726 thoughts on “Sunday 3 November: How can Brexiteers get what they want in this general election?”

  1. I used to love elections. But now I say a plague on all their houses! Peter Hitchens 3 November 2019.

    I see a country that, during all these Elections, has lost almost everything precious it had.
    Its tolerant freedom under law, frayed and tattered. Its manufacturing industry gone, so that we use almost nothing made by our fellow countrymen.

    Its excellent, disciplined schools are destroyed. Modest competent local government has been replaced by grandiose, posturing authorities that cannot even collect garbage.

    Its unarmed, friendly police force has been replaced by a glowering, absent militia. Stable family life is replaced by a fatherless chaos, which in turn demands a limitless welfare state to pick up the pieces.

    We could face it, if we had wholly different leaders. But how can we find them through this process?

    This Election is not designed to find leaders, just to provide an escape hatch for those who have failed to lead. But there is, in fact, no real escape.

    Morning everyone. I largely agree with Hitchens here. In fact I think it’s even worse than he describes. He is for example prohibited from mentioning Immigration or Transexuality or whatever for fear of the response. The UK that I was born into is essentially destroyed. The end of its political system will be the final nail in its coffin. Democracy is about much more than voting every four or five years. In fact that may very well be its least important aspect. It is the things it brings with it that are arguably more important. Free Speech, Innocence before the Law; Equality in its most profound sense etc. These things do not exist in tyrannies. Here they have already preceded their Creator and either died of neglect or been suppressed intentionally due to the corruption and arrogance of the Elites. The coming General Election will not resuscitate this system. You cannot instil life into a corpse. Where I differ from Hitchens is that I intend to vote. This is not because I think it will change anything essential, but partly from bloody-mindedness and partly because this may very well be the last meaningful election held for a UK Parliament and it will leave a memory and a warning for the inhabitants of the coming dark age to look back on.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7643599/PETER-HITCHENS-used-love-elections-say-plague-houses.html

    2. Morning AS,
      Right on every point, with bells on, alarm bells that is.
      Fools and their countries are soon parted.

    3. I find it ironic that it is the Daily Mail that is pointing out these home truths.

      It was something I felt very strongly when I was delivering the paper with the post in the 1980s. Margaret Thatcher’s Government was spun at the time as the great salvation of British values, but after voting for it in 1979, came to see that it was actively dismantling so much of what I loved about my country in her advisers’ drive to run it as a business on globalized (sic) corporate terms.

      Blair merely perpetuated what she started, and nobody else has had the political strength or will to do anything about it.

      I have given up on parties ever since Charles Kennedy drank himself out of his leadership. These days, the only thing that affects my vote is the personal qualities of the five names on my ballot paper, in the distant hope that maybe the system will throw up someone with the qualities that merit my mark of approval, and that the institution they are signing up for will honour these qualities.

      1. It’s not the DM that is saying it, it’s the MoS and it’s not really them either, it’s Mr. Hitchens who has his own page for comments. Since Greig took over Hitchens has taken the pieces of silver and moderated his views to comply with Grieg’s left wing agenda.
        Are we allowed to criticise Thatcher on this blog site?
        Now the question is why is Hitchens reportedly telling people not to vote?

        1. Careful suggesting…some of the Blues with who are scum for suggesting ALLReds are traitors who hate the UK gets you banned….especially around Remembrance Day when some scum Blue commentators attack ALL Red Mobbers as being the sort of traitors who have never fought for the UK.

          1. But I do hate the Blues. But I hate the glory hunters who support the Red Scouse and the Manc Reds even more, and the rest of the GHBs. Support your local team. It’s tribalism. After tribalism comes supporting your own country not the EUSSR.

    4. They forgot the bit about us being required to take an unlimited number of migrants and give them immediate access to our welfare benefits and housing

    5. Innocence before the law and tolerant freedom under law all went out the window when we became subject to corpus juris.

    1. Gotta finish the handrail down the outside steps so SWMBO doesn’t slip over on the ice & bust her butt again. Snow expected shortly.

  6. How can Brexiters get what they want in this general election?
    They can’t.
    And they won’t.
    Next question, please.

    1. You have a troll on here? Who is it? I thought you’d eradicated them all like you have on GP so you can all go around and around in ever decreasing circles like you have been doing for 3 1/2 years. You know what they say about trolls and thieves…

  9. Morning

    SIR – I have voted Conservative all 
my life. Like thousands of Conservatives, however, I am in a quandary. If I vote for the party on December 12, will I be voting to leave the EU?

    Howard Marshall
    Altrincham, Cheshire

    SIR – Nigel Farage has confirmed what we already suspected. The only party offering to comply with the EU referendum result is the Brexit Party. There is no vote to split because a vote for the Conservatives is a vote to remain.

    If Boris Johnson is serious about leaving, he will accept the Brexit Party’s conditional offer of constructive co-operation. If he refuses to do that, it will tell us all we need to know about his true intentions.

    Victoria Edge
    Farningham, Kent

    1. SIR – Nigel Farage has enhanced Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of victory in the forthcoming election.

      Mr Farage’s stated position is to leave the EU. But, by saying he will contest every constituency, he has put this in jeopardy. The Leave vote could now be divided between the Tories and the Brexit Party. Remainers could end up voting Labour because of a vague promise of a referendum in about six months’ time.

      It is to be hoped that most sensible voters will go with Boris Johnson, 
 who will then be able to deliver his Brexit deal.

      David Kidd
      Petersfield, Hampshire

  10. Morning again

    SIR – I was surprised by Daniel Hannan’s piece, and particularly his claim that, “uniquely in the Anglosphere, Canada has seen almost no backlash against political correctness.”

    Perhaps the leader of this whole backlash against PC culture has been the Canadian intellectual, Jordan Peterson, whose opposition to Bill C-16 (gender expression/identity added to the Human Rights Act/Criminal Code) thrust him into international headlines. He is the most prominent spokesperson against it – and, the last time I checked, a Canadian.

    Canada seems to be at ground zero of these culture wars. Take, for example, the Lindsay Shepherd debacle at Wilfrid Laurier University – she was famously accosted just for showing a clip of Professor Peterson. More recently, Meghan Murphy, a notable Canadian feminist, has been banned from Twitter for her identification of a trans woman by the wrong pronoun.

    Just to belabour my point, the “Intellectual Dark Web”, the main cadre of intellectuals against PC culture, includes other prominent Canadians such as Steven Pinker and Debra Soh. That’s a pretty hefty number of Canadians in what is a small group.

    Perhaps Mr Hannan doesn’t fully appreciate that our culture is less polarised than those of Britain and the United States. We are proud of this. But to say that Canada has not experienced a backlash to PC culture is not just a mistaken assessment of our national dialogue – it also diminishes the prominent role Canadians are playing in the broader Anglosphere.

    Michael Scott
    Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    1. Ah yes Mr. Hannan, the MEP who started backtracking on College Green at 10.00am on 24th June 2016. Less polarised? Who is he trying to kid?

        1. I watched David Davis start to backtrack when it was likely that Leave was going to win. Johnson, Gove, Leadsom and Fox all backtracked later but Hannan was quick off the mark. Just remember Gove stabbed Johnson in the back in 2016 but the reason that Johnson had to with draw his candidacy over hasn’t stopped Johnson in 2019 being PM. May was brilliant at doing the job she was elected leader to do, she was the consummate liar, whereas Johnson is an amateur by comparison. May’s needlessly called 2017 election’s aim was to throw it and hand it to Corbyn. This one’s a bit more complicated but the same aim, keep us in the EU.

  11. I see GCHQ are still indulging in low level harassment. Hopefully it will end with the election!

  12. SIR – Frogmore Cottage was not renovated for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the expense of taxpayers (Letters, October 27).

    The money came from the Sovereign Grant – a proportion of the profit from the Crown Estate paid to the monarch by the Government, which retains the vast majority of the profit for its own purposes.

    It is used to fund the role of the head of state and includes the maintenance of properties used by the Royal family. None of it comes from taxpayers, despite what republicans might say.

    David Pearson
    Haworth, West Yorkshire

    1. It has been alleged that Frogmore Cottage was renovated for staff at Windsor Castle. It is said by local residents in the vicinity that there is no-one living there at all. Harry is said to be still living – by himself – at Nottingham Cottage, Kensington Palace. He apparently never moved out. These rumours may or not be true; the media want us to believe that they are not true. The interesting question, if they are not true, is why?

  13. Just heard Sturgeon’s speech to the SNP on LBC radio just now, apart from Hitlerite style and presentation what she said would be termed deeply offensive if someone made that same speech about England leaving the EU and being ruled by people like Juncker, why is out and out Nationalism tolerated in Scotland and not tolerated in England, anyone would think the elites want the UK to break up.

  14. Greta Thunberg asks for lift back across Atlantic as climate meeting shifts to Madrid. Sun 3 Nov 2019.

    As delegates to the COP25 climate summit scramble to adjust to a last-minute change of venue from Santiago to Madrid, one of the highest-profile attendees has stuck out a metaphorical thumb on social media to ask for a lift across the Atlantic.

    Teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who was speaking in California during a stop on her low-emissions journey from Sweden to Chile, tweeted that she was now in need of a ride to Spain.

    Perhaps she could take the Trans Arctic route by dogsled or the Bering Strait by canoe?

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/03/greta-thunberg-asks-for-lift-back-across-atlantic-as-climate-meeting-shifts-to-madrid

      1. Which of the freebee hotels has the best

        Cuisine
        Gyms
        beds
        Rooms
        Access to airports
        Courtesy cars
        Staff

      2. They’re devising yet more devious scams to con people into donating to their coffers by throwing ‘Human activity generating’ money at non existent problems.

  15. LBC’s Andrew Castle advocating having Swinson on the Leaders’ debate. Castle doesn’t believe that Swinson has a high enough national profile and exposure on the debate would improve that shortcoming. Being on radio, Castle’s facial expression wasn’t on display and so it wasn’t possible to decide whether he meant what he was saying or if his tongue was firmly planted in his cheek. Appearing on a national debate would expose Swinson as the dangerous illiberal and anti-democratic ideologue she is. Get her on!

    2. The way they decided last time was the number of seats/votes so that would mean that in the first debate it would be head to head between Labour & Conservatives. A second later debate would include the smaller parties. I think they also took into account recent polls

    3. I think that’s very unfair Korky.

      She is doing what any good loyal wife would do, that is – strongly supporting her husband in his business.

