit while we have places to spend it here at home. But that would mean that Conservative MP’s as well as Labour ones were trying to damage the country, and it is too early in the morning to be so cynical. 🙂

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fba74f787c02d27e80a289ba409e74ee05753e0571f879707f34010107bca51c.jpg

          1. We do know that T Bliar and the Labour Party many years ago encouraged the swamping of the U.K. with immigrants (there was a document stating this quite clearly but my memory refuses to co-operate by naming the author/s). And I can’t understand why people vote for Labour considering that fact and how low-wage working people have had their pay suppressed. The artificial £ hourly living wage rate will probably prevent companies from employing more people due to increased costs.

            The harm that our governments have done over the years, with unnecessary legislation and rules and regulations, via the EU, is pretty awful. Not to mention MPs happily giving away competence after competence (bit of a misnomer there!). With a lot of luck we will be out of the EU at the end of this month although I’ll believe it when I see it.

          2. That is certainly true, but Labour were kicked out of office in 2010 and we have have almost 10 years of Conservative / Coalition governments since then, who have said nice words about immigration for the cameras, but allowed the flow to continue. Some try to blame being in the EU for this, but Poland and Hungary have had a far better approach to the EU’s imposed migration plans.

            Tony Blair really started the ball rolling, and he has been very well rewarded since he flounced off, but sadly many of the so-called “Conservatives” have been complicit in this invasion. You just need to look at Dominic Grieve and Phillip Hammond to see that these people may have worn a blue rosette, but they were not working in the United Kingdoms interests. In those 10 years, that could be another 3 million “new arrivals” if the rate was 300,000 a year on average.

            We will now see if the current government tries to control immigration or keeps the floodgates open. A points-based system will not stop those canoeing across the channel. Every one of those boats must be towed back to France and an active deportation process be operated for any undocumented people who are found here. Whether their “pretend host countries” want them back or not.

            It should go without saying that the very wealthy immigration lawyers will need to have their wings severely clipped as well, with only the most hard-core obvious cases of people fleeing for their lives being heard at all. Giving priority to Christians instead of followers of islam would be a good start.

          3. Agreed 100%. Regarding your 3rd para, IIRC, an Admiral West said of the boats arriving from France et al that they should be towed back whence they came and then scuppered. I cannot understand why they aren’t immediately shipped back. That should discourage any more illegals.

          4. My New Year’s Resolution is to discover a “meme” that has neither spelling mistakes nor grammatical errors.

            If I do it will be a first.

      2. At the moment, they cannot negotiate a date and price with Ram Jam Butty, a Birmingham Taxi driver, when he and his cab can make the trip

      3. As our foreign aid budget goes mostly to the EU – it’s a handy under the table bribe and bung fund – the obvious is to leave that wretched organisation and stop wasting money on such projects.

        India has bigger problems than landing on the moon. It has a population in true poverty.

        1. I suspect that they are proposing to transfer the entire Muslim population of Kashmir to the moon and leave them there.

        2. India has a population in true poverty because they cannot stop breeding out-of-control.

          1. Too true! But when Indira Ghandi tried to do something about it, oh,the howls of protest from the liberati!

          2. The trouble is, George, that it is an innate part of their culture to have as many sprogs as possible, given the high-rate of infant mortality, in order to have some-one to batten upon in their old age.

    2. A lot of it seems down to recent legislation that stops fire breaks being established around towns in order to stop bush fires spreading into towns. If you have a half mile fire break you can stop the fire from spreading. If the bush goes right up to the edge of a town you can forget it O You stand no chance of stopping it

  59. Emily Thornberry on LBC ….

    “I fear that we are just repeating the same pattern of behaviour and what we should be doing as a country is standing up to Donald Trump,
    making it clear that we disagree.””The Security Council is the most important and most senior body within the UN. We have a place on that. We’re not there to be a Donald
    Trump mini-me or always agree with what they say. We should be taking a stand.”
    She later restated that this is a “another major step towards war” and called Trump’s rhetoric “belligerent” and “reckless”.

    White van woman speaks ….

    2. “But we DON’T disagree with President Trump Ms Thornbury, you do, and you and your party of misfits has just been kicked into the long grass for at least the next 5 years.”

    3. The Security Council is the most important ……………
      She can’t even spell impotent. 🙂

  61. That’s me for today. “Rosenkavalier” on beeboid Radio 3 at 6 pm (GMT).

    Must sort out my saddle.

    A demain

  62. Question: If the Americans did not do that second attack in Iraq last night, who did ? And why are the media strangely un-informative about it ?