      Why that deserves insults I have no idea.

      2. She is very quiet about how much she benefits personally from the EU, even if the benefit is at one degree of separation. It’s called “not declaring an interest” and is generally looked upon as being poor behaviour.

    1. Pouring with rain here , may brighten up later. Band of bad weather moving through. No breeze though.

      We have to do something about our wisteria and white 15ft high climbing rose .. and drainpipe that blew down in the gale yesterday from our SW facing wall.. there were old nests and even a lost tennis ball in the rose tangle .. lovely scented white flowers .. feel upset because it may have to be chopped.

      Morning DB

      1. Morgan.
        See it as an opportunity: take lots of cuttings and give them to friends.

      3. It depends how much it has to be chopped – will probably do it good in the log run.

        What variety is it? Mme Alfred Carrière?

        ‘Morning, Belle.

      4. Morning Belle. That’s a great shame your rose has been damaged but I think you may be able to save it just by cutting down to maybe 5ft or so, to clear the bulk of the damage, and then properly pruning back to shoots. Don’t give up on it especially as it has a lovely scent. Good luck.

    3. Pet lovers could face £100 bill with new annual tax

      ANIMAL lovers could be forced to pay an annual tax in a bid to discourage them from dumping pets. The Government is considering introducing the charge to promote more responsible ownership.

      2. Surely if you apply a tax then the poor are more likely to dump their pets?

        Is this a spoof? So difficult nowadays to detect them.

        1. I would have thought so and particularly unwanted puppies. Requiring breeders to microchip puppies might help a bit as well

  18. Benefits freeze to end in 2020, government confirms

    The freeze in benefit payments is to come to an end in April next year, the government has confirmed.
    Working-age benefits such as universal credit and jobseeker’s allowance will rise by the rate of inflation, the Department for Work and Pensions said.
    The 1.7% hike would end a freeze from April 2016 introduced by former Tory chancellor George Osborne.

  19. My middling sized home town appears to be morphing into a crime ridden pit. A few weeks ago there was a triple knife murder near the town centre and last night a car ploughs into a small pub in the Hythe area, killing one, life threatening injuries inflicted on another and two less seriously injured. A man has been charged with a range of serious crimes.
    A quick glance at the local rag and one comes across a litany of knife, violence and theft crimes being perpetrated across the borough. Some correspondents to the comments sections are blaming the ‘Counties Lines’ organisation of drug dealers for many of the incidents.
    The Country is literally running out of control and the police and PTB are more concerned with hurty words, incorrect pronoun use in relation to a minuscule minority of people etc. The coming election will not address any of these problems because the same type of crazy liberals in all parties will form the majority.

    1. Yes it’s happening all over Korky! We have had a sudden blossoming of burglaries and muggings in the centre of the village. It is useless to complain!

        1. Rastus, I sometimes wonder whether the giving up is voluntary, driven by cuts in numbers and despair, or mandated.

          1. The Cultural Marxism is mandated. The despair and dysfunctionality are the outcome from it!

      1. There’s been a number of stabbing incidents in recent times but the triple killing was a step change and now a potential car ramming incident/murder. County lines is of course not a problem exclusively for Colchester but it’s a worrying trend.

    3. There is the constant moan about cuts to police numbers. This is a continuing lie to cover up the truth. This article from 2017 shows how police numbers have risen since 1961.
      In 1961 there were 807 people for every police officer in England and Wales whereas the latest figures available in 2017 showed there were now 462 people for every police officer.
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/23/police-officers-per-head-now-fifty-years-ago-figures-show/

      1. Lost of the criminal make excursions out of London for easier pickings in the rural towns where policing after 5pm is almost non existent

        1. Village life is little changed:
          “Last month come Michaelmas oi saw one o’ them motor car contraptions. Had ‘POLICE’ painted on the side.

          Or was it year before?

      2. I can’t help thinking a better comparsion might be:

        in 1961 there were 5 criminals for every policeman.
        in 2017 there were 50 criminals for every policeman.

        And yes I did make those figures up, but you will get my drift.

        1. So what your saying is, the more police officers there are the higher the crime rate?
          Are the police committing the crimes and would crime drop if we reduced police numbers? 🙂

      4. gg, I can’t argue with your figures but a couple of points:

        1. Were we better served by the police back then? I remember my estate had its own small police station with a resident sergeant and a PC. They patrolled the estate and adjacent areas on bicycles on a daily basis. I can recall still the evening when I and a couple of friends were moved on and told to go home; all we were doing was sitting on the seat outside the chippy eating chips and chatting. Heavy handed but we certainly left the area, no arguing with the police from us. Today, the two houses with the office they used has been up for sale and development for several years. A patrolling policeman in that area today would be a cause for celebration.

        2. Your figures cover the best part of 60 years and it would be hard to argue against the literal change in the society in which we live over that time. The only drugs I knew about were in Mr Hutts’ chemist shop. Multiple member gangs arriving from London to create mayhem were not heard of nor expected.

        3. Then there’s the more recent figures that most people refer to:

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/30c90553a55336deb162ff435e48478f6e6ad6268cde6b956fba48de867b76cd.png

        1. Good evening Lass
          And when we catch them we don’t deport them. Why are the authorities so against the indigenous people?

          2. Because mostly they (still) think for themselves, and believe in the principles of democracy and eventually get a little annoyed when they are not enacted.

    4. Greatly expanded population from God knows where, stacked away in flats and jerry built housing.
      Colchester has certainly changed from when I first knew it; and not for the better.

      1. Greatly expanded population from God knows where…

        If the local Lidl is anything to go by, from all over the World. We had the Ghurkas from long ago, no problem with them, now it’s any number of nationalities and languages.

  20. US judge blocks Trump’s health insurance rule for immigrants

    It seems the US has problems with daft Judges as well

    Trump was introducing legislation that required all LEGAL migrants to have health insurance or can demonstrate they have funds to pay for their health care. Perfectly reasonable in my view why should they expect US taxpayers to fund their health care. The only objections were from the usual charities. Maybe these charities should fund their health care

    A federal judge in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday put on hold a Trump administration rule requiring immigrants prove they will have health insurance or can pay for medical care before they can get visas.

    Seven U.S. citizens and a nonprofit organization filed the federal lawsuit Wednesday contending the rule would block nearly two-thirds of all prospective legal immigrants.

    The lawsuit also said the rule would greatly reduce or eliminate the number of immigrants who enter the United States with family sponsored visas.

  23. “If I can think of a suitable answer to the naughtiest thing I have ever done which is interesting and not terminally politically damaging, I will bring it with me next time”…. Boris Johnson.

    That’s how you answer a question in 2019, kids…….

  24. General Election 2019 Timeline

    6th November Parliament will be dissolved this is also the start of the Purdah period

    7th November Receipt of writ The election writ – the legal documents authorise the holding of a general election or by-election – is issued declaring a vote will be held in each constituency.

    11 November – Notice of election The publication of notice of election must be given in constituencies no later than 4pm

    14 November – Candidates’ deadline All candidates wishing to stand in the election must have submitted their nomination papers by 4pm in order to stand in the election. This is also the deadline for those withdrawing from the election race or for anyone wishing to make an objection to a candidate standing.

    16 November – Candidate lists published Once all the nominations have been received and confirmed, the final lists of candidates will be published.
    You will be able to see the list of who is standing in your constituency by looking on your local authority website or on a noticeboard in their offices, where the names should be published.

    26 November – Voter registration deadline The final deadline to register to vote for the election, which you can do by visiting the Government website, is at midnight. If you do not register to vote by this date you will not be able to vote in the election on 12 December.

    4 December – Proxy voting deadline The deadline for those wishing to apply to vote by proxy for the first time is 5pm.
    There is scope to vote by proxy if you have not applied by this date if you suffer from an emergency which will prevent you from voting.

    2 December – Polling day The polls will open from 7.oo am to 10.00 pm. After they close at 10.00 pm exit polls will be published which will give the first indication as to what the final result will be. The results will then be published throughout the night and early hours of the morning.

    13 December – Result By mid-morning the following day we will know what the next Parliament is going to look like. If no majority is won the leader of the biggest party will enter into talks with others about forming a coalition government or a confidence and supply arrangement.

    1. The Critical Date is the !4th November

      The 14th November is the last date for candidates to withdraw so for all intents and purposes is the last date for tying to reach a deal with the Conservative

  25. Blue sky here now, thank goodness there is a clearance.

    Is it right that an election is a good thing during the Advent period..

    People will be clearing off for Christmas hols, the country always empties in December .. or the hospitals will be stretched to the limit , or the weather could be horrendous .

    December is a terrible time for an election.

    I really am very weary of listening to smug b#####d politicians .

    Why on earth are they burying their heads when the crimewave is growing , and reaching into every once tidy corner of Britain .

    Who is going to save us .. how can we protect ourselves ..

    Several villages had power outages yesterday , they didn’t have electric power for hours .. idiot politicians want to do away with coal and gas , many of us who are lucky enough to have gas hobs and coal fires and wood burning stoves find Green government policy unbelievable..

    Imagine if everyone is forced to have electric cars in a few years.. what chaos will reign .. Power outages will always be so !

    2. Destroying nations from within looks in line with the creation of rule by multi billionaire controlled world government.

      1. Peak winter demand used to be over 60GW a few years ago when I last checked.

        Might be a bit less now, but 31GW is a long way short of peak.

    4. Morning Maggie,

      Chaos is probably the intention. Keep us quiet, starved and housebound while the PTB decide who is allowed to work and pay tax to keep them in the manner to which they are accustomed.

    5. Morning T-B We had a 5 minute power cut several days ago and I understand that parts of Thirsk had a longer Power cut about the same week. Are they practicing.? The government’s Green policy is a sham. They have exported many of our industries to more polluting third world countries. The pollution caused in the production of these imported products should be calculated and added to the UK’s total. The true extent of of the UK pollution would then be revealed. Recycling is in chaos.

  26. The reason why Brits have a terrible choice this election is because Edmund was right….

    “All it takes for the triumph of evil is for good people to say nothing”….

    ….and now it is too late.

    1. ‘“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Attributed to Edmund Burke, including by John F Kennedy in a speech in 1961. Burke didn’t say it, and its earliest form was by John Stuart Mill, who said in 1867: “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” Thanks to Andrew Marshall.’

  27. I was reflecting yesterday on the result of the rugby against the so-called “Rainbow” nation (where, I suspect, the use of “rainbow” now found in the UK would be severely frowned on by blecks and non-blecks alike).

    Anyway, I wondered for how much longer yer non-blecks will be allowed to play for Sarf Efrica….

    Answers on a machete….

    1. Or an old tyre. The game is too hyped and heavy these days, how players are not seriously injured more often is a surprise to me. The scrum may as well be played as in rugby league as there is no pretence of the ball going in straight, or maybe the size of the pack should be reduced to save the time wasted in resetting collapsed scrums. England’s semi was a great game, but the final was a succession of penalties and not very entertaining. But rugby is rather like that! The sun is shining this morning so I shall get out to enjoy a few rays.

      1. I shudder to think how much time was wasted on scrums. Each seems to take about two whole minutes. And as the ball is fed to the back row, hooking has become redundant.

        1. A few more penalties for ‘not in straight’ would sort out the problem. But do they want to sort out that problem?

          1. From watching for the last thousand years – they don’t.

            I just don’t understand why they do not do away with the scrum and have a line out instead.

    4. Never was sure why they chose ‘Rainbow’ nation as a sobriquet. I don’t see any green or blue or indigo people in the townships. Not much white or black in a light spectrum neever.

  28. “The freeze in benefit payments is to come to an end next year, the government has confirmed.

    Working-age
    benefits such as universal credit and jobseeker’s allowance will rise
    by 1.7% from April 2020, the Department for Work and Pensions said.

    It ends former Tory chancellor George Osborne’s decision to introduce a freeze from April 2016.

    Labour called it a “cynically-timed” announcement ahead of the general election on 12 December.”

    On this occasion, Labour are correct.

    1. This was actually announced over a year ago that the freeze was ending. THey are just trying to link it to the election. The exact increase would not have been know as it is based on Octobers inflation figures

    2. Was that date not set out when the freeze was implemented? So not News, just a politically useful reminder?

    3. Labour is not correct. If anything it is the GE attention seeking party. The measure was announced earlier this year I seem to remember.

  29. The Conservative Party and much of the MSM are trying to push the line that a vote for the Brexit Party will mean a Corbyn government.

    BUT REMEMBER

    i) Boris rejected Nigel.

    Nigel Farage offered to withdraw his candidates in many constituencies in exchange for a commitment from Boris to a genuine Brexit – something that Boris said he would go for when he became Conservative Party leader. Indeed without this commitment to putting ‘No deal’ back on the table Boris would probably not have been elected party leader.

    ii) Boris’s ‘fantastic’ new deal is neither new nor fantastic.

    95% of it is a rehash of May’s WA thrice rejected by both remainers and leavers in Parliament. Nigel Farage has always been committed to Brexit. He has never claimed that he would find BRINO acceptable.

    iii) Is Boris’s ‘fantastic’ deal better than Remain?

    The more the May/Johnson surrender is examined in detail the more people who believe in a genuine Brexit are beginning to think that the Conservatives’ BRINO is no better than staying in the EU and starting again with proper negotiators to argue for decent terms for Britain.

    Looked at in that light Johnson’s project Ffear, as far a Brexit is concerned, is not likely to prove a vote winner.

    1. The WA when it first came out was described by some analyst as an “asset strippers’ charter”….

      …and who is the world’s biggest asset stripper ?

      Is it the same guy who has open door access to the European Commission with 71 top level meetings in 2018, up from 42 top level meetings in 2017.. ?

      As well as 226 “reliable allies” in the European Parliament.

      Is it possible that there’s a connection ?

      You bet !

  30. Thanks to research by JBF…..

    Stuart Mill said in 1867:

    “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

    Isn’t that exactly what’s happened to Britain, going way way back ?

      4. Many appear to be those poor disenfranchised foreigners to whom Labour want to give the vote.
        I just can’t think why.

    3. I try to avoid looking at clips like this. It makes your heart sink to know that there are people in our country who are that out of touch with the sobering reality.

      It is like looking at a happy, empty-eyed young woman with a bright smile on her face, who is about to go on a solo backpacking tour of islamic countries to show how safe they really are. You know what is coming, but you cannot get it through to them.

      2. Morning MM,

        Darwinism. Unfortunately if they are that stupid, they should go – for the sake of humanity generally. Though from what we have unwillingly imported, humanity in this country is getting less intelligent by the generation.

  32. Did anyone ever find out how Ed paid from an MP’s pay for that series of massively expensive racing yachts and that fabulous freehold house in Salisbury Cathedral Close ?

      1. Have you any evidence there was sponsorship for Ed’s yachts ?

        As he was PM, wouldn’t it be surprising for XYZ beer 🍺 ads to be plastered across his sails ?

          1. I read somewhere a while ago that Ed had a wealthy friend who was keen on the Kalergi plan.

            I’ll have to research it.

    1. Not at all. We should have open minds and keep abreast of news from around the world.

      1. Now where have we started to see similarly in the UK?

        This is actually quite common in the south because there isn’t a whole
        lot of gene diversity — or gene spread — in those tiny communities.”

  34. Is Greta really looking for a carbon-neutral way to get back across the Atlantic? Most of us sort out the return journey before we set off and I don’t believe for a moment that her handlers didn’t – but suggestions are fun anyway.

    Put her in a bottle? Tie her to a kite? Find a friendly shark/whale/dolphin? Just chuck her in the water and hope for the best?

    1. They could send out that diesel yacht – and fly a replacement crew – and then …..

      Good morning, Our Susan.

      I thought the Swedish muppet was going to Chile before returning to Eurp.

      1. Already done by a white privileged male.
        (You can’t get more privileged than having God as your father.)

  35. From the Sunday Grimes:

    The prospective sale of The Daily Telegraph has attracted unexpected interest from America.

    Steve Bannon, the mastermind of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, hopes to assemble a consortium to turn the newspaper into the global voice of Trumpian populism.

    “It’s one of the great untapped properties,” said Bannon, who co-founded Breitbart News, the US platform that has been accused of encouraging racism and white supremacy.

    Bannon believes that the traditionally Tory Telegraph, under new management, could become an international brand promoting populist nationalism.

    The forthcoming break-up of the business empire accumulated by the twins Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, 85, is expected to leave their flagship media outlet seeking a new owner for a minimum price of £100m — they paid £665m for it in 2004.

    Bannon claimed the Telegraph had moved to the right during the Brexit era for fear of competition from a UK edition of Breitbart, but had not moved far enough.

    He believes British rightwingers need to be rescued from Tory “grandees” reluctant to associate themselves with Trump. “It’s all that Oxford-Cambridge stuff,” he said.

    Less clear is whether Bannon can come up with the nine-figure asking price.

    “Not sure they really want to sell, so may be [a] total waste of time,” he added.

    Welcome to the far-right, extremist, foam-flecked Daily Telegraph

      1. One of the reasons that I avoid the stock market like the plague.

        Capital gains write off, I expect….

        1. The stock market has been up for a long time. We have just taken evasive action. When it drops, it may not recover in our life time. But where to go now?

    6. You mean, like Tucker Carlson in newsprint??
      And since when was Steve Bannon a far right extremist?

  36. A simplified urine test that may be relevant for you!

    Go outside and pee in the garden…..

    If ants gather: Diabetes.

    If you pee on your feet: Prostate.

    If it smells like a barbecue: Cholesterol.

    If, when you shake it, your wrist hurts: Osteoarthritis.

    If you leave the bathroom with your penis outside your pants: Alzheimers.

    1. Donny Osmond and Stevie Wonder what a combination! They wouldn’t have to telegraph it they could sing it. Do they still use the telegraph system and Wells Fargo stage coaches out west?

      Yuge? We tolerate your bastardisation of our language but that’s one yuge step too far.

      Wow! Just noticed you got three dots in your ellipsis, must be one of those two occasions per annum that you get it right. Next we’ll have to work on your distanced exclamation and question marks. Well, as you say Washington wasn’t built in a day.

    1. Intersectionality, Bill. We’re already all powerful remember. We have oodles of privilege – or oodles of something anyway.

  39. The elections so far are just like watching the I’m Spartacus scene with everyone standing up saying they are going to save the NHS.
    There is nothing new on offer, how can there be we only had an election a couple of years ago with the EU in control of virtually everything the only thing they can talk about is the NHS.

    1. OK, so you give us your insight on who to vote for so we can Leave the EU as per the vote in 2016.

        1. So that leaves TBP and UKIP and a few even more obscure ones.

          So I am in a 66% leave constituency with a Leave Tory MP who voted on occasions for May and Johnson’s “deals”. So I vote TBP, split the Leave vote and hand it on a plate to a Lab or Lib Remainer?

          So you trust Farage? The man who has never won a single constituency vote to be an MP.

          1. What party brought the
            referendum / Brexit into being with farage being it’s mouthpiece.
            Rhetorical question yesterday I asked
            what would happen if lab/lib/con were denied a single vote ?

          2. Farage would still keep us in the EU.
            Your mate had a bit of a rant on BB about Mr. F after the TBP manifesto thingy.

          4. Yes, he was soon off after his conceding defeat speech and his victory speech. Then reappeared JIT to start a new route to the trough.

          5. Not only the golden trough ogga, but promises of very important posts in Brussels -great for one’s ego!

          7. The man whose new party, The Brexit Party, has won more seats in the EU parliament than any other British party?

            Have you forgotten that in Cameron’s last election Farage’s old party, UKIP, won more votes than the SNP and the Lib’Dems combined. The system proudced over 60 seats for SNP/Lib.Dems and just one for UKIP? You can hardly blame Farage for the voting system! And there has been consdierable suspicion of vote tampering against Farage or his Party in virtually all the elections in which he has run.

            I certainly trust Farage considerably more than I trust Boris Johnson who is quite determined to sell Britain down the river with his non-Brexit BRINO.