        1. I’m trying to figure out what is/was the second attack you refer to – mainly because the MSM are not too informative, I wondered if you could enlighten us.

          1. No, that was why I asked. There seems to be a media embargo on facts at the moment. Guessing at the moment is dangerous.

          3. Yes, I saw that. Surprised the media haven’ attributed it to the Israelis yet; as I said that would have been just a guess. The media do not normally care if they get something wrong.

          4. From the telegraph
            A new air strike targeted a commander in Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force on Saturday, state television reported, a day after an American drone strike killed Qassim Soleimani, a top Iranian general

            I would have posted the link but Chrome and disqus are not playing together today 🙁

          7. It’s been all over the news since it happened last night.:-) Gone quiet since the Americans denied it was them. Six important casualties by the look of it, but names withheld. Look for strike North of Baghdad.

  63. – With all this mass conversion to veganism in 100 years time people will look at older housing and wonder why they made the doors so high

    1. depends what you mean as old if you go back to medieval times you beed to be about 5′ tall to get through the doors

  64. Over 200 sheep have been stolen in six incidents across Wiltshire in the last month.

    The police response is just amazing;

    “We believe the cases could be linked!”

    Must take years of training to reach such a highly trained state of the bleeding obvious!

    “Farmers have been fleeced”
    “Ram raiders are now on the lam”

    3. It’s Wiltshire Police that peruse Going Postal.

      For the last two years or more I’ve been winding up, in the gym, an inspector of plod from the Big City Police. He fits the bill, bum bum. He’s got 40 kilos of fat around his guts. I actually said that to him. To which he responded.”That’s very harsh, but true.” )))))

      I had to tell him to look up Common Purpose. He’d already got a method of dealing with those above him. So for 30 years he’s dumbed himself down to get a pension.

      1. My dentist is the most gorgeous, tiny, Blonde German lass. Always wearing tight white jeans… It’s a wonder I haven’t had her pull all my teeth already! 😍

          2. I have often wished I had time to cultivate modesty. But I am too busy thinking about myself.

    4. Dinah Washington had a penchant for dentists. This is well worth a listen! When I was a student at UEA in the 1960’s there was a pub called The Jolly Butchers in Norwich in which Anna – a formidable jet-black-haired Spanish jazz singer (reportedly a retired prostitute) used to sing this song with a mixture of vulgar yet exotic sexuality and sheer voluptuous menace which both terrified and fascinated us:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3kwdM_puAs

  74. This is weird. I have this very same NTTL page open, concurrently, on both Safari and Chrome.

    On Safari all uploads are hidden and you have to click on them to open them: on Chrome all uploads are visible right away.

    On Safari, every time I leave the page (or refresh) I have to sign in again: on Chrome I am permanently signed in.

    1. I discovered about 6 months ago that Disqus works best with Chrome & since then it is my principal browser with Firefox & Brave my secondary browsers as both have certain quirks with Disqus – Firefox still tends to space out lines of copied & pasted script & Brave won’t let me paste photos & gifs

    3. Using Safari right now. Not seeing what you are seeing at all. It behaves just as you describe Chrome.

      1. Safari has acted the Ned on my iMac for weeks now, no matter what I try it persists. It also refuses to let me upload anything, but Chrome permits this without hesitation.

        1. Check your Preferences>Privacy settings. If you are set to Allow cookies from current website only, it will behave as you describe snce the use of WordPress intoduced a level of indirection cf. Disqus. Change the setting to Allow from websites I visit and all will be well.

          p.s. At least that’s what worked for me.

        2. Check your Preferences>Privacy settings. If you are set to Allow cookies from current website only, it will behave as you describe snce the use of WordPress intoduced a level of indirection cf. Disqus. Change the setting to Allow from websites I visit and all will be well.

          p.s. At least that’s what worked for me.

          2. I’m on a slightly older version – try turning off “Prevent cross-site tracking”, as I believe it achieves the same function of limiting cookies to the current site.

          3. Just tried that and it’s made no difference whatsoever. I’m still being routinely logged out.

    5. Me too on Safari. Under my username top RH side, there is a drop down menu which has a display/hide media selection. The options might be set different in your browsers. Also no uploads. I think all this happened around the ios 13 upgrade.

  76. The defective parrot!

    A guy is browsing in a pet shop, and sees parrot sitting on a little perch. It doesn’t have any feet or legs.

    The guy says aloud, ‘Jeesh, I wonder what happened to this parrot.?’

    The parrot says, ‘I was born this way. I’m a defective parrot.’