          8. I said the man who has never won a single constituency vote. The BNP won seats in previous Euros. Here’s a simple question for you, say you are Nigel Farage, where would you go to get elected as an MP to the UK parliament? Emily Enso has just given me some more stuff on Farage to look up, I reckon if I read that the answer would be I wouldn’t trust either.
            Back in 2015 Farage had a visit to GCHQ, afterwards he said if we are to remain safe in the future we will have to give up some of our freedoms. Now what or who does he sound like?
            Yes £66K overspend, 6 ballot boxes allegedly went missing, what happened to the case? When was the last time Farage or anybody mentioned any of it?

    2. Clearly the existing political parties have completely lost the plot. Time for a wholesale change. (And O UKIP do not have sufficient support)

      2. UKIP voters are just as tribal as the others.

        They would much rather let in the Labcondumbs than ever vote for Nigel’s Brexit party.

          2. S,
            Do you agree to hearsay then ? much is
            lashing out rhetorically against a party that has been consistently right all the while the LLC have for years been consistently wrong.
            We would never have got into such a high
            state of sh!te as a nation without the continuing input from the mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella / PC / Appeasement coalition party & current members / voters.

        2. Usual rubbish, from one whom I believe
          has been supporting / voting for a party that has brought this country to it’s knees
          virtually in a submissive pose.

          Brexit group good,
          The “nige”far from good, for conformation
          re. Catherine Blaiklock founder leader of the brexit group.

          1. Would you vote UKIP in a seat where the BP was standing and had a good chance of a narrow win where UKIP would not?

          2. Me, personally, no. I’d have to vote BP.
            UKIP is currently imploding, unless the NEC can be removed.

        3. That’s not true.
          Many probably will vote for TBP, depending on constituency and local sentiment.
          In my constituency, as much as I don’t want to give Boris my vote, I at least have a Leave-supporting Tory MP, who voted against the WA 3 times. Given the opportunity, I would prefer to vote for TBP, as long as they’re not a mass immigration-supporting Lefty.

          1. Well, it was interesting that ogga1 didn’t answer my question and I stand by my observation. The UKIP people are just as tribal as the voters they prport to despise.

            Apologies for the late reply, notifications has only this instant reappeared.

      3. Afternoon S,
        Then the concerted effort by the MsM & the lab/lib/con coalition, & many supporter / members to suppress UKIP was / is a success ?
        “The existing political parties have lost the plot” and dangerously so, then they started on a campaign of destruction.
        Who is it that has joined / supported / voted for these parties
        over the last 4.5 decades knowing they are keeping in place those that want to destroy these Isles ?
        I will wager that UKIP will, when rid of it’s last remaining NEC problems, return to front line politics long before the lab/lib/con
        current members / voters ever show change.
        Quality will eventually win over quantity.

  41. Can anyone tell me any reason why any of the participating political hierarchy concerning brexit would wish to exit ?

  43. Dresden declares ‘N@zi Emergency’ amid growing far-Right threat. 2 NOVEMBER 2019.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0cd8b946650e71651642231e3f1274b4a5c92f98994d549d2e314429e62c8da.jpg

    The Dresden City Council has officially declared a ‘Nazi emergency’ amid fears over the rise of far-Right groups in the eastern German city.

    Voting in favour of an official motion, supporters said it was necessary to ‘strengthen civil society and democracy’ in the city.

    The motion demanded increases in funding for education and civil engagement, while it also called upon council authorities not to approve any marches featuring far-Right elements.

    In calling for federal support to tackle the crisis, the motion stated “anti-democratic, anti-pluralist, misanthropic and right-wing extremist values and actions, including violence in Dresden, are increasingly becoming apparent.”

    The photograph is interesting in that it implies some sort of armed insurrection! Nothing of the kind is happening of course, any more than there is a N@zi threat or a far-right takeover. What is happening is pretty much the same thing as is happening elsewhere in Europe. The Neoliberal supremacy is coming under attack and it’s trying to fight it off with its usual mixture of propaganda, disinformation and lies!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/02/dresden-declares-nazi-emergency-amid-growing-far-right-threat/

    1. Yes, I read about that yesterday. It’s those bloody troublesome Saxons! They are a problem wherever they are. Somebody needs to sort them all out!

  44. During a commercial airline flight an experienced Air Force Pilot was seated next to a young mother with a babe in arms. When the baby began crying during the descent for landing, the mother began nursing the infant as discreetly as possible.

    The pilot pretended not to notice, and, upon disembarking, he gallantly offered his assistance to help with the various baby-related items. When the young mother expressed her gratitude, the pilot responded, “That’s a good looking baby and he sure was hungry!”

    Somewhat embarrassed, the mother explained that her pediatrician said that the time spent on the breast would help alleviate the pressure in the baby’s ears. The Air Force Pilot sadly shook his head and in true pilot fashion exclaimed, “…And all these years, I’ve been chewing gum for that.”

  45. I make no apologies for reposting this in full from John Ward’s The Slog 03 /11/19:

    “The Sovereign body in first of all England and then Great Britain has appeared in various forms over the last 800 years. Its mobile nature is always based on changing wealth distribution, bribery, threats of violence and putting off the inevitable.

    ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

    King John (the one and only) thought he could variously promise, bamboozle, lie, evade and con those barons whose help he had used to ensure his brother Richard stayed in a dungeon far away while he took over. Eventually, one day in 1215 after too much runny meade had been consumed, they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: it’s your call Johnny – steel up the jacksie or we get to share power. So he gave Magna Carta his autograph and after that his power waned. She later morphed into The Great Council.

    John died in 1216 and was succeeded by his young son Henry. The senior/richer peers and clergy governed on Henry’s behalf until he came of age.

    The genie was out of the bottle: it gave them a taste for power, and over the centuries the forced migration of power became a conventional part of British life. Or put another way, an addiction that caused every nouveau riche to reckon he or she could run things better than the anciens who had won the right to raise taxes off King John.

    From the start and forever afterwards, power was about munneeee, and vice versa.

    Thus the Great Council became the House of Lords, but the ‘knight’ and merchant class of commoners wanted their own sphere of influence – so by 1341, the Commoners met separately from the nobility and clergy for the first time. This Upper Chamber became known as the House of Lords from 1544 onward, and the Lower Chamber became the House of Commons.

    But there remained a sort of push-and-shove triad in which the landowners and the commercial classes used wealth to gain influence…..and the monarch (who wanted to conquer more territories via war) had to ask their permission to raise taxes.

    Henry VIII then came along and put his obsessive search for an heir via six wives into the mix. The Church of Rome – pretty much like the Commission in Brussels today – saw itself as answerable only to God, and thus free to give national royalties a thick ear every now and then. The pontiff refused Henry’s plea for a divorce, and so H8 formed a bourgeois social club of those protesting against this, called protestants….and later, the Church of England.

    As the CofE lost more and more lands and worshippers, so too its influence declined to the point where, today, it begs everyone to be less materialist – and sides on all occasions with those who, like them, don’t have much in the way of spondooliks. This has ensured its complete irrelevance to the prosecution of political power.

    The main spanner in the works was that a lot of catholics refused to become second class citizens or indeed recognise the CofE as anything other than a Hellfire Club of heathens. Worse still, Henry’s later successors felt real power lay with Rome, and either openly or secretly continued to worship in the Catholic manner.

    Exceptions to this rule were his daughter Elizabeth – a surrealist who threw her drake at an Armada to save us all from the Spanish Acquisition – and James I, who so annoyed the Catholics, they used knives and fawkes in a plucky bid to blow up Parliament with James inside it.

    After that, left-footers in England kept a much lower profile; but later, Stuart Kings hid his catholicism behind a pointy beard while plotting to restore the Church of Rome. This resulted in a Civil War between some overdressed royalists fops and their dour opponents with rounded heads. Their somewhat languid and cavalier approach to fighting battles led to defeat for Stuart, who completely lost his head as a result of the unpleasantness.

    Although billed as a religious tiff, the English Civil War was in fact the powerful landowning and merchant classes deciding they’d had enough of Divine Monarchs wasting their munneeee. As the 18th century dawned, Monarchs were increasingly imported until they became fully Constitutional, and thus almost as irrelevant as the Church of England. Thus, even though the third George mislaid the American colonies, went mad, and sired a fourth George of great obesity and depravity, the Monarchy turned into a multi-part series for television, The Royal Family…..and until quite recently, lived happily ever after.

    ***

    Perhaps you can see a trend developing here. King John put off devolving some power to those with money, and thought being resolute would keep him absolute. The Church of Rome put off the reformation required to keep those of wealth in the tent pissing out, while Catholic kings in turn refused to turn their backs on divinity. Those of round heads then bought toupées and became Whigs, while cavaliers stopped wearing effeminate hats and settled into a life of landowning exploitation called Conservatism.

    The old powers put off adapting, and became political eunuchs. Now it was time for the new powers to put off a reaction to the realities of the Industrial Revolution.

    Mechanisation and a growing population saw a gradual shift in the balance of power between city-dwelling manufacturers, and retailers supplying goods in mass numbers to the lower orders, who became over time less willing to take orders from those above them, such capitalist Whigs in turn entertaining similar doubts about taking orders from bucolic aristos who had moved on from gay headgear to questionable beauty spots. Some of the new manufacturing classes in turn wanted to buy the beauty spots owned by the Toffs in order to build factories thereupon.

    The newly united Kingdom was growing an empire via the need for raw materials, and creating a working class of cheap labour for the factories the new rich were building. The military officer class was still largely recruited from the old rich. A lot of lions were being led by donkeys who ordered them to charge the wrong objective with the weapons of the previous war. As time went on, this tendency caused a degree of bad feeling. The shires Tories able to swan into the House of Lords based on generations of inbreeding were slow to catch onto the new breed of politician breeding their own electors through the medium of buying votes with munneeeee.

    After the French who eschewed underwear started forcibly culling their aristos, some Whigs became enamoured of that approach, and began calling themselves radicals, Foxes and Wilkes. Fearful of the spread of this diabolical Gallic infection, a very upmarket Wellie was sent overseas to stick the boot into a bony Corsican upstart, eventually defeating him in a close-run battle at Waterloo station.

    So grateful was the British nation, the Wellie became Prime Minister, and thus the inevitable increase in electoral enfranchisement was put off. Until 1832, when a Whig Electoral Reform Bill was introduced into Parliament and seemed on the verge of being rejected. A gigantic Mob of Gordons Gin fans made camp around the Westminster Palace, threatening the inhabitants with malign intentions, mass murder, and multivariate mayhem.

    Lord Wellie took the hint, and allowed the Bill’s passage. Ever since, loitering within tent around the Houses of Parliament has been a crime….except in the cases of E. Heath and A. Blair, where it was allowed on the grounds of Executive Privilege.

    ***

    Despite the obvious historical fact of political life – that putting off leads to potential demise – such can-kicking is equally obviously addictive for the Turkeys.

    Since 1832, the British political class has:

    put off coming to a naval arms race accord that might have stopped the First World War
    put off arriving at a Jewish homeland solution in the 1920s that might have saved millions of Holocaust-ended lives
    put off stopping Hitler until it was too late
    put off a reconsideration of the Special Relationship with the US
    put off the reform of State pensions until it resulted in a gross injustice meted out to 3.6 million women
    put off the imposition of affordable and skill-based immigration restrictions
    put off regulation of financial services malfeasance
    put off an investment in rebalancing the UK economy
    put off dealing with Islamic demands and Jihadism, preferring appeasement to action
    put off concerted action on democratic reform in the EU until it became a divisive issue
    put off recognising a People’s decision made in 2016 for Brexit
    put off preparations to deal with the inevitable global econo-fiscal crisis on the horizon.
    Putting off the inevitable is what our political class does best.

    This means that, at the best of times for we the citizenry, it tends to turn into the worst of times.

    Enjoy the rest of Sunday.”

    1. Dunno about 1832 but it all went bad in 1852 and then we end up fighting for Turkeys instead of letting Russia drive them back to Turkmenistan. WWI could have been avoided by an agreement between the three cousins and they could have carved the world up and stopped the Yanks and their warmongering.

        1. Too damn right. I’ll invite you onto BB the next time I go dumb a$$ed Yank hunting. But then again you maybe sound like you believe in Special Relationships.

    1. Save me wasting my time reading some guardian shiiite why do you think him not standing shows brains and logic?

  47. Corbyn’s fake Trump wants to take over the NHS story

    The claim by Corbyn that Trump wants to take over the NHS plays well to a segment of his audience who tend to belive these scare stories without any proof or even checking them.

    A simple sanity check is that the US has many trade deals including one with Canada and the US has not intervened with the running of the health services in any of these countries

    Corbyn know of course as does the media that much of the Labour vote will be receptive to these stories

    3. Now, you know why it is Haram(ish) to use the onboard cludge, whist the train is spanding in the station, especially, if you have had Vindaloo

      1. Nowadays in general it does not matter as most trains are now fitted with holding tanks. The last ones that don’t are being phased out.. Heritage lines probably dont have on board toilets as the journeys are short

        2. ‘Nowadays in general it does not matter’

          Tell that to the bloke from Widdrington in my link below, who was sprayed just last week with what at first he thought was water as he walked his dogs. He soon found out that the water had an admixture of other items.

          When trains in general travelled at speeds below three figures the effluent tended to stay on the railway’s property, but with speeds of up to 125mph that no longer holds true and there are still a lot of trains that dispose of their waste the old-fashioned way.

          1. There are only about a 100 trains in current use that still deposit waste on the tracks and they are due to be phased out over the next 18 months

        3. The title of the article, to which I replied

          Train firms backtrack over pledge to ban raw sewage on railway lines

          1. They are all due to be phased out by the end of next year. There has been some slippage due to late deliveries of new trains but they are now coming into service. On short lines non compliant toilets are being locked out of service

            As new trains are delivered to Greater Anglia the old trains which are compliant are being deployed to Wales

        4. Heritage lines do have on board toilets, they drop their waste on thetracks, but are closed while approaching or standing in stations. Track-workers will still be well-advised to turn their backs towards approaching trains in the time-honoured fashion.

          An example; https://www.nymr.co.uk/faqs/facilities

      1. There’s another bit to it:

        Passengers will please refrain from passing water while the train
        Is standing at the station here in Crewe,
        Please postpone this natural function
        Till we’re off to Clapham Junction
        Because there won’t be too much else that you can do,

  50. Good morning everybody

    Every single leading comment on Today’s letters stresses that Boris’s ‘fanatstic deal’ is not Brexit at all and that those who really want a proper Brexit must vote for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2019/11/03/lettershow-can-brexiteers-get-want-general-election/

    Here is an example:

    Alien One 3 Nov 2019 5:49AM

    I can’t get my head around this view that because Boris tells us he is offering Brexit, when he clearly is not, we should all vote for the conservatives to get Brexit.

    What don’t these people understand? Boris is not offering Brexit. He is offering more division, expense and endless negotiation. His ‘fabulous ‘ deal will cause resentment in Ireland, resentment from the fishing industry and fuel more demands from the SNP.

    Look further than your noses and see down the line. Get informed and don’t believe the bluster. If you truly want to leave the EU, there is only one party offering this and that is the Brexit Party.

    1. The snag to your highly desirable argument is….

      ….reality.

      In theory the BP is offering Brexit, but there is no reasonable hope of the BP acquiring power.

      So in reality, the BP is not offering Brexit…

      …because it can’t.

      1. But they might get enough seats to impose a proper Brexit on the Conservatives.

        Everybody must hold firm and not give in to the Johnson Project Fear about a Corbyn government.

        If Johnson does not want a Corbyn government he must make an electoral pact with Farage.

        1. I think it’s perfectly possible Boris has had the phone call…. and if so that would explain everything.

    2. Here’s another view, through, in my opinion, rose tinted glasses, of Johnson’s “deal”. Any “deal” with the EU is akin to putting one’s head into the crocodile’s mouth and hoping for the best. A “deal” was not on the ballot and has been the faux Leavers’ weapon of choice to stop Brexit. This article pre-supposes that Johnson is a true Leaver and will ‘play hardball’ to extricate us from the stumbling EU. I imagine it’s this idea that Johnson has used to persuade the ERG Spartans to support his stance.

      BrexitCentral – Johnson to Play Hardball with EU?

      1. Difficult to play hardball if your bat has been confiscated, which is effectively what his capitulation does.

      2. I feel a particular and intense contempt and disgust towards those who have betrayed my trust.

        Baker, Francois and Rees-Mogg hold a particularly low place in my estimation at the moment.

    3. When I looked, at the comments under John Curtice’s piece, CCHQ had got in on the act and there were loads of comments about how a vote for the brexit party is a vote for corbyn. Project Fear in full swing.

      1. You can tell when then those who want to keep us under EU control have run out of arguments, they are forced to go back to that last lie of desperation: “If you don’t vote Conservative then you get Labour.” They cannot defend what a prison sentence this Withdrawal Agreement is, not when they have been offered a full WTO Brexit in a few weeks by working with Nigel Farage. That shows clearly that they do not want us to be free again.

        For the Labour party to even have a chance of equalling their poor performance of the last time, they would need to remove the stake that has been driven through its heart by the hard-core marxists. Labour cannot reverse 3 years of becoming ever more extreme in five weeks. Although I am sure that the pro-EU media will produce polls saying that they have.

      2. According to the Mail today:

        “Boris has been told that his magic number for the Election is 330. ‘That’s the minimum number of seats he’s going to have to win,’ a Tory MP told me last week.”

        So the ideal result would be:

        Conservatives – 270 Seats The Brexit Party 100 seats which would give a coalition an overall majority of 40 – comfortable enough to govern and bring in a genuine Brexit.

        Hold your nerve NoTTLers – I have been disenfranchised but most of you have the vote and can and must vote for the Brexit Party if you want a proper Brexit and not a shabby BRINO..

        1. Well, the thing is, as you have pointed out. there are only two real Brexiteer options.
          1. A vote for the Brexit Party. A vote for a clean departure and no WA.
          2. A vote for the Lib/Dems. A vote to remain until such time as truly Brexit-oriented party can act to remove us the day after being elected.

          A vote for the Tory Party is to vote for a party whose Government had three consecutive Prime Ministers who have betrayed democracy, the United Kingdom, and the voters.

  52. Nigel Farage is accused of lying by his rivals and the MSM but it strikes me that he is considerably more truthful than most of his antagonists.

    You know most of these lies already and they barely scratch the surface of their mendacity. Nevertheless they exemplify the truthfulness, integrity and honesty of the three most recent Conservative Party leaders:

    Cameron:

    We shall carry out the result of the referendum. It is your decision.

    Parliament will respect the way you vote.

    Vote to stay in a reformed EU.

    [He had just returned from his negotiations with the EU having won not a singe reform]

    May

    Brexit Mean Brexit.

    No deal is better than a bad deal.

    We shall leave the EU on 29th March 2019

    Johnson

    No deal is back on the table. [He declared yesterday that it is off it again!]

    I have got a fantastic new deal [Apart from only partly addressing the Red Herring of the Irish backstop The Boris ‘fantastic’ New Deal is not new at all – it is 95% the same as the May WA]

    We shall leave the EU on 31st October 2019 deal or no deal – I’d rather be dead in a ditch otherwise A ditch or a ha ha?

    The only way to get Brexit done is to vote for the Conservative Party. [This is a blatant lie. BRINO is not Brexit. It is indeed worse than staying in the EU – the only practical way to get a proper Brexit is with a coalition between the Conservatives and the Brexit Party – but as Johnson has rejected this a vote for the Conservative Party is the best way of ensuring that a proper Brexit does not happen]

  53. I noticed that our t-p had a comment on the DT Letters page this morning. Has she been blocked on this site as I havent seen any comments on here for a few days?

      1. I think she may have needed a break from what is, sadly, becoming a rather negative, one-note site.
        Constantly repeating the same message is a turn off.
        There are other things to discuss beside “We hate Bozza” and “the World is run by a geriatric billionaire”.
        Serious matters they may be – possibly even true – but it has become rather tedious.
        Many poster have become friends. I love posting here and pinging serious and silly ideas back and forth, but that erudite and witty side of NOTTL is being swamped by monomania.
        Toodle pip for a good few hours – possibly for the day. We have ‘company’ in about an hour’s time and I’m in the midst of preparations.

          2. You are right about the obsessions.

            Rugby, the weather, trombettis, and, er, scratches head….

  54. Nigel Farage is nothing but a loud noise seeking attention
    again. I shan’t forget how he stabbed UKIP in the
    back. He’s as self serving and treacherous as the rest of them.