    ‘Holy crap,’ the guy replies.’You actually understood and answered me. !’

    ‘I got every word,’ says the parrot. ‘I happen to be a highly intelligent, and a thoroughly educated bird’

    ‘Oh yeah?’ the guy asks. ‘Then answer this, how do you hang onto your perch, without any feet.?’

    ‘Well,’ the parrot says, ‘this is very embarrassing, but since you asked, I wrap my willie around this wooden bar,

    like a little hook. You can’t see it, because of my feathers.’

    ‘Wow,’ says the guy. ‘You really can understand, and can speak English, can’t you.?’

    ‘Actually, I speak both Spanish and English, and I can converse with reasonable competence on almost any topic, politics,

    religion, sports, physics, philosophy. I’m especially good at ornithology. You really ought to buy me, I’d be a great companion.’

    The guy looks at the $200.00 price tag. ‘Sorry, but I just can’t afford that.’

    ‘Pssssssst,’ says the parrot, ‘I’m defective, so the truth is, nobody wants me, cause I don’t have any feet. You can probably get me for $20,

    just make the guy an offer.!’

    The guy offers $20, and walks out with the parrot. Weeks go by. The parrot is sensational.

    He has a great sense of humour, he’s interesting, he’s a great pal, he understands everything, he sympathises, and he’s insightful.

    The guy is delighted.

    One day the guy comes home from work, and the parrot goes, ‘Psssssssssssst,’ and motions him over with one wing. ‘I don’t know if I

    should tell you this or not, but it’s about your wife, and the *DHL man.’

    ‘What are you talking about,?’ asks the guy.

    ‘When he delivered a package today, your wife greeted him at the door, in a sheer black nightie.’

    ‘WHAT???’ the guy asks incredulously… ‘THEN what happened?’

    ‘Well, he came into the house, and lifted up her nightie, and began petting her all over,’ reported the parrot.

    ‘NO!’ he exclaims, ‘and she let him.?’….’Yes. Then he continued taking off the nightie, got down on his knees, and began to kiss her all over.’

    Then the frantic guy demands, ‘THEN WHAT HAPPENED.?

    DUNNO?!? I got an erection, and fell off my perch.!’

    *Other couriers offer this service

      1. Ask Polly

        I apologise, it was a sexist joke, if ir were a parrotess, she would be sitting on the bell

        The owner would have answered the (bell ringing) from the door

  77. Been having a bit of banter with climate changers on facebook and they cannot get their heads around the fact that the 2010’s decade was cooler than the 2000’s decade for some reason.

    1. Yo Bob

      Youse been trying to get facts and data to overcome their Brain (a collective one ) washing..

      You have more chance of getting Ms Abbot to count to 9, just using her fingers

    1. Jack the lad has just helped me to fix my iMac, Nursey and I can now upload photos again.

    2. ” Mr Laffey added that Pollard, who has a child, has not wasted his time on remand”
      So it seems.

      1. Agreed, it has become unreadable as far as I am concerned. Anything worth reading is almost obscured by silly ads and videos.

        1. Block them all.

          The annoying problem now is getting rid of the ‘nth of type’ nonsense but I’m working on that. Not a video plays, no pop ups, no adverts. If they’re going to try to vomit over my computer then I’ll hold out a bucket. As for the over 127 tracking cookies – dear life.

          1. But then they won’t let you read until you stop blocking them. I just don’t bother any more with the Daily Fail.

          2. Strangely i had a message telling me to turn off adblocker for the mail and so i did. Still not getting any ads though. I agree about the level it is at but the Times and Telegraph aren’t much better anymore. Except for the odd column.

          3. Ghostery and Adblock Plus won’t do anything to get rid of gutter journalism.

            If it did, I’d use it to erase (and expunge) Bryony Gordon and her idiotic drivel!

          4. Very true but i don’t like anything too challenging in the morning. Erm..afternoon and er…evening. :o(

        3. The adverts and videos are an absolute bl00dy nuisance.
          We’ve often given up reading out of sheer frustration.

      2. Yes. I’ve given up commenting. It only works OK on their mobile app where I just go “Straight to Comments.”

    4. That’s a trifle harsh, Anne.

      As for the comment “Quite how this situation developed is beyond belief”, that’s only if you support the Labour party and believe the NHS is the acme of perfection and can’t be improved without shovel-loads of borrowed dosh.

      1. Probably the remainsers will throw a We are sad we are leaving party but we will be back

    2. Colchester contingent lined up.
      Even if Mayor Khant won’t give it a licence (yes, hard to believe, isn’t it) casual visitors can’t be banned from a public thoroughfare.