    1. Afternoon A,
      My belief on reflection is he has always been a coxswain for the tories following the tory PC / Appeasement route,
      the Batten / Robinson personal adviser link triggered his rant.
      The “nige” while castigating Tommy Robinson was not above himself using one martyn heale,check him out.

    2. What distinguishes him from the rest is the fact that he sincerely believes in a proper Brexit and can see very clearly that Boris Johnson is not offering anything more that a BRINO which will keep us in vassalage for the foreseeable future.

      Whether or not we like Nigel Frage at a personal level is irrelevant. What is relevant is that he might help us get a proper Brexit and not the shameful disgrace that Boris Johnson’s humiliating ‘fantastic new deal’ ( = Rehashed May surrender) will impose upon us.

    3. He is simply following his Brexit agenda. He did the right thing to dump UKIP
      when it went bad. And he has never had becoming an M.P. or P.M. his main objective.
      He is sticking to being a one-horse jockey.
      I think you and others have misunderstood, and expected too much from him.
      The Brexit Party will be the best protest vote we ever had. (Remember when the Dumb Libs always
      held that position ?

      1. UKIP didn’t “go bad.” He abandoned the party, did nothing to help it, then stuck the knife in when Gerard Batten successfully revived it.
        UKIP was the only party standing up for a true Brexit, and for free speech. It’s been destroyed by factions inside, and I’m not referring to the so-called far right from the EDL and BNP who were specifically banned from joining, unlike all the other parties, and relentless bad coverage by the media.
        They were a challenge to the status quo of the big main parties, so they had to be destroyed one way or another. The PTB have been entirely successful.

          2. Afternoon M,
            From the outset on the 24/6/2016 when
            he walked away muttering.
            Then he walked away to ” get his life back”
            Likes a lot of walking does “nige”
            Then UKIP took off under Gerard Batten
            it was as if someone had released the handbrake on a steep hill, funny that.

          3. Not so much that, as being self-serving. I’m certain that Farage wants a proper Brexit.
            But I’ve seen and heard it said by a number of people who know him that he revels in the limelight, and doesn’t like sharing it. He is very egotistical.
            It made no sense not for him to have gone back to UKIP when it was obvious that Brexit wasn’t happening…except he objected to being restrained by the NEC. It seems they are the real infiltrators and determined to run the party into the ground. They’ve ousted Richard Braine after just 3 months.
            Farage is not a details man. I don’t know what was really going on within UKIP, but somebody has been working on the inside to bring it down, and Farage didn’t try to stop them.

  55. Tory MP Ross Thomson quits after ‘grope’ claim by Labour MP Sweeney

    Scottish Conservative MP Ross Thomson is to stand down after being accused of sexually assaulting a Labour MP in a Commons bar.
    Mr Thomson said he had made the “hardest decision of my life” not to contest the seat for Aberdeen South at the general election.
    Labour MP Paul Sweeney had said he reported Mr Thomson to Westminster’s standards watchdog following the alleged incident last October.
    Mr Thomson denies any wrongdoing.

  56. Party support: 2 November 2019

    Con 37% (possible range 33-41%)
    Lab 26% (possible range 22-30%)
    Lib-Dem 17% (possible range 13-21%)
    Brexit 11% (possible range 7-15%)
    SNP 4% (possible range 3-5%)
    Green 4% (possible range 0-8%)
    PC 1% (possible range 0.5- 1.5%)
    UKIP 1% (possible range 0- 2% Not Known at present how many seats UKIP will fight))
    TIGfC 0% (possible range 0- 2% Not Known at present how many seats they will fight))

    2. Never mind all that, BJ, (and what on earth is the PC party, btw?) what about The Monster Raving Loony Party? My Idiot Son Olaf Junior is thinking of joining them and dropping his current support for the Pizza and Kebab party.

      :-))

        2. I shall convey your explanation to The Master (Mr Lime) your worship. I didn’t know that French parties stood in UK elections.

    3. I wonder if Boris can do the sums:

      On Bill Jackson’s figures (Source or link please?)

      These figures would suggest:

      Lab 26 % + Lib-Dem 17% + SNP 4% = 47%
      Without the Brexit Party on side…Con = 37%

      EASY VICTORY FOR REMAINER COALITION

      But with Conservative/Brexit Alliance Con 37% + Brexit Party 11% = 48%
      Remainer Coalition………………………………………………………………….= 47%

      NARROW VICTORY FOR LEAVE COALITION

      Very early days but it looks as if the arrogance of Boris Johnson with his desire to impose a disastrous BRINO upon the country could lead to his undoing.

      Joker Boris will have to find another ha ha in which to play possum!

        1. There is a third option – a Remain Parliament with BJ in charge of a minority government with Brexit taken off the table…

          Cavaliers and RoundheadsDickheads…..

          1. Reminds me of pillow fights in the dorm at prep school. Whether you were a Roundhead or a Cavalier was determined by the surgery you had had or had not had as a baby.

          3. You had to display the evidence before you were allocated to one side or the other. In those days far more boys had the snip than today and so the armies were relatively evenly matched. I cannot remember a Roundhead ever complaining that he had been mutilated.

          4. I thought “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” was a game played between boys and girls.

          5. “…and after careful consideration, we have decided that we will never be able to get an acceptable deal through Parliament and so, in the best interests of the country, we have decided to withdraw article 50 and to move forward with our European friends…”

          7. I only hope in this instance that I’m as accurate as she was.

            You should bet your 10 Euros on that outcome, just in case.

          8. Borisopoly

            Go straight to Gaol. Do not pass Go. Do not pick up £200. You have not won Third Prize in a beauty competition. Stay in prison for the foreseeable future.

      2. This poll just shows Boris is walking a tight rope it could go either way. He has untill early on the 4th to do a deal with the Brexit Party

      3. All the polls show the Lib-Dems static on about 31 seats so not doing that well. They were bound to bounce back a bit from 2017 when they were almost wiped out

        1. My great hope is that they will go into this election with their number including the turncoats and come out of it with all the turncoats wiped out and if not down on their “own” at least no gains.

  57. Researching the highly paid (non) jobs of two very senior ex politicos in completely unrelated organizations threw up a totally amazing coincidence…

    A very surprising person, not GS, is a senior exec in both !

      1. He’s one of the senior ex politicos. In DC too !

        Same as you know who.

        I don’t think I can really name the link person, but I thought it was an incredible coincidence, especially as the two organizations are totally different.

    1. Cumbria County Council
      “However, we felt that the need for coking coal, the number of jobs on offer and the chance to remove contamination outweighed concerns about climate change and local amenity.”
      Good for them.

      1. Boris will succeed in doing what both Napoleon and Hitler failed to do: with the help of his EU friends he will disarm Britain and leave her totally impotent in military terms.

        Why aren’t the ERG and the MSM waking up to the fact that their BRINO deal is treachery and treason? Or don’t they care?

          2. Good evening Bill.

            Do you remember the play, A Man For All Seasons, by Robert Bolt? There was a very slimy and treacherous character in the play called Sir Richard Rich who betrayed England to his Welsh friends. He was addressed with this line:

            “It profiteth a man nothing if he gain the world and lose his soul ……. But for Wales?

          4. It was a great era for such plays.

            Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons;

            Peter Shaffer, The Royal Hunt of the Sun;

            John Osborne, Luther.

      2. I recently read some apparatchik stating that the EU has the third largest nuclear deterrent behind the USA and Russia. That implies that they already consider British and French weaponry to be part of their armoury.

        I can’t track the link.

  60. Apparently from the Sunday Times in 2005………

    Allegedly…..

    “Heath grew rich on insider deals

    JON UNGOED-THOMAS

    July 24 2005, 1:00am, The Sunday Times

    A previously unpublished letter shows his involvement in a scheme that enriched privileged investors at the expense of public shareholders. He used a secret nominee account for the transactions, which would be illegal today.

    Heath, who died last Sunday, enjoyed an affluent lifestyle, with homes in Mayfair and Salisbury. The source of his wealth has been the subject of speculation dating back to 1969 when he first bought Morning Cloud, an expensive racing yacht.

    New details have now emerged of how Heath enjoyed a return of up to 65% on short-term investments using inside information from a leading City firm. A letter on Commons paper to a financier shows his involvement in the scheme.

    In the letter dated February 12 1969,”

    The article fades out behind the paywall.

  61. Formula One Management announces new regulations. As well as car design, the following wrt drivers.

    Following the news that next year’s pre-season testing period is to be two days shorter, and in-season testing dropped, there had been concerns young drivers would have fewer opportunities to get time behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car and thus hamper their chances of stepping up – but the 2021 rules have moved to make provisions for that…

    In 2019, teams were required to run young drivers for at least two of the four days of in-season testing, but they were not obliged to do so in Friday free practice sessions – where from 2020 drivers can earn points towards their Formula 1 super licence – or pre-season testing.

    Shame they couldn’t see their way to introducing a regulation for mixed teams so that each team should have one female driver and one man driver.

  62. Technical question.

    Not only are my NoTTL “thumbs” disappearing at a rapid rate, but “notifications” have stopped.

    Is it just me?

          7. You leave tools out of his.

            I have discovered a simple technical solution. Increase the volume.

            Works amazingly well – and I watched the clip and thought how wise I am to keep my money under the mattress.

          12. All too familiar. Losing money on my shares ISA. Blasted annoying.

            Interest rates are suppressed by the government wanting to keep borrowing. Share performance is affected by Brexit. The fact that the Conservatives deliberately sabotaged both – first through apathy and the second through letting the loathsome Benn act through is putrid.

    3. I had a spell of notifications not coming through during last week, but it all seems to be back to normal now.

  63. Notifications shows me with, at the moment, 1 Notifications.
    I look, read it, it disappears. As normal.
    But the no 1 has shown six times now, and it is always the same item.

  64. Top London Postcodes where you can still buy a home for under £300,000

    There are still some postcodes where more than half of homes are sold for less than the stamp duty threshold for a first property.

    Those postcodes were all in east or south-east London and included Thamesmead in SE28, Dagenham, Becontree RM9, Barking IG11, Belvedere, Lessness Heath DA17, Erith DA8 and Dartford DA1.

      1. ” Barking is
        highly ethnically diverse. In the 2011 census, the largest ethnic group
        in Abbey ward (which covers Barking town centre) was Pakistani at 17%,
        followed by 16% White British, 15% Black African, 13% Indian and 11%
        Other White.[30] Gascoigne ward (southern Barking) was 26% White British, 26% Black African and 13% Other White.[31] Longbridge ward (eastern Barking) was 35% White British, 18% Bangladeshi and 11% Pakistan”

  65. Prima donna / divas have now decided that Ladies and Gentleman are no longer politically correct!

    What on earth can they be thinking?

    Do the French have similar problems these days?

    Theatres will BAN the phrase ‘ladies and gentlemen’ under new guildelines from actors’ union Equity
    New Equity guidelines advise theatres against using ‘ladies and gentleman’
    LGBT campaigners say the phrase excludes people who don’t identify as either
    Guide also advises against compliments on ‘appearance, voice or being brave’
    Many theatres pledged ‘to create environment welcoming trans people’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7644549/Ladies-gentlemen-banned-theatre-actor-union-Equitys-new-gender-neutral-guide.html

    1. The story appears in the Sunday Grimes. A very good BTL comment asks, “How does a tiny minority has such influence?”

      1. Bill , the tiny minority are the faces we see on Climate change marches .. pink yachts, gluing themselves to train roofs, collecting Damehoods/ Knight hoods from the palace .. and , who are all staunch Corbynites!

        1. Personally, I would have dealt with of the train roof loonies, by sending the train on its way. If the Indians and Pakistanis can get from A to B hanging onto trains, Brit demonstrators ought to be able to as well.

          Pity about the tunnels…

    2. Complete bloody rubbish. The world has not gone mad, but most of the inhabitants are ruled by idiots.

    3. It is a great pity that the “normal” audience could not boycott all theatres for a month and see whether Equity will continue to be so keen.

      1. My friend Rudyard Kipling just penned me this –

        ” If you can keep your genitalia all about you
        While all your friends are losing theirs
        And if you do not fall into temptation
        And change your trousers for a fluffy skirt
        If you refuse to reassign your gender
        And stay as G-d intended and enjoy,You’ll be a Man, my son.”

        2. It seems to me that when so many of our parliamentarians are lesbians and homosexuals of various descriptions that as with the Referendum to Leave the EU the mass of the population are not properly represented.

          Hence the impression that we live in mad times is derived from a total failure of representation of the majority by our elected parliamentarians who kow-tow to their own prejudices and narrow self interested views on every subject.

          2. We might have thought the same about Nick Clegg except none among us believed he had so many conquests. I suspect that Boris is at least liked by the ladies, enjoying champagne in the bubble bath, whereas Clegg was obnoxious in every way, similar to Cameron in fact.

          3. Clegg didn’t appear to have a sexy bone in his body .. absolutely flat and uninteresting .. no humour .. rather like Cameron!

            Boris has that creeps in half wanton look .. a Satyr.. Yep, Greek mythology describes them all!

          4. I think of Boris as a sort of Polonius figure as portrayed by Henryk Sienkiewicz in Quo Vadis. Imbibing in some Bacchanalian stupor whilst submerged in a bath of rose petal filled water.

  66. I won’t post the link, but this one has come up on the Guardian –

    ” Footage leaked of Israeli officer shooting Palestinian in the back ”

    I am over the moon. At long, long, last the media have returned to normal.
    For months and months I have been looking daily for the usual anti-Israel propaganda.
    Not a thing. It worried me. Ever since antisemitism was brought up as a stick to beat Corbyn with,
    silence of the grave instead of anti-Israel propaganda. Not even a wailing Gaza infant to be seen.

    Back to normal again. I feel more comfortable now.

    2. Did the reporter expect to wait the Israeli until the the Palestinian turns around and shoots him?

      1. Standard Guardian/BBC pro-Palestinian propaganda.
        Remember a few months back a Palestinian terrorist approached a checkpoint and fired at the soldiers. One fired back and ” neutralised ” the terrorist. BBC headline was ” Israelis shoot Palestinian “. It was spotted and they took it down quick, That was an example of institutional anti-semitism, not in Labour but in the BBC.

        2. Indeed.
          But that cat cheese one is the best I’ve seen for a very long time. It made me laugh out loud.

      3. Thanks, but deputy I will remain. Rik, who I hope will return soon, has a fund of sites to plunder, especially cats.

      2. Home made cottage pie , purple sprouting broccoli , spinach and carrots..

        Just something simple .. Moh had to sort the broken drain pipe and guttering , the roses and wisteria that blew down in the wind yesterday !

          1. But not at 52p they don’t. I love it how you folk have to use Waitrose. Aldi did have “pure” watercress but not recently.

          2. I use w/rose because I am familiar with it, as it is right opposite my former practice. I know 1/2 the staff & they know me as many are former patients.

        1. She doesn’t have a problem with spicy things. Plus once a day she is on high nutrient low calorie biscuits. She poos like a bunny wabbit.

        2. You can use fish, meat, poultry , game or vegetable. It’s all about the sauce. About 21 different ingredients and 3 stages of cooking. A bit of work i know but you can do it over 2 or 3 days. You get better results that way.

          2. I don’t think so.

            This is a curry much like a Massaman. Intricate and involved but well worth the effort.

            When i do it i always make sure i have enough for the freezer.

  69. Must be hard for many of the electorate to know just who to trust what with

    The wretch cameron saying we are ALL in this together, could that be meaning ALL the politico’s.

    The “nige” saying on resigning from UKIP “I want my life back” could that be meaning….. in brussels.

    1. Where one has balls, perhaps others may follow.

      We need something to kick these creeps between the legs, just enough to hurt a bloke but not enough to touch a woman.

      There’s an investment idea for “Dragon’s Den”

      2. It’s astonishing. This is the basic, plain truth. Only women can give birth.

        The pretence that a man pretending to be a woman can is just madness.

  71. India’s capital New Delhi was enveloped in heavy, toxic smog yesterday/SUN – the worst levels in recent years – with flights diverted or delayed as

    politicians blamed each other for failing to tackle the crisis.

    Every winter, the megacity of 20 million people is blanketed by a poisonous smog of car fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from stubble burning at farms in neighbouring states.

    Now this would be an ideal place to hold one of the weekly jetset get togethers by Climate Change Gurus, who want to put the world right (in their view)

    They can tell India how it must behave, bringing the Extinction Rebellion Loons as well, wiil be sorted in a week

    Thence to China….

    Silly me the Asian countries will either ignore them, lock them up or just drive over them with a tank..

    Back to the Madrid Waldorf then

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/03/flights-delayed-new-delhi-enveloped-toxic-smog/

    1. Nothing new here. New Delhi was heavily polluted 20 years ago when I spent time there. Overwhelming smell of woodsmoke and two strokes everywhere.. One of our company’s execs was “stationed” there and he refused to bring his family (with young kids) over for that very reason. BUT an awful lot more residents own cars than back then. Must be utterly grim these days.

    2. Duchess of Sussex, Emma Thompson ,Robert Redford, Martin Sheen and the rest .. what are they doing apart from annoying the Western world.. and trying to reduce us back to third world status .. and the era of the carthorse, loin cloth and square wheel.

      1. The Maurya in New Delhi is a lovely and very luxurious hotel – they should all go and stay there. Permanently.

    3. The lefty greens would be surprised when instead of letting them carry on as they want the rest of th epopulation shoulder them aside and throw their things away – or more likely just take them.

  72. Number two today, from the Guardian –

    “Palestinian killed in Israeli air strikes on ‘wide range’ of Hamas targets”
    No previous reporting of the rockets fired over the Gaza border into Israel, the previous days.

    Just keeping check. The one-sided reporting is back again.

    3. Evening TB,
      They have gone to the dogs , I have one notification that cannot seem to be erased it takes one back to some
      reptile going under the user name of something like
      old coot, zoot, clut, still, no worries better times acomming.

    2. ‘Unauthorised encampments can cause misery to those who live nearby,
      with reports of damage to property, noise, abuse and littering,’ Ms
      Patel toldthe Sun on Sunday

      Not to mention petty theft, violence, burglaries and criminal damage.

      1. Not to mention forced entry into an elderly couples home and then the little shit was stabbed to death with his own screwdriver. Yay !!! one up for the taxpayer.

      2. Well, yes, but what’s going to be done about them?

        Let’s look at the situation: we have the london Mayor who could have prevented the Extintion nonsense group from even stopping through mass arrests and police rebuttal. Instead he invited them and allowed them to break the law. It doesn’t matter what the home secretary wants. Those responsible are on the ground and all too often they’re lazy, overpaid troughers with an agenda.

        1. I must admit that I belong to the” let the locals use a flame-thrower” school of eviction for these groups.

          1. Here we go to the sheriff, make a formal complaint and squatters and similar (including tenants who don’t pay their rent) are evicted. At gun point if necessary. Piles of belongings on pavements are not an uncommon sites in the less affluent areas.

    3. I am already a member, Tony, for she seems to be determined to act tough in fighting crime unless many of her predecessors, e.g. one Theresa May.

  75. Note – Nicky Morgan’s almost gone, but this is a great read (as usual I’m late reading it myself):

    In an uncharacteristic fit of almost-robustness, Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan has said she is ‘open-minded’ about scrapping the BBC licence fee and replacing it with a Netflix-style subscription service. Good idea. What would we actually miss if we didn’t subscribe?

    Not an awful lot in my view. Some people cite David Attenborough’s nature documentaries but I certainly wouldn’t now that they have become so obtrusively propagandistic. The problem with the BBC isn’t — and never has been — lack of talented filmmakers, wildlife camera crews, presenters, actors, writers or production teams. It’s that, from news to drama, the BBC’s woke politics now subsume and corrupt its entire output.

    Still, the occasional oddity does slip through the net. This week’s unlikeliest hit was Mathair a’ Chinn Suidhe, a documentary on BBC Alba about Donald Trump’s Scottish mum, Mary MacLeod. It was presented in Gaelic (with subtitles), which was the language Mary herself spoke as the youngest of ten children, raised in a two-bedroom cottage in the crofting township of Tong on the Isle of Lewis.

    If Trump’s name weren’t such toxic box office with liberal America, Mary’s early life would surely by now have been made into a heartwarming movie. It’s a charming and unlikely story of triumph against the odds: who could have imagined that of all the 4.5 million hopefuls who left Scotland in search of a future in the US, this bright, pretty postman’s daughter from the Outer Hebrides would have landed the golden ticket?