      1. A recap anne

        Regarding your Denier/denier

        Hands up all the old men who ‘twanged’ the sussies of a suspender belt

      2. Do you really plan to celebrate outside the H of P, Annie, rather than locally in Colchester? How about transport back after the celebrations? (This is a serious question.)

  80. Keir Starmer officially put his name forward

    To me he is still very much a momentum type but is more measured with his language than Corbyn and does not have Corbyns baggage but would carry on with the same policies. Slightly wider appeal but outside of London I dont see him getting much support

    2. I had an Irish landlord when I lived in rented accommodation in Clapham Common in the seventies. His name was John Murphy and he was a doppelgänger for Keir Starmer.

      The likeness was that they both have throats wider than their heads and both bore a strong resemblance to the Easter Island monuments.

    1. TB – Thank you for that and for the link. The politicians and the media here and in the EU are mostly unwilling to acknowledge the reality of the evil of the Iranian regime. It’s all about trade, innit ? Trump has a lot of guts and good judgement.

          4. Simple question, John, easily interpreted as “Do The Waltons hail from Norfolk? Where the fraternity/sorority “thing” is rife!

            [Oh, I see. The mischievous little apostrophe inserted by auto”correct”!]

          5. Simple question, John, easily interpreted as “Do The Waltons hail from Norfolk? Where the fraternity/sorority “thing” is rife!

            [Oh, I see. The mischievous little apostrophe inserted by auto”correct”!]

  83. I wonder, if in our £0.7% of our Tax money, we are paying money to the likes of:

    Iran
    Iraq
    Egypt
    Pakistan

    Or any nation that attacks us

    1. We are still shovelling lots of money to the EU in “outstanding commitments” payments. The EU are trying to bring the United Kingdom down. They really seem to be upset that we are trying to leave them behind to sink in the mire.

      Speaking of furry little bas’ards in the EU, I did find this guide which might be of use. That is me closing down for the night. Have a good evening.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a3b6cac67bad97c06f29b5904926a14de39fc3f17bdfa548f967044b642ac2eb.jpg

    3. But on the other hand, a Japanese study shows mares are less likely to suffer Suspensory Deep Flexor Tendon injuries 🙂

    4. Women with bigger breasts would be absolutely fine if Bill Thomas was rubbing in goose fat. Please form an orderly queue.

  88. Trump has the right idea. The Muslim zealots have been trying it on for years now. It is high time that their bluff was called. Those responsible for the hideous loss of life over many, many years should be held accountable.

    Thanks be to President Donald Trump. We are truly grateful.

    1. No, and unlikely to with the weather as cloudy and foggy as it has been for the past few days.

      1. I’ve just checked the site that I normally use for the weather and it has heavy overcast cloud here until 18:00 tomorrow, and no clear skies at all until 23:00 on Thursday night. But there are other meteor showers. I have found this metoffice site to be updated regularly and is fairly accurate for a 24 hour period: (You get more detailed information if you put in the name of your town / city / village, or a close one.)

        https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/

  91. Rainbow Theatre ex Astoria) Finsbury Park

    The building is now owned by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Ir is a huge building seating almost 3000. The company that run it as a music venue gave it up as they could not afford to maintain it. It is Grade 2 listed. That church must have very deep pockets

    1. Crikey. I saw Bob Marley there in the seventies. I sat in the front row and left with chicken pox. The henna Bob used on his dreadlocks was sprayed everywhere as he built up a sweat.

      1. Surprised it has closed. It is not central London but it had excellent transport links .

        THe interior has been restored to as it was when it opened as a cinema and it is impressive

        https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=7YDaWnom&id=2C0B1E25BA3193D8356A1E058FA582B6D457A7AA&thid=OIP.7YDaWnomJWlZvwlUsz_m_wHaE8&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fplanbox.files.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F08%2Fuckg-finsbury-park-north-london-main.jpg&exph=344&expw=515&q=uckg+finsbury+park&simid=607995406605550046&selectedindex=2&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&sim=11

    2. I just looked the UCKG up on Wiki : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Church_of_the_Kingdom_of_God
      The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) (Portuguese: Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, IURD) is an Evangelical, non-denominational church and business enterprise with its headquarters at the Temple of Solomon in São Paulo, Brazil. The church was founded in 1977 in Rio de Janeiro by bishop Edir Macedo, owner of the multi-billion television company RecordTV

      So no problem with funds to buy propery to convert into churches !

Comments are closed.