    Mary crossed aboard the SS Transylvania and arrived at Staten Island aged 18 in 1930 with $50 in her pocket. Her big sisters were already there and landed her a job in service, so the story goes, to the widow of Andrew Carnegie — which may have given her a taste for better things. In New York, she met Fred Trump, a real-estate developer — authoritarian, sharp-eyed, aggressively on the make — who was himself the son of a German immigrant. How did the Scots respond when the son of their local girl made good returned for a visit in 2018? With placards saying horrid things like ‘Orange is the new twat’. Rather sweetly, Trump appears so caught up in the poetry of his ancestry that he holds the UK dear regardless. If we do indeed get a good Anglo-American trade deal after Brexit, it’s Mary we should probably thank.
    ….
    Dublin Murders (BBC1) is a much better bet, so long as you’re comfortable with labyrinthine-plotted crime thrillers about murdered children, laced with hints of incest, abuse and satanic ritual (which I’m not sure that I am totally; I think it’s mainly female audiences who dig this pervy, every-mother’s-worst-nightmare terrain). But I like the knowing, conspiratorial partnership between damaged-goods Garda detectives Cassie (Sarah Greene) and Rob (Killian Scott), their politically incorrect station boss, and the Celtic Tiger-era period setting.

    What inspired me to watch it was a heartfelt reader comment that deserves wider circulation. They’d noticed that several viewers had been pleasantly surprised by the fact that for a BBC production, Dublin Murders seemed to betray a refreshing lack of diversity targets.

    The reader goes on: ‘When I switch the TV on I have now come to expect a bizarre and fairy tale world where all the virtuous or powerful roles like those of prime minister or chief of police are played by non-traditional, native British people and all the low lifes and unimportant walk on parts by those who look and sound like me… The comments sections after Dublin Murders told me that I am not the only person to register this phenomenon. A very small tail is wagging a very big dog here and the dog is not, seemingly, happy.’

    Just how unhappy I guess we’ll find out on the happy — if unlikely — day the BBC is privatised.https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/if-we-do-get-a-good-anglo-american-trade-deal-we-should-thank-trumps-mother/

    1. The problem the BBC has is the same as the one the NHS has: it’s paid regardless.

      If the money came after the content, the content would have to be better. The BBC pushed some pretty significant boundaries in Grange Hill, Doctor Who (yes, before the woke nonsense) and other such media before it became fanatical about promoting hte everyone must be gay nonsense.

      The problem is the BBC sees itself as a giant government department, with a repsonsibility to push the state agenda of – well, goodness knows what. It’s all barmy.

    3. I’ve watched Dublin Murders from the start and some right old hooey it is (it doesn’t help that there are two plots running because two novels have been merged into one).

      The ‘lowlife’ detective is English – except he’s not really. He was born in Ireland but brought up in (i.e. corrupted by) England. Only his female detective sidekick knows this and how it might be linked to the murder (this is a plot hole of cavernous dimensions). Early in the story he meets an elderly woman who knew the murder victim. She says to him that unlike her neighbours she doesn’t have anything against the English – well, not the good ones, anyway. As she’s regarded as a poisonous old gossip, no one in the estate cares for her opinions. Presumably we are meant to dismiss them as well, even though we know what she doesn’t. You get the picture…

    4. If the reader you are quoting watched “World on Fire” on BBC1, they would have been apoplectic.

        1. There wouldn’t have been much left! It was so patently PC that I got really irritated by it.

          1. Ochen kharasho. I don’t have a cyrillic keyboard and can’t be bothered with translate webpages 🙂

    2. I sang ‘The Bells’ by Rachmaninov in the Scottish National Orchestra Chorus in 1988, Bob.

      The Bells (Russian: Колокола, Kolokola), Op. 35, is a choral symphony by Sergei Rachmaninoff, written in 1913. The words are from the poem The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe, very freely translated into Russian by the symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont.

        1. Ding dong! I reckon lacoste is Leslie Philips and I claim my free copy of Carry On Constable.

          :-))

    4. It is rather good, isn’t it BoB? I watched a little of it but all I could make out was “KooKoo, KooKoo”. I think she is saying “I must be cuckoo carrying this white handkerchief around with me but never using it to wipe away any tears or blow my nose.”

      :-))

  77. Evening, all. Been to a very uplifting and poignant All Souls service. Names read out as candles were lit. Very moving.

  78. Off topic.
    Notifications has turned back on, for me at least.

    Apologies to anyone I have failed to reply to or acknowledge with an uptick if not a reply.

  81. Bbc TV headlines

    Thousands of children being placed in care… troubled teenagers and not enough care places.. The BBC are getting on their high horse re blame game !

    People who attempt to foster teenagers nearly end up with a nervous breakdown .

    What do I know.. only that councils are bankrupted almost by children in care .. and councils take in children from other parts of the country with DIRE results .

    1. Councils were already having problems finding foster parents not helped by the poor attitude of councils and many social workers and then they added into the mix so called unaccompanied asylum seeking children

      1. Well, they will let homosexuals take them in, but not god-fearing Christians.
        It helps if you are bent.

      2. Who’s the carer here? Care in the Community suggests that it is the kids who are supplying the care needs for the sexually repressed.

    3. Not enough places because they make the process so difficult. My sister wanted to fostering after her children had grown up but gave up because the process was was so difficult.

    2. Clearly a great opportunity for Peddy to mistranslate Momentum’s message into a myriad of languages.

    3. It was said that someone recognised him from the CCTV, contacted him, and he gave himself up before he got nicked, and apologised for his ” mistake “.

      Why when anything happens do we get ten different versions ?

      I hear that after he had come clean, he went for a drink at a vile inn.

    5. The chap has not been arrested and I presume he is innocent. It’s clear he found and picked up the Violin after its owner left it behind when he got off at East Penge. He probably had no idea of its value.

      About a year ago Petroc Trelawny announced on air that a young violinist had left a treasured bow and case on the Tube and was seeking its return. I suggested to Petroc that he advised her to keep an eye on ebay in case it was offered for sale – which he did.

      A couple of years ago a young friend had his Trumpet stolen from school so I advised him to keep an eye on ebay and sure enough his trumpet was put up for sale. He liaised with the police and a “collection” was arranged and the thief (in this instance) was arrested.

      1. I did find it odd that someone – whose livelihood depends on his quarter million pound violin – should LEAVE the bloody thing on the train I would have had it chained to my wrist.

        2. I left my Kindle in a taxi that dropped me off at Waterloo. Easily done i’m afraid. I didn’t bother following it up. Hope the next person in the cab kept it rather than putting it in to the abyss that is lost property.

          2. I found a Blackberry on an early walk home one evening.

            Went all the way into town (some way out of my way on the train) including the extra cost) to hand it in to the police.

            They kept me waiting for half an hour then gave me a form to fill in. Chap said ‘If no one claims it in five days you can keep it. I replied ‘but it’s not mine.’ Mr policeman who I has spent a lot of time and effort doing the right thing said ‘ok, we will then’.

            Rather makes you think… what’s the point?

          3. If you can work out who it belongs to then all well and good. A lost wallet or purse which has the owners name then fine. Anything else, just hang on the fence, post or rail where you found it.

            I had a similar problem. False coinage. Coming from a Landlord of a local Pub. I tried to report the problem to the Police and i was made to feel as if i was the guilty party.

  88. From today’s The Times –

    ” Gangs use top schools to traffic Asian girls ”

    A noted Change of Use, ” Asian ” no longer means Pakistani ( as in Pakistani Paedophile Gangs ).
    It now means Vietnamese. As in Vietnamese Nail Bar ( with extras ).

    1. Americans tend to use the word ‘Asian’ where we would use ‘Oriental’. This is because China, Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines are actually due West of the States, whereas they are East of Europe.

      Our Asians are Indians and Pakistanis because of our old colonial connections there. For the Dutch, they might well be Indonesians; for Russians, they would be from the central Asian -stans.

      I do not think it right to refer to the Rotherham gangs as “paedophiles”, since they seem to prefer post-pubescent native teenagers, especially those spilling out of bars and clubs (or who can be encouraged that way) who are seen as subhuman infidels and therefore fair game. It is an indictment of their religion’s sexual suppression that there is such a market for it.

      2. The Rotherham kids wer twelve years old upwards. I suppose not paedophiles as you say but a case of ” anything handy will do “

  90. Watching a big fireworks display from the window. There has just been an evil looking blue and yellow set with circles of stars …..

      2. I certainly suspect the professional crew the village uses has such leanings. Not seen that type of fireworks before, can’t be just coincidence!

        1. A Remain party electioneering?

          I reckon we ain’t see nuttin’ yet.

          Politics is becoming rather Latino… and may turn hysterical before 6 weeks is up!

  91. Just watched ‘His Dark Materials’ on the Beeb, which received a ‘meh’ in our household. Couldn’t get over how much the main female character looks like Greta Thunberg. I kept waiting for her hair to spontaneously plait itself.

      2. Why did I just up-vote you, Peddy? I have not read the books nor watched the TV adaptation (nor watched Avatar nor any of the Harry Potter films except for the first one). So I have removed my up-votes (not down-voted you). I should add that I tried to start reading the Harry Potter books but gave up after ten pages of the first one. Methinks ’tis time for bed. Good night all.

        1. I tackled the first HP book; can’t remember if I reached the end. Never seen a film except for extracts & trailers.

          OK, amigo mio, buenas noches.

        2. I remember when the books first came out and it was said that they would be damaging to young people.

  92. Nigel Farage risks becoming the ‘man who threw away Brexit’, warns senior Tory backbencher

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/11/03/nigel-farage-risks-becoming-man-threw-away-brexit-warns-senior/

    So if the Tories have cocked it up by failing to go for a proper Brexit then it is Nigel Farage’s fault!

    How stupid do they think we are – Johnson has been offered a pact with TBP which would bring a proper Brexit – why does he not take it? Why does he want BRINO when he could get a clean WTO agreement? It is the Conservatives who are throwing away Brexit by not even offering it.

    Never, Never, Never Trust the Conservative Party and never vote for them again.

    [Read the comments under this article]

    1. There is still almost 11 days to try to get some arrangement. If the polls start moving against Boris that migh focus his mind a lot more

Comments are closed